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Have you heard of the concept called minority?</p>
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<p>Did I ever say money was my ultimate goal? It’s easy for a Bill Gates to donate a billion dollars. </p>
<p>Oh, and Mukesh Ambani, one of our own prized billionaires, happened to build the most expensive house in the world - Antilla, where an orphanage was supposed to be built.
“Antilia purchased the plot from Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja Orphanage in 2002 for over Rs 21 crore.”</p>
<p>Coincidentally enough, Mukesh Ambani was from Stanford. lol.</p>
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<p>No, I was referring to those people who believe they must earn money in order to support their spouse or a family of kids right out of college. I am pretty sure you come from a more sophisticated background. They also have very narrow ambitions. You seem much smarter, which is clear is from the way you write, not to mention your quirky (for your ethnicity) desire to be a chef. That is why I didn’t expect that from you. That’s all. Think what you like.</p>
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<p>What does that have to do with anything?</p>
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<p>You implied it on several occasions. But that’s not my point. I agree with you on money being essential in this day and age. I was just taken aback by your views on gender roles.</p>
<p>To clarify all the assumptions you might have made, I, like you, too want only to earn all the money I can. It need not be right out of college. Fact remains, and this is beyond what my family expects, that when time comes, I want to be able to pay for my kids’ education. The chances of being a chef and carrying that out don’t look too good. </p>
<p>And as for narrow ambitions, you are making a huge generalization. A lot of people go to IIT because they couldn’t fund the application process to the US, much less the universities.</p>
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<p>You’re the one who said it. I was just following your assumptions since I know no one who has attended or aspires to attend those schools.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I really really badly phrased my point about beggars. I’m sorry!
I mean, the only reason one would actually become friends with a beggar is out of sympathy/empathy/apathy.
I’m so sorry again because the point did not come across the way I had intended it to be…</p>
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<p>This was exactly what I wanted to say. </p>
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<p>Same here, but there’s a different kind of friendship we form with them, as stated earlier. Being totally pragmatic, I cannot imagine any of you, including nemo, regaularly going out to the movies and playing video games with friends who are beggars… I hope I put across my point effectively! :(</p>
<p>Yeah and IIT is a good way for a middle/lower-middle class Indian to get out of their poverty… Just saying.</p>
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It has to do with your incessant condescension towards Cornell freshmen. </p>
<p>The ultimate goal is happiness. Money helps.</p>
<p>As for gender roles, I just think women, in general, are less money-hungry than men. That is all. That need to be a good or a bad thing, just a generalization.</p>
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<p>WHAT?! I have the utmost of respect for Cornell’s students. My school sends several students to Cornell every year and many are some of the most wonderful people you will ever come across. What I said was that they’ll have to contend with an old-world philosophy of gender roles when they interact with one of their classmates. I got carried away and shouldn’t have said that. I sincerely apologize. I am sure you’re a fine person and will be a great addition to the Cornell community. I truly mean that. </p>
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<p>LOL. Oh, how I wish you knew my ex. lmaoo.</p>
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<p>Absolutely. Except the ultimate goal isn’t self-happiness, it is seeing happiness in everyone around you.</p>
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I live in Belgium right now. It was a lot easier for me to go on a week long trip to Romania during a short school vacation period than to India. We didn’t go there to bond with people-we were told our primary purpose was to help the people of the charity based there on building projects and construction. The whole bonding thing happened unexpectedly, along the side. Also, I gave one example, don’t assume that I didn’t have any experience of the sort when I lived in India.
You’re trivializing my point here. I’m not saying everyone should devote their lives to befriending beggars. Obviously not many can, and I can’t say I have many “friends” who’re beggars. My point was you should treat a beggar with the amount of respect he deserves for being a human being. There’s a difference between respecting a person and calling them a friend. I respect most of my teachers, but I won’t necessarily call all of them a friend. I was against Aniruddh’s point saying we don’t talk to beggars because of money. I was arguing the fact that we very well could, and that money shouldn’t be used as an excuse to not talk or even befriend them. Perhaps beggar is too extreme an example-take people like coolies, maids, electricians, plumbers etc. My point was that each person deserves our respect and good treatment regardless of their economic situation (unless they do something to lose that respect). You’ve taken my point and stretched it to make it sound like I’m implying we should all become friends with beggars. I wasn’t, and I hope this clarifies.</p>
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See, you’re taking your view of practicality as THE most practical view. Practicality is basically the usefulness of a particular action. In my eyes, a person who earns a lot of money and a person who works as a Youth Worker are both contributing to society, albeit in different ways. For you, making more money seems like the more practical choice. A youth worker could look at you and say he/she thinks they’re doing more practical work by investing themselves more physically with social problems. Both of you would agree that you’re practical compared to a person who decides to drift on a boat on the Atlantic, smoking pot and staring at the sky 24x7 (If someone can convince me why this is practical, do tell). Both of you have enough money to subsist well above basic subsistence level, support a family if you want to, and live quite contently. Sure, the richer person has more money to spend on the added frills, but for the social worker those frills don’t matter, so obviously he or she doesn’t think he/she is being any less practical by choosing this career choice. Practicality is relative. I don’t have a problem with you saying you want to earn lots of money and live a good life. I don’t like it when you say “That’s the most practical decision”-because for a lot of people, it is not.</p>
<p>Oooh, another line …
I’ll PM you shortly Ptondreams.</p>
<p>@arunemo:
About the beggars, clarified. I didn’t think you actually lived in Belgium, just like harisheena does not actually goto World’s best university '15. I’m not saying they don’t deserve respect either.</p>
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Albeit impractical, this could be extremely fun. :D</p>
<p>And as for practical, I’m sure our views could differ and am sorry if I sounded like I was impressing things upon you.</p>
<p>@PrincetonDreams:
lol. 
'Ex’ceptions.</p>
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Dude, WHY would she lie about living in Belgium? :S</p>
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Maybe, but there’s no doubting that he is an “Indian representative to Youth Conferences in USA & China, an Ambitious NGO Founder-President, a National Chess Player, a Prolific Author, a Nerdy Researcher, a Passionate Sitarist, a Dedicated Mentor, a focused Scholar & a Visionary Leader…”</p>
<p>And lol about the ex bit Stanford, we’ve all been in the same boat ;)</p>
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<p>Man, you all seem to have an “ex” already. I have not met my first one (and hopefully the only one) yet. Making me feel very inadequate. ;)</p>
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<p>NGO founder and author ???</p>
<p>Well I don’t blame Funky, there are plenty of ■■■■■■ out here to keep us wary 
He wasn’t there when we were talking about my life on Ye Olde TiT #19 (May it rest in peace).</p>
<p>Aw Tippu, I admire your honesty. I’m sure you’ll meet the one in Chicago (is that where you’re planning to go?) and when you do, it’ll be worth the wait :)</p>
<p>thanks nemo. I am not unhappy about the situations. My focus has been on studies and it will remain so for some time. I have plenty of friends who are girls and they will remain my friends forever.</p>
<p>[JK</a> Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com](<a href=“http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html]JK”>http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html)
This is related to our discussion in the loosest sense, but I found this so inspiring and so incredibly well said that I couldn’t help but share. J K Rowling is phenomenal and she’s always been someone I’ve looked up to, ever since I picked up a copy of the Philosopher’s Stone. She is amazing, and I hope you get as much out of this talk as I did.</p>
<p>nemo, that is a wonderful video. I am glad I watched it. Thanks for the link.</p>