New Year Wishes

I am still up now! Last time, I was up this late was in BITS.. I think :-/
Anyway, a happy new year 2009! Lets hope this is the year of peace, change and action!

To celebrate the new year, I'll attempt telling a joke..

This incident happened early last year while I was traveling to Chennai via train. As we were approaching Chennai, so went the discussion of my co-passengers..

"Sir, how will you go home?"

"I am thinking if I can take the electric train to Thorapakkam."

"Good idea Sir. Today is Saturday, the Tidel park route should be less crowded"

"Oh No! IT people are a crazy group, they travel any day any time. They don't follow any rule. I will take an auto now!"

B, even with her practiced demeanour of not laughing at a stranger's joke couldn't stop laughing :D! Take a bow, the IT guys! The world thinks we are fools and crazy!

P.S: Now guys, I am not sure if he said Thorapakkam... could be some other place on the route of Tidel park ;). Now, with my notorious reputation of directions and places... this is something you shouldn't mind at all :)

B

Merry XMas and Happy New Year

Amidst this season of gloom and despair, its decidedly a sombre Christmas and New Year.

Nevertheless, lets hope the New Year 2009 brings in happiness and peace in our lives!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!

B

Secularism!

Strange week indeed.. I started off the week by reading an article in 'The Hindu' about the Kashmir elections. One person from a town had subscribed to something called "Islamic law" for them where people follow the tenets of the Koran. To explain what it is all about, he goes on to say "Men have beards, Women wear the burqa"..

Yesterday, while I was walking out of the temple, we had some women approaching us and telling us to join some function - some foundation for establishing 'Ram Rajya' in India. I did not stand long enough to ask what that entails :-/, Did Lord Ram specify how to lead a country in times of the poverty, illiteracy, terrorism and computers?

I believe both ideas are trivializing the issue and closing your eyes to the reality. This is the land of each and every person irrespective of religion and
you cannot ask somebody of the other religion to just go. Where will anybody go? Jump into the Indian Ocean :-/. India's biggest hope and strength shall remain to be secularism and democracy.

I think its high time schools started teaching children the virtues of secularism and tolerance.That would, perhaps in the long term avoid such incorrect dogmas! But... unfortunately, the bigger issue in our education system is not what it is being taught.. but bringing in people to be taught. :(

B

The little forgotten heroes

I couldn't resist posting this article - Brave constables

It talks about the brave policemen who managed to do the "impossible", if I could say that..Its these people's contribution that we need to be talking more about.

With my maternal family based out of Bombay, we visited the city on an annual basis during my growing years. All through these years, I never knew there existed a "Taj mahal" hotel against the backdrop of the Gateway of India. But one place, I indeed do know about is the VT or the CST station.  We boarded long distance trains to Chennai from this very station or from the Dadar station. Like the city itself, I remember the place as crowded with scores of trains and passengers present all the time. I dread to think what would have happened if the man with the microphone who announces the arrival/departure of trains on a daily basis had not had the presense of mind to warn the other passengers present in the station to move out using the back gate. I believe this truly signifies the "Mumbai spirit" more than anything else - A common man with the presence of mind and the will to help out others. 

Its these men that we need to be proud of in life. In their life, with meagre means, they still end up thinking for the community. Wish more of us were like this..

B

Change coming to India?

I did not walk the rally to Gateway of India in Mumbai. I did not walk the rally in Cubbon Park in Bangalore. All I did was to light a small candle in my balcony. But something tells me, this time its different.. is change coming to India?

I don't know what will happen tomorrow. Will all go back to their own lives and fight their everyday battles..., maybe they will.. but I still think we will make a difference.

So, candles to a "changing" India! Lets usher in a new era..

Anguish

Its ironic that my last post talks about "Unsung heroes".. the last two days of Mumbai terror seem to be a grim reminder of my pledge to pray for them... I am devastated and there seems to be a feeling of helplessness and strangely.. I doubt I am the only one feeling so..

I can't fathom why a man would want to kill others so mercilessly and then kill himself. I can't fathom why the intelligence did not have any inkling of such an attack and was caught so unaware..initially, they did not even know how armed the terrorists were and lost their senior officers. I can't fathom why the leadership which thought "long term" on the nuclear deal did not think so for dealing with terrorism..and most importantly, I can't fathom why we Indians have are so clueless, helpless when we hear such stuff..

And I am tired of the news channels.. I am sure there are other good/bad things happening in the country - lets discuss them as well.. The media with its complete focus on the attacks seem to be doing more harm than any good.. its quite likely the terrorists will get information on the commando operation from these channels. Last night, I saw a panel in CNN-IBN telling how the police system is not prepared for such attacks and how the policemen were not wearing the bullet proof properly.. Oh yeah, they were going to do a cat walk and they should have properly called you for guidance on wearing it.. A bit of common sense in these so-called panels would have helped.. the least you can do in a situation is to support these people rather than find a reason to criticise! I guess I must be void of common sense too.. I watched this nonsense for sometime.. long enough to feel disgusted. And far worse, is the "calls" made by some "so-called" terrorists to India TV! Gimme a break... we are talking about lives here, not damn TRP's.

Last, I pray for the families of the men who died fighting for us, pray for the men who are injured and wish them a speedy recovery, pray for the numerous innocent people who have died or injured.. God.. bestow us all with strength..

B

Unsung Heroes

Today, I was watching the Hindi movie "Lakshya" on TV and suddenly I realised something and was moved to tears..

Death in the family is by far the most distressing and painful thing any person can go through..the pain is unimaginable and that feeling of helplessness when you know you can do nothing to alleviate the pain is very difficult to handle...

The movie talks about the soldiers of the country and how they give their lives to fight the enemy..These people too have families who love them a lot and how distressing it must be for them to lose their sons/husbands in the battle.. We often come across articles in the newspaper talking of some ambush and that 4 or 5 soldies have lost their life. It has become like a statistic.. we read and move on, not for a moment do we think that 5 families have lost their member... 

I think the least I can do is next time I read/hear something like this, I sit and pray for these people, their families, their battalion or task force asking God to bestow them with strength to deal with the loss..

B