Why do people procrastinate

Yep, thats something I ve really wanted to know. Why exactly do we put off doing things that we very well know in our rational mind that are important and plain need to be done? I ve wondered about this for quite some time now and researched it extensively on the internet. However, everytime I came across the same drivel - organize your activities, manage your time, prioritize, visualize, blah blah.. After reading such articles, we usually make mental notes to follow and promptly forget it at first opportunity. Put simply, such pointers dont really help folks like me who ve put off things for over quarter of a century*. The problem must lie deeper. You know it does.

Not one to lose hope (and with no lack of time), I ploughed on till I saw light at the end of the tunnel. And I found it :D Days back, I came across an article that probed the real depths of this phenomenon and gave a very satisfactory and complete answer (to me) as to why we procrastinate. Now how can I keep such knowledge within without bursting out; hence this post. Friends, this post is not to ask your opinions/ideas on why we put off doing stuff (I ve read enough drivel on the topic already, thank you); but to actually *let you know* why. Enjoy the article. Bless the author.

www.counseling.caltech.edu/articles/procrastination.html

*Mom, I ll finish the feeding bottle later?
Also note clever use of the term "century" to make you readers visualize a looong period of time. he..he..

Impact of the internet on society in the future years

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Black (5th Generation) NEWEST MODEL

I recently read an article on reporting that lot of young Americans are buying a second mobile phone to play and watch games while they are doing other stuffs. I felt it was ridiculous and thought what this fancy electronic gadgets and internet are going to offer us in the future era. Is it going to kill humanness?? people may be surprised why I need to think like this?? The reason is, when so many activities are going to happen, then when will we have time to share our joy,sorrow,sympathy and helpfulness to our fellow humans (parents mainly and friends).

Friends may be more of virtual ones like making friends through online communities who can't share anything with us except their useless photos. I was scared when i thought what will my children do in this era, where i am going to be definitely least respected as most of their time will be spent burning their ass in the new era of modern communication. Relations are going to definitely be weaker in human sense and there will be nobody except the computer where you have to share everything. I am waiting eagerly "what to expect from my children in the modern era".

meetings and the really ridiculous art of mastering them

some say smoking pot is seeing god. or metallica.or jessica alba in a g-string. or sachin tendulkar. how about a successful meeting? more specifically, a successful presentation(in a meeting, of course). here is the inside from a meeting, where the cast is a couple of graduate students, an old and really smart professor, and some visiting scholars.

time: the ungodly hours of friday evenings.

projector hums. pen drives hum and hum and hum and yes, windows finally finds the damn thing.

professor comes in, with a rush, says hi. sits. says something and wants the presentation to start.

student 1: very serious. keen. incisive report. remarkably clear to the grad students. visiting scholars are mildly surprised. professor pats the student for his report. done.

student 2: serious. bad references. wait, trouble. the rule is, the scholars go for the kill first. but this is not that bad, the professor asks a couple of questions. student answers uncovincingly. professor sighs. student exhales. its done!

student 3: first slide. offset name. title typo. layout is bad for reading. size of the font is small. the template is not the standard one that is used.the name shouts all these mistakes out loud, and claims responsiblity, and the student is ready to shoot himself on seeing this. the prey is ready. second slide. i would like to explain the objecti...

stop...says the professor.

have you ever felt your heart stop? when you almost got hit by the thug on the road?when the cops just flagged you to stop when you coolly drove down the one way street, just before pongal? when you first saw the girl's awesome whatever? when india needed two runs of the last ball to win a match again pakistan for the world cup?when you were young and got lost in a crowd? when you proposed and waited for the girl's answer? none of it rivals this. the professor just said stop.by way of being professors, they are very meticulous at butchering-when they are ready with the cleavers, not even an ounce of flesh of your carcass is going to hell when they are done. slowly, but steadily, everyone is the room is aware of the tension. of the fact that you are dead. and much worse than that. but, just a trivial question from the professor. you can heat an entire building with the steam the student blows off now. and continues. but, the presentation proceeds to take an ugly turn, and it heads directly into the dungeons and every hair on the student's body is at right angles to his skin. the final slide-

professor is saying: "quote some reasonable references that makes sense, and not rubbish".

student is listening:"go to buckeye donuts, they have the best ones in town"

professor : "i am not really satisfied with this"

student:"hugs and kisses to everyone in america, i am done"

and then, free air awaits, along with more work, and more presentations!!

