It is the summer time that every movie buff anticipates eagerly as it is the time when most of the "supposed-to-be-blockbusters" movies and the "actual" blockbusters release. It is that part of the year where everyone is pissed off with the climate and of course with the boring time spent at home(With exception of certain guys/gals!!), and movies are expected to be the "boredom-busters".
The Summer of 2009 in Chennai is no different, the climate is at its scorching best. The temperatures are topping the previous day's numbers, the stock market can be a volatile one in this economic crisis but the temperature seems to be exponentially increasing. There were the other events which kept the minds of the people distracted from the woes of the scorching heat, they were the EPL and UCL for the football fans; IPL for the Indian People(Cricket is our Religion Remember!!!) and of course the eventful General Elections which kept us glued to the televisions for the best part of 3 days( Major distraction from the IPL itself!!!).
Now that the EPL's fate having been decided in the penultimate weekend with The Red Devils retaining the trophy and leaving the Scousers with nothing to chew on, the final weekend has its share of climax attached to it as the relegation battle is fought on May 24. After that it’s the UCL finals on the 27th May. And that is the end of interesting football quota for the summer and I have to wait till mid-august for the next season to kick off, till such time it’s a big bore.
The IPL gets over by May 24th, this season's cricket show was spiced up with the posts from FIP, now that he is RIP there will be no more spicy touch to the IPL. The World T20 kicks off in the first week of June, for me it would be a heavy dosage of back-to-back 20-20 cricket tournaments and it sucks big time. There is no fun till July when the Ashes kicks off.
So there is a consistent boredom injected to my life at regular intervals, for busting out that boredom I need to watch movies. But WHERE ARE THE MOVIES??????
It is one of those most forgetful summers I have ever had in Chennai(For Sure I will forget this Summer). There has been no quota of new movies being released in Chennai, I think the film distributors have forgotten that there is a metropolitan city in the South of India called as Chennai. Where the hell are the newly released English movies.
The English movies were having a simultaneous worldwide release for quite sometime in the recent past. But when there are major blockbusters lined up for the summer, why the hell can't they have a simultaneous release. We movie buffs from Chennai eagerly await for movies such as Angels & Demons, Watchmen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation and we have to wait for another month or two before the actual "censored" one comes out.
The political honchos are to be blamed to some extent, they are like hungry hyenas, waiting for some English movie to be released and in the name of "Defaming God" try to ban the movie from being released . Instead of concentrating on banning movies please stop the "in-party-crap" of propagating ill across the nation. Do your duty first and later concentrate on these petty matters. Everything in this country is ruled by the concept of bureaucracy even for movies it is the case. It is not that the people of India eagerly wait for Disney to release a newly animated movie, we even love the other movies being filmed in Hollywood, so for God's sake please release the movies in time and unshackle us from our boredom. I cannot figure out the problem with simultaneous releases. Now that its in our fate to wait till the movies release, nothing can be done.
Coming to regional movies, whoa!!!! What a summer, filth-filled movies aka hyped movies being released every now and then. These movies are no different from B-Grade movies, the difference is that these hyped movies have highly-paid actors and actresses but the only commonality is the budget on costumes, it is very minimal citing the recession. Common we are not that illiterate to get fooled with such movies, but still we watch it for escaping boredom .We cannot survive for any longer with this filth!!!
I do not know how far I can go watching these ill scripted movies, I have resorted to watching movies on my DVDs till the next good movie(s) release. Hope you guys find other ways to kill your boredom!!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
FIfa FAnatic!!!
The rich and the power are obsessed with priceless artifacts, vintage cars, vineyards and various others. Everyone are obsessed about something or the other in their whole life; girls obsessed about jewels, guys obsessed about computers, bikes, video games. Likewise I was smitten by the video game bug and am crazy about one game which is FIFA.
It was during the summer of 1998 I was bitten by the football bug. In the following summer arrived a new computer of the best configuration then (Pentium I Processor), having the craze on video games I asked my father to get me a game, he duly obliged to the request and got me the first edition of cricket by EA Sports: Cricket 97. Having mastered the game in few months time, the boredom returned , therefore bought FIFA 98. From then onwards there has been no turning back, I have 90% of all the FIFA editions so far.
