The Democracy that India is

As the assembly elections commence, I think about the past rulers of India and the vibrant democracy that India is.

It was centuries ago that the idea of a united India originated. Going by Hindu mythology, it was perhaps Ram who spread his rule over India with his Ashvamedh Yagya. That wasn’t so much of an empire as the respective kings only had to accept his supremacy but were free to rule their own kingdoms, but he was the only one to have had influence over the Deccan which would be left out until the British arrived.

The Mahabharat has references to almost all of India barring the South, where it only extends up to the Vindhyas. Although it was called Aryvarta but had a lot of independent and powerful kings. Then came the age of documented history where north India was united quite a few times under the Mauryas, Guptas and Asoka.

It was just before the Mauryan era that the Alexander dreamt to conquer the world and almost succeeded, leaving out only India. At this time a new ideology was coming to stage, propagated by a visionary called Chanakya, mentor to the great Chandragupta. It was this idea that has now become the hallmark of a free society. It is this idea that makes India different from its neighbours. It is this idea that has kept us safe from dictatorship. We call it democracy. Thank God that Chanakya happened.

After years of stagnation, we developed another quality; to revel in the past. I’m no expert but I believe it was during the period just before the Muslim attacks when it happened. The society was rotting, the caste system became oppressive and we were lagging behind the world on all the fronts. May be it was then that we started marveling our past because our present was grim and future looked bleak and the only way to feel good was to look at the sun that had risen long back.

The Muslims came with the sole purpose of looting our wealth and taking it back to their native lands. After a few such invaders, history made an exception and did not repeat itself as the Mughals arrived and decided to stay. Akbar ruled and knitted together an empire from an artwork that had been torn to pieces over the centuries. It was under Aurangzeb that the boundaries of Hindustan came closest to modern day India. He even tried to conquer the Deccan, spending the last 20 year of his life there but it proved to be a wild goose chase.

Then came the British who actually made the present day boundaries but eventually left splitting it up in two. They also reintroduced us to democracy, an idea that had been lost in the sands of time.

Since they left, we have always chosen our leaders, unlike most of our neighbours. It is perhaps this mindset that has kept us in a better state than the rest. Two years back an sms was doing the rounds stating that in a Hindu dominated nation, we have a Muslim president, a Sikh prime minister and the leader of the ruling coalition was born a Christian, a foreign one at that.

I just love the vibrant and sometimes foolish Indian democracy where we can’t seem to generate a consensus anymore and sometimes 3 MPs are enough to get you a Cabinet berth through a post-poll deal but it’s still better than having Taliban a mere 100 kms away from our capital. For that, I salute Chanakya as I believe that he seeded the concept of democracy in our culture and conscience.

Aarambh

aarambh hai prachand
bole mastakon ke jhund
aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
aan baan shaan ya ki jaan ka ho daan
aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do

aarambh hai prachand
bole mastakon ke jhund
aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
aan baan shaan yaa ki jaan kaa ho daan
aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do
aarambh hai prachand

man kare so praan de
jo man kare so praan le
wahi to ek sarvshaktimaan hai
man kare so praan de
jo man kare so praan le
wahi to ek sarvashaktimaan hai

krishna ki pukaar hai
ye bhagwat ka saar hai
ki yudh hi to veer ka pramaan hai
kaurvon ki bheed ho ya
paandavon ka need ho
jo lad saka hai wohi to mahaan hai

jeet ki hawas nahi
kisi pe koi vash nahi
kya zindagi hai thokaron pe maar do
maut ant hai nahi
to maut se bhi kyun dare
ye jaake aasmaan mein dahaad do

aarambh hai prachand
bole mastakon ke jhund
aaj jang ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do
aan baan shaan ya ki jaan ka ho daan
aaj ik dhanush ke baan pe utaar do
aarambh hai prachand

ho daya ka bhaav
ya ki shaurya ka chunav
ya ki haar ka wo ghaav
tum ye soch lo
ho daya ka bhaav
ya ki shaurya ka chunav
ya ki haar ka wo ghaav
tum ye soch lo

ya ki poore bhaal par
jala rahe vijay ka
laal laal ye gulaal
tum ye soch lo

rang kesari ho ya
mridang kesari ho ya
ki kesari ho taal
tum ye soch lo

jis kavi ki kalpana mein
zindagi ho prem geet
us kavi ko aaj tum nakaar do
bheegati nason mein aaj
phoolati ragon mein aaj
aag ki lapat ka tum baghaar do

aarambh hai prachand


Best lyrics in a long time. Wish it were a poem in school books.

