The Hermit and The King

There was a king who ruled a kingdom. He was a very learned man but had never understood the meaning of one thing; SACRIFICE. He once asked his ministers to fins out the true meaning of the word, sacrifice and announced that whosoever will answer him satisfactorily will be suitably rewarded. So went out all the ministers to find the answer to this question.

Not too long after this incident that they all came back and told the king their answers. The King listened to all their answers but was not amused. He was not satisfied. And he openly showed his dissatisfaction. Finally one minister garnered enough courage and told him that there lives a hermit outside his kingdom's forest cover who is learned and will be able to answer him.

Hearing this the King sent one of his minister to bring the hermit to his palace. When the minister reached the hermit the hermit refused to come to the palace. Instead he asked the minister to send the king to his cottage. So the king went to the hermit's cottage.

King: O learned man, do tell me the real meaning of sacrifice. Is it to kill animals and gift it to gods? Or is it to give up all that a man has and be a hermit like you?

Hermit: O king, I will answer your question but for that I need to go to your palace. Take me there and let me live there for some time and then I will answer your question.

So the king agreed and took the hermit to his palace. There the Hermit started to enjoy all the pleasures of the palace. Good food, good place to bath, beautiful orchards full of fruits and what not. Days went by and the hermit didn't say a word to the king. Days became weeks and weeks became months but the hermit didn't say a word to the king. On the other hand the king was becoming impatient. He started to wonder whether the hermit was really any learned person or was he making a fool of the king?

One day the king finally llost his patience and called upon the hermit. He said, "O learned hermit i have been watching you ever since you came here. You have been enjoying the food and comfort of the palace just like anyone else would do. It doesn't seem that you are a hermit,  a recluse a sannyasi. You neither told me the answer to my question nor you told me that you have had enough and also it seems that you don't want to leave this place. I am doubtful of all this."

On hearing all this the hermit smiled and spoke," O King, I have been waiting for this day when you will ask me this. Thanks for asking. It is time for me to go."

The King said," But what about the answer to my question?"
Hermit, " For that you will have to come with me to my cottage."

The King agreed and went with the Hermit to his cottage.

When they reached the cottage the hermit said. "O Dear King, for so many months I lived at your palace and enjoyed all the comforts. Now it is my turn to return the favor. So please give me the pleasure of serving you. Please stay at my cottage for the next three days."

On hearing this the king startled and said, "No it is not possible. I can't live here in this small cottage where you eat things that you get from charity of other people. I can't possibly sleep on the floor and surely can't bath in the nearby pond. I have lived in the palace and it is not possible for me to come and live here. Moreover I have an entire kingdom to look for so I can't come".

The hermit smiled and replied. " See king. I stayed all my life in this cottage and then I spent all these months in your palace. And now I am back to my cottage and I am feeling as good as I always was. I didn't get addicted to this cottage or your palace. Both are equal for me. But you couldn't possibly stay in this cottage for even one full day because you cannot give up the comforts of your palace. You are addicted to it. What I can do you can't!!!! This is sacrifice. I am not addicted to anything. My senses are well within my control. I have given up on the pair of good and bad. For me everything is same. This is the meaning of sacrifice."

The Hermit and the Boy

Lemme tell you a story.

Once a young man wanted to learn the method of concentration and control of his senses and of mind. So he went to a old hermit who lived outside the village.

He asked the hermit whether he could be his guru and teach him what he is seeking. The hermit said, "Ok i will teach you. The entire period of teaching will be divided into three parts of 6 months each and throughout you will have to live with me".
The boy agreed.
The hermit said,"Your training starts tomorrow morning. For the first six months when you are awake I will hit you, kick you and smash you with whatever I get in my hands. If you can sense in time and raise your hands I will spare you.".
The boy was left gasping. Initially the boy got a lot of beating for the hermit. The hermit kicked punched and hit him with bamboo sticks and whatevr he could get hold of. But slowly the boy started to make himself alert. He was so scared of the beatings that he started to train himself of being alert.
By the end of 6 months not a single time could the hermit hit the boy as he became very alert.
The hermit said,"Good you have passed the first test. Now the second 6 months begin tomorrow. I will hit you with a sword and you have to save yourself".
The boy's jaws dropped. From day one itself he started to be careful. yet he got hit by the sword. Got quite a few cuts and bruises but by the end of first month he had nearly perfected his awareness.
At the end of another fruitful six months the hermit said,"You have passed the second test too. Now the final one. I WILL  HIT YOU WITH A SWORD WHEN YOU WILL BE SLEEPING.". The boy couldn't believe his ears. He got so scared that he stopped sleeping. But how long could he hold. he started to frantically train his mind and senses to get alert even at a movement of wind. He finally slept but with such alertness that the moment the hermit entered the room, he raised his hands.

Finally the hermit said," You have done me proud. You have now mastered your senses and mind. So i have given you what you wanted. Now go in peace."

Saying this the hermit kept the sword near the boy and went and sat down near the banyan tree to meditate.

The boy started to think, "This old man has tortured me for the last 18 months on the pretest of teaching me. Does he even know anything or was he just bluffing?? He must be bluffing because I don't find him extraordinary at all. So let me teach him a lesson. I will cut him into two with this very sword."

But hardly had the boy stopped thinking this that the hermit raised his hand and said, "Dear, don't even think of it."

Beauty and Danger

As I stated in my last post that beauty and danger go hand in hand, here is why I think so.
Think about the most beautiful things in the universe (and I am not talking about girls at all !!!! - they are by default dangerous).
Let me help you a bit.