FIFA 98 is a game which is closer to my heart, anytime even today I would not mind playing that beautiful game. When compared to today's games, FIFA 98 is no where near the graphics and game play, but for the games of that time it was one hell of a game. Since I had less knowledge about the clubs playing those days I stuck to playing with the Brazil team and it was fun playing with them. I hardly managed to finish one level and proceed to another level. Game play was tougher for me then. :-(
FIFA 99 made its entry, the following year and I duly bought it without any second thoughts. There were no differences from its earlier version except for the team rosters. Every player had the same face, same physique. Game play was almost similar to that of the 98 edition. By 1999, having got some knowledge about the clubs and having seen Manchester United play, I started playing with that team and till date I have continued to play with Manchester United in every edition of FIFA.
The 2000 version of FIFA according to me is the worst one, as the players' physique resembled that of the scarecrows. It was looking like sticks tapping the ball around and the game play improved a bit from its earlier versions. Though EA sports were having football personalities to endorse the game, the faces hardly resembled them.
The later versions that came out after 2000 had the same problem with the resemblance of the players' faces. The 2003 edition was a superb one with the wishes of a soccer fan coming true, it had an ultimate game play and features of the players were almost similar to those of the real ones. The turning point for FIFA came with the release of this edition, the teams were up-to-date which was advantageous when coming to the sales aspect. It was from this edition I managed to finish every level with ease and moved on to the next level in every edition.
The best part of the newer versions of FIFA is that of the Manager Mode, where in the gamer has a managerial role to play with the team he has chosen. The interesting part of the Manager Mode itself is the transfer season where we can buy any player from any club with the funds we have. Me and my friends boast about our transfer records and about the world class players we buy during the Transfer Season. I envy two of my pals who are damn good at it and they have some of the best players in their roster. It is so addictive that we keep on playing the game just for the sake of entering the transfer period.
Currently I am playing FIFA 09, I have spent and spending most of the time playing it. It has indeed become an hobby to play FIFA nowadays for me and my friends. We even thought of adding it as a detail to be specified in our resumes. During my post graduation, my pals and I have spent enough time playing FIFA on LAN and it is one of those things we cherish the most.
Many people tell that Pro Evolution Soccer is anytime better than FIFA, I fail to agree with them. Call me a stereotype or whatever, I am a FIFA Fanatic forever and would continue to play that beautiful game. It has become a part of my life.
It was during the summer of 1998 I was bitten by the football bug. In the following summer arrived a new computer of the best configuration then (Pentium I Processor), having the craze on video games I asked my father to get me a game, he duly obliged to the request and got me the first edition of cricket by EA Sports: Cricket 97. Having mastered the game in few months time, the boredom returned , therefore bought FIFA 98. From then onwards there has been no turning back, I have 90% of all the FIFA editions so far.
FIFA 98 is a game which is closer to my heart, anytime even today I would not mind playing that beautiful game. When compared to today's games, FIFA 98 is no where near the graphics and game play, but for the games of that time it was one hell of a game. Since I had less knowledge about the clubs playing those days I stuck to playing with the Brazil team and it was fun playing with them. I hardly managed to finish one level and proceed to another level. Game play was tougher for me then. :-(
FIFA 99 made its entry, the following year and I duly bought it without any second thoughts. There were no differences from its earlier version except for the team rosters. Every player had the same face, same physique. Game play was almost similar to that of the 98 edition. By 1999, having got some knowledge about the clubs and having seen Manchester United play, I started playing with that team and till date I have continued to play with Manchester United in every edition of FIFA.
The 2000 version of FIFA according to me is the worst one, as the players' physique resembled that of the scarecrows. It was looking like sticks tapping the ball around and the game play improved a bit from its earlier versions. Though EA sports were having football personalities to endorse the game, the faces hardly resembled them.
The later versions that came out after 2000 had the same problem with the resemblance of the players' faces. The 2003 edition was a superb one with the wishes of a soccer fan coming true, it had an ultimate game play and features of the players were almost similar to those of the real ones. The turning point for FIFA came with the release of this edition, the teams were up-to-date which was advantageous when coming to the sales aspect. It was from this edition I managed to finish every level with ease and moved on to the next level in every edition.
