I wish I could undo the Past

Rajesh is six yrs old. He goes to a decent school but doesn’t have many friends, the reason being his mother, Rekha. Yes his mother is in a profession which the society doesn’t accept, she is a bar dancer. As it happens she is not here by choice but fate.

She had lost her parents when she was just six, from then her uncle and aunt looked after her, but the love was never there and she was just treated as a liability. She had big ambitions to become a successful business developer and then start her own firm; she had joined a special management course from a reputed institute the completion of which would have guaranteed a placement and the finance for establishing one’s own business to the topper. In the initial days of her two year course there was a debate in which single handedly had outspoken the ‘self-proclaimed’ stud of the class Deepak. He felt insulted in front of the entire batch of students and he wanted to take revenge. Rekha had forgotten about the incident. Deepak was only second to Rekha in the class.

But after a while they became friends and very quickly close friends. Rekha shared everything with Deepak and so did he. Soon their friendship had turned into love. Deepak showered all the love on Rekha which she never got once her parents had passed away. She was almost addicted to him; she did as he told and sometimes as he ordered.

One and a half year had passed and they were in their last semester. Everyone was preparing hard to top the exams though no one had a realistic chance with Deepak and Rekha leading the way. But just as the semester started Rekha was pregnant, she told this to Deepak and Deepak was on the top of the world, he introduced her to his parents and told the truth. Somehow he convinced her to keep that child promising her to marry just as he will be 21, which was by the way after her delivery period.

As Rekha’s uncle came to know about this they told her to abort the baby but to no avail. After a heated argument Rekha left her place and started living at Deepak’s place with his parents. As soon as the college authorities came to know they warned her to abandon the baby or else they will suspend her. She sacrificed her studies thinking that Deepak will score the first rank and will get the opportunities and therefore she sacrificed everything without taking Deepak’s name in the matter. As a result she was suspended. Deepak on the other hand was the first rank holder of the class and got the placement for six months after which he would have got the finance to start his own firm.

Rekha now is a bar dancer and just manages to survive with her child. Rekha gave the birth to her child and named him Rajesh. Yes she is the only parent of the child as Deepak did not marry her and even refused to accept that it was their child, she had an option to abort the child but she didn’t took that easy option and gave the birth. She was already so defamed that no one was ready to give her a respectable job and she was forced to take this step to stay alive and bring up her child.

Deepak had just used her to be at the top. Yes it was not love but his plan. He stayed in Bangalore with his parents and just had come to Mumbai to study. Everything was fake, his love parents and every other thing just to take out revenge and be at the top. How can people be so cruel?

On the other hand Rekha had landed up in a bar and ruined her life. His child Rajesh who already is bullied by other children has an entire life of hell to go through. The girl who was an over ambitious human being and would always wanted to dream had landed up miserably in her real life.

A Revolution in the making.......

We all feel that we should stand against the wrong, but I and my friends group did this thing at Kanheri Caves located in National Park in Borivali, Mumbai where we had gone for an outing. To start with there was a new rule implemented that eatables were not allowed inside the caves, the obvious reason being littering of papers or waste food items. We knew that we are not gonna do that and the checking was also not very strict so we just told the person who was checking that we had empty Tiffin boxes. We went on the top of the hill and started having our lunch. We first spread the newspaper and then all the food items were kept on the paper or plastic bags.
Certainly a person came with a stick and shouted at us ‘yeh kya ho raha hai’ he meant what the hell was going on. Then in fraction of a second he came near us and started yelling at us that once we were informed that foodstuffs are not allowed inside then why were we having our lunch there. In no time an argument started and that person was treating us as if he owns our lives. The moment he gave a rude answer back to one of the girls of our group we were fired up and started arguing aggressively. Then he said that we would be needed to pay Rs 500 as a fine and took us down to the main entrance where the checking was going on.
On our way back we saw a child eating a piece of a chapatti and a man eating wafers, we then started shouting at him and now we also wanted to teach him a lesson and we took him down. The main person handling the situation was a bit more intelligent than this man and he handled the situation nicely. Neither he shouted at us nor did he talk about any fine. He just told us that they allow everybody with foodstuffs thinking people would not open it but then people open it and the entire purpose of disallowing eatable for cleanliness stands no meaning.
Then we went downstairs and had our lunch. Our blood was boiling regarding this whole matter and there was a huge debate and discussion regarding the entire episode during our lunch. The solutions that we came up in those healthy and aggressive tones were as follows –
1) Have a big board or a hoarding before the entrance which says “Eatables Disallowed”
2) Have a baggage counter where the visitors can safely keep their bags and go with coupon system, as the bags were kept openly in a haphazard manner, there was no guarantee that they would have been there till the time we return as there was no one looking after them.
3) The people should not be starved so have a canteen at the top of the canteen, but again that would not exactly solve the problem of cleanliness
4) Have dust bins on the hills and in the caves, which was suggested by one of my friends. But the person said that people kick the dustbins and throw it away, so it’s pointless
5) Have fixed iron dustbins which can’t be moved, but this is not possible he said without giving a proper reason, but personally I feel that won’t work as most people don’t bother to throw the garbage in the bin.
In this entire process we came up with these solutions but I don’t think anything is achievable till the authorities are interested in doing such things and till that time I think disallowing eatables is the best option.
As far as we were concerned, I agree that we were wrong but then there could have been a better way of saying it and we would have said him sorry out of guilt, but as you know people think that if they are in authority they need to show their power by curbing and insulting others, but that guy really had it from us and he would definitely remember before uttering a word against anyone.

