The Endangered Sparrow

I was reading this article in the newspaper today about why the common sparrow was becoming so rare to come by these days and I was surprised how much I agreed with the finding and also by the fact that they had omitted looking into another dimension of the problem. The article stated several reasons for the decreasing numbers of sparrows in general and their absence from city life. One of the main reasons this article pointed out was the availability of food.

Sparrows survive on seeds and insects. The rampant use of pesticides has affected the availability of insects that the sparrows feed on. The use of engineered grass in a large scale in the cities has also led to the disappearance of local varieties of grass and its seeds on which the sparrows used to feast. The use of artificially modified food grains are also being seen as a reason for the depletion of the sparrow population. Ornithologists say that these modified food grains are acting as slow poison for the sparrows. In the context of the almost absence of sparrows in cities, ornithologists have blamed the modern architectural style. They argue that the best place for sparrows to make their nests is cool dark crevices that old large and open houses used to provide. The present structure of box shaped architecture provides inadequate locations for sparrows to make their nests. I more or less agree with all these findings as they seem logical and I have no means of verifying these findings. But I have been taken aback by the fact that everyone seems to have missed one important factor (at least I think it is important).

When I was very little, our backyard used to be filled with sparrows. There was a pomegranate tree in the back and sparrows used to make their nests on it. They were numerous. But by the year 2000, their numbers suddenly declined and now I rarely see them at all. When I go to the outskirts of the town, I see sparrows in abundance. This made me think a lot and I have come up with a theory. I have noticed that the sudden reduction in the number of sparrows in my neighbourhood coincided with the construction of a transmission tower for cellular services. The sudden disappearance of sparrows from other regions of my town, I found out, also coincided with the construction of similar towers in these regions. The sparrow population has moved back to the outskirts because there are no transmission towers there. I think that this is too much of a coincidence. The disappearance of the sparrow from city life has got to do, to a large extent, something with the spread of cellular services. The radio waves used by the cellular service seems to be affecting the sparrow which is forcing it to flee areas where these waves are strong.

Research has been going on for a long time about the effect of these radio waves on living tissues but no conclusive study has yet been published. If what I propose is true then it is time we looked into the matter more closely. Corporates will not be willing to agree to the fact that these waves have harmful effects on living tissues as such a finding will affect their business and they will be forced to spend more on finding alternative solutions. But it is time we broke out of this vicious circle of protecting a few at the cost of the rest. No one profits in such an arrangement for a long time. Dictatorship needs to be replaced by democracy.

Weddings and Food

I live in a small town in the state of West Bengal in India. Here things are done very differently from that in a metropolitan city like Calcutta. One such difference I would like to talk about – weddings. Weddings in small towns and in the rural areas are very different from those that are held in Calcutta.

A marriage in a small town is a very familial issue and is held dear by everyone around. Neighbours voluntarily take part in the rituals and the celebrations and they take it upon themselves to make the wedding a success. But sometimes this over-enthusiasm gets too unbearable for people who are not used to such an environment. I love the whole wedding ceremony but I hate the part where guests are supposed to eat. That, my dear friends, is a nightmare in itself.

In almost all small town and rural weddings, the buffet system is frowned upon and deemed too impersonal. Guests are expected to be seated and served their meal. In many cases family members taken upon themselves the charge of serving the guests and in other times caterers are hired to do the job. A temporary construction of bamboo and fancy cloth is erected to serve as the dinning space. This construction, called the pandal in the local parlance, can be of varied size and shape and design to reflect the wealth and status of the family. In general, the dining space can accommodate 30 to 40 people in one batch. So obviously when 300 or 400 guests are invited for a wedding, arrangement is made to serve 8 to 10 batches of 40 people. I guess you can imagine the scenario that I am about to describe.

The whole wedding area is divided into two sections – the area where the wedding takes place and the dinning area. The crowd invariable gets concentrated near the dining area. Everyone wants to eat as early as possible. When the dining area is opened for the first batch, a cry goes around that informs everyone that the ordeal has begun. Every guest in the wedding then starts slowly to drift towards the dinning space. Soon the area outside the dinning space becomes claustrophobic. People keep peeping in to see how far the previous batch has proceeded with their meal. The moment they realize that people are starting to come out there ensues a rush. People, irrespective of their religion, gender, social status, profession, start pushing and shoving their way inside the dinning space to get a table for themselves and their family and friend.

Now, if you are having your meal inside and it so happens that you are either a slow eater or love to have a lot, there will be quite a few people who would finish their meal before you do and their exit will trigger off the mad rush to get inside the dining hall. People start filling the area very rapidly and soon you are surrounded by people. Some stand behind you and some stand in front of you, staring at you and your platter with hungry eyes, waiting to grab the seat as soon as you get up. It is impossible to enjoy a good dessert when is in such a situation. Obviously you are forced by decency to finish your meal in a haste and leave the seat to be occupied by the strongest or the cleverest. These people sit down at the table as soon as you leave, even when the leftovers are still on the table and are yet to be cleaned. It is quite disgusting for certain people, including me, to be a part of such a situation. Not many people seem to mind this arrangement though. They say this is tradition. Words are very insufficient to describe the situation that I have dared to portray. I welcome you to attend such a wedding yourself and experience it yourself. I can guarantee that it would be an experience of a lifetime.

