A Strange Encounter with a Strange City

May - 1993
I just celebrated my 11th birthday. 2 months have passed, since i have had a strange encounter with a strange city known as BOMBAY. It was the 93' blasts, it was all over the news, and somehow I remembered my first cousins staying in this city. Bombay, which was till that time was not known to me as a Glamour City (to be worth mentioning here that I always thought that the film stars are all from Delhi). Well as I had scanned through the Newspaper, I was a bit shocked. Anyways, who was bothered, with my exams over, we had decided to go to Mumbai for our Vacations, to meet my first cousins. Well here it all started the affection, the attachment with this strange city. Boarding the second class compartment in the scorching heat, made me growl, but the site of the Wheelers (Indian Book Selling Stalls at the Railways Station) made my appetite for the brain (some weird, and real absurd people say I don’t have one), for some comics. This made me forgot the heat and i took the upper seat, forgetting the entire world around me, engrossed in an Enid Blyton Book.
Suddenly the train 'cooed its way, and i was fast asleep. Little did I realize I was about to fall in love at such a tender age with a city which has been a life line of India.

August - 2003
Again that was some where close to the blasts, what the hell? Anyways forgot that , just fresh after the wounds of my Girl Friend ditching me , I was here in this city for no purpose, though strange, I just loved this city , so decided to be here

February - 2004
Fanatically I have been calling my first cousin, to get me a project at any company in Mumbai; anyways i know he will get me one. Will he? God please help me, I need one, and it’s my career ‘ka sawaal’. I am on a train to Mumbai. I have a project. This was the time when I got to explore this city, was introduced to lots of things, this include Drugs etc, and really happy that I was a furlong away from all this. Did my projects have a job here at mumbai, and then suddenly everything went hay wired and is on a flight back to Bangalore. WHY???

Today - 2006
Nothing much happening....Is it!! Oh I have explored half of this dream city and amidst all the major ups and downs. The latest Mumbai Bomb Blast the recent one 7/11, this is still my dream and my favorite city. Roamed half the city 100's of times aimlessly wandering from one station to another, just trying to glimpse the life , visited the biggest shows of India to the biggest Slums of this Continent. Seen people slogging themselves, some earning lakh and then met some earning units. Leaned out of the fast moving trains, been squeezed between people in the trains, and trapped in fully crowded Bus. Walked on cleanest Beaches, which is still unknown to half of the mumbaites’. Chased thieves (No I am not a Police Man), stood in queues to give my blood, what all not, and I still Love this City. Been around those waterlogged areas, suffered the wrath of Shiv Sainiks, walking for few kilometers before I reached my home and I still love this city. Went to the Aazad Maidan, for shouting slogans against the Reservation System, felt a little scared, with police van standing a hand away, but still was confident about my love towards the city.
Why do I still Love this city? Just Check, my next blog…………

An Aroma of Success (This Blog Post is a Waste)

Hahaha! I am laughing because I am writing this without any success, all I have been facing since past few days is failure. Oh maybe I am nostalgic and it’s in the Air somewhere, that I am getting the Aroma of Success. Oh is it that I am Insane, people have called me insane since day one. Oops this is a mystery then as to why I am writing this. Oh a success of convincing people, yes today I was able to convince a person after a long time. Maybe I am getting that air back in my head, my college days. Is it an elegy? Elegy why? Who is dead, our dreams our ambitions.
I am not an assailant I have not assassinated anyone, but yes then I have murdered someone, that someone is my Dream. It’s not a bawl, but then i want to be audible. Why my hard is work not Biennial. Biennial! why? Confused!! Ok let me take you through a small history, we all know we are biped, right! We have been asked to concur over something which we believed never to be true. We have been a sort of Coxswain, whenever dared to get into those storms have been swept away, and ultimately desponded, we get despondent. Oh that’s a bit of confusing! Well ok let me get it straight , Sunday I boarded the train Happy and Gay ( Gay Oops ) , no I don’t mean that Gay , but then its a phrase 'Happy and Gay' thought to get straightened, who knows what people may think !!Suddenly i have this feeling of like what i have done in my life is not useful for me in sense of attaining what I wanted to attain , I just could not do it , and whenever tried to it was all a burning stinking smell of failure with a lot of bad criticism all around.
This is getting a bit of complicated where I am not able to express myself as to what i want to put across. Maybe I am letting out my frustration, thats what I have been doing, studying working like mad since the past few weeks and the results are nothing but an abyss of Failure, me conquering the lows of negatives (yes now i am speaking my mind out), I want things to flow the way I can maybe if I could rebel when i Wanted to against the things the people, everything even the Universe if I think that it is not going my way! Really can i do that but then what will i achieve out of this, I don’t know! Yes I can achieve Aroma of Success!!
This Blog Is a Waste

