Boys and Girls

I am sipping a cup of tea in my home’s balcony. Beyond the rain-induced moistness in the air lie the mountainous terrains. Buildings abound and then there lie, at the bottom, the criss-crossing roads and streets, and the ever plying and dodging traffic on them. Beautiful rendition of nature and that is what people and poets alike call the bliss! But I see bliss floating in the eyes and ears of those young kids which are sauntering on the front street right now. Oblivious to the world and unmindful of the life, they are all immersed in the post-school jaunt – some calling others names, some coaxing others to go to the kiosk, some actually snogging Hey, sorry these are not kids, these are adolescent teenagers, if the italicized emphasis of words hit the meaning. They are carefree and careless …..

And so was I, about 10 years back. Diving into the first waves of insouciant manhood from the headland of innocent childhood. It was all expansive as universe, all too imperfect unlike the orderliness of my earlier military school. Yes, a new school happened right at the time when I was feeling a new ‘me’ inside my veins. I could run 10 miles a day, I could solve the Kashmir issue, I could be the Casanova ala Shahrukh, I could actually do everything …. That is how I thought. It was the sudden power of flush of adulthood. I could actually see love happening vis-à-vis the girls. I could savour the beauty of their lips and their body. I could read what love – the everywhere word- had to say. No wonders, I fell in love with every girl I met.

I also questioned why world is so snobbish and selfish. Why religions fight and why do nations war? Why people give bribes to get work done? Why can’t we all be pure …. Questions, questions, questions …. all emanating from the new beauty and reason that I could see radiating everywhere. Why can’t boys and girls mix without inhibition, even if the rightness of it is shown in our movies every time? Why is everything about sex so bad even if the impulses are so pleasing? Why are things forbidden, for God’s sake???

The answers had to be earned though. And it took me a decade to know why things are as they are. The energy is sobered and the mind acclimatized now. But also there is a submitted self to the whims of the world.

I look at those boys and girls again. I look at their effervescent smile and their nonchalant gait. Everyone feeling the warmth of the company, and everyone beaming the same incredulous queries and beliefs about the world. How blissful is that? I suddenly feel envious as I slurp the last drops of my tea.

The Three Sci-Wishes of My Life

It sometimes bewilders me how all the Science and Humanities that I studied in my school and college has started appearing in true valuable forms now. It is only now that I am viewing them as not study subjects but as purveyors of intellect much needed to understand, study and better the life around us.

Every subject is fascinating and has direct implications on our life. But I ever wondered, what would those complex Chemistry Formulae mean in my real life, or how the Physics Motion Laws manifest themselves in front of me, or how the Pancreatic Enzymes ever intrigue me to visualize their churning of my ingested food. These aren’t into-the-face stuff, and really not something which evolve with us as we draw away from books. Something present but also veneered ….Unless we start looking through the stratum and stencil the concepts against the world around us. Every theory then looks substantiated, and every formula proved and used. Just the sheer cognition stretches the imagination and insight alike to newer horizons. How vast is the Universe, How can we define Time, How is our Human Body so precisely defined, Why is F=ma all the time, Where was E=mc2 before one century, How is the quantum level so energy rich, Is there God who designed all this, If not Him then who else? I mean, the questions then ultimately blend into an integrated form of Science, Philosophy, Arts, Theology etc, all culminating in this pursuit of understanding of life.

We are at a strange moment of time. At the start of 20th century, the discovery of electrons, protons, atomic structure, relativity etc was the hallmark; then nuclear fission-fusion, recognition of DNA double helix, design of transistors etc marked our scientific achievements in the mid-century; and in the last part of the century, undoubtedly, Computers, and in particular, WWW (World Wide Web) have been our greatest breakthrough. So, where can we go now in this century? I believe, again our efforts will be dictated by the need to comprehend and ameliorate our lives. As per me, none could be more fulfilling than these three discoveries/inventions/explorations:-

1> Life outside Earth
Wow! It sounds so cool. More and more movies are making this concept a reality. But believe me, now it is not a fancy, but an absolute necessity to find Life outside Earth. And it is a necessity, to learn from other Lives their system and culture. Do they actually follow religion, do they build homes or just live in a big society, and do they fight wars? A whole lot of concepts that we assume are a must, can be put to test then. Too quixotic an idea, but I, for one smidgen of a moment, can’t believe that there is no Life outside Earth, and that it can’t teach us something to better our lives.

2> Cure for AIDS
I have chosen just AIDS to highlight the need for medication for the most lethal kinds of diseases. We have come miles ahead in dealing with the pernicious diseases, viz Small Pox, TB, Polio etc, but as weeds, the new hitherto unknown diseases keep festering. Of all, AIDS is the most enigmatic. There has been a lot of research going on towards the discovery of a cure for the last two decades. It is high time we arrived at an efficacious solution sooner than later.

3> Fusion of HeavyWater to generate Energy
Nothing could be more relevant now, considering the Save Climate Brouhaha all around us, than the need for Renewable Energies. Wind, Solar, Hydro et al are the storehouse of energy, ready to be harnessed. Just unimaginable why we haven’t gone after them as zealously as we have after the manufacture of bombs. But soon we will have to. And the richest source, for me, could be the HeavyWater (found aplenty in Oceans) to generate energy through Fusion. Right now the process is too expensive and dangerous, but once mastered, it will be the panacea of all the climatic ills.

