soliloquy

Pilani Ki Khushboo

2011-10-25T20:40:00.001+05:30

This one surely deserves a tip of the hat. It is an excerpt of the speech by Mr. Sunit Rikhi (EEE 1974-79), Chief Guest Oasis 2007. And every time I read this, I feel nostalgic. So here it goes..

" Har hawa ke jhonke mein Pilani ki khushboo doondhta hoon

Har bus-stop pe Nutan doondhta hoon

Har talaab mein shiv ganga doondta hoon

Har shamshaan mein shiv mandir doondta hoon

Har mandir ke aangan mein ghas dhoondta hoon

Har ghas par naachta moor doondhta hoon

Har nayee seekh mein funda doondta hoon

Har paronthe ke aas paas anda doondta hoon

Har kursi mein BITS style cricket ki wicket doondta hoon

Har oonchi deevar ke peechae Meera Bhavan doondta hoon

Wait...There is one more stanza left in this poem

Har baat mein laccha doondta hoon

Har mauke pe vellagiri dhoondta hoon

Har vartmaan pal mein apna ateet dhoondta hoon

Tum sabke khoobsoorat chehron mein, mein apna chehra doondhta hoon"

..After all every journey has to come to an end, but it just so happens at times that you want to get lost in the journey itself. Yes i say this even after almost 6 years at Pilani :D

I wanna stay Young with you

2011-09-25T15:56:00.000+05:30

"Youth is like diamonds in the sun...Diamonds are forever..So i wanna stay forever young..forever young.... "

But ....

I wanna stay young with You....

I wanna sit in Silence with you, and feel your presence beside me

I wanna walk in the Rain with you, holding hands

I wanna Dance with you, dance in style,dance for a while on a starry night

I wanna sit on the beach side with you and watch a beautiful setting sun

I Wanna sitting lazily on a terrace with you, with the cool winds kissing us softly, while we kiss each other passionately

I wanna enjoy music with you on a cool autumn evening

I wanna sip a cup of tea with you on a cold wintery morning, with the meek yet warm rays of sun touching us

I wanna dance with you in the heavy monsoon rains

I wanna get wet with you in the sprinkler of a garden on a hot summers day

i wanna fly high in the sky with you and feel the strong winds against our faces

I wanna jump into the sea with you and feel the water currents on us..

I wanna stand besides you on top of a mountain and feel the divine presence..

I wanna sit beside you and talk...talk about simple yet beautiful things in life...

I wanna sit on a ship deck and gaze at the waters n communicate my thoughts n feelings to you..

I wanna enjoy.. the speeches 'n' the silences with you

the euphony 'n' the monotony with you

the happy highs' n' the gloomy lows with you

I wanna lose myself with you

I wanna stay young with you

I wanna be with you forever, forever...

I wanna tell you that You are being missed...

All Is Well..

2011-04-30T10:54:00.001+05:30

[This is a random mix of thoughts, just written as and when they came]
All is well that ends well or that’s how I perceive it! Let’s just say it ended well! Slogging hard since the past two days! Skipped Meals, didn’t see much of human life around, Room seemed like a place for only for crashing late at night, but yeah a record of 2 papers in 2 days! Not bad aah! After all we do really work on the principles of rockets, only when our a** is on fire.

And did I just say something about ‘the time just flying off’ in my last post. Oh yes it did, once again! An addition to the previous one--Time just flies away when you have to meet deadlines, but luckily I did meet ‘em :-) As I said all is well.I don’t know what the result of this two day endeavor will be, but let’s just say, the road which led to the destination was thrilling! At times, the outcome doesn’t seem to hold much importance, but what matters most is what all you learned till you reached there.

Some random thoughts that just dawned on me while working:

-Data encapsulation is the key to research papers.
-Research papers are meant to be comprehended only by a small section of people; For others, RIP…Abhi dilli bahut door hai, mere dost
-It’s evil out there! The entire scientific community works for themselves and not, as they claim, for the betterment/advancement of the world
-At the end it just boils down to Publish or perish!
- There are four categories of people in the scientific community. The first category comprises the majority and the lesser known people who settle down at some obscure places and are complacent with the regular 9-5 teaching job, the second category is the one with a fair amount of national/global presence –These are the ones who frequently publish journal papers, write books and do good to the entire community, the third category belongs to the smart people who patent things and earn money out of it! You see it’s all about money honey ;-) And then finally there is this elite category of people who do breakthrough researches and get the prestigious Nobel prizes.

