Durga Puja

These lines are from an ad campaign done during Durga Puja at West Bengal.

Saptamite prathom dekha,

Astamite hasi…………………………………..!!!!

Nabamite bolchi ami ,

Tomay bhalobasi………….:-) :-)!!

Dashamite hathath keno akul holo pran,

Pran pratima ebar tumi …….

Jabe ki bhasan …………………. :-( :-(

One of my friend told the story behind writing these lines. Here is what he said to me.

Durga Puja is a big festival for Bengalis. During this time people get a chance to buy new clothes, ornaments and jewelry. Boys wear new dresses and visit the pandals in the city. While girls also come out of houses and visit pandals. Girls also wear new dresses, jewelry and ornaments. During this time boys get to meet many girls in the pandals. The girl smiles and confesses her love for the boy. But the boy is worried that like the way Goddess Durga is immersed on the 10th day of the celebration, will the love of the girl also immerse??? The girl has become a goddess for the guy and the feeling that the love might immerse makes him sad.

While my understanding about these lines are that saptmi when the pandals open the child gets to see the Goddess for the first time. On asthami the child notices a smile on the goddess. On navmi the goddess tells him you are a good person and I love you. On dashmi the child is sad because he knows the people are going to immerse the Goddess and she will go away. :-(

Definitely we cant say that boys go to pandal to find a girl who will become his life partner. As there is a saying that har shike ke 2 pehlun hote hain. So people can look at these lines in different ways. The important thing is that 3 days everyone is visiting pandals, buying new dresses, jwelery, ornaments, celebrating Durga Puja. But every good thing has to end and the puja ends on dashmi with the immersing of the idol of Goddess Durga.

At last I would just say Happy Durga Puja, Navratri and Dusshera. So people enjoy the festival to the fullest. :-)

Reservation in India

What is reservation? Reservation is when a person books a place in restaurant, flight, train, bus etc. The pre-booking of place at restaurant does not ensure that the quality of food which would be served by the restaurant would be good or the seats of the flight, bus or train would be comfortable. Reservation just ensures that a place has been secured in advance. When reservation does not ensure quality food in a restaurant the person might fall sick because of bad food.

Now let me talk about reservation in education in India which would be given to those who are considered people from backward class. These people definitely get an ensured seat in a good college because of reservation but then who will ensure the quality of engineers, doctors, lawyers and other professional students which would come out from the college. The government which has given reservation to backward people in the name of upliftment will they ensure quality?

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar who is popularly known as Babasaheb came from a dalit family but he became the first law minister of India. When he became the law minister there was no reservation for position in the Indian parliament which led him to become law minister; it was his merits, skills, dedication and hard work which made him law minister of India.

Reservation in education for backward class should be strict NO rather government should ensure that good primary education is provided in every part of the country and these people are encouraged to attend schools and become competitive enough to clear the competition exams on merit and occupy the seat along with upper caste candidate on the basis of merit and not reservation.

The question which the government should ask themselves is that whether primary education is reaching out to the poor people staying in villages; are there enough government schools and teachers who are willing to provide free education to the poor people.

But again providing a good primary education is not just a responsibility of government we as citizen of India also have some moral responsibility towards this. In the movie Swades it has been beautifully shown a NRI comes back to India and spreads the message of education. Something similar has been shown in the movie Arakashan. But real life is not a movie and the modern Indians who are voicing their opinion regarding reservation they should ask themselves are they ready to go to a place where there is no electricity or no water connection and teach the children in such places. Are we ready to treat everyone equal in our classrooms irrespective of which caste, creed, culture, color, place, religion or gender one belongs to.

By providing reservation what government is doing is definitely not right but we should ask question to ourselves that is our attitude to those people who belong to backward class right. The backward class should ask the question to themselves that is reservation what they really need to prove to the world their worth. Only when every Indian will get ready to spread primary education among children irrespective of their caste, creed, culture, color, place, religion or gender would be time when we would really see a change; a change that would be positive; a change which would be for the betterment of every Indian.

I am also against the concept of donation which the rich people avail so that they can ensure better education for their child but right now my concern is over the caste based reservation. A positive change is very much needed and upliftment of those who are financially weak is required but providing reservation in the name of caste is not an answer for the change. Let both rich and poor people prove their worth through merit rather than paying money or getting admission in reserved quota. Let there be a fair competition between all the categories so that there is a feeling of a just society.

Solar Energy and India

19 states, 3 power grids and one problem – blackout and half India became dark for hours. Reasons of the blackout as mentioned by the official people is that few states were overdrawing the power allocated to them and so the power tripped. But no proper maintenance of the equipment could also be the problem which affected north, east and north-east regions of India together.

