Master of Engineering – Did I ever master it?

Oh well, My M.Eng at National Univ of Singapore (NUS) is finally coming to a draw and I would have graduated in a couple of months from now. And so what the heck had I ever learnt in this whole tenure? Did I ever master anything that I had been reading and working on? Well maybe like most of the students I have not quite.mastered the subject. But beyond that I have a reason to rejoice about this stint at NUS. Why? what makes me to feel that way? The most important reason is that I have learnt here to question about anything and everything around me. I have finally shaken all those blind faiths that I had been carrying all along with me due to the indoctrination of my parents and society. The unquestioning faith is no more in with me. If you got to make me believe something, I must be convinced about the logic and that this logic needs to have a sound science background and which has been rigorously proved and tested using a double blind test. This quest for reasoning and logic of the things in nature has been the biggest gain of mine all along this tenure. An example of the most important superstitious belief that i had completely given up is Astrology. Because I tried to scrutinize it from the rigour of science, but unfortunately, all that Astrology demands is unquestioning faith in it and it has not an iota of logic or reason behind it.

Now another important quality that I had acquired is to stop comparing outside as there is no need to do it. We very well know the problems and shortcomings we have and all we need to do is to improvise on it. Ofcourse we can be inspired by the qualities of other people,  nevertheless this must stop in inheriting their good qualities and we must never try to compare us with others. For example one of my biggest problem is distraction. I can easily get distracted from almost anything that I do. I have been trying to work on it. I have taken inspiration from many people. But alas I have only compared myself with my previous performance and I never compared myself with others.

Another important thing that I learnt is just a continuation of the first one. Being a scientist doesnt mean merely publishing big papers and obtaing accolades. A scientist is a person who sees the external world with the eye of science and tries to reason any phenomenon he observes on day to day life on the basis of logic and reason backed up by rigorous testing, something which makes science more beautiful and elegant that any of the other things like philosophy, religion or art. (No offence meant to those who practice and preach the other things).

I belive I have set my tone in the right direction. The direction in which my heart wants me to go. And I hope to succeed in this path of science. Do keep along with my blog as this will surely tell you about my ups and downs through my life

A letter by a brahmin girl to her father

Note: This is a not my writings. Its a forward i got which made me get tears. How wonderfully true are these words. Yes we South Indians live just for society and nothing else. We kill our happiness, our kids happiness just because the person next door must not speak ill of us. Why the f**k  should we be bothered by it. Read and you will accept my words.

Dearest Appa,

27th Jan’1965

Hope this letter finds you, Amma, Raji and Seenu in good health.  The weather here in New York City is icy cold.  But Avar sollraar- I have missed this winter’s biting cold. I still wish I had seen the snow. But then, I still wish I had not left Trichy at all. I do miss Trichy, Appa. You, Amma, Raji, Seenu, pakkatthaathu Rama, Vikatan, Ucchi Pillaiyaar Koil, filter coffee, Holy Cross College, the Physics Department and of course Sakthi. I know you wish I hadn’t brought his name in this letter.But not to worry Appa, I understand that you got me married to Visu because you thought it was best for your daughter. I still remember Amma wiping her silent tears with her madisaar thalappu and you shouting at me the day I told you about Sakthi. Later, when the initial shock wore off you patiently listed umpteen reasons why I should not marry Sakthi. I agree Appa, that 20 is too young to decide, that Raji and Seenu would have been affected greatly by my ‘mistake’, the Agrahaaram would have scoffed at you… a meat eater was not a good match for someone who had never even tasted onion and garlic. The reasons were innumerous. I knew you’d still have objected and offered other reasons even if he had become a Dhigambara monk. Visu on the other hand, wore a poonal, he is the son of Neelakanta Sastri, an Engineer and he researched about computers which is what made you jump for this alliance. Am not complaining Appa, Visu is a nice man. Tell Amma that I could not try her kozhakkattai recipe this Pongal because coconuts were too expensive and Avar nenacchar that it was ridiculous. Anyway, we went out on Sankaranthi day and dined out. He thought it would be a good idea to invite the Chatterjees also. But I didn’t speak Bengali and Mrs.Chatterjee spoke English in an accent that comes with living years in America. Hence I made myself busy with the menu card. They ordered various species of fish, shrimp and a lot more of items I had never seen in my life. I ordered orange juice and a sandwich. The other diners thought it was queer coming to a seafood restaurant and settling for a sandwich. That day, I learnt that Avar prefer pannradhu beef, pork, bacon and seafood. Do you know, Appa… Sakthi gave up meat because of me? I didn’t ask, he just did. But then, Sakthi is not Neelakanta Sastri’s son and that made it imposible for Subramania Iyer’s daughter Kalyani to marry him. I will keep you posted on what happens here. I don’t think I can make it to Seenu’s Upanayanam. Tell Amma not to get me a pattu podavai for the poonal, I don’t use them here. I wore it once and felt like a clown here.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

