Whispering Shadow

I am neither a misanthrope nor asocial. I am not driven by rebellion or non-conformance either. However, I am strongly driven by values of secular humanism, chief among them being fairness, simplicity, respect, integrity, wisdom, efficiency and scientific thinking. I also judge my actions by a simple thumb rule. I always ask myself "Is what I do thoughtful, helpful, inspiring, necessary or kind?". If the answer is no to any question, I choose to avoid the action. I call this the "THINK" rule. During the months leading to my wedding and the weeks following my wedding, I have often heard the phrase "man is a social animal" being used as a driver of certain actions that seem illogical but indispensable part of our fabric. In addition, many practices are disguised under the veil of apparently righteous terms like "culture" and "tradition". Many of these actions or practices surrounding the wedding strongly challenged my value system. I w...

I live with a high degree of objectivity in most everyday aspects of life. On the other hand, I also live with a high degree of romanticism about certain things -  nature, friendship, purpose and poetry. Marriage falls somewhere in between the two where the lines of romanticism and objectivity meet. On one side there is romantic love. It is unconditional and selfless. It does not have an ounce of materialism but tonnes of spirituality. It is organic, flowing and boundless. On the other side, there is a 'ritualistic project' that has an objective of showcasing  the union of two families to the world, or at least those who they know in the world, on a scale that appropriately projects the image of the two families. Henceforth, I will call this project a marriage for the ease of reference. Being five months away from my own marriage, I am facing a tough act juggling the two - my firm belief in romantic love and the 'ritualistic project' that is my marriage itself. I...

I have been travelling for the last 10 days in the lap of Himalayas – Uttarakhand. Time and again, during the travels I have had thoughts and afterthoughts which I have been waiting to pen down. Now that I have finally time to access my laptop, I am going to write a brief summary of everything. Thought #1: You are smaller than you think. I had seen the three pronged peak called Trishul many times during the course of my five hours journey to Kausani. This peak was a part of  the tallest mountainous terrain in the world, the Himalayas. What remained hidden behind the mountain, on which Kausani is perched, came into full view only when my car took a hairpin turn on a road in the city. Within a matter of minutes, a 300 kilometre long wall of the Himadri range presented itself to me. The peaks were numerous and covered in snow. At my eye level, they seemed to be only marginally taller than Kausani itself, but on further reading, I found out that the peaks on an average were...

The more I read about the gang rape of the 23 year old student in Delhi, the more I feel helpless about not being able to do anything about it. Having learnt the details of the gruesome crime, I left for work feeling both aghast and extremely angry. I  wondered that in a country where only one in four rape accused gets convicted, what the odds of her getting justice were. And more importantly, I hoped this will be one of the last sacrifices a woman will have to make before our country wakes up to creating a system that is a strong deterrent to such acts - including others such as abduction, dowry harassment, molestation, domestic violence, honour killings, female foeticide, forced prostitution or even verbal harassment and eve teasing. (No wonder India has been ranked as worst country for women of the G20 countries, even behind Saudi Arabia!) I am not going to talk about stuff that we read in the headlines. I will talk about the lives of the ones I know and my own. I ...

A prospect recently mailed one of my friends giving a brief introduction of himself. I couldn't help writing down the probable reply (in italics) she could give to the expressive bloke (names changed for the sake of everyone's privacy). I mean no offence to him, but the world can live with a few more SMILES :-)  Hi Anita, This is Nilesh Piramal. I am pretty sure you might have heard about me from your family. Our parents/relatives are trying to find best companion/life partner for us. You are the first girl that my parents strongly suggested to get in touch with. So, let me take a moment to thank you and your family for sharing your profile with my family. Hi Nilesh, As you already know, I am Anita. I don't introduce myself in third person. I haven't heard anything about you so your mail comes as another shocker. My parents are trying extremely hard to find me a companion (don't know about best) and you will not be glad to know that you are just another...

