PLACE - Lucknow
People- A,B( I mean they had names...but the fact of the matter is .....they don't matter...
B : so..you're in lko for how long ??
A : ummm.....22..24. I mean it'll be 24 next summer.
B : kind of boring isn't it?? I mean 'one city- one life'....too monotonous
A ( trying to copy B's style) : well , I had a punch at Bareilly for 4 years but , umm...I usually del that stuff..you know its better off saying ,' been here all the time '.
B : and..you did there??
A : engg
B : eng-bly...bly-eng...sort of ...never heard a college there....you see!!!
A : yeah..there were no FRs ,PVRs..McDonalds...
B : nooo...no no no o..mac is not engg I mean look..its just..ok forget...........so you've been there McDonalds ..haan!!
A : well well..you know the problem with you NRIs...you think we Indians live on a tree top...and our roofs as vulnerable as a leaf...falling over..tripping over...well here's the news we are hosting this year's CWG ....Commonwealth Games...you see now??
B : OK OK..just cool it.will ya..and by the way my family ...its from lko.
A : and??
B : well my father got transferred.(to the US)
so where are we heading?
A: well we ought to go to FR ,have some burg..
B (scanning some paper..or map) : hey i wanna go this..H..U..S..S.AI..N
A : Husaainganj!!!! what for???
B : no no...something like that...its more vowely.
A: vowely??
B : ooh well vowels playing all around ...A B then A ....D.
A : Hussainabad....ok...but what for???
B : you don't know ..there's some place there..IMAM
A : k...Imambara..but today??
B : yeah...problems??
A : well that Ayodh. ok never mind let's go...
B : any problems??
A : no ..not at all..
B (gazing at the Imambara) : CHRIST!!!.....geese...look at that..you know what this is....you remember that dance judge on that dance show saying to that dancing guy.......stupendofantabulofantastic maan.
A guide in the backdrop : this was built by asifudduala at the time of the great famine...hindus and muslims built it....a source of providing people the money they didnt take otherwise.....was built in the morning..destroyed in the night....to give the money to all the citizens........tazia kept inside.....hindus used to built it........
B : wow!!! did you hear that
A : yeah..old story..famine one..oh yeah I've booked 2 seats at the barbecue nation at 4:00.
B : coool..hey what's that??
A : what??...ooh...Roomi Gate...c'mon lets move....
B (staring at a building) : wow..look at that,,thats what you call elegant, decent enough no?? That's what you call a Nawab's Inn..I mean I can relate it to a Nawab..is he still there??
A: what?? who??
B : the Nawab.
A : the Nawab??
B : this is the Nawab's residence no??
A (chuckling) : no no no no no...this is KGMC ...I mean CSMMU.
B : CS what ??
A : CSMMU ..chattrap...well they called it KGMC -King George's Medical College.
B : OK....so what about it....
A : what about what?? a medical college,,100 years old...a sometime great, one time best..and now a decent one. ooh by the way you see that gate(pointing towards the front gate)...there you get some great chole-bhatoore ..wanna have a bite(again copying some accent)
B : yeah yeah..why not??
They parked the car besides a filthy makeshift bookstore. there are some vintage novels lying there. among them lies a relatively political copy of The Communist Manifesto...and there is one more ...OSAMA..World War-3 .....just behind that bookstore there is an ignorable plaque.
plaque : In 1870, the Maharaja of Vijaynagaram first floated the idea of starting a medical college.......first batch started 1911......did a lot of service in World War-1 ...then in 2........
A : so ....how were they? (referring to the chole- bhatoore)
B : well a bit spi...
A : spicy,salty, unhygienic...haa....you always denigrate us ohh cmon u know...
B : yeah yeah..you are hosting the commonwealth games.
Both start laughing
A : what's the time ...2:00 ......perfect we'll be right at the barbecue's at 4:00...oh by the way its Residency ...........magnum opus ( pointing sideways).
B : well what's so special about that...... I mean 2 pillars lots of green grass......what ..... I mean this..a magnum opus....gimme a break.
A : No it is!!!!..oh c'mon the first great battle was faught here we lost though but know what we faught valiantly,,,,,we killed those british residents..those families.
B : you killed what ??
A : families!!!
B : of ??
A : Britishers!!
B : you said VALIANTLY....and you killed kids, families....residents..wha..what the...
A (confused) : well we killed the soldiers before ..or after...and by the way they treasoned against us and we built that thing so....we faught...killed.
B : killed before..killed after..but why kill the families...and building ..why demolish it???
A (now irritated) : I DON'T KNOW...I mean am not ASI....or IAS.....I know that the war started a great rebellion in 1857......leading us to '47 I mean this is the first thing we are taught at school.
B (looking at the other side) : hey!!!! whats that ???