20th Oct’1968

We are fine here. Gautam is speaking his first words and I swear they sounded like ‘Dosai’. But Visu claims it’s just gibberish. From your previous letter, I gather that pakkathatthu Rama is married and settled in Jamshedpur. Nice to know that. Please find out her address from Saarada maami and write it to me. I want to keep in touch with her. I hope Raji is happy with her husband in Madras. I spoke to her last month, great to know that she has a phone. Do tell Seenu to study well and prepare for his school final exams. Raji also told me that Sakthi is married now. I wish him good luck, but I could not convey the message to him. Raji refused to be the messenger and I know you have severed ties with Sakthi’s father, your long term friend Sankaravel, thanks to me. I hear his wife is his cousin… He must have succumbed to his mother’s wishes. How did Avani Avittam go? Visu’s mother gave me a bunch of new poonals for Avani Avittam but Visu was in Boston that day. He wouldn’t have used it anyway, I haven’t seen him wear one in the last three years. Gautam is now playing with the spool of thread- mere thread it is, what else can I call it? Gautam will not even know what it signifies, I guess. Visu is making sure Gautam grows up listening to English only. He says it will make his life easier. But I do read out passages from Ponniyin Selvan and Bharathiyaar’s poetry when I am alone with him. It’s more of reading to myself, I guess. I actually got that poetry book as a present from Sakthi, it still has his scrawling signature in the first page. By the way, Visu saw that book and asked me about Sakthi, I told him. Hold your breath Appa, he didn’t throw me out of the house. He is a good man, no question. He said it is okay and that he doesn’t mind. And then he told me of his American girlfriend whom he was once in love with, when he first reached America- Amy, a fellow Researcher who was in a brief relationship with Visu when she was in New York. They lived together for 3 months and decided against marriage, somehow. Amy once dropped home when she was in New York. Nice lady, she was. Ask Amma to send me Sambar Podi for this whole year. My friend Sudha is coming to Madras next week. Ask Seenu to catch the Rockfort Express and give it to her. I will collect it from her here.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

3rd June’1974

We have arrived here safely. After two months in India, I find it hard to adjust back to normal life here. Gautam and Ranjana demand vadai,paayasam and vaazhai ilai here. Visu’s relieved to be back in America. I left a set of my books there. If it’s not in Trichy it must be in Visu’s parents’ place. If you find them, safeguard them until my next trip. They mean a lot to me since they were gifts from Sakthi. By the way, Appa, I found out Sakthi’s present address in Madras from Rama and Saarada maami. I wrote to him. I am extremely proud to know that Dr.Sakthivel is a cardiologist much in demand there in Madras. He was thrilled to hear from me after so long. You know what he has named his daughters? Kalyani and Raagamaalika. He called me. You know what, he’s still a practising vegetarian, Appa. He didn’t revert back just because he lost me… He asked me if I still sang and whether Gautam and Ranjana could sing. I could see a proud father in him, when he claimed his daughters could sing upto Ra ra Venu Gopala. That’s when I remembered that I was once a good singer. I wonder why I stopped singing, wonder why I never exposed the kids to Music and Dance. But then, I realize that I had buried all that deep inside me when I left Trichy; after bidding farewell to my best Rasika, actually. Sakthi. After the call, I tried singing ‘Kurai Onrum Illai’. I could not rquite reach Charanam, because of the lack of practice and more importantly because of the tears that filmed my eyes and the constriction in my throat.  I sang to Visu and the kids one of these days. Though Gautam was impressed, father and daughter could not just wait for me to finish! By the way, next time some friend comes to India, send me a Sruthi Box. I would like to start singing again.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

