Yes, I am talking about those two persons who have started sharing a quasi-fitting arena happily hugging and comforting each other for about three-quarters of a year in which period they did nothing but to sleep. Finally, they had a little fight on who should be the "Big Brother" and they finally came in to an understanding that, If one wins now, then the one who have won should listen and sacrifice everything else rest of their journey and you would see how always "Rajesh" , the big brother is understanding relatively towards his younger mirror image with slight distortions. People who knows these two, would have already guessed them, Rajesh and Ramesh Vepakommas.
How did they get entwined in to the existence of a bunch of 6-7 people is what I would write today about. I first met them on the very day I met the exciting, beautiful, green IITM campus. As any newbie feels, we were all tensed and excited at the same time. I was with my father and my roommate was with his father and his isomer. I said an awkward "Hi" to start a small talk , I got a "questionable" glare and a bleak "hi??" which sounded more like a question rather than a greeting. Okay, I thought this "introduction" would have its "end" card pretty soon. But I was wrong (un) fortunately.. :) . I was a virtual wing mate in my 1st year at iit to this duo and a real wing mate in the subsequent years and those were the days that have pulled me closer to these guys and subsequently know the subtle personay traits in them.
Today, On the eve of their 26th Birthday , I toast, for being an encompassing support in distress and otherwise , for a critic they were and they will be thats essential in filling the latent drawbacks which were otherwise invisible, for being the agent of heartful of laughs that made the days at IITM feel lighter and pass on in brisk manner, to the stomach aching sarcasm, to the knowledge bank they were of intra institute and outer institute matters, to the boldness they displayed in questioning which others would have let pass without a second thought, the scientific temper they carried in judging any issue at their disposal and finally to the "Child" in them who is as plain as a clear blue sky.
Have a great birthday and glorious years to come Rajesh Vepakomma and Ramesh Vepakomma.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
In to our 65th year of Independence...
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
-Rabindranath Tagore, In Gitanjali.
This stanza from this great man, portrays a concrete understanding and hope of those who spearheaded the fight for OUR Independence. To this day, even to a
person with little love towards his country gets goosebumps when he reads this stanza and to those people who go deep in and analyse what those lines
exactly meant, It would mean a plethora of Ideas and responsibilities that he is assigned with. Some of us could not recognise these responsibilities while
some of us though have these responsibilities in our cognition, put them in a back burner.
Mind Without Fear : Mind Comprises of Body and Brain. Body needs both internal and external equilibrium to stay fearless. Internally, It would be a fair
statement to say we are less stable than our ancestors and our children would be less stable than us if we do not interfere. Lack of physical workout,
inconsistent eating hours, the domination of fast foods in our diet would all support this argument. Now, it is up to us to set an example to our future
generations, Make it a habit to work out at least thrice in a week, regulate your food intake and try to avoid skipped meals. Externally, one is stable
when there are no threats to the peaceful living in our society. This can be done by avoiding conflicts between two individuals, two groups, two regions,
two states, two countries. In each of the above conflict avoidance, we as the constituents of these conflicts we have a part and that too an active part.
Always keep in a serene mood, learn to forgive, learn to apologise, spread the awareness, follow the norms and be a leader. Other essential component is
that of Brain (i.e) knowledge, it is not possible for everyone to have knowledge on all the things that surrounds us , but keep your self ahead in your own
field also keeping a continous touch with the matters concerning you as a whole, economic interactions in the world, technical, political changes around
need to be hashed upon now and then to keep the brain fearless.
Knowledge is free : It is not.. even after 64 years after these words been spoken. With education totally jumped in to corporate affairs in the modern era,
one finds it difficult to experience this line from tagore. But, You have bought the knowledge does not mean you have to sell it, at least not to the poor
and the destitute who cannot afford to buy. Take time out, Go about freelance writing on your technical, philosophical, daily life knowledge. Go to nearby
schools and try to volunteer to teach them. If we see this statement in a country's perspective, we still buy knowledge from the other countries and it
is not cheap, it accounts to a major chunk in our economy. What we can do about it? Excel in your field, develop the knowledge bank for India and make
India less dependent.
World not been broken : Do I have to say more on this , when as many as 15 regions want to get fragmented? Some of them were successful and some are not,
If these are externally visible fragments, there are internal fragments based on rich/poor, urban/rural , religion, caste and what not? Change should start
from within, and if we, the face of the nation are void of all these differences in the first place, we could always see the change in the surroundings
which may later spread to the entire country.
Words come from depth of truth : Truth has lost its meaning these days, there is not a single person who have not spoken nothing but truth even when
they swears to do so. The buzzword being "Corruption" these days, entire corruption boils down to series of lies that made the liars rich and
every one else poor. No one of us can firmly say that I have not told a lie till today, leave alone to strangers, to even to ones you love the most.
I would also agree to the fact that ,it is highly taxing to survive on truths alone. But lets give it a try, dont you think we should?
