DIVIDED WE STAND

Painting a pessimistic picture is easy. But after the incidents that have occurred in the past two days it is difficult not to do so. Blasts ripped across Assam. A migrant labourer got lynched in a Mumbai train. Anyone who saw visuals of his one year old kid would have to be moved by the plight that surrounds that family

It is strange that in a span of two days two incidents that highlight the threats we face, have occurred. The fact that we r increasingly under attack from the outside is known. The blasts that took place in Assam is another feather in the cap of our central government’s fight against terror. I don’t see any fault with scores of people coming out and indulging in violence to protest the inability of the government to provide them with safety. The government for all its gains made sorely loses out when it comes to providing security for life

It is times like this when we all should be covering each other back and present a united front. What is even more worrying is that the terror now seems coming more from the inside than from the inside.

It is disgusting to see politicians try and play one up-manship such a situation. The statements coming from both sides make it virtually a battle pitting Maharashtra against Bihar. Erstwhile foes Lalu and Nitish come forward to take up the Bihari cause. I see no harm in them doing it but not at the risk of causing a conflict that divides the nation. Every statement that comes out of their camp further alienates the Bihari /’bhaiyya’ population living here.

I don’t see Raj Thackeray any different; he is majorly responsible for the current mess. The fact is that the local population does connect with what he says. It is not mindless rhetoric that he espouses. He has tapped into the Marathi sentiment very wisely, causing an intelligent divide to serve his own needs. What furthers his cause is the irresponsible statement that the politicians on the other side of the divide. Don’t they see that they r just playing into his hands, making him stronger furthering the divide.

These politicians don’t lose anything. It the one year old who lost. Who is responsible for her having to lead her life the way she will. The 50 dead in Assam lost. Their families are the ones who lost. How many lives shattered. More importantly, it is I who lost in the bargain. And everyday this continues I continue to lose. The idea of my India being divided this way disgusts me. We were not meant to go further like this were we? Was this that what we the freedom fighters laid their lives for. For their own kind to be oppressed again.

Then again maybe this is the time we stand up again and be counted. As I said to paint a pessimistic picture maybe easy but rising above to change what is happening maybe the real deal. Difficult it might be, not impossible; if all of us make sure our voices are heard again. Hopefully things will change and change for better. I can’t see my country being taken apart this way.

HAPPY DIWALI

The phone rings.. 6 am already..I must be dreaming.. A voice screams.

“R u ready?”

No am not dreaming, it’s Rajish screaming his lungs out. I ready…not a chance…

“ I just woke up”

He seems frustrated. ” I told you to get ready.”

He did.. My head swarms “When?”

That lit him up “When I woke u up at 5 am, you idiot”

Then why don’t I remember a thing..

“ Stop fooling around” I tell him…

That sets him up nicely..And when Rajish trash talks…there is no way one can interject. I mumble my ok's and get up to get ready.

The phone rings again.. Its 6.15

“ R u ready” Maddy laughs into the phone…

Uh-oh I am supposed to get ready.. What happened…I somehow am still in bed… he laughs back

” I will drop by in 15 mins, get ready”

So eventually I do make out of my place by 6.30...we were supposed to reach the Lord’s abode by 6.00. Rajish is a fair bit ahead. He still is cross about both me and Maddy getting to sleep an hour longer.

The temple at Shrimant Dagdusheth Ganpati is bang in the centre of the city. I hardly expected people early morning, but then we exactly ain’t early in the morning anymore. It is fairly crowded. Maddy has parked his bike fairly away.. I wait... Some guards have picked up a fight outside the temple. Maddy comes along and we move into the temple, my darshan happens without an incident. The guards are still at it outside. Seems the morning conflicts ain’t gonna go away so soon.

We move away. Market yard is choc-a-bloc. I stick my hand out and catch someone below the chin. Both of them need flowers and some for stuff for the pooja. I wander with them. Rajish argues with the sugarcane fellow. They had fixed a deal and now he wants more. Rajish picks up his cane and walks away. The fellow follows. A scuffle ensues. Some Diwali cheer. Maddy steps in and separates the two. I give the fellow what he wants.. and a piece of my mind for his efforts. We walk away smelling of roses that somehow got scattered during the duel. Silence reigns heavy.

