Damsel in Distress

Society called her a damsel in distress. Her name was Sonia Agarwal.

An orphan, and possessed of adequate wealth, she cut a dash, as the saying is. She had a good figure and a good carriage, a certain natural grace and an air of nobility, attributes which most men like. However, her eyes always portrayed a sense of unhappiness in her.

One day, as she was sitting outside her classroom her cell phone rang, singing a popular Himesh Reshammiya’s ringtone. She was stunned as an unknown number flashed on the screen. Her mind was filled with mixed feelings something like a cocktail of vodka and gin with carrot juice. That incident just flashed past her eyes like McGrath’s out swinger.

It was a stormy rainy night, two years back when she had just entered the college. She came back home late from her salsa classes. There was no power. The window panes were squeaking. The cool air ran a chill through her spine. It was a typical Ramsay movie scene. Suddenly the rain stopped, the thunder and the lightening ceased to exist like the Kaveri water. There was the silence that precedes a tempest.

Her cell phone rang. She groped in the dark and found her bag. She opened it and picked up her phone. An anonymous number flashed on the screen. She received the call. A very sweet and loving voice of a young man answered on the other side. Sonia was enthralled for she had never heard such sweetness in the voice. For a love longed orphan this was love at first hearing. The man spoke to her as if he knew her for eons. Sonia went into the dreamland singing and dancing to the tunes of Anu Mallik’s pirated music. A stroke of thunder brought her back to reality and also shattered her two minute old love. The man apologized profusely as he had got the wrong number. And co-incidentally his personal fiancée also shared the same name, Sonia.

Sonia was disappointed. She felt all hell broke loose upon her. She cried to the heavens for snatching the happiness from her life once again. She cried and cried like a typical bahu of television serial as though she was competing with the torrents.

The phone was still ringing. Sonia had found it hard to come to terms with reality. Even after two years that incident was still fresh in her mind. She did not want to feel dejected once again. She had seen enough sorrow in her life. Her favorite tone now sounded irritating to her. She wanted to disconnect without even answering. But then she did not want her fear to grip her eternally and jeopardize her life. She answered the call. Once again a sweet and loving voice greeted her from the other side. Sonia started trembling. She did not want the Murphy’s Law of “if something can go wrong it will” to be true in her case. The person talked again, “Madam would you like to go in for a personal loan …”

Trivia: Written on 22 December 2006 for a story completion contest (italicised part was already given to be completed).

The Accident Episode

Some people are considered fortunate when they meet with an accident. Some others are not. They are fortunate for they have met with this sweet accident that everybody looks forward to at some point of time in their life to meet. Yes, they have fallen in love. While the not so fortunate are the ones who meet with more deadly accidents on the roads or at their workplace. Some escape with little or no injuries, some others are crippled for life and the less fortunate ones are married to death.

