Temples of Tamil Nadu: Part2

I always had a thing for beautiful paintings as well as beautiful girls. I was a voracious reader of writings about scriptures, paintings of the ancient civilizations, as well as books on psychology of girls. By the look of her she appeared to be from North India. I was starring at her and then suddenly she looked towards me. She asked me if I had any knowledge of these paintings. I was surprised by her frankness, as she was a complete stranger to me and yet was asking me for some information which she was could not be sure that I was having. All the books I had read about psychology of girls were flashing up in my mind and through a complex application of the fundamentals of Psychology, I concluded that the girl was giving me a hint, that she had some interest in me, that may be she has fallen in love with me; I had read that Girls are prone to falling in love at first sight.

I was really thrilled. But I did not want to show my desperation to her. I just nodded my head and moved towards her. I could feel a strong force which was pushing me towards her. As I reached near her, I put my hand forward to greet her and introduce myself. Before I could say anything, she took my hand in her's and said that she knew who I was, where I had come from, why I had come to Trichy and many more things about me. I thought she was playing a trick with me, in those books I had read about such tricks. I just smiled at her telling her that I can not be fooled so easily. She smiled at hearing this, it was a mischievous smile. Then she asked me to explain what I knew about these paintings. I explained whatever I knew to her in a very comprehensive manner and she said she was really impressed with my knowledge of paintings.

Now it was my turn. I asked her who she was ? She smiled at me, the same mischievous smile, and said that she lived in this temple. She has been living here for several years and that she was living here since the time this temple was built. I laughed at her, thinking she was trying to scare me, I had read in he psychology books that this is a test commonly used by girls to test guys. They project themselves as some ghosts or so and see the boy's reactions. I was not knew to such type of questions. I replied "so you are the ghost of this temple".

Very calmly she replied,"No, I am the goddess of this temple". As she said this a very bright light emerged from behind, it blinded me completely, I could not see anything, I could only listen to the voice of the girl who was claiming herself to be a goddess. No book in Psychology had taught me how to reacct to such a situation. I was feeling scared...I started murmuring the names of all the Gods and Goddesses which I knew.

She told me not to feel afraid. She told me my name, where I had come from, about my family, about my work and many more things, all correct. I could not speak anything...it seemed I was gagged. She told me,"People like you who do not believe in religion, are like people walking on roads believing it has no ends. You keep walking, on and on, and it never ends. So you never reach to your goal. Once you start believing in religion, these these roads develop maintenance workshops alongside them. These temples are like workshops, while in a workshop, weared up vehicles are made fit again, in temples people who have lost the hope for life and given energy to live again, enabling them to reach the ultimate goal of meeting with the Gods. Though you are not religious at all, you don't really deserve this meeting with me, yet it is my duty that bring the life of all those who are moving on the believing it has no ends, must be given a chance to correct themselves. It's upto you, you believe me or you don't believe, the choice is yours, the difference between the two is that the former will give you servicing at regular intervals, so that you reach the end of the road, while the latter will keep you moving on endless roads, it's essentially a difference between walking a road to reach the end and simply walking the road because you have to walk. The choice is yours, think and decide".

As she said this, suddenly the bright light and with it the beautiful girl or goddess, I don't really know who she was, disappeared. My friends were were waiving their hands, calling me that it is time to move on, move on the road.

HOLI for Indians: No water for some

"Out of approximately 6.1 billion people all over the world, more than 1 billion do not have access to potable water"

At his village, George Samuels is waiting for his mother. Her mother has gone to get some water for the family. They do not have potable water in their village, nor they have it in their neighboring villages. Everyday George's mother has to walk 30 kilometers to-and-fro to bring water to meet their daily needs of cooking and drinking water. George does not have a computer or even a television at his home. The only mode of interaction with the rest of the world he has, is the transistor his dad had bought on his last birthday. George switches on the transistor, tunes into the BBC news. It is his favorite channel. He turns the radio such that its antenna is facing the north direction, as that is the direction where they have the radio transmission tower.

Radio playing:
"India is celebrating the festival of 'HOLI' today. Its a festival of colors. People all over India, young or old, men or women, all celebrate this festival with great enthusiasm. They mix various colors into water and pour it over each other......"

Just then George's mother enters their house. George is amazed at hearing the news of 'Holi'. He asks his mother if she has heard of a festival like this where people mix colors into water and pour it all over each other, acting madly, as if they were completely insane people. He tells her that he heard about it in the radio and he also wanted to celebrate it like Indians.

