Where Do We Really Go ?

The recent revelations about Supreme Court judges and their collegium selection system have left me stunned and speechless.

 Indian constitution holds this court as the final authority as far as judiciary is concerned and expects to be the go all and end all for everything under disputes.

Being the ultimate wise men with highest level of expertise on constitutional matters, common people consider the verdicts delivered by Supreme Court judges as the final ones considering they cannot go wrong. 

When one reads about some of these otherwise respected lot are either compromised or corrupted, the soil under the feet is simply taken away. These supposedly infallible set of people, once being held in high esteem, are showing up just like any other common person- prone to be influenced by bribes or other external factors. The recent startling facts also reveal  the out of the way measures taken to either appoint incompetent judges in highest level or give undue favors to inept representatives under political duress. The once iron willed institution today is under the scanner like many other corporate or social organizations.

On one side, Supreme court has ben appreciated for taking up the cudgels to drive the country towards prosperity providing direction to parliament – the executive arm of the country (though some say it is overstepping the limits drawn between executive and judiciary), on the other side, it has been exposed that they are not above the very basic human nature of greed and power exposing its cruel teeth and nails.

The common man is perplexed and asking a question.

Where do we really go?

 Who do we really look up to?

Yesterday Lok Sabha passed the landmark bill, ratified by Rajya Sabha today, to scrap Collegium system – judges appointing judges and to be substituted by a 6 member committee.

While I do not know if the new committee will be any better, it is high time, this institution look inside to cleanse the system and get back its erstwhile respectful image in the eyes of the public.

Where is the End ?

I consider myself fortunate than my brothers and sisters living in hell in some other countries.

My daughter is fortunate that she is not being forced to live through the unimaginable mental and physical torture the children in those countries are living by and my family is privileged that they are spared of the harrowing experiences the mothers are going through day in and day out. The turmoil of war is thrust upon them unwittingly and unwillingly. 

Touch wood and I pray for everyone for a similar peaceful life.

I can’t imagine that someone would carry out a meticulous plan to shoot down a passenger jet but then there are few other things also that are happening in today’s world, equally beyond my imagination.

These are truly, and I mean it, beyond my comprehension and rightfully might be yours.

To me, downing of MH 17 is nothing less than the attack on world trade center or the one in our own Mumbai and the others ones carried out in other parts of world.

Planning to shoot down that plane and executing it with scrupulous precision -killing all 297 people on board, is barbarism and atrociousness to the extreme. This is terrorism of the most heinous nature and handy work of them who have turned themselves to demons and ceased to live -forget about their right to demand or ask for anything.  Looks like we are going back to the ages when humans used to only fight with each other and were not a social animal. Other animals are scoring better than us in this aspect.

While I very well understand that a terrorist in one country is a martyr in another and are more perspective driven than anything else, I can, by no means envisage missiling down a full-fledged airplane, to attract attention, killing innocent lives including children.  This is plain and simple capitulation of humanity and dreadful brutality – nothing else.

                                                            Google Images

Coupled with this, whatever is happening in Gaza between Hamas and Israel is another terrible episode of common man decimated to dust for socio-political reasons going out of control gradually.  The fearful faces of children, young and adults with the spumes of spoke bellowing from the buildings at the deafening sound of gun shells are observed all over. The morning scene of the streets gets changed substantially by the evening. While the issue there is of complex political nature and am not trying to justify one over other, I do not understand how deep rooted this anger and hatred can be to instigate such massive and colossal damage of hundreds of lives (hundreds and counting).

The recent Sunni rebellion in Iraq has left the country in tatters. While the country on the banks of Tigris and Euphrates (Persia), once regarded as the birthplace of early civilization and crown jewel of many a fable, was just starting to recover from the savagery of the previous wars, this one had to happen.

I wonder why, instead of development, people are so bogged down with religion and dogmatism that keep them involved in gory battles year after year.

The ego gets more importance than education, health ,growth and all the other developmental parameters of human lives; still there is hardly any intention to put in any effort in that direction.

I am really at my wits end trying to fathom how people could get into such mad rush of belligerent carnage and mayhem of human lives for reasons that make no sense to me.

