An ode to rain

Rain, rain, beautiful rain!
Drench me up and drown this pain.
Wash away the scum and filth,
Take away all the hidden guilt.

Quench the thirst that lays within
Cool down the rage that is unseen
Extinguish the fire that has been so mean
Creating a world bright and green.

Rain, Rain oh rhythmic rain!
Give a tune to the heart in pain
Be the music of the melancholic heart
The lullaby when I wake up.

Come down to the earth again
Oh rain when shall i see you again?
Walking down the streets with you
When shall I be me again??

(Dedicated to all those who are in love with rain)

Memories

Somewhere in my mind, there is a memory
Of the time which now seems ages ago.
A sweet moment of a forgotten past
Reason for a piercing pain in a broken heart.

Fragments from the failed past, I still remember
Sweet memories of which I still hold dear.
Down the memory lane, I still can feel
The softness of the breeze blowing.
The sweet smell of your hair,
The magic touch that made me a believer.

Oh! What would I not give to have those times back!
To relive the moments we together felt.
But alas fragments of a shattered past,
Can only cause pain to the bleeding heart.

Time changes the essence of the memory lane
Everything that was sweet to excruciating pain.
Sweet painful memories are only what I have
Of the times for which I still crave!!!

(This poem was written almost a year ago. The same memories which made us smile once, can bring tears in future. This is an ode to those memories)

Heritage Walk: A Walk to Remember

Ahmedabad, named after Sultan Ahmed Shah, can amaze you with its modern amenities.  Yet what makes the city appealing is the carefully preserved heritage. To experience the rich heritage, the fusion of different cultures and religions, one must travel to the “old city”. And if someone wants a crash course on it, the “Heritage Walk” is the event to go.

I had the opportunity to take the walk a couple of days back with my good friend and fellow quizzer, gamer Aditya, and was mesmerized by the sheer beauty of it.  The walk starts at the Swaminarayan Mandir and continues along some of the well preserved ancient structures, temples and mosques. We walked through several pols (derived from Sanskrit word Pratoli meaning gate or entry), self-contained neighborhood with a large number of people dwelling within it. Every community has separate pols, with religious places and water supply. Apart from the entry section, all the pols share some special features. All the pols had bird feeders, where wild birds are offered food and water. Some pol even had squirrel feeders, where a happy number of squirrels were “sunbathing”. When the world is struggling for the conservation of wild life, this mutual harmony prevailed in the city from 15^th century. We as quizzers were pleasantly surprised when we came to know that some of the British era structures were designed by Buckminster Fuller. 

Apart from this, each pol has some beautiful wooden carved houses which showcase the rich culture of the city. The architectural beauty is appealing and one can see fusion of cultures there. Some buildings have Persian elements (grapes carved in wood), some pure Indian buildings (with carved elephant trunks). One can find even a fusion of Indian and Chinese culture with elephants and dragons carved side by side. 

The old city is also a beautiful example of civil engineering. The sewage system built by the British is so efficient that the old city has never been flooded till date, while the modern city has been submerged numerous times. The buildings are intelligently built and such old buildings from early 15^th century have survived the 2002 earthquake. As pointed out by our guide, the modern addition to the buildings had formed cracks during the earthquake, but the old structures stood there majestically and unscratched.

The Jain temples had another surprise in store for us. They have adapted rain water harvesting, an area where the modern civilization is still lagging behind. It made me ponder on the fact that as the civilization has modernized we have distanced ourselves from Mother Nature and our duty towards the environment while our ancestors have always lived in harmony with nature.

Navigating through the pols, under the Fernandez Bridge, through Manek Chowk we finally arrived at the Shahi Jumma Masjid, the final checkpoint of the walk, which I think should be an inspiration for secular India. The mosque made by Sultan Ahmed Shah, is fusion of Mughal, Hindu and Jain architecture. One can see the signature blooming lotus of Hindu and Jain architecture in the mosque. The domes being a Mughal signature, are carved inside, which again signifies Hindu architectural inspiration. When the entire India is debating on secularism, especially in Gujarat scenario, I think we have a lot to learn from these ancient beauties.

The walk rightfully called “from the temple to the mosque” not only takes one through the rich heritage of the “old city’ but also offers some brilliant teachings. And the walk is a perfect opportunity for shutterbugs, to capture the rich emotions of the streets and the beauty of a bygone era.

Words can't do justice to the beauty and thrill of the heritage walk. A two and a half hour walk through ancient Indian history and culture, is surely "a walk to remember."

