Mahatma Gandhi: Patriot or Traitor ???

To be very honest, for a long time I favored Bhagat Singh’s approach over the non-voilence weapon Mahatma Gandhi deployed. On patriotic occasions like Independence Day or Republic Day, I got to see a lot of people raising their opinion about the old leaders and the freedom struggle of our country. But within a day, the conversations would evaporate as though they never existed. While walking down a street on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I came across a small bookstore. Though I don’t get into a shop unless I have to buy something, a photography coffee table book kept in display caught my attention and I entered the shop to enquire about it. It turned out to be pretty expensive and it wasn’t feasible for me to spend that much money on it. As an alternative, I started cruising around the book racks and got tempted to buy at least 5 out of every 8 books I saw. In the corner of the store I saw a section containing books only on Mahatma Gandhi. I started going through them and decided to buy one which had a good content and was reasonably priced. It costed me merely 45 Rs under a promotional offer.

In the days to follow, I read the book and started verifying some information from the internet. I wouldn’t say it happened drastically, but my perception towards Mahatma Gandhi changed through a series of incidents. I saw few documentaries with special mention of the effect Gandhi’s ideals had on various I have seen people around who find it more intellectual to talk about Che Guevara rather than Mahatma Gandhi. We have always been inspired by the west. A wonderful film made by an Indian director on Mumbai slums in the early years of Hindi cinema dint win as much applause as did a recent one directed by a foreign director. Anyways, that is all together a different topic for discussion.

Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated in India on October 2^nd. As the day approached, the few most common things I could hear from people around me in regards to this day were: “It is a long weekend (Everyone was happy about this one)”, “It is a dry day (A trivial consideration for many people’s personal operations)”, “We hate Gandhi (we shall touch this point in soon)”, “Gandhi helped us win our freedom (Quite true to an extent)”.

In one of the status messages on a social networking website, one of my pals commented on how she felt Gandhi was given more importance than he actually deserved as compared to other freedom fighters like Sardar Patel and Bhagat Singh and hence she hated him irrespective of how others felt about it. I had observed that most of the people who came up with such extremist statements on freedom struggle thought they had lived through it all. But I seriously pity to see that this is the best way they utilize their right to freedom of speech in a democratic country and not a penny less, not a penny more. They were not even there to live through the struggle and yet have the audacity to comment as though they were directly affected by it.

Let’s analyze what these people were thinking before they came up such conclusions:

Why did Gandhi quit a 15k paying job (which was extremely high in those days) in South Africa for everything and come back to a country which was a slave to the British Empire? I guess he had a selfish motive behind it, he wanted to lead the freedom movement and had an extremely brilliant marketing strategy to hypnotize the entire nation to follow the freedom struggle movement under his leadership or maybe he was aiming at getting his image on the currency note of the free country.

Why did Gandhi not save Bhagat Singh from the death sentence even though they claim he could? Maybe Gandhi was fearful that if Bhagat Singh would have been alive, it would jeopardize his iconic image and would make Bhagat Singh the forefront leader of the freedom struggle or maybe Gandhi has brainwashed Bhagat Singh and forced him to stay back in the hall after throwing a bomb.

Gandhi was responsible for the partition!!! This is something no one can truly answer. As no one can substantiate that with or without the partition, people of the united or separated country would have lived happily ever after. I think they should consider the current state of Pakistan and the religious attacks in India. Is Gandhi responsible for it or it is the politicians today? Or is it us?

Gandhi doesn’t deserve such a status as compared to Sardar Patel and Bhagat Singh!!! Who gave him this status? We or he asked for it? The man took a bullet for all the good things he did for the nation and yet we hold him responsible for being more popular than other freedom fighters. It is us and the world that recognized his efforts and gave him this status.

