There's a sense of pleasure in Mediocrity?

Well it was my first "road to CAT" lecture in the classes i'd joined.

The first lecture was INTRODUCTION TO VOCAB

I thought the lecture's gona be interesting cos i have particular interest in learning and finding about new words although i keep on learning daily new " cool " slangs.. from here and there which are completely useless.

The professor looked very casual.. and in for an interaction session rather than a lecture.

Stupid nerdy questions started coming...

what newspapers to read?

what books to read?

how many books to read?

what should be the approach?( this was the nerd in me speaking)

to all the questions he answered this " dont ask me difficult questions"

The conversation went on and on... about different things..

he blasted SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE saying that it is nothing but commercialized entertainment to earn money and it doesnt showcase any of the true problems Mumbai is facing... his point was we will appreciate what this guy has projected about Mumbai only because it is winning academy awards but how many of the youngsters would actually even sit through a prithviraj chahuan or a satyajit ray movie which is another level to which movies like slumdog can never reach.

He said PAULO COELHO and ROBIN SHARMA( author of MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI) are not great writers cos they  just hype and present the edited version of authenticity.Because none of the youngsters would make an attempt to find out the authentic version and where actually did all this originate from.

he also said Fiction except for getting you in the reading habit is of no use.

and the youngsters welcome such mediocre stuff cos there is immense pleasure in MEDIOCRITY...

he feels a person who is boring has to be intelligent... cos a person who's intelligent would'nt read write or see mediocre average stuff what more than half the world does.

But a person who's intelligent would have the passion for a quest for knowledge and pure unaldulterated literature cinema which are infact boring.

He gave us an advice on stop having "romantic ideas" about yourself and about your life and kept repeating it again and again.

Be realistic and practical and do before you preach.

When someone asked Him what to read?... he gave in a smirk and with the grin still on his face he answered "asking me what to read is same as asking me, sir who should i marry"

because whatever i tell you right now you'll find it boring...just like if i tell u to marry anyone

you wont agree...

but wen u're in love wid someone .. even if i give u a thousand options to marrying someone else you wont give in..

( i loved his point over here)

To do something you really need to have dat passion, da drive, da enthusiasm and da love for doing it.

And that is not achieved by giving in to  mediocrity but by quest for something concrete.

He went on to ask us about do we love what we are doing.

Since it was an engineering batch nobody raised their hands.

Then he asked if anyone liked any particular subject in engineering.. and again i cudn't see any hands up.

It was surprising.. we all are putting in 4 years of life doing what we dont enjoy just to get the degree which says B.E in computer engineering.

Then again he chipped in saying because you guys have taken the " tried tested and beaten path"

There should be a voice inside you which says this is what i like and i am going to excel in that no matter what.

That is what passion is all about.. that is when excellency takes over mediocrity and thats what youth is all about not just hormonal passion but a mental passion.

One more brilliant thing that he came up and which was actually really disturbing was when he asked us to name few people who you think are great legends the world has ever seen.

Mahatma Gandhi

Einstein

Newton

Nelson Mandela

Dhirubhai Ambani

Mother Teresa

The names kept coming in and there were close to 20 names on the board.

Then he asked now tell me one thing common in all these personalities.

The answer was " they all are dead"

I was like... **ck actually..!!

His point was is it just that some men do some great work and once they are dead somebody hypes them up and we blindly follow?

Why isnt a single person alive who can be on this board right now or are we too blind to find them amongst us and are we waiting for the person to die or someone else to recognize a legend between us.??

y cant there be a BARACK OBAMA more often.

Disturbing isnt it?

he gave some reasoning as to why CAT is not tough to crack just as how the other classes do to motivate their students.

But the lecture was thought provoking none the less..!

Lets where we all go...!!

( Sorry for such long posts i know there's no time to read such huge things but cant help it..i'll try to be precise from now on.. hehe)