The Chronicle of My Daily Life

Unity in Diversity: a Reality or a Myth

2009-10-25T22:47:00.011+05:30

This post has been selected by Blogadda as one of the Spicy Saturday Pick. You can find more details here.

During my childhood, I first met India through these three words, "Unity in Diversity". That in spite of our religious,cultural,linguistic and so many other differences, we are one unique nation. Then during my formative years, I realized the inner significance of those three words, it was not easy to earn our independence with so many differences & still being united, a stupendous task fighting hand in hand against the British in spite of religious differences at a time, where still in many parts of India a Hindu could not drink a glass of water at a Muslim's house and vice versa, an unbelievable achievement where each individual, each group, each states had its share of problems still the cause of the nation stood bigger than everything else.That was indeed "Unity in Diversity".

Now after knowing my India for about more than 2 decades (even though I am 30, but leaving the initial 10 years) I often wonder why India is where it is today. Ask any one from 'mango people'(Am janta) to the intellects to the privileged one and there is no dearth of reasons for the wretched condition India is today & my apparent answers are also the same. But is it really so? If it's size and population, China is ahead of us, if 60 years of independence too short, South Korea was independent in 1945, Malaysia in 1957,UAE in 1971, if it's politicians, we choose them, if sluggish and corrupt govt officials, then I am sure some of them are our close relatives/acquaintances and did we ever protest? NO!!! Therefore, for every reasons we have, we have a counter argument, too and that convinces me enough to believe that these reasons are just not enough, there is something else beneath.

So, let's see in stead of talking non-stop about the problems, if we set out to solve it, whether that leads us to the devil which is causing India so much pain. And just for the sake of comparison, if i want my India to be the USA, where are the difficulties. Now I sincerely believe, for every nation to progress further, there should be one nerve bonding every single individual. One cause above every other small individual interests & I guess that is missing here.If you don't feel brotherhood, at least don't feel divided. An American from California does not feel difference from his fellow countrymen from Florida the way a Punjabi feels from a Tamil, just because they speak two different languages.'Where(which state) are you from?' I have hardly heard this in US whereas it is such a common question here whenever we are meeting an unknown.Development is up most important there, a road will be built if it has to be built.Here a road will only be built, if there is no Mandir or Masjid,if the land does not belong to people supporting a particular political party.There not too many political parties exist and they talk about real issues, here we always suspect people from other community, other state and that's why so many parties, and without any real agenda, they always have people base.These parties only help keeping those disruptive sentiments alive because that provides their bread and butter.And I can go on and on about this.

We human beings, like any other living creatures are selfish by nature, nothing wrong. I love me, my family, my near and dear ones. Then is it not natural that I love my mother tongue more than other language? If it was Hindi or something else but only one for every Indian, we would have felt less divided. We have often seen two educated, cultured Bengali talking in Bengali completely ignoring the presence of a third non-Bengali speaking person in official discussion in our corporate offices (Being a Bengali, I dared to take them here, but it is prevalent among all).The same two Bengali wouldn't dare to speak a single Bengali word in the presence of their foreign colleagues in foreign countries.If we did not have so much diversified food habit,I would be less hesitant to stay in Chennai and same for a Keralites in Punjab.I do not deny the variety of food we taste, the various festival we celebrate, hardly any one experience the same in any other country.But beneath underline somewhere, does it make us more attached to our homeland which is our state and not the country.We all know that if everyone does his part,takes care of their own panchayat, village, municipality, state the problem will be solved. But being such a diverse country, conflicts arise and soon we forget about the country and think only about us, our state, our language, our religion.

More often that not, we are asked to use our vote to curb all the problems we face.But when we vote, don't we vote more for the local causes than the national issues? Do you think a sincere and honest central minister would easily win the next election if he does more development in other than his home states, even if those states genuinely required it from his department?

The diversity is an integral part of India but the unity seems to be fading with each passing day.As a whole,anyway we are gradually becoming narrower, more happily living in our small corners blinding ourselves from the rest and this is worsening the situation.I wish we had leaders who could have again bonded us with the single chord like they did in pre-independence.The future looks bleak & I earnestly want but can't see a bright sunshine. Everyday I hope for miracles, may be with "bhagaban bharase", we will rise again. But then GOD helps them who helps themselves. How? Does anyone have an answer?

