Spardha (Sports Committee)

Shades of life, Shades of Me

 I look in the mirror and I see me. 

I am made up of all those innumerable moments that has made my life worth living.

I look in the mirror and I see my eyes. 

My eyes are black. Black is the colour of the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, like my soul. Not visible yet keeping me alive. I look in the mirror and i see my ears. 

My ears listen to what you (life) say. What you share. 

Loud music, crazy conversations, stupid jokes, all sing the same tune, Life is full of surprises.

I look in the mirror and I see my hands, I see my skin.

 You (life) have made my skin look pale, but yes it’s worth it.Tattoos and memories, 

happiness and pain, yes I can feel it, yes I can feel you (life). Yes I’m alive.

I look in the mirror, I talk to you (life). 

I’m an emotional fool. Sometimes I’m angry at you(life), sometimes I’m sad, 

sometimes I’m happy but you(life) remain the same, I believe you(life), you will make everything right. 

I look in the mirror and I see me. You (life) look like me.

Prashant Sahu

Div- E

Team Xpressions

Team ( Udaan ) Cultural Committee

A life without love

A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western…. divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire. The universe turns differently when fire loves water.        

A life without love means to take living beings just as things, as object without       self-value for unrestricted use – plants, animals, humans. They all have one task, to serve my purposes and to be consumed for that. Even more, all the other existent things, namely lifeless nature get deprived of any self-worth. 

 Materialistic consciousness has brought this view to perfection and created the maximum alienation possible to mankind. Whatever we encounter as a thing is alien to us, because it has been ripped off its aliveness. We only can develop an inner trust to living beings. It is clear that we create a split in ourselves by turning ourselves to an object without noticing. And this object has to function perfectly. The animate sphere becomes an opposite which we meet with aggression in case it does not fit our purposes. Eventually, we ally ourselves with death by declaring life as an enemy. (Death, by the way, does not accept this offer, as it cannot be treated as an instrument of human will – every materialist will be addressed by death with great reliability in the given time.)

SHAILENDRA SINGH

C2M

Indian E-commerce

In the last decade, India has made a name for itself as a tech player. But that reputation, however well-deserved, belies important limitations—and these are having a big effect on the development of online commerce.

For a start, Internet penetration is still very low, with only 8.4 percent of the population online. Then there is India's great size, unpredictable logistics and creaky transport. Bricks-and-mortar retailers, many of whom have cultivated rich and long-lasting relationships with their customers, offer tough competition. And finally, 90 percent of all retail transactions are conducted in cash; online works best with plastic or electronic money. No wonder, then, that e-commerce accounts for less 1 percent of total retail sales (compared to more than 4 percent in Brazil).

And yet… the opportunity is just too alluring to ignore. 80 percent of current Internet users say they are planning to shop online in the near future, for reasons as varied as convenience and privacy (for items like lingerie). Moreover, India’s online retailers are making progress. The e-commerce market has grown an average of 34 percent a year since 2005 and will continue to grow briskly for the foreseeable future, reaching $2 billion in sales by 2015. By then, it is estimated that India will have 38 million active online shoppers.

In a country of 1.3 billion people, that is still a drop in the bucket. But by any standard, 38 million is an appetizingly big drop. Money is talking, too: In 2011, investors poured $305 million into Indian e-commerce.

  

SHARUKH PATHAN

C2M

Sketch by Roma Tolani & Vivek Vishal ( Div- A )