A new start to an ending !

He smiled with a toothless grin. His laughter seemed still more lavish.. There was no prudence in his expression of emotions.. Sometimes laughing to heart’s content while at still other times crying out aloud till some attentive soul rushed to his rescue. Hunger, boredom, mirth or pain, he had a unique call and gesture for everything.

The lady stroked his sparse hair many times. Care, concern and love.. she showered everything through her patient hands. The insatiable heart enjoyed it all.. and yearned for more. Slowly the lady brought up the bowl of food to his mouth and tried nourishing a few spoonful of unpalatable stuff. Seconds later he rejected the food. No amount of cajoling would suffice to make him gobble all of it. He was in his own sweet world, of undivided attention, and the company of loved ones. As the little digested remains found its way out, the lady softly loosened the strings of his lower garment and with the same patience and love that exuded from every pore of her, wiped his back with a damp towel. He stirred not at anything.. everything around him was sheer bliss.. He cared not whether he ate or not.. cared not about money and wealth.. not of his survival ahead.. neither of what people thought of him.. He was the wisest of the lot, having known the right value of things that mattered most to mankind. Love & attention !! and he wanted them all..

My eyes flushed spontaneously.. and I knew not what I felt… sad or actually happy.. knew not what I was intently looking at.. The ailing old in his death-bed or ‘The curious case of Benjamin Button’ ?!!

 

---I was inspired to write this piece after I witnessed a very old patient (say aged 85) being brought in to rehabilitation centre for physiotherapy. People around them sort of glanced doubtful eyes if it would be a case of success going ahead. People even sometimes pointed out to his family members that such patients should rather be taken care of at home and it might be a waste to bring him in everyday so strenuously. I watched with awe how his loved ones were unruffled with such comments and carried on with their enquiry with the concerned paramedics and even eagerly followed their instructions. The old man himself showed vigour to learn things in order to improve, believing that he would again be able to regain his lost mobility. He shrieked at the errors of his son and grand-children while longingly looking around for their support and voice. Such is a case of people who are blessed with many loved ones in their family… people who value his presence.. people for whom taking care of him isn’t really a burden. Nevertheless the staff around took good care to see every possible help could be extended. I later realised that for the medico staff it might have meant just another case while for many it was a life..  life all so precious to their own young hearts !

This piece might be seen in a different connotation, but the message is similar. Even the oldest of the old do not shed off their hopes of a good life till their end. So, no matter what pain it takes we should respect their emotions and their right to live a dignified, comfortable life. Blessed are the people who have the overarching presence of the old at home. Its up to the hearts to decide whether to look at them from the point of degenerating gerontology or the presence of profound experience and limitless charm at home.

She is victim again !

Raised eyebrows concerned about the twenty six odd people killed in Newtown had yet not recovered, crying hearts for the innocent children had yet stopped weeping when the news of a young paramedical brutally almost maimed for life haunts the country at large. Well, this nationwide outrage.. Parliamentary upheavals and public thronging India gate to voice their concerns, all stand out to point to just one statement "Enough is enough" ! 

Well if I hear things that are supposedly not always rumours.. sunday like events have happened many times in the past. The national capital and so also other parts of the country ..have been in the news for the wrong reasons. Rather many such events occur even within families and close circles, at work places and at security posts, but go un-noticed and un-reported. 

When I picked up the topic for discussion with either my colleagues, friends, family et al, many seemed to suggest.. "Hang them to Death".. "Shoot them under public glare" and so on...Well these steps might work, but again I feel we might be making the mistake of cutting the shoots rather than striking at the roots.. These can only serve as temporary deterrents. And as I have often repeated earlier "A punishment is never compensation to the victim. It is meant only to act as a deterrent against such future reoccurrences" 

Well, the problem is not simply an act of heinous crime. Punishment cannot ensure non-reoccurrence of every such event. Because if such was the case, one of the accused would not so easily utter 'I have done a serious crime.. give me death'. Well what struck the young lad from Connecticut when he went about open firing only later to kill himself, we might never know, and so also the perpetrators of this crime who kept brutally beating up the duo until 45 odd minutes only to dump them later on the road. Is the justice delivery system so weak that they were sure never to be traced? Is the Delhi Police entirely to be blamed for this?  

I don’t intend to debate on the above questions, but I still feel these problems do not have any solution ready on the platter. Going about this I can only make a few suggestions which in my opinion might change certain factors that lead to such incidents. Feel free to contradict wherever you feel otherwise. 

Suggestions: 

To the parents/guardians of the male child. 

