Immortalised in my heartbeat

I was never a good writer,
Probably will never be..
Spoken, words die, though
And I want them as immortal as her beauty.
There was no awkwardness of the first time,
No nervousness betrayed.
Our bond had grown,
In a week that felt like a decade.
Even as we made love, I prayed
Would rather cut my heart out than separate.
Smoky as her kajal was our future, too.
All thinking I drove out of mind, though
Moments in her arms too precious to lose.
Laughed, kissed n cried,
Living desperately the emotions of a lifetime.
Father Time was unrelenting, mother waited angrily at home,
Desperately clung on to the hours, minutes and seconds,
Never wanting to let go.

Even written words disappear.
Paper turns to ashes.
Where the wind takes it, there our love, too, goes...
I trust not the writer, though,
words be only as good as its creator.
And so Immortalised it instead,
In my every heartbeat.

The Fake Indian

Just when I’m about to log out of my FB account I come across a breaking news. Yet another gang rape. In Mumbai now. A 22 yr old photographer. By five men.

Four or five years back, I would probably have felt enraged. Clicked on the link and read the article in full detail, silently express my rage. Curse the men who did it.

Not anymore. They say India will never cease to amaze you. But in this aspect, it has. Every new rape case, for me, is just a reminder of how some things will just never change in our country. That it’s a country full of hypocrites only, who worship goddesses like Lakshmi and Kali in the day, and become Ravanas in the night. Actually, wait. My bad... Even Ravana respected Sita when he kidnapped her. Not these animals.

Hypocrites. Seems too clichéd a word to describe my fellow citizens. It doesn't seem too powerful a word either, to express what I have in mind. For lack of a better, stronger word let me stick with it.

Let me start by rewinding close to a decade back. Bangalore it is. The peak of the IT boom. A woman by the name Pratibha gets raped and murdered.

As a teen, this was the first time I personally noticed outrage among people. Calls for better public security were made. More protection for women deemed necessary. Companies respond. Introduce more security for those travelling in cabs. Women shall not be dropped last, smart login facilities in the cabs, and more.

The government responds too. Not by better policing; but by banning women in midnight shifts. The message? We can't protect you, go hide instead.

Nothing uncommon in our country. Safety first, our elders teach us. And so we believe. We believe the lies that have been fed for generations now.

Safety first may have worked at first. So well that it convinced its advisors of its infallibility. Conveniently, it was also the perfect excuse to avoid responsibility.

It has evolved into a mass delusion today. A delusion that as long as you hide, you are safe. It may work initially, but ultimately it will fail. As the saying goes, you can run but you can't hide.

It is a disgusting delusion. People sit quietly as girls around them left, right and centre get hurt. Not just fathers but mothers too. Always blaming the girl for not taking enough precaution. Convinced of the righteousness of their sons.

It is all a part of being Indian. Being Indian means being adjustable.This adjustment phenomena may be poked fun of in underwear ads, but it goes much deeper than that.

We Indians have always found comfort in adjustment, even taking pride at it sometimes. I've never understood that. What is in reality our failure to solve a problem we pass off as adjustment. For 60 plus years we have done that. Now it’s time to pay the price.

A month or so back, I came across this song by the Manic Street Preachers. It said, "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next".

How perfectly that line fits the current situation in our country. Our parents and their parents tolerated it during their time and now, we, their kids, will pay the price.

It’s not this that disgusts me. They may have had reasons to stay silent when this problems of rape started budding, but they certainly shouldn't now. Instead, they are busy brainwashing another generation about the benefits of adjustment, breeding another generation of monsters along with it.

People may curse and call for strict punishment when they hear of new rape cases, but fail to realize the role they themselves are playing in the occurrence of such incidents. They will call for stricter punishment, but completely ignore the reason why this menace continues to plague the country.

Guys may call for the rapists' heads to roll, but won't stop dominating over their own sisters. They enjoy movies where the girl is always forced to seek a hero to rescue her, permanently accepting that a girl is always weak, and needs a rescuer every time she is in trouble.