A (looking for something at the dashboard) : The Shahid Smarak..in the memory of the first reb of independence.
B : being renovated ......haan!!!
A : what?? ohh no no.. actually it just got defaced by some Shiksha Mitras....you see they were having a strike here.
B : what ??
A : see..there were these guys ...ok....they got jobs for some education thing....right...now they weren't getting their share...haan....so these teachers...they got angry.....and demolished it....that was how it was....ok....
B (flabbergasted) : they broke it...the 4th of July mon..I mean the independence monument.....
A : yeah.....ooh c'mon it will be renovated anyhow!!!
B : but they were teac.....ooh,,hey they are giving away flowers.....and why so much crowd....and cops...some procession being held ??
A (looking for the date in his watch) : well..there is a judgement pending....you must have heard of Ayodhya....
B : what judgement and why bieng so hyper about that judgemet .....and what A Y O D H Y A.....
A : hey hey..watch out..that's abig judgemnt ....our government rests on it....our economy, our country, me , you -till the time you are here, believe it or not, quote- unquote depend on it.
B (serious, real serious) : why ??
A : hey we are getting late for barbec....
B : PLEEEEAASEEEEE !!!!!!
A : OK ....so Babar the Mughal king built this mosque and they are saying that he built it over a temple.....an ancient temple.
B : WHO???
A : The Hindus!!! now look..they say a temple has to be built here...much has happened in-between the years..i don't know much. That Babri Masjid got demolished anyways...blasts happened, riots....the government changed too......it all happened....
B (as if about to pull hairs....his or A's...don't know) : but..it's just one mosque...you are trying to prove after 400 years......I mean a small plot ..and the government changes..no..no way....
A : ooh ooh...hey..this is India ..not your damn Brooklyn....and yeah we are not that 'NO WAY' I mean after all...hey c'mon....
B (chuckling) : hey cmon...we are hosting the CommonWealth Gamed ...aren't we??
A (slightly offended) : ok ok.....now we are off to Barbecue Nation.....
B : fine ....somewhere near...
A : no way man..its a different place all together.....Shoppers Stop..Burger Kings.you'll like it there...
B : k...hey I am a bit thirsty..can you just drop in somewhere...I need a cola....
A drops B at a nearby shop. B rushes in for a cola. The shopkeepers television is tuned to Times Now and Times Now- COMMONWEALTH VILLAGE UNLIVABLE...WALES,ENGLAND THREATEN TO PULL OUT . A small strip rolls down that India nudging towards the 20,000 mark in the sensex, But B does not see that and he bursts out laughing. It is a strange combination of laugh,amazement,helplessness and a tinge of despair.
A also walks in, sees B ,then sees the TV ......he also misses the 20,000 story ....in the end giving away a wry smile.
P.S. Hours after writing this the babri masjid judgement got deferred till 28th sept.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
5:30 is normally the time when you experience the best sleep of the day, but then, when you are in the compartment of a long-route train, one prefers to enjoy the first light of the day rather than.....doze off.
It was 5:33.....it was Kanpur Central.....and there was me , a 'tea-bagged' tea in my hand ,lying down in the freshly occupied side-lower....previously owned by a cute girl who was heading towards IIT-Kanpur (place I dreamt of heading 5 years back). In my long journey down to the Deccan , 10 days there, and now back in the Doabs, these were , perhaps the most peaceful and serene moments.
The train started off gradually , taking us through the rare morning calmness of Kanpur until,past some jhuggis I saw a boring yellow railway board,,G A N G A..and then what I saw - an expanse of greatness in the form of serene snow-white water ...yet again explaining the greatness of the divine. And I with my tea-cup empty and my not knowing about it, was exclaiming- MAJESTIC.
Majestic is the same word uttered when i first gazed at the Char Minar. Ever since my visit to Hyderabad, I was dying for an encounter with this famous gateway, also wondering why this four-legged structure attracted so many eyes until, I faced it...in the midst of Ramadan, among the crowd of about a thousand waiting for Eid ,a claustrophobic me, was amazed on seeing a minaret-cum-mosque that was constructed by Quli Qutub Shah in the late 15th century to commemorate the end of plague in the region - a building dedicated to the everlasting peace of the region. A thought in stark contrast with the recently concluded Hindu-Muslim and Telengana riots.
Hyderabad, in fact, on the whole is a city of contrast. Here you get to a weighing machine, toss in a coin, only to discover the weight printed in Telugu- one of the oldest and poetic languages of the subcontinent spoken by stalwarts like Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the modern day Vedantist. Simultaneously ,you cannot get away from a flimsy Auto-Rickshawwalllah who, on getting to know my plan of going to the Hi-Tech city told me, " Hi-Tech City kaae ko jaate saab...nakko jaaoo..waan kyaaa haii..oonchii buldingaa dekhnee koo jaatee kyaa??"
