18years to few minutes: Wish the Judgment be the Justice

In that very safe Railway’s Colony, my father had that privileged pink colored Pass. He was someone, without whom it was almost impossible to manage the sanitary condition of that big colony of Diesel Locomotive Works at Varanasi, accommodating over 4000 employees and their families. I was about 8years old then. Curfew was lifted during 4-6 PM, that time I was assigned the task to go out and buy vegetables and milk. I don’t remember for what duration we spent our days and nights in that period, but I do know that it left deep signatures on my soul; especially, what I saw at that Nukkad, after those riots and curfew.

Kalyan Singh was Chief Minister when Babri Masjid was demolished, and communal clashes resulted in loss of thousands of human life. Later, Union Government dissolved Uttar Pradesh

assembly, and enacted President’s Rule. Next mid-term election was scheduled in mid 1993, and party’s started their campaign. Once I was returning from market, and I saw some people gathered at a corner, watching some VHS video on TV. Out of curiosity, I went there.

Volume was too low, all the people had stressed forehead, and were in deep concentration of a peculiar type. Screen was showing some man slaughtering men with his sword, it was gory everywhere. I was shocked, I cannot describe what exactly I was feeling that time. I’ve never seen such thing, and no movie that I’d watched by that time had such scenes. One of those guys noted an aghast me, and shouted me to get out of the crowd. I couldn’t talk to my parents about what I saw on TV; couldn’t sleep for the next few nights. I don’t know whether the killer was a Hindu or Muslim, couldn’t recognize the religion of those who were massacred. Only thing that I could recognize was that Human beings were brutally murdered by Human beings only.

Now, after almost 18 years, I’m seeing that fear again in the eyes of almost every person I’m meeting. Everyone is scared, what would happen once the judgment is delivered. The only thing I wish is that we be able to receive the Judgment as Justice, whatever it may be. We have come a long from that very incident, a lot has changed; this is the time when we can prove we have moved on, India has moved. This is the time; we should prove to World that we are One.

In few minutes, eighteen years of agony may get its deserved end; I wish the Judgment be the Justice to everyone who has suffered, to every community and every religion.

Banned Indian Books

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth... Few days back when I came to know about a book on an Indian Business Barron on the Banned Indian Books’ List, the first thing that came in my mind were the lines from Tagore . What an irony, we live in a country, whose forefathers have dreamt about a nation without fear, about a nation with right to speech, right to knowledge; and where the Government enjoys the “privilege” to “freely” ban the books, censor what it feels offensive! Wikipedia describes Banned books as the books whose free access is not permitted. Further it says that the practice of banning books is just another form of censorship, and often has political, religious or moral motivations. In our country, banning books have got its history since the British rule days. In fact, few of the Books ...

Natarang (नटरंग): My First Marathi Movie

Last Sunday was day booked for movies. First on the slot was Natarang (नटरंग). Natarang was my first Marathi movie and perhaps the second Regional Language movie after the classic Nadiya Ke Paar (नदिया के पार ) . Except for a few words, I don’t understand Marathi , and thus watched the subtitle version. But, I was so engrossed in movie that for the times was feeling the movie and not reading it. May be, as said by Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist , the characters were speaking World’s Unified language . The best side of the movie was its ability to keep the viewer enthralled throughout. Story line was about a body-builder farmer taking the risk of opening a theatre company, putting all his emotions on stakes; finally dares to take the role of a eunuch-character on stage. For the purpose, the hunk villager, played by Atul Kulkarni , shaved off his thick manly moustaches and had to lose his muscles. He learns the ways a woman walks talks and plays with different gestures. In the course, h...

Trekking Ghansoli Gawli Dev (Parsik) Hill

It’s been there for geological ages, we have been looking at it for last about 4years and I have been planning to trek it since a long time. Finally, few weeks back, we trekked the Ghansoli Hill. Ghansoli Hill is located at the eastern boundary of Ghansoli town, behind our office complex at RCP. The hill or better hillock is a part of small range that separates Kalyan and Navi Mumbai towns. A search on Google Map returns with a name Parsik Hill for it, though there is one more rather famous Parsik Hill in Navi Mumbai. We also found a NewsArticle , that talks about NMMC plans to develop Nature Awareness Centre at this hills and calls it Gawli Dev Hill. Here, we would be calling it Ghansoli Hill . I asked my colleague about it and he readily agreed. The very next Sunday we did it with another friend. We weren't aware of the route. All we knew is that a Central Road runs along the western edge of the hill and can be reached through the Vashi-Mhape road. We later found that t...