Gift..... (a short story)

 In English script--

School ki ghanti bajte hi Rahul ghar ki taraf bhaga. Vo aaj subah pahli class ke baad se hi bahut jyada khush tha, aur ho bhi kyo na , pahli bar maths me uske 50 me 50 marks aaye the.  Uski isi khushi ki vajah se aaj class ki sari ladkiyo ko pata chal gaya ki uska aage ka daat tut gaya hai. Halanki ek nanha sa daat us jagah ko bharne ke liye nikal pada tha, par khidki to khidki hoti hai, ab vo aadhi khuli ho ya poori.  Aaj use ghar jane ki itni jaldi thi ki vo school ke gate pr milne wali apni pasandida imli ki khatti mithi goliyaa lena bhi bhool gaya. Use ghar pahuch kar maa aur daadi ko apne naye record ki khabar sunani thi bas.  Rahul ka ghar school ke pas hi tha aur vo 5 minute me ghar pahuch gaya. Uske baal uljhe hue, daudne ki vajah se chehre par pasina tha, thak jane ki vajah se use saans lene me thodi mushkil jarur ho rahi thi par uski muskan me koi kami nhi ayi thi. Uska coat uske haath me tha , tie shirt ki pocket se bahar latak rahi thi, usne roj ki tarah ek haath gate ke andar ghusaya  aur ek chalaak chor ki tarah asani se  gate khol liya. Rahul apne muumy papa aur daadi ke sath ek kiraye ke ghar me rahta tha. Vh ghar chaalis saal purana tha. Us ghar me unke sath hi ek aur kirayedar rahte the. Dono ke pas do do kamre the jinke bich me ek  patli si gallery thi. Un charo kamro ke samne ek chota sa aangan tha, jisme dopahar ke samay thodi dhoop aa jaya karti thi. Rahul jese hi andar ghusa, usne  aangan ke kone me kursiyo pr baithi apni maa Sudha aur dadi ko dekha. Vo  dono sardiyo me khali vaqt me vaha baith kr dhoop sekti thi.  In dono saas bahuvo ka pyaar puri colony ke liye misaal tha.  Sudha ka vyavhar sab k sath hi accha tha, ghar me aane jane wale mehmano se lekr , naukar chakar tak sab hi Sudha ke polite nature se impressed the.  Chahe dudh wale bhaiya ho, ya sabji wale, ya fir jamadar sabhi ko Sudha ne apna bhai bana rakha tha. Aisi padhi likhi sabhya shushil, khule vicharo wali mahila is jamane me durlabh hi thi.

Khair apni maa aur dadi ko dekh kr Rahul jor se chillaya-“Mummy I got 50 out of 50 in Maths”, aur teji se unki god me ja chhupne ke liye dauda. Jaldbaji me usne bich me rakhi hui thaali pr dhyan nhi diya aur jor se thokar mar di. Thaali me rakhi hui pital ki katori uchal kar samne ki deewar se ja ladi aur khan khan ki awaj karte hue, aangan ke duri or bani naali me pahuch gayi.  Us naali me dono bathrooms ka pani jata tha. Katori ko nali me jata dekh, Rahul bich me hi ruk gaya. Shyad use aage hone wali chijo ka andaja ho gaya tha. Sudha ne Rahul ko naali se katori uthane ka ishara kiya. Agar aur koi din hota to shayad is laparvahi ke liye pitai bhi ho jati, par aaj Rahul itne acche marks laya tha isiliye shayd Sudha ne kuch kaha nahi. Rahul chup chap apne kamre me gaya aur apna bag aur coat rakh kea a gaya. Usne katori uthayi aur sabun se dhoya. Fir Sudha ne us katori ko deewar ke upar alag rakh diya. Rahul ko sardiyo me fir se nahan pad gaya. 

