Day 154

Second day also the Mouse menace worked during the ongoing CAT exams. Result of this… Students suffered. So it seems that the Mouse is wining the war over CAT but at the cost of student’s harassments and anger. Prometric, the company organising the CAT 2009, has put the blame on the virus attack for the malfunction. Prometric officials are saying that the virus were not detected by the anti virus software at the exam centres. Whatever may be the case, but it’s not exactly the thing which is making the CAT exam to be a smoother one just like it was last year. Whatever may be the reasons for the failure or the catastrophe, which is creating harassment for the students, is creating embarrassment for the CAT committee. The most important thing is that whether the exams are going as per schedule or there will be afresh exams? This question is very much important now. Because it’s now the reputation of the CAT committee involved now. So, the sooner they came up with the answer the better it is for the students. I hope that the CAT committee takes the decision in couple of days. This will stop the harassment of the students.

Day 153

So the game of CAT and Mouse began yesterday. But in this game the students were at the losing end. Majority of the students faced the problem of system rebooting and sudden shut down of the computers. It lead to the increase of pressure and anxiety amongst students. The CAT committee is silent over this. How can they answer for the question when the things were out of their hands? It was the concern of the centre people where the exams were conducted. They didn’t checked their computers to eliminate the problem of rebooting and automatic shut downs. In my view, it was anticipated that this type of problem will arise. But no measures were taken to eradicate this. Why? Why wasn’t there any back up plans? Why should the students suffer due to the fault of the people at the examination centres? And there are many more questions. Is the CAT committee going to take another exam for those students who faced this type of problems? I don’t think that it’s not right if they are barred from the examination. So, I hope that the CAT committee is going to do in this direction. They aren’t answering any questions at the moment. I think they are finding the cause of the entire malfunction which happened on the opening day of the CAT exam. In fact, their reputation is also at the stake. The sooner it is solved, the better it is for the students coming up for the CAT days in coming days. And I hope that this type of errors and malfunction will not occur next year.

Day 152

The CAT fever begins from today. For the first time, 2,41,000 aspirants will try to tame the CAT with the help of a Mouse. Yes, I’m talking about the online CAT exams. The changed trend is a matter of worry for many students. They are still finding it very tough to crack the exam to go to prestigious B-Schools in India. Well, in my view, it’s a good change. Because after getting in B-Schools, one has to get familiar with computers and laptops. So, why can’t there be online CAT exam? What’s wrong in that? I understand that many students are in dilemma that how they will perform in this exam when it’s online. They are right to an extend. The physiological pressure of some prestigious exams like CAT is really high on the aspirants. And making that online has added one more reason to get feared. But in my view, this fear will go away with time. This is the first year of online CAT exam that’s why the aspirants are having so much fear of that. If they are reading my blog then I can only advise them not to panic. There is no need of panicking. Just take it as the normal CAT exam. Do your best. Rest will be fine.

There are many institutes which provide coaching for the management entrance exams, all over India. But I have found that Career Launcher has an advantage above others. The faculty at Career Launcher are a bit better than others. And the people at Career Launcher are giving coaching on the computers at their labs. I think this is the added feature in their coaching technique. They are training the aspirants to work on the computers so that the aspirants don’t have any problem in the CAT exams. Very soon others will also mutate this but I have found that the labs at the Career Launcher are backed by an expert team. They provide all type of materials and online support to the students that the aspirants really feel full of confidence. And I think that confidence with right coaching and right direction can equip an aspirant to crack down the CAT exam.

