TRUTH and DARE

BEYOND WORDS……..

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:27:00 +0000

As I passed class 12^th, all sorts of confusions started troubling me, what to do and what not to do. It was mainly having an effect on me because my father was not able to come to a conclusion. I was quite on a single track regarding what I wanted to do, and that was to get into the Civil services. But before that I needed to graduate as well, so now a new problem had to be solved, where to do graduation from? Being a school topper in 12^th wasn’t of much help to me, the only happiness it gave me was that my name was put up on the school toppers’ list.

After clearing many entrances including LAW, BBA, BBE, and many more, I changed my mind, and finally got into a leading commerce college in Chandigarh to do B.com, and pursue Chartered Accountancy course side by side which was due to a lot of brain wash from my father, who strongly discouraged me from getting into the Civil Services. I was always afraid of the CA profession, and for me; in particular, a lot of hype was always there for this course. This was because every male member from my mother’s side was a CA, and I had grown up listening to their experiences! I was convinced that this course was not for me, and when I would eventually fail, then I'd get the nod to pursue my area of interest, the Civil Services.

An year went by and it was the time to appear for my first CA exam, (Nowadays known as the CPT), I was totally unprepared and took the exams. After the exams I was sure that I won’t be able to get through, so my father asked me to take classes for it again. Meanwhile, the result was out, and I unexpectedly passed! On a personal front, it was quite an achievement to start with. I was quite overjoyed. I thought that it was a fluke and I won’t pass in the next exams surely. College kept on going and so did my studies for CA. Another year went by and it was time for the second CA exams. After appearing for the exams, I wasn’t quite sure if I would make it this time around also. So, when the result was out, to my utmost surprise I passed again! To be very honest, that really was a big thing for me, and I didn’t know how to react that day, but on the other hand I saw my hopes of getting into the Civil Services being shattered, as my plan was going against me only! Now, I had to focus and concentrate on the CA course, as I had moved into its FINAL lap. Till now, I had achieved this success without even a single hiccup and that too when it was not expected at all.

Advices now started pouring in, that I better not underestimate this course and start planning my studies accordingly. It was quite evident that getting through the CA FINAL examinations was not a joke, and I better be prepared for it. So, after my graduation was over, I went to Delhi for coaching. The time I spent in Delhi wasn’t easy, went through a lot but made some great friends as well. This time, I took things seriously, unlike before. After a year, my coaching was complete and I appeared for my final exams, wasn’t much confident of clearing, like always before, but still had some hope as I had put in a lot of effort. On the day of the result, I was very nervous and so was everyone at home. I had never seen them getting that anxious before. The result was out and I didn’t make it. That day was very tough and I couldn’t digest it that easily. Time had come to open up the books again and get back to studies. I always had a habit of doing things in the nick of time, and this was no different, barely 3 weeks were left for exams, when I actually got serious for studies. This time around I managed to clear 4 exams of a group, missed 1 subject marginally in the other group of 4 subjects, but since this was CA, had to give the remaining 4 exams again due to that 1 subject. Although I had not even studied for that other group even for a single day but since I missed it marginally, it gave me the confidence of clearing it in the next time, if I studied a bit more. I did study a bit more, but not as much as I should have had, banking on the past success. According to me, my exams went on well this time barring 1 subject in which I wasn’t confident enough, but still had a lot of hope that I would become a CA this time for sure. So, everyone in the family began to anticipate and kept waiting eagerly for the result. The result was out, and to my utmost surprise, I didn’t clear, as I had forgotten that one cannot ever be sure of a CA result, which always has a lot of surprises in store for us. This time everyone in the family was really disappointed with the way things had shaped up.

It took me a while to assess what had gone wrong and focus again. When I had almost regrouped my energies and concentration, the Cricket World Cup had started. Being a cricket maniac, I could not control myself and had forgotten all that happened to me. Moreover, Indian team also added to my woes, I watched their every match and they also kept on winning again and again, until they won the Cup!

After India had won, a little over a month only was left for the exams, but this time, I had made up my mind to work hard, and so I did. Studied a lot till the exams, left no stone unturned. After the exams were over, I had a mixed feeling that it could go either way! I started preparing myself and everyone at home for the worst case scenario. After a month or so, the date of result was announced, but this time I didn’t take any chances and kept it to myself, nobody at home or any relatives had even a hint of it. I was being asked on a daily basis for the date of result, which I kept on denying having any knowledge of.

Finally the ‘D’ day had come and I woke up normally thinking that the result would be declared around afternoon, which was the norm from the past, I was reading the newspaper till I got a phone call that the result was out. It was just 9 am and I still wasn’t in my senses when I got the shock. I didn’t know what to do (obviously had to check the result) instantly, it took me a while to control my nerves and without telling anyone I went to check my result. While I was in the process, my mother came and sat beside me discussing the routine matters, she didn’t even had the slightest of hint of what was going on with me that time! When the result page opened up, I could not believe what I saw, I shouted that I had become a CA and hugged my mother, ran away to inform my father and took him also by surprise! Within seconds I discovered what I had achieved and started crying along with my mother and there were tears and only happy tears all around!

More than myself, I was happy to see that look on my parents face, who had this dream to see me as a CA, a feeling which is beyond all words..........

As for me, my heart still lies with the Civil Services.

THE GRAND FINALE (Last Part)

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:52:00 +0000

Now coming over to the last 3 days of our golden time..

It was our 13^th day which started with great pomp and show, we used the auditorium’s speakers to good effect for music so that everyone could dance till the faculty didn’t come, courtesy Mr Surana (Lightsman). People kept on coming slowly and got in their dancing shoes immediately..

Our faculty gave us some some reasonable time to enjoy as she (Mrs Srivastava) was a bit late, and as expected our celebrations came to an abrupt halt when she came in.

There was no limit of getting bored that day as it was a purely non-interactive session.We kept waiting, first for the morning tea, then lunch, and finally for the class to get over. Post lunch, we extended our break and clicked a lot of photographs, and the day’s target was met.

O! Shrey and Sonali had gone to arrange for the momentoes post lunch and took our Question Bank’s (Rohit) car, while coming back they got a bit late as well, which made our Question Bank really furious and a drama took place thereafter with Chandan also chipping in !!

The day ended with nothing more to be mentioned about.

Day 14 and Faculty : Mr Vinay Sharma

Mr Sharma was well in time and didn’t give us a chance to repeat the previous class’s performance. It was a party day too and girls had got their dresses with them..Our faculty first started with some interactive sessions which included some very different types of activities. Meanwhile we were also busy in planning for our evening party.Varun and Amar took over and started making arrangements for it.

After that we went for lunch in a party mood, and didn’t know what we were in for after lunch !

Mr Sharma decided to make full use of the time and started with the preparation of interviews.

After that it was a total writing session and we kept on filling the pages, the only highlight being Sahil Manchanda’s ‘Head girl’ speech, which is worth mentioning.

Class over and time to party ! Castle 9 in Connaught Place was finalised.. Rohit, I, Lipika, Rahul, Sahil and Vishakha went on a shopping spree while Shrey was yet to join us and most of the people were already in Castle 9. So after that we also joined the remainder of our group there..

Castle 9

Though it took a while for things to get streamlined, but once they did, it was hard to control people, and most of them who were always quiet in the class !! Tashu (Deepika) danced beautifully and was our dance instructor for the evening…Varun and Amar deserved their share of credit for managing the event..

So, the eventful day had finally come. The batch was on the verge of conclusion, our result was expected on the next day, everyone was quite anxious and emotions were quite high.

To add to our woes was our faculty CA Kamal Garg, whom I was personally waiting for, as I had heard a lot about him. Within no time, he started with his ragging and to my surprise, I was his first scalp ! All of a sudden he realized we were not in a mood to study, so he started with knowledge sharing and interview questions with us. That particular day time was really flying, and that too when we really wanted the opposite..

