Going deep into Indian Villages!

How is it travelling deep in to an Indian village in interior Madhya Pradesh?

So you board the typical mission hospital Jeep! And 8 of you and a big tyre are squeezed into that Jeep and off we go on the pot holed national highway. Then inevitably you turn into one of those roads/mudpaths and go further. And there you are, after a few kilometers of riding/rafting you enter one of those villages

Typical poor Indian Village! the buffaloes, the poorest of huts built of mud, the dirty pond where people wash their clothes, the broken panchayat building, the empty school, children playing without dresses. All of them it had. All of them straight from the class 2 social book I studied.

Class 2? And that is a looong time. 20 years! Phew, I'm that old! 20 years and nothing has changed? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! 

Of course, The one I went to was one of the posher villages. They have television sets now! Saw a few bikes. And yes, an odd car too! But is that all the change we can bring about in a village which is 3 hours travel from two of the bigger cities called Bhopal and Nagpur? 

Ah, the reality of it all had to be brought before me all over again! 

India, the India of the IT, the multiplexes, the Audi's and of course the Ache Dhin! But there is another face, the real one. If you want to see that, go in to one of those deep Indian villages.

The real India lives there.

                                                                   The bike and the dish! modern Indian village

The national highways connecting Bhopal and Nagpur

The road leading to the village

  

Stay proud, stay angry chennai!

It feels terrible when you are not in the middle of the activity that is going on in Chennai! No,not the floods. But the relief that is happening around in chennai.

The day it rained and when the News of floods were coming in, it felt even worse when the city you loved and had been part of is being devastated. Just that, the business of life was taking its toll. The human being inside me which wanted to be part of this mamoth tragedy just lost to the everyday monotonies of life!

And then the beauty of Chennai and its people unfolded. Twitter and Facebook were so full of people waiting to help and everybody I know (Both real and virtual) were extending helping hands. An army man quoted this, "For the first time I'm seeing more volunteers than victims", and I felt proud.

The Chennai of our dreams had stood up in times of crisis and held hands together and I could feel the pride!

Then, there was a tinge of anger in it! Anger at the political apathy, anger at people like me who just sat back in comfy homes and watched without lending a helping hand, anger at themselves for this situation which they had brought upon themselves to a certain extent and anger towards God!

Hold on to that anger Chennai! The next time when the politician comes to you asking for votes stay angry. When the real estate advertisers encroach another of the water bodies stay angry. Next time when the 'God men' blesses you for money, stay angry!

I'm proud of you chennai! Lest we forget, if we lose our anger, like we lose it everytime, Our pride is a useless virtue.

Stay proud Chennai! Stay angry too!

The computer emotion! Artificial and bland!

Ting Ting Ting! The train from Chennai to Bangalore has been delayed by an hour! The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted came the recorded message for the umpteenth time.

The incessant rain, the terrible traffic, a bad auto driver is enough material to handle for the nerves. And when you have not had breakfast and your hunger pangs start to scratch the surface, you have a wild guy at hand. And then this delay.

What with railways and delays? I don't know! Do they even care? I was cursing every politician around (My favourite passtime anyways), when this message came.Arghhh!

My mind becomes very philosophical when it gets irritable! And so happened today.

How does the computer know my pain to regret for the inconvenience it has caused? Can't the railways just tell us that the train is late and keep its mouth shut? Why should we get to hear from a computer that it regrets for the inconvenience caused?

My mind! My mind! It was angry and filled with questions. As usual!

Do artificial emotions have a role in this society moving towards artificial intelligence? What will be its implications? How will it be if the next generation will have the iPhone as their best friend? So, by the end of the day, what if there is a prerecorded message at home which says, 'how you?' 'how was your day?' What if in 10 years time I share my happiness and sadness with a toy? Celebrate my success by taking a robot to the resort? Have an electronic shoulder to cry on?

I dread such a day! And I dread we are going towards that sadly!

Keep the cow aside for sometime plz!

I can almost imagine cows standing in a queue to vote in the upcoming Bihar elections!

That is how much importance cows have been given off late by our stupid media and the developmental BJP and the annoying opposition parties.

