The Lost Hobby

In our childhood we develop few hobbies that we stop pursuing as we grow older either due to disinterest or lack of time. Sometimes they even do not find place in our to-do list or back of our minds. Recently while reading a novel I was reminded of my hobby of Philately. Well it can't be called much of a "hobby" as defined by Wikipedia. My Didi and later on me (who inherited the album when she got busy with studies) just collected for fun and on basis of country or design or theme. Our maternal uncle had gifted this stamp album to Didi and it is the reason behind this hobby. We collected stamps from envelopes in the traditional way, but mostly we bought packets either mixed or of some particular theme (Thanks Dad for spoiling us!!) During ragging in college, we had to introduce ourselves by giving name,place,branch and hobbies. I used to say Philately as hobby. Used to save me from dancing or singing!! I post a tribute in the memory of my oldest and life saver hobby.

The Album

It had pages dedicated to countries in alphabetical order with some information about them at the top...but some like Bangladesh were missing so I had to make entry for them. When there was no more space under India, we converted the less known and stamps unavailable countries' pages to India.

India

Pakistan/Bangladesh

Japan/Korea



Bulgaria




This country Ajman had these small weird figurines on its stamps and these were available in plenty. God knows why! We had to see carefully so that we don't paste any same stamp twice.

Ajman

Great Britain/Scotland



Mocambique

Russia




Romania



United States of America



Then there were thematic pages in the album both empty (for us to write) and specified.

Space

Birds



Animals

Sports

Reptiles




I miss the hobby but of course it was fun only when done with Didi. Once in childhood I was showing my album to a family friend's son who nicked two stamps while I left the room awhile but soon I counted (Trust me to trust no one!) I caught him and threatened to tell his mom (who was a strict lady). He surrendered the booty. :D :D

Shame! Shame!

I'd decided the world would never come to know of a recent and one of the most embarrassing incidents that happened to me . But then by not sharing I lost the opportunity to rant about men. So first the incident then the ranting.

Few days back the college where I work was a center for candidates appearing in Pre-Medical Entrance Exam. The candidates ranged from general category to the reserved, urban to rural and intelligent enough to understand instructions to the dumbest. We, the lecturers, had been assigned as invigilators. Now, each floor has 4 bathrooms at its corner...for girls, ladies staff, gents staff and boys and has that written boldly in red at top. Before the exam started, I went to freshen myself in the ladies staff one and just as I went inside the already open door, a young boy (must be candidate) was answering nature's call!!! I rushed out shouting "its ladies bathroom" and went straight to the assigned exam room.. [Yeah laugh at my plight!!] Thank God he had his back towards me!!!

Later in retrospect, I thought why was I feeling embarrassed with no fault of mine and I was disgusted at the non existence of the feeling of shame in most Indian Males (or maybe all males of world). Even if the boy had entered the wrong bathroom and didn't even know that there are separate facilities in cities/colleges; still he should have locked the door not out of manners or etiquette but out of shame. As I analyzed further, I remembered the common sight of men(any age group) answering nature's call by roadside or on a wall and mostly not hidden from view. For pictorial depiction you can see here.

One may argue that maybe men have less bladder control than women but anatomically speaking women are supposed to have less bladder control. But do we see women sitting on road side? Maybe the poor and illiterate women are seen but males of any class & any age can be seen. They consider it their birthright. The trouble we girls have to face when we go on a picnic or trip!!! We have to take a friend (girl) along to stand guard against any Peeping Toms. Why us? Men don't have to worry about such problems.

So is this habit a result of the difference in upbringing of the male child and the female child in Indian society? Do we encourage our sons to become shameless by allowing them to bath openly or roam around without wearing vests? Is covering up essential only for the girls? Is lajja or shame meant exclusively for women? Is decency a feminine virtue?

Why is it wrong for girls to wear low waist jeans and not for men? I don't like seeing or knowing about the brand of brief they wear!!! Another example.. this attitude "We are men. We don't need to hide" is so expressed in the design of Men's bathroom (note: no personal experience..as seen in movies and asked guy friends) which is different from the Ladies' in matters of privacy.

