Que Sera Sera...

Que Sera Sera, what will be will be, the future’s not ours, to see, Que Sera Sera, what will be will be…

I wake up at midnight, to blog! Unbelievable and so unreal! This song always intrigued me, I guess it still does. Always makes me think if we are what we want to be or it’s the way life takes us. My inspiration for this blog is my 2 year old neighbor, Tisya (Sanskrit word for auspicious). She is my only source of entertainment now a days but she really makes me observe and think. I have always thought and believed that there are very few things that are inherent. Rest all we imbibe from our parents and from the people around us. For example, Tisya, not only looks like her father, but has uncanny similarities in her actions too with him. She ponders, walks and twitches her facial muscles like he does (yes! I have observed him too! ). Surprisingly she yells “PAPA/DIDI” when she sees anyone using the phone or the laptop, because it’s her father and me who use these around her and she sleeps down on her tummy like me, before she hits the keys and the mouse pad of the laptop! :)

Children can be so quick in picking up things I say…so what remains inherent in them are only the likes and dislikes…which easily get moulded with circumstances and availability.

Preparations for her second birthday are in full swing and it makes me think again…what her parents will go through when she grows up and says “You will not understand what I want, it’s a generation gap.” The same generation gap exists, when they go and shop for her, for long hours so that she can look her prettiest on the most important day of THEIR life!

Whatever the future holds for her and me, the 3 months that I have in hand to ponder, I do overtime in! And I say again…I jumped out of bed to blog! That says about the change I have undergone. Nothing inherent in it again. :)

THE Poem

I recalled a poem I had learnt when I was a 5 year old kid..And it seems apt for the occasion..

Pee Pee Pee Pee,

Darr Darr Dum,

Nanhe munne sainik hum.

Bharat ke hum veer sipahi,

Sab aapas mein bhai bhai.

Choti si hai sena humari,

Phir bhi isme taakat bhaari.

Bharat ka gunn gaein hum,

Nanhe munne sainik hum!

on the eve of the 63rd!

As I sit sipping my green tea, browsing the various pages that tell me about how much my country has improved in the last 63 years...i realize that even with a lot of optimism in people...there is so much more left to do..for example..we boast of an increase in the literacy rate from 12% at the end of British Rule to 66% in 2007 and on the other hand, it is still way below the world average of 84%.

Out of my RARE yet genuine dedication for my country and surrounded by the continuous rhetorical questions all over the television of "Kya aap azaad hain?" which translates to are you actually free, I sit down to jot what independence means to me...to start with, on a personal front, independent I am...I have always been given the freedom to choose things the way I want and my parents have always respected my decisions in important matters concerning me..here a small clarification seems necessary...for all the 22 years that i have lived...i have been given just about everything that i have wanted if it was feasible...I have been a pampered child, but that did not take away the independence from me...the freedom of thought and action prevails...

So, I continue, is India as a country actually free...i happened to read about the national flag today...not that i wasn't aware of it before :). So, saffron stands for renunciation of disinterestedness of the politicians (and NOT Hindu!)..green stands for attachment to the soil (and NOT muslims!) white stands for truth (and NOT peace between the two aforementioned!) and the Ashoka Chakra in the center for the motion that leads to the progress of the country (and NOT just taken from the stambh itself!)...

The point is, has India progressed as much as it should have? I had a discussion with a friend today, and we both agreed on how Indian laws are more on paper than actually being implemented and how we have such a badly maintained history. Ironically I am reading about buddha's life on a site http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/ ...because the history of our country is much better preserved by the outsiders than by us..! We know more about the great wall of China that we do about the Chaar Minar! Even worse, we care more about visiting the former than the latter!

I speak about this to my grandfather..about the issue...and he asks we what i am writing about..and he puts in his views...about how its not the laws which are rigid in the country, but the people who are implementing them. We speak about how criminals are not put to the books here, because they are either supported by the ruling party, to show that the police forces have done a great job in finding them or by the opposition, that wants to prove that the ruling party is no good...who is suffering? People like us...who feel scared before stepping out of their houses, who are becoming so skeptical that they don't trust anyone...

Im not equipped with the essential statistics for what all I wish to write...but its my endeavor to just put across the feeling!

I really like what a Tea advertisement says: Roz subeh sirf utho mat...JAGO!

Till then...Jai Hind! :)

The census- 2010

Recently what caught my attention was an appalling piece of information on how housewives have been put in the category of unproductive class along with beggars and prostitutes! i feel insulted on behalf of the millions of house wives in India...

I have grown up in a household wherein my mum has been a very competent housewife...and i choose my words very carefully to say competent...because that is what I think...

The work of a home maker, as they now call it, is at par with that of those who go out to earn a living...and it is a thankless job too..if it was not enough that the people of the house do not appreciate a mother's work..now the Indian Government has made it official too..

And to top it all...the other " nominees" are beggars and prostitutes? i mean..really?? are we so closed to what is right and what is wrong...with due respect to all the sex workers...they have a huge business and they are not unproductive at all...circumstances or personal choices have driven them to what is considered a demeaning way of making a living..but so what? they do the work..they are paid for it..they make people happy...and demand and supply continues..

As for the beggars...i do not want to comment about the racket that exists, which has been successfully shown in many of our movies..but it is definitely not worth being put in the category of the afore-mentioned..its the work of the lazy..

Surprisingly..the NGOs and so many other organizations for Naari shakti are hush about the inclusion of this clause in our census..when awareness is actually required..we see the rather influential keeping quiet..

I wish to do just that and also salute the women who make our lives so much simpler...on a personal front..my home would not be the way it is..had it not been for my mother..if we need someone to earn the money...we need someone to know exactly where to put it too..

I want India to awake to this feeling...and to say the least...respect it!

Pyaar Panga aur MMS

Aaj Tak pe aapka swaagat hai…! We deliver news to you which no other channel does…I say, obviously!

You wonder where this comes from..it is a news bulletin…they talk about how a struggling actress from Bhopal was publically assaulted by her so called husband. There are scenes of hair pulling torture flashing across the screen…cut to, an aggressive young girl, screaming in defense in the news studio…and the boy all wounded…both kept far way from each other..to avoid further drama!

Two days after this…I switch on to the same channel…and what I see is the same people, the same background but a different story..the story of the videos, MMS, SMS and the love-letters that the boy has given to the channel o make his stance stronger. His claim: they got married (which the video proves) and after the girl shot to fame in the TV world ( I don’t know what their standards of fame are, that girl is one serial old! ) she broke the marriage and refused to get back to him…there’s a twist in the tail…coz now instead of defending themselves, they hurl allegations at each other’s families!

What is bizarre here is not that a) a news channel is showing all this or b) that the story grows in leaps and bounds every time you watch but c) that I don’t believe any of this.

With such convincing arguments also, the psyche of a normal human being has been moulded such that we tend not to believe anything that is shown…everything is a publicity stunt…one shot to fame! And I think that is what they are getting out of it…it is truly said that public memory is short-lived..while nobody will remember the negatives of their families…everyone will remember them if they are seen on TV…
So my verdict is ,that is what it is…nautanki is what we call it…to do it on the stage you have to do it off stage first! I hate to be so skeptical but that is what the trend says!