Is Strike the only option?

Def of strike as per the Wikipedia is ‘it is often a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances’.

The recent strikes carried out in our country have forced me to question the very belief in democracy. Is strike the only option that we have in our hands left to convey our points? The organizations and associations who have any small or a big demand are least interested in talking with the government or the concerned authorities. All they want is whatever is their demands should be fulfilled whether they are necessary or just to satisfy their egos.

Some months ago it was the motormen who took to such strikes and that too at peak returning hours. They knew that thousands and lakhs of people who have nothing to do with their demands were going to be affected but still they went for it. In the end the result was the city was disrupted for an hour or so. They finally were convinced and started the train services. The infamous fuel strike brought the city on its knees in just a day and it became an emergency to control it as almost all the people irrespective of their socio economic background faced tough times. The truck drivers on the other hand went on for strike for a longer period of time. This strike went on for so long because it wasn’t directly affecting the public like the Fuel strike.

Who can forget the Residents Doctor’s strikes that have little concern for their suffering patients. I don’t know when the profession of Doctoring became a money minded business in place of saving lives and giving birth to new ones.

The main reasons for this is that the governments are also least interested in listening up to their demands and the associations feel that if they go on a strike and harass the public then only they would be able to fulfill their demands. The government should take proper care of each and every party instead of putting the money in their pockets. Such a rapport should be made that the demands are fulfilled and a win - win situation for both the parties is aroused.

I seriously doubt that if this continues I don’t know till when this will continue. But the people are silent enough. I feel that these regular strikes are going to affect the Democracy of the nation and this might lead to the end of this democracy which is facing a thousand other challenges.

Who the Hell are these Moral Policemen?????????

Have you ever thought that you will be stopped and threatened if you are walking with your girl friend or wife or even sister on the road? It sounds like this wont happen in a democratic country like India. But if you are thinking the same please think twice. Today if anyone can enter a pub and beat the youngsters who just go there for socializing then the roads are not too far away.

The incident that took place on 24 Jan 2009 was a slap on the face of the Indian democracy. Around forty men entered a pub in Mangalore and started assaulting physically the boys as well as the girls. Five girls were molested and beaten literally by these so called self appointed moral police. The goons of Sree Ram Sena attacked the pub in the bright day light and their atrocities were captured live on camera. More than a week has passed and different set of politicians and bureaucrats have sung a completely different line. So much so that they have issued a case against the pub saying hat it didn’t had licenses. The plea of the victims has been totally avoided and the question of who has given them the right has been left unanswered.

If this is something less than we have our own set of moral polices in Mumbai, the Shiv Sena. They have some problems with young couples celebrating the Valentine’s Day. In the past there have been incidents where they have man handled the young couples and in some cases forced them to marry each other or the girl is forced to tie a Rakhi on the guy’s wrist. This might be so very embarrassing and frustrating for anyone to do.

Ashok Ghelot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan says that he wants to ban the mall culture where girls and boys go hand in hand. Some one please tell him that the major business of the malls runs on these youngsters and not on the senior citizens like them.

Today the pubs, tomorrow it will be the malls, next the coffee shops and finally the roads. In short they want to convert a free and liberal India to an old fashioned one and want to curb the freedom of the youth in the name of Hindu culture and traditions. If their wishes are accomplished then there will be a taboo on people of opposite sexes walking together. Is this the free India we wanted? Does this idea stand relevant in today’s era? Isn’t it time up for these old politicians to step aside with their old bunch of rigid ideas?