The dogging insensitivity
Vaatupura A Jayaprakash
Night does not fall on us these days,
We fall prey to night.
So are our thoughts,
that they do not come of us
We simply are of them.
Rain and wind and sun and moon and mist
And whatever rest we have for free
Have been here for millennia
So are they going to be.
The change is in us,
that we do not want them to be.
A way to virtue now looks vile
All good ways are but for a while.
Once they are seen and understood
We know how and when
to hoodwink the ones who come to find,
the same thing we all had once come for.
It is our religion, and our psychology
That we should venture not into sense.
It is insensitivity that we all being fed
Not to be dogged down by the opposite.
We are well off when we are cruel.
Sorry to say, not the other way round.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Alcohol and tobacco: no longer slow killers
Alcohol and tobacco: no longer slow killers
A. Jayaprakash KOVILLOOR
The medical fraternity around the world and those advocates of human welfare and fitness keep us believe that alcohol and tobacco are slow killers. This is no longer true. It is really ironical and ridiculous to be under the impression that something that keeps you live longer is called something else and something that kills you much faster is a slow killer. I do not understand why people believe that these two are slow killers.
Who in this world is interested to die a faster death than what he or she is destined to live in this sphere? Is there someone who can say that ‘I do not want to live longer in this world, so I want to die faster than I would?’ In today’s world of sophistication and comforts, there will be hardly any one who would make a wish this way.
Eventually, I am prone to ask; need there not be a little reason when these advocates make a claim of this magnitude which is likely to affect the lives of millions of people around the world and a multi-billion industry which flourishes on the same? We need to. We need to have a strict regime of terminology in place to define and brand things as they actually are.
In my opinion it is our good eating habits, healthy life style practices, encouraging and rejuvenating hobbies, our sense of humour, medical awareness and above all our will to stay away from the temptations of drugs, tobacco and alcohol are the things that make us live longer, that is, they do not allow us to die faster. They are the real slow killers. Are they not so?
Is it not true that when we do follow a good diet and healthy lifestyle, we are likely to live to be octogenarians and nonagenarians? Such people do not face faster deaths the same way the ones who take alcohol, get addicted to drugs and take on tobacco do. They do die faster.
Therefore, it is unfair to call alcohol, tobacco and their allied products as slow killers. They are fast killers, or faster killers. We have people who get killed in their thirties and forties and fifties thanks to their association with these bad habits. So long live slow killers like healthy life styles, balanced diets, timely eating habits and similar health regime.
Healthcare watchdogs and advocates of human welfare, you may please take stock and brand alcohol and tobacco as fast killers, not the other way round. I am sure it would make great changes in the way people take on these habits. Let all people die slowly and slowly and slowly, living life to the full, or taking life to the dregs. Not taking their life by drugging and drinking.
Therefore, world Tobalccoholics, beware you are on a much faster way out. And all those ones who have a little love for life, may get chronically addicted to slow killers like good food and healthy life style practices. Anymore takers for a novel addiction???
A. Jayaprakash KOVILLOOR
The medical fraternity around the world and those advocates of human welfare and fitness keep us believe that alcohol and tobacco are slow killers. This is no longer true. It is really ironical and ridiculous to be under the impression that something that keeps you live longer is called something else and something that kills you much faster is a slow killer. I do not understand why people believe that these two are slow killers.
Who in this world is interested to die a faster death than what he or she is destined to live in this sphere? Is there someone who can say that ‘I do not want to live longer in this world, so I want to die faster than I would?’ In today’s world of sophistication and comforts, there will be hardly any one who would make a wish this way.
Eventually, I am prone to ask; need there not be a little reason when these advocates make a claim of this magnitude which is likely to affect the lives of millions of people around the world and a multi-billion industry which flourishes on the same? We need to. We need to have a strict regime of terminology in place to define and brand things as they actually are.
In my opinion it is our good eating habits, healthy life style practices, encouraging and rejuvenating hobbies, our sense of humour, medical awareness and above all our will to stay away from the temptations of drugs, tobacco and alcohol are the things that make us live longer, that is, they do not allow us to die faster. They are the real slow killers. Are they not so?
Is it not true that when we do follow a good diet and healthy lifestyle, we are likely to live to be octogenarians and nonagenarians? Such people do not face faster deaths the same way the ones who take alcohol, get addicted to drugs and take on tobacco do. They do die faster.
Therefore, it is unfair to call alcohol, tobacco and their allied products as slow killers. They are fast killers, or faster killers. We have people who get killed in their thirties and forties and fifties thanks to their association with these bad habits. So long live slow killers like healthy life styles, balanced diets, timely eating habits and similar health regime.
Healthcare watchdogs and advocates of human welfare, you may please take stock and brand alcohol and tobacco as fast killers, not the other way round. I am sure it would make great changes in the way people take on these habits. Let all people die slowly and slowly and slowly, living life to the full, or taking life to the dregs. Not taking their life by drugging and drinking.
Therefore, world Tobalccoholics, beware you are on a much faster way out. And all those ones who have a little love for life, may get chronically addicted to slow killers like good food and healthy life style practices. Anymore takers for a novel addiction???
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Human callousness: we need to mend our ways
Human callousness: we need to mend our ways
Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash
We all naturally claim to be beings of good reason and most of our actions are supposed to be either governed or dictated by reason or in common parlance, common sense. But it is true in most of the cases too. But if we look around, we will be able to see innumerable actions we meticulously carry out thinking that they are ineffectual and the same are not going to have any impact on others. And there are occasions in our life where we feel complacent and conclude that it is OK to be not OK, and we go o0n doing things that are not at all alright or acceptable to others. Yes, it is very difficult to do all things confirming to the expectations of others. Let us see a few activities that, in my opinion, are nothing short of chronic callousness.
· A small gutter that gets formed in front of our painted compound wall is a threat to the wall. So we callously place a huge boulder on the gutter so that the automobiles would not splash water on your wall. How many of us take time off to fill that gutter properly? Do we ever think that an unsuspecting road user is likely to lose his life thanks to this indigenous ‘road rule’? Do you not think it is callousness?
· You are held up in a traffic jam. You have the clear idea that you cannot move your vehicle unless the one in front of you moves. Still you honk your horn continuously as if the person in front of you is the reason for the block. And if possible we will nose up our vehicle to the down line and try to overpass all the held up vehicles making the whole process an unmanageable mess. We do it.
· If you are on a two-wheeler, you have no road rules. If traffic is blocked, you will take the front wheel of your two-wheeler through any narrow divide that you find in between any two vehicles ahead. The picture is clear; you have done your little share to the mess.
· Let’s come back to our homes. Imagine that you unload a tipper full of sand in front of your house, right on the public road. Instead of removing the sand dune as early as possible, we keep it protected from being washed off by barricading it with either hollow bricks or the ball like boulders that we unload for construction. They will be there prepared to fell any road user or motorist or flatten tires of any make. Do we not do it? And if the unloaded boulders and sand happen to be a little more than what is needed, we simply abandon the remaining on the road itself, as if they had been there for ages.
· You are engaged in a cleaning spree, your room, back yard and surroundings. The spree leaves you with a heap of waste degradable, non-degradable, inflammable and bursting-if-heated things. What would you do with that? We simply abandon it on the roadside. Or we pack them in a gunny bag and along with the kitchen waste, we take it to a ‘no man’s land, some public place where we not find any public. This nasty waste management is prime sign of human callousness.
· Take this example. You are in a queue. You know you are supposed to follow the person right in front of you. How many times you wouldn’t lean or leap over the shoulders of the person in front of you? You know he cannot help you. You know this behaviour of yours does not help him either to speed up the process.
· Walking up two floors takes a few seconds. And it is good to avoiding lifts and elevators for your physique. But we find it alright to wait for minutes to get the lift to the third, second and even first floor.
· Shell we take a look at the way when we walk on the road? Roads are meant for pedestrians. It was true. But today, roads are meant for automobiles too. You blow your horn one or two times when you see a buffalo on the road, it will give you way. On the other hand, you sound your horn a hundred times seeing a man on the move; sorry you have to manage your way ahead on your own.
· You may have seen mothers taking their kids for a walk or letting the baby walk. Most probably these mothers let the baby walk on the tar and the mother would walk through the roadside. The kid with spring like behaviour is a potential threat to any road user. They skip or slip off their parent’s hands and fall prey to speeding vehicles. Have you not seen this callousness of mothers?
· Haven’t you seen cyclists taking the right side? Two wheelers overtake on the left. Auto-rickshaws plying crammed with scores of kids and their bulging school bags suspended all over the upholstery? And tell me what haven’t you seen? Still, do you not do it at times?
The above said are a few of our civilized callousness. Using mobiles while driving and riding two wheelers, indiscriminately eating things that kill us, making the world much more noisy instead of making it peaceful when you find some happiness in your life. Shouting, whistling, hauling, bursting crackers and so goes that list. Racing two wheelers much faster than the machine can do and ramming against speeding trucks, alter that two wheeler with all the noise making devices to make the people in the vicinity suffer from heart attacks, channeling our effluents and green water to the surroundings thereby threatening the neighbours and the society with communicable and water bourn diseases; and the list is endless.
We all need to be thinking minimum two times before we do any one of the above-mentioned callousness which we do presuming that they are not harmful, but they actually are. Because these behaviours have claimed many lives, made many crippled and a lot more better-dead-than-living. Shall we make amends in the ways we behave? For good of course.
Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash
We all naturally claim to be beings of good reason and most of our actions are supposed to be either governed or dictated by reason or in common parlance, common sense. But it is true in most of the cases too. But if we look around, we will be able to see innumerable actions we meticulously carry out thinking that they are ineffectual and the same are not going to have any impact on others. And there are occasions in our life where we feel complacent and conclude that it is OK to be not OK, and we go o0n doing things that are not at all alright or acceptable to others. Yes, it is very difficult to do all things confirming to the expectations of others. Let us see a few activities that, in my opinion, are nothing short of chronic callousness.
· A small gutter that gets formed in front of our painted compound wall is a threat to the wall. So we callously place a huge boulder on the gutter so that the automobiles would not splash water on your wall. How many of us take time off to fill that gutter properly? Do we ever think that an unsuspecting road user is likely to lose his life thanks to this indigenous ‘road rule’? Do you not think it is callousness?
· You are held up in a traffic jam. You have the clear idea that you cannot move your vehicle unless the one in front of you moves. Still you honk your horn continuously as if the person in front of you is the reason for the block. And if possible we will nose up our vehicle to the down line and try to overpass all the held up vehicles making the whole process an unmanageable mess. We do it.
· If you are on a two-wheeler, you have no road rules. If traffic is blocked, you will take the front wheel of your two-wheeler through any narrow divide that you find in between any two vehicles ahead. The picture is clear; you have done your little share to the mess.
· Let’s come back to our homes. Imagine that you unload a tipper full of sand in front of your house, right on the public road. Instead of removing the sand dune as early as possible, we keep it protected from being washed off by barricading it with either hollow bricks or the ball like boulders that we unload for construction. They will be there prepared to fell any road user or motorist or flatten tires of any make. Do we not do it? And if the unloaded boulders and sand happen to be a little more than what is needed, we simply abandon the remaining on the road itself, as if they had been there for ages.
· You are engaged in a cleaning spree, your room, back yard and surroundings. The spree leaves you with a heap of waste degradable, non-degradable, inflammable and bursting-if-heated things. What would you do with that? We simply abandon it on the roadside. Or we pack them in a gunny bag and along with the kitchen waste, we take it to a ‘no man’s land, some public place where we not find any public. This nasty waste management is prime sign of human callousness.
· Take this example. You are in a queue. You know you are supposed to follow the person right in front of you. How many times you wouldn’t lean or leap over the shoulders of the person in front of you? You know he cannot help you. You know this behaviour of yours does not help him either to speed up the process.
· Walking up two floors takes a few seconds. And it is good to avoiding lifts and elevators for your physique. But we find it alright to wait for minutes to get the lift to the third, second and even first floor.
· Shell we take a look at the way when we walk on the road? Roads are meant for pedestrians. It was true. But today, roads are meant for automobiles too. You blow your horn one or two times when you see a buffalo on the road, it will give you way. On the other hand, you sound your horn a hundred times seeing a man on the move; sorry you have to manage your way ahead on your own.
· You may have seen mothers taking their kids for a walk or letting the baby walk. Most probably these mothers let the baby walk on the tar and the mother would walk through the roadside. The kid with spring like behaviour is a potential threat to any road user. They skip or slip off their parent’s hands and fall prey to speeding vehicles. Have you not seen this callousness of mothers?
· Haven’t you seen cyclists taking the right side? Two wheelers overtake on the left. Auto-rickshaws plying crammed with scores of kids and their bulging school bags suspended all over the upholstery? And tell me what haven’t you seen? Still, do you not do it at times?
The above said are a few of our civilized callousness. Using mobiles while driving and riding two wheelers, indiscriminately eating things that kill us, making the world much more noisy instead of making it peaceful when you find some happiness in your life. Shouting, whistling, hauling, bursting crackers and so goes that list. Racing two wheelers much faster than the machine can do and ramming against speeding trucks, alter that two wheeler with all the noise making devices to make the people in the vicinity suffer from heart attacks, channeling our effluents and green water to the surroundings thereby threatening the neighbours and the society with communicable and water bourn diseases; and the list is endless.
We all need to be thinking minimum two times before we do any one of the above-mentioned callousness which we do presuming that they are not harmful, but they actually are. Because these behaviours have claimed many lives, made many crippled and a lot more better-dead-than-living. Shall we make amends in the ways we behave? For good of course.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Love at the times of life
Love at the times of life
Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash
By way of definition, it has been hard for people of all ages to come up with a complete one for love. It is one for one and another for another. Parents to their children, husband to wife, wife to husband, brother to sister and sister to brother, teacher to student, student to teacher, a friend to another and god to his devotees, devotees to their idols; and so goes the dimensions of love. And it is the only force that life has got to deal with whatever dimensions it takes in its course. It is so ubiquitous in the sense that it is found even in the severest of adversities and in the minds of the cruelest of adversaries, to be precise.
However, by way of definition, we have failed to come to a conclusion on what love actually is. This failure could be either our strength or our weakness. The interesting thing about this is that love is able to make us strong when we are weak, and it is at the same time able to make us weak when we are strong. It binds us together when we are at odds. It even makes us touch the extremes of our potential. It enables us to salvage ourselves from all depths. And there are instances to prove the fact that love is able to bring back people from the brinks of death, abysses of despair and deluge of utter doom.
Unfortunately, it is this same love or one or many of its dimensions that make people kill their fellow beings. A good number of murders are committed out of love; love for money, love for blood, love for pleasure, love for lust, love for dignity, status, social value, and there are murders committed just out of the love for seeing people suffer and die. If we take a cursory glance at the reasons for murders, we may understand that love down human history has killed much more than what hate, animosity or disputes have killed. It is the love for one’s country that makes a warrior kill and again it is the love for one’s nation that makes many soldiers face bullets with their bare breasts.
Jesus was a victim of love. It was his love for his Master or his disciples. Judas was a victim of love. Satan was a victim of love. God himself was, and so were Adam and Eve. And all their descendants are but the same. Father, mother, brother, sister, friends and foes, neighbours, both good and bad, lovers, male and female; and who else does not come under this labyrinthine fabrics of love that lie encompassing the whole cosmos?
Love, if thou art so unfathomable in these fleeting times of life, I would love to dwell deep in you so to know yet another dimension of your visage. It is in the prayers that Gods live, not in their answers. So is love. It is in its manifestations that love lives, not in its definitions. At these turbulent times of love, it is better to fear love than to fathom it.
Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash
By way of definition, it has been hard for people of all ages to come up with a complete one for love. It is one for one and another for another. Parents to their children, husband to wife, wife to husband, brother to sister and sister to brother, teacher to student, student to teacher, a friend to another and god to his devotees, devotees to their idols; and so goes the dimensions of love. And it is the only force that life has got to deal with whatever dimensions it takes in its course. It is so ubiquitous in the sense that it is found even in the severest of adversities and in the minds of the cruelest of adversaries, to be precise.
However, by way of definition, we have failed to come to a conclusion on what love actually is. This failure could be either our strength or our weakness. The interesting thing about this is that love is able to make us strong when we are weak, and it is at the same time able to make us weak when we are strong. It binds us together when we are at odds. It even makes us touch the extremes of our potential. It enables us to salvage ourselves from all depths. And there are instances to prove the fact that love is able to bring back people from the brinks of death, abysses of despair and deluge of utter doom.
Unfortunately, it is this same love or one or many of its dimensions that make people kill their fellow beings. A good number of murders are committed out of love; love for money, love for blood, love for pleasure, love for lust, love for dignity, status, social value, and there are murders committed just out of the love for seeing people suffer and die. If we take a cursory glance at the reasons for murders, we may understand that love down human history has killed much more than what hate, animosity or disputes have killed. It is the love for one’s country that makes a warrior kill and again it is the love for one’s nation that makes many soldiers face bullets with their bare breasts.
Jesus was a victim of love. It was his love for his Master or his disciples. Judas was a victim of love. Satan was a victim of love. God himself was, and so were Adam and Eve. And all their descendants are but the same. Father, mother, brother, sister, friends and foes, neighbours, both good and bad, lovers, male and female; and who else does not come under this labyrinthine fabrics of love that lie encompassing the whole cosmos?
Love, if thou art so unfathomable in these fleeting times of life, I would love to dwell deep in you so to know yet another dimension of your visage. It is in the prayers that Gods live, not in their answers. So is love. It is in its manifestations that love lives, not in its definitions. At these turbulent times of love, it is better to fear love than to fathom it.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The World E Day: Are we going to Pick Right?
The World E Day: Are we going to Pick Right?
Are you going to seriously pick something right to save the environment you live in? If yes, please start doing it from May 5, for it is the World Environment Day. All the national debates, seminars, symposiums and even the periodic ritualistic intentional summits on environmental protection like the last Bali conference notwithstanding, the real change is going to take place only when we think in terms of proactive lifestyle picks aimed at either saving the already harmed environment we live in or not harming it anymore in anyway.
It’s all fine to be concerned about the environment. But all the concerns get their due meaning only when they are translated into responsible actions that every thinking individual is capable of performing. However, our very attitude towards environment is more of words than of deeds. We hardly do anything on this line unless the so called environmental hazards start affecting our personal lives, the lives that flourish among the four cozy walls of our homes, to be precise, in our bed rooms. We claim that we are educated, civilized and advanced. Though it won’t be too far when we happen to have such a hazardous environmental scenario, we individually do precious little to save the planet.
On this day, May 5, let’s all reiterate that everyone is responsible for whatever environmental impacts we are suffering from and it is we who are going do our due shares so as to cut down on environmentally unfriendly deeds. What shall we do individually to Pick Right?