Changing times

The world has changed a lot before my eyes. When I was young, I never thought I will be going out of Cuddalore to study and work. At Cuddalore, I was a normal kid playing kittipul, cricket, thief games and all the fun of playing on the riverside. The world to me was extremely small with all the playful stuff. I was never heard of competition. The school was even more fun because there wasn’t much rigorous competition in studies.But it was 10th standard public examination which changed my fate.

Now, I study at NTU, Singapore. I go back to Cuddalore, my friends say I still remember the same Tamil I used to speak to them. But to my eyes, there are so much of change happened in Cuddalore. I don't see young people playing traditional games like kittipul, Koli, thief games and all other games. They have totally forgotten those games and sports, moved to video games and computer games. Internet penetration is also high in villages in Tamil Nadu. It is really good to see a lot of young children using internet jargons at young age. I get to use computer only at 10th standard but I am still privileged compared to millions of Indians.

There is obviously nothing to lament but something is irking me because we tend to move totally from our traditional values. Cuddalore used to have a lot of medieval monuments but those are destroyed to construct new buildings. We are not preserving our ancient culture or monuments to show the young generations how the old generations have suffered and eke out for living. If we do that, there will be enough inspiration for young people to act that will overcome the complacency. It is good to see India changing at the fastest rate.

Mocking or Aping Westernization?

Think about it, which countries lead the economic and cultural race. I would obviously say it is the western countries especially Ango-Saxon i.e. US and UK. The soft power of these countries is very strong in far flung places including India and China. Take china, you don't see any young chinese wearing their traditional wears. On the other hand in India, American and British soft power actually overtake Indian cultures and economic model. India didn't come to media limelight when it was following the license raj model of economic principles once India embraced western models it suddenly come to the limelight.

In India, everything from west has some value. Even in Indian marriage system, it is the American or British educated bridegroom or bride which is most sought after. It is the American slang which is widely used in Indian elite universities and also Hollywood movies are widely watched and shared not Indian movies. The advocates of Indian culture and system actually takes back seat when it comes to reaping the economic benefits. My brother for instance studied in Tamil medium school, he faced horrendous problems during his Bachelors and also preference of job is very unfair to non English speakers in India.

I would say almost of all the Indian elites are western educated either from U.K or U.S but I don't know why they advocate the general population not to ape the west when they knew already that only embracing westernization brings value to people in India. For example, there are so many anti-English protest in T.N by some political parties when their children are enrolled in elite English medium schools in metropolis. I certainly think Indian elite don't want others to be elite, that is the reason why they mock the westernization.

Responsibility, born and brought with???

Responsibility is as such huge, to burden a person. The way people react to responsibilities denote the way they are born or brought with!! Society has people who are individualistic, but can be segregated to responsible and irresponsible humans. I have moved with lot of people who most of the times are basically irresponsible on numerous issues. The problem lies with the way they presume or stereotype things.

They never tend to understand the "gravity of the situation" and when facing the consequences, they talk as "saints". The cognitive behavior of the people tend to show, the way the gene is inherited and the way people are brought up. So when do human species need to behave in a responsible way. Is it at all times?? so the irresponsible be irresponsible and the responsible follow their responsible path.

When we put higher premium on nature than nurture, I do think it is the gene which plays a pivotal role in shaping a human beings but humans have invented something called "education" to organize people's thoughts. The fundamental principle of education is basically help people develop good manners and etiquette. But, several times, we tend to ignore that fundamentals and concentrate on scoring high grades. Responsibility is part of those fundamentals. So do family and circumstance play a significant role to make a child responsible?

Friendship, is it emotional??

First of all ,Happy friendship day to all around the world who value friendship!!

