Mute Spectators Through The Ages ...

Recently I had visited Alwar, a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. I had the good fortune to visit the Sariska Tiger Reserve and the adjoining Bala Quila fort. The fort is perched on top of a hillock and offers a good ariel view of the entire city.

While wandering around the fort, I wondered about the fact that these medieval forts , in India and abroad, had been witnesses and spectators to multitude of events and incidents.

Rise and fall of kingdoms, births, deaths, suicides, wars, victories, defeats, festivals, marriages, alliances, unspoken love, passion, incest, conspiracies ... and what not; the list is endless.. each and every inch of such monuments is seeped in history; every single brick has a tale to tell.

Generations came and went, emperors rose and bowed out, queens graced and left. These structures had witnessed everything.

We have known many facts about the past through history books but these forts and palaces have "seen" much,  much more and many such "secrets" are hidden in their inner receses and those will remain secret for ever.

There was a time, when these forts were hubs of activities and were full of people. Festivities and grandeur were order of the day. If the mornings were earmarked for meetings and discussions, the evenings belonged to the nautch girls and courtesans.

Time has flowed unabetedly. These structures are now a pale reflection of their once glorious past.

The faded colors, the high ceilings, the spacious courtyards, the pillared verandahs, the ramparts, the broken windows - each of them has something to say but those will remain unheard forever..

Social Media and Unsocial Behaviour

The term "social media" has become part and parcel of our daily existence in this digital era. Almost, every individual on this planet has used this popular and ever growing medium, in one way or the other.

From India to Iceland, humans have this unsatiable urge and craving to stay "connected" and make themselves visible to the rest of the world.

This is probably one such platform that gives its army of loyal users to express themselves freely (almost)..

The "expressions" can oscillate from absolute non-senses to super valuable gems; however,  the former outnumbers the later.

It is very much unfortunate that this platform is being used more for trolling, threatening, spreading hatred and circulating misinformation.

It is an interesting phenomenon; on one hand, we have coined the term "social media" and consider ourselves truly civilised only when we have social handles but on the other hand,  the behaviour of most of us is thoroughly unsocial, unacceptable and sometimes, criminal.

As individuals, we can express our displeasure against certain events or people but it should be within civilised limits; we simply can't dictate and give verdicts!

Why on earth, should people be so judgemental and critical of actresses and female models,  who update their personal social pages with their photographs wearing bikinis or other skimpy outfits?

Can't the "know it all" junta understand that these ladies are in such a profession,  in which glamour is of top most priority ?

This is hypocrisy; people will visit such pages to satiate their titillation but will comment or behave as if they are the beacons of morality!!

Are we always driven by morality?

These same band of people will issue death threats to others, if they feel that their political ideologies are not acknowledged by others.

These goons will use social platform to send rape threats in the garb of upholding their respective religions, to intimidate people of other faiths. What pious acts!

Another irritating aspect of social media usage is the act of "Sharing".

Social media aficionados are obsessed with sharing whatever they have at their disposal.  So much is the zest and zealousness of sharing that in the name of information,  volumes of absolute trash and fake materials in forms of jpegs/gifs/pdfs/plain texts/audio/video gets circulated every second, across the globe.

People don't even bother to verify the received information.  They will promptly and mechanically download the file and swiftly pass it on to others - as if the whole world is competing in a never ending ,virtual relay race. However,  there are no start and end points.

People happily and merrily circulate videos of beheading of captured victims by radical groups. They take pride in sending videos of family that perished in mass suicide.

The social media platforms are slowly turning into digital trash bins. They are being used more for activities mentioned above and abhorrent tasks like recording one's own suicide.

Have the tech behemoths, unknowingly and unintentionally,  created new age Frankenstiens ? I wonder..

Open Letter Of A Common Man

Dear Mr. Modi,

Please take some steps to rein in your over zealous supporters and followers. This over the top zealousness is very much rampant and has cut across genders, age groups and social strata of the country.

This particular group of followers have a false notion of nationalism; it leans more towards jingoism and anarchy.

People of this group view India and it's political machinery through a different lens altogether.

As per this group, anyone or any group of people who don't support the BJP and it's ideologies are anti-national. Such mindsets don't augur well for a democratic fabric of a nation.
Who are these people to decide what is national and anti-national?


