The Citizen Journalists.

Amitabh Bachhan , the Big B of Indian cinema spoke on the CNN-IBN’s Citizen Awards function and he stressed up on the need of citizen journalists. “To be a citizen journalist is to be the spirit, letter and action of a citizen in a democracy” , said the legendary actor. He even made the later part of his speech a bit funny and really interesting by respectfully imitating the speech given by Mark Antony in the Sheakspeare’s epic Julius Ceasar, “friends , indians , countrymen and women a good evening to all of you".

Later i really liked this idea of citizen journalist, because i really feel that each and everyone should contribute in a way or other. Every one has a story to write or a song to sing or an image to draw of the things that comes to his mind, because each and everyone is Unique in his/her own ways and the thing that came to your mind may be the idea that leads to the biggest innovation that could change the kind of life we have in this place or it could also be just another piece of stupidity.  If not today, some day your work and story could be appreciated, may be by just a person, or a bunch of individuals, or who knows man!! your piece of writing could well turn out to be the only piece of evidence, showing that this kind of a human race used to exist in this world. I am not talking of today, am talking of the thing that could happen, may be hundreds or thousands of years later. May be silly things scribbled by a useless bunch of jokers could be the rare things we find out today and speak highly as the Indus Valley Civilization, the Harappa’s & the Mohen Je Daro’s. Everyone has a story of his own which is totally his own and no one knows that better than ourselves. So it is our duty to project our angle of life or our story and it is each and every one else’s right to know the same. Amithabh had earlier said, “one citizen’s duty is another’s right; another citizen’s right is the other’s duty”.

Today a day of your friend’s or families or love’s wont be complete without you. Tomorrow when we all would have long perished, the story of human beings wouldn’t be complete without your testimony. I know its totally impossible for everyone to write books and we all very well know, no body is going to read all these books. So why don’t we just log in to Blogger.com and make a blog for ourselves, be a part of millions of other bloggers out in the world and be a proud “Citizen Journalist"

An Outsider.

Its 8.05 PM. Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year and the intensity of celebrations can be seen and heard everywhere. It’s quite chilling out here and the snow that had fallen on 10th haven’t totally melted down yet. The street is completely empty and it was much close to this "pin drop silence" , but for the amazing aura of light and thunderous sounds created by the firecrackers, somewhere far away.

Walking through these empty streets, I was grasping all the strange thoughts in my mind. For the last couple of days, the last phase of winter was really picking up and, adding to the woes all the shops were closed around our campus. The burger shops and the small hotels in back street have all been closed, because of the New Year. We had to almost take a complete “Pradikshina” of the campus in those chilling conditions if we had to find some food in the night. Today the traffic is much light and there are no pedestrians at all. Even though there were not many vehicles on the road, the red letters on the traffic post still read “89,88,87…0” There are predictions for snow falls for another 3-4 days and these could well be the last snow falls we might see in China. Because they say in Nanjing, if it snows this year, the next one wouldn’t.

If you are able to adjust with whatever that comes your way, the life in China has to be funny and enjoyable. Well, first of all let me give a brief introduction about what China is because I don’t think many people are really aware of how life is in China and how everything happens here. It’s this country that lies directly above India. Yet can you name a city in China other than Shanghai, Beijing & Hong Kong? China is one of the emerging superpowers says the magazines and surveyors, then have you ever, bought any of the Chinese products for their quality and brand name rather than their cheap price?

“All that glitters aint gold” is a good old say, which summarizes about China. It’s the place with tall-tall sky scrapers, the cities where the cultural depth is as important to them, as the scopes for development, where the city looks so clean and looks so "westernized" . But you will be stunned at the sight of people spitting in the floors while they eat in restaurants. It’s the country where the university campuses are so vast and the class rooms are so luxurious, but the only thing you will have to compromise is, with the teaching and evaluation standards. Anyone going abroad would be hoping that he can nurture his English communication skills by going to a foreign country, but here in China, 9 out of 10 can't even speak a sentence in English confidently. It’s the country where, one of every three popular social websites could be blocked or banned. The list includes Youtube.com, Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Megavideo.com and even this blogger.com. (am logging in through proxies.) . It’s the same country where the internet giant Google has threatened to stop their internet services. As I said, its all about adjusting to the place where you live and once you do that, all these extreme irregularities becomes extreme fun.