Being Fat

I am fat. I am not very proud of that fact. The fat has increased my waistline by 4 inches and my backside. Everyone in my family teases me by saying that I have a backside side a woman. I am trying my best to reduce the fat but in reality I am not trying hard enough. I have cut down on my food intake. I am having just 4 chapatis for dinner whereas I can have 12. I have very little rice for lunch. But dieting has never done anyone any good. What I need to do is exercise. I try to exercise regularly but end up skipping it as something more interesting seems to be cropping up all the time. My sister is supposed to be getting married next month and I am really scared as I do not want to look fat. But there is no time left to do anything about that.

Dieting is not for me. My parents will allow me to have food only three to four times a day and really get furious if they see me eating at odd times. I am eating one third the amount I used to devour and this makes me feel hungry throughout the day. All I can think of the whole day is food! I even dream of food! I do not feel like exercising these days as I have laid my hands on some wonderful books that I want to finish reading before I have to return them.

So – I am fat, I do not want to exercise, I cannot diet, and I want to be slim! Well, that is asking a bit too much I guess. There is nothing wrong being fat except for the fact that I have a tough time stooping down and tying my shoe laces while standing up. Also, everyone makes fun of me as I have always been very thin and because I love to eat. I really do not know what people do in such a situation. Some of my friends are fat, but they have always been fat and they do not complain. They love to eat and no one teases them. But me becoming fat all of a sudden has encouraged people to take potshots at me. But I am trying to reduce the amount of fat around my midriff and it is really an uphill task. One day I will succeed.

Taking The GRE

I have already taken the GRE, the revised GRE. When I was planning to take it and even now, I hear various myths that shroud the GRE and make people panic for no rhyme or reason. When I was planning to sit for the revised GRE all my friends and acquaintances tried their level best to make me take the old GRE. I have already taken the old GRE once but did not fare well as I had fallen seriously ill on the day of the exam. The reason they wanted me to sit for the old GRE again was that I had already taken the test once and knew the pattern, also, there was a huge surplus of guide books and test papers and what not to help me crack it. But I did not listen to them.

I have taken the old GRE once and I know the exam well. It is or was a test of how well you can memorize a set of word-lists, the meanings and antonyms of the words. It was not at all a test of one’s knowledge in English. Also, the words that one had to memorize were mostly of no use. I am sure no one has ever again used or come across half those words after taking their GRE. Only people who can memorize very well can do well in that sort of arena. I am not one of those.

I chose to take the revised GRE for various reasons. The most important reason was that it was absolutely new and no guides were yet available. This gave me an equal advantage with others who were taking the test and this uncertainty was very challenging and exciting. The second important reason was that the verbal section of the revised GRE was completely new and far more difficult. Thankfully it does not require one to memorize word-lists and actually tests one’s knowledge of English. You can crack this section only if you really know English. No crack courses can help you score well in this section. The fill-in-the-blanks required not only the knowledge of what the options meant but also the knowledge of how a sentence is created and how English is written. No amount of memorization can help you in this. Another reason for me taking the revised GRE was the 50% off on the cost of the exam that ETS was offering. I did not have enough money at the time to pay for another GRE.

But even though the GRE has changed, people’s attitude towards it has not changed. I was looking at a website yesterday and saw the review of books that offer guidance for the revised GRE. I was very astounded to find that the reason Barron’s guide was ranked lower than the one by Princeton Review was that Barron had no new word-list for the revised GRE! I mean, why do you need a ‘new’ word-list? Isn’t English and a knowledge of its words the same? I have miserably failed to find the need to learn newer words for a newer exam. Knowing the vocabulary helps a lot but selective learning like this is just chasing the wind. Either you know or you don’t.

The results for the revised GRE are not out yet and I do not know how I have fared in the verbal. Maybe I have done worse than the last time, but given another opportunity, I would rather take the revised GRE than the old one. All my friends had rushed to take the old GRE as it was changing from August of this year because they were scared of the unknown, scared of doing something without a guide. They have done quite well in the GRE and will surely get through good universities. Me – I am happy being myself as I know exactly what I am capable of and I do not need an exam to make me realize that. I love challenges and I love to prove others wrong when I am certain that what I am doing is right. The revised GRE gave me just that challenge but I am yet to prove that the fear of others that taking the revised GRE will only result in a poor score is groundless. People are so scared to walk the path less travelled.

The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs

Today I am sad. I have been very saddened by a news I heard today. It’s about my school, my first school, where I have studied for 11 years of my life. It has always been a practice there to show parents the answer scripts of their child for the annual examination and in any other examination the answer scripts of those who have failed used to be shown. My parents were never very interested in looking at my answer script, even though they are teachers themselves, and trusted in whatever the teachers had to say about me and my work. Well, I cannot complain because if my father had looked at the answer scripts he would have killed me for the awful handwriting. My mother did go to have a look at my answer scripts, but that was only a few times. The practice has continued till date and nowadays, due to pressure from the parents, the answer scripts of all the exams are shown to them.