A city, it was, I discovered , with a magical culture,a mixed bag, where you can eat Hyderabadi Biryani along with a dosa , without the brows being raised. Here you can note down the Sehri timings from a Sanskritized Telugu paper. Also, can savor the delicacies of Haleen in bustling Ramadan nights(a dish made of meat, wheat,walnut,supaari....phew) only to start the next day with a kadhi-patta flavored sweet of some Brahminical Vratam.
Hyd -a region established by the Qutubshahis,the Asafjahis in the form of Char Minar,Jama Masjid, identified by Potti Sriramulu, who due to his determination, carved out a state of Andhra Pradesh, and alas ,developed, and still being developed in the form of Hi-Tech City by the brains of Eastern- Godavari and Vizag.
An empire that was once the ambitions of Aurangzeb, ending up as the centre of affluence of the Nizams, and today an IT hub, an area of CCDs and SubWays, Hyderabad defines INDIA. A nation, that is not defined by Kareena Kapoors, KJos and Ambanis, nor by the poverty struck lot....identified by the middle class ,the common men, who question the supremecy of the ultra-rich, by bringing the ultra-poor more closer to common life-style. A class which banishes all contradictions and carve them out into beautiful comparisons. A strata which really is the face of Hyderabad,thus ,defining India as- INCREDIBLE.
It was 5:33.....it was Kanpur Central.....and there was me , a 'tea-bagged' tea in my hand ,lying down in the freshly occupied side-lower....previously owned by a cute girl who was heading towards IIT-Kanpur (place I dreamt of heading 5 years back). In my long journey down to the Deccan , 10 days there, and now back in the Doabs, these were , perhaps the most peaceful and serene moments.
The train started off gradually , taking us through the rare morning calmness of Kanpur until,past some jhuggis I saw a boring yellow railway board,,G A N G A..and then what I saw - an expanse of greatness in the form of serene snow-white water ...yet again explaining the greatness of the divine. And I with my tea-cup empty and my not knowing about it, was exclaiming- MAJESTIC.
Majestic is the same word uttered when i first gazed at the Char Minar. Ever since my visit to Hyderabad, I was dying for an encounter with this famous gateway, also wondering why this four-legged structure attracted so many eyes until, I faced it...in the midst of Ramadan, among the crowd of about a thousand waiting for Eid ,a claustrophobic me, was amazed on seeing a minaret-cum-mosque that was constructed by Quli Qutub Shah in the late 15th century to commemorate the end of plague in the region - a building dedicated to the everlasting peace of the region. A thought in stark contrast with the recently concluded Hindu-Muslim and Telengana riots.
Hyderabad, in fact, on the whole is a city of contrast. Here you get to a weighing machine, toss in a coin, only to discover the weight printed in Telugu- one of the oldest and poetic languages of the subcontinent spoken by stalwarts like Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the modern day Vedantist. Simultaneously ,you cannot get away from a flimsy Auto-Rickshawwalllah who, on getting to know my plan of going to the Hi-Tech city told me, " Hi-Tech City kaae ko jaate saab...nakko jaaoo..waan kyaaa haii..oonchii buldingaa dekhnee koo jaatee kyaa??"
A city, it was, I discovered , with a magical culture,a mixed bag, where you can eat Hyderabadi Biryani along with a dosa , without the brows being raised. Here you can note down the Sehri timings from a Sanskritized Telugu paper. Also, can savor the delicacies of Haleen in bustling Ramadan nights(a dish made of meat, wheat,walnut,supaari....phew) only to start the next day with a kadhi-patta flavored sweet of some Brahminical Vratam.
Hyd -a region established by the Qutubshahis,the Asafjahis in the form of Char Minar,Jama Masjid, identified by Potti Sriramulu, who due to his determination, carved out a state of Andhra Pradesh, and alas ,developed, and still being developed in the form of Hi-Tech City by the brains of Eastern- Godavari and Vizag.
An empire that was once the ambitions of Aurangzeb, ending up as the centre of affluence of the Nizams, and today an IT hub, an area of CCDs and SubWays, Hyderabad defines INDIA. A nation, that is not defined by Kareena Kapoors, KJos and Ambanis, nor by the poverty struck lot....identified by the middle class ,the common men, who question the supremecy of the ultra-rich, by bringing the ultra-poor more closer to common life-style. A class which banishes all contradictions and carve them out into beautiful comparisons. A strata which really is the face of Hyderabad,thus ,defining India as- INCREDIBLE.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
WORSHIPPING FALSE GODS
One of the first grammer lessons that I remember to have learnt was to write GOD with a G i.e. capital. Next in line were rules that told 'his, him,he' when refferred to God should always start with capitals.
