Excitement over an empty box

I've heard this being said like a billion times by most of the elders around me, but experience taught me this lesson, just a couple of hours back. This might just get a bit too philosophical, but please bear with me!Purely a work of fiction, bears no resemblance to any emotion existing or non-existing. No offence intended.

Expectation leads to disappointment...

I'm such a spoilt brat that 'no' is the word i have rarely heard. Owing to this phenomenon in my life, never has it happened that i have not received what I've expected. God also added to this miserable plight of mine by bestowing me with amazing brains. Hence i turned out to be pretty brilliant in the academic arena and even there, my expectations seldom failed to yield.

Now comes the twist in my misery. There entered an anomaly into my life, which decided, that 'no' must be the only word that i must hear henceforth. So, this lead to a drastic change in my till now miserable boring yet beautiful life. I was forced to hear that two letter word as often as a zillion times every nanosecond. I was doomed. I wished that I'd be blessed with Surya's case of short term memory loss, so that i forgot the negations i was being subjected to. But again the divine intervention had other plans. HE, unfortunately gave me a brilliant super cool memory which a super computer would kill to acquire. I was condemned to remember every single instance that i had been denied something.

This lead to me leaving the company of my senses every time this wretched word was uttered. I began losing my temper every time i heard it. My Anger was forever ready to gobble up unsuspecting people who refused to satisfy my horde of expectations. But, whenever i felt anger, i felt drained, tired, lost and even guilty at times. It was a scary situation for a person of my calibre and intelligence. This anger, guilt, loss of energy, built up so much tension in me, that i finally burst and ended up in the dumps of disappointment. Disappointed with everything that was happening. Finally, even disappointed with disappointment itself.

Then it struck me. Its all the fault of these expectations. Too much of thought and energy had been channelised into forming and again deforming expectations and hence according to the laws governing the transfer of energies, the anger, guilt and loss of energy were the outcomes, finally ending in disappointment. So, the root cause of my entire misery was the expectation, i decided to ask it to take the boot. It wasn't leading me anyplace, but was just propelling me deeper and deeper into the dungeons of disappointment. This acted like a seat under the Bodhi tree, and realisation finally dawned.

Get rid of expectation from your dictionary and along with it no, anger, guilt, energy loss and disappointment too will gleefully walk out.

Is that all?

'What?'

'No joke. Absolutely true, haven't you watched the news?'

'You must be kidding me, this can't be true! I did read a couple of days back that he was speculating, but I didn't think it was happening.'

'No da, I'm not. If you don't believe me, go watch the news.'

'Oh my God! Our country is going to dogs...no..not going to dogs..its worse than that. I can't believe people are letting this happen to them!'

'See, no matter what people like you and me think, what has to happen will keep happenning in our country.'

' I know that, but still, its outrageous! He's the same man who was convicted of selling the pride our nation and today he's on his way to occupying a seat of authority. Isn't there any kind of criteria for joining a political party? You just have to be Indian, seems like more than enough.'

'I agree. A man who couldn't belong to his country's cricket team cannot belong to any political party either.I could bet that such a man is up to no good, except his own. But, like you've said, ours is a country, where, even a dacoit like Phoolan Devi can become the Home minister!'

'You know, in fact I have a feeling, that people like us should come forward and do something about it. Even if we cannot stand for an election and win, we can at least educate the masses. You understand right? Come election time and these politicians make long flattering speeches, and the common man is floored. He is provided with packets of chicken biriyani and liquor, and he'll be ready to vote for even a pig! We can educate them and prevent them from falling for these vote-collection tricks.'

'You mean the 'Yuva' style?'

'Absolutely.'

'Actually, we should rally for some criteria to be brought in, to both create and join a political party. We should fight for a set of rules to be brought in to have the right kind of political people to vote for. Get at least the better set of leaders, so that we can vote for someone worthwhile.'

'Something like, every person who intends to enter politics should be minimum a graduate?'

'Yes, things like that.'

'The person should have no previous record of crimes against him. He should have a super-clean-glossy history. I'd like to see that happening.'

'You know, i just got this idea, the public should have the right to fire a politician if any charges are laid against him. Like in the case of the Mumbai Terror attack. Also, i think there should be an experience criteria laid down. A person should be allowed to contest in an election only if he has had previous experience of the same at a lower level.'

