Do you give a damn?

Quite often, we have encountered the phrase, ' Take it through one ear and let it out through the other'. To simplify further, you don't need to pay attention to the words hurled at you. Well, let us ask ourselves a question, does this really happen most of the times or is it just used as when required according to one's convenience?

Unless one is quite reserved, pretty much an isolationist, whatever one does is bound to raise some questions. It may be anything. It may be your attitude, you dressing style, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you kiss(hmm hmmm), the career you choose etc etc. But the important thing is, when you do something quite out of the ordinary, and you get views to the contrary, is it imperative that you reverse the process or do you stick to your guns and let the current situation roll?

I have heard many people say that under no circumstances would they change their style and their direction, but fortunately or unfortunately, it culminates in them doing just the opposite. Most of the time, it's not that they chose to change but society and its views made them to opt for the change. Let's face it, everyone has got to adjust with the society. No one can live life by avoiding others and turning a deaf ear. About the change, it becomes pretty monotonous and dull, when one gets the constant push on to go for the change. The mind then actually starts thinking to look at the change as the postive option, and in the end, it may, MAY, result in doing something which was not really required. Well that brings us to the question, is listening to people always the best thing to do?

Not quite, if I may so. There are quite a few people who have solely gone on what they have thought as right for themselves and stuck to their decision. For eg. let us take the case of the world's going-to-be cheapest car, Nano. As soon as Ratan Tata announced that a car of 2,500$ was to be launched, it received feedback saying it was impossible, and TATA's would encur a loss if it went ahead. But then as we know it now, the Nano has already been completed and true to his word, Ratan Tata, managed the extraordinary price.

There are quite a few stories such as this. It's not that, good decisions are spearheaded by a strong mind and it's also not true that weak minds make bad decisions. It's that sometimes the society forces us to view things according to what it views as perfect. It takes courage and grit to actually do something different, even if it means going against everyone else, as long as you know what your doing is right. But of course, not everyone is great. So what's your take, or in other words, do you give a damn or not?

Next stop, Imagination station!

Hi there, This is Shiv writing an article for the blog, Blogger's park, in reality. Of course, the last few words were not required and they are never used as such, but it was required for this article. So let us ask a question to ourselves, how many of us have imagined something at some point of time? Now, the magical hand of Shiv will come out of the screen and slap if you answer in the negative. Of course, every one of you out there has imagined something at some point of time in your life.

According to me, imagination is as essential to a human being as oxygen. As the air enters through the nostrils, reaches the lungs, with the lungs getting the oxygen extracted, and infusing it into the blood stream, the entire body gets energized and revitalized. Likewise, imagining good situations does bring some badly required freshness into the being.

Frankly speaking, no matter in which wonderland you might be, reality sometimes, does become a bore. It's not possible to encounter reality time and time again. The same going to school, homework, college, office, work pressure, wife pressure, family management(I mean handling children) etc. People take a break from reality by engaging themselves in social activities. They play sports, watch a movie, catch up with friends etc. But nothing better than imagination, especially if your alone.

Through imagination, a person visualizes scenes which he/she may never have performed, or may not perform, but has an innate desire,passion to achieve it. It can be anything. For a school chaps, it may be beating up the class bully, for college people, it may be becoming Mr. Popular, or ahem... ahem... you know what. For the office duds, it could be kicking the treacherous boss in the ass. It depends on the individual. But the common thing is, what each one imagines in somehow related to their lives. It has been nurtured since childhood, and it may grow so big that one might actually start to believe in it. The best thing is that, this kind of imagination always brings a smile to the face as it's almost like reality, almost that is.

The sad part is that the competition has become so fierce today, that one does not even have the time to eat food, let alone imagine. I would like to assert that we should not lose touch with our creative instincts, read imagination. Otherwise, we would be just manual working robots. Do you want to be seen as some machine? Obvious, No. So close your eyes and get ready people, coz next stop is imagination station. Aah... I can already see some chicks waiting for me.

What's your opinion?

It's been a long time, hasn't it? Writing a blog after sometime now, so the writing is bound to be a bit raw, but please bear with it. Okay!

It's a common phrase you hear time and time again. 'The world is full of people with different thoughts, differing opinions and so on.....'. To tell you the truth, the weight of this statement never struck me until I had actually experienced it. Although, you and me may have a clash of opinions, I can safely say that this may be the case for you as well. Whooosh... me going into flashback mode.

Well it all started a couple of months back. I had this sudden impulse, this sudden craze for growing my hair. Throughout my lifetime, this kind of passion never bothered to cross my mind. So, I had this thing for growing my hair long, and following the footsteps of MS Dhoni's erstwhile hairstyle. So it went on, the feedback and the expert opinions started flowing in from my classmates and colleagues. I don't know why, but I have this popular tag to myself in my class. I have to attribute to my classmates, who are all very good people. So, whatever I do, somehow spreads around and thats how the opinions started pouring in.

