A little bit of hope!

Thought I would start posting afresh after almost 6 months with something a little more hopeful.

This is a poem called उम्मीद की बातें ( Let us talk about hope). It was inspired after I visited Gives Me Hope , as suggested by a friend. While some of the stories might be fabricated or untrue on this site, it does give a little bit of hope to people reading it. In a world where good news might often be hard to come by this sure is a great place to stumble onto.

The specific paragraphs are reflective of some of the things I experienced myself and heard some people close to me were experiencing when this poem was being written. So this poem goes out to every one who needs a little bit of hope in life, करते हैं उम्मीद की बातें !

You can listen to the audio recording of this poem in my voice here - Ummeed ki Baaten

Please do leave a comment about how you liked (or did not like) this poem.

Re Mana - Oh Mind

A poem about the hurt our minds carry and way we can mend fences.

Usasa - A sigh of relief, contentment

A quatrain about the burden of expectations and the unending road to contentment and satisfaction.

तो - the fear of deifying humans

A poem about deifying a human being and they blood lust of their followers.

As an atheist/agnostic (don't ask me which as I still have my struggles with God and his presence/absence). I have a huge problem when people choose to deify mere mortals. Sure, they must be some good people or even a few great people, but to say that they are God/Dev is saying they are flawless. Once it is established that you are their 'bhakta', there can be no rational debate about your chosen deities. 

Hence I choose to look even at God as a mythological figure from whom we can probably learn a few good values, but also keep our eyes open to the flaws he may have.

I remembered this poem again after Dr. Narendra Dabholkar's gruesome murder in Pune. I think i have channeled some of the same angst into the recording. You can listen in here. 

Fasana - to be caught

A charoli ( four-liner) about the misunderstandings of a relationship and yet wanting to be in one. 

Doubting India

I am an Indian by birth and by choice as I like to think so. But more often than not now a days I am driven to ask this question what does it mean to be an Indian?

Who defines my country/nationhood?

Is it just a piece of land carved up in South-East Asia which is protected by our valiant Armed forces or is it the idea that surpasses these boundaries, these borders.

If it is an idea then what idea is the one where an important Janlokpal Bill is stage managed and played around with in our highest house, the Rajya Sabha . 

What idea is it, where we cant even hear from an author, Salman Rushdie, who wrote a book some 26 yearsago which then was found favourable to ban to drum up "Minority"support for a beleaguered PM Rajiv Gandhi. Today that same author is played around by various elected governments so that the prince in waiting can finally win an election and stake rightful claim at a ripe age of 40 to the throne a learned economist has been keeping warm for him. 

What idea is it that due to the first-past-post system leaders can select their vote banks and become"chosen" while hardly representing a 10-15% of the electorate? What about our indifferent electorate itself out of which hardly 50% turn up to vote? What idea of India is it that someone like Oprah asks us whether we are colourblind when all of us jump traffic signals? What idea of India is it where our law keepers aren’t paid anything more than a sweeper? What idea of India allows shameless people like Kalmadi to first host and then loot a CWG/CYG games, then roam free? 

What idea of India is it that we take 10 years to build a 6 km sea link, that while our traffic continues to burgeon, the very wind we breathe turn into smoke and our lungs to soot. What idea of India allows people to travel like cattle in local trains of Mumbai, not having any pragmatic thinking about how these people are going to travel from work and back? What idea of India allows multiple heinous terrorist attacks on its sovereign land one after another ? 

What idea of India allows women to be discriminated , molested and raped while two of the most powerful people in India, Pratibhatai Patil and Sonia Gandhi are both women? What idea is it that allows “upper castes” in Satara Dist to beat up and parade a “lower class”woman just because her son had the balls to fall in love with an “upper caste”daughter? What allows young men, Keenan and Reuben to die while fighting the right fight, what gives men like Jitu Soni the guts to stab them in public?

Is this the idea I am supposed to fight for, defend and uphold? Is this the country I was told great people , young men and old gave their life to win freedom for and protect it . Why did they die? To see its pride, honour, principles and morals wither away with time.

What do we tell the young, newly married soldier sitting on a post on the border, hungry alone and cold?

What is he protecting? A piece of land that has been usurped by the rich and the powerful, to be sold for a premium he cant afford. An idea maybe that has been ravaged by the very people he protects, sold many a times, over and over again for a pittance of power. Wouldn't he rather stand down and train his guns against the threat within ?

I am an Indian and a patriot, question really is am I proud to be one?

Mumbai under siege... from within?

I have written this letter to my MP and will be following it up with a similar one to my MLA and Corporator. Please do the same ask them what has been done to ensure the Right to Live!

To,

Hon Smt Priya Dutt,

Member of Parliament,

Mumbai North West Constituency

Dear Mam,

As my prior email regarding the Jan-lokpal bill has fallen on deaf ears(blind eyes and/or hesitant fingers), this mail might be an exercise in futility.

If you have not even read my prior email and was duly deleted I will reintroduce myself. I am Dr. Prateek Vadgaonkar, a medical graduate and a resident of Bandra East locality, the area that also happens to be in your constituency. Your last election Madam, was after the 26/11/2008 attacks on our tenacious city. As a first time voter I was enthused about exercising my vote and you were duly elected in our constituency.

Security of life of all citizenry in is a basic right in this county, nay any country. The basic right to live and to live free of literal fear of life, worry everyday whether you will return or will it be some bomb that has your name written on it, and find it's way to a bus stop you were standing at or a busy Khau galli you went looking for a quick grub.

I ask you this Mam, what exactly has been done to ensure that we citizen are not mere footnotes, mere statistics in these repeated attacks on the very heart of our city.
What exactly has been done to avert these attacks? 
What was done through your MPLADS fund was done to insure if not quality of life at least the quantity of it? 
Why are more lives being lost in this day and age to cowardly bomb attack? 
What (if at all anything) was debated in your sessions in the Parliament to give back to your citizens who elected you to represent them?

Are their lives though insignificant? Why can it not be ensured that a person who leaves his/her home in the morning will return home safe and sound?

If that is denied in this Government, while our elected Ministers get to travel around in with huge security entourage in tow, please be ready to face our answer in the EVM in 2014. I do hope that is not the case.

Valuable lives are lost Madam every time some bomb goes of some where, and though just one person doesn't amount to much in your final election tally. They still remain a valuable life lost, in vain. Yes, in vain as we don't seem to learn our lesson EVER.

Yours in concern,

Dr. Prateek Devidas Vadgaonkar