The problem happened and every news channel covered it. People spoke about the problem over social networking sites such as facebook, twitter. But now with this problem it is time to realize coal will not be there forever after all it is a non-renewable resource of energy. So we need to switch to renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and frankly India has ample solar and wind resources which should be tapped for power generation.

Many countries in the world are already using solar energy for electricity generation. Germany which has topped the list of countries for the usage of solar energy for providing electricity and the country has been doing great job in providing electricity to the people. In India also we can see that the electricity problems in Gujarat have gone down with the use of solar energy. So tapping solar power for electricity generation definitely looks a positive solution for the electricity problems in India.

With the usage of solar energy such blackout problems will definitely be avoided in future. This would also ensure that even rural parts of India are lighted up and people in villages have electricity. It is not just the government who should setup solar power plants but the people of India also need should take some responsibility of using solar energy for future benefits. Every individual houses, apartments, schools, hospitals, colleges and offices should be advised to install solar based geyser for having hot water. The initial setup cost of installing solar geysers would be high but then people would save electricity bills. There are other benefits also of using solar energy well this source of energy does not create pollution which is created by using thermal energy. There are no radioactive wastes which are there by using nuclear energy.

Well the future will only tell whether people have realized the benefits of using a clean, green and eco-friendly source of energy. But if in future we don’t want breaking news related to half of India having a blackout then solar energy is definitely the answer which the government should focus upon. 

P.S. Share your views regarding alternative sources of energy for electricity generation.

Why Jharkhand is neglected in the Railway Budget

Let me share a small story which happened with me last year. In February 2011 I was travelling to Ranchi from Bangalore and there were college students in my coupe. The train starts at 8:30 AM in the morning from Yeshwantpur which reaches Hatia (a place in Ranchi itself) on the second day at 7:15 PM in the evening. During the day we people were mostly silent and not saying much. By the evening we co-passengers started talking and discussing various things. One topic which we started discussing was the inconvenience of travelling from Bangalore to Ranchi. We all said that how difficult it is to get a ticket in the bi-weekly train; even after booking the ticket one month in advance it is tough to get a confirmed ticket. Also since there are no direct flights this bi-weekly train is the only option for students or take a train/flights from other cities which increases the cost. We know it has been ages since students/working professionals have been coming to Bangalore from Ranchi and even in these 10 years there is no direct connectivity between Ranchi and Bangalore on an everyday basis.

During this rail budget I read North-East complaining that their region has been neglected but there was no such opinion voiced from Jharkhand. I wonder why are the problem of travel from Ranchi to other cities limited only in the train journeys where people discuss this issue. Why there are no newsletters or blogs or stories written about this? Why even media is also not interested in the problems associated with Jharkhand?

I remember when Bangalore Metro (Namma Metro) progress was not happening everyday Times of India would have a coverage asking the govt when the work will get over and how much time will it really take. Now it has been more than 10 years since the Koderma to Hazirabagh line was announced by the NDA government and still we dont know what is the progress in this. There is no media coverage; no follow ups; no updates as to when will this route get the much awaited line.

I wonder how many more years will it take to see a change in Jharkhand. I hope those who have spent 16-20 years in the state of Jharkhand also voice their opinion and make the world realize Jharkhand is no less state in India.

I hope to see a change in Jharkhand and with that hope I have written this blog.

Share your opinion about this :-)

कहानी फसबूक और ओरकुट की...

यह कहानी है 2 दोस्तों के दुश्मन बने की. फसबूक और ओरकुट 2 अछे दोस्त हुआ करते थे. हर समय साथ रहते; साथ खाते; साथ सोते; साथ पढ़ते; साथ खेलते. दोनों की दोस्ती इतनी गहरी थी की दोनों एक दुसरे के लिए जान भी देने को तयार थे.

फिर एक दिन ऐसा आया जब ओरकुट को फसबूक का साथ बेकार लगने लगा और उसने सोचा की नए दोस्त बनाये जाये. ओरकुट नए दोस्त बनाने लग गया और धीरे धीरे फसबूक को भूलने लग गया. ओरकुट अपने नए दोस्तों में इतना खो गया की उसने फसबूक को पूरी तरह भुला दिया. ओरकुट की हरकत देख फसबूक बहुत दुखी हो गया. दुःख में फसबूक बहुत रोया फिर उसने फैसला लिया की वो भी नए दोस्त बनाएगा.

