Lost in the Ambiguities of My Times

.......Don't Walk Away When the Nation is Burning........

2009-04-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

"Don't Walk Away.......Don't Walk Away,
When the Nation is Burning........
When the Heart is Yearning.........
Don't WALK AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"..- ...

These words,they suddenly made me realize that although I was sometimes potent enough to take on some of the challenges that civic life in India faces,problems against whom my education protests,injustice against which my heart bleeds,I HAVE NOT DONE SO.I ,with my middle class cowardliness,have sought solace in the fact that I lead a satisfactory life making Compromises that all common Indians do.I have against my own judgment avoided paths of confrontation allowing everything from bandhs and corruption to freely breed in our nation.Whenever I have felt the necessity to protest,I have found myself being pulled back by family,by well wishers,by friends.They have felt their compassion for me stand in the way of my need to protest,my need to substantiate with actions the guilty feeling of not standing up for what I thought was right.Writing these words,I realize the fact that my compromises with the injustice prevalent in this land automatically force my future generation to face the same or greater perils of moral degradation ,at least make more compromises than I ever had to make against my heartfelt wishes and so in turn,cause them more pain than I have have ever felt.

It is a great privilege to vote,a greater responsibility to build a nation....But where will we build it?How will we build it?"On the plith of history,when all is burnt and nothing remains of our glorious past,nothing remains of all that once justified a FREE Nation??"
and most importantly.."When do we start??"

We,the so called "Educated Classes" with greater moral responsibilities towards this nation called India need to understand One Simple Logic.

We need to understand that we can RUN no longer,SHUN no longer.....When India burns with its paradox of a billion people and a trillion problems,it is we and our futures that are left facing the heat.For time Enough,have we remained in our Cocoons of a safe life, a 'satisfactory life'.A Veritable Illusion that our brains force upon our hearts.Time has come when we own up our responsibilities and find out the damage that sixty years of indifference has done to the nation.

So all I ask of you is "Don't Walk Away,Don't Walk Away..when the Nation is Burning...When India is burning".
Lets all pledge ,at least to face the diseases plaguing this Nation.

A Day may come when our country fails to cater for a single Indian Life,a day may come when we all fail to question the morality of our actions,a day may come when the glory and heritage of a thousand years comes to a crashing end....
But it is not this day.It is not this day.
This day we forsake the legacy of Emperor Nero and stop playing the fiddle when the hopes for our country fade into oblivion,the future of our future generations get caught in this quagmire of survival and humanity.
For This Day We Swear "NOT TO WALK AWAY".

THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER

2009-04-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

In the sand and rubble of the Sahara
where schimitars clashed with steely gleam,
Stallions galloped and Bare backed warriors rode out
to fulfill the boy Pharoah's cherished dream.
Fortresses rumbled,in the shade of the Pyramids
lay hundreds of corpses dried by the hot desert Sun
Food for the desert hyaenas
who beat the vultures to their game

...I fought along the reed ridden banks of the Nile..
Thebes....Insanity
The lust which rose with the rising sun
lay encrusted in Man's Mind
Never to fade with the setting sun again.

A thousand years later in the plains of Kalinga
a lone king trudged in an empty battlefield..
His feet squelching with the bloody grime.
Rivulets of blood lay beside defamed warriors
Defamed Honor..

...I lay with my jade stone sword hilt
flashing with the ever reminding Sun...
My blood stained blade having won and lost,both
My Honor and My Life...

A hundred years later,the concept was new
Buzzing squadrons dropped bombs,lethal weaponry
sprayed innocent fire as the Fuehrer
reached out to tame the other,few
Countries that defied His Ideology

...I sped along Flamengo Street in Brunne..
My machine gun exploding the terraces with fire
spitting lead slugs into bodies of foes and friends alike..
Paranoid...
My sniper's gun breathed with life itself
terminating lives of others.

Fifty years down the line
in a lone hut tucked away in some
forsaken mountains in the Himalayas
Kashmir...
An old man and few armed others discussed..
Their Jihad..
Tentacles spreading into Afghanistan,Iraq,India,Chechnya..

...I lay in ambush for the border patrol
My hand clutching the last of grenades
My Life for My Religion....

I asked after each War,why we Fought,What we Fought for?

The answer resounded
"We fought through decades,centuries and millenia,
For Patriotism,for Ideologies or for
Unheralded Heroics..
We Fought
For the generations that may
or may not
want to face the Blood Splattered
Earth we left them..
or may be,
maybe
Almost every time,
we fought
For
The truth that never was."

MY LAST DAY AT COLLEGE..18th MAY

2008-09-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

MY QUIZ CLUB LOGO

2008-08-22T20:01:00.001-07:00

Again and again............

2008-07-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF............

