Of Life & Impermanence :-)

Recently, I had a conversation with a good friend when I told her that she treated people like projects. After the conversation and a little introspection, I came to realize, who doesn’t treat people like their own projects. Every relationship has a start, a beginning, an intermediate and an end. When I was really small, I knew this one person until I was about four years old. This person I’m speaking about has a great deal to do with whatever I am today, till date. But then when time came, this person was gone, gone in thin air, *poof*. Today, 18 years later, I wonder, why people make an entry into your life if they only have to leave by the end of it.

The truth is, impermanence is the law of nature. Nothing is here to last and everything must come to an end. I know, right now I’m rattling about things we all know about already. Dependence is another weird factor. In life we come across people who promise more than they can ever deliver. Individuals who swear to life that they will always be there and that they will never let go. I’ve made such promises myself, but the fact that nothing can be ascertained about the mysterious tomorrow is what makes such promises obscure. Impracticability is the word for every day. I’ve never met a single person till date who truly is selfless or can love another person without conditions. Promises which include selflessness, unconditional love, and friendship for eternity are just gibberish talk.  I would say, people who bluntly say that they can be selfish at times and those who don’t promise much can be most trusted.

Today, I miss that person I knew 18 years ago. I don’t miss THE person exactly but I miss the person’s PRESENCE. Knowing the fact that if a person existed, things would have definitely been a lot more different (good or bad) is consoling in its own way. There's this particular scene in the movie Lion King (which happens to be my favorite all time part) when Mufasa dies and Simba looks at him in pain and sorrow. Moments later, he chooses to run away and make the best of his life. That's the point - Your life is too precious to loose it for someone else. Make the best of it, NOW.

But yes, I want to try and be as practical as possible. I have been among those who have made promises of selflessness, unconditional love and friendship for eternity. But today, I want to stand up on my own and fight this battle called life by myself. I want to make terms with impermanence and start believing in my existence more than the existence of anybody I’d possibly depend on. The ONLY thing that lasts with you forever is you, yourself. :-)

 Don’t know if anyone can make sense out of this post. But its just a flow of thoughts in my mind and I did not want to stop it.

Have a nice life, everyone. :-) 

Why India is a great country?

• Over 5,000 years ago, when the world was filled with nomads, India was home to one of the first civilizations, the Indus Valley, where people appreciated civic sense and preferred living in clustered societies. Au Contraire, today, the concept of civic society is long forgotten. A dalit girl gets raped by two men and gets punched in the eye for resisting their attempts. Truly civilized behavior like nomads.

• The world’s first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC; more than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects here. Au Contraire, today, in the name of a million quotas of reservation, the most meritorious and deserving students are denied the opportunity of good education. Poverty and other such plagues completely debar millions of toddlers from even receiving basic education.

• India invented the number system, Aryabhatta’s profound interest for mathematics also introduced the number 0, which the whole world eventually adopted. Complex subjects like algebra, calculus and trigonometry, all came from India. Au Contraire, today, the only numbers a majority of this country knows is that which is found on notes. Bribes, Black Money, Money Laundering and everything that revolves around the word “money” is the only mathematics people know of.

•  Ayurveda is the earliest concept of medicine known to man. Susruta, the father of surgery conducted complex surgeries including cataracts, caesareans and cosmetic implants. Anesthesia was used way back in ancient India. Au Contraire, today, government hospitals are thriving with rodents and dirt. New born babies are burnt to death in incubators or their mothers poisoned with wrong drugs. Pizzas reach faster than ambulances. Oh and yeah, 38% of the doctors in the United States are Indians! Definitely something to pride ourselves about.

•  India is the birthplace of four of the worlds major religious traditions including, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. It is known all across the world as a hub for religious tolerance, unity in diversity and all that. Au Contraire, Yesudas, a strong devotee of Lord Krishna who has sung numerous songs in his praise is prevented from entering a temple simply on the basis of him being born a Christian. The fact that the Karnataka government is shortly going to use a temple in Dharmasthala as a playground to solve their cheap and petty political cat fights is as sacred as it can get!

The truth is, we all dwell pacifying ourselves of an illustrious past completely oblivious and pretentiously overlooking a painful future. Statistically, 65% of the illiterate and 75% of slum-dwellers cast their votes during every election.

Now consider this:

Ø  We have reached the moon (unfortunately with a black and white camera).

Ø  We have the world’s largest working population. (Imagine the manpower!)

Ø  We form a substantial part of the world’s economy. (The rest is in someone’s pocket.)

Ø  We have one of THE best defense systems in the world. (Yes. They are the best.)

Ø  We are a nuclear power, one among five others in the world. (Or so we think.)

It’s high time we stopped priding ourselves about things of the past. We’ve been doing that for a long time now. The future isn’t amazing for all of us. It’s high time we took that option seriously and did some major revamping for a better tomorrow. It’s now, or never.

Someone rightly one said, India is a country where the rich will get richer, the poor, poorer and the middle class will forever remain middle class. Its time for change and the best time for it is NOW. 

Agra - A predicament to India's tourism?

I have often been told that the Taj Mahal is the glory of India and when I knew my folks were planning a visit in between my semester exams, I did not think twice when it came to making a decision. All I wanted to do was to see that one marvelous architectural wonder and satisfy my eyes and senses. I’ve been planning a trip to the Taj for sometime now and finally, I got an opportunity to make it happen. Speaking frankly, I’m someone who doesn’t complaint much and would just make-do with whatever is being provided to me. But a visit to Agra just gave me a blunt shock and a reality check of where exactly our country is in terms of concrete development and where we’re heading towards. 