The best part of the newer versions of FIFA is that of the Manager Mode, where in the gamer has a managerial role to play with the team he has chosen. The interesting part of the Manager Mode itself is the transfer season where we can buy any player from any club with the funds we have. Me and my friends boast about our transfer records and about the world class players we buy during the Transfer Season. I envy two of my pals who are damn good at it and they have some of the best players in their roster. It is so addictive that we keep on playing the game just for the sake of entering the transfer period.
Currently I am playing FIFA 09, I have spent and spending most of the time playing it. It has indeed become an hobby to play FIFA nowadays for me and my friends. We even thought of adding it as a detail to be specified in our resumes. During my post graduation, my pals and I have spent enough time playing FIFA on LAN and it is one of those things we cherish the most.
Many people tell that Pro Evolution Soccer is anytime better than FIFA, I fail to agree with them. Call me a stereotype or whatever, I am a FIFA Fanatic forever and would continue to play that beautiful game. It has become a part of my life.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Childhood Pranks ;-)
Everyone in their childhood would have caused some kind of trouble to their parents. As a child I also had a share of trouble caused to my parents . Though two of these events were near-to-death experience, these are some events which will be cherished throughout my life and will be closer to my heart.
Starting off, I feel construction of any kind is taboo for me. I was a 4 year old causing enough trouble for my parents during the construction of the current house where I live in. Me and my brother used to visit the construction site everyday either by cycle or walk. One such day, after reaching the construction site my parents then were supervising the finish of the water sump.
As an inquisitive child, I tried too much to gain a sneak peek into the water sump. Finally I did get a look into the empty sump and as a result, I fell into the sump with no construction guy in it to catch me. My parents and my brother were worried as to where I went missing. After some introspection they did find out that I fell into the sump and was hailed out of the same with help from the construction people. I escaped without any injuries that would hamper a 4 yr old. ;-)
Second instance, during the construction of the first floor me and my mother were checking out the flooring, it was ready for the next day's work with the cement made to dry . The window design of the living room in the first floor was of the French type with no work done on except for a big gaping space. The cement was wet and slippery, Mom cautioned me to be careful and as usual did not listen to her.
I thought I heard something from the ground floor, instead of checking out by walking down the stairs, I tried to do something extraordinary by looking out the of the supposed-to-be window. I slipped and fell down to the ground floor. Luckily I was saved by a creeper which we were growing and fell onto the bricks. I was unconscious for sometime till I reached the hospital. If there was no plant there, I would have been heading towards either hell or heaven. After that fall, the creeper died and had to remove it. It had served it purpose on this world!!
Coming to a funnier instance that has happened, before the construction of the house we were living in a colony. The house where we lived was a small one and a cramped one also. As a small child and even now I have a craving for cough syrup, I was mad about it. One day I decided to reach for the ultimate goal. Having learnt of my craving for the cough syrup, my mother kept the bottle somewhere where I cannot reach. But I still persisted to pursue towards the syrup bottle. The bottle was kept on the top of a bureau.
I climbed onto the bed, then jumped onto the table which was nearby and then reached out for the bottle on the bureau. Like a person having found water in a scorching desert, I was elated to the same effect. I started drinking it as F1 drivers drink their champagne after winning the race and I was happy having reached my ultimate goal. My mom found me finishing the bottle and was rushed to the hospital to remove the tonic I had drunk. I found out later that I had not been drinking the cough syrup I had aimed for, rather was drinking a tonic which is used for treating skin allergies. Ultimately I failed in my quest to drink the elixir. :-(
I Think I have caused enough troubles as a child to my parents. Even now I am no short of creating any trouble, I still have the potential to do the same. ;-)
Starting off, I feel construction of any kind is taboo for me. I was a 4 year old causing enough trouble for my parents during the construction of the current house where I live in. Me and my brother used to visit the construction site everyday either by cycle or walk. One such day, after reaching the construction site my parents then were supervising the finish of the water sump.
