Well this simple word infuses or generates a tremedous amount of excitement ! Isn't it ? This party funda which has started from the West has also now stabilized in the East. It has lately been generalised to the smallest happiest event or happening or a moment one experiences. Every person is throwing a party to his friends, relatives and closed ones every now and then. That's the reason why we are having "freaky fridays" or "wild weekends".
If you stop for a while and ponder on the different types of parties, here is a list:
1) Birthday Parties
2) Anniversary Parties
3) Promotion / Salary Hike Parties
4) Purchase of new house / new car / new .... Parties
5) Festival Parties
6) Romantic Parties (Valentines Day)
7) New Year Parties
8) Reunion Parties
I think now the list is endless. One can just rumble on and on.....
What's the reason for this party thing to be popular amongst various circles or levels of people? The primary reason is that nowadays life is getting busier and busier and people are scarcely finding time to meet & talk with each other. There are cases where even the spouses just get enough time to say "Good Morning", hurry off to their work and then come back, say "Good Night" and go to sleep. So I think through such kind of parties, people try to connect with their old friends and closed ones as then the invitees are also geared up to have nice food and share the golden moments they had spent in the past. It has now become a kind of social norm which needs to be respected in the society.
I read the following line somewhere :
"There isn’t much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren’t really living without it."
I truly believe whatever is said in this line. So, since there is acute shortage of time in everyone's life, then practically thinking, I believe parties are definitely a better way to get socially connected.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
Today's Media
The role of media is to convey messages and opinions expressed by particular individuals or organizations to a mass of people. Therefore, for any democratic country, it is necessary that media does a good job in focussing on correct issues and giving right level of value & importance as the subject at hand demands. After all media can become an important tool in educating the people of the country in th right direction.
There are different types of media available these days with journalism and television reports playing a major role. Numerous leading newspapers and popular TV news channels are being set up these days and all of them require NEWS. As a result, any person who gets slightly famous because of his achievements or activities is bound to find his mention in the newspapers or in the flying headlines of the TV. I remember when I used to play table tennis in my school days, very few newspapers felt the need to cover the TT tournament. Now after a few years, I have observed that every newspaper attempts to cover the local sports events. In fact some of them have a separate edition for such sports coverage. This has been a good change, since then the image of all kinds of sports has been lifted and people's mindset has become more open to allow their children to play different kinds of sports.
People are now even aware of the latest products that touch the market and are educated on various social, cultural and medical fronts. The TV media (advertisements and news) forms an important source of information to know what is happening outside our pretty world. The news channels are continuously updating on stock market analysis (ups and downs) as well as the "flash news" which narrate on the current happenings (so that people don't have to wait for the next day's newspaper). The TV news channels addressed the recent event of "Mumbai Blasts" in an excellent manner. The media advertised a helpline toll free number so that people could enquire the whereabouts of their friends and relatives which otherwise was impossible since all the telephone lines were jammed. Even on entertainment front, TV is undoubtedly at its best through its different programs. All these factors reflect the brighter side of today's media.
But if you peep on to the darker side, one can see a certain level of ambiguity and skewness in the absolute truth of the reports due to heavy competition in private sector. Everybody is into the business of minting money thereby making the story look bigger than the fact themselves and totally forgetting or rather ignoring the actual responsibility of the media towards the people. I wonder whether there is a need for all the events or happenings to be broadcasted by the media as I partially believe the age-old saying "Ignorance is a Bliss". Sometimes unnecessary or irrelevant information given by the media causes lot of problems to the society indirectly. Nevertheless, there are some sincere souls in this media world who win their bread by collecting and reporting information. I deeply appreciate such people since they have a tough job to do by working at odd hours and have to be alert whenever and wherever something happens irrespective of their liking.
Finally to conclude, I would say that it is upto the audience how to receive the media (take what you want and leave the rest). They need to be intelligent enough to pick up the correct or absolute meaning of any information reported. This could be possible for educated urban people, but what about the rural people in small cities and villages. That question still needs to answered. What do you feel ?
There are different types of media available these days with journalism and television reports playing a major role. Numerous leading newspapers and popular TV news channels are being set up these days and all of them require NEWS. As a result, any person who gets slightly famous because of his achievements or activities is bound to find his mention in the newspapers or in the flying headlines of the TV. I remember when I used to play table tennis in my school days, very few newspapers felt the need to cover the TT tournament. Now after a few years, I have observed that every newspaper attempts to cover the local sports events. In fact some of them have a separate edition for such sports coverage. This has been a good change, since then the image of all kinds of sports has been lifted and people's mindset has become more open to allow their children to play different kinds of sports.
People are now even aware of the latest products that touch the market and are educated on various social, cultural and medical fronts. The TV media (advertisements and news) forms an important source of information to know what is happening outside our pretty world. The news channels are continuously updating on stock market analysis (ups and downs) as well as the "flash news" which narrate on the current happenings (so that people don't have to wait for the next day's newspaper). The TV news channels addressed the recent event of "Mumbai Blasts" in an excellent manner. The media advertised a helpline toll free number so that people could enquire the whereabouts of their friends and relatives which otherwise was impossible since all the telephone lines were jammed. Even on entertainment front, TV is undoubtedly at its best through its different programs. All these factors reflect the brighter side of today's media.
