For a couple of rupees extra!

November 2007,City Bus Stand, Mysore..January 2008, Majestic bus Stand, Bangalore..March 2008 Main Bus Stand, Chandigarh..May 2008, Main Bus Stand, Shimla..June 2008, Main Bus Stand, Ludhiana..Since Ages, ISBT, Delhi..And God knows where else, I found something peculiar. One common thread is woven into the fabric of these places. The feel of belonging to same country which you get here makes you wonder about existence of lines that people have drawn based on language and customs!

The boldness with which a Punjabi vendor sold half litre pepsi bottle was akin to the nerve with which a Kannada chaiwala sold his tea, and made me wonder whether same mother bore them? The whiff of biscuits at ISBT, Bangalore reminded me of ISBT at Delhi and a smile came on lips at the thought of the similarity with which I get lost in the crowd at both places!And almost same story repeated itself at Shimla, Chandigarh..everywhere! Welcome to the grandeur, majesty and generosity with which the multitude of The Republic of India carries itself, day by day, negating the adversities and... huh..I got carried away.. I almost started to feel proud at the striking similarity at these Main Bus Stands spanning length and breadth of the nation..Alas! I would have to stop myself here..

Half Litre Pepsi..MRP is Rs 20, sold at Rs 23-25..Any Biscuit priced at Rs 10, sold at Rs 12-14..Any damn mineral water bottle, sold at atleast 2-4 Rs higher than its price..The rates are shamefully in unison at these places. Not even a single item for which you would pay on its MRP! As if the overpricing racket is run by the same cartels there..

The question for me is not about parting off with a couple of rupees extra. How would that matter to me? The question is about having to pay extra on a mineral water bottle for which I have already paid tax in its MRP which is decided by the blasted manufacturer themselves!! Not even a shard of integrity and every time I buy such material, I become a party to this racket. And if you even try ever to argue about overpricing, you are shown other way with utmost repect reserved only for an elderly lady beggar!

I have shared this with many people at the expense of inviting ridicule from some fellas who find it imprudent to carry any concern about overpricing. "After all you are a software engineer, you are not going to be poorer if you part with a few rupees extra!".The thing as I said above is not about a few extra rupees, its about being at the effect of a disgustingly unworkable and preverted system. The same, abovementioned people are found cribbing at the horror inspiring stench coming out of public toilets! Weird it might sound, but those deluxe facilities are a result of the same attitude which lets the vendors at the ISBTs of almost all of our cities,come out with whatever they want to take from us for something definitely worth lesser.We sell ourself cheaper, bad enough for us! The joke is on us actually!

Been there, done that! I once asked a fella after all why does he take extra-MRP money for something? Its cheating! He said bhaisaab bijli-paani ka kharcha kaun dega? aur ye police-walo ka kya kare? And I got, every penny looted from me goes to stuff someone else's pockets! No counter arguments, I sort of pitied poor guy bullied by the havaldars and took out the Rs 15 for a Rs 12 mineral water bottle and handed it to him,which I immediately regretted. Some mindless pervert, who has never been to these bus stands must have coined - "Jaago grahak Jaago"
JAAGO!!lol..my foot!!

I m talkin to you..

I was ,out of the blue ,reminded of the following lines from a song in the movie Pukar (1999).. ujdi hui basti mein ye tadap rahe insaan...nanhe jismo ke tukde liye khadi ek maa..

you were walking on the road, suddenly deafened, blinded, felt as if thousands of small shards of iron have pierced through your body...and seconds later, found yourself lying near a dustbin, you have so many wounds that you lose count of them, you have become numb, lost count of time, lost your speech,wondering whether you are alive or not.. suddenly reminded of your sweetheart who was along with you.. she is nowhere to be seen. With a jolt you try to stand up and look for her, but you have so many bones broken, that you fell down again, this time you manage to make a sound..and all that comes out is a cry.. the paint of sweat, mud and blood is broken by tears streaking down your face .. .. people come rushing..someone lends you his hand..trying badly to recollect all that happened..lost!

