Atlast the end of 2008! Whew, what a year! Eventful, but yet, what events! For West Bengal, for India and for the world in general, this year was indeed remarkable! Terror attacks all over the country, ultimately culminating in to the major Mumbai attack of 26/11, recession all over the world, the election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi throwing his shoes at George W. Bush (really, if not for anything else, this man should be appreciated for his bravery!), altogether, this truly was a turbulent year! This year West Bengal was turned in to a mere stage where one of the most humiliating political dramas, this country ever witnessed, was unfolded. 'The Singur-Nano Issue'. The central character was played by our very own Mamata Banerjee, as Ratan Tata and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya tried their best to look convincing as the villains against whom our great heroin fought to win her ground. The extras were played by the inhabitants of Singur, and the rest of West Bengal proved to be an extremely patient audience to this entire show! It had its own nail-biting moments, twists and turns, secrets and suspense, and in a way, it was very unique. That is to say, it was the first of its kind. It was a farce, a melodrama, a comedy for outsiders and a tragedy for the people of West Bengal. It was a mixture, anyday and anytime more entertaining than a Bollywood masala movie!

On a more serious note, 2008 was an eye opener for the common mass. We were made aware of our vulnerability, the futility of our politicians, the poor state of security inside our own country. We were made aware of how our own politicians tried their best to pull us apart, to destroy our unity, and how we acted as mere puppets in their hands, against our own will! The coming together of the entire nation after 26/11, the support and sympathy of the nations of the world for India after 26/11, the election of a 'black' President in a country where just a few years ago racism was a serious issue, are not mere co-incidents. It is a clear message. The people of the world are now coming together to fight against what is wrong, what is evil. They are now joining hands to establish peace and equality all over the world, to bring down heaven on earth, to make the world a 'better place' to live in. Let us all be a part of this great movement. Let us eradicate all the evils from our minds, hearts and society. Let us show the terrorists that if we all unite together to fight them, no matter how trained they are, how powerful they are, they won't stand a chance!

You may say I'm a dreamer,

But I'm not the only one.

Hope someday you'll join us,

And the world will be as one!

---------John Lennon.

Sometimes I really don't understand what's the meaning of education in today's world! Why do people get educated? To earn money? Probably so. Because their education rarely get reflected in their behaviour! They behave like machines nowadays. Some of them become servants to their desires and some of them become servants to the whims of the society. They don't ask what, how, why, when, where anymore. They just do what is 'expected' from them. I mean, why do educated people behave like living corpses nowadays? Why don't they understand that true education is a material to the making of their personality and not merely something to be reflected on their report cards? Why do they lack moral values, personal opinions and mental integration? Why is it so easy nowadays to brainwash the common mass in the name of politics, religion, culture?

I think I have asked too many questions already to prove that I stand out from the crowd. Yes, I do have my personal opinions about the world to which I belong and I do have my moral values which guide me through difficulties. And may be, because of this, I occupy a unique stand in the society from where I can see its various flaws, and which intrigue me a lot.

Some people think that the youth of today have a lot of say in the society. Well, permit me to comment upon this statement as a part of this youth and say that it is wrong. Most of them don't have any say even about their careers. Their parents decide for them what they will study and what careers they will pursue in future. They are brought up from the very beginning in such a way that most of them don't even develop the habbit of deciding for themselves! Some of them later on develop this habbit, but by the time they do so, it's too late and their fields are chosen. This sometimes happens in the case of marriage as well. But nowadays, the youths are capable enough of choosing wrong partners for themselves!

Well, the above statements are not completely baseless. I can prove them. Have we ever wondered how many engineers our country have produced in the last few years? Thousands and lacs! Most of my friends have applied for engineering solely because their parents want them to become engineers. As a result, to absorb these students their have been a mushroom growth of private engineering colleges and unemployed engineers have already become a common sight! Science is a field which requires maximum aptitude, but again, it is the most common field today! But do all these people have the proper aptitude required for science? The answer is a big NO.

I can give another proof. If it were not so easy to brainwash the youth of today, their wouldn't have been so many youthful terrorists, ready to loose their life for no reason at all, without asking "WHY?"!

At last my exams are over and I'm free to pay attention to the world around. I've no idea what makes me repeat the same mistake time and again! I simply don't feel the need of studying before I'm quite sure that there's practically no time left for preparations! By the time I realise that my exams are about to start, they are never round the corner, but they actually collide with me! As a result, as long as they last, they are my centre of attraction, my first love, my life, my everything! I eat exams, drink exams, sleep exams (oops! I don't sleep actually), think exams, and by the time they end, I develop dark circles round my eyes. But in the meantime, I miss out a lot!

I really feel ashamed to own up that this time my exams prevented me from following the news properly after 26/11. And believe me, nothing was more frustrating for me than that. The news was disturbing and distracting for me. I literally forced myself to avoid the television. I always felt so ignorant and at times, I even felt sefish! I craved to voice my opinion, to do something meaningful. But I couldn't! I wanted to raise my voice against terrorism, but I had to bury that voice deep down within myself. But the question that perturbs me very much is that if I had voiced my opinion, who would have been my listener? Do the politicians of our country still possess the sense of hearing? Do they still remember that they are not actually rulers but merely representatives of the common mass of a democratic country, where the people have the last say and not them? I doubt that!

Well, you simply don't get thoughts flowing out of you when you have a father nagging you continuously for dinner! I chose a wrong time to write this. I'll really have to stop here abruptly........