The Half burnt Flower pot ....India

                                                       India, the biggest democracy of the world, one of the most balanced economies   and the richest in cultural heritage has truly been a land of balanced features. Hence could be aptly compared to a beautiful flower pot with colorful flowers.

  However in the recent past, this flower pot has been facing severe threats from inside the country, along the border and from the other side of the border, thus ruining the balance to some extent.

The 26/11 Bombay attack is just a testimony .A lot happened before that and few still happening after that.

In the name of judicial trial we are just feeding terrorists, be it Azmal Kasab or Afzal Guru. Everyone is evident that they would be hanged till death.

It’s been 8 years since the parliament attack took place...Yet Afzal guru, the main culprit is not punished. Leave about Kasab.It’s just over a year for him.

Though in this year long judicial trial we have earned evidence about the involvement of Pakistan based terrorists, what did we really gain.Atleast did we console the families of the 174 people who lost their lives. Does paying a mere 2 lakh for the dead would help the cause?? The families would have been happier had kasab been hanged some 10 months ago.

Let’s assume that Pak acts on it and punishes the responsible ones. But does it end there?

It would be interesting then to see what does our politicians (so called Leaders) do…Will they keep quite and satisfied? If they do, it depicts that our EGO has satisfied and which resembles that the peaceful fight we are putting across is just to satisfy our ego…Hope it doesn’t turn out this way.

Terrorism and Naxalism are hurting a lot not only to life and property but also to the public relations and

Social development... How?

Reports suggest that Rs.31 crore has been spent on Kasab in the past year. The money could have been used to save over 600 children who died of heart diseases.

It is estimated that 6000 people have been killed by Naxals in the last 2 decades. .and over 240 in chattisgarh in 2009 alone. This number is much more than the victims of Bombay attacks.

What did we do if a political party attacks Bihar/UP students in Maharashtra, burnt buses and other public property? Who took action against ‘Raj’ when a Bihar boy died in the attack…?

We keep quiet when maoists blast our schools, buses, Police stations, yet we expect them to change, we provide employment and forgive them once surrendered!! Isn’t this a brilliant strategy for the unemployed… huh?

Can you name a naxal who was hanged? If a foreigner attacks us, then it’s a national issue and it’s taken as a stain in the Indian Security System…and if one of us attacks…its just NEWS!!

Why is this difference in approach? A culprit is a culprit and he deserves to be punished.

It’s time to act tough .Its not just enough to pay homage to the three top cops or the other innocent killed in Bombay , its not just enough to build a memorial or lit candles around it on every anniversary. Its time to control rather act on it on a serious note...

Corruption and injustice will help these anti social elements flourish. It’s never late and we could make the system blossom again by taking few effective steps

Do we have solution for this? Who should take charge? Police?

Yes.Police… He is the one in my view will be the key in this change.

Just physical fitness and an average of 50-55% in education isn’t just sufficient .Moreover being a police is not doing a job for money. It’s social service.

We bribe a traffic Police (with a 50 rupee bill) who charges 1000 bucks for not having a PUC.

Will we bribe if the fine itself is 50? And most importantly the sum goes to the Govt.

How many of us pay the tax without deceiving (duplicate medical bills, rental agreements etc.,) the Govt? Will we do the same thing if the tax is low?

Instead, a mandatory tax cut (no exemptions) should be made based on the salary for all employees and this is for providing proper wages/technology/weapons for the Police.

I may not be an economist, I may not have sufficient knowledge about the tax systems and I may not understand the serious aspects of police or military recruitment systems. .but I am educated enough to  understand its failures and consequences, I m sensitive enough to understand the emotions of the society. All the above questions are raised by a helpless Indian in me.

P.S:  I have used the word “Bombay” 3 times…Is there someone here to object this and ask 
         me to say  Mumbai ;-)

The Accident !!

A year ago……

Winter started in Gurgaon and I could have a pleasant sleep as the noisy ceiling fan in my bedroom had to rest. It’s October and a not a bad time to visit a hill station…

We (office friends. I hate the word ‘colleague’, don’t know y) had planned to visit ‘Nainital’ .After several discussions and plans we finalized a long weekend for a comfortable 3 day trip.

After ‘Bhai’ dropped himself at the last moment, Saurabh, Nilesh, Thrinath and I booked a Tata Indica, and started our journey on a Friday night. Saurabh sat next to the driver as I could not sacrifice my sleep.

It was a wonderful journey from Delhi with winter winds and fog travelling together.

The road was hardly visible and the drowsy driver made sure to steal our sleep.

We reached Nainital the next morning.

