ADIEU

Four years back when I arrived at this place I never knew someday I would get so engrossed in releasing myself from this entanglement and fail miserably. When I was in early first year I used to actually secretly wish someday my family will call me and ask me to come back and I would leave this place. Such was the magnitude of homesickness. But somehow I managed to stay here and today I secretly wish I was allowed to stay here forever.
Yes, I am talking of my stay at IT BHU. The four years when I have grown the most, the four years which have contributed the most to my academic, emotional and professional career, the four years which have made me what I today am, have come to a sudden end. It's the same feeling which a Cricket lover has just after the end of the World Cup final or the same feeling a small kid has at the end of his birthday. The cricket lover thoroughly enjoys the energy and excitement of the final but is entirely unaware of the approaching sudden end. The last over leaves him with enormous nostalgia and amazement that the two month long tournament is over. The same has happened to us. These four years have been full of energy, excitement and cohesion. One fine day we are amazed to find the four years long picnic is suddenly over. Not only it fills me with an irrepressible desire to relive these four years, it also shocks with the speed these four years have flewn with.
Similarly the way the birthday child's innocent rejuvenation which extends only for one day suddenly disappears when he wakes up the next day to find he's no more the birthday boy, our proud feeling of being associated with Asia's largest University is suddenly erased when one fine morning we wake to find we can no more claim ourselves to be the students of our beloved Alma matar. The respect and priority we used to get all through the Varanasi city just because we belonged to IT will be missed particularly when we'll be made to compete with people from smaller colleges. And the fact that this can practically be the end of academic career for many is even more shocking. Suddenly after twenty years they have reached a stage where they no more need to go back to course books.
Coming back to the pleasant memories of my stay at IT, how can I forget that someday
I was actually made to dance stark naked infront of some seniors. How can I forget that I reciprocated the same behavior to my juniors. It might have looked nasty and inhuman at that time but it was indeed funny and we all did enjoy those moments. How can I forget that my first birthday in IT was celebrated by seventy people all wishing me at sharp twelve in the night. This had never happened to me even at my home.
I always had some close friends in life but the kind of intimacy I felt here with some people has been unprecedented. These friends have not only contributed to my emotional and professional growth, they have made me a stronger person. Some incidents are simply unforgettable. Those late night senti stuff sometimes accompanied by philosophy sessions, those movie sessions, those birthday bumps and several other things will leave indelible imprints.
The most favorite place for hilarious activities and comic talks used to be the mess. Apart from catering to the individual demands of strange recipes, the mess used to be the place where we could fully relieve ourselves of the stresses the academics produced though such stresses were there only when exams were in vicinity. Particularly comic used to be the nights when there were absence of power supply. Loud and violent smacks and knocks on the doors of rooms of sleeping people most oftenly followed by the guy joining the group to do the same to somebody else is something we'll probably never be able to do again in life. If the power supply decided to betray for a prolonged period, Lanka trips used to the only savior.
Sunrises at ghats followed by temple visits particularly in a city which is believed to be the religious capital of the country in itself is an honor. Finally this story will not be complete without the mention of scenic beauty of our beloved BHU. The Greenery of this University, the dark deep shades of innumerable trees and the grandeur of the gigantic buildings of Faculties, Labs and Libraries always made us feel lucky about our association with this place.
In the end, I'd like to confess this post has been pathetic in terms of chronological order of events and relative importance of different aspects of these fours years. But these lines have come directly from my heart and I can go on writing this way for hours. Finally two lines for my friends, my teachers, my hostels and above all my college:-

KAISE KAHUN BINA TERE
ZINDAGI YEH KYA HOGI
JAISE KOI SAZA
KOI BADDUAN HOGI

MEMORY

Perhaps the attribute which contributes the most to the general course of the life of a being is his memory. It is the talent which is probably solely responsible for shaping the social, emotional, professional and academic face of one's life. A person's social and emotional behavior is mainly determined by how much he remembers the behavior of others towards him. Every social act leaves an impression of the memory of the person which subsequently decides his way of dealing with others. Similarly the person's own emotional behavior is a function of emotional behaviors of others towards him. Academically and professionally, memory is equally important or perhaps even more important. In academics, the child basically learns everything by memorising. While the Humanities are to be directly memorised, the students can only excel in the subjects of Science and Mathematics only when they apply their memories to apply the methods of problem solving they have previously come across. Of course innovations are indispensable, but quite often these innovations are slight modifications of earlier methods and for that the earlier methods have to be clearly remembered. In the same way Professional excellence can be ensured by applying memory to remember the immaculate ways of problem solving used by our forerunners in the business world. In a nutshell, understanding is memorising.
Equally interesting is the theory which discusses the ways, someone's memory works in. A person's memory can be broadly divided into three types:-

