Happy Republic Day

While I listen to this song, which got auto-played in youtube after the song I was hearing finished, it hit my mind that I have not written for long. Also today is a day not to be forgotten, as our country's functioning system was brought into force this day.

We the people, had given to ourselves this constitution exactly 2 months before 26 January 1950. We started abiding by it exactly 67 years before. Our soldiers, guarding the country's vulnerable boundaries continue abiding by the constitution even at the cost of their physical existence.

Our political leaders, who upheld the constitution in its formative years are to be praised and saluted for their will and commitment to build the concept called India. Had they been of wavering tendency, our 1.3 billion people would have no where to look upto and the fall would have been even more insulting than the British Rule; that we were not able to stand on our own when we were given a chance. Unfortunately, the trend of honest politicians was soon replaced by corrupt ones, who got inspiration from corruption of bureaucrats and rose to power. The constitution was again in threat when dictatorial attitude of Indira Gandhi but with power of the people, the threat did not loom for long. Diversity of India forced coalition politics which bound government of many terms to opposition and interruption filled functioning. But the coalition government at least showed that no section of our country is not represented. All, thanks to the solid foundation on which our forefathers built the constitution.

Time and again, this masterpiece of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, or so I feel, has saved this nation from political disaster. This time though, under the present government, I feel the constitution is showing its true power! The nation has matured in these 68 years and we now have more engineers, doctors, statesmen, artists, and many other professionals than even before. This government has the freedom to execute its plans without any interference from opposition. In addition, the representatives holding the minister-ship have impeccable records professionally and politically, with most of them already having proven their intention of India First. The current alliance shows what we can achieve if we act collectively and coherently. I am not a bjp fan, but I am immensely awed by the discipline, a sense of common cause, and intellect of the party members.

Of late, no other political party seems to have new faces in political arena; most of them just being busy in reshuffling and adjusting the defected other-party members. Good orators and debaters like Sambit Patra, Nalin Kohli, Sudhanshu Trivedi etc are adding quality to the discussions in tv debates while others seem to have no quality content in their replies. The opinion of crowd is not built in a day and in debates where some party spokespersons outshine others, the winner in minds of the people becomes clear.

The spirit of constitution is what is driving the politics right now, or I wish to believe, is starting to drive the politics. Earlier, the Anna andolan moved the public out from their comfort, and Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (which seems to have lost the cause for which it started and got people's support) emerged. Then an alternate option of BJP as power holder came into realisation. The nation has seen unprecedented changes in these 2-3 years, including demonetization, which in my opinion is the boldest move the government has made till now, all this under the umbrella of our constitution. Though with a small fear of dictatorial apprehensions (signs of which have not appeared till now),  I am seeing the current development of politics as going a right direction and aiming towards growth of every one.

He who, taught me love!

He who, taught me love

Only seems like a dream and nothing more

He who, talked for hours

Has become a story with a scar

He who, fought in love with me

Is now caught in love by else

He who, showed me the differences

Has made life indifferent

He who, had so much to say

Is now silent in the grey

He who, scared me with his wish-list 

Is now flying high in the mist  

He who, sang in the ears

Is moving ahead with his dears 

He who, dreamt to grow by my side

Is now been held tight in the snow slide

He who, was always seen

Is still searched like a silly teen  

  

He who, taught me love

Only seems like a dream and nothing more

  

What to do when the world is against you

Die is the simple solution :P
Fight is a little tougher solution.
Change the world according to you, for you. - Toughest solution

The equations somewhat lose their demarcations the moment the word 'world' is replaced by 'family'

Some great minds and some not

I have been fortunate to have lived among some of the brightest minds of the country, though just for a small period of time. There were saintly geniuses as well as aggressive winners in my college. There were some who rose to sky after falling into deep shit due to their carelessness, and yet some of them fell deep into troubles from their cheerful state. In midst of this all, I spent some very defining parts of my life. These minds continue to inspire me to reach to the top and never give up, as they have still been doing.

However, college life doesn't last forever and real state of a human is 'survival'. He will do anything for it. Topics like intellect and humility don't matter to them generally unless it fetches them money. Simplicity matters to them when the simple person has already proven himself through his power. Purity and ethics bother negligible number of minds if no greed or ambition is associated with them.