As the hair grew from medium to slightly longer, people started noticing it. Immediately it was almost as if there was an imaginary stage, with an imaginary debate taking place. Few would support it while others would call for the axe( Hey, for the hair, not for my head, he he). Even within each group, there was a split of opinion as to why it looked good or bad. People used to say I would like this or that, or i should try this and that. The growing thing didnt go down well in the household as well. But I decided to go on. The hair grew further. Some people from the pros went to the other side, as it would always happen. Not everyone is strong minded. Me too, as revealed later.

When it did grow to the point of no return, it did start to look a bit ugly. Only a few staunch supporters remained. Comments flew thick and fast. It was like 1 good opinion to a 100 bad opinions. The bad opinions would be filled with all sorts of adjectives in teenager dictionary, and also with expletives. It would definately force one to have a rethink. Considering the bad ratio, I eventually succumbed to the difficult decision on cutting it off. Well, now it looks good. But i learnt one thing, people will say what they have to. Everybody has a right to voice what they feel like, but even more important is how you should be more strong minded and consider opinions of either sides carefully before arriving at a conclusion rather arrive at it by a careless and fast examination of ratios. So, this incident was an eye opener, or should I say, Hair opener for me.

Spot The Reference!

Hi there. Sometime back, say .... a decade back, you would have engulfed yourself into the intricacies of a subject called 'Art'. As a kid back then, you may have generated a liking for it. That interest may still be at the back of your mind now. But who has the time now? That's a different question. Have you ever spilled a drop of paint on a white paper? Of course, you would have. What happens to it? Let's find out.

When that drop of thick paint falls from the strand of your paintbrush to the flat surface of white paper, or any other paper of different colour, that drop of paint ceases to spread as long as the paper is stationary. Once the unwanted external force, in the form of moving the paper, or using the paintbrush, is applied to the drop, only then the drop spreads in the resultant direction. You all would be thinking me to be some kind of art freak who wants to show off his basic arts knowledge. Well the crux of the matter is that such a thing can be easily visualized in real life. Well think about it. Suppose we have an epidemic of the sort of, say..... Bird flu. This is the drop of paint. If not controlled well, this unwanted lack of responsibility could result in the bird flu spreading in all directions. Well, what is suggested as an example is negative in nature. That gets us onto the next point. Is that drop good or bad?

Firstly, the idea of writing this article struck me, when I entered my bathroom, with dirty feet. For the record, my bathroom, has white tiles. So as you would have guessed, some amount of dirt was spread on the clear white background. Generally, all drops on the background, would be considered as negative, as they are an intrusion into the stability of the system. But to place the drop as negative or positive, would depend on the surrounding. Like for example, spilling coffee on your important drawing sheet, would really make you act as Jim Carrey in Liar Liar, while adding a drop to enhance the surrounding on your ingenious painting, would obviously make it better.

Then, the question which arises is, when do you consider the surrounding presently as bad or good? Nothing can be decided without a reference. You can only judge whether something is good, if you have not seen anything better earlier. If I could make a parallel to real life, you judge a situation as good or bad, if you have seen a similar or an inferior one earlier. Likewise, you judge a person only if you have met a similar, better or worse character earlier. You would be thinking then, that how would you judge the first person you meet in this world. Well the solution to that is, your reference is your mother, who is the ultimate symbol of goodness. If luck be your way, you will have people by your side, who share similiar goodness as your mother ( And I am glad to say that I have lots of them in DJ EXTC ).

Well that gets us to the close of this discussion. How was it? Whiich reference do you use to rate the articles?

There Will Be Blood!

Hi there, this article is not about the film, 'There will be blood', which receieved an oscar this year. Well, this article is just to portray the importance, a drop of blood still possesses in the society. If you can take some trouble to go down the memory lane, 5-6 years back, in school, you would have slogged to learn the subject of Biology. As is true, the blood is an integral part of the human body. So it had to feature in all the pages, no matter which organ of the body you were studying. But apart from the biological axiom, blood has featured in so many areas external to the human body. let's take a peek.