When will this dance of merciless killing come to an end?  Am deeply pained by what is happening around and expressed it one of my earlier posts here . Borrowing few lines from there I would like to repeat

Mistakes committed in history,

Should not pronounce the future,

Sensible mind and healing touch

Can only aspire a bright pasture.

No poisoning the mind of our children,

In the name of religion and the Lord,

There must be a way to persuade

And exchange a hug for the sword.

 Humbly and earnestly, I, with folded hands, appeal to their good conscience, “Human life is precious. Don’t play with them”.

With My Telepathic Power - short fiction below 400 words

Ekta, my niece, is like my alter ego. She is vivacious, makes friends easily, and is extremely popular among her friends. We make an unlikely couple - I reveling in her sunshine cheer and she in my brooding silences. So, it struck me as a very unusual incident, when she cocooned herself in her den since morning. The first instance that I missed her was when I did not hear the sing song ‘Good morning’, as I sleepily coaxed my toothbrush across my misshapen teeth, standing on the verandah.
 

The day passed by, and we got busy in our mundane jobs - for me, that meant taking the 45 minute sessions of Physics with unmindful boys, who are rather interested in the aerodynamics of paper planes than my interpretation of surface tension in fluids. My mind kept going back to Ekta’s voice and her chatter and by midafternoon I had made up my mind to woo my little princess with her favorite chocolates along with pink roses.
 

Try as I might, I could not figure out what could have caused her changed behavior. Maybe a bout of telepathy and/or mind reading will not be a bad idea either.
 

Though I am convinced that ability to read human mind will only complicate further the already complicated social fabric and have established the same in all my discussions with friends and colleagues, I felt the need of that power now. Walking along the college corridor, I started feeling light-headed and queasy; the next I knew I was laying on the ground with anxious students and staff peering at my face and the security guy all poised with a water jug, ready to slosh me with more water. Suddenly, a wave of nausea swept me and a premonitory haze shimmered before my eyes.
 

I got scared with the ‘telepathic vision’ as I call it as I saw Ekta there.
 

I need to return to her at once to save my little princess.
 

It was clear to me that she is in a serious bout of depression and plans to take the extreme step of finishing her life. She wishes she was never born.
 

While I stand by my conviction of not trying to see more that what is shown to us, thank, God, that I could save one good soul with my timely acquired power.

Engineering Creativity

The other day, on my way back home after a busy day at work, I observed the interesting catchword “Engineering Creativity” on the well decorated face of a company private bus.  The creatively written blue on white wordings are articulation of company’s thoughts of how it wants to project itself and be perceived.

That got me thinking. Isn’t the case with you?

Ok, here it is.

Do they want to engineer creativity or are they engineering in a creative way?

Can creativity be engineered?  Being an engineering company, is that something they intend to do and bring a new perspective that creativity can be engineered?  Who knows?

Nowadays there are so many institutions who boast of specifically designed creative writing and other sessions claiming to unfurl the creative side within one’s self. Probably they have also found out a niche way of doing things to bring out the creative aspects in their clients.

If I am to believe that that connotation is for engineering in a creative way, should “Engineering Creatively” be more appropriate?

With Apple redefining the way engineering should be done, that makes more sense to unearth the best value out of better engineering.  It should no longer be restricted only to better engineering rather creative engineering from aspects of consumer likeliness to reduction of cost of engineering and fitting things in a given form factor. There is a Nat Geo segment titled ‘Engineering Marvels’ which elaborates on how the indigenously developed Nano was designed in India. Though the car has not been a smash hit in the market, there were numerous instances of creative engineering that had gone in the making of it and the narration brings just that. Personally, I was amazed at how each of the aspects was creatively thought out and engineered to fit the size and budget target of the car.

I will be interested to know what you think that the company wants to say through those words on their bus. Look forward to your comments

Thanking you.

Waters

A pond in a village surroundings

Waterfalls

Sea



And a Lake

Back to the Beginning

Ravi’s days are spent hobnobbing with the top echelon of the business community. With sheer determination and indomitable will, success kissed his feet by the time he turned 40.

Despite his current status, he makes it a point to visit the modest place, off Banerghutta Road, every year. His life had blossomed here out of the mire he got stuck with.

