MADE TO ORDER

Interesting thing happenned today. Was in the strategic management class...and our professor went on about how some of the IIM passouts have all the data of abt 80 something companies including figures from their latest balance-sheets, their profitablity ratios, their recent accquisitions and mergers...yada yada yada. IMPRESSIVE...everyone thought...sure, but is it really? i mean sure maybe they took memory pills and crammed all those figures in real good, but how does it make them anything more than data-spouting taperecoders (or to be more with the times...MP3 recorders , encoders...watever)

There is a lot of emphasis on standardisation, quality control, mass production....and we seem to apply these same concepts on the HUMAN RACE TOO! Individuality, uniqueness, creativity, rebellion, a mind of our OWN.....BAAH!, these things are for ARTISTS, they say. About 5 GIANT financial services organisations either went Bankrupt or were Saved by The american Govt with gazillions of the american taxpayers money. I heard some of the so called "financial experts" discuss this Debacle on the news and i swear on Dear god.......they were really speakin some other language with some words of english thrown in....i mean, i cant imagine these guys could have actually been doing some real work cuz i wud imagine them givin all the time coming up with those words. MY POINT is.....what Connect did they ever have with the common investors ? Are they really even that important? ARent we already creating robots before the AI age has even taken off.....i sometimes feel like one.

Pretty much every aspect of our lives are guided by factors nothing to do with OUR satisfaction .....everybody else's but ours.  i am not advocating anarchy....not even free will, But just some freedom of self expression, i hope for a world that does not seek a perfect fit for their requirements when it comes to EACH OTHER. Believe me....there will be a plaeasant surprise in store. Because you, me , him, her, they.....we all are a lot more interesting and productive when we arent expected to know the latest sales trends of XYZ company.

Its not worth losing yourself to FIT IN....whether it be in the cool crowd in school, to get that 9am-10pm job,or to impress that girl who doesnt think you are her kind (she,ll find somebody....so will YOU, move on)

Love yourself , and accept others for who and what they are . life would be a better and a more stimulating experience for it.

OLYMPIC SIZE (UN)SATISFACTION!!

Abhinav bindra shot his way to a gold medal in the 10m air rifle event today....Great, so v have already improved on our showing 4 years ago. Good. But is it a reason for mass celebration??....i mean i,ve been watching the news ever since morning and my initial excitement at the news died a quick death because of the amount of exhiliration and Almost hysteria like status of the mass media and infact even the common man over that ONE medal. v might even get a few more ...say like 3 and send the nation into trance.

My question is why r we SOOOO happy? why r v SO easy to satisfy..i hear people callin it a dawn of a new era in indian sports and terming it as a spark for future sporting accolades. This is exactly the kind of reaction that allows the sports ministry, the federations, and all the authorities to conveniently sit back and bask in an individuals glory and then wash their hands off any ACTUAL constructive efforts towards upping the standards....i mean why work soo hard towards achieving more when our nations satisfied with soo little. CHINA is using the olympics as a platform to tell the world that they have ARRIVED...and its not just the glitzy ceremonies, they are backing it up in the field.

Another issue is our media and our people giving DEMI-GOD status to anybody and everybody who achieves at THAT point of time...true, be happy about it, fecilitate them but dont put them on a pedestal and make them HOLIER-THAN-THOU. RVS Rathore, the silver medal winner last time got everything from a truckload of garlands to Cash prizes to soft drink endorsements within, SAY, the 1st month of him winning the silver last time and then was conveniently forgotten. Everybody knows the same fate awaits Mr bindra and any other unsuspecting soul to win a medal hereafter. By The Way...we should aim for atleast 20-25 and thats not gnna happen even in 2025( haha...i can get so corny)

And u know the question everybody keeps asking ------Why cant a billion people get more medals? I KNOW THE ANSWER....NO NO SERIOUSLY, I DO! its cuz ur parents and my parents want us to stay up late and study....its cuz they want us to be just like their neighbors or cousins kid who got 90% in maths or a cushy job in a bank, its cuz kids arent allowed to be kids sometimes and just follow their heart, cuz whenever a kid wants to take up a sport other than cricket (where i may remind...v r no wrld champs either and consistently get walloped by countries 1-1oth our size)...there is the general perception kee khel kood tak theek hai beta but kucch kaam kaaj bhee seekho. Be it sports or any other profession other than the run-of-the-mill...the dreams and ambitions are systematically hindered, blocked and sometimes strangled till theres no life left.

Well, i think i,ll go back to watching the channels hailing young abhinav as "King of beijing" (although the average beijing-ite wud probably have trouble pronouncing his name)....and when athletes like Micheal Phelps ALONE plans to garner 8 GOLD...something which if our whole nation won...there,d be people rolling on the floors with absolute unadulterated delight. And yeah there are lots of hot, toned , beautiful lady atheletes from 202 nations competing in the games ....DAMNIT, what am i doing posting this junk here.....uhh...errm ....CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS.....I GOTTA GOTIUS (i am the King of corn).