How in a resource crunch situation, a man changes himself and cares only for himself! I was ready after college to give up my new job to go prepare for civil services but my father said that it is important to first make your state good before taking care of others' state. I did take his advice seriously, but only after sometime did I realise that the minds are not the same. They are clever, shrewd, sometimes wicked as well, thirsty for recognition and drunk in superiority. May be this is a regional observation and can not be applied generally. The harsh truth that I realised is 'situation of survival makes you an animal'. Survival in job, survival in business, survival of life... the animal in you saves yourself from getting vanished. It fights for you and brings you back from death, to go for another survival challenge. That animal, however, can not take care of anyone else but the body owner. That animal is called Self of the person. Other people are demolished because of it. The self doesn't care about all. This animal never needed to appear in my colleagues or profs in my college days. But real world teaches differently. I concluded that I have to live along with these great as well as no great minds for the rest of my life.

My camaraderie is spread out in different parts of the world and most likely would still be spreading goodness to the world, or some of them would have also become victims of 'survival'. But certainly, the old time is gone, and it won't come again...

All you have is the present time to make better than old time :)

The death of two puppies

Some incidents just stick to the mind and become very basis of a part of your character. In this regard, an incident comes to my mind. It was about two baby pups getting crushed by a car. I  can't recall my age but should be less than 10 years old then.

I was freely roaming outside my home and must be wondering about some things of nature when I suddenly heard a loud shrill of dogs, a sound made by them when they are hit by stone or a stick or bitten by other dogs. (Street dogs are not so uncommon in India, so I suppose the sound is not unclear. ) I went to the source of the sound.

The damage had been already done. The driver of the car possibly didn't realise that it's not a stone that he has taken his car over, but were two live puppies, and rode the rear wheels of the car as well over them. The pups made sound for a few moments, then I saw blood coming out of their mouths. It was not that I had seen blood for the first time, but live running blood was the first incident. It did not scare me, but made me inquisitive for sure. In a few moments, the two pups became like statues, like any other dead street dog I would see on the road.

What made impact on my mind was, their mother! She wouldn't let the sweeper take away the pups' bodies. She held the sweeper's clothes and stretched it to the extent that the sweeper feared that her clothes would tear if she dared move a step towards the pups. The two dead bodies remained there till I was there. The driver of the car realised that he has run over two baby animals; he slowed down for a moment, looked at the statues, and then went away to his work.

The mother dog didn't show her grief, or anger. She just didn't let anyone go near her pups. I had not seen emotion in animals before this. I was scared away by dogs twice before this incident, but i never felt that was because animals have anger as emotion. I just thought they are there to kill and bite bad guys. ''That's why people write beware of dogs'', i used to think.

But i love those creatures anyways (though there are serious hygiene issues associated with them, but who cares when you are a child ). 

Why Aam Aadmi Party is despised

A new political party arising out of rubble; a party whose members have never experienced political activism before in their lives; a political party which arose against the semi permanent leadership options from which the people had to choose their representative. Now the party's image is slowly getting tarnished and the group of people that arose in spirit and strength against the might of powerful people so ritualistically nurtured to become the rulers by the people, that group is slowly getting diluted in numbers.

The AAP party getting phenomenal share of votes in Delhi Legislative Assembly elections indicated quite prominently that people are fed up of the existing democratic process and want something more, some process from which the daily dissatisfaction from the government is vanished and more progress at grassroot levels is visible. During election campaigning, the AAP focussed specifically on people centric  issues and reached at micro level solutions to issues, something that common masses in delhi were able to identify with themselves. BJP and Congress parties were hardly doing campaigning of that level. Congress had already given up as its credibility had forgone long since the scams reports emerged in front of the public. And BJP was neither finding a good candidate to stand against Kejriwal, nor was there any quality campaigning that people may get impressed from.

BJP and Congress, two major national parties of India sensed an imminent danger to their existence in form of AAP; a threat that would snatch the power from long time power holders belonging to these well established parties and gives that power to common masses, those very common masses which have hardly any time or mind to care for the events other than their daily bread and family. If AAP, which at the time of its formation stood for honesty, justice, truth and such righteous principles, becomes a success, i.e. is able to secure the trust of people throughout its 5 years of office stay, the foundation on which the BJP and Congress have been standing erect would no longer be strong. The people blinded by power of politicians and mesmerised by the glory and stature of these party leaders will then be shifting their eyes to this new political party having members least concerned for their political careers and more focused on delivering.

BJP saw that it has 5 years to change the perception about AAP in common masses' minds. Preying on every single mistake of amateur politicians, catching the weakness of middle class politicians and exploiting them periodically, like making order for arrest of delhi MLAs is a strategy which is right now benefitting BJP more than any other party, as the hopes of a better political party are being shattered and next in line left at national level is only BJP. Congress is a dormant party, infected by incompetencies of its leadership, hence does not surface higher.

