Good wins over bad. Or does it?

In our history, we have been told, that there are several instances of good winning over bad. Be it in the case of Ramayana where the good Lord Ram scored a victory over the Ravana. Ravana was a bad guy who had kidnapped her ladyship Seeta. And Lord Rama had to fight an epic battle to behead all the ten heads of Ravana and take back what was rightly his. A victory for good. Doesn’t really matter if her ladyship was put on trial and then had to be “absorbed” by mother Earth herself.

Let us take the case of Mahabharata. The good Pandavas were wronged by Kauravas and cheated out of their kingdom. Leave alone the fact that they were gambling in the first place, they were wronged nonetheless. So they had to employ Lord Krishna’s service to gain back what was rightly theirs. Another victory for good.

So it is all hunky dory. Isn’t it?

Now let us take a look at the real life, shall we? I will talk about three separate instances.

Firstly, my personal favorite, The CWG scam: Here is an event which has been in the limelight for over five years. The state and central governments, having made enormous efforts to host a game of international stature in the country, were having their fruits fulfilled. So it would have been logical for one to conclude that no efforts should be spared in ensuring the games went smoothly. But they couldn’t have been any more wrong about it. well partly right because no expenses were spared, that’s for sure. But the games didn’t go amoothly from any perspective. Till the last moment, no work was complete, the roads were dug up with utility infrastructure in place. Contractors and suppliers made crores and crores out of the good taxpayers’ money. The hard earned money which should, ideally, have been utilized to provide infrastructure to the general public. The Delhi public, in turn, faced additional hassles with many roads being closed down, dedicated blue CWG lane, dug up and not repaired roads and so on and so forth. So where did the good win over the bad?

Some might say that the investigations are on and the culprits would be properly punished. But we all know how the ‘investigations’ proceed.

Secondly, the much publicized hit and run cases:The jats turned millionaires courtesy M/S DLF, sons and daughters of rich politicians and Forbes people, film stars have been a victim. Not a victim of the hit and run cases but the victim of excessive media coverage when THEY hit and run some stupid migrant laborer sleeping on the pavements and dividers just because they own a BMW or a Mercedes or even a Honda City does nicely in these cases. And for no fault of theirs. After all, the stupid laborers are the ones to be blamed for all this. Why did they have to sleep on the pavement not in a thirty seven storied residential complex in Mumbai? Just because they were poor enough to not afford any accommodation is no excuse. So these spawns of the riches are forced to pull all their “contacts” to not go into a jail or custody. How does it matter if some laborers, the sole bread earner of their families, die in these accidents? After all “Aisse bade bade shehron mein aissi chhoti chhoti batein hoti rehti hain” (Such small incident do keep on happening in such big cities, a modified dialogue from DDLJ)

Another victory for good over bad; or is it?

Thirdly, just for fun sakes, the ubiquitous Vamp and Villains in the stupid box: I am sure that a lot of readers are females or have females in their families. And if it is an Indian female that we are talking about, ten to one, she will be hooked to one or more of the gazillions of the Saas/Ba/Ammaji/Ma-sa and Bahu/Vadhu/Bindani drama serials. And please do not think that only females are the ones addicted to it. Several men are also equally addicted to these shows; could be for some different reasons altogether, but hooked nonetheless. So, having looked at these serials, there are bound to be more than one vamps and villains in the storyline whose sole purpose in life would be to undermine the position of authoritative figure and/or the main protagonist. In case of vamps, they can be easily recognized by the tightly draped sarees which look as if they have been plastered over them, an elegantly created rats’ nest on the top of their head, ear rings as big as hoop-la’s and a weird bindi design every episode sometimes different even in a single episode. She always cries in front of everyone but has a sly grin on the face whenever one of her dastardly plots materializes. The main protagonist lady can be recognized by the demure attitude, lame and lack luster clothing, inane attempts to keep the family together and a fake smile in front of everyone and tears when she is alone. Who do you think is the winner in this case?

And they say good always wins over bad!

Images Courtesy: Indhistory.com, sawf.org, Zeenews, discusstv

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My Dream Job

“Har kisi ko mukammal jahaan nahi milta, kahin zamin to kahin aasmaa nahi milta;

jise bhi dekhiye vo apne aap mein gum hai, zubaa mili hai magar humzubaa nahi milta;

bujhaa saka hai bhala kaun vaqt ke shole, ye aisi aag hai jisme dhuaa nahi milta;

tere jahaan mein aisa nahi ki pyaar na ho, jahaa ummeed ho iski vahaan nahi milta”

- Ahista Ahista, 1981

“Find a job you enjoy, and you'll never work a day in your life”

- Confucius

In an ideal world, we would all be doing the job that we always dream about and be happy doing it. But this is not an ideal world. We are not perfect. We don’t end up doing the job which we really dream about (most of us don’t). And hence, end up being miserable in the job which we are so sorely trying to fit in. And why so? Because of the misplaced expectations that we think we have to fulfill. Because of the name tags that we have associated with our names and the need to prove to your peer group that you are as worthy of that tag as the rest of the world. And that’s where the problem begins.