After lunch we all got busy in signing the T-shirts and getting ours also signed in return. And after some time dignitaries from the Institute came over for the customary proceedings of giving lectures and handing over the certificates. After they left it was time for our own show, for which we had been preparing for quite some time. The titles had to be given, of which most of them were decided by me and rest of the work was done by Sonali, Purnima, and O! Shrey.

The stage was set, the announcements were made by O! Shrey, I handed over the titles, while Sahil and Pulkit escorted everyone, and also said something if they felt the need !!

So, after that, we all left with a heavy heart with commitments of being in touch, and result was round the corner, so emotions were mixed and tensions were at an all time high !

It was not over yet, we all went to Connaught Place and had ice-cream there and then took place our bid-adieus..

The BEST was already behind us…

TIMES OF INDIA ARTICLE

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:03:00 +0000

[For all those who couldn't read it properly on Facebook....]
(Published on Saturday, June 18, 2011 under the caption "My Life ka Funda")

THE SHORTCUT TO SUCCESS

We all do not come into this world with a silver spoon in our mouth, but we can certainly ensure that we are no less than those who come with this privilege.

I believe people are born intelligent but hard work is something which develops over a period of time, one should always keep in mind “Intelligence can fail but hard work can never”.

Just like there is no limit to learning, the same applies to hard work as well, its an unending process, in today’s times, competition is endless, and survival is of the fittest, so hard work is the only thing which can sustain us.

Hard work should also match smart work which yields the results in a right direction.I truly feel that “genuine success comes only to those who are ready and have worked for it”.

YAMLE PAGLE DEEWANE (Part 4)

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:37:00 +0000

Continuing from where I left earlier, I just realised that I had to finish what had been started few months back, a tale of 64 rockers..

Outside ICAI

Starting from day 11, it was a bit different from the rest, but was perfectly loaded in our favour. The class was at ICAI Bhawan in Vishwas Nagar, and our faculty for the day was Mrs Meena Gupta, I must say quite energetic and full of enthusiasm..

It was a Sunday and every kept on rolling in slowly. The seating arrangement was also good, by the side on a round table, which we really enjoyed, and we were as it is also excited because of our after class programme, to see “Yamla Pagla Deewana” with majority of the class coming along.

Kavita's phaansi

In the morning tea break some of us went for “Poori Chana” in the nearby area and after that the class picked up some momentum and went on well as our faculty tried her best to keep us engaged in some or the other activity, though there were some assignments whose pages were missing, which created a chaos and then it was time for the “Dumb Shiraz” session which was a lot of fun. After the lunch break an official from the institute was waiting eagerly for us and gave some good dose for the indiscipline we had created throughout the week. We had a big sigh of relief after he went and then our normal class resumed again, our faculty also agreed to leave us early so that we could enjoy our movie. It was also a day for a lot of proxies, as we managed to save the day for a lot of friends !!

The time had now come for us to leave for the show but we were waiting for our organisers O! Shrey and Sahil, who had put in some great efforts to manage the tickets for the 40 of us and not to forget Kunal, who went for the second time as he had already seen it before. As the movie couldn’t meet up our expectations, we surely did meet ours, did whatever could have been thought of, sat on the floor, shouted and danced on each and every song while moving down towards the big screen.. We had our share of warnings but nothing could stop us that day…Even the families and other people enjoyed our performance in the hall…The movie ended and then all of us then went back, only to be ready for the next day..


Parul group's presentation

Now we were moving on towards the last lap of our glorious GMCS days, and this 12^th day was no less.. Faculty for the day was Mr Mridul Tandon, he had a different plan for the class, he asked us to voluntarily form a group, decide on a topic and speak on it without the use of paper..

Groups were formed and preparations had started…Jigyasa and Lipika decided on a topic “Live-in-Relationships” and then roped me in their group…Uday and Rohit prepared on the “Sub-prime crisis”, and Parul,Chandan,Angad etc group spoke on “Break up and its side effects”.

Live-in presentation

We started giving our presentations turn by turn and my group was the most sought after as we were dealing with a very sensitive topic, and many questions were asked, a special mention for Rohit who had a lot of doubts for the live-in topic and kept on asking a lot of questions…

It was a good session and every group tried to put up a good show !

Time for Lunch and once again we felt like going somewhere, this time it was the turn for old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk and we were headed to Kareem’s…

Rohit again had no interest in going with us, and he stayed back, while I, Chandan and O! Shrey went to Paranthe wali gali for lunch and also to look for momentos .

When we came back, the trouble was already waiting for us, Vishal bhaiya had seen enough and started his tantrums for the attendance, and once again we managed to convince him, while some of the girls got emotional as well !!

Class ended and we had to plan for an another outing, so this time it was South Delhi’s Essex farm, where fun was at its peak..Well I’d say the best still hasn’t come and obviously is YET TO COME, so I am saving it for the grand last part…

APPROACHERS MARCHING AHEAD (Part - III)

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:26:00 +0000

Mr LEVI's

After celebrating Lohri in the previous class, we were in a jovial mood by default while Rohit was in a total marketing mood and displayed his list of LEVI’s Signature stores with Lipika helping him by doing the writing part on the white board. In a while our faculty Mr Suneel Keswani (LOVEGURU and Radio Jockey) came in with his own camera and bamboozled us immediately. He filled the empty rows by changing our conventional seats and made us sit right in front. Then he asked me to rub off the white board, which I had to do and Rohit was heartbroken..

The next person to arrive on the spot was ‘O(h) Shrey’ !! Everybody gave him a loud cheer and things seemed to settle down a bit. The origin of ‘O’ Shrey is still a mystery as Rohit claimed he was the founder, which Shrey denied straight away.

The Tea Break !

Our faculty tried to engage us in some or the other activity to divert our attention from Shrey, a ploy which worked wonders for him. He needed a wire to play his videos properly which the organizers of the venue arranged, time went by and we got our first tea break. This tea break was no different from the previous ones and gave us some awesome pics which will be cherished for life but Rohit and Sahil (co-founder of MAL Bhawan) were not seen in this break. Rahul (HKP / Mr Chance Maaro) was still not finished so he took the camera and came in 15 mins beyond the tea break after fully satisfying himself.


Our Huddle, courtesy Suneel sir

The post tea session was full of corporate grooming lessons, inspiring videos and quotes, making notes was the need of the hour so everyone was busy in that , but our faculty did some magical mimicry which required him to stammer, the act was really amazing and after some time it was lunch.The lunch time was full of joy and photographs, with Mr Keswani taking the lead.Rohit and Sahil were missing yet again and were finally found having some personal talks in a secluded area. Some of our friends who went for an ice cream and lunch, missed the opportunity of that special huddle pic which sir clicked. As soon as the lunch time ended, we were joined by our friends and we went in extra time for a lot of pics, most of them being on an individual basis, with Kavita, Surbhi ( Miss Fair and Lovely), Sugandh, Ankit ( Mr Amul Butter) and Abhinav in most of them.

Smiles all over !

Post lunch was all smiles, as it was the Smiley session. Sir announced he would be giving a smiley ball to the person who was having a genuine smile throughout the class. Since then all of us tried our best to smile as much as we could. Angad even had to do a bit of modeling. Sir also made us do an interesting exercise in which we had to write our name with our non-writing hand three times, which was really funny. Everybody gave a good effort to get the smiley ball, but it eventually went to Venita, who was then crowned as ‘Miss Smiley’. After that sir showed us a slide show of all the photos he clicked on the background music of Taare Zameen Par which was really awesome. We then transferred the pics from Sir’s camera with JP’s help who was our Laptop guy. As it was Friday and YPD had released so we tried our best to convince everyone to go for the movie after class, the plan which couldn’t mature and was postponed for Sunday, the responsibility for arrangements was taken by O Shrey and other Sahil.

