EXAMS OVER .. well almost.. :)

I have medical electronics left on Tuesday. But that's it. Almost. Exams over. and then two gloriouls months of freedom.
I'm going to swim and study (yeah.. you heard study. need to prep for CAT) and watch every movie running at Satyam Multiplex till i go cross eyed.
How's that for a plan of action.

The Heat is On

It's almost summer now. The horrible oppressive madras heat is upon me. I can just feel myself melting as the AC bill mounts up. I finished one practical today. One coming up on wednesday. And then six theory papers to go.

   * Digital Communication
   * Electromagnetic Waves and waveguides
   * Computer Communication Networks
   * Television and Video Engineering
   * Engineering Economics and Financial Accounting
   * Medical Electronics
   
Now that i looked the syllabus up and can spell my subjects it's time i started studying them. Where did all my *spotters* go??

Israel And Palestine

I'm reading this extremely interesting book called "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman. It's basically an overview of the political situation in the middle east. The author was a NYTimes reporter there for some ten years and records his experiences over a turbulent time. It is supposed to trace the roots of the Palestine Israel conflict and promised to be good. Let's see how it goes.
I'm technically supposed to be studying my texts since i have my practicals tomorrow and theory exams from next week. :)
Think i'll go and study for atleast a little while.
If you want to read more of Israel - Palestine online.. check this out If Americans Knew

Elections Round Two

This is not a political blog. But couldn't resist round two after all the comments :)
The biggest problem in our "politics" is simply the lack of any issues. (in the words of sidd)
We're parading stars and pandering to minority interests but no political party espouses any idealogy. Unless of course "The other guy is corrupt and a scoundrel" counts as an ideology.
Literally no one (including myself) has registered to vote. Simply because (atleast in my case) i have nothing to vote for. None of the political parties have announced their allies yet. Those things depend on vote grabbing exercises and power plays to be conducted after the elections. Not on a mutual alignement of ideas but a mutual trading of money.
All politicans sound unremarkably alike. We're discussing italian origins and roads as smooth as Basanti's cheeks. Hell! that's not what's important is it. Jobs, opportunities, women's rights, roads, water, fiscal deficit, privatisation. These are the issues that are plaguing us. And no one is talking about it. I'm sorry if i'm not doing my "duty" by voting. But i'm simply too disillusioned to believe that the political process is a solution to anything. If anything, government is the problem.
So have you registered to vote?

The Great Indian Circus meets Bollywood

Jayaprada (Samajwadi Party) Manoj Kumar (BJP) Asrani (Congress) Zeenat Aman (Congress) Govinda (Congress) Celina Jaitley (Congress) Namrata Shirodkar (Congress) Sharad Kapoor (Congress) Moushumi Chatterjee (Congress) Yukhta Mookhey (BJP) Hema Malini (BJP) Sudha Chandran (BJP) Suresh Oberoi (BJP) Jeetendra (BJP) Poonam Dhillon (BJP) Dharmendra (BJP) Om Puri (Congress) Roja (TDP)

This is the list of Actors and actresses who are campaigning in our election this time around.
Funny how most of them weren't around earlier and suddenly came crawling out of the green rooms and casting couches just before the elections. Is anyone else worried about this?
There are those who say that politics is already so marginalized and trivialized that a glamour quotient is not a bad thing. Especially if it brings people to the rallies.
My worry is still this - A political participant is theoretically supposed to espouse certain values. Or stand for something. All that most of these stars stand for is box office drawings. Aptly reflected in their frivolousness. Take for example Ms Hema Malini. Our fair damsel attended a rally in gujarat campaigning for the modern day megalomaniac known as Narendra Modi. She urged voters to vote for BJP saying "Yeh basanti ki izzat ka savaal hai" (vote for basanti's honour).
Another frustrating example is the "tulsi" phenomenon. Since this Smriti Malhotra Irani joined the BJP she's been spouting lines straight off the sets of Kyunki Saas.. And the populace is lapping it up.
Our superstar bachan saab has been quoted in this week's India Today saying that he campaigns for personal friends not out of any political ideology. Don't these people realise that their faces have some value. And that value has to be backed by personal judgement and responsibility. Not by exchange of money (atleast not undisclosedly) or other trivialisations.
I agree that a few are actual proactive participants in the political process (Nafisa Ali, Jayapradha for example). They've stood for elections and worked for their constituency. But by and large, the new bollywood brigade is more talk and less action.
If they're genuinely concerned about giving back to society then ask them to take a stand. stand for election. work in a constituency. Or do any one of about three hundred things you can do on a normal non-election month to "give back" to the people.
I for one am tired of basanthis and mugambos invading politics.

And we have takeoff.
My first online blog..
let's see how it goes