Express your disgust at child abuse

Tulir is organising a rally against Child Sexual Abuse. Join us at Marina beach, 4:00 pm on 15th Nov.

Here is their post.

Join us at a Rally against Child Sexual Abuse

Nov 15, 2009

Gandhi statue to Labour staue, Marina Beach, Chennai

4.oo pm.

Sexual abuse of children is frightening, often unimaginable & an abhorrent crime. Deafening silence is the hallmark. While it's the moral obligation for adults to ensure children are protected, we remain silent. More often than not for plain selfish reasons. The discomfort caused if acknowledged, the denial that our children can be sexually abused, family reputation at stake, sheer naiveté. Then there’s the quietness of the children. Because of the manipulation, ignorance, fear.

A silenced vulnerable child & a silent non-protective environment-working to an abuser’s advantage. Since usually victims are their relatives, neighbors, students, friends etc.

While in India we are just beginning to acknowledge the existence of abuse, Tulir has the belief & audacity of hope that it won't be long that larger community realizes the prevalence, dynamics & subsequent impact. The sabotage of a child’s right to a childhood. The often less than optimally led lives as adults.

A a society’s integrity & worth is not based on whether cases of sexual abuse exist. Instead it's based on the acceptance of the possibilities & proactive steps taken to respond in a timely & appropriate way to ensure that its children may benefit from its caring & foresight to truly have the right to be safe all the time, everywhere. After all, there is no excuse for child sexual abuse!

भारतीय प्रोद्योगिकी संसथान, मद्रास की पत्रिका "दी फौर्थ इस्टेट" आपकी रचनाएँ आमंत्रित करती है।

ये बहुत ख़ुशी की बात है कि "आई आई टी मद्रास" की पत्रिका "दी फोर्थ एस्टेट" अब ब्लॉग के जरिये अपने पाठकों से संपर्क बना सकेगी। अब तक कई विषय जो पत्रिका के मुद्रित होने के पहले टिपण्णी का इन्तेजार करते हुए दम तोड़ देते थे, अब इस ब्लॉग में जगह पा सकेंगे। नया सम्पादकीय दल आगे के संस्करणों को और अधिक रोचक बनाने से प्रयास में लगा हुआ है। उम्मीद है कि इस बार भी हम पहले से बेहतर होते "दी फोर्थ एस्टेट" के हिंदी खण्ड को नई दिशा में सफल रहेंगे।

"दी फोर्थ एस्टेट" अपने अगले संस्करण के लिए रचनायें आमंत्रित करता है। रचनायों केप्रकाशन हेतु प्रस्तुतिकरण पर कोई बंधन नहीं है।

कोई भी बात हो, गुस्से के साथ हो,
झूझते जज्बात हों या प्यार की तकरार हो
कहानी या लेख हो या डेली सोप हो,
जीने की तलब हो या मौत ही बैखोफ हो
प्रोजेक्ट की बात हो या हॉस्टल की रात हो
राजनीति का खेल हो या कोर कोई बेमेल हो
शास्त्रा के शस्त्र हो या सारंग के रंग हों
हो शुरू ले के कलम छोड़ के सारे भरम
फोर्थ इस्टेट के नाम कर लेख अपने ताजे गरम

आप अपनी रचना झटपट tfe.hindi.iitm@gmail.com पर भेज दीजिये. यदि आपको लगता है "दी फोर्थ एस्टेट" में कुछ कमी है तो अपने सुझाव तुंरत मेल कर डालिए.

आपके इन्तेजार में
आदित्य अंकित सत्येन्द्र

PS- For people for could not read the above few lines, dont despair. It was an announcement calling for entries for the Hindi (national language of India) campus magazine of IIT Madras.

PPS- For people who smell plagiarism, let me remind you that I am one of the hindi editors.

Suicide Vs Murder

Of late, I have been having many murderous thoughts. And I really dont know how to get rid of them. So this post, so that I can vent out the thoughts.

I remember having discussions with my friends about whether or not one should commit suicide in the event of insurmountable difficulties. I held the view that one should rather murder than commit suicide. But now I see why people choose suicide over murder.

So what is it that invokes suicidal thoughts in humans? When a person is subjected to double talk - when on the surface everything seems very friendly and cordial but dig just a little bit and the irony glares on your face. In such a situation, the person might find it disturbing to kill someone who has been so friendly. But the person is being subjected to utter frustration of not doing anything and no one being able to tell him why. In such a situation, where the guilt of killing someone else is substantial but the person finds himself in an situation frustrating to death - the person can find suicide a better option.

My foodie fantasies

I often fantasize about food.
Of course I have dreams where I create technology to the obliterate energy shortage of the world. It generally is a amalgamation of more efficient machines and in-situ electricity generation. But this post is not about that. Its about my food dreams.

I dream about being surrounded by tandoori items - from murg angara to chicken tikka, from fish tikka to rosht ghost. In my sleep, I can almost feel the taste on my taste buds.