14th Aug 1978

Just back after our tour to California. Find our photos, picture postcards attached herewith. After you are done with showing all family members,relatives, friends and neighbours, pass them to Visu’s parents. It was a welcome break for the four of us. But I missed my paattu class students all along and was happy to resume the classes again last evening. Did I mention in my previous letter, before we left on the tour – I finally got my driving license here. I sent a few photos to Sakthi too. He has sent me quite a few records and cassettes. I loved it! I’m reminded of AIR, almost! I’m circulating them among my friends too. And of course, playing them for my students too. They are picking up beautifully. Funny news is, I, a Tamilian, is teaching Telugu and Sanskrit kritis to a cross section of Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada,Telugu, Marathi, Bengali students in an English speaking nation. The music sessions have resulted in a reborn Kalyani, Appa. Thanks to Sakthi, really. I would have never taken it up had it not been for his reminder.  I am now thinking of what life would have been like if I had indeed married him. I would have of course lost you and Amma. But right now, with this life in America, Visu and these monthly letters to you, Rama, Raji and Seenu what have i gained?  I don’t find an answer, Appa. Neither do I think I ever will. Again, as I have always reiterated, Visu is a good man, no complaints there. He is every bit the son in law you wanted. Researcher, American Post Graduate Degree holder, a dutiful husband and father,earning a comfortable income. I know it is too much to ask for anything else. That is a fantasy I left midway in my life… Once upon a time in Trichy with someone else.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

14th Apr’1984

Met Dr.Sakthivel after 19 years… He had come to New York for business purposes and paid me a visit. Visu and the kids welcomed him home with great pleasure. And they liked him too. In fact, they did most of the talking initially. And of course, he got me a whole load of books, cassettes, Mysore Paak and lots more.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

20th Jan’ 1990

I just went through all these letters lying in my closet draw for years together. These are letters I started writing to you and then decided not to post. For obvious reasons. I could not mention Sakthi to you even though I was itching to. Not because I was afraid to invite your wrath. I just did not have the heart to hurt you, I know these letters would have hurt you. Because deep inside, I know you were disturbed- you knew Sakthi was a good man, you knew he was a man of substance, yet you didn’t want to go further. Society, I know. Family… I know…  And all these letters would have only wounded you more. Today, 2 years after your death, and 6 months after Dr. Sakthivel’s untimely death in a road accident, I somehow felt like re-reading all these letters. To me, all these unstamped, unposted letters mean a life that could have been.

Kalyani Viswanathan.

My feedback letter to Election Commision of India

Dear Sir/Madam

I’m a citizen of India who would like to exercise my franchise for the ongoing general elections. I had actually tried to identify the candidates who are contesting from my Parliamentary Constituency. But unfortunately there is absolutely no details about the person except the name, age and party. I’m wondering in this age of Communication, why has EC not taken up any steps to update its websites. Why is it not providing more specific details about the person, his qualification, his property details, the no. of times they had been elected, the current election manifesto, the previous election manifestos that were promised by the candidates and the no. of them that had been fulfilled by the candidate. I wonderful how would an ordinary person come to know about all these details before finalizing whom he has to vote.

I believe its the fundamental right of every indian citizen to obtain all the pertinent details about the candidates who are contesting from their parliament consitutency. I believe the ECI is morally oblidged to provide these details.

It might be too late now to implement the same for the current general elections. However I believe that this process is very important since the voter can read through about the candidates and then make an informed and intelligent decision as to whom they must vote which is crucial for the democracy to move forward.

I don’t know if anyone would ever be reading through this but if someone did, do please think about my request and act upon it

Thank you

Regards
janakiraman

Note: The website of Election Commision of India (ECI) is as hopeless as any other government institution website which needs a major revamp. I have did my part in improving the election procedure. If i’m the only one who is gonna send this feedback to election commission, by all means its gonna go to dustbin. But if thousands and millions of us could send similar request requesting for more info to be put on the ECI website, they would have no other choice but to budge. If anyone wants to send such feedback, you can send them through the following link

http://eci.nic.in/feed-back/feedback1.asp

It is our fundamental duty to vote and to make sure people make an informed decision before they vote.

