Independence Day!

Its 15th August today. Our Independence day. Everybody is celebrating, even the weather Gods. Its sunny afternoon after a rain soaked month in Mumbai.TV is celebrating in its own inimitable style. There is Rang de Basanti,Swadesh,Border and K3G(If you are wondering why K3G ,probably because it got Jan Gan Man and hence qualifies for 15 August).I wonder whats on DD because no body can beat DD in this game.I remember watching Gandhi three times every year.First on Republic day then Independence day and finally on Gandhi Jayanti.Although I always preferred 26 January because of the Parade but hearing Leader of the nation speak from Red Fort always made me proud (although there were some ridiculous moments as well like Devegauda trying to speak in Hindi).But still most memories are from school.Preparations would begin 20 days prior.And for 20 days there would be buzz in the air with people practising for group songs,speeches,PT and the most infamous of all The Parade.I was useless for my music teacher so she never bothered me with the group song.But I would always get caught by whoever was my class teacher for the Independence day speech.For some reason every teacher felt I would make a good speaker.But I always managed to disappoint them.Infact I once was so terrified at the thought of getting selected that I deliberated a poor speech at trials. I probably overestimated my abilities because in the past even my 100% had not been enough to take me past trials.But worst was definitely parade.I remember getting thrown out in the middle of practice once.And that instantly made me a celebrity with my mates,because nothing was more cool than sitting on the fences and watching the mortals slug it out in the heat.
All this would culminate on 15 august .Mornings on 15 august were distinctly different with speaker phones blaring patriotism .tricolor flying everywhere,streets filled with students neatly dressed in whites carrying out prabhat ferries .their hearts filled with hope,expectation, exuberance.....alas only the hearts of children.
Not surprisingly I don’t have any profound memories of independence day during college and after.Probably we are old enough to realise the futility of entire exercise or may be its the cynicism that comes with the age .I remember getting up in the independence day morning and seeing my roomie neatly dressed up.
”Whats with you dude” I asked.Vinay(my roomie),”Its independence day ,I felt like doing something for the nation”.
Me: So??.
Vinay(after a pause),”I decided to bathe”.
Well celebrations are over .It has started raining again in Mumbai.I should atleast take bath and do my bit for the nation. Jai Hind.

Dabloo dabloo.....

This is for my room partners in Hyderabad ,who if they had their way would deny Shahdol its existence-Shahdol my birthplace is a small town Madhya Pradesh. When I got through nmims ,one thing I was really looking forward to was spending one full month in shahdol .I sometime wonder what makes me like the place so much .I guess its the memories associated with every building ,every gully ,every mohalla ,every shop .May be it is also the pace at which things move (or don’t move).people move in slow motion ,talk in slow motion (that explains my accent).there is always time for one more chai.
But killing time in shahdol can be quite a task especially if you don’t have a gang to hang out with. This is true even for somebody like me who tends to get hit by waves of nostalgia just by looking at an old tree or a old house besides school .luckily bubble had engulfed shahdol before it burst . And finding a cyber cafe is not difficult. Although poor power supply (6 hours of power cut is a norm in MP almost since as long as I can remember)means lot of them had to close shop. My favourite is one at Suraj market. Suraj market is situated at the heart of shahdol which is the heart of MP which in turn is heart of India so Suraj market could very well be precise centre of India.
I had been to this cyber cafe hundreds of times .Infact it was probably here that I first got my computer lessons(not at a very young age though).But this time it was different because I had lot of time to kill so I would spent hours sitting there. It was then I realised that Shahdol is not the same as it was 10 years back. Shahdol is now IT enabled. Reality struck the first day itself when I walked(well I don’t walk when I am in Shahdol I swagger ) into my favourite cyber cafe to take my favourite system (out of the total three systems).I had to wait 30 mins because cafe was flooded with class 10 students who were all queued up to check their results. Cafe owner actually would charge 20 bucks for each result ,partly because most of the students cant operate internet and partly because there are just 3 or 4 cafes operating now. Finally after 30 mins I got the system ,there were others waiting too but i got the preference because I knew the owner.(getting something done because you knew the right person is an amazingly fulfilling feeling. Unfortunately very rarely do I get to feel it).Finally I immersed myself into doing nothing .While I was hopping from one Orkut profile to other, I was suddenly pushed aside by two middle aged women trying to settle themselves in the system next to me. I had seen students even grown up men using net in shahdol but middle age ladies probably housewives ,this was first.not bad I said to myself as I tried to look unperturbed by their constant chatter. Fifteen mins later I saw something which one would not associate with a cyber cafe-
First lady: bhaiya kitna hua?
Cafe owner: madam 15
First lady(frowning) : yeh toh bahut jyada hai
Cafe owner(puzzled):madam yahi rate hai
First lady(dismissively) : itna toh nahi denge
Cafe owner (speechless):par...............
Second lady (with 10 rupee note in her hand) :yeh rakhiye kaafi hai..
Cafe owner: madam sabji mandi nahi hai
First Lady(walking towards exit .second lady has already left): agli baar poore le lena bhaiya
Somethings never change.
I was still smiling when a lean ,middle aged person with red teeka and gamchaa around his neck barged into the cafe.I could bet on him being a government clerk . It is quite amazing how all the clerks look alike .Probably it is the arrogance that they exude for reasons i am still to fathom. He was actually a clerk or Bade Babu as I was told later by the owner. Bade babu was in hurry and made sure that everyone knew it. A system was promptly vacated for him. You don’t want to be on the bad books of a Bade babu.
Bade Babu : sarv sheeksha ka woh kya hai? (‘sarv sheekhsa ‘ is a government project)
Cafe owner(tired and exhausted after the recent exchange) : woh????
Bade Babu : arey wahi..
Cafe owner: kya?
Bade Babu : arey wahi, dabloo dabloo....
I was in splits .I love Shahdol.

