This is a beautiful song written,composed and performed by Dolly Parton as an Original Soundtrack for the Movie "Transamerica".In the movie it symbolizes the journey of a Transsexual going through a Gender change in more than singular ways.But if you keep aside the movie for a while, it won't take much to realize that there is something for everybody in this song.
It befuddles me to see Dolly Parton(An architypal dumb looking blonde..that too with cosmetic surgery done all over her face), and then read this song ,with such depths of meanings.How she managed to write something sooooooooo GOOD ?? Well..Maybe Agent Smith was right when he said "Appearances can be deceiving at times ,Mr.Anderson" in "Matrix Reloaded".Lemme shut up now and just read on....
Travellin' Thru:
Well I can't tell you where I'm going, I'm not sure of where I've been
But I know I must keep travelin' till my road comes to an end
I'm out here on my journey, trying to make the most of it
I'm a puzzle, I must figure out where all my pieces fit
Like a poor wayfaring stranger that they speak about in song
I'm just a weary pilgrim trying to find what feels like home
Where that is no one can tell me, am I doomed to ever roam
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' on
Questions I have many, answers but a few
But we're here to learn, the spirit burns, to know the greater truth
We've all been crucified and they nailed Jesus to the tree
And when I'm born again, you're gonna see a change in me
God made me for a reason and nothing is in vain
Redemption comes in many shapes with many kinds of pain
Oh sweet Jesus if you're listening, keep me ever close to you
As I'm stumblin', tumblin', wonderin', as I'm travelin' thru
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru
Oh sometimes the road is rugged, and it's hard to travel on
But holdin' to each other, we don't have to walk alone
When everything is broken, we can mend it if we try
We can make a world of difference, if we want to we can fly
Goodbye little children, goodnight you handsome men
Farewell to all you ladies and to all who knew me when
And I hope I'll see you down the road, you meant more than I knew
As I was travelin', travelin', travelin', travelin', travelin' thru
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin'
Drifting like a floating boat and roaming like the wind
Oh give me some direction lord, let me lean on you
As I'm travelin', travelin', travelin', thru
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru
I'm just travelin', travelin', travelin', I'm just travelin' thru
Like the poor wayfaring stranger that they speak about in song
I'm just a weary pilgrim trying to find my own way home
Oh sweet Jesus if you're out there, keep me ever close to you
As I'm travelin', travelin', travelin', as I'm travelin' thru
Friday, August 25, 2006
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Education Ho !!
British left us almost 60 years ago.They gave us a lot of things, some good, some bad.The red tape culture of bureaucracy was bad,using meritocracy to select a bureaucrates was good.Giving us a judicial system which will take years to punish the guilty was bad but which will make sure that an innocent is never punished was good.It might be queTheir intentions of giving it to us might be questionable but the benefits that we Indians have reaped out of it are undeniable.
If an organization is an auotomobile, communication is the neccessary lubricant to make the ride smooth.Because of a significant English-speaking population, India has this lubricant in plenty and hence proved as an ideal answer for big organization's ever increasing human resources needs.Here the Macauley's system of education gave Indians a crucial edge over any other developing country.Macauley wanted Indians to learn english so that they can be employed effectively in Indian affairs of British administration.He understood that communication will be a crucial factor in governing India.He never speculated about how this will affect India--after independence, for the simple reason that 'Independent India' was to him an impossibility.
Education is instrumental for an individual to gain wealth and respect in Indian society.This reason made our parents to give education of their children utmost priority(here i am counting only those parents who had the means and enough sense to think about their child's welfare).When most of the world was busy producing managers, artists, fashion designers, musicians etc.Indian were busy teaching their kids Maths, Science and English as they believed it is the only way to get a prosperous and stable future.Getting into an IIT is like a dream coming true to any Indian student even today.
We invested a lot in having many institutes with particular stress on science and engineering colleges .Now every year we see lakhs of engineers coming out in the market.Their quality is not so consistent but what matters is that they all have dreams in their eyes and will do almost anything to make them come true.And what may seem to the world an underpaid job, in India, it still is somebody's dream coming true.
And finally all this investment and plans are paying off in India becoming World Brain mine.Indians are now considered a talent pool that is as smart as their western counterpart, if not better and at the same times, is ridiculously cheap and speaks the language of the world. So if i am business man, it makes a lot of sense to hire and train Indians if it is feasible.
So.. where do go from here ? where lies the future ? My best guess would be to say 'some place nice' but ONLY IF we plan today and face the challenges that need our immediate attention.The picture is still not as rosy as we all would like to believe.The fact that 3/4 th of the professionals we produce every year are coming from only 1/4 of the total population indicates that there is still lot to be desired from the present situation.Until ,unless we work for a better educational infrastructure ,making education accessible to every section of the society, the dream of India Shining will remain only a mirage to us.The good news is that, if we stick to the fundamentals we can do it.They may vary a little here and a little there but following points broadly sums them up( i hope so ) :
1.Invest more in primary and secondary education , providing compulsory education to underprivileged classes should be priority.More participation will only increase quality and quantity of the human reasource.It will also provide the social equality that provides any economy the political stability it requires to bloom.