1. Recall Memory - This is the type of memory which a child or for that matter an adult uses to deliberately remember something. The person sees something worth remembering , notes it somewhere in his mind and consciously recalls it when needed. That something can be anything. It can be the answer to a question a child remembers before exams and recalls it during the exam. It can be a phone number which an adult is told in a place where he cannot store it in his cell and which he tries to retain in his mind and recalls sometime later. Not only this is the most broadly used part of memory, this is probably the significant one.

2. Recognition Memory - This type of memory begins to manifest itself right from early childhood of a person. A small child begins to remember his father or mother through recognition. He recognises things like water and milk which have been previously fed to him and begins to remember it. Similarly an adult remembers many things by recognising them from the past particularly even if he hadn’t deliberately tried to remember it. The things remembered this way can be people, movies, songs, antonyms and synonyms to words or any other thing which you don’t try to remember but you do when you see them just because you recognise them from the past. This kind of memory can be genuinely phenomenal in inspiring innovations and contributing to professional success of people.

3. Reverberative Memory - This memory is probably the most random kind of memory and has no particular explanation to its existence. This part of memory accounts for sudden and random memories of people, incidents, movies, songs and many other things in situations which are not particularly related to them. There are times when you are completely engrossed in your work and then suddenly the memory of one of your childhood friend comes to your mind. This friend of yours might have not been very close to you and you might have not heard of him in the last ten years and you have genuinely no clue as to why you remembered him. Probably the only explanation to this kind of memory is reverberation of memories in your mind. The incidents or people or anything for that matter go inside your mind, go on to reach the inner walls of your mind and strike them and come back and reverberate. Moreover there is no explicable pattern for this reverberation. Though this kind of memory can come up with miraculous ideas, this is not a very reliable part of the memory.
Though the behavior of a human's memory can never be completely explained, the above theory is an attempt to explain it as accurately as it can be done.

DEVIL INSIDE


It's not always that you come across a statement that sounds incredibly hilarious the first time it's spoken, then stays somewhere in the back of your mind and suddenly begins to make a hell amount of sense, and ultimately goes on to become a classic of a statement. One of such statements which I had the privilege of hearing said: "Everybody has a damper".
So what's that supposed to mean? Does that mean every human has a damper that gradually reduces the amplitude of his oscillations? That can be one funny interpretation. Well whatever it be, one thing is certain, to completely understand the message of the statement one has to interpret the term "Damper" appropriately. What's a Damper? It's something which is inherent in the system of the body, living or nonliving, and begins to show action when the energy of the body rises above normal. It acts as a dissipative force and works to squander the additional energy the body has acquired.
So how does a damper work in the case of a human being?
Ambition is one thing every human possesses in some proportion. Though it's not always easy to convert your ambitions into actions and actions into results, most of us do chase our dreams to certain extent. And this process of chasing dreams not only heightens our energy level, it gives us a countenance of self belief and courage. Defying all laws of gravity we start flying and the horizon looks too minuscule a barrier to surmount. Every obstacle becomes a pebble we just kick off our way.
All through this when our energy level keeps multiplying, the negative energy too keeps increasing. And when we are at the peak of your confidence level and our goal is half attained, suddenly this "Damper" comes into play and starts sabotaging our castle of dreams. Arrogance takes the place of modest confidence we used to exude. Perseverance is slowly and inexplicably converted into lethargy which surreptitiously insinuates itself into our brain and begins to devastate our plans. For no good reason we start evaluating the feasibility of our plans and begin to doubt our own capability to convert them into results. Feeling the absence of courage to audaciously face failure, we prepare to give up. Suddenly the guilt of not trying looks irrepressibly alluring as compared to the disappointment of failing. And the "Damper" has succeeded yet another time in dissipating our energy and bringing it down to an all time low.
Though this theory sounds shamelessly pessimistic, it can work as a warning signal and always help us in overcoming the villainous intentions of the "Damper" within us. As the laws of Mechanics say, no matter how strong the damper is, if the initial energy is high enough, the body can always reach its destination. So if our initial energy, which are a function of our self belief and determination, are high enough, the damper will surely surrender to us and we will emerge successful in realizing our dreams.

