The Mortal being

A Short Story

2011-11-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been reading more of Haruki Murakamis works and its been amazing for many reasons, I think there are many aspects to the way one sees the world, most of the time we are not even aware of those aspects which makes us to see the world the way we see it and Murakami just makes you aware of those aspects.

A RED KITE, BLUE PAIR OF SHOES, VIOLIN MUSIC

It doesn't matter; it just doesn't matter because I don’t exist anymore. I don't exist even when I have a story that I have to say to you the reader, I just don't exist, I just have fleeting memories of the images of my existence, a red kite, a pair of blue shoes, violin music. It sounds strange isn't it for you the reader to hear about something from some one who doesn't exist, it sounds strange even to myself but strange as it may sound it is real, and it is real as strange. Some times when strange happens people try their best to make it look normal when they cant they ignore it. Well here in this case you the reader don't have any other choice but to listen to me, I will try to make it look as normal as I can so you don’t feel strange and uncomfortable, so before I continue let me make myself clear once again to you the reader, I don’t exist.

A tiny little hand is holding on to the string of a red kite flying high up in the air against the clear blue sky, its sunny but nice thought the "little one", the red kite has a very long tail and it sways, it sways as if it is really happy to be up in the clear blue sky. The tiny little asks, daddy why does the kites tail sway, its because of the wind honey, said the daddy. But the tiny little knew daddy was wrong because the kite never swayed his tail when he hanged on the wall in her tiny little room, and the tiny little remembers daddy once saying that "wind is all around us honey, its everywhere". The tiny little knew daddy was just wrong, the red kite was just happy to be up in the clear blue sky and that’s why he swayed his tail. It was nice to see the red kite happy up in the clear blue sky swaying his tail.

Pair of black leather shoes stomps on the green grass heading towards it dint know where. The black leather shoes were getting wet and darker as it waded through the twinkling dewy blades of green grass, after some stomping and hoping there it was in front of a pair of blue shoes. The pair of blue shoes looked sad, the pair of black leather shoes dint know why the blue shoes were sad, the black leather shoes thought the blue shoes were sad may be because it was dirty or it was getting wet or may be because it was in front of the new black leather shoes or just because its color was blue, it just dint know why the blue shoes were sad, then the black leather shoes and the blue shoes started to walk together heading towards they dint know where. They stopped in front of a small puddle, the blue shoes jumped right into the browny water, the browny water splashed on the black shoes making it look half brown, the blue shoes hopped back again to the green grass and back again into the puddle, the black shoes could see the pair of blue shoes dint look sad anymore it was happy to get wet, it was happy to get dirty, it was happy to turn into another color, the blue pair of shoes wasn’t blue anymore. The black shoes hesitated a bit but it also jumped into the puddle and let its color change, and they were happy together in the puddle. The blue shoes weren’t blue anymore, the black shoes weren’t black anymore but they were happy.

It was raining outside the car, sitting in the back of the car the little one was looking through the window listening to the violin music daddy had put on the player, the rain drops came down heavily against the window and it sounded like violin music, the rain drops seemed happy to sound like violin music thought the little one, the car window also seemed happy too because the rain was happy to sound like violin music, and then the little one heard the thunder, the sound of the rain sounded like rain again, the little one heard the not happy sound of the shattering glasses and the not happy sound of the metal screeching as the car rolled over, the little one dint know what happened and she was up side down and saw her daddys face full of blood, the little one heard the rain sounding like rain again, the rain sounded like it was happy to sound like rain again thought the little one and then the rain stopped sounding like rain...

get up honey, its 7:30 in the morning. You will be late to school. There was no sound, just the hush... no sound, the rain sound had stopped.

Honey get up you are 6 years old now, you cannot have mommy wake you up every morning, dint mommy tell you to use the alarm clock last night. The rain sound stopped the rain sound stopped, hush. I don’t exist.

Open your eyes honey. Today you have to brush your teeth yourself; mommy is not going to help you.

Mommy can i sleep a little bit more,

no honey, not if you want to have your favorite chocolate pie mommy has made for your break fast.

Chocolate pie!! That sounds nice mommy! i will be there in a minute.

Honey, you have to get dressed after you brush your teeth and wash yourself up , you have to wear your new black leather shoes before you can have the chocolate pie.

Ok mommy then i will be there in few minutes,

now that’s my cute little one..

Mommy can i have a kite,

A kite? Why honey? i thought you dint like them.

no mommy, i like kites, i want a red colored kite..

Ok honey i will get one today, you and daddy can play with it when you come home for lunch in the afternoon.

Ok mommy,

and honey daddy will pick you up from school this evening, mommy has to go the mall.

Ok mommy,

Honey what colored kite did you say?

Red colored kite, mommy...

- I dedicate it to Haruki Murakami even though I don't exist.

............Well the"I" here is the narrator of this story not me.....................

Aug 28th 2011

2011-08-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

What a Day it has been, Aug 28th 2011 a day that will be etched in the history forever for what it has turned out to be, a day that signifies the victory to the masses beyond any question, a day when the idea of Gandhi came alive again, a day that we can really feel proud of for it did happen in front of our eyes.
There have been many things that have been taught to us in our schools about this country to which we all belong, and things about which we should feel proud about. We the millennials belong to that part of the time where we have been asked to feel proud about things and People we haven't seen, like the "independence movement", like " Mahatma Gandhi" & "Bhagat singh".

Things that happened in the last few days may not be the exact delineation of 1947 freedom struggle but it carried the exact spirit which gave way for a Gandhi to emerge, which brought out a Bhagat singh. You should really feel proud that such a huge Non Violent protest in the history of mankind has happened in this very land you were born which hold's the virtue "Ahimsa" very high.
The millions who congregated in many cities and towns around the country in this fight against corruption are the people who Really make this country called "India". You can now really say "I am Proud to be an Indian I belong to the land of Anna Hazare".

Eternal existence of ethereal substances

2011-05-24T09:41:00.001-07:00

Eternal existence of

ethereal substances,

maketh the world,

maketh the universe,

maketh the endless time,

Loud are the cries

and its endless with

flesh and blood

strewn all around,

with perspectives of men

narrowed down by creed

to be mean,

loud are the cries

and its endless with

bearded men in turbans

and with guns,

with goggled men in boots

and with tanks,

Loud are the cries

and its endless

with homeless hungry men

wasted enough to sleep

to die,

with immaculate men

in suits spoiled enough

to waste things

to live,

loud are the cries

and its endless with

men who gun

the pigeons to

win the war

and lose their souls,

yet

loud are the cries

and its endless

for men who had

their souls intact

in harmony with peace

for us to see

and for the future

to perceive,

Loud are the cries

and its endless

for men who continue

to live in the hearts of

the people, even

in the deceased

as peace.

Eternal existence of

ethereal substances,

maketh the world,

maketh the universe,

maketh the endless time

Dance of Democracy In a Free Market Economy

2011-04-02T03:02:00.000-07:00

Noted journalist T.R Jawahar has been very much right in pointing out the fact that post MGR none of the Dravidian parties have managed a 2nd term, establishing the incumbency jinx. But I think this particular poll is very interesting, not that the earlier ones have been damp, they have been interesting none the less. But this 2011 Tamil Nadu assembly election is interesting for various other reasons, which i believe will usher in a new era in which political parties have to indulge in politics in a whole different way, with the reality of 70 crore people of this country interacting with each other with the click of a button on their mobile phones things have to change and not just in its own pace but Quick. Daily i get at least 10 messages from my friends, mostly sarcastic about the way the parties in this election have taken this whole freebies thing seriously, Giving an impression to the voters that the parties think the voters have become so cheap that they could be bribed openly.

one message that i received " Karunanidhi to the people of Tamil Nadu before world cup Cricket match : People dont have to worry if India loses the world cup, we will "Freely" distribute the world cup to each house in Tamil Nadu.

DMK was riding high with the kept up promises of freebies to it's voters, and his highness Karunanidhis master stroke "Free television sets for all" had actually cemented the possibility of a 2nd term, this certainty of a 2nd term led His highness to proclaim that he wanted to step down to let his son take his place, and then 2G spectrum scam came into the picture and every thing changed. A Raja got arrested, Sadique batcha died. This particular scam is something of a different genre as far as our Indian polity is concerned, it has showed that shrewed old timers like karunanidhi have lost to the changes brought about by free market economy.

Since 1991 the pace at which changes have happened seems to have out paced the political minds that were so used to the predictability and the routine of the Nehruvian socialistic era, where every time the poll issue was always about the lack of development and suffering of the ordinary citizen(Aam aadmi), not that things have changed now, but the political parties now have the option of luring the voters by making promises to full fill the ordinary citizens house hold needs, thanks to the free market economy. The competition in the manufacturing sector has brought down the prices of the electronics and the electrical equipments, it has now become possible for the government to give the household appliances for "free" to its "voters" , its altogether another topic for discussion that "nothing comes for free in a free market economy".

I think the congress and the DMK have misjudged the present minds thriving in free market economy by conniving to make money out of the 2G spectrum allocation to private players, thinking that they-CONG-DMK could always fall back on the Nehruvian socialistic principles to justify that their first cum first serve policy was only to avert the huge cost the consumers might have had to bear. Their initial argument that a bidding process would have only led to the unreasonable pricing of the Spectrum, which the operators would have transfered it to the consumers dint hold any water. People have seen too much of competition in too many sectors to fall for such a dumb story, courtesy the opening up of the economy in 1991. What people now are seeing around is a far cry from the society which was inclined towards socialistic ideologies and reasoning.

If DMK loses this election it surely will be its own doing thanks to 2G scam and many other issues handled improperly, As for the ordinary Thamizhan he will have many different things to point at for his decision for a change, I am sure even if he doesn't recognize it free market is one of them.

Dance of Democracy ...

