The "Ratna" we had

“ANGEL”, the word in my dictionary means “YOU”. You came so close to our hearts and went away SO far. 22^nd July, 2010 -- the day that took you so far away from all of us here. For many many of us here, you had been an epitome of a blend of beauty, talent, style, soberness, geniality and the list goes on..

The “Ratna” we had, has been taken away from us, forever. But I pray for the wellness of Her and her family for the time ahead. Here is a small memoir for Her………………………………….

It was end of 

A summer break

All longing to 

Meet their mates

Standing by the window

Savoring the scene

I was basking

The beauty serene

It was raining

All was green

Seemed there out

Was a wonder screen

Only then 

I heard a crawl

Of the time

That came with a haul

It was my phone

That gave a wawl

I got a text,

“I’m in the  ICU hall…

I’d thought my health

Is a li’l low

Since my reports

Had a normal flow

But this morning

My doctor exclaimed

That my reports

Had got exchanged

I am quivering

Hard with pain

Seems I’ll never

Meet you again! “

It was a blow

My heart sank deep

I wondered why

Time took that leap

I called up her mom

For what went wrong

Sobbing she said

With tears along

That her angel

Is lying on ledge

In an hour

She’ll be under the edge

I said she’ll win

She’ll be alright

I knew she was bold

And she can fight

I prayed for her good

I talked to God

To bring her back

To see her rock

This surgery

A major one

Was a success

To all delight

Few days passed

Her health rolled on

It was great

To hear her grow strong

 But then came

A darker day

When my phone

Rang once again

This was now

The final toll

Time had gulped her

In its roll

It was a message

Harsh and sour

That it was

The darkest hour

She was taken 

All away

Far from us

To all dismay

She was now

On the board

To a new

Heavenly road

I know, my friend

You’re watching us

Watching all 

Your pals mundane

It is all

Empty here

Without you it’s all

Missing and plain

One year has now

Passed so blue

And it’s still hard

To live without you

Sitting back

In a corner there

Your mum still pines

To see you here

O my girl

You do take care

And give her

The strength to bear

You will be missed

You will be loved

For zillions of hearts

You have touched

Wherever by the fate

You were led

May your time

Be better ahead ..

-- In sweet memory of Ratna Gururani, a beloved friend of mine :)

The Bucket List

I happened to visit a city hospital a couple of days back. There I saw all grades of people who had come from far and wide. Near the registration counter was a corridor, which was full with poor and underprivileged people from remote villages. They along with their family and luggage were lying down like herds. Pain was scattered all over in the form of grieves and mourns. All this made me really disturbed.  The sight was just poignant enough to make my heart long to fly away and go back to my comfort zone.

My eyes were rolling from one family to the other, when I saw a small girl of about twelve. Looking at her I thought, how rude sometimes god becomes to humanity. The girl was lean and bald. Sitting in a battered frock with her hands clutching her belly, she was yelling with pain. There was an old lady, probably her granny, sitting beside her. Stroking her hand gently against her granddaughter’s head, arms and stomach, she was trying hard to conceal her impuissance. People were passing by, busy with their own troubles. Doctors too were engaged with their schedules. I wished I could be of some help to that child. But it was time. I had to go.

I left the place with a very heavy heart. On my way back home, those pitiful sights were hovering over my head. I could now do nothing more than blame the destinies of those unfortunate people, who are forced into such incapicated situations and in dearth of money, education and power their conditions remain almost stagnant throughout.  Time and again I was comparing our lives to theirs. Not that we never fall ill. But the difference is, we belong to that blessed lot in which the factors like money, awareness etc. almost never come between our health and happiness.

We who have an access to TV, internet, iphones and n number of electronic gadgets, and above all, to fun, freedom and almost everything we can need for a good life, should thank god for the same.

I recently came across a sweet little girl, who was filling her ‘bucket list’. There she had included all that she wanted to do before she died. Topping the list was the wish that she wanted to have the greatest number of Barbie doll collection ever. That was sweet indeed!

While browsing the internet I came across a number of bucket lists. It’s definitely a great idea to have such a list. I too have one. We must feel the beauty of our lives. We must feel that we are not deprived like the ones I mentioned in the beginning. We must feel the gift of life that we have. We must realize the fact that we are the blessed ones. We have just one life. We must learn to love our lives. We must learn never to bring the bruising feelings of hatred, grudge and every such harmful feeling that can stain our colourful lives with dark specks. We must raise a toast and say ‘Cheers’ to our lives.

Let all of us make a bucket list with most beautiful things we want to do before we die. But do not forget to keep the point – I WANT TO LIVE BEFORE I DIE.

you don't look like a BIHARI !!

How should a Bihari feel at getting a remark as, “Hey you don’t look or sound like a Bihari”. Should he feel elated, as this comment can imply that he is ‘positively’ different from the rest of his Bihari counterparts? Or he should be taken aback by the thought of being belonging to a place which is looked down upon by most of the outer masses?

