Friday, February 5, 2010
Rangolis
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Twitter outsourced ? !
A news report said that, Twitter is seeking views from our honorable minister of State for External Affairs ,Mr Shashi Tharoor ,on the secret of having so many followers on Twitter.They are supposed to be more than six lakhs.An enviable figure indeed.But does the huge following represent our nation ? Very doubtful -it symbolises the haves who keep following a minister who is a rebel in the Cabinet but what he is up against is unclear.To be blunt,he himself is unsure, about what he wants.If he is against the party which gave him a ministerial berth or against his boss,Mr.S. M.Krishna,is also very very hazy.The end result, is that, he is more talked about than our foreign policy or whatever is left of it.
He is perhaps so used to five star comforts that he made one suite his home during the supposed austerity drive by the Government .This embrassed the Sarkar very much but he retorted that he was paying for it.Now,as a minister he could have shown restraint on his personal expenses but alas that was not to be.Moreover,he was told to shift base to Kerala house ,which he refused saying that it had no privacy & no gym.If he wants privacy, then why is he going public by tweeting ? Maybe ,he is trying to tell that as a minister ,first his grievances be heard before he can lend an ear to what is afflicting our foreign affairs !
Then,he tweeted about his flying in cattle class & later clarified that he meant the cramped conditions in the economy class.He opined that flying economy meant that ministers cannot do any work whilst they are on flight.But, then,he meant that unless they,the mantris are flying ( physically as also mentally ) high up ,they don't get motivated to do any work whatsoever !
He said that Haj issues were handled by him after keeping Mr S. M. Krishna informed .He did what he felt was fine as per his own ideas .This is because he follows a cliched saying which states that consult all but do as you wish .This is actually going against the Cabinet form of Government.But then,who will bell a cat who till recently was hobnobbing with world citizens ?
His books "India : From Midnight to Millenium " were recently brought by his ministry for distributing to Indian Missions abroad.Of course,he denies any knowledge but then we are so used to our netas having no memories of such things .So in this ,he behaves like others of his ilk.But by tweeting regularly ,he would have us believe that he is different ! As they say,the more things change,the more they remain the same !
But we must admit that he is a multitask master -he is a Minister ( of State ) handling External Affairs , a novelist of repute ( otherwise his ministry wouldn't have brought 150 copies of his book ) & now the latest- a twitterer !
He has had such huge following at Twitter, that a senior official from Twitter will soon be meeting Tharror to discuss how to address grievances via twitter.I have still to hear that any complaints have been addressed by the twitter minister but no harm in being optimistic.Do we have a choice anyway ?
For all we know,we may soon hear that, twitter has been outsourced to Tharoor ! Tharoor will be the CEO of TPO ( Twitter Process Outsourcing ) .Obama may protest, but then we have nothing to complain as we have conquered yet another avenue , never mind the pitfalls !
He is perhaps so used to five star comforts that he made one suite his home during the supposed austerity drive by the Government .This embrassed the Sarkar very much but he retorted that he was paying for it.Now,as a minister he could have shown restraint on his personal expenses but alas that was not to be.Moreover,he was told to shift base to Kerala house ,which he refused saying that it had no privacy & no gym.If he wants privacy, then why is he going public by tweeting ? Maybe ,he is trying to tell that as a minister ,first his grievances be heard before he can lend an ear to what is afflicting our foreign affairs !
Then,he tweeted about his flying in cattle class & later clarified that he meant the cramped conditions in the economy class.He opined that flying economy meant that ministers cannot do any work whilst they are on flight.But, then,he meant that unless they,the mantris are flying ( physically as also mentally ) high up ,they don't get motivated to do any work whatsoever !
He said that Haj issues were handled by him after keeping Mr S. M. Krishna informed .He did what he felt was fine as per his own ideas .This is because he follows a cliched saying which states that consult all but do as you wish .This is actually going against the Cabinet form of Government.But then,who will bell a cat who till recently was hobnobbing with world citizens ?
His books "India : From Midnight to Millenium " were recently brought by his ministry for distributing to Indian Missions abroad.Of course,he denies any knowledge but then we are so used to our netas having no memories of such things .So in this ,he behaves like others of his ilk.But by tweeting regularly ,he would have us believe that he is different ! As they say,the more things change,the more they remain the same !
But we must admit that he is a multitask master -he is a Minister ( of State ) handling External Affairs , a novelist of repute ( otherwise his ministry wouldn't have brought 150 copies of his book ) & now the latest- a twitterer !
He has had such huge following at Twitter, that a senior official from Twitter will soon be meeting Tharror to discuss how to address grievances via twitter.I have still to hear that any complaints have been addressed by the twitter minister but no harm in being optimistic.Do we have a choice anyway ?