Blood has presented itself in so many Bollywood movies. Leaving aside the bloodshed in films(which have increased over the years), many catchy phrases have been designed using blood. Frankly speaking, in the realm of Bollywood, whenever I think of Blood, the first frame which shoots to my mind is Shahrukh Khan in the film, Darr, in which he uses his blood, as an accessory to convey his love to KKK.....Kiran. The power of blood has become so significant, that it is used as a form of guarantee for any deed. If you thought that, that agni pariksha was the 'in-thing' earlier, it's now khoon pariksha. Or how about, Blood being used as a drink, as in the words of Dharmendra, " Kutte, Main tumhara khoon pee jaoongaa" (Dracula would definately borrow some from Dharmendra jee). Or to express strong payback or to torture someone by saying, " Main tumhe Khoon kii aasu rulaoongaa". Blood, over the years, has been used to portray the character of the person in picture. The catchy phrase of " Gandaa Khoon" is used to indicate bad blood, or person with bad character.

Films aside, involvement of a person with blood has increased. The importance of a drop of a blood is underscored in Paul Bryant's statement, "There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success". Blood is invaluable is justified by the increase in numbers of people donating blood at blood donation centres nowadays. Blood in itself is very attractive as it possesses that dark red colour which is very difficult to neglect, even out of sheer ignorance.

The title of the film, "There will be blood", has conveyed a hidden message. No matter how many peace organizations come up, there will be a war somewhere in the near future. With arsenals in countries increasing at an exponential rate, it's no surprise if a big brother bullies the rest. The Iraq war is the ideal example to justify. Or how about the increase in terrorist activities which have shook nations across the globe. It would take some time to prevent the blood from spilling.

So that ends this bloody session. So how much blood have you spent in reading this? Interested in donating any knowledge?

Bumbai Transport

Greetings to you, my fellow commuter. If you are a Mumbaikar, you are gonna love this article. Infact, you would be knowing all this beforehand. Even if you are not a Mumbaikar, it's my pleasure to welcome you, to the inside stuff of transport in Mumbai, or in short ........ Bumbai transport, as they call it.

Let's start with the best option of transport, the local train. It's not big by size, but by the sheer number of the people who use it. Running the local train transport in Mumbai means big bucks, as millions............. yes, millions and millions throng the station daily. When it's monsoon, you have got to expect rush and jam packed crowds in the compartments because the trains get delayed as they need to slow down on wet tracks. A couple of years back, I went through a similar experience. I was eagerly waiting for a train on Andheri station, so that I could reach Matunga. As fate had it, I waited for an hour( If you have travelled on trains before, you know this kind of waiting spells doom). So it was my luck that I could manage to get my foot on the train when it arrived. There was absolutely no chance of going inside at that point. One hand on the bar and just one foot, out of the two, on the floor, my entire body was outside the compartment. As the train swung, my body, with my bag at the back also swung. It was almost a borderline between life and death. Luckily, that time I had no glasses otherwise they would have gone with the wind. A couple of stations later, I decided I had it with adventure, so I pushed my way through, only to find out, that double the amount of crowd had entered the compartment, and made it impossible for me to move. When my station was about to arrive, either it was intuition or common sense, but I decided to start off pretty early towards the exit of the compartment. What can you do when you are sandwiched from all sides? I couldn't move my body, even an inch. I finally reaped the fruits of going to the gym, as I managed to push and punch my way through 50 people.

Let's move on to the local bus transport., known as the BST Bus. The big problem you can encounter here is, if the frequency of the bus is not good. It's really maddening to wait at the bus stop for more than 5 minutes, especially if you don't have company. The bus would eventually arrive. Do not be shocked to find it packed, again. Some of them aren't, it just depends on the route. If it's packed, be ready with the money before you enter because I assure you, once the bus moves, it's pretty difficult to go for the change and cling onto the hanger at the same time. The deadliest moment is when the bus driver brakes. It's as if some hefty hoodlum has pushed you from behind. You must be a lucky chap if you get to sit on a crowded bus. You can almost visualize the phenomena of completing a 100 metre race, when a fellow passenger leaves a seat vacant. The seat is the gold medal, for which a dozen people, aspire to accquire.

Frankly speaking, there are no problems with the Taxis or Autorickshaws. You get them almost everywhere. You can share them with other people, if they are going in the same direction. Only problem is, you would have to shell out much more than you do on a train or a bus, but that disadvantage goes away with the shared autos and taxis.

If you do not have the propensity for local transport, then you better have your own car. A couple of problems come along with the A/C and music in the car. Traffic is increasing at an exponential rate. A few months back, I was driving from Churchgate to Matunga. If you have time to waste, try what I did, or travel in the reverse direction in the morning. A 20 minute journey went on for a shocking 100 minutes. In the previous paragraph, if you thought Taxi and autos were your friend in need, they are your worst enemies, when you are behind the wheel. Add to that, the gundagiri of the bst buses. What can you do, they are bigger in size. The biggest problem, which irritates even the most patient of all, are the people walking on the roads, when they have a nice footpath available. For some strange reason, people like to walk on the road. For the past few months, they have also been displaying some antics. Once I was just driving around 20kmph, and suddenly a couple of kids who wanted to cross the road, cross it just as I was going to pass. On the way, they show their hand, instructing me to stop.