Every individual has a perception of their own and being a democratic country they have the right to air their voice on any issue or topic. But they need to understand, that getting an entire nation like India under one leadership was not an easy task. Even though the struggle for independence was being run at different levels across the country, citizens got a sense of direction and unity under his name. I am sure that some decisions that Gandhi took must have been wrong, but he was just like another human being who became extra ordinary by his leadership and courage. It wouldn’t have been easy for his conscious to accept the consequences of his wrong decisions considering the fact that he was the same man in South Africa who sacrificed a good life to give the people of his motherland freedom. In today’s scenario, where most of us live a life we chose over our passions for the lack of courage to give up the comfort, try to think from the perspective of a man who did this for the hundreds of citizens who were just related to him by merely boundaries and nothing more.

Mahatma Gandhi inspired millions of people world over to take the path of non-violence and civil disobedience. Five world leaders who got Noble Peace prize viz. Martin Luther King Jr. (USA), Dalai Lama (Tibet), Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), Nelson Mandela (S. Africa) and Adolfo Perez (Argentina) have acknowledged the fact that they were influenced by the philosophy of Gandhi. Yet, the man who inspired these Nobel Peace Prize winners, never got a Noble Prize!

Why don’t these people contemplate on our achievements after 50 years of independence? How have we contributed or taken the freedom to the next level? By being in ranks of fast developing countries, even when more than 75% of the country struggles for daily meals? By cribbing about the system and not having the courage to do anything on the individual level? By having the highest number of qualified technology resources in the world and yet being unable to develop a global technology product under our name? By still being confused if August 15^th is the Republic Day or Independence Day? By blaming Gandhi for partition and overlooking what the politicians did to Ayodhya, Gujarat, Kashmir, East Indian states and what Raj Thackrey is doing to Maharashtra?

By making personal contribution to the country or by just scrutinizing the people who had the courage to do it?

Tribute to Freedom Fighter

Not even a week after we celebrated our 62^nd year of Independence that a major controversy related to the 3rd Prime Minister of Independent India Lal Bahadur Shastri, has popped in.

Anuj Dhar, an Indian Author, Journalist and the founder trustee of non-profit trust based out of Delhi Mission Netaji. This trust conducts research on Indian freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose. He was the author of Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery based on the mystery surrounding mysterious death of Bose. It is claimed that Subhash Chandra Bose, the supreme commander of Azad Hind Fauj and Free Indian Legion died in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18^th, 2009. Anuj played a key role in securing trivial information from Taiwan Government which falsified the claim related to Bose’s death. The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry which probed into the disappearance of Bose, corroborated this finding, but the Indian government rejected the findings of the commission. Since then, Dhar and his trust, Mission Netaji have been fighting to bring out the truth, utilising the Right to Information Act.

The Right to Information Act 2005 (Act No. 22/2005) is a law enacted by the Parliament of India giving citizens of India access to records of the Central Government and State Governments. The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir – which is covered under a State-level-law. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen (including the citizens within J&K) may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act is also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum resource to request for information formally.

This law was passed by Parliament on 15^th June 2005 and came fully into force on 13^th October 2005. Information disclosure in India was hitherto restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws, which new RTI Act now relaxes.

Anuj Dhar also wrote a book entitled CIA's Eye on South Asia, which is an analysis of declassified CIA records on India and its neighbours. In this book, Dhar narrates what he terms as India's biggest spy scandal. The scandal entails the story of a CIA mole who operated out of Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet and how the mole wrecked India's plan to annihilate Pakistan in 1971. He is now using the RTI act to access classified Indian government information on the spy scandal.

As a part of his efforts, RTI applicant Anuj Dhar had requested the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) for making public the 'only' document pertaining to the mysterious death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent in 1966. Though CPIO rejected the application, it accepted that the PMO has one document on it but turned down the plea to make it public, citing the confidentiality clause under the Act. Dhar then filed an appeal with the First Appellate Authority in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) against the decision of the CPIO.

The following is the excerpt from the quotes published in Deccan Herald pertaining to this controversy: "I appreciate the point made by you in favour of transparency. However, on perusal of document in question and after giving the matter a careful consideration, I am satisfied that exemption sought under Section 8 (1)(a) has been invoked rightly," Vini Mahajan, Joint Secretary in PMO said while rejecting the appeal. Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act exempts the disclosure of information which can "prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.”