1. Shall we learn to live with smaller families and minimal needs and comforts? It pays to be taking what one actually needs from the environment. This will help the nature maintain its recycling mechanism in tact so that the whole world will be able to sustain whatever number of beings that may come to occupy in it in all the ages to come. We are able to do something towards this, I am sure.
2. It is the well being of the world outside that is actually going to decide the well being of our world inside our homes. Therefore, never ever spoil, litter or deface the environment thinking that, oh, it is some else’s issue. If you think so, please remember that you are a mere someone to every other person you see outside your family. So, think inclusively. Please ensure that you help the society process the wastes of all types that get generated in your homes. Do not discard gunny bagsful of your wastes on the wayside. It is hazardous to be so uncouth.
3. Buy things that come with very little wastes attached. Go natural for your personal care needs. It is the personal care goods that leave the biggest chunk of waste in our indoors. Tubes, sachets, containers, covers, packets and their inlays and consoles are unmanageable. They come for a price and they come here to stay. So please adopt responsible and eco-friendly shopping practices.
4. Meanwhile, please keep a shopping bag with you. It would discourage the most hazardous plastic carry bags. Don’t buy things that harm your well being. Take a decision today that you would never buy things that come with freebees. They are threats to environment. In today’s commercialized world order, you get much less than what you pay for. There is nothing called a free meal. No manufacturer is idiotic enough to offer you things for free. So, responsible shopping is more environmental. Make good buys, and say good bye to all those things that the market forces thrust upon you. They may force you to buy. But you need not force them to sell.
5. How about our eating habits? Do you know one thing that our ineffectual tongue does greater harm to our environment than all the industrial exhaust pipes and chimneys do. In order to satiate the taste buds, we go for exotic dishes and junk food. They are hazardous not only to our health but to your natural wealth also. You eat much more than what your anatomy needs. It creates imbalance in the supply demand chain. As you demand more, the nature and manufacturers have to produce more. More production leads to environmental concerns of various types. Producing more by spending too much raw material, exerting undue pressure on the power grid, burning a lot of fuel in transport, emitting a lot of gases and fumes in the process of production and transport, and so goes the list of environmental disorders you make out of your efforts to satisfy your taste buds. So it is a better idea to eat to be fit and be fit to be eating all life long. It is not only environment friendly, it is you-and-your-family-friendly also. Go for home-mades and thus go green. Glass bottles, ceramic cups, containers and plates are much better than their disposable counterparts.
6. When it comes to our mobility, what if we walk short distances? And for moderate distances let’s have a bicycle ride, and for family trips we may go for our cars or two wheelers. What if make long distance journeys in buses, stage carriers, trains and such modes of mass mobility! It is fun travelling together. It is great fun when you travel with strangers or people who you have no knowledge of before. Doing so, you are not burning petrol or diesel for your selfish travel comforts, your vehicle does not add to the traffic congestion and the pollution thereof, you do not face death and deformity on the way in the form of accidents, and finally your wallet will have regular breathers. Walking, the healthiest of human actions, is mentally and environmentally relaxing. Agreed!
7. Luxuries like palatial homes, their exotic interiors and power supported appliances and light fittings, costly mobiles, automobiles and similar cosmetic social value parameters, our insatiable greed and ever increasing glut for more, our chronic obsession with what is in store for us and finally our uncouth attitude and criminal indifference towards whatever is not ours are much more hazardous to the environment than all those parochial claims and petty counter claims the developing and the developed nations exchange at international environmental forums and climate summits.
8. Please remember, it is the above said human behaviour that necessitates this life threatening environmental uncertainty. All claims on carbon emission, green cover loss, temperature rise, ozone depletion, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, climate change and the like are results of the same human behaviour. So it is time we all came to the picture, an all encompassing frame.
If we all could live sustainable and mutually depending lives, the environment we live in will be a much better place in the coming days too. So, on this May 5th, we may take a resolve that our coming days are more environmentally responsible days, and every one of us stay bound to do our shares not to harm the surroundings any more, no matter whether the Bali Climate Summit is rejected by the US, or the Kyoto Protocol is a farce for some nations or the developing countries are bearing the brunt of global environmental impacts necessitated be developed countries. The onus lies in every one of us.
Please act, not react. And we all may pleasantly come to understand in the long run that every responsible action is a reaction and every such action will make many a people react in more ways than one. Will this May 5 mark the beginning of such a responsible behavior from you and me and all around us? Please say, yes. Yes, from this May 5 onwards, I repeat, right from this May 5 onwards, I am going to Pick Right lifestyle choices.
Are you going to seriously pick something right to save the environment you live in? If yes, please start doing it from May 5, for it is the World Environment Day. All the national debates, seminars, symposiums and even the periodic ritualistic intentional summits on environmental protection like the last Bali conference notwithstanding, the real change is going to take place only when we think in terms of proactive lifestyle picks aimed at either saving the already harmed environment we live in or not harming it anymore in anyway.
It’s all fine to be concerned about the environment. But all the concerns get their due meaning only when they are translated into responsible actions that every thinking individual is capable of performing. However, our very attitude towards environment is more of words than of deeds. We hardly do anything on this line unless the so called environmental hazards start affecting our personal lives, the lives that flourish among the four cozy walls of our homes, to be precise, in our bed rooms. We claim that we are educated, civilized and advanced. Though it won’t be too far when we happen to have such a hazardous environmental scenario, we individually do precious little to save the planet.
On this day, May 5, let’s all reiterate that everyone is responsible for whatever environmental impacts we are suffering from and it is we who are going do our due shares so as to cut down on environmentally unfriendly deeds. What shall we do individually to Pick Right?
1. Shall we learn to live with smaller families and minimal needs and comforts? It pays to be taking what one actually needs from the environment. This will help the nature maintain its recycling mechanism in tact so that the whole world will be able to sustain whatever number of beings that may come to occupy in it in all the ages to come. We are able to do something towards this, I am sure.
2. It is the well being of the world outside that is actually going to decide the well being of our world inside our homes. Therefore, never ever spoil, litter or deface the environment thinking that, oh, it is some else’s issue. If you think so, please remember that you are a mere someone to every other person you see outside your family. So, think inclusively. Please ensure that you help the society process the wastes of all types that get generated in your homes. Do not discard gunny bagsful of your wastes on the wayside. It is hazardous to be so uncouth.
3. Buy things that come with very little wastes attached. Go natural for your personal care needs. It is the personal care goods that leave the biggest chunk of waste in our indoors. Tubes, sachets, containers, covers, packets and their inlays and consoles are unmanageable. They come for a price and they come here to stay. So please adopt responsible and eco-friendly shopping practices.
4. Meanwhile, please keep a shopping bag with you. It would discourage the most hazardous plastic carry bags. Don’t buy things that harm your well being. Take a decision today that you would never buy things that come with freebees. They are threats to environment. In today’s commercialized world order, you get much less than what you pay for. There is nothing called a free meal. No manufacturer is idiotic enough to offer you things for free. So, responsible shopping is more environmental. Make good buys, and say good bye to all those things that the market forces thrust upon you. They may force you to buy. But you need not force them to sell.
5. How about our eating habits? Do you know one thing that our ineffectual tongue does greater harm to our environment than all the industrial exhaust pipes and chimneys do. In order to satiate the taste buds, we go for exotic dishes and junk food. They are hazardous not only to our health but to your natural wealth also. You eat much more than what your anatomy needs. It creates imbalance in the supply demand chain. As you demand more, the nature and manufacturers have to produce more. More production leads to environmental concerns of various types. Producing more by spending too much raw material, exerting undue pressure on the power grid, burning a lot of fuel in transport, emitting a lot of gases and fumes in the process of production and transport, and so goes the list of environmental disorders you make out of your efforts to satisfy your taste buds. So it is a better idea to eat to be fit and be fit to be eating all life long. It is not only environment friendly, it is you-and-your-family-friendly also. Go for home-mades and thus go green. Glass bottles, ceramic cups, containers and plates are much better than their disposable counterparts.
6. When it comes to our mobility, what if we walk short distances? And for moderate distances let’s have a bicycle ride, and for family trips we may go for our cars or two wheelers. What if make long distance journeys in buses, stage carriers, trains and such modes of mass mobility! It is fun travelling together. It is great fun when you travel with strangers or people who you have no knowledge of before. Doing so, you are not burning petrol or diesel for your selfish travel comforts, your vehicle does not add to the traffic congestion and the pollution thereof, you do not face death and deformity on the way in the form of accidents, and finally your wallet will have regular breathers. Walking, the healthiest of human actions, is mentally and environmentally relaxing. Agreed!
7. Luxuries like palatial homes, their exotic interiors and power supported appliances and light fittings, costly mobiles, automobiles and similar cosmetic social value parameters, our insatiable greed and ever increasing glut for more, our chronic obsession with what is in store for us and finally our uncouth attitude and criminal indifference towards whatever is not ours are much more hazardous to the environment than all those parochial claims and petty counter claims the developing and the developed nations exchange at international environmental forums and climate summits.
8. Please remember, it is the above said human behaviour that necessitates this life threatening environmental uncertainty. All claims on carbon emission, green cover loss, temperature rise, ozone depletion, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, climate change and the like are results of the same human behaviour. So it is time we all came to the picture, an all encompassing frame.
If we all could live sustainable and mutually depending lives, the environment we live in will be a much better place in the coming days too. So, on this May 5th, we may take a resolve that our coming days are more environmentally responsible days, and every one of us stay bound to do our shares not to harm the surroundings any more, no matter whether the Bali Climate Summit is rejected by the US, or the Kyoto Protocol is a farce for some nations or the developing countries are bearing the brunt of global environmental impacts necessitated be developed countries. The onus lies in every one of us.
