Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Some moments to remember
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Bangalore diary- II
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Bangalore diary-I
Brigade road with many a shops that attracts the youth in hordes and its sister MG road are the first thing that comes to mind of any person with a lively heart. Life here, like in Bhopal moves at its own pace, peacefully.
Go to the countless pubs or hangout in any of the night clubs and you will feel that same peaceful serenity.
It is my 10th day in Bangalore and I have been successful in the purpose for which I first came here. When I had joined SBI, I had said that it's more likely to happen that I will move again to a different endeavour. And that is happening now.
A Lawyer, a Journalist, a Banker and now a Navy officer.
Have learnt many a things in this short span of time.
Pushed both my mind and my body to a different realm of achievablity. Went through some intense surge of emotions both good and bad and the first thing that came into my mind was how difficult it becomes to stop yourself from reconnecting to a past that you wouldn't normally want to connect to specially on occasions of intense happiness and deep sadness.
And in this times I sought help from God to keep me going. And I asked for forgiveness for hurting people whom I never wanted to hurt. I asked God to make me capable of forgetting and forgiving and I asked him to wash away hate and never let it creep into my heart again. And my belief that no one can be a better emotional support than mom and dad in times of crisis gained more strength.
As life moves on I look back and think of how time changed for the bad and then for the better. Like a flowing river the life should flow and I pray to god for his kind benevolence.
For all countless reasons love and for every conceivable reasons never cheat.
Happy December... :-)
Sunday, November 08, 2009
During a lifeless class...
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mumbaikars loose - MNS wins
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Whom will you feed today
Friday, October 16, 2009
A day and a night on Bhopal-Patna broad gauge
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Obama, Osama and Lal Salama
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
I bid adieu
a silent stare,a silent nod,
Monday, September 28, 2009
Dholu bhai- a tribute
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Abhivyakti- a rich past
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Bhopal diary III
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tough time calls for BJP
The Chintan Baithak at the scenic and cool Shimla got off to a rather hot start with the safari suit clad Jaswant Singh being expelled from the party. Not quite a long back, he along with Atal and Advani constituted the face of BJP.
He might not had a dramatic rise but a crestfallen Jaswant Singh sure had a rollicking downfall. No single reason can be attributed to the recent development.
The crab mentality that plagues every organization, which currently is working at full force for BJP, the emergence of new ‘young’ leaders, who have waited years for their turn to come but all in vain, the recent poll debacle, the RSS factor, and the slow but steady disappearance of Atal from the party, all made it easy to show Jaswant the door.
We have been hearing the same name in BJP for all these years. Names that have been in queue to climb up the ladder, a ladder whose top three stairs have been booked for Atal, Adavni and Jaswant. Of all the three, Jaswant was the weakest, and he had to go. Advani will be next and with Atalji retired, it will be everyone for himself for the next generation of party leaders.
The loss in general election was a good ground to start with the assault. RSS saw it as a golden opportunity to once again tighten its grip over the party. RSS had reasons to believe that in recent years its hold over the party had been shrinking. With Jaswant Singing Jinnah and blasting Patel, they found a much needed cause to show who the boss is.
The other big reason is that BJP is still figuring out what to do with the Muslim population. It is still going to and from whether to appease the minority population go soft on Hindutva or stick to hard core Hindutva. In between this undecided scenario, Jaswant thought that maybe praising Jinnah was the next best thing to do after denouncing Patel. And as we all now know, neither of them worked in the way he expected it to be.
There have been far greater grounds for axing leaders in BJP in the past, but as I said, if it was just on the basis of the core reason, Jaswant would have been still alive and kicking. It is obnoxious to expel a leader who have been in the party for the last 30 years, who had just won a lok Sabah election by more than 3 lakhs vote and a man who did good, if not great work in various capacity at the central level, just because he wrote a book.
To start with there was no bigger ground than Kandahar to expel a few sleeping man who waited for the god to intervene before the aircraft took off to Kandahar, then came Kargil, still the same old guys continued to ‘serve’ the nation.
And finally came Gujarat. Not trying to sound a pseudo secularist, what happened at Godhra was and is unpardonable and and exception should have been made out and the perpetrators should have been given a medieval kind of punishment. But whatever happened thereafter could and should have been controlled had the BJP state government followed Raj Dharma as Atal pointed out.
BJP right now is going through a churning process, which as we all know is not very memorable. From now on it will be Advani who will have to fight and stave attacks, depending on whether he has any desire to do so.
