Confessions of the callous mind I have seen guys taking a look at a picture of IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta

before going into the laps of sleep angels. I have seen guys arguing about the fact that the fastest way to earn big bucks is to be an entrepreneur or get into the corporate scheme of things. I have seen guys walking with naked feet on the chilling floors of the corridors for preparing for the gateway to these Ivy League B-schools- the CAT. And primarily for these reasons it has become an upheaval task for the renowned professors and counselors to select the appropriate candidates for these colleges because simply, there are absolutely so many worth it. So, the inclusion of the class 10 and 12 in the selection criteria is not a surprise. But as I see, there are some gaping lacunae in the system. The CAT exam is structured in such a fashion that it is the measure of the quantitative and logical ability of a student. In other words, it determines how much a student is appropriate to be an entrepreneur. On the other hand, a class 10 or class 12 score is a measure of the hard working and to some extent mugging ability of a student. I dont mean to denigrate the importance of hard work but are we ready to accept to the fact that firstly, we can compromise the entrepreneurial abilities for that and secondly, that IIMs dont believe in living in present and a change is possible anecdotes anymore? The IIMs seem to say, You might be fat-glassed nerds with no leadership qualities. You must be able to work your asses off for all we care. We have got experts in this field and we can make you an entrepreneur and a leader in 2 years!! There are students who are destined not to think big just because they had a 63 in Hindi in the 10th or a 67 in Physics (or any subject which has nothing to do with judging entrepreneurial abilities) in the 12th or unfortunately fell sick during the crucial times. It seems they would have to atone for the mistake that they committed 7-8 years back. I mean, there are people who didnt even think about doing an MBA when they are 16! The real question is, what is the IIMs going to do when grading system is implemented at both 10th and 12th levels as Mr. Kapil Sibal is so eager to do? How would they distinguish between a huge pool (and by huge, I mean HUGE!!) of Os? I guess their kindergarten scores would determine if he is apt for an IIM or not! Moreover, there is also the whole uproar about the whole normalization process which is anything but transparent. There are certain argument that there is very low correlation between CAT scores and actual academic performance inside b-school and some b-schools have gone a step ahead and performed informal studies to find that there is high correlation between ones past academic scores and b-school GPA but my simple question is this To take to cycle of events forward, does the placements in the corporate world and the ratio of students being independent entrepreneurs have any correlation with the students GPA? Once you are inside a company does the boss care whether you are from the IIM or a college like MDI or NITIE? All he is concerned is whether his job gets done!! I once talked to a NITIE alumnus and he had a very interesting thing to say. He said, You cant really blame these institutions because even the top notch corporates want to show a heavy intellectual workforce to the market with students from IITs and IIMs. Being from a college like NITIE or XIMB or MDI there is just an year gap when u need to compensate for your profile with hard work and deep aspiration. At the end of the day, you just need to believe that these institutions didnt recognize a talent, and move on. Nothing is the end of the world. So true. If all your work is geared towards securing yourself against failure and embarrassments, why live at all? If you cant change your fate, change your attitude. A simple solution could have been this - The IIMs should first conduct the CAT and then allow all above 97 percentile or say 95 percentile to send their resume. A panel of experts should scan the applications based on the overall profile (extracurricular activities, positions of responsibility, scholarships, etc.) and not just some board or graduation marks. Okay, hardly matters what I thinkhehe. In the word of Susan Sontag, I havent been everywhere, but its on my list.(Few IIMs are out of my list thoughlol)

Wake up...

Free from the cobwebs of melancholic life Dreaming my days in prairie and nights in prom, I woke up rejuvinated one fine morning Feeling how big and beautiful life is. It was then that i realized, My hands had shot up as if a nemesis And it's time to leave my dishevelled bed! Shadows drown our empty hearts As love is fading in the darkest corners. All that we are, we aren't saying And, all the things we care ends in 'me'. Humming the old tunes of misery and hapless genre, We seek solace and sympathy. Tearing our clothes apart and honking on the roof We condemn Past and justify Redemption. But... What about NOW? What about this very moment of truth?

Is there nothing you can do, To change? To craft destiny? To damn the wisdom in you and do the new? To love? Just for once, now.... Come again, did you tell me the story? The story of the unknown, the ideal, the impossible? Can't we live our stories right here today? See, the rains pour over your souls, As you are washed away of your deepest secrets, And your're drenched in the wettest of ascetism. So, just clutch those fingers And let go of all your egoism For the joyride of Resuscitation, Realization and Rejuvination. Just go and paint the towns in your colours! So wake me up when spring comes... When the heart is back in place, When logic is drowned in the rivulet of emotions, When everything we do is not for a reason, When it wouldn't take a trumpet To stir us from our places, And when all this doesn't seem an obnoxious nonsense!