1) Educate your boy from the grassroots, right from his early stage the values of respecting the weaker sex. Teach him how to talk and behave with women of all ages. Strengthen his ties with his mother, sisters and other female members of the family. This acts as a much better method to learn by oneself. 

2) Do not ever, misbehave, disgrace or demean a woman in front of him. It is common to find the male counterparts in many families blatantly misbehaving with their wives only to teach their sons to do the same in future. 

3) Not just theoretically but also in real life situations, do not show explicit preference for a male child. This sets the mentality among the young men that women are just another objects of the society who can be treated in any fashion. Remember men who love and respect their sisters duly are much less liable to commit such crimes. 

4) Correct your young boy, whenever you find him showing the slightest disrespect to women within or outside his home. 

To the parent/Guardian of the Girl Child. 

1) Instil confidence in your girl. Teach her to observe the world better and prepare herself to guard herself if need arises. 

2) Repeatedly ask your girl to unhesitatingly report any untoward situation to you. She should be able to express every little detail about anyone, no matter how familiar or respected at home. Do not distrust her at the first go but rather verify the matter immediately.

3) Do not treat the female body as the embodiment of family respect and honour. In that case many families like the way in the past would hesitate to report such matters only to encourage such horrendous crimes to continue still. Rather look at the matter from an individual perspective, a violation of one's dignity and individuality. 

To every susceptible female 

1) Learn to look beyond the obvious. Carefully calculate under every circumstance "What if.."

2) Keep yourself handy with a few weapons... pepper spray etc., if your work or routine demands that might work a little late, or may have to travel longer and unknown distances/places.

3) Survey your place of stay, mode of transport before boarding. If you can afford to, ensure there is enough crowd around in case you face any trouble. 

4) Look at every stranger with an eye of suspicion and plan your defence well before hand. 

5) No matter how tempting, avoid strolling or hanging around in deserted areas even if you are with a male counterpart. Remember.. Let alone him protecting you, in case a bigger team attacks, your poor chap might even be in trouble along with you. 

6) In case work demands so, choose to wait and go back home in office arranged cabs preferably accompanied by a male member of your workplace whom you completely trust. 

7) Keep anyone (in your family/ close friend/ work place) regularly posted of your present location every now and then. In case need arises they might be readily available to help you out from any difficult situation. 

To teachers at school 

1) Teach the children early to mingle healthily. Mostly in India, gender bias created in the minds of the pupils in the early stages creates major divides as they grow up. 

To men who are fathers/friends/ brothers/ colleagues et al. 
     
 1)      Prefer to take that extra pain but ensure security to the women you care for always.
2)      Stop being a hypocrite and preaching woman safety if you have or ever intend to look down upon women. Many rapists simply intend to exert and display their dominance over women.

I completely agree that women are no caged/ domesticated animals to be constantly guarded around. But yes, this is only a safety valve.. Society should do its duty to ensure every female a free-er world to live in.. but at the same time, I personally feel a little extra caution might save us from learning things the hard way !!

 

Anything !

Deep, unpredictable, blinding swirl,
wrecks..breaks thus creaks my soul.
A deep exciting thought arose,
Oh ! I guess was just a fad.

Restless, fidgety my mortal limbs,
fails to connect with my yearning soul..
what it is.. I know not why
where my mind heads? where it passes by?

Rummaged heaps stare back at me,
dusty floors and papers inked.
roving eyes knows not to rest..
irresolute heart and flurrying verdict !

Questions the cosmos.. my brain, my heart..
Gape I with equal impunity..
What? Why me.. do thy gaze at,
Do not I have right to be bored !!!

Subu on Religion

Of Faith and beliefs !

(By the title above, I mean that the views expressed below are strictly the writer’s own opinion though they might at some points bear resemblance to many great thinkers living and dead.)

No article on religion should or rather can begin without Karl Marx’s famous line “Religion is the hope of the hopeless, soul of the soul-less and opium of the masses”. Well speaking of religion one has to touch upon various related concepts. To go on, questions on religion question the existential nature of God and finally even the validity of rituals in religion.

To me God is a divine word. It is the very utterance of the word which infuses a strong sense of confidence in me. To be honest, I am neither an atheist, nor agnostic and surprisingly not even religious in the strict sense. I prefer taking religion in a highly liberal sense of view. God’s existence (whether he does or not) has never really troubled my soul and neither am I a rebel when it comes to matters of faith. But then again I follow my own ways of looking at it, the way my heart dictates and my mind justifies.

