Midnight Musings

It is 02:00 AM on a Sunday night (rather Monday), and I am still trying hard to catch some sleep so that I can be ready for a work week ahead. The reasons were many. It is always difficult to call it a day when you could savour the wonderful moments you had afresh, just the way you would relish the taste of your favourite food item dished out by your mom leisurely. Reminiscing the fun moments, in general, brings a positive feeling inside. And, I will call this particular instance adventurous for my friend's sake. 

But what kept me awake until this point is the Shaheed Bhagat Singh's beautiful handwriting and the mental strength he showed at a very young age. I have watched films on him, we all did. And, have been inspired by the songs he penned. To read his writings in his own words is a different experience. Until today I have not had that chance. His choice of words, the command he had on legal proceedings and the courage he had shown at the most difficult times were exemplary. When today's young generation are busy raising their virtual farms, feeding their e-cattle and supporting every cause with a "Like", this 22-year old shackled a midst four walls dreamed of revolution and longed for change, for better. If only I could know how much he had gone through, mentally. If only we had access to the diary he maintained during his incarceration. If only all his writings are available to the public. 

Source: The Tribune

At the age of 21, Bhagat Singh published articles in Punjabi periodical on Anarchism. He dreamed of a society without obsession for money. A society free from God and money, two major reasons people fight amongst themselves. How many of us have heard of Anarchism at that time? How many of us know about it now? It was the books on Marxism and the life of Lenin he read in his condemned prison cell, while we comfortably read romantic fictional work by Sydney Sheldon and James Patterson. It was three month fast that this young man took part in only to be force fed by the authorities and to restart the fast later, while we care only a little for the brave Anna Hazare who is fasting for a better India and who gets branded as a corrupt person by this corrupt politicians.

We, the risk averting generation, who want a clean nation without our hands getting dirty can safely learn one thing from him. It is questioning and reasoning when we believe in what we do. Criticizing what we would otherwise blindly follow, only to build our own ideas on top of it. Can we do that, atleast for our own good?

If you have not heard of "Operation Trojan Horse", it is time to do so. Hit a search query with this term along with the words 'Bhagat Singh'. Ghastly as it sounds, but could be true from the controversy the British have created on the very unfortunate day we lost these three young people by imposing the penality earlier than the supposed time. 

Have you come across a statue of this legend in our country where we have statues for living people?

Competition and life

I wonder why we all take competition so seriously in life. Everybody is busy competing with somebody, in a bid to prove their right to excel. "To be number one in your class." "To be more popular than your friends and classmates." "To get into better college than your friends." "To make a better earning job than your peers." The list never ends.

Ranks. Marks. Grades. Since the day we join school, we are made to work hard and compete to get good grades. My parents promised me that it would end after I complete my Class X. It did not, but this time it was my elder brother who promised me that the competition to excel would end after I finish my XII class in flying colours. I was mistaken again. And, it was my lecturer after my class 12th but with a different message. He said, "This is the beginning, all the while you were being prepared for what you would face from now on!". I was shocked to know that. All the years I so wanted to get done with school since I was under the impression that I can live without and hassles and tensions after school, and my lecturer tells me this is the beginning.

Source: Google

Many people fear competition all their life, although they cannot escape facing it. Blame the pressure that was put on them as kids, or the competition and the results they have personally experienced. But it is all in the attitude with which we respond to it. Do we all not love a cricket match with your favourite team winning a close one? Have we all not enjoyed the tennis games between Federer and Nadal? It is the competitive spirit with which these players or teams play that makes the games interesting to watch. When we can enjoy competition between others, why can't we enjoy ourselves being in one? It is all in our attitude. The moment we realize competition encourages improvement in performance, and we can make kids understand this I guess they will enjoy competing with their peers.

“A competitive world offers two possibilities. You can lose. Or, if you want to win, you can change.” -Henry Ford

A near one month of staying away from blogging has done some damage to my blogging credentials. My Indirank has dropped by about 10 points to 63. And my Alexa rank has increased 5 fold, which does not mean good either. This reminded me of the competitive world around me, and my experiences related.

So what do you think of competition among school children and in general? What were your experiences?

When the King lost the jewel in his crown

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again." These were the words uttered by the first Prime Minister of India when British granted a dominion status to India and hence giving independence to its 40 crore people. But little do we about the detailed events that happened among the British in deciding to give India its independence. Alex Von Tunzelman in her book Indian Summer: The secret history of the end of an empire deals with, in detail, the lives of Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah and the Mountbattens who are the crucial people in birth of India and Pakistan. These are the people who triggered various actions that led to the independence. And these countries endured a lot of struggle and suffering even after their birth.