2.Start paying your teachers more, make teaching a lucrative profession as a teacher may decide finally the fate of hundreds of our children.
3.India's core strength lies in teaching their kids Science and Maths ,stick to it .This world will require far more engineers than we will be able to produce.Quality higher education and enough infrastructure to meet industry demands needs to be the call of the time.
4.Increase the focus and funding for the R&D projects going in industry and educational institutions.It won't be reaping immediate benefits but research projects of today becomes outrageously successful product or technology of tommorow ,so essential for any stable and booming economy.
5.Increase the industry-academia participation, it will be a symbiotic relationship beneficial for both.
I admit it is always easier said than done, but a blog can only help you in putting forth your opinion.Rest is upto the people who read it and who wrote it in the first place.If we want to do something we will always find a way.But BEING AWARE is the first step for any worthy cause and I feel elated to say that we have taken that one CRUCIAL step.
Aufwiedersehen!! ( Until we meet again in german)
If an organization is an auotomobile, communication is the neccessary lubricant to make the ride smooth.Because of a significant English-speaking population, India has this lubricant in plenty and hence proved as an ideal answer for big organization's ever increasing human resources needs.Here the Macauley's system of education gave Indians a crucial edge over any other developing country.Macauley wanted Indians to learn english so that they can be employed effectively in Indian affairs of British administration.He understood that communication will be a crucial factor in governing India.He never speculated about how this will affect India--after independence, for the simple reason that 'Independent India' was to him an impossibility.
Education is instrumental for an individual to gain wealth and respect in Indian society.This reason made our parents to give education of their children utmost priority(here i am counting only those parents who had the means and enough sense to think about their child's welfare).When most of the world was busy producing managers, artists, fashion designers, musicians etc.Indian were busy teaching their kids Maths, Science and English as they believed it is the only way to get a prosperous and stable future.Getting into an IIT is like a dream coming true to any Indian student even today.
We invested a lot in having many institutes with particular stress on science and engineering colleges .Now every year we see lakhs of engineers coming out in the market.Their quality is not so consistent but what matters is that they all have dreams in their eyes and will do almost anything to make them come true.And what may seem to the world an underpaid job, in India, it still is somebody's dream coming true.
And finally all this investment and plans are paying off in India becoming World Brain mine.Indians are now considered a talent pool that is as smart as their western counterpart, if not better and at the same times, is ridiculously cheap and speaks the language of the world. So if i am business man, it makes a lot of sense to hire and train Indians if it is feasible.
So.. where do go from here ? where lies the future ? My best guess would be to say 'some place nice' but ONLY IF we plan today and face the challenges that need our immediate attention.The picture is still not as rosy as we all would like to believe.The fact that 3/4 th of the professionals we produce every year are coming from only 1/4 of the total population indicates that there is still lot to be desired from the present situation.Until ,unless we work for a better educational infrastructure ,making education accessible to every section of the society, the dream of India Shining will remain only a mirage to us.The good news is that, if we stick to the fundamentals we can do it.They may vary a little here and a little there but following points broadly sums them up( i hope so ) :
1.Invest more in primary and secondary education , providing compulsory education to underprivileged classes should be priority.More participation will only increase quality and quantity of the human reasource.It will also provide the social equality that provides any economy the political stability it requires to bloom.
2.Start paying your teachers more, make teaching a lucrative profession as a teacher may decide finally the fate of hundreds of our children.
3.India's core strength lies in teaching their kids Science and Maths ,stick to it .This world will require far more engineers than we will be able to produce.Quality higher education and enough infrastructure to meet industry demands needs to be the call of the time.
4.Increase the focus and funding for the R&D projects going in industry and educational institutions.It won't be reaping immediate benefits but research projects of today becomes outrageously successful product or technology of tommorow ,so essential for any stable and booming economy.
5.Increase the industry-academia participation, it will be a symbiotic relationship beneficial for both.
I admit it is always easier said than done, but a blog can only help you in putting forth your opinion.Rest is upto the people who read it and who wrote it in the first place.If we want to do something we will always find a way.But BEING AWARE is the first step for any worthy cause and I feel elated to say that we have taken that one CRUCIAL step.
Aufwiedersehen!! ( Until we meet again in german)
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Four Wedding and a Funeral
Funerals are overwhelming affairs.Ironically ,it's at a funeral you are reminded so dearly of a loved one and not when he is alive and kicking.You realize the substantially reduced meaning of your life without him, you are caught off guard.It is at a funeral, you become aware of the fact that their are things in Life you can not control, no matter how badly you want it.You look back at your own life and find that doing something was invariably a better option than doing nothing and just wishing.The pointlessness of your daily life stands right in your face, while you are trying hard to overcome the unbearble grief.
