Valentine's Day: A Time to Love

At the touch of Love every one becomes a poet.

- Plato

Soon its that time of the year, that day of the year, when most hearts remember love. Those in the pursuit of love look forward for some miracle to happen on this particular day, those hopelessly in love celebrate and thank love in their own special way and those who have lost love find a reason to cherish and reminisce the days when love was around.
Yes folks, Valentine's Day is already on the threshold and people who know love's true significance might already be making plans for beautiful surprises for their spouses. As far as women are concerned, they are wise. They don't need reminders, and they don't need tips on getting creative with surprises. Its mostly the men (with a few exceptions) who need that little nudge. They love their girls, they know their girls (at least they think they do) and yet when it comes to giving gifts as surprises, they never know what really might make their girls' eyes, lips, face, suddenly light up with sheer excitement.
John Gray was absolutely true when he first charted out his book with the title “Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus”. We are from different planets. We are different from each other. Our physiology is of a totally different make from each other. Our brains work in different ways. We have different approaches towards the world and its mysteries. Hence, if Mars made men then Venus made women. We are meant to be this way because we are meant to attract each other according to the simplest law of physics that states, like poles repel but opposite poles attract. Love is that one thing, that one catalyst that brings us together despite our different makes, despite the different planets we come from. Love is that link that makes martians and venus-ians live happily ever after on Earth, and the 14th of February is Love's grand birthday. What better day can we find to express the love we feel in our hearts for our spouses, when love itself is celebrating? Expression spells showing, and how does one show one's love for the other? Of course through small or big surprises, through big or small gifts that complements your wallet.
Venus-ians or women in love might have already picked that gift out for their Martians I'm pretty sure of that. But if you guys are waiting for the that last minute to just pick up something or if you probably think that Valentine's day is still weeks away and you have all the time in the world, you are so busted!! You are not the only man who needs to come up with some pleasant surprise on Valentine's day and its first-come-first-serve out there.
Many a times one hears “oh he used to be so romantic” or “she used to be so romantic”. “used to be romantic” what ever happened to “is romantic”? The worst thing that can happen to lovers and married couples of this world is, the tendency to take love for granted, and they go back to living in their “mars” bubbles and “venus” bubbles. For people (I say people because there might be a few venus-ian exceptions) who still want to become a poet at the touch of love, here are some tips on how to revive the romantic in you or how to awaken the sleeping romance buds in your system.

• It's Valentine's Day morning and you wake up beside your loved one. Turn towards your love and plant a sweet seductive kiss and say those magical words “I Love You”. What happens next hour will be love working its magic on the both of you.

• If you live separately, then plant a sweet “I Love You” kiss when you meet for the first time that day and see what it does!

• For music lovers, making a CD compilation with your lover's favourite songs is a perfect way to show how much you appreciate your love. It says how much you know your better half.

• For first timers, planning a cozy dinner in the city's coziest restaurant where you both can have a great meal and long hours to get to know each other.

• Going for a romantic movie is a great way to set a romantic mood but get the tickets in advance. You don't want to get jilted at the counter.

• This is for people who have loads of time in their hands. Make a scrapbook with photographs, poems, stories about you two, list of favourite music. Its one of the most wonderful gifts one can imagine to get because its about you, your love. It is better than getting any expensive watch, branded clothes, gadgets or jewelry.

• If you want to show your love the big way then you know that diamonds are a girl's best friend but unless you are some high flying business man, an actor of the cinema or you just won the lottery, you cannot afford it. But I know that cosmetics and perfumes are a girls next best friend. They are cheaper than diamonds and if you pick out a package of her most wanted cosmetics along with her favourite perfume, she will love you for life! But again this needs a lot of research so be careful and avoid guess-picking the colours and smells that you think are her favourite. Remember you are from Mars and she is not?

Personally, I think that valentine's day should be celebrated to commemorate the sheer essence of love and since love needs expression to show itself, I believe in a frugal valentine celebration that does not attach great importance on gifts but awakens romance instead. Creating romantic atmospheres has got nothing to do with the size of the wallet. The magic can be created with very less money. After all...

"Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hells despair."
- William Blake (The Clod and the Pebble)

The White Tiger

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2008, comprises of a powerful and fantastic narration about "India of darkness" and "India of light" Read more

Book Review on Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

It has been a while. Life goes on and there are things, people, moments, situations that you just cannot avoid. Bottom line is there has been a lack of time for this.
However, today I have written a book review on Swedish Author John Ajvide Lindqvist's debut novel "Let The Right One In" which has been one of the best books I have read in ages. For more details, go into http://www.squidoo.com/let-the-right-one-in

Metanoia

The sun plays hide and seek with people, delicately hiding away and emerging again from behind the translucent clouds. The tower continues to watch over the low-lying town filled with a plague of faces and bodies rubbing against eachother in an incessant throng of an ongoing monotonous scene. For days, weeks, months and without exaggeration, years, the town of Kurseong has been scrambling along with concrete establishments crowding her once beautiful facade. People who manage to earn prosperity proudly display their status in society either by building an ugly concrete building or a series of buildings and by buying vehicles which they mostly run as taxis, to and fro between Darjeeling and Kurseong, Kurseong and Siliguri. The less lucky have, so long continued to toil and grovel below the egocentric governmental paramountcy of the Bengal government. Movements such as that of Gorkha National Liberation Front pledged more than they could fulfill, thus crushing the lives of the hopeful with macabre, falsity, dictatorship and delapidation. The peace-doting individuals of the hills reduced into savage, power hungry, frustrated dysfuntional lot, rambling along under the boutade of a self-centered dictator.

After twenty years of dirt inflaming the society, the regime of the dictator has finally succumbed to a new array headed by a robust, younger, fiery and an ambitious person. The green flag that fluttered earlier from the roofs of houses and shops of the hills have been replaced by a tri- coloured flag. For the first time in twenty years, the shops and houses are lined with small tri- coloured flags indicating that the wave has changed once again. However this time, the strategy belongs to the category of a non-voilent movement, in contrast to the movement prior to this one that was structured in blood and terror. This time it smells different. Although this congregation consists of flowers from the old stem, the colour and fragrance seems to have altered.

The spark was alighted by one young person, who in the least realized that he would be the crux of the birth of this new unity. Hailing from a meek background and having filled his deceased father's shoes at the service of Indian Police, Prashant Tamang was in time, to become the symbol for the cry of freedom from incorrigible oppression. The Indian idol in the making, brought nepalese hearts together in harmony, all marching towards a common goal - to make Prashant Tamang the winner of Indian idol. People's dedication stemming from both national and international Nepali communities, thus brought Prashant to the destination he had perhaps not even fantasized of reaching. Winning the Indian idol fetched Prashant profound recognition not to forget those incessant negative racial comments he received along with fame.

People of the hills already seemed to have tied one single knot under the mesmerizing unity that Prashant gave them in return. All that was now lacking, was someone who would sustain this unity by turning the flow of direction to politics. This was the apt instant to conceive the revolution of ideas and lo! GJM (Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) was born under the captainship of Bimal Gurung and the rest of the story of this singular birth is as familiar as the morning hymn in every house that proudly has a tri-coloured flag flittering from their roof top.

The ex-chairman of GNLF has remained behind a thick curtain of oblivion. Till date very few people know about the kind of change that might have descended upon his otherwise over-confident disposition. There has been a rumour that he took to bed due to an unexpected turn of events and he remains silent behind the heavily guarded four walls of his private house, perhaps lost in thousands of questions in his head, that he may not have an answer to. It is thus a shameful demise of a character who at one time had proved great integrity and won the entire support of the masses. Sold to the enemy, the world he ruled became festered by condemnable hollow beliefs based upon religion turning him into a harmful heretic. He started as being a puppet in the government's hand but in time like Pinocchio, he became a disastrous identity plaguing the entire population with violence and threat. Ironic it is however, that the man who saw boulders coming alive in the form of many stone worship he encouraged, in the end, has retired and turned as mute as the very stones he sought out to worship.

The pledge of GJM sounds substantial and the speeches are characterised by fire and enthusiasm. The movement is devoid of violence, identified rather by hunger strikes, and indefinite annulments of government and private offices. Unlike the 40-day strike of the last movement that paralysed the entire area from any connection, the strikes now, have been designed keeping in mind, the interest of the public. Filling the empty footprints left behind by Mahatma Gandhi, the movement of the hills have reassumed the strategy that won India her independance. The question is, will GJM walk the march right up to the end? As true to its soul the conviction of the party may be, one cannot however overlook those groups of power hungry people who might have falsely announced the allegiance to the party. There are shadows lurking behind every lighted being. Let not mistakes be repeated. The mass tired and bedraggled of a 20 year old despotism have finally seen another silver lining in the dark clouds that still hover over them, let not their rising hopes be burst like bubbles again. The voice we hear today, we wish to hear it over and over again with renewed strength and hope, but most of all with truth. To those who lead the mass now, Lead with truth and with strong conviction because in the end, it is only the truth that sets all free.

