That day an astonishing happiness was driving me crazy. Indeed, it was really a wonderful gift that my parents had given me that day. Soon I became friends with Zipper. In the beginning, I was over cautious about him; I used to carry him in my palms and used to arrange his bed beside mine. I made him wear my old clothes and socks when I used to take him for his training. And today when I think about all these things, a smile spreads across my face.

And now, we have the concept of nuclear families which has not only restructured the way families liveand family members co-ordinate but also the living spaces of “modern” day world, the demographics of the business from household items to electronic gadgets. And I feel that economy is the only thing that has benefited from this societal change.

Gone are the days of those, not so wanted exams,

which were managed with almost no preparation.

Gone are the days when we hurried out of school,

to occupy those corner seats of our school buses.

Gone are the days when

we learnt, we enjoyed, we played, we won, we lost,

we laughed, we cried, we fought, we thought.

Nowadays, everyone seems to possess a mobile or two. Indeed, I didn’t bat an eyelid when one ice-cream seller took out his mobile to calculate 25+15. But, today mobiles are not merely communication devices, they are mini-dynamites packed with some mind-blowing features, performing multiple tasks with great ease.

And then, in the same anonymous way that it came, it’s gone. Reflect on what had transpired. You were a platinum record selling musician. When you had that success, you lived in a Utopia because everything was going exactly the way you wanted it to. The drugless high kept you vibrant as you sauntered from concert to concert and across the red carpet at the Grammy’s.

It was my domestic-help, S at the door, who had come earlier than her usual time. I let her in and headed straight for the balcony, where I could indulge in the serenity of the beautiful weather. She started with her usual chores, without a word, which was quite unusual.

Suffering is a characteristic of this century. ’Terrorism’ shook the world with the advent of the century, with one of the world’s most successful democracy waging a war against terror and the international community bolstering it. Similarly, in 2007, the economic crises created a terror of social and monetary insecurity, increasing unemployment, evaporating social security and creating unhappiness. Every economy is a victim of some kind of terrorism, and every individual lives under fear, though the magnitude and means may vary.

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be an artist. As a child, I was drawn to colors all the time. The soothing blue of the sky, the mesmerizing blue of the sea, the fresh green of the grass, the bright yellow of a sunflower, the stunning brown of a horse, the lovely white of the moon and the eye-catching red of a rose. Growing up, every work of art caught my attention for it had something appealing about it.

Can you help me out? I was asked to submit a report on a the viability of implementing direct subsidies in our district, Palanpur. Atleast, that was the task as ‘stated’ in the project memo. But, the politicalparty of the state is against UIDAI and they have already taken the populistroute of opposing AADHAR and calling it unsustainably extravagant given the fragile state of India’s fiscal health & the target of AADHAR being too impractical to achieve.

At EMPOWER 2011 an AIESEC in Delhi IIT event which described itself as a convulsion of the universality of culture with the world of professionalism and careers.