Will students really stop reading about 'Pluto'?

When the news came out that Pluto is no more a planet of the solar system, and we would have only eight planets now instead of nine, the immediate reaction of one of the school students was
' So now we have one planet less to remember'. :)
And another said “You just got to retain everything you learned and drop Pluto out of your memory"

These kids seems to be too happy that thye doen't need to strain himself to remember all the nine now:)
But will this really happen? I have all doubts. I rather feel Pluto would be remebered more than any other planet.

The lessons in books now would be like this now...

"Untill year 2006, Solar system consisted of 9 planets, namely Mercury, Venus...Jupiter, Neptune Pluto..Mercury was the smallest and Pluto was the farthest.Pluto was the coldest. Pluto was that..Pluto was this..etc etc.'And since 2006 we have only 8 planets namely..Mercury, venus...Neptune'"

And the questions in the exams would be like this...

1. How many planets were there in Solar System before 2006
2. Which was the planet that became a dwarf planet
3. Who invented the planet that was removed from the solar system.

So now instead of forgetting Pluto, students will have to remember it twice :)

I have found similar funny things in our education systems...

I still remember very well struggling to by-heart those Daltons rules (12 or 13 rules.Don't remember) for science exams. And what's funny is that only one rule out of all the 12 rules was proved correct and rest of his rules were proved wrong. But still in the exam we had to write 6 pages of all the 12 Dalton's long long rules, and then 3 pages stating why only one rule is correct and other were wrong :S
I really wondered why i should struggle to remember things that are proved wrong :(

Till 5th class or so i was taught by my teacher that Earth is round, like a ball...like a bangle, like an 'O' and students also registered this in their minds and have written so many exam papers on this stating that 'Earth is Rounnnnd'.
But suddenly from somwhere some teacher comes in 6th class, and tells us 'Earth is Not round, but flat at one pole and bulged at one pole. So now earth like NOT Like a ball, NOT like a bangle, NOT like an 'O' :S

When they always knew that earth was not round why at all do they teach it in the first place:S
I am just wondering, if a person studies only till 5th class and then leaves studies then for whole life he continues to think that earth is round. He would never come to know the truth

It's always that our educational system follows a sequence where one teachers things in the same order in which it was invented. They never comes to point immediately.But then that's the fact, for reasons that atleast i do not know:)

So little school going buddies..Pluto is not going to leave your books at all. You need to live with it, irrespective of where it lives

'Anything for a Pic' says The Journalist!!

I had been to a horticulture exhibition sometime back and i was taking some snaps of the flowers in the exhibition.In between i could catch a view of a honey bee or a wasp sitting on a Sunflower. I just wanted to capture that snap in my camera at any cost.And i went closer and closer to the flower.The honey bee was trying to move from one flower to other and i was also following it closely without even thinking that it can even sting me. I was so much focussed and adamant about getting that pic captured that i even forgot that it can even sting me if i go too close it it. I only realised it when my friend warned me and asked me to move away.

Aaah..so does that mean for a pic someone can take crazy and silly risks as well!?!!

Probably this is what is happening with the journalists these days. They are going crazy to get some news captured in their vidoes. They have become so target oriented that , if they are not getting any new targets, they are creating it by themselves by using all nasty means.

The recent tragic and disguting incident is that of Manoj Mishra who died because of self emolation and it's said that some media persons have encouraged him to do that. This guy was protesting against his employer for not paying wages.And in the same context went ahead for self immolation and the jouranlists surrounding were just trying to make news out of it without trying even once to save him.

It's said that he never had any idea of self immolation earlier but was encouraged by some journalists to pretend to be doing it as that can help him to get his wages easily. He was given a false promise by the media folks that he only needs to pretend and they would definetly come and save him at the right time.That poor guy believed them only to realise during his fatal end, that all was done for a video.
No one who ever come to rescue him even after he was half burnt. And the journalists were only encouraging him to do it to capture the video and create some spicy story around it.

Shame on these journalists!

They are totally forgetting that they are human beings first, and journalists next. They seem not to be having any emotional attachment towards there people, country or sometimes themselves also.

There was a similar self immolation that happened during the last Anti-Reservation strike. An uneducated coblar or pan shop guy (don't remember) had tried to self immolate himself in the name of anti-reservation strikes. No one could understand why an uneducated guy would ever be worried about Reservations. This also seemed to be an act on either the political parties or one of these crazy journalists.

