Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.
-- Swami Vivekananda
That's the title on CNN IBN by the way. Its all exit poll time, bookie time and speculation time. The world's largest elections are just over for the world's largest democracy. The elections that took a month to finish. Millions of people participated. Hats off to Election Commission for the fantastic hard work. Hats off to Police for their hard work in maintaining law and order.
As I kept on following the elections, I kept wondering if we are getting more and more divided. May be I am wrong. And I want to be wrong. But am I wrong? All discussions were very much based on divisions. All questions were centered around divisions. I could hear loud and clear, the following noises :
Who are the Patels going to Vote for? Congress or Narendra Modi?
How are the Dalits going to vote for Mayawati?
How are muslim votes going to be shaped? For Congress? For Mulayam Singh?
How is Congress doing among SC and STs?
Who is more genuine in their Eelam support? Jayalalitha? Karunanidhi? Vaiko?
Who will give Chandrasekhar Rao his separate state of Telangana?
Who will help them in North Bengal to get a separate Gorkha Land?
How will Chiranjeevi fair amongst Kapu community?
I shudder at the above questions. It makes me sad. It makes me nervous? Is this new? Or is it what that has defined India for centuries? Is it what the people want? What is more important for people? If the religion, caste, class is more important for people, then being a democracy, that is how the elections are going to be shaped.
I wish one party comes up and says "Thats it. Our agenda is united India where there is no division based on religion, class, caste. Our only agenda is clean society, honest society, equal opportunity for all". It is going to be a very difficult agenda. And I want to see people's responses.
I dream of the day where the agenda is only one thing : India and uplifting the masses of this country.
My dream is to see a political party that says : "I will support whoever comes to power if it helps stabilize the country".
Till then, the struggle continues. The horse trading continues. Several fronts will be formed. Several non-entities will be given unnecessary importance. The jokers in politicians will continue to amuse the people of this country. The people will cry within themselves while they externally laugh at the jokers.
But how can a change come if the people who complain give all kinds of excuses for not voting? Well, in a democracy, you have to take a stand.
And remember ! In a democracy, you get what you deserve. Unfortunate? But true. You have the option to speak, fight, stand up, struggle, being ridiculed for wasting time and so on.
On May 9, 2009, there was supposed to be a question and answer session with the Managing Director (MD) of BMRCL at Nanda Road. We woke up early in the morning and reached Nanda Road by 8:00 a.m. As we reached, we saw several enthusiastic people already there with several posters that read "Vote For Trees", "Save Trees" etc. with pictures of trees that were hand drawn.
There were also some posters that said "We Support Metro" with pictures of the faces of the presidents, secretary etc. of some organizations.
We all started chanting "Ulisi Ulisi Nand Road Ulisi", "Sarisi Sarisi Metro Saris", "Beke Beku Nyaaya Beku" etc. After a little while we came to know that the MD of BMRCL has arrived. So I was hoping that the interactive session would start. I was kind of excited about this. But pretty soon we realized that a group of people surrounded the MD and did not let him talk to us at all. Among these people, some faces that could be seen were the MLA, some office bearers of Federation of Jayanagar Residents Association etc. That was bizarre and insulting.
Why do you have avoid the bunch of peaceful protestors? Were they worried that they have no answers to difficult questions? Whatever the reason was, their gesture was demeaning, insulting and undemocratic. But we were also not willing to give up. We kept on speaking on the loudspeaker and kept urging the MD to address us. MLA was answerable to the public. MD of BMRCL was answerable to the public. Even police did not allow us to move closer to him. This clearly shows what can you expect from Police.
After 3 hours of relentless persistence, we heard the MD will address us. Did he have any other options? If he didnt, our next move was to go directly to MLA's house. People were fed up for being taken for granted.
Now started the most disappointing moment. Environmentalist Mr. Leo Saldanha first asked about the zig-zag nature of Metro for which MD gave some answers. After this, the MLA Vijay Kumar wanted to say something. When Leo was telling about how even Mr. Vijay Kumar supported us in the past, suddenly some bullies started shouting. Even Mr. Vijay Kumar started shouting. For a moment, I started thinking if I am in the middle of the hooligans who are with the MLA. One of the hooligans was shouting in a threating manner towards Leo.
