Friends and strangers
It's really strange...feeling what we sometimes feel for some people who we hardly even know..wierd to say the least..But still most or all of our closest friends, good friends et al, were once just that - mere strangers we met on our first day of college, school, at an event, in the neighbourhood..whatever...

Life, they say should be lived in the present, for like it's namesake, it is a present, a gift..the gift of having one more day of living, to go out there and do the shit that we do..excuse the gangsta 'shit' word. But then, just as they come into our lives, so do they walk out, vanish, appear to vanish, fade away..I don't know. Whatever 'that' is...but I'll take it like, some people come into our lives for a reason, others for a season and like the passing day and night..they pass on to. When they do, some part of us seems to feel this awkwardness....But life goes on....I've had enough of such experiences, moving from Mumbai, then moving back from Singapore...and now..well I don't quite know where I'll be next and where some of the people I know..(I've 'safely' added people on FB..although it has its flaws..I feel it helps us maintain some connect with people and when the time and tide comes again..well, who knows..we may bump into a long-lost friend yet again...I've had those experiences over FB and it's always been pleasant!)

One last para..(if you've read thus far) - when it comes to friends and strangers, the best bit about life and its myriad opportunities is - making strangers into friends...and friends into better friends...but don't try too hard...I feel in matters of the heart, somethings happen at will..as if they were destined to happen :) I trust the man/woman/whoever up there!

Education, teaching etc
I've been writing on education for sometime now..it's taught me one thing for sure..education is certainly my beat of choice..no two ways about that. Reason being, I've always believed in the inimitable power of a good education, the influence of a rock-solid teacher and the thrills of having genuinely devoted students. All three are rare to find, at least in our homeland, the world's largest democracy. Nevertheless, I've always maintained, the most exquisite treasures are also the most elusive.

Besides writing on education, I've also worked in the field. I've taught both intellectually challenged as well as fully capable students wasting their intellect. The latter left me agonising deeply. Why? I question, are young people like that. I'm not as old as a few of my students believe me to be, owing to the 'teacher' tag. But I would rather die than do something like that...but then again..I am different and so are they. Guess, I need to accept them and their attitudes. Self-realisation is just that..SELF realisation. As a teacher perhaps I can motivate, but unless it comes from within, what is a teacher to do..what really is his/ her role?

All I really know is that education is pivotal to the development of our can-be-great nation and good teachers and a sound education are the need of the hour. Eons back Tagore summarised this value of education, of knowledge and learning in his beautiful verse:

"Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert...; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action --" Clearly knowledge has an incredibly positive aftermath, if only the thirst for knowledge was as greedy as the desire for material possessions.

When life takes a toll
Sometimes, things aren't as good as we expect them to be; Sometimes thinking about the future can be a scary experience; Sometimes we feel low without a reason; Sometimes it all feel wrong eventhough it's alright...Life gets a tad crazy sometimes...even with sane and over-sane people. But it's all a phase..hard as it may be to cope, always remember - this too will pass. It's God's Law, or so I've come to believe. Amen.

When idealism drowns, media monologues

I guess every student of media has been taught that like every other enterprise, media is also a business and money speaks - big time. Sometimes, marketing and money overtake editorial and ethics. No two ways about that. As a comparitively 'green' journo, I sometimes tend to take an idealistic view of journalism...but a year in the line has given rise to the crushing realisation that editorial, for many media conglomerates, is only second to marketing and most people will perhaps not think twice before dropping an article for an advertisement. It hurts for a bit...but then you swallow it. They need money and you need money to live and if they don't earn the money, you won't earn it either and in the process, content is sometimes compromised. So if you criticise a particular brand and those people pool in a lot of money for advertisements then your story is dropped, if you unwittingly write well about some brand, giving it 'free' publicity, you can be charged for it, so on and so forth. There are many if's and but's in the equation and there you have it.

A recent example (actually not so recent right now) was when the cover page of the NY Times, arguably one of the BEST papers in the business, was put up for ads. As a journalist, I feel that the cover page of any daily is a sanctum for all that this business upholds. People buy papers when they find the headlines eye-catching and headlines represent some of the most pressing issues of the day (of course sometimes, marketing mentality and intrinsic interests imply that headlines are coloured and things that may seem trivial to the masses make it to page1 because of so and so's vested interests..no further comments). A page1 byline is treasured by most scribes...so when the page 1 also succumbs to marketing and money-making, a small piece of your conscience shatters.

People call journalists all sorts of names, I'm not saying that some of us don't deserve it, but in my experience most scribes are not like that. They may be cynical, but there is some heart in there, for which they go to every nook and crany for stories that someone somewhere may benefit from. The media may be loathed at times, during 26/11 for instance. But it also always makes it to the list of social change-makers. But still there are aspects of it that are hateful, things, as forementioned, which one, scribes included, love to hate. But we live with it, c'est la vie...(shit happens), it also hits the fan many a times and heads are set rolling. Now, with the recession, the industry is reeling even more. But still, one must learn to treat it like a strangely alluring spouse, in whose imperfections, one must try and find the perfection. Somewhere in all the money-making, there is still hope for men (and women) who believe in the old school of editorial values. It may be an oft debated topic, but really, if there is no editorial, no quality content for people to read and for circulation to increase, marketing is pointless. What will it sell? People don't buy papers for the ads...they buy it for the matter. Of course, ads are important for the revenue and sustainance. But people who place marketing over editorial are not thinking wisely. period.