The Red Ribbon Wish

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

I am treated  like a criminal for no mistake of mine,

My hopes are languid , I live with the fact that I can never be fine .

Everyone gradually walked out on me, a desolate seclusion stared me in the face

The reality sank in, I was nothing but an outcast in the human race

All I wish now is that I wake up tomorrow having one good friend….Just let the solitude end !

2013:Through an Indian's eyes

As another year draws to its close,

Of good, bad and ugly, we had our dose

Corruption , once again, was a much-used word

But there was the Common Man who picked up the sword

In the North, Mother Nature chose to unleash its fury

With a lot of grief and pain , we had a lot of countrymen to bury

Aiming for the sky just got a whole new meaning

The pictures of our Red Planet Mission , the channels started beaming.

‘NaMo’ and ‘RaGa’ were nothing close to musical notes

It was all a war of words in the big bad Game of Votes

A right-handed batting God chose to call it a day

While another, with his racquet, is still winning his play.

India’s favourite league attracted quite a lot of dirt

As a new use of the towel , by the cricketing cry-baby, was given birth

At the box office , the films whose revenues did skyrocket

Made the viewers mostly keep their brains in the pocket

The Rupee , against the Dollar, seemed to be losing the fight

Until a certain King took over at the banking helm , with much foresight.

Crossing the seas, we lost a great African leader

We also remember all others whose absence will make the world poorer.

On a lighter note , we learnt it’s not just you and me

But even the world’s most powerful man likes taking a selfie.

With new dreams , new hopes and renewed love to the ones dear

Here’s wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

- Rudranil Ghosh

The Thing Called Love (An acrostic poem)

{An acrostic poem is one where the first letters of the lines spell out a word or words if you read them vertically}

That’s an exciting but tough road to travel , they say
However, we all try to find it and live happily all the way
Ethereal at first it seems 
The feeling that leads us to believe in beautiful dreams
Hope is what we hang on till the end
If we are lucky, the roads never bend.
No distance seems far enough
Genuine , if it is, withstands the times gentle and rough.
Crises and obstacles are part of the game
Anguish and anxiety are what at times we are left to tame.
Little affection , subtle expressions to show we care
Land up moments that set emotions to flare
Every length some go to, to open the heart’s gate
Despite it all , one role is always assigned to fate.
Little expectations, with time, lead to bigger ones
Often in control we feel, but life takes its own turns.
Valour ,sacrifice and passion- all look fine
Every story, but , takes its own end.. listens to the wish of neither your nor mine.

(if you read the first letter of each line of the poem vertically , it makes up - 'THE THING CALLED LOVE )

It’s not just a women’s issue– Rapes and our society

Hardly does a day go by when the newspaper does not carry out a news of a rape having taken place in some part of the country or  another . What’s more disturbing is that often no strict action is taken against the perpetrators of such crime and the case just evaporates out of public mind . The victims  often end up living a life full of trauma and social stigma for no fault of theirs.  Ridiculously enough , in rural India , often the victim is forced to marry the rapist to save the family’s so-called honour!  How can you expect a person to sleep with someone everyday who caused you so much bodily harm and mental trauma ?!

Studies show that when a girl child grows up ( or in some cases male child too ) , the very first cases of molestation happen within the family , and close relatives. A child is unable to differentiate between appropriate touching and inappropriate touching until the hormonal chemical actions start developing properly. As a responsible and caring parent  in today’s world , it is very important that we educate the child about what’s right and what’s wrong . Sex should no longer be a taboo word , infact it should be included in the educational curriculum at a very early stage now. As we grow up , we ought to know that our body is ours and only ours and not a playground for a perverted mind to take pleasure out of it.

Forceful intrusion of the body is the worst kind of crime existing on the planet . Imagine a fly buzzing and entering your ears – now , that surely is annoying and irritating , we would all agree . Now think of a woman being subjected to something like rape. Heinous ! Apart from the grievous physical harm being caused , the mental torture and trauma it carries is unthinkable .A Study shows that a large no. of victims end up attempting suicide to put an end to their pain , which often is due to the social abandonment they face. In fact , the very term ‘victim’ should be done away with and should be replaced by something like ‘survivor’ which would probably give them hope and courage to carry on with life. Easier said than done though.

It is a sad irony that in India , we worship Goddess Durga for her power , Goddess Saraswati for education , Goddess Lakshmi for wealth , but yet men seem to forget to respect the real women out there in our society.  We all have mothers , sisters , wives and daughters at home . We try to keep them safe and not take any offence against them .  Yet that is not really fostered against the women at large. Sadly , I do have to add here that atrocities against women in the family is also something that is present. Should we remind us, men, that had it not been for our mothers , we would not have seen the light of this world and not got this privilege to be here in the first place.