Our train to Agra, the Bhopal Shatabdi Express reached Agra from Delhi at 08:30 A.M., as soon I walked out the station a pungent odour gave me an instant headache. Apparently, Agra does not have a sewage treatment plant which in simple words means that water from toilet drains flow through the open gutters on roads which gives the whole city an unbearable stink. Outside the station, you are not-so-happily greeted by a bunch of taxi drivers and guides who start charging you an exuberant Rs. 4,000/- a day for just renting an Omni and touring around Agra. Thankfully, the pre-paid taxi stand came as a blessing in disguise where I managed to get ourselves taxi service for one full day i.e., till our train back to Delhi at 08:30 P.M for about Rs. 2,000/-.

Our first stop was Fatehpur Sikri where we hired a guide licensed under the Archaeological Survey of India for about Rs. 350/-, the guide made it look like he was doing us a favor free of cost by coming with us and showing us around with his major attitude problem and a bloated ego about how he knows the place in and out. Fatehpur, Akbar’s palace for his three queens was a delightful experience since it let people inside only with tickets and hence it wasn’t too crowded and was quite peaceful. Sikri on the other hand was a dreadful suffering! The place is a Durgah built to glorify Chisti Salim’s legacy and does not live up to holiness it seeks to portray. Entry into Sikri is free of cost and hence you find a range of street hawkers (mostly little kids) who chase you into buying things from them to sweepers and beggars who end up emotionally blackmailing you until you give them some money. The guide informed us that once in the Durgah people make wishes by buying a shawl; some flowers and a sacred thread and place the same on Chisti Salim’s crypt, at that moment I knew this dude was spinning a tale and would definitely take us to one such dealer from whom he would without a doubt collect a commission from later. My intuition came to be true when he actually did the same. The dealer showed us shawls ranging from Rs. 1,000/- to Rs. 8,000/- reminding me of my moral obligation of pleasing god and the consequences if I failed to do so. I was however not satisfied with his offer and told my family that we should just skip buying things from this guy and walk away. On seeing us do that, he came behind us and brought the price of the shawl down to Rs. 300/- and asked me if I wanted one for myself. When I refused, he said that Chisti Salim is going to be very disappointed with me and I am going to be cursed with a life of sorrowfulness; I was amused to say the least! 

After spending about 3 hours in Fatehpur Sikri we headed back to Agra which is about 40 kilo-meters away. On reaching the Taj Mahal complex, we were told by our taxi driver to get off the cab and take a cycle rickshaw. The rickshaw took us through the south gate and I’m more than sure that memories of that disgusting hell hole will haunt me for the rest of my life. The road was extremely narrow filled with tiny shops on both sides. There were about three mutton shops right outside the Taj infested with flies and the other shops basically included handicrafts and souvenirs all overpriced. The road was filled with people, few tourists and several vendors and beggars. The Agra stench I mentioned earlier, lets multiply that by five; this road did not have gutters and the sewage water was seeping past the stores on the road. As we reached the end of the road we saw a really huge queue, that wasn’t really an issue considering it was a Sunday. I was looking for the ticket counter but couldn’t locate it. Finally, after asking someone I was asked to walk towards a dark dingy office and I managed to get the tickets. Tickets for us Indians was priced at Rs. 20/- and tickets for foreigners (wait for it) Rs. 750/-!! I don’t get how the price varies that much. After we got into the Taj Mahal, again the sea of mankind brought itself together and it ended up giving me one bad headache. Quite ironic isn’t it, once at the beginning of my trip and once at the end of it! 

After we were done with the Taj Mahal, we were taken to the Government Shopping Center; the prices here were way more expensive than the pricing we saw at the tiny little shops outside the Taj. The reason for the exuberant price – “Sir, original, aatenttic dejign sir!”. Since we had come all the way, it was only practical to take back something which would remind us of a few happy moments spent in Agra.

Our train back to Delhi left at 08:30 P.M. sharp (thankfully), I’m not going to get started on the condition of the railway station. While in the train, I thought to myself about how many people are probably employed in and around India in the name of the Taj Mahal. A minor approximation in my mind gave me the figures of somewhere around 10 million people who are directly or indirectly (travel agents et al) employed gainfully because of the Taj Mahal. It definitely is one among the primary sources of income for the tourism department and the condition of the Taj Mahal is far from being clean, hygienic and well maintained. India sells itself in the name of the Taj Mahal at an international platform and all that Madam Mayawati does is construct elephants of her own size. Cholera, Dengue and other water borne diseases was ubiquitous around Agra while we were touring the place and we talk about meeting international standards. “Athithi Devo Bhava” and all that, Give me a break! The only memories the international tourists went back with in my opinion is the stench, the pathetic lax of infrastructural development around the Taj Mahal and finally, a testimony to the truth and authenticity of how India truly is as shown in the movie, Slumdog Millionaire.

Overall, my trip to Agra was a plain reality check on where India is right now and what lies ahead. Our country is in dire need of some change. We are trying too hard to place ourselves on international platforms and meeting global standards without addressing key issues like public health, hygiene and infrastructural development. By keeping in mind the development of only metropolitan and cosmopolitan cities we are overlooking the presence and importance of smaller cities and towns like Agra. Its time for some rapid change; how and when that will happen, only time can tell.