Author: Sunny Jaiswal

Gifts of the decade!

You must have heard that some localities rammed and then burned a truck because the truck hit a boy of the locality and they even don’t leave the driver too, without knowing that the accident was the boy’s fault. They not only cause the damage to properties but they traumatize the driver too, maybe for life. What I advise them to think is, that, they can someday be a victim of a similar situation. What will he do at that point? Explain? No. Before he even opens his mouth to explain, he will be severely bruised and scarred for life, for a crime that he may have a minor contribution. These sort of news are a common occurrence but we pay no heed to it.
Using democracy the wrong way, they instantly form groups to stage protests, even if the government is planning a good initiative, but is causing them a little discomfort. An individual now practices only the rights that the constitution has given him, but what about the duties? If you can’t spare a little discomfort for a good cause, then you are not a citizen that India expects you to be. The situation is like this, that everyone wants India to reach the zenith, but no one wants to compromise. If their lives are compromised and they have to concede, they protest violently. It quite disheartening to see the people of India takes violent steps thinking that it’s the only way.
It’s like insensibility and insensitivity are the gifts of the century. It’s sad and quite funny to see that groups fighting each other on an issue as tiny as regulation of loudspeaker in an area. Why don’t they understand that there are other people living too, who need some rest at their homes after day’s hard work? But even ignoring the rules, they blow their loudspeakers out loud on accounts of celebration or religious ceremony. WTF, even god doesn’t want you to cause discomfort to others while praising him.   
                I wake up every morning, hoping that this can be the day, that the ‘mob’ remained inactive, just one day…but NO! a big fat NO as if that’s impossible. As I was writing this column, fresh riots started off in multiple districts; here in Allahabad, the Muslims started a row against the killings of Muslims in north-eastern states. But the protest ended up being violent causing a curfew being imposed in few parts of city. I hadn’t thought that I would get such a fresh example to emphasize my point. This just proves that a mob is like a herd of sheep directed by stimulants fuelled up by riots after riots.
                One of the reasons I can see is the Indian concept ‘Unity in diversity’, backfiring in the backdrop. With the current riots forged between the north-eastern and the Muslims, the stage is all set for bringing the failure to once-thought brilliant concept.
                Wait, my angel part of brain thinks that there is still hope, what a douche!!! I will listen to the devil this time…..there is no hope in living under such pitiful circumstances, where you might be the next victim of let’s say an ethnic, communal, sports hooligans, religious riot; unless the mentality of the riot-mind-infested change for the good.

Think it over!

Read a quote today:
“I think
.
.
.
.
Therefore I am single”
And I was forced to think of the prejudiced thought about thinking. It’s not a covert fact that thinking does takes out a lot of fun of any activity. Instead of thinking it over and over again, if one does give a try to the challenge, it not only shows the brave attitude but gives the person a lifelong experience even if he fails to accomplish the challenge. My philosophy says a challenging life is much better than a risk-free monotonous life. The precious learning that one gets after trying to go for it, instead of holding back the ground is worthless. I have got a perfect example to accentuate my point: There was a friend of mine who liked a girl from his school. He used to see her everyday, but couldn’t muster up enough courage to talk to her or ask her out. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t talk to girls, but his clock stopped working when the girl, say X, was around. Now, the school ended, but there he was, still unable to convey the emotions to her. He still regrets his indecisive state at that time. Had he told X about how he felt about her, what could be the gravest thing that could have happened? She would have said “no” citing some random reasons. But atleast he wouldn’t have the repentness of not knowing what she would have said.
          Thinking is okay till one considers all of the possibilities and consequences of taking a step, but when it goes one-step ahead to a stage where procrastination peeks from behind the door, it’s time to follow the steps below. It’s not like I will tell you to make a pro and con list, but it sure looks like a textbook solution for most of the doubts, isn’t it? I am just kidding; here are some of the points to keep in mind when you are in such turmoil.
1.       Just do it: The best way; forget about the consequences and just step out. Future prospects are the things that stop you from taking a decision, so take it out of the thinking equation.
2.       Think the right way: Really think hard if you really want it and if it actually helps you in achieving your goals. If the answer is yes, then you know what you have to do.
3.       Ask your intuition: These kinds of confusions are really solved by following one’s intuition. There is a saying ‘Follow your intuition and everything will fall into place’. This is as true as gravitation theory. If you are indecisive about something, trying out your intuition isn’t the worst of options.
4.       Discuss with one: Taking advices is not really a thing that most experts would advice. But from my experience, there is a person in every one’s life with whom we feel comfortable such that sharing anything is as easy as slicing butter. Find that person that is most adept about the theme of your doubt and who is understands you enough to provide you with a better perspective. The person can be your lover, closest friend, college mate, hostel mate, parents, sibling or a school mate. And it’s better to take advice from a few individuals only. 