After a pleasant weekend, I was all set to go to my office on a sunny Monday morning on February the second, 2004 at about 9.05 am, with full rejuvenation. New hopes and ideas for the week were spurting in my mind. I had to cross the 100 feet, quadruple lane ring road with a divider in between. I am aware of the Bangalore traffic which is reckless and horrible. People do not follow the obvious traffic rules; no lane discipline is observed, no indicators used, no horns blown and more so one ways are also violated. But I am a precocious person and used to first look at the barred side on the one way because I knew that though I know about the rules, the other person need not necessarily know. Keeping all this in mind, I first looked to my left which was the wrong side for the traffic, and found no one. Then I concentrated on the right side. A whole bunch of vehicles was flowing on the road. I waited for my turn to make a move. And when I found that there was no one, I just kept my right foot down the footpath on the road. No sooner had I done that, I found myself lying on the road with my cell phone on one side and the bag that I was carrying in my hand on the other. I did not know what had happened. I found a bike lying below me and below it was a man, in all probability the rider, who was bleeding profusely from the left side of his forehead. I immediately realized that we had met with an accident. A 150 cc, 12 BHP bike that appeared on the scene out of nowhere from the wrong side speeding at about 40KMpH had crashed into my not so muscular body. I quickly got up, collected my bag and felt the pain on the left side of my cranium just behind the ear. I moved my fingers over the area to see if there was any cut and just found a streak of blood on my fingers. I was happy that there was not a big cut requiring any stitches. As I was a little too much informed about head injuries, I quickly conducted a system test on myself. I tried to listen and found that the ears were functional, and then tested each eye for sight, blurred vision and ability to distinguish three fingers as three; by His grace, they too performed as per expectations, and then tried to recollect some phone numbers and names just to ensure that I had not become a case of short or long term amnesia. A sense of joy seemed to engulf me as I thought I had successfully come out of this test. But soon the pain radiating all over my cranium brought me back to reality and I realized that I was a victim of accident and had to keep up my composure. The injured portion had begun to swell by now and I did not know whether it was a blood clot or just a swelling due to pain. By now quite a few people had gathered at the scene and were trying to help the biker. Some of them were looking at me with a sense of hostility and some others did not even know what had happened. Somebody gave me my cell phone which was lying on the road till then without getting beneath the tyres of any vehicles. I quickly tested it for functionality and found it working. The location of our accident was quite dangerous. Any vehicle could have easily smashed all of us- me, him and my cell phone.

Nobody exchanged any word, neither me nor the biker nor any of the onlookers. It was a peaceful accident indeed! I quickly collected all my belongings, checked for my office keys, identity card and stuff and started moving towards my friend and colleague’s house which was just close by. All this time my head was aching and the pain was shooting everywhere. A different kind of nervousness had gripped me and my limbs were shaking. I could also see some stars before me.

I reached my friend’s place, my trousers soiled with grease and oil and my body aching in pain. I quickly gave him an account of what had happened. He made me relax on the sofa; his sister-in-law immediately washed the wound, applied some antiseptic lotion and smeared an herbal cream with a touch of affection and warmth. I began to feel better and the pain seemed to vanish with her soothing touch. His mother gave me a spoonful of sugar and a glass of water. I felt a little relaxed and remembered my mother who would have done something similar to ward off all the pain. That’s the magic power that He has bestowed upon this visible God, whose love and care will make you forget all your miseries and sufferings and you will regain your joys. After resting for some time, my friend took me to a nearby doctor. The medico prescribed some pain killers and assured me that everything will be fine and advised me to take rest.

I reached home and prepared myself to take some rest. Called up my friend in office and told him about the recent developments. The news spread like wild fire and soon I started receiving calls about my well being. The only nice thing about being un-well is the attention that one gets from his friends and relatives. One is convinced that one’s existence on this planet is not just a burden and that there are people who really care about his presence on mother earth. For all others one has to write pieces of literatures. I spent the rest of the day quite restlessly. All this time my head was aching slightly and my body had started showing some spots of pain here and there where the vehicle had hit me. The pain killer had started to act by then but the pain in my heart was still beyond its reach. Somehow I was feeling sorry for this loss. It had become a part and parcel of my life. I remembered it only after reaching home. But it was too late by then. I had lost my dear pen in the mishap and I am very sentimental about it!

Trivia: Written on February 9, 2004 after the accident which took place at Banashankari 3rd stage, Bangalore.

Bachelorhood Regained

I was a happy man then. My role models were Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Abdul Kalam, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Beethoven and all those young and old men who had managed to escape from the clutches of the more deadly of the Homo sapiens species. Yes, I was a bachelor, a true bachelor, who in my opinion is not just one who has not tied the knot but also one who is also mentally free from the intimate fallacies of life. I had a very high regard for these men and used to sing eulogies in their favour. I used to instigate a sense of bachelorhood among my associates whenever and wherever possible making them to envisage the benefits of being a bachelor. What a life it was! Absolute freedom. Free from commitments. One is not answerable to anybody. There is no question of waiting or making others wait. All these thoughts would only fortify my notions and I used to feel elated for having nurtured those passions. I used to feel pity for some of my colleagues who were by then washed away from our shores to an island of love, which I believed, would only jeopardize their life and make them a non-performing asset.

