KADEDI............ANARHAM

one of the very famous mythological stories of India describe the young prahalada worshipping lord vishnu. when his father, the famous demon, hiranyakashipa asks him, where is this vishnu present, the young devotee answers, you needn't search for him at a particular place, he is present every where: "Endendu vedikina andande dorakunu". The rest is known to every one, the demon tries to smash a pillar which is beside him to see vishnu and out comes the"ugra narsimha". Just like prahlada sees the lord every where, today we can see corruption and money centredness every where in india. If you try to break any pillar, what comes out is the ugra roopam of corruption or worse, that pillar might collapse the moment you touch it, because already its eaten by corruption termites. They can digest iron also...........
The common man of India suffers and detests this evil, CORRUPTION. some of them think that nobody can change this country and they leave for some other country. The people who can't leave this place or those who don't want to leave, keep reading articles on corruption in magazines or news papers and start criticizing it severely.They might probably say that no body can change these government employees.
If one thinks that parasites are only govt. employees and the private sector is free from them, there's no greater hypocrisy than this.
one of my friends has been consulting a famous fertility centre for the past five years. she has beeen told that the problem is with her ovary and that medicines would help. later, they told her that she should opt for a test tube baby and for that thay need the ovum of some other woman. My friend agreed to this and her husband continued using the medicines. After an year they told her that as his sperm count is very less they would give the fertilized egg of another couple. Devastated with this, my friend and her husband stopped consulting the f.centre. As the fertility centre people have in store many artificially fertilized eggs with them , they cash the ignorance of people and make money out of it!!!!!!
Till now we heard about doing business with dead bodies; now a days, people are capable of doing business with unborn babies also. kavi vemana said, "tinaga tinaga vemu tiyyanundu". probably in a few days people would accept this and get used to this also.

MOUNAM

"You say it best when you say nothing at all."

These are the lines from one of Ronan Keating's famous album. Probably he means to say something else when he sings this, but it suits the mind set of common Indian (middle aged) men. They like it when the women of their house holds keep their mouths shut.
We in India might boast of women like Pratibha patil, Sonia Gandhi, Kiran bedi, Indra nooyi….. but still in Punjab, female: male ratio is 850 : 1000.What a nation we are!!!!
Domestic violence is one of the serious forms of oppression against women. This is not given much importance as much as female infanticide, rape & murder. May be people think it's not a big thing for a woman to be beaten up by her father, brother, husband or son.

The first law maker of india, MANU describes in Manu Smriti how well a Woman should be treated by the men around her.
It's an irony that men who worship woman in the form of "Goddess Durga", don't hesitate to beat or abuse their wives once they go home. I don't say that all men are like this. If Indians can become so civilized to eradicate untouchability, then why not Domestic violence?
Women's problems, their tears are not given proper attention. The most pathetic thing about this situation is no body likes to give voice to this.

As I read some where,
Enno deshalu, endaro mahilalu,
Andari basha okkate,
MOUNAM.

This aggravates the feeling that getting a good husband is sheer luck. When I wrote a blog on FEMINISM, some one wrote a comment that I don't understand feminism. Does he understand what it is? He might say that feminism originated in USA, a foreign country and it came to India, just like English, Jeans, MNC's & Coke.
But, where did this concept of treating women as inferior creatures araise? Not in India. That was also imported in the same way from other countries.
Like the most famous religions of the world, Hinduism doesn't talk about man as the supreme creature. It says that woman is the abodement of power (Adi Shakthi).

The wife of a drunkard and mother of two wants to commit suicide because of domestic violence. But, she doesn't have the courage to do it, when she sees her children. She silently sheds tears and the dark night devours them calmly. Who is answerable to all those countless tears?
As sri sri says,
Rooraktha pravaha siktham, pishacha gana samanakaram...
Narajati charitra samastham parapeedana parayanathvam...

TEACHER'S DAY

Well, I understood that there are only two days in a year when I hear the message alert frequently on my mobile. One, May 6 & the other Sep. 5. The first one is my B day & the second one, S.Radhakrishnan's. Being a Teacher is not that wonderful, at least for me. For the first few classes, it feels like somebody ducked your head into water. You want to breathe but you can't. After a few weeks, you become normal. Not that great experience. A Teacher speaks standing on one side of the class, the students on the other. Not a considerable difference. What matters the most is the 75% attendance. "Teacher, tum bug bug karte jao, hum smsing karte jaate". Ideal class room, found any where in India. To hell with this education system, sorry the most profitable business in India. And the teachers!!!!! my god , the "Teachers", some of them who teach Under graduates & Post graduates are not even worth to teach 5th class. God save those students.
The Best part of the day is watching Julia Roberts' MONALISA SMILE. Kat Watson, I wish I were like you. I some how, missed my students yesterday, especially the ECE gang. When I was studying I used to wonder whether my teachers would remember me after I finish college. Now I am thinking whether my students would remember me after they finish their college. GOD BLESS THEM.

