AATANKWADI YA SAINIK?/TERRORIST OR NATIONALIST?

Ateet ke gham mann mein jhoolte hain,
Jawan khoon khaulta hai –
Sar par ab junoon hai sawaar,
Ab pakdenge khud insaaf ki talwaar!

Beete kal ke karz aanewaale kal se chukwayenge,
Aage dekhnewalon ko peeche mudwayenge:
Yeh duniya hil jaayegi,
Humein pehchaan mil jayegi!

Mann ka chor karta hai shor
Aur leader ki baatein karti hain zor.
Par dil mein dabbi awaaz kehti hai, “batta,
Iss sab mein masoomon ki kya hai khatta?”


Past sorrows have gripped my mind,
My young blood is restless for action –
My head is obsessed now,
To hold the sword of justice!

I will make tomorrow pay off yesterday’s debts,
I will force those facing forward to look behind:
The world will be shaken,
We will get recognition!

The thief of my mind is creating havoc
And my leader’s words insist on action.
But a voice buried deep in my heart asks,
“What is the fault of the innocents?”

SAYING WHAT YOU MEAN = MEANING WHAT YOU SAY

Many people, as they grow older, like to say that younger generations don’t have respect. They lament that we’re losing those niceties of courtesy & convention that defined previous eras, when men were ‘gentlemen’ and women were ‘ladies’ not ‘bros’ and ho’s’ as is the recent colloquial trend.

I strongly object to women being referred to as ‘ho’s’ but I suspect that this is only because I too am growing older and remember a time when the sound had sleazy connotations. Societal conventions of behavior, sexual & otherwise, have changed. Promiscuity without a professional angle is no longer frowned upon but laughed at or even admired. So, perhaps the implication of being called a ‘ho’ is not as insulting as one burdened with past baggage, such as I, might believe.

The loss of hypocritical niceties, on the other hand, is something I can relate to. How many times have you met someone new who gushes warmly only to look through you the next time you see them? Or conversely, have you had someone say something mean and then laugh it off saying they didn’t really mean it? If you live in the Punjabi-dominated North of India, it probably happens all the time!

My childhood memories are peppered with such instances….

- My sister in tears and my grandmother saying, “I didn’t mean to call you golguppy – yeh toh mohkaul tha!” (fatty – this was only teasing)

- My parents driving from end to end in Delhi to meet relatives who didn’t appear as thrilled to see them as they had previously claimed they’d be

- An aunt grabbing hold of me and saying how worried she is about my welfare, only to walk off when I start talking

When you can’t tell the difference between what people say and what they actually mean, it leads to confusion & chaos. The people who are too polite to express how they actually feel build up castles of resentment. Those who are misled into believing that they are genuinely like-able and popular, if not checked, can become obnoxious and entitled. Where, then, are the strong social ties that such courtesy is supposed to elicit?

To people who say I’m anti-social, I say, I’m honest. If I’m happy to see you that’s how you’ll see me behave and if I’m not – well, I won’t pretend just to save your feelings. Isn’t better to know first-hand, which people you genuinely have a chance to connect with and which people are, in the spirit of frankness, a lost cause?

I maybe mean but I mean it!

MUMBAI – CITY OF CONTRADICTIONS & CHAOS

If you are not Indian and have heard of Mumbai, it’s probably because of 2 reasons –
1. Slumdog Millionaire – the Oscar-winning movie set in the city, that celebrates the ultimate victory of good karma
2. 26/11 – the shocking terror attacks that exposed the city’s vulnerability

However, if Mumbai were to be known for only one thing, that one thing should be the resilience of its citizens. The approximately 19 million Mumbaikars, as we like to call ourselves, share a spirit that slows down or stops for no one.

Despite the shock of random shooting at a major train station, many Mumbaikars got right back on the trains the day after 26/11. In fact a lot of them travel hanging out of a crowded train just to get to work on time – a risk probably far more likely to be fatal than a terror attack. What’s more, they travel this way twice a day…because as we say in India, sab chalta hai (it all works)!

This attitude is largely why India’s primary wealth-generating city has crumbling infrastructure. We are so busy working hard to chase our personal karmas that we don’t have time to ask questions or having posed them, search for appropriate answers. Questions such as…
- Why the city that stops for no one comes to a standstill every year, in every monsoon, every time it rains continuously for over an hour?
- Why the city with the largest tax contribution doesn’t have a single road free of potholes?
- Why the small bridge to solve a small part of Mumbai’s traffic congestion took over 11 years to build and is still not complete?

After all, we are a city of professionals – we go about our own work and leave it to others to do their own. So what if our politicians define their priority jobs differently from what we’d like them to – such as…
- Changing the names of landmarks and roads to the point where it is near impossible to identify a place from its correct postal address alone
- Pitting Maharashtrians against non-Maharashtrians, a concept that should have no place in secular India and cosmopolitan Mumbai, whose growth is driven by the confluence of different communities and cultures

I love Mumbai – every Mumbaikar does, but sadly, we love the city in our own selfish ways. We want the city to improve in many ways but we feel that our part in this ends with pointing fingers & finding flaws.

Will we ever wake up to our responsibilities in a city that never sleeps?