India Against Corruption!

Are you kidding me? No really! Are you? India against corruption? INDIA against corruption???

INDIA against CORRUPTION?

India AGAINST corruption??

I could be rolling on the floor laughing at this because its reminds me of an old joke that went: "Mahatma Gandhi Hair Dressers", "Gomateshwara textiles", "Venkateshwara Liquor shop" and so on! India, my mother nation, is many things. It is proud, it is developing, it is technologically advanced, culturally and geographically diverse, climatically sane, modern, intelligent, etc etc. The list of praises I can shower her with will never end. I adore her for she gave me and my family life. I respect her for she gave me nationality, integrity and respect. I love her for she made me her own.

But my country thrives on corruption. It is everywhere. It is omnipresent. I must commend the TATA TEA ads for they splendidly bring out the very roots of corruption. A beautician being asked for a bribe. A father assuring his son admission in a college. It starts in the very place we are born. Our own parents bribe us with sweets and toffees. The sweets and toffees become toys and video games. Those become cars and bikes. We face corruption at every stage of our lives. If not hard-core corruption then some form of it.

A question to Young India: do you even know the meaning of corruption? Do you realize the vastness of that word? Many of my friends on facebook are attending an "event": "India Against Corruption". I almost clicked "attend", but something held me back. Do I fully grasp what that means? Am I ready to take such a huge step at this stage of my life? Am I qualified to say I can handle that responsibility?

Corruption has a vast radius of definitions. It can start from the meaning of the word itself:

"The act of changing, or being changed for the worse"

It starts, like I said, from a very young stage of our lives. We constantly face this "act". Knowingly or unknowingly, our own parents habituate us to this sort of a life. Situation requires them to. That is how desperate our country is. That is how deep in shit we are.

A little money can take you places. It may be inside a pub before you are 18. It may be through a driving test even though you wouldn't know driving. It may be through an exam even though you wouldn't have passed. All this is corruption.

At a higher degree it involves whisking away all the tax money to an untraceable bank account. Hoarding of stock. Adulteration of stock. Encroachment of plots by government officials. So on. so forth. All of this seems unfair sitting on this side of the screen. Put yourself on the other side. What if you were to gain? Wouldn't you give it another thought?

Corruption is integrated into our lives now. That is the fact of the matter. So before you go announcing that you are against corruption I'm going to ask you one thing: BE TRUTHFUL TO YOURSELF. Can you shoulder that responsibility? Can you dedicate yourself to that task?

Anna Hazare fasted for it. He put his LIFE on the line for it. Can you do that? Can you risk everything for it? Can you stick to the cause even if it means that you have to pay a thousand bucks to the cop for over-speeding? Even if it means you have to wait in line for something you want badly? Even if it means you will loose your house because of it? Even if it means you have to stand up to your parents for it? Even if it means you have to stand up to your friends for it?

I feel that's asking an awful lot. Aren't we comfortable the way we are? Doesn't money matter a lot? So much that a little extra wouldn't hurt?

All that given.... Its a cause worth scratching your head for. Its worth thinking for. Its worth sweating for. I love my country. If not now, I will be fully ready to shoulder the responsibility one day. And that day, I will put my life on the line for it. I will risk everything for it. I will stand up to corruption and KILL it! But no man can do it alone. So it is up to all of us to start now. Give up corrupt ways. Take life the HARD WAY. Grow up and start FIGHTING TO SAVE OUR NATION! JAI HIND!

Music!

Describing music is like describing life.

It is complex, yet simple. 

It is big, yet small. 

Its unique, yet common. 

Music happens when life happens. It is so connected to life that it has  the power to affect and change life. Music realizes thew most profound feelings in us. Music means many things to many people. 

To Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart music was so important that even in his last days all he could think of was to finish his last composition "Requeim". In his lifetime he composed over 600 works, many acknowledge as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music. In his life time he also constantly suffered at the hands of illness.

When one speaks of Mozart, it is but mandatory to talk of Ludwig van Beethoven. He wrote his own compositions in the shadow of Mozart. "Posterity will not see such a talent in a 100 years" said Joseph Haydn of him. He had been deaf for a good decade when he released the completed 9th symphony.

Being the most celebrated musicians of history, to know that neither of the two could enjoy the music they composed raises a question: what tied them to music in such a way that they went on even in the darkest times of their lives?

I can't speak for either as I couldn't have known them in their lifetimes, but it is safe to say: To each music was life.

