I need to win this for Him

1st May, 2011.

It has been a good weekend so far. Did some shopping-bought one coolers(and got one free as well), short shirts(gotta try them tomorrow), got some colorful casual shirts as well, washed clothes, cleaned my apartment and listened to some good music. This song 'Ahista Ahista' is awesome and catchy :-). A peaceful weekend is also the right time to set your priorities right!

I had just returned from one of the classic trips of my life Bangalore-Chennai-Bhopal-Ujjain-Indore-Ahmedabad-Bangalore. Had the pleasure of visiting numerous temples in Madhya Pradesh, the most memorable one being Omkareshwar Jyothirlingam along with Mahakaleshwar at Ujjain. With the blessings of the almighty God, I had an opportunity to interact with my own country men belonging to various linguistic backgrounds, travel to numerous villages and also had a chance to visit the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad.

All these solo travels to 11 Indian states(as on date) and 30 Indian cities(nearly) has given me experience, boldness and the courage to face life in the righteous manner. I had been subjected to numerous learnings in my life,at work place and in my travels as well. I must admit the fact that I had learnt more whenever I had travelled outside my home state Tamilnadu. Eventhough I work in a totally different line of work in a different industry, all these travels have given me maturity to face and interact with people and convey things in the righteous manner. When I step into any new city or even when I meet a stranger, there is no sense of insecurity or fear in my mind as I have experienced this many times to learn to overcome it. However, I would still exercise care and caution because you never know when you will get trouble :-).

My career is important to me and I must put every possible effort to make it colorful. All these travels and experience will help me in my career as well, as I believe any career by itself is a journey of meeting peoples. I have an obligation and sense of duty to make a bright, defining, memorable, achievement in my career for someone special to me. I have an obligation not towards my country alone, not towards parents or friends but towards Him. If not for myself, at least for Him, I need to win this. How much ever tough be the task, or how much ever non-co-operative and mean people might be during this journey, I need to win this for my Lord Ram and dedicate the success to him one day at Madurantakam. Stay assured, I, myself will stand and deliver and win this for Him.

-Krishna Kumar.S
Bangalore, India.

Why I like Kolkata ?

Kolkata is my favourite city in India and I have mentioned this many times in my blogs, Facebook status and in few of my travelogues. Why? This is the question I faced a lot of times, but I decided to keep it low. Today, the evening of 3rd April, 2011, I decided that it's high time that the world should know why I like West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa.

The story runs as follows:

Many in the outside world only know me as a "traveller", a straight forward person, a train lover, a kind of sensitive person and maybe some people even think that I don't know much. All these perceptions aren't exactly true. The world isn't aware of many responsibilities that I bear on my shoulders even before I graduated out of school. All these responsibilities have given me many sleepless nights, worries and also maturity. I have tasted victories and also failures. I can't talk about my responsibilities in this blog now, as it is personal.

There were numerous incidents in life where I had seen only absolute harshness or ill-luck. Let's take one incident for example.

During the year 2008, recession was at its peak. I was unable to get a job and I need to settle for a temporary job in a call center. My salary was Rs.10,000/- per month. I was thankful to Lord Ram of Madurantakam whom I respect at heart. It was my first job. With my first stipend of Rs.3000/-, I travelled with my own money to a place called Arokkonam by Chennai-Central-Arokkonam fast passenger on December 25th, 2008. This was my first trip after I started working and it was a great moment in life that I travelled in a train with my own money. I felt exactly like what Sachin would have felt after winning Worldcup.

I always had the pressure of handling my career and other responsibilities at the same time. What happened was something unfortunate and shouldn't have happened. Many of my cousin brothers who had lived in abroad & foreign countries mocked at me. My salary was a piece of joke. But I didn't bother. For me my job was as dearer as great Lord Ram of Madurantakam Temple and I feel Him when I work. My job was like God to me. Most of my cousins had car, whereas I went to work by bus/train. I didn't feel bad as I liked being with my countrymen traveling in Government transport.

As if this was not enough, Chennai booed me too in its own style. I don't want to go deep in to that. I knew it was my hour of shame. I also knew that it would end one day.