Striving towards perfection:: Yes, this brings us to the concept of self-efficacy , this term essentially means that "Be a boss of your work". The best
example is MOTHER. Most of us would see mother's work to be trivial and take it for granted. But as a person herself, after put in to the role of
a mother, she determines herself, Let the heaven fall but I would not make my children sad and She is the best at it. In the role of a mother, every lady
achieves her maximum with the maximum effort that she can give. SHE should be our inspiration.
The next statement essentially says that every person needs to develop Scientific Temperment. Learn to ask why, Do not be afraid to question the obvious
if you feel they are unreasonable. There are many habits(superstitions) in our society that drastically need to be unlearnt. Be a pioneer in questioning
these practices. Learn to reason it out than simply sticking to the flow.
I would not say that even I would follow all of what have been stated above, but nevertheless I would try my best to follow at least few of the above.
Think about them. Tagore have had this dream, not to his benefit but he had a larger meaning of independence in his mind when he wrote this. Give it a
thought, You would realise.. "To simply exist, is not living" again by this great man made me think about all this.
I WISH YOU A THOUGHTFUL AND HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY !!!
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
-Rabindranath Tagore, In Gitanjali.
This stanza from this great man, portrays a concrete understanding and hope of those who spearheaded the fight for OUR Independence. To this day, even to a
person with little love towards his country gets goosebumps when he reads this stanza and to those people who go deep in and analyse what those lines
exactly meant, It would mean a plethora of Ideas and responsibilities that he is assigned with. Some of us could not recognise these responsibilities while
some of us though have these responsibilities in our cognition, put them in a back burner.
Mind Without Fear : Mind Comprises of Body and Brain. Body needs both internal and external equilibrium to stay fearless. Internally, It would be a fair
statement to say we are less stable than our ancestors and our children would be less stable than us if we do not interfere. Lack of physical workout,
inconsistent eating hours, the domination of fast foods in our diet would all support this argument. Now, it is up to us to set an example to our future
generations, Make it a habit to work out at least thrice in a week, regulate your food intake and try to avoid skipped meals. Externally, one is stable
when there are no threats to the peaceful living in our society. This can be done by avoiding conflicts between two individuals, two groups, two regions,
two states, two countries. In each of the above conflict avoidance, we as the constituents of these conflicts we have a part and that too an active part.
Always keep in a serene mood, learn to forgive, learn to apologise, spread the awareness, follow the norms and be a leader. Other essential component is
that of Brain (i.e) knowledge, it is not possible for everyone to have knowledge on all the things that surrounds us , but keep your self ahead in your own
field also keeping a continous touch with the matters concerning you as a whole, economic interactions in the world, technical, political changes around
need to be hashed upon now and then to keep the brain fearless.
Knowledge is free : It is not.. even after 64 years after these words been spoken. With education totally jumped in to corporate affairs in the modern era,
one finds it difficult to experience this line from tagore. But, You have bought the knowledge does not mean you have to sell it, at least not to the poor
and the destitute who cannot afford to buy. Take time out, Go about freelance writing on your technical, philosophical, daily life knowledge. Go to nearby
schools and try to volunteer to teach them. If we see this statement in a country's perspective, we still buy knowledge from the other countries and it
is not cheap, it accounts to a major chunk in our economy. What we can do about it? Excel in your field, develop the knowledge bank for India and make
India less dependent.
World not been broken : Do I have to say more on this , when as many as 15 regions want to get fragmented? Some of them were successful and some are not,
If these are externally visible fragments, there are internal fragments based on rich/poor, urban/rural , religion, caste and what not? Change should start
from within, and if we, the face of the nation are void of all these differences in the first place, we could always see the change in the surroundings
which may later spread to the entire country.
Words come from depth of truth : Truth has lost its meaning these days, there is not a single person who have not spoken nothing but truth even when
they swears to do so. The buzzword being "Corruption" these days, entire corruption boils down to series of lies that made the liars rich and
every one else poor. No one of us can firmly say that I have not told a lie till today, leave alone to strangers, to even to ones you love the most.
I would also agree to the fact that ,it is highly taxing to survive on truths alone. But lets give it a try, dont you think we should?
Striving towards perfection:: Yes, this brings us to the concept of self-efficacy , this term essentially means that "Be a boss of your work". The best
example is MOTHER. Most of us would see mother's work to be trivial and take it for granted. But as a person herself, after put in to the role of
a mother, she determines herself, Let the heaven fall but I would not make my children sad and She is the best at it. In the role of a mother, every lady
achieves her maximum with the maximum effort that she can give. SHE should be our inspiration.
The next statement essentially says that every person needs to develop Scientific Temperment. Learn to ask why, Do not be afraid to question the obvious
if you feel they are unreasonable. There are many habits(superstitions) in our society that drastically need to be unlearnt. Be a pioneer in questioning
these practices. Learn to reason it out than simply sticking to the flow.
I would not say that even I would follow all of what have been stated above, but nevertheless I would try my best to follow at least few of the above.
Think about them. Tagore have had this dream, not to his benefit but he had a larger meaning of independence in his mind when he wrote this. Give it a
thought, You would realise.. "To simply exist, is not living" again by this great man made me think about all this.
I WISH YOU A THOUGHTFUL AND HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY !!!
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