How the political parties other than AAP have been doing, I can think of a few observations:
- Shiela Dixit, the former  CM of delhi, accused of corruption during CWG games, was being filed FIR against by AAP government, as a part of its election manifesto implementation. She was soon made governor of kerala by the central government, thus preventing her from arrest or criminal proceedings against her.
- DGCA files raid from CM's office by CBI. Some files went missing and no news about the missing files...DGCA had a BJP prominent leader as its major office bearer role, and DGCA was accused of high level corruption
- Lieutenant General and Chief Minister's tussle over power. Though constitutionally the LG prevails, but decisions of AAP government  on any sensitive issue is mostly, if not always, discarded.
- Jokes on Kejriwal as an agenda to malign the CM's image of being a sensible human. The jokes portray him as a maverick not listening to anyone else and just doing work according to his whims and fancies.
- Periodic arrests of AAP MLAs, an arrest in normal middle class families is a big thing and shatters the image of a person and plays deamon to his self confidence in front of the families surrounding him.
- Booby trap of AAP Minister showcased on TV channels, so that people's perception about AAP, if good gets worse
- portraying AAP leaders as anti social and immoral

Aam aadmi party, which got birth out of an upheaval, out of the masses themselves, is losing the trust of the masses only. The masses are losing faith in themselves indirectly, and naturally the losing of faith in oneself results in his downfall. The AAP party  hence should urgently undertake some activity as its image control measures otherwise the poison of malign that has already started affecting its stature and if not treated quickly will infect the whole party body badly.

A tribute to the olympic games

Games do connect humanity's various bit and pieces together effortlessly, isn't it ? The race of Usain Bolt, that lasts meagre 10 odd seconds holds the breath of millions for time much greater than 10 seconds. How do games that last for such a small duration hold the world together for so long, and keep the memories as fuel for next games, or so to say, for re-bonding of the world again ?

The torch of Olympics is aptly treated as sanctified, as it is the symbol of the games that remains lit, alive and bright throughout the event. It spreads its heat to many places of the world before finally resting to see the games proceed in full bloom.

In a single event, whole events of life can be extracted. The event becomes an eye opener for many new comers, players or even spectators. Physical activity is something that every human can associate with himself/herself. The pains of training, the determination and grit to find a solution and win, the following success or failure, the analysis of faults and further improvisation to achieve desired level; nothing misses out in these games. The recognition for the hard work done and smartness applied, even if the person is not the sole winner (the 2nd and 3rd rank holders, though have won, but have also lost) further adds to the charm of games and keeps the viewers as well as players attached.

Long lasting friendship, fan-ship, mentorship of players also happens quite often through the games. Some find their soul mates through the games, some get inspired to beat the player they worship as their hero, and even succeed in it, while some find the true strength of the hidden fighter in them. The games do good not just to the individual players and viewers but also to the collective communities associated with them, as everyone associates himself with labour and despair, common feature of every game. Victory of a player unheard of by many brings pride and joy to those very people, just because they belong to the same country. Winning of the person supported by a person makes the person often feel that it's not the player but the person himself who has won! May be he can also win, as he supported the winner, a childish but a super encouraging thought will light a person, a someone among us, and will rise up to inspire another someone among us. Without the games, the scale of reach of event of this quality is close to impossible, as there is no category in this world other than physical activity which every human can claim to be doing, and hence would associate closely with it. Engineering events are participated only by engineers and a few other interested exceptions, economics events, governance events, media events and many others remaining follow the same suit.

The connectivity among humans provided by the games is unparalleled and is worthy of worshipping, something which personifies the old proverb in Indian mythology of 'Vaasudhev Kutubakam' (the whole earth is a family).

Alas the sportsmanship in our country is not one of the best in the world and needs lot of buildups and mends to stand strong against destructive tides, only if the task was easy! There are economic, cultural, political, nutritional challenges which are just enough for India not to produce a great number of players for the event. But actions by government like giving a reward to the medallists is a small step to motivate more people take up the course of sports as means of succeeding in their lives.

Olympic games have given this world a great platform to experience the oneness of humanity, and also a reason to introspect on our own shortcomings and improvise to better our situations. The players are the priests in the temple of games which show the world how it is to be handled, the game of life. The sanctity of human sweat is showcased in the games, which undoubtedly unites the world and will inspire future generations forever to contribute to the One World.