Aaj Fir

aaj fir roshan hua chand...
aaj fir chandni mein jalna hoga...
aaj fir uthega dhuan..
aaj fir zakhmon ko sulagna hoga!!!

Narcissist Narmad

KJ: Didi Korea se aa rahin hain.. kuch mangana hai?

Sweetcarbine: 1-2 Chinki la sakti hain?

The dreaded question

Tell me some thing about yourself....

Huh? What?

Ashutosh... ganganagar... mayo college... trumpet... IITM... trumpet... hockey... shaastra... saarang... JYW... Bangalore... friends... short tempered... shy... piscean... memories.. future plans... parents... 234... 492... 06/03...09/03... 9884... oman...

Who am I?

Introspection

Introspection... that's something every religion endorses, every philosopher preaches and every man looks for. It ain't easy to be honest to yourself no matter how much we'd like to believe otherwise. More than honesty or truthfulness, I believe, it needs courage to face yourself, to be unbiased. It is supposed to do you and the people around you some good.

It so happened that a good friend recently decided to do the same. This certainly was a situation. He'd know think what he's doing, right , wrong etc. The problem as I saw it was, the changes it may bring in him and since 'no man is an island', the changes it'll bring unto us. I feel that your friends accept it the way you are and even when there are traits the express a disliking for, they do not want you to change one bit, for the better or worse. At least not in the 4th year of your engineering, when you know that this is the last sem and you can afford to be careless. Mostly because many of the obviously wrong habits are enjoyed the most. For instance: boozing, fagging, gaming etc.

Hence, my request to my good friend is to not be introspective at this juncture. The 11th hour is long gone.

Can he Run?

He always said he chooses not to..
'bhaagna hi hota to olympics mein nahin hote?'

That's some food for thought.

In the past 3 and half years, I have seen him grow, horizontally. His belly has now become his trademark, his X- factor. If we had symbols for election contestants, his would have been his tyre.

Meanwhile, he also bought a bike and spoilt us too. I don't go out of institute if his bike is not available.Needless to say, the bike added more weight around his waist but took away equivalent from his pockets (ours too).

I still thought he is just lazy as all of us, to run. It wasn't so. I discovered that just a few days back.

It happened when four of us were walking back to hostel from main gate. We spotted a cycle, and nobody was around. Something should be done about it. You can't just let a poor cycle stand all alone and walk away. The cycle should be pulled out of boredom. Maybe we could arrange for some company.

Intuition said it would like a tree's company. Hence it was decided. We took it upon ourself to unite it with one. As we lifted the cycle to place it in the loving branches of the tree, we saw a shadow emerging from the stadium. 'Oye' he shouted, the common exclamation for all moods but we had little doubt about his state of mind.

As I scurried away, I could see a sprinter eager to break Bolt's record and a hulk following him. I looked back and saw our man still contemplating the benchmark evolutionary response, 'fight or flee with the tummy of a lady whose baby has been due for an year now'. I threw some expletives at him, which motivated him to cover 50 metres at a pace, marginally quicker than usual. Fortunately, the owner was more interested in tending to his cycle than hitting the punching bag.

BT Brutes

Panda writes on board: (Rg) V

Gochi: (Rg) V ki aag

Nelson: (Rg) V ki Laag = Log(RGV)

Breaks' Children

When I used to get home after carrying my dad's briefcase all day long, my mother understandably would spend some time with me. If I tried to sneak away, I'd be called back on the pretext of making a million dollar business decision or drinking milk. Bottomline was that I had to sit for an hour with my mother every night.

After that, I'm sure it's the same with a lot of youngsters like me. Moms wants us to spend time them. But, at the same time, but little do we know that we are actually competing for her attention in a losing battle. How's the winner? Simple: Ekta kapoor. So we used to talk only when the field was clear, i.e., during a commercial break. But the soaps are to my mom like a body possessed by possessive soul, even though you can't see it, you know it controls the head. And that's how our conversations went:

Mom: How's college

Me: good

Mom: is that why u dont talk to us these often, so happy with ur life?

Me: ummm...errr...

Mom: sshhhhhhh.....
TV: 'vo tumhari nahin karan ki biwi hai. Jab bus ko aag lagi tab vo zinda bach gayi thi aur fir usne plastic surgery karva li.

3 close-ups and a break

Mom: how's college

Me: bad

Mom: is that why u have turned so silent these days? u dont even talk properly when i call

Me: err.. umm...

Mom: ssshhhhhh........

TV: Blah blah blah


Narcissist Narmad

Sweetcarbine: Girls having periods just shows how big a sadist god is.

P.S.: A friend of mine is actually convinced that his cessarian was scheduled during a break.