Things were fine until one day when a gush of wind blew or was it a tempest that carried me away and I went with the wind and soon found myself on the island that I always disliked. I wondered how could that be possible when I had such firm roots on the main land. I tried to retrospect the possible causes when this beautiful face came across me. I was stunned; I pinched myself to make sure that I was not daydreaming for I had never seen such a beautiful damsel before. She was an epitome of beauty, an angel whom god had created giving special attention. And all these factors were more than sufficient for my domain transformation. My bachelorhood was lost.

Very soon I found myself doing all the conventional things that some of my colleagues had already ventured into. I would always try to find a quiet and a lonely place away from the prying eyes of the unfortunate bachelors to share a few romantic words with my newly found diva. In the process, we had explored all possible locations from behind the bushes to beneath the trees. Hours were spent together sharing almost everything except the email passwords. I began to see life with a new perspective. Now my role models were Romeo, Majnu, Shakespeare and all those who had lived and died for love. I held these men with great esteem. What a life it was! There was joy even without much freedom and commitments that would make one happy. There was fun even in waiting and making others wait. I used to feel pity for some of my bachelor friends who were left behind on the main land, for I believed they would become cynic.

Again, things were fine for some time and we would be rendezvous almost everyday until that fateful day when I had the shock of my life. She revealed to me that she was no more interested in me and that it was the last time she was meeting me. I was shocked, stunned, surprised and what not. I could not believe my ears. I checked my pocket calendar to see whether it was first of April. I tried to remind her of all those moments that we had spent together, which I always cherished in my mind. Those words of intimacy that were showered upon each other, the promises that were made were all reminded to her but in vain. I asked her for an explanation for the sudden change in her demeanor. Finally, she told me the reason for doing so. Her brother had advised her against all this and had threatened to do harm to me if at all I was found with her for the simple reason that it would deteriorate her reputation and image in the society.

She had not even completed her sentence and her brother was seen charging towards me. His eyes were carrying fire and he seemed to have a killer instinct. I took to my heels immediately and began heading towards an unknown destination. He was chasing me. I ran as fast as I could not knowing where to go. He was approaching me quickly. Soon I found myself on the top of a cliff and he was only at an arm’s length from me. I was gasping for breath. He was now walking towards me and I had no place to go other than out of this world. Then… the doorbell rang waking me up from my slumber thus breaking my nightmare. It was already 8:00 AM then. I heaved a sigh of relief for I had regained my bachelorhood.

PS: This story is purely a work of fiction cooked up solely in the author’s idle mind and any resemblance to any incident, though the chances are very remote, is purely coincidental। The author is not responsible if the reader becomes sentimental and or changes his perspective of life.

Trivia: This story (including the post script) was written on 13 March 2003 for our college magazine Vitruvian.

Bus To NITK

After having travelled for over three and a half years between Mangalore and NITK, I think I should pen down some of my myriad experiences in those six wheeler, multi-seater, bi-cleaner guided, solitary controlled, recklessly driven cubicles of iron and wood which are better known to the layman as ‘BUS’, but which I consider to be an acronym for ‘breath under seize’. Before I proceed any further with my narration, let me put a line of declaration that all those men in khaki i.e., the conductors & drivers, cleaners and passengers travelling in the bus are non fictitious and any resemblance to any act with anybody only fortifies the genuineness of this article. At this point of time, let us define the three main categories of buses in the increasing order of their dominance. The first category is that of the city buses, which as the name suggests, are confined only to the city limits. Usually packed to about 2.5 times its rated capacity, people other than of course the conductor hardly find space to move even their noses. Second in order come the service buses. Last and the least are the express buses for one’s chances of reaching one’s destination in one piece are the least in this particular category of buses.

