Words

have not been thinking much these days. and its hard to blog then.

lots of thing occupy mindspace other than poetry and love and creativity. for once, am concentrating on some much needed changes.

sometimes, some things become more important than what you love doing. and there’s still lot to do in this life.

well, the template has been changed. thanks to afj. and thanks aditi, m still editing the post and your comment appeared. as of now, m busy with work, career growth and portfolio development. hope everything turns out well.

a barrel of metal
a grip of rubber
a tube of plastic
a chemical that leaves marks

i wonder
how many thoughts
still to flow
from this heartless pen

a horrendous translation again, but that’s what u’ll have to manage with starry, unless you learn hindi;)

12 March 1993
1-3pm
12 blasts
257 people dead
173 injured
27 crore worth of property damage

now,
after more than 13 years, 600 testimonies and 35,000 pages of evidence and statements; the Indian Justice will be delivered in coughs and sneezes.

4 of the 123 accused have been pronounced guilty, while 3 got the benefit of doubt. Rest will follow slowly. Very slowly. And even then it won’t be the end. Petitions, sentences, review petitions, it’ll be years, before this macabre event comes to a grand finale.

Take an example. Today’s editorial in the daily Pinoeer says, “The trial was over 3 years ago. Justice PD Kode waited till last month to begin writing his judgement.” Hello! what’s going on here?

Isn’t justice delayed, justice denied?

The Pioneer summarises, “For the sake of upholding India’s credibility as a functioning democracy, we need to plug loopholes, strengthen investigation and make prosecution more effective. Or else, we must be prepared for terrorists walking free.”

And we’ve made anti-terrorism laws into some kind of vote-garnering, secular tricks.
God bless India.

You can read the complete editorial here. just copy n paste this link into your browser window. http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit1%2Etxt&counter_img=1

images courtsey: corbis and gettyimages

Image: © Brenda Chrystie/CORBIS; Photographer: Brenda Chrystie; Creator Name: Brenda Chrystie; Date Created: 2000

So?
what i’ve been upto?
have written a lot these days. thanks to a new habit. likhta to main pehle bhi tha, but didn’t put it on paper. now-a-days, whatever i chance upon is recorded immediately on paper or sent as an sms to dee. this way, i catch that moment or feeling and can come back to it later. what this means is that you’ll have to jhelo my ‘absur-ditties’ a lot more now. luv-shuv and lots more of life coming soon on this blog.

hmmm… Dee. hmmm is the first thing that comes to my mind when i remember her. people have a habit of repeating certain words or gestures while talking, this is dee’s pet one. hmmm.
dee. one little woman whose big name i pathetically forget always. so i coined ‘dee’. simple, short n sweet. not heavy at all. verymuch like her. and very much an aquarian, running here ‘n there, knowing what’s good for her and then not doing it because some things are more important than that. but we are all like that somehow.
these days, she finds herself landed somewhere in the delhi university campus, studying spencer and shakespeare, as a part of her masters in english literature course. although she would love to dance till the devil takes her away. but then, somethings are more important than that.
dee is a friend, a fellow aquarian, a poetess (wish she’d a blog) and a beautifull symbol of womanhood.

in a particularly good mood, one day, i promised dee that she’ll have to watch the new movie, ‘lagey raho munnabhai’ with me. this is what promises should be like. and i do have a habit of keeping mine. it is another thing that she’d to leave her sunday classes for this. but then, she is sweet. and knows that.
how we managed to get those tickets and how i managed to manage her is not discussable here. i’ll jump straight to the movie instead. this is a complete value-for-money, paisa-vasool stuff we are talking about. and its all about ‘gandhigiri’. one word, whose importance you’ll acknowledge if you were born in the india of eighties. or if you are old enough to remember gandhi.
as good as the original, if not better, this is a movie that’ll move you to tears, double you up in fits of laughter and inject a healthy dose of idealism in the most subtle of measures. but beneath all this, the movie asks a question and a very pertinent one.

how important is gandhi in today’s india? what would he have done if he were present today? isn’t it better, that he’s dead. and dead for good. everything that he stood for is almost dead now. i was ashamed at a particular scene, when a retired school teacher has to beg before a govt. clerk for his pension. sadly, this is true. this is aaj ka india.
how important is truth, and standing up to it, leave alone ‘for’ it?

go, and watch you must, but don’t take this movie very seriously. then you’ll be asking some very uncomfortable questions. and you, your mind, your own soul will be the first one to bear those.

this takes me to the last bit. today is the anniversary of 9/11. a few years ago, some fanatics rammed a country’s passenger airplanes into the very symbols of that country’s financial & military might. it is the day when the world’s sole superpower realised, terrorism has reached its shore. it was no more a topic of discussion in strategic board-rooms, about some far away exotic countries. it is one of those days, when the world changes for ever.
and how inadequate america had proven that day. and more inadequate has been its response.

the question is, would gandhigiri be able to solve today’s problems? what would gandhi have done to fight terrorism? would satyagraha, ahinsa and fasting help us overcome this hydra-headed monster?
am dreaming. what will you do?

oops! galti se mistake ho gaya. i forgot to mention ‘pizza talk’. along the road, that goes from anand vihar bus adda to waves and pacific and malls like these, on the left side, within an apartment complex you’ll find this little eatery. with not more than a seating capacity of 10, and no disturbance whatsoever, this is the perfect space for waiting for that 3 hour away movie to start. cozy, but romantic… that depends on the person you are with. hmmm…

iamges courtsey: www.corbis.com

what’s up dude?
aaj kahan bombs phate?
(where did the bombs go out today?)

again,
some people won’t return home anymore

who gains out of this…

am worried of the day, when this also becomes somewhat like the daily news,
and people growing accustomed to this too, that’ll be the day when we’ll lose the war.

God bless them all

and when’ll India learn from her mistakes?

love is a wooden door

leading inward

leading outward

bringing the world out, in

and

the world in me, out

Image: © Images.com/Corbis;
Creator Name: Patrice Faure-Maisonneuve