Black, White and Grey

My heart was overflowing with joy. We (tourists) were in a Backwater Cruise at Allepey, Kerela in a Lake. My friends were joyous, laughing and chatting merrily. The atmosphere around me was that of Ecstasy and as far as I remember, this is the kind of atmosphere that gets my grey cells working… That is something good, since they had hardly worked at all from the very outset of the tour to Kerela. I was a little away from them, looking out of a small window. For the first half an hour I was very happy with the natural beauty around me. I was pleasantly surprised to see such beauty in Kerala. The noises and dust of Hyderabad never let me see or hear through them, or was I ignorant? Either way, I never expected to see SO much beauty around me. I think it was because I looked at the lake and its vicinity as one. I didn’t concentrate only on the lake…

It was then that I looked at a plastic bottle floating in water. Then slowly I started concentrating on the lake itself, and not its surroundings. Everything fell into place. Then I could see that a man was mercilessly throwing waste in the water. As it always happens to me when I start going back in time (not literally) or I start thinking, everything was now a void of darkness. Nothing else mattered at that moment. The words I had read in a book hit the right spot…

“The wheels have been in motion for a long time. Science has won the war. But, Science has left us in a world without wonder. We are bombarded with violence, division, fracture and betrayal. Man took thousands of years to progress from wheel to car. Yet only decades from the car into space. Now we measure Scientific progress in weeks. We are spinning out of control. The promises of Science have not been kept. Promises of efficiency and simplicity have bred nothing but pollution and chaos. We are a fractured and frantic species… moving down a path of destruction.”

I was wondering till now whether all this was true… Till now I held a very high regard for Science. I had placed it somewhere near God. Yet now, I questioned my unblemished faith in Science and development.

I somehow felt that such atrocity, like throwing plastic bottles in a lake must reach the people. So, I took a photo of the floating bottle. I questioned myself all over again: Science and its progress led to the invention of plastic and its disposal in such a manner. Yet it is Science which allows me write this… to spread the word… I was left with an awkward question. It was like deciding whether I should be friends with a person who has lied to me once and yet, has saved my life recently. I had to decide- Must I still trust Science? Science is not the cause for this, nor can we ever blame it. But who is the cause is hardly the question here.

Again I remembered something I had read- The world is not divided into black and white. It is in shades of grey. Now I began to see the third path- The mist that hid it from me had cleared. The path was one of moderation. Neither love not hate, neither like nor dislike, neither trust nor mistrust, it was one of unbiased judgement...

Media Mania

Insensitivity Index- Meddlers, Media or plain Heartless People???

My dad is a news and internet addict (no offence meant). I have no reason as to why I dislike following news channels, but I just do! As soon as my dad comes home, he switches on the T.V. and listens to the news. Unfortunately, I can’t close my ears. So, inevitably, I have to listen to the combination of syllables they call news…

From the past few days, I have noticed that the only news blaring on the T.V. screen is that of ‘THE SATYAM FRAUD’. As usual, I got frustrated and started thinking back on the past. When it comes to news, these 2 lines of a song are perfectly true, at least for me:
… I’m thinking back on the past
It’s true the time is flying but too fast …

I started reflecting on the stuff that news channels supplied as news… Recently it was the Mumbai 26/11 horror. It was the highlight till Satyam and Mr.Ramalinga Raju stole the show (no offence meant).

Then I remembered how actress Soundarya’s death created news and fear across the country and sent shivers down its spine. 2 days after much debating on her death, it was ‘old’ news.
More recent old news is Aarushi’s murder. For a few days I followed it closely, and then the news people didn’t lay out the trail for me. It was ‘old’. I wonder how insensitive is 'insensitive'. And how far people can go to earn money? Poor souls Aarushi’s parents. The news could have been their only hope for publicizing the fact that our country is insecure… And the news… There was one more incident that happened that I can’t forget related to Aarushi’s murder. On the newspaper, it was on the first page, headline, one day after her death. After around 5 days, another news piece about her murder case was in the left side bottom corner… I saw it only because I could recognize her photo…

I wonder how the news channels and papers can shift between news like this, especially news channels. Is it to increase their TRPs? I know what TRPs are by the way, Television Rating Points.

Isn’t this true now: ‘We have all the time on earth to get in touch with the world through internet, e-mail and news. But no time to spare for crossing the street and greeting a new neighbour or comfort a small child.’

Mumbai Meri Jaan ~ A Wednesday...

Horns, buses, cars… people with hi-fi gadgets and hip-hop branded clothes… sound of waves lashing on rocks, a cool breeze… yep! It is Nariman Point in Mumbai, and this is what I could see all around me!

