SOUND OF SILENCE

Patriotism indeed has no language. You can express your love ,you can express your feelings even if you cannot speak or hear.That is exactly what these little bravehearts have demonstrated. Why do not we take some lessons from these young people? These politicians are doing everything possible to bring disgrace to our country, more than half of them are uneducated and uncultured. Some of them cannot even sing the National Anthem properly neither do they understand the importance and sacredness of the National Flag.

My country is going through a very challenging phase right now. The need of the hour is camaraderie and harmony. Its not about West Bengal or Telengana or Jharkhand or Delhi... Its about India. The situation is pathetic and the economic condition of our country is deteriorating bit by bit. I,as a citizen of this country do not have a clue as to what should be done to bail out my country from this situation. I feel embarrassed and humiliated when the politicians go to America with selfish agendas and to the utter dismay of the Indian citizenry are shown cold shoulders ( read doors ) by the Americans...

I am really appalled at the growing rate of crimes against women and children, the situation is getting bad to worse. What is wrong with the people, why are they doing it? What do they get out of raping a woman or worst, a child! If indecent clothes and clubbing till the wee hours is the reason for such heinous incidents then how do you justify the incidents which take place in broad daylight,or before 10 pm, involving girls/women who are in salwar kameez or sari? No, its the mindset. This is not about clothes or makeup. the long roots of such horrendous criminalities are deep-seated in the mind itself.

A romantic poetry , a short story or a write-up on love and its many facets is what I should be writing in my blog. Believe me even I am struggling with myself to compose something really beautiful, but one look at the newspaper in the morning and my creativity goes for a toss. I always try to derive inspiration from my surroundings ,the people I come across , rains, clouds, birds, the whole bundle of joy that nature has gifted us, but all that I see around me nowadays is negativity,mostly. Natures wrath, poverty,death of innocent children, dirty politics, the list is endless. The most shocking statement would be the one where a senior actor and politician went on air declaring that a person, an Indian can buy a meal for twelve rupees in Mumbai and for five rupees in other states ! 

Question is ,can he ?As the saying goes, practice what you preach but here they only preach and rest they leave upto media. Media in turn makes a breaking news out of these 'faltu' statements and create a hullabaloo to which we all fall prey knowingly or unknowingly. The circus thus continues but one must not stop hoping. Optimism keeps us alive ……

(  Thanks to Chrome Pictures Pvt Ltd, INDIA for making a wonderful video  )

LIFE IS COMPLICATED

pic-google

All my life I have worked hard to achieve my goals ,often altering my aspirations in accordance with the circumstances. The number of  failures most certainly outnumbering my achievements..but this ratio has not affected my contentment or perhaps I never understood the actuality of this ratio...Thank God I am poor in Mathematics...but this time , at this juncture in my life, I have decided to try an altogether new approach. I have decided to do things which will make me happy, work at a pace that is not demanding and to a certain extent flexible,  and have no preset goal, not a single objective. Just want to see what am I destined for ! Complicated? That is what life is !!

GREY'S ANATOMY

Really amazed !!! Never imagined that a television show can be so powerful that it can actually inspire ,influence and motivate a child more than the parents , academically to be precise.... It's really not so terrible to let your child watch some television if it is a serial like ' Grey's Anatomy' (an American television medical drama on Zee Café )..allow him and discover the truth .....

THE BEST TEACHER

A mother happily sacrifices her aspirations ,contributing to the well being and upbringing of her child ,which is not an easy and simple task . Her main priority is always the well being of her family especially her children, which is often  misconstrued as 'duty'... not that a mother complains, but is definitely hurt when the very child or children she thought would reciprocate her feelings and try to understand her emotional needs , sometimes react in such a manner that she cannot help but wonder was it really worth it !! It is really difficult to fathom a child's thought process when he/she is on the verge of crossing the threshold of adolescence into adulthood..... the fun and frolic filled life suddenly seems complicated and only a mother can understand his/her mental state..and only a mother can help her child to manoeuver his/her thoughts towards a proper direction...it is up to the child to realise that educated or uneducated ,a mother is the best teacher,the ultimate 'guru' he/she can look up to whenever faced with challenges and get a larger perspective of life....
The emotional need is essentially mutual in nature because I believe , there is a child inside every adult and an adult inside every child... no wonder , the adolescents are nowadays referred to as 'young adults'....

