Quo Vadis?

If you are from Chennai and unless you are living under a rock you would have heard of the unfortunate suicide of a young school girl, a teenager in her Class 12 at her home. This news hit me very hard probably because I was part of a few conversations where the topic was about the multiple tuitions and coaching classes today’s school kids take up to crack the elusive IIT or NEET exams. When I hear the schedule of some kids I wonder if they have any time to live? Don’t get me wrong, I know that these schedules are carefully planned by the parents with the best interests of their children at heart. These coaching classes are expensive and nearly push some parents deep into debt. From the break of dawn to late in the night the student is on a tight schedule monitored by the parents and before you know it childhood passes them by in a blur. When I remember my childhood so many years ago, I did have my extra tuition classes that were default if you take the Sciences group in Class 11 &

 Why do I celebrate Onam? So the festival of Onam passed by recently and I was asked why did we celebrate Onam since we are not Keralites? Some even asked me you are not Hindu, why are you celebrating Onam? Before I answer these questions, I pondered about how we celebrate festivals and that inspired this post. There are some broad heads under which we celebrate festivals and here I am being generic and this has nothing to do with religion or region. Let me begin: 1.Family: If you had tried booking a train ticket on IRCTC or any flight tickets before a festival the chances of you being highly disappointed are quite high. Why is this? Because the essence of festivals is to be home with the family, though there are some who choose to travel on festivals, for many a festival is a time to be home with the family and loved ones. 2. Friends: We have heard friends like family and for some friends are family, so friends are an integral part of festivals. You look forward to connect or reconnec