Note: This post was written on April 2, so quite a lot of it might be outdated.
It is so ironic that people do the most inhumane things in order to prove their community the best. That is, by doing such things you make others doubt in the ideals of your community more rather than making them sing praises for it. If at all there was a group of people that was superior to others and there was a way of proving it, it would be by being more tolerant to others and having a broad mindset and not the other way round.
Still, people use aggressiveness, violence and abuses in order to make their community ‘appear’ the best. I mean, how ridiculous is that?
I don’t need to cite any specific incident in this context; it is just in the air. You can simply feel the tension due to this segregated groupism. Groupism to highlight many differences: differences in gender by feminism, regional differences, religion differences. Reading certain comments on articles, I feel confused about why people are standing up for the oppressed: because they feel what happened was unfair or because they feel what happened was unfair to the ‘people of their community”.
What Varun Gandhi said was atrocious but read the comments to any of the articles about this on internet. Some people affront him by saying his religion worships the genitals and stuff. Is this why what he said was incorrect? Tell me, how is this even connected? Couldn’t you be more offended by the fact that he was trying to split this well-knit community by unnecessary ‘chingaris’ and saying erroneous thing about some section of society? Aren’t you humiliated by the unfair judgement which has been “labeled” as a mass-opinion by a particular group of people against the other? This brings both communities into bad light. The one against which the statements are made are definitely not portrayed good and the community saying so is judged intolerant for making such crude remarks.
Shiv Sena is (was) threatening Anjali Waghmare to quit Kasab’s case(which she did: I had written this long ago). To not comment on the act of idiocy by them, I will talk about the comments on such articles. People again forget the main point and discuss about how bad the other religion is. What Kasab did was wrong, definitely and it has resulted in bringing indignity to his nation. But Anjali’s decision is honouring our nation for standing on its ideals and giving fair judgement. And discussing about the brainwashing by leaders to instill a terrorist in an unassuming person, who is gullible to the exposure of false interpretations and assumptions, is far beyond my range of analysis. Not that I don’t have any opinion, it might be too naïve and amateurish.
I hate this injustice brought by sticking to your section of groups. More than the horrendous acts by certain people, I loathe the general judgement by common people on it. I just want fair verdict to all, and on basis what is wrong rather than on what could be wrong to their community. Why should you be insecure if one among the millions in a community turns out to be a disgrace? Accept it benevolently rather than getting offended or defending their acts.
So one of the most common questions is WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE? As far as I (as an amateur) can analyse this situation, I feel the more you probe into this, the deeper you get entangled. Demanding a revolution and criticizing the evil-doers will only result in making them stick more to their point. Oppressing their ideology will make them feel more compelled to bring it out in open. Increase in either of the extremes will increase the number of extremists in the other end too. These sensitive emotions need to be neutralized and that can be done only if we are tolerant and indifferent towards it. If more and more people grow indifferent to it, they will realize that such acts would not bring the desired results because these people just need a reaction from the crowd: either positive or negative. Any response keeps the fire alit. Writing against them, though might create awareness in many minds, it adds to their already- existing agony. I know, I am contradicting myself by exactly doing so, and which is why I had always been a little resistant in discussing about it, even I needed to express my ideas at least once. I still don’t mean that we should act as if nothing ever happened because that will only deepen the wounds of the victims. Help them and give them the aid they need. Just don’t sensationalize the already hyper-sensitive situation. The more you remind a child that he was hurt, the more he will cry and the more you try punishing the person who has beaten the child, the more that person will develop hatred towards him. That is it. And even if these attempts do neutralize the situation, it will be a forcefully amicable environment. Instead, try making the child realize that you will be there for them in the worst of situations and make the other person realize in a very friendly manner that what he did is totally unacceptable. I know, I know, what I am saying here is invalid to a large extent when you consider the big picture, but I was just trying to simplify things.
In Indian context, we have to make the extremists realize that we are not the people wearing mini-skirts and having highly accented English, but simple traditional Indians wearing Khadi Kurtas who feel concerned about the scenario. It is not that we have no faith in any religion but that we have respect for all religions and receptive to all types of traditions and customs. We have to strike a common chord with them and show that we aren’t being inconsiderate to their feelings or trying to degrade or even look down upon any of their beliefs. We all equally respect our tradition, only without vengeance for other traditions. Celebrating Valentine’s Day will in no way stop us from celebrating Diwali with same vigour. Atheism is not the solution we say, but communal harmony. We are the same hindu who will attend a christian function and also fast for an islamic fast.
