Internship, procession et. al.

It's been so long since I last posted- have been kind of busy. The internship at SAT has been really good so far thanks to the very approachable staff. Yesterday on my way back to Seva Niketan (which I have come to believe is managed by frustrated people who will become morose and start pontificating at trivial issues) I came across a procession of Krishna devotees some of whom were seated on decorated bullock- carts and tongas. One among the various banners read "Ahimsa parmo dharmah" - anyone who noticed the poor bulls bearing the load of ten-fifteen people would have realised the hypocricy of the 'devotees'. Not to mention the fact that the traffic came to a standstill for about half an hour. Come to think of it, so many problems would be solved (rather cease to exist) if only people learn to restrict religion to their homes. More later.

Mumbai Chronicle

A rather lazy Sat'day I must say ... explored more of Byculla- around Clare Road. From the window in my room which overlooks Ismail Merchant Chowk I noticed a small girl knocking on the door of every car that stopped at the signal- begging for some money/ food without much success. But then she discovered a ball lying on the divider and the next moment it appeared to me that she forgot everything else- devoted to rubbing the ball with her dirty frock trying to get rid of the grime and dust. It was indeed an apalling sight and what was more painful to me was the thought that with a bit of luck she might've been born to better off parents- for no fault of hers she was deprived of all the opportunities which evry kid deserves. A rather cliched topic it might be; but for those kids struggling for every morsel it's a harsh truth which they have to face everyday- all for no fault of theirs!

In Mumbai :-)

I'm in Mumbai (after almost 6 months) and I can't stop smiling- the weather's lovely. I arrived only last night and I took a cab from CST to Seva Niketan. However, the cab driver wasn't quite sure about the location of Seva Niketan and I asked an elderly Muslim gentleman- he responded to my Salaam with a smile and explained the route to me in great detail. The locality of Byculla (where Seva Niketan is situated) exudes old world charm- buildings, Parsee ladies clad in their tradiional attire .. everthing's just great.... to be continued.

LES (Last Exam Syndrome)

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. Charles Caleb Colton
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Tomorrow's the last exam: International Law-II and so the right time for this post.

syn·drome: noun : a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition.

I'm not quite sure if I can claim to've coined the phrase which serves as the title of this post but I've through experience recognised several constituents of this syndrome and quite a few of my classmates agree with me.

• Irrespective of the exam scheduled on the last day (whether it's DPC or Torts) you find it doubly hard to concentrate (on the day before the exam).
• Images of home, your last vacation et. al. become very vivid even though you know you'll head for some other city for an internship - particularly true in the case of people like me who hail from obscure places- place seems to be a better word ... I don't really know if my place qualifies as a city.
• You tend to spend a lot more time in sipping coffee/tea (in the mess or outside).
• You derive some strange comfort from gazing at the train/air-ticket.
• You discover a brilliant song which has been lying in your laptop for ages but never found a place in your playlist.
• You tend to be unnaturally calm in the face of load of untouched (leave alone reading it) material for the last exam.

I'll extend this list some other time. It just occured to me ... damn, where did I keep my tickets?

Indecisiveness

Just when everything seemed settled- all issues and doubts resolved; just when I thought I knew what I wanted out of life; just when I thought I knew my own mind - everything changed in a matter of few days and I find myself back to square one. I have no one to blame but myself.
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Just the other day I was talking to one among my close friends in Law School. We were chatting about how everything had changed ever since we came to Law School. He called me the embodiment of metamorphosis and to be honest I did derive some inexplicable happiness from his vivid accounts of the changes he had observed in me. The conversation meandered into an appreciation of our lives in course of which I proudly proclaimed how happy I was with my life and how everything was going on smoothly. The very next day I received the news of a rather adventurous gesture by one of my classmates to a certain person with whom (I believe) I share quite a few interests. It's a pity that I have never been able to talk to this person about the interests we share. We do talk regularly but mostly about mundane issues- issues about which we're expected to (and required to) interact. Few occasions on which this person wanted to talk to me about other issues were lost (for the lack of a better word) by me thanks to one or the other reason- I distinctly remember on one of these occasions I was undergoing a terrible phase of mood-swing and on other occasions I guess I was overwhelmed and I couldn't really gather the courage to extend the conversation. Anyway; ever since I received the above mentioned news, nothing has been the same- every moment I feel compelled to think about certain decisions I made in the past and whether I was mature enough to have made those decisions. Last night I was asked to attend a certain gathering (part of an established practice in Law School to celebrate an occasion in a certain manner) which I did- this person was the cynosure of the gathering and I gave something to this person just to convey my best wishes. In another couple of days I'll leave for Mumbai and this person (I am told) will leave for Delhi- a break lasting about 8 weeks. Perhaps, I'll be able to think clearly about this whole thing which has been occupying my mind during this period and make a decision.
It's really amazing how vagueness (of thought, of reality) can be soothing at times!