How many will get her to take self-defence classes instead? Or buy her pepper spray? Anything, in fact, for her to protect herself? Or even more conveniently, they will get her married off, blaming her youth as potential invitation for trouble and eager to wash themselves of the responsibility to protect her.

It is this kind of attitude that will make obsolete any law we bring in to deter rapists. Both the media and the public keep harping about how tougher laws are needed to deter rapists. But will it work in a country like ours? There are lakhs of rape cases pending in the country, many pending for years or decades; how will rapists be deterred? As long as the perception of women as weak is not changed, there will be no deterrence for rapists, change whatever you will.

Take into account the police too. A majority of them again have a chauvinistic attitude towards rapes. We have heard plenty about policemen themselves involved in rapes, or dealing in an equally disgusting manner with rape victims. Will bringing in harsher punishment be enough to deter these law enforcers themselves?

Women have also become easy targets to express men’s frustrations. Among men of socio-economic class, they not only get to exert their male dominance, it becomes an outlet for other economic frustration too. For the upper-class men, it is a way to continue to remind women that however ‘modern’ they might appear to be, they will always be a level below men.

Then of course, there is marital rape to consider. And rape by family members themselves, who mostly go unpunished as the fear of losing public ‘prestige’ is too great for other members to even consider the pain of the victim.

With such bigger problems to solve, is it really going to be enough to bring in harsher punishment? It is time we simply went along with the chorus, but also actually reflect on the causal problems. And not just reflect on it but also act on it.

If this menace is to be eradicated, the change needs to start with our mindset and attitude, not just voicing out loud public opinions to look good in front of others. And time will tell if we have been honest to ourselves. After all, there really is no escaping this menace.... if you tolerate this, then your children will be next indeed.

YOU built this wall

You built this wall willingly

You lined its concrete menacingly

Quickly its height grew around you

Thickest around the people who crossed you.

Two strikes and out, was the one rule.

No step-backs and compromises from you.

Every day it grew,

Every moment a brick laid in.

The bigger you grew, the longer it stretched,

Now no one cares

In this big black world,

And you're all alone to face it.

Riya

Even in this messy world
There are people U encounter
Who simply have the power
To push ur stagnant life out of the quagmire.
A welcome breath of fresh air they are,
After months of rotting away in loneliness.
N so we come to miss riya soni.
With a stalker behind her,
She's definitely miss popularity.
Her fudge cake skills, although,
Have a much more decent following.
At just 20,
She's developed way beyond her years,
Sometimes leaving U bewildered,
Sometimes merely stunned.
An adventure freak, she's more than just a pretty face
with her skydiving and paragliding,
She definitely ain't a delicate darling.
Scandalising people on fb walls and theatre halls,
Make sure ur strong enough to handle her.
Stick through it, however,
And see ur world turned around for the happier.
An actress she wants to be..
(she's already there, if U ask me)
You get the feeling she's not kidding,
Or being just another wannabe.
As long as she's a lifelong foodie with me,
I don't care for much else really.
But being the great gal that she is,
I wish she ends up where she really wants to be.
And so,
Celebrating her birthday belately today,
Here's 3 cheers to miss Riya Soni!

A fairy tale for a Prince

When Yuvraj Singh steps on to the pitch against Afghanistan on September 18, 2012, he will be completing one of the most remarkable comebacks the cricketing and sporting world in general will have seen. Perhaps fittingly, it will also be a World Cup, just like his previous tournament for India.

Just a year earlier, on an operating table, getting treated for lung cancer, it would have been hard for Yuvraj himself to even think about getting back on to a cricket ground. Diagnosed with a rare tumour between his lung and heart, few would have given him a chance.

But his comments throughout the worrying period showed the world he was not about to give up easily. He made it clear he would battle the disease with all his might, even if it took everything out of him. His fighting spirit got him through the traumatic chemotherapy treatment.

By Yuvraj's own admission, the symptoms of cancer first showed during the 2011 World Cup itself. It is a mark of his strength and his passion and also his determination to not let down a billion fans that he continued to play the tournament. He did not just play but excelled enough to be named the Player of the Tournament, leading India to an historic World Cup win.