Posted on Sunday 25th October.

P.S. #1>I am very well aware of the problem USA has, I have mentioned them just for comparison purpose from development perspective.

#2>The examples I have cited above are purely my personal experiences.

#3>Most importantly, I know this post is highly debatable, so please share your thoughts without hestitation, even if not a single person agree with me, I don't mind. These cluster of thoughts were roaming in my mind for some time, and this post is primarily to clarify my own doubts.So, your honest opinion is sincerely appreciated :)

55 Fiction #2 - What do you want Jannuuuu

2009-10-07T09:39:00.006+05:30

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55_Fiction)
A literary work will be considered 55 Fiction if it has:
1.Fifty-five words or less (A non-negotiable rule)
2.A setting,
3.One or more characters,
4.Some conflict, and
5.A resolution. (Not limited to moral of the story)
6.The title of the story is not part of the overall word count, but it still can’t exceed seven words.

SHE: So, you like my eyes, long hairs or "Something else"?
HE: 'Something else'.
SHE: But THAT is after marriage:P
HE: I know:(
SHE: Januuuu huggg... Want now?
HE: No use, I'll inherit the property after legal marriage:(. Your father's damn will!!.
SHE: WHATTTTT!! & How you know THAT?
HE: Dad is your family lawyer!!!.

For Word count, please check http://www.wordcounttool.com/
Note:#1> All the characters and incidents are purely fictitious unlike my first one, no milayat of reality here.BTW, I was remembering my old school days of summary writing, which I hated though.Initial word count was 80 and then chucking them out one by one to make it just 55 was fun :P

Posted on Wednesday 7th Oct

55 Fiction #1 - Pyar mein kuch bhi

2009-10-03T11:48:00.006+05:30

Those who are new to this concept, understand what is 55Fiction!? 55 Fiction is a form of micro fiction that refers to the works of fiction limited to a maximum of fifty-five words.Most 55 Fiction works are dramatized so as to get the effect in limited time.

"I l.ll.o..o..v.vv.v..e.. yo..oo...u." he said almost stammering,so tensed he was.
"I also like you", she said. "But the problem is I want to concentrate on my studies,too so can't go out with you here and there".
He said "oh don't worry, we will meet in CL (central library) & DL (departmental library) only".

P.S. This is not a complete fiction, thoda bahut reality ka milayat hain.But this is my first attempt in fiction (even though it is a 55 fiction :), so thoda rule breaking chale ga na..pls dont mind yar :(

Posted on Saturday 3rd Oct

Are 'We' better than 'Them'

2009-10-01T20:01:00.009+05:30

This post has been selected by Blogadda as one of the Spicy Saturday Pick. You can find more details here.

We live such a bright,colorful and dynamic life with varieties spread across horizons that we even feel suffocated to think how they lived their boring, monotonous, black and white life.

We have color TV, 24*7 new channels, umpteen nos of other entertainment medium. They had a b/w TV, news once/twice a day, two movies per week one on Saturday and another one on Sunday. Still we feel not being sufficiently entertained that filler has come in the avatar of reality shows.

We have mobile phone, email, fax, Internet and social network sites. They only had hand written letters which might take weeks to reach the destination and some times would not reach at all, and for some privileged one, a land line phone. Still they were more 'connected' than we seem to be.

We not only change jobs across companies but across domains, too and by the time we retire, most of us will not remember how many jobs we have changed. They, in most cases started their career and retired from the same place. Still I guess they were more satisfied, because the term 'job satisfaction' was not used and heard that frequently then.

We get lost selecting what brand of clothing to wear, where to have tonight's dinner, which car conveys our social status (read bank balance) the best and even for some, picking which BF/GF is the most profitable for us. They were mostly content with the limited options available to them.

We have freedom almost in everything, studying what we want, marrying the person we like, leading a lifestyle we choose, wearing the clothes we find stylish and also the freedom to even ask our parents to shut up, when we found they are not in 'sync' with us. They studied what their father wanted, married the person family chose for them, at times they argued with their parents but with due respect and not crossing the limit of decency.