Now it was time for our 10^th day to start which was to be taken by CA Dinesh Bahl (of SNB). We were warned in advance by Vishal ji to be on time as Mr Bahl did not allow the entry after 9:30. Some of us were well in time, and as we entered the class Mr Behl was already sitting to our surprise, and Amar and Varun were not late, while some others like Angad, Resham got late and had to get the chocolates as a penalty. The whole session upto lunch was about the slides sir had made, the lights had to be switched on and off, so Ankit Surana became our lightsman, it was getting really boring till the time he divided us into 2 groups and asked for a presentation on the meaning of the Sufi song ‘Ji Chaahe’ by Abida Parveen, which I think was the only interesting moment of the class as we didn’t take it seriously at all. After that it was lunch and we got to know that the next session would be taken by CA Jagjit Singh.

So, after lunch, as Mr Singh walked in, we walked out (but Rohit kept on sitting)..

Bunking !

We were just wandering here and there outside the class and after some time we met our other companions so our walking spree on the main road continued, needless to say we started clicking lots of photos here also…Sumit (Chunnilal) was highly excited and said he felt relieved after bunking, something which he had never done before ! We then realised that the class time was about to be over so we got back for our evening attendance and had to bear some torture for that. Within some time the class got over and we had a sigh of relief.

Dabangg revisited !

After our customary group photos outside the class and when most of the people disbursed, my diary was the most sought after as it contained the titles (to be discussed in other part). Lipika and Ruhi were interested in driving an auto and were least concerned with the events on the other end. Suddenly we got in Dabangg mode, courtesy the twin towers, Sahil Pulkit from Panipat, who had got the shades and then started the photo session which continued for more than an hour outside the class, and ended only when the battery of my camera gave up!!

This marked the end of the most amazing 10 days and we were waiting for the remaining 5 which were yet to come!!

THE APPROACH CONTINUES (Part - II)

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:43:00 +0000

The Panelists

Riding high on the hangover of the last class, much was expected of the immediate next one, we were busy posing for photographs on the dais and didn’t have even the slightest hint of the events which were about to take place in this day. We got on our toes as soon as a lady teacher walked in, hesitantly I went and asked her, "will we be studying a lot ?" And she quickly replied “ I have an activity based class”, so as the class progressed, I wondered where did the activities go ? Well, she was none other than Mrs Madhu Sharma, who made someone really famous that day, and no prizes for guessing, it was our very own Anil Tantia ! (She had some personal grudges against him,thats what he said). After an hour or so we were just frustrated with the class and it was time for Chandan to become our ‘Hero of the day’ so he took on our faculty’s ‘desperation’ with a lot of JOSH but forgot the HOSH .

Rahul in sleep mode again

In the tea break, we were joined by Amar and Varun, who usually come late, and our deemed official photographer CHUNNI LAL (now CA Chunnilal) started clicking photographs in a manner which reminded me of the Dabangg scene ‘Bhaiya ji, smile please’, and he offended someone who didn’t like getting her snaps clicked, meanwhile our Eiffel Tower (Ruhi) was in a lot of demand, as some of us wanted a picture with her, though I don’t know whether she liked it or not !

With Pan in our mouth

At lunch time most of the discussions were centered around the Lohri celebrations, for which the main organizers were Angad and Sugandh, we as the remaining ones were the contributors. We extended our lunch break and went to McDonalds in CP after adjusting ourselves somehow in Ruhi’s car and thereafter we were joined by some of our other friends in Bengali market for Golgappas and Pan, in between we got to know that our faculty was missing us badly and there were hardly 20 people left in class, so we went back immediately to give her company.

INDIA GATE

After some time, the class finally ended and after our customary FOTO session, in which Rohit was made to lift the girls’ purses where he also took a Chunni, (somebody deleted that pic from my camera, so if anybody’s got it, please put that on fb asap) most of us went to INDIA GATE where it was totally a Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses show ! From the ruckus we created, it felt as if we were the only ones enjoying there at that moment of time.

In KFC

Now we entered the auspicious day of Lohri (our 8^th day) and our faculty was Mr Amit Arora (a CA, CEO, Journalist), whom I must say was really practical and flexible, at least for us, his class was really worth attending and his most used line was ‘NGT’ (Nihayati Ghatiya Tark)..Bunking was almost at its peak and this class was no different, after the tea break some of us went to KFC, and collected some balloons which didn’t reach the class as we gave them to the children on the traffic lights. When we came back our attendance bhaiya (Vishal ji) was furious with us and denied us the attendance, for the time being, which we eventually got. The class went on normally as we all were waiting for the lohri celebrations to begin, and post lunch, after an hour we were granted our wish. All of us were dressed up in casuals and Heena stood out in her traditional outfit.

We were to celebrate our Lohri in the Dhobi Ghat adjoining our MAL bhawan.

Lipika and Resham in rhythm

After lighting the customary lohri fire, the DHOL began and Abhinav ( brand ambassador of E&Y) did his Naagin moves initially.. Soon the flavour caught up with everyone, the Bhangra was on its way and then there was no looking back. As Resham was about to get married soon, so her BOLIs were made and Sahil Pulkit contributed with a lot of energy in it. Ravinder paaji (Mr Cool) who didn’t interact much initially couldn’t resist and participated with great enthusiasm. Rohit was asked to show us his dancing moves, which he'd been learning in those days, and we weren't disappointed.

Its Lohri !

The Dhol people left after sometime and the sound system in Rohit’s car was then used which served the purpose really well.. There was high voltage drama when the rumours came in to stop our celebrations as it was being opposed by the CAG people in the building just opposite the Dhobi Ghat. Sugandh took the lead and managed to stall the celebrations for a while, but then she had some Dairy Milks and participated till the end..!!

So Friends this is not the end, believe me

THE BEST IS YET TO COME !!

64 APPROACHERS (Part - I)

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 17:42:00 +0000

Our GMCS batch began on the 5^th of January and while walking my way to the Malviya bhawan, [or ‘MAL BHAWAN’ – as Sahil (from Karnal) and Rahul temed it this way]
I kept on thinking about the description my friends gave me about the kind of fun they had while doing their GMCS, so the excitement level was really high.

As ours was a special batch, we outnumbered the chairs which were laid in our honour, and after this was sorted out, finally I got to sit and my neighbours were Jigyasa(on the left) and Kavita(on the right), but my excitement level which was really high came down as soon as I saw Jigyasa’s wedding bangles :-(

Within sometime our faculty for the day CA Rajender Arora also came, was a bit late and after a normal chit chat he started with our much awaited introductory session.

Kavita stole the show with her Enterpreneurial vision ! Though Sahil and Pulkit were not far behind and got our faculty on the back foot with their SANSANI.. The day ended and I waited for the next class.

The pre-lunch session at Vigyan Bhawan was really boring and it was only after lunch the ice was broken when the whole batch got together to play dumb shiraz. It was a lot of fun and something I was eagerly waiting for to happen. As we started interacting as a group very early in the batch, it gave us the desired comfort level which we used to good effect in the coming days.

The Tea Break Photography

The third day came and got with it Dr Bhavna, who was discussing quite useful things, but everyone was feeling a bit bored so in came her assistant Sahima and after a brief lecture she divided us into groups for the SWOT analysis. It was quite interesting which really involved us, we got to see a catfight, lots of NOs from Ms Sahima and an incident in which Rahul (Mr Chance Maaro) had to make a defence for his life when Garima got hold of him on the ‘INNOVATION of Rakhi Sawant’ ! With this class our photography sessions also began.

