Dr APJ Kalam

As Indians line up to pay homage to Dr APJ Kalam, not as Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, not as rich or poor, not as this casteman or that, not as bigger or smaller, but as a single sad obliged entity, they pay a tribute to genuine Indianness. As politicians from divergent streams merge to a single block of much-obliged, head-bent down gentry, it proves that it is possible to overcome narrow parochial divisions that restrict our prospects of individual and collective growth. As millions of teary eyed Hindus fold their hands before the fatherly figure and millions of Muslims put their praying palms out for the peace of the departed soul, it gives a prospect that Hindus and Muslims can have a lot in common than they are having presently.

Visualize India without the assuring names like Agni, Prithvi, Brahmos, Nag, Trishul and of course the nuclear armaments, it instantly shows why we needed APJ Kalam. We can hold our dreams of becoming a developed nation because we have a semblance of security born of his military science achievements. We can more assuredly move on to the path of development because he has laid down a whole plan for us to follow. The Missile Man, The Most Popular President, The Big Dreamer, The 2020 Visionary, The Professor, The Speaker! He had many avatars, but just one dream. The dream of making India big by igniting minds, by firing the creativity and potential in youth, like he fired our leaps into the space through ballistic technology. It is difficult to analyze whether he was more of a scientist or a spiritualist. When the death sniffed out this bright light from amongst us, he was still dispelling darkness from our minds.

He touched Presidential seat with an unprecedented grace. Ironically, his ascension to the political seat was facilitated by the so called ‘danger to the secular fabric’ in the country. Still more ironically, his chances for a second term were nullified by the so called ‘safe keepers of secularism’ in this country. He deserved to be President again. But who can tame the genuine motives in earnest souls?! Dreams are no slaves to posts and positions. More luckily for the Indian youth, the ex-president kept on his path of igniting minds through his relentless lectures and public addresses. Few people do the things they love doing most even till their last moment. The tragic hand of death cannot snatch away the legacy the great man left when he collapsed on the lecture stage. Heartiest salutes to this Bharat Ratna! May almighty bestow him all peace in after life! 

Why do I want to continue writing??!!

Well, very small mundane facts define me. I continue writing with the intention of adding a bit bigger facts to define me. I write not with the intention to outwit others’ claim to similar bit more bigger facts. Self justification is one of the easiest things coming to our nature. We justify even the worst of our deeds. I write to justify the inherent tendency in me to survive as a professional writer. Not that I cannot do something else to earn my bread and butter. I definitely can! And I am doing in fact! But you know there is a piously whispering cooing of the real self that eggs me on to still keep on trying to give my writing a platform.

Coming from that part of the north Indian countryside, where literature will be the last thing on anybody’s mind, where agriculture is culture itself, I am the black sheep that is trying to get out of the herd to make this most unlikely career for anybody coming from Jat land or synonymously buffalo land. Well on the down slope of youth, more than once I have abandoned the dream of full time writing. Many a time I have realized my limitations as a writer. Still many more times I have felt myself a victim of the forces beyond my control. Today when I get up again to try again to get a slippery foothold I can very well hear the anticipating whispering of the inherent voice again.

I fought for the most prestigious civil services positions in India. Fought decently well as well, given my own limitations and more importantly the literary limitations of the socio-cultural unit I come from. The more I worked harder, the more distant became the goals. I saw the worst of politico-bureaucratic-judicial game. When I finally fell my inner voice told me, it is more on account of the system’s failure than my own. So I have my sips of justice in the form of the inner thumbs-up by my soul.

Every time I fell, deeper were the analytical impressions on the neurons of my brain; graver were the bruises on heart. If nothing more, it gave me the mood and inclination to write. Still I am fighting for my take away. My reward! I do not want it at the cost of somebody more deserving. I am not into comparison. We can compare just simple tangibles. How can we compare life’s thousand catapults that all of us get uniquely, single handedly!

I am not taking writing in life as a competition, but as a fate’s lottery pot, wherein somebody will walk out with a smile. Having full faith in the fates’ evaluation, if I build a platform to support my writing, I would also prefer to walk away with a broad smile!

Wishing myself and others best of luck!

Why most of the AAP MLAs can be easily farmed for fraudulent charges!?

NCR saw unprecedented real estate boom for two decades. It created a niche class of property dealers who used muscles, politico-bureaucratic links and a tendency to look over the small hedge of legalities, to become really rich. In the same chain of development, there were contractors or thekedars who climbed the ladder of prosperity very smoothly by stage-managing things at many levels. At the state level, the moment a property dealer or contractor gets to a level wherein he can afford to loiter around after political guns in the area in his SUV with a bunch of ideal thugs, he jumps into the political bandwagon. These new political hatchlings mostly join the regional outfits because the latter have very strong identity based politics for the local population.