Of course the Govt is to blame for not providing public utilities along the road on an infrastructural basis and for not maintaining those which are provided. One factor is the so called lack of funds for such a trivial thing when we have bigger problems to deal with like price rise and poverty. Another may be that are not most of the politicians male and have the same attitude towards "shame"? Thus they feel no need to provide such a basic amenity even in slum areas. There is an old joke about this Indian habit. You can read the joke and a good rant about this habit and another famous Indian habit of spitting here.

I admit its fine when one goes long distance driving like from one city to city. But in normal circumstances why can't you just stop at a restaurant/petrol station or hold it till you reach wherever you are going? And for God's sake look if its for men or women & for Shame's sake Lock The Door!!!

P.S. Some (like a very dear guy friend of mine) may think "what an absurd topic!" but its My Blog and I can rave and rant about whatever I feel like. So there!

Pseudo Birthdays

Today is my Didi's pseudo birthday. A pseudo birthday is that birthday date Indian parents (mostly fathers' idea) put as their child's birth date instead of real one and which is a few months or years later date and in some rare cases it can be a few months previous date. The mentality behind this practice is that the child will get extra years at service which means extra money. It is also done in case of those children whose actual birth dates fall between school session like in October,November etc so that they get admission instead of wasting one year. Then there are some unlucky ones like my Dad. He was a naughty child and always playing outside. He caught the local school's headmaster's eye and the headmaster suggested my Grandpa to put him in school. When Grandpa said my son is not yet of the school going age, the headmaster said nothing to worry and promptly increased my Dad's year of birth by 1 year and admitted him to school!!! Poor Dad. Maybe thats the reason he was influenced to change my Didi's birth date by 6 months!! Not even a year! Its like done with a mind that wants to do it and also doesn't. Then there are some like one of my colleagues whose parents made her birth date 25 July instead of using the actual 10 July because 25 July is their marriage anniversary!! Talk about saving expenses!!

But there are so many consequences of this silly practice!!! The repercussions range from mere explanations to dealing with red tape.

1. Those who have dual birth dates tend to hide this even from their closest friends because after all its illegal and to save themselves from Q&A session.

2. Poor fellows do not get to celebrate their actual birthday and people wish them on the pseudo birthdays for years whereas they are not feeling the joy. They even receive cards & gifts on the wrong day. (But that shouldn't hurt right?)

3. People (having read Linda Goodman) may form false impression about their actual nature and traits as they appear to belong to a sun sign and may get themselves into trouble. Like people may mistake my Didi for a paradoxical, flirtatious, talkative, breezy Gemini whereas she is a reserved, intense, mature, stubborn Scorpio. Their friends even read out wrong daily horoscopes from newspaper for them. Some friends may even chart out horoscopes and come out with wrong predictions!!!!

4. I don't want to sound biased or generic [Amit plz note :) ] or accusing anyone, but decreasing the age used to be quite common in Biharis, UPites and MPites (don't know about present situation).There are so many uncles who have become so old (You may decrease the age but you can't stop/delay the aging process) but are still in service. And others make fun of them or may be jealous of them.

5. And then some get retired early or get sucked in the Education System early.

6. Last but not the least, the amount of running around and bribing it takes to make a duplicate birth certificate (because the original is submitted during admission to Class 1) showing the pseudo date and Ministry's signature for Visa and Work Permits purposes especially for Europe; causes high blood pressure, sleepless nights and hypertension and you really regret the day you lied about the birth date.

So don't do koi jhol jhaal
Mat chalo koi chaal
About the janm tithi or saal
Warna karna padega babu ko mala-maal
Tab jaake galegi aapki daal
Aisa hai jhooth ka jaal
Mat rakhna koi shikwa mere naal
Goodbye to aaalll

[I got carried away by the poetic/rap urge :D]

Anyway,Didi, your birthday today may be pseudo but my wishes are always heartfelt.
Happy Pseudo Birthday!!


P.S. Don't worry guys...Mine is real i.e. 22nd June :D

Edited to add: This poem is an original Rimu and subject to copyright laws.

Vacation Resolutions

New Year Resolutions are such a cliche. Having become wiser I have stopped making customary resolutions on the onset of a new calender year which I have never been able to adhere to anyway. In my present work, I get a whole month summer vacation and that is the time when I make resolutions to do certain things and complete certain tasks every year. So taking a break from my usual quite vocal posts about social issues and being currently uninspired; I have decided to enlist my Vacation Resolutions ( or rather a To-Do list) as my blog page is always open and it will constantly remind me.