2011-03-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Democracy always doesn't guarantee good and its a known fact that it has its own limitations, we Indians especially the millennials know that better for having lived in a democratic country since we were born, things can get worse, at times so confusing when there are too many voices. For a democracy to function effectively the "MAJORITY HAS TO CARE" but what i am seeing around seems to be contrary. It all started when Nehru with all his high imaginations about how a sturdy democratic country should be, made it a point that every one who is above a certain age has the right to choose his government, age was the only criteria and that's a joke Nehru played on us. If Nehru had made it mandatory for people to have some educational qualification to elect their government, i am sure that each and every party which had been in power would have made sure that every Indian was educated in order to increase their prospects in the next election, well in other words they would have tried to increase their vote bank by bringing in policies which would have enabled the formation of a literate society. Now we have people who elect their governments because they are being given Free TV's, Biriyani ,MC's, Old Monk and Mansion houses. ... What struck me about the Egypt revolution is that the peoples cry for their rights, ordinary people having nothing but stones in their hands were against the mighty army and the arrogance of hosini mubarak in the hope that Democracy would pave the way for a better future. good luck to them and i think they would succeed because the "MAJORITY IN EGYPT CARE" and with every oridanry citizen who went out there on to the streets around Tahir squar to clean it once Hosini Mubarak decided to call it quits there is always a hope that Democracy will do wonders for the Egyptians.

Now coming back to the sorry state of affairs in the largest democracy in the world, Lately I am so intrigued and I just don't get any of whats happening around 2G scam and the corrupt DMK patriarch Karunanidhi and his aide Raja. This government is just trying to make fun of the sensibilities of the ordinary citizen who still believes that justice will prevail no matter what. !!!!

All in the name of "aam aadmi" and "udanpirapugal meaning Kith and kin in Tamil" thats what his highness the DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi calls his fellow party cadres. This karunanidhi is one of a kind Politician of this land, He seems to have understood the pulse of the people of the state Tamil Nadu, freebies make them blind to all the anomalies that happen under his governance, so what better way than actually to give them something that would engage their eyes- Free Tv's and that would keep them occupied and wont allow them to bother if its CWG or 2G or 3G scam or whatever or even if it has to do with the death of Raja right under the nose of CBI who is now enjoying his home made food in Tihar jail, Now coming to the opposition parties, BJP and the Left Party now in all their Right sensibilities are saying "C" in congress stands for "corruption"- what a joke, where were these Left and BJP jokers till wiki leaks came into the picture, where were these bloody jokers when everyone knew that M.K Alagiri gave away Rs 5000 for each vote in the elections held during 2009, where were these jokers when DMK openly rigged the local elections during 2009 with the help of rouges and corrupt police officials. I just wonder what more these corrupt scou*dre** are capable of , is there an end to the levels they can stoop to. and about the ongoing Investigation's by CBI on the Myriads of scams that have taken place Recently , whats the need for any questioning when everything is evident in the form of Sun Network, ownership of spice jet, and many movie production house's floated by karunanidhis "kith and kin", well here in this case the "kith and kin" actually means what it should. People who vowed their lives for social cause and to the service of aam aadmi have turned into Investors, Media conglomerate’s, Industrialist’s. This is India, corruption has been happening since the time of independence in the name of Aam admi !!! DMK is corrupt and it dosent need any endorsement of a toothless government law enforcement agency like CBI. I just don’t know when that aam aadmi- (Ordinary citizen of this country) will lose his patience its been 60 + years already ...God save this country. --

Srinis Photography

2011-03-09T22:51:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine has been bitten by shutter"bug" ..here are some of his creations

https://picasaweb.google.com/srinirsr/SrinisPhotography#

Srinis Photography

2011-03-09T22:48:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine has been bitten by shutter"bug" ..here are some of his creations

Here is the Man himself !!!

A friend of mine has been bitten by shutter"bug" ..here are some of his creations

https://picasaweb.google.com/srinirsr/SrinisPhotography#

The movie that i recently watched and liked

2010-11-30T04:23:00.000-08:00

I am writing this immediately after watching the movie Nandalala....

Some movies get made and some movies happen just like how life happens, some movies get made with the idea of what we like it to be and some movies are what it is just like life and Nandalala is one such movie which happens and it is what it is. This movie is all about that unexplainable emotion for no better word in English to explain what this movie is about I choose to use the Tamil word's "Anbu, paasam" This movie is all about that.

Nandalala is so truthful and has life in it which is what every art form tries to achieve. This movie leaves you with an experience which is so intense, you sometimes feel tempted to bring in this movie into your minds realm of subjectiveness like it does with all the happenings in life to avoid truth and for this alone I am right now tempted to say Mysskin is the kind of director Tamil movie industry has been waiting for so long, when talking about truthfulness I am reminded of the words by Confucius, he said that "superior men know what is "right" and the inferior men know what sells"

Well I am sure that this film is a very very important milestone in the history of Tamil cinema, if you think I am over exaggerating let me tell you one particular scene which bowled me over...this movie expresses things without even expressing it....

Ok the scene goes like this, Akilesh is watching a program on TV which is about motherly love and affection, it makes him so engraved in that that even when his grandmother switches the TV off he goes and fetches the remote from her and switches the TV on again and gets so immersed in it, one can feel the real yearning in him for his mother ....just then the camera zooms in on the TV and damn the noise of the TV getting smashed ....and you see this amazing actor Mysskin walking out of the hall where he has just now smashed the TV because the program was about motherly love .... and he goes out saying to the staffs of that asylum that "Radio pettiya yaro odachitaanga " ... what can one say about this amazing scene which captures the two extreme emotions of the characters...one has extreme love for his mom and for this reason he wants to see her but the other hates his mom to the extent that he breaks a TV just for it showing a program on motherly love...there are many scenes like this in the movie which are very subtle ......

Here is another scene which I enjoyed....

After the boy loses his money to a thug, Mysskin and Akilesh are shown sitting on a pavement wondering what to do next...just then Mysskin gets hysterical and snatches the powder pack which has coins in it from the little boy, but the little boy handles him in a smooth way and gets back the money from him.... the scene is cut to the bus stand where both are shown sitting, the boy observes the way Mysskin is wearing his shoes wrongly and confirms that this is a mad man so he excuses himself from Mysskin ..Boy, what a subtle way to show that the boy knows more than what he seems to know......and in the climax when the boy shouts at Mysskin "Poda mental " to make Mysskin angry, this makes Mysskin so hysterical but he controls himself from hurting the boy, ...Boy, that scene was so so INTENSE, that’s called real acting ...just then the boy feels so sorry for how Mysskin suffers and comes down to him with tears rolling down his face and helps Mysskin with his shoes and puts it right ....

What subtleness !!!!!!!!! BRILLIANT

Go watch this movie in the theater if you want Tamil films to be among the leagues of what is now being hailed and will be hailed as world class movies !!!!!!!!!

My Rating 4.5/5

http://www.behindwoods.com/features/visitors-1/nandalala-anbu-29-11-10.html

2010-05-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstances
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gait
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.

Words have this quality in them when given the prerogative that they deserve they just become laden with this enormous power the power to insinuate a human mind or an entire generation to live those words.

Trade unions A.K.A land mafia A.K.A land grabbers

2009-11-08T00:47:00.000-08:00

Our society is governed by something called as laws not by the laws admonished by the sages of Himalayas nor by the ingredients which make our culture but by something called as Indian penal codes. Indian penal codes as we know it is not about what is moral or immoral but its about what is legal and illegal. I heard someone say that law is narrow and its because of its immaculate nature to define a citizens action within a frame work and that frame is exiguous in its ability to stand for rectitude all the time........

Beliefs

2009-08-29T02:14:00.001-07:00

A believed notion is never questioned; it becomes a grave mistake an unpardonable act of arrogance when one does that, what makes those inquisitive minds to do such a thing as to question those notions, what makes them to enquire about those beliefs, what makes them to examine those credence’s even when an entire civilization has flourished upon it? What makes them to question the faith of millions? Faith!!!! Is that what the band of inquisitive minds feel uncomfortable about, or is it because the inquisitive minds prowl on the terrains of certainty and certainty not being the virtue of faith or is it just the reasons behind those faiths which seem even more delusory which gave way to the evolution of those faiths, or is it the inquisitive minds need to question everything, or is it the desiderata of those minds to belong to that ilk of excogitators, to be a breed apart?, one gets confronted with such thoughts when one encounters such characters whose self styled dictum is to question things which are accepted in all self righteousness to be beyond the purview of inquiry.

on the other hand it’s the people whose life’s dwell on those faiths and their hostile grudge towards those who question their beliefs, what makes them to show such belligerence when their belief or faith is belittled as credulity by the inquisitorial minds, at times one gets struck by the appalling verisimilitude in those arguments made by those who question the reason’s behind those faiths, Man reacts to the way his sentience perceives his environment and his cognizance allows him to make choices in his life, what harm it would do if some one chooses to question what is understood or accepted as customary or conventional, what harm it would do if one chooses to allow his probity to help his life take its own course even if it means to lead an unconventional life in the eyes of the people who think that everything about them is conventional. Man “thinks”, and he thinks that he believes in something, he calls it as his faith, Man “thinks” and he thinks that he doesn’t believe in something, and he calls it as his understanding or he thinks that it his understanding. I “think” and I think that man is recreant and covetous his faith is just his flinch to the trepidation that he has inside him because of the nature of life, its ever changing and its uncertain.

Chennai

2009-08-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

It looks like its in repose but it quietly thrives with the vibrant exuberance of life and that’s the Madras that I know of, the city which has been my home for nearly 23 years. Though its name was changed to Chennai a decade ago it still remains as madras for me and will remain so for ever, after all what’s in a name. .............................do...do....do

Fourth E$tate

2009-08-14T01:32:00.000-07:00

It’s the black monkey man on the rampage, Professor abused by his wife for cheating on her, boy throws acid on the girl who dint heed his love pleas, Big B slams slum dog millionaire, Sharukh khans new avatar and his new found six packs, Sun networks sister concern sun pictures new production “The movie” is a super hit screams the headlines and this is the kind of frivolous news we have to put up with as far as the Indian media is concerned, such is the quality of the news that the media believes deserves attention, its these kind of junks which fill the news papers and the hundreds of TV channels that gets aired, how pathetic it can get than the complete news coverage with video footage of a wife making it clear to her husband who happens to be a professor that he was wrong to have cheated on her by blackening his face with the home made ash.

whether it be the indifference shown towards the sensibilities of a child like Rubina (the slum dog millionaire kid) when they screamed out loud that she was for sale or it be the apathy towards a former model turned destitute whose life’s happenings were flashed across the screens and the video clips of her roaming around the streets helpless in ragged cloths the fourth estate which is still believed to be one of the pillars which upholds the sanctitude, solemnity, sublimity of a democratic state seems to have wavered a lot from what it supposed to be or what it supposed to stand for. Times have changed and so are the amenities through which information reaches people, with so many newspapers and news Channels around it feels true about what is being said about Indians -“ Indians consume news more than anything else”, it remains as a hazy wind till the acumen of fourth estate takes note of it and things just gets transformed to such proportions that it becomes quite inconvenient for the civil society to function the way it has to as if a storm has disrupted its day today activity.

on an average 250000 to 300000 people die every day on this planet due to many reasons, but during the past month’s the way the fourth estate in all its diligent exuberance has gone about publicizing swine flu it now feels like death has one name and one name only and its no surprise surprise, before it was dengue then it was chickengunya and now its swine flu. Yes its swine flu and its everywhere at least on all the news channels.

