Suicide at educational institutes

 A 19-year-old B.Tech student, Diksha Dubey, who hailed from Bihar, allegedly died by suicide on Thursday in the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra in the state of Haryana. Previous suicides at NIT Kurukshetra include incidents in February and March, happening too often for comfort and raising concerns about student mental health.

NITs are considered premier Technical Institutions in India, next only to the IITs (incidentally many old NITs like NIT Rourkela, Trichy, Calicut are considered better than many new IITs which mushroomed across nation). The cream of the cream of our time used to clear a fair and highly competitive exam to earn a seat in these coveted  Technical institutes. Today also I believe it's still the same.

Regardless of being from a premier institute or not, it is so sad to see men and women at such young age taking a decision to end their lives. It needs to be noted that suicides have grown up exponentially in educational institutes these days. Part of is this reason sited by professors from IIT Madras to a friend of mine who lives in the United States and regularly visits his Alma mater whenever he makes a trip to India (America is filled with folks from IITs and NITs. It is said if you blindly throw a stone chances are it will hit someone passed from IIT or NIT). As confided by professors to him, these days many mediocre students are churned out of innumerable coaching institutes manage to clear the entrance test. Once in, when left on their own they can't cope up with the aggressive curriculum and choose to end their lives unable to face the failure and an over expectant milieu, including their parents.

Every person has right to live. It hurts utmost when someone commits suicide. And it hurts more, if that person happens to be young. Like every man and woman of their age, they too have a dream, but unwisely decide to procrastinate their unfulfilled dream by killing themselves. 

When does a person decide to end his or her life ? It's not just because of the frustration with life, it's more due to their lack of care or concern for rest of the world, which includes their near and dear ones. If I ever feel suicidal for some reason, I may resist that thought for a moment, if I think of my family, if not me. Apparently they don't care about their loved ones and decide to end their life at the spurt of the moment, never ever getting any second chance to regret over it.

Suicides in college campuses aren't so uncommon. Surging teenage hormone gone wild can create havoc in heart and mind, which can be due to failure in academics, romance or bullying by others. It reminds me of the iconic movie 3 IDIOTS where a student kills himself due to his frustration at his project being pooh poohed by the Principal of the College. The student Rancho played by the actor Aamir Khan complains about the mental stress the students undergo, leading to such avoidable tragedies. As the Principal gets defensive and refuses to take the blame, Aamir Khan replies - "I am rather blaming the entire system, not you Sir".

Aamir Khan speaks some hard truth in that movie. Students carry a lot of burden and expectations from their demanding parents and a cut throat competitive society. The simple equation Ambition - Achievement = Frustration holds good. Often they snap, as the lid of the pressure cooker comes off burning the face.

The greatest tragedy is silence of the silent majority, which is conspicuously deafening who mostly turn a blind eye to competition and peer pressure which are to be blamed. Can't resist repeating my often mentioned joke. A person once went to an astrologer, who after seeing his chart said " You will go bankrupt after two years". "What will happen after that ?" asked the person who was now somewhat concerned. The astrologer responded "You will get used to it". So the silent majority has got used to the chaotic system with a CHALTA HAI (let the status quo prevail) attitude. Don't be surprised if you hear news of more such suicides more frequently. 

RIP Asha Tai

The younger sister to the better known and more famous Lata Mangeskar, she outlived her and many prominent male singers of her time, especially the poular trio of Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and the fanous music director R.D. Burman whom she married, all who died in their 50s. She was Asha Bhosle, arguably the last singer from the golden era of Bollywood music who passed away today.

Like her elder sister Lata, Asha had longevity in her genes (the other sister was Usha who didn't rise to the same heights as her sisters duo of Lata and Asha). She was destined to live long as predicted by Satya Sai Baba, a famous Godman based in South India. She mentioned this episode in one of her interviews. Once she visited the famous Godman in latter's Puttaparthy Ashram sometime in the 1970s along with her close female friend. The saffron clad Godman smiled at them and told Asha "you will live a long life", while he told her friend - "Take care of your stomach". Very soon her friend died of stomach cancer. Asha lived much longer, passed away today after almost 50 years from this incident at the ripe age of 92.

Initially carrying the tag of Lata's younger sister, Asha carved a niche for herself in the Bollywood industry by rendering her voice to many hit songs, winning multiple awards spanning decades. It is alleged that Lata Mangeshkar, her elder sister used her influence in Bollywood music industry to promote her ahead of other talented female singers of the time, like Hemlata, Sushma Shreshta and Indrani Mukherjee. Those allegations were never proven. Nevertheless she sang many popular and famous songs, especially duets with Kishore Kumar who was at his peak in the 1970s and 80s.