Imagination gone puff!

Read it somewhere on the internet, but it really paints the picture merely from words.
                “9 year old today have Facebook, Twitter, phones, and iPods.
                When I was their age, I had colouring books, crayons, chalk and imagination.”
Well, at first, it may sound absurd, but the truth is that’s what has happened with the human evolution after the introduction of TV’s, Computer and other digital devices capable of showing us what only our naked eye could have shown, a century ago. This may seem rhetoric, but you will realize that just how apt it is when you think about it seriously.
                There were methods to stay creative, knowingly or unknowingly, the brain in way of processing our daily activities found necessary ingredients that helped it stay fit and healthy. But the unhealthy timetable of a person nowadays is either so hectic or so ‘lazy-like’ that it is affecting the brain in a bad way.
We, as kids, used to go to the terraces when the electricity wasn’t there and certainly not worried about when will the electricity be back again…we would do all kinds of stuff, enjoy the calmness beneath the sky, the refreshing breezy air, succumbing to the Mother Nature and yet appreciating the beauty of it. There would be an open exchange of ideas, the thoughts pouring in on the open minds: that’s all you need to get an out of box idea, isn’t it? But, nowadays, the common trend is being engrossed in TVs, video games, playstations, PSPs, Facebook etc. With no time for building their thought process, the probability that they might contribute something fruitful to the society looks a bit diminishing. Why only kids or students, parents too aren’t impregnable by these activities. Nowadays, an average office-going person spends more than a third of his day at his office cubicle and when he returns home, is again entrapped in a bigger cubicle, only this time he has a television in front of him. Some even take their professional work to home.
I am not asking to put a ban on the television etc., it’s true that it’s a way creative people show their skills to the world via the daily soaps, reality gigs, game shows, movies etc but inadvertently they are putting the imaginative bird of the viewers to sleep. Yes, that is arguably true, because your brain can work as much you want it to be, but give it a hint of distraction and it switches itself off. These are acting like distraction and putting our mind away from the real thing for which the brain is made up for. Our brain is not compatible with such long viewing hours of televisions or anything of that sort.
 Now hours of thinking have been replaced with hours of TV sitting, talking face to face with friends has been replaced with communication via social networking. It’s not healthy; neither for any individual’s health nor for the society.  The solution to this remains an enigma.* But can be circumcised by a little awareness from the parents. Being aware of this problem is also a big success while working towards the solution. Giving a limited time to the digital Medias may help too. Earn some time for yourself, and think about who are you, how have you been living? Daydream about what you want. Daydream is actually our brain’s way of getting us to creatively focus on what it is we really want. These solutions may not be easy to follow, but will surely bring your life back to track.

God particle isn’t in the hands of God anymore

The discovery has been finally made. The Standard model of quantum physics holds true. The researches and the hard work put up by Peter Higgs and his team of scientists has finally paid dividends. When Higgs gave the theoretical model of this particle back in 1964, very few accepted it; infact he was mocked. When the science community was expecting the found particle to be the Higgs-boson particle, Stephen Hawking even lost a 100$ bet with Gordon Kane (of Michigan University), that the results would be different. Well, a little heads up for those who are expecting concrete results; CERN says they have found a new particle with 99.999% certainty, it will take some time to confirm the found particle is indeed the much speculated Higgs-boson or not.
                The particle is nicknamed the ‘God particle’ (obviously by non-scientists), that brought the attention of media towards this research and resulted in the jaw-dropping publicity and may have offended some theists due to its nickname.
                To know more about the whole story, let’s take you back a few years back.  A Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built by CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 2008 (actually it took about 10 years to be built), at the Swiss- French border near Geneva. Laid in a 27 km length, it was setup to validate the existence of the Higgs- boson experimentally. According to the theory, two 7 TeV proton beams collide to create an environment for observing the Higgs-boson particle. Currently, the LHC can accelerate protons to 4 TeV only, but soon it will be upgraded for optimum work. For getting better results, researches were carried out by two teams working independently to ensure that the results that are going to follow don’t look like a fluke. However, after combining datasets of the two teams, CMS and ATLAS, the results looked consistent and promising.
                It all started when bosons was discovered in the mid 1920s, which are nothing but subatomic particles with integer spin. The bosons is named after Satyendra Nath Bose, who did pioneering work in Bose- Einstein statistics, along with Einstein. The Higgs boson is an elementary boson, having no spin, is believed to give mass to other particles via the Higgs mechanism. According to this mechanism, a particle gains mass in a Higgs field, in the presence of some fundamental particles. One of the fundamental particle is Higgs boson.
                Well! long story short, if the synthesized particle is proved to be the Higgs boson, it will surely be a major breakthrough for science. Plus it will firmly cement the Standard model in science community.