It may not be that to everyone, but, everyone enjoys music. There isn't a single person I know who doesn't enjoy some sort of music. It soothes the tensed and disturbed mind. A little music can change the environment to a degree that can astound us. Music has an effect on everyone. It may be one's source of inspiration. It may be another's source of relaxation. To some it may have a calming effect. To some an agitating effect. To many it is a source of hope. And to some, like Beethoven and Mozart, it may be the source of life.

To me, music is another world. It is like a dream where I control the flow. It excites me when I need to be excited. It calms me when I want to be calmed. It listens to me when I have to talk and talks to me when I want to listen. It gives me meaning where I find none. It thinks for me when I cant think and urges me to think when I have to. It shows me the light that is life, when I'm engulfed by the darkness. To me it is a dear friend who holds my hand through shit and tells me "AAL IS WELL".

The Definition Of Cool: Views 'n Opinions

"Define Cool."

I went around asking that question to a lot many people, and I was surprised to find diverse answers coming my way. I started it as a little prank: one i could enjoy on my own. But, alas! I cant stop thinking: Didn't "being cool" mean a lot to me at one point? Didn't it mean a lot to everybody at one point? Doesn't it mean a lot to a good many even now?

I started this little research of mine, and set out on a "pursuit of cool"(which was supposed to be my title for this article till-) which i found, thanks to google, is a taken title! :) This guy Bram, has a blog of his own elsewhere in which he says:

“There is no algorithm to define cool, you just know it when you see it”

That was his view of cool. His pursuit started with that sentence. His view of cool is that.

All of us have this pursuit: consciously or unconsciously. It is inevitable. Some end very early, some never end.

So i asked around, to see what people define as cool. Answers I got were clearly not serious ones. But they were the first ones that people could think of when I asked them to define cool.

A school going student promptly told me anything other than studying is cool. Obviously, the reaction was because of the immense burden of the education system. So I surmised this: cool to this person is something that allows freedom. Something that keeps her mind light and free.

Another answer I got was one worded and simple: "ice"! Now how about that! :D I really couldn't work much with that. All I could think was that on a hot day, this guy would call a breeze cool. That's cool to him: something comfortable.

I don't know if their pursuit has ended. Or even if its started.

But mine, started with a simple question I remember asking my mother, a good 6 years ago. And I'm satisfied enough to say it has ended too. I had just returned from a debate competition. It was the biggest thing in my life at that time. I stood to win 1 lakh in cash if won the competition(which unfortunately didn't happen). I was awed by the very atmosphere it created, even more by the seniors I was accompanying who seemed calm and composed while hell was breaking loose for me.

I worked hard, and got to the semis of the competition(even my seniors didn't make it this far), but lost out there. My partner told me I was splendid and that I was cool. I did not want to embarrass myself after all that so I went home to my mother. She told me, that to her cool is me. She told me that I was unafraid to to do what I wanted, to talk my mind and be who I am. I told her that I'm afraid all the time to do all that. She told me that THAT makes me even cooler because I have the courage to overcome my fear and the things I do. I smiled at being praised and promptly told her I think she's cool.

That was a mothers view. My pursuit should have ended there. But, in a curious turn of events, being "Cool" earned me a slap form my P.E teacher. I still have nightmares about that one! :p

So, while keeping the definition my mother gave me(mostly because it was very flattering), I tried to define cool myself. I had to do this because by that time, the word cool played a very important role in my life. Being cool was being accepted. The "uncool" kids were castaways, outlaws much like "mudbloods" from Harry Potter. And I DID NOT want to be a mudblood!

But books, favorite TV shows and my role models taught me that being cool is not that. Being cool, as I understand it is being YOURSELF. Being cool is being SIMPLE. Being cool is being truthful. Being cool is standing up for what YOU BELIEVE.

 ‘COOL IS BEING YOURSELF, COMFORTABLE IN YOUR OWN SKIN, NAKED IF YOU HAVE TO. COOL IS KNOWING THAT YOU’RE GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN AND BEING UNSWAYED BY WHAT PEOPLE THINK,WHAT THE RULES SAY YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE OR DO, AND HOW YOU MEASURE UP AGAINST ANY OF THE AFOREMENTIONED.’

 I read this (elsewhere first, but found it on Bram's blog too) and felt that this is it. The hard core definition of cool. More on "cool" later folks!

Timelines

I first heard the word "timelines" in the movie "Back To The Future". Irrelevent though this article is to that context, I found that word interesting enough to take me into deep thought about time and how it is the most dependable thing in this universe. This is not a lecture on how to manage time or how people waste time. Its more than that. Actually, nothing close to that. Time is a beautiful thing. In this world that looks at time as just a constraint, I believe it needs more thought.

