Public Display of Affection in India

Last week I along with two of my colleague went for lunch. Happily chatting within us we went inside a decent restaurant, and quickly gave our order. Meanwhile we were talking about our office work; suddenly my friend who was sitting opposite to us said, look behind you what is happening? I said, what happened? He said there is guy and a girl who are sitting behind you and they are kissing. I said what happened in that; they must be husband and wife or lovers. Let them do whatever they want. On this my dear friend said that no this is not good, if they want to love each other then they should do it inside their house. 

What do we really want?

Just ask this simple but important question to some of your friends and I bet that you will get almost similar answers from most of them. Someone will say he wants to build his own house, someone will say he wants to buy SUV, someone will say he wants to start his own business, etc. apart from this regular answer you might also hear something like I want to let go of anything related to materialism!

But do we really want any of these things, or is it what we think we want? Most of us find our self in this confusing situation every day, and we may not even realize it. We are not here to do things which we don’t like. Doing things which we don’t like can keep you engaged for some time, but during that time you will not get your peace of mind. Every day when you will go to bed you will think, why the hell are you doing that work, is it just the money for which you are killing your happiness or something else.

Love is Blind? Or it only pretends to be blind?

Hmmm… it’s an interesting question. First answer which comes to my mind is YES, “Love is blind”. But wait a minute my friends, every time what comes first is not the best. If you guys remember then before the era of mobile phones and Facebook, there was a famous stationary something about the size of small diary with colorful 20-30 pages which was famously called as Slam Books. These slam books were passed among high school students to fill in some answer to the question.  And one of the questions you needed to answer was: "What is love?" Most answers I saw were: "Love is blind.

Once again in Delhi...

“We  have cancelled the bus license”, is the statement of Sheila Dekshit CM of Delhi on 18th December 2012. Is this what the victim is asking for? Is this what the whole India is asking for? Is this what Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan is asking for? No, miss Sheila Dikshit. We don’t want just the suspension of bus license. We want some permanent solution to this kind of horrible act against our women.

I hate writing about the negative things happening in our state where most of our VVIP live, but I am highly disturbed after knowing the Sunday night’s  incidence in Delhi where an innocent helpless 23 year old medical student was gang raped in a moving “whiteline” bus by 6 (don’t know what word I should use for them) *$@#@^. When her male friend protested then they beat him with rods, later after their heinous act they threw them off the moving bus near a flyover in Mahipalpur in south Delhi, which is close to the Indira Gandhi International Airport.  All this started at around 11:00 PM and lasted for about 45 minutes but not a single Delhi Police officer stopped that bus even thou it was running after its permitted time. Almost 48 hours have passed but still that lady is fighting for her life in ICU, according to the news on TV her intestine is damaged. 

Yes or No to Arranged Marriage

As we all see, in India we follow arranged marriage system, where two or more parties arrange a marriage between two persons. Love before marriage is considered bad in this country. No my friends today I am not going to talk about the negative aspects of our marriage system. I believe like every aspect of life, arranged marriage also has its merits and demerits. Compared to other countries, Indian people are more emotionally attached to their family members; we give more importance to relationships and family customs. In our country ours parents take care of us till their last breath, because in our country family’s safety comes first. To protect their children from any future problem arising due to marriage in other religion or caste parents in our country generally find suitable spouses for them from suitable families within their own religion, caste and social status. Now if the couple says yes for the marriage, then not only the bride and the groom comes close to each other but also two families gets united, and if by chance any problem arises after marriage then both families try together to work out the problem.

Who Am I?

Birds eat plant eating insects, worms poop inside the ground and make the soil fertile, whale helps in removing carbon traps from the environment, bee helps in pollination of flower, animals help in fertilizing plants, almost all the animals are part of food chain and keep the ecosystem in balance, there are many such examples where we can see how animals not only live for themselves but they do some or the other thing for their environment or society. All living and non living things in this universe exist because the nature wants them to be in that place at that time. This means if we are alive and are doing certain things then there must be some reason behind it. The nature must have assigned some work to all of us, so we are here. Why I am talking about all this today is because for last few days some questions are bothering me.

Ghazal

दोस्तों की महफ़िल में बैठ कर,
जब तेरी बातें किया करतें थें।
लोग उसे ग़ज़ल समझ कर,
वाह वाह किया करतें थें।

Does Love Really Hurts?