Friendship is kinda buzz word now a days in this fast moving world. I usually think, is friendship purely based on emotions or emoting to one another?? I have acquired lot of friends from my school days, college days, my working days and in NTU which i really value. My friends range from all ages and different ethnicity since i am in Singapore. I know Indians normally are very emotional in friendship, they laugh when you do and they cry with you. They participate or try to be in every good and bad of your life.So the friendship purely becomes emotional and the reason for lot of break-ups too. A simple mistake cannot be tolerated by mutual humans. I see the same happening with some of my Chinese friends who also seem to be quite emotional. The west has a different meaning in terms of friendship. People in their lives who have made an impact are called friends and rest of them are strangers "hi and bye"(acquaintances) kind of people. Does friendship need a space between individuals so that the friendship lasts longer or it should be based on emotional means???

Is Tamil culture conservative?

This is the topic very nearer to my heart. As a tamilian myself, we are tend to view some of the topics as taboo. Not to forgot the uproar, when Kushboo talked about the premarital sex. Kushboo has vehemently talked about the safe sex and also youth of Tamil Nadu should be bold enough to accept a girl who is not virgin. As she quoted that premarital sex is increasing in urban areas in Tamil Nadu. I am not a staunch support of Kushboo’s views on the premarital sex.

Ancient Tamil Nadu is more an open society than what we currently have
because in ancient literatures like thirukkural, silapathikaram, etc, poets have talked about romantic relationships in elaborate manner. Take thirukkural has an example; “Kamathupal” has more obscenity than any other current tamil movies.It actually applies to almost all the ancient literature especially sangam ones. Unless a society is very open minded, thiruvallur wouldn’t have spoken about sex in most liberal manner. But our society has undergone lot of change and now it is lingering in liberal-conservative stage.

It is always true, whenever we hide something it leads to lot of problems. Tamil Nadu used to have highest rate of HIV infection before the most audacious advertisement “Pulli Raja” came into limelight. Tamil Nadu’s HIV infection by then has been drastically reduced after the more liberal views of media on AIDS campaign. When it comes to technological innovation or literature evolution, it is usually the liberal society tend to lead the race. For example, France is the country now leads the fashion and art industry. I personally believe our sangam literature is one of the best literatures in the world; they were able to produce something of that caliber mainly due to liberal society. What do you think are the drawbacks of a liberal society?

Is a conflict free world impossible to achieve?

On request from Velan to write on this topic... Here it goes ..

Why must Indians and Pakistanis hate each other? (ofc not all do, but u get the general idea) Israel and Palestine, Iran and Iraq, US and Russia? Why should Shia muslims fight the Sunnis? Conservative catholics and Jews? A complete list would stretch to the moon I think.

Hating someone/something doesnt make one happy or feel good. Still why do people continue to do so? That too on a global level (as with exceptions to everything, we have the Swiss and some Pacific islanders who dont care if the world is imploding around them). Why cant we tolerate each other with respect to belief systems, customs, rituals, sexual preferences and lifestyle. In no way is this hate culture new or modern. I have a hunch that early humans invented clubs and spears to bump each other off and then accidently discovered their use for hunting food. Since then through the medieval ages till the nuclear age, man has continuously sought for ways to harm/kill other humans. But take any sci-fi alien film and the whole world gangs up to kick alien a$$ with dialogues like "the human race shall prevail" and so on ..

If you have been reading this post so far expecting me to tie all the loose ends and provide a logical explanation, I m sorry. I do not know the complete answer to this. I believe there are several multi faceted reasons and am eager to hear from you readers as to why you think people behave this way. I for one surely do not hate anybody. Its just too much negativity for me to handle.

Trash talking...

I always thought that quite a lot of places in India are quite simply dirty- and that the streets contain people in a hurry without taking into account the mess they end up making; the hasty techie who has a quick bhel at the roadside chaat stand and throws down the piece of paper that served as its container or some other ‘aam aadmi’(Common man- a term that has become very popular with the ruling Congress party) who chews ‘paan’(betelnut in Hindi) and ends up projecting red sputum, left, right and centre, like water sprinklers. It’s not just the cities, but also many rural areas that have a whole host of trash related problems –Cows, bottles, putrefying vegetable matter, gutters; you name it, at least one Indian town’s got it. I am not trying to “dis” India or anything like that, but the fact remains that trash is a major problem in India, for all its goodness and beauty. Try sitting down on Chowpatty beach in Mumbai or even swim there( Some brave souls do!). It makes me sad when I see a non native sitting on their heels, their puce coloured face contorted as if they have come out of a hovel containing rat turds or something – it’s not right.

