The English Breakfast

The other day, I was watching a documentary about World War - 1. although, many things were known and some unknown. I am not the one who is interested in numbers, it was a great loss for the world. Almost an entire generation was wiped out. I am not here to discuss about the losses but to make sense of somethings which keep on lingering on my mind.

When they speak about the English food, they always say it is bland - no taste, whatsoever - except baked potatoes and roasted meat. This is noticed not only amongst the rich but also for the poor.

Ironically, that is one of the ways they managed for survival during their World War days. Government rationed the food, so that everyone gets to eat. Another reason being, all sea routes were blocked by German U-boats, import was becoming difficult and so was food. The good thing is both rich and poor did participate to face the situation as one!!! (Or it seems to be!!!!)

So, is it good to assume that the bland English food is an outcome of Great Leadership during those times?

On the contrary, this kind of rationing was not undertaken any other region of Europe. They cherished their food but in the end had to switch from meat to tulips and lost lot of farms, farmers and farmlands.

If I am wrong in my conclusions, then the other school of thought goes to the situation during those times. England has a colony in almost every corner of the world. they might have definitely bought some good cuisines / specialties back from these colonies. It is difficult to change but impossible to resist to the food for a long time.

So, again is it right to assume that they went back to their original feed habits? And this time everyone was treated equal - rich and poor????

Comments are welcome...

Helping randomly

I do not know what happened and how it happened and I am still wondering what happened.

While I was walking back to home for lunch, I saw a young couple a few meters ahead of me. A thought went through my mind that they seem to be normal couple just talking with each other.

When I was near enough, the guy approached me and asked whether I speak English. I thought they might have lost some path or looking for some directions and replied "Yes". In a polite but in a bit apologetic manner he asked particularly for 3€. I was taken back and glanced at the girl, most of her head was covered with the hood of her blue jacket but her eyes also said that she is sad and apologetic but helpless.

I asked a couple of questions and the guy answered with confidence as if sensing that I am ready to help. Then I asked "why do they need the money for". "To eat something - we lost our money". With the way they were speaking and their eyes seemed honest. My conscious mind was (and still) suspicious.

I had this split second to make a decision, whether to help them or not.A thought just came to my mind - I must help them but not entirely. My intentions are pure and to help someone, someone whose proximity is comforting and have answered initial questions of conscious mind. If they are honest and in need - I will achieve  what my intention was. If they are dishonest, I might not have achieved what I wanted but at least in my heart, I know my intentions are pure and will not feel bad for not helping the needy.

When I gave them 2€ their eyes were lit and said "thank you" as if someone has given them bread.

I still have lot of questions in my mind
- should I have given them more money?
- should I have taken them to a restaurant and paid for their lunch?
- there are lot of options - should I have done this or that!!!

I also ask myself, will I help any other couple next time? What if I meet the same couple again in the evening asking for more money?

Don't know answers for many thoughts yet but it a BLINK moment in my life and I will lets say - forget it and move forward as I would like to maintain this a silent "act of kindness" in my bag of memories.

Team Anna - Is media biased?

Recently there have been a lot of acquisition against people who are in Team Anna. I do not have any special consideration for Team Anna but indeed it is loaded with people whom I respect and so does the nation. One of main resources why I have developed a respect for these people is media. Media communicated the acheivements which made these people great!!! Sometimes like these I keep on wondering - is media biased now? Most of us know that people do not go into the main body of the news article, however headlines are read my most.

When I first saw this article - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Kiran-Bedi-accused-of-inflating-bills-says-no-personal-gain/articleshow/10425634.cms - the first thing which came to my mind was -so what everone does it (considering that she used the money for herself. But when I read further the story was entirely different, one of the messages was that even the organizers knew about it and supported the cause... Also, this kind of arrangement is happening for some time now then why was this not published earlier? and why is it published now?

Leaving the question.. Is media Biased?

Getting out of Comfort Zone!!!!

Its been almost 3 years now that I am out of Cranfield but never a day goes by when I think to myself and say... YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE... i think his is one of the learnings from Cranfield which I keep close to my heart and when things get tough I say to myself the magic words and things are so easy after that!!! It also helps me to recognize what is stopping me -- it is myself!!!

Confession: Sometimes out of lazyness I stay back in the comfort zone and let the things go by :(

Spam emails

I just received an email from one of my acquintqnces that I my mailbox is sending spam emails to my contacts. Althugh I did not click any link on my emails but there might be some reason for the same. After further analysis, it sent spam email to the id which were saved in my contacts list.

DOES IT MEAN THAT I SHOULD STOP SAVING THE IDs IN THE YAHOO CONTACT LIST????

Yahooo... can you help me with the answer?????

Jan LokPal Bill

Jan Lokpal Bill, as some other bills have created a new stir in the country... I am not aware of earlier bills which created such a big following and with such an international attention. Honestly, till now, I am not aware of what is happening with the bill and what is the key points in this bill. But I sure know a few things:
- If I ask the participants of this rally / excited exhibitioners on the street - "what is it about?" The answer would be - "It is something about corruption and politicians". And then the topic will switch over to the corruption in the country!!!
- If I ask - "how do they plan to eliminate corruption?" answer would be - "hey dude, have you gone nuts to ask this question? This bill will eliminate corruption!!! That's what we are fighting for!!!"
- If I ask - "Why do you think the politicians behave this way? Why are they so corrupt? Who votes forthem?" and some other question which might require some thought generating process... I am sure that I should not expect any answers to these questions... instead I should be ready for comments like -
"You have gone mad"
"You do not respect what the old man is doing for the nation"
"You are a novice in world politics"
and so on and so forth!!!!!
But
Did I get any answer for this question - NO!!!! I don't think so...
Did I disrespect anyone - NO!!! I don't think so...
Did I intent to harm anyone - NO!!! I don't thins so...

