Election Viewpoint

Yesterday, a certain Mr Bhattacharya posted an entry on his blog, where he beautifully articulated that politics at our college is way more serious than it’s supposed to be.

Tasteless mortals and others might view upon that post as an attempt to bastardize the political activities that go on inside the closed gates. In its current avatar, the political scenario is almost always dominated by two secular parties for each post and you have to pick sides. At first glance this seems rather contradictory since the common man (and moreover an engineering college student) is opportunistic and has high hopes and aspirations, but a closer introspection might reveal that many able men/women are already post holders in some club or department. So that takes care of half the eligible people. But what about the rest? Surely they would want to go for the post? There can only be one reason that can explain this. It’s at times like this that you really respect the college. A consensus between nearly 1500 students for 4 posts really shows the maturity levels of the students.

This is probably a perfect example of the “Invisible Hand” that Adam Smith talks about in his Bible for Economics, The Wealth of Nations.

The theory of the Invisible Hand states that if each consumer is allowed to choose freely what to buy and each producer is allowed to choose freely what to sell and how to produce it, the market will settle on a product distribution and prices that are beneficial to all the individual members of a community, and hence to the community as a whole. The reason for this is that greed will drive actors to beneficial behavior.

During the election period, the college is divided into three groups. One of them is a massive group A, with little scope of individual thought process and they mostly follow the crowd (a classic case of recursion in case you haven’t figured that out).
Another is a comparatively smaller group B (split into further smaller groups B1, B2 so on) also with little scope of individual thought process however a little more persuasive. Mathematically (and ideally) speaking, it’s a many to many-many (or presumably two way) communication process where these smaller groups go around convincing the larger groups by giving them logical and seemingly obvious reasons to support them in all their endeavours. Experts in this domain also claim that this results in some sort of “My candidate, my family” feeling.

Apart from this there also exists a blimp C, which comprises of n people (n<10)Nazgul. They trot this dystopian earth with a strong sense of conviction. This attitude is evident from the following two points witnessed by those who aren’t of kin and are confronted or cornered by them:

• Expressionless faces
• A copy of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four in the vicinity

They sometimes receive sympathy during dire times in the form of “It’s a dutty job but someone’s gotta do it” and condolences in the form of gtalk status messages.

Now the seriousness that Bhattacharya talks of is basically oozing from the interactions that these three groups have with one another. By themselves, they are informal and a factory of rumours (often witty and scandalous and sometimes sick) and jibes, but in presence of foreign company, this wit and humour is replaced by:

• Jargon and Threat (if the interaction is between C and A)

• Constitutional talk and Jargon and Threat (if the interaction is between B and C)

• Reassurance and concern (if the interaction is between B and A)

(Reminder: Associative property might not be applicable here)

Mr Bhattacharya’s proposal to entertain a more informal election process in BITS can easily be implemented if action can be taken to ensure that the formal relation between these three groups be dissolved.

This can be easily achieved. All that remains is for the following points to be implemented:

• The use of animals for campaigning purposes should be made permissible.

• Merchandise promoting a candidate should be allowed, this can include caps, tees, sports bras et al

• Utilise the Department of Photography for generating campaigning budget. It is almost inhuman to expect the campaigning to proceed on such a shoestring budget. Clearly a campaign budget of 1200(or 1500) rupees isn’t sufficient to carry out the campaigning activities.

• Candidates should be allowed their own entrance themes while entering the auditorium. The candidates can also seek the help of the Department of Lights to ensure there is a sound-light coordination. Even in cricket matches such a move has been welcomed by the International Cricket Council(ICC).

• For the entertainment of students and publicity of clubs/departments, they should be allowed to make special ads for the audi debate (save Dpeartment of CCTV). Something similar on the lines of the Superbowl ads.

• Lobbyists should be allowed to defend their candidates in the audi debates.

• For the benefit of A, the group C should actually collaborate with B so as to ensure a steady kayfabe. The very occasional Screwjob has be tolerated.

And above all, during Audi ragging:

Right to free speech should be introduced where the candidates can show their true identity to the audience. It’s sort of tough to do with an elite panel interrogating you and then not letting you speak your mind.

