How I wish i had those extra hours

So, time as we all feel is something God didn’t grace us with. Ask a student like me, he will tell you the importance of time. Although we will while away the whole semester doing nothing, time will never seem to be in profusion. Spending that extra hour at your friends place and your family almost gets fidgety. That 5 extra minutes we wish we had to play the last few pool strokes. Or even that one minute that we begged out strange impious teacher to give to finish the last answer.

Time has its importance for every one of us. Marcus Aurelias had well said:

Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity.

And so it is. If we look back and speculate, we would probably get millions of those instances where that extra minute could have turned the results of battles(exams of course being one :p), converted the triumphs into losses, made a debacle into a stroke of excellence. Well, we really never had that extra minute…did we?

Life has moved fast and with growing developments technology has given man a zillion slaves who try and save our time. But we still never had plenty to fulfil our dreams, cherish our love, fathom our greatness. Life they say is a strange little obscurity where those who talk most about love- have it, those who talk most about wealth- have it, those who talk most about prosperity- have it. So yes, people also who talk most about not having time also have it. Time is an important entity in life and the more you respect it, the more it respects you back.

Lord chesterfield has very wit fully written to his drifting son: “I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for hours will take care of themselves.”

So obviously, time we feel flies away of us because we don’t seem to care. We feel we have forever. And howmuchever we try to get better, we feel helpless, at loss of motivation. But we love the way we live and like everyone, we also need more time.

So I too need those two extra hours in my life.

Everyone will have their own opinions about spending those extra hours where they want to spend it with their families, do some extra work-earn money, get onto that much awaited sleep, or probably stretch a little more at the over expensive gym. I too have a few things I would like to do:

1. I would want to join an NGO which promotes education for the destitute kids like MAD(Make a difference). I had been working at this organization for 6 months but I had to leave for time complexities. I would wish to rejoin it. Although I keep teaching needy students in Manavya an AIDS rehabilitation facility at Bhugaon, but that’s very occasional. I would wish I could do it more frequently, rather daily. While teaching these kids I always felt that  all they ever needed is a little inspiration, love and an open heart to talk to. 6 months in Salvation Army orphanage with these 50 odd destitute kids was the best time I ever had in my life. Often one would question that what do you get in return. I would answer that all that I get in return is to bring some smiles in the faces of my fellow brothers whose lives were darkened and made pale before they even understood what it is like to sleep on a mother’s lap. What it is like to open that wretched bag to see what dad got from office. To feel the love of rakshbandhan. To wear new clothes in diwali and to climb on a fathers back and see the world from the highest place in the world. Life at times is cruel. I feel I am a very privileged son of India and I feel its my responsibility to also bring a little happiness in those lives who were also born like me-free men of our country.

2. The other thing which I would wish to do is learn a little music. Time and again my music teacher in school told me that I have a wonderful voice. But never really had I had a chance to ever train myself. So yes, if I ever get those two extra hours, once or twice a week like a very good Bengali boy, I would like to go to the Babumoshai Music teacher and learn to be a good singer. It would be an added incentive as it would augment my odds of getting married which at this time seems pretty frail. :p

3. I would also like to help my mother with her chores and take her out at times. After being in college we hardly go out together. Its been months now we went together for some shopping and high tea. So yes, once I get those extra hours, I will make it a point to take her out. I would also wish her to come with me while I teach at some under privileged school or orphan facility so that they also get to spent some time with my mother. I am sure my fellow students would enjoy my mom’s company and my mother too will be a little proud of me.

With these dreams in my mind, I wish I get those extra hours in life, so that I can create a difference to the lives of few and fulfil my moral and obligatory duties as a human and a son. And as I write through I rapidly also feel that even in the absence of those extra hours, I will try to do all that I want to, to make a distinction as I truly feel that will make my country a little better place to live in. With the following lines of Sir Yeats I wish to conclude:

The years like great black oxen tread the world,

And God the herdsman goads them on behind,

And I am broken by their passing feet.

Hope you had a nice read. Adios!!