Then there are other nights where I am in a orchard specializing in nothing in particular - infact, it has grapes, apples, chikus, watermelons & bananas - all at the same place. Entierly mindful of the fact that there is a very little chance of having a the suitable climate for it to happen, I allow myself a little leeway - for its just a dream!

Then there are nights where I conjure up images of my mother cooking some wonderful food for me. Any food that she cooks tastes delicious to me - As I believe, is the case with everyone else.

Then there are nights where I have a full punjabi meal with makke-di-roti , sarson-da-saag & lassi. On other nights, I don a more continental taste with lasagna, steak & baked bowl finding favour.

PS- This post have been specially prepared for those people who are planning to throw a party. If your platter includes any of the aforementioned items, please do call me. I will grace the occasion with my presence. :P

PPS- If you dont know my address/phone number, and want to invite me for a party, no problem. just email me at ankit.ashok@gmail.com . I WILL contact you.

I am elated

Tulir - a NGO - (with whom I have been associated with for more than a year now) just received a mail from a guy(gal) saying that he(she) saw my blog through the Microsoft Student partner (MSP) link and that he(she) was really touched by my previous post on Tulir.

Further he(she) wants to work with this team to help in eliminating child sexual abuse. It feels really good if one gets even a single person to help in a cause you believe in.

Here is an excerpt from the mail:
"...when i read a blog by a student from IIT -madras called ankit ashok who had mentioned about an NGO where he was working and thought it was something i found was a real social problem and have been wanting to do something about it, but did not know how to go about and realised that i could really do something about this problem if i was a part of your organisation."

Boy, I hope more people will get interested in eradicating this social evil.

The killer after the euphoria

I went for dinner at Barbecue Nation on Osman road last night. Wonderful food, good ambiance. LOVED every bit of it, with great starters, Lamb kofta, Claypso fish & Crab. It was worth every penny.

And today morning I received the terrible news. I have been allocated RR-M2 mess for the month of February. This is supposed to be the worst mess at IITM by miles. Should one be punished so heavily for missing the mess registration?

If the hostel affairs secretary is reading this, please make sure that from next time, the guys who miss the registration is allotted the same mess as the month before.

I am happy that February is the shortest month of the year :P

US Pizza rocks

Hog Max !!!

Today the three flag bearers of CPP decided to make the owner of US pizza realise the mistake they committed when they offered an all-u-can-eat at just 135 Rs.

Hence we commenced our journey towards Jamnagar city with a purpose. Despite the various obstacles we encountered that threatened to jeopardize our plans, as brave soldiers on a mission- we never even thought of backing off. For starters, it was raining, and I am not too fond of the idea of getting drenched in the rain. But well, good food is worth all the trouble. Then we were without our identity cards and one cant walk past the main gate without showing one's ID card. So we decided to board a bus to leave us just past the main gate.

So on and so forth, we reached US Pizza, in Patel colony No. 6. From the onset, we were determined to lay a long innings. We entered the restaurant at about 3 - 3:15 types and left at 5:10. We started off with some generous helpings of salad. I started with soya..something and Russian salad.Then the next round of honey soaked pasta with raisins. Next came grated carrots with raisins .. pretty much like our very own "gajjar ka halwa".

After the 'starters' we moved on to the main course. One garlic bread. Is this the best garlic bread ever made? No, for we had a similar experience when we were there last week. But it definitely is amongst the best I have tasted.

My roommate had had 13 garlic breads last time he was at the place. So in a not-so-healthy (Its loaded with cheese!) competitive spirit, we I declared my goal for the day- at least 14 garlic breads to be gulped down. Then, egged on partly by my friends and partly by my fondness for round figures(pun unintended), I decided 15 would be a nice number of garlic breads to have. It was a fest like moment when i got there, and I got a pic of the 15Th garlic bread.

In between when we got kind of bored with garlic breads, we ordered for pizza pieces. Cheese pizza was the best of the three for the day. I don't even remember the names of other pizzas.

In the end, when we were all done, I could not stand upright- let alone being able to bend down to tie my shoe lace . The meal I had for lunch would suffice for the next dinner and probably for next morning's breakfast too. (Its 11 in the night and feeling as full as just after a slightly heavier than normal dinner).

Dwarika trip

We had a one day tip to Dwarika last Sunday.
It all began with a few people rooting strongly for Dwarika over my preferred destinations , Diu or Gir forests.My arguments fell on deaf ears as most people wanted to write off a few sins before they committed more of them.

The level to which it was uncharacteristic of me can be summed up in my father's response when I informed him that i was going to Dwarika. He asked me if I was feeling alright!!! Though I am not an atheist , but neither am I of the most religious kind.

Anyway , we decided to leave early in the morning at 6 30 (!) to beat the rush and to make sure that we dont miss "Bet Dwarika" , which has its doors shut by 12 noon.I somehow managed to up in time , courtesy some generous sunlight directed at my face.