Recently I saw 'Four Wedding and a Funeral'.A spectacular movie without a second thought.Short,sweet,heartfelt and certainly made by person who is an avid observer of people and life.See it and you will understand what I mean by that.The attention paid to little nuisance is clearly a work of a virtuoso.
Here is a scene in the movie, the 'mad old man' is dead and this is his eulolgy.A poem by W H Auden, rarely in a movie you see a sequence so heartfelt, you mourn along with the people on the screen:
Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood,
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W. H. Auden
Recently I saw 'Four Wedding and a Funeral'.A spectacular movie without a second thought.Short,sweet,heartfelt and certainly made by person who is an avid observer of people and life.See it and you will understand what I mean by that.The attention paid to little nuisance is clearly a work of a virtuoso.
Here is a scene in the movie, the 'mad old man' is dead and this is his eulolgy.A poem by W H Auden, rarely in a movie you see a sequence so heartfelt, you mourn along with the people on the screen:
Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood,
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W. H. Auden
Friday, July 21, 2006
Friday, June 23, 2006
I Feel Good !!
I rarely write anything upbeat on my blog. Most of my posts are either satirical or plain contemptuous commentary on the sad situation of the world and ppl as I see it .Let me break that monotony not just for the sake of it but because recently I came across something that made me optimistic about our future. Insignificant though it may seem to many, it is a crucial and pleasant developement .
I was leafing through the pages of Outlook magazine and I came across an article titled as Sudama’s Children (You may have to register online with OUTLOOK india though ,don't worry it is for free ... :-) )
Since now you are back to my blog after reading the whole article (if you haven’t …finish it first ,it’s worth it ),we can talk about how I felt about it.
Being brought up in Tanakpur (a far fetched place at Nepal Border in Uttaranchal, India), and after studying in government schools till my senior secondary education, I can’t help having a feeling of kinship with these children. After my intermediate examination I went to Delhi to prepare for IIT-JEE and got admission in a prominent coaching institute. So Barely 2 months after passing 12th exams from a small town I was sharing class room with people from country’s most reputed schools, (most of them being from DPS RK Puram and Ranchi,Bokaro and all the St.XYZ in Delhi).It was difficult at first and at the same time confusing .As if preparing for JEE alone wasn’t daunting enough, I suddenly found myself amongst these people having an IQ >200 and talking in a language which I I initially thought as French. Thankfully, only thing that was needed to garner respect in the class was one’s proficiency in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics which I had in sufficient supply. Still I had felt so many times like an absolute dork whenever I have to clarify a doubt in the class because of my unease with English as a medium of communication.
Somehow I survived through that period of my life and got admission to a decent engineering college (after bidding adieu to all my dreams of being an IITian). And again I found myself pitted against that convent educated junta that I always found so unbearable. This time around, I knew my Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics won’t help me and finally I took refuge in the protection of a language I hated for so long.( That hatred was nothing but my anger at my insufficiency at the language ).I did that only to survive, and now I am glad to tell you that I did.
The problem with Indian mindset is that we still associate English with the elites (after all it was once our rulers’ language). One’s social status (or ‘kool’ ness or ‘hip’ factor) is still largely decided by his proficiency in the language. In fact, without English your chances of success are very limited in conventional professions (engineering, medicine, banking and many more).Even top Hindi movie actors today prefer to speak English most of the time. I am not an anti-English activist and I know that much of Indian economic success owes itself to the large section of English speaking population we have in India. I am only saying that English is a MUST to be successful in India and more so if your father was not exactly a rich man. This is a bitter truth that most people in India are aware of, consciously or unconsciously.
All these elite schools are there to take advantage of this fact. English as a medium of instruction is used to increase one’s ease and proficiency of the language. Speaking in English in mandatory in many schools and use of regional language in most such school is a punishable offence. They have the support of the elite class of the society who believe that the school of their kids determines their social status and hence are willing to pay handsome amount of money to achieve that. Most of these schools charge monthly fee more than the monthly income of a common man. These schools no doubt provide quality education to all their students, only problem being they are out of reach of an ordinary Indian.
Government initiative to make quality education less elitist and more inclusive is welcome in all senses. It’s really difficult not to feel euphoric on seeing little kids splashing in swimming pool and realizing simultaneously that finally we are able to see a classroom without having classes of its own. Had it not been for the Government’s initiative, some of these kids would never have got the chance even to see a swimming pool, leave aside the possibility of being in one.