He still remembers the day he was literally pulled out of the street and brought here by the gardener.

Initially he hated it, but slowly, the magic of the palace rubbed off on him.

It feels so home here, doesn't it? 

The memories come flooding with smile on his face as soon as he sets foot in his orphanage – the SOS village.

Written 100 words of Saturday prompt it does feel like home, doesn't it?

Popular Story with a twist-1: Race between Rabbit and Tortoise

The rabbit and tortoise took positions. The race commenced at the sound of the gun and both of them were off the block. Rabbit took up its natural speed from the word ‘go’ while tortoise was inching towards the finish line. This was the race of life - a marathon where the distance was longer than what the rabbit could finish on one sprint.

Midway through the race, the rabbit wanted to take a close look at where he was in comparison to where he thought he would be and not where tortoise could reach up to. This was needed for him to re-strategise the race, if needed, of course.

Rabbit was also out of breadth, perspiring and wanted to take a step back to move forward  taking a cue from Vidya’s blog version (negative) 1.0 which he read just a day ago J. Intelligent, Huh! And people thought rabbit was only a snob and not-so-steady.

Planning to take some rest, he did some calculation on approximate time it would take for the tortoise to catch up the distance and set the alarm clock accordingly. He did not forget to keep a buffer of 10 minutes from his overall time estimate just to give himself a fair chance.

Alarm bell went off and he woke up. Seeing his competition still at some distance, he started again and finished the race on time.

I still cannot figure out why the poor tortoise agreed to race with the rabbit. It could be probably due to pressure of expectation from his family and friends. He was to excel in all the fields as dreamt by his parents. His dreams did not matter. 

Knowing fully well his capabilities and shortcomings by then, he concluded enough was enough and decided that racing was not his cup of tea and hence made the most important decision of his life -to look for his core competency area.

Moral of the story: Fast and steady wins the race. Focus on what you are good at. Analyze where you are against your own self and not with your competition.

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Popular Story with a twist-2: Tortoise and the Swans

The swans took to the skies in search of better life along with the tortoise that could not fly. Swans wanted to help the tortoise transport to a new lake to get saved from severe drought in that area. The instruction to tortoise was to hold onto the stick and not to open his mouth lest he fell from a height.

Eventually, after quite a few miles in the flight, tortoise could not stay put up with the condition and opened its mouth to blabber something- the talkative that it was.

Falling from a height, he was trying to figure out ways to save himself and praying hard. Meanwhile he was looking frantically all around for something to hold on to while keeping his cool.

God helps those who help themselves and in this case, God did. The tortoise fell on a big heap of straws in a village and survived with some minor injury. With its presence of mind, it acted smart and created a story to the villagers. He made them believe that was God sent and the villagers should take good care of him for their well being.

He lived through, somewhat happily, for the rest of his life with the villagers' fate moving up and down affected by other factors in life – natural, political, economic.

The tortoise proved once again that one should be ready to face the challenges and should be smart and resourceful enough to convert the situation in his favor.

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P.S: The above writings are not intended to hurt any feelings or sentiments with popular stories. 

Have you listened to the wind lately?

Have you listened to the wind lately?

Whispering in my ears, she goes by.

Gently, gingerly, prancing through the leaves,

While evening descends in the afternoon sky.

Crisp air - frigid, black, nipping in the dark of the night,

Tip-toeing from far away land;

Murmuring in a husky yet somber voice,

Mother earth is very ill, she needs a caring hand.

Who am I? I ask, I am too small

To give that healing touch,

Dancing in the midst of roses, colorful, wind says

Every “you”, if you wish so, can do so much.

I walk barefoot on the sea shore, water caress my feet,

Morning Sun (up) above the horizon , spreads bright colors all around;

Shrill wind, leaping from the crest to the trough,

Got me into a thought profound.

I move around the world,

From the peak of Everest to depth of the Nile;

Wind-childlike, jumping up and down, says,

Willing souls together, good enough to cleanse the vile.

This is my promise-I will do my bit,

My inner soul pledges back to me;

I see a tear drop of happiness,

Edgy, restless wind rushes back to thee.

Beautiful Earth, at the mercy of them,

We can’t let it die.

