Walk on the new path..

As the sun begins to set,
the moment for the new beginning awaits;

the unknown road leads to somewhere,
the lighted path gives hope and abates despair;

as the walk on the new path sends jitters,
the inner self whilst it shivers,
the mind whilst it quivers,
the heart does seem to differ..

as the walk on the path begins,
a thousand thoughts flutter within;

as the walk on the path begins,
the excitement in you swiftly clings;
the irony makes you falter,
and this very irony makes you stronger;
the irony pulls you apart,
yet this very irony is what also makes you sharp;

the path makes you wonder,
the destination about you ponder;

                Now;
Enough with the poetic crap,
what the hell lets just go for it even if its a trap...
the path I am sure is wonderful,
I will damn make sure it makes me absolutely cheerful;
the path maybe unknown,
but hell yeah there is something called a map which will make it known!!
now no philosophy boohoo,
only be happy and woohoo!!

The Mad Mind (By Drashti Buch)

there's a search i wish to make,
there's a myth i wish to break,
there's a dream i wish to live,
there's a curse i wish to die
there's a hand i wish to hold,
there are memories i wish to let go,
there are people i love to trust,
and they are the ones i hate to doubt,
there's a reality i wish to deny,
there's an illusion i hope exists,
there's a concept that's my faith,
and that's where god decides my fate,
there's a belief i feel is so strong,
that belief is the weakness for which i long..
there's a truth that hurts me more and more,
there's a lie i tell myself to ignore,
there's a thing i wish to tell,
and feelings i wish to hide,
there are moments i wish u'd understand,
and moments when i dont want a helping hand..
there are times when i feel there are people i own,
there are crises when i see my reflection alone..
there's a complaint i wish to make,
there's a punishment i wish to fulfill
there's a contraction i wish to keep stating,
there's a mad mind i wish to chill.

- By Drashti Buch

One fine morning

Ah..there I am in my kitchen making an omlette and the tea is on the boil, my eyes still half closed due to the perfect sleeping patterns I adopt (You know what I mean) anyways I get everything ready on the table. The newspaper of the day crisply folded new lying there, almost like waiting for someone and shouting read me read me..

hissskkk as I take my first sip of perfect tea, I open the paper and I browse through it, I see that the newspaper is filled with news which would spoil my perfect breakfast, make my tea taste bland and my morning depressive. Perfect I say..news filled about countries running into debts, jobs acting like cheap cotton pants which shrink every year, emerging countries fighting corruption, basically its all bad. Its like oh yeah a fairy tale of animals....its the end of the world in a few years everything will fall apart and every human will kill each other and then we animals will live happily ever after..

I keep turning the pages and it feels like there is a competition among journalists about who writes the most shocking depressive news... after a few minutes ..one of my flatmates walks in "hughgh hughghg huhghg..woooh he pants ...what a run I had fantastic!!, you know what dude as I ran today, I was amazed at how people are happy man.. seeing them happy..actually I was having an agonising bad morning ,but now after seeing them I feel totally good!! wooh.. let me make some cheese cake for myself.

Huh.. lucky bugger... hsssskkk as I take another sip of my tea, I wondered how feelings and sentiments can change just by observing at how things are portrayed.. here I was happy and the newspaper managed to ruin it, and my flatmate who was pissed became happy by having his own experiences.

This is the little thing that happened one fine morning, I thought I should express it, since it is not something significant, but when you put a little thought to it; it starts to make sense as to what I am talking about.

The 'selfish' reasons!

This note was written by Mr.Sadaf Siddiqui and the original can be found by clicking on the title

Prologue: This note is a follow-up viewpoint on the issue of brain-drain raised by Drashti Buch and later discussed by Rudri Buch, in their respective FB notes(Also can be read in the previous two posts in this blog - Maulin). Reading it in isolation might lead to a hazy understanding of my take on the issue, so take your call on how much of background reading you want to do, corresponding to how much you are really interested in knowing & understanding the universal set of proposed arguments so far. Importantly, when I say 'you' or 'we' or anyone, I am not referring to anyone in particular, just a general person. I just figured that the issue is not so black and white as it seems. It does not have a clear good and bad. Also, I was trying to refrain from jumping into the debate but I've been itching to write something for quite some time now and found this to be a worthy stimulus. So buckle up!

