2012 - The year...

...was a tough one to be honest. There were however, several great things that happened this year. Some of them are as follows:

1) Getting back to Photography : I have always loved Photography, but I stopped clicking in 2010 & 2011, one big reason for this was non-availability of film and I have been a film-loyalist all this while. In 2012 I decided to move on and shift to digital. I am thankful to Zara and Rajiv for their constant encouragement and  guidance. This is therefore also the year when I got my first DSLR. 

2) Turning 30 : Yes, it does sound a bit too much but I did turn 30 this year. The celebrations took place in Nainital. The trip was very random and relaxed... just the way it should be.

3) Exploring Madhya Pradesh : Madhya Pradesh is indeed a huge state, and it would take me months to discover the state fully. I am glad I at-least made a start this year. I went on a Motorcycle ride to Orchha with Zara and this surely was one of the most awesome trip of my life.

4) Making Videos : I have always enjoyed making videos, and this year with the DSLR and a set of newly acquired prime lenses it felt even better. Video content is a powerful medium today and I believe this skill will surely help me make some extra money :) 

5) Acquiring new skills at work : I learnt a lot about Social Media Optimization and Content Marketing this year. It is truly overwhelming, as I discovered this will be the future of marketing and there is so much opportunity out there for people like me. This makes me optimistic about 2013, makes me feel my time has come :)

10 signs that you are not a photographer but a DSLR operator

1) Most of your pictures are clicked around your house and they feature pigeons sitting on cables, stray dogs sleeping on road and squirrels on trees.

      2) Most of your pictures have such high contrasts that they actually hurt.

      3) You have just learnt selective coloring/selective saturation and do not hesitate to show off your editing skills at all, it is all over your photos.

      4) You give philosophical names to your pictures ‘life goes on’, ‘life is struggle’ and the all time chart-buster ‘reflections of life’

      5) You just can’t get the horizon straight, well ofcourse you are different and a follower of Steve Jobs

       6) You love standing in front of the mirror with your eyes set in viewfinder and clicking your super hot profile picture

       7) Depth of Field/bokeh is the biggest kick in your life. You have already posted several key-board pictures (both Mac and PC) with one key in focus and rest blurred, and needless to say they are some of your best pictures.

      8) You learnt how to watermark pictures and how to run your own Facebook photography page before you knew the difference between a crop-censor and full-format camera

       9) When you see someone’s picture on Facebook, and it is slightly better than yours (which can’t happen a lot ofcourse) … you quickly ask for EXIF data. More often than not that picture will be clicked from a better gear than yours, so there isn’t much you can do about it.

      10) You are the best photographer you know! 

My photography page : http://www.flickr.com/photos/deveshuba :)

Meeting school friend...

Your well-paying job

in that expanding MNC.

With expensive coffee machines,

super-fast internet,

exhausted printer and idle shredder.

Those spreadsheets, presentations,

deadlines, columns and rows.

Your 3-BHK apartment

in a posh society.

With courteous security guards,

parking space for cars,

quiet poolside and noisy gym.

Those fast elevators, balconies,

gardens with pigeons and crows.

Your high-flying life

in a comfortable cocoon.

With extravagant parties,

multi-cuisine meals,

tight clothing and loose behavior.

Those expensive wines, luxury hotels,

mindless movies to tackle the lows.

I was happy we got in touch,

so long after school.

Within minutes of meeting I realized,

you haven’t really grown,

deep pockets and shallow conversations.

Big car, swiss watch, thai-holday and

your office-politics woes.

It means nothing to me,

because

when you don’t read my friend,

it

shows.

5 reasons to fall in love with the Delhi summer.

1)      Longer days: It technically means you can do much more. Going for an early morning jog to any of those beautifully landscaped gardens or riding through the dimming evening light. These longer days leave you with so much more time to explore this beautiful city. From its architecture that changes shades as the sun retreats into its shadows, the growing hustle bustle around street food joints, the endless wide roads lined by a multiple hue of green, yellow and red. Somehow, waking up early is much easier in this season than any-other.

2)      Blooming Amaltaas: No wonder those summer dresses are mostly yellow, this is surely the colour of this season. In Delhi, when nature picks up that yellow…it does cast a spell whizzing you into that fantastical, ethereal neverland. Especially during a motorcycle ride, the lovely amaltaas leave you spellbound… when  you look up all you see is a bright yellow haze against the deepening blue… you look down and a yellow dotted carpet rides along with you…  It surely is surreal to say the least.