Muttering wind, tirelessly, inspires us,

To do our bit -before waving bye.

    Photo Credit : http://fieldofweeds.blogspot.in/2009_11_01_archive.html

Lalbagh Mango Mela on Father's Day

We made this father’s day memorable by taking a trip to famous Mango and Jackfruit mela (fair) at the Lalbagh botanical garden, Bangalore. My morning started with big hug from my daughter accompanied with a self-decorated card and a nice little golden flower made out of throw-away plastic bottle.

Happy I was, indeed!

There had been a failed effort to visit the mela made about 2 weeks back, and this time, we set out again to cover the occasion before it came to a close by the last weekend.

We took a conscious decision not to deviate from our single minded focus on the Mango mela. In fact, we even did not go to the flower gardens.  The mela, itself was a unique experience of a lifetime. The sweet aroma from different kind of mangoes piled high across the walkways beckoned us in their midst. Each had its own beautiful shape and size to boast of, and was ornamented with green, red, yellow patches, being at different stages of ripeness. Above all, it was the lure of the heady aroma wafting in the atmosphere – caressed by the mild sunrays, comforted by the lyrical music of the cool breeze, in the midst of dancing light and shadows.

The area near the famous glass house wore a joyful look with shops in two lines putting up colorful banners and a large gate welcoming one and all. People of different ages with colorful dresses thronged the place like any other festive season. Talking about the festive season, lots of people like us long for this time – the summer and monsoon, only to welcome the king of fruits- the mangoes.

Once soaked into all that was happening around, we got into visiting all the shops from one end to the other  - satisfying our palates with the small bites, before getting down to the serious business of negotiation and purchase. After getting a hang of the relative pricing (though there was not much of a variation between the competing neighbors) , one or two kgs of each type were making their way into our large enough cloth bag (environment conscious, huh!) . As it was really getting difficult to resist the temptation of buying more, we ended up with a huge quantity and planned to share the divine fruit amongst friends and families who could not make it there.

It was an enjoyable family outing after quite some time, specifically since we had spent the last few months dealing with medical emergencies; it was a welcome break. On our way back from the mela, to wrap up the outing, we did manage to take a quick climb up and down the hill top and a quick tour in the bonsai garden nearby. Every time we see these wonders, it makes me revere nature as a creator of innumerable varieties.

I recommend everyone in Bangalore to plan few hours during the mela, the next time around… and am sure you will not be disheartened. 

The Spirit of Krishna and I - Times Then Reporting

We are standing in a large enough field - the size of Eden Gardens and Wembly stadium, taken together.

I can’t imagine having a large open area, like the one used during the Yudh of Mahabharata, being available in today’s date. While He was a tad disappointed with the dimensions, I had to make Him aware of today’s stark reality. In this age of real estate boom, by the power of money (black or white!!), every yard of open ground or lake are getting converted into opulent malls or villas and apartment complexes. After hours of meditation and cerebro-cosmic dialogues, I could manage to secure this slot with Lord Krishna and I could not just let it go, just because the field was not as grand as then.

I had prepared my queries for this momentous tete-e-tete. After customary greetings and exchange of initial pleasantries, we took our positions on His Rath - one of the huge double-decked-airborne vehicles leased to him by governing council of heaven for His lifetime. Did I say lifetime? Sorry! It was eternally leased and looks grand even after the depreciation value had long come down to zero . Krishna is eternal.

“My Lord, since you knew everything that was going to happen in that long Yudh, why didn't you take charge and close it on the very first day with your power”? In Arnab Goswami style, I continued with my question for another 2-3 minutes, making sure, he lost the beginning. “It could have saved few millions of life, time, money etc. etc.”

“See, the reason I did not intervene was that I wanted the law of nature to take its own course and logically that was the route to adopt, given the circumstances."

“At the cost of so many lives!!  And did you say logic? That’s person and context specific and there is nothing like absolute or universal logic. Those who are tagged as terrorists in one country are revered as freedom fighters in another and in this case, you knew both of them."

“I know what you mean but I wanted to let people know what would happen when the whole world was overpowered with sin."