Change the Game

With the advent of EURO CUP-12 and departure of IPL, the tide of entertainment has turned to football once again. The football fever is catching people by surprise. I mean that’s not normal in India where cricket is a religion and cricketers gods. But the time has changed now and the new ‘Gods’ are rising!
When I realized this shift in trends, I was forced to ponder, what on earth is wrong with people of India. What changed? Where is the mob that devoted themselves for cricket? Where are those people of small cities that relied on radios for the latest scores? Where are the toddlers that knew no other game than cricket which they played even in the scorching sun? What is bringing the dismissal of cricket as the ‘major sporting event’?
 The answer lies in the following paragraph.
 One of the major reasons that football is taking over the world is that there is a whole lot more passion in this game. The crowd, the jeering, the Mexican waves, the enchanting, the loyalties; all entwine together to make it an exquisite entertainer. Now, unlike cricket, football doesn’t has to break-off every five minutes, thus the momentum and thrill is maintained. Audience can enjoy 90 minutes of pure athleticism without boredom. Plus the 90 min limit enables one to plan out everything before and after the game. The thrill and excitement knows no bound, and the non-anticipatory action adds salt to the taste. Maybe, the business mindset of IPL’s accounts for the lost interest in the game, or it may be the overdose of it. In all, football gives a totally different feel that is not insured in the willow driven game.  At a teenage level, since it requires not much arrangement; just grab a ball (for starters) and remember few ground-rules, and you are ready to go. It may not be the best choice in the sultry summers of India, but who cares when you have donned a Messi’s jersey and have the ball. The passion driving makes up for the fatigue.
So, don’t be surprised the next time you see the teenagers following up the ‘Change the game’ mantra……because football is the next big thing after cricket that’s going to surface on Indian subcontinent soon.

A dramatic end!

Alas!!! Manchester City won the prestigious English Premier League, pretty much to the dislike of teams like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool (they don’t seem to really care now) and especially Manchester United. To many of the die-hard devotees of MANU, this may be the end of the world. They would have been ready to paint the town red, when Sergio Aguero’s impossible goal in 94’ shattered the hopes and forced the cheerful RED part of Manchester to mourn.  A person active on the fan pages of MANU would be feeling like an idiot that just realized that he has now been blabbering for a whole year and now expecting some respect.
 Now the thing that’s concerning is that, with title in City’s hands,  all the things; the hustles the crazy fans make,  cheering in the stands, the hooting, some dying from forwarding the ‘Mexican waves’…the question worth asking is…..does it really mean anything now. BPL in City’s hands, a team without history, but certainly powerful enough to buy the best footballers, it makes one wonder where is the passion that drove the fans crazy? One might raise his voice against this opinion, since undoubtedly City earned the trophy, they worked hard for it, but it’s not the wins or losses that in the talks in here, but the thrill and pride that the game brings it in itself. Fans make the game and City doesn’t look like they need a fan- base to gain their accomplishments.
                Now with City’s only trophy in their trophy shelf, they will have their heads high, but the truth is that the players know that they were like a mini World XI, assembled in a short time that managed a stopping time grab on the title out of the blue. Many City fans 0will sure find it contentious to swallow but something is surely missing in the triumph. Plus, now being only the 6thdifferent winner of the EPL, it puts on an added pressure of the expectation of consistent performance. And that according to the pundits may not be as easy as it sounds. The way is too tough for them and being new to ‘the business of defending’, they are like a boy dressed like Santa with a million dollar in the hood, with every hoody bullying him for his share. Defending the title will certainly pave them in hell’s path.
                Well anyways good luck to them and congratulations for the gain. Well, everyone loves competition and a team like United will like to take positives from the season (that’s pretty much they can do now) and hope they get their 20thtitle soon.