The above are some of the most beautiful things in the universe, and there can hardly be anything more dangerous than the above.
Similarly the following

 So very beautiful, isn't it? But what about the dangers lurking around them?
You miss a turn and end up right at the bottom of a ravine; probably dead.
Similarly one star explodes into a nebula, and everything around it is destroyed.
Similarly seemingly beautiful things always have danger lurking around them.

Isn;t it? May be i couldn;t convince you thins time. Next time I will come up with a more convincing reason. Till then, bye.

Our Manali Trip

Well, as I am sitting in front of this lappy I am still exhilarated about our recently concluded trip to Manali. It was a really great trip, specially owing to some adventures that happened and were a real torture then, but now I can smile over them.
So let me begin.
The bus we booked was a AC Volvo which started from Ramakrishna Ashram marg at New delhi and we soon reached the foothills of Lower Himalayas (as they are known technically). I must admit that I am really scared of heights and as the bus started to climb, I went numb. The treacherous roads on which it was difficult to drive even one bus properly, two were driving past (in opposite directions) and that too at nearly 60-70 kmph at the dead of night !!!! The entire night I just held on to my dear life as everyone else was sleeping. I just wanted to be sure that when the bus falls into the gorge I should be awake to make an attempt to save myself. What a thought!!!!
We halted at Sunder nagar at 5 in the morning and had our breakfast.

You can easily see Swagata and her face tells about the journey. In the backdrop is the beautiful valley. Well at that time I didn't know what lay ahead.
As the bus rolled on the most dangerous part came. The road width barely 20 feet. On one side mountain is jotting out and on the other side thousands of feet of direct drop into the ravines. Nearly 1 hour of that journey nearly drove me crazy. Finally we reached Kullu and an hour later, Manali.
We stayed at Hotel Hidimba Way, which is a hundred feet or less that the famous Hidimba temple. The hotel was decent and the room was good enough.

   We started to unpack and relaxed for a couple of hours. Then we went out for local sight seeing.

Hidimba Temple

The above is the pic of Hidimba temple. We then went on to see some cool places like the Van Vihar. Following are some pics that we took there.

Ghatotkacha Puja Place

Same as above

Beas River

In Van Vihar

Local Dress

Down the road to Beas river

Went on a ride

Then we reached the Beas river and for the first time in life I was able to gather enoough courage to do something that I wouldn't normally do at all.

Hanging by the wire and literally for my life as I was swinging up and down to touch the river beneath me.

Well then we went back to our hotel, but not before having eaten and bought quite a few things for us.

The next day we started for Rohtang pass and we reached by around 1:30 though we started before 6 in the morning. The jam we got caught into was big.

Dressed in a heavy outfit we reached Rohtang and had the best time of our life, atleast mine. Saw, touched and played with snow for the first time. It was a great feeling. Below are some pics of Rohtang Pass.

As we were returning from Rohtang we were caught in a really massive jam which spanned several kilometers.

So guess what happened???
The driver of our car along with the one in front of us devised an idea and see what happened next.

So finally we went down the slope and avoided remaining trapped in further jam.
The day we were coming back we had a even more precarious situation.
At 9:00 pm our Volvo bus stopped at Sundernagar for Dinner. After that we started on our way. At 10:25 pm, the bust came to a screeching halt with all of us running out of it for our life as the engine of the bus caught fire. We were stranded at a place called BAIRI, 20 km from Sundernagar and 15 km from Bilaspur. All the 45 passengers were stranded with no one coming to our rescue.

We remained stranded there till 3 in the morning when two tempo travellers and a xyllo came to our rescue. Finally we reached Delhi at 3:00 PM almost 24 hours after we started.
But none the less it was a great experience.
Thanks to Swagata for this trip.
I wish to go back there again.
And yes guys if you have not gone there yet, Manali is the place to visit. Really guys it is a great place.
And one thing that I learnt from this trip is that Beauty and Danger go hand in hand. How???? Tune in to know about this in another blog.

Who merits RESERVATION???

Reservation in India is a much debatable topic and in right sense too. You give reservation to one community and the others feel left out or betrayed.
The problem is that we, the youth of India, also think from our heart rather than our head, precisely what our politicians want---Divide and Rule policy.

The question then arises is, do we need reservation or not. Well the answer is YES and NO.

YES--- because India is a vast country with serious socio-economic divide. 5% Indians control the money in India. This divide was spotted pretty much at the time of writing our constitution by those learned men and hence they provided for reservation to BACKWARD CLASSES. And that is precisely where reservation should be given. To people who are economically so weak that they can't afford two square meals a day. Unfortunately our highly-arrogant and ignorant and rather vote seeking politicians converted CLASS to CASTE and begun the war that has literally torn apart our youth.

NO--- because reservation on the basis of CASTE has no merit. If even after 60 years of independence and many decades of reservation has failed to uplift the backward castes, then it will fail to uplift them in future too. In the northern india millions of OBCs and SC/STs are actually millionaires who have enough money in their coffers and also enjoy reservation. Similarly a general candidate has to be rich or economically sound has no scientific backing. Poor are poor irrespective of caste.

The only divide between human beings that should merit reservation is ECONOMIC BACKWARDNESS and not religion, or caste. Unless we the youth of india put our fingers in the eyes of the politicians and show them what should actually happen, we are going towards a real sad phase--- BECOMING A BIG (UN)HAPPY FAMILY OF BACKWARD PEOPLE.

I joined the Gym...... Well Almost !!!!

