Road Trip to Mumbai

I love driving, No no I hate driving especially when it includes waking up at 5 am and starting in the dark to skip the unforgiving jams of the city and reach the expressway before the dawn.
So, it was decided that we will spend our Xmas in Mumbai at our relative's place and it sounded real fun to roam in the city that I have never seen before.
So, the three of us i.e. me, my footloose better half and and my sis-in-law with an even looser foot woke up at sharp 5:00 am and my red beauty started roaring at 5:30 am.
Wow!! that is an achievement, we all looked at each other as we inhaled the relatively less polluted air that was on offering .
Odometer was willing to reach greater heights but I curbed my instincts so as not to make today as any stray dog's last day. Even when there was too much of temptation to hit the gas pedal, logic prevailed over impulse. However, we missed the road to reach the Express way as there was too much to talk amongst ourselves even at 5:30 in the morning. Still, we were content as the old Bombay Pune Highway was not that bad and I had the experience of driving on half-baked roads all my life.
After we covered 60 odd kms, we managed to enter the Express-way and then the tables were turned. Now, the impulse was overwhelming and at least the logic was thrown to the winds, if not the caution. Odometer reached 100, then 110 and slowly made its way to 130, I was feeling like a jaguar with my eyes all over the place. I was looking left, right and of course straight as well. However, my desire to act like an eagle to spot almost everything in our way was not fulfilled as fog engulfed us like a mother wraps a sleeping baby in its lap.
                               With in next few minutes, the nerves were relaxed and I was at much more ease now. However, along with all the bad things attached to it, the good thing with impulse is, it is extremely short-lived and soon the logic admonished the odometer which started showing speed of 90 to 100 kms/hr.
Very shortly we entered the picturesque  valleys of Lonavla and Khandala. I saw the Rajmati garden which we visited last time around.
We entered Mumbai at around 8 am and it took us one more hour to reach Borivali. It was a very swift journey (though covered in i20 instead of SWIFT) and the combo of the speed and the scenic route made it 
even more enjoyable.
We spent two full days visiting to Gate way of India, Churchgate, Marine Drive, Gorai Beach and it was great to visit all these places. Great food that the city of Mumbai offers was an added delight. At times, I was either mesmerized by the speed at which the city moves or the British architecture that the building in the chruchgate area displays.
For the first time, I inhaled the same air that my all time favorite Sachin Tendulkar inhales and thanked mumbai for producing such an incarnation of the almighty.
Looking forward to many more such trips to explore the biggest and the most lively city of India.

Religion

As soon as one reads the word religion, one thinks of a sage chanting mantras. Don't stamp my loyalities as partisan as I respect all the religions and their teachings. However, as a born Hindu, I felt connected to the  thought of a sage. One may replace it with any Sufi singing about the almighty to suit to one's liking.
However, religion is not just about chanting mantras, it contributes a lot in bringing discipline and docility in an otherwise unruly world. Given a chance, the soberest of the man will commit the heinous-est  of the crimes if there is no authority to judge and rate his acts. However, as spider-man's step father says, "With greater power, comes greater responsibility", there is a greater chance that this power is misused by the demagogues.
I would like to share a story from one of the Osho's books, There was a community of dogs which used to bark without any reason. There was a spiritual leader of that dog community who used to advise dogs to abstain from barking. His lectures were attended by a large number, however left little impact and failed to bring about any change in the habit of dogs.
On one fine day, all the dogs decided to abstain from barking and this will be their biggest gift to their leader. It was virtually impossible for dogs to control their basic instincts when the moon lit sky appealed to them to bark at their highest pitch. However, out of respect to their leader they somehow remained quiet. As the leader of the dogs observed that there is pin-drop silence and no single dog is barking, he was very surprised, though not pleasantly and he became curious to know about the reason of this eerie silence.
His curiosity grew to become worry as he felt there will be no need of any spiritual leader if all the dogs will be so well behaved. He came out of his house and found all the streets empty. He himself got carried away by the beauty of full moon and sensed an urge to bark. He realized there is no one around and even if barks, no one will come to know about it. After pondering over the thought for a while, he finally barked.
As soon as the leader barked, all the dogs thought that the someone has broken the protocol and started barking.
The leader felt so elated at hearing these loud barks that he immediately called  all the dogs and admonished them for being so loud at mid night and all the followers quietly accepted their mistake and thanked the leader for showing them the right way.
Isn't the real life similar to this anecdote?