My sci-wishes are only three, but I believe, if fulfilled, they will have sea-change on the whole humanity. The real science, so diligently learned by the kid inside me, will be realized for me then. “Necessity is the mother of Invention,” no other time the saying has had more pertinent meaning.

The Sixth Sense Technology

My friends had mentioned about it sometime back, but it had failed to garner much of my attention. Then I read the heading ‘The Sixth Sense Technology’ in one of the blogs three days back. Today I came across a video of it. I had to peek into it. My God! This is awesome. Not because it is technologically outlandish as every new invention is, but because it has the potential to alter our lives in many better ways. You need to have a look at it:-



Measure its usefulness for the disabled ones. Gauge its effects on the scientific explorations. Consider its impact on our daily lives. It could be revolutionary. This is what I call scientific innovation at its best. Only wish it doesn’t fall into bad hands.

Two words for the genius, Pranav Mistry, too. I know my adorations are more pronounced because he is an Indian. But they are also so because he is a typical example of a capable mind blossoming into its full potential. Being an IITian, he is no doubt a brilliant mind, but he is also a potential-turned-realized mind. How often we can claim this of people around us, or more importantly, about our inner selves? His should make us realise what a life of destiny means.

Home bound

There is something about India which belies and defies everything. In fact, everything said about India now-a-days harps on this aspect unfailingly. A land of brutal-lovingness; a haven of evil necessities; a reflector of life, death and sundries; a place of assault and assimilation; a contrast within contrasts. No oxymoron or figure of speech can describe it.

But as everyone says, you have to feel it to experience it. My recent India trip was nothing short of repeated amazement about it. The Delhi airport elicited a shaming comparison with the other posh airports of the world. But the very next hour, the buzzing, improving and promising life out there gave the proverbial optimism I haven’t experienced anywhere else. The clogged streets, the jammed roads, the interminable queues in offices, banks, hospitals, the Naxalites violence, the drought and flood, the poor people begging on the roads etc– all are too mean and maddening to frustrate and deflate you to the core. But simultaneously there is also a stable working Government and the Prime Minister, rapidly-improving economy, Nobel Prize winner, youth-exhorting Rahul Gandhi, IT companies, world-encompassing Bollywood, improving Cricket and Sports, mangled but happening Commonwealth Games. Add to the list - Diwali, the family, aam ka achaar, dhaba ki chai and paranthe, the ultimate beautiful and cultured girls, the sobering temples. You have everything that life can give, torture or inspire in you. India is everyone’s life story.

Moving from a cozy life-style to the rigorous one is never easy, but as years grow by, one realizes, demanding life only, is the real and pleasing thing in the end. India definitely needs me, but I think, for now, I need India more than that.

The great world of racism

Black and White! So integrated, yet so far away. I will tell you a story I picked from some movie, I believe. There was a bevy of housewives discussing their daily lives in one of the ladies’ home on a hot summer leisurely afternoon. A laundry man appeared outside, and before anybody could utter anything, he said, “Only Whites please.” The black lady proceeded to bring the White Clothes only, leaving the laundry man a bit disapproved. Another black lady present there said, “He meant only White People.”

Though the meaning was apparent, I can grasp the meaning of its context only now. I am sorry; I think I can understand it now, but I know it is beyond my cognition, yet. It is beyond anyone’s cognition, I should say. In the above story, no one was racist, but everyone was feeling it somewhere. The ladies were so closely knit but still there was a divide, created unobtrusively between them.

I feel that divide every time and everywhere around me. In fact, I saw that divide inside me. I was born an Indian, and did my preliminary studies, higher studies, graduation, post-graduation better than most of my countrymen could afford. I led an absolutely fine life, but somewhere all these years was also buried deep inside that complexity of colour and have-nots. I am brown, and as with most of Indians, have a fascination towards white, more so with a feeling of deference. All my life, I couldn’t abide by this whole logic why I am less than others. Leave my feelings, why people all around me feel white is better than brown, and brown is better than black. I could see people staring wide-eyed at some American White couple, and also sniggering at some African Black one. Someone having a white girlfriend would be considered princely, while someone with a black one would be the butt of all taunts.

I moved outside India three years ago. The cloistered feelings were challenged more often than not now. A brown guy walking the streets amidst the crowd of white people; eyes fixed on you, some with disaffectedness, some with insularity and some out of mere curiousness. You go to McDonald’s, and there is some suppressed chirping around you. You go to watch the movie in a cinema hall, and you leave behind a group of young guys and girls smirking in an incomprehensible language. Yet, I was never abused, taunted or racially profiled openly at any of the places. Not even once. The shopkeepers were nice, the landlords helpful, the locals guiding, everyone, in fact, as normal as one could be. Since then I have traveled to a lot of places: America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and met a lot of people. I have shared seats on airplanes, dined in restaurants, danced in discos, played in grounds etc with people of different nationalities, colours and religions. Nowhere I was assaulted or affronted directly. Where was the fucking racism?

