Just a Thought.....

"A relationship is like a rose, How long it lasts, no one knows; Love can erase an awful past, Love can be yours, you'll see at last; To feel that love, it makes you sigh, To have it leave, you'd rather die; You hope you've found that special rose, 'Cause you love and care for the one you chose."

Just stumbeled onto this thought by Rob Cella....so Wanted to share it...... hope its thought provoking....

An Eye-Opener

A survey says that 70 per cent of the people employed in 1,783 public toilets in Delhi belong to upper castes including Brahmins

The government is leaving no stone unturned to implement caste-based reservations in the central educational institutions. But Fact India, a Delhi-based trust and Youth For Equality (YFE) have made the shocking revelations that Brahmins and upper caste Hindus are doing menial jobs including cleaning toilets.

Their survey says that 70 per cent of the people employed in 1,783 public toilets in Delhi are upper caste Hindus including Brahmins. Ramesh Jha, a toilet cleaner in the Sulabh chain of pubic toilets in Delhi, said, “I have to feed my children so I am working here. I feel bad but I have to feed myself.”

Dhirendra, another toilet cleaner while showing his ‘janau’ (the sacred thread), said, “I can’t remove my janau. I clean all the dirty stuff wearing it. It is my compulsion to do such menial jobs to feed the family. My religion does not allow it. I feel ashamed.”

The ''Brahmins of India'' by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications, reveals that many purohits are living below the poverty line. The survey says that 50 per cent of the rickshaw pullers in New Delhi’s Patel Nagar are Brahmins.

It further says that 75 per cent of the domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. Seventy per cent of the Brahmins are still relying on their hereditary vocation. In the 5-18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped their education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level.

Gorakhnath Tiwari, registrar, Benaras Hindu University (BHU), said, “The reputation of Brahmins has declined about 30 to 40 per cent.”

According to the department of endowments statistics, when the government is concentrating all its energies and funds on the Minorities, Dalits and Other Backward Classes, there are thousands of Brahmin families who are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples. According to the census department studies in Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs.500 and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temples receives Rs 2,500 plus per month.

“This is very sad when the government is professing caste-based reservation, many upper caste people are finding is difficult to survive. This fact motivated us to conduct the survey on what exactly the situation in India is. Only nine seats out of the 600 in the UP and Bihar assemblies are held by Brahmins ­ the rest are in the hands of the Yadavs. Around 400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley have been living as refugees in their own country. What about them? Would they be given reservation?” Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra, president, AIIMS chapter, YFE said.

Kashinath, coordinator, Sulabh chain of public toilets, said, “ It is fine that backwards need uplift, but why are the forwards being made backward.”

“Yes, we do know that Brahmins and other upper castes had exploited the lower castes in the past, forgetting that in its pristine form their duties were based on earned merits, not on hereditary rights. They may today be getting back a taste of their own medicine. But can we let this cynical government divide more and more along caste and religion lines?” Francois Gautier, from FACT India, said.

Today, many Brahmins and other upper castes may be as underprivileged as dalits. A research paper by D Narayana, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvanantpuram ("Perception, Poverty and Health, Feb. 2005), shows that 69.8 per cent of Brahmins and OUC never went past the 12th standard, Some 52.4 per cent of Brahmins and OUC farmers don't own enough land to feed their family. It also says that 53.9 per cent of the upper caste population is below the poverty line.

Radhey Shyam Mishra, a coolie at the New Delhi Railway station, said, “No one respects Brahmins nowadays. The poor Brahmin won’t get any financial help from the government. There was a time when Brahmins were worshiped. That time is no more now.”

“I am a widow with five children. Though I got my husband’s job of a gardener on compassionate grounds, I cannot survive on a little sum of Rs 1500, so I am cleaning floors and utensils. At times I feel like hanging myself from the fan that I am a Brahmin and am doing such work. My villagers would ostracize me if they come to know about it,” Savitri Shukla, a domestic helper in Lucknow, said.

