My birthday celebration

It was my birthday celebration with a difference. After almost a decade I celebrated my birthday. Usually my birthday celebration is limited to few sweets & a lunch or dinner with my best friends. I was not sure about this year’s celebration. After last one years great survival in my new life I wanted this year’s celebration to be different.

I was planning to visit few orphanages & spend some time with kids, play with them, and laugh with them. May be, now I could understand them better. Children’s of which age should I visit? I asked this question to myself many times. At last I thought I will spend time with small infants & toddlers. There are the sweetest. They don’t know about the different barriers erected by our cruel society. Their smile, the hug from them is the purest. I called couple of my close friends to accompany. With a long weekend of Independence Day no one was actually around. (even I wanted to go alone, If I had asked a second time many would have come but I didn’t want them to change their schedule for me, few were with their GF’s & few others were searching their independence in drinks. Since I don’t drink or smoke I don’t go to such parties & during such long weekends I can spend time with my books or guitar)

At last I decided to go to Nirmala Shishu Bhavan (an institution of missionaries of charity, it is an adoption center), I bought few sweets and Cheque as a birthday gift for them. It was not a big amount just the usual amount which I would have otherwise spent with my friends dining in some restaurants. I called the mother superior & my visit was scheduled for 3 PM. Children up to 7 years were staying there. I was excited but had a lot of questions. How will be the children, what will be their questions, will they come near me. I don’t know why & how such countless questions surfaced in my mind. All these questions vanished from my mind when I saw the first smile. Meenu was standing at the door with the sweetest smile. I stretched my hands and she came running towards me and hugged me tight. Soon few others joined her. My physique is not so large but one child had different idea. She started climbing on my as if I was a mountain!!! With two kids in my both hands & few on my legs I was stuck at the door. Soon sister rescued me from this impasse. Hearing the noise few more children came near me. I thought they need some distraction. What a better diversion that the sweets packets I had. Eureka !!! I opened the packets & I could see the smile on their faces widening. I got a volunteer in Anju. She took control of sweets and started distributing. Most of children couldn’t open the chocolate wrapper. From one end I started removing the wrapper and placed the chocolate in their mouth. I got the sweetest gift also for this effort. Kisses & hugs … they were in planty sometimes for the chocolates, sometimes for the smile. Normally shy children were also coming and started asking me a lot questions like my name, what I am doing, my home. Soon I became one among them, on my knees. Small children were interested in my spectacles. Some even tried to take that. I wanted to take few snaps but with children all-round I couldn’t even take my camera out. But still I managed to click couple. Seeing all these children I felt so sad. How could their parents leave them there? Warden said that few children were not fully orphan. Their parents were so pooer that they couldn’t keep them.

There were new born babies also with the youngest one only 16 days old. She was so cute & small lying there in the crib. I gently touched her with my fingers. When her little fingers held my fingers I was almost in another world. I talked to the caretakers and sisters. I saw a mission in their eyes , in their noble deeds they were much closer to God.

It was the time to say goodbye to all. With a promise to return I bid them all farewell and walked towards my car. I was one of the happiest person at that moment on this planet.

It was one of my best birthday celebrations ever something which I could remember for a long time. I always thought when I cross my 30’s and reach mid 30’s how would I survive. I don’t think books, poems and all the research stuff will hold my interest. Maybe now I know the reason to live, the reason to die for… It was always a thought only. I used to say that I will adopt one child even if I had my own. It was only a thought, then it became an idea but now today it has outgrown the idea and became a decision. Sometime back when I said about this idea one of my friends said that cant I produce my own. I haven’t tried it yet and not sure whether I will ever also. But now I feel that I can adopt one. In this materialistic world only thing which we can give is love. This is one investment which we can give without the fear for being going bankrupt. What difference will it make whether it is an adopted child or my own? I can only love. I am trying to flush out the jealousy, anger and all those emotions from me. I thought about the couples who spent millions for producing their child. Of course mother hood is the biggest boon and feeling.(for me mother & motherland are much bigger than even all the treasures of heaven) But cant we spent some amount on these poor souls also? If we adopt one will it make a difference? I know it will be many years after when I will have to make a decision on this but still I thought of sharing it….

At last …Happy Birthday to me :D

Mujhe FANAA Karde

E Khuda Aaj Ye Faisla Karde,
Use Mera ya Mujhe Uska Karde.
Bahut Dukh Sahe He Maine,
Koi Khusi Ab Toh Muqadar Karde.
Bahot Muskil Lagta Hai Usse Duur Rehna,
Judai Ke Safar Ko Kum Karde.
Jitna Duur Chale Gaye Woh Mujhse,
Use Utna Kareeb Karde.
Nahi Likha Agar Nasib Me Uska Naam,
To Khatam Kar Ye Zindagi aur Mujhe FANAA Karde.

