Quality

Duality applies to Quality as well. Good can't exist without evil, Light has no significance without darkness - Higher(good) quality has no meaning without the lower(bad) one.

Extreme of any good quality turns it into a bad one. Like...

• Cynicism helps but then it invariably leads to paranoia. 
• Confidence turns into cockiness. 
• Desire to succeed turns into an unwillingness towards acceptance of failure.
• Strong leader turns into a dictator.
  

Lack of quality won't solve any problems either. So it's as good as a bad quality when one is incapable of doing what he should. Like...

• Lack of light leads to darkness.
• Lack of cynicism makes one gullible.
• Inability to act makes one the obstacle.

People say pick up positives not negatives but what makes you say that they're exclusive? What makes you think that they're distinct? If good and bad were so different then how could a gray area ever exist?

With great powers come great responsibilities

I know this is cliched and seems irrelevant to us, I mean most of us aren't saving the world in any obvious kind of way. But I still feel that this phrase is quite pertinent to our lives. Our qualities determine our strength as well as weaknesses. They bring us great powers which need to be handled responsibly. We need to maintain balance because either extreme results in something that the quality was there to prevent in the first place. This might explain why happiness, triumph, success and every other thing associated with a good balance are so short lived.

System Restore

I can't recall how many times I used to do a system restore on my old pc. Isn't it brilliant? You don't like it how it's behaving now then just move it back to a state you did like :)

Shanu mentioned to me how it'll be so awesome to download tutorials to learn stuff like they did in matrix and life will be so much easier and fun. It got me thinking. I say let's wish for something much more 'reasonable'. How about a 'System Restore'? Remember the last time you were totally in your 'groove' ? Won't it be awesome to just get that frame of mind restored whenever you like ? It'll be as close to utopia as it could be in my opinion.

Since any new technology is just not satisfying enough and we always want more so I'll pen down my expectations from the System Restore 2.0 right here. It should also have a software update which makes sure we don't repeat mistakes because something that really makes me pull my hair out is having to see myself in the same shit again and again.

Do you have any other 'reasonable' wish ?

The Opinion

There is information and then there is disinformation, and a whole lot of it.

Every media house seems to have an agenda. The content seems to depend more upon what can sell rather than the fact of the matter.

Some want to do the right thing but have their wings chopped off by the people on the top.

Some blog about it to vent their frustration. Yeah blogging has emerged as a 'revolution in the making'. It's like an alternate media, "by the people", in the real sense of the phrase.

It has its shortcomings though. Some good thoughts are lost in the crowd while some with big names forget that something is not right just because they said it. Even the reader tends to take it for granted rather than cross-checking what he/she reads. Another shortcoming would be the fact that internet has penetrated only 5% of the Indian population. Therefore Television, Films and Print Media still make the real news and will be doing so for decades to come.

They no longer represent us though, at least not in a way we would want them to. It's the corporate houses that they cater to and "Brain-Washing" seems to be the next big agenda. Blogging is how people try to think out loud when media fails them. Next step would be individuals from different spheres of life seeking a common platform to speak their mind and answering questions which really matter to us.

One such attempt is 'The Opinion' magazine.Our purpose behind the formation of this magazine is to act as a platform for the opinions of the generation that is about to come of age. We hope to present pertinent issues from a perspective that highlights their impact on our lives. At the same time, it is equally important to us to ensure that The Opinion is a good read. So we welcome articles and stories from all genres, be it current affairs, sports, politics, economics, entertainment et al.

You can contact Pranay Gupta or me if you'd like to write or contribute in any other way you can think of and also to get your hands on our first issue.