water...water...nowhere...not even a drop to drink....

Half a glass of water once every week.........mineral tissues to wipe oneself clean.............the color green only in old paintings......minimum temperatures 50 degree celcious...............earthquakes...acid rain........volcanoes errupting every 2hours in a day...........circa 2070!

This will be the scenario for our progenies...........while we laugh.......party.........and Destroy!

Humans are supposed to be the most intelligent living beings on this earth...........are you sure? If so, why do we destroy ourselves, our environment, our future? Will supercomputers, robots, organic food save us from the bleak future? Are we superior to mother nature - can we stop earthquakes, volcanoes, acid rains, global warming? Interestingly we are the catalyst of our sufference - cutting trees and destroying natural environment, killing animals and dis-balancing the food chain, nuclear tests, pollution,wasting water.......all in the name of CIVILISATION!!

Lets learn from our intelligent couterparts - animals. They donot kill or destroy for pleasure. They can sense dangers much ahead of us.............

Is it too late? Arise, awake....till its too late...........and we reach 2070!

GOOD OLD KOLKATA...............

Dusty roads, potholed streets, pollution, crowded footpaths, bandhs, rosogollas, warm hearted people, cultural sphere, adaptible people......that's Good Old Kolkata.

Once the capital city of India, today it ranks among the last few in terms of its growth and glory. No wonder why Kolkatans still fall back to its rich heritage and glory of the past - the city has somehow frozen in time - the time of the Raj.

The city still holds the cultural scene in the form of classical performances, theatres but what has happened to the industry - jute, manufacturing? The Manchester of India is a graveyard. Economy is in shambles, trade unionism rules, IT industry is a hogwash with big infrastructures with not enough good work, polittical parties donot work together for growth rather fight over their own egoisms at the cost of industrial growths. The créme of Bengal - the talented, qualified youth have mostly left in despair - Kolkata is ruled by few hard-core Marwaris with very less sense of the future or attachment to the city.

As Kolkatans dont we have a duty to give back to our beautiful old city by being more conscious of keeping the surrounding clean and beautiful? Being more politically active by revolting against the wrongs of bandhs and strikes which parallises growth? To get unified and be back to our roots and work for a better future for Bengal - a region with the biggest wealth - its heritage, 'golden' soil, river? What more can you ask for to develop a state? We only need some positive, aggresive, rooted Bengalis to turn the wind to its positive direction.

Are their any out there?

Truly the 'RAJ'

The name of this post might sound either historical to some or coming from a person still under the 'chaprusi' style of British influence but a visit to our past 'RAJ' gave me a very candid view of the United Kingdom.

I have a firm believe that any country rooted in its distant past and with a strong affinity for its heritage which dates back to many centuries( as we have all read British History) has a strong sense of binding and belonging among its people and for people visiting from other lands that sense gets evident in each nook and corner.

Walking past the majestic and grand theatres, museums made me feel like a historical character straight out of the books. It was like reliving the past as a victorian lady walking the Green park, being part of Robin Hood gang on the way past Nottingham Forest or being part of the romantic genre' looking and soaking the beauty in front of Da Vinci, Michealangelo, Raffael or being impressionist standing in front of Van Gough's 'Sunflowers'.

In all the well maintained majestic glory - the modern buildings are seamingly layed out but in a way to give more importance to the old and magnificient.

As with the contour, the people are a good mixture of Britishers and Europeans and Asians. The Asian presence reminds of India's days of Raj reversed. But as the saying goes ' when you are in Rome be a Roman' all bask in the British glory. A bunch of reserved and cordial people, very soft and gentle in their nature - a perfect gel with the serene contour. People who live up to their rich heritage and past. The only modern element in their character would be the absence of snobishness or racism that was prominent years ago.

Contrary to the popular fable - 'London Bridge has truly risen in all its might and power'.

An enigma:cross-status compatibility

The lowest and the upper most class in our social strata are the most happy and peaceful and interestingly have uncanny resemblance in their habits and habitats.

Both have a fair idea about their wealth and strength, their wants and desires and people from both these strata have a confident "donot care" attitude towards the society at large.

The worst affected are the middle-class and the upper middle class who get caught between the have and have-not's - their undying desire to make themselves compatible to upper class society but also stick on to ideals of the "traditional" middle-class strata. It is a constant psychological fight to make the "right" choices. Should a lady drink or smoke? Should my daughter go out for night-outs with her friends? Is calling friends over for regular drinks at home good enough?

With advent of economic growth all across, middle class have monetory power much higher than their predecessors - this in turn create furthur confusion. They get more and more entangled in a cobbweb of social compatibility.

This compatibility confusion will ultimately give birth to a new class of people - utterly confused, stuck between norms and depressed.

MISS UNIVERSE...................

TAJ

MISS UNIVERSE!

(17TH CENTURY......................