Well, that's about it. I can't go on and on, but yes, Mumbai transport isn't all that bad. These were just a few occasions. Otherwise, it is really fun to experience it. In the years or decades to come, no matter what the condition is, Mumbai is always going to remain close to my heart because as the song goes, " Aye dil, hai mushkil, jeena yahaan, zara hatke, zara bach ke , Yeh hai Bumbai, meri jaan" .

Roller Coaster Rides!

Wow! That sure was a bumpy ride. Oh! Hi there. In case you were wondering what was that first line for, well, I have just got off a Roller Coaster. Amidst all the fun and thrill during the roller coaster ride, I happened to enlighten myself upon a few facts of life. It's just amazing what a simple Roller Coaster ride manages to portrays, to the one, who has an eye for detail. Now, during the course of this article, you must not think I am some kind of maniac, who has nothing to do in this world. My sole purpose of sitting on a roller coaster is to have fun and nothing else. It's just for the blog, that I decided to sink in deep into the intricacies of an average, yet spectacular, roller coaster. So, enjoy the ride.

Firstly, I consider an entire ride on a roller coaster, analogous to life. The obvious truth you all must have chanced upon by now is, there are many ups' and downs' in life, as in a roller coaster ride. If you would have noticed, neither does the coaster remain entirely up or down. Every down is succeeded by an up, and vice versa. Of course, the really successfull manage to keep it up, for most of the time. But the fact is, nothing is permanent. If you have the mind for it, you can convert your downs' to ups'.

The above truth, I am sure, you all would have been aware of, but hang on, there is more. Let's concentrate during the phase when the roller coaster is slowly moving upwards. If you would have noticed while sitting on a roller coaster moving up, your eyes slowly light up. You can feel that increment from the bottom every second. At the same time, there is that lingering thought at the back of your mind, about the journey after you reach the top. At present you would be having no idea whether the coaster would go down or remain up for sometime. The same applies to life. When climbing the ladder of life, you never know what's going to happen in the future. So while climbing, your mind is in the hybrid state of excitement (or happiness) and anxiety. Let's see what's the situation is,when the coaster goes down. When you reach the top, and you stare at the depth from which you have climbed out of, your immediate reaction is to open your mouth, in happiness for achieving the feat and in fear or shock to brace for the steep fall. Same thing happens in life. When you know you are going to go down, that shock hits you. But as said before, every down is succeeded by an up. So don't worry. As they say, "Darr se mat daro, uske aage bado".

So far, we have discussed stuff external to the roller coaster. But there are facts to be extracted from within the coaster itself. This is applicable if you are in a roller coaster train.If you are sitting in the front, then you get to experience all the ups' and downs' firsthand. For you, it comes as a surprise, while for the rest, they know what's coming after seeing your position. If I could juxtapose it with life, then I would term you as the leader of any organization, because, the leader has to face all the hurdles firsthand, experience it, find out some solution, and only then can he direct his sub-ordinates on the correct route.

Another interpretation is, when the first car of the train, goes down, there are a quite a few cars behind, to take the powerful vacant postion. They are all waiting for that car to go down so that they can get a taste of the real stuff. Similarly, in any organization, once the leader steps down, there is immense competition for the successor. However, like in a roller coaster, only the next powerful postion can succeed. In life, people wait for the leader to go, so that they also can get to experience the dream of leading the company.

However, all this starts the empty coaster comes on to board the passengers. In a normal coaster, the person, who wants to sit in front, wants to enjoy it firsthand. Likewise in life, when the empty bus of oppurtunity comes, the person who wants to be the leader, will willingly board the bus first and sit in front.

So, after a lot of twists and turns, the roller coaster ride has come to a screeching halt. I hope you enjoyed the ride. In case, you have sat on a different coaster, it would be great for you to share any speciality, which you have witnessed in your coaster. So, let's have it from you, my friend.

Reading Between The Lines!

A warm welcome to you, my friend. Well, as they say, bookish knowledge is useless when one treads in the big bad world. One needs to know, that wee bit extra to stake his claim, to make his prescence felt, to aver that the world would miss him, if he were not there. In short, they say, there is no relation between education life and what they call, the 'real ' life. But I say, there is, a thin inconceivable relation which others cannot ................ read. When you were in school or college, you must have encountered the phrase ' Reading between the lines '. For those of you who do not know its meaning, you can pretty much figure it out from the cartoon above ( Fantastic, isn't it?). If you still don't get it, it means ' To grasp the hidden meaning in a sentence '. According to me, the world is a Big Book. The various situations which happen in our day to day lives, are the lines which are in the book. And that's where reading between the lines is of paramount importance.

