The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I formed this League. This is the league of people who voluntarily and many a times involuntarily decided to remain single :o)
Now one must note that the voluntary enrollment was mostly an outcome of involuntary circumstances. For eg. In college, u like girl, and so does the rest of the college. Finally girl also like boy, but boy one among the rest of the college. Then wat u do...U enroll into league of extraordinary gentlemen and proclaim that u r not interested in girls.

One must at no point doubt the sexual orientation of this league. Every member is straight. Just that we live maharishis decided to let the rest of the world enjoy the fruits of love, n we pray for them (thoda zyada ho gaya but chalta hai :D)

We once had a huge membership but now with passing time, members are shying away from the guidelines of the league.
Recent escapades include long time loyal member Upmanyu Sharmah. He was the last commander i expected to lose. But he too fell in love :o)

We have in and out member Arnab Deka. Recent joinees also include Bhaskar S and Ramnish Gaikwad. However, I am suspicious about Mr. Gaikwad's dedication to the ideals of the group.

The primary ideal of the group is that one has to be a Randwa. Now the word as such sounds very impolite. But a great saint from the village of dead peepal explained the meaning of Randwa to me. A Randwa is basically a guy in love. But the speciality here is...he is not in love with anyone specific. So he is just in love with love or rather the concept of love or watever. But he is in love without anyone to love :o)

Now two of the very old members of the league.
Sam Dadda. I cannot doubt his loyalty at any point of time. He was one of the founding members of the league and we still have spirited discussions on the future of the league.

Debdeep Nath. ANother loyal commander. He did try to move out of the league. But his story goes like this...
Nath baba n another guy sharing a smoke outside the office. Suddenly pretty girl walks out. Nath baba feels he is in love with this girl for sometime now. So he confides in his ciggy buddy....sahi hai na yaar...mujhe bahut achi lagti hai ... Ciggy buddy says...haan..sahi hai...meri girlfriend hai woh. ...Nath baba's story ended there...
Since then I am pretty confident Nath baba has been in the league. THough he has tried to venture out, but some people are just meant to be there for the betterment of the other league members :o)

And finally me :o)
I too ventured out of the league and was foolish enough to think i wont have to return :o)
However, now am back. And would be around for sometime.
Like Upam says, have to find the right reason to quit this extraordinary league of Randwas :o)

Casteism...what casteism...?!

I remember when I was in college ie NIT Calicut, I was having this conversation with a friend of mine in Guwahati. The topic moved to eligible bachelors etc etc. Then she mentioned, she will definitely marry an upper caste Hindu. These scheduled castes and scheduled tribes dont have any brains or merit...

My late grandmother used to tell me...Baba, kayasta e biya korbi de...beleg jaati r suwali nanibi (Son, marry within the Kayastha caste only, dont bring a girl from another caste)

I myself am not clean. I remember discussions I had with my friends on how someone I knew got through IIT JEE after attempting just 29 marks...just because he was an ST (Hills).

One of my friends here in WIMWI once told me...Bataas...tujhe pata hai xxxxx SC hai

I am against reservations in their current form and more importantly there form of implementation. Earlier I used to be against reservations in general, but over the past 3-4 yrs, I have come to beleive that there is a need for reservations. But its not reaching the right people.

But then this post is not about reservations. Its about something much more profound...something too far more heinous...casteism

Was shown this documentary in class today...on casteism...untouchability
People...learned people...supporting it...
There was this person who was on the cover of Time Magazine and was the Physics prof of some univ...he is openly supporting it
Then some of the Hindu "learned" gurus making statements like...
Shudra pair hai...brahmin sar...khastriya haath...ab pair ko chot lagegi to haath uski madat ke liye jayega hi na...(Shudras are like legs...brahmins are the head...kshatriyas are the hands...if the leg gets hurt the hands would definitely go to its help)
He also went on to say that...trying to get over the caste system is like asking one to walk on one's head

Then there were these Rajputs in some part of Rajastan...who openly proclaimed that they made sure that the lower caste people were "taught a lesson" whenever they defied the maryada of the society. An 80 yr old harijan would have to address a 10 yr old Rajput as master...else that old dalit would be "taught a lesson".
They...the upper caste people...said...Its important to maintain the fear in the hearts of the Dalits...else they forget their maryada.

And this is not just in Hindus. In Muslims, there are an equal number of castes and there is discrimination based on those. The upper caste Syeds, Pathans and Khans discriminate against the lower castes. Same for Sikhs. The Jats look down upon the Dalit sikhs like Mazhabi Sikhs.
In Christians, its the same.

We are branding people for something they have no say in. Was it that child's fault that he was born in a Dalit household?
In the faint hope of equality, so many of the Hindu dalits converted to Chirstianity and Islam. But even there, the dream of equality eludes them.

Every religion...has in its roots equality as one of the pillars...but with time...people "add" strata to the society which passes down generations and generations...
Manu, better known as "Maharishi" Manu came out with his set of "Laws" which have become Shastras for us Hindus. It was in these shastras that casteism found its first mention.
Here are few of his "Laws"

Let (the first part of) a Brahmana's name (denote something) auspicious, a Kshatriya's be connected with power, and a Vaisya's with wealth, but a Sudra's (express something) contemptible.