3)      Mangoes and Musk Melons: A day in the month of May. The mercury is flirting around the 45 degrees mark, it is a Saturday afternoon and it is too hot to venture outside. You walk up to the refrigerator and much to your delight find it stacked, heaps with those big yellow mangoes (takes you back to those  Nursery class “Aa se AAM” pictures). To top it all, the extremely juicy musk-melon. This summer is definitely all juice.. pulp... slurp and burp…

4)      Beer: Picture this! There is a steaming Football and Tennis match on Television or  ‘I shouldn’t be Alive’ or ‘Banged-up abroad’…the living room only feels warmer… what else do you need?!!! A full bottle of Kingfisher costs 65 rupees and a pint comes for 35 bucks!  Oops, if you are not a beer person…try the local Bunta or Nimbu-Soda.

5)      Spectacular Sky: Most of the hot evenings of this season are compensated by an outrageously beautiful sky. A bright noisy blue, with shreds of yellow ‘reshamy’ clouds. You can just stand in your balcony and gaze it for hours, without expecting rains. In case you love photography, this is an excellent time to capture those Mughal tombs against a dynamic sky. 

When problem solvers become 'the problem'

Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems. - Scott Adams

I read this quote somewhere, and it made me think, I guess it has a greater meaning to it than Scott Adams would have known. I have always been close to engineers, in-fact some of my best friends are engineers and some of my cousins are engineers too. My father is a civil engineer and I have seen him working on tunnels, dams, railroads and power-plants since my childhood. No wonder at a very early age I got so fascinated to JCBs and CAT equipment.  I have seen him solve problems both at work and at home, he would fix households appliances himself and also encourage me to do so (which sadly I could never pick up). As I write this blog-post my dad is working in Manipur, braving out the rains to get a few tunnels done in time for the railway tracks to reach Manipur. This is what Engineering means to me and it makes the first part of the quote very sensible and true. 

Now as we move on to the second part of the quote, I believe it has many layers to it. The first one is obvious that Engineers like to create problems and then solve those for their own joy/amusement. I wish it would just stop there… There, however, seems to be a different scenario today...

Engineers today can’t solve problems, and to put it more clearly they themselves are the biggest problem for India. Sounds really stupid, isn’t it? Maybe even oxymoronic? Engineers are known to build, to create value and off-course to solve problems. Well look around, how many Engineers are doing it? Most of the engineers from IIT become so called investment-bankers or business-analysts. Engineers in streams like Pharmaceutical, Mining, Metallurgy and Textile hardly do what they study in their engineering. In case a hand few of them ventured out in other areas (where they are still mediocre) it would have been understandable, but when everyone tries to do things which he isn’t equipped for … it becomes a problem.

How do we solve this problem, thought the policy-makers and engineers? Well thanks to their short-sightedness and mediocre abilities one of the only answer they got was IIMs. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) is the 'holy-grail' of management education in India, what it also does is bring engineers to a level playing field. It is like a huge assembly line where these inconsistent and incompetent engineers get in and after two years they come out as at least consistent – with everyone having the same degree (and almost no ‘real’ knowledge). Getting into IIMs is not such big deal for engineers, because the paper has been designed in a way that gives them an edge over others. I wish the CAT was more robust and deep in selecting the very few, thereby justifying their selection. Essays as a part of the examination could possibly help achieve that.

Statistically, India produces around 4 Lakh Engineers and 85% of IIM seats are taken by engineers. Now that is the huge problem. It essentially means around 70% of people coming out from IIMs can’t decipher a newspaper, 75% have no idea why is Indian GDP growing at less than 6%, 80% do not know why they went to IIM and around 85% do not know what it takes to be a ‘leader’.

I have spent five years in corporate India, and I have come across several IIM guys. They are 'supposed' to lead India’s corporate landscape and sometimes they even do (thanks to their strong alumni affinity). In the global business landscape however, they haven't made their mark and I know for sure that they never will. 

तलाश

किस्सा ये उन दिनों का है,

जब मेरे पास ना नौकरी थी और ना पैसे,

इसी कारण मेरा अधिकतर वक़्त

घर में ही गुज़रता ...बैठे बैठे.

उन दिनों मेरी मुलाक़ात एक

प्रेमी युगल से हुई, हमारी दोस्ती

झटपट हो गयी क्योंकि मेरे पास काम न था

और उनके पास

शायद मकान ...