Hmm disheartened! Oh don’t be, let’s just be sanguine and say Better luck next time :)

Funnier: (Conversations)

-Mother tongue influences are bad! Some English words said by Punjabi’s actually seem like abuses.’ Oo meri ‘ppanddrive’ dena (read pen drive) !

-Blue moon & the ‘Kashmiri Kehwa’, which never was—Fool me once, Shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me! I’m a fool that I did not beware ;-)

-After an entire day spent at writing your results to prove that they are worth to be read by others, you don't think anything else other than graphs,plots,frequencies and networks. And when you finally land up for dinner at a place, you slop down on the chair and say,"Bhaiya zara woh 'Plot' laana"!! (read menu card) Yeah it happens. Excess of everything is bad,as they say :)

And before the time flies, I should get back to work.And let's just end this at a quote I read on someone's T-shirt today:
The best things in life are dangerous...
"BITS-Pilani" Cranking heads since 1964

Adieu!

O'Sleep How art Thou So Sweet?

2011-04-28T23:27:00.000+05:30

Sleep'o'sleep! Everywhere You are

Each season You come in a different facade

In the cosy winter mornings, In the enervated summer nights

On the lazy rainy days & the dull autumn days

You are somewhere there...

Behind every word of that small font novel

In every equation of that Technical paper

In every second we spend infront of the computer screen

In every bite of that heavy afternoon lunch

Sleep'o'Sleep! You are the best of companions

You come and relieve us of the weariness of a tiresome day

You come and ward off the boredom of the class for us

You come and subside the fears of an early morning exam and transport us to the sweetest of dreams

Sleep'O'Sleep! You come when we need you the most

On gloomy days, You come to subside the tears

During illness, You come to assuage the pain and promise to take us to a better day soon

Sleep'O'Sleep! You are there in the darkest of nights

You are there in the earliest of mornings

You are there in the flutter of Eyelids

You are there in one of those Contagious yawns

O' Sleep you are so irresistible, that after the last word I type

I will jump directly to the bed!

Send me the sweetest dreams

Nyt Nyt :-)

Does Time Really Fly?

2011-04-26T21:33:00.000+05:30

Antiphon in his chief work "On Truth" said that "Time is not a reality,but a concept or a measure". A common Buddhist thought considers it as an illusion, while some others consider it as a metasensory concept!A sense which rides on top of all the other senses.A sense of time is threaded through everything we perceive. It’s there in the length of a song, the persistence of a scent or the flash of a light bulb.

The life of all the clocks, I think "Time" is King of the universe-been there before the universe began and will be there till it ends. Time- Dynamism personified, a dictator to the T and impervious to everything!

Ever seen time wait for anyone? You may wait for it, but it never waits for you. It makes you do things according to it's wish, but it never does what you wish. It's ruthless. It never stops when you want it to- Remember the time when you met your old friend after a long time and while you were just catching up on each other's lives, didn't the time just end? Ooh that romantic evening with your special one;Didn't it just fly at lightning speed! And that very important exam of your career and ooh the bell just rang and you thought there still was some time. To add to it, don't interesting and page turning novels end up fast and you are left thinking, "If only there were a few more pages".Damn the time!Heartless it really is. So does time really fly? Yes it does especially when you are having fun or don't want it to pass away soon.

On the contrary, it becomes so stagnant at times! It will just refuse to pass on or it seems so. Not to talk about time flying, it will walk at a snail's pace when you want it to pass away soon. The dull and boring moments of life are always the longest and the exciting ones short lived. Illnesses tend to prolong.Don't you feel as if you've been lying on that darned bed forever if you are ill, and when you wish for a peaceful sleep on a busy day, the alarm will just buzz off even before you get some sleep. A boring lecture topped with a monotonous voice of the presenter will go on for ages while an interesting talk by an energetic speaker will end in a fleeting time. The uphill journey to reach your destination will seem excruciatingly long, while the return journey will be unwillingly short!