After visiting few of the local places we had to travel some distance on a scenic ghat road The driver assuming himself a Michael Schumacher drove as fast as he can overtaking every other vehicle on the road. It reminded me of the climax scene of “Tokyo drift”.

Our frequent efforts in reminding him, that the Ferrari hez driving is actually a Tata Product, went in vain. This bloke was very good with his steering, but how many times have we seen cars crashing on a well built F1 tracks? And this after all was a stone studded tar road…

We had a break to have Chai and it was my turn to sit next to the driver.

 A Toyota Innova was coming in the opposite direction .This foreign branded car with a couple of newly married couples was speeding towards us. Within no time our car and theirs collided!! Banggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!

All the mountains and the long trees watched this collision silently. Silence prevailed in both the vehicles for the next one minute…

My head struck to the windshield which eventually cracked. I got down the car and had spit a spoonful of blood. For a moment I thought that my head broke into two.

Obviously it wasn’t!!

The radiators of both the cars were blown out and the jaws of both the drivers hammered.

The guys sitting behind were safe (enough to take a photograph of the wreckage) and had minor scratches.I could hardly speak…

The couples in the other vehicles were also injured. What a Honeymoon!!

That day could have been my last day had our Desi car’s strong body and trust worthy brakes failed! Thanks Tata.

This accident of mine did not find a place in the next day’s NEWS. May be because Rahul Gandhi wasn’t travelling with us or may be because it wasn't a BMW. !!!

Happie Diwali....!!!

Diwali comes and a long weekend too...
Give up the bombs..just Diya's will do!!.


Enjoy the festival of lights...
Happy Diwali!!

Life in a Super Metro !!

It’s been 6 months since I came out of Gurgaon and now I feel like writing something about this city, a so called “Super Metro” or “Millennium City”

The resplendent express way with sky scrappers on either sides, fantabulous malls and not to mention beautiful and hot professionals (read as “*****”...well u know what to read).

Gurgaon, a super metro in the making welcomes you with the Asia’s longest toll plaza and “The Ambience”, India’s biggest mall (with 1 km shopping on each floor).

The city is mostly owned by Real estate giant DLF owning about a property of 50 thousand crores…there’s is no wonder if some one calls this city as “DLF-Gurgaon”.

I started my IT career from this city. I met surprises from day One. The peddling rickshaws,

September’s heat (42 deg), Power supply lasting just 6 hrs a day, and daily headlines about robbery/rape/murder … Staying in “The Vikram Lodge” for 2 days was the worst experience of all.

One can imagine what the situation of a guy who travelled 1000 miles to stay there cud have had.

As time went by, nothing but I changed.....
New friends, fun at work and the mall culture helped in getting along with the city.

I still remember the movie “Chak de India” as my first movie in Gurgaon, rather than a shahrukh starrer. Walking 5 km @ midnight enjoying the December cold (2 deg) from “Sahara mall” to “Jalvayu vihar” after watching “Taare Zameen Par” with Krishna was a thrilling (rather chilling) experience.

My weekend travel to Delhi, passing time at CP, Sarojiini market,waiting for a bus in Dhuala-kuan and adjusting in an auto-rikchaw at IFFCO Chowk…….kya mazedar lyf tha….

Woh Gobi ke paranthe @ Sec-41 Mkt, Veg Momos, OM sweets  ...…..Metropolitan, City Centre, Grand, Ambience, MGF…and finally.. DLF Silokhera :) 

Don’t think ki …”yeh saaala gurgaon kaam karne gaya tha ya…khane peene aur maza karne....” ..nahi..maine kuch khela bhi hai

The practice sessions for the Cricket Tournament, Tasty snacks at Jitin’s residence and a Man of the match award….and many more moments to cherish..,

Well I don’t miss all these things …but I definitely will never forget them.

Wait did I miss something??......

…..

….

Yes

…..

……

”Bluedart” I Miss You :(

2 years and Counting......

Guys it’s been two years for this young keyboard player (my term for s/w developer) surviving in the IT industry. These two years had some beautiful moments to cherish and some embarrassing moments to regret. From the ‘firing flu’ at the beginning of my career to swine flue to the latest, this has been a wonderful journey.

I have spent most of this period in Gurgaon.Visited (rather stayed in) North-India for the first time. This helped me visiting some of the beautiful places on earth. From hill stations to plains, river basins to deserts, holy shrines to huge palaces….

This short career till date was a very satisfactory one working with a very good team. I made some intelligent friends and beautiful ‘friende’s. I always wanted to do something naughty other than key strokes and mouse-clicks. From re-imbursements for non-existent expenses to booking office cabs for Delhi darshan, from visiting Malls during office hours to downloading movies using office broadband .All these are un-official, yet adventurous, strict violations but calculated risks.

