The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Thursday 31 October 2013

NARENDRA MODI VS RAHUL GANDHI: ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL –EVOLVING TRENDS – CROWDS AND MEDIA

NARENDRA MODI VS RAHUL GANDHI

War of words – allegations and counter-allegations, politics over even apolitical themes, claims and counter-claims – the free-floating, unrestricted flow of verbal juggernaut is frying up the atmosphere, is ratcheting up the theatrics.

In the series, on a day like this, in the run up to the polls, they both started speaking almost at the same time, but soon, it was Narendra Modi all over, on almost channels of the airwaves, and so in millions of the homes across the country, and so on the countless channels of the social media platforms – the story of two speeches – delivered same day, almost same time – one in Delhi, the other in Patna – on October 27.

For sometime now, Narendra Modi has been the hottest, the most covered, the most talked about, and the most written about one. Rahul Gandhi did receive attention whenever he spoke on public platforms, but he could never match the scale Modi would achieve, rally after rally.

And when it came to the parallels on a day of parallel presence, we found how skewed it had become.

Wednesday 30 October 2013

THE LADY, THE LADY FINGER AND THE ONIONS: THE ONION ABSTINENCE - THE TALE OF ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

Now that is what we call sacrifice.

Now, that is what we call selfless love.

Now that is what we call an innocent, true devotion.

Now, that is what we call the politics of commitment.

Now, that is what some of us may call the political altruism.

Now, that is what we call the ultimate exemplary precedent.

India had not seen such a touchy, emotional, ideologically notable and inspiringly laudable act by a politician since it got its independence in 1947, since the days of Mahatma Gandhi, Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawahar Lal Nehru and other revolutionaries in the colonial India.

Until three days ago! Until October 26, 2013!

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Monday 28 October 2013

Sunday 27 October 2013

SAME DAY, SAME TIME: NARENDRA MODI IN PATNA DWARFS RAHUL GANDHI’S (RALLY) IN DELHI

NARENDRA MODI VS RAHUL GANDHI

The campaign heat is going up. It is throwing interesting developments and the frequency is getting more frequent every passing day, as the assembly poll dates in the five states approach closer, as the scramble to score points for the upcoming parliamentary polls get more intensive.

If we talks of campaigning and communication management, it has been a Narendra Modi show overall.

The way political developments are shaping up, it is supposed to be a full-scale Narendra Modi Vs Rahul Gandhi blitzkrieg as the campaigning for the General Elections 2014 enters its decisive, final leg in 2014. The process is already on the launch-pad with the assembly polls in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram scheduled to be held in November-December.

Today, we saw first glimpse of it.

Saturday 26 October 2013

Friday 25 October 2013

CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – V

PHOTOGRAPHY

THE FLIRTATIOUS NATURE AND ITS CROONING - III



CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – V

DOON VALLEY HILLS

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Thursday 24 October 2013

THE ‘LUXURIOUS’ INDIAN GRAND PRIX AND THE POOR ‘SPEED-BREAKERS’

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (49)


Okay, I need not be of some leftist ideology to write it. All, it needs, is the common sense of the common Indian, who knows India, who lives India, and who has to live India.

Hundreds of thousands of people commute between Delhi and Noida daily. Not even 1,00,000 commuters are expected to be the traffic flow specific to the Indian Grand Prix during three days of its grand display.

There are reports that say India has one of the highest figures of fatal road accidents.
There are reports that say ‘every 3.7 minute, an Indian dies in a road accident’ (Hindustan Times quoting the Road Transport Ministry).
There are reports that say India has 10 per cent of the global count of the fatal road accidents (World Health Organisation). 
Delhi is the Indian city with the second largest count of road accidents.

So, though there may be other valid reasons to manage the road transport efficiently (including its commercial considerations), when it comes to the common men, the everyday commuters, their safety has to be the major driving concern while managing the traffic on the road, more so in metros, with very high count of vehicles on the road.

Now come to this.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

IN A RAJDHANI EXPRESS TRAIN, IN THE MESS OF ITS PANTRY-CAR (II)

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (48)
Continued from: 
IN A RAJDHANI EXPRESS TRAIN, IN THE MESS OF ITS PANTRY-CAR (I) 

After putting curries in packets, weights of two packets were taken to confirm if they were according to the Indian Railways norms. The ‘observation’ based random sampling was applied for over 100 packets cooked on-board. And the sample size was just 2!

