Free Advice

What can be more sad for Facebook than TRAI banning its "altruistic" venture to provide free Internet to billion Indians?

HRD ministry banning Facebook for wasting our youths precious time in only making friends and not learning skills to Make In India.

But since our PM himself is friend with Mark, Facebook may not have to worry about this in near future. But this friendship comes with a cost. There is something about our PM's corporate friends be it Ambanis or Zuckerberg people always find ulterior motive associated with their friendship.

Facebook started internet.org exactly a year ago to provide free access to few selected websites including it's own social network platform. But after the controversy of Airtel's zero rating it renamed it into Free Basics. As the saviors of Net Neutrality campaign to persuade public opinion against facebook's free basics intensified, Facebook used all it's might in support of it.

The most cogent argument in support of free basics was 'Those people who already have internet cannot decide how much should be charged form those who do not have it'. Even with billion mobile phones in India and rapidly falling prices of phone which supports internet, the number of  people with internet connectivity remains at 30% of population. And as govt leveraging many developmental schemes with use of internet, this digital divide will manifest into to tangible  deprivation.

The argument against Free basics is that the philosophy of differential pricing for different content will distort the internet. On internet we are not just consumer but also creator of the content and with the gatekeeper in the beginning of tunnel our content may not be able to see the light at the other end. With asymmetrical power between internet giants and budding startups, the new vernal sprouts will be nipped in the buds. The people who do not have internet connection, and will be introduced to this world via free basics, will have a illusion of being on internet but in reality they are accessing only few sites which are in good terms with facebook and not billion of others.

Government is doing it's best in bring Digital India Scheme to connect every village with broadband and laying down National Optical Fiber Network re branded as BharatNet. But similar to other government schemes this too is going to miss its deadline ( no finger pointing at government's planning and implementation because there are real challenges in the field). At this juncture when so much is at stake (It is the opportune time for India to go for that much talked about "take off " to lift millions of people out of poverty and transform country from developing to developed leveraging our demographic dividend) can we afford to delay the connectivity? And even with connectivity, the data price are so high can we ensure affordability?

Take the case of PDS (Public Distribution System) where government procure basics food items and distribute it at very low price to the poor people, who cannot afford to buy from market, through fair price shops. Fair price shops do not sell all food items but only limited basic items like rice, wheat, sugar etc.It does distort the market but that distortion is justified as we cannot let people suffer in hunger just to protect the market. People use PDS for basic items and as their affordability increases they do go to the market to buy other things. Why cannot the same logic apply to Free Basics provided by Facebook?

There is a enough evidence to support the claim that PDS has helped people fight hunger and starvation and helped them come out of poverty, and thus going by this logic TRAI banning free basics seems harsh.

But at a time when our PDS too is moving from fair price shop to actual market and the unaffordable price is credited back to the consumer using direct benefit transfer DBT. Facebook, if it is serious about helping people in poverty get connected, can use this route. Rather than creating separate platform, let the people use whatever site they want to use on internet and credit the amount they incur on data while visiting Free basics Sites in to their phone. Its not difficult to gauge how much data is being downloaded from a site, use this information along with data price in the area and credit the amount as their talktime balance.
This way they get to make money while making friends.





  

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Better Infrastructure Improves Public Behavior

Everyone behaves well when they are happy or at least when they are not in stress. And what makes us happy is, if everything going as desired or as planned. Better infrastructure does precisely that. It makes thing predictable. You can plan things based on the previous knowledge and it will play out as predicted.

I would like to mention one very peculiar thing which I observed while travelling in Delhi Metro. Even though there are seats reserved for women, elderly and differently abled person, people were happily giving up their unreserved seats when they saw some women or elderly person standing and no other seat were vacant. There was no demand, no grumbling, seats were being offered happily. For someone who is used to travel on Non-AC buses on bumpy roads, that was a rare sight of generosity. And what made it atypical was the label that Delhi junta carries of being insensitive and rude. Even people were apologizing when they were colliding with someone or unknowingly stepping on someone's feet. The sight gave the beautiful picture of cultured and civilized society who are trained to live together. And don't mistake the crowd to be of prosperous and privileged, there was sufficient economic heterogeneity thanks to the low fare of metro.

