*Respect*

http://teach4india.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/from-akansha-to-teach-for-india-shaheen-mistry/

The 'bookmarked' pages of life! :)

How many of us do this at a book store: - Pick a book which we intend to buy, contemplate for a while and then keep it back. 
Well, if you do this then join the gang! 
I do this pretty often. I'll decide to go to the bookstore to buy a copy of the book I have collected good reviews about. Even after knowing the fact that it's a decently good book, I still won't buy it! Reason was unknown, until today.

I did pretty much the same thing at a road side book store today. Knew very well that I wanted the book but kept it back after looking and reading a bit of it for a while. My friend happened to be along with me and mind you, I had done this for the second consecutive time at the same store! :P

The minute we left the stall, he remarked, 'Seema, you intend to go to the bookstore with not the intention of window shopping but actually buying the book but you never do it! Pick something if you like it a lot, you don't need to think whether it is a good or a bad book.'

The minute he said this I pondered for a second, turned around and went back to the book store and without a single thought bought the book.

Well obviously, it does look like a silly story of me and the book but if we look at it for a second, it's much more profound than that.

Our life is very much synonymous to the cycle I mentioned above.
First make a decision.
Then look at the pros and cons of that.
Doubt the decision.
And bang, before we know it, it's gone!

We don’t really realise this but life should pretty much be the same to what you have already thought. Looking at the brighter side of things is what we are supposed to do. If you put yourself in the indecisive gear for too long, you shall remain there, period.

So what if there are wrong things on your list, at least the good and the bad both belong to you and not to someone else! And interestingly, you are the one who holds the reins to make the bad into good and the good into better. :) 
 
So the next time, someone even suggests a book of a shitty author, buy it. The only good thing you do in this is increase his profit margin by a tiny bit. ;)

Adios.

Democracy and its Cynics

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2379704.ece?homepage=true

Democracy. A word whose value, meaning and depth is not understood by many.

The above link is a display of that.

Arundhati Roy, on August 21st, 2011, blatantly wrote in a prestigious national newspaper, that Mr. Anna Hazare preached Gandhian but his demands were certainly not. In a country like ours where the government doesn't succumb to the right things and pays more attention to unnecessary details, I definitely don't think that what Anna Hazare did could be classified as unjust, unethical and certainly not wrong.

One needs to grab the attention of the media to gain power here. I think he played along not because he wanted to but because he was forced to. Being adamant to not step out of Tihar Jail and showing indefinite reluctance to give up on his fast were only ways to show the right direction and awaken the people of India who have  never seeked truth beyond tradition.

There had to be a start to this and someone had to do it. We all knew something had to be done but how was the question. This man, aged but with a dream in his eyes has set off to make this country a better place and I don't see any reason as to why should he be opposed.

Oscar Wilde has very correctly stated ...

A cynic is the one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

P.S- post comes late. But opinions don't change with time. ;)