I don’t think that any legislation will help- there is a legislation banning smoking in public. I find lots of people smoking in public; bus depot, train stations, amusement parks. Implementation is the key- and therein lies the problem. Nobody cares- not even those who enforce the law. It all depends on mentality and also a sense of community helps. We DO have a sense of community; but most of the times it is for the wrong reason. Just a little quirk from "me" to "we", will do the trick.

Maybe it has begun-

The Indian dreams

A lot has been spoken about University education in India, good and bad. But in the past four years I have spent in this college, one of the best engineering colleges in India, I have observed something else. The root cause of all issues relating to University education in India lies not just in the way it is taught or the acceptance the current system gains among students, parents and recruiters. Instead I have observed that it is predominantly ingrained in the primary school education system and on a broader scale, greatly influenced by the innate mentality of the people.

As people in any third world country think, the primary objective of higher education is to ensure a secured high paying job. Passion and job satisfaction take the back seat even today when we compete against global powers for international recognition. As an engineering student I was amazed to see the response for non technical electives like Creative Writing, Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship development etc among my friends who echo the frustration of having been made to study engineering for three long years in spite of it not being their interest. So where does this ‘leading the donkey with the carrot’ scheme actually start?

It starts right in the middle school time when a child identifies his passion for cars, his admiration for a cricket player or a singer, his interests in painting etc. But how many of these children end up becoming racing car drivers, cricketers, singers or painters? Unfortunately, very few! I personally know a few friends who still carry the aspiration to become cricketers and singers, even after three years into engineering. But I think we all can predict what they will end up in a year’s time. Engineering trainees or Officers in engineering firms. Some of them might go to the USA or Europe for higher studies and sometimes even Ph.D. In general it would not be wrong to say that we simply adopt the pre existing path and make ourselves suitable for it. In other words, any dream away from the ideal career is a nightmare!

However I saw a striking difference in the approach with which people in the West take up higher education. Students in UK, I saw, tend to get into a job after their GCSE (Class 10 equivalent). These jobs are not very high paying; however there is a rule in the UK that the minimum wages for a paid work must be at least GBP 4/hour. This rule ensures that these people get the necessary financial support. After they work for couple of years, they identify their dreams and take up a university degree in the relevant field. It is important to note here that they actually end up doing what they want to and hence I believe have achieved a greater deal of success.

When I considered the reasons for the absence of such a scheme in India, I felt that primarily two factors contribute to this. One, the lack of flexibility in curriculum and absence of short term jobs for students, and two, the mentality that does not support the adventure called entrepreneurship. There is a severe dearth for good employment opportunities in India; especially the ones that allow you to learn a trade before pursuing higher education. Here education simply cannot end before one completes under graduation and then it becomes very difficult to chalk a new career away from your ‘degree’. This approach must change, and the system of financial independence for children above 18 years must be encouraged. Students above the age of 18 years must be encouraged to earn, especially with the avenues provided by internet, IT and other growing sectors. As a matter of fact financial constraints used to make this mandatory for the people of earlier generation, however the comforts of upper middle class has actually replaced it and this I think has led to stereotyping of vocational education and entrepreneurial ventures. Also this system will help alleviate the students from the distress of having to become what you never wanted to become, and also to chalk out a career for them and be more successful.

History has always supported people with focused goals and strong ambitions to emerge leaders. Unless this concern is addressed I doubt if India can convert the millions of talented youngsters into global leaders.

ABCD and ABCC are true?

Lot of times,i have thought about this!! some of my cousins are natives of america ( born and brought up there), whenever they come to india, my mother face a huge pressure of handling them which i have noticed and in turn she vents her frustration at us. usually this does not happen to my other cousins who are breathing indian air. Then i seriously think is it due to the huge cultural difference which they have adapted r adopted?? The curious thing about them is they still want to show their nativeness in the way they behave but don't know where to draw a line. simple example is of my cousin who told me, she never wears sari to her work because of people looking at her as alien, but when she is in india,buys a lot of saris.