Democracy -my take

Its 12.30 ,22nd july just passed by.UPA government had won the trust vote and Manmohan Singh lives to fight another battle.I’ve turned apolitical over last few years so the news really dint bother me much. But atmosphere in my flat is all political and when it happens you know that a debate is about to ensue.And like always after peripheral debate ,arguments always boil down to whether people get leaders what they deserve. And like always I don’t know the answer,so after registering my presence I’ve decided to withdraw.I’ve been part of these debate far too many times to know how silly it can get.
But unfortunately I don’t have anything better to do either.Actually I’ve better things to do but I’ve successfully conned myself into believing that I’ve nothing to do.I do this very often and over the years I’ve mastered the art and now I am actually quite good at it.
So I decided to organize my thoughts and opinions on politics .(Actually I desperately wanted to make this post –read crap-so as to increase the post count ).So now I wonder whether the Democracy itself is a flawed idea.
1. Democracy is system where every individual gets to elect the leader.
2. Majority of individuals make wrong choices most of the times.(you just made the wrong choice by reading this post.)
3. People who can make the right choices are smart enough to know that their choice aint gonna make any difference because majority is going to make wrong choices anyway.
I wonder whether I made the right choice by writing this post?

My first post!

I always wanted to have my own Blog .It is so cool to have one ,who are you ,a nobody, if you don't blog. You be damned to hell for mediocrity, that is not having a blog. And mediocrity, that is so UNME.And so the enterprise began. I created my space ,selected a nice and sober theme which was very ME. And here I was –citizen of blogosphere! Now that I had a blog I must write something ,I mean what is the point of having a blog if its empty. But I was ME I cannot just write anything,afterall it was my first post, it must be a masterpiece and in every sense of the word. It has to be hilarious for sure ,at least it should make a dead man jump out of his grave laughing. And since I was ME it cannot just be a useless comedy .I mean I cannot waste my writing prowess writing dirty jokes.Let Khushwant Singh do that. So decided to write an 'issue based comedy'.I decided to write on Reservation issue which was plaguing Rajasthan then. After three days of writing and deleting and scratching my head, I decided to end my enterprise .I was not ME :(.As I think of those three days I realize problem was not that I was not ME but rather ME was not I.ME was and has always been what I aspires. But in trying to be ME, I always loses. ME cannot be mediocre so I never does anything mediocre, so what he does ..best thing…he does nothing. ME cannot be embarrassed so I never is embarrassed..how …he hides in his shell. ME has to be popular so I is popular..how…he never annoys anybody.Does I realizes that he is getting lost in oblivion …perhaps he does ………but I just wants to be ME……