There is no rewind button for time as well ! How you wish to relive "the here today and gone tomorrow' joys of childhood or your college days. The absence of a rewind button is complemented by the absence of a forward button too. Remember your childhood days; Seeing grown ups around you and how you wished to grow up fast; how you wished to end the school soon and enter college; how you wished to finish graduation and get employed soon, but time never flew off then. It just took its usual course. Time can never be tamed. Such a wild nature it has!

How I wish now, that the time passes soon and I go back home. (Okay now you know, why I've been cursing time since then) But the time seems to have stopped. Days seem longer, exams haven't approached yet and seem far far away. Not to think of when they will end and when I will finally go...to the better times :)

I have nothing against the paradoxical nature of time. Infact this is what makes life a blend of good and bad times:) The good thing about time, as Ray Cummings, a science fiction writer pointed out is that it's something which keeps everything from happening at once :) So just enjoy the timely nature of time, while I get back to my work :-)

Jog on!

Of Farewells and goodbyes :)

2011-04-25T20:48:00.001+05:30

~For You J~

I haven’t been there ever! All I know of the place is what I have heard from you. A beautiful campus, which during most months is on the boil, (I guess that’s why they call it the Jampot) except a few roaring showers it receives once in a blue moon. But yeah fortunately for the ac’s at almost every place, it wouldn’t have been that bad. (Regardless of the fact that cool air from the AC dozed you off in seconds and transported you into a dreamland of marketing strategies, cost cutting mechanisms, company labor laws and what not ;-)) It was a place where assignments, case studies and presentations were bread butter and milk for you. Without these your day just didn’t seem complete! Holidays seemed like a remote concept made for lesser mortals (the non-B school people ;-)). Sleep is alien to most of you at least for the first three semesters, except after the campus placements season. The sense of relief (read sleep) the placements give is much greater than the urge to go to the early morning class, which would have become a forgotten trend, had it been for the regular evaluation components. Going to classes wearing formals seemed like a norm and the Father Prabhu hall no more seemed like a slaughterhouse! Entertainment there seems to be the late night parties and the much loved ****$$@@@ songs of the very famous Bodhi tree band (Wonder how they come up with new ***** songs each time? Now that’s what I called creativity ;-)). Light conversations blended with a sip of coffee and a bite of egg Maggie at the “tapris” seems to be the best vent out after a marathon session at the library or a grilling lecture! Little do I know about the place, but one thing I know for sure is that you’ll definitely miss the place. College campuses always do that to you…A charm which always appeals, the memories which never fade and a life that always beckons. Much like travels/journeys, the small phase of life you spent there, will always seem pleasant in retrospect! When you are there, you don’t realize how attached you are to the place, but when the time comes to let go off it, you hate to do so. After all it had been good-the place, the people and the bonds you made and the fact just dawned on you.

All said and done, let’s just say it was real and it’s been fun! Despite of being on the boil, (literally and metaphorically) JamPot will always stay in your heart and the memories you made will be cherished throughout your lifetime!

I have never been there, but I still feel connected to the place. I have no memories attached to the place, but the four lined address which read, D-64, GMP Hostel, C.H area (west), XLRI-Jamshedpur-831035 does strike a chord! Ah will my pen miss writing this address on the numerous envelopes or will my phone miss dialing the 7209501990 or will I miss the usual schedule in my life, the schedule that We shared since one year…After all habits die hard, but they do eventually! So let’s just say, “Change is good” and move on to a better and brighter day of life!

From Birthday Bashes to Birthday Blues-II

2011-03-23T02:23:00.000+05:30

...Continued

The Strong bond we shared was YoPy-Be it far or near. The 8 till Infinity! And as I write this, I feel there is a void deep within me, which can never be filled and a wound which can never be healed.They say Time heals everything, but does it really? Time can let us plan the future in a different way but can it really erase the Beautiful past?No it can't, coz no one can, because No one wants to...

Things were really different as the clock stroke twelve this 22 March,2011. It brought back a flood of memories, a strong gush of emotions and it brought back the night of 21st Feb,2011-the day you suddenly chose to say a goodbye to us, and that too without a farewell from our side!