I AM NOT APOLITICAL BY COMPULSION.......

I am not apolitical by compulsion , but by choice
I am not a meek citizen but I do not protest as my voice will be muzzled
I am against criminalities but avoid speaking up lest I am labeled
I am a citizen of a democratic country not by accident, but by birth

MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS.........

I woke up suddenly last night and found my husband sobbing badly..like a child.. eyes closed but crying. I realised he was having a real bad dream...could be of loss or sickness...or something eerie.....worried, I woke him up and asked him, "did you have any bad dreams?" He stared perplexedly at me and went (read ran)straight to the living room , came back and told me nah,everything is fine.

I said, "But what was it , what made you so upset ? " 

He answered, "I dreamt , we had a tiff and that you emptied the remaining scotch , pouring it down the kitchen sink" ...
Can you beat it !! So blunt and soooooooo....well, forget it.....

And sanguine that its still there and his 'on the rocks' rendezvous has not been ruined, my hubby was, within no time snoring away to glory... Staring blankly at the ceiling, I lay there for a long while, acridly wondering whether it is his scotch or blackberry or me? Where do I figure on his priority list? ( Considering,  the first thing he tends to do after waking up in the morning is to check his cell phone.....)

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So true. Men ARE from mars and women ARE from venus..............period !!

WHAT'S NEXT ?

The beginning of the end....
Trunk calls .....radio sets...cassettes.../... cassette players....discontinuation of the telegram services.... 

EK THI DAAYAN....

Dhoop na tum ko lage

Khol denge chhatariyaan

Peechhe peechhe din bhar

Ghar daftar mein le ke chalenge hum

Tumhaari filein, tumhaari diary

Gaadi ki chaabiyan, tumhaari enakein

Tumhaara laptop, tumhaari cap, phone

Aur apna dil, kanwaara dil

Pyaar mein haara bechara dil

Aur apna dil

picture -courtesy-google

The only thing amazing about the movie ‘ ek thi dayan’ was this song….the lyrics so very Gulzarish yet so contemporary …in his otherworldly, inimitable style only  Gulzaar Sahab can weave the letters so beautifully and write songs/poems which do not seem as if lost in a sea… he surely  knows how to go with the flow…a master weaver after all

VIBGYOR

 A sudden urge to walk my dog on the terrace...a beautiful sunset, an orangish sky, the sun suddenly seeming so humane as if trying to strike a conversation with me...and then it happened !! Someone or something tells me to turn around and there you are ! A picturesque and lively Vibgyor ...a flamboyant rainbow , splashing the joie de vivre of its seven colours from one end to the other and holding me a captive. It was as if  the limitless was telling me 'see , I can also write poetry' ....and how !! By the time I managed to reconnect with realism and decided to share the view with my better half and capture it permanently, it vanished.... Awestruck, I muttered 'God is so kind' ...
I did not strive even an iota to decipher the implication or the rationale behind such a fascinating occurrence at that point (16th May, 2013) but later ,that is precisely after two days, when I suffered a sudden and ferocious attack of bronchospasm and shortness of breath (respiratory distress) which almost choked me to death, I did manage to put all the pieces together and solve the puzzle...His kind-heartedness and heartlessness are never without any rhyme or reason. We should not take our life for granted ,because the vice versa is not at all fun.

Life has its own unique way of teaching us lessons from time to time,in a subtle or emphatic manner. Sometimes, it does not even bother to notify us. Something suddenly happens and we are pushed into the ocean of queries, wondering about the incessant 'whys' and 'hows'. We do succeed in finding the answers,or should I say we often succeed in manipulating the answers according to our convenience.'This happened because I had hurt him/her', or 'they suffered because they had started boasting too much of late', so on and so forth. But we often overlook the de facto.... life is way too powerful and way too complex an entity for us to comprehend. Life can hear us, life can react and life can make us dance to the tune of its choice, and we, the mortals, can only stare in disbelief or appreciate its bravado.

