China - the puppeteer

The white man's burden on the British shoulders to develop the eastern world could be seen in the railway tracks built by them in China. However, the wheel seems to have taken a different turn. The British approach towards China has an essence of mendicant in it.

The Chinese are in progress of gaining the same skills as the British had at a point in time. Like every other European country, the British also stand in the queue to secure a share in the Chinese market along with its booming investment across the seven seas. Straightforward as the Chinese are, the British Prime Minister was cold shouldered as he showed his concern towards the Tibetans. To top it all, Cameron also met the Dalai Lama. Fearing financial loss, Britain took to guard and approached china cap in hand. Obviously, Britain did not want to be left out when it came to Chinese foreign investment.

Britain’s shaky attitude towards Tibet changed overnight and Britain in turn was awarded the honour of being China’s best friend and most willing partner in the world.

It is evident not, that china has the game controls in its hand. The western powers led the game at one time and now its China’s turn to lead.

The language barrier

The issue of language has taken precedence over riots and economy for Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Samajwadi Party Chief insisted on the use of Hindi as a language for communication in the Parliament, and not English.
The goal of this demand seems unclear.The rationale for making Hindi the language of the Parliament is nothing more than restricting English language to the privileged few, including his son of course.Talking of 'double standards' of ministers, Singh might have forgotten the real use of 'language'.If the ministers go out to give speeches to the public in English, the whole purpose of communication would get defeated.
In a multi-lingual nation of ours, English acts as a common thread.Restricting the language of some would be equivalent to restricting their freedom of expression. The fight for the language in West Bengal did not really reap benefits for them.
For a globalized world that we live in, language- English, Hindi or French, must be seen as modes of communication rather than imperialism.And for Mr Yadav, he surely has better and more important questions in hand at present. 

Its not worth the drama..

"I think.. She should have at least said a 'hi!'"

"They shouldn't have done that!"

"How can someone even do this to me??? I was so good to him all this while!"

"I did so much, and this is what i get in return?"

Questions of this kind often cross our mind. Well, not just cross, many a times they even make us cry, go without sleep and even fast unto death and eventually change. The change is not of the thought, but we change ourselves!

"She did not call back! Okay! I won't call her ever again!"

"I did so much... but now... I will think only about myself and won't give a damn about others"

Well in all this, we changed ourselves, our habits, our inherent ideas and eventually our existence. All of this only because we expected a person or a group to react in a particular way. But if you come to think about it, you would say "no.. I don't expect anything from anyone"... But truly, we all do. We expect people to behave in a certain way. If I smile at someone, I expect that person to smile back. And that's where we get hurt. In this fraction of second that we spent on expecting a suitable reply, if we would have given the freedom to the person to do just as s/he feels like, we would be free of all the anger and agony. We mustn't forget that we cannot expect a person to be just as we are. Each person is different and we must accept and appreciate it. A person can respond only as much as his capabilities and capacities. It would be unjust on our part to expect from them.

We all remember how pressurized we felt when our parents/teachers expected a lot of marks from us in school.

Let's not burden anyone else with our expectations. And in all this, we might just start accepting each person just as they are, and in turn free ourselves of all the pain we underwent because we wanted him/her to be someone s/he wasn't.

My dustbin is dirty!

Early morning when I was fast asleep, the sweeper knocked the door.. Oh the plight of getting up and opening the door. Then staying up just to watch him sweep away small black insects from the floor, which had enjoyed the brilliance of my tube light all night. The tall half-bald yet young man, who is usually seen wearing his black and green striped t-shirt paired with black pants rolled up to his calves, emptied my dustbin. He also took away the plastic bag in it which was put there to protect my bin from getting dirty.
Phew! The room was clean, but the idea of sleeping again was out of my mind.

*Rise and Shine* Oh forget shine! Only my teeth shone for then. I went to the cook for some morning tea. Opened a pack of biscuits and headed towards my dustbin to throw the packet away. And the finicky me forgot the biscuit in search for a plastic bag for my dustbin. My cupboard, neighbor's cupboard, the kitchen, the whole house!! I called out for our hostel caretaker Mohan bhaiya. And then I was faced with the real issue. "जम्मू में प्लास्टिक नहीं होता। यहाँ बैन है " (Jammu doesn't have plastic bags. it is banned here). And that very moment my brain scanned through all my shopping ventures and I realized "अरे हाँ" (oh yes)!!
So here's a state that finally does follow the ban. I experienced this even more vividly, when on my visit to Bagh-e-Bahu (a huge garden with fountains and artificial waterfalls) I found NO PLASTIC BAG. Unlike New Delhi where you might just see more of plastic than water flowing in the waterfall or I may just call it plasticfall.
Unfortunately enough the good things about a state are seldom highlighted. Media today seems to be looking for all that's wrong about a place. Banning plastic bags is a phenomenal achievement. A large state like Delhi couldn't do it because its large, but an even larger state did it because it is responsible. Hats off to the people here.
All the people of the nation, (including myself, no preaching here) must once and for all give up the use of plastic bags. It definitely has become an important part of our lives. But just a small effort of making cloth bags or reusing newspapers as bags might just bring about the change!
Meanwhile I am looking for an alternative to protect my bin!

For those who really felt they should be the face of the change... here's a link for you. Learn how to make paper bags. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSfusvAP1vw

Do tell me if you really made it. 

The Last Judgment!

'The Day of Judgment' as put in the Holy Bible is a day when through Jesus Christ, God judges every single person who has ever lived on the earth. He would determine the worth of each individual. All the sins are accounted on that day. ‘Chitragupt’, a character from Indian mythology also serves the same purpose and finally decides the destiny of a person- heaven or hell.

An event recently reminded me of this idea. A simple window that acted as a judge to the sins of one and all. And all that one had to do, was just pass through it to prove that s/he deserved the arm-chair comfort of ‘heaven’.
Sudh Mahadev is the temple which stands for 2,800 years, and is located 120 kms from Jammu.  The temple is a home to a natural black marble Lingam, the Trident (Trishul) of Lord Shiva and mace believed to be that of Bheema, one of the five legendary Pandava brothers. The temple has a marble window that has attracted many to test their life.
For me, it was the test of the natural spring nearby that promised to wash away all the sins of a person. There was a Sita, who gave the ‘agni pareeksha’ and then there were some who gave the ‘khidki pareeksha’ as I would like to call it. I passed through the window, maybe that’s because I had washed myself in the ‘paap naashini baoli’ (sin destroyer spring) after the long journey. Some couldn’t, the reason could perhaps be that they should have taken some more time to wash themselves!