a lil sad note from far about my countrymen

I saw three social media bombardments in last one week of having to come back to Facebook, because my real life became a bit boring, not being on my home soil.

first there was the ultra comedy bullshit "boycott kerala" bullshit, and its equally bullshit responses from keralites putting up statuses, sharing punch dialogues and what not.

then the undeniably sad demise of one person who did things right, but the internet was just too happy to forward,share and put up messages of truly motivation value, some bullshit and just as they thought they need to find another "topic", the controversial hanging.  I deeply regret even talking about the two topics in the same paragraph, but social media has found a way to think these are things on opposite scales. Someone to love, someone to hate.

While no one clearly wants to degrade a man we all love, we all have our own rights to do so if we wish to. In the same manner, all have the right to takes sides about someone the public wants dead.
I had my own thoughts, but it ain't so straight to just bluntly to make a binary out of it. Emotions are high, arguments are valid in both sides about various things, but none of them make full sense, as all just want to put their bullshit opinions out there. I have my opinions and doubts and questions too on the procedure as per what I read in the media, but I also am aware that more than me who is just another fellow writing something on the internet, not even remotely affected by the acts of the person, there are people who want closure. Closure is important. All said and done, can we question the law that can be stepped up and down by political sidings and populist needs, rather than by law itself? I am not worried about one hung terrorist. I am worried about the millions of loopholes we have in our system and each public exposure of them should make lawmakers worry of the other hidden ones. That is, if they are even bothered about it!

Now, off late, I have realized that opinions are a very destructive thing when it comes to certain type of decisions. While it might sound oppressing( as it did to me initially), I find this article perfectly making sense. We in our hostel have this one dialogue - "C'mon you were asked to give an opinion, not some bullshit you wanted to say." when someone gives a random crazy opinion when asked about one. That can be excused as amusement in a gang of friends. With the crazy internet and even crazier news rooms, people have taken awesome liberties with use of opinions in place of facts and judgement based on merits that follow certain guidelines. In short, civilization! its like you giving me an "opinion" that 2+2=48 and frigging justify extreme measures to enforce the same and and make a tom foolery about it!

as a country so diverse, so emotional and so prone to being led into things, I find it not very surprising that we keep doing this. many guys write intelligent stuff, good points, mature people. there are also the usual shouters,sharers, booers, haters( thank god, haven't seen any of those in my timeline yet). but with the luxury of being able to read almost all news from the comfort of our lazy beds and chairs, we form so much opinions and are free to throw them anywhere, the shit is almost always hitting the fan!

I personally try to not respond to such things, take things head on and worsen things. I believe my good friends who frequent the social media also have the good sense to realize the damage they do to themselves. coz lives are lived on the ground, out in the open, often in market places and court rooms with their own rules and constraints. you pick up so much negativity and predefined mentality with a few hours of being on social media that can only give you more enemies and get you nowhere closer to solving even the tiniest of problems you tend to crib about.

and while I started typing a small note of protest on FB, i think this no longer qualifies, because I would be putting up the same bullshit that others are. Hence I am moving it here, my personal space for spitting out stuff. Please bear with me, and join my ramblings or give your enlightened advices or throw your stuff at me in the comments. You could even close the page without saying a word. I am grateful :)

an outrage and then an afterthought

sometimes,  its just too hard to bottle up emotions and accept things.

That's one of the many extreme emotions I experienced after watching the BBC Documentary titled "India's Daughter" covering the incidents of the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case. And that ain't even the most extreme ones, because the nature of the contents of the documentary is such.

This video is banned in India, but BBC has decided to air it in UK, and it has been doing multiple rounds in the social media, generating many a fiery discussion, outbursts and many many more silent and guilty hearts.

The video interviews the main accused and he narrates in detail the incidents of the night, alongwith his justifications and motives. Narratives are also recorded from all the perpetrators' kin and also of the victim and others involved, giving it an overall picture of everyone's story.