INDIA: SHINING OR STINKING?

In one of my favourite novel, "Barrister Parvatheesam", the protagonist, parvatheesam goes to England to study law & become a Barrister. He is invited to a party over there by English people. When he arrives at the party, the servant comes to him, asks for his coat and enquires politely whether parvatheesam wants to use the toilet. Immediately, our clever fellow replies, "no, thanks. i did IT in the corner". This novel describes a 19Th century Indian, who went to England. But the Irony is you see parvattheesams all over India even in 21st century.
The so called God's best creation, MAN (according to the Bible) doesn't even bother to find a public urinal in India. A man, urinating shamelessly on a road in broad day light is not an uncommon scene in India. There are men who think that urinating in public is a very common thing. For them, its as natural as eating or breathing. Probably the makers of our constitution forgot to include this one in the rights of an Indian citizen(only male!). Look at the plight of Indian government! I see the symbols om, half moon, & cross on the walls of many institutions & govt. offices. Utter Stupidity! How can any one dream that mere painting of religious symbols would stop men from doing this heinous act? I am not saying all men in India are like this. Men, who are not sensitive to the rights of other citizens of the country, Men who are not bothered about any thing except their lives, are capable of filling their pockets by illegal means and emptying their bladders without any shame.
I desperately want to believe Ram Chandra Guha who writes very positively about INDIA in his columns. But, all I can Say is THE WHOLE NATION STINKS.

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

I don't say life's full of masti like it was in UG days, but it's full of optimism. It's been long time since I felt so positive about myself. Most of the time I smile about my students who are ignoring me in the corridors because I am no longer their teacher. The present students make me laugh with all their naughty deeds and by their desperate efforts to fall in love with their classmates. The way they think is so filmy!
Now a days, life's so full of "Phonetics" - How many sounds does English language have?, where to stress a word?, make sure that you check the Oxford dictionary for the pronunciation of all the difficult words in the chapter which you are going to teach today. English teacher, make sure of the "Received pronunciation". You shouldn't use Indianized English.
What is it that I asked God before three years? A small house with lots of place to cultivate vegetables, a cow, a violin. Most of it is granted except the cow & the violin. I spend my evenings by reading R.K.Narayan & listening to "Pehli nazar me".
But the best part of the day is in the morning when I face the sun & utter the Navagraha stotram.
I quickly get into the house, apply sunscreen, wave my mother & run for my class. Am I asking the sun god to protect me or the sunsreen to protect me from his rays?

THIS WEEKEND.....