1. Assist Maa in the kitchen and catch up on cooking.
   
2. Begin my annual one month morning walk.
   
3. Read The Complete Adventures of Feluda by Satyajit Ray (vol 1 & 2), start and finish A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner (both gifted by a dear friend who didn't know my taste is mystery and humour...though I think Freakonomics is in humor category isn't it?)
4. Clean my room obsessively.
   
5. Learn MATLAB 7.0 and practice it.
6. Watch movies like You've Got Mail, Thelma and Louise, The Sting, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Terminal, The First Wives Club, Bonnie and Clyde, Amos and Andrew, Sweet Home Alabama, Space Cowboys, Sleepless in Seattle, My Fair Lady, Severance, The Merchant of Venice, Death at a Funeral, The Devil's Advocate and more.
7. Read the 15 blogs I have bookmarked and comment and not to bookmark any more blogs till I have read these.
   
8. Convert my baby steps into the blogging world to a stride.
   
9. Being alert while filling cooler with water and not to forget the tap is on. (read: Save the Earth!!)
   
10. Indulge in food (mostly non veg and pizzas) and mango juice.
    

May the Force be with me!!

P.S. My vacation started on 18th. Shit! I'm running late by 4 days. (At least got around to make a list today!!!)

The Business of "UFM"

Firstly for those who are unaware of a very important term in an Engineering student's academic life, UFM means Un-Fair Means (Some universities may use some other name) i.e. the tempting, illegal, sometimes lifesaving, mostly time consuming, always risky methods used by students during the exam duration. I, being a cog in the wheel of Education since I stepped into kindergarten and till I became a lecturer, have so many anecdotes to blog about but never got around to do so. This particular incident however just had to be told.

Gone are those days when kids in school and students in colleges used to just peek into their neighbour's answer copies or ask around in whispers or bring hand written chits of paper. Due to the birth of Generation Y and Z in a world of rapid advancements in technology and economy, these kids and youth have understood the power and importance of technological applications and money fast enough. The extent of this was unearthed during the recent end semester exams of 1st year Engineering. The university provides with only one day gap between 2 papers (I guess to encourage regular studying and to end the famous tradition of studying in the long gaps by Engineering students in most private non autonomous colleges). But as usual with recent growth of private colleges like mushrooms and every other kid doing Engineering, there are many students who use UFM as their life jackets. The students are divided into two groups in 1st year and study different subjects. They have exams on alternate days. So on the fateful day (a cliche!) two students of one group were caught lingering near the bathroom with solution of the paper other group was giving. After strict and rough inquiry a whole organised scheme was disclosed. A student in higher semester was the kingpin and he took money from these 1st year students. A question paper after being distributed was smuggled out of any room by various ways. Solutions of various parts were made in small chits by several hired students and stuck in a single A4 sheet and then xeroxed into number of copies as per buyers. Students were told to sit with their mobiles in pockets. A sms used to be sent to inform that so-so guy is waiting there with solution. The candidate would then take permission to go out to drink water and take the solution. And this same solution was found in other colleges of the city. 19-20 year olds implementing such an ingenuine business plan comprising a strong network of finance, messengers, bikes, xerox shops, mobiles and even the sweepers of the college. Its like "hey I have to use UFM anyway. So why not make money out of it as well" and the policy of "You scratch my back I'll scratch yours" because its obvious any student who is busy giving such social service in the gap will need the same aid next day. This exposes the fact that studying has become the last priority and option.

In the pursuit of monetary investments, higher gains, possession of latest stuff, getting the desired results; have the older generation instilled such attitude and values in their children urging them to become rats in rat race be it of education or career? Is "The end should justify the means" the motto of this Gen Z?

I wont go into discussing the glaring shortcomings of the invigilators or exam conductors or the "Flying Squad" which comes from the university. Of course it takes two to tango. I have just focussed on the leading partner!

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post shall be construed as prompting the students to employ such means. The blogger does not endorse such methods. You hereby acknowledge that any use of such methods shall be at your sole risk.