The author, a history student at Oxford, starts with a startling perspective. There were two countries in 1577. One was a vast, mighty and magnificent empire, brilliantly organised and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swathe of the earth; and the other was an underdeveloped semi-feudal realm, riven by religious factionalism and barely able to feed its masses. Guess what! The first is India and the second is England. In 1857 it was the other way about! Now you know what alien rule does to the ruler and the ruled! But, the country divided by its diversity fell prey to the British who found a way to enter this land as traders in the name of The East India Company. And India became a prized possession in the King's crown.

It is difficult to make history an interesting read, but Alex overcomes this problem by making the text highly readable. Her research deals with treacherous politics and personal details of the key players and her presentation of the otherwise boring history, clear and restraint.

Of all the things this book had to offer, I was particularly disturbed after reading about the aftermath of the independence. The Indian summer of 1947 had witnessed the transfer of power by the British empire to the Indian Union and the Dominion of Pakistan. But, it had to also witness one of the worst tragedies mankind had ever seen. The tragedy in which about one million people were murdered in communal and religious clashes. Sad, we celebrate independence every year but fail to mourn the death of these countless civilians. Perhaps Stalin was right, 'Death of one man is tragedy; death of millions is statistic'.

And, these key players has achieved what had not been achieved in 130 years of Mauryan rule, 180 years of Mughal empire or 90 years of British Raj. A united India by bringing about 570 princely states together. But then, is India really united? I think Nehru's words during the hour of independence will achieve salvation only when India becomes united in the true sense!

The Great Wall of India

A couple of weeks ago, an American national representing the company who sponsored our project at work asked me where in India I was from. Later on, he was telling me how he knew about the hatred between North Indians and South Indians. My response was "What!?!" He was telling me that people in India from North and South hated each other as much as they hated people from Pakistan. That was the first time I heard something like that!

But a quick search on the Internet about this issue gave me a much detailed insight. And yes, there is some coldness and indifference between the people from these two regions. They don't go well with each other for due to a variety of reasons like the Aryan and Dravidian divide, or the comparatively fair skin vs. dark skin or the food habits or languages they speak. We were those proud kids when we first learned of secular and diverse India during our primary and secondary school. I wonder what happened to all that cultural diversity lessons we learned. I wonder why we resort to silly reasons and superficial standards to judge and look down upon each other.

India from Google Maps at various zoom levels

In my version of Google Maps, I could not find a wall between North and South of India at any of its zoom levels. Does your version have that wall, that divide? I guess not! It's all in your minds and hearts.

I Dare To Dream

The Great Indian Robbers!

Do you worry if some one stole Rs. 200 from you? Probably you would not as much as when Rs. 2000 was robbed from you. Now, if you have not worried enough when you heard of 2G Spectrum scam then let me tell you that you need to worry. According to reports, the estimated loss due to this single scam is Rs. 1.76 Lakh Crores which approximates to Rs 1760 per every person in India's 1 billion population. If you start looking into other scams that have happened recently, then there is every reason for you to worry. An estimated 63 Lakh crores of Indian money sits in all the Swiss banks. There is no way we could ask these people to not rob the poor, because not even the animals were spared in this country.

The Give and Take Principle

During my college days, I often came across people who wanted to rag their juniors only because they were ragged by their seniors. When I go to a government office, I would have to deal with a bitter employee because he was treated with bitterness by his superior. A mother-in-law would want to make up for her bad experiences by treating her daughter-in-law in the same way. And this ill behavior only increases as it goes down the chain, because at every point one wants to feel good by venting out more than what one had experienced. Same is the case with our politicians. If the politicians pay Rs. 100 asking you to cast vote for them, they only expect to take back Rs 1000 or more from you after they win. 

Political Party Co. Pvt. Ltd.

Starting a political party is a profitable venture in this country. With nepotism having its strongest roots in Indian political scenario, politics is now a family-owned family-run venture mostly. And, like any other business there is competition in this as well. Be it at the central level or the state level, most of the ruling party's time is invested in devising methods to retain the power for a better future for their children, who would eventually be the politician of the next generation. So when your hard earned money is taken away and stashed in Swiss banks by politicians now, their children would increase their family assests by taking from your children. After all that is what BS Yeddyurappa said "I have done what my predecessors did".

Gifts for being Honest

It was Shanmughan Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey earlier, and this time only the name changed. Yashwant Sonawane was murdered for doing his job honestly. The unexplained deaths and murders of Right To Information activists and corruption whistleblowers only reasserts the fact that being honest in this country has its own risks. And how difficult will it be to find an honest person in any government organization? Very easy, the one who is termed outlier by his/her colleagues, who had most number of transfers and who is the most constrained economically. What would you tell your children when they read the newspapers and ask you if honesty is the best policy?

I hate what is happening and yet I love my country. Despite all this, I dare to dream of a corruption free India. Do you dare to dream? To make our dream come true, this time we cannot wait for a savior to lead the march. We cannot even trust any butterfly effect so that an instance in a far away land can trigger the movement here. We are by ourselves. Let us together fight against our common enemy "corruption" and make India a better place.

