Any protracted
journey, through capricious paths will have dim tunnels. But every tunnel will
end (has to end), and at its end it will lead us to the light, signifying what
our life is meant to be. We’ll fall, slip, and rise up again. We have to make a
choice – to mark our lives with the falls and slips or the number of times we
had the courage to stand up, dust off the muck and forge ahead. We’ll
participate in the sacraments that someone, a long time ago demarcated for us,
or we can have our own connotation and make our own definitions about what this
day means to us. Hold hands, and walk together; maybe that’s all we need.
This is a time to create your own implication
of what lightmeans to you -For this is a festival of
lights; while traditions may ask of you to revivify your environment; take time
and benefit of the day off (if you have it) to derive sense from meaning of
light.
Other than what it perceptibly shows you, try
and see what itwantsyou to see in its Illumination and Grandeur.
This is not the time to lodge in the past. Soon, the calendar
will change and we can let ourselves hope for better things. Most importantly,
we can pursue something better.
Wishing you very
Happy Diwali.
Thank you for walking
with me, and enjoying the light together.
Come 15th August, I abruptly notice all the TV channels, radio stations and the print media pass on news on Independence Day, liberty and nationalism. Even my Facebook page is flooded with patriotism. Everyone is underlining the fact that all of us should really revel in glory about the fact that we are a liberated nation. But time to think – are we really a free country?
At this point of time I am just wondering, how squat is the public recollection or is it just me who thinks that in a nation where every alternative day we hear a story about caste prejudice, honor killing, and rape, murders, terrorism which all are a common jargon, what kind of freedom are we actually speaking about here?
If I overlook the bigger picture, even after 63 years of autonomy I am never confident about venturing out of the house after dark in this country. We pompously claim that India is a liberated nation. Since we got independence in the year 1947, the infrastructure has developed, the level of education has elevated, and lifestyle has expanded, glamor, technology, entertainment industry, market, and what not. However, the structure we live in is fundamentally crooked, isn't it? Ever since we got independence 63 years back, the wealthier are getting more affluent, poor strata of the society are getting poorer and an average middle class man is a compressed vegetable of a sandwich of both the strata. The market in the existing circumstances compels middle class populace to work for over 14 to 15 hours per day and the value in response is like stones sinking in water. We live in a country where we are openly assaulted by some Ajmal Kasab.
The sleaze, the discrepancy of society, the whirlpool of political games, ignorance of rights is drooping one side of our nation in a sewer. Somewhere deep within, aren’t all of us somewhere responsible for it?
I recently had to bribe the telephone department to get a quick internet connection. Not to forget that I also had to bribe a staff of electricity department to get a three phase connection in my house here. Well, India main aise hi chalta hai!
Have we ever reflected on the fact that how freedom and independence are utilized so interchangeably? If you hunt for either of the terms in a thesaurus, you’ll discover each is shown as synonym for the other. Freedom and independence. Do they actually imply the similar connotation? Can we be free without being independent? Can we ever be independent without being free?
It’s that same time of year when all Indians turn their reflections towards the honor of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for our freedom, and that just for today – August the 15th, we must commemorate what the freedom given to us in this land of the liberated, abode of the courageous. But think about it- how many of us are free and how many of the courageous lot are remaining? How many of us are prepared to stand up for what’s right, what’s wrong and not to concede defeat? I’d say India might be independent but there’s a long way to freedom yet. The day, we are truly liberated from our “chalta hai” mentality is the day; our nation would actually be free.
I conclude with a quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, and the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.”
Grandmoms are extraordinary! Grandmoms are people you can respect, admire and look up to — even if they are not all that tall. Grandmas make you indulge and ruin you just because it’s one of their most wanted things to do. Grandmoms narrate you stories when you are young and forever lend an ear to listen to yours when you grow up. Grandmoms love you with all their souls and hearts. Such is my Grandmom – My amma who has turned 88 years old today. I wish her love, luck and a longer life. Happy Birthday Amma
And I sit down to inscribe, tranquilly on the exterior, but emotionally and saddened on the interior, in the anticipation of not forgetting an iota, not skipping any moment of detail or disclosure that came with this unbelievably heartbreaking and deplorable day – 17th of November 2008.
It’s been a year since you’re gone but it just feels like yesterday, when I called to talk to you only to find out that you were no more. Tonight, when I look up at the stars, I do not consider them as stars. I look at them as porch lights, welcoming you safely in your dwelling .I have this sense that there's one extra star up in the sky tonight. And although it's at a far-flung distance, its brilliance and affection still reach us here to make the nighttime a little less shadowy, a little less gloomy.
Thinking of you with Love and Fond Memories, Papa.
When life’s mundane chaos drives me crazy, I turn to Kushagra (my nephew). He smiles. He waits while his gaze invites me in a whole new universe. It is an open enticement. He smiles yet again. The qualms begin to squander. Here’s to days when….