KIRAN

National...what does this term refer to?? Something which belongs to the whole nation, Something which is recognised and appreciated nationwide, something which when disturbed or destabilized, can be seen to have an impact across the whole nation. Not just that, it also refers to something which is sentient enough to manage not to condone the pain and woes of the people nationwide, something which fulfills its responsibility towards the nation and something which does the whole nation proud through its sincerity and diligence.
And that’s why its no surprise our very own DOORDARSHAN MAIN CHANNEL has been honored with the adjective "NATIONAL". Over the years , it has stood the test of time and has done excellent to stay the most watched television channel in India even today. But the success of NATIONAL CHANNEL is not coincidental. The fact that its viewer ship even in metros still remains the highest among all the television channels is partly attributed to its free availability and partly to its sincere and responsible efforts to completely conform to needs and demands of the nation and people of the nation. In an era when the private channels are constantly augmenting their profits by advertising western culture, the NATIONAL channel keeps on trying immensely hard to save the Indian traditions and culture and propagate it to the coming generations.
While these fashionable channels are infested with sops showing females of multimillionaire families colluding to devastate the lives of their in-laws, the National channel still manages to telecast serials based on strength and integrity of middle-class combined families. Though these serials have not been able to win the same degree of popularity and accolades as serials like "HUMLOG" and "BUNIYAD" did in late 80s, they dont turn the society cynic by portraying woman as a creature whose primary of motive existence is to ensure someone else's trauma. Again, while all these VTVs AND MTVs unceasingly keep on showing lewd song videos with horribly dressed women, the NATIONAL channel invests considerable time in telecasting Indian Classical music and dances. At the same time, the NATIONAL channel's outstanding ability to pick up the news which are relevant to the interest of the nation and give it appropriate attention cannot be overseen or denied. When a private news channel is busy covering the story of a provocatively clad Hindi film item girl getting forcibly but expectedly kissed by a singer and blowing it off to inordinate proportions, the NEWS on the NATIONAL channel still manages to stick to relevant news related to Indian economy, external affairs and Sports. Sports itself is another section where the NATIONAL channel has shown tremendous responsible behavior towards everyone. While these private Sports channels are prepared to bid anything for the telecast rights of International Cricket and Football tournaments, NATIONAL channel or DOORDARSHAN sports channels are the first to serve when it comes to telecasting ASIAN GAMES or state level swimming championships or for that matter KABADDI. Moreover the opinion of India's youth can be heard clear and loud in programs like Gen Next where young people form different strata of the society come together to discuss burning topics. Not only they are given enough opportunity to express their views, with experts around these views get properly heard, appreciated and modified. All these facts not only prove NATIONAL channel's competence to serve the average Indian, they also prove its ability to stand out.
One series which certainly helps the NATIONAL channel to stand out is KIRAN. Its a 5 min series which comes all weekdays on the NATIONAL channel at 1:30 in the afternoon and deals with the small stories of those efforts which are constantly being made to make this country a better place to live. Everyday it comes up with a different story of some average person in some obscure part of the country who's doing his part to remove poverty, eradicate illiteracy, provide proper irrigation facility to farmers and ensure the fulfillment of basic needs of our people.
The story of CHHOTA BHAGAT, brought forward by KIRAN, who in spite of being a poor farmer has been feeding Rotis to hundreds of people everyday is heartwarming. CHHOTA BHAGAT happens to be a farmer in some small village of Gujarat and happened to find some hungry visitor on his door ten years back. That day he fed his Roti to the visitor and himself slept hungry. Since then everyday he has been welcoming hungry visitors with Rotis and has made sure nobody ever went back disappointed and hungry. Though he's never asked anybody for financial assistance, rich people often make donations for this noble cause and he accepts gratefully. In a country where people are constantly looking for opportunities to snatch food from others, such people help maintain the equilibrium between good and evil.
Another KIRAN story which makes us feel proud is of Prof. K Ramesh Rao who belongs to some part of Andhra Pradesh. The way Shahrukh Khan taught people in "SWADES" how to produce hydroelectricity on the village level, this guy did it in his native village. After retiring, he moved to his village and found the rampant problem of Irrigation water and electricity. After evaluating the feasibility of the idea of building a dam for the village, he convinced people by walking on foot hundreds of miles across adjoining villages and finally got more than three hundred people to work for him. And as is said "Dreams never die waiting", his dream of seeing his village independent in terms of Irrigation water and electricity was realised.
These are only two stories of people who symbolise the section of the society which's always prepared to serve its people. From the story of DPS RK PURAM teachers prepared to teach slum children in the after-hours of the school to the story of a old Dalit women propagating awareness about AIDS in the villages, KIRAN has been phenomenal in acknowledging these little efforts to serve our country. In a society where people are increasingly becoming cynic about altruism, such programs convince you about the fact that good people still exist and goodness can still be seen and heard and experienced. KIRAN as it literally means is a ray, a ray of hope for those who want to see a happy, peaceful and prosperous India.
This is where the NATIONAL channel fulfills its responsibility of acknowledging the selfless services of people.
The Media has an indisputable ability of portraying a country's prosperous picture. While NATIONAL channel is doing its part, private channels are expected to come up. It’s high time these private channels stop being terribly money driven and try to become "NATIONAL" channels.