The awestruck beauty, grace, elegance, personality, perfection over powers one and all.

It stands tall in all its purity and perfection guarding its undaunted beauty for centuries together and for more to come.

But is she ashamed of her nakedness or tired of all those yearning eyes on her? Or, of all the years of struggle she has endured to strongly guard her purity?

Stand in front of her - you can empathise with her and bask in her glory because even in her most poignant stage she engulfs one and all in her beauty and grace.

"Religion"......the farce that unites people?!!!

Religion grew from the need for humans to get disciplined under one banner.........the superior race to bow down their ego to one enigma - GOD! The pun here is that humans themselves created the concept to bow down to - the biggest twist of human civiliasation.

It is not hard to believe that from its inseption it was largely advocated for a good cause to humans in large and also for vested interests of few.

So what has been the evolution of religion....like humans? Has it really disciplined humans or made them better social beings? Or has it only helped few in their monetory enhancements?

Lets zoom into a stereotype puja pandal in Calcutta or Hyderabad. It is a gathering of people in their sunday best munching away goodies and nudging each other to get the best place to view functions or even bad mouthing for the most frivolous causes. The primary objective to unite like minded or like religion people gets defeated at its inception itself - the farce surfaces in all its nasty form.

War in the name of religion, killing innocant people for differences of religious beliefs - have we evolved under one banner? It is far from that - religion has just benefitted few perverted vested people - ones who earn millions from using it to their own use.

The evolution of religion like its creator has been towards destruction, anarchy and disturbing. All in the name of GOD!

Riders to the Sea

Sea is an enigma..............

Its vastness makes humans loose all inhibitions, grief, worldly matters & flow with the waves.

We were six lost souls in city pent trying to re-invent ourselves by the seaside at Suryalanka - a sea side resort 360kms from Hyderabad.

We were Riders to the Sea like the fishermen..........

......................ready to loose our souls to its vastness.

Suryalanka is a village by the seaside & the only bit of so called civiliasation is in the form of the AP tourism hotel.

The waves had a clear welcome message with open arms - we let ourselves flow with it. All worries,tension, sorrow,rift got washed away - a brain wash.

In the evening, we just quitely stared at the moonlit silver waves - a sound of silence was beating all over.

We let the overwhelming sea engulf us in all its magnitude.............

LIFE: HYDERABAD

One Step Away from Home

Choosing a second home is the toughest decision & that also when you are or think that your birthpalce is the ideal one to spend the rest of your life!

After believeing so for a chunk of my life in Calcutta, it was time & opportunity to move on & experience new horizons(as I believed).

I stepped out with my small extended family(my husband) for the adventure - to make a second home!

As we know India is a vast land of diversity - south India itself can be considered a seperate palce with different culture, language and customs - such bookish visions were badly stuck in our minds when we landed in Hyderabad.

Now we are one & half months old in this city - surprisingly it is already our second home.

Calcutta & its people have their peculiar nuances & surprisingly in a small way I discovered where lies the unity in diversity!

Both city has a laid back attitude to life - sense of timing is particularly very bad! Locals are in a confused state between MNC culture and their own strong traditions! The outcome is jeans & sneakers with bindi & gajra!!

The boom in hyderabad in terms of IT and MNC's is just fresh from oven - it will take considerable time for locals to adjust which is evident the way they go about on the road!

...................the love for food is also evident!.............generallly locals are shy & not much open to outsiders!

In all this confusion, industry state is hot & rising. To make a career in IT no better option with all the big ones present here. The civic sense of goverment is also pretty good with neat roads and decent atmosphere.

Overall, our second home is not proving to be painful to adjust! A lot also depends on how you welcome the city in return - & "be a roman in rome"!

Life: Rang De Basanti

The word "Basanti" is a definite indication of the color of India, color of youth, color of "josh" which is the ultimate message of the movie.

Although there is one unified statement in any art form which the creator himself conveys but I strongly feel any art form may it be cinema or painiting creates subjective connotation in viewers mind which may or may not vary.

On the same thoughts when I talk about an art form I insist that its my subjective opinion.
The movie tries to string up the pre-independance and post-independance days with the message that "nothing has changed". We are still slaves in our democratic country - slaves to a corrupt system, slaves to our own constricted thoughts that there is some third party responsible for our country's dirt!

This escapist concept gets broken in the movie - nothing changes by being inactive but one has to rise & activate the change.

The deep underlying message to India's youth is very well camouflaged with "masti, songs and dance" - this I would say a second message that today's youth does not hold patience for any serious message!

The only point where I disagree very strongly is that to get up & do something for this country does not require any personal grounds. Infact, the "learning from the past" message that is portrayed clearly shows that in pre-independance time our youth did not need personal reasons to rise up in arms.

Whatever the way, its the right time to "arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached"(Netaji).