New Media as an elective at BITS Pilani

Electives form an integral part of the academic structure. I would consider myself lucky to be in an institute like BITS Pilani. The vast number of electives it offers its students is almost intimidating. Besides, for some, who landed in Pilani accidentally because they somehow managed to clear the exam, and absolutely detest all the courses that form the part of their curriculum (since everyone might not get the branch of their choice), electives provide solace and possibly a hike in the CGPA(cumulative grade point average).

According to me, the students have as much of a right to demand an elective (given the constraints of the college of course). What I mean is that the college academic board should take feedback from the students regarding what sort of courses would they be interested in. BITS Pilani has a special set of technical electives under the category Emerging Areas(EA). I would love to see New Media under EA. BITS Pilani has a large number of bloggers. While many do it for the joy of typing out their thoughts for the world to read, there are some who seriously need the internet to survive and feel orphaned without digital media. One could start it off as an Audit Course(one which doesn't affect your CGPA and you either pass it or you don't) and then possiby make it a regular course based on the response. As part of the course students can be taken to blog camps in Delhi on a weekend(unconferences are usually held on a sunday/saturday) or probably invite successful bloggers/social media experts etc.

Obviously it goes without saying that the instructor has to be someone in the middle of all the action. Because of this, getting a teacher to the campus is going to be a big problem. I suggest then to organise classes via skype(what better way to lear new media, than to actually use it for teaching). Obviously this is just me thinking out loud.

It's time we start experimenting.

And echoing Rachit's thoughts, we should have our own blog aggregator.

Entering 3rd Year!

Back at college.

Many seniors that I knew here have left. A fresh batch has arrived. Most of whom are forced to wear formals and are terrified by my hirsute and sometimes slovenly appearance. Almost instantly it feels like the first day of college where almost all the faces seemed unfamiliar. Yesterday, I had entered a class (haven't exercised BITSian flexibilities as far as attendance is concerned, yet) and most of the faces seemed alien to me.

The part that is different this time is that no one is cornering me.

Its my turn now.

Worn those Microsofts today?

I was out shoe shopping a couple of days back. Whilst at the store my eyes fell upon the brightly hued slippers which adorned the hooks

And while they were cheeky enough to use the name, which obviously implied that these footwear were the softest thing to ever touch your feet, the reference to THE ONE was unmistakable, almost as though piggy backing on its brand image. I could only think of one thing. How long before a Microsoft employee sees it and reports it to the lawyers?

The Microsoft lawyers, though, haven’t hogged the media limelight as much as the Nazgul (popularised by Slashdot), but they too are kept busy throughout the year. My favourite incident being that involving a 17 year old Canadian boy way back in 2004. I am sure many of you will remember Mike Rowe, the young boy who thought it would be funny to start a website called Mikerowesoft.com. But well, the MS lawyers showed him that they have absolutely no sense of humour and asked him to take if offline. After which things got a little ugly and MS surely lost a lot of supporters due to that row(e).

Rocket Science and beyond

Every now and then I listen to “It doesn’t require a degree in rocket science to figure out that….” Or “I may not be a rocket scientist but I know that…”

Rocket Science on Wikipedia leads us to a tiny article, 80% of which is:

Due to the complexity and depth of this area of engineering (requiring mastery in subjects including mechanics (fluid mechanics, structural mechanics, orbital mechanics, flight dynamics), mathematics, control engineering, materials science, aeroelasticity, avionics, reliability engineering, noise control and flight test), it is also informally used as a term to describe an endeavor requiring great intelligence or technical ability. More often, the term is used to describe an endeavor that is simple and straightforward by stating that the aforementioned endeavor "is not rocket science".

This is amusing.

I think that as such the courses one does in aerospace engineering (aka Rocket Science for the layman) do require a high amount of intellect, but then so does training at Langley or John Hopkins. I think it’s the whole feel of having thousands of buttons around you and being responsible for manning something which is so colossal and worth so many billions of dollars (with minimum scope for error) that enables Rocket Science to be revered as the final frontier in terms of intellect. As specialisation increases, we perceive the task to become monumental because we start to dissociate from the field . It just happens that compared to other engineering branches, probably aerospace has a very high percentage of people going into specialisation (for I don't think NASA really wants a jack o all trades).