A small gist of remarks I had received (few from my cousins & few from those who shouldn't have behaved like that):
 
* "Rs.10,000/- no girl will even look at you". (As if I am begging them to look at me)
* "Krishna-I took my wife for a honeymoon abroad. When you get married, where do you plan to take your wife? To some village in Tamilnadu".
* "Have you ever had lunch at top-class hotels, resorts, pizza huts ?"
* "Have you ever been out of India? Do you know anything other than Indian villages? Seen New York, Washington, Dubai ?"
* "Have you ever tried branded formals, Lee, Wrangler, Reebok. Unakku yenga adhu ellam theriya pogudhu, nee auto-karan, cycle-rickshaw karan pant dhaane podara ( Translation from Tamil: How will you know all that, you only wear auto-rickshaw walas pant)

I am not from a poor background, but it's written in my faith that I need to undergo this phase in life for few years. It was unfortunate but it changed me a lot. I was suppose to live a rich, glamorous life, but few miscalculations cost my life's happiness for many years.

November 22nd, 2009, the day I will cherish forever in my life, the reason being the fact that I kept my foot on West Bengal with my cousin brother who has come to help me in my new job. Imagine what would have run on my mind on that day ? I was in a new place, new land, different culture, different food habits, different climate, with a tough task at hand ? It was always a tough task to perform especially when your mental morale and confidence is low.

Given all these things that had happenned, what do you think would have run on my mind ? I had typed this question again because this was certainly the moment and turning point. How insecure I could have felt being alone in another part of the country? I had the task of handling my own life in the most toughest situations in a different environment. My own people didn't encourage me much, but Kolkata stood with me. This surprised me.

It is considered as a dirty city, unclean, undeveloped. But what I experienced was totally different. The people were so kind and gentle. They accepted me for what I am and they considered my happiness as their own happiness. The people of West Bengal impressed me so much that I even tried my best learning their language. In a matter of few weeks, I could tell all colors, numbers from 1 to 70, animals and also how to greet people in Bengali. My entire confidence was coming back and I rebuild myself. I went on a good will trip to neighbouring state of Jharkhand (Naomundi, Bokaro, Dhanbad) and Orissa (Bhubaneshwar, Puri).

I saw some successes in my life. I had new friends who were cosmopolitan, yet traditional with lots of love, affection and my life became colorful. I also liked the courage, determination, strong willed nature of the North Indian girls which I don't see amongst their South-Indian counterparts.

Kolkata is certainly my most favourite city in India.

And now my life has changed a lot, but I haven't forgotten the lessons I learnt. Even now, with my father's wealth, I can still buy a Honda city car, roam around with friends, drink, smoke, have girlfriends. But I am not interested in living such a life. I had always lived my life in a stable manner, I admit that I did lose stability for few years due to personal problems, but Kolkata and people of West Bengal made me realize what I am truly capable of.

I hope now the whole world would understand why I say often,"I am indebted to Kolkata and West Bengal" , "I owe a lot to Kolkata". I have a great adimiration for this city which gave me a new life, redefined my outlook and most of all made my life colorful. It's indeed the 'City of Joy'.

"Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo re....."

Best wishes,
Krishna Kumar.S

Journey to Kerala-2006 [College Tour]

July 26th, 2006.

Kerala is popularly dubbed as my "sibling state" for many reasons. Kerala was the second state in India to which I travelled after my birth and I visited Trivandrum quite often during my early years of life in earth. Kerala is also home to one of the sweetest girl in my life... Nope. You guessed it wrong. It's not a girlfriend. It is not my mom! It is my school mate who is like a sibling to me. Citing all these reasons, I always had a special softcorner for this small state.

In 2006, I visited Kerala with my college mates as part of college tour. As of 2011, this was my last visit to Kerala (I plan to visit Kerala soon. God gift me a chance!). We took 6041 Alleppey Express from Chennai Central to Ernakulam town. WAP-4#22281 was the power for the train and the performance was incredible. That was one of the best high speed runs I have experienced in Indian Railways. The train was running on-time throughout the journey. Luckily, I got an emergency window-seat and without any second thoughts I opened the windows completely and started my usual hobby of watching trains.

At around midnight, my college mate Sudarshan came running and applied cake on my face. It was my 20th birthday !!! July 27th !! For the first time in life I celebrated my birthday in a train! At around 1AM, it started raining and I was forced to use the glass window. I still remember the glorious sight! There was a loud honk and a WAG-7 blasted past my window on the next track towards Chennai with a long goods rake. I dozed off at 2AM and got up at 6:30AM. My college mate Niranjan and myself had a serious discussion on whether we should brush our teeths or not. I still remember Niranjan's reply,"Kaka, kuruvi laam pallu theikudha?". Hilarious reply!

