Untolerable vision of the Society....

Recently I finished reading one of the most famous love story's of all time "A walk to Remember".I started reading this series contemplating something that would touch my heart as I had heard a lot about the same movie but never got a chance to view it.But quite unfortunately,I felt completely letdown in the manner things proceeded in the end.

It was something like "There is a boy and a girl who didn't initially paid heed to one another, then as things starts turning around they become friends and gradually lovers,then to bring some sort of spice towards the end the writer announces that the girl suffers from a leukemia and eventually dies leaving the guy remembering her forever."

Now what kind of a crap is this...I just completely and absolutely disagree with such plot.If you want to add some kind of masala ,these writers have just one solution.Name one grave disease and the audience will be attracted towards it. After all, it emotionally connects the audience with the story. But my dear, story and reality is completely different. I was always under the impression that only Indians lack the basic knowledge in medicine but it is quite sad that the same condition is prevailing in other parts of the world too.Let me tell these writers and everyone else that sitting in a chair at your workplace,dining room or bed room and writing about such diseases and spreading negativity is very easy.Nobody is interested in finding out the reality. If you really are interested in finding out the truth ,take some pain and visit the real patients, hospitals and if you cant do this much then atleast you can surf the net on this issue and find out the reality. You will find that not only are these kind of diseases completely curable but they also lead a healthy and normal life afterwards. But the main problem is that nobody will go to facts,people are more likely to read interesting stories such as this one rather than a document showing them the actual stats.It is for this very reason that till date the awareness hasnt grown.

If you ask me its a real shame on the part of the writers who themselves lack knowledge and through their so-called "bestsellers" convey wrong message to others also.Remember,for diseases such as leukemia, cancer etc if you think that death is the ultimate destination and the road to destination is pain and suffering then you are completely out of this world .

I know I blurted out openly today, but its necessary sometimes.It is really painful to see such hopeless stories which are so hit among people.These gullible creatures never bother to broaden their parochial scope of vision.GROW UP PEOPLE!!

Invading Privacy

The ambit of our private lives is becoming shorter every passing day.The number of advertising text messages which we get in our cell phones everyday is alarming. This is a very serious issue and I have been brooding over it for quite a while now. I may or may not receive calls and messages from my near and dear ones , but I am sure to get atleast one from the advertising company daily. What is more disturbing is that these people doesn't hesitate to send the same at even midnight causing great amount of inconvenience to users.

Although this situation has been aggravating since long, but it was brought to notice by a leading newspaper and a magazine only when the VIPs weren't spared too.Recently our Finance Minister Mr.Pranab Mukherjee was interrupted by one such message during his speech in parliament.Quite understandably, Mr. Mukherjee was baffled to see this and has asked for an explanation from the mobile company. If dignitaries like him are being targeted so easily then think about the situation which common people are facing.

Its quite astonishing to see the way these mobile companies play with our private lives. They are in deal with these advertising agencies and handle our private data given by us while registering for a phone number to these agencies and that too for some exiguous amount of money. These advertising agencies , in turn, are in deal with various educational institutions,political parties, Local showrooms and shops and advertise for them. Sometimes its the users fault too when they carelessly fill forms in shopping malls, billing counters asking for their feedback and suggestions or suggesting some scheme.There have been various mechanisms to counter this problem but none have proved to be futile enough.The " Do not Send" facility incorporated by various mobile companies was one such but has completely failed to deliver.

Competition is so tough nowadays that comapanies try to enamor customers in all possible ways. This is one such handy medium of promotion. But people need to remember that there is a line drawn between private and public which should not be crossed. Advertising is necessary to make customers aware of the new services and product but clearly better methods will be appreciated.

Commonwealth Games...(OR GAINS??)

Before starting I would like to mention that today while reading an article in Economic Times ,I saw the RS. sign replaced by the new rupee symbol for the first time(the one with the Roman R and Equal to = sign).It just intuited me with vanity!!!!

Coming back to the discussion,I was mentioning about one of the fields where India still needs to take some serious lessons atleast from its neighbouring nations like China.With FIFA World Cup over already about a month ago,what should now make headlines in the sports section of every newspaper???We as cricket loving nation should have some news about the ongoing test series with Sri Lanka.OK agreed.And what else???I suppose its the right time for the media to focus on the preparations being made by the athletes participating in the Common Wealth Games 2010 and about the quality of arrangements being done for the megaevent to be held in the country in the month of October.But quite contrary to it,I see nothing of that sort in the sports section but yes a lot of spicy stuff in the front page in every news daily!