A Brahmana who takes a Sudra wife to his bed, will (after death) sink into hell; if he begets a child by her, he will lose the rank of a Brahmana.

For he who explains the sacred law (to a Sudra) or dictates to him a penance, will sink together with that (man) into the hell (called) Asamvrita.

I have nothing to say...nothing at all

Gandhiji's Talisman

Its written in the beginning of every NCERT book, it was written in the beginning of another book i opened today. It in essence says, whenever u are in doubt of whether to do something or not, think, of how ur actions are going to affect the poorest person u hae ever met. Then u will see ur doubts melting away...

We had this session on Good governance and People Living in Poverty today. Its a subject which I have taken in this term. The faculty is an ex IAS officer, Harsh Mandar, who resigned after the Godhra carnage because of the state's complicity in the whole matter.

It was the first time in months that i went thru 2 sessions without looking at the wallclock a single time.
Almost everything he said was insightful. But then would write about just a couple of them.

The question of the need for taking tough decisions came up. When the govt takes decisions like building of the Narmada dam for the benefit of the people. Some of us have to sacrifice for the greater good of the society. But then, who is it that is sacrificing? The Narmada dam is going to displace thousands of tribals with their miniscule plots and their ecosystems. At the same time, there are hundreds of projects which would "benefit the society as a whole" but the one's sacrificing would be the rich farmers.
Since independence, NEVER has such a project been conceived.
So we are asking those people to sacrifice who donot have anything to give. Is this equality?

All of what i write, i draw upon from the class today. None of it is mine.

Harsh Mandar also narrated an anecdote. There was this father who was apprehended trying to drown his daughter. His 7 yr old daughter. The child survived. She was traumatized on why her
loving n caring father was trying to kill her...
the man had 6 other children. the daughter he was trying to kill was suffering from a chronic kidney ailment which needed about a lakh rupees per yr to keep her alive. He put in all his earnings (he was a labourer) to keep her alive for a yr since her ailment. Now he had to make a choice. He either saves her, or his other children. So he made the choice.
A father having to make a choice of drowning his daughter...
And we are a country which is growing at over 8% per yr and we are going to hit double digits soon.
All major brands want to come to India because the "middle" class is eager to spend.
India is shining.

THE FUCK INDIA IS SHINING.
60 yrs since independence, a father has to drown his daughter to save his other children, 60 yrs since independence, over 300 million of us are illiterate, 60 yrs since independence, 50000 children sleep on the streets every night in Delhi alone, 60 yrs down the line, 50 men molest 2 women on new yrs eve, 60 yrs down the line, we havent been able to provide drinking water to more than half of the nation, what have we been able to do...
the fuck india is shining...

Mumbai...Love u...hate u...

The flight landed. This was one of his many trips to the city of dreams, the city of slums, the city of the infamous mafia, the city of the famous dabbawalas...the city of mumbai.

He abhored the city...till the last time he came here. It brought back painful memories.
But this time something had changed. This time, as he passed through the city in the morning in a taxi, he felt a change.

As he saw the slums, houses (if one can call them that), one on top of another, where there wasnt place for even one. People going about their lives, a definite method in the chaos of the city, he felt attracted towards the city. This city represented perseverence to him, this city represented determination, this city represented optimism.

Then he passed in front of the Hyatt. The grand hotel, surrounded by slums. He felt heavy in his heart, he felt choked. But it wasnt the miserable condition of the slum dwellers which made him gasp for breath. No. He had never been so socialistic in nature. It was memories which came back in a flurry. The road, the conversations...
promise me...
i wont let go...
he had to shake his head to flush them out, those memories.

This was a city which had given and taken from him...something so precious...

He loved Mumbai...he hated mumbai

n in his mind, as he writes this post, he hums
Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yaha, zara hat ke zara bach ke yeh hai bombay meri jaan

what to post...

For many days, i have been thinking of posting. Its when these things strike me, and i think this should be a blog post. And then i think i shld note down this thought or i will forget it. But then again i think, nahi yaar...i wont forget.

N then i forget.

So basically this is just me wanting to post with nothing to post but still posting...

Drinking has gone up these days. And I dont puke after drinking these days. Yesterday drinking was a must since it was new yrs. So drank, n was merry. Morning i wake up, I have a bruise on my lower lip. Now there is no other mark anywhere on my body or face. Just the lower lip. Hence I beleive some pretty girl kissed me, and in the passion of the hour bit my lower lip :D :D
N since morning, with a firm belief in this hypothesis, i am trying to think who can it be (i will not think logically...coz if i do, then i will have to give up this hypothesis n think where did i fall down to hurt myself :D)

Haan...called up friends yesterday before 12 and abused them to full of my satisfaction...bahut maza aaya.

Other than that, cant remember anything.
Was reading a fellow blogger's post. Resolutions ke baare mein likha tha.
I hardly made "new yr" resolutions anymore. Made a general resolution sometime back, wahi nahi kar pa raha hoon. But then i dont think i want to :o)

Chalo have a great yr ahead people. And wish the same for me :D