Don’t think that Rajnath Singh will have to bear the same as he doesn’t have ambitions that require a bloodbath as he knows his position, strengths and weaknesses well. Sushma swaraj too is now a shadow of her former self, and with no Atal to provide her support she too will be contended in whatever she is offered.
The two people to look out in the near future are Modi and Jaitley. They will be the two poles that the others will have to choose from in the near future.
But a party cannot be run by two men who are highly ambitious. Atal always knew that he can never be replaced or upstaged. And Adavani too was aware and accepted the fact that he will be more highly rewarded if he stays with Atal, if not behind him. There was never a dichotomy or any doubt in any of the BJP workers mind that who had the final say in the party matter and that made for a smooth running. In a relationship, of every nature, one has to be one percent more than the other for it to blossom.
And between Modi and Jaitley, one of the two has to realize this. The sooner they do it, the better it will be for them and for the party. RSS should limit its role to that of a guardian, and that too in a strict sense, only coming in the picture when it’s truly required.
There is a difference between meddling and offering advice. This is something that Mohan Bhagwat has to make himself and his organization understand.
The Chintan baithak will come out with many ideas, but only with time, will the BJP regains it full glory, till then it has to wait and bid its time.
Looking at a larger perspective, India, just like any other democracy, will be benefitted more if we have a strong opposition party, which as of now is nowhere to be seen.
Friday, August 07, 2009
Bhopal diary II
Nothing had changed, sounds cliche, but that's the way it is. The same sprawling football/kabbadi/cricket ground. Even the lamp posts appeared as silent as they use to eight years ago.
As I went further, I found the stairs of the basketball court breathing its last few breaths. There stairs were located and built at a very strategic place offering good view of the many things. (No pun intended).
Then we had a stroll in the famous corridors of Jawahar---and as expected met no one. Went through the list of retired teachers and staff and was hit by a strong sense of nostalgia. It's sometimes very hard to accept a fact. Just couldn't imagine what was at work, maybe it was something hard to decipher let alone describe.
About a month back while having tea at a roadside chaiwala I saw a bespectacled dude in Jawahar school uniform smoking cigarette. The best I could do was to ask him to keep the school tie in his bag because our school has a dress code that's similar to many other schools of Bhopal and it is the tie that separates or more appropriately used to separate the wheat from the chaff. He readily obliged as he was spared the lecture of the ills of smoking , which I had no intention of showering him with.
Can only hope for the revival of the good old Jawahar...
Still remember the last days.Everything is so vividly sketched,May they never fade.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Bhopal diary I
What should i write...there are so many things to say.
Life has come a full circle, both literally as well figuratively. And i stand at a place from where I started. Back in Bhopal after a not so long period of 4 months has been a see-saw of a ride. Most of the times it has been on an upward climb and often i have experienced the feel of gravity pulling me down.
For now my career-car is parked in SBI where i learn the art of being a probationary officer. During times, when my mind is at its idle best, which is very rarely, I dwell on how it was to be a lawyer and a journalist.
It was from Bhopal that i took my first steps towards Doha as a journalist and it was in Bhopal where i got a degree which gave me the title of a lawyer.
Just days back, one of my friend asked me that how long i am going to remain a banker and i replied not for long. I don't know why, but still i feel that this is not my final destination. SBI is a great place to work and the colleagues are great. The nature of job too is not bad as i thought it would be, but i am sure that sooner rather than later i will be into another role...
Those who know me well, including my aunt, ask me to foray back into journalism again. Maybe i will, once i am retired and living a not so mundane life, maybe i will.
Finally i will soon be having a Dell laptop to 'play' with and i am sure that i have not made a wrong choice, a choice which is a culmination of long hours of walking into shops and talking to people from different fields and none of them from the IT sector. Also have some travelling to do as i will have to go to Delhi, Kolkata and Patna soon. "Indian railways mai aa raha hoo...gana mai gaa raha hoo''.
The hoohoo over Balochistan, The yet another spat between the Ambani brothers, the not-so polite tit-a-tat between Mayawati and Bahugana and the real 'Sach ka Saamna' enacted by Omar Abdullah made for a good reading on an otherwise dull week.
On a more local level the increase in the crime rate in Bhopal is being attributed to the fact that most of those involved in these petty crimes are getting patronage from their local saffron clad leaders. How far this is true is something that can be argued on, but if this has any crediblity then its not a good sign for anyone. Shivraj Singh Chauhan's hard work on good governance may lose steam if the crime level is not controlled.
