HIT HARD, HIT DEEP

Picture Courtesy: Google

Some people will never change and you have to accept that.

Take for instance, the not so curious case of the little country in our neighborhood. Over a period of long time, this little neighborhood of ours has been involved in most of the disturbing events in our country. Even though they have been in constant denial of the same, a sizable global audience held a common opinion – our neighborhood is a fertile premise, which has been honing terrorism for long.

But what I wish to write today is not about that little country in our neighborhood. But I wish to write about our great nation, which decided to hit this little country hard, and hit it deep down in its hovel.

As gathered from the news headlines and the photographs now made available by ANI, the targeted spots were hotbeds of Jaish-E-Mohammed terror camp. But I still fail to understand as to why they had the flags of US, UK and Israel painted on the staircases of this camp!

All of the above might have its own share of debates, to be followed throughout the day and the days to follow. But the real thing is about India deciding to hit hard, hit deep. Hadn’t we recently been told through the movie URI? Yeh Naya Hindustan Hai. Yeh Ghar Mey Ghusega Bhee. Aur Ghooskar Maarega Bhee (This is a New India. This India will break into homes. And will hit out too). And, very gracefully the country’s leadership made sure to stand true to its words, to exercise complete freedom, to protect our nation.

Coming to talk about the little country in our neighborhood, I am left to wonder as to how they would now retaliate. They will retaliate. But they will retaliate in the coward and overt ways that it has been in the past.

Now, at this moment of time, just come to think of it; India as an idea and India as a nation. Both are so terrifically powerful. Yes we are powerful. All of us, the Indians, no matter where we are born, where we hail from, the pride is to be felt in the way, the world will stay geared to address us – The Indians did it. The entire vibe around these words is about seriousness. As if there is an ongoing echo in the background, which is being repeated – Don’t mess with us the Indians, don’t mess with us the Indians, don’t mess with us the Indians.

Touted as Surgical Strike 2.0, this is our strategically timed reply to not only that little country in our neighborhood. But this is also our straight faced reply to those, who take us for granted. Reviving memories from yesteryear, our nation was once counted as many of the nations, which appeared in the ignored list of third world countries. I think that debate of first world and third world should be put to rest. We are here to stay and we are here to show our might against those who shall attack us, back-stab us and leave us feeling unsettled.

As I move closer to conclude this post, I would like to seek your attention to a comment made in the past against our nation. Someone had said – We will bleed India through a 1000 cuts. I think, today’s strike has put the straining impact of this comment to rest.

Now that we have retaliated, let us be sane enough to not praise an artist who would want to cross over from the little country in our neighborhood and render service in our film industry. I am sure, our film industry will also respect the recent action and the past tragedies.  

Signing off, I wish to express my immense gratitude towards the country’s leadership, which just didn’t preach but made sure to practice. So, if someone asks me – How is the Josh? I shall happily reply, “ALWAYS HIGH SIR”.

- Virtuous Vociferous | February 26 | February Blog-5 | Never Settle | 2019

BLEEDING CIVILIZATION

(All the above pictures have been clicked by me at 8.45 pm, February 23)

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning. You’re just awake. Perhaps enjoying a hot cup of tea. You might also be in a mood to turn a few pages of the Sunday newspaper. If you’re not interested in current affairs, it doesn’t matter. It’s a Sunday and you will always seek pleasure from the pleasant things of life. Am I any different from you? I too will follow the same. And, I might also feel very displeased, if someone decides to ruin my Sunday by bringing me face to face with something absolutely unpleasant. None of us will be interested in leaving the comfort zone, made freely available by every Sunday of our lives; one after the other. But I am helpless. I am eager to seek your company in something that’s immensely unpleasant in nature. 

For the last five years, the country’s leadership has been trying its level best to ensure a ‘Swachh Bharat’, a so called ‘Clean India’. And, let me remind you, this vision is not of an intolerant political party but a vision once shared by the father of our nation; none other than the ambassador of peace Mahatma Gandhi. He had once said and I quote – CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS. And, this cleanliness is achievable, only when we, the people decide to be civilized. But, we seem to be failing at it every day. Yes, we are!