That being said, I have a lot of different aspirations for my job. It’s a different matter altogether that whatever I am doing currently is slightly different than what I would like to do. But as I said, it’s not a perfect world.

So what is my dream job? Actually that job would need to be invented and cannot be said as being ‘A’ or ‘B’. so let me see what all do I want to do the most and then let’s see if we can come up with something… Shall we?

Perhaps I have seen one too many of the spy movies but I have always wanted to be a covert CIA operative/ MIB agent kind. Now I know some may say that I do not have the disposition for the same but I say “technicalities”. And I would really like to be one. So, if CIA is reading this blog perchance; I am open for recruitment.

I also have passion for cooking. I like to cook all kind of foods, like to eat them (many can testify for that) and like to cook for others as well. So some job which would let me cook as much as I want to… Of course not Michelin 5 star kind of cooking but everyday kind of cooked food that you usually crave for once you have been in and out of hotels once too often.

I also like to be a mentor to students. I like to believe that I have good teaching skills and a temperament to go with it. It also goes very well with my hobby of reading and reading is something that I am always ready to do at the drop of a hat. I can never resist a good read.

And it’s a trend nowadays to be particularly thoughtful of the needy, whoever they may be. From the blink-and-you-miss kind of TV celebrities to the Rakhi Sawant wannabe types to the oh-so-thoughtful BrAngelina who have decided to adopt the entire wide world to the celebrity contestants on the various TV shows; all are in one way or other trying to help the needy. And after all, we all are human and we need one thing or the other to get it going for us. Hence, to that extent we are all needy… even big shot politicians who are in need of more and more government sponsored projects (Read Commonwealth games) to fill their own pockets, to business men whose sole aim in life is to suck their shareholders dry (Principles of management be damned).

So to sum it up, I think that my dream job would be as a Guide/Mentor/Professor in the morning to help the “Needy”; a chef by the night to feed the “Needy” and the “Poors” of the Forbes lists; and in background working as a CIA cover ops guy with Batmobil car in the garage and flashy high tech gadgets.

Images Courtesy: coolbunkers.com,f arm4.static.flickr.com, freeclipartnow.com, holisticforgeworks.com, globusz.com 

This post is in response to the Blog Adda Contest at BlogAdda.

What Women Want?

Whether they give or refuse, it delights women just the same to have been asked.

~Ovid

The chief excitement in a woman's life is spotting women who are fatter than she is.

 ~Helen Rowland

What women want? That is a question that philosophers, theologists and what not have been pondering over since the dawn of the life. I am sure even Adam must have faced the same problem when dealing with Eve. How he overcome that problem, and I am glad that he did or else there wouldn’t have been such a contest for the lack of participants and organizers, is something that we will probably never know.

At different points, we hear different responses to what women want.
•    An email forward that I got some time back narrated the story of how an old witch married a young man and gave him two choices: a) Should she remain beautiful in the day and become a hag at night; or b) Should she remain hag in the day and become beautiful at night? The young man told the witch the witch that she can chose the option herself. To which the witch decided to remain beautiful ever because what she wanted, and by corollary all women want, is to be in charge of their own destiny.
•    Yet another forward lists down some things that women want from men and from society in general including Respect; some Chivalry; conversation and not just talking and listening; tactfully dealing with whatever issue is bothering them and the works.
•    Yet another article on net states that they just want to sort out other’s lives. Plain. Kapish.


A Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt starrer “What Women want?” in 2000 discussed the same issue. The protagonist wants to know what women want for a cosmetic Market Research and ends up with an ability to hear women’s thoughts and makes the life better for him. Wish it was that easy!

I personally feel that despite all the ruckus and ponderings and thought processes going on about what women want, despite the various researched and market studies and questionnaires and surveys, the answer is pretty simple.

Even women themselves don’t know what they want!

Even women concede this point. At MY Sun's Woman forum, user ‘lovelyrita’ confessed that guys might find it difficult to figure out the female mind. She said: "How can men be expected to know what women want when women don't know what they want? Some women are their own worst enemies!"

But imagine… what if the women are asking themselves the question “What do men want?” Perhaps they are every bit as confused about opposite sex as we are. And they try to act according to what they think that we want. And men, mistakenly, take that as what women really want and try to base our actions on that.

Incidentally, I feel that what a woman wants is:

• A successful career for their children
• For their husband to appreciate their work and the food they cook, irrespective of how good or bad either may be
• For their bosses to appreciate their talent
• To be able to spend some free time as and how they want
• Respect from those that she respects

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This is in response to What Women Want contest at BlogAdda.