After the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, Shastri had gone to Tashkent in erstwhile USSR in January 1966 for a summit meeting with then Pakistan President Ayub Khan. He died under mysterious circumstances, hours after signing the joint declaration, Dhar's petition said. Sunil Shastri, son of the former Prime Minister, has said, "When the body came here, the family was disturbed to see it. My mother demanded a postmorten but it was not done. After so many years, the government should come up with a proper clarification in the matter."

This is extremely weird, as USSR doesn’t exist anymore. It is completely disintegrated into smaller nations who are yet to overcome the aftermath of the major event. Lal Bahadur Shastri was a prominent and significant figure in the Indian Independence Movement and even after more than four decades of his death, the government is reluctant is sharing documents related to his mysterious death, as it might hamper international relations with a non-existent country and cause turmoil within the country?

CSR: Corporate err... Social Responsibility?

There is one thing that corporate world cannot survive without … “Meetings”. Over a period of time, the weekly meetings turn out to be quite an enormous task to deal with, if the content is old n rotten. The key is to involve every team member and have few ice breaker sessions to wake up those who’re just on the verge of falling off their chairs.

During one such meeting, I realized that my manager was the only one talking for almost an hour. To the extent where he reached a different time dimension and couldn’t feel the presence of another human around him; though there was a team of 30+ present in the conference room. He looked blankly at our faces while addressing the issues just like a pre recorded message.

But I heard a bell ring in my head when I heard him speak out about “CSR”. He said that we need to come up with an idea related to CSR activities. He believed that this would help us glorify the sense of Social Service our entire project team has and will be a distinguishing factor when it comes to short listing projects for the annual awards. I could not agree less to the suggestion, but at the same time it forced me to think that if social service was being looked upon by corporate as just another feather on their cap to publicise how much they cared about social causes or do they actually stand for that cause?

In my third year of engineering I had started interacting with students, who were also aiming at pursuing their masters in management from a premier Business School. I also attended seminars and sessions by various Bschools from various locations across the globe in order to understand the kind of profiles they are looking for and which one of them suited best for my career goals. Apart from academics and extracurricular activities, they all talked about the involvement of the candidate in a social cause. Hence some aspirants advised me to contribute to a local NGO over the weekend right from the start in order to build my credibility by the time I applied to a Bschool.

But me being ME :) (pardon the grammar :-P ) dint quite agree to this thought. I dint want to do community or social service to add some stars to my application at a Bschool or to brag about how sensitive I was to the humanitarian factor. I would do something only if I believed in it. If I came across a destitute, who wasn’t in a condition to buy a onetime meal, I bought him something I could afford from a nearby eating joint. Or donate clothing at an orphanage or to homeless on the streets. Every time I did something like that, it gave me a sense of happiness by helping someone in need. I din't do it because I needed attention or there was something I needed in return from these people.

On a couple of occasions I worked for a week or two in the second shift at my previous organization. So by the time I walked into the office and settled down post lunch, I found most of the people rushing back home, except the ones who wanted to portray that they had loads of work and those who actually had it. Post 8-9 p.m. it was nothing less than a personalized office space where you could do whatever you wanted. Don’t take that literally, I just used that phrase to express the freedom. The security guard on our floor kept walking into our wing for some or the other regular checks or tasks.

He used to always pass my desk as my workstation was right in the middle of the floor, along the central pathway. Over the period of time he became quite familiar with the stupid owls with headphones stuck in their ears and eyes glued on the monitor while their fingers would beat the shit out of the keyboard. From then on, every time he passed my workstation, he would just nod his head and pass on a smile. One of those days, I missed my bus and had to return back to my workstation to kill another hour before I could get a home drop. The security guy was quite amused that I was walking back into the office at that weird hour, when he had already seen me rushing out a few minutes back.

