The Lost World

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

I wish someone told me to come back, to comeback to the golden era. And I and my spouse really wanted to go back. We were enjoying it every bit, minute by minute, second by second. It was as beautiful as The Taj Mahal, as calm and serene as the shore of a river bank and as green and lively as a hill station.

That day was very special. We were celebrating our 2nd anniversary, were walking on the street like love birds, not caring of the surrounding world, just engrossed within ourselves. We looked into eachother's eyes, gazed at the stars, also kissed eachother on the lips and shared some memorable time. We were completely engrossed in ourselves when a bright rainbow colored light emerged out of nowhere and sucked us into it and before our eyes opened we were lying down on earth unconscious.

The land on which we were lying was surrounded with the chirping of birds, humming of bees, roaring of elephants and moo moo of cows. Some bleak sound of flowing water and few people chatting and laughing loudly could also be heard. The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds and the reflection of this innocent play can be felt by our eyes. All these made us to slowly wake up and ask for a cup of coffee. “Ramu, please bring us a cup of coffee”, I said. There was no answer.

I shouted for the coffee again but still there was no answer, thus furiously I opened my eyes. The opening of my eyes left me dumb struck. I and my spouse were lying on an open terrain with various kinds of sounds coming from all directions and ray of sunlight directly falling on us. With shock in my eyes I tried waking up her asking strongly “Where are we”? She woke up with even more shock and surprise then me.

With this state of our mind we tried to figure out where were we. So we started walking in search of few people to whom we can ask them about this place. While walking we heard a soft sound like cham cham coming from our body. We looked at eachother and were left puzzled and bamboozled at the change of our clothes. From western clothing we were into traditional attire which was similar to the ones people wore many centuries ago. In deep shock we again tried to find out the place and people there. As we were walking, looking at the surrounding, trying to figure out the place we were in, we saw herd of cows wandering there. We went further ahead to see what was exactly around the mountain. And this led us to another shock and surprise which left our eyes and mouth wide open. What we saw was nothing less than a miracle of modern times. We saw The Maakhan Chor playing flute whilist surrounded by herd of cows. We immediately felt on our knees, offered our prayers and still could’nt believe our eyes. We soon realised that we were in the land of Lord Krishna, Vrindavan.

Soon we were in the company of natkhat Kanha, the people around there, their food and way of life. This led me thinking about the quality of life these people live and the quality of life the people live now. There is peace in the life of people which is probably lost in the 21^st century. Adjectives and phrases like Happiness, Kindness, Selflessness, Simplicity, Joys rather small joys, The joy of giving and sharing, The Way of Celebrating various occasions, festivals; The way of enjoying the life with just basic necessities are losing importance in the world of smartphones. People have become thirsty of eachother’s blood, crimes have increased by leaps and bounds with children learning to play with guns rather than toys. It has increasingly becoming dangerous to live in the 21^st century world.

I felt a tight pinch on my belly fat and this made me to come out from my thoughts. Ouch! It hurts, I said to her. She didn’t react to me but exclaimed Rohan, we settle here for the rest of our lives! I nooded my head in agreement to her. And as I did, a bright rainbow colour flash of light came from nowhere and we were back on the street, with western clothes, hands held tightly and ignoring others on the street being involved in only us.

Please do leave your footprints. :)

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I Love You

I thought Love was just a chemical reaction in the mind

Causing mood swings and imbalance between body, heart and mind

But on knowing him, everything became stable

From my mood swings to my eating habits to my Love for him

But the only thing that is still witnessing chemical reaction is the depth of my Love

As my mirror image just fails to acknowledge it

But still Love you my mirror image, Love You!

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Poor Little Rich Slum: Book Review

Written by Rashmi Bansal and Deepak Gandhi with photos by Dee Gandhi

Published by Westland Ltd in 2012

A filthy, stinking place where there is hardly any chance for you to take a breathe of fresh air is what a slum is. I say this because of my experience of living in a slum like area before my family's fortunes changed. A place where everything is shared from a small room to the food to the toilets to the bathing space. Shared not only with family members but sometimes with insects, ants, cockroaches etc.

And Dharavi which is the Asia's largest slum is no different. The only difference is with the people residing over there. They are oozing with bundles of joy and happiness which is depicted in this book. The book is all about Dharavi, the families residing over there since generations, with small rooms to live and a common toilet. But still people choose and continue to stay in this piece of land.

They adjust to the lack of privacy, to the lack of hygiene, to the lack of progress because this is the only life they know.

Dharavi apart from being the largest slum in Asia is also the workplace for most of the immigrants staying there who have migrated from small towns and villages in search of some work. It is said that it is human spirit on which Dharavi is thriving upon.

In other slums, people go to work: here, they come looking for work.

The book is divided into four sections:

1. Dharavi What Ees'?
2. The Incubator
3. Cauldron of Change
4. The Future 

The first section is all about the people living in Dharavi, their way of living, their hopes and aspirations, the government's apathy towards the development of people as well as Dharavi's development and the hopes in the eyes of kids and children willing to learn and educate themselves for a better living.