Last night fighters

Let me make the definition clear to you, in case you get the wrong impression: Last night fighter is the name given to the students (generally engineering ones), that do not study the whole semester, and when the water level is well above their necks, they panic in to start from the start.
Unlike the name suggests, these are not real fighters, but I certainly won’t rank them below, they don’t have such deadly weapons, but pen and other stationeries. But hey! A pen is mightier than sword.
These are mostly and usually last benchers, who make a huge mockery of the teachers, by studying the whole syllabus in just 2 or 3 days before exams, when the latter takes a whole semester for doing that.
As once said by our ex- president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,
                                             ‘’ If you want to top in the exams, ask the front seators
                                             But if you want to succeed in life, ask the last benchers.’’
They prove their mettle as studies show that people that are respected were mostly these folks. The idea behind this is not you are right now concluding but I want to incentivize you to not go by the bookish knowledge, but forming your own thoughts, which personally I think is needed and appreciated worldwide…….this comes from my personal experience which I duly learned at right time.
              Now focussing back on topic, these students are real champs, and the fact that they score, if not more, not much less than their so called bright counterparts, make them special. They generally attend classes, get the basic idea and that’s it…they are done…..revising it one more time, will get that in their brains.
              Last night fighting is not always natural, but it an also be developed, but after its development, it is superfluous, and has surplus advantages. The best ones are the ones, that man-oeuvre the task on the last night, fighting for survival, and looking for ways (like important questions, ways of cheating etc.) to get the best marks. Well, engineering life is all about that. If you can’t, not a problem; but if are equipped, time to feel proud.
              I bow down to these masterpieces, to their precious skill, to the spirit, to the limitless stamina (Here stamina is defined a little bit differently from the general definition), to the prowess ability to form & execute their plans in a day.
Much is said about them, about the damage they are conceding, but they are adamant, showing that if the teaching system isn’t going to improve, they aren’t going to be either.

Fighters

Black Swan

I saw this movie last week, directed by  Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman as Nina, the prime ballet dancer.
The movie commences slowly, but as Nina unfolds the fight with herself, it takes movie to a whole new level. Some of the scenes in the movie are very well enacted and executed with perfection. 


Nina is chosen as the ‘Swan Queen’, comprising of the fragile and innocent White Swan and the sensuous Black Swan. Nina is perfect for the  role of White Swan but not as a Black Swan. She is chosen to be the ‘Swan Queen’, on the promise that she will perfect the role of Black Swan too. As the director of her ballet says she is very controlled, and needs to lose some control on herself and she needs to let go for herself to perfectly depict the Black Swan. She thinks that Lily(a character) wants to steal her role…..but as the movie progresses its interesting to note down her realizations
The movie shows the trauma of working in an over competitive environment, where everyone wanted to be the Swan Queen. In the end, she transforms herself into a black swan, which is when she realises that the biggest competition for her is herself.


It won many critics praises.


I have embedded a trailer courtesy- You Tube.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs&w=640&h=390]



I would say its a must watch.
Go for it, if you haven’t still!

Life in a hostel

Living life in a hostel is one of the greatest pleasures that one can have in his teenage or even at an elderly age.
With absolutely no one to keep a watch on you, one is free to experiment with his life. 

World Cup 2011

Finally after 28 years of waiting, India has won the World Cup. With celebrations heard all around, every city, state, in every nook & corner of India, one can easily imagine how much the Indians expected this trophy to come back in India.
Indian team did fallout against South Africa in the group stages, but after rising from that hiccup, they never turned their back at the challenges. Qualifying for the knockout stages was expected to be a walk in the park for them, and they didn’t seem to be very much concerned about it. Then came the real fight for survival, first theKangaroos, and then the mighty rivals Pakistan. After getting win in these 2 games, the confidence returned to the team, and it showed in their body languages, in terms of their fielding and much improved bowling.
I was in Allahabad at the time of WC, and saw an immense excitement in the locals. They used to colour their faces in tricolors, and take the TV sets in the open and watch the entire match with enthuse and dancing at every possible chance. And every awesome show of an Indian win would increase their hopes, anticipation & vigour manifolds. As we all know, cricket is more like a religion than a game in India, so it was not a surprising to see them showing off their emotions at the opponents.Talking of the finale, the toss was won by Sri Lanka, and they put India to field first. On papers, a 6-wicket win may look like a comfortable chase, but it wasn’t like that; India, especially Gambhir & Dhoni chased up the game to show the door to the Lankans.

This WC win becomes more pronounced due to the fact that it was the last WC for Sachin, and he hadn’t had any WC wins in his account, so the WC also puts an end to his WC drought.
After the match, the team took a winning lap, with Sachin on the shoulders to show him gratitude for his services to the Indian team.
I wish all the good luck for the Indian team for their future round of matches, wish they continue their consistent run.

Well done team INDIA!!!!