Enough is a Feast

 

Every human being needed to eat, stay safe and warm and be away from harm. Homogenity drove us together. Then a problem of surplus ensued and greed followed so much so that civilization had to be formed with rules and laws and punishment. Groups of people who all had the same needs wanted more land to thrive, another group of people with the same needs fought them back. War ensued frequently , what was once simple was never once more that. Power breeds corruption and so now the flocks of people had to face attacks from outside AND civil wars inside.

The drudgery of daily life and the meaninglessness of it all drove the common man to hedonistic temptations. Soon the pursuit of wants over needs became the motto of the society. By indulging in these short term gains, the search for self actualization was lost till it was too late to search anymore. Only terminal illness or major disaster brought any reflection at all. Whole nations just wanted more instead of loving less.  

We started differentiating with each other more, even when people went communist there were no equals. Repressed anger exploded societies. Human beings now have naturally selected within themselves to differentiate between their own species. Hierarchy has existed at every institution always to the detriment of the perceived weaker sections.

Moments of individual kindness and collective crisis of the conscience are rare but what keeps this species afloat. Even when in an era of purported peace all we do is turn a blind eye to every other atrocity so that it won’t burn our bubbles to shreds. War or peace, we need to be conscious and content more.

Geography tests

I haven’t written in over a month and I sincerely apologize for that. To make up for this often committed mistake of not writing in SSS , I am going to confess to some of the (small) crimes I have committed in the past.

< Disclaimer: Personal Post coming up >

I know I should be writing about the increasing terrorist activity or the omnipresent rape fear, but I choose to overlook these topics (mostly because better writers have written awesome articles about them already) and am going to choose GEOGRAPHY TESTS instead.

Very Random Right? Well, expecting a sane topic from an insane person is well … insane.

Everyone has an Achilles heel , a special subject that they hate so much that they would rather burn in hell than study it for the test next day. Most people hate math , I also hate(d) math . But coming to think of it, I hated GEOGRAPHY the most. History was awesome;, math dumbfounding ; Biology insanely difficult ; BUT nothing was so irrationally hateable like innocuous looking geography.

I mean who wants to study about the rocks, climate , pressure, river delta estuaries or even longitude latitudes? I learnt so much, but hated every bit. I used to read the most amount of story books during geography. The teachers were actually pretty good but boy! I hated that subject.

(Don’t) worry. I am (not) going to ramble about my hatred and be done with it. Nahi saar, I am going to give two awe some/ful anecdotes about 2 amazing geography exams I wrote in school time.

THIS IS THE STORY OF WHY I DON’T CARRY WATER TO EXAMINATION HALLS ANYMORE.

1.    1   Water on the desk

Sounds innocent enough. But nothing is ever innocent  in semiland, my children J . I was in 8^th standard I think, the class representative – apostIneverdeservedbutdidnoworkanywayssochill- and had this geography test. Our teacher was Nirmala miss, an old but smart teacher who would sit at the back of the class so that copying was out of the picture entirely.

The fundamental duty of the class rep is to develop class rapport and I found that working towards an underlying common cause would incite us towards that direction. Henceforth, I decided to help my classmates copy. Out of 34 people , at least 30 hadn’t studied , I had studied enough to fill the pages but many were planning unsafe methods to copy.

Our class 8A , we were a pack. We made teachers cry in packs , we chewed gum in packs and we decided to commit this crime as a pack. Cheating in tests is a crime which I have later come to despise but as a 13 year old class student who hated geography , I had no qualms about what I was just about to do.

So how can the entire class copy without getting caught? We can’t all whisper – 30 whispers cause a scream , we can’t all keep the notebook underneath , even if we had a plan – we can’t all ever agree in unison .

I tried dividing the class into 4 zones – the quiet zone , nerd zone and the last 2 were the mad cheater’s zone. Whatever elaborate plan I made up , it all boiled down to the problem that the teacher sat in the back bench and could see the papers we kept below in the desk. Creating bits was logistically impossible and if everyone wasn’t satisfied , somebody would rat us out.

So , I poured water on the backbench and added a dirty paper and banana peel to it.

That was the most popular thing I did as a class rep and it had to go undocumented L :P

1. 2.       Water on the paper
2. 
   

This was when I was around the same age: 12-13 . Although , I showed criminal tendencies as mentioned above , I was pretty dumb. To prove the case in point , I am going to bring back to memory this painful incident which ruined my entire exams - almost.