Capital, bold letters figuratively meant more respect, more deference to the almighty. I was told in the early years of my life to always bow before the God, always to praise Him, sing hymns in repect for Him, never to ridicule Him. And I did all that.....without questioning.
So I experienced all of the above, rather faced it with no other option left, and so did many of my contemperories. We, if born in the Hindu society are always told things the same way.slowly, but steadily we become Hindu,we start reciting Hanuman Chalisa, Gayatri Mantra, we make it a habit to visit the temple on tuesdays and saturdays, it becomes a rule to avoid the non vegetarian food on Tuesdays. Gradually, the pride of bieng a Hindu turns into an arrogance, we ridicule the neighbouring Muslim, make him a Mullla,make fun of his beard and scorn on his baking the chapatis on the other side of the pan. And then......PERIOD. no we dont start a riot,we are now saturated of our thoughts,and now we start to live life in a normal way...to put it as cliche ......life goes on.
The above paragraph's a general trend followed by most of Indian Hindus, we feel good in discussing it because we know everybody feels the same way and its somtimes good to be 'just another guy'.
But come what may there's always and as I see it, in each of our lifes, a second and contradictory phase. We begin ..... no we don't begin, we question the Divinity. It never is a logically taken step, it is an urge. We doubt the Saturdays and the Tuesdays. We fail to recognize the Chalisas and the Mantras,we compare the Metaphysics and the Physics of the Dharma. The conflict goes on and on, there's a fight going on in the inside...we think we have sinned and our religion wins the battle not for the love of it, but because of the fear of it.
Let's give this FEAR part a little bit rest.
Atheism , a word I started hearing quite often since 2006,when I started my college life. I found three kinds, rather categories of guys in my ambience. There were these kind of guys as mentiond in the last pararaph...those who feared.second in the list were those ,lets say them Atheist -1 who defied God just to be in the scene "ARRE YAAR HAMEIN IN SABSE FARK NAHI PADTAA " types. they are the ones who question divinity so that prople can see them questioning divinity. They to , in a way fear God , they too, in a way long for a support, a divine support ....when exams get screwed up , when life gets screwed up, but then "HUMEIN FARK NAHI PADTA"
And then the third kind...guys i have found out more recently, ATHEIST-2.People who put forward their disbelief quite openly and question the ethics quite confidently. They doubt the existence of the ultimate but marvel the spirituality of the Kashi Vishwanaath. he is one of those guys who want to find logic in his answers but then he thinks that his queries are not satisfied by his own DHARMA,,,and thus he drifts apart.
As a Hindu and as a 23 year old, I have come across these three breeds of Hindus. there are people who think HINDUISM is a religion, followed by following some special principals some specific activities, and they will be ridiculed, they will be abused or land up in hell, if they question it, so FEAR and for the fear they follow the rituals, or in their language, HINDUISM.
Secondly 'humein kyaa farak padataa hai?' , these guys are helpless, they are helpless in exploring faith, of feeling the joy of following a particular DHARMA, the joy of bieng pure..,.no furthur comments on them.....and then the third kind, who have the questions but they fail to get the answers, or dont want to get the answers, they abstain from the religion, without really knowing the religion, they want to find the answers, but then , they don't want to LEARN how to find those answers.....in my opinion 'a confused lot'
But for india...for me...for all of us....they are all Hindus...reciting HANUMAN CHALISA, not eating non. veg. on tuesdays etc etc...but then they do not follow hinduism, they do not follow the religion the ARYANS have given to us. Just because, this thing cant be followed , it has to be imbibed, Hinduism is way of living and leading a life.
Etymologically, a HINDU is a guy living east of Indus river, implying the whole of INDIA (with parts of PAKISTAN )is a flood of Hindus. Well abstractly, my definition ,kind of matches the geographical definition given above. For me Hinduism is a synonym of freedon, a freedom to live life on our own terms, a life where we can question the illogical, defy the contradictions, and thus believe what is implicit. It doesen't ask us to join our hands , recite the mantra 5:00 AM sharp but it expects us to enjoy the beauty of this place, the justified symmetrey of this mother earth, the mathematics of this universe. We dont have to fear God to live a life of a Hindu, we have to live life of peaceful accord to be a Hindu, we dont have to modify to a specific culture to become one Hindu, instead Hinduism is the name of a force that binds our culture together as culture is too pure be modified.