He enquired as to why I came back to the office. Then began a conversation and after a while, out of curiosity, he started asking me about the kind of work we people do inside our sophisticated office throughout the day. It wasn’t difficult for me to answer the question, but the tough part was, making him understand in a language and manner that he could grasp in a few attempts. But I gave it a try and after a while, we both agreed that we couldn’t do anything better than what we had done so far. And then he revealed the reason behind that question. He had a son appearing for 12th boards, a science student and interested in pursuing engineering as a career. His father confessed that he dint want his son to land up in something like himself and whenever he came to duty and saw kids out of college doing good for themselves, he imagined his son in a similar scenario some day.

He asked me if there was some way I could help or guide him. Though this guy was much older to me, I found it quite uncomfortable that someone of that age was asking me for some help. I wasn’t sure at that moment what I could do, but I did what I always do the best; “advice”. I told him how he could route his son’s career in order to merge it with his dreams. By the end of the entire counseling session, he was quite happy. Then it was time for me to rush back home as it was getting too late. On my way back home, I was thinking about the entire experience and I thought of another way to help out the old man and his son. Over the weekend, I opened the carton containing my engineering books which were of no use to me any longer. Not that I dint value education books, but none of the stuff we studied in engineering was closer to what we did in our job functions and it was better that somebody uses them rather than keeping them packed inside a carton for years.

Since his son was working part time in a small office near my residence, I asked the security guy to ask his son to collect the books from me. I wasn’t expecting that my small step towards helping him would turn out to be something extremely valuable for him. He was extremely happy and it was all over his face. From that day on I got to see that very smile on his face every time he passed my workstation. He kept telling me about how much he appreciated my help. After a while, I was back into my regular shift timings and couldn’t get any further updates about the progress on his son’s studies. And sooner than I could expect, I had quit the organization and moved on.

Rather than considering CSR as just another of those activities corporates indulge into to showcase their value and work towards a social cause, I think if they can put their heart to a cause, they will be able to achieve much more than what they have till now. At the same time, I know some organisations who religiously work towards giving something back to the society apart from their main course of business.

Even today, after almost 3 years, I really hope that my actions would have helped him and his son realize their dreams in some way or the other. I would be really content if it helped them in any possible way, if not completely. It is really beautiful when you understand that how one small step taken by you can affect the life of people around you in a big way. Some of your actions may not seem to be very important, but they can definitely make a big impact on somebody’s life. Probably there was a reason why I missed the bus that night and ended up having a conversation with him.

Wonderful Day

The bright sun shining above my head,

The cool breeze blowing through my hair,

The smell of the damp mud arousing my senses,

Is just making me feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

The wide road I walk on,

The lush green fields on either side,

The bright coloured flowers swinging with the wind,

Are making me feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

The happiness flowing through my veins,

The smile on my face, refusing to step back,

The glitter in my eyes, sparkling bright,

Is just making me feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

I refuse to succumb to downbeat thoughts,

I refuse to take diminutive steps,

I refuse to close my eyes to the light,

Cuz I know, how I feel,

Oh what a wonderful day!

Before I could stretch my smile wider,

Before I could wish for the moment to never end,

Before I could take a giant leap, I tumble over on the ground,

And fall flat on my face,

Oh what a wonderful day!

I open my eyes to darkness, the light and magnificence all gone,

A rug soaked in dirt, a bitter smell suffocating my lungs,

I squeak my eyes to glare deeper into infinity,

I wish this aint reality, I wish for my magic wand,

Is this a wonderful day?

I rise on my feet, to move in random directions,

To look for a helping hand, to look for my own shadow,

Only to tumble again, only to add to my bruises,

I feel my wounds and begin to contemplate,

Is this still a wonderful day?

My soul is shaken, and my knees broken,

But the fading hope inside me is the reason am still moving,

Rip my flesh, break my bones,

But you cant rip the strong spirit inborn,

I pull myself up, and push harder harder,

For I know there is a light towards the end of the tunnel,

For I know, what I see with my eyes closed,

Aint just dreams,

For I still believe, that I have the power,

To still make this,

A wonderful day!