As an inquisitive child, I tried too much to gain a sneak peek into the water sump. Finally I did get a look into the empty sump and as a result, I fell into the sump with no construction guy in it to catch me. My parents and my brother were worried as to where I went missing. After some introspection they did find out that I fell into the sump and was hailed out of the same with help from the construction people. I escaped without any injuries that would hamper a 4 yr old. ;-)
Second instance, during the construction of the first floor me and my mother were checking out the flooring, it was ready for the next day's work with the cement made to dry . The window design of the living room in the first floor was of the French type with no work done on except for a big gaping space. The cement was wet and slippery, Mom cautioned me to be careful and as usual did not listen to her.
I thought I heard something from the ground floor, instead of checking out by walking down the stairs, I tried to do something extraordinary by looking out the of the supposed-to-be window. I slipped and fell down to the ground floor. Luckily I was saved by a creeper which we were growing and fell onto the bricks. I was unconscious for sometime till I reached the hospital. If there was no plant there, I would have been heading towards either hell or heaven. After that fall, the creeper died and had to remove it. It had served it purpose on this world!!
Coming to a funnier instance that has happened, before the construction of the house we were living in a colony. The house where we lived was a small one and a cramped one also. As a small child and even now I have a craving for cough syrup, I was mad about it. One day I decided to reach for the ultimate goal. Having learnt of my craving for the cough syrup, my mother kept the bottle somewhere where I cannot reach. But I still persisted to pursue towards the syrup bottle. The bottle was kept on the top of a bureau.
I climbed onto the bed, then jumped onto the table which was nearby and then reached out for the bottle on the bureau. Like a person having found water in a scorching desert, I was elated to the same effect. I started drinking it as F1 drivers drink their champagne after winning the race and I was happy having reached my ultimate goal. My mom found me finishing the bottle and was rushed to the hospital to remove the tonic I had drunk. I found out later that I had not been drinking the cough syrup I had aimed for, rather was drinking a tonic which is used for treating skin allergies. Ultimately I failed in my quest to drink the elixir. :-(
I Think I have caused enough troubles as a child to my parents. Even now I am no short of creating any trouble, I still have the potential to do the same. ;-)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Innocence In Despair!!
In the Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy, I remember reading a part wherein the rabbit Oleg Ivanovich looking at his daughter thinks," Why, then, do children try so hard to grow up and leave their innocence behind?". On reading that sentence I started thinking on the same, why is that when we were children, we were overflowing with Innocence and when grown up we try to be more mature with less innocence. Is it wrong to be filled with the same kind of innocence as one had in his/her childhood ??
Once when we were in our childhood days(I am referring to the current generation of 20s and mid-20s), we were protected from all the ill-happenings of the world, we were protected as if we were rare diamonds by our families. The environment we grew up was that of a protected one I would say, because of the constraints that were around us.
It was in those times that most of our mothers were taking up the roles of home-makers and one of the major roles played in it was that to take care of one's children and also to protect the same from all the ills of the world. Our world was that of being around our mothers and fathers, thereby having no clue on the other happenings .We were dropped and picked up from our playschools by our mothers. We were subjected to excessive petting, thereby living a desired life. The same trend continued to our schooling.
When I was in High School, I could see mothers picking up their beloved daughters, in some extreme cases were some guys. The parents even had their say in selecting the friends for their daughters/sons citing various reasons for the same. When scrutinizing further, those girls and guys were the ones who were very innocent even for that age. By doing that, the life of those souls were being limited to the walls of their house and that of the schools. It was these boundaries put forth by the parents that has maintained the same level of innocence in them.
Those people feel that the life they have been living is an instance of an utopian life. But that’s not the fact, such a life in fact makes the person not able to think beyond a world without his/her parents. Such life makes it difficult for any person to survive in this competitive world. I feel pity for those souls. In that matter I thank my parents for loosening the grip on me when I was doing my schooling, thereby allowing me to get an idea as to what the world looked like.
The level of innocence does come down in a person depending on the level of exposure one has got in this world. Higher the exposure, lower is the level of innocence in the person. In this competitive world, I feel that higher the level of innocence in a person can be disadvantageous as people for sure would take them for a ride and leave them behind while those people surge forward without caring. Such is the scenario now in this world, full of schemers and manipulators, there are people waiting to pounce on the innocence of people.