Asha used to praise the versatility of his duet partner Kishore Kumar who would make her laugh to his crazy jokes, often at his expense. Once he made her laugh so much during the recording of a song that she told him - "Dada, please stop cracking jokes. I cannot concentrate on recording". The Mangeskar sisters had a love -hate relationship with the legendary male playback singer. 

His son Amit Kumar mentioned this in an interview - "Baba (Dad) will ask the producer how much money the Mangeskar sisters are charging ? Once the producer replied that Lata Mangeshkar was charging Rs.90,000 per song. A competitive Kishore would demand Rs.100,000 (one lakh), a gargantuan amount those days which the proucer obliged. Bollywood is known to be misogynistic with staggering gender remuneration gap. It is said that Kishore and the Mangeskar sisters later fell apart. Months before he passed away, Kishore Kumar refused to share the same podium with the Mangeskar sisters in a concert held in Bombay (now Mumbai). The eccentric genuius, was also known to be idiosyncratic and occasionally silly. 

Having a long, eventful life with multiple marriages incidentally with her better known elder sister who never married, in passing away Asha marks the end of an era of music industry. RIP Asha Tai. Om 🕉 Shanti.

How to catch a Bhakt

 I have nothing against BHAKTs (a prolific, popular slang for the blind Right leaning devotees of Modi/BJP. The tag sticks to them as iron sticks to magnet). Like everyone else they have every rights to their unflinching BHAKTI (Diehard Devotion) towards their MAHAPRABHU (Ultimate God). I have no issues with that. Their BHAKTI (devotion) is non of my business, until they get personal and start trolling me. 

Every Spring and Fall (Autumn) I get into the mode of cleansing my Facebook friendlist of such BHAKTs and still continue this practice. I follow a very simple method of scouring and smoking them out of their holes. So far it has worked well for me and I have been quite successful in my mission of trapping & eliminating them. 

How to catch a Bhakt ? During my childhood days in our ancestral Brahmin dominated village near Puri, I have seen a semi religious occasion followed by a grand gala dinner called "MAJENA" - An offering of Fish to our village Goddess "Ma Rangini" followed by a massive feasting on varieties of mouth watering dishes made out of fish - MACHHA BHAJA (Fried fish), BESARA (scrambled fish cooked in mustard paste), MACHHA KAALIA (fish Chunk curry), MACHHA MANJI (fish roe or egg) fries, MACHHA KHARADA (scrambled fish) and so on. 

Fish is procured from our village pond. The fishermen would enter into this pond called GAAI GADIA (named after cows taking bath inside the pond), wade through it several times, toing and froing from one end to the other, deliberately muddying the water. The small fishes like "KERANDI" who get agitated and start jumping around are the ones caught first. The process is repeated until the target for the evening MAJENA session is met. 

I do the same on Facebook by deliberately posting something critical of Modi, BJP, RSS, sarcastic memes and cartoons mocking and poking fun at them, especially superstitions peddled as phoney scientific theories simply to score cheap political goals and fake portrayal of their Supreme leader as "Vishwaguru" (the Guru of the entire Universe). It riles some Bhakts to no end. A la the "Kerandi" fish they start jumping around with their asses on fire. They bite the bait, start bad mouthing me. I lose no time in giving them the option of unfriending me - to go ahead and make my day. If they prefer I oblige them by reciprocating the same at my end. In extreme cases I block them, sometimes they beat me to it.

Last week I had to unfriend several folks from my Facebook friend list. The reason, although they wrote nothing against me but irritated me by their nonsense, parochial and outright moronic statements directed to my post and comments on my posts from some of my erudite friends. A few later said sorry, but my prudence prompted me to get rid of them. If you keep snakes in your backyard expecting to bite only your neighbors, then you are living in a fool's paradise. One day they will turn their fangs on you. It is wiser to wipe them off from my friendliest rather than leave any such scope for future. 

I am also reminded of this story great folklore PANCHATANTRA (The Five Treatise), a series of meaningful short stories compiled by our ancient story teller Vishnu Sharma. A king kept a monkey as his pet. His favorite simian became too close to him as the King treated the animal as a friend. 

One fine afternoon the King was enjoying his siesta. A fly came from nowhere and sat on his nose. The monkey saw it. Not wanting to disturb the king and get rid of the nuisance fly, the monkey grabbed the unsheathed sword of the King and took a hard blow at the King's face. The fly managed to fly away, but the King was dead. The moral of the story - "MURKHA BANDHU THARU BUDDHIMAN SHATRU SHREYASKARA", often an intelligent enemy is preferred to an idiot friend. This moral from hundred years ago still holds good. Lesson learnt, good riddance. 