The inexplicable boundaries
My biggest area of discomfort in the whole set of arguments is how we operate in a very convenient set of assumptions to support our viewpoints (as a matter of fact, I might end up doing the same to some extent subconsciously. Pardon me if I do!). What I am referring to here is the geographical reference of the place you think you belong to and the extent to which we are ready to expand the boundaries and decide "There! That's the exact square kilometers of geography I will associate my sense of belonging to!". If you haven't guessed it so far, I'm questioning the idea of being gratuitous to ones country for being born there and hence playing with the argument of 'paying it back'. First of all, why country? why not the continent or if we are at it, the planet?. And if the argument is about 'starting off somewhere', then why not the state, the city or the locality (which would mean that when an NRI comes 'back', he comes back to the exact locality from where he left. Puts a much bigger turmoil in his head if he has lived in multiple locations within the country). With reference to the topic, if the concern of helping people because you can is purely humanitarian, why should NRIs not go to Africa and help people there. The condition is much worse and hence the need there is greater. Even if it is not for the humanitarian reasons, the argument is still shaky because for all the hue and cry of the rat race among people within the country, why get sucked into the idea of the rat race between countries with the thought of "contribute to your own country only and make it better than every other one out there"? On an afterthought, if the reasons of belongingness is owing to your ancestors, well, then who knows you might trace it back to Aryans (and hence Europe) and develop the urge to go back there and contribute. You cannot put an arbitrary limit to the no of generations you're going to bestow the privilege of being your ancestors.

Having said all that, thanks to the flatter world, it really should not really matter where you live as long as you are helping people in general. You can be sitting on spacecraft in the lunar orbit and still be able to transfer funds and monitor their effective deployment for developmental activities. Your physical presence is no more a pressing criteria. In fact, you might end up creating more jobs back here by not actually being present to do it yourself. When it comes to getting your own hands dirty, lets not associate a higher moral ground to it just for the sake of arguments. If you cannot be a Anna Hazare, being a Narayan Murhy is no lesser if you can effect as much development even while sitting in the comfortable confines of your office space. Strive as much as possible to help as many and as needy as possible disassociating it with morality. That should make it much less complicated ordeal for the sub-conscience.

The inherent selfishness
Now, who are we kidding? Human beings are inherently selfish. I'm not being a cynic here. This is a very objective premise. You think you belong to homo sapiens, you like it or not, you are selfish and rightly so, or how else do you propose to survive in the world designed for the fittest to survive. Human beings have survived only because of they were selfish enough to employ natural resources for their growth and development. If we romance with the idea of helping people, it is purely because it gives us a sense of moral superiority over the self who wouldn't do it (Unless the motivation is to gain higher moral ground over others which is even worse). This is exactly the reason why the ratio of (people talking about doing things for others) to (people actually doing them) is so much larger than 1. You like the idea of doing something great because there is a sense of fulfillment and it caresses the ego airlifting it to the terrace of the tower of morality and goodness.

Again, having said all that, selfishness isn't bad. It makes perfect sense to find the exact place of comfort for yourself (both physical and mental). If the mental comfort of helping people is able to balance well with the physical discomfort of being in a underdeveloped setting, so be it. And vice versa. After all, you got only one life to experience so many things and you got your own set of desires to fulfill. In the end, on the death bed, you do not want to end up with a regret of not having lived a comfortable life or not having helped people, whichever it is for you. So think wisely on how you want to spend the limited tenure of life in this world, because the moment your retirement comes calling you do not want to end up wanting to have done something you didn't. And whatever it is that you have to do to avoid that (as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else), you are on as high a moral ground as the biggest philanthropist in this world. A happy person with a happy life will end up making a lot of other people happy inevitably. That's a start in making this world a better place. Lets work it upwards from there.

Couldn't have said it better than Mother Teresa herself:
Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.

Phew! That feels better!! :]

Braindrain? Really?

This note is written by Ms.Rudri Buch and original can be found by clicking on the title. (Read the previous post: Apna ghar ka diya.. and giving light to neighbours house) for context.

Like ur note Drashti.. And agree with it totally.. But there are some parts that you, like most people haven't seen... And while I am personally totally supportive of "returning home”, you must understand that its not as easy as its shown in Swades

A lot of people come here because they fall below the Class A, which in itself is so large that there is no room left for Class A-... Such people find shelter in the large number of universities, more seats per university and opening into thousands of globally renowned/other companies. Mind you, gone are those days when people dreamt of settling in the US and hence came here for studies. People now come here only coz of
Lack of opportunities in India
Much much much much higher competition back home
I accept this is not right, to escape, get some freedom, learn on your stand up on their own feet and not be bound but family and other ‘cultural’ customs

Now you will say that its not just the Class A- that moves here. Class A and A+ does too! Consider this. The main % of population flowing from India to US are engineers. Go to any typical class and you will realize that the toppers are trying for, say, the IIMs. (I am not even mentioning those who wanna pursue higher technical studies, for which there are close to no colleges). The IIMs together have 500 seats (while a single Harvard has 500), so you can imagine even if the top 10 from every college try sincerely for the IIMs, how many are actually going to succeed. They try and try 2,3 times, but its not easy… neither the CAT, nor the effort to stand up on your feet again and try again after an year full of hard-work and rejection. Meanwhile, unless they are top grade IITians (0.5% of the country?), they would most probably be sitting on Bench in Infosys or TCS. And hence, maybe, they consider GMAT/GRE in search of something easier, and they realize that not only is it easier, its much better!