It started out as a feeling

It started out as a feeling

Which then grew into a hope

Which then turned into a quiet thought

Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder

’till it was a battle cry

I’ll come back..

When you call me

No need to say good bye

Just because everything’s changing

Doesn’t mean it’s never been this way before

All you can do is try to know who your friends are

As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon

And follow the light

You’ll come back when its over

No need to say good bye

You’ll come back when it’s over

No need to say good bye.

Now we’re back to the beginning

It’s just a feeling and no one knows yet

But just because they can’t feel it too

Doesn’t mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stonger and stonger

’til they’re before your eyes

You’ll come back

When they call you

No need to say good bye

You’ll come back

When they call you

No need to say good bye

The reason I would die for

It started as a dream,

a dream which kept me alive,

I wandered though the miseries of life,

in pursuit of happiness,

in search of you…

You are my unfulfilled prophesy,

you are all what I had, what I cared for

the reason to live for…

the reason to die for.

Words are caught in my own breath,

drowned in my own feelings,

you keep me floating,

the longing to be together keeps me going.

I waited so long for one answer,

which could have changed the world forever for me.

The sound of words and promises can be hollow

but I cant leave the feelings inside,

don’t let my heart turn to stone.

I had a dream yesterday, a beautiful dream

we were together on a beach ,

countless stars watching us,

walking gently hand in hand.

I still can feel the warmth of your body

the aura of your soul around me.

When I am near you I am alive,

hold me close,

don’t let me fall into the chasm of emptiness.

I want this dream to last forever,

without you I am a dead stone.

I've cried a thousand tears for this moment

looked up the dark sky and prayed.

I don’t know the source of this feeling.

Now It’s just not a feeling but

a promise,

a prophesy,

all because

You are the reason I would live for…

You are the reason I would die for…

--Abhilash

Love is ....

Love is a reason to live and a reason to die for ....

Many people say that i don't love . may be i am not so outgoing, sniffing everyone out... but that doesn't means that my heart doesn't beat.. it has its own rhythm . may be an overdose of all what i read but i believe in it. When my frnd asked since i dont have big expectation from any1 so y i need love. thats when i said "Love is a reason to live and a reason to die for ...."

this can be 2 an individual or some goal, some destination where we want to reach before we depart from this world and that time we are happy because our life had a meaning. Love is just understaing & finding this meaning.

Love is....

Love is that enviable state that knows no envy or vanity, only empathy and a longing to be greater than oneself

The Elephant Whisperer...few things about family which elephants can teach us

I read this article in The Hindu.. it was such a great one that i thought i should share this with all others.

I have heard about such close knitnedness but this was great. I wished I could also do something like this. Belong to a family which cares and supports all members. We human don’t have the common sense for this. We have our ego before us, hurting each other. Why cant we talk and understand before coming to a conclusion. Now a days we are so much wired that we don’t have time …..for anything ..

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/15/stories/2009061555240900.htm

 Lawrence Anthony’s eyes mist over as he remembers the moment he met his ready-made family for the first time. “They were a difficult bunch, no question about it,” he says. “Delinquents every one. But I could see a lot of good in them too. They’d had a tough time and were all scared and yet they were looking after one another, trying to protect one another.”

From the way he talks, you might guess that he was talking about disadvantaged children; in fact, it’s a herd of elephants. And not just any herd of elephants either, but a notorious, wild herd that had wreaked havoc across swathes of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and were now threatened with being shot. “I was their only hope,” says Anthony, 59. “There were seven of them in all, including babies and a teenage son. But the previous owner had had it up to here with them — they’d smashed their way through every fence they’d ever come up against.”

Anthony knew his plan was risky — “angry elephants are very dangerous animals if they don’t like you. You can be hamburger meat in seconds” — but his children had grown up and left home and he and his French wife, Francoise, had space on their game reserve, Thula Thula. When they were approached by an elephant-welfare organisation, Anthony, a respected conservationist who made world headlines in 2003 when he flew into Baghdad to rescue the animals from Saddam Hussein’s zoo (an episode of the South African-born environmentalist’s life that is being made into a Hollywood movie), knew he couldn’t refuse.

Beyond wildest imagination

Today, 10 years on from the moment the herd arrived, he says — in another echo of many adoptive parents — that the difficulties of the job were beyond his wildest imagination.