Do din bit gaye, vo katori vahi diwar par rakhi rahi. Fir us din colony me safai karne wala jamadar Kamal paise lene ke liye aaya. Kamal bhi Sudha ko didi hi kehta tha. Sudha ne kamal ko mahine ke 100 rupaye aur kuch bachi hui mithai de di. Kamal paise lekar muda hi tha ki Sudha ko kuch yad aa gaya. Usne kamal ko roka aur kaha- “Are kamal maine tumhe tumhara gift to diya hi nhi. Sudha ne deewar pe rakhi katori uthai aur Kamal ko de di. Peetal ki badi si katori ko haatho me dekh kr Kamal ki aankho me chamak aa gayi, pr agle hi pal vah kuch soch ke chauk sa gaya.  Usne badi vinamrata se Sudha se kaha – “Didi ye katori naali me gir gayi thin na, tabhi aap mujhe de rahi ho…Khair ab mai isme kheer to khaunga hi aapne itne pyar se jo ye gift diya hai…”. Itna kah kr Kamal namaste kr chal diya. Sudha Kamal ke shabdo ki chot se stabdh si rah gayi.

For Hindi script please go to-  https://www.facebook.com/notes/shashank-shekhar/gifta-short-story/416910848377858

Should the tribals be left alone…???

A question which keeps on pondering  various Governments, social workers, policy makers, academicians  and yes sometimes the common people too.  The question may seem to be simple, but the answers to it are not. Infact no Government policy throughout the world has been able to satisfactorily deal with this issue. 

I was confronted with this question for the first time in my first year, while taking a course on Indian Society & Culture. Since then it regularly keeps on popping up somewhere or the other. Recently in the last month during Antaragni, one of the participant colleges presented a street play on the case of Jarawa tribe of Andman & Nicobar, posing the same question again. This however is a good indication that more and more people specially youth are connecting themselves to discussions on such critical issues.

Tribals are the small or large (sometimes) groups of people living in isolation from the main world in forests, having a distinct culture, language, life style and religion. They generally depend on the natural resources present around them, feed themselves from the forest produce and largely practice shifting cultivation type of agriculture. In India there are 689 Scheduled Tribes, having a population of 67.8 million people, consisting of 8.08 percent of India’s total population. Since the invasion of foreigners tribal people have not been in a good state. British with their Criminal Tribes Act  1871 threatened many tribal people by imposing restrictions on their activities. After independence, the Nehru government thought for the betterment of the tribes. It laid down the foundation for the policies to bring Scheduled Tribes into the mainstream of society through a multi-pronged approach for their all-round development without disturbing their distinct culture. Nehru laid down five principles known as Panchsheel for the betterment of tribals. According to him tribals should be given rights in land and forest, their administration should have minimum outside interference, their social and cultural institutions should not be disturbed and they should be left to develop themselves on their own genius. 

The Nehru’s decision to bring the tribals in the main stream (although slowly) has been a matter of considerable debate and has been criticized by many sociologists. Nehru’s prescriptions may have sought some positive results but they have been comprehensively ignored by the Central as well as the State Governments. All the rights given to them have been significantly denied specially the right of possession of land and forest. They are forced to migrate to other places for construction of dams, roads, natural parks, digging of mines and construction of large scale industries. They are provided with settlements to live in which are badly constructed and poorly organized. Now think of people who have lived with nature, wandering from here to there, collecting food are forced to live in boundaries. Although buying of lands from tribals is not allowed, but the corrupt Governments help Corporates to acquire large areas for setting up industries, disturbing the tribal way of life greatly. They have been entitled for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan but the position of schools in such areas is very bad. The primary health and medical services are also suffering. And talking about administration, there has been no such significant effort by the Government to bring them in the system. In short we can say that the Governments and the Corporates are both exploiting the tribals a lot. There are also regular cases of exploitation of tribals in tourist areas by Indian as well as foreign tourists. The police and the army are also no less involved in it. As some recent studies have shown that the tribals of India have gained least and lost most from six decades of Indian independence. Because of such an attitude from Government, many tribal communities have been misled by various missionaries and activist groups like Naxals.

We are forcing them to a lifestyle which is completely different from theirs. We show them the modern ways of living and leave them to survive by themselves. We do not provide them sufficient help and support to adjust and grow. Most of the times, these people on assimilation go into some cultural shock. There have been cases where these people because of unemployment and failures, lose their self respect and end up in activities like begging. On contact with the external world they also develop diseases to which they are not immune.

