Wednesday, September 9, 2015

How far can you go with your stars?



            Akshat Mathur
              14ECU115

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” 

-Thomas Jefferson

I like to read about people who started small but made it to the top. These narratives often make me think: Why couldn’t they start big? Did they require time to develop their talent? Is talent developed over time? Or is it something bigger behind the shadows of performance that most people miss? Usain Bolt belongs to a genetically stronger race, but so are many other athletes of his race and colour. So, why does Usain Bolt run at lightening fast speed and they do not? Where do they lag? The answer lies in the power of ambition. Along with skills, the ambition to be world’s fastest man drives Usain Bolt to run an extra mile in practice when his competitors sit down to relax.

While it is uncommon to find an ambitious person who did not succeed in life, finding unsuccessful people with immense talent is easy. My father often asks his students, “You are talented, kudos, how far will you go?” Talent can overcome the friction to start your car, but ambition is the fuel that will keep it running. People who are just talented are like a misaimed gun-they have the potential but they are not going to hit the mark. But, when you provide the gun with a red dot, the combination will be a spot on.

I feel that talent is not a guaranteed companion and that it can be wasted. Even those with very little or no talent can create opportunities for themselves if they are ambitious.

In conclusion, I would leave the readers with a question: Would mankind have survived had we solely depended on talented people and suppressed the ambitious folks who wanted to bring a change?

Do give it a thought.

Should Ragging In University Be Banned?


       Deepansh Agrawal
            15MEU029
Being a high school pass out and a college fresher, I had my apprehensions about the term “Ragging” and all the talks that were doing the rounds. Being an engineering student, I knew that I would be ragged sooner or later. This hyped misconception and fear was cleared on my very first day in the college when we were told that ragging is strictly banned in our university. That was definitely a sigh of relief but at the same time, not a very delighting news.
It’s been a month since I’ve joined and the ride has been joyous.

Before getting to the point whether ragging should be banned in universities or not, we first need to look at what exactly ragging is. The following definition seems apt.

“Ragging is an act of aggression committed by an individual or a group of individuals (say A) over another individual or a group of individuals (say B) where A, by virtue of their being senior to B somehow get the authority and audacity to commit the act and B, by virtue of their being new to the institution are automatic victims.”

Now we get a brief picture about the topic and we can further ponder about the point as to why it is done in the first place.
Ragging was formerly done to derive sadistic pleasure and show off one’s authority and power over the juniors.
Now a days, the scope of the definition has widened, courtesy to the stringent anti-ragging laws laid by the government which have to be mandatorily followed by the universities and colleges all over the country.

Today, ragging has become a polluted term and must be done away with. In lieu of ragging, introduction/ice breaking sessions are being carried out. What happens in such a session is that the seniors and the juniors, under the supervision of a teacher, are assembled in a room in which the seniors take the introduction of their juniors. In this introduction, a senior asks his junior to tell about himself and asks the latter to do an activity like dance, sing, etc. The most important aspect of this is that, this session is carried out only with the consent of the new joiners and they can back out whenever they feel uncomfortable. No questions asked. And the fact that a teacher is also present in the same room, the session is conducted in an orderly manner without any mishaps or vulgarity.

I regret as a fresher that I was deprived of such an enthralling experience. I feel the same for my seniors as well.

The agenda behind such a session is to bridge the gap between the seniors and the juniors. The main motive is to get the students to know each other better.
Not conducting such sessions will lead to differences between the students, unawareness of one another and lack of communication.

With that being said, I personally believe that we must impede the very concept of ragging and promote such introduction sessions which must be conducted for one and all under a supervised and a monitored environment. It will definitely reap benefits in the future.

Ambition...Wings To Talent


          Sahil Bansal
           14CSU176


When the dreams of achieving the best you want from yourself turn into the burning desires then what you name your desire as passion. Talent may seem pleasing and heart dwindling but it is ambition that makes a person go crazy about it. An ambition is that fierce full wind that cares about nothing and blows away every barrier that comes between the realisations of a person’s ambition.  It’s never necessary that a person takes interest in what talent he is gifted with but yes he forgets his sleep, he forgets the feeling of starvation when he sees his ambition calling him.

Recalling the famous example of Paulo Coelho, being a child he had an ambition of being a writer though he was a gifted aerator. A mere child he was when he adopted the dressing sense of the writer just to feel that he is taking necessary steps towards his aim of being a writer. A breeze of ambition can lead anyone to triumph and satisfaction, regardless of what is put in front of them. Three essentials, will, dream and courage and these will put you on top of the world and will get you a lot farther in life than any skill you can possibly possess. You won’t be able to utilise and take the best advantage of your talent if you don’t have the ambition, the craving will to lead you to the path that chose you rather you chose the path. Universities all across help the students to nurture their ambition in the best possible way. But nurturing is also an art and none is good like the way NCU does. Not only helping students with the realisation of how passionate they are, NCU plays an important in the life of every NCUian to get benefitted with what they are ambitious of and how they can improve their talent and work on it to prove the world the best of them.

There are hundreds and thousands of people who destroy their lives, their talent just because they don’t have any ambition in life. To be precise ambition is the channel and talent s the water, you need a proper channel that guides water to the pond of your life. If you don’t have any channel (ambition) either that talent as water will go waste or will flood your lands of hopes and hard work. A lot more than the ones that have talent and are actually successful. Those who are sitting on the chairs of success are the same undergoes who worked like a never giving up ant just because they were mad about their ambition of showing the world what they are capable of and what he best they have in them as talent. They didn’t care about anything but to work, and toil day and night so that they can achieve that position where they defy world not vice versa and it was just because they had ambition as their teacher and talent as an undernourished seed with them.

Ambition boosts you to achieve the best you have in you, perfect that the world wants from you and satisfactory that calms your talent. If no ambition then probably those who work like crazy all time won’t have the teacher longer with them. Ambition is the stair case to success as it grants you the madness of achieving your goal like none else.

“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

To conclude, no matter with what talent a man is gifted, what matters in the race of success is ambition as it channelizes the perception and the goal of the person. It gives that quality of working, dreaming and sleeping only for the success. If you are the go getter, you are patient less go get your success on your toes, but my friend you have to take your ambition, your passion with you because that is the thing that will guide down the line. Go get your dreams go live with you. Have faith in yourself and follow your ambition in search of victory for your talent.