We got down at Ernakulam Town station and boarded a bus to reach our hotel named Shalimar near Ernakulam Junction. Kerala was green, scenic and it was a chilling experience. We travelled in a small ship from Cochin Harbour to a small island nearby (I forgot the name). We visited Synagogue, Jew Steet, an old museum and returned back to our room. The next day we visited an old wildlife sanctuary and few other places which weren't of much interest to me. But I enjoyed and liked the weather very much. It was drizzling always and the climate was neither too hot nor too cold.

On the early morning hours of 29th July, 2006 we started from Ernakulam and headed next to Munnar in bus! Munnar wasn't a delightful experience for me. The hotel food was pathetic and not at all spicy and interesting. I am not a fan of hill stations for some mysterious reasons.

After spending a day and night in Munnar on 30th July, we started in bus towards Thrissur. We didn't see anything in Thrissur as it wasn't part of our schedule. I spent a couple of hours railfanning at Thrissur watching trains. We boarded Trivandrum-Guwahati Express back to Chennai at Thrissur. Surprisingly, this train TVC-GHY Express which holds the record of running late always since its inception was on-time and it reached Chennai bang on time!

Today 12th March, 2011-it''s been 5 years almost ! This Kerala trip still remains etched in my memories. Plenty of reasons on why Kerala is very important to me. My beloved sibling state...

-Krishna Kumar.S
IRFCA-SBC, Bangalore.

Trip to Northern Karnataka: Hubli & Dharwad

                                  Dharwad Peda... delicious !!!!

Towards the last days of October-2010, I planned a visit to the twin cities of Hubli & Dharwad in Northern Karnataka along with a short visit to Goa. The trip went as per plan and it was yet another memorable solo trip.  I went on to cover Hubli, Dharwad in Karnataka, Madgaon, Panaji, Ponda and Vasco in Goa.  In the morning hours of October 31^st, 2010 I kept my foot in Goan soil, to mark my first visit to the state and Goa was the 9^th Indian state I would see in India. Travelling can be – some say it should be – a very personal experience, but that's no reason not to share the joy I experienced on seeing new places in India. 

People could be classified broadly into two categories. One who like to grow roots and stay in one place. Sometimes I belong to this category. I am happy and content with what I am and I like the comfort of familiarity sometimes. In free time I would rather enjoy some quiet moments at home rather than venture out. This is the story in most weekends of my life. The second kinds of people are the ones bitten by wanderlust. Their aim in life is to see places. Sometimes I belong to this category as well. Given a couple of free days time or a public holiday on Friday, I would pack my bags and head to explore a village 400km away from hustles of modern life. I have been finding out more and more each day that I belong to the second category and sometimes in first category.

October 30^th, 2010 was the day I visited Hubli & Dharwad and I travelled by the 2079 Jan Shatabdi. Catching the train was not an easy task as it was schedule to depart SBC at 6AM, but I lived nearly 20 km away from Majestic at Bommanahalli. I went to bed only at 1AM the previous day and I could grab only 2.5hrs of sleep before I got up for another day. Bangalore weather was cold but I found it tolerable and by 4:30AM I was ready and standing at Bommanhalli Junction. Luckily I got a cab to Majestic for Rs.20/- and within 40 minutes I was at Bangalore Railway station. I purchased a few biscuit packets for breakfast and walked to the platform where I was expecting the coaches of my train to be shunted. I was carrying clothes only for two days and I was to return by Monday afternoon directly from Madgaon to Bangalore by train (waitlisted ticket). Since Monday being Kannada Rajyotsava and a Government holiday, I planned to take rest before reporting back to work on Tuesday.

My journey began as per schedule and I sat by my window seat gazing out at the world outside. I love train journeys. Perhaps, it is one of the best ways to enjoy life. It is a real stress buster too. It could be even more enticing if you are travelling in ordinary second class as you get a chance to be a part of the surroundings and even get a better view of the outside world. I sat listening to MP3 in my mobile and enjoyed viewing the outside scenery-that’s something I do often during my train journeys.