Speaking of specialisation, medicine also requires it, but then I guess, there are just too many doctors around.

I remember asking my mother, one of the best retina consultants in India today, about what she thought was the toughest job on the planet. True, I did expect a standardized answer. I placed my money on Rocket Science. I will never forget what happened next. She looked at me, and gently whispered

"Parenting"

Why the Western Invasion?

I was going through Indianroomates.in, a website quite similar to its American counterpart Roomates.com which aims to help and connect (mostly) the youth seeking accommodation. One thing that really caught my attention was the picture of Indian youth on the homepage. As bizarre as it may sound, when was the last time you saw a non-NGO Indian website which had Indian faces? At the most it might have the token Indian or Black person to show diversity, but I think it’s quite rare to find only Indian people. In the beginning I felt maybe such a strategy is employed to show that that company is global (or at least aspiring to be global) but now it just seems like everyone is following the crowd. But then what about those companies which are purely based in India and don’t seem to be expanding outside India in the likely future. I say this because couple of the web based start ups that launched from my college and had noting to do with foreign clients had picture of Caucasian women playing with their Caucasian kids. It just doesn’t make sense. Why should a premier IIT-JEE (Not too tough to guess which one now) coaching institute which receives over a crore hits every year need to put a header picture of some American university students on its website? I don’t know where the problem lies. Is it that the companies ask the web designing team to put in those pictures (in case the work is being outsourced) or the company itself feels its needs such a picture. The whole point being that if your pictures don’t gel with your venture, you end up looking really stupid.

By the way it was really disappointing to see that the moment I clicked on a page at Indianroomates, it took me to another page. And this one had phirangs on it, smiling.

Here’s one solution. The issue of portraying yourself as something doesn’t need faces. It can be done through symbols as well. If you’re ashamed of putting in Indian people shaking hands (though I don’t know why that would be the case), then might as well show only the shaking of hands on your webpage rather than show a Chinese and a Kenyan doing so, especially if you’re a start up based in a small town whose main market is the nearby city.

Cross posted on WATBlog and Desicritics

Opening Salvo

Cliches suck. Big time. Yet we use them. Like hello world. Now just many fucking times have we seen this being used? Yeah Yeah I know, its like standard procedure, something akin to saying "hello" while answering the telephone or saying "check" while testing the microphone.

Why the baseless bitching?

No reason in particular.

Sometimes don't you simply want to find reasons to get worked up about issues which are always at the back of your head, yet you didn't give them enough importance earlier for they just seemed so trivial? But come the day when your head is exploding with rage and this acts like that little magnesium ribbon you read about during your school days, which were filled with those uninteresting experiments in those tailor-made-for-prisoners style text books which were wholly printed in just one color(as bizarre as bottle green). People living in developed nations obviously cannot associate with this phenomenon. For they always had glossy hard bound text books with real pictures and multi colored illustrations. Anyone who has studied history from the India's Central Board of Secondary Education text books will bear testimony to the fact that history was indeed written in black and white. When they did finally give color illustrations a shot, it gave rise to some pretty interesting pieces of art. Like the girl in ninth standard who for the first time read about the scrotum and little love ovals which dwell in them had to suffice with a violet nut and an orange vas deferens.

Yes, I agree immense digression has taken place in the last couple of paragraphs and you should give yourself a little shag if you managed to get to this point.

Be god with ye...

Dotted

I had two mutually exclusive discussions with Atin ad Saurya where I proposed the following theory.

Dots make a word/statement profound regardless of its intellectual/factual weight.

For example: The word 'Believe'. Suspended by itself, it doesn't really grab your interest nor would you give it another look if you saw it as someone's gtalk status message. But place three dots in front of it and the word suddenly becomes of super dense and profoundly profound. 'Believe...', there's so much hope and power in that word now. It's almost as the revamped version urges the looker to take action and awakens the activist which lives amongst everyone of us. And before you know there's music in the background inspiring you to the brim

Another example: 'God hates us all', well this just sounds like a guy cribbing. Again place the magic dots and voila!

God hates us all...

This would make an atheist out of anyone.

