To be Indian or not to be...

Take any recent newspaper - you will find at least one report of attacks on women for 'wearing Western attire' or 'walking around at night alone', and many more . Such acts cannot be justified whatever reason the attackers have. Hiding under the cover of 'preserving Indianness' , these people are promoting intolerance. If wearing jeans is un-Indian, how many of these self- appointed custodians of Indian culture wear traditional Indian dhoti? Or is it something that is applicable only to women? How can wearing a dress of one's own choice make anyone less Indian? Aren't there more pressing issues than making a furore about youth celebrating Valentines' day or wearing jeans? Indianness is not defined by a person's dress or his dining habits. Rather being Indian is all about having love and respect for one's own country and its people irrespective of caste, creed or gender. It is about fulfilling the vision of the countless martyrs who laid down their life for the freedom of this country - to build a truly independent and developed India. This is a country whose constitution advocates equality and upholds freedom of individuals. Such outrageous acts by anyone should be considered an attack against basic human rights and individual freedom. The government needs to take strict and effective action against such attacks and ensure the safety of women. As one of my friends rightly put it, if beating up innocent women is Indianness, then I don't want to be an Indian.

Water

I opened my eyes. I could see the dark starless sky above and feel the ice-cold water around me. I struggled against the water that was pulling me deeper down. I cried. I wailed. But the chilling darkness swallowed it all. I felt weak and helpless. 

A thousand images flashed before my eyes. Birds. Trees.Flowers. Rain. Life. 

I surfaced once again and gasped for air one last time. My body was failing me. I was going down. To a watery grave...

And then it was all peaceful. I  felt weightless as if a burden had been taken off my shoulders. True that things do weigh lighter in water. My pale cold body undulated with the waves on the surface. The same water against which I was struggling a few minutes back seemed to be quiet and still. And I wasn't being pulled down either. I was on my own floating around in the calm waters. I felt free. Liberated. 

Back to business....!!!

Well.. Oasis-2k7 is memory now. And I should admit, it wasn't as fun as my first one. Probably because of the pending assignments and presentations suspended over my head like the sword of Damocles. For the past two days, I have been doing nothing other than staring at my laptop screen, trying to figure out what to do about my Data Structures and Algorithms assignment, and how. The compiler, the "wonderful" thing it is, has been throwing errors, prompting this poor soul to cry out for God every time before giving compile and run commands. It seems God is rather bad at programming (....... :P). I am writing this post, exhausted after writing an eighteen page report to be submitted tomorrow, thanks to Data Mining course. My next post may be after I don't know how long. I am gonna have a helluva time with all those assignment submissions and tests. Wish every week we had Oasis.... :(

Oasis!!!

Thanks to OASIS, the annual cultural festival of BITS-Pilani, I have the so called luxury- time. Every year OASIS arrives bringing along with it, unlimited enthusiasm, and winter. Time for those blankets and sweaters to be taken out. Time to inject our minds with a whiff of fresh air. Time to pamper ourselves. Though well aware of the deluge of tuts, tests, and assignments that awaits me right after OASIS, I am enjoying the time I have got all for myself. Basic human tendency to ignore unpleasant things as long as we can. Isn't it?? Looking forward to a great OASIS.....

Pookkalam

This is a pic of the pookkalam that we made in front of our auditorium where we screened a Malayalam movie(Kaazhcha) for the second time in the history of Kairali@BITS-Pilani. Incidentally the first one (the classic Manichithrathazhu) was exactly ten years ago...........