                                  Sidharoodha Mutt-Entrance

The first halt was Yesvantpur. My train had all seats filled and luckily there weren’t anyone standing in the middle or sitting in the aisle or clinging to the doors. Overall, I felt the atmosphere to be friendly, spacious with lots of air and joy. The next stopping was Tumkur and it was a good 1 hour away from my present position. The landscape was a bit rusted and dry. As the journey progressed I was also feeling a bit sleepy due to lack of sleep. I held my bags tightly to avoid getting robbed and dozed off. I woke up when my train was nearing Arsikere at 8:30AM, but I went to sleep again. It was only after Chikjajur I was awake properly. Devangere, Harihar, Ranibennur, Haveri were some of the stopping’s in which my train halted and it reached Hubli bang on time at 1330hrs.

My first task was to find a lodge. I would be staying in Hubli only for 8 hours as I was to leave for Goa the same day night at 2300hrs. I found a lodge just for Rs.130/- per day near the railway station itself and refreshed myself. My first task was to visit Sidharoodha Mutt, 4km away from Hubli Railway station. I boarded a local city bus which took me to a place near the mutt and from there I walked for nearly 1km to reach the mutt. 

The entire complex was located amidst peaceful surroundings with a big tank nearby. This place was ideal for mental rejuvenation. The mutt had a museum too with old items, various images related to Hinduism. My favourite was the Linga temple in the mutt. The eyes of the linga looked real and I did feel as if Lord Shiva’s gaze was at me. Not many people were around and I walked to the pond nearby and sat for some time alone. And just for fun picked up a few stones and threw on the pond. I wish I could do trips like this often to remote places, but sometimes it never clicks due to many other commitments in life. After spending a good 2 hours at the complex, I started my way back to Hubli Railway station.

From there, I called up my friend Sridhar Joshi in Chennai who was actually a native of Hubli. The conversation turned out to be humorous as usual. Joshi guided me through phone to the nearest shop, nearby railway station which sells good “Dharwad Pedha”. I believe Joshi knew the shop owner quite well! I purchased a good ½ kilo of pedha and then boarded bus to Dharwad. The bus was empty and the speed was good and I reached Dharwad comfortably. I purchased some more pedha (sweet) and other sweets in the shops of Dharwad and had tiffin at Dharwad itself. By the time I returned to Hubli it was dark.

As I entered my room, I received a call from my friend, Sampath Kumar, a Loco-Pilot who works in Konkan Railways. He suggested that I should return by bus and not in unreserved compartments in my return journey. Taking his words, I cancelled my tickets which were waitlisted and rushed to Hubli old bus stand to find a good travels to book my return trip from Madgaon to Bangalore in bus. I managed to get a confirmed booking in Vijay Anand travels and the ticket cost me a good Rs.750/- for a distance of 700km. I appreciated my friend Sampath Kumar’s advice that travelling with a confirmed booking is always better and safe compared to unhygienic travels in unreserved journeys. His words and timely advice saved a lot of troubles which could have disturbed me if I had journeyed back 700km in unreserved compartments.

                                  Front view of Sidharoodha mutt

Hubli impressed me very much. Though it was small compared to Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore- overall I liked the atmosphere, energy and vibrancy of the city. The Masala dosas sold in hotels in Hubli were delicious. They weren’t spicy compared to Tamilnadu and it was a bit sweet too, but I still liked it. After having a bath, I grabbed 2 hours of sleep and checked out at 10PM and walked to the railway station. I prepared myself for the second phase of the trip. DESTINATION GOA!!

                                 

Though I was in Hubli only for 8 or 9 hours, the city impressed me at first sight. I liked the energy, enthusiasm, activeness which I saw amongst the people of Northern Karnataka. My life has become similar to that of a nomad. Though Tamilnadu bears the title of being my home state, I want to consider West Bengal and Karnataka as my home state on par with my mother state of Tamilnadu as I spent some part of my life in other states too. I am a Bengali when I am Bengal, Marathi when I am in Maharashtra, a Malayalee when I am in Kerala, a Bihari when I am in Bihar & Jharkhand and a Kannadiga when I am in Karnataka. Nanna dhvanige ninna dhvaniya seridante namma dhvaniya.

-Krishna Kumar.S

Travel Writer, IRFCA-SBC, Bangalore

Karnataka, India. 

www.irfca.org

Great Ram of Madurantakam

30th January, 2011.

