Setu's Blog

I remember one afternoon during my vacations just after my 4th grade rather distinctly. I sat in front of a computer in my parents' room, and after following a Google search result, landed on a website that played the opening song to a then popular Hindi television show. I patiently waited while the Dial-Up connection from MTNL streamed the song, and I kept playing it, on repeat. I kept listening to the song, and smiling, and laughing, and dancing, while my mom looked at me in amusement. This was when I found the internet and realized how amazing it was. I am sure I started using the internet before that. Hell, I had my first e-mail ID before that! And yet, this was my moment of glory. This, was when I had found the internet, and I was smitten. Little did I know, then, that this was the start of one of the most amazing, informative, intriguing and personal relationships of my life. My relationship with the internet. I'm sure each one of us that uses the internet has one su...

It has been almost 3 months since my last post. And a lot has happened since. But today, I write this post for a reason. Because today, it’s my turn. I came across this initiative (by someone who I don’t know personally) called Your Turn Now (referred to as YTN hereon) less than 3 hours ago, and here I am, writing a post promoting the same. Each and everyday, we come across hundreds of people, have conversations with may be a fifty, and are thankful to almost a dozen. Similarly, there are many who are thankful to us, for something or the other, day in and day out. What do we do to them, except say a ‘Thank you’? How do we express the gratitude in our hearts? The gratitude is the goodwill we have. The goodwill someone else has for our actions. And YTN is an effort to spread that goodwill. You don’t have to pay a penny. You just have to spread smiles, and these cards. What cards, you ask? This is a 2-sided, visiting card style card which you pass on to someone who...

In the last few weeks, I've posted 2 posts on Education & India ( Part 1 & Part 2 ). There, I had said that I'd be posting a version of the draft I had created of the above titled post, a few years ago. It was 28th or 29th April, 2009 when, in a seminar, in a group of 10, we were told to come up with a plan and layout of our dream school. We made a rough version of what is posted below. On coming back from the seminar, in the few days that followed, I realized the importance of that project and how much it meant to me. For the same, I completed what I had started as a competition, in the seminar and the outcome is as below. My Dream School In India, and for that matter all the world over, schools are also known as the ‘Temples of Knowledge’. But, in India, temples are built after consulting architects but not the schools. Thus, today, I decided to give my dream school a real pictorial representation with the necessary documentation. My dream school is ...

Cross-posted from Not Just The Talks .   It's been almost a month (29 days, actually) since the day I saw the #KONY2012 video first. And since then, this movement has had my support, whole-heartedly. And it's been more than 10 days since my photo was published in the 'Times Life!' supplement of the Times Of India, for my efforts regarding the same. If you've seen the KONY 2012 video, by now you know that the D-day is 20th April, which is less than a fortnight from today. And thus, it's time to begin the preparations. Posters, bracelets, sign-boards, t-shirts... It's all rolling and travelling through the world! We may not be in USA and our actions might not count as much as theirs will, but whatever we do, in our little ways does count. We can't see injustice befallen on the people of Uganda. We can't see them going through pain while we live our lavish lives in a much more peaceful country. We feel for them. We feel ...

Cross-posted from Not Just The Talks . Like I’ve said earlier (by that, I mean in Part 1 ), my life revolves around the state of education in India today, being a student. And I lead from where I left, in the first post, in this one. 1) Colleges: The basic requisite for a successful post-education life-in-the-real-world, as I’ve heard so far, begins from colleges. Schools are those parts of our lives, when we’re shaped and also protected during the process. But, in colleges, we have our first interaction with the real world. So, it wouldn’t be immature-ish of me to say, that ‘That’s where it all begins...’. There’s not much to say, except that what I’m (by that I mean everyone in their respective colleges) taught is purely theoretical bullshit. Something that has been in the textbooks since ages. And, even if it has been ‘revised’ lately, I’m assured, when I open the first page, that all I’ll study, will be something that isn’t even present in real day life. ...

Cross-posted from Not Just The Talks . I’m a student and I have problems with the education that is supposedly ‘imparted’ to me. That’s where this post begins from and that’s also where the part 2 of this post will end. There’s a reason I chose ‘Education “&” India’ instead of what should have been ‘Education “in” India’. It being the same reason that we can’t and don’t produce enough talent, educated talent. There is no education in India. It’s a myth. And whatever is, is the word education & its association with India. Thus, the title. I remember my kindergarten and primary school days. Everyday, I used to be more than eager to attend school. Not because of my friends, teachers or to study. (Or may be it was one of them, I was too little then to remember anything about it now.) One of the reasons being, like most others of my age, who were in other schools from mine, I didn’t have the worry of appearing in exams and performing poorly, at an age when I barely even ...

Cross-posted from Not Just The Talks . As Indians, we know how it is like to live in a diverse country. And thus, it's easier for us to multiply those daily culturally different experiences by 7 so that we can somewhat figure out what the situation of the 7 billion people alive in the world we live in, and their diversity, is. Or, may be we can't imagine. Africa. The first thing that comes to our minds (all of our minds) when the name of this continent strikes, is that it is a third-world continent. Not a country, a continent. We have come to generalize Africa as a third world continent, as almost all of its countries are such. Having said that, the second thing that pops into my mind (not sure about anyone else) is the way the people live over there. Since the advent of imperialism, the African people have suffered to the hands of their European, American, Australian and Asian colonizers. And wars (inter-country and intra-country both), have always be...

Cross-posted from Not Just The Talks . Disclaimer: As the author of this post, I personally recommend only those who are aged 16+ (an adult according to many republics around the globe) to go ahead with reading this post. Others, a sincere request, don’t read it right now at least. Please abide by this request. And as always, this is just a point of view, solely my own. All those who have been regular readers of my posts for Not Just The Talks. , would wonder why this post. Those who aren’t, this part is for you. I had said in my previous post that the first topic I talk about will be ineducation. But, here I am today, posting about the Social Evils, the topic I was planning to write about the last. Reason? Events occurring in and around my life that pushed me to the limit of acceptability of things happening the way they are, have been, but , will not. It’s a fact that the life of women is hard. Like, really hard. And then there’s another fact. No man will e...

Cross-posted from Not Just The Talks . It’s been a while since my inaugural and only post for Not Just The Talks , ‘ It’s Time To Not Just Keep Talking. ‘ came by. Well, to be real, a long time. All this while, I have been wanting to push forth this effort that was born in my and my friends’ minds, sometime back in March last year, but couldn’t, for some reason or the other. Regardless of that, any apologies I make today, for promising to initiate change, and then not committing to it, cannot be justified for. Having said that, I do add that today, as I write this post, I am deeply motivated to make my efforts count, anew. This time, I won’t stop. No one can stop me. And if you join in, I know for once that you will make sure no one can stop you. Because, at the end of the day, we know that this is about not just talking, it’s about living. So, to the post for today... Freedom. A word with a million meanings and interpretations. Never has a struggle for ...