Piece of Gold

T 'was a chilly winter night,

Inside an impoverished hut with a fading light,

She was lying ghastly still, with her body corpse- cold,

Her wrinkled hands firmly clutching a piece of gold.

Her only daughter was sitting beside her,

Trying to fight every saline drop of tear,

Convincing the old woman in a voice so bold,

To part with that sole piece of gold.

"My time has come, dear", she murmured.

"Spending our last possession on this hag is absurd."

But you have a whole life that remains to be explored,

And so, for your future, I shall preserve this piece of gold."

"When your father was alive, he would often say,

That 'Our child will never fall prey'

'To poverty and to illiteracy', and so, here I hold,

Your true guardian, this piece of gold."

Hearing this, the daughter was deeply dismayed.

"Oh mother! Your prudence and generosity leave me dazed.

But without you, my doom is foretold,

Because nothing, but you are my priceless piece of gold."

-Disha Wahi

'In-animate'

Watch the clouds,

When they remove their dry shroud,

Depicting a bantering crowd,

Perhaps an elephant's face or a child's skate,

They artistically state-

'We are not inanimate!'

Listen to the frogs,

When their croaks replace the barks of the dogs,

When they come out of their bogs,

With gallantry in their gait,

They, in a medley, state-

'We are not inanimate!'

Inhale the fragrance of the roses,

Swaying in the rain flashing charming poses,

Cherishing the company of the wet earth that mosses,

Penning down their stories on nature's slate,

Sweet-scented, they state-

'We are not inanimate!'

Indulging in acts of destruction and deception,

The human race has shut all windows of perception,

Feeding voraciously on mother earth's production,

At such a reproachfully increasing rate,

Yes, we have lost the right to state,

  That we are  

    humane,

                                            alive        

  and animate!

-Disha Wahi       

A vacated mind after vacation..@!!!!!!@

The title of this post points towards my current state of mind...confused, frenzied, pathetic & worn-out...(although it is a bit ironic that an empty mind can house so many feelings!). Yes..these feelings have taken their toll (since the beginning of the so-called summer vacation....that does not deserve to be called a vacation...sic) on my mind's multidimensional matrix that does not have a solution ( now this sounds a bit exaggerated..particularly when i am a bit weak in mathematics!!). Well..listed below are some of my vacation experiences (sic) :

• Training at NTPC was fun, since ours was a gang of seven, always ready to ransack every place we went to, eating reasonably-priced dosas (Rs 7/- per plate... unbelievable) in the canteen (in a not-so-reasonable labour-full environment), taking a joy-ride on the coal-train's engine, etc. But, I still feel that I deserved something better. Instead of burning in the heat (partly of the summer sun and partly due to the furnace fumes, coal dust, boiler heat, etc.), I could have fared well in a fully air- conditioned office of some private firm ( but obviously, you need a strong approach for that).   

• After wasting a week or so after training, I finally realised that I must do something constructive(Note: this does not include facebooking, movieying, TV-watching, cooking, sleeping, etc). So, I shifted my focus to a half-hearted preparation for GATE/IES/PSUs. Self-realisation after one more non-productive and monotonous week- "You need to join some coaching institute that would set-up a routine for you so that you can complete the syllabus in time."(In short, 'stop wasting time like money... life is not an ever-going sale...flat 80% off !'...I am surprised that my inner-voice can overpower me at times; it is not dead yet.) So, i joined this India's No. 1 IES Academy (or so are the claims). It is located in a place called Jia Sarai ( most of people dont recognise the place at first. But when you tell them- 'It's near IIT, Delhi.'- there comes an unusually big 'OHHH'...........sigh).

• The 6th semester result was declared a bit earlier than I had expected. As usual, it was not very impressive, especially when those who were way below me in the past semesters suddenly moved up the ladder, overstepping me. In fact, if my percentage versus semester curve is plotted, it would resemble the graph of a decreasing logarithmic function...that is if we exclude the point of 5th semester!!!

