Uncommon, Wealth & Games

By now, we all are well aware of the Great Indian Parody called Commonwealth Games that looks anything but positive. Be it completion of venues, athlete training, merchandising, advertisement, publicity, etc. You name it and we can be pretty much sure that it would be running behind schedule. In one sentence “we have messed up!”

To amend the above line, “We have messed up big time!”

It is in fact incredible to read the catchphrase of 2010 CWG which says, ‘Come out and play’ and I’m compelled to ask ‘Where?’

After all this fiasco involving crores of money being siphoned and financial irregularities of titanic amounts, what bothers me most is the emergence of concern from all various strata of the society.

Firstly, our political class. Two years ago, in the run-up to the Games, the authorities were indulged in the now infamous ‘austerity’ measures. Apart from the recent parliamentary elections, austerity was one of the many reasons (read: excuses) for the delay in the implementation of the Games plans (if any). The politicians feared being associated with the ‘expensive Games’ as it would tarnish their ‘austere’ image. They sat on the agendas and books required for the Games paperwork thus delaying the process of actual launch. But it didn't stop the very same lot from filling their merry pockets.

Secondly, our media which is happily playing whistle-blower for majority of their screen-time don’t justify their concern per se. I say so with alacrity as they too are guilty of being a bit too late in reporting the real-time development or the lack of it. They pounced on the topic when the situation was pretty much out of hand.

Thirdly, we, the common citizens, denizens, netizens who show our outraged disappointment now were hardly following the preparations, neither raised our voice when it was much needed. We can harp for hours on the infrastructure failure but the fact remains that we espoused the very path of ignorance like is our wont.

We have failed India because we couldn’t judge the aspirations of Young India. We failed to maintain a balance between social welfare and empowerment of our poor while delivering on the multi-sporting events. I can only sincerely hope CWG proves me wrong.

The state of Urdu

For starters, Urdu is the official state language of J&K. However clichéd it may sound, State of Jammu & Kashmir is a land of varied cultures, languages, and ethnicities as rest of India is. Precisely, J&K can be classified into three different regions namely Valley region, Jammu and Ladakh, each having a distinct identity of its own. Agreed Valley and Jammu are intermingled thanks to ‘Kashmiriyat’ but serene Ladakh has been quiet, composed and aloof since ages.

Now, as far as my knowledge regarding linguistic composure of J&K goes, Kashmiri is the lingua franca of the Valley region and Dogri language being predominantly spoken in Jammu region whereas Ladakhi being spoken in Ladakh. This arrangement exists among the sea of other Dardic, Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan languages in this complex state.

Now, my question is where does Urdu fits in this vexed arrangement. Urdu is not a native language of J&K. Urdu is an eloquent and refined Indian language that finds its roots in Persian and Sanskrit and largely spoken in the Indo-Gangetic plains down south of J&K. Urdu was once the court language of the Mughals. Even when the Mughals reined Kashmir, they didn’t impose Urdu on them. Persian was encouraged then. In fact the rich literature Kashmiri has, is the consequence of such assimilation, it went through time and again. In fact, it’s the only Dardic language with any sort of literature present today.

In the end result, by deciding Urdu as the official language of diverse J&K, the policy makers escaped the dilemma in choosing a more native language for such designation. Besides, this prevailing arrangement complicated the minds of the people of this state and has further estranged them from us. When Home minister P. Chidambaram says in the Parliament that he feels pain for the people of the valley and state as they are part of us, I doubt whether it echoes from the other side of the core. The policy makers in both Delhi and Srinagar have made a lot of follies in their deeds towards the subjects of this state.

I won't go into the political baloney (enough has been said about it with no end solution in sight) but this grave mistake with regards to the cultural policy of this state is awry and has been haunting and will continue to haunt Delhi and the whole state of Jammu & Kashmir for a very long time ahead.

Dependence on Independence

When a citizen says s/he is independent, what exactly are they trying to imply? That they are free to do anything of their wish? Or that they are no more under colonial cloud? Or just that they feel good about the way things are running around them?

Maybe, all of the above. Maybe, none.

