When Things Go Wrong

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must — but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a fellow turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow 

You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man.

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor’s cup.

And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out 

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt 

And you never can tell how close you are.

It may be near when it seems afar,

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit 

It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

Ego

An illusion of the mind

A stumbling block

Towards the growth of humanity and mankind!

When you begin to have pre-conceived perceptions

That your existence is your own inception!

A feeling of being right

Imagining yourself as the saviour,as the knight

To believe, the knowledge and power you possess

No one can evaluate or assess!

A dark day and a darker night

The greatest hindrance

For evolution of the human psyche!

A negative bond between body and mind

In-ability to accept any other view or reason

It blocks your inner thoughts and vision!

The exact opposite of God’s nature

History stands as the greatest witness

To the horrific deeds of those egoistic people

Who felt they were greater

Than this world’s Creator!

An illusion of the mind

A stumbling block

Towards the growth of humanity and mankind!

Tick Tock

This quiet night, full of nothing,
This empty bottle, that once had something,
These thoughts, which fill the mind and haunt the soul,
These feelings, which bind and take control,
These memories, that never fade, never break,
This is all the past, that which future will take,
Each day, each hour, each minute and second,
Each passing tick, is a tock to be reckoned,
Each passing moment, is a now gone then,
Each chance, opportunity in a distant when,
Let it wash, let it consume, let it take over,
If you can't live now, how can you have closure?
If every now is spent thinking about then,
Every empty bottle is an empty bottle again,
See through the glass, not the reflection so cryptic,
and you will see every tock is passed by another tick

A painting to its artist...

Prove this as such an undying fantasy
That I have wished to feel your breath
Across my silken shade of satin
Beneath my velvet pose
And just unearthed in polished vigor
My heart becomes a rose
And red like blood that feeds the weak
Or blue like azure skies
My body is my masterpiece
My critic is your eyes
Now lay me down to pass a test
A virgin drawn too close
Such picture perfect aptitude
I have and yet who knows
Tomorrow I will just be one of those who wears your wall
Today is not much better but tonight
Tonight I'm yours alone

From satire to sedition:Indian democracy

The arrest of Aseem Trivedi recently on charges of sedition for having drawn satirical cartoons, including one that depicts the parliament building as a lavatory buzzing with flies, was seen as an attempt to stifle the freedom of speech and expression, a fundamental right under the Indian constitution.

The episode catapulted the hitherto unknown 25-year-old to the position of a national hero, with his cartoons echoing popular resentment against a scandal-plagued government. Social media was abuzz with his pictures and twitterati  made #AseemTrivedi one of the most searched items on the micro-blogging website.

Trivedi’s arrest showed an alarming trend in Indian democracy — that of smothering opinions and ideas not in line with the credo of the political class.

From the prime minister’s office which attacked International media for being critical of Manmohan Singh to the imprisonment of a West Bengal professor for poking fun at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, politicians seem to have forgotten to take criticism in their stride. Instead, they choose to counter-attack it.

‘Block, ban and censor’ seems to be the new motto for politicians; be it the decision to remove a cartoon from the school curriculum or block more than 300 web pages and a number of Twitter accounts, including several spoof accounts impersonating the prime minister.

The government’s increasingly conservative shift is also reflected in its proposals to introduce alcohol permits or statements that Indian culture doesn’t allow women to smoke.

So, even as we try to make the world believe in the India growth story, it looks like many our policies are regressive.

It’s ironic that India flaunts to the world its technological prowess with its 100th space mission and at the same time brings sedition charges against a cartoonist depicting the current political climate.

Perhaps the government believes a cartoon is more seditious than corruption perpetrated by its own ministers.

Democracy - a government by the people and for the people providing political and social equality.

Hypocrisy - the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs and principles but not actually having them.

India - the world’s largest democracy or hypocrisy?

Keep the doors open!

A nation that has no cultural heritage is like an orphan who has nothing to feed upon. An individual human being, a race or a nation must necessarily have certain roots somewhere. India is deep rooted in the culture of her past—the glorious past. It  is difficult to sum up her heritage in a few words as she has given birth to many great movements in religion ,art and literature.The India of today has a rich past over which we can look back with pride. Our past has given us a definite way of life, which is typically Indian and yet universal in approach.

The Indian culture has persisted through the ages precisely for the reasons of antiquity, unity, continuity and the universality of its nature.Its most prominent feature is that it combines many cultures. The South, North, and Northeast have their own distinct cultures and almost every state has carved out its own cultural niche.It has always been a land of  great variety and has shown great capacity for absorbing what came to her from outside.

Throughout her past, India has preached and practiced tolera­tion and understanding .These factors permeates the whole fabric of Indian life.Its charms and graciousness endures due to the philosophy of life which we have inherited from the past. What­ever we do, however great or small, is colored with religious sentiments. From the planting of a tree to the establishing of an industry, all are regarded as pious acts. Training and education, marriage and procreation, birth and death are all tinged with reli­gious fervor.

