Nothing, and I repeat nothing in life is more tough than making a decision! And by that I do not mean choosing one dish over the other from a menu card or deciding whether the pink dress looks better than the green (though I have severe problems in that area as well!!). No matter how much you plan,chalk out your life and course of action, life always finds a way of getting back at you by putting you at crossroads. The worst part? When both the options in front of you have advantages you can't ignore. Here I am, seemingly happy and comfortable at home, pursuing a course that is not so demanding . On the other hand, there is this opportunity that is going to be extremely hectic,challenging,at times frustrating but has better prospects (so it seems!). The biggest challenge in this case is that I have to step out of the comfort of my home, stay in an unknown place with unknown people and try to find a direction. Every motivational writer, be it Robin Sharma or Paulo Coelho tells you to "follow your dream"!!!! Now is there anything more vague than that? What if I don't know as yet what my dream is? What is it is not one sure and certain goal? Coupled with this is the parental angle which ranges from, "why don't you do a Ph.D?" (like it depends on my will!!) to "How about MBA?" (or CA,IAS,UPSC etc etc). All I know is that I love to write, read anything and everything and to a certain extent, teach. None of these are clear,concrete career paths and hence involve a lot of struggle! Staying at home,I am too comfortable..I don't take any risks. I don't really have to prove my worth here, everything is tailored according to my needs. This opportunity may not turn out to be great, it may well be a disappointment, but I will at least have tried. In all probability this decision will not be a fantastic solution to all my doubts and uncertainties; but I hope it will make me fight, learn by trial and error and give me some peace. This is my decision today, maybe I will regret it want to change it tomorrow - but  if not now,then when?

The big business of serving children’s needs - Business Line

The big business of serving children’s needs - Business Line

Just catching up...

Its always difficult to begin where you had left...and by that I don’t just mean Madhuri Dixit with her innumerable attempts at a comeback!!  So, I'll not even try to sound like Trisha two years back! Infact, looking back now, I find my posts to be so childish...but then isn't that everybody's story?
A lot has changed in these two or three years..for starters Orkut (which gave us our first brush with e-friendship) has become extinct! Our life today depends on facebook - be it cryptic status msgs(ensuring atleast 10-15 frnds inquire what the matter is) or displaying cute, beautiful, even bizarre photos(often clicked solely for posting on fb) or making support groups - fb is everywhere(Pratik's trying to promote the blog on fb as i write this!!).
Also, if you stay in West Bengal or have any interest in the region, you will know that it is in the process of becoming London atleast in terms of crumbling flyovers (“London Bridge is falling down, falling down, my fair LADY!!)  Life in general has become a lot more complicated. I have been pursuing my post-grads in English while Pratik has been learning the tricks to be a manager (MBA,ofcourse!). What remains the same however is our funny, quirky take on people, situations and life in general.
 This time however we plan to entertain not only with masala stories from personal experiences, but commentaries on everything from fab food and movies to serious social issues...i.e,Sex 2 Sensex in every sense (wait,does't that sound like a tongue twister??) Stay tuned to get refreshed and stimulated. Keep Reading!!

NEP(National Economic planning) Presentation Script.

The wait is over.... the blog is back J

For starters I will be posting my script for National Economic Planning(NEP) which fetched me 81 marks, it was conducted by Prof. Sray Agarwal.

The topic is “Politicians should be asked to work for free”(Against the motion).

“Only a ghost can exists without materialistic property, Only a slave can work with no right to the product of his effort”.

They say Politicians should not be paid, okay than lets not pay them. There are about 543 member of parliament, each getting Rs. 50,000 as their basic salary, thus it amounts to Rs. 32 crores annually. Whereas revenues from direct taxes alone stood at Rs. 3,71,000 crores for the financial year 2009-10, its 0.008% for handling the lives of 1.2 billion people and still they don’t pay them.

The Governor of California gets $165,000 ,a humongous amount, but wait he presides over a budget of 150 billion dollars that’s 7.5 lac crore rupees, and still some say handle such an economy for free.

The main argument that the opposition has given us is that Politics is a social obligation, those who join politics should treat it as a social service, hence work for free. Mamata Banerjee, immediately after winning the west Bengal elections, one of her first statement was the state is in a financial crisis, but she has too look for the means to pay her ministers. Amit Mitra, was a former FICCI general secretary, he used to earn 49 lacs per annum, he treated the finance ministry as a profession. You expect people like him to join politics, if you pay them nothing.

They say, politicians are corrupt, if they are corrupt, govt. Officials are also corrupt, police officials, corporate bodies, all are corrupt, We don’t discuss their salaries, Why such hypocrisy ?

It might mean two things, first being politicians are corrupt and useless, the other being politicians do manage on their own. If politicians are useless, I don’t think we should discuss “they should be paid or not”, we should discuss the political system, I say there should be no political system at all, let there be no democracy, only demonocracy, let their be no waving off loans to the farmers, let the children die of hunger (no mid-day meal schemes),no infrastructure, no banks, no highways, no hospitals...... If you mean that the politicians can manage on their own, we are actually pushing them into more and more corruption, Instead we should say that politicians should be paid more and more salaries that they don’t ever revert back to corruption ever again.

I ask a very simple question, “ Will you work for a social organization for free, for five years?”... If the answer is no, “Will you work, if you are paid ?”

The social organization is nothing but politics my dear friend, thus if mba graduates like us, refuse to join politics for “free”, how can we think of the betterment of the country..

At last, I would like to quote, Ayn Rand from the book “Atlas Shrugged”,

“You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment, We exist for the sake of earning rewards, Threats will not make us function, Fear is not our incentive, It is not death we wish to avoid, But life we wish to live.”