हर सुबह जब मैं अख़बार लेने अपनी

बालकोनी में जाता, इन दोनों को

आशा भरी नज़रों से बहार

प्रतीक्षा करते हुए खड़ा पाता ...

फिर मैं कुछ पल बाद

अपनी चाय की प्याली के साथ

बालकोनी में बैठ सुबह का आनंद लेता,

ये दोनों भी वहीँ बैंच पर बैठते और

मैं हाल-चाल कर लेता.

फिर दिन भर मैं मेज़ पर बैठ

नौकरी तलाशता,

किताबें पढता और सिगरेट सुलगता.

इन दोनों की चहल पहल से ही

वो उदास घर कुछ

जीवित लगता....

पूरा दिन घर में गुज़ारने के बाद,

शाम को मैं पार्क में सैर करने जाता था,

सैर सपाटे के बाद जब मैं घर लौटता

इन दोनों को मैं गायब पाता था.

कुछ महीने बाद मुझे नौकरी मिल गई,

इन दोनों के साथ मैंने अपनी ख़ुशी और मिठाई बांटी,

मनचाहा काम, अच्छा वेतन ... मुझे लगा

मानो ज़िन्दगी संवर गई.

पर नहीं.

नयी नौकरी कुछ दिनों में पुरानी होने लगी,

मेरे निजी समय पर उसकी पकड़ भी मज़बूत होने लगी,

धीरे-धीरे 'मेरे समय' की इस रस्साकशी में,

नौकरी विजयी होने लगी.

फिर दिवाली की सफाई के दौरान,

कमरे के रोशन -दान में

एक अधूरा घोंसला मिला,

ठीक वहीँ जहां वो दोनों सारा दिन

बैठे रहते थे.

Haryanvi and his wisdom

I have taken leave from work that day to take my motor-cycle to the mechanic. I knew it will be a long day at mechanic because there was a problem in the gear-box and it takes good one day to fix it. I wanted to be the first one at the mechanic (it works on first come first serve) that morning so I left early from my place.

When I reached there, I figured I wasn't the first one there. The first one was a lanky young man, dressed in white linen kind of shirt with dark blue denim pants to go with. Both of us waited patiently for my mechanic to turn up, finally after 35-40 minutes I saw my mechanic (Naushad Bhai) riding into the street. Naushad bhai is a man with very small built (around 5 feet and 2 inches), dark complexion (well what did you expect) and very humble personality. Naushad bhai hails from Bihar so he uses a lot of 'huzoor', 'bhai-jaan' and other goodies in his conversations (very unlike Delhi). However, like many men who seem to have inadequate vertical presence their area of influence spreads horizontally. Naushad bhai's work is well known in the whole of NCR and that day I saw it for myself.

The man in white owned a Royal Enfield Electra (2007 model) and he has come from Palval. Palval (I was told) is a small town near Mathura and it falls in Haryana. I have heard a lot about Haryanvis, and this guy was far from that description ... but as we started talking I realized why many detest Haryanvis. The conversation that happened is as follows (needless to say I have edited some, and removed many inappropriate words ... to make my blog suitable for all ages).

Haryanvi : Kyaa bhai, MH number ki gaadi?

Me : Haan ji. Bombay se lee thi.

Haryanvi : hmmmm. Yaar main kabhi Bombay nahi gaya.

Me : Jaa ke aayiye. Kaafi sahi jagah hai

Haryanvi: Theek hai. Kitna kharcha ho jayega?

Me : Plan banao. Kitne din, kitne log aur kaafi aur cheezon pe depend karega na.

Haryanvi: hmmmm. Bombay jaane mein bas ek hee tension hai ...

Me : kya?

Haryanvi: Roj roj jo gang-war hote hain na wahaan *beep*

Me : Roz nahi hote. Kisne kahaa aisa?

Haryanvi: TV mein, hamaare palval mein bhee har koi yahi bolta hai.

Me : Hmmm. Tension mat lo, roz nahi hota. Main 6 saal wahaan raha hoon.

Haryanvi: Fir toh theek hai, ab yeh batao kharcha kitna hoga?

Me : (Hoping he could read the irritation on my face, but I was expecting too much) hmmm, dekhte hain, uske baare mein baad mein baat karenge.

Haryanvi: Haan theek hai. Waise mujhe darr nahi hai ... par apan kyu gang war mein padein. *beep* Jindagi mein sukoon hona chahiye, kisi cheej ki hawas nahi honi chahiye. Apna simpil jindagi honi chahiye.

