What do you think?

What do you call this?? Is this Art or Just a girl gone crazy??

Shooting for a Century: The India-Pakistan Conundrum :Review

Author: Stephen Philip Cohen


Rating: 3.4 out of 5







 India and Pakistan- two nations who have more in common than any other two countries on this earth but still are each others arch nemesis. Both share a common history, similar culture and were not so long ago one country. So why are they fighting for what seems like eternity??

Stephen Cohen in his book "Shooting for a Century" has attempted to analyze this issue to find out its deepest roots and suggested ways in which these may be resolved. Cohen starts by detailing the history of  India and Pakistan. When British government was ready to hand over power to the Indian people, Jinha and his associates asked for a separate country for Muslims and hence Pakistan came into existence. This partition was marked in blood. Blood of thousands of people-Hindus and Muslims-who lived in the partition area. Many were killed, many were lost. Many were helped by the others too but that fact is often ignored due to political pressures. On one hand, political parties spread the views of nationalism but on the other hand they had an undercurrent of mutual hatred between the two countries. 

 Cohen cites three major reasons for the animosity between India and Pakistan:

• water, 
• Kashmir
• Siachin,

with no real tangible progress being made on either of the three issues. The only resolution achieved was on Rann of Kutch. So what prevents India and Pakistan from peace? Cohen presents six reasons:-

• Insecure and distrustful relationship.

• Both sides threatened for their identities.

• Time, both are sure that in time other will collapse.

• Both act as victims.

• Both feel morally superior to the other.

• Inability to rely on outsiders to solve the impasse.    

  Throughout the book Cohen analyses the various issues from both perspectives. He also talks how outside powers such as US can help and mediate in this issue. 

Personally I think this issue will never  be resolved. This book is quite informative and unbiased.

The Obsession with Forever

Vampires, Fairy tales, Romantic-Comedies, Chic-lit romances, teen romantic novels they all have one thing in common, that is, the 'Promise of Forever', the 'Happily Ever After'. Teens or even adults these days are obsessed with the larger than life romances. And billion dollar franchises feed on this obsession. Children grow up reading fairy tales which often convey the message that at the end true love will last forever and the lovers will stay together forever. I'm not against happy endings or fairy tales. I'm not anti-romanticism either.

But ask yourself that do these conditions or this tag of forever necessary!!!
Do we need to put a timeline?

There are all sorts of relationships in this world which have their own dynamics. One can't really compare them. Love is one thing that isn't quantifiable. Also relationships have phases. So is it possible that every relationship will last forever? The answer is no. Not every relationship can last forever. On the contrary, many relationships, though of a short time-span, have depth far greater than the ones which have had a long run. Sometimes the passion fades in the long term relationships but it might replace stability, a quality which is no less important.

I like to think of this world as a pond. And of us humans as stones which are thrown in it. Our lives are the ripples which are created when the stone hits the surface of the water. These ripples interfere with other ripples in a similar manner like our lives interfere with the lives of the people around us. So in the same paradigm, love can be thought of as the force which propels those ripples. Initially when the stone has just entered the pond, the ripples are more intense and so is our need of love in the form of passion. But as those ripples fade and stability sets in our needs also change. We value the quiet. 

   

So what do we ultimately seek? Longevity or Depth?

There is no correct answer to the above question just like there is no bad art. It's just about what suits you. However, I don't think that putting the condition of forever before every relationship is right. Sometimes love lasts a lifetime but lovers don't. So be charmed by the "forever and always" but don't expect every relationship to fit in that paradigm.

Chalk and Charcoal

Monsoon and the chilly winds these days are keeping me from studying, I just can't concentrate. So I'm spending more time doing sketching and stuff....and I am trying my hand at drawing with Charcoal and Chalk for the first time in my life. And here is a look at some of my sketches.

  Well I agree these aren't great but I am learning......

I do appreciate any sort of feedback.

Smells like Home

This must have happened to you. A significant smell that you come across reminds you of a memory from the past. A smell that triggers emotions, feelings of joy, love, hate, anger, all comes bubbling up in you. Those childhood memories that you forgot come right back and transport you to that time and space as if you were floating.

Our brain is an amazing thing. It analyzes everything in the form of electrical signals and forms memories. So when we see an object, our retinal nerves send a signal to our brain which it then interprets and we understand what we are seeing. Our nose follows the same mechanism. The olfactory sensors in our nose when stimulated by the molecules in the air send electrical signals to our brain and our brain then interprets these signals for us. In a similar fashion, olfactory memories are also formed which get triggered when we smell something familiar. This is also termed as "olfactory evoked recall".