While waving at me with a cheerful smile saying "Happy Weekend" or "Happy Hols Ma'am", this friday evening, my students eyed suspiciously the huge book I was carrying along with me to home. Their expression simply said, "Will she finish it off in three days?"
Well, to be frank, even I doubted whether I would finish reading Vikram Seth's 1350 pages book "A SUITABLE BOY" in 3 days. I felt it's such a famous book and seth is one of the most acclaimed Indian authors who are still publishing. It's a must read. Before endeavouring to read the book I made sure that there are enough potato chips at home for the three days. But, I managed to finish the potato chips in one day and the book in two days.
Set in post Independent India(1950 to be specific), A SUITABLE BOY is the story of Mrs. Rupa mehra who keeps searching for a suitable match for her younger daughter, LATA. Lata, a student of English literature falls in love with KABIR. She tries to forget him once she gets to know that he is kabir DURRANI(A MUSLIM). When she understands that she is in neck deep love with him, she suggests that they leave(euphemstic usage of eloping) Brahmpur(the fictitious town in which the story is set). Kabir refuses to do so and talks about his graduation, his dreams about studying at Oxford or Cambridge & joining the IFS. LATA weeps like anything and says, "you don't understand things.you are not a girl". Mrs. Mehra gets to know about "lata-kabir" from one of her friends.After the usual RONA-DHONA, she insists on the boy's caste.He should be a KHATRI. she immeadiately takes lata to calcutta & starts searching for a suitable boy.Her search ends with HARESH KHANNA. There's also AMIT CHATTERJI who is the brother-in -law of lata's brother ARUN. N ow whom should LATA choose? Kabir, Haresh or Amit? In the mean while there's my mother who kept on fasting, performing poojas, reading the thousand names of gods & goddesses while my brother is taking his IIT entrance. No Food. Now, what should I do? Food technologists came to my rescue in the form of MAGGI.
There's a humorous situation in the novel, where ARUN(who is obsessed with England & English customs) discusses in length with Haresh about the Pubs, Restaurants, & Ball rooms of London and had to confess at last that he didn't visit England. That reminds one of Tom stoppard's INDIAN INK. Nirad das while talking to Flora crew, says, "chelsea, of course my favourite part of London". Flora is surprised "oh! you...." then he says, "I plan to visit london one of these days" I can never forget the way Prof. Subbarayudu read this out and made us laugh.
The characters of Arun & Meenakshi in this novel, reflect the mind set of Indians in the 1950's.obsessed with every thing Foreign, English, Attending balls, Extra marital affairs, every thing which is considered as English is followed.
The story ends with lata leaving Brahmpur with her huband, Haresh. She feeds monkeys and keeps looking at them while the train moves.Ii finished reading these lines while listening to one of my favourite tracks, Shreya ghoshal's "Jaadu hai nasha...."
The book didn't leave me exactly with wonder. certainly I did't fall in love with it. Some how, till the last page, I kept expecting lata to marry kabir. seth, I feel makes a better poet than a novelist. I studied one of his poems,"curious mishaps" 5 years back in the general english text book. I even liked that "word of thanks" in the form of a poem at the beginning of "A suitable boy" :-
"And, gentle reader, you as well,
buy me before good sense insists
you'll strain your purse and sprain your wrists".

IF U R CRITICIZED...........

well, I know that the first thing any one would do is to defend one self.

I some how feel that I am surrounded by people who are all the time bothered only about other's mistakes. They may not criticize me, but what scares me is their attitude towards their fellow human beings. There are some people who never bother to think that unneccesary criticism will spoil their relation ships with the people around them.

Yeah, we all will love to hear what others think about us. That's what I learnt on the other day, when I made my students give feed back about their friends. They were really eager to know what others think about them.

But there will be some people around us, who try to talk 100 & one things about us, even if we don't ask them to do so.

The best thing would be to ignore these people. If we go on thinking about them & try to take revenge , ultimately we will lose peace of mind. when you see such a person, just think that there's no one there & you are unable to see that person. Some times you feel like kicking the other person's ass.

DO IT.

But not really. Go to your room. Imagine the person there. Kick him/her.

But there are others, who really want you to succeed in life. When they criticize, it's time to stop supporting your view point & start thinking about what they said.

CRITICISM will help us or ruin us, based upon the way we take it.

THE FOUNTAIN HEAD

"'The Fountain Head' is my favourite book".
I heard this & read these words too many times.
When I carried the book one saturday evening, I was expecting an interesting sunday.
Frankly speaking, it didnt leave me with the usual feeling of awe which I experience when I read some thing great. The story revolves round an american architect, HOWARD ROARK.
I heard some one say that Howard Roark is the perfect humanbeing. Well the only thing I liked about him is his way of standing for his beliefs. I really had to break my head to understand his relationship with DOMINIQUE.
Finally, i couldnt make either head or tail out of the book.
Why does this happen all the time?
I dont understand most of the books which are listed as great books.
The same thing with the books which are awarded the Booker prize.
well, I some how feel that they are written only for the sake of intellectuals, not for common folk like me.

FEMINISM

When will men stop making fun of Feminism?
why do they think that Feminism is against men?
Its like any one of those movements, which were initiated to save ones dignity & self respect.
We study about the French revolution, Russian revolution & the Abolition of slavery in history text books. They are all looked upon as some thing which altered a nation's history.
Then why do men look down upon Feminism?
Well, one fine morning in my class room, my Professor while talking about some thing, told us that Feminists imitate men. They try to dress like men, smoke like them.
I dont blame him.That's what happened in the Initial stages of the movement.
But now, Feminists understand that men & women are different & unique.
Theres no point in trying to copy men, because a WOMAN is SPECIAL.
Each species on this earth is unique in its own way.
Man's stupidity in understanding this fact creates all the problems.
Man is superior to woman, whites are superior to blacks, or aryans are the best race!
How absurd is that!!!!!!!!!!
Women are empowered now. They are CEOs, Bosses, what not?
But, look at the no. of rapes or cases of house hold violence against them!
Women are sexually harrassed every where.
Feminism has taken new dimensions now a days.
Its not fighting for equality, but fighting HARRASSMENT from men.
Any one who ridicules feminism is ridiculing humanity.
REMEMBER, India is a country where women were worshipped.
Woman is regarded as the mother of the universe(literal translation, Jagan; mata)

