Hailstones in Gujarat!

Yes you've got it right, I mean H-A-I-L stones. Even I was shocked today when all of a sudden I was hit by a tiny piece of icicle during the violent storm in the evening when I was busy enjoying one of those rare sights of Nature which one seldom gets to witness staying in Gujarat and especially in this scorching summer.

Until a few hours earlier it was so damn hot and sunny that we couldn't even open our windows to let some breeze flow in. All of us were frustrated of the excessive heat as usual and were literally drenched in sweat just staying in the room itself, under the fan with the hot air in the room not having the slightest of an occasion to complete the cycle by letting it get replaced by some comparitively less-hotter air. Before we knew it, the climate outside got quite cloudy, slightly dark and breezy beyond imagination. Those were the first indications of the possibility of an ensuing rain to grace us mere mortals with its divine presence. But who the hell would have had the guts to bet on the odds in its favour. Not me, not anyone who has had an experience of the summer what the State has to offer for three whole years. But when lightning rent the air and the first drops of rain hit against our window pane, all our inherent expectations rose sky high which until now atleast I wasn't banking upon just for the fear of being let down in the end. Needless to say, there was no stopping now. Everyone in their lives must have experienced certain moments when they did not have the need for reason or logic to support their inherent feelings, something which more than having to do with sheer common sense simply relied on faith and belief. This was just one of those moments.

With smile on our lips and hearts full of joy, my roomy - Gupt, Sri Ram, Nagarjuna and myself went out to the corridor to witness this unusual event and encourage Nature with all our possible might. The sight was eligible enough to meet all our expectations and, I should say, also go beyond them. The cool breeze was blowing with so full of vigour that had Kilari (owner of Hidalgo) been unfortunate enough to get caught in it with nowhere to take refuge of, he would have undoubtedly been swept off his feet by Mother(Err.... misleading expression actually) Nature. Anyways coming back to what I was saying, the sight was so enthralling with the flower petals blowing off in the wind, the rain falling in sheets and layers, the sweet smell of wet soil renting the air and droplets of water sprinkling onto our faces that all of us could think of only one thing in unison, a camera. Instead of enjoying the moment's glory, we in some corner of our heart were depressed of letting the moment slip out of our hands. We very desperately wanted to capture it and retain it for the rest of our lives. Hardly do you get to witness such events and re-living such moments of the past can be quite nostalgic at times. While all this was happening, even Gandhi and Atul Sethi joined us by now, Nagarjuna suddenly pointed out a small piece of ice and shrieked with excitement. I couldn't believe my eyes at first unless what happened the very next moment that encouraged me to share this experience in my Blog. Another such small icicle hit me on my feet. I picked it up and looked at it in astonishment. A hailstone falling from the sky onto the soil of Gujarat in the summer was something like me achieving a pass grade in RFE, well not quite a comparision actually, a hailstone in Gujarat might not be all that unlikely afterall.

One of the seniors beckoned Sethi to enjoy the rain in the open. Gupt went back to the room to format his PC which was burdened with softwares of all sorts he deemed handy for his numerous projects last sem. The rain got more intense gradually and so we had to exit the corridor except Sri Ram who seemed to have been so mesmerized by the sight that he subjected himself to some sort of a trance.

To Kill A Mocking Bird : A Review

The story is set in a little town of Maycomb, Alabama 1932 during the Depression Era in the United States. The narrative is in the perspective of a little girl, named Jean Lousie Finch aka. Scout. The central idea of the novel is to depict the racial discrimination prevalent in those days and while at it, the author tries to delve deep into the heart of the reader and probe those hidden territories which one seldom has the leisure to explore oneself.

It is a story of two innocent children who come into close encounters of the harsh world they live in as they grow up. A Negro is shown to be falsely accused of rape and finally convicted inspite of the evidence going in his favour, only because it happened to cross the mind of a so-to-seem respected “White” lady to seduce a physically challenged “Black” who, on the contrast, used to feel obliged even to come of a minor service to her free-of-charge. This disturbs the conscience of Scout and her elder brother, Jem who haven’t yet got accustomed to such injustice shown to the inferior race which comes as something so obvious to the adult world that they have long since, stopped brooding over such trifle matters. The author has in quite uncertain terms made it clear that the mind of an 8 year old is capable of perceiving something which fails to penetrate the dense gray-matter of the aged, over-burdened with experience that seems to take the place of sheer common sense. The following dialogue between Jem and his father, Atticus manages to catch the essence quite well.

Jem enquiring in a melancholy mood as to how could such injustice be allowed to be done against a Black,
Jem: “How could they do it, how could they?”
Atticus: “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep. Good night.”

There are also a few parallel stories running along, one of which is about their neighbour, Boo Radley who never comes outdoors and has ended up being a local scare to the children of the neigbourhood. Eventually when he does appear in public with his ashen-white complexion and his not-so-social nature, Scout quite easily adjusts with him inspite of the prejudices she’s been brought up with against him. Only if we adults could get over our own prejudices that easily enough…

There are many such instances which induce the reader to stop and think for a while. Its slow narration has been at times criticized but had it not been slow what different would it be from the fast-paced world we live in where a moment’s idle thought could cost us a fortune according to the measures of wealth set by us.

The book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.


Courage - is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. -Atticus

Happiness!!!

It often makes me wonder as to what exactly makes us "Happy". Is it with what we are living at the present? Is it what is about to happen to us in the coming future or Is it what has happened to us in the recent past? I'm sure Happiness cannot be categorised as such in any of these ways. It depends from person to person and Ofcourse a lot on the situation at hand.

