swatantra98

[swatantra98]

A short story written by me

“Today, they fought again. Mom called and told me”, Ayushi told her brother on phone. “The situation now is same as our childhood days when Mom wanted a divorce and they used to have continuous fights. I remember Mom giving in to pressure of the family including dad for our sake and tolerating the low temperament of dad,” Ravi replied to Ayushi. “Do you think, we should now talk to dad about this and explore the possibility of peaceful separation between them?” “I am not sure about it. Things have not changed much. I agree that us kids were one reason for mom to not seek divorce that time, but you would concur that she not working was even stronger reason. It was almost like that she didn’t have any choice except to stay with Dad” “But what about Dad? Even though they could never love each other, Dad did take care of her and us in many ways. Are you ready to see him alone and sad now?”, Ayushi replied. “I am not sure. I can’t help blaming Dad for not putting the efforts in the relationship. It was as if he was forced into the marriage and he took out the revenge from Mom.” “It’s time for my husband to come. I am going now to prepare dinner for him. Talk to you later”, Ayushi cut the phone. Ravi always thought himself and Ayushi as victim of unhappy marriage. While Ayushi went ahead in life and got married, Ravi was always fearful of marriage. He was fearful of one more unhappy relationship and fearful of not able to give love to his future children. The idea of marriage frightened him. A blink appeared on his phone and it read…” Hi, you are coming? Right? Irish House, Fort, 8 PM.” He had two weeks ago made plans to meet Radhika today and after a sad talk with his sister, he was not in the mood at all to go but he replied, “Sure, I will be there.” “So, this is our fourth meeting. Do you see ourselves as couple?” Radhika asked while sipping her salted fresh lime soda in a corner seat. Big TV screens were visible across the place and sports channels were decorating the screens. After meeting three other girls in previous two year wherein his meeting didn’t extend to second date, his meetings with Radhika continued to happen. He decided to tell her about his fear of commitment to her. “I think you would make an absolutely wonderful wife but I think I will be a terrible husband. I am really not sure, if I would be able to give the love and commitment, you deserve, Radhika,” Ravi replied. Ravi told her about his childhood and explained why he was not ready for marriage yet and he was meeting girls only to keep his mom happy. “But it is likely that you would behave in exact opposite way your dad behaved. You might make more efforts than him to have a happy relationship. Don’t you think?” Radhika asked. “Or maybe I will behave the only way I have ever known which is my father’s way “Ravi replied. Both of them were taking a walk in the pathway on Marine drive. It was 10 PM in the evening and Radhika decided to go there to hear the sound of sea waves and feel the fresh air. Ravi agreed. “What about you, Radhika? how were your parents?” He was surprised that he didn’t ask her this question yet. Radhika took a pause and replied, “I lost my parents at the age of 10. They were visiting me in my boarding school and their car crashed into an accident. Since then, I have been raised by grandparents.” “So, I feel jealous of anyone who has the parents,” She continued. Ravi took a moment and thought, “Who is more misfortunate, me or Radhika?” They both continued their walk while watching sea waves hitting the rocks. #copyrights are asserted

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[swatantra98]

Book Review of ‘Why Nations Fail’

Why some nations are poor and some are rich?Why North Korea and South korea though sharing same boundary and having same history for a long period of time are now so different with each other and same is the case with North America and South America?Why it was Europe and  especially England which emerged as major colonial power all over world?Why a lot of inflow of foreign aid is not able to help countries in reducing their poverty?Is China’s growth sustainable?Is there any pattern or chocies which countries can choose to become prosperous or is matter of sheer luck?Robinson and Acmoglu try to provide answers for all above questions in their amazing work titled ‘Why Nations Fail.’

The central premise of the book is that it is the nature of political and economic institutions a country has that determines the level and sustainability of its prosperity.If a county has inclusive political and economic instituition then that country is more likely to be prosperous.Inclusive political instituions mean that there is grassroot empowerment of citizens,there is fair share of distribution of power among different sections of society and there is no concentration of power.