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Hmm...just read this piece of news on Sahara Time and I realised, Neetu Chandra actually voiced the very thought that had been in my mind for quite some time. It's been quite some time now that the reservation system for the so-called back classes of our society are on. It's great that our government works hard to uplift the needy. But the problem is, how to identify them? Is it very necessary to categorize the citizens according to the caste? Doncha think categorizing them financially is more appropriate? Well, if India continues to have reservation system as per caste, we know what we are heading to!

Blog Tagging...

So, how many of you actually know what tagging is all about, in reference to blogging? Well, I was just reading this post by Steve Nipps where I encountered the concept of tagging. Although it wasn't the first time I heard the word, I wasn't too sure about what it was all about. So, as always, Wikipedia came to my rescue :-P. While I was searching for it, this is what I figured out -

A memetag (or meme tag) is a blog tag that is included in all posts that reference a meme. When a meme is started on a blog — for example, 'your top five favourite movies' — the meme tag is included at the foot of the text of each post that responds to the meme invitation.

By including a memetag, bloggers are recognising the initial creator of the meme and allowing them to track how their meme has spread across the blogosphere through the use of social media tools such as Technorati.

While inclusion of a memetag is not mandatory, it is done in the spirit of information sharing across the web and is a system based on trust.

Example:

A blogger invites five other bloggers to list their 'top five songs of all time'.

Those bloggers publish their list, incude the memetag that links back to the original invite, then invites five more bloggers and asks them to include a link to the original post.

The next five list their top five songs of all time, each linking back to the original post using the memetag. Each of them invites five more friends.

And so on.

So, I thought why not I too take it up, for once, and tag people I know? In a way, this also lets me know how many people actually follow my blog :-) n also I happen to popularise a new concept in my blogging circle. Since I currently don't have any question at hand, I'll take up the ones Steve used. Hope I can do that...

1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it:
Well, I have a pretty ugly scar on my left shoulder that I got when I had a real bad accident on my bike, with my cousin sis Koyel on the pillion!

2. What is on the walls in your room?
In my hostel room...just a lone poster n loads of cobwebs ;-)

3. What does your phone look like?
How do you think an over used, twice thrown from the 3rd floor, NOKIA 1108 should look like?

4. What music do you listen to?
Nuthin specific, depends on my mood. At times, listen to ol' time bong tracks...sometimes hardcore rock...sometimes heavy metal...sometimes just bollywood masala songs :P

5. What is your current desktop picture?
Don't own a comp in college. Currently posting from a cyber...and here they have a blank background...

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
A Job Offer....am tired to breaking bread off dad's money!

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?
Well...don't really believe in any sorta marriage...but if such a concept keeps gay couples happy, then big deal!!

8. What time were you born?
0600 hrs.

9. Are your parents still together?
Well...yeah, they r...n I'm sure they'll always be! Afterall, they rnt me, u knw!! :-P

10. What are you listening to?
A lot of shitty chatter, in this cyber...

12. The last person to make you cry?
Vaibhav...on the Mattu Farewell.

13. What is your favourite perfume/cologne?
Umm...I use neither...just Hugo Boss, at times.

14. What kind of hair/eye colour do you like on the opposite sex?
Anything but grey...find that color spooky.

15. Do you like pain killers?
UUrrgghhh!!

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
Not really...can't think of any such instance ^-^

17. Fave pizza topping?
Diced chicken with loads of cheese n onion.

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Hmm...I'm pretty full ryt nw...prolly just some peanuts to nibble while finish this post off!

19. Who was the last person you made mad?
I make people mad so fucking often, it's tuff to remem all of them :-P

20. Is anyone in love with you?
Yup!! (Ain't gonna say anything more on that! :-P)

Okay, now the tagging part. I'd love it if Karma, Rathz, Sakshi, Roosh, Mann n Shankz take up the honors. So, what say, folks?