Ever since rules/duties of ‘Swachh Bharat’ have been implemented, we have been doing our bit to ensure adopting them in our day to day activities. But, there is no dearth of uncivilized minds, who will make sure that India continues to look unclean. I think their minds will continue to remain sick like the self-proclaimed NRIs of our school. Not all of them, but a handful of them from our 1993 batch (specifically 2/3 of them). These minds are so sick that at the sight of anything clean, they will try their best to leave it unclean. The same happened to my car, last evening. I think, a group of tobacco/gutka/pan masala munchers couldn’t digest the cleanliness standards, I maintain for my car. The shade of my car being white, such wrongdoers get easily attracted to it. So this group or individual made sure that they smear the front door, some portion of the window glass and the door handle with their red colored spirit. I had parked my car in a silent lane. Immediately after a span of mere 15 minutes, when I came back to my car, I saw this ghastly site. The first few words, which came to my mind instantly were – OUR CIVILIZATION IS BLEEDING. This is third time in the row, when such a thing has repeated itself.

Honestly speaking we are not yet civilized. I think, at times some of us decide to program an ecosystem of one-sided revenge by simply choosing to act in such uncivilized manner. I’ve no idea as to at what fault, my car was! Or, did any of my action was so hurtful to anyone that they chose to leave the car door painted in red. For a second, it almost felt that a bleeding civilization had left my car to bleed alone. I must actually be saying that the so called modern civilization is bleeding. The bad blood within them is going to take some time to flow out.

This action of the unknown, unseen miscreants have not angered me. But I am concerned about the state of coming days. Are we going to fail the dream, the mission, the vision of ‘Swachh Bharat’ or ‘Clean India’? Are we going to fail the father of our nation, who at one point of time belonged to a tolerant political party? Or we will sit in front of our television sets to be a voiceless participant in the mindless debates, which break out against the current leadership of the country. 

Through this post of mine, I wish to make an appeal; if a little bit of pride of being an Indian is left in you, stop being a part of this bleeding civilization. Stop being a part of a civilization, which bleeds for no reason and makes cleanliness bleed every day, makes clean things bleed every day. At least for once, stop being like those self-proclaimed NRIs, who have fled the country to embrace slavery and cleanliness of foreign nations.

- Virtuous Vociferous | February 24 | February Blog-4 | Never Settle | 2019

BEING WITH SELF

Courtesy: Google

Solitude is a boon.

The sooner we accept this reality, the lesser aggrieved, we shall start feeling. Because in solitude, we are free to discover the other side, we ourselves might not be well acquainted with. Solitude makes it possible to celebrate being with self. The same self, which is otherwise caught in conversations, with the subconscious mind. At times, don’t we wish, these conversations had been a little more audible!

Being with self puts an end to expectations.

The self doesn’t cause delays. We don’t have to wait for anyone to report to us or met us on time. We can ourselves pursue punctuality and reap its benefits.

Being with self, makes life breathe through that single window opening of hope. Hurts of all nature; be it physical or emotional, start maintaining a safe distance. Mediums of healing are always found to be in agreement with the self.

This self shouldn’t be confused with being selfish. Usage of terms like, ‘me time’, ‘my space’, ‘my time’, ‘my zone’, ‘my world’ sound good and land closer to the core thought process of ‘being with self’.

The self that is being written about, the being with self that is being pursued is immensely interesting. The characteristics are brighter like freedom, happiness and oneness. It is understandable when it grows a little hard to move on from your faithful others. But this is different. The time to move on with this infectious self is now.

This self could be the strength behind that long harbored determination to fall in love again. This self could be the partner in the long wished journey to the invisible tip of the globe. This self could be the next train you wish to board and travel unannounced to an unknown destination of not your choice, but of instinct.

Some say, “Being with self is loneliness.” Try looking at it in a slightly different manner and soak in the abundance.

The abundance of being with self. And yes, discover the richness of being with self.

- Virtuous Vociferous | February 20 | February Blog-3 | Never Settle | 2019

AIR CONDITIONER: PARALYZED

Picture Courtesy: Google

The air conditioner has been rendered paralyzed.

It was performing well, in sync with the real world, real time and real people. The air conditioner installed inside didn’t allow the rough temperatures, which were ruining our outsides to ruin our insides. Somehow, the joy of being in the confines of an air-conditioned environment was pleasant.

None of us had the faintest of idea that the same air conditioner will be rendered paralyzed, so suddenly!

If recollected, from hey days, the air conditioner had a charm of its own. The disruption commenced with the illogical adjustments of temperatures that the air conditioner was subjected to. After a week’s time or so, the wings of the air conditioner wasn’t allowed to swing. Dodging all concerns of global warming, the temperatures were also set at 25^o C, sometimes 26^o C and sometimes, simply unmentionable temperatures!

