dil kehta hai kuchh

दिल कहना चाहता है कुछ
चुप चुप के खुद ही सुनता है
आस पास में कोई नहीं हो
हर पल यूं ही घबराता है

सोचना इसका काम है
बस यह सोचता रहता है
कभी अतीत में
तो कभी भविष्य में खो जाता है

चाहता आखिर क्या है
यह कह नहीं पाता
इसकी चाह बस यही है कि
कोई इसकी बात सुनले और समझले

वोह बात जो उसने कही नहीं
कहने से पहले ही घबरा गया
इसकी चाह बस यही है कि
कोई इसकी घबराहट समझले

Happy Deepavali Bengaluru..And I miss you

Far away from Bengaluru, on this day of beautiful deepavali, I cannot stop myself from just thinking about Bengaluru. I cannot forget the beautiful nights of deepavali celebrated in Bengaluru. We would light up our balcony with little diyas in the evening. Then we would go down near the gate to fire some crackers. The whole evening sky would lit up with varieties of  fire cracker designs.

And the delicious dahi vadas.

Even after late into the night , we would go to the roof to enjoy the silence after the sound of the crackers. Every now and then there would be a sound from the distance.

But what a fun it was. Today we celebrated far away from Bengaluru and far away from India. It was great. It was nice.

But I cant stop thinking about you Bengaluru....

Its morning in India

Came across this interesting article in NY Times :

Its morning in India

What a Disastrous morning

We all woke up on May 22, 2010 to a disatrous news of Air India crash in Mangalore. For several hours we were shocked to hear how the precious lives were lost just when they were about to meet their loved ones.

News channels were completely covering the disturbing event that made all of us wonder what if it was me there.

Several information pieces were scrolled. Some ridiculous ones like the nationalities of the pilots etc. Some on pilot experience etc.

As we come to terms with this shocking event, it might be critical for all the citizens of this country to read the following press release by Environmental Support Group.


Mangalore Air Crash Tragic fallout of Criminal Negligence of Planning and regulatory Authorities

In our thirst for development, are we ignoring every aspect of our nature, our environment, our quality and calling the protestors as retrogrades only to wake up to shocking mornings when its too late?

Its heart breaking.

कहानी

सूनी सूनी सी ज़िन्दगी
दिल में ज्वाला पर है जगी
राह निर्जन सा लगता है
मंजिल पर नज़र मगर है लगी

चलना है चलते रहना है
किताब के पन्नों को उलटना है
कहानी जो अभी शुरू हुई है
किश्तों में उसे आगे बड़ना है

कई कलाकारों से बनी यह कहानी
कई रिश्तों से सजी
आगे बड़ते रहेगी
नए अध्याय जुड़ते रहेंगे

- शास्त्री वद्लामानी

ज़िन्दगी का गीत

चलो चलो चलो चलो चले चलो
बहती इस धारा में बहे चलो
ज़िन्दगी की लहरों के साथ साथ
मदमस्ती में बस गाते चलो

चलते चलते सूरज को देखो
हौसला तुम उससे लेते चलो
लहराते हुए पेड़ों को देखो
बुलंदी तुम इनसे लेके चलो

देखो देखो देखो उन चिड़ियों को देखो
गाती हुई वोह उड़ती चली
कलकी फ़िक्र न करती हुई वोह
आज कि मस्ती में हंसती चली

आज का वक़्त जो हाथ में तेरे
कल तेरे हाथों में ना होगा
इसलिए आज को जी भर जी लो
कल का सवेरा कल होगा

आये हो अकेले जाओगे अकेले
हो जब तक तुम रिश्ते बनाओ
खुद को अकेले ना उलझाओ
रिश्तों में तुम खुशियाँ मनाओ

गाओ गाओ गाओ कोई गीत ऐसी गाओ
दुनिया जिसे सुन झूम उठे
सन्देश कोई तुम इसमें भेजो
पड़ जिसे सबकी रूह जाग उठे

-- शास्त्री वद्लामानी

Where is my freedom?