There’s a popular saying in Hindi that goes, “Zindagi ke uttar chadhaav mein jiyo vishwaas ke saath” (Life is full of ups and downs, live through it with confidence). Yuvraj’s actions have proved every word true of that saying true.

Almost as remarkable as his recovery is his quick return to international cricket. Yuvraj is not the first cricketer to be diagnosed with cancer, of course. The likes of Michael Clarke, Geoffrey Boycott and Dave Callaghan also suffered from various types of cancer during their cricketing careers. But these were among the very few to successfully survive the deadly disease. Many others like Malcolm Marshall, Frank Worrell and Ken Wadsworth succumbed to it. In that context, Yuvraj's triumphant battle against cancer would make any fan tremendously happy.

Yuvraj's form was very poor just before the World Cup, with many even questioning his value to the team. It is almost like the cancer spurred him on unconsciously, as he went on to score over 350 runs and picked 15 wickets to lead India to the title.  As an Indian fan, we can only salute his commitment to the team and wish him a lot more success, on the cricketing ground.

Debunking the Anna campaign

So there we go…. Indian of the Year…again ! Congratulations, Hazare-ji. First awarded so by NDTV(shared with Arvind Kejriwal) and now by CNN-IBN. Adds to a long list of achievements by Anna. The previous and more prestigious ones, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan were undoubtedly deserved, for transforming Ralegaon Siddhi and bringing in other social reforms.

 But what about the last two ? ‘Indian of the Year’ by two media companies… Completely deserved, many would say, taking into account the happenings of the year. At first glance, it would appear so. Fasting 3 times in a year for the passage of the Lokpal Bill would certainly be worthy of such recognition. But when that recognition comes from media companies, who made tens of crores in advertisement revenues thanks to the continuous, over-hyped and sensationalized coverage of the campaign, it seems worthless. And ‘Indian of the Year’ ? In a land of 1.2 billion people, is it that easy to give the award to just one or two persons ? True, Anna has brought the country together, but to what ends ? For the passage of one Bill, many others have been put on hold for more than a year ! Right to Education, Food Security Act and important other economic reforms included.

Moving on, lets talk about the campaign itself. This whole idea of black-mailing the UPA government to get the Lokpal Bill passed. Why do we need Parliament then ? People compare him to Gandhi. But they forget, Gandhi and millions of other Indians fought for Independence from an external colonial power. However corrupt the present and earlier Governments have been, it would be prudent on our part to remember that the Constitution and the Parliament are the two most powerful weapons we citizens have. Claims of Anna being bigger than Parliament are made. Really ? Can one man have more power than the collective voice of 350 million people who vote every 5 years ?

I’ve heard people counter-argue that why should we wait 4 years to take action on errant representatives ? I’d say that’s a punishment for our failure to vote the right people in. And lets not hide behind the excuse of no good candidates being available. Less than half the urban population votes in elections. Yet, we are the first to make excuses. Here’s where Anna could actually have stepped in and made a much bigger difference. He and India Against Corruption group claim to have the support of 25 crore people. If they contested in the Parliamentary elections and if even half of that 25 crore voted for them, they would be able to win anywhere between 300-400 seats. Enough for a whopping majority no party has achieved in decades. Anna may use his excuses again to not enter politics. But as he himself will tell you, to clean something, you got to get your hands dirty. We need long-term solutions. Otherwise, the Lokpal Bill will turn out to be a mere placebo than the miracle pill we are all hoping it will be.

In the end, let me make this clear. I’ve nothing against the passage of the Lokpal Bill. I’d be really glad when that happens. But not at the cost of making a mockery of our Parliamentary system and democratic values that so often marvels everyone in the world, except ourselves.

From kamasutra to kama-asuras

In the land of the kamasutra,
in the land of the Apsaras,
in the land of Rama and Sita,
are now the Ravanas and Kaurvas.
In the land where half naked women used to feel safe,
even burqa clad girls are raped.
From the land of Gandhi,
we are now in the fiefdom of Thackeray.
From silent protesters,
to silent sufferers.
This is an India,
no freedom fighter envisioned,
yet every modern woman experiences.