The day began with a lot of excitement and anxiety. When I entered office one of my colleagues was inviting everyone to participate in the Blood donation camp run by St. Johns medical college hospital in our office. I was in double mind, since I had never donated blood in my life. I was not sure whether to participate in the camp or not. My heart said that it’s a noble cause and its worth going there. However, bad memories of fainting during a blood test in my school days and the reluctance of some of our colleagues to donate blood restrained me from participating in the camp.
Finally after lunch when the HR lady came to my desk to check whether I have donated blood, I decided to give it a shot. Thankfully there were two colleagues of mine volunteered at the same time. I expressed my apprehensions to them. Since they had donated blood in the past, they informed me that it would not have any major effects on our body. Their encouragement helped me take a decision.
My mind was still filled with anxiety though I had taken the decision. The customary checks on the weight, blood group etc was over and I was interviewed by the doctor with the usual questions that they ask before donating the blood. There were ten beds in the hall and many of them were giving blood at that time. When the doctor was interviewing me I saw them collecting blood from the donors. It was almost the size of 500 ml milk packet. I was wondering whether there would be enough blood left in my body when they take 500 ml of blood. I had an urge to run back to my cubicle, but I restrained myself from doing so, realizing how bad publicity it would be if others come to know of it. When my turn came up a colleague of mine who had given blood had a black out. Looking at him my anxiety increased.
Finally I was in the bed thinking of what would be my status when I complete the activity. I was thinking whether god would have a list of people who have died by donating blood, and how the entrance of heaven and hell would be. But at last when the doctor came to me and told that the process is complete, I felt relieved. Finally I really felt good, because my blood could save a life in this planet. We would not get this opportunity on a daily basis. My suggestion to anyone who has not donated blood is to utilize these opportunities. To be frank, I never had any issues after donating blood. I was feeling a bit tired, which made me eat a lot of food during the day. Try it out at least once. It is worth the effort.
Finally when I was lying in the bed relieved that nothing bad has happened, one of the lady doctors came to me and encouraged me by saying that I had only given a small portion of the blood, which made me think about the sufferings that the other gender would undergo in the normal course of their life. Needless to mention, that this event increased my respect for the other gender.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Greatest Blunders in Indian history
On the morning of Janurary 26 (60th republic day) I happened to read an article about the achievements of China. The article mentioned that China has made huge progress in construction, engineering, power generation, airport development, railways, space technology etc. There are high speed trains between Shanghai and Beijing which runs at the speed of 300 kms per hour, whereas our trains struggle to maintain an average speed of 100 kmph. Looking at the advancements that China has made, I realized that it would take 30 more years for us to come up to that level.
It made me think about our achievements in the past 63 years. Well, there is nothing much to talk about in terms of achievement. Hence I thought it would be better to write about the greatest blunders committed, which might be the root cause of our current status.
1) Nehru as Prime Minister: This can be considered to be one of the greatest blunders. I am not sure what made Gandhi choose Nehru over Patel. The policies of Nehru are being criticized by their own party men today. He neither had the vision nor was he a shrewd politician. He messed up the Kashmir issue, did not handle the relationship with China properly, his policies on NAM was total crap etc. We were not clear whether to align with erstwhile USSR or US. The first few years after a country’s independence is very vital for its development. Nehru ensured that we would not develop for the next 100 years by making terrible mistakes.
2) War with Pakistan: Most of us feel proud that we won the wars against Pakistan. Though the result of the war was favorable to us we did not get any benefit out of that. Ideally we should have used the opportunity to make Pakistan dance to our tunes. Alas! We did not!! Where in the world you can find a country which won the war and agreed to give away a part of its territory to the enemy. Ideally Pakistan should have been thrown out of Kashmir and shown its way out. We should have made them agree to the fact that Kashmir is a part of India and they would not mess up with us henceforth. We did neither. Instead we gave a part of Kashmir to them and agreed on the Line of control as the border. Had we resolved the Kashmir issue in 1970’s we could have easily concentrated on our development instead of fighting terrorism.
It is an irony that every one of us wants India to develop rapidly; however our political system is so corrupt that it would take decades to even come up to the level of present day China. While China was able to host Olympics and prove to the world that they are a major economic force, India is struggling to complete the infrastructure projects before commencement of common wealth games. Though I am not a great fan of communist principles, I am sure china would not have achieved so much in this short span had it been a democracy.
It made me think about our achievements in the past 63 years. Well, there is nothing much to talk about in terms of achievement. Hence I thought it would be better to write about the greatest blunders committed, which might be the root cause of our current status.
1) Nehru as Prime Minister: This can be considered to be one of the greatest blunders. I am not sure what made Gandhi choose Nehru over Patel. The policies of Nehru are being criticized by their own party men today. He neither had the vision nor was he a shrewd politician. He messed up the Kashmir issue, did not handle the relationship with China properly, his policies on NAM was total crap etc. We were not clear whether to align with erstwhile USSR or US. The first few years after a country’s independence is very vital for its development. Nehru ensured that we would not develop for the next 100 years by making terrible mistakes.