• Race implied disagreeing about who ran the quickest. • Monetary matters were dealt by whoever was the financier in Monopoly. • It wasn't peculiar to have more than one best friend. (I had 4 – Anju, My sis, my mom and God!) • Being aged denoted anyone more than the age of 20. • You could find out if somebody loved you enough by plucking flower petals. • Decisions were taken by singing out aloud or mind thinking - “teeny-meeny-miney-mo." • It was magical when dad’s pockets would pop out candies. • No one was more beautiful than Mommy. (For me, still no one is!) • Injuries and bruises were kissed by mommy or daddy and made fine. • It was a huge deal to at last be big and tall enough to ride the "only for big people" rides at the children’s park. • Wholehearted lifetime promises and commitments were completed with cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die. • Sunday mornings invariably meant taking a bath and watching Ramayana or Mahabharata. • One “katti” would lead to minutes of hostility between friends while one “mucchi” would mean friendship for a lifetime. • Whirling around, getting woozy and falling down would lead to irrepressible giggles. • Water balloons were the eventual weapon. • Consuming medicines meant orange-savored chewable calcium tablets. • A lie didn't add up if our fingers were crossed. • Cakes, pastries, chocolates and ice creams were thought to be a fundamental food group.
This one's dedicated to all my lil angels - Pogu, Eva, Ira, Akshaya, Siyo, Aditi, Gauri, Navya,Pranav,Aditya, Ajinkya, Manya and all the lovely adorable kids in this world. Happy Children’s Day to all. Let’s always keep the child within us alive.
As the countdown to Diwali began, my social networking accounts beamed up like a miraculous city, which had been turned on by an invisible hand. My apartment building lit up luminously with neon lights and various beautifully done rangolis and of oil-lit earthen lamps enclosed patios and ramparts, staircase and yards of apartments.
This was the first time however, when my heart refused to welcome Diwali – A festival I have always keenly looked forward to for this year Diwali bought many memories. The most memorable memoirs of Diwali I have are the ones spent during my early days. That’s when my father got everything that could be called new – clothes, Laxmi Ganesh idols, mitahis, crackers et al. That was then.This year, however when I lived through the dawn of Diwali , I couldn’t avoid but recall persistently the dialogue I had with my father on the eve of Diwali few years back. While conversing about the various Indian festivals and their probable genesis, he also shared his views about the Diwali. He said, "Like a tiny lamp that brightens its tiny environs, a strip of tiny lamps brightens larger environs. Likewise an individual can brighten his environs; while an organized act - allegory to several lamps organized in rows - can brighten up the cosmos."
Last year’s Diwali was special for me – as it was my first after marriage and also because it was the first time that my father sent me mitahis. Given that I had never been away from my house before that on any of my Diwalis. My father sent me Diwali mithais and card with a pack of floating candles to light up my house, from across the seven seas. It was the first time ever. He also sent me a note which read “Hope this finds you both in pink of health. Sorry Manasi, couldn’t send you the guavas (he knows my love for UP ke amrood ) along due to packing problems. Anyways, next time. Happy Diwali. Enjoy it. Tons of Love – Papa”.
“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made. “Albert Einstein
My reminiscence of Independence Day was that of a Holiday at school. Beyond a holiday and a day to sleep till long, it didn’t mean anything much to me at a young age. Steadily, with teachers’ ideas about all the history and the significance of the National Anthem which was sung every morning in the school assembly, I understood that it is much further than just a day’s of “chutti” from school.
Patriotism takes on a diverse element in small town Lucknow (where I lived) - while we exhausted urbanites groan in pleasure over a midweek public holiday (or if fortunate, the hope of a long weekend), actual India reflects the tricolor and all the colors of patriotism. My sweetest recollection is of an Independence day parade on the road, at a school near my house where several tiny tots swinging their hands up and down, fists tightly closes, in preparation emotion, yelling Vande Mata-lamm,. And a cutely dressed Bharat Mata in the center of the cluster, who tried to wave with one hand and holding the unmanageable white-with-red-border sari with the other hand . These views always use to be adorable.
When I sit to reflect on the life of my country - My breakdown is one of optimism, prospective and potentials. Even though political liberty was attained 62 years ago, fiscal liberty is still an isolated dream for the preponderance of the populace. When we think of milestones, achievement of 62 years is unique in India. Today, India has been free from its vicious colonial tenet for 62 years. In the ostentatious scheme of things it’s a diminutive time frame quite the opposite of a county rich with customs, religions, languages and history whose pedigree roots back to several years. However from our outline of reference, 62 years back; in spite of of all our inner brawls and incongruity on diverse fronts, we have held ourselves mutually and are forging ahead in gigantic steps.
On the other hand, 62 years afterward, as we imitate and slog to be equivalent to the developed nations, the true India seems to skulk in the backdrop, whether deliberately or naively, protecting the uniqueness that makes us who we are. We have now been abridged to religious signs in the world. Distant from being summoned as the creators of traditions, languages and number system et al, we are now a Muslim minority called Pakistan and a Hindu majority India. Not to forget that we are the low-priced and discounted tech- bondservant of the 21st century. After Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, etc. come to think of our Heroes? They don’t exist anymore. Not one in reality today.
I dream of India - As my mind sinks in a trance, my soul seeks succor.
Aloofness from the world, voyaging into sacred dominions, I envisage “My India", positioned tall amid the rest. Shielded by the intrepid oceans that envelop it, and by the eternal peaks in the north, My India stands tough, a reflection of sacredness, traditions, mysticism and wholesomeness.
India- My dream.
“WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. “