We keep hearing the news of journalists visiting all the Mafia, DOns, terrorists and keep reporting to us what Osama said, what Dawood said ..... I fail to understand why the police never interogates these journalists to get information about what happened there and how them meet these underworld guys and all.

Probably because it's been a culture since ages that you should never trouble or interrupt a reporter or a messenger. Else the entire mesaging system might get hampered. Fair enough! But then this demands that the reporters and journalists also behave properly and responsibly .Else i don't think they should be given these speacial status or special freedom.

People who have watched the telugu movie 'Pokiri', would have definetly loved Sayaji Shinde’s dialogues against the media and journalists. I think that movie became a hit mainly because of those dialogues :)

'Raamaha..Raamo..Raamaa' - in United States But in a different Style

I still remember those Sanskrit classes in school . I think they were one of the most refreshing and energising classes. The nice little stories with excellent morals and those Vidur Neetis and Chanakya Neetis were simply superb . But then one thing that always troubled us during the exam time was to by heart those grammers with 'Streeling' ,'Puling' and 'Napunsakling'. It was one of the funniest things as well with really weird phonetics like 'hey rama..hey ramo, hey rama' etc etc. Haha

Though Sanskrit is the base for all Indian languages, it did not pick up for the mainsteam usage and ended up in India only as a 'cool' third language where marks can be scored easily.

Well, but the Indians in US think differently. A group of Sanskrit lovers from the University of Maryland have launched a Sanskrit fan club called UMD Sanskritam. And they are trying to encourage people from learning and using Sanskrit by adding lot of fun to the learning process. They are using the popular Bollywood a lot for this. They recently did a small play where they enacted a scene from Sholay (the Gabbar Singh scene) with all the dialogues in Sanskrit:). They also transalated the song 'Aati Kya Khanadala' in Sanskrit and all these was very well enjoyed and appreciated by Audience. Some of the videos can be found here

Naresh Cuntoor, member of UMD-Sanskritam says, “Our aim is to promote this kind of learning where you don’t emphasize grammar but the conversational aspect of Sanskrit.”.
So learn Sanskrit but without 'Ramaha, Ramo , Rama' ;)

They have launched their new website www.speaksanskrit.org which now has around 600 memebers.

So may be it's time we start speaking sanskrit.

'Kathamapi Kim Bhashye twam bhaashitaha'? LOL

'Sashtyabdipoorti' of India

India has just entered the 60th year of Independence and next year we will be successfully completing the 60th the year.
In India, in many places people celebrate the completion of the 60th Birthday in a grand way. In south India it's usually called as 'Sashtyabdipoorti' , meaning completion of 60 yrs.

The reason for celebrating 60th Birthday in a grand way relates to the Indian calender that's followed. As per this calender there are 60 yrs with different names having unique characteristics. Each of the sixty years bring different ups and downs in a persons life as they have different characteristics. The names are like Prabhava, Vibhava...etc .
So once all the 60 yrs are completed, then again the cycle of the years restarts.

So a person who has completed 60 yrs of age is considered to be a very matured human being as he would have seen 60 different types of years, and would have experienced all the 60 different phases of life. So, to congratulate him on his successful completion of all the 60 different years this function called 'Sashtyabdipoorti' is celebrated in a grand way.

So this means India has also seen almost 60 different phases now and *supposed* to be a matured country.

Congratulations India!

But don't you think it's high time to move from being 'Developing country' to 'Developed Country' now. Or have we just got used to it!

Happy Friendship day!

Found this cool thing in this site

Friends v/s Best Friends

Friend: calls your parents by mr. and mrs.
Best friend: calls your parents dad and mom.

Friend: has never seen you cry
Best friend: has always had the best shoulder to cry on

Friend: never asks for anything to eat or drink
Best friend: opens the fridge and makes herself at home

Friend: asks you to write down your number.
Best friend: they ask you for their number
(cuz! they can't remember it)

Friend: borrows your stuff for a few days then gives it back.
Best friend: has a closet full of your stuff

Friend: only knows a few things about you
Best friend: could write a biography on your life story

Friend: will leave you behind if that is what the crowd is doing
Best friend: will always go with you

Friend: would not to suggest their friends to see this page
Best friend: will suggest to must look this page, all of their online buddies

Security is Everyone's business

I had been in Mumbai few weeks back. Infact a week after the very tragic Mumbai blasts.