The weather was cold and I was too lazy to get up early on a Sunday. With great difficulty, I managed to get myself up and refreshed myself. As usual, I logged on to Yahoo! to check my mails. There were lots of spams, promotional mails, but amidst all this junk there was a mail which was of interest to me. It was a mail from a software engineer named Srinivasan with the title "Thanks to Lord Ram of Madurantakam". His words in the mail were as follows: "Thanks a lot for this post on Madurantakam. What you have written is 100% true. Ram exists in Madurantakam. I prayed for my career and guess what..... the most fascinating episode in my career is about to take place with His blessings. I am going to Germany. Kuddos man! Thank you. I am grateful to Lord Ram". These mails aren't ordinary ones, but testimonials to Lord Ram who exists and protects Madurantakam. His glory will never fade. Any kid born in Madurantakam is brought up telling his glories and virtues about how He blessed British Collector Lt.Col.Plaze.

I live a bit far from Madurantakam now, but my feelings and respect towards this deity has grown up manifold due to this separation. I feel peace every time I think of him. I feel calmness inside me when I write about His glories. I feel proud when India wins a cricket match. I feel equally proud of my Lord when someone says,"Great Ram of Madurantakam blessed me". Once upon a time, I was a skeptical person who always had doubts of stories related to miracle and expected proofs, but once I started believing him wholeheartedly, I changed a lot.

This post is again a humble dedication from my part to my beloved Lord Ram of Madurantakam.

Regards,
Krishna Kumar.S

Visit to Srirangapatna and Nimishamba Temple

"Dear Friends, this travelogue is a humble dedication to people of Karnataka. I consider it as an honor and privilege to write about this great state and its citizens. I am also thankful to God in giving me a new opportunity to interact with people of this state and learn many good things from them".

With best Regards,
Junior KK.




Nimishamba Temple, Srirangapatna.

16th October, 2010.
Time: 04:15hrs.

The clock strikes 4:15AM. The alarm in my mobile starts singing,” Nanna dhvanige ninna dhvaniya, seridante namma dhvaniya. Na swaramu nee swaramu sangamamayi manaswaranga avatarinchey.......”. I woke up and got ready in 30 minutes. The climate in Bangalore was cool in the morning hours. At 5:30AM, I came out of my house at Bommanahalli and walked past the mosque towards Begur Road. Local isthiri wala Sridhar was busy with his pressing work. We greeted each other and after 5 minutes chat with him I started with my journey to Bommanahalli bus stop. A couple of street dogs accompanied me till the signal. I boarded 356C bus bound towards Majestic circle.

The bus was crowded even at that unearthly hour. That surprised me a little. As my bus crossed Madiwala, I almost got a seat, but a guy pushed me aside and threw his bag thus reserving the seat. After he sat, he gave an accomplished look at me and I couldn’t resist laughing inside. The journey lasted 40 minutes and I reached Majestic comfortably even though I was standing all the way. I walked towards the Railway station and purchased a ticket to Mysore though I was visiting Shrirangapatna. To be on the safer side, I purchased an Express category ticket so that I had the advantage of travelling in both Express and Passenger just in case if I changed my plan to visit Mysore (had a different backup plan).


Sriranganathasamy Temple, Srirangapatna.

I walked to platform 6 and waited patiently. 214 Tirupati-Mysore Fast Passenger arrived 20 minutes late with a BZA WAG-5#23x91 locomotive and there was a mad rush. I occupied one of the doors and waited for the train to start. Those 15 minutes seem to be the longest in my life. At 7:45AM, I heard a typical WDM-2 type honk and my train slowly chugged out of SBC. I liked the driving style of the loco pilot. My train curved towards the right and then towards left and after crossing Nayandahalli the train picked up high-speed. The first halt was at Kengeri. There was a mad rush and my train became jam packed. With a couple of youngsters sitting in the doorstep, I stood behind them observing the scenery as the train travelled across rural Karnataka. It was diesel action all the way. Diesel locomotives have a charm of their own! It’s also nice and interesting to watch them, though I am more of an electric fan.



My passenger reached Maddur at 9:15AM. A good amount of crowd got down at Maddur. Couple of vendors holding “Maddur Vadas” boarded the train and they started making good business! I had an idea of tasting it, but later quit it as I was a bit concerned about hygiene. I knew it would be good and hygienic, but still I thought “maybe next time”. My train was running a bit late as it had started late, but I wasn’t bothered. I found some space near the door and I started rail fanning. There weren’t any crossings so there weren’t much rail action, but overall the entire atmosphere was awesome and it made me feel good.



