lionbikash

‘You can as well get lost’ - Geeta said, nostrils flaring, eyes glaring, index finger pointing directly at my nose.
Am I hallucinating? I felt like Goddess Kali is in front of me holding a sword to decimate me in pieces. Is it a sword, in her hand or a Trishul or may be some new kind of weapon? Is it Goddess Kali? Cannot be. Kali is supposed to be dark in color. I slowly tried to look up once more. No, this wheat complexioned lady cannot be Kali, may be Durga. But Durga is dasa-bhuja-dharini, ten handed one. But only one hand is visible to me, may be I am so much overwhelmed that I also became like Arjuna; so much concentrated in my action, I can see only one thing at a time. But Kali also should have a mundmala – the garland of human heads. I tried to look up again. No, only one small chain around the swan like neck.
Once looking up how can I miss out the glaring eyes? Big black eyes; are these black or brown? How does that matter? So beautiful to look at? Presently spewing lava as if to convert me to ashes. And is that the third eye in between the eyebrows or a mere bindi? In my present state of mind it looks like the third eye only. Does Durga have a third eye or it is only Shiva?
‘Kali or Durga?’ I tried to shake my head to get it cleared.

‘Why the hell are you shaking your head?’ thunder came almost knocking me out. I tried to recollect any wise advices given by my parents about the best course of action to be taken in this kind of situation. But the mind also followed suit of my lower limbs, looks like it also is frozen. Just controlled in time my impulsive urge of shaking the head again to defreeze it. Not bad! Mind is working; may be only in slow motion. But it does not give any reassurance, mind working slow is like a tape recorder moving in slow speed, you will feel a A.R.Rehman composed music as a K.L.Saigal song. Did anyone asked, what is a K.L.Saigal song? Oh not again? You see I am already in trouble, hence don’t confuse me with interrupting questions.

Anyway where was I? Ya, in front of Kali, no no not Kali, Durga. No this is no good. Whether Kali or Durga, I am behaving like a sacrificial lamb in front of her, tongue tied, eyes roaming here and there except at her eyes, legs feeling like made of stone. No this is no good. I might be lamb only but it is no good trembling like a sacrificial one, don’t mind being executed but let me die at least with dignity.

‘What’s the matter, did you loose all of your senses?’

‘Look young lady, I am here only to give you a message.’
Whose voice is this one? I was bewildered. Sounded like mine only. How come? Is it really mine? Once again my legs started trembling. A sharp pain of fear traveled through my spinal cord. I waited for the thunder and blows. Nothing came out for a few seconds, are they few seconds? For me it looked like millennium.

‘By the way who are you?’

Not bad. I looked up. The face is still red in anger. But there is a trace of softness, like the red sun but not of full noon but of quiet evening.
Before I tell my name let me narrate the story from the beginning.

To make a long story short let me go back to this morning. I was getting ready to go out for college, from where I am supposed to go to Book fair at Maidan. My newly married sister-in-law came hurriedly to my room.
‘Dipu, are you going to kolkata?’
I looked at her suspiciously, to be frank; there is no reason for suspicion. I hardly know her. They have just come back from their honeymoon. Married my elder brother just a fortnight back. Don’t look for any story; it is a simple arranged marriage.
‘Yes?’ I answered and questioned.
‘Can you do me a favor?’
This is murder! How can you expect me to say no to the newly wed sweet thing? I just nodded my head.
‘You see...’ she started hesitatingly.
I kept quiet keeping my eyes on her.
‘You see, your brother is not feeling well....’ . I did not show any concern as I did not see any concern in her eyes either, rather I feel, I saw a little bit of smile in her eyes (may be my illusion).
Hence I kept my waiting face as wooden as possible.
‘He is not going to office today.’ Again pause for both of us.
Am I making it difficult for her? I felt a little pang in my heart. ‘You want me to get a doctor?’
‘No, No, Nothing serious. He has already popped up some pills and will be all right soon.....you see,.... actually,.... I had an appointment with my friend Geeta. I was supposed to meet her at Gariahaat and we are supposed to go for a movie. Can you meet her and tell her that I cannot make it today?’
‘But Gariahaat is in south.....’ my protest got stifled in the middle only looking at her pleading eyes.
‘But I don’t know her. How do I recognize her?’
The million-dollar smile broke out in her face as she sensed the victory.
‘Don’t worry about that. She will be standing in front of Mouchak, the restaurant at Gariahaat market at exactly 2 P.M.
‘How does she look like?’
‘Don’t worry, you cannot miss her. Actually you would have known her if only you would not miss our wedding’ the reproach came out. I missed by brother’s wedding due to some other important engagement for which she has vouched she will never forgive me.
As told, I found the young lady, in scarlet red at the appointed place, at the appointed time.
I am no roadside Romeo. Hence did not hesitate to approach the lady.
“Geeta?’
‘Yes’
‘I have come to give you a message from your friend Romila. She is held up today and excused herself.’
‘What?’
I repeated the message.
‘Are you mad?’
I did not reply but started sensing trouble. I told myself ‘this is not the lady you will like to cross. Save yourself. Make a hasty retreat.’
But when you are young you always do not listen to your inner saner advice.
‘You see.....’ my well-intended clarification only could go this far.
And that’s how it started.