The new face of education in India: Mission Apollo

Robert frost said education is the ability to listen everything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. But education has only stayed in the closed quarters of an uprising India. Where the education system has tried to give India a more literate, more self dependent youth, education has only lurched on. What has although created a bang is the possible subset or outset of education is Learning. Mission Apollo has tried to settle the rift in a very innovative manner. Well lets understand the difference between education and learning. Well education is the something that survives when the what that has been learnt has already been forgotten. Now if we ask our kids about something they learnt last year there hardly would be some 1% bright minds who would remember. But that’s out of personal interest. Then again when we retrospect do we realize that it is us who created the disinterest. The loss of temper and self-confidence.

Mission Apollo is a new era of education in India. It speaks in the form of bright ideas and if filled with interesting activities where there is no learning and only education. We do not advice children to learn a lot. That will sort of make them crazy. We inculcate the spirit of learning from doing. Where children come up with inferences from the activities they perform. Now this sort of creates an interest that never dies. Hence proceeds the idea of innovation. And this happens with education material especially imported to support the kind of teaching. Education paraphernalia includes projectors, slide shows, videos, short movies, and hands on activities. Children here do not learn by reading but educate themselves by doing.

We also promote team work and out speaking which helps the child grow personality wise. Gives him back the much needed self-confidence and interest obviously develops.

As a trainer I feel proud and sad. Proud to have gotten a chance to teach in this innovative direction being the very first of our kinds in India. And sad because I didn’t get a chance to have what I am giving away. 

p.s. What Mission Apollo is? Ummm...find out yaself : www.missionapollo.com

p.p.s Am an instructor at Mission :)

The Key To My Happiness Is Me!!

Amitabh bacchan quotes in his speech about two India’s in this country. One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that the world has been showering recently upon us. The other India is the leash. One India says, give me a chance and I’ll prove myself. The other India says prove yourself first and maybe then you’ll have a chance.  One India lives in the optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in the skepticism of our minds. One India Wants. The Other India Hopes. One India Leads . The Other India Follows. But conversions are on the rise .With each passing day more and more people from the other India have been coming over to this side. And quietly while the world is not looking, a pulsating, dynamic new India is emerging.

Today I met a part of this dynamic new emerging India. People often say that life is all about living cheerful, living fulfilled and living an easy life. But how many of us would actually take the thorny path to pleasure. How many of us have learnt to get right things done the hard way. And how many of us have actually taken that sweet pain to be a leader how difficult it might seem for us to lead. My grandfather used to say that those who don’t stand for anything fall for nothing. Then again, have we really stood up?

Mansi Arun Panjawani, Fellow, Teach For India 2009 batch.

A month and a half back I received a mail from a friend of mine which talked about a TFI fellow who wanted to conduct a musical for her school children who happened to be from a deprived school. Yea so we met Mansi at Barista, FC Road and there is where it all started. Mansi had a vision to conduct a musical which was to be an all English show by her school kids, who happened to be from a society so unfortunate that few parents didn’t want their kids to go to school just because they thought they could stay back home and help their folks. A civilization where people don’t believe in the goods of education. And Mansi had dreamt about this musical way back in 2009 when she had joined this movement. The first time when she spoke to us about this, it all seemed a little complicated but yes, Mansi had dreamt it and from there it was no looking back.

Today I witnessed the same musical called The Magic Box and The Hidden Key performed by 31 odd kids from Pujya Kasturba Gandhi School and time seemed to end in those very moments. I would not be exaggerating if I say that these kids whom she trained for the past two years put up the best play ever on this earth in absolute English and not a lone moment in the entire show did we ever feel that this was being performed by kids who did not know how to speak English two years back. Not only had they put up a play at par with the global standards but they had also proved to us once and for all that the power within us is greater than the world. I have seen a lot of shows with a lot of claps, whistles, hootings but never in life could I have seen a hall full of people standing up to these kids who wouldn’t in the wildest of their dreams would have ever imagined to do what they did tonite. Mansi has rightly proved to us that leaders care and they lead like it. And which only means they do what is right, and not what is easy.

