Count your blessings...

I think it was two years ago when I was in high school, the principal gave a speech on blessings. I don't remember it fully though but she said one thing which created a blank sector in my mind. She said "count your blessings". My mind started to find a logical connection for the phrase immediately at that moment. I didn't actually listen whatever she said after that. After some time my mind showed me a white flag for failure of polishing a logical joint. As the time passed on, I forgot it. Many elderly people blessed me when I touched their feet but that phrase never struck me again. Today, after two years or so, a man in his early 40s blessed me for my small assistance.

I was getting back home after meeting a friend in the morning at around 9 AM or so, a man came from behind and asked:

"Bhaiya!.. Where is the station?"

"Which station?" I asked.

".. railway station" he replied.

"Yeah.. It is nearby. Take a left from here and go straight." I answered.

And he went on his way till a point and suddenly turned back at me.

"Bhaiya! Is it this station only?"

I said, "Yeah.. This is the only railway station in this area."

But then I noticed that he was carrying a tourist bag on his back and I was getting quite sure enough that he was lost.

I asked him, "Where you have to go?"

Then he took out a bunch of folded papers from his pocket, searched for the right one, and showed it to me. It was a rail boarding ticket.

"Umm... Date of journey... 6th Oct.. okay... 15:35.. alright..." I was reading.

"Ya ya.. exactly bhaiya." he went on syncing with me.

"The train is for Bilaspur and you have to depart from Delhi Safdarjung."

"yes yes... bilaspur... that's where I have to go... That's my place." he made it definite.

"Hmmm.. but this is not Delhi Safdajung. It's just a local train station. No express trains depart or arrive here."

He then again took out some other bunch of papers and showed me one which was written in Hindi. I am quite weak in reading Hindi language.

"Motteee - Bhaag.. Okay okay.. Moti Bagh.. yes.. that is where Delhi Safdarjung is." I said.

... And I can see his eyes filled with joy, gaining trust on me.

"So from where I have to go Bhaiya?" he asked desperately.

"You see it is quite far from here. Take a bus or an auto-rickshaw." I said.

"Okay.. bus.. Which bus shall I take bhaiya?" he enquired.

"You better prefer an auto-rickshaw. It will drop you at the exact place." I answered.

"They will charge a big amount of money right? Maybe around 200-250 rupees?" he asked.

"No!.. who said that? A max amount of 40 rupees shall be charged from here." I replied strongly.

"Is it so bhaiya?" he questioned.

"Yeah..." I answered.

But he was a denial. He wanted to save money by commuting by a bus.

"I think bus would be a better option." he said.

But again he suddenly made his mind to spend 40 rupees for an auto.

"No no bhaiya.. You are right. Three-wheeler is a better option." he said.

"Yeah." replying with no substitute for my reply.

"Can you help me hire one bhaiya?" he asked.

"Sure. Why not?" I replied.


The auto stand was on the way and meanwhile he went on clarifying his chaos with the big city.


"Bhaiya, so were they making me roam like a fool in the city?" he got me puzzled.

I asked, ".. who they?"

"The railway enquiry people. I first went to New Delhi. Then they sent me to Nee-jaa-moodin station and from there, they sent me here."

"Yeah.. those are waste fellows." I said.

"Okay.. so they are waste fellows." he said as if I was dictating something to him and he was making notes of it.

"Your train is at 2.30 PM or so, then why are you going to the station so early? Still five hours are there." I enquired him.

"Bhaiya I came to Delhi just a few days ago. I was quite scared that I would be lost in this big city. So that's why I wanted to reach there as early as possible." he said using past tense which made me clear that he was relying on me.

"You have been lost." I replied.

He gave me a laugh.

We reached the auto stand where I hired an auto for thirty-five rupees. He then looked at me with a defined smile, took my hand in his hands and touched it with his forehead which depicted that I meant like an idol to him. He then thanked me and went off.

I don't know his name, I don't know his religion, I don't know his anything. He is just a person who came to me seeking for a little help. What I meant to him, it was his view. But I took his view as a blessing for me. At that time, the speech by my school principal got me again. Especially the still evergreen phrase, "count your blessings."  I again wanted to shape the logic behind the phrase. But this time, I paused and said to myself:


Some phrases don't have any logic behind them. It might have and maybe I shall realize the true meaning of this after some more time of experience. Till then, I shall follow it and 'count my blessings'. 