THE HUNGRY TIDE

This is the story of PIYA(piyali roy).
well, there are other characters also, but I usually see the story from a women's perspective.
Piya is a US based cetologist(one who studies about marine mammals).
she comes to India to find out about a species of Dolphins in the Ganga.(W.Bengal)
she meets KANAI(kanai dutt) on the train.
kanai is on his way to his aunt's home. He invites piya for a stay over there. Piya goes on her own way, gets permission from the forest department(only with the help of an acquaintance)
she manages to go for an expedition on the river, but falls into the river due to the forest guard's recklessness(this guard represents the Indian public servants who are careless about every thing in the world).
she is saved by FOKIR.
fokir is a fisherman & the son of Kusum(kanai's childhood friend).
Piya & fokir doesn't share a common language, but manage very well with signs.
fokir turns out to have excellent knowledge about the dolphins for which piya is searching. It appears as if Piya falls in love with fokir, though she knows that he is a married man & the father of a six year old.
Through fokir, Piya again meets kanai(fokir lives in the same village)
kanai tries to flirt with Piya but gets no success & becomes jealous of fokir.
while studying the dolphins, Piya & fokir find themselves in the middle of a fierce storm, which is uprooting trees.
fokir dies trying to save Piya.
Piya requests the help of her friends and collects some money for fokir's widow & child.
Too many coincidences in the story, but the setting of the story is interesting.
I knew many things about sunderbans.
and the story of kusum has resemblences with the Nandigram incident.
what scares one while reading the story is the Man-eaters of the sunderbans(literally The Beautiful Jungle)

MUSINGS OF A TEACHER

Well,The first time you start teaching seriously & the first time you are given a class for teaching english, its fun.
Infact I fell in love with ECE-IA instantaneously.
I went home & told my mom, with a smile, "my students are lovely".
well,
If every thing goes well, there's no need of writing this. As usual,
KAHAANI ME TWIST AAGAYA.
some of them, started taking me for granted.
Yesterday, I went to their class, in the last hour. They were at their worst.
Some how, a feeling of hatred, towards them crept into me.
I really didnt imagine them to be like this, at least with their teacher.
Well, as an ardent believer in hinduism, I have always believed in the KARMA theory.
"You get back whatever you give."
If u hate some one, It returns to you in some other form.
I always loved my teachers, respected them, and behaved with them, as a student should behave. I wonder why my students are not doing the same.
I am constantly trying to forget & forgive them only because I love them.
why do people fail to understand others feelings?
Probably,the best thing would be to stop thinking about them.
I should try this out.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS LIFE

While I was a Student, I used to envy the lives of my "Teachers".They got their degrees with them.They are earning & most imp. they all looked beautiful to me.
"How LUCKY they are!" I used to muse continuosly.With in six months every thing turned Topsy-Turvy. Now I am a Teacher & I feel my "Students" are LUCKY.
All the time they are surrounded by friends, they can gossip about teachers, crack jokes about them and laugh as much as they can.
This should remind any one of STEPHEN LEACOCK. According to him, once upon a time there was aman, who thought when he was a kid, that when he grows up, he would do some thing.After he grew up, he thought, that once he is a married man, he would do some thing. After he got married, he thought, once I finish all the responsibilities in life, then I would do something. After he turned sixty, he looked back. A cold wind seemed to brush his cheek.
Well, I now think, whether it is work or enjoyment, this is the RIGHT MOMENT. That reminds me of Javed Akthar.
HAR PAL YAHAN JEE BHAR JIYO
JO HAI SAMAH KAL HO NAA HO.

BOSS

The Most Filthy word in English Language.
i guess even the most hated word .
i hate the person along with the word.
arey, common yaar, i am also a human capable of thinking.
why should some one try 2 influence my thinking & my feelings?
ROT.