Re-entry

Back with a bang! My blog, I missed you so much.

What a ride it was all these last few months. A taxing one, but definitely exhilarating and enriching. It has been only since the last month that I have got a chance to do the long-listed things during that period. Movies and novels are back, and so are the merry visits to the friends and family.

More fulfilling has been the various small travels that I have undertaken recently. While visit to Varanasi and Sarnath was religiously suffusing, the travel to rural areas was an eye-opener and soother both. What joy, car meandering through the desolate but well-laid roads, flanked by the swaying paddy crops, presenting the full stretch of greenery beyond it in an attempt to kiss the horizons. No literary hyberbole can express the ecstasy showered upon me then, who had long been lost from such bucolic charms. A day or two of rural India can really enliven you, if you just stick to the untarnished environment. But the reality of its misery dawns upon you as soon as you start observing the neglect perpetrated on its even very rudimentary aspects. I won’t dwell on the education, health, infrastructure etc problems, as they are, however rude and indifferent it may sound, considered genetic. But what was eye-sore was the sheer apathy that had been tendered towards the Rural Development Schemes that had been started, and are supposedly run by the Government. I should supplant ‘corruption’ with ‘apathy’ here, as the decrepit buildings of the ‘Block Resource Centers’, ‘Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya’, ‘Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan-Medium and High Schools’ etc won’t present a different story. It is better not to think more, as the national level scandals- Aadarsh, Commonwealth, 2G, Housing Loans etc’ are even more sickening. Ah! Sorry blog, for polluting the moment with these souring tales.

Anyway, back in Delhi now and back to some sort of pre-routine. But as expected, this is again going to be really wonderful. I am game for it, more than ever.

A sabbatical of sorts

There could be nothing more frustrating or annoying than giving up on your one-of-the-most likened things. For the last 5-6 months, my blogging had to endure a test of wait amidst all the frentic and sapping schedule of my life. Even after putting a resolve every now and then to get back to it, I was unable to devote much or rather any time to it. And sorrily, I won’t be able to give any time in future too, for at least 4-5 months.

It is all for a greater cause only; but I hope, I will come back more learned, energized and focused then.

So, it is an official sabbatical till then. Hope life continues to cherish all of us!

The Wonder of Time

Nothing has attracted as many epithets and sayings as time. But it has not lost its ability to bewilder us. More confounded am I when I look at myself.

Not long ago, in fact, four months ago, I was in Cyprus, marshaled in an International Software Company, and leading a life of typical worker, hustled-bustled with an equally enjoyable off-work life. It was all too perfect – a daily life of chores of various sorts. Business trips, Meetings, Project Deadlines and Birthday Parties, Pubs, Beaches and Cooking, Reading Novels, Watching Movies, Blogging – an array of my definitive moments there.

All permuted, rather substituted, now! More direct in case is my blogging. Having pledged to be a regular writer of my blogs, I have/had been forced to forego it, even if for a greater cause. I get a small window of time now to resume it, but I don’t know how long I will be able to sustain it. The needed hawk-eyed focus on my Studies and Exams warrants it though. But I believe I will come back stronger once it is over. So, all -Job, Parties, Movies, Novels etc – take a backseat for some more time. Time of now dictates this.

Ever wondering about my new phase of life, I was taught another lesson when I went to the wedding of one of my friends. I was to attend a marriage after a gap of four years; moreover it was a first for me of any of my friends’. Naturally I was excited, expecting to relive some of the moments passed by in the College. It was a happy reunion with many friends; most of them hadn’t changed in appearance. But there was a definite move-on in each one of ours’ lives. Most prominent of all was the new spouses of the married ones. It felt really good and surreal too, to see some new space created and taken by new members. More so, I think I felt like that, because I am unmarried yet. But I couldn’t help notice the fact that all had leaped in thought process too. Work, Future, Life – the words were the buzzwords of our talks, something which couldn’t have got even a shoe-in in our talks in the college. I wonder what would we be discussing 5 or 10 years hence – our gardens, furniture, children’s school, work’s responsibility? Well, a very strange thought but a very probable one.

You can call it the dynamics of change and hence a nothingness of sorts. But if you miss the wonder of it, you miss the essence of it, as time can never reveal itself in more acuity and clarity than this.

India and her Neighbours

Neighbours are your second family, they say, but India has always, somehow, found or fostered estranged ones. And it is befuddling, because some of the neighbours owe their existence or sustenance solely to India’s help. Unfortunately South Asia is not one of the prosperous regions in the world; it is rather destitute, densely populated and marred with maliciously corrupt polity and bureaucracy. Add to this the brewing religious fundamentalism. It makes the region a veritable powder keg. Thankfully the situation has not sparked to create any notable conflagration.

