The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad

Written by Twinkle Khanna. Initially, I had come across one of her blogs in net. Having read that was intrigued by her writing for the way she portrays her thoughts in witty yet sensible manner. Then it sort of became a routine to wait every Sunday for her blogs to be published. That’s how was introduced to The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad.

The one thing that is remarkable about her is not only her perception on subjects she writes but the way she manages to deliver it subtly.

This book is a collection of four short stories each weaved around strong characters that will instigate you to think about the stereotypes surrounding it.

There is this character Lakshmi who has changed the entire village’s take on girl child from being considered a curse to boon! The author astutely plants the thought of how financial independence is a quintessential for every woman to live on her own.

The author then gives a glimpse of an aged widower through the eyes of Noni appa. The routine of a sixty year old, her thoughts on re marriage on how copes up with her loneliness and finding a companion is in depth and very nuanced. It also makes you think as to why there is always a taboo surrounding such issues and why complicate it when its as simple as that of finding the right person given the age or being a widow shouldn’t matter.

However my most favorite character is Bablu, as the author rightly describes him as the sanitary man from the sacred land! Bablu is a fictional character based on Arunachalam Muruganatham who has been listed in the TIME’s 2014 of 100 most influential people. Having based Bablu on a real life character one might doubt the creativity of her writing. But she has done all justice to his character having taken the bits and pieces of his real life.  For a man with such optimism and perseverance his journey is not something ordinary. The author deserves credit for introducing him to us!

With every blog or book she proves that she can strike the right chord and The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad is no different. When you have a market where Love stories are the only genres most of the Indian authors are interested in she has maintained her individuality. She effortlessly drives her point home without coming around as Saint Baba which is refreshing!  Cant help admiring her and her characters!!

 

 

Trolls, Memes & Beliefs

As i open my Facebook account to wish my friends a very happy Pongal all i get to see was  #WeDoJallikattu, #WeSupportJallikattu and #TrishaSupportsPeta hash tags!!!

Following this I see a series of pages with derogatory memes with an obituary poster of a heroine citing the death cause as HIV and her parents being called with horrible terms just because she is a member of an organization that opposes their cause.

When a person has a difference of opinion it has become a trend these days to show hate, troll them, create memes in disparaging manner, use filthy language to abuse them and their family members and to character assassinate that person. This I find it more in case of a woman cause i don’t find a man who drinks and parties being called a defamation to Tamil culture. Whereas when a woman drinks and parties she is being called as drunkard and culture less woman and what not (just because India is a Republic country and these people have their freedom of speech!)

And also, you become an active supporter of a cause by posting pro statuses about the cause (Can’t get the logic here though :P) Now that you have become an active supporter the next thing you do is troll other people who don’t support your cause to such an extent that trolling the other person becomes your primary and the one for which you raised your voice becomes secondary! (Slow Claps!!)

I really wonder what all these so called supporters do to promote their cause and beliefs apart from posting status on their Facebook and twitter accounts.

There are larger issues at hand which needs considerable attention. Yes, if Jallikattu is important to farmers and to our tradition it is also equally important to extend our support to our farmers when they were staging protests by eating rats asking  the government to declare Tamil Nadu as drought hit and waive their crop loans. In recent times, farmers suicides are also increasing.

Have we done something to save our agricultural lands or to curb farmers suicides? We don’t become active supporters by creating trolls or creating awareness, posting statuses about it still and have coca cola’s during office parties. We become hypocrites.

Just creating hate trolls about those who’s opinion differs and projecting yourselves a supporter of cause doesn’t help much. Rather, coming to terms with ground reality and working in such a way that significant changes are made for their well-being is the larger picture that needs to be looked into ! #SaveFarmers #SaveJallikattu #StayTrueToYourCause #LookAtTheBiggerPicture

When the sunlight dies

My life sucks! I feel low! I feel unwanted! I am the unluckiest bitch on earth! I feel like crap! I have nobody! God has no mercy on me! I feel like a loser! Life has not been easier on me!
If all this is going through your mind then welcome to the depression club!! Cheers!

Yes! I am going through it. So, do you think having a pity party and lamenting about it to your pals gonna make you feel better?! Sob sob, you are just fanning the flames!
Here is what that can make you feel better:
Spend some quality time with yourself:
When in solitude you do have a better chance of understanding and discovering yourself. Rather than complaining about your situation figure out ways to overcome it!
Complaining ain’t gonna help. It will only make things worse. If you wanna share your problems do share it but only with people who care about you others wont probably listen! Pouring out your emotions in your diary is the most effective remedy and I am sure it works.
Count your blessings:
Count your blessings rather than your curses! Take a paper and list out all the things that you are thankful for! Trust me this will make you feel better! Appreciate whatever you have otherwise no matter what, you will never be happy!
Look at the brighter side:
Always try to look for positives in all the bad situations! I know its easier said than done! This is the most frustrating statement which I have ever come across in life. But, looking at the brighter side of a bad situation helped me figure out that everything happens for a reason. And most of the times it has turned out to be for a better one only!
Never lose hope:
I have always wondered whether ‘hope’ is a good word or not! Hope is not only a positive word but having hope makes you believe in things which opens a whole new world of possibilities! Its sure to give you the confidence needed. Aah, Hope is a good word!
Extend your circle of friends:
Interacting with people of the same wavelength and frequency as of yours can be refreshing! They might be able to understand you better! Try joining some organizations or groups to take your mind off unwanted things. As said an idle mind is devil’s workshop! So, try to keep yourself as busy as possible.
Finally:
Probably in the middle of all this you would have forgotten to laugh! So take time for yourself to get back to your bestie to have a nice long chit-chat! Or do watch any of your favorite sitcoms or treat yourself to a nice comedy movie! And you can always get back to the happy person that you had lost long back only when you realize that life is not to be taken seriously!