Next, we (Mother, Brother, Shanky Baba- my uncle and I) were headed for a taxi ride around Nariman Point. I was overwhelmed with joy! I was seeing the city which mesmerized 7 years of my life and holds me spellbound even now- The City that never sleeps! I was reliving 7 years of my life after 6 years… my people, here I come!!!

There, I set my eyes on the Taj hotel for the first time in the 13 years of my life, hoping that I would one day stay here in one of its rooms! There was a HUGE crowd outside the Taj…WHY? India’s heartthrob (mine too!) and our cricket captain was staying there and was going for the IPL finals at Nerul… Dhoni! I was eager to catch a glimpse of him due to reasons mention above…

In the midst of this ecstatic (not to mention *blushy*) atmosphere, hardly did I know that the next time I would see it would be on the 27th of November, 2008 (on T.V.), exactly 180 days later. I had absolutely NO idea that I would see it ablaze with people swarming all around it. I also did not know that the same media which had come for Dhoni would then be there for a completely horrendous reason, which troubles me every second now… I didn’t guess that the feeling of joy would be emptied when I see the Taj on the 27th of November, 2008 and instead be filled with the feeling of dread, fear and repulse cutting through me as my mother cuts veggies, or terrorists cut humans. Terrorists cutting humans… that shows HOW easily this feeling was killing me!

Two luxury hotels, a restaurant, a railway station and at least one hospital… hostages, deaths… Where I would have heard laughter and good wishes now rang with the sounds of gunshots and bomb shells.

More than 100 of my siblings now lay dead in the beautiful hotels and the hospital with a beautiful infrastructure. The hands meant for hugging their family after a long sickness, the hands meant for playing, the hands meant for writing love-letters…all stained with blood! The eyes now reflect what they cannot see! The taxi which would have got my siblings (known and unknown) nearer to their loved ones at times of anxiety and happiness now lies outside an airport, blasted into pieces… The sunlight which would have illuminated a perfectly busy city, a city with LIFE, now illuminated a city ablaze… with people as well as fire, the element that cooked food was now cooking people!
What is the cause of this atrocious incident? Terrorism! A familiar everyday word isn’t it? But ask the terrorists and the victims; they will tell you about its dreadful and disgusting past, infuriating present and hopefully a future of nothingness… you will know terrorism back-to-back even without watching NDTV or BBC.

I know not the cause or solution to this… I only feel that the seeds of this horrible thought are sown by the misinterpretation of religion and well-watered by the people who misinterpret religion and feed it to innocent faultless minds, souls… My heart is overflowing with fear…

I just know and feel one thing at present-Religion is Humanity, and condemning other religion will not take you anywhere near God, it will only pull you away from the Lord.

The crime of criminal must be killed, not the criminal himself. Then only will this intolerably horrid incident never disturb minds as it does now…

Then only will people look at the Taj and rest assured, they will know that the next time they look at it, it won’t be on fire!

Communal Harmony

Salty drops were falling on my hands, after touching a beautiful face… I knew them to be tears, yet, I caught them, each drop as precious to me as diamonds, and even if they belonged to a person I knew not. I only knew that this girl needed consolation…

My instinct forced me to console her…I hate to see people pouring tears… and this girl… she was crying, nay, weeping… My heart wept for her. Why? I didn’t know…

She didn’t know or realize that that I exist… I was right in front of her, my hands shivering, catching her steadily flowing tears…

I could not hold myself anymore. I put my arm around her. Her shudder told me that she felt my arm… She turned around to reveal a beautiful and charming face and looked at me… Her shiny brown eyes sent a shiver down my spine! Never before had anyone scared me so!

I do not know how my voice sounded and I hope wholeheartedly that it sounded gentle and comforting. I said, “What happened? Why are you crying? Kya Hua?” The girl replied with unbelievable ferocity, and with an unexpected answer, “Which religion?” I winced with pain. I was bent upon consoling that young girl… so I had to be truthful and I told her which religion I belong to. The girl’s face did not seem beautiful to me anymore… It was contorted with fury!!! She said many things to me… things that made me cry out loud! Things that are better not mentioned! I covered my face and ran away. These paths were familiar to me, since they were in my school premises. I could find my way easily, even though the way appeared blurred due to my tears!