Well. I told her who I am. ‘ Oh. You are the rebel one!’ I did not know what she meant by that exclamation, but felt wise to keep quiet about it.
‘Can we go inside the restaurant and have something cool to drink? I am really thirsty’. I regained some sense of chivalry.
The tired eyes fell on mine, how fast they change?
But I have nothing to complain; rather felt happy to see the conversion from Das-bhuja to normal human being.
‘I never knew she is such a stupid female. How can she do this to me?’ We started our conversation inside the restaurant after a couple of sips of the cool drink.
‘She is not stupid, but the marriage made her stupid’ I commented gravely. I have a serious view that only stupids get married.
She looked up at me.
‘But what do I do now. I told my parents about going for a movie and decked up myself for the occasion. How can I go back now?’
I looked up the beautiful lady draped in a beautiful scarlet red color saree and really felt sorry for her. Poor thing!
“Can you come with me for the movie. It is a good Uttam-Supriya movie..’ she stopped in the middle looking at my face. I am sure she has seen horror on my face.
I thought for a while. Me? The Young Turk, who has vowed to changed the world! Again the shivering started. What will people say if anybody sees me in a theatre watching an Uttam-supriya romantic movie sitting with a beautiful lady romantically? Romance and me? Wasting valuable time? No way.
But how can you say no to this young lady? I started cursing myself. I am getting nervous. All my life, I have studied in all boys’ school, college. Never have interacted with any girl. I even don’t know how to behave with a girl. Definitely it is not an in thing to refuse a girl! I started cursing my bad luck, my sister-in law. How coolly she put me in such an awkward situation.
“You see I understand your problem. But really I cannot go for the movie, as much as I would like to....’ I stopped. Definitely she is not buying my bullshit.
‘You see, I am not making excuses. I have to go to Boimela (Book Fair).’ I tried to look more sincere, which I really was.
Well, sincerity does pay. She believed me. ‘Well then. Let’s go to Boimela. This year I also did not go there.’
I felt jubilant. Not a bad job. It is really another matter. Roaming around the boimela with a female escort is not a very bad thing. It is entirely different than watching a romantic movie.
So that’s how we started. Books are my favorite subject, it is my turf. I never felt want of words in the company of books. We roamed around for hours, discussed about new books, about the crowd, the dust, listened to the poems recited by the budding poets, sat near the waterfront when our feet started aching, ate china badam (fried ground nut) and off course discussed about ourselves also.
It was a start of a long journey. You may be wandering what is the fate of this long journey. Let me keep that for another day.