Then I got down the train and came out of the station. The temperature outside was close to 38-40 degree Celsius, heavy pollution clouding the atmosphere, and here I experienced the stereotyped Delhi. A motorbike guy fighting with the auto driver accusing him of brushing passed him.  A rickshaw wala guy shouting at a female pedestrian "Oye madam dekh ke chalo" and she was also shouting back.  The beautiful picture of civilisation from inside the metro started getting blurred in the polluted, dusty outside.

So one thing was pretty clear, It was not the people who changed from the metro, it was the environment which changed. The timely running metro, with decent cool air inside and perfect cleaning around made people behave nicely in contrast to the outside where roads were dusty, temperature was high, footpath was hogged by shops, motorbikes, autos running without following traffic rules, people spitting here and there.

So creating better infrastructure and civil amenities will improve people's behavior more than any moral science lesson taught in school or imposed rules to behave properly.

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Cinema and Society

Literature is the mirror of society. Well that can very well be extended to cinema as well. And in fact in modern time the latter make more sense going by the sheer volume of audience cinema attracts than a book. Cinema reflects our society back at us. Though sometime we are unable to sense it as there is so much disparity in society itself. A virtually westernised urban audience fails to see it's reflection in movies with rural settings, An urban migrant labourer or rural population cannot be expected to relate with movies based on upper middle class life. And senior citizens do not fully appreciate the new generation films. Cinema shows us what we think, what we want, and what we want to be. It shows us how different sections of population have different set of problems and how they tackle it, and without cinema it seems unimaginable how we could have got chance to observe such diverse lifestyle unless we are adventurer and ardent traveller.

A generation's cinema can be as good as the society is. The term "good" here is relative. We like some films we dislike some other. We like films and consider them good which we can relate with our life or at least are aware that something like this might happen or if it resonates with our fantasy. We dislike films or consider them bad which we fail to see any relation with our life or which is completely out of sync with our wildest imagination. But there is one thing that resonate with all of us, in no matter what kind of film it is, and that is "heroism". The good guy protagonist character around which the whole movie revolves. We relate to this character, we love this character and more often than not we try to imitate the character.

Cinema heroism has profound impact on the society's behaviour, and in that sense it is not just a mirror but torchbearer and guide too. It's not that it only impacts the impressionable mind of adolescent but it has it's significant imprint on the adult's behaviour too. And that makes the task of film maker all the more difficult in ensuring proper portrayal of the "hero" character. But Indian film makers have not given enough care in the carving out character of "hero" figure that it actually deserves. In bid to show the machoism that is associates with "hero" in almost all the movies of recent times or even old time we have witnessed the character flaunting all the norms of civil society and with no legal consequence.  This is bad at so many levels.

An honest and no nonsense police officer beating bad guys in the street and then locking them up and torturing them in jail cell and sometime even killing them is a recurring feature in our movies and is also widely appreciated by the audience. But this is illegal. Police do not have mandate to beat people. A good police officer would be the one who arrests the criminal and produce that criminal in court within 24 hour without even slapping him.

A guy in one sided love with a girl constantly stalking her and following her openly in the street is considered cute and romantic. But guess what stalking is criminal offence and that "hero" guy should be put in jail not appreciated for his indomitable spirit.  Is it too difficult to figure out where these road side romeo in real life derives their creativity from?

All the extra legal steps that hero character takes during movies to take vengeance for the atrocities which he has faced in the beginning of movie are all applauded and becomes the source of inspiration for society. This makes the task of implementing rule of law all the more difficult and dream of establishment of legally and morally upright society far fetched.

 Film censor board will do more good to the society if it will start censoring adulated extralegal features of the films than what it is currently busy in doing, cutting "inappropriate" love scenes and "abusive" language.

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Cheating in Bihar Board Exam

Saw this picture of cheating in Bihar board secondary school exam on twitter on 19th march. When I first saw it I thought someone is cracking joke on Bangladeshi cricket fans watching IND Vs BAN world cup quarterfinal match. Had I not been from Bihar this picture would have seemed to me as unbelievable as the picture of some crowded trains covered completely with people or awfully long traffic jams. But this picture did not surprise me because I have seen this happening all around me since I was a kid, the only thing that has changed is the height of the building and use of rope.  This picture demonstrate not only the minuscule version of citizen's lawlessness attitude who are ready to subvert any institutional norms, which is rampant in Bihar but also it demonstrate the grim picture of administrative failure, shortsighted political discourse which has followed in the state for years.