Blessed are the drivers of these buses for they are responsible for making their passengers sing eulogies to every God they can remember. Even an atheist becomes a polytheist, setting aside all his pseudo theories declining the existence of God and tries to discover Him even in the straw of his upholstery seat. Such is the capability of these men on the steering for they can transform the human mind much faster than the seer who is said to have envisaged God. Moreover, the speed of this transformation is directly proportional to the force exerted by him on the accelerator. Even Michael Schumacher is forced to give a second thought if at all he decides to land on NH-17.

Nevertheless, the dare devil passengers who travel by these buses are very optimistic. Their optimism is reflected in their seat selection process and its further updating at every bus stop though none of them is sure as to whether they will get a chance to get down the bus in full consciousness. The filling up of the seat matrix follows a definite pattern, which is very orderly, and recursive in nature. Though I.T wizards all over the world are trying to switch over from WINDOWS, it is one of the favorites in these buses for everybody want a window by their side and until the window seats are occupied, the other seats are left untouched. The process that immediately follows the choosing of the window seat is that of trying to open the glass panes that are seldom present. People utilize their brawns to its maximum only to realize that it is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. Once the window seats are occupied, the next in order is the last seat stretching from one end of the bus to the other followed by the other seats beside the window seats. Only those few people who consider themselves to be at par with the drivers or those who want to have a glimpse of all other fellow passengers or vice versa or those who want to learn the daring act of rushing through the streets which are not wide enough even for the two wheelers or those who want to be ahead in each and every field of their life occupy the front seat beside the driver’s seat that is in quadrature with all other seats. At every bus stop, a few lucky ones get down the bus sighing a breath of relief thereby creating a few vacancies here and there. This gives rise to the musical chair once again and the vacancies are filled in the order of preference mentioned above.

Trivia: Written on 20 April 2003 for our college (National Institute of Technology Karnataka formerly KREC at Suratkal) magazine, Vitruvian. The map below shows the satellite view of the college and the highway NH-17.

View Larger Map

Educational Reforms

“The aim of education is the opening of the inner eye towards light”- said Plato thereby expressing the importance and the ultimate aim of education. Education plays a key role in the progress and development of a nation. The solution to many a problems lies in educating the masses. Knowledge is power and education provides this knowledge. An educated person is more mature and sensible than an uneducated man. He knows how to handle the situations tactfully and wisely. Our country has been impoverished by a lot of strikes, violence and protests. And if we ferret out the cause for all these, we find that behind every such agitation there is a nexus of uneducated persons. If idle mind is a devil’s workshop, an uneducated mind is his lair. Hence, the need of the hour is to educate the masses.

Today, India has achieved an overall literacy rate of about 60%. However, among those who are literate, not all are educated. A clear-cut distinction has to be made between being merely literate and being educated. If literacy is being able to read and write, education is a broader and more involved perspective of being able to understand, resolve and apply the knowledge gained by being literate. It is not sufficient if one is just literate, one should also be educated. One should retrospect oneself and ask the question whether he is educated or merely literate. If literacy is the body then education is the soul. They should both go hand in hand. Our government should try to achieve 100% education rate and not just literacy rate.

Our current education system and the government policies of education are oriented more towards making people literate rather than educated. These policies need to be reformed immediately in the interest of country’s and peoples’ welfare. Great social reformers like Rajaram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Annie Besant, Ranade and many others were also pioneers of educational reforms. They emphasized the need of educating people to prevent them from being exploited by the British, to make them fight for their rights. Gandhiji was a profounder of female education for he believed that if you educate a man you are educating one person, whereas if you educate a woman you are educating an entire family.