Its just that somewhere, we go wrong, when we become one staunch Hindu by sacrificing a sheep in a KAALI mandir, but defy the religion, in eating the same sheep on a Tuesday.It might be the perception of ours, perhaps, that God has made this a religion of 84 lac divine biengs, of scriptures, of rules. but then this religion is like the divinity itslef, shapless, formless, guileless. Of course, those 84 lac divine biengs,our very own RAMA ,KRISHNA, and the scriptures, they become fallacy if the growing beard of Mussalman, and the baking of the roti on the other side of the pan becomes a ridicule for us, because those Muslims , if they follow a path of principle,a path of peace, combining both which becomes a path of culture, then they are also the purest of hindu. As Hinduism is nothing but a way , of living a life and a process, .....a process of exploring truth, of exploring wisdom,
10 years back, the topic of my first speech was FEAR OF GOD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM. i won the first prize in it. Much to my ill-fate, its not the fear , but the process of questioning God, asking God, about the path of real truth that brings in real wisdom to lead a peaceful life.
* The above title is basically the title of Arun Shourie's book.
Capital, bold letters figuratively meant more respect, more deference to the almighty. I was told in the early years of my life to always bow before the God, always to praise Him, sing hymns in repect for Him, never to ridicule Him. And I did all that.....without questioning.
So I experienced all of the above, rather faced it with no other option left, and so did many of my contemperories. We, if born in the Hindu society are always told things the same way.slowly, but steadily we become Hindu,we start reciting Hanuman Chalisa, Gayatri Mantra, we make it a habit to visit the temple on tuesdays and saturdays, it becomes a rule to avoid the non vegetarian food on Tuesdays. Gradually, the pride of bieng a Hindu turns into an arrogance, we ridicule the neighbouring Muslim, make him a Mullla,make fun of his beard and scorn on his baking the chapatis on the other side of the pan. And then......PERIOD. no we dont start a riot,we are now saturated of our thoughts,and now we start to live life in a normal way...to put it as cliche ......life goes on.
The above paragraph's a general trend followed by most of Indian Hindus, we feel good in discussing it because we know everybody feels the same way and its somtimes good to be 'just another guy'.
But come what may there's always and as I see it, in each of our lifes, a second and contradictory phase. We begin ..... no we don't begin, we question the Divinity. It never is a logically taken step, it is an urge. We doubt the Saturdays and the Tuesdays. We fail to recognize the Chalisas and the Mantras,we compare the Metaphysics and the Physics of the Dharma. The conflict goes on and on, there's a fight going on in the inside...we think we have sinned and our religion wins the battle not for the love of it, but because of the fear of it.
Let's give this FEAR part a little bit rest.
Atheism , a word I started hearing quite often since 2006,when I started my college life. I found three kinds, rather categories of guys in my ambience. There were these kind of guys as mentiond in the last pararaph...those who feared.second in the list were those ,lets say them Atheist -1 who defied God just to be in the scene "ARRE YAAR HAMEIN IN SABSE FARK NAHI PADTAA " types. they are the ones who question divinity so that prople can see them questioning divinity. They to , in a way fear God , they too, in a way long for a support, a divine support ....when exams get screwed up , when life gets screwed up, but then "HUMEIN FARK NAHI PADTA"
And then the third kind...guys i have found out more recently, ATHEIST-2.People who put forward their disbelief quite openly and question the ethics quite confidently. They doubt the existence of the ultimate but marvel the spirituality of the Kashi Vishwanaath. he is one of those guys who want to find logic in his answers but then he thinks that his queries are not satisfied by his own DHARMA,,,and thus he drifts apart.
As a Hindu and as a 23 year old, I have come across these three breeds of Hindus. there are people who think HINDUISM is a religion, followed by following some special principals some specific activities, and they will be ridiculed, they will be abused or land up in hell, if they question it, so FEAR and for the fear they follow the rituals, or in their language, HINDUISM.
Secondly 'humein kyaa farak padataa hai?' , these guys are helpless, they are helpless in exploring faith, of feeling the joy of following a particular DHARMA, the joy of bieng pure..,.no furthur comments on them.....and then the third kind, who have the questions but they fail to get the answers, or dont want to get the answers, they abstain from the religion, without really knowing the religion, they want to find the answers, but then , they don't want to LEARN how to find those answers.....in my opinion 'a confused lot'
But for india...for me...for all of us....they are all Hindus...reciting HANUMAN CHALISA, not eating non. veg. on tuesdays etc etc...but then they do not follow hinduism, they do not follow the religion the ARYANS have given to us. Just because, this thing cant be followed , it has to be imbibed, Hinduism is way of living and leading a life.
Etymologically, a HINDU is a guy living east of Indus river, implying the whole of INDIA (with parts of PAKISTAN )is a flood of Hindus. Well abstractly, my definition ,kind of matches the geographical definition given above. For me Hinduism is a synonym of freedon, a freedom to live life on our own terms, a life where we can question the illogical, defy the contradictions, and thus believe what is implicit. It doesen't ask us to join our hands , recite the mantra 5:00 AM sharp but it expects us to enjoy the beauty of this place, the justified symmetrey of this mother earth, the mathematics of this universe. We dont have to fear God to live a life of a Hindu, we have to live life of peaceful accord to be a Hindu, we dont have to modify to a specific culture to become one Hindu, instead Hinduism is the name of a force that binds our culture together as culture is too pure be modified.
