Out of immense heartbreak.....

What is a rape? For me it is not only a sexual assault but much more than that. I feel each and every day hundreds and thousands of us are raped. And I am not only talking about women.

We are ruled by a bunch of inept people who rape us everyday. They make public comments and try to pass laws which are nowhere near to the solutions which should be given and thats how they rape us everyday. They tell us to wear overcoats to stop being raped!!! They tell us to stay at home and not go out at night to stop being raped!!! They tell us not to have chow mien and cold drinks because that gets us raped!!!

Does any of these solutions make any sense to any sane and smart person. The reason I am saying sane and smart is because it is evident that these politicians certainly do not have these qualities!!! Why are we still electing these people!!! Why are we allowing ourselves to be ruled by a bunch of parochial old heads who are only pulling us down. Who will never grow and neither let us develop.

We had globalised and liberalised our economy in the 90s but our minds, our society is still in the shackles of our yester years. What we need now is the liberalisation of our society, liberalisation of our thoughts and our culture. What we need now are leaders who are courageous enough to convict the criminals and not blame the rape survivor saying she asked for it!!!!

When I try to think about the main root of our problem, I see that the roots are far stretched,wide and deep. There isn't one particular reason but its a amalgamation of several  things, several thoughts which have been instilled into our minds since we are born and which we are taught to cling onto till our death and even worse, kill anyone who defies those norms in the name of culture!!!! What is our culture!!!! This is certainly not my culture. I would never want to be associated with it if it is this.

I am so sick of all this now. I think I am glad that I am no longer in that place. Its not that I don't love my country its just that I have developed immense loathe for its AAM ADMI now!!!!!

Scribbling my thoughts......

With the entire nation fuming over the inhuman sexual assault of a young twenty three year old girl in the capital a few days back, there is a harsh reality that the nation and its vigilant citizens is facing today. Will our daughters, our sisters, our mothers and wives ever be safe in this nation? And the sad thing is....these horrendous incidents are happening all over the country.....

A lot of people are protesting about it on the streets. Many experts are commenting on how such incidents should be handled. How the culprits ought to be punished. I personally feel there will be no change whatsoever. Call me a pessimist but I know I was never one of them until I realised that every system, be it the police, the courts and the laws, the medical reports of victims......everything is manipulated. Everything is controlled like puppets with strings and what appals me is there is no honesty left in any of these systems anymore. If one is honest, then they are either transferred, threatened, abducted or worse....killed!!!!

So many things need changes.....need reformations. The government for start needs to be changed. Sometimes I wonder how come these people got elected in the first place!!! This only reflects what we are as citizens.

Second, the police force needs to realise that they are appointed to serve us and not abuse their power on us. The police force ought to realise that they are an independent body whose objective is to help the citizens and not harass them.

Thirdly, I have a personal request to the media to try not to sell news but to give the people a true picture of a situation and incident. The media personalities have a social responsibility like no other I believe because how they portray an incident determines the public response to that situation.

I also believe the courts have a responsibility towards the citizens to give them justice in a fast a swift manner. It's sad to know that many people have died with their cases still pending in courts.

And these are just a few places to start from. I know its easier said than done. But I think the people of this nation have suffered a lot and it seems to me that the worst is yet to come. We don't need a Gandhi now, we don't need a Bhagat Singh......we want hundreds and thousands of them.

May the good win over evil......Let there be light again.....Amen....

Swaraj????? Scam-Raj !!!!!

Just a few days ago Indians celebrated their 65th Independence day. Sixty five years back the country yearned and fought for its Swaraj against the British. Reading about Gandhiji, Bhagat Singh was very inspiring when I was younger. I recall penning down many an essays glorifying this day and feeling my heart swell up with pride.

But today I see a country where honesty is just a policy,the judiciary system has dismayingly failed to uphold its standards and the police is simply a puppet in the hands of the ruling party. The parliament is the defaming apex of the nation where one finds the leaders of the nation dozing off, fighting like cats and dogs or even worse.....watching porn in their phones!!! Each session is either marked by a walk off by the opposition or is adjourned by the Speaker. The CBI is a spineless organisation which has not been able to solve a single case in totality for years now. We are still entertaining Pakistani terrorist Kasab in our jail with five star service instead of executing him for his crime!!! We still have reservations right from schools to colleges to promotion in jobs for more than half of the population now and still where are we heading to???

We would like to think of ourselves as a developing nation but I would like to ask....where is the development?? We are building apartments but we are killing for possession rights. We are educating our daughters only to kill them when they don't bring dowry along!!! We are giving farmers free electricity and watching them kill themselves out of poverty!!! We are giving free computers to village children but there is no electricity!!! We are fighting and killing each other in the name of religion and community!!!
I think people have got the wrong idea about development. Its not development if you are turning into a savage!!!!