Would like to end with some lines that i read somewhere...
"When the dark deep black falls over the blue sky
and the stars begin to flicker in the cloudless sky
through the mist of memories you wander back to me
breathing my name with a silent sigh...
simple words, pure emotions...
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Why and till when...
Most of my time i am deviating between my new job and a new house.The remaining moments is spent on setting up a new home.
As I joined SBI and shifted to Bhopal, i had to start things from scratch and i would like to add that still not much has been accomplished. The first thing that i purchased was a gas stove :).
A gas stove purchased from my own salary,well, that is some thing to narrate to my grand children in the near future. Then came basic utensils, a pan for boiling eggs and preparing coffee.
What next? May be a laptop. No, not maybe, a laptop for sure.But till then, Please bear with me.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
India : United and diverse
For the starters Sanghvi pointed fingers at Congress (yeah, actually he did it) for allowing Karunanidhi to play with the religious sentiments of Hindus when he infamously asked for the credentials of a person called Ram ( of Ramayan fame, Ayodhya wale).
Similar he poses uncomfortable questions to the other national party of India, BJP, asking it to come out with a white paper ( well, he didn’t actually used this term, but I would have) regarding its stand, if any, on the whole episode of Marathi manoos Vs North Indians where the Shiv Sena is one of the main protagonist. ( Manoos V Indians, how ironical).
We have always read and heard about this whole Indian world of unity in diversity, a place, a metaphysical state where diversities of various nature, culminate into one, to make up an entity called India. But that changes once we step into the political scenario, for then the role reversal takes place.
A swapping of roles take place as diverse parties, many aspirations, hundreds of inspirations vie to put up a collage of what is called “Alliance”.
Political artists try their best to achieve diversity in Unity. Sometimes that collage, in the crudest form of use, appears satisfactory but generally it is one heck of picture which is best left unviewed.
And when the work is finished, we have Muftis, the Badals, the Yadavs, the Mayawatis, the Mamtas, a whole bouquet of the Leftist, the Ammas, the not so sane Karuna and the insane Thackrey smiling at us. (Already started feeling dizzy, and I have not even worked out the details). The above all are just a broad contours, I still have to work on the colors.
Imagine a government where all the above players come together and assume the role of leading India into the next millennium. (I couldn’t, too much of brain required). If this happens then we can safely assume that Kalyug has truly arrived and the time of Mahapralay is near. A time of apocalypse, when every national aspiration, dreams will be quashed for regional interest, where a CM will come above PM in the list of invitees. The more illogical demand, the more higher a politician will go.
After Amma’s call of marching Indian army into Sri lanka is fulfilled, Karunanidhi’s demands of building an expressway between Srilanka and India overlapping the Ramsetu will be next and then will come the time of heeding to Thackrey’s clan demand of annexing North India and moving the refugees to wherever the government seems fit.
And soon we will have four countries, a grand alliance of sort between the smaller states, teaming up to fight the national aspirations of a country called India that is out their to usurp their regional demands.
And that alliance will broadly be based on geographical indicators, viz, The North India, the South India, the West India and the South India. And soon enough that alliance too will break up and only god knows when will the opportunistic leaders realize that out there is another East India company who is just waiting and watching to rush in just like it did centuries ago.
(What started as a writeup based on facts turned into a work of fiction and imagination just like what started as a fight for dalit cause turned into a struggle for the PMs post )
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Who is the more lethal? Karuna or the LTTE
Karunanidhi, Jayalalita, Vaiko all these ‘Tamil’ sympathizers or more appropriately ‘Tamil opportunist’ have said that they are against this ‘misadventure’ on the part of the Srilankan government. A misadventure that is aimed towards dismantling one of the most feared terrorist outfits.
Someone needs to remind them that this supposed misadventure has been going for the past 2 years. But none of them voiced their dissent against it till now.
The alleged atrocities against the Tamils as purported by Karunanidhi has more to do with garnering the Tamil votebank rather than his genuine sympathy for them.
Kaurnanidhi and Vaiko have openly come out in support of the LTTE which is a banned terrorist organization, not only in India but worldwide. They have orchestrated protests against Indian establishment in UK and in other foreign countries so as to put pressure of the Indian government to use its clout and ask the Srilankan government to stop the offensive.