The Gandhian Policy

The 'trending now' column of every news is having the name of the man who brought the mass to fight for a national cause. Kisan Baburao Hazare. Or as popularly known, Anna Hazare. The ex-Army soldier went on a indefinite fast against the government for the alteration of the lokpal bill to Jan Lokpal. This powerful bill equalizes every citizen of the country and punishes those who are corrupted or support corruption in any form. The media widespread attracted many people in India and also across the world and gave birth to the non violent anti-corruption movement.

Now you all might be thinking that why I am writing the synopsis of the whole thing that you already know. This is what this post is about. We all know what is going on now-a-days around us. For every crime taking place, for every inch of a land shaken, for every move in politics, for every drop of water flown. We know each and everything. Now how do we get to know all this? Media. Media in the form of news telecast, radio, newspapers, internet, mobile phones, etc, etc. I was thinking about the times of the freedom struggle of our country and I suddenly got an idea to publish this post.

Think about the time when Mahatma Gandhi was on for the freedom movement in our country. There was no media, no approach and media existed only in one form, i.e., news papers. But there were a limited number of people who read newspapers. There were messengers who sent news from one village to another but, it wasn't enough to spread the news of freedom struggle all over. Four big towns, rest were small villages and almost 60-70% of India was just forest.

Now how Gandhiji did it? This is what fascinates me. Even I don't know how he arouse revolutionary ideas in every Indian. Maybe the situation was so critical that everyone thought that there was a 'need' for independence but they neither had any courage nor ideas to take a step. Or it maybe the power of speech Gandhiji had to attract the mass, or maybe both the cases. The path of non violence and truth was the Gandhian policy to protest against injustice and inequality. Whatsoever, I am so amazed how did he created and led such a big movement non-violently.

My elders often say and also as I read in many books stating, "Gandhi was the man. A hero behind the independence of India." I just used to irrationally accept this fact as almost everyone did. "Okay, there was a man named Gandhiji who fought for us. He is so great that his name is the first Indian name which has not been underlined in MS word." Stupidity.

Today when I see Anna Hazare adopting the Gandhian policy, a sudden realization takes a flight within. An immediate pride of being an Indian. Watching everyone united and realizing their rights. What a feeling it is! Totally patriotic. Now I know why Gandhiji was honoured with the title 'Mahatma' and what Gandhiji really meant for our welfare. Even today, many are there who don't realize this and irrationally accept 'Mahatma Gandhi' not as a person, but as a word. Just a word. All thanks to Anna Hazare who made me realize this. Now I feel I am a true Indian. A salute to you sir!

A Dream

It was about 2-3 weeks ago, I had a dream about my high school alumni club called the "Happy Club". The very next day when I woke up, I started typing what all I got in my mind and posted it in the facebook group of my club. It got several hits there, and so I thought to post it on my blog too. This is what I wrote. Enjoy reading.

To my bloody cool happy members,

This post is a real dream. Though dreams are not real, but I got it yesterday night about our club! It somehow follows the story line of the movie 'The Social Network'.