And coming down to the developmental plans by the government. Well they are all laid down in paper and their existence is witnessed by those papers alone. The Government draws five year plans which they fail to complete even in 10 years and even worse....some just wither in those files never seeing daylight in their lifetime!!! The development is swallowed up by the money sucking demons we have chosen to rule us. All the money laundered in various scams...the 2G, Adarsh, Coalgate ( just a few of the latest ones) amount to crores of rupees. Even a percent of that used and maybe some of those developmental plans would have been completed in 4 years!!! But who would even think about it? Those who do either end up like Baba Ramdev or Anna Hazare!!! Fighting for a cause very few believe in and even fewer actually dedicate their life for.

As for me..... I would just like to say that.... Swaraj is obsolete.....Scam-Raj is in vogue now!!!!

Khoob-Surat.....

I thought I was not the kind of person who would get emotional during goodbyes. Since I was used to bidding goodbyes to so many people so many times. But this time it was different. I felt the sting in the eyes bidding this place and its people goodbye.

I had been in Surat for the past one year. My first job was in Reliance Industries Limited, Surat. I was very apprehensive about the place because whomsoever I mentioned it to murmured sympathetic words back. But I didn't want to be prejudiced against it just then. I wanted to give it a chance before I passed my judgement about it.

Our first day or rather night in Surat was quite surprising for me and my parents. We got down from the bus at around 11:30 at night and expected the roads to be deserted except a few autos maybe and ended up getting into a traffic jam. It was a lively and vibrant city with very simple and (most of the times) helpful people.

My time in Reliance had been very memorable too. I met different kinds of people. Learnt a lot about how offices work. Got a taste of the acerbic office politics. I learnt that its an unavoidable inevitable part in any job these days. But I guess what each job teaches you is....To lie... It teaches you to be tactful and be very diplomatic with your answers. These are some things they never teach you in school or colleges but which I suppose should be included in the first chapters of our curriculum. But I know they never will.

Well Surat as a place was the best place I had dwelled in my life till date. It is the safest place for girls. I won't say there is no eve-teasing....there were circumstances when me and my friend while getting back home from our dinner were followed by guys in bike. It happens everywhere right. But here these cases occurred in the ratio of one in a thousand. I have tried to infer a logical reason behind this anomaly and have come to this conclusion that guys don't tease girls here as much as in other parts of the nation because by the time guys get to that age they are already married off.... Ha..ha.. People in Gujarat marry quite early and you will literally see people barely passed out of high school and walking off with a kid in their arms. It gives me shivers down my spine. To be married that early in life and taking care of a family and having responsibilities is a little scary.

I have a friend there who is engaged and is planning to get married next year. Oh man.... That makes you feel old...ancient would be more appropriate....But then I guess I am doing things with my life which they are not and that is kind of a consolation...besides seeing them only makes you want to wait a little while longer and enjoying the singleton's life before taking that final plunge into apocalypse...

Suratis (people staying in Surat call them that) are very fond of food and are extremely fun loving people. The evidence of it can be witnessed every Sunday on the footpaths of the Piplod area. People throng these footpaths as if they are parks or gardens. From early evening to late night you will find people sitting on these footpaths and enjoying themselves. I went out with two of my friends to shop one Sunday and that was the last Sunday we ever went out.

People in office told me to go out on the New Year's night to see the crowd on the roads. I went to sleep by 11:30 because I wanted to get up the next day on my own bed and not a hospital bed. I was scared that I would die in stampede out there...

The city was beautiful... Situated on the banks of the river Tapi. And it became more enticing when I had great company to go out with. I made some wonderful friends out there. People whom I would want to be friends with for the rest of my life... People who made this alien city turn into a beautiful place with wonderful memories I always want to cherish. My special thanks to them for everything they have done for me and for being who they are.... You guys are indeed... Khoob-Surat....
XOXO

Different walks of life....

This is a long pending post... One which i intended to pen down months ago but something always got on the way... Sometimes circumstances... Sometimes my own habit of procrastination....Well I can't seem to recall when the thought of writing this post first struck me but I am sure it was somewhere between my transition from an oblivion to an observer that I started noticing these things, those funny things which make you laugh till your sides ache..

Well the choice of the title is because of the fact that it involves the description of different walks of people I have started noticing lately.