With Sarv Siksha Abhiyan and other educational initiatives the social mindset has changed in positive direction which value education, literacy, including girl education. Giving free cycles to girl students to ease their commute, giving them free uniforms and money to buy books have actually increased the number of girl student enrollment in primary and secondary schools. And the most encouraging change is the superiority a higher degree holder enjoys in society. 10th pass will have more affluence than a 8th pass, a degree holder will garner more respect than just 12th pass and so on. Even in marriage the same preference is followed. Now the question is how come such a positive change in society is leading us to such an image which is being circulated and tarnishing the image of already infamous state.

As the pressure to attain higher and higher degree mounted, people rode their free bicycle, wearing their free uniform with free books in their bags started going school only to be greeted with free mid day meal.

The condition of teachers in government schools or private schools which are affiliated with state board is absolute pathetic. I have not met any parent serious about their children schooling sending them to state board affiliated schools if they can afford English medium CBSE school.  and even if they do send them to such schools they also make them take multiple additional coaching. Now those who cannot afford even that what choice do they have? Society cares for result not for the way you took to get it.

People are suggesting open book exam to curb this cheating practice. I don't understand why? People are not cheating because they can't remember stuff, they are cheating because they have not been taught. What difference does it make if you will give them book in the exam, why not just scrap the exam all together if you want to stop the cheating in exam. Open book exam is the best methodology when you want to test the analytic skill of examinee and not just rote learning. But analytic skill will develop if  there is someone in school to explain the book properly.

One of the reason for the poor state of Bihar is this also, ignorant people. Even though literacy rate is going up but people are lacking adequate substantive knowledge and still have feudal mindset. Girls are passing exams but are unaware about their rights and are subjected to all patriarchal norms.

So dear chief minister stop appealing to parents to stop this nonsense and please rise above the vote bank politics and take some tough decision on the state of schools and college in Bihar and teachers in them.

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मिनरल वाटर

कच्ची सड़क से धूल उड़ाते हुए गुजरते
कार के शीशे से बाहर फेंके जाने पर
उसे अहसास हुआ कितनी गर्मी है बाहर,
शायद वातानुकूलित पिंजड़े के अंदर
सूरज की भी मर्ज़ी नहीं चलती |

कारों का काफिला गुजरने और
धूल का गुबार पसरने के बाद उसे दिखा
सुखतीं फसलें , फसलों को आशाहीन नजरों
से देखते किसानो के सपाट चेहरे के पीछे
छिपा हुआ दर्द और उनके मुरझाए हुए सपने  |

उसने अनुमान लगाया शायद यही है
ड्राउट प्रोन कंट्रीसाइड,
जिसके बारे में कार के अन्दर के लोग बात कर रहे थे
घिन आने लगी थी उसे अपने बोतल में कैद जिंदगी से  |

कुछ कर गुजरने की तमन्ना लिए
कर दिया खुद को समर्पण
सूरज की किरणों के सम्मुख |

भाप बन उड़ चला था गगन को चूमने
ठंडक और सुकून था ऊपर की हवावों में
बस अगर कुछ नहीं था, तो वो थी संवेदना  |

बादलों के बीच पहुच कर सुना दिया उसने दर्द भरा वृत्तांत
कहानी की वेदना से धधक उठी थी चिंगारी आकाश में
उमड़ पड़ी बादलों की सारी फ़ौज उसके आह्वान पर

अगले दिन खबर आई, सूखा ग्रस्त इलाके में जम कर हुई बारिस
सैकड़ो गाँव बाढ़ में तबाह |



- चंचल प्रकाशम्

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Since When "Aadmi" Doesn't Mean Women Too?

