Pani Puris of Life

Hello Reader

If you have never enjoyed the high class luxuries like owning a penthouse with all high class facilities, rich bright colored, white shaded walls with famous paintings hanging on them, having bath in a jacuzzi, cuddling with your chihuahua, a rich wardrobe, having lunch at the most 'Englishly' civilized restaurant with the most lavish ambience, going to shop at Varsace and Louise Vuitton showrooms in your Audi, don't be deluded because you have encountered better events in your life. This sophisticated, well-bred lifestyle may really look good from the outside but trust me, real fun is in living down to earth.

It is just incomparable.

Eating your meal at a place with only noise coming out of the forks and spoons touching the plate, people silently swallowing in food with turkish napkins rigged to their collars or laps and the dining hall too shining with the perfect decor and the mannered and educated waiters can't be compared to the pani puri and other junk stalls on the roadside where you are served on wet, unhygienic plates and spoons with oily, unhealthy eatables mixed with a little bit of sweat, dust and automobile exhaust.

Ordering your well-dressed driver to the destination sitting back comfortably with all updated magazines and daily newspapers in the back door panel of your stylish sedan, with perfect inside atmosphere and temperature maintained by the air conditioner, just right amount of silence or music adjusted on your mood and tinted glasses to prevent you from the sunlight can't be compared to your struggle and fight to get the seat in a public bus, crowded so much that there is not even a little space to rest your foot, then hanging inside the bus with all varieties of people surrounding you, stinking with sweat, drunkards and in between the conductor whistling and fighting with you asking for the change.

Certainly the former is more humane, correct and cultured. But the real bliss is in the fight for the seat, the spice in the junk. One feels complete only after going through all that annoyance and discomfort. The value of water can only be felt after a long day of tedious hard work. Similarly, pleasure lies in such small things.
A smile from an unknown person, waving out to the crowd through the window, dancing in the rain, spending time with your loved ones rather than your new iPad and all other 'Me Gusta' jobs.
The spicy taste of Pani Puri!

In the name of God?

Hello Reader

Salman Rushdie, the famous booker-prize winner author had to leave an important literature festival at Jaipur as he was threatened to be killed by some Muslim groups. All this started when Salman's book 'the Satanic Verses' was released and got controversial because of its content. And it was said that it had hurt the sentiments of the Muslims. Salman had to face a fatwa branded on him by Darul Uloom Deoband.
A few weeks ago the Hindu Holy Scripture, the religious book 'Bhagvad Gita' was banned in Russia as Russians had a say that it contained certain inappropriate verses. Which lead o some discomfort in Indo-Russian relations and lead to lot of debates.
Many years ago, number of scientists were killed by the roman catholic church because the work of scientists, as per the church, was against the god. They said that the world, the universe, created by God cannot be simplified using silly scientific, mathematical equations.

So basically, from all these years, people have been killing one another for their Gods, to show their devotion to their religion. Their faith in God and their religious protocols win over their faith in the other fellow humans. They kill someone of their kind for someone whom they have never seen. And then same kind of people say God is everywhere. Oh yeah? Then you just killed your God, buddy.

Or I would say it is just a way to cover up the real reason behind the killings.
It is not what God wants you to do, its what your inner evil wants you to do.

So many sacrifices, women, children have died in the religious riots. They are countless.
Instead of praising the literary work or scientific achievements, people watch out for how something can be converted into a controversy on the basis of religion and call it 'against our rules'. Why do they call themselves secular then? and what about freedom of speech?

Young Muslim guys are trained and taught about the old fatwas and about the Jihad. Kasab is a snake, who has sprouted out of such a laid egg. They make terrorists in the name of god.

If there really is any God, he would be crying looking at how his name is being used to carry out the work of Satan.

Love, Humanity, Peace, Music are the religions to be followed which are unbiased. There can be walls between two territories but not in the hearts of people. I don't think any other religion teaches the Lesson of equality. If it did, The World would have been a better place to live.

Ashish

Engineering: public transport

Every year, in India, almost 35000 students aspiring to be engineers get selected into IITs or NITs. Actually, more than 10 lakh people try to get into these prestigious institutes every year. But, only 3.5 to 4 % of the massive crowd gets this opportunity. Here, I will talk about the rest 95 % of the students because I, myself fall in that category. These people either join other good, bad, average, government, private institutes or take drop for a year.

Now, every private institute claims to give the best. Best faculty, best laboratory facilities, best hostel and best placements. When you go for the counselling, you find every college has its own stall, like that you find in fun fairs, boasting their pros and previous achievements. It is almost like a sabzi mandi with representatives at the stall screaming “le lo le lo admission le lo, humara college best”. After you get brainwashed through these advertisements, you go into the main counselling room where you wait for your turn, as per you rank, to select the college you want. When you reach at the final table, you get about 2 minutes time to decide which college you wish to get belted in for the next four years. Just 2 minutes to decide your future. Even if you had decided to opt for which branch in which college, there is no surety of that seat to remain unfilled. Once you lock your choice of college and branch, you are kicked out of the main hall to make you realize your place in the crowd.

On the first day at college, you start attending lectures, you meet your new classmates and you are also introduced with the giant syllabus to be crossed in one semester. But you may feel good about the new college, new friends and a new start. This goes on for a while, the ‘feel-good’ moment. Soon it disappears as you find it is just repeating. You keep on reading and reading about the concepts of different theories of how things work and a few mathematical problems related to it. There really is no practical approach. They teach a concept and formulae related to it but never tell you where exactly it can useful in the daily life. You somehow learn the concept, understand it and clear the exam. Is that all? What they tell us certainly helps us score marks and clear the exams but what is the application of it? Where do you apply it? It is hardly taught anywhere.

At a point in your engineering, you find that it is just a formality to sit in the class, to listen to lectures and write exams, by hook or crook. After four years of so called struggle, you have a degree but not much of technical knowledge. For the four years, all that you do is read and read and do nothing that can be called practical.

Where is it taking you to?
What does one do after getting the degree?
Now, you stand in the middle of crossroads where you have umpteen options.
Even after finishing engineering, except for few, most of them those who get a job end up at an IT company regardless of their branch. Until and unless one has a technical job relative to his field of study, all that he studied for the last four years seems a waste.
All that you studied helps you clear your job interview but never after that.
Instead of just loading up the student’s minds with only stories and facts, there should be more about tackling the problems in real time.

Today, anybody can get engineering degree. There is no value of an engineer as much as it should be. An engineer is one who makes other people's life easy and keeps them happy. They are creators. But, now if there is nothing else to do and someone wants to be a graduate, first option he think for is to be an engineer...even if he has to sit in his daddy's grocery shop for the rest of his life.

It is like a Public transport bus which every one wants to board whether there is any seat or not. And public transport buses are always full. It has 50 seats, but takes in 80 people. Rest travel pulling, pushing and hanging through out the journey. But anyways everybody reaches the destination.

But it is true that, in the four years of engineering, an engineer, if interested, can learn a lot more than engineering. It is a lifetime in itself and teaches one to live life and how to manage things even in the last minute, how to adjust even if there is a cast away kind of situation. It all depends on the learner.

Ashish