Though i had an initial fear of going there immediately after the blasts, later i thought if something has to happen it can happen anywhere and at anytime.
And logically speaking, i also had a feeling that security would have been tightened in mumbai because of the blasts and where there are security checks, there threats are also relatively less . So that made me feel that probably Mumbai would be a safer place now than ever before.

So i just decided to have maximum fun and visited many popular places like Gateway of India, Mahlakshmi temple, Siddhi vinayak temple, Marine Drive, Haji Ali Mosque etc.

Of all these places, i did find some basic security at gateway of india ,extreme security at Siddhi vinayak and mahalakshmi temples.
And very surprisingly no security at Haji Ali mosque. Probably Govt feels that the terrorists will not target a muslim dominated place, which in my opinion is a foolish thought.

Though i was really surprised to see the Govt not providing any security at Haji Ali, where i saw a maximum number of people (from all religions) as compared to other places, i convinced myself that it's a very costly affair for the Govt also to provide security everywhere.

But then i was shocked at the way the security checks were happening at the mahalakshmi temple.
It was like this...
With some metal detectors they first checked me (just the way it happens in airport). Here my bag was not checked.
And after that a lady asks me to come forward so that she can check my bags.
But when i gave my bag..she said in Hindi...' I will not open it u open it urselves'.
I agreed and just started to open the zip of bag...and before i could even open it fully and show her my bag..she peeps into my bag from that small opening (just for name sake) and tells in hindi 'Ok ..u can go'
I really wonder what she checked in my bag without even opening it properly:S
Even if i was carrying a small bomb she can never find it out, from the way she did the check

This clearly proves that Quality of Indian security is very bad. And the reason for this is not the Govt directly , but the people themselves.
When i say people, it's people working for the security deaprtments and at the same time common man as well.
Though Govt is spending so much on increasing security, have the security officials at the grass root level ever realised the need for it and importance of it. Or are they doing their job just for name sake?
The importance of security has not reached the grass root level in the security enforcing orgs, be it indian police, or army, navy or airforce.

CNN IBN Live had recently shown how one of their correspondents crossed the sea with big RDX kind of materials three times and came to india. And none of the times the security and the customs could catch them. They had done this as a case study to see how efficient is our security forces.
The reason for this was that the security guards and the police living in those coastal areas are not really motivated enough to take care of things and they just do it without any passion.
And many times they don't even know what they should do.

This seems to be true everywhere and not just with Govt security officials.
I see similar behaviour in my companies security gaurads also. My security checking lady knows me pretty well, so she has literally stopped checking my bags these days :)
I carry my thumb drive everyday to office which is actually not allowed and no one could find it till now.
But then the problem here is not just with the security gaurd, it's also with me:)
Ideally i should be reporting about it to the seniors, but then if i do that then i cannot carry my thumb drive anymore. So i dont. Haha :D Just kidding
But then this exactly is happening everywhere. People don't feel responsible for securing themselves or things around us. They are more worried about their freedom and they see security checks as something that hampers their freedom. I see many people resisting to security checks and feeling insulted.

People must realise that it's very important to ensure that security formalities are properly done, even if takes away sometime of theirs.
And we should also motivate and make all those security gaurads realise the importance of their job, so that they do it well. Not the way it's done in Mumbai temples.

Some years back there was something called ' Janmabhoomi' programme started in Andhra Pradesh, which means that the common citizen and the govt share the responsibilities of locality upliftments rathen than totally depending on the Govt.
For example, if i want to bring drainage system in my locality, then the localites come together and plan for it and get it done by themselves, and the Govt pays half the expenditure. This way we need not wait for the Govt to monitor and manage eveything which is usually time consuming.

I think similar thing for security should also be done. Responsibility must be shared by all.
Security is everyone's business.

Blogging getting more popular after the temporary ban

It was pretty quick that the Govt realised that banning blogs doesn't help and they have removed the ban.
But in these few days of ban, blogging has become much more popular than ever before.
The way the TV channels were repeatedly showing how people are protesting against the ban, and the number of blogs and bloggers growing year by year... raised the curiosity of all viewers as what these blogs are and why so much fuss about it.

There were many places ,including my company where i had been talking about blogging and about it's importance and all. But i did not find people showing real interest in knowing what it is.
But after this ban, so many have explicitely stopped my way and have asked me what blogging is all about.

So all for good! :)