After some light breakfast , it was time for an agonising wait for the cabs to arrive.The stupid drivers dint arrive atleast an hour later, and that too after one of us showed them the way to our place.

It was a Tata Qualis.8 of us fit into it peacefully(6 from IITM and 2 from IITG)as we were about to leave a guy from kgp also joined us as they were not able to fit into on car. The car for the girls hadnt reached their place either, so we showed the way.One of my friends managed to make a good impression by doing so(which i hope for him, will be rewarded suitably) all this while the kgp guy was stifling and gasping for breath, for he was surrounded by loud M guys who could make fun of anything conceivable if they wanted to.

This person joined other kgp guys at the first opportunity he had to do so.Meanwhile we continued on our journey into deep philosophical meanings of stopped windmills and wide roads.

Our driver , sensing our mood, tried to race with the Innova that girls had boarded.What ensued was a display of clever road tricks of "pass and bypass".

As we had started off late, we could only visit the main Dwarika temple before the curtains were drawn. After that we were a bit hungry so we sneaked into a restaurant, only to find that the humble place did not have the capability to serve a large group such as ours.(we were a group of 28 people totally). So we waited albeit a bit less patiently for our turn.

From there on , we went to "Gopi ji ka mandir". I am not sure how it fits into mythology.(As far as I know , Krishna Ji spent his childhood and adolescence in Mathura and not in Dwarika.He was the ruler here.)But all the same they still have a gopi ghat here.
There also was a floating stone kept.The more curious among us tried to analyse the reasons for this.Finally they reached a conclusion that it was fabricated as a cut was faintly visible.















Then we went on to take a steamer to the island where "Bet Dwarika" was situated.It was an amazing experience with the steamer dancing to the tunes of the sea, wavering as if to say hello to the winds that passed by.We did a cost benefit analysis of the owners in the case the steamer drowns.And found that even in an unlikely high probability of 1% failure rate, it is still profitable for the owner to continue his business.

After we got down, we took this amazing ride in whats called a "Jugaru"(Hindi for makeshift) here.This has the engine of a bike(Rajdoot, I guess) and it drives an ingenious light weight wagon.

Then we visited the temple and from there on we went to a beach.This beach ,our driver claimed was good enough to do scuba diving, and we laughed at his boastfulness.But once we saw it , we knew he wasnt off by miles. Awesome was the first word I uttered after being spellbound for a couple of moments.We had great fun at the beach. I have been to many beaches, and this one was the best till date.

PS - Bet as in "Bet Dwarika" does not derive its name from the English usage of the word. Rather its to do with Beta - son in Hindi. The priest tried to tell us the enormous importance of the temple , but it was all lost on me.

Jobless to the hilt

Right now I feel terribly jobless.
So much so that i even contemplated mugging.The fact that this thought crossed my mind (with so much time to go before the quizzes) has filled me with guilt.And somehow I am not finding any interesting reads on the net too(which by the way, I have been continuously from 3rd semester itself).
Generally when I am so bored , I resort to solving some problems off net on logic and number theory.Not that i know much of number theory, but it keeps me interested. Else there is always xkcd.But sadly I did not find it interesting either.

One of my friends suggested quantum computing.He is reading it and finds it very fascinating.But I don't seem to have enthusiasm to read anything right now.I think i will do a re-run of the best episodes of sitcoms.But I don't feel like doing it too.

I think I should do some work on modeling of data.I recently read some cool stuff on modeling of extreme events.But don't exactly know how is it to be done.So taking it 'light' for the moment.

Sunday ho ya Monday , Roz hoga Monday

Now that I am back on blogosphere, I would rather write some quick stuff until it gets lost in (pun intended)the mundane stuff at college(eg Saarang , wing Treats ,Sitcoms) and the exciting stuff (classes all through the day, Currents and Voltages all over the place, Equipments that don't respond,TAs who get the ckt diagram wrong).


Tomorrow is a Sunday.A day of the week when its an off day for most of the humans on earth.But, we are doomed to attend classes on Sunday. And its not because of some sudden rush that the teachers/students felt to teach/learn .

Its because a group of politicians will visit IIT Madras and try to access the institute.But why do they want to see the students in class?Do they really think they can make any sense out of Multipath signal transmission , or profiles of Fluid dynamics or Analog circuits?

If they so , they really are a very optimistic group.

Anyway , the decision has been made and we will have Monday on both Sunday and Monday.

Rediscovered

I, as has become a common habit for me, forgot about this blog completely until a friend of mine searched for "Ankit Ashok". This blog of mine was most probably created during the time I was head over heels in love with Linux and Gaim.
But now we have drifted apart (sounds like breaking a relationship,doesn't it?).
By the way , it reminds me of one of the best break up lines I ever heard - "I am so involved with GNU that the idea, that either you or me should have exclusive rights to the other, is revolting."
Perfect breakup line, isn't it?

I dont like watching Fedrer lose , especially after India winning a wonderful game.
so here i am blogging my time out.