Respect, Role Models, Random thoughts

What makes one respected in the society? What helps create the much needed role model for the youth of today and tomorrow?

Is it money?
Definitely not!
If you make money the right way, you will have to work so hard, that you wont even care so much for the society.
If it is otherwise, then you will definitely be respected until people find out how you have made it.
Money seems to be a big social symbol. It it, but its not the only one. Something more.....

Is it inheritance?
Like being born into a Rajah family?!? Ya, it helps, (if the ancestors have been good :p) but it is not respect for the individual in question, but for one or more of the pa, grandpas.
I think the path is very simple.
1.Respect the individual.
2.Respect the profession. (Dignity of labour)
In my limited experience, these were the two things that came through as the basic qualities, due to (or due to the lack of) which people rose (or fell) in terms of respect.

Respect the individual:
Whichever family he may be born into, whatever family background he may have, however less educated, it would be worthwhile to think if he would have achieved what you have, given all the facilities that you had:
Would he? then all the more reason to respect.
Would he not? Then help him with it.
Ah, help! There u rise higher!

The Profession
However less skilled the job, someone has to do it, and he is destined to do it; just like you have a job destined. How is he different from you then?

Practicing these two things will make you rise higher in your own eyes, and hence the society?
By the way, how important is society to the individual. Coming Soon.... Watch this space!

Uruguthey, maruguthey

melodies never cease to enthral.
This song from teh movie 'Veyil' has made me hum it right from teh first time i heard it...
Awesome....
Wish songs were more of this kind than the high octave high beat stuff churned out nowadays..
Good rendition by Shankar and Shreya..
Impressive start by GV Prakash Kumar( ARR 's nephew)
Hope he performs without any baggage attached...
All the best!

Parenting - Part II

It is of course, the duty of children to make their parents proud. Proud how? By scoring 100%? Maybe, but a perfect score is hardly the hallmark of a perfect individual. It seldom means flawless intelligence. And intelligence is not all; sometimes its hardly anything at all. What matters in life is values, such as sensitivity, which is pathetically lacking in today’s individuals. More than what a child ‘studies’(read ‘mugs’ or ‘crams’) what plays a significant role is the deeper morals. If the parents bring up a well-mannered, polite, punctual and caring child, even if he doesn’t excel academically, he will stand out. And then the parent will be genuinely proud. Then the world will be a much better place to live in. Then old age homes might just be extinct. Then life would be meaningful. Its not so easy, but we can do it. Are parents and parents-to-be listening???

Parenting - Part I

I recently saw a show on TV. It was just a reflection of the level of parenting paranoia happening around us.It made a deep impression on me. It has made me put into words what I have felt for long.
Come 10th or 12th standard, all you see is parents scurrying behind children, picking and dropping them from one class to another, tuition, extra coaching, special coaching, last minute tips, pillow-sized study guides.. What a nightmare for the child? What a BIGger nightmare for the poor parents? Does anyone think the parents enjoy doing that? We have seen and heard many teenagers taking their life for failing or the fear of it. What goes unreported is the agony and trauma that the parents go through.
Who is to blame for this sorry state of affairs?
Convenient answers: Society, Educational system which focuses only on bookish knowledge, blah blah blah….
Actual answers :It is something parents bring upon themselves. It is some kind of parents’ peer pressure.
Niveda, my neighbour is in 12th std. Her moms colleague’s cousin’s son got 98% in 12th standard, 99.54 in medical entrance last year. Her mother comes home daily at 4 to supervise her studies, and stays up till 12, lest her daughter should fall asleep. She gets up at 4 in the morning to wake up Niveda to study and pack her bags for the 6 o clock before school coaching classes. All in an effort to push poor Nivi to get state 1st!!!
What drives our moms and dads to such dizzy heights of expectations? It is definitely not wrong to expect something of one’s ward. Its only when things goes overboard that problems surface. One can expect a kid to get decent scores, but is it possible for every student attending the exam to come out first? All horses in a race don’t emerge winners!

How much does society influence my life?

How come one lives 'just for society': while life is all about 'living for oneself'?I have found the contradiction perplexing!What and how of eating, sleeping, dressing, walking, talking, all these has fixed set of rules and guidelines.And, if you do overstep boundaries, you will be laughed, scorned or mocked at!And those who haven't cum across such reactions, beware of backtalk.
Is this influence good or bad?
Have you ever wondered how we will be without society?
What exactly forms the society? Why is it playing a major role in one's life?
Imagine being stranded alone on an unidentified island (KNPH types, but alone, of course).
Will your behavior be any different from what it is now?
If your answer is "no", you didnt get my question.
If you reply with a hesitant "maybe yes", you are beginning to see the truth.
If you answer, "drastically", you have seen light.
Think of how a kid behaves when no one is watching!
We all have so many desires, interests, passions which we ourselves crush so that we look good in the eyes of the "society".How can this influence be classified? Does it bring in order and peace into the society or does it clip our wings and create stereotypes? Is it the necessary evil kind of thing? Then can something be done to reduce the evils of society? Any answers?

My first love

I first fell in love when i was doing my primary( around 4th std)
My first love: books.....
I don't remember the book, but i didnt keep it down till i finished it once.
since then, i always had a passion for reading.
I used to read all books i could lay my hands on, magazines, joke books all.
But reading as in novels happened rather late for me... in my tenth hols, i read a John Grisham book, the Runaway Jury, i still am in luv wit the book, probably because it was my first.
Since Then i have been reading off and on.
In college, it used to be typical techie stuff, the old books had a great smell (hmmm...) --all my friends tease me for smelling books, and i used to borrow all tech stuff - parallel processing, electronic circuits, VB, cryptography,algorithms, image processing -- NO, im not even an amateur in any of these, but the idea of these huge books adorning my jam-packed studytable-cum-bookshelf excited me and i tirelessly carried them all home... I even used to extend the borrow period for these books. I would chide myself for such senselessness often, but still continue the same.
Side by side with advice and suggestions from friends, i would read a limited number of books.
Significant among them is Fountainhead(courtesy harini).
Now that i am outta college, i thot i would leave behind my stupid craze for books, but latest in this list is a book on xqueries, that i renewed jus yesterday in my office library ;)

Humble beginnings...

Hey friends out there,
i have finally decided to jump in...
i have always felt i have some literary talent...
am out to prove myself wrong..
i plan to (atleast i hope to) write regularly about some very deep beliefs of mine....
c ya soon, with some of my very own philosophies...