It is very difficult to presuppose the nature and face of death until you have seen it. Most of the time those who have seen it are never able to describe it because they are transported to 'the other side of the life, into the realm of spirits ' after their encounter that is. Luckily for me, I have survived that brief but terrible encounter with the other side of life. I can now describe the face,the attitude and the complexion of death. Believe me ,Death is not handsome, neither is he fair ,he is faceless yet has penetrating eyes, yes 'he' because it has a voice which is distinctly masculine, but Death has a heart of gold...he loves the language of love, he loves cajoling, he loves the weak, he loves to give if you are ready to beg with sincerety. if you have the ardency in your voice which can evoke the goodness in him then you can conquer  him.

Life has given me a second chance for the first time and I am going to cherish this moment for the rest of my life till death knocks again. For the first time I realised that a person is able to self-introspect better when confined to the four walls of a hospital room. Amidst the tinkling sound of various medicine bottles,needlles and other equipments, with full concentration, you will also get to hear the footsteps of life and death which are tiptoeing outside the wards with two things on their lips, a naughty smile and silence.

With every intravenous dose of antibiotic my body was afflicted with an unbearable pain.This oft-repeated pain made me a stronger person and reinstated my faith in the power of Karma, and the entire cycle of cause and effect was thus fortified by this faith. 

YEH MERA INDIA.............

image courtesy-google

When my son was in the junior school (South Point ) , in class one or two(don’t remember exactly), one day he came back from school and shared some words of wisdom that his teacher had taught him. He said “you know mamma,our teacher says it is very important to be a good hanuman being ( honuman being ) because a person with a heart of gold is loved and respected by everyone even if he is poor and not good in studies”….that day we laughed when he mispronounced human being as ' hanuman being ' ( bengalis often use the word 'honuman ' to refer to monkeys) ........but today , when I look back and think about that funny episode, I cannot but marvel at the correctness of that mistake.....

Yes, I say so because the circus which is telecast everyday on various channels ,by various factions of media is nothing but a bouquet of filthy politics, innumerable crimes and a horrific assorted bag of vandalism and  crimes against women...... Add to it the 'glorification' of a bollywood superstar who has been sentenced because of unlawful activities. With all those overenthusiastic media people,bodyguards and policemen surrounding him and the convoy of cars it was really hard to believe that he happens to be a bomb blast convict......and the mighty cricketers who have yet again proved that they are not only good wielders of the bat and ball but also very skilled in raking in the moolah by doing jumping jhapak on and off the field , and most importantly ,pretty efficient in striking deals with the bookies and underworld..
Are we shocked? Naah ...
The list is perhaps longer than this and those responsible for the present state of this nation are nothing but monkeys...really (do not intend to demean hanumanji as we worship him )... but what is the point? The so called law abiding citizenry of this country is as responsible as the dubious politicians and the custodians of  law......we are accepting everything as we do not want to fight.
Do I have a right to protest against such malpractice or even condemn the system when I am myself encouraging it? NO. A few days ago I paid a hefty amount as bribe because I wanted my passport to clear the hurdles of police verification without any hitch.....they demand ,we pay...and then we complain...why? Is not it a crime to pay a bribe? We all know ' both the giving and the receiving party of the bribe commit a crime '...still !!
What if I had not paid? The concerned department would have delayed the procedure or may have even left the file unopened....(that is what the official said...a polite threatening) wow! Aam Aadmi darr gaya ji.... this is the problem.... I am sure ,I am not alone...there are many like me out there who always pay some  EXTRA  as a ' price of convenience ' to get their work done and then lament within the four walls.... it is high time for some spirited soul to come forward and bring about the much needed change/reform which is long overdue....

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SCAMS TO FIVE YEAR OLD TO SARABJIT TO SANAULLAH TO CHINA TO INDIA TO SARADHA TO TADA TO MATCH FIXING....AM I SHOCKED? NAAH...

