Thursday, December 14, 2006

Liberated !!!

It is sheer serendipity that this and the previous posts are very closely related . May be I didnot get time or may be I didnot experience anything so fascinating that could lure me to write something.

At the breakfast table today, while I was having a casual conversation with my friend , she told me that nowadays ,life at times seems so mechanical that at few points ,it looks as if everything is happening in dreams. I agreed with her, to an extent and realised that I experience the same feeling at times.

Few days back when I got a chance to break the monotony of daily office and home schedules ,I grabbed the chance without giving it a thought. I am talking about my friend's marriage that took place in kurukshetra---the place where I have spent 4 memorable years of my life.
We seven friends from NCR had ,set out on the journey on the eve of 11th dec, at around 4 pm. The thought of seeing everyone after such a long time was very exhilarating in itself.It took us around 4-5 hrs to reach the destination , thanks to the heavy traffic on the GT road.We people had planned to first go to a friend's place who was also accompanying us from Gurgaon.To reach there we had to cross the University entrance and as we were really running late, no body dared to express the desire to visit the college ,though deep inside our hearts we wanted to do so.And what then ??? We all set aside from our minds the burden of time constraint and shouting and cheering,we asked the driver to steer through the university to the NITK girls hostel.
When we reached there we were not sure if anyone would recognise us. But in the next few moments we experienced something that I find tough to describe in words.

The gatekeeper who is an old man in his 70s recognised us even after 2 years. I had never before realised so closely that he is the person who had seen us and kept a watch on us 24X7 for 4 years and therefore its not that easy for him to forget those faces.Even though he fulfilled a great responsibilty, for us he had never been a very significant person during our stay there.
We entered the hostel and most of the faces that we encountered dint know us for obvious reasons.The only people who recognised us were the girls who are now in their final year of engineering.It was around 8:30 pm and the familiar aroma of the food from the hostel kitchen drew us towards itself. We met munni aunty who had served us food 3 times in a day for 4 years. Gaur singh bhaiya who was and will continue to manage the food accounts for I dont know how many years--- still remembers our roll numbers.

Being in the hostel once again was an ecstatic feeling.It was after a long time that I wanted to shout on top of my voice.

I discovered that I was wrong in thinking that I had forgotten laughing out loud and shouting to express my happiness.I was wrong in thinking that I have started talking less day by day. Rather I felt that my friends and their marvellous company bring out the real me.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Back to college !!!

Its been almost 2 years since I completed my engineering and left college.
The bunch of memories of that period is something which is cherished by each one of us and I can say that without inviting any opposition.

Like each of my batch mates leaving college was a tough turning point in my life as well.
But over the time ,new places ,jobs etc kept me busy and as time passed by I became more immune to those memories.

But yesterday something broke that immunity ,when one of my batch mates dropped a mail regarding her marriage.I was lost in a reverie when I returned to my room at the end of the day..
I was missing around a dozen people at the same time. :) The way each of us used to talk,quarrel,cry ,smile ....It is still clear in my mind.

Life has been moving on at such a fast pace that I almost failed to realise certain things.
I am still unprepared for big things in life and still under the impression that I am a college going girl.Time has just flown by but it has left with me,some treasure in the form of those memories.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Say no to war

I have been thinking about this for quite somedays now ,but engrossed in work and due to laziness I just procrastinated writing this blog...
The driving point is a mail which I just read 5 mins back and the mail displays some pictures of Israeli air strikes on lebanon.

Well !!! I seldom believe in the authenticity of such mails .However,the reality can be worse but not better than what those pictures displayed.

I asked myself ;How would I feel if I had to live under the constant fear of someone dropping a bomb on me and I froze !!!
Is there no one who can save thousands of innocent lives perishing in these brutal acts.

How can the feeling of revenge be so overwhelming that it leads to such unmindful actions.

After all,we are humans...Or ,are we???