Innocence can be instrumental in shaping up the character of a person along with various other traits which begin to ingrain itself in one's character; but it should not override the other traits that are also vital.
Coming to the question I posed earlier, it is not wrong to be filled with innocence in oneself. Innocence in a person is a trait that most of the people related to that person love the most, it is cruel to take advantage of the same to gain some materialistic petty things in life; such an act is almost equivalent to blasphemy!!
Once when we were in our childhood days(I am referring to the current generation of 20s and mid-20s), we were protected from all the ill-happenings of the world, we were protected as if we were rare diamonds by our families. The environment we grew up was that of a protected one I would say, because of the constraints that were around us.
It was in those times that most of our mothers were taking up the roles of home-makers and one of the major roles played in it was that to take care of one's children and also to protect the same from all the ills of the world. Our world was that of being around our mothers and fathers, thereby having no clue on the other happenings .We were dropped and picked up from our playschools by our mothers. We were subjected to excessive petting, thereby living a desired life. The same trend continued to our schooling.
When I was in High School, I could see mothers picking up their beloved daughters, in some extreme cases were some guys. The parents even had their say in selecting the friends for their daughters/sons citing various reasons for the same. When scrutinizing further, those girls and guys were the ones who were very innocent even for that age. By doing that, the life of those souls were being limited to the walls of their house and that of the schools. It was these boundaries put forth by the parents that has maintained the same level of innocence in them.
Those people feel that the life they have been living is an instance of an utopian life. But that’s not the fact, such a life in fact makes the person not able to think beyond a world without his/her parents. Such life makes it difficult for any person to survive in this competitive world. I feel pity for those souls. In that matter I thank my parents for loosening the grip on me when I was doing my schooling, thereby allowing me to get an idea as to what the world looked like.
The level of innocence does come down in a person depending on the level of exposure one has got in this world. Higher the exposure, lower is the level of innocence in the person. In this competitive world, I feel that higher the level of innocence in a person can be disadvantageous as people for sure would take them for a ride and leave them behind while those people surge forward without caring. Such is the scenario now in this world, full of schemers and manipulators, there are people waiting to pounce on the innocence of people.
Innocence can be instrumental in shaping up the character of a person along with various other traits which begin to ingrain itself in one's character; but it should not override the other traits that are also vital.
Coming to the question I posed earlier, it is not wrong to be filled with innocence in oneself. Innocence in a person is a trait that most of the people related to that person love the most, it is cruel to take advantage of the same to gain some materialistic petty things in life; such an act is almost equivalent to blasphemy!!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Technology Bites!!!
A week back in the residential area where I live had a power cable fault which lasted for almost 2 days. It was at that time I thought of certain things which has led to this post. We live in an era known for its technological advancements in every field any one can even dream of. As they say every aspect has its own pros and cons, in that manner I wanted to explore the pros and cons of the current technologies which we use in our day-to-day activities in the aspects of our values, friendships, relationships, knowledge. Through this post I am not projecting myself as neither a protagonist nor an antagonist of the use of technologies in our lives but rather trying to point out the things which we are missing out/misusing by using such things.
Firstly is that of the Power/Electricity. Electricity is the main ingredient of almost all the technologies we use. Had electricity not been invented on the downside the economies of almost all the countries would suck big time. Yeah its been a boon for the economic purposes of any country, that’s on the macroeconomic perspective. In an individual perspective, it’s a bane for us. When there is power, we do not indulge ourselves in any kind of activities which nurtures relationships, friendships, knowledge. There were times in my childhood where during the regulatory power cuts, myself and my brother used to hear about the religious epics viz. Ramayana and Mahabharata from our grand parents . Those times have indeed helped us to learn more about the same and also inculcated values which has shaped our characters.
Nowadays rarely does a family comes together to get to know every member of the family in a better way and only during power cuts the same family comes together in unison to learn more about each other, nurture each others relationship, understand the other person in a better way . In this sense India is much better than any other country in the First World, at least we have the adapting capacity to power cuts and we try to know more about our family in those tough times, the first world countries which hardly have any kind of power cuts indeed suffer from the inability to adapt for power cuts and also do not have a chance to get to know their family in a deeper sense.