Please act, not react. And we all may pleasantly come to understand in the long run that every responsible action is a reaction and every such action will make many a people react in more ways than one. Will this May 5 mark the beginning of such a responsible behavior from you and me and all around us? Please say, yes. Yes, from this May 5 onwards, I repeat, right from this May 5 onwards, I am going to Pick Right lifestyle choices.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Road safety at the times of school opening
Road safety at the times of school opening
A Jayaprakash Kovilloor
Yet another academic year is around the corner, and as usual, so is south west monsoon. Our kids are going out again to pursue their next levels and a great number of toddlers are going to attend schools for the first time. Their fears and the apprehensions of their parents are not unfounded because they are going to have tough times ahead when they think about the roads and the transport infrastructure these kids are going to depend upon.
Have we done the ground work to accommodate the fresh school goers along with the regulars this time at least? We have the notorious tendency to act upon something only when we taste the bitter aftermath of a tragedy. Our kids are going to face a lot of difficulties on the roads and we need to do lot many things to avert eventualities. What shall we do to ensure a smooth ride to our children to school?
· Parents have to be strict in not cramming their kids in auto rikshaws and similar precarious modes of transports.
· When private bus operators are found to be skipping bus stops, the responsible citizens should raise their voice against it.
· If the same is found repeated, the best thing the elders could do is to boycott such buses on a regular basis. We have to tell them, if they fail to be considerate with our kids, they are not going to get passengers.
· The state owned transport corporation may run enough buses during peak hours, say between eight and ten and three and five.
· The staff of these buses need to be given strict instruction to take maximum number of children and take them safely to their destinations.
· Those nasty road abusers need to be nabbed and brought to book, and their licensed cancelled outright.
· Heavy vehicles like those notorious killer tippers need to be banned from roads during peak hours.
· Traffic officials may ensure that traffic is moving smoothly. They may deploy enough staff at strategic places so that drivers, pedestrians and passengers will enjoy smooth flow.
· All electric powered traffic signals should to serviced and kept in good condition because monsoon is around and repair work may not be possible once it is raining.
· All major bus bays need to be fitted with quequeing facilities so that children can queue up to their buses and thus we may avoid stop-and-run accidents. We have plenty of such stories to our credit.
· All school authorities who own their fleet of buses have to train their drivers and cleaners so that children will get better movement to and fro.
· The telephone service providers who periodically dig drenches and canals by the roads should be asked to do their job responsibly.
· All private vehicles owners may take time off to take their vehicles to the work shop and have a check up and fix those sensitive spots like brakes, tires, wipers, horn, indicators and head lights.
· School authorities may deploy a few teachers in front of the school before and after the school hours to ensure that their children cross the road safely.
· School children should not be allowed to take two wheelers in the school compound.
· Parents may be given instructions not to let their kids travel by bikes.
· Bicycling to school is a good idea, but students need to give strict instructions to follow all traffic rules.
· School children should not be allowed to travel pinion on bicycles, and cycling to school in groups, at times, is dangerous.
· And parents who take their kids to school on their way to office must remember one thing. When they take two kids and their bags and baggage along, they are taking their whole life with them. Be careful and do not cram your two wheeler with more than it can afford.
· And parents, please don’t be over ambitious with your kids. Let them travel freely, let them play out, let them climb, run, go under sun and get wet during rains. This will do them good.
· The notorious school bags that include, Tiffin box(es), water bottle, even oxygen cylinders are a big problem to growing kids. Let these bags be small and handy enough to carry.
· Children may be given the freedom to walk up to their school if the same is located nearby say a few kilometers away. A street conscious student will grow healthier than comfort-conscious one.
· And finally we the grown up ones will have to (man)handle those eve teasers and female mongers who pry on growing school girls.
· Female police officer can be deployed in buses and bus bays and they may be given enough leeway to handle such menaces with iron hands.
· Political leaders and the so-called social reformers need to stay off the cases registered against traffic offenders.
· The police need to be pupil-friendly and public servants, and school children should feel free to approach them whenever their service is needed.
· The private bus operators who grease the hands of the police must understand one thing that they are playing with the lives of innocent kids and the great expectations of their parents.
· And finally, even if everything is said and one, the department of health need to stay prepared to manage any eventuality that may occur, of course, accidentally.
· All road users must remain calm and decent on the road and when they pass by a school, please sound horn, slow down and show respect to road using kids.
If we can do our due shares in this direction, a lot many accidents could be avoided and our children will enjoy better schooling this time. The education department is doing everything possible to keep the confidence level of kids at new highs at every new result, and it is the responsibility of the ministry too to make things work in such a way that this academic year is going to be free from accidents and accident related traumas.
The Parent Teachers Association, Teachers Assocations, students’ wings of political parties and all those ones who have a boy or girl studying somewhere need to be concerned about the well being of all the kids on the road.
A Jayaprakash Kovilloor
Yet another academic year is around the corner, and as usual, so is south west monsoon. Our kids are going out again to pursue their next levels and a great number of toddlers are going to attend schools for the first time. Their fears and the apprehensions of their parents are not unfounded because they are going to have tough times ahead when they think about the roads and the transport infrastructure these kids are going to depend upon.
Have we done the ground work to accommodate the fresh school goers along with the regulars this time at least? We have the notorious tendency to act upon something only when we taste the bitter aftermath of a tragedy. Our kids are going to face a lot of difficulties on the roads and we need to do lot many things to avert eventualities. What shall we do to ensure a smooth ride to our children to school?
· Parents have to be strict in not cramming their kids in auto rikshaws and similar precarious modes of transports.
· When private bus operators are found to be skipping bus stops, the responsible citizens should raise their voice against it.
· If the same is found repeated, the best thing the elders could do is to boycott such buses on a regular basis. We have to tell them, if they fail to be considerate with our kids, they are not going to get passengers.
· The state owned transport corporation may run enough buses during peak hours, say between eight and ten and three and five.
· The staff of these buses need to be given strict instruction to take maximum number of children and take them safely to their destinations.
· Those nasty road abusers need to be nabbed and brought to book, and their licensed cancelled outright.
· Heavy vehicles like those notorious killer tippers need to be banned from roads during peak hours.
· Traffic officials may ensure that traffic is moving smoothly. They may deploy enough staff at strategic places so that drivers, pedestrians and passengers will enjoy smooth flow.
· All electric powered traffic signals should to serviced and kept in good condition because monsoon is around and repair work may not be possible once it is raining.
· All major bus bays need to be fitted with quequeing facilities so that children can queue up to their buses and thus we may avoid stop-and-run accidents. We have plenty of such stories to our credit.
· All school authorities who own their fleet of buses have to train their drivers and cleaners so that children will get better movement to and fro.
· The telephone service providers who periodically dig drenches and canals by the roads should be asked to do their job responsibly.
· All private vehicles owners may take time off to take their vehicles to the work shop and have a check up and fix those sensitive spots like brakes, tires, wipers, horn, indicators and head lights.
· School authorities may deploy a few teachers in front of the school before and after the school hours to ensure that their children cross the road safely.
· School children should not be allowed to take two wheelers in the school compound.
· Parents may be given instructions not to let their kids travel by bikes.
· Bicycling to school is a good idea, but students need to give strict instructions to follow all traffic rules.
· School children should not be allowed to travel pinion on bicycles, and cycling to school in groups, at times, is dangerous.
· And parents who take their kids to school on their way to office must remember one thing. When they take two kids and their bags and baggage along, they are taking their whole life with them. Be careful and do not cram your two wheeler with more than it can afford.
· And parents, please don’t be over ambitious with your kids. Let them travel freely, let them play out, let them climb, run, go under sun and get wet during rains. This will do them good.
· The notorious school bags that include, Tiffin box(es), water bottle, even oxygen cylinders are a big problem to growing kids. Let these bags be small and handy enough to carry.
· Children may be given the freedom to walk up to their school if the same is located nearby say a few kilometers away. A street conscious student will grow healthier than comfort-conscious one.
· And finally we the grown up ones will have to (man)handle those eve teasers and female mongers who pry on growing school girls.
· Female police officer can be deployed in buses and bus bays and they may be given enough leeway to handle such menaces with iron hands.
· Political leaders and the so-called social reformers need to stay off the cases registered against traffic offenders.
· The police need to be pupil-friendly and public servants, and school children should feel free to approach them whenever their service is needed.
· The private bus operators who grease the hands of the police must understand one thing that they are playing with the lives of innocent kids and the great expectations of their parents.
· And finally, even if everything is said and one, the department of health need to stay prepared to manage any eventuality that may occur, of course, accidentally.
· All road users must remain calm and decent on the road and when they pass by a school, please sound horn, slow down and show respect to road using kids.
If we can do our due shares in this direction, a lot many accidents could be avoided and our children will enjoy better schooling this time. The education department is doing everything possible to keep the confidence level of kids at new highs at every new result, and it is the responsibility of the ministry too to make things work in such a way that this academic year is going to be free from accidents and accident related traumas.
The Parent Teachers Association, Teachers Assocations, students’ wings of political parties and all those ones who have a boy or girl studying somewhere need to be concerned about the well being of all the kids on the road.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
THE media and fake advertisements: Surveillance needed
A. Jayaprakash. Kovilloor
Newspapers and similar press mediums are overflowing with advertisements offering higher education opportunities. Both the parents and their children are equally confused about the authenticity of the claims these ads make when it comes to a crucial decision making; say, what is after Plus two, what is after SSLC or after graduation for that matter. This is much more confusing today than at any time of the year, for this is the time when students pass out and go for higher studies.