The other person was Mr. Keshava Kumar. He is supposedly the secretary of the Federation of Jayanagar Residents Association. But the way he was behaving himself reminded me of some roadside hooligan. His gesture of showing his index finger towards a young lady was so shameful. And by the way, this is my first hand eye witness account.
And we call ourselves democratic where these kind of goondaism behaviors are acceptable?
Next disappointing moment was that the MD and his group spent hardly an hour with us. For such a huge project which is worth almost Rs. 9000 crores, dont the public have the right to ask questions? How long can we remain passive in this country?
The MD and his group hardly answered a question or two and left. Several questions remained unanswered.
Prof. B K Chandrasekhar, ex minister addressed the crowd as well.
Several questions remain unanswered. In a democracy people have to take a stand. Based on an informed decision.
Otherwise, we will be a perennially complaining citizenry, complaining about how things are bad in our society. So we should rather step up and do whatever we can so that we can atleast say "I tried".
I was uninitiated to the campaign to Save Lalbagh and save the environment. But after I looked into certain stuff, I decide to take part in this campaign.
The Bangalore temperatures have gone up. It has been extremely hot this summer for sure. By the way, Bangalore International Airport has come up. Bangalore Metro is being built.
We are getting modernized. We are developing. Hurray!!!
But in the middle of all these, someone is getting massacred. The ones which give life to us. But we refuse to acknowledge. The ones which give us peace. But we refuse to acknowledge. The ones that protect us from flooding. But we refuse to acknowledge.
And those are the precious and valuable trees of Bangalore. The tree that have been the heritage of this beautiful city. The trees that played a significant role in getting this city to be called beautiful. The tress that played a role in getting this city called air-conditioned city.
But here we are, human beings, once again back with our stupidity and our desire to not value what we have, our inability to respect and appreciate our wealth of environment, hell-bent to cut these trees, massacre them. Because, we need development. Development through destruction. Destruction of our live provider and the life provider for several other species.
Well, in such a case, here are the things we can do
We sit idle and complain few years from now on how the city has become polluted and has become hotter and so on. And blame it on some dishonest folks. But who lost? We.
Alternatively, we put in our effort without worrying whether we will succeed or we lose. But we know that we listened to our hearts and decided to act in a way that our future generations would look up to us and not as cheats
If we want to put in our efforts to stop blatant murder of our beautiful environment in the garb of development, start participating. Join the folks who are spearheading this effort to save Namma Bengaluru.
Posting after a long time. It has been quite boring few months. Well, I hurt my back while trying to do some exercise. And pretty much have been very busy with work. Or so am I trying to show.
Life been centered quite around work. Will need a break.
Have also been thinking about in whose hands is this country going to be after a elections. I pity ourselves, the poor Indians who have so awful options when it comes to vote.
Isnt it such an irony that our manifestos sound like the following : 1. Rice, Dal free 2. Color TV free 3. Temple will be built 4. Need to have Maharashtrian PM
We think that people become mature with age. But definitely our old politicians are becoming senile. They just do not have a vision. PERIOD.
Well, I am thoroughly enjoying watching NDTV and CNN IBN and TimesNOW these days. The debates are hilarious. You feel like, oh my god, this guy or woman is going to rule this country?
Say I Am , the silent and performative protest walk that I talked about two days back, happened this afternoon. This was organized by the students of Shristi School of Art, Design and Technology. The walk started from the Rest House Park. The crowd expected was not much. But to a pleasant surprise of everyone, it was almost around 200. We too joined in the protest march. There is something that has started giving every citizen of this country an uncomfortable feeling about the state of affairs. Well, that is for another day. We started walking from the Rest House Road park towards the brigade. We all put couple of placards on our shoulders and chests. The placards said, "I am an India Man", "This is my culture" etc. As we moved on, the crowd started taking notice of the group. And the onlookers were also encouraged to join. We took same stops at certain locations like Barton center etc. to express our freedo m in whatever way we wanted.
As we moved, suddenly we saw police. People must have started thinking, "oh there you go". But the police seemed to be very cooperative and they did not harass the silent walkers. But they did not let us enter the cubbon park. So we had to park at the signal there.