They say, ' All that glitters is not gold ' . Similarly, situations are not what they appear to be. If you manage to decipher the hidden code, well and good. You have saved yourself from being duped. Classic examples of where hidden meanings are involved are given below. The first and the best example which springs to mind is Politics. Come on, it's a fact. To quote, ' In Politics, things that appear may not be the truth, while those which do not appear, may be the 24 carat gold you are digging for ' . Nowadays, Poiltics is such that you never know when the ministers are telling the truth. Unless you are well versed with political knowledge and tactics, you might find yourself believing everything, only to contradict yourself later, when the truth somehow spills out. Hence debates are held on various news channels, to get both sides of the story, so that viewer i.e. we, can have knowledge of the entire text, enabling us to read between the lines.

For another example, I jump to sports. In sports, when you know you are good, and you don't get selected, and you get a very well versed explanation from the management, you need to read between the lines. Sometimes, when someone indirectly takes potshots at you, well disguised in the form of a nice compliment etc., you need to read between the lines ( Recent altercations between SRK and AB, and SRK and Aamir Khan, justify this). If you don't, there are others who can, and you will ultimately make a fool of yourself. In general, there is always a situation when a person thinks of himself, and takes advantage of you. He may very well, disguise his intentions, in sweet,convincing words. Reading between the lines is a must to escape pressing the reverse button on your career. A lecturer, when he doesn't know the true concept, may put forward his views, using jargons and complex words, so that students don't even think of questioning him. Of course, we can all read between the lines to arrive at 2 conclusions, one, The Lecturer is trying to show off or second, He doesn't know a thing ( To note, I respect all lecturers. This is just for portraying those very few out of a billion).

These were just a few examples. The world is filled to the very last page, with situations where reading between the lines becomes essential. However, not all situations are such. Chats with parents,relatives, friends are always done with no second thoughts. A proffesor, always tries to help his students, without discriminating on any basis. Even this article to convey my views, has been explicitly done. So, I would like your views on........... this reading. And hopefully, I would not have to take the trouble to read between the lines. So, lets have it from you, my friends.

The Half Glass Drink!!!!!!!!

A very warm welcome to you, my friend. Before you reach out for your mouse, and scroll down for the next article, let me inform you, that this article is not at all, about a glass being half full or half empty. Come on, we all know this. It has been a question, we have all encountered at least once. As we know, the aim of asking a person, the question, "Do you see the glass, half full or half empty? " is to test his/her positive attitude. Apropos my earlier article, you can find the detailed explanations in any one of the billion success books. So this article is not about that. What I am focussing on, is that when we enjoy something, does any other thought cross our mind?

As you and I know, nothing is eternal in this world. Suffering or enjoyment, no matter how prolonged they may be, are bound to come to a screeching halt at some point of time. So what is the attitude of the mind in a situation of enjoyment? To commence, I would like to take an example of a drink. Now let's say that you go to a restaurant, and order a drink of your choice. When it is brought, the first sight of the glass being full to the brim with your favourite drink, makes your mind leap with joy. At this point, there is an abundance of the drink. So any decrease is not going to bother you much. You start drinking, and it reaches to the halfway point, yes, the dreaded half. This is where all the problem starts, doesn't it? The enjoyment you felt at the start, has somehow reduced by half. Completing the remaining half, will finish the drink, and hence dry up your enjoyment. And this thought is irritating, isn't it? So we keep the drink, half full or untouched unless its time to pay the bill. Of course, you would finish the drink then.

The above example of a drink is a nice way of representing the larger scheme of things. When we have good times, we know they are short lived. So around the half way mark, we have the desire to prolong the good. Everyone of us, has the habit of saving. We want to save some good for tommorow, so that tommorow also becomes, as joyful as today. The thought of tommorow being, as good a day as today (which results via our savings) makes up for the remaining half glass of drink, which we had neglected. In other words, our actions then become governed by what gives us temporary satisfaction. This is also applicable in difficult situations. When we have to make a crucial decision, we tend to postpone it as far as possible. The postponing here gives satisfaction to the individual.

You may call me a person, who does not enjoy the moment. But as we all know, every person is filled with virtues and vices. The people of this world are divided into good and bad. In every case, the number half presents itself, and so it does in the glass of drink. In the first half, you think of only the present, while in the next, you plan for the future. Anything in excess is not good. If you think only about the present or the future, your drink will not be as enjoyable or worth the cost, if you had divided the drink into half.