Scaring people is whole lot a different thing than to inform them or educate them, and by the way who needs education through a medium which has been designated to provide entertainment, we love to get scared by seeing the things that’s shown on the TV, we love to shed tears to the soaps that gets aired on the TV, we love to throw ourselves out of the couch while watching a game of cricket on the idiot box, we love to make decisions on the things that is shown for people to decide on the TV, but education nay that’s not what we expect from the tube, show us a man beheaded by a bunch of hooligans , show us bomb blasts, gunfire’s, show us that the world is not safe, show us that the world would change so much that things would get to us one day and the only way we would ever get to know about it is through the ever vigilant "Le observateur" fourth estate in english.

When profit is masqueraded as news outfits conscience has to take the back seat, things that needs to be questioned goes unquestioned, people who are answerable never get oppugned, things that need to be known, things that need to be debated upon, things that need to be spoken out louder gets silenced by the noise made by the fourth estates fervor for commerce.

Strange are the ways of life………

2009-08-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

What are the odds that a man can get confused by the strange ways of life?, the answer to that question is “many” and that’s obvious, but what are the odds that a man knows that he is right and knows what’s not to be done and yet willingly gets trapped in situation’s that life throws upon him he doesn’t want to be in?, strange as the question might seem to be the answer to that I believe has to be even more stranger. Sometimes man acts to things that he doesn’t wants to and sometimes he doesn’t act to things that he wants to what makes him to perform the things that contradict his mind. Strange, yes strange for one man “thinks” and two he does things that he doesn’t wants to even after thinking. Sometimes it feels like man has been most foolish in calling himself the most intelligent.

Column

2009-08-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the column that I wrote for behindwoods.com about Tamil cinemas fascination to deal with human pain again and again………..

http://www.behindwoods.com/features/visitors-1/paruthiveeran-30-07-09.html

“As far as the Tamil film industry is concerned I just can’t help but notice an aspect that’s so profound, the fascination to deal with one bold human emotion again and again -‘pain’. “

“The thing that disturbs the audience the most is the feeling of seeing something really horrible happening to a person in front of their eyes which they wouldn’t want to happen to them even in their worst nightmares. People get infused with such an uncomfortable emotion and they attribute it to the movie and end up calling it as the effect of the movie but what they fail to recognize or realize is that it’s the content that disturbs them the most than the movies depiction of it. “

“I don’t want to see another Moondram Pirai or another Sethu or for that matter another meaningless cinema in the name of rustic realism showing pain which seems to have become the order of the day. A commendable movie need not necessarily be a tear jerker, it could be about the subtle aspects of life, subtle aspects of varied human emotions and not just pain. “

Malls

2009-07-24T03:19:00.000-07:00

I enjoy going to the malls, it’s the world presenting itself in its most ostentatious classy look, with its squeaky clean floors, eating joints that promises to satisfy even the taste buds alien to the planet earth, Cafés that intoxicate the air with the aroma of roasted coffee beans and cookies which makes everyone whiff their way to them, store dummies at their elegant best behind the look through glasses, popcorns, French fries, softies, chats, colas, escalators, lights and more lights it's a flashy world all together. A first look inside a mall might make one ask the question if the experience one is going through is one of déjà vu because all over the country every mall with its people look the same whether it be the malls in Delhi, Kolkata or Chennai they all seem similar at first look, this experience of déjà vu that a guy like me might go through inside a mall might be because of the cosmopolitan nature of all these Indian metro cities. It takes a while for the environment inside a mall to sink in to a point where in the differences become profound to a level that one can recognize that its not the same people or realize that its not the same mall, more than the act of being a vagabond in the way roaming inside a mall it’s the people who come to these malls interest me the most, especially their faces.

Every face inside a mall has something to tell faces that seek attention, faces that are all alone, faces that are obscure, faces that are in a pensive state, Faces that gleam with pride for its carrying the bag that carries the logo of the exclusive designer store that it’s just been to, faces that are wrinkled yet trying to catch up with the future, faces that feel out of place, faces that are in expectation of that special some one, faces with prying eyes, faces that are tiny crying for that “one more” chocolate or ice cream, and their little smile on their faces once their mission gets accomplished, faces in anguish wishing if he or she had stopped with one child, faces in pain wishing to be single all again, withered faces in wonderment about how things have changed, Faces that look into each others eyes as the world around them disappear like a smoke in the wind leaving them all alone for eternity in the paradise that’s made of love,. hmmmmmm yup !!!! the “paradise” that we are talking about here is the Mall, yes the edifice that houses apparel stores, eating joints, multiplexes, jewelry stores, designer stores, gaming parlors, super markets, art galleries the place that’s all about noise and crowd some how transforms into paradise for some people, yes the very “Eden” the place that’s all about divinity and bliss comes alive for some people who don’t mind the thousands of cavillous eyes looking at them, who don’t mind letting their cone softies melt and make the table and their attire look as clumsy as it would if some one had splashed a milk shake across it and at them while they were busy looking into each others eyes, and for many others who breath by measures its just a Mall we are talking about. Coming back to the faces in the mall, there are faces that stand out in the crowd and there are faces that are made to be part of the crowd but never the less its all faces and every face is unique as it carries a story behind it and every face will stay unique until it carries a smile on it :). …..

Pain

2009-07-16T00:37:00.000-07:00

If pain is what everyone wants to get rid oneself off then why do they do it with pain? Pain makes one uncomfortable, disoriented, at times leaves one destroyed. There is pain all around; if life was to be presented as one big play, many would argue that it would be very easy to conclude it with an epilogue that human existence is pain-ridden. Life as they say is a marathon where one has to sweat it out, it’s a marathon where one gets consumed; it’s a marathon which one endeavors to make oneself worthy enough or is it really?, A child stretching out his hands to seek alms what worth could it be of to anybody, people blown into pieces by the bombs planted by fellow human beings what worth it could be of to anybody, a homeless destitute lying dead on the streets what worth it could be of to anybody, one tries to subdue the pain with more pain, why do they do so, what makes them to inflict more pain to get rid off the pain that they are in now…..

About the Painting: It’s a painting that I feel is all about human pain. What I see in the picture is pain. The artist Jay the one who painted the above picture happens to be a friend of mine, he is an artist of immense talent, his artistic acumen gives him the ability to transfer the human emotions on to the canvas with such ease that it would leave one spell bound.

Integrity is your strength and conscience should be the way of your life

2009-05-24T02:01:00.000-07:00

“Integrity is your strength and conscience should be the way of your life” amazing words aren’t they, words which carry an immaculate message to the posterity, words that has the power to create a future full of promises when uttered to the young minds of today, words thought to be worthy of bequest by the predecessors but yet for eons these words of divinity have just remained as a dusted signboard to laputa for many. When I was young with a mind inquisitive as a bee’s flight, I was taught to carry these words in my heart and so I did. Days became weeks, weeks became months, months became years, and after 26 years it seems like a life time at least to me. Through all these years I accumulated creeds worthy of a place in my heart, and just as the many situations that had been thrown upon me by life the other day I faced a situation which made me to ask the very same question that I have asked myself time and again, it was about the worthiness of all those things that I carry in my heart when all that the world requires of me is the activity of my mind rooted to the illus ionized needs of survival. .......

Human Mind

2009-05-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

Many a times I have sat in contemplation about the human mind, the way it is able to slip into the pensive state and bounce back to attending to mundane things or extraordinary affairs is something sure to be intrigued about. The brain as a faculty aids each one of us to assume a unique mind and an unique identity of ones own, and this aspect of the mind has kept millions of curious minds over the generations awake, making those minds to reflect over things in a unique way, ponder about things in a unique way, muse about things in a unique way. Myriad's of research, studies have been conducted to understand that aspect of human mind which consecrates every single human being with an uniqueness that we all know and understand as. The minds ability to cogitate, its ability to analyze, its ability to draw conclusions out of those analysis has been a mystery ever since human beings started to ruminate over it. Even after 10 centuries of research and findings about the brain and its functions, even after documenting thousands of findings about it for the benefit of posterity, “Human Brain and Human mind” still remains as mysterious as it has always been.

Each mind has its own limits, limits with respect to what it considers to be moral, normal and possible, determined predominantly by the compulsions of ones family and society. That being the case, in the stillness, in the pristine state of mind one might have no difficulty in accepting that volition is a solid state of reality, but there can be times when that very notion that one carries in the mind can be put to questioning. One might be deprived of the strength to stick to such an idea forever, making one to succumb to a diametrical idea that volition is just an illusion. How is that? What seemed to be true at one moment seems so unreal in an seemingly unfathomable way during another moment. For example : what seemed “the” most important thing for me when I was at school seems utterly unimportant now, what was real then now seems just like an unwanted aberration which has nothing to do with the way I am now. Some might argue that we change; we change because our priorities change and change is what which is eternal. If that be the case, knowing the fact that our priorities change over a period of time, why do we hold on to each and every priority as if it were a matter of utmost importance so much so that our entire life depended on it.