We have an elderly person in our office who walks as if he is throwing a tantrum and walking off from his mother. His hands swing almost to the height of his shoulders and his head tilts from one side to another while doing it. I have tried to mimic his walk several times and I can proudly say that I have almost perfected it. Then there is another guy who walks as if he is carrying bombs in his hand and is about to blow off the whole place. With legs and arms wide apart at the height of about 5'4 feet he looks almost comical except the time when one gets to see his stern countenance.
One of the weirdest and perhaps most menacing walks was of a guy who used to almost drag his feet as if he is limping and place his feet at an angle on the ground. It appeared to me that either he must have been involved in some crime act or was the survivor of a tragic war. But it was none and his half limp only made my brain churn up stories more implausible than the other.
Then there is the big boss of my plant who has the Charlie Chaplin mustache and walks as if someone had just waxed his underarms' hair. And last but definitely not the least... My boss who walks like a 18 year old teenaged wannabe!! Drooping his shoulders and swinging his hands as if picking up some invisible bucket!!! I guess sometimes people just can't get over their failed attempts to be cool.
Well I thank these people for giving me this wonderful topic to write about, without them and their unique but hilarious walks this post won't have been possible. May you walk with your heads held high and continue to inspire people like me.

What women want......

A lot of speculations have been made about what women want........what they desire.....what makes them happy.......Well getting it straight from a girl who is turning into a woman will probably give you guys more insight into what goes on in the convoluted minds of ours.

In today's era of women empowerment, we don't need a man to be the bread earner for the family. We are capable to earning and being good at it too. We don't need a guy to remind us of our shortcomings being a woman in a man's world.... We don't want them to think of us as baby making machines!!! (Many men get married because that's in our culture... Get married by the time they turn 28 because their families want them to start a family of their own.....not because they are in love with the girl!!!)

We want a man who loves us...
We want a man who can kill and get killed for us....(atleast in theory)
We want a man who is not afraid to show us off to his family....
We want a man who stands up for us...
We want a man who can cross seven oceans just to be with us for a day( not just in theory)
We want a man to indulge us in our fanciful fantasies...
We want a man to give us his time....
We want a man to actual listen to what we are saying and not simply hear it....
We want a man who realises that sacrifices in a relationship should be made from both the ends....
We want a man to help us up when we fall down and one who doesn't hesitate to ask for our hand when he's down too....
We want a man who once in a while fulfils our childish tantrums...
We want a man whom we can trust and bare our soul to.....
Well maybe that's too much to ask for.....and then again maybe it isn't....

Flowers are fine....

Chocolates are good too....

People say...a diamond is a woman's best friend.....
But what they don't realize is its just a sparkling rock in the finger without LOVE...... 

The Demise of a Legend - Steve Jobs

I've always been deeply effected by death of people....it seems like a desolate way to go....but "Death it seems is the only destination we all share."

The mournful demise of Steve Jobs left the world aghast late Wednesday night as this innovative and revolutionist entrepreneur fought his last battles against cancer. Born in San Francisco to Abdulfattah John Jandali and Joanne Simpson he was given up for adoption by his biological parents. He was then adopted by Paul Jobs and Clara Jobs. He attended  Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. After High school he enrolled in Reed college in Portland for graduation. So there he was in an expensive college where all his bourgeois family's savings were being used up in his tuition fees and he still had no idea what he wanted out of his life and no idea how college was going to help him figure it out. He saw no value being in college. So after his first semester he decided to drop out. But he stay around for 18 months attending various auditing classes before finally deciding to give it up. His bourgeois background made it hard for him to survive those days. He didn't have a dorm room so he slept on the floors of friends' rooms. He would return coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to buy food with. He would walk the seven miles across the city on Sunday nights for the free food at Hare Krishna Temple. 

By late 70s Steve along with a few others founded Apple. Macintosh was a very successful product of theirs. But by mid 80s due to drift between Steve and  Apple's then CEO, Mr John Sculley he was relieved of his duties. This came as a blow to Steve but he didn't give up. He founded NeXT Computer that year and Pixar Image Computer the next year. Later in 1996 he returned to Apple after his company NeXT Computer was bought off by Apple. Steve Jobs then concentrated wholeheartedly on increasing the sales and market of Apple products. His innovative ideas,persuasion and charisma helped Apple gain its stature to number one in the market again. He changed customers' level of expectations from the makers. It brought a revolution into the digital world. With Macintosh, i-phone,i-pod and i-pad  apple became a household name. Their technical brilliance and innovative attitude made the world tremble in anticipation for the launch of their new products. 

From his life I take the inspiration to follow my heart, to do the kind of work I love....He said - “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” 

His death is the world's loss.....We have lost a legend, a visionary and a man who didn't hesitate to follow his heart....who didn't let other people's opinions stop him from what he wanted to do or become. 

Steve Jobs made us believe in the letter " i " .......He was a legend and legends never die....they live on....

 Like he said - “I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I’m not there, but I’ll always come back. 

You'l always be missed.....Steve Jobs....May your soul R.I.P.......