Time favors no man, it favors no machine. It might favor God himself, but no one is a testament to that. I've seen and heard people use the word with regard to strict deadlines, traffic conditions and their daily woes about the lack of time. Just thinking about how simply people use the word puts me in a tangle of thoughts that take me forever to untangle!

"Time and tide wait for none"

Just that one sentence shows us how impartial and duty bound time is. Its is ruthless and hard working. It is all those things we should be but are not. Time doesn't stop when the world is in disarray. Time doesn't look back and regret its past. Time doesn't think about what its future is. Time..... just works in the present. It has no fears, no worries; Just one goal: to go on.

Given that Time deserves credit for its success. It has gone on. It has made itself so complex, no one understands it, and thus hinders it. Why I say that is simple: understanding brings emotions. Emotions raise questions. Questions demand answers. Answers demand commitment. Commitment cannot come without compromise. Time, my dear readers, has saved itself the strain of that compromise. Its path is not a compromised one. Purely for that one goal does time exist. Such is time.

That is my understanding of the nature of time. Or rather, that WAS my understanding. It happened recently. I was chatting with a junior of mine from school. Not a particularly fond one, she was all I had to save myself of boredom(these exam TIMES do get difficult you know!:D). In the course of our conversation I found myself enjoying it! Not a moment later I surprised myself: "times change". I said that.


In two words I shattered my definition, my understanding of the word time. There I realized, time can not be defined. It is not meant to have the boundaries of definition. It is everything around us. To define time would be a task only time itself could accomplish. Time is in birth and death. Time is in rise and fall. Time is in everything. TIME IS GOD.

Money Matters!

These days i catch myself working out new ways to earn money(which is why i monetized my blog too btw!) too frequently. I've often been loud about how money matters little(like in my previous blog). But my money matters have taught me that money matters! :\

Its astounding really, how much value money holds in today's life. To think there was a time when there was a trade in kind is a fantasy. I wonder why the barter system died out like it did... everybody seems to prefer money(me included!). If we study, its for money. If we work its for money. If we teach its for money. Bit by bit, second by second, moment by moment, it seems that money is taking control over our very existence. 

I remember a line from a song 'sabse bada rupaiyya' from the movie bluffmaster that went "bin rupaiyya to mister na teri mummy ka pyaar, na paida hota kabhi tu, na kabhi kar sakta mere yaar"(without money you wouldn't have your mother's love, you wouldn't even be born, neither can you give birth)! Money is so important into our lives now, that even birth depends on whether you have you have the jingle in your pockets!

It seems the days when one could say "Money cant buy you everything" are over. It seems money CAN buy you everything: from your B.E. degree to respect. Heck I've heard even love is for sale these days. All i can say at this point is- WHAT is the world coming to! For the way we humans are behaving, it seems armageddon ain't far way! :P

Life

18 years on this planet and I am yet to understand what Life is. The time of twenty four hours given to us is nowhere near enough to realize what this; is it a gift? is it a curse? is it a phenomenon? a game?

Yeah, so what is the meaning of life? A google search, like the one above? Is it the hours spent burning a hole in your pockets shopping? Your job maybe? Your spouse? Parents? Or is it all of these put together? people have so much to think and talk about, they loose track of the bigger picture: they just live life, not LIVE life!

Life is a marvel in itself. Something to be cherished, to be felt, to be treasured, to be shaped into the most beautiful works of art. In all the pressure, the hurry, the madness of what people think is life, they loose the artist in themselves; the one that brings beauty to their life. life can be anything you want it to be: an adventure, a painting, a blogroll, a race, anything!

Most people choose the race format and make life a race: who will make the most money? And the best thing is... life has no rules, none at all. Its one of those things u define, design and play on your own. YOU decide what effects you, YOU decide what makes you, its all you. Its purely how the individual plays it. they can choose to blame another, they can choose to let another play their life. But it is THEIR choice. What most rats in this race miss is that it is THEIR choice! It is they who are responsible if someone else controls the remote to their lives! it is they who are responsible if they control their lives.

right out of spiderman, as Ben Parker quoted: "with great power comes great responsibility". life is a super power bestowed to every one of us. what decides its use is how responsible you are of this super power of yours.

 In the end life is what you make it. Its meaning is defined by how you live it and how you much you love it. In all the years i have lived,  i have learnt one valuable lesson: never take life for granted. Its the worst mistake you can make. To waste your life is the greatest crime. People who take life for granted end up... well... dead.  One way or another, they end up dead.

Love your life, live your life. Do what you want to, but with a degree of responsibility to it. There is nothing more precious you can have than life itself, so treasure it. Forget the little things that bother you, look at the bigger picture, and ask yourself this very important question: WHAT IS LIFE?