Education levels here are different and they are good. It makes you feel that CAT is not worth the effort. People here are smart, they have a different attitude towards life, which is interesting.. whether you want to agree with it is upto you. The country is almost totally red tape free and cyber crime free. I can give my credit card number on most websites without worry. It is corruption free, black money free… It is much less populated, cleaner, much healthier and living seems like a lesser hassle here. Buying a home is easier because getting a loan isn’t taboo. Your standard of living Drashti, is indeed higher, not because you live for 200 years, but the 60 years here are well spent.

You think people are selfish? I don’t think so Drashti. There is not a single day when any of these Indians wouldn’t be remembering, missing and wishing they were back home. But do you think they will get the same opportunities they get here if they come back home? And even if they come back home, whats going to be the point if they are going to work for a J.P. Morgan in India? And you say less money. How possible do you think it is to give their kid (Not multiple kids!) a decent ICSE (Not IB!) education, a home in the city and a good quality life without earning a minimum of 50L a year? And how many can?

We are talking about the average middle class Drashti. Its not easy. Its not like people move out because opportunites are better outside. They move out because the good opportunities inside are already filled...


P.S. Don't kill me for writing this. I swear I am against Braindrain too! :-P Open to comments..

Apna ghar ka diya.. and giving light to neighbours house

This note was written by Ms.Drashti Buch and the original can be found by clicking on the title.

Swades was a movie that affected me strongly. Reinforcing my belief in the fact that as a gratitude of being born in a country, one should work to serve the country. I am totally against brain drain and sorry to be prejudiced, but I feel that it's most of the times a largely selfish step for most. There's nothing that stops NRIs from heading back home, but the whole idea of losing out on comforts, lesser money, too settled down to move.. that's not too easy to digest. So there was this whole thing that 'we Indians spread India's fame globally.. we showcase India's cultural spirit and talent and all that. So there was a time when this was needed, and was achieved. Today most of the freaking western 'developed' economies fear the name 'India'. The purpose has been achieved and market focus has shifted. Then what makes people still stick around in those countries? Quality of life? Really? It's not as if you'll live there for 200 yrs and we'll live here for just 60! My main concern is for people who stay abroad, get exposed to culture and stuff and dont even return to share their learnings. And then there are those who run back to their 'motherland' only when motherland gives money! The moment there's a slump, they all run away.

Of course on the other side, the government here isnt doing much (except gulping down crores) to encourage bright talent. There's lack of appreciation and much more, or less should I say. But that's a vicious circle, not the government but we need to break. The solution does not lie in not going abroad. The solution lies in coming back and implementing your learnings and exposure. But sadly, very few are genuinely ready to do it. May be being in India, not being exposed to life abroad, I am not able to do justice to this topic. But all I can say, is repeat the line which was a powerful impact of the movie Swades.. ' Apna diya.. and giving light to neighbours house..' and then u have economies shamelessly saying 'come, earn, contribute and leave'!

So want to add some interesting thoughts but....

The Fever, The Rivalry and The Excitement.

It always so happens that whenever people from the Indian Subcontinent talk about cricket, they transform into a different person. The passion, the emotions are paramount and sudden urge of patriotism takes over.

30th MARCH 2011 marks one such day. But this time something is just right. When the epic clash of the titans happens on this day approximately 2 billion people will watch 22 players fight it out on the cricket field and the outcome of which will determine the moods of the billion people.

1 Location, 8 hours, 22 players, 50 sponsors, 40000 spectators, 195,00,00,000 in sponsorship money, 200,00,00,0000 betting money and 268,00,00,000 hearts pumping with excitement when the match between India and Pakistan is watched.

Well all I can say is that this match is certainly going to keep many many of us busy and on our toes.

All the best TEAM INDIA!



You Tube Video Courtesy: Sharan Sharma. :) (My Friend)

Blurred Clarity

I think I see what I think I see,
but it always is blurred clarity.

I know what it means, I feel how it gleams,
everytime its blurred clarity.

I dread, I fret, I keep looking ahead,
what seems to be blurred clarity.

I sense its good, I try to comprehend,
I know it would, on efforts does it depend.

I want to see whats there for me,
but all I get is blurred clarity.

I know what I want, I know how it is,
but cannot get past the blurred clarity.

I push, I try; many times defy,
it always stays blurred clarity.

But atlast I get an epiphany,
Voice in the head goes enjoy the journey.

I imbibe the positive vibe,
I gibe at negativity,
Realise not to worry,
Eyes open up and meet reality.

Now I see what I want to see,
this time there is less blur and much more clarity.