What makes me thank TFI is making me realize the fact that children in India and across have an unbounded potential. But like proper teachers and leaders it is the youth of the country which has to lead them. Teach For India has taken this noble task of knocking off illiteracy, one volunteer at a time. And Mansi has given to us a live example of the change that can be created in the lives of people otherwise upset by fate. I don’t know how many of these us would be a leader and take the hard way to get things right but I am sure Mansi has paved a way for all those kids, their parents and most of us watching the show in Symbiosis Vimanangar Auditorium that nothing is impossible and that dreaming is more important. And once you have dreamt it walking towards it with belief is all that you need to do and everything...will just follow.

My many thanks to Mansi Panjawani for having given me this opportunity to witness this show, for also showing me that the key to my happiness is ME!! And also for taking that leading step towards building a new India like many other Teach For India fellows. I feel overwhelmed, overjoyed, motivated and exhilarated.

MITIAN’s OPINION ON THE DAY OF LOVE!!

Love they say is strange and stranger even the way of lovers. In my college love is perhaps an alien, let loose upon a set of highly intellectual and diligent boys who struggled for MHCET and put a tough tussle only to land themselves in this place full of attractiveness, charisma and wonder. The first experience of leaving back folks and the pressures to be in an IIT appears alleviating. :p.  And hence starts the magic of first love in an ignorance that never ends.  But pity the fate of love here in MIT; it always seems too little or too much. And while on valentines some are spending a mushy, cheesy good day with their girlfriends, others are just pondering upon how the hell can you handle love without turning your life upside down?? But definitely the CCD, down college road is brimming with all the laughter and love and that faint air mixed in the aroma of brewing coffee and the milieu is still more romantic than any other engineering college around. Yeah, we still believe that there’s nothing half as sweet in life as love is.

The Annas

The Anna...wait...does the name take you back to some petite south Indian dosa parlour or Sunil shetty’s signature crème de la crème eatery. No. Anna is neither. A small 4 by 4 tapri with a bonus 4 by 4 sprawl (thanks to the broad footpath) doesn’t have  an well-bred fountain or limestone studded terrazzo floor to offer you the feel of the ceremonious conventional  hangout, but yes this is that one cosy little place where you can actually meet your adda. How though? Depends entirely upon you.

Hungry, greedy, delayed, miserable, glad, dejected, worn out, broke or lamenting...wotever your mood be. Anna has something to offer to everyone.

Feel free to walk inside the 20 capacity wala anna with 25 friends and Anna will still has room to offer. How though still remains a mystery. Located on MIT road, Kothrud Anna is a product of personal pride for its consumers. And when we talk about customers here we are talking about the entire set. From sunrise to dark anna is huddled with the wealthy, deprived, student, instructor workers, boss, babus, sadhus, mantris, santris and every possible commodity on earth.

Strangest thing, you can’t expect a pleasant couple banquet here at peace. The seat in front of you might just be a welcoming the greatest threat in your life...your girlfriend’s ex crush. On the other hand in if you come alone at Anna, you never sense being left. There is always someone who comes and parks himself by as instructed by the personnel here (saving place for the next group to come :p). And if no one is there, who really cares, the staffs are always there to entertain. Oh by the way, every staff at the Anna is also an Anna (so if you call the bhaiya for placing the order be prepared to be ignored). Even the firangi guy who has spent 8 years now in the college frequently eating at anna doesn’t know what their real names are.

This omitarian food joint offers you nimbu paani as beer and veg biryani as chilly chicken lamb biryani. No crime to the vegetarians in the restaurant. We love serving that way. Sounds foolish. Isint it?? We really do not care.

Apart from everything that pulls you this place is the light hearted environment, the ambience of the katta, the cutting chai with medu wada sambhar and of course the love that is mixed in every anna dish.

And prices...they are negotiable to the invaluable moments spent their. Otherwise who in todays world gives you a fully fledged feast for 40 rupiye complete with the desi beer (the lime juice). Have 100 rupees and you can treat your friend to a sumptuous banquet. So whether or not you are broke, you always have the buoyancy to walk in.

And if you are at anna please do not miss the idli wada sambhar, the egg fried rice, the hakka , the nimbu sharbat (our regular beer served with ice), the hot senior MBA chick sitting next table wearing the chic skirt, a small little conversation with anna, sometimes getting served even while you haven’t discovered a place to sit and of course...the love, animated talks and the hilarity of the place. Can’t have it all at once. Please keep visiting!!