Source: www.5thpillar.org

India Against Corruption http://voteforindia.org

Also, do read what Zephyr has to say. 

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This post has been selected by BlogAdda under "Spicy Saturday Picks".

  

Micro Finance Institutions, the Indian scenario

What

Organizations that offer financial and banking services to low income people are called Micro Finance Institutions (MFI). Low income population, more specifically poor people, who do not have any assets for mortgage formally and/or proper employment cannot get credit benefits from the mainstream financial institutions like banks. These MFIs accesses financial resources (money) from the banks and give the poorer people the benefit of credit. Their prime target is to help microentrepreneurs (from the low level income strata).

How

Some of the main goals MFIs try to achieve through their services are to understand and identify what helps people to move out of poverty by creating self-employment opportunities. And, they also provide financial resources to the under-previleged and train them in putting the resources to their best use and generate income and employment through it. Micro financing is also profitable because if properly it can generate upto 50 percent returns on investment and it also helps the clients to pay higher interests.

Challenges

One of the major challenges that our MFIs come across in promoting micro-financing is the client illiteracy and lack of experience managing their finances. This requires people trained in micro-finance to deal with people in training them, and their unavailability affects the growth of the organization. And other challenge is in distributing the funds that government releases in support.

The Indian Scenario

Major Indian population resides in villages, and there has been a consistent effort by various governments after independence to develop rural India. The governments have tried to reduce poverty by providing grants, subsidies and credit through the main-stream banks. But these schemes proved to non-profitable for the banks and often led to their misuse. And it was also ineffectiveness on the governments' side in helping out the targeting beneficiaries. This scenario gave a platform for local money lenders to dominate the poor by lending money at exorbitant interest rates, which often leads to selling of assets and suicides due to inability to pay the debts. This has also led to the urban migration in search of a better living. With this, India adopted the micro-credit concept.

Just like anything else, the MFIs could not even protect themselves from the face of corruption in India. These non-profit organizations with a 25,000 Crore INR industry gradually turned out to operate for profits. And these "for profit" MFIs have grown spectacularly in the recent times by charging greater interest rates. Which made, MFIs a paradox in India. A recent study revealed about the coercive practices used by some MFI agents to recover the loans. There were incidents which have led to lots of suicides in the recent past, and which were allegedly coerced by the agents so that the loan money gets repayed through their insurance. And, government has recently taken steps to monitor these MFIs after they have faced the allegations at various levels.

But do these people, who face hardships through out their life for making a living, need to face exploitation at this level also?

Home, a must watch

Have you ever wondered why Jake Sullivan in Avatar film fell in love with the planet Pandora? Isn't the answer beauty of the nature in Pandora? Now watch this story to learn more about what we are doing to our own home, our planet Earth.

"Life, a miracle in the universe appeared around 4 billion years ago, and we humans only 200,000 years ago. Yet we have succeeded in disrupting the balance that is so essential to life." These are the words to which this documentary introduces us to our home, the Earth. Ever since I watched this, I could not stop thinking about it. Highlights are visually stunning aerial shots of most amazing places on Earth, the background music and above all the story it tells. And their message stands out, the message about what the wise humans have done to our home the Earth, and what we would lose if we don't act in a timely manner.

The film was shot by Yann-Arthus Bertrand, a famous French photographer from a helicopter using a HD camera, and it took them 217 days to shoot 488 hours of footage from 54 different countries. And the facts they share through this movie are really shocking. Yet in the end of the film, they infuse hope within us telling us about the measures currently being taken across the world in making up for the damage we have done. Here are some of those facts in the filmmaker's words and some screenshots from the film to motivate you to watch it.

Faster and faster. In the last 60 years, the Earth’s population has almost tripled. And over 2 billion people have moved to the cities.

Faster and faster. Shenzhen, in China, with hundreds of skyscrapers and millions of inhabitants, was just a small fishing village barely 40 years ago. In Shanghai, 3000 towers and skyscrapers have been built in 20 years. Hundreds more are under construction. Today, over half of the world’s 7 billion inhabitants live in cities.

Faster and faster. Like the life cycle of livestock, which may never see a meadow. Manufacturing meat faster than the animal has become a daily routine. In these vast foodlots, trampled by millions of cattle, not a blade of grass grows. A fleet of trucks from every corner of the country brings tons of grain, soy meal and protein-rich granules that will become tons of meat. The result is that it takes 100 liters of water to produce 1 kilogram of potatoes, 4000 liters for 1 kilo of rice and 13,000 liters for 1 kilo of beef. Not to mention the oil guzzled in the production process and transport.

Faster and faster. The more the world develops, the greater its thirst for energy. Everywhere, machines dig, bore and rip from the Earth the pieces of stars buried in its depths since its creation… Minerals. As a privilege of power, 80% of this mineral wealth is consumed by 20% of the world’s population. Before the end of this century, excessive mining will have exhausted nearly all the planet’s reserves.