2) War with Pakistan: Most of us feel proud that we won the wars against Pakistan. Though the result of the war was favorable to us we did not get any benefit out of that. Ideally we should have used the opportunity to make Pakistan dance to our tunes. Alas! We did not!! Where in the world you can find a country which won the war and agreed to give away a part of its territory to the enemy. Ideally Pakistan should have been thrown out of Kashmir and shown its way out. We should have made them agree to the fact that Kashmir is a part of India and they would not mess up with us henceforth. We did neither. Instead we gave a part of Kashmir to them and agreed on the Line of control as the border. Had we resolved the Kashmir issue in 1970’s we could have easily concentrated on our development instead of fighting terrorism.
It is an irony that every one of us wants India to develop rapidly; however our political system is so corrupt that it would take decades to even come up to the level of present day China. While China was able to host Olympics and prove to the world that they are a major economic force, India is struggling to complete the infrastructure projects before commencement of common wealth games. Though I am not a great fan of communist principles, I am sure china would not have achieved so much in this short span had it been a democracy.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Exceptional exception
Two movies that got released during December 2009 are the greatest hits ever: 3 Idiots (in Bollywood) and Avatar (in Hollywood).
If a movie has to be accepted by the majority of the audience, the script has to be extraordinary. The story line cannot be different these days. Only the script can make a difference.
I was not impressed with Chetan Bhagat’s book Five point someone. In fact I was half way through the book when I watched 3 idiots. Any script which involves taking you back to the college days is bound to be a hit unless the script is really bad. On top of that, if it is presented in a comical way, there can be no doubts about its success. In 3 idiots, the way in which the director has handled the heavy scenes are really good. For ex, though the scene involving Raju’s mom crying about the family situation is a bit irritating, the resulting scene is really hilarious. Similarly when the scene in which Rancho brings Raju back to normalcy is also good.
Apart from the normal stuff for which the film can be appreciated, I liked it because it questioned the conventional way of learning. I could never accept the conventional way of learning. Attending classes and mugging the stuff taught there takes us nowhere. There was no fun in learning in my school life, except for a few classes taught by teachers who taught with so much of enthusiasm. One should appreciate the director for providing such unconventional thoughts in a way that is acceptable to majority of the audience.
I was skeptical about the success of Avatar since I heard that it was based on science fiction. There are innumerable numbers of movies in Hollywood based on science fiction; movies where aliens attack our world, insects attacking human races etc etc. These doomsday theories and movies involving aliens used to irritate me a lot. Except for the technical excellence there was no other positive aspect in those films. Hence I had never watched SF movies in theaters.
But I liked Avatar because of three reasons. First, technically it is really brilliant. Almost all the scenes are based on imagination and there was no major mistake that I could find out. Second, handling emotional scenes involving aliens and for a change showing human beings as villains is refreshing. (In fact we are the villains in our own planet, leave alone other planets). Last but not the least; I liked it because it really had a theme which is closest to my heart. Destroying nature, especially trees, for human development is atrocious. And I could not accept the fact that humans destroyed the beautiful environment in alien land. Even though its fiction, the success of the movie lies in making us feel for destroying the nature. The film conveys that through nature we are all connected, and if nature is destroyed it is as good as destroying ourselves. Since the movie was exceptional, I thought having made an exception to the rule of not watching a fiction movie was worth it.
If a movie has to be accepted by the majority of the audience, the script has to be extraordinary. The story line cannot be different these days. Only the script can make a difference.
I was not impressed with Chetan Bhagat’s book Five point someone. In fact I was half way through the book when I watched 3 idiots. Any script which involves taking you back to the college days is bound to be a hit unless the script is really bad. On top of that, if it is presented in a comical way, there can be no doubts about its success. In 3 idiots, the way in which the director has handled the heavy scenes are really good. For ex, though the scene involving Raju’s mom crying about the family situation is a bit irritating, the resulting scene is really hilarious. Similarly when the scene in which Rancho brings Raju back to normalcy is also good.
Apart from the normal stuff for which the film can be appreciated, I liked it because it questioned the conventional way of learning. I could never accept the conventional way of learning. Attending classes and mugging the stuff taught there takes us nowhere. There was no fun in learning in my school life, except for a few classes taught by teachers who taught with so much of enthusiasm. One should appreciate the director for providing such unconventional thoughts in a way that is acceptable to majority of the audience.
I was skeptical about the success of Avatar since I heard that it was based on science fiction. There are innumerable numbers of movies in Hollywood based on science fiction; movies where aliens attack our world, insects attacking human races etc etc. These doomsday theories and movies involving aliens used to irritate me a lot. Except for the technical excellence there was no other positive aspect in those films. Hence I had never watched SF movies in theaters.
But I liked Avatar because of three reasons. First, technically it is really brilliant. Almost all the scenes are based on imagination and there was no major mistake that I could find out. Second, handling emotional scenes involving aliens and for a change showing human beings as villains is refreshing. (In fact we are the villains in our own planet, leave alone other planets). Last but not the least; I liked it because it really had a theme which is closest to my heart. Destroying nature, especially trees, for human development is atrocious. And I could not accept the fact that humans destroyed the beautiful environment in alien land. Even though its fiction, the success of the movie lies in making us feel for destroying the nature. The film conveys that through nature we are all connected, and if nature is destroyed it is as good as destroying ourselves. Since the movie was exceptional, I thought having made an exception to the rule of not watching a fiction movie was worth it.
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