FINAL YEAR EPIDEMIC - "PlacemeNxiety"

PLACEMENT TIME! HURRAY!!! “Ahem Ahem (cough cough)”… Sorry! That’s nowhere near the real story.

As we enter the final year of our undergraduate studies we are not only looking forward to complete the course but also to secure a major part of our future through placements. The companies coming in have a sole purpose – to get the best possible candidate as an employee. Similarly, a student wishes to get the best possible company as an employer. If the interests on either side are as complimentary as they seem; then why do students face an unexplained anxiety regarding placements year after year? The answer lies in the role played by the “Placement Cell”…er…role NOT played by the “Placement Cell”.

Even if we rank among the best in India, why is it that many reputed companies do not recruit from our university? Why is it that a new company is hardly seen in our campus? The answer---the Placement cell lacks the foresight and planning.

It is the duty and the responsibility of the Placement Cell to see to the fact that their students get placed; but their job mustn’t end there. The endeavour of the Placement Cell should be to ensure best possible future for the candidates. Otherwise a Placement Cell is no different from a ‘Telephone Exchange’ or ‘Post Office’—making frantic calls or sending official letters to various companies asking whether they would come for recruitments or not. Unfortunately, in our University they fail to understand this which results not only in a scrappy placement system but also in considerable harassment of our students. New rules are flashed as-and-when required without putting in an iota of serious thinking. In the meantime companies keep coming in while most of the students are still apprehensive about their next BIG STEP. What needs to be done is to provide one-on-one counseling sessions to each student and assess his/her performance to create a database regarding individual field of interest and competency. The student should then be given information regarding various companies where he/she might excel as per the assessment done before. This will give the student an opportunity to be aware of all that is on offer and to seriously consider his/her options (as a PPT isn’t really enough to know everything). The result should be compiled and sent to the Placement Cell where the review of such a list would give them an idea of the recent trend i.e. in which sector/industry are the students most interested in. Subsequent efforts should be made to bring in more companies from that sector, new contacts have to be made and companies have to be made aware that we have what they want. This would result in students’ satisfaction and also raise our demand among various industries.

That’s just some of the things that may be done. I am sure many more ways exist. If it’s not the duty of Placement Cell to look for them; what is their job in their comfy chairs? The placement co-ordinators try their best to persuade those people into some constructive action but they turn a blind eye irrespective of the seriousness of the matter. Until and unless those important people understand the crisis themselves our placement procedure would continue to be in a sorry state. A review of this whole century-old system is necessary, the sooner the better.

WORST CREATION OF GOD

You keep your feet on the ground
and your eyes on the sky,
but you want to jump and so ask dreamer,
“Can I have a parachute?”

Your have your mind on the enemy
and your heart on the trigger,
yet you think and fear killer,
“Oh! Can I shoot?”

You hide the logic in your pockets
and your tricks in your hands,
still you wonder trickster,
“Can I run the show?”

You ask a lie in your questions
and answer the same in truth,
and if you answer a lie you say seeker,
“Is there any truth to know?”

You save your money in a bag
to torch it to ashes,
if you have no money you scream miser,
“What’s there to bag and burn?”

You were gifted a life which you earn in death
you know not how to live,
so you cry stinker,
“Is this why I should run?”

You dream big but then ask for help;
and you say you are the best!
You reach for glory and yet you tremble;
and you say you are the best!
You have a name but you forget yourself;
and you say you are the best!
Your lies feed on truth while you smile;
and you say you are the best!
You whisper money while you scream peace;
and you say you are the best!
Your life stinks with the stink of stink;
and you say you are the best!

You were born as the God’s kid but you grew into a human;
and still you say you are the best!

HA!
How many times will you die?

Kill The Robin Hood

Step out ‘ol man and hand over your belongings to us. You will not be harmed.

But, who are you sir?

I am Robin Hood, protector of the weak and poor!

(whimpering) O take it take it I need none of this!

Be off ‘ol chap and be good. Have a good journey!

Fancy story eh! Now lets change the setting --- Its central India, the ‘ol man is the Indian Government AND Indian people and the self proclaimed Robin Hood is not green but red; draped all red in the flags of Maoism. Now the story is no longer a fancy one but one of murder, loot, kidnapping and extreme oppression.

