Protest Against Protest

"2 py homage & protst against d terrorist act @ Pune, studnts in maha state r wearin BLACK clths today.Lets unite agnst terrorism!4wd dis, dnt brk d chain :)"

How would you react if you got such an sms at 7:35 am, shortly after you've gotten out of bed? I almost laughed out, but am not quite sure which reason was funnier - the sms itself or the last line with a smiley!

I completely sympathise with the victims of the blast, but surely wearing black clothes and urging others to do so is of no help! There are better and more practically useful ways to pay homage such as collecting funds (in one's college or place of work or locality) to try to relieve the financial burden of treatment of the wounded.

And as for protesting against terrorism, I don't understand this whole 'protest' concept in this situation (it may be effective in other situations, mind you) - is it to try to get the government / police machinery to function better / more effectively? Do you genuinely believe that the agencies responsible for prevention of such acts are not already working at the fullest capacity? It would be hard to believe so, given that ultimately they themselves and their families are also the targets of terrorism, more than the common public! Then the remaining lots are the common public and the terrorists themselves. Speaking of the common public, with all the media and word of mouth spreading of news, who's left in the city who doesn't know of the happening? And how many of these do you think will turn a blind eye to something suspicious? And how many of these who are in a state of 'don't care and I'm not getting in this' are going to change their minds because of you wearing black clothes? Finally for the terrorists - I think common sense begs us to believe that those who have silenced their conscience enough to commit such a dastardly act and don't fear the law even, are surely not going to succumb to a mass of public wearing black clothes!

I mean, get real! If you cannot do something practically useful, at least don't resort to such laughable means! Giving moral support to each other or the affected people is all acceptable, but make sure it reaches out to them, maybe by means of a condolence gathering like the one held at the Gateway in Mumbai in memory of the terrorist attack there.

Reject in the Morning & Admit by Night

'Admission decision: Refusal'

Those three words are very depressing if you have applied to a lot of universities for admission and the one who's application status you're checking is way below in your list of ranking. This was how my day began early in the morning on 8th Feb. Now this particular univ was not a very high ranked one but it wasn't bad by any means. The most depressing part was that out of the 12 universities I had applied to, only 3 were below this one's rank, and so a natural line of thought in my mind was that if this university found my profile unsuitable what are the chances that universities higher up in rank would admit me! After a few comforting words from mom and friends I decided to forget about it and hope for something better.

Turns out there was something much better in store for me that day! In the evening I received an email with an admit from Purdue - one of my dream univs, which ranked 7th in the US in Civil Engineering! I was totally filled with joy and just couldn't get a hold of myself! Ironically, now there are just 2 univs in my list which are ranked higher than this one!

One hell of a day I've had; a reject when I woke up and a great admit before going to bed, on the same day.

[Edit]: For some of my friends who have been / are / will be (in future) disheartened by early rejects, as it turned out, in the end I had 9 admits out of 12 univs that I had applied to choose from, with most of those being in the top ten ranks! Point is, rankings are not everything and admits / rejects are very, very subjective, so hang in there till you hear from every univ you are hoping to get an offer from.