Q & A, a book by Vikas Swarup, an indian diplomat , is a book which is indeed very spectacularly written. It is about an orphan kid from the slum areas of Mumbai who joined the Who wants to be Billionaire and with much more than luck, had been able to correctly answer questions.
The narration started with his arrest. Producers of the game accuse him of cheating because they believed that a slumdog, such as he, couldnt possibly know anything at all.
Had he cheated? or was it really luck?
Just at the onset of the story, the belittling of an individual had been evident. True, the boy never really had a formal education but what he had gone through in life were experiences which couldnt just be forgotten.
And so it was really luck that led him to the billion dollar question. He is lucky indeed. Lucky because the questions asked in the game were those which have connections in his life.
This book is a window to the lives of those whose economic status are way under. If you have money, you have power. If you don't,you're worthless.Your words, wont mean a thing against a millionaire's. If youve wronged someone particularly rich, youre dead meat.
This book, has indeed offered not only the magic feel of destiny but also the cruel yet real views on social injustices.
BTW. There is a movie adaptation for this book which has swept multiple of awards. I wonder when will its show be here in the Philippines?
Say, under a circumstance you have been given what you dont want but, at least needed, or you got something which really was just a second thing in your priority list; something which really wasnt the one which makes your being burn with the desire so powerful.
What would that make you feel then? It has been said, in one of my Philo class last sem, that it is always easier to just want what you get rather than to get what you really want. True enough, as it seemed that its psychology, admittedly, is evident in me.
I remember having this desire to pass some college entrance test when i was still my fourth year high school. Well, i know my parents wont be able to send me there because of the uber high fees and they were thinking that if ever i would be sent there to study, i' would undergo some drastic change in lifestyle which i never really see as that drastic up to now whenever i think about it. Anyway, as I've said, and for my self- fulfiling prophecy's sake, i wished and really wished hard that i pass that really epistaxis (oa?) inducing exam. That would be something really self fulfilling. However i didnt. What the hell?!
The announcement of the other colleges/universities i have applied for came out. I only took three college entrance in the BIG 4. My thinking then was to be in the BIG 4 or nothing. ( very similar to the quote in the UPCAT the movie, "UP or nothing".)And i passed the the remaining two. But, broken as i was, the anticipation for college seemed to had died. So at about that time, i was indicisive of really where to go for college. It was only during the time that my parents were already intervening with my decisions, making me go to a school which isnt a part of the Big Four plus that which location is very near our residence, that i decided to choose a school where i could have a greater horizon to venture, UPLB.
Well, not that i didnt know that i would eventually end up in UP, and being pseudotagged as an iskolar ng bayan.
So far, i am enjoying being a up student.Not because the psychology of my argument has been applied on me. NO. this case, wasnt the one i am referring to. The knowledge i gained over the last few months, im grateful for having acquiring them. I am proud be a trainee of THE UNIVERSITY in every aspects of life.
Me. The Physicist. What do you think?
I was thinking of shifting course. Applied Physics maybe? Afterall, that was my first choice. Again, another unfulfilled self prophecy of mine. This was the thing ive been talking about. I am currently taking up BS.Industrial engineering and have no negative thoughts about it. I like it the way i should have like everything given to me. As if a gift, i shouldnt have a say about it but should be grateful for it. But everytime i remember this person, a mentor as to say, who i've always admired, nostalgia hits. I aspired to be someone like her sometime. Someone who influences students in a way only she could do. She wasnt my phsyics teacher but as her forte is physics there's something about phsyics and her which is unbreakable.
I should have my decisions before this sem ends.
Help?
BTW. Congratulations to all UPCAT passers! Cheers to you!!!
10:12 AM
a very tiring saturday
just came home from trinoma after visiting college of educ library in upd. I am working on this library research for my ENG2 class which really had me stressed out lately. It is about speech defects and how people with defective speech cope up with several conflicts in their lives. I already have 6O (mind you other sections were required to only have ten in the least) working bibliographies which i got online. i thought after getting that task done, i'll have lesser burden but i still need to work for 75 notecards. As of now, i only have 4 sources for notecards. the books, i found were not all that related to what i am interested in so that adds up to my problem because if ever that those books should be erased from my sources then where the hell should my 75 notecard would come from? But i'm not sure if each source should cover one notecard only or multiple notecards would be counted from one source.
anyway, i arrived in upd at about 2.30, so i only had a limited time of researching because I've woke up late and prepared like a turtle. And while on the mrt, i was texting my friend nikka and learned that she was also there with her classmates, shooting a film, their project of a sort and so i decided to meet up with her after i've finished or rather i should say, i've been all too fed up with the ambience of the library. By the time i finished my work, nikka texted me that they were in Osmena avenue. i dont know where i should look for that avenue so i asked some chaleko guys and pointed somewhere across the oval. By that time, nikka wasnt texting anymore so, i just clung to my intuition about her whereabouts but i felt like Osmena avenue was a never ending one. I almost gave up. I saw her on the steps of the College Of Engineering and the instant i saw her i heaved a heavy sigh.
I really wanted to see her. That's why i walked and walked and walked an avenue without even a clue of where she really was. Reason? Well, i needed someone who could teach me to draw. I almost forgot that reason until the subject of my frustration in drawing was brought up when we met up and dined somewhere in Trinoma with Ruby and her friend, angel. Her phone was empty bat. Great. i was too.
how could've we contacted ruby?
Nikka got this brilliant idea of having our cellphones charged at any nokia stations! Great. at least neither of us had to ask a favor from a stranger. haha! that could be something.
7:47 AM
Wednesday, January 14, 2009Y
brrrr
it's freaking cold here in los banos.
Brrr. it has been like this for quite a time now and according to the news, temparature will remain to be so till the end of february.
3:58 AM
Sunday, January 11, 2009Y
North Edsa
jan10,09. i went to UPD for my Eng2 Library Research Paper. I was amazed at how beautiful the sun shined and so i shot some scenes.
I've been trying real hard, checking codes over and over, identifying errors if they're semantic or syntactic; however, my sample programs just don't work! Damn. They're supposed to run. But they don't. Well at first i thought that it's my codes that were faulty but when i tried the examples given at the online site for this subject, i knew that it's my compiler's fault but still. DAMN! c'mon. who'll not lose the motivation to study for an an exam on C if her c compiler is not properly functioning?or was it really the compiler? im not that entirely sure but still it should function just as well as the last time i used it ( probably a couple of weeks ago).
Problem is that it terminates even if there are still lines of commands to perform. I don't want to download yet another one, i had two already - the Cygwin -Which unfortunately, i am not totally familiar with it- and the other one i have is the Dev C++ , which unlike the cygwin has its own compiler. I tried working on them several times but the results are the same: they terminate even when there are still commands to perform.
This is really frustrating. Perhaps, i'll just resort to the handouts later. but i know that i can never fully understand what i'll be reading unless i perform them on a functional compiler. what shall i do?
will doom befall me tomorrow? errr. next in the line of exams i am to have this month are STAT 1 and MATH36. Stat, that i can handle. still, i shouldnt be that complacent. But the 36? uhhhm. i'll be concentrating on that.