It has always been a trait of civilized society to rummage the odds, and eliminate it if it can be, or inculcate it in life, like it would no longer remain odd. Humans have ruled the only planet with existence of life (as of now) not because they are the mightiest but because they have what it takes to rule. Using their gifted mind they overpowered some really vigorous animals in those initial days that sometime seems unimaginable. But when it came to interact with their fellow human beings they used their physical strength.  Unfortunately the beautifully crafted and filled with dearness idols lost their battle in the war of physical strength. But the game winning tactic seems to be changing now, we are in the twenty first century, an era of science and technology and now again what it takes to rule is nothing but intelligence and women are nowhere less than their men counterpart provided they are getting same opportunities.

The millenniums long strong foothold of men have engraved very deep foot print on the surface of civilization. Be it literature, crafts, nomenclature, religion, no matter where you see you can get the glimpse of masculinity. Leaving Hinduism aside, no other religion have given proper recognition to women in deity. Why prophets of all religions are only male? Did it never occur to god to send any female messenger? Why it is assumed that word Aadmi (as in Aam Aadmi party) means women too and not just men. Why only father's name of male and female(unmarried) and husbands name of female(married) is required in case of filling any form? (I was going through the voter list of my constituency to find my name and what I saw was very bizarre. In the list along with the name of elector, one name was also mentioned and it has to be male's name, in case of male it was always father's name, dead or alive and in case of female it was father's name if unmarried and husband's name if married). May be many women don't care about it, that's not because they are happy with it but because they are facing far too more differences to care about such "nonsense stuffs". But those women who have got their scores settled in other dimensions of life would certainly point out these minute things no matter you label them as FemiNazi or Female Chauvinist.
Well, the deep engraved foot print of masculinity can be obliterated if women walks over it with even firmer foothold, but then level of civilization will get even more down so its better to help each other in filling the dent.


Recent hyped cases:

Controversy regarding Mr ShriPrakash Jaiswal, the then Coal Minister, Govt. of India arose when during attending a cultural event in Kanpur he made sexist remarks against women by saying A new victory and a new marriage have their own importance. But as times passes, the memories of a victory go old and as time passes, a wife gets old, the same charm is not there. Female protesters went down on roads and later the minister had to apologize.

Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr Narendra Modi during his rally in Himachal Pradesh amidst talking corruption, made a sexist comment about Mr. Shashi Throor's wife as "has anybody seen 50 crore girlfriend". He was slammed for his remark. and I don't remember he even apologized (well some people lack humility).

A news in foreign media was much hyped while defending her party member on some sexist message, Australian Prime Minister Ms Julia Gillard quoted her opposition leader Tony Abbott's ditch the bitch remark and commented  “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man .... if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror.”

A twitter war of word over why Arvind Kejriwal named his party "Aam Aadmi Party". A female pilot twitted-- sir please change the name to something like "Aam Junta party", or "Rastriya Kranti Party" or " Rastriya Vikas party" as it doesn't sound proper. Then many started tweeting "here another pseudo feminist, FemiNazi , Female chauvinist started again". 

To those who thinks women should not care about these words:

If you are the youngest in your siblings how will you feel when some one asks your parents about children and your parents only mentioned the eldest one, even if they love you the same but the mere not being referred there wouldn't hurt you? I think in most of the case it does. and clearly eldest son doesn't inherently mean youngest son too. 

To self proclaimed women protectors: 

This is for someone with Taliban mindset. Have you really given a thought on your self proclaimed protector attitude. I fully agree with your noble intention to protect and preserve the dignity of women by keeping her in burqa. . But isn't it important to take care of what she really feels, does she really need a protection or not. Remember your early teenage days when parents thinks we are still kids who always need their umbrella of patronage and we feel we are old enough to fly solo. How does interests clash then. Let her endure the heat and dust of the road if she really thinks she can.    

Liberate the women

Let them fly

If they will use their wings too

We all can fly high.