We have established my particular dislike for geography already , so it isn’t entirely unsurprising that I didn’t have much knowledge of it on the exam day. However , I forgot to mention this – I am a nerd. On the exam days at the least :P

I hate leaving blank spaces in my answer, probably because I know I’ll never come back to fill it , as I never have the time for it. The exact same thing happened . For the first question on the first page of the first fricking examination! Even though, I answered other answers properly , it irked me that the first page was half blank and first impression matters.

So , I poured water on my first page.

I still haven’t figured out why I DID THAT. A blonde moment , you could call it -_- My thought process was this : If I pour a small amount of water on the page , it would be a legit reason to have omitted that space.

I forgot that

• 1)      I was a MESSY KLUTZ ,
• 2)      That water has absorbing qualities
• 3)      My bottle had a very big mouth
• 4)      I used gel pen.

So the water leaked on to all the pages I wrote afterwards and my mainsheet was a wet nightmare. I had to rewrite the entire paper in 20 minutes and the invigilator wasn’t ready to give me even 2 extra minutes.

So ladies and gentlemen, please don’t pour water on your paper . Maybe it was the karma of pouring water on my desk which led me into that disaster of a decision.

And that is why I don’t carry water to an examination.

yours thirstily ,

Semi

After August 15th

We have all studied history at primary levels at least.

Oh no. You don't get to yawn and leave today. Today is the day I have decided to write - after 3 months- So , Please read me out . 
Everybody seems to hate history and me being an exception to this rule, hates the current state of affairs very much. So much, that I started questioning some haters why they hate the topic so much. One of the standard responses is that why should we care about something which happened so long back? England is not ruling us anymore and we're even beating them in cricket now :P
While I can go on an on about how past experiences are invaluable to current scenarios , how history tends to repeat itself and how the mere fact that the area I was born in or the wooden table I am using is so soaked in history that I often can't help but get intoxicated with the romanticism of it all or how there are so many different civilizations which had so much in common and difference , I am not going to.
In this post we're going to address the problem of modern history. Modern history? That word sounds very oxymoronish to be true.

One of the major problem with our education system of history in India is that there seems to be a total disconnect from what we study and what we see today.  While it is pretty cool that Mahatma Gandhi walked miles to collect salt from the British and that we stunk of socialism in the independence era , nothing seems to correlate with what we see today.
The freedom fighting politicians of the yore seem to be substituted by blatantly corrupt ones of today. While we read about socialism and Nehru everywhere , we hear more about FDI in retail and the far reaching tentacles of globalization and capitalism.
Indian history to us Indians seems to end with August 15 , 1947  when India achieved independence. The very few who elect political science for high school or college degree learn a ridiculously more amount about our country.

We're stuck in that moment

Isn't it time to acknowledge that what happened for the 68 years afterwards to be also included as history? Not an entire subject , that would be asking too much. But at least 2-3 chapters covering important topics like the Kashmir issue , language reorganization , 1991 liberalization reforms which certainly changed the history of the country.
If pundits are unwilling to label it as history then it is about time that we give importance to political science as a social science. I was literally flabbergasted when a very well learned friend of mine, who studies architecture currently, told me that she didn't know Pakistan and Bangladesh were the same country before 1970's . :O
And it gets worse. When i told others about her ignorance , I found more from unexpected quarters.
This problem rises in significance when we take the rate of change happening around us into consideration. Every decade sounds like a different era and with the rate of growth of population and science and technology being equally precariously scary , it is time we read history according to modern contexts.
India has stepped into a new era or believes it has stepped into a new era by electing Narendra Modi into power. This is the first time a non congress alliance has got such a huge mandate and we can be pretty sure that the lawmakers would want to 'rewrite' history soon enough. Citizens must be offered an unbiased version of the riots , partition and violence which has been plaguing the country.

Things to be added in a social science textbook :

1. Partition - No point acting like it never happened. While independence was a huge victory , the partition was quite the opposite. The fact that Mahatma Gandhi never celebrated the independence is conveniently ignored. Some light on this hasty yet historic blunder would remove some prejudice we carry about our Pakistani neighbors. Both sides suffered . Sick of all the pakistani hate posts. Half the people don't know why/who/how we got separated but carry the hate though :/ 
2. Kashmir - Before yelling that article 370 is unconstitutional Indians must be taught ( unbiased ly ) how  really Kashmir was created. While demanding that Kashmir be ours is truly patriotic , learning what exactly happened before harping ill informed propagandized news is truly more worthwhile and patriotic . 

   

   Too beautiful to suffer :(

3. Hindi - There surely must be a lesson on the reorganization of states according to languages , the tensions and unity it created. The language politics , the true current status of hindi - the official and not the national language of India. 

