The One and All

After a day's hard work, one loves the shade of a kind tree, however, one shouldn't expect the tree to uproot itself and walk besides you everywhere...

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The Big Guns Vs the Young Ones

Adrenaline rush among players is nothing unheard of but to live the experience from the stands while cheering one’s throats dry is definitely something out of this world. It is simply magic to catch a good game live and unfold in front of your eyes. Every point scored, every sigh let out, every leap of joy, cry of pain, and each and every shout for cheer is passion personified.  I wonder why our stands are not brimming at every game, since there is nothing compared to experiencing the sporting passion which goes deep into the sinews of every young player. 

Well, I was fortunate enough to witness such a game this week at the _________Basketball tournament-  “The_____ Big Guns Vs the ________Young Ones”. Blood and Sweat literally laced the game, where the score tally went up and down like a roller coaster till it decided to stop at 35 – 27 in the favour of sheer experience and poise under pressure.  The match confirmed that between a battle of stamina, fitness, grit, passion, and levelheadedness under pressure, the latter counts more than anything else. Both teams aced their games and produced awe-inspiring baskets and passes throughout. There never was a dull moment. The expressions in the stand and on the sides ranged from wide-eyed amazement to screaming fits! It was an absolute joy and pleasure to watch our gentleman heroes on the sporting field.  I for one am not going to miss any more of such action if I can help it!

Constructs or Conscience

Nothing came to us from the so called 'heaven'.(all problems will come to an end if we realise that we have no other place to go to wash away our sins or to be punished. Every thing happens on this planet ).

Nothing is given to us.
All religions are 'Constructs"

Men like Prophet Muhammed, Jesus, guru Nanak and many others raised their voice against injustice and the wrongs prevailing in their societies at a particular point in time. Their idea was to lead the oppressed into the world of freedom. Now we are in the 21st century, times have changed, our needs have changed, so why do keep fighting over our age old religious texts. Why is just one particular religion targeted for being rigid? Each religion has its own quirks, for example, Jewish men wake up and thank God for not making them a woman!!!!!!!!!
And if i am not mistaken Jewish women don't do vice -versa.
Isn’t that the height of insult for any woman?

Talking about the growing religious fundamentalism, one cannot blame one religion for all the problems. Fundamentalism is a product of OUR times. It has nothing to do with religion per se. a handful of misguided suicide bombers, or a bunch of psycho "Klans", or the "Saffron Brigade " don't decide what religion says. Their genesis is deeply rooted in the political and the economical. And we urgently need to divert our attention to those hidden political agendas. The religious debate is superficial and provides no solution. It only furthers animosity.

Matters of the religion should be left to the individual.
What the time requires of this generation is to question those century old edicts and evolve a personal interpretation of one's religion.
All will be well in this world if only we make our conscience our religion

Image Source ; http://simplyphilosophy.org/tag/religion/

The Real Deal

There is so much imagination in Rowling’s writings. Yet the wizard world is, according to me, an allegory of the real world around us. Almost everything mentioned in the books has as analogy in the real world. The scene gets darker and bleaker with each new book, just as in our world with the piling up of WMDs (or simply the fear of non-existent WMDs!!!).

The Dementors in Harry Potter paralyze us with our own fears. They are something that ‘dements’ our power of rationalization. So do the increasing forces of fundamentalists. They simply exploit our own fears and brainwash the youth into anti social and anti human activities. And the only way to fight them is to heighten our awareness.

The Death Eaters in a way are the counter parts of the power hungry politicians who would do anything to rule the world on their own whims and fancies. Rowling also subtly hints at the existence of prejudice and bias, when she speaks of how Dumbledore is accused of being friends with Hagrid who is a giant and hence unreliable. This is so true of our own world. Though we are in the twenty first century some people still hold bigoted views on the issue of caste, creed, colour, gender, religion etc. They fail to see the other person as human.

Lord Voldemort is alive only because of his foolish and selfish faithful followers. So is the case today when we help evil to survive by making wrong choices in our lives. Whether it is about saying no to drugs or standing up for your beliefs, like Harry Potter we have to make some tough decisions in our life. Though it helps to have good friends like Hermione and Ron, there comes a moment in our lives when we have to fight our own battle and the only thing that would help us then is the knowledge and experience that we gained.

Image Source; http://connect.in.com/harry-potter-review/photos-harry-potter-70a1fecdab9358e8.html

Great Women

Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth ...for ruling the game in a man's world

Marie Curie for being the first to venture into the 'rational' world

Simone De Beauvoir for saying out loud
"One is not born, but becomes a woman"

Jane Austen for writing her story ...the queen of irony "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" :p

Andrea Dworkin for writing "Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality (1988). "

Aung San Suu Kyi for standing up for what she believes

Madonna for making patriarchal stereotypes dance on their head with her 'LIKE a virgin"

J K Rowling for creating Harry Potter :D

Sojourner Truth for " Ain't I a woman " speech

Sustainable Development

What is sustainable development? What is the role of a development planner?

Anu Maheshwari

Each one of us strives to make our lives better. Most of us run from pillar to post each day to raise the standard of our living. We try to maintain the lifestyle we are used to and make it better. Collectively we wish to have better roads, better transport facilities, 24/7 power and water supply, etc to improve the quality of our lives. Individually we have the power and resources to make a difference in our own lives but for improving the things for the collective lot take more than just concerted effort. It needs careful assessment of things as they are and a vision how of things should be and can be. Development planners work to make these things a reality for us. Their job is to first gather all the pieces of a puzzle and then put them together. They collect data pertaining to all spheres of life in an area and then design the best possible way to make things better for the people of the area.

Every plan has to be tailor-made to suit the needs of the area in question. Every area has its own set of lacks, potentials, and constraints and a planner takes all this into consideration before making the best set of choices for developing an area. For example, a terrain with steep slopes and bad soil quality need not have facilities for cultivating paddy. The development of the area should be done in such a manner as to enhance the utility of all the available resources within the area and to assure future generations the same or better benefits. Resources here include human resources also.

“Earth, atmosphere, sky, sun, moon, stars, waters, plants, trees, moving creatures, swimming creatures, creeping creatures all are hailed and offered oblations”(Taittiriya Samhita i-8-13). Today as we march into the future, we are reminded of the cataclysmic upheavals that we might invite upon ourselves by ignoring that voice of wisdom left to us by our forefathers. In our search for security from each other, we have inadvertently left ourselves at the mercy of the ground beneath us and the sky above us. There is no point making a development plan which cannot be supported by the resources available or by the inhabitants of the region. Excessive reliance on coal for power without appropriately harnessing the overflowing rivers in an area could be one example of a skewed development plan and planning for industries on the banks of river without having any provisions for treating industrial waste being flushed out into the same rivers could be another. Development which can be sustained for further growth and progress can be termed ‘sustainable development’.

The preparation of a sustainable development plan is also an exercise in democracy as the plan has to be for the people, of the people, and by the people. The planners have to be in touch with the ground realities for which they have to interact with the people of the region on a consistent basis while designing and implementing the plan in order to know the feasibility and effectiveness of the plans. They also need to be aware of the culture of the region along with the knowledge on the socio-economic-political equation of the region.

Florence Nightingale once said, “To understand God’s thoughts, we must study statistics, for these are measure of his purpose”.  Development planners need not just statistics but they need to feel the pulse of the people to be able to design good plans.