killing of prof

Akhil Bharat Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) ... hmmm.. its a pity that i am starting my updates from bombay with this 'esteemed' organization. Their activities include

1) Getting classes closed because one of their brethren was fined( coz he bunked too many classes)

2) Agitation and clashes with authorities

3) The erstwhile platform ot be a youth BJP leader.

In Hyd ABVP is a part and parcel of life. If you are from OU then you have heard of them. Nizam's used to be their nest. You learn to live wiht them. Their right wing fanaticism not withstanding they were a menace at best, but toothless and they did get some of the things right. Their anti-ragging campaign for one( the hostelers would not vouch for it tho). It apparently started out as a student movement which wanted to keep alive hte swadeshi spirit in students and look after student interests against vested interests. Considering many of hte students come from poor backgrounds and have a chance to be exploited a noble cause indeed. But what it has now become is a hooligan hotbead at best and at worst the microcosm of the apathy of the student community as a whole.

The fact that they keep beating up or getting into scuffles with vice-chancellors et all is pretty well known, but going to the extreme of killing a professor? Why is the reaction not swift. After all this is not a professor whose killing we all accept because thats what he deserved (leave alone the ethics/morals of that). Where are the culprits? the BJP sarkar, the bastion of the old teachers(from lahore) and all the people who have some sort of justice in mind should probably book all the students who were involved under 'the intent of murder'.

And this in the time when higher education is in a state of flux. Lots of students, no teachers. Who will come in? Again only the elite private institutions will benefit from this in the long run.

We have to see else we shall be the next victims.

UPDATE

Its been a long three months since I last made a post. Basically no access from office and I am too lazy to do it from any other place. What has been up with me? I have let Mumbai get into me more and more in spite of living a semi campus kinda existence. Used to live for a long time with kishore for about 3 weeks still I found a place close to my office. About 15 min s walk from my office ( which itself is beside one of the best malls in Mumbai In orbit ). My job ( funny I am thinking whether they would do a blog search sometime) is at a KPO basically taking advantage of time zones and the pay difference. Time with kishore went of pretty fast till he moved on to the US about 4 weeks ago( hmmmm july 31st, life moves on fast I guess).

Office is a series of cubicles with enough space for 2 people and divided over 2 floors. I used to wrok on the chill floor ( no boss) till I had no work and now since I am full time into work I don’t bother where I would sit. The times have been very interesting, have met a lot of great people during the last 2 months and some may last till a long time. I still keep up the conversations’ with all the junta from campus ( err… not all I guess), but that would decrease now I guess. My personal life hehehe that would go for a toss soon I guess. Things change. I just don’t get it why it should change most of the times. Well, maybe I am not in with the crowd I guess.

Now for the first time, I am actually working and I am forced to take a look at things around me. So from now on I have decided that my blog would also contain stuff that I think about but never find the time to think through. Lets see how many days I manage to keep up the enthu.

ze trip

spent the last 1 week in chennai/blore.

Chennai:
My age old impression of chennai changed a little bit for the better

this time around. The people are coming in, the public transport is

decent and the people err. the mass rules. The centre for reservation

exists in chennai ( it was the first state to have pro reservation

demonstrations :D) and it seems the movement will only get stronger.

God save the king. I have always thought of chennai as the land of

dichotomy. On one hand you have hte leading political parties going

gung ho about atheism etc and on the other hand you have a spectacular

pouring of faith every morning. But its mostly the women that i have

observed, thats one thing across TN you find hardworking women and

loitering men. The men have things like politics, booze and caste to

discuss, while the mortal women are left to think of issues like

rearing up children etc. Caste is very clearly in, and people from

marginal voting castes will soon be out of tamilnadu unless htey are

extremely rich, extremely brilliant or both. The first withering state?

not yet, the institutions that the meritorious built are doing fine and

will do so for another 10 yrs and then the chaos would begin.

Me and sud spent the first day at prusty's watching champions league (

after his bro in law took us out for dinner on his bday), the second

night me ash and sud were at jeeths place after a night at ranjeeth,

and then the next day me spent at venkat's after he decided he dint

want ot travel to chennai ( our man if off ot spore ). After returning

from blore, i stayed for one more day for an intvw at Irevna( more on

that).

