The Human Farm

Little Jay had just joined the new school. Having moved to a different city, the 10 year old kid had just got admission into the school. Jay was a shy kid who normally kept to himself. Behind the veil of this shyness, however, was a very intelligent and well read boy with remarkable observation powers. He was naturally intuitive and had matured faster than most kids of his age.

Jay was a voracious reader. As a present for his just gone by birthday, his parents had gifted him "Animal Farm", a classic by George Orwell. He had received his present on the eve of his first day at school.

During the first few days, the observant Jay clearly noticed that the principal of school was not very involved in the running of school. It was not that he worked things to his own advantage, but that he was ignorant and did not really care about the students. Within a few days, a new Bengali principal was appointed. He was supposed to be very enthusiastic about running the school, even though he had no prior experience of managing any institution. Aged and nearing retirement, his arrogance, dominating nature and high handedness had been construed for enthusiasm. In the Animal Farm, the Rebellion has taken place and the animals had overthrown Mr. Jones. Jay read on....

As more and more days passed, Jay observes a growing friction between some of the administration and the principal. Even though both proclaimed that they are working towards the betterment of the school, they seem to be heading towards a face off. A few days later, the vice principal of the school was replaced. Some of the faculty members were also unhappy with the running of the school, but there is not much they could do in the face of growing powers that the principal was vesting in himself. In the Animal Farm, Napoleon had become the undisputed leader after expelling Snowball from the farm. Jay read on...

Jay passed class-5 with flying colours. As he entered the new class, a shock awaited him. The number of subjects and the school working hours had been increased. This, the principal explained in the morning assembly, would enable the students to get a better understanding of the topics and make them a more intelligent and knowledgeable.  In the assembly, one of the kids asked about the dilapidated conditions of the playing ground. The new vice principal replied by saying that the students would now have so much work, it would be a wonder if they would have time to play. The principal also added that the school appointments room on the top floor of the academic building-1 would now be taken back and be used to make a lounge for any visiting teacher/guest. In Animal Farm, the work on windmill had started again as Napoleon and other pigs convinced the other animals that this was for their own good. The working hours had been increased and the ration reduced. Moreover, the Sunday meetings had been called off and only pigs had the power to pass decisions as all other animals lost the power to express their opinion. Jay read on...

One fine day, Jay went to visit the administrative bock of the school as he had work there. He crossed the second floor, which had the principal's office. What he saw left him in a shock. The floors had been redone and now boasted of white shiny tiles. The doors had been changed and replaced with new ones. From where he was standing, he saw that the principal's office had doubled in size and contained a 52 inch television. Jay vaguely remembered that the fees of the school had been increased by 10% this year. During the previous meeting, the students had been told that for each subject, the cap on the price of the book was Rs 500. The school was also not setting up a computer terminal saying it was cash strapped. In the Animal Farm, the pigs had moved into the house of Mr. Jones. They always had plenty to eat and drink even as the other animals starved. Jay read on...

Once, to pay the quarter  fees, Jay entered the administrative block. He saw a vacant lift and proceeded towards it. However, the guard stopped him saying that the principal was on his way and the lift had been stopped for him. Poor Jay climbed 10 floors and while on his way back down after depositing the fees, a good 15 mins after he had entered the block, he saw the principal's car approaching. Meanwhile, a new rule had been passed in the school. It said that after school hours, the students, when they were outside their hostels, would have to be properly dressed up. Even to go as far as the mess, they had to be in a proper attire. In the Animal Farm, Napoleon had shifted to an exclusive room, and had his meals alone in a separate quarter waited by two dogs. He had given himself new titles. Jay read on...

Years had passed. Jay had reached class-12. He would pass out this year. The school had lost its name and fame. The fees had remained high even as the facilities and services level fell. The only thing that had grown was the waist size of the principal and the number of cars he had.

On the final result day, Jay found out that he had been given the President's medal. He went up to the stage to collect the certificate and gift. As he looked at his recently earned  gift which he had received from the principal, he was surprised to see that it was the same book- Animal Farm. The cover page contained the picture of Napoleon. As he looked up from the picture to wards the smiling face of the principal, he saw no difference. He felt a sense of Déjà-vu as his mind raced to understand the significance of his latest observation. Then it hit him.

