I was just informed of another blast.

Sometime ago, had there been a blast anywhere in India we would all know about it, the death tolls, the suspected groups....at least i would try to keep myself updated...i would definitely feel terrible for the victims...and i would be shocked at the act.

that was some time ago...not too long back, but in an age where a bomb blast warranted a certain degree of shock and not reluctant acceptance....an age where there were not so many attacks a week that one is absolutely unable to keep track of them all!

Barkha Dutt on national television called serial blasts a "monthly routine" in India. Minutes after a blast one gets to hear Narendra Modi stating that the UPA government is weak, that he had personally informed the prime minister of the possibility of such an occurrence. Somehow no one seems to offer condolences to those victimised by the blast, no one seems to show concern about the state of affairs in the site of the blast. All our ELECTED politicians care about is the Parliament House, and the affair that go on in their plush halls...somewhere in a political labyrinth our leaders seem to have lost their humane nature...somewhere in all the hustle and bustle of our daily lives the average Indian has begun taking terror for granted. After all, terrorism does raise its monstrous head ever so often..

There is so much debate about POTA. India needs stronger laws, they say. Indeed, that may well be the case, but much more than stronger laws, it's stronger law enforcement that is strangely lacking. We are unable to intercept a terrorist setup that is literally blowing apart the country, but we sure can make use of the opportunities terrorism sets up for us in the parliamentary house as a topic for many "fruitful" debates....an opportunity for the opposition to set the government up in bad light...we continue to thrash out the issue in public places, no matter that the terrorists are going about their work quietly.

Maybe it is time for us to learn from the enemy. They may be on the wrong side, but they sure know how to get their work done, which is more than anything that can be said for us....

exams....

when you go to see, most of my blogs have been related to academics in some way or the other!

wonder why?!?

so then, those dratted things began sometime back, and are well on their way to completion. Only one thing remained static through all of it - I messed up.

i seem to have lost total interest in education as we see it... if someone tells me that i ruined what could have been an amazing paper, i really don't react.

I speak for myself, but i'm sure there are more like me who just don't feel like continuing the ritual grind of mugging up data and throwing it up onto a bit of paper. Many who are as disillusionised as i am about our education system...Many who just feel like giving up.

Perhaps i don't have enough will power in me, or i'm plain lazy... yet when it comes to non academic stuff i seem to be able to concentrate well enough.... why is it that i just don't feel like studying anymore.? The answer is simple enough. No one really cares whether you understand something or not; no one gives a hoot about your depth of comprehension...all that people want is that you know your text book off by heart, and are able to reproduce that onto your paper.

this, i am afraid, is beyond me. If i ask a teacher too many doubts, she either thinks i am wasting time, or trying to test her. Is it absolutely impossible that a student ask a teacher questions for the simple reason of trying to understand what is happening in class? Or are they evil little twits that were born to irritate the almighty Teacher?

If i go on at this rate all that will happen is that i will not get into any premier institution. Does that matter as much as it is made out to be? People can excel no matter where they study, so why the rat race towards only a few institutions in the world? Yes, they may be well established, yet there too it's a student's work that counts....

the other day a teacher told me " If you continue studying like this you will not get into IIT" when will it start occuring to people that people may have dreams beyond IIT, people may not necessarily wish to do engineering, people may have soft skills.

For that matter, why is a soft skill called so? what really is so "soft" about it? As far as I know, it takes much more guts to get up on stage and deliver a speech than to go write an exam where you are one among so many. Both require work, both are difficult in their own right. then Why are toppers equivalent to God, while that girl-who-speaks-well should have concentrated on her studies?

The sciences are subjects that only the intelligent understand, while arts are for those who are not up to the sciences...

What, prithee, would you write your research papers in without a basic knowledge of language? They complement each other, do they not? Then why such a segregation? why is one asked their math and science marks, but no one ever says " Please do well in English its essential for your survival in today's world"?

i know i am ranting, and i also know that i will, soon after, get back to studying a science subject... but all i ask you, reader, is to enjoy whatever you enjoy, and for heavens sake don't make another feel inferior for the simple reason that their source of enjoyment is different.

good bye.