              

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अधिग्रहण

चमकते सूरज और सुलगती ज़मीन के बीच
मग्न था वो बाड़ लगाने में
पसीने बदन से रिशने के पहले ही
सूरज की तपती किरण में सूख रहें थे ।

मगर बाहर के आग से ज्यादा
उसे पेट की आग सता रही थी
दोपहरी बीतने को थी और
मंगलू की माँ अब तक नहीं लायी थी खाना ।

तबियत भी कुछ ढीली थी आज,
पर बाड़ लगाना ज़रूरी था
अब रात भर रखवाली भी तो नहीं होती
उन भेड़ियो से जो रौन्द देते हैं सारी फसल ।

तभी एक पथराई हुई सी आवाज़ सुनाई दी
"बंद करो ए बाड़ वाड़ लगाना और खाना खा लो",
"मेरे मरने के बाद ही लाती" झुझुलाते हुए पलटा था वो,
"मै कोई सोयी नहीं थी, शहर से बाबू आये थे,
ज़मीन अधिग्रहण के पन्ने पर अंगूठा लेने "

खाना निचे रखते हुए बोली
"इस्पेसल इकोनोमिक ज़ोन बनेगा हमारी खेतो पर
और दिन भर धूप में देह तपाने की भी जरूरत नहीं है अब,
नाईट वाचमैन की नौकरी का भी वादा किया है बाबू ने "


अवाक् सा फटी आखो से देख रहा था वो
अपनी ज़मीन के इर्द-गिर्द भेड़ियो के पांवो के निशान  ।



-चंचल प्रकाशम्

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Suggestion: Impartial Investigation

In India, President is the head of republic. But since India is a democratic nation and the President is not directly elected by the people of India, he is not the supreme leader, though he is the formal head of legislative, judiciary and executive.

Rashtrapati Bhawan

Presidential Standard of India

President is the commander-in-chief of Indian Armed Forces and as we know the person who controls army is the omnipotent. But is that the case with our President? The answer is no. He appoints the chief of Army, Air-Force and Navy and can declare a war and conclude peace, subject to consultation with Parliament, the apex governing body of democratic of India. All international treaties and agreements are done on his behalf by the head of the party who enjoys majority in parliament. All money bill originates in parliament on his recommendation, he can declare emergency and dissolve any federal government given the consent of parliament. The 42nd amendment of the constitution has made it obligatory on the part of president to accept the advice of council of ministers. So in short he does everything in the country but can't do anything really without consultation with the parliament.

Whats the problem?

Back in 1946 when Indian constituent assembly started drafting constitution they wanted to give all power to common street people. Since each and every member[1] of the parliament is chosen by the people and from among the people, they had hardly doubted that people will lose faith in them. It was supposed that losing faith in parliament is like losing faith in self. So they vested all power in parliament and made it an apex governing body. But they kept the judiciary independent of legislative to have impartial judgement even on the matters that involves government. Now what is the case? Judiciary is independent but the investigative agencies on whose findings the court will give its verdict is in the hand of government.

Imagine the fate of a university where grading copies and declaring results is in the hand of professors but examination control committee which conduct exams is headed by student body.  

Recent case: A Hindi news channel Aaj Tak conducted a sting operation on the working of Dr. Zakir Hussain Memorial trust and came up with irregularities of INR 71 lakh which was endowed to trust to conduct a camp for differently-abled people, but that camp never happened. This trust is run by wife of Mr. Salman Khurshid, Union law minister of Govt. of India. Social Activist Mr Arvind kejriwal along with many supposedly beneficiaries from this camp wanted to meet Prime Minister to complain but they all were jailed. Mr Salman Khurshid came live on national TV and bashed all the protesters along with TV which conducted sting and heard saying "I will not give answer to anyone on streets". He also challenged to litigate the controversy to court.

Now, the aforesaid trust is in UP so the case will be between UP state government and trust run by family of union law minister. Chief minister of UP is Mr Akhilesh Yadav of samajwadi party and a case against his father Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav for disproportionate assets is pending in supreme court which will be investigated by CBI(investigative agency under govt.). So do we need Sherlock Holmes to figure out what will happen? Can we overlook the 'quid pro quo' case here? This wouldn't be the first time for central government to avail CBI.

