Gloomy desperation !!

On this unbelievably quite night, With a key board hit silence around me, I slowly escape in to my sleep with the shades of desperation and hope-lessness powering down upon me. After a long struggle with the spirit of frustration, I finally gave up and with the dark light covering me trying to en gulp me in to it while I lay unguarded , partly because i know i cannot win over it and partly because i do not want to.....  But I warn you my evil self, I would wake up more stronger, more energetic, more motivated and more goal seeking and slay you upright . Behold my evil self .. the end is near and you cannot escape me.

Re-Discover your dreams !!

While going through news section, One of the headings have caught my attention and have made me retrospect of all what I wanted to become. The heading read " 57 % of Indian children DO NOT achieve their childhood dreams ". That kept me thinking , Does the figure represent only those children who have tried and not achieved their dreams or is it that anyone who have just dreamt and forgot all about that? If it is the latter, it is an expected figure. Do you think you figure out in those 57 % people ? I hope not but unfortunately many do. What could be the reason for this ? Less opportunities?? Lack of sufficient encouragement by the parents?? Poor Indian economy ?? The mindset we develop as we mature ?? These questions kept lingering in my mind. But I remember some thing my 6th class teacher once said me , "If you want to solve a difficult problem , be ready to separate them in to many little ones (and hope that they are easier)". Applying his principle , I thought to look inside before catching on to the big picture.

I could remember the days when my mother making my brother and myself sit and study without fail everyday and complete the day's home work and learn(by-heart) the day's class work. It was followed by a half an hour session of Gemini news (24 hour news channels were absent then, so the news were really interesting). What attracted me in that whole news session was their break to show their money making advertisements, but those were not my interest but the question on general knowledge they ask everyday. I could not answer even a single question. My cousin had visited us for few days that time and to my surprise he could answer each and every question accurately and I was compelled to ask "How would you know all this ??" , he simply answered "I am a civil services aspirant and these are must-know for the exam " . That day I thought I should become a civil servant. To be frank, I do not know really what a civil servant does and how to go about becoming one, but I wanted to answer the gemini news questions.

As time grew, my thought of becoming an IAS officer started losing out to hectic SSC examination pressures and later on completely masked in my attempt to get in to the Indian Institutes of Technology. I could succeed in my attempt of becoming an IIT student but my thoughts never went back to becoming an IAS officer.Only person who reminds me of my wish to become an IAS officer was my grand father but after he passed away, the idea never surfaced . My studies at IIT have shifted me far from IAS towards a highly paid job , an MBA from an Ivy-league university , to support my parents as soon as possible.

But my marriage was something which have shifted me back in to the road of becoming a civil servant. My life partner have also had a similar dream but as I did , she never deviated from her path. She was planning her career in that path and her companionship has dusted off my dream to become a civil servant and today, I am in pursuit of my dream and I am glad that I am doing it.

It so happens that you have dreamt of becoming something and meanwhile, many factors have drifted you off your trial. It is also true that these dreams may go un-discovered all through your life, but someday, when you relax over your rocking chair and look back and so happens that you remember your dream. You would feel that place of your heart empty and incomplete. It would be tough to bring about a change , particularly in yourself,but try to bare an inconvenience today and you would not regret that tomorrow.

As Mr.Abdul Kalam said "Dreaming small is a crime", so "Dream big  and follow it big time "

Tolerance - The ingredient missing in the melting pot of Indian Society.

Indian history is itself magnificient and one feature that marks its presence in this grand history is the concept of Tolerance and Endurance. This concept has been associated with India from the vedic age, continued in different forms in different religions and also has been a flag bearer in attempts of Mahatma in achieving Independence of India. But, Do you think the present Indian society has such tolerance and endurance? If mahatma comes back and see how people gets annoyed at slightest inconvenience, at the faintest criticism , he would be apalled seeing how an enduring society as India was could turn in to a country where people are restless, systems are intolerant and the leaders could not face constructive criticism. He would also want us to think about what could be done from a personal point of view and as a group together, Dont you think he does??.

Firstly, Are you convinced that people have become intolerant?? If not, Look around you. You would see people getting annoyed if their pizza is late by 5-minutes or if a child seeking alms ask their generosity when they are busy talking over their phone or if their well-wishers point out that they are following a wrong path or if the people staying in the flat above you have kept their music loud. I do not say that these things are non-irritable but the threshold of tolerating such acts have come significantly down as India developed through its hard times. But, anyone could support this behavior by saying that an average human being has become more and more busy and occupied with work or otherwise and any disturbance to his own could trigger the rage point in one, but as a society develops, so should the maturity of the people living in that society. That would help the particular group to achieve more and more by doing less and lesser. Enough about the problem, What could be a possible solution to this?

Seeking a solution for any problem should start from identifying that the problem do exist. We see the news everyday filled with protests against a person, a group, a state, a nation and even an entertainment attempt in the name of "cinema". Most of us react to these news by questioning ourselves or the people around us "When do people become so intolerant?". But, no one would go beyond that. There are many things that recently I came across which prompted me to write this piece such as -

a.Recent series of protests in Andhra pradesh against different movies based on some identities. There was an instance where a group of people - considered to be the most patient and peace-loving people - went about protesting against the actors/producer of a movie in which they claimed to have shown their community in a negative sense. Important thing here is that we do not want to judge this move by them, but what we should essentially think about is the transformation in our society and how one can help normalise this trend. The big picture !!

b.Growing number of instances where slightest criticism trigger people to indulge in voilence , including people who are supposed to maintain peace in the society.Recently, in Mumbai.


Any change should start form within. What can one do to prevent these?? The following should help.

a. Try to list out explicitly the cases in which you get irritated.
b. Think about why exactly this irritates you.
c. If a reason exists and it is an unreasonable one, Try to think over how unreasonable it is and you would slowly be able to avoid those unwanted scenarios.
d. If a reason exists and it is reasonable according to you, try to explain this to your friends and well wishers and ask them how they would respond. If they too feel the same way, Then propably your response is fine.
e. If there exists no reason. Then take a oath that you would never respond in that way if a similar situation happens again.

It is highly impossible that change would come in short term but once that occurs, it would help you keeping away from many life style disorders both mentally and physically. Once you are tolerant, your family would be and the domino effect would effect our country overall. Hope to see a tolerant India soon !! Jai Hind.