On the other hand there is one more perspective. These tribes often face famines and epidemics. This was one of the reasons to bring them in the main stream. Also most of the natural reserves of national importance like coal, iron and other minerals are present in the areas which are occupied by the tribal population. So for the growth and development of nation it is important to harness them. Also construction of roads and dams because of similar reasons is necessary. But for it, tribal people will suffer no matter how many incentives we create, because natural home is home and it takes quite a long time to adjust and assimilate. The best way is to aim for development without changing the culture, tradition and life style of tribals but its not that easy.

So the question is still there- Should the 8% population be disturbed for the benefit of rest 92% OR Should they be left alone..??

The Balloons Of National Family Planning Programme

India is a land of quality paper work. We have the largest written Constitution, we construct fantastic buildings, roads and bridges with crores of rupees on paper, sometimes we even produce imaginary population on paper. Papers here can eat grains, kerosene, concrete, cement and what not. We have many development policies and programmes, which look great on paper. The principles and fundamentals which our policy makers use to frame these policies are the ideal, but most of these policies fail or under achieve because of the implementation techniques. If some theory exam is organised on ideal policy making, India will surely top in that. The programmes on Health and Family Welfare, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, MNREGA, MDM ,Reservation policy and many others have seen inappropriate or sluggish implementaion. Anyways this post is for the National Family Planning Programme.

I am doing a course on Demography this semester. One day while discussing the fertility aspects and birth control our Professor told us about the family planning programme in India and its success and failures. It was a proud feeling to know that India was one of the first countries to implement a nationalised family planning programme. There were advertisements on radio promoting use of condoms, sterilisation and other birth control techniques, big posters of “chhota parivar- sukhi parivar” were put on roads and public places. Policy makers thought that these written banners will motivate the massively uneducated population of India. People were given gifts, monetary benefits and incentives if they agreed to get sterilised. The condoms and other things were distributed for free. And on the results part of this policy there were lakhs of sterilisations- most of those were of people of age above 40(when they already had 3 to 4 children) and many on paper only. Women were forced to get sterilised, even when the operation involved was comparatively very easy for men. Even the people living in villages had the availability of condoms, but no one knew how to use them. On a conclusion note our Prof made a statement- “ In the 70’s and 80’s if you go to some village you can easily find children playing with the condom balloons”. Whole class burst in laughter on this but it was like “WHAT….???” for me, because I remembered something.

This discussion made me reel back my life to 1998-99. During the school vacations we used to go to our village. In the village I used to forget all the adequates and language which the Christian Convent School taught me and become one of them. I played and mixed with all kinds of children there, some wearing dirty clothes, some wearing only pants or underwears, some having nose running out. Everyday I got an ultimatum from my mother- “agar agli bar in gande baccho ke sath khelte dikhe to taange tod dungi”. But I went daily because they had really interesting games. One of the games which was very popular those days was playing with balloons. These balloons were really cheap- you can get around 10 in 1 rupee, some children even got them for free, I used to wonder from where they get it. Inspite of being so cheap their size was very big as compared to the normal balloons. They had a peculiar characteristic- they exploded if they fell on grass or even touched it. I remember I spent a lot of time in trying to discover why only these balloons explode on falling on the grass, while the normal ones don’t. Anyways this led to a discovery of another interesting game for us- balloon volleyball. We played voleyball kind of game with them, the one who missed his shot, his balloon fell on the grass and exploded. We even celebrated one of our friends birthday with those balloons. I used to do all this non-sense far away from the reach of my home so that my family members specially my father doesn’t see me playing with those kids. One day by mistake I reached home with one such balloon in my hand and unfortunately met my father on the gate itself. He scolded me heavily and forbade me not to step out from the house for 2 days as a punishment. At that time I couldn’t figure out why he scolded me so much for just playing with a balloon. I asked this from my mummy and even she showered all her anger on me. I came to know the reason of that punishment after these many years in class that day. But I still don’t know why those balloons exploded on touching the grass. :P 

Anyways if someone asks me now –“Have you ever bought a condom?, I can proudly say- “Condoms, I used to play with them in my childhood man.” :P :P 

