Tiranga

Bharata,

A nation,

A piece of geography we tend to be associated with,

An emotion that connects Indians all over the world,

and

A concept for which our armed forces are willing to die for,

Associated with this concept is our flag,

beloved referred to as tiranga,

and then there is our national anthem,

which tends to bring goose bumps;

symbols which instill a feeling of pride,

connect us all beyond caste, region, religion and creed,

In this year,

When we are celebrating the 75th year of Independence,

not taking for granted the freedom to:

dream,

be courageous,

and

make mistakes, learn and evolve in life,

why not take a pledge of sorts to put in our efforts in making India into a:

strong

benevolent

and

prosperous nation,

to behave in a responsible manner,

aimed at spreading harmony,

demonstrating unity and inclusivity,

and in doing so,

aspiring to become a better person each day of our lives.

Jai Hind!

Source for the Image: https://venacavadesigns.com/pingali-venkayya-the-man-who-designed-the-symbol-of-the-nation

Advertisement

S for….

They say only unsuccessful are the ones who delve into spiritual stuff,

For they are too busy doing what they are good at,

True?

Well, let us look at the likes of Amitabh Bacchan, Shahrukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar,

Yes,

They did what they were good at or became good at,

But haven’t they followed certain religious and spiritual fundamentals in their life,

Be it taking the first shot at a particular time on a movie set,

To

Wearing the right or the left pad first as a batsman in a cricket match,

No matter what S stands for in your life,

I guess spiritually forms such a core part of our lives,

Be it the successful or the not so successful ones,

That we all tend to delve or seek refuge in the same!

So, what does S stand for in your lives?

Source for the Image: https://d33x6c2gojonez.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/137/2016/04/27135908/business-success-tips.jpg

ताका झांकी (Taaka Jhaaki)!

No matter the diversity,

Caste

Class

Religion

Race

Country

One thing that unites us all,

We are interested in what’s happening next door,

Be it Sharma ji’s daughter whom he is trying to get married at any cost,

Be it Tandon aunty’s maid woes,

Be it the modern Sweety ji, whom the uncles seem to drool over,

or

Be it Mr. Paul’s long due promotion party,

We want to know it all,

And

Participate in every possible ritual,

After all, what it is to live in a community, if it were not this,

Yes, it comes with it’s own pros and cons,

Yet

Fun part,

A true community,

Lives

Loves

Hates

Fights

and

Celebrates TOGETHER.

Though this very establishment seems to have gone for a toss in this modern era,

Neighbors not having a clue who’s living next door,

Meeting with a frown rather than a smile if they happen to be in the same lift,

That’s what individualism has come down to,

Wonder whether the long gone ताका झांकी has lost its relevance!

Guess, it’s time to move on?

Source for the image: https://www.pngall.com/community-png/download/24460

Let Go You-Bama!

The moment I hear the phrase, “let go“, I am taken back in time and am reminded of the movie Zindagi na Milegi Dobara where just before the sky dive, Hrithik Roshan tells Farhan Akhtar, let go, Imran, just let it go!

When I think about it, there it was letting go of the fear, yet it has very deep connotations and implications for all of us in our day-to-day lives,

no matter which part of the World we reside in,

no matter what religion we practice and

no matter what field or sector we are working in.

Day-in-day-out, we try to do best for ourselves and our loved ones whom we refer to as family or friends,

we try to be successful in whatever we do, be it personal or professional,

we try to have fun, which by the way was supposed to be a natural way of living, though we have found a way to make it hard enough to explore and practice,

we try to use our time to the best of our skills and capabilities, intending to get a better house, a better car, at times even the best breed of dog to be bred at home;

yet we see the life drifting away at a mindless pace, where we don’t even get the time to contemplate and realize that we are not gonna take everything that we are accumulating at this point in time, with us.

So, difficult it is to let go, be it our identities (religious, caste, creed etc.),

be it our set of possessions (a pair of trousers, gadgets etc.),

be it our so called loved ones, to the extent, that at times we tend to suffocate them supposedly for their own good, not realizing that we are in fact doing more harm than good, by imposing all the societal stuff,

images

Not realizing that not letting go, on the contrary, is

making us fret more,

get frustrated more,

get angry on a frequent basis,

become comparative and in turn jealous more often than not,

making us go through the consequences of bad health;

Yet we continue to do so, without stopping for a moment to give it a thought, whether it’s all worth it.

After all, the beautiful time that we have been bestowed with, in the form of human, do you think, it was supposed to do all the above?

Well even if you were to argue really hard in its favour, few might say, to some extent,

Yet you know, deep down in your hearts and minds, that it’s all a game that you have been taught to play by the society, which giving up right now is more of a challenge and fear, arising out of the conditioned insecurities.

