Any breather for fairer sex of late ??

Since past few days I have been rattled by the periodical upsurge of a thought. A thought which prompts me to think if we are sane enough to tackle our own issues, the issues which envelopes us from all around in our day to day life, do we have such a poor memory that a recently terminated event becomes a thing long forgotten. But the next moment I am reminded of something which is very common and genuine and has impacted the lives of common man to a greater extent. Given the numbers of problems and issues we have to deal with, things do become fuzzy after a certain period, leading to different sabotages and mass reacting to it only till another issue overlaps it and becomes topic of talk. People do perform the so called demonstrations and rallies but end up getting lathi charged or a couple of consolation columns with some backing in the local of daily. Further if it gains more momentum then we get more of the exclusive reports and debate sessions on prominent news channels, and the infamous scuffle in the houses of parliament. The bottom line being that even they know that how these issues can be cease fired, and that is when another havoc is being created to divert the attention of mass.

I sat down to decipher the common man’s problem, the hue and cries which were made in the wake of Dec 16^th, the fateful day when a brave heart girl was raped brutally and then she combated the inevitable until she breathed last. Bulk of public figures, politicians, actors and distinguished personality voiced their concerns and sympathies when the girl lost her battle with life but not a single day throughout the year similar concerns were raised with the similar brute force. One thing which is more evident that given the kind of system which we are a part of we have been made to get used to apathies. A common man’s problem is not limited to a social injustice, a different form of violence or say a price hike of essential commodities like alloo, pyaaj, tamatar or the ever towering petroleum. Worse if you belong to a middle class family which comprises of around 65% of our nation’s population. They being the most affected have to overcome barriers like domestic violence, for women in particular as they have to overhear tantrums thrown at them at their home, in office they have to work as well as keep themselves safe and sound from their nymphomaniac bosses, tolerate all those melodrama by their kids and finally fight their own demons to succeed or improve in their own walk of life. Now , after all these if we expect a common man/woman to keep relishing all those things time to time then that would be a lot expect from them and understand that these ghazini acts are not deliberate. Somewhere even they are fighting their own bout to survive, to patch their own vandalized life which has been made miserable by the various scheme of things.

The NIRBHAYA in episode woken up the nation at par, and it’s not that rape wouldn’t happen earlier but yes, given the kind of brutality and inhumanity which was shown was unconventional. Nationwide sabotages were performed and many of the highly placed lawmakers and office bearers of our country were awakened form their deep sleep, to much extent government was intimidated to amend certain laws and influx a few stricter ones which dealt with the crime against women. As the government saw the wrath of public reaching an unprecedented heights and a country being awakened by a 23 year old brave heart, the filthy and downtrodden people got little bothered by the furore which was relevant from the news that followed in the coming days. If one goes on to discourse the trauma and apathy a victim, she doesn’t only have bear the physical, mental battering rather the ordeal she has to endure when she is asked all short of filthy questions while lodging an FIR or while answering the deep probing by the defence lawyer. To me she is raped every time she has to narrate the uneventful moment over and over. The trail goes on for ever and so goes the course of her getting denuded in front of public and society. She loses her integrity and social life the moment she is forced to something which doesn’t have the consent of her body and soul and then she is put to lead a cursed life when she is compelled to recall her trauma repeatedly. Her soul is stabbed zillion of times and given the time that judiciary takes to condemn the culprits it is clearly relevant that a justice seeker loses her will to survive and thus succumbs to them mentally if not physically.

Today women being the most vulnerable sex have their task cut in surviving every day of their life as if they were doomed for this. And it is an accomplishment in itself. Now another point of concern which has been in talks of late is the getup and attire of women. When some pseudo intellectuals which include the likes of the politicians, policemen, and few lawyer smear the act of provoking on the females completely. Rather it can be quoted that a woman is scantily dressed to arouse a man to stalk her, tease her or say rape her. My only question to them is why the same doesn’t apply to the male community? Even boys do roam in their boxers and short pants, I never found a woman stalking or attempting a wrong thing on men of late. Why such a biasing in our society? Dressing should never be a point of blame in the rape offenses. Everyone who is born has his/her own right to live in whatever way they long for. Just because men are the physically built doesn’t mean they overpower a woman and exploit her for the sake of fulfilling their own fantasies. Rape to me is a wretched way of flexing muscle power and that too against a weaker class. It is a sick state of mind which is desperate and hungry enough for sex and enjoys overpowering a female and reckons that as a victory, Alas!!! to me that is only a prominent way of showing one’s impotency.

