Be yourself...

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:01:00 +0530

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend who took some decision without thinking. It was entirely based on someone's comment. It took me to my childhood when I read a story and today I found that on the Internet so thought of putting here.

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Once a man, his boy, and a donkey were traveling to a city that was very far away. On their way there, they passed many villages and met many different kinds of people who believed very different things. The man prided himself on being an open-minded person who accepted these differences among people and the things they believe, and he wanted to teach his son to accept different beliefs too.

One day, the two travelers and their donkey walked into a village where the people believed that being young was the most beautiful thing and that young people should be admired and honored. When they saw the man and his boy walk into town, they stopped them and said to the man, “You’re not taking proper care of the young boy. He should be honored and allowed to ride on the donkey instead of walking.” So the man put his boy on the donkey and they rode out of town.

On the next day, they came to a village where the people believed that the older a person is, the more he should be respected. When they saw the man walking by with his son riding the donkey, they stopped him and said “You are the eldest. You should be the one riding the donkey.” So the man lifted his son off the donkey and got on it himself.

On the next day, the three came to a village in which the people believed that animals have rights just as humans do and that they should be respected and honored just as much as humans are, if not more. When they saw the man riding the poor, tired donkey, they became angry with him and said, “The poor donkey has been doing all of the work and you have done none of it. The donkey has just as much right to ride as you do.” So the man got off of the donkey. He and his son cut a strong pole and tied the donkey’s feet to it so that they could carry him and give him a rest.

On the next day, they came to a village where everyone believed that people are the highest creatures in a world order that has been created by God, and that all other creatures should serve people as their masters. They laughed at the man and boy carrying the donkey and said that they should both ride the beast and whip him with a stick if he refused to carry them. So they both got on the donkey and rode him out of town.

The next day they arrived at a bridge just outside the city where they were going. The donkey was tired and sat down on the bridge. The man told his son to go fetch a stick to hit the donkey with to make him go, and the boy did as he was told. He stood behind his father and watched as he prepared to hit the donkey. . . but the donkey saw what was coming, and as the man raised his stick to hit him, the donkey kicked him hard, sending both the man and his son tumbling into the river below. By the time they swam to shore, the donkey had run off and left them.

Discussion of Story What do you think of the man in this story? Was he wise or foolish? Why? Do you think it was a good idea for the man to try to do what everyone else believed in? I’ve asked you this question before: What are the people in this building called? (Right: Unitarian Universalists.) Now the man in our story is a little like Unitarian Universalists in that he wanted to respect different beliefs. Unitarian Universalists think that is important too. But respecting different beliefs doesn’t mean that we should do everything that other people believe in. That’s what the man tried to do wasn’t it . . . and it didn’t work out well. We can’t be like all other people. It’s good to listen to other people and to try to understand what they believe in, but we still have to choose what we believe in. Can you think of anything that UU’s believe in?

Link to the story

Labels: fiction

Four years in RECK - chapter 1

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:52:00 +0530

I thought of writing a fiction while introducing you to my college. This is first attempt of such type so bear with me

RECK – Regional Engineering College Kurukshetra, a dream came true when I went to see my CEET result. CEET is common engineering entrance examination conducted in Haryana for all engineering colleges in the state.
On the main gate of the college, I met Ankit. Ankit was my classmate in school.
Ankit shouted, “Dude, you are the one in all 30,000+ students!!!”
“I am the one? What the hell are you talking about? I know how did my paper go and I can not get first rank on that”, told with an optimistic look at him.
“No, not in that way yaar. Your rank is 115 but the strange thing is that your total marks are also 115. See the logic is that, when the marks will be more, rank will be higher and when marks will be less, rank will be lower. Hence, you are at the cross section of the graph drawn for these two parameters”, now he started annoying me. I was really happy to know that I got 115 but didn’t want to hear his math logic at that time.
“BC, don’t give me all this crap and let me see the result with my eyes. BTW, what is your rank?” I asked him while kicking the pedal kick of my bike.
He shouted saying that he got rank 343. I didn’t bother to ask details as I was curious to know my own result.
Thank God! Indeed, it was 115 with Math – 43, Physics – 37 and Chemistry – 35. I was very happy after seeing the result and couldn’t wait to talk to others when I rushed for home. When I shared this good news with my family, all of them were very happy. We had a party at home on that day. I was eagerly waiting for the day of counseling, which was August 8, 1997.
At last, the day had come. Being in the first 150 ranks, I was in the first batch only. It was a lovely setup there in the Jubilee Hall, where we had TVs in all corners to tell us the current status of availability of seats. Considering all seats were available for our batch, music was played on those TV sets. When I entered in the main door of the auditorium, it was playing “mere haathon mein…” from “Chandani”.
There was couple of other guys from my class with rank 1 (Ajay) and rank 51 (Rohit) so I sat with them only. All of us introduced to each other’s families first time, this bonding resulted in a good friendship with all of them for long.
Now, the person started calling rank wise to opt for the available seats. When my number came, 8 computer science and 10 electronics seats had been taken. I had the option of taking any one of the remaining seats in these two branches in RECK or any other seats in any REC all over India. I didn’t take a second to opt for ECE as it was pre-decided.
Coincidently both of other classmates also opted for ECE and hence, we were classmates again for 4 more years.
The first day of the college was supposed to be August 26, 1997 so I started preparing myself for that after coming back home.

Labels: fiction, Four years in RECK

Mittal, Amit - Fiction

Be yourself...

Four years in RECK - chapter 1