Secondly the Mobile Phone, what an invention it as been for the mankind. The ability to stay in contact with anyone from anywhere in the world has been made possible with this amazing device. I would say it is just another pain in the ass for us, though I am an heavy user of the same. The first negative aspect that comes to my mind regarding this device is that it causes unimaginable levels of tension for anyone through various instances viz. forgot to take the mobile phone, payment of bills, peer pressure to buy new mobile and various others.
And the code of ethics are being broken nowadays with this device with people taking photos/videos without the other person's consent, illicit videos captured through the devices floating in every mobile having a video playback feature; these things also mount up the tension levels in a person. There were no such uncalled for incidents before the device had been invented, we were leading an happy and cheerful life without it, I hope we can still lead a cheerful life without this device.
Thirdly and the most important of all The Internet, whoa!!! Am an ardent admirer of the technology that has changed the face of the lifestyle of an ordinary person. But on the downside it has made us slaves. Nowadays whenever a question is put forth, we say casually that we will look up for the topic in the Internet. Though it is comfortable it has hindered our conventional way of referring books and going to the library. I feel referring books in a library would improve our knowledgebase rather searching for a particular topic on the Net and finishing off the session with us having found out the needed answers, hardly we do some sort of extra referrals in the Internet. There it limits our knowledge base.
There were times where we used to wait for our Dad's call from a foreign country, those things have been eased out in the advent of chatting via the internet; but still the sense of belonging is lost while chatting whereas the same sense is maintained while being on call.
We can be users of the technologies which are instrumental in our growth for monetary reasons, but we should not become slaves of the same. We should use them in such a way that it does not hinder inter-personal traits and we should not be aloof from the society which indeed has a lot of lessons for us to learn from it. On the economic front with the help of such technologies we are going skywards, but on the personal/individual front we are stooping down to levels where would rather not be!!!
Firstly is that of the Power/Electricity. Electricity is the main ingredient of almost all the technologies we use. Had electricity not been invented on the downside the economies of almost all the countries would suck big time. Yeah its been a boon for the economic purposes of any country, that’s on the macroeconomic perspective. In an individual perspective, it’s a bane for us. When there is power, we do not indulge ourselves in any kind of activities which nurtures relationships, friendships, knowledge. There were times in my childhood where during the regulatory power cuts, myself and my brother used to hear about the religious epics viz. Ramayana and Mahabharata from our grand parents . Those times have indeed helped us to learn more about the same and also inculcated values which has shaped our characters.
Nowadays rarely does a family comes together to get to know every member of the family in a better way and only during power cuts the same family comes together in unison to learn more about each other, nurture each others relationship, understand the other person in a better way . In this sense India is much better than any other country in the First World, at least we have the adapting capacity to power cuts and we try to know more about our family in those tough times, the first world countries which hardly have any kind of power cuts indeed suffer from the inability to adapt for power cuts and also do not have a chance to get to know their family in a deeper sense.
Secondly the Mobile Phone, what an invention it as been for the mankind. The ability to stay in contact with anyone from anywhere in the world has been made possible with this amazing device. I would say it is just another pain in the ass for us, though I am an heavy user of the same. The first negative aspect that comes to my mind regarding this device is that it causes unimaginable levels of tension for anyone through various instances viz. forgot to take the mobile phone, payment of bills, peer pressure to buy new mobile and various others.
And the code of ethics are being broken nowadays with this device with people taking photos/videos without the other person's consent, illicit videos captured through the devices floating in every mobile having a video playback feature; these things also mount up the tension levels in a person. There were no such uncalled for incidents before the device had been invented, we were leading an happy and cheerful life without it, I hope we can still lead a cheerful life without this device.
Thirdly and the most important of all The Internet, whoa!!! Am an ardent admirer of the technology that has changed the face of the lifestyle of an ordinary person. But on the downside it has made us slaves. Nowadays whenever a question is put forth, we say casually that we will look up for the topic in the Internet. Though it is comfortable it has hindered our conventional way of referring books and going to the library. I feel referring books in a library would improve our knowledgebase rather searching for a particular topic on the Net and finishing off the session with us having found out the needed answers, hardly we do some sort of extra referrals in the Internet. There it limits our knowledge base.