I was surprised where will she wear that and asked her a question "where will u wear this"?? she replied, in functions, i screwed her by saying what are all the functions she attend,she was kinda pissed off and could not handle my bundles of questions. Then i realised that this people try to be the native at home ( indian or chinese at home), at work try to be american,that is why they are aptly called, for indians, ABCD (American born confused desi) and chinese as ABCC(American born confused chinese) who loath their native for the false system and contribute nothing to the home land. They try to inherit the american culture in them but mix too much of their native values which obviously gives rise to lot of complications. For example, if a girl child is born in america and bought up there, obviously the child will get accustomed to amercian system but the parents try to instill indianness saying "you should not wear this and that, which is obscene". Anyway that is not going to be practically possible at those countries where the child is going to be very independent after early ages.

The world still has many gems

22nd Dec 2008, my dad suffered a paralytic stroke due to high blood sugar. Since then, he s been struggling to regain control of his left arm and leg. Last week my parents were out shopping for some comfort wear for him in Yeshwanthpur,Bangalore where they happened to stop by a store run by a person called Salim. Seeing my dad's condition, the shopkeeper Salim informed my parents of a place some 150kms from Bangalore where supposedly effective treatment is being given for such stroke patients. Not stopping at that, he called up a friend near that treatment center and asked him to help us find the place.

His friend(Ghouse bhai) proved to be a true gem. That person postponed a personal work involving his daughter to another day so he could take us to the treatment center, met us midway through so we wouldnt have difficulty finding the place and then stayed with us for half the day and made sure things happened as they were supposed to. Finally he left without even taking some money that my mother offered him saying "no madam, money spoils friendship; let us just be friends." We also came to know that 25 years back, he adopted an orphan straying near his shop as his brother and raised him to be a fine young man, setup a seperate shop for him and got him married as well. The world still has many gems .. amongst all the hatred and divisions along race, religion and culture, people like Salim and Ghouse bhai shine like brilliant beacons for others to follow.

Are Indians lazy?

I was chatting with my Indian friend over a lunch, suddenly he asked me, "Do you think we are lazy?" I said, I don't know the correct answer for this accidental question. He told me, he thinks we are generally lazy compared to other hardworking races in Asia. I said to him, may be man your right. So after returning from lunch, I gave a little thought to that crazy stereotypical question. Is he really right? Flipping through some facts, it seems Indians do less physical work than others and we are more prone to type 2 diabetes. These results were published in BBC health section.


If we look at studies which requires us to have lot more will power than anything else, we don't lag behind others. But certainly don't slog continuously than other Asians in general. Though there are some total nerds in India but those people utterly don't do exercise and tend to be overweight. I knew lot of my friends back in chennai play video games for straight eight to nine hours but if we ask them to sit and study or do some sports they flunk it (not in studies though). So what might have caused us to have such an attitude.

I think our family structure might have contributed to some extent where only one parent (especially father) tend to work and others sit and relax. Our social structure doesn't permit adolescents to do part time jobs or other works. But contemporary young people are health conscious and also have power to drive so this attitude may change very soon. There are spoil sport like video games and computer games might hinder the change of attitude. Any thoughts to this?

Tamils hate North Indians? No, Not all!

My north Indian friends in NTU, keep on asking me ,why tamils hate North Indians. I refute them by saying there is no notion of hatred among tamils. It is a general idea of north indians that tamilians don't want to learn Hindi and they hate Hindi like how french people hate English. But it is not true, majority of south indians especially tamils these days really want to learn hindi. Apparently, it is Tamil Nadu which has highest number of privately registered hindi programs according to "The Hindu". But why there is uneasy between tamils and north indians.

Actually tamils envy the assertive nature of north indians, their socialable culture. Obviously not to hide, most tamil guys want to have north indian girl friends. But the fact, they often don't succeed because north indian guys are aggressive enough to even lure south indian girls. This has actually lead to jealousy and common dislike among young tamils. Sometimes sadly though tamils guys work their ass off to achieve spendidly superub things but still they couldn't compete with normal hindiwala guys when it comes to getting girl friends. So this has automatically lead to envy feelings.