Its just that somewhere, we go wrong, when we become one staunch Hindu by sacrificing a sheep in a KAALI mandir, but defy the religion, in eating the same sheep on a Tuesday.It might be the perception of ours, perhaps, that God has made this a religion of 84 lac divine biengs, of scriptures, of rules. but then this religion is like the divinity itslef, shapless, formless, guileless. Of course, those 84 lac divine biengs,our very own RAMA ,KRISHNA, and the scriptures, they become fallacy if the growing beard of Mussalman, and the baking of the roti on the other side of the pan becomes a ridicule for us, because those Muslims , if they follow a path of principle,a path of peace, combining both which becomes a path of culture, then they are also the purest of hindu. As Hinduism is nothing but a way , of living a life and a process, .....a process of exploring truth, of exploring wisdom,
10 years back, the topic of my first speech was FEAR OF GOD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM. i won the first prize in it. Much to my ill-fate, its not the fear , but the process of questioning God, asking God, about the path of real truth that brings in real wisdom to lead a peaceful life.
* The above title is basically the title of Arun Shourie's book.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
LETTER TO AN ACTOR
To,
Mr Shah Rukh Khan,
Prominent actor (Bollywood),
Address- A lavish bunglow,somewhere along the sea side in Mumbai,
sub : A plea to empower India
Sir,
With due respect I beg to state my thoughts that I wanted to confide in you for so long.
First of all,I am one of your biggest fans.From Deewana to My Name is Khan , each of your flicks have been watched by me, felt by me. I have cried , laughed ,faught in real each time you did the same on reel.
You are a guy who made himself into a man on his own terms, never compromising on values, and never making adjustments in family life. You did things every Indian does, and achieved things the same Indian craves for.You revered the Gita, respected the Quran. You played Raj in DDLJ and the whole India fell in love,you enacted Mohun Bhargava in Swadesh, and the whole nation went back to the villages.This time , on behalf of the whole of India, I want you to play the role of an Indian.
Indian culture,the oldest thriving lifestyle after the Egyptians, a jewel which reflects the shine of valour, affluence, penance and honour. Indian Culture, a candle which is toward its end, of which most of the sons and daughters have forgotten about.
These days we watch 300, we admire the reflexes of the spartans, but somewhere we forget the courage and strength of Rana Pratap and Co. We watch without the blink of an eye the classics of World War-2 when the solidarity of the Azad Hind Fauz of Subhash chandra Bose, somewhere gets lost amongst us, when thw world remembers the jews and the Holocaust through Schindler's List , no body here cares to reminisce that sanguinity of Partition. We watch a 3 hour motion of Alexander, but then we forget the grit of Porus, who moved the former, the Great one.
How do we bring back that past to the knowledge of every Indian, sir? Through History books? Whose boredom has made these unforgettable incidents into Forgettable chronicles.Through leaders, politicians? who change the whole course of our past , just for a 5 year reign.
They are your films , which , apart from cricket have influenced every Indian.Films, that for the last 80 odd years have been giving a 3 hour fantasy life to a common man.
Perhaps.....no..... for sure...... ,a common India needs a 3 hour acting from your side to underatand the realities , stories , glories and of course the atrocities of India. The nation at the edge of becoming a super power cannot be one if it remains blind folded to its glorius past.
Rana Pratap, Samudra Gupta, Shivaji, Bose, they need to be endorsed by you, enacted by you, so that India can come to know how great India is.Ashoka needs something more than his love life to be shown by who, so that the world , let alone India can Understand the meaning of Greatness.
The patriot of India needs you to awaken Indians from the deep slumber they are in .
I have chosen a letter to interact with you in this e- generation of Twitters and Facebooks 'coz letters have made revolutions, haven't they ? Marx compiled Marxism through them, Gandhi became Mahatma through a pen. Be it the World Wars, or the Papal Conferences, be it the Nazis, or the red cross, they ran the world in thier own ways through letters.
And then, a man, called Jawahahar Lal Nehru, above all the comeplexities of power politics , away from all the intricacies of diplomacy, very innocently taught his daughter about Indian Culture through letters. With such powerful proofs of the power of letter from the annals of history , I have tried to write to you what I feel is to be done at the moment.
I will be grateful if you will act in the affirmative.