The next one was the most productive day in terms of study, and the faculty was Mr Ahuja, so nothing funny worth mentioning.

Outside Malviya Bhawan

Fifth day came which was the turning point for our batch and marked the beginning of bunking the class on a mass scale, the faculty Mrs Sudhir was really ‘GOOOD’, didn’t even complain and was very cooperative even when I got tea for her to give us the much needed break. After bunking some went to Pizza Hut, many stayed back and the others went for a movie. It was this class only in which ‘Miss MOSES’ and 'CHUNNI LAL' came into existence and our never ending group FOTOs started.

The time was now ripe for the GREAT and FANTABULOUS class of Mr Ravish Bhateja but had to be handled with a lot of JOSH and HOSH with PASSION as a by product. We gave Rohit b'day bumps in the tea break, on the whole the class had a lot of fun element with the SAKINAKAs, Khuch Khuch (a great act by Pulkit) , the Chingaari group and the whistle salute game as well in which Tejasvi won. We also got to know the positives other 63 thought about us in the class.

This marked the end of first six days and still there was a lot more to be experienced.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

JUST RESIGN AND THATS IT !

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:14:00 +0000

As a common man, if my name appears in some sort of scam or any other
charges are framed against me, I shall have to pay a hefty price for it, and there
can be drastic consequences which I cannot even think of.
For an honest person, it is only the respect he earns which enables him to
lead the rest of the life in a peaceful manner.
But for our नेता लोग respect is something they daily trade as if its traded in the stock market.

Mr Shashi Tharoor was clearly involved in the KOCHI IPL franchise through Ms Sunanda Pushkar (the then girl friend and now wife) who was ofcourse Mr Tharoor's undeclared proxy. He categorically denied it for a long time and finally gave in his resignation after the orders of PM / Soniaji.

Nowadays he is happily married and enjoying his life, with no enquiry and investigation ordered against him.

The Ex-Ex Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh, had to resign in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack..How unfair, he must be wondering if he had known he would have to resign, he could have squabbled some more money and got his name figured in the all time list of major scams..He was left stranded of a major chance to cause a loss to the common man's already robbed pocket.

The latest ex Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan, made sure he was not too far behind, he distributed the Adarsh Society flats to his near and dear ones in abundance, and made sure each and every relative got a piece each. The flats were originally meant to be distributed to the Kargil martyrs. After a lot of dilly dallying, he was finally shown the door and then came the much awaited resignation.

So here comes the KING of all scams, A. Raja, now the ex- minister for Telecommunications, made a whopping Rs 1.76 lakh crore worth of rupees and the 2G scam is the largest scam till date..Hats off to him for achieving such a feat. He did what no other minister could have even dreamt of doing. Even after he was named in the CAG report, his dream run continued for a long time and finally, the orders were given by Karunanidhi to him for a resignation.

So the jist is whatever these ministers do, the Buck just stops at a mere resignation, and after that they are free to enjoy the money the've made. The Government is showing an austerity drive by not receiving their salaries for the non-functioning of Parliament, but the fact is Raja has already given them enough to feed their next seven generations.

MALE DISCRIMINATION by MEN

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:31:00 +0000

Male Discrimination

A few days back, my friend showed me some interesting pictures, amongst which I liked this one the most....
It shows the tendency shifts towards girls, and is actually true....

Some of the status updates compilation of Girls' profiles:
1. Vani : Had a great weekend......
80 likes, 75 comments - view all

2. Swati :Waiting for someone badly...
Ankur : who ?
Rohan : @ Ankur : Tu chocolate khaa
Reply : u don't know him yaar
(ofcourse she won't answer that here)
40 likes, 35 comments

3.Kirti* : wrote a whole song as the status update

Mitali : Awesome Song...
Deepak : Which movie ??
Sharad : I too like this...
40 likes, 20 comments

4. Smeeha* : I'm so pissed off
Sanam : kyun, kya hua ??
Anubhav : hey what happened yaar
Reply : Nothing guys
Noor* : why honey ?
Reply :Will call u soon sweety
(Then why post it here ?)
50 comments
*(no offences)

5. Then some boring line.....Sonia : "Everyday is not a sunday, but a sunday is a sunday"
Ravi : Super Like !!
Harveet : Good one yaar ...
15 likes, 10 comments

6. Shweta : Hi...
70 likes, 30 comments

7. Sonam : Excited.....(obviously u wont know d reason y she's excited, if u insist, u'll be ignored)
30 likes, 25 comments

ICING ON THE CAKE
A new picture uploaded by Neha* (no matter how it looks) - 100 likes , 250 comments
Zubin : hey...really nice
Arjun : u look so pretty....
Ujjwal : thats ur best pic...and so on
Reply : Thanks a lot guys, u really think so ?
*(no offences)

Now, lets take a look at Guys status updates responses:

1.Amilok : Won d district championship...
Kavita : seriously ??
Harpreet : Sachi paaji ?
Pranit : bas kar yaar, hasi aa rahi hai...
Sikka : Kab, kahan, kaise, kyun ?
8 likes, 6 comments

2. Shubham : Its gud to b back home...
4 likes, 3 comments

3. Abhay : Go Sensex go !!
5 likes

4. Chakshu : Had a great day !
Anchal : kyun, aisa kya kar liya tune ?
3 likes, 5 comments

5. Ashish : Finally, I got a job...
Richa : Sachi bata...I don't believe it
Ankur : Kya keh raha hai yaar, aisa nahi ho sakta
10 likes, 7 comments

6. Sameer is now in a relationship !
Karan : Who's d unlucky guy ?
Shreya : Sameer, tu, ho hi nahi sakta...
Reply : Cumon guys...
1 Like, 6 comments

New picture uplaoded by Varun : (actually looking good)
Mohit : Bas kar yaar, kitna style maarega..
Mansi : what is this , please change kar yaar....
2 likes, 3 comments

Conclusion : In short, girls will always get the best response, irrespective of what they write, and guys bechaare hi rahenge....because we have only ourselves to blame...We just cant resist the temptation to boost the girls' confidence level !!!

PS : Names are used just to make it more interesting, pls don't take it personally....and if it bothers u, kindly let me know, shall change it.

KASHMIR BURNING

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:21:00 +0000

Kashmir has been burning from last 3 months, and as the case is, The Government wakes up only when an alarm is raised. You all must be wondering as to what exactly is the problem there, the news channels do not report the whole picture, and as fellow countrymen we all should be aware of what is the truth.

Hoisting of Pakistani flag in Kashmir

MAIN DEMANDS :
Azaadi (Free Kashmir from Indian Control),
Repealation of AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act),
Free Stone pelters,
Autonomy, and among many others...
Include Pakistan in talks

It all started in June this year when some youths got killed in the valley due to mistaken identity of being as terrorists, though inquiry is still on and nothing is confirmed yet. The pro-pakistan people in the valley started taking out processions and encouraged the youths to turn as stone pelters who then rampaged the police, CRPF, Army with stone pelting. This continued for a while, then normalcy would return for some days, but then again it would start all over again...For an economy which strives mainly on tourism, this is a total disaster, as the main season this year is just over, and the winters are nearing.

Burning of Indian Flag in Kashmir

IMPLICATIONS :

Business operations completely shut
Education ruined
SMS Services banned in the whole state (including Jammu)
Loss of Government property worth crores
Loss of Human Lives
Loss of Security Personnel's lives
Alienation and disintegration of Kashmir from Rest of India
Tourism Industry totally in loss, hotels closed, staff retrenched.
People shifting to other states for work, education.

Imagine yourself living in a place which has been completely shut down for last 3 months, no business, no education, nowhere to go.