Is excessive exploitation of resources threatening the lives of every species?

By 2050, a quarter of the Earth’s species could be threatened with extinction. Our ecosystem doesn’t have borders. Wherever we are, our actions have repercussions on the whole Earth. Our planet’s atmosphere is an indivisible whole. It is an asset we share. How can this century carry the burden of 9 billion human beings, if we refuse to be called to account for everything we alone have done? 20% of the world’s population consumes 80% of its resources.The world spends 12 times more on military expenditures than on aid to developing countries. 5,000 people a day die because of dirty drinking water. 1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water. Nearly 1 billion people are going hungry. Over 50% of grain traded around the world is used for animal feed or biofuels. 40% of arable land has suffered long-term damage. Every year, 13 million hectares of forest disappear. 1 mammal in 4, 1 bird in 8, 1 amphibian in 3 are threatened with extinction. Species are dying out at a rhythm 1,000 times faster than the natural rate. Three quarters of fishing grounds are exhausted, depleted or in dangerous decline. The average temperature of the last 15 years has been the highest ever recorded. The ice cap is 40% thinner than 40 years ago

It's too late to be a pessimist. It's time to come together for what remains. We all have the power to change.

Do watch it on Youtube for free, and help spreading the message by sharing it with as many as you can:
http://www.youtube.com/homeproject#p/a/f/0/jqxENMKaeCU

To Follow Or Not To Follow Your Heart

We always refer to "heart" when we make our decisions emotionally and "brain" when we follow some instructions mechanically. It is quite obvious from the saying, "Follow your heart, not brain" which tells us to make our decisions emotionally based on our liking rather than following the herd.

Throughout the history and in various ancient cultures, heart is treated as the intelligent force behind all our thoughts and feelings we experience intuitively. In one of the oldest books of Egypt on wisdom "Ptah-Hotep" ('The God Ptah is satisfied'), it is said "Follow your heart during your lifetime; do not do more than what is commanded you." Old Testament of Bible says "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he". "Let your heart guide your head in evil matters" is a very old and famous Spanish saying. The New Testament of the Bible has a reference to a reasoning heart, "What reason ye in your hearts". Bhagavad Gita talks about the intelligent/ignorant heart, "Sever the ignorant doubt in your heart with the sword of self-knowledge." The Chinese, Hebrew and the followers of Islam also have their interpretations of thinking heart.
 

Brain vs. Heart (Source: Tumblr)

But, did you ever try to logically think if these statements and interpretations make sense scientifically? Rather medically? I've not and now that I'm thinking in this direction my mind raises this question. Didn't our high-school science teacher tell us that heart is a muscular organ that pumps blood and maintains circulation to all parts of the body until we breathe for the last time, and it's the brain which has the ability to think and make decisions? And, it is quite possible that throughout this history, this attributed thinking ability of heart is a result of lack of understanding of our body's functionality or incorrect translations/interpretations of actual manuscripts written in various languages.

But, looks like I shouldn't have doubted the thinkers of the past and my high school teacher is not all that correct. Documented by scientific evidence, the heart communicates with the entire body neurologically, biochemically and bio-physically. Neurological communication happens through the impulses of nerve cells. Biochemical control comes through hormones and neurotransmitters. Bio-physically the heart can also send out pressure waves when it pumps the blood. Recent studies show that heart's innate capability to control the brain comes from electromagnetic interactions between them too. The heart generates body's strongest electromagnetic field which is 60 times stronger than what brain could produce. The rhythmic patterns of our beating heart changes with various emotions we go through. The experimental data also backs up the fact that positive emotions give out distinct mode of psycho-physiological coherence which leads to increased efficiency and harmony in the interactions of our entire body. Maintaining this harmony inside our body is important for being healthy, and this is why it's important to follow our heart.

Source: Link

Often, due to the challenges the society we live in poses, our decisions are not based on what our heart says. This leads to dilemma when our heart opposes the mind not only in the life changing career decisions but also in the simplest of the cases when we want to decide what to eat. Listening to heart might give satisfaction, but following the mind might lead to results and success. When I talk about results in this modern time, it is money. Because, mostly the measurement of success is in terms of the money we earn, the house we live and the cars we drive. And if you are a person of heart, I know it hurts. But, here is why you should follow your heart.

Do you know why most scientists lock themselves in labs and invent things they do? They work for their passion, they follow their heart. What would happen to all the innovation if those passionate entrepreneurs don't push the boundaries risking their careers? Bhagat Singh would have never started a revolution had he done what his brain said. Gandhi would have never cared for our freedom had he not followed his heart. Martin Luther King need not take that bullet had he not followed his heart. But, things would have been different had these great people followed their minds.

Remember how many lives changed when only a handful of people fought for what they believed and risked their lives despite knowing about the imminent hardships. What happens to this world if everyone follows their hearts and works for their passion? Why don't we do that?