While I was travelling down to my province from an another state, I heard a conversation wherein a person in banking sector was crying about his so called ‘misfortune’ at being posted recently to HDFC, Patna. “Poor luck!”, said his partner at this.

Let me light upon the fact that world bank has ranked Patna- the capital, as second, only after Delhi, among the best centres to setup a business. In January 2010, the Indian government’s central statistics organization reported that during those financial five years, Bihar’s GDP grew by 11.03%, which made it the second largest growing economy after Gujrat.

In the past few years there has been a steady and a quiet transformation of this region. Ranging from the widening of roads, to better streamlining of traffic, to the emergence of largest growing mobile phone market in India here, to the rapid industrial development, Bihar has collected various such medals which it can easily brag about.

Corruption rate has also declined through past years considerably. With the Nitish Kumar government the land here has witnessed many law and order reforms and has become a much less violence- prone area.Not only this, various big shopping complexes have sprouted speedily in the last few years.

When I returned to my homeland recently after a long time, I was amazed to see the lights and flyovers all around. The development of this place through these years has been quite evident.

But a sad story is, not all are aware of these recent changes of Bihar. The media has always highlighted the dark sides of the place. This has always abetted the outsiders to think ill of it.

Bihar and the Biharis have always been abhorred due to their language, accent and personality. For others, generally, ‘Bihari’ means rickshaw-pullers and the labour class. I have even heard people abusing each other by just saying a non-Bihari, a ‘Bihari’. What the general outer mass fails to realize is that Biharis are one of the most successful professionals and technicians after all. They should not be judged merely by their outer look. And not all of them have a poor appearance.

It’s not that I am writing this as I ought to act as a responsible and a patriotic Bihari, for Bihar is my motherland. I am in fact writing this as these are the crude facts which are rarely discussed.

If someone visits Bihar, he would definitely be delighted to get a warm welcome here. And as far as safety is concerned, Bihar is safe. To be candid, I wouldn’t conceal the fact that few of the remote places here may get disturbed due to some maoist activities, but they are limited to those regions for a very negligible period and shouldn’t tarnish the image of Bihar as a whole.

The lifestyle here is changing. This is again evident by the number of people that voted in the last assembly elections. The proportion of ladies voting has also increased grately. And touchwood, the whole voting process was free of any mishap. If we contrast it to the 2G and the CWG scams, we find that such corruption is not visible here. These facts clearly state that Bihar is changing. It is no more the Bihar of dark times.

As my mind is rolling through these wonderful facts, it is getting harder for me to stop praising my place. But I would end up with a note to my dear readers who might have had a negative perception about this place that it’s time now to change our outlook towards it. No one is to blame in particular for having such a preconceived notion about the place as children have been brought up with such prejudices for Bihar. I don’t say you believe me blindly. But I would surely suggest the non-Biharis to visit the capital city once at the least. And as far as the Bihari accent is concerned, it is true that it is different. But just as the Biharis respect the other cultures, others must also respect this difference with same acceptance.

And next time when someone says me, “Hey! You don’t seem like a Bihari”, I would be more than happy to reply, “Sir, you need to update yourself now. Bihar is no more the land of unsmart figures. It has changed and now possesses many others like me. And I am just an example!”

Back to the Winter days..

"Smiling by the long dry paths

Leaves and buds are bright again

Waiting for the warmest hug
From the chillest dew drop grain!!

Fauna too is set to bid

Welcome to the foggy days

Set with wish and hopes all new

In their variant wonder ways.."

And yes, the winter days are back, though a bit late this year. The season of paparazzi’s delight, Winter is back again with nature’s most wonderful views. The beautiful sights of the snowy Siberian cranes sweeping the blue sky while migrating to the east earth are back again to take away the hearts of squillions of nature lovers like me.

The season of gardening too is here. The most vivid flowers are also all smiles in the fecund lands wherein the cool breeze and dew drops serve as the plant food throughout the season.

When the thin rays of the early winter sun transit through the prismatic dew drops, the onlookers spontaneously turn into natural poets. With fog suspended along the roads, the season provides us with a beautiful cloudy view.

High on the tree branches the birds nestling in their cozy husky homes take a pleasant sunbath throughout the day. The hill stations would become the hotspots for tourists with a marked snowfall all over. 

Last, but never the least, the season of love is here. The bright red roses in the rose gardens are waiting hard to capture their beauty and create an aroma of love for the lovers of all ages.

The time is to fuel the hearth and feel the snugness at our places. It’s time now to get into the thick attires. Let’s now take a dip into the season of hot beverages. Let all of us welcome the wonderful winter season with a positive gesture of love, hope, hard work and sincerity.   

The Festival of Lights

I recently developed a huge respect for this friend of mine, who's been showing a remarkable concern for our mother earth through her slow but steady endeavor to battle Global Warming.   