As Indians our lives are filled with the spectrum of aromas, from the naughty dried red chili to the soft cardamom, the mouth-watering fragrance of mangoes to the tangy scent of pickles. Every season brings its own unique set of aromas. Winters and the ginger teas, summer and the mangoes, Monsoon and the saundhi khusbu of the first rain, all have their specific and special fragrances.

Come to think of it, I have so many memories associated with specific smells around the house. The smell of green mangoes reminds me of summers as my mother used to dry them for making pickles. The aroma of hot tea reminds me of my uncle sitting in the balcony reading the morning newspaper. The fragrance of basmati rice takes me back to the time when I used to come back home from school and know from the corner of the street that my mother would have made Rajma and Rice for me just from the smell. Old paper smell reminds me of my grandmother’s books. Diesel's smell reminds me of my dad’s car and the journeys we took together as a family. When I think of my birthdays the only smell that comes to my mind is of chocolate. My family used to get a lot of chocolate for me-Chocolate cake, candies, chocolate dips, lollipops-you name and I had it. In winters, my dad would bring hot Gulab Jamuns for us which smelled like heaven. The aromas of onion and potato pakoras during monsoon still make my mouth water. 

 

Thus, my mind is filled with such sweet smelling memories which I deeply cherish. And I find it amazing that how are senses have the power to transport us to a different time, if not physically then mentally. So keep smelling and keep making memories.

# This post is an entry for Ambipur's Smelly To Smiley! contest.

 

Wolverine

For the last few months I was suffering from what I call Sketcher's block. I just couldn't draw. It felt like the passion for drawing died inside me. So last weekend I decided to reignite it. I saw this picture of Wolverine in the newspaper and I tried to sketch it. Didn't do an amazing job but hey I am still recovering!!

The Information Imbalance

Exams-The nightmare of every student and if you are an Indian student then it just gets even worse. Every year lakhs of students sit for various exams like 10^th board, 12^th board, national entrances to name a few. And I, being an engineering student, have experienced most of them. Also be warned as the experience is nothing less than torture. But now when I look back at those times I realize that the exams themselves were not so tough, the problem was the information imbalance. I didn't know what to study and ended up studying everything and wasting a lot many study hours.

NCERT is the body responsible for print textbooks for CBSE. Since CBSE conducts the board examination along with various national entrance examinations and NCERT publishes books for CBSE one would imagine that these two bodies must be working in complete coordination but that is as far from being a reality. I specifically remember that the last exercise of every chapter of my math book was marked with an asterisk which when one looked at the bottom of the page read -“these exercises are not from examination point of view”, and the funny part is many of those questions could be found in past year question papers often marked as important in various help books. So in the end one ends up studying everything as one can never be sure of exactly what is in course. As a result of which many or I should say most of whom who can afford to, opt for coaching classes or private tuitions. I remember that my entire s class took tuitions for majority of the subjects (I didn’t because I’m one of the rare ones who score lesser marks if put in tuitions).

Some of the recent market research estimates the worth of the coaching classes and entrance exam preparation sector at US $-billion dollar industry with CAGR of 13.23% (US$~ billion) by 2012(according to a report by Ken Research Private Limited). While the existence of such institutes and services are a matter of hot debate these days but quite a few people are concerning themselves in understanding the main reason behind their existence.

Franklin Templeton Investment partnered the TEDx Gateway Mumbai in December 2012. In this, various people spoke about a variety of topics. Amongst them Angad Nadkarni spoke about the Indian education system and how he has hacked the same. He spoke about an app he has created called EXAMIFY which is intended to help students study effectively by studying past trends of the exams and indentifying the importance of each chapter along with the type of questions which can be expected from the chapter.

In my opinion, if this app can do what it promises then it will majorly change the dynamics of the way students prepare for examinations. Also Examify claims that with analyzing the past trends they will be able to predict future question papers.If they can succeed even partially the net result would be of great help to students. Also, this will help students across the economic strata as internet accessibility is increasing manifold with every passing month. This will not only help economically weaker sections but also those who find it hard to study for long hours with a book.

Another feature I found pretty interesting about this service was that it allows students to attempt questions online and compare their performance on a national level. This will not only help in revising but also in understanding the type of questions to be expected from the subject. Furthermore, Examify allows the student to rate the questions as they attempt them. So if majority of students find it difficult then one can skip it without wasting time, something Angad himself talks about in the above listed video. This is one feature I wish I had access to back when I was giving my boards because I wasted lot many hours solving questions which were way above the prescribed difficulty level.

I got 92% in my 10^th board and 90% in my 12^th board exams, But I think if I had examify at that time then I would have scored more. Nonetheless, at least my brother will benefit from this (he needs this ). I wish Angad and his team all the best in correcting this information imbalance and making student's lives easier.