The mind loses its ability to be astute or sharp when it is made open to such thoughts or beliefs, I cannot bat for the other’s but for me at least it has always been true, I have always wondered why it happens to me every time. At times after enough of contemplation things become very hazy making me to abstain from such thoughts, during one such moment I was struck by a very subtle thought which made me aware that life can never be as complicated as I wish it to be. Life is just plain and simple, all one has to do is take life as it presents itself. But there have been many other instances which made me to think otherwise, but as for now lets just leave it that way, “life is just simple”.

© Kumars Photography

2009-03-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

This photograph was taken by me and i call it as the "Flames of passion" , I was just experimenting with the lighting techniques and DOF.....

Chennai Central Prison

2009-03-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

This particular write up is the wish of my friend Srinivasan and I am writing it on his asking.

They say that it’s a free world and everyone who lives in it is an embodiment of the freedom that it symbolizes, but on 06/03/09 I really felt what it would be like to not to be free. Central prison is synonymous with the freedom that one loses, when the protocols of a civilized society is breached.

On 6th of March I and my friend visited the dilapidated Chennai prison which has been open for a while now for the visitors, its one of the few places on earth that nobody would ever want to visit but me and my friend had other ideas. Before getting inside the prison the feeling inside me was one of apprehension, I don’t know why but it might be because I dint know what to expect to see. We went to the prison just to see how it would be like from the inside but we came out wondering that this place could be the height of cruelty that life can throw upon a person. Every wall had a story to tell, we saw walls that carried the paintings of different religious symbols, telling the stories of poor souls who prayed for their sins to be pardoned and we also saw many other walls that carried the ugliness of human mind as well.

One particular drawing done by an inmate struck me, the drawing was about different kinds of knifes and swords used by miscreants, blood was shown dripping from the edges of the swords next to it was a mans head, I could only imagine the kind of life the people who lived within those walls might have lived in the outer world, I saw words of abuses, names, dates, messages, serial numbers all scribbled across the walls. The prison looked quite old and I was told that it was made empty in 2007, but just recently the government decided to keep it open for the visitors.

I was quite curious about the architectural style of the prison, the old way of truss roofing and arched entrances kept me inquisitive enough to google and I was surprised to find out that Chennai central prison was opened in 1837. The place which housed many of our freedom fighters during the time when the freedom movement was at its pinnacle, later on became the place what every civil society would not want to boast about.

-Photo by Prasanna kumar

9700 days approx.....

2009-01-23T03:46:00.000-08:00

9700 days approximately, I have lived through these many days till now. “9700 days” when I look at it in terms of a numerical figure associated with days, month’s and years it seems like a long long time, but out of these many days there are very few days I remember.

I remember the day and the feeling that I had in me when I rode my own first bicycle, the day when I lost my bicycle, the day when I knew I love gazing clouds, the day when I met with an accident on my first bike, the day when I forgot myself while playing piano, the day when I bought my guitar, the day when I was all alone on a mountain top sitting on my bike watching the sun set, the day when for the first time I enjoyed watching the sun rise.

There is nothing like watching the orange colored rays of the sun gracing the mellow clouds making it look like golden cottons scattered across the sky and there is nothing like hearing the sweet sound of the cool morning breeze and the birds chirping across the hills.

I remember the day when I challenged the guts of a union guy who tried to intimidate me and I remember the day when I sat in silence under a big banyan tree in a village. I know that I might sound like a big boring person for some people, I also know that they feel that way because they don’t see what I see in the sun when it rises and they cant understand the way that I feel about the cool morning breeze and birds chirping. I don’t blame them for that, but they might argue sarcastically that the sky and the sun has always been the same for millions of years and it will be same for many more millions of years, what’s so lovely and wonderful about something which is always the same?, I would like to tell just one thing to them “the sunrise that I saw yesterday is not the same as the one that I will see tomorrow”.

I too have had my own fair shares of crushes but they have never lasted beyond a day or two, I don’t know why but girls the second time when I look at them they don’t look as attractive as they were during the first time. I think that might be the reason why I have never really got a chance to feel the way the Romeos of the past felt and the Romeos of the present feel.

In these 9700 days I remember very few days, some are perched with good memories and some are with bad memories but all those days which I remember seem so special now, they seem special because of the rest of the days which weren’t special and in that way the days which weren’t special are special too because its because of those ordinary days the other few days seems special.

Silence....

2009-01-21T05:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I am overtaken by the overwhelming feeling to write, during those instances I feel an invigorating urge to write without a clue about what I want to write, and many a times in those moments the moment I switch on my laptop the neurons in my head whacks my adrenaline which makes me to go for everything that stand’s corrupted, everything that makes this world an unsafe place to live, everything that shouldn’t have ever existed, But there have been few instances where in the moment I switch on my computer a kind of silence subdues my mind, its not the silence which arises out of desperation nor it is the silence which arises because I have nothing new to say, but it’s a kind of silence that one experiences after knowing all the answers to all the questions . "The silence which knows all the answers to all the questions", I never knew why I used to feel that way and I never wanted to know...........

Anger With in....

2009-01-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

There is anger in me, I don’t know why? But all I know is I am angry, so what’s the big deal many might say and that’s what I tell to myself “so what is the big deal? So does everybody in their lives”. I read once, somewhere that Anger is a state of mind and it always has a reason, I tried to conjure up a reason to match the state of anger in me but I couldn’t. some are angry because of the things that happen around them and some are angry because of the things that happen within them and some are angry because of the things that happen with them but all I know is I am angry and I don’t know why. I don’t know the reason for my anger may be because I don’t want to know or may be because there are too many reasons and I don’t want to take the trouble of identifying each one of them. I don’t know if I am angry because of the chaos that I see around me or the chaos that I don’t see happening around me, I don’t know if I am angry at people who create that chaos or at people who don’t question the reasons behind it, I don’t know if i am angry at people who are superficial or at people who make life look superficial, I don’t know if I am angry because of the people who are bad or who act good. I don’t know if I am angry at people who are angry or at people who don’t see the anger around just as I do. I don’t know, I really don’t know, I don’t know the reason for my anger may because I don’t want to create a reference to the emotion that I carry in me. I don’t want to create a reference to it because I just want it to fade away in time and I know sure it will…..

American beauty

2008-10-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

Some movies are made and some movies happen, “American beauty” is one such movie which just happens once in a while but leave’s you agape for the rest of your life. The movie wonderfully captures the superficial nature of human emotions which is put to use, to make life look as dogmatic and congruous as it has seemingly ever been to the taste of the society. Kevin spacey as the protagonist in the movie wonderfully portrays the frustration that arises in a person who put’s up with too much of superficiality to make everything look normal, whether it be his relationship with his wife or his attitude towards his job, Kevin spacey has pulled out a splendid performance in portraying a man who is fed up of trying to be what others want him to be.

Sometimes life seems like it is not what it used to be and we might not be sure of how it ended up that way or what went wrong or what is that we are really missing; there is always a sense of loss lurking in the mind. All along one feel’s like something is missing which has always been a part of ones life and it just takes one spark to make one realize and remember all the things which added more sense to ones life and “American Beauty” captures that wonderful moment in the life of the Lester Burnham. The crush that Lester (Kevin spacey) has on his teenager daughters’ friend makes him to take control over his life again and helps him to tear away the superficiality which made him to live his life like a dead man. Every scene in which Lester is shown dreaming about Angela there are rose petals all over the screen, I would call those scenes stunningly intelligent because the director has tried to capture the mind of a faithful husband who loves his wife Carolyn, and Carolyn loves roses and her rose garden, the director has wonderfully captured the confused mind of a man who saw the beauty of life through a teenagers face but dint realize it up until the last moment when he goes to bed with her, when Angela says this is her first time Lester is completely overtaken by a completely different emotion which reveals him to the reality of what he saw in that girl.

The movie amazingly captures the emotions and frustrations that one goes through because of the friction that happens between ones pursuit to be some one else and their real self, through the characters of Angela and Carolyn (Lester’s wife). “American beauty” on the whole is an amazing portrayal of real moments in people’s lives which unwraps them to savor the pure essence of life and its beauty, for Lester it just happened to be the beauty of a teenager, and for Ricky it was a plastic bag dancing to the tunes of a beautiful breeze, and for Lester’s daughter Jane it was the beauty of Ricky’s admiration for life’s beauty, and for Angela it was coming to terms with her superficiality…… "American beauty" is in itself that spark which the movie has been successful in giving an expression to.

Al Pacino.

2008-10-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

To start with, I don’t really know from when I started to appreciate the movies which made sense in other words I don’t really know from when I started to appreciate the pure pleasure that one derives out of an cinematic experience as only celluloid could offer. I had seen many movies belonging to different genre, I have seen many actors at their best but of all there is one actor I don’t mind watching million times over and over again and that actor is none other than Al Pacino. Every now and then I tend to get lucky and I watch a movie which could be termed nothing less than a master piece, I watched one such movie the other day called “Scent of a Woman”, though it’s a pretty old movie I got to watch it all alone only recently, and man Al Pacino was at his best. I had seen him in God Father series and never the less he was stunning but his class act in the movie Scent Of Woman just bowled me over. Al Pacino is a treat to watch no matter what kind of role he does, I equally enjoyed watching him play the bad boy in The Recruit and as the irritated film maker in Simone, but Lt.Col. Frank Slade stands above all.

My thoughts about communalism.

2008-10-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

There might be many definitions about religion and communalism but here is my definition, "Religion is a concept theorized in a way to make it pragmatic and utilitarian, what matters is the concept but people tend to gain their identities out of its pragmatism and get stuck with it and more so many fail to move beyond it to reach the core of it or the heart of it “The concept”, people’s failure in moving forward to the heart of religion is what I call as communalism". And to tell you more there is something fundamentally wrong with our country's policy towards the concept called religion, religion is the boundary within which humanity suffers.

The word secular attains a different meaning when it is used to define our nation. We call ourselves as a secular nation by doing so we acknowledge the fact that we are different, we have carried the differences along with us through all these years and it has already become 61 odd years, its high time now that we abolish the practice of religion being considered as the primary identity of a citizen of this country. I am Prasanna Kumar and I am an Indian that should be the end of my identity, its not necessary for the government to know the religion that I practice.Well if I say that you are a true Hindu does that make you any better than what you are now as an Indian or if I say you are not a true Hindu does that make any difference at all ?