But coming to think of its counterpart viz. Sadness, which more so often tends to fill the lives of individuals who quite interestingly are the ones who desperately look out for in search of Happiness throughout their lives, If we ask ouselves the same question once again as to what is it that makes us sad, we most often than not realize that it is mostly because of things which are either going to happen in the future or that which has already happened in the past that makes us feel remorsed.

Now things that have already gone by in the past cannot be undone and just by feeling bad about it will not change the situation. So why ever worry and spoil your Present?
While that which is about to take place in the future has not yet occurred at all. Who knows, by the time it is bound to happen your stars might show some pity on you and relieve you of your tensions and just in case they are in the right place (as the astrologers say, no pun intended ;) ) they might also turn in your favour. And then when its time for you to be happy you'd instead regret of having worried about it at all. So you see, its not that Sadness is haunting you as if you are some hot chick. Its simply that you aren't letting Happiness seep into your life just for the sake of your concern for either your Past or your Future.

We all must have heard our parents say umpteen number of times to concentrate on our education and study real hard so that our future is bright and we do not have to face any sort of problems whatsoever later in our lives. Parents are quite well known in saying that all the hard work is just upto 10th and once we Graduate our life would be easy and all that crap (donno how everyone's parents manage to make up the same ol' stuff) . So we study with all our might just to make sure that we have a better and bright future. Then when we complete our Graduation we ourselves realize, though sometimes quite late, that we have to study well to land up with a decent enough job so that we are able to spend a Happy life "ever after". Finally when it comes to the moment of your life when you earn the fat bucks for which you got your ass roasted like anything and also have a family of your own, you would definitely want to save up to the utmost either for your own or your child's future. You do not remind yourself of the days when you took such a lot of pain to be in the position that you are in right now so that you could enjoy the luxuries of life. All that you see is your Future ahead of you. It is not "Now" that matters to you, it is the Future that counts.

So basically throughout our lives all that we do is to take life the hard way and face all its attrocities in full fury just to see a better Future. The sort of Future which you unfortunately never happen to have only because at every juncture in your life you always have a Future ahead of you. The only moment when you don't see one is when you are in your death-bed. This is when you lie down reminiscing your past and regret of the times when you stepped back from following your sheer instincts just for the sake of what you thought would be your Future. You never had a period in your life which you could regard as happy only because all you cared about was the life ahead of you. You were ready to face as many hardships as possible to see a "Golden Future".

It is like standing at the sea shore and watching the horizon miles ahead of you. You set out to reach it without giving the oncoming waves a second thought. You keep drowning yourself as you go but you still keep going in the hope of reaching the horizon that lies in front of your eyes. Ultimately the waves engulf you and you no more see your destination ahead of you. All that you see is Death, right in front of your eyes taking you in its grasp and snatching away from you the horizon that you set to reach out for. But hardly do you realise the fact that as you were moving ahead even your destination was moving away from you. That is why you call it a "Horizon". This is what happens if we wish to build that "Golden Future" for ourselves. The Future that we never succeed to get our hands on. The Future will always remain a Future untill we try to accept that it is the Present that was once a Future long back. It is the Present that we should try to be Happy in.

Once we begin to accept this fact life becomes beautiful to live in. Everything around you seems perfect. No matter what comes your way, you either regard it as your Past or attribute it to your Future and stay Happy in the Present. This is true Happiness. You no more run after it as you used to. It is with you for ever and ever and ever...


This reminds me of one of Kabir's famous Doha:

Dukh mein sumiran sub kare,
sukh mein kare na koi.
Jo sukh mein sumiran kare,
use dukh kahe ko hoy.

Two-Child norm going against Child-Sex Ratio!!!

Could you ever fathom that the 'two-child norm' could ever have anything to do with the CSR (child sex ratio)?

Atleast I couldn't and neither could the Women's Organisations and the Health Forums who were the ones to suggest for the norm in the first place. But when looked at it at a microscopic level the relation becomes quite evident.

Men or women who were found violating the two-child norm were disqualified from holding a public post in the State and were not even provided with the right to contest an election, not that because they crossed the limits of reasonablity, but it was done in the best interests of the Nation. This led things to such a pathetic level that men started registering their child in the name of their brothers, polyandry became prevalent and in some cases men also dumped their wives just to retain their post under the Govt. These incidents did go against the well-being of the society but they were yet overlooked just for the sake of the Nation's future.

But recent studies have shown that there is a very strong possibility that the country's population was being stabilized at the cost of female lives. People in the want of a male child commit female foeticides just to ensure that they do not violate the two-child norm. So ulitimately it is the female population that is being harmed in the name of 'Population Control'.

This has been realized quite recently and measures are being taken to do away with the two-child norm altogether. Quite ironically it is the Women's Organisations once again who are desperately trying to redo their self-imposed norm. It was the recognition of this link between the one-child policy and the decreasing CSR that compelled the Chinese Govt to abandon the one-child per family norm.

All seems to be fine on the surface, a mistake trying to be rectified. But what about the booming population now? You can no more impose rules on the public on ethical grounds. So finally the decsion is vested upon us. It is us who should have the right judgement of taking the right decision without hard-and-fast rules being imposed upon. If the Govt. can be caring enough to see to it that the Nation's interests are not overriding the Public sentiments. It becomes our moral responsibility to give the country's future a fair bargain.