The Government of India has failed miserably to address this situation and is landing itself in a complete mess day by day.

These people in the image on the left are highly anti-national people (Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz umar Farooq and Shabbir Shah) and responsible for the present situation in Kashmir. They have got lots of money and their families are living abroad while they create a mess in India. They are popularly known as the Separatists or the Hurriyat Conference. They say Kashmir is disputed and want to go to pakistan, well the Government should welcome them and give them a free passage. But to our utmost surprise the Indian Government is not even arresting them, they should be hanged instead. If they make the same statements in Pakistan which they make in India, they shall disappear overnight itself and nobody would even know their whereabouts.

Ask a question to yourself :

Can you ever tolerate if a person in front of you abuses India and burns the national flag, how will you react ?

The Indian Army faces the same situation everyday in Kashmir, just imagine their plight. If they do something, then they are blamed, then what should they do ?

The Army needs to be motivated, their hands should not be tied and we need someone like KPS Gill who transformed Punjab by eliminating militancy from the state in the 1980s after which the militants turned to Kashmir.

Please do let me know your views..

ADVANCED LIE DETECTOR DEVICE

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:54:00 +0000

All of us lie, don't we ?? Lying has become an integral part of our lives as it saves us from many situations going wrong, its the easy path, of course, who wants to face the consequences of the bitter truth....But there are occasions when one has to lie for some betterment, but these are very rare occasions...
I believe the time has now come to develop an absolute perfect lie detector machine or a device which leaves no doubt about the result achieved...

I got this idea mainly because of two major concerns :

Firstly, due to our beloved POLITICIANS and the second one is for the growing Crime and inefficiency of our Courts to provide justice to people. It should be a well established principle that whatever the machine says is to be accepted without any hitch...
Suppose in a public gathering being addressed b a politician, it should be mandatory to speak only after the lie detector machine is attached, that way it leaves no ambiguity
for any false promises and the answer to the questions of the public shall only be truth !!!
The Corruption will fade away, which is really required badly, then the Criminals shall be punished whether or not the evidence is there, and most important of all, our POLITICIANS will never lie and the world shall become a better place to live in..

I really hope technology gets it done for us this time around !!

STUDY GADGET

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:51:00 +0000

All of us face a common problem these days, i.e the pressure of studies....Over the years this phenomenon has only increased....
Just imagine if there would be a study gadget which would make our study interesting, how easy it would become for us to do our studies and that too without any fuss.
I hope all of you would remember the television show Small Wonder, in which 'Vicki the Robot' was a character and the way she used to flip the book once and everything got stored in her mind...
We also need that kind of storage in our brain, the fact is our brain depreciates @ 60%, per annum, as time passes by, the brain remembers fresh things first, while the former are transferred to our sub-conscious mind and if that storage is also full, then it is also erased, it over writes things as the storage capacity is inadequate....!!

A gadget which I think of is unique, nano in size, unlike the one shown in the image on the left, which can be attached to our head while we read our books.
What it will do is, while we read, it will make a visualisation of what all we read and record its pictures along with videos till the time we don't press the stop button...It will also have a USB plugin which can be connected to USB ports in any device supporting it, just like a Pen-drive, whether laptops, LCDs, anything and it shall be multi-format, i.e. can support any format.
It will contain lots of storage capacity, with a minimum of 300 GB, and shall have the option of segregating the different topics which we have read and a playback voice shall be inherent in it to explain the visuals recorded by the gadget..

The major difficulty of avoiding studies is that they are too monotonous and we don't find them interesting, my main idea of this gadget is just to make studies a bit more practical oriented and interesting, so that we may atleast know what we are actually studying and do justice to it....
We can't avoid studies, but we can certainly make it more interesting...

TECHNOLOGY's greatest MARVEL awaited...

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:25:00 +0000

Technology has really advanced over a span of few decades. But there's still much to be achieved yet.
No matter what ever is achieved, the human's search for more advancement of technology shall be never ending....Although there are a lot of things which need to be invented, upgraded , and are required for the well being of the humanity, like the cure for CANCER, HIV is still not there, but my own fantasy from childhood has been something different....

As all of us know the WRIGHT BROTHERS invented the Airplane, the Egyptians invented the Ship, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler invented the Car. All of them a unique invention of its own and have great use to the mankind, and infact have become the necessities now....

WHAT IF a combination of all the three above is made ?? Imagine if you are on road at the moment, the other second flying and the very next moment sailing in the water !!!!
Yes, yes I am talking of this unique mechanism only....It would be the greatest invention to the credit of man if anyone achieves this feat.

The built up of the mechanism has to be such that it can be easily transformed into any of the modes of transport within no time and should not be huge until required for specific purposes...

I don't know whether anyone has ever thought about this before but this is the most challenging task for man, and if completed, it has some of its difficulties as well which will be very difficult to address...
If normal people are able to afford this kind of a plane cum car cum ship/boat, then there shall be traffic jams in Air and the chances of accidents will increase manifold....

Technology has its positives and negatives both,
but if technology is used effectively and in a planned manner for the betterment of society without causing harm to the nature, then only the humanity can benefit from it.
It is just a thought which technology can make it into reality, and if it happens, I think its use should be for better things like Ambulance, Police Patrol, Terrorism check, and other various things of importance...

I hope technology fulfills my this dream (though highly unrealistic) some day.....

MY EXTREME IMAGINATIONS

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:26:00 +0000

All of us dream, after all what is life if we don't have dreams. But there is a big difference between dreams and imagination, dreams are something which we aim to fulfill and desire to achieve and work for....Imagination is the ability to visualise things, quite often I have realised that I dont 'day dream' but I day imagine, this term might sound odd to you, but believe me its not a dream, you shall get to know it better as I proceed further with it. While doing any other work which Iam least interested in doing, I mostly get into a state of trance and start imagining.

I mostly imagine about two things which I shall discuss as under:

Firstly I imagine that I have become a great Indian Cricket player (which has always been my passion, not dream because I know I will never be one !) and I have earned such a great reputation of letting my team win from any adverse situation, and the team can always depend on me.
That I am the best all rounder the country has ever seen, strike rate always more than sehwag, and almost a century and minimum of 5 wickets in every match, and sometimes the fielding can be a great plus too !!

From my very childhood, my inclination has always been towards cricket, and I have always followed it like a fanatic...I used to maintain a diary in which i used to create ficticious matches and record its scorecards, and all the other statistics, while visualising it side by side...Moreover I play only selected matches and that too the important ones only, especially if its against Pakistan, and in the end of it we have won the World Cup Final against Pakistan which is still to be held in 2011 in India itself.

Second one is that I have floated a political party after being a successful cricketer, and people have given me a lot of support in its creation. After the party has been created, the elections are about to happen and my party wins it with a thumping majority all over (leaving behind the Congress and the BJP) India and this happens only for the second time in the history of India, which gives us the golden chance of making amendments in the constitution, which otherwise could never have been made. We appoint a Prime Minister and the council of Ministers who are highly learned and represent various fields of knowledge with the minimum qualification of a post graduate(unlike the current MPs who are not even graduates) and the portfolios are then allotted accordingly . After all has been settled, the major amendment our party makes immediately is to make India's political system a bi-party and ban all the other parties and independents from contesting the election.
The two parties which shall be eligible to contest the elections shall be the parties who obtain the highest and the second highest no of votes in the elections. After that we have successfully solved the external problem of Kashmir, terrorism, and PAKISTAN by erasing Pakistan's trace from this earth, because if these are solved, India would automatically start progressing.
After these issues, our focus shifts on internal issues like Corruption, Naxalism, and Growth rate and we enter the security council as well along with INDIA being in the list of developed nations, and after sometime I realise that I was studying and while studying I imagined all this.....