Few things I learnt from you

“Everything and everyone in this world is beautiful, just see it the way it deserves to be seen…”-a one line philosophy of my life. I believe that everyone is special and is gifted with some unique qualities. By qualities here I refer to the ones which form a person’s character, nature and behaviour. If you have some observational skills you may find it all around you, amongst your friends. I have seen people following and copying great personalities of the history. However I feel if you observe people around you only, you’ll get many things to learn, and it is always more practical to follow a common man than some great one. So here in this post, I am summarizing some of the things which I learnt from “you”. You may think them to be extremely philosophical or weird, but giving a deep thought will somewhat convince you that these things are valid in today’s world. Some tips to be happy-

Have multiple “BEST FRIENDS”:

The statement “have multiple/many best friends” is grammatically incorrect. The very definition of best means that it can be just one in number. But the days of Jai-Veeru and Heer-Ranjha type friendships are now gone. The world today is so fast, busy and selfish, that when you need your best friend, many a times he isn’t available to you. You would have surely felt one such moment when your best friend has intentionally or unintentionally hurt you. These days’ people have many good friends and enjoy with one when the other is not available. I have even heard statements like-‘I have 3 best friends or 4 best friends’. Here there is one thing to keep in mind- all these friends are best but no one is special.

Talk Much, Share Less: 

In my childhood I was taught that people who talk a lot are good at heart and have pure thoughts, because talkative people share everything whatever they have in their mind. But in today’s world the more you share your life or secrets, the more the problems you’ll face. People will surely backstab you at some point of time in your life for the things which they know about you. This backstabbing can be in the form of a small comment which will shake you from top to toe. Also the more you share with someone, the more emotional attachment you develop. And believe me this “emotional attachment” is the worst disease. In today’s professional world you will have to talk a lot, but do this talking by mind, not by heart.

Enjoy the present, Forget the past:

What to say about this, it’s a well known fact. But I have one point to make here, what things to forget from the past? People say forget the bad memories because keeping them with you will always hurt. But I feel keeping the good memories also hurts. These good memories are very typical things, they may fill your face with laughter or even your eyes with tears. It depends on how and in what conditions you are remembering them. I feel that after a certain period of time even these good memories start hurting because something or the other happens to the person or persons who were a part of that memory( this happening may be as simple as breaking of a relationship).

Never Fall (for anyone):

In very simple words-falling always hurts. Be down to earth in your behaviour but never let anyone conquer you. Don’t develop extreme attachment or feelings for someone. The people are too ignorant to understand you, even if they understand you they are too rude to care and even if they care, they are too busy to carry it on. Once you fall you become like a coin which is kicked from here to there. If you are lucky enough someone may pick you up, but even he won’t kiss you.

These things are not exactly my mind’s creation. I have observed them in real life and just attempted to provide some explanations in the context of today’s world.

Although I have written these points, I haven’t been able to follow them yet nor I am planning to follow because- “khush rahne me bs khushi hai, par gam me zindagi hai..”

Criticisation welcomed... :)

a fairy tale...

When I was a kid, I used to love the fairies and their tales as all other kids do. Usually grandfather or grandmother are the ones who paint the child's mind with such colorful stories but my case was different. My grandparents used to tell us the spiritual stories,Ramayana,Mahabharat, a field in which they were expert.
I used to read the fairy stories from various books and magazines. I still remember joining letters then forming the words and then recollecting all the words with great difficulty to ultimately read one sentence.But I loved it this way only. Reading stories by yourself opens before you the great opportunities to imagine things, specially when your reading speed is slow. The fairies used to help the poor honest kids or the ones who lost their parents and also sometimes the princes to help them find their princesses.

Slowly and slowly as the time passed, science books kept on creeping in our school bags.They taught us to question things and find reasons. I think I rather quickly adapted this scientific temper. My family members keep on telling me stories how I used to irritate them with my questions on all damn things.With such an attitude I easily figured out that nothing like fairy world exists.I remember how my interest shifted from stories to scientific literature or books.

Years passed and these fairies remained out of my life. Then there came a time when I started realizing the real face of this world- the poverty, the starvation, homelessness.I started feeling that its more important to focus on these problems then on scientific ones and I was amazed to know that there are many people in this world doing that, living their life to help others. I saw in them the same angel or fairy which Nandan & Champak used to tell us in stories.People loved them like we loved our fairies. I remember when I was about 5 or 6 years old, one day I was going somewhere with my father. A group of people was coming from the opposite side weeping and crying loudly. My father stopped them and asked what happened? They told Mother Teresa has left the world.My father was also very shocked and I could clearly note the changes in his expressions. I dont know why I still remember this. That day I was'nt able to understand why these people were crying. But later when I grew up and studied about the great lady, everything was clear to me.