It is a fact that all media are by-products of advertisements, and we cannot expect a press organization to offer us 25/30 pages for three or four rupees on a daily basis. So is the case with electronic media. We get some 100 channels on 24/7 basis and we pay a hundred or a little more for these channels. The major chunk of press revenue comes from column centimeters and commercial seconds split out in various time slots. These centimeters and air times are meticulously calculated and billed and finally the public is left with the option ‘believe it or not’, you have everything plattered out on a daily basis.
A great number of ads on higher education that appear in today’s Dailies make false claims and sport fake recognitions, and these institutions have their own networks all over the nation to entice unsuspecting parents and their kids to their nets. And once they are in, it is going to be a matter of mercy of institutions not the merit of the candidate that is going to decide the future.
Many parents blindly believe and follow the instructions given by these ads and they come to know of the pitfalls only when their wards complete a few semesters of their studies. This is dangerous, and there needs to be surveillance mechanism in place to monitor and authenticate the operations of these institutions and there should be provisions in the law to bring these culprits to book who pray on the future of the younger generation and the hopes of their parents.
The fourth Estate, Press, has a crucial role to play. When an ad enquiry reaches its office or its franchisee office, there needs to be a system in place to verify the credentials of these institutions and ascertain that the claims made in the ad are genuine and the recognition is valid. Once an institution is found fabricating or providing misleading leads to parents and students, the issue needs to directed to the academia and education authorizes like State Board of Studies, Medical Council, AICTE, UGC or such bodies and alert them of these fakes. This would enable them to publish the list of such fake-listed institutions so that the general public would not get cheated. In the meantime, they may take time off to list out those institutions and courses that are authentic and publish those lists at certain intervals every year.
The most powerful democratic tool, press, can do a great job in this direction and if this practice is continued for some time, there would be marked fall in the number of such institutes and higher studies conglomerates in the future. Since newspaper is taken as an authentic platform, people will take this information too, i.e. the list of fakes, in the same attitude and they will shun such organizations.
That these ads keep the press organizations survive does not make the latter accept whatever rubbish they bring out to be published. The Press has to have a say in finding out the credibility of the ads, though it is not always possible, it is worthwhile doing it at a time when hundreds of thousands of students pass out and go for higher studies.
The Press must act. The public must stand with the Press when one such fake case is brought to light thanks to the intervention of the press. The people should shun these institutions and let them die their normal deaths out of neglect and rejection.
Newspapers and similar press mediums are overflowing with advertisements offering higher education opportunities. Both the parents and their children are equally confused about the authenticity of the claims these ads make when it comes to a crucial decision making; say, what is after Plus two, what is after SSLC or after graduation for that matter. This is much more confusing today than at any time of the year, for this is the time when students pass out and go for higher studies.
It is a fact that all media are by-products of advertisements, and we cannot expect a press organization to offer us 25/30 pages for three or four rupees on a daily basis. So is the case with electronic media. We get some 100 channels on 24/7 basis and we pay a hundred or a little more for these channels. The major chunk of press revenue comes from column centimeters and commercial seconds split out in various time slots. These centimeters and air times are meticulously calculated and billed and finally the public is left with the option ‘believe it or not’, you have everything plattered out on a daily basis.
A great number of ads on higher education that appear in today’s Dailies make false claims and sport fake recognitions, and these institutions have their own networks all over the nation to entice unsuspecting parents and their kids to their nets. And once they are in, it is going to be a matter of mercy of institutions not the merit of the candidate that is going to decide the future.
Many parents blindly believe and follow the instructions given by these ads and they come to know of the pitfalls only when their wards complete a few semesters of their studies. This is dangerous, and there needs to be surveillance mechanism in place to monitor and authenticate the operations of these institutions and there should be provisions in the law to bring these culprits to book who pray on the future of the younger generation and the hopes of their parents.
The fourth Estate, Press, has a crucial role to play. When an ad enquiry reaches its office or its franchisee office, there needs to be a system in place to verify the credentials of these institutions and ascertain that the claims made in the ad are genuine and the recognition is valid. Once an institution is found fabricating or providing misleading leads to parents and students, the issue needs to directed to the academia and education authorizes like State Board of Studies, Medical Council, AICTE, UGC or such bodies and alert them of these fakes. This would enable them to publish the list of such fake-listed institutions so that the general public would not get cheated. In the meantime, they may take time off to list out those institutions and courses that are authentic and publish those lists at certain intervals every year.
The most powerful democratic tool, press, can do a great job in this direction and if this practice is continued for some time, there would be marked fall in the number of such institutes and higher studies conglomerates in the future. Since newspaper is taken as an authentic platform, people will take this information too, i.e. the list of fakes, in the same attitude and they will shun such organizations.
That these ads keep the press organizations survive does not make the latter accept whatever rubbish they bring out to be published. The Press has to have a say in finding out the credibility of the ads, though it is not always possible, it is worthwhile doing it at a time when hundreds of thousands of students pass out and go for higher studies.
The Press must act. The public must stand with the Press when one such fake case is brought to light thanks to the intervention of the press. The people should shun these institutions and let them die their normal deaths out of neglect and rejection.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
What is Bush good for?
What is Bush good for?
A. Jayaprakash Kovilloor
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For all the deeds of Bush, the world community would record in their respective histories that there was an American president who had been good, not at keeping the world peaceful but ensuring the rest of the world in pieces and geopolitical regions.
THOUGH THE world is not worried much about its continued existence, thanks to the interference of an ordinary mortal like George Bush, it is a good idea to ask an individual question to each one of us – what is Bush good for? The question may sound simple enough, but answering the question may demand a little sense of humour and a tinge of cynicism.
The former requirement, sense of humour, is what the world comes to experience as and when Bush makes a statement on international affairs, and the second requirement, cynicism, is what goes into the making of such comments. See some of his comments and suggestions on international affairs.
“The US would help the oil giant Saudi Arabia to protect its oil reserves.” What does the world understand when it listens to such a comment? A comment is made by whom? And what is he commenting on? When was he making the comment? Where does price of oil per barrel stand in the international market?
“We are happy to assist Saudi Arabia to generate nuclear energy.” What does Saudi Arabia need more than this? Are not the Arabs powerful enough now to dictate oil terms with the rest of the world? They are. Still as Bush needs to be good for the world, he is offering a little help to the ’king’.
When it is of Palestine, Bush cannot resist making a comment that ’independent statehood is what is needed to keep peace in this part of the world’. Since the rest of the world is left with lasting peace, thanks to Bush incorporated, and as Iran is staying in where it has always been, now it is time and the same is ripe for Palestine and then Egypt. Again Bush is becoming of some good to the world order.
Closely following the comment that it is Indian middle-class that is eating away the due food shares of the rest of the world, he had come up with yet another comment on Kashmir the other day. “It is time India and Pakistan found a solution to Kashmir issue.” Are we not going to respond to that comment? A brokerage from America would work wonders in bringing peace in the borders.
His West Asian regional tour focussing on peace comes to close this week, he would have made himself good to a lot of communities around the world, and by the time he leaves office not very soon, the world community would, including those bereaved families of thousands of American marines who got killed around the world, record in their respective histories that there was a president in America who had been good, not at keeping the world peaceful but ensuring the rest of the world in pieces and geopolitical regions.
And this President had had the rarest reputation of bringing disrepute not only to the US but to the rest of the world too. What, an ordinary mortal like Bush, is good for after all? Good for not a good thing!
A. Jayaprakash Kovilloor
addthis_url = location.href;
addthis_title = document.title;
addthis_pub = 'greenpeace';
For all the deeds of Bush, the world community would record in their respective histories that there was an American president who had been good, not at keeping the world peaceful but ensuring the rest of the world in pieces and geopolitical regions.
THOUGH THE world is not worried much about its continued existence, thanks to the interference of an ordinary mortal like George Bush, it is a good idea to ask an individual question to each one of us – what is Bush good for? The question may sound simple enough, but answering the question may demand a little sense of humour and a tinge of cynicism.
The former requirement, sense of humour, is what the world comes to experience as and when Bush makes a statement on international affairs, and the second requirement, cynicism, is what goes into the making of such comments. See some of his comments and suggestions on international affairs.
“The US would help the oil giant Saudi Arabia to protect its oil reserves.” What does the world understand when it listens to such a comment? A comment is made by whom? And what is he commenting on? When was he making the comment? Where does price of oil per barrel stand in the international market?
“We are happy to assist Saudi Arabia to generate nuclear energy.” What does Saudi Arabia need more than this? Are not the Arabs powerful enough now to dictate oil terms with the rest of the world? They are. Still as Bush needs to be good for the world, he is offering a little help to the ’king’.
When it is of Palestine, Bush cannot resist making a comment that ’independent statehood is what is needed to keep peace in this part of the world’. Since the rest of the world is left with lasting peace, thanks to Bush incorporated, and as Iran is staying in where it has always been, now it is time and the same is ripe for Palestine and then Egypt. Again Bush is becoming of some good to the world order.
Closely following the comment that it is Indian middle-class that is eating away the due food shares of the rest of the world, he had come up with yet another comment on Kashmir the other day. “It is time India and Pakistan found a solution to Kashmir issue.” Are we not going to respond to that comment? A brokerage from America would work wonders in bringing peace in the borders.
