And they are shining brightly...

Away from all the glitter of cttthroat advertising & expensive coaching institutes, two men are doing their bit for the society, for the country. The men, whose actual jobs are as distince as nabbing the criminals & educating the students!

I first read about them in an article published in 'India Today' last year. It really touched me. The news appeared in front of my eyes again in June this year in TOI. They were doing their dury, quietly, and the results were there to see.

Three years back, Abhayanand, Bihar's Additional Director-General of Police (Special wing) envisioned a dream; a dream to prepare the hidden gems from Bihar to clear arguably the toughest exam in this country, IIT-JEE. He joined hands with another teacher of Mathematics, Anand Kumar. Later, Neeraj Pratap Singh (Chemistry) joined in and the faculty was complete as the cop himself took the task of teaching Physics.

Now have a look at the students: Son of a rickshaw puller, Son of a brick kiln worker, Son of a vegetable vendor and so on.

The strategy is simple. They handpick 30 students from the govt. schools of Bihar after a screening test and bring them to patna. Not a single penny is charged to the students. Even the food and shelter is provided by these mentors, out of their own pockets. And the results? In the first year itself 18 out of 30 students cracked IIT. In the second year the figure was 22 and this year 26 out of 30 students made it to IIT. The boys who were struggling to gather the bare minimum amenities for life are now a part of one of the most prestigious institutes of the country.

My salute to the vision and to the three men.

Read the full story

1.www.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/20iit.htm

2. http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=76655

Classical Dilemma!!

It was yet another rakhi for me away from my family. Its been a little more than 6 years now since i left my hometown. The distance which was approx. 550 kms for the first 4 years during my engg. days streatched to more than 1100 kms in the last two years. Out of the last three years, i could make it to Gwalior only once on rakhi. Coming out of the statistics, I received my rakhi well on time. To be precise, i got it on 17th, good two days before the festival and as an ideal brother, i dispatched my sister's gift on the same day.

After receiving it, everything boiled down to finding someone to do the honors on the D-day. For this purpose, female species were kept out of the question for all the obvious reasons. The only two targets in my mind were my two flat mates. As soon as i came out of the bed on 19th, i realised that i will have to wait till late in the evening as both of my flat mates were already off to their offices! The first of them, 'A' came back at 8 PM and i pounced on him to get the rakhi tied.

Now here is the scenerio that has prevailed!

1. He is officially my sister and i will have to protect him.

2. Going by the customs and traditions, I am also his sister as i tied the rakhi sent by his sister.

3. Two males are now sister to each other.

Now have a look at this..

4. My wife will have the option of calling him either 'Jeth' or 'Nanad'.

5. I can be his wife's 'devar' or 'Nanad'.

6. My children will have the liberty of calling him either 'Tauji' or 'Buaji'.

7. And I can play the dual role of 'Chacha' or 'Bua' at the same time for his children.

And i thought its just a matter of tying a thread on wrist!!

Happy Independence Day...Part-2

I never thought of writing part-2 of the previous post. But i am not the one who just turn deaf ears to such a statement by an innocent boy of that age. I decided to confront him again at his hotel. I couldn't do it that day itself as i was too surprised by his statement to react.

I was there at his place again day before yesterday. He came to take my order and i started:

Me: "Haan bhai...Gaye the kahin 15th ko?"
" Arre maine bola tha na..main nahin jaata.."
Me: Zara samjhaoge kyun nahi jaate?"

At this point another 13-14 year old, Jai, who is also working there (Came to know about his story too..That later) intervened and an entirely different story came up.

Jai informed me that the muslim boy is not an Indian! "Then who is he?" I asked. "He is a Bagladeshi"

So the boy turned out to be an illegal immigrant! (Thats a different issue altogether..) and he informed me that he is returning to his country next month.

So probably, in a way, the boy was justified when he said he doesn't go for flag hoisting. Probably he wanted to convey the message that he is a Bangladeshi and not an Indian. But in the process, he just took an entirely different way to convey the same!

Cheers!

Happy Independence Day...

I am a regular at a hotel ( a small one ) as far as my dinner is concerned. He serves delicious paranthas. The chap, who actually serves us, is a little boy with dark complexion and of medium height. He must be all of 14 years.

Last night i was at the same place along with my friend 'A'. Now, he is very good at striking conversation with anybody and anybody around. As soon as the chap took our order, 'A' asked him "Aur beta, kya plans hain kal ke? kahin jaa rahe ho jhanda lehraane?"

His reply " Nahin nahin, hum nahin jaate na..."

Here i joined. "Jao na..jaana chahiye..dekh kar toh aao kahin.."

and he replied "Arre..main muslim hoon na!"

I found myself devoid of any reaction.

This is what lack of knowledge, lack of awareness, complete ignorance and external influences can do to you.

Happy Independence Day...

Passwords!!!

1 Computer password

2 Lotus Notes Password

3 Clarity Password

4 Sap Password

5 U drive password

6 Yahoo mail Password

7 Rediffmail Password

8 37 mail password

9 Blogspot password

10 HDFC net banking password

11 ICICI net banking password

12 HDFC ATM Pin

13 ICICI ATM Pin

14 Demat account Password

15 ESS portal password

16 Naukri.com Password

17 Monster.com Password

18 Sify net Password

19 Gyanmandir portal Password

How the hell one can remember all these!!
This poor soul has lost 4 of the above listed 19 in the last two days!

Come here to pay the condolences...