BIG MISTAKE!!

DISCLAIMER: if any of the views expressed in this post offends someone or pisses off somebody off enough to make them want to kill me....i DIDNT DO IT! it was the voices in my head.....mujhe MAAF kar do, dont place a fatwa on me or stab me with a Trishul, it would be highly appreciated.

OK lets get on with it.

You know WHAT, by far, was MANS worst invention.....no it wasnt the the manhole (MANHOLE....haha, funny word) although it comes close. IT IS religion. i have no doubt about it.
Dont get me wrong...am a believer in god (atleast most of the time) and i think FAITH is something v should have...it gives purpose and makes peoples resolves stronger and pushes them towards greater things. it also provides a comfort and a pillar to lean on during bad times.
But religion does no such thing. And i think , unfortunately too often people mistake religion for faith and thats where they allow them to be led astray. Here is a short list of what religion has contributed to society: narrow minded thinking, absurd traditions and mindless rituals, dirty politics, obstacles to scientific growth, unsecular activities driven by a false sense of superiority and probably each war this planet has faced has on some level or the other has been influnced by religious differences used by political and fundamentalist forces.

Now...u would say that " But religion provides a source or link to connect with god or higher being out there"....but i think all good people dont really NEED that link. Each and every one of us does and can communicate directly with him/her (dunno gods gender) without ever having to go to gurudwara, mosque, temple or church....as they say god is everywhere. so i treat him as a friend and talk directly to him.

My Biggest problem with religion is how trivial religion is sometimes and how lil choice we have over it. when i was old enough to understand wat was happenning around me and grasp language...my parents told me my name is Kanwardeep sodhi and i am a sikh...thats how i become a SIKH? if they had told me i was Muhammad ali and i am muslim , i would have become muslim and probably not the greatest boxer of all time.
I am sounding preachy...aint i? well wat i am trying to say that religion has always been used as a tool...to get people to kill each other, to wage wars, to win votes....and most unforgivably, to ban some really cool movies.
IF u really wanna follow somethin....follow music, culture, and if u r female and pretty, Follow me!

P.S although i dont like religions...i really like some of the gods...Like lord shiva gives me the impression of this really cool guy whos a biker with long hair and a stubble crusing on a harley with leather jacket-shacket and all that style. And HanuMann gives me the impression of a strong Jat munda on a gypsy with a wry sense of humor.

infact i can write a whole blog on my versions of the gods....well maybe next time. more of that later.
GOD BLESS EVERYBODY

OF great khali and ITEM GIRLS and all things grand..

as me and millions plunk down their behinds in front of the grandest invention since bread (sliced or otherwise), the TV, none of us really have any expectations out of it excpet maybe a cpl of hours of watching half naked women on beaches, rooftops, hills, roads....ppl blowing guns in houses, offices, barns, monastries....scheming women in one soap operas, lecherous men on another (in other words, a couple of hours of GOOD, CLEAN FUN). But until about say 5 years ago...when i switched to a news channel....which ofcourse would after my dad snatched away the remote control, i would expect an intellectual, unbiased and dignified reporting of events arond the World. Of course, i like many other people, kept myself updated and then went back to the good old obsecnity (physical and mental) doled out to us on every other channel.

Not anymore, the news channel 2day has undergone a metamorphosis that would make a caterpillar(0r for that matter, butterfly) envious and send it scrambling back into its cocoon.......gone r the days of the boring old, Responsible journalism and well researched , understated and trustworthy news. SANSANIKHEZ now is the name of the game.....and everybodys playing it. Kids fallin into holes, b-grade celebrities shoutin it out in public,
the neighborhood affair between Sharma ki ladki and Gupta ka ladka .....its all Manna from heaven for the new, supposedly improved, news channels....khabar brought to u as it happens (hoohoohaha) complete with reconstructions using the cheapest actors money can buy.

Obscenity, sensationalism, plagiarism. all issues that traiditionally were the knell of death for responsible media have infact become the mantras that it lives by.....missed out ur fav show on tv....fikar not, BHARAT TV will show u whole sequences of it PRIMETIME...missed ur favourite comedians stand-up act?, KHABAR TODAY will show it u under the caption SHAKEEL ke LADOO...but..over and over and ever again...until u cant take him anymore.

sure , i can complain about it but i have the power of thr remote control and if i really feel like watchin some ACTUAL news...i can always watch NDTV..which does seem to try and stay genuine inspite of probably having the puppets as their major attractions. plus sunetra choudhary, one fo their anchors, is sooo HOT (did i write Hot?....i meant attractive in a dignified way).
THATS ALL WE HAVE FROM THE NEWSROOM TODAY.....until next time.