Statistically there was a sudden upsurge in crime against women in January 2013. Though the brave heart girl who waged lone battle till she breathed last before succumbing to her injuries had no effect on this society full of perverts. I still remember those initial days of January 2013 when I along with my friends would count the news articles on the incidents of rape and molestations. Governments’ initiatives were lauded and appreciated by the public but the mind set of those few failed to give up on their heinous thoughts and as a result there has been lesser change in the ugly attitude of those few libdo driven ones. Those few of the convicted and proven guilty either await their respective penalty or those who can’t endure the pain inflicted by the police while interrogation or the humiliation they suffer from their jail inmates chose to end their lives or try prison breaking. On the other hand few flex their money and position privilege to escape unscathed. Unfortunately many belong to the second class, thus making the justice scene almost invisible.

As the fateful incident completes a year my lone question to the office bearers and head of judiciary remains, can’t we do some justice to the departed souls who fought just to survive. Let’s be a bit more gutty and show the valour at its required place. May we all get to locate the wisdom that even women has the equivalent right to survive here.

INDIAN CINEMAS: Time for makeover

Cinemas, a thing which gives us ample impetus to get indulged in everlasting discourse. Being the most talked about thing it clearly is the topic of mass, right from the oldies to teenagers everybody has got their fair share to talk about. Having said that cinemas bring a huge legacy of herself from the time it evolved with some of the greatest patrons in Kapoor clan, the Dutts, and some exceptional veterans in MANOJ KUMAR, and DEV ANAND to name a few. .
Since independence the nemesis of INDIAN society has varied from landlord peasant duel to the ill fated lower class people in our society. And crowd got some really critically acclaimed stuff in mother INDIA, at the same time Indians were yet extinguish the fury lit by BRITISHERS and at the right time came SAHEED in 1948, just after independence. The true depiction of the martyr was well appreciated and received by audience. As the films like PYAASA, DO BIGHA ZAMEEN dealt with the social injustice whereas SHREE 420, and MERA NAAM JOKER which turned out to be the most sought after films in the history of Bollywood threw light on the pros and cons of urban life and its different facets. MUGHAL-E-AZAM was another exceptional from the makers of earlier phase of INDIAN cinemas and was one of the nominees along with mother INDIA for the academy awards. Truly, the era till late 60s has been rightly lauded as GOLDEN era in Indian cinemas, as most of the critically acclaimed cinemas came to the fore which placed INDIAN cinemas in the spotlight. The cinemas then made caught audience in the right frame of mind. Being just liberated from the shackles of BRITISHERS there was so much of exasperation and angst written all over their face and that drove them out to cinema halls to soothe themselves in the best possible way.

The later phase of the Bollywood was ruled by the likes of RAJESH KHANNA the first superstar known to us, RAJ KUMAR and AMITABH BACHCHAN among others, they carried the baton of Bollywood safely and maintained its decorum from where their god fathers in the industry left, and did it with panache. One of the prominent reason of INDIAN audience connecting to AMITABH BACHCHAN was that he had the charm and the audacity to pull crowd towards himself. The persona of AB resembled the anger of a common man obsessed with all the social discrimination, being barred from their rights and injustice from law thus he ended up being named the ANGRY YOUNG MAN of INDIAN cinemas. And with the varieties, flavours and shades of grey he had in his acting undoubtedly fetched him the crown from the common mass. He didn’t disappoint either as he gave few all time blockbusters in DEEWAAR, SHOLAY, ZANZEER, and SILSILA. An array of meaningful, classy and ‘stand out from the crowd’ movies started pouring in and few of them left a long lasting imprint on the soul of the masses. Some of the movies which stood out exceptionally were AAKROSH, PAAR, HAZAAR CHAURASI KI MAA in the coming decade. Though 80s hailed angry young man but at the same time some very well made comedy movies made their way and some laughter busters were NAMAK HALAAL,CHASME BUDDOOR,ANGOOR, JAANE BHI DO YAARON, NAUKAR BIWI KA and CHAALBAAZ, although CHALTI KA NAAM GAADI and PADOSAN had already set the audience rolling but they gave comedy newer and better co-ordinates with extra masala.