Solution:  

Make the post of President apolitical. which can only be done by changing the way president is elected and not by giving resignation from primary membership of party after filling nomination for president. Anyway common people is not voting for president directly don't let MP's and MLA's vote either. I believe that the President should have an idea about the functioning of government and he should not be completely aloof of governance. So lets make it a bureaucratic post like a chief election commissioner of India or chief justice of supreme court.  Only all the IAS rank officers, few elite universities professors, judges of courts and high court will vote and elect the President. So will be the election procedure for governors for states.
All investigative agencies should be under President and Governors of states  and they don't need to consult government for any kind of investigation. Now a government or a "street person" anyone can knock the door of president for impartial investigation against each other. Let all other power of the President as it is. Even presidential judicial power like pardon, reprieve,remission, respite would now make some sense.


Give the man at least something so that  he wouldn't find it satirical when someone says His Excellency.   




      

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Ironic Incidents

To hell with the logic, this world is full of chaos. You can easily witness ironical incidents at every nook and corner. One news I read in 'The Hindu' newspaper website this evening which prompted me to write this very blog. Few people gathered in Azad Maidan, Mumbai to protest against the violence which happened in Assam and the gathering itself turned violent which resulted in death of two people. In all, 11 vehicles, including 3 OB vans gutted, 45 policemen and some journalist were injured. This was just one incident like this many happens, many time at many places.

Who are we? what we think while making any decisions? Is catastrophe our ultimate goal? because this is where we are heading. I have always read, all system try to attain stability and the process of attaining stability is spontaneous. But this does not seem to me a similar case for humans. If a person A kills B, the close relative or friends of B try to kill A, as soon as this happens, situation gets reversed victim becomes killer and killer becomes victim and this process goes on. Isn't this like we are trying to wipe blood using blood and in the process making the whole floor bloody messy.

One very common news is "honor killing". The word means, killing to preserve the honor. If a girl or boy, usually its girl (as in our Indian society lot of "Honor" is associated with girls) fall in love with someone who is not approved by the parents, that girl or boy is killed, sometime along with their lovers. Then this news comes in media, police do arresting and all those "saviors of honor" spend rest of their life in prison. what kind of public esteem did they bring to the family? What kind of honor preservation is this?

We worship god for the mental peace. But what we do during dussehera, Eid, Muharram, Ganesh Chaturthi or during any such holy festive moments we play such loud music that whole town literally goes deaf, and it creates lot of heart and mental problem. Even daily in the morning you can hear temples and mosques playing Hamumaan Chalisa and Azaan in very loud volume.

We earn money to live luxurious and comfortable life and in that process we forget to take proper care of our health and we end up with frail body. I can't imagine a comfortable life on dialysis, can you?

                

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Satyamev Jayate: Daughters are Precious

Kudos to the effort of Aamir Khan for this wonderful TV show Satyamev Jayate. We all are aware of the problem prevailing around us, but most of the time we need someone to remind us that, yes we are capable of curbing the menace, if we just put little more effort together. And the show Satyamev Jayate is acting as that reminder. 

                              "Just listen to the alarm and act wisely."      

You were precious for your parents and so is your daughter for you. Don't Kill Her .

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Will This Dismay Vaporize?

It was a long, hot, simmering summer ahead. Vacation was announced in college after semester examinations. All students had departed with jolly mood to their homes and why wouldn't they, it was summer vacation which was two and half month long time of doing whatever they liked.  It was euphoric moment for everyone except Sophia, Prity, Rukhsana and Harpreet. They all had their own reasons for not liking summer vacations.

Sophia, the only child of working parents. She had prior experiences of her gloomy vacations. Sitting whole day alone in front of TV switching channels, no one around to talk to and not permitted to go out in absence of her parents. Prity, hated attending marriages putting lot of makeups and always following lot of family rules and getting second preference over her brother. Rukhsana was frustrated with her marriage talks even after her repetitive denial and wearing Burqa whenever going out with her Ammi and Harpreet disliked meeting her never ending family tree.

They all looked into each other's eyes and a same thought flashed, We have adult franchise, we can choose the government for a country, why can't we choose what interests us? Is it always necessary for a girl to bandage her thoughts within the wrappers of society conviction? The answer was definitely NO in their eyes. Sometime insurgency eludes cognizance.

They planned to go on camping and hiking, arranged all accoutrement and went on to pursue their adventures dream. They were very excited because they were about to see the world through their own eye and not through the eye of the male members of their family.

