Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Literacy Vs Education

Yesterday, I was expecting a great start to the week. But it was not what happened. 


On my way to work, a biker banged on to my car causing yet another dent and scratch, that too, a not so good one. The bike almost went under my car and before I could even get out a have a look at the dent, the bike fellow pulled his bike and fled the scene. He did not have a helmet but fortunately for ME, his head did not come under my car. He did not even care to stop and apologize.

Just another day on Hyderabad roads filled up with careless and reckless drivers who don't care a rat's a** about how their driving impacts someone else's life. No, I am not just talking about those illiterates going on a bicycle trying to overtake your BMW. This is also the case with bunch of educated fools working in large corporates. I should not call educated, because if they were, this would not be the situation. I should call them just literates - people who can read and write (... and code?).

A couple of months back, a biker banged on to the back side of my car. He was a young guy, and had the courtesy of pulling over and apologizing. There was no serious damage to the car except for a mild scratch on the bumper. Right then I noticed that he was not wearing a helmet. I coughed up the courage and asked him a question which was outside the context of the situation. 

Me: "Why are you not wearing a helmet?"
Him: "Oh! that helmet rule is not there anymore ..."
Me: "Are you wearing it for the government or for yourself?"

It took me some courage to ask that question, but I don't know if he ever wore a helmet after that conversation.

By dictionary definition:

ed·u·cat·ed     [ej-oo-key-tid] 
–adjective
1. having undergone education: educated people.
2. characterized by or displaying qualities of culture and learning.
3. based on some information or experience


lit·er·ate     [lit-er-it] 
–adjective
1. able to read and write.
2. having or showing knowledge of literature, writing, etc.; literary; well-read 

You see the difference? 

- Parking in "No Parking" zone even if they see board

- Stopping right in the middle of the road to let passengers get down

- Jump off a moving bus which is slowing down at a signal in the middle of the road and then cursing the car driver who stops just before hitting them

- Driving slower than a bicycle on the fast lane (right most lane, if you didn't know) happily having conversation on mobile phone

- Wriggle through congested traffic trying to get ahead when a bunch fools like me are waiting for the traffic to clear

- Keeping the helmet between the legs (may be trying to protect his precious asset from the blowing wind) instead of wearing it and then wearing a sunglass making himself look worse than how Johny Lever would look

- Crossing the road without looking at the flowing traffic and commanding to stop by raising the hand as if he/she is straight away an incarnation of a Balakrishna or a Chiranjeevi

I can go on ... 

India has literacy of 61% which is pretty close to Andhra Pradesh's literacy rate. 

But, how about a education? 


Sunday, April 19, 2009

Letter To Future Me

Ever wanted to write to your future self? One fine day, you wake up and see an email from your past, what will you feel?

Check out FutureMe!

Write to your future self

I am in the process of compiling my first one ...

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Reverse Gear?

Samajwadi Party released their party manifesto which promises action against English language and computers.

"The use of computers in offices is creating unemployment problems. Our party feels that if work can be done by a person using hands there is no need to deploy machines,"

... "Previous governments have promoted forward trading, share trading and mall culture. Any government formed with our support will either reduce or stop it completely,"

Interesting so far. India Inc. being put on reverse gear?

Oh wait, Mulayam Singh's son Akhilesh Yadav is promoting usage of internet to woo youth. Wonder what daddy Yadav has to say about this.

As far as Mr. Amar Singh is concerned, he is probably going to tell Big B to stop blogging!

Sunday, April 05, 2009

8 x 10 Tasveer - A Soup

Image from India FM
We ran to watch Nagesh Kukunoor's "8 x 10 Tasveer" with high expectations. After Bombay to Bangkok terribly disappointed the viewers and bombed at the Box Office, we expected Nagesh to mend his ways and churn out a good one with a superstar like Akshay Kumar.

The movie started off decently and then it completely lost its way. The concept was pretty good and but there was no execution to go with it. It looked as if Nagesh Kukunoor was trying to do a M Night Shyamalan, but he fell flat on his face attempting to become Mr. Shyamalan (... not that Shyamalan is creating great movies these days).

The movie is slightly influenced by Vantage Point, showing different perspectives of the same incident, but failing to keep the tempo up the way it was done in Vantage Point(2008). Each time Akshay Kumar stares at a photograph, he can choose to travel back in time (... into the photograph) to the moment when the snap was taken and be one of the characters in the photograph for a minute or so. He uses this power to investigate his dad's death.

Javed Jaffrey walks into the movie trying to get in a comic flavor and miserably fails trying to mock Adrian Monk (homicide detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder from the popular TV series "Monk") with a Hyderabadi accent.

Overall, a very forgettable movie. A decent storyline lost in translation. A decent plot that turned out to be an avial(not so tasty one)!

Will I recommend? YES, for kids, only for kids ...


(Image coutersy: IndiaFM)