The Great Indian Mentality

I started this blog to voice my opinion on one of the most shameful events in the history of my native state Assam. Sadly enough, I am here typing again to say about one of the most disgusting events of our country.

A girl raped and tortured by some sociopath/psychopath (whatever you may call them) in the capital of our country. And sadly, this is not the first instance. Failure of the law enforcement system, maybe. But before blaming the government, the administration why don’t we pause for a moment and think what role have we played in it.

I come from a very open minded society where any social interaction between a boy and a girl is not frowned upon. But, traveling in different parts of the country, I have seen it’s a big deal if a boy and a girl talks in public in many places. I graduated from one of the supposedly premiere colleges of India, where supposedly the best minds get through. But ironically, there were people amongst us who still think woman as an object. Teasing someone, passing a vulgar comment is what they get off on. And when confronted, the only reply I ever get is “they enjoy it, they ask for it etc. etc.” 

If majority of the society, talking about the males here, thinks like this, will a capital punishment prevent such incidents from happening again? Secondly the great Indian mentality “Nothing is illegal until we get caught”. So being a daredevil, such psychopaths will try again. So merely castrating them, giving them death penalty is not going to change anything. It’s the core thinking of our society that needs to be changed. The attitude towards woman that needs to be changed.

And we have politicians, who thinks “chowmein is the cause of rape”, “man and woman interact freely, so woman are raped” WTF!! And here we are looking up to them, to bring a change. Laws can’t prevent anything from happening, as we Indians always have the tendency to find a way out with papers with pictures of Mahatma Gandhi. After all the lady of justice is blindfolded.

Let’s also not forget the role of our glorifying media here. They paste the photo of the victim on every channel, but hide the identity of the culprits. And in some cases they make “exclusive coverage” on the culprits, making them a household name. And once the hot news turns cold with time, there is no follow through. Whether justice is being served or not.

“Be the change you want to see in the world”. So, instead of saying police is not doing their work, administration has failed, let’s change our mentality, our thinking. And next time we hear someone saying “they enjoy it, they ask for it etc. etc.”, let’s teach them a lesson (verbally or by removing some teeth, I leave the choice to you)

And one last thing, let us not compare those culprits with animals, as it will be an insult to the entire animal world..

Humanity & the true facade of our media

The fourth pillar of democracy is the title we bestow upon the media. But after witnessing a series of events I highly doubt if they really deserve this title. And also I question myself if we really deserve to be called human.

Starting with the Guwahati incident. That girl whatever her crime was did not deserve to be harassed like that. No one in this country has the power to take over the place of law. It was their duty to inform the police and deliver the girl to her guardians. But no!! What they did is they called our media. I cannot really blame them, because in the past such television channels has aired such news and it gives them cheap publicity. Had the police being called earlier, it might have been totally different.

And what did our beloved media do?? They started filming the incident. And when some of the persons in the crowd started molesting her they were still filming. And they aired the news “attempted gang-rape of a girl in the heart of Guwahati city”. Now the media needs to choose their words carefully. Molestation and gang-rape are two different things which our media promptly forgot for the sake of creating sensational news. And if it was an attempted gang-rape, why on earth did you guys not do anything to stop it from happening. The only answer came to my mind is if they had stopped it or even tried they would have lost the sensational news. And as one of the top-officials of Guwahati City Police has pointed out, the media persons did not inform the police about the incident. That is our media.

And whenever a lady is involved in any kind of incident her face is covered and identity not revealed in news. But what happened here?? Our beloved “Entertainment News Channels" exposed her and those retards calling themselves journalists was asking her identity even when she was being carried away by police.

And there is also this incident from a couple of months back in Delhi, when a Taiwanese youth set himself on fire. All the media persons were clicking their fancy DSLRs and covering the event but none, not a single person tried to help him. It was a constable and a civilian who actually tried to save the boy. This is our humanity all reduced to TRPs and publicity.

Jayanta Talukdar, Shiva Thapa two sports persons from Assam is going to represent the country in London. Has the media aired and interview of them, a documentary about their work. No!! One of Assam’s innovator “Udhab Bharali” has been shortlisted for the prestigious NASA technology Award. Has the media publicized it? No!! And how did I come to know about him?? Only when his website was hacked and the media published it. They did not publish about him before because it was not sensational. But as soon as him website was hacked it became a sensational news and our media publicized it. Why??  That is the true facade of our media.

Positive journalism is dying thing. And till our media learns to play its role properly I guess it has simply lost its right to call itself “the fourth pillar of democracy”..