At 43, Is Rahul Gandhi Still A Youth Icon???

Rahul Gandhi - the Youth Icon of India.
Had I been an English teacher, this would have been the first example that I would have thought of to explain my students what an oxymoron as a figure of speech means. Typically, an oxymoron is a short phrase, a combination of words, that highlights two or more contrasting qualities/peculiarities at the same time. This very construction makes an oxymoron an illogical phrase. 'Deafening Silence', 'Constructive Destruction' etc. are a few examples of it.
Coming to Rahul Gandhi - Indian Politics' first family has been reveling in projecting their heir apparent as India Inc.'s youth icon.
However, there are some inherent flaws in this image projection.RaGa recently celebrated his 43rd birthday and was revered on that occasion by the members of the Youth Congress.
Now, at 43 , is he still young enough???
I guess not.

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In a country where the average age of the citizenry oscillates somewhere around 28, he certainly cannot be considered young, let alone being a youth icon. INC might be taking into account the average age of our politicians when calling him young, but that does not make his case of claiming himself younger any stronger. After all, the absolute age has to be 'the' final criteria for defining how young an individual is. So what if most of the politicians in India either already are or soon-to-be sexagenarians. And what if the most prominent leader of the prime opposition party is an octogenarian. They don't make RaGa any younger, they only make him appear a bit younger when in the pack.
Let's analyze what exactly the Congress aims to extract from this fake and false image. The Congress well aware that its days at the helm are nearing end, wanted a strong and popular contender to kick start and boost their election campaign. That,of course, could only have been RaGa. Now that he may be, but what he certainly isn't  - is a good leader. This entire proposition by the Congress and its attempt to project Rahul as the young and vibrant leader, in its pursuit to retain power at the center, can be proved to be a fallacy. The point here the INC tries to make is that RaGa being a young leader will revamp the entire democratic system of India and largely the nation itself by pouring in a lot of novel ideas and plans. But then is the young and energetic RaGa mature enough to head the government of such a vast and diverse land called India , that too at such a critical time in history when India has been struggling to repeat the story of her golden days.So the RaGa saga, backfires for Congress on two accounts.
One, Rahul Gandhi is no more young enough to be projected as the youth icon of the country.
Second, even if he is considered young when gauged against the other fellow politicians, he is definitely not mature and 'grown-up' to the extent of leading a country like ours.He is still a teething baby, on the stage of Indian Politics.

RaGa might just be the apparent choice for the Congress, but he is not the right choice.

Pseudonym : h!v

"Those eyes..."

To the love of my life: 

I still love those eyes,

I really  do,

It's time that has forced me to -

Forcefully forget you,

Heartlessly be indifferent to you,

And hurt you beyond compare,

All I can do now is to stare -

Stare at 'my' future,

And reminisce 'our' past,

Which we wished would forever last,

But Alas!!!

It didn't...

And here I'm, scared and frightened,

Looking through the frame,

Into those lovable eyes again,

Collecting and connecting the pieces of my life,

To get back my life again,

Because, somewhere deep down, I still love those eyes

I really do...

Pseudonym : h!v

"Bombay Girls & Bombay Rains"

If there is anything that is more unpredictable than the IPL, more fascinating than the Beethoven's symphony and more beautiful than life then it has to be either of these two, or even both.
"Bombay Girls & Bombay Rains"
They are similar in many aspects perhaps.
'Bombay Rains' are beautiful but they are equally unexpected. As the Mumbaikars often say, expect it to rain, when you least expect it to.
One moment you see the sun shining brightly over your head with no dominant cloud cover either, but minutes later you would be amazed to realize that it's actually raining. When it's Mumbai, it rains any time, any day and in any amount. Bombay Rains, on that part, are notorious for causing a lot of inconvenience to the always-energetic and rearing-to-go Mumbaikars.
Rains in Bombay are so badly timed at times, that it seems it had rained only to get you soaked in water.
When you step out of your house its pre-dominantly sunny if not completely. By the time you walk to your Bus Stop/ Rickshaw stand, it starts to get cloudy and then all of a sudden, out of no where, its raining cats and dogs. Alas!!! You are drenched and cursing your fate. That's the best you can do now. Mumbai with its sporadic showers and drizzles can even bamboozle the MET officials and make them scratch their heads.
But 'Bombay Rains' are equally beautiful. Indeed they are. It's really a site to witness the bustling Bombay slowly getting laid in a water cover and yet not giving even a hint of slowing down. Welcome to Mumbai!!!'

Courtesy: www.ajeyarao.com

Bombay Girls, on that part, are like Bombay Rains. They are spontaneous, unpredictable and you can always spot them at places where you would least expect a feminine soul in any other city/town across the country. And how can I forget - they are beautiful like the rains here.
They carry a persona as charming and vibrant as the natural showers. They are street smart and they know how to live life the way they want to. And most importantly, they are untiring & like the Bombay Rains, can go on relentlessly striving for their own success and for their family at large. They are not deterred by the daily chores and problems of an 'every-minute-counts' type of city life.
Bombay is beautiful and so are its rains; and certainly beautiful are its women.
Bombay is a fabric of culture woven so strongly that it has place for all kinds of people. It has embraced everyone who has packed his bags and come here with a dream in mind. That's the truly cosmopolitan city it is - 'My Mumbai'... 'Amchi Mumbai'...