Similarly inclusive economic instituions means there is fair law and order situation,there are property rights and equal opportunity for all to participate in market and build their fortunes.

Thus authors argue that it is because of democratic nature of political system and free market nature of eocnomic system that Western Europe and USA rose to great prosperity and also other countries like Japan, Australia and South Korea.

The book is rich in the historical account of events and provides ample examples to refute the commonly provided theories of prosperity for example Geogrpahy hyposthesis,Culture Hypothesis and Ignorance Hypothesis.

It takes example from India where the uniquely hereditary caste system limited the functioning of markets and ineffiecntly allocated the labor as it was not only the division of labor but also division of laborers and thus it was a limitation on functioning of inclusive economic institutions and thus severly restricitng growth for majority of Indians.

Authors have also tried to explain that why Russia couldn’t sustain its progress and why China too can’t have sustained pace of growth. Main argument being that it is possible to have certain growth under extractive political institutions either by allocation of resources in one or two major productive sectors or by limitedly allowing inclusiveness in economic institutions but this can’t sustain the growth because sustained growth requires change in technology or creative destruction which can only come from innovation and that is only possible in inclusive political institutions.

Also the authors have successfully accounted the effect of randomness in course of history by introducing concepts like institutional drifts and critical junctures.

In spite of its analysis of a great number of historical events and producing a new theory to explain those events, this theory is severely limited by many accounts. One being that the theory has limited predictive ability so it is easy to explain things in hindsight but to predict the future course of history is severely limited in this theory.

Secondly there is certain degree of  ethnocentrism getting reflected in the book where it only takes account of single dimension of prosperity i.e., per capita GDP and ignores other aspect of human progress like culture, arts etc. and it is in this account Western Europe and North America fair successfully and rest of countries don’t. The criticism also get stronger when we see that financial crisis of 2008 took a heavy toll on world economy which originated in USA so the premise that substantive democracy and inclusive economic institutions are sufficient for an economy to grow gets questioned. Similarly authors have taken example of Brazil to substantiate their theory where they said that after 1970s Brazil charted the path of inclusive democratic institutions and thus registered high growth. However it is visible that today Brazilian economy is also facing a lot of difficulties so these examples show that this theory may not be able to fully explain the events.

Irrespective of these criticisms we can give credit to authors to take on such a daunting task of explaining human history through few variables like political and economic institutions. The research done by authors is extensive and the examples given are many. Major turning points of human history have been covered including Neolithic revolution and the language used by authors is lucid so as to be self-explanatory to general public.

Thus the book is a must read to all those who are interested in history, economics or politics to understand the different paths taken by different countries and to all the policy makers to get insights about the reasons for different level of prosperity in various countries.

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[swatantra98]

10 Essential Non fiction books you should read for civil services exam and to know about India in general.

1.Imagining India by Nandan Nilkeni-A startling account of challenges and opportunities,India currently is facing. 2.India's struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra-One of the best unbiased historical narrative of India's freedom struggle. 3.Indian after Gandhi by Ramchandra Guha-A great take on Post independent Indian history. 4.Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen-What is India?What type of culture India historically had? What are the multiple identities Indian have and their complexities?All these questions have been taken up beautifully by the author. 5.Makers of Modern India by Ramchandra Guha-There is no best source other than original source.Read this book to have a look on original writings,speeches of many Indian leaders like Gandhi,Ambedkar and Nehru. 6.India Unbound by Gurucharan Das-How was Indian Economy before liberalization?What was license-raj?This book is an account of Indian Economy before liberalization and advent of global information age. 7.An Uncertain Glory:Indian and its contradictions by Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen-Amidst all hype of Indian growth story,have a look on the other side of India with support of strong facts and data. 8.The Difficulty of Being Good by Gurucharan Das-What is good?Why to be good?Book tries to deal with these questions by relooking on characters of Mahabharata.Book is must read for Paper-4(Ethics) of Civil Services. 9.Reimagining India, edited by Mckinsey& Company-collection of essays written by stalwarts from different fields,industry,sports,journalism with ideas for Better India. 10.Annihilation of Caste by Dr. Ambedkar-A must read to understand the functioning of Indian Caste system,its repercussions,analysis of its stronghold and how to annihilate it.