Tyler Durden (Source: Toonz)

Because, it's not simple! It requires us to move out of your comfort zones. How many of us can stop caring what other people would say for some action we do? We live in a hypocritical society and in constant fear. And because of this fear, we are not what we want to be. We live under a facade, an attractive one for the sake of the society. We are worried about following our heart. May be this is the reason why I adore Tyler Durden. Tyler believes in being content at what we do. He believes in being true to self. "Sticking feathers up your butt doesn't make you a chicken". We are not the job we do, not the money we have, not the car we drive, not the assets we own and not the contents of our wallet. The stuff we own doesn't define us, it's what we accomplish. I'm not saying to risk your family and everything. Follow your heart; but don't lose your shirt.

If you don't know the Tyler Durden I'm talking about, he's the character of the movie Fight Club which was made after the novel by the same name written by Chuck Palahniuk. When people ask me why I like the movie so much, I tell them only about the rush the movie gives. But, there is more than the adrenaline rush to it. It's not about just fighting or creating chaos. To me the movie is more of a preaching throwing some light on the way we live now. People do it every day, they talk to themselves… they see themselves as they’d like to be, they don’t have the courage to just run with it. Tyler, in the movie, helps the protagonist by taking him down the path of enlightenment. For those of you who have seen the movie, do you remember the scene in which the penguin echoes "Slide" when the hero enters his secret cave in his mind? The power animal in that scene asks the hero to slide all those things that truly doesn't matter. To let go all the fear and distractions from being what you truly want to be. But, it was not easy for our protagonist to let go, and this is where Tyler helps him.

As Tyler said, "This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time." If only we have our own manifestations of Tyler Durdens in our life too, for those of us who want to follow our hearts but cannot.

Vee

Attention Problem!

I always knew that Siddharth Narayan is an intelligent actor, but only recently did I know about his intelligence as a person too. Have a look at this video and you will know what I'm talking about. The major point in his talk is how the current generation of Indian population have this "Attention Problem" and how we cannot focus on something even for a little while.

I might have had something to argue either on behalf or against his point, but after I went through the comments in that youtube video above I don't. There is this man trying to make a point, trying to motivate us. And we just abuse each other without caring for anything at all. And, this is a common case with all youtube videos or forums or anything which have India as their central theme. Seriously, what's the problem with us! Can all these abuses attributed to anonymity these online forums provide when the users comment? May be, given a chance to go anonymous or invisible these bunch of shameless people would start looting the country in every possible way just like the way they loot the country's pride by posting shameless comments against each other.

And what's with these fan groups in India? Fans of a certain hero cannot withstand fans of another. Followers of a politician cannot bear followers of others. When all these heroes and politicians are friends in reality, their fans and followers go on fighting with words on online forums for no reason. What's wrong with their gray matter, and what happened to their thinking ability?

Will the father fail?

Ram Singh, a single father to two sons and a daughter, belongs to lower middle class. He used to look after his family by farming in the small piece of land he inherited from his father. His youngest son has a health problem since birth, and it would cost Ram Singh a little more for his son's medicines. But that's no reason for him to worry since it's nothing beyond what he earns. Very recently, the father chose to invest his money in a business in an attempt to provide better quality of life to his children.

All in good intention, the father decided to use all his savings. Slowly, the investment to start his own business was turning out to be more than expected. He had to sell his land and started borrowing amount from many places. He had to also cut down what he would use for his youngest son's medicines. Only in a hope that everything would come back to a better place once his business starts.

But it wasn't as easy as it should be. The father did not foresee all different problems he could face. Life is a bitch. The not so friendly local politicians would not let the things happen smoothly. Only with more money he could achieve what he had dreamed of. Now, with all his saving gone and with nothing to spare for medicines for his son, Ram Singh is broke. So are the kids. The kid with health problem is now bed ridden, and only timely medicines can get him back to normalcy. Did the father fail? Was his decision wrong? Should he have not dreamed of a better life when he was good at what he was?

It's not a huge amount that he requires to get his small business running. Chipping in a little amount from our side is all it takes to make his life better. All he needs is a little support from you and me. I'm ready to support and to not let the father fail! Are you?

Yeah, I've been talking about the whole Common Wealth Games scenario. The father is the country and the ill son is the poor population. How the father had to sacrifice medicines for his ill son simply reflects on how being a host to CWG effects the poor in our country. Instead of investing in eliminating poverty directly, the government chose to spend money by becoming a host which would further increase the taxes on the common man. But, the negative effect on the poor is expected to be only for a short period since this whole thing is worked out on a wonderful revenue model. Had it not been for the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, the country is expected to profit a lot from being the host. I feel India, currently, is in a deep confusion which puts pressure in projecting itself as  a developed country while we still are developing one step at a time. Unknowingly and unfortunately, this creates the  scenarios for India-Bharat divide, the divide between urban and rural. Between the rich and the poor. And it is this confusion that wants to see ourselves as a capable country by becoming host to such a grand event. Had it all turned out the way it should have. Had it not been for all the corruption!