ANGRY YOUNG MAN OR FRUSTRATED YOUTH!!!


The success of an industry is largely dependent on its resources. And a Country is no different from an industry. And out of the myriad of resources, a country utilizes, probably the most influential and most expedient is the Human resource. Needless to say, young people or youth are the real representatives of this resource.
And when it comes to Youth, Vigor, bravery and freedom are some indispensable traits not to be overlooked. Youth are known or at least supposed to be fast, furious, independent, and efficient, energetic and result oriented.
This is indeed how youth used to be a couple of decades back. When Amitabh Bachchan had arrived with his typical vigor and energy, “Angry Young Man” had almost become a household compliment which was obviously aspired by every young male and probably females too (who knows?). And then everything from government policies to educational scenarios seemed to accommodate this vigor and energy of the youth.
Now the youth of today is quite different from the youth of then. The tangible traits of the present youth are frustration, anger and emotional instability. This fact is particularly attributed to the fact that the Youth of today lives in a scenario entirely different from that in those days.
The Youth of today lives in a country which is horribly prone to elections every alternate year. Apart from incurring the millions as taxes, which is squandered by the Election Commission to conduct the elections, the normal course of studies of students is affected due to the unavailability of teachers who are dragged to carry out duties related to the elections. After having gone through all this, they sometimes happen to witness a “Stable Government”. Now being the citizens of the largest democracy in the world, they begin to face it’s virtues and avail it’s advantages. As soon as the government comes to the throne, they begin to prepare for the next elections and start making arrangements to widen their vote banks as much as they can.
In course of these preparations, they are reminded of their duties to elevate and serve the underprivileged and backward classes. When increase in employment opportunities and relaxation in tuition fees in colleges can do, the best remedy which comes to their mind is provision of large percentages of reservations for these backward classes. Moreover whether a person is backward or not is not determined by his financial and educational status, it’s determined by the caste he is born in. Now if at all these policies can go on to elevate some genuinely underprivileged, then they are acceptable. But instead of helping those who indeed need help these reservations only serve those whose ancestors have somewhere in their lives already enjoyed reservations and those who in some way can render political help to the existing Govt.
After witnessing all this, the anger and agitation of the Youth becomes inevitable. If they decide to express their anger by protesting and by assuming hunger strikes and all, they are beaten like animals. Even the females are not spared. Not only this does not bother the Govt. in any tangible manner, even the media does not come to the rescue.
When losses in Cricket matches and Drug scandals by children of political leaders hit headlines, the News of suicides by students for this fair and noble cause do not even find themselves on the front page.
After facing all this in their academic career, they somehow manage to complete their studies and move on to their professional lives. But here also they are not spared of the Govt.’s policies of reservations. Not only they fail to bag a job in a respectable public sector company, they are forced to work in minor private sector companies for salaries of mere Rs.10 Ks. And this happens even if they are graduates of the best universities of the country. Even if they learn to live these facts, they can’t escape the omnipresent corruption and political insecurity.
Despite all this, they are not spared of the inordinate expectations of parents, siblings and friends. On one side there is enormous pressure to perform exceptionally well and on the other side there is incredible lack of opportunities and support. The trauma which the Youth of today goes through is probably visible to nobody.
Across a country which is trying it’s best to handle the enormous competition from the rest of the world and a country which is in a desperate need of some quality Youth, millions of such young careers are being circumvented. Not only this is extremely detrimental for the country’s future, this leads to sense of utter frustration within the Youth.
So the question boils down to “angry young man” or “frustrated youth”.

