Yesterday there was a traffic jam on all the major roads of Delhi. The jam was called by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and like all others was accompanied by violence, destruction of public property and of course disruption of traffic, inconvenience to commuters to say the least. This is a unique way of putting your point across and is by and large unique to our democracy. Frankly, i have never heard of effigies being burnt anywhere else in the world(i may be wrong) than in India and that too with amazing frequency. I am sure that some creative mind thinking out of the box would like to start a new business of making good quality effigies of important politicians and make a lot of moolah out of it.
Protests of any nature are an integral part of any democratic set-up and a democracy where the citizens cant raise their voice is no democracy at all. We as a race are very argumentative and believe in putting our point across strongly. I was wondering where this form of protest actually start and realised that the cow-milk drinker Mahatma started all this, with very noble intentions indeed. The idea probably was a peaceful protest that was completely non-violent. Burning of effigies, disruption of traffic and damage to public property never formed a part of this. I was having food at a road side joint near Jantar Mantar and thought of asking some people protesting against 'americanisation' of India what was wrong if Wallmart were to come to India, after all a guy called Ratan Tata has also acquired a company called Corus, nine of the ten guys had no clue as to why they were there. Majority of the people were either the poor who were brought by buses with the offer of a good lunch and transportation or students who wanted to please some neta ji who was a part of the protest.
The sheer agony of people waiting to go to office, the ill in urgent need to go to hospital, the sheer amount of fuel wasted while people abuse the protesters is amounting to crores. I am sure that none of the people who went through the agonizing wait a Akshardham etc would have any more to do with the Ram Setu somewhere in Tamil Nadu that I have to do with the love life of Queen Elizabeth.
The number of people who go to vote decreases with ever election, the apathy amongst the middle class of anyone who is a politician is immense and these instances just add fuel to the already burning fire. No wonder someone said recently that all politicians of our country should be thrown in the Arabian Sea with their hands and legs tied for our great nation to prosper.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Childhood Pals
While I have always been extremely critical of Sanju Baba and have thought of him as just another criminal who is getting sympathy he does not deserve, the fact that a gentleman called Yousuf Nulwala and he have been friends for 35 years came as a surprise to me. How many people can claim to still be friends with guys that they met during their school days?
It invariably happens that guys who were our friends branch out later in life. This may be attributed to a number of reasons, geography, paradigm shift, fall-out due to petty issues etc. The fact happens to be that when we make friends during our school days we are neither as calculative in our relationships nor are we as mean and opportunistic as we later become.So an individual becomes our friend due to the sheer delight in the company and there is no calculations of caste, creed, religion, social status etc. Later in life we filter individuals due to these criterion and then decide whether a particular relationship is viable or not.
Also, when we move higher into either academics or professional life we get specialised in our skills as well as attitude. So as a banker while I may still like my friend, the fact that he is into trading of commodities in the Agra market may not gel with my outlook and thus there is little in common between us. Another friend of mine who has strong religious beliefs may be too boring for me now.
Does this mean that all such childhood friends get lost in time? Well, in most cases yes, but then if you make an effort and the other person is as willing then yes. The differences that were given above notwithstanding.
I am today in touch with at least one of my friends who has studied with me from class 4 onwards which in effect means that we have been friends for good 23 years now. The funny part is that in the last ten years we must not have met each other more than 5 times. Well, the fact is that we still connect. He is someone who is not my friend due to my position in the society, make sure he calls me to share good and bad news all the time. Calls me when drunk and remembers the stupid things we did in school, the girls we were horny for and I do the same. In case of some others this is not the case. The simple reason is that, in them the innocence of a relationship is missing. So you have a guy who calls you up for advice on his own professional life and puts it across as if he is asking it for another colleague. This in effect reflects on the trust that he has on the friend that has studied with him from 1978. Others our plane jealous or high headed and are just there as an e-mail id, nothing else.
In the end, I am proud of my friends which are few in number but nevertheless are there for me, always.
It invariably happens that guys who were our friends branch out later in life. This may be attributed to a number of reasons, geography, paradigm shift, fall-out due to petty issues etc. The fact happens to be that when we make friends during our school days we are neither as calculative in our relationships nor are we as mean and opportunistic as we later become.So an individual becomes our friend due to the sheer delight in the company and there is no calculations of caste, creed, religion, social status etc. Later in life we filter individuals due to these criterion and then decide whether a particular relationship is viable or not.
Also, when we move higher into either academics or professional life we get specialised in our skills as well as attitude. So as a banker while I may still like my friend, the fact that he is into trading of commodities in the Agra market may not gel with my outlook and thus there is little in common between us. Another friend of mine who has strong religious beliefs may be too boring for me now.
Does this mean that all such childhood friends get lost in time? Well, in most cases yes, but then if you make an effort and the other person is as willing then yes. The differences that were given above notwithstanding.
I am today in touch with at least one of my friends who has studied with me from class 4 onwards which in effect means that we have been friends for good 23 years now. The funny part is that in the last ten years we must not have met each other more than 5 times. Well, the fact is that we still connect. He is someone who is not my friend due to my position in the society, make sure he calls me to share good and bad news all the time. Calls me when drunk and remembers the stupid things we did in school, the girls we were horny for and I do the same. In case of some others this is not the case. The simple reason is that, in them the innocence of a relationship is missing. So you have a guy who calls you up for advice on his own professional life and puts it across as if he is asking it for another colleague. This in effect reflects on the trust that he has on the friend that has studied with him from 1978. Others our plane jealous or high headed and are just there as an e-mail id, nothing else.
In the end, I am proud of my friends which are few in number but nevertheless are there for me, always.
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