What the heck is so formal and sexy about English Language?

Yeah I’m really wondering. What the heck is so formal about English? Why do we Indians are crazy about it? What makes us to think that speaking in our language is unprofessional and unethical? Can there be anything more shameful? Unfortunately a lot of times i come across people who are boasting to the others that his/her son is a citizen/PR in USA or Britain and that their grandchild speaks so beautiful in English and cant speak in their native language. I don’t know how people are able to boast of such a shameful act with so much pride about pathetically failing to teach their own native language. Well I strongly believe that learning of one’s own language is the starting point of understanding one’s own culture. What kind of legacy are you leaving back to your kids if you don’t teach them your native language. I myself is no different in that aspect. My knowledge of my own native language (Tamil) is abysmal especially my writing. I’m not sure how many people today in Tamil Nadu can write in tamil. All those so called literate people have mostly been studying in English and unfortunately the others dont have an opportunity to go to school. If this trend is going to continue most probably after a few decades we must have to hire linguist professional from US or other countries to translate the scripts in Tamil for us back to English. I had been thinking i’m very bad since I din’t know that Aatichoodi had 108 verses while my friends dint know what was Aathichoodi (Aathichoodi was the first lesson I got to learn in my preschool from my granpa and ma which is considered to be the best ryhms for the kids to learn, but it is not a useless one but it really teaches you the way of life). In a professional environment (say a prof and student meeting), 2 people from same part of India still dont want to talk in their native language because its not formal. Thats how shitty we are. Ridiculing your mother tongue is not much different from ridiculing your mom. I dont know when will we Indians understand it.

While that’s how much we ridicule our language, but we don’t stop there. We have even started ridiculing our culture. Women wearing flowers and eating with hand are now unprofessional activities in almost every corporate in India. I do accept that our society has its own evil like caste system, arranged marriage and other stuff, but i had really admired the beauty of girls wearing the half saree (or saree) and flowers. What is so unprofessional about it. And does anyone know how good it is to eat with hand on a banana leaf? You can feel the texture of the food, identify if the food is too hot or cold by touching it and also in a common eating place like a canteen, the most hygenic way is to eat with hand instead of sucking the spoon which was sucked by hundreds of others. And the most funniest part is all those bastards who preach these stuff are desi guys. Most of the people from Europe or US whom I had met have really a broad outlook and almost all of them accepted that the above activities are perfectly fine with them but its just that they cant follow it cos of their own mental make up. DID YOU STUPIDS HEAR THAT?

If you could have a deeper look at the modern history,  almost all the countries who had dominated the technology, science and in turn the economy like Germany, France, Britain, Japan are the countries which have a schooling system in their own native language. Most of the japanese and many of french cant speak even a word in english. But yet they are able to dominate the technology like no others. Why? Because they focussed on teaching the kids whats more important. Hands on knowledge. Schools in Korea and Japan organize TFT and LCD screen assembling contests for pre high school students. The technical knowledge of the people are leaps and bounds ahead of us. Because they have understood that teaching kids in native language is far more easy and simple than teaching in a foreign language.

So from all above blogging does it mean that i’m anti English? Definitely not. Learning English definitely gives you a global advantage to interact with all the countries and its good to learn it in this era of globalization. But all that i’m trying to say is our own mother tongue Tamil, Telegu, Hindi or whatever language is as equally good as english and its not a sin to talk in our own language in any professional set up. Simiarly we have every right to follow and practive our own culture and lifestyle as anyone else in the world.

யாம் அறிந்த மொழிகளிலே தமிழ் மொழி போல் இனிதாவது எங்கும் காணோம்.

which means Tamil is the most beautiful language amongst all the languages i known (from the lyrics of the great Tamil poet Subramanya Bharathy). Let every Indian start to feel as equally proud about his mother tongue like that wonderful poet.

A desi (Indian) guy with a white girl. Can it ever work out?