“It’s been a hundred times harder than I’d thought,” he says. But he could not have foreseen how much a bunch of troublesome tuskers would teach him about family love and loyalty. “The care these elephants shower on one another is astounding,” he says.

From the start, Anthony — tall, bearded, tanned and clad in khaki — considered the elephants part of his family. “We called the matriarch Nana, because that’s what all the children in the Anthony family call my mum,” he says. “The second in command, another feisty mother, we called Frankie after Francoise.”

As with human adoptions, the early days were especially tough. Nana and her troupe weren’t called the most troublesome elephants in Africa for nothing: every morning they would try to break out of the compound where they were living. Every day, Anthony, in a gesture that many parents who have had to deal with difficult kids will recognise, would do his best to persuade them that they shouldn’t behave badly, but that whatever they did he loved them anyway, and that they could trust him. “I’d go down to the fence and I’d plead with Nana not to break it down,” he says. “I knew she didn’t understand English, but I hoped she’d understand by the tone of my voice and my body language what I was saying. And one morning, instead of trying to break the fence down, she just stood there. Then she put her trunk through the fence towards me. I knew she wanted to touch me — elephants are tremendously tactile, they use touch all the time to show concern and love. That was a turning point.”

Matriarchal

Elephants are matriarchal. Anthony’s herd consisted of a group of mothers and their pre-adolescent young. Within the group, the matriarch has absolute authority.

“Whatever she says goes. If she wants to turn left, they turn left. If she wants to walk for 100 km, they walk for 100 km. Watching her made me understand what family means — her behaviour taught me that wise leadership, selfless discipline and tough unconditional love is the core of the family unit. I learned how important one’s own flesh and blood actually is when the dice are loaded against you. Nana would do anything for the family she led: she expected to be obeyed, and she was, but she was very, very careful about where she led those she was responsible for.”

Her acceptance of Anthony meant that the other elephants followed suit, which was life-saving for both him and Francoise a few days later when they unwittingly came between Frankie and her babies. She charged — “and let me tell you, an elephant charge is the most magnificent, and also the most terrifying, experience life holds” — and only broke off when she was seconds from obliterating them. “If Nana hadn’t shown Frankie she could trust me and shouldn’t hurt me, we’d certainly have been crushed to death.”

Frankie’s defence of her young was typical: an elephant mother’s devotion to her children is, Anthony believes, unparalleled in the animal kingdom. He tells a heartbreaking story about how another of the herd, Nandi, gave birth to a daughter whose legs were deformed. Despite the danger of lions, and the heat, Nandi remained with her for two days, supported by Nana and Frankie, all three taking turns to shield the baby from the sun. Time after time, they tried to lift her with their trunks so she could stand. “Watching Nandi made me realise how much a real mother cares. She was prepared to stand over her deformed baby for days without food or water, trying right until the end to save her, refusing to surrender until the last breath had been gasped.”

Loyalty

There were many other lessons in family behaviour, too. Frankie, the feisty aunt, showed time and again what loyalty meant. “She’d have laid down her life for them in a blink, no question, and in return, the others gave her their absolute love and respect. And the way Frankie raised her young, Marula and Mabula, showed me first-hand what good parenting can achieve despite adverse circumstances. These beautiful, well-behaved children are what we in human terms would call “good citizens”. They saw how their mother and aunt treated me, and in return accorded me the respect one would give to a distinguished relative.”

Reciprocal exchanges

Today, the Anthonys are so close to their elephants that on occasion they have almost had to chase them out of the sitting room. Anthony’s guiding principle has always been that if he respected them, they would respect him. Exchanges between him and the elephants have often been reciprocal, most movingly when Nana’s son Mvula was born, and she ambled forward out of the bush, days after the birth, to show him off to the man she now regarded as a close kinsman. A few years later, after Anthony’s first grandchild, Ethan, was born, he repaid the gesture. “Mind you,” he says with a laugh, “my daughter-in-law didn’t talk to me for a long time afterwards. There I was, holding her tiny, days-old baby, walking towards a herd of wild elephants. She didn’t imagine I’d go so close — but I knew we were safe. The elephants were so excited — their trunks went straight up and they all edged closer, intensely focused on the little bundle in my arms, smelling the air to get the scent. I was trusting them with my baby, just as they had trusted me with theirs.”