Just a Little Pin Prick -

Was there to a doctor few days back for a medical checkup and the best part was the Syringe did not seem to scare me , like it has always done before. It was just a little pin prick and there was no more. A full bottle (10 ml) of blood!!
Thinking about this made my memories go back to the picture of 7/11, where there were bottles of blood being taken to the Hospitals, long queues of people there voluntarily to give their blood to the victims. Liters of blood being lost and liters of blood being transferred into the Victims body! A Sikh Blood into a Christian guy and so on. Did they bother about cast or religion? It was all about saving the life. Try and save it! Who is bothered? Was any religion written on the bottles? Why are we then fighting this War? What has made us get into this war? Is it fanaticism? Fanaticism What!! According to philosopher George Santayana, "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim." What is our Aim is it that we wanted to restore peace and calm among the mankind, and we have forgotten it and we are fighting and looking in just the opposite direction. Ok let me get more into it : "The difference between a fan and a fanatic is that while both have an overwhelming liking or interest in a given subject, behavior of a fanatic will be viewed as violating prevailing social norms, while that of a fan will not violate those norms (although is usually considered unusual).(Thorne&Bruner 2006) ""Religious fanaticism - the most extreme form of religious fundamentalism, which typical takes on violent and potentially deadly dimensions." http://www.answers.com/topic/fanaticismIts not to be pointed to a particular community .There were times, when different religious groups have shown this nature and have taken a very extreme form of what we know it as Religious Fundamentalism. There are groups who have talked themselves of being a fundamentalist, but are they really one? This is what is happening, this is the best way I could define it. Coming back to the blasts, what was being tried to be created was a Chaos, Havoc and a Catastrophe. Great leaders talk about eliminating these “Fanatics" or "Fundamentalists" from their roots, but then the point is that; can they ever remove them? This is causing not only confusions, but the reason of hostility when one community tries to meet the other, in the other dominated space. Why are the innocent people targeted over this, is a reason which is still unknown. Some believe it to be a way of creating hatred among themselves, but then we need to know after this hatred spreads, and the people are targeted, the blood flows , and the blood transferred is of the ................... ENEMY. Is it the ENEMY?

Longevity.............

What does longevity mean? Great duration of life! Where does this stand in the dictionary of the people of Mumbai? Is it the Longevity which is defined as an addition of one new day in their life? A Day! How do you define a day? When you see the Next Day morning Sun , or When you see the fan blades rotating at a high speed above your bed on the ceiling, after a tired day's work trying to get or a better word catch some sleep in the noisy environment. A noisy Environment, everywhere! Physically and Mentally! You lie down for a peaceful sleep and suddenly …. The cries of some one ringing in your ears, some one trying to scream loud to you! Some one asking you to save him! Someone begging for a rupee to feed the hungry child on the lap! Someone shouting at you for some silly thing which was not your mistake! All this, and you find yourself in an Asylum, where people are shouting, and then suddenly you hear a mosquito buzzing in you ears. Snap! There is the dead mosquito lying peacefully in his palms .Suddenly there is a silence surrounding, and he can't speak now and he is asleep waiting for the day to end. Waiting for Tomorrow, hoping that he would be again lying tomorrow, with the dead mosquito in his palm, and not as a dead man in the palm of the world or this city.............