Yet I felt that divide, a veneer separating me from others around and vice-versa. Then one morning I could detect where that divide was. I was in a hurry to go to my office, and boarded the empty lift from my top floor. Down two levels, the lift stopped, and outside appeared, a white man. At first, he flinched and stopped, gave a worried look, finally sported a courteous smile, and walked inside. I stepped aside, careful to leave some space between us. Down two further levels, the lift stopped again, and I was ready for another encounter. But this time, appeared another man, a brown Bangladeshi. He hesitated to see two of us. We made a face this time around, and gave a perfunctory smile at the end. He then walked inside, careful to leave some space from the rest two of us. The lift then descended nonchalantly to the ground floor, but during those moments, the whole world of human love & its formality, and the great divide was exhibited in front of me. I was shell-shocked, because for the first time, I wondered how tightly I have been conscripted, strait-jacketed and faulted by the long-held-developed notions and beliefs. Not only I, but all three of us on that day on that lift were mere servants to the thoughts of the world.

I haven’t been able to fully extricate myself from these notions. It will take some time to dispose of the thoughts of a lifetime and the world around you. But I feel my life is much better now. I can understand the queries in the eyes and minds of the fixated onlookers on me, and can also appreciate the undertones of brown, black and less recognized people. I still prefer white women, but can also date a black woman, if time comes. It feels mighty different now, I must say. And have also realized, the insecure and the superior feelings, both at the same time, not only remain limited to colour. They are, in fact, present in every aspect of our lives: region, religion, nation, states, wealth etc. Even the wealthy Americans, the suave Europeans, the strong Africans, the intellectual Chinese and Indians, in fact, all the fucking great Earthians, can’t help feel these double feelings, based on some radically-generated and pre-conceived notions, at some aspect and point of their life and time. Such is the great vagary of life, and hence it remains beyond my cognition.

Remembering Mahatma

I know I should have written it a day earlier. Better late than never. Anyway the point is not about singing a panegyric, on the eventful day of 02nd Oct, about Mahatma Gandhi. But about the need of answering this question,"Nehru: Bapu, the whole country is moving. Gandhi: Yes, but in which direction?"

Each year, on Gandhi Jayanti, I read something like this, “Is the Mahatma relevant today?” A stark reminder of the times we live in. And a cognition that such a pass has come that we are asking this question. But ask me, and I will answer, “A firm yes.” Not so because of the deeds he performed, but because of the ideals and the firm belief he had in those.

Tell me, which nation has fought its war of independence totally on non-violent terms? It makes my head high just thinking of it. Don’t wonder whether we would have got our freedom earlier or easier if we had adopted a different policy. Just consider there were hawks and belligerents at that time too, but the majority listened to him. And they listened because he showed a more morally soothing and justified path. Contrast this with the path the modern day jihadis, terrorists, freedom-fighters are following. Why go there, contrast this with the way we live our current simple lives. Everywhere we reject the ideals and morals as not-relevant-now or impractical vis-à-vis the current realities of life. Aisa nahin ho sakta aaj kal, agar yeh sahi bhi hai to. Here is where he was different and not like us. He didn’t give in to the world, but believed in what has been right since time immemorial.

Two days back, I was reading a letter he had written to Hitler in 1940, asking him to re-judge what he was doing. Not a single sign or word of aggression, even if the situation warranted that. Just the words of idealism thrown in. So firm believer he was in the power of reasoning and truth.

He was and remains the look-up-to personality for many: Obama, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Aang San Su Ki, Lech Walesa etc. United Nations declared 02nd Oct as International Day of Non-Violence in June 2007. Many schools in Europe celebrate or remember his birthday or martyr day. He was chosen as the second-most influential personality of the century by Time magazine at the end of 20th century. Even the first one on that list, Albert Einstein, said, "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."

I hope we really don’t die wondering whether such a man ever existed. Let not the ‘belief in ideals’ die in the name of practicalities. This is the least we can do for him this Gandhi Jayanti.

It is Rio's chance

Tomorrow the world decides which city will host the 2016 Olympics. The candidate cities are Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Tokyo. The latter two, having already hosted the Olympics, have a lesser chance than the former two.

Most independents, including me, are supporting Rio to get the nod. The reason is obvious: It would be really exotic and exciting for a Brazilian city to host the world’s greatest sporting show. Olympics are synonymous with global aspirations, and need to have a pan-world connection. What better to host the Games in a city which is more dreamlike for most of the people? Actually, if given a chance, it would be first South American city to host it. Chicago might have better credentials, and might actually provide a superior show. But that would be too perfect an act. The Games need a reflection of the actual world, and that world resides in cities of Beijing, Rio, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Bangkok etc. So, for a change, the judges, please cast aside your rooted thinking of grandiose criteria (infrastructure, security, connectivity, investment etc) as the only deciding factors, and give people’s heart and vibrancy a chance.

For a change, I too, for the first time, won’t endorse Obama’s plea. He too is going to be there to champion his city’s candidature. But I hope he fails, and then gleefully endorses, “It’s time for change.”