Though they lived up to the expectations of pundits as well as masses. Yet Bollywood lacked a global appeal. What I felt is that our industry has a knack of making films which follow the traditional genre and onus has been put on stuffing the movie with as many melodies as one can, courtesy love stories, being the fulcrum about which the cinemas have thrust their true potential. For the initial part it proved to be a major bonus but with the change of time the audience changed and so did their taste, with the passage of time it turned out to be a thing of boredom.

In the next decade we had new bunch of entertainers ready for their flight and there came the likes of ANIL KAPOOR, Jackie Shroff to the fore, ideas poured in but what didn’t change was the way of presentation and some basics which preoccupied their thoughts. Amidst that a silver lining shone and films from fictional and tech genre started being made with MR.INDIA being the premiere. 90s was the era of love stories with earlier part of the decade being ruled by some epic romantic films in SAAJAN, SAUDAGAR, ASHIQUI to name a few. For the later part fewer love stories found very exceptional writers coupled with some very genuine composers, musicians and to top it all a well versed star cast. With these formidable combo rose movies like ANDAAZ APNA APNA, DDLJ, 1942 A LOVE STORY. Yes !! this was the time the industry reckoned in the name of KHANS. But to be very true all together they would have given just a handful of blockbusters but in rest of the cases the Indian audience were caught napping and the makers made money without even bothering about the quality.

Hollywood on the other hand kept modifying their basics and succeeded in dishing out what was expected out them. They worked not only on their storyline but enhanced their effects hugely. If they made a movie on super hero or a sci-fi thriller they despite shooting it in their respective studios and labs gave a feel of a space venture or a real thrill. Of course for all that they had huge sum of money to spend but at least someone dared to. Even a biographical movie was restricted to a true lifestyle and the message it wanted to convey, thus being short and crisp. The makers were always aware of the fact that a deliberate exaggeration would mean a turn off for the viewers. And that was the thing which connected them not only to their western audience but found able audience in the far east. The hip hop and pop became the essence of music listeners with RICKY MARTIN’s livin’ vi da loca, final countdown of European band and SHAKIRA, BRITNEY setting the people to swirl to their tracks while the soulful music of TITANIC easily made its way into the heart of music buffs. Clearly people were ready to greet more from the Europe and America.

21^st century came and with it came a revolution. Some world class movies in LAGAAN which turned out to be India’s dark horse at the Oscars in foreign category. Lot of impetus was given to the then prominent issue the tinsel town was dealing with. Yes that was gangsters and underworld. The movies advocating these issues released and some neatly crafted ones were well receiver and those which failed to impress were left alone to sink.

Indian society saw a revolution in thought process, technology, with media outgrowing its fangs everywhere. The life style begun to change and it’s not that the masses were copying it in haste. They did what comforted them and what they adapted to. Now the next generation was in no mood to spare the culprits and most of them if not all had their wisdom awakened by their own conscience by analysing the level of comfort they felt. The so called remaking of old classics failed miserably as seen in case of SHOLAY, CHASM-E-BUDOOR, ZANZEER. People now wanted a new recipe at the table with new attractive and trending taste. The trend of so called social networking, internet and easy connectivity to the outer world made us more versatile and out of sheer fashion this trend begun to bring the goods. A bad movie was coaxed by everyone, whereas quality movie got lauded everywhere. But there were a set of some very genuine and distinguished directors in SLB, ANURAG KASHYAP, ANURAG BASU, RAJ KUMAR HIRANI who thought to choose the path less taken and dished out some unprecedented narratives and became the face of Indian cinema on the world stage. All the social causes based movie in the history of cinema had successfully lured INDIAN audience and few adamant people needed same taste of food in trendy crockeries, and rightly they sought as the INDIAN society is yet to come out of the shadows of evils that prevail even today. That is when these set of directors made their presence felt at people’s disposal. While CHAK DE INDIA raised issue for the reincarnation of hockey, the national game, PAAN SINGH TOMAR, and GANGS OF WASSEYPUR enlightened people about reasons that drove a loyal patriotic sportsman towards genocide and modulus operandi of coal mafia in India since independence respectively. On the other hand few mortals in the pursuit of prefixing the label of Director before their names kept throwing the awful stuffs aimed at audience, few caught the public napping rest got that back the same way. Little did they realise that huge budget movies can also spell doom for them and the least budget film can also sail through leaving a huge mark behind. Yes !!! the mass was wide awake.

