Ball of Choas

Here in this tiny country another festival has dawned, with lights lighting up the streets and the country blooming into a spring of colors. To those who are wondering what is Wesak right now, here is a little introduction to it, it's the day that the Lord Buddha was born, attained enlightenment and died. Somewhat similar to Christmas in that aspect, anyway we celebrate this day and it's normally a public holiday and they also have an extra day of public holiday being the day after wesak. So during these days there is a lot of traditions a few of them involve setting up pandals and lanterns. In my family it is somewhat of a tradition to make lantern and decorate it which is a pretty rewarding experience but at the same time a bit tiring. When the day of wesak draws closer we get our old string of firelight and bulbs and what not and set up lanterns, during this time of the year almost every house has a lanterns. There are also lantern competitions which are put out to displ...

Today one of my friends and I visited a friends house and he had a little brother of maybe, 6 years of age. Like any other younger brother he started pestering everyone around and the elder brother (who is my friend) sternly told him to stop annoying us. This behavior tends to happen all the time and I think it's more to do with younger brothers than younger sisters. Naturally this brought back memories for me, I am the youngest of the two children in our family. when I was younger my sister used to bring her friends over sometimes, either to study or just like a spend the day kind of thing. I remember that I used to always go and bug them, either by showing something or just acting stupid. I'm not sure what I wanted to accomplish, whether it was to have the spot light on me or that I felt that it was my duty to keep our guest entertained, either way I could not help but always stay with them and doing something that was irritating.  My sister always went and told my mum th...

 I do not know how many of you have read the following extract but I thought it to be inspirational and is a fine example of what teachers today should strive for. Education should not be confined to books alone. Enjoy the read.. My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents. All adventures that probably include wars, tragedy and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage. So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him - but gently, if you can. Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero, that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader. Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a...

So I finished my exams this week and just like that I'm done with another year of college. The stress of it all has been shaken of, it's actually a very pleasant feeling that you get when you realize that you don't have to look at another academic book for another 3 odd months. Most of my friends are going to intern pretty soon and then there's me, I've still not planned how I'm going to spend my 3 odd months. But I do not want to be rushed into an internship soon after exams. It's quite a hassle to be a student, I think our parents should give us more credit for being a student. They are under the impression that being a student is such a simple task, having only to study and sit for exams but what they do not realize is the toll it has on us. But I have one important question to ask, it's that does our grades or our degree carve out our destiny?  Just because we get low grades or a bad degree classification, does it mean it's the end of the r...

Continuation from my previous post... After reading the story, it got me thinking if this is what life is all about? The same cycle that everyone routinely follows. The first phase of the cycle is being born, growing up, studying so that you could reach great heights some day. The whole while you are studying for exams, try to beat the other kid who got higher marks than you did last time. The second phase of the cycle is finding a job trying to settle into the slow pace of the thing we call life, we get up in the morning to go to work and then come back home in the evening, almost everyday. The third phase of the cycle is getting married and then having kids, still you get up early in the morning to go to work so that you could support your family. Sometimes disputes arise between your spouse and then before you know your children have married. the fourth phase is where you retire, have grandchildren and try to live the rest of your life at a very slow pace and eventually you die...

This is a story that I came across on facebook; As the dream of most parents I had acquired a degree in Software Engineering and joined a company based in USA, the land of braves and opportunity. When I arriv ed in the USA, it was as if a dream had come true. Here at last I was in the place where I want to be. I decided I would be staying in this country for about Five years in which time I would have earned enough money to settle down in India. My father was a government employee and after his retirement, the only asset he could acquire was a decent one bedroom flat. I wanted to do some thing more than him. I started feeling homesick and lonely as the time passed. I used to call home and speak to my parents every week using cheap international phone cards. Two years passed, two years of Burgers at McDonald's and pizzas and discos and 2 years watching the foreign exchange rate getting happy whenever the Rupee value went down. Finally I decided to get married....