Another important fact why is there an envy feeling is related to the entertainment industry. Tamil movies are so freaking conservative compared to Bollywood movies. Usually successful tamil movies are about village boy chasing for rich girl or emotional family problems or unsuccessful urbanities. But hindi movies on the other hand shows so much of skin and grandeur on the celluloid this has also to lead to jealousy among tamilians for opportunity deprivation. Lastly, it is the fair skin which we all want to have but unfortunately God has cursed as with dark skin so tamil only envy north indians, not hate them. Secretly we want to be like you.

Discrimination in Indian Education

Indian elites in United States of America and other developed countries has made India so proud because of their achievements but if you really look into their background most of the people hail from India’s prestigious IITs and IIMs and also from privileged backgrounds. It is a case to analysis since India is a developing country which wants to rise to level of developed nations. Before having the aspirations to compete with developed nations we need to fundamentally overhaul our education system. It is a need of an hour because China which is also in the developing league has better system of education and playing field for all the students is almost flat.

China’s education system is centralized mean to say there is only one existence of board and common university entrance examination. Such a scenario is almost non existence in any Indian states especially in southern states. To paint a big picture we have CBSE, ICSE, State Board, Anglo Indian, GCE, etc. and list goes on. This is not to ridicule the system in place but the complexity involved in providing one of the most basic amenities to its citizens. The quality of education provided in each board differs considering and there is an informal ranking in place for students to select their board if they want to score high grades. That’s said, we are not imparting the true education to the child’s brain rather just making a choice. Why are so many boards? Why there is significant difference in the quality of education? Likewise lots of questions pops in any young ignited minds.

If any nongovernmental organization does survey in our elite IITs and IIMs to find out their true backgrounds i.e. their board of education, income status (true status), urbanite or rural. It is safe to assume that more 95% would definitely hail from urban upper middle or rich class and also from either CBSE or ICSE board. This is not to brand CBSE or ICSE board is the best but it is reality we need to concede. Why is this scenario? Does it mean rural students don’t have brains to compete? If we look below the surface we know the hard truth that those boards are highly priced. At the same time, urbanites (upper middle class) have better opportunity to train in expensive coaching class than rural students who basically lacks those infrastructures. Aren’t we denying rights to our citizens?

There are several Cinderella stories happening in India but those come to limelight when that kid usually comes to the city. Two years back there was a guy from village who worked part time in food courts and cinema theatre to fund his IAS coaching in Chennai and he cleared IAS exam in his third attempt. If we made available the same facility in his district capital or big town nearer his village, he wouldn’t have come to Chennai in first place to toil himself day and night. There are several untold stories which are often digested in the half stomach of rural students coming to cities to succeed in their academia. Most students don’t succeed because they have poor fundamentals inculcated by rural schools, not enough money to finance their coaching and culture shock in cities. To add fuel to the fire, urban students often mistreat their rural students instead of helping them.

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy once remarked in an interview, there are two Indias one is the urban India with all the information and facilities to compete with the globe; other is the rural India which is shattered in hope and live in despair. That is true case of the education provided to the students of Indian villages and towns. Aren’t they citizens of India who has to treated equally? There are still caste discriminations prevalent in Indian educations. There are several stories which are reported as well as unreported in the media that a lower caste child is mistreated by teacher or peers. China on the other hand differs in this fundamental right of a citizen. Though it is a communist country, it has provided a same education to all students no big difference in board, only difference which naturally occurs in any case is that urban students has more exposure than rural students.

Our former president A.P.J Abdul Kalam and so many distinguished people hail from villages. We need to understand that was the time when there was no big difference between Rameshwaram (Kalam’s Home town) and Ranchi. But globalization has changed the platform; there are visible inequities in cities and towns now. Kalam himself is afraid that “Will there be any Kalam from villages in next decades?” The situation persist in India says an obvious “NO”. We need to reverse this, we the people of India have to act not the politicians. We should rise up to challenge and protest to petition the Indian government to overhaul or revamp the badly hit education sector. There should be only one board of education. We need to have common entrance examinations throughout India. Multi entrance examinations have increased corruption in private institutions. Urban India has to stop the apathy in not acting to save our citizens who are not getting same education like them. We need a change like how Barack Obama has campaigned!