I had been studying a thought since quite a few days. But to be confronted with it in reality was to feel it. And it hit me hard, very hard.
The picture on the left was taken in the YFE rally on 28th May at Azaad maidan.
Look closely.
There is a dark dirty boy in dark dirty clothes, holding a dark dirty sack. He was picking up used plastic water glasses. I was listening to a very inspiring speech when my eyes caught him and I felt someone squeezed my heart inside!
Here we are, so-called liberated minds, in thousands, demanding what is rightfully ours, and in another adjacent world this boy exists, unaware of the word 'right'.
I feel anger...intense anger, which diffuses into a feeling of helplessness.
You can reserve a seat in UG colleges for HSC passed children. You can reserve a seat in PG courses for doctors, engineers and other graduates. You can reserve a seat in a firm for a minimally qualified candidate. You may call them backward.
Where is his seat? Or is he too forward to deserve a seat?
HE is backward in every sense of the word. Economically, socially, emotionally, spiritually... For heaven's sake! He doesn't even know that he has a RIGHT to be educated!
Why? Not because of his past sins. Only because of his family background which is as rotten as the crap he carries on his back.
Are you pro-reservation for him?
Its so hard on my conscience to see those pro-reservation people declaring openly how greedy they are in the disguise of supporting reservations for the other remaining 'backwards' of their castes. This is the backward India you Goddamn pretenders! Do you care?
Truth is, nobody cares. Pro, anti, neutral... Nobody cares. We are all greedy, corrupt, twisted souls and this world needs an enormous dose of humanity...
It saddens me...

The fall...

Standing at the edge of the sorrowful ocean, I was inclined to fall.
When you grabbed me by my hand and time froze into eternity
Life took over with all its beauty and strength,
Letting the despair of stillness fly away with the wind
The energy of the entire universe translated in smiles on our lips
My eyes reflected the sun shining on your angelic face
I began living...

Next moment you let it go, I was still smiling as I fell
My hand still holding yours as it did all the while
It took me another eternity to lose faith again
Even as the reality of the ocean beneath me hit me
I forced the last flame of life in me to ignite strength
To look in your eyes, as you watched me fall...
I kept looking...

As I descended down the fluidity of my woes, mile after mile
I gazed up at the light drifting away from me, your eyes...
Perhaps I saw a ripple spreading gently on the surface above
Perhaps a tear fell, adding to my ocean
Perhaps you disappeared in the faces peaking over the blue looking at me
The blue kept vanishing into the darkness beneath
I kept falling...

Now I've touched the ocean floor
Lying here, still looking up towards you
Its so dark that I don't know if I've closed my eyes
My hand is still trying to reach out to your grasp, your touch
The unmoving coldness surrounding me urges me to drown
Then something flickers above and I look hard
I am still looking...

Sunscreen song

Ladies and Gentlemen, if I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be IT.

The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are NOT as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

-The sunscreen song by Baz Luhrman.

Sumedh re-wrote my poem in devnagri script... So cool.... I m very happy! Thanks man...

Ahem! Arz hai...

Woh pehli baarish ki khushboo yaad aati hai...

Jab har anjani aahat
dil par ek dastak de jaati hai...

Jab aansuon ki os mein
yeh mitti bheeg jaati hai...

Woh pehli baarish ki khushboo yaad aati hai...

Ek hi lamha tha woh,
jisme ek umr guzar rahi thi...
jhulasti rooh bhi bheeg kar tar-batar ho rahi thi...

Bahon ki zanjeeron mein, zindagi azaad soi thi...

Us ek lamhe ko jeene ke liye,
Zindagi baar baar mit jaati hai...
Woh pehli baarish ki khushboo baar baar yaad aati hai...

I am through with two-thirds of my PSM posting and here' some good and bad stuff about it-
Bad stuff-
1) Patients calling my female colleagues sister and male one's doctor.
2) Prescribing the same antibiotic to almost everyone.
3) Travelling to Vashind.
4) Waiting for the van that takes us to the UHC in hot sun.
5) Missing the van by seconds and then spending money on cab.
6) Over crowded OPDs, uh well, over crowded by interns.
7) Interns arguing in front of patients. (Thats really LS!)

Good stuff-
1) Giving health talk.
2) Actually seeing patients like a doc, unlike in other departments.
3) Playing with the kids.
4) Kids making faces at you when asked to open their mouths and say "Ah". (Thats really cute.Seriously, they try their best!)

hmmm.. thats all i can think of now. Will keep updating this space..

Differential Equations

Its a different type of mathematics. They call it equalizing the differences. Yet to us it looks like creating a difference.
Social equality operates at an individual level. To change a nation, the change must be brought in every citizen. To change an individual is impossible. To help people develop into the best that they can be is real development of a country. And that is possible only through the means of education that empowers children with the power to think.
Treating individuals as equal doesn't mean compensating today for the exploitation that had been going on for hundreds of years by forcing a few into the allegedly high positions. Giving more opportunity on the basis of ancestral records is not equality.
Equality exists in appreciating every individuals contribution in the society with the same respect. It exists in giving enough support to the sewer-sweeper so that he can feed his children well and give them good education. It exists in appreciating his contribution beyond the stench he brings along.
To think of everyone as your equal is super-human or may be, sub-human.
To give everyone the respect he/she deserves for being a human being, irrespective of his/her name, surname, faith, region, nationality, economic viability, him/her being a him or a her and several other parameters we use to stereotype people, is truly practicing equality.
I can't comprehend the endless debates on various sections of the constitution of India and amendments and stuff. Its logic. And if someone doesn't agree to logic then the argument dies. Pushing people into positions they don't deserve is making them a mediocre in a place not meant for them. Instead, each must excel in the place they create for themselves.
People should get equal opportunities to compete and test themselves.
So don't give them alms of opportunity. Give them the opportunity to earn. If you ever become the decider of a generation's fate, please remember this.
And if you don't, make the difference by educating a child.


Be the change you want to see in the world.
- M K Gandhi

People, please visit my photography section. I update it more often than this one.
The link is on the right.
And people who just happen to drop by, please leave comments on my blogs. Its kinda more interactive then.

Do not scream at deaf minds.
They know our point since the very beginning.
They know it all...
Yet, it will happen and the good will suffer.
Let them create a country of mediocres.
Let them create a country of surnames.
They who deny the truth are only suffering with a meaningless life.
Let them hope to find a meaning by running away from the truth.
The good shall flourish anyways... In the world of good...
Long live goodness!