Why I don't want to have pets...

This is on how the idea that I won't have pets ever got reinforced.

Sunday afternoon, my friend came frightened to my room telling that a mother squirrel is helping its pup which a predator had cut by its throat behind his kitchen. I went to the scene and got disturbed by the screeching that was there. I also found that there wasn't a single pup, but two of them- one which was about to die and the other which had fallen from its drey into the kitchen sink and struggling to come out of it. For a while I left them, thinking that the mother squirrel would take care of them.

After a while the injured pup was being fed by ants and mother squirrel was not be found anywhere. I think this is what differentiates between human beings and animals. In human beings normally motherhood would take precedence over safety. To make this judgement more neutral, I would like to add that human beings are more capable to defend themselves than animals and hence this reverse precedence to be found in the later.

I have always been afraid of animals simply because I don't understand them. Anyway, I decided to take care of the orphaned pup. I brought it in a shoe box, covered it with clothes, spread bits of cornflakes and cauliflowers in it and put two spoons of milk before it, not sure if any of them would suit its palate. So frightened was it that it couldn't find any of them giving it a solace. I googled the internet, read various tips to help pups gain normalcy again and none of them looked encouraging enough. Some of them suggested a syringe feed of 'Esbilac'(?) and warmed pedialyte (?). Some suggested to visit a vet ASAP. Internet tips sometimes become so complex that problem looks bigger than it actually is.

I decided to give it some warm covering of clothes; I think it liked. But it hadn't taken anything for hours. Not sure if it could survive like this, I decided to feed it with some water in my palms. It certainly took a sip of it, but I couldn't judge from the look it gave to me whether I had irritated it or helped it. Some internet sources had also suggested to swab its genitals so that it may excrete and feel relaxed. I tried that even. I felt it clung my fingers tightly after this. As usual, I was left guessing if I had helped it or troubled it.

That was too much for me. I couldn't take the blame of killing it when I actually wanted to help it. We have washed that blood stained floor, disposed the killed pup so that mother squirrel may come looking for the lost one and put it in its drey.

I don't know if the mother squirrel would come looking for it or not. I don't know who will find the pup first, its mother or predators. I don't know if I am running a chance to loose it for ever by not giving it a night before it befriends me. I don't know if it found some comfort or not when it was in distress. And probably I would never know......

Should we complain ?

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - Bernard Shaw

Never before since 1947, 15th of August was overshadowed by a date vicinal to it in India. I am sure that there were many like me who were waiting for 16th instant to know how things are going to be rather than recalling the history of struggle for our independence. For me that’s a step towards progress. I don’t mean to imply that history should be done away with. But we cannot wait to better things just because we have a day to celebrate and it’s necessary to get into a patriotic fever for that day which gets demeaned by this ongoing struggle. It is in this context that I’m writing this article.

Those against this protest march led by Shri Anna Hazare said that:

• the protest demeans the Independence Day celebration;
• on the eve before 15th August the message that team Anna wanted to convey was that parliamentary procedures set by the constitution of India does no good to common man;
• team Anna is hijacking the authority of making laws given to the elected legislators.

These comments left me weighing the genuineness of them. Haven’t we so far said and heard many times before on 15th Augusts that this day is meant to introspect? Haven’t we been encouraged to ponder upon things that remain to be done for the country’s development? For many in this country taking part in Anna’s movement was the real Independence Day celebration. Constitution was drafted to have protocols for governing ‘ourselves’. Precisely this word- ‘ourselves’ seems to have been misinterpreted as ‘common man.’ What they fail to realize is the fact that in a democracy choosing representatives is required to encompass as many views as possible pertaining to an issue; that it is cumbersome to have an election each and every time a decision is required to be taken. Elected representatives are never supposed to be oblivious to people’s voice. By saying that team Anna is hijacking the authority of making laws given to the legislators they forget the simple fact that it was not the authority but a responsibility endowed to them. And the volume of support given to Anna says it all. Somewhere, there has been a negligence of duty while carrying out this responsibility.

How practical it is to bring the judiciary and the PM under the purview of Lokpal is a matter of debate. But smothering one when one says so is not something which can be condoned. The voice of team Anna is required to be heard to complete the spectra of views over this matter. The support given to this team signifies the fact that there is no representation of this voice in the parliament. We should not at all run the risk of being oblivious to any of the voices in democracy, lest they go unheard. Some of these voices may be the nerve of the nation. Some of these may be the sole way of development.

