216. Is it my name?

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 49; the forty-ninth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

“What is your name?” someone asked.

I tried to remember, but could not.

“I don’t know”, I said.

“Where do you live? Where is your home?” he asked, in a soft voice.

I tried to remember but I could remember nothing.  

“I don’t know”, I was feeling ashamed to say so.

Another man came.  He held my hand, asked me few more questions. 

But I could add nothing more.

“Give a try, Uncle. Go down the memory lane. What do you see?” he asked me.

I could see nothing. I told him so.

“Alzheimer”, someone said.

Is it my name?  

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Participation Count: 42

215. Glimpses of Nairobi

I was forced to stay overnight in Nairobi because I missed my connecting flight due to delay in the earlier flight. Transit visa, hotel, transport etc was arranged by the airline (as is the normal); so I was not required to commute within the city on my own. So, I cannot claim to have "visited Nairobi". As I had no plans to stop over, I had not taken any efforts to get some information about the city. So, I can safely say that while sharing some photographs with you, I am penning few lines. 

When we approached Nairobi, from the sky, it looked beautiful. 

The scene reminded me that human beings have always fought with nature; and what we call "human culture" is an outcome of conflict between human beings and nature! 

The green belt and the blue belt - they represent two conflicting ideologies. It is certain that we cannot live without the green. But can we really live without the blue as well? How can we travel to the past? Is it necessary? Or we can still balance these two approaches?

And then signs of Industrial world. Later, a Kenya national informed me that Nairobi is situated in the midst of National Park. 

I had decided to sleep until late hours next morning (as I was tired), but woke up with bird calls. It was raining outside and saw two African Pied Wagtails playing a sort of 'hide and seek'. And I felt bad about the decision of leaving my binocular back home. 

Another view from hotel window. Whether people have 'consturcted' something in desert or they have 'destructed' something to make it desert like - that is what I need to know. May be, when time permits.

I was amazed to "see" a  Gujarati TV channel,

No, I don't think it has anything to do with Mr. Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India. For centuries, Indians have been coming and living in Kenya, and Gujarati speaking people are more in numbers  

This is Kenya Airways.

While checking in for next flight, the immigration officer took my photograph, asked me to give finger print. I was following her instructions and suddenly she said, "angutha". It took a minute for me that she was using Hindi word for thumb and she was kind to speak "my" language with me. 

Well, I need to visit this city again and spend more time to develop better understanding.  
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214. My Government

When a new Government is elected, people have lot of expectations - irrespective of the political party. It is always good for government to be connected with people's dreams and aspirations. There could be no two opinions about the necessity of  the representative government's continued dialogue with the people. All governments try to do it - in different ways. Such effort has its limitation but it is also useful  to some extent. 

Recently, to be exact on 27 July, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi's government has initiated a new line of communication. With the help of Information and Technology, now people can participate in government by sharing ideas and issues through the website "myGov". Anyone who wishes to participate can join the site. 

Initially, while signing up, I faced difficultiies - I was not able to sign up even after repeated efforts. I did write to Admin of the site and I was told that it happend due to heavy traffic to the site. Later, I was able to access the site. We have to provide Name, Address, Email, contact phone and then we can register. Some people may find it  problematic to share personal information - we are never sure about the data security. 

Presently six groups are acitve - Clean Ganga, Girl's education, Green India, Skill Development, Clean India and Digital India. 

You are allowed to join four groups - in fact, three groups as fourth group is automatically your distrcit group! I have joined Girls' Education, Clean India and Green India. The concerned Ministries are expected to take not of the discussions in these group. The people who put forth good ideas wll have an opportunity to interact with the Prime Minister - that is what newpapers inform!  

There are not only discussions; you can join some Tasks as well.

For example, in the group "Clean India" one task is: visit any "Mid-Day-Meal" kitchen, observe cleanliness and suggest improvements. The task requires 2 hours. Generally when a task is declared, there is one month time limit to complete it. 

"Girl's Education" group has a task to "prepare curriculum framework to enhance skills of girl students". I have joined this task and working on it . 