An Indian citizen asks that question almost every second. Or may be, his soul asks him. Sometimes he makes the voice of his soul heard out in the form of expression. Sometimes he stifles it within and keeps up a face saying I am free and I am fine. Because that's the only way it seems, to make peace with the life around you. Our "great" constitution is a big book with lots of rights for its citizenry. The right to live freely is there. The right to express opinion is there. The right to move freely is there. We have the right to life and personal liberty. These are all under the fundamental rights.

Yet, a rogue of this nation has the audacity to make utter ridicule of our constitutional right by letting his hoodlums beat up the Biharis in Maharashtra. The protectors of the constitution sit meekly and watch. Ofcourse they use their mouth loudly in condemning the act. But the taxi driver or the road side vendor who suffers the brunt asks: Where is my right to make livelihood? Where is my right to move freely ? Where is my right to liberty? Why do you mention these rights in the constitution when you cannot guarantee me any of these? Why do I have to fight so much for it?

Yet, a Telangana struggle happens and all the above rights seem to be completely non-existent. The life comes to a halt. Shops are shut down. Transport is shut down. Every Tom Dick and Harry issues threats at free will. Public property is damaged at free will. Move around at your own risk. And the ensurers of these fundamental rights seem to be completely helpless in making sure that come what may, these rights will never be sacrificed.

Yet, A famous personality passes away. And the whole city comes to a grinding halt. The so called fans suddenly are angry because the personality passed away. The shops are forcibly shut down. Schools and colleges are shut. Buses are pelted. You venture out at your own risk. And all our so called rights ensured by the constitution are tossed out of the window. And the ensurers of these fundamental rights seem to be completely helpless in making sure that come what may, these rights will never be sacrificed.

Yet, a little teenager dies after molestation and utter humiliation and it takes 19 years for the country to wake up? Suddenly our blood starts boiling only to become cold again. Suddenly the CBI former Joint Director says that he wanted to press the charges. Suddenly the National Commission for Women wants stringent charges. Suddenly, the ministry wants to meet the victim's family. Where were these enthusiasms 19 years back? Incompetence is the answer. And the voices now are just an attempt to cover up that incompetence. The incompetence of not able to protect the simple and powerless citizens.

And as I write this, an RTI activist has been mercilessly killed in Pune while he was on a morning walk. Why? Because he used RTI actively to unearth several land scams in Mumbai Pune region.

And we keep repeating like a parrot, "I am proud", "I am free" , "I am secure". Damn. Why are we so much habituated to accepting the rubbish around us that we finally make peace with by imagining the right to freedom, right to liberty, right to expression and several other so called rights whereas in fact these are just by accident. If you get it then great and if if not, then sorry.

And after a while cynicism takes the front seat and thats the final nail.

Someone asked god to give him the serenity to accept the things that he cannot change and the courage to change the things he can.

God give me the courage to not only change the things I can, but also the courage to change the things that I think I cannot.

Work like a Donkey today, Live like a king tomorrow

This is an interesting story from my childhood. It may date back to around 18 years back that is around 1992 when I graduated from high school and about to enter the plus2 that is 11th and 12th, the two years spent before you get into undergrad.

An uncle of mine who is no longer in this world, came to my home to find out how I did in 10th class. This is a typical habit of the uncles of the neighborhood. In any case, he used to give me some good fundas.

While talking to me, as I was seated on a still scooter in my house ( I remember this very vividly), the uncle said, "Beta, remember one thing. The next two years are very crucial. In these two years, if you work like a donkey, you will live like a king after that. But if you live like a king in these two years, you will live like a donkey after that."

I really loved those words so much. What he effectively meant to say was that if you work hard in these two years, you will lead a great life later on. I think I took those words of the great man too literally.

