Teri-Meri Kahani Dilli Mein...

Delhi is not just famous for its historical monuments, chaats and broad roads. It has few secrets and few lies. Its rich history and culture can touch your soul and would transform you to a person you were never before. But amongst all these, Delhi is the city of love stories. You can find these simple and sweet love stories from the skimpy galis of dariba kalan to the broad roads of janpath. 

Love does not have any fixed definition. For some, it’s holding hands and walking bare foot on the green carpet of India Gate and for few, its finding solace in the unvoiced vibes of Lotus Temple.

The girl would never know why she inscribed the name of the guy all over on the benches of her college in north campus. And the guy would roam all over Dilli Haat to find a sweet gift for her. 

They would go and explore entire Hauz Khaas village, and would sit there between the ruins of Hauz Khaas and watch the lake of green water from above, together. 

She would be waiting for him outside the courtyard of Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah, while he prayed inside for her. She is busy listening to the qawwalis there, but she is lost in the magnificent view of Humayun Tomb.

‘You know something, Taj Mahal is the copy of Humayun Tomb?’ She would tell him, after all she has been the student of history. 

 ‘Oh really? Is it a temple?’ he joked. 

‘What do you mean?’ she’s getting angry.

‘Taj Mahal is a temple, don’t you know that history waali?’ he taunted her.

‘What? Are you crazy? That’s a myth, okay?’ she could slap him anytime now.

‘But…you don’t know any…..’ he tried to say something.

‘Don’t say anything now, okay!’ she walked away.

Few moments later, anger flew away as they started drowning in the lake of serenity at Humayun Tomb.

She would take him to National Museum and will tell him about everything in detail she sees there, and he could not do anything except listening. 

He keeps getting lost in the circles of Connaught Place, after all he is not from Delhi. And still he is in love with the city because she is from this city. He would buy her ice-creams from Keventers and she would share it with him. 

They walked together from Sarai Kale Khan and soon they are at DND flyover, she watched the red sun from there and it looked amazing just like the love she could see in the eyes of her man. 

‘….Kaun jaaye Zauq par, Dilli ki Galiyan chhod kar’ as she read him few poetries on Delhi, he looked at her intently and caressed her long tresses.

Love fumes keeps rising and heck, you don’t even realize it till it starts burning you. Even if you do not care, the so called Khaap panchayat would burn you alive. Delhi has many faces, it’s up to you which face you want to see. 

At last she could just say, 

‘Dil va Dilli dono agar hai kharaab, Par kuch lutf us ujde ghar mein bhi hain’

(Both heart and Delhi may have been worn out, but some little pleasures still remain in this ruined house)

Image Courtesy: pps.org

Market of Faith!

Who is your favorite god? Shiva, Krishna or Sai? Today, even gods are also in the race of favoritism. Those who have higher numbers of believers, are winning and few are lagging behind. Now it’s faith versus granting of wishes. Astha ya Manokamna. The deities who can fulfill your wishes easily are easily winning in the market of devotion. 

Trending these days is Shani. I personally did not even consider Shani as a God around ten years back. From past 3-4 years, Shani is becoming hot favorite amongst the Indians. They would pour gallons of mustard oil over the idol of Shani, and simultaneously curse the government for inflation. The cries and troubles of people living under the poverty line would be lost somewhere amid the market of faith. 

But I am talking about faith, and when it comes to faith, you cannot question it.

Globalization is touching the divine string in India. Even gods are not exempted from it. The market of belief is growing rapidly and the temples are mushrooming in every part of India with a speed you can’t even imagine. We have to wait to see who wins, Faith or never-ending wishes of humans. But before that, you have to make a list of few gods and start asking for granting of wishes. The one who fulfills your wishes first is the winner. 

Offer valid for unlimited period.

Just go and grab the offer to make your favorite god rich and popular. There is a stampede in the corridors of spirituality, and you’re lagging behind by reading my crappy post. Hurry!

PS: This is just my personal views and I do not intend to hurt anybody’s religious views.

Image Courtesy: superstock.com

Being insensitive in the capital?

The killer of Radhika Tanwar is under custody. It’s shocking to hear his words said to police after his arrest. He said it with full confidence that he was sure enough that after killing Radhika, no Delhite would run after him to chase him. 