There was no dearth of raw material (of reputed brands). In fact, it was enough to be wasted and was being wasted. A clear factor that puts the quality of food in trains under scanner is hygiene and certainly, the way food was being cooked and packed there, it wasn’t hygienic.

The staff there, though extra cautious, was in avoidable rush to get things done to get free soon. Putting on gloves while using hands – I could not see it being practiced. The floor of the pantry-car was littered with spill-over from the cooking platform. Utensils and grills were kept below the platform, that was, again, unclean.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

IN A RAJDHANI EXPRESS TRAIN, IN THE MESS OF ITS PANTRY-CAR (I)

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (48)


Sounds of different frequencies, each of them loud, sound of a train running at around 100 Kmph, sound of pantry-car waiters and the train staff making in and out of the coaches, and sound of the passengers making informed queries and expressing strong displeasure! 

It was not routine as usual for any train in India, a Rajdhani Express train in this case, after a recent price hike.

This time, it was in the name of improving catering standards. The Indian Railways had just revised the catering charges in premium trains (Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duranto) and the TTEs (ticket checkers) were a harassed lot. They had to issue receipt of the difference of the amount (after the fare revision) to every passenger who had got the ticket booked before October 16.

Monday 21 October 2013

BE CAUTIOUS OF PEOPLE WHO WEAR MASKS..

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (47)

Be wary of the masks people wear. 

You cannot sift from the lot, you cannot segregate them, to have a secluded life to keep your soul away from these masks.

At the same time, you cannot allow them to exploit you, to humiliate your soul.

So, be cautious of people who wear masks.

It is true, sometimes, you know you are being exploited yet you continue to be honest, to be good to, to be in relation with the person exploiting you.

No harm in doing so as long as you see it supporting the cause of you being ‘you’, as long as you feel good about assimilating the pain it gives.

Sunday 20 October 2013

US SUPERHEROES SAVING THE WORLD SO CONSISTENTLY!

Which one of these is more common on TV screens?

  • American superheroes saving the world almost every few months!
  • American scientists saving the world almost every year!
  • American elite, like the President of the United States of America, taking the charge of the operations, saving the mankind, with an increasingly direct intervention!
  • American musclemen saving the world from alien invasions dangerous enough to wipe out the humanity at regular intervals!
  • American commoners saving the mankind at regular intervals by emerging as larger than life heroes sacrificing their lives!
  • American cops acting overtime overshooting their human capabilities, stretching their limits beyond the limit to save the mankind from an imminent threat of annihilation!
  • The US Defence establishment leading the global forces, with the global partners mentioned just in passing references, to save the Earth from a devastating alien invasion!
  • The US commoners, elite, superheroes, musclemen, even the henchmen, working together to save the Earth from some alien invasion or some apocalyptic threat from nature!

Saturday 19 October 2013

CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – IV

PHOTOGRAPHY

THE FLIRTATIOUS NATURE AND ITS CROONING - III




CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – IV 

DOON VALLEY HILLS

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Friday 18 October 2013

DAUNDIA KHERA: YET ANOTHER ‘PEEPLI LIVE’ IN REAL LIFE IN MAKING

Shovels, spades 3-feet a day digging, 8-hours a day, 5 weeks of excavation – it begins today.

And it begins in style in a nation boasting and planning space missions to Moon and Mars.

All eyes and ears are going to be glued to the communication channels to get into the skin of the live coverage – in real time as it happens – floating in the viscosity of real, unreal and surreal stories that it has been generating since the seer had his dream of the 1000 tonnes of buried gold, since he spoke to a dead king of the 18th Century who buried the treasure, the stories that are going to multiply only in the coming days.

5 weeks – 35 days – enough of time to ramp-up the channels, to lubricate the wired flow, through the machinery that never looks to exhaust its appetite for such ‘spectacles’.

Peepli Live, the generic phrase to describe the media frenzy and the subsequent public attention (or the public attention, so the subsequent media frenzy) that entered the lexicon with the 2010 movie, a satire on polity, media and society, on making ‘big’ out of ‘nothing’, thus setting the agenda, is apt to describe what is happening in Daundia Khera, a village in the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh.

