Delhi : the City of Times

Fourth Sunday of December 2012, shall not be forgotten easily in the democratic history of the republic of India. And this is the day I saw not one but three Delhi, together.. warped in different times.. as if from different universes.

I walked past The Turkman Gate mostly looking around, lost in prairie, where might have been the magnificient Sita Raam Bazaar, the havelies described as a world withih a world, those lavish Shish Mahals, the pleasure gardens, the jharokhas.. the world I dream-imagines with open eyes. I tried hard to look for glimses, ruins, absolutely any form evidence that those existed. All I could see was ruthless stains of time mixed with the careless ‘peeks of paan’.

Is it the same Raisina Hills that inspired William Dalrymple to write those lines : “..... One of the greatest marriages of architecture and urban planning to ever have left the drawing board”? Are they the same ‘gridiron of wide avenues and open boulevards’ that I see filled with outraged protestants in the December chill, facing water canon for a girl they don’t know but they do care for?

I see not the week subdued common man, I see rebel, I see the power of unity. And all of a sudden it dawns on me, is this the central idea of democracy that they so clumsily tried to make me understand all those years ago in the name of SST and EVS? This is not the unexpected; in fact this is what was always expected of us. It took the modern Shishupal not only 100 but thousands of thousands sins to make us realise the potential of the sudarshan chakra we had.

Better late than never. Since we have been Aroused and Awakened we shall not stop till the goal is reached. 

i was wrong ... lyf is nt a race to b won by running faster.. geting ahead ... if lyf is a game at all, it is poker.. what u have and what u did is lesser important than what u dont have and what u didnt do...

the last mile

when u see the finishing line with blur eyes.. and u knw there it is... right in front of you... all your efforts that brought u this far comes flashing by ...
that is when there is a choice... we have a choice... we have to choose if we want to have pity over ourselves... rest a little, thinking of the tiring 99miles.. we can justify to ourselves that it was an accomplishment in itself.. that being the runner up is alright.. we can rest a little..it wont matter, since the glory lies in the attempt to reach your goal and in reaching itself...
bt like I said there is always a choice, a choice to think of all our efforts and work even harder for the sake of it... when we have come this far.. its just a matter of one mile, leave the weakness behind, just grab the finishing line...
because a once great man said... there is no credit in a half accomplished task, if the goal is not reached, the very purpose of the whole run is defeated...

so arise awake and stop not till the goal is reached

It Took A Sinking Ship To Wake Me Up On Time

After weeks of living in the darkness, I got to see sun light today. My disturbed life cycle had completely turned me into a nocturnal being, when they decided to watch the first show of 'Titanic' this morning. So finally I broke the chain of sleeping late and getting up late and then sleeping late again. Where conviction didn't work, motive did.

So there I was watching, the girl in a huge hat approaching the ship. with a sleep deprived face. 'Titanic' has always been one of my favorites and 3D movies have been fascinating me. So you got the motive!!

If you thinking am writing another review on the movie. You are wrong. There are already so many. What I want to say is something else. Ever since I first watched the movie, I always wondered alternative possibilities. What if Rose had not jumped off the life boat, then Jack would have had the floating plank all to himself. And then they could have gone back to the other ship in the morning and got together. This was the only satisfactory reconstruction I could conjure up. Every time I saw it after that, I would wonder I wish it was the way I imagined. Why didn't she just do that? What did she gain out of the course of actions? What a shame, all the struggle was of no use.

Today I saw it in a different light. Had she done as I wanted her to, she would never had had it in her to defy Mr. Hockley and go ahead with Jack after the wreak was over. That it was not about their togetherness, it was about her life, her freedom, her happiness and his wishes. He wanted her to live a full life, the life she deserved. He desired nothing for himself. He was content and happy with what he had in his life, for however short duration it had been. Because life is not about quantity it is about quality.

Going Chinese The Indian way

One of my close friends is going to join the most prestigious colleges of Engg in aisa. She is going to Honk Kong. Now China only reminds me of a country as populous as ours...people everywhere.. train me reservation nahi, college me admission nahi.. with the only difference that they have adopted policies to change it .. really strict ones ...

I feel there should be a change in our policies as well... now don't start off with, how India is democratic and we cannot b like them etc.. first listen to my proposal...

we have a system of RTO which provides license to drive, a person without the license cannot drive... as simple as that ... now not everyone can get the license, right? you need to be physically capable, as well as your reflex action time shouldn't exceed safety limits... and as if that is not enough, they even have included a test to judge your traffic rules awareness ...

I can hear you shout "what has driving to do with our countries' population?" .. chill.. am coming to the point ...

I propose a policy whereby a person needs to have a license to become a parent... you just cannot keep producing babies and leave them on traffic signals, you should be eligible to do so and not just capable ..

Imagine the scenario once this policy becomes a law...