Even if it’s unreasonable, we should complain and should allow others to complain to make progress.

A Wishful Youth

Like the Sun which stabs the forest trees,
And splashes the darkness with its light,
We want this youth to spread over us,
And conquer the sordid with our might.

Like the first rain which plucks the flimsy leaves.
When the earth suffocates in stillness of May,
We want this youth to spread over us,
And weed the rotten for twigs in our way.

Like restless rivers which cannon the rigids,
Which bruise and push ’em to find their way,
We want this youth to spread over us,
And tame the perverse under our sway.

Like the rains which pulverize heat currents,
Which ooze out in a summer from all lanes,
We want this youth to spread over us,
And pummel the fear out of our veins.

Like the spring which follows the winter,
Gloomy and foggy, wrapping us shivering,
We want this youth to spread over us,
And find our freedom to escape this hinge.

Once on my way

Once on my way,
on the roadside,
I saw a little boy,
Perhaps three! No, perhaps four!
With little stones
in his little hands.
That kid-
Peppering an ant with those little stones,
From the height of his chest,
And missing it every time by a half feet-
Looked so childlike.
Busy with the ant,
Oblivious of the Sun at eleven,
and twas, a sultry day
The boy beamed each time he had to do it again.
If he wanted to kill or to stay it
I don’t know,
For he had plenty of time,
Before he could have his father again,
Busy, as elders are,
talking with their age.
And I,
Twenty and more,
am still thinking
Should I have impeded him,
Or, just asked his name?

Gulzar’s Mausam

I do not plan to do the blast from the pasts for The Hindu but Gulzar’s Mausam is a film I would love to write about. The more I see it, the more impressed I get by its story and its direction. Starred by Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, this movie is a work of a talent. From the very first minute you are bound to get immersed in it.

The film is about Dr. Amarnath Gill (Sanjeev Kumar) who is made to revisit his past that he has forgotten, is made to repent an unintentional sin he had committed and to do the penance to undo it. On his revisit to Darjeeling, Dr. Gill uncovers what has become of Chanda (Sharmila Tagore) who he had promised to come back to marry her. His shame of serving a jail term for a surgery failure that had stopped him to return back to her had resulted in lunacy for Chanda, untimely death of her father and had brought Chanda’s daughter Kajri (Sharmila Tagore) to a brothel. All these outweigh his shame and he finds his excuse for not returning back a sin that he has to repent for. As Chanda had died it’s only Kajri who could have forgiven him. Then starts his endeavour to bring back Kajri from the life she is leading, to plant her belief in goodness of people and finally to ask her for her forgiveness.

What is commendable is how the story unfolds. Starting with Bhupinder Singh’s bass voice ‘Dil Dhoondhta Hai,’ the song sets stage for Dr. Gill’s search- oblivious of the events that took place in his absence, he starts searching for atonement without getting which he cannot get the peace of mind he craves for. Then we have in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice ‘Ruke Ruke Se Kadam,’ which explains the predicament of Kajri who is unable to find the reasons for the goodness of Dr. Gill and the kind of transformation he expects from her. With well constructed dialogues, delivered with the skills of Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, this film remains outstanding by any standards. Sanjeev Kumar gives such human expressions which don’t let it remain a film only. With movements of his eyes only he can show anxiety, relief, guilt, anger and shock and can very efficiently switch between these. Special mention has to be given to the make-up man of Sanjeev Kumar also who successfully brings in the gap of 20-30 yrs in Sanjeev Kumar’s age.

The film is a must watch for those who want to see Hindi movies. It will make you believe that we had the kind of actors and stories and more important the art of telling them to grip the audience for duration longer than the run time of the movie.

At the end of four years

Four years have passed in IIT Roorkee and the time has come when most of the students who took admission with me will leave the campus. It's a strange feeling ! When I look back, these four years seem to have passed too fast, making me feel that there was a lot we couldn't enjoy together. But, it is this feeling that proves that these four years have been really wonderful (Refer Einstein's theory of relativity for good times and bad times).