POLSTORM....

It is possible to tame lady luck...that is exactly what the aggressive all-rounder Pollard demonstrated yesterday...and how !! such effortless boundaries...or so they seemed !!! the last three overs were WOW  ...poora 'paisa wasool' for the Mumbaikars ... yesterday's match was indeed hit by POLSTORM....

MOTHERHOOD ...

Last month during one of the sessions , Javed Akhtar ji raised a very pertinent question in the parliament that , “Why do we often say there is heaven beneath a mother’s feet? Or for that matter, mothers are equivalent to the supreme power,God ? Then what about those women who have not attained ‘motherhood’ ? ”

Well , point to wonder about ………

The most ironical thing is the actuality that we Indians worship Durga,Kali etc etc as different forms of ‘Shakti’ , as ‘MA’, yet women are being subjected to heinous and horrific treatment every few seconds….

Coming back to the point , my heart echoes Javed sahab’s feelings. Motherhood or motherly affection is deeply embedded in every woman. It is not important for her to give birth to a child biologically to appreciate the essence of it. Apart from procreation, caring and sharing and of course sacrifice are the virtues bestowed upon womanhood ..…or else, how is  it possible for a woman to bond so well with her adopted child and shower him/her with all the love and affection?  

A moment ago came across an article in ‘THE TELEGRAPH’ which mentions various tribulations faced by single moms who intend to adopt and bring up the adopted chidren single-handedly… the best part is ,they succeed and their determination wins …..
Please do not elevate a woman  to the pedestal which belongs to God…rather treat every woman ,(mother ,sister,girlfriend or wife) with love and respect and this world will be a better place to live in…...

(picture courtesy- google)

RIP Sarabjit Singh.......

Well well…news channels are having a gala time these days…less hard work , yet their plates are full of ‘chatpata’ news….. Barkhas..Rajdeeps…Arnabs..and Sagarikas et al will now get busy in adding all the required ingredients to make their broth scrumptious and appetizing..and serve it at an appropriate time with a concoction of so called erudite politicians and dignitaries…

Me, as a citizen of this country will do my bit and pray for the departed soul.

RIP Sarabjit Singh………

( dil ye maan ne se inkaar kar raha hai ki maut ki vajah 'coma' mein chale jana thi.... ho sakta hai mujrim ko maarne ka naya tarika ijaat kiya gaya ho..pataa nahin...aajkal jo halaat hain ..kuchh bhi ho sakta hai... )

NACH MERI BULBUL..........

Does IPL really need these cheerleaders? I personally detest this particular idea..Besides , with so much frenzy ,hoopla,glamour and  hype that IPL already brings with itself every season…would we really mind if these firangi girls (pune being an exception) are not there to jump and jig ??..…What with those unsynchronised stupid steps !!!  (literally)

Looking at these girls , I am reminded of an old Hindi song

‘ NACH MERI BULBUL TUJHE PAISA MILEGA ’ ………

IPLcan definitely do without the cheerleaders as cricket (in any format) is not only popular but an obsession in India……….

MERE AANGAN ME ROZ HOLI HAI .../ मेरे आँगन में रोज़ होली है…....

White is an amalgamation of various colours, white as in moonlight, white as in white lilies, white as the colour of peace...
But the colour of love? Who knows !!
What if I conclude it is white !
My entity embodies all these beautiful colours even when it is not spring…
I rejoice festival of colours everyday and my thoughts find their abode in my verse effortlessly….
Even if my garb is not always colourful or devoid of colours , in actuality, it is splashed with all the colours of the spectrum…
HAPPY HOLI TO ALL............