One thing we can do is to shed the negative vibes and the bad publicity. All it requires is our support as citizens. We had done it by uniting against terrorism earlier, and now we can do it again by supporting the event and sharing the positive energy. Please don't let the father fail!

PS: You can support the post on Indivine at Indiblogger and help it reach more people.

Resurrection

Phoenix from ashes;

Moth to butterfly. I wish

leaders are for trust!

Image Courtesy

Written for

~Vee...

War, peace and the side effects

Just a few hours ago while I was traveling in the local bus, I became the subject of a strange situation. Although I was expecting such a thing to happen sometime, I was quite shocked when it actually happened. I happen to grow my beard a little longer than usual these days. And today I was asked by my fellow passenger in the bus to not blow away the bus with a bomb. At first I thought he was kidding and laughed back in response, but he kept on saying that for about 6 - 8 times until he got down the bus. He said its okay for him if I trigger the bomb I was supposedly carrying after he leaves the bus. To add to my shock, a bunch of other people around me were laughing when all this was happening. Not sure if this incident comes under racial abuse or whatever but it really disturbed me for sometime. And it really left me thinking how many others face this scenario in their lives and how disturbed they get.

And this made me think about the chicken and egg kind of question, but in this case it's easy to find answers. Did terrorism start first or greed? More specifically in the context of USA, did terrorism against them start first or did their greedy nature to become oil power of the world by saving natural resources in their land and declaring war on Oil rich countries? I think it is the latter case. After all the damage has been done in Iraq, thanks to Bush and other masterminds, Obama has taken up the job of scavenger to clean the mess made by his predecessors. Listen to Obama's speech from the Oval office about declaring the end of Iraq war. But is the war over yet? 

Will it be the same to all those who lost their loved ones on both the sides? And, with the situation gone so far will there ever be peace? To me, when I think of this whole war situation I feel the fire was light and fuel was added. And, its just the matter of time to let the fire rage! 

~Vee...

P.S.1: Not thinking of giving up on my beard look yet! 

P.S.2: Thinking of reading War and Peace which I've been putting off since years. 

Freedom Struggle

Days of freedom struggle

Thou shalt never forget

Lest history repeats

We cannot take things for granted for our freedom wasn't achieved easily. 

In order to achieve freedom from all the social evils, we have to do our part.

P.S.: My first attempt at Haiku. Will be very happy if my fellow bloggers correct, criticize or comment on my attempt.

Written for

Economic Imbalance

Last night I was reading an article on how China overtook Japan in becoming World's second largest economy. As I dug deeper, I was surprised (read it shocked) to learn that India is World's Eleventh largest economy. May be, I need to read my high school social textbooks again! But, can someone here clarify what Economy means and how India happens to be 11th.

Our ranking based on per capita income is 139 out of 192 countries on the World map. Does this say something? According to an estimate by World Bank, one-third of the people below poverty line in the entire world resides in India. Yet, India is also the country with more than One Lakh super rich people. While the number of rich people account for those pretty numbers which puts our country in the top of the world's charts, nothing much seem to change with the Poor. Except for the fact that the poor gets poorer and the rich gets richer.

I was reading the post Economic Independence I wrote 3 years ago on the occasion of Independence day. Nothing much seemed to change!!! I'm afraid to even think that we are failing. Failing of being a democracy, of being an independent country. Are we? I hope not. Can we do something? Wish, we can.

Image Source: Citizenx.org

Will the call to our Indian rich people by Bill Gates be answered? Will it begin the end of many sad stories we see around? Will there be any difference in the lives of those kids who beg alms when you stop near traffic signals in your luxury cars, when you dine at costly restaurants, when you take your kids to malls?

~Vee...

Goodbye

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 13; the thirteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

There are two types of people in this world.

Those who give up and kiss goodbye to the world, those who fight till the end no matter what!

Where do you belong?

Afraid of this materialistic world as an eight year old kid, Amar could have given up when he envied how peaceful his mother looked in death. But he didn't.

Unable to withstand the abuse by her malik where she worked as domestic help, Priti could have ended her life as she didn't have any where else to go and live. But she didn't.

After seeing his world - his wife and little child pulled away by death in the form of mud slides due to the floods, Raheel could have said goodbye to this world. But he didn't.

The long wait for monsoon didn't seem to end to Sivaiah. Not sure if pesticides would work on eliminating pests, but it  sure would have worked on him had he wished to end his life. But he didn't.

Not coping up with the expectations of an engineer father and doctor mother in academics in the competitive world, Vidya could have ended her life. But she didn't.

Brain-washed by the power hungry politicians, Nachiket could have set fire to himself in the name of a protest against ruling government. But he didn't.

Every goodbye is the birth of a memory, except death.

Try to become a memory, not history.

For history doesn't remember the weak!