People like Mother Teresa are the fairies of this world. They dont have those wings or supernatural beauty but have all the love which they shower on the needy. I consider every single person as a fairy/angel who has a heart for others, who thinks for improving the situation of the poor and the needy.

Fairies exist, not with beautiful wings but with beautiful hearts having tonnes and tonnes of love in it!!

The Magical Sticks!!

Yesterday morning at 5, I saw a group of students working hard with some wooden sticks, trying to arrange and fix them in a manner to challenge the destructive earthquake waves. Seeing them I remembered the Takneek of my first year ie. Takneek’10. In a manner similar to these guys and at the same time of the day ,me and my friends were busy in showing our best of working skills and applying all sorts of physical and mathematical logics to build an earthquake resistant building without having any knowledge of Engineering. We were one of the two teams, who were representing our pool Mauryans in Tremor.

The story started with a highly motivating GBM, instilling in us the wish to learn all the engineering skills in few weeks. We attended all the lectures of Electronics and Robotics as everyone does. We were about to participate in some robotics events but the coordinators conducted a quiz to test our knowledge and we were out. We were really in a sad situation because now we had nothing to participate in our first technical competition. In a depressed mental state and saying all sorts of foul words to the coordinators, we were lazily browsing through the Takneek website. Suddenly one of my friends pointed towards the 30 point event Tremor. The problem statement was to design an earthquake resistant building model using wooden sticks. Initially we were not all interested in a boring civil engineering event but the thought of winning 30 points right away for our Hall lead us into it. We discussed with our wingies and came to know that none from our batch was participating in the event. We were now seeing it as a real golden opportunity to do something cool. We studied the given problem statement and all the literature suggested thoroughly. The deadline to submit the abstract was only three days away. I still remember how we called the coordinators more than 10 times everyday, raising questions, discussing with them and clarifying our doubts. Even one of the coordinators gave us a short tutorial on earthquake engineering. Somehow with the new concepts learned and from the old concepts of centre of mass and stability we prepared our design. We also had to submit the simulation model of the design suggested but having less time we just drew the projections of it on some A3 sheets. When we submitted the abstract to the coordinators, they were stunned by the TA drawing skills of my roomie Sravan. But there only we came to know, that there were 3 more teams participating in it from our hall and they were all 2^nd yearites. Our all dreams just shattered. But the next day turned out really special for us. Two abstracts were selected from our hall and ours was one amongst them. Even the coordinators appraised our work a lot.

We got the material two days before judging. As we had no prior experience in wood work, we contacted some of our seniors. They not only came with us, but remained with us till the end. With two nite-outs and a lot of hard work, we completed our design well before the judging of the event. When we reached with our model in the testing laboratory, one of the assistants there seeing its strength and stability said-“It will not break even if it is kept for 5 mins on the shcok table.” We were overwhelmed. Finally the competition started and we saw the models collapsing, breaking and falling on the ground. When our model was placed on the table, all of us were red with nervousness. But the assistant was correct, nothing happened to our building even when it was tested for 1 minute duration. We were now sure that we have a fair good chance of winning. Finally the results were declared, and guess what we were first. All the happiness showered on us from the skies. And to add to our joy, the other team from our hall was declared second. We were super excited now and even started “Hall 3 ka tempo high hai”, in the lab itself.

We returned to our hall, carrying those unharmed buildings as our trophies and shouting and cheering with our full effort. We came and placed the models in the quard. A large group of students surrounded us, praising our efforts and congratulating us. There was a sudden wave of joy in the Hall because of the 48 points which we won in a single shot. After this whole episode, I developed a huge interest in civil engineering. Earlier I used to think that it is just about putting one brick on top of the other, but now I realised that it is much more than that. It is a complex and wonderful science without which our lives will become helpless.

That one week of Takneek has a very special significance in my life because there only, for the first time I learnt how good and helpful are the seniors of IITK and also about the amazing feeling of respect which you get after doing something for your Hall.