To add to the gruesome nature of the crime itself , the lack of remorse displayed by the victims and the nature in which they accept it as a natural course of action makes one wonder if we are living in the same nation about which we talk so high and mighty on 15th August every year, or share the same values we like so much to boast about everywhere.

While its natural for a defence lawyer to argue on the side on his client, the deeply set mindset against women empowerment even among the highly educated, rich and respected men in the professional of legal practice lets ones belief down heavily on the society. I found it harder to sit still hearing their continuous banter against how women must conduct themselves. Statements like "We have the best culture in. In our culture, there is no place for a woman", uttered by the defence lawyer and the claims by another lawyer to set his own daughter on fire if she disgraces the family, just shows how deeply rotten things are down under the glossy image of "culture".

While its really a blessing that BBC has made this documentary and as Javed Akhtar stated in the parliament, if men watch this and feel its content is bad, they should also be ashamed about how they treat the women around them.

But after watching the heart wrenching 1 hr documentary, my heart keeps asking me "how many such videos would have to be made for this to become just a bad memory", and the answers I can come up with aren't anywhere near being rosy.

Somewhat in-line with what the documentary tries to expose by taking statements from the accused and their kin, and several other experts, the root of all this traces itself back and forth across various issues that we hear about daily, like poverty, unemployment,dowry, nepotism,caste etc. Strong divides between the rich and poor, powerful and downtrodden, leads to criminals taking birth in larger numbers with such notions of unequal share of power with the fairer sex. Clubbed with our society and political system's inability to cater to any one set of values consistently without media attention or direct benefits, all these stick for long times and keep coming back "after" someone has to go through the agonizing pains.

Afterall, how long did the tremendous and immensely passionate youth protests last? Did the rape crimes come down? Did the percentage of reported cases go up? Did we, collectively as the society and administration address any of the root causes with the required passion? I say the answer is no. I say this problem lives on with us, and every living moment has to be spent on correcting what we can, learning from our mistakes of complacency and keeping vigil to not let our society breed monsters within our people. And all are our people, both victims and accused.

This doesn't end here...

Chasing the monsoon - Season 5

Morning 4 AM:- I woke up with bleary eyes, staring at an unfamiliar roof. It took me a while to figure out where I was. I could make out the outline of the apartment we were put up in Pune. I must have slept like a log for at least 3 hours. Not enough, but given the length of journey lying ahead of us, I was quite content.

Day 2 planning started after a couple of hours once the other chasers were woken up from deep slumber.

I was hungry for adventure and the first day's lengthy rides along the green mountainous roads in the rain were just recce as far as I was concerned. We set out targets for the second day:- Lohagad and Lonavala. It took lots of back and forth discussions to get the routes and schedule right. Finally, the plan was made to hit the two spots asap and head onto Mumbai for the night. I was super excited at the prospects of this plan. I haven't been to Mumbai after a very short visit while waiting for our transit flight to Kochi when I was in my sixth grade. The distance and the prospect of the wild chase entering a large crowded city was challenging, but I trusted my mates who knew Mumbai well. We were off soon, powered by the wonderful Poha, Misal pava and Idly.

Around 60kms from Pune, Lohagad has been in my sights for more than a year now. I had fallen in love with the fort just by visual appeal.

A random album in facebook, narrative by a friend, and follow up research, all that ran through my mind as we made our way through the inviting Mumbai-Pune highway gunning our engines in high spirits.

 

The regular route to Lohagad involved a decent trek. The trek promised to be mesmerizing in the monsoon, and we were already proven monsoon chasers. The image of the lush green routes dripping with fresh rainwater was too exciting to ignore. But we had a practical problem to solve. Lohagad lay right in the path to Lonavala and if we chose to trek the Lohagad, all our plans would get delayed. The distance to Lonavala and Mumbai would never get covered if we were to walk up the Lohagad. So I reluctantly agreed to the plan to 'ride through' Lohagad and move onto Lonavala. At least that is what we could come up, using Google Maps for guidance.