P.S: Heard it through the grapevine that one of the suggestions for the theme of this year's techfest, APOGEE was Soch...think

Small talk

There's a wheel that keeps rolling. Most of us relate it to joys and sorrows, or rather still, good and evil and so on. Truth is, it encompasses everything, it's just that the spotlight is cast when a particular feature transcends the rest, usually associated with something dramatic. Another rather peculiar observation is that people who claim to be atheists, agnostic and spiritual-not religious also quite regularly use the phrase "Oh god!", "omfg", "For god's sake". The last one of the lot being my favorite for it portrays human nature oh so well.

This week if plotted on a graph sheet, satisfaction versus date, would give a x(power n) function. Hopefully, it continues this way.

The first cycle of the great test fest has come to a temporary halt, with the second innings about to commence in a short while which should give just about enough time to take a bath.
Also, summer is inching closer. I can already spot kutcha clad boys roaming the streets of the campus, welcoming the cool breeze into their groins.

Now for the main news:
WOOHOO!
WOOHOO!

I am going to Singapore to represent BITS -Pilani in the IMS Quotient 2008. The semi finals will be hosted there. We're amongst the top 8 teams out of more than 5000 teams all over India who took part in the contest. Lots of prizes up for grabs. Hopefully we'll put on a good show there as well. This week is going to be expensive, with all those assured treats that I have to give.

Cornered!

Posts by Navin & Abhilash about how blogging might affect the corporate scenario later on made me think about whether blogging is really as impressive as we made it sound.

On one hand, you can use your blog to advertise your products as is exercised by Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin. There is surely a huge market for Viral bloggers out there, but that's when you use it with corporate intentions, what about ones personal log entries where one opines?

What if in the future( or is it being done already) recruiters start to scan your social networking accounts and blogs in order to get a real insight into your personality? Would that be ethically correct on their part? And would it be smart on your your part to go around exercising your free speech and maybe jeopardize an opportunity coming your way( mind you the other way is also possible)?

I can think of anonymous accounts or rather under a pseudonym as a suitable alternative to this issue. The reason I say this is because:

1. While your anonymous, you have the power of choice as to whom to disclose your identity to.

2. You can fully be vocal about your issue without thinking twice about the repercussions as as your corporate life is concerned.

A billion strong or weak?

While having a discussion with my wingies on the eve of a SPM test, I came up with the following hypothesis.

India should become a super in the recent future. People say that India will be a super power second to China. But I feel that might not be entirely true.

Lets consider China's case. What has happened there in the recent years is something of anti-baby boomers. Though people secretly still produce more than one child and don't report it during the census, the overall population growth rate has certainly declined compared to the last census which was way back in 1990.

I feel the next few decades and the immediate times after that are going to be very crucial. China will move into a newer time where they will not have as many young people as they did have earlier. This they will realise only once the current generations comes to age. There are chances of work being outsourced to India instead. Its just a possibility after all.

Yes obviously this hypothesis makes a lot of assumptions some of which might not be quite accurate but all I'm saying is that its a point of view. Reports show that by 2050 India would've overtaken China as the most populated country, and that too if we take official records, in reality, it could be much before that.

According to the 2001 census, about 35% of India is 0-14 range and nearly 60% is 14-60 years. Currently around 75% of the population is below 38 years of age. The numbers are large, it all depends on which way you look at it. It can mean a billion mouths to feed, where as it also means double the number of hands which can work. A billion strong or weak?

As the first semester of second year comes to an end with the grand finale-comprees, one sees the gradual change that one was spoken to of. People are more casual and the pandemonium of the first year has certainly decreased. Or maybe it just a passing thought, since (was it cube who said?) Truth is just a point of view.
It's about this time that one also begins to (re)discover ones contemplative side, or is that because ones got noting better to do? As everyday passes by, one feels that one has truly discovered what one wants to do. At 13,14,15,16,17,18....I thought I had the whole world figured out.

Now I am not so sure.


Here's to a new beginning(yet again)

P.S: Did I just write the entire post using "one" instead of "I" o "Me"???

Charminar

I think I’ve never (and shall never) seen so much life, as I’ve seen on the streets.