Note: The title of the article is inspired from a novel - Bombay Rains Bombay Girls
 
Pseudonym : h!v

5NNRKQQ6Q2UJ 

How to Improve Your Vocabulary

So after a series of articles on the on-going upheaval and happenings across the length and breadth of the country, this article comes as the first of my instructive articles, to say the least. I have tried to keep it
as simple and self-explanatory as possible. By the end of this article, you would have guidelines to improve your vocabulary and learn some utterly simple daily life habits that would help you decipher a whole new gamut of words.
This article is different, from the plethora of others available over the net giving tips to people on improving their vocabulary. And it is different in the sense that it does not suggest you the same age old
way of going through the arduous and, practically impossible, task of learning Latin and Greek roots randomly.
That methodology, having never worked for me, is not  advisable.
First things first, read some Vocab-building books. Now the next question that comes to the minds of every sane soul reading this article is - That's what everyone says. Yes, but with Vocab-Building books,  I mean some genuine books dedicated to increasing your word power and your ability to play with words. I don't intend to make you start reading a reputed daily right away. That would take time, but we would come to that eventually, for sure.
Let me list a few books that are a must-go-through to increase one's range of words:

Courtesy:http://www.goyalpublisher.com/

1) Word Power made easy: Remember the book with red-cover that almost everyone has but fails to go through it. This is probably the mother of all books on Vocabulary-Building available in the market. Follow it,read it, chew it and digest it - and do all this religiously. Even if you are a slow reader and take time to go through things,  a month and a half would be more than enough to complete it thoroughly.
Take your time; don't run through it just for the sake of it.

Book: Word Power Made Easy
Author: Norman Lewis
Publication: Goyal Saab
Price: Rs. 149 (books4u.in)

2) 30 Days for a more powerful Vocabulary:

Courtesy: http://cp75.com/dealtz/bkimg

Once you have finished that, hop on to the next book that would raise you to a higher level. You won't take much time to adjust to the tone and theme of this one immediately. Its very much the same because both these paper jacketed stuffs are two great pieces of work by the same author. You would find some commonality between the chapters in the books as well. Please don't get deterred or bored by it. Go through it with full vigor and passion. Vocabulary building is a slow and
an on-going-never-ending process, you need to keep up the spirits all the way. This book, as the name suggests, has to be completed in 30 days. Read one chapter a day, follow the time-plan as given in this useful handbook.

Book: 30 Days for a more powerful Vocabulary
Author: Wilfred Funk & Norman Lewis
Publication: Goyal Saab
Price: Rs. 90 (books4u.in)

3)Six weeks to words of Power:

Courtesy:http://books4u.in/uploads/

This is perhaps the toughest in the lists of books I have mentioned so far. With tough, I don't want you people to misconstrue me as saying: it is difficult to read. What I mean is the words in this book are high-level words and will take you to an all new world of English, where only a few intellectuals are able to reach. But the book makes it so very easy for you to know and learn everything that's written.A must for anyone wanting to revamp their English and eventually domain of words. English is a very rich language, a good vocabulary helps you to explore it well, if not completely. This book again, as the name suggests,has to be finished completely in six weeks. Try sticking as much to the timeline as possible, but just in case you need to extend it, do it. Don't sacrifice understanding for saving time. At the most, you would need an extra week. 7 weeks time is more than enough for this one.

Book: Six weeks to words of Power 

Author: Wilfred Funk
Publication: Goyal Saab
Price: Rs. 90 (books4u.in)

Now that you know a lot and lot of words, it's time to get started with reading as much stuff as you can. Read whatever you like, and also what you don't. English dailies like "The Hindu", "The Indian Express", "The Economic Times" etc. are perhaps the best available in the market at affordable prices. Look out for new words when you read them, look up their meanings in the dictionary. Try recalling them when in leisure.
Now that you already know a wide range of words, you won't come across many alien words in a single article - since your understanding of the articles will improve, you would naturally develop interest. This would allure you to reading even more  and apparently know even more. Vocabulary building is very easy once you tend to develop an interest. The more you read, the better it is. There is no limit to learning Vocabulary, you can always keep on adding new weapons in your arsenal. Learning Vocabulary, or on that part learning anything, is a slow and a never-ending process. You can keep on learning all your life.
In the end, just three more suggestions:
- Be Patient - don't expect wonders overnight
- Be Inquisitive - prepared to learn everywhere and anywhere
- Be Yourself - never try to flaunt more than you know

Find more articles by the author on B-School and CAT here

Pseudonym : h!v