I really worked like a donkey during those years. Fair enough, I got into the most premier technological institution of India, that is Indian Institute of Technology. All good about the donkey work in the two years. But the fact he missed out was that, once you work like a donkey in those two years, you will continue to work like a donkey throughout your life. Because now you are addicted to working like a donkey. So I continue to work like a donkey I guess :-) Whether it be for success. Whether it be for fame. Whether it be for money. Whether it be for peer pressure. Whether it be for reasons I dont know.

Dear uncle, I think I too much followed your wisdom. The thing I should have done was, I should have first defined success for me since this definition is very much context specific and can be defined specifically for individual. And in that context I should have carved out the donkey work. Now I am clueless what is success.

Well I just was thinking about the past as I am away from work and this story suddenly came to my mind.

Happy New Year

Waited and watched
As the turn of the time took me
Suddenly from one year to the next
From one decade to the other
As the moment clicked
Lots of hopes and lots of wishes
Started blossoming in the heart
As we look back,
So many thoughts keep crossing our minds
About the events
Some we are satisfied about
Some we wish happened differently
And some we wished did not happen
Life and time keep coming in a bag of varities
And it happens every year
year after year
Some of us will make resolutions and some will not
But at the innermost self,
we all want peace, love and happiness.
And these have no specific form.

May this year make your wishes true and may some of these wishes benefit you while all your wishes benefit the community around you.

One of the 3 Idiots says a very simple thing "Passion ko pursue kar, success to jhak maarti hui aa jaayegee".

We do not need a movie to tell that to us. We just need to remember the fundamental philosophy every moment, everyday as a new year year passes by, becomes an old year and we again wait for another new year with hopes, resolutions and excitement.

Motor Bike Ads

Does it really matter? Does it matter if the Ad shows risky postures? If I am a customer I think it doesnt matter to me. So, let me think from my perspective hence. Why do the motor bike folks dont get it?

The outrageous one is the latest Honda Bike Ad. Gosh!!. The biker there (Hrithik Roshan) literally drives the motorcycle through some Tsunami and cyclonic situation.

Ok!! Do you want to say that you can do this with the bike? Ofcourse not. Hence, there will be a footnote with font size 6 that says these are dramatized actions and do not try to imitate them. Then why the heck are you showing them? Its arrant stupidity in my opinion.

Why dont these guys get that I am rather interested in the clear and concise specifications of the motor bike? Why doesnt the bike manufacture dare to explain the specifications and boast them rather than driving through some tsunamis? It would help everyone in such a huge way wont it? How many times have we not got confused at the showroom where the agent almost succeeds in convincing us that he is selling us the moon?

Finally, I feel, the bike and car ads are ridiculously immature, outrageous and useless (from the information content point of view).

Thats my rambling of the day.

Happy Diwali

दिवाली की रात, आसमान के साथ
बनायी हमने फुलझडियों की रंगोली
जगमगा उठी हर दिशा, खिल उठी हर गली

Boating in the Ulsoor Lake

Today, the sunday was kinda interesting. In the afternoon, after lunch, we felt like we will do a little boating. How romantic :-) So we went to the Ulsoor lake to try the boating in the legacy lake of Bengaluru. Three options were available. The motor boat for 8-12 people was costing Rs. 20 per head while the couple's manual pedal boat was Rs. 80 without rooftop and Rs. 100 per head with rooftop.

From the moment we sat in the boat, all that was in mind was when will I get out. My wife complained that I spoiled the fun with my complaining, but I couldnt help it. :-)

The water was just so dirty that you cannot imagine until you actually go and sit in the boat. Oh my god. At some point, I was almost on the verge on puking. It is so green and viscous that I felt some diesel has gotten mixed with the water.

Once again, it reinforces my belief that we are just so good at screwing up our nice beautiful natural resources.

Another complaint session. Its fun complaining . Its in my nerves and the things around me get on my nerves.

You have to really take a boat ride to have a first hand experience how dirty the water there is.