Chennai has srue changed ( i stopped noticing i think). I went ot

Tiruverikadu, the buzz is gone from the place. The sellers of religion

are there and so is the goddess, but i dint feel anything

Steven Gerrard

God gave him the shots is all I can say. Brilliant skills, grit, leadership and a human side endear this 25 yr old ( not sure abt his age) to fans all over the world. Been watching him from a long time and I am pretty sure that if england has to anything at this world cup gerrard better see lots of the ball. The thing about him is that as a player he can be pure inspiration and from the tiem he has been given the captainyc ( form the insipid hyppia) he has shouldered the team. I often joke abt liverpool being relegated if gerrard does nt play. But his growth has been extraordinary. He has always had the talent( thats why everybody wants him), pace scoring ability ( not gr8 dribbling tho'). But he was prone to go into listless play, awful tackles and injuries. But Rafa seems ot have energized him. Gerrard always wanted trophies and realized that the best way to get them is to do eveyrthing himself. Istanbul and Cardiff are the prime examples. He will be there and be counted. Beginning to like him like all those sporting greats who deliver when things are down. He has had his bad moments too. Many red cards and tantrums about wanting to leave liverpool. I hope he stays fit till the world cup or the world shall miss a great player. Svne would do a gr8 thing by putting in a holding midfielder and allowing steven gerrard to do what he wants. Then we shall have fun.

Three cheers to gerrard

V for Vendetta

Managed to watch this movie after trying( mentally albeit) for a long time. It was worth the watch even if I paid 180 bucks at IMAX. This was my first visit to the theatre which has caught the imagination of the hyd public. A theatre cum shopping mall concept the place is choc a hoop with people, most of whom dont know what better to with their hard earned money and free time. The movie was recommeded by Ramanan and has the wachowski brothers(matrix) in its credits? does it deliver? boy o boy it does.

Opening with the lines "Remember Remember the 5th of November", the film is essentially a adaption of the concept that ideas do not die and it just takes an idea to change an existing social system. Somewhere in the future, US is ravaged by civil war and Britain is ruled by strong willed leaders who will go any lenght ot protect their power. In a big brotheresque situation filled with the usual control of state media, propaganda and a cynical populace, enter V. A man wearing a mask who has a message for the people to wake up through the symbolic destruction of monuments. The introduction is absolutely mesmerizing with v ( i later found it s that guy hugo weaving ) delivering mouthfuls of words that started wiht v to a stunningly beautiful natalie portman. Through the sequences in which V tries to spread his message the lives of evi ( portman) and V get linked inextricably. The villianish govt headed by Sutton ( i hope i got hte name right) and his team is out ot stop v. V is a creation of a project to create a weapon of biological warfare is is out to avenge what was done to him. He helps portman overcome her fear and delivers the nation. The movie has brilliant cinematic movements and stupid fight sequences too that kept me enthralled. The mask is not removed ( its symbolic too) and its difficult ot kill an idea tho' v dies.
4* for the movie.

Choices

For most of my thinking (err.. rather the attempt at it) and my voracious reading I believe I have come to certain conclusions:

1)As the reverend would put it, you make a continuous set of choices in life. For most people the easy choices is good enough because that gives them a certain kind of happiness. The difficult choices would lead to a differnt kind of laugh, a life which Iam certain would be far more fun that just accepting the first thing that is available.

2) The future is already there. You are just unravelling pieces of it using the clues that are available. The future does not change whatever you do at present, but since you dont know what it holds you might as well have fun. Time as units cannot be destroyed or created, so the future is a also a part of time.

3) The frame of reference determines an individual's understanding of good, bad, right, wrong etc. Remove this frame and a man is truly rudderless. The rudder probably is a set of principles which define an individual s character.

4) There is no true live and let live policy. Every choice you make is detrimental to another being in someway or the other. So find a cause and fight for it. To each is own but collectively?

5) The Dutch shall win the world cup :D

Democracy

It is important to understand that Democracy as a system of governance has its own system of flaws. It is in a way a kind of free market where in the the public chooses who will be their best representative. As with any such choice, people tend to use their biases and thier mesurements of gain/loss to determine who suits them best. That the average voter in many cases does not have too many options is one side of the coin, but in general he is guided by short term gains over long term good. Why this becomes particularly intriguing is the fact that most of the democracies of the world are slowly degenerating into dying societies. The US, UK, France, Germany etc represent what can inherently go wrong with democracy. The problem is compounded by the fact taht very few people actually know what they want from their governments and if their wants are satisfied, are they going ot give a free rein ot the govt's?? Most govt 's in a multiparty system hadrly represent the entire population and it serves them to maintian a divisive agenda so that they beocme stronger among their vote base rather than popular as a whole. What is the solution? A stronger judiciary for one could help in setting public standards and the media could play the role of a watchdog easily.