Santiago's journey

Not many days ago, a friend of mine told me it was fresh to find me reading literature. May be just the compliment I needed to buy myself a jewel. Probably the cheapest one I’d ever imagine. As flipkart keeps its word and delivers it in 4 working days, I ripped of the package and there it sat. Nearly 200 pages, paper-bound with brown letters shining when light knocked them at an obtuse angle.  Unlike many, who would lock up their jewels in a cast iron safe, I decided to keep it with me till I’m done with it. So, there I was, walking, tossing, turning and twisting my body as my eyes and mind refused to unlock themselves  from the bold letters of the book.

His name was Santiago, a shepherd. With his wandering soul was I, peeking into whatever he saw and figure out what he was seeing. Meeting people he came across, asking them if they’d ever meet him again. Travelling with him wherever he went, looking around to see if he was close to where he wished to go. I just couldn’t pull back. He did not let me. I had to make the journey. A ride that was worth a pat on my back. I could learn more than what a 60 year old Baba tries to teach his followers.

Santiago did have a lot of questions. That was the reason he decided to be a shepherd, so he could find answers to his questions.  Fuelled by merely a dream, which looked absurd to many, he was passing through fields, forts and continents and ultimately the desert where he met the person who was looking for him. He was eager and equipped to answer all his questions and lead Santiago to something that cost him a fortune. His destiny.

Many feel their destiny asks them to yield to what life has to offer you. But Santiago felt he had something to offer his life. The dream. That was his destiny. He wanted it badly. So badly that the whole universe had conspired to help him realize it. Santiago did realize his destiny, but more importantly, he made the journey. 

Santiago was done.

I was happy for him and for myself having made the journey with him.

There I was, sitting with awe and admiration, wondering if it was the end and hoping it wasn’t.

It was.

I could do nothing that just get up, close the book, and take a deep breath, having spent 200 bucks in the most efficient way ever, reading the bold brown talismanic words for one last time.....

“THE ALCHEMIST”

Written by Paulo Coelho

Brown brings me back

Man created by God was far from where he stands today, blind to what he saw in the past few decades, numb to what he felt over the ages. But few deeply rooted instincts are safe inside. Safe as our holy texts which have been preserved and passed on through generations though more than a trillion gigabytes of data is generated every second today. One such is his love for secrets. His appetite for the chill that runs through his spine when he finds something shocking. He likes to dig deep into the past, into the dark histories, and forbidden kingdoms. For instance, would you prefer to watch a documentary on the life of Mr. Manmohan Singh or about the secret hide-outs of the Indian Mujahideen terrorists? (Those who go with the former are firmly aware they are cheating their instincts on this one.) Having understood man’s adoration for invading the privacy that is guarded by secrets, what if it were to be told that all he sees today is a hidden secret from the past, what if the technology we can afford today is helping us turn the pages of God’s secret handbook?

This is what we love to read about. This is what can captivate our imagination and catapult it beyond unthinkable boundaries. This is what a DAN BROWN book offers.

Books haven’t been my coffee-mates for long now. But two books have stood out in an otherwise book-laden 20 years, books that serve as archetypes of Dan Brown’s intellect and unusually high IQ. Though a major part of his treasure is yet to be explored, the two books – Angels and Demons and The Lost symbol blew my socks away, leaving me awestruck by his thoughts and cognitive ability. Who knew the path of illumination of an anti-Christ society was a cross? Who can weigh the human soul and prove that human thoughts could be converted into a physical stimulus? What if the world’s powerful people held a secret that could change humanity as we see it? Can a human ever become a God? Well, Dan Brown has answers to these and many more. His books sure will change the way you look at simple things. Fire is no longer just a source of heat. It is one of the five elements of the sacred seal of a secret group, the Illuminati. George Washington is not just the first President of the United States but also one of the few humans that had undergone Apotheosis – becoming a God. The holy texts you read are not as simple as they seem to the naked eye and raw imagination. If read through the lines, bible can be more powerful than a nuclear weapon.

