Socha hai... Kya ye kabhie?

With time, I have realized, that the world is not as simple as I thought it to be. In my attempt to understand it, I kept asking myself a lot of questions...some trivial, some grave, some serious, some funny. Sharing some of them...

Why is the thought spoken less important than the language in which it is spoken?

Why is somebody else's admiration more important than our own satisfaction?

Why in India, an unreasonable bias towards a religion which is in minority is considered secular while speaking for the one followed by a majority brands you as an extremist?

Why does a successful person gets the right to preach others about anything under the sun?

Why do we fight most with the person we love the most?

Why is it that irrespective of how much (or less) we study, we are always short of a few hours for a perfect preparation for any exam?

Why in a restaurant do the dishes ordered on the table next seem more delicious than ours?

Why do we experience the calmest and sweetest sleep when the alarm has just 10 minutes to go?

Why are whats more important than whys and whens more important than hows? (Now, this can be confusing :))

Any answers to these? or more questions? Please do write in...

I love cricket ... Do I?

Yes. Absolutely...would be my answer till about a few days back.

Ritesh and I had discussed cricket twice...no, thrice in the six months of our courtship. Ritesh says he was fairly impressed by my knowledge on the subject, though I had made it pretty clear that my interest in cricket starts and ends at Sachin Tendulkar.

Yesterday, when we came back from shopping for our home, Ritesh naturally first checked the 'cricinfo' site on his laptop to get the score of the ongoing India-England test-match. I have never entertained myself on something so dull. I mean reading every few seconds updates like- Flintoff to Gambhir (from South end): Played in the off-side, no run. No offence to the web-site. The amount of detail it updates about every single ball played in the game is certainly impressive!

Anyway, we went in the kitchen and our conversation breezing through various subjects moved towards my favourite and we (or I?) started talking about the decor we would have if and when we move to a bigger, better house. About half an hour later, I noticed Ritesh's pensive mood. Has he come up with some big idea? Curious to know his thoughts, I suggested that we sit comfortably in the living room and talk. Very gently, I asked him,"What are you thinking about, dear?" He replies,"Sometimes, I wonder that are all the cricket matches fixed? How come after having completely dominated England in the One day series, we are having such a tough time in the Test-match?"

Ahem, was he thinking about it all this while? Off go my coffee-table, flowers and lamps...

And, do I love cricket? Well, huh, it depends...I am not sure!

Getting up after a long-long time...

It has been a week to Mumbai attacks. Though I was sitting with my laptop all this while, reading news and hoping everytime I logged in that it would be over, I hadn't written anything about it. I couldn't. I was enraged at the whole thing. How can someone enter our country and attack us so brutully? Ofcourse, they are the terrorists and they are supposed to do so. But, our leaders? How can they be so insensitive? Why couldn't the Patils react responsibly? Why wasn't our Prime Minister strong and convincing enough?

Are we, the citizens of India responsible for this situation? I have recently read Dr. Narendra Kohli's 'Yudhh', based on Ram-Katha, which describes the famous Ram-Ravan war. Towards the end, when it became evident that Ravan would be defeated in a matter of few days, a group of common man 'Aam Janta' from Lanka comes to visit Ram. Their leader tells Ram that they are innocent people who are not involved in politics and so it does not matter to them whether their ruler is Ram or Ravan. All they want is peace and the assurance that they wouldn't be harmed or robbed when Ram wins and Lanka's current king is overthrown.

Now, my favourite part is Ram's reply. Very patiently, he tells them that his army is people's army and a disciplined one. So, even after the victory, it would not indulge in looting and troubling people. "But, it is not a matter of pride at all to say that you are not involved or interested in politics. If you cannot differentiate between Ram & Ravan, it is not due to your peacefulness, but due to your cowardice and selfishness".

I feel it is very true and relevant even in today's scenario.

How many times sitting comfortably in our living rooms, have we discussed that we don't care about who is elected as long as our life continues the way it is?

How many times instead of going to cast our vote, we have elected to go for picnic to make use of that holiday?

Who has given these leaders the guts to behave so irresponsibly in a crisis situation like this?

Who has given them the freedom to show inactivity & take our security so lighly?

I believe this attack by Pakistan supported terrorists in the heart of our country's commercial capital was a wake up call for all of us. Even if the international community is showing concern and support, the truth is that all the countries have their own interests and priorities.
This becomes clearer if we analyze the dynamics of our position on the global platform from our independence till date.
Its time we realize that our nation's security is not only our responsibility but our right too. I wish our leaders could take a strong stand in a grave situation like this. What angers me is the urgency with which our PM had assured Pak that we would not attack it. Yes, we wouldn't but why open all our cards? I think we could have used this situation and have opted 'give and take' policy by saying that our decision would depend on the keen-ness (real) Pakistan shows in helping India solve this case.

Having said all this, I know that the time for inactivity is gone. We have to constantly keep our politicians on their toes and make them do some REAL work.

PS: I write this on December 3, the day on which 24 years back, Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place, killing thousands of people and affecting many others due to exposure to toxic gases.

This was the result of the use of poor maintenance and insufficient safety equipments/techniques in the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide (a US based pesticide company) unlike its plants in the USA.The then chairman and CEO of UC- Warren Anderson was declared fugitive from justice by Indian Courts in 1992 and attempts for his extradition from US have not yet strongly made by our government.