A little story or a small question that everyone must answer.

Once upon a time there was a guy Mr. A. He finished his education, worked towards a brilliant career, earned a lot of money and had a rich and comfortable life. Having achieved everything he wanted to he decided it was time he settled down and got married. One fine evening as he was returning from work he saw a beautiful lady Miss B crossing the road. He fell in love with her and proposed to her the very next day. He said "Miss B, I love you and would like to marry you. We will have a happy and comfortable life. Will you marry me?

Miss B was in love with a certain Mr. L. Mr. L was a struggling painter of no great talent. Hence he could never make it big in the art world even if he tried too hard. Miss B said to Mr. A "You, sir are very good to offer me all this but I am in love with Mr. L." Mr. A said, "Please reconsider Miss B. Everything that is mine shall be yours. You shall never again have the lack of money or comfort or my love. I will not pressurize or persuade you into accepting but I would like you to take a week to think and then come back and give me an answer". Miss B agreed to that.

She immediately went to see Mr. L. To reach Mr. L's house she had to cross a river. The boatman Mr. M said "Lady you have to give me money or i wont take u across." Miss B didn't have much money. So she cried and pleaded and appealed to Mr. M to take her to her love. Mr. M was unmoved. Finally he said, "For one of those gold earrings that you have I will take you across once. If you agree, let's go" Miss B. agreed. She gave him one of her gold earrings, crossed the river and went to see Mr. L.

Mr. L was worried when he saw the confusion and anxiety on Miss B's face. He asked her, "What's the matter, my lady?" She said, "Oh Mr. L! I was proposed to by Mr. A today." Mr. L asked, "did you accept? or Did you say no?". Miss B said amongst sobs "He has given me a week to decide, but how can I decide I love you." Mr. L considered for a moment and said "My dear, I am but a struggling painter and I know I would never make it big. With me you will always have to scrape and live from hand to mouth, you would have to struggle all your life. My fate or my future is of my own making hence I do not mind suffering through it but you my dear, you don't have to pay for my mistakes. you have a chance at a better life and I don't want to hold you back and condemn you to a life of poverty." His answer made Miss B. think even more. She asked, "But what should I tell him?" Mr. L sighed and said, "You should find your own answer...but for your sake, I do wish you would say, yes."

Miss B was saddened by this. She came back to the river gave her other earring to the boatman Mr. M and returned to town. She thought long and hard about what the two men had said to her and after a week accepted Mr. A's proposal and married him.

Here ends the story and begins the question. Out of the 4 characters, Mr. A, Miss B, Mr.L and Mr. M.
Who do you think is the most morally justified? Answer beginning with the person of highest morals. Please leave a comment with your answer.

For all of you who answered the previous question...a little twist in the tale for you. Since you have now rated the characters according to morality...Now if A represents ambition, L represents Love, B represents Brains and M represents money...Think of the priority of these things in your life and now decide your order...Is the order according to morality and according to priority different?

Do we always think on moral grounds when we decide our priorities?
Or do we use different parameters when we judge others and different ones when it comes to our own lives?

A little thank you to all my friends

Here comes friendship day and I have probably never wished any of you on this day before. May be I have never really wished you on your birthdays or thanked you for being my friends. May be I have not messaged you, called you or seen you in ages but that doesn’t mean I don’t think of you. I do. And hence I want to thank this occasion for being there for me.

Thank you to all my buddies from St. Joseph’s Bhopal. We were all friends at an age on innocence and though we were not together for a very long time..I shall never forget you guys ( Thank you Rohit, Agnishikha, Akarati )

All of you from St. Karen’s you guys were amazing. Thank you Anirban for singing whenever I asked, Sarah I remember your attempts at teaching me Bengali! Thank you Diwakar your art is very inspiring and you are the most humble and softspoken guy I know. Thank you Ashutosh I shall never forget the assemblies and our discussions regarding politics.

Most of my formative years were spent in Symbiosis and everyone out there is impossible to forget. But just to mention a few….Thanks Gautam you always saw the goodness inside me, though I was not that good. Akshata …You are an absolute darling you know..a rare blend of sensibility and sensitivity. Your smile never failed to encourage me. Gaurav …most probably we have detested each other for a very long time but still you were one of the most honest guys in a school that was full of pretenses. And I also enjoyed our verbal sparrings immensely.

Gauri, Geeta, Shubhagee thank you for making a dull and dreary college like Modern so interesting.

Mohnish and Satyajeet I never knew you much in college but two of you are immensely entertaining. Mohnish…Sorry…you know I spent so long thinking of you as the “idiotic flirt” (based on others opinion of course) that I missed out on knowing the witty and intelligent guy that really are.

