Memories

Time goes by, whether slowly or fast, nut leaves behind a memory to hold forrver. Things that you can choose to look back and smile and cherish forever. Memories can bring you joy or be a bitter reminder of your sorry, something that can uplift you or bring you down, but reminds you that you have to carry on. It could be anything, for joy or sorrow, happiness or sadness. Something that can elate you or make you depressed.  But something thay will beours forever.  In the end we all must go and all we leave behind is our memories.

Who should be our next Prime Minister?

In just under a year (or over it, not too sure L) the country would be have its Assembly Election in order to elect the next Central Government. There are whispers (and some noise) on who the Prime Ministerial candidates are, but there are no direct acknowledgement (as of yet). There is a notion that it would be a battle between one Rahul Gandhi versus another Narendra Modi, a Congress led government versus a BJP led government.

The Congress (and its allies) are the current ruling government and from all the scams and scandals that has mired it term, things don’t look good for it to return to power. The silence of Mr. Singh, the taunts that it is a remote controlled government, the numerous scams, inflation and the current state of the economy, all cuts its chances of winning the election. Moreover, its face for the election (though not officially declared) seems to be Rahul Gandhi, who is totally wet behind the ears with huge case of foot-in-mouth disease. He doesn’t have the experience, credentials, as of that of his adversaries or even have the oratory skills or persona like them. Definitely someone not suited to lead the world’s largest democracy.

Mr. Manmohan Singh, our current Prime Minister, has proved to be an able administrator with previous governments, is surprisingly in effective leading the current government. His silence has come on under heavy criticism and the butt of many jokes. He seems to have lost the plot, somewhere along the way, for whatever reasons. The growing amount of scandals and scams that are creeping through the woodwork, makes you question what is he doing? Why is he silent and turning a blind eye? What is he doing for the widespread corruption that is rotting our system, eating at our lives? The current economic situation, inflation, price rice, the cost of living and all, are seem to be running around uncontrolled.

On the other hand we have the BJP, a party known for its Hindutva agenda, backed by the VHP and RSS, Hindu hardliners. Its face is Narendra Modi (all but anointed the official candidate) is someone who gives me the creeps. Someone who constantly has the sword of the Gujarat riots hanging over his head. No matter what he does, the question of the riots always pops up. Someone who know how to use the social media to his benefit (judging from the post I constantly keep reading on Facebook), someone who is techno-savy.  Someone who, at time, comes across as arrogant and overconfident. His constant smirks don’t read humility. He may feel that he is not guilty for the riots and has nothing apologise for it, but the question is what did he do to control it (if not to prevent it), to bring the culprits to the books. After all lives were lost, whether it was in the burning of the Sabarmati Express or during the Godra riots. Innocent lives were put to the sword, raped, burnt, put to an end, all in the name of religion (whether Hindu or Muslim). The taint of the riot is something that will never go away. Another question for Mr. Modi is how is his ‘Gujarat model’ going to translate on a national stage. Yes Gujarat’s progress is admirable, but how has this contributed in relieving the pressure on other cities. We don’t see ads for jobs in Gujarat or post in there.

Moreover the BJP is known to be communal. Who can forget Ayodhya. There have numerous attacks on churches in most of the states run by their government. So a lot of minorities do not feel safe. With Modi stating that he is Hindu Nationalist, it may seem right in his eyes, but it reads of vote bank politic trying to win over the Hindus. We need to remember that we are a country with no official religion. So when someone uses his religion will looked upon with suspicion. I would never trust someone who stated he was Religious National, whether Hindu, Christian or Muslim.

At least for now, both these parties seem unsuitable. But who do I choose. Should I choose the lesser evil? I know I have to choose between corruption and my sense of security? What I do know is like always we are going to have a hung government, which is not good for the country. What we can do right now is just to wait and watch and see how things shape up and play out. See who are the likely candidates and what they have envisioned for the country. Just hope whatever the outcome the nation benefits from it.

The Good Samaritan: Then & Now

The parable of The Good Samaritan was narrated by Christ, a thousand of years ago, to highlight the point "loving your neighbor", but the incidents of the story continues to happen even today.