For All the Egos Hurt

I really liked this article in Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/us/Would-Khan-have-fared-better-as-Kennedy/articleshow/4899589.cms

With news Channels airing the Shah Rukh Khan ordeal story 24 hours as if the world has come down, with Ambika Soni making knee-jerk comments (that shows how mature our ministers are. Old Age is on their side but definitely not the maturity), I wonder when will we wake up and shed our VIP disease?

It surprises me to hear even the younger generation talking complete rubbish on how the whole nation has been insulted etc.

Are we just too much egoistic ? Are we failing to get over the fact that everyone is equally likely to be questioned more? It just happened to be SRK this time?

Ahh!!! only pleasant thing in the middle of all this crap happening was a nice gesture by
P. Chidambaram to go and watch the World Badminton Championship sitting in the gallery. But again, if we were not stuck with this VIP culture and believed in equal treatment to everyone, we would not have even raised our eyebrow at this gesture of PC. But the very fact that we said,
"oh this is a nice gesture" shows that we do not expect this. That we expect PC to take special treatment. That is assumed.

And this assumption is the root of several evils.

Kanyakumari Trip

I cannot get over Kanyakumari.
The beautiful ocean view lingers in my mind
The thriving waves echo in my heart
The colors of the ocean paint my vision
A voice from the nature calls my soul

And this post gets delayed forever. My life has become hectic. I am not sure about what to give priority. Naturally, the one that does not pay but gives satisfaction got a backseat. It is around 12:50 in the night of a weekend. I am in front of my computer, staring at windows and suddenly got that urge to write with a delusive imagination that there definitely will be atleast one future reader : myself :-) And I am not sure if I will be able to complete it this time either.

And again a fortnight later, another attempt to add more details.

Introduction
Well. We had been planning for the kanyakumari for a long time. That beautiful image of southernmost tip of India used to linger in our minds. Finally, we decided to jump and go on a travel mission. This, we decided soon after we came back from Pondicherry.

Planning for the Trip
We looked at differen options of going to Kanyakumari. Naturally, two prime ones were by bus and by train. After some thought, we decided to go by train. Next was the search for the trains available. The train that we found was Kanyakumari. We went ahead and booked the tickets.

The Journey
I must say that Kanyakumari express is one of the slowest train and it can be extremely boring. The train left the Bangalore Central station in the night around 9:30 p.m. And it reached Kanyakumari only the evening of the next day. But the scenery of the journey is awesome. All over the journey were scenes of backwaters. What a heavenly sight it is.











At Kanyakumari

• Stay

We reached Kanyakumari around 6:00 p.m We had a booking at Vivekananda Ashram at Vivekananda Puram. We heard that it is a simple and inexpensive place and yet pretty good. So we wanted to try that out rather than a usual hotel. After getting down at railway station, we headed out for Vivekananda Puram in an auto rickshaw. Cost us Rs. 20. The station is around 2 kms from the Vivekananda Puram.

• Vivekananda Puram

We stayed in a small 2 bedroom accomodation. I must say that the room is pretty ordinary and like a hostel. But who cares? I didnt as loong as the environment is good. And we were not disappointed. The campus is awesome. It is quiet, simple and full of greenery. There were museum, temple, canteen etc. Even they have their own beach area.

• Sunrise
  

Vivekananda puram folks have their own beach from where sunrise could be enjoyed. So we woke early in the morning and walked through the nice garden of Vivekanandapuram and waited for the sun rise. I must say the sea was ferocious. The sunrise view was brilliant.

• Vivekananda Rock
  

There are ferries that take people to the rock. It feels like meditating here. The ferries take Rs. 20 per head to go to Vivekananda rock. It started raining as soon as we were about to catch the ferry. But thankfully, the clouds cleared. And we could enjoy the beauty on the rock.

• Other Places of Interest : Kumari Amman Temple, Wax Museum et al
  

Kumari Amman Temple is right on the shore. You have to drop off your cameras outside, open your shirts and then go in. Wax Museum is a place recently opened in Kanyakumari and hosts the wax statues of some celebrities.