Secondly,  wearing saffron clothes and having the word "Ram" written on foreheads doesn't necessarily make anyone true believers and followers of God.
Worse, such people's behaviour is that each of them believes himself to be the "custodian" of the Lord and Hinduvta.

On a serious note, do such people truly comprehend the complex Ayodha chapter?


Is Hindutva a matter of proprietary of a select few?

Sir, please instill some sense and logic in such a group of followers of yours. Nationalism with jingoistic undertones is obnoxious and will definitely create problems in the coming days.

Independence - are we able to understand it?

Another year and independent India turned 63 on 15th August 2010; everyone is happy and expectedly wishing each other on this important occasion. Definitely, Independence for any country means a lot and should be cherished and enjoyed.

India's freedom struggle is a well known chapter in world history and we , as Indians, know the prices we had to pay to attain India's independent statehood. Independence wasn't served to us on a plate; our freedom fighters earned it after a long, hard fought battle against the powerful British Dominion.

But sadly, as the years have progressed, the national holidays have been reduced to mere non-working days. The core essence of any national holiday is being forgotten rapidly. In this era of commercialization, the ever mushrooming shopping malls particularly select these days to increase their sales by luring people with lucrative shopping deals.

Shopping is an important activity during these national holidays.

Another activity that comes to mind is people throwing booze party on such days. Liquor flows without any limits. Surely, we want to have "king of good times".

Good time doesn't end here; we will play jarring music. Really doesn't matter if the music doesn't resemble the spirit of the actual occasion.

We should enjoy these holidays but need to be more mature and respectful towards the essence that is called "India". We shouldn't take the deeds of our national heroes for granted.

What is most thought provoking is why we become so over-zealous about our Independence and being Indian only on or during such occasions? Why this essence of Indianess can't be inculcated in our normal daily lives? Surely, its up to us and we don't need any government machinery to implement that.

When people have problems in pointing out the right sequence of the colors in our National Flag or when they can't differentiate between National Anthem and National Song, then in such circumstances national celebrations, simply out of sheer over zealousness, looks very artificial and superficial.

Are we really on the right path?

Our freedom leaders surely didn't shed their blood for such phony nationalism that is so widespread and prevalent now.

We need to understand and appreciate the actions of our National Greats are not only meant for textbooks. They have much important bearings...63 years are more than enough to realize that...

Something on cricket ...

Another cricketing great, Muttiah Muralitharan, has chosen to call it a day.

On 22nd day of July 2010, he registered his 800th wicket in Test cricket in form of Pragyan Ojha in the ongoing test series against India. Like a true champion, he bowled his heart out, capturing 8 (exactly, the number needed to complete the figure of 800) wickets in the match and in the process helping the home team to win the match and take a 1-0 lead in the 3 match test series.

An apt way to end a glorious career (though prospects of rain , some rearguard batting display by the Indian tail enders and a spirited Malinga did seem to threaten Murali from reaching the landmark). With Murali's adieu to the game, an era has ended. Though, not quite a cricketing poster boy, he has served the SriLankan cricket very well.

We will be missing the man with big eyes , a bigger grin and even bigger turner of the cricket ball.

A cricket follower like me, will definitely feel sad and nostalgic, whenever cricketing legends of such stature decide to leave the game.

I feel blessed to be a part of a generation that has seen debut and growth of many mordern cricketers; most of them have gone on to become living legends from stark new comers.

I have witnessed the sensational test debut of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid at Lords in summer of 1996. I have seen Tendulkar making his Test debut against Pakistan in 1988 and winning laurels from then established greats like Imran Khan, Srikanth and Abdul qadir to name a few.

My growing up period was a transitional phase in world cricket. This phase saw some of the past players placing themselves on the pedestal of being great and young cricketers were making the world to sit back and watch their feats.

So, if on one hand I had the oppurtunity to see the exploits (in a limited amount) of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Imran Khan, Geoff Marsh, David Boon, Dean Jones, Mike Gatting then on the other I was enamored by the skills of Tendulkar, Lara, Ganguly, Dravid, Ponting, Waugh brothers, Jayasuriya, Warne, Kumble, Wasim Akram, Arvinda de Silva, Rhodes, Klusener, Kallis ..... really the list is endless.