You left behind umpteen memories and a whole lot of people missing you badly.Every sip of Cold coffee and every bite of Top Ramen curry reminds us of you...The drizzle 'n' the calm weather reminds us of the day we bunked class just to laze around at Sky..The small font editions of novels reminds us of what a bookworm you were, F.R.I.E.N.D.S reminds us of your addiction for it,The hair straightener brings back flashes of you always jumping for it and straightening your already straight hair'!

The tea breaks in the hot weather, the tomato sauce loaded maggie at Night canteen, the love for winter and winter wear, the enormous collection of kurtis, the chocolate cakes, the swiftness you showed at work, the cool as a cucumber attitude and yes of course the keedi walk.. everything reminds us of you...

You may have left us behind, but your memories will never! Indifferent to emotions as you were, you did cry once when you left Pilani (and messaged us' Finally You did see me cry") and Now left us all crying when you went to your abode in heaven.

Deep within, I feel you will be reading this and hope you remember us too as We do.I wish this was just another journey and that you came back again. They say"umeed pe duniya qayam hai".. I wish there was some umeed.. I wish that You did leave behind some hope for your near and dear ones.

Our Lovely Pragya

Dear Keedi,

We all really miss you! Many many happy Returns of the day.I remember when you graduated from Pilani and we couldn't celebrate your birthday, we posted you a Hand made greeting card, but this time around we are not sure of it's delivery to the far off place you've gone to. But we hope that you are happy as you always were! And we hope that your journey to God was safe'n'sound and that your stay in the other world is as pleasant as it ever could be. We are sure that God is taking good care of our Dear Angel on her birthday, for you deserve the Best.Have a Great one!

Love you.Rest in Peace.
xoxoxo

From Birthday Bashes to Birthday Blues-I

2011-03-23T01:08:00.000+05:30

22 March 2004-20XX

In a remote place in Rajasthan...

On this day, every year, as the clock stroke twelve in the midnight, you could hear the eight damsels singing on top of their voices,"We don't know but we've been told,Some one here is getting old! Good news is we sing for thee,Bad news is we sing for free.Haaaappppyy Haaapppyy Birthday To You!" The cake cutting, the birthday bumps,the small surprise on her face(even if it was expected!) the pre-birthday preparations-room decorations and the mundane albeit herculean task of choosing the gift from the very same small pseudo-Archies gift store.And then the dinner treat at the only hangout place(read C'not) followed by a small round of our favorite Ice cream soda and while we sipped in the chilling ice treat someone would always come up with the idea of birthday confessions..usually the someone would be from the singles gang, interested in knowing the confessions of the committed one, but She always managed to get around with these confessions,always giving one-word answers,not letting a single expression belie her words, seldom reflecting a feeling on her face, and never letting that rosy shade cover her face! That was her! Calm composed and crisp! A long walk, followed by a stop at the Saraswati Temple(at times), in the cool March breeze was what ended those blissful birthday treats...

In a small place like ours we didn't have those grand birthday parties.But there is a beauty associated with the small things in life, an inherent pleasure in each others company and a Strong bond in the closeness we share.

.....Continued

And I am back....

2011-03-18T23:20:00.000+05:30

Long time aah!Feels good to be back in my own space:)Have a lot of things on my mind about which I want to write.Life has changed so much so fast that there's been hardly some time to look back.Some of the things which happened are still not sinking in..They never will I guess! We always tend to accept and rejoice the good things and never want to accept the bad ones.Human mind is too conditioned and biased for the better things in life!If only we learn to accept the worse..
If only we learn to face the hard times
If only we could know the unseen
If only we learn to accept the fragility of life
If only we could time Life and death
If only we could make Life more predictable
If only We could change events,rather than events changing us
If only We could undo all the bad things which happened
If only We could accept that nothing is forever
If only we would not forget that after all there is an End to all of it..
If only we could say it right on her face,"Oh Life,Thou Art a Heartless bitch!
If only...
If Only there was no If..

Perennially Nostalgic

2010-09-14T00:38:00.000+05:30

BITS-Pilani
Rajasthan-333031

I am back to where the journey began-The journey from the valley to the sands, the iterative journey every semester, the journey which marked the beginning of so many beautiful friendships, the journey which gave us a home away from home, an entire clan of Bitsian Brothers, sisters, ID daughters, ID sons, Grand moms, Grand pops, groupies, Ps-mates, Department/club seniors, Sideys, Super sideys, Oppi’s, wingies and Psenti’s (for some)!

