COUN-SELLING or COURSE-SELLING

COUN-SELLING or COURSE-SELLING

Counselling is the newest fad of the city. Every student goes for it while in class 11^th or 12^th or after having appeared for class 12 exams. I, myself, out of curiosity, went to a few institutes on the pretext of getting some “counselling “ for my younger brother.

Hufff... It’s some task to listen to these counsellors speak incessantly until they have convinced you for the course that their institute coaches for. It is like going to buy a TV set where at every shop the picture quality of the set is tuned according to its profit margin. The merits of the course are exaggerated and the naiveté of the students is cashed into.

They seem to have forgotten that the job of a real counsellor is to gauge the aptitude of these children and then guide them accordingly for their future. ‘Their future’ as THEY WANT it. I really don’t know if there’s a single soul around most of these students who they can turn to, who is knowledgeable and keeps ‘THEIR’ aptitude and interests in mind while helping them make the right choice-a choice that is not guided by their own vested interests or market trends or practicality.

A beautiful, beau...tiful poem..

A beautiful, beau...tiful poem..
read it today..coudn't help posting it..

An Arabic Poem by Nizar Kabbani,  Died: 30 April 1998 Nationality: Syrian

“In a country where thinkers are assassinated, and writers are  considered infidels and books are burnt; in societies that refuse the   other, and force silence on mouths and thoughts are forbidden, and to question is a sin, I must beg your pardon, would you permit me?”

Would You Permit Me?

Would you permit me to bring up my children as I want, and not to dictate on me your whims and orders?

Would you permit me to teach my children that the religion is first to God, and not for religious leaders or scholars or people?

Would you permit me to teach my little one that religion is about good manners, good behaviour, good conduct, honesty and truthfulness, before I teach her with which foot to enter the bathroom  or with which hand she should eat?

Would you permit me to teach my daughter that God is about love, and she can dialogue with Him and ask Him anything she wants, far away from the teachings of anyone?

Would you permit me not to mention the torture of the grave to my children, who do not know about death yet?

Would you permit me to teach my daughter the tenets of the religion and its culture and manners, before I force on her the \'Hijab\' (the veil)?

Would you permit me to tell my young son that hurting people and degrading them because of their nationality, colour or religion, is considered a big sin by God?

Would you permit me to tell my daughter that revising her homework and paying attention to her earning is considered by God as more useful and important than learning by heart Ayahs from the Quran without knowing their meaning?

Would you permit me to teach my son that following the footsteps of the Honourable Prophet begins with his honesty, loyalty and truthfulness, rather than the length of his beard or how short his thobe (long shirt/dress) is?

Would you permit me to tell my daughter that her Christian friend is not an infidel, and ask her  not to cry fearing her friend will go to Hell?

Would you permit me to argue, that God did not authorize anyone on earth, after the Prophet, to speak in his name nor did he vest any powers in anyone to issue \'deeds of forgiveness\' to people?

Would you permit me to say, that God has forbidden killing the human spirit, and he who kills wrongly a human being is as if he killed all human kind, and no Moslem has the right to frighten another Moslem?

Would you permit me to teach my children that God is greater, more just, and more merciful than all the (religious) scholars on earth put-together? And that His standards are different from the standards of those trading the religion, and that His accountability is kinder and more merciful?

Would you ---- would you permit me?

Dowry Deaths- who is responsible?

Almost everyday we read a newspaper report wherein a girl or a woman has been tortured and killed by her in-laws. The girls' families are the ones to come forward and register a case against the in-laws claiming that their daughter had been getting harassed for dowry and has subsequently been killed..

I would like to know what these “so-called” parents or blood relatives were doing for those 1,2, or n number of years when their daughter was being tormented. Then they left their daughter to suffer at the hands of her in-laws, but now when she is dead, they want her to get justice. What were they doing earlier sitting quietly? Saving their faces? Pretending in front of their relatives and neighbours that their daughter has a perfect life?? What a sham!

I think they are the ones against whom the first FIR needs to be lodged who callously left their daughters to lead a life of misery.. It is lamentable to say that she is actually better off now, being away from all these heartless people..

My long awaited DIWALI bonus arrear

I made a stupid mistake of not applying for my ‘diwali bonus arrear’ when everyone else at my school did, as I thought the new appointees hadn’t got the bonus. One fine day, after months, out of nowhere, I got an urge to check my pass book and I realized that I was actually supposed to get it. I immediately set out to correct my mistake and prepared a bill to apply for the same.

Little did I realize at that time, that this small mistake was actually not that small. Two years down the line, having already paid 150bucks as TIP (read bribe), I still haven’t got my ‘diwali bonus arrear’ which was a paltry sum of Rs. 987. Now, I think, I should not have gone after it at all but having spent money and effort on it, I now feel that I should take it to the end. Don’t know how much more I would need to shell out to get this small amount for which I have already lost the bank interest for two years.

This is how our department works, I guess…