Thursday 17 October 2013

DAUNDIA KHERA LIVE: SCIENCE OBEYS FAITH, TAKES AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

Bizarre is on the war. So, it is different. The tradition of logic is trying a different, innovative approach.

Can we see it in the realm of the metaphysical or is it an experiment in the course of evolution of the ‘science of the supernatural’?

Anyway, Daundia Khera – a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district is its symbolism, or has been made its symbolism.

When the news broke, the process was set in motion. After all, it was going to be a big spectacle.

And within days, the stage was set for the Peepli Live to come in motion.

Those who have seen the movie Peepli Live are aware of what does it mean.

In this case, Daundia Khera is going to be Peepli reincarnated, or rather, is going to be made ‘Peepli reincarnated’.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – III

PHOTOGRAPHY

THE FLIRTATIOUS NATURE AND ITS CROONING - III



CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – III 

DOON VALLEY HILLS

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Tuesday 15 October 2013

SANKALP DIWAS AFTER 84 KOSI YATRA: THE SCRIPT IS UNFOLDING

It is happening the way it was expected to happen. The battle to stir, influence and manipulate perceptions of voters is intensifying as the parliamentary elections approach near.

Assembly elections to the five states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Mizoram, being seen as the ‘test-case’ before the parliamentary polls, are announced and the campaigning decibel is rising.

So, when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) announced to observe a Sankal Diwas in Ayodhya on October 18 to press for legislation on the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, it was on the expected line of the events foreseen with Narendra Modi’s elevation as the Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate.

Monday 14 October 2013

PHAILIN VS STAMPEDE: NATURE’S FURY VS HUMAN GREED: WHAT SHOULD WE SAY ON THIS IRONY?

What should we say on this irony?

Nature’s Fury Vs Human Greed

Double whammy! Triple whammy! Or whammy of nth order!

Yes, there was reason to feel good when an alert Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and its scientific community played the pivotal role in assessing and warning about the Cyclone Phailin, a super-storm category cyclone, capable enough to bring catastrophe, and thus minimizing the loss of human lives. The state governments of Odisha, the most affected state, and Andhra Pradesh, the other state in the path of the cyclone, worked overtime to evacuate people.

The result was remarkable. Once equipped with required technological advancements, the Indian scientific community performed well Phailin told us. And thought the present and the past of Indian politics give us reasons to believe the promptness with which the political class acted was more due to the concerns of the upcoming parliamentary polls than being the call of the humanitarian conscience, still, it was a commendable (though rare) promptness.

But the same day, the irony struck.

Sunday 13 October 2013

CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – II

PHOTOGRAPHY

THE FLIRTATIOUS NATURE AND ITS CROONING - III



CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – II 

DOON VALLEY HILLS

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CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – I

PHOTOGRAPHY

THE FLIRTATIOUS NATURE AND ITS CROONING - III



CLOUDS DESCEND ON MUSSOORIE HILLS – I 

DOON VALLEY HILLS

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Saturday 12 October 2013

HE WAS NOT ABLE TO TALK TO THE ABSENCE IN HIM TODAY

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (46)


He was not able to read the Absence in him, an Absence the paradigms of which were so familiar to him.

He loved to read and read regularly the writing of his life experiences, their liveliness and the void of their silent moments.

But something was amiss this time.

Also, the want of the ‘Absence’ was shadowing all other that was present.

Though, he still loved to read the life, he was not in communion with his soul to read the Absence today, because he was not able to personify his thoughts.

They were running together. They were not talking.

They were walking together. They were still not talking but their steps were in unspoken unison.

They were trying to read each other. The silent space between them was uniting their thoughts to converse, giving them the opportunity.

Friday 11 October 2013

OPCW GETS THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2013: A WELL-TIMED DECISION

By means of the present award to the OPCW, the Committee is seeking to contribute to the elimination of chemical weapons.
Thorbjorn Jagland, Chairman, Norwegian Nobel Committee
Oslo, October 11, 2013

Okay, so a logical decision by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in deciding on the OPCW, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international watchdog entrusted with the arduous task of freeing the world from the chemical weapons.