A crash course on this would really enlighten many of us on current issues . Unlike science , every person can have an opinion on social science topics and well informed chapters on current historic problems would at least brighten us enough to not sound like illiterate buffoons on social media . 

Thanking you for the patience if you did read me out

Samyuktha (Semi) Jayaprakash 

Haters Haters Everywhere !!

story of my life :P

First of all , a big thank you to all those who kept nudging me to write a post .
 a) It makes me feel special :P
b) Gives me the incentive to move my lazy glutus maximus :) .If exams suck all the energy out , holidays suck all the purpose .

Epitome of hate xD 

So today i am going to blog about HATE. Hate is an emotion of mass destruction , if ever there is one. It gets formed in a twisted way. When we love our own status quo too much , it results in an irrational negative feeling towards the opposing change. Most of the time ( generalizing , yes. )  it is formed before inspecting a scenario factually and the consequent 'evidence' is tinkered  the way our brain wants it to be seen. So we basically fool ourselves into hating things most of the time.

Hatred  also manifests when our favorite goals are jeopardized by the object of our ire . Simply putting csk hates kkr for 'taking away' their final and rcb hates csk because they 'cheated' them of the last ball.

 As we all know and have probably felt ourselves , sports invokes intense passion and emotions which can turn ugly very quickly (if uncontrolled). Cricket has always been known as the 'gentleman's game' and legends like Rahul dravid and Tendulkar prove to be those gentlemen. However , the recent cricketainment of t20 has not gone down well with traditional viewers. There has been lot of criticism from their quarters .
However , the hate I was surprised by in this edition of ipl (6) has been the one from the fans - towards opponent team members , who for the rest of the year they so steadfastly support. Lets analyse.

The Indian premier league has been around for 6 years now , and from the infant everyone pampers it is growing to become a toddler who adults are wary of . Deficits will be naturally noticed , rebuked and innovations struck down.  Also , team solidarity and familiarity has led to a humongous fan base for even unsuccessful teams like Pune warriors. Every team starts seeing themselves as the 'virtuous'  , the champions and the opponents are demonized.

So when a team wins the fans simply use these excuses :-
Chennai Super kings - They have BCCI support , all matches are fixed to help their cause .
Mumbai Indians - Ambani owns them . So duh , fixing.
Rajastan Royals - Luck / spot fixing / they won't come far in the tournament
RCB - Mallya fixed it / Gayle is an one man army.
SRH - Sun tv is close to BCCI (!) / it is a chennai team
Delhi Daredevils - They'll choke in the playoffs
KKR - Sharukh khan is evil / gambhir character assassination / srk fixed it
Punjab - Only Miller saved them , they'll never make it to play offs.
Pune warriors - Nobody cares :P

Why can't fans just accept that their teams lost! And the team won it fair and square . Even if spot fixing allegations prove to be true , a bad ball still has to be hot for a six and a catch for a wicket to happen -_- Grow up guys.
Csk vs Rcb , RR vs DD , Csk vs kkr  ,csk vs mi ( I am obviously a csk fan) , srh vs rcb are contest followed with interest due to the intense rivalry.

Competition is not bad . If it was no trophy would be awarded . But hatred is , support your own teams alright but stop hating the rival ones and for god sake stop spreading it online! There is this page called troll cricket - a popular cricket meme page .  And sadly every alternate post ends with Pakistanis and Indians fighting pettily and both calling each other terrorists. I mean like , where does this stem from really? Pathological prejudice and hatred dude to lack of adequate knowledge about the other side. And cricket is just one of the many outlets through which these ugly emotions erupt.

The angry young men - 
If pak - ind verbal wars are atleast seen as inevitable , the kohli - gambhir ones are not. We have for a long time had legends with impeccable manners in our team . eg. Sachin , dravid , laxman , kumble etc. Even Ganguly wasn't offensive with his aggression . Dhoni , Raina and some others are cool heads who can't be faulted. So when people like yuvraj , kohli and Gambhir express themselves on field it is misinterpreted as arrogance and 'bad behaviour' . People like sreesanth and Harbajan do go overboard but most of the time it is simply the fanatic supporters of the opposing side over reacting to emotion on field.

you call it arrogance , we call it passion :)

That too on Virat kohli . He is one of the most gifted players around and is quite clearly the future of India. When he gets angry and shows aggression against national teams it is seen as passion but when he replicates it for his franchise - well , he is arrogant and has the 'wrong' attitude towards the game. Being aggressive is one of the values Australians and West Indians cherish and one of the prime reasons that they won and dominated for a prolonged period.
It was deeply saddening to see him be booed by the Mumbai crowd for simply running out a player. Here is a man who gives his complete effort and dedication when he plays , why can't you enjoy that? When he hit that classy 99 , we all enjoyed it and can't blame him for feeling disappointed for not reaching his century o.O
If you can feel so emotional sitting at home , imagine this twenty year old playing the very game in front of a million fans/haters. Sympathize at least. Don't expect every player to be calm headed. Everybody cannot be the same.

The great dada vs dhoni  

Under every post congratulating Dhoni , there are a million 'who is the better captain?' debate. It doesn't seem to affect the fans that the players themselves mutually respect each other , leadership is not quantifiable and both the players served the same national team! Dada is one of my favorite players ever , seeing him hit through the off side was one of the first memories of cricket I have and strangely I was his strongest supporter when people wanted him to resign . However more than 'dada fans ' it is the 'dhoni haters' who concern me.
They seem to hold an unreasonable grudge towards this man who captained them to the greatest heights , questioning his motives all the way through . It is disappointing when respect is not given where it is deserved.
 I think I am ending this post quickly because generally I hate bringing up negativity in any of my blogs . However , the nonsensical mob with their saddening opinions left me with no choice. And another issue I want to bring up here is that of Justin Bieber . I don't really like his music but that doesn't give me a reason to personally abuse him or hate him . Also calling him a 'woman' or 'gay' is offending at so many levels. What is wrong with being a woman/gay person in the first place? Truly sick of such posts.

Yours wearily yet hopefully
Semi 

Quoting the truth

"Whatever happens , life must go on" 

My heart will go on and on <3 :*

There are a million quotes decorating all the languages. Yet i choose this one to start my post ; this is a very special post for me , and i am saying this before even writing it .Developing the 'seventh sense*' i guess. Firstly , the quote is awesome  because it is quite simply the truth. And truth is what this post is gonna be all about. Also , (forgive my awestruck -ness  ) This line was delivered by 'daddy' surya to son surya in vaarnam aayiram :P Surya surya everywhere <3 [ Maattrraann is releasing this friday , don't miss it! ]

* - hope the surya fans go the 7am arivu reference xD

There lies the book , which cooly changed my life :P 

Moving on to the actual topic , I am going to talk about this book i picked a while back ; which happened to change my life or atleast how i look at thinks quite remarkably. ( please don't sigh already) It is the " Life of Mahatma Gandhi " by Louis Fischer  - wohoo! I think Gandhi is the first Indian name which auto correct didn't mark in red for me. This book as the title suggests is about the father of our nation and it gave me a rough idea why he was called 'bapu' . Apart from  just mentioning the events which featured in his rather dynamic life this books gives us an understanding of the gandhian principles of Satyagraha and ahimsa . Simply put as truth and love.

Some ppl are just too cool pa 

Being the lucky person i am , I've got this golden opportunity to study history in my higher classes. And very recently we finished covering a lesson devoted to Gandhiji. And to my sad surprise , most of my friends found it cool to mock and criticize him as a person and his methods. I am nowhere near being called his blind follower , but having got the chance to read some real content about him , I want to clear some common  misconceptions and put forth some oft asked questions about him here.

Disclaimer - These are my own set of views on Gandhi and I totally welcome open debate.

First charge - He delayed our independence. 
When he first came into the fray of Independence struggle , our nation was in desperate need and search for a single leader who could represent the masses. Yes ,he was intermediary caste , hindu , middle class and a lawyer. Yet , the way he lived and practiced what he preached , inspired millions. And proved a point which desperately needed proving - caste and class doesn't determine how you live and shape your lives , it is your own actions that speak for you.
The people flocked to him ,seeing his actions. His principles were simple and unique. Speak the truth and love everyone. He was a humanist by nature. He did not want violence. Human lives were too precious to be killed and toyed with in the name of war and mutiny. All humans were well , basically human. Life of an European brother or African brother wasn't more important than that of an Asian , Indian one. Yes , there was right and there was wrong , but we are no ones to judge or kill in people in the name of god. He followed the same theory with hindus , muslims or parsis.

He really wouldn't have fought against the British rule if they were fair and just. He would have approved the new Indian rule after the independence only if it was following the righteous path to resolve the riots. His methods were done in a way not to produce immediate results , but to actually change the very structure of Indian society , which we all know is a product of thousands of years of culture and civilization. So what he achieved in the years he did was what critics should call a monumental success , what is 40 years in the thousands of years of Indian civilization and almost two centuries of British rule?
And ponder upon this. If we had overthrown the British as we wanted to in the 1920s or the 30s , would it have granted the smooth functioning of the new government? Surely the replacement of British in the top wouldn't have ended all the problems lol We had to work from the wide bottom and that's what Gandhi did.
He gave hope , inspiration and faith to millions and before attaining independence in the material sense , most Indians started behaving like their land belonged to them. And that is what was required i think.

