Thoughts of a 17-year-old Indian

I read an article yesterday in The Hindu called 'Why Kudankulam is untenable' by Suvrat Raju and M.V Ramana. I've never heard of them, but they seemed so sure that the Kudankulam plant should be scrapped. They even went so far as to say that India doesn't need nuclear power. What crap. Okay, may be nuclear reactors in India don't produce as much power as promised. But the potential still exists. Actually, we're not able to produce much power from nuclear energy because we don't know how to use it more efficiently. How're countries like France and Lithuania(Lithuania at that!) able to generate as much as 78% of their electricity from nuclear sources? Obviously, they have/know something we don't. And instead of trying to figure out what that is, we're sitting and talking about shutting the whole thing down. It doesn't make sense at all. BUT(a big one)you can't say the whole nuclear thing's safe either. Fukushima's taught us that. W

It was at a diner in a mall where I first heard of The Historian. I had gone out with my friends and was having dessert when i asked one of my friends to suggest a book. He's as fanatical about books as I am, albeit in a different way. He was a big fan of sci-fi books and he'd told me many other books that i loved reading. Anyway, he told me to read a book called The Historian. Typical, i thought. He was fond of books that blended history with mystery. I didnt think too badly of such books either. Besides, it had been sometime since i last read a book. So, the next day i went to the local library armed with a list of books, with The Historian topping the list. I wasn't too impressed by the cover when i saw the book. But then, i've always followed the adage 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' and i decided to get it. When i first started reading the book, i thought it was definitely going to be be something. It's the story of a young girl who found a m

The curse of being born an FC-Forward Caste member. The very name suggests that it is a class of educated people, more forward than the rest of the communities, socially and more importantly, economically. But I disagree. In today's India, it is this class of people, not belonging to any particular state or language in our country, that is more beleaguered and oppressed than any other. When the concept of Reservation was first introduced in our country by the makers of the Constitution, it was done with the intention of raising the economic, educational and social status of the oppressed classes. And they were definitely oppressed then, which justified introducing reservations for them in Government jobs, educational institutions, etc. But even those men, whose motives were more politically motivated than social reform, who introduced it could not envisage it's continuation for as long as now. However, that's not to say that there were none who did opposed it. Thankfully, e

It's that time of the year again. Every body's scrambling for their books to study. The bright ones take it with casual ease, while the slackers struggle to cope with the massive syllabus. As my friends and everyone around me move with worried expressions and exam frenzy, i wonder whether they realize that the Mid-terms or the Quarterly Examination as we call it, marks the end of our last year in school. Only 6 more months to go for college or whatever plans we have after school. So I sat and thought about it. Do I really regret leaving school? I'm surprised at the answer i come up with. 12 years of education in the same school and i realize I WANT to go. Move on to bigger, better things. Not only that, these last two years leave a bitter taste in my mouth. They weren't exactly the 'fun filled years' that high school kids in other countries(or even cities, in my case) enjoy. They were mostly dreary, study-24x7-and-still-cant-get-a-good-grade years. And I've

The age of computers. That's what they call our generation. With every home having a computer, one knows how to operate a PC before learning to read and write properly. So, it's quite obvious that kids know how to use a computer and inevitably, the internet. In such a situation, it's reasonable that parents should be concerned about the safety of their children. After all, there are a lot of harmful stuff on the net like viruses and stuff that can affect the computer and worse, even things that can harm a child mentally. I'm sure you all have heard about many children being kidnapped by a guy they met on the net. Chatting with unknown people, accidentally inducing viruses into the PC(or laptop), porn, etc. are a few of the many dangers of the virtual world we call 'the net'. But does all this warrant the measures which parents everywhere have taken? Newspapers like Chennai Times actually advise parents on how to keep 'tabs' on kids!The nerve of them! And

It's the start of another year and the annual Mylapore Festival came around! If there was ever a more busier week in Mylapore, I'd like to ask when. Huge stalls of food varieties(idlis, dosas, vadais and such)were piled everywhere, with people having leaf plates in their hands and eating them. The coffee i had was simply superb. It was a funda time for students as well, so many of them were there with their friends. It seemed the whole of Mylapore had come together to celebrate this one week and the result was astounding. But let's talk about the other stuff there as well. Not only food, but a lot of stalls happened to have marudhani(henna) designing, small artefacts were sold and many other curiosities as well. The Mylapore Festival is not only a time where people come and eat food at cheap rates, but it's also a cultural show. Many dance programmes, awareness plays and other forms of entertainment were provided throughout the week. I happened to see an art contest whe