Dear Mr. Chief Minister/ Mr. Prime Minister/ Mr. President/Any Answerable Authority,
Being a concerned citizen of this beloved nation called India, there are a number of questions that are running in my mind which have to be answered. Not knowing whom should I ask, I had no choice but address this letter to you. The very first query that pops in my mind is-WHY SHOULD I BE PATRIOTIC TOWARDS THIS COUNTRY? You might be able to deliver some “culturally rich” answers to this, but that doesn’t assuage me in any way. What I am looking for is some pragmatic solutions to all my doubts. Patriotism and love for one’s country or motherland comes only if the homeland is doing something good for the social welfare of all her citizens, but here I see nothing of that sort happening. What do we get in return for the taxes that we pay- farmers’ suicides, crater full of roads, a state consulate in the capital worth Rs.50 crores (which we didn’t even ask for it), unemployment, corruption, political scandals, lawlessness etc?
The situation is such that even if we as citizens try to get involved in these matters, we too shall get torn in between the vicious circle of all the banes that the country is facing today. “Ask not what the country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country” quoted the famous American president J.F.Kennedy. I agree to this statement completely but this statement comes from the leader of a nation who is taking care of all the needs of their citizens. Needs which include education, medical facilities, energy supply, food and life security; thus the citizens too feel to give it back to their nation in many ways. Unlike the situation here where the government run schools and hospital are in such a pitiable condition that people like me and you would not even think of associating ourselves to them. The education here has become a luxury which is enjoyed by the super rich or the reserved category. Where do the middle class go? They are just running helter-skelter to save themselves from the troubles of getting themselves ground in this system. The medical facilities too speak the same language, language of inadequacy. On one hand you want to make rural internship compulsory to serve the villages but who takes care of the medical facilities of the interns themselves in the far flung villages? The way of lifestyle between the urban and rural India is too different to make rural internship compulsory for urban doctors.
The government wants to ape the developed cities from all over the world but at least start off with basic amenities. Energy. Why does the city that dreams to be the best investment and financial capital have to face power cuts in form of load shedding? Why does the nation’s capital have to go without power for hours together? Why does the majority of the rural India think that power-supply is a luxury?
Why don’t the policy makers who have been elected by the citizens and for the citizens behave in the same way? Why is that nobody is paying heed to the very basics here in our nation? The security of life of the average man here too is not taken care of; the minute the religious sentiments of a certain segment are insulted they go on a public property destruction spree with the law enforcers being mute spectators. Why?
The property that is being destroyed belongs to the nation, their nation, so are they too not patriotic towards their motherland? In this entire mess of systems, red-tape, controversies, destruction, inadequate infrastructure, improper medical and educational facilities, population boom it is the common middle class man that suffers the most. And how does he take care of his problems- the old just sit back and wait for their days to end, the youth pick up loans and move out of the country to greener pastures. And it is after all this that the government blames the trend of “brain drain” that is causing the country’s downfall.
Sir, a sincere request to you, please help us help you and our motherland. We the common man are as helpless as the situation in our homeland. Don’t make us leave this country that we have called home for so long. Aren’t the reasons mentioned here enough to justify the thinning of the patriotic feelings towards my country? We have a beautiful country, we have beautiful people then why is it that the society we live is turning ugly? I say it is time again to substantially redeem our pledge, our tryst with destiny, to find utterance and rekindle the soul of our nation for freedom. It is time for service and dedication to India and her people. Sir it is time to make history again!
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Some People, WEIRD!!
Recently came across a mail in my inbox categorizing people distinctly under three headings. The headings were “Reason”, “Season” and “Lifetime” each conveying the meaning on its own-people that you either meet for a reason or for a season or for a lifetime. But I did find this classification incomplete for the simple criteria that people that you come across in your life are more complex than stated before. This list doesn’t have place to fit in the people you despise or for that matter people you haven’t met but still admire them! This e-mail got me thinking on the type of people that I have come across in my span of 23 years and some months. People as mentioned and as obvious can come in all forms of family, friends, relatives, acquaintances, teachers and a host of other relations which is one’s personal perspective.