Turning off lights before leaving a room, buying things with eco-friendly product scan and returning the polythene bags  to the shopkeepers while carrying a personal handbag are the few of the many little things that she follows to bag the courage to stare hard at Global Warming.
Every birthday she plants a sapling in her locality and takes a deep breath of freshness and satisfaction as she passes by the grown-up trees. I felt that if there exits some nature God looking at her lavish attitude towards Him, then she in her coming days would never be enlisted in the suffering tolls of Global Warming.

But along with her over-generous character she also carries with herself a neglected side that I would like to torch upon.

Out of 365, she spends her 364 days not only in bundling love and care for nature, but also bundling stacks of notes that would blast away the prior bundle into flames. This is one dark side which she 'celebrates' on that day with the bursting crackers and smokes all over.

Now if my Indian friends who are reading this are not the patients carrying the "zero IQ virus", then by now they would have easily made out which day I am referring to. Yes, the 365th day of the year that I am talking about is "Diwali".

"Diwali", commonly referred to as a festival of "lights" is a "dark" day for me and many others who think like me. Just like my friend who I referred to earlier, there are many other so called 'eco-buddies' who show their concern only on the other days. But what they don't realise is that amidst their loud and pollution-loaded celebration, they gift their mother earth an incurable disease called "Global Warming".

I feel I need not ink down further lines to strengthen my point. I am not against celebration, as I too love to be a part of the celebration party. But I am a nature-lover at heart too. Celebration shouldn't be manifested in such a voracious form. Light should be in each one of us, in each of our lives.

My friend who earned her mention in the beginning of this article could have become an epitome of an eco-buddy figure but for her one day long nature-tarnishing activity that striked her name off the list.

I won't say to stop bursting crackers as I know no one would by just reading an article like this.
Instead, I would suggest to use the less harmful and less smoke & sound producing ones.

Money is all ours. It's our choice whether to earn or burn our fortune. Hence this is my humble request to my readers to put the selfish and destructive mood to a side and think about the atmosphere which is the only life-supporting layer of the universe. 

Now if my readers have developed a taste for my peaceful curry, I owe a promise from them to make this Diwali a better festival proving its tag- 'A festival of lights'.

JUST CAPTURE IT !!!

I don’t know the intricacies of the picture world. I don’t even know, exactly when this miraculous invention was made. But one thing that has always drawn my focus on is the unconditionally magnetic color scale. Over the run of time, this has been the only promising entity that managed to CAPTURE all the smiles. Yes, I am talking about the photographs.

Photographs are the silent speakers. Digging into the archive one can rejuvenate through the foliage of one’s past. Even while she is in grief, if someone puts forth the picture of her little kid, a mother blooms with delight. By just clinging the lover’s photo against the bosom, one feels an unbound nearness to one’s love. Flipping the pages of a scrapbook, one actually revisits the past and cherishes the colorful life that one had with the near and dear ones. The tears that carry with them the innocent memories of yesteryear have no match. All this is owed to the most beautiful and amazing piece of art, the photography.

Life can be lived just once and can’t be redone. The rule of the road says, ‘Life has a double lane with a dark side and a bright side’. We the humans should travel intelligently with an endeavour to keep the dark away as far as possible. So all the synonyms of celebrations and smiles should be captured in the photographs, so that in gloomy hours they dutifully perform as the agents that light up the dark.

It’s not only the physical smile I am talking about. Even the nature bestows upon us the smiles worth clicking in variant manifestations. The picture of lush green woods, a beautiful monsoon rain, flower with a bumblebee hovering over, a peerless sunrise with golden clouds around, monkeys fighting over a piece of banana, birds flying in flocks chasing our freedom, and the list goes on….

Not only that! An obvious delight derived upon clicking a picture ‘imperfect’ and gradually fabricating it into the picture ‘perfect’ is divine. The best example would be of the mind-blowing artists who tend to invigorate almost everything they click, by dint of their creative shutter skills. Viewing such awesome work pieces gives an abstract pleasure.

I am not a paparazzo nor would I try to step into their shoes. I wrote this as I feel that the best moments of life should be freezed. Life is to live, enjoy and later cherish. So whenever you feel low, just put aside all your blues, say CHEESE, and CAPTURE IT !!!

A Tender Mime

As the nascent red stream

Gushes past my vein,

I feel a tender warmth across,

I see a ray mundane..

Albeit the real world is far off me,

I often get a subtle clue

As to what is it like

What would now ensue..

Enveloped by the softest, yet the strongest shield,

I share my fantacies and zest

That my tender mime

All the  long manifest.

With my tiny fingers growing, by the ticking time,

I touch the buffered walls to convey

My love to the beauty divine ..

To the one who bears my load

"The one whose womb is my abode".

'Love you Ma', my gestures say

I look up to you with a grin

Waiting hard to see your face

And see the world  akin..

My eyes, though closed can see a shine

A ray of good charm coming through

I feel the peace and love and care

I cuddle the love divine.

I hear a voice that soothes me

That whispers by my infant side

That says, "My Child',you're welcome here",.

You're welcome to the ride of LIFE