Thank You.

DOSTANA --- FRIENDSHIP/GAYISM ????

It was an usual day..nothing happening,life boring,nothing that can be called "Fun". So decided to visit Sayan. He lives about 15 k.m from my house, so drove in.Reaching his place, Scanned his computer, he said, there is nothing new, the same old stuff. I just went to the tools menu unchecked the hide button, and wholaaa Nothing new indeed..the same old "universal truth" lol.

We decided to have the lunch outside,which is nothing new for us.So drove to Dunlop which is another 10 k.ms i guess. On reaching the place, I saw the highway that leads to the airport huh.. Skipped the lunch at Dunlop took the highway. And that's "fun" driving at 100 odd k.m/hour and and that too in the wrong way lol. We realized, there isn't any roads that could lead us on the right track. So after driving a few k.ms, we saw this platform that stood on the middle of the road. So Sayan and me literally showed the true man power,lifted the bike, put the bike on the right track, quite a task.. 100 we goo./...!!!!

Reached the airport, scanned some really good eye candy and left towards our destination - FOOd.. Sher eh punjab... Had the heavenly tANDOORI CHICKEN. Sayan asked what about vodka, I left my temptation behind, "No sir..have to drive on the highway.."
After having the awesomest food,just outside the restro we saw a gay couple,gosh man,and that too they started hitting on us. We thought we don't look like gays man,but Sayan as usual was into some mischief,he started "Dostana"with the change of hand movement, and the way he was talking to me in front of them,i understood what he was hinting at.And I became John with poor acting, but enough to fool the couple. Sayan sat back,i rode the bike(as usual)and he became cosy and that was really terrible,then but fun when I think about it now. So when they were out of sight,gave this huge red face to him.And we were back to normal sexual life which we share,that is only dostana(that actually means friendship,don't gribble your dirty mind,lol).


P.s - Having a bad day..??? Visit your best friend..You won't regret it.. :)

Why Parents Go Mad ?

A Mother passing by her son’s bedroom was astonished to see that
his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up.

Then she saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow
that was addressed to ‘Mom’ With the worst premonition she opened the envelope
with hands and read the letter.


Dear Mom:

It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Dad and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it’s not only the passion… Mom she’s pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter.
We share a dream of having many more children.


Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn’t really hurt anyone. We’ll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it. Don’t worry Mom. I’m 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I’m sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.


Love,


Your Son Paul

P.S. Mom, none of the above is true. I’m over at Dustin’s house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that’s in my center desk drawer.
I love you. Call me when it’s safe to come home.



P.S - LOL Lol This isnt written by me,but as soon as I read it,I just couldn't stop myself posting this in my blog.

Changing Attitudes of our Universities

As a student I would like to talk about politics in universities which I have been following after clearing my plus 12 exams. I could have talked about national politics but for that I will require a lot more information and being a lazy person as my friends know, I am bit scary of taking the long route.

"Universities, are no longer ivory towers. They were meant to remain above politics, but are very at the very centre of it." - Deepak Nayyar former vice chancellor of Delhi University.

It is true that our universities are now at the heart of a grim and fractious political scrabble, which has pushed our most prominent deans and academians into exchanging terse, political one-on-ones with our politicians. I have witnessed it very closely during my 6 month student life in Goenka college (one of the Kolkata's prominent college). The path to this state of affairs has been a long way down. Early on, India's educational institutions were at the centre of our most positive iconography - our universities were a source of great pride, which gave Indians, as Nehru said a franker look and straighter back. Forty years on, India centered the 90's in the midst of massive protests against caste based system which was eventually implement recently. The way the protests over the role and control of our universities have protrayed on comments "Its not democracy, Its democrazy".

I personally thought that passing out from ISC approved instituition I would be better off when I land in universities, but on the contrary I was caught up in the beauracratic sink hole of our universities. It is very clear to all that our education system has become inert and incapable of adapting to a rapidly evolving economy, and its best universities are in danger. Their weaknesses have become particularly critical with the rise of the knowledge economy, and as India's legions of youngsters enter instituitions that seem less and less capable of giving them what they need. As a result students are going overseas for higher education. This trend was started with silicon valley revolution when Indian masterminds went to States to get good jobs. Contrary to that situation at present we have far more educated brains (in percentage) going, and/or willing to leave the shores, not only for better lifestyle but for standard education. We students complain about the competion in domestic market which have grown immensely as compared to 50 years ago, but the attitudes of our government have not changed a bit. They still use age - old methods, the syllabus of West Bengal board is still the same, my uncle and most probably my grandfather had studied the same subjects and same syllabus as people of my generation is studying. The embarassing thing is that students are still using age old books in which the measuring unit is pounds, which was abolished since India became a republic state.

In Kolkata, BESU, Presidency college and Jadavpur Uni are always under police scanner. Either there is student clashes or there is a student's strike against the system. These protests hardly bring any changes and the student clashes generally bring student in the headlines but not the agenda.

Guys you all know that the general election is extremely close and the demographic structure suggests that 50% of the voters are in the age group of 18 – 35. We must ensure that we vote for the best leader, not based on the ideologies of a particular political party. Having said that I don’t think there are any who we can vote for, hence we should abolish this voting system. If we do not vote no one will be elected. Or one of us can take the charge to lead. I really hope Pratik the owner of this blog to stand up and lead the countrymen. He has got leadership qualities and with good support he can change this bloody system. We citizens want changes to this current structure, the government runs under gandhi’s and nehru’s philosophies and ideas, which I personally think is obsolete in this global and digital age.

The choice is yours guys!! Make it or break it.

Warm regards

Aniruddh

P.S. Elections and our universities