Its a sad day for its never easy to tell an abrupt goodbye to what you thought would be a long story. Nikhil Kamath as the batch of 2005 of PSBB would remember was an exceptionally brilliant guy,an achiever in every sense of the word and who had the potential to get what he wanted. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to meet some very talented people but perhaps the class of 12B was by far the most gifted set of people I have ever been lucky enough to be associated with.Nikhil was one of the best.There was always an aura of confidence about him , a cocksure attitude about his ability and he was always on the mark.This is as I remember him from four years ago and I have met few like him since then.
I always looked at the honor board in the school with a fond memory, now I shall remember Nikhil and what could have been. In a sense his loss , its just not fair. He was exceptionally gifted and motivated and these guys dont come often.
When I look back and think of Nikhil I think of brilliance,amazing mathematical skills,an excellent quizzer,motivated,achiever and whom we all thought would really go places.It has indeed been an honor to have shared a classroom with him once.He did in a sense achieve what many dont in a long time.Its a loss that we collectively mourn. This quote from Anish best sums it up for all the people who knew him and his friends…

“I thought I had all the time in the world to catch up with him.. he was a great person and a good friend.. we’ll miss u, Nikhil!!”

The just concluded US Open is memorable in many ways. It had Kim Clistjers come back from a 2 year break to win the US Open,Melanie Oudin revived the Great American dream while the British saw theirs sink for yet another time,a host of top players including Serena,Fed and Rafa burst at the umpire with Serena making it the highlight of her this year’s campaign.The greatest and most visibly outrageous one is Del Potro’s win.

Federer was in such imperious form , it was a treat to watch him.Against Soderling he was shoddy but Djokovic’s match was brilliant.I did not think Del Potro could win him. But win he did with that big serve and stinging forehand. The way Del Potro treated Nadal was almost funny. Nadal was just out played and unless he finds a different technique Del Potro will be the same as he himself is to Federer.Ironically the topspin that troubles Fed so much is rendered ineffective against Del Potro’s height. I am not convinced by Fed’s greatness he just got lucky in the past two slams -no Nadal. Unless he wins Nadal and reverses their head to head record he cannot and should not be the all time greatest player.But undoubtedly he is the most consistent athlete ever in any modern competitive sporting era. And that is something that will never be replicated probably.

Kim won, good for her a tremendous achievement indeed.But really women’s tennis sucks these days. we have to wait for the crop of young players to grow up.there was a time some 8 years back when the Williamses entered when women’s tennis was exciting and highly competitive and they are the only ones who retain that spirit even now. And clearly the rankings are so much of a mockery now that no one takes it seriously except probably Safina.

Lastly, Del Potro is exciting but lets wait and watch lest he goes the Safin way. Really in all this Safin has been forgotten. He is an example of so much talent gone waste. This guy had the game to whip Sampras,Had it in him to beat Federer(he did that too mind you) but he was destiny’s prodigal son really.Such a regrettable act. Why? is the only thing I think when i see him play. If only he had lent some wee bit of that talent to his more balanced sister she could have managed to lay her hands on a grandslam trophy .

Serena’s little outburst is really passable.Come on cut the female some slack. she was losing a match and generally does not go about abusing umpires. I think past record(not in that day’s match alone) should be taken into consideration while handing out penalties in matches of importance like a grandslam semi final on a match point.

Melaine Oudin really is a talent. I like the way she plays and think she has the game to go great places.She requires consistency,self belief and some tweaking.

A memorable open of upsets, really.