There were times where we used to wait for our Dad's call from a foreign country, those things have been eased out in the advent of chatting via the internet; but still the sense of belonging is lost while chatting whereas the same sense is maintained while being on call.
We can be users of the technologies which are instrumental in our growth for monetary reasons, but we should not become slaves of the same. We should use them in such a way that it does not hinder inter-personal traits and we should not be aloof from the society which indeed has a lot of lessons for us to learn from it. On the economic front with the help of such technologies we are going skywards, but on the personal/individual front we are stooping down to levels where would rather not be!!!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Vital Lessons!!!
It has been an hell of a ride from 2007 to 2009; referring to my MBA program. Having gone through the journey(Yeah!! Its been a long tiring one) From the time spent I have learnt a lot both academically and also on the non-academic front. The life there at campus was just a snapshot of the actual one which I would face in few months time i.e THE CORPORATE.
Life was a jigsaw puzzle when I set my foot in the campus two years back, missing my kith and kin was the major issue during the initial days. But had to figure someway out, I had to come out of the shell and meet up with the new upcoming challenges. Coming out of the shell itself took a considerable amount of time and to settle with the "Outsiders" took more time than I thought. Academical issues are boring and enraging so I would rather skip them and a universal fact for anyone applying for a PG program : People are ready to stoop down to levels unimaginable to gain unfair advantage, so BEWARE!!!!
The Non-Academic Front, not to worry its not another political front (With the GenElec Results Out!!!). Yeah its the one which has helped a lot in grooming my character, habits etc etc. I would say that, one's character is built through his/her friends, family, environment in which he spends time. And of course my character has been shaped through my friends and family.
With my family out of the equation for the best part of the two years, my friends have been pivotal in the new traits of my personality. With people from different backgrounds/regions around oneself for the best part of a day, one can obtain experiences varying from the best of all to the most bitter of the lot. I have experienced both in various instances which has made me a better person having learnt the lessons from both the good and the bad. For me the good experiences outweigh the bad ones, so I feel lucky in that sense and at the same time feel unlucky that I did not get the opportunity to learn more from more bad experiences.
I feel,the challenges put forth in those two years were nothing as there would be bigger hurdles to cross in the forthcoming years when I set my foot into the world of The Corporate. And I am eagerly waiting for the same, the hunger for facing and solving challenges have risen, and hope the macrocosm satiates me.
Life was a jigsaw puzzle when I set my foot in the campus two years back, missing my kith and kin was the major issue during the initial days. But had to figure someway out, I had to come out of the shell and meet up with the new upcoming challenges. Coming out of the shell itself took a considerable amount of time and to settle with the "Outsiders" took more time than I thought. Academical issues are boring and enraging so I would rather skip them and a universal fact for anyone applying for a PG program : People are ready to stoop down to levels unimaginable to gain unfair advantage, so BEWARE!!!!
The Non-Academic Front, not to worry its not another political front (With the GenElec Results Out!!!). Yeah its the one which has helped a lot in grooming my character, habits etc etc. I would say that, one's character is built through his/her friends, family, environment in which he spends time. And of course my character has been shaped through my friends and family.
With my family out of the equation for the best part of the two years, my friends have been pivotal in the new traits of my personality. With people from different backgrounds/regions around oneself for the best part of a day, one can obtain experiences varying from the best of all to the most bitter of the lot. I have experienced both in various instances which has made me a better person having learnt the lessons from both the good and the bad. For me the good experiences outweigh the bad ones, so I feel lucky in that sense and at the same time feel unlucky that I did not get the opportunity to learn more from more bad experiences.
I feel,the challenges put forth in those two years were nothing as there would be bigger hurdles to cross in the forthcoming years when I set my foot into the world of The Corporate. And I am eagerly waiting for the same, the hunger for facing and solving challenges have risen, and hope the macrocosm satiates me.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Have you been "Obama"ized?