The school had been his very own Animal Farm.

PS- Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental!

Confessions of a former "believer"

Caveat: You might find this very boring, illogical, insane and stupid!

India, they say is a country of festivals. Among these festivals, if you had to find one that was the most 'important', at-least in the part of the country where I live, it has to be Diwali. The festival of lights lies right in the middle of the festive season with Navratras, Durga Puja preceding it and Bhai Dooj and Guru Nanak Jayanti to follow.

I have personally never been too big a fan of the festival . However, I do appreciate its importance in context of socializing. The great part about Diwali, as far as I am concerned, is that you get to meet so many people in such a short span of time. Every year, I, along with my dad and my brother, go about distributing gifts to friends and relatives. Now, I am not one of those that gets bored while elders are talking. In-fact, their conversations are sometimes so much fun to listen to. The phenomenon started when I was young, and I was asked to go along so that I could be kept off mischief. The incentive offered to me was cold drinks and juices (yeah, they used work with me, they still do!). Over the years, it has become a sort of tradition and I have enjoyed every bit of it. Catching up with people, meeting old friends, listening to their stories, this all makes Diwali great.

However, this is where it ends for me. Diwali, at the end of the day, is a religious festival. And that is where my apprehensions start.

When I was young, like every boy of my age, I believed in God, I believed in the stories of Rama and Krishna, of Vishnu and Mahesh. Every Sunday, I used to get up at 9 am ( I could not get up early even then) to watch Krishna on the National channel. I hero worshipped him, I used to miss playing and go to temple every day with my grand mother for prayers. I had learnt all the aarti's by heart and could recite them even in my sleep. As I entered middle school, I was still the same, a devout follower.

However, that is where things started to change. I don't know how exactly it happened, but I started questioning myself regarding my beliefs. As I read about the various communal tensions across our country, I was forced to ask-" Is this really what religion is about?". In particular, I remember my thoughts after reading about Babri Masjid demolition. I failed to understand how can people fight with each other in the name of God. Since early days, I had believed God to be a source of power and inspiration, not of hatred and violence. It felt stunned and amazed. I used to look into the television, where hordes of religious fanatic speakers would be talking about religion as if they knew everything about it. The question in front of me was how could these killers understand about a thing about a thing as pure as God. The guys preaching us to fight with fellow human beings for our God, surely they cannot be the right people to follow! After all, weren't we supposed to be the son of one God? Then how can we fight with each other in his name? This all left me very, very intrigued.

As I grew, I found a set of people around me who did not believe in any of this. Every phenomenon, according to them could be understood with a rationale. There was a logic to everything that happened in this world. I am not very sure why, but to me this could not be a fact. There are some things beyond our understanding. I did not agree with atheists either.

And so I developed my own theory about how the human mind works. I am sure someone else would also have said this before. The human mind, as per my understanding is inherently fearful and curious. We all are afraid of things we can't explain. We need to find a reason for every action around us. I don't think every thing can be explained by science and logic. This is where the clever mind developed a mythological power called God. It could be used to explain everything that we did not comprehend. It was a proxy for every unexplained answer. Even though there was still no logic for some of our actions, but by passing the bucket to God, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief and point to something definitive. Same thing happens to me also. I studied hard for an exam, could not get the desired result, and hence I would pass on the blame to God. I am sure a lot of people, if they think, would be able to come up with similar stories. Gradually, we started putting so much emphasis on him and giving him so much power that we started believing he could change our lives with his magical powers. And if he could change our lives, that means if we prayed to him, he would become happy and grant us our wishes. This is what "God" says in Bruce Almighty-" People can take charge, but they want to pass on all their work to me", or something to this effect. To show our loyalty to God, we started doing all kinds of weird things, hence the rituals that every religion has. Fighting with our brothers to show whose God is superior became another symbol of loyalty. And hence we ended up in the world where we are.

Where did this leave me? I have stopped believing in "Moorti Puja". I am no longer a devout temple visitor. I don't follow any religious practice with zeal.