With the recent attack on CRPF personnel in Bijapur and killing 8 of them after only a month of their single biggest blow of damage magnitude 76 in Dantewada, two things are quite clear – 1. Maoists have planned their moves well 2. Indian Government has failed to do so. The Dantewada incident raised a storm of political sympathy and promised to be a reason of strong counter-attack from our side. Many words were said, debates were held, strategies were made and they all resulted in Bijapur damge magnitude 8. The political fools must realize, the sooner the better, that plans are made on both sides but the red army puts them to reality too.

The Maoist not only murder our forces but they do so with our own weapons. They believe in “using enemies’ weapons against them and in doing so rendering them weaponless”. That is the reason why so much looting of rifles, ammunitions etc. happens across the red districts. CRPF stand no chance if they are always ambushed as such. What needs to be done is that they should be retrained in guerilla warfare, given better weapons and develop a widespread local intelligence and surveillance system to monitor Maoist movements.

But for any success the people who knowingly or unknowingly support the Maoists have to be made aware about the hazards of the red movement. Frankly we can’t blame them. For a region which hasn’t seen the footsteps of the Government for ages, Maoist propaganda lets them believe it to be the only glimmer of hope to liberate them of their problems. Here we see the “softer” Maoism in action, playing on people’s minds and easily getting them to their own support. Where people are aware of the red barbaric activity but have no one else to help them against them, we see the “actual” Maoism, kidnap and ransom, threats etc. to get their supplies.

Government has got so much to do against this insurgence that they may well start on strong notes. Induct Air power I say! Why shy away from the easiest option to demolish their strongholds. Push in more units in the area and funds to support the development, thrust the awareness about Maoism to everyone’s doorstep. When in Sri Lanka, they were chasing the LTTE, India was the first to offer their support. Hey man! first check out the monsters under your own bed willya! Sri Lanka did a cleansweep in no time and we are still nowhere.

What the government needs to realize is that Maoists are no brainless brats brandishing whatever weapons they could get hold of. They have leaders who have a single priority of overthrowing Indian Government and so they need to be taken care of first.Stop chasing the tail. Show some guts and WAKE UP!

Firstly…WELCOME! to my blog. It is the first one from my side and hope it remains the only one. As it is my very first post I think I should make it a bit of an introductory one.
So why on earth did I decide to start blogging? To be honest; the answer to that is still not clear to me. But a part of me believes that it came naturally.It seems, since my schooldays ended, I have always done something NEW at the end of the academic year. At the end of 0th year at my college – I joined it, at the end of 1st year – I joined the only MMORPG I ever played, at the end of 2nd year – I joined Facebook and Orkut and now as my 3rd year at college has ended – I joined Blogger.
The name “World Of Estel” may not ring any bell if you haven’t truly known me for some time. Those who have will know that ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ has always been a part of my life and ‘ESTEL’ is actually a word taken from the same. It is the word for ‘HOPE’ in Elvish language as devised by J.R.R.Tolkien.
Anything we do has its roots in some factors – external and internal. To start off with the external ones first comes “knowledge” – we can’t do a thing about which we have no knowledge, then comes “guidance” – it uses the knowledge you have and lets it flow in proper channels and then comes “creativity” – a virtue inspired by being in an environment of proper knowledge and guidance. The first internal factor is “instinct” – which seeks no logical explanation but lets you think about a possibility, the second one is “idea” – a direct result of all the external factors which sheds light on every possible way and the associated probabilities. The third and, I think, the most important factor is “hope”. That is the single and final factor which lets you believe that YOU CAN. It is different from “expectation” in a way that expectation lets you believe that YOU WILL, and so if you fail along the way, disappointment becomes your companion. Whereas hope lets you try out other probable ways of getting there.
Many will vary with my opinion here. But I have learnt my lessons and I like to hope than expect.
If you aren’t already bored by this time you may want to know about the “Silent Rebel” stuff. Well it is what it is – A SILENT REBEL. arr arr! I am personally one as I DO NOT follow many well placed, worn out, stupid, orthodox ideas and rules in life and society. Specially those which people expect me to follow or force me to do so. The reason? I wanna prove to myself that I CAN live the same way as others do without unnecessarily chaining myself down and also show the fools who force them upon me that they can mind their own business! But as I don’t force MY views upon them like they do, this rebel prefers silence to tackle the situation. It is a quality which I hope to possess at all crucial points in my life.
Hmm…I think its enough to clear out the questions regarding this blog.
As for whether I will be really blogging or this is just a fluke! Well I will. Where else can I let people willingly bore themselves by reading big boring paragraphs like the ones above huh? (this is a very big incentive)
So…cya later ppl.