The Third Genre

                     Two types of movies are produced in India. One which are based on nonsense and fiction. Others which are based on reality. The Masala loving Junta generally prefer the former ones and may appreciate the later if some entertainment is attached to them anyhow.

                    But today I discovered a third genre. These movies show the reality and the bitter truth of society which we can't see or don't want to see. Such movies are appreciated by critics and win awards but the common people even don't come to know about them. These movies are screened in various International Film Festivals but I doubt whether they are telecasted even once on a television channel.

                    So the movie which made me write this stuff is "Thanks Maa". Before playing the movie I decided to watch it in four parts, but after it started ,it was difficult to stop . In the first ten minutes there was a scene showing bodies of abotioned babies lying on a roof top in a slum area. Next followed a smooth attempt of child abuse by an official at children's jail. The story continued with scenes showing open child and women trafficking in hospitals and red light areas. The whole movie showed how helplessly children are spending their life in utter risk in the slums. The movie had a scene showing molestation of a young girl by her own father. It was basically based on Child Abandonment issue in India. There are hundreds of cases of new borns being killed or left on the road or in dustbins daily. I don't know whom to blame- the women who do such henious activity or the society which forces them to do so. 

                    This movie gave me many shocks. After watching the movie,when I searched about some of the issues, I was even more shocked to know about the well behaved civilization. But this movie is a MUST WATCH!! Thanks Akanksha.

Patriotism of one day.....

आज मुझे भी देशप्रेम पर कविता लिखनी है ,
जिस भाव में हम सब बह जायें वो सरिता लिखनी है ,

आज मुझे ख्याल आया है भगत की क़ुरबानी का ,
फ़ासी के फंदे पर झूलती उस मदमस्त जवानी का ,
आज दिल कुछ सहम गया उस विधवा की आवाज से ,
शरहद पर जिसके शौहर ने जान गवाई नाज़ से ,
आज मुझे याद आयी है भूखे नंगे चेहरों की ,
दंगो की चीखो में गुम खून से लथपथ शहरों की,
आज मुझे दिख रहा है खून अपहरण बलात्कार ,
औरतों बच्चों  पर होता शोषण और वो अत्याचार ,

इसीलिए मुझे देशप्रेम पर कविता लिखनी है ,
जिन शब्दों में 'जय हिंद' दिखे वो सरिता लिखनी है ...

पर
ये भुखमरी गरीबी और लाचारी बीमारी ,
कल शायद मैं  ये सब फिर भूल जाऊँगा ,
उसकी ही बातों में,उसकी ही यादों में ,
पहले की तरह ,फिर से खो जाऊंगा,
उसके हुस्न की नुमाइश उकेरुंगा ,
राहों में उसके सपने बिखेरूँगा ,
वो मीठी मुस्कान वो मस्ती भरी चाल ,
भीगे भीगे होंठ वो रेशमी से बाल ,
ऐसे ही कुछ लफ्जों में इक शायरी बनाऊंगा
और उसके क़दमों में मैं  प्यार से सजाऊंगा ..

साल भर की देशभक्ति मुझे आज ही करनी है ,
इसीलिए मुझे देशप्रेम पर कविता लिखनी है ....
इसीलिए मुझे देशप्रेम पर कविता लिखनी है .......


अरे ये क्या पढने लगे भाई ,भूल गये तुम्हे आज "रंग दे बसंती" देखनी है, और शायद मुझे भी ;)
    खैर आज के लिए ही सही पर 'जय हिंद ' ।।

Autocracy @ IIT Kanpur

Last winters I had a chance to visit one of the professor's home. His wife was kind enough to prepare some tasty soup for us.While having the soup she talked to us about our hostel activities and our life here and we shared things frankly. Suddenly in the middle of our conversation she said, "Don't you think the Wardens here interfere a lot in hostel activities?" We and our prof remained silent at this, but internally I was thinking Yes Yes, it is true.Please help us by conveying it in the faculty community. She further told us about her hostel life in one of the IIT's and the freedom they enjoyed.