The benchmark set by the Hollywood had become too much in asking because Indian audience had tasted the blood. Every act of theirs were etched at the back of the public’s mind and the expectation level begun to peak. Now the movies’ length were calibrated with that of a hollywood cinema. A close scrutiny was done on every storyline and if a director chose to stuff more than a couple of songs, well lord would help them. Nudity and lovemaking was an area Hollywood directors have always been comfortable showcasing at the bigger screen. And a touch of skin show, a raunchy item number and few intimate scenes gradually cemented its place in the list of -must be featured- list while making a cinema. But even here the pseuds misunderstood the needs and stuffed the cinema unusually. And kept bringing the bad label of poor storyline and bad screenplay into the headline. The ratio deficit kept widening and younger generation found a better charm and attraction western cinemas. There was a huge task cut at the hands of desi makers.

One may ask why an Oscar has eluded us so far. The reasons vary from poor performance levels to the technique and editing to the effects and imagination, to the most obvious politics being played at the backdrop. One can’t avoid that fact that even a real life story or an inspirational storyline compels us to think about it again and again, also bask in the beauty of creativity they adhere to, such intense is their storytelling. The likes of SPEILBERG, CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, JAMES CAMERON have already proven their mettle by giving world cinema some of the most creative and beautifully made movie And Bollywood will still need some time before it will match their imagination. Having said that I would still underline my statement by saying that we’ve had some strong performance in a few movies which failed to fetch its due. But I wonder how their governing body would ever bear with the fact that Bollywood cinema conquered their fortress.

Maybe it’s time our much experienced folk of directors realize that it’s not the same worn out storyline, a stark skin show, some foul mouthed dialogues and lengthy song which is going to give them their share of success, or for that matter if they choose the most discoursed celebrity gang, it will definitely repay them back, but when it comes to the global recognition all they would fetch will be sheer disappointment. Because when it comes to collecting accolades it has always been critically successful movies along with some tint of trendy ingredients stuffed, who have had their performance recognised and get lauded.

Time that our makers copy their instincts instead of the movie altogether. Let’s get some satisfied viewer and global recognition. What say ???

The libido driven Gen Y

As the metro train whizzed past Yamuna bank metro station a conventional rather agitating sight caught my gaze which I couldn’t avoid staring at. This is what exactly happened when I was on my way to Laxmi Nagar, a pre adult couple in their mid 20s cozied and curled up against each other over the sitting platform meant for the waiting passengers engrossed in a passionate liplock. I guess they had no metro to catch rather they were running out of time to do too many things all together. Which left a few of those senior citizens red faced for sure. At that instance I was bewildered but then I forced myself out of the shell and savoured every moment of it. To quote a mere coincidence, it was today morning when going through the times of india, I came across an article on youths going obscene by public display of affection. And this topic brought out a very healthy discussion between me and my elder sister. She admitted to her fear that how startled she gets whenever she enters a park or recreational place with her kids as you never know behind which trunk you find a seed of obscenity being sowed and lustful couples charging and pouncing at each other as if that it was that one last time they have got to make love before the world ends. We talked how dreadful place a park has become to be with elders and kids, and this thing has spread its fangs steadily. Parks are no longer a place to take a stroll around. Wrong message is being emitted for the generations to come and worst, it charges some of those frustrated singles with negative vibes to commit hilarious crimes like rape and eve teasing. In most of the cases the ones who are innocent and unaware get victimised.

If I had a wish to make to the almighty I would have sought for satisfaction to prevail. A sense of accomplishment from inner self is what pushes us forward. But the degrading inner self and morale values is anything to take a clue from, we are definitely heading towards a world where testosterone and estrogen overtakes the emotional and relationship values. Some pseudo intellectuals call it modernisation, I call it bullshit. The simple question which I throw at them is, during the course of public display of emotions why do they tend to overlook the surrounding. They might escape away saying, how does that bother anyone ? Yeah how does that bother me but my penultimate question is, what makes you so engrossed that you overlook the surroundings or do they really think that it showcases their genuine love for their partner. Answer is draped around the question itself. A lusty soul is what I see and so do the people around who feel little awkward when they are with their elders and kids. Reason is precise, a wrong message is being sent to the people around. And more over let me see if you can garner the same amount of guts to repeat it in front of your parents and relatives.