Charminar should’ve been nominated as a Wonder. But then how does one explain the beauty of Charminar to one who hasn’t been there? I accuse even the fraud Hyderabadis (you know who you are, myself included) of laying claims on this massive structure and calling it their pride when in reality they are incognizant to its history, its culture, its heritage.

Charminar isn’t just a building; it’s a way of life. Calling it a merely a monument with four minarets would be equivalent of molesting it of its glory, for its so much more than that. The Mecca Masjid, the Lad Bazaar, the trillions of Irani Café’s, the sea of people, some burqua clad, some lying on the road with torn trousers with their hands outstretched, some adorned by rings of all hues. It’s a different world, a reminiscent of old times, which hasn’t yet been touched by the nefarious forces of the neo corporate world. It has evolved, yes, but in its own way. Only the ignorant go on effusing about the riots there for its clearly visible to the ones frequenting the place that perfect harmony exists, be it for the sake of mutual growth of business, but it prevails nonetheless.

It’s almost romantic to see how amidst the plethora of Muslim enterprise and culture the Hindus have craved a niche for themselves here and there.

One can always lose one’s self as well as get lost in the gullies (really narrow streets). Gullies which twist and turn a la rattle-snakes, which with every turn present another facet of this part of Hyderabad, be it women clad in jhathaak( so much so that shades are required to shield you from their radiance) clothing, hawkers selling boulder sized gol guppas or the blinding colors of the Bangles in the numerous bangle stores.

And then there’s the exotica:

Rumors of a street which sells exotic and no-so-exotic birds reached my ear through Vivek. We checked the placed and were shocked to witness the melodrama. Birds from all the corners of the world were caged. I was a little hesitant to take pictures for the fear of being mistaken as a PETA activist, which would’ve surely resulted in some serious impairing, if not an unceremonious death (after which we’d have been sold as meat by the way things looked around here). We witnessed wild hares trotting, cute pups tethered, turkeys, sparrows and roosters chilling out in their respective cages, given up on life. We saw a Macaw, which was on sale for two lakhs; however this was the least of what we amazed us. What really shocked us was this: This bloke putting his hand inside a bustling cage thus causing even more furor amongst the tiny winged beings. His hands which were mammoth in comparison to the infinitesimal bird, cornered it and grabbed it entirely and put in a paper bag, which one would usually encounter at a grocery store. Following which he dispassionately tied the neck of the bag with a black thread, with the bottom of the paper bag still swerving in random directions. People also buy crows, then direct them towards their neighbors house thus unleashing upon them a bad omen and decorating their (neighbor's) life with misfortune and sorrow.

Three hours out on the streets and I was convinced that it’s the one stop shop for all your needs, you could find anything here. Vivek joked that you could even find individual keyboard keys here; somehow I got the feeling that it wasn’t a joke.

Come night time and the entire area is lit up. Its a mania and one can very well appreciate the need to pedestrianize the entire region. As you look around you, you notice that you’re eyes transformed into a kaleidoscope.

Closing thought: The Biryani of the old city surpasses everything else in terms of its superiority (Yes you Hyderabad house, Paradise worshippers; I'm pointing my fingers at you) and taste.

Some thoughts!

It’s there in the last spasm of a dying musk deer, the last breath of schools of fish trapped under oil spills, the diminishing numbers of migratory birds, the rapidly vanishing habitat of the giant panda.

It’s the cry of the earth. Can you hear it?

Do your bit. Save our planet. Please. Time is running out...

As I finished reading this I felt an intense rush of emotions. My fingers clenched and I stared blankly at the screen.

How many times have we heard this?

We all like to pretend that we care for our planet. And who knows? Maybe in some chamber deep inside our wretched mind, we actually do. But let’s be realistic.

Most of us simply don’t want to bother.

We feel that since we wont live to see the end of the world (unless WWIII decides to spoil the party) why bother? Or better, our pessimism leads us to believe that there’s nothing we can do. This belief generally comes from the environment around us. We see a friend of ours throwing the chips packet he just devoured on the streets. We see clusters of men letting loose (if you know what I mean) on the same wall that has ‘Plis don’t pass urine’ scribbled shabbily. And as time passes we truly feel that “it’s too late”.