Namrata I shall never forget the IITP days and the “conversations” in notebooks. Ameya, Sneha I had a great time with you guys.

Ashwini, Shubhangi, Madhuri I had a great time with you guys. Goa was unforgettable. So are most of the things that we have done and immortlised on y.asm

Sameera, Sharayu, Uttara I had great fun in B.E on that last bench near the window with all of you sitting around there!

My dear diploma friends Priyanka, Sneha, Preetam Thanks for all those last minute study sessions outside the exam hall. Would have never done so well without you guys.

Manjit Thank you for all the advices on C, Java, computers and everything. You know you are more like an elder brother than a friend. And we will soon find a girl for you.

Devika you are a wonderful girl. Very cute and smart and nice to talk to.

Kunal You are a rare combination. You are funny without being boring. You irritate me so very often without making me angry :) (most of the times) And you always put up a great Federer – Nadal argument.

Prati..I wish we would have become friends earlier. We have already missed out on 21 years…but don’t worry we will make up for it. You are very logical, sensible, honest and nerdy (all that discussing studies on FB!) I absolutely adore you.

Pavan, Kartik… I have never met you guys but I always enjoy talking to you. Pavan you are not my friend..you are my twin. Kartik …Whenever I shall read a book I shall think of you to discuss it with.

Finally Jomson Thank you. This possibly couldn’t come to an end without thanking you…for a lot of things.

All of you and those whom I have by chance forgotten to mention (Sorry) I shall always think of you all fondly. May our friendship last forever.

26/11 and the mockery thereafter

Yesterday evening I was working late, when one of my friends called me up asking if I would like to join her in a peace march, in memory of those who lost their lives in the 26/11 attack. Though it was a well-meaning gesture it triggered off a string of reactions from me. What was the use of the peace march?

Half the people who joined the peace march, did not vote. Why? Simply because they were not bothered enough about their country or concerned enough about who runs the country or lazy enough that they couldn't find the time or take the effort to go and register themselves in the voter's list! Oh but they had all the time in the world to participate in a useless peace march. And they will have enough time to go and catch the latest movie or hang out with friends or laze around their houses doing nothing! Why show all this pseudo-concern when you can't even do your duty by your country?

Not only that these people would drive without licenses, skip traffic lights all the time and would suffer no qualms in bribing the policeman who caught them doing so.

It doesn't stop here. The people participating in such things are so ignorant about the entire situation at hand. They are not concerned about why such attacks are happening, they have no idea who is responsible, or what lapses lead to the current situation or what steps if any are being taken to avoid such things happening again. Hell, most of them don't even know the names of Home minister and defence minister of their own country! And when they themselves stay in such a state of ignorance, why do they participate in a peace march or an awareness march.

Besides I do not understand why 26/11 should be marked by organizing a peace march. If anything we should be organizing a protest march. Protest against

•Indifference of people towards democracry – A protest against all of those who are not concerned enough to vote

•Ignorance of people towards affairs of their own country – A protest against all those who do not know the office bearers in their own country and are ignorant about the basic political and diplomatic scenario.

•Indifference of Politicians – Neither the Prime Minister, the President, Chief minister, or any of the cabinet ministers issued a statement in times of this crisis to restore the confidence of people. Instead some of our esteemed leaders did not hesitate to make a political issue of the situation. Moreover one year after the event the then chief minister of Maharashtra who was not only ineffective and incompetent but also took Ram Gopal Verma on a tour of the Taj with him now holds a Cabinet position!

•Failure of defence mechanisms – The intelligence collected by RAW and presented to various office bearers was repeatedly ignored and not acted upon, which lead to this unfortunate event. And this situation still persists.

•Poorly equipped policemen – Our policemen still have the rifles which are no match for the AK 47s of the terrorists and carry VHF radio sets which do not even function well in a place like Mumbai that has so many high rise buildings. The CCTV surveillance in most CST like places still doesnt work.

•No speedy justice – Kasab still hangs in there and the state is paying a hefty price for keeping him alive

•Failure of diplomatic mechanisms in getting our dear neighbor to own up to its hand in the event and hand over the guilty.

•No naval intelligence mechanism in place – Inspite of having a huge budget allocated for modernisation of our defence till 2012 we still do not have a naval intelligence mechanism in place.

I am not saying we should not pay our homage to those brave officers who lost their lives in these attacks our pray for the souls of the victims of the attack. I am just saying that wearing white clothes and lighting candles is not the solution or the right way to do it. The right way is to raise your voice, and make sure its heard. It is the least we can do to do our best to protect our country.