आज अगर चुनरी ऐसी ही रहे
सफ़ेद मगर मुस्काती रहे
हर्ज़ क्या ?
प्रेम का रंग कैसा है ?
सफ़ेद है, तो हर्ज़ क्या है?
मालूम है न .....
सफ़ेद ने ही तो है छुपा रखे
रंग सारे तुम्हारे हमारे !
केवल बहुरंगा बसंत ही क्यों,
यह रंग और यह कविता,
बहते रहेंगे निर्बंध,
एक निर्झर की तरह ।
उन्मुक्त....
व्योम से धरा,
धरा से व्योम ।
रंगा हुआ मेरा अस्तित्व है,
मेरे आँगन में रोज़ होली है .....

Aaj agar chunri aisi hi rahe
safed magar muskati rahe
harz kya?
Prem ka rang kaisa hai?
Safed hai, toh harz kya hai?
Maloom hai na......
safed ne hi to hai chhupa rakhe,
rang saare tumhare hamare !
Kewal bahuranga basant hi kyon,
yah rang aur yah kavita
bahte rahenge nirbandh,
ek nirjhar ki tarah.
Unmukt ....
Vyom se dhara,
dhara se vyom...
Ranga hua mera astitwa hai,
mere aangan mein roz holi hai...........

DAWANAL (Forest Fire) / दावानल ........

Unrequited love or one-sided love is not very rare in this world which is also inhabited by egotistic and headstrong individuals. Sometimes, in order to defy his /her feelings a person takes refuge in anger and haughtiness, without even once thinking about how the other person will feel. On the other hand, there are some people who believe in the power of love ,who have faith in loving unconditionally, even if it is one-sided , hoping against all hope that one day they will conquer the resentment or ignorance of the person who rules their heart….

Ahankar tumhara ..

chheen leta hai masoomiyat

us bachche ki,jo baitha hai

dil ke ek kone mein

dubakkar,tumhare darr se

kyon?

Ik chingari nikalti hai,tumhare

seene ko cheerti hui,aur

nirjeev,shushk bhaawnaon ko

jala deti hai failti hui aag

dawanal ki ,aur

rah jata hai bhasmavshesh

Ahankar mera...

prateeksha mein ki kab

dawanal shant hoga,aur

thande bhasm se janm loge

naveen tum

prajwalit karta rahta hai

pratyek din ek dipakvriksh

aashaanwit, ki tum lautoge

chandan ki thandak odhke

prem ki roshni lekar.........

(dawanal- forest fire, wildfire ; shushk-dry; bhasmavshesh-ash; aashaanwit-full of hope)

pic courtesy-google

अहंकार तुम्हारा ..

छीन लेता है मासूमियत

उस बच्चे की, जो बैठा है

दिल के एक कोने में

दुबककर,तुम्हारे डर से

क्यों?

इक चिंगारी निकलती है,तुम्हारे

सीने को चीरती हुई ,और

निर्जीव,शुष्क, भावनाओं को

जला देती है फैलती हुई आग

दावानल की , और

रह जाता है भस्मावशेष

अहंकार मेरा ..

प्रतीक्षा में की कब

दावानल शांत होगा,और

ठन्डे भस्म से जन्म लोगे

नवीन तुम

प्रज्वलित करता है

प्रत्येक दिन एक दीपकवृक्ष

आशान्वित, कि तुम लौटोगे

चन्दन की ठंडक ओढ़के

प्रेम की रौशनी लेकर ..

R.I.P BRAVE GIRL

My faith has been restored in the Amighty . He saved her. Saved her from the innumerable traumatic ordeals which she would have otherwise gone through if alive. She wanted to live , so do we,the women of this country . All that we want is freedom from inhibitions. We want our husbands ,brothers and other men folk to respect us. We want stringent laws to be enforced for rapists , wife beaters and eve teasers.

True,everything has to start from scratch. I  have no idea how,when , where who, good heavens ,so many questions are crowding my mind right now. The citizenry of this nation need a proper direction . This anger,this anguish and pain has to be channelized into right direction. Most of us do not have the ,courage or the knack of becoming a politician but I believe a right attitude can always be the guiding force for individuals with limited potential.

