Best Bet

God conceived it as an essential human virtue- Adam followed it but Casanova abused it; Romeo popularized it and Shahjahan externalized it, Devdas died for it and Chadramukhi waited for it- It is a feeling no one can ever hide or escape from! “It’s only in the mysterious equations of LOVE that any logical solutions can be found” says Russel Crowe in The Beautiful Mind!! In the innumerable ways that love can possibly manifest and express itself, kiss is one such form that, in fact, supersedes all the others. A “kiss of love” is that ethereal carnal perception which transcends a troubled soul into an idyllic paradise of pure and immortal love. Someone has rightly remarked, “A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.” One can “kiss, but not piss” on a road in a western country-while the reverse is true in India! I neither completely agree nor half-heartedly disagree this notion so firmly rooted in our desi minds. So, in India, PDA...

Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, conducts an All India PG Entrance examination annually for entry into post-graduation of Agriculture and allied disciplines viz., Veterinary, Dairy, Fisheries, Food Technology etc. in 20 major subjects. This entrance examination is meant to fill up 100% PG seats at CIFE (Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai), IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi), IVRI (Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar) and NDRI (National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal) and 15% seats in 5 CUs (Central Universities), 1 deemed-to-be-university and 56 SAUs (State Agriculture Universities). The notification is issued in the month of December every year and the exam is conducted in the month of April (usually 2 nd or 3 rd Sunday) of the next calendar year at 49 test centers spanning India. It is a pen-and-paper based test wherein 160 questions (150 ...

Sitting in the HA1 compartment of Navjeevan Express for the very first time in my life- a meld of emotions cross my mind- happiness at being selected to CSIR-CFTRI, sadness of leaving behind my friends at Anand, the confusion of what’s next and the joy of re-uniting with my family back home. WTF? A year of only 18 days? How can that be? Even if we were to be the denizens of mercury, one calendar year would have 88 days- the least for any planet of the solar system. Don’t jump the fence such sooner. You read it, you get it! Let me remind you that in my last blog titled “ The Call That Never Came ”- I had shared with you all, my mysterious CAT-2013 adventure that landed me with a morsel of mud in the mouth. The story begins so… Riding high on the back of my excellent GD/PI performance of IIM-A, in which I was damn  sure of being selected, I gave a casual attempt to the prestigious 19 th All India ICAR PG Entrance Examination-2014. I was, after all, #...

Here I am, sitting dejected with my head held in my hands- a common response of students to failure. Yes, I’ve failed. Despite doing mediocre well in CAT(Common Admission Test)- 2013 and securing a call from IIM-Ahmedabad for WAT/PI, which I felt I had almost converted with a WL #3, stands shattered today on the 19 th of June, 2013. I too had a dream to pursue MBA from an institution of (inter)national repute. And this dream made me to lose my valuable Post-Graduate seat at National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI)- a premier research institute in India to chase the mysterious world of CAT . I had, in fact, grossly underestimated the level of arithmetic and linguistic skills which CAT expects from us. Nevertheless, in the very starting days of my preparation in August, 2013 I realized the level of competence I would need to be there- at the prestigious Indian Institute of Managements. After a series of intense preparation that included almost 14-16 hours of study,...

Much before Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party made a spectacular debut in the Assembly elections of NCR Delhi and crumbled down under its own weight like a pack of cards, I’m sure Sheila Dikshit and co. would’ve been silently cursing the Right to Information under their own breath for all their misfortunes. Indian political history, until that point of time, was largely populated by political dynasties. Just like the Bollywood is replete with the Khans and the Kapoors, so is the political pantheon with the Gandhis (Congress), the Yadavs (Samajwadi Party), the Gowdas (Janata Dal), the Reddys (YSR Congress), the Chautalas (INLD) and many more contributing their heart and soul and flesh and blood to run/loot this country and carry on the legacy of their godfathers. The wave of Aam Aadmi party, a term subsequently hijacked by BJP to foment the popularity of its PM candidate, and its promise of delivering citizen-friendly governance and corruption free politics breathed life into ...

If there's one word in English lexicon that can boast of a huge fan following- it's LOVE !  Love (definitions no bar!!!) is like marijuana- the more you consume it, the more you want of it!  But, is love in danger?   As the danger of identity crisis looms large on LOVE- a result of human tendency of "over-exploitation" to satisfy the personal needs, what is that has gone wrong? Is having an emotional quotient right or wrong? Here's what my friend Akshay Thakur has to say about this off-the-beat but not-so-unknown subject to the youth. I'm sure by the end of this beautiful article, you'll be mesmerized with his different shades of thinking all rolled into this linguistic masterpiece-that it is! Fuelling up the ailing Relationships Do notice ‘The Notice’ below before you proceed    Things which you must keep in mind before/while/after reading this write-up. Oath Taking ceremony begins : 1.      ...