Friday, November 28, 2008

Terror Strikes Yet Again...

What happened in Mumbai yesterday is really very shocking... I still can't believe this is happening now... I think nobody who loves Mumbai as much as I do would believe it...

Where is our Mumbai? One feels kinda lost now. There is this huge numbness that has come over. One can't feel, can't think, can't do anything but sit in front of television and watch the death toll increasing.

Who is dying out there? The Police, the commandos, the terrorists, 'the common man'? In short, the man who is working to earn his bread and butter, and trying to do that by the only means he knows. The people, who were shot dead on V.T. station, were on the way home from work, going back to their families... Had they not been shot dead, one wonders what would they be doing now? 'The common man' would have gone home, had dinner with his spouse, put their children to the bed and slept peacefully, thinking about the things to do tomorrow. Don't we all do that? Work for the day, have some entertainment at home and go to sleep thinking of things to do tomorrow, things to do on the weekend. I wonder what these men would have thought about their weekend plans. Visiting friends, going out shopping, catch a movie or staying at the home? Yes, they would have done that, had they been not taken away from their normal lives by a bunch of 'young adults' (they were no kids, adults neither, people of 20-25 years age) who think they are doing some noble work for some noble person. A person, who is sitting somewhere in this country or abroad, watching his orders being executed and laughing at all of us; the naive citizens of this country, who still don't know what they should or should not do in such situations.

Right now, looking at the scenario, one can’t blame any lone entity, be it the government, the politicians, the police, the commandos. The Mumbai Police, supposed to be the best in the world after Scotland Yard, were doing their duty when all these terrorist attacks took place. The police are trained to catch the criminals and law-breakers. How would anybody expect them to combat armed men, carrying a bunch of AK-47s, hand-grenades and rocket-launchers? Still, without any adequate protective equipment, they reached on the scene and tried to stop them. To think of a situation, where Hemant Karkare, The Chief of Anti-Terrorist Squad, went ahead with his men, regardless of his life; one ought to salute him. Vijay Salaskar, who has killed so many law-breakers, got killed by the hands of terrorists. These are our heroes, who went ahead, without stopping to take on the armed men.

While these people were risking their lives to save Mumbai’s significant monuments, the citizens and the foreigners, our ‘respectable’ politicians started a contest of who reaches the scene first. Arriving all the way from Delhi by helicopters, 3 leaders of 3 different parties just couldn’t share 1 helicopter, even in a crisis situation. They had to waste more of taxpayers’ money to go and visit the dead bodies of 100 taxpayers of this country. After arriving at Mumbai, all that the opposition party leader wanted to say was, “There was less violence when Mumbai was last attacked in our regime”. What kind of insensitive and shameless statement is this? What are they trying to prove? “Vote for us and you will have to live with less violence”? The key question here is, why are we supposed to live with any violence at all? It is a known fact that you can’t have a warning of terrorist attacks and you can do nothing to prevent them. But, when it was a time of taking a corrective action and to support the rescue operation going on, all these people could think was the coming elections and depleting vote-bank. Who will remain to vote for them, if these terrorists plan on a massive attack and destroy the city all together?

These terrorists, all within the age group of 20-25, in stead of earning their living and supporting their families by respectable means; are out there, risking their lives with AK-47 in their hands and tones of hatred in their hearts. Where does this kind of hatred come from? That too, when all others are thinking of getting good jobs, marrying, supporting their families… This is by no means, a rebellious action or a sudden outrage. It is a meticulously planned and bluntly executed attack. They are actually brainwashed into believing that they are doing good for their kaum, their religion. They say that they are doing this to take revenge on Hindus because of Babri Masjid incident. For how many years will they keep taking revenge of one incident? Were 1993 bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai not sufficient? What more do these people want? Did they ask a person what religion he belonged to, before shooting on V.T. station or before throwing a hand grenade? No, they didn’t. Yesterday, hindus and muslims were injured equally. This extremist thinking and outrageous behavior doesn’t lead to any solution of any problem. But the key question here is; does the problem really exist? Are muslims in India targeted by hindus? And even if they are, then what purpose does the attack on Taj and Oberoi suffice? Creating mayhem and taking people’s lives just because they want to prove their existence is a strategy followed over the time by various terrorist groups.

If we look at the death toll, today we can see it has reached upto 150. What did these 150 innocent people do to get killed by the terrorists? What was their fault? Nothing! They just happened to be at the wrong place at the worst time. One can’t help but think that in a country of a billion people, there is no value for a single human life today. It is so easy to kill a person! Just shoot a bullet, throw a hand grenade and the work is done! The most amazing thing is, the killer knows that it’s so easy. It all looks like a computer simulation game. Take a gun, aim, shoot, and your enemy is dead within seconds. Is that how these terrorists train their people? To take pleasure in killing, looking at the blood flowing like water? Do they really enjoy it or they just finish it off as an ordinary work, a regular job? What do they think while killing a man? Are they really aware of him as a human, or only an ‘enemy’ that they have to finish off?