His West Asian regional tour focussing on peace comes to close this week, he would have made himself good to a lot of communities around the world, and by the time he leaves office not very soon, the world community would, including those bereaved families of thousands of American marines who got killed around the world, record in their respective histories that there was a president in America who had been good, not at keeping the world peaceful but ensuring the rest of the world in pieces and geopolitical regions.
And this President had had the rarest reputation of bringing disrepute not only to the US but to the rest of the world too. What, an ordinary mortal like Bush, is good for after all? Good for not a good thing!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Managing water: the domestic route
Both social scientists and environmentalist warn that there is going to be war for water in the future, and the available water resources are unable to be sustaining life in this planet if the attitude of the whole world does not change for good. That we have enough water gives us the false impression that we can waste water or use water the way we like. But it is not the real case when water is taken in a holistic perspective. Yes, the water security an individual currently enjoys gives him/her a notion that the water s/he has is his/her water and nobody has any claim over it and no one can question the way s/he utilizes the water.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. Whenever there is water shortage, the same individuals who had had the luxury of enjoying water to their full for long would turn to the society and government and demand for alternative measures. They may claim that it is the responsibility of the state to supply its populace with enough water. But we hardly think of how precious each drop of water we waste in innumerable indigenous ways in our homes. We have no water management policy in our families. I think we all need to have a water culture to be able to lead a water-secure life today and tomorrow.
What are we doing towards this on the contrary?
· Good water habit, like any other good habit, begins at home. Our kids are not taught to pick up that habit.
· Unfortunately, unlike in the past, now we do not have separate water for washing purposes and drinking. We have one source and we use that source for everything: from washing our cars and carpets to drinking, bathing and flushing the toilets.
· How many of us know that when we flush our toilet once, minimum six to ten litters of drinking water goes down the drain.
· When we do our dishes, we keep the tap running so that we can wash and drain at the same time. It takes four to five times more water than what is actually needed.
· When we do our teeth, we keep the water tap on so that we can use it in between; the time we start brushing and the time we spit out the last spray of water. We could save one to two litters of water if we could use a mug or container at the time brushing.
· Our toilets are no longer a places for ‘that thing’ alone. They are now glamourooms where the hindwares we use consume ten times more water than required.
· Our luxury takes lusty connotations and dimensions and we spend much of our time in our glamourooms, indulging in nobody knows what.
· Taking bath is an indulgence and the shower does not have any idea how much water, both cold and hot, it should spray down on us. And the person takes bath gets into a frenzy of freshness at the cost of some hundred litres of water.
· Our wells near our homes, water tanks under ground and up above, are supposed to be full all day long. The electric pumps attached to these are doing more harm than good to our water sources.
· If people are made to draw water manually, their interest in spending hours in the bathroom will die out in a few baths. We need to get a minimum five hours’ power outage to understand this.
· When it comes to washing clothes, we do it with detergents that form into buckets and buckets and the amount of water needed to wash out this soap and suds could be better managed if we use washing cakes and do it manually.
· Cleanliness is next to godliness. But it need not be at the cost of life. One can be godly only if one lives a healthy life. Wasting water excessively for personal cleanliness need to be controlled. Cleanliness need not be an obsession.
· Personal possessions like cars and motor bikes need to be kept neat and tidy. The frequency of their washing increases according to the availability of time and water. If these isn’t enough water, we are happy to drive out our car with some dirt and grit on it.
· Going to a service center and washing the car once in while will do to keep a car in good stead. Washing it with drinking water every other day is an obsession.
· Raising garden of flowers or vegetables is good idea. The water used for watering the garden need not be drinking water. The water we spend for washing vegetable, rice, fruits and similar edibles could be reused for gardening.
· And when we raise concrete edifices, let there be a little open space around so that a little rain would seep down our own soil. How many of us do it? We marble the whole area and let the rain water go its way back to the rivers and seas.
Unless we make amends in the way we look at this precious natural resource, we will come to have water related tussles, both internal and international, in the coming days. We need to inculcate in our kids a healthy water culture so that their future will be water secure and the coming generation will live their life drinking enough water at least, not taking three square meals a day.
As educated, informed individuals, we all have a moral responsibility to sustain the available resources and ensure that every drop of water we spend is well spent. The rivers and similar public water reserves need to be kept neat and healthy, and they need to be declared pristine properties of humanity to be maintained the same way by every one who comes to harvest its benefits. The MNCs that flourish on aerated beverages and bottled water need to be kept off the bay. They are terminators of life.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. Whenever there is water shortage, the same individuals who had had the luxury of enjoying water to their full for long would turn to the society and government and demand for alternative measures. They may claim that it is the responsibility of the state to supply its populace with enough water. But we hardly think of how precious each drop of water we waste in innumerable indigenous ways in our homes. We have no water management policy in our families. I think we all need to have a water culture to be able to lead a water-secure life today and tomorrow.
What are we doing towards this on the contrary?
· Good water habit, like any other good habit, begins at home. Our kids are not taught to pick up that habit.
· Unfortunately, unlike in the past, now we do not have separate water for washing purposes and drinking. We have one source and we use that source for everything: from washing our cars and carpets to drinking, bathing and flushing the toilets.
· How many of us know that when we flush our toilet once, minimum six to ten litters of drinking water goes down the drain.
· When we do our dishes, we keep the tap running so that we can wash and drain at the same time. It takes four to five times more water than what is actually needed.
· When we do our teeth, we keep the water tap on so that we can use it in between; the time we start brushing and the time we spit out the last spray of water. We could save one to two litters of water if we could use a mug or container at the time brushing.
· Our toilets are no longer a places for ‘that thing’ alone. They are now glamourooms where the hindwares we use consume ten times more water than required.
· Our luxury takes lusty connotations and dimensions and we spend much of our time in our glamourooms, indulging in nobody knows what.
· Taking bath is an indulgence and the shower does not have any idea how much water, both cold and hot, it should spray down on us. And the person takes bath gets into a frenzy of freshness at the cost of some hundred litres of water.
· Our wells near our homes, water tanks under ground and up above, are supposed to be full all day long. The electric pumps attached to these are doing more harm than good to our water sources.
· If people are made to draw water manually, their interest in spending hours in the bathroom will die out in a few baths. We need to get a minimum five hours’ power outage to understand this.
· When it comes to washing clothes, we do it with detergents that form into buckets and buckets and the amount of water needed to wash out this soap and suds could be better managed if we use washing cakes and do it manually.
· Cleanliness is next to godliness. But it need not be at the cost of life. One can be godly only if one lives a healthy life. Wasting water excessively for personal cleanliness need to be controlled. Cleanliness need not be an obsession.
· Personal possessions like cars and motor bikes need to be kept neat and tidy. The frequency of their washing increases according to the availability of time and water. If these isn’t enough water, we are happy to drive out our car with some dirt and grit on it.
· Going to a service center and washing the car once in while will do to keep a car in good stead. Washing it with drinking water every other day is an obsession.
· Raising garden of flowers or vegetables is good idea. The water used for watering the garden need not be drinking water. The water we spend for washing vegetable, rice, fruits and similar edibles could be reused for gardening.
· And when we raise concrete edifices, let there be a little open space around so that a little rain would seep down our own soil. How many of us do it? We marble the whole area and let the rain water go its way back to the rivers and seas.
Unless we make amends in the way we look at this precious natural resource, we will come to have water related tussles, both internal and international, in the coming days. We need to inculcate in our kids a healthy water culture so that their future will be water secure and the coming generation will live their life drinking enough water at least, not taking three square meals a day.
As educated, informed individuals, we all have a moral responsibility to sustain the available resources and ensure that every drop of water we spend is well spent. The rivers and similar public water reserves need to be kept neat and healthy, and they need to be declared pristine properties of humanity to be maintained the same way by every one who comes to harvest its benefits. The MNCs that flourish on aerated beverages and bottled water need to be kept off the bay. They are terminators of life.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
The time for paid email ids has come
The time for paid email ids has come
Unfortunately, this virtual communication network is being widely misused more by email users than by anyone. Net, as a free space, is free for all. Anyone can get in and out of it without an email ID. Many email ID holders use their address just to keep themselves connected with the rest of the world. But the number of people, who exploit this communication platform for asocial purposes, is increasing by the day and email platforms are becoming breeding grounds for all sorts of crimes, threats and challenges.
Of course, there is a system in place to track and locate the ID holders and their credentials, but the time and effort involved in this could be saved if we could make this service a paid one. Or there could be a separate digital platform for all those, who are ready to pay a subscription so that they will be viewed by the service providers as promoters and they could be given special services. The one, that could be called space-for-all Netscape, can be a platform with minimum facilities.
These two sets of net users will utilise their individual spaces according to their needs. When a free user finds that a paid subscription is going to give him a little extra edge on services, more and more people will subscribe to it. The service providers, on their part, can earmark a share of the subscription money for development activities in their operational areas.
Wiser use of the net will make it a much more freer space without junks and those unwanted data loads that convert our inboxes into trash cans and dustbins. Managing unwanted mail takes a lot of time and the service providers do not seem to be giving any serious privacy policy to their address holders. Emails get leaked to unwanted people, who use it to send in mails of all sorts. Further, managing the stuff is a kind of forced labour. So, it is high time that we change our attitude towards emailing, and a small fee for getting a strictly personalised email ID would look attractive to many discerning netizens.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A paradise called Munnar
A paradise called Munnar
Munnar has emerged as one of the most popular tourist spots in the country. The serene beauty of the place can enchant anyone to ecstasy. It makes you want to fall in love with god's glory as its been bestowed upon this piece of land lavishly.