Me : Jee

Haryanvi: Hamare yahaan kahawat hai ki jo aadmi ne pahan liya aur jo kha liya bas wohi uska hota hai. Uske alawa sab kuchh yahin chhoot jayega.

Me : Sahi baat hai

Haryanvi: Sikandar, itna bada raaja thha. Jab woh mara toh uske saath kya gaya?

Me : Kuchh nahi

Haryanvi: Wohi toh.

Me : (I was thinking when will it end...) sahi baat hai

Haryanvi: Imaandaari se apna kaam karo, Naushad ki tarah. (Naushad I am sure is used to such praises; he was busy with my gearbox). Naushad ke paas isliye log itna door se aate hain kyunki yeh imaandaar hai.

Me : (I knew it somehow...) haan woh toh hai

Haryanvi: (To Naushad) Bhai, jaldi meri gaadi bhee dekh liyo aaj haajiri lagaane jaana hai.

Me : (I don't know why but I did ask him) Hajiri?

Haryanvi: Haan bhai ... yahi saala *beep* court kachheri kee hajiri

Me : aap ? Kyoon ? (for some reason I was not surprised)

Haryanvi: Property ka kaam hai na apna bhai ...

Me : hmmm

Haryanvi: Roz ka hee hai *beep* Kabhi hamare peechhe police wale maame, kabhi court wale taaoo. Hum hamesha aage hee rahte hain (laughs)

Me : aage rahna bhee chahiye life mein (didn't know what else to say)

Haryanvi: aage toh hamesha see hee rahe hain, kisi ko bhee ladh bajaana ho ... ghar mein hee bees log hain. Kisi baahar wale ki zaroorat nahi hai *beep*. Bas brothar life mein ek kami rah gayi ...

Me : Kya (I was so sure he will say a trip to Bangkok)

Haryanvi: Padhayi zyaada nahi kar paya (Damn !! I was disappointed). Ingliss ki kami kaafi lagti hai mujhe. Aap ko toh ingliss aati hogi na?

Me : Haan jee. Thodi bahut ...

Haryanvi: Brothar, mujhe apne saath kaam pe rakh lo. Ingliss sikha do bas, baaki toh hamari life mein koi kami na hai.

Me : Bhai sahab aap english newspaper padha karo, english films dekha karo aur seekh jaoge.

Haryanvi : Lekin mining (pronounced as mining in coal-mining) kaun batayega?

Me : Mining ?????

Haryanvi: Haan, 'maai-neeeng'

Me : aaah, (i finally joined the dots) ... dictionary.

Haryanvi : Itni mehnat kaun karega. Waise mehnat kaafi zaroori hai, mehnat ke aage duniya jhukti hai. Naushad itni mehnat karta hai isi liye he toh hum *beep* palval se yahaan tak aate hain. Kyun bhai Naushad sahi hai na ??

He started talking to Naushad and I made an exit. I had to make a conversation with him in the evening as well, but that’s another story.

What's happening to the world?

Everyday, different times, different situations ... this question keeps coming back to me. I am sure there will be at-least a few like me out there who would be thinking the same. This post is for them, and this will be the smallest (and probably one very important) reply to this mammoth question.

On October the 13th, like any other day (and for reasons I am still trying to comprehend) I opened my newspaper. I was generally going through the pages and it was no different from any newspaper I have read in the past one month. When I reached page # 11, which is the 'op-ed page' in the Indian Express terminology, I paused for a while and read the headlines and sub-headlines of the three articles on this page. Well, these three headlines and their sub-headlines are posted below:

1) The closing of our minds

Removing the A.K. Ramanujam essay from the Delhi University history reading list is a sorry compromise with intolerance - and a rejection of the spirit of academic inquiry.

2) Just another ordinary week

Except on Indian TV, no week is really that ordinary

3) The credibility of the government is its lowest since independence.

Well the articles of this page dealt with Education, Media and Government (in India) - three very important pillars of society and the articles brought back the big question to mind. I thought over it, everything looked so doomed, I was dejected, so I flipped on to the Economist page (one of the best feature of Indian Express and it deals with world at large) of the day's paper and the headline said:

A crisis carol

Things are starting to look depressingly familiar

बेदाग़ चाँद

उन पीपल की पत्तियों के
नोक पे झूला झूलती
बरसात की बूंदों से
मैंने एक निर्दोष चमक
मांगी थी,

उस जामुन के पेड़ के नीचे
जामुनी रंग के कालीन पे
लहरों की तरह भागती गिलहरी
से मैंने सरल चंचलता
मांगी थी,

उन पुरानी नज्मों की
किताबों में भूले हुए
फूल की पंखुड़ियों से
मैंने एक रूमानी शेर
माँगा था,

याद है मुझे,तुमको मिलने
के कुछ रात पहले ही
मैंने खुदा से एक
बेदाग़ चाँद
माँगा था.