Greatest Migration

The only thing that is constant in this world is the CHANGE. As the time takes a stroll, things roll and they roll for a change. With this perpetual fact embedded in their mind, creatures move or migrate from one place to another. The pattern of their movement is as random as a hot air balloon caught up in a whirlwind. However, one has to read between their constantly moving legs to find the deep rooted purpose in all such random movements. As the study predicts, the migration of Zebras is meant to confuse the predators, whereas big cats move away, shunning all their luxuries to avoid a possibility of confronting a potential rival.

There is another species i.e. us, the humans, who is on constant move and a select few nomads at times have given away all the comforts of life to explore the world. I tried to relate the pattern of their movements to other species but the randomness of their migrations was hard to link with one single species.

The word migrate is comprehended in different ways by various individuals.  Some take it as a challenge and the new set of opportunities entice them to take up this gauntlet whereas some couch potatoes do not like to move away from the coziness that the familiar surrounding offer them. There are some foot-lose mavericks who feel satisfied only when their out of their comfort zone where as some nostalgic souls weep in silence and accept the change as their fate.

The Term “World is Flat”, coined by Mr. Thomas Friedman is the epitome about the Greatest Migration of all times, the migration of the workers from one place to another.  Since ages, workers from all over the world have shifted their abode from one place to another in search of work. It is much easier these days to go to a far place on a deputation and enjoy all the luxuries of the life or in other words, the process of migration has become less painful and this has fueled the increasing number of professional willing to migrate to other countries.

I do not doubt the pain one has to endure while leaving the motherland, however, the luxuries and the comfort that is being offered these days, certainly reduces the pain and emotional trauma involved. There is no way; one can compare the pain of software engineer, living in a plush apartment, to the pain of Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, which he endured during his stay at London. Food Habits, acclimatization to local weather, self-dependency for each and every small thing are some of the initial hurdles that migrant faces. However, as human has tamed all the wild things on this little planet, such hurdles are no different to humankind.

For Innocent lives who had a right to live

Spill the blood, Spill the blood,
It's so cheap, let's make a flood.

It's the poor and the oppressed, so no one would care,
If you see some white flesh, don't you dare.

There are loops and there are flaws,
Law is old and it has no claws.

It will be fun as it will get dark,
Only few will fight and rest will lark.

There will be an odd candle and it will glow,
World will not stop and life will flow.

They are coward and they are duds,
They don't even care to crush a few buds.

Someday, they will repay for their sins,
they will sulk and rot in the bins.

We all just wish and we all just pray,
Sinful souls will repay and their nerves will fray.

सुबह

सुबह सुबह, आदमी प्रस्सन्न रहने की कोशिश में रहता है. सोचता है दिन भर को झेलने के लिए सुबह की एक कप चाय, बीवी के साथ प्यार के दो बोल, उसकी दिल को खिला देने वाली एक मुस्कराहट और ताज़ी ताज़ी खबरों से लदा हुआ अखबार, दिन को खुशुनुमा बनाये रखने का रामबाण नुस्का है . तो १२० करोड़ लोगो की सुबह कुछ इस तरह ही शुरू होगी. अब आप ललचा रहे होंगे हमारी गलती निकालने के लिए की १२० करोड़ तो पूरी जनसँख्या है, इसमें औरत, बच्चे और बुजुर्ग भी तो शामिल होंगे. तो साहब, जब इस देश में शेरो के अलावा किसी और को परिवार नियोजन की नहीं पड़ी, तो फिर हम क्यों एक सही संख्या को जानने परेशानी मोल ले.
तो एक आम आदमी, सुबह के उन तेजी से फिसलते हुए लम्हों को पकड़ने की पुरजोर कोशिश करता है. कभी नहाने में देरी करना, तो कभी न्यूज़ सुनने की ललक, ये सब, घर के सुरक्षित माहोल से बाहर के जंगल की और जाने से बचने की कोशिश नहीं तो और क्या है.
उसे पता होता है की एक बार बाहर कदम पड़े तो उसे किसी चीज़ का ध्यान नहीं रहेगा और रहा भी तो लोग उसे ज्यादा देर विचार मुद्रा में रहने नहीं देंगे.
चाहे कितनी ही मुश्किल में हो, चाहे कितनी ही विकत और जटिल समस्याएं अपना ताड़का रुपी मूह फैलाये कड़ी हो, ये सुबह के कुछ पल, इस आम आदमी को कुछ सुकून के पल प्रदान करते है, उसे उर्जा देते है तमाम परेशानियों से जूझने की और उन पर विजय प्राप्त करने की.
सुबह सुबह यही सदविचार न जाने कितने ही लोगो के मन में घर कर जाता है की ज़िन्दगी इतनी बुरी भी नहीं की इसे आधा छोड़ दिया जाए और इतनी मजबूर भी नहीं की इसे पैमानों में तौल दिया जाए.

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