So whats its all about.One daily talks about that how the Organizing Committee(OC) has overshot the budget some blah blah times (I don't remember the exact figures) than its original estimation of $1.1 billion.It quite comically exemplifies by mentioning that a single treadmill machine which is about 7.5 lakhs in the market has actually been hired for one and a half month during the games for 9 lakhs, giving the readers a preview of how unorganized the planning has been. Then there is some baffle regarding the relay baton in London as to how the OC has digged misappropriate amount of cash from the British firm . So quite sadly,every news beleaguering the event has negativity around it.

I think its time for every Indian and the media to understand that highlighting the drawbacks will bring a bad name to the Games as well as the nation.Every big event has issues associated with it but we must try to see the favorable side of the coin. We should look at the Games Villa, the newly and well designed roads of Delhi, and the most talked about new terminal 3G of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.We have a grand new Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which will host most of the events. There are ample of good things to look around. Just think about that hosting a games of this magnitude will put India in a strong position not just among the CommonWealth countries but among the whole world.

But unfortunately there has been nothing of this type.Most annoying part is that the leaders of national stature have been praying for the failure of these games and are even bold enough to announce it publicly. Such parochial outlook of people will never help India grow. I would rather blaming it completely on media will put some onus on the general public as well.Its because media simply sells the stuff that has market value. Like ,we as readers are the first to gather and express our outrage at any anti-national issue, here also its high time that we come up together and vow to make these games a memorable one in the international history.

What's in a Single Day?

Logically this article should have been posted yesterday, but due to some reasons it got delayed. But its a wise saying that “Its better late than never!!”, so I will follow the same. Till yesterday night, I wasn't even aware that today is the big day called "The Friendship's Day".But then one of my friends told me a strange fact that every year on the first sunday of August we celebrate this day.I inquired the theory behind this...!!! Well I could not find any concrete reason, but as expected it was a custom followed by western countries which gradually came to India.

Personally I have some reservations about celebrating friendship on any single day.The only point I see is that it brings an opportunity for all to remember their old and distant buddies atleast once a year when they might have gone unnoticed for years. But whatever the reason may be,friendship for me can never be a one day celebration. Any bond of togetherness cannot be restricted to 24 hours and if someone does have counter opinions as that mentioned before I would give them a single argument in my favour that “If you are remembering any person only for a single day in a year,he is no more your close ,it’s a mere formality which you are doing and trying to stretch a dead relation”.

In the past few months I have realized a fact.Its true that feeling of love definitely fades with distance but its just the reverse for friendship.The bond of friendship strengthens with time and distance.I have many friends of mine who are not beyond a kilometer of a range but I or they hardly care to bother about each other but there are a few special ones who are over 1000 kms far away still we make a point to converse atleast weekly if not daily.

In an era of social networking,people have an easy and convenient way to maintain contacts with each other.I have seen my siblings from age group 9-10 years to my uncles of age group 60 and above being an active member of sites like facebook.So where is the distance anyway???For me any friend of mine in US is just as far away as a friend sitting in the next city! Either you are a student or a job holder ,taking out an hour or so for your friends and keeping updates of your friends through these sites s not a big deal.

Having written so much I will not hesitate to say that today even I wished and celebrated “Friendship Day” with all my friends.Thats because I am a part of society which is bounded by rules.But celebrating any relation whther it be love ,friendship etc etc on a single day is something that can go down well with me.

Impatient, Psycho And Covet!!!!

The war is between the insensitive Human nature and impeccant eight limb animal.We provide a hungry mollusk with its fav. food "mussel" in two boxes.These boxes have the fates of two different nations sealed in it. Now, we understand this but that poor animal doesn't.He opens them one by one and eat it contents and we add prophetic or so called divine angle to it.Inhabitants of the first box consider this "oracular" while the second one calls the mollusk a "psychic"!!

But ,whatever the case may be, "Paul,the octopus" is now an international celebrity.There are different versions of the story by different mouths.Some believe he has a God-Gifted natural power,some say its master deliberately keeps more delicious stuff in the more probable winner,for few he always chooses the righter side box first and finally for some its a case of mere co-incidence.

But I say that why do we associate every story with the octopus.For me its a case of pure human desire to know the future somehow. We are trying every possible way by manipulating things as per our own convenience.Has anybody thought of the fact that instead of blaming the animal for the consequences, this kind of future predicting desire might have produced a negative impact on the minds of the players???Not certainly but a possibility definitely exists.Then these predictions also pave way for big money making by the bookies. So aren't we indirectly promoting illegal trade?

But the problem is that we are so engrossed in fulfilling our wishes that we hardly able to see these consequences.The case of Paul clearly illustrates three traits of human behaviour-Impatience,Psychic and covetousness.But as always the "intelligent" human mind has adroitly escaped by blaming the octopus and the poor creature became a scapegoat....