Putting this line up with a disclaimer again I will opine that somewhat I reason out, God must be Man’s creation than Man being God’s. At least the form and varieties we look up to him presently. Man is a born rational. And society, its organization, norms and continuity establish this fact. Because if something is not rational, it cannot possibly last that long. And so also is religion, through the personation of God. That God has been commoditized many a times for personal gratification is of no surprise.  But then everything exhibits anomalous behaviour during the stages if its maturation.

Every system is created with a purpose and so also Religion.  It is not just a body of faiths. It is a carefully crafted system to control and regulate the society. It gives us a sense of humility, no matter how successful one is through hard work one says ‘Sab Bhagwaan ki den hai’, a sense of participation in the collective wellbeing of society (recall Ganesh chaturthy, RathYatra, Christmas Celebrations or Eid).. bringing all high and low equal before the eyes of God !

Coming to rituals, I am not a person who would strongly advocate the essentials of ritualistic procedures and more so when it concerns religion. Yet, personally rituals bring a sense of disciple in life. In a typical Hindu society which is laden with multitudes of rituals, if one gets up early in the morning, takes a bath and sits down to pray, one cannot completely do away with the scientific benefits associated with the same. So also, when on certain days of the week people are barred from eating non-vegetarian food, it is to ensure man remains merely Omnivorous and doesn’t turn out to be largely a carnivore. The balance of food chain needs be kept in mind.

It is the manifestation of the mind that establishes certain types of rituals in one society absent in another. Tribal men worship trees, not hard to understand why ! Thus it is the mind which sacred-izes a polished stoneinto a ‘Salagram’ , the rising sun as God and still more the four legged Bovine into ‘Gai Mata’.

To conclude religion existed even before present man did.. It rose from the family hearth being worshipped as fire and continues to this date to ease and smoothen our busy mechanised world. And such a view on religion I consider is rational, scientific and Secular !

Alice in Wander-land !!

Alice is eighteen years old.
Alice has just completed her higher secondary education and awaits to start a career.

One day, while she is quietly resting under a tree in her garden, she notices a white rabbit clothed in crisp attire with a pocket watch hung to its side. Busy as the rabbit looks, Alice's curiosity leads her following the rabbit down the hole. She expects to find answers to her problems and assumes the rabbit hole will lead her into a bright future. The rabbit meticulously guides Alice into an admission in a reputed college and hence ends his role..it hurries off.. Once inside Alice looks around, strange new world, with newer still the expectations and hopes. As she just begins to explore the place, she experiences a deep deep fall.. A tunnel that seemed endless and into a pit, leads her into a hall.. Around looks Alice, doors and doors lined and lined.

Aah the doors of opportunity, thinks the girl to herself. !!
She finds a small key.. that wouldn't open the first door.. Efforts still needed exclaims she to herself..
She finds a Bottle of knowledge..that says.. "DRINK ME".. She absorbs all the contents.. and shrinks small enough to squeeze through the first door..

Still more doors.. Alice confronts.. A second door here... She finds a cake beside that says.. "EAT ME".. Devours the cake soon Alice.. and grows so large, her head hits the ceiling..
Alice is too large.. she needs to get past some door, but she is too large to... She is in search of a larger door.. a larger opportunity.. nothing less would suit her purpose..

Alice wanders about.. strange new creatures...and wild are her thoughts..
As Alice walks around.. she comes across a Tea-party... Invited as soon as she is, joins the partying souls.. Yet remains a gap.. a void which Alice cannot comprehend..
She has chosen her life.. her life inside the tunnel...
She has no choice.. but to work, wander about and party...

Years hence, Alice thinks to herself...of the garden and the burrow hole.. and tells herself..

"A hole lead into the tunnel..
I took the one the rabbit traversed
and that has made all the difference.." !!

The debate continues !

For those of us who have read "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov and those who read about the proposed amendments of the IPC, Capital Punishment, still remains a subject of heated debate and accute brainstorming. To begin with whenever I come to think of it, I have mixed feelings in my heart and mind regarding the issue itself and its consequences at large !

Capital Punishment or as we might have heard several times in bollywood cinemas.. "teenso do ke teher.. To be hanged till death", is not as simple as it sounds..

It involves, deliberately depriving someone.. of his right to live.. LIFE as we know is God's and only God's gift ! Once taken away, the whole humankind put together, with all the money of the world pooled together may not help in restoring the same.. So, is it humane on our part to think of taking someone's life away.. that too legally !

If God is the one.. who grant's life to his creations.. who are we to think in mortal terms to be able to exert a decision making role in the same? But then again, how many of us, would want criminals like Ajmal kasab to be alive? Is there any Indian who is actually willing to forgive such a man..to deny himself of the right to teach a lesson to such ruthless people on earth?..Then again.. they posing greater threat to nation, through possible air hi-jacks and the kind if kept alive in confinement.