Well, ever since people told me that my blog sounds ‘preachy’ I feel very uncomfortable in voicing my opinions. Hence, I have tried making it sound as light as possible. I still fear that I might have sounded too opinionated by now, so I will stop.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Manipal and seniors...
This post is dedicated to Manipal and my seniors.
First of all, I love both the above mentioned things. Manipal: It has one of the most happening college-campuses in India. The whole town is filled with students and every day here there is some event or the other in one of the colleges. It is the coolest thing of having so many colleges in the university grounds. I mean, in which other place can you get enough liberty to hold events right in the middle of the road, paint the roads, install speakers and play loud music and importantly get a huge youthful crowd? And these same roads are the famous hang-outs for students even when there is no event taking place. The best place, where you can sit and chat with friends without having to pay for it. Yes, we actually sit on roads here. No need to worry, vehicles are not allowed inside the campus, so it is quite safe. Imagine, we actually own the roads and need not worry about our safety. Everything is soooo conveniently designed with only students in mind.
I think all the colleges might have the same atmosphere but I feel special here. It is not just the campus that is ours, but the whole town itself. We get everything here at subsidized rates, even our sim cards. The student’s offer on sim cards is mind-blowing. It is unbelievably low and we get 100 free local sms everyday!!!!
Being in Manipal, you see only one age-group of people and hardly any older or younger person, except the faculty and shop-keepers and their children. This crowd is so hep and up-to-date as far as fashion is concerned. You see the prettiest of girls here, with amazing outfits, jewellery, accessories, hair-styles with a vast collection of cosmetics and make-up kits. And the place itself is such a wonderful scenic beauty. We are right in the middle of Western Ghats, and the coast is so near. Wow! There are so many beautiful places near Manipal: Malpe, Kaup, Udyavara, Gokarna, Coorg, Hampi, Jog falls,Karkala, Moodbidri, Hanumangundi et cetera.
I feel so safe here, I can actually walk back home at three in the night. With students everywhere, who should I be scared of, students? Now, don’t start mentioning the TISS case. As long as you aren’t in somebody house outside campus, nothing can happen to you, there are security guards everywhere.
Anyways, the best thing I like about Manipal is that more than being designed as a student’s town, it has so beautifully ‘evolved’ a perfect place for college going students. I mean, a simple mess over here is more popular than any of the fancy restaurants. And I just love how so many ‘canteens’ have “maggi noodles” and “cheese maggi” in their menu. It would be so unusual to see it in a menu elsewhere. Here many have no access to any kitchen or even a thing in which something can be boiled; Maggi becomes a favourite choice of students.
And the most unique thing about a campus like ours: this place almost magically becomes empty during semester breaks. That would be so unreal to picture any town or city to have this trait. I cannot even measure how much the localites might miss “its” crowd “twice every year”!!! Also, Manipal being somewhat in the middle of a not-so developed (so-called) city like Udupi, you can clearly see a remarkably extraordinary mixture of cultures. In Manipal, there are many foreign students and NRIs, who are comfortable in going all the way to a beach (via the city) in shorts and spaghetti tops. And on the other hand, you will see localite-girls wearing salwar suits and with nicely oiled and braided hair. It is a bizarre sight if you are a good observer, especially because both the cultures accept the other in a welcoming way and don’t mind the difference.
And also because of this huge range of places from where students migrate, you might not find any particular uniform code of ethics that are followed because you cannot narrow it to some rules as all these various students have different definitions of ethics, of what is wrong and right and of limitations. So, the college lets you free to set your own limitations and define your principles in the way you are comfortable or have been brought up. Fair enough.
Now talking particularly about our college, I can easily say if Manipal itself is the best college (from a teenager’s point of view) then MIC is the best among the best. It is the most chilled out place you can think of. The reasons we have, to go regularly to college are: to socialize with friends in the common room, to spare yourself from the scathing heat outside in the air-conditioned library with comfortable sofas (the library I must mention has an audio-visual room where people go anytime to watch their favourite shows in TV including cricket matches), to have all-day meals in canteen (with the bill in your “account”) where you can see nice videos of typical hindi movie songs and also to organize events for the club you are active in. With maximum of two classes a day, we MICians try making ourselves sooo busy over here. And then even our classes make us do such nice assignments, of done with interest like radio productions, AM plus weekly newspaper work, making our own website, film-analysis (which other course would make you watch movies as a part of curriculum?) or watch cricket and give a detailed report on it, organize events, make television production and a lot more. The best project till now for me was the history assignment, where we had to personally visit a historically important place and write about it. The assignment demanded a trip in itself!! And then, this college has almost given me a paid euro-tour if only I had planned it better. What else can you want from your college?