The most disgusting thing put forward by all the terrorist attacks in the world is that human life is very cheap today. The price of a human has become equivalent to the price of gunpowder needed to make one bullet- nothing more, nothing less!

May all those who are dead rest in peace and those alive, take some action and fight the war against humanity. Amen!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Loneliness...



Loneliness is what I know…

Can’t let that feeling go

Like a shadow, like a friend

Loneliness is the feeling without any end

Wherever I go, whatever I see

Loneliness is always there with me


Endless journey, meaningless quest

I’m tired of trying, when will I ever get rest?

Looking at the future, looking at the past

Good things in life never last

Wherever I go, whatever I see

Loneliness is always there with me


What will I do? For all that I care…

Finding true happiness is always rare…

Happiness looks like an illusion…

What I have is only confusion…

Wherever I go, whatever I see

Loneliness is always there with me

Saturday, November 8, 2008

My Friends: My Inspiration


I had to write one post dedicated to all my friends. I just couldn't do without writing it. It was just a matter of time when I would write it. And now I think that time has come... to cherish all the best moments of my life... the moments that I spent with the best of my buddies... my friends for life!
I'm going to write something about the each one of them... and the impact that they had on my life... It might be boring for some people, but it's a tribute to their friendship, from me...

Vaishnavi: She's the person who is with me, through thick and thin, for more than 9 years now. She is my confession box, and I'm hers. There's nothing in our lives that the other one doesn't know about. We have had our share of clashes, quarrels, differences; but what bonds us tightly toghether in the love and care we feel for each other. Initially an emotional person, vaish had changed a lot over the years and became tough enough to make some hard choices in life. Now that she has gone to China to pursue her dreams, I miss her the most. She is the one person I'm sure who will always be there with me, if not physically, but mentally to support me, to advise, to talk, to share, to laugh and to cry. Thats the magic of LOVE in friendship.

Jai: There's no other down-to-earth and practical girl as she is. She is the one who will give the most practical advise at the most proper time. This girl is another of my best friend, from the time we used to sit on the same bench and fight in school. She's the most fun-loving, sensible, mature (I don't believe I'm using this adjective for her!) person to be with. Though we don't share those minute details with each other, there's a strong bond, which assures that we'll be there for each other, always.

Sukhada: She listens more than she talks, and I think that's the reason she survived in our group of blabbering girls. Always understanding and helping; smiling and cheerful, I have never seen her angry or crying. The best quality of this girl is, she is always there... to enjoy, to discuss things, just sit and talk nonsense, gossip, anything...

Asawari: I remember more of her from 1st standard than right now, but the remarkable thing is, we have been friends for such a long time. Though not always in touch with each other, we connect instantaneously whenever we get together, like no time has lapsed, and the chit-chat continues...

Prajakta: A little emotional and cranky, Praju is someone who's hard to get along with, initially. But once you know her and she knows you, there's nothing to stop a lifetime friendship. The most caring girl ever, she is the one who makes it a point to give small gifts to her friends and expresses her feelings very honestly.

This is my group from the school time, and I think I'm blessed to have such close and caring friends... I want to thank god for giving me such good friends and blessing me with so much of love..

There are other friends whom I want to write about...

Abhishek: Though not in touch regularly these days, this guy is fun to be with, and as caring and understanding as he could be. We have always had this funny kind of relationship, where we can't help calling each other NALAYAK and pulling each other's leg always! I hope we could have spent more time together...

Ameya (Dr. Ameya Moghe): As funny as can be, as witty and intelligent; I have not see anybody as particular as him about meeting each and every friend when he's in town. He remembers each and every b'day and is always the first one to with exactly at 12:00. He's the one who shocked us all and made us proud by getting a Gold Medal in final year BDS exam! A great person to be with, I wish I could have more of him around.

Nikita: The most loyal friends ever! She's the kind who has a small friend circle, but will stick to each and every one of them for the whole of her life. She has loved and supported me through my most difficult times. I will always cherish her friendship.

Rohan: He's the one whom I can never forget in my life! Rohan understands what's going on in my mind just looking at my face, or sometimes even without looking at me. He is the one who understands and accepts me as I am, without needing to tell anything and I am grateful to him for the same. He won't express himself much, but is always ready to help out anyone in the vicinity. He has been a constant support and source of inspiration for me and I don't ever want to lose the most precious friend I've got.