Accorded sanctity and authority by the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty that came into force in 1997, OPCW has been working to stop production and use of chemical weapons and to destroy the existing stockpile.

Organizations like OPCW or IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog and the recipient of 2005 Peace Nobel) are the silent warriors working tirelessly for global peace.

Thursday 10 October 2013

HERE COME(S) THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2013 RECIPIENT(S)

Nobel Prize session is reaching its climax with the much awaited annual event of the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement tomorrow.

Though there is buzz around every category of Nobel Prize and it builds up to the global outreach level with the Prize announcement season kicking off but with the Nobel Peace Prize, the visibility of ‘who and why’ discourse on the possible Nobel Peace Prize recipient witnesses a manifold jump.

It is recognition to the importance of the Nobel Peace Prize in the hallowed Nobel Prize league.

Another recognition to the global significance of the Nobel Peace Prize is the regular controversy on the ‘who and why’ discourse on who got it.

Many Peace Nobel decisions have been geopolitically sensitive (positively) and so have been controversial for they endorse the work of activists and organizations in world’s most oppressive regimes, some of them being large and powerful nations.

China’s displeasure and efforts to thwart the Nobel Peace Prize to Dalai Lama or Liu Xiaobo or Iran’s critical stand on Peace Nobel to Shirin Ebadi are some of many such instances.  

Wednesday 9 October 2013

RAHUL’S POTATO METAPHOR GETS MORE LOGICAL THIS TIME!

This time it seems nearer to reality.

This time, it looks Rahul Gandhi’s speechmakers have worked more diligently on the background behind his words to reflect his genuine love for the ‘potato prices’ in clearer terms.

Rahul loves to use metaphors in his speeches. Like Kalawati, Girish and other metaphors, potato, too, is an important (and recurring) metaphor in Rahul’s speeches to express his concerns for the misery of the farming community in some pockets of India (in non-Congress ruled states).

The concern found its expressions yet again on Monday (October 7). The audience had had come to hear the Congress politician during the stone-laying event of Uttar Pradesh’s first mega food park in his parliamentary constituency Amethi being set by the Aditya Birla group.

HELP SOMEONE IN NEED, IT HELPS YOU BACK

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (45)

Wish if you could make a wish come true, if you could set a dream see the day, if you could help bring smile to a face, if you could help restore peace in a life, if you could help alleviate the pain of suffering, if you could share the days of gloom, if you could share the moments of agony, if you could help reclaim a life – it is wonderful if you extend any of this assistance to someone in need in your day to day life – it helps them as well as it helps you.

It enhances the positive in you. It solidifies your emotive quotient.

You react positively to the life irrespective of the colour of life, independent of the shades of the moment.

Tuesday 8 October 2013

THE CASE FOR AAM AADMI PARTY: WHY IT SHOULD BE VOTED TO POWER IN DELHI

Though we cannot fully endorse the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Arvind Kejriwal as the differentiating and refreshing factor in Indian politics, they deserve a chance, for whatever negatives we have seen in Arvind Kejriwal’s style of functioning and whatever negatives that can surface in the politics of AAP, it will still be a milder version of the deafening levels of rot sweeping the overall political spectrum of the country.

It is true, Arvind Kejriwal gives rise to valid points of doubts after he mishandled the anti-corruption moment of 2011 in 2012; after he failed to effectively (honestly?) raise his voice to protest against the political efforts to bring amendments to the Right to Information Act and the Representation of the People Act. His responses, though criticised the amendment moves, sounded more like routine statements with no soul.

Monday 7 October 2013

SLUMS THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA WAY: NOTIFIED, RECOGNISED AND IDENTIFIED

..Though ‘slums are the places where dwellings are unfit for human habitation’ the Government of India recognises..

Recently, The Hindu had a report on India’s slum population quoting the latest Census of India figures.

Naturally, it said the slum population in India had gone up to 65 million from 52 million counted by the last Census in 2001.

Focus of the story was the slum population had a better child sex ratio of 922 girls for every 1000 boys than the urban India average of 905. It also said the average family size of 4.7 in slums was in line with the average urban family size in India.  

