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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Old and present students of Bharda New High School

Some students of the Bharda New High School at CST, Mumbai, got together on a warm afternoon under the stewardship of Mr. Abbasbhai Igatpuriwala, one of the old teachers, in Bharda's auditorium, on 16th June, 2008. The purpose was to discuss what best we, old Bhardaites, could do about our alma mater.

There were equal supporters for "contributing to the upliftment of the school buildings and the staff" and for "starting new institutions of excellence and advanced studies" in Science and Technology (to be named after Mr. A.H. Mulla, our beloved principal who passed away in March) and in Mass Media and communication (to be named after Mrs. Banoo N. Cama, still very much alive and in her eighties).

As a result of the deliberations of the meeting, an online Yahoo group has been created where Bhardaites can come together to interact. To visit this group, please click here.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Values: old vs. new - a perspective

I am 49 years young. However, when dealing with the tweens of today (those who are between teenage and adulthood, viz. my daughters, and others of their age), I feel like someone from Satyug. I am not joking, and most readers of my age will probably be nodding their heads in understanding. :-)
Values have changed so much, that often, what seems like a "ghor apradh" to me, sounds like a "all in a day's work" to my children! They think nothing of ignoring your requests to this household chore, or postpone the purchase of a 4 GB card for the time being, or wait a little while to have lunch while their father is on the way home, negotiating the killer traffic at Bhendi Bazaar. To them, retiring to their own rooms when my friends come to the house is, to put it bluntly, their bounden duty. It matters not that their mother (my wife) comes home after a hard day's work, hungry and thirsty: if I nudge one of them to get up and get her a glass of water, or to unburden her of her handbag or something, they will immediately turn the other way, or tell me to ask the "other daughter"' or, they will get her the water, and then refuse to do the next task asked of them, saying that they "already got up once to get mom water".
It is not only frustrating, but also demeaning, to hear them shout at each other at 11:30 p.m. to "give me more space on the bed, and to shift there."
I am sorry if this diary sounds like a public lament of my daughters, but I am using my examples to illustrate what is, I am sure, a general experience of most parents.
Coming to adult values, it is too late when yesterday's teens realise where they went wrong. Their own ghosts come to haunt them later on. Values never change, only perceptions do. And yet, false values have gradually seeped into the moral fabric of the society. Petty behaviour, insulting an elder to that person's face, speaking rudely to one's own teacher/boss/superior, ignoring the pleas of one's own parents or elder siblings, etc. are now so acceptable, that the youth does not even consider it as wrong behaviour. To a large extent, the open sky policy and the invasion of channels from the West have contributed to this moral depradation. Music today has words like F@@K and so on openly weaved into the lyrics. In such an environment, how can the tween remain untouched?
The need of the hour is to sit with them and talk to them, to sensitize them to their follies, and to do all this before it is too late.
Can I do it? I don't know. Can you? Do tell me! 

Monday, June 01, 2009



If someone saw me in real life, they would immediately remark that I have a rather huge belly. If you've seen my photos here and elsewhere, you wouldn't guess that, would you? And yet, it is true. Years of chai and indiscriminate eating has caused my belly to bloat up. My belly measures 39 inches. God! I have been trying to shed this flab off and on. I made my first serious and fairly successful attempt in 2007. In this, my first attempt, I passed with flying colours, as I lost nearly ten kgs within six months, and the belly shrank by nearly 3-4 inches!

The top photo is the one I achieved after five months of gymming in 2007, while the lower one is the earlier one.

My second attempt began in January 2008 at Talwalkar's (see my review on that). This was a failure, as, instead of losing weight, I gained 3-4 kg there, and lost no fat. I left that, and am now in my third attempt at a local gym called Mission Fitness. Having completed three months there, I can safely say that it is the best of the lot, but I haven't lost any weight or inches so far. I am maintaining a daily visit there. Recently, the physio person there changed my routine from alternate day cardio/weight training to daily weight training + cardio. I completed one week of that, and am now into the second week of the same. I am praying that I see results soon.

Mouthshut.com

This is an unique website which allows common people to give reviews of almost anything under the sun, allows them to maintain diaries, allows them to comment on others' reviews, and allows social interaction and exchanging of virtual gifts. I have been a member there since many years, and have written some reviews too; yesterday, on a lazy Sunday, I decided to do a little more on the site: I read reviews, commented on many of them, uploaded photos, wrote two diary entries, gave away virtual gifts, sent messages, etc.

The beauty of this site is that it keeps rewarding members for doing any of the above activities with MS points, thereby encouraging members to keep interacting and to never leave the site. Very interesting site. Do register as a free member and explore the site. 

And, please, check out my profile here.