For all we know,we may soon hear that, twitter has been outsourced to Tharoor ! Tharoor will be the CEO of TPO ( Twitter Process Outsourcing ) .Obama may protest, but then we have nothing to complain as we have conquered yet another avenue , never mind the pitfalls !
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Rangoliyaan
My patterns should be so easy that all can draw them.Moreover,they should be open ended-so that,they can be embellished further & made bigger & more intricate.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Suicides ? !
For the past few days,many students have been taking their own lives.This has become a growing concern to parents & all.By students,I mean teenagers who are almost at the fag end in schools & also by youth in their colleges.Of course,siome kids as young as 12 to 13 years are also dying but that is rare.What triggered this blog post was the news my daughter told me as soon as she got down from her school bus .She said that one girl studying in sixth standard in her school had tried to end her life by slashing her wrist ! She is now in hospital.
The psychologists are warning that we give too much stress to the child to study well.We tend to emphasize only the academic performance of the child.We forget that the child is good at playing ,drama,speaking ( debate),dance,music ,art et al.Nowadays,all kids are put in various classes- drawing,music,tennis,badminton,etc in addition to being tutored .This happens with kids as young as 5 years old !
At least,in our childhood,we only studied at home -occasionally,we were tutored but we generally never went for art,music,dance,football classes.Because in those days,there was less competition.Moreover,our ambitions were simple.Not so today-we as parents want our child to be the leader at studies,games,& the fine arts- in fact at everything ! We fail to see what stress we are subjecting the kid to.Maybe, we see, but manage to suppress our guilt & look away, as all parents are doing it anyway.
One reason why all parents act like this & pressurize their kids is because in today's India ,competition is tough .This is so because the population is huge & seats at the better colleges are hardly enough to cater to all those who score reasonably good marks.Another reason,we don't want our kids to make a career in music,dance,painting,games is in these fields, life is a lot more tough with hardly any recognition on the way & when it does come,it is very late.Moreover,in our nation,as in all cases,a lot of strings have to be pulled even for brilliant persons.A majority of the middle class is skeptical about being able to make any dent in these fields with such preconditions. So, they push their kids to do well academically.The logic is, that, by being a garduate or a postgraduate ,atleast the person will be able to make a decent living.So,parents refuse to nurture talents in their kids.
For all this to change,a lot of things have to happen.Parents should encourage & motivate children to follow their dream hobbies.Even teachers & professors should recognize that spark of brilliance in the child- whether good at fine arts,games ,debate etal.We must all force the government to give recognition to real talents & not some nephews ,nieces of netas,& others just because they are related or are friends.Then only,can we put an end to this stress which has forced young people to end their lives.
Lastly,we should tell the kids that failures are a part of life just like success .Failure only means that we should strive harder .Moreover success in studies does not guarantee success in relationships,life etc. After all,growing up to be a better human being is what life should be all about rather than winning or losing.
The psychologists are warning that we give too much stress to the child to study well.We tend to emphasize only the academic performance of the child.We forget that the child is good at playing ,drama,speaking ( debate),dance,music ,art et al.Nowadays,all kids are put in various classes- drawing,music,tennis,badminton,etc in addition to being tutored .This happens with kids as young as 5 years old !
At least,in our childhood,we only studied at home -occasionally,we were tutored but we generally never went for art,music,dance,football classes.Because in those days,there was less competition.Moreover,our ambitions were simple.Not so today-we as parents want our child to be the leader at studies,games,& the fine arts- in fact at everything ! We fail to see what stress we are subjecting the kid to.Maybe, we see, but manage to suppress our guilt & look away, as all parents are doing it anyway.
One reason why all parents act like this & pressurize their kids is because in today's India ,competition is tough .This is so because the population is huge & seats at the better colleges are hardly enough to cater to all those who score reasonably good marks.Another reason,we don't want our kids to make a career in music,dance,painting,games is in these fields, life is a lot more tough with hardly any recognition on the way & when it does come,it is very late.Moreover,in our nation,as in all cases,a lot of strings have to be pulled even for brilliant persons.A majority of the middle class is skeptical about being able to make any dent in these fields with such preconditions. So, they push their kids to do well academically.The logic is, that, by being a garduate or a postgraduate ,atleast the person will be able to make a decent living.So,parents refuse to nurture talents in their kids.
For all this to change,a lot of things have to happen.Parents should encourage & motivate children to follow their dream hobbies.Even teachers & professors should recognize that spark of brilliance in the child- whether good at fine arts,games ,debate etal.We must all force the government to give recognition to real talents & not some nephews ,nieces of netas,& others just because they are related or are friends.Then only,can we put an end to this stress which has forced young people to end their lives.
Lastly,we should tell the kids that failures are a part of life just like success .Failure only means that we should strive harder .Moreover success in studies does not guarantee success in relationships,life etc. After all,growing up to be a better human being is what life should be all about rather than winning or losing.
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