As I plunge deeper into the subject, I feel Death is a quick painless punishment for anyone, who will think deserves only that. If I were wronged by anyone.. to the extent that I wouldnt ever forgive him.. I would rather chose the option of.. "Itna. tadpao.. ki koi maut mange.. lekin maut bhi naseeb na ho" !! Why let him have the easy way. ?

But then, I am not a legislative, neither authorised to opine on legal terms. Yet, as aperson of practical outlook, I feel there are better solutions to such problems than meets the eye.

As we all know, and as justified by science too, criminals and the kind are often people of different genetic make-up altogether(Heard of extra X chromosome in persons with criminal tendancy?) many of them, have been tormented, tortured and outcast by the society driving them into aggression and unsocial behavior.

In such a situation, the solution should be more humane.. aiming at changing their thought processes and teaching them the right thing to do. Imprisioning in barely animal ambience would only make matters bad to worse.. many of them need counsellers.. medical attention.. psychologists.. n in some cases even psychiatrics.. Why not try these simple processes out? The expenses would be a fraction if it helps in teh long run.

Let us remember that, punsihment is never given to compensate a victim.. No person on earth who has been deprieved of a close one.. has been tortured or gone through mental agony can be compensated. Punsihment is only a deterrant.. a reminder to epople who attempt such things in future what the consequences can be. So it is time.. to deliver justice quick and fast, along with a better approach to handling these unwanted elements of the society.

Apprehensions Surrounding the Lok Pal Bill:


Intended Audience: For all the citizens who are aware of the present Indian political scenario, who wake up every morning these days to switch on the news channel and witness endless debates on the 'proposed vs drafted Lok Pal Bill'

Some questions surrounding the same:

a) Does any of the versions of the Bill look promising enough?
b) Does any one in this country be it a political leader/ administrator personnel or even the Loka Yukta representative deserve unchecked power?
c) Do the prime representatives of the party supporting the move look fair on their integrity level?
d) If a panel needs to include different people from different backgrounds, to ensure looking at a problem/case from different angles in order to ensure a just move, what is the whole point of involving both Prashant as well as Shanti Bhushan in the committee.. can we expect different views from them?
e) Does democracy mean sitting on a podium inspiring masses to do so without food and water, on the pretext that you are fighting for the right cause .. Be it Anna Hazare or Ram Dev(who many opine should rather stick to teaching Yoga than dabbling with politics !!) , wasnt there a better means to prsent their voice apart from forcing the system to do something.. It is something like a child forcing his parents not to enforce eductaion else he would go without food and water... Or even on the other side to teach them a lesson to invade a huge crowd in the wee hours and start intimidating a mass of gathered crowd. remember we still shun the Jailenwalah bagh tragedy. Thousands of people thronged the premises of Tihar Jail on 16th August in support of Anna.. The activists who got it started in the first place had the Gandhian quality of being able to gather the crowd, provoking the masses.. But how many of them actually knew what it was all about? The big difference between being gandhi and being Gandhi-like lies in the fact that while Gandhi had the will and power to start and start a movement at will, I hardly suppose any of these men can stop the mob if it gets out of hand? Can they? and if in the chaos something goes astray staking the lives of thousands who is to blame?! auto walas, sweepers.. students.. government employees all gave whole heartened support to Anna.. But talking of Delhi Autos.. who refuse to go on meter! or government employees who don't understand what service actually means?? What I wish to point out here is that corruption free attitude begins with one self.. I as a student must have downloaded thousands of free softwares (I am sure even Mr Arvind did in his IIT days..).. am still a regular user of torrent and songs.pk. So am I not corrupt? are we ready to give it up first before raising the fingers altogether at the system. But then again because I am corrupt should it prevent me from raising my voice against corruption? what should my stand be?

Well, its just a grim reminder of the present state of facts. I don't know whether it is appropriate but still I would like to switch on the media every day to find happy and cheerful news which would levitate my spirits..when I turn the pages every morning.. I would rather read about the efforts of our leaders having brought about changes in their respective portfolios(No matter how far that has been overshadowed by their general flaws and fallacies in politics).

I consider myself an aware citizen of the country.. aware of the several scams and consequently the respective committees set up to look into the same.. BUT ! at the the same time I am tired of the same.. I am tired of the parties pointing figures at each other.. (be the charges legitimate or frivolous).. It might sound a tad bit wonderland.. but through my days of life I do want to watch the people striving to improve their lives .. be it themselves or through elected representatives. !!!