Kashmir quake-a binding factor

Human behaviour is really strange. Almost 6 years back the security forces of India and Pakistan were engaged in a conflict in the picturesque hills of Kargil in Jammu & Kashmir(the territory of the disputed Kashmir valley under Indian control). This was one issue which had snowballed into 4 separate wars between the 2 countries. The loser in all instances being humanity and the comman man.Thousands of people have been killed in the shelling on both sides of the LOC. Billions of dollars have been invested in the defence sector by both the sides to guard the territories under their control.Billions of dollars invested in almost futile attempts by both sides to take control of the other's territory.It nothing but an irony that while these countries were spending so much on guns,missiles,fighter planes and all such kinds of ammunition,there were farmers commiting suicide and children dying of poverty.
However things do seem to be changing albeit very slowly.The peace process is chugging along at a good pace.
However,one incident which seems to have made a big impact on this peace process is the recent earthquake on both sides of the LOC.The devastation was massive especially in PoK(Pakistan occupied Kashmir).The response to this calamity from the world community also was very swift.The Government of India, surprisingly was very fast in dispatching the relief materials and supplies on the other side of the LOC.After 1971,for the first time,an IAF helicopter was allowed to fly over the other side of the LOC with relief materials.The earthquake has left behind a trail of death,destruction and a lot of misery.But, if I may try to take out some positives from this devastation,it has brought the people on both sides of the LOC together in grief.In Muzaffarabad and NWFP(North West Frontier Province) almost a generation is lost!The extremist outfits also have been hit badly.The devastaion has also led to close co-operation between the governments of India and Pakistan.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a communique that India would provide the Government of Pakistan with all the required supplies.The security forces on both sides of the LOC after a long time dropped the guns they held to help the victims and distribute aid to all the affected people.It is very strange that something which coildn't be achieved by diplomacy,war and a lot of backroom politics has been achieved by a natural disaster! If only the rulers were wise enough to understand that fighting over a piece of land is of no use as these boundaries are only recognised by humans and not by nature which always acts like there is only one world out there with human beings inhabiting it and not an American,Indian,Pakistani or anybody from any country.
Hope this natural disaster helps us to achieve something friutful which will help in the progress of the people of India and Pakistan.

Oral exams- one step completed

So, finally friends we have finished the oral exams.Well almost if you leave out the project presentation and vivas.Well I must say that we all had a great time,literally.The best vivas though were the ADBMS vivas.Most of us as usual were clueless.Yours truly the nervous wreck that he is,tried very hard to cram in as much as possible in less than a day.Then as usual there were the ritual missed calls at night to friends and some frequent messaging like "Abe gandu kya padh raha hai","Man I'm completely burnt out", "Hey bhunti pls teach me XML tomorrow in the train"?????? God save our IT industry.With such brilliant engineers-in-the-making one can only pray for the country in general and the industry in particular.Later there will be late night calls from my pal Sunil.An hour's discussion on the SimCAT would later be followed by some exchange of important questions for the next days vivas.Gosh.The topic is vivas and not my conversations with friends and details of my missed calls.Next day yours truly and Gigith do some imminent discusscussions on the crucial topics.Then in the train yours truly would study for 5-10 minutes very seriously till Kurla station.Why just till Kurla? C'mon yaar after Kurla there are a lot of gals jumping onto the train.Have to pay some respect to God's beautiful creation.On some good days I never got to study from GTB Nagar station.Ha ha.
Later in college bhunti's like Shreedhar,Sahul and the rest would ask g***u kitna hua.Yours truly's reply being "khaas nahi". This would be followed by some curses from Shreedhar."Saale sab kuch padhke aaya hoga". This msiconception could probly be because he is unaware of the travails of travelling by train.Ha ha.
Anyways there were many common questions asked in the vivas yet most of us were clueless.Probly because we had less time to prepare.Huh.As if I would have studied more had we got more time to prepare.In the last vivas many funny things happened.The external tells us to write everything and most of us were blank.We just gave him that sly smile.In whispered tones asking the neighbours "abe kya likhoo","Kuch toh bata". Luckily for me I did give a few (wrong) answers. Some of my friends read(bhunti) were so unlucky that they knew the answer but didn't undrestand the question to answer the same.Quiet tragic.
Anyways now it's all over and we can look forward to some serious work in the month long leave.Just go for it guys.