why is moon sobing? it was a news as wierd as snails jumping, as winnin of indian cricket team, as salman khan gettin married or pehaps as studies in hostel....ok dats enuf nw i guess!!hehe...wat i was talkin abt is the trace of water dat our very own ISRO's Chandrayaan got durin its lunar expedition. jus few des aftr all India held a candle mourning the early demise of the first indian lunar mission and questioning the reasons behind it, India became the first nation even b4 NASA to prove a possibility of human existance on moon. it sounds gr8 doesn it? but hav v eva imagined y it has bcum so indespensable to divorce our own planet to take respite at sm oder land? it sounds all so obsolete talking about helping Earth live, bt can v jus let it be? vilify her, trivialize her, run her down, bt Mother Earth is perhaps yelling foul at us. if moon had life, she wud hav surely had tears trikling down her cheeks swearing her bad luk. couldnt dese jerks noe abt it some years later? dese humans can gab about how beautiful i am onle bcuz m so far away. fr dese nerds, its " wateva!!" deir romance can twist n turn about bringin some oder planet down to deir land jus fr da fake sake of deir ummmua-girl but cant i be left alone? "chand mein daag" wudn b a distant imagination in a few decades. believe me, it wud not b nething near to that!!! so wat can v do? nothin if u say, everything if u say. being righteous s wat ppl say a herculean task bt nothing comes widout a cost. if ders ne reason fr our existance on this planet, its this!!! and talkin abt consequences, neways u jus hav 2 options- dying here on earth or dying there on moon. can v jus show da nexgen how beautiful our Earth is?

hOsTel lYf... it's fun to shut away the wise-say about relations & noble words lik "Motivation", "Learning" n "Personality" dat da OB mam babbles along in her self-authoritive symphony. nebdy who tries to endorse wat she says abt her lessons of lyf(or,wateva it is!) is tagged shruggingly as a "loner"!

i still rem'ber us talkin crap abt Motivation in organisations n arguing wat s hypocritically believed. in the end of the story, v totally manipulated the very meaning of it. and it is onle an instance of the entire theory. given da oppurtunity, i wud neva whisk away a chance to call relations fake n all its rudiments a mere falacy. hav v lost the touch? da very feeling of caring fr sm1, trusting sm1, loving sm1...one page of "Alchemist" states dat if a real alchemist is cornered by sm dacoits n asked to giv away all he has, and da alchemist shows a stone n a bottle of blue liquid calling it the "The Phillosopher's Stone" n "The Elixir of Life", the dacoits laughed it away n let him go thinkin him to b as pathetic as them. A genuine help is scrutinised as to wat its "different angle" may b. suddenly, austerity seems fake. Hostel lyf s all 2 casual n frivolous to consider da heavy ideologies of lyf. it nullifies all da shit u learnt since u wre a kiddo in skul and teaches new principles wich r 2 complicated to think abt. u learn da true meanin of frenship n i heard dis tag frm a very noble person[excuse me?]..." it's U versus every1 else!" crackin jokes n playin pranks in hostel s jus abt everyde business. its nothing heartfelt stuff, bt a wierd urge to rack our brains into illogical imaginations. reality s miles away, bt really, who cares? alls fine, until it can fuck time away, trying to brush away da nothingness of a hostel lyf. it's da transformed personality fr dat very moment. the trick in da tale s dat hw u cn manage dese multiple personalities.then, one de u decide dat u gotta change,lik a drastic step....turn ova a new leaf from dis de n dat all dat happened was an goodbad past. wat amazes me s how fast dis cycle repeats itself!!! wat say abt our desi lingo...simple language s passe^ n the more complicated jargon,da bettr! Swearin snt hideous smtimes. fr yr trivia jus chek out- "mandu">a gal bcums "mandu" fr her looks n aura even b4 da guy talks to her. had de been all fr real, it wud hav been easily the breedin ground fr Ekta Kapoor's soaps. n anoder s "nungu"> a guy talks to a gal fr a gud 15 mins in isolation n "nungu" s a word dat he can't even find in a dictionery! neways m hm n it feels different. earlier it was home where i felt curbed n hostel a free lyf bt nw...i feel jus da opposite. dunno y...