Day 151

Today is the first anniversary of the Mumbai attack. A sad day which has marked its impression long in our memories. 166 people were killed by the 10 militants who came in Mumbai through sea route. Only Ajmal Kasab was arrested alive out of those 10 militants. People in Mumbai are out on streets and at various places in prayers in the memory of those who were killed by the terrorists. The Mumbai Police is parading in various parts of the city. But we need to think on various things also. I agree that no country is free from the terror attack. But we have to take necessary steps to save our country. Last year, during the attack, there were many drawbacks which came in front of us. First one was the movement of NSG commandos from New Delhi to Mumbai. It took very long hours for the commandos to reach Mumbai, where every passing moment was very important. Then there was lack of coordination between police and commandos. But at last, the commandos gunned down nine militants. But after a year of that attack, we are still facing many problems. Still our police force is ill equipped. Today’s terrorists carry an automatic AK-47 but our policemen still carry the antique bolt action rifle. When the terrorists came to Mumbai by sea route they were equipped with sat-phones and GPRS navigational systems, but our policemen were using VHF radio sets that can’t function in cities like Mumbai where we have many high-rise buildings. And still many police officers have joined police force to earn money only. Majority of them are doing corrupt practises. We have to remodel our police force, have to make them well equipped and have to make them of high moraled. Then only we will be fight with the terrorists in a better way. Because what happened in Mumbai is not a pleasant one to remember. We have to be ready that nothing like that happens again.

Day 150

Today I’m writing 150^th post of my blog. But instead of feeling happy, I’m sad. On Thursday, we will be remembering the martyrs of the Mumbai attack. Thursday will be the first anniversary of that tragic attack. Couple of days back I read an interview of the father of Late Major Unni Krishnan. He told that every one in India wants a Bhagat Singh and Chandra Sekhar Azad in the country but not in their house. I was moved by his statement. Why we people of India have become so mean? We want someone to fight against the enemies of our country. We want some one to fight against corruption. If someone else do that then we applaud for that person very much. But don’t want our son or daughter to do the same. Why? We have just become coward. We don’t want anything to happen to our family. We give long speeches on the patriotism but when it comes to send son or daughter in the armed force then we just don’t want to do that and just closed our doors that we won’t send our children there. We want our children to have a career or job where he or she can earn handsome money. But don’t want them to see serving the country in the armed forces or to fight against corruption. We are concerned about the bread and butter only. Nothing more than that. This is mean cowardness. And this is the weakness which our enemies are taking advantage of. I do remember that when the commandos operation to eradicate terrorists was over in Mumbai, the public of Mumbai came on streets in protests against politicians and they demanded that we should strike against the enemy. But I want to ask them that how many of them are interested in sending their children to the armed forces? How many of them are ready to fight against the corrupt leaders. All of them were silent when Raj Thackeray spread his linguistic hatred. Why they didn’t protest at that time? Their silence is of a mean coward’s silence. Now we have to change our thinking. Its time to unite always as the people of Mumbai did after the attack. We have to show to the linguistic psycho leaders that no state, city or language is greater that the country. We all are Indians having same rights. India is made of all the states and all languages are equal. It’s not right to divide the country like this. We have to fight the internal enemies also.

Day 149

It’s almost a week that I wrote my post on the blog. Actually it was a sort of waiting time for me. I was expecting you people to give some comments but it seems that all my waiting has gone in vein. I think my expectation was wrong. Sometimes, I think that this expectation plays a vital role in our life. We expect something in return for certain things do or from certain people around us. We feel very sad or depressed when our expectation is not fulfilled. Today I’m not in mood to write. Memories of past time are coming back Again and again. The things which happened last year were so sad that still its memory is fresh in our memories. From tomorrow I’ll write a series on the Mumbai terror attack.