Prajakta: she was a friend I made in my engg days. She was fun to be with, and our wavelengths matched to a great extent. I still feel hurt about the way our friendship ended, coz I had thought I had found a great friend in her...

Mayuresh: What do I say about him? Nothing can beat the way our wavelengths matched. We share the same tastes when it comes to books, movies, traveling etc etc... He has been my very close friend, philosopher and guide for a long time. Though we are not in touch these days anymore, he has given me a lot of memories to cherish upon. I will always relish upon the time I spent with him, for the rest of my life...

There are many people whom I want to thank for being there for me like Hema, Pratibha, Steve, Mudit, Swapnil, Rupa, Richa, Pallavi, Pranav, Rojit, Tejal, Shweta Karnik, Yogita, Kirti, Rujuta... I can't list each and every name here, but I am thankful to God for sending such good people in my life.

May God bless you all!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Why did I come to IMT-Nagpur?

It has been over a year that I am here at IMT-Nagpur. Somewhere I feel that I should write what I think about this place, which is my home for past 1 year. Living in a residential institute is a one of a kind experience for me, a person who has never lived out of the home ever in her life.

When I decided to get admission in IMT-Nagpur, I left some of the ‘fairly good’ institutes under Mumbai University, which would have given me higher pay packages compared to IMT-Nagpur. Many people found the idea of going to a new institute, without any ranking and without any guarantee of placements, stupid. Some, who were oblivious to facts, were happy that I’m going to IMT, which is a renowned brand in the field of management education. But I had consciously opted for this institute. There were two reasons: first, being a resident of Mumbai and having friends everywhere, I exactly knew where the ‘fairly good’ institutes stand and second, I wanted to stay out of my home, my familiar circle of friends and relatives, and do something different. And it is different, what I’m doing at IMT-Nagpur right now; very different from what I have done staying at home and travelling 2-3 hours every day for going to the college and back home, being with my parents with a lot of restrictions imposed on me, asking their ‘permission’ even for small and silly things which I myself can take care of. Oh God! I really can’t imagine doing a management course and not doing it at IMT-Nagpur.

“Why so desperate to get out of home?” …this is the first question that would come to your mind while reading this, and many doubts to accompany the question. The answers are hidden in my educational history. I’m a person who was hyped as being ‘intelligent’ since school time. But I couldn’t score well in 10th, and I must say, I disappointed my parents and teachers. When I thought of going for engineering, I decided to study a lot, and give my best shot to 12th. I got good marks, got admission to RAIT, which had a very good ranking and good placements.

Coming from a typical middle class family, I couldn’t adjust to the RAIT culture in my 1st year; couldn’t find any good friends; was afraid of ragging, which was excessive at that time; was lost in a world of diversity. Whatever the reasons, the fact is that engineering education was a downfall for me. I couldn’t clear my papers, in spite of understanding the concepts, couldn’t score well in the papers that I cleared and lost all the confidence in myself and my abilities. I should have gone to a psychologist, who would have helped, but nobody thought of doing it, because nobody knew what was going on in my mind. On the face of it, I was this shameless person, taking all the criticism on face, doing nothing about it; but inside, I was a person who had lost faith in everything, lost confidence in myself, the only thing giving me strength was the awareness of my intelligence. I had always been this bubbly cheerful person, very talkative and always in a group of friends. I was always vaguely aware of my abilities, my strengths and weaknesses, but never worked on them. I started sulking, stopped mixing with people, going to family functions and gatherings, having fun… basically I lost myself in those days. I couldn’t participate in any extra-curriculars also, because of the rules at my home: "If you study well, you can do whatever you want; but if you don’t, then... well… its better to stop everything else and start studying"… so I tried, and failed miserably…

Well, then I again tried, and could score some decent marks to make everyone feel that now I’m again on a right track, and finally could get a first class I my last year, with 60%, which was an achievement going by my situation… what I didn’t understand at that time was, this type of system was not suitable for me. I can’t just keep on reading textbooks and by hearting things out of them. I need some fun, masti, enjoyment in studies, where I can be creative.

When I decided to come to IMT-N, I was still in doubt as to what I am getting into… but with encouragement of some of my very good friends, I finally decided to take a call… and here I am… enjoying my life at IMT-Nagpur.