ख़ुशी है जब माँगा
खुदा सुन रहा था,
शायद उसको भी नहीं होगा मालूम
उसको सुनाने के लिए
मैंने हर पल
तुमको
माँगा था.

इखलास

मुकम्मल है हर वो इशराक,
लाखों फिक्र-ए-जहां में
एक ख्याल जो तेरा है ...

उम्मीद की इमारतों के बीच,
उन तंग अँधेरी गलियों में
एक सोच से सवेरा है :

'ए खुदा जन्नत चाहे न मिले,
इन लाखों चेहरों में मगर ...
वो एक सितारा मेरा है'

बड़ा कमरा

उस कमरे से भी ऐसा रिश्ता होगा,
इस बात का एहसास था कहाँ,
व़ोह किताबें, व़ोह जंगला, व़ोह पोस्टर,
सब कुछ वैसा ही है यहाँ ...

एक कमरा तो आखिर एक कमरा होता है,
दीवारें, खिड़की, परदे, मेज़ और अलमारी,
इनसे जज़्बात का क्या ताल्लुक.
खैर, अब मुझे इल्म हुआ,
कई दफा कमरा भी हो सकता है हावी ...

काफी मर्तबा यह कमरा
एकाएक बढा हो जाता है,
मेरी आँखों में घूरता है.


और काटने को दौड़ता है ....

Yesterday ...

While the sun rises on my window,
and I wake up to this new day,
I know it in me, it won’t be
a day like yesterday.

There are tough decisions
I will have to make today.
And, it won’t be as simple
as it was yesterday.

I’ve date with my dreams today,
at the end of that slippery road.
And, it won’t be a smooth ride
as it was yesterday.

The stakes are high and the
challenges are much bigger today.
And I know, I won’t be as lucky
as I was yesterday.

All I can do is smile when
I look back at my traveled way.
I guess I know it now, the
only easy day … was yesterday.

Long over-due.

I didn't write this mail just for that blog link I reckon....
May be I just wanted to see you online after coming home, like in good ol' days,
Or just send in a sweet mail, writing wonderful it was to see you in this horrible phase.
Or may be to tell you that we should do this more often...

I didn’t write this mail expecting a sweet reply …
May be I just wanted to wish you goodnight, like in good ol’ days,
Or to simply let you know everything beautiful always stays.
Or may be to tell you how the years have went by…

I didn’t write this mail to tell you something new...
May be we can just go out and roam in Colaba, like in good ol' days,
Or just sit across the table, eat and laugh about the world's funny ways.
I did write in to say - so much my friend, is long over-due...

The Great Equalizer – 2

This story is the concluding part of The Great Equalizer – 1. Please do not read further in case you haven’t read the first part. Please read the first part and return…

The Deads have successfully conceived The Great Equalizer. They were optimistic, delighted and content, the Passionates on the other hand were occupied with their work. During the same period (late 1860s), an outfit of Scientists was engrossed with colossal calculations, research papers and rock minerals. These scientists were computing the age of earth and they were close to making some breakthrough revelations which will attract response from everyone, including the Church.

The Origin of Species (1859) was published during the papacy of Pope Pius IX, who defined dogmatically papal infallibility during the First Vatican Council in 1869-70. The council and the Churches in Europe were furious with the Passionates as their research and calculations (on age of the Earth) were intrusive to their faith. The Gods-men were furious with Passionates and this proved to be a divine sanction for the Deads. Deads could not have asked for a better arena … The Great Equalizer was now endorsed by the Vatican. A brand endorsed by an upset Pope, promoted by furious clergy and followed by desperate Deads could have never failed.