As said earlier, nothing is indefinite. The drink, happiness, sorrow, or this article, they will all end. So I conclude, by raising a toast to you, my friend, for reading this article, and I expect a comment from your side, on how do you treat your drink. So, let's have it from you, my friends. Cheers!!!!

Doing The Right Thing At The Right Time!!!!!!!

Well my friends, we meet after quite a bit of delay or should i say, 'time'. Speaking of time, that is what the topic is all about, isn't it? Doing the right thing at the right time. Well, as you would have probably figured it out by now, there are two interpretations of the title. One is, of course, taking the correct decision at crucial junctures, so as to produce a positive outcome. This includes all the summing up of the small things, you do perfectly at the right moment, to get to the bigger picture. Well, we are not here to discuss the above mentioned interpretation. Frankly, there are a billion success books all over the world which would enlinghten you on this, and it would be not a good idea to get you bored here. So, my interpretation of the title, which I want to share with you all is, ' Why most of us have trouble of carrying out an activity, which we ought to do, at that moment ? '

Please do not be mistaken by the above quote. Its not quite the same thing. What I mean is, why is it that whenever we have some task on hand, the mind desires for the exact opposite. Few of us, have the ability to focus on the situation at present, rather than think about, how would it be if the situation did not present itself at all. I am currently a student, so I would start off with an example of exams. Ask any student during the middle of an examination period (which could stretch till weeks, like for us Engineering dudes, to which I ask myself, 'why' ), about what he/she wants the most. Pat comes the reply, ' Exams should get over, what else? '. Well, Only a geek would reply that he loves the exam. But the question is, why is the mind not entirely on the task at hand?. Simple. Its straying to the fun zone, the exam free zone. We tend to think of doing everything else, apart from studying for the exam. Unfortunately, and for some strange reason, all the good movies happen to occur during exams, all the fantastic matches happen to occur during exam, and every kid on the block happens to come out and play, only when your exams are going on. My friend, Nitin, who is also a blogger, told me, he had got millions of ideas for his blog during the exams, while now, his ideas seem to have all evaporated. Of course, he is still continuing well.

Well, exam is just a small fish in the kettle of life. There are many hurdles to be crossed. The question is, does the mind wander everytime as and when the task is given, or is it because of lack of interest.? Well, the answer is definately the latter. For the mind to focus, the interest is definately the stimulus. When we work for a living, we may or may not love our work, but the idea of our efforts being translated into big money is definately a big stimulus. One may argue that, even in exams, the thought of getting to top the class, is a big stimulus. But Alas, not everyone feels it and sadly not everyone is capable of feeling it, and as everyone knows, power of money is greater than the power of marks. All in all, the mind has tendency of looking for the easier route or for the road to enjoyment.

So whatever you have read above, did you have the mind to read it? Of course you did, because its a common problem and everyone likes their problems to be discussed. I would be keen to know what is your take on the matter. So, lets have it from you, my friends.

Slow and Steady, ___?___ the race !!!!!!

Well, well, well. Where, or for that matter of fact, when do you think you heard this phrase before? Bingo, you guessed it. Its the famous saying, "Slow and Steady, wins the race".We all have definately heard it from our grandmothers in childhood. Life used to be a breeze then. Nothing to do, just feed the stomach, sleep as long as you like, and just laze around. Hmmm, from the word 'laze', it does strike you about the hare, doesn't it? Poor fellow, had he not 'lazed' around, he would have clearly been the winner, and we all would have been deprived of a classic in childhood. They say, children are quick learners and remember better than their adults. Well, the saying "Slow and Steady..." has impinged with such force, that we dont quite seem to harbor any intentions of parting ways with it. Its a nice little support to hang on to( especially for the elite group of lazy chaps, me included), until you enter the big bad world, where this very saying suddenly experiences the force of gravity, and comes crashing down. Wait a minute, maybe I took my stance too early. Anyways, lets discuss it.

First things first, Where does this phrase come from? Well, it is from the story "The hare and the tortoise", which is one of the many Aesop's Fables. What one needs to remember, is the time frame of when this story was given birth OR when we heard it, and the present. The difference lies in the wide open vacuum of competion. In a way, we all are competing to win a race. The choice we need to make is, do we want to be the hare or the tortoise? Forget what happened in the story. Miracles don't happen always. The competition is now at its pinnacle, infact it has even dared to surpass the tip. In an organization, there are hundreds and thousands of employees. Each set or group of employees are given a particular task. This is similar to the finish line. The scenario now is such that, each employee tries to find short cuts and much efficient and faster ways, so that he can cover longer strides with the same sized feet. The finish line, for the person who emulates the hare, appears within striking distance.