Her mom says," I don't know what has happened to these radio channels now a days. They keep showing these rubbish news. Where in the world would you get so much water to waste it like this. Water is so precious. I have to travel 30 kilometers each day to bring water for cooking and drinking. How would these people get so much water to waste. My mother used to tell me stories about our ancestors, who have been to India. All of them were really impressed with India and Indians. Its not a country which would waste a thing as precious as water, in the name of any festival. They are very responsible people and I don't believe they can be involved in wastage of such huge quantities of water. These news channels have gone mad......"

George believes her, he says he too wouldn't celebrate 'HOLI', just like Indians are not celebrating. He promises her mother that he would try his best to prevent the wastage of every bit of water. He says that he wants to be like 'Indians'.

Her mother nods in appreciation and hugs him. Deep inside her mind, she is thinking how selfish the world has become. Countries are not standing for each other. While they are starving for water, countries like India are busy in wasting millions of gallons of precious water. She prays to GOD, that George never becomes like Indians.

Temples of Tamil Nadu: Part 1

I am not really a religious type of person, who would go to the temple on each Tuesday, or any other particular day or days. Neither I am an anti-religious fellow. Usually I go to a temple in the following conditions: firstly, when i need something urgently, secondly, when I am in deep trouble and there is no way I can save myself, and last,when I have nothing else to do, I am in a religious group and they all are going to the temple.
I had gone to Trichy to attend some sort of training and the third condition got fulfilled and the third condition got very dominant. After the regular hours of training I had virtually nothing to do. In a place such as Trichy, there were no shopping malls, no socializing spots and the only thing it was famous for was its temples. I was there alongwith four other friends, who were really religious. One of them, whom I could call as the leader of the religious group was from Tamil Nadu. He was really fond of temples and had been going to temples every tuesday since childhood. The other guy was sort of semi-religious, he was religious on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and on some Mondays; mind you he wouldn't eat non-veg on those days. The third one, a girl, whom we should expect to be the most religious, was really religious on days she would decide to be on, in advance. She was ok most of the time, just like me, unless she decided to visit a temple. She would stop eating non-veg food from 2 days prior to visiting a temples. Once inside the temple, she would seem to be completely devoted to religion, sinhging prayers of Gods and Goddesses and performing every ritual to perfection. The fourth one, I am not sure what type of person he was. He would just follow what others would do and I can say that he was closest to me as far as following the religion was concerned.
The first three decided that all five of us should go to the temples of trichy. The fourth fellow simply agreed to their plan, I tried to protest a bit, but finally I could not beat the third condition in which I go to the temples. I had no other option, I was going to the temple. Those three seemed to be in a religious mood. I decided to add some fun elements to the temple trip. I knew that if I had to convince them for something, it had to be linked to the temple or religion. So I gave them an idea that we all should wear a 'kurta' while going to a temple as a kurta is more traditional dress as compared to a shirt or a T-shirt and so will be a perfect outfit while visiting the temple. After some discussion the three of them agreed, the fourth one as usual also could not deny them and he too agreed to buy a kurta. We went to a nearby shopping mall. We asked the shopkeeper to show some nice kurtas for all of us. Those kurtas were really nice, I must admit that as far as traditional dressing is concerned the south Indians lead the rest of India by a huge margin. The first two and the fourth got 'kurtas' for themselves, while me and the girl were already having them, and so we just helped the first two and the fourth in selecting kurtas according to their looks, taste and style.
We were ready for the temple now, all five of us dressed in trendy jeans and kurtas. I bought a packet of sindoor and used it as 'tilak' on my forehead. To me it seemed that I was the most religious person in the world after those four friends of mine, as I had satisfied the two conditions of a religious fellow; a 'kurta' and the 'tilak'.
We reached the temple gates, they were huge and I kept wondering how could they build such a huge structure at such an old age, without using much of the present day technology.

We were welcomed at the entrance of the temple by a huge elephant called "chotu". I must say its name was a misnomer. The elephant was really big and could scarce easily even brave people like me, had it not been tied with heavy chains. One person was sitting besides the elephant. Those three told me that he was a priest, while I felt that he was just a good business man, who knew that he could earn big money with little investment in this business of religion. They told me, those three, that there was an old tradition in all the South-Indian temples. One had to stand in front of the elephant with some money in the hand, which one had to offer to the elephant. The elephant will respond by taking the money from your hand, giving it to the priest/businessman and then it would bless you by putting its trumpet on your head.
I said to myself, "poor animal". I felt it was being cheated. It should be given at least 60% stakes in the earnings while what that businessman would give him daily was some bananas too eat and coconut water to drink.
The three of them wanted to get the blessings from the elephant and the fourth one, seeing the others, followed too. I must say that 'Chotu' was a really nice elephant. He blessed all four of them. It seemed they were in some other world, the blessings of 'Chotu' had given them some magical powers and life seemed to be perfect for all of them. Their dream had come true, all their ambitions would now become fulfilled as they had the blessings of "Chotu" with them. They all wanted me too, to become happy, faultless and powerful, and hence wanted e to be blessed by "Chotu". But I was in a completely different world, it was different from their world; I had spotted a really beautiful girl in the temple. She seemed so perfect, her cute face, her long untied hairs, wearing a salwar-kurta, she seemed like a fairy to me who had come to save me from these religious idiots. I told them that I don't believe in those silly old traditions, instead I was interested in observing the architecture of the temple and understanding the paintings depicted on its walls. I told them to give me a call when they were finished with the religious proceedings and I will be somewhere in the temple only. They happily accepted the proposal, I believe I was the odd man out from their group and they were believing me to be a dull, unenthusiastic fellow who was not worthy of their company.
I was happy that I was now out of the religious group, my eyes were searching for the gorgeous girl whom I had just spotted. It was not difficult to find her, since my sixth sense never fails me. I guessed that a girl like her should be more like me, and not like these religious fools and hence she too must have come to the temple for observing its architecture or the scriptures. I headed towards the corridor where all the walls were covered with paintings. I saw her, there she was.

