Todo Bhaarat!!!

धरतीपुत्र की लल्कार लगाओ,

जलते देश की आग भरकाओ!

टूटे देश को जोड़ा था लौपुरुष ने,

तोड़ उसे फिर एक बार, ख़ुद की नज़र से नज़र तो मिलाओ!

कश्मीर की कहानी सुनी,

असम की है अपनी परेशानी!

तमिल श्रीलंका रोते हैं,

हम पंजाब को भी कभी खोते हैं!

भुत छोर वर्तमान में आओ,

उत्तर प्रदेश बिहार से घबराओ!

बंगाल में ना कोई काड़खाना लगाओ,

महाराष्ट्र में घुसने की ना हिम्मत जुटाओ!

यह है भारत सपनो का,

इतिहास और आज से हारे,

भविष्य को खड़ा खड़ा निहाड़े!

छोड़ दो उम्मीद, तोड़ दो सपने,

गैर बन बैठे हैं अपने!

बांधो मुट्ठी, हाथ फैलाओ,

धरतीपुत्र की लल्कार लगाओ,

जलते देश की आग भरकाओ!!!

- मुकुल प्रियदर्शी

Dedicated to all the short sighted politicians who are on the verge of dividing India for their vote bank politics and media hyped personality.

IT's life: Chapter 1

It was a dusky night with moon at its full glow. Silence of wide spread fields were cut across by the roaring thunder of fast moving Purva Express connecting Delhi with Kolkata. It was passing through UP and was scheduled to reach Patna next morning and Kolkata in the evening. Mehir, suffering from bad throat, had a tough day in office and he somehow caught this train at the last moment in Delhi. He had to reach Kolkata on weekend to meet his family and the girl whom they had finalised to be his would be bride. Tired and exhausted, Mehir fell on his berth and went into deep sleep.
His sleep was cut short in midnight by the crying of a child on front berth. A lady was trying to console him but the little monster was in no mood to sleep. Mehir tried hard to go back to sleep, blocked his ear with pillow and has his quota of Gaalis exhausted for the child but the child continued.

‘Why don’t you give him something to eat? Maybe he is hungry’ Mehir said to the lady in an irritated tone.

Lady took the child closer to her heart and put her duppata over it. Mehir presumed that she had started breast feeding. It was dark in the compartment but the uneasiness of the lady could have easily been felt. She kept arranging her duppata…bringing it to left, right, up and down. The jingles of her bangles kept coming intermittently. Child enjoyed the drink and the compartment was back to silence with only deafening sounds of rails playing the background score.

‘I am sorry if I was rude to you. I had a bad day in office and was in deep sleep till your baby cried’ said he in a slow and smooth voice.
Lady replied, ’It’s ok. It was my mistake that I forgot his milk bottle. I am sorry if his cries disturbed you’
Mehir replied in negative and was about to turn on the light but left it off given the uneasiness of the lady while feeding her child.
He questioned, ‘Are you alone? Don’t you have someone along with you?’
Lady took a sharp turn towards him and said in a stern voice,’ why are you worried? I am sorry if my child disturbed you. Now please don’t try to show sympathy. Go back to sleep. I don’t need anyone’s mercy.’
Mehir was hurt and decided to go back to sleep but there was something in her voice that was unusual and attracted Mihir’s attention. He decided to continue the conversation.
‘Please don’t take it otherwise. I was just inquiring. It’s quite unusual to find a lady travelling on her own in a sleeper class that too in a train that passes through the patches of UP and Bihar’ tried to assuage Mehir.

‘It is ok. It’s just that I get irritated whenever someone tries to invade my privacy. No one is interested in giving a helping hand. All they want is a topic to discuss which will help them pass their time in train…akeli ladki….ek bache saath….bacha hai jo rota hi jaa raha hai…all these craps’ replied she and put the child on the berth who had slept and again arranged her dupatta to make her comfortable.

‘You are a genius….have understood human dynamics well’ said Mehir and had a healthy laugh.

‘No Sir…you are wrong. I am very bad in understanding people’ said she and took a long pause and added’ or else how could had I misunderstood the intentions of a man who was most important person in my life’ after taking a heavy breath.

He kept quite. He had a look on watch and its radium glowed arms showed it was 3:00AM. Train was nearing Mugalsarai station. He assumed.

She continued,’ Life is tough and tougher is having faith on someone else who is not your family or relative. But it is hurtful when the same person leaves you shattered, all because he could not stand on his own against his family wishes.’

He started understanding her story. His heart was pounding on his ribs. There she was…traumatized….all alone with a child and the most he could offer was an audience. He continued to suffer in silence of his agony.