Last year I became a part of the system here and since then I have witnessed many instances which prove that how paralyzed are the hands of students and their representatives,here in IITK.One can easily suppress your voice just by quoting that he has more experience or emotional things like we are like your parents and think of your good or even shocking things like you are 6 or 7 pointer,hit a 9 and then come and talk. Recently the students of one of the halls here witnessed a great room allocation policy.None of the students were satisfied with it but the officials never listened to them. All the people who witnessed this clearly felt that it was a plan or may be even dream or experiment of an individual,which was imposed forcefully against the will of the students. There may be some logic behind this, which they feel justifies this act but we are still not convinced. We also have our arguments and questions, the most basic one about our freedom to live and choose. You can't provide us good food,its fine but at least don't interfere in our living sense. There were discussions about it of-course but the way they started was very unique."This policy is not going to change, now whatever you want to say-go ahead", was specified very clearly in the beginning of each discussion. We even contacted other faculty members for this issue, initially they seemed to be in our favour but gradually with time they changed or went silent. I knew this was going to happen. Suppose if you have a respectable position in a community and you suggest something but it gets over ruled by the decision of some other person, then your esteem goes down. I clearly felt this thing here, because of the obstinate nature of one person, no one came forward to interfere. It was a one man's show.

Now this is not the only case. When we tried to get a mirror for dance practices in our hall we were asked to prepare a list of CPI's of all the dancers. When I tried to organize an intra hall cultural event, I was asked to prepare the list of CPI's of all the participants and half of them were officially denied to perform.(however all the students were willing to perform). In another event for freshers,the three day competition was stopped after the first day because of complaint from one guy. The whole of the freshers batch signed applications that they themselves are willing to participate but the event was not resumed. The interaction sessions or the famous quads go on and off regularly. Anyone can walk in and stop things for any reason they can figure out. The meetings of students are adored by the presence of Wardens and Deans. Even small things like a bill of 50 Rs has to have a Tin No. on it or else it wont be accepted.Don't they know in a city like Kanpur, where the hell we can get tin numbered bills for all things.

On one hand they boast of the glamorous culture of IIT Kanpur and on the other they leave no stone unturned in making a contribution to ruin it. I don't know why they always consider us,specially the seniors that we are the wrong ones, our actions and activities are unhealthy. If we propose something ,then even if it has been happening in the hostel for years, it has to be defended logically and get approved. And even if one novice feels uncomfortable with it, it is stopped, the culture is given a halt. If you say its just one person,others are fine with it, they will apply all kinds of  political,economical theories to justify themselves. And if they propose something,then it is final. We may discuss,fight,weep,cry but nothing is going to happen.

Its not the story of one hall, its happening everywhere. The students representatives are frustrated but they cant start a movement like anna because we have many other things to do.

(These are my personal views on an informal platform and cant be quoted anywhere officially.)

Searching For The Monsters

One day I decided to go out in the city and find the monsters present in our society. Early morning I went  to the park,  people of all ages were there. I carefully observed everyone but could’nt conclude a monster,as they were so well behaved. Suddenly my eyes went onto the gardener,who was watering the plants. He had a big moustache and beard with white & black hair and was wearing dirty clothes. I got an inner feeling that he can be a monster.In the mean while an old man, who was walking over the wet grass slipped. That gardener went quickly to him, helped him get up, made him sit and brought some water for him. Ah! he can’t be a bad guy, I said to myself. I then went to a tea stall, many people were enjoying the morning tea in the cold breeze. And then I observed a group of young men smoking cigarettes along with the tea. These people who publicly smoke will surely be the monsters I am searching for, I thought. So to hear their conversation I went near them. Then I came to know that they were students of an elite institute in the city, and were smoking to keep themselves awake as they have studied  the whole night. They also can’t be the monsters. For the whole day I visited different places-malls, hotels,shops,offices, schools, observing people and their activities carefully. I doubted about some people being the monsters, but later was convinced that they can’t be , by some or the other reason.