But hang on, Fables contain valuable sayings, which are meant to be learnt. The crux of the matter is, the advice to be imbued is not "Be slow and steady and you will ultimately win", but its "Dont lift the pedal on the accelerator". No divertions untill the goal is achieved.So, if in the present scenario, if we behave like the tortoise, then I am must regret that our promotion will happen after our hairs turns grey (Or the hare becomes old, ha ha, that was a good one). We might even be demoted or worse, thrown out. Nowadays, no one wants a tortoise or better yet, a slow coach. Company heads rely on dynamic and quick thinkers, who want to only increaase their speed. Even sky should not be the limit, forget a simple finish line.

Its true, slow and steady, does work in some situations, but these situations are like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Speed is in, slow is out. Of course, no compromise on quality otherwise the entire exercise of speed will prove to be futile. The second lesson, which is quite evident to all of us, is that overconfidence never pays. Infact it depletes your pay. By the time you woud be counting your unhatched eggs, your competitor may have passed by, as happened in the story. Some might argue, that the main reason for the hare to lose the race was its overconfidence. But then, the hare knew who its competitor was. Nowadays, no one can be underestimated. Everyone is equally capable.So overconfidence doesn't quite come into the picture. Its just an added caution.

So I think thats about it from here. I would like to know, what you all still follow and what you want to follow in the future. So, lets have it from you, my friends.

An Engineering student's 24 hours

Engineers rule the world. Well, not exactly. But they do, at least, in their day to day activities. This comes from an Engineer who has written this article i.e me. An Engineer, has to involve himself with complex real life problems, of which only he has the solution. An Engineer, has to suggest various ways of improving the effciency of the products, has to develop new and better mechanisms to get things moving in the forward direction. Well, lets take a peep into a day of a life of an Engineering student. Well, the Engineer here is replaced by "he" or "they".No offence to females, they are great engineers too.

Well, the day starts for everyone at morning, and so too for this Engineer. College starts at 9. But he thinks, why go so early. So he gets ready at his normal pace and by the time, he reaches college, its 9:30. Proffesor first instructs him, "Sorry, not allowed". Other students in the class also try to take his case and shout in unison, "No, No, Dont allow him Sir". With a sorry face, pat comes an all weather reply, "Sir, Train came late" or "Tyre Punctured Sir" or "too much traffic, Sir" or the really honest would say, "Got up late, Sir". He is allowed to sit amongst a shout of boos. He is being told, "Attendance will not be given to you" but later on, he gets his attendance. All well and done.

Lecture gets over. Snack break commences. He removes his tiffin box only to find that everyone surrounds him.At the end, he does manage to get 40 percent of food. After all, Thou shoud not eat his own lunch. Remaining part of the break goes in chit chatting, talking to the girls and getting to know what lectures are going to happen in the day. Armed with this knowledge, he and his colleagues try to cancel the lecture for whatsoever reasons. If they succeed, then move on to cancel the next lecture. If not, then they succumb to the fact that they can still shorten the duration of the lecture(Only they know how to). As Sir enters, there is a scramble for places in the last few benches, the corner seats and middle benches where one gets an adequate amount of cover. Once lecture starts, he finds out what practical he has and what journal he has to write. Quickly he gets a copy of the written journal and starts copying down word to word. Never mind what the proffesor will tell, even they know everyone copies.

Lecture terminates due to shouts of "Please Sir, next lecture. Enough for the day". Attendance takes place smoothly untill a proxy happen, and commotion reigns. All know, who has done it but would rather keep quiet. Thats a strong bond between fellow engineers. A few advices later, Sir leaves. Well, Practical starts, and he submits his journal and goes to his place. Ultimately he will get a seven on ten, no matter what he has written. If the subject has a practical exam, then he will be interested else he will lazily watch the other members of the the group perform. He would be the last to enter and the first to leave, to avoid restoring back all the equipments to their right places. After all, time is precious.

In case if any free lectures or periods happen to occur, then there is a toss between cricket and football. Even if there is a lecture, what is the harm in bunking. If there are any tests on that day, he would take special care to seat himself next to the most knowledgeable i.e the topper. After all, even a topper serves his purpose some day or the other.But in more ways than one, Engineers have tremendous efficiency. They seem to be able to prepare for the exam at any point of time. Even if the exam is a good one week away, work will start just a day before the d-day. And they still get away with it. Amazing, isnt it?

The day ends, with a nice snack in the canteen and a walk back with the entire gang to the station from where everyone bades farewell, only to know that they will encounter the very same the next day. After all, it is enjoyable. At home, the engineer has three options, eat, enjoy, sleep. Varying the proportions, the day finally culminates into night, where he downs his shutters and dreams (Please dont aslk what he dreams).