‘Are we dead? Have we lost all our compassion? How can a man leave someone who he said was his life? He said he could not go against his family’s wishes. Today I stand against whole society…being a single Mother. I took it as a challenge to show him that it’s not family but you. We always hide our weaknesses under the layers of family and society’ said she and anger was evident. His heart was racing and had this conversation continued, he would have fainted.

Train reached Mugalsarai station. Mehir was numb, so was she, staring at the child who was fast asleep. He took the window up and light from railway station pierced into the compartment. Mehir took a quick glance at her face and quickly closed the window.

‘What happened? Why did you close the window so quickly’ she asked, looking up to him, maybe trying to imagine his face in the darkness.

Mehir replied,’ No. nothing…it would have disturbed the child.’

Train left Mugalsarai station and the lady lied down on her berth, moving the child closed to her body.
It was 3:30 AM. He thought,’ two more hours and it would be day.’ Mehir was sitting on his berth, staring at the darkness of room.

Train reached Varanasi. Lady was in her sleep.

‘Sir, ticket please’ said the TT manning the exit of Varanasi railway station.

Mehir handed over his ticket to him. He checked it and said,’ your ticket is up to Kolkata. Why are you terminating your journey in Varanasi?’

Mehir took his ticket back, moved slowly and replied,’ my past reappeared and blocked my destination’
.........can be continued!!!

Safety First!!

Delhi-Varanasi-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Ahmedabad-Jaipur-Bangalore-Delhi!!!! This is not anyone’ orkut profile mentioning their location. This is the terror map of India depicting all the targets of terrorist for last one year (Phew…..add Malegaon and Gujrat in the list as they were targeted while I write this piece). What is happening around us? I have no answer. Do you have?

Newspapers and News channels are all blaming home minister of India, Intelligence Bureau and local police. Neither this blame game have stopped nor the attacks. How far will it go? How many more lives will it take? Who are responsible?

As I sit and think of ways to curb this menace. A lot of idea flow through my little mind and I put some here to share with you:
It’s not the time to blame anyone but plan for the future so that these attacks are not repeated.
1) Let’s start with a security week all over India. All schools, Offices and public places will be filled with messages, lectures and road shows explaining individual’s responsibilities, safety measures and related laws.
Our tough and challenging life has made us immune to our surrounding. We even don’t know our neighbours. Let’s shed our inhibition and take social responsibilities…get involved. We need to be aware about our surrounding and inform police helpline as and when we get suspicious about anything.
2) A toll free and easy to remember number of police’s terrorism cell in each of the major cities and state capitals, working 24*7.
3) A central terrorism cell (on the lines of CBI and IB) coordinating with all the terrorism cells of the major cities and state capitals with free access to information and latest weapons even of defence for specific purposes with prior permission.
4) Stringent terrorism law with special courts hearing those cases….speedy trails and execution of court’s decision.
5) Rewards for all those involved in informing police about terrorists and their plans. Rewards should be monetary as well as promotion in their rank in their professional life.

Even if we implement all these suggestions, the implication will only be short term. These attacks were not carried out by any external agencies. All these so called terrorists are Indians who are not happy…who don’t believe in Indian secularism. A long term plan needs to be planned for these brothers of ours who have moved away from mainstream and started believing in death and destruction. Onus is on us now to make every Indian believe India is of all of us. All religion, caste and creed are equal and have equal rights. We need a national leader who could unite all of India and lead us on the right direction.
For me I only want to do my job as an Indian and leave behind a better and safer India for generations to come. Aameen!!!

Indian IT: Bull’s leg shaking after the run

“This is all to do with big and rich people. We never get affected by major financial policy decisions and fluctuations in share markets” said my grandfather and would repeat it time and again whenever I would curiously ask about any financial news while we watched news together.
That was the time of government jobs and what mattered the most in news was political news. That was early nineties and the benefits of opened Indian market were yet to be seen.
India has changed a lot over last couple of decades and so has the topographies of each individual’s family. Single earning joint families have transformed into each working nuclear families (at least the middle class is moving in this direction). Working not in any government department but private firms and growth of these private firms are closely (or better call it directly) related to major financial policy decisions and fluctuations in share markets, a clear contrast to what had been my grandpa’s time.
Last week’s development in financial circle shook US and aftermath was felt in India and each IT professional’s heart. Rising Dollar had already put Indian IT firms on back foot and developments of last week made the situation worse. The fall of esteemed Leman Brothers, acquisition of Merrill Lynch and problems in AIG coupled with credit crisis in US is expected to hit Indian IT firms hard. Banking and Financial services constitute on an average 40% of their business and US market dependence is also close to staggering 45% (which has reduce over a period of time due to corrective actions taken by these firms after slowdown in 2002-03).