Cashmere

The beauty of the northern end of my country is far fetched than what the finest lens in the world can capture. The beauty that would make writers fall short of words. But how can man leave something so beautiful uninfected by his greed. It has been strangulated by the realms of political gimmicks since the time I can remember. The political map of my country I saw during my geography assignments in school looks quite different from what it appears to be in a lot of places now. Even though on many occasion a common man is still referring to the older version, a few are aware that the revised one has already been accepted globally; the version in which the Line of Control has slashed off a part of our head.

Only when my Para-Commando brother-in-law recently got posted in Sonmarg, Kashmir, that my sister gave me an account of her personal experience about the life people lead in that part of the country. With the recent uprising owing to another political acid attack mixed with religious sentiments had made the situation there even more sensitive and critical. The local residents hoisting flags of the neighbouring enemy nation is not quite a sight that would make a patriot army personal comfortable, but their code of conduct to follow orders no matter what they are, bounds them from securing a clean solution to the problem which has been lingering on for past 61yrs; the problem which the diplomats in the government haven’t been able to solve till date.

How could our leaders term it as complete Independence in August, 1947 even when a month later Jinnah launched a war on the valley despite the negotiations with Nehru and the Maharajas in the presence of Britain as the fourth party on the table? Since that point in history, our neighbours have capitalised on every opportunity to seep through the cracks for taking over the valley at the cost of peace and harmony in the entire nation.

In a latest poll survey conducted by a print daily, the figures clearly surfaced the reality about what people in different parts of the nation have to say on this issue. Jammu was the only city which clearly stood out in complete favour of letting Kashmir free from the jurisdiction of India, as opposed to the entire nation. The other city that caught my attention was Bangalore, where more people had their views synchronising with those in Jammu as compared to the ones who opposed this notion. In an attempt to terrorise and threaten the entire nation, numerous terrorist groups have successfully implemented their master plans and bombarded the cities in the country which had never been victimized in such a fashion.

One cannot expect much from politicians who couldn’t even punish and execute the convicts behind the bombing of the Indian Parliament. They will continue to talk about peace to score extra brownie points at the UN and impress Uncle Sam even when there is no peaceful way of settling this issue. In fact the solution to this problem is not the kinds that would need the finest diplomats from either ends sitting in a round table conference with Manmohan Singh popping anxiety pills before he puts his point across to big guns. Even peace loving Musharraf made it clear that a status quo on this issue was not an acceptable solution.

On the other hand it is not easy to implement the model being proposed at conferences encouraged by Washington. The model states that Kashmir should be delinked from Jammu and Ladakh, making it autonomous or quasi-independent, while India still gets to retain Jammu and Ladakh. Even though the Human Rights perspective favours that the Kashmiris should be granted their wish, there is no way one can blindly execute this without overlooking the major uncontrollable implications this action can have on the entire nation. There would be numerous independence movements sparking in different parts of the country namely Punjab, Gorkhaland, the North-East and the South.

So would this mean that our country would have to deal with a fate similar to Kosovo in the Balkans? People also raise fingers over the fact that Kashmir hasn’t been given their fair share of attention from the center. But I completely disagree to this allegation, as they have been consistently enjoying attention since the time of independence. If someone really has to complain about being neglected, then it has to be the North-East part of the country and not Kashmir. But we cannot expect any peace with our neighbours till the time we don’t strengthen ourselves and give up the vulnerable impression we have been putting up with over the years.

Peace doesn’t mean, being cowards and not understanding the value of the lives we lose in form of army soldiers combating terrorism and in form of a common man who becomes the victim of serial blasts. Even though we have had a legacy of being the Brand Ambassadors of Peace ever since Gandhi won us freedom, we shouldn’t forget the fate he met with was similar to what Bhagat Singh did. The only difference being, the former dint chose it, whereas the later accepted it as his choice.

Gandhi said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. It’s the right time and issue where the authenticity of this wise thought would be put to test in the new era.

