Enough of bourgeoisie life - Gimme back my childhood!

March 26, 2004 · Filed Under General · 2 Comments 

“The smell of wet earth.
Clouds chasing each other.
The flash of a diving kingfisher.
A drink from a burbling brook.
A fruit from a branch above.
A mouthful of mountain mist.
Trees to climb.
Tigers to fear.
And whales to wonder at.
Oh, to be a child and inherit all this!”

Oh, God!
Hand me a Time Machine;
Lemme rewind my life back to the bliss of childhood.
And try and catch up with all that I missed
In my foolish haste to grow up!

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Spoilsports!

March 26, 2004 · Filed Under India-centric · Comment 

Certain private engineering colleges on the outskirts of Chennai, India (which are they?) have enforced draconian rules barring any interaction between students of the opposite sex. There are also strict dress codes and rules on movement. Samples of such stifling and ridiculous rules that have virtually made the hostels akin to concentration camps:

  • Hostel students are allegedly allowed to come out of the campus only once in two months.
  • Suitcases of students are regularly checked for cell phones, which are also banned on campus.

  • The dress code allows no jeans, tight trousers, sneakers or sandals. The boys have to wear only leather shoes and long hair is not permitted. The girls have to wear only churidhars with dupattas pinnned at the center.

How can the natural chemistry of biological forces be fettered by such primitive fiats!
Wonder why not they name the place Guantanamo Bay No.2!

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Webmonkey, RIP: 1996 – 2004

March 22, 2004 · Filed Under General · Comment 

As feared by me in my earlier post, They finally pulled the plug.

Webmonkey, the site that turned humble Web developers into attention-grabbing authors, said last week it is closing down following a round of layoffs in the U.S. division of its parent company, Terra Lycos which runs, inter alia, Tripod, Wired News, Lycos etc.

The end came on 14th inst to the utter dismay of many an amateur wannabe webmaster like me for whom the friendly primate was the primary tutor in our toddling steps to put things on the web!

Miss you, pal!

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Punishment is never a solution!

March 15, 2004 · Filed Under General · 1 Comment 

Can they grow with menatl health in an atmosphere of cruelty and admonition?I have been ranting against the rampant tendency on the part of elders to treat the children as eternal delinquents who should be dealt with constantly by a stick and ordered around under pain of punishment. This is not the way to invest in the development of future citizens on whose hands the destiny of our planet will rest.

This view is echoed by Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D. in his book, “Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life”. The following lines from the book hit a nail on the head of the the basic doctrine of punishmentology!

“Punishment damages goodwill and self-esteem and shifts our attention from the intrinsic value of our attention to external consequences”

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Hegemony of the honchos!

March 8, 2004 · Filed Under General · Comment 

I felt terribly anguished by the plight of aspiring youngsters for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management, who were denied entrance to the examination hall because they reported later then 10-30 hours, the “stipulated time” for reporting on Febraury 15th, 2004. But the stipulated time was half an hour ahead of of the actual start of the examination! It beats me as to what difference would it make so long as they report well before the start of the examination proper.

The “honchos” managing the examination were impervious, highly officious and unmoved by the emotional pleading by the students. They go by the “letter” of the rules! But the same guys were there last year when there was a large scale leak of question papers which necessitated this re-examination. Now the big guys are patting all over themselves with the claim that they have “successfully” conducted this examination - achived their success by preventing a dozen students entry into the hall! Read more

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