Jaagore.. Get Up..

Tata Tea got up with this innovative idea to increase the voting among the young internet savvy generation. Finally the young people cannot come out with an excuse that they had no idea as to how to cast a vote or that they were not registered to vote in that area..

The main thing which I like is that, if this dream of one billion votes becomes possible, then the politicians in India will not go on wooing the minorities and playing the dirty politics on reservations and cast. And our so called educated people will not just sit at their home and say that nothing cannot be done for India..

I remember about a small conversation between a colleague of mine and a US national. They were discussing about the second amendment and Obama winning the elections. What the person said was really interesting, "America had implemented the second amendment so that if any day the government becomes impotent, then the people of the country can take back the power into their hands." I do not say that we should come out with guns, but at least we should come out with our votes.

Just try to join this innovative movement by the Tata Group.

God Bless India..

Bein a Rebel..

I was just going through my college link in Orkut. The thrill was high as i was seeing the pics. of all the old college mates, seniors, juniors, girls, crushes.. It looked as if the relativity theory was getting on me.. i had no idea that i had spent some 5 odd hours in front of the net, missed my dinner and the movie which i was to go with my friends .

As the power went off.. Thanks to the state electricity boards weekly load shedding, i had a small break from Orkutting.. I would phrase it the other way.. The load on the orkut server reduced by some 20%..

Sitting in the dark labyrinth.. I was wondering how the life has changed.. How I used to be a rebel in the college, always doing what I thought was best. But having stepped into the corporate world everything changed.. It was just like Amir Khan's dialogue in RDB, Campus ke gate ke is paar hum duniya ko nachate hain aur gate ke us paar duniya hamein.

Being a rebel had it pros.. It was as if everybody knew me in the college, felt happy for not being the part of the crowd. Had loads of friends, mostly rebels. As i knew that most of the Profs wont be giving me good marks in the sessionals, that’s the price one has to pay for being a rebel..
So I had to really work hard for my end sems, courtesy of which my knowledge on Mech core increased three fold, guys used to put me at par with the toppers in the class, though I was one of the third slotters.. in fact one of the last even in the third slot.
Ya I was happy, self satisfied, felt as if I was really one the kings, just for the fact that I didn’t have a kingdom nor I had a crown to wear. I was the head of many so called committee's that’s becoz I had a lot of spare time, but mostly for the fact that nobody would come and argue again with me. Who would like to waste his precious gray cells on some Lunatic, errrr, uncrowned King..

All this did really help me at the time of Campus interviews.. The adventure had made my CV quite a long one, with loads of goodies to add to my list of extra-curricular activities, and I had the confidence of cracking any interview I would sit in.. I did make some choice and skipped quite a lot of companies.. but yes I got placed in the first company I sat.. I was really excited.

Contrary to all this.. After the college I had a very few friends left, just a handful to say.. But even these guys were somehow Rebels..

As I was going through orkut, I felt awkward to write some scraps.. in fact I just wrote to only one of my juniors. With whom I am still in contact.

The biggest con of being a rebel was that, I did not had the courage to talk to the Girl whom I had long cherished. Being a rebel made the girl feel as if I was some criminal, who has been released from jail on a hefty bail. Being a coordinator of different committees had provided me with a lot of opportunities to interact with her. But she always felt terrified when I was there and eventually in the final year when I had organized an event just for her, she skipped the event, though she knew the fact that she would win.

Well life did move on. with its up and downs. Ups for work and friends, downs for girl friends.

I was on the job.. Here I found being a rebel wont help. So I started working hard on whatever I got. Making all sort of odd friends, But where would this rebellious nature go.. I found myself in a group which was itself a rebel. Thanks to my Boss finally I was in a conclave of my own kind.

Kaun bolta hai ki Being a rebel does not help.. It has in-fact helped me, at least I am able to do what I want.. and even my boss is afraid to question me..

Just a message to all those who want to be rebels, Follow thy dreams. Because….

Once a rebel.. Always a Rebel..

Is English killing other Indian languages?

During my childhood I often used to see how my Grandma’s friends were often jealous of her. No it was not because of the wealth, neither for the beautiful Italian vase she had, nor for her great cooking skills, but it was just for the ability that she could speak in English. All her friends, most of whom who had barely finished their 4^th grades, of course in the local medium, would always send her as their representative to the tehsildars place or the collectors office just for this fact that she English. This was a scene in an Industrial town of Northern Orissa, where most of my Grandpa’s friends were Engineers.

It was definitely an era when people wanted their children to go to Convent missionary schools, the era of the time when movies like Julie, Baton Baton Mein, were popular because of their kind-of-a-English predominance. The British rule in India, followed by the craze for the white collared government jobs, made everyone realize that the future would be in the hands of those who knew how to read and write in English.

There were many reasons for English to achieve such huge popularity within India. The major reason was the abundance of regional languages in India, all of which had a big history of its own. They had their proper grammar, grammarians, professors, etc. etc. and none of these languages could accept that some other language be the lingua-franca of the nation. The south Indian’s have never accepted Hindi as the national language; they always wanted their own regional language to be spoken by every other person in India. So as a midway path, English was chosen to solve this deadlock.

I was actually amazed to see an article ‘Is English killing other Indian languages?’ in Rediff where this guy, U R Ananthamurthy, a gyanpeeth award winner, the person responsible for changing the name of Bangalore to Bengaluru, is saying that "Globalisation is forcing us to become unilingual, and we are willfully following it without even realizing that we are losing a great deal in return". Okay this dude is a literature guy, his scope of knowledge is limited to this small scope that, due to English our native languages are loosing their shine.

Yes it is indeed true that nowadays none would ever talk to a person who has been studying in a local medium school. Except for the local politicians who would frequently change the names of cities, just to show to the local people that their language has not yet been westernized. But are there any of these politicians kids who have studied in local medium school, within India, not in some Harvard.

Okay the present scenario of India, the IT sector, is just due the fact that we Indians are quite proficient in English, and we can communicate with the world leaders. And they even know the fact that it is this advantage we are having above china, which can never beat us in this field. We will have to thank this language for its contribution to the Indian GDP.

I am not against any local language, but one should realize that unless a language creates enough job opportunities, helps in generating revenues. It would not become popular. Though the Germans, French, Japanese have succeeded so far in maintaining their language, but with the globalization even they are now changing their tunes. In a globalized world countries speak the language of the wealthiest country. If Germans would have wont the Second World War the scenario would have been completely different. The topic for this discussion would have been different, Is German killing other Indian languages.

It is also a fact that many of the Indian languages became popular just because some prosperous king in his era used to speak that language.

If some guy in Harvard or Massachusetts says that Sanskrit is the best language for computers, we in India feel proud, but has any Indian organization tried to cash on it. If the computing speed gets reduced by the use of this language then definitely Sanskrit would become the lingua franca for the globalized world. But alas it is almost a dead language now.

Being an Indian I would be very happy if Sanskrit does become popular, but none should point a finger on other languages if his or her language is not able to generate enough revenues. I do hope to see such a day before the end of the world.