Respect for the elderly

The elephants’ respect for the elderly herd members is something else human beings could learn from, says Anthony. “Old elephants tend to get dementia and are very slow. But the young treat them with the utmost respect and devotion — when an elderly relative can’t scrape the bark off branches to eat any more, his sons and nephews lead him to marshes or swamps where the leaves are softer. When he’s too weak to stand, they guard him to protect him from lions or hyenas.”

This week, Anthony flies home from London, where he has been promoting his new book, to South Africa and Thula Thula. He knows that Nana, Frankie, Nandi and the rest of the gang will be waiting for him at the gate — they always seem to sense when he’ll be back. These days, they are as much there for him as he is for them. Adopting a herd of wild elephants might have been the biggest risk he ever took in his life but, against the odds, it has paid off. The conservationist who welcomed a herd of badly behaved elephants into the heart of his family has had his brave and bold gesture returned in a way he couldn’t have dreamed of: these days, he is as much a part of their family as they are of his. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence is published by Pan Macmillan.)

Invitation to view Abhi's native land

Previous two weeks brought a lot of changes in my life. First of all I was almost transferred then it was the sudden trip to my native place. I knew the meeting was inevitable but it was so sudden. The week before last week while traveling back to Kochi, I had to get down at my native place. Almost all who could come was present there. Tired & red eyed I reached home by 11:30 pm. The sleep in the village was a pleasant one. Cool breeze from the fields sung me lullabies. Next day was the D day, a lot of discussions & decisions. Temporarily there was a cease fire & I had the time to catch up my vanar sena of cousins.

Visiting all those places brought back the sweet memories of childhood. I prayed to God to bring back those carefree times. the little streams where we bathed when we came for holidays, the rubber trees , plantations, the mangroves all were there smiling at me, I stood there for minutes looking back to history. I was overwhelmed by my emotions. maybe I was again becoming a human. I was brought back to reality when one of cousin insisted to show me his secret places. He was very adamant that I go alone with him. It was a small safari across paddy fields. This was the time when I really missed my camera but still I got few snaps in my phone. By lunch time we were back & I had a lot of varieties of food waiting for me. I was the only Veggie there, it was a sumptuous feast. In those two days I ate more food than what I ate in the previous two weeks :), Rest of the time was spent visiting all other relatives (and eating of course :D ) I was planning to make the trip back early morning but every time I tried to pack, I was persuaded to postpone my trip. After all how could I refuse the request of my sweet angels. We played, danced, ate and made a lot of noise.

It was a real blast, a vacation in disguise from the mad world tied to watch. Here time was slow and sometime I felt it was waiting for me. Surely this short trip must have added few more days to my short life. Maybe after few more years I will retire (not so old :D but a voluntary one) and I will settle down in some green place among the woods, near some stream. Each day will not start with alarms from different clocks but with the sweet songs of birds.

Now back to the virtual world of bugs, deadlines and pressure. another world another story...

Well u can catch some of the green pics @

My native place Jun 5, 2009 by Abhi The green, paddy fields View Album Play slideshow

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A love letter

I miss you, my darling, as I always do, but today is especially hard because the ocean has been singing to me, and the song is that of our life together. I can almost feel you beside me as I write this letter, and I can smell the scent of wildflowers that always reminds me of you. But at this moment, these things give me no pleasure. Your visits have been coming less often, and I feel sometimes as if the greatest part of who I am is slowly slipping away.

I am trying, though. At night when I am alone, I call for you, and whenever my ache seems to be the greatest, you still seem to find a way to return to me. Last night, in my dreams, I saw you on the pier. The wind was blowing through your hair, and your eyes held the fading sunlight. I am struck as I see you leaning against the rail. You are beautiful, I think as I see you, a vision that I can never find in anyone else. I slowly begin to walk toward you, and when you finally turn to me, I notice that others have been watching you as well. “Do you know her?” they ask me in jealous whispers, and as you smile at me, I simply answer with the truth. “Better than my own hart.”

I stop when I reach you and take you in my arms. I long for this moment more than any other. It is what I live for, and when you return my embrace, I give myself over to this moment, at peace once again.

I raise my hand and gently touch you cheek and you tilt your head and close your eyes. My hands are hard and your skin is soft, and I wonder for a moment if you’ll pull back, but of course you don’t. You never have, and it is at tomes like this that I know what my purpose is in life.
I am here to love you, to hold you in my arms, to project you. I am here to learn from you and to receive your love in return. I am here because there is no other place to be. 
But then, as always, the mist starts to form as we stand close to one another. It is a distant fog that rises from the horizon, and I find that I grow fearful as it approaches. It slowly creeps in, enveloping the world around us, fencing us in as if to prevent escape. Like a rolling cloud, it blankets everything, closing, until there is nothing left but the two of us.