• Amar means long life. It's unfortunate that many children in our country experience a lot of physical and mental trauma due to poverty.
• All Priti wanted is a little affection and love in her life. There are more than 11 million abandoned children in our country with 90% of them female. What are we doing to ourselves?
• Raheel means the fearless one who shows way to others. It's important to have brave people to lead us, especially in the crucial times. This is also a reference to the current floods situation in Pakistan. May it all end soon.
• Lord Siva sure has Ganga on his head, but not many such Sivaiahs who are taking their lives after untimely monsoon thrashes all the money and effort they put in their fields.
• Suicides by students is one of the things that bothers me a lot. Why do they have to resort to such an extreme step? Isn't it true that today's students are tomorrow's future?
• Nachiketa means fire. And these days we hear many such Nachiket's taking their lives for their politicians! I'm definitely talking about the Telangana issue.

All we need to do is give them a little support and help them face the challenges. I will do my best, I hope you will too.

~Vee...

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

This post is also written as a part of Mera-Bharat-Mahan-India-Shining-Proud-Blogadda-Contest  and this is my product of choice from Pringoo.

Wish

This post won me Silver Blog-a-tonic award of the month (Silver BATOM).

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 12; the twelfth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

"Between the wish and the thing, life lies waiting." - Anonymous 

**

Ciuadad Juarez, Mexico - Gabriela is a daughter of a businessman. She has everything she wanted, except that she cannot go out without her security guards. Out of the fear of extortion threats by the local mafia she was not allowed to play with her friends. Like any other kid she wanted to go out freely and play. One day, in their huge mansion, amidst the colorful walls with fancy paintings light by the magnificent chandeliers were a group of finely dressed happy people waiting for her to cut her birthday cake. She stared at everyone and with a grin blew those five candles at once, and made a silent wish. 

** 

Bali, Indonesia - Dian is an orphan. He had been through lot of rough times since his childhood. But he always believed in hard work and finally made a decent job. He met a girl recently through a friend and never before was he so happy in his life. After meeting her frequently for some time, he made up his mind and proposed and she happily accepted. All he wanted is to make a happy family which he never had and they planned to get married. A day before his marriage, he went out along with friends and was gazing in the sky thinking about his marriage. He spotted a shooting star and quickly made a wish.

** 

Santo Andre, Brazil - Isabel is born with a congenial limb deficiency. When she was 2 years old, her left leg was amputated till knee. Her mother is a dancer by profession and she always wanted to be like her mother. Once during spring time she went to the nearby fields along with her father. The dandelion puffs in the fields reminded her of the story her mother told when she was a kid about how they are signs of hope. She picked one, made a wish and blew the dandelion.  

** 

Philadelphia, USA - Cody was a perfectly healthy kid until he was recently diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis, which is quite rare in kids. Despite being terminally ill, he dresses up head to toe in support of his favorite Philadelphia Phillies team for every ball game and cheers for them from his bed in the hospital. He always wanted to spend time with the members of his favorite team. When volunteers from Make-A-Wish foundation visited him in the hospital and asked him what he wanted, he knew it exactly. He made his wish. 

**  

Ranchi, India - Sujata is a single mother working in a construction company. Ever after her husband deserted her with their two kids, she took the responsibility of earning bread by working hard. All she wanted is to make sure she could feed both her kids every day, but thats not an easy task for her. Just like every other day, on her way to work she stopped for a minute near the Ganesh temple. She closed her eyes fervently , mumbled a small prayer and made her only wish.

** 

As kids when we played marbles, we always started with equal number of marbles per player. I *wish* life also follows the same logic and gives everyone equal opportunity to begin with. On the ending note, may all their wishes come true.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

The snow, the bloodshed and the mourning me

Right now, I am sipping my morning cup of coffee waiting for my parents to come online, so that we can say hi hello virtually. To my left, out the window, I see tiny flakes of snow falling from the sky making its mark on the entire ground. Its all white out there. Next time you get a chance to be in a place where it snows, you should take your time to observe the snow flakes. Their symmetry simply surprises you, they have these intricate projections as in the pictures of twinking stars have. Science has an explanation for this as well. 

My heart mourns for all those who have lost their lives and are injured in the ghastly Mumbai terror strike. For the past four days, I was continuously on the news websites reading news updates and watching live tv, praying God to end the massacre as soon as possible. It wasn't something one would really expect to happen. I don't understand where the world is going. Is killing scores of innocent people the only way the terrorists want to show their anger; is all that they can do in the process of acheiving what they want ?  Do they know how it will be like to get trapped in a dark room for a couple of days with armed people around them trying to kill them? Do they know the pain in not hearing from a dear one who is trapped in a place full of people throwing grenades with the sole aim of killing as many as they come across? Anyone fit to be called as a human being must be aware of all this; have they lost their human self? Now its the same in Pakistan as well, there is violence in Karachi with vehicles being torched and people being killed. Is violence the only answer to everything? I'm disturbed!

