Pinku-Enchanted Life

Well, actually,  priyanka , you were different.  You didn't want a perfect life, a typical life, or even a normal life. You wanted a one-of-a-kind. How we doing?    The Universe The above note suitably customized would have been received by thousands across the world today as it was by me thanks to our common subscription to a site called TUT. TUT sends out a note a day to subscribers written by Mike Dooley who claims to be speaking on behalf of the Universe no less. Part fun, part philosophical the notes are usually a welcome break in a work day. As often happens with such things many a time the note gives hope, cheers up or just brings a smile. Even though we well know that it comes from one person and the same note would be received by many it still seems to speak with us with a special intimacy. Today was one such day...the note read so true that it caught my breath. I reread to ensure I had read it right and it also brought ba...

28 th April 2016 Hi World, I turned 39 today…my last year in the 30s before I step into official middle age. Honestly life has been feeling pretty blasé for some time. I have been in hold-on-to-status-quo-mode' for a while now and let life take its own route to wherever it’s going. By chance I ordered a pair of prescription glasses and they got delivered yesterday and I ended up wearing the new glasses today. The bright clear vision coupled with the fact that it is my birthday makes me feel rejuvenated. It feels like a veil has been removed and I am seeing the world anew. Perhaps it is time again to take hold of the reins and give a good tug. Life ought to spring back into some action and motivation. While everything could do with a new coat of paint figuratively and perhaps literally as well, I am picking up three areas in which I want to make a marked difference in the coming one year. Health : I am obese and need to lose weight like now. So the challenge...

For a long time now every story of abuse against women has boiled my blood. Four years ago becoming the mother of a girl child added a few more notches to the temperature as I became more acutely aware of the inequalities and challenges a woman faces at every step of her life. Media reports on the brutality being meted out, the growing gap in gender ratios and the total lack of empathy amongst the powers that be coupled with remarks too often heard - what can we do....and the helplessness echoed in that statement, propelled me to think of something WE COULD DO. We can go on STRIKE and force men and the society to realize our importance and the need to treat us with understanding and respect as fellow human beings. So here is what I have started and I hope you will join in, for without you it wont work. #WomenOnStrike

There was a time I was proud of you Israel. I was proud of your struggles, of your fights and I was proud of your will to survive. I took pride in the fact that you arose almost from ashes 2000 years after you were dispersed you resurrected a dead language you dug canals, you turned a desert green You danced the hora and kissed the stones and brought alive a nation. You were survivors of the holocaust You had seen the worst possible side of man yet you had stayed human. Sadly now you are losing it. You my friend and guide have crossed the fence and become what I thought was never possible THE AGGRESSOR. PLEASE STOP IT.

Technology, potential, resources, youth we have it all and yet the joke is that ‘the Chinese grow because of their government and the Indian despite it’. How do we manage to gather so much ridicule as a people and as a nation when as individuals we are amazing? The world’s biggest democracy has elected its leaders and the world is watching with interest what it will do with itself. Having become the world’s 3 rd largest economy what happens in India has the potential to make or mar the fortunes of many across the globe. The energized questioning atmosphere has made me think about what I would really like our leaders to talk about and the direction we as a country ought to take to ensure that we develop truly and not just in the breadth of our roads. Here’s my wish list: 1.     Truly Secular : we need to learn to live with the Other in camaraderie and not just co-exist in the same space but in separate mental ghettos. For that to really work our only hop...

1984 – The PM is gunned down by her own security guards. People spontaneously take to the streets and start butchering their neighbors (we are told). The entire bureaucracy is stupefied and allows thousands to die before they can recover and take control. 1992 – The governments both State and Center stand by as the Babri Masjid is demolished. Riots follow – finally the center steps in to restore peace after letting things go horribly wrong. 2000 people are killed in riots that spread as far as Delhi and Mumbai.   2002 – A train is set on fire, in retaliation a whole state erupts – kills, maims and rapes. More than 2000 people are killed, lakhs are reported missing. The selective killings go on for almost three months before an uneasy peace can be restored. All this in a state where the CM otherwise runs everything with an iron hand. 2013 – A solitary eve teasing case ignites inter community riots. A state government which takes pride in bringing down elephants...

This blog happened when life felt like it was falling apart, or atleast the known predictable parts of it. Moving out of a marriage, trying to correct my professional and personal life at the same time, rediscovering my strengths and correcting my weaknesses – they were turbulent times. Till then I had been a ‘good girl’ by opting to get out of a marriage I had overnight turned into a monster. It didn’t matter that I had tried my best without a murmur of protest for close to three years. It didn’t matter that my then husband drank like a fish and nothing in the world would get him to stop and reconsider his drinking habits – neither pleadings nor threats. I was the black girl who had brought ill name to the family by being the first ever to ask for a divorce. Its completely fine to keep having fights, walking out and then reconciling under pressure from family and friends again and again. But DIVORCE was not acceptable. The letter I wrote to my uncle in an attempt to make him understan...