With many players calling it a day (both Indian and foreign) and more about to do so, it really hurts somewhere in the heart. Not only because they were great exponents of the game but more because of the fact, that during my growing up years, many of them started playing the game and gradually as I understood the game in a better fashion, these players went from being good to great.

Who would fit in the shoes of Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh, Jhonty Rhodes, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Ricky Ponting ?

Will I be able to witness swashbuckling opening partnerships, as once stitched by Sourav Ganguly & Sachin Tendulkar? All the Spin wizards have left the scene. Where will I get to see the sheer pace of Wasim Akram, Allan Donald or Courtney Walsh?
Who can forget the magical wrist work of Azhar?

The younger cricketing generation, though immensely talented, will take time to re-create the magic of their predecessors.

There has been a paradigm shift in world cricket in last 15 years or so.

Cricket itself has changed; there was a time when a run rate of 4/4.5 in a 50 over match was considered safe. Matches took place only in the days and cricket gear meant only whites. 20/20 was probably a distant dream then. Concept of powerplay, hawk eye, third umpire were unthinkable and alien.

But, as we all are aware, those unthinkable concepts have become part and parcel of modern day cricket and now no target can be considered safe to defend. Cricketers take the field in colorful attires with names of sponsors pasted from the head gear to the footwear. 20/20 is mantra of cricket and talks are on to schedule test cricket in day/night format. I forgot the mention the color of balls have also changed

It used to cherry red during "good old days". Now we have the "kookaburra whites" for day/night format.

Hopefully, we will continue to enjoy cricket for the right reasons…

Signing off /

Traffic Snarls: Not so bad after all..

Traffic jams have become an indispensable part of any civilized city life. Any civilized city, across the globe, is unthinkable without traffic jams and if one can't find jams in a city, then that city shouldn't be considered civilized at all!!

Generally, we tend to loathe the very thought of traffic snarls however I Have tried to find out few positive aspects of the same. (Optimistic, eh??)

If you are stuck in a jam (that seems endless and timeless), you can catch up with a quick nap; it will compensate the loss (if any) of last night's sleep. It will have a positive effect on your health!!

I have realized that my Hindi vocabulary has become richer; I have added choicest Hindi abuses to my Hindi speaking capabilities. (I am very much indebted towards my co-passengers).Another gain...

There has been a growth in my geographical knowledge; to avoid jams, drivers tend to take detours and take less ventured roads and by lanes (only to end up in middle of the jam!!); however, such navigation adds to the knowledge. You start to know the traveling route just like back of your hands..

Next time you are planning to throw a party and don't know where to look for the DJ, then your search ends here; the amount of jarring and deafening music being played by our private bus drivers and conductors, is surely an indication of their latent talent. They surely know how to make some "noise".

In this treacherous weather getting stuck in a traffic snarl has another benefit. You can really sweat it out without actually hitting the gym. You lose calories; another way to stay fit and slender...

The best one is probably this one; if you use a public transport and take the same bus/auto and if co-passengers are more or less the same, then there are definite chances that you will be able to find your dream girl/boy during the stuck hours. With so much time to spend with each other, sparks will definitely fly and cupid will strike. The hassle to scout for prospective partners also gets reduced to a great extent.

So, you see traffic jams are not that bad after all...

Great Indian Family..

Indians, by nature, are very much attached to their respective families. From very early age, value of family is ingrained in the hearts and minds of each and every Indian. We love to stick together as a closely knit unit. However, when this love takes the form of a fetish, then unknowingly or (knowingly) we create problems for others.

Have we ever thought, why there is so much rush at the railway platforms or airports? Amongst other factors, the "Great Indian Family" is to be blamed!! Irrespective of the number of people making the trip actually, the number of well-wishers and attendants outnumber them at any given point of time... it does cause mayhem and confusion however who cares as long as the family is sticking together...

Last week, I visited a friend of mine at one of the upmarket hospitals; she was admiited there for a surgery. Post surgery, it was confusion time for the doctors and support staff as they had some tough time handling "The Family". One of the junior doctors jokingly said that the surgery was far more easier than handling the "caring family".

Even ATMs are not spared; I have seen an instance when a family of six, entered the ATM premises to take out cash. Being objected by the guard, every one replied in unison - "can't you see, we are Family!!"(by the way, their pet dog also went inside)

Long live the Indian Family...