A Post-Childhood Apology to the Old People of Yester Years

While i travelled through the roads of Pondicherry on this diwali day, i saw a young boy lighting a cracker just before my car and i was a bit annoyed by the high decibel 'sara vedi' aka 100 vala. It also reminded me of the mischief i played during my childhood days in the government quarters where we resided as a joint family. Being a naughty boy in my family, every uncle (i had four uncles) used to buy their share of cracker for me to celebrate the festival of noises and crackers. The famous Ariyankuppam crackers are known for its high decibel acoustic. It shatters the windows of some houses nearby in vibration. Such was the intensity of the cracker and i used to give a thunderous start always.

Some of the mischiefs are too much to tolerate for the old residing in the nearby vicinity. They fear particularly me because i used to fire the crackers in a mischievous way that creates nuisance in the locality. The unusual ways i used to fire the crackers include inserting the cracker in fresh dung, in the public garbage bin, empty coconut shells or glass bottles that sprays flints when burst, and sometimes throw the lit cracker in the air. Now, these mischiefs seems to be a dangerous one and i feel very bad about what nuisance i had created to the benevolent old people of those days. How fast those days have gone? Now, i am playing a role of ensuring strict compliance of the fire safety from the general public who are lighting crackers and selling fire crackers.

My Apologies to those who lost their peace during my diwali celebrations!

Man, God and Faith!

In an astro-physics lecture class, after the end of the lecture andextensively lecturing in the theory of relativity, an atheist professorwell versed with philosophy speaks to his class on the problem sciencehas with God, The Almighty. He asks one of his new students to stand and.....

Prof: So you believe in God?

Student: Absolutely, sir.

Prof : Is God good?

Student: Sure.

Prof: Is God all-powerful?

Student : Yes.

Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to healhim. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. Howis this God good then? Hmm? (Student is silent.)

Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fella. Is Godgood?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?

Student : No.

Prof: Where does Satan come from?

Student: From...God...

Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything.Correct?

Student: Yes.

Prof: So who created evil? (Student does not answer.)

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All theseterrible things exist in the world, don't they?

Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them? (Student has no answer.)

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe theworld around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Haveyou ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?

Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student: Yes.

Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, sciencesays your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn't. (The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat,mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees belowzero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold . Cold is only a word we use to describethe absence of heat . We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy . Cold isnot the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it . (There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing asdarkness?

Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?

Student : You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something.You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashinglight....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it'scalled darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were youwould be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?

Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue thereis life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You areviewing the concept of God as something finite, something we canmeasure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricityand magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood eitherone.To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the factthat death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not theopposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor.Do you teach your students that they evolved froma monkey?

Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, ofcourse, I do. Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir? (The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize wherethe argument is going.)

Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at workand cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are younot teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?(The class is in uproar.)

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor'sbrain? (The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain,felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So,according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrableprotocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir? (The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his faceunfathomable.)

Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.

Student: That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH . That isall that keeps things moving & alive.

Friends, I opine that God is something on which you have 'faith'. But that faith may be on 'anything'. You can see a God in A fellow human being, on a stone (idol) or in nothing (as absence of faith is itself is a faith i.e. faith in Void). That 'faith' may be even on crap/shit (A Dungroller beetle earns its life through dung/crap, it has faith that it will get its food i.e. dung).Thus, God is our creation. We created GOD. Hence, we are also God(s). But i really don't know whether God is Singular or Plural!

The image of a old lady that is hard to Forget!

