Relevance of Gandhiji

We often miss the woods for the trees, and get caught up in what Gandhi did instead of what he could do for us today.

Even if 20% of us in India (or anywhere, actually) could think about issues like he did, got set in our beliefs after trying things out, and stuck to them in the face of tough odds, we might be a different people. Instead, what we focus on is whether he married (or abstained), whether he was a vegetarian, and what he wore.

These are irrelevant, and contextual. He may have done several things, and wisdom is not in imitating them, but discovering the truth for ourselves.

I urge everybody to do so. I know I am not Gandhiji, and I don't have a zillion followers, but maybe half a dozen may pay heed. If not, well, I have made my case anyway.

General Knowledge Gets Tough

In the old days (as in my school or college days), I used to be a quizzer. One had to be thorough with the number of states India had, their Governors, Chief Ministers, locations of all UN Head Offices, and a few sundry country names and capitals, and you were OK for about 80% of the questions. But it can be quite a trauma for today's G.K. quizzers, I can see.

You need to still know all the above (which gets tougher with more states and wannabe states getting added on), and what's more, you need to know all the major goings on in the EPL, the IPL, and everything in between. Who got charged with molesting X, Y, Z, could be the question, and more likely than not, it would be an IPL player. So you have to be in the know, you see. Or, who got into a brawl at Wan-khede? The answer to that would be the Khan without a hit- what a 'misfit' for a brawl! Being used to hits, this was the only way to get a sure thing. Gotta excuse him his minor fracas.

Or, take the latest. You also may get asked- Who Decided to Get Down to Their Birthday Suit to celebrate the victory of Kolkata Knight Riders? Oh, the things you need to keep abreast of. And after all that, if you do win the thing (the quiz, in case you are now distracted by irrelevant things), you may have to be mentally prepared, coz someone may do the Full Monty to celebrate that!