• Return Journey
  

After two days of fantastic stay at Vivekanandapuram, it was time to bid adieu. The time was at around 10:00 a.m in the morning. A slow train, moving through the beautiful parts of the country. All along the route were backwaters, mountains and everything that make you dream and think "If I had a house here" :-)



The train finally reached Bangalore early in the morning.

• Epilogue

A great trip, a great place. Makes you feel like go back and enjoy the peace in the beauty of the Vivekanda Rock and the peace of Vivekananda Puram

CAG Flays Delhi Metro's Quality Control

Read this interesting article

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4790222.cms

Isn't a Deja Vu to read all the comments in the article?
How do we ensure that such things do not happen?
What is the guarantee that Bangalore Metro is not in the same boat?

Yesterday I was in an auto rickshaw. The auto was passing under the pillars on which slab has been placed in the MG Road section. To be honest, the only thought that was coming to my mind was "Is it going to come down on my head. Go auto go fast".

That is how our mind is working rather than creating a sense of pride.

And then we call this progress and anyone who protests the way early on are called enemies of progress and are silenced.

Only for system to wake up after the project is done and to make comments as are given in the article.

The solution is simple : The cost of negligence be made so much on the company that once an accident like this happens, it almost shuts down the company.

We tolerate too much.

High Court Contempt Notice to BMRC and BBMP

I read this in Times of India.

Contempt Plea:Notice to BMRC and BBMP Chiefs

Here lies the credibility of the our so called esteemed organizations like BMRC and BBMP that are supposed to develop India. I feel ashamed and so should every Indian.

I wonder why shouldnt one be punished for contempt. And particularly in these cases where the actions inviting these contempts are irreversible.

A tree cut in contempt cannot be brought back to life.
A pillar raised in contempt cannot come down.

I wonder about the strength of this contempt in the scheme of these things. I wonder as a simple, powerless India citizen.

Pondicherry Trip

Just came back from a weekend trip to Pondicherry. Will post everything here. It may be long. Hence it will come out in installments :-)



Journey to Pondicherry
We took the KSRTC (Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) bus from Bangalore. The bus takes around 6-7 hours to reach Pondicherry. We did the online reservation for the bus at http://ksrtc.in. Fortunately we got the reservation for the onward journey but did not get the reservation for the return. So the journey was kind of open ended. KSRTC bus volvo bus is kind of cluttered with less leg space. The bus left at around 2230 hours and reached Pondy at 5:30 in the morning. On the way the bus stopped at a coffee, restroom place where people could take whatever kind of break they need to. But most passengers prefer to continue sleeping. Right at 5:00 a.m, the bus driver started playing morning hymns at loud noise. And everyone jumped out of sleep. This was to alert the passengers that we are here at Pondy.

From Pondicherry bus stand to Place of stay
This was quite a drama. I am really waiting to see a place where the auto-rickshaw guys are calm, soft-spoken and charge the right amount. Well, you wont find them in Pondicherry. And if you are from bangalore, get ready to autos without meters. And in the absence of meters, get ready to be confused and shell out money. Soon after we landed, the auto guys surrounded us. When we said we want to go to Park Guest house, one of them said, ok it will Rs. 70. And we were clueless on what is the right amount. We said Rs. 50 and immediately one of them said ok fine. And there you go. We clearly made ourselves fools. It was hardly 3 kms to beach. It should not have been more than Rs. 25. Well we all learn. Park Guest House is on the beach and is run by Aurobindo Ashram it seems. We wanted to try a room there. Unfortunately they refused to do advanced reservation. And the reception office would not open before 7;00 a.m. So we decided to sit on the beach and watch the waves and wait for sun rise. The good thing was we could see the sun rise. We already had a booking done at French Villa but decided to try our luck. So when the Park Guest House office opened at 7:00 a.m, we went in and asked if there is room available. The person at reception said that we will have to wait till 10:00. Then we decided that there is no way we can wait for 3 more hours with bags on our back. So we went to French Villa.
And our dream to stay at Park Guest House on the beach remained unfulfilled.