Independence is just an idea. Like everything else, it too begins and ends with you. That’s a very simplistic way of looking at things and even foolhardy, in most cases. We discuss independence with only human society in general. We don’t consider the animals and the birds and reptiles and others who “live”. And that’s exactly where we lose the right to be pointy on matter of related to independence. You see, excluding humankind, every other living is predominantly independent because they can afford so. But human society had long lost the virtue of independence. Maybe we left it in the caves, in search of better living conditions.

My point is, we are NEVER independent; physically, emotionally or in any other sphere of relation. We can never be independent. The very fact that we are not on the list of endangered species yet (but are gladly putting others on it!) proves the reach of our interdependence.

I find it rather trivial that we celebrate “Independence Day”, not “Freedom Day” because if we look at it, the colonizers were dependent on the colonies, not the other way around. The colonies just wanted them to empty the room which didn’t belong to the colonizers in the first place.

Whatever.

Either you care about independence or you don't. Either way, it doesn't matter.

P.S. If you are reading this tripe, please forgive me for being naive. I sympathize with your loss of time. Honestly.

Blame it on Twitter!

I haven’t updated my blog for a long time now. More than one month to be precise. Anyways, I wasn’t too regular on my blog but this is the longest gap.

The truth is, I’ve been occupied by lot of extra-curricular activities viz. Twitter, Office and Home. I’ve placed Twitter ahead of the other two because I realize that I’ve been madly active on it, be it at work or at peace. I won’t say I regret it for I understand its one of the finest thing that ever happened to me. Its like asking a boy what you want to be and he says, “Heard” and lo! the boy gets a Twitter handle and shouts his mind out. That boy is me.

I’ve never been this expressive with words as long as my shy memory goes. I’ve always been a painful introvert. The people I grew up with aren’t around anymore. I’m not saying they all got exterminated in a secret nuclear action. I’m just saying that we hardly keep in touch and they’ve seen my Twitter page and they notice a change. They acknowledge that I do have a voice that doesn’t care a bit about mundane mores. This voice can get a bit too stupid too as it mocks the boss at office and family at home. But who cares.

My brother is a huge critic of my tweeting habits and I don’t blame him. He says I’m wasting my invisible-to-me talent on something that’s worthless. Well, all I can say is, “It doesn’t take talent to tweet, just a keyboard or keypad on cellphone will do. People either follow you or don’t but you walk alone. Always.” Though, I never say this to anyone. There is no need, you see.

People live by passion and then leave by memory. At the end of the day, nothing remains but words. Think about it. Its either words or in my case, tweets.

World Cup and Africa

What's so BIG about football World Cup? Why is it such a craze in spite of being a once-in-a-4-year affair? Why are these football fans so crazy? How come they can have heartache and ecstasy at the same time?

These are some legitimate questions........ for someone who doesn't get it!!

As for the rest of us, well, World Cup is the biggest thing that ever happened to this god-forsaken world, as a whole. It’s larger than UN or Olympics, simply by the sheer participation of nations across the globe.

In simpler words, it brings us closer. Just take a look at the stats and you'll get an idea how huge it is not only in viewership numbers but also the kind of impact it enjoys that no other sporting event can ever dream of. Like I said, it brings the world closer. I mean, when was the last you even bothered with names like "Slovakia" or "Ghana"?

I'm glad that South Africa got to host this year's World Cup. It’s the first time World Cup has entered African soil. That's good for both football and Africa, at large. Egypt was the first African nation to participate in a World Cup way back in 1934 which was followed by Morocco in 1970 but Roger Milla changed the face of African football with his impressive goals and even more impressive goal celebrations.

Every World Cup tourney keeps us guessing on who will be the winner and it’s always the favorites like Germany and Brazil who come up on top of guess. This World Cup saw 6 teams (including South Africa) in the first round but only Ghana qualified to the second round. For the record, only two continents have won the trophy and Africa doesn't stand a longshot at it. As of now, that is.

Whatever be the outcome of this World Cup, one thing is for sure. Its going to be memorable for all the goals, adrenaline, drama, political tidbits and the list goes on and on till the next World Cup takes place.

Five Fave Fotos For Fun!

This blog post is dedicated to BlogAdda's Travel Photo Contest for which I'm posting 5 of my favorite travel pics.