Its an interesting decision. In a country obsessed with point one percentiles and ninety eight percentages its a rare occurence,this one. Its a welcome one. I am not biased against the board exams, I performed very well in both of mine,however I have never seen the point behind both the boards. A continuous assessment however is a tougher nut to crack.It demands that you be on your feet,up and going throughout the year.The change will work only if the public’s mentality changes.the obsessive competition and craze to crack the IITs , if they exist the current situation would only burden the child more.
To be frank tenth standard CBSE boards is not a very formidable task at all. Anyday I would pick the board exams as they are easy to crack.its only the pressure associated with it thats burdensome. the exams as such are not very difficult.
Here’s why..
1. Different schools have different yardsticks to measure a student’s capability.The level of toughness of exams varies. The interest of the school also varies.Some schools are very exam centric,some stress on an overall development and if the performance of the students is used as the standard to guage the school’s strength ,the latter ones would be at a disadvantage.
2.If CBSE is to introduce standardised papers throughout the nation its like repeating the board saga at multiple points in a year.
3. The syllabus is anyway not very great so a grading system would not make much of a difference in the improvement of a student’s learning.
4.the Indian school education itself is marks oriented hence this step would not lead to a coherent relationship between knowledge and evaluation.

It has a few definite advantages though
1. It removes the pressure off a 15 yr old’s back.Experts agree that by far the toughest exam for an age group is the tenth boards because of the pressure associated with it.
2.Tenth boards are not mandatory. they can be dispensed with and they have been. thats good always.
3.it can be seen as the first legitimate step towards a much needed reform of the Indian education system.

However, the Government needs to tread with caution. Review boards judging the competence of school papers is necessary.Even if that were to be the case the schools can always bypass the board by training their students suited to the questions they set.This would exacerbate the situation and remove any semblance of actual learning from schools.infact I feel the government has gone about it the wrong way.it seems to be a top-bottom approach,just like it did with the OBC reservations. A revamping of curriculum,appointment of proper faculty, reducing the work load of children,concentrating more on lab work than rote learning,a change in question pattern,diversity and flexibility in the subjects taught,encouragement of the arts and pure sciences are all mandatory steps necessary.If none of these is implemented and board exams are scrapped,it would only spell disaster.
These are interesting times nevertheless and I am so glad I got my boards behind me!

Its been a long time since I have read HP, I used to be an addict once. It was a compulsion to read it every day over and over.I know so many people like me. In fact we must count in millions.Over a period of time HP seemed a bit childish.I grew out of it.HP works its charm best when you are in school simply because in your life you can pick people out of JKR’s famed collection.There’s always a teacher you dont like ,a teacher who is indulging,a phony and most of all you have your friends too, just like Harry does. And we all want to live in that world or at least delude that we do.Thats what makes us read it when we actually fall of the cliff like the one in the catcher in the rye. This is the same formula that makes movies like DCH,JTYJN or the umpteen teen age romantic flicks clickeven among adults.
The books have always been far better than the movies.Perhaps the best movie amongst them is the latest one.Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Its the first movie better than the book. The movie is dark,thrilling and even has an art house -cinema- like quality about it at times. Daniel Radcliffe comes off age.Its the only movie in which his presence overshadows the more talented watson and grint.It may also be because this book is Harry-centric more than the first five.Whatever be the reason he is the star of the movie. he is sensitive,funny,serious,melancholic and angry without going overboard even once.He manages to pull all the strings the right way.
The plot is gripping enough and simple enough for even the non-HP junta to follow but then no one really cares about the latter.Bonnie wright fits perfectly as the tongue in cheek yet so pretty Ginny.there is not much for Ron to do and hence for Rupert too.That brings us to Michael Gambon and Alan Rickman. Rickman as usual plays Snape the way we imagine the character to be.with a touch of arrogance,disgust and a quality of mystery around the character.I am not a fan of Gambon. Albus Dumbledore is not a character written as Gambon has played it.In fact he was painful to watch in the fourth installment.However,like Radcliffe he does a majestic work this time around.Horace Slughorn is alright,maybe a little less thin than you would have imagined.He plays the character well. Slughorn is one of the characters with a strong tragic quality about him and yet he evokes no pity from you.The young hero tiffin plays that brooding,dangerous kid well.You could sense the evil lurking beneath the ice like exterior. He plays it a bit gay. But then Voldemort is probably gay. He is pretty,smart and not shown to have any sexual interest in a woman. Perhaps the young Tiffin could have played the role a bit less sinister.Afterall young Tom Riddle was supposed to have been charmingly convincing that even Harry falls for him.
Tom Felton is looking so dashing these days that its difficult to hate the character.In fact Draco seems almost likable looking at Felton!