To understand why love hurts, first of all we have to understand what love really is? If asked, most of us will tell that love is the most wonderful feeling they have gone through, but since I am a science student I have a different understanding of love. For me love is an emotional response due to triggering of neurotransmitters in the brain and the release of neuromodulators, such as oxytocin. Love is a perception, a judgment, an evaluation. Ok now let us find out when we can say that we are in love.

Mental Patients or Criminals?

With great interest and enthusiasm, we all have seen the union budget of 2012. We all have noticed all the important points in the budget which directly impacts us. We know about the taxes, we know about the percentage increase in electronic goods, we know about the defense allocations, we know about agricultural subsidy, etc. but with 100% guarantee I can say that not a single person knows, what is the government budgetary allocation for the health disorder which accounts for nearly a sixth of all health related disorders.

Crime Capital of India

One day a kid came running to me and said “do you know which is the crime capital of India?” I was shocked to hear this question from him, I said no baby I don’t know. He smiled and said it’s Delhi. This little question of his made me think about my national capital for an entire day. There was time when Delhi was famous for its Historical heritage, shopping places and eateries. It’s the same place which carries the legacy of Mughal as well as British reign is now blatantly termed the crime capital of India! Certainly there are solid reasons why people have changed their scale with which they used to measure our national capitals popularity. Directly or indirectly our politicians are always involved with the bad things happening in our society. We all know that on the political map on India, Delhi holds a significant position and this is the biggest reason why criminals and terrorist flock like sheep to Delhi. All such criminal minded people come here to disturb the socio-economical stability of our country.

Angels in Garbage Bins

Aborted Female infant with Placenta in waste dump 

All of us in our life time have studied about our ancestors Homo Erectus, in the same school our teachers have taught us something which is false. They taught us that the day Homo Erectus became Homo Sapiens they became civilized. But keep your hand on your heart and tell us, is it true? Can we call our self as a civilized animal? I will say no, I will say that our friends living in jungle are more civilized than us. They don’t kill there still born babies; before the birth of their babies they don’t decide their faith based of their sex, but we do, we kill our babies in mother’s womb, we tear there hand and leg and crush there head before they even see the real bad world.

First citizen of our country is a lady, the biggest Indian political party is headed by a female, there are many states where the chief minister is lady, and above all this we all fold our hand and pray before female goddesses in temples. And yet India is far from a haven for women.

माँ याद मुझे तेरी बहुत आती है

शाम होने पे परिंदे भी
घर लौट जातें हैं।
वक़्त  के अँधियारो में खोयी यादें भी
मन के गलीचों में लौट जातीं हैं।
मेरे गाँव की यादें मुझे याद आतीं हैं
माँ की वो सारी बातें याद आतीं हैं।

सुबह पाठशाला जाता था जब
माँ प्यार से मेरा जबीं चूमतीं थीं तब।
और बक्से में प्यार में डूबी
2-4 रोटियाँ रखतीं थीं तब।
मेरा माथा आज फिर चूम लो माँ
प्यार से 2-4 रोटियाँ अपने हाथों से खिला दो माँ।

अपनी आँचल तले रात में जब
माँ लोरी गा कर सुलाती थी तब।
सो जाता था गहरी नींद में मै
ख़्वाबों की दुनिया में खो जाता था मै।
वो आँचल की छावं फिर दे दो माँ
लोरी गा कर आज फिर सुला दो माँ।

दोस्त होतें नहीं थें आस पास जब
माँ तुम मेरी उलटी सीधी कहानियाँ सुनती थीं तब।
अपनी बातों से तुम्हे परेशान किया करता था मै
तेरी ख़ामोशी को दूर किया करता था मै।
आज माँ खामोशियों ने जकड रखा है मुझे
बातें फिर तुमसे करने को जी चाहता है मुझे।

गाँव अपना छोड़ परदेश जा रहा था जब
नम तेरी आँखों से दुआएं आ रहीं थीं तब।
हर महीने तेरे गीले खतों मे
लिखती थी तू वही बातें।
लौट आ मेरे बेटे तुझे कसम है मेरी
तू जब से गया परदेश बेचैन हैं आँखें मेरी।

माँ में तुझे कैसे बताऊँ
नींद मुझे भी अब आती नहीं
भूख मुझे भी अब लगती नहीं।
बहुत चाहा न रोऊँ मगर
ख़त तेरा मुझे बहुत रुलाती है
माँ याद मुझे तेरी बहुत आती है। 

Some of the Urdu words & their meaning:-

• गलीचों - Garden
• जबीं - Forehead
• ख्वाब - Dream

ऐसा होता है क्यूँ?