Disclaimer: Well before you plunge in let me warn you that it might have a bit of explicit sexual content (especially for people hailing from orthodox  Indian family ). Please do not blame me after you are done with the post for the same

Fact: Well i’m happily commited to a wonderful desi girl and I have absolutely no idea of looking for a white girl

Well why in the hell did this topic at all prop into my head. I don’t know, but suddenly yet seriously i started to think about why things can never work out between a desi (synonym of indian) guy and a white girl. There are lots of reasons for it. Let me tell a few of them here to warn off guys who might be tempted about the white girls . And I’m not quite sure maybe the info can throw a bit of light why it can work out in the reverse way as well.

First and foremost the typical way of love accustomed to indians is where a guy looks at a girl, falls in love (well infact he would have done it thousands of times before in life, but would have got the courage to let know the girl only when he gets to understand the rapid increase in his hair fall and the waist line ) and proposes her to marry him. The girl in a small probability might accept it and they most certainly immediately get married. What happens if the guy does the same way to a white girl. In all means he will get thrashed and ridiculed for being mad to propose a girl for marriage he had  known only for few months / days  (well even a few years is insufficient for them buddy). So the problem begins there and continues onnnnnn.

In some case if the girl might get interested in the guy and might tend to kiss him. Whoolaaaa how can the white girl know that an indian girl doesnt allow the guy to whom she is engaged even to touch her before marriage. So the art of french kiss is accustomed to the poor guy only through the videos which by all means is grossly insufficient. This lack of knowledge coupled with his heighted passion and tension of first kiss will most probably end in biting her lips. And well that is ofcourse THE END.

And if by some extremely small probability and sheer luck if the guy succeeds in doing a perfect kiss,  can he ever win the next step of making love?? by all probability he cant as i’m sure  its an art that comes with experience (Note: Being a typical desi virgin guy, i’m forced to believe the above details which was provided to me by my french friend )

But lets say by wierdest of possibilities that makes it possible for the things the guy is now elated and excited, he throws  a party where beer flowwwsss where he announces to the world that he has found his love and his life is now gonna be full of excitement and happiness. Silently a few days later an e-mail props up where she says that unfortunately she was extremely attracted to another guy cos of bla bla bla bla and as a result she had kissed him. Whatttttttttt noooooooo. what about the bill for my party and my costly birthday and christmas gifts. Ofcourse he does understand with time that its all to gutter 

After all these hurdles if they still get married? You see that’s the problem with people who work on quantum mechanics, I just cant assign a zero probability for anything . And if they get married, the desi guys would like to have kids almost instantly which will again shock the girl and might end up in a break up. He might as well start to behave like a typical indian husband (you see its in our gene man, can we change so soon) trying to dominate which will by all means freak her out.

Finally the extraordinary fitness conscience amongst us (ha ha ha) might end up in a balooned waist and extraordinary overweight within a few years of marriage thus clearly making him capable of only delivering a quick fastfood instead of a full scale meal ( i hope u understood the actual meaning). And the girl is no indian to remotely have any sentiment of ‘one life one husband’. Should i have to say that the next scene would be in court where the guy begs the girl to live with him.

Thus if you could see not an iota of  evidence which makes the situation to look positive, which is why I warn the guys in first hand that it can never work out for you with a white girl.  Ha ha but then is anyone gonna listen is the million dollar question

The spirit of December

The birth of december brought me awe

And told me that Christmas Eve is on your nose

And for first time in my lifetime

I was ready, excited, joyous and upbeat

With Bells and lights and gifts and fireworks

Needless to say the best Christmas of mine

The coldest month brought the warmest moments

Spending time with friends through Night

And all the hope and wait came to life

Christmas Eve came with beauty of lights

Spreading across the message of love and grace

After Christmas came New Year eve

Carrying with the wishes for life

Partying late and meeting with pals

Moments were beautiful needless to say

But all that joy and happiness

Comes to an end with the new year dawn

Memories afresh and moments too sweet

Just cherishing them brings so much of joy

Good bye December, good bye Christmas,

Good Bye beautiful New Year eve

But things are not as bleak as it feels

The next December would soon be due

Starting the next round of fun and joy

The cycle of joy and cherishing them

Would continue to be for a lifetime of mine.