The amazingly sharp Dr. Robert Langdon, inhuman and cold blooded murders, magnificent architecture described in supreme detail giving you a panoramic view, brisk editing, twists that hold your breath for a while, technology that you wouldn’t have, in your wildest of dreams, thought ever existed..........all these ingredients cooked to perfection and presented at astonishing pace is what Dan Brown offers. An offer I couldn’t reject.

So here I am, writing this, having absorbed about 500 pages in just a week’s time, feels so unlike me. These books of Dan Brown have certainly given me the impulse much needed to bring me back to blogging. Brown indeed has brought me back to writing.

Blood alone can!

November of 2008.......

27, 6:00 a.m

I opened my eyes and dragged myself from bed with utmost difficulty. With a brush in my mouth and an eye on the clock, I reached out for the news-paper, the rays of morning sun bathing me out of drowsiness. As i start reading the news on the front page, blood red bold letters of the news catch my eye. The disturbing images published in large were not an ideal start for that day.
The massacre of "26/11"........


28, 1.30 p.m.


As i take a bus back from college, an article in the days local newspaper scrolled through my mind, that said the terrorist group who claimed the responsibility for the blasts named Hyderabad on their 'to-do' list and the newspapers had started digging into deep and dark facts of Hyderabad and its stint with terrorism. For once, I looked out and saw the city, its trademark traffic, its people, all occupied and running which inspired me to flush any suspicion out of my mind. 


30, 2.00 p.m.


As I lay down on my bed and reach to my newspaper, which I was very keen to do (and been doing for the past 3 days at least), I started reading about many blasts in the past like those in Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Written in extreme detail (than the Indian constitution), I read that bombs were found in almost every critical junctions of major cities, in lunchboxes, by the roads, in hoardings..........nothing short of a minesweeper map. Thoughts that i buried surfaced once again, leaving me with unreasonable and unanswerable doubts. Police had warned the public about possible threats and places for bomb implants that included city buses and shopping malls, theaters and parks...........fear........frustration..........but incapability!

The days that followed.......



Bus travel was no more fun. Suspicion, fear, caution. Looking for lunchboxes, avoiding crowded buses, restraining from new movies, let alone weekends at malls. Balance between academics and fears was tough. Railway station was nothing short of a lion' s den. People believed luck was guarding them as they came in and out of railway stations. Women were praying for their men to return home safely. Police were on their feet running after fake calls and suspicious lunchboxes. As the days went by, the papers kept writing Hyderabad was in for a "Big" surprise, police kept trying to speak the hype off, women continued to worry, with the fear growing only worse day by day, theaters and public places were filled with dogs and bomb squads......I........ continued to worry!



Today.......


As I wake up after we've swam through a decade of distraught that took off by the bombing of  World trade center, relief no longer appears to exist.  Blasts in some part of the world or the other keep making it to the front pages of dailies worldwide. Intelligence agencies keep warning their governments. Millions of children keep losing their parents. Agencies keep recruiting children and teenagers into what they claim to be "the holy war", if only suicide bombing a 14 year old is 'holy'.......if only hiding in remote corners and unleashing the filth within on innocent and hapless commoners can be called a 'war'.


No time for the world to breathe a sigh of relief after the death of Osama as the terrorist activities continue to build up under a blanket of ignorance. The incapability of the Indian government to act strong has been proved off late with a cold blooded terrorist sitting in prison for 3 years, enjoying better facilities than an average Indian citizen, while a law in Eastern India allows the police to kill any person who is found suspicious with any proof. None of the recent mishaps seem to have motivated the bureaucracy to push the 'severe' button on terrorism as after every blast, Mr. Chidambaram tries to use all his vocabulary to express sorrow and appeals to the nation to remain peaceful, and then as another issue draws the news,.........."Blast? which one?"............


