A Death is a Death

Once I read a quote somewhere that “if one man dies it’s sad, but if many die it’s statistics”...I appreciated its humour and sarcasm but after watching few days live of Loksabha, I can guess that writer must have been a politician to see humour in someone’s death..

 

Statistics is such a beauty in itself...it was invented to represent facts in efficient and grasping manner but certainly in recent time it has been used as a tool to hide or malign the facts and to disguise or confuse the common man...our “prime minister” and “finance minister” often boast about “growth rate” and “inflation rate” etc.. but the fact is we come from a developing country where 41% of  the total population is still living under poverty line and which is far from being called developed and in a traditional country like ours , a common man always connects the “inflation” to the prices of the domestic items and I don’t understand why govt can’t understand this..People dying out of starvation and politicians are saying mobile, computer and laptop prices are decreasing...and it’s not like that they don’t understand the seriousness of the situation, otherwise they didn’t increase their salaries from Rs.40,000 to Rs.1,20,000, which is three fold..but instead of doing something for them politicians always throw some statistical figures about growth rate and india shining to justify those deaths..

Anyone in this country who is earning less than Rs.560 and Rs. 368 per month in urban and rural areas respectively is below poverty line, which I suggest should be called deadline because anyone’s earning less than that will die in present scenario...and in calculating the poverty line govt. only consider the money needed to acquire sufficient calories to survive..according to them a person only need food to survive, no clothes, no house and no money to cure slightest of his illness...no wonder thousands of people die in every season in this country (be it by heat strokes or in winters due to extreme cold) in lack of any shelter over their head and lakhs die every year in lack of medical treatment...we often read about them in newspapers but they just seem statistical figures to us..

Likewise Indian railways have a long history of accidents and instead of doing something about it, our “railway minister” replied that “no. of accidents in this country are still less than many countries in Europe(another statistical representation)...”...and one should ask him that are we in a competition here? and In similar incident after one of many terrorist attacks(now a days as frequent as festivals..!!) in Mumbai, 1 minister responded  “these sort of small things are bound to happen in big cities like Mumbai..”..These 2 examples shows that when 1 child “prince” falls in boring hole (I hope you all remember that incident...what a national calamity that was..!!!) whole country pray for him and even politicians went there on site but when it comes to number of people died or about to die in bulk it means nothing more than a statistical figure to most of us..And politicians also do nothing except making excuses and presenting more statistical figure to confuse us.

Be it the case of people dying out of starvation, in railway accidents, in Gujarat riots or in terrorist attacks, our politicians need to understand that these are “people” who are dying not some “statistical figures” and after all “A DEATH IS A DEATH NOTHING LESS”..

Brand culture vs Common man

Recently I visited a mall in Noida and felt quite relaxed in cool aura and thanked the mall culture a million times for this liberty but as soon as I left the mall, reality struck me harder and I came to realize how hallucinated and vacuous the mall culture is when I saw the thousands of common man working in extreme heat..

Some time back I saw my friend wearing a goggle of Rs. 2400/-(only...lol) of a prestigious foreign brand and thought how worthless and selfish it is to behave in this manner in a country where our basic requirements are still not accomplished and millions of people are living  below poverty line..

Now days we have a tendency of going to the mall, buying expensive foreign brands and giving them our hard earned money as a gift while we bargain with local shopkeeper even for a rupee who toils hard in extreme heat...go for the lunch in Mcdee worth Rs.200 and fight with rikshawalah for Rs.5 to get there...

One thing I can assure you that this mall and brand culture is nothing more than a mirage created by some highly selfish industrialists and our govt to wrap the poor reality in rich and glazed enfold...  I can guarantee you that our country not going to progress and even our standard of life not going to lift unless and until our money will not reach to the pocket of common men..This money will help them to educate their children, to get adequate nutrition, to get a safe and comfortable place to live, to make them more satisfied and less frustrated with themselves and that will definitely serve our cause...

Whenever u feel urge of cold drink, go for lemon juice, lassi, mango shake etc. Instead of coke, pepsi...just go to local market to buy anything that suits you...go for Indian products as much as possible...and the least we can do is to treat our common men “the unsung hero of our country” which includes farmers, workers, rikshawallahs, dhabawallahs, local shopkeeper, smaller scale industrialists well, to make them feel that they are also the part of the process and they are playing a part in this society which is far more important than it seems..

Although it’s tough to abandon the foreign and expensive brands at once but at least we should make a choice where domestic alternative is available and for God’s sake they are just brands they are not God, we can live without them or we can create some of our own(after all India is the country of entrepreneurs) and we(the youth) should find ways to create more jobs and every possible way to make their life better...after all they are the ones providing base to this country and no county can stand tall until its foundation is strong and trustworthy... 