What does it mean to live outside india

Note: Now well this post means more business. Not the typical day dreaming posts of mine.

Almost 9 months have passed since i came to singapore. Now when i look back about what i have done during all these months, well of course research has taken up the prime share along with other course works. But another good thing is that i have been interacting with quite a good number of people from different parts of the world and thankfully i also met Guillaume who would also become one of my best buddy for life. Ok that’s the fact, but why do i tell these things? Because when i tend to meet different people i try to compare the lifestyles of ours and other people. And what are positives and negatives. Well from my immature intellect what i feel is that most of Indians (especially myself, though i’m trying hard to change ) do not know what it means to live outside india and cleary many of us do not even have a personality.

Oh but why do i say that? because only here i start to realize what it means to have a personality. How many of us have an answer when we are asked what is our favorite sport to play? Have we ever excelled in it? (Well i don’t take into account the stupid cricket game which is played length and breath of country). How many of us have something called a hobby like being a numismatic or a traveler or doing social service? How many of us have defined a motive for our life? ( For example my friend Guillaume’s motive of life is to conserve energy and popularize alternate energy. And he shapes his career accordingly). How many of us know about the lifestyle and culture of the other people like chinese or europeans or africans?  Well to explain a bit more, I don’t think many of us accept the European lifestyle of having many boyfriends or girlfriends as just another culture. How many of us have made an attempt to learn the languages of the other people? How many of us appreciate and learn about other religions, their principles and beliefs apart from our own?  How many of us can share an accommodation with a non Indian? (i think many of us cant even share a room with people who are not from our state or city). How many of us can eat Chinese or japanese food nor for survival but just for the pleasure of it? How many of us can listen happily the music of chinese or the jamaicans? How many of us take up the dressing of other people as just another culture?

Almost all the europeans whom i have met can do everything above with so much ease but for many of us its impossible to do even of it. What is the problem with us? why are we so closed, so remorse? Well i think most of the blame have to be taken up by our society and parents. They think just memorizing the book and getting marks is more than enough for the kid to survive in the world. They dont even bother to tell the kids about the world outside the house and school. The children in our society take so much time to learn about the fun and hardships in the life in our own society leave alone learning and appreciating about others. Also another reason is that there are almost no foreigners in india who reside when compared to other parts of world. So our previous generation never had an opportunity to meet people from different culture and they never had to go out of their place for a living.   So they had a reason to be conservative, but we are no more like that. We have to travel around the world for a living, we need to meet many different kinds of people even in our daily life, but we still continue to live the same conservative way.

Ok enough of bashing. well not everything is wrong with us. Infact we have done a stupendous job by preserving our culture and tradition for thousands of years now, something that could not be comprehended by any historian. But now we must also understand that there are people who live outside india and who live extremely differently from us. Let us start accepting and appreciating it. Let us try to co exist with them and learn from them and teach them what we know. And in the process also develop a personality for ourselves which will define our life and its purpose.

the bus riddle

Everything written in this blog is entirely fictional and out of my creativity

Once a bomb was fixed up in a singapore bus. The police found it out but unfortunately they had only very less amount of time of about 10 minutes before the bomb could go off.  At that time, the bus was traveling on a bridge over the sea. The bus had one bus stopping in the middle before it can reach the terminal at the end of the bridge where the bomb can be safely defused or allowed to be exploded without any damage to life and other properties. The bus can travel in 8 minutes to the terminal if it did not stop in the bus stop in middle and all the people can be boarded out just in time. However if the bus stops in the middle bus stop it cannot reach in 10 minutes and the people inside it will be killed. The people also cannot be boarded out now because if the bus explodes the bridge will collapse and the people will fall into the sea.  Also the police were able to identify that a police officer was traveling in bus. He finds out that only one person wants to get down in the middle bus stop. Now the policeman in the bus needs to stop the person from getting down without telling anyone as they might get panicked. He also cant tell the bus captain not to stop in middle bus stop because he is a heart patient and cannot withstand such terrible news. And also he doesnt know to drive a bus.

Again there wont be any person in bus stop to flag the bus, because the police would have cleared the people from bus stop.