So far this strategy has worked out well for me. I have already have my quota of fish and feel satiated for this year. Now I got to wait until the next MAJENA before I go on my next fishing expedition. Spring is just getting started, so also my cleansing. Elon Musk once said, “You don't lose friends. You lose undercover haters. Real friends can never be lost". He wasn't far from the truth. 

My goutlandish story

 This April is a landmark for me. It's now a decade since last time I got Gout - a painful inflammation on my left toe. That was April, 2016. Glad so far I have been spared from getting a repeat bout of gout. Yet as always illnesses can be predictably unpredictable and have a knack of hunting you down at the most inopportune moment. Quoting Scarlett O Hara from Margaret Mitchell's classic movie Gone With the wind, "Tomorrow is after all another day".

My first bout with Gout was 16 years ago when I was in India in summer of 2010. One fine hot and humid morning I woke up to a painful, inflamed toe. It hurt pretty bad, even the slightest touch of the soft blanket on my toe gave me a throbbing, stinging pain. It was so bad that one evening I couldn't wear my  shoes and had to cancel my planned trip to Bhubaneswar Club, a place which mandates wearing shoes.
The first thought came to my mind was that it's was probably an insect bite which caused this lingering pain on my toe. I took several painkiller pills which gave me temporary relief, but the pain stubbornly refused to go away. Late Dr. B.K. Das, an eminent physician and my father's friend upon seeing my symptoms suspected it as gout. The lab tests soon confirmed it, finding my blood saturated with more than the normal amount of uric acid. Medicines prescribed by Braja Mausa reduced the pain, but it still persisted, with me walking with a perpetual limp like the legendary character SHAKUNI of BR Chopra's  MAHABHARAT serial from my college days, until the pain slowly relented after completing the full course of the medications.

Now fast forward to April 2016, almost 6 years later. My tryst with gout continued, as after years it showed at my toe step. This time on American soil as I woke up to a big, painful toe. My Primary Care Physician prescribed a medicine to reduce the pain and another to reduce my high level of Uric acid. The medicine acted fast and swiftly reduced the pain, but gave me severe diarrhea. Less than a day after I started taking the medicine, at my workplace a sudden urge to relieve myself hurried me towards the Restroom (toilet). Before I could bang through the door, my boss appeared right in front of me exchanging pleasantries, though my mood was hardly pleasant at that time.

Struggling to hold on to my bowel with a smiling face, I had to bear the imminent nature call with clenched teeth. Suddenly I remembered Shakuni ridiculing Duryodhan in B.R. Chopra's MAHABHARAT serial - "MURKH WOHI HAI JO RONE KI WAQT PAR HASTE HAIN" (Fools are those who laugh at the time of crying). My smile was now slowly turning into a helpless grin. You should have seen my face and captured it on camera. It would have gone viral with million plus hits on YouTube.

To my relief, my boss got a call on his cellphone and melted away, leaving me alone to attend my nature's call. The journey of less than 10 feet from the restroom door to the stall seemed eternal. I tip toed as fast as I could, sat, shat and burst myself. Ahh..finally I came out immensely relieved of both bowel and gout pain, which was now gone with the wind. It reminded me the story of the legendary Odia witty jester Gopal Bhanda who convinced his King that world's greatest feeling of relieving oneself after taking a huge dump in toilet.

Gout used to be known as the Rich man's disease during medieval times though me, a poor victim of gout is no where close to rich. Mughal Emperor Akbar had gout. His Hakeems (doctors) struggled to treat him. King of England Henry VIII had multiple wives and multiple bouts of gout. Protein rich, high purine foods like red meat, shrimp, crab, turkey, bean, beer etc are said to cause of very high Uric acid, leading to gout. But I know someone, a strictly vegetarian and frugal foodie who also gets periodic bouts of gout. Guess genetics plays a role here.
The prescription medicines are good at providing instant relief, but would like to avoid them as they're not free from side effects. Eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water and doing regular exercise are recommended to prevent gout. As always, prevention is better than cure. Thanks for your patience for hearing my goutlandish story. Glad gout has spared me for 10 long years though tomorrow is another day.

April Fool's day - 2026

 March this year ended with a lot of uncertainty with wars, high oil price, stubborn inflation and speculation of impending recession. But being an eternal optimist I can see light at end of the tunnel as nothing lasts forever, not even bad things which happens to us. The first quarter of the year is about to end and the next month starts with April Fool's day, the first day of a new week, a new month and a new quarter. Time to gather some Foolish anecdotes while stepping into the All Fool's day.