Over the last two decades Delhi got its rich share of crorepatis. They had achieved all. Every rich Indian inherits a political tendency. So these newly rich politically ambitious group of people either sneaked into the BJP or the Congress. Political representation but has severe limitations in comparison to the huge number of newly-rich persons eyeing legislative assemblies. Arvind Kejriwal smartly smelt the political hunger in this big section of newly-rich contractors and property dealers. To help him in raising his political party these left-out political aspirants were in a position to donate crores for his cause. From personal experience I can recall very decent sized queues of crorepatis seeking ticket for contesting assembly elections. They donated like anything. Arvind Kejriwal had his huge box of money full to run his newly-formed party in a corporate manner. Inside the room he was filling his coffers with money from these newly wealthy cherubs; at the public platform he was always ensnaring the poorest of the poor through his politics of symbolism in the form of same jersey, same old car, same muffler, and what not. Tsunami type victory, carried by this hollow symbolism and less of substance, propelled all and sundry, raw, immature crorepatis and even social activists to legislative seats. But very rarely can the paths from contractorship, property dealing and even social activism (mostly as a profession) avoid illegalities. Its proofs we can see as one after another AAP MLA is found guilty of provable indiscretion. With proper case studies into the history of these MLA hatchlings, many more can be easily put in the dock!!

Hope BJP and Congress are listening! Or BJP will allow AAP to grow to some manageable size, because AAP’s growth is only at the cost of the Congress. Both AAP and Congress are into the politics of symbolism that pacifies and pampers the bruises of those deprived socially, politically and economically. Congress ruled for six decades with hollow symbolism that was ultimately recognized as the poorest of the poor remained the same and its Ministers broke all records of corruption. As a new born baby that is yet to get its skin tainted with sunburns, AAP is trying to shift Congress loss to its favour. One school of theoreticians even says that the BJP will not totally wipe away Kejriwal. Despite best political brand management, the traditional BJP vote bank has remained the same. So now the effort seems to divide the non-BJP votes!!    

A small sip of inspiration!!

He is in his early eighties now. Robust old man! Definitely a sort of
achiever at the property front! More so against the fact that when he
and his family escaped from the blooded Pakistani soil at the
partition time, after losing loved ones and all property, they were
even poorer than beggars. He started earning for the family at the
tender age of 8 only. Then graduated onto become a truck driver and
ultimately a transporter. His struggles took him to all corners of the
country in all types of circumstances. I asked him about the guiding
philosophies in his life. There was a light in his old, dim eyes:
'This fellow trucker of ours was really poor. All his worth was
invested in this old truck. We were going in a convey in north east.
His vehicle was carrying jaggery. The thing got toppled into a hole.
It was damaged and jaggery all over the place. Fortunately he and his
helper boy came out with bruised on skin. But I knew he was carrying
bigger scars in his heart because that truck was all he had in the
name of property. We were just afraid how he will react to it. In fact
we were almost speechless so far as paying lip service is concerned.

He just sat at a stone and cast a sad look at the damaged truck. In a

very normal tone he called his helper, "Oye yaar jo hona tha ho gaya.
Ab rone ka kya fayada. Bhookh lagi hai puttar. Bring me some lumps of
jaggery and water. Bad ki bad me sochenge. Pahle bhojan to kar le."
Saying this he invited all of us into the feast as well.'
This is what is all about life buddy. It is no use crying over spilt
milk. We have to ensure the show continues. Whatever is left after a
storm is truly what belongs to us. We have to proceed with the journey
with the depleted resources. Well, a journey is after all a journey
fella! It is not justified that we expect all the pomp, show and
regalia to accompany us till the end. As Pan Singh Tomar said: 'One
has to complete the race! Winning and losing does not mater. All we
can do is just try to reach the finish line!'

Rabbit can beat Cobra!

Rabbit can beat Cobra!
Yes, it is possible! Provided the rabbit gives only that much against
Cobra as it would in a deadly fight against a fellow rabbit for the
girl rabbit. The crux of the matter is: All routined results and
consequences are born of the meek acceptance of certain facts, i.e., a
rabbit has to die or run away while faced with a snake. Even the snake
attacks a rabbit under the instinctive presupposition that the rabbit
has to get scared and get defeated. The rabbit on its part is most of
the times driven to the extent of heart failure at the sight of a
snake.
 
I saw a documentary in which these roles were turned topsy-turvey by
the characters. A snake attacked a rabbit in a field. At the first
strike the rabbit jumped back. Conventionally the snake should have
been running after the scared creature, but the latter struck back. It
was sufficient to break the snake's surety about the weaker status of
rabbit. It went on backfoot. After this it was a sheer comedy. The big
snake was running for life, while the brave rabbit was jumping at its
tail all the way. Moral of the story is: If despite being bothered
about what lies in our face, we just give as much as in the face of
some equal opponent, we can turn the tables on mightily weightier
people, animals, situations and problems. The condition is just this:
We have to give our best shot irrespective of the status of what
confronts us.
 
Following the same principle a brave girl was seen heartfully slapping
a fierce looking rascal. Believe me I have never seen such plain, hard
slapping in real life! The rascal just did some mischief under the
presumption that this rosy creature will not be in a fighting position
against his rowdy appearance and he will go scot free even after
infringing on her modesty. Unfortunately, this is what normally
happens in real life. So the idiot was driven into misadventure by
this blind presupposition. But man what repercussions! The brave lady
just gave her best as she would have given against a fellow girl in a
catfight. Amazing! He just stood spellbound under the shower of her
slaps. It was just like watching a stony man being slapped
effortlessly. Man, he was not even raising his hands to save his
imperiled cheeks. Almost hypnotized! It was a great fun though!