Goldie is all of 14 years old. he is beginning to check out girls. even older ones. He probably doesn't know why he does it but he does it anyways. He is studying (that is he is being made to study) in class 8th. Whenever he can he plays truant from school but this has no bearing on his dreams. Dreams in which he sees himself as a very successful guy with an awesome bike and a big car. He wants to be someone important, how exactly he will do it, he is still figuring out. At the moment the big fight is to be able to get his peers to acknowledge him as worthy of their respect. This respect means a lot to Goldie. For that he has taken upon himself a very arduous task. Along with some neighbors he has set upon a journey to go collect water from the Holy Ganges in Haridwar and bring it back to his neighborhood Shiva temple. Where the water would be used to do a jalavishek of the Lingam. Now this doesn’t sound very difficult till you realize that he lives in Delhi and the return journey...

Hi! This is a quick post to bring to your notice the lovely way we as a democracy function. Please check the link below and let me know in whose ears should we say Jaago ree??? http://pinknblu.blogspot.com/2009/04/jaagore-form-6-being-tossed-for-six.html

The Taliban is just twelve kilometers away from Indian borders the headlines screamed yesterday on a news channel. Again and again they showed google earth pictures of how close Lahore is to the Wagah border. The voice rising, the music soaring in the mad race to gather TRPs. The anchor seemed to be speaking almost from a war zone where a bomb might detonate any moment such was his tone and manner. All he was trying to say was that Pakistan has admitted that the siege of Police School close to Lahore was done by Taliban and that a second strike in Pakistan (earlier in the month we heard about the Sri Lankan team being attacked) so soon meant that the Taliban had gained tremendous strength in Pakistan and could strike in India too. What made me wonder was his panic striken voice as if this is an unthinkable thought. What’s there to panic about I ask you if the Taliban were to strike? Is their terror different from what we keep suffering every other day? Can their bullets harm more than...

Life has been tough for the past month or so. Multiple problems at different fronts have left me groping for that extra ounce of strength and patience to carry on. At times the urge to cry uncontrollably is too much and only the thought of losing my sanity if I let circumstances get the better of me, stops me from doing it. I have not been in the mood to write though each event could have been fodder enough for more than one post. Yet somehow the will to write was missing. Also the fact that the events involved many others who may not appreciate being discussed on my blog held me back. I am back and using this small post as a bulwark against the emotions that still threaten to take over and am planning to come back next week with another post on things less dreary that can be shared in this forum. I do note that in the time I have been away the numbers who ostensibly followed this blog have gone down, I do understand that in today’s world of instant gratification they would have expect...

Life began as a multi-hued carnival of sight, sound, laughter and sometimes tears for a favorite doll lost or a toe hurt. It grew into something very black & white as teenage approached. Everything was seen through the grave lenses of ideology that was grafted and then crafted from the many books, films, snatches of conversations and bits of life experiences one went through. The twenties brought with them financial independence and the dawning of the fact that life was more than black& white. Also more importantly the fact that what was black to me was quite fair in the world’s view and what was pristine white to me was seen as dirty and abhor-able by the world. Now standing inside the gateway of thirties having dealt with bereavement, public ignominy, loss and the breaking of dreams and aspirations I understand that life is neither black nor white nor is it multi-colored, its infact just a grey. A grey that turns, swirls and moves like the early morning fog. At times it break...

Is this where it all started? This murder of brother by brother? This raping of the Motherland? We were fooled then, are we going to continue doing so for ever? Will we never learn any lessons? (Please read the english text on the image to understand where I am coming from. Frankly I have'nt verified the authenticity of this statement but I can't help believing that this or something similar was planned to bring my golden country down to its knees. )

Girl meets boy. Likes him for what he is, his smartness, his foolishness, his awkwardness, and his cuteness and promptly falls in love. Boy meets girl. Likes her good looks, the way she carried herself, the perfectionist mind and attitude, her knowledge and even her pretensions at times, finds it all so very adorable and promptly falls in love. Boy and girl profess undying devotion, love and tenderness. Then they get married. The guy’s smartness starts to rankle when the wisecracks get targeted at her. The girl’s good looks are a matter which sees money drain into Beauty parlours. The guy’s foolishness tastes dour when it means overlooking the obvious. The girl’s poise is cause to lose repose. The guy’s awkward comments aimed at her family or even friends are difficult to swallow The perfectionist mind is now settled on dusting cobwebs There are children to be look aftered, clothes to be darned, utensils to be washed and food going bad in the fridge. The dream turns into a nightmare n...