The FORBIDDEN Fruit

I was sitting in the office canteen amidst the rising clamor, having a conversation with my colleague. While savoring the fruit plate lying in front of me, the thought of apple popped up in my head. The moments to follow were like a massive blank canvas and after a pause; I was splashing different coloured thoughts all over it. I finally broke the silence and barged out of the self contemplation mode. “You know, we should award Apple with some trivial title” I said. My colleague quite familiar with my whacky ideas dint pay much head and said “Go ahead, enlighten me with the thought process that went behind that statement”.

It all just came so spontaneously to me and I began “As per the Book of Genesis in Christian religion, Eve had coaxed Adam to share the Apple with her and this event in turn was held responsible for origination of entire mankind. Since this fruit got stuck in Adam’s throat, the larynx in human throat got the name Adam’s apple. Apple was considered as the forbidden fruit and its interpretation in Latin was quite similar to that of the word Evil.”

“This tale of Apple continued to stick on for ages, until another horrid incident took place in the pages of history, where an extremely intelligent or geek scientist named Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree in Cambridge and one of its fruit fell on his head. From that day on, now did HE rest until he discovered the term Gravity and nor did he let the generations to follow till date live in peace without being forced to memorize his work and not cursing him at least once in their lifetime.” I said.

“And, until recently a guy named Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer Inc. in 1976. The American multinational, took the consumer market by a wave with its amazing electronic products and softwares. You wouldn’t find a techii nerd without an IPod, and entertainment and multimedia pro without a MAC and a gadget freak not ogling at their IPhone, all of which are products of this company named APPLE.”

I kind of amazed myself with the spontaneous thoughts that were incepted on that coffee table. We had a good laugh on the theory behind my proposal to give a prestigious title to this fruit. Later on, trying to search for some more facts on this fruit over the internet, I discovered that the apple tree originated in Central Asia. This brought another whacky thought to my head “Does this mean the tree plantation had spread all the way to Greece before Adam and Eve fell on Earth? If not, then this proves that they both were Chinese, which is like a slap to all the famous painters who are already dead now, but had never portrayed Adam and Eve as Chinks :D”

Raj Thaceray, Where art thou?

He is a typical example of the most degraded tactic used by a politician in the country. Our constitution boasts of secularism and unity despite extreme diversity across the nation. But after 50+ years of independence, there comes a man, who openly makes the most senseless statement in the public to gain publicity and win votes from the masses. He stated that due to the presence of non-indigenous population in the city of Mumbai, the natives are not being given the due respect they deserve and seemingly they are losing opportunities on various fronts to people who don’t belong to the city.

Who is this guy to make such a statement? And how come after so many years of living in this city, he came up with this issue? Was it because he was not getting pampered enough by the affluent? Or was it because he saw this as one of the tools to gain attention of the native population? The moment I heard that the city was getting worked up by this statement, I said to myself “What the f*** in the world is wrong with this moron?” And soon some people in their party who bought this idea or probably were paid to buy it, came down on the streets, pulling out innocent, poor and hard working cab drivers from other states trying to make a living here and bashed them up atrociously in front of everyone. They ramped up their campaign a little further and specifically pointed at people coming from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as the rodents spoiling the crop.

What has this guy done in the city which makes him so proud and boast up to a limit to call it “HIS”. Just because over the years its been the heartbeat of the tinsel town, or because it has gained an important status as being one of the most important ports in the country. Just because people come from other states in hunt of opportunities and at the same time adding to the growth of Mumbai, doesn’t mean that one day when you reach the seventh sky, you would shrug them off your shoulders and take the credit of touching the milestone entirely by yourself. Why do we overlook the fact that on a global scale, this is what INDIANS are doing in other countries? Do they not leave their country for Uncle Sam or the Queen’s land for greener pasture and better opportunities? How many of them spend even a day without resting their ass in the comfort of a convertible and abusing their motherland for its pathetic state?