[swatantra98]

My thoughts on few books

The Fountainhead-The Book is quite engaging and presents philosophy through an amazing story.Characters represent the distant poles of world beautifully.Book is full of amazing quotes.Book is essentially about fight between individualism and collectivism,capitalism and communism or man and society.Book celebrates the idea of ego and considers it essential for human progress.However at the end the book considers Ellsworth Toohey to be captured by the idea of capturing power and ruling people but how true is this assumption?Even after reading the book I am not in position to agree with the author completely.The role of society and community in shaping the destiny of one can not be overlooked.Like any other dialectical reasoning, maybe the answer lies in between!!

The God of Small Things-Brilliant story by Roy.Initially I had difficulty to understand the non linear pattern and to adjust with difficult English but after few pages you just want to know want happens next?I really liked different dimensions of characters of book.You will find characters ranging from manipulative to non-corrupt ones.Emotions reach a whole new dimension with different proses used by Arundhati. Book also take account of complexity of political-social world affecting personal lives of characters.I was really mesmerized with innocence of children and world seen from their eyes.Ultimately one finds paradox of true love and love laws.It is one of the best book I read recently

[swatantra98]

Review of 'Imagining India by Mr. Nilkeni'

Very thorough analysis of relevant and critical issues faced by India.If you want to know the rationale of current IT initiatives in policy decisions taken by Government, you should go through the book for eg Smart Grid Project, Direct Benefit Transfer, GIS in urban planning, NPS etc. I liked few chapters very much for eg, India by its people, Deepening of democracy,Erasing Lines,The forest for the tree.Book shines on few aspects like giving an historical account of issues by accounting British India factor and also by providing innovative solutions. However I also found certain over optimism on part of Market being all benign, 2008 financial crisis questions the claim of its efficiency and his rejection of state special efforts like NREGA and specific policies  to promote the development of people also need to taken with caution. The underlying idea of strengthening the democracy by empowering local government definitely need to be pursued through the ways suggested by Mr. Nilkeni. The book ends on the note of optimism and exhort political class to take tough stands and do away with populism. Overall, book is definitely a worth read to understand current challenges faced by India

[swatantra98]

Why I love movies?

Movies and books are the ways through which I converse with director or writer.I always feel that director in one way or another puts his perspectives in movies and through them he shares his experiences.

One of my most favourite movie is 'The Shawshank Redemption'.The suspense of the film makes movie to be part of my favourite genre However, the bigger reason for me liking it is that each classy scene of the movie motivates every individual to keep hope alive and to fight for better future,which I guess is the task of humanity!

Another classy movie I find is Pulp Fiction,not a single dialogue is out of the context or irrelevant.The movie made me big fan of Tarantino and how can we forget the very famous dialogue:" Why do we have to talk bullshit to make ourselves comfortable".

I also find that it is 1st or 2nd movie of any director and 1st or 2nd novel of any writer which happens to be his best creation,it seems that on that particular artworks he has put his most fresh, innocent, and outstanding understanding of things.

Whenever I watch a movie, I look forward to finish the movie with a feeling where I just want to smoke in my balcony and  be mesmerized thoroughly by that work. Years after watching the movie, its only the feeling which we remember, the feeling which we felt just after 'The End"!. Another awesome feeling I got was after watching 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'. The setting of cowboy world, The brilliant music , the awesome acting of all 3 and lastly the very story-line was something which I won't be able to forget ever.

Another benefit of watching movies is that Its through movies we can get to visit places without buying a ticket :) For eg When I watched Before Sunrise, apart from the conversations, I also loved the local places like shops, streets of that European city.

In political drama category  I have always liked 'V for Vendetta'. When I watched it for second time then only I realized that one of the very important point of movie was the change which happened in lead actor's perspective.There was difference in where movie started and in where movie ended.The brilliant dialogue that "Freedom and justice aren't just words,they are perspectives!" still makes me feel full of energy. Another movie in the same category I like is 'The lives of others'.The scene where the main police guy meets the actress and make her feel good about her brilliant work is still fresh in my mind.