With such a busy (sic) schedule, I could not go to a place such as mussourie, shimla or goa .. and the worst thing is, I cannot say - '....may be next time' - because there wont be a next time. This was the last official summer vacation of my college life...in fact my entire life.

To conclude, everything follows Pareto's 80/20 principle, i.e., only 20% of your daily activities are responsible for 80% of the consequences....however, favorable or not, depends on the quality of those activities. 

A DAY'S 'BHARAT BANDH' OR A BLOW TO THE COMMON MAN

5th july, 2010 saw a massive bandh being 'organised'  by the NDA & Left parties, all over भारत . The aim was to protest against the hike in fuel prices. According to sources, over 50,000 'workers' flocked the capital's already disfigured roads, to burn effigies of those they held responsible for the hike.

Now, I have a confusion here- 'What does the word 'workers' refer to here?'. Does it point towards the DTC employees, blueline bus owners, the petrol pump owners and employees, or the middle-class of India? Well...this is the catch here. The bandh was organised for the common man who, ironically, was nowhere in the movie....rather drama. In fact, it refers collectively to the political activists, and people (a.k.a troublemakers & street vandals) whose sole interest lies in creating havoc on roads, blocking traffic and shouting slogans just for the sake of taking part in something 'BIG'. They are not even  wee-bit concerned with the real issue; they simply know how to put buses on fire, to pelt stones at almost anything they can get their hands on and by chance, if they get time out of their task, to give live interviews to news reporters, beaming with pride at their transgression.

Now coming back to Dilli ke Dilwale :
On the occasion of the bandh, a large variety of dilwalas was seen in Delhi-
Type1: the ones who chose to sit back home and enjoy the holiday;
Type2: the ones who mustered courage and set-off for work, facing the chaos and amazed at their own bravery, after reaching their workplace safely (suggestion to the govt.- there must be a separate award function for such people);
Type3: the ones who got stranded in the long queues of vehicles stuck in jams;
Type4: obviously, the ones who were the 'hands and mouths' behind the bandh.

A question that automatically arises -' Why was type4 so conspicuous?'
The answer is-'Although types 1, 2, 3 are directly connected to the agenda of inflation, they were the least interested in the subject of concern. Their choice of not intervening in the bandh proved fatal for their beloved city, whose demeanor was destroyed by an aimless mob. Had they bridged the gap between an indifferent government and an adrift opposition, the whole issue would have got a new meaning, a new dimension, an entirely different perspective. And this would have served the purpose of the bandh.'

To sum up, I would say, the common man has become skeptical about everything that involves politics, and has lost the ability to distinguish between what is being done in his favor and what is not. And this has not happened overnight. It has taken years and governments to compel the common man to think on these lines.

The  Rs. 13,000 crore lost in the bandh could have been put to use in a better way to serve  a population of approximately 1.2 billion.  

After-bandh quotes:
People in the city have not extended their support to the bandh as they know the 'credibility level' of BJP in Delhi. I think the bandh was a flop. It hardly evoked any response.
- Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister, Delhi

This bandh was called by the people, executed by the people, for the welfare of the people. Nobody forced it. The harder government will try to suppress it, the louder it will become.- Vijender Gupta, president, Delhi BJP

The Downpour

The season’s first rain,

In an attempt to wash away my pain,

Forgets that it cannot uproot the real villain,

The one that’s settled- in, deep within.

The one who over-powers my brain,

Who’s the culprit behind my hidden strain,

Who rejoices my depression,

Who takes pride in my suppression.

Naturally found as the hand behind every cardiac arrest,

The mastermind behind every failed test,

One that paranormally transforms a human into a barbarian,

And compels us to redefine the word- ‘humanitarian’.

It just oozes the concentration out of me,

And distracts me till I’m no more the same ‘ME’,

And commands me in a soothing manner,

To destroy my precious time with confidence- powered valour.

So I wish the first shower to be a bit stronger,

And drench this evil scandal-monger,

And subdue its ego, its darkness,

And purify its crust and core,

So that I could taste freedom in the seasonal downpour.

-Disha Wahi