Don't underestimate yourself

Once a farmer found an egg in an abandoned nest. He brought the egg home and placed it among the hen's eggs. In due course of time when the egg hatched, a baby eagle came out. The baby eagle grew up with other chickens and was practically one among them.

Once a stranger visited the farm. He was horrified to see the eagle behaving like a chicken.

“This isn't right,” he said. “An eagle should be soaring the sky not picking worms in the garden.”

The farmer shrugged. “It doesn't matter. He thinks, he is a chicken. We can't make him fly.”

Poems worth knowing - 1

If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;

To vote or 'no vote'

Now, with option of negative voting opened, you can dwell upon the question, to vote or 'no vote'? Either ways, you can participate in the elections. For the first time, Indians can reject all the candidates contesting elections by using the option of no vote. The Supreme Court of India on Friday held that citizens have right to cast negative vote, a decision which would bring about positive change in the election system. This would encourage wider participation of people in the election process.

How to get the best of Democracy

Democracy may or may not be the best political institution, but it’s the one we have and till the advent of a better institution, we are stuck with it. If we have to live with democracy, then we’ll have to find a way to make the best of it.

Some of the perils of democracy are not associated with the government but the people. In democracy, we, the people, are king-makers. Therefore, the failure of the government can be often traced back to us. All the jokes on the government are actually the mockery of the people. If we hadn't elected them, they wouldn't be in charge, in the first place.

Are you a feminist?

Are you a feminist? I bet 99% of you would answer in the negative. Well, let me re-frame the question? Are you against domestic violence or any other form of injustice met out to women? Now, I am sure, each and everyone of you, including an occasional wife-beater will answer in the affirmative. Everybody likes to known as a just and kind human being. Then, why doesn't anyone want to be called a feminist? Because, everyone thinks of a feminist as an ugly, man-hating female. I am a female myself and wouldn't accept the term in my college years, so I don't blame you all.

Let's play the blame game

You haven't heard of the blame game? Of course, you have. I'll show you some of the moves and help you remember.

"The corruption ! It's spreading like a forest fire. All the govt. officials take bribes, including the highest officers to the lowest grade ones. Why doesn’t the government do some thing like pass a bill? That's why they are elected. I don't believe they want us to stop giving bribes. As if the corruption system thrives on people giving bribes. Hello, the problem is the ones taking bribes not us the people giving bribes. We are working people and obviously very busy. We cannot afford to stand in queues or wait for days for officials to finish their processing. And you blame us for giving bribe to cut through a queue.

Course of Nature

“Change is the course of Nature;

  This does not infer upon humans,

  The right to force

  The change upon nature.”

What are you supposed to feel when you have a rendezvous with nature after almost twelve years of separation from it?  I don’t know what people feel in such a situation but I felt bereft. Maybe I am not so good with long distance relationships but something had definitely changed. The first thing I had to consider was ‘have I changed? Have I grown so accustomed to concrete and technology that I can no longer relate to the greens and wild?’ But I knew the answer to this one. No, no one can change enough not to fall in love with the swaying leaves, dancing butterflies, the glorious sunshine but something was definitely different.