Funny Side (Hopefully) Up

Being a teenager, I very rarely have very strong opinions on anything political. However, one article in this morning's papers caught my eye and it had nothing to do with my immediate position in life (you can find it  here  if you're interested in reading it). The article, in essence, stated that the VHP wanted to ban white-water rafting in Uttarakhand. According to them, it " leads to many illegal activities" in the holy town of Rishikesh. According to the article, the VHP thinks that white-water rafting leads young people of both sexes to "mingle, drink and indulge in objectionable activities" on the banks of the holy river. This somehow disturbs the sadhus and sants gathered there to meditate. Now, from a purely economic standpoint, Rishikesh draws more than over 4 lakh adventure tourists. 320 or so firms have jobs to do because of these tourists. The government then levies a tax of  ₹5000 on each of these firms, earning it some money in the bargain t...

A couple of days ago, I did something I haven't done in far too long: I picked up a random book out of the large collections that my parents have assembled over the years and began reading. Of late, I've spent most of my time watching videos and checking social media. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to hold an actual, physical book in my hands and read (frankly, I was surprised I remembered how to turn a page). The book, as it happened, was Jeffery Archer's "A Prisoner of Birth". Personally, I haven't read a whole lot of his books, but intend to do so now. But I digress. The point is, reading the book was so much better - several orders of magnitude better - than any video I've ever watched. Needless to say, I finished the book in two days. Not because it was a great book - although it was - but simply because, after all these days of allowing the grey matter to turn brown with rust, I was finally exercising my intelligence and expanding my ...

 This is a post I should probably have made right in the beginning and then linked to after each of my longer absences, but it never struck me to then, so I'm doing it now. Some you readers may think that writing a blog is just sitting behind a keyboard and banging away at it until something interesting comes out. Whether that's true or not (it is, but let's pretend it isn't so that I can give this post some substance), here are some of the reasons I find it hard to come out with a weekly blog post. 1. Laziness: As those of you who have been following my blog fairly closely (and if you haven't, why not?) will probably know, I am possibly the laziest being ever to claim to not be a sloth or other equally lethargic animal (teenagers, for instance, are normally every bit as lazy). Writing a blog only takes me twenty minutes to half an hour, but I'm too lazy to get off my bum for even that length of time. Quite an impediment to blogging, I must say. 2. Topic...

First off, I'd like to ask all you lovely folks to excuse my ten-day absence. I've been working on a different project (more on that later this week). Anyway, as you probably guessed from the title (I hope?) this project is about an internship. More specifically, my internship with an NGO called Daksh (http://dakshindia.org, for those of you want to take a look) and what I learned during my three-week-long foray into working in an office. I started about three weeks ago - the 10th of April, if memory serves. I was working to set up the website for their newest project. For the first time ever, I had to work for eight straight hours a day. Admittedly, it was draining, at least in the beginning. But the good news is, the website is finally ready. The bad news? Being a minor, they had an excuse to NOT pay me for doing it. I spent 8 hours a day for three weeks of my life working at that website and what did I get in return? "Experience". Wow. No, I'm only joking. ...