I heard this from my mother today. She had met a teacher of mine from school and heard it from her. My school now shows answer scripts, but has also been forced to bring out a circular that prohibits parents from carrying pen, pencil or eraser when scrutinizing the answer scripts! Why does the school have to state this in writing?! This is because some parents are covertly correcting minor mistakes that their child has done and then confronting the teachers, accusing them of carelessness! I used the word ‘scrutinizing’ because this is what the parents do these days. They are least interested in why their child did not do well or how the child’s performance can be bettered; rather, they are interested in pointing out the teachers’ mistakes and accusing them for the bad performance of their child.

I agree that sometimes teachers make mistake while correcting copies and some take their duty very casually. These teachers should be taken to task for their insincerity. But the worst thing is that parents are using this vulnerable point to attack them, and are so ready to use deceit. The fact that the school had to issue such a circular is evidence enough that this is not a rare occurrence but is becoming rampant. I fail to understand why parents are stooping so low? Are they ashamed of their children? Ashamed of their childrens’ performance? Too busy to find out what is wrong with their children? Too busy to even look after their children? Are they so selfish that they do not care about what is good for their children? Or are they confused about what is good for their children?

Children and their marks and ranks in examinations have become a symbol of social status. Parents shun other parents whose academic performance is not as good as their child’s, and are very eager to join the social circle of parents whose children are doing better than their’s. Children have become just another commodity that you possess to increase your social status. Children are no longer being governed properly by their parents and are immensely pampered. They get what they want, they do what they want, and the parents have no problem as long as he or she fetches marks.

This is what saddens me today – the realization that children are no longer adored for being children. They are just being treated as a commodity – the goose that lays golden eggs.

The Intrigue

Let me tell you a story. This is a story of intrigue, a story of betrayal, a story of reconciliation. This is the story of my very close friend. I cannot divulge his name as many of you who may read this might just know him, but for the sake of narrating this story I shall call him Jack. Jack! Why did I even think of that name? This is a very common name and I do not like to give common names to the protagonists of my stories. Jack is the nickname for a person whose official name is John, but then why not call him John! Both are four letters and in that way two new names can be formed. Calling John, Jack, serves no purpose at all. I mean, John is a very nice name and so is Jack, so why waste two beautiful names on one person? This really makes no sense to us Indians who have millions of names to choose from and some parents even come up with new names by combining two old names!

I apologize for diverging from my story. So, I have this friend Jack… but wait! If I narrate the story as it is and keep the names of the places then some of you might just find out who Jack is and that will be very embarrassing for him and for me. This means that I will have to start over once again.

Let me tell you a story. This is a story of intrigue, a story of betrayal, a story of reconciliation. This is the story of my very close friend, Jack. His parents had shifted to the small town of Campamento…

I think I have heard that name before… it sounds like the name of an actual city… let me check the atlas…

THAT is a real place! Campamento is the name of a place in Honduras. Let me think of a new name for the town my friend Jack shifted to and where the action happens…

Let us call the place Tulun… Well, even this seems to be the name of a place in Russia!

Let’s call the place Quanzhou… and this is a real place in China!

Humpolec! Now that is a unique name for a place to stage such a powerful story! ….and even this is a real place in Czech Republic!

I give up! This is impossible! I never realized that it was so difficult to narrate a story with fictional names and places. How does the author of the Lord of The Rings or Eragon come up with those names?!?! I cannot even come up with a fictional place and they come up with new languages! I am a pathetic story-teller. I think it is time I gave up.

Quantification

I really fial to understand this concept of ranking women by beauty. It just does not make sense to me. Beauty seems to be defined by skimpy clothes, struts and pouts. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. So how come we rank them. The oddest thing is, it is those women who have become celebrities who are being ranked as the most beautiful women in the world! These women form just a fraction of the whole world population of women. There are so many pretty women out there who do not have to wear make-up or undergo surgery to look beautiful. I have met stunningly beautiful women in metros and buses who can easily outshine these celebrities. I realize that it is very difficult to rank everyone and so the celebrities are chosen, but then why this craze to rank women. It is also true for men, who are being ranked according to Most Handsome, Most Desirable, etc.. This is just a personification of the society’s urge to comodify everything around them so that they can talk in numbers. We seem to have lost the ability to analyse anything that is qualitative, and thus this urge to quantify everything. I was reading about some sociological and psychological experiments that are being carried out and I have come to know that psychologists have a table to rate social events that may affect a person in a negative way, for example, divorce carries say 4 points while the death of your father carries say 6 points. It is a scale of 10 with increasing emotional trauma. This just does not make sense at all. I know people who have been more emotionally affected by the death of their dog than the death of their father.

I see around me a massive effort to quantify everything – starting from business to emotion. Scholars are devoting their entire lives to bring out a formula to calculate how much I am happy when I see the colour blue. The space for emotions is slowly being eroded as it is far simpler to believe in numbers than in the abstract. Where is the difference between us humans and a robot? Their actions and emotions can be quantified and we are trying our level best to achieve that. I think it is just a big waste of humanity.