The issue of reservation in higher education is the topic of all the discussions, maybe except world cup football (Unfortunately for the agitators, the Supreme Court and the Rahul Mahajan case has played spoilsport. They are deprived of their daily dose of news coverage). We have seen the agitation by the Medical students, we have seen the IITians, IIMians voicing their concern. Whatever may the points and counterpoints raised, everyone agrees that they are concerned about the education of the under privileged, the lower castes and economically weaker section of the society. I personally feel that the issue of reservation (pro or anti) is a complicated one. Especially in the present politically surcharged atmosphere it will need real great effort to get through any sane rational process of thinking. I don’t know what this agitation achieved or going to achieve, but one thing is sure that it has succeeded in dividing the society vertically once again. One point to be noted; in this particular case it is seen that whole spectrum of political class is isolated from the educated middle class population. (It is another matter that the political class is least bothered about the feeling of the middle class, as this not a solid vote bank for them)
But here I would like to raise an issue which may not be related to reservation, but which will definitely make big hole to the crocodile tears shed by the politicians, agitators.
Let me give some facts first. I don’t know whether any of you will believe or not but believe me, these are not story of some nightmare but hard facts.
In the city of Hyderabad ruled by the present Chief Minister and his predecessor (the most progressive chief ministers of India) all the govt. educational institutions are in most horrible conditions. Take for example:
Govt. Girls High School at Marredpally: there are no furniture for most of the classes. Students have to sit on the floor. Forget about any other educational aids. Part of the wall painted black is used as black board. There is no electricity, so forget about fans on scorching summer days. – Wandering where is it situated? Just back side of the Secunderabad cantonment board office and Secunderabad Court, in the heart of the city.
Govt. Girls High School at Lalbazar: have only 3 rooms for students from class VI to class X. Classes are held under trees. There were no toilets for the students or teachers. – Please note this is a high school where girls aged between 11 to 17 studies.
Govt. Girls High Schools at Bolarum, the school is housed in more than 100 years old buildings waiting to fall down any moment. During rainy season all the classes are flooded.
Please remember, I am talking about schools situated at heart of the new city of Secunderabad not in some remote areas of old city of Hyderabad or outskirt. I can assure you that these are not the worst ones I am talking about, conditions of rest of the govt. schools are not any better. In recent class X board examination there were 100% failure in some of the govt. schools, not surprising.
Now let’s analyze the kind of students study in these schools; obviously the children of the lowest income group of the society, the children of maidservants, rickshaw pullers or vegetable vendors. Quite naturally most of them are from SC/ST/OBC category. You can imagine the kind of future citizen of India we are expecting out of these schools Please do remember, the children of age group of 9 to 15 years are most vulnerable. The adolescent age is where the character of a person is formed. Try to imagine the mental conditions of the students studying in these institutions. Actually it should not surprise anyone when we find that these are the breeding grounds for future antisocial elements of the society. This is where the hatred and distrust for the society in general is spawned in their minds.
I have given specific examples of these particular schools as I was involved in some efforts for betterment of the facilities there. But I am sure that there are thousands of similar schools all over the country crying for immediate action. I am also sure that most of you are aware that the conditions of the govt. schools are bad. But we normally take these kinds of things in life as natural and never give a moment’s thought on the big picture of the whole mess. This is my humble effort to force you think on the subject.
Is this an issue to be worried about? When we talk about higher education, should not we think about basic education? I ask the politicians, what are they doing about the thousands of children literally wasting their lives. Sorry, here I am wasting my time if I expect them to do anything sensible. Let me make it clear; I don’t blame the politicians for whatever they are. I blame ourselves, who tolerate these politicians, who allow them to get away with all their misdeeds by our apathy, who blame these politicians for every malice of the society but never do anything about it. How many of us even showed our concern for the alleged Rs.1500 crores of property unearthed from ex-chief minister of Haryana, Mr. Chautala and his family. We were more concerned about Rahul Mahajan’s drug (ab)use case.
I ask my friends, the agitators, the intelligentsia, the Pan IITians, IIMians, what do you think about this issue? Don’t you think these children need more of your attention? Immediate attention?
Don’t shed crocodile tears on pro or anti reservation, for the cause of merit in the process dividing the society vertically. Come down to the ground reality. If you are really concerned about the future of this country act today where it matters most.

Today let me write about ‘art of giving’.

I don’t know how many of you are aware that the statue of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala temple of Tirupati has one of his palms extended as if asking to give; in variance to all other statues of Lord Vishnu whereas the palm is extended up as to give his blessings. And you see there is a tradition among the pilgrims of giving to the Hundi at Venkateswara temple. It is a must to give something in the Hundi. The Hundi collection at Tirumala is the highest collection in any temple I am aware of. Recently I read that Amitabh Bacchan is giving some diamond palm or something costing a few crores.

Well I am not commenting on the merits or demerits of this tradition. I am talking about art of giving.

We do give something all the time in our life, at least most of us. We give to our near and dear, we give to the needy, we give to the beggar, we give to the neighborhood bullies. We give, sometime willingly, sometime grudgingly.

Then what is there to talk about it? Yes I feel there is lot to talk about it. The tradition of giving actually made this nation a nation of beggars. Actually I have formed a belief that by our habit of giving, we have made this nation spineless. But I will talk about that on some other occasion.