I know it’s too early to become hopeful, I know it’s too naïve to believe every word of this news item as it is , but I know for sure that this thing is for the good of society and its many less fortunate members. This is the ray of hope at the end of the tunnel and I am sure there is light there. Education is the power of new world order and quality education equips you to fight your own battle against injustice and misfortune.The more access the people will have, the better our future will be.
I also know it won’t be easy to overcome the biases of the elites about the poor, I know it will be difficult for some of these kids to cope and compete, but I also know that a chance of seeing them coming out from the purgatory of poverty is worth it all. They know it or will realize it soon.
This gives me hope of better and more equal society, again I know I am being naive in saying so.Nevertheless I feel this ephemeral naivity with hope is far better than the hopeless cynicism that I normally dwell into.
Hope, they say is a strange thing, it doesn’t cost you anything but worth a fortune. It is not the society with most money that will survive; rather it will be the one with HOPE, however little it may be. Period.
I was leafing through the pages of Outlook magazine and I came across an article titled as Sudama’s Children (You may have to register online with OUTLOOK india though ,don't worry it is for free ... :-) )
Since now you are back to my blog after reading the whole article (if you haven’t …finish it first ,it’s worth it ),we can talk about how I felt about it.
Being brought up in Tanakpur (a far fetched place at Nepal Border in Uttaranchal, India), and after studying in government schools till my senior secondary education, I can’t help having a feeling of kinship with these children. After my intermediate examination I went to Delhi to prepare for IIT-JEE and got admission in a prominent coaching institute. So Barely 2 months after passing 12th exams from a small town I was sharing class room with people from country’s most reputed schools, (most of them being from DPS RK Puram and Ranchi,Bokaro and all the St.XYZ in Delhi).It was difficult at first and at the same time confusing .As if preparing for JEE alone wasn’t daunting enough, I suddenly found myself amongst these people having an IQ >200 and talking in a language which I I initially thought as French. Thankfully, only thing that was needed to garner respect in the class was one’s proficiency in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics which I had in sufficient supply. Still I had felt so many times like an absolute dork whenever I have to clarify a doubt in the class because of my unease with English as a medium of communication.
Somehow I survived through that period of my life and got admission to a decent engineering college (after bidding adieu to all my dreams of being an IITian). And again I found myself pitted against that convent educated junta that I always found so unbearable. This time around, I knew my Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics won’t help me and finally I took refuge in the protection of a language I hated for so long.( That hatred was nothing but my anger at my insufficiency at the language ).I did that only to survive, and now I am glad to tell you that I did.
The problem with Indian mindset is that we still associate English with the elites (after all it was once our rulers’ language). One’s social status (or ‘kool’ ness or ‘hip’ factor) is still largely decided by his proficiency in the language. In fact, without English your chances of success are very limited in conventional professions (engineering, medicine, banking and many more).Even top Hindi movie actors today prefer to speak English most of the time. I am not an anti-English activist and I know that much of Indian economic success owes itself to the large section of English speaking population we have in India. I am only saying that English is a MUST to be successful in India and more so if your father was not exactly a rich man. This is a bitter truth that most people in India are aware of, consciously or unconsciously.
All these elite schools are there to take advantage of this fact. English as a medium of instruction is used to increase one’s ease and proficiency of the language. Speaking in English in mandatory in many schools and use of regional language in most such school is a punishable offence. They have the support of the elite class of the society who believe that the school of their kids determines their social status and hence are willing to pay handsome amount of money to achieve that. Most of these schools charge monthly fee more than the monthly income of a common man. These schools no doubt provide quality education to all their students, only problem being they are out of reach of an ordinary Indian.
Government initiative to make quality education less elitist and more inclusive is welcome in all senses. It’s really difficult not to feel euphoric on seeing little kids splashing in swimming pool and realizing simultaneously that finally we are able to see a classroom without having classes of its own. Had it not been for the Government’s initiative, some of these kids would never have got the chance even to see a swimming pool, leave aside the possibility of being in one.
I know it’s too early to become hopeful, I know it’s too naïve to believe every word of this news item as it is , but I know for sure that this thing is for the good of society and its many less fortunate members. This is the ray of hope at the end of the tunnel and I am sure there is light there. Education is the power of new world order and quality education equips you to fight your own battle against injustice and misfortune.The more access the people will have, the better our future will be.
I also know it won’t be easy to overcome the biases of the elites about the poor, I know it will be difficult for some of these kids to cope and compete, but I also know that a chance of seeing them coming out from the purgatory of poverty is worth it all. They know it or will realize it soon.
This gives me hope of better and more equal society, again I know I am being naive in saying so.Nevertheless I feel this ephemeral naivity with hope is far better than the hopeless cynicism that I normally dwell into.
Hope, they say is a strange thing, it doesn’t cost you anything but worth a fortune. It is not the society with most money that will survive; rather it will be the one with HOPE, however little it may be. Period.
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