Yet, I have faith. I still believe in a power that the human mind can never fathom. But I do not give a name to it. I do not give a shape to it. That nameless shapeless faith is my God. The particles that conspire in helping me achieve my goal when I really want something is my God. The song/book or anything that helps me during my tough times is my God. That luck that helped me pass when I had not worked and failed me when I had worked is my God. About six months back, I had written about a monastery that I had found very peaceful, that is my God.

From 22 to 23

My parents, my teachers, my uncles, my aunts, they all had one thing to say when I was young-"Enjoy these days of your life. Nothing is as beautiful as childhood". I would look at them, scornfully and say-"Bah! There is nothing more tough than the school life-the classes, the homework, the tests."

As I stand on the verge of turning 23, I realize the fallacy of my words and the radiant truth behind those drops of wisdom. How I would love to go back to those beautiful classrooms, study maths/history/science, play cricket in the evening, and enjoy Enid Blyton story books with gay abandon. Nestled in the red bricks of Bal Bharati Public School was a secure environment filled with the love of parents and friends, and an optimistic attitude towards life which made us smile and laugh without worrying about anything else.

People often say that going from school to college is one of the biggest transition that a teenager ever faces. I respectfully disagree. There is no bigger change than the one we face as we move out of college and face the "real world". I was one of the lucky ones, had a great college filled with some great friends, and twists and turns that would put a Karan Johar classic to shame.

And then exactly a year ago, I permanently left behind the securities of a world that was insured by my parents. It has been quite an experience, different from anything I have ever had. There have been the highs, and the lows. But I take the chance to jot down some points, some experiences that I had as I move from 22 to 23.

1. You are alone: This one is a real good one. We realize, after completing graduation, that we stand alone. We have to charter out a path for yourself. Sure, this is told to us earlier also. But the actual meaning and interpretation of this hits us now. It is a learning experience to do a lot of things yourself, to search, explore find the avenues leading to the path that we intend to follow.

2. Appreciation: I have learned to appreciate a lot of people around me now that I see what it takes to call yourself successful. The hurdles that people senior to us have faced, withstood and solved makes you respect them that tad bit more.

3. Initiative: In school, and even in college, there was a guiding hand, be it your teacher, your professor or your parents. Now, we have to find out things for ourselves. An initiatives needs to be taken, we need to put our hands up if we are to learn new things.

4. Family: When we were young and needed any support- moral, monetary or mental, we turned to our family. But somehow, we( atleast I ) never appreciated it that much. Now, after days of work, when we return home, our head full of tensions regarding a zillion thing, when someone sits next to us and gives  that invisible support without uttering a word, we relish it. The mere knowledge of someone sitting across the bed listening to our stories is an ethereal feeling.  The security of your house after returning from the other world is unbeatable. As a wise man once said, home is where your heart is.

5. Career: As a youngster, you dream of the world and care for nothing. The weight of this thought-career starts hitting after crossing college. We realize that to change your dreams to reality, we require a huge amount of hard work and luck. There is lots of pressure on you to achieve something, While sometimes it can be a boon, there are times when the very same thoughts can cripple you.

6. Friends: It is a bitter sweet experience, this one. I have been fortunate enough to find a set of new friends as I moved into college. But I realize, that as we grow older, we will have two sets of people. There will be some people who will stick by you through the thick and thin, you learn to treasure their presence in your life. And at the same time, some will go, too involved in their own world and too busy with their work to remember you exist. Neither set is wrong, sometimes life extracts so much out of us that we can't remember anything else.

 Like the last point, this last year has been a bitter sweet experience. It has brought about a world of change and I am gradually learning to accept and enjoy these changes.

But yeah, there is nothing to beat the feeling of playing cricket for hours, the feeling of swimming lap after lap, the feeling of playing badminton game after game, without having to think of companies, jobs, boss and career.

Childhood is a blissful time.

PS- Thanks Aastha, for forcing me out of lethargy and making me write. It feels great!

Roger Federer: The will to achieve

One of the most common advertisement that came up (yet again) during Australian Open 2013 is the Rolex commercial, asking "When is greatness achieved?". Roger Federer, the athlete in the advertisement, probably answered the question best at this year's championships.