Okay.. so it was 2AM yesterday when I slept off after having some fun with books.

~~~ DREAM STARTS ~~~

Me, Varun & Shubham. We were under prosecution by the government. In front of us, the finance minister, home minister, lawyers, judges, bunch of income tax officers, police officers and media people. All of us were in a big conference room as far I remember. Nevertheless, the room was too scary.

"So how much you made?" asked a lawyer after going through a fat income tax file.

"9,850 cr. sir" I replied.

"In how much time?" asked another about-to-die-advocate.

"In 1.5 years, sir" Shubham replied.

"How you guys started all this" asked the home minister banging his fist on the conference table.

We all were cold with dried throats but somehow Varun started without forgetting to test the microphone as the whole nation was watching us.

"Hella hella mic testing... So, it just started off with a schooly affair. We actually never thought that HAPPY CLUB could get this much big. It was just like a community."

Now his lines were like a boost for me and shubham.

"... yes sir, we expanded our group with loads n loads of members every week. We didn't knew what we were doing. As in all that was just for fun and most importantly, to be happy." said Shubham.

"We made progress in a small time span of 2 months and our club reached more than 10 cr. (100 mn) teenagers in the country aged between 16-24." I said.

"And after that...?" asked another lady in black.

"We made some rules. like each member has to contribute 100 bucks every month, helping each other, expanding the network, and all the stuff which gave our club a caption
'HAPPY CLUB - To be happy & to make happy'.

And if some member feels depressed, he/she could call the Happy Club helpline and our computers would redirect to anyone of the member who is not busy.

So it runs just like your government. Something 'for the people, to the people, by the people' " said Varun.

"You got notices from software firms like microsoft, yahoo, google, facebook & myspace for using their network commercially?" asked a cornered lawyer.

"Stupid fellows. Everybody wants money. Anyways, we deleted those pages. Now we have our own social networking sites." said Shubham.

"What about those 100 bucks thing and these very famous badges" asked an old lawyer.

"100 bucks were for club fund. So that we could have parties or help our members, in any way possible. And regarding these badges, these are special smiley-signature badges behind which the name and sign of the respective member is printed in the center and 'HAPPY CLUB :: ORIGINAL' which is also printed on the boundaries in an arc form." I told.

"I can see that. What else?" asked the same old lawyer.

"All these badges have built-in GPS chips." I replied.

"From where did you get all these GPSes, netowork, etc.?"


"It was one of our members who made a deal with some international dealers for GPS chips and the software stuffs" Shubham said.

"Our network eventually got expanded all over the country. We made huge amount of money and we mostly spent it in fests, parties, etc, etc." Varun told.

"You guys have drinks/drugs in your parties?" asked a really concerned lawyer.

"No. Never. Happy Club is not meant for all such things. We don't find any happiness in that. By the way, why you are asking this? I think it is quite irrelevant..." I told as well as I asked.

"Nothing. My daughter is also a Happy Club member." said the concerned lawyer.

"What about the money? Where did you stored all the money?" asked a income tax officer rolling his eyebrows and putting extreme pressure on the word 'stored'.

"We didn't. We didn't stored money. We opened corporate accounts in various banks" I said after sipping a glass of water.

"You guys make twenty-five cr. a month?" asked another man in black.

"Hundred. Two hundred fifty cr. a month." told Shubham.

"See sir, i know only one thing. That we didn't do anything. It is not a crime to have such a big club. Then why you all people prosecuting us?" I said angrily as I was fed up with their queries.

"It is illegal you ******." said the home minister angrily using abusive language which got him suspended permanently. He was no longer a home minister.

All this because we guys helped loads n loads of teenagers under pressure by our Happy Club network which in turn gave us a public appreciation and people started marching for us guys with warning messages which read "Don't put them in jail, or else, you will be finished.

"Ohkk, what were your future plans?" asked another advocate.

"We were about to start Happy Club for call center employees too. As a study shows that young employees are getting heart problems/blood pressure/diabetes, etc. So this could have increase our club funds and also the age limit for Happy Club members could have changed from 16-24 to 16-28". I said.

~~~ A BLACK OUT AND DREAM ENDS FINALLY ~~~

At around 6.30 AM:

"Wake up... wake up aadii... Your friends are waiting for you. Won't you go for a jog with them? Wake up...." My mommy woke me up.

I told my friends about this a bit and said I will post this dream on Happy Club's wall on facebook. So almost after a two-hour long exercise session, remembering all this funny shit, I posted. ;) :D

hope you fellas like it. :)

Dreams may or may not be true. It's a personal experience during a nap. No matter how silly it is. But the thing is, you have dreamt. Now whenever I remember this, I laugh out loudly. Because this is the height of dreaming to such extent! 

Photography

Hello there. These are some of my self clicked photographs. Hope you like them. :)

@ 7 PM 

Moonbeam

Everybody is in a hurry. (me too)

Don't really know which flower is this.

Extra studying causes eye strain.

The First Post

Its 2:12 AM this side and this is my first post on any blog. Let me start with a quotation. Its kind of math-related.
"Don't differentiate ourselves, be integrated". Yes. And I mean it. No religion in this world teaches violence. But why do we involve ourselves in riots between our religions? Why don't some people understand that we all are the children of the almighty?