Love u, Brother

Today is April 9,2006 (second sunday of April) and this is the day when hundreds of young boys and girls will flock to the examination centres all over India, with only one aim, one goal - admission to an IIT. I have experienced the anxiety, the fear and the restlessness and I cannot describe it here as it cannot be sketched in words but only felt. Some people call it exam-phobia, some people take it as the ability to remain cool in taxing situations, whatever it be, it is an awesome experience. I had my share of it four years ago and by the grace of almighty, did not need to feel it again. (Those who are thinking of CAT, believe me CAT is nowhere near JEE, also at the time of CAT you are much more mature and able to cope up with pressures).

But, why did not I write it over all the past four years and what has made me come out of the slumber tonight? It is my younger brother appearing for the examination which changed my life and I wish it to change his life as well. Here I am sitting hundreds of Kms. away from him. And, this is my attempt to wish him luck, I am sure he will do well. A diligent and intelligent boy he is, he will not leave any stones unturned, but fate is unmanageable and to achieve exemplary success, the D-day must be your day.

Hey brother,I wish you all the best to break all barriers and reach the pinnacle of success, and may you start this journey with JEE. So, I request all my readers to wish him luck, the young lad needs your wishes.

Farewell

These are my last few days on the campus, I did not realise that until I got to see the notice "Final year Farewell". I was so much immersed in the comfortable KGP life that I did not notice that the time has come to bid adieu to all the friends I made during last 4 years. I could not help myself noticing the calligraphed italicised word "Farewell". I asked myself what does that mean? So, I decided to do some research and find out the genesis of the word, Farewell. But, even Google proved to be of little help and I sat myself on the path of making stupid guesses.

When someone was bidding farewell, was he saying "Hey, you fared well here for the last 4 years .. but you lazy bums, enough of it now, leave this place and get your ass moving ... face the real life, the dog-eat-dog world and try learning some useful lessons. Or was it a simple wish to all to fare well in future. I do not know, but what I know is that in a matter of few days I will be coerced to relinquish the cosy environment of KGP and will be thrown in all wilderness to face this cruel world all alone. I will miss my 24-hr internet connection and a LAN with terabytes of movies and tv series waiting to entertain you. I will miss my friends whom I could turn to for any advice and help, at any time of the day (no, I think any time of night would be more appropriate). Where will I get the endless bhaat sessions, the hot discussions on the mess table, short sweet jokes.

But, as they said there is a silver lining with every dark cloud and there is no exception here as well. I would surely not miss the mess food, believe me I cooked for myself a few times while I was in france and I cook better than that....I simply can't feel lucky enough that I am gonna get rid of it. Then, I will not miss all the cholbe na, hobe na and Korbe na, that seems to be a part of KGP life as well. I can never fathom why the tech. market opens only for a few hrs, are not these people interested to work hard to earn more money?


But, despite everything, this place has given a new meaning to my life. I learnt here that both success and failure are a part of life, one needs to accept both in the same stride. Finally, I feel I came here as a boy, and I will pass out as a man.

RDB in the air

RDB, yes none needs to say the full name because in this world of short cuts, RDB has carved a place for itself. Everyone is a fan of the movie (and takes pride in being a fan), some really good acting, nice music but that is all. I think, the movie has been over-hyped. Amir Khan seems to know that in this country, people are crazy only about two things, the country pride and the cricket ... and he has tried to encash their heart-felt sentiments to earn lots of wads of green notes. Did you not see how he implanted the story of cricket with the usual tale of struggle against Britisih empire in "Lagaan"? He was so much successful that even the PM of the nation took out 3 hrs from his busy schedule to watch the movie, those hrs. could have been used to clear so many pending projects needing his approval. But, all that is past.

The issue is why do we raise our cries of patriotism only after some cricket match or after coming out of theatres watching some bollywood drama like RDB? why do not we raise our voice against the still continuing use of MIGs. (we recently had an accident after the release of RDB). How many people remember the contribution of Satyendra Dubey, the IITian who sacrificed his life on the altars of martyrdom while fighting against the prevailing corruption in the system? When there is a wardrobe malfunction (nice term quoted by media indeed), the whole Maharashtra assembly seems to erupt in chaos over the question of moral degradation and the laggard policemen jump into action to complete the enquiry in record time. But, after years, nobody has bothered to ensure that the poor engineer who lost his life, gets the justice. Why are the corrupt thekedaars of Golden Quadrilateral still roaming unpunished?

Next time, you shout after watching a cricket match or RDB, remember it is no patriotism but plain entertainment.

The difference between generations

Man has been a student of the nature, a curious avid learner. He has sacrimoniously passed his expertise on to the future generations thereby leading to the evolution of culture. And, this improvement over generations has been observed in everything from the computer languages (machine language was 1 GL) to mobile technology (did u miss the 3G techie ?). But, did you ever notice its effect in shaping our careers?

A person who has his parents professionally educated is a 2G educated man and is always at a constant advantage over the naive 1G lad. If your parents are professionally well educated, you are more likely to be in a financially comfort zone (I am not talking of lavish amenities, but comforts of life) where as many small town and rural 1G students have been found to be struggling to get hassle-free necessities of life. Though, I am sure we will also find numerous 1G people who have parents with enough money to shower on their whims. But can these parents provide the social and educational grooming to their children which the 2G people had in plenty? The answer is more likely to be NO. But, if the 1G child was lucky to have very sensible parents who attempted their best to create this environment by seeking professional help (in the form of tuitions and all), they can never inspire their children enough for achieving academic success by presenting themselves as an example. Moreover, at a later stage, when it comes to making career choices and taking decisions, the 1G parents are more likely to be ignorant and in some worse cases, obdurate. So, the poor 1G chap does not compete with his 2G friend on a level platform.

But, the 2G guy is also not without his troubles. His parents always keep on comparing him with themselves. They are not ready to accept his minor mistakes in lower classes. They are very much eager to know about the progress of other friends in his class and many a times, end up making unneeded comparisons. This may lead to a feeling of inferiority in the child right from childhood. Also, if the parents are successful, they are very likely to encourage him to follow their trodden path. And, this encouragement sometimes in its extremity ends up as an attempt of coercing the child, hence restricting his career options.

So, good or bad, but there is a definite difference between generations here.