Having taken birth in a bengali family may have its disadvantages one of which is you tend to grow a pot belly which shows that you love to eat food without any regard to your health. And same with me. I had a pot belly which had been growing steadily along with my weight which stood at 82 kg. With a height of just over 5 ft 7 inches I was a good 15 kg overweight and that I started to feel on my lower back.
Well after one such phase in which I had to be bed ridden for quite some time, my brother and parents decided to send me to a Gym !!! ( I was not married then)
"A Gym!!!!", my jaws dropped. "What will i do in a gym?". I asked protestingly. I am made of lazy bones and going to a Gym was nothing short of a nightmare for me. More so because with it would get affected my food habit too. "No, I am not going". I said sternly.

The next evening I was standing outside BABA GYM, a local one out here along with my brother. My protests usually never bear any significance and that was the reason I was standing there.

The Gym trainer was introduced to me by my brothr and the guy instantly knew why I was there. He told me to get warmed up. His prescription of warm up was: 10 minutes on a treadmill (I almost lost my jaws to it after I fell on the rotating path of the machine), 10 minutes on cycle (I was happily cycling when the trainer came and raised the difficulty level to the maximum; could hardly rotate the paddle after that), 10 minutes jumping with both knees near the chest (couldn't do even one as m=none of my jumps were high enough), 15 pushups (was flat after 2 and half), 15 crunches ( didin't do it at all as nobody noticed) and a jog around the gym. Well you can very well understand after my body warmed up what would have happened to me.

I some how escaped citing that it was the first day only and I don't wanna fall sick. !!!!

The next day the trainer was even more harsh. This time he asked my to cycle and do treadmill and then asked me to run up and down a staircase 10 times. The staircase was the same one through which everyone would climb into the gym (the gym was in the basement).

The first two times I ran up and down at my top speed (what big mistake!!!) on the third lap my breath went out of control but I survived. Fourth and fifth lap I don't remember. By the time I was into my sixth lap my knees started to shake and my body started to shout for water and rest.  but i persisted. Seventh and Eighth were shear pain. On the ninth lap my knees and legs started shaking violently, my throat got dry, my hearth was thumping against my rib cage and would have come out had the rib cage not been there. Finally as I started upwards on the tenth lap I reached the top of the stair, near the door, and went through it to reach the road. Kept running, or rather jogging, to the end of the road. Took a rickshaw to my home. Reached my block, got down near a juice corner, has two large mango shakes and staggered back home.

That was the end of my GYM......


It was three years back.
Now I am better off. My weight is now around 94 kg !!! a whooping 25 kg overweight. And my potbelly won't allow some of my favourite trousers to fit on me.

And the daily howl of protest has begun again. GO TO GYM. And guess what this time my wife is after my life.

And I know last time I lost 300 rupees as I ran away after one day only. I don't want to lose 3000 this time. But I can't resist going to GYM as well.... God saves me.

Weakness

How many times have you punished someone for speaking a lie? How many times have you punished someone for not doing what you wanted him or her to do? How many times have you punished someone for calling you by names or hurling abusive words at you or being selfish ........and the list goes on????
Many times. Isn't it?
Then welcome to the largest group of hypocrites who ever roamed on this earth; we human beings.
Why I said hypocrites? Because we are ready to lie at the drop of hat but can't withstand one lie told to us. Because we can do n number of unlawful things against other but can't stand one against us. Because we are ready to have a relation outside marriage but cannot accept our better halves doing the same. We human beings by nature are bloody hypocrites.

And unfortunately, I am also one of them.

We generally judge people so easily; we are ready to punish people for their mistakes without realizing that we also posses the same weaknesses. So how can we punish someone for mistakes we always commit; for weaknesses we all posses? This is something beyond my understanding.

Popular Misconception !!!

That day I just happened to ask a very simple question to a group of people. And I was really startled to get the answer.
The question is as follows.
A child in a snowy region created a SNOWMAN out of snow(obviously). Now this kid wanted the snowman to last as long as possible so that the snowman should not melt easily. He sought help from two people (lets say) A, and B
A:- Drape the snowman in a jacket from head to toe and it will not melt.
B:- A has gone crazy. If you drape the snowman in a jacket the snowman will melt and so just keep it in open and it will last long.
My question was: Whose option should the child take? A or B?

Amazingly enough, if I asked this question to 100 people, 96 of them answered that the option should be B. Most people were and are of the opinion that draping the snowman in a jacket will warm the inside of the jacket thereby resulting in rapid melting of the snowman. Rather is it good to keep the snowman in open.

The real answer is as follows.

"A" is correct. The snowman should be draped in a jacket. The thicker or multi-layered the better.The reason is that jacket or woolens create an insulation around the body. This insulation prevents the outside heat from entering the body but at the same time it doesn't allow the inner energy to escape too thereby creating a thermos flask type condition. This prevents the melting of the snowman as it remains virtually unaffected by the outside fluctuation of temperature.

This is the same case when you must have seen that ICE Chunks by the ice vendors are always covered by saw dust or thick rough clothing.
Some people may say that we feel warm inside the jacket but that warmth is the body warmth and not that the jacket is creating its own.


But a simple question like this threw up a viscious challenge of looking at the popular misconceptions that plague science and day to day life too.

Aliens Ahoy !!!!!

Recently I was asked this simple questions, " Do aliens exist?".
Unfortunately there is no simple answer to such a simple question. Only suggestive answers which strangely work both in favour and against the very notion that WE MIGHT NOT BE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE.
Let us look how.
The Universe (I mean the observable universe) is around 14 billion light years in radius. Now let us look at the exact numbers that you and me can comprehend. 1 light year is approximately 9.5 trillion kilometers or 95 followed by 11 zeros or 9500000000000 kms. And the radius of universe is 14 billion times this number which is like 1400000000000000000000000 kms. This distance is roughly onr thousand billion times the distance between earth and sun. Phew!!!!!
And this is just the radius. Now if we ASSUME the universe to be perfectly spherical then the volume of the universe will be approximately 42000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 cubic kilometers. Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwww!!!!!!!