These are all weird thoughts which don't even have a chance of coming true, but still just thought of sharing it with everyone...

HIT and RUN : HOW CONVENIENT

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:10:00 +0000

In the latest addition to the hall of fame of 'Hit and run' cases, Amanat Brar (alias Sukhmani), aged 19, of Chandigarh has shot to fame. She was in a drunk state and was driving her Honda Accord at a very high speed while racing when she couldn't control the wheels and banged into a motorcycle in which 2 cousins died. The incident took place in a posh area of Chandigarh, near the official residence of Chief minister of Haryana, still nobody seems to have taken note of it.

The girls who were sitting in the car immediately after the collision fled the area leaving the two persons hit on the spot in the dark...Amanat surrendered, with a covered face, almost after 15 hours of the incident, to negate the effects of the medical test, and pleaded guilty, but was granted bail immediately after surrender, this is how our Indian law works for the Rich and the mighty....The people who died were of age 21 and 5, sitting on the motorcycle, not rich people...I still dont understand why aren't strong charges pressed against the girl and how can she get the bail so easily, just spare a thought for the families of those who died, who will give them justice ? The police is also taking it lightly as the people affected do not have enough to fill their pockets. How convenient, 'u hit and run, nobody is chasing '. The poor's life does not hold any value in the Indian Stock Market...

This incident has once again lightened the flames of the infamous BMW case in which Sanjeev Nanda, son of a major Arms dealer and the grandson of Admiral S.M Nanda was convicted and the lawyers (R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan) who were on the prosecution's turf, shifted their loyalties as the Nandas got them on their side by the force of money. This is nothing new, the Indian system works this way only. Until the issues are highlighted by the media, nothing substantial happens and it will continue to be like this way only unless the Govt takes a stern action and amends the existing laws...

Salman Khan is another famous personality who has been involved in this case. He was accused of running over his car over the people lying on the footpath..These actors should lead by example as they enjoy a mass following in the nation, and yet another case of consumption of alcohol, in almost all the cases, alcohol is the common factor..
The Govt statistics suggest that 63% of the accidents involve women, and
the time between 4am and 5am has the lowest number of accidents, this has been identified by using the Accident Reporting System (ARS).

Infact road accidents have earned India a dubious distinction. With over 1,30,000 deaths annually, the country has overtaken China and now has the worst road traffiic accident rate worldwide.

This has been revealed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its first ever Global Status Report on Road Safety.

DIL CHAHTA HAI

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:39:00 +0000

Well, as the name suggests, this post has nothing to do with the movie Dil Chahta Hai in any way, whatsoever...
Infact, it is all about the title, what we want to do and what we want from our lives.
In the process of growing up, we always change our mind of choosing a career, focus is still not there, so there comes the role of the parents, who become our mentors and give us a direction, in most of the cases it is rather imposed on us....No, no, no, dont worry, this is also not about career also, I shall not bore you with this topic...

It is about the life in general, on a broader aspect, with much bigger issues...
Mr perfectionist, Aamir Khan said, "always listen to your heart", and he has always followed this principle in his life and never regretted it...Often in life, we end up doing things, which our instincts never allowed us to do but our brain always gave it a go ahead, and in the end we always regret it, no matter what. If we ever do a research, we shall find most of the successful people across the globe love the work they do, love the way they lead their life, it is very important to enjoy your work else you shall never do justice with yourself and the work you do. For instance, nowadays we see a large no of actors getting a break in the movies just because their father/mother were in the industry before, and we have seen how many of them have actually been successful and been disasters on the job, the famous ones are Tushhar Kapoor, Harman Baweja, Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan, Rajiv Kapoor, the list is countless and still going on...Sonam Kapoor is still new but honestly I doubt if she has it in her the requisite acting skills to sustain in the industry.

If you have never asked yourself, then its not too late yet, ask now, ask yourself, what is your extreme desire, what do you want from your life ??
And the answer lies within you, you just have to work towards achieving that, and believe me, life will be beautiful once you achieve it. Never let anyone hold the string of your life, be free, just like a bird, and you shall not ask for anything else from life...
If by any reason you cant choose the work you wanted to do, then make it your hobby, but dont leave it... There are no free lunches in life and nothing comes without hardwork, so always be ready to choose the difficult path, as easy path seems good but only in the short run !!

INDIA's POLITICAL SYSTEM

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:39:00 +0000

India's Democratic system is famous all across the globe. Everyone lauds the way India carries out its election process on a mass scale. Whether the results are genuine or not, only God knows.
Unlike the Americans, who follow the bi-party system, India follows the multi party system which gives every party and a lot of independents the right to contest the elections. Here the PM is decided after the elections, whereas in US, all the office bearers are decided prior to the elections.
This system has been a pain in the neck now for many years as it has created a havoc in the Indian Political League. Every year a large no. of new parties are created and get added in the system. After that they need controversies so that people recognise them and thats how more and more controversies emerge. The race to the Parliament and Assemblies have been intensified in a peculiar manner over the years, with state parties playing a dominant role giving rise to the Coalition 'puppet' Governments. In 2004 when Congress came to power, it was with the support of the Communists and every move of the UPA govt was with the communists' prior approval.
What India actually needs is the bi-party system so that the blackmailing of the state parties ends and the Governments which get formed are stable, as what happened in the late 90s when Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji's Government ended after 13 days and 13 months, and then the chair of PM shifted from HD Devegowda to IK Gujral and back to Atal ji but this time for a complete term. The intention of multi party system was to give representation to all states but the manner in which it is misused is very disappointing for the country, the Yadavs' (Lalu and Mulayam), Paswan, Karunanidhi, Abdullahs, Communists, Didi (Mamta Banerjee) all run the Government in the actual sense, i.e blackmailing.
In India there are two main political parties, i.e BJP and Congress and only they should prevail in the Lok Sabha Elections for the development of the nation.

It is very important now for the people to realise that regional parties should be marginalised when it comes to election to the parliament, as it can only lead to a hung parliament and the development shall be minimised, instead vote only for national parties.
Every year elections are held in different states, which causes a great loss to the exchequer and results in wastage of taxpayers' hard earned money, instead all the state and the Lok Sabha elections should be held together as it will result in a lot of saving of money for the nation and can be used for a lot of developmental works.
The MPs are now demanding a steep salary hike, whereas if their attendance in parliament is checked, it goes a steep downwards slope, we the people have a lot of power in our hands and we can use it to great effect if we wish to.

BOMBAY GOA !!

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:44:00 +0000

It was in December 2003, I was in class 11th, our school trip was being planned and cancelled, again and again, due to the reasons best known to the school authorities only..
Finally after a lot of dilly dallying a destination was finalised, BOMBAY and GOA, there was a tremendous initial response. But gradually the response kept getting cold towards the trip as a lot of time had been taken to finalise the trip, students had made other plans to spend their winter vacations.
I had very high hopes from the trip, as I had been very excited from the time the idea of the trip was mooted, it had been a long time also since I had gone on a school trip, the last being in 1999...

As the minimum no of students did not opt for the trip, the trip got cancelled.

I and my friends were shattered, we had made a lot of plans....So, we decided to approach the principal, who was very warm to us and assured us that he would try his best to organise the trip, but the chances were very bleak, we knew, since all the girls had backed out, it was no way the trip could've been given a go ahead.

Jammu-Delhi road trip

Finally, one day we got to know the trip can go with minimum 25 students, here our work started, we started convincing our friends, and finally we did it, 25 students and no girls :(
But still we were overwhelmed with joy, as we were going !!

Our journey started from Jammu by bus in the evening as we were to reach Delhi to catch the train next morning. We were more than 10 of class XIth and the rest were our juniors from other classes...Although this journey yielded new names for juniors such as 'Gujjar ji' and 'Gylcodin'..!!!