Cut back to the day when the draws were announced, and even the most ardent of his critics would have agreed that Roger's draw was the toughest among the contenders. Davydenko in the 2nd round, Tomic in 3rd, Raonic in 4th, Tsonga in quarters, Murray in semis, and Djokovic in final. Surely, it was not possible for the soon to-be 32 year old Federer to get past all this. He didn't. But what he did was more than enough to remind the detractors that he is still good enough to win big tournaments.

It started with Davydenko in the 2nd round. The match between two veterans was a tough match coming in the 2nd round. Davydenko had a good warm up, and had already given Roger a run for his money three years back. But the Swiss kept his temperament, and Davydenko soon started missing his mark and increasing his error count. End result-6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to Roger in less than 2 hours. Next up was Bernand Tomic, who has talked himself up before the match suggesting that he could cause arguably the greatest upset in recent times by ousting Roger so early in the tournament. In a typical Swiss way, Roger let his racket do the talking. End result-6-4, 7-6,6-1. Next round, Milos Raonic, him of the great serve stature, was taught how much distance he still has to cover before even thinking of being one of the best. The score there read 6-4,7-6,6-2. It was not so much winning, but how the matches were won. Against Raonic, when required to be at his efficient best in order to tackle the huge serve, he only had 12 unforced errors. Against Tomic, when down 4-1 in tie break, he proved his credential as the greatest tie-break player of all time by turning the tables and winning the tie-breaker. He taught the tennis pundits, fans, critics a lesson that they would not forget in a hurry. These boys of today are still no match for his skills. It can be the grass courts, the clay courts, or the hard courts, but they are all still way behind him. They couldn't so much as break his serve.

The story was not over. Up against Tsonga,a player against whom he has had some problems in past, he was pushed. Broken for the first time in the tournament, he struggled a bit with his serves and had to win two tie breakers to force a 5th deciding set. However, here is the point where he proved his genius and broke Tsonga for a 3-1 lead which ultimately proved decisive. The 3 hour, 34 mins proved that unlike yester years, Roger has to fight to stay afloat in the second week of the tournament. And he is willing to do it.

The Murray match was one that the whole tennis world watched in awe. The new Murray, with his aggressive play wore out Roger Federer in five tough sets. However, my opinion is a little different. What I saw was a Murray, at the peak of his game and fitness, having to play five long sets for four long hours to overcome an error-prone, poor serving and definitely tired Roger Federer. If Murray had lost this match, most of the people would have reacted-"How could he?", such was the difference in their form that day. But Roger fought on. He was broken early in the first set, and was facing a deuce or break points every second game throughout the match. He broke the Murray serve for the first time in the fourth set. Yet, the will to win was more evident than ever. His forehand, his serve, both very crucial weapons deserted him. You could have counted on fingers the number of winner he produced with each. A small mistake in the second set tiebreak-that of going to the wrong side when hitting a volley cost Murray the set. A very small mistake against an out-of-sorts Roger. Yes, that is all it took. Broken at 6-5 in fourth set, Roger might have started planning his flight back to Switzerland. Again, he manfully fought on, sending a punishing backhand winner at 30-30 that signalled his intent to push the match into the decider. In the tie break, he made the move by breaking the Murray serve twice by aggressively moving across and attacking them with huge forehands. That he went off the boil in the fifth set was partly due to his fatigue caused by playing back to back  tough five setters, four of which were tie breakers.

Remember, Federer is not used to this style of play. Fighting for every point is a style more suited for the Nadals, the Murrays, the Djokovics. Yet, he struggled along, even abusing Murray once, the passion and the zeal to win full on display in the traditionally rare "Come On"!

For a man with the amount of success that he has had, it was humbling to see the desire to win brimming across the face. Having already achieved all that was for the taking, this man still relishes in facing new challenges of emerging talent of Rafa, Nole and Murray in late last decade, or that of Raonic, Tomic these days, the challenge of adjusting to the constantly slowing courts, the challenge of proving every "passing of baton" wrong, the challenge of proving every season, every tournament, every match why he is the greatest player of all time.

As the advertisement of Rolex correctly answered- "Maybe it is when you are always asking-What next?"