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Happy Republic Day

Posted by ABC Friday 25 January 2013 0 comments

From 26 January 1950, when India was constituted into a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic to 26 January 2013, we have covered a long time span. In these 63 odd years, we as a nation have witnessed myriad bitter-sweet moments and achieved various milestones. From fighting various wars across the border to being a constant companion of various peace measures, India has reflected a gamut of emotions. We continue to be the largest democracy and the second fastest growing economy of the world. Reflecting at our achievements in the field of science and technology, sports, medicine, entertainment, business and entrepreneurship et cetera gives us immense pleasure and a great sense of pride at being a citizen of such a powerful nation. At this juncture, the destiny is exhorting us to embark on the path that will lead us to our ultimate destination – where there is no discrimination, no poverty, no crime and no hatred, a place where every individual is empowered and a part of the development process. It is incumbent on each one of us as a citizen of this nation to struggle till our last breath for the development and prosperity of our motherland. Let us make a solemn resolution to douse the flames of alienation and hatred that have repeatedly been fanned by various hostile forces that intend to unleash terror and balkanise this country. In this era of modernisation, it is equally important for us to not to forget our moral values and undermine our diverse cultural heritage. We ought to uphold and preserve our pristine values and strengthen our social fabric. We must also ensure that our brethren are able to accompany us in this journey and our virtues overpower our vices. Let us promise ourselves to protect the sanctity of the soil of this auspicious land and join our hands together with due respect to the Almighty to bless us with strength and courage to come out triumphant in all our endeavours.


 “Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been
broken up into fragments by
narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from
the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches
its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary
desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee
into ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country awake.”
                                                                                                                       -Rabindranath Tagore
I wish all my dear countrymen a very Happy Republic Day.

                                                                                          JAI HIND 

Scum of the Earth : Part II

Posted by ABC Sunday 20 January 2013 2 comments

Scum of the Earth : Part I

Posted by ABC 2 comments


Emotion: An enemy of rational argument

Posted by ABC Monday 14 January 2013 0 comments

The dastardly incident that took place on January 08, 2013 in which the Pakistani soldiers crossed the Line of Control and ambushed an Indian patrol, throwing all civilised norms to the winds, is an example of an act of cowardice. Such an outrageous aggression and blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement of 2003 has yet again reiterated the fact that India is garlanded by hostile neighbours who indulge in condemnable activities with an intention to strain the social fabric of our nation and balkanise it. 

 
The recent unprovoked attack clearly establishes the fact that we cannot afford to blind-foldedly trust our unpredictable and unreliable neighbours who unleash terror in our territory and disguise their nefarious designs as confidence-building measures. It seems that by perpetrating violence across the border, our neighbours attempt to derail the peace talks. It is incumbent on us and them to realise frequent exchange of artillery and bloodshed in border skirmishes will only escalate tension and debilitate the relationship that we share with each other.

The beheading and mutilation that took place is highly unfortunate and tragic. The perpetrators of such a horrendous act of violence ought to realise that such insane acts neither lead to progress nor do they lead to establishment of one’s supremacy over the other. All that it leads to is widespread destruction and loss of innocent human lives.

At this juncture, India should continue with its diplomatic protest against this monstrous act. At the same time, it should restrain from taking any such measure that may widen the chasm between either of the nations or jeopardise the trade and cultural relationships. Let us not forget that our economy is vulnerable to slightest provocation and any such measure that hamper the progress, however meagre, in other areas of bilateral trade would cause a tremendous upheaval. The Opposition as well as the media should restrain their temptation to make intemperate remarks against the ruling dispensation. The government’s deliberate avoidance of tit-for-tat policy should not be mistaken as a test of its patience. Further, the security forces should be put on qui vive across the border. The issue should be amicably resolved through dialogue and thorough investigation and those found guilty must be awarded  stringent and deterrent punishment.


Such barbaric incidents, undoubtedly, stir the emotions of the grieved. However, prudence demands that these emotions must be controlled lest they pose a threat to rational argument.

JAI HIND

Peering at the world through a straw : Part II

Posted by ABC Tuesday 8 January 2013 0 comments
Peering at the world through a straw : Part I

It was 3:00 in the afternoon when he reached his destination, a large auditorium where an exhibition was being organised. ‘Different Strokes’ was the name of the event, a cogent and powerful caption for an event organised for the exhibition of paintings of artists from all over the nation. A number of painters, media-persons and admirers, some claiming to have a deep insight into the psyche of painters, had thronged the event. Guffaws and applause reverberated in the auditorium as the guests admired the art work of various talented painters. While some found a reflection of their life in the paintings, many others failed to draw a parallel between the portrait and the present or past, for that matter. The centre of attraction of the event was the portrait of an impoverished, emaciated child who had been snapped in the memory of the painter and carved out on the canvass. The painting depicted the perils of poverty on the society and the poor child was perhaps a torch bearer of a similar agenda to curb this menace.


 “I feel apologetic for the insult to his dignity”, an admirer, who looked more like a social activist, lamented.
“His dreams seem to have been vandalised”, a media-person exclaimed with remorse.
“The administration is responsible for his pathetic condition and the destruction of his desires”, a fellow painter, who had perhaps entered the winter of his life, asserted. It seems that even at that age, he supported the obsolete notion of holding the authority responsible for all good and bad, just by casting a vote in its favour.