The beauty of today's world is, media is everywhere. And it is purely because of media that bigger segment of people come to know about activities like these. There were folks from TV9, Kasturi, TimesNow, Hindu etc.
On saturday we went to Khadi India 2009. Khadi India 2009 is happening at Gayathri Vihar at the Palace Grounds. Pretty neat event. It is happening from Feb 4, 2009 to March 5, 2009. So catch a glimpse if you can and get some nice khadi goodies.
Catch a bus from Majestic towards Mekhri Circle and get down at Palace grounds bus stop. It is right opposite to Gayathri Vihar entrance.
It seems there will be cultural events in the evenings too.
In light of the recent violence that took place against women in Mangalore and the statements that were made thereafter, its time to say, I am. Indian culture is being defined, strained and subverted by many elements other than ourselves. In an attempt to induce the spirit of freedom, choice and non-violence we invite people from all spheres to join us on a walk on Sunday, the 8th of February, 4 pm onwards. "I am an Indian, this is my culture" is the initial adopted slogan that we hope people will wear in the form of tags or banners. The walk will start from Rest House Road Park, through brigade road, MG road and end at Cubbon Park. There will be two stops on the way, one at Levis Square on brigade road and the other at Barton centre on MG road. During these pauses (that will last about 5 to 10 minutes) and at the end of the walk at Cubbon Park every participant will get into any position that they feel most free in (sit/stand/lean/crouch/lie etc.) as a symbol of disapproval of the occurrence of violence and curbing the freedom of expression. We speak of development and progress, but the struggle for basic freedom and acts of appalling violence, raise the question- Where is India headed? Join us to collectively declare our diverse culture.
Please forward this email along with the attachment to as many people who you think might be interested.
"Dear user, please note that voter registration forms will be accepted from Feb 10 instead of Feb 2 at your ERO's office."
By the way, go ahead and get help on voter registration etc. at http://www.jaagore.com
It seems that we all really have to register and vote so that we ensure that the completely misguided groups like Shri Ram Sene etc. and their supporters like BJP (sorry Advani ji. I like you but I think BJP may not be anymore of what you stand for) are made aware about where they will stand if they try to weaken the cultural fabric of this country with their blatant hypocrisy and their religious bigotry.
Lok Sabha elections are near. There already has been an increase in registrations. I hope many more youth will register in an effort to save the country and make it an ever secular and kind country.
I am scared and worried writing this letter to you. I am worried that, after this letter is received, if I will be beaten up or harassed by the custodians of Hindu culture. I am worried if BJP/Shree Ram Sena/Bajrang Dal/MNS or any other "messengers" of god will harass me or my family.
But nevertheless, I will write believing Shakespeare who said " A coward dies many times before his death. The valiant never taste of death but once".
As a responsible citizen of India, I am disturbed by what has happened in Mangalore recently. I am horrified to see the violence on women who were peacefully having a good time. The so called custodians of Hindu culture not only proved they are uncultured rowdies, they also brought a despicable reputation to this country in front of the whole world showing how narrowminded they are. The world will think how narrow minded India is. Fortunately, Hindu religion has faced several brutalities throughout history and came out triumphant purely because of its all emcompassing kindness and love. I am proud to have embraced hinduism that teaches love and kindness. And these hoodlums cannot taint it.
But, as a responsible citizen and an incumbent of the government, it becomes your responsibility to ensure safety to your citizens and and deliver justice to the victims. You cannot wash your hands off by making token arrests. The onus is on your government to prove to your citizens that your government and your party are indeed different.
The hoodlums of Shree Ram Sena have broken the law and it becomes the responsibility of your government to ensure that they are quickly tried according to law book. If they had organizational support, it becomes your reponsibility to ensure that their organization is tried according to law book.
You may be happy that you came to power. Please do keep in mind that you did not come to power because it was your prerogative. It was because people were tired of hopelessness from the previous government. They wanted a change that would give them hope.
It is your actions that are going to define who you are , what your party is and what your government stands for. If no action is taken, it will be construed as pure incapability and connivance and people will be justified in considering BJP as nothing but a rowdy party. Even if BJP has nothing to do with Shree Ram Sena, if history is anything to believe in, then people are justified in associating any violence happening in the name of Shree Ram with BJP's role in it. And the onus is on your government to disprove it.