A friend of mine who was sitting for a branch allocation counseling told me that his father found people still pursuing Petro Engineering rather amusing since in another 2-3 decades time there wouldn't be much petroleum left in the world to use.

Honestly speaking (and correct me if I’m wrong), saving the earth doesn’t feature in our top priority list. But every time the issue springs up, depending upon how it’s presented to us (especially if creative clips are shown every 2 minutes in between a mega concert), we all become environmentally charged. Sadly, this enthu disappears almost as quickly as it is aroused.

But as long as we’re charged we feel that we can make a difference (do I hear trumpets in the background?). But wouldn’t dedicate our selves to some on ground activity, instead we believe in the power of the exponents.

Little things, if initiated by a lot of people can shake the world

Ah yes! How many times have I heard that? But the sad part is even the little things like walking down to the store instead of zooming on a motorbike or using natural perfumes instead of aerosol sprays seem like too much of a bother beyond a certain point.

You know what the real problem is? It’s not smoke, its not money, its not greed. Its convenience!

It’s more convenient to blog about the issue and comfort ourselves reminding that “we’ve enlightened the public” than actually get off our lazy bum and switch off the fan that’s running, and open the windows to let the fresh monsoon breeze in.

We do what is convenient to us. We let the tap run because one hand is navigating the brush and the other hand is scratching the buttocks. We don’t switch off the lights after leaving the room because we’ve already locked the door. Now who’s going to unlock the door? Bah!

I remember myself, long ago. I was so supercharged after visiting a recycling plant that I stopped using notebooks for doing my rough work. I’d use the newspaper to scribble some formulae or note down our fundamental duties. I did that for almost two years. I guess as we grow up we come to face with the harsh reality (or so we feel) and realize that we’re helpless. Kids don’t feel that since they’re still in that imaginative world where everything is still possible and can be turned around.

At least I don’t feel like a hypocrite.

P.s: Nil dear, this post wasn't directed at you all. Remember the chat we had last night? This is just a vent post.

Think four times before saying, "I DO"

Salman Rushdie is an extremely talented and ambitious man. Yet his scandals supercede that. First he writes a novel which goes on to become the Booker of Bookers. His next novel almost becomes another booker prize winner. He also writes a book on the alleged heretical verses and pisses off most of the Muslims, ergo, gets a fatwa launched against him ironically on Valentines’ Day. And ultimately gets knighted for his services to literature.

I remember my mother telling me once that he commented upon Indira Gandhi’s lips comparing it to a vagina.

Good Lord!

But he is determined to achieve something greater than all these trivial matters, something which will make him the undisputed king of the neo-age. What he truly wants is to break the record of Elizabeth Taylor. Nothing would give him more than to surpass the legendary actress’ unfathomable record.

He’s almost there.

One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable

- Salman Rushdie

And correct you are sir. Indeed!

I remember reading TIME when Rushdie got married again. It had Rushdie quoted saying something about marriage being a holy union of beings. I found it rather amusing to see Rushdie believe in the sanctity of marriage considered it didn’t work for him the last three times. Imagine him at the altar and being asked for the fourth time, “Do you accept this women to be your lawfully wedded wife till death do you part?”

“I do”

Yeah it would have been true had the fatwa been carried out successfully. Yet fate would intervene.

Padmalakshmi. I guess the only thing wrong with her is her name. But then what’s in a name? I mean she’s so radiantly hot! Apparently she’s really intelligent. Must be hard for her because no one would be willing to listen to her because they’d all be undressing her in their head. Rushdie on the other hand could bear to control his lust for her for the sole reason that in 1999 he had an operation to correct a tendon condition that was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes, so maybe he could pay more attention to what was coming out of her mouth rather than focus on what could go in.

But now it doesn’t matter.

Salman Rushdie has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage

-New York Post

The ignominy of being dumped by your own wife.

Our lives teach us who we are.

-Salman Rushdie.

Care to elaborate and provide some more insight on this kind Sir?

Memories...

I was cleaning my room and found my old answer scripts. I always made it a point to preserve them, especially the English ones. After the initial splash of nostalgia came the agony. Going through those answer scripts I realized how the teachers meticulously took advantage of our naivety and our gullibility became our vice.