The impatience and hormonal imbalance has reached a new level altogether and to some extent the existing system can be quoted guilty in setting up the stage for problems to cash upon and has certainly led forward a helping hand for the problems to multiply. From one side we are barb wired with old fashioned custom and from the other side we are engrossed matching pace with the fast developing world and its outdoing madness. Most of us recognise the scheme of things but a majority of us succumb to the laid trap and end up doing immoral activities which lead to the embarrassment to most of us. So my only point is that why can’t we keep our libidos in control and put most of the unwanted problems at bay. That way hotel owners will be a much happier person and our next generation will not get a wrong message for the things to inherit.

A Nasty Blow It Was

She was clad in an off green salwar kameez when he first saw her entering the exam hall. An eventful day it was, marred by a forgettable chemistry-II paper & unforgettable memory of hers is strongly etched in his memory even today. Her lively face masked torrent of emotions & an aura of confidence was eminently visible as she found her way to the allotted seat. She sat on the 3rd chair of the immediate row from the entrance while he occupied the 4th chair of the 5th row from the entrance, from where he could distinguish the traces of mane falling across her face & further kissing the blessed answer sheet lying haplessly on the desk. Perhaps she wasn't aware of the events unfolding in the room because of her profound presence. Although both of them sat across the width of examination hall, he sensed a storm brewing up, a storm that cast shadow over his chemistry paper but drew a silver lining on his further stay at the college for next 3 years. Yes! that unplanned meet gave him more than enough to cherish for a better part of his college days. She emerged out of canvas like a beautiful painting and swept him off his feet. Meanwhile, he negotiated her body hugging suit which provided him the luxury of having a clearer picture of her contours, she looked like a distinguished marvel crafted by almighty.

The university examination was underway & he was all set to nail the nasty chemistry. But alas! He couldn't keep his piercing gaze away from her which kept relishing every nook & corner of her partly visible face. Her eyes resembled the one of a fawn, beautiful and large with an aperture big enough to gape across the entire length and width of the paper. Her cheeks were sleek and smooth like well-churned butter, nose were sharp and pointed adorned with beads of sweat (Chennai was certainly a hot place). To top it all, she was blessed with a pair of bee-stung lips of apt size, which were as pink as one could be. She looked simple yet sober without wearing a makeup or an ornament which was enough to mesmerize him. He praised and cursed lord at the same time, the reason for his former act was very much evident as god gave him the luxury to peek at one of his vintage creation and for the later one nothing was much serious about it. His senses were prompt to apprise him about the blow of a backlog which he was going to inflict. Disarrayed & dazed he kept doing what he was best at, gazing at her thoroughly blank. Though a subconscious part of his cerebellum prompted him about the purpose he was there for but that was too light of a call to buzz his senses.

For quite some time, he made few unsuccessful attempts of getting into the examination mould, but things went a bit more awry as presumed. Even the biggest of his virtues gave up on him as he looked completely out of sorts. And there she was unaware of the damage her presence triggered. While the name of paper read chemistry, he had his mind weaving phrases of blissful poetry. And given the way thoughts procreated in his brain, it seemed the shadow of Wordsworth himself dawned upon him. The gloom of her eyes and sleek composure held him prisoner for the entire length of the exam. They kept obliging and he accepted everything with gratitude, it felt so heavenly. In the meantime, he crawled past half way mark through the set of questions. Interestingly, he was completely clueless of her whereabouts but the overwhelmed him didn’t want to miss out on a moment to capture those few auspicious times which were bargained at the price of chemistry paper.  And in a showcase of goodwill gesture he and chem-II signed a MoU that they will see each other next semester.

Back in exam hall she kept switching sides and continued amassing paper after paper as if her life was liable to those wood pulps. But he thrived by making most of the chance thrown at him until time ran out and he lost her in the crowd. She wrote mercilessly, and the haste on her face exposed worries which was very much evident from a distance and that is when he mumbled to himself, “Kitna Likhegi”. He noticed some other silly things that took place at the exam hall like she had no time to take a sip of water, on the contrary, he kept gulping glasses of water fancying his chances to explore more of her.