“I beg to differ, Me Lord. It is always the common man who suffers the most and gets punished for the so called sin committed by powerful. The more than 18 aukshauni (approx. 4 million) army men had to lay their lives for the internal family feud of their king. Do you agree?”

“Probably, you do not know, but the whole society including my own clan-Yadavas, were decaying and dying a slow death. And…”

Stopping him in between (as that is the usual trait that the current day anchors possess and nurture) and sensing that he had trouble in answering, I issued another salvo.

“You helped Pandavas quite a few times to take resort to not-so-straight-ways-and-means to destroy Kauravas. Take example of Dronacharya, Duryodhana…… How do you explain that?”

“You must know that everything is fair in love and war….”

“But that is true with the human beings. You were the God supreme and that would come straight from the epic book, The Gita. Everyone was just delivering and discharging their duties as you wanted them to. Why didn't you orchestrate these things differently? ”

“Right.  And here I would like to go on record that a little sin done for a greater benefit of humanity is well accepted as no sin. In case a small lie helps a cause and if the load of sin gets increased on me, so be it”.

“I understand and agree to your point. That has been my principle in life as well.”

“My third point – while you saved Draupadi from her embarrassment, why didn't you stop it with a good slap to Duryodhana and gang? It was plain and simple subjugation of women which has become so commonplace in today’s society. Also this happened much before the actual war started. So this couldn't be the inflection point in your design for the Yudh to get ignited.”

“You must be aware of the saying that the perpetrators of crime and those who just would not act being in the know of it are equally offenders- might not be in eyes of law but in the morale ground. On that count, you, the Pandavas and the elders from both the sides are guilty. Why was that?"

“I think that was a huge mistake and on hindsight, I should not have allowed that to happen- if not directly but following the principle we just talked about – by some trick or other means”….He replied.

“I am happy to see that you are open to accept mistakes instead of defending all your actions - a sign of a great leader with courage. I admire you for that." This brought a tad smile to My Lord’s face.

Probably Krishna expected this to be a simple conversation around a casual chit chat on heaven and earth or weather or nature. He was already feeling uncomfortable - very much evident and visible from his general demeanor.

I continued in my suave style of seemingly asking direct questions and not letting him talk much, like what we see in most of the TV channels of today, between the anchor and other participants.

“Sir, if the whole world is inside you or your mouth, why there are so many religions and differences? I can somehow understand the caste part as that was prevalent during those days as well and you and your community were sometimes at the receiving end.  Are you telling me that world has expanded to a great extent from only Aryabarta (Asia) of those days and it is getting a bit going out of hands and difficult to control?"

"Also, why were your descendants and incarnations, visiting earth after you, not that effective in controlling all this hypocrisy? What did they really achieve? While all of them might have had the same truth and love in mind, they spoke different languages, creating utter confusion for common people on which path to take to. They operated in their own cocoon and did not have an international appeal as such to pull everyone under the same umbrella. Some of them also left for the holy abode a little too soon, in their prime. Am utterly disappointed that with them being around, so many world wars, famines, cruelty, heinous crimes happened and you were just witnessing a mega plot of destruction, helplessly”. I took a deep breath after this long speech, bringing out all the frustration of my life.

“In one way you are right. I see similarities in the way degeneration and deterioration of societal standards started then and now. It is all hegemony of one set of people that bring about the whole downfall of humanity”.

“I never wanted people to start or get into a new religion. Religion as a thing did not exist then. They should have all talked about one language - the language of love and that should have been the only religion, across all the barriers. These new developments are in complete contradiction of what I talked about in The Gita. I am just giving it a little more time keeping a close eye on the happenings".

“Are you telling that we are also nearing the end like the war then?”

“Who knows? That might be a fresh beginning.”

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This post is not intended to hurt any specific sentiment or feeling. These are just my own queries that I discuss with me, internally.

How IndiBlogger made me rich?

While I dabbled few times with writing during my growing-up years, never took it that seriously -giving priority to other pressing demands in life.  One day, in the recent past, I was conversing with myself on what I can do on my own, up to some professional level, without taking an iota of help from anyone. Performing arts is a far cry with little bit of dramatics and recitation done here and there, playing at this age is taking a bit of risk and that analysis left me with going back to my old flame- writing. This was fag end of 2013 and I decided to give blogging a shot.