Finally!!!!! , all the hustle and bustle related to the American Presidential elections have been put to rest with the election of Barack Obama. Barack Obama has obtained attention in a manner no person can ever fathom about, be it through newspapers, social networking sites, websites he got all the positive attention he required to win the elections; Unlike his republican counterparts, he has shown a level of dignified behavior on and off the field of politics. The obsession people have on this person and his charisma grabbed my attention so as to blog on this guy, that’s why the topic “Have you been obamaized??” …
After 21 months of rigorous campaigning, Obama won the presidential elections with a huge margin over his rival John McCain. I do not understand why there is a lot of excitement in the Indian Contingent not referring the government but to the citizens of India regarding his election to power. I do not remember any of the fellow citizens celebrate the election of either Bill Clinton or George Bush but why this level of excitement is attributed to Obama?
There are a lot of doubts hanging in the air regarding Obama’s ease of handling the pressures attached to leading one of the top geo-political powers of the world. The policies he will be adopting in power are not fool-proof as being relatively an amateur in the field of US politics when compared to McCain. The policies he would have to frame have to be so effective that they have to do the following:
· Restore the lost confidence in the minds of the people about their country emerging economic crisis.
· Reduce the level of unemployment in the nation which is currently very high compared to the 1990s.
· Restructuring the tax rates so as to help the US economy stand back on its own feet an etc…
Obama can devise effective policies only by having the advice of experts like Warren Buffett, former President Bill Clinton and better not repeat a Greenspan blunder.
Unlike Bush, Obama has to do a lot so as to restore the American pride back to where it belongs. Bush had lots of resources to spend when he had come to power, so he spent it unwisely on the supposedly “war on terror”.
Coming to the “war on terror”, will Obama continue to do the same fighting one of the world’s bigger problems? If he does, he would have to go back on his words on the callback of the American troops from Iraq, as he would have reposition them in Afghanistan due to the rise of Taliban insurgency. He would have to scrutinize this very keenly and decide accordingly, as he had promised to cut back on the defense expenditure when in power so as to redirect the funds to help out the nation’s economy. Hope he does not indulge in the same fetish as Bush had: Hegemony in the name of “war on terror”.
In the current geopolitical scenario, he has to perform lots so as to nullify the influence the other geo-political powers like EU, China are having on the Second World and the Third World Countries. China are increasing their geo-political sphere of influence in an exponential rate trying to outpace USA and the EU by providing resources, setting up factories, constructing roads in the Second and Third World Countries, whereas EU has been concentrating mainly on its member states so as to harmonize the region and are also developing in a manner so as to replace the US Dollar with Euro as the currency for any kind of export/import transactions in the near future. Geo-politics is a funny game, one’s misery is the opportunity for the other players, this is reality and Obama has to wake up from the doze and try to restore back USA’s sphere of influence in the Geo-political arena.
Now, the main part, how Obama’s election to power would affect us, Indians?? It would affect us in many ways. As he had promised to restore back US to its glory days, he would try to devise more incentives so as to curb the process of outsourcing to India, thereby restoring the lost jobs. So that’s a big blow to us because, India’s GDP is mainly contributed by the services sector which includes a crux through the contribution of the BPO/KPO companies, in this scenario our economy for sure would take a beating. Next is the Nuclear Treaty, now that the 1-2-3 agreement been signed and far from any kind of danger, still it faces a threat from Obama who had opposed certain clauses of the agreement. He is driven by a motive to force India and Pakistan to sign the CTBT, thereby curbing any kind of testing of the nuclear technology. He also wants to put a full stop to the everlasting Kashmir problem by brokering between India and Pakistan.
As Obama comes from an urban background, will he turn out to be another JFK? Or will do another Bush? Can he be another Franklin Roosevelt, bailing the nation out of the crisis which is hitting/tarnishing USA and its image very badly in the political arena?
Barack Obama turned out to be a box-office hit even before taking power as The President, will he continue his run as a hit or will he turn out to be just another character overly hyped like the second term election of Bush. Time will tell whether he is a wolf in the sheep’s clothing or he is a mere sheep. Let his actions speak and we shall decide the character of this “charismatic” leader in another 4 years starting from next year when Obama enters his Oval Office as The President of The United States of America.
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