Journeys always seem pleasant in retrospect and for Pilani, it is so very true! You don’t realize how important part the present will play in your past! If only we did! If only we could turn back time and relive those moments once again, with the same enthusiasm, passion and double the time span. It reminds me of a cliché, memories are very strange; they make us laugh when we cried and make us cry when we laughed the most! When I look back, I feel sad to think of the good times we spent and also laugh over the moments when I cried over small things!

There’s something enigmatic about Pilani, which makes you hold on to it. A charisma that it never lets you get influenced by places/times which you’ve experienced before or which will come henceforth. Despite the scorching heat, hoards of insects post rains, power cuts at night, tight test schedules, tutorials at 8 in the morning, assignment deadlines (which were more like assignment starting times for us) and the Open Book assaults, we still remember the good things, as it always is! The Sky hangouts, The IC breakfast, frequent chai’s at redis ,C’not treats, The Dhaba grand treats, birthday confessions, the walk in the rains, Lazing around the Saraswati temple, Gussing classes, Last minutes GHOT sessions, Audi movies, Oasis with friends and departments/clubs, The Prof-show fever and the resonating after-effect which continued right up to compre’s, Assoc Grubs, Batch snaps and photo sessions, etching out treats from friends for minuscule reasons-First ZUK treat, Test topper treat, Psenti-treat, job treat and what not, the bedecked and scintillating clock tower during Diwali, the colored and more often muddy faces as well as clothes during Holi, so on and so forth.

There’s so much to write, the people, the places and the bonds which sustained. The Bonds… Yeah! I feel there is a defining moment in each friendship when you find out if they are your true friends or not.. After that you have a real friend or one less thing to worry about and I’m proud to say that there have been many such defining moments at Pilani, and I have found the best of friends here, some one I can always look back to, in joy and distress alike, no matter where they are and what they are!

I don’t know whether it’s the same about other college campuses or not. But definitely, none of the alumni of other colleges feel as strongly as we feel about our campus. Had there been a Passion quotient, for one’s alma mater BITS Alumni’s would absolutely score the highest in it. (All course toppers! CT). We definitely cannot grow out of BITS! It’s a part of us! After Life @ bits, our life is divided into 3 phases- the life before that, and the life after it and we constantly compare our lives with those golden four years.

And now as I am back, things have changed yet seem similar. Or maybe I perceive them to be similar to suit my convenience, To feel that I’m back home again, back to the place which gave me the best of friends and the best of times I could ever have spent. So Yeah It hasn’t changed; just that it’s a bit more colorful, with the new flashing white color buildings and new people of course! The Redi’s have vanished, though as promised, they will be back in a new refurbished avatar soon! But didn’t we like the Old Rustic Yellow colored Pilani more? Sky isn’t as crowded as it used to be and C’not is deserted at 10.00 pm and you feel like asking these deserted places, “Where are the people, man?” with a hope that they might have a clue. Or maybe it’s just ‘my’ people who I miss- the seniors whom I would greet, the juniors I would smile at, the batch mates I would talk to. Although no amount of consolation would do, but yeah there are a couple of similar faces whom I recognize and who recognize me as well, other than the faculty of course, and they are the Cycle waale bhaiya outside Meera Bhawan, the Mess bhaiya’s who would give a big smile when you drag yourself to the mess full of alien faces, The Shopkeepers at C’not and of course the Famous Chimpu Ji of Blue moon and Pappu Ji of Sky and many more such people.

Not that, I am not happy to be back; I still love the place and I always will, But I’m not sure whether this place would give me as good memories as it gave me earlier. Or maybe two years is too short a time to re create the magic which happened in four years. Maybe these two years will just pass slogging hard and strengthening my bond with Pilani as a place and remembering what a beautiful platform it was for a Journey to begin. A sense of nostalgia always crept in whenever you think about this place, so I always associated nostalgia with a longing for a place, but now being here, I guess it’s not always a longing for the place, it’s a longing for the people in that very place, a longing for the past- as it was, as you would always want it to be. For me, it’s a perennial nostalgia now and I love to be associated with it. So three cheers for all the Good times we have spent, the tough times we’ve seen, moments we have laughed and the inseparable Memories that we have created@ 333031.