Friends chilling out and one of them is into some book.. "whats up dude? what are you mugging?"

"Are...Its been two years since I got married, my parents want a grandchild. who will tell them, how difficult the exams are these days to crack? am still on chapter 5:how will you ensure the child's future. How can they expect me to memories all the best investment plans and even prepare a comparative study?"
"Oh sad!! why don't you just slip a 500 rupee note? I think that will do. That is what I do when caught without licence on the road"

"Are you mad? these vigilance guys are everywhere, its easier to get diving licence than to get parent licence."

"Oh! than all the best. carry on."

And then imagine the scene outside the gynac's office...

The nurse calling out names in sequence, "Mrs. & Mr. Malhotra? show your license. Ok go in. Mrs. & Mr. Agarwal? What is this? only your license Mr. Agarwal? and what about madam's? No No No I cannot allow this. you have three week's time to get the license, or find another gynac"

Things would change drastically, everywhere, everything would simply be better ... Except the fact that the kids would have another chapter in their social studies books

LICENSE TO PARENTHOOD ACT 2012

This act played a very important role in controlling India's population boom, literacy levels, economic growth and per capita income.......

Who am I?

It is a question everyone of us have asked ourselves at some or the other point of time in our respective rat races. the very common answers are I am a Hindu/Muslim/Christian, I am a good person, I am an artist/engineer/architect/doctor/lawyer.... and so on ... but when I first asked my self this question, I wasnt accustomed to such answers, in fact all I knew was i was 4 years old ... :)

so it was then that this quest of mine began ... WHO AM I .. I decided am the 'observer' .. bt then if am the observer.. there were thins happening even before i was born and might continue after i die ( as it is going on after my grand pa's death, i thought ) .. so where was I before i was born? what will happen to all my achievements and my memories after I die? will everything perish?? if yes than what is the point of anything? what is the point of studying for exams? when both, the failing student and the topper will perish and so will their memory of the failure and achievement and what is the difference? why is everyone so concerned about future if it is not permanent? So,initially as I thought I am an observer in this universe and everything around me is a show put up for me.all these people I see and interact with are actors for me. Once I leave (read 'die') everything stops. Nothing happens when I am not around to see. This is my drama stage. The difference is just that I am watching from the stage and not from the audience.

But this theory had some flaws, I saw people die and realized how everyone is an individual entity like me and not my drama actors. Then came up a modified theory, subconsiously influened by Shakespear I guess. i made a nice hypothesis to make my kid-brain understand the concept of birth and death and the world ...

the whole intention of this particular blog was to share my hypothesis.. as many of my friends found it pretty entertaining if not interesting ...

so there goes my hypothesis... this world is like a spherical ball, hollow from inside... and the skin of the ball when seen closely has ribs that divide it into many small squares.. these squares are actually windows.. many crore and crores of windows... so when any one of us is born.. think as if a new window has opened and the new soul is looking at what ever is happening inside the sphere.. the inside is the world.. 'the stage' as told by Shakespeare ... he looks at others .. he looks at himself interacting with others .. he stays for the time allocated to him and then leaves... thus closes the window forever. but the stage is still occupied, the drama is still going on.. it was going on before i came and will continue even after i leave.. because i am not the sole spectator.. it is someone else .. am here only to play my part ... and then shut my window forever ...

This piece is dedicated to all those wonderful people who shared the stage with me for however small time ... they made the performance worth it ...

something i wrote as a teenager

My love for pet dogs always attracted my attention towards a snowy white Pomeranian, during my evening walks. His owner was an old gentleman with short stature and long hairs.

Every evening I used to wait for him and his dog, whom we started calling “Tommy” among ourselves, without his knowledge. Looking at my craze for that dog Keshiana used to say, “Look, your Tommy is here! Go… meet him.”

But after four months of regular Tommy-seeing all of a sudden Tommy stopped coming, rather the old man stopped coming. For a few days I looked for him and then my craze vanished. In these few days a number of things happened like some Mr. XYZ expired, our school won the match, my favorite novel series was bought by the school library. After a few weeks a young boy stared coming with –what had become now ‘my Tommy’. But was it my illusion or he was really very gloomy? First I asked this question to myself and then to Mehek. She smiled with her old naughty smile and said, “How can I know? You should know about it, it’s yours.” And then pretending to be serious she said that “May be his separation from you is the reason.” and giggled.

Just after two days Keshiana came with news, “Do you remember that old man? The real owner of Tommy! It was he who died last month” she said. “My mother ……” all her remaining words droned in my ears.

I felt like I had lost something… …someone…

I thought, “What’s happening? I never knew him by his name; nor was I related to him in any way………or may be I was.” I felt a kind of strange kinship with him………..a kind of relation…divine relation…may be the relation was of love ………Yes, love for Tommy was what linked us.