Racing in the Minds

Dad asks a question to his young son, “Beta, when I was of your age, I was the top athlete in my town. I got the best sportsman of the year award from my college and I also captained my college team in cricket. But you barely know anything about games. I don’t know where the future of our country is going too.” And almost immediately pops the answer: “Dad, I have finished almost all the NFS series, I have represented my college in all India FIFA challenge, have almost played and finished tens of EA games, one of the largest game developers in the world, have also been nominated to be paid for game reviewing during development stages by a gaming industry in India. Now dad, isn’t that hep??” Yes when we talk about conformist games and sports generation X would only consider about cricket, football, badminton and swimming as the things to do. Like many others dads, if someone asks my dad if your child is good at playing something he would minimally shove off by saying,” no, he is always on his laptop, slaughtering time.” But with the changing times gaming has almost taken a new facet in west as has it stretched its wings in the east. Thanks to EA, ubisoft, Nintendo, Sega, Konami any many more world has almost found a new definition to games and sports.

Available in its variations of racing, shooting, simulation, strategy, puzzle and RPG; gaming has taken the central arena amongst us. Hot favourites though have always remained an individual pick and have also culminated as per mindsets, shifting age and changing comrades. Among the ones which of course me and my folks like to play is the series of racing video games NFS. Although I have tried my hands in fifa, halo, crysis, cs, and few strategy games nothing seems to muse me more than N F S.

Need for speed is the world leader among car racing games available on PC.  Developed by EA Black Box, Criterion games and Slightly Mad Studios NFS in its NEED FOR SPEED form hit the world gaming market under Electronics Arts as their publisher on Aug 1994 and since then it was no looking back for them.  The games consist mainly of racing with various cars on various tracks, and to some extent, include police pursuits in races. In Japan, the series was released as Over Drivin. After the release of Need for Speed: High Stakes, it adopted the western name. After the launch of Need for Speed: Underground, the series had an integrated car body customization into game play.

Now the tussle with the cars is not just a game any more to the mobs that go almost gaga behind this game. NFS has developed into for its fans a way of living. Have thirty minutes to kill, muse, enjoy or beat the heat need for speed gives you a chance to race in its in numerous career events to become the ultimate road racer. Full with HD display, car customization, world renowned racing sites, cars as sleek as Vauxhall, Lamborghini and mc laren, road maps, rear view mirror, car mechanics similar to racing cars and filled with complementary music by Bush, buzz horn etc. NFS provides you the real time driving experience. And the icing on the cake, it gives you the option to drift and drag (optimized from fast and the furious). And with all these features filled with a headphone and high def graphics, fingers on the keypad the experience is no less than driving on the true roads. Almost the same hormones, same muscles fire as if you are racing the car on the track.

Originally the series took place in international settings, such as race tracks in Australia, Europe, and Africa among other settings. Beginning with Underground, the series has taken place in fictional metropolitan cities. The first game featured traffic on "head to head" game mode and on later games traffic can be toggled on and off at the options screen. Starting with Underground, traffic is a fixed obstacle added during a race.

Owing to the popularity which it achieved right from the first release of need for speed, it went on to launch almost 17 series of races in the past 17 years, nfs 2, nfs underground, nfs carbon, nfs pro street, nfs nitro among the famous and widely accepted ones.

In the past one and a half decades of its existence (released much before computer could even become a household commodity in India) nfs has sprung, spun, flown, laughed, and cried with its fans. Today people love getting hooked to it. And for people like us who have nfs in their daily timetable it’s almost as important as food. And for those who have not tried their hands on it, you have only deprived yourself from real time racing...

Rise up Mumbai, Rise up India

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

— W. B. Yeats

Years back we had fought a battle, a battle for freedom and rights against the British Empire. Our ancestors laid their lives to show us the glorious sunrise of independence. But today, our country is battling again… battling for existence. And this time our enemies are not foreigners, our enemies are we.

India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% hovers below the age of 35, the so called Youngistan. But this most valuable portion of the population has no interests in fighting the battle whatsoever. Today’s youth have no interest in governance; a fact clearly exhibited in the small percentage of the GenNext who care enough to vote in elections.