I am in Pune these days and breathing air J … (doing nothing important than this)

To be working in a leading MNC was an achievement then, always wanted to be “one in a million” keyboard players, ironically during this period the word ‘in’ changed to ‘among’.

(  All I knew about preposition was that it is one of the Parts of Speech in English Grammar. Now I understand that they are part of our lives too... Prepositions do make a difference!!  ).

Today, the path on which I am is a straight and smooth one. I could see a junction ahead from where I wish to take right. If nothing goes right, I will go straight!!

And "they" lived happily together

Many love stories begin in a train…….

Not very often one finds a beautiful passenger by his side during long journeys.

Incidentally (I wish I could use ‘fortunately’), I found one...

A masked woman with white top over blue jeans sat by my side. Her hair covered her ears but not her long ear rings with blue emeralds and a small ruby. Those sparkling ear rings looked like she hung a dozen stars down her ears. She was the only one wearing a mask (swine effect) in the entire compartment, being odd she removed the mask.

Her cute smile, sparkling eyes, shining skin were very similar to the dream girl I was waiting for. Is this one of my many crushes or is this love, yet again??

Our conversation started when “chai waala” asked us to share the change for the amount we paid for Tea. She smiled at me and my smile was on its way before that….During our conversation I discovered that she is pursuing MBA from a reputed college in Pune.

She has a younger brother in Hyderabad who works for the same firm in which i do.

That was a wonderful journey and wished this journey should go for few more years.

That was never gonna happen.

The next morning, it was time to reach Hyd.We exchanged out phone numbers, hoping to get in contact again. When the train reached the station, she was received by a young man who I thought was her brother. I went to her to say Goodbye. She smiled and introduced me to that person

“He is Pranav, My husband!!” she said.

…… and most of them end there as well.

Hamare naseeb mein woh nahi tho hame koi gham nahi..

be-naseeeb tho woh hai jinke naseeb mein ham nahi….

Religion..a Social barrier??

Before You Read:
This Post is my general opinion and not meant to insult or discriminate any Religion. If this hurts the feelings of any individual, then…well who cares ;-)

Hey Guys, I m back with a blog after a long time I guess.
This time lemme get religious!!

Preface:
Azhar Rehman (Name Changed),a Muslim Student filed a petition in Supreme Court early this year stating that he was not allowed to attend classes in his School with his beard. Azhar argued that his religion does not allow him to shave, but the school management were very particular about their rules that no student(irrespective of any religion) should have a beard .However, the Supreme court had dismissed the petition.


India, a country where ‘Religion’ is rated higher than ‘humanity’, is a land of cultural
barriers (at least emotionally).Should we be proud that we are a State of Diversified religions yet we are one or should we be hating ourselves for implanting these differences in our children’s minds right from their Schooling? .I used the word ’School’ because it is where a human being gets molded as someone useful or useless.

I feel that a student should not be allowed to carry religious symbols to schools This may be of different forms .A ‘Cross’ wore by a Christian .A ‘Tabeez’ or beard by a Muslim. The 4 k’s of Sikhs Kesh(uncut hair),Kanga(wooden comb),Kara(steel bracelet),kirpan (small sword) (Kachhera ,cotton underwear the 5th K is an exception) and for Hindus ,A ‘Namam’ indicating a Brahmin ,a bracelet or lockets of any of the million Hindu gods ,sacred threads, or other tilaks..
This is a long list if we count the religions or castes in India…..
Do you think these symbols are required for a student?? I don’t think our children go to school to represent our religion. Do they??

As said by a Muslim Scholar,’one, who has a beard, is a true Muslim’.
According to my observation, none of the Pakistan’s Presidents or PM’s had beards, even Jinnah did not have .APJ Abdul Kalam,Omar Abdulah,Farookh Abdullah,Gulam Nabi Azad,
All the khans of Bollwood, Ajim Premji and many more. So, are all these not true Muslims??

I have later discovered that even Quran(Islam’s Holy Book),does not mention these rules. It even does not say to perform prayers 5 times a day or even Roza. All these are the rules made by people and say these are the rules made to reach God (Well these are personal practices, no comments on it)

In France, it’s a Govt. rule that the students should not be distinguishable by their attire or religious markings. Hence no student is allowed to represent his religion in one way or the other.

I feel there must be one such rule in India where schools should produce good human beings and not Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs.

Epilogue:
I condemn all the religious massacre’s happening around the world. If religion is the root cause of all the social disturbances then I would be happy to sacrifice it.
Let us learn to be Humans first!!

Inspired From:”The Buck Stops Here’, NDTV.