Responsibilities...

Is it possible to function without responsibilities?

Speed Breakers

There are these two new huge speed breakers near our house. Over time, we have created this ritual when we go over speed breakers - we both say "aaa... Jump" just as we go over it. So we did this time too. Only that it was a rather big jump!

This prompted the question - what are these speed breakers for?. I tried to explain. People tend to go fast on roads. When they go fast, they may dash into each other and fall down. That's bad. So, these bumps are required so that they slow down and don't dash into each other.

Then came the question - even now, after the speed breakers are in place, they come fast and they might fall down because of the speed breakers?

I had to say, "Yeah true, but over time, they will know that there is a speed breaker there and they will slow down".

She didn't go further with that, but it did set me thinking.

We adults and our weird ways.

The Crow

It was early in the morning. The window was open and the monsoons had just set. We were both looking out the window - not particularly at anything. Just looking out. Suddenly a crow came and sat in the window sill just for a moment. She looked at us both with tilted head - once through this eye then through another. Then she flew away.

We looked at each other. After a brief pause we both laughed out loud. We then went to the room with the TV and loaded the DVD. Then, as a celebration of the moment, we watched that old song "Kaa Kaa Kaa... ".

It was such a moment.

One Great Farewell...

9 long years, I am bound to have so many memories I can go back to. However, the last 2 days were the most memorable. Proud to say it, I worked with a great team here and they made every second of my last few days count!

As it is said, I couldn't have had it better!

New Blog Announcement...

I intend to document my thoughts and findings as I embark on an experimental journey as a high-school maths teacher.

You can find them in my new blog - "A Math Teacher's Diary".

As always - thoughts, comments, feedback - most welcome.

NDTV Conscience...

NDTV tries too hard to project itself as media with a conscience.

Yesterday was classic. In its "exclusive" crusade to save India's beaches, NDTV did an interview of Jairam Ramesh (minister, environment). Some sensational questions were asked - "what is the government really doing?". Since no controversial answers were there for the taking, at the end of it Srinivasan Jain proclaimed - "NDTV will continue its fight to save India's beaches and will continue to keep you updated from time to time".

By the way last year, the fad was "Save the Tiger". This year its the beaches. Suits the kind of audience that they are targeting - no matter how contrived it may sound.

Also of note are Prannoy Roy's promises that he makes to the victims of media harassment. Two promises are worthy of note -

1. Promise to the uncle of Aarushi Talwar that NDTV will not harass them with interviews at a time when the family is in the midst of a horrific tragedy (after that man openly appealed to all media during an interview in NDTV!)
2. Promise to Rani Mukherjee that NDTV will not indulge in spreading rumor and gossip about movie stars

Somewhere down the line, NDTV also stood first in line to cover all the rumors surrounding issues of national interest, such as the Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding.

At the other end of the conscience spectrum would be, Barkha Dutt's cheap "How do you guys feel?" questions in the middle of the night to the family members of the victims of the 26/11 terrorist attack.

May be there is a point of view where all this is consistent.