The need of the hour is to bring about a revolution in our education system by making suitable reforms that will not only enrich the quality of education but also make it more meaningful and knowledge oriented. The first and foremost step in this regard is to achieve 100% education rate. Emphasis should be given to education of rural masses. National literacy mission, a governmental organization, is doing a commendable job in this regard. However, in a country like India which has a population of more than a 100 crore, it is impossible for any single organization to carry out its job effectively. Hence, more number of private and non-governmental organizations (NGO) should come forward and take the initiative of spreading education in remote and backward areas. Government should offer special schemes, subsidies and provide all the required facilities to motivate these organizations and encourage other organizations to join them. Special incentives should be given to the people also in order to attract them and to prevent them from leaving the schools. A large number of adult schools should be set up. Informal education should be imparted through these schools. Vocational job oriented training should be given to the people in order to help them earn their living. Programs like ‘each one teach one’ should be encouraged to spread education among the people.

The constitution of India provides for free and compulsory education to all the children below the age of fourteen years. This should be extended up to eighteen years and strictly enforced. The number of school dropouts has been increasing at an alarming rate mainly because they want to go out and earn a livelihood. This should be prevented by introducing schemes like ‘earn while you learn’ where by the students can earn as well as learn simultaneously. Special scholarships should be provided to poor and deserving students. Free books, uniform and midday meals should be given to poor children. Although these schemes are in vogue, many students who are really in need of it are not benefited due to the prevailing corruption in the country. Stringent laws should be passed to curb corruption and a strict vigil should be kept upon the officials in charge.

The quality of the education needs to be improved tremendously. Educational boards of various states follow their own pattern and syllabus that more often keeps changing with the government and the political party, which try to enforce their views and opinions on children. Hence, first of all the educational boards must be freed form the clutches of the government. They should be made independent bodies vested with full power to monitor the quality of education. Highly qualified people who are an epitome of education should adore the board of directors for framing the syllabus. The syllabus should be periodically reviewed and updated to include the latest state of the art technologies. Obsolete issues should be dropped then and there. Value based education should be encouraged. ‘Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime’ is a well-known line from a popular poem. True to these words, the curriculum should include lessons on the lives of great people who have contributed to the social, political, religious, economical and scientific development of the country. Instead of having separate state educational boards, there should be only one central board of education in order to bring about uniformity in education pattern and to help those students who have to take education in various states because of their parents’ transferable jobs.

Most of the schools in our country especially in the rural areas do not have sufficient number of teachers. Hence it is not sufficient if the government sets up a large number of schools at close proximity from each other so that the students do not have to travel long distances. It should also induct sufficient number of teachers to take care of these students. These teachers should be highly qualified. They should be given proper training and paid a very good salary with other benefits like accommodation, transportation facilities, etc. They should understand the students and try to make their teaching as lively, interesting and interactive as possible. Example is better than precept. Hence, they should include as many real life examples in their teaching as possible.

Last but not the least is our examination system, which also needs to be reformed. The examinations in our country are mainly aimed at testing the memory of a student rather than his knowledge. The results only reflect the performance of the student in those stipulated hours of the examination to those few questions in the question paper and are not designed to test the knowledge attained by him in the entire course of study. Hence, new schemes should be devised to test the overall knowledge and the level of understanding of the student and not merely his performance in a few hours. Evaluation should be done continuously throughout the length of the course.

By incorporating all these changes, our system of education can be greatly improved and we can be a model to other countries in the field of education. This will also attract students from other countries to come to India for education and prevent our own students from leaving our shores seeking quality education abroad.

Trivia: This article written in January 2003 went on to win the second prize at state level essay writing competition.

My Vision of Modern India

“Jahan dal dal par sone ki chidiya karti hai basera, woh Bharat desh hai mera” is a famous song written by a visionary poet depicting the glory and prosperity of our nation. This invited trouble as our country was subjected to repeated plunders by foreign invaders who robbed away all the precious wealth and destroyed our magnificent temples and artifacts in greed of wealth. India was a center of trade and learning and attracted students from various parts of the world to acquire knowledge. Since ancient days, we were pioneers in many fields of science and technology. Our Vedas are a repertoire of such scientific knowledge that scholars and technologists find it hard to decipher even today. Such was the command and mastery of our ancestors on subjects like astronomy, mathematics, medicine and architecture. Our glory was wide spread and people from every nook and corner of the world have rushed to India to rendezvous with the people of our country to imbibe our culture, tradition, knowledge and heritage which was our legacy. Over the years, with the advent of foreign rule, our culture somehow began to fade away without our knowledge and we were transformed into a poor and an underdeveloped nation from a rich and prosperous nation. This happened because we lacked unity among ourselves.

