A Happy Diwali and an Uncomfortable New Year !!!

Ok,

this is a diwali and new year message with a difference. For, unlike all your other "well-wishers", I am going to wish you a very happy but uncomfortable new year !!

Now, it does seem like an irony, to be wished, and to be wished to become uncomfortable… but that's exactly what I am wishing for you. However, I still claim to be a well-wisher. Here's how…

You are reading an email, on a computer screen. Hence I make a few safe assumptions – you are educated, you are good at English, you have access to computer and internet, you have a decent income or the opportunity to make one whenever you wish to. However, I can also make another safe assumption – you are comfortable. But then, isn't that supposed to be good?

… a young dark skinned man was traveling on a train. He was educated in England, had a great family background, a good committed wife, decent income, and could travel first class. By all current definitions, he was 'comfortable'. And then, all of a sudden, he found himself thrown on a railway platform, his luggage strewn beside him. He was brown, and he was punished, and he was told he didn't deserve first class. In a moment, he found himself in the lap of the 'uncomfortable'. You sure know who I am talking about. The uncomfortable led this man to lead the largest mass of mankind that has ever been led in the history of India, and rise to claim his position in the annals of mankind's history as the Mahatma – The Great One.

… another young white skinned man was traveling on a train. He was also education in England, had a good family background, was a successful journalist, and he also could travel first class. By all current definitions, he too was 'comfortable'. And then, all of a sudden, he found himself in the midst of a rebel attack, and found the train guard shot dead. He assumed a leadership position and led a little band of soldiers to fight the rebels, and though he was captured, he escaped and returned. Soon, he was to give the world famous speech on the steps of the parliament, and in the hard times of the IInd World War, he would be the last standing bastion of Europe against the blitzkrieg of the Nazis. The uncomfortable made a young man into Winston Churchill, one of history's most admired leaders and diplomats.

I could go on and on, the examples abound. But it isn't needed.

We are comfortable. We have a good education, a great family background, a lovely family, decent or better income, a respectable career, and can travel first class. And surprisingly, its this very comfort bubble that we live inside, prevents us from breaking through and reaching out to the larger reality that awaits us.

Since I was born, I was asked to behave in a way that was comfortable. I was asked to dress in a way that was comfortable. I was asked to learn in a way that was comfortable. I was asked to do everything in a way that was comfortable, both to me, and the society at large. And soon, I started thinking that to be comfortable was the way to be, and was the way to go.

But really, is it ???

Leaving the question to you, but making another safe assumption, I wish you a happy and uncomfortable new year. One that stretches you out of your comfort bubble, makes you gasp for breath, gives you a nudge in the chest, and shoves you into unknown skies.

For out there, outside the bubble, lies our greater reality… the coveted destiny.

My hearty greetings to you and your family for Diwali and the new year.

WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY :)

Female Aviators?

The number of female aviators in India has crossed 100.

 

Yikes! Women are now driving machines in the air too.. Passing Angels beware!!!

 

Its time for Angels to experience what only men have experienced to far.. Women Drivers!

 

:) Sorry but couldnt resist this sexist comment when I read the news.

 

Cheers**

Interesting lines by Kenneth Patchen...

People who have nothing to live for

Always find something to die for

And then they want you to die for it, too.

 

Should IIM open up a foreign campus

What an interesting controversy. Should an institution, be allowed to expand?

IIM is the premier management institute of India. It is the world's most difficult management inst. to get into. The persons advocating against IIM foraying into foreign campuses, say that the focus should be quality education and not profit making. The institute is being subsidized on tax payer money and so the investment should be in India. More quality mgmt institutes should be sent up in India rather than looking at locations abroad.

How short sighted! In the 21st century where the USA is sending probes into Pluto and beyond, we are unable to look beyond India. Boundaries are softer in today's world. Everything and everyone, is everywhere. At such a time, it is stupid to stop the international growth of Indian institutes.

Knowledge is power, and at no time it was more appropriate then today. Education and information are the cutting edge. We have the best of both in an IIM, and we should go ahead full steam to flaunt it. India is already established as an information superpower with the best brains in the world. IIMs all around the world will create a superiority complex for Indians.

Foreign campuses will not waster the funds of an Indian taxpayer. Profits in foreign currency will give the IIMs more funds then ever before. Govt can make policy of mandatory investment of certain percentage of profits from foreign campuses into India. Can you imagine how many new institutes with high end infrastructure and good faculty can be started with these profits?

Best practices exchange will help institutes in India gain higher efficiency in education and management.

Indian education will get a great name in foreign countries, increasing the employability of Indian professionals in these countries.

Our faculty will get opportunities to teach in foreign locations, increasing their exposure and reducing redundancy. On the other hand, foreign faculty will be coming more often to Indian campuses, giving our students a great opportunity to interact with knowledge trainers from abroad.

Campus transfers can take place, allowing our students to learn in foreign campuses. The benefits of this opportunity needn't be explained.

The benefits are so high I wonder what are the real reasons behind disallowing the IIMs in opening campuses abroad.

The world is beckoning, and we are wallowing. Fuck all these politicians.

A bag of mixed feelings...

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY OF CHANGE

Each year passing by, comes as a bag of mixed feelings. An end and a beginning, a point where I will never return ever again. Where the whole humanity will never return ever again.

So many things have happened in the last year, and so many didn't. So many things will happen in the next year, and so many won't. This contrast and anticipation is a mixture that brews a feeling called hope.

"Life can be boiled down to one single element - Hope".
Haven't you heard.. all good things in life come free? Hope is free too.. But then, so is despair.