At Mandya, some chain-pulling incident happened and as a result my train was made to wait for 5 minutes. Yeliyur, Byadrahalli, Pandavapura were scheduled stops and my train halted there. It was a pleasant sight to watch the villages from trains. I noticed that the train was fully packed only till Maddur and after Maddur the train was mildly crowded.



After getting down at Srirangapatna, I walked to the front to observe the locomotive. After a scheduled minute halt, my train started and it was a real beauty to watch KJM WDM-2 departing the station with its smoke all around. As the train disappeared, I sat under the tree to enjoy the rural beauty of Karnataka and then proceeded towards Srirangapatna Ranganathaswamy temple.



I was impressed by the temple at first sight. There was a delay in darshan as poojas were conducted for the deity. I purchased laddu prasad for my cousins and then went around taking photos of the temple, sculptures in my camera mobile. I was amazed at the beauty of the sculptures and the cleanliness of the temple. The temple was indeed well maintained. I spent a good 45 minutes at the temple premises before leaving to my next destination Nimishamba temple 5km away from here.



After visiting the temple, I proceeded towards the town and walked inside for a kilometre. By now the weather was too hot with scorching sun right above my head. There weren’t any good hotels, but I accidentally bumped into a nice chap. He was an auto-driver and he suggested that I should take a bus to Nimishamba temple instead of going in auto. I told him that I would rather go in his auto, but he wouldn’t accept and he suggested that a bus would be cheaper costing only Rs.5/- instead of Rs.40/- for his auto. I was amazed as I haven’t come across such an auto-driver so far in my life who advocates so much for bus. I told him that an auto would be more convenient and proceeded with him. He agreed to take me to Nimishamba temple and drop me back at Shrirangapatna bus stand for Rs.40/- without any waiting charges. It was a jackpot for me. I never heard such things in Chennai.



I enjoyed the journey very much. It is believed that anyone visiting Nimishamba temple should donate lemons to the deity. In return they are offered lemons by the priest which were kept in pooja earlier and those lemons should either be made into juice same day or kept in home for 21 days and then thrown out. I offered 3 lemons and got 3 lemons as prasad. The temple looked fairly small with Kaveri River nearby.



Nimishamba is a form of goddess Parvati. There is a belief that Parvati will clear off all problems and trouble of her devotees within a minute. That explains the reason for the name "Nimishamba". "Nimisha" means a minute.

I roamed around the temple for around 25-30 mins and returned back to my auto. I thought that auto-driver may demand a few rupees extra, but he didn’t ask me anything and he dropped me off at the bus stand. I walked towards the nearest hotel. I had two chapattis and one masala dosai. The hotel wasn’t very hygienic, though it looked big, spacious with a lot of tables. The bus stand was very near and in 15 minutes I managed to catch a bus to Bangalore. I boarded the bus at 13:00hrs and I reached Majestic at 16:30hrs. I had problems of finding a bus to Baiyappanahalli and it took 30 minutes to find one. After 1 hour ride, I reached BYPL Nilgiri’s stop. My cousin brother’s house was very near to the tracks. I spent the weekend at his house before returning to Bommanahalli.

-Krishna Kumar.S
a.k.a Junior KK
IRFCA-SBC

Save the girl child!

I had been waiting to publish this article for some time. Let me share with you about what I have observed in the society. I have observed two sets of people. A conservative, worried, always tensed generation belonging to the age group of above 30 (born before 1980 era) and another is a hopeless breed of so called “cool dudes” (born in 1985-86 along with me). I regard the present day younger generation of India in the age of 14-25 as hopeless souls, hooligans with wrong attitude and lack of character. Since I also belong to their age group, I am also useless. Let me make this confession and start with the article. Well, of course not entire present generation is bad, but majority of them have no intelligence or the basic manners to respect values. I blame the cinema industry for treating women as sex objects.

Now let me narrate a real life incident. I was travelling to NIIT Nungambakkam to get some of my documents verified. It was a hot day in September. I was travelling in 29C and I boarded the bus at Adyar signal. I took my seat near the window. My bus stopped at Stella Mary’s bus stop where lot of college girls got in. They were dressed in modern dresses. The present day generation is so infatuated by the money thrown by IT/BPO industries the younger generation has failed to realize the harm in following Western culture especially in a repressed culture like India where men are desperately hungry to taste the forbidden fruit. Being modern or dressing in western style is not wrong, but there should be some discretion practiced. Right from womb till grave a girl child is never safe. India is not former USSR or erstwhile Soviet Union where women are given equal rights. Girl children are killed in womb. Girl babies are killed in villages after birth by giving poison. If they manage to survive all this, they get molested or raped. That’s the way they get treated in this land where men worship Durga and Goddess Lakshmi.