It is Diwali. I woke up at 7.30 AM today. I woke up not because of my endeavour to see the break of dawn on an auspicious day (anyways, that happens way to early for me). I woke up because of the noise of firecrackers and the blaring sound of my neighbour's speakers. Today, like many other festive days in the past, it was just a question of my sleep, which was far more disturbed anyways due to the allergic sneezing from the smoke of the fireworks. I can live with that as I have in the past. The photography keeps me going, but unfortunately there is far less light and far more noise during Diwali these days. That is my personal regret and not the objective of this post. However,  there could be an old lady suffering from asthma who had an attack that ruined her Diwali. There could be a mother trying to put her baby to sleep, only to find it has woken up yet again to the sound of a chain bomb. All her festive preparations could still be pending. There could be a person d...

Nearly 60 of us stood through the last hour of the match, chanting the favourite slogans of Mumbaikars - "Ganpati Bappa Moriya", "Jo bole so nihal", "Vande Mataram'- but as we inched closer to the finish line, there was only one word on our mind - "Indyeahhhhhhhhh". The crescendo grew louder with every additional run scored. And then it happened. We erupted into a roar, jumping, clapping, hugging whoever stood next to us. Some of us were shouting, others had tears in their eyes - emotions of all types were witness in the moments that followed. The most heartening moments of the day were yet to come. We decided to hit the streets. The whole suburb was heading in one direction, to one celebration. Apart from Ganpati celebration, rarely have 5000 people gathered to dance on the streets to the Nashik dhol. Never have I witnessed a parade of fans, stranger to one another, sitting atop cars, screaming to each other as if they have had a bond of decades....

I finally found the right reason to show the wrong finger. On the 30th of April, I voted, as did many other Indians. Since it was my first time, I was all gung ho and reached the polling booth well before time. My name was not in the electoral roll on the polling booth so I had to do a bit of running around to find my polling booth. But I did not give up. I had the mark on my finger (which is unintentionally creative in shape, reminding me of a top view of the head of a flying eagle). Standing in front of the voting machine, I saw 16 names, all losers in their own right. It was a tough call between choosing a candidate keeping the central government policies as well as progress of the constituency in mind. I could have chosen an independent who brought with him/her only a promise and no political lineage or capacity to bring about change. I could have chosen a seasoned MP who would have a higher probability to be a part of the ruling coalition at the center and a contribute to decision...

My attempts to get a voter card started long before the citizen awakening which the "Jaago Re" campaign ushered. But those attempts have remained fruitless because I have still not got my right to vote. The reasons for having deprived me of the Voter's card have been ridiculous.  The first time I submitted Form 6 to the Election Desk set up in a dingy school compound was two years ago. I had gone to the desk with a copy of my passport (which according to me is one of the most stringently scrutinized documents in India) and a then recent electricity bill because I was told they needed a photo identity proof and a residence proof so I thought these would suffice. But I was sent back because I didn't carry a copy of my ration card (on which any one can add a name by bribing the municipal officer a mere Rs.100!). I went back the next week with the documents and they accepted my application. On asking how long would it take to get the Voter's card, the person in-charge...

After having won four Golden Globes, Slumdog Millionaire has made its way to the headlines of the newspapers. Brickbats and praise, both have come in plenty. Brickbats because of the apparent one-sided portrayal of the country as a religiously torn, poverty stricken economy where the second name for life is struggle. Praise because of it's fluent story telling, cinematographic brilliance, and most of all the fact that it is a masala movie made with technical perfection. A.R.Rehman is particularly brilliant with the background score, ensuring that the Indian touch is not lost while making a international film. As most people know by now, the films tells the story of Jamal Malik through the questions of the game show "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" The fact a slum dweller could answer questions which leave even the most prepared puzzled cannot be digested by the arrogant host of the show. He calls for a police investigation. The story is told by the protagonist in the cour...

