Kabir wrote these lines in the 15th century,

Guru Govind dou khade, kaake laagoon paye
Balihari guru aapki, Govind diyo milaye

which translates to:
I face both God and my guru. Who should I bow to first?
I first bow to my guru because he's the one who showed me the path to God.

In a time when education is bought and sold, parents trying to invent a child prodigy from ordinary children and gangs of political hooligans always vying for that easy money and unrivalled power in the college elections, the student is left to believe that he will always remain aloof from the society which is too self centred to evolve into a perfect world. In this sensitive stage of development, a teacher to whom he can look up to and admire without apology can guide and prepare him for the challenges in his coming life.

Though many may disagree, respect for teachers comes naturally to most students. In our lives, we all have at least been influenced by one of our teachers, who used to know us by our names and expected us to give our best. They constantly encouraged us to be good citizens and come good with our responsibilities and duties. I have always admired the quality in my teachers who were professional yet had a personal care for their students. Society is in good hands that we still have a few good minds left in this noble profession. With incidents like Ujjain, which leave a scar on the face of education, its time that we realize that teaching may become a last resort for younger brighter minds of the coming generation. Its time to put one Mr. Kabir's words into practice.

There is something about the winged creatures that kept us humans longing to be airborne, wandering out into the third dimension, defying gravity. No wonder our superheroes are more often than not masters of flight and/or doing aerodynamic stunts in midair.

This is a list that I found (when i searched something about birds and bangalore) here.

Although its a good 10 years old, there are almost 340 odd species penned down. Surprisingly, the number of birds that I have seen in bangalore is not even close to the number of various genres listed here. Where do all these celebrity birds go, just coming up for a odd survey?

Have been here for some time, but have not seen more than a odd crow or an eagle hovering up in the Bangalore skyline. Doesn't the name Garden City deserve a little more than this?

Well, Mathematics has always had a big impact on all of our report cards. Most of us cannot forget the people who taught us the subject. Seems the politicians are hooked up to it lately. The President of United States was trying to encourage his countrymen to take up maths to compete with Indians and the Chinese. Maths being the symbol of progress and development.

On the Indian front, the proposal of making Mathematics an optional subject, by the sports ministry, comes as a shock, more so for the reasoning behind it. How can they possibly blame Mathematics for their inability to produce medal winning sportsmen. How dumb can an excuse be for a country which boasts of world class infrastructure, enormous sports budget and most of all dedicated politicians who put the player's interest before any personal gains. What else are we going to hear, that the handful of doping incidents happened because the weightlifters had a lot of biochemistry in their curriculum.

"So we see that algebra is a vital tool for our young people to learn। The traditional method for teaching it, of course, is to require students to solve problems developed in 1928 by the American Association of Mathematics Teachers Obsessed With Fruit. For example: "If Billy has twice as many apples as Bobby, and Sally has seven more apples than Chester, who has one apple in each hand plus one concealed in his knickers, then how many apples does Ned have, assuming that his train leaves Chicago at noon?''

The problem is that these traditional algebra problems are out of date. Today's young people are dealing with issues such as violence, drugs, sex, eating disorders, stress, low self-esteem, acne, global warming and the demise of Napster. They don't have time to figure out how many apples Ned has. If they need to know, they will simply ASK Ned, and if he doesn't want to tell them, they will hold him upside down over the toilet until he does. And then Ned will sue them, plus the school, plus his parents for naming him "Ned'' in the first place." -Dave Berry on Math

"You cannot have handful of people take decisions without the participation of those affected and those asked to sacrifice their all।" said Medha Patkar.

A fresh face which emerged in the Narmada Bachao Andolan was that of the movie star, Aamir Khan. Apparently, the actor, like his reel life, came up with a different role in real life too. But some political groups, who see the heightening of dam as the lone work left for the development of the Indian Nation, have been more insightful in focusing on how to go about burning his effigies. Mr. Narendra Modi, the Gujarat CM, has gone one step further, a 51 day long hunger strike to ensure that the work is not suspended. I dont question their good intensions but, surely, the top-notch politicians should know a better way to resolve issues of such importance rather than going on strike, overlooking the hapless villagers, who justifiably should be rehabilitated.

The Narmada Dam issue has been of interest for big-wigs and celebrities alike. A big group of people and politicians (i do count them in people) have been in dilemma for a long time whom to favour. Clearly there cannot be any doubts about the good intentions of one and all involved in this controversy, but many a times, we can feel that everyone is pulling his own weight for an outcome that is for his own good. Whats the way out? Whom should a common man favour? Do we even have a say? Progress over humanity, what should be a nation's choice?

There are two kind of people that we can relate to as Heroes। Heroes in real life and unlike the superman and the spiderman in the paperback comics that we read. People who work their whole life and reach the pinnacle of glory. The others are the more unknown ones. The ones like Javed who recently gave his life not before saving a lot more.

The legendary Dr। Rajkumar, whose demise in Bangalore this week, followed the violent carnage by a small section of his fans. Fortunate for him, as he would have been disappointed seeing the way in which people behaved like wild animals. Quite contrary to the death of 77 year old Dr. Rajkumar and the outrage that followed, was the death of a Javed, a 18 year old boy in the town of Meerut. He sustained 90 percent burns trying to save lives from the consumer fair inferno.

The courageous act by Javed points us to the fact that the bond which joins one human being from another, one soul from the other, still exists. But the savage behaviour by the crowd resulting in killing of 5 innocent people, during Dr. Rajkumar's funeral procession , still leaves some doubts.

As children we are expected to read only a few orthodox story books. Everyone remembers the comics from the local street library, a few famous fives and secret sevens along with regular archie and jughead thrown in and that was practically the be all and end all.

Mine was no different a choice. I remember one good story though very much obscured in the mists of time. So here's what i do remember.

I remember the first time I had asked the question to my grandfather. "Who sings from that machine?". "The soldiers" answered Grandpa, leaning to his chair after looking at the old Radio kept on a cupboard, "The little soldiers dressed in red and white; like that in the army." "Can we see them?" I asked, enthusiastically. "Hmm, no, we cant. Coz they are inside the box. For that we would have to break it open and then we can see them, but then they would all die."

"Ohh"

Time passed by and came the era of the Television। Grandpa's old radio was dumped away in one of the store rooms, as it became unusable। One day, when I was cleaning that very room, I found the big fat radio lying there behind a couple of huge boxes. I suddenly remembered my Grandfather, how he meticulously cleaned it up each morning and now it lay in dust. I reached out to press one button, but found that the cases had come off. I peeped inside to see if all the soldiers were there inside it, but couldnt find one."

This is all I can remember of that.

Now, when you go to a movie on a Friday, you expect to forget about the bugs filed against you, the code that needs to be relooked, the incomplete documentation and last but not the least that there is another week coming along. Movies have been a pain these days and expectations have dipped after watching Mangal Pandey & Home Delivery (which are comparable to pulling your nostril hairs). Even with the refreshing movies like Malamaal weekly and Being Cyrus you don't find your money worth.

Chapter II (a play by Evam group from Chennai), was a welcome change. Not only was the script simple and elegant, it also has some cool lines which you will remember for a long time. All in all, a must watch if you get a chance, specially because of the charming characters on stage, including George, Jenny, Leo and Faye.