I feel my throat begin to close and my eyes well up with tears because I know it is time for you to go. The look you give me at that moment haunts me. I feel your sadness and my own loneliness, and the ache in my heart that had been silent for only a short time grows stronger as you release me. And then you spread your arms and step back into the fog because it is you place and not mine. I long to go with you, but your only response is to shake your head because we both know that it is impossible.

And I watch with breaking heart as you slowly fade away. I find myself straining to remember everything about this moment, everything about you. But soon, always too soon, your image vanish and the fog rolls back to its faraway place and I am alone on the pier and I do not care what others think as I bow my head and cry and cry and cry. 

It is the message in the bottle... the message to the lost love....

our meaningless life

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Tuesdays with morrie

Happiness

( i got this from a friend.. it was so nice :D )

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married,

have a baby, then another.
Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough
and we'll be more content when they are.
After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with.
We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage.
We tell ourselves that our life will be complete
when our spouse gets his or her act together,
when we get a nicer car,
we are able to go on a nice vacation, or when we retire.

The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now.
If not now, when?
Your life will always be filled with challenges.
It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.
Happiness is the way.

So, treasure every moment that you have
and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special,
special enough to spend your time with...
and remember that time waits for no one.

So, stop waiting....
--until your car or home is paid off
--until you get a new car or home
--until your kids leave the house
--until you go back to school
--until you finish school
--until you lose 10 lbs
--until you gain 10 lbs.
--until you get married
--until you get a divorce
--until you have kids
--until you retire
--until summer
--until spring
--until winter
--until fall
--until you die

There is no better time than right now to be happy.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

 

So, if you want to brighten someone's day,

 

 

Work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching.

Love can make the imperfect perfect

Last day I had a discussion about love with one of my good friends. I thought I will post few ideas here :)

Why do we think much before falling in love? People make many calculations... Whether the girl is rich / beautiful or working in MNC and whether the guy is rich/handsome/ well established... I mean exceptions do happen but People try to eliminate -ve factors as much as possible.

When I was asked this question, I didn’t have any ready made answers but in a matter of around 30 minutes I wrote down few things. You all will have different views about them but this is what I wrote.

Do we consider all the factors? People look all these for marriage but love its different something divine... does it happen it that way????? I am not sure I know it happens just like that, you don’t have any control over it , rest of the things are compromises , an adjustment that’s all . They think its love but I don’t think :)

Yep I am naïve but that’s what I am, that’s the way I think. Very few understand this pure language & may be that’s why I am week in heart but I still have faith in my ideas.

Love doesn’t demand anything, you cannot control it, and you cannot say that from this day onwards I will love or from this day onwards I will stop loving. It’s free like the air we breathe, flowing ….. Without any bounds, any control, raising our souls to the divinity.

Love doesn’t mean that you have to be with the person you love. Even if you are miles apart, even if you are dead the love flows, it’s un-breakable.

This is universal like lord Buddha said about the mother loves for her child. The sacrifice, the pain made for it.

Love has tremendous power. I know I can write better poems, I can write better code, I can train people in much better way I can do a lot of things which many haven’t even dreamed of .. Maybe I only require some inspiration some love which could power me for the rest of my life. If you have read the poems of Yeats or Rabindranath Tagore you will find the intensity of their love it. Tagore was one of the finest romantic poets ever.

If you have read tempest by the wizard of oz, you will know that it is the heart that matters. In that story our young heroine Miranda falls in love with Ferdinand. Her father said that he is not beautiful when compared to other human beings, ( they were staying in an island without any contact with other human beings .. good story read it when you get time), but she said that if Ferdinand is ugly then she don’t want to see others, just him :)

That what love does. Makes everything perfect & I believe it has the power to transform anything, overcome all the odds. Why should I say more, history has proved it many times?

Can u hold romantic love forever? Sometimes it may visit for few minutes, 1 day, few weeks or maybe for entire life. We should thank god for that short period. Yep we will be sad after that but don’t you think that short period can give u energy to last an entire life? We worry about the things we lost & forget about the joy experienced when we were together. The negative thoughts overshadow the good ones & it becomes a pain rather than the fire to keep us warm.

(Now u will think that I am mad ... not really just lost few nuts: D)

Most memorable moments of my life may last for few minutes , or days & I may be sad after that but I think I can continue my life with that green picture in my mind , I wont regret it.
Take the possibility that I will fall madly in love with someone but due to some sheer bad luck we can’t live together. I might have spent few good moments may be few hrs, few days or weeks but I will cherish that moments for rest of my life & it will be the fire power to keep me warm. I won’t feel bad because I heard my heart & did what was right and I won’t regret it @ death bed. Mostly we regret the things which we didn’t rather than the things we did.