Till the time, the winters hadn’t lost its grip on the atmosphere, a momentary break from the air conditioner was welcome. But winters are fast receding, summers are charging in. At such a crucial juncture, the air conditioner hangs there, lonely on that wall; seemingly defunct or more directly put – paralyzed. Had this condition being human, we would have tagged it as brain-dead.

Ironically even if the air conditioner is found switched off repeatedly, either the remote goes missing or is found aimlessly wandering in between spaces of our desks. The situation is tricky.

No human group has claimed official responsibility of the now dysfunctional air conditioner also known as the paralyzed air conditioner. Voices of resentment were last heard, out of some hoodies, which kept human faces hidden beneath. They are not directly responsible for the air conditioner being rendered paralytic but, they are indirectly somewhere responsible. This untimely paralytic attack has jeopardized some unsettled body temperatures.

At times, amusement sets in and a question repeatedly pops up – What is a centralized air conditioning system is put in place? If at all this system is put in place, will the souls beneath hoodies still torture it and puncture the inner temperatures? Presently there is no one replying and suddenly I can feel a cool wave of breeze flowing out of the air conditioner. So, has the air conditioner being rendered paralyzed for real?

- Virtuous Vociferous | February 18 | February Blog-2 | Never Settle | 2019

WHAT COULD BE MY FEBRUARY STORY?

It takes time to crossover from one written piece to the other. Yes, it does take ample amount of time for the crossover to take place successfully. After having posted my last blog update on December 31, 2018, I couldn’t match pace with my restlessly thinking mind, vigorously browsing vision and self-imposed relaxing therapies. Thus, I am yet to figure out, ‘what could be my February story?’

My February story could be my second book. When I talk about my second book, eyebrows go up like mini parachutes, lips are left partly ajar. Surprises are always going to be welcome, when my first book was a self-published attempt, which eventually didn’t get caught in ugly thunderstorms of irrelevance or failure. The book made its silent debut and still sits on the desks, in the shelves, over wardrobes of innumerable friends and well-wishers. Poems and quotes from my first book still find mentions on some pages of social media. Coming back to my February story, it could be my second book for sure. The so called second book has an interesting character with an uncharacteristic name. This uncharacteristic name will remind everyone of something about themselves. I would have loved so much to reveal a little more about my second book and the characters in it; being selfish, I won’t!

Since winters have made a comeback, my February story could be the winters by themselves. But then, won’t that be a repeat of something I wrote and posted on this blog with the title of ‘holding on to winters’, dated December 18? Anyway the verb ‘repeat’ enjoys a healthy association in the bar, which serves top and low quality alcohol to insanely thirsty throats and egos. Thus, my February story needs to be different.

What if February being the month of love, my February story talks about love? Does that sound like a good idea, when 100s of websites are ready to bombard us with free bytes on love? No matter, how strange, it may sound; Valentine’s Day just missed the mark of being my February story.

Did I tell you that I watched URI-The Surgical Strike? I could easily have written about it. If I ever make a movie or shoot a documentary, which I would, someday (definitely a documentary), I would want to write it that way! Since I am a fan of bound scripts, I won’t make the film/documentary till I have a proper script in place. At this stage, the overall thought of wanting to shoot a documentary could be my February story. My only concern is, when I am talking about the February story, does a desire sound like a story? Does it really sound like a story? I think, this part is in need of some introspection. Yet, it lacks the gravity of becoming my February story.

And then, the other day I was traveling by train. Just one of those journeys when I wasn’t in a mood to pick up a fight with a fellow traveler. Little did I realize, first class compartments are filled with good, bad and ugly egos! Yes, these egos can grow immensely loud and can act like bloodhounds. Trust me, they can. From a single moment of me refusing to put a passenger’s bag on the rack, the situation catapulted itself to a warlike situation. To conclude, it was a bag it or die without it situation. Sounds interesting? Thus, it will always find a place in one of the other books of mine (soon to begin work upon). Therefore I chose to strike it out from the list of many things, which I think could have been my February story.

As I get ready to conclude this update and am left to decide upon my February story, I am trying to probe, why did I leave January alone? Well, January begins with a big bang of resolutions. And I think that is what my heart is still transfixed with. To keep it simple, I think I have stumbled upon my February story. Will I be writing it? If I could think about it, I can definitely write it too!

To end on a happy note, I think, I was busy seeking and searching for my February story. I found it.

- Virtuous Vociferous | February 11 | February Blog-1 | Never Settle | 2019