Outsiders

" ... people coming from outside have tarnished its (Mumbai's) image" :Uddhav Thackeray.

I was in Mumbai for about three weeks in June, 2007 and for the first few days (thanks to the irksome humidity) I badly wanted to leave. However, gradually I developed an appreciation for the city and towards the end of my stay I fell in love with Mumbai. For one, people were very approachable and helpful - if this quality could be quantified I would mark Mumbaikars 10/10 anyday. I'm looking forward to staying in Mumbai again- for about 5 weeks from 17th of this month.

________________________________________
outsider: a person who does not belong to a particular group http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/outsider

The Thackerays have time and again proved themselves to be not amenable to any positive debate. The Sena brigade has paid homage to outsiders yet again (as mentioned in the heading of this post) and I was prompted to write something about this. They have been using the term to refer to non- Marathis living in Mumbai- asserting time and again that Mumbai is for Mumbaikars (Marathi speaking inhabitants of Mumbai). If priority in time of inhabitation were the criteria for deciding who could be branded as an outsider; most of the Marathi folk inhabiting Mumbai today would be outsiders from the perspective of the Kolis who certainly inhabited Mumbai much before the former. Were few descendants of cavemen (whose implements have been discovered on several sites in present day Mumbai) alive today; most of the inhabitants of Mumbai would've qualified as outsiders. Why should a Marathi- speaking Maharashtrian be regarded more of a Mumbaikar than a Gujarati or a Parsi or a Baghdadi Jew or a Brijbasi whose ancestors moved to the city few centuries ago- the state of Maharashtra surely did not exist then. Now that the state of Maharashtra does exist as a part of India; on what basis can Thackerays claim Mumbai to be only for Maratha Manus. Why should a Bihari or a UPite have any less right of moving to Mumbai than a Maharashtrian? Apart from this being a matter of legal right, in my opinion every UPite, Bihari, Gujarati, Parsi, Tamilian (often ridiculed by Bal Thackeray in his cartoons) who has toiled for years in the city commands lot more moral basis for living in Mumbai than the Thackerays. Outsiders haven't tarnished the image of Mumbai- it is people like Thackerays who have. The so called outsiders have built Mumbai from an obscure archipelago to a booming financial centre. Mr. Thackeray; take away the contribution made to this great city by the Parsis, Baghdadi Jews, Gujaratis, Sindhis, Marwaris and not to forget the Britishers who laid down the basic structural foundations of Mumbai and perhaps then you'll realise what outsiders have done for Mumbai and what you (with your deplorable and atrocious politics) will never be able to do. Jai Hind!

मेरी प्रिय प्रेरणा-स्रोत।

अप्रतिम सौंदर्य से ओत-प्रोत, हे मेरी प्रिय प्रेरणा-स्रोत !

तुमको है समर्पित मेरी लेखनी कि ये उज्जवल ज्योत।

तुम्हारे विधु-मुख के दर्शन, शीतल करते मेरा कण- कण;

कजरारे सुन्दर कमल-नयन; देते हैं मुझको नवजीवन,

तुम पर न्योछावर है मेरे जीवन का प्रतिक्षण।

तुम्हारी मुस्कान की एक झलक ज्येष्ठ में, श्रावण का आभास कराती है,

तुम्हारे केशों की मोहक छवि, मुझे चैन की नींद सुलाती है;

तुमसे विछोह की कल्पना-मात्र मेरे ह्रदय को विदीर्ण कर जाती है।

मेरी स्वप्न- वाटिका में कभी तो अपने पग धरो;

मेरे आशा- पुष्पों को अपनी स्नेह-धारा से सिंचित करो -

देकर प्रेम का महादान इस मूरख- निर्बल पर दया करो।

तुममें खोने की है आकांक्षा, दूजा नहीं मेरे मन में खोट;

साहस करो, विश्वास करो; हे मेरी प्रिय प्रेरणा-स्रोत॥

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I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

अम्मा

उन स्वप्नों ने, उन वचनों ने, अनुत्तरित प्रश्नों ने - आज पुनः अंतर्मन को झकझोरा है अम्मा!
तुम्हारी हथेली की थपकी ने, तुमने जो दी उस घुड्की ने- आज पुनः न जाने क्यों फिर टोका है अम्मा!
रजनी के अंधियारे ने; भोर के उजियारे ने- पुनः तुम्हारे स्पर्श की ओर खींचा है अम्मा!
परीक्षा की बेला में मेरे; मन की इस चंचलता ने- पुनः तुम्हारे अनुशासन को तोड़ा है अम्मा!
कहने को तो आनंदित हैं, लक्ष्य पर सकेंद्रित हैं- पर जीवन के रीतेपन ने तुम्हें ही ढूँढा है अम्मा!


