The Norm of Normalcy....

Ages and ages have gone by since I last posted on August 4th; I have had a near fatal bike accident resulting into scratched arms and an exposed palm; Had my engineering result declared and have had to call up the office 'n' times to 'request' them to correct the printing mistake of my birth-date on the transfer certificate for the 3rd time in my life (all of my last 3 colleges had entered my birth-date as 14th Feb, Why! Valentine and me have no connection what-so-ever! 4th is a good date!); then have had a demanding MBA class schedule with amazing teachers dissipating knowledge not only on Finance, Marketing and HR but also on inter-personal skills, psychology and spirituality; have had a brand new laptop with fingerprint recognition enabling me to now go for the full-monty in forgeting passwords without worrying about them and saving my already pathetic memory from strain! Last but not the least, I have exams from tomorrow; and balance sheets are testing me and my class-mates' abilities to withstand pressure and frustration. In the midst of it all, I decide to come back to something which is my virtual home, something which makes time flow like quick-sand, something known as Livin' Free....

Media's Masters....

At the back of my mind, since a very long time, I have had certain doubts about how the news travels around in the nation. Who actually pulls the strings and controls the media in our nation. Its been nearly 6-8 odd months (it pains me that it has taken me so much time to present such an important topic but I guess it happens for a reason!) of researching, thinking, going through blogs, opinions and journals etc; now I feel I can put forth my opinions about an untamed power's masters, the power which was once an abode of righteousness, which once proved that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, but has now become the most powerful monster of pseudo-secularism : Media.

Guilty and Proud....

Innocent .........
What does innocent mean?

1) Free from evil or guilt or sin
2) Lacking intent or capacity to injure
3) Lacking sense or awareness

The above 3 meanings can be used to define "innocent" and I request the reader to think over the definitions till I get back to it.

In the aftermath of the recent Mumbai blasts, there has been a lot of activity going on among the youth on social networking sites. I have seen swear words ranted against the terrorists and the Government alike, cruel punishments suggested, "protest" marches signaled, blame games played and later I see a dead silence coming. This blog is not to condemn anyone or to agitate or to "offer sympathy" but to go on record over the internet as words of Chaitanya Godbole, were I to be killed in the next blast or a shooting maybe or rather in any form death greets me.

Bhaag Bose DK, Bhaag....

Aye mere watan ke logon, jara aankh mai bhar lo paani....

jo shaheed hue hai unki, yaad karo qurbani....

Yes, these beautiful words do bring tears to my eyes and especially when I have been immersed for nearly 5 hours as I write, in the subject which culminated into the composition of this poem. During these 5 hours, I have been going through a lot of data from the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962 to the death of former CM of Arunachal Pradesh Dorjee Khandu between 30th April 2011 to 4th May 2011. Though the war occurred so many years before my birth, the texts I have come across and the images I have seen make me imagine I was right there in those sub-freezing temperatures and can imagine what must have been going through the hearts of the first Indian soldiers at war at a check-post outnumbered 20:1. It is not the details of the war which I want to go through in this blog whose roots probably lay at the Simla Accord of 1914, but it is China's latest step in the form of Khandu's death that I wish to stress upon.

Escaping the Matrix (part II) ....

Continued from Escaping the Matrix (part I) ....

In this 2nd part of the blog, I present my views about the concept of the Matrix as I understand it. Please go through part I before continuing. For readers who have not seen the movies - I have presented a short summary of the Trilogy in part I.

"The freedom we are looking for is the freedom to be ourselves, to express ourselves. But if we look at our lives, we will see that most of the time we do things just to please others. The worst part is that most of us are not aware that we are not free."

Don Miguel Ruiz

I believe that there is a same undercurrent in this life of ours as has been depicted in the movies. Now, instead of a giant Matrix seen in the movie, I believe all of us are plugged into cascading matrices with differing levels of power. The matrices differ not only in the power but also on the grounds of influence and intensity.

Escaping the Matrix (part I) ....

It has been over a month since I last blogged @ Livin' Free. Nikhil had it to himself and I am glad he came out with his story and hope it appealed to all of you, my friends. My last semester exams have ended and I have nothing much to do than watch movies, play games, read stuff, eat and most importantly sleep like a lion!
I sincerely apologize to the most hardcore movie buffs for the next sentence - I saw The Matrix Trilogy (The Matrix, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions) yesterday; hats off to the Wachowski Brothers and the entire crew who have created this Masterpiece. In the trilogy too, like most times, I have found something I can learn from and hence would be sharing it on the blog. Though, improbable it might be but for those who have not yet viewed the movies (people like my father who are still on the 'dark side' regarding the matter just as I was 2 days back!), I will request you to acquire them first and go through it before continuing further as that will help me reach up to you better.