So thats about it, from here. Dont be mistaken, not all Engineers are like this. But most of them are, and i think every fellow engineer would have taken pride in reading this.Anything i missed, you can append it in comments. So, lets have the experiences from your side, my friends.

Which category of ' The fan ', do you belong to?

Only a few people in the world, have the much desired tag of Superstars attached to them. They are Superstars because simply, they are super. They are what people desire to be one day, their route is what people desire to follow, but most importantly, they are the world's richest banks with respect to their popularity and they generate a strong affinity towards them from the people. By the way, who are the 'people' here? Well, every constituent of the 'people' is what we associate as ' The Fan'. The fans always form a major ingredient in a person's ascendancy to mega stardom. I am sure, every one of you out there, must be a fan of someone. It may be a Superstar, a rising star, your colleague, your parents, or even one of your friends who you pretty much adore and look upto. So in a way, India is a population of a billion fans.Pretty big number. So considering the importance of fans, its interesting to see, which categories of fans exist.

First category solely belongs to the Fans, for whom the word, 'fan' is actually reserved for. These are the 'Die Hard' fans. We have two categories here. First sub category have their motto as " I love you so,so much. I dont care what you do, but I will love you till the end. I can do anything for you". Fans belonging to this category are just blinded in their love for their stars. They consider that they have been born to see their stars and will never hear a word against them.Many Superstars are there in this 'die for' list, like SRK, Rajni devaa, Big B etc.Well, if i think a bit, a friend in my class belongs to this category.

The second sub category, are equally 'die hard', but they do tend to go to the other extreme. Its because they love them so much they cant see them commit any mistake which would dishearten them. Best example in this country is that of the Indian cricket team. There is no point in denying that we all love them so much, but we can also see that when they lose(which can happen in sports), we do tends towards hatred as was witnessed after WC 2007, or as in violent clashes in football matches

Second category is more of a diluted form of the first category. Their motto is "I love you a lot. But sorry boss, you arent good enough for me to give my life". More of a practical category, isnt it? They are more of entertainment seekers. They are pretty much attracted to their stars then other stars. So you can rightly term as the average fan.

Third category, does not exactly belong to the fans. They are ,well, spectators. Not in either extremes. They do prefer watching their stars but are also ready to criticize them if nesscary. Some of them love to criticize more. In the words of Jim Morrison, " Film Spectators are silent vampires". But none the less, they are fans as they look upto their heroes.

Well, i guess thats about it. Maybe, i might have missed out on some categories. As you are also a fan, you can enlighten me on other categories if they exist. And also tell me which category you belong to. So lets have it from you my friends.

Sledge out the Sledging

Good Communication skills are a pre-requisite to succeed in today's competitive world. That's because words used, impinge on the listener and usually makes the speaker's case stronger. Well, communication has managed to make its presence felt, in the cricketing arena. Its not the good ol' Banter or the off field press conference we are talking about. Its the words which fly, on field, amidst an exciting game of cricket.Yup, its sledging we are taking about.

A couple of weeks back, I was lucky enough to have a glimpse, in the Times of India, about the famous sledges, which have taken place in this sport. And believe me, they were so humorous I almost fell of my chair. The listener on the field, of course, wouldn't have seen the funny side of it. That brings us to the question, is sledging acceptable?

The source of sledging lies in the frustration which develops in the mind of a bowler(generally the starter) or a fielder. The concentration of the batsmen is diverted and the end result could be the batsmen getting out.Of course,the batsmen also has a crack back at the bowler. If you believed in the saying "The end justifies the means", then my friend, it may not be applicable here. A Sport needs to be played in the right spirit to sustain the interest of the masses. Whatever i read in the newspaper, was funny as I was the third person, and i didn't visualize it in front of my eyes. In visual, it does appear as if something wrong is happening on the field, even if it is just plain chatter.In short, it goes down in a bad taste, no matter which team you are supporting.

Sometimes, it does get pretty ugly as was witnessed in the recently concluded Sydney test, which ended with serious charges of Racism against Bhajji(Harbhajan Singh). Australia, known as the world capital of Sledging, are usually the ones involved in the sledges. It goes on that they cannot take it themselves when given back.Of course this does not undermine the great talent and champion spirit they possess.

But the point is, the game does go into a different mode, when sledging takes place. Players get charged up, the environment becomes more hostile, the crowd gets into the act with their boos and yays, the media gets into overdrive condemning the verbal assault, and ultimately a good competitive sport may go on the downhill. It does manage to entertain the viewers, but is it good for the sport in the long run? Lets have it from you, my friends.