The route to Lohagad takes a deviation from the highway at a point and goes through Kachcha roads and villages. In spite of being an extended weekend, there didn't seem to be much of a crowd. Only children walking along the road going to school or village women carrying pots of water on their heads were visible throughout the route. We were just beginning to wonder why we were the only people on vehicles, when we almost fell into the first ditch. Technically a pothole, but practically it was a well.

We had ourselves deep in dirt when the first pothole led to many more of varying sizes and complexities. Large ditches of mud and puddles meant we crawled through slowly, trying not to fall and make a scene in front of the pretty girls walking in large groups, around and through the same puddles. Keeping our minds firmly on the road and grips on the handles, we moved slowly to the tiny waterfall on the way. I was riding the unicorn rented from a friend of Sumeet, one of the three chasers. Keeping it in control was no small matter. After the trip, I would observe significant muscle development in the region of my right forearm, all thanks to the wonderful accelerator of this unicorn.

Anyway, no sooner had we taken a few customary clicks at the crowded waterfall, the heavens opened up and the crowd of youngsters vanished under rain coats and umbrellas. I felt very jealous. While they laughed and walked up the scenic rocky routes under their raincoats,

we had an almost impossible task to ride the slick FZ and the monstrously unyielding Unicorn up the 60 degree slope that was fast turning into a river of mud through slippery rocks the size of  footballs. We stopped at a small shop to ask some locals if we could ride the bikes all the way to the top and continue to Lonavala. The local fellows in the shop made a mockery of us and asked us to take an auto. Hearing that, all our frustration turned to pure determination and we rode ahead with renewed vigour and confidence, with only the cold rain leaving no spot warm on us.

And so started the long and precarious ride. I had never in my life attempted such adventures with bikes, and never so far away with someone else's bikes. The unicorn's accelerator too didn't help in making it any easier to traverse the boulders and maneuver on the slippery mud. We made slow progress and to the amazement of the small groups of trekkers, we managed to climb most of the hill without much incidents, apart from a few times when we had to push the bikes up to avoid slipping all the way down. Then we came to this..

My heart sank on seeing it. But there was no turning back. I could in no way rely on my physical strength to push the heavy unicorn up this one. We both gave it our best to climb up the almost 75 degree mess. There were no foot holds, no even surface. Only deep sticky mud with lots of loose rocks. Even after many attempts, we found ourselves close to the foot of this small hill, bikes already covered in thick layers of mud and hot fumes emanating from the engines. Fortunately for me, a local boy came along and offered to help. He took over my bike and I resorted to supporting him by guiding and pushing from the back. Aswin did the same to the lighter FZ while Sumeet was on the saddle. Slowly, painfully, we pushed both the bikes up the 50m slope. Puffing, panting and covered in mud, we were close to exhaustion. But relieved off the mortal danger we were in, we thanked the boy and paid him Rs 100.

The road began there and all the tension and pressure of the dangerous climb were soon forgotten as we rode freely through the heavy rains, surprising many a gang of trekkers who would have been basking in the glory of having climbed that hellish path. Yes, we did the ultimate. We rode on heavy bikes through that difficult-to-climb path. Our euphoria and excitement was back. I could imagine myself as the heavy cavalry of Hannibal that traversed the impossible Alps to launch a surprise attack at the Romans. Soon we had our fort in sights, and were more than ready to unleash ourselves on it.

The trek up the steps of the Lohagad was refreshing after two days on the bike saddle. I could feel the fresh oxygen energize every cell of my body as my mind was seduced by the naked beauty of nature that was draped in the thin veils of fog that hung almost everywhere. Strategically crafted pathways, bastions, towers, large gates, all covered in slippery green moss gave an eerie feeling to the entire place.

Only the thick white fog that hung everywhere and the water that flowed down the steps reminded one that the fort was no longer operational. But standing at an isolated tower, I got goosebumps imagining being under the watchful eyes of hundreds of carefully positioned guards of Sivaji.