Those were the days

Few years back when I was in school I always had a jonesing to be a part of the "hip n happening" college life.That craving just went on rising in my 10th std days.I literally dreamt of being in a cool college where I could wear anything,go in at any time and move around anywhere without anybody's permission. But now I feel as if my life has come a full circle,literally.It is only now that I realise that school days are one of the best days of any person's life.That personal attention given to students like "Pranav I would like to meet your parents as I have received some complaints from your teachers regarding your (mis)behaviour", "Pranav you are one of the most notorious students in class" is something which I literally miss whenever I look back on my days in school.I always cursed some of my teachers whenever they hit me in front of the class.Come on yaar izzat ka sawaal hai.How could someone hit an innocent guy like me.There was one particular ma'am who caught me thrice in the same week for different reasons.The end result in all three cases being compete humiliation in front of the whole class.Sob.But strangely I miss all that.I miss being with my last bench friends.I miss playing those sports or games where our P.T sir told us to play a game of dodge ball where the guys got a chance to run in the middle and the girls had to get us out by throwing the ball at our bodies.Well,who wouldn't miss all that.Man those were the days when we all guys used to hang around in the toilets(I guess washroom would sound more appropriate) doing all kinds of things that shouldn't be done by school guys(Don't allow your imagination to run wild).Those moments when we all got a chance to sit on the same benches as the girls whom we had a crush on were really great.Those moments of friendly banter on the last benches in the middle of the periods (yes that's what they were called in school).Then suddenly the ma'am would shout "no whispering in the class" and we all would burst into peals of laughter.I miss teasing all my school pals and chums with literally any girl from the class.I miss that eagerness of going to school to sit with my pals and concentrate(not on what was taught in the class) but on the girls.Not that I can't do it now.But,still those were the days when it was really fun doing such things with school pals and all the chappri,tapori and useless guys(which incidentally also included yours truly).
Strangely I now feel a deep chasm within me when I think about those great days.I feel as if I wouldn't mind being slapped,cursed and chastised by my school teachers.I really would love to go back to that lovely place in one corner of my neighbourhood called school.I miss being with those guys who were always typecast as good for nothings.I really wish that we all should never have grown up.Life would have been really great had we been in school all our lives.What say friends?

The Mahatma and his legacy

October 2,1869.This day will remain one the most important days in the annals of history.On this very day one of the most important figures in world history was born in a middle class family of India.Born,Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,he was lovingly called bapu and respectfully known as Mahatma or "The Great soul".I consider myself and all my fellow Indians to be proud inheritors of his legacy of ahimsa or non-viloence and satya (truth) although very few of us put his teachings into practise.I however am proud of the fact that such a great man was born in my country-India.One can never doubt his integrity and commitment to his teachings. However,the events that have occured in India and the whole world after his death does put a question mark over his philosophy of non-viloence.Fundamentalism in the name of religion,class,race has begun to reach its apex.Religious intolerance has increased manyfold.Albert Einstein's prediction in the late 1940's that "there would come a day in the next 100 years when people would find it hard to believe that a man of the stature of Mahatma Gandhi once walked on this earth" is slowly but surely coming true.
Even in Gandhiji's motherland-India his name is usually taken with a lot of contempt especially the misled new generation.People have started believing that the Bhagat Singh's,Savarkar's and Mangal Pandey's were bigger freedom fighters than Gandhiji.But,the point is not who was a bigger freedom fighter or who did more for the country.The point is whose teachings hold more importance in today's world.In today's world which is filled with corruption,viloence,religious intolerance,casteism and racism the need to keep his legacy alive is of utmost importance especially in India which is a country consisting of various ethnic minorities,castes and religions.
It is very unfortunate,that India,inspite of having such a great man as it's leader at the time of Independence has not been able to live up to its potential.I guess that is probly because we were not ready for Independence at that time,or because we had the wrong and innefecient dynasties ruling us for most of the last 50 years.But, I sincerely pray to God that people try to understand bapu's teachings with complete attention instead of reading it just for the sake of reading.Perhaps we might rediscover his teachings,his philospohy of life and his vision of not just India but the whole world.Perhaps,people might be forced to drop their arms in Palestine,Kashmir,Iraq,Ireland,Russia just about any corner of the world,the way they did just a few months before Independence in the hamlets of Bengal in 1947 at the height of the communal frenzy that had spread throughout the whole of North,North West and East of undivided India.Perhaps we may finally succeed in making the world a better place to live in.Perhaps...... this dream may finally come true after aeons.