To be continued....

Independnce day: Celebrating a dream or a reality

26 Jan is near. One can sense it by seeing small chidren carrying Indian national flags with them to their school, or by reading the headlines of the newspapers which feature articles like "Have we betrayed our founders ?", or by seeing a surge in the number of police and paramilitary personnels in our city.
It reminds me of the day when I was a small kid. I was always active in celebrating the republic day in my school. Sweets would be distributed in our school, parades were held followed by a vast number of cultural programmes, not to forget the speech of our principal Dr. S K Tyagi. Dr. Tyagi was a person with great wisdom and a distant vision. During a republic day celebration in our school, he once told us a story. The story is about a young boy called Tiku. One fine day Tiku wakes up in the morning, gets ready for the school and starts from his home on his bycycle. He walks into the main road crossing through the streets of his colony. He finds that there are no beggars on the roads. Although there is lot of traffic, yet there is no chaos. There are separate lanes for people to walk, for bicycles, for scooters, for cars and buses. The roads are very clean and there are trees surrounding the roads everywhere. Tiku moves on. He reaches his school. He sees that no teacher is absent today, all the teachers are teaching their students with great passion and the students are no more bunking their classes.He completes his day at school and returns back to his home. He switches on the TV and puts on DD News. He sees that there are no more news of murder, robbery, or terrorists; or of people dying of hunger, devastation caused due to floods; instead there was news showing the progress their country had made in various fields, showing new innovations in agriculture, engineering and medicine. Tiku was really happy.

Dr. Tyagi told," All of us have a Tiku inside us. Just like Tiku's dreams, everyone of us have some dreams which we wish was a reality. The day it happens to be so, will be the day when we should really celebrate, call it republic day or independence day. If you want to celebrate, celebrate the reality not the dream; or celebrate only when you turn your dream into a reality, till then bend your back , work hard, and wait for your dream to come true."

3 Idiots: Awakening of the self

I watched "3 Idiots" first day, first show. Amir khan's movies are always a great attraction for me. But what forced me to watch it as soon as it was released was that being an IITian, I wanted to relate my inner self with the movie. I had already read the book "Five point someone" written by Chetan Bhagat, which was the inspiration behind the movie and I was curious to know what new innovations the script writer would have brought to the original story.

The movie really impressed me as it must have done to crores of people across the world. I along with my roommates (who also are IITians ) spent the whole night talking about the movie. In the morning, I went to my office, my mind still thinking about the movie. I went to my office, opened my email, and saw lots of mails regarding pending work which I was supposed to complete in the last month itself. I closed my mailbox, moved towards the conference room where we have our daily meeting, everyday. The boss asked me what my progress was on the pending work. I had no answer, I tried making some excuses, giving some fraud progress status, which we were so expert in, during the college days. But none could satisfy him. He scolded me, as he does nowadays everyday and gave another warning to me, which I have become really comfortable with nowadays. The meeting was over, I came out of the conference room, entered into the engineer's hall where I sit and pass my whole day in the office ,each day. I gossiped with my friends about how furious the boss was and how well I have adapted myself to handle him and his warnings. Then after an hour, I was alone in the hall. All my colleagues had gone to their respective units, but I was feeling tired; I had not slept the whole night and I really felt like sleeping. I saw all around to see if anybody was around.I put my head down on the desk and slept.

Very rarely I see dreams. But when I see them they are really dreadful; and this time when I slept, I saw a dream. I saw that "3 Idiots" was a reality and not a movie. We were three friends; Amir, me and Sharman (Joshi). It was 2'o clock in the night. Amir, me and Sharman are all drunk and sitting on the stairs leading to the central library.

