randomized

Okay, here is the thing; I am not a hero. I never was, nor am I now. And I don't think I can be one in the future. My father once said how all your good deeds cease to mean anything once you do a terribly bad thing. 'What is the difference between a bad and a terrible thing, father?' I had asked. 'That depends,' he had said, 'on what you consider a bad thing and what you don't.' I never understood that remark of his. Surely, I thought, bad things are bad for everyone; that bad things were considered bad universally, that was the deal, correct? Turned out it wasn't. Not always were bad things considered bad. Not in every case were guilt a visible emotion in the guilty. But when I understood this, my father was not around; neither was my mother. Both had departed in their sleep on the same day some years ago. And I was left alone to comprehend the terribleness of my deed; a deed that had wiped all my good ones, if there were any before it. ...

There was a front page advertisement in the newspaper yesterday. It had 'Let's fight corruption' written in big bold letters alongside a picture of Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidate of BJP for the General Elections 2014. It also had three other sentences which went like this, Let's minimise government and maximise governance. Let's use technology for greater public scrutiny. Let's be transparent and accountable. Modi's election campaign started last year with this headline phrase that was in the paper yesterday. Fighting corruption, boosting progress and reducing inflation were some of the apparent primary goals of BJP. The situation though, I must say, is a bit different now. We'll get to it (and the three points up there) in a bit.

Google "I don't give money at the traffic lights. In fact, I have stopped giving anything to anyone these days," said a friend a few days ago with an expression that showed that he no longer believes in any of such small acts of charity. I didn't know what to say to that, so I kept quiet. It might have been a momentary thing with him. Just an exaggeration maybe because he was a little off that day. But the thing is, there are people who don't give anything to any destitute just because they have some preconceived notions about the beggars.  Their argument is that 'these people', as they call them, have made it a business and that all beggars at traffic intersections are part of a syndicate and hence should be discouraged. Well, it's not entirely untrue, but colouring everyone with the same red is not the way to go. Anyway, we'll talk about that in a short time. First let me tell you an incident which led me to write this post in the ...

Today is the day which most of the people welcome as that one more day to save them from the chilly winter and give them a respite from braving the cold outside, well at least those north of the equator do. A day when you indulge in a little more sleep, maybe wake up towards the end of the parade, in time to catch the balloons being set off on TV, then go on to have a late brunch, followed by spreading on the couch to see that sudden and improbable air of deshbhakti  dawn on each and every one of the telly actors on every entertainment channel. Though nobody cares to see the parade these days, there are some who go one step ahead. People have started questioning the monotony that surrounds the republic day parade itself including the chaos of the days that lead up to it. And let me say this at the outset, I am not one of those people. I have no problem whatsoever with any traffic horrors that may arise due to the rehearsals, neither do I care about the surprising nu...

An invitation has been sent For the lords to descend On moon, to witness the plight Of men for ever so slight T'see, the rain of their roof T'see, their floor with a kloof * T'see, the dark of their night T'see, the lamp refuse to ignite

Suppose I tell you that if you cook an egg under direct sunlight, the yolk will turn violet, or suppose I tell you that when you type Turn Off in a text file and save it, the computer turns off. Or that some trees actually walk at night between 2 and 3. What would be your reaction? Somewhere between laughing and walking away with contempt, I guess. Now tell me, what would be a reaction of a 5 year old to this, or 6, or even 7 let's say. Chances are that the kid would believe at least two out of these three, if I act serious enough and tell him/her that it's a fact. And chances are that (s)he will go and tell these amazing facts to his/her friends too. There you have it, flesh and bone of Indian education system. I say Indian because the topic itself is so enormous even by assumption of talking about only the Indian education methodologies that it is almost impossible to cover the rest of them here and in so limited time. In India, and I am sure in many other plac...

