Sunday, May 30, 2010

Save Tigers

When man hunts – he hunts for pleasure, for money and to prove it to the world rather the universe that he is the strongest creature created by god. Human must have started hunting for food but later it became a status symbol. Royal kings and rich people in the past hunted tigers to show their power. Tiger fur and tiger head was used as a decoration piece which hung at a place where everyone could have a good look. It was a pride to display tiger’s dead body in the palace.

But slowly humans thought of a smarter idea and decided to use tiger’s bone and fur for making products which could be sold. Products could range from medicines to soap to a soft fur coat. In past no one worried about the ferocious specie would become extent.

Now a days there has been talks regarding Save Tigers. The number 1411 has become a talk of the time. You get to see 1411 as number at every possible place where one can notice it easily be it at an airport, or on television, or maybe social networking sites, or an article on a newspaper. When I saw the ad of Save Tigers on television which began with a gun shot it shattered me.

There was one more video which made me think when will man stop killing this innocent ferocious animal. I would definitely say that tigers are innocent even though they hunt and kill other animals. But their reason for killing is for food or maybe in defence they attack. They are a carnivores animal and they survive on flesh and bones. Now you might question why cant a tiger become vegetarian and stop hunting? Also you might say if a tiger wont stop hunting then why should we humans stop hunting. Well the answer to this question can be that there is no one to plan a diet chart for tigers. Also they are not smart like humans who can adjust in concrete jungles. We cant force a tiger to change his eating habits, his living habits but we can definitely stop ourselves from hunting them.

Now coming to the video which was about how and why tigers are killed. In the first video they showed a tiger which had gone mad and use to attack in a village at night. For people living in that village it had become difficult to move around once the sun would set. In the day light when they thought they were secure this mad tiger proved them wrong and attacked a group of kids going to school and killed one kid. Finally the forest officer woke up and spoke to the villagers. They made a trap to catch this mad tiger and finally he was killed. But there was a lot of anger inside the villagers and they wanted to take it out by killing one more tiger. This time the tiger they chose was not mad was not someone who would attack without reason. The villagers surrounded the tiger and hit him with stones, beat him with sticks, rods. They kept attacking him and finally he gave up and died.

The other video was about how some villagers kill tigers and sell tiger fur. Sometimes these illegal killers of the tigers are caught but most of the time it is difficult for the forest officers to track such people.

When I saw the ads on television regarding Save Tigers I wondered is the message reaching to the right people. People who are not educated enough and who don’t really understand the meaning of a specie becoming extinct. As such I know that even this write up wont reach up to the people who stay in villages but still I hope people who are concerned about saving tigers need to work on a grass root level. Talk to friends and maybe volunteer with forest officer and tell the disadvantages of killing tigers to villagers. The message of save tigers should basically reach out to the people who stay in jungles and who feel animals don't have a right to live; a right to survive.

We have already encroached and occupied the major land of India. Jungles at most places have disappeared; trees have been cut down and concrete jungle have come up. We no longer can live happily in a jungle with other animals but still we can try to let other animal species live in peace. Its not just tigers but every animal be it an elephant or a deer or a lion. After all they also have a right to live; right to survive and we are no one to take away this right from them just for our pleasure or for few rupees.

If in any part of your mind you have a feeling to hunt down an animal just think again is your reason for killing valid and if there is no valid reason then I can just beg to you that please stop hunting and stop killing. This request is not only for killing animals but also humans. Stop killing and lets try making this country rather this world a better place to live.

-- The End

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Views - IPL Lalit Modi's

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand written in 1957 is relevant in today's generation also. IPL's Lalit Modi case can be seen as an example stated in the novel. I am sharing few lines written in the novel. I hope you will feel free to comment on the lines :-)

Hank Rearden is a man in the novel who created his metal but there were some people who could not see his metal sell and a court case was registered that he is earning profit from the metal which is enormous and he doesnt have a right to keep that money. In the next lines I will write what he had to say.

I work for nothing but my own profit- which I make by selling my product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it. I dont produce it for their benefit at the expense of mine; and they dont buy it for my benefit at the expense of theirs; I dont sacrifice my interests to them nor do they sacrifice theirs to me; we deal as equals by mutual consent to mutual advantage- and I am proud of every penny I own in this manner, I am rich and I am proud of every penny I own. Do I wish to pay my workers more than their services are worth to me? I do not. Do I wish to sell my products for less than my customers are willing me to pay? I do not. Do I wish to sell it at a loss or give it away? I do not. If this is evil, do whatever you please about me, according to whatever standards you hold...... There are more lines for that read Atlas Shrugged from page 440-445.