Just a Trickle of Memories (read Tears) !!

Every time I start writing a new post, I happen to remember the very first program that Yashwant Kanetkar teaches you to write in C and C++ and the two words that you are supposed to type on the screen, "Hello World". *LoLz*...eons always manage to pass by in between every successive post of mine. I used to feel pretty sad for not being able to make out some quality time and update this dear page of mine. But then, it was a few days back that I visited Pragnya's page and realized that she too had been keeping pretty busy, lately. Well, by now it's a well known fact that she's the one who'd actually gotten me into blogging, though passively. When I learnt that she too hadn't been posting for quite some time now, it eased out my own guilt too, a li'l :-P Okay, am I talking crap out here? I guess, even if I do, I'm pardoned...after all, hasn't it been eons since I last wrote something? I'm just a li'l outta practice :-P.

Well, so many things have happened in my life since the last time I posted a gallery of pics of my visit to Delhi. We had our college cultural fest UTKARSH '07 and for the first time ever, technical fest too, PRAVAH '07. It's been a blast, both the events. Thanks to Dion, I realised I can be a good quiz master too. I was pleasantly surprised when folks came upon to congratulate me for my quizzing in Pravah. Although I didn't manage to win a single prize, this time around...I certainly had a good time. And yeah, apart from the festivals...some of my very dear friends are gonna desert me, this year. It's final year for my ex-batch mates...and hardly 10 days left before they all depart, in quest for the elixir of their lives. Still can't believe it...I mean, I did organise 2 consecutive farewells for these folks...n yet it takes a lot to seep into my system that next year when I return to college, there isn't gonna be no Karma, no Dip, no Rathz, Mann, Gandhi, Rahul, Rai, Raj, Wasulkar, Tiwari, Krrish, Dino, Nattu, Dhar, Suman, Mehul, Ashok...damn it...there isn't gonna be no Top Floor either! There's gonna be no more WarCraft sessions!! No more Dumb-C with Dino or Mehul...no more chit-chats with Rai, Raj n Wasu...no more drink sessions with Vipul...no more sitting under the naked sky, right on the football field....no more lovely college videos from Rathz, no more PJs from Gandhi, no more refreshing smiles from Dino, no more protruding teeth of Chiru, no one left to share cigarettes with, no one left to fight with, none left to spend the nights with! Okay, I'm sorry, I think I got carried away a li'l. I'd promised myself, right since the day this session had started, that I ain't gonna cry...come what may, I'm gonna face the reality the way a man is supposed to.

I bid Adieu...adios to all u folks....n wish that all of you have a great life ahead! Have loadsa fun and enjoy life the best u can. I'll just hope that this fatso manages to stay in ur heart, or at least in ur mind, wherever u r!! Adios...!!

My Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

You Are What You Pretend To Be!!

DOES life always have to be about pitching? The latest self-help book, Life's A Pitch, written by advertising expert Roger Mavity and design guru Stephen Bayley, believes, you pitch all the time -- on your first job, first date and even with friends to make lasting impressions.

The book is based on the belief that our lives hinge on crucial moments when we must perform our best. Self-help guru, Robin Sharma feels that life's precious moments are about making that perfect pitch! It is strategising, creating a plan. He says, "Recently, when I was studying the symptoms of success, I realised the biggest challenge for successful people was how they pitched for themselves in troubled times. The big idea is -- setbacks are symptoms of success.

Challenges forge the greatness in you as they let you know what isn't working. They force you to be creative and hence pave the road to your NLG (Next Level of Greatness). So, the next time you face a setback, take a moment to celebrate."

The concept of 'presentation of self' as a way of understanding human behaviour goes back to the days of psychologist Erving Goffman. The idea that our lives are nothing more than how we come across, is alarming. It's about branding the individual. Self-help guru, Shiv Khera says, "I don't like the word pitching. Peddlers pitch, professionals present. Remember, you don't get a second chance to make first impressions. In this world, everyone's selling himself. Even on a date, the couple is telling each other, 'I'm worth having a relationship with'. But individuals shouldn't pretend too much."

