When I have too much to say, I have no listener. It becomes immensely difficult for a talkative me to keep my thoughts to myself. I have to express it and this happens to be an ideal platform for me to do so.
You definitely know a lot about her. The mysterious murder of Aarushi and Hemraj is back in focus. Two years gone and the guilty has not yet been caught let alone being punished. Few evidences point towards her father, however, there are still many loopholes. We obviously cannot do anything about it (except for lighting candles in front of her smiling photo at India Gate and Gateway of India).
But we can certainly pray for Aarushi and Hemraj. Pray that their soul RIP and that the guilty is punished soon.
AND YES ALSO PRAY THAT KAMAL R KHAN DOES NOT MAKE A FILM ON THIS SENSITIVE TOPIC x-(
I happened to come across Aarushi's profile on Orkut and though I find it weird about how could people write scraps and ask her questions such as kaisi ho? when she has already passed away; I feel that this mass prayer (through scraps) for her justice would surely do some miracle and help in punishing the guilty.
This is just one of those high profile murders (Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Matto and Nitish Katara being the others) that has garnered media attention. While this case may get solved sooner or later, there are several cases that are pending since time immemorial and have not attracted media's attention maybe because it does not involve rich families. Hope justice is meted out to these families too and hope that it is not yet another example of Tareekh pe tareekh for them.
Mr. Maharaja Kaushik- the coach of Women's Hockey Team has been accused of sexually harassing the players.
3 minor girls get raped and killed in Nehru Nagar- Kurla, Mumbai
A recent survey stated that Delhi is considered to be the most unsafe place in India for Women. Around 85% women said that they do not feel safe in Delhi. Goa is also considered unsafe by foreign tourists.
Welcome friends, welcome to a Nation where women are considered nothing less than a Sex object.
Welcome to a nation, where on one hand a women is called the Lakshmi of the house (obviously, it is she who brings Gold and money to your home in the form of dowry) and on the other she is treated as a burden to the family (Because in India it is the responsibility of a girl's father to conduct a marriage at their expense).
Pardon me for this nonsensical rant, but could not stop myself from ranting.
Today as I flipped through the pages of a newspaper, I found more than half of the newspaper carrying stories about Rapes, Sexual Harassments and Molestation. Tired, I switched on the TV and was greeted by the same Rape, Sexual Harassment stories. I switched off the TV and sat on the veranda only to find an uncle residing in the opposite building slapping his wife black and blue. It was a sick sight to watch. We complained to the Cops for the nth time, who took him to the station for the nth time and sent him back for the nth time because his loyal wife is scared to complain against him.
India is a nation of diversity, and not just languages and culture; even the treatment meted out towards women in different parts of the country proves this.
So while a girl child is welcomed as Lakshmi or Durga in West Bengal or Southern States, a girl born in Punjab or Haryana is considered to be a huge burden to the family and is often killed after birth. Often, the mother who has given birth to a girl child is sent back home as though she has committed a crime. The father of the child seldom realizes that it is his chromosomes that determine the sex of the child. So shouldn't he be punished for committing this heinous crime.
Obviously, I have no answers to my questions but yes I do have some wishes that I hope gets fulfilled some day:
I hope that the honorable Judiciary System takes a note of the crimes meted out towards women and make the laws more stringent.
I hope that girls stop bowing down to the atrocities meted out to them. Set an Example by saying a FIRM NO to something which is against your wish. It could be forced sex, forced marriage anything.
I hope that the government does something about protecting the women. Sheila Dixit are you listening?
I hope that every family treats women as equal and treat them with respect.
I hope that the media does not make such stories a fodder to fill their space and time. It's good to inform people but definitely not good to harp over it.
But most importantly, I hope that Women do not keep quiet and learn to fight for themselves.
Every individual worships god (some do not admit it but secretly they do worship some form of god or atleast have fear). I believe in God and for some reason I have immense faith on Shirdi Baba and I make it a point to visit his divine mandir every year. This is the first time I am writing about the wonderful trip.
1. A sudden trip to Shirdi: As I said before, I have been visiting Shirdi almost every year for Baba's darshan. I somehow find solace in shirdi. There is something about the place that draws me there evrytime. With a lamba weekend (3 holidays back to back) and with some important decisions to be taken, mom and I decided to make a quick 9 hour trip to Shirdi to seek baba's blessings.
2. The nice and not so nice bus journey (Mumbai to Shirdi): We left on Thursday night. Like always we boarded the 8PM bus from Goregaon. The nice part of the journey was that there was a cute looking guy with deep dimples adding sobha to his chehra sitting behind me. He was chit chatting with me endlessly and we were laughing over silly of the silliest jokes. I had started dreaming of a dance sequence too, wherein, we both were doing salsa (the song was tera hone laga hoon from ajab prem kii gajab kahani). I was brought down to earth by my mom who realized that unki beti ki niyat kharab ho rahi hain. The not so nice part of the journey came when he called up his girlfriend and said loudly "jaanu tumhe aana chahiye tha, main tumhe miss kar raha hoon". Bas this was enough to make me feel disheartened and I fell asleep.