A Repercussion

Whatever remained of the magic of the phrase ”unity in diversity” regarding Delhi city, has been brutally annhilated by a handful of insensitive people who set out prove that they know best. The article 'Delhi Profiles to protect' published on the 10th of July 2007 on an online version of Telegraph Calcutta, has stirred the sentiments of those who hail from the North Eastern part of the country. A certain booklet has been published by Delhi police that seem to be a list of tips for people and students from North East in Delhi. The contents of the booklet have revealed itself to be of a particular racial character, provoking anger and bitterness among the people for whom the booklet has been intended. The article mentions that:
”A strange tribe has Delhi police worried. Their women don’t cover up enough, they mix with no one and, officers say, their food smells so awful that it is a threat to public order.
The police have now printed a booklet full of well-meaning advice that should help these men and women blend into Delhi society despite the handicap of their “foreign” features.”

A booklet containing such advice, aimed particularly at people from one single region in the counrty cannot comprise of any well-intended purpose. It clearly implies the narrow mindset of a certain group of mainland people towards North East students. The antipathy that our North Eastern students face in Delhi is no new news. Delhi people's hostility towards our young North East students have existed forever. It is an absolute shame that an officer who is incharge of co-ordinating North East issues should state that people from the area do not interact with the locals, blaming it on the barrier created by language differences and on our unconventional features. The truth is that, a responsiblity of accepting and encouraging students and visitors from other states should fall entirely on the original inhabitants of a city and expecting a vice versa case would only prove a lack of feeling of common brotherhood amongst the people of the city. Blaming it on a language barrier is equally unacceptable because the northeast people communicate using the medium of English language as far as interacting with people from outside their community is concerned. English is a unifying language in India, which is extensively used and easily comprehendable by most city people. But if certain people see this as a communication barrier then it becomes clear that, the capital city of India is devoid of any intention of integration and acceptibility, especially regarding fellow Indians with ”features akin to neighbouring countries.”

The booklet has without a doubt added fuel to a slow burning fire that was not newly set. The booklet has also perturbed sentiments of the those from the areas of Darjeeling district and Sikkim. When it comes to living in Delhi, all students and visitors from the North Eastern region of India are grouped together. It is thoroughly unacceptable that in a country habitating innumerable races and cultures with countless variety of cuisines, there should be any objection against North Eastern food habits. If bamboo shoot and akhuni should create a ”ruckus” in the neighbourhood, then one could account for the pungent odour created by the use of various spices in other Indian households. The odour that reeks after the consumption of raw onion should also be highly probable to create a ”ruckus” amongst people in a city where, the standard comfort zone between two persons can be measured in terms of breath - This is just the kind of reaction that a thing such as the booklet has insinuated. Deep contempt, frustration and aversion has replaced the otherwise straightforward and happy disposition of our people in the city of Delhi. Delhi Police's attempts to make the city a safer place has struck a wrong chord by focussing only on North Easterners. This is a very likely case of ”othering” as the JNU reasercher Malem Nignthouja states.

It seems like a deliberate attempt to create a ”we” and ”them.” The purpose of the booklet is undoubtedly questionable since it appears to be rather dictatorial in its fashion, telling the people to follow rules that do not exist in a republican country like India. The Delhi police needn't warn the North Eastern students in particular about avoiding lonely bylanes during the night – such words of advice should be applicable to all young students in the city. In reality, the maximum number of students who are mugged and raped in the city of Delhi actually belong to communities outside the North East. The fact that we are a minority in Delhi and in addition, with features that set us apart from the rest of the Indians, a tiny speck of misdemenour is brought to notice, thus giving the locals a huge oppurtunity to overexaggerate upon the conduct of our students. It is true that the lifestyle of North Eastern people is different from that of Delhiites but that does not go on to prove a point as to who is living a more moral lifestyle. The boolket also features a tip regarding dress codes, which is altogether ridiculous when majority of female population in big cities are walking about skimpily clad merely imitating the new genre of flesh revealing Bollywood stars. As far as morals are concerned, we live in a society where norms are changing and to be able to run along with time one needs to be able to let changes occur. In today's world where borders no longer stand as a menacing restriction, one must say that creating such differences is definitely passé and inadmissable.