I hope this says my views about the man in question today Lalit Modi. He is like Hank Rearden who gave IPL which became a hit business. But there are people who are not getting the money from this business for free; some people are jealous with the fact that how could he give such a hit business. I dont know how many agree with me but my believe is that Lalit Modi is not wrong and if some team had lied action should be taken against that team and not Modi. Suspending Modi from IPL Chairman position shows that the world has not changed.

Do read the novel; I am sure you would love it. And if already read then I am sure you would have enjoyed it. :-)

P.S. Who is John Galt? ;-)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Cat Story

This is not a story about my pet cats Dyna and Tintin. They also have a cute love story that I will share some other time. J But this time its a story about the Common Admission Test(CAT). The first hurdle to reach the b-school one loves. Till 2008 this exam was conducted with paper pencil. Which means lakhs of question papers and OMR sheets were printed. And maybe an idea struck to the people organizing CAT that lets save paper and go online. After all being eco-friendly is the buzz in the air so how could CAT be behind in proving that they are also eco-friendly.

Well having an exam online has other benefits also like manual computation is not needed. With the help of the software the scores will be recorded automatically so it would lessen the burden on humans. Definitely no one is against online system. India is progressing and we should make use of computers to make our lives easier. We should use computers only to make our life easier and not become a slave of this machine.

This is a true story and the events of this story started from 9th September 2009 and the story is still going on. The registration window opened for CAT opened from 9th September and the last date of registration was 1st October. This time instead of buying a CAT brochure (bulletin) from AXIS bank; one had to purchase CAT vouchers. After that instead of filling up a OMR form with details one had to fill an online form. Also with the online system there was no need to send the form through speed post. As already mentioned the benefits of online system our data got recorded automatically. But in this registration also there were issues. A person filled Jharkhand as the native state but the online system took Andhra Pradesh as the native state. So the registrations were stopped and the dates got extended for online registration.

Somehow the registration process closed successfully. The online CAT exam was to be held in 10 days and each day there were 2 slots. During the registration people selected the suitable date and time for exam. But some of them didn’t know that the date and time selected by them wont be suitable for the CAT server and it would crash because of technical glitches. The 10 day window of exam started from 28 November 2009 and was to end on 7 December 2009. I was lucky enough to witness as to what happens when a exam gets cancelled.

Being in job I could give the exam only on weekends and I love Sundays for exam so I selected 29th November as my exam day. Though I wanted to give a little later and select 6th December but I was a little late. 29th November at 3:30 PM I took the print out of admit card to my center, Silicon Institute of Technology, Patia, Bhubaneswar. On the first day of exams there was no news of cancellation from Bhubaneswar center maybe because the exam was not cancelled at the whole center but only 1 lab. I was the lucky one to be given that lab. Though we were asked not to take pencil or pen leave aside other things. Only our presence with an admit card and id proof was needed at the center. Still I had taken pencil and pen in case of any emergency. Anyways I was asked to deposit that also to the center. Now instead of guiding the candidates in my lab to the exam place we were taken to a classroom. At the beginning everything was fine because we were asked to come 2 hours before the exam i.e. 1:30 PM.

We relaxed and waited for the next announcement. It was 3 and no sign of anyone organizing the exam but only the students doing timepass. Then the tension started building up. People started roaming around and started talking about the exam. In the process I also started having conversation with the fellow candidates. I spoke to 2 girls one came from Rourkela while the other came from Vizag to give the exam. Finally at 3:15 PM a lady from Prometric appeared in our class. Prometric is the one who has designed the exam software for CAT. And in India they have partnered with NIIT.

The lady called out few names and took them to the lab. It was 3:30 PM and I was still waiting for the exam to start. The 2 girls were equally tensed as to whether their exam will happen or not. To calm them down I said that yesterday the exam started little late. Though I was also not sure as to what was happening. Finally the lady came back and we were asked to proceed to the lab and we found few familiar faces. People who had gone before us were also sitting in the lab looking at each other. Yes even their exam was not started. We were asked to occupy the seat. There was nothing to do and with the way things were going on I could sense that the exam has been cancelled.

Finally the Prometric lady announced that due to technical glitches it would take time for the exam to start. One guy from Prometric was on phone and trying to do all sorts of permutation and combination, manipulations to start up the online system. But god had other plans and all his efforts went in vein. He gave up the battle of starting the online exam. It was 4:30 and we knew that our exam has been cancelled. One guy had come from Hyderabad to give the exam and he was really angry. Wonder why he had not registered for an Hyderabad center. Anyways whatever be the reason it was a real pain for those who had come from far off places just to give CAT 2009 online exam. Also for them coming back again for the exam would definitely be difficult. The girl from Rourkela had taken leave from office. Even if the exam got scheduled in between she could not extend her leave. Everyone had thought of some convenience but because of technical glitches the CAT exam was going to get inconvenient for few people.