Dichotomy Incarnate

2010-05-22T11:22:00.000+05:30

There is a strange yet intriguing dichotomy inherent in the nature of Kashmiris. To an observer’s eye the paradoxical nature seems baffling many a times. Observe it nowadays.. Four Kashmiri boys have done us proud with their ace performance in civil services exams and they surely have become the talk of the town. Every morning we are being greeted by their smiling faces in the newspapers in the context of one or the other article. Doctors, engineers and students everywhere are searching for contact numbers of these ace performers to get a few words of guidance from them. Parents (I’m sure) in every household would be goading their kids to action and telling them to follow the example of Dr. Shah Faesal et al (without even realizing if their kids are really capable of doing it or interested in doing it!). Let us take a look at the other side of this. Whoa!! Where are those people who some months back were shouting slogans” Hum kya chaahtey aazadi” ,“Narai Takbeer Allah-u-Akbar” and busy slandering the very Indian nation as a whole. I hear those same people advising their kids, “tuhiye te karzihew IAS”! Antithetical isn’t it!

Take a look at our respected teachers. A look at a busy month in the calendar and they start praying for hartals and curfews. They know a new month has begun if our hartal uncle’ Geelani sahab’ has given a new hartal call for a fresh cause! And at the end of the month they start demanding their salaries, for whatsoever modicum of work they have done! Coming to our academicians of the varsity, they will speak volumes about following the American system of education but when it comes to classroom lectures they can’t even tolerate a new idea or methodology of solving a problem. How will potential researchers come up if the pedagogues nip them at the bud itself! (By nasty comments like, “Apney aeydea (read idea) apne paas rakho)

The degree colleges of our state are no less. Each year they will promise to work for academic excellence, but what it turns out in the end is bureaucratic excellence. One college starts and the others follow the lead and join the bandwagon! Ministers, media, the show biz and on the other hand the academic machinery running haywire, with no one to attend to the pupils in the classroom. Nowadays, our Education system has become more of a show biz and a ‘Degree provider” rather than imparting education in its real sense and improvising on work ethics.

There’s more to the dichotomy than only this! Every Kashmiri is proud of their ‘Jannat-e-Firdous” and are concerned about its beautification and cleanliness. What I don’t understand is that despite of all the concerns, why do we have garbage littered around the city and why do we figure as the 4th dirtiest city in the country. Each year we demand airplane runway like wider and better roads. But what’s the fun? Even if the government to some extent is fulfilling its promises of providing a better road network, what are we doing in return? No sooner a road is made, it is encroached with a line of shops or other constructions. As if this wasn’t enough, then huge bottomed transformers are put at an unsuited location defacing and squeezing the roads all the more.

We are the People, who sermonize about the hazards of environmental pollution and the urgent need to ban polythene bags but readily accept these ‘non biodegradable culprits’ when we go out for shopping. Even if a good soul among us questions the shopkeeper about these polythene bags, they very smugly reply, ‘Yahaan sab chalta hai”. Surely nothing is illegal for them as long as they don’t caught! The Mughal emperor would have been appalled at the shocking condition of what he called ‘the heaven on earth’ and if he travelled to the present, he would surely rethink before saying’ Agar Firdaus Bar-roye zameen ast, Humhein Asto humein ast’. Sigh! This reminds me of what our erstwhile Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Dr. Shashi Tharoor once remarked about India, which somehow applies to Kashmir too “India (read Kashmir) is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country (state), but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay”

I don’t want to go on revealing the sharply contrasting psyche of Kashmiris neither I wanted to open a Pandora box of complaints. But I do have a point to make Kashmiri people must do soul-searching and identify what they really want and stand by it in all circumstances. For change and improvement, we need something more than effective governance; it is the participation of people and their belief to cause the change and make it permanent. We don’t need changes that are as ephemeral as the governments, what we require is a long standing transformation! We not only face a political imbroglio but more than that we have an internal muddle to deal with. Two groups with clashing motives are acceptable, but a same person having conflicting thoughts imbibed in his/her mind is not at all tolerable! It is this discord within minds of the people itself which prevents us from an emancipation and empowerment. Unless we make a resolve to clear our minds of the ambiguity and stand by what we say we’ll never move ahead and always get trampled down. Hollow words are not what are desired, it’s after all actions which speak louder than words. Make or mar your motherland-The choice is yours!

