Why?

Why am I not amazed,

at what happens around me,

Did I not have a part to play,

Did I not want it this way?

Little did I know that all I have

is one life, one chance

to live a life of glory

to sing and dance.

Manu Foundation

I am writing this blog to talk about Manu Foundation an organization that I regularly donate money to. The organization choses meritorious students amongst the poor and funds their tuition and living expenses.

What really stands about the organization is that they really do a lot of due diligence to find out who would benefit most from their money. There are many organizations which strive to provide basic education to the masses. Manu foundation then choses the bright ones amongst the poor students and funds higher education for them. The strategy is to maximize the impact of every Rupee spent. The foundation trustees derive more satisfaction from helping a secondary school graduate to become an engineer / accountant / doctor etc. and become financially stable as against helping twenty students receive basic education.

Which paradigm you agree with (mass education vs higher education for a selected few amongst the poor) is essentially a personal choice. My choice resonates with that of the foundation. The impact to the future earnings of a bright student just because he received the right coaching for his medical / engineering / CA competition exams is really immense. Consequently the impact on the family is humungous in terms of economic stability.

What is encouraging is that a lot of students who got scholarships from the foundation come back and pay back, often more than what was invested on them. This helps increase the corpus and fund more students.

Personally I like the model, having always believed in meritocracy. I encourage all of you to go through the website and get in touch with the trust just in case you resonate with the cause.

http://www.manufoundation.in/

As a friend (if i can call her that), writes a post and as I listen to the song Desperado by Eagles, lying on the couch, I have my head spinning round and round.

Its been eons since I last wrote a blog. About TOI's purported dishonesty. And then I think, dishonesty is so pervasive in all walks of life. When I think of being dishonest to people that I have loved more than I will every love anyone, it pains me. It pains me, that at times I've been dishonest to myself.

Why are we dishonest? Why do we take a simpler route? Why do we hurt people who we don't intend to? I do not have the answers yet and will not look for them.

What I will look for is, how to be righteous in all things that I do, to be cognizant of my beliefs at all times, and to make up to people who mean a lot to me, even if that implies making hard sacrifices.

Feels good to be a gold medallist from IIM-A :)

TIMES OF INDIA WEBSITE, violation of my rights!

Times of India website has now found a loophole in your pop up blockers. Instead of pop-ups they now have advertisments in new tabs.
This along with the poor quality of journalism has made me to take a vow that I will not return to the website in near future. It is grossly irritating and is violation of my rights. I do not want to be sent to a page that I don't wanna see!

Ruskin Bond Revisited

I miss my home the most on festivals. This Dusherra was no different.

I look forward to calls from home and friends. It feels great to be in touch with them. I really get nostalgic when I think of the good times we had together. This time I just couldn't get over the memories of Dushera.

Every year Dad and I, would go to sector 18, which had arguably the best Dushera celebrations. The security would ask us to park our scooter one km away from the site. And then Dad and I would walk to the site. For about hour and a half I would forget about everything in the world and concentrate on the last few scenes of 'Ramlila'. After this, Ravan's effigy was burnt. This was accompanied by brilliant fireworks. A fire sign by birth, nothing enthralled me more!

After this we would walk back to the scooter and this is here 'my celebrations' would differ from everyone else's. Dad and I would go to Fancy Book Store, where I used to browse through 100 books (at least) and then pick up the one which I thought I liked the most. This was almost always based on my gut feeling and nothing else. I never tried to understand why my dad would take me to the book store. I never understood why he would do so when we had just taken a loan to build a house. I never understood why he did so, when he would save money on everything else- he travelled to office on bus! Now I realise why. I really love my parents for the way they are!

More often than not I used to pick up books by Ruskin Bond. I was always attracted to his short stories.

After talking to my folks on the phone I was feeling very nostalgic. I was reminded of Ruskin bond's stories which captured human emotions like no other literary piece does.

Thus in spite of the hazaar lectures the next day I picked up my credit card, took an auto-rickshaw to Crosswords and picked up "The best of Ruskin Bond". Am already halfway through the book and am enjoying every page of it. It reminds me of a childhood which I can never forget. It constantly reminds me of my parents who are the best in the world.

I reached IIM Ahmedabad on Saturday. I had great expectations from this place and luckily for me it has exceeded all of them!
The campus is beautiful. The professors are great. But one thing that stands out is the sense of purpose and professionalism that everyone exhibits. Its simply amazing. i really hope that I am able to inculcate some of it!
Another good thing has been the tremendous stress on academics and ethics. We all know that IIM Ahemedabad is undoubtedly the finest business school in India. However, what most people do not know is the effort that goes in to mantain the supremacy.
I really hope I am able to inculcate these values which makes the institute and the alumni stand out in the crowd.

These days I have been reading a book called ‘Inspite of the Gods’ which I picked up at the behest of a very dear friend. It is a refreshing attempt by a westerner to look beyond India’s spiritual character which seems to be the only interesting topic for the other Western Authors. Having already read the Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald (Another interesting book) I was able to appreciate the book much better.
Many times I have been extremely frustrated by the fact that the perception of India in the eyes of the foreigners is not the correct one. They have a habit of looking at spirituality in everything, even in India’s poverty. The gross misrepresentation of India’s spirituality pains me even more!
I would like to share an interesting anecdote from one personal experience. During one of the parties at University of Frankfurt I met an interesting girl who was doing her masters in biophysical chemistry. While talking to her the conversation moved on to India. I was really happy to know that she was very interested in Eastern mysticism. However, soon I realized her connotation for Indian mysticism when she asked me ‘Is the sacred book of India – The Kamasutra?’ I reached the pinnacle of frustration when my advisor asked me if I used Elephants for commuting to school!
Despite having captured the imagination of the entire world with its stellar economic growth India still continues to be a land of Kamasutra, snake charmers and Elephants!