My, therefore, first and foremost vision of India is to get back the name, fame, glory and prosperity it enjoyed during the past. I want my country to be transformed into a developed nation in the near future. India is a gifted land, a land with a divine bliss. The topography of the country has given us the name of a subcontinent. Our land is the most fertile land in the world. We have enough potential in terms of natural resources and manpower and we should harness it to the fullest. The key factor in achieving this is education. Education plays a major role in the development of any nation. All the people in modern India should be literate and educated. They should try to develop a research instinct in them and work hard towards contributing more and more in the field of science and technology.

Modern India should be a self-sustained country in most of the aspects especially in the area of agriculture. All the fields should be modernized and blossom with the state of the art technology equipments and genetically improved, best quality, fast and high yielding seeds. Our warehouses should be always full of variety of crops and we should have bumper crop every year. Agricultural exports must be maximized and we have to be the largest producer of all the crops. Biotechnology, which is the talk of the town today, will be the de facto technique of tomorrow and India should be the pioneer in utilizing it to the maximum to produce excellent, high yielding crops.

Industries play a very important role in the progress of a country. An industrial revolution has to take place once again in our country. Modern industries should have modernized industries with bleeding edge technologies. They should have sophisticated machinery to do precision work with perfect accuracy. Automation should take place in each and every process. At the same time, they should be ecofriendly. They should provide for a congenial environment. A large number of big and small industries should be set up. These have some definite advantages. They should provide employment for a large number of people, modernize the surrounding villages and establish a good transport network. Young entrepreneurs should be abetted to start industries. Quality goods should be produced. Exports should be increased and imports minimized thereby increasing the foreign exchange and stabilizing the rupee value.

Latest trends in the field of information technology had made India a global leader in this technology. India is a pioneer in implementing it in each and every walk of life. Right now, India is the country with the largest communication network. Modern India should be the first country to have connectivity with all the places in the country. Information highway has shrunk the earth and will continue to do so in the future also. Global village will be abated to a global spot. Software technology parks will be set up in all the important places in modern India for the research and development in the field of information sciences.

Strength respects strength. India is a peace loving country and peace can be advocated only by a strong person else the peace will be called an act of cowardice to elude from war. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalaam had rightly said that it was nuclear deterrence that was responsible for evading wars with Pakistan. Modern India should emerge as a super military and space power. This will not only make it a very powerful nation but will also help in advocating its principles to the world. Other countries will respect it and it will have a say in all the issues concerning with any other nation. This will also ensure it a permanent place in then UN Security Council. Space science i.e. astronomy, has its roots in India since time immemorial. Great mathematicians like Aryabhatta, Bhaskara, Sridhar, and many others have made excellent contributions to this field as early as 300BC, which are elusive even today. Mathematicians and scientists of modern India will be no different. Today we are one of the five nations to have a geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV), which is indigenously developed. The day is not far when we will send a manned spacecraft to mars also and send artificial satellites to other planets as well.

All said and done, modern India should be a model nation to the world. There should be peace, prosperity, greenery, tranquility and communal harmony throughout the country. Hunger poverty, crime and corruption should be altogether wiped out from our country. Everybody should be literate and economically and financially sound. We should regain our lost image of being a golden country with perennial rivers of milk and where gods are always smiling upon the residents. We should be a developed country soon and be a leader of other global nationals.

Trivia: This article was written in circa 2002-03 for a contest.