If a booklet has to be published to bring security tips to students and visitors in Delhi, then it should be done in general inspite of targeting a particular group. We already stand in a sensitive zone since the time Delhi became our platform for further education. Thousands of students leave home each year from the northeast region of India in the hope of getting better education and at the same time to experience what the city has to offer. When they arrive, little do they know that they already fall into the category of ”them” and the chance of interaction with the locals is next to zero. Until date, if anyone takes a tour around Delhi univeristy campus in the north, one is prone to experience a wave of antagonism between the North East students and the rest of the students. One must also mention that on grounds of similar features, students from Nepal are also grouped together with northeast students thus making them also a part of this ever growing hostility.

The attempt to civilise and spread awareness by the publication of such a booklet is utterly objectionable and has contributed largely in aggravating a feeling of alienation among the northeast people. It is when you read between the lines that truth strikes. The truth about the booklet resounds with an unjust attitude even though it may speak of having nobler intentions, with the bold black letters in which it is written. The booklet issue proves that there has been an absolute lack of emphathy on those people's part who regards the booklet as a list of helpful tips. Such an act of prejudice (we see it as an act of prejudice) is intolerable and actions should be taken to warn those people sitting in responsible positions of the government, as not to incite antipathy among people by their imbecilic measures and suggestions.
”Racism is not a symptom of fear nor is it a symptom of hatred. It is merely a symptom of ignorance”

A Snail

I think I am a snail. I carry my shell, my shelter, my home, my comfy little space with me wherever I go. I am always ready to slide under it at the slightest provocation. Snails are very unsocial creatures. They value their privacy with maximal adherence. I gather that they simply love being alone!

I love my own company which I regard it with great adulation. I have all the things that I love to do within my much accounted space. However living in a crowded world, I welcome invasion from time to time. I even socialise with others and revel in their company. But before much time elapses, my reflexes drag me back to my shell – a purely un-meditated business. It is when they try to pull me out against my will I become obstinate, angry and irrational. I refuse to budge. If they are nice enough to coax me out, they might see the tip of my antennae but not more.

I move in my own snail-like pace. I think well when I move slowly. Hurrying spoils my curry. I get all stressed up and I lose a grip on my agility. The more I think of it the more I figure out – I cannot be any creature other than a snail!
Snails can’t hear and I choose not to hear that I don’t wish to hear. My tentacles or I’d rather say my antennae (that will give a better picture) are precisely placed well above my forehead and they are very accurately tuned to sensations around me. Most of my creativity is derived from the inspiration filtered through them.

Snails travel in irregular paths and often travel in a circle. I detest straight lines and usually go round in circles discovering ideas only to rediscover them after a lapse of time. They are never the same.
Snails can be very creative creatures if you knew them well enough but for the moment, that has been obliterated from the list of snail facts, lest they begin to be regarded as extra-terrestrials.

Snails have nocturnal habits and they are hermaphrodites (they have both female and male sex organs). I operate extremely well during the night. I am highly agile and my senses are sharper during the nights and my hermaphrodite-hood is lodged safely under my cranium ; )

Morning has broken

The morning alarm played a sad classical tune far-far away in the depths of my dreams. It sounded like it came from another planet or something. I had to tear open my eyes because I could not let it go on ringing while the rest of the house lay still in deep morning slumber. Soon the ringing became as loud as a normal alarm, and I stretched my hands under my pillow to get a hold of my mobile phone. The phone looked rosy with its raspberry background image; it looked as if it was grinning up at me, in a wicked sort of way making fun of the fact that I had terrible problems to shake sleep off me. And the classical tune did not match its disposition.

Brushing one’s teeth early in the morning is one of the many hateful activities I can think of. Going to the toilet in the middle of the night is another one. The former and the latter are probably the two activities we human beings do it in a half-awake half-asleep state. It is pure torture. When you want to continue sleeping visited by the deepest and the sweetest slumber, but then, you suddenly have to kick yourself out of the bed. You have to throw yourself out into the coldness of the room from your warm and snug cave of quilt. Morning has broken! the birds might be piping, and perhaps brighter people go about in their apartments in their housecoats humming cheery greetings. I only wish the window shutter was thicker!