I remember the first address by the director that made me sleep and I got ashamed of myself. How could I sleep on the very first ritual of a great start ? But now, I have no regrets. Actually, it was boring and that's why I felt sleepy. Then, I remember our first class in Chemistry Dept. Auditorium. It was that of Physics and Ma'm Tashi Nautiyal took the lecture giving us suggestion to keep ourselves away from Solani River. After the class, we started interacting with each other. The interaction kicked off with our JEE ranks. And now, it looks so cheap to have asked those things. Then Maths, then Chemistry and then, I don't remember. Everything was so fast. That's the thing with IIT- it's so fast that you have to keep running to catch with it's pace. I remember the desperation on getting below expectation marks, the first semester result and the results of the following semesters and how I got used to the results. Then I remember Rajendra Bhawan, it's mess, it's lawn, it's corridor, my room and everything associated with it. How tired we would be after a day's schedule and still, would have long gossips in our rooms.

Then came Thomso and it was such an excitement to attend our college's cultural festival. It was a big event for us. We couldn't have expected that Sivani Kashyap would perform for us before. Similarly came Cognizance, our technical festival, with its own aura. Everything seemed so technical in it conforming with IIT standards. But, it was then. Now we know that getting Shivani Kashyaps perform for us requires only sponsorship money which brands can always throw away as long as we promise them a huge participation across the length and breadth of India. As we organised events in Cognizance in the following years, we realized how easy it was to make it TECHNICAL.

Birthday bumps, night outs, bus tea, movies, listening songs at high volume, computer games (though I have somehow kept myself away from games), last night studies and the silence that enveloped our hostels at the exam times are the things that we would always remember. Dinners at Prakash just after mid terms and end terms were like- we deserve it after such a hard work ! I still couldn't know who we were justifying to. But that is what we call college days. The campus walls are like walls secluding us from the world where there is a word called responsibility.

These four years have been years of transformation. When we entered we were merely students who had qualified JEE. We had been brought up in such a way that we would feel that we could do anything. These four years have made us realise the fact that there are things which are not in our domain. Otherwise, there would be no question of sufferings that we had in these years. There are things that we cannot understand in our first attempt. There are rivals who are too good for us, whom we considered as our reference. This makes us believe that everyone is a mediocre and gives us a better perception of success and failures. At the end of four years we don't ask about our CGPA like we would ask JEE rank four years back to assure ourselves of our position. We have learnt that it was not merely our preparation that got us into IIT, luck played its role as well.

I am happy that I have one year more to enjoy this life but disappointed to note that there won't be all of us who have been there so far to enjoy these days. I wish good luck for the outgoing students! See you guys in the outside world in 2011 !

On 26th January 2010

Today is 26th of January 2010. On this day, since m0rning, a strange feeling is there in my mind. All around, in my hostel, patriotic songs are being played and I get pushed back to my school days. This day would mean a lot then. It still does, but the vent to express that is missing.

India became free in real sense when we got our constitution. This has been said again and again. But I feel, efforts to make people realise it have gone in vain or the efforts have been halfheartedly made. On republic day people should be made to understand why we needed our constitution, what the philosophy is that pillars our constitution. Their rights as well as their duties towards the nation should be made clear to them so that they are neither duped nor cross their limits while exercising their rights. Everyone should be clear about the concepts of unity, equality, brotherhood and sovereignty of the nation. They should be infused with courage to stand for the nation, to work for the nation.

The history that is being shaped nowadays compels me to say that the very concepts which we chose to govern ourselves have been kept aside. Disparities have been widened by our politicians themselves for electoral gains. One region prospers and the other suffers. 60 years wasn't a short time to achieve what we still haven't. Many countries had worse beginning than ours. Take the examples of Germany or Japan. They came out of their rubble to make their nation a great nation. South Africa came out of its apartheid problem very late if we compare it with the date we got our constitution. But now their is no division based on colour in the country. We still need to address this inequality issue in our country and this implies that the solution to the problem wasn't efficient enough.

I am not a cynic but, our country deserves more. It's also true that given the population and the diversity of our country the distance that we have covered is commendable. But if the social fabric were woven more intelligently, the history would have been different. Appeasement addresses the problem for a short time but it's not a permanent solution.

This country deserves more and let us toil to give it what was thought for at the beginning of the journey.