This is one of my alltime favourite photographs. though it has undergone some manipulations, it has been so tastefully done that it conveys a sense of calm relaxation. it makes u sit and think of your maddening schedule, your hectic lifestyle, your stressed out life. Makes you sigh !!! all the elements complement each other and the lighting is also perfect for the mood. one of soft comtemplation. a time for your self.  

Jithin, Aashirwad and Girish - 3 Jiggdy dosths of mine. This was taken at "The House of Commons" - A restaurant at Willington Island, Cochin. Compulsive foodies, we biked about 10 kms just to eat parathas, beef roast, chicken and gobi manchurian. aashirwad is bushed after a heavy dinner !!!!! 

Aashirvad and girish  

Unaffiliated colleges and unwed mothers.

Come to think of it, I think there is a lot of similarity between unaffiliated colleges / institutions and unwed mothers. how.... well, i'll tell u.

the traditional models that colleges follow are that they get themselves affiliated to a university. this arrangement has many advantages i agree. but each university has its own systems. there are even private universities. the main grouse against universities are that they have too much of red tape. infact, the image that they have is that of a giant which has fallen down after gettign entangled in its own red tape. frankly, the systems stink ! more that facilitation they provide enough barriers to make a good man paraniod.

today's world is changing at a blistering pace. its almost impossible for a person to keep track of everything. but then , today, survival depends on how much you keep yourself abreast. the university system fails miserable at that. let me quote an example. java was once the hottest technology to hit the information technology scene. our colleges were still teaching cobol, fortran, pascal and maybe even morse code. suddenly there is this huge demand for java courses and the private institutes made a quick killing. then the university set its machinery iin motion to teach the students java. and well, it finally got included in the syllabus. but by that time, (it took a couple of years i guess ) java became 'cold' in the sense that people used it, but then the prominence was lost. so whatever the universities do will turn up like this. rotten situation. then comes the problems of exams. i know friends who have written their first year exams in the middle of the second year because the exams keep getting postponed. what do u say about that.

so the whole idea of breaking the bondage from university incompetence comes to the fore and a lot of new generation colleges mostly for management courses. the most famous being the IIMs - Indian Institutes of Management. totally 6 in number in India. these institutes arent affiliated to any university. they have set standards which are on par with the worlds best universities and institutions.

this was enough motivation for others to emulate them. but the sad thing that happened is the the quality factor came down with each new college. the main idea was to provide enough freedom to alter syllabi and provide latest topics. and conduct exams on time.

but not many people acknowledge the quality of these new-gen institutions. the people who pass out of these new-gen institutes are still at the receiving end of step-motherly treatment.

the new-gen institutes have a bastardly existence. there is no "Dad" to point to. its like unwed motherhood. its happened and you try to be brave about it. but be ostracised anyways. the ones that get away with it are the super rich. here the super rich are the A class institutes like the IIms XLRIs and others have no probs. the ones at the upper echelons never have to face the probs and pangs of unemployment and the trials and tribulations convincing that you are worth it.

In delhi

reached here on monday 4.45 pm. trains as usual have a stubborn nature of never maintaining correct times.

its cold here. well, the evenings are not so cold. the nights and mornings will bloody be. there is some kidn of mist / fog / smog here all the time methinks. hmnnnn....

its a mad city, ask me for first impression, i'd say its bad. almost filthy. people are obsessed with spitting. pedestrians, people on bikes, in cars, from buses everybody is spitting. i had to accustom myself to dodging spit bullets and spit splatters on the road and pavements. shitty habits make shitty cities. letsee if the other parts of the city are better / cleaner.

had gulab jamuns.... aaaah !!! hot hot ones. they just melt in your mouth. have to try all the sweets delhi has to offer. mmmmmm.....

will have to shift from the current place i am staying. too expensive and too far off from the place i have work at.

To Delhi

I started my trip to delhi on saturday by about 3.30pm. through five states and across more than 2000 kilometers, it was one grimy trip. it was boring too. what could you do except make small talk with your co passengers, stare out of the window - but then the scenery is pretty desolate. once you are accustomed to the natural and vivid beauty of kerala, then when you go out, you feel the other places are pretty shitty. most of tamil nadu, andhra, maharashtra, madhya pradesh, uttar pradesh are all dry and desolate.

one place which i liked for its dryness is the chambal ravines. once the famed or rather infamous abode of the chambal ki rani - phoolan devi. it had its own grandeur, its winding ravines, mini gorges and barren landscape has a distant poetic appeal. talk about poetry in a place where thakurs blood flowed from merciless hounding by a female set on revenge. hell hath no fury like a woman scorned / pained. hmnnnn....

the train food was bad. uncommentable !!!!

the climate on the way got a bit chilly. it was cold in the nights and morning. delhi will be colder.

Valuable information from mediocre fiction.....

A lot of us tend to look down upon or scoff at a certain genré of books a là Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Trixie Beldon, Three Investigators etc. The all knowing elders are always anxious to get their wards to pass over this stage. They feel that this genré is too immature and kiddish and mediocre.

But all that I can say is - Rubbish !!!

I myself have been at the receiving end of much ridicule during my school days when I used to be an avid fan of this genré . I stronlgy believe that in these times of dwindling readership and books losing their sheen to other interactive media; to sustain and stimulate children's interest in books and reading, the cause of books should be taken up at a much earlier stage. Kiddy books should be given and the kids should be encouraged to read it. Many methods can be used to motivate children to read. After all, at a young age, your motivating factors are always limited !!

Books like Herge's Tintin which is a comic, are so well researched and provide so much of general knowledge of places and people. So is the case with the hardy boys and nancy drew. Though the quality of the fiction is debatable, what is important is that the books serve as a interesting and voluntary tool to enrich knowledge and more importantly serve as a platform to prepare the children towards more "serious" reading.

The intelligentsia still has a scornful eye towards more mature fiction. Can't help it, though it may not provide a solution to the problems that plague today's world or that it serves a different purpose - of personal satisfaction and effecting a feel good factor, it may be looked at as a poor cousin of the non-fiction genre. But some of the books have been written over such a long time and after much intensive research that it could equal a couple of volumes worth of textbook material. What would be a logical choice for youngsters ? information gift wrapped in a story or reams and reams of monospaced text in Times New Roman ??? That should be our mission as bibliophiles or otherwise... to stimulate interest in the dying art of book reading...

long live the book !