Well that I suppose is enough rough mathematics. Now lets come back to some logic.
In such a huge observable universe our solar system is just a dust particle in the entire deserts of the Earth. This Universe contains approximately a thousand billion galaxies each containing a hundred billion stars which adds up to around 1000000000000000000000000 stars of which Sun is just one star. Many stars have planets around them and they might have different chemistry working there.
In such a big universe where stars abound and planets too, how can we assume that Earth is the only planet on which Life can exist?????

In my personal opinion Aliens can exist and may be. they do exist.
But i am not sure. We have never been contacted by aliens before. Or DO WE THINK SO??? More about alien contacts in some other blog.

As of now I can only say that just because we can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Aliens might as well exist because the sheer size of the universe defies the logic that they don't exist.

I Pay, You Teach !!!!!

There was a time, not in too distant a past, when teachers had exalted position in the mind of students. Today, that respect seems to have been lost. Reasons galore. From not PASSIONATE teachers to surge in monetary power of students and their parents and many more.
Today a student can SLAP a teacher in front of the class and gets away with a REPRIMAND. A teacher is left humiliated, thinking why is s/he teaching at all and whom?
A friend and fellow teacher was left shocked when a class 6th students told her (about her br***t), "INKO SAMHALKEY RAKHO; FATKEY BAHAR AA RAHEY HAIN" (Keep them in order, they are bursting out). She could never go inside the class and teach those students again. Less than a year later, she left. And that guy went scot free with a REPRIMAND and COUNSELING and completed his schooling from that very school.  Had it been in the school where I studied (ST. Pauls Academy) and in my time, he would have been rusticated immediately.

There are other schools in the vicinity where I live and teachers are treated worse than peons.

Money and Power, Media, Court, Child Rights and Populist Governance are responsible for this state of our education system.

Once I had failed more than 70% students on my class in a Unit Test and I was pulled up by our Principal (where I was teaching) and told that, " Our CUSTOMERS cannot be treated like this....". Read CUSTOMERS not STUDENTS. The students look at teachers with an  "I PAY YOU TEACH" attitude. AS if teachers are their bonded slaves.

As a teacher who is passionate towards his subject, I keep an eye on things and analyze everything. it pains me to see that discipline is fast vanishing from our schools. We are heavily borrowing education policies from the western countries where too much liberalization has resulted in GUN TOTTERING KIDS in schools and incidents every now and then of a student going on a killing spree. Are we headed the same way??? The recent killing of a Chennai teacher inside the school premises and that too inside the class kinda confirms the fear.

I think only future will tell what is going to happen to our already decaying and highly brittle education system. Let us pray that common sense prevails.

Nobody is a VEGETARIAN.

I have nothing against PURE-VEGETARIANS except for the logic they give for considering themselves to be PURE VEGETARIANS. 

How about trillions of Potatoes, Cauliflowers, Raddishes, Tomatoes, Corn, Rice plants, and the unending number of plants that we cook and sometimes eat raw??? They also have life the way fishes and other NON-VEG stuff have?? Only because plants can't express them does it mean that they don't feel it or are we human beings pretty happy telling ourselves that they are of lesser consciousness and hence can be chomped up as and when we like them??? In a way we all are non-vegetarians how so ever some of us shout we are not. The day a child is born it starts its life with Mother's milk which carries MOTHER'S ANTI BODIES, MICROBES, and ANIMAL PROTEIN AND SATURATED FATS which are definitely not made by plants. And then some people go gaga that they are PURE VEGETARIANS. What hypocrisy !!!!!!!! How about HONEY ??? Made from Flower nectar (the only plant stuff), and enzymes from the insect BEE. And ya not to forget SUGAR. We are literally eating animal and human bones aren't we???

And if MILK is vegetarian then the EGGS released in the market for consumption is also VEGETARIAN because it doesn't involve killing as those eggs are unfertilized.

I mean I don't understand the stupid logic of so called PURE VEGs that anything that doesn't involve killing is vegetarian. Plants are killed at a higher number than animals and we all know that plants have life too and yet plant eaters are VEGETARIANS.

Sorry my PURE VEG friends, but I am not convinced that you are worthy of being called PURE VEG because even PURE VEGs are NON VEG as it involves more brutal killing.

As simple as that.

Run man run

My friend Prakash has always been a funny guy. He lives in Faridabad, a NCR town and was my college mate. But trust me he was one funny character I have ever known. But what he did on that particular day, I will never forget.
We were going to Chattarpur temple in Delhi. We both had this love for temples and artistic places and since we both didn't have any girlfriends, at that time, so we were like more or less free to roam around on our own. You see having girl friends (for girls it is boy friends) is like having a baggage on your shoulders. Wherever you go, it goes with you.
Well, we boarded the bus from Anand Vihar ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal) and took the middle seats near the window. The day was pretty nice. Partly clear sky, a slight breeze, and a clear mind and heart. I was enjoying the trip when the bus suddenly stopped mid way. Two elderly, fat guys climbed up the bus and asked to show our tickets. We were travelling in a DTC bus which being a government owned bus was subjected to ticket checking and anyone caught without tickets would get a 6 months behind the bar.

The guys came up and announced, "Those not carrying tickets should come out of the bus immediately.". Prakash asked me to come along with him out of the bus. We both didn't buy tickets for that trip. In fact we never used to buy tickets. That day was no exception.