Says industrialist Vijay Mallya, "Most powerful people in the business always pitch at every moment in life, that's why they're the most powerful brands." When individuals take their entire life as a pitch, every moment is about making them a bigger brand as their energies concentrate on it.

Says producer Anita Kaul Basu, "Since we want to be perfect at work and home, we have to pitch in our emotional lives and relationships too. So the question is: when do we get in touch with our real feelings? Do we lose the battle if we don't pitch?"

Author Stephan Bayley writes, "Pitching is about how we make first impressions. The way you sell yourself is crucial to your success. Psychologists know that first impressions are based on our spontaneous assessment of status, clothes, sex, age, size, posture, speech and facial expressions. We're locked in a game of continuous evaluation. Even the decision not to wear certain kinds of clothes betrays a set of prejudices. The person who says, 'I don't care what I wear, I just put on a T-shirt and jeans' is merely confirming how much he cares about creating a certain sort of wearily insouciant impression." So, be it clothing or talking, an individual is forever trying to pitch for himself.

The book quotes Beatrice Webb on how to build confidence for making the perfect pitch. "If ever I felt nervous when walking into a room full of people, I would tell myself 'You are the cleverest member of one of the cleverest families in the cleverest class in the cleverest nation in the world, why should you be frightened?''

Elaborating on it, actor Ayesha Dharker, adds, "While acting, we have to pitch with the right look and dialogue. Confidence does the trick. If you pitch with confidence, you win." Cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni states, "For a cricketer, making a pitch is about how you spin the ball, play with your bat and show aggression with your body language."

These days, social snobbery is also used as a weapon to make the perfect pitch. Every emotion is a weapon. We're in an age where we're designing our own personalities. Marcel Proust and Cary Grant had a lot in common, besides fastidious taste in clothes. Each knew that the most dangerous sort of plagiarism was self-plagiarism. Grant perfected a screen persona of dazzling suavity and effortless cool. Hauntingly, he once said, "Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant." But the authors of Life's a Pitch believe there are three kinds of people: the person we think we are, what other people think of us, and what we think other people think of us. But ultimately, we are what we pretend to be!

P.S. Just shamelessly copied this piece, written by Nona Walia, on the Times Life! section of Sunday Times, Calcutta edition, dated April 22, 2007. It's just that the very concept of pitching for yourself intrigued me a lot, so thought about sharing it with you too. So, do u too have anything to say on it?

Tik Tik...the Time goes on....

I am feeling really sad. Ok this might sound so crazy but then that is the stuff that I am made out of. Two years and a few months back when I got into this LDR, I thought that life is just gonna revolve around him n me....(That is the notion most of the time). But in the last two years I think that I have come to know innumerable people, who as chance would have it are my Shayon's Friends. I haven't really met anyone of them. I have seen their pics... and known them through their posts and profiles here on blogger and orkut. They on the other hand have known me as Shayon's girl... someone who calls them up if she needs to track him down.

These invisible friends have given me a taste of life that I know that in the coming years I would never have. These are the people who have patiently taken my calls on the phone and comments on the posts without treating me so much so as an outsider. In a few days time the Class of 2007 of NIT Jamshedpur would step out in the new world carrying with themselves the memories of night outs, freshers...and what not parties and pangas that they have done over the four years as students. They would learn how to sms from boring meetings and decide how much to save and how much to spend..... from one life to another they are gonna go..stepping into a world that holds promises of a wonderful life and dreams yet to unfold. Years from today when they would have rack their brain and relocate these golden days it would a smile on their faces. And memories carved of beautiful times would just reflect as the bright light in the eyes.

You guys have been wonderful.... and are amzing people. This was the only way- I could think of to tell you that someday I am sure that I'll bump into you.... and that keep dreaming and achieving those dreams.... All the best guys.