THE WINDING aura atop the hills in Munnar is like a virtual detour to sheer delight. The fragrance in the air is bound to kindle the very last spark of fire in one’s romantic life. The greens, the falls, the woods, gushes and sprays and showers of occasional rain on the way are excellently engineered by nature to give the whole landscape a unique character of its own. No wonder this pristine tea caped township has become a hot-spot in the tourism map of the nation.
It is the tourism capital of god’s own country, and god’s glory is in its best here with enormous opportunities left open for all to devour nature and get delighted day in and day out. You find a calm and quite ambiance at all hotels, resorts and stay-ins that make Munnar the most sought after destination for honeymooners and couples of all age groups. It is virtually a cut off from the hustle and bustle of today’s life.
As you go up high, you get a feeling that you are getting closer to a domain where you are bound to enjoy something otherworldly, something which you have never felt before. Only when you come face to face with the hillocks , mounts and crevices, will you be able to understand what you have missed all your life. You would wish that you had lived here in all your life and could live here in all the lives to come by your way as well.
The little time you happen to have at hand at Munnar would look like manna served in a platter made up of a rare mix of divinity, delight and tranquility. This delicious dish of time has a rare feature that it would not grow old, you wouldn’t have any scars left on your skin.. You would remain contented to the core and the same feeling will add extra energy to your soul. You will drive down the hills like a feather that just got severed from the wings of a soaring dove. Falling and soaring, long to remain aloft for as long as possible. The whole experience will leave in you in a kind of honeymoon, an extremely private one-to-one encounter: One is Munnar and the other is you, who and what and wherever you are from. Nature welcomes you at HoneyMunnar.
Munnar has emerged as one of the most popular tourist spots in the country. The serene beauty of the place can enchant anyone to ecstasy. It makes you want to fall in love with god's glory as its been bestowed upon this piece of land lavishly.
THE WINDING aura atop the hills in Munnar is like a virtual detour to sheer delight. The fragrance in the air is bound to kindle the very last spark of fire in one’s romantic life. The greens, the falls, the woods, gushes and sprays and showers of occasional rain on the way are excellently engineered by nature to give the whole landscape a unique character of its own. No wonder this pristine tea caped township has become a hot-spot in the tourism map of the nation.
It is the tourism capital of god’s own country, and god’s glory is in its best here with enormous opportunities left open for all to devour nature and get delighted day in and day out. You find a calm and quite ambiance at all hotels, resorts and stay-ins that make Munnar the most sought after destination for honeymooners and couples of all age groups. It is virtually a cut off from the hustle and bustle of today’s life.
As you go up high, you get a feeling that you are getting closer to a domain where you are bound to enjoy something otherworldly, something which you have never felt before. Only when you come face to face with the hillocks , mounts and crevices, will you be able to understand what you have missed all your life. You would wish that you had lived here in all your life and could live here in all the lives to come by your way as well.
The little time you happen to have at hand at Munnar would look like manna served in a platter made up of a rare mix of divinity, delight and tranquility. This delicious dish of time has a rare feature that it would not grow old, you wouldn’t have any scars left on your skin.. You would remain contented to the core and the same feeling will add extra energy to your soul. You will drive down the hills like a feather that just got severed from the wings of a soaring dove. Falling and soaring, long to remain aloft for as long as possible. The whole experience will leave in you in a kind of honeymoon, an extremely private one-to-one encounter: One is Munnar and the other is you, who and what and wherever you are from. Nature welcomes you at HoneyMunnar.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
India needs to ink ‘present’ history
People are at their wit’s end. Power and politics make normal life of the common man miserable every passing day. The rich are getting richer and poor poorer. More and more people go to bed hungry and food security of the nation is threatened by myopic reform measures and hardhearted approach towards farmers and their pressing needs. And life goes on as usual with a lot of din and bustle and nowhere is a politician seen suffering from any sort of shortages. They are leaders and their deeds are recorded as history. That is the ‘most unkindest cut’ of all, the worst a nation could do to its future generation.
In this nation of millions and millions and millions, nothing great gets recorded or noticed, nor is anything getting abhorred either. Here everything goes. Look around and see for yourself how happy politicians and their henchmen are, how self sufficient they are when it comes to their positions and power sharing practices. They all have only one colour, the colour of power. They all have only one mission. It is election and its manipulations. Taking the nation forward is naturally done by the people who have the least say in what we call democratic participation. It is a kind of participation which means, one party or the other or a set of parties will come to rule the rest after every election.
How many elections have this nation seen so far? How many leaders worth the salt have passed by all these election processes? What has the proportion of their representation been? Are we going to have visionaries like Nehrus and Patels and Gandhis and Tilaks? Do we not have them around us? I strongly believe that we have plenty of such souls around us. Unfortunately, it is our nasty political order that keeps this nation undermined and underdeveloped. Cleansing is the need of the hour. Political cleansing. All other social, administrative and governmental evils will stop to exist if a few visionaries could be spotted from these millions and let the reins of the nation remain in their hands. Their deeds will have to be recorded as history. At present we have no history worth recording.
We do not need politics and politicians anymore. India needs true Indians. All these so called political leaders who claim to have their slots in the history of the nation need to be dumped in the bins or back burner of history, and thus redeem the nation from the clutches of corruption, red-tapism, nepotism and favouritism. These evils have done the nation enough damages, and these damages are their legacy. It is not history. We need to have a new history written by true Indians.
History need not be the record of actions that happened in the past. Rather history needs to be the record of the present. It is time our nation had some men and women of vision to ink its history as it happens day in and day out through their own words and their corresponding deeds. Power needs to be wrested from positions of all types, and positions of all types need to breathe in power to the populi. History is their words and deeds. India can hardly afford to have these ‘political brokers’ any longer.
In this nation of millions and millions and millions, nothing great gets recorded or noticed, nor is anything getting abhorred either. Here everything goes. Look around and see for yourself how happy politicians and their henchmen are, how self sufficient they are when it comes to their positions and power sharing practices. They all have only one colour, the colour of power. They all have only one mission. It is election and its manipulations. Taking the nation forward is naturally done by the people who have the least say in what we call democratic participation. It is a kind of participation which means, one party or the other or a set of parties will come to rule the rest after every election.
How many elections have this nation seen so far? How many leaders worth the salt have passed by all these election processes? What has the proportion of their representation been? Are we going to have visionaries like Nehrus and Patels and Gandhis and Tilaks? Do we not have them around us? I strongly believe that we have plenty of such souls around us. Unfortunately, it is our nasty political order that keeps this nation undermined and underdeveloped. Cleansing is the need of the hour. Political cleansing. All other social, administrative and governmental evils will stop to exist if a few visionaries could be spotted from these millions and let the reins of the nation remain in their hands. Their deeds will have to be recorded as history. At present we have no history worth recording.
We do not need politics and politicians anymore. India needs true Indians. All these so called political leaders who claim to have their slots in the history of the nation need to be dumped in the bins or back burner of history, and thus redeem the nation from the clutches of corruption, red-tapism, nepotism and favouritism. These evils have done the nation enough damages, and these damages are their legacy. It is not history. We need to have a new history written by true Indians.
History need not be the record of actions that happened in the past. Rather history needs to be the record of the present. It is time our nation had some men and women of vision to ink its history as it happens day in and day out through their own words and their corresponding deeds. Power needs to be wrested from positions of all types, and positions of all types need to breathe in power to the populi. History is their words and deeds. India can hardly afford to have these ‘political brokers’ any longer.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Why not make everyday a holiday!
IT’S AN ‘away-from-it-all experience’. It’s staying ‘far away from the maddening crowd’. Some say, “It’s staying cut off from the din and bustle of the pestering duties and killing responsibilities,” There is yet another school of holidayers who believe that holidaying is going to places and encountering excitements and differences. The attitude towards holidaying keeps on changing, and in this process, its very purpose looks hijacked by many external forces that come to play the moment one thinks of taking a break for a while.
How many people come home holidaying? How many people feel that they are in a holiday mood when they are actually undergoing the same? Do our personal concerns leave us the day we pack up and move out for a holiday trip? Lucky are those who have a kind of attitude to look at things from a distance and enjoy a sort of vicarious holidaying. This is not possible for many because most of us do not try to differentiate ourselves from the differences we are surrounded by. The fact is that we get merged with the ambience we live in so indistinguishably that we feel at times that the days are getting unattractive and it is time we had a break. What happens when we take a break? Virtually, nothing. We desperately try to redeem ourselves from the ruts we are in.
So long as that rut remains, there in us to invite us again into its very same old ways, things are not going to change. All the extravaganzas and exoticas, the holiday industry offers us are but, propaganda and they are as desperate as the holidayers themselves because their very business is nothing but a groove, and they keep telling you the same, and the same is falsely endorsed by all those who happen to fall prey to their temptations. Once you are in and have spent a sizeable chunk of money from your pocket, would you tell the rest of the world that the time you had had at a holiday stint was as boring as the very days you were running away from? No. The best way out is to learn to live life like a holiday stint.
In this cosmic dimension, the time we are ordained with is not so long, and the very same time is rapt in a rigorous material regime where we are tools and dyes that get used either by others or by some external agencies or forces. One among them is this holiday hawkers and their temptations. Again we fall prey to this mysterious spell of the unknown and we go on holidaying, doing nothing to alter our mindset. Our days offer us nothing to worry about or get bored of. It is we who make things worse. What difference does it make when we make our things worse and go for holidaying thinking that the latter is going to offset the former?