We climbed out of the bus and stood in a line of 7 other guys who were travelling without tickets. I was the 8th and Prakash the 9th one to be proscuted. One of thhose ticket checkers was standing at one end and the other was giving us some "challan" papers. Suddenly a bus went from in front of us. Prakash shouted, "Run man run". Before I coould realise anything I and Prakash were running towards the bus with the two ticket checkers at our pursuit. But then we were younger and fitter than them and caught the bus and climbed on to it. But then as luck would have it, the bus stopped at a red light almost the moment we got in. Before we could run out the two ticket checkers were already there.

They got hold of us and literally dragged us out. We were standing on the road like two criminals. Onlookers surrounded us and the two ticket checkers were panting for breath. Then one of them got out a booklet and asked us to pay 5000 rupees as fine or get ready to go to jail for atleast a year.
Prakash asked, "Why should we pay? we did nothing wrong. "
TTE, "You did nothing wrong? First you were caught without any tickets. Then you ran away from us. And you say you did nothing wrong? Travelling without ticket is a punishable offense and you will pay for it."
Prakash, "Ok I agree we don't have tickets but we do have the student bus passes which allows us to travel in any government bus in Delhi."
The ticket checkers were caught unaware as we both pulled out our student passes from our pockets.
Theri jaws dropped as they looked at each other, bewildered.
One of them asked, "Then why the hell you came out of the bus at the first place??"

Prakash replied, "Becasue you only said that those WITHOUT TICKETS should come off. We did."

The man, "Then why did you run??"
Prakash, "Because we were getting late and saw a bus going that way."

The man, "Why did you make us run??"

Prakash. " we never invited you to chase us. that was your wish."

Onlookers who have been watching all this split into laughter.

The ticket checkers went away grumbling. In the mean time the other 7 guys who were caught along with us, gave the officials a slip in the entire commotion..



Till date I laugh at the thought of that day when Prakash made those men look like ultimate fools by his sheer wit and humor.

The Transformer

It has been quite some time now but I still remember the days vividly as if they happened just yesterday only. It was June, 2001. We had just bought the new flat situated just below our 1st floor flat. I and brother had shifted to the older flat and mom and dad shifted downstairs. We had so many plans; wanted to convert the flat into a library and our innovation lab. But as it happens generally in UP, summer months mean the months of 14 hour power cuts, so the torture begun.
That day I was returning from Delhi, went to get my admission done at Deshbandhu College for Physics honors course. I returned at around 4 pm, only to find that electric supply was not there since morning and the inverter has run out of power. By night, that day, it had became evident that electric supply will not be restored. Anyways the night passed, somehow. It was hell on earth. The heat was not that a botheration than the mosquitoes and the sweat, which would drench your clothes, if you are wearing any, or would drip down your body.
Anyways the next day came, without any sign of the electric supply. We prepared ourselves for the harsh day ahead. In the mean time a guy named Prakash, from our locality and quite older than us, went to the electric supply office to enquire about the reason. He was told that the transformer of the locality was down and that they didn't have an engineer to get the transformer mended. So we will have to "cooperate" for another four days!
Four days!!! We all nearly fainted at the news. " How are we going to survive ?", Mr. Sharma recoiled in horror. "But we need to do something. We can't sit like this", Mr. Suri echoed.
I just watched them, and my dad, talk to each other animatedly.
Nearly an hour later they decided to call for a meeting of the locality people. In the meeting it was decided that we will hire someone to get the transformer mended ourselves.
After a lot of deliberation Mr. Pandey's name cropped up.
Mr. Pandey was a retired engineer from state electricity board, at least that is what he claimed to be though I had serious doubts over his credentials from the day he replaced our thin fuse wire with a thick copper wire and that arrangement blew up our main switch !!!
Anyways, for the want of anyone better we had to stick to Mr. Pandey.
That very evening he went into the compound, that housed the transformer, with the entire locality trailing him in expectation. After a long inspection he came out with a sombre expression, " the fuse seems to have been blown off. The path is incomplete. Needs to be changed."  
I thought, "Not the fuse again !!!".
The cost of that fuse was around 2500 bucks. We all pooled in our money and bought such a fuse from the electrical market at delhi.
On the D-day Mr. Pandey with his instruments went inside the transformer compound. The entire locality was standing outside. Three days and nights of sweltering heat had literally made us crazy.
Three hours later Mr. Pandey emerged out of the compound with a victorious smile on his face. He told us to get the electric supply from the main station to be restored.
We all waited with bated breath. The electric supply from the main station was switched on.











It was not diwali yet, but the evening sky was filled with light of the burning transformer. We looked at Mr. Pandey as he sheepishly smiled, " The fuse must have been faulty....". He slipped away.
We turned our gaze back to the transformer and started preparing ourselves for some more miserable nights, and days ahead.


Till date the transformer stands at the very same place, reminding us of its power and the evening diwali show which we will never forget.

Understanding Ohm's law

All of us have studied OHM's law at some point of time in our life and yyet we don't exactly understand it. This I understood when I was teaching Ohm's law to my students. Different books and authors take different approaches and interestingly they all incorporate a fundamental flaw. This flaw is both physical and mathematical.
So I am writing a small paper to bring forward the two methods and the mistakes that most authors and teachers of physics make while teaching students the physics of electricity and especially Ohm's law and resistance.

Sex and Food : The two engines of human growth

Two insignificant incidents happened today.
1. I went out with my brother to eat something at a nearby eatery and ate chilly potatoes, followed by chicken momos and then mango shake.
2. As we were eating we saw numerous girls, ladies, women around us. Eating, cheerful, happy etc.

Now you must be thinking why am I saying all these. Well simply because they evoked two thoughts in me. Are these two things, HUNGER and SEX not the two reasons of our existence; the engines of human growth (or rather destruction)?

