Sunday, April 30, 2006

Exam blues,greens and oranges.....

"Humph !!" i said with anguish, making my way out of the exam hall. I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, but i wasnt half as worse i was,half hour ago. I silently made a resolve not too fool around for the next examination at the least. The entire world knows the strength of those resolutions made just after the completion of an examination. I am an ordinary person, and my resolve was just as similar. It is an iterative process that goes on with unfailing regularity. "Dei machi, vaa oru cold coffee adikalam" was all that was needed to dissolve my resolve. Off i went to the Coffee shop (guys,not the barrista !!) to drench my throat with a cold coffee. It was drizzling, and there are days when you wish that u were washed away by a current of water. And the drizzling helped the feeling to get stronger. I looked up the sky, hoping to see God who had committed the unpardonable crime of setting a tough question paper.

On the way, i could see a person smile, i never ever realised that simle can cause such jittery in a person. We sat sipping our coffee (a hot coffee converted to cold thanks to a fan ), a financial crisis acting as a catalyst for this transformation. If at all silence could act as a mode of communication, it was on that day. We were all able to sense each others anxiety with amazing alacrity. I decided to break the ice, and started to talk " guys... ", when they unanimously stared at me. Man !! if only looks could kill, I would have been a dead duck !!! I reverted back to my sanyasi pose sulkily sippin my cup. On our way back our frustration transformed to anger on seeing the smiling face of "Mr.expert in saponification". That guy really pissed me off !!!

We walked with an un(usual) silence that invariably followed any(every) examination. We managed to park ourselves in our usual feelings "spot",a tree-shade which was our temple of confession. Finally,one of us said, "what is our next exam ?". Everyone of us gave the negative nod, though each of us knew very well what and when our next exam was. It was our own stupid way to reconcile to the reality. If at all any piece of paper can rule 8 lives, it was the damn question paper... Each of us had a unique excuse for flunking, Out of portion(ie those which we didnt study), the clocks in exam hall ran at an unearthly rate(no time),the cursed temporary amnesia (we forgot what we studied), optical illusion AKA mirage (read the question wrong),electronic disorientation(calulator failure),tool diruption (A broken nib) and temporal lobe misinterpretations. But we guys werent the hopeless ones who repeated the same mistakes in succession. Our mistakes went in a perfect cyclic order. Never did we fall a prey to sussman anamoly.

After an hour of such so-called retrospection, we finally make up a decision to study for the next examination. The attempt comes to a sudden halt as one of our intellectuals suggested a solution to the problem that hung dauntingly before us. "A paper moderation". Then begins the hunt for the "Mr. saponifier", the biggest man hunt the world has ever witnessed. And Mr.saponifier is a mean customer. He locks himself up with his books in the most obscure places of the insti, with the intention of consuming the book in entirety. Finally we fished him out and put forth(portended) our proposal. After masquerading him with our suggestions, we set him forth on his mission to convince the resective staff. The result of this operation "Temperate" is the most obvious, the answer sheets are due to be corrected by imports from other insti !!!

Providence proves to be the culprit. This extraneous operation subsumes time to such an extent that we wished Mr.Einstein was wrong. We wished hopelessly that time travel was indeed possible. Midnight gong strikes, indicating that there remained exactly 12 hours for our next cold coffee. We started crammin for our next exam, holding every piece of charm that we could conceive of. Night rolls on to day and sunlight fills the room with light and our hearts with consternation and apprehensions. Our scanning of the books had managed to bring sufficient knowledge, knowledge that we were yet again out on a hopeless errand. After a breakfast-less session with books, we make our way through to exam hall, our fingers devoid of its nails. The question papers are yet again on our hands, which better served as napkins to our sweat-soaked hands. All that we could do was to look through the paned window, which unfailingly reinstated the principle of scattering of light,throwing out its spectrum with admirable mix of blue,green and orange......

Monday, April 03, 2006

Of Prima Donnas and Politics.....

People might wonder whats wrong with me as i am churning out more public issues and contemporary topics. I am quite wondering about that myself. So its no point trying to judge whats up with me. But yeah ! one should definitely think about what's happening in our country today. I am not being lopsided or attacking a particular personality. It's more about ourselves that i am speaking about. And the topic is something that all we youngsters should not merely be thinking about, but also act. And my title indicates all about that i am going to say.


As i mentioned about it before, it is not an attack on any particular individual or political parties, but a mere analysis of our involvement in our nation's interest. Politics has been phasing almost all sectors of day to day life. This is acclaimed by almost everybody around so I need not specify its importance. And it's also true that politics is being dominated by the cine sector. The eminent actors who idolise themselves in the people find it an easy entrance into politics and fame. So what the hell does bother u ??? thats what u would be asking now.... well i can list it out....

-> How can a sector which requires high degrees of education and intelligence, be dominated by actors and not by scholars ?

-> How can politicians stand the test of time dominating this long ?

-> What difference would it make if the field was any different ?



I am certainly not going to provide answers for these as I dont think i am quite experienced enough to do that. I am just going to provide my perspective. The first one is what perplexes me as it only requires common sense to make out that point. Persons who can hardly communicate in the Lingua Franca, can they contrieve anything that is worthwhile. Of course there can be exceptions and geniuses who can work that way. But is it something that we can leave it to a such an chance and hope that it works out ??? think guys. Imagine people from IIM's and IIT's and other such intitutions as ministers and members of the parliament. No longer will it be humiliating to watch the parliamentary session over a tv :-). No longer will DoorDarshan be required to put up ADs as frequently as they do now.... Guys, if that sounded funny, i can tell u it is not as funny as it seems. We are paying through our noses for a day that they spend at the parliament. It's time that we thought about this factor. Bring erudite people into politics.

The second question is the one that puzzles me the most. How could the Prima Donnas dominate this field so long ?? One possiblity could be because they are the ones that the masses look upto for identifying qualities that they can only dream of. Little do
they understand that the cinematic image the mummers create are just a mere figment of imagination. Already being a public figure they find an easy entrance into politics. If I were a President ( I am already one in my dreams !! )then i would have a special course on politics in all colleges and only Politics graduates could enter into polls. That too after AIPEE (all india politicians entrance exams)... :D Well that remains a fantasy, at least in the near future.



There have been many such initiatives by people who want to reform our politics, but they have neither been encouraged nor noticed. These thoughts of mine are not restricted to me alone.. It's been spoken about these days and there are a few organisations that are definitely going to come up with such a motive soon enough. I am still having the strong belief that more educated the politicians are the better will be their governance.. I also believe that the day is not very far and a time will come when politicians will be PhD s.


Exercising franchise will mean much more to me that day, much more than getting an indelibe ink mark on my index finger indicating yet another five year period passing off monotonically into perpetuity......