high tym v hav a Sach ka Saamna... The Polygraph or the allegedly called lie-detector test is basically a combination of medical devices that are used to monitor changes occurring in the body. As a person is questioned about a certain event or incident, the examiner looks to see how the person's heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and electro-dermal activity (sweatiness, in this case of the fingers) change in comparison to normal levels. Fluctuations may indicate that person is being deceptive. Spies are probably the world's best liars, because they have to be, but most of us practice deception on some level in our daily lives, even if it's just telling a friend that his horrible haircut "doesn't look that bad." the trained examiner, who is sometimes called a forensic psychophysiologist (FP) monitors three essential biological parameters-Respiratory rate, Blood pressure/heart rate, Galvanic skin resistance (GSR)[sweat in the body]. The actual exam is given. The examiner asks 10 or 11 questions, only three of four of which are relevant to the issue or crime being investigated. The other questions are control questions. A control question is a very general question, such as "Have you ever stolen anything in your life?" Detractors of the polygraph call lie detection a voodoo science, saying that polygraphs are no more accurate at detecting lies than the flip of a coin. "Despite claims of 'lie detector' examiners, there is no machine that can detect lies," reads a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). "The 'lie detector' does not measure truth-telling; it measures changes in blood pressure, breath rate and perspiration rate, but those physiological changes can be triggered by a wide range of emotions." To counter the polygraph test is as easy as developing a breathing strategy, thinking about something frightening/exciting, biting your tongue to have the blood flowing upwards, inserting a nail at the toe-end of your shoes and contracting your anal sphincter muscle when a control question is asked during the examination. After Samajwadi Party MP Kamal Akhtar and some BJP supporters raised in Parliament that Star Plus' reality show Sach Ka Saamna should be banned because it is encouraging vulgarity, embarrassing family audiences and destroying Indian culture, the Information and Broadcast ministry sent a legal notice to the channel, asking them to defend the show. Which brings to the fore a burning question: Are we as a society still scared to talk openly about certain supposedly 'taboo' issues that most people face in their everyday lives? And is doing that going to destroy Indian culture? Our culture is so diverse and there are so many facets. But everything gets politicised without understanding this.There are shows we don't like. Why do we have to ban something if we don't approve of it? if it were so, many if not all the men would first scoul over banning the daily soaps or the parents would have a wicked smile in their faces when they ban their adolescent son's favorite ftv "latenight haute" shows. The format of the show is such that questions are bound to be extremely personal. So does the family audience cringe when Vinod Kambli is asked if he has cheated on his wife or when Urvashi Dholakia is asked if she was asked to leave school because she was pregnant? If so, then why are they watching the show at all? Whoever is coming on the show knows exactly what they are doing. And people watch these shows because humans have a vicarious psychology. Personally, i don mind watching the show if i don have any more intriguing things at the same hour. Who cares if someone s a henpecked

husband or feels humiliated if his sister marries someone from other religion. It's their problem, not mine. In all the questions, we miss the advertisements cuz v skip onto some other channel in the meantime. So the channel is earning, maybe the pitiable jerk giving the "agnee pariksha" is earning[ it seems he is being given lollipop when he is asked, "kya aap agle sawaal mein jaana chahte hain?" n he saying with a wry smile,"haan"], so what? Cumon ppl, can we grow up now!!!

Pappu pass ho gaya... while politicians debate on the future of our education system, this is a tribute to the unfortunate Student who grows up like a prisoner in Kala Pani. As long as he is studying, he is only a number. To the school,he is a roll number. To his parents, he is simply marks. To the college he seeks admission,he is a percentage. If papa is asked by a complete stranger about his beta, pat comes the reply:"He got 92 per cent in class 12 boards!" Thirty years later,this boards story is dangling from a crowded local in women gossips,wondering what was so great about getting 92 per cent. He feels like shouting at the crowd that is pushing him around - "Hey,watch it, buddy, I got 92 per cent in boards!" But chances are that he will be asked to shut up by the crowd - "So what if you got 92 per cent! We are all school dropouts and you're still stuck with us!" He cant help but wonder why mama and papa ruined his childhood by burdening him with coaching classes, stop him from playing galli cricket and lock up the television set? "Go to your room and study the Pythagoras Theorem! You must come first in your class this year, beta." The kid goes to his room and studies the Pythagoras gibberish, completely oblivious of the fact that the Theorem can't teach him how to fix a flat tyre! In fact, nothing he learns as a student equips him to deal with the realities of living. As he hangs from the crowded bus to his school,the student wondes about Trigonometry.He also realises about the reproductive system of a flower and the abdominal segment of a cockroach doesn't help him change a light bulb? Preparing for the competitive exams and their parents are risking enmity with their kid to flatter their neighbours by a shocking acheivement of their son, their consolence being that all they think about is their son's success n his long life. How desperately the kid want his parents to know that he wants to enjoy the small things of life. And at the end of the road, he is left with is guilt, apology to his parents and the tag of "Loser" stuck around his back! On the other hand, as their son gets into secondary education, his parents wonder why he is taking longer to pass out than it takes them to repay the loan they took to put him on college! They are clueless when their son says he's taken a drop or has a backlog of last term's paper to clear! The parents learns much later in life that the word "failed" can be conveyed in many other ways. When he survives the deadly world and reaches home, the student wonders why the government wants to scrap Class X board exams...Why not scrap the entire education system!