How many people come home holidaying? How many people feel that they are in a holiday mood when they are actually undergoing the same? Do our personal concerns leave us the day we pack up and move out for a holiday trip? Lucky are those who have a kind of attitude to look at things from a distance and enjoy a sort of vicarious holidaying. This is not possible for many because most of us do not try to differentiate ourselves from the differences we are surrounded by. The fact is that we get merged with the ambience we live in so indistinguishably that we feel at times that the days are getting unattractive and it is time we had a break. What happens when we take a break? Virtually, nothing. We desperately try to redeem ourselves from the ruts we are in.
So long as that rut remains, there in us to invite us again into its very same old ways, things are not going to change. All the extravaganzas and exoticas, the holiday industry offers us are but, propaganda and they are as desperate as the holidayers themselves because their very business is nothing but a groove, and they keep telling you the same, and the same is falsely endorsed by all those who happen to fall prey to their temptations. Once you are in and have spent a sizeable chunk of money from your pocket, would you tell the rest of the world that the time you had had at a holiday stint was as boring as the very days you were running away from? No. The best way out is to learn to live life like a holiday stint.
In this cosmic dimension, the time we are ordained with is not so long, and the very same time is rapt in a rigorous material regime where we are tools and dyes that get used either by others or by some external agencies or forces. One among them is this holiday hawkers and their temptations. Again we fall prey to this mysterious spell of the unknown and we go on holidaying, doing nothing to alter our mindset. Our days offer us nothing to worry about or get bored of. It is we who make things worse. What difference does it make when we make our things worse and go for holidaying thinking that the latter is going to offset the former?
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Kerala Hr. Secondary Education is going to dogs
Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash
Higher Secondary Examination paper valuations camps are working in full key all over Kerala, and the results are expected to be out in record time. This year, the Higher Secondary result is bound to find a permanent place in the Guinness book of world records for its historic pass out percentage. This result is going to be manipulated in such a way as to make all other education ministries that have gone past the present one not only incompetent but most student-unfriendly also.
Prior to the valuation camps, the teachers have been given strict instructions not to fail any student who has the least chance to get through the exam. The instructions are funny as well as “Babyish”. The teaching community is all frustrated with these instructions, and they complain that the very system of examination is a mere mockery and there is no use working hard or making a mark in the result table.
All those hard working students are going to be deeply frustrated for their futile efforts to have an edge over others. All are going to have their own edges and not many can claim any meritorious position when it comes to marks and their positioning in a higher education entry-platform where unfortunately it is not going to be the merit or marks that make the real difference but the bales of money the parents vie hard to pay out for a seat.
The government is doing everything possible to help out the management education system to have their field days once the results get out. The most student friendly education environment offered by the education Minister Mr. M. A. Baby gives the following instructions to the teachers who camp in all major cities to value papers.
Let us see a few instructions given to teachers:
· There should not be any attempt to fail a student if he/she has the least quality to win. Examination is to make students win.
· When it comes to English questions, forget about spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Teachers have no idea what English is without these three.
· Even if the student writes the key word or one of the words that constitute the answer to a question, he/she should be respected with some marks.
· Complete or incomplete are the sentences, if there is an effort to write some nonsense, the teacher should need to be considerate. The aim is to make the candidate pass out.
· Instructions given to Physics teachers are really funny. If there were out-of-the syllabus questions, the candidate should get full marks.
· If the candidate has just written the question number, that is enough to get him or her full marks for that question.
· And for extreme cases, even if the teacher finds the candidate not writing the question number, the teacher should write the number to the out-of-syllabus question and give him/her full marks.
· And finally when the pass and fail proposition is like a cup and lip affair, the candidate should be given enough marks to get him through the exam.
· If the cut off mark (minimum marks to pass-out) is 20 and the candidate gets only 15, the teacher can make it 20 and declare the candidate ‘passed’. So go the instructions.
Where are these children going to end up in? Is this present ministry prepared to give seats for all these students for higher education? Is it wrong to suspect that there is a nexus between higher education institutions and the government?
We all know that the most literate state in the nation is a huge market for higher education institutions in the neighbouring states and this new ‘marking spree’ is offering greater market potentials for these institutions. When the controversy over management seat allocation and fee structure last year was raging in the state for months, these private institutions outside the state had made millions out of paid seats, and now keralite parents have already started biting their nails thinking of their wards plight after these once-in-a-life-time pass-out exercise. Where are they going accommodate all these future aspirants in?
The poor quality curriculum, insufficient academic infrastructure, dilapidated examination exercise and the ridiculous valuation instructions together take the Kerala higher education to dogs for sure. The coming generation is destined to be good for nothing, and the preset Kerala government will be carving a niche for itself for churning out the maximum number of good-for-nothings in a single go. Let them go out passed and the Party is there to get them employment by way of pasting posters, writing graffiti, staging dharnas, shouting slogans and getting beaten by the police of the coming ministries.
Tailpiece: In Kerala education system, things have come to such a pass that it is humanly impossible not to get through an examination. If you sit an exam, you will have to shoulder a ‘passed’ certificate. We cannot complain. Some of our institutions have the rarest reputation for issuing ‘passed’ certificates to those who haven’t written the exam at all. Sitting the exam itself is enough to make one pass out.
Exam fears and the resultant fevers are passé and it is going to be pass, pass, pass all the way from the first standard to 12th standard. After that it is all about engineers and MBAs and doctors and, at times, door-to-door and street-to-street salesmen trying to sell themselves for some pittance.
Higher Secondary Examination paper valuations camps are working in full key all over Kerala, and the results are expected to be out in record time. This year, the Higher Secondary result is bound to find a permanent place in the Guinness book of world records for its historic pass out percentage. This result is going to be manipulated in such a way as to make all other education ministries that have gone past the present one not only incompetent but most student-unfriendly also.
Prior to the valuation camps, the teachers have been given strict instructions not to fail any student who has the least chance to get through the exam. The instructions are funny as well as “Babyish”. The teaching community is all frustrated with these instructions, and they complain that the very system of examination is a mere mockery and there is no use working hard or making a mark in the result table.
All those hard working students are going to be deeply frustrated for their futile efforts to have an edge over others. All are going to have their own edges and not many can claim any meritorious position when it comes to marks and their positioning in a higher education entry-platform where unfortunately it is not going to be the merit or marks that make the real difference but the bales of money the parents vie hard to pay out for a seat.
The government is doing everything possible to help out the management education system to have their field days once the results get out. The most student friendly education environment offered by the education Minister Mr. M. A. Baby gives the following instructions to the teachers who camp in all major cities to value papers.
Let us see a few instructions given to teachers:
· There should not be any attempt to fail a student if he/she has the least quality to win. Examination is to make students win.
· When it comes to English questions, forget about spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Teachers have no idea what English is without these three.
· Even if the student writes the key word or one of the words that constitute the answer to a question, he/she should be respected with some marks.
· Complete or incomplete are the sentences, if there is an effort to write some nonsense, the teacher should need to be considerate. The aim is to make the candidate pass out.
· Instructions given to Physics teachers are really funny. If there were out-of-the syllabus questions, the candidate should get full marks.
· If the candidate has just written the question number, that is enough to get him or her full marks for that question.
· And for extreme cases, even if the teacher finds the candidate not writing the question number, the teacher should write the number to the out-of-syllabus question and give him/her full marks.
· And finally when the pass and fail proposition is like a cup and lip affair, the candidate should be given enough marks to get him through the exam.
· If the cut off mark (minimum marks to pass-out) is 20 and the candidate gets only 15, the teacher can make it 20 and declare the candidate ‘passed’. So go the instructions.
Where are these children going to end up in? Is this present ministry prepared to give seats for all these students for higher education? Is it wrong to suspect that there is a nexus between higher education institutions and the government?
We all know that the most literate state in the nation is a huge market for higher education institutions in the neighbouring states and this new ‘marking spree’ is offering greater market potentials for these institutions. When the controversy over management seat allocation and fee structure last year was raging in the state for months, these private institutions outside the state had made millions out of paid seats, and now keralite parents have already started biting their nails thinking of their wards plight after these once-in-a-life-time pass-out exercise. Where are they going accommodate all these future aspirants in?
The poor quality curriculum, insufficient academic infrastructure, dilapidated examination exercise and the ridiculous valuation instructions together take the Kerala higher education to dogs for sure. The coming generation is destined to be good for nothing, and the preset Kerala government will be carving a niche for itself for churning out the maximum number of good-for-nothings in a single go. Let them go out passed and the Party is there to get them employment by way of pasting posters, writing graffiti, staging dharnas, shouting slogans and getting beaten by the police of the coming ministries.
Tailpiece: In Kerala education system, things have come to such a pass that it is humanly impossible not to get through an examination. If you sit an exam, you will have to shoulder a ‘passed’ certificate. We cannot complain. Some of our institutions have the rarest reputation for issuing ‘passed’ certificates to those who haven’t written the exam at all. Sitting the exam itself is enough to make one pass out.
Exam fears and the resultant fevers are passé and it is going to be pass, pass, pass all the way from the first standard to 12th standard. After that it is all about engineers and MBAs and doctors and, at times, door-to-door and street-to-street salesmen trying to sell themselves for some pittance.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
way back i am my friends
I was travelling pals. it has been a week since i had a post for you. i was in trivandrum and busy with some personal schores and i will be going away for while a couple of weeks too.
it has been raining over there and the life was pritty defficult. wishing you all a great week ahead, i bid you bye for a while. take care and live life to the full. yours jaypee
it has been raining over there and the life was pritty defficult. wishing you all a great week ahead, i bid you bye for a while. take care and live life to the full. yours jaypee
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