What's wrong? I ASKED PEOPLE TO THINK....

I am not being idealistic... But participated in a few discussion in the luxurious comfort of my house or my friends house or in hotel or restuarants and discussed the topic of corruption. Some say that it is to do with population, others say that it is to do with education system, some others have the opinion that it is the way it is, few others would comment that we cannot do anything about this.. it is the Jan Lokpal bill which should drive this!!!

After which I say to myself.... if I get an opportunity right now to go to some place where I have to stand for 4 hours in a queue to submit a form and instead if I have to pay extra to an officer to escape the queue and save time... I might go for the later one and I am sure that most of us (who have the luxury to go to internet and read this blog), whould do this!!! Then I ask myself the following questions:
- What is the source for all this corruption? It is me and most of us, who has increased the market value of that officer, who knows that if he is less efficient, he can earn more. In return we are sure that things can be done if we offer some additonal favours to the officer. Even if bill ispassed, rules and regulations are in place and what not, if this deal is known only between the parties... then what? so the question is - WHAT IS THE BILL TO DO WITH THIS?
- what is the root cause? It is difficult to identify - is it the population or education or the peer pressure or is there something else? It is due to the population that we have such long queues, but we belong to this society, if you do not like the population, being rude and blunt I say (to myself) that make yourself capable enough to get out of this population? it is again to do with yuor capabilities where you would like to talk but when comes to act - no answer!!! The other factor is education - Most of us are well educated and we see lot of people around us who do not have the previledge to go to school - How many of us have taught these kind of people and if none - why? firstly, we personally do not want them to grow for the selfish reason - if they grow then our lives will not be as easier as it is right now - who will wash our dishes, who will clean our houses????
- If we want to blame the politicians - Where do they come from and why do they do this? I must say I was lucky enough to have born and bought up in a previledged environment... there were a lot of people around who who were not fortunate enough and I know a few of them as well. And from my limited exposure to this I believe that they are most of the times friends, acquintances, felloew or somehow related to those people who we refused to teach the basic education above? So it is not their fault if they do it, becuase when we - who have more responsiblity, being more previledged one - did not contribute.. God balanced the things...

As a conclusion, I would ask - how many of us have really tried instead of partipating in the rallies and discussing in the parties? Wherever there will be a human interaction, there will be some kind of exchange. However, I do like the internet transactions, but this cannot be implemented everywhere (for example, internet cannot instal a meter for you)!!!! But also we can introduce some new things where in the benefit goes to both - government and the public: We all know that there are lot of people in the country who are ready to pay more

Lot more things to say and discuss but if everyone starts thinking then do we need leaders OR will there be even tight competition for that spot? The question also remains open!!!!

No more 10th Board Exams???

The issues expressed here are my opinion and do not refer to anyone individual or anything else expet my present way of thinking and expressing.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090625/804/tnl-sibal-plans-to-scrap-traumatic-class.html

Dont know whether it is for good or for bad!!!

Reason for having such a big step is to reduce the pressure amongst parents and the students. Another reason reflected is about the freedom of knowledge.

I think it gets deeper than that. Most of the societies have been a result oriented society. In the vedas we talk about Moksha, that is also a result to achieve by the saints and the priests and other creatures. Invaders and rulers had their own objectives. Finally, in the present times, we are more critical about our sucesses, because we tend to compare ourselves with the result acheived by others.

So is education system. At the end of the day, every parent wants their kid to have a good job with a good salary and a good financial status. These days it has been focused on getting into the financial sector. SO the goal / result has been defined even before the kid is in nappies. Parents start expecting and training the kid for the result / Goal. So if the kid does not get good marks in Class X, he is unable to get into good school and then good univ and then into good company. I dont want to put any arguements against this but want to go back to the basics.. freedom to knowledge.

• Life is short and at the age of 16, most of us dont know what to do and what do they want to become. So he/she persues what his/her parents advise him to do. These advices are most of the times based on the present market and job situation. So it becomes a restricted knowledge.

• Next thing which comes is the peer pressure, you might not be learning anything from your courses but your peers are scoring better marks.. so you tend to read for exams without learning much... and this leads to the next question... Is that freedom to education? I would say it is forced education!!! So till the time you graduate (mostly by the age of 21) you dont have any freedom to knowledge!!!
• Where is the freedom of knowledge for the kids aged 15 / 16 who are taking the 10th board exams? Where does it stand???
  

I am 28, going on to 29, and still dont know what is freedom of knowledge in terms of textbooks and the courses. I learned a lot from the courses and subjects, how to anaylse different situations in life. How to face challanges and more importantly, how to face the world?

I think the freedom of knowledge is obtained in the hobbies and the extra-curricular activities. Here, the result / goal is not defined when you start. the motivation develops and then you are able to define the goals if you persist with them and instead of competing you collaborate. Collaboration to excell is more fun than compete to defeat. It changes the attitude and then you gain knowledge by sharing and with more freedom than forced or restricted!!!!

Every sucessful person has to face the first critical challange of competition. Although, we face challanges in every exam in the class but this gives you a platform to compete with a larger crowd and the unknown!!!

I might be wrong in the way I think but just a thought....