The most crucial meeting before the massive propagation of The Great Equalizer was held in Dublin in 1870s. All the records, notes and logs of the meeting were to be burnt after it was over. The meeting was attended by Pope, representatives from various churches in Europe, Planning and organizing committee of The Great Equalizer and a few eminent men from clergy. During the course of this meeting some strategic decisions will be taken and they will change the future of mankind …forever. The Great Equalizer was to be positioned as an ‘institution’ and ‘necessary evil’. The Great Equalizer should be fundamental to every one’s life and it should eventually determine one’s society worthiness. For the first time in the history of mankind so many men were agreeing to a doctrine unanimously. The meeting that lasted for over nine hours saw forty-nine drafts being sanctioned with no objections whatsoever. Every soul present sensed victory, the atmosphere was jubilant and the air smelt of celebrations that evening. Every one returned home, burnt the logs and notes from meeting and raised a toast to Marriage. Yes, Marriage was the name given to The Great Equalizer that evening, and it still remains unchanged in its essence, values and positioning.

Today, more than hundred years later The Great Equalizer has delivered what was expected from it. Many a passionate men get converted into a regular married guy once they enter this ‘institution’. The ideas of travel, adventure, instinctive decisions get transformed into EMIs, planning, organizing and savings for future. Married men sure become homogeneous; they have the same ideas, the same fears, the same aspirations, the same joys and even the same body language. They spend their time reading magazines on how to prolong excitement, how to fight hair loss, how to keep the spark alive in a relationship, how to tackle demanding wives, how to maintain a work-life balance, how to stay fit without going to gym, how to surprise your partner with a romantic getaway, how to manage your household expenditure without compromising on quality of life and so on. These magazines have become their literature, their wives have become their world, their 2 BHK flat in suburbs is their biggest dream and a visit to the nearby mall is nothing less than a romantic getaway.

The Great Equalizer - 1

‘They look so dead to me’ was my perpetual complain, and the reply was permanent too -“everyone is special in his own way” or “you shouldn’t judge people like that, there is something special in every person”. Twenty years hence, a lot has changed but their answers still resonate in my mind. I still wonder where did all this - 'everyone is special' came from. I seriously think that the world is pretty homogeneous right now in terms of consumption habits, environment issues, resources and most importantly – quality of population.

The human-race as I see it divided into two parts: Dead Men and Passionate Men. I know passion is the most abused word in English Dictionary these days (after Love and Attitude off course). To make it simpler for everyone - passion is what makes Peter Jackson accomplish LOTR trilogy, passion is the reason why Bhagat Singh died for his country, and passion is the reason why Rock makes you head-bang (and so much more). The Dead Men however, are exactly the opposite of passionate people. They form 90 percent of the human race and it’s not hard to spot them actually.

My research led me to two statements, and one of these was correct for sure:

1) If everyone is special in his own way, the world can’t have so many dead men.

2) If the world had so many dead men, then everyone can’t be special.

My research now needed some hardcore primary research. And I did it; most of the research was done on the internet though. Sample size was very close to a thousand men. The sample was not homogeneous by any standards. Research covered men from various nationalities, religion, financial backgrounds, states, race, and continents. The results of this year long research didn’t surprise me at all … the world indeed has 90% population as dead men. So it is safe to say that everyone here on earth isn’t special.

This blog entry however, wasn’t about proving Dead Men > Passionate Men. I strongly believe that there is some truth in the quote – ‘every man is special’ and there would have surely been some time when the world had more Passionates than the Deads. So what went wrong? How come the world is reduced to what it is right now? Why is the species of Passionates on a decline? How did the rise of Deads started and what triggered it? What is it that converted this world into a homogeneous world? I have been living with these questions for years now, and fortunately I am getting close to finding the answers. In order to understand it, we need to go back in time …

In 1864 Herbert Spencer coins a phrase after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The phrase was true and curt, the phrase — ‘Survival of the fittest’ was first published in his Principles of Biology (1864). And it did invite a lot of attention and reactions from academicians. The phrase however, was also a warning bell for some people in the society. Within days the world was full of secret societies and underground associations of frightened men. These men were scared for a number of reasons, but the most important reasons were- these men knew they are ‘unfit’ (mediocre and non-passionate or deads) and they feared their extinction because they were in minority.

Most of the celebrities in those times were scientists, photographers, artists and film-directors (unlike Paris Hilton, Rakhi Sawant and Rahul Mahajan of these times). These people were really passionate about their work and therefore got the best of women. This made the Deads (unfits) even more paranoid. The Deads craved for these women, they had to win them over but there was just no way they could have done it. Passionates on the other hand, kept doing what they did best and were never so bothered about women actually.

After months of brain-storming and strategizing the Deads finally made a breakthrough. This indeed meant a lot to them, since this can ensure a future for their future generations. They came up with something which will be ‘the great equalizer’. This will change the future of human-race and make it homogeneous. It will soon bring in times when ‘something different in every man’ will be obsolete …