Place of Stay in Pondicherry
There are several places to stay in Pondicherry. And all are pretty close to beach. All may not have beach view though. We stay at French Villa. But I would not recommend. Because it is very expensive and it does not deserve to be that expensive with the amenities it provides. The room rent was Rs. 1700 for a double bedded AC room. And I felt it should not be more than Rs. 500. Well, the only reason for its high price may be it location on a heritage walk street and proximity to beach. But so are other places. So it is worth checking prices of other places of stay. We couldnt since it was our first visit. May be in the next visit we will try some other place to stay. French Villa is 3 streets away from beach and neat street called Suffren Street. By the way, French Villa can give a 10% discount if you ask for it.

First Day Roming around
Sitting on the beach in the early morning and waiting for sun rise is a heavenly feeling. The roads are wide, clean and you can feel a fresh air. Thats how our stay at Pondicherry began. After freshening up at French Villa we decided to explore the city. But man, it is a hot city. At 8:00 a.m it was damn hot. Unimaginable. Good that we had our umbrella. Not to protect from rain but from sun. First, we went to Tourism office on Goubert Avenue. Gourbert Avenue is road adjoining the sea. The streets are so well planned that it is a fun walking on the streets of Pondicherry. From the tourism office, we got a map of the city and some information on landmark places. Then we decided to get some food since we were getting really hungry. The tourism office guy told us that there will be south india restaurant near Vinagar Kovil. So we decided to start our day by a visit to Shree Vinayagar kovil. Soon after the temple visit, as we came out, we saw Anand Adyar Bhavan right opposite the road. We enjoyed nice idli, dosa and coffee. But the restaurant was extremely crowded. And they take forever to serve your dish. But you cant help. Its a business at peak. It would be a great business to start another restraurant right there. :-) It was so hot outside that sitting inside the Anand Adyar Bhavan was bliss. After eating as we came out, we felt the furnace outside. Then we decided to go to Auroville and visit Matri Mandir. Auroville was around 10 km from Pondicherry beach area.

After waiting for bus and shared tempo services, we decided to take an auto. After a brief bargaining, we could get an auto for Rs. 110. But the journey to Auroville was like through a furnace. I almost felt roasted.

At Auroville
It took almost an hour to reach Auroville, while going through hot air. We asked for pass to visit Matri Mandir. Before getting a pass one has to watch a video. After watching the video we got the pass to visit Matri Mandir. But Matri Mandir can be viewed only from a distance of 200 meters. No one is allowed inside. One is allowed inside only to do meditation and one has to take permission couple of days in advance. After viewing from outside, we came back and had a simple meal at Auroville. There were exhibition shops etc. which were kind of expensive.



At Paradise Beach










From Auroville we went to paradise beach. The auto cost us around Rs. 220. They may charge higher but it could be bargained. At paradise beach, there were entry tickets and tickets as well if you want to use your camera. Once you are in, you have to purchase tickets for boats rides. Different kinds of boat rides are available. We took the "Beach Ride" that would take us via backwaters to the paradise beach where you see the sea. It was extremely hot there. After spending some time, we took a boat that would return back to where we boarded the boat.

Back to French Villa
The auto would charge around Rs. 150 but after bargaining it came at Rs. 120. It was time to take a small afternoon break from the hot sun.

Evening
After a short afternoon break, we spent the evening in walk around the beach. We sat for some time at Bharathi Park. In the evening it started drizzling. May be the rain gods got sympathetic to our condition of gettting roasted :-) In the night it rained heavily in Pondicherry. Since we were so tired by afternoon, we put the Aurobindo Ashram visit and museum visits to next morning.

Next Day
After a nice breakfast at Anand Adyar Bhavan, we first spent time at Aurobindo Ashram and then at Pondicherry Museum. It was a sunday. So, then we spent some time at market sicne sunday market is kind of special in Pondicherry. Then visited the Botanical Garden. But I was not impressed by Botanical garden. It did not seem to be maintained at all. Evening we spent time on the beach and visiting some handicrafts shops. The beach gets very crowded on sundays.