And now our seniors. I still can’t digest the fact that they will be leaving in less than a month’s period. I will seriously missing many of them. With Ram already gone, I have already started registering his absence. I cant imagine this place without our “leaders” and “inspirers”. Without them, we will be bunch of haphazard people who though might have creative ideas, would be clueless about executing them perfectly. Our seniors were the ones who took the initiatives and we followed. And seriously they make a great batch with soooo many talented people. Raaga (I don’t know why, but I will miss her the most), Ashima, Aashika, Anadi, Ruchika, Kriti, Karishma, Shaz, Sara, Norten, Nida, Anaswara, Ridhima, Bala, Aakruti, Arpitha (di), Bibash are all so good in their field of interest. And I am only mentioning those about whom I know at least a little. There will be many who would be equally talented and I would be unaware of it. If not miss them, I will at least find Manipal very different without these people. And yeah, one more thing: about Raga. I remember at first, when we had just come to Manipal, many of my classmates had rated her, the scariest senior. And now, I am so sure, more than that number there will be people who will be rating her as the most lovable senior!!! She is such a thought-provoking motivating inspiration! Even Ram, he might have scared many with his assertiveness-cum-aggressiveness, he was truly a role-model.
First of all, I love both the above mentioned things. Manipal: It has one of the most happening college-campuses in India. The whole town is filled with students and every day here there is some event or the other in one of the colleges. It is the coolest thing of having so many colleges in the university grounds. I mean, in which other place can you get enough liberty to hold events right in the middle of the road, paint the roads, install speakers and play loud music and importantly get a huge youthful crowd? And these same roads are the famous hang-outs for students even when there is no event taking place. The best place, where you can sit and chat with friends without having to pay for it. Yes, we actually sit on roads here. No need to worry, vehicles are not allowed inside the campus, so it is quite safe. Imagine, we actually own the roads and need not worry about our safety. Everything is soooo conveniently designed with only students in mind.
I think all the colleges might have the same atmosphere but I feel special here. It is not just the campus that is ours, but the whole town itself. We get everything here at subsidized rates, even our sim cards. The student’s offer on sim cards is mind-blowing. It is unbelievably low and we get 100 free local sms everyday!!!!
Being in Manipal, you see only one age-group of people and hardly any older or younger person, except the faculty and shop-keepers and their children. This crowd is so hep and up-to-date as far as fashion is concerned. You see the prettiest of girls here, with amazing outfits, jewellery, accessories, hair-styles with a vast collection of cosmetics and make-up kits. And the place itself is such a wonderful scenic beauty. We are right in the middle of Western Ghats, and the coast is so near. Wow! There are so many beautiful places near Manipal: Malpe, Kaup, Udyavara, Gokarna, Coorg, Hampi, Jog falls,Karkala, Moodbidri, Hanumangundi et cetera.
I feel so safe here, I can actually walk back home at three in the night. With students everywhere, who should I be scared of, students? Now, don’t start mentioning the TISS case. As long as you aren’t in somebody house outside campus, nothing can happen to you, there are security guards everywhere.
Anyways, the best thing I like about Manipal is that more than being designed as a student’s town, it has so beautifully ‘evolved’ a perfect place for college going students. I mean, a simple mess over here is more popular than any of the fancy restaurants. And I just love how so many ‘canteens’ have “maggi noodles” and “cheese maggi” in their menu. It would be so unusual to see it in a menu elsewhere. Here many have no access to any kitchen or even a thing in which something can be boiled; Maggi becomes a favourite choice of students.
And the most unique thing about a campus like ours: this place almost magically becomes empty during semester breaks. That would be so unreal to picture any town or city to have this trait. I cannot even measure how much the localites might miss “its” crowd “twice every year”!!! Also, Manipal being somewhat in the middle of a not-so developed (so-called) city like Udupi, you can clearly see a remarkably extraordinary mixture of cultures. In Manipal, there are many foreign students and NRIs, who are comfortable in going all the way to a beach (via the city) in shorts and spaghetti tops. And on the other hand, you will see localite-girls wearing salwar suits and with nicely oiled and braided hair. It is a bizarre sight if you are a good observer, especially because both the cultures accept the other in a welcoming way and don’t mind the difference.