It all started off with the now famous 'cow urine' which was supposed to be the cure for cancer, jaundice, and every other disease you know off. Then came the cow dung and now the cow meat (I meant the beef). Holy cow! I spelt the word; Do they lynch even for this? And ya, I'm now even wondering, the term 'holy cow' had a sanghi influence.

The last I saw the cow, it was lazily lying in the middle of the road. Very soon, the way it is going, we may be naming roads after the cows. Who knows, we may even have reservations for cows.

Politics over beef found a new address today as the Kerala House in Delhi took buffalo meat off its menu after a "raid" by policman who had received a complaint from a fringe group. So the Chief Minister of Kerala wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of the country saying the Kerala house does not serve cow meat! Don't those two guys have better works than that, other than playing hide and seek with a bloody animal?

Keep the cow aside for sometime I say ! We have enough and more important jobs to do!

P.S : Should I write to the PM about the dog meat I had next time? Or dogs not as important as cows?

Thank you shewag! Thank you Fab Five!

I never liked him bat. He gave me too many nervous moments. And I am from the Rahul Dravid school of batting. The feet never moved to the pitch of the ball. The ball missed the outside edge too many times.

There were many days when I had scolded him badly for just throwing away his wicket. The air of nonchalance surrounding him was hardly bearable for an intense cricket fan like me,

Yet, to be honest there were very few batsmen of his ilk; No no no! Not very few. I can't name one. And that makes him the genius. He was a genius indeed. How do you describe scoring a boundary of the first ball of five consecutive world cup games? What else can be said about the man who inevitably hits a six to reach the hundred?

And when the genius in Shewag called in quits yesterday, my mind wavered off to 2000's. The decade of the "Fab Five". What a time it was to watch and talk cricket? Shewag's brilliance, Dravid's purity, Sachin's genius, laxman's beauty and Ganguly's off side strokes and every one of them gave times of happiness.

Thank you Shewag for all those days of sheer joy you gave us! And thank you "Fab Five"! We grew up watching you bat. In the annals of Indian cricket, Shewag and Fab five will forever be etched. 

I have enough sir! Thank you!

This man I met today was a beggar! He did not have any money. He slept on the streets. And ate out of whatever good hearts gave him.

One of my better friends in my new found environment and I met him; and the noble heart my friend was, offered him money. And came a reply, which I have not seen before in my 28 years on this earth, which is almost life's most important lesson.

He said and I quote, "I have twenty rupees, sir! Enough! Will get it if I need it! Thank you! And my friend had not given him our usual one rupee coin which we dish out to the beggars. It was a hundred rupee note! And not that we will meet him tomorrow and give him. Tomo, my friend is not in office and I don't use the way where he usually sits. And this man knows that too!

How do I say a 'NO' to the attraction of free money three times your entire wealth put together? Sorry, my math is wrong. It is five times! Or whatever! He was happy. He was contented.

Something in him makes him contented. What is that? I really don't know. I wish I can say the 'No' when it comes to the attractions of money and do what my innermost heart says. I wish the compulsions of life does not make me run after money rather than being contented.

And Today I wish I have that beggar's heart!

Not in the very far future son!

If you have seen these two images and are not heartbroken, you must be of the Indira Mukerjee ilk. Indira Mukerjee? Yes, the one who became media friendly because she murdered her daughter.

Two images! And they keep flashing in my mind again and again. That look on the father, who has given his everything, yet lost his son, to the brazen arrogance of mankind. And that image of the little child, lying along the sea shore. Motionless and still! Dead!

A small family who just wanted to live a simple, happy life wherever they are allowed to, could not survive a tragedy that has been enforced upon his country men.

How do we even start to explain the tragedy? Where do we start? Are boundaries drawn for the sake of convenience more important than lives? The imaginary lines we have drawn between countries, should they at all exist, if they are gonna kill lives?

The question marks which clog my mind! I know there are no answers. I understand the boundaries do exist, and will continue to do so. And I'm sure that these boundaries are going to be the lines which will bring the earth to its death.

Child! This is a bad bad world. It does not deserve you. Sleep in peace son. For, you live in a better place now; We, your fathers have messed this place up! We have made this place unlivable by drawing imaginary lines.

And we surely will bring this place to a horrible closure. Not in the very far future son. Not in the very far future!