So, next time you’ll meet any one of these, treat them nicely...and take my words they’ll remember you as “special customer” for lifetime...

I’ve been able to write this blog just because of my very true friend Vivek...most genuine and patriotic of all my friend...always talks and think about country and it’s truly a privilege to have someone like him around me...

friends forever

I have read a lot in books and seen in movies about friends and I really had some good ones right from the beginning in form of Avinash, Saurabh, Anurag, Vivek and Nitin but what I experienced in 6 last month or so is surreal and am not been able to control this urge to write down something about friends..

Whenever the chips are down and going seems to get tougher, they are the force who helps you to keep going, when the world seems standing against you it feels really great to have them by your side all the time and whenever your self belief seems to be shaking they are the ones who helps you  to get it again in the right place ...

In this crappy world where people always forget your good work and remember you always by your last mistake, they are the ones who hold their trust in you and identify you by “what you are” and not by the “circumstances you are in”..When everybody else just looks at “what you did”, they are the ones who dare to think “why you did it” and that’s what justifies their faith in you.... Now I can understand why Socrates and Jesus sacrificed themselves...from where they derived the courage to die for their beliefs... it’s all because they were surrounded by the people who believed in them and when someone believes in you this strongly, it gives you the courage to stand tall and talk straight... 

Being with friends is the only time during which you can afford to become what you are...their sheer presence gives you the sense of comfort and sets you free from all the doubts you had about yourself and suddenly u begin to understand the meaning of “living in the present”..

In every person’s life love and friendship are two most desirable aspects...I haven’t experienced the love which I have seen in movies or read in novels yet but I can say with great surety that I have experienced friendship to its peak, I had never thought that someday somebody will back me so strongly, stand for me in every situation, believe in me and will make me feel special for what I am...I’ve got that somebody in the form of Toshu, Vineet, Prasahant, Sumit and Piyush..I’ll never forget the time I shared with these guys, how we used to come to coll. just to go to vineet’s room where all worries and problems  seem to disappear, how our group of 6 used to convert into of 10 with inclusion of Ajay, Anuj, Alok and Arun (vineet’s room mates) and how nobody wanted to leave, shared thoughts that nobody could have shared with anyone else, partying whole night and then those talks just before sleep and how can I forget those fights for getting their place to sleep....

College life is about to end but I don’t believe that I’ll get separated from these guys, they will always remain in my heart, I’ll see them in my each and every dream and would thank them for providing me such a great time, for providing me the days of my life, for making me believe that all those fairy tales about friends are not an exaggeration and most importantly for providing me my “ENTOURAGE”...

Mom-all my lovings 4 u..

I never needed a mother’s day to show my care, affection and love to her, I never miss a chance to show her how special she is to me...but today i’v got this special opportunity to show that how extra special she is to me....

 I born in churu (Rajasthan).At the time of birth I was weak and during 1^st 6 months I had more than my share of fevers and diseases...daddy and grandpaa were working in Noida at that time...so it was my grandmaa and my mom who took me to various child specialists but it was my mom who struggled a lot during that period..As I came to know later that during that period each of my uncles and aunties and even my grandparents were not sure whether it was worth struggling or not...but she  bear endless sufferings to make sure that I would not lose the life which she had given to me after so much of struggle and labor..Finally her faith and hard work paid off and now me living a healthy life all coz of her...

If someone needs some inspiration then he /she can draw inspiration from the simple fact that someone has gone through a lot of pain to bring them to this world so they should make this pain worth and make their life a success or at least think a million times before throwing it away..

I thank her for being there for me on all parents-teacher meetings when daddy was busy, for those tea that she made for me at midnight to help me awake, for taking care of all my stuff, thank her for being my first teacher, for listening to my stupid  stories carefully about how the day went in school, for being there in front of school with umbrella on rainy day,  for those infinite no. of sleeps I’ve got in her lap,  for making me believe that I m the most special boy in the world,  for praying for me all the time, for being such a support to daddy which helped him to keep going for so long, for giving me such a beautiful and caring sister and finally thanks to mom and dad to make home the safest and most comfortable place in the world.

On this esteem occasion I also want to thank my sister who has loved me like my mother, she has always bestowed me with all of her care and affection...even now when she has her own child, it’s not making any difference to her and she always showers her unconditional love on me...

love you mom,forever and ever...