It is true that somewhere we are loosing our roots and our attitude towards life is now rapidly becoming materialistic. The glamour of the western way of life with its glorification of material prosperity and its wonderful achievements in the field of science and technology, has modified our aim and ambitions. A new orientation has been given to Indian life. The ideal now chiefly adored is success or the ability which produces success. 

However, it would also be not a very wise decision to completely resist the winds of change and remain adhered to the past values and principles of life. We must not close our doors to the influences from the outside world. If those influences are good, they will strengthen the basic concepts of our culture and so enrich it as to make it truly representative of the life of our people. What is to be avoided is a blind imitation of cultures and values.

 Even though our cultural heritage is very substantial, but it alone cannot enable us to improve the quality of life and living standards of nearly one billion people of India. We have to energise our attitudes by incorporating the democratic spirit of Americans, the cultural love of the French and the enterprising spirit of the Japanese to regain our past glory and to extricate our teeming millions from the clutches of poverty, backwardness and inertia. 

Addictions in my family.

As you are already aware the Kulshrestha's are a very pious family.We have no addictions.Well, almost.

Remember, a saying " Life is uncertain.Eat dessert first." My father is a rigid disciple of this saying.For him there are only two kind of people in this world:Those who love dessert,and communists.There is no "in-between" for him.With his budding age and sugar level ,he does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.He no longer bears the fear of being caught.Its an open war now.His weapon of defense-the puckish smile on his face is enough to tranquil the raging anger of my mother.I wish if one could make him learn and preach a whole new definition of strength-Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces.But then again,he is cutting down on sweets now.I mean,he is doing it in phases.To start with ...he doesn't eat sweets while sleeping!

It's very difficult to single out one addiction of my mother as she believes in giving equal amount of time and energy to all her unconventional habits.She is cute,super cute-and that explains for all her uncanny addictions.Just like my father has a sweet tooth,she seems to have a sour tooth.A single lemon drop in her food is enough to give her an adrenaline rush and keep her high on life the entire day.The moment she says "khatha-khatha",we know that now an entire lemon is about to be squeezed in our lentils and vegetables,blemishing its taste further up.But hail "mother-power",all we can do is nod in approval.I cannot dispense with the fact that her taste buds just savor one taste i.e,sour. One of the other conspicuous addiction of my mom,particularly in winters which she follows unfailingly is sitting in the sun,doing nothing.My mom and the "earth" are somewhat similar. The earth is round,so is my mom.The earth moves "round" the sun,my mom moves "with" the sun.Her chair just loves to follow that small scorching sunny patch.This reciprocal journey starts from our "entrance door" and ends at our "entrance gate" or probably further up.And what delight she drives in this entire expedition is a big question mark.

My brother is a funny bone,and so is his addiction.He believes in that famous saying by Shakespeare(who himself did not forget to mention his name below his quote)-"whats there in a name?" He loves to be called as the "beer man" to start with.The credit solely goes to my brother for this invention of a new super hero.I wouldn't actually be surprised if one day i come to know that he has also designed a costume for himself.And knowing my brother's feral imagination,beer man could actually be a drunk adaptation of batman,he-man,superman or spider man.Anyways,when its too much
alcohol ,the only thing that you seem to remember is whether you are a "man" or a "wo-man".So much for the beer man.My brother's names changes with his looks and style.With moustaches-"bhaji rao",without moustaches-"Vijay deena naath chauhan",in kurta-pyjama-"thakur",in a three piece suit-"Don2",with hair-"god-knows" and when bald he would probably call himself "ghajini."You name it,and he has already named himself with it.Little did my parents knew when they did his naming ceremony,that would be the first and the last time they would call him "Raveesh."

Next in line is my sis-in-law.Her addiction is so palpable that its impossible for it to be overlooked by anyone.Tea addiction is generally classed as one of the least bothersome addictions,but not when you take it in like air. The main signs of tea addiction are headaches, brown teeth and dressing like your grandparents and my sis-in-law has none of these. She has just been inflicted with tea obsession and iam sure often feels helpless due to how unversed medical professionals are on the subject, as they normally say to patients, "let's have a cup of tea and discuss this." My brother might often think that just because her wife is addicted to the caffeine in tea,she doesn't sleep well as she drinks too late at night, whereas he actually doesn't know that it is usually because she is laying awake anticipating the morning's first cup of tea. This can lead to problems, especially if they wake up to find that they are all out of tea bags.I wonder how would my brother have felt when he threw around this question(with his one eyebrows raised) to my sis-in-law"what would you like to have-tea,coffee or me?"and the possible answer that would have come from her"Honey,tea with no sugar and less milk would just be fine."For her, tea is the most versatile drink and can be consumed in all situations.




There are other addictions too in my family…but unfortunately we haven’t exploited them as much as we would have wanted to.Unfair would it be to keep myself out of this discussion.I have an addiction for writing and that explains for this blog and for the many more to come:)