Father of the nation ; wasn't exactly the best father to his own sons 

Almost everyone who tried to dissuade me from supporting the Mahatma quoted his personal life as a means to reduce his reputation.
a) Where did they get these intimated details about his personal life? His autobiography of course. He must first be appreciated for daring to accept the truth.
b) He is not a mahatma of course. He never liked the title Rabindranath Tagore crowned him with . He was very much aware of his own flaws and took upon self reflexivity rather seriously. And surely a title can't be given that much importance. Don't tell me you would sit and ponder upon why rajini is the 'superstar' . You just don't.
c) What he did in his personal life is private and called personal for a reason. You just cannot judge someone with that . It is wrong. And cheap
d) surely what is right and wrong in parenting - is very subjective. We must also take into account the context of the period he lived in .

Well that is my modest attempt to defend Gandhi. As i said - open to debates. I will put across my points , you put across yours. Surely no harm can be done.

As i said before , there are two lessons to learn from his life and perspectives.

• Truth
• Love

Truth - Lets face it. We all lie too many times a day - sometimes consciously and sometimes almost unconsciously. We are all liable to lie at some point if not at this point. Still truth is always safer , stronger and a more powerful weapon. That is why the most experienced liars most often mix a large amount of truth with a little amount of  realistic lies. Some wisecracks like "Truth is stranger than the fiction " , "her story was crazy enough to be true" tells us the queer status quo of things. Why lie when you have the truth beside you? :) 

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Love - Ahimsa   

Blimey me! I could write about this word all day. Basically developed by the jain school of thought , Ahimsa refers to non injury to living and non living things. Especially humans , animals , plants and insects. Like Jesus says show your left cheek after the right one is done.  Quite impractical one may think. But it is all the more useful in today's democracy. 

The current scenario of Anna Hazare ' fast against corruption and the Jal satyagraha against various nuclear plant and dam projects are deserving examples. The African continent where Gandhi first experimented with his unique methods is in shambles now. Nelson Mandela is an inspiring story. But the rest of the region there and the 'arab springs' seem to lose any semblance of humanity in the name of violence. For peace to be restored , love for the fellow being must be catered to. 

Talking about animals and love - I have a dog for a pet now!! Surely that is a big turning point in someone's life . More specially so , if the someone hated aesop fables for the mere fact that it was about animals . Well laika entered my life through the backyard of my house and its persistence to not leave our place. Along with the winning combination of a dog wanting brother ( he has been begging for one since the time he started learning how to talk i guess) and

Hi humans. 

 Who said mongrels are not cute? :O <3 

and yes its exactly a week after Gandhi Jayanthi.
semi

Aargh

"Its been quite a while since my last post" - well that's becoming a general statement of mine nowadays. Well , I cannot be held responsible though. I write only when I get 'brainwaves' 'or a bright bulb in my brain :P Well nowadays due to the increasing power cuts due to the huge power deficit Tamil Nadu faces even the kutti zero watt bulb in moi brain is irregularly functioning.

^ If you haven't caught my point already ---------:

1. Sorry for the delay. The only educational activity which happens in my school is exams - so there were quite an overload of it in the past few weeks.
2. Bazinga! I have started reading the newspaper B| (at some point , one need to start trying to pass their CLAT mocks :P ) 

While the writer in me was nalla hibernating , the nerd which IS me was working overtime. However , the prospective lawyer became angry about the minimal attention she got. So the drastic change from the sports page to the editorial happened. Well , as I was shunning myself from the rest of the world to focus on my textbooks some shocking things have happened! :O Lets enlighten and update ourselves! ^_^

1. The ruling party lost whatever credibility it had , the opposition lost whatever shame it had. 

The supreme court has been working overtime to save face for all the inactive politicians - who are busy passing the blame parcel to the former ruling parties or filing their pleas against the ever growing no. of scams. It is interesting to note that the number of scams may increase more than the no. of episodes of a Tamil mega serial!  Coming to the point, the 122 odd spectrum licenses the UPA government had sanctioned went to the kuppa thotti (dustbin) as the supreme court cancelled it.