This is the best film yet.Visually appealing with very convincing performances.A plot that rises above what JKR provides. It teases and leaves you waiting for more.

the truth

I have often been stumped on, for what most people would be a simple question to answer,who is your idol/inspiration in life? The reason I say stumped is because I don t have any particular source of inspiration ,i have never felt the necessity to have one. I have always set my goals and worked hard towards them.Its only lately I realised that though I may not have a single source of inspiration in life, a lot of my views on life has been significantly influenced by my grandfather.
When I used to debate,I always used to oppose the nuclear family notion because it robs a child of the love and affection a grand parent can bestow.That indulging love is different from what a parent offers and often most important to a child’s development in today’s world where both the parents work.Grandparents are often I have found the most effective shield against an angry parent.
My Grandfather was my best friend for 18 years.its not that I did not have friends.I had a lot of them from my own age but as a child I preferred reading over playing and not surprisingly talking and writing over going out. I learnt the Mahabharath,Shakespeare,Wordsworth, Sanskrit from my grand father.It would give me great delight in discussing Shylock’s legendary speech on organs,dimensions and senses.I remember the long winding discussions I used to have on the Mahabharath,Tamil Nadu politics,on Gandhi,On Sanskrit Grammar,On Kalidasa and so forth. Today I can safely say that I am well read with a decent knowledge of the general affairs of the world. Its always important for me to read the news,ponder about the right and wrong,take a stance on an issue,have my own view on a topic and these were the qualities that helped me to successfully debate or give a speech .
I also loved to go shopping with him. He would get me the latest ice creams,soft drinks,chocolates,biscuits. Those were the big moments when I was small. An evening walk I used to wait for every day.I would take him to my school canteen when he would come to pick me up from school.Those are the small precious moments I cherish.
I wanted to convey this and thought it best to do the way he would have liked -openly expressed but under stated. This is to say that the grand daughter shall always remember and cherish.

The past few days I have been reading Ayn Rand and her lectures and views on various topics.I am not an Ayn Rand fan ,in fact I consider her philosophy and take on most issues a collection of hog wosh.I consider her views insidious and harmful to the functioning of society at large.While her premise of using rationality as a basis is worth admiring and accepting ,her subsequent take on numerous issues such as morality,freedom of speech, Man vs Woman,God vs Man, State vs People are too insular.Her views directly contradicts the Hinduism view of life.Its not that which bothers me ,its an application of pragmatic principles in an ideal manner discounting any medians between the extremities that disconcerts me. the irony in her philosophy is that its probably the only one that brackets the left and the right in the same set.If I have to repudiate Ayn Rand it would take a large amount of time and blogging space,So I leave it to rest here.
I have also listened to considerable amount of sermons on Vaishnavite philosophy the past few days. I realized I have hardly ever read anything related to this.I should have read substantially on it considering I belong to that tradition. It would help explain our views on God,on salvation,on life,on significance of rituals and so on.So if anyone knows any simple book that I can read up on it please do let me know.
The last of the lectures I wanted to blog about is the one I attended at the faculty hall of IISC yesterday.It was a lecture that sought to explain the presence of sensuality in sacred temple art throughout the country.It was a highly interesting and engrossing lecture that had as its basis that presence of erotic art in temples was normal back then and nothing is licentious or bad about it as people saw it as a symbol of fertility. Fertility the lecture sought to tell was the central motif.It was a method of transcending the barrier between the real(physical) and the surreal(divine or spiritual), a celebration of both.
The lecture was delivered by Ms.Vidya Dihijea(I am not sure of the spelling). Anyone interested in this can buy and read her book The body Adorned.
I have a few reservations though. If you were to look at the temples of India (atleast the ones in South) and the Khajuraho temples theres a glaring difference.While all temples have voluptuous dancing girls tanatalizingly poised and copulating pairs on its pillars none of them brazenly celebrate it as the ones built by the Chandela dynasty at Khajuraho.The erotic art there in its scale,intimacy and number out does most other temples.I said South because I have seen only those temples. I have wondered why.Its known that the Chandelas were there during the height of Tantrik following. Tantrik philosophy is different.it speaks of attainment of salvation through sensual pleasure. Obviously as a nation we were not uncomfortable with the idea at all. afterall a substantial part of Hindus,infact most of them are Phallic worshippers.I wish she had explained the phallic worship and the tantrik ideology after all its integral to the theme of the sacred and sensuos.
The lecture was peppered with quotes from ancient Hindu texts on Gods.the example of soundaryalahiri and bhagavad dhyana sopaanam were given to show that detailed physical description and a celebration of it is also a way of acknowledging the spiritual one I think. The thing is these are intended as mere physical descriptions. Both adi shankara and shrimad thoopil vedanta desikar are ecstatic describing the beauty of the blemishless(what Rajaji called korai illadha govindan) God. both the names of sopanam and soundarya lahiri stress on this aspect.There is no hint of anything uncomfortable in those lines even for the devotee who reads them. a better example could have been the description of lord shiva and parvati by kalidasa in his kumarasambhavam.
Interesting lectures are always a welcome change, I was not entirely convinced though.