When we lose some people give their life but they are cowards. They are fools, God has sent us down with some designs & I believe we have to fulfill it. I am not a coward & don’t believe in ending ones life.

Slowly I am also learning to appreciate what I have & live every moment of life without hurting others.

I can still write pages about sacrifice, pure love & all those things hmmm let me stop. For the time being this is sufficient.

Democracy or Demo ‘crazy’: India goes to poll

The grand show of the planet has begun, the largest democracy going to polls. When many nations are fighting for survival it’s a wonder that such an exercise of such magnitude is happening in this part. Media’s all over the world will be praising this gigantic effort. Such pomp, glamour, heat, passion where else can we find?

Democracy or Demo ‘crazy’

But on retrospective is this true representation of the billion people of India? The final percentage of polling will be around 60-70 % that means 30-40 % of Indians didn’t have any say in the Govt formation. This 30 % is a huge number much bigger than the total population of many countries combined. There was money, liquor, power to influence voter decision. What about these percentages?  No body has any figures. 

Add the fear and security dimension to this and the situation becomes really complex. Today news channel were abuzz with news of people killed during. Personally I don’t like violence, it is good in films but in reality it’s bad. The ideology should clash & not the bullets. But it is a harsh reality that we take ideas to our hands, trying to enforce ourselves on others by force. Personally I believe barriers break when people talk (Professionally, personally or in any field that matters).

 

Reject all

Today I was in a big confusion. Whom should I vote? There was no option between all the candidates in the arena. There was no option to reject them all. One candidate whom I would have supported openly was Shashi Tharoor but he was contesting in a different place. The election commission of India should have given me the power to reject all the choices. Most of the cases people are forced to select the lesser evil. Can’t we select some good people? Normal citizens won’t have much power in the selection of candidates for any political group. They are forced to select the devil or Satan. This is one of the factors which bring down the poll % in many areas. In some places people are forced to select between a dacoit or smuggler. (On a lighter note I think the more dangerous people should be selected in such cases for at least 5 years people will be safe in their homes)

Poll Reforms

Our great forefathers had thought about such a situation. They had kept an option called Rule 49-O. But this doesn’t give the secrecy of ballot (or EVM there is no ballot left). I got the following from Election Commission.

“It is clarified that under Rule 49-O, the voter has an option not to vote at the election after he has been identified at the polling station and his name has been registered in Registers of voters (Form -17A). The Presiding Officer shall thereupon make a note to that effect against the name of that voter and obtain his signature (thumb impression in the case of an illiterate). In such case, the voters who exercise the option of not voting at the election under Rule 49-O would only be deemed to have abstained themselves from voting and under the law, the candidate who secures highest number of valid votes polled, irrespective of his winning margin, is declared elected."

I don’t think this should be exercised openly. Nobody should know whom I voted or whether I rejected all.

 

Minimum representation

In all places decisions are taken by majority and not by the margin of leader. To get selection the candidate should get at least the support of 51 % of the people. Now even if a person get the support of only 20 % or even less (80 % didn’t want him) can be declared winner. How can such democracy function for long? For the true representation this process of selecting the leader among the pack should be abolished and only those wop can get a minimum of 51 % of votes should be elected. 

My Request

These are my suggestions for the EC of India

• Option for secret “NO VOTE”
• Power to Re-call any selected representative
  People have the power to elect so they should have the power to recall any selected representative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_election)
• Ban criminals from politics for ever.
• Minimum representation
• A retirement age for politicians
• A minimum educational qualification. (This is biggest job of the country & here you don’t require any qualification, any one without any credibility can run the show!!!!!!)

 

I said what I felt; you all can share your views.

You can spread your idea by voice, articles, e-mail but no muscles or bullets :D.

Write to newspapers, blogs, TV all the places where you can be heard.

What is hope?

I read it last day in some book. In a farm the donkey was ill treated by his owner. All the other animals asked him to run away. But our poor donkey didn’t. One day the horse confronted the donkey & asked the reason for his silent sufferings. Donkey said that it was because of hope. All the others were all ears. Our donkey explained that whenever the small girl of farm owner made some mistake he would tease her by saying that one more mischief & he will marry her to a donkey and this was the hope to which our donkey was hanging on, He believed that one day his master will be serious and will do as he said!!!!!!!