After the whole day toiling, I could’nt even find one. Then how do so many crimes- rapes, abductions, eve-teasing , trafficking occur in our society. From where these monsters come, if they are not in our society, if they are not our friends, brothers and sons. Then I realized we all are the monsters, each one of us. We all have a little monster inside us, which grows in size when we get the required catalysts. This catalyst may be friends, drugs or even our fake ego. In the name of natural beauty or prakriti darshan, we never leave a girl without observing. Have you ever imagined how insecure and uncomfortable a girl feels, when a bunch of guys scan her from top to toe. It’s a matter of confession, we all do it. Specially when we are in a group, a sense of crowd mentality prevails and we forget our own morals. In order to show our courage/bravery/coolness/dudeness, we tend to do many things, which legally are a crime.  Most of the eve-teasing incidents are a result of such groups. One more thing which makes us a monster-is our fake ego. I have read many stories about a girl becoming a victim, after refusing some boy’s proposal, or insulting them or reacting aggressively against them in public. In the era of modernization when women are leaving men behind, these people obsessed with patriarchal mentality tend to bring  them down through their heinous activities. When they can’t stand on their feet, they try standing out on something else. These people think themselves as the custodian of Indian culture, I wonder sometimes, how wonderfully they themselves are contributing to it. And to those who hold women responsible for all this, their dressing sense and attitude. Have you visited Indian villages. Women there, still keep themselves completely covered, are down to earth serving the community silently. But still the facts show that the rape cases in rural areas are more than in the cities. Is the dressing sense and modernization responsible for this? No, it’s the men and their crude thinking.

Most of the crimes occur because we aid them directly or indirectly. There are sex video scandals because we watch, buy and promote them. Rapes occur because some people amongst us provoke and help our friends to do that, there are lawyers amongst us who fight for the wrong ones, there are parents who try to save their rapist son. We go to brothels and kothas, that’s why women trafficking and forced prostitution occurs.

Just think about yourself for a while, you’ll surely find a monster instantly.

Share it with other monsters and help them realize….         

Window to the Other World

Its 2 o'clock at night, I lock the room and move out.This is the best thing about IIT campus, you can roam anywhere at any time. It has been a boring day so far.I have watched 2 movies,checked out all the songs of Ed Sheeran whom I stumbled across on youtube somehow,have had a chat on fb with many of my friends,have talked to my motherand some relatives also. Still I'm not feeling good. In such cases of extreme boredom I go to a lovely lonely place,where I can talk to myself-its the New Sac >rooftop.

 After a 10 minute walk I reach there. On the way I've exchanged smiles with many,I don't know why. I think smiling has become a job of unconscious now, I smile even when I don't want to. On the roof,cool wind is blowing. I feel its gentleness as it gives a soothing touch on my face. The view of the beautiful campus at night isawesome. The bloody halogens are trying to color the green leaves with their dirty yellow light. The sniper tower is standing calm, spreading its cool white light.In the OAT you can see some couples sleeping in each others lap. On the top of the stairs there is a group, having cans of beer in hands and cracking out jokes aloud.On the road you can see groups of students going or coming, having a cheerful conversation amongst themselves. Ah! the place looks so happy, I bet you'll get a smile on your face.

As you turn back,you see another world,lost in darkness. There are many closely packed small small houses. Bulbs are shining here and there. Most of the times there is numb darkness(electricity problems). Suddenly lots of thoughts fill my mind. Is this the real picture of the world-silence and darkness!! I can imagine people having sleepless nights, there will be vendors who will be thinking of tomorrow's sale, the auto rickshaw driver who has just bought a rickshaw thinking of how to repay the loans, a mother sitting beside his son who is suffering from malaria, a girl thinking of leaving the school to save herself from those eve-teasers......
 Two years later, IIT administration will be cruel enough to throw us in that world,amidst all the problems.The big question arises now. Will we become the one who create problems(executives of industrialists,cruel government officials exploiting and looting the poor) or the one who step ahead to solve these problems??
My boredom and smile both go away.

The First One......

Sometimes we want to say so many things, but could'nt find a person to share. And even if we find some listeners, we are never sure,they'd like our random thoughts or not.So we prefer to keep quite.But these thoughts don't, they start boiling inside.And if in case you are alone,this boiling point decreases severely. Now if you want to feel relaxed,its necessary to spit them out.And here is the best platform, just write all the shit without worrying about the other person. Even if they'll make all sorts of ugly faces,who cares..!!! :P

Thats why here I am,but you'll be thinking why the name"Kya Likhu.." ??  Its not that I don't have any topic to write. Actually my mind is nomadic, wandering from nowhere to everywhere.I want to share and discuss so many things that I get confused over which topic to chose.

As I have started,I'll be forcing you to make all sorts of faces..:P
Cya
Yours Shashank.