Mark Burnett is Smarter Than a Fifth Grader

Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain?

Well, if you really are smarter than a fifth grader, you are going to admit that you are NOT smarter than a fifth grader. At least on the show.

"Main Paanchvi Pass se Tez NAHI Hoon!"

If you have seen the episode of 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain?' where Pragjyoti Samal won a crore rupees, you must have seen the rules and must be clear why I think so. But if you have not, keep on reading.

'Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader', the show which is copied in India as 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain' was created by British television producer Mark Brunett. And the guy made a little pocket in the game which not only saved millions of dollars of television producers, but also kept the sanctity of the game by proving that nobody was smarter than a fifth grader.

The pocket is that after answering ten questions, when the winner has a crore rupees in hand, she is told that she cannot use cheats anymore (completely fair) and told that she WILL HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ONCE IT IS DISPLAYED.

That is, the players are not allowed to quit the game at the last question. If they see the question, and fail to give the right answer, they are sent down to rupees 2 Lac, from One Crore. (Bad, actually.)

I think any person who is smarter than a fifth grader will like to save the crore rupees in hand rather than risk them, and proudly ADMIT that she is NOT smarter than a fifth grader.

PS: To Guys, Sorry for the use of female pronouns. But then, no guy has won a crore rupees on the show yet.

From Jaipur to Quota

Mr. Bainsla has done it for his community. Going all the way from Jaipur to NCR, he has found his way to Quota. Where does this 5% comes from is another problem. The first problem is, what if I want reservation tomorrow? Shall I opt for the same track? Collect a few thousand people and reach block the roads of NCR?

The Gujjar 'protest' has set a significant 'example' for many leaders. Whereas Raj Thackeray had achieved only political recognition for himself, Bainsla has really 'achieved' something and I very much fear this is going to be a pattern that might be followed by some community or the other before elections.

Instead of any action against those who had blocked life in the NCR and Rajasthan, the government has awarded the 'agitation' with a 'special' quota which comes from nowhere and once challenged in court, may even go unimplemented.

But I feel it's not the quota that is the real problem with the Gujjar agitation. It is what process they have followed and what can become a trend after seeing the instant success of the agitation. There is no need to tell how badly Gujjar agitation had affected life in Rajasthan, NCR and even UP, affecting number of trains also, some of them even cancelled or diverted.

In short, whatever the motive, Rajasthan Government has set a bad example with the way they have tackled the issue. Also, I feel any such protests that affect life of general public, such as blocking of roads or trains etc. should be banned by the law and those laws should be enforced properly.

Dyslexic me

I never knew what it was until I saw Taare Zameen Par. But my writing was not legible for most of the Homo Sapiens. Or Hetero, for that matter.

Then, I somehow passed class twelfth, with the help of my parents who never sent me to a punishment boarding school. My mother made a genius out of me by making me learn everything by heart except for the maths that was dealt by my dad and his hand of which my head had become used to.

And then, my world changed. From somewhere I got the fact that a computer did not need me to write. In fact, there was a software (God only knew what a software meant. In fact I never understood where it was SOFT!!) called Microsoft Office which made your work very easy, I could make mistakes and wait for a red line to come below all the wrong letters I typed. And though my grammar wasn't bad, it told me with a green line whenever I went wrong. On top of that the keyboards did not have any letters that could confuse me. I mean there were only English letters on the keyboard (No Russian as my teacher told!!) and that too, only capital letters. I could differentiate easily between 'b' and 'd'. It was simply the difference of 'B' and 'D' with the caps lock off which was shown with a light.

Well, I heard it was some Bill Gates who made this SOFTware. My friend Titu told me that Aamir Khan did not tell Bill Gates' name in the movie but Bill Gates actually asked his company people to make this software to help dyslexic people because he was also dyslexic. Titu also told that someone told him Bill Gates was told how to write by a teacher called Steve Jobs and this was actually where the movie came from. He also told that Aamir did not mention Bill because he did not want to put Bill Gates' name with Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein.

Anyways, whatever it was, I got a great idea and finally I am a computer engineer now. But there is some difference. When I was dyslexic, I could write some letters on paper, but now I am a typing expert and cannot write a letter on paper. I understand letters now but I do not understand paper and pen anymore.

Now my alphabet is not ABCDE... It's QWERTY... I think I am more dyslexic now.

Well, whatever, I liked the movie. Aamir Uncle is great. And so is Titu.