Why do we work? Not passion; not love; not money; but to sustain ourselves - to sustain our lives- to mellow the fire of hunger.

Why do we have sex? Again not passion; not love; not money; but because of a trick nature has played with us due to which we get attracted towards the opposite sex and want to have sex so that we can mellow down the strongest urge of human mind and body- the sexual urge.

So am I not correct to think that these are the two main things that are propelling us to move ahead??

I may be wrong.

(PS: Here I said GIRLS, LADIES, WOMEN - from my angle. From a girl's angle it can be BOYS, GENTLEMEN, MEN).

Myths of teaching

As I have stated time and again the profession of teaching is going through a strained phase which is not very startling given the fact that quick money is not there in this field. Anyways there are a few irritating myths that people seem to have or seem to reinforce again and again. This blog is about those myths and my answer to those.

1. Is it not true that teachers get paid for only working "half-day" when compared to industry?

Ans. Half-day!!!!! Well I am one person who has worked in industry as well as school so let me answer this for you. Generally MNCs and other good companies have a working schedule of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm (or 6:00 pm). This is like 8-9 hours max. Schools run from 7:00 am till 2:00 pm. How much is that? 7 hours. How much is 7 less than 8 (or 9) ??? Is it a half day?????? On that a teacher generally carries his/her work (read copies and answers sheets for correction) home. In a way most teachers end up working around 10-12 hours everyday.

2. Well ok the time may seem nearly the same but then is it not that teachers take only 3-4 classes a day? So that kinda reduces the time of teaching from 7 hours to 3-4 hours???

Ans. Those who don't teach will not understand that to take a class of 1 hour you need to prepare for 2 hours. Worksheets, lesson plans, copy and worksheet corrections, project submissions, etc., etc., take up a huge chunk of time.  And on that private schools will always like to milk the cow (read teachers) dry or even at least till the milk turns red of blood. I have seen people around me getting only about 1 hour free (read no classes). I used to have 20 classes a week (a week has 40 classes) and the rest of the time I was engaged in maintaining the examination department ( i was the exam in-charge) and doing projects etc. So my dear for a teacher no amount of time is enough.

I will come back with more questions like the above which irritates me no end.

Success

How do you define success?
Well there are many a ways of defining success depending on how you look at life. But one good definition, a general one at that, is as follows," If you wake up in the morning and go to bed at night and in between do what you LOVE to do; you are successful."
 
Now that is pretty meaningful. Unfortunately now a days success is defined as a comparison factor. A comparison between what you are EARNING and what "another guy" of your age is earning. The comparison factor becomes even more skewed if the "another guy" happens to be your friend or a relative. Trust me man, you are so dead except that you don't know yet that you are dead.

Your parents (the main culprits), your relatives, your friend circle and finally you yourself will kill you by comparison.

The real way to compare should be between your past and present. If you have done something better than your own past in any possible way; you have succeeded. Unfortunately our education system also promotes unfair comparison in assessing success.

So my friends to be successful, see whether you are doing what you love to do and whether you are comparing yourself with your own self. If the above is yes; you are successful. Else think again !!!!

Predicament of a Male Teacher

In one of my earlier posts I had put forward the Problems faced by school teachers in General. Now I will put forward the problems faced by a MALE school teacher in Today's times.
We keep hearing that the world is galloping ahead into a new era; new things are happening; people's mindset is changing rapidly....... etc., etc., all true things which are however far from reality.
Take for instance our typical Indian Middle Class family with its middle class mindset... Females (read WIFE) should stay at home and Males(read HUSBAND) should work. Well now imagine what happens if the FEMALE (WIFE) goes out for a 8:30 am to 6:00 pm job and the MALE (HUSBAND) goes to a 7:30 am to 1:30 pm job??? Which means the MALE (HUSBAND) reaches home much ahead of the FEMALE(WIFE). And imagine the predicament of the Husband if he happens to be a SCHOOL TEACHER !!! which is considered as the WOMEN's JOB?????!!!!@!#!@#!$@!$##@%#%

Well trust me friends its real tough life for the Husband specially if he has a MOTHER and a WIFE to handle at the same time.

And you can't even imagine that fateful day when the HUSBAND has a long winter vacations and the WIFE goes out to work in that time. God all hell breaks loose at home.

Outside people say, " Raja wali naukri hai bhai teri. Subah jao and dopahar ko wapas". Ask a teacher who is at the helm of affairs.

And trust me you would not like to be in this situation when you have got some close relatives living nearby.

Well frankly friends I don't think there is another job which can be more fulfilling than Teaching (of course if you love it) and nothing more a troubling profession for you if you happen to be a married man whose wife has a good job requiring long hours and if your relatives live nearby.

Do you know what happens in that case?????

Well some other day I will tell you.

Reservation in Indian conditions

Well I feel there seems to be a big problem in our understanding of who should get reservations and who should not. Very honestly speaking, reservation is a must in Indian scenario but the question is Reservation for whom and at what level? In india the problem of reservation and its implementation is more political than socio-economical.
The real problem and its base and its solution are totally lost in the war for power (read Political power).
Would it not be more beneficial and the real solution if RESERVATION is provided at school level in the better public / private schools?
Would it not be better that economically sound people should be left out of the RESERVATION system?
Would it not be better that reservation should be provided to ECONOMICALLY BACKWARD people instead of BACKWARD CASTE people?

India seems to be the only country in the world where since its independence people have GONE BACKWARDS THAN FORWARD??!!!!!!

Today every tom, dick and harry wants to become backward so as the get the share of the plum cake called reservation.

Take this.
If the recent census shows that the so called socially backward class people account for more than 50 % of Indias population, then a new problem will emerge. The so called General people will have the right to count themselves in MINORITIES. So they may ask for RESERVATION too. And else RESERVATION is already there.