Government now has a lot of explanation to do in this particular case . But the question is will they? They had to wait till the 23 year old brave woman was officially declared ‘dead’ to label this heinous incident as murder !! Government has to listen to the people who voted for them. Reforming these brutal barbaric criminals or life sentence is simply out of question. Fulfill our demand…hang them. Kill them.
Rest in Peace brave girl. Am sure this time the spark ignited by your sacrifice will transform our mindsets….

DELHI GANGRAPE

A senior politician says rapes are taking place because of ‘provocative item numbers’…..

How do we react to this? And how do we retort when so called moral guardians point out that the brutal and heinous crimes such as rape and gangrape will trim down once the Indian women decide to wear decent clothes? 

Decent clothes !!! Then why do we see these perpetrators targeting women who are fully clad in sarees or salwar kameez? Decent enough right?

Very difficult to comprehend the filthy mindset of these beasts….they could be from slums, from mansions,from any strata, but one thing is common here,they have the least respect for the opposite sex and mostly all of them have been brought up in an environment which is inhabited by wife- beaters and alcoholics.How can we expect men to treat women respectfully when the basic cultural norm is faulty?
Its really overwhelming to see so many friends posting status updates in facebook against such atrocities. But essentially, the need of the hour is to educate menfolk at home and in the society at large to view women as equal to men.

Mayan calendar was not wrong in predicting the Doomsday.I feel world is not a small place to be ruined in a single blow. Its the beginning of an end perhaps. End of everything BAD....

Yesterday a woman ,who came from Nepal looking for her husband,was raped thrice within 24 hours in Mumbai. And we thought Mumbai is a safe place for women!! And how does our esteemed judiciary exactly categorize rare,rarest of rare etc in crimes such as acid attacks and rapes? By the graveness of the victims condition? Her external injury? What about the mental/emotional bruises? High time our judiciary makes amendments. The delay in justice in heinous crimes can only encourage filthy people.

I salute the people of Delhi who have braved the chill apart from lathi charge,tear gas etc to campaign for this cause. Protest against violation of human rights was long overdue. Government has to keep its political interest aside and work towards betterment of the society. We ,the citizens have also realized that we need to play a dynamic role in ushering a change. We are the world afterall !

Eight days and still cannot get her out of my head…the brave girl underwent a sixth surgery yesterday and her condition continues to be critical..perhaps will never be normal…the quality of her future life has been completely ruined by this devilish act. A painful death is what these devils deserve.Should be executed in public, should be lynched. 

“With so many pending rape cases, hanging each of them would mean sending around 60 people to gallows everyday”, lawyers said as the cry for capital punishment grew in the aftermath of Sunday gangrape.Why can’t they gun them down point blank? Kissa khatam .But no,the erudite lot still feels that life imprisonment is the most appropriate punishment.

I am also appalled by the behaviour of the bystanders on that ill-fated day.They could have atleast covered the girl with a shawl or a dupatta. Well, thousands of men and women from different walks of life, mostly young students,  have gathered and held demonstrations at India Gate to protest against the delay in justice.How ironical!! Even after 65 years of independence we are still campaigning for the freedom and safety of women !!

A mere ‘aam aadmi’ like me can only sit and watch while the victims fight for their lives and the rapists roam around freely in the society or serve life sentences in the jail which is no less than a haven for these felons….

The attack on the otherwise nonviolent protest was absolutely unnecessary.Dispersing the agitators,including women and children,beating the journos,breaking their cameras…everything was very much preplanned as is their (Gandhis and PM) conspicuous absence from the actual scene that is the campaign …. .the whole drama about hijacking the campaign and speechbazi by the ministers is nothing new to us.we know pretty well who these antisocial elements are and sent by whom. The youth of our country understands this reasonably well and is not at all shaken by this crackdown.
Yes, a mass protest without a leader can go haywire, but, as of now the outcome has been positive . This crowd consists of JNU students,doctors,engineers,chartered accountants,all of them bright and raring to go….leaders will emerge, just a matter of time………….

People can think I am impractical , especially when I am being so optimistic about something which is so very rare in our country, the 'peoples movement'.commoners voice is seldom heard in our country.This time I have no other option.. I have to believe, need to have faith in the protesters.I have to change myself, and the mindset of my family members,This girl has been so brave , still fighting with death, her tears should not go in vain......................

ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN ASSAM........

Blazing houses….homeless people…emaciated children……..makeshift tents….this is not my Assam…….I abhor these images……..
What is wrong with the world? Sixty fifth Independence Day celebrations are just a few days away and this is what we get to hear from the beautiful North East ! Racial violence ! The first fifteen years of my life spent in Assam is the most magnificent chapter of my life. That is precisely the reason why I am unable to relate to this ethnic violence and hostility.
I owe a lot to this state.I will remain indebted to Assam ,especially Tezpur, where I grew up literally, getting nurtured by the nature in every step during my schooldays.Beautiful people,beautiful faces,sweetness of the language,simplicity of their mannerism, sums up Assam for me. The ample expanse of green wherever we went and the picture perfect rawness of the landscape is still very clearly etched in my memory.It is by the virtue of those well spent years in Assam that I can still wield my pen to bring out the creative best in me. Political upheavals were always there but we never got the whiff of it while interacting with the Assamese people.Infact some of my Assamese teachers who were also my mother’s colleague, would often stay with us during Assam bandhs.I do not remember a single Assamese who ever spoke to us in a discourteous or boorish manner.
The ethnic clashes have distorted and blemished the tranquility and harmony of an otherwise balanced state.I am also pretty astounded at the role that our very dynamic media is playing, specially the print.  A furore of this intensity has been relegated to the fourth page of a leading daily. Well, media rules !! Stories such as 'molestation of a Guwahati girl' occupies a prominent space in the first page,not for one but for many consecutive days. But poor, helpless citizens running helter-skelter, in dirty clothes and eyes filled with tears,perhaps,not enough to enthuse the readers.What is more inexcusable is the insensitive attitude of the central government towards the whole issue. Our esteemed and far-sighted politicians are still thinking about sending the army to control the situation.For goodness sake…its been three weeks already!!
Right now my mind is inundated with a mixture of emotions.The excruciating pain and suffering that I see on the beautiful faces is intolerable. People have lost their homes and belongings , their near and dear ones and most of all ,their hope. It is very easy to write about this tumultuous state of affairs sitting inside the comfort of my living area .I feel so helpless and powerless. Those who have the power to bring this situation under control are busy maligning each other inside the parliament.Even the otherwise poised and well mannered Sonia Gandhi is seen behaving quite erroneously while boosting her party members to ‘shout’ against some objectionable words. But the point is, who will take care of the state which lies in the North - East and needs an immediate attention ?

I am sure, beneath such lovely and beautiful disposition of the Assamese people lies a very strong heart and an indomitable willpower.May God bless them with tolerance and love. Hopefully,with a bit of luck,life will get back to normalcy very soon.All the best Assam………..

NEWSPAPER

THEN-Hope my letter finds you in pink of health and cheer…..

NOW-Hope this message or this mail or this sms or……………

Letters ,postcards,registered letters etc are gradually striding towards the fate of the telegrams and STDs. How many of you know about trunk calls ? OMG, if my son reads this he is going to relegate me to the times of the cavemen!!
Just one thing has survived in the face of this booming technology – ‘NEWSPAPER’.
The charm of this entity has not faded even by an iota over so many years and that is so wonderful . Most of us still want our newspapers ,crispy and fresh,first thing in the morning ,over a cup of tea or coffee.Newspapers have survived the battle with electronic media because they have numerous plus points . The greatest anvantage being the flexibility which it brings with itself . The idiot box will not telecast the news bulletin at our convenience but our newspaper listens to us.We can read it whenever we want to and also stack the old ones ,use some cuttings from them for projects and collage.
Its true that all the leading newspapers have their respective websites but other than the journos and other media professionals how many of us really feel the urge to read a news bulletin on a computer screen?Well ,even the younger lot appreciates the resourcefulness and worth of the print media out of an assortment of means of communication accessible by them
I am pretty confident that newspapers are never going to meet the fate of the Dinosaurs.