Pudumai
Pudumai is a beautiful and inexpensive handicrafts shop on the beach that is, on Goubert avenue. It is right next to Hotel Promenade. The stuff there seemed really reasonable. Other handicraft shops were closed since it was sunday. So that is another importan point. Surprisingly some shops in Pondicherry are closed on sundays. That is amusing to me.

Return to Bangalore
We were kind of tired and decided to find a bus directly to Bangalore rather that trying our original plan which was to come to Chennai via scenic East Coast Route and then try a bus from Chennai to Bangalore. There were no tickets available on KSRTC or PRTC (Pondicherry Road Transport Corporation). We tried some private travels as well. Finally we found 2 tickets on non-AC bus of S.R.S travels. It turned out that non-AC bus of S.R.S was much more spacious than the AC bus of KSRTC. I would not mind recommending S.R.S to people. But the only problem with these private travels is that you never where they will stop. But still the bus ride was fun enough. The S.R.S office is very close to the new bus stand of Pondicherry. The bus left at 10:30 p.m from S.R.S office and it reached Bangalore around 5:00 a.m.

Next time I visit Pondicherry, it will be not for tourism now but for Yoga or meditation.
Overall, a fun trip.

Key Points :

• Go with comfortable footwear. Otherwise your legs will hurt badly. Spongy and thick bathroom slippers are the best.
  
• Auto guys are notorious in the sense of overcharging. So keep bargaining.
  
• Most of the beautiful part of Pondicherry is walkable. The streets are beautiful and well planned so you know where exactly you are.
  
• Take sun screen with you.
  
• Take Odomos if you are going to sit on the Beach.
• There is a friday night train from Yeshwantpur to Pondicherry.
  
• There is a saturday night train from Pondicherry to Yeshwantpur.

Will add more if I remember anything.

Elections Verdict

Wrote it. Then got lazy. And then the delayed post.

What an election it was. I was glued to the TV sets for the whole weekend. All kinds of predictions were in the air.

At the end of the day, I was very happy. I was reassured. Happy that the people of this country unanimously voted for stability. Voted for securalism.

Can we say the electorate has matured? That is too far fetched. But whatever happened has has happened for good.

At least, the government now has a position where it cannot be blackmailed by every Tom Dick and Harry. And all those TDHs have been shown the real door.

And as I say, in a democracy one has to take a stand.

So people did take stand.

And hence went Vaiko out. People did not want an extremist who just does all kinds of talking. people had more important things to worry about at home.

And hence went TRS out. People must have thought that my children, my well being is much more important. And what KCR is doing is just his personal fight. Even he may not be sure if he wanted Telegana or not.

Out went Chiranjeevi. And with it went the caste based. And out went the caste based politics in Uttar Pradesh. And the SPs and BSPs with it.

Sooner the people of this country realize that caste, creed, religion have not gotten anyone anywhere, we will have better and better elections and the ones where we can be proud of each other.

Lok Raj Andolan

I saw the following from Arvind Kejriwal's blog on CNN IBN.

www.lokrajandolan.org

Fantastic Poem by Dushyant Kumar

This poem is in Hindi. Always inspires me. This is by the great poet named Dushyant Kumar.

हो गयी है पीर पर्वत सी पिघलनी चाहिए
इस हिमालय से कोई गंगा निकलनी चाहिए

आज यह दीवार परदों की तरह हिलने लगी
शर्त लेकिन थी की ये बुनियाद हिलनी चाहिए

हर सड़क पर हर गली में हर नगर हर गाँव में
हाथ लहराते हुए हर लाश चलनी चाहिए

सिर्फ़ हंगामा खड़ा करना मेरा मकसद नहीं
सारी कोशिश है की ये सूरत बदलनी चाहिए

मेरे सीने में नहीं तो तेरे सीने में सही
हो कहीं भी आग लेकिन आग जलनी चाहिए

-- By Dushyant Kumar