The pics I've selected for this contest belongs to the bike trip I and my friends took late December. We traveled down South and covered more than 3900 kms (how much I love boasting this figure!) and vroomed through 5 states including Maharashtra in 18 days.

Its pretty tough choice to make considering the amount of photos we clicked on road. You can check out some of the other pics here.

These are the 5 short-listed shots......


This pic was taken early morning after leaving our lodge in Solapur. The whole scenario was so breath-taking that we didn't had to signal each other to stop. We just did...on impulse and I clicked the sun-meets-fog moment!

This pic was taken somewhere near Hampi and it was fascinating to see a green chameleon literally robot-dancing its way on the middle of the road and a equally fascinated dog trying to check it out.

This mosque is located on the NH leading to Manjeshwar Beach in Kerala. The reason I love this picture is because of the contrasting green leaves against the beautiful white structure.

Traveling is lot about meeting interesting people and here you can see one such interesting guy in Ooty named Tenzing who was a Tibetan refugee but spoke far better Tamil than my amma. The person seated next to him with his mafiosi look was a local horse-rider and spoke impeccable Hindi! Diverse India indeed.

Two things are always difficult when the bike is running.....one, riding on NH at night-time and two, trying to click a snap pillion-seated! The focus is hardly there thanks to bumpy roads! This pic was taken very early morning when we left Panjim City for home!

Hope you enjoyed! Hopefully, that is. Thanks a lot for your time.

This contest is sponsored by Pringoo.

25 years and counting...

If you happen to read my blogs regularly, you’ll notice me notice two things: One, you readers are in the minority and two, I’ve been writing about my family for a change, recently. The reason could be anything from lack of perception to laziness. But trust me, I enjoy doing so!

Yesterday, my parents celebrated their 25th year of marriage. I’m purposefully not using ‘wedding’ here. Wedding happens every day but marriage takes time. They got married on 31st of May, 1985 and it’s been a long journey for them. For a pessimist like me who doesn’t conform to societal norms which sadly includes MARRIAGE too, I find my parents “conjugal bliss” overwhelmingly inspiring!

I’m not being judgmental here but we Indians tend to fight against all absurdity of individual space and try our best to make our marriage a success, unlike in the West. My parents were no different I guess. They always had their altercations; even on the smallest of issues like the taste of salt in food or the way Amma dressed us. They could argue on the stupidest of event. So the question keeps lingering in my head……...HOW DO YOU GET ALONG WITH A PERSON AS A SPOUSE FOR 25 LONG YEARS? I do admit that 25 is not a record or anything but from the way I see it, it’s indeed a record considering how different my mom and dad are from each other.

Ma has always been a fighter. She wouldn't give up easily and was not an emotional fool, so to say. Being educated from Manipal, like most of the girls at her time, she too wanted to be a nurse but she ended up a teacher. She kept injecting her pedagogy-moral values in us which make my brother and me the kind of person we are today. On the contrary, my dad was a softie with a very generous heart and a deeper pocket. He has always been a good human being and whole of Chembur can vouch for that! But I would say, out of these two enigmatic characters, Amma was the one who made their marriage work, all because of her adaptability to situations. Dad just floated along with the mundane wave and made sure we never fell out of basic comfort.

I like joking that my parents were happy for a long time…..and then they got married to each other. But at the back of my mind I see how happy they are together today, with all of us under one roof. He still calls her "Ponno" which is Tulu for "Girl" and that sounds beautiful during their never-ending arguments. Every morning, they go out together for walk and come back debating on trivial topics but there’s an undeniable cuteness to it. I hate idiotic TV soaps but my parents are a huge fan and that doesn't help my case either! They realize the fact they are not young anymore and they need each other more than ever.

As for me, of course, they don’t like my apathy towards “filial responsibilities” nor do they like my being more sincere on virtual world than in real, but they ADJUST and that’s been the key to their quarter century marriage run!

P.S. By the way, we celebrated their anniversary by visiting holy places like Siddi Vinayak Temple, Mahalakshmi Temple and Haji Ali. I didn’t trudge along this time. In fact, I participated and enjoyed too, in spite of my disdain for religious corners. We, along with my brother, had lunch and dinner together which is a rarity considering the clash of timing on usual days. It was a real celebration.