Being a part time Socialist won't hurt anyone...

If you are a regular stroller of the Gurgaon Sector 14 market, you would have noticed an environmental change recently. The place no longer seems the same, curtsey some new administrator in Gurgaon. He is on a safai chalao abhiyaan to clean whole of Gurgaon and throw away roadside vendors who encroach the corners of the streets to make a  living. No momos sellers, no rolls to roll your fingers on to. Just vacant spaces. Even the no of people visiting that place have reduced.We might soon see elderly people coming to sec-14 market for morning walks.

Well, a lot of people would say that "its good that he is working" or "atleast someone is doing his job." But now when you go to that place, the only thing that you can see is a lot of empty spaces and a lot of can-not-do-anything-about-it faces. If you want a cup of tea, you should either leave your residence/college after having one or you should really have the eye to see some chaiwala selling his chai with a kettle in his hands and hiding away from policemen. I fortunately ran in to one and asked him what was going on. "Naya sahab nai maan raha bhaiya. Sab hata dia. Daily basis pe bhi nahi rehne de raha." Common guys, m sure there must be enough illegal buildings or illegal floors within buildings in Gurgon to break. Or, the crime has always been there to cater to. That could be given priority over this kind of cleaning.

Although, I never thought I would ever think like Medha Patkar or Mamta Banerjee, or any other socialist for that matter, but you cannot expect roadside vendors to actually buy spaces in markets and sell "chana jor garam." The administration is not even going to do anything with the empty space created.

A Democracy in which people end up loosing is worthless.

The trauma of being "Mannu"

Manmohan singh has been widely criticised by many as the most incapable PM we have ever had. But at the same time many have hailed him as the most incorrupt politician of India. But there are several things that we  never think. What are the miseries behind the chair he beholds. Let us try to figure out the trauma of being "him".
If u r Manmohan,
U r the prime-leader of a country but not the prime-leader of the party u r in.
U r educated and probably you know everything that the PM of a country ought to but u r told everything by someone who came in to existance after her surname changed to the most politicised surname of the country.
U r just preserving the chair for the Yuvraj, who feels that there are 2 Indias(yeah, the same cliche..and he'll continue to blabber it till every state in India gets a congress govt.!!!). One is that of the rich(i dn kno if he includes himself in it or not) and the other, that of the poor(also, i dn kno y he thinks that only the states not having a congress govt are poor and visits only these non-congress govt states)
U think u r chosen as the PM not because u deserve it but because u wont raise ur voice against anything even if its against ur consent.
In ur first term, the left nuclearly bombed u even before the 123 agreement and in the second one, ur own cabinet identified u at the core and knew that even if u'd come to know about their misdeeds and corrupt practices, u would be hesitant to come up with the reality. Thats what Raja did. Thats wot the Kalmadi did  when he thought of the Commonwealth Games as his own version of his Playstation.
Ofcourse you have the guts to ask the Chinese premier to pay heed to his own country and u have the guts to  speak for india whenever required at the international arena.
U say we are not going to sign the NPT, and we become the only country in the world to do it. But whenever it comes to ur own country, why do u feel helpless?

U'd feel like back in school when u were told to do everything and like a teacher's delight, u did everything the teacher told u. u wrote the names of the kids who made noises, u did ur homework without fail.
U might care for india, and u might have a vision. But u cannot realize it.

The only relief comes when the US prez says that the world listens when manmohan speaks.
But now its high time...its time u didn't listen to any rubbish...its time u taught a lesson to many...pakistan, maosits, opposition , petty regional parties and ur own party..its time u remembered ur own killer professor instincts..

I really hope this sikh tiger steps up against all odds, against all money hungry bureaucrats, for the incorrupt is always to be feared.

Amidst the World Cup Celebrations....

The sky was full of lights. The sounds of "vande mataram", "sachin-sachin" , "dhoni-dhoni" chanted the whole
country. There were smiles all over. Some eyes wept out of joy. Some, seeing sachin being carried by the other teammates for a change, could not stop themselves from getting mushy.

Even Guru-Gary would have felt what it is like to be an indian. Team India gave our generation a story to tell our kids, the same way we have been listening stories of the '83 world cup. 

But amidst the world cup celebrations, there is a grave reality towards which our country has turned its back.
Something we all could relate to in some way or the other.