The impact of 26/11 was such that I began to believe it would be the foundation of change in our country.   I saw early signs of it. Both the politicians and the citizens showed promised. But barely a month down the line, while the latter are still trying to find new ways to contribute to the state of the nation, the former are back what they do best, politicize the issue.  Mr. Antulay, the cabinet minister for minorities found a new found profession, that of a conspiracy theorist. The accusations that ATS Chief Hemant Karkare’s death was a plot by Hindu extremists took centre stage, over shadowing the voice of many Indians who were asking much more potent questions at that stage. The 542 remaining members of parliament got so involved in pressurizing him for his resignation that they passed 8 important bills in 17 minutes.  While the chaos was on in Delhi , I found one Mr. Bal   Thackrey’s comments extremely inflammatory and misplaced, though highly amusing. I think you will too b...

I thought of calling it chicken soup but then I didn’t want to offend the vegetarians in any group. I didn’t even use a name of a Chinese variant of the soup because there might be members from the Jain community whose sentiments I might hurt unintentionally. So here I am labeling my next post “Green Soup for Mobster’s Inc” Do I need to tell you why? I do not want to be the next person beaten to death with iron rods by a mob of 60 men in broad day light in a buzzing corporate complex for doing what is required of my job. Lastly, as an added precaution, I will write the title of this post in Devnagri script to prevent the MNS hackers from tearing my blog down. Since all measures are in place, I guess I can start with the recipe now. Ingredients: Angry Men – 10-12 Leader – 1 to 2 Victim(s) – Depends on how memorably bloody you want the recipe to be. Sensationalist News Channels – Even one is enough. Steps: Place the leader in a spot that threatens his hold over his domain of work or area...

Call me a cribber, but I am not the one who will take mediocrity in my stride. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people love mediocrity. Not that they can't strive for change, but they don't want to do it. Right from college where we are stuck with an ancient education system to sports where we are still proud of being 46th in the points tally of the Olympic games, the sense of complacency is programmed in our genes. Do we not have the spark? We all do, but we let it die. We are not quick enough to light the fire while it lasts. Each one of us has ideas. Each one of us has plans. Who will fear embarassment in case of failure? Isn't it better to remaining at the same position in the ladder than two steps lower? The fear of failure overshadows the reason why one would suport a bright idea, forget coming up with it. Most of the time when there is an opinion poll, say of 10 people, there will be two who agree, two who disagree and the remaining six won't have any...

The age of 60 is when most people retire in our country. It represents a change in life from the 9-5 routine to the 5-9 routine. Nonetheless, in the current context, when I say 60, I am not talking about the age of an individual and when I say retirement, I don't mean to imply retirement in the true sense. I am referring to the age of an independent India and the withdrawal of the rusty mindset that chains dynamism and the progress of a budding nation. The average age of politicians in India is way above the world average. Yes, we have a stable government, unlike majority of our neighbours and we are a very strong democracy, but is the current governance truly the epitome of the axiom ‘of the people, by the people, for the people?’ We still have politicians who came first on stage during the freedom struggle. With all due respect to their efforts, the big question remains whether their vision is still coherent with the needs of a rapidly developing economy. We are taught the new e...

Today's headlines on Star News: Aishwariya Rai and Abhishek Bachhan to tie the knot Gere shocks the Nation by kissing Shilpa Shetty on stage Locals in a rush to drink 'miracle' water Young boy trapped in a manhole Please note, everything written above is extremely mellowed down as compared to when it is said in Hindi in the most melodramatic ways possible. Coming to the point, there are a two things ironical about what I have written above -firstly, the definitions of the headlines these days and secondly, the whole joke of calling that channel Star News ! Wonder what is wrong with the mass media of our country? By no means am I generalizing this accusation for all the news channels functioning in the country. There are few who are doing a really fine job. However that doesn't shirk off the responsibilities from any of the other news channels to not do the same. After all, they are on national television, and what they depict can have a great impact on what the people t...