All these tasks are to be carried out as a "citizen". Nobody can go and say that the government has asked us to find out how clean is your kitchen and so on. This is a voluntary work - people are expected to use their time, their money, their energy and their intelligence in this work. Those who want to participate in the progress of the county without getting affiliated to any political party - have a good opportunity here - that is what my first impression is. Let me form opinion after few months. 

The major limitation of this effort is: illiterate people, people who do not use computers and Internet will not be able to participate. In a way, it can be criticised to be "a platform only for  affluent, higher middle class people and the poor and illiterate have no say" - which seems right. But those who read this blog, certainly have access to Internet and if they wish to participate in myGov, they can; we all can.

If you join myGov, or you are already "into" it, please, do share your experiences. 
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213. Apology

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 48; the forty-eighth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

“You owe me an apology”, she demanded.

“I am really sorry,” he said controlling his tears.

“I did not ask for “sorry”, I want an apology,” she was stubborn.

“I apologize”, he said in a low voice.

“You too owe me an apology”, she turned to the silent woman and demanded in the same tone.

“I apologize”, she said in a low and tearful voice.

There was pin-drop silence.

The child moved away, very slowly, without looking back.

“So, coming back to the custody of your only daughter….” the lawyer continued.

They knew they would be apologetic all their life.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Participation Count: 40

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212. People and their Hero

We, the People need heroes. The word hero includes heroines – role model, idol.  

Whatever we might do when real life situation demands, ideally we like to worship a hero. That gives us weird satisfaction of being secure, of being worthy followers.

The more heroes:  the better.

In case there are more heroes, we easily establish hierarchy amongst the existing heroes – to each one his/her own is our principle. We fight on points like ‘whose hero is better’?

Mind you: “mine is always the best”

We can present arguments in favor of our hero and go to any length to criticize the non-hero.

We the People can make heroes and We the People are capable of dumping heroes. We the People are powerful than Government, Bureaucracy, Judiciary and Media imagines; or would like to imagine.

If there are no real life heroes, we take on cricketers, film stars, political leader, whosoever is available; even we choose our boss - we manage our hero worship hunger by compromising with our values.

We like heroes who are simple. We like heroes who are poor. We like heroes who are naïve. We like heroes who do not have power. We like heroes who give us a chance to shout slogans, to be on the roads with candles, to clap, to laugh, to cry, to do some kind of activity which we had hardly done in personal life. We like heroes who awaken sense of being part of ‘history making epoch’ in our life – because otherwise there is nothing exciting in our life.

We don’t like our hero to be criticized. We forget that others too have right to express, howsoever different that opinion might be. But we tend to call them traitors, we doubt their intentions, we say that they are trying to break our unity.

It is always interesting to throw stones on others. After all we have chosen them as our representatives, so we have every right to thrown stones and de-throne them. Don’t ask us why we were not aware of their weaknesses; we are emotional people and we believe a charismatic leader with the hope that s/he would make everything easy for us.

We like to be part of a process which changes others, which threatens others. There is no other joy than watching a powerful person wilt against higher power.

Now don’t ask questions like - what about my responsibility? What about changes in my life? What if tomorrow my hero invites everyone to take an oath?

For example, if my hero asks me to:

1.   Never bribe a traffic cop when my two /four wheeler is picked up from a non-parking area.

2.   Pay full taxes without hiding any income.

3.   Not to pay anyone extra amount to get train ticket, movie ticket, passport, job, and berth in train journey etc.

4.   Neither ask for nor give dowry.

5.  Not pay donation for my child’s education, if that means my child would study in poor municipal corporation school, so it be then.

6.   Not join any tuition or coaching classes - because this is another way of spoiling education system.

7.   Not approach any politician to help me from punishment for breaking laws.

8.  Not accept money for voting a particular candidate or not voting in any elections – even my residential society elections.

9.   Not use office telephone for my personal calls/ I will not use office computer for personal work like searching new job or playing games.

10.  …………………

11.  ……………………….

I am sure, the moment our hero starts putting such demands; we will turn and find another hero.

There is no dearth of heroes around.

"We the People" are Powerful!

