Stand Together

Long long time ago in an age far far away...... nope I'm not reciting a fairy tale.  Ahem... Long long time ago in an age far far away (perhaps not so long ago) I used to write poetry which made sense to no one except me. I remember I was in 7th standard, 11 yrs of age. I wrote a small four line poem and showed it to my English teacher. It went something like this "Oh heavenly bodies...." Yep about stars in a sky like any 11 year old would imagine. Coming back to the teacher she didn't believe a single word of what I had wriiten and instead complained to my dear mother that I had copied it from some one. It couldn't have come from my pen she said (I was supposed to be dumbest in the class). Now that was a blow so back then I gave up with my first poem itself. My fingers began to itch once again two years later and this time I didn't show the poems to anyone, kept them secret under lock and key but unfortunately my younger sister found the key and looo.... all ...

Yesterday was All Soul's Day and I always go to the graveyard where my ancestors are buried to lay flowers on their graves. The newest addition being my Dad's grave. But I'm not going to write about something grave and sad. The graveyard or cemetary where my folks are buried is an ancient one. Every time I take a round in the cemetary I'm amazed (by the way I've been doing this since I was three years old). The old graves are so beautiful and magnificient. Most of them are the graves of Britishers. There is a grave of a certain Mr. James Macphearson next to my grandfather's grave. It has a magnificient Cross and an Angel clinging to the  Cross. Sheer beauty in marble. A bit farther away is the grave of a certain Mrs. Florence Hilliers. She must've been a beautiful woman as her grave has her own statue holding a wreathe standing on it. Brilliant piece of art!  But alas! There is no one who lays flowers on these beautiful graves. I and my sisters always take e...

Article 25 of the Indian Constitution gives every Indian the Right to Freedom of Religion. The essence of this article is that every Indian citizen has the right to not only follow but also propagate the religion of his/her choice. It guarantees the right to choose the faith we want to follow.   Do we follow it? Do we believe in it? I think some handfuls of people don’t. I guess this is why we see communal riots occurring so often. We as citizen enjoy this liberty of having the right to make a choice unlike many communist countries but do we respect it enough? In my opinion we will be able to completely enjoy and respect this right only when we learn to respect the choice of others. People chose what they believe in so why turn violent against them and prosecute them in the name of religion? All these fanatic bad examples those are present in every community need to take a chill pill. Live and let others live in peace.

I was still trying to digest the news of the serial blasts in Delhi's famous markets yesterday when I had another shock at 1:30 am at night. I received an SMS from my friend Monty this is what it said. "Emergency! Pray for Churches in Banglore. RSS beat up 36 Pastors; now heading towards New Life College. They have also attacked SIACS. Pray for Bible College students. Please forward this message." Shocked as I already was I switched on the television immediately. To my surprise I saw and heard no mention of Banglore on any news channel. I called Monty after surfing news channels of all languages. This is what he said. Me: Monty is the news you gave true? I don't see anything on t.v Monty: Yes I know even I don't see anything on t.v but I'm sure its true as I got the message from a friend who's from Banglore . He saw a Pastor being beaten up. Me: Okay, I guess it will come in the news by morning. We then wished each other good night but hardly slept. Me,...

Does anybody have any idea how many languages exist in the World? I don't. All I know is that I'm well conversant in three languages and know two partially well. Here in India lot of importance is given to mother tongues or the language you acquire while in your mother's womb. For me its Hindi. I live in South India, a "No Hindi Zone" and the language spoken here is Telugu. I witnessed something really sad amongst students and fellow young citizens like me. They don't like Telugu! They think being heard speaking in a local language is unfashionable. They fall so low as to even announce that they don't know their own language. Shocking isn't it. So much importance is given to English that people forget that they have their very own language at which they are masters. I know English is important but these so called local, regional or vernacular languages are also important. They are our very identity, giving us a sense of belonging a sense of being ourse...

Reading a novel or watching a movie, which one would you prefer as your best mode of entertainment? In today's modern world novels are things of the past we'd rather prefer a movie. I'll tell you why. Who has the time to sit with a 600 page book for days together to enjoy a good story? Nobody, not today atleast. Thats why people prefer to watch a story that begins and ends within 3 hours and also gives visual pleasure. But my query is what about those movies that are made on these 600 - 1000 pages novels? Do we watch them? If we do, do we like them? Most of such movies are a filled with a little or (in most cases) lots of "masala" to suit the sesibilities of the so called "audiences". The best example I would quote here is Jane Austen's timeless classic "Pride and Prejudice" and Gurinder Chadda's murderous attempt to make it into a movie bollywood style! I wished Eliza and Dracy didnt exist in the novel after having watched this disaste...

Books??? What are they? A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a sheet is called a page. A book produced in electronic format is known as an e-book. Okay that got too serious :-) Who needs books?? We don't. We're Gen X. We flee from books the way a Princess would flee from an ogre (everybody is not Princess Fiona). But I guess in this context, if a book is an ogre and I a Princess, then I'd love it with all I have. I've been brought up reading, reading, reading or rather I choose to grow up that way. The habit of reading is said to be the most sophisticated and civilized habit. Who cares we're all rebels we don't need books to make us civilized. Or do we? The definition of being civilized has also changed. For our predecessors, being civilized mainly meant being cul...