Day 148

Now it seems that Bal Thackeray is adopting the same way that of his nephew, Raj Thackeray. He has attacked Sachin Tendulkar for making statements and commenting on Raj Thackeray. Couple of days back, Sachin Tendulkar has said that Mumbai doesn’t belong to Maharashtra only. Mumbai is a part of India. Now Bal Thackeray is angry on him. The Shiv Sena supreme has written in his editorial in Samna, the magazine of Shiv Sena that Sachin should avoid the political pitch. It’s not like the cricket pitch which he rules. Bal Thackeray has written that the comments coming from Sachin’s side is attack on the Marathi pride. He has clearly advised Sachin to stay away from making political comments like this. He was warned Sachin that Sachin will get run out if he dares to make such comments again about the Marathi pride. Now I think the uncle-nephew dew have gone crazy. They are playing with the sentiments of the people to increase their vote bank only. In the recently concluded Maharashtra assembly election, the Shiv Sena has performed very badly. Have Bal Thackeray and his party done some constructive work in Maharashtra then they would have performed well in the election. So instead of making linguistic issue larger than other issues, Bal Thackeray and Raj Thackeray should do some constructive work for the Marathi people. the Marathi people need better chance of employment and other facilities rather than long speeches from uncle and nephew. Bal Thackeray has clearly told Sachin that it might be the case that Mumbai is commercial capital of India but it belongs to Maharashtra first then it belongs to India. Now this is clear hatred speech. People from other parts of India has also worked with Marathi people to make Mumbai progress. But Bal Thackeray and Raj Thackeray have forgotten that.

Day 147

Well, I thought that I’ll write something new today. But again the topic is been diverted to Raj Thackeray and his linguistic mania. Now he is telling the State Bank of India, India’s second largest bank to fill its 1100 vacant post in different part of Maharashtra by recruiting the Marathi people. Now who the hell he thinks about himself? Does he think that his diktat can work everywhere? And who is he to tell a national bank what to do or what not to do? If he is so worried about only Marathi people then why isn’t he creating job for them? I agree with RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat that Raj Thackeray is playing with the sentiments of the people to increase his vote bank. And the sad incidence which happened in Maharashtra state assembly has encouraged him a lot. That’s why he is thinking that he can diktat any one. But this is not going to happen. All the people and languages are equal. All have been given equal rights. If Raj Thackeray is really worried about the Marathi people, then why isn’t he doing any good thing for them? Raising language issue again and again and threatening people from other parts of India is not going to help Marathi people.

Day 146

Kudos to master blaster. He has done some thing really tremendous off the field. He showed his true face of a real Indian. He told it to media persons that he plays for the entire nation. Not just for Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar not only did wonder with his bat but when it comes to talk then he really he makes impact there also. Tendulkar was talking to media persons on the occasion of completing 20 years of playing International Cricket. Sachin clearly send his message to Raj Thackeray that Sachin is proud to be a Marathi but he plays for team India as an Indian, not as a Marathi. At least, now the linguistic psycho will get some lesson. If he has some brain or have good councillors around him to guide him, then Raj Thackeray will be enlightened. There is no need to increase the linguistic hatred amongst ourselves. Language is never above the nation. The spirit and proud of being united in spite of speaking so many different languages is above than any particular language. Now Raj Thackeray has to understand this. The sooner he understands the better it is for all.

Day 145

Yesterday, I wrote about the decline in the number of applicants for CAT this year. I cited economic slowdown and lay offs as one the reasons for the downfall. But today, there is a good news. This year, Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore (IIM-B) has got the maximum number of offer for internees. The whole batch of 348 students of the first year of IIM was selected for the 2010 summer internship. Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan were amongst the leading companies visited the IIM campus. There were total 150companies including 74 new companies. This is showing that the trend is now changing. The fear of the pay off, about which I wrote yesterday, is changing now. IIM-B has become the trend setter now. This selection process which took place there at IIM, is going to take place in other top B schools also. The placement scenario is going to change now. The placement scenario has always been a driving force to join any top B school. It’s a proven fact that the institute having maximum number of placements is considered as the top B school. So now the phase of worrying about the placement is going to change now. There are few positive things happening now. It’s always good to see the positive change in every field.