Rape should be treated at par with any other unpardonable crime , murder or terrorist acts for example. No one gives anyone the right to take away someone’s life for personal reasons or reasons unfounded . Similarly , no one gives anyone the right to treat anyone’s body as a commodity and cause unwanted sexual and physical harm. As had been meted out to Ajmal Kasab , it is time we bring forth death penalties to rapists in our legal system .A few years back in Kolkata , I remember a man named Dhananjay being hanged by the court after  he was convicted of raping a teenage student and killing her in an incident that took place fourteen years ago from that date.  The need of the hour is to take stricter actions against the perpetrators of such horrendous crimes and fast-track the legal verdicts. If convicted , they should be shown no mercy . Death penalties would also impose a fear in the mind of men who think they can do anything just because they are born a man and possibly stop them for doing any such deeds in the future  . Counselling should also be done at a community level as to what are the women’s rights and the men should learn to respect them and they should be educated how to behave as a social being , not like some savage animal . As a placard read out at a protest  – “Real men don’t rape” . And it’s time we stop blaming women and their dressing sense for rapes. Cities like Mumbai and Delhi are cosmopolitan enough and at par with any other city in the world.  On one hand , we see international clothing brands come to our country and on the other hand , the sheer backward mentality of some people , and sadly statements like these ( “it’s your fault because you were wearing a mini skirt” ) come from some of our top politicians. Grow up my fellow citizens !  On a different note , seeing the recent spate of sick and disturbing events , I think it would actually  have done us good if the world had ended as predicted by the Mayans. Let man evolve again , perhaps into better beings.

Watch Yo' language, dude!!

Sample this: My friend comes out from the exam hall . I ask,"hey, how did it go? "....here comes the reply, "Totally effed it up mahn!!!"....It took me a while to realize that the effed here stands for "F"-d...What the F does it suppose to mean anyway man!...copulating with the answer sheets?!!....The other day, this friend of mine brings this movie DVD to me and says, "This is super sh*tting awesome!!"...That's today's oxymorons for you!...(If you dont know what a oxymoron is, go look up some lexicon)

Now this one happened in my college lab. While I was failing to do some experiment on this machine (which did have a lot of screws) , my lab partner shouted at me, "Dude, you are screwing it up!!!"....Hearing this , the lab in-charge asks us, "ki??...kon screwta khule gelo?" (which screw fell off?).....He was ready to screw me up if  that happened!..

And what the hell is this 'dude' thing anyway?!....I guess today's mothers would be sayin to their children , " Beta, dude banna hai na???...toh doodh pilo"...( any of my BVB friends reading this, try remembering our official school farewell awards......ROFL!!)

Apparently, the style of appreciating the fairer sex has got a makeover too. This is how my friend greeted his girlfriend the other day, " Babe, u lookin choco!!!"....Now why choco??!!!...Ah well, maybe as sweet as chocolates (i hope they arent the dark bitter ones though) ....or maybe as hot as drinking chocolate...Could might as well have said-  U look bournvita, milo, boost...what not!!

Well, this can go on......but here i end now....peace out...And to my dear friends whom I have featured here, I hope I haven't p*ssed you off.....but if I have, I don't really give a sh*t....

Football Vs Terrorism....Ball vs the Gun....

Uniting and Dividing the World





                As the football world cup nears, the pages of the newspaper present two contrasting moods. The sports pages reflect a mood of celebration while the news on terrorism around the world present a grim picture.


In these times of  blood and gore, sports act as a perfect mean to take our minds off and immerse ourselves into something more "passionate",in the proper sense of the term.


RELIGION 
Football  is a religion. Players play for their teams irrespective of what background they come from. As for the Gods, just wait to see them in action in South Africa soon.Terrorism , on the other hand, is wrongly driven by religion. Terrorists definitely do not have any religion because no religion would preach people to take guns in their hands and shoot people around.If you want to shoot, try shooting the ball into the goal.


CASUALTIES
Yes, David Beckham and Michael Ballack are definitely 'casualties' as they have been knocked out of the World Cup due to their injuries, and they would surely be missed.But then, they would be back to playing the game in the near future hopefully. This is nothing as compared to the daily casualties of terrorism, which are much more gruesome and somewhat intentional by these groups of misdirected people. It is something unpardonable and something which could have been avoided.


PASSION ...AND THE FIGHT
The real fight should be there on the field. Not the Battlefield, but the sporting field. Yes, there are headbutts and tackles in football as well. That's passion for you, because they play to win , wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Killing innocents is an act of cowardice . Culminating lives won't let these so-called servants of 'whatever'  redeem themselves  and get glorified in the eyes of the world.


 So here's hoping that the coming month and the future at large would let us forget the bloodshed and ease the pain all over the world. Rejoice in the beautiful game . Rejoice in life.

Living is important, not how many years we live!

I read this line a few days back, which made me lost in thoughts for quite some time.. So thought of penning down(rather typing down) what came to my mind.

Life- the one word which separates this planet from others of our galaxy(maybe)....which brings all of us into existence....when we are born, we don't just get a life, we get a chance to experience this wonderful world!...Life is a journey, but whatever the goal is , its the various ups and downs, joys and sorrows, ecstacy and pain, that makes it fulfilling. Its not the length or the distance of the journey, what matters is the pace at which we walk or run, how many times we pant for air and most importantly, who our companions are.

Its important to live life, take everyday as it comes and immerse oneself in it. If we think about whether we'll be there tomorrow or not, we are just failing the whole process. We should be intent on making the most of now. That's all we have in our hands.

On another note, don't we all hate getting old?...Then what's the point in living a hundred years and make our way into record books....In all probability, by then , we will be house to a bunch of diseases and our senile behaviour might turn out to be a major embarassment and disturbance to our loved ones. So whats the point!

There are other ways of becoming immortal if one wants to- doing something worthwhile in whatever span of life one has got!...Many names come to my mind who have left their footmark on this world in the short lives that they have got- Van Gogh, Anne Frank, Amelia Earhart,Kurt Cobain, Bhagat Singh and many others....all for the different contributions that they have made ..By this, I do not want to say that dying young is good, all i want to say is that whatever life we get , we got to make the most out of it.

As i write and you read this , your and my clock is ticking. So lets rock and roll!