A vent to thoughts

2010-04-04T02:27:00.000+05:30

This post (although chronologically not in order) is a sort of a prelude to my ‘soliloquy’.I am a not poet or a prolific writer, but I do like penning down my thoughts (or should I say just ‘typing’ in my thoughts;penning down and then typing would be an extra effort!).This blog wouldn't surely follow a theme because writing within the constraints of a theme would make it monotonous(implies boredom!, sooner or later!).My thoughts are more often event triggered (society, politics, daily happenings).I seldom touch maudlin territories of love, betrayal or deep dark emotions in my writings. Let that field be in the hands of the big players only. Being an amateur maybe I can’t just do justice to those areas.

Well it might have happened to all of us, some time or the other when we see a disturbing situation in the news-a political or an ethical issue and we want to voice your thoughts; when we want to come forward and share, comment and speak up, rather than sitting back as a mute audience. Not only this,in our daily lives there are things, which for some reason make an indelible impression on our mind; this blog will serve as record for all those things too..

However it does take time to come out of the procrastination and “the I can, but I won’t” do approach but it feels good after you start. Newspapers are another medium to present your views but you might not always be guaranteed a space in there. Moreover sometimes you want a personal space, when you want to speak out your heart, and feel like writing regardless of any audience, any feedback or any scrutiny. That’s why a soliloquy – voicing out my thoughts without regard to any audience. Let my procrastination not come in the way …

Film stars, Sportstars and Sena-stars

2010-04-02T18:53:00.000+05:30

Lately it is becoming apparent that some Indian political parties do anything and everything other than pursuing politics in its real sense. How does it make sense opposing tennis ace star Sania Mirza’s betrothal to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik? Soon after facts regarding Sania’s engagement with Shoaib Malik surfaced in the media Bajrang dal hosted protests in Hyderabad and Chennai against her. Not only this, who is not aware of the furore raised by RSS over Shahrukh Khan’s statement of inviting Pakistani cricketers to IPL (Indian Premier League)?

In a country which guarantees the seven Fundamental rights to each and every citizen, isn’t there a way to check the unnecessary intrusion of political parties in personal lives (or business) of people. With due regard to the Indian constitution and its “Right to: (i) Freedom of speech and expression and (ii) freedom to assemble peacefully and without arms”, I would like to ask whether the above mentioned ‘Rights to freedom’ gives the political parties a warrant to pry into matters of absolute personal choice of any individual.

All these protests, be it against Sania Mirza or Shahrukh Khan, do however silently convey the impression that some Indian political parties (not all of course) have developed paranoia of the word “PAKISTAN”. In whatever form they hear it or see it, they will start coming out on streets shouting slogans against any individual who’s even remotely connected to the neighboring country.

Post 26/11 Indians have developed the same paranoia against Pakistan as have the Americans developed for Muslims post 9/11.Sigh!! I don’t have any special empathy towards Pakistan but wisdom and common sense gives us the power to judge between right and wrong. (But sadly common sense is not so common!!) Even a layman can see the difference between nationalism and jingoism (which parties like RSS and Bajrang Dal depict). It seems these parties are craving to be in the ‘glitz’ at par with film stars and sport stars. Under the façade of nationalism, they appear to be grabbing media attention. But ironically, they foolishly defame themselves by such senseless protests and just seem to be carving a way to being branded by people as “nationalist terrorists” (fighting for the cause of nationalism!). We are no longer in the days of yore and no one would accept hegemony enforced by such parties and thinking individuals would always stand against it.

Entering politics seems like just another hobby of an average Indian, probably because it’s the only body with no age, sex and education restrictions. Any Joe blog can enter politics, which in a way is good, but after seeing political parties behaving like hooligans and raising hue and cry over petty issues makes us rethink the same. Politics or cross border animosity should not be mixed with sports or some one’s personal life. Sports and inter-cultural ties promote fraternity and universal love, while meaningless demonstrations and protests taint the image of a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic, like ours!