Yet , Mr. Kapil Sibal has still not refuted his 'zero loss theory' . Maybe he believes 1.76 lakh crore is nothing, He must start doing R.D sharma mathematics . In other news, it wasn't the math R.D. Sharma who died! So CBSE students can still slog their lives out for a few more years.

The biggest scandal of the month , must be the 'PORNGATE SCANDAL' . I still wonder why they call it porn 'gate'! To the utter dismay of the traditionally conservative BJP uncles , their famously uptight minister were caught on tape watching porn on their smart phones! Not any porn - GANG RAPE! The ministers have given in their resignations as they didn't want to further  'embarrass' their party. Their considerate party hasn't taken any action on them  and have instead decided to take 'moral' lectures and lessons for all their members! 

P.S - Please ask them to complete their fifth standards first =| 

P.S.S - Bangalore which witnessed this incredulous incident must have had a peaceful valentines day!

    2. A STUDENT STABBED HIS TEACHER TO DEATH IN TAMIL NADU.

Well Chennai cannot claim to be a safe city anymore. A 9th standard studying student killed his teacher Uma Maheshwari for being 'strict' with him and writing bad remarks in his report card. The incident cannot be called anything lesser than fucking atrocious. The teacher was correcting some papers while waiting for the students to come for the special hindi class. The unnamed boy took out his twenty rupees costing knife and took out the teacher's life by cutting her jugular....

The teacher had 2 poor daughters who were studying in a boarding school in Ambattur. And co coincidentally she used to teach in my ex- school some years back. As all the seniors concede she was a very kind teacher who couldn't be strict even if she tried to! The media is to be blamed for announcing that she was 'strict' before they even got the news. Let her soul rest in peace. 

='(

The whole society is reeling with this shocking news. A single students behavior shouldn't be used to label the whole student community. The older generations are keen on putting the blame on 'de generated' songs such as 'kolaveri' . I can't help asking this - where does this feature in THIS problem? Just because some song achieved the popularity levels YOUR generation songs couldn't doesn't mean its rubbish or that its 'bad' . In this particular problem the fault is with the boy and his psychology - if you read the report , he stabbed her CONTINUOUSLY even when she tried to escape and he didn't even try to escape. 

The parents are to blame. Giving excessive freedom and pocket money is NOT wrong , as long as the kids are monitored properly and the importance of their actions are explained to them. How many parents sit with their kids like friends and sort things out rationally?  It is sad to know that many still think that their own children know less than them or that they are inferior to them , just because they are younger than them! =(  This incident must be a lesson for the education system - which has become a profit generating mechanism for many and is solely used for generating money making engineers/doctors. This must change. We must change. 

    3. The Media is running the government 

Anyone who watches Arnav Goswami is TIMES NOW will understand. While news coverage and freedom of expression is a MUST in a democracy , it doesn't mean that there should be a media circus for every minute 'controversy' that happens. The news shouldn't 'sell' but 'tell' . Debates are interesting and are an important exercise. However sadly the politicians who must be doing it in the parliament are instead doing it in the news channels.  This in itself is not wrong - not until the T.V anchor becomes the god and expects the debater to say what 'HE' accepts. 

Quoting an example , when the 'porngate' scandal hit the roof , a debate naturally occurred in the news hour of times now. There instead of listening to what the BJP spokesperson was trying to say Mr.Arnav was busy trying to implicate that party with his statistics and was shouting on  the top of his own voice.   No one is supporting the BJP here , but doesn't a person get to voice their views? Then why else do you run a news channel? or invite a person who has an opposite view of yours? 

news channels should try to accommodate all views - even if they are wrong . well they are still VIEWS of a majority of people and those people are also the citizens of the country. 

4. MINORITY RELIGIOUS VIEWS KILLING THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. 

Being a writer , this news was the most disturbing. The famous writer Salman Rushdie's trip to the Jaipur literature festival got cut short when the police received opposition from some religious parties. Similarly Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's books were 'banned' again because of religious opposition. 

Such actions are against the true sense of a democracy and secularism . Its as simple as this - India has hundreds of religions , you cannot keep banning books because they hurt some people's sentiments. This is true for songs , movies etc too . It is high time that we realize what we preach is not what we do.  Concepts such as 'communal harmony' should be taught. Phew , if you don't like a book or a view , then don't read it or just ignore it. Other people may respect it. As long as it doesn't personally target a single person or community - falsely , then it is fine. Move on. This may sound rude to many , but then again this my PERSONAL view and if it hurts stop reading. After all we are the ones famous for 'ahimsa' so stop being a himsa! 