Day 144

This year the decrease in the number of the applicants for Common Admission Test (CAT) is the lowest in the last 10 years. Last year the number of applicants was 2.70 lakhs. But this year the number of applicants is 2.41 lakhs. Straight down fall of 29,000 applicants. If we talk in percentage then its downfall of 10.74%. The blame is given to the global slowdown, which affected the salaries and the employment. And the placement scenario wasn’t good in the B-schools. So, this may be the one of influential reasons. This time CAT Committee was prepared for some 3 lakhs applicants. It was having a buffer system for the extra applicants. But still, that didn’t work out. The number is less than the expectation of the committee. I think, in addition to the placement scenario, the computer based test of CAT has played an influential role in the downfall. Many aspirants aren’t familiar with the computer. So that may have created some kind of scare in the mind of applicants. They might have thought that how can the cope with the computer based exam. They don’t have much experience and knowledge in handling the computer. Might be they have thought to prepare for the next year or might have looked to other entrance exams of B-schools.

Day 143

For the last two days, I’m writing about Raj Thackeray and his linguistic issues. Still everywhere everyone is talking about the sad incidence which happened in Maharashtra assembly. Everyone is saying that whatever happened was against constitution and democracy. Who is Raj Thackeray to issue diktats to others? Why his party men disrupted the proceedings of the assembly? Is Raj Thackeray above the constitution of India? I don’t think so. He is just a party president. Nothing more than that. I have already written in my previous posts that he is spreading hatred among other Indians and Marathi people. He is just following the footsteps of his uncle, Bal Thackeray. He is pretending that he is raising his voice for the Marathi people and their interest. But in reality he is playing with their emotions to gain his political goals. Nothing more than that. And I am surprised that why the Maharashtra government isn’t taking any step against him? Raj Thackeray needs to be stopped now. He is just dividing the people on the basis of language. If he isn’t stopped at this stage then he will become a more intense in his hatred speech which in turn will affect the harmony of the Maharashtra. People will avoid going to Maharashtra. Any industrialist will not put his factory there. Then for whose interest will Raj Thackeray fight? So its time to wake up and to take action against Raj Thackeray.

Day 142

Whatever happened in Maharashtra’s assembly is direct attack on the democracy. The MLAs of MNS has taken Raj Thackeray’s diktat above the constitution of India. Four MLAs have been suspended for four years. I think that it’s a mixed order. Mixed in the sense that it’s good to punish those MLAs and it’s bad because still they would be elected representative from their constituencies. Those constituencies would be now unrepresented. The electorate are also been punished in this way. In my view, the MLAs should have been expelled from the assembly and then by-election would be held. Then it’s going to work. Raj Thackeray is always provoking people on the basis of languages. His men attacked the students of different states when they went to Mumbai for the Railway Recruitment Board’s written exam. I don’t understand what he is trying to do? What message he wants to give to people of other places? I think he is trying to follow the footsteps of his uncle, Bal Thackeray. Bal Thackeray also achieved popularity in the same way by attacking south Indian population in Mumbai. Then he shifted his attention towards Muslims. Now Raj Thackeray is using linguistic chauvinism to gain popularity. If he is so much concerned about the Marathi people then why isn’t he pressuring Maharashtra government to give more employment to Marathi people? why always he is diving people on the basis of language? He is thinking that he is saving the honour of Marathi people. but in reality he is developing anger and hatred for Marathi people in other parts of India. He is forgetting that the people from different parts of India are living in Mumbai. And sorrow of Mumbai becomes their sorrow. They were equally hurted by the attack on Mumbai as he was. When it was time for him to show his love for Mumbai in uniting with people, he was sitting in his home. And now he is doing crap things for popularity. He should be put behind the bars. That’s the best thing which can be done.