I think it’s because of this fundamental fallacy that we see arguments happening even between the secularist Hindus, secularist Muslims, and secularists Christians. People who get into such argument's just have command over their will alone but they try to represent their entire community and that’s where the entire thing gets beyond the national interest. when a Muslim tries to prove that “not all the Muslims are like that” what is he trying to prove, that Muslims are generally good but its just a few people who don’t get along or when the Hindus or the Hindustanis when they try to argue that mullahas are pro pakistan what are they trying to prove?, are they trying to prove that they are more Indian just because they are against pakistan or a few indian muslims who show hatred towards our country or Christians for that matter who think Christianity is the only solution for all the chaos that’s happening around the world. If at all these people want to show their patriotism why don’t they show their anger against the root cause of all these chaos "religion". Why don’t they stop looking people through the eyes of religion.

What I feel about America and its fall !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-04T02:43:00.000-07:00

"I personally believe" ooops when ever I try to use these words it just makes me laugh, have you people seen the beauty pageant contest where in an American beauty says that I personally believe US Americans are unable to do so because “samma” people out there don't have maps. God just thinking about it makes me roll over on the floor . If you haven't seen the video, check it out its there in the you tube but before that go thru my views…

Ok enough of the breezy talks now to some serious talk

I personally believe America's fall will give a new lease of life to many poverty stricken nations. Americas GDP as on 2007 was $ 13.84 trillion which is the largest among all the nations in the world. To put it simply America is the world's largest consumer in the world, so people might ask me this question, so isn't that a good thing we have some one to whom we can sell our products to ? Before you come to such a conclusion you need to know another truth, America's debt is three times higher than their GDP which makes them the world's biggest borrower and that to my knowledge and to the knowledge of many economist or financial expert is not a good economics.

America is a highly leveraged country and their policies on their energy security and home land security and their policies on external trading especially with the developing nations and the under developed nations are designed in such a way to maintain that leverage edge. As I said earlier the subsidies that America is giving to its farmers has ruined the African nations whose GDP entirely depends on agriculture, and it is just one example. Americans are spending more than what they are supposed to at the cost of the so called third world nation's and the developing nations.

Let me give you another example on how their economic policies are not good to the rest of the world. Americas food industry is $ 700 billion and their weight and fab(WAF) loss industry is around $ 50 billions dollars. WAF loss industry is in itself 10 times more than the GDP of most African nations, in simple terms an average American is consuming more than what he is supposed to, which otherwise if he dint would have allowed the supply shift to other places where there is a huge demand and possible economic feasibility could have been achieved to meet those demands .

"Everybody has enough for their needs but not for their greed" Their credit policies encourage an average Joe to spend more than what he earns, they have purposefully inflated themselves to make most of the nations if not the entire world depend on them. In simple words Americas fall would make it to deleverage it self in that case the money which has helped America to keep itself inflated will find its way where its needed most to the third world nations and developing nations and this change will help to create real jobs in these nations allowing them to prosper as well.

Its true that this fall of America from its financial super power status will affect India and most of the countries which has economic ties with it. I get very infuriated when some one says that America is a developed country and everybody should follow its foot steps, America is a developed nation "my foot", America is developed at the cost of the so called third world countries, the subsidies that America is giving to its farmers has ruined the African nations whose GDP entirely depends on agriculture. Their consumeristic attitude has created havoc in the Middle East, innocent people are getting killed and many peoples lives are made miserable for big fat uncle sams oil needs.

The arms and ammunitions that get made in America is keeping the civil war alive in many African nations. Thanks to America and its media Islam has been tainted in the eyes of people so much that people have started to see every Islamite with suspicion.

America’s financial crisis and the bail out plan…. (2)

2008-10-04T02:41:00.000-07:00

As far as the bail out is concerned, I would like to believe that an Average American is not that stupid enough of not being able to see through things. Its sad that some self professed IVY educated jerk seems to think that he is more intelligent than most other Americans and using that Greek invention of sophistry is trying to recast what this Bailout is all about using thinly veiled rhetoric (in other words, its disgusting that, they’re trying to make people blind by pulling over a piece of cloth over their eyes). This is the fundamental problem with Wall Street – it thinks that an average American can’t possibly understand what they are doing so they call what they work in: instruments, vehicles, esoteric instruments, derivatives, exotic derivatives and what not. Then they say you need Calculus to understand it and you send everyone for the hills. Come on guys --- call a spade a spade --- those concepts are not that complex. At some point it’s called “GAMBLING.” And this is a BAILOUT.

If the system was working properly, an average American should be able to get a loan for federal rate + whatever premium his bank pays + a risk premium associated with him. But he cant, not because of him or the Fed but because banks are broken. Why are the banks broken, because they traded in junk derivatives that some 26 year old MIT math guy said had value using the integral sign’s (throw calculus at Wall Street and their eyes go cross eyed). So, the banks (Wall street) ARE broken or their credit is frozen because nobody can value the junk on their books.

The banks extended loans to people probably it shouldn’t have. If the Fed makes available a facility for Financial institutions to "park" bad instruments, there is ZERO guarantee that those instruments will ever be purchased back.It's like me making a loan to you and saying, "sure dude, give me pieces of paper and I'll give you money which I might sell back to you tomorrow if you want to buy the little pieces of paper you gave me." Hhmmmmm Are you going to come back for those pieces of paper that you can't value now? Who knows? Uhmmmm...that's a BAILOUT. Paint it however you want, put lipstick on it (no offence to the Vice presidential nominee plain), sugar coat it, call it whatever you want. ITS A BAILOUT.

America’s financial crisis and the bail out plan….

2008-10-04T02:26:00.000-07:00

“Wall Street thinks that an average American is a “stupid””. The proof is all over the place, in every news paper , in every news channel, which could very well stand as a vindication to my claim that American government and Wall Street thinks an average American to be a stupid. “BAIL OUT PLAN” the way in which it has been camouflaged as a solution if not a better solution to the impending national crisis and the efforts made to sell it to an Average American doesn’t leave any doubt in my mind that wall street thinks that an ‘Average American is a stupid’.

American President George 'the' W Bush was very much clear about what he had to achieve when he set out to give his speech on the impending financial crisis, this is not the first time that he had done something like this but this time he did it with much ease as compared to his propaganda on “War on Terror” – “Rule by creating panic", yes that’s what he did,. His words like "America could slip into a financial panic and a distressing scenario would unfold. More banks could fail, including some in your community. The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet. Foreclosures would rise dramatically. And if you own a business or a farm, you would find it harder and more expensive to get credit. More businesses would close their doors, and millions of Americans could lose their jobs. Even if you have good credit history, it would be more difficult for you to get the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college. And, ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession."

This Financial bail out is nothing but an effort to keep the rich RICH at the cost of an ordinary taxpayers money. Why should the tax payer take the burden of someone's wrong choices, when the very same tax payer might go out of job because of the cost cutting policy followed by these major corporate giants?

Well for people who have been advocating growth at all cost and people who have been advocating this bail out plan need to understand one thing " a continuous and unchecked growth becomes cancerous" and that's what we are seeing now, America’s Top financial institutions have become cancerous enough to affect the entire American economy and the world economy. America's debt is three times its GDP. So you know the truth now. No one can keep himself prosperous for ever by borrowing and someday things have to fall and when it does it will be as worse as what we are seeing now.

To me this looks more like an effort trying to inflate a balloon which has too many holes, More over the present financial crisis is the cumulative effect of the 1990’s financial crisis which saw many banks becoming insolvent and the 2000 dotcom burst. This $ 700 billion that’s going to be injected into the economy will bring in a much greater disaster in January next year.

A Reply to a kashmiri's anguish - 3

2008-09-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

Tehseen:

Dear Kumar...You are entitled to your own views,opinions,but at the same time you have to make sure that you know the basics, you know the facts, you know the root casue of the problems and not rely solely on corrupted media,and off the sources that have vested interests,As far as kashmir is concerned it was never a part of india geographically,historically,culturally and that is the reason why Jawaharlal Nehru promised infront of the whole world to let kashmiri people decide there fate,let a referendum be held under the charter of UN and people be given the basic right of self to determination and that is what you call a democracy.Until now the basic right has been denied to kashmiri people.Let me impress you a very important fact that if given the right to self determination and in any eventuality people choose India as their soveriegn country no one will oppose that and so should respect the right to self determination.

Regarding Kashmiri hindus,christians,sikhs same should apply as in any case of plebisite.For your information Kashmir is known for its traditional religious harmony and tolerance.It was the then Goernor of kashmir Jagmohan who under a great conspiracy drove Kashmiri pandits out of kashmir.To your surprise no other minority migrated from kashmir when the moment started way back in 1989.Sikhs and even some population of pandits stayed back during the troubled times and they were looked after more then their muslim fellow bretherns.History bears witness to the fact that they too want Independence from India given the right to self detemination as this was evident during the recent march in which Sikhs and Pandits led seperate processions.

Ironically the media didnt allowed that part to be exposed to the rest of India keeping their old traditional stance of comunalism alive in kashmir.80000 thousand muslims kiled,7 thousand custodial disappearences,4 thousand rapes, 290 pandits killed and 110 sikhs killed over the period of time (Indian forces) ref:(human rights commision .j&k ref192-void60). Dear Kumar the biggest problem with Indian population is that they percieve every kashmiri advocating the cause to be a part of Pakistan which is utterly incorrect.We dont want to be a part of Pakistan neither would we allow Indians to be controlling our lives.Recent processions bear testament to the fact how darely all kashmiris want independence not pakistan.

Mahatma Gandhi whom I adore,admire not because he fought with Britishers for his Independence but because of his Ideology which is still surviving in this cruel corporate world and that is right to self determination, right to choose,right to live in honour,dignity. As far as the unfortunate recent bombings in delhi is concerned Kashmir is not even remotely associated.We strongly condemn the brute voilence,even kashmiri indegineous armed leaders strongly condemned the killings.(The killings are more to be blamed to the Indian politicians who are trying to take advantage of the situation and get their vote banks for which BJP stands for).Kashmiri moment is indegenious,going on from 1947.Dear Kumar we have been supressed from last 63 years,our paradise has been torn apart just for the reason which Mahatma Gandhi fought for,Bhagat singh laid his life for.