Train journey

Our road trip got through within no time as we listened to songs, thanks mainly to Ujjwal's big stereo, troubled our juniors, chatted, and it was 4 in the morning while we were outside New Delhi Railway Station in the midst of dense fog...When we reached the station we got to know that our train was running late....a phenomenon that takes place too often in north India, we were left stranded at the station, and didn't know how to pass our time....It also affected our stay period in Bombay, we lost half day due to this...

Finally after waiting for 6 hours, the train arrived and we continued our journey...The train journey was the most memorable one...One of our friend Maneck, while sleeping on the upper birth of the coach kept mumbling "Bhopal aaya kya ??" and when Bhopal actually came, he didn't even get up !!
Another fellow, Yogeshwar, he created a sort of record by drinking countless cups of tea and the best part was that he didn't pay even a single penny for it !!! We played a lot of UNO, thanks to Vasit, who brought the cards...Ate Batata Vada on the Railway Station, as soon as we entered Maharashtra...

In Mumbai, our hotel was on a very unique location, and we only got to know on the last night of our stay, the thing was that it was situated in the Red Light Area !! We also went to Fashion Street, Gateway of India, Marine Drive, Juhu Beach, Linking Road, Haji Ali, obviously these are the places where everyone generally goes..Whatever time we spent in bombay was worth it, while the I&B ministry was not very strict those days, everyone used to gather in one room of the hotel at 12 am midnight to watch special channels on TV !! Our bombay trip ended with a visit to Essel World and Water kingdom which were really amazing, we enjoyed to the max there. After that we were to leave for Goa by bus in the evening.

Goa Fort

We started our Goa journey with very high hopes and kept on singing songs of Dil Chahta Hai !
We reached Goa the next morning and checked in in our hotel 'NANUTEL'...incidentally this hotel was named after our legendary friend Zubin (also known as Nannu......).After that the sight seeing followed with churches, beaches and other small adventures...
The next day was a very different one though, an incident happened which has taken its place in my permanent memory, and I cannot forget it now...
While roaming in and there in Panjim market, we all went to an optical shop, everyone was just checking out the different varieties of shades the shop owner had kept, I realised most of my friends had disappeared from the shop, and I also decided to go. While I walked out I saw the owner's men chasing me, I suddenly changed my way and found my other friends who to my surprise had taken a piece of shades without getting noticed from the owner...It was a very narrow escape for us...!!
In the evening we cruised in the river Mandavi and also went to Vasco on motor bikes, while the rest went back to hotel for a swim in the pool...

Our Goa trip ended with a Christmas party at a 5 star resort, and we again boarded the train in the morning for Delhi.....It was indeed the best trip of my life which I'll never forget...

PS : I apologise for the use of the word 'Bombay' instead of 'Mumbai'...

A LOST FRIEND

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:50:00 +0000

At times fate has its own way and we can't do much about it.

Good friends are really hard to choose, because they are the ones who are there when we need them the most, they are
our memories, source of joy and there in every moment of
happiness and sorrow.

Friends play a vital role in one's life, they can either lead us
to a right path or a wrong one.

Initially in my childhood days I had no friends, home to school and back, I was an extreme introvert, I even completed my homework in school so that I could watch the idiot box at home.

Just like other people of my age I also had a craving for friends,
and one day my wish was granted with a friend (not many, only 1) but I was very happy with what I had got.

We were content in each other's company, and didn't feel the need of any other friend. We used to sit together in school, shared our meals, started going to each other's house frequently.

Everything was going on very smoothly for him, his father had a good business, and they also stayed in a great locality. Theirs' was a perfect family of four leading a perfect life.
But who knew what life had in store for them in the near future, their happiness was to be short lived.

One fine day I woke up to the news that the only friend I had in this world was now no more with me.
His father suffered a major setback as his business partners cheated him and committed frauds leaving all the liabilities upon his father and Govt authorities were after him .

They were left with no other option and left the city for an unknown location leaving behind everything here.
Suddenly I had lost my best friend and there was no other person at that moment of time whom I could call upon as my friend.

Time went by and I went to hostel with a hope to find new friends there. One day I got a letter from him !!
That was a very happy moment for me, and after sometime an e-mail too...

E-mails continued, but not often, today, I know what he is doing and he knows what I am doing, nothing more than that. Our friendship is now continuing through mails.

I am now looking forward to that day when the cycle of e-mails stops and we both meet with the grace of God.

Today being his birthday, I dedicate this post to him.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY.....

Reservation: History, Implementation and Suggestions

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:41:00 +0000

I start by writing a beautiful quote by Swami Vivekananda ji,

"We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act. "

The problem called as the reservation with which we are dealing with today is a gift of the Mandal Commission established in 1979 by the Janata Party Government under the Prime Ministership of Morarji Desai.

The Commission recommended reservation for lower caste students in higher education.

When the time came to implement the recommendations, the Prime Minister was V.P. Singh, which led to mass revolution amongst the student community in the entire nation, but to no avail. Many students did certain acts of protest which the Govt didn't even pay heed to, Rajiv Goswami self immolated himself in 1990 to the protest against reservation, he was a student of Delhi University and died in 2004.

Not even 4 years had passed by, in 2008 the reservation's ghost came to
haunt us again, in the form of OBC quotas this time but excluding the
so-called 'creamy layer'. This time again, the student community again
showed great unity, with medicos leading the charge.
Imagine the future of a country with medical, engineering and other seats being reserved and merit given a complete snub.
What will be the quality of doctors and engineers ?

The politics over reservation is a game changing matter, each and every
party tackles it with respect. Recently the Andhra Pradesh Government
announced a 4% reservation for Muslims which was stayed by the AP
High Court on 8th Feb 2010. The Govt challenged the stay in Supreme
Court and on 25th March 2010, the SC decided in favour of the State Govt.
But the final hearing is yet to come up in August this year on the issue.

It is a matter of pity and grave concern that the reservations based on religion have now been started, this will cause huge problems for the country in the future, it is politics for the politicians, but the ultimate sufferer, as always, is the common man.

The chain of quota is never ending, it has to be restricted at some point.
Even if the govt is uplifting the people from other castes, it has to be done
in a practical manner. I shall explain by taking an example :
Suppose a person belonging to the SC/ST/OBC community through quota has scaled great heights, now he is uplifted, but the irony is that his family can avail the benefits for generations to come, so no need to study. While there are also students who are not getting admissions in the best institutions even after putting in a lot of hardwork and scoring exceptionally well.

Its high time now for the Govt to introspect and re-draft the reservation policy, in my opinion it should be restricted to a certain no. of persons for a family.

BREAKING NEWS

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:59:00 +0000

Breaking News !! is now no more breaking news...

Have you ever noticed that whenever you switch on your television there is always a breaking news being flashed on the screen ? Electronic media has gone way ahead by reporting even a normal piece of news as breaking news, on some occasions the breaking news is such which shouldn't even be news. They have taken too much liberty by foraying into peoples' public lives and asking personal questions. The reality shows are a latest addition in the growing scope of Breaking news.

Breaking News : Rahul Gandhi had Dal-Poori and Vegetables in meals.

Breaking News: Amitabh Bachchan felt cold

Breaking News: Rakhi Sawant slapped Abhishek

This is the level of news reporting our media has resorted to.

Barring few news channels, the quality of news we see on most of the channels

these days is pathetic.

There is one more interesting piece of news reporting I want to

share with you and believe me its the best of the lot.

A commissioner's dog goes missing and it becomes

the breaking news in the leading channels.

I wonder a lot of hard work is put in by our dedicated reporters

to get news from different genres and corners of the country.