the recent furore about sach ka samna evoked some strong responses from both sections of the case. While,freedom of media should not be curbed it needs to be checked and regulated from an administrative point of view and on high moral grounds.whats so disgusting about this show or for that matter media’s coverage of the arushi murder case is that underneath all the guise of reporting there is a deliberate ploy by the channels to get the public hooked to something thats not right,not needed and morally wrong. some one asked me why not sach ka samna when people read freely about actors and public figures. in short we are a group of people who love gossip. we are interested to know if shahid kapur is dating priyanka chopra or if Mr. X across the street is cheating on his wife. But the problem here is that there is a significant difference. actors,politicians or sport stars are public people. that sets a limit to the privacy they can enjoy because they are made by audiences and followed by millions and adored by people throughout the nation and sometimes globally. Thus its necessary to know if the late michael jackson has been convicted of paedophillic charges or not,its equally important to know if gaguly was distracted because of some illicit affair during his captaincy.As a cricket fan or a music lover you are entitled to know why you are not getting your money’s worth.Gossip about actors is not necessary in the strict sense and can be avoided but there’s always a fascination amidst the public for larger than life icons.That curiosity may be bad but its present naturally and substantially.

Now,moving to Mr.X across the street ,it should be strictly none of your business whom he shares his bed with unless of course you are Mrs.X ,but even if you do gossip it should not be on a grand scale on national television. It was wrong to begin with,to aggrandize it and popularise it is profane. you are not only degrading by washing people’s dirty linen in public but you are letting those people taking part denigrade themselves. It sort of reminds me of two things1) the roman mobs that immensely enjoyed gladatorial contests where men and beasts tore at each other in all the glory of bloody brutality.This show is somewhat similar just that its more emotional while those bloody contests of yore were starkly physical.2)the movie requiem for a dream.watch it you will understand why.

As for the high court’s order on switching off your television sets, it does not make complete sense. We see it necessary to have censorship boards to monitor movies. No one told the catholic community to just not watch the Da Vinci Coide or the Hindus to simply boycott the Fire and The Water.From parental guidance to ratings we see it necessary to monitor entertainment to secure the fabric of the society.Then why not ban this show? No one told the people to just not visist that orkut community when some arbit bloke wrote some not so nice things about Mrs.Gandhi!Why? because its necessary at all times to see that a sense of decorum prevails.
Maybe one day pornography would be telecast on national television and the supreme court will just ask you to turn your sets off, by then of course the sense of reality and the sensibility behind it would have gone for a toss!