So to put it simple, we have so many choices and they hardly had any. We consider ourselves living a much better life than they had. We also take stride acknowledging we are far more knowledgeable than them. We are certainly smarter, more matured than they were and we grow at a much faster pace, so much so that we sometimes feel our parents are failing to catch up. I was shocked but not surprised, when I saw one fellow blogger shouting in one of the recent post I visited that why can't the parents grow up (I could not put it within quote as I forgot exactly what he/she said), whatever be the topic it was. Anyway, personal choices apart. But the question of the hour is "Are we happier than them"?

'A happy and peaceful life', I guess that is what most of us aspire for. If everything is better now than before, then my confused mind fails to answer why the suicide rates are much higher today? Why are we so much frustrated in our work life in spite of drawing a salary that they could never think of? In spite of being intelligent, why are we so much confused today? Why marriages are so fragile today than it was ever before? We have everything, but still why do we feel 'something' is missing!!

Are we then a bit quicker than required concluding everything they had is bad, irrational and obsolete. Majority of us believe that most of the values and practices of yesteryear's don't have much relevance today, but is that the ultimate truth, are everything we preach and practice today 'the perfect'? They had already lived their life, most of them are standing at the faded end of their journey waiting for the final call from Him. Where as, we are just living our life, we are yet to reach the destination to be in a position to look back and judge whether the life we had lived is indeed a better one or not. Till then, we need to be little considerate in our thoughts, flexible in our actions, give due respect to those age old 'obsolete' values (we do not agree does not mean we should disrespect it) and also remember nothing is permanent, so what we think righteous today will become irrelevant tomorrow and the way we are treating 'them' who brought us here, we will be treated the same by 'them' whom we will bring here.

I love that movie "Kal Aaj Aur Kal", everyone must watch it, if not already...

Please note:
#1>If you find the post disoriented,conflicting or confusing with the message being conveyed, please ask for clarification. I just poured my thoughts onto paper without thinking anything else much...
#2>The 'We' and 'Them' is what I generally perceive and I am very well aware of the exceptions. So, those who do not fall in either of the category, must not feel offended. In case you feel, my sincere apology.

Posted on Thursday, 1st October.

So Close...

2009-09-28T15:33:00.000+05:30

Posted on Monday 28th September

Sometime life and death is so close that it is even narrower between the two sides of a coin. Many a times, we even don't realize how close we were crossing that boundary, but at times, when we do realize, we thank our stars, GODs or breathe a relief that we were "lucky" enough. So it often amuses me to think is it just 'luck by chance' that we are alive or is it the other way around, it is our bad luck when someone face a fatal mishap,which cut life short. I personally think myself lucky specially after one incident which happened during my college days.

We were in our final year and after an gigantic effort being made which could have even won us the marathon, we were able to arrange an industrial excursion to Chandipur(a small town in Orissa near Balasore).The uniqueness about the beaches of Chandipur is that during ebb, it spreads across few kms (yes kilometers!!) towards the sea, that literally a football stadium can be built there. Anyway, the next morning after reaching there, we were heading towards the outlet of river Buribalam (This place has a historic significance, a young Bengali freedom fighter named Baghajatin breathed his last while fighting the British here).
The beaches spread across few kilometers

It was an early morning, the ebb-tide time.So the water has receded long back into the sea.Now in those areas near the outlet, the river flow actually gets split into multiple narrower streams, because continuous accumulation of sand for centuries yields small lands here and there. Many of these narrower flows did not have water then because of the ebb-tide, so we were crossing them one by one walking and venturing into deep sea to find out how far we can go. Chit-chatting, playing football, collecting glittering oyster, people were involved in so much that we actually did not realize how far we went into, but once in a while looking back towards the faded coastal area far away, we realized we were at least 1-2 km or so away. The final destination of our journey was to see that 'ultimate point' where the river actually harmonizes with the sea.