Day 141

Raj Thackeray and his party men are crossing every limit of civilised world. Raj Thackeray issued a diktat for the newly elected MLAs in the recently concluded Maharashtra state assembly that all of them will take oath in Marathi. What the hell is this? Who is he to issue diktat like this? In the Republic of India all the elected members are free to take oath in their language. No one can issue diktat like this. I think that Raj Thackeray is doing all these nonsense things to be in lime light. But something has to be done with him. There should be some restriction on him. It was Raj Thackeray who spread the hatred between Marathi and Bihari. Again he has started spreading hatred between Marathi speaking people and Non-Marathi speaking people. It seems that he has got some memory loss problems. He has forgotten the terrorist attack in Mumbai November last year. The NSG commandos who went to fight the terrorists in Mumbai, were from North and South India. There was not a single Marathi Manoos amongst those brave commandos. Why didn’t he raise his voice for that? He is a psycho who wants to get spotlight for nothing. That’s why he is doing these things. In my view, he should be arrested as soon as possible. There should be a trial for him for spreading hatred based on language. The government should do something to stop him.

Day 140

On Thursday, India lost the match to Australia by 3 runs. In that match, Sachin Tendulkar scored 175 runs. He completed his 17,000 runs. But Indian team lost that match. In spite of all the efforts put by Sachin Tendulkar with his bat, other batsmen didn’t come up to the mark. India needed 351 runs to win. But other batsmen failed to add 126 runs to Sachin’s 175 to win the match. What a tragedy? If other batsmen would have supported Sachin then India would have won the match. Losing the match has overshadowed the achievement of Sachin Tendulkar. He is the only batsman in the International Cricket to have scored 17000+ runs in One Day International matches. I was wondering that in spite of having talent, why the young cricketers in Indian cricket team not performing well. They are more busy in shooting of commercial advertisement these days. They should pay attention to improve their form rather than improving their bank balances. Every time they come to the field, then they have hopes and expectations of the whole nation with them that they will perform well and will win the match. But in the on going series, we are getting more and more disappointments. When will this disappointment come to an end? Cricket is a game that has become unofficial game of India. People are just crazy about this game. So now the cricketers should pay more attention to the practices than commercial advertisements.

Day 139

Getting comments on the posts always makes me think again. Recently I got two comments on the posts titled Day 135 and Day 138. Some anonymous person is writing comments on the blogs. First of all, I would like to say thanks to Mr Anonymous for his comments. He wrote in his comment on Day 135 that problems cannot be tackle by taking harsh steps only. But he is forgetting or he might have missed that the Maoists have been given enough chance to talk with the government. But instead of coming for the peace talk, they are damaging the government properties like blowing up of railway tracks, attacking on police stations. There is not much option left for us. We have to tackle this situation with the force only. Maoists are terrorists inside the Indian border. We have to fight them. The government is doing peace talks only. But in response to that what we are getting in return from the Maoists? Blasts, massacres, hijack of trains. And as Mr Anonymous stated in his comment that poverty is the reason for the Maoists to spread. Actually that’s main weakness which Maoists are taking advantage of. So to stop them its important or rather say it’s necessary to take harsh steps.

Day 138

Today morning, I read very sad news. It’s very sad to know that the common man was ignored so badly even he was dying in the name of security to the Prime Minister. This is the first incidence that a man has died at the gate of a hospital when his car was stopped by the police for the security of Prime Minister. I agree that total security should be provided to VVIPs like Prime Minister. But is it right to bar a person to get treatment and allow him to die? I’m talking about the incidence that happened in Chandigarh. Prime Minister went to Chandigarh for the convocation ceremony at PGI hospital. Sumit Verma went for treatment for kidney. His car was blocked at the main gain of PGI. He was having tears in his eyes due to pain. But it didn’t created any sympathy corner in the hearts of policemen standing there for the security of Prime Minister. After the ceremony was over then only the car was allowed to go inside. Doctors declared Sumit Verma ‘brought dead’, after diagnosing him. Now who is to be held for this unfortunate mishap? I strongly condemn whatever happened in the name of security. It’s totally unacceptable in any civilized society. A city’s important hospital becomes off bound for patients urgently needing life saving attention. I see the fault of the entire system in this unfortunate mishap.