फसबूक ने भी लोगों से दोस्ती करना शुरू कर दिया. फसबूक अपने दोस्तों को पा कर बहुत खुश था और उन्हें खुश रखने के लिए जितने जतन हो सकते थे करता. लोग फसबूक के दोस्त बन कर बहुत खुश थे; इतने खुश की उन्होंने ओरकुट के दोस्तों को बोला की एक बार फसबूक के दोस्त बन कर देखो. ओरकुट के दोस्त अब फसबूक के दोस्त बने लग गए और उन्हें फसबूक का साथ पसंद आने लग गया. फसबूक अपने दोस्तों को हमेशा कोई नयी चीज़ दे कर खुश कर देता; लोग बस इसी सोच में रहते की अब क्या खास होने वाला है. लोगों को ओरकुट की याद तो आती पर उसके पास जब भी जाते वो वहीँ पुरानी बातें करता और लोग उससे बोर हो कर फिर से फसबूक के पास वापस आ जाते. फसबूक के नए surprises लोगों को अछे लगने लग गए और फसबूक के दोस्तों का नंबर दिन ब दिन बढ़ने लग गया.

फसबूक को अपने नए दोस्त इतने पसंद आये की वो ओरकुट के बारे में सुना भी पसंद नहीं करता. अगर कोई ओरकुट के बारे में कुछ बोलता तो फसबूक वैसी हरकत करता जैसे इस फोटो में दिख रहा है. फसबूक की यह दुश्मनी ओरकुट के लिए कभी ख़तम होगी या नहीं यह तो पता नहीं पर लोग फसबूक के दोस्त बन कर और फसबूक को पाकर बहुत खुश हैं. फसबूक और ओरकुट एक दुसरे के कितने ही बड़े दुश्मन क्यों ना हो पर इन्होने दोस्त बहुत बनाये हैं.

3 Things I like about Orkut

1. Testimonials where my friends shared their honest feelings about me.
2. Profile visitors
3. I added the communities of my interest and still had loads of members and good amount of discussion unlike facebook where the member number doesn’t go up

Facebook is 'नया दिन नयी रात'; hard to keep a track of previous discussion… :-D

P.S. Scooters came to an end and people started using bike. Similarly Orkut has come to an end and people have started using facebook.

P.P.S. Share your views about the social networking sites.

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Equation of Marriage

There are many questions in life for which people look for an answer; for some questions there are answers given by various theories. But there are few questions for which we humans are still looking for an answer; questions like

• What happens after death?
• Can someone be reborn?
• Is there a previous life?
• Why do people love?
• How to explain the feelings of love?

And for me at the moment the most important question is why do people marry; how do they decide to marry someone? Is there any science involved in marriage?

Now mathematics being my favorite subject from childhood I tried looking at the prospect of marriage from the mathematics angle. If marriage had an equation then what would be the variables required in this equation. So the step one is to identify the variables involved in selecting a person for marriage. The variables which I can think of are – age, looks, height, weight, income, education, family background, habits (like drinking or smoking or food), hobbies, interest and lifestyle.

After deciding on the variable the next step is to assign weights to these variables but how to decide the weights of these variables or parameters is again an important question in marriage. After all the weights of these variables would be varying from person to person. Infact there could be a possibility where the weights to certain variables could be zero.

If I look deeper into the idea of marriage then one thing I can say that the variables of marriage cannot be decided looking at the lives of other people. To sum it all one has to decide the variables and weights which s/he feels are important for the marriage.

My marriage equation would be something like this:
Age + height + income + education + habits + hobbies + interest + lifestyle

Whichever equation you select for marriage I hope you have a happy married life filled with all fun and frolic. :-)

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What if a Girl Proposes a Guy?

20 interesting responses :)



1) You are proposing me..... (guy is shocked)
2) Why are you lying; don’t joke with me. Are you serious??? You love me???(guy is confused)
3) You mean to say that you love me and you want to marry me.... Are you crazy??(guy is tensed)
4) I talk to you nicely that doesn’t mean that I love you but yeah sure we can be good friends.
5) Ok its a very good proposal. Initial analysis shows that its a good proposal but we have to find out complete impact list for it.
6) I have to keep your proposal on hold till I receive any rejection comments from Sweety, Pooja, Aarti, ...... goes on.
7) Listen I am not saying no to you but I am also not saying a yes… First let me settle down... I am not able to support myself how will I support you… I mean love cant happen without money sweetheart…
8) Er... Thank you!... Me... ummm...er...(disappears)
9) Hee hee... I am the guy so I should be proposing you... hee hee…
10) Have you lost your mind???
11) Er... I dont have a problem but I don’t think my mom will like you....
12) Do you like sports??? Read harry potter??? Have spicy food???
13) Hey did u actually think about the situation... And I think I have to write a new LRP(Love response pack) for the same... Please reply to my mail within EOD.
14) Did you go and watch some boring romantic movie???
15) You sure??? Can we lock this answer??? (Loves KBC)
16) India again lost the cricket match and you are bothered about love. (A big cricket fan).
17) Our frequencies don’t match.
18) Are you drunk???
19) I am a follower of Hanuman ji… I have never thought about any girl this way…
20) Do you like ravan???

P.S. Some of the responses given by friends.
P.P.S. Add more responses... :-)

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