May be that what we all have a hope, a silver lining to which we hold our life and move on…struggling.. fighting… till the last blood .. till the last breath.

No problems in life

Always smile because there are no real problems in life only results, no tragedies only lessons & no problems only opportunities waiting to be recognized as solutions.

There was an incident in Swami Vivekananda's life. When Swamiji was touring entire country, he came to a serene place. There many monks were praying and doing their bhajan, kirtans & other stuff. A lot of monkeys were also in the surrounding. Soon a bunch of primates started following Swamiji. Swamiji started to walk and then run; he didn’t want to hurt the monkeys. Seeing this old monk asked Swamiji to stop & turn back and face the monkeys. Swamiji did so. Seeing Swamiji stop & turn all the monkeys fled from the place. Later Swamiji said problems are like these monkeys; once you face them they will vanish.

Lonliness

Now it is Loneliness who comes at night
Instead of Sleep, to sit beside my bed.
Like a tired child I lie and wait her tread,
I watch her softly blowing out the light.
Motionless sitting, neither left or right
She turns, and weary, weary droops her head.
She, too, is old; she, too, has fought the fight.
So, with the laurel she is garlanded.

Through the sad dark the slowly ebbing tide
Breaks on a barren shore, unsatisfied.
A strange wind flows… then silence.  I am fain
To turn to Loneliness, to take her hand,
Cling to her, waiting, till the barren land
Fills with the dreadful monotone of rain

-Katherine Mansfield

My last smile

The sky was dark, stars were fading
streets were empty,
lamps were dim

Orion was slain again
Wounded Sagittarius was lost in deep forest
Down below Leo was breathing his last.

A thunder was brewing up in the sky,
the sea was stirring,
the volcanoes fuming

The southern wind swirled over me,
trying to say something
It brought me muffled voices, broken words

Tinctured breeze played the eternal note of sadness
I walked, North Star guiding me,
Southern wind leading me.

Familiar faces, friends, colleagues, relatives
They have grown old, so fast
Prayer, worry & fear were in their eyes.

Between them lay, a human form
Aged and motionless,
with scars of a lonely sailor at rough sea.

Air, Water, Earth, Fire & Sky stood still
Sea and volcanoes stood in abyss
Nobody moved, nothing stirred

Like a lightening it came,
the last flash of life, the smile on his face
a smile full of life, love & hope.

It was a familiar smile
Alas. I recognized it
It was my smile

Yes the smile!!! Once forgotten smile,
the smile of love…the smile of hope
But for whom did I smile last???

The last smile was for thee
The last cry was for thee
I was born for thee

Thou was my destiny,
thou was my salvation
Now I’m dying for thee

Death came riding the tide
swept away the last sign of life
but the smile remained ,
the last smile to grave,
the last smile for thee…

---Abhilash

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints.  I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life;  and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

The lost (killed) daughters of India

It is the holocaust of India, the biggest massacre. But nobody is listening. Over 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years!!!!!!
We have heard news about un-born foetus in drains, sacks and all other places. They were the stories of murder in daylight but still it continues.

The methods adopted to kill unwanted children in India are often cold-blooded and cruel.

The ritual is performed by a family member or a professional killer, by swaddling a new-born in a wet cloth or simply giving her a spoonful of paddy grain with milk.

It simply cuts her tender throat, suffocating her to death.

At times, the mother is forced to hire a sweeper for a small sum of 25 -100 rupees to dispose of the child by simply poisoning the baby with the latex of the calitropis plant, or holding her so close to a table that she cannot breath.

In the early 19th century, British colonel Alexander Walker recorded his horror at seeing a mother drowning her newborn girl in a trough of milk in the western Gujarat region.

But now abortion of female foetuses or "female foeticide" has become common with the easy availability of ultrasound sex tests.
It's an unholy alliance of tradition and technology. Ultrasound was not meant for sex selection.

It is a myth that who seeks to find out the sex of their unborn child is poor, rural and illiterate. We the so called educated savages are in front killing the un-born miracles for no fault of them & only because of their gender!!!!!

The consequence of female infanticide and, more recently, abortion is India's awkwardly skewed gender ratio, among the most imbalanced in the world. Infanticide is illegal in India (though never prosecuted), and laws are also in place to stop sex- selective abortions. But in some places, national rules don't hold enough sway to overcome local religious and social customs - which remain biased in favor of sons over daughters.

Campaigners have been trying to alert the government to the potential long-term social impact of the phenomenon, warning that, among other problems, it will make it harder for men to find wives. In China, where a one-child policy is strictly enforced, prenatal sex selection has resulted in an estimated 40 million bachelors.