The only question that you need to ask yourself is, do you consider yourself important enough (to the likes of Obama, Bill Gates etc.)  to not let go?

For if it was not that, you would have by now, actually decided to let go. I guess, even they have, to some extent, that is! 😉

Source for the Image: http://www.lovethispic.com/image/20870/let-go

Religious Indulgence!

I happened to get up real early this morning. Since, it is not often that we get to see the rising sun these days, courtesy the kind of lifestyle we all tend to lead, I decided to take a walk in order to find some solace amidst the hooplah that we generally associate with a buzzing city, which also happens to be the capital of the state where I happen to reside.

But little did I realize that today is a Tuesday. If you are wondering why I am telling you such a trivial thing like this, this Tuesday is supposedly not an ordinary Tuesday. It is what we call bada mangal in India. On this day, people flock to the temples starting very early in the morning and one can witness large cues of people standing outside the temple to get a glimpse of their most sought for God and to make sure that they offer Him all kinds of valuables in order to please Him to the extent of Him showering His blessings and love on them.JhakhuTemple_4834

Coming back to my morning exploration agenda, it turned out to be a noisy affair with people chit-chatting on the streets and pandals offering food and drinks to those who got up so early just to indulge in what I would want to refer to as the religious indulgence.

Without going into the religious beliefs that people have, as it is very much an individualistic thing, I sometimes wonder why these very people who end up going to the temples and end up praying in front of their respective Gods, end up doing acts in real life which, am sure, would make their God feel very disgruntled.

It is quite bewildering why these very people don’t realize that it is more important to be practicing good values and inculcating good habits in life rather than going to the temples on such special days and asking for forgiveness. Why in the first place should you end up in a situation where you are required to ask for forgiveness?

Isn’t it an irony that these very same people who come to the temples with all the expensive valuables, the moment they step out of the sacred place, commit acts which can, at times, make the entire humanity feel ashamed of themselves. What’s the use of doing such penance when it doesn’t seem to strike a chord in their minds as to what is right and what is wrong? Isn’t it a mockery of the religion which they practice and which supposedly preaches them the contrary of what they end up doing in their real lives?

I cannot help but think, whether the evolution of this very concept of God occured just because we humans couldn’t handle the guilt associated with the shameful acts that we all commit. And so we created temples and in turn placed a figure in the form of a statue and started referring to Him as God, who supposedly is in all ways became the karta dharta of this very World in which we all happen to be living in.

God, who was supposed to give people the strength and vision to do things in a virtuous manner, ended up being a proxy, used by the powerful and the rich and even the common man to get rid of their guilt.God

As far as I am concerned, I believe that instead of going to the temples, it is more important to practice good things in life. I am sure your God will be more happy if you end up doing just that rather than going to the temples and creating chaos and incidents like stampedes.

Source for Image: http://saysaga.com/universe-is-not-god-dont-be-pagans/, http://www.indianetzone.com/10/hanuman_temples_india.htm

 

The Cancerous Racist!

We, human beings, are very good at differentiating things around us based on the various characteristics that those things might possess. The bad part is that this differentiation is not limited to just things. It tends to overflow to human beings as well, whom we tend to differentiate based on race, caste, colour, sex etc.

It is not only when Indians go abroad, are they differentiated, but also within India we have a tendency to differentiate based on regions. Our attitudes in turn get reflected in our behaviours towards them.

We tend to forget every virtue that tolerance teaches us. We tend to be so engrossed in taking judgements and attributing characteristics to a person, based on our biases that we forget to give the person a benefit of doubt that he or she might be different from the others belonging to the same group.

I used to think that such differentiation is followed only amongst human beings or the living creatures around. But the other day, when I was having a conversation with one of my doctor friends, I couldn’t believe that it is not only the humans who are good at differentiating but also the diseases, especially cancer, which is supposed to be one of the most dreaded disease with no cure what so ever, once a person tends to cross a particular stage.racist

The conversation went something like this:

The one thing that I am very curious about is why people have not been able to find a cure for cancer.”—-Me

Well, first of all you cannot alter the genes, and if you can, it is only upto a certain extent. Secondly, the cancer might be caued due to diet, environment or the lifestyle in general. As far as cure is concerned, it depends on how early it is diagnosed and whether the radiotherapy or the chemotherapy is conducted at the right time.”—Dr.

But are there chances that it might recurr?”–Me

It totally depends on how many times the cells have divided and there are always chances that such a thing might recurr. That’s why regular follow-up is very essential.”—Dr.