So I think the  best bet is to declare the entire nation as backward. We will be a big happy backward family and then maybe people will realise that its better to give reservations based on economic conditions than out age old caste system which has hollowed Indian system for thousands of years.

So friends welcome to the bandwagon of BACKWARD PEOPLE. Ahoy!!!

I still exist

Every morning and every night I wish nearly 40 of my good friends, Good morning and Good night.
This is just not a wish to my friends for a good day and a nice sleep, but a reminder that I still exist on this earth, that I always remember them.

Unfortunately I seldom receive sms from them in return. Though very frankly, when I started smsing them I did expect that I will not receive an sms back. And I didn't ask for one in return too.

Yet, I am a human being and like others I too feel at times that I should be remembered too, by my friends, unless I am enforcing my friendship on them.


Anyways, life teaches you one or the other thing at every juncture. What I learned today is a simple fact that I have conveniently overlooked, everyone doesn't have enough time for their own lives, let alone for others, so I don't mind much.

Buddies, just remember one thing, Shubham Chakraborty, still exists on this earth.

Real Nature of Education

There was a time when I used to mock CCE and Formative Assessments. The reason was that I was ill informed, ignorant. Though the truth was glaring in front of me, I chose to overlook. But then I came around and today I can safely say that I am a proponent of CCE and FA and very frankly I want thing to improve further.

When I was a student in school, I used to wonder why I need to study all the subjects instead of those that I really love to. Why can’t I just play cricket and become a cricketer? Why does everyone compare me with someone else when we two are different people?

The reason is a flawed education system which has become flawed because of our wrong assumption that MONEY IS SUCCESS. This ultra materialistic view that we have borrowed from the west has led to our downfall. If students across the country are committing suicides over exam failure, the reason is this wrong definition of success. And amazingly this has led to a severe down gradation of our education system and values.

The real nature of education is to enrich and empower a person to face and deal with the world. But are we doing that?

No. Our perception of success has turned education into a marks crunching machine. A student is taught to score marks. Hardly ever to understand the concepts. We are always looking up to the so called brilliant 1% students who constantly score above 90%. What about those who don’t score above 70%? They are in majority.

Well we push them into oblivion. At least we try our best to do so. And interestingly throughout history it is these BELOW AVERAGE guys who have shaped and reshaped the world as we know it today.

The purpose of education is to make the students achieve their potential. They should be doing what they love to do. In fact that is what the true idea of success is, “A MAN IS SUCCESSFUL IF HE WAKES UP IN THE MORNING AND GOES TO BED AT NIGHT AND IN BETWEEN, DOES WHAT HE LOVES TO DO”. Going by that ARTISTS and SCIENTISTS are the real successful people.  And exactly how many are they in number? Well less than 1% of 1% of our entire population.

To a huge extent we parents are also responsible for this entire problem. The following will indicate the problem cycle.

MONEY IS SUCCESS --> Parents want their ward to be SUCCESSFUL --> Schools want their CUSTOMERS (Read STUDENTS and their PARENTS) to be satisfied --> Teachers want to be in jobs so have to listen to school admin --> Completion of syllabus takes center stage --> Understanding goes for a toss --> Students become problem solving, marks crunching, lesson mugging devices --> Students either become SUCCESSFUL or not --> In both case they too propagate MONEY IS SUCCESS and the cycle continues.

It is high time now that this pattern be broken. It is to be understood that SUCCESS is about positively influencing as many lives as possible in one lifetime. It is about pursuing your PASSION and making a contribution to the world. And in the process enjoying and reaping the benefits that life presents you.

I, being a teacher, has taken it on myself to positively effect as many students as possible. Each and every student is special and is a powerhouse of possibilities and potential. Only that they need the guidance to achieve their potential. Charity begins at home.

I hope people including school teachers, parents and kids should understand that achieving their potential will be the real success.

Writing habit

Writing has been a bad habit for me. I am so addicted to writing that I seem to have become speech retarded. Even my wife says so, though not in the same words as mine.
When I was going around with my wife, before marriage, I used to send her at least 100 sms a day if not more but when she used to call me I used to talk for less than 5% of the time. She was the chat-baby and me the mum-guy. This stupid habit of mine has become a big retard for my daily activities. Except for talking about my own subject, Physics, and some related topics, I find it very difficult  to talk.
Now I think I will turn this bad habit of mine into something different. Why not do something better out of it, I thought.
I have been a story writer since my childhood days, so I think I must start writing stories again and try to get them published. Else you guys are there for me to read my blogs, isn't it???

Predicament of a Teacher

I have long wondered why most MALES now a days shy away from the teaching profession? Why for todays youngsters teaching is either not an option or the last option or kind of an exit strategy in life?  Pondering on the above questions I came across the answers. Four years I have been a teacher in Two Engineering colleges and Two schools. What I have seen around me and my analysis of the situation is summarized below. If you find my language gross and not that of a teacher, kindly forgive me but just become a teacher for six months and you would agree with me.

Gone are the days when a teacher was the most respected person in ones life. Gone are the days when a teacher used to TEACH and GIVE KNOWLEDGE to the students. Today teachers are a harried lot.

CBSE says that students should not fail (CCE is mainly about it which borrows ideas from the multiple intelligence theory which though i agree with has loop holes) and if a student knows how to run fast, he knows something in life and must therefore pass and finally become an engineer or a doctor (Government has done enough to ensure that perfect idiots should become engineers and doctors) even if he doesn't know that 2+2=4 and that RAM was SITA'S husband and not brother !!!..