So yeah , all of these are my personal views and not intentional on hurting anybody's views. What I wanna say is the world is becoming one disturbing place to live in filled with 'trustable' people who steal our money , hypocrites , murderers , dictators and religious fanatic not to mention progressive thinkers like me :P 

Readers are free to debate or comment below. I am not Arnav , I won't shout at you =) 

P.S - If there are any errors in the fact please tell me , I just wrote what I understood from news papers and channels! 

P.S.S - All images from Google =) 

                                                                                                                                                   SEMI 

Kuppa Pa.

Acts of the common citizen 

Happy new year chellam =P 

To begin the new year in an auspicious note lets trash talk about garbage =) :P How much ever some try to mask it we are all irresponsible Indian citizens! Yes , we do (mostly) miss the garbage can when we try to use the my can like a basket ball , most often the empty lays packet goes over your friend's head and the pale chewing gum , which you extracted all the juice off , the one which has been residing in your mouth for so long that you mistake it for your tongue :P , most often goes into the dustbin without a paper around it :/ LOL
Make all the pronouns into 'me' and 'I' you have yourself a confession.
We are losers. 
It is a well established that we are lazy enough to let the government loot us of all the resources and money. Heck , it is us the caring citizens who break the rules and inspire our leaders to follow suit. However , sometimes the stench is so much that even 'WE' cannot sit rooted firmly to the chair. I am not being metaphorical and as a matter of fact mentioning about the overflowing garbage outside my house!


Government and neighbors!

As in efficient as this anna!

If onyx / Neelmetal Fanalca are inefficient , the corporation lorry is inininininin efficient! Living next to a dustbin and opposite to a temple has no benefits , I say. all you are left with is a lot of crap and loud music =/  Being the naughty children we are , the kuppa ( garbage) is thrown everywhere but inside the bin . Common examples - Neighbor's flat , garden , outside the bin , the road , anywhere except your house.
Epitome of disgustedness  (if there is such a word) 
Whats the big deal semi? some rascals may ask. Point no.1 I donot like you throwing your empty bottles inside MY house , full maybe but not empty. Also , at least during the times of Neelmetal Fanalca , the guys would 'occasionally' come and clean up the trash and do a good job if some 'extra' money is given. However now the whole of singara chennai is stinking not because of snobs but the vomit inducing smell from the variety of trash overflowing from the lone garbage bin and on the roads and inside the houses of poor people who by fate have to live near it :P
Even they have issues!
And why is there so much kuppa everywhere suddenly? =(  The contract of the private companies which cleared the garbage bins is over and we are left at the mercy of the corporation till a new contract is signed - it will take place only by February it seems!

You deserve this pic :P

A brain spurting scenario 
This is not a small problem as it seems to sound - all the waste products cover the road and if a fast moving two wheeler hits on the packet containing the inedible idli chutney , it will skid and the driver's helmet less bald head will produce red tomato chutney.
From body to mosquito sprays 
And selfishly as usual - the smell is unbearable and no amount of adidas over the crap makes it any better =( "GABBU THANGA MUDIYALA ( smell is unbearable) Also the evil blood sucking mosquitoes are getting free residence in the prime adyar area =/ and with rejuvenated energy  they dodge the Hit's , all outs and tortoises and bite my legs as I write now. No one is in the mood to weapon themselves with mosquito bats.
So please clean the DARN garbage as quickly/cleanly and frequently as possible. I wanna live to see the end of the world. And more importantly
P.S - Bazinga! World is soo going to end >.<

oooooo let the mosquito brains (if there is such a thing) get squished instead of the human brains ( if there is such a thing) :P 

Breeding the greed :/

The last thing you can call me is innocent , but it comes to politics – specially this lokpal bill ,I am as guilty of innocence as A Raja is of corruption. With this disclaimer I start this post. I don’t have any qualifications of writing about this , except the fact that I write decently , I am more literate than half my BPL population and I have a problem with the fact that none of the younger population (teens mostly) seem to be taking an interest and the whole public uproar about this bill.

this innocent =P

First of all , WHAT is a lokpal??

Simply speaking , lok means ‘protector of people’ .Which also means :

An ombudsman (conventional English plural: ombudsmen) is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests

However , Anna Hazare’s is more of an organization which is used to check the power of the parliament AND judiciary.

“The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year.”

Here’s the catch :”It also seeks power to the Jan Lokpal to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission”

Don’t form any opinions yet. Lets first see WHAT corruption is !

1. Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.

2. The action of making someone or something morally depraved or the state of being so

grr

. A 2005 study conducted by Transparency International in India found that more than 45% of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices successfully.[1]

So you would have got the gist by now , you know I am Semi – so I have my dilemmas. I would be very glad if people reading this try to solve my queries/doubts.

bye!

