The Fountainhead

Its been a while that I pen something due to self imposed deadlines and the obvious  devil of procrastination. So to begin with, I would like to consider Indian/world history in which I found solace recently and a few novels. I will deal with history later, so I think I just write about a novel I read very recently, "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. Its one of the fantastic novels that I have come across. 


Its a story of an highly talented revolutionary architect in New York, who follows his own path without worrying about the supposed society norms and the traditions. As a result he had to face hostility from the society and he ought to struggle at every step of his life.  This is a story of a guy who survived and established himself despite all the odds.

The protagonist is Howard Roark, a highly individualistic and a gifted architect who always try to come up with innovative designs for the buildings. Though Howard seems to be very complicated, he is the simplest character in a sense that he believes in his abilities, and so he carry on working without any dependence.  The other characters are also too captivating, but I choose to discourse only about Howard Roark. After reading the whole book, some qualities of  Howard Roark left some strong impressions on me, i) His motto was 'objectivism', which means he view a person by only on what and how he/she is working on, and nothing else like the reputation, degrees to say.  ii) He executed every task with same dignity whether it is architectural design or a meager job. iii) He let all disgraces fall upon him but never compromised to sell his soul.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and any reader interested in any of the above points will find this novel an intellectually fascinating journey. 

Fire (Nonsense) drills in the middle of night

Fire drills are normally executed to measure the time taken by the inmates of the building for the evacuation in case of emergency situations. Fire drills usually commence with a very agitating alarm sound. The supposed situation may also be one of the applications of "conditioned reflex" theory of Pavlov ( the famous theory of dog salivation where it trained to have food after the ringing of a bell), only in a behavioral aspect though, in the sense, one should interpret that the agitating alarm is indeed a fire alarm and should evacuate the building immediately. But what if the fire alarms ring in the middle of the night?


There has been more than two fire alarms per month, in the residence university building where I live currently, most of them after 9pm. I respected the alarm, and used to vacate the building every time it breaks. Of late  I woke up twice in the middle of the night (2am, 3:30am) by a fire alarm which was on for fifteen minutes. Once, out of over-respect to the alarm, I came out of my building in the chilly french night, only to find nobody outside. I felt like a hungry dog cheated by Pavlov followers, where the bell rung but without a trace of a food particle. Well, that does not mean that I want the building burn down to ashes, but my agony was that nobody was outside except me. Another  day, I ignored the alarm which tried to disturb me around 3:30am. I acted like a deaf politician who ignores the constant vexation of the people. Now, I have been trained that the alarm is for a fire drill, but I will respond to it only when I  hear the convulsions and screams of a mob and smell the burning smoke. At the same time let me hope that God does not play dice with my building.

Honesty and Statesmanship

"Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual manners for the public good." - Abraham Lincoln

When it comes to Indian Politics, then one can accord that it is difficult for a leader to be compatible with the Indian politics and be honest at the same time. But there are some leaders who are maintaining honesty in the system, AK Antony, the Defence minister of India, is one of the few in that basket. Recently, Gen VK Singh, the army chief, has made allegations about the bribe offered to him by an equipment lobbyist, and subsequently he revealed that he informed to the Defence minister Antony, who then could not take action against the lobbyist. The allegations which revealed by Gen VK Singh, has spurred many debates in the both houses of the parliament and across the media. It may mar the reputation of AK Antony, one of the clean politicians of India.

In response to this issue, he complained to the CBI to commence a comprehensive probe immediately. He also promised the action against the guilty, however powerful he may be. He was fair in saying that he acted on his judgement, and he could be punished if he was wrong. He was often accused for the delay in procuring equipments for the Defence, the process which require the approval of many authorities: which causes the rise in the price of the equipments from the bidding date to the approval date. He was just following the procedure. But he has the record of embarking on the legal probe immediately and following it whenever a mischief happened in the departments covered by his ministry (Adarsh scam, Sukna land scam). Unfortunately it is a reaction, but not an anticipated action. However, his integrity and his penchant for not compromising on corruption were well known across the political parties.

AK Antony has modest overall assets and the least movable assets (5 lakhs) in the cabinet of India. He is one of the ten powerful Indians in 2012, but never own a vehicle. He took a home loan for the construction of his house in Kerala. His son has graduated from Stanford with an education loan from Canara bank, where his wife worked for the most part of her life.

Having said that, just being honest and playing safe doesn't serve welfare of the country. A crucial political leader must be a person of statemanly judgement. Honesty with statesmanship is a lethal combination of a strong political leader. The current issue of the Army chief, which surfaced the rift between the Army and the government, stink to high heavens. Lets hope that AK Antony serve in catching hold of all the guilty and act with jurisprudence to complement his Mr.clean image.