Signs of progress! Okay, maybe, when we see the figures as pure population statistics.

Sunday 6 October 2013

SYMPATHY FOR A JAILED LALU WILL HELP RJD RETURN TO POWER! WHY DEMOCRACY IN INDIA IS IN IMMINENT DANGER OF DISINTEGRATION?

 October 2013 

It was a day of justice when Lalu Yadav was, finally, jailed for his involvement in the multi-billion Rs. Fodder Scam of Bihar by a Ranchi court. The once undisputed king of Bihar politics and a central figure in the national politics is behind bars now.

But if we go by the post-sentencing analyses and if the words come out to be true, it sounds the ‘justice’ delivered was the villain and the convicted was the victim. It is worrying for Indian democracy. Let’s see what some of the headlines said:

Saturday 5 October 2013

CHILDHOOD: OH THAT LOVELY MESS

The quiet restrictions of the playfulness
The unchained joy of the rough surface
Missing like hell the charm of those days
In a life driven by sophisticated excess


WHEN YOU FEEL BETRAYED..

LIFE - COLORES INFINITUM (44)

Increasing chances are if you are the old school, if you are of the breed who believes in building and following a relation out of your family honestly, going by the puritan ethos of commitment, you will be betrayed.

It is not specific to any particular relation or any set of particular relations.

Yes, but it hurts more in cases of friendships and its extensions and variations because it then involves innocent expectations and informal elements of relations that exist in a family.

Who is right, who was wrong, is always perceived and assimilated individually.

Be the individualist to the core, be true to your heart, in handling your sentiments whenever you feel betrayed by someone you thought was on the same page as you were and you felt for the person as you feel for your ‘self’.

Friday 4 October 2013

BE THE DREAMING REALIST


Dream, aspire, think, feel free and be logical your way.

Dump the practical! Suck the methodical!

Don’t let the sleep deprive your dreams of its logical elements.

Unrestricted, unchained, be your own liberator, no one else can free you. Reality of the senses being untenable, incomprehensible!

Dream but don’t expect. Dream and fly with the flow. Dream and expect from you only. Everyone else is just as yours as the illogical dreams.

LIFE BLED LIVING BLASPHEMED - HUMANITY BLANCHED (II)

A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES




LIFE BLED LIVING BLASPHEMED

HUMANITY BLANCHED

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  LIFE BLED LIVING BLASPHEMED

A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/08/life-bled-living-blasphemed.html

Thursday 3 October 2013

MAHATMA GANDHI: THE WORDS SPOKEN IN 1947 AND THE ABSURD POLITICAL THEATRE OF THE DAY

Going by the political reality of today’s India, there is nothing much to write on what the Mahatma fought for, as yet another day of customary, shallow tributes to him comes and go.

It would be harsh to say but many more know October 2 is Gandhi Jayanti or the birth anniversary of the Mahatma (also known as Bapu, also known as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) because it is a public holiday and not because it is a day, for us, to revisit the vision and ideals outlined by the Mahatma for his country and for his countrymen and to reaffirm our faith, once again, in those ideals.

It can be said, without any doubt, in the context of the Indianness of India of the day, that those who know October 2 is Mahatma Gandhi birth anniversary would not be aware that January 30 is his death anniversary, the day he was assassinated by a fanatic, his own countryman, because it is not a public holiday.

Wednesday 2 October 2013

AND THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2013 GOES TO MANMOHAN SINGH!!

FOR HIS PEACE INITIATIVE WITH PAKISTAN

Friday, October 11, 2013: In a development that has shocked the world community including many in India but has pleasantly stunned Mr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. Thorbjørn Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, has announced the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize goes to the career bureaucrat, who also happens to be India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The prime minster’s office at the 7RCR in Delhi has opened multiple lines of communication to receive the greeting calls from the ordinary citizens in a bid to cash the announcement for the electoral mileage at an electorally tough time for the Congress party, the largest party of the ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance. But it’s been hours and the response has been muted like the muted reaction of the political opponents of the UPA and the Congress party.

While Manmohan Singh was elated beyond words and asked us to wait for his worded response, the Congress party said it was a testimony to what the UPA government has been doing for India.

Excerpts from the Norwegian Nobel Committee press-release read: