Happy New Year!

Its that time of the year when all the channels on TV are busy getting all their old clippings in line and setting up a list to show over and over again calling it the best and the worst of 2008. Actually, I guess this is the time when the news channels have to do least research and lie back and enjoy the new year as there is hardly much to think and show for at least a couple of days till something new and big comes along.

On a more serious note, I think a few names which were never heard of till last year, but now would ring a bell anytime they are mentioned would be :

Abhinav Bindra who got India the sole Olympic medal, for which India should thank the richness of Abhinav's father to have been able to afford the world class training which could channelise the talent of this shooter

Vijender Singh :who has been showing his teeth and face more than his boxing arms since Beijing Olympics.

Saina Nehwal for making it into the top 10 of World Badminton Female Rankings

The now very famous phrase in the north " SINGH IS KING"

A new Khan  and a new Kapoor in Indian movies : Imran Khan & Ranbir Kapoor

Aamir Khan gave barbers a reason to cheer : the new ghajini cut set their cash registers ringing though it is still to become clear whether the movie does the same for the producer.

An infamous Ajmal Kasab : whom the Pakistanis won't own and the Indians can't pardon

I guess its been a mixture of good and bad just like all the other years in the past but as usual we will talk and make a big hu-ha about it. The new year is not going to change the universe, but just brings in the hope that it would make the world a slightly more tolerable place to live in.

Happy New Year To All!

The Positives of 26/11

The whole world has been talking about the attack on Mumbai and the negative sentiments it conveyed.With due respect to all those who succumbed to the terrorist bullets on that day, I still see quite a few positive points coming out of that fateful day.
1. The Page 3 of India moved to page 1 for a sad reason and got a first hand feel of terror and its repurcussions on one's life, which probably has helped to make this incident appear as INDIA"S NINE ELEVEN as the journalists put it.
2.It was the final nail in the coffin to prove internationally that Pakistan is surely nurturing the terror organisations against India.
3. At last the politicians came up with what India needed for a long long time - a federal agency against terror and more teeth for the laws against terror.
4. Three most useless people in the Indian political scenario were finally shown the door - Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh and R.R.Patil
5. The "lal batti car" status provided to the overprotected netas was reevaluated and the police were relieved of the shame of protecting 50 useless politicians and were back to doing what they were trained to do- fight for the citizens of India.
6.Actors like Rahul Bose who have little to do as far as their career as an actor is concerned got a chance to talk about something in the media besides their embarrassing box office records.
Well, I guess there would be more to add to that list but at least not everything is grey and sad about the happenings of that horrifying day.Every cloud does have a silver lining after all!

NON VIOLENCE IS NOT NO VIOLENCE!

क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को जिसके पास गरल हो
उसको क्या जो दंतहीन, विषरहित , विनीत, सरल हो!
सहनशीलता, क्षमा, दया को तभी पूजता जग है,
बल के दर्प चमकता उसके पीछे जब जगमग है!

These are a couple of lines from a poem by a well known hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. I am no poet for one,neither anyone with a great literary sense nor do I have much space at the top to understand as to what most people narrate in the form of prose. But when my colleague, Dr.Rajeshwary, narrated these lines during one of our "discussions", it just made so much sense in my life as well as that of India.
Lets start about India.I think in the name of resilience, we have been just trying to avoid facing these terrorist outfits which has made us look weak and meek in the international arena. All it takes to avoid any noise from our quarter is to send an emissary from the powerhouse of the world (and that's USA as we all know) and we sit tight in the corner thinking we have done enough and then its time for us to keep silent and lie still waiting to be shaken up from the slumber by another attack on not just the citizens but our pride as a nation.And that's how we have come to be taken as a QUIET nation still dwelling on the pride of being non-violent. I think its time to redefine this term NON-VIOLENCE. We have to vehemently make the world aware that NON VIOLENCE does not mean NO VIOLENCE . We need to instill the fear of our toughness too and not just get into a jumble of words when attacked.
I guess its the same in our lives to as individuals.Sometimes we just find people taking advantage of us and our manners making it our weakness rather than a virtue. We all need to realise that its not an ideal world and so there are times we need to assert our rights and say it loud when its wrong because its not just doing the wrong which is not right but not doing the right is also wrong.
When the two great mythologies,the Mahabharata and Ramayana, preach about good prevailing over evil even if it requires a war to get that result, isn't it time for us to once again to prove that its time for the good to prevail over the evil by taking the right measures??