Pursuit of Happiness

What makes you happy? 

(a) A great mug of coffee (b) an ice cream (c) fried maggi at 2.00 AM (d) All the above

Science says 50% of a person's happiness depends on his/her genes (?!), 10 - 15% on status (health, social, marital, material etc etc) and the remaining miscellanious. Now I don't get this gene-connection, 50% dependency is huge!!! Is it something like this - if my parents are not happy then I end up being low? Aila!

Everyone of us will, atleast at some point of time, retrospect on what we are doing in life now! Am I doing what I want, am I happy? Am I really? Well, I'm not really sure. I really was never! If you haven't asked this question to yourself, then do that now! You might be happy, but are you happy with what you are doing in Life is my question here! Right now I'm in this distant land, away from my family and friends, not really sure about what I'm doing and how happy I'm with what I'm doing. Am I sounding confused? May be I'm, may be I'm not - wish I cud get some help from Heisenberg to resolve my uncertainity on all these things. Wish there is a way to calculate my Happiness Index (just the way we have it for countries - Denmark the happiest and India ranking 125th happiest in the world) on a daily basis, and in this way keep track of myself. Wish I do things that makes me much more happier in future. 

Tip: If all your approaches to be the happiest go in vain, follow the Eight-fold path and attain Nirvana as Buddhism says!

PS1: Denmark has also got highest suicide rates. May be this is in a way helping them to be the Happiest nation with all the sad people killing themselves leaving behind just the set of happy people to participate in the survey... lol

PS2: Dada struck the chord by scoring a century in the 2nd test and balanced the stuph for his infamous remarks. Happy for him! Way to go Dada.

Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna...

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil mein hai

aye watan Karta nahin kyun doosra kuch baat-cheet
Dekhta hun main jise woh chup teri mehfil mein hai
Aye shaheed-e-mulk-o-millat main tere oopar nisaar
Ab teri himmat ka charcha ghair ki mehfil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Waqt aanay dey bata denge tujhe aye aasman
Hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil mein hai
Khainch kar layee hai sab ko qatl hone ki ummeed
Aashiqon ka aaj jumghat koocha-e-qaatil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
Aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar
Khoon se khelenge holi gar vatan muskhil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se
Sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
Aur bhadkega jo shola-sa humaare dil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Hum to ghar se nikle hi the baandhkar sar pe kafan
Jaan hatheli par liye lo barh chale hain ye qadam
Zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Yuun khadaa maqtal mein qaatil kah rahaa hai baar baar
Kya tamannaa-e-shahaadat bhi kisee ke dil mein hai
Dil mein tuufaanon ki toli aur nason mein inqilaab
Hosh dushman ke udaa denge humein roko na aaj
Duur reh paaye jo humse dam kahaan manzil mein hai


Wo jism bhi kya jism hai jismein na ho khoon-e-junoon
Toofaanon se kya lade jo kashti-e-saahil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai.
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazuay qaatil mein hai


PS1: I feel strong every time I go through this piece of writing
PS2: By-hearted more than half of this
PS3: Try reading after listening to this from the movie Rang De Basanti
PS4: Do let me know what you feel after doing this
PS5: Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai!!

Better Traffic Conditions for a Better City

With the increasing number of IT companies showing interest to set up their offices in Bangalore and other major cities in India leading to increasing number of people settling in these cities, the need for a better transport is increasing. Around 900 new vehicles make their way to the roads of Bangalore per day and on an average 2 people get killed and 18 get injured in road accidents. This itself talks about the huge need of improving the traffic conditions. But how do we do that?

A painful approach is by increasing the road taxes, parking fees, banning vehicles in certain areas and hours and forcing the people. The other is a much accepted approach by providing efficient alternatives to personal transport - metro rail, more buses and better connectivity to various places. The first approach will definitely be not received positively by the public where as the second one makes it a very costly and time consuming one. Apart from all this, new fly-overs, widening the roads, tagging more roads as one-ways etc will also help in achieving the aim, but the junta can reap the fruits of most of these trees only after a couple of years. And till the fruits are ready to be reaped, they have to struggle hard for their food! I mean, most of these will lead to congestion till they are ready.

The only one way where in we can see significant results without any side effects is by encouraging traffic awareness programs; they help a great deal in achieving a better and safer roads. Though we are all aware of traffic rules, we tend to break the rules. These traffic awareness programs can bring a change in our attitude. What else do we want if these programs make us follow the road rules safely instead of blaming bad roads, bad bus drivers and bad autowallahs for the accidents!!
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My 2 cents in spreading the word:
I post this in response to a topic provided by Blogathon India. Its an event where Bloggers discuss their ideas and raise their issues and concerns over certain aspects by posting articles on certain topics provided by organizers of the event. This is followed by discussion by readers commenting on the articles posted by Bloggers. The main aim is to make Cyberspace bring a change in various social aspects.

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