'Wow, all this sounds so wonderful! wish we could actually do something on these lines.'

'Wish we could make it come true, then we wouldn't be living in a garbage dump like we are today.'

Journey

No matter how hard,
the path that life chooses,
we'll dare to tread on it,
fulfil destiny without losses.

These journeys I promise,
we shall embark on together,
I shall give you love and hope,
And you shall shower more love than love giveth.

Such will be an adventure,
Life to us,
We shall fulfil, my love
we shall fulfil.

Why the special privilege?

Isn't that the question we used to ask our parents or elders as kids ?

Why does Anna get the bigger piece of cake? Why is that topper-idiot loved more than me? and so continues the list of whys, whats and hows.

Isn't that the very same question we must now aptly be asking the elders in our country, the leaders who're leading our nation ?

Why is it that a shooter who shoots a target in the Olympics given a prize of 3 crores and another shooter who shoots terrorists and defends our nation given a prize of a mere 5 lacs ?

Why is the Indian Cricket team given the privilege of travelling in AC volvo buses, while our Black cat commandos in ordinary red-buses ?

Why is an ordinary citizen taken to court over a traffic signal jump and an MLA's son left to roam free after a hit and run accident ?

Why is it that Zaheer khan made a big deal about his friend being frisked at the entrance to his hotel while me and you wait patiently and take no offence ?

Why is it that in our city the most heavily guarded places even today are the homes of the MPs and MLAs ?

What is given in return to those army and police personnel who guard their homes, so that they can sleep in peace ?

What about the common man ? The man who gives his services ?

Is nobody bothered about him?Is there nobody who cares what happens to the common man? Is it only that privileged class of rich and powerful who deserve it?

Why is it that our politicians remember the common man only at the time of elections?Why does the common man fall prey to the sop given to him by the politicians?

Its all about the common man. He is all powerful. It is just that he doesn't realise that all the power rests in his hands.

I am talking about the power to vote.The power the common man has to make or break a government. The most recent example being that of the Maharashtra government. The power rests in our hands, whether we want to let things happen the way they are or step forward, voice out and change things.

Many people often wonder, what can we do? how can one man change the system? why should one enter 'dirty' politics?

It is all in the thought. If one person takes the initiative to do something and move forward, surely others will follow. And change has to begin someplace with some person, on one day or the other.

Let us be that change. Let us all, in our own places and capacities try to make things better. Let us not take an easy way out by saying that politics is dirty or for what should we vote. Please come forward and vote.

We make those politicians, lets make better ones than we did last time.

Finally.

Finally.

Finally the fight against the source of fear comes to an end. But this isn’t the real end. This is the beginning. The start of the fight of a nation, united now, against the source.

The blasts and firings that shook the mighty mumbaites came to an end today after a 59 hour tryst.

Let me begin from the very beginning. Terror. Terror translates into a feeling that is stronger than fear. And people who evoke this feeling. Terrorists.


This terror strike is a signal for the entire world that, it is high time we join hands and work seriously on this. We should stop playing the blame game and work to strengthen ourselves so that such an act of misery does not repeat. It is useless to blame the intelligence bodies of our country, honestly how much can they do? The attack, as we all know was a very well planned one. It is no one day job. It’s pretty obvious that they had complete information of how, what and where. On the other hand our intelligence officials had none of that.

Our nation has been facing this from over the past 15 years. And now, our tolerance and patience has run out. For example, just because Mumbai is said to bounce back always with its undying spirit, doesn’t mean that you keep hitting it over and over again. This time, we’ll fight back and we have.

This poem goes out to all those who have laid their lives and their families. May their souls rest in peace..

Rest in peace
O mighty warriors,
You’ve done what none could.

Stood sturdy against the howling wind.

Life was the price you paid,
For life itself.

You maybe no more of blood and flesh,
But you live on, immortal,
in the minds of those,
for whom you bled.

Love is this,
You have shown us all,
Love for all brethren,
All humans alike.

No, mighty warriors,
This shall not be in vain,
We shall dismiss this darkness,
Make way for the light to shine,
Pave the path for generations to come,
Relish our beautiful world.

Let us all pray for the people of Mumbai and mourn their loss.