But if you peep on to the darker side, one can see a certain level of ambiguity and skewness in the absolute truth of the reports due to heavy competition in private sector. Everybody is into the business of minting money thereby making the story look bigger than the fact themselves and totally forgetting or rather ignoring the actual responsibility of the media towards the people. I wonder whether there is a need for all the events or happenings to be broadcasted by the media as I partially believe the age-old saying "Ignorance is a Bliss". Sometimes unnecessary or irrelevant information given by the media causes lot of problems to the society indirectly. Nevertheless, there are some sincere souls in this media world who win their bread by collecting and reporting information. I deeply appreciate such people since they have a tough job to do by working at odd hours and have to be alert whenever and wherever something happens irrespective of their liking.
Finally to conclude, I would say that it is upto the audience how to receive the media (take what you want and leave the rest). They need to be intelligent enough to pick up the correct or absolute meaning of any information reported. This could be possible for educated urban people, but what about the rural people in small cities and villages. That question still needs to answered. What do you feel ?
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Friends
We make variety of friends throughout our life. There are school friends, college friends, engineering friends, company friends and so on. There is no end to this ramification list on different types of friends. But there is a certain category of friends who remain forever and sail with you through your good and bad times. It is as though you have some right over their life (and vice versa) and can ask or lend some help without following any kind of discipline/manners as one would normally do in case of others.
My school friends fall in the above mentioned category. Our friendship in many ways is like the old banyan tree. The roots of this friendship had been sown 15 yrs ago and are now like the long roots of the banyan spread under the ground. The strong trunk of banyan tree represents our solid bonding, common interests and hobbies over the years. The different branches represents us, each being different in certain ways but yet united as one. The most astonishing aspect is that after school, we have been in different colleges, working for different companies, then going to different universities for MS to USA, but yet coming back and taking shelter under the very same umbrella "Amche Pune" where our hearts reside happily.
One of the appreciating things in our group is the respectable distance we keep amongst ourselves. This is essential in any relationship as then we are not invading the other person's privacy, thus giving him the freedom he desires. Of course, we do talk about each other's good and bad points, but such gossips do occur only within our group. We derive our joy and pleasure from the smallest of things that life has to offer. As a consequence, we have formed a bagful of memories to cherish and remember throughout our life. It will be a herculean task to single out one memory and place it above the others.
Many people are of the opinion that the friends you make during your school time are the ones who remain with you till the end. I somehow agree and believe this viewpoint. One of the major reason is the time that is spent in a friendship by a person in his early years (before attaining maturity) as compared to the time he spends in the friendship in his latter years (after attaining maturity). In the former case, a person shows more willingness to compromise and change as compared to the latter. As a result, the friendship is allowed to grow more in the early phase. In the latter years, things like personal ego, principles, selfishness and many such other factors do creep in somehow and become the barriers of everlasting friendship in its inception phase itself. Distance and time are also the popular inhibiting factors of a good friendship that probably started in college days.
Note that the above analysis is based on the 80-20 rule (meaning that 20% exceptions do exist). Sometimes the best of friendship incubates during the college days and continues for life time. But such examples are in 20% category meaning very few as then the right set of people need to meet each other. It is like the meshing of gears - where the 2 gears need to have same tooth type and same pitch in order to mesh correctly (if you are a mechanical engineer, you may understand perfectly what I mean).
Many friends have come into my life and left footprints in my heart. I am happy for their lifepaths have crossed mine, but sad at the same time that they are no more with me. Hence some of these prints are now kinda hazy since time has taken us away from each other. But my school friends have left indelible footprints in my heart as I am sure that they will be there with me through all times, thick and thin.
My school friends fall in the above mentioned category. Our friendship in many ways is like the old banyan tree. The roots of this friendship had been sown 15 yrs ago and are now like the long roots of the banyan spread under the ground. The strong trunk of banyan tree represents our solid bonding, common interests and hobbies over the years. The different branches represents us, each being different in certain ways but yet united as one. The most astonishing aspect is that after school, we have been in different colleges, working for different companies, then going to different universities for MS to USA, but yet coming back and taking shelter under the very same umbrella "Amche Pune" where our hearts reside happily.
One of the appreciating things in our group is the respectable distance we keep amongst ourselves. This is essential in any relationship as then we are not invading the other person's privacy, thus giving him the freedom he desires. Of course, we do talk about each other's good and bad points, but such gossips do occur only within our group. We derive our joy and pleasure from the smallest of things that life has to offer. As a consequence, we have formed a bagful of memories to cherish and remember throughout our life. It will be a herculean task to single out one memory and place it above the others.
Many people are of the opinion that the friends you make during your school time are the ones who remain with you till the end. I somehow agree and believe this viewpoint. One of the major reason is the time that is spent in a friendship by a person in his early years (before attaining maturity) as compared to the time he spends in the friendship in his latter years (after attaining maturity). In the former case, a person shows more willingness to compromise and change as compared to the latter. As a result, the friendship is allowed to grow more in the early phase. In the latter years, things like personal ego, principles, selfishness and many such other factors do creep in somehow and become the barriers of everlasting friendship in its inception phase itself. Distance and time are also the popular inhibiting factors of a good friendship that probably started in college days.
Note that the above analysis is based on the 80-20 rule (meaning that 20% exceptions do exist). Sometimes the best of friendship incubates during the college days and continues for life time. But such examples are in 20% category meaning very few as then the right set of people need to meet each other. It is like the meshing of gears - where the 2 gears need to have same tooth type and same pitch in order to mesh correctly (if you are a mechanical engineer, you may understand perfectly what I mean).
Many friends have come into my life and left footprints in my heart. I am happy for their lifepaths have crossed mine, but sad at the same time that they are no more with me. Hence some of these prints are now kinda hazy since time has taken us away from each other. But my school friends have left indelible footprints in my heart as I am sure that they will be there with me through all times, thick and thin.
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