April 1 is named FOOL'S DAY, after Steve April. He was born on 1st April of year 1579. He started 105 businesses in his lifetime, but none of them ever succeeded, losing all his father's assets. So everyone started calling him father of fools. At 19, he married a 61-year-old woman who divorced him after a month because of his foolishness. He used to carefully read all kinds of fake stories like we are doing now on social media. So we are no less fools than him.

Every year, 1st of April comes with its share of April Fool jokes. Even when we were keep washing our hands to keep Covid and other diseases away last few years, we shouldn't wash off our sense of humor. A few year's back April Fool joke from Google was - "Equator found to be slipping. Australia at risk of becoming a Northern Hemisphere country by 2055". Many actually believed it.

Not a whole lot are aware of the fact that Equator is an imaginary line. Once Indian President Giani Zail Singh was flying above the Equator. His secretary humored him - "Sir, can you see the equator below" ?  Zail Singh responded "Yes. I can see it and a car is slowly running on it". What he actually saw, was a lice walking on his long strand of hair, which just happened to fall right in front of his eyes.

MIT, Massachusetts which has produced hordes of innovators and Nobel winning Laureates is known for sheer wit and sense of mischief from its bright and creative students. In 1998, on All Fools' Day, MIT's homepage was rebuilt to announce that the Walt Disney Company had bought the famed institute for $6.9 billion. In same year in Pittsburgh where I was living, 1st of April came with a freak snow storm - fooling all on April Fool's day.

One thing I can't fathom - Why the Utkal Dibas (Odisha day) coincides with the April Fool's day ? It would not have hurt our forefathers to chose 31st March or 2nd April instead. We have been living in a Fool's paradise ever since, fooled time and again by our leaders who have taken us for a ride.

Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you - said Joey Adams, American Comedian (1911-99). Happy Fool's Day.

When your Commander-in-Chief has no militarily experience

 In the movie Movie "Last Castle" released in year 2001, the legendary Robert Redford is a 4 star general who goes to a military prison. Inside the jail he meets the man in charge of the prison played by actor James Gandolfini who shows him around many military decors he had collected. Instantly replies Robert Redford - "These collectibles can be gathered by a man who had never stepped a day in a battlefield". Robert Gandolfini wasn't amused.

Same is the case of Donald Trump. The man, is a draft dodger who has never stepped on a battlefield is unfortunately the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful Military on earth who is fighting a war of choice with no clear goal in mind without any end game.

Politically the Middle East is an extremely complex place and the American is making it from bad to worst in its quest to control global energy. Add to it the Israeli factor. It is the Jewish state who is trying to fix Iran by firing gun from America's shoulder. If it backfires (which it looks like), it is US which will feel the brunt of it. America has happily walked into Israel's trap. War is rarely a solution to a problem. Most war mongers I have encountered, whether they are proponents of war against Pakistan, Iran or Ukraine have one thing in common. Forget about fighting a war, neither they nor anyone in their 14 generations from both sides of family lineage have ever held a real gun.

The Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain kept Iran under control by fighting a decade long war with its eastern neighbor. US and the Arab nations indirectly supported Saddam until he went rouge in 1990. He had a personal hatred for Iran and famously said - "God shouldn't have created 3 things. Sand, mosquitoes and Persians". America went to Iraq and created a huge vacuum by removing Saddam Hussain for Iranians to fill in the void.

Not having its bete noire Saddam to fear, Iran expanded its influence to Iraq which is Shia majority nation and has 60% Shia population. Then it wanted to be the champion of the  middle east by fingering Israel by publicly announcing to wipe it out from earth when the Sunni majority Arab world went soft on Israel, having a healthy working relationship with the Jewish state. At the same time, Iran funded terror groups like Hezbollah and Houthis, the former fights Israel and the latter fights Saudi Arabia. Iran failed to realize that as an isolated country it cannot fight Israel and antagonize the Arab states at same time as the Sunni Islamic world will never allow a Shia majority country to be the leader of the Islamic Ummah.

So, long story short, the Middle East needs a political solution, not military. America which is still the superpower is currently led by one crazy man who is doing exactly the opposite. Now let's look at the two other major global powers - China and Russia. China, though growing powerful day by day, is not in a position to take global leadership role to solve Middle East crisis. Russia is knee deep in the Ukraine war. So ironically countries like Turkey, Egypt and even Pakistan are now playing the role of the peacemakers. Middle East, what a mess ! May Vishwaguru save it.