Until 1989 our movement was non voilent and to higlight the issue internationally there was a armed struggle for a short period of time and now you see the non voilent movement again taking its course of action and the gravity is such that noted Indian citizens arundhati roy who happend to be in Kashmir during the recent protest was compelled to say that India should give kashmir its much desired,and deserved freedom.Vir sanghvi.Krishn Ayar advocated the cause. My dear friend its not about superpower ,neither it is about Bulochistan, it is about the basic human rights that is right to self determination which we have been promised by indian constituion,UN resolutions and of which article 370 is a part off. As far as Indian army is concerned they dont have any right to kill innocent childrens,rape women,kill unarmed protesters just for the sake of vengeance that their colleague who is involved in mass murder has meted his own fate.What goes around comes around.They are supposed to safeguard the precious innocent human life not take a innocent human life. As far as as economic stabilty is concerned,Dear kumar we are self sufficient.80% of our electricy generated within the state is imported to norther indian catering 65% of their electricty needs and still we are plundered in to a well planned darkness Our agriculture is selff sustainible,our tourism industry alone can feed every kashmiri for over a century,our animal husbandary is one of the best industries provided the industry is nurtured, looked after properly.

Handicraft skills,kashmir art is unmatched and unparalled and has won accolades internationally, and if you still feel that we can't sustain then I am afraid you have to live in kashmir for a while and try yourself the potential of our products.There are number of small sized soveriegn countires in the world who have less resources then ours and still enjoy the benfits of their GDP'''s and are forces to be reckoned. Against this backdrop I would like to ask you just one simple question and analyze crtically In this age and time do you think so called biggest democracy in the world can deny people from exercising their basic right to self determination? and also How can you jusitfy the fact that Kashmir is an integral part of india when United Nations has passed a Resoultion to hold a free and fair plebiste in kashmir according to wishes ad aspirations of people of kashmir and has explicitly stated kashmir as a disputed region? Dear Kumar the onus is on to you for being a responsible citizen of india to decide and introspect and look in to the facts,check the history and then conclude and label kashmiris as terrorist. Allah says that the blood of a human being is as sacred as the wall of Kabba and whoever saves a human life has saed the whole mankind and whoever takes a human life has killed the whole mankind I hope this should satisfy you and explain to you that we dont believe in blood sheds. Due to plausity of time I must conclude here By the way I am 30 years old running a small web designing/software company in London.

Regards Tehseen

Me :

Dear Tehseen,
I am not that insensible to take whatever that is thrown at me by the Indian media, which at large has become nothing but a news churning out machine lacking in integrity, having said that I also cannot deny the fact that there are some news agencies in India which still functions true to the principles of journalism and their stance on every issue not just on Kashmir issue vindicates their worthiness and venerability.

As for your claim that Kashmir was never a part of India historically, geographically, culturally is so untrue in many ways, but it might sound true if certain facts are to be ignored conveniently. Everyone knows the fact that India as a nation came into existence in 1947, but the idea of Indian subcontinent existed in the peoples mind even before the boundary was conceived and that idea was of a much larger region than what we see as India now. Before 1947 the whole of south Asia was considered as India which was a region and not a nation. If anyone says that Kashmir has always been a part of India it is not a claim based on the physical boundary or it isn’t some political statement rather it is one of cultural ties. Entire Indian sub-continent is culturally interlinked. When I say they are culturally interlinked I don’t mean by a uniform culture, That certainly does not exist within India or within the other states too. But in the sense of a cultural continuum.

So coming back to the present day Kashmir and the dispute related to it, the Kashmir dispute is the result of post partition geo political event and everyone knows it has nothing to do with the medieval or early history of that region. In that way what you are saying might be true, the Kashmir dispute has nothing to do with Indian history or culture but the Kashmir as a region has everything to do with India historically, geographically and culturally so much so that the very name “Kashmir” is a Sanskrit word.

It is a known fact that Repealed by brutality of Pakistani forces Raja Hari singh the then ruler of sovereign state of Kashmir signed the accession treaty on 26th October 1947 and the largest party in Kashmir of that time, the National Conference under Sheikh Abdullah, ratified the accession-pact when the Pakistani guerilla’s invaded Kashmir. India was very much in welcome of Raja Hari singh’s decision to maintain kashmir as an independent state, before the Pakistanis invaded the valley. If not for the Nehru’s doltishness, there wouldn’t have been any Kashmir dispute or insurgency. The Indian army had just asked for 48 hours to flush out the Pakistanis out of Kashmir region but Nehru chose to go to UN to complain about the Pakistani invasion in Kashmir and to bring about a ceasefire in the region, he moved against the will of his own cabinet and army and induced an UN mandate favoring Pakistan which is the root cause of all the problems in Kashmir, POK, (Pakistan occupied Kashmir), plebiscite, article 370 came into existence which is the root cause of the dispute.

My dear friend your efforts to make certain events look insignificant by blaming someone else for some else’s crime makes me think that I am speaking to an hard core separatist. Your claim on the conspiracy by Mr. Jag Mohan seems illogical by any standards of analysis. I am a citizen of this country and I know how the governors function in the states and the authority that they can exercise over the state. Kashmir is a state which enjoys article 370 which no other Indian state enjoys. Article 370 makes Kashmir a more fragile state to handle from the Indian perspective.
Tehseen Is the Indian army made of hooligans who don’t understand the basics and the significance of a political frame of a nation or is it made of barbarians who don’t understand what human rights violation is, the very existence of article 370 is in itself proves what the position of kashmir region is in the present day geo political setting.

Take a look at this a perspective of an outsider who is neither an Indian nor an Islamist :
"As per the statement of US Congressman Joe Wilson, beginning in 1989, mosques in Kashmir declared jihad and blared warnings from loudspeakers to the Hindus that they were infidels and had to leave Kashmir. He further says that "From 1989-1990, Islamists began a terror campaign to drive Hindus from Kashmir". Some people have noted that some Kashmiri Muslims were tolerant of minorities, but since partition, most Kashmiri Muslims have adopted a more conservative approach to Islam, and since 1989, a more militant and fundamentalist approach. By the turn of the last century, only 6.4% of Kashmiri were Hindus. The US Department of State reports that, according to the Indian National Human Rights Commission, the Kashmiri Pandits population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent as of 2006 "

I don’t deny the fact that human rights violations have happened within the kashmir region, and people with in the army who put the entire Indian army and the country to shame have been taken to task but the figures that you have come up with seems exaggerated especially the number of Muslims killed and the rape victims figure considering that the Indian army has excellent reputation worldwide for committing much less atrocities. That’s one of the reasons why the Indian army is in big demand for peace keeping missions.

Tehseen you seem to be a believer of theory of karma “what you give is what you get” quite rightly so according to your own belief what’s happening to Muslims in Kashmir is what the Muslim rulers did to the kashmiri pandits and to the people who belonged to other religion starting from 13th century, I hate to bring in such an analogy to the fore but your way of justifying the violence perpetrated by the hard core fundamentalist also called as terrorists just put’s me off - pardon me if I had hurt you.

Tehseen the very usage of the name Kashmir is a problem, the pre-independence kingdom of Kashmir is now 7 regions. China got 2 - aksai chin and shaksgam valley (technically a part of northern areas). Pakistan got 2 - "azad" kashmir/muzaffarabad area and the northern areas (gilgit, baltistan etc). India got 3 - ladakh, Jammu and the Kashmir valley, I would want to know if people in the kashmir valley are fighting for a Kashmir which existed pre independence or they are just fighting for the Kashmir which is under Indian occupation, if the insurgency has happened only in the Indian occupied kashmir region I have a set of question for you.

Why did the insurgency start?
What have the Kashmir’s gained out of insurgency?
What did they hope to gain?
Why did the insurgency start 42 years after acceding to India?
Why did the locals not rise in rebellion in 1965 as the Pakistanis expected them to?
Why does the start of the insurgency coincide with the end of the war in Afghanistan? Why not before? Why not significantly after?
What percentage of the Kashmiri Muslims were actively involved when the insurgency began?
What motivated the people who instigated the idea of azad Kashmir?

And to all these questions my friend I know you will have only one answer

“OPPRESSION BY THE INIDAN ARMY”, “AZADI HI HAMARI MAKSAD”, this answer would sound ridiculous if you had answered all those questions truthfully.

Let’s just face the fact if it was not for the UN mandate on plebiscite and article 370 Kashmir would have been another Tamilnadu or Maharashtra, So having said that the events that made the history were nothing but a huge blunder which has given rise to the present uncomfortable situation with in the region.
I would also like to look at other facts too; - it is only the Kashmir valley which has dreams of independence. Ladakh and Jammu have become an integral part of India.
I also know the fact that Kashmiris desire to be independent is not new, it has been the case since the Indian and Pakistani independence but the new thing is the agitations and terrorism. Well my friend you need to take a look at the maps of Pakistan and china to know their real intentions on Kashmir and the map is on no propaganda site, its Pakistan Governments official website, it’s their Official intention. I know the fact that the Indian map too seems to carry the same intention of what Pakistan and china carry on Kashmir, but the fact is, in the current geopolitical setup, it is just not feasible to realize the dream of a “independent Kashmir”. Kashmir is sitting at the junction of India, Pakistan and china and it does not have the wherewithal to resist an invasion from any one of them. Historically Kashmiris took cognizance of this fact and stayed with India and not Pakistan as an autonomous region., also their faith (more importantly, sheikh abdulla's faith) in the secular nature of India trumped any dreams of joining pakistan - which sponsored the 1947 invasion that devolved into loot, rape and what not. If by god’s will Kashmir becomes an independent nation Pakistan will annex Kashmir, Kashmir was not able to defend itself in 1947, nor would it be able to defend itself against Pakistan in future.

In the present geo- political setting, and when the world is moving towards a Globalized economy If the recent incidents pertaining to south Ossetia can happen then anything can happen with an independent Kashmir. The only possible solution that I see is, an effort should be made to make Pakistan vacate The POK. Pre-1947 war borders should be restored before allowing plebiscite to take place; this would actually bring out the real intentions of Pakistan and china into the fore.