Gouna is a village in Lalitpur District of Uttar Pradesh (India). We(Officer trainees of the foundation course - 81st batch) went there as a part of our Village Visit Programme. On the first day of our visit i happened to see a shocking (may be for me!) sight. To get a preliminary idea of the village we went for a transect walk around the village. Our visit to the village has kindled the expectations of the people of the village. Wherever we went People keep on coming to meet us and express their grievances. I myself got convinced that people want someone to atleast listen to their greivances. For them we looked like saviours though they know that we can't do much. The sight that i saw on that sunny open area after the people left was very heartening. Tears started flushing in my eyes and was just about to come out. I saw an Old lady in her late eighties sitting in a bent posture and trembling. I was gazing at her when tears came out of her eyes spontaneously and she kept on wiping the tears as that of a little child. She never even spoke a single word but all i could understand from her tears is that she is certainly uncared by her kith and kin and she is not getting the old age pension that the government has assured. One of our group member, a lady officer spoke to her and assured that she will get what she deserved as soon as possible. But that image of a helpless old lady got imprinted in my mind. What security such poor people have when the country is treading a higher developmental path? Who will be the voice of these voiceless people? And what i can do for her?........Will God give the answers for these Questions that loom into my mind? Images speak for themselves......One of the worst things in the world is Poverty in Childhood and still worse is Poverty in oldage.

Trekking versus Life

One fine morning when i was on a trek to Lal Tibba in Mussoorie, a spark of thought hit me in my mind. And more amazing is the fact that it happened when i was finding it hard to climb one of the difficult terrain in the trek. I sensed a lot of parallels running between 'Life and a trek'. I started telling my senior friend Shanmugam about the parallels. Those parallels that i sensed were :

1. Like the different phases of a life which is mixed with happiness and sorrow in different times, a trek too has tough as well as smooth areas (i.e. undulations are a characteristic feature of a good trek). If one crosses the difficult parts of a trek the other parts are so simple and makes one feel 'easy going'. The same will also apply to a person's life.

2. If one slips in a trek there will be friends/colleagues to lift him , cater him or to nurse his wounds. Similarly if a person slips in his smooth going life, there will be friends who redeem him from the quagmire in his/her life.

3. A person attains a great sense of satisfaction if he reaches a stage where he is proud of his achievements if he takes a glance of his paths travelled in life. Likewise, in a trek a person achieves a sense of satisfaction if he reaches his destination and looks back his journey.

4. In a trek one is often annoyed by small obstacles in the form of Leeches, marshy areas and a steep hillock. It has in parallels in life too in the form of irritating co-workers, disobedient children and an official memo.

5. In a life one will be often accompanied by his friend throughout the path and if his/her friend happen to meet an accident that handicaps him he lends his hand for help so as to ensure his survival so as to accompany him till the end of life. It has its own parallel in a trek too, If a friend got injured , he will ensure his recovery and to continue the journey till the end.

These are some of the parallels that came to my mind. I would welcome more parallels from my friends who might have felt the same.

The Foundation of a Bureaucrat!

KARAMSHILA BLOCK

The foundation of a civil servant is well laid in the wonder course called 'Foundation Course' Offered by LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy for Administration). The course is aimed at raising the level of successful candidates recommended by UPSC into moulded CIVIL SERVANTS who in the future be the backbone of administration. The FC provides a platform for many of us to intermingle and share experiences that they've come across in their arduous path of civil service examination.

The Physical exercises being offered are of great use in boosting the morale, discipline, courage and fitness which are all the imprtant traits required by the civil servant. The adventure sports like rafting, para gliding are sports which cannot be experienced otherwise.

The lecture schedules are quite tight and a probationer has to find time to think over his future plans.

All the activities are aimed at developin a sort of comaraderie on the probationers from different background.

These are all the experiences i've gathered so far.

The Wonder called Civil Service!

Friends! I am not writing this scrap for the reason that i've succeeded in this exam. But, also the various experiences i have gathered while preparing for this wonderful but equally thrilling exam. I agree that the exam is highly uncertain, but not always uncertain. The results are certain if one is prepared well and has raised his standards to the level expected by the UPSC. Only then can a candidate succeed!

The thumb rule is : " Ask your inner mind whether you 've performed upto the level to gain entry into the elite cream of the candidates" .If the Answer is "Yes", there is no need to refer the peliminary exam result, main result but only the Final Result. The Question is how do you know your position? . I hope to a great extent the self realisation can be obtained by interacting with like minded guys and coaching institute professionals.

I hope this is enough for now.