The Park

I am in the park...in fact I m running...there are lots of people in the park, some running, some walking while others are just sitting... I don't know who's running behind me or in front of me...I don't think much about that...I just want to run...my job is to surpass the person who's in front of me and to make sure that he remains behind me...am a known face in this park...nobody stays in front of me...I can run for longest, everybody in this park knows that...so as my family...they take pride in my running...they like me winning...I am a winner but I wasn't like this from always..

 I came here for the 1st time with slippers on ...I came here just for having fresh bit of air...not having any intention of  coming here regularly...I was amateur, confused about whether to inhale fresh air just by sitting on the bench or to take a walk...I decide to sit, to watch people walking around the park  continuously without any sign of  exhaustion on their face...they made it look so simple to me...I also got inspired and started to walk...but as soon as I got on the track I realized that they were staring at me and pushing me aside each time they passed me as if they were saying “this track is ours, you do not belong here...get lost kid!!”.. after receiving the same harsh behavior for number of times I got frustrated and decided to quit...and very next moment I got off the track and left the park...while having my way back to home I wasn't able to throw that track thing out of my mind...it was elite, lucrative, actually I liked running and I liked to be there...so the very next morning I was there with my sneakers on...I was on track again and from there on I kept running unaffected by the stares and pushes...days passed and I started to get hold of the things..

I noticed that everybody was trying to surpass the other person and when they crossed each other they tend to look as calm as possible and as soon as they pass each other they run as fast as they can...some run to win, to surpass everyone..some run because they love to run, some are those who just walk, they have got excuses like this way they can sustain for longer period, some want whole family with them since everybody in the family can't run so they decide to walk, some say they have grown older but most important category is of those who ran superbly in their early days but then they met some girl and started walking with her hand in hand and finally preferred just to sit  in the corner of the park..lots of people in the park walking next to each other for years but yet nobody knows the other person, they identify each other by their looks and outfits, style of talking, style of walking etc. they don't even know each other’s names..but it’s an advantage because 1^st thing times get waste if they try to know someone and 2^nd thing they can give any name to the other person, like I named two guys who always come together in the park, “gay couple", I asked a girl her name and she didn't replied, I named her “miss attitude", I asked another girl and she gave me her name and no. too easily, I named her “soft target", but there were some people who were quite known to most of the people in the park and one of them was Ronny, he was among the best of the runners in the park, he’s got a good physic, used to run like a winner and he had defeated many people including me in the past in “10 rounds around the park” challenge..

Everything going quite ordinarily until one day I saw “Nisha” in the park, she was stunning beauty, delicate, surreal and from the very moment I saw her I knew she was the one...but the problem was she was here to walk and I was running...so I took a break from running walked with her and sometimes even stopped to sit to be friendly with her, to know her and to give her every chance to know me well, I missed running but it’s all worth because I was doing it for her.. I was in love and when you are in love you can do nothing wrong...everything going so nicely until 1 day I noticed that Ronny was stopping regularly to chat with her and I knew for a girl as beautiful as Nisha it was quite obvious for a guy to fall for her..it made me jealous, I knew she won’t give a damn about these kind of boys but the problem was he was strong and I was nervous and in course of some days everything went intense between me and Ronny, we exchanged stares and pushed each other every time we crossed each other...I could sense that something disastrous coming up and I started preparing myself for it mentally and physically and 1 day when I was walking with Nisha, he came and stopped in front of me and challenged me for “10 rounds around the park”...I knew he was doing it for Nisha because he had already defeated me in the past and there was no point in challenging me again...but I took a stand and accepted his challenge with a little modification that it was now “15 rounds around the park”...and the challenge would occur 7 days later...

As I said I had been preparing myself for the last few days, I saw that he had defeated people in “10 rounds” and he’s champ in that  but this time round it was “15 rounds”, which might bring him out of his territory and force him to make a mistake, I had 7 days to prepare myself, I knew he was completely “Body over mind”  personality, in these 7 days he would run hard and will prepare his body for “15 rounds” but believe me increasing your maximum strength by 50% in 7 days is very difficult if not impossible, on the other hand I knew that this time it was not about speed, it was all about finishing “15 rounds”, it was all about not collapsing in the middle..I ran for hours each time stretching my limits, analyzed the park thoroughly, where its smooth, where it has lumps and dumps, where it's more  straightish, where more circular, where to lose speed and where to gain, tried to control my adrenaline, tried to learn some straight forward tactics like to start slowly and gradually gain momentum to sustain for longer and to conserve energy for later part...and most importantly I analyzed my opponent, his strength, weakness, what annoys him, in a sense I dig out everything I can about him...he was running for his pride, his ego but I was running for Nisha ,my love, my life, I had no option but to win..