Before I beg i n with the 'A cynic 's take ' series of posts, which I start toda y, I think I should write an introductory post about it. A simple forward later in the first post might have also served the pur pose, but I think a se parate post is better. Let's see how it goes. By this phrase 'A Cynic's Take' , and after reading my last post, you might think that these are going t o be some cynical posts where I'll be mo cking things while I write on differe nt topic s in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I am sorry, but tha t's not how it might turn out. I orig inally intended to write o n the most obvious inefficienc ies and problems in the most common things that I see aroun d me, and which affects me and you in one way or another. The things which we ignore or are completely oblivious to in our busy city lives, but which actually are a major part of it. I chose the word cynic because most of the times, when you point out fault s in a s...

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to finally give some awards to fellow bloggers. The wait has been quite long, and for me actually, because I've been wanting to give an award to some awesome bloggers for a long time, and who I feel definitely deserve an award a month. Okay, maybe not each month, but their talent and writings absolutely command some appreciation which should be shown in some better manner than 'OMG! You are so good. I am a fan' sort of exclamation. :P So, here I am, trying to show my appreciation for the public service two of my fellow bloggers have been doing for months(years actually) now and happen to be amazing writers in their own different but equally wonderful styles. I'll elaborate on it later in the post. Let me talk about the awards first.

Dear Mr. Khan           It is not very often that someone or something comes about and shakes a section of public alive, from the deep caverns of inherent slumber. Even rarer it is, if that someone or something succeeds in appealing to a relatively wide bracket of perception in its purpose and brings hence a general consensus. Your show does both, and with prowess and I am really happy for that.           But you see, being a cynic that I am, what vexes me the most is the act part of all that your show is. I don't care about other criticisms.

On December 31, 2011 American president Obama signed and passed the NDAA 2012 bill. The bill attracted a series of statements in opposition and demonstration within America due to a clause which grants objectionable and sweeping powers to the American president over its citizens. Below is a small fictional excerpt depicting a conversation between a Senator and an Assisting Adviser over an evening some time before the bill was passed.       - Albert Shades      - Senator Brendan Mc Gill 

I guess the title is pretty straightforward and you know what this post is all about. What you don't know, is that I can see the future. You also don't know that I absolutely love those piping hot, straight out of the sugar syrup, crunchy jalebis.  Now, before you say anything like, ' what the heck is this ', I must tell you that the Mount Everest is 8848 meters at its highest peak.

'Cheer up, splash those white sparkling teeth while I assure you that the world you know hasn't been in a better state ever since civilization began'. If a new wave of American authors is to be believed, we as an ever-progressive society stand today at the paramount of political stability, economical prosperity, along with social and ethical quality. And we should start being a little optimistic with the way the world has emerged through a long history of instability and war, into a rather peaceful society. This remark is made in comparison with our recent modern-history all the way up to the ancient past of the hunter-gatherers. Among the lot of highly optimistic books this season is ' The Secret Peace ', in which the author Jesse Richards professes that the world is a actually a nice place and getting better by the day. This revolutionary or shall I say preposterous idea actually slings muck at the faces of already crippled inhabitants of the third worl...

So , about 16 days of demonstrations finally witnessed the ouster of the despotic ruler of Egypt from power last month. There are consequent protests in many other parts of the Arab region which are not limited to Jordon, Libya, Yemen,  Bahrain in order to bring down oppressive rulers and to establish what should be called as governance for the people. Now, there is an overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet and news media about the current protests which started following the revolution in Tunisia and Egypt(the most talked about). While most of nations and their respective media stand supporting the protests, their actual concern doesn't lie anywhere close to the welfare of the society or the people. Instead, each one of them is seriously busy trying to get most out of this instability in the region.

This simple question is what, young kids are asked to check their intelligence. Of-course, few pass it as many just doesn't know that Moon is arguably nearer than the Taj Mahal (at least I can't see Taj Mahal from where I live).But before getting into a debate, let us first look into another somewhat related topic. In 2006 a proposal was put forward by ISRO for a possibility of manned space mission to moon. That is, India's attempt to put 'Indian Man' on moon. In 2008 chairman of ISRO, G Madhavan Nair, said that the project has been cleared by the Space Commission, following which in 2009 the Indian Government gave a green signal for the Manned Space flight Program due to launch in 2016. The cost was estimated to be Rs. 12,380 crore approx. Last year two launches were attempted by ISRO using the GSLV Mk.I and Mk.II launch systems developed by India, both of which were failures .