Yours Sincerely,
a common man( of INDIA)
Mr Shah Rukh Khan,
Prominent actor (Bollywood),
Address- A lavish bunglow,somewhere along the sea side in Mumbai,
sub : A plea to empower India
Sir,
With due respect I beg to state my thoughts that I wanted to confide in you for so long.
First of all,I am one of your biggest fans.From Deewana to My Name is Khan , each of your flicks have been watched by me, felt by me. I have cried , laughed ,faught in real each time you did the same on reel.
You are a guy who made himself into a man on his own terms, never compromising on values, and never making adjustments in family life. You did things every Indian does, and achieved things the same Indian craves for.You revered the Gita, respected the Quran. You played Raj in DDLJ and the whole India fell in love,you enacted Mohun Bhargava in Swadesh, and the whole nation went back to the villages.This time , on behalf of the whole of India, I want you to play the role of an Indian.
Indian culture,the oldest thriving lifestyle after the Egyptians, a jewel which reflects the shine of valour, affluence, penance and honour. Indian Culture, a candle which is toward its end, of which most of the sons and daughters have forgotten about.
These days we watch 300, we admire the reflexes of the spartans, but somewhere we forget the courage and strength of Rana Pratap and Co. We watch without the blink of an eye the classics of World War-2 when the solidarity of the Azad Hind Fauz of Subhash chandra Bose, somewhere gets lost amongst us, when thw world remembers the jews and the Holocaust through Schindler's List , no body here cares to reminisce that sanguinity of Partition. We watch a 3 hour motion of Alexander, but then we forget the grit of Porus, who moved the former, the Great one.
How do we bring back that past to the knowledge of every Indian, sir? Through History books? Whose boredom has made these unforgettable incidents into Forgettable chronicles.Through leaders, politicians? who change the whole course of our past , just for a 5 year reign.
They are your films , which , apart from cricket have influenced every Indian.Films, that for the last 80 odd years have been giving a 3 hour fantasy life to a common man.
Perhaps.....no..... for sure...... ,a common India needs a 3 hour acting from your side to underatand the realities , stories , glories and of course the atrocities of India. The nation at the edge of becoming a super power cannot be one if it remains blind folded to its glorius past.
Rana Pratap, Samudra Gupta, Shivaji, Bose, they need to be endorsed by you, enacted by you, so that India can come to know how great India is.Ashoka needs something more than his love life to be shown by who, so that the world , let alone India can Understand the meaning of Greatness.
The patriot of India needs you to awaken Indians from the deep slumber they are in .
I have chosen a letter to interact with you in this e- generation of Twitters and Facebooks 'coz letters have made revolutions, haven't they ? Marx compiled Marxism through them, Gandhi became Mahatma through a pen. Be it the World Wars, or the Papal Conferences, be it the Nazis, or the red cross, they ran the world in thier own ways through letters.
And then, a man, called Jawahahar Lal Nehru, above all the comeplexities of power politics , away from all the intricacies of diplomacy, very innocently taught his daughter about Indian Culture through letters. With such powerful proofs of the power of letter from the annals of history , I have tried to write to you what I feel is to be done at the moment.
I will be grateful if you will act in the affirmative.
Yours Sincerely,
a common man( of INDIA)
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
BAREILLY.........
These dots, yes, those right after Y,circles filled with black ink,representing nothingness,representing void,a riddle, where you know you’ve got something to offer, to explore everything,yet nothing is achieved. These dots for me are bareiily, unclear, unimaginable,underestimated yet so unruffled, So unfettered .
In the first go, I hate bareilly, I vomit at the mere thought of abhaipur. Those memories of “Band Samosa” of Aslam (my MBIC canteenman) bring tears to my eyes when Kaushal’s daal-parantha meets the retina. I feel impugnant when after every 30 minutes there is a long jam covering all what’s there in Kodesia.”Kyun koi rehna chahega is shahar me” vikas Singh shouts in the midst of the jam. Me responding, “haan yaar, kahe koi rahega”. There are no parks,no malls,name any chicken dish and you’ve got the same taste. Road minus bumps equals nothing, cut the crap..its hideous.
Second round of thoughts , and I go down memory lane. I get wet with the colours of holi we play with ,every time at station. There are those tasety nights ,filled with chicken bhuja,roasted chicken and the uncle at Anand shouting ,”aaj aap log bahut dino k baad aaye”. One cannot loose those BP Mondays , guys clipped with accessories , smothered with perfume, and full of murmurs.” Abe aaj wo bhi aaegi!!”. My mind also comes across quiet moments of syndicate book house, only to get a book of choice, ending in failiure everytime.
Brain ,now turns creative, no, calculative, ‘coz now it counts the first timers, those maiden ones, the first time I started living alone, the first bunk,the first Monday,the first time I liked a girl,the first time I had a full plate butter chicken with only 1 leg piece(trust me , it happened),first time short attendance, the first curfew.