In romantic movie category I like 'Before Sunrise' and 'Eternal Sunshine of  the Spotless Mind'.In eternal sunshine ,the very effort which Jim carrey puts in preventing the erasing of memory and the emotions which get reflected during those efforts passes the test of true love story!.

My most favourite genre is suspense and mystery because whenever I watch any brilliant suspense movie, I am into that WTF!! feeling for atleast 2-3 days.Apart from 'The Shawshank Redemption','The others' and 'The Sixth Sense' tops here in my list.

And there is also another category called Mindfuck movie where you watch the movie just to get mesmerized with the intelligence and brilliance of filmmaker.How can I forget 'Memento' where I had to watch movie 2 times and that too by keep pausing after every 10 minute as color kept changing in the screen to understand it.Another brilliant movie I found was 'Mulholland Drive' where in last 15 minute the whole world got upside down :P

 I am really thankful to these brilliant filmmakers who make such brilliant movies and also to that audience which reward such brilliant movies unlike India :P.Movies are now integral and beautiful part of my life and I wish they remain so forever :)

[swatantra98]

Loving your job...

I was reading one novel of Shidney Sheldon and at one instance he writes, "There are 99% people in this world who do not love their job and when rest of the 1% do, they are success". Fascinating, isn't it. What does one mean when he says "I do a job which I love",in my opinion it is when you don't expect any results out of the work,i.e.  when you don't worry that you will get noticed after doing that, you will get paid for doing that, you do that because your heart says. It  is like loving your beloved one, you don't see how beautiful, smart, witty she/he is , you just love her because your heart says so and you just can't help yourself.

Isn't that strange that actors, singers, writers,thinkers are the ones who are most famous or loved people.What is common in all these professions? ,these works are the most pure form of one's heart's sayings, most of the times these people write, act, sing just because their heart says so , not for money and irony is that these people are one of the most paid ones :P.

Even Bhagavadgita talks about the Nishkam Karma, Krishna says the Karma done by one is the most pure one  when the person doesn't expect any result out of it and then only you can get satisfied.How  strange it is that these teachings have been prevailing since ages, and yet we are in the trap of so negative emotions and feelings.

Intuition is one of the most fascinating thing, It never lies to you, and somehow it is one of the ways through which your heart speaks to you.Logic can't explain all the things to you and that is where intuition comes in the picture, you just gotta believe your intuition and gotta believe that all things will workout :)

[swatantra98]

The Dark Knight Rises

Good evening friends :) Today I went for one of the most awaited movie of the year, The Dark Knight Rises and believe me the wait was worth for.The plot of this movie was better than last batman movies  and never to forget the soundtrack..Its just fascinating and awesome,  action sequences won't let you blink eyes for even a minute.The feeling which you will get after ending of the movie you will keep swimming in it for plenty of minutes and won't be able to get over from it too early.In my opinion these super heroes movies are one of the masterpieces from cinema.The duality shown in each of these movies successfully depicts the duality of man, the good and the bad which is present in ever man and every man's story revolves around the struggle where sometimes his good overcomes his bad and sometimes his bad evolves.In my childhood days I didn't get chance to read DC or Marvel but I did read lot of Raj comics ..which surrounded around the heroes like Nagraj, Dhruv etc if you remember :P. Today also if i get a chance I buy them out and read them. I guess comics are one of the best thing of boy's childhood.Sometimes I feel that whenever a person reads something or watches any movies he/she always try to connect one of the characters from himself/herself, because whenever we see that the character is dealing with same kind of  situation and acts as we do..it gives us assurance that we are not alone.There are people out there with same thought process as we have.These movies also make you forget about the misery present in your life and take you in the journey where the character whom you love is living your dreams, is taking decisions which you always wanted to take, is enjoying in the way  as you wanted to and that is why movies will never die.