Of all the afore mentioned list of people in my life I think it is the friends category that takes up the maximum amount of your time and energies (given the fact that I am still single!). But yet this really nice and innocent looking category can too have its fair share of troubles…and no I am not talking of the fights or altercations between friends, but the way these people are always treading upon the thin line between acquaintanceship and friendship. That’s the toughest test of all—who should I call my friend and who becomes my acquaintance? It can get really confusing and frustrating to trust somebody. And also what levels of trusting makes some person your friend. The person who you think is trustworthy enough of your friendship and camaraderie may be talking obscene things behind your back and you might never even come to know of this! Disgusting!
Instances that everybody must have come across must be the time when a certain somebody who used to be your very good friend has recently turned into just another casual “someone I know”. So does that mean jumping the line is really that easy? Life is as composite as the mingled pathways of the thoughts that go into birth of these relationships. A very popular saying says that “If you lie with the dogs you rise with the fleas”. But how are you supposed to differentiate between the two? Experience seems to be the only right solution to this query .The downfall to this answer could be bad etches in your mind but at least one would have learnt one’s lesson. And my experience teaches me that the best way to keep these people at bay is to put them under a different category. A category which I choose to call- WEIRD.
P.s: Thoughts expressed here are quite confusing and ‘weird’ but that is how my state of mind was while putting this down.
Of all the afore mentioned list of people in my life I think it is the friends category that takes up the maximum amount of your time and energies (given the fact that I am still single!). But yet this really nice and innocent looking category can too have its fair share of troubles…and no I am not talking of the fights or altercations between friends, but the way these people are always treading upon the thin line between acquaintanceship and friendship. That’s the toughest test of all—who should I call my friend and who becomes my acquaintance? It can get really confusing and frustrating to trust somebody. And also what levels of trusting makes some person your friend. The person who you think is trustworthy enough of your friendship and camaraderie may be talking obscene things behind your back and you might never even come to know of this! Disgusting!
Instances that everybody must have come across must be the time when a certain somebody who used to be your very good friend has recently turned into just another casual “someone I know”. So does that mean jumping the line is really that easy? Life is as composite as the mingled pathways of the thoughts that go into birth of these relationships. A very popular saying says that “If you lie with the dogs you rise with the fleas”. But how are you supposed to differentiate between the two? Experience seems to be the only right solution to this query .The downfall to this answer could be bad etches in your mind but at least one would have learnt one’s lesson. And my experience teaches me that the best way to keep these people at bay is to put them under a different category. A category which I choose to call- WEIRD.
P.s: Thoughts expressed here are quite confusing and ‘weird’ but that is how my state of mind was while putting this down.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Miracles Do Take Place!
A Simple Miracle
A lesson that I have learnt recently is that turning twenty-three does not necessarily make one wise enough to take on the world or understand the protocol of the society. The twenty-three year old that I am talking about here is myself. The last five years that have been spent toiling really hard to earn myself an “oh-so coveted” degree of being a dentist does not imply that I am a sane individual. The underlying cause of my “insanity” lies in the cloud of confusion which has stormed into all of the room meant for rational thinking. But these are thoughts and I don’t know of any person who can control the flow the innumerable thoughts entering their minds—a la “dimaag mein solid chemical locha”. This did teach me a few things about chemistry and the most important one was that the chemical turmoil caused in your mental labyrinth does not agree to let go of you. Being a very normal human being it then became quite essential for me to hunt down a sensible solution to the grave problem that I was facing….but did I mention what my problem was? The strenuous situation may be easy for many and difficult for the rest and the situation is – WHAT NEXT? The question is strictly pertaining to the life that I will be starting afresh with a graduate certificate under my belt, but then suddenly I realize that there is no freshness in the new life. What I foresee in my life is boredom and monotony associated with my future clinical life wholly and solely related with dentistry. It may be a field which is high on money but I am the kinds who would like to go in for some job satisfaction too. A thousand queries with absolutely no answers was driving me and my friends crazy (friends because they were the ones who had to take on the responsibility of listening to my repetitive balderdash). Struggling with lots of things including the big challenge to prepare for the post-graduate entrance examinations due in a short period, my mind was dying, I was dying.
