It is that time of the year again! Festivities, celebrations and the ever tiring charade of endless gifting! Lights, everywhere you look! An atmosphere of general revelry!

I wish you a very happy Diwali. Not just to you, but to your family, friends, friends of friends, children (if any), grandchildren (if any), great-grandchildren (if any), friends of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, neighbours (those you love), neighbours (those you hate), spouse(s) (if any), ex-spouse(s) (if any), flames and ex-flames (if any, though I’m damn sure they exist!), strangers you happen to meet everyday (or atleast frequently) and all others I may have missed. May you have a very happy Diwali indeed. 

You celebrate Diwali every year, isn’t it? And why not? It is the National Festival of India — the brightest amavasya of the year! Diwali celebrates the act of homecoming, which is why it is celebrated as the festival of lights. May the lights guide the paths of those who have lost, may the lost not succumb to darkness, may the darkness fade away into the oblivion…

That is why I request you let Diwali be the festival of lights, only. The modern tradition of bursting crackers on this auspicious day has made it a festival of noise, pollution, fires, injuries, and sadly, even deaths. Our fragile environment is already caving in with all those fumes we earthlings have a habit of spewing out. Please don’t add to the kitty. Please don’t burst crackers…

This year, celebrate Diwali in a traditional, non-toxic way, and convince others (including all those whom I’ve mentioned above!) into doing the same. Lets go Cracker-Free, and help our environment. Its never late to start.

Consider this post as a part of Blog Action Day 2009.

Peeves the Poltergeist : 

Oh Sanny Macsy! Sanny Sanny Macsy!

Teaching Maths Fancy and giggling like batsy!

Ever since I have dreamt of enrolling for a particular course from a particular pedigreed institution, I have dreamt of joining a particular institute located at a particular place in Delhi – only because of its particular reputation!

One of the particular reasons why I want to enroll for that particular course is that I want to do a particular kind of job for some years as a start up for my career. After that, I have thought of engaging in a particular kind of activity to satisfy me, both creatively and on financial grounds.

Again, one of the particular reasons why I have chosen that particular institute to join because I want to do my best under the best possible guidance, so that my chances of coming through that particular pedigreed institution become very high. 

See, I’m such a particular person!

That particular institute is known as SANMACS; that particular place in Delhi is Karol Bagh. As far as that particular pedigreed institution is concerned, I ain’t telling you yet… Nazar lag jaayegi naa..!

As many of you might have noticed, the title of the post is a satirical variation of the name of the particular institute. Exactly what the intended satire is, I can’t tell you – because I have failed to notice it. If you do, please tell me, will you?

About SAMNACS, then.

Apart from located in Karol Bagh, which happens to be in the list of my favorite places in Delhi, SANMACS is the premier institute of MCA entrance coaching in India. (See, you got to know about that particular course too!).

SANMACS (as it claims), is responsible for sending a majority of students to a majority of pedigreed institutions offering MCA in India. Maybe because of that, I joined the institute five days ago. (I don’t want to miss out on my chances, you see!). Alas! For me, it is back to studies then. I enjoyed just 33 days of my precious holidays being busy in inefficient and unproductive somethings, which should be a World Record to say the least. (I’m known to waste an entire year in useless babble). With SANMACS, I’m back to finding out about of the chances of Q being S if some P’s are Q’s, and finding out the correct time after 23999999992 hours from now, and worrying about the wizard who lost his shoes while taking a dump. (Okay, I made the last one up!)

As far as my routine goes, the day starts pretty early, considering the fact that I have to wrestle with a sweaty crowd that greets me inside metro each morning as I make the short commute to that particular place in Delhi, and that I have to find time to read, write, listen, walk, study, and teach all at once. Teaching is over for now, and it does make the list considerably shorter. Yet, there are a hell lot of things to do. Sometimes I am amazed when I notice the fact that I always end up making myself terribly busy while being pathetically unproductive. 

See you guys later.

PS : I know I shouldn’t have written that horrendous piece of verse above. But ever since I’ve read A Suitable Boy, I cannot help treating various situations with kakoli couplets, and the above one is by far the best I’ve been able to do! Hope you didn’t mind… 

These days, I’m not able to think of a full-post-worthy topic to write about. But I do have a lot of blurb-worthy-only thoughts that play trampoline inside my seemingly small head. Hence, I present to you, a series of shorties:

Of jQuery and related

Contrary to my belief, jQuery is very easy to learn and implement. And to top that, it has a bubbling online community filled with people who are more than willing to help. In fact, most of such Open Source Projects have similar communities, including Linux. This presents a welcome change from the oh-so-snorty college authorities who are a real headache to deal with. I wonder why Microsoft is still making money? 

The Cat and the Baby

The other day I was watching Amazing Baby Videos on Discovery. They were showing some really  humourous videos about babies and pets. But they were really thought-provoking. For instance, in a particular video, the pet cat wasn’t so happy about the presence of the baby in the household, so she occupies his toy chair as an act of revenge. When the baby approaches, she catches hold of his sleeve (thankfully she only gets hold of the shirt!).

Funny, eh? Apparently not. Even the host of the show felt so. Just like elder siblings, even pets need to be prepared for the young one’s arrival. If handled incorrectly, they can even harm the baby!