In this 21^st Century when the boundaries seem to erase and the whole world starts converging into a single home , when anywhere in the world you can communicate with a single language, China remains the only place , where you could still feel like an Outsider.

"22" . A date that's worth getting Excited!!

If you ask me, which is the most happening or eventful day of a month, i might point to 22nd. Not just because 22 is my date of birth, but every time the calender passes through this date, knowingly or unknowingly something out of the box happens. Taking an example, on 22nd Dec 2008, i was awarded the scholarship, and on 22nd Dec 2009, the declarations about the scholarships for 3rd year came. My friend from Sainik called me 2 days back and told he could be visiting a city near to my place and possibly, we could meet, and i asked him when is he coming? and he said on 22nd Jan 2010. And i asked my teacher when is the university re-opening after the Spring break? and she told on 22nd Feb 2010. Looking back to my school life, on 22nd Mar 2007, i wrote the worst exam at the boards ( Maths) and that was apparently also our last day in the school. Being a brahmin, the 1st time i had non veg food was also on the same day!

Usually, i am not that kind of a guy who expects things to happen according to fate or what ever. But with these small and big things that have contributed, 22nd of any month is a date worth waiting, to bring with it something special.

China.....

Today is 16th of Jan 2010. My 5th semester have finished today. Well, not the perfect of the ends one can wish for, considering the fact that, am surely gonna fail the last 3 exams. This semester was really fast, as if powered by a RAMJET (sorry lads, just to show off that am here 2 study and not on a tour :P). Well, not just this semester, the life here in China has been really fast. And after each an every semesters, we used to think the same, the last sem was the fastest. And now i dare to say that, "The last one was really the fastest :P".

OK, setting the time machine back to 15th of Oct 2007. I think Neil Amstrong, wouldn't have felt this strange when he stepped onto moon for the 1st time. Ethnically, the Chinese are so different from Indians, that you feel you have traveled to farthest country in the globe. And when you hear them speak or read their boards at the airport, you know why your "bemused" friends back home asked , " Y China?!!" .

So we knew that Nanjing was like 300 Kilometers away from Shanghai and we were travelling by a bus, the university had sent for us. So on the way, we stopped some where for out dinner and it was so fabulous that, we were almost asking the driver to take us back to the airport, so that we could catch the same flight back home.

But all-in-all, the life in China has been worth all these. Enjoying a life ain't a new thing, but enjoying a life with this kind of freedom is not something that every guy gets in life and i think i am really fortunate.

A Note...

Life is already flying by fast, for an aspiring aeronautical engineer ( not a lie :p), and i still remember the day i sat in the Auditorium of Sainik School, listening to the speach of George Fernandes, then the Defense Minister of India, often pinching myself to make sure i really belonged there.Because, i never seriously believed that i could clear all those exams, interviews and craps and really make it through to Sainik. But yeah, it was a truth and i was sitting among other guys of Tagore house on the 6th of Sept 2000. Those were the 1st days of hostel or boarding life for me and now, its been nearly 10 years and its been how life has been for me.

I joined that institution only a couple of months after my 10th b'day. A couple of moments later, on my 17th b'day i was having my last dinner at the Kazaks Mess, probably after the worst board exam i ever wrote ( maths). And on 23rd morning, i took the Parasuram Express just like any other vaction, but then this time, i was neither provided the lunch pack ( poori & egg curry), nor the concession card for the return tickets, for coming back after the vactions.
It was never the end of days as expected though. Technicaly speaking, things always started getting better and better, because after 7 years being locked inside classrooms with only boys, i was for the 1st time in my teenage life sharing life... oops... ..classroom with girls. Totally, the 1 month i spent there was kinda totally fast & Fun  ( my parents won't be too happy about the fun factor ).  I donno if i really learnt anything at all there, other than the hotels, cafes & theatres over there at Trissur

And a while after my ranks came out, i thought my dad was joking around when he described some courses in China. But it seems like am enjoying that "joke" really well.