Enough is enough I decided. Since nothing was getting to think me straight the only thing that deemed feasible then was some desperate divine intervention. So packed in a few stuff and hopped onto the bus for Shirdi. Thought even if God wouldn’t be able to help me out then at least some fresh Maharashtrian country-side would. Finally after eight hours of bus journey and a short walk led me to the doorstep of the temple in Shirdi. Bought a few floral and sweet goodies for Baba and with the tray I too stood in the really long and serpentine queue. Then just like an unsuspected lightening would struck someone, I too was struck but with a thought that said-“Wow, you are not the only one expecting a miracle in your life…there are millions looking out for God’s special blessing!” The thought was good enough to keep my mind away from the wait needed to get me Baba’s ‘darshan’. It was philosophical and a contemplative series of fireworks on display in my mind and simultaneously my heart too. Both were on a fantastic debate on life and it was great to listen to them both voicing out their opinions. Then just as how quick that lightening thought had struck me, something else struck my vision now later finding its course to my heart. The sight was of seven or eight year old boy suffering from mental and physical retardation trying to make his way, with help from his father, through the ocean of people around him. The kid had a very nonchalant but a lost and a dreamy look ignorant about the stream of people flowing by him and while his father was helping him walk and at the same time trying control his drooling. This sight completely anesthetized my mind, my heart and me I in whole. I couldn’t think, I was just out right numb. Later as I surged ahead in the queue, I saw a very beautiful face of a three/four year old girl smiling at me; I smiled back only later to realize that the girl was suffering from Down’s syndrome. I just moved ahead finally getting the ‘darshan’. But quite surprisingly, in spite of the troubled mind that I possessed I did not know what am I supposed to ask from Baba-a miracle? I was clueless. So I just bowed before Him and left the temple premises to later find myself on the bus home.
As I looked outside the window, to gaze at the passing rural life soaking in the evening sun, the picture of the three year old smiling at me and the seven year old boy and his father trying to make their way through the people kept flashing. I was completely overwhelmed. Tears began to roll down my cheeks. They weren’t tears of sympathy for the children but tears of sympathy for me. Me, because I had just realized that I had been extremely selfish. God had been kind to me from the very beginning, giving me a life that would surely be called luxurious but still I was unsatisfied, still asking for a miracle to take place in my life.
A miracle did take place in my life; the miraculous sight of the children who no matter what they were going through did keep up smiling and irrespective of their situation did managed to fight their adversities. I was changed. Change in the sense that no more cursing the life I was living and the thought that keeps me going is that just like me there are millions on the look out for a miracle to take place in their lives and then there are the ones who themselves are the miracles in life. Simple miracles. Special miracles. Thank you God.
A lesson that I have learnt recently is that turning twenty-three does not necessarily make one wise enough to take on the world or understand the protocol of the society. The twenty-three year old that I am talking about here is myself. The last five years that have been spent toiling really hard to earn myself an “oh-so coveted” degree of being a dentist does not imply that I am a sane individual. The underlying cause of my “insanity” lies in the cloud of confusion which has stormed into all of the room meant for rational thinking. But these are thoughts and I don’t know of any person who can control the flow the innumerable thoughts entering their minds—a la “dimaag mein solid chemical locha”. This did teach me a few things about chemistry and the most important one was that the chemical turmoil caused in your mental labyrinth does not agree to let go of you. Being a very normal human being it then became quite essential for me to hunt down a sensible solution to the grave problem that I was facing….but did I mention what my problem was? The strenuous situation may be easy for many and difficult for the rest and the situation is – WHAT NEXT? The question is strictly pertaining to the life that I will be starting afresh with a graduate certificate under my belt, but then suddenly I realize that there is no freshness in the new life. What I foresee in my life is boredom and monotony associated with my future clinical life wholly and solely related with dentistry. It may be a field which is high on money but I am the kinds who would like to go in for some job satisfaction too. A thousand queries with absolutely no answers was driving me and my friends crazy (friends because they were the ones who had to take on the responsibility of listening to my repetitive balderdash). Struggling with lots of things including the big challenge to prepare for the post-graduate entrance examinations due in a short period, my mind was dying, I was dying.