Now let me narrate the bus journey. There were a bunch of useless college students in the back. These guys think that they become professionals if they join a B.E or B.Com course. No one is a professional. People become true professionals when they know how to treat another human being in a humane manner. I doubt whether these guys of present era come anyway near it. Let me describe their appearance. Piercing in ears and in the chin, handkerchief over the head, t-shirt without collar with the divine ‘F’ word written multiple times, shaded jeans. I can also type a few more, but my sisters would be reading this. I would rather stop here. It is for the better tomorrow of these people, Indian Army soldiers die in the border and the worst part is that God is watching all this. What’s even more pathetic is that a soldier dies in border fighting intruders; his wife becomes a widow and gets a pension of few hundreds while the people inside the country continue to enjoy life. The worst thing is that no one is bothered. Someone else is suffering. Someone else has become a widow. Is it my daughter? Is it my sister? That’s the way everyone thinks which is entirely wrong.

Coming back..

As the bus stopped at Stella Marys the college girls got in. One of them couldn’t control his excitement and desperation and exclaimed "Machi, Super figure da". (Machi in Tamil is a short form for brother-in-law) His friend was too elated and couldn’t help whistling. The girl noticed and you should have watched her reaction. Man! She was happy! I turned my face and looked out of the window and I was laughing inside. I was thinking of former President Abdul Kalam and his statement requesting youngsters to dream. The youngsters were indeed dreaming a lot!

After I got some of my documents verified I started my journey back. I was to board 29C again. I came to the bus stop and was waiting there. 29 C came and I boarded it. As the bus crossed Stella Mary’s a girl boarded the bus. Immediately, the entire gang (this is a different gang, but still no difference) started shouting raising double meaning slogans. The poor girl got a bit afraid and sat in the front itself and didn’t even come to purchase the tickets. Then these guys were planning to approach her. The girl got a bit fed up and she got down fearing embarrassment.

Maybe after a few years, if China invades India, all these boys should be conscripted and should be posted in the border to defend every inch of Indian soil. If they retreat from the border, they should be shot by Generals for retreating. It requires more courage to retreat than advance. At that time, they would realize how tough life could be if one is in the suffering end. The entire woman population is taken for granted and is being preyed by hungry men. I know I can’t do anything. I won't react to this, but I have the right to portray them here. I could only wish the Soviets were around and they wouldn’t have allowed this to happen.

The reason for all this nonsense is the aggressive expressions of love that one sees in the movies. However, according to some psychologists the root cause of eve teasing is the patriarchal mindset of the Indian male. They like to believe that they have power over the women society. They thrive on the fact that even today a large number of women still prefer to ignore rather than to confront. I blame all this on the cinema industry. All these bloody films have projected women as a sexual object and not as human beings with emotions and hence the cine industry has created a "Frankenstein" in the younger generation.

During my school life I have observed that girls who are dark in colour are bullied a lot and girls having fair skin are portrayed as Goddess. I seriously don’t see anything so great between dark complexion and fair complexion. Human society fails if crimes can't be prevented. Majority of the films portray heroes passing sarcastic comments on dark skinned women and even passing remarks on women who are fat. There is also a sarcastic portrayal of eunuchs. I wonder how the Government gives permission to publish such scenes. The government has failed in its purpose to protect its citizens.

I seriously wonder what the sensor board is doing. And immediately, critics might argue saying that there is a right to practice freedom of speech. Is that a freedom of speech or freedom to insult a human being? If such things are to be practiced let the Preamble of the Indian Constitution is changed. Why should India be declared as a socialist, secular, democratic republic? Let it be an ordinary democratic republic. There is no bloody socialism over here. I only see that there are ethnic jokes like Sardarji jokes, Anti-Brahmin jokes and ethnic violence. There is no secularism. I see more of communal violence and inter-caste violence. And I would like to reserve my comments about democracy in India.

-Krishna Kumar.S
a.k.a Junior KK
IRFCA-MAS