I hope that you will hope today, for a wonderful 2006, making it the best calender year of your life ever. When you may write your autobiography a decade from now, I hope 2006 will be a year you will have to devote an entire chapter to.

So if your life's not feeling too good, cheer up, there's hope! and if it's already feeling good, have hope, its just gonna get better!!!

Lets spend the first day of the new year with a HOPE Paper instead of a News Paper (the messenger of despair). Let's wake up to new, better and revived life.

Wishing you a great new year filled with all the goodies you ever wanted,

Cheers**
Phalgun Kumar.
ONE LIFE ! LIVE IT !!
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Take Me On Your Mighty Wings

Mighty Wings – Top Gun

Its just a ball of dust underneath my feet
It rolls around the sun, doesn't mean that much to me
Take a chance on the edge of life just like all the rest
I look inside to dig it out cuz theres no points for second best

There's a raging fire in my heart tonight
Growing higher and higher in my soul
There's a raging fire in the sky tonight

Take me on your mighty wings tonight

Couldn’t be a better description of how I feel today.
O Life! Take me on your mighty wings, tonight!!!!

How safe is "cloned" consumption?

US administration may allow cloned milk and meat for human consumption

Jumping to conclusions is a folly.  Just 4 years of research and conclusion that cloned food is okay for human consumption, sounds like an extreme case of jumping the gun.

We know too little about cloning to judge its long term effects on human body and mind.  The current environment, which has anyways led to a flurry of carcinogens in the atmosphere, is bad enough.  We are still grappling with issues such as the use of pesticides and hormonal injections.  Even after decades of research, there is no conclusive evidence to make a confident decision on their effect on humans.  

Cloning is still in its experimental stage.  We hardly know enough about cloning to know about its after effects.  To say, cloning is newer than mobile phones, and we are still trying to understand if the mobile waves can cause brain tumor.  I personally would not want to put anything inside my body that is genetically modified and hails from the realm of the unknown.  Human life is the most precious, but more precious, is human health.  

Would you like to eat an experiment?  I refuse to be made a guinea pig of scientific “jumped” conclusions.

Should teacher-student relationships be allowed on campus?

Should Student-Teacher Affairs be permitted on campus?

This has turned into such a global debate.  Some studies from people like Pat Sikes even claim that an erotic charge in a teacher leads to better learning.  I am not sure how much the studies are true, but as a firm defender of individual rights, I opine that student-teacher affairs should be permitted on campus.

It’s partly true that a teacher is in a position to take undue advantage of students on campus due to their position.  Even law has identified teacher-student relationship as one where undue advantage could exist and any acts committed on recommendation of the teacher may not be fully consensual by the student.  

However, when the issue is looked at as a whole with full spotlight rather than in bits and pieces, the justice seems to be in allowing these relationships to happen.  

Individual rights, the mark of the 21st century, not only consist of freedom of speech, religion, travel and vote.  They carry onto mean that a person is free to believe and act as per his/her wishes, as long as he/she is not jeopardizing that which does not belong to him.  This also means that a person is free to choose a sexual or romantic partner.  

Imposing rules as to who can have an affair with whom, is like creating a whole new caste system within the society.  At a time when the older civilizations are finally being groomed by western concepts to let go of racial or caste based boundaries, here we are creating them all over again.  The American universities that fire professors for having affairs with their students, are breaching the basic tenets on which the constitution of the country is based upon.  They are also indirectly saying that they neither have faith in the character of their professors, nor in the law of the land.  Hence, this raises another question.. if the American education system has lost trust in the character of their teachers, what are we expecting them to teach the students?  And if we in the east blindly follow what a few American universities have decreed for their educators, are we also saying that we do not trust the character of the teachers within our system?  If so, why are we allowing them to teach and guide our nation?

France riots 2005 - a beginning of a new Dark Age?

Gosh! Looks like a scene out of a Hollywood blockbuster doesn’t it?

But this is true, its happening, and its happening in the place almost every human drools for.. the heart of Europe, France!

Honestly, if it were a picture out of Asia or S. America or something, this wouldn’t even have made international news. But it happening in one of the Veto nations, has its own aftershocks across the planet.

Immigration is an interesting proposition staring the world in its face. And especially Muslim immigration. In France too, it’s the North African Arab population that’s being blamed.

I am unable to understand the game. Is it the whites vs. the blacks? Or the whites vs. the immigrants? Or the whites vs. the blacks vs. the browns vs. the Asians? Or is it Christians vs. the Muslims and at times, other religions? Oh boy the world seems to be more complicated than it ever was. The lines between friends and enemies is blurred beyond recognition. As much as I hate “ghettoism” and segregations based on race, community or religion, I guess free thinkers like me are going to have a difficult time in the near future. Simply because, the 21st century is proving to be a radical thought driven century.

I fear. I fear because this time, the western world is facing the brunt. I have always been an admirer of the western world. Notwithstanding that they made colonies and looted countries in the past, it is the west that has given the values of equality, liberty and individual freedom. I shudder to consider a life in the dark ages. The west stands as a shining example of what the world can become, and has always striven to become. An attack on the west, a depletion in their forces, spells doom.

I wonder who will dominate after the west is depleted. Radical religious forces? Freedom hating communists? Monarchs? Democracy, freedom of speech, freedom to travel and indulge in business, equal justice, a “servant” government rather than a “ruler” government… all the new age adages will be thrown in the trash bin.

Is the fall of the west, the mark of the entry of the dark ages?