If the college management has invited Prime Minister for the convocation ceremony then it should had made the venue somewhere else. The college management knew it very well that the hospital is very crucial. Patients come from other cities also for the treatment. Then also it kept the convocation ceremony in the hospital campus. Second thing which really astonished me is the inhuman nature of the policemen at the gate of the hospital. Seeing the situation of Sumit Verma they should have called any senior doctor to get some medical aid. If the policemen would reacted at the proper time then life a man could have been saved.

We need to change the system like this. So that there is no more sad tragedies like this. No innocent patient looses his or her life in the negligence by the system. Whatever happened at PGI in Chandigarh is really condemnable act.

Day 137

It’s very sad to see no comments coming from your side. It might be wastage of time to write a couple of lines after reading the blog. But it’s important for me. Anyway, I can write another post based on this. I don’t want to write it today because it will be repetition of whatever I wrote yesterday. Well today I read the news about the blast in Pakistan. These days Taliban is targeting what has been save haven for itself. Last month, there was blasts in different parts of Pakistan and attacks on the head quarters of Pakistani army. It seems that Taliban is now feed up being getting orders from the Pakistani high command. Or it can be said that Taliban is revolting against its protector. Or it can be said that there is some secret agreement between Taliban and Pakistani government or army. The whole world knows that Pakistan is the safe shelter for all terrorist organisations. And the Pakistani government love to blame India for anything wrong happens in Pakistan. So it might be the plan of the Pakistani army to have blasts done by Taliban to show that Pakistan itself is the target of terrorism. Its nothing but a drama to kill its own innocent people to gain sympathy. That’s why there was a blast when Hillary Clinton reached Islamabad. God knows what the truth is. I can only say that its some conspiracy of the Pakistani army. Pakistan has the history of having army ruling it. Might be all these blasts are to provoke people against Asif Ali Zardari, so that the army can come forward to take control of the entire county. Who knows? Might be this will happen in near future. Or army will tell Asif Ali Zardari to be in power but the army will dictate him. Nothing can be said.

Day 136

Writing everyday is not a tough job. But getting ideas daily is a tough job. Sometimes it becomes repetition of old topics. It has happened to me. I wrote about corruption, political leaders and many other things. All the time, I have written the same thing. I need your feedbacks to improve my writing style. I have requested you people many times. May be your feedbacks can give me some new topics to research and write again with some more added stuff. Actually a feedback always energizes me to write in a better way. So read my blogs and start writing.

Day 135

Maoist. A word which has become menace for the central and state governments in India. But in reality it’s not a word. People think that it’s a banned outfit which uses violence to say its point. But in reality a Maoist is an advocate of Maoism. Next thing which comes in mind is what is Maoism? Actually it’s the political and military ideology derived from the teachings of Chinese leader Mao Zedong. It originated in the period of 1950-55. This outfit is using violent incidences to gets its leaders free from prison or they kill people in the name of justice. Their main operational area is West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The Maoist show their presence in other parts with killings. Recently they beheaded Francis Induvar, a Jharkhand police officer. And of course, all of us certainly remember the hostage of Rajdhani Express by People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), an organisation backed by Maoist.

One thing which I ask myself is that why isn’t the government using harsh steps to stop all these things. It’s clear that these Maoists can’t be handled by the state police. There is always misunderstanding and lack of coordination between the police of two states. And Maoists are taking advantage of this weakness. As far as I have observed then I have found and observed that these Maoists people are using innocent people as their backup. They are getting mass support by hook or crook. And then these Maoists use the mass as their protection shield. So instead of state police running after them, the central government should press army or Para military forces in action. There have been enough peace talks with the Maoists. They always demand for the separate area for them. The top Maoist leaders always provoke people to go against the government and the police. And when the police arrest their leaders then the comrades uses violent means to pressurise government and police for the release of their leaders.

So in my view, instead of having peace talks, its time for action. When Special Task Force (STF) can be formed by the state governments of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to nab Verrappan, why can’t the central government form a separate task force with the central command in one of the Maoist affected states to eliminate Maoists? These people understand the language of bullets. So its time to talk with them in the language they understand very well.