How many of them even come back and make an attempt towards the betterment of nation? Yet, we complain about the discrimination we have to face in foreign land, when we don’t even make an attempt to identify a similar situation we are facing on the home ground. When we can’t empathise with the scenario at home, we definitely do not have any right to blame the foreigners, whose countries we are breaching into for making a living for ourselves. I have seen the most educated people in the society falling prey to this trap he had set. Some of them came as a real surprise for me too. What makes him say that we do not respect the local customs and traditions? Somebody should ask him, how many outsiders try to abandon the biggest festivals like Ganpati and go ahead celebrating Durga Puja or Baisakhi with more enthusiasm?

And on the very basic note, what does he even mean by the people who belong to Mumbai? What is the criteria for a person to be tagged as a native of this city? Should he have a family tree leading originating from a member who was born and brought up in this city? What about the people whose earlier generations came down from other places and settled down here? What about the people who were born and brought up here only to leave the city and settle down in some other place? This man doesn’t have the slightest clue of what he is doing and the entire crux of the issue he has raised. He is just not sure whether he wants to deal with this issue on the base of region or on the base of cast.

And what does he have to say about the accused in the recent series on nine bomb blasts in the city of Jaipur? He too had come down all the way from Mumbai to execute this tyrant operation. Wouldn’t the moron go ahead and dig deeper to find out if the accused is TRULY from Mumbai or is he too some outsider and hence shouldn’t be associated with this city? Whatever is the ugly reason behind this political move, but he is definitely a black spot on not only humanity and also on the people living in Mumbai. Wearing a white kurta and a holy tilak on forehead cannot purify one’s soul. If one’s character is full of shit, then it would someday rip apart the masquerade and foreground its true self to people.

Life of a DOG!!!

My brother in law was shooting a documentary for Essar Group. For this purpose they had to visit one of its industrial plants in the state of Gujarat. Essar group had been using a cute little Pug in commercials for promoting their entity in telecom sector “Hutch”, now taken over by Vodafone. The script for the corporate documentary required the presence of that Pug for a few shots. Everyone in the crew, right from the spot boy to the line producer was keen to have a look at it.

The all woke up early morning to get the set and equipments ready for the shot. Once everything was in place, all that was missing was the Pug. The crew waiting under the scorching sun was soon informed that there would be a delay in the arrival of the celebrity. The urge or curiosity was much stronger than the pain caused by the uncomfortable weather conditions. Finally someone hailed at everyone resting under the shade “Aa gaya”. The next moment everyone rushed from their seats as though it wasn’t a pug, but it was Monica Belluci coming straight from Italy.

A sleek luxury car entered the gates and drove towards the set. It halted right next the crowd of crew members. The gates opened and the owner of the pug stepped out with tons of attitude puffed under every inch of his skin. Probably he lived under the illusion that he was the celebrity and not the dog. But the fact remained, he held his neck high in the air to even notice that people around had their eyes fixed on the pug in his arms and not him.

My bro in law was lucky, that he got to hold the dog in his arms and carry it to the set. The owner walked and swayed like Karan Johar next to my bro in law. With a little stern yet fragile accent he told him “Please try to finish the shot soon, he is not used to such strong heat and temperature.” My bro in law cared less about that gay mumbling next to him. The crew moved fast and got the camera rolling in no time.

After a few minutes when the shot was almost done, the hanky panky saw the pug rolling out its tongue and palpitating. He jumped out of his seat in a mixed emotion of grief and anger and rushed towards the director and said “Oh my god!!! He is tired, the heat is catching up with him, I need to carry him back to the a/c van” he ended the statement with his trademark cross handed posture. The director was caught unexpected and he gave a strange look back to the owner and said “It’s almost done.” But the faggot just dint move. “If you don’t mind, we need to get this done soon. Would you please mind stepping back for a while?” said the director.

The shot was soon over and the “Shattered Ego” came down, picked up his pup and yet again with loads of attitude, did a catwalk on the red carpet back into his pseudo-limousine. The crew members on the either side of the imaginary rag kept their glance fixed on the pug for one final time. Soon the car was speeding out of the gates and everyone got back to packing up the set. The spot boy made an ironical statement to his crew members around “Its better to have a life of a Dog like that, than to be born as a human like this.”