Of Reading and Writing

A Suitable Boy is turning better by the page (though I agree that the numerous procedures of law sprinkled all over it are a pain in the a** to read!). I’ve even started to identify with one of the characters in the book… Funny, eh? Plus the Chatterji family, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, Maan and Malati make reading the book quite enjoyable!

And I’ve been wanting to write a piece of fiction these days. But the problem is that most of the themes that occur to me invariably contain blood and gore — about which I don’t want to write. The only short story I’ve ever written, Sikandar, was along similar lines… dealing with a bomb blast in Delhi. Perhaps that’s why I’m unwilling to touch on that subject again.

Also, speaking of Sikandar, I’ll publish it here very soon. Its been long overdue!

Everything Else

Piano Lessons? Going good. Movie Watching? Atleast one everyday. TV? Not much. World Cup? Didn’t watch a single match. Roaming around? Next to none. Delhi’s heat? Untolerable. College? I’m better away from it. Love life? Still single! 

Guess I’ll leave it at that!

Every time a discussion on Poverty is started, especially in a country like ours, it usually ends up having the same conclusions, more or less:

• Poverty is rampant in India with a majority of people being victims.
• The government schemes aimed at eradicating poverty either fail, or do not deliver the promised results — partly due to the sheer number of poor households, and majorly due to corruption and red tape.
• Poor people end up being grossly victimised, by paying the largest share of bribes to corrupt officials.
• blah blah blah.

Further, when asked about the reasons behinf poverty, we have readymade answers:

• Poverty is a part of life. It is everywhere.
• Social restrictions like untouchability discourage low caste people from taking up respectable professions, so they end up being poor.
• Erratic monsoon, and agricultural sector’s over-dependence on it are top reasons too.
• blah blah blah.

These facts notwithstanding, these reasons notwithstanding, we still fail to look at one simple fact. Illiteracy, and the lack of proper skill set for the job at hand are the only factors that contribute to poverty.

Be it farming, or be it any other work — today’s modern world demands quick results. A small farmer living in the remotest part of India is still not protected by the Global fluctuations in the prices of Agricultural Products. Unless he raises his production, he may not be able to survive (Inflation at work!); and an increase in production means that he needs to have an adequate knowledge of efficient farming practices, which can only be acquired through proper channels of education.

To demonstrate this better, I am describing a chat I had with my house painter last week. Here it goes:

Saay Alam is a 30 year old house painter hailing from Bihar. His father is a farmer there, growin corn. Years ago, his father used to follow traditonal practices and relied on monsoon. However, ever since he has bought a tractor and installed a tubewell in his farm with the help of a bank loan, the production has nearly doubled. Essentially, this means that for the family, the days of poverty are over.

Saay Alam, however, decided not to pursue farming. He studied till Class 10, and learnt the art of house painting from another painter in the capital. He has been living in Delhi ever since. He says that he is able to find work for almost 25 days in a month, earning about Rs. 275–300 for every work day. This amount is a lot greater than he would have earned by farming. He is now a proud owner of a mobile phone, and even gifted one to his father last month.

What do we learn from this? Saay Alam and his father, both prospered by education. Mind you, it isn’t about having theoretical knowledge. The father cannot read or write, but he has acquired a modern common sense to do things in a different way. As for Saay Alam himself, he is benefitting from the vocational training he gained from someone already in the profession.

Now comes the part of the Government. Have you ever noticed the way it behaves when it comes face to face with poverty? When poor and debt-ridden farmers commit suicide, it provides compensation to their families, and pretty much nothing else. It needs to change directions over here.

In addtion to opening more and more schools, emphasis should be paid on starting courses on vocational training and entrepreneurship too, so that people living in villages can benefit from them. After all, a common villager who earns is an entrepreneur, doing a business, and not a job.

Once the people are well informed, weeding out social restrictions and corruption can be a little easier, which will bring out prosperity.

Let us make poverty history.

In this era of email, who has the time to write a letter? Perhaps, I do.

Give me a choice between a letter and an email, and I will definitely choose the former. Especially so when I am writing to somebody I haven’t heard from since a long time. The look and feel of a genuine, physical letter has its own class. The vey thought that the sender has spent much of his precious time in crafting an emotional letter is well understood by the receipient. The very fact that you can hug a letter and cry, is unmatched!

Nostalgic moments are best caught by a letter. In my family too, letters are literally worshipped. When somebody stumbles upon a very old letter somewhere, all of us get excited! And that letter is read with so much feeling that I just can’t tell you!

As it happened today. Me and mom were cleaning up an old cupboard when we came across an old letter dating back to 1992. It was from a friend of Mom — a doctor who lives in the US. In the letter, she congratulated Mom for having a ‘handsome’ baby boy (Hell! That was me!), and wished her good luck for her life ahead.

Can an email ever match this?

Even today, I make it a point to write letters. When it was going to be the last day of school, I made it a point to write farewell letters to the closest of my friends, even though I had my Board Exams on the anvil. You should have looked at their faces! They were so surprised, so happy!

Who does not love to have nostalgic moments? And what’s the better way than digging out some old letters and remembering your good times?

Image Credit — Laineys Repertoire