Arrivals and Departures (Life as a Journey)

An image of a new born child evokes different responses from people, depending on their age and even possibly their gender. A Woman may point out the child’s cuteness. An elderly gentleman may, on the other hand, feel happy for the child, since he believes that, his life has just begun.

A ‘wonderful journey’, a ‘rollercoaster’ are among the euphuisms used to describe life by various thinkers and personalities. Life is indeed a journey, where arrivals and departures are equally important. As observed by Santh Kabir, “we enter this world kicking and screaming and bring joy to those we know, but we must leave in a way that we leave a smile on their faces.” While arrivals and departures are important, it is more important that which we do between are arrival and departure. Indeed, that is what vindicates our existence. Our ‘performance’ and ‘distance’ throughout this ‘road show’ is all that we have when we are in our final moments of existence.

Emotions, Experiences, Successes, Failures, Mistakes and Glories, are what this writer believes to be the contents of The Journey. One is sure to have an unequal amount of all of these things. One may feel happy or sad at the time of departure. But what is to be said to them? They must value and cherish what is about to leave them. There may never be an end; there may be another arrival after a departure on the Schedule List. I believe that the Soul is a passenger on board the Train of Life.

Malhar for St.Xavier's

A Few young girls walk by on the sidewalk. They seem to be wearing some sort of uniform colour over their civilian clothes. Some wear Sky Blue, some Red. They are all chirping with conversation and giggling. Something exudes enjoyment and happiness about them. Even to a layman or pedestrian, these girls are saying this about themselves, that they are having the time of their lives.

Stepping into the campus during the pre-malhar days and one can find nearly everyone making excuses in the name of Malhar. Anything to stay a few hours late with your friends and newly-made friends as well, who may as well be your seniors or your juniors.

A quick glance at the trophy case is one of the inspiring sights. The shine and the engraved names on different trophies are achievements everyone should be proud of. It’s probably what keeps this fest going. It’s probably convinces many every year just how important the fest is.

The Two days during which Malhar is held has always been unforgettable for many. They may be 30 years old now, but each of them will still hold a personal experience of Malhar with them. People make friends with absolute strangers, just because they’re all involved and have to help each other. This usually transcends departments. This writer has heard of quite a few ‘feelings’ that brew in the course of these two days as well. Nonetheless, if there are no ‘feelings,’ there have always been friendships.

Post-Malhar, events become memories which are reminisced frequently. The seniors are set to leave; their last year for the fest has led them to collect precious memories. Others, of course, only anticipate with great excitement the next edition.

Leap of Faith -(under the category of 'anything')

The cop sees the man with the backpack walk into the station. The man looks young. He’s bearded and vaguely Middle Eastern looking. The backpack makes the cop a little suspicious. He asks the man to step aside. It would be just a routine check. Just see the contents of the backpack and let him go. The man walks on ahead without stopping. His step quickens. Now the cop tells him once again to stop and step aside. The man pays no attention to the instructions and keeps on walking. The cop starts running after the man, all the while shouting for him to stop. He draws his gun. If the man is a terrorist, then he has to be ready for that. Finally, the cop shouts as loud as he can for the man to stop or else he’d be forced to shoot.

The man turns around, facing the cop. The cop trains his gun onto the man and asks him to remove his backpack and not move further. The man stares at the cop for half a minute or so. The cop sees a wire running down the front of the man as his hands move to his chest. The cop can’t wait any longer – what’s he supposed to do? Let a whole station full of people die in an explosion?

He fires two shots straight through the man’s heart like he’s been taught to do. He’s just following instructions. The man collapses and the hand at his chest unclenches. Only now does the cop notice the music player in the dead man’s hand. If the man hadn’t been wearing the cap, the cop would have seen the earphones; realized that the man couldn’t hear him. Damn the racial profiling.

Education, Education

The Indian Education System seems to be undergoing much change for the past few years, as the News has highlighted various educational policies put forth by both Dr.Arjun Singh and his predecessor Kapil Sibal.

While the Government has implemented the Mid-day meal scheme, which promises the incentive of a nutritious full meal for school children, it has also put forth a proposal to do away with Board exams. This may ease tensions, quite literally, but a replacement measure that is feasible is yet to be put forth. One feels it will be some time before to-be matriculates will rejoice.

A lot of tinkering has been witnessed in the Maharashtra Education Board, not much of it has been approved. For example, the Percentile system, which was implemented for the academic College year 2008-09 was, was looked upon as complex and disadvantageous to students with lesser percentages. The method used to calculate a student’s percentile itself was seen as flawed.

The Percentile system was challenged in the Mumbai High court and the court asked the state to scrap the faulty system. The State government was yet not ready to give up. It was adamant to formulate a system that would keep the disparities with respect to marks limited. The very next year, the College year 2009-10 saw the introduction of what was widely referred to as ‘The 90:10 policy’. This policy aimed at reservation of 90% of all junior college seats for State Education Board Students (SSC Students). This became a subject of much debate among parents, would-be collegians, and the State Education Minister, Mr.Vikhe-Patil. Finally, the High Court once again played the role of a decision-maker and decreed that the 90:10 Policy was biased and hence, must not be implemented.

Moving away from the State of Maharashtra, and rather looking at Education policies from an All-India point of view, one can recollect various incidents regarding the Reservation of Seats at government educational institutes (like the IIMs, and the IITs) for Scheduled Castes/Tribes. The Bill was passed with majority in the Parliament, but the Students deemed it to be unjust and biased, as it left few seats in the open category to contest for.

The Conclusions that are drawn firstly, is that Reservation in Education continues to be the major bone of contention and secondly, that while change is being welcomed, it is not exactly done so with open arms.

Rain

Rain

She watches as the grey-black clouds gather over the horizon and takes a small sip from the coffee she has been nestling in her hands for the past five minutes. She likes her coffee lukewarm, a habit which always invites unwanted questions – Why don’t you have the coffee while it is still hot? Why order hot coffee when you intend to have it cold anyway? – that sort. What is even more annoying is the free advice people always seem to have ready to dispense – The coffee tastes best when it is hot; the aroma of the coffee disappears once it starts cooling. Frankly, she couldn’t care less. It’s something she is drinking and she should be able to do that any damn way she wants. That’s why she developed this habit of taking her evening cup of coffee she buys from the café below her apartment to the terrace where no one generally came up, not during the rains at least.

The terrace of the apartment is usually empty during the monsoons. No one cares for walking about on slippery ground. The only person who comes up is the hypochondriac who lives on the top floor and keeps complaining about how the damp from the ceiling will cause him to die of tuberculosis

She is fond of this solitude that the rain offers her. It’s her nice private little world up there. No one asks intrusive questions and no one gives unnecessary advice. She feels free and uninhibited there. She watches the grey-black clouds gather over the horizon and takes another small sip of coffee. The clouds have become darker and she can already see the fine mist of rain far away in the distance. She knows that soon she will get wet but she doesn’t care about that. It’s a cleansing, cathartic feeling.

The first drops start to fall on her head. She relishes the sensation almost as much as she likes lukewarm coffee. With a contented smile, she finishes her coffee, sets the cup on the floor and turns her face to the sky. It is really pouring now. She just stands and lets the water runs down her face and body in small rivulets and the first small puddles begin to form on the terrace. Soon, she will go down and make a few paper boats and float them on these mini lakes. The rain keeps falling in swirling sheets.