It was judgment day, day of challenge...we started...he started fast to lag me behind from the word go...I started slowly as accordance to my plan...after sometime he started to run normally, he was not as fool as I had considered...he was saving energy...I was focusing on my plan...he was in 5^th round I was in my 3^rd  ..I started to increase my speed...he was in his 7^th...I was in my 6^th...we both were tired but I had to run hard to be near him when he finishes his 10^th round otherwise I knew he would definitely take a break to catch his breaths...I won’t give him that...but wait what he’s doing...he's taking his break in 9^th round itself, bastard’s catching breath... this was not expected..I haven't planned this...I ran as fast as I can during this time to decrease distance between us...when he completed his 10^th round I was just behind him...we both were tired but am bit more because he had taken some time off which had definitely helped him..we were in 12^th round, water draining out of  our body, we were sweating as hell, shivering, legs were trembling, we were on the verge of collapsing, just when I thought I am losing hold of things, I looked at her face, she's scared, she cares for me, I knew she would love me even if I lose but i don't want her sympathy, I want her love and I am gonna win it for me, I gathered myself and I was on my way again...we were in 13^th round, time for my final trick, in the middle of 13^th round I was running beside him and tried to match him with his speed, I knew nothing would annoy him so much as me running as fast as he can..it worked he increased his speed and just when he was about to finish the 13^th round and was at his full speed, his foot got placed on one of the many dislodged tiles of the track and he fall off the track on the ground with a thudding sound  and got hurt his leg very badly(I told you I analyzed the park thoroughly) ...he was finding it hard to stand up again..I reached to him...it was a golden chance for me to cover some distance or even a full round before he stands up again on his feet again...and then I realized it was not about winning challenge it was about winning Nisha, if I would leave him there and go on, that would send wrong signal to her..what type of man does that, thus I stopped and gave him a hand and helped him to get on his feet, I offered to complete the challenge on some other day as he was not in a condition to run, but that bastard got guts, he decided to go on...as soon as he took few steps he tripped again but this time I  got hold of him...he realized that he didn't have the power to complete the challenge and decided to quit and finally I was the winner ..I called the ambulance and sent him to hospital..I proved my worth to her...we hugged and kissed each other and finally I proposed her “will you marry me?” and in few months we were a couple...

After the day I defeated Ronny, I was a respected face in the park...I was more confident than ever...I changed the rules of the game completely, made strategies, read the opponent, analyzed each and every portion of the park. Now I know everyone and everything in the park...I have a son and a daughter...I don't have time to sit and play with them that's why Nisha opted to stop to take care of them...once in a while I stop for them, to play with them, to meet my friends, to show my love to Nisha but I can't do this for long because I had to run...people would respect me and my family only if I run hard, fast and for long...choices may differ, some like to walk with family, some like to stay for them...but I choose to run because I know even if opt to stay they would get bore and would ask me to run again...that's why I like to run..

Oops!! Person behind me is getting closer to me...tell you  some other really interesting things about this park next time because i have to focus on my running...and yeah 1 more thing, the tiles on which Ronny slipped...they were dislodged by me in the night before the day of challenge...I even put some stones in vicinity so that Ronny fall on them...I did this not to gain some time but to kill him or at least injure him because my dear this world is like park and life is all about running fast and hard, it has no place for those who opt to walk or stop no matter what the reason is..it is full of  “challenges” and you got to win every one of those...doesn't matter what strategy you employ...because there's no substitute for victory.....

My Love

oh dear,i m ready to do anything ,

which makes u to come to me,

i wont say i'll turn the world upside down,

turn day into night to fill stars in the sky,

draw rainbow on the canvas up in the high,

but what i do have to say is,

i know you for a while,

and i know,

what makes you happy,

what makes you sad,

what makes you sublime,

and 

what makes you mad,

what is your taste and favourite movie star,

and above all my dear,

i know who you are?

my love, i am no poet,

i may sound amateur,

but

my love is not,

i have loved you for long,

imagined you in every love song,

loved you through various seasons

and my love, 

i have loved you for infinite reasons.

oh dear ,i may not be 

smart enough for you to complement,

but i promise i am man enough,

to stay besides you in every tough moment,

i'll toil hard and i will try,

to shield you from any situation,

which can make u cry.

i'll treat you like a princess,

love you everyday,

and

i'll do anything in the world,

to make you stay,

i have no tricks to play,

no moves to make,

no steps to follow,

because my pretty,love is not a game,

for me love is life,

nothing less ,nothing else!!