As human pain oozed out of the portrait of the physically and emotionally shattered child, handkerchief, once again became a constant companion.

The gentleman who had rebuked the peddler on his way felt ashamed of himself as he took out a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe of the tears that had expelled out of his liquid eyes.
Sardonically, one may take pride in spending a huge sum on purchasing a portrait depicting a poor, malnourished child but hesitate to quench the thirst or satisfy the hunger of the same when needed.

Indeed, it is high time we change the lens, we view the dark edge of the world with. The need of the hour is to stop peering at the world with a straw. In this mad race of competing with the world in terms of technological and economic power, we have failed to take cognisance of those who have failed to catapult themselves to this level. Poverty is both a social and political malaise. Technological advancement and economic prosperity are the brighter aspects of our achievements. But the other side of the coin represents and excruciatingly painful truth that we are still struggling to bridge the divide between the haves and the have-nots. We still have a long way to go. Let us lend our hands to those who have failed to accommodate and align themselves with our idea of development.


 *The idea of this story is not to promote begging. This is merely a reminder of what we have actually achieved in the name of poverty alleviation and spending extravagantly on a painting that depicts poverty instead of helping the poor is only an example of how we end up accusing others for this menace rather than making a contribution at our end.

Peering at the world through a straw : Part I

Posted by ABC 0 comments

It is often proclaimed that poverty and charity go hand in hand. Even today, when materialism has taken precedence over emotions, one may find it difficult to dispute the fact that virtues like compassion and benevolence still have the same charismatic effect in bridging the divide between the haves and the have-nots. 

 
This is the story of a peddler who used to sell handkerchief at traffic junctions and a gentleman whose conscience was stirred to utterance after his encounter with the peddler.

13 May, 2012: It was a hot dusty afternoon. The sun was shining brightly, making it difficult to withstand the scorching heat. To aggravate tension in the air, there was a massive traffic jam. Even snails would have crept faster. The culprit for this commotion was a bulldozer that had broken down at a major traffic junction. As the traffic became more and more unmanageable, some young men stepped out of their vehicles, gesticulating wildly at the traffic, rushing from all ends, trying their best to break the snarl. The sight of enraged people wrangling on road and abusing each other was only adding fuel to the fire.

Knock…knock…, a peddler knocked at the glass of a luxury car.
“Handkerchief…buy 4 pieces for Rs. 20 only”, he begged as the glass rolled down.
As usual, he was greeted with a grimace. The ‘gentleman’ inside the car didn’t even pretend to scrounge for change. Instead, he rebuked the peddler and increased the volume of the monotonous song that was being played inside his car. The peddler didn’t feel dejected. It was his business after all and to make his both ends meet, he could get himself reprimanded any number of times throughout the day. Even after being chided, he had the audacity to knock at the glass of the same vehicle again.

“Please purchase these handkerchief sir. They will protect you from this hostile weather”, he pleaded with folded hands.
“#$%@#!^&*...(invectives used). Get lost from here before I gag you with these handkerchief”, the ‘gentleman’ abused bitterly.

How pathetic a profession can be! Exposing oneself to public scorn every other minute…Gruesome!

The peddler, a downtrodden young lad did feel sad, however, he had no other alternative than to curse his destiny for his miserable plight, but still had a reason to cheer upon realisation of the fact that he was still in a better condition than many of his lineage who would indulge in undignified activities like manual scavenging, arduous labouring as cattle among cattle in the fields etc.

After hours of crawling, the luxury car and its owner finally crossed the junction and diffused among the ever increasing traffic. The peddler stood along the divider looking for more customers while the weather showed no improvement, with the sun showering its wrath all through the day.

“I should have purchased the handkerchief”, the gentleman muttered to himself while driving towards his destination, “after all he was a poor chap”, he continued.
One may feel tempted to think that the man was pricked by his inner conscience, unlike what he uttered next.
“Shedding a few pennies over these destitute is not going to wriggle them out of their impoverished conditions”, he told himself as he felt amused at his wisdom.
He may seem to be appropriate to some extent but if each one of us starts thinking in this manner, the day is not far when humanity would be stripped off virtues like love, compassion, benevolence, generosity et cetera. Any such thought that inculcates a feeling of hatred in oneself is as despicable as betraying one’s own conscience. One must shun such outrageous thoughts at the very grass root levels. 


One may appreciate the efforts of the government and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who are trying their best to uplift the lower strata of the society but corruption is plaguing our society so badly that these schemes and donations seldom reach the actual beneficiaries. The outcome is that the chasm between the haves and the have-nots is widening and the condition of the latter is deteriorating from bad to worse. Consequently, though they have their names enrolled in the electoral lists, they have no access to the resources and are merely squatters.

The gentleman was in a state of dilemma and was constantly being haunted by a feeling of guilt of not having helped the poor.

Continue reading : Peering at the world through a straw : Part II
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My blog is an innovative amalgamation of my thoughts, how i perceive and react to different events in the ordinary business of life and at the same time entertain the readers and sensitize them.
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