If you think you have done whatever is possible and give up without concretely ensuring that we bring closure on this issue, please be sure that people of this country will have no other option but to think that BJP is an endangered party and will ensure that they will never vote for BJP. That will have impact on the national scene as well. The whole country is watching. And Indians are not fools. As for me, I am pretty sure that I am never going to vote for the party, which, until a few years back was a refreshing change for me. And that is BJP. Just imagine how many like me you might be creating who are just fed up with narrowminded religious banality.
I will finish this note with a quote from Swami Vivekananda :
"All nations have attained greatness by paying proper respect to women. That country and that nation which do not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future."
Last Thursday, Lasantha Wickramatunga, who was fifty-two-years-old and the editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper called the Sunday Leader, was assassinated on his way to work by two gunmen riding motorcycles. The Leader's investigative reporting had been fiercely critical of the government and of the conduct of its war against Tamil separatists; Wickramatunga had been attacked before.
What a beautiful sunday december afternoon today Sweet gentle breeze is blowing all around Doesn't feel like a winter at all I stand outside my balcony and look at the sky It is azure! It is serene !It is clear I close my eyes and feel the wind I feel the serenity around and the peace I feel like going by the lake side And just meditate!sit quietly and do nothing It is such a heavenly feeling Makes me think That nature has always been beautiful It is onto us to maintain it and nurture it And keep it beautiful In return it keeps us peaceful creative and happy
They may not be my relatives. They may not be my best friends. But still they were my friends, my brothers and my sisters. We were all related by our country, our motherland India. And when I heard their horror stories , their trauma, their suffering for three days, I could feel it. I could feel the pain within me. At moments, my throat would choke. My eyes would fill with tears. Why are these beautiful, peace loving innocent people of this beautiful country going through such a traumatic punishment?
I saw the story of the son calling his father and asking him to turn on TV to see what is happening and then bidding him good bye.
I saw the story of little Moshe being rescued only to be informed a few years later that he was orphaned during the bloodiest terror strikes on the beautiful Indian soil.
I saw a choked person explaining on NDTV how he has lost six members of his family while he went to park a car in the parking lot at CST railways station.
And there are many more stories. Initially there is pain in everyone’s hearts. And then comes the outrage, the anger that says enough is enough. Is it surprising anymore? Is it surprising that people have completely lost their faith and hope in the establishment that is responsible for their security so that they can do well and pay taxes and take the country forward? People have tolerated it for too long. For too many times. The anger and outrage were quite evident this time. And it was clear that people will tolerate, rhetoric and routine bullshit from the establishment. Those who tried the routine rhetoric and playing down exercise had to face the heat and will face it much more strongly if they do not understand. Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh, R.R. Patil et al.
Is the whole political establishment getting mindless?
How mindless can you be to say Badi Badi shehron mein chhoti baatein hoti hai?
How mindless can you be to announce Rs. 1 crore for soldiers died fighting the terrorists while their families and the whole country are still mourning?
How mindless can you be to achieve political mileage by visiting the house of Late Sandeep Unnikrishnan? So is it surprising to see the behavior of Sandeep’s father? My father would have done the same thing.
Even as we are struck in the middle of an awful security crisis, our politicians are behaving worse than children. And they are blaming the media for antagonizing the people against them?
As a citizen of India who was excited to vote, I am no longer interested in voting at all. Because I do not see alternatives. I do not see anyone worth my choice. It will be an insult to my judgement. What were Mr. Advani and Rajnath Singh doing by not attending the all-party meet? Campaigning? Don’t they realize that they have completely antagonized the people with their behavior. That was such a foolish move. People were expecting them to show up and reassure their citizens that we are all united in this difficult hour. They could have shown their camaraderie by being constructive and suggesting concrete changes. They could have shown their leadership. These were the real moments where they could have displayed leadership and responsibility. But they didn’t. Because they didn’t care.Is that the behavior of a leader that L.K Advani claims himself to be? And they expect our votes?
Hence, here we are, the people of India, in a quagmire. Left with no options to vote. Because no one deserves our vote.We are outraged, we are angered. We are kind of feeling hopeless unless we take concrete action where a common citizen has more role to play than mere voting.