Your views and statistics about the ability of Kashmir to be self sufficient is debatable, if at all it becomes independent by gods will. Tehseen your belief that tourism will bring in all the money that’s required for each and every Kashmiri is only a hope, I would only be more than happy if what you are saying is true. In one of the official records before militancy ravaged the valley, tourism just accounted for 15 % of states revenue. Let me give out some statistics, these statistics are not based on any Indian organizations research.

1. The GDP of the state is 4.5 % while the rest of the country grew at 6.5%. but Still the state has a very low poverty rate compared to other Indian states.

2. The real estate prices in Kashmir region has been growing continuously.

3. There are 21,000 cars in Srinagar alone a five fold increase from 1990.

4. There were 560 private schools in the valley seven years ago and now there are 1360 .

5. The state, which has little industry of its own, depends heavily on central government financing, with the valley alone, home to 5.5 million people, getting $812 million in 2007. Ninety percent of that aid is in grants, while most other Indian states get 70 percent of their aid in loans.

6. Most of the money goes to ward’s government payroll that consumes two-thirds of the state's total budget of $1.2 billion. The valley's total bureaucracy, including state, central government and daily wage workers, is estimated at 350,000 people -- about one in every 17 residents.

7. The maximum money circulating within the Kashmir valley is INDIAN government’s money.

8.Syed Ali Shah Gilani, a pro-Pakistan leader now in detention, who reported about $350 in monthly income on his tax filing but was found to have $30,000 in cash, five video cameras, 14 servants, three cars and a flat in Delhi.

9.The money to the militant groups is channeled through the jammu and kashmir banks, Since militancy began, its deposits have grown from $458 million to $2.29 billion.

10. Kashmir is extracting royal tribute from the rest of India. Strangely reminiscent of what the British did during colonial times. That is, there is massive funds flow from the Centre to J&K. Look at the magnitude of that largesse: The following table would show about money that has flowed into Kashmir in the past years which helped the kashmir region to prosper

Fiscal Year ------------------Amount (Rs, in Crores)
1991 --------------------------1,244
1992 --------------------------1,393
1993 --------------------------1,569
1994 --------------------------1,820
1995 --------------------------2,635
1996 --------------------------2,627
1997 --------------------------3,208
1998
1999 --------------------------3,833
2000------------------------- 4,604
2001------------------------- 4,437
2002------------------------- 4,578.

Now talking about the recent bomb blasts, you say that Kashmir is not even remotely related to it, pardon me you must be someone who doesn’t understand the implications of one geo political event leading to a chain of events. Terrorism in India was never so violent and rampant until insurgency and militancy started to gain its foot hold in Kashmir. These terrorists who claim themselves to be fighters of a cause are blatant liars and are nothing more than cowards. If they are brave enough as they proclaim themselves to be they would actually be fighting against the policy makers in the government. If at all they want to make their stand clear by blowing up something or somebody they should be blowing up the MP’s, and Ministers and not an ordinary kid playing in the playground or some ordinary Indian who just carries on with his harmless life. They won’t do that because their real intentions is to disintegrate India and not being a catalysts in bringing about a solution to the long standing kashmir dispute, more over their intentions of disintegrating India just requires killing an unassuming ordinary Indian and it is much easier than targeting a high profile policy maker with in the government.

Having said all this, as an ordinary citizen of this great nation founded on the principles of ahmisa I don’t want to see another child or an ordinary Indian or Kashmiri getting killed no matter what in the name of Allah, or Maksad, or Riyasat, or Azadi. I don’t want to see blood flowing in the streets in the name of religion or ideologies or Land.
Last but not least

“Religion is the boundary within which humanity has suffered for so long and it will continue to suffer unless that boundary ceases to exist”

A reply to a Kashmiri's anguish -2

2008-09-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Kashmir: listen mate no offence to u but yes wen it comes to kashmir there is nothing like birds chirping,tht cool breeze,people trying to make themselves fit and fine,those smiling faces,nothing called bliss ..

What u embrace the day is cruel booted indian armies polluting the whole air by their terrible abuses,their ruthles approach,their ugly eyes on our daughters and sisters,so much hate in the air and u expect me to be a human being...I dont kno were from u belong but let me tell you very clear is we are going to hold our heads high with dignity,protect our honour,protect our lives by dragging indians out, by sacrificng our lives for a cause which is so noble for a cause that brings smile to our face,for a cause that makes our children feel safer,play safer and enjoy their lifes without trauma and terror that has been inflicted by indians from last 20 years..How can i forget those dys wen as a kid ,all of us used to live a life controlled by terror (inidan army),all our life inflicted with the pain of loosing our dears,all our dreams snatched with tht ugly barrels of guns tht indian forces used to point towards us...how ?if u have any answer to this Mr Prasanaa please feel free to write and I will be morethen obliged...and I will tender an apology of what I have wrote to you..

It always easy to percieve the pain but it is always diffcult to express the pain when u feel it....!!!!!!

tthnks

Me: Thanks for your reply dude, I live in Chennai. I am 26 years old; I have seen this city grow along with me. I love my city for what it is now and what it will be in future. I don’t really know how it feels like to be a Kashmiri or for that matter I don’t know how a gun shot or a bomb blast would sound like in real but it does not mean that I don’t understand oppression, subjugation or the worth of human blood nor it mean’s that I don’t understand hate or anger, I get very angry every time when I see innocent people getting killed because of the cowardly acts of the terrorists, the Mumbai train blast made me to lose hope on humanity. The recent events of bomb blasts in Delhi, ahemaedabad, Bangalore, jaipur shattered the little hope that I harbored in the corner of my heart that things would change.

What kind of men are these who unashamedly claim that they are fighting for the dignity of their brothers, sisters and children when they are actually killing someone else’s loved ones, someone else’s children, someone else’s mother, someone else’s father, someone else’s best friend and someone else’s lovely sister. I don’t know what makes them think that they can bring about change by blowing up a 10 year old kid into pieces or by blowing up a "hospital" gods own room which is beyond religion, creed, class, or any sort of identity humanity had created for itself. I don’t really understand what good can transpire out of such atrocious ghastly acts.

You say that the entire Indian army is oppressing the Kashmiri awam and India as a whole is hell bent to kill every Kashmiri, and every jawan over there is loitering with lust in his eyes, though i am surprised at your view you are very much entitled to have it. But I am a sane person, I like to analyze things before coming to any conclusion, I would be making nothing but a grave mistake if I come to a conclusion after seeing all these bomb blast’s that every Kashmiri is a terrorist or every Muslim is a terrorist.

"Azadi" yehi Kashmiri awam ki soch he"- I dont really understand this. I would like to know if this is the collective voice of Kashmiri Hindus, Kashmiri Christians, Kashmiri Sikhs, Kashmiri Muslims and people belonging to other religions all together. It doesn’t look like that to me. If it is just the voice of one community then Tamil Nadu or Karnataka or for that matter every other Indian state is no different, Tamils can fight for their own Tamil land, kannadigas can fight for their own kanada land. As I said earlier I don’t know how a gun shot would sound like in real because I am a Tamilian and an Indian, I love calling myself as the son of Tamil land, I love my tradition which adds more value to my country called India. Now you have been living with the sounds of gun shots and bomb blasts for the past 2 decades because you are just a Kashmiri Muslim.

The Kashmir valley has become nothing but a death trap for the Indian army stationed there and what do you expect them to do when every other day one of their men gets blown apart into pieces or shot dead. lets just face the truth, the terrorism has been gripping the valley not because of the Indian army but because of people who have taken oath to stop our country which is on the verge of becoming a super power, Kashmir is just a reason. You say that everything would come to an end if Indian army moved out of Kashmir, well what kind of stability can happen when the kashmir region is crippled by differences of opinion within, I am wondering who will be the actual beneficiaries of azad kashmir, not the people offcourse considering the economic condition of that region. what progress can happen in an region which is land locked without the help of the neighboring states, if the kashmiri Muslims are under the hope that Pakistan would help them then just for a while remember baluchistan, and the internal turmoil Pakistan is facing. You know what happened to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the government’s which oppressed the people belonging to these countries were removed but still nothing has changed in fact things have worsened in these regions. Kashmir would become another hub for the militants, if our Indian army got subjected to the pressure which could only be termed as a communal disturbance and nothing else. Its with the help of the people within the Kashmir valley terrorism has been surviving, what can the army do when the cowards who claim themselves to be fighter's of a cause are in the garb of civilians.

“ Religion is the boundary within which humanity has suffered for so long and it will continue to suffer if that boundary isn’t dissolved”

A reply to a Kashmiri's anguish -1

2008-09-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

Me: If you talk about the oppression by the Indian army, why don't you take the militant attacks into account, thousands of soldiers who lost their lives because of the cowardly acts of the people who claim themselves to be the Awam of Kashmir. What about the young kashmiri boys who are made into terrorists. What has the valley become now nothing less than a death trap for the Indian soldiers who are stationed there.

Dear Kashmir: u deserve it mate u deserve to be blown apart with ur family the way u ugly bastards have let loose terror in our land..kumar we will drag u out of our land one day trust me on tht

Me: I wake up everyday to go for a jog just to see the beautiful morning sunrise and to feel the cool morning breeze caressing my face as I jog. Life seems so beautiful when listening to the chirping of the sparrows waking everybody around announcing the arrival of a new day, its so wonderful to see the faces of smiling kids carrying their schools bags racing to their school’s on their bicycles. Life seems so full to see old people taking their morning walks with their pet dogs in the parks trying their best to keep themselves fit, as if to say me and my pet dog haven’t had enough of this wonderful life.

I see so many faces as I jog, I greet them everyday they too greet me in return, some I know personally some I do not know but we greet each other its so beautiful to see their smiling faces everyday, Every day While I jog back home I stop for a cup of chai in a tea stall which often plays beautiful Tamil melody song’s, listening to the song as i sip in the hot steaming chai put’s me into bliss. This is the color the morning’s bring into my life. I live to enjoy this color and you say that “I deserve to be killed”. Any cause no matter how important it is it can never be bigger than “HUMAN BLOOD”. Thousands of innocent people have died for no fault of their’s, all because of terrorism that started in the Kashmir valley and which has spread its tentacles across the country in various forms.