But giving is a trait, which gives lots of satisfaction. We need to give to the deserving people. We should be very careful in giving. By giving to beggar we only make him/her beg. But if we can rehabilitate him/her somehow that will be the real giving (Easier said than done. For the uninitiated – one of the toughest job I handle as part of my social service activities is to rehabilitate street children) Our giving should make someone stand on his/her own rather than make him/her dependant.

And giving does not limited to materials only. You can give your time – spend a few hours in a month with the inmates of old age home; I can assure that the satisfaction you will get can not be compared with anything you achieved. Spend a few hours in an orphanage – you will find a new awakening in your life. Spend a few hours with the AIDS affected children (the children who lost their parents of AIDS and maybe themselves infected and awaiting to die). Spend a few hours with an AIDS infected young widow who lost everything for none of her fault.

You can give your voice. By talking about giving, you can motivate others to give judiciously. Whenever you do something courageous, you spread the message, which will motivate others. Whenever you find some issues disturb you, raise your voice, which will mobilize others who think in similar line.

Every one of us can give something to someone, and by judicial giving we will not loose anything but will gain immensely.

That’s why I am talking it ‘the art of giving’.

Last couple of days, I am seeing a lot of Amir Khan the actor turned activist. I find myself associated with the issues raised. I would not comment on the issue of Narmada oustees or the ban on the film or the act pf hooliganism of a section of political entity. I will restrict myself only on the stand taken by him as a citizen of India as I feel as a citizen of India I identify myself with most of his stands.
1. It is heartening to listen him saying that he has nothing against the people of Gujrat; rather he has only love and respect for them.
- We should not identify the people of Gujarat with the hooligans and goons.
2. On being asked if he feels that the film industry should join him and to show solidarity with him should stop showing all Hindi films in Gujarat, he categorically said no. Rather he definitely would not like to see that type of reaction.
- For which I definitely commend him. In this volatile situation where the society is really divided, there should not be any action to divide the society further. That would have been a precipitative action.
- There should be an approach to isolate these hooligans from the mainstream citizens.
3. This is really heartening to see that here is a person who has the guts to speak out his mind and stand by his conviction. In today’s life, the probity in the life and deeds of public figures has become a rare commodity. We, all the citizens of India should realize; it is our duty to take stand against the unjust.
4. Whether anybody, like Ms. Arundhati Roy or other celebrities, like it or not, the fact is, the whole issue has become a big news after the stand taken by him. It has become a matter of debate. This is big role can and should be played by the celebrities, because they have the capacity to give exposure to an issue. And when the issue is of national interest it becomes a moral duty
5. On the issue of role of media; I commend him for his stand, as really today the media has forgotten its role of being a watchdog, They unnecessary make an issue of a non issue in their pursuit of gathering news. Yes it is a fact that the media gets used by vested interests for their promotion, but the blame should go to the media for becoming the culpable accomplice.
Rather I commend Mr. Khan for using the media in this particular issue for furthering the causes he is expounding.

I am also bringing some other issues:
1. I don’t know whether there were any PR person involved, but I must admit that this is one of the most successful PR work in action I have seen in recent past. Suddenly you see Amir khan in every channel putting his perspective to the audience.
2. I definitely liked the interviews. He came out as a clear, sensitive, concerned, bold person. In all the interviews we could listen what he has to say, rather than what the anchor asked him say (which unfortunately happens in most of the television interviews, where the anchor either guides or provokes the interviewee to say)
3. There was a question by Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai whether the reaction of Gujarat on his stand on Narmada would have been different, if he would not be a Muslim. I don’t know whether deliberately or not, but Khan skirted the issue by stating, he would have done the same if he would be a Hindu of Christian or Sikh.
I believe that the issue is very relevant as definitely the reaction of BJP would have been different if he would be any one else rather than Muslim.
4. I would also like to see he raise his voice on some other issues on which the society is concerned today. One of them is definitely the Reservation Quota. I know he can say that he will only raise his voice on the issues he feels identified with, which I feel is absolutely correct.
But here, it is not the question of only about his feelings. If he wants to see that his voice is heard he has to make the people identify with him. He should realise that his basic aim of raising the issue is to make the general people come out and join him to raise their voice.
One thing I always maintain that, to make the people take us on our face value, we have to build confidence in them. It is our duty to make them have confidence on us. Hence it becomes important for celebrites like him to identify with the issues they are concerned of.