Friday, June 16, 2006

Dilemmas

Life is about making decisions ,either right or wrong, and learning from them...
Right decisions change into one's fortune and the bad ones constitute the misfortune...I somehow feel that people, for whom God has decided a larger share of latter,see life more closely,learning 100 times more than others.But to have faith that this is true, needs an immense amount of patience,will power and optimism...

There used to be a time,when making decisions used to be the toughest task for me .
Though it still is , I think I am trying to overcome this handicap of mine.
And this has been a conscious effort on my part cos there are certain times when no one else than you knows better , what you want and why you want it...


I feel ,God helps us in carving out our paths....
We just have to interpret his signals.When he really wants us to follow a particular path he will obstruct the other paths for us.
He will never put you in a dilemma which is inescapable.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Irony

Ours is a strange land !!!

U switch any news channel and u will come across something that will leave you baffled....And one does not need to wait long to see or hear such things.They happen everyday ,in every sphere of life.

One of such recent things, is the move of the management of Ajmer sharif shrine,which has decided to prohibit islamic women from offering prayers in the shrine.Reason....???
Well,the management says that when men offer prayers alongside women, their prayers become futile...
And again the reason which they have put forth is ; men get distracted on seeing women.

Just because some people cannot get rid of lustful thoughts doesnot justify violation of someone else's basic rights.

Infact,people who have so little control on their thoughts should sit at home and offer prayers in seclusion.It is their problem not anyone else's.

Instead of creating an atmosphere of equality,the religious institutions breed discrimination by passing such acts again and again.

Their actions prove that they have responsibilty only towards the male section of society.

How many times have they come up strongly against any rapist???The sight of women may just distract men's prayers for few minutes but the horrendous cases of rapes spoil whole lives of the victims...

Still, has any organisation; religious /political ever demanded a ban on entry of men into certain areas because they interfere with the freedom of women .Even in such cases it is the women who are targeted and debates are held where people talk at length about the kind of dresses which women should wear/not wear,so that they dont provoke men.

Most of the managements of the holy places in India be it Hindu,Muslim,sikh or christians have men in the higher echelons.May be that is the reason that they treat women as second class citizens.
Having women representatives in the managements of such religious organisations can help in improving the scenario a little bit.
But again that should not happen through reservation.Rather it should be a matter of choice left to individuals.

And the Government has a major role to play by taking strong actions against those who try to interfere with the fundamental rights of others.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Illusions

Big B has been issued notices by the Income-tax deptt. and we can see the repurcussions in the form of protests by the samajwadi party workers.The protesters showed their resentment at the notices issued to BIG B by attacking the office of I-T commissioner and smashing his car.
Failing to find a logical justification for such protests what I feel is...Is this not an issue which should be sorted out between a citizen of India and the income tax dept.

What does a political party has to with it.And even if they want to do sth y dont they expedite the process by not disrupting the actions of the concerned department.
Would not that be a more logical and peaceful way of dealing with the problem???
Nowadays it seems the youth can be lead anywhere and made to do anything by political leaders who encash on the emotions of the masses.
Instead of creating more avenues for employment and providing decent jobs the political units keep a considerable chunk of India's younger and middle aged population busy by encouraging them to do such acts time and again.There is no rationale behind such acts whether it is the hoop-la regarding the screening of Fanaa in Gujrat or the latest incident of samajhwadi party workers.
Giving celebrities the status of God and worshipping them is not a new thing in our country but that does not make the filmstars or any other public figures infallible.I am not trying to prove that BIg B in this case is guilty but this is something which ought to be understood by a certain section of our society.That section which is always driven towards such acts not realising the ulterior motives of our so called political leaders.
Moreover in view of the fact that the ratio of the number of police personnels in India to general public stands at 1:10 , a major chunk of our police force, which should be looking after the security of the public and doing something more fruitful, remains deployed to such violence prone areas to control such irate mobs ...
Such incidents achieve nothing more than disrupting the everyday life of common man and creating a sense of disillusionment among the people who love their country but fail to understand y such things keep happening from time to time.