Needless to say, I was in love with the fort in its wintery, foggy, wet outfit. But I also wanted to love its green version and marked in my heart to revisit the fort in another season. As usual, I had to be dragged out of the fort by my mates. That was a fort we fought hard to conquer! I had to say goodbye with a heavy heart..

Soon, we were on our way to Lonavala. There wasn't much of interest there. Tiger's leap was the only point that was recommended. But the heavy rains and thick fog which had begun rolling all over the region made it inaccessible to us. We had a long way ahead and decided to skip most of the places,and apart from a beautiful waterfall we stumbled upon by the road side, we mostly focussed on riding to Aamchi Mumbai..

some costly snacks

The roads were perfect, the scenery mesmerizing and the rain kept constant companion. As I was wondering how Maharashtra manages to provide such good roads everywhere, we hit an even wider road with mind blowing quality of lanes and it smelled of international quality. I was taken aback and we riders exchanged amused glances while maintaining the bikes at top speed.

It was not until we noticed the angry stares and constant honking of trucks and cars that we stopped to think. Then it stuck us.

We were in the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Wow!!! Jackpot!! Wait.. what did that board read? "Two-Wheelers Prohibited." Shit. We realized that if caught, it would not just be a matter of paying up. Three mud covered, unkempt youngsters claiming to be engineers from Bangalore riding a rented bike from Pune with almost no papers and a Karnataka registered bike in someone else's name, speeding at 100kmph in the heavy rains on the expressway on Aug 16th would need a lot of explaining.

the illegitimate ones..

 
That was exactly when the police jeep we saw earlier came round the corner, and I thought I could see the wicked smile on the officer's face. We were screwed..

To be Continued..

Whats wrong..

This topic has been running around my mind for some time now, so just thought of posting it. I have never been good in essay writing or any such literary matters as a matter of fact. But I always have points,and this is gonna be disorganized..but I do hope to reduce its effects.On to the field now..

I have been thinking about America and its influence on the world economy,politics,science and most importantly on the minds of each and every individual of the so called third world. What gives it the image of Mr.Invincible, even though a peek into its history would reveal lots of flaws and even now there are lots of deep flaws in its systems(ok residents of glass houses shouldn't pelt stones at others).

What gives them the infinite power to get things done,to move on in any field,unlike in our country where every project comes to a standstill days within making a decision? Ok, these questions lead to thousands of reasons and points of accusations and discussions.But I want to examine a few points that arrived at via some particular route. Let me unfold those as clearly and coherently as possible..

My thoughts emanated from a brief overview of what each major country was renowned for(1900 onwards). It was in this stream of thoughts that I came upon this block and strange connection of America to India. As most of you know, the Germans were known for their machinery and perfectionism, the Brits for naval supremacy and economy, America for the oil and many other rare materials found only in that continent..etc etc. In addition to these, all the countries were colonial in nature, having colonies at far fetched places, earning them military power and revenue. In a single peek, we can say the World War weakened every colonial country and practically brought colonialism to its end,but not USA. It started becoming a major player in world politics from then.

India, being a colony at that time, didn't have enough strength to free itself become a global player. But,I feel that India, with all that we had then could have made a huge uprising and routed out all weakened colonial fools and changed the course of the world. Though there are many logical and valid reasons that prevented such a course of action, lets examine closely. This is where I make my point..and its significance is at the peak in current times. Lack of unity, fueled by regionalism,communalism and petty issues is what had originally led to the colonization of India..and is still the issues plaguing our progress and allowing the USA to retain the spot we could have had.

Consider the rich and developed nations of the world, all except USA and India have fairly homogeneous population in terms of race,colour,caste,religion,language and culture. A few exceptions do exist,but the magnitude of variety is highest in India, followed by the USA. USA, being a fairly new country, and home to immigrants draws its strength in all fields from its multicultural population. On the other hand, the same variety is what hampers all kind of progress in our country.Why is that?