And here’s when the road takes a sharp turn, we’re at the by-pass, Raja and me in the college bus, 11 march, 2010 going to post our admission forms. The ride to junction(as station is called ) is always full of excitement ,as mostly it’s a trip down home, but this time I witnessed peace, no, quieteness.
There were no tempowallahs shouting “CB Ganja a jaao”…CB Ganj was hit with riots. The by-pass was looking like a dumb guy, shops all closed, everything deserted ,as a few days back, it had turned dumb to a mockery of humanity, shops all burnt ,everything destroyed. We are now on our way to fly-over and except for the choti li ne train,nothing at all. Tilak Inter College, the epitome of education in Bareilly was looking like a symbol of apocalypse.the ground opposite to that..no kids, no cricket..just mud with patches of dust.
We move a little further—a truck full of people shouting slogans. The driver stops the music. One faculty sitting looks around carefuly, sighs and says,”Truck bhar k jaa rhe hain, aaj fir bawaal hoga”. The bus moves through a different route this time. I didn’t see Syndicate , BP, Selection Point. Places, I was just imagining ,where I had searched for my definition for 4 years, how were they in riots, in plunder, the book house, the chicken hotel, those model shops, the ‘outlaw’ showroom. Heartbeat was getting faster, eyes were getting closed.
My fourth round of thoughts were ending, we were reaching junction, I was missing bareilly I hated. we were moving through a place where on one side there were green flags fluttering , in stiff competion with the orange ones on the other. Somewhere in the middle there was a Gandhi Ashram shop still carryin a tri-colour..Jai Hind written all over it.
P.S.
B.P. Butler Plaza
Anand Anand Chickem Shop.
In the first go, I hate bareilly, I vomit at the mere thought of abhaipur. Those memories of “Band Samosa” of Aslam (my MBIC canteenman) bring tears to my eyes when Kaushal’s daal-parantha meets the retina. I feel impugnant when after every 30 minutes there is a long jam covering all what’s there in Kodesia.”Kyun koi rehna chahega is shahar me” vikas Singh shouts in the midst of the jam. Me responding, “haan yaar, kahe koi rahega”. There are no parks,no malls,name any chicken dish and you’ve got the same taste. Road minus bumps equals nothing, cut the crap..its hideous.
Second round of thoughts , and I go down memory lane. I get wet with the colours of holi we play with ,every time at station. There are those tasety nights ,filled with chicken bhuja,roasted chicken and the uncle at Anand shouting ,”aaj aap log bahut dino k baad aaye”. One cannot loose those BP Mondays , guys clipped with accessories , smothered with perfume, and full of murmurs.” Abe aaj wo bhi aaegi!!”. My mind also comes across quiet moments of syndicate book house, only to get a book of choice, ending in failiure everytime.
Brain ,now turns creative, no, calculative, ‘coz now it counts the first timers, those maiden ones, the first time I started living alone, the first bunk,the first Monday,the first time I liked a girl,the first time I had a full plate butter chicken with only 1 leg piece(trust me , it happened),first time short attendance, the first curfew.
And here’s when the road takes a sharp turn, we’re at the by-pass, Raja and me in the college bus, 11 march, 2010 going to post our admission forms. The ride to junction(as station is called ) is always full of excitement ,as mostly it’s a trip down home, but this time I witnessed peace, no, quieteness.
There were no tempowallahs shouting “CB Ganja a jaao”…CB Ganj was hit with riots. The by-pass was looking like a dumb guy, shops all closed, everything deserted ,as a few days back, it had turned dumb to a mockery of humanity, shops all burnt ,everything destroyed. We are now on our way to fly-over and except for the choti li ne train,nothing at all. Tilak Inter College, the epitome of education in Bareilly was looking like a symbol of apocalypse.the ground opposite to that..no kids, no cricket..just mud with patches of dust.
We move a little further—a truck full of people shouting slogans. The driver stops the music. One faculty sitting looks around carefuly, sighs and says,”Truck bhar k jaa rhe hain, aaj fir bawaal hoga”. The bus moves through a different route this time. I didn’t see Syndicate , BP, Selection Point. Places, I was just imagining ,where I had searched for my definition for 4 years, how were they in riots, in plunder, the book house, the chicken hotel, those model shops, the ‘outlaw’ showroom. Heartbeat was getting faster, eyes were getting closed.
My fourth round of thoughts were ending, we were reaching junction, I was missing bareilly I hated. we were moving through a place where on one side there were green flags fluttering , in stiff competion with the orange ones on the other. Somewhere in the middle there was a Gandhi Ashram shop still carryin a tri-colour..Jai Hind written all over it.
P.S.
B.P. Butler Plaza
Anand Anand Chickem Shop.
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