Technology is simply making it easier to eliminate the girl child. And in a society where the girl itself is seen as a genetic product to be eliminated, this has frightening implications

India stipulates that only a government hospital, registered facility, or medical practitioner with appropriate qualifications may perform an abortion. The reality, however, is that only about 15 percent of all abortions take place under such circumstances, according to the Indian Medical Association. About 11.2 million illegal abortions are performed each year off the record. Such abortions are often "female feticide," experts say.

In Salem district, for instance, signs posted in towns reinforce the societal message: “Pay 500 rupees and save 50,000 rupees later,” a suggestion that aborting a female fetus now could save a fortune in wedding expenses in the future.

Nearly 60 percent of girls born in Salem District are killed within three days of birth, according to the local social welfare department. That doesn't count the growing number of abortions there to ensure a girl baby won't be carried to term.

Amid such stubborn statistics, activists are at work to counter the forces of tradition. A focus of their work: improving the standing and self-image of women themselves.

In pockets of India where female infanticide persists, the practice is rooted in a complex mix of economic, social, and cultural factors. Parents' preference for a boy derives from the widespread belief that a son lighting his parents' funeral pyre will ensure that their souls ascend to heaven; that he will be a provider in their later and that he will preserve the family inheritance.

Personally I prefer to be in hell rather than heaven built on the poor souls of my sisters & daughters. How could God give permission to these murderers to enter heaven? A girl or boy both are the divine form of God. Why should we discriminate against each other? By killing the un-born child we are not booking our seat in heaven but securing a free visa to hell.


Trivia
This is not a story of India alone; we can find these dark stories from every continent from every country;
In the case of China, social scientists are talking about a future in which 15 percent of men won't have wives. According to Asia expert Nicholas Eberstadt, the trend, termed the "marriage squeeze," is an anthropological phenomenon partly due to China's "one child" policy that began in 1978 with the intent of slowing growth in the world's most populous country.
"The world has never before seen the likes of the bride shortage that will be unfolding in China in the decades ahead," writes Mr. Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, in a recent study, "Power and Population in Asia."

• Characteristics of Gender-Ratio Imbalances in India: http://www.unfpa.org/gender/docs/studies/india.pdf  
  
• Lost mothers of India: http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2009/03/lost-mothers-of-india.html
  

Lost mothers of India

Avoidable complications during child birth are killing 78,000 women in India every year. This means on an average, one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth every seven minutes. 

On the other hand, one million children born in India are dying every year even before they become 28 days old. A child born in India is 14 times more likely to die during the first 28 days than one born in the US or UK. 

These are some of the shocking findings of UNICEF's `State of the World's Children 2009' report released on Thursday. 

According to the report, an Indian woman is 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than women in America or England. For every mother who dies, 20 others suffer pregnancy-related illness. Around 10 million women annually experience such adverse outcomes. 

Despite an increase in institutional deliveries, 60% of pregnant women still deliver their babies at home. 

In India, more than two-thirds of all maternal deaths occur in a handful of states -- UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam. 

In UP, one in every 42 women faces risk of maternal death, compared to 1 in 500 women in Kerala. 

As far as neonatal deaths (within the first 28 days of life ) are concerned, the worst-off states include Orissa (52 deaths per 1,000 live births), MP (51), UP (46), Rajasthan (45), and Chhattisgarh (43). 

The report points out that babies whose mothers die during the first six weeks of their lives are more likely to die in the first two years of life. "For every 100 children born in the world, 20 are from India. For every 100 children who die globally, 22 die in India," UNICEF India chief Karin Hulshof said. 

According to her, the health and survival of mothers and their newborns are intrinsically linked. "Many of the same interventions that save maternal lives also benefit their infants. Even though India has cut its under-five mortality rate from 117 per 1,000 live births to 72 between 1990 and 2007, neonatal deaths contribute to 50% of these under-five deaths," Karin added. 

According to the report, three-quarters of all maternal deaths in India occur from complications either during delivery or in the immediate post-partum period. 

A quarter of the world's unattended deliveries take place in India, which is one of 10 countries which together account for two-thirds of births not attended by skilled health workers. 

The report also points to India's shameful statistics regarding breastfeeding. Experts say universalisation of early breastfeeding, within one hour of birth, would reduce neonatal mortality in India by 22% while universalisation of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life would avert nearly 16% of young child deaths. 

However, the report says only one in four children are breastfed within one hour of birth. 

Annually, around 6 million children born in India have low birth weight.