WHITE

Men have always been argumentative. And “The Argumentative Indian” has never been too devoid of arguments. In fact they always remain beleaguered by millions of fatuous arguments which they are dead certain of not reaching an amicable conclusion at and which even done with enormous diligence and proficiency is not going to affect the subtlest of changes in the existing course of the universe.
The context involves an “Art of Living” teacher and one of his disciples. And the argument relates to the relative or comparative whiteness and brightness of their T-shirts. Both are wearing marble white T-shirts with one having a tricolor YES+ logo on it and the another a “LEVI’S” one. Each of them promulgates that the superior whiteness or brightness of his T-shirt is so obviously manifested.
Now let’s get out of this argument for a while. Instead of looking for physical evidences, we should strive for intellectual, spiritual, characteristic and behavioral evidences which can support the clarification and justification of the comparative whiteness of a particular “T-shirt”.
And this again drags us into another argument. One aspect of the argument can be:-
Whiteness and brightness is a way to make visible the enormous “electromagnetic radiations” which is begot by the intellectual and spiritual eminence which the teacher exudes. Whiteness is arguably the metaphorical statement of the teacher’s “Moonlight” like pleasant and cool personality. Moreover the way Milk, which is a quintessence of whiteness, provides all the ingredients of a healthy diet to a Human being, a teacher’s personality provides all the ingredients of a healthy intellectual and spiritual diet to his disciple’s personality.
Now the another side of the argument is as follows:- Whiteness stands for the purity and transparency of the disciple’s character. It is a display of the modesty and ignorance of the disciple who is ever prepared to let his personality and character influenced and modified in the same way as a blank White paper is ever prepared to let it scribbled on or stained. Finally as the White snow which melts as soon as it encounters a hint of warmth, the disciple’s sulk gets placated as soon as it gets a bit of proper treatment.
So, the above arguments, though not necessarily entirely justifiable, give an impression that probably the disciple is as good as the teacher i.e. probably their “T-shirts” are equally white. And if this is not the case, the ARGUMENT continues.

THE MATURE KID

Not many will disagree that most beautiful are the nostalgic feelings of your childhood. Exciting mornings, fun time in the school bus, classroom pranks, impatience for lunch and exuberance that marked the end of every school day provide with memories which cannot be effaced. And obviously we hate to efface them. And thats why there are times you find yourself wishing badly you could get back to those days.

The funniest part of childhood is the self-proclaimed and self-conceived maturity. A guy of five thinks he is mature enough to handle the world and manage people around him. And when he turns six, quite comically he believes he was a child at five but now has turned into a smart old man.

But even more comic is the observation that these kids are at times indeed quite sensible and mature. Children can be made to behave more responsibly and pragmatically if their thoughts are listened to and their opinions appreciated. We often underestimate children and ignore their latent and potential maturity. There are times when children in a family make irresponsible and inordinate demands. Inspite of the guardian's inability to fulfill their demands and live upto their expectations, the guardian (father in most cases) refrains from discussing the matter openly with his children. This underestimation of the child's ability to recognise and appreciate his father's abilties or rather inabilties to live upto his expectations quite often puts rather avoidable burden on the father's shoulders and makes father's life traumatic.Though this might possibly put child's innocent dreams and pious emotions into peril, the discussion properly done not only can solve family's financial problems, but also can prove phenomenal in inculcating responsibility and foresight into the children's character.

But again its the responsibilty of the parents to make sure they don't spoil the fun part of the childhood of their wards. Because its the fancy and the fantasy which enables a person make his childhood cherishable and memorable.