Krishna Kiran's

Yesterday 16 December 2014 marks as one of the worst and darkest days in the history of mankind with nine Talibans of a Taliban group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) killing 133 children and 10 school staff at Army Public School and Degree College in Peshawar, Pakistan in one of the most gruesome manner that history has ever seen. It is akin to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in British India on 13 th April 1919. The killing drew worldwide condemnation and leaders of all countries condemned the mindless and senseless killing of innocent children in one voice. Just the other day, Man Haron Monis, a self-proclaimed representative of Islamic State, took almost 20 people hostage inside the Lindt Café in Martin Place in Sydney, Australia. Two of the hostages lost their lives in the ensuing operation to free them. It was nine men in Peshawar and one man in Sydney who have shocked the entire world population of almost 7 billion. It is a handful against many. Terrorism has always bee

Almost every day we are exposed to Indian media reporting sex crimes against women/girls from across the length and breadth of the country, the latest being the rape of a woman by the taxi driver of Uber, a car hire company in Delhi. The number of such reports seems to be going up and only up. It may appear that our media is reporting more such cases prominently after the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of a girl student in Delhi. Or is the crime drawing more attention after the heinous Delhi incident? Whatever said, the crimes against women are a completely devastating and unpardonable evil that is likely to question our whole civilization. The first question that I would like to raise is: “Where are we living?”. The second question that comes to mind is: “Where are we heading?” The third question that needs to be asked is: “Why is this happening?” Most of us dread to live in a forest as it is full of wild animals though our great grand cave man ‘happily’ lived in the forest

(A small foreword before you read this - Some of the best things can be understood from some of the smallest and routine acts we do in our daily lives - like brushing, bathing etc., and this PROSEM {Prose-cum-Poem} is written based on such daily acts performed universally by every human) Every day a man wakes up from the bed To run for his daily bread and to fulfill his need and greed He goes to brush; he pays for the paste which is manmade But he pays not for the water that he needed to wash He goes to relieve himself; he paid for the commode which is manmade But he pays not for the water that he and the commode needed He takes bath to cleanse his body; He paid for the soap which is manmade But he pays not for the water that the soap needed to clean him He lights the stove to cook his food; he paid for the stove and the gas But he pays not for the fire that cooked his food He takes his breakfast/lunch/dinner; he paid for the bread and the butter But he pays

Another interesting book that I have read in the recent past is The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less by  Barry Schwartz.  The tagline of the book “How the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction” sums up the beauty of the contents of the book that is published by Harper Collins. We live in a world of abundance. There is abundance of choice and overflow of unwanted objects aimed at sense gratification. If one is asked the question: Is the world a better place earlier when there were not many choices or when there are aplenty?, it would be quite a tough task to answer because abundance has created more confusion than choices. The result is more dissatisfaction than satisfaction and short-lived pleasure of any objective possessions. You go to purchase a car after a lot careful study and market research. Within a few days of purchase, there is a face- lifted version of the car you buy or a much better car gets launched with many better features. In spite of having spent a

(Originally posted on my FB page on 31st October 2014)  Let me admit that except for being completely aware that   ‪ Sardar Patel   is one of the tallest leaders of India, I didn't know that 31st October is his birth anniversary. At least for the last 30 years I only knew that on this day in 1984, India's only woman PM,   ‪ Indira Gandhi , a leader whom I adored, fell to the bullets of her own security guards. I was in my first year Intermediate then at P B Siddhartha college of Arts and Science, Vijayawada. I am not against ‪ ‎ Congress   paying rich tributes to Indira Gandhi every year on this day. My question to them is: being in power most of the last 30 years and earlier, why did they not do anything to honor the Iron man Sardar Patel's contribution to the unity of India, which is unparalleled? Too much politics that do not give value to such great leaders' contribution did no good to the country as well as that party. Congress did the same to P V Narasimha

(Originally posted on my FB page on 2nd November 2014) It has become a fashion to say "times have changed and we too have to change with the times".   ‪ Time   has not changed for eons. It is the same 24 hours-a-day. It is the same day and same night. It is only our outlook, exposure and the way the world is conducting itself in the available 24hrs that is changing. Some of those changes are good for the human race and some others detrimental. It is quite painful to read in newspapers that a protest called ‪ ‎ Kiss Of Love   is being organized on 2 nd November 2014 in   ‪ ‎ Kochi   by some youth. There is also a mass kissing event planned at   ‪ ‎ IIT- Bombay  on the same day evening to protest 'moral' 'policing' by political activists. The usage of words moral and policing together is the cause of all these problems.   ‪ Morals   are to be followed by one's own conscience. They are not something which can be forcefully implemented. These days du

A logo par excellence They were all born in different parts of India, studied hard (some might say they hardly studied but made it to BITS) at different schools and their +2 scores got them to study and play together in the year 1985 at BITS, Pilani – the abode of higher education. While some of them got into 4-year integrated courses, some others got into 5-year dual degree courses.  The year 2014 marks the Silver Jubilee Year and the batch mates decided to have their SJM (Silver Jubilee Meet). That several Pre-SJM meets happened at different parts of the world as a precursor to the actual SJM stands testimony to the enthusiasm of the batch. The size of the batch is 564 and is spread across various continents. It is a humongous task to even communicate a message to all of them, leave alone the task of getting them together. But, thanks to technology that came to the rescue of the Organizing Committee (OC) in the form of Telegram, Whats-app, Google Groups, YouTube and Faceboo

The Big Billion Day sale of Flipkart on 6 th October raised quite a few eye-brows of several retailers and especially the brick-and-mortar companies with limited or insignificant presence in e-commerce. The big questions being asked are: how the products are being sold below manufacturing price? Is it not to destroy competition? There is also news that the Confederation of All India Traders has written to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman complaining about such ‘sales’. The Confederation complained that huge discounts amounted to predatory pricing and is against the principle of ‘fair’ ‘competition’ . There is also a suggestion to constitute a regulator to monitor e-commerce websites to level the retail sales. They may not be aware that there are already some regulations in place. Flipkart was not prepared as needed to address the unexpected ‘rush’ on their website due to which several online customers had ‘undesired’ experiences that found vent on social media. The managemen

Actors in a silent fast protest at Chennai on 30th Sept (PTI photo) The CM of Tamil Nadu and three of her close aides were convicted and sentenced to jail by a special court in Bengaluru on 27 th September in a case of disproportionate assets that dragged for 18 years with several twists and turns. She was moved to Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru on the same day. What happened later and on the day of the judgment is quite a disturbing and disappointing trend that is taking roots in the recent past in India. Thanks to Supreme Court intervention, good sense is forcibly being prevailed. While it is the courts that will decide on the future of the jailed CM and her accomplices, there is an orchestrated movement to apply pressure on the Judiciary and also to disturb the social fabric of peace for the sake of one individual who is no bigger than the law. There is an attempt to channelise justice as desired by the vested interests. There was disruption of peace not only in T