She was a stunner, green eyes, great body and an exotic dress to boot. Anyone would give her a second glance even a third. She was selling cowboy hats at the Chirag Dilli red light, wearing them all one on top of the other as she walked through the maze of cars. Everyone from the autowallah to the bus passengers to the car drivers and their owners looked out to see her gliding past. She made for a good shot for me while I waited for the red light to turn green. And then we all went our ways forgetting her, forgetting her plight. She belongs to a tribe from Rajasthan that had to move from their ancestral dwellings in search of money and food. She is a bewildered person, who has been made poor and a destitute by the unthinking, uncaring attitude of the powers that be. She is someone who has recently joined the ranks of the poor in Delhi. How do we help? Buy one of her hats perhaps? Does that really solve the problem? Today an initiative was on to talk about poverty through Blog Action D...

Thanks everyone for the responses to the last post. From your comments I sense two things: 1) We are ourselves to blame for the relaxed attitude to law and order and even basic hygiene and good manners that we face in India. 2) A better enforcement would ensure more compliance I have only one suggestion can we get to work on it right away? Who better to enforce any law than our own conscience? I am listing here 5 things we could do to bring about a change.These are very small things and executable on an individual level, hence not dependent on anyone else but us. That should make it easy to achieve success isn’t it? 1. Garbage goes only into garbage bins – this includes no dropping of nutshells and empty bottles out of your vehicle in an attempt to keep it clean. 2. Using Mobiles necessitates knowing mobile etiquettes and FOLLOWING them. 3. Use minimum plastic – look at an option where you can carry an eco-friendly bag with you so that you can say no to those extra plastic bags while ...

Its Gandhi Jayanti….(hurray a holiday in the middle of the week and if you can afford to take the Friday off, you got a long weekend infront of you to relax, shop or prepare for Durga Puja too). Gandhi, a much abused in private and revered in public, man. When I was growing up I blamed Gandhi for dividing the country into two and creating what seems like an eternal enmity between two countries. It was stylish to say things like: Gandhi: that guy who spoke of abstinence and couldn’t walk without the support of two women under his arms. Gandhi: who with his blackmailing techniques of fasting didn’t allow any decisive action to be taken and would hold the country to ransom for the smallest thing. Gandhi: who slept with his thirteen year old granddaughter to check whether he has been able to control his body completely. Gandhi much like God was to be blamed for everything that was wrong with us. But now that I am on the other side of thirty and I see the rampant violence that’s engulfing m...

Kislay wrote about the plight of Biharis. No not of the ones who are illiterate, living in villages or in scores of slums in the cities and towns or even dying in floods. He was talking about the average middle class Bihari or even the upper class privileged one who is forever taunted and haunted by the badge of being of all things ignoble, a Bihari. Most of us when asked where we are from mention the names of our states like Bengal, Punjab, Karnataka or Rajasthan – those who belong to Bihar try to skirt the issue by saying the name of their city or preferably their caste or subcaste. When the state was divided my cousins who had lived all their growing years in Bihar were pleased, not because they had any political motives but because now they would be able to escape the Bihari tag by saying they belong to Jharkhand. Why is one state in the country subjected to so much ridicule? Biharis I am told are cowards, ignorant, uncouth and they speak a language that’s just so ghatti. When I w...

Young boys in their early twenties, they came from regular middle class families. Like thousand others they were in the capital city looking for a better education which could lead to a brighter future. They were shot down or arrested one morning, the reason: They were the terrorists who worked under the banner of Indian Mujaheedin. I am not debating whether it was a fake encounter set up by the Police to save face or not. I am also not debating whether they were targeted because of their religion. What I am wondering about is this: How come people who come from regular families, have a decent upbringing and education are turning to such hard line stances? And mind you I am not looking at just one community. I am looking at everyone, minority, majority and across language and state barriers. When we were in school, someone being a Christian meant that you visited them during Christmas , said ‘Merry christmas’ and had the yummy cakes. And during Ramzaan you asked your Muslim friends ev...

My relation with my God is special. God is a friend, philosopher, and guide to me. At times also a fellow prankster. I call him by many names and at times that I am really feeling good I even think of Him as Her. God to me is omnipresent, omnipotent and yes God looks after me and its not the other way round. Yes He does expect me to help my fellow beings but mind you my God is strong infact he is the strongest and he doesn’t need me, I need him. The names I call him depend on what it is that I seek from him. When I need hope I call him Jesus . When its patience I seek I call him Shiva . When very tired and looking for more stamina I call him Allah (say the word out loud without any preconceived notions and feel what I mean). When its strength I seek I call him Wahe Guru and when I wonder about his inconceivable powers I think of him as Yahweh (the unknowable). When knowledge is what I look for I think of him as the Buddha . So you see my God has many names and he stays true to each ...