At 5 PM the lady finally appeared again and declared that the exam has been canceled because of technical glitches. We were asked to collect our belongings. Also asked to get in touch with the CAT Prometric Helpdesk for getting the exam rescheduled. We were handed over a sorry note saying that due to technical glitches your exam could not be held.

Getting in touch with Prometric was another hard challenge. Their number was always busy so I decided to drop a mail. But these people were so busy that they could not check the mails. Wonder why then they had the contact us facility on the site when the things were to be done over phone only. CAT organizers knew that in this 10 days window it would be hard to schedule exam for everyone and extended it by a day. Finally I could get in touch with the Prometric fellows over phone and talk to them. They said that even after extending the exam for one day they would have to schedule it again sometime later. The exam was not just being rescheduled for those who could not take up the exam because of technical glitches but also those who had complained that their exam got over early because of end button. Or any other problem they would have faced during the exam.

The MBA exam communities like Bell the Cat on orkut would not have been so active any year as it has been active till date. People would come up and discuss their exam experiences. Not just experiences but also the questions giving a benefit for those going to take the exam in the later slot as the questions got repeated in the later slots. Wonder why couldn’t CAT come up with more question banks and have a fair exam. Also wonder what benefit these people got by discussing their questions in such online forum. Infact one person had posted a complete set of questions in an online blog. It’s a different story that now that blog has been deleted. But I am sure it would have been helpful for many people giving the exam.

Was I able to give the CAT again? Definitely I was but getting my exam rescheduled was also not easy. Immediately after the first phase got over the CAT organizers made an announcement (without any loud speaker but on their site) that they will have a second phase in January 2010. The second phase dates decided for the exam was 30th and 31st January. I kept calling helpdesk and they kept giving the same answer that it would be rescheduled. Thankfully I knew few people whose exam also got cancelled because of technical glitches. And I got the news that people have started getting their admit card.

I again called up the CAT helpdesk and this time they had a new story to tell me. According to them my lab was shifted on the same day and for them I was an absentee. For them it was true that earlier my exam was scheduled in the lab in which exam got canceled but they had again rescheduled my exam to some other lab. I was in shock with the news. I was angry, frustrated and wanted to kill the lady talking to me over phone. Still with a calm tone I said “Do you think I am fool to go and sit in the lab where the exam got canceled. If you want I have a proof that my exam got canceled. I was given a regret letter from the center.” The lady would have thought I would lose the battle and keep the phone. On hearing this now she went into a shock and said mail us a scanned copy of admit card. I said “I will mail a copy of admit card. Along with that I will attach the admit card sent to me.” She said ok fine and we kept the phone.

At lunch I came back and the first thing I did was to mail the copy of regret letter and admit card to the retake id given to me. Also immediately I called up at the helpdesk to make sure that they received my email. Once I was assured that they had got my mail I went and had my lunch. Days kept on passing and nothing was happening. 30th was near and I was in a dilemma as to how will my exam be rescheduled. Should I call up the media and tell my problem. After all a person got his exam scheduled this way. His issue was that his exam got over soon. Or should I drop a mail to HRD ministry. I don’t know why but I didn’t want tobe a celebrity on television and opted for the second option.

I dropped a mail to HRD ministry stating my problem with the proves I had for being a genuine candidate to get an exam rescheduled. Though I didn’t get any response from them as I am a common girl(aam ladki). But it sure did help me in getting my admit card as the next time I called up the helpdesk I mentioned that I have dropped a mail to the HRD ministry. The person assured me that I would get an admit card on 28th January by the evening and I did get the admit card. First it was for 31st January 10 AM but then they rescheduled it to 30th January 10 AM.

On 29th January they mailed and messaged that because of cold waves in some parts of the country the exam would start by 12 PM and we had to reach by 10 AM. With an experience last time I knew there was no need to carry anything and only took the admit card and my id proof. Though in my jacket I had a Vaseline lip guard and my scooty keys. I reached the exam center and immediately I was given a pouch to keep my things. Then I was asked to go for a security check. The lady frisked me as if I was a terrorist who had come to blow up the exam center. She asked me to put the Vaseline lip guard, the scooty keys and even my non-digital normal watch inside the packet. Keeping the watch away was too much for me. If it had calculator or any other gadgets then keeping aside would have made sense. Also what is a need of a gadget when people can memorise questions and share it across the internet.