While I was returning home by bus, my friend was asking me what homework we had that day… and ME? I was FAR FAR away… I was pondering over a question that never arose in me before…

Why is there darkness in light, chill in warmth, malice in love, jealousy in appreciation, poverty in richness, hunger in a full stomach and EMPTINESS IN FULFILMENT??? There is everything, but there is nothing… Why is it that there is fear and doubt in a mind as soon as a person announces his name? Why does a person lose his job due to his religion?

Such is our state today…

We created religion for us to relish and savour unity in diversity, not to create differences. Unity lies in diversity, not in uniformity.

Imagine a world with communal harmony! No riots, complete and REAL freedom, no looking down upon… respect, peace…

The thoughts make me drift away to dreams… But the best way to make our dreams come true is to wake up! Waking up, we have to face facts!

The world was never one, from the jiffy religious texts were interpreted, or I would say, misinterpreted.

The world with communal harmony is like Rabindranath Tagore’s dream: “Where the mind is without fear, the head is held high, where knowledge is free, where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls” This makes peace lovers want to say, “Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” But, why are there violence lovers in this world? Why can’t they leave us be?

Religion does not make man, man makes religion. Compassion is religion!

Communal Harmony now, is more of a dream in life. Let us make dreams reality!
Communal Harmony is as important as breathing itself… Ignored, but the very essence of survival…

I put forth a question to you now. What happens when extreme communal disharmony prevails? – A Hitler is born, and 12 million people die in the bargain…
And what happens when seeds of thoughts of Communal Harmony are sown in empathetic minds?-An Abraham Lincoln is born, and racial discrimination is abolished

Communal Harmony, two words, one dream, one hope… We need unity, all that we need to achieve this dream.

Let us change the saying “Be Good and Do Good.” Let us make it “Be Compassionate and Do Compassionate work.”

Importance of Communal Harmony? We need it, we ignore it.

COMMUNAL HARMONY IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF LIFE!!!

Poverty in India

The wind was blowing fast on my face… the sky was blue, a pleasant, darkish blue… My family chatting about all the wonderful things possible… The weather was cool and pleasant, yet my eyes were burning. The sight beside me disturbed me to no end.

A woman, looking like a reed, thin as it… There was another lady beside her, and she was draining water from half-boiled rice… She had only that to fill her empty stomach, after eating what was cooked; it would be half-full… The thin old lady only smoked… she had no food to eat… Maybe that was the reason why she was so… a manifestation of malnutrition.

Imagine us, trying to cut down food, dieting! I was disgusted with myself! Disgusted for surviving! Disgusted because here I was, sitting in a car, going for shopping, and there was another lady, sitting on bare ground, a line of tents and a vast barren area behind her… For the first time in life, I felt helpless! I wanted to run out, and help the poor women, but I couldn’t! Tears were pouring, not on the surface of my accursed face, which couldn’t help that lady, but in my heart… I couldn’t even weep!


And just as everything else does in life, this sight vanished away from my eyes… but it left a wound in my heart. Whether it will heel or not, I don’t know. A hundred thousand or more people must be witnessing such a sight everyday, in every part of our country! Poverty it is called, ugh! How unbearably common a word, how intolerably disgusting and repulsive a sight!

The level of this curse on our country (India) is fluctuating every year!

Did you know, being able to study in a school means being among the luckiest in the country? While students curse sitting in the class, listening to a teacher, there are a thousand others who would do anything to study, to be in our place!

This poverty is affecting our motherland more than we can imagine! It all starts with a kid thinking like a normal student, “Why must I study?” Then he drops studies, becomes poor. Then, there are more poor people. Further, it hampers the progress of our country.

“Garibi Hatao!” HUH! Instead of even trying to achieve this, we either ignore it, or exploit the Garib even more.

I am sure, when we come across a person suffering from the wrath of poverty, we say, “What can we do? It is their fate…” Do we realize, that this thing we call fate, is partly because of us?

We refuse to give them little money, even if we have it in excess, then at home, sitting on a couch, we say, “Poverty is affecting our country too much!” We refuse to spend a fraction of our so-called precious time that we spend on watching T.V. to educate the poor, and then we say, “Illiteracy is the biggest problem. It is stopping India’s progress!”

Now we may question ourselves, “What will I get if I do all this?” Would we like to see our country progress? Won’t it give us satisfaction? Is it that important for us to get something in cash or kind?

Look around yourself! Look at the poverty around you! Do what you can to help these poor, helpless, innocent souls.

Poverty has been the biggest problem in our country… Solving it is a dream, a hope, a passion, an ambition…yet! Let us fight against this pathetic situation, this dreadful sight! Let us raise our voices (Trust me, they are quite loud and effective)


LET US TAKE SOME ACTION!