Crash

2008-06-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

It’s so intriguing and interesting to know the nuances of movie making; the more enigmatic part of it is to understand the way it weaves an experience into the being of the audience despite it being surreal in nature. It’s the experience that one goes through while watching a movie makes the entire aspect of movie making and movie as a product in particular seem so special. In showering such adulation’s over the talking pictures one is also aware that not all the movies demand that kind of respect, there are some movies which transcend the boundaries of frivolity, but there are other kind of movies which strikes you hard through the stark reality that it depicts and makes you to look at things the way it is. One such movie is “Crash”. This movie is one of my favorites; I watched this movie when it got released in Sathyam cinemas and I must admit that I was awed by its appalling veracity.

The world today is not what it was yesterday, it changes, it changes so fast that even before one comes to term with that change it changes into a whole new thing altogether. The intellectuals the symbols of evolution keep talking about the evolution of man kind, they say that man is not what he was a few thousand years ago, “he has evolved”, yes I too believe that it’s true but somewhere in that process of evolution man started to drift from himself, he has drifted from himself so much that when he realizes it he “crashes” on to himself in his efforts to bridge that gap quickly even if it ends up in a chaos. The world in which we live now is prejudiced, people have there own notions about their lives, the kind of cars they want to drive, the kind of house they want to live in, the kind of pet they would like to pamper, the kind of people they want to live around with. The movie Crash is all about those notions crashing on to each other only to disappear in thin air leaving the human being close to himself.

Picture - Edited by me

Just a thought !!!

2008-04-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

What if I die today? I asked myself the question,
I asked what I would feel like before that
truth occurred to me,
that very moment a sudden rush in my heart
made me to cling to the life in me,
I pursued further to find the answer to the urge that
happened with in me and I questioned myself,
was it because of the unfinished Promises that
I had to keep or was it because of the lust for life within deep;
I couldn’t be sure, so I pursued further,
I asked myself Was it because of the anger that
I had for my enemies
Or for the envy that made me to feel incomplete;
I couldn’t be sure, So I pursued further,
I asked myself Was it because of the love that
I had for my kith and kin
Or was it because of the love that I had for myself;
I couldn’t be sure
but at that instance
a clarity happened within myself,
and I knew I was sure,
It was because of the love that
the macrocosm had showered upon me.
That very moment I knew I was free
life or death didn’t matter to me !!!

RULES HAVE LIFE

2007-12-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

“Rules, Rules and more rules that’s what dictate’s this entire planet or for that matter this entire universe”, I am not sure if it is true or if it was an expedient strategy used by our antecedents to make things comprehensible and easier for them and to come to terms with the incomprehensible.
But I believe that the human beings at some point of time imbibed an aspect which they thought was the way the nature executed things and they had their own reasons to believe so, but as of now that very aspect that they seem to have imbibed from nature has grown into a proportion beyond boundaries and has taken life of its own to confute its very essence or purpose and that’s what we now know as “decree”. Every society which claims itself as a civilized society has its own set of visible rules to govern itself through a functioning body called as a government.
The government so formed, many times functions in a way subjugating its very purpose of creation because the rules which it depends on to become a functional body is governed by the invisible rules of the society and those invisible rules of the society are more powerful than the visible rules and it stays invisible and powerful because of the very nature of the visible rules to stay visible.
It might quite seem like this small write up is intended towards advocating against the concept called rules and might look like an honest effort to project the views of a mind bound by pessimisms. My intentions are not to conclude that the rules as a whole has led us to the chaos that we are in now but it’s a mere effort to point that many rules that we follow has its own flaws and those flaws are invisible which gives rise to the invisible rules any rule which is flawed is not worth to be followed or is not worth to be called as a rule..
Rules which are more inclined towards being mechanical can only excruciate some aspects of human mind which would incline more towards the invisible decree which can only lead to more problems than bringing order within a society. The world in which we live today the rules have the power to kill people, corrupt a society and demean the future of an entire country.

INDUCED DEMOCRACY

2007-08-31T11:57:00.001-07:00

I am a very normal citizen of this country headed by representatives whom I believe are not being elected democratically. I don’t know when people of this country will understand that this country is not democratic but it is an “induced democracy” as I call it. “Induced democracy” it might sound strange to many people but that is what we are, Political parties induce the normal citizens to elect them by making promises and the promises can be as interesting as maintaining the price of (in)edible rice at rupees 2 per kg and color televisions to all the poor families and many a times as alluring as a promise could be in a country like ours “ Jobs for every one by 20**”. The political parties come to power because of the interests induced in the people by them and for the interests which is of their own, this could be termed only as a business deal and nothing more and this system which is of induced in nature can only lead to the anarchy which is very much evident now, this is because the government so elected would only function for its own gain and for the other vested interests which helped it to gain power and the 800 odd million citizens of this country have to live on a per capita income of rupees 20 per day as they don’t belong to the category of the vested interests which helped the political parties to induce them in the first place . I am 26 years old now and I have been waking up to this truth everyday for the last 8 years.

THE DARK CONTINENT

2007-07-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Africa is a continent burning in the ignominy of a vexatious past and seems to be heading towards a future which looks even more obscure. The once the great land of mysticism and resplendence is now infamously known as ‘The Dark Continent’. Dark continent, I am not sure if it is an expression coined by the first world which openly proclaims their racial intention’s, but nevertheless the rustic, ruthless happenings which has become the norm of the daily life in the African subcontinent shores up as a perfect reason behind this proclamation by the rest of the world. This continent stands as a testimony to the antonyms of peace, tranquility, freedom, progress, prosperity and above all humanity and it has become more synonymous with what humanity promulgates as Darkness.The greed for more and hatred has killed millions of people, in a country called Rwanda 800,000 people got killed because of the conflict between two dominant communities Hutu’s and Tutsi’s, some of the nations in the African continent have been ravaged by civil wars and many still are stuck in a political turmoil, In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone more then 4 million (40, 00,000) people have died because of war and its effects such as diseases and famine. In an other country called Sudan the conflict between the government supported militia and the non Arab rebels have claimed 200,000 lives and has displaced nearly 2 million people. The civil war which erupted in Angola just after its independence in 1974 lasted for 27 years making it the longest civil war which has left 300,000 people dead. More than 200,000 children are fighting these civil wars in various African nations’ as child soldiers.

Since 1987 the Lord’s resistance army (LRA) in Uganda has wreaked havoc by killing more than 12,000 civilians and displacing 1.4 million people, in a small country called sierra Leone between 1999 to 2002 the RUF rebels (Revolutionary united front) fought against the government to take control over the country and its diamond wealth, thousands of people perished and a million people were left without homes. All these facts indeed annunciates the truth that the African continent is overwrought by the darker side of humanity but who is to be blamed for all these chaos the answer would be time or to be precise it would be the man’s curiosity to explore or to be even more precise the so called first world nations of today. During the period of colonialism the sophisticated European minds came to Africa and introduced one of the darkest aspects of humanity to the Africans, the unjustifiable, unscrupulous need to enslave a fellow human being. For decades the European traders made money and more money by trading African human beings as slaves. A human mind which could go to an extent of considering a fellow human being as a mere commodity is the mind which has plunged into the ultimate darkness, a darkness which is the culmination of all the other abominables like greed, animosity and impiety it is this darkness a remainder of European sophistication which has been plaguing this continent for decades now and has transformed a what could have been a land of opportunities into a land of desperate’s, warlords and dead bodies. - R. Prasanna Kumar

NEW INDIA

2007-07-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

As of now We live in a society where probity has no part to play and being square is being impractical. We don’t care about the corrupt, unscrupulous politicians, knavish government officers, bad and dirty roads, we don’t seem to care about the terrorist and fundamentalists who are trying to disintegrate this country for the sake of what they believe in, which might be true for them but killing people for the sake of what they believe in can never be justified nor we seem to have the mind to think about a seven year old kid who works in a local tea shop or in a hotel to earn his food or about the people who spend their lives begging in the traffic signals and temples. There are 200 million people in this so-called great nation of ours who don’t have a place to live.Can we change all these? Can we create a NEW INDIA? The answer is yes… You might ask me how? Well you all know how and that’s what you have been doing all these years; compromising, but now you need to compromise on your perceptions, the perception that you need to be afraid of the government, the perception that you alone cannot change this country, the perception that the entire country is a very big toilet and a dustbin. Of all the perceptions which has been plaguing our minds the one important perception which is the reason behind all these chaos is money is everything. If you can compromise on all these perceptions and never compromise on being true to your self, your true self will emerge out; when this transformation happens with every Indian a NEW INDIA will emerge!!!

- R.Prasanna Kumar

IS OUR COUNTRY A GREAT DEMOCRACY

2007-07-13T00:30:00.000-07:00

We live in a democratic country and we surely are proud of it or for that matter are we really?. Every citizen in this country knows that there is something wrong with this so called democratic country of ours, Many don’t talk about it because it is that dearth which allows them to live more than a sufficient way of life, not to mention that a member of parliament in Uttar Pradesh gifts Bentley’s to his friends and many other's don’t talk about that dearth because they feel that their rights on freedom of expression and speech doesn’t mean any thing to them when it could jeopardize their rights on freedom to live and to live happily ever after. An ordinary Indian gains much respect when he puts on the garb of an voter every five years and the respect that he gets does not become the end to the means but the means to an end which is to make him remain as an ordinary Indian till the dawn of his death. We live in a democratic country were virtuous people like Manjunath and Sathyendera Dubey‘s get killed for being virtuous and for exercising their basic fundamental constitutional rights as the citizen’s of this country, these incidents doesn’t make it to the front page’s of the news paper’s or magazines or as a topic debated by various panelists in show’s organized by news channels but some how the media seems to feel that it is their moral responsibility to scrutinize a eleven member team when ever it loses a game of cricket. our constitution binds us all together and patronizes that all the citizens of this country under the law will be treated equally regard less of religion, caste, creed, color and sex, the differences that money and religion has created in the people’s mind which is perceptible and tenacious enough beyond any words has blinded us all to a fact that the very purpose of our democracy is gasping for its breath.
- Prasanna Kumar

2007-07-12T11:10:00.000-07:00