Burning an effigy of Gaddafi in Noonepalle

It was funny, shocking, and surprising to me when I was reading the news of Noonepalle (small village in AP) in district news section of an Online paper recently, I found a ludicrous mob led by a notorious local leader (name is not disclosed), burning the effigy of Gaddafi, to protest Gaddafi's atrocities in Libya. The irony which I think is that, whether he will able to locate Libya in world map or at least answer in which continent it lies, yet he protests. He protests because the issue is attractive and his photo might appear in the news, which he believes it as the token of popularity. In the same edition of news, it is mentioned that students in a government school are suffering because of lack of quality of afternoon meals in a free-afternoon-meal scheme provided by the government. It is also mentioned that government schools are not having adequate number of teachers, the number currently is appalling. They wont advocate an inch about these because the issues are not that appealing and he might not appear in the news. Instead of worrying about issues happening somewhere in other part of the world, if he can concentrate about problems regarding welfare of people in his locality, he might not appear in the news every time but he will, one day find a place in peoples heart.

Che Brahmavera

Recently when I was surfing the net, I came across this overwhelmingly laugable pic of "Brahmanadam", the comedy legend of telugu film industry. I could not stop laughing and it eventually strained my stomach. Whoever morphed the image, first of all thanks to that person's largesse spirit. Though the predecessor of this photo was Late Che Guevera, the revolutionary leader of Cuba, the supplant of this pic is not less than a revolutionist in his own arena, the comedy. Its been more than 20 years he has been in telugu film industry as a comedian, we never got bored of him, such are his variations. Some movies in Andhra Pradesh are hit just because of his splendid perfomance in the movie, which weighs more than the perfomance of protagonist in the movie. Recently his grandness has touched another roof, people have started applauding more for introduction of Brahmi than the introduction of hero. Brahmi, you are the true legend, bringing happiness to so many people. Longlive Brahmi.

Tough Questions I asked myself

Its in the process..It'll take sometime to gather the answers and put it here

My Patriotism rediscovered

My patriotism..true its my patriotism which lied beneath under grey matter of head. It was with me when I prayed "Vandemataram" daily in school. It was developing when I started to listen about freedom fighters in school. But some how as soon as I started learning Science, my patriotism started slowly fading away. Might be because of conditions I was in, I started disliking everything about India. It was at its peak when I was doing BE. Tell you what I attended only one or two (of all 8 Independence days and Republic days) during my entire course. Even working in Bangalore didn't change me realise the greatness of India because of traffic pollution and my greedy owner where I used to stay.
But much to my amusement(because I didn't like education that much during BE) to myself I joined IIT for Mtech. I can say that this is the turning point in my life. People in AP say SSC is the turning point (I didn't turn :P), and more say +2(Even then I didn't turn), finally getting BE(Even then I didn't turn much). Then when the hell is my turning point? and how is this related to patriotism anyway?

It is related in fact.Because I got inspired by some true alchemists (Till then I know only one alchemist..created by Paulo Coelho) in IIT. Who? Profs. Tell you what they are the most talented people yet very simple with low salaries. In my opinion they are serving the country right from their heart. If they want they can earn money like anything. They are ppl who study science for the sake of science and nothing else. So my patriotism started growing as I started to emulate some of their aspects, as every student does.
But it reached peak right after terror attacks in Mumbai in 26/11/08. People were in chaos during this attack and they want somebody to rescue them from the heartless terrorists firing bullets everywhere. First fire brigade ppl came and rescued them to the cost of their lives. But the true heroes were yet to come. After the death of ATS high officials during that event NSG(National Security Guard)'s entered the scene. They looked like black tigers in their black dresses , with no fear in their eyes. They entered the places where terrorists were hiding and risked their lives to save innocents. They made their lives purposeful as contrary to large ppl who don't know why they are living. Some Majors in NSG lost their lives during this operation. After 60 hours of continuous battle with terrorists, NSG commandos showing no signs of fear told something to media that I'll never forget in my life. Here are they

" Kuch nahi hua hai. Ek hafte mein chaalu ho jaayega. Aap aao khaao piyo, jab tak hum log hain koi tension nahi hai." (Nothing has happened here. It'll be open for guests in a week. You people come, have fun, eat and drink, there is no tension till we are there).

"Kuch nahi, andar gaye, deepwali manaayi, aa gaye."

"Hamare Liye Kuch Bhi Mushkil Nahin Hain!"(Nothing is difficult for us).

I was awestruck at that very moment when I was watching their comments on TV. Hats off to them. This shows how much they love their duty. Now my patriotism is all time high after observing NSG's. Hope It'll stay there.