You..sitting in the 'safety' of your home..watching the mutilated bodies on your television, expressing mock grief,thinking that it happened to 'them', with a worldview matching that of an ostrich, I am talking to you. You think you can avoid it, that it happened to others and cannot hit you, revelling in your intelligence for keeping safe in your hole.. you don't know? They are coming for you. You might save yourself momentarily..but it wont be for long that this land of your forefathers, and your grandchildren, which you own for the time being, is stained red! You have time, some time, to hit before they do, to be an aggressor before you turn into a prey. Its in your hands! But as far as I see, you do not seem to understand, you sitting in the safety of your home, thinking..

You..king of the rhetorics, champion of the spineless masses..I am talking to you! You convincing those fools successfully that you will bring justice to them, and making merry in the company of borrowed aegis of a few good men, you think you will survive it? You are laughable! You who sees the human through the lens of birth and surnames, think that you have got 'It' when they burn, loot and kill on your whims? You have failed to understand that a bullet is the greatest leveller..it won't ask your surname before piercing through your heart. And that worms infesting your unauspicious tongue, they would not care for your 'stand' for the caste you hollered about.You have time, some time, to stand before they do, to be killed instead for bringing some honor to humanity, to shed your despicable vow to secernate people on the basis of their birth.Its in your hands! But as far as I see, you do not seem to understand, you champion of spineless masses..

Dedicated to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur,Ahmedabad,Surat,Bangalore, Delhi..

October Sky..I want to fly..dont hold me back..ths where I belong to

Some things have moved quite suddenly, not somewhere out there, not for others to see, its within that some things have moved! I watched 'Rock On', a story of 4 guys who are living monotonous lives far away from their passion which is music. And they look almost lifeles in daily rut of their lives, living in the shadow of their past which was about music, some of them desperately trying to catch hold of it and some trying to get rid of it, and all of them failing to do so! And how they get back to it, rediscover it and create a new life which has all space of this first love of them.. thus following their passion!

And then came the Hampiscapes, sounds jargon, ;).. the Communication and Design Group of Infosys has artists and designers, all of them a cut above, mind blowing experts! Some of them happened to go to Hampi(a historical town in Karnataka) and paint, sketch, draw the landscapes there, which were exhibited in bangalore. And I came to see them on the intranet. Such marvellous pieces of work!! I was simply inspired,and as I went through each of them, there were no words sufficient for admiration, I just wrote to the guys and thanked them for giving me a good jolt!

And then I watched 'October Sky', an unjusstifyingly very leser known movie. It is one of the best that I have seen in last few years I must say. Its the story of,again, 4 guys who live in a coal mining town, whose almost certain future is to work in the mines. But fated to break out of what was deemed almost certain, they happened to watch the launch of Sputnik by Soviets in 1957. And thus follows a dream, a passion to learn, know more about and make rockets. And wat follows is intense ridicule, rejection and disapproval from almost everyone except their science teacher and a few fellow unsung heroes who kept on supporting them. In the end they break free, manage to do wat they want and follow their dream to go to the college and do watever they wanted to! There was a moment in the movie when I just got so uncomfortable that I stood up from my seat and just looked around , wondering wat the hell am I doing here!

And thus frm last few days, highly dosed with the bit about following my passion and my dream, breaking free of this rut which I know I am not deemed to do, I have been thinking, and thinking and dreaming.. Some of it has moved me into action, some into apprehension, some into introspection as to what is it thats calling me?? Its a fix! And maybe at the right point in my life, when my career just begins, or maybe it should have been before it, I dont know!

And in midst of all this, there is only one silver lining that I find. And that is about having done something which impacts another human being. Something which moves one into thinking, inspires another. What's the point after all in living a life centered around trying to look good and better, trying to make more money than the neighbor, preoccupied by priorities which never lead to fulfilment and self expression and are only about getting one-up on someone who you would not bother about after a couple of years!! And thus still in the quagmire of self doubt, moving about just like that, I am wandering, searching for that one thing which will pull me out...