On first day the tour guide instructed everyone to always remain in groups and return to camp one hour before dusk because the forest was not safe and recently it was in news for tourists assaults. This instruction was against the sole motive of the trip of all those four girls, so on one fine morning they decided to desert their hiking group members and tour guide, and went inside the jungle. The jungle was enriched with flora and fauna, taking pictures of wildlife, fountains, birds, they went too far. Now they had to return and it was already late afternoon, they looked into each other's eyes and thought what if we couldn't return to camp before dusk?

According to Murphy's Law "Any thing that can go wrong will go wrong"

But Murphy can't be wrong. A storm hit the forest uprooting many trees, they protected themselves inside a stone cave kind of structure. when the storm subsided all routes in the forest were completely changed and it was dark too. They again tried to look into the eyes of each other but it was too dark to see the solution but dismay was obvious. Now the atmosphere was so calm as if nothing happened there, the storm was sucked up into heart and mind of girls. They were sitting closely holding each others hand without making any sound, though there was lot of roaring going on in every one's mind. They dozed off because of whole day tiresome hiking.

The crumbling sound of leaves interrupted their temporary calmness, they pressed each others hands tightly as if no blow can throw them apart. Rukhsana said "I guess something is coming toward us". Prity was almost crying. Harpreet explored the area near her with her another hand and got a branch. She said "okay, you girls sit closely I am going to see what is it". she modified that branch into stick and stood up to go. Every one's heart was throbbing very hard. Sophia pulled Harpreet by her hand and said "You don't go alone let it come whatever it is, if we will be together we can face it effectively". Prity affirmed and took out her mobile torch. The crumbling sound became more intense, Prity flashed her light in the direction of sound, they were all sweating with fear and praying their gods. Suddenly Rukhsana shouted, "look there is something", mobile torchlight was getting reflected from the eye of an animal, they all threw whatever was in their hands and chased that animal away. They again looked into each other's eyes, their eyes were looking vividly in torchlight , they inhaled deeply, exhaled, smiled and said unanimously "Thank god it was wolf, we thought it's men ".     

[It's a work of fiction and any resemblance with anyone is mere a coincidence.]                

     

            

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Who Killed?

Swarm of people joining their hands with flowers sandwiched within palms, lips fluttering with spiritual songs and with restless heart were moving towards the door of the temple. It was not an early morning, the sun was quite high in the sky but the day was not so sunny. Soft breeze stirring the leaves was also mixed with Bhajan songs that was creating the ripples of hope in every one's heart. Among them there was a man in police uniform so restless, uneasy and bathed in his own sweat. Everyone was coming offering flower to the god's statue, joining their hands, closing their eyes and wishing from god what they came for. That uneasy man too came before statue but he had no flowers, his hands were stained in blood, he looked furiously at the statue, tears were dripping down from his eyes in form of lava, he closed his eyes and flashback started.

How he was offered with bribe to set free a criminal which he had refused remembering the oath of his service and today morning when he was in office a phone came that his house was attacked and his wife and both children were killed.

Remembering the face of his wife and children stained in their own blood he started shivering with anger. He opened his eyes and shouted "why you did this to me I worship you daily, I do my duty honestly, I speak truth. If you are real, why you didn't stop them from committing such a heinous act and if you are not real, why should I let you stand there and deceive the faith of millions. He took out his service revolver and fired at the statue. The statue crumbled with a roar.

People started crying and fleeing in random directions, they were bewildered after seeing what just happened inside. The pujaries of the temple were nowhere to be seen. The serene atmosphere of the temple became chaotic.  The policeman was also shocked what he just did. He came out of the temple putting his gun back in his waist. Seeing him coming out of the temple people started shouting "this is the demon, this is the devil man who shot at god, how can he shot at god ?, god will surely punish him, god won't let him go, he broke his statue, he fired at him" some were thinking "now volcano will come and will engulf him as he has started direct fight with god". Few started stone pelting at him, seeing his death right in front of his eyes he took out his revolver, the circle of crowd moved backward, everyone was trying to get behind someone. Some started praying please god do something show us some of your miracle your enemy is right in front of us.