This is the moment, may be, when we think of redefining our constitution. Where, we make sure that our vote goes to one who well deserves it. The one who shows to the world, our love, our might and our pride.
This is the moment, may be, when each one us starts thinking each of us as a part owner of this country, beyond tax paying and voting. And the first ownership we should display begins from who we choose to head our country and thus demanding accountability on a very determined and regular basis from them.Thats a pledge we must take.
I hope this really is the beginning of a movement, a people’s movement where each one of us will participate in.
I hope I really do not forget and get into my comfortable 8 hours job.
I hope I start dedicating a part of my life towards a better India.
I hope whenever I am disappointed I will get back my motivation by thinking about the great sacrifices that the heroes have made.
And every one is asking : How can I contribute? How can I get out of my cocoon? How can I make sure things are not taken for granted?
"Shaver Set Sir..." "Imported Leather Purses..Imported Leather Purses..."
"Can I have a minute?...I am not a Sales Person Sir..."
This is what I face every day while walking up and down road between my house and office. And my response is similar :
"Sorry... I am in a rush..."
And everytime I tried to listen, it has been severely disappointing.
But it seems, that has made a negative impact on me finally. Or rather was about to make an impact that I always wanted it not to. About to because, I finally did not commit the grave mistake. The grave mistake of not helping a person who was genuinely looking for help.
This morning while I was walking to my office, I was approached by a person carrying a similar file that those representatives carry. I thought to my myself "Damn they are starting so early huh." Because it was really early in the morning at 7:30 a.m. And in my typical response, I said " Sorry I am in rush." Was I in rush? Absolutely no. But that is my only way to avoid hearing the crap.
And after I said I am in rush, he did not try to pursue and started walking away. And to my horror I realized that he was not someone advertising. He was merely looking for direction. I sincerely apologized to him and gave him the directions. After giving the direction, I again apologized to him for the my mistake.
I kinda goofed. But I was also happy that this event reminded me of my own commitment that I will deal every event on a case by case basis and not generalize and not act on a general perception ever.
I was happy that I did not commit the mistake. Otherwise I would have felt really upset.
Moral : Do not generalize ever. Always listen before making a decision.
Well!! That was the question posed on IBN Live news channel yesterday. A very interesting question indeed. Suddenly Obama is a role model that every country wants to produce and every channel wants to discuss and debate upon.
Oh by the way I have been myself thoroughly impressed and inspired by the kindness, humility and openness of Obama movement who quite expectedly became a phenomenon by touching the hearts of the people where it soothes and reassures the most.
Coming to the question, I feel every nook and corner of India has produced Obama at the grassroots movement. The problems and intricacies of India have produced several Obamas.
There are so many names that come to my mind.
Who in this country does not know Kiran Bedi? She touches the same chord when people think of her.
How about Aruna Roy? The architect of Right to Information How about Medha Patkar? How about Baba Amte? And there are several others.
There are several leaders in this country tirelessly working for the oppressed.
Our political system is so established that you have to work in a party system and it is such a catch 22 quagmire. Number one is, you cannot join any of the existing parties because they are so rotten. At this moment, when the elections come, good God, I cannot even think of who to vote? BJP? Congress? JD(S), CPI(M)? I just cannot think of anyone. I am pretty confident that there may be good people in these parties like some diamonds in the ocean. But they hardly make a difference.
And then, when someone thinks of starting a party, do they get money backing? people backing? encouragement? Rarely. The first question that comes to mind is, "ahh!! why the hell do they want to start a party? must be some evil intentions". This is because people are tired of the filth in the politics in India. People are tired of divisive politics. Tired of caste politics. Tired of language politics. We ask, are we moving towards a mature democracy or an immature one?
And the real leaders of this country today rather work in the small pockets and make real differences there without entering the big picture of politics.
So, I feel we have several leaders. I will not call them Obamas. Rather I wonder if Obama got inspired by them. The bottomline is, I get inspired by both.
There needs to be a movement and an upheaval and may be there will be one when the cumulative goodness that believes in no separation, that believes in unity, that believes in inclusion, that believes in healing, to stand up and take on the onus of cleaning the filth.
And when we will be proud to say : We are Democratic!! We are Mature. And many Seema Goyals need not have to go on record on TV saying "I am not proud of my country".