Enough is enough I decided. Since nothing was getting to think me straight the only thing that deemed feasible then was some desperate divine intervention. So packed in a few stuff and hopped onto the bus for Shirdi. Thought even if God wouldn’t be able to help me out then at least some fresh Maharashtrian country-side would. Finally after eight hours of bus journey and a short walk led me to the doorstep of the temple in Shirdi. Bought a few floral and sweet goodies for Baba and with the tray I too stood in the really long and serpentine queue. Then just like an unsuspected lightening would struck someone, I too was struck but with a thought that said-“Wow, you are not the only one expecting a miracle in your life…there are millions looking out for God’s special blessing!” The thought was good enough to keep my mind away from the wait needed to get me Baba’s ‘darshan’. It was philosophical and a contemplative series of fireworks on display in my mind and simultaneously my heart too. Both were on a fantastic debate on life and it was great to listen to them both voicing out their opinions. Then just as how quick that lightening thought had struck me, something else struck my vision now later finding its course to my heart. The sight was of seven or eight year old boy suffering from mental and physical retardation trying to make his way, with help from his father, through the ocean of people around him. The kid had a very nonchalant but a lost and a dreamy look ignorant about the stream of people flowing by him and while his father was helping him walk and at the same time trying control his drooling. This sight completely anesthetized my mind, my heart and me I in whole. I couldn’t think, I was just out right numb. Later as I surged ahead in the queue, I saw a very beautiful face of a three/four year old girl smiling at me; I smiled back only later to realize that the girl was suffering from Down’s syndrome. I just moved ahead finally getting the ‘darshan’. But quite surprisingly, in spite of the troubled mind that I possessed I did not know what am I supposed to ask from Baba-a miracle? I was clueless. So I just bowed before Him and left the temple premises to later find myself on the bus home.
As I looked outside the window, to gaze at the passing rural life soaking in the evening sun, the picture of the three year old smiling at me and the seven year old boy and his father trying to make their way through the people kept flashing. I was completely overwhelmed. Tears began to roll down my cheeks. They weren’t tears of sympathy for the children but tears of sympathy for me. Me, because I had just realized that I had been extremely selfish. God had been kind to me from the very beginning, giving me a life that would surely be called luxurious but still I was unsatisfied, still asking for a miracle to take place in my life.
A miracle did take place in my life; the miraculous sight of the children who no matter what they were going through did keep up smiling and irrespective of their situation did managed to fight their adversities. I was changed. Change in the sense that no more cursing the life I was living and the thought that keeps me going is that just like me there are millions on the look out for a miracle to take place in their lives and then there are the ones who themselves are the miracles in life. Simple miracles. Special miracles. Thank you God.
Friday, November 24, 2006
My first!!!
Yeah..me getting in to "blogging" too..but right now a bit too tired and that's why putting up my previous works which weren't blogged...my own thoughts ----poetically speaking...starting off with my first poem called "When She Smiles.."..a poem which talks about how a beautiful and a dreamy smile of a girl can manage to make a person, a self confessed personification of boredom,(that would be yours truly!) to pick up the pen and come up with this poetry....straight from the heart!!!!
When She Smiles...
When she smiles..
Heavens open up their doors,
Flowers bloom to catch her glimpse,
Goodness spreads in galore!
When she smiles..
The world stops where it is,
The sun of the eve ceases to dim,
Gather all angels to see a sight
That they'd never want to miss!
When she smiles..
The problems of the world seem petty,
The toughest of all seem to melt down,
Peace,innocence and love start filling up eternity!
When she smiles..
Old mysteries are revealed and new ones emerge,
The best of all poets get a writers' block,
Dreams are rekindled which were once submerged!
When she smiles..
The universe understands the definition of beauty,
Men start treading upon the radical path,
"Live and let live" becomes their only duty!
When she smiles..
People start talking the language of love,
Reminds you the mischief of a naive pup,
Makes you feel as light as a feather of a dove!
When She Smiles...
When she smiles..
Heavens open up their doors,
Flowers bloom to catch her glimpse,
Goodness spreads in galore!
When she smiles..
The world stops where it is,
The sun of the eve ceases to dim,
Gather all angels to see a sight
That they'd never want to miss!
When she smiles..
The problems of the world seem petty,
The toughest of all seem to melt down,
Peace,innocence and love start filling up eternity!
When she smiles..
Old mysteries are revealed and new ones emerge,
The best of all poets get a writers' block,
Dreams are rekindled which were once submerged!
When she smiles..
The universe understands the definition of beauty,
Men start treading upon the radical path,
"Live and let live" becomes their only duty!
When she smiles..
People start talking the language of love,
Reminds you the mischief of a naive pup,
Makes you feel as light as a feather of a dove!
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