I ask Amir, "Baba Rancho, since you know all the things, please tell me why I am not able to do well in my job, why I am scolded by my boss everyday, why no warning has been able to change my attitude towards my work, please tell"

Amir replied, "It is not that you are a worthless fellow, its not that you can not do well in your profession, you can be a star performer if you do a work of your own choice, it is just that you are not at the right place, you are not where you wanted to be, you took up your job not because you wanted to do that particular job, but only because you sat, during placements, in each and every company and got selected in this company, if at that time you had asked yourself what type of job you wanted, what area you wanted to work in, and if you had tried to get a job in that area you would have got a job sooner or later and, succeeded in your job, and in that case you would have earned praises in place of scoldings each day, and rewards in place of warnings. Still there is time left, it is never late to recover, correct your wrongdoings, get a job which really interests you, and see the effect... "

I woke up, I saw around myself to see if Amir was around, I could not find him. I could not believe it was not real, that meeting had changed me, It had changed me for the good. I stood up, I was really feeling great, while I was sleeping, I had a dream and the dream had awakened my inner self. I was feeling if I was in some other world.

Suddenly somebody shouted, "Hey you, come here, are you sleeping or what?"

It was my boss.

I smiled, I was wondering if I should narrate to my boss about the dream I had just now. I decided I was better off in negation to my desire. My smile turned into a laughter. I kept laughing, my boss was amazed, his mouth wide open.

He told me,"You are fired, don't come to office from tomorrow"

I kept laughing, shut-down my computer, picked up my back and left.

Spirit of Mumbai 1

I woke up after a long sleep of around ten hours. When I got up my head was aching and I could feel some heaviness in my head. I remembered that I was having some dream in the sleep and probably that caused the headache. I got up from the bed, trying to remember what it was about. Certainly there were two friends involved in it. One was my school friend Satish and the other of course me as it was my dream and I love to see myself in dreams. I saw I was in my hometown, Ara in Bihar.I was waiting on the railway station, not for some guest or relative but for the train coming from Mumbai. There were many others like me waiting there for the same train. All had the same purpose, the purpose of harassing and beating the passengers of the train coming from Mumbai as an act of revenge against some Bihari's having been beaten in Mumbai.
I remember I was holding a hockey stick in my one hand and a cup of tea in the other. The announcement of the arrival of the train was made and everybody got ready. I too drank the last sip of tea from my cup and headed towards the platform number 2. The train arrived and the gates opened. People started getting of the train and found to their surprise the sight of hundreds of youths holding hockey sticks in their hands, anger in their eyes. From the AC 1 teir an old man aged around 70 years got off. He was alone and was dressed in western style and one could easily tell that he was a permanent residence of Mumbai. Some youths approached towards him, the man was unmoved. It was strange he didn't panic in such a situation. He approached them and told that he was from Mumbai. One of the youth moved forward and held him by his collar and aid,"We know this bastard, and we know what to do with you". The old man smiled and said,"You do whatever you want to do to me but first I want to tell you something".
I asked," Who are you, first tell me this or be prepared to lose your life, you see the anger in the eyes of the youths here, if you can silence them somehow you will survive otherwise you are gone , you old man".
The old man replied," I am the spirit of Mumbai. It was due to me that Mumbai was alive, due to me that the Bollywood was set up there, it was due to me that Bombay developed into the industrial capital of India, and it was due to me that it was progressing towards becoming the cultural capital of India too. But now they have killed me. They have killed the 'spirit of Mumbai'. By committing attacks on north Indians and especially people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, they have told me that they don't want me anymore. So I have left Mumbai in search of a new place and I found that Bihar is one place where people will accept me. So it's all up to you. You can either kill me, or accept me. "
"Why have you come here", I asked.

"Well son, let me explain. For any country to succeed two things are most important, the two P's, I mean the PEOPLE and the PLACE itself. A place is made by the people and conversely place makes people. Bombay was a place which was made of hybrids of people. People from all over India came here, made fortunes and settled here. Nobody cared where you came from, what mattered was what you did there. Such was the spirit of Bombay. But now while the place remains the same, people have changed. Those who pride themselves by saying that Bombay belongs to them have forgot that instead it is they who belong to Bombay and Bombay belongs to everyone. They kicked me out of Bombay, they told me they don't need me anymore. So here I am searching for a new place to settle into."

I was feeling ashamed of my act which I was going to committ had I not met this old man.
I asked,"Why Bihar, why not any other place ?"

He replied,"Look dear, I have already said that it is PEOPLE and the PLACE who make the future of a country. So when I lost my place I have started looking towards the people. I know if I can transform myself from the spirit of Bombay to the spirit of the People, my job is done."


What happened next in the dream I don't quite remember. Perhaps I would have to take a nap again to complete it .