है नहीं जो,
वो दिखाई देता है क्यूँ?
मोहब्बत में ऐसा हाल होता है क्यूँ?

है नहीं जो अक्स आईने में,
वो दिखाए देता है क्यूँ?
इश्क ऐसे हालत बना देता है क्यूँ?

ग़ालिब ने भी  ऐसा सोचा न होगा,
दर्द-इ-दिल पे इतने ग़ज़ल कभी लिखे जाएंगें,
मोहब्बत में आँसू हज़ारों बहाए जायेंगें।

Honour in Killing!! What a Bullshit??

 

I am not at all happy writing an article on “honour killing”. People around me say that I live in a secular country where all its citizens are treated equally regardless of religion/caste; but when I hear about the cases of honour killings then I suspect whether I truly live in a secular country?

Wikipedia defined honor killing as “An honor killing, or honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community. Honor killings are directed mostly against women and girls, but have been extended to men.” 

Murder of Baby Afreen

Rarely do we see that after birth any baby again goes back to hospital within 3 months and that also in ICU. Neha Afreen would have little known that again he will come to hospital and that also because of her father. Today when I was walking through the reception of my office and looked at the TV, I was shocked to see the news about baby Afreen death due to cardiac arrest. Most of my colleague who saw the new mourned the little one’s death. But the only reason we are talking about this horrific tragedy is because of Reshma Bano, baby Afreen’s 19 year old mother, who went public with the nasty story. Looking at her anyone can say that she would have never got the courage to talk on a National Television if her husband would have not done this heinous act. Someone had said it right that a mother becomes dangerous when someone tries to harm her baby. Reshma was openly saying on the television that she will not leave her husband if anything will happen to her baby.

कैसे भूलें

आज सोचा
तुमने हमें भूला दिया
तो हम भी तुम्हे भूला दें ,
पर भूलें भी तो कैसे भूलें
जान बुझ कर तुम्हे दिल में बसाया नहीं
तो जान बुझ कर कैसे भूला दें?

शिकायत

                       गैरों के पास वक़्त होता है कहाँ

की वो किसी को रुला सकें
अपनों ने ही रुलाया है जब हमें
तो शिकायत किस्से से करें?  

कातिल

अपने कातिल पर भी मुझे प्यार आता है
जब उनकी याद दिल में आती है
हाँ ये सच है की क़त्ल किया है उसने मेरा
पर माफ़ ये सोच कर कर देता हूँ की
क़त्ल करने के लिए ही सही वो मेरे पास तो आयीं.

यकीन आज भी ये है की वो मेरे कब्र
पर आतीं होगीं फूल ले कर
यकीन आज भी ये है की वो रोतीं नहीं होंगीं
मेरे  कब्र पर सर रख कर
फिर भी खुश हो लेतें हैं ये सोच कर
की हँसतीं भी तो नहीं होंगीं आ कर मेरे कब्र पर.

GOD Lives With Us

Two humans are never identical, so they have different dreams and plans in their life. But the thing is since we all have the common ancestor; we have some common dreams also. I think that all of us wish or dream to meet GOD at least once in their life time. Some of us want to meet him to say thanks for whatever he had in his life, someone wants to meet him to ask something more in his life, someone wants to meet him to get some knowledge and someone wants to meet him just for getting some peace in life. But whatever be the reason most of us wants to meet him. 

Love Can Wait Forever

In the dark moonless night,

I am staring out of window,

down at the lonely street.

which in the daytime,

see many lovers walking over it.

Holding each other’s hand,

they talk & they laugh,

share their happiness & joy,

bringing smile to each other’s face.

Such a beautiful world is this,

full of joy and love.

But nothing matters,

when I wake up from my dream.

The wonderland where there are no tears,

and the loved ones are always near.

I can't keep this hope alive,

simply by memories of what we once were.

I can't wear the pain,

of not having you beside me.

When people doesn't see the reality,

in dark and empty nights.

Thinking of you I stay awake,

wondering whether,

you also think of me.

In the silent dark nights,

nothing else can I do,

but stare of my window,

and keep waiting for you,

because love can wait forever.