Can you imagine the amount of B.S they fed us while at school? And some of us were indoctrinated so effectively that we continue to believe some of that crap till date.

Remember those essays on the merits and demerits of the Television. I’m sure all of you wrote those essays, and more often than not wrote the same points albeit in a different style. Allow me to butcher them one by one.

TV lets us know what’s happening around the globe. The news and the Discovery channel along with other informative channels like the history channel and NatGeo increase our knowledge base.

Honestly, in the sixth standard most of us weren’t even attracted to the opposite sex, leave alone consider the use of knowledge as a probable weapon in wooing them. At this age, for the majority of us the daily happenings of the political scenario of Palestine didn’t interest us much (I’m not sure how many of us are even interested today). Nor did we really care about the extent to which the Alps beautified Switzerland. And the only reason we might watch the Animal Planet would’ve been because we found the sounds they made funny. We were too busy playing with our friends or joining some classes which would enhance our inborn traits.

We should watch TV with caution because we may get hooked on to it. It also causes harm to our eyes.

Okay, now who the hell started this one? It’s the BIGGEST hoax of our time. Watching too much TV from up close will make you myopic or astigmatic or something like that. Let me clear you of your dilemma, IT DOESN’T HAPPEN! It’s been scientifically proven that kids who are subjected to strain work (to the eyes) such as reading, TV, Computers are at a much higher risk of getting spectacles. However this effect takes place only when their eyes are developing, a process that ceases after 6-7 years of age. So this means that at 11 years of age, you can stay up all night with a packet of chip(s) and commit sins.

Leave the habit, don’t be ignorant!

TV makes us couch potatoes.

So does sitting on a chair from 9 AM to 3 PM with minimum break time and staring at a black rectangle (which might have become green and made of fiber at some places). But we can’t reduce the time at school now, can we? Oh now don’t give me crap saying that there are “games” periods, those are like twice in a week. Are you kidding me?

Somehow using TV for entertainment purposes was considered as a sin according to higher authorities. As if watching Friends was like taking a mural of a deity and smashing it to pieces and two movies back to back was a feat achieved only by the spoilt and delinquent.

Conclusion: The emphasis on writing an idealistic (idealistic according to the society by large) answer scripts (faultily termed as flawless) supercedes the thinking power. Though the teachers at the beginning of any writing activity say that try to be original and creative, they seldom mean it. This is because many of them truly believe in all those aforementioned points. Also students seldom feel rebellious when it comes to writing an essay and would much rather go with the general perceptions of things. So let me go ahead and blame the system, for its always easier to lay the blame on something else, right?

I am suffering from what most of you refer to as a writer’s block. The earlier sentence was thus framed because I have never suffered from a writer’s block before, or if not that, then for a very long time at the least. I use the word “suffered”, as though it’s some sort of disease because it is. It a really pathetic feeling to have when you have the drive, but you lack the what’s that again? Yeah, that’s how it is. I don’t even know what’s missing.

Generally what happens when one suffers from this terrible disease is that one cannot bring one’s self to write anything that remotely makes sense to the target audience(if there is one intended) and neither to ones own self(which is actually bad). This is usually because one is devoid of any ideas in one’s cerebrum, which I believe is the main controller in our brain (something like the brain of the brain)

This is what generally happens.

Sometimes what happens is this:
Your brain gets overloaded and you don’t know what to do. By overload, I’m referring to all those ideas that are jam-packed in your brain. And yes everyone has ideas.
Now when you feel like writing something, and get the pen to paper or your finger tips to the surface of the keyboard(which ever suits you), in your brain there is a volley of random ideas each of which is quite unique and would make for an excellent write-up, story, play-you name it.
The initiative for your writing something is generally a central theme, a rough mental picture of what you are going to write, and then gradually you build up on this skeleton until something concrete comes up. And finally you polish that and voila!
Now this train of ideas in your head clashes with your central theme. Before you start to build up on this central theme you are confronted by a few thousand other ideas and you feel like including all of them somehow in this write-up of yours.

What you do then is erase whatever you have written up till then and start over.

By now you would have guessed that this is a case of infinite recursion.

Okay,perhaps not infinite.