This time I went directly into my lab. After having a seat I was called up for a face scanning and finger print check. Thankfully like in jail I didn’t have to hold a card in my hand with my name and CAT registration number written on it. Finally when the organizers were sure that no candidate is a replacement of Munna bhai at the exam center the exam started. Though a guy had to show his id prove many a times and he looked like a gunda. Wonder what was the problem with his id card. Also for one guy his mouse was not working with which he was going to bell the cat. After all the hurdles, checks and trust the exam started. Where a demo of how to give the exam was given. I wont comment on my exam as I am not sure how it went.

As I said the story is still going on and now people are waiting for results. Earlier it was stated that the results would be declared on 22nd January 2010 but since there was a second phase rescheduled on 30th and 31st January 2010 the dates have been postponed. After that the CAT site kept saying sometime in mid February. Then it got shifted to last week of February. Even the media has gone mad along with the students and to scare the students more TOI published an article that the results would be declared yesterday. And now the helpdesk has started singing a new song which says exam will be declared in the first week of March.

So many petitions signed by people, so many mails sent to the HRD ministry, so many parents complained, so many candidates complained, Orkut’s Bell the Cat has become a active community with so much of CAT discussions. So many things happening but still people say bhaiya aal izz well. With this I end my CAT 2009 online system the CAT story.

P.S. With this I have reached my half century of blogging and hope like Tendulkar I will make a double century soon. :-)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Pune Terror Attacks

Seems like even terrorists were hit by the recession. There should be some reason for no attacks in India for so long. A country which has been hit by terrorist attacks every year had no major catastrophes after 26/11/08. On that day 10 terrorists created a big havoc in city and for 2 days we saw one of the biggest fights between the terrorists and Indian armed forces. Well definitely this blog is not dedicated to the 26/11 terror attacks.

This blog is about the recent terror attacks which happened in Pune on 13/02/09, a day before the valentine’s day. Though I am sure even after the terror attacks the city wont have stopped with the celebrations of valentine’s day.

I don’t know whether I should compliment the terror groups or feel sorry for the Indian intelligence. Wondering why I am saying so; the reason is quite simple because no one in Pune would have expected a terror attacks. Like it was not expected that there would be a terror attack in Bangalore, or maybe Jaipur, or how about Ahmedabad, or Hyderabad.

I am sure you all do remember the terror attacks in these cities of India. Do we know which city will be the next target? Atleast I don’t know the answer to this question. The only thing I know is that no city is safe. Next could be your city in the hit list of the terror attacks. I just hope whenever my death happens it should not be in some terror attacks.

I hope someday the Indian intelligence is able to grab the terrorists before they actually attack a city. And after grabbing them take some strict action but what can be a strict against people like them who are ready to die. Giving them a death sentence is definitely a very easy punishment for them. Maybe a Nazi torture which Hitler did is needed or some other form of torture so that these terrorists realize the importance of taking away those innocent lives which includes a common person like you or me.

A torture which can make these terrorists feel the pain of the family who lose their loved ones in such attacks. The loved one which could be a kid who doesn’t even understand the meaning of terror attacks. For others these are just stories or news but for those people who have lost someone in these attacks it’s a pain; a sorrow which will remain in their mind forever.

Thankfully I have not lost someone in these terror attacks but whenever I get to hear such news at some part of the country it shatters me. Just burning candles for those unfortunate souls who died in these terror attacks is not going to make me feel safer in this country. When will we get so strong that we will defeat these terror attacks? Or will it be never possible for India? I am not questioning anyone; I am not answering anyone; I am just feeling sorry for all those people who died in the Pune terror attacks.

At last even the terrorist groups were hit by recession and maybe they would have also fired some terrorists because they had to do a cost cutting. The basis of the firing could be the person who was asked to hold the gun was not capable enough to take away the lives of innocent people. Or the person was asked to kill the person s/he loved but s/he could not do that. Or a person fainted as soon as s/he saw blood flowing in front of him/her. Definitely there would be some reason that it took them so long to attack again in India. Or maybe they wanted a break as there were many terror attacks on India in 2008; infact every month there was an attack in India. Below link is the list of all the terror attacks which happened in 2008:

http://richaritwika.blogspot.com/2008/12/bomb-blast-in-india-in-2008.html

May the people who died in 13/02/10 terror attacks at Pune rest in peace.

Friday, January 15, 2010

3 Idiots - A Walk Down the Memory Lane

This time for a change I am not going to give a movie review because for me the movie is awesome and I could connect with the movie. This time I am just going to tell how I got connected with the movie. When I was in school I didn’t know what I want to become in life. Infact I was never even in the list of top 10 students in the school. I opted maths because I loved doing calculation. It was like a believe that a student opting maths has to do engineering. So I also went by this believe and gave all engineering entrance exam after my 12th. Luck was on my side and I cleared the entrance exam of BIT Mesra.