That night, a young group of foreigners also wanted to celebrate India's victory (wow...celebrating somebody
else's victory..we have never done that..have we?). Anyways, they got in to the crowd and started dancing and fluttering the Indian flag. One of the girls got segregated from the group and found herself beseiged by people who started hugging her...one by one. She opposed, turned back and ran towards her car. She somehow managed to reach her car but was not able to get in to it as there too, were hungry beasts who felt left-out of the chance of doing something disgustingly unthinkable. It hardly took a second for the crowd to become a mob.

As infuriated as i was, after seeing all this, I thought even if i could help her get in to her car, it would be
great. But there were so many people around her that I could not even get near her.  Luckily, I remembered that there were some policemen nearby. I went to the constable and told him about the incident. He rushed with his peers towards the car and then there was a lathi-charge because of which the mob dispersed. Thankfully, it ended well.
But the foreigners took home a very sour experience. I, on the other hand, felt ashamed of being an indian because that night, there were no Mayanks, there were no srinivases, there were no xyzs. There were only misbehaving Indians.
I dont think that those foreigners will ever celebrate India's victory again.
Its sad how we call ourselves the greatest country in the world with our great values and morals as an epitome of indianness but we tend to become oblivious of these values at times. At times, we prove the fact that we were once...animals.

Kya Khoya Kya Paya

Most of us, when we are in a long journey, reach a moment when we introspect (which happens after we dont want to listen any more songs or read any more crap). For me, the introspection thoughts(one of my friends prefer calling it "kya khoya kya paya" thoughts) always popup the moment I stand on the gate of the bogey holding its yellow bars. And this introspection turns evn more severe if u have met some guy in ur journey who is not only chasing his dreams but also is halfway through it. This guy i met during my journey, Vikram, was a freelance director and makes documentaries(dn scratch ur head, he's not known yet and is in the post production process of his first venture- father spirit). Guys like these make u think- m i chasing my dreams? M i doing wt m really passionate about? Or am i doing everything just to become an ATM for my family. For most of us the ans wd b a straightaway YES. Money...matters most.

But i'd like to go about it in a diff way...i think its not achieveing ur dreams that should be the most important goal for one or its not the destination that should drive a person but the journey. A beautiful journey makes the end result even more ..............
During the journey, we find ppl we fall in love wid. And we donot get much time for them. To get the result, we forego things we love. D friends complain, bt who listens!!! To get wt we want be tend to bcum emotionally challenged. Wid some people, its voluntary.

Just think of a successful person who has achieved everything in life but he never got a chance to take care of his parents cz he was always busy for them. Or a person who never really sat down wid his kids to give them a bit of Father-Gyan. Or if a wife starts to feel single again, should that not ring bells for a successful person? But in no way am i demeaning the need of the finalcial success one should have in order to have a comfortable life. Its always better to cry in a BMW than on a bicycle.

Success is a very subjective term. But I think it should be objectified with some of the things that matter.

We all aspire to have a successful future, but fail to live in the present. As will smith says- life is not about the no of breaths that u take, its about the moments that take ur breath way.

Who is at fault??

Yesterday,

I was watching a documentary on "operation bluestar" and the only question that popped up in to my mind was:- "who is at fault?"

Is it the person who was respossible for lighting the flame of rebellion in to the hearts of the sikhs in favour of a separate sikh-land? - jarnail singh bindranwale....One man's freedom foghter, another man's terrorist.

Or is it the iron lady for not bowing down to the demands of the internal threats the country was facing and in the first place, she being the one to have given bindranwale the power to commit henious crimes with impunity.


Was it the sentinel who gunned down indira gandhi just because he thought that religion came first and duty,... a distant second?

Or was it the hindu mob which butchered sikhs because one sikh killed a gandhi? Even if it was a mob, chances are that it could have been congressmen, once again proving the country that the demands of bindranwale for a separate sikh state were legitimate and "HINDUS-taan" neglected its own sikh sons.

Was it the leutinent general kuldeep singh brar who ordered tanks to storm in to the temple and who still thinks he restored the sanctity of a sacrosanct place of worship by driving terrorists out of it!!

Or the sikhs who can never forget the humiliation faced by them and their highest place of worship. and ofcourse, in another round of not only humiliation but also brutality, when 20000 of these men were dragged out of their homes in front of their wives and mothers and burnt alive!!

But one thing is clear. This unfortunate episode has left  a very deep scar in to the minds of the affected. And for people like us, it has left a question to answer- "who is at fault?"

I dont have an answer, and neither does the Indian govt. Not even a single person has been held accountable for the loss the operation bluestar and its aftermath conjured. The people affected have lost all hopes of justice, even in a country where for the last 8 years the prime minister has been a sikh.