Adversity to Advantage

 History has witnessed many instances of men and women turning their weakness and adversity into advantage which is the secret sauce of their success. Instances are plenty, but let me address a few in chronological order, with one example each from Ancient, Medieval and Modern age of history.

Samrat Ashok from 260 BC in Ancient India and Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century Medieval India are great examples of using their shortcomings as opportunities to turn the tides of fortune in their favor. Both killed their brothers to ascend the throne. Battle hardened, both eliminatrd their father's favorite, pampered and eldest son among others to ascend the throne.

Ashok was son of Bindusara and grandson of legendary Chandragupta Maurya. During his childhood a saint who came to Bindudara's court predicted that Ashok, not the the King's eldest son Sushim will follow him to powerful throne of the Magadh kingdom after killing all his brothers.

Bindusara ignored the  prediction. However his eldest queen and mother of eldest son Sushim was quite concerned. Apt at palace intrigues, jealous and insecure of her Souten's (co-wife and another queen) charismatic son Ashok's growing popularity, she succeeded in convincing the King to send Ashok to quell rebellion in some faraway province. While the eldest son Sushim stayed back, pampered in the Magadh court, Ashok polished his military skills by engaging with the enemies of the state. When he heard the news of his father the King's death, Ashok brutally killed his brother Sushim who tried to stop him at the gates of Magadh, followed by killing rest of his brothers (he purportedly didn't killed his brother from her own mother). As the Saint's prediction came true, the point is Ashok didn't whine about being banished out of the state at cost of his brother, the favorite to the throne, but used it as an opportunity hone his military strategy and acumen to go for the final kill when it mattered.

The medieval era Aurangzeb's case was slightly different. The brothers he killed were from his own mother's womb. The third son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, better known for building the famous Taj Mahal saw from childhood his eldest brother Dara Sikoh being pampered and groomed for the throne by no other than his father Sah Jahan. Dara's marriage in year 1633 to his cousin (cousin marriages were common among Mughals) was a costly affair. Historians have estimated that amount to be over $48 million in today's money which surpasses all display of opulence.

Aurangzeb noted the favoritism shown by his father to his eldest brother, breeding hatred and suspicion towards both. 25 years later in 1658 when Dara Sikoh was mollycoddled in Mughal court groomed to ascend the famous Peacock throne after Sah Jahan, the 3rd son of Sah Jahan was sent by his father on missions to distant Afghanistan and Deccan. Unfortunately for both father and his favourite son Dara Sikoh, this mistreatment of Aurangzeb produced a tough and experienced warrior. While the suave Dara sat with Pundits busy learning Sanskrit and translating Upanishad (a sacred Hindu text) to Persian, his younger brother became a hardened combatant learning all scheming and political maneuvering needed to fight a war. When push came to shove, the battle tested Aurangzeb not only defeated and killed Dara, he sent an imprisoned Sah Jahan the severed head of the old man's favorite son. Aurangzeb like Ashok before him used circumstances adverse to him to his advantage.

Now let's jump to modern era. Unlike Ashok or Aurangzeb, the case of Naveen Patnaik, Odisha's Chief Minister for 24 consecutive years is not about blood or bothers, but him using his inability to speak the native language Odia, his perceived shortcoming which he turned into positivity towards his advantage. He read the minds of the Odias pretty well as him not speaking Odia created an aura of exceptionalism and exclusiveness around him in front of Odisha millieu. Like these Emperors he is known to be politically ruthless and trusts no one. But his voters loved him, his suave and soft demeanor.

This part of his personality can be attributed to his legendary father who was rumored to have a low opinion of his youngest son. It is noted in a well researched book written by a reputed journalist that sometime during the early 1990s when Biju Patnaik was in his last and final tenure as the Chief minister, his Delhi based socialite son Naveen, a frugal visitor to the state suddenly dropped in with his British friend at the state capital (Now it's other way round. Naveen Patnaik rarely steps outside state). The father Biju Patnaik avoided entertaining the duo in his house and instructed one of his ministers to house them at a local hotel. This is one of several instances the Odia legend snubbing his son for reasons best know to him.

It is said that the son has paid it back by not being a big fan and protagonist of his legendary father's vision, except using his name for political gains. Yet, a la Aurangzeb who ruled the longest amongst the Mughals for almost half a century, the ignored son of Biju Patnaik eventually had the last laugh by ruling the state longest post independent Odisha has seen, with the possibility of ruling further if he is still around 2029. He is another example of turning adversity to advantage. No wonder, History loves to repeat itself. What was served as ruthlessly in ancient and medieval age has repeated itself in the modern era.