We see so many different kinds of cancers that have been detected in humans. Is it true that some are found only in certain countries and not the others?”—Me

Adeno carcinoma is found commonly in developed countries where as in India, you usually get to see squamous cell cancer.”–Dr.

Hmm, even the cancer differentiates. I wonder whether the cancer is racist too.”–Me

🙂 …well cancer is a disease which sucks the life out of you. And so is racism and its consequences.”—Dr.

That was the end of conversation about cancer and the diseases. We could have gone on and on talking about racism, cancer etc. But one thing that we Indians should try to do is to go beyond talking.

We are very fond of table-talks which we don’t want to incorporate into our daily lives. When it comes to following the same, we end up finding it too much to do. We all want to do the easy and ignore what we find as tough or difficult.

Is this lethargy a part of our culture or is it because we have the genes which make us do so? I would want to believe that it is our own attitudes which influence our decisions to include such things in our way of life.

Personally, I think, if everyone would take a plegde to bring about that one important change that is needed in oneself, then the world would become a much better and happier place to live in.change

The question, though is, are we ready to take that one important step towards improvement? Are we ready to take on our own lethargy head-on? Are we prepared to tread the tough path? Are we motivated enough not to think about just us but the entire society or the World? Are we inspired from the teachings of great men who gave up their lives to do what was right at that time? And do we have the intellect to understand what is right and what is wrong and if we have, then would we want to abide by what is right?

Nobody else but you can answer all the above. Only your heart knows what the truth is. Only you, yourself know, deep inside, what is wrong and what is right. The earlier we will start the better, for we don’t want to repent in the future thinking why we didn’t start early.

Source for Image: http://wonkette.com/487709/sarah-palin-will-no-longer-be-racist-as-soon-as-she-understands-what-racism-is, http://blogs.bgsu.edu/elements/tag/change/

Rioting for Religion

On one hand where Bareilly, my current refuge, was busy partying on Sunday night, on the other hand there was something dreadful that was about to happen in a place called Aavlan, a place not very far from the city.

A group of kanvariyas, known for their devotion towards Lord Shiva, and who become quite visible during the season of Sawan, were totally engrossed in their enchantments when the communal bug hit them.

As the word goes, continuing with their over-the-moon celebrations, the group didn’t realize that they were crossing a mosque where the muslims of the area were all prepared to break their fast, carrying on with their tradition of Ramzaan.

On being requested by the Muslims, the kanvariyas refused to tow down their celebrations and the noise emanating from the same. An argument followed which soon took the shape of a skirmish, and resulted in injuring and probably killing a number of the kanvariyas and the Muslims present there at the very moment.

What followed after was a toned down replica ofthedreadful Mumbai riots and many such riots that our country, of late, has become so used of beholding.

The administration in the district was quick to respond. In this effort a number of policemen and the SP of the city got injured. Surely their effort needs to be applauded for having prevented a major catastrophe from taking place and for imposing a curfew in the whole area.

But one question that has had and is continuing to marr the image of our country as a country with unity in diversity that India is so proud of propagating everywhere around the globe, is why do we become so intolerant when it comes to propagating or practicing our religion?

Is it because of the manifestations of our biases towards the other sections/religions in our country that seem to find its way out on such occassions or is it because of the increase in intolerance and loss in secular character of our citizens that seems to multiply on such critical moments?

Whatever be the reason, one thing that is absolutely essential for a country like India to tread its path of transition from a developing to a developed nation, is to maintain an environment of peace and stability, in order to be able to develop and grow.

The people or the hooligans who tend to be involved in such activities have no regard whatsoever for our nation or her assets. As a result, we end up losing not only the valuable infrastructure but also the precious lives of our youth, who tend to play a major role during such riots, and who have a potential of becoming productive citizens of our country.

Such loss is completely irreparable. It also ends up creating bad feelings on both sides of the community and serves like a ticking bomb ready to explode sometime in the future.

What needs to be done is to increase contact between the two communities and bring them on a platform where they can interact and try to get rid of their stereotypes and prejudices that have developed over time.

Schools and parents need to play a major part in this effort. They themselves might have gone through harsh experiences but they should make sure that they don’t end up imposing their biases on their own children and leave them to suffer in the times to come.

After all, its not the religion that causes all the trouble. Its the people themselves, its us, who are the sole and the only cause of such conflicts.

And what’s more important is to realize that we don’t really need to go far in order to find our answers to the puzzle and to take note of what the father of our nation once said: “be the peace you wish for the world“.

Source for the Image: http://www.thegamerspulse.com/london-constable-blames-gta-for-riots/, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/01/2011171242359602.html