Lets see this from the common man’s point of view. The Government seemed to be very powerful when it won the elections for the 2^nd consecutive time. Then like a night mare came the embarrassing Commonwealth debacle ( it wouldn’t have been half as bad if the media had closed its trap ) however the blame was put on a Suresh Kalmadi, then came the 2G scams. OMG! The centre has looked inefficient , corrupt and like a lame duck since then! A Raja , Dayanithi Maran , Kanimozhi ........the list is still expanding. The amount of crores hoaxed seriously took everyone by alarm. If only all this money had reached the people =|

Not only the top , even the basement of the Indian foundation is rocking. Minute things like obeying the traffic , discouraging piracy , buying a passport/license without bribing sounds incredulous! The most alarming thing is not the corruption itself but the complacency which it brought along....Blanketing people in false sense of legitimacy the corruption monster is seen as a saint. What can we do – even the saints are fake in our country.

So it was just a matter of time someone screamed ‘CHANGE’ . This part I agree with, heck! Everyone does. When standing from these pair of shoes the lokpal issue seems like a boon from the moon. To top it all a leader who looks like a mixture of Gandhi daddy and Nehru uncle , active facebook campaigning and the media’s eye. Surely a wining mixture , only the direction is wrong – we’ll come to that later.

After watching  Shankar films all my life =P Those like ‘Indian’ , ‘Anniyan’ and ‘Gentleman’ where a single crusader wins us justice , Anna looks very practical. Also this movement has ignited patriotism and brought up very encouraging changes in many ‘normal’ people. Very obvious example : My dad , the hidden hero has woken up. He has got the wake up call and the conviction which  envy , fasting for the past 3 days ( it IS a big thing , because of the size of his tummy! :D) , lighting candles, reading patriotic poems and more importantly the new found resolve to fight corruption from the most CRUCIAL level – from the SELF . His status tells us all :D

“Also fought corruption today against police. went for passport verification for my family. the police official collects the form and gives a smile indicating that he needs money . I smiled back and said thank you and walked out and he comes behind me till the vehicle stand and I just had to smile back because he didnt ask for money but indicates he wants money!”

 We may never get that passport , but who cares?! We are on the right road .

Wait. There is also another story here. India has a parliament in place; its functions are to provide bills/laws to support the life of people. Corruption aside , there are earthquakes , floods, power demand , Inflation , the latest lorry strike ( ONION prices causes tears in your eyes without the need of opening the vegetable itself =P ) , education is still to reach many , basic welfare schemes , health care and HUGE amount of work the government has to do.

Ever since the 2 G scams the ministers conveniently have caused chaos , the parliament is NOT function. Now Anna’s fast has seen to that a lot more crores are being wasted by making the government NOT work. That ain’t commendable surely , right?

YES. We accept that the ministers are trying to hide behind the thin veils of the existing democracy to oppose anna’s movement . Although I don’t support their motive , is it right to blackmail the government or whoever by telling that they are going to fast till death?! I don’t even know why fasting is acceptable! ( maybe bcoz we don’t die that easily! ) Still , suicide or any other form of taking any human life must be considered wrong right??

So isn’t Anna planting seeds in millions of minds to play with death?! Pardon me if I am wrong.

Also the biggest question of all ; If Anna is suggesting that I should not believe in the government I voted (not me exactly) and proving that corruption is capable of destroying the finest minds how do I believe in HIM ? He is still outside power , money etc what if he comes to power and gets eaten up by the monster (touch wood)

'draconian' ? 

There is a provision in lokpal bill which says the we can file a case against him through lokpal. However the point is that lokpal is just ANOTHER institution and the powers it is demanding from the government is too much even for an elected body.

So what I am saying is it IS a good idea to fight corruption ; even lokpal is FINE. However drastic demanding will lead us nowhere ; we are a DEMOCRACY ; accepted 42 years is too long but as the light has come to the problem now only a few more months with proper adjusting is not BAD at all or fine chuck it! Support the movement  but aim for something else than the bill like grassroot problems of corruption , using our divine constitution with some amendments itself. A new institution is too risky/costly.

1 thing is clear – the present state of the government is not supported by the members themselves! Lets strive for a cleaner country starting from ‘I’ and ones not interested can stifle their laughs and live their life – with the knowledge that change is the only thing permanent and surely after all these protests something GOOD will shape up! =)

Jai hind! Nothing beats screaming 'inquilab zindabad!' maybe vandemataram! :D