To paraphrase many a politician as well as leaders of our country, “India needs young leaders”. But where are these leaders? The youth of today is absent from the political landscape. How often do we hear of a friend, relative or cousin choosing a political career? At the time of independence, Gandhi called upon the youth to participate actively in the freedom movement, and young leaders likes Nehru led the movement. On the other hand, the young leaders nowadays are by and large, the successors of the leaders of yesteryears. The handful of young leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Varun Gandhi etc, are in the political scenario because they belong to influential political families. Others are too hesitant to step into the murky, shady world of politics.

There is a will among the youth to employ their fundamental rights but none to fulfill their duties. Swami Vivekananda, the youth icon of India once said, “Your success is not measured in terms of what all you obtained but in term of what you become, how you live and what actions you do. Youth life is the most precious life. The way in which you utilize this period will decide the nature of coming years that lie ahead of you. ”But we somehow place a disproportionate emphasis on our rights against duties as citizens. We fail to see that as rights are inalienable, so are duties. Rampant corruption, scams, scandals and deprivation aside, we rarely try to do our part for the democracy; we bribe, we break rules, we flout laws, and then, of course, we crib for our duties. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good” has become the war cry of the Indian populace!

This needs to be changed. The youth need to roll up their sleeves and urgently get to work on ensuring that our nation’s administration system begins to work again and the root of the problem itself is eliminated. The youth of modern India are aware of the problems facing our country and the world at large. Given a chance they would be ready to change the political condition of the country for better. As any V for Vendetta fan would know, "People should not be afraid of their government; governments should be afraid of their people".

For this to happen, two things need to be done. One, to redress immediate problems on hand; which involves a campaign to educate and feed millions of hundreds of disadvantages. And two, to create a political will, a nationwide campaign to create a new breed of politicians who are progressive, educated, enlightened and patriotic. Fortunately, there are many Indians who fit the bill.

Meet Kaizad Bhamgara, 19, who, before the November terrorist attacks on this city left three of his friends dead, spent his evenings jamming with his hipster goth-rock band or chilling on the wave-sprayed boulders along the high-rise-ringed shoreline. But the pain of his loss and his frustration over the ineptitude of the government's response to the attacks moved Bhamgara to put down his drumsticks and pick up his laptop.

He set up a Facebook page called "Rise Up Mumbai! Rise Up India!" It soon expanded into a Web site, a YouTube channel and a blog, all devoted to encouraging his peers to vote in India's national elections, which will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13. "For young India, there was an explosion of anger after the Mumbai attacks. We didn't want that energy to be wasted," said Bhamgara, at the popular Leopold Cafe, one of the 10 sites attacked. "Young India is restless and desperate for honest political leaders, for better security, for a voice. Earlier, we just weren't sure how to go about it."

India’s resurgent potential as an economic and socially responsible power rests on the Indian Youth. It is this population which constitutes for India, a potential demographic dividend. It is time to realize, “If not me then who? If not Now then when?” Remember, we will be the ones to bear the consequences of every decision that we make today.

Amitabh bacchan has correctly quoted in his speech:

There are two Indians in this country.

One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that the world has been showering recently upon us.

The other India is the leash.

One India says, give me a chance and I’ll prove myself .The other India says prove yourself first and maybe then you’ll have a chance.

One India lives in the optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in the skepticism of our minds.

One India Wants. The Other India Hopes.

One India Leads .The Other India Follows.

But conversions are on the rise .With each passing day more and more people from the other India have been coming over to this side.

And quietly while the world is not looking, a pulsating, dynamic new India is emerging.

An India whose faith in success is far greater than its fear of failure.

An India that no longer boycotts foreign-made goods but buys out the companies that makes them instead.

History, they say, is a bad motorist .it rarely ever signals its intentions when it is taking a turn.

This is that rarely ever moment. History is turning a page.

For more than half a century ,our nation has sprung, stumbled ,run , fallen ,rolled over ,got up ,dusted herself and cantered ,sometimes lurched on .

But today as we begin our 60th year as a free nation, the ride has brought us to the edge of times great precipice.

And one India – a tiny little voice at the back of the head – is looking down at the bottom of the ravine and hesitating.

The other India is looking up at the sky and saying, its time to fly…