Even the Congress, whose own leader Rajiv Gandhi was killed by the LTTE has acted submissively to the pressure of its allies and has time and again sent senior officials to Srilanka as a show of its willingness to tow the lines of Karuna and Vaiko and to make sure that they are not displeased least their support is required to form the next government.
The stand taken by Congress is one is driven by short term political gains but in in return they have bartered a peaceful-safe neighbour.
Have not Fingers been pointed at India too for the same level of atrocities that our troops have alleged to commit in Kashmir and in the North east. But national interest has always prevailed. So why should the present Indian leadership or for that matter any leadership pressurize the Lankans in what is their internal matter to stop their assault against a brutal terrorist organization, an organization which has killed numerous high profile leaders and many civilians and even to this day continues to use innocent unarmed combatants and small children for their own safety.
This continuous pressure politics by the Indian government has alienated Srilanka further away from us. Though our old ‘friend’ China has not lost this opportunity to help the tiny island nation by supplying it with arms and materials.
And it is not that the Srilankan government has neglected the refugees. It is doing everything that it can. Independent observers operating in Srilanka have said that the refugees are being taken care of. One needs to understand that even the best of human efforts sometimes appear insignificant in times of human calamities. Give them time, the country has gone through a difficult phase for many years.
All this may seem immaterial now, but years later I hope we don’t use the present Srilankan crisis as an anecdote to illustrate as how not to conduct your foreign policies.
Morality and principles are the two most overly used yet the least applied term in Indian political arena. And it can best be seen by the way Congress has reacted to the rhetoric of a leader who has no personal credentials and a person who prides in calling Rama a drunkard.
It is very sad that it has so easily forgotten the killing of one of its own leader who was killed because he sent the Indian peace keeping force to Srilanka to the very same job that the Lankan army is doing now.
Congress is a “national party”, the grand old party of India. Need we remind this to them again and again?
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Go on Das'ji
To be in
Voluntarily or involuntarily, as the election time approaches you find yourself being attracted to any of the many types of informal, formal political gatherings. Such meetings take place at every conceivable place. Outside home under a mango tree, in the road side teashop, in a temple and sometimes even outside a crematorium. If you have an opinion to share you will find an ear to listen.
Maheshwar Das who retired as deputy SP one months back now finds himself in the illuminated company of politicians who stay in our residential colony.
Dasji, my immediate neighbour is contesting as an MP from the well known Hajipur seat of
Hajipur has been Paswan's citadel for years and he has created a record of winning that seat by a record margin in the previous election.
It is a reserved seat and my friendly Dasji is pitted against Paswan and Ramsundar Das who is representing (JD)(U).
Dasji a dalit, has started his political move on the right foot as he has managed to secure a BSP ticket. 5 years ago this would not have been significant news, but now with Maywati’s enhanced status it is something big if not spectacular.
Interestingly until he got his nomination, Dasji used to pat my pet German Shepard, Bela, by calling her Mayawati. but ever since he got the ticket everything is back to normal. Though Bela does occasionally misses the tag of being a 'dog' representing the oppressed mass.
Now I leave it upon the readers to apply their own sense of imagination as to what is the significant behind calling my revered Bela as Mayawati.
On the first day of his campaigning I too jumped in the cavalcade of his white Boloeros covered in marching elephants embedded on Blue flags ( representing BSP) as we rode towards Hajipur, the land of world famous small Bananas.
Earlier our former civil servant wanted to wear a black bundy ( jacket) over the traditional white kurta, but he was consented to change his mind by my father and he amended it for a more cooler brown one and we proceeded.
Cries of "Jahan hai Das-wahin hai Aas" filled the air as we crossed the majestic Gandhi Setu connecting
We addressed two political gatherings on the first day and I was not surprised to see a sizable number of people everywhere we went. Probably it was the curiosity to know the unknown or it was the Mayawati effect or most probably the political atmosphere that drew the people out in the basking unforgiving sun.
People with folded hands with glitter and hope in those small eyes gathered around us and their love was reciprocated by folded hands and a bowed head. Dasji at his modest best.
I have heard and read about the concept of giant killers. An unknown-unheard candidates arises from nowhere and trounces a more powerful opponent. Whether I will witness the same in Hajipur will become clear in the third week of May, but if you ask that whether I want to witness another instance of giant killing then my honest reply will be, yes...why not!!!
Go on Dasji...