I bet, Osama would have, for a split second, considered the option of surrendering to the Indian government (if at all he had to) after the 'reception' Mr. Kasab has been relishing. That would've had us running through ages trying to "negotiate" with Osama and resolving the issue through "peaceful talks". I commend the US for erasing a black dot in the history of the modern world without giving it a second thought, that was never affordable. An attack on the Indian Parliament, blasts in Mumbai more frequently than a new movie release, explosives found in every nook and cranny of the country, and recently, the blasts near Delhi high court, what else can motivate our government......Or is it the fact that our government prefers to stay away lest the fire burns it clothes off. Shame that our government did not act on Kasab. Shame that Chidambaram accepted the fact that the Delhi blast took place despite the government staying informed. Shame.


I suggest a solution that may raise many eye brows, yet would keep the fire off before it reaches our doorstep. Dear government, please adopt an extremist approach dealing with terrorists. Start executing the ones who have been sitting in prisons over the years. Ignore any human right activist questioning it for the government needn't answer an illogical person fighting for the human rights of men responsible for bloodshed and mayhem. Be strong enough to make a bold statement against brutality, the whole nation shall be with you. 

Blood alone can wash blood.....not tears

JAI HIND

\m/ Annnah Haezaereee \m/

Dude 1: Yo wassup man, and watz wid dat 'AH' tattoo on your hand
Dude 2: Yo,allz cool man, and 'AH' is Annnnah Haezaereee.......i go wid him man, i think da manz cool, corruption's gonna gt its *** kicked \m/
Dude 1: Oh, da guyz on tv a lot dude, ppl r goin nuts fr his style man...btw wats he upto now?
Dude 2: Donno dude, i thnk he's gonna speak to our Prez about some stuff against corruption.....
Dude1: Way to go maaaaaan, Way to go!

Anna hazare (not Annnah Haezaereee)? Stylish? A simple  man in khadi, and a "topi" that symbolizes representation, glasses, worn and withered........this is Annaji. After 4 months of an epic encounter, tete-a-tete with our government, Anna Hazare is being mistook for his "stylish" attire? People wear Anna's caps, paint his face on nails and clothes, go frenzy (even naked) and barely recognise that all this "Anna-Mania" is about corruption and a bill that shall rewrite the Indian history!


Just about time to question yourself "Is all this a gesture of hatred and spite towards corruption or the hype of calling it 'cool'?" Keep the answer to yourself......but analyse it!

If all this is about people vexed with corruption, you never needed an Anna to help you do all this. And painting nails or tattooing is not a reasonably sound answer. All the support Anna wants is to analyze the gravity of the present scenario and the dire consequences of an alteration and rusty-implementation of the Jan-Lokpall bill. Many questions are yet to be answered about the qualifications of civil service employees who guard the bill and implement it. Can the bill itself stay inert from corruption? Will the bill die out slowly as many of those in the past? Will the Indian 'janta' hold itself equally responsible for the post Lokpal scenario as it is the 'jan-Lokpal'?

If you are an Anna supporter, u need not hold Indian flags and shout slogans, u need not halt transport and set yourself on fire, u need not burn a Government draft that that demanded a brainstorm into ashes without showing an ounce of respect to the constitution and the system of governance (though dilapidated) of our country, u need not threaten government on self-immolating yourself!

If you are an Anna supporter, let your silence do the talking! Speak with your suggestions! Educate the downtrodden and those who can't access the media about the campaign, its need and its aftermath! Stay who you are, do what you do, eat what you eat, but don't start acting patriotic out of the blue!

IT IS NOT COOL TO BE A PART OF ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGN, IT IS A "RESPONSIBILITY"

"JAI HIND"

We the INDIANS..........

"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching." - Mahatma Gandhi


64 years gone by cherishing an independent India. An India whose identity demanded the sacrifices of great leaders. An India whose flag demanded blood and bone. An India whose boundaries demanded bravery and martyrdom.