 By the time exam was completed, her beautifully crafted spell did its trick and left him prostate. Some of the evident consequences like he failing in the paper of chemistry and falling for her at the same time got accomplished. In both cases he was at the receiving end. But amidst all these chaos of mind and soul a silver lining showed up which fetched him a glorious memory to cherish and first real love of his life. He started believing love at first sight and harboured every moment gazing at her. Who knew that such a frivolous incident would lead to a lifelong bonding of love and bliss. Yes!! Those 3 hours unlocked new gateway to life and even today he concedes that it was worth.

a night to cherish..

Yet again the night surrenders itself to another exotic yet sublime twilight and has all the reason to compel me to start all over again. And I seek insomnia so that I can keep romancing this restrained night. A silent and one-sided affair has its own charm when you are aware of a lively response from your counterpart. As I write this into the late hour of the night the sound of tiny droplets of rain patting against my window seizes my attention and the eternal sight of these beads of water slowly gliding towards the entire length of the leaves makes it even more fascinating. In the meanwhile my gaze is pulled towards an acute gleaming substance which turns out to be the edge of a neighbouring leaf soaked in the fluorescent light of the lamp post, and a strong urge of capturing the moment forces me to fiddle with my paper and pen and confiscate every happening.

There is something which every act of theirs has to convey. I know I might sound crazy but I feel like a silent conversation going on between us. Perhaps they have a message for me, and if it is so then I am going to decipher it no matter what it takes. Leaves are cherishing every single drop of water, no matter how firmly it comes down at them. They bask in the charm along with the light and lives every moment till it possibly feels whole bit of the droplet which gently drifts away across it. Not only that they seem to be chit chatting with each other as it can be made out by their shaky appearance, as if rain has come as a pleasant relief for them after all those wrath of continuous heat and dust for weeks. But somewhere there array of tough times didn’t bog their enthusiasm down and they patiently waited for the gates of heaven to open up and now when it finally dawned upon them they are enjoying all its flavor. The tapping sound resembles of them singing in chorus and what it seems like they want me to join their company. But I prefer our silent conversation. You see this is way better than the one which we have with our so called partners night long as so much is at stake in that case. We might end up getting overtensed, overexcited, aroused and so many unwanted symptoms and lastly few awful series of events follow, which goes vice versa. And we wake up in the morning only to find out that so many things were bargained. J but this affair is so divine in itself that there is no room for any of those ugly alternative. It is kind of having one of those silent eye to eye conversation and turns out to be more interesting when one starts reading those eyes silently.

That is why I seek insomnia to stretch this affair a little longer, but alas !!! there is someone who is trying to overcome it and drag me to the hell.. oops that is again a heaven in itself. It seems I am losing it all and migrate to the other world. Hope it won’t take a toll on me J

HUMANS..Worst creation of God ???

God after so much of scrutiny and analysis created we humans and presumed it to be his best craft but alas !!! what he overlooked while assembling the various parts of our body was that he bestowed us with an unethical brain full of longing for materialistic things. And it is this neuropsychology department which works as a driving force for the bulk of disasters taking place around us.

The million dollar question here is : ‘’Do we really need a religion as an accord or for that matter a support to walk freely on the road ?’’. What I fail to fathom is that who are we to create our desired boundaries and castes and religions when the almighty himself didn’t feel the urge to do it. Gradually this termite called religion thing has dug so deep within us that today we have reached a point from where recovery is not an option. Name a region and there are ample amount of facts to support that things have gone way beyond what one would have visualized in their wildest of dreams. Middle east is the burning example of this widely spread cancer. Hindus are after muslims, shias are after sunnis, zews are after muslims, Christians are after jews and vice versa. There is mayhem spread everywhere till be extend our gaze, and that is why the outbreak of riots at muzaffarnagar didn’t come as a surprise to me. The town was burning in flames and politicians were busy playing blame game, thing which they are best at. Ruling party blamed social networking sites and opposition party blames the poor governance. Everyone were busy throwing balls in others court and people were killed in cold blood by one another. Today human lives are compromised in lieu of political seats and power to rule. But things have gone way too far and politics has been made a filthy game.

High time when people start putting value on one another’s life, and understand that this vengeance is a temporary madness controlled by few jokers at the helm and would not yield any goods. Maybe someday humanity will conquer materialism we will again make this world a beautiful place.