Before I tell my experience about BIT. Let me tell you one thing no one in my school would have ever thought that I can write such long posts. Now let me proceed to my college days. The 4 years I spent in college was fun. Now let me tell you how I got connected with the movie. The movie shows a suicide scene and I am reminded of students who took drugs because they could not bear the pressure of studies. This reminds me of students who died because of an overdose of drugs.

It was a shock to me to know that korex (the whitener) is used as drugs. I don’t know how could someone drink such a thing. But then I guess when the pressure created by college, family and society to excel in studies is so high that in this stress one takes up a path of self-destruction. Everyone has the same stress and pressure as those who committed suicide have.

But I was more like Rancho (Aamir Khan) shown in the movie. I never took the stress of excelling in college but just getting the knowledge. I was allotted Civil Branch which most people in those day didn’t want to study. Like others I also wished to change my branch and study computer science or information technology. But I was not that lucky to have ample grades for a branch change. I am thankful that my branch didn’t change because it was fun to learn about the things built around us. Fun to learn how a house is made, how foundation is given to a bridge, how a dome is designed.

I remember it was third semester and our classes had just started. The physics professor which we had got was pathetic and everyone would make fun of the way he taught. I never liked sitting in the front and as usual I was sitting just before the seat of boys. On the last seat boys were passing comments and I started smiling hearing those comments. The very moment the professor saw me and asked me to go out. I simply picked my notebook and left the class. But believe me if someone else (especially a girl) would have been there then that person would have said a sorry and tried to attend the class. Though at the end that professor tried to make my attendance short and I had to go to his chamber and beg to him to give me attendance but then if he was a good teacher everyone would have enjoyed his class.

What he taught was nothing new and it was more of the bookish knowledge which he gave to the students. I was not the kind of student who could memorise books. If I could do that then history would have been my favourite subject and I would have been an archaeologist. :-P Hope this history leasons are with some outing and students are shown various places and from there they learn about the subject.

Anyways I am no one to change the Indian education system. But definitely I can be myself. In fourth semester there were only 9 of us in Civil branch. Now people can understand how much popular was this branch at that time. But whatever be the case it will always be an evergreen branch because never ever construction will stop and never ever infrastructure development will take a backseat. :-P

In fourth semester one of my professors, Balram Singh (we call him Balu), gave us a problem to solve. I just looking at others then he asked me to solve the problem. But I said to him until and unless I don’t read this topic I wont be able to solve the question. He didn’t know what to say and just left the class. After that in the evening I referred to his notes and solved the question. His notes were very good. After that time I would always prepare the topic well in advance. And we would have a lot of debate in the class. Others would get bored but I liked his class. That semester I got highest marks in his subject. In the coming future also we had the same relation. And when I didn’t go to class he didn’t take a class and I had full attendance in his subjects.

My attitude to learn the course and not actually mug it up was also appreciated by one more professor, Sudeshna Mam. She was my professor in Steel Design and one day in a lab she called me up. She asked me to sit next to her. I was tensed as to what I have I done. But the thing she asked me has been one of the best moments in my life. She asked me how can she improve as a professor and what other students find bad in her. As a professor she is really good. She has a very good knowledge of topic and she waits for every student to finish the sum and if someone is stuck somewhere she tries to help the student solve the question. Atleast till the time I was in BIT she used to do that. But only thing is that she is a little strict and if one is 5 mins late then she would not allow people to come inside the class. But after our chit chat her strictness was lessened. I don’t know whether it was only with our batch or other batches were also lucky. But if one was drinking water from the water cooler she didn’t ask the person to leave the class. One of my friends doing Mtech from BIT was telling that Sudeshna mam still remembers me. :-)

Infact we had a survey camp in the college. It happens after fifth semester during winters for 10 days. Where on field we do an actual survey of the field and understand the landscape of field. Students are divided in groups and asked to do a survey of the field. This is one of the best things for Civil Engineering students in BIT Mesra. Infact no construction can start without a survey and having 10 days exclusively for survey is awesome. Its similar to having industrial training of one month during summer vacation.

Also the project I did in my final year was something to learn about. I along with my project group learnt how the soil behaviour changes with increasing proportion of cement being mixed in it. Our project was different and something new. Though we had to do a lot of manipulations but still we learnt a lot.

I wish to watch the movie again it was definitely a walk down the past. Much better than the novel 5 point someone which I read.