The second section is about the life of few slum dwellers residing in Dharavi. How they started living in Dharavi, what made them to think differently and how they landed up with ideas to meet their ends meet, how it started flourishing and became successful with grit,determination and hard work. There is Jameel Shah who makes dancing shoes for our superstars and many dancing competitions. Then there is Panju Swamy who runs Ayyappan Idli Stall since forty years. Then we have two young guys Fahim Vora and Tauseef Siddiqui who runs a travel agency by the name 'Be The Local', giving tourists a tour of Dharavi and many more rich stories of success.

The third section tells us about the people and organisations of change who fight their way out for a better living for their people in Dharavi. They include social activists, social workers, musicians, NGOs, women activists and also body building trainers.

The last and the final section deals with the future of Dharavi. On the one hand there are builders lobbying for the redevelopment project of Dharavi and on the other hand there are social activists arguing on what is best for Dharavi and what is not. Whereas there is government who is accused of having no political will to take a correct decision. 

Where do we go from here-forward or backward? You talk about development but, pray tell me, when will it happen?

The presentation and layout of the book is superb with some fine photographs, apt quotations and simple and lucid language which everyone can understand.

With less than 200 pages, Poor Little Rich Slum is definitely a must read for all the book lovers and especially for the first time book reader and try to be the agent of change in some way or the other.

 

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The feeling called LOVE

Feeling called Love

Love the feeling called Love

The feeling of being close to eachother

The feeling of eagerly waiting for the other to arrive

To those moments of bidding a good bye

Love the feeling called Love

The union of two souls, two hearts

To walk together and achieve the dreams

To be the strength and support akin to the Himalayas

Love the feeling called Love

Of patching and making up after a fight

Of raising a flag of deep bonding

Of vowing never to leave other alone

Love the feeling called Love

With picturesque poses, living the memories

With the fragrance of a special relation

With the commitment of Love forever and ever

Love the feeling called Love...

Image courtesy: HD Wallpapers

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Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Wishing all the fellow Bloggers and Indians all over the world Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!!

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!

Also note that:

• Ganesh Chaturthi is a festival and not a competition between pandals and families. Please keep the sanctity of the festival intact.
• Also try giving back to the society and your favourite Lord by placing orders for eco-friendly Ganesha Idols.
• Men should note that this does not give you an opportunity to grope and surround women.
• Also people, please try to educate children about the importance of this festival started by Shri Lokmanya Tilak to bring people closer and encourage social gathering. 

Once again, Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all!! Take Care.
:

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Barfi - A treat to watch

So it was a Saturday evening that I went to the nearby multiplex to watch 'Barfi' although reluctantly.  I would not not like to throw light on why I was reluctant to watch but probably sometime later I definitely will.  I didn't even knew what kind of characters Ranbir and Priyanka were playing but knew that since He was insisting, the movie would be atleast a one time watch. But I was wrong. Trust me guys it will a treat to watch again and again and again. 

And it was picture shuru!! Within minutes I was thrown into a deep cinematic experience with good landscapes, apt story telling spanning forty years, brilliant music, a perfect story about unconditional love and brilliant acting by Ranbir and Priyanka who plays a character of deaf-mute and an autistic person respectively. 

Barfi (Ranbir Kapoor) is a happy-go-lucky kind of a guy who is always running from the cop for his, if you can say stupid, innocent actions. The birth of Barfi was excellently shown to a song played on Murphy radio. And hence the name Barfi. (rhymes) There are a lot of Charlie Chaplin moments which Ranbir plays exceptionally well and brings out a laugh everytime. The scene where Barfi flirts with Shruti (Illena D'cruz), places his heart out and writes a small letter after being said no to his advances is just marvellous. 

The story moves on with Barfi falling for Shruti and vice-versa inspite of Shruti being engaged. But she is timely reminded that Love alone cannot help the relation to sustain, it also needs money. The best scene of the movie is when Barfi with ease and finesse shows the difference between him and Shruti and conveys how deeply hurt he is at being rejected. Barfi then finds the company of Jhilmil (Priyanka Kapoor) his childhood friend, an autistic girl belonging to a rich family.

The scenes where Barfi puts his loved ones through test of unconditional friendship involving a collapsing streetlight, when Barfi doesn't find himself comfortable after Jhilmil runs away from him and Shruti's growing love for him, where Barfi searches for Jhilmil by tossing one shoe in the air are few of the many scenes that brings out tears in you. 

So just sit back and enjoy a beautiful ride filled with emotions, bonding, care and concern which in today's material world seems to be an illusion. Yes, I did give him lots of kisses and... (left for your imagination) between and after the movie. 

Things to learn from the movie:

• Even people with physical disabilities needs to be cared and loved. Even they do have feelings and emotions which we need to understand for taking care of them.
• Love is the only thing that humans need and always try to show love to them in any form.

Please do leave your footprints :)

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Who are you?

Life always has it's ups and downs

But for her Life was always a question mark,

Seriously she took her life

And similarly Life also took her very seriously,

She fought like a warrior with people, with herself

But all in vain as Life showed her the opposite,

Saddened and disheartened with Life

She asked, "Who are you?",

Life replied, "I am very much you"!!.

(She interrupting in between)

"You are not me", she retorted

"No! I am you", Life asserted,

I am that invisible path waiting for you to cross

To enjoy the unchartered territory & open your dreams galore,

If you are willing to see the other side, all I am is in front of you

So tell me, "Who are you"?

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