211. Churning of the City

He is a writer. He is also a painter. His name is Bharat.

He had come out of his house after many days and to him the city seems to have changed. What is happening around?

Now it is against the laws to laugh within the city precincts.

There are boyish looking girls who tell him, “whoever is helped to rise, gets into the habit of falling down again and again and every time he falls, he looks for help and starts depending on help”. There is a boy made up to look like a girl because he thinks that is what will give him job. Actually there is not much difference in women and men now. The shops are glazing. The roads have now priority to vehicles and not human beings. You don’t have to know music for being known as musician; if you can hold elephant tusk and act like you are singing – you are a musician. Thousands of such changed rules around in which the city which he knew seems to have been destroyed. Once upon a time, there was churning of the ocean and it had thrown up poison. What will the churning of city bring out?

What is happening to Bharat’s city? What changes are taking place? How these changes are affecting the people within the city? Why can’t he speak or cry about it? Why is he compelled to keep quiet?

In the first couple of pages the novel absorbs you. It reminds me of “1984” and also a bit of “Animal Farm” – both by George Orwell. I keep on thinking about the similarity; but only for moments.

The novel is bit unconventional as it does not have long line of characters and there are no traditional descriptions.  There are events after events and the author questioning the happenings around. It represents a kind of “us” and “our environment”. It reminds us about that important feeling that we hide deep within after every experience of riot, bomb-blast and so on. It reminds us of every moment of vulnerability. There is something within us which we are not comfortable to live with – that is brought on the surface.

The city is like our city – disparity between poor and rich! Masks are here for sell and those masks are destroying the variety in human beings. Everybody seems unknown and similar. The masks not only cover faces, they control the thought processes of humans - and that is the main purpose of producers of masks. Once you cover yourself by a mask, the Reality and the Illusion merge together, you feel like owner, you feel responsible for maintaining status quo.

Bharat has some questions. His neighbor (a man without name), who is constantly keeping company, who makes Bharat realize the reality of the changed city  and who is taking care of Bharat, takes the responsibility of the survey.

These questions are: How near are you to yourself? How far away are you from yourself? How close are you to your family? How far away are you from your family? How near are you to the road- and how far away? How near are you to the tree, to the road, to the walls, to the bricks … and how far away are you from the tree, the road, the wall and the bricks?

The neighbor has different experiences during the survey. One woman tells him, “I am too far away from myself.  I am never able to join myself to myself. You can take it that I consist of two parts. One part is sick and tired of this world… the other is chockfull with desires and passion….. I am close to no one; no one is close to me. …. How can a person who is already split into two parts own anybody or belong to anybody?”

At other times I would have remembered Sartre or Camus while reading this (I remember them now while writing this), but while reading it I felt a sharp knife stabbed in my heart. The agonizing pain was momentary but Real. The beauty of the novel is: it creates such moments of pain of self-reflection; it makes you think about your life. The novel is not unrealistic – it creates an awareness that you are not aware of what is happening around you, you have look for and learn to accept the Reality. The novel churns you as well.

It does not matter that the novel has only 63 pages.

The novel was originally written in Dogri. The language is spoken in Jammu area (and nearby areas in Pakistan). You don’t feel like asking the logical questions like whether these areas are urbanized so much.

It does not surprise you that the novel is 1979 Sahitya Akademi award winner novel.

“Nagn Rukh” – Mr. O P Sharma “Sarathi”

English translation by Mr. Shivanath – “Churning of the City”

Publisher: Sahitya Akademi, Delhi

Price? The 1991 edition I have is priced Rs. 10/- only!

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210. Hope

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 46; the forty-sixth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

I have lost sleep, peace, and happiness.

Is it illusion or reality?

They are all screaming around; constantly; without break.

Each one wants to win in the end; each one wants to live long.

Each one of them wants success, love, security, wealth and fame.

Each one of them wants a bigger space, a bigger role, a larger than life image.

They are too many.  

They are threatening me.

I am scared.

But we cannot move on like this.  

I hope The Page Will Turn automatically.

Once again I will gain control over the characters in 'my' novel.

I hope. 

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Participation Count: 39.