News channels are only showing us what we want to see, we as common

man are very much interested in knowing as to what is going

on in the celebrities lives, what they had for dinner, and whom they

met last night. It is our fault as well.They are making news interesting for

us and have completely forgotten the essence of news is its simplicity.

The gradual evolvement of 24 hours round the clock news channels

and the continuing addition has led to the dilution of news in a big way.

But even in this era of Cable tv and dish networks, Doordarshan

has still maintained its quality and is presenting news in a

meaningful manner.

MEDIA PROMOTING TERROR

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:42:00 +0000

In the world we live in today, terrorism is a major problem faced by the countries and media has got an enormous task to do with the powers it has, whether used for good or bad and in this era of cut throat competition, media is also not untouched.

The race for BREAKING NEWS has led to compromise on ethics and national security in a big way.

The investigation probe into any matter, whether a terrorist attack or a murder is a very essential mode of getting to the roots, which has to be kept in secret in all respects. The media has to understand its responsibility in keeping the investigation details intact so that those who can be affected by it don't get a chance to evade the law.

Recently ATS Chief K P Raghuvanshi revealed vital details of the probe in public which hurt the probe badly, which was even admitted by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

After the details revealed by the ATS lead to the trail to the Pakistani handlers going cold.
The Pakistani handler had stopped communicating after ATS revealed his codename.

The repercussions of these revelations, and the threat it
causes to national security cannot be undermined.

If the criminals are being shifted from one jail to the other,
its a breaking news in the media, giving their fellows a golden tip
to let them run away. I ask why is this news even being publicised,
The Government's role is in question ?

This image clearly shows the modus operandi of the forces which if seen by the terrorists will help them immensely in planning their attack.

There should be a complete ban on the broadcast of these activities.

The time has now come to draw a line. The media's wings need to be clipped, as we know technology has its positives as well as negatives. The only thing media is bothered about these days is the high TRPs and who got the exclusive news first.

The Government is concerned about banning the exit polls, but no attention goes
in this respect.

Its high time the media itself understands that healthy competition
should be there but not at the cost of national security.

THE REAL HEROES

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Sat, 22 May 2010 15:01:00 +0000

Very often when somebody asks "Who is your favourite hero ?" Almost everybody replies for an actor.

If we ask on a random basis as to who is the most famous personality of India today, I think there shall be a tie between Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar. It is the passion that they have in their respective fields which have made them they are today.

They have tremendous amount of fans worldwide and that too in each corner.

But in all this while we always forget the role played by our armed forces to make our lives secure, they certainly deserve more respect than they get.

Recently there was a strong statement made by the Supreme Court to the Govt,

Stop treating army men like 'beggars',

The Supreme Court slammed the union government for

treating army personnel like "beggars" in respect of emoluments and

pension and asked the authorities to adopt a more "humane approach"

towards those bravely defending the country's borders."If a person

goes to any part of Delhi and sits for begging, he will earn Rs 1000

every day and you are offering a pittance of Rs 1000 per month for a

man who fought for the country in the high altitudes and whose arm

was amputated?

"Is this the way you treat those brave army officers? It is

unfortunate that you are treating them like beggars," a bench of

Justices Markandeya Katju and A K Patnaik said in verbal comments

while passing the order.

Majority of the people don't even know the names of the Param Vir Chakra

awardees, which is the highest gallantary award in India

Some of the real heroes are as follows:

Major Somnath Sharma

Major Somnath Sharma, son of

Major General Amarnath Sharma, was born on January 31, 1923, in Himachal Pradesh. He was commissioned in the Kumaon Regiment on February 22, 1942. On October 22, 1947, Pakistan launched the tribal invasion of Jammu & Kashmir. Major Somnath Sharma laid down his life for the country on

November 3, 1947 in Badgam, Kashmir in a brave fight against Pakistan troops. Major General Amarnath Sharma received India’s first and highest wartime gallantry medal, Param Vir Chakra, on behalf of his son.

Lance Naik Karam Singh
2nd Lt. Rama Raghoba Rane
Naik Jadu Nath Singh
Company Havildar Major Piru Singh Shekhawat
Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria
Major Dhan Singh Thapa
Subedar Joginder Singh
Major Shaitan Singh
Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid
Lt Col Ardeshir Burzorji Tarapore
Lance Naik Albert Ekka
Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon
2nd Lt. Arun Khetrapal
Major Hoshiar Singh
Naib Subedar Bana Singh
Major Ramaswamy Parameshwaran
Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey
Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav
Rifleman Sanjay Kumar
Captain Vikram Batra

These are the 21 Param Vir Chakra Awardees, there are many other
great heroes our country has been blessed with.

Its such a pity that due to the bureaucratic system of our country
these great people have to fight for their rights,

I can only hope in the times to come these people shall be remembered

and they get what they deserve without a fight, because that is all they

have been always doing on the borders.

LONG LIVE THE INDIAN ARMED FORCES, JAI HIND !

The BIG IPL Mess and the Politicians

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:51:00 +0000

Well by now almost all of us know what the IPL mess was.
It had been a series of events just like a pendulum, swinging either way each day.
All started with Mr Lalid Modi's revelations about the shareholding of Rendezvous Sports for the Kochi franchise and Mr Tharoor's alleged involvement in it and ended with Mr Modi's suspension.

The key players involved in the entire process were Mr Modi, Mr Tharoor, Mr Shashank Manohar (BCCI President), Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr N Srinivasan (BCCI Secretary) who by the way also happens to be the owner of the Chennai Super Kings franchise and the MD of India Cements, last but not the least Ms Sunanda Pushkar, who was the eye of the storm for 10 days or so.

The damage control seems to have been done temporarily with the resignation Mr Tharoor and the subsequent suspension of Mr Modi. But the real issues start now.

The Income Tax deptt has swung into action and is issuing various notices to the franchises, the excise deptt is also not behind, raising demands, where were they before for the first 2 seasons of the IPL ? The investigations revealed the equity transferred to Ms Pushkar was not in accordance with the law, and various other rules had been ignored.
How a minister of state in the Indian Govt used his influence to get a stake for his external affair in the name of his state and kept denying the fact till she actually surrendered her stake.

The problem with our system is that the Cricket administrations and the state associations are being run by the politicians who are ministers, MPs and hold various posts in the Govt.

One of the charges Mr Modi is charged with is his association with the franchises and his stake in them, then why doesn't the board question Mr Srinivasan also, if it has to maintain transparency with its administration ?

I genuinely feel there is much more to the IPL saga than what we have actually seen, a lot of black money has been transferred through this medium , lot of taxation and corporate law issues which need to be sorted out.
Unless the sporting arenas are made free from the political personnel, there cannot be any transparency, its all about money and that too big big money which is involved here. Modi and Tharoor have been made the scapegoat, the actual people involved in this mess are still in hiding and the truth is still awaited.

EMPOWERING WOMEN, ACTUALLY ??

noreply@blogger.com (Raghav) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:46:00 +0000

With the 33% womens' reservation bill finally getting a nod in the Rajya Sabha 186-1 after a lot of hue and cry by the Yadav trio, the Congress and the Opposition favoring the bill still have a task in their hands with the bill yet to be tabled in the Lok Sabha. It seems highly unlikely though in this session now as the Congress is gearing up to convince the allies. With Lalu withdrawing the unwanted support and Mamata continuing with her doldrums, the Govt wants to achieve a consensus for the bill among all.
While the corruption is on a peak high and the way our Parliament and State Assemblies run with no respect for the Speakers at all,we hope women will add some sort of decency to the House.
But the big question is : Will the women actually add to the quality of members or it shall be a mockery of the system once again ? We'll have to wait and watch, it may turn out to be a dummy set up in the political arena or a family affair now.