This place has given me a lot of things, most importantly, a chance to prove myself. I have not been able to do so many things at a time in my life before… maybe, because now I’m on my own, I can decide what I want to do for myself, how I’m going to do it and how much time I’ll b spending for it. I have got a chance to express myself here, as I never had got. Maybe, if I had gone to some institute with better ranking, I would have been in awe of the students, faculty, everybody and maybe, I wouldn’t have opened my mouth for anything. Here, I know if I raise my voice, someone is always there to listen to me, to support me, and that gives me my confidence back… boss, main bhi kuch kar sakti hoon! I have been a part of Corporate Communications Committee, participated in dramatics, started with KOSHISH, which is very close to my heart, tried to learn French, MS34 was a very good platform to get creative juices flowing… wow! This has been a roller-coaster ride!

I have learnt a lot here, including how to handle people, how to work with them, how to understand them, and most importantly, how not to trust everyone… I have made some pretty bad mistakes too, but again, this is life, and nobody is ideal. Who doesn’t make mistakes? Well, the one who doesn’t, doesn’t learn also. I think I have had lot of learnings here. I think I have made some good friends here, too and I’m hoping to continue being friends with them. I will write about them, later…

So… this is my story about coming to IMT-Nagpur… I will write more about the place in later parts…

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Maximum City : Bombay lost & found

Born in Calcutta and lived in Bombay for 9 years of his childhood, Suketu Mehta hails from a family of Gujarati diamond merchants spread world over. The son of this ‘globalized family’; himself has stayed in several countries and is a full time writer. The time he spent in Bombay (he calls it Bombay, and not Mumbai) has been the most memorable time of his life. Hence, when he had the urge to go back to his roots, he came back to Bombay, and not Calcutta or Ahmedabad, where most of his family lived. He explored the Bombay, trying to take in the beauty of this crowded city which belongs to a slum dweller, a millionaire, a gangster and a clerk alike.

There has been much written earlier about Bombay, its roads, lanes, bylanes; the local trains, chawls, the bollywood, the underworld, the people and much more… But the way Suketu Mehta sees it, it goes beyond it all; he depicts the darker side of Bombay, which is much more human than we can imagine. The man has a huge amount of curiosity and a greater understanding of human nature, which makes you realize certain facts and think about your own lives with a broader picture of LIFE at the background.

The book is divided into 3 parts: Power, Pleasure and Passages. Each of these portrays a different side of Bombay.

The Power part is devoted to the ultimate powers of Bombay: Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray), the police (encounter specialists) and of course, the ultimate Underworld. Suketu is incredible when he meets Shiv Sena workers in slums, then the shooters of the underworld, the brave inspector Ajay Lal, then Bal Thackeray himself and talks to Chhota Shakeel-the Don on phone. On the way he also stops at the mini-Pakistan, Madanpura and gives us insights about people’s lives there. He doesn’t stop there; he becomes a part of the script-writing team of the movie Mission Kashmir and gives some vital information about the famous Bollywood-Underworld linkages. With his illustrative language, he captures the attention of the reader, and creates a web where all these lives are entangled with a giant spider of uncertainty of human life looming over their heads.

Bombay is a maya nagari as they say- it is a land of Pleasure, with Golpitha (the red light areas), the bars and bar dancers, the mujrewaalis and Bollywood strugglers. Suketu meets these all, becomes the best friend of a bar dancer, who shares her life and dreams with him. There is also a male bar dancer who dresses like a girl, and is the main crowd puller at the Sapphire bar. Who would believe that this person is not a eunuch, not a gay, but is a lower middle class married man with a wife at home who helps him ‘get ready for the night’! Then there is a bollywood struggler who finally gets a break in a B grade film. Suketu gets close and personal with all of them, and creates a collage out of unseen faces, unknown lives, and unrevealed passions.

In Passages, he walks down the memory mines, in his school days, and the changing cultures in Bombay. He also meets and helps a struggling poet, come all the way from Bihar, to recite his poems to the elite classes and masses of Bombay alike. The section ends with a chapter in Jainism, where he portrays a family of a billionaire Diamond Merchant in Bombay, husband, wife and 3 teenager kids, gets diksha and become sanyasis to attain moksha. He describes all the rituals and gets a few questions answered from the swami maharaj about their routine, their reasons and their lives. In this part of the book he is caught between the two lives of the merchant, one with pleasures, other with a path to salvation; and wonders what makes people leave all behind and follow the rituals, which sound somewhat illogical in today’s world.

The way Suketu Mehta writes about so many lives is sometimes satirical, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes with awe, sometimes with disgust, sometimes with his own opinions about them; but what arrests the readers’ attention is that he never forgets that these are humans; be it a gangster or a bar girl or a diamond merchant. That understanding gives a greater dimension to his observations and he makes you think about your Bombay. Every resident of Bombay sees the city differently, it means a lot to him/her; but to each, it means something different. Suketu gives you a roller-coaster ride of the city of hope, which is an agglomeration of individual dreams, a mass dream of the crowd…

What is your dream? What is Bombay to you?