64 years gone by, as we, the "Independent" Indians had own constitution, formed our own governments, took our own decisions, elected our leaders...........but have any one of us, for a split second, thought  the India we are living in is not totally independent at all........have any one of us thought if the British were just for starters, we were cooking the greatest menace to our country, that had only grown better and better with every second of the 64 years?


Today, we let it rob us of our hard earned possessions and yet can't ask anyone about it! We let it trickle down at least 80% of budget allocations starting from passing bills to enacting them!  We let it question a pensioner devoid of his pension "Are you alive?". We let it pool money for politicians as the poor continue to rot in poverty!We let it deny tsunami victims of food while millionaires had the luxury of a multi-cuisine meal! If these are just a very few of what we let "CORRUPTION" do to us, many still remain buried in the records..........


Over the past few decades, people spared it a thought as many movies, articles, discussions, forums, communities started picturing and discussing it..........ONLY DISCUSSING IT..........but majority of them were happy to talk about it and leave the rest to us, waiting for another Gandhiji to come from nowhere and eat it up overnight. Meanwhile things could only get worse. So here we are, in a scam-studded nation, bravo. 


But April 5,2011 marks the blossoming of a better India - opening doors to bail out corruption or at least an effort to do so. Preachings being put to practice by an ordinary man with extraordinary commitment, "Sir Anna Hazare". Interestingly, the reason Hazare decided to persevere for the cause of Indians is an accident, a close shave in fact.
If his days in the military service were building a highly patriotic and idealistic man, the accident  topped it up, prepared him, battle ready!


People from all walks of life start joining hands for this campaign as analysts and historians go brains drawing an analogy between the anti corruption movement and the freedom struggle. Suddenly, the ever bleeding-hearted politicians wrap their cloaks up and show what is in their hideous hearts. Shame is too less a word for what this government and its pretty pawns are doing to halt this movement. Unfortunately, some classes of people, who proudly distinguish themselves as the backward classes find this movement so "upper caste"ish. Dalit columnists  have opined that the movement  is an upper-caste uprising against India's political democracy. Though they enjoy the comforts of being called a backward caste in a society where its impossible even to find out a person's religion, the fact is that this movement aims at eradicating the very disease that kept on branding them a backward caste for decades.


Now is never late......


With a long way to go, a lot many to achieve, a lot of time to serve, we, the younger and yet-to-be-productive class of India shall pledge that we shall be a part and parcel of the movement and support our "Modern Gandhi" in necking our Corruption from our motherland.

"JAI HIND"

The "it"

We named it in a million languages,

We prayed for it in the name of God,

We digged through ages to find what it was,

We run with it everyday yet can't get enough,

We plan for it to know what it looks like..........

But have we thought where this "IT" comes from?

It comes from........... 

a bright sunshine,

a serene smile,

a cup of coffee,

a game won,

a question answered,

.

.

.

.

endless sources.......

But only  an elite sect can find out

That is is actually meant to be mined

Within the human soul!

A bright star unfolding in your palms,

Energy of a fresh fuel cell when burst,

Scream after a tiresome sport...Won,

Affection of your loved ones,

Silence after a pleasant prayer,

Rush of blood and spine-sparking adrenaline,

Words of praise......well earned.......

All this is "POWER"..........experienced......but never noticed........

So when you feel an array of dark clouds blanketing you,

Listen to yourself,

Feel your pulse, 

For every one of it,

Shall pump a million mega watts..........of POWER!

(photo editing and design by me)

Can do nothing than WAIT!

A high voltage synaptic spark shoots off as i open cricbuzz and watch the "EX" World numero uno team be very much at the mercy of Englishmen and urges me to let my thoughts pass my fingertips......a billion hopes.........crores of posts.........lakhs of facebook statuses............thousands of critics watching.........hundreds of tv channels waiting to find the hottest story on the dock......and finally it boils down to those eleven men - but one should agree, no one can be more frustrated than they are. This is what destiny holds in store for you, anything comes as a family pack, all the woes adding up to many more. But surely our very captain practical has a solution to his side's slump. My dear countrymen, just wait for a strong reply!