And also because of this huge range of places from where students migrate, you might not find any particular uniform code of ethics that are followed because you cannot narrow it to some rules as all these various students have different definitions of ethics, of what is wrong and right and of limitations. So, the college lets you free to set your own limitations and define your principles in the way you are comfortable or have been brought up. Fair enough.
Now talking particularly about our college, I can easily say if Manipal itself is the best college (from a teenager’s point of view) then MIC is the best among the best. It is the most chilled out place you can think of. The reasons we have, to go regularly to college are: to socialize with friends in the common room, to spare yourself from the scathing heat outside in the air-conditioned library with comfortable sofas (the library I must mention has an audio-visual room where people go anytime to watch their favourite shows in TV including cricket matches), to have all-day meals in canteen (with the bill in your “account”) where you can see nice videos of typical hindi movie songs and also to organize events for the club you are active in. With maximum of two classes a day, we MICians try making ourselves sooo busy over here. And then even our classes make us do such nice assignments, of done with interest like radio productions, AM plus weekly newspaper work, making our own website, film-analysis (which other course would make you watch movies as a part of curriculum?) or watch cricket and give a detailed report on it, organize events, make television production and a lot more. The best project till now for me was the history assignment, where we had to personally visit a historically important place and write about it. The assignment demanded a trip in itself!! And then, this college has almost given me a paid euro-tour if only I had planned it better. What else can you want from your college?
And now our seniors. I still can’t digest the fact that they will be leaving in less than a month’s period. I will seriously missing many of them. With Ram already gone, I have already started registering his absence. I cant imagine this place without our “leaders” and “inspirers”. Without them, we will be bunch of haphazard people who though might have creative ideas, would be clueless about executing them perfectly. Our seniors were the ones who took the initiatives and we followed. And seriously they make a great batch with soooo many talented people. Raaga (I don’t know why, but I will miss her the most), Ashima, Aashika, Anadi, Ruchika, Kriti, Karishma, Shaz, Sara, Norten, Nida, Anaswara, Ridhima, Bala, Aakruti, Arpitha (di), Bibash are all so good in their field of interest. And I am only mentioning those about whom I know at least a little. There will be many who would be equally talented and I would be unaware of it. If not miss them, I will at least find Manipal very different without these people. And yeah, one more thing: about Raga. I remember at first, when we had just come to Manipal, many of my classmates had rated her, the scariest senior. And now, I am so sure, more than that number there will be people who will be rating her as the most lovable senior!!! She is such a thought-provoking motivating inspiration! Even Ram, he might have scared many with his assertiveness-cum-aggressiveness, he was truly a role-model.
It is...
Tan tanaaa!!!
Feeling freed from a burden of a secret!!!! RELIEVED.
So felt like talking about the burdens connected with secrets. Secrets are such strange things; something that is hidden so that it can be conveniently revealed to someone in such a way that the person is forced to not feel wrong about you. That is, when you do something wrong, you hide it and reveal it to the only person who will be affected and by doing so; you compel the person to not treat you harshly (who would otherwise have done so) because of it. hmm…. quite a puzzling thing it is.
So, SECRETS. So trust me, the best thing to do when you have a secret is to let go of it and free yourself from it. It is the best mantra. Because you usually hide it, when you think it is unacceptable and the more you cling to it, the more it pressurises you. It makes you feel worse about the issue every time you think of it and by doing you, you start considering yourself as a selfish creature to have done such a thing. And which makes you think that that particular thing was an unforgivable mistake. And so on and so forth.
BUT, the moment you share it with someone (even with someone hardly connected to it), the first thing you realise is that there is not anything that cannot be talked about, listened to, discussed about and forgiven. And while doing so, you automatically (because of self defence) come up with justifications for the act and clear your mind for harsh self-judgements. This is when you yourself get answers as to why something happened at the first place. More than knowing that a person has accepted you after knowing it, you feel better by acknowledging that you have finally accepted the fact and are fine with it. Your previously-considered wrong actions make sense to you then and your explanations make you forgive yourself. And I am not talking about BIG secrets here. Even a simple secret like getting to know someone likes someone else makes you hide it is because you aren’t supposed to know about it, until it has been official. It might not be something deplorable but still it is not apt for you to know it in a premature state. You can somewhat say, it might not be politically correct or something.