Now how can they do it? What would have you done if you had been in the place of police officer in the bus? Try to answer it without reading any further.

When the question was posed to non-Indians the most common type of answer was

1. try to distract the person by talking to him and make him forget the stopping

2. if he was not getting distracted, threaten him and break the stop button nearest to the person so that he cannot press the bell in time

3. even after that if the person tries to move to press the bell, hit hard on his leg and make him immobile (you see life of so many people is more important than that poor guy’s leg )

4. now after doing all these things if the person tries to shout and create a scene, try to hold his mouth (oh shit really. But hold on  what if other people see you doing it and raise an alarm? Well in that case u will have no other option but to tell the people regarding bomb and hope that the poor weak hearted captain would survive the shocking news

Now when the same question was asked to an indian, the reply was

1. give him some chloroform or some other similar thing and make him unconscious (but there is a loop hole, how do you expect a person to have all these things in a bus, guys you are not smart)

But then came the reply, in that case just take some sharp item and inflict an injury on him. The more the blood comes out, the easier is your job. Now plead him that you are so sorry and promise him that your brother (or any relative) is the dean of the hospital somewhere near the terminal and you will take him there and treat him at your own cost. Now the person will not refuse and he will not get down in the stop in middle and the people can be saved.

Hey we are the smartest guys on the street you know

Illiteracy and poverty and resistance to change – the positives of it

I think this is a slightly different post than my normal sarcasm and humor. Poverty,  illiteracy and the resistance to change the age old ideas and beliefs, I think they are the most commonly used (or perhaps most extensively used  ) words in India. And almost every time we hear the negative sides of them that most of the problems are due to them and the primary need of the day is to eradicate them.  Well of course I do accept that they are the biggest social evils and have to be eradicated, bu somehow unlike others I also tend to look at the few positives that had happened because of the same. Now i know that you are infuriated and bursting out ‘ Positives due to poverty? What Nonsense’. Might make you feel that i’m crazy and stupid? yeah well of course i’m . But i would certainly would recommend you to accompany me in this cranky journey and after which  you can appreciate at least an iota of what you read below.

Last few days I have been following a few videos regarding the culture of India through a series of videos (The history of India – by BBC). I was extremely happy to hear laurels of praise from the British praising India to be the mother who had spearheaded the civilization of the ancient world. There had been a lot of details discussed in the video and I would like to reason out a few of them in terms of illiteracy and poverty.

1. Historical world believes that the ancient man walked out of Africa into the rest of world some 80,000 years back. And only in South India, the historians were able to pin down this fact with 2 important information. The first one being the sacred hymns sung by the priests of kerala, which do not carry any meaning but which closely resembles the chirping of birds. However the most concrete evidence was the spotting of the M130 gene pool in south india which confirmed the migration. Now, the hymns had been continuing till date because the entire generations which had been practicing it had been subordinative or infact illiterate in some sense because all these years no one had ever questioned regarding the need for singing those hymns without meanings -it was only these things that helped us to preserve these hymns. And the gene pool was saved only because of the continuing tradition of marriage to the first cousins till date in south india (though it has been scientifically proved that such marriages result in the birth defects of the kids) while the western world has stopped practicing those traditions centuries ago. Now has the illiteracy and the submissiveness had been positive or not?

2. The brahadeeshwara temple built by raja raja around 1000 AD has been one of the most baffling architectures of medieval world. Historians had always been wondering about its eloquence and beauty. But how the hell did he move tonnes of such granite from a quarry which was almost 50 miles from the venue of construction? (remember there is no trace of a single peak to have existed in tanjavur where the temple is located). The historians were able to answer it only because of the traditional methods of capturing and training elephants (which had moved the most of stones), riding a ferry (which had been used to transport across water) that have remained unchanged for almost 1000 years and are practiced even today. The reason? illiteracy and poverty. A literate, logical and a rich person would have always tried to improvise the methods as happened in the Europe during the medieval period. The same can be extended to the art of making of idols be it of granite or brass or panchaloha (one example is of the famous NATARAJA in madurai and chidambaram temples), the technique remains unchanged for almost a millennium.