Seething Valley, No Takers

For my first article of July,I have picked quite a deep, controversial and chronic issue. But any newspaper ,magazine I pick,I am sure to find an article or two everyday on the ongoing recent crisis in Jammu and Kashmir.The valley is boiling once again,this time its own people are in a fit of rage,the reason being the covert killings of several "innocent" civilians.

It has been a month since these protests started but the administration is still miles away from finding any concrete solution.All have their different version of the story.Govt. report says that "Ahmad Mattoo" a 17 year old boy whose death started these protests was killed by his girlfriend's co-lover.However, the authenticity of the report could not be established. Local residents allege that he was killed by the tear gas shell thrown by the police that hit his head,killing him instantly.A student who was preparing for the medical exam entrance suddenly became a martyr and was even buried in the Martyr's Graveyard in Srinagar against his family wishes.

Hearing such events everytime , I always think the same that why do people have to include a communalism angle to each and every incident. Instead of creating it a bigger issue ,they could have waited for the real sequence of events to be unfolded. The subsequent killings of more than 15 people as a result of violence due to death of one boy is inexplicable. Both the police and the civilians need to maintain some patience and tolerance. To add fuel to the fire, Omar Abdullah has been inefficient in managing the events. Consequential actions taken by him proved futile. Transfer of top level police officers and hush-hush meetings of top officials were not only inadequate but were criticized by one and all. With the main opposition refusing to cooperate with the govt activity at any level, there is little ray of hope for the Kashmiris.

I recently read about a survey conducted on the people of Kashmir -both the PoK and the Indian occupied.It was surprising to see the results in terms that the majority of people in both the sections were of the opinion of a independent state, "Independence from both India and Pakistan".This illustrates their frustration from both the states. The Indian Govt has entangled the Kashmir issue to such an extent that a possible solution in the coming time is completely unexpected and Pakistan is too busy in its internal issues to look into the miseries of the general public . Its merely a matter of ego now for both the nations to extend their control over Kashmir. and its quite unlikely that there is any respite for Kashmiris in the near future...

Love is not life,its only a part of life....

This one comes from "Direct Dil se".The agony of a failed relationship took yet another high profile celebrity's life and I wont sympathize .Rather it creates an anguish within me for people wasting their precious lives such as this one.

Yes, I dont know about the intricacies of the big bad glamour world but surely I can relate the events in my own sense.There is this girl who dreams of becoming big in the fashion world,comes to India ,gets opportunity and reach the zenith after much toil and compromises. All is going well for her when suddenly she falls for a man. Everything goes fine for them initially and then suddenly things turn around. They have frequent quarrels and face-offs.Unable to bear, girl goes into depression and then suddenly she took her life. This is my view of things. And this story doesn't holds for just one ,it stands true for hundreds of other couples.

I have just one question in mind.Why are mostly girls the victim of failed relation? Isn't the guy also a part of it..He never thinks about taking such drastic steps. Why so? Do girls get more involved and serious in a relation than boys?

The answers to these questions might vary from couple to couple, but it is surely a general tendency of the girls to get more emotionally involved in a relation.I am particularly saying this in context of middle class families of which I am myself a part of. I have seen many female friends of mine who have not only risked their personal lives but also professional career because of the words "Love and commitment".Guys always tend to be more practical than girls. They may be into a relation but when it comes to testing times, they take decisions logically as against girls who will go to any extent to make their relation work.

Being a girl myself and having faced such a situation before , I would like to advice few tips to those girls who face similar situations. Yes, its true that when relation doesn't seem to be working or has eventually failed either due to your fault or of the guy's, depression and loneliness does surround you. But then always think of moving ahead in life.It might seem tough at first ,but you have to be strong. Don't let your mind think of what happened again and again. Engage yourself in something that interests you .It may be anything like reading novels, watching favorite movies , shopping your fav. clothes, hanging out with friends etc etc. The point is that you need to come out of that thought.Once you do that, you will realize that there are ample of things that are better and can bring satisfaction to you. Remember that you had a life before you met that guy. Infact you were more social and had variety of activities to do . The same is the case now.

Having said all this, I never meant to defame guys. We cant change the way God has created us. But yes, it is always up to you as to how you shape up your life, how wisely you take your decisions. However, if a mistake has been committed, try to learn from it,don't let yourself get shattered.Maybe, after few years when you think of what happened, you might smile at it as I do. Remember that Love is a feeling that makes you smile and complete . One that brings frustration and tension is not love, its a failed compromise.