Also parents feel that a teacher should take complete responsibility of the student and they would hardly do anything except earning money.

On that the school and college administration says that CUSTOMER (read  STUDENT and their PARENTS) SATISFACTION is most important and one must always say, "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS CORRECT".

Plus if a student slaps the teacher on one cheek the teacher is supposed to forward the other cheek and then when that is also hit, should COUNSEL the students as to why he/she shouldn't have done this so that he/she  may come back with a SHOE the next time. Since, if the teacher scolds the student and the student commits (OR EVEN SAYS ABOUT COMMITTING) suicide, the teacher will be hanged to death by the POLICE and SUPREME COURT.

A teacher who is behind the creation of hundreds of engineers and professionals is paid PEANUTS. One of my friends, a MA in Economics plus BEd was offered 3500 rupees to become a PGT. Now is that not an insult? Barring some reputed private schools and some government schools the salary of a teacher is less than or equal to the salary that a peon earns in a regular government job. And then it is expected that teachers should do a world class job. Ha Ha !!!!

Though the concept of CCE is good but it is a TUGHLAKI IDEA. Good but ineffective in a country like ours. I will discuss about it shortly in another blog.

So a teacher is literally tortured  by the school/college administration, parents, supreme court, police, CBSE, Kapil Sibal and his great ideas, and finally the students themselves. and then it is asked WHY NO ONE WANTS TO BECOME A TEACHER NOW A DAYS?

You still need a reason ????!!!!!!!!

My fight with my nemesis ----- The Spider

Spiders- those titsy bitsy stupid creatures who live almost every nook and corner of your home- are those creatures which I always wondered why God at all made (if he made them at all). I have a special relation with them. I hate them. Nay!! I am scared of them. I am not scared of anything as much as I am scared of Spiders. And we often come face to face with devastating consequences, usually for the spider. But this time for a change I was at the receiving end. This is the story of my face off with one such nasty creature.

Today morning I went into the bathroom only to find a spider hanging to its web bang in front of me, on the left hand side of the entrance to the bathroom. I stopped. Looked into its eyes (well one of the 8 they've got). It stared back as if mocking me. I was disgusted. I knew if I had to relieve of the pressure nature had created in my belly, I need to get through the door, where the spider waited for me. I decided instantly that it has to be obliterated.

I caught hold of my size 9 chappal. It is flexible and had been with me for two months now. I had full confidence in its (chappal) ability of cruching the spider. There is a famous saying, "what can go wrong, will go wrong, exactly when you don't want it to go wrong". The above saying came to life today, with me.

I could have easily and softly patted on the spider with the chappal and it would have been crushed beyond recognition. But I had decided to show it the strength of my arms. So I picked up the chappal and hit the spider with such ferocity that the web it was hanging to vanished, the cemented part of the wall it was hanging to and which had developed flakes due to water seepage came crashing down and the floor became dirty, the chappal fell from my hand and I myself jumped out in joy only to find the spider crawling towards the kitchen area.

"What the hell!!!! How did it escape???!!!", ran through my head with my heart rate rising.
I decided that it was not to be. This time I decided to use the chappal as a missile. What a mistake was that!!!!

I hurled the chappal towards the fleeing spider only to see to my horror that the chappal instead of hitting the spider actually bounced off the floor and hit the tray which mom had kept nearby on which were kept three cups and a few un eaten biscuits.

Two cups cranked and their pieces were there all over the floor. with my chappal sitting at their place on the tray. Just then, my bad luck, mom came downstairs and seeing all this started scolding me for behaving like a kid. But my eyes and brain was still searching for that spider. Couldn't see it go anywhere.

Mom and my wife started to clean the mess due tome stupidity. And I went back into the bathroom wondering where the spider may have gone.

Once inside I started taking bath when I saw something through the corner of my eyes. Startled I put on the specs only to the the same titsy bitsy spider crawling up the wall towards the roof.

It stopped for a moment and may be, laughed at me.

I came out of the bath room to be greeted by my mom and wife both saying what a brave heart I am.
Now that is what i call an Irony of Life.

God and Science.

How many times do we ask ourselves whether we believe in god or not? Almost on a daily basis, may be sometimes but none is there who NEVER asks this question.

Being a student of Physics, I am at times urged by many to refrain from openly speaking out my views in favour or against the topic related to God. But then just because I have studied a few books and learnt a few mathematics makes me any different from being a human being? Surely not. So today i thought it is a good idea to speak out my mind about God.

I don't know whether there is any such thing as God which created the universe (or may be the Multiverse) and us too and who presides over our every move, scrutinises every step we take, counts how many times we spoke a lie only to punish us later or counts our good deeds to bless us. Frankly I don't know if there is any such God and if at all one exists then I would like to know why we presume that He/ She would be so preoccupied with tiny creatures like us and our day to day lives. But frankly again, I don't know if such a God actually exists.
Then what is God in which I do believe? Well I have a faith. A faith according to which I am looked over by someone who knows me better than i do, who has the ability to guide me in my darkest hours and who is unconditional in his/her approach. I can't give it a human form for it is just a belief, a faith, but still I call it Krsna, Ram, Allah, Jesus and so on. So for me, God is a personal faith of a power which resides inside me and guides me always. Hard core scientists can call it intuition, probability, chance or just a figment of imagination, but for me it is God. and yet my god doesn't make me fight with a human being who believes in his / her god. That places me away from the realm of religion and places me in the vicinity of spirituality. And yet I am abhored by both men of science and religion because I don't call God a Hoax and I don't kill people in the name of God.
isn't it a peculiar situation?
I am still thinking about it.
Someday i intend to figure out the rest of my thoughts and then I will put my thoughts into words.