Now i can give hundreds and hundreds of such examples of the historical events of India whose reasons are digged out only because the tradition and methodology has remained the same through these years. And illiteracy, poverty and the resistance to change have played an important role in preserving the same. Infact only these traditions that make us feel more connected to our nation and to our civilization than any other person in the world.

So its the verdict time. Based on the above reasoning due to the positives of illiteracy and poverty should it be allowed to continue? Of course not, knowingly or unknowingly we have preserved these rich traditions for ages until this modern era. The only request from my end would be that we must ensure that we do not loose any of these traditions (that can still be practiced today like ferry riding and brass idol creation, not the first cousin marriage) while we strive to wipe out poverty and illiteracy from our country

regards

janakiraman

The autobiography of a ballpen

Mei hoon ek kala blackpen aur yeh hi meri kahani

(I’m a black ballpen and this is my story)

Human mind is indeed funny. when almost all the commodities that he uses from the shaving razer to the BMW car is Black in color, he doesnt want the human whom he interacts to be Kala (Black) color. indeed very strange. And yeah i was born as the most preferred color in my domain  and i and my siblings were made exclusively for the usage of an IT industry called Cognizant. Indeed we were made in huge number and sold to them. But the people who use us (or rather misuse us) because they got as many of us as they want and that too for free. Hence most of my friends had not been used for more than a couple of days and are generally lost or wasted. In such a fearful environment of misusage and wastage and short life span, i was produced and sold to the organization. I was lying hidden layers below my friends trying to delay my use to the maximum extent I can. But on a fine morning on December, my fear came true, I was removed out of the bundle, as one of the associates working there needed my service. And finally I was violently separated from my family and was taken away by him. The person who took me was dark (like me), but however had a grin on his face and a peculiar satisfaction on seeing me. I was confused by his reaction, but sould sense something notorious was going around and was only to be confirmed when he dropped me next to a few of my siblings. Oh my god, only then I came to know that he has been looting us along with our cousins pencils, sharpners and erasers and hoarding us all. Now i dint have a clue whats gonna happen next, but I stopped bothering and tried to look ahead. Now he carefully packed all of us and kept us together. It was a honeymoon period for all of us, we had a wonderful time together and it doubled only when we came to know he has resigned from the company and we would be travelling with him from India to singapore. Man I was to travel to a foreign country, a chance that only one in a million got and I’m was so glad about it. But all those excitement was short lived and the difficulties of real life took over.

Jan 10th, 2008. I was taken out of the packing. Now I faced the fact that it my turn has come to serve my master and I had somehow made up my mind for that. And when I came to know that he is now a research student, i was happy to know that I would be used for a real worthy purpose. I enthusiastically started working for him. I was so easy to handle, I was smooth and soft and I could resist very high temperatures. As a result my master liked me a lot also he started to develop a special relationship towards me and he started to use exclusively only me. Wow and that was very very strange for a pen like me. Infact he treasured me so much that once when he lost me in a lecture, he took all pains to search for me and infact he had promised his friend to buy an apple if he could find me out. Tears (or rather ink) started to flow out of me profoundly on hearing this news and now i decided to work more and more diligently for him. I was writing the equations that he wanted to write, and it was me who wrote almost anything he tought write from research problems to the maggi packets that he wanted to buy. I was an indispensable part in his life and I was so happy about it. But my resources were limited and it reduced day by day. And I thought that my master would be unhappy to see that. But unfortunately he never had any reactions to show and when he saw that my resources have almost got over, he was so eager to use me of completely as soon as he can. Initially I thought that what a thankless person he is and he was greedy only to use me to the best of his possibilities. But then I realized that to get used was the purpose of my life and what he did was just what I must expect. However I was extremely happy because I was used for a worthy cause by him and unlike many of my siblings I did not go waste by being lost or by being used for useless purposes. And finally on 17th April 2008, my resources were completely utilized and it was time for me to be discarded. But however my master had some soft corner for me as I was the first ballpen that he had used almost exclusively and continuosly till the end. And so he was happy to retain me. And so here i’m lying peacefully in his bag and reverberating my story to the younger generation ballpens as how I lived a complete life

Mei hoon ek kala blackpen aur yeh hi meri kahani