2008-07-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

MY OLD SCHOOL

2008-07-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

2008-07-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

THE PRIDE OF MY NATIONALITY
---------------------------
Dated:7th July,2008

India is My Country.Our Country.From "Sindh" to "Hindus" how easily have our
country's naming origins been shifted from a geographic notion to a religion that
once predominated its demographic distribution?We have argued that India originated
from Indus & Sindh,or the Hind and Hindus,perphaps even indulging in its English
Indigo past.But we haven't argued to fisticuffs,to violence.We have shouted,railed
pressing our point but have eventually succumbed to the pride of being Indians,just
Indians only.Thus the Root of our India has been assigned to its people being Indian,
rather than quarrelling over our glorious or whatever,past.

As Rahul Bose, so aptly put it in "Shaurya" to a raving Brigadier--"Yeh Desh sirf
isliye nahin hain ke rashtra hai,lekin isliye hai ke rashtravad bhi hai"-Nationalism
still runs high in the veins of the Masses,literate or illiterate,metroist or rustic,
sophisticated or uncouth.Sadly,ignoring this nationalism is the way,we,self-styled
educated handful seek to orchestrate our imminent future,and thereby the future of
the Nation.But,"Sorry Yaar",taking the cue from Rahul again"Par Aap Nahin Samjhenge...Aap Nahin Samjhenge".

People talk of Globalization.They gibber how India has gone places in the World,
technology having driven India to a global forefront while the local markets are flooded with Chinese(for the lower middle class) & American(for our Fastrak & Reebok generation)goods.They joke at parties about Indian poverty and their wives compete over who is going where for a holiday(Singapore,Maldives..Swiss Alps...America).They go ga-ga over world class wines from French,pizza from Italy and even their imported toothpaste.But they forget...or maybe close their eyes to those thousand others..of the Common Indian..which still hums
the tune of the eternal Rak Kapoor's
"Mera Joota Hai Japani"
"Aur Patloon Englistani"
"Sar Pe Lal topi Russi"
"Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani......"-A rustic's story of a
globalized but loyalist India.

Yes,even today,facing the numerous insurgencies outside and inside,facing political jugglery and demoralization,facing a parallel black market economy,facing a system of governance which,although supposed to percolate like rain to the smallest grains of the Indian soil,lay unprotestingly,hoarded into a reservoir whose resources are open to only the select few and their friends,& worse of all,facing a fearful,ready to flee,educated middle class which had lost its Voice at Independence,I am still proud to be an Indian....even if
foolishly so.Because my pride does not spring from my Vanity,it rises from my Love for my Roots...
To me ,"love" has a very simple meaning.It means dreaming or sacrificing for the well-being and happiness of others,unneccessarily,without benefit.I have faith in My Constitution,which truly dreamt a great dream of "A Socialist,Democratic Republic".Today, the people who wheel the Nation forward use the Constitution not as a Final Verdict,but a myriad Quagmire of words beyond which to hide the Common Logic of Responsibility.

In Fifty years of Independence,we have not been able to provide the basic necessities of life to each and every member of the Indian Union.Leave basic education to all,there is even dearth of food..clothing...water.Even today in
the 21st century,we have places like KALAHANDI in Orissa,where people still die of hunger...& hunger alone.Believe me,when I say that we do not need a Chandrayana
(the Moon Mission) in 2010,neither do we need to host the Olympics,or for
that matter the CommonWealth Games.........We need not spend crores for our Defense,when the Hunger Within is still Potent Enough,Still Cruel Enough ...more than an enemy bullet to kill a single ordinary Indian.

Respect for my country need not come from foreign nations or nationals who still believe India to be "a land of history,laden with pots of gold,impregnated with myths....".Respect for my Country will automatically come when our People,my countrymen,my Generation learn to Respect It Enough,Love It Enough.................
For someone wisely said,"Respect comes not from Fear,not from Duty....but from sacrifices,From Dreams,Comes From Love.It is My Love for being Indian,my Dreams for my Country's Future and the sacrifices I would be Prepared to fulfill those Dreams that give birth to & sustains The Eternal Pride of My Nationality.

MY LATEST POEM..................

2008-07-05T23:17:00.000-07:00

MY MYTHICAL KING OF BABYLON
.........................................................................
Dated:1st July,2008

HE did not Retaliate.
I threw curses at Him and shook My clenched Fists,
Raised My Hands in agony.....,my body was trembling!!!Tears of Fate dripped by wetting My Taut,self-Respected cheeks.......

I got beyond myself
Anger slowly boiled over into
Vapors of self-pity,till it
rained,rained heavily.......
....till the pitter-patter stopped
and it became Warm again.

He Might have shaken his Head,You Know........
Maybe With Time, he ,too Ages.....
Ages Like Solomon.
He May Once have Spoken in Wrath,
once Threatened soundlessly.....
He,too,may have been beside himself
with Annoyance,With Arrogance...
But the Raised Arm Never Remembered
Coming Down.....
You Know My Friend,I Feel
He,too,let It Boil Over till It Rained
Unknown To the World,unknown to me.....
Maybe at the end of Time,both our clouds
Will rain together to supplement that single Ocean
For He,...HE did not Retaliate............

MEMORIES

2008-07-05T22:58:00.000-07:00