And then God-sent a pretty face. That’s enough to light Rajish up. The world is still fine with her maladies. What’s more Rajish coaxes a smile out of her. For all his tough bargaining skills... I lost my money..and to make it worse the chic dazzles him with her smile. Justice. That’s what I get for sleeping an hour more.

The morning ends at shivshambho upahaar gruha. There is poha and the spicy misal paav.. My eyebrows make the question mark.

Rajish smiles.. ”dono khayenge”

Over food Maddy regales us about his misfortunes of working with a Telugu crew. The poor chap understands none of it. I laugh my gut out when Rajish reveals his gal wants to go out shopping. She shops, he pays. She is cute I tell him.

Somehow amidst the laughter we keep running out of paavs. The boy taking our order is overjoyed by our appetites early morning. Eventually we run out of misal. Maddy has had his full, he backs out of poha. Rajish wants me to split a plate of poha with him... I smile... he realises what i mean and we order two plates. I might share his poha but not mine.
None of them however want ‘chai’. I do. I somehow always think cuttings are a bad deal. I get my whole glass. Off to wash my hands I come back to my chai to find that it does look like a cutting now. To their credit my friends have not finished it off.

As I gulp down my cuppa tea. Life seems just perfect at that moment. No worries no cares. My parents still asleep. My buddies laughing away to glory making fun of my appetite. I with my ‘chai’ fortunate to be in the midst. Don’t have a clue if it will happen the next Diwali. For now the picture is just perfect. Won’t change a thing. I whisper my happy Diwali to the kid who cleans up after us and walk off… wonder what memories he’d carry this Diwali… I have mine to treasure.. Forever

" The Wonder Years"

I ain't one for much of television unless one of my teams is playing( then i turn into a television fanatic wishing and willing things from where i am). However i did catch a part of the "The Wonder Years" today, like how they explore issues, it was about choices today.

Every choice eventually comes with a risk of its own. It was interesting to observe a mutual fund manager for Reliance Capital observe “no disproportionate gains without disproportionate pains.” ( The markets tanked another 1000 points today) He used his common wisdom to the situation and put it very matter of factly the more you want the more you risk.

There however are no guarantees in life. Lord plays a funny guessing game with all, keeps us starving for the whole day, and to tickle his funny bone brings us vivid dreams of a sumptuous feast by night. Eventually I have realized that it’s all about waking up and realize that the whole day was just a bad dream.

Is it so easy? Frankly all of us are looking for a shining star to wish upon. For all the lofty talk it’s quite a bummer not to get what u want. Getting up everytime one falls, maybe necessary but not easy. The hurt lingers for ever and lasts a lifetime.

No point risking all for a mirage and then to reach it accidentally and realize that the desert was much better….and as for Kevin Arnold …he took his SAT's. And to quote the narration in the background....."We talked life. We made plans. And the next morning, at 8:00 AM, seventy-eight students gathered in the McKinley cafeteria to take what was supposed to be the most important test of their lives. Everyone had a different way of coping that day. Some were more effective than others. But for all the risks and choices, I was one step ahead of them. After all, I knew that this was just one test in thousands I'd be taking in my life. None of them final, none of them irrevocable. And the way I saw it, maybe life was a risk. But this time, I was ready."

Maybe life is indeed a risk and we do have to take our share of tests along the way and to twist it a little… maybe life we lead too is just one of the tests that we take.

Am I ready… I don’t know... will I get what I want…depends on the choices I make…

A Psalm of Life

actually a part of it...

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;--

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
- Henry Longfellow

walking against the wind...

...this evening. a day fractionated into little tasks and endless whirring of mind wheels. a forgotten phone-call remembered with a start. an invitation to come collect those fired pieces of earth. city lights lay a-twinkle below and afar. the fountain in the park trickled down to its final few goodbyes, steps retreating with the fading sun. feet to the pavement and a frosty wind greets me. the pull of what awaits me is stronger than that wall of wind. walking edge-ways and look ! the road divider has transformed itself into a marsh full of reed swaying in the mad wind! i hear the reed-fields sing, feel my knees push against the resistant marsh and cross over to hold the warm, just-out-of-kiln earth in my hands. returning along the same path, i feel a stillness within me that no howling wind can run the tiniest ripple through.