Cry of a benumbed soul

66^th independence day celebration was celebrated in high spirits and with so much of bliss. But somewhere down the line there is something which keeps me aloof of these things. The so-called JASHAN and MUBARAKBAAD for India getting her reigns back from Britishers was on but the most imposing question which towers over me is that: why doesn’t these occasions fills me with bliss, why doesn’t the patriotic songs makes my adrenaline go pumping as it used to be in my school days, when unfurling those paper made tricolour meant freedom to me and would charge me up with enormous amount of energy so much so that even the wrath of sun was not enough to bog down my morale and prevent me from standing in those long queues until I collected my share of refreshments which comprised of samosas, little, Rasogollas to name a few.

Come today a 15^th august or a 26^th January is just another day in the calendar for me, which, of course, grabs my attention, for these are gazetted national holidays. Those days soon after coming from school we would leap towards our television set to get a glimpse of prime minister addressing the nation and more over the cultural programs, parades and presentations that followed delighted us and the days’ schedule would be so jam packed with the patriotic movies that used to be aired for the entire day, tiranga, and roza were two movies of that lot which every youth in the 20s would remember  to their full length with every scene in sequence. In short our eyes would be glued to the television sets until the series of programs ended or worst the power connection betrayed. Today I hardly feel there is anything which needs to be given attention to. That is when I ask myself why is it so that these things don’t bother me anymore or for that matter why don’t these occasion fills me within. Is it that I don’t have that patriotic corpuscles being pumped in my vein anymore. 'Why'? Then I suddenly confront an ugly duel deep within me, and I realize that this is not a one-day affair, it is a slow process which has taken its own sweet time to build up.

I might sound insane but when I along with my college friends would gather over a cup of coffee in college canteen then we converse in  our own way by addressing, abusing and teasing pranks on girls, any girl for that matter. It indeed cuts a very sorry figure about us when we become one of the same lot who goes on for candle light march at India Gate making peace protest in the wake of rape incident that stirs our own conscience.

We talk of social inequality, casteism and corruption, but we are the first ones to demolish the rules. Not so long ago I would quote an incident which took place couple of days ago when I was on my way back to my hometown after making an unsuccessful attempt at SSB Bhopal. Time was somewhere around 9 am in the morning, atmosphere was calm, and fresh with nature being at its best as it usually happens during the month of monsoon in this part of the world. Train was half vacant and I was busy going through the day to day happenings from one of the editions of Hindustan times, that is when two RPF men clad in khakis with their rusted and dull looking LMGs(I wondered if it ever fired bullets) came into my compartment and comforted themselves on the adjacent seats. One of them being on the right and the other being in front of me. They started off well with usual chit chats and soon switched to one of the most prominent and talked about topics of today i.e politics and corruption. Soon they moved ahead with their tongue lashing and blame game had already begun, all those talks of corrupt politicians, inefficient system and poor mentality of people were being talked about. Amid of all these policeman sitting next to me tried to drag me into the discussion but I showed no interest. In the meanwhile he helped himself with a few packets of gutkhas from a vendor kid without paying him in lieu of that. To my utter surprise he tore the packet open, ate it and threw the wrapper on the compartment floor. A wicked smile ran across my lips and I gazed at him accusingly. Even he read my intentions but was quick to leave the place. Intentions were loud and clear, people are good till blaming other helps but in the fray most importantly forget their part. And there are many of us unlike those RPF men. We throw garbage on roads and blame municipality for not doing their part, we chose these thieves and murderers and blame them later for not being honest to us. The million dollar question which arises here is: “are we honest to ourselves ?”.

We talk of humanity and unity, tell me how many of us ran to rescue the girl who was eveteased by a few of those road side romeos ? how many of us rushed that man to hospital who was languishing helplessly on roads post accident, just because some silly questions were to be thrown at us at police station ? C’mon give me break, we unfortunately have become part of the lot who loves crying foul everywhere and at the end of the day needs someone like anna hazare and arvind kejriwal to bail us out of this predicament and become our messiah. We have somewhere become a mad dog chasing cars who doesn’t know where is he heading towards. Our concern and responsibility is limited to a comment of facebook and interest is limited to a tweet on twitter. Pakistan breaks the ceasefire and behead our soldiers and we cry foul by posting and sharing their photos and posts. The day is not far when war will be fought online and the winning side will the one with excellent wit. And the government elected by us waits patiently for the next series of unpleasant events to unfold.

But why am I talking about all this. By now most of you have would have made up your mind about me being an arrogant, shrewd or stupid kind of person. But somewhere deep inside these series of incidents have made me numb and that is why august 15^th is just another day in calendar for me.