On our way towards the Mohna(river outlet)

Suddenly, we heard some fanatic shouting behind us. As we turned back, we saw some of our friends, who were much behind us were beckoning towards us. We went so far ahead that we could not hear their words, then we looked towards the cost, which looked like the end of horizon, saw a decent crowd gathered and everyone as if asking us to run for our life. We did not realize anything amiss around us, so was totally baffled and cursing them for spoiling our morning walk along the river bed. Anyway, thinking there could be some reason for so many people were shouting at us, we decided to return. After walking half a km or so, we seemed to have lost our way, there was no land in front, in stead a small river flowing with heavy current.We were utterly confused, totally lost. It took 5 minutes for all those budding engineers to figure out what happened. So here was the situation, we were standing on a small delta, water flowing around us with high current, and other friends were standing on another land across that narrow strear 100m away. And then only we realized where our familiar return path have been lost. It was one of those narrower streams (I described before), which we had easily walked across while going into the sea, has now become an adolescent river and worse is that we did not know how deep it is!! Suddenly we found "those" cold waves flowing across our spine, a momentarily thought whether we would make it, a sheer helplessness which is beyond my ability to express.

Crossing that 'final destination', actually this pic was taken after we almost crossed it, I think it was more than 100m wide

Anyway, we were 10-12 altogether, kept our cool, didn't panic. We held each other's hands tight enough that nothing could separate us and gradually moved towards our final journey with baby stpes.Don't know about others, but i was vehemently calling my GOD to rescue us.Suddenly one of the girls slipped and almost fell down, luckily we pulled her back.In the middle, the water was flowing above our waist height and luckily none of us were trapped alone, otherwise it was never possible for even a good swimmer to counter that current.Finally, we made it to the other side.And then when we turned back towards the sea, we were even more shocked to discover what we had escaped. There were no sign of those sand lands, Buribalam was flowing towards the Bay of Bengal as if it has waited eternity for that moment of reconciliation. The land, which was our last support of survival, was submerged in front of our eyes.Had we been even 5 minutes left, it would not be exaggeration to say I would not be here to write this blog.

I don't know how genuinely I am able to have conveyed what we had been through. Life had moved on and today it might just seem an another incident. But a minuscule change in sequence of events could have resulted anything else on that very day. Thank GOD for being there beside us and for me being here.

Why A New Blog

2009-09-26T00:00:00.022+05:30

Posted on Saturday, 26th September

When I started blogging few months back, I did not have slender idea that what I started just out of curiosity, would become an addiction for me and it would grab me completely in its grip.And you guys are responsible for this to some extent.Don't you believe me? It is you only who have given me those inspiring comments, you only have shown me the areas of opportunity, it is because of you only I got the confidence that I can write, otherwise i would have closed my shop long back.

Before you come to quick conclusion that it is a typical "Filmfare acceptance Thank You" speech, let me go to the point why I started this new blog. Till now, I have chosen the topics very consciously. I didn't want myself to be trapped into a particular category, rather I tried exploring new venture and I know there are still to conquer. So, I have written from Soul mate to Women Education and from How IT industry is affecting social balance to Impact of religious demarcation on young mind and also for that matter How I got my first job. I don't know what all goes behind writing a post for others, but for me it is certainly not an easy one. Choosing a topic, making in a draft in my thoughts itself, putting the thoughts onto paper, then review it few times to make sure whatever I wanted, exactly that has been conveyed & nothing else. Many of you might be laughing as why I take this so seriously after all it's just a blog, but I want to tell you that writing was never my cup of tea and so many of my friends got surprised to see me writing blog!! So, i know it comes naturally to many of you, but I am not so lucky:(

Even though I was happy with the way my blog was progressing, but at times I badly wanted to write about something and I just could not get time. Everyday so much happens in front of our own eyes, some teach us a lesson of our life, some make us stand in front of the reality never faced before, some remind us of sweet memories that we don't mind visiting again and again and then there are some, which make us laughing our heart out literally rolling on the floor(ROFL!!). I want to share these snippets, garnered along the way of my daily life & so is this blog. I need not care about how I am writing, I need not be bothered about proper choice of words,more importantly I should just sit and I am done. Whether it is dread serious or bone tickling comedy, I should write ekdum bindas se. No draft, no review i.e. in a nutshell, it should not take much time of mine:) My current blog is already dedicated to topics, which are very close to my heart & have a big impact on my life, so this one I am dedicating to the chronicle of pebbles gathered along the journey called life.

Hope you will continue to inspire me:)