I would say, our sense of nationality and attachment to our different cultural,lingual, regional and communal identities all together make us such dumb fools, incapable of thinking and acting straight. In my point of view, the Americans don't have much of a sense of unity, but then don't have any objection to the presence and progress of others. They seem to be just motivated by the profit motive.
Lately, that has been proved wrong as America is slipping in power and respect. How many Americans care if something happens in their neighbouring state?

EDIT:The above text was typed up in 2009 June and kept in draft as I was sure it was a biased and half correct view of things. But I am publishing it nonetheless as I neither intend to keep it in my dry dock nor just delete such a valid set of ideas.
Off late I hate the vested interest groups that run the things in USA and India as well. And such agencies are working all over the world, spewing out lies to the people who end up just gobbling up those, without getting to taste the nectar of truth(though truth is much more harsher than the lies in most cases).

Anyway I am not qualified in any sense to make authoritative claims regarding policies and operations of Governments, societies and cultures. I am just another speck in the desert. Adios amigos..

Me and the law of the land

Me and the law of the land just doesn't seem to be going hand-in-hand.I seem to always fall into trouble with the cops,especially on the road.

Most of the people know that I am quite rash rider,but only on the NH or outside the city.I have never even tried to break the helmet rule as far as I could.Neither do I overspeed,do stunts or jump traffic signals.But as a human being,everyone is susceptible to errors.

My first experience comes with the Indian Railways.At that time,the Ernakulam Jn station was undergoing major construction with a new entrance being built at the east side,from where my house is 5 mins walking distance.The situation was my friend going to his home during the Onam vacation of the 1st year.He called me to return some of his cds and also give him a company as he was new to the place.My entry was naturally thru the unfinished side.Soon after sometime,a few ppl came running towards us asking abt platform tickets....he had I didnt.I didnt have a single paise with me,so he paid my Rs.290 fine.Thankful for that,but I was not at fault there coz the side I entered didnt have the counter...who hears??

The second one occured again by sheer bad luck.It occured when I was taking my friend to a shop,wich was midway a one way.So while coming back,I pushed the scooter till the main road.And by my misfortune I started it just within that road...right behind a cop,who on turning back found me in that awkward situation.No amount of argument could settle him down.Another 100 bucks gone down the drain.

The third was sort of funny and quick.That occured on an evening when I was going to the temple,my father called asking me to come and pick him up after 30 mins.Usually I neither take my wallet nor vehicle to temple.So I foolishly took the scooter as it is.And while enroute to the pickup spot,I was quite sure that I wud be caught if I had not brought the helmet wich I keep in the scooter itself.On seeing a patrol I checked the cabin to find tat someone had kept it inside the house.Then I just rode past that patrol wen they caught someone....only to be caught a team led by an SI further along the road.Got a notice for 100 bucks,and father didnt turn up in time too..so had to return home and later pick him up and then paid the fine at the station...whoa...wat a day...

Well,tat was day before yesterday I think...today occured something of higher magnitude...my friends forced me to drop them...a triples....and as my luck wud have it...I didnt get into the public road wen a patrol came on the other side.Had it...
Then followed a long session of arguments and we tried to avoid the big fine he wanted to impose.That cop was the same one in the station...he was giving talks on how bad mileage their vehicle has..blah blah...bloody hell...greed was in his eyes...I tried my best by putting up a sorry face while my pals made maximum excuses,and finally he said he will call me later and take the money..the constable was going to take the money without a notice.and the amount??..believe it or not..Rs.290..surely it is going into their pockets..we will see...anyway my mother has seen it only as part of earlier problem...so far so good...donno wat ma father has to say....and nice scene it was for the neighbours and passersby...I am quite known as a decent,calm,sensible...etc.etc..gud things...hm...life is abt taking chances..I wud tell them if they ask me abt this..heeh...

Everything happens for the best...and with each encounter..I hope for the best...