The policeman's body was trembling with anger and fear. A "daring" man from crowd aimed a stone at his revolver and revolver fell down from his hand. He was too stoned to bend down and pick it up. The throng pushed forward to do the god's job. They battered him with stones, sticks, his body converted in to the lump of muscles plunged in blood but people kept beating even after knowing he was dead. The crowd was celebrating around his dead body this was the day they had witnessed the god's super natural power. They were shouting happily, god took his revenge, a wave of rejoice propagated among them, the god did not create volcano lest more people would have got killed he only punished this demon.

Meanwhile a kid came out of the crowd staring at them puzzled, he was murmuring "God did not kill him, you all people did".

   


     

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When Noodles Turned Crispy

Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic, Justices, Equality, Fraternity, INDIA 2020, Development.




Isn't this all enough to make a person feel ravenous. Abundant craving and that too for enormously long period impaired the public sagacity, crippled with sense they vaguely started demanding something that can easy their agony of burning stomach due to over flowing gastric acids.

Government after signing Kyoto protocol was over-concerned with the emission of greenhouse gases so she decided to tap the heat of public demand to cook something that get ready in 2 minute. What else can one think other that Maggi noodles if it comes to cook and serve in 2 minute. There were lot of other reasons too to converse the verdict on noodles

1. Fast to cook (of course)
2. Easy to eat.
3. You can segment it without making sound.
4. Easy Recipe.
5. Tastes good.
6. and most importantly it's a "Brother's " cuisine.

After finalising what to cook, Now it was time to set the kitchen accessories, so she contacted her foreign friends giving them lucrative offers. Every thing was going smoothly as planned, stage was all calibrated, media took the responsibility to add enough spice to make Maggi full flavoured, foreign giants retailers took the burden of interminable supply of raw Maggi noodles. What came in her part was just adding water, seemed very easy but was very decisive task as supplying heat was not in her control so at first she added enough water but she was not sure about the quantity of Maggi to be cooked to pacify the public voracity so she took advice from some "Elite" section of public.

Kitchen

Maggi was ready in 2 minute as promised on the pack, but the time that she took in aligning all the accessories and tasting the Maggi(Media was also satisfying themselves ) along with cooking, lead to a situation of starvation. At first, some "Elite" people were invited for "Maggi Tasting" as government had apprehension of huge public turmoil because of bad taste. and also they wanted to take few more people in their confidence. Getting such a privileged offer to taste new cuisine that too before all the public, "Elite" group became elated, keeping their emotions on hold when they went inside, the aroma of noodles fragmented their wall of patience and within the blink of an eye they licked the vessel clean with relish(already it was less than half). It's then they realised they were invited just for tasting and that too on behave of millions of starved people waiting outside. Now they had to convince people so they came up with an idea, after all they were "Elite" people.

They came outside arranged a podium and announced "that noodle was tasteless and insufficient as we did not have clear idea of total demand, it was a bit over-cooked too, so please clam yourself down, we have introduced new recipe it will take time, but the taste will fulfill all your taste buds and will change your life forever, try to supply heat judiciously". People had trust in them, holding their stomach tight they cooled their temper.

This time Media showed their charisma holding spice department they wanted to explore something unexercised, so they over spiced it, due to low heat supply noodle remained partly cooked within specified time, keeping their trust in "Elite" group's recipe, Government served it among people without getting it tasted. People ate desperately, few died on spot, some committed suicide eating such nauseating, repulsive noodle.

ZZzz

Now the common people's anger shattered all the bonds of forbearing, their temper reached boiling state, the temperature of the noodle vessel started increasing enormously, it was too high that water poured by government evaporated even before reaching in the noodle pot. Noodle was roasted in the heat. it became crisped. Again Maggi tasters were called but they did not dare to eat more because crisped noodle was making sound when crumbling in their mouth and also there was risk of hurting soft lining of mouth, it was no longer soft smooth noodle.

The above Italic font paragraph is the dying dream of people who ate Musty Noodle. Some among them don't even wanted to enjoy the tasty noodle, they just wanted to put off their pancreatic fire.The Buck Stops Here, Generate the heat, crisp the noodle. It's the need of hour.

This post was originally published on www.chanchalprakasham.wordpress.com

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