So what is the future now? I take the positive out of this situation. It had been a bull’s run for last couple of years, uncontrolled hiring and uneven growth. Its time to sit for a while and consolidate upon whatever we have gained over a period of time. It’s an opportunity to plan for the future and fix any loop holes that could have crept in our systems and processes. Re-iterate each individual’s responsibility, slow down the hiring, create opportunities in Asian markets which has largely been left untouched by IT surge( though the margins are going to be low ). Indian firms and government departments (central and state) remain untouchable to best practices followed all over the world and IT. Indian IT firms by working with most reputed of organisations all over the world have expertise to transform Indian industries by providing consultancy as well as IT services.

If these firms could stand 2002-03 debacles, there is no point to think that they would not swim this tide also. I am a little sceptical but also optimistic and confident.
“It affects us” I said looking up to the heaven, hoping my grandpa would hear it.

Me and We

It had happened in past and occurred again recently. I watched them unfold the mystery, sitting in the comfort of my home with “It happened in India-A biography of Kishor Biyani” in my hand. Didn’t you get it??….I was watching the proceedings of Lok Sabha, the sacred sanctorum of Indian Democracy, during recently concluded “Confidence Motion” discussion brought by honorable Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. I have a habit of keeping a book or newspaper in hand while watching TV to utilize my time during ad breaks and this time I had “It happened in India”. Luckily there were not many breaks during lok sabha proceedings and I didn’t get much time to indulge in the book or else I would have been torn between the ideals and risks of a man who changed the face of Indian retail and the activities of our elected MPs who stooped to the nadir.

The pre-voting days were mysterious and every hour brought a new ‘BREAKING NEWS’. If Devegowdas, Ajit Singhs and Shibu Sorens were undecided (or better call if waiting for the best deal), ruling alliance was nervous and opposition hurried sensing its time has come. That was the follow up stage for the real battle and all those aaya rams, gaya rams and new found paltu rams made it the most awaited event of the year. First day of the session was a normal one with PM bringing in the confidence motion, leader of opposition starting the debate and others following him. I missed the old days and speakers like Atal jee, Sushma Sawaraj, Pramod Mahajan, Rajesh Pilot and many others who were not there in the lok sabha this time. Speeches lacked the spark and oratory skills but second day was different. If Chidambaram attacked left and NDA, Lalu brought in humorous freshness and Rahul Gandhi opened his heart but it was the other thing that caught the attention “Cash on the centre table”. Opposition bought cash which they said was paid to them to change their vote. The whole parliament went into its toes and speaker hurriedly asked the camera to stop the live telecast of the proceedings. TV Screen went black and I started reading the book.
Kishor Biyani, don’t you know him? He is the man behind pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Central retail chains. A small time business man who made it big only on the shoulders of determination and rare but very small business ideas. He didn’t hire big advertisement agencies and consultancy firms but observed Indian consumer‘s habits, emulated small nukhsaas that our mom and daadi had and localised each store according to the regional preferences. He gives the credit of his success to India and adeptly called his auto biography “It happened in India”

Proceedings were back on TV screen and what I was watching shocked me to the core. MPs were purchased for their votes, some voted against their own party’s whip and some ran away before the vote and abstained themselves. I asked myself,” Had it not happened in past?” Yes…it had happened. What is the reason behind it?.........hmmm…many…….maybe money……..greed……..society………no no……..it’s the lack of moral values. Leave alone MPs…it’s all of us……we have lost the moral values. It the naked race for money, money & money, even if it means losing one’s own conscience.

I gazed on those blank walls of the room and thought, “My life is the same…..living each day, I didn’t do anything substantial….maybe won’t do anything significant in future as well. But so had been many generations, so am I and so would be coming generations. We are the arm chair critic who comments on all but does nothing. I looked back on the TV screen….results were announced and Ruling Coalition had won it. I saw them celebrating while I cried for the loss of human values, though I was happy that nuclear deal will now pass through and maybe ten years from now, India would be a better place. But the loss of values is eminent. The values got eroded with time. It had been a gradual journey. Every individual have lost a part of values that he inherited from their preceding generation and it is the unlucky MPs whose loss is on display and we as individual are lucky to keep it under wrap. “Ohhh..leave these thoughts” I said and envisaged my son doing the same 30 years from now. Nothing will change but for some like Kishor Biyani. I was back to “It happened in India”.
You are welcome to comment.................