But India can’t count on it for long. It has already suffered enough due to its cold relationship with the neighbours. And believe me, larger part of the blame lies on India’s shoulders only owing to its faulty and egotistical foreign policy. SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) was an attempt, started in 1985 with first conclave held at Dhaka, to develop trust and cooperation among the 7 member countries. But it is a dying organization, hardly creating any tangible output. The onus thus lies on the individual countries only. So, I find it highly encouraging that India, of late, has started to mend relationship with the neighbours.

Bangladesh was rightfully created out of Pakistan on 17th Dec, 1971, and India played an instrumental role in achieving that. The things turned sour soon though, and Bangladesh got disturbed with the policies of Indian government related to border sharing, NE rivers water distribution, illegal immigration etc. But the latest events of conferring Indira Gandhi Peace Prize on Bangladesh Premier, Ms Sheikh Hasina Wazed, and her subsequent fruitful visit to India, promised much. Thus, the recent agreement of India helping Bangladesh to develop 1300 MW of power plant in Southern Bangladesh is a very welcome step towards strengthening of bonds.

Similarly, India’s help of $300 million plus several tones of rice, pulses and yellow pea to Nepal will bolster her image, which has got badly tarnished with the allegedly India-induced Maoist imbroglio, in the country. India has also signed some hydel power deals with Bhutan during the king’s visit last year. Also, Maldives Vice-President was here recently, seeking help to counter the radicalization of youth. The recently elected government in Sri Lanka is looking forward to a renewed cooperation with India. Mahinda Rajpakse, even though not very popular with Tamils, is not a bad person to extend ties with.It is imperative that India doesn’t dither and vacillate on its policies towards Tamils now.

Thus it has been happy going recently with the immediate neighbours, but what about our The Neighbour, Pakistan? Really I can’t comment, because Pakistan is such a profoundly arcane country, and increasingly makes me wonder and fear about its immediate future. I do recognize the mistakes of India, but for Pakistan, those mistakes only had been and are the raison d'être of its policies. There is so much scope for Pakistan to improve itself, but it has bungled on democracy, religion, Talibanisation, sports etc, and mark my words, there is no else to blame but itself. India seriously can’t be expected to move ahead until Pakistan root out the elements of terrorism, the most baneful issue for India. The proffered reasoning of Pakistan cannot guaranteeing India a terror-free breeding ground because it can’t shield herself from terror is not smidgeon of argument to hold water. From an Indian perspective, there needs to be an overhaul of its policies towards India; if not done, Pakistan only has a lot to lose. And this is coming from a man who loves Pakistan every bit, for her umbilical relationship with India.

Happy Reunion with India

Time to breathe! It has been such a hectic time of late. Moving back to India not only involves a lot of logistics stuff, but also a mental shift in viewing the things. I could understand why people said, “Who had stayed outside India for some time and heard a lot of development tom-tom about her, often are left disappointed and rueful on confronting the reality. Their bloated sense of hassle-free world as present abroad, so craved by them, comes crashing down.”

I am not that alienated to have felt such extremes. But having lived in Delhi about 10 years back, there was nostalgia pouring all the time I looked at the roads and buildings from the windows of my taxi. Traffic was the same, so unnerving and riling. The northern Delhi seemed to have been left untouched by the Commonwealth Games renovation. Things had changed, but only in time. What else could I say?

The thought lingered with me for the first 2-3 days, but surprisingly, the environ started seeping into me. Soon I was back to childhood days of buying groceries from kirana store haggling over the prices, dodging the darting bikes and autos to find my way, stuffing myself through the crowd to take a seat in metro or bus keeping a conscious attention on my purse etc I had been though this before on my vacations, but the thought of these all going to be my daily chores had a different casing on mind. And how easily I passed. You can’t take the genes out of a body, they say.

And to tell you the truth, it feels fantastic now. Eating samosas on the roadways; seeing children play on the open streets; hearing people’s gossips on the bylanes; propitiating before God on my way- these all are truly Indian flavoured. I don’t know how long the euphoria will last, but it seems, the magic of the same contrast of despair and hope, so discerned by me always, will probably keep me rooted to my motherland for ever.

All India Combine

A man boards a flight from Delhi to Mumbai. As he settles in, he glances up and sees a gorgeous woman boarding the plane. She heads straight towards him and take the seat next to his. Eager to strike up a conversation, he asks ‘Business trip or vacation?’ She smiles and says ‘Business. I’m going to the annual Sexologists convention.’ He swallows hard and calmly asks: “What’s your role at this convention?” ‘Lecturer, “she says, ‘I use my experience to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality.’ ‘Really?’ ‘What m-m-m-m-myths are those ?’

‘Well,’ she explains, ‘one popular myth is that African men are the best endowed when, in fact, it’s the Tamilians most likely to possess that trait. Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers, whereas actually it is Bengalis. However, we have found that the best potential lover in all categories is a Sardar.’