Just a movie?

Kaththi: where to start?!
Truly a movie worth watching for it has all the essential ingredients that can grasp the audience attention for 150 minutes and that too with a strong social message. Even the kids do have the patience to hear the plight of the farmers’ cause of their hero, who by the way never fails to give the superman impression 😛 An applause to the director for his script, good plot, wonderful direction, amazing punch dialogues, one-liners, all the sarcasm about the juvenile justice (I loved that scene!!) and for all the witty techniques, where the hero handles the villains (thinking how the director managed to get those ideas!). Usually there only seems to be one man army vs an entire bunch of rowdies. Here too it’s the same except with a bit of logic and unnecessary heroism! No flaws, one movie worth watching after a long time. My doubt is kaththi has surely tasted success as movie for the extraordinary box-office collections that it has made but in terms of the message it delivered, will there be any change?! I think issue raised there needs a lot of attention, apart from being just an entertainment!

Are corporates the only villains for depletion of agricultural lands? I guess it was easy for the director to show one villain for movie purpose whereas in reality there are a lot of people out there! No smoke without fire and no corporates without demand!! When there is a need, so arises the situation for the corporates to produce! If people would probably stop using their products, there would be no need for corporates! It’s not just the corporates who seize agricultural lands but also the real estate people for construction of apartments and flats! All I could hear was the clap sounds of the fans when their hero spoke that climax speech! I really couldn’t figure out whether they really clapped for the content or simply because their thalaivar spoke such powerful thought-provoking words! For if they really clapped for the content, they would bring about a change to this situation! If not, there will still be colas for a party and there will be cricketers and heroines who endorse those products! No right blaming them too for there is that ‘smoke thing’!
If you want to bring a change, be the change that you want to be!! Otherwise a dozen more movies like kaththi will still be a mere entertainment and nothing more!!
P.S: I am no exception for I am also using the products, but I wish to be the change I want to see 🙂

My First Crush!

It was 2003 cricket world cup. My whole family would be glued to television. Back then I was no big a fan of cricket. I used to get updates of the matches that India played. Rarely would I see India batting. It was one such day that India vs Kenya match was going on and India was batting. Sourav was on strike and don’t know whether it was coincidence, he hit two consecutive sixes the moment I saw 😛 There was my hero. Suddenly he became the person of my dreams. I turned out to be an avid cricket fan just because of Ganguly.

From then I started collecting pictures of him from newspapers and other magazines. I would be the first to read any article that was written about him. I was caught several times by my mom for gaping at his pictures for long hours in a day. I have been teased an infinite number of times by my cousins whenever he got out on a duck. There would be a fight among our friends about who was best: Sourav, Dravid or Sachin. Unfortunately, Sourav had the least supporters, but we would never give him up. But whatever it is, I have always been an ardent Ganguly fan.

And this particular match, that took place in England, where the England team had scored a 360 and India had to chase this score. It was the last over and it got interesting as there was equal probability of both teams to win the match and there was Ganguly in the dressing room, biting his nails! When India had won the match he took off his shirt, waving it and running around the stadium! He was the most successful captain who had won many matches for India (Though, Dhoni holds this spot now). After all those controversies with Greg Chappell and all that stuff he still strived to retain his position in the team. He never gave up that easily although he could have done that given his financial background. His love for cricket was clearly shown. All this made me an even bigger fan.

And to meet my childhood sweetheart has always been my dream, which is yet to come true!

Education: A word which has lost it’s meaning

This summer, while it had been an anxious period for all the 10th and 12th standard students, the results of them left me with a point to ponder (as I was on my holidays and had no better job to do!). About the education system. And, the showers of marks being bestowed upon the 10th students left me with more questions than answers! Was the syllabus that easy or has the quality of students increased? Does the marking system really evaluate the quality of the students? Does our education system really bring out the students potential?
Clearly an analysis of it drove home the fact that syllabus was easy and all the questions were only from the exercise areas at the back of every chapter! This is why it had been a cake walk for almost all of the students. Neither does this evaluate the Knowledge nor the Intelligence of the students. It evaluates the memorizing capacity and the ability to being able to reproduce whatever that has been memorized. It provides no space for creativity and innovations. The more agonizing fact is that the students are being weighed and judged by their marks! There have been a lot of instances where the students are compared to their peers by their parents which put a lot of pressure on the students! The result is that the students are psychologically affected.
Where is our education system leading us? To the betterment? Evidently, no.
I think the whole concept of education is being misunderstood here. The education should contribute to an overall development of a student, and not just to marks. But sad, vice-versa is what is happening in our society! Once a student enters 9th standard there starts to take place a series of rituals in most of our households.Television cable cut. Internet cut. Games cut. A student is confined to a room where he is expected to study most of the time (which he apparently doesn’t!). In short, he enters a world where he eats, sleeps and studies, studies, studies! Does a meagre of gaining a 475 or above on 500, where no knowledge or intelligence is gained require all these sacrifices?
Education system has to be changed where learning should be made fun. It should be more creative and innovative. It should be challenging to the students that enables them to contribute something innovative and useful to the society. They should give more importance to practical side than to theory! Apart from this a school should contribute to wholesome development of a student. It is where he learns to distinguish the good and the bad. It plays a vital role in their upbringing. So, the main duty of the school is not just imparting knowledge but also the values that one stands for, which is the real measure of education. There are many schools that have moral science classes for the latter. The effort is laudable and the same measures have to be taken so that they are implemented in all the schools.
Clearly, the word ‘education’ needs a better perspective. As marked by Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Thus, the education system should be changed. This should be done not only at the school level but also at the college level. Once done, we can expect our country to be a role model to all other countries!