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I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

Kangaroos win yet again

People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck- it's scary to think so much is out of one's control.

So; Kangaroos won yet again and equalled their record of 16 straight test wins. However as a supporter of Indian team I am not disheartened- for one there is always a possibility of our team bouncing back in the series (as they say anything is possible in cricket)and secondly I honestly feel that with the exception of few players the team played really well. But, no team can undo the damage caused by deplorable umpiring. This test match was more like Australia, Benson & Bucknor v. India. Like many occassions in the past so-called purists will again point to the possibility of human error in every game. However I believe cricket enthusiasts all around the world pay to watch errors made by players and not umpires. Besides, it is ridiculous to compare cricket with other games such ac soccer. I mean we have the technology to find out whether a particular decision was correct or not and it's a shame that it's not put to use. The only ground for sticking with the umpire is not to be questioned norm seems to be maintaining the tradition whereunder players are supposed to continue the match witout questioning the umpire even when a decision is blatantly wrong. The International Cricket Council has stood true to its earlier name: The Imperial Cricket Council. There is no age of retirement prescribed for umpires and a 61 year old umpire (who was suspended for the twenty20 world cup championships earlier this year on account of misinterpreting the rule in respect of bad light which caused the farcical finish to the World Cup final in April 2007) whose faculties of perceiving sounds and sight have failed him was appointed as an umpire in this match. This, in my opinion apart from indicating the apathetic attitude of the ICC in this regard also indicates how a seemingly decent person has become a smug- any person with even an infinitesimal amount of self-respect in Bucknor's position would have called it a day on realising that he is clearly not anymore able to do his job well. But no matter how much ink is spilled on the need for introducing change in the rules in this regard; the overbearing scoundrels in the ICC seem to be totally indifferent in this regard.

All said and done, what could have been a memorable victory for our team turned out to be a farce orchestrated to facilitate the victory of Aussies- a team which I have never admired. Reasons for my hatred towards the Aussie cricket team deserve another post and perhaps I will explain the same in some other post.

This is the first post on my blog - I just want to vent my thoughts in respect of one news item I read on http://in.news.yahoo.com/080105/211/6p9pa.html. So, one can get a fake ID card for Rs. 5,500/- ... big deal huh. But then this ID idea was apparently suggested by the Lt. Gov. of Delhi to ensure that the job of identifying terrorists becomes easier. But then as also stated in this article- the suggestion failed to take into account corruption at the level of small government offices where the proess of obtaining such IDs begins. A little application of economics would perhaps tell us that for the person who accepts bribe in such cases it is simply a choice between easy money and turning down the money for fear of a prosecution which in all probability will never be initiated. So the remedy to the problem seems to be ensuring that every such culprit is brought to book but what if the law-enforcers choose to ignore such crimes and not take action because after all they can also be taken care of with some amount of money.
As a citizen I often ask myself this question: what am I supposed to do in such a situation- should I take the normal route to obtaining say a driving license and wait for months together or should I grease the palm of the person concerned (or better still approach a broker/agent) to get the job done quickly. In a worse situation in case I am held up for jumping the signal and I need to get to my destination quickly - what am I supposed to do then? I guess it is these choices we make in respect of small tasks which snowball into a vicious circle (if I may say so). Hopefully; the situation is not beyond redemption yet and perhaps small steps in this direction would help matters. A lot more needs to be done by people at the helm of affairs- how many times have we heard of the municipality officials who ratified a building plan being proceeded against in cases of illegal construction- is it a very tough task? I beg to state that it isn't and in fact for our media who (for the most part seem to have sidelined their obligations as the fourth pillar of democracy) can do some work in this regard to focus on culprits in various government organisations who knowingly or unknowingly facilitate the passage of terrorists; who make it easy for the wealthy and willing to bypass building regulations and I am sure that with the public ever-voracious for such news the TRP of any channel which carries on such an operation and broadcasts the results thereof will hit the roof.