That one line by the culprit Ram Singh forces us to think over where Delhi is heading? Are we becoming too much insensitive day by day? Does it not bother us if we see any person lying on a road, suffering with unbearable pain, and we do not even care to take that person to hospital and/or even dial 100? 

Since ages, a woman has always been considered as a commodity. But now, people need to realize that her curves are not only her asset but she can give this world a new dimension through her intellectual beauty. But still in many spheres of life she has to face gender discrimination and also mostly she’s never given her part of rights and freedom. Its possible many people would disagree with me but this is the harsh reality.

I heard about this recent survey that stated Delhi is the most unsafe metropolis in India for women and children. It also stated that the majority of Delhi men would simply look the other way when a girl or a lady is being molested. These facts are just not in the newspapers or internet only, ask any girl and she would always say that she does not feel safe in the capital, not even in the public transport and how does her heart skip a beat when she finds a man stalking her in a solitude place and what worsen her mental state is that no person would come forward to help her. 

There was this Dhaula Kuan case that we heard about a month ago and before that Jessica was killed in the capital, there was Priyadarshini Mattoo case, Shivani Bhatnagar case, the infamous Tandoor case and now a Radhika has been killed. The common thing among these cases are, first, highest level of crime against women resulting in their death, and second, crime has been committed in the capital of world’s largest democracy and fastest growing country in the world.

What disturbs me is the fact that after the murder of any person in this state; lot of media hype is created, delhites are number one to provide a byte in front a TV channel camera but when it comes to be the eyewitness, to help the police and/or any investigating agency, they are very hesitant. We will scold police and government to our best, but would never play the role of a good citizen living in a decent society. The root cause for such behavior is, what I think, is the ignorance, the ignorance towards our laws and our rights. They often believe that if they admit to be the witness in the case, they will be trapped and their half life will go in taking rounds of the court, but that’s certainly not right and not true. According to the Indian law, if you see any crime or see any wounded person lying on the road, you must dial 100 and after that if you don’t have much time, then you can tell your name and address and go for your routine work.  For the further investigation, police can make you the official witness in the case and according the act 161 of CRPC, police can register the statement of the witness and for this work police shall call you according to your convenience and cannot force you to sit at the police station for hours. On your request, your identity could also be kept a secret. And if police bothers the witness a lot, the witness can complaint to the DCP and the law even states that if you don’t want to be the witness, then the police can’t force you to be the witness for the case.  And apart from all these, there are lot more rights and laws. So please, start using your power and live in the society in a dignified way. 

Delhi, the city of Ghalib, the city of beautiful Mughal structures is day by day becoming so cruel to women. The question is still the same, what causing us delhites to become so much numb to our surroundings? That we are zipping our lips even to say few words of care and concern? It’s high time now, we need to roll up the curtain of insensitiveness put upon our eyes and do something. Organizing strike and taking part in candle march is worth nothing till the time we really feel the pain of the parents and friends of Jessicas and make sure that no any other girl become the next Radhika in the capital.

Euthanasia plea for Life?

Few days back heard about Aruna Shanbaug’s case. There has been a huge debate over whether she would be granted mercy killing or not. Anyways, Supreme Court rejected the euthanasia plea filed by Pinki Virani (who has written a couple of books on Aruna’s life). According to Pinki, letting Aruna live this way is not a ‘dignified’ way of living in a society. And I too can imagine, the pain and turmoil that Aruna would feel each day from past 36 years, but I shall not forget, I can only imagine and not feel. But does that give me right to go and file another petition in any court and ask for the death of a ‘still alive’ lady? I don’t really know the answer but I am sure Aruna does not even know that there is so huge cry over her being killed. But does anyone care what she wants? She cannot even express her feelings, joys and sorrows. Who knows, maybe she want to live. 

Ask the nurses of KEM hospital, the smile on their faces does not need words to explain the heights of their joy. I really and truly praise the judgment of SC to decline the Euthanasia plea but allowing the way of passive euthanasia to let us believe that life is not a burden. I always believed, you get life only once, if you’re making someone smile every day, you’re living it the right way. Nature has given us lot of powers, but the power of taking someone’s life is only hers.

Ms Aruna Shanbaug, I see you as a victory. Victory of joy over sorrow, victory of endurance over chaos. She is the Life, how could anyone file a euthanasia plea for life?