Again there are some other secrets like you being pregnant or something which you wish to keep to yourself until it is confirmed. These secrets are not what I am mentioning here. That you keep undisclosed because you aren’t sure of it and hence consider it too early and untimely to be told about. these are light, pleasant secrets and I am talking about those heavy secrets which might often give you headaches. Even then, even these kind of secrets have something in common with the secrets I am talking about. these secrets too, aren’t told usually because you are unsure of the situation and thereby might mislead people into expecting something. Which is why, they can also be categorised as incorrect and somehow can be linked to my explanation as to why secrets exist. But clearly there is a difference between these two types of secrets which is almost parallel to the difference between a black lie and a white one.
Hmm…. This makes sense to me, though I am not sure how many will be able to understand it. anyways, the bottom line is that feel free to share your secrets without the fear of being judged. And also that, secrets are good in a way, they give you the freedom to choose the right moment to reveal it to people and make them not condemn you for it. and in a way, it is a way of expressing that you were guilty about doing so or maybe sorry for whatever happened or at least considered it improper to be told at that moment. And yes, MAIN POINT. Don’t hide anything from me na, I would not mind if you told me about it. SO SECRETS PEOPLE…….!!!!!!!!!! Tell me asap! (And yes, don’t be extremely mean and give me horrid details of what you think about me. Such secrets are best kept HIDDEN! And yes, if there are such things, how dare you visit my blog and try knowing what I am up to? Finding more reasons to hate me? Anyways, good for me too. READERSHIP matters!)
Feeling freed from a burden of a secret!!!! RELIEVED.
So felt like talking about the burdens connected with secrets. Secrets are such strange things; something that is hidden so that it can be conveniently revealed to someone in such a way that the person is forced to not feel wrong about you. That is, when you do something wrong, you hide it and reveal it to the only person who will be affected and by doing so; you compel the person to not treat you harshly (who would otherwise have done so) because of it. hmm…. quite a puzzling thing it is.
So, SECRETS. So trust me, the best thing to do when you have a secret is to let go of it and free yourself from it. It is the best mantra. Because you usually hide it, when you think it is unacceptable and the more you cling to it, the more it pressurises you. It makes you feel worse about the issue every time you think of it and by doing you, you start considering yourself as a selfish creature to have done such a thing. And which makes you think that that particular thing was an unforgivable mistake. And so on and so forth.
BUT, the moment you share it with someone (even with someone hardly connected to it), the first thing you realise is that there is not anything that cannot be talked about, listened to, discussed about and forgiven. And while doing so, you automatically (because of self defence) come up with justifications for the act and clear your mind for harsh self-judgements. This is when you yourself get answers as to why something happened at the first place. More than knowing that a person has accepted you after knowing it, you feel better by acknowledging that you have finally accepted the fact and are fine with it. Your previously-considered wrong actions make sense to you then and your explanations make you forgive yourself. And I am not talking about BIG secrets here. Even a simple secret like getting to know someone likes someone else makes you hide it is because you aren’t supposed to know about it, until it has been official. It might not be something deplorable but still it is not apt for you to know it in a premature state. You can somewhat say, it might not be politically correct or something.
Again there are some other secrets like you being pregnant or something which you wish to keep to yourself until it is confirmed. These secrets are not what I am mentioning here. That you keep undisclosed because you aren’t sure of it and hence consider it too early and untimely to be told about. these are light, pleasant secrets and I am talking about those heavy secrets which might often give you headaches. Even then, even these kind of secrets have something in common with the secrets I am talking about. these secrets too, aren’t told usually because you are unsure of the situation and thereby might mislead people into expecting something. Which is why, they can also be categorised as incorrect and somehow can be linked to my explanation as to why secrets exist. But clearly there is a difference between these two types of secrets which is almost parallel to the difference between a black lie and a white one.
Hmm…. This makes sense to me, though I am not sure how many will be able to understand it. anyways, the bottom line is that feel free to share your secrets without the fear of being judged. And also that, secrets are good in a way, they give you the freedom to choose the right moment to reveal it to people and make them not condemn you for it. and in a way, it is a way of expressing that you were guilty about doing so or maybe sorry for whatever happened or at least considered it improper to be told at that moment. And yes, MAIN POINT. Don’t hide anything from me na, I would not mind if you told me about it. SO SECRETS PEOPLE…….!!!!!!!!!! Tell me asap! (And yes, don’t be extremely mean and give me horrid details of what you think about me. Such secrets are best kept HIDDEN! And yes, if there are such things, how dare you visit my blog and try knowing what I am up to? Finding more reasons to hate me? Anyways, good for me too. READERSHIP matters!)
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