I wrote my first post on how we started one of the growing Durga Puja communities in Bangalore and published it in Dec '13. Initially there were apprehensions about readership, feedback, quality of content etc. etc.  After few days, with no response from anyone other than few close friends and my wife, I was on the lookout for a community of bloggers on the net. Few weeks down the line and I stumbled upon IndiBlogger. Looking back, I consider myself fortunate for that chance encounter.

I got a platform to observe, interact, learn from others and learn-I did. With the wonderful family of IndiBlogger along with fellow writers, I was growing up internally and started building my network. Did not hesitate to reach out to members in the forum and one on one. I wanted to be open and bare, get bruised and come out as a different me as far as writing is considered. Indrani Ghose, Anita M, Alok Vats, Richa Singh, Krishna Chandran, Nabanita Dhar – A big thanks and hug from my side if you would care to accept!! My other fellow community members deserve sincere appreciation for standing by, supporting and shaping me up making me a part of their journey. They allowed me to hone my skill in the course along with them.

I was getting rich day by day with every post while winning competitions was not my goal at this stage. That richness of thoughts and language, only in comparison to my own previous self, has provided me with a sense of confidence to write more and more. I stopped over-analyzing what will other think about my posts after getting a hang of the traits of this trade.  Ably supported by the IndiBlogger platform, open to all aspiring bloggers, writing has turned into a passion for me. It liberates me with My Thoughts and feelings. It allows me to face the things happening around in plain and simple black and white manner.

These days, I crave for my own me time to talk to “My Thoughts”  or  “Thoughts, Organizations and More”  and feel glad about it, truly. The votes came in and some of my posts got displayed on home page. That motivated me to pick deep in my brain.

While I thank IndiBlogger profusely for holding my hands when I needed them most and cherish my association here, the only request I have for them to consider is to encourage commenting rather only voting. Everyone will stand a chance to win from the sincerity that would be brought in through comments.

	There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit  down at a typewriter and bleed  – Ernest Hemingway

 

The Magnificent

Image Credit : http://vidyasury.com

It is lying over there for ages, majestically.

People have come and gone trying to unearth the mystery surrounding it.

Miscreants tried to reap benefits cutting it into pieces.

Everyone has failed to move it even an inch.

Nature has sculpted this masterpiece, beautifully on stone, by its own hands– no one knows when.

With the bluish envelope descending on the place in the afternoon glow, the surroundings adorn a cosmic beauty. One can find peace of mind almost instantaneously.

The celestial quietude, in the serene company of green plants and yellow petals in the cool breeze, has drawn millions towards it from time immemorial. 

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Written for 100 Words on Saturday 2014 #17  on the picture prompt above.

The Arrows from the Archer

“How are you doing, Sir”, I asked him.

“A Matter of Honour, to be in India” pat came the reply, with a grin.

“How are they, Kane and Abel?”

“Wait, you are in for A Twist in Tale J”.

"A Quiver Full of Arrows or First Among Equals ?"

“Both are babies”, he quips, “no parallels”.

“How do you decide on your stories?”,

“Fairies drop them in my head As the crow flies”.

“Do you like them in your Path of Glory?”

“I don’t know; they just happen to me matter of factly”.

“Thank you, sir, for your time”.

“You'r welcome, pleasure is mine"J.

Written for 100 Words on Saturday 2014 #16
Your favourite author and what you’d like to discuss with him or her. 

Note : While I have more than one favourite writers spread over Bengali and English literature, keeping in mind the Tribe, settled on Mr. Jeffrey Archer  :-). 

Dreams!!

I bathed in sunshine today after years of solitude. Got a new look, a bit decked up than earlier days. Am super excited and back on my feet to welcome my buddy.

Grandmother did not let anyone use my cozy corners – they belonged to the only daughter of the house leaving for higher studies four years back.

The anticipation is simply killing.

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“My barbie house”, cried the girl, tears welling up in her eyes seeing it broke down into pieces.

There are bruises all over me…

In daydreams? 

Slowly I got back into my shell waiting for the trip to the repair shop.

Written in accordance with Write Tribe picture prompt below.