No matter how modern our sensibility may be, how many times on our "road to Jericho" have we come across people in need of our of help, a victim of some heinous act, lying by the way, all tattered and in pain. And how many times have we chosen to look the other way, just go the other way, turning a deaf ear to their pleas, turning blind to their suffering. No matter what reasons we may have, what excuses we have to offer, we are like the priest and the Levite in the parable who chose to ignore the man lying on the road and go the other way. It takes courage and guts, to reach out and help someone lying by the way, someone needing our help. Consequences, self-doubt, suspicion, hesitation, fear, all hold us back from reaching out to help.

If we really want to show that we love our neighbors, the way God would want us to, we need to get over ourselves and our doubts. We need to put into practice the words we profess, cause who knows, on our roads to Jericho we find ourselves as the victim, hoping for a Good Samaritan to come along and save us.

Has Cricket Killed Off Other Sport???

If Cricket is a religion in India, then Sachin is a God that millions of Indian worship. India is a cricket crazy nation as much as Brazil has its football/soccer fever. But the question here is, has cricket killed off other sports in India?

Yeah, cricketers get the bulk of the attention and fuss, they are always front and center of any event, be it their million buck endorsements, their love life, the after-parties, the scandals and match-fixing, and yes occasionally playing the sport for which they have been selected. But we do see other sports and sporting personalities slowly but steadily stepping out of cricket's gigantic shadow.

Other sporting personalities too have made their mark and have gained popularity (and some endorsements). Be it in tennis, badminton, archery, shooting, boxing and above all wrestling. We have Grand Slam champions in tennis in the form of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, with Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza not far behind. Saina Nehwal is ranked at the top with the Chinese player and even got us our first medal in badminton during the summer games at London. Of course Vijendra Singh made a name for himself famously in the boxing ring (infamously outside it). And who can forget the inspirational Mary Kom. Finally our wrestlers, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sushil Kumar, did us proud and helped us get our best medal haul at the Olympics and taught a lesson of humility and dedication.

Besides these personalities, football has been a part of our school systems for quite a while now. The various inter-school divisions have been around for over decades. Besides football, we also have various hockey divisions in schools and colleges. Football has a sizable fan following here too. There are ardent fans of the top clubs in the  English Premier, the LA Liga and the Bundesliga and their players (even though not a single Indian player feature in them). Surprisingly you will find more teenagers sporting their favorite club's  jersey than even any IPL franchise. Formula One too is finding its footing here with the Indian Grand Prix. And you have the supporters of the NBA.

All this points to the fact other sports are alive and kicking, in this country. These sports may not match the blind devotion that people have towards cricket. So in short, cricket hasn't killed other sports. They are very much there and making their presence felt.

It's Not My Problem

There is this story of this mouse that lived on a farm. One day it seen the farmer come home with a packet. Thinking it was food, he tried find out what it was. However, to his great horror, it was a mouse-trap to catch him.

He panicked and ran to his best friend on the farm, the chicken. Breathlessly he told her, "Our lives are in danger! The farmer has brought a mouse-trap!" The chicken laughed and told him, "My dear mouse, I don't see how this concern me. It's your problem."

The mouse then went to the pig and told him the same thing. "I can understand your concern, my dear. But I fail to see how this mouse-trap can harm me. However, you better take care!"

Finally the little mouse went to his last friend on the farm, the ox. "Can you please help! The farmer has brought a mouse-trap and all our lives are in danger!" The ox laughed at him saying, "O come on! It's not our lives but just your life in danger. I don't see how I can help."

The dejected mouse went away and awaited his faith. IT so happened that night the mouse-trap caught something. On hearing the loud noise of the trap trapping its intended victim, the farmer's wife went to check the trap. Since it was dark the farmer's wife went about feeling her way. Unfortunately, the trap had caught a snake, which bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. However, she came down with fever.

As one of the way of treating fever is a soup with chief ingredient being chicken, the farmer prepared it for her. However, she failed to get better. Now there were a number of people who came to see the farmer's wife. In order to feed them, the farmer slaughtered the pig. Unfortunately the poor woman took bad and passed away. In order to feed the people who had come for the funeral the farmer had to butchered the cow.

In life we may feel that the problems of others may not have any percussion on us and ignore them. But somehow it will surely affect us in the end. So whenever you find a friend in problem remember the mousetrap and know that the whole barnyard is in danger.