A Thank You

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” – William Shakespeare

Not getting into the nitty-gritty’s of what the bard meant to qualify u for the candle category, anything done without an end to achieve I guess makes you a candle.
I remember having a lesson in 10th grade about a man wanting to change the world by doing his small bit. Kind words were his weapon, gratitude was what he was propagated. His ways a were a bit extreme and would boil down to plain sucking up in today’s world.

It however did set me up on my way of saying a simple thank you to everyone who did a small turn for me. The best part of the whole deal is the reaction I get.
We live in a funny world where every deed is looked up with suspicion and frankly that’s the reaction I have copped most of the times. At times it is pure indifference which has invariably made me feel like a fool, smiling saying a thank you. However what makes it worth it is the smiles I get along, some stunned not knowing how to react and then they positively beam. The one particular incident to my was the lady at the post office, she was stunned for a total of ten seconds minimum, and the smile later was a smile to behold.

I have neither forgotten the face nor the smile and that’s what makes me stick to what I do inspite of the odd Mr. dumb moments that I do have and on the way. And today things came to head when one of my patients turned around and in the sweetest possible way thanked me. I am sure I must have beamed too… I'd end with something very beautiful i read a while back...
"I have seen you stalk the shops, walking the aisles, searching for that extra-special gift. Stashing away a few dollars a month to buy him a lizard-skin book, staring at a thousand rings to find her the best diamond; staying up all night the Christmas Eve assembling the new bicycle.
Why do you do it? so the eyes will pop, the jaws drop. To hear those words of disbelief.."You did it for me?"
And that's why God does it. Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing, and listen as heaven whispers," DO you like it? I did it just for you."

SACHIN TENDULKAR

Sachin Tendulkar today became the all the time leading run scorer when he overtook Brian Lara's 11953 runs and further went on to tread into uncharted territories when he was the first to reach 12000 runs capping off a fantastic career which has brought joy to innumerable people in a country where a cricket match can pretty much disrupt normal life.

RESPECT: To the guy who stood tall amidst ruins in the Indian batting line up before the trinity or the Fab Four middle order came into existence. I remember it being so bad that as soon as Sachin got out we used to put the TV off and take it for granted that India would lose.. 90% of the times they did lose.

It speaks volumes of the man that he is not just adored in our country but held in the highest esteem everywhere cricket is played, amply demonstrated by his innings in the controversial Sydney test or commendable words from Sir Don Bradman and Sir Viv Richards. It came as no surprise to me atleast when his one-time nemesis Shane Warne regarded Sachin as the greatest in his list.

Records are meant to be broken, someday someone might indeed break Sachin's record( infamy in my eyes..) but i don't think there will ever be anybody worthier than him for this one. Tendulkar maybe in the sunset of his career..but what a fantastic career it has been. In a country where cricket borders on religious frenzy a placard i saw somewhere has stayed with me forever....it read, " I have seen God.... he bats at no.4 for India"

JET AIRWAYS TAKES BACK SACKED EMPLOYEES

Apparently tears of the sacked employees gave the Jet Airways chairman sleepless nights which is why he decided to scrap the layoffs and get all the employees on board. It seems his conscience also had a part to play in the whole act that took place.

On the other hand the Civil Aviation Minister came out with a statement that he pretty much ordered the airways to find a fix in 24 hours. This is the same minister who had washed-off his hands when the crisis came about. I wonder if he too did find his conscience somwhere along the 48 hours. Not to mention of our poor Labour Minister, who seemed lost in the whole deal. In keeping with the political theme of our country he came out with the most perfect statement...he needed to study the files.

Somehow I feel that the discovery of their individual consciences of these very eminent men has something to do with one Mr. Raj Thackeray. A little prodding from him might on account of not letting any flights out of Mumbai migth have just done the trick.

Now I am not sure nor knowledgable if the 'fire and hire' policy is gonna stand it in good stead, all I know is it turned out into quite a 'JE(s)T' fiasco with the head honchos appearing to take a tough stand ( which i assume maybe more common with the impending financial situation), then buckling down under some kind of pressure, conveniently bringing their conscience in to tide over most questions. For now atleast the employees have their jobs back. Nobody knows how the next laying-off crisis will pan out, cos the way things are there sure shall be some. Till then hope these eminent people do keep running into their consciences.

IRONY

IRONY
One must appreciate life's little ironies, even at one's own expense.
Sol Luckman
i just happened to experience mine....tried paying my electricity bill at the state electricity bill counter...and could not do so...guess why....because they had no 'electricity'...