Suddenly, the woman becomes a little uncomfortable and blushes, ‘I’m sorry,’ she says . ‘I shouldn’t be discussing this with you. I don’t even know your name!’

‘Venkatraman!’ the man blurts out. ‘Venkatraman Mukherjee: But all my friends call me Sardar Joginder Singh.

Source :- From a tid-bit section by Khushwant Singh. The old man knows how to charm himself and others :)

The burqaisation of beliefs

I find myself amazed, not distraught, when I read news like this: France and Denmark propose to ban burqa and niqab. For them, these fabric coverings are a sign of repression of feminism. But do they really believe in what they are preaching? Or is it more driven by the now-so-prominent Islamophobia? Where do we draw the line, the reasons or the notions?

I am further amused to notice how this notional aversion has got entrenched in us without any ground provided to it. I see it day in and day out, in each one of us. I see it in myself. I will tell you three such stories of my life:-

1> I was in an informal talk with one of my European female colleagues in office. Somehow our talk digressed to religion and the needless wars it is causing. Muslims invariably surfaced as our discussion topic. But even before I could utter anything, pat came the reply from her, “I don’t care about them. Those buggers ….” Like a servile toady person, in fear of alienating a girl companion, I nodded with a broad grin on my face. I ask both of us now, “What in real tangible terms had any Muslim caused grief to us? Why were we so blindly driven by an idea, bereft of cause or value, about a sect of fellow human beings?”
2> Three years back, in India, I was searching for a good rent-flat where I could live with my three other friends. After some wanderings, we did find a house which satisfied all our needs and requirements. But before we formally agreed on it with our landlord, he asked me separately, “Is any of your friends Muslim?” In order to satiate him, I abruptly replied, with a hint of pride too, “No sir. Not even by any thought.” Ah! What if one of my friends had indeed been a Muslim? Had I deserted him or fought for him that day? I would never know, but I do know that I was a silent abettor of a bush raging fire of hatred and fear, that day.
3> Recently about two months back, I had been to a night club in North Cyprus (unfortunately a disputed territory). Already I had been bewildered a bit, to see relatively good life style there, as opposed to what had been advertised. But when I saw some Turkish Muslim girls, wearing low neckline and high hemline dresses, exposing a lot of flesh, I was astounded, and indeed wondered how advanced they actually were. Hey, did I write ‘advanced’ here? Yes, because this is exactly what I had thought then. “Why were women’s clothes a barometer of so-called intellect, advancement, and emancipation of any society? Wasn’t I too obsessed with this laughable worldly idea of Muslim women being straitjacketed, in both mind and body, with an overdose of clothes?”

I feel ashamed and guilty both, of harbouring and fomenting such views. But I hadn’t developed these, by any means. They had got seeped into me, and they had got internalized because I hadn’t resisted them. In turn, I have got maligned. These are the stories of my life, but such stories are abundant in everyone’s life. And when our strength is tested, these long-held opinions take a devious form and make us do the unthinkable without attributing any reason to it.

That’s why, whenever I come across these views, of banning burqa and niqab, I wonder whether any attempt has been made to understand the reason for the practice. When Barack Obama entreated the Western World from Cairo University to appreciate the beauty of Islam too, he was merely asking to take the veil off our eyes, instead of attempting to take it off supposedly repressed Muslim women. Wish we can really do that, and believe me, we will really see the world more rosily and openly then.

PS: - I am not a supporter of veils or any form of clothes which is dictated by society or religion. Clothing is more of a person’s wish and need. But I do believe that clothes can’t be a judge of someone’s character or personality. Hiding or exposing flesh can incite opinions but shouldn’t corrupt them. That’s why we have a place for both burqa and bikini in this world.

Happy New Year, 2010

The New Year is such an event. Each time I am driven to think again, loud and differently. My two previous blogs would bear testimony to that. 2010 arrives with an added dimension of the ascent of a new decade.

I can’t talk about the last decade, but can certainly certify that 2009 was the best year of my life. Not for the occasions, but for the promise and purpose. The occasions have yet to sprout. 2009 gave me the reason, rhyme and rhythm to think, and that has singularly made a sea-change in how I think. 2010 needs to be the year in which I act what I think. The outcome will take care of itself, as they say.

Apart from that, I seriously look forward to better by blogs. My writing has improved in both quality and frequency, but what is good if not driven towards excellence. Blogging can never be complete if it doesn’t translate and relate thoughts and ideas to the real world we live in. I would make an endeavour to zero in on that world.

What else??? Nothing sort of actually. The flesh and blood remains the same, and the air that it breathes. It’s just that I do that proverbial burying of spent and sinful soul again, and hope to rise in a world where life chimes as it does in Eldorado.

HAPPY NEW YEAR