3. The enchanting baba's darshan and the indisciplined public: Shirdi has become a popular pilgrimage destination in India. After Tirupati and Vaishano Devi, Shirdi is the place twhere lakhs of people come to seek baba's darshan. After taking a room in a decent hotel, mom and I freshened up and went to seek baba's darshan at 7 AM. We wanted to go for the 4AM aarti, but I was way too lazy to get up and go. I got good darshan of baba and was mesmerized by the enthu public who kept repeating "Om sai namoh namah, shri sai namoh namah". But what irked me was the indisciplined crowd that tried to break the lines and wriggle like a worm between two people standing for darshan. It was pretty bad of them to do so. In order to avoid people barging in between, we had to stand in close proximities, and literally got suffocated. I even told a lady that "baba sabko darshan denge aap zara line mein khade rahiye", but all my pleas fell on deaf ears. I sincerely hope that the Saibaba Trust takes a note of this and works towards bringing orderliness amongst the devotees.
Bolo Shri Satchitananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj kii Jai!!!
4. A maha boring return journey (Shirdi to Mumbai): We took a return bus from Shirdi to Mumbai at 1PM on Friday. As I had returned after taking baba's darshan, I had decided to be a good girl and stop fooling around with good looking guys. The moment I settled down in my seat, I plugged my ears, closed my eyes and listened to Rafi singing Shirdiwale Sai baba. Luckily there were no good looking guys in the bus to divert my attention. The buswala had put Akshay Kumar's Chandni Chowk to China. It was a 3 hour ordeal for me to watch a weird looking Deepika and equally boring Akshay Kumar making fool of themselves, but somehow I did manage to put up with it. But aal izz well. The journey was smooth and we reached home safely.
5. Conclusion: I have come home refreshed with full of energy and with zeal to take right decsisions. I must admit, no matter how commercialized the place may have become, the simplicity of the local people and the magic of Shirdi is still visible. I suggest that whenever you make a trip to Maharashtra, don't forget to make a trip to Shirdi and if you are coming to Mumbai, don't forget to take my darshan :)
Will leave you with an awesome song from the movie Amar Akbar Anthony. I love this song (please ignore nirupama roy and her melodrama, just listen to the song).
No, no...I am not talking about the quality of grapes available in the market, I am talking about one so-called 'high fundoo B-school' in Mumbai. Now, one may wonder what has grapes got to do with B-school...well for understanding the relationship, you will have to read the entire post.
After 2 years of continuous convincing from my parents and 2 odd years of work experience, I decided to pursue my Masters in Marketing Management. I decided to apply in one of the so-called reputed Management Institutes (named here as 'x' college to protect the identity) in Mumbai. It was a 3 years part time course and was recognized by Mumbai university.
I filled the forms and sent it to them before the 'Last Date of Submission'. I also gave the mock tests conducted by them on a sunday and worked really hard to crack the exams. After 2 months of relentless practice, I gave the entrance exam (which I cracked confidently). Even the GD/PI had gone well and I was cent percent sure that I would become a student of 'x' college very soon.
A month after the huge procedure, the first list was put up on their website, sadly my name did not feature in it :-(
I waited for the second list, which was put up after 15 days...again my name did not feature in it. I was disappointed and was on the verge of tears coz I knew I had done really well. I called up the institute to enquire about the 3rd list (called the same lady whom I had spoken to before buying the admission forms) only to listen to a rude reply: "Don't call us like this...keep checking the website...jag lagna hoga list lag jayega" and then banging the receiver down before I could ask anything further.
Out of sheer Kunas and with lot of time on hand...I thought of testing the link and tadaaaaa I found some mistakes and was fultoo impressed with my discovery.
See the images of my discovery below (please view them in a new window or tab as they are not that clear).
Note: I have edited the snapshots in paint so as to hide their identity.
The spelling of 'Second' is incorrect...
The duration of the course mentioned here is 2009-2012 when actually the duration is 2010-2013. Now I entered the wrong DOB.
Now, I thought a 'Invalid entry' or some such message would appear as the DOB is wrong...but to my surprise it showed the result:
Psst: check out the year here, it is 2010-2013
Initially, I was super excited and was jumping around in the office just as Archimedes jumped during the Eureka moment...only to be brought back to zameen by my developer dost who said that probably the form was made such that results are displayed on the basis of form no. According to him DOB must have been just an additional parameter. He also added that instead of showing some 'invalid input' message...it has been designed such that it just shows if you have been chosen or rejected. I accepted his logic quietly.
But I still have the following queries (which I will obviously be asking the institute when I go there):
a) if an individual has originally got selected...but has by mistake entered the wrong form no and DOB, should'nt the message be 'Invalid input' instead of the 'your name does not feature in the list' ? Would'nt such ambiguous result mislead him/her?
b) Is it a norm that a candidate who has not been selected by your insitute be treated with disrespect. Is polite behaviour only situational? Forget the spelling mistakes and other silly mistakes...my question is should'nt college 'x' be more responsible and more accountable? Has education become a mockery, a money minded business to them. How do I trust institutes such as these to mould the future of managers and entrepreneurs?
The above incident has aroused a serious question within my mind: will a certificate of masters program make me a successful manager or a better individual or am I just wasting my time and energy on this? Several more questions in my mind...but seeing the length of my blog..I decided to end it here.
P.S: O btw angoor khatte hone kaa reason toh bataya hee nahi. See, had I got selected, I would not have bothered so much to prove 'x' college wrong. I took all these pains to prove them wrong only because I did not get an admission there. Ho gaya naa a classic case of 'Grapes are Sour' ;-)
