Life or is it..

There are many roads I have travelled since then.. interesting, tempting, risky and boring. I have given myself every chance to be happy and to live life! I have grabbed every piece of life that has come my way. Yet.. time tends to take me back in days and memories.. where I had left a piece of Me!  

Too bad people don’t fall in love at the same pace, at the same time, for the same reasons, and it’s too bad that those emotions don’t move simultaneously. But each bit of madness moved at its own pace, one not dependent on the pace of anyone else. It wasn’t like tandem skydiving, where you were connected as you fell, where you were forced to fall at the same rate and use the same parachute. Falling in love is a solo act. You know that, just learn the hard way. You just jump and hope that your parachute will open. Sometimes, you look up and realize that you were falling by yourself, the object of your desire still on the plane, not interested in jumping and watching you descend into that scary place alone. And then you feel you are waiting for something that is not going to happen…

It hurts to know that one has to start all over again or may be its no more a start or ending. It’s only a journey now, directionless and reckless. It hurts to look back and yet it is the past that looks most beautiful. Well, sometimes you just need to step outside, get some fresh air and remind yourself who want to be and who you really are.

If I have learnt anything, it is that life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by. For who knows whether any of them will return. But as I pass by it’s like coming back to the room I left my fond memories and that I haven’t seen in long time, where I still try to put missing pieces of Me together.

Innocence

These lines I wrote..probably in one of those moments when I was either emotionally confused or confusedly emotional. A girl was growing up from her early teenage..

A white soul, a pure heart

A gust of spring wind..

many colors did bring,

A white soul, a heavy heart

Falling snow..

the winter did bring..

A white soul, a grave heart..

in scorching rays did shine..

Again Spring..

a gust of wind,hues of colors,

The white soul still smiling

And..

Innocence whispered choked and finally.. cried.

Jusss A ranDom ThouGhT

I've multiple personalities within me ranging from being dumb to intelligent to emotional to rational to funny to intense and none of it suffers from any disorder!!

Midnight - Thomas Wood

Unfathomable Night! how dost thou sweep

Over the flooded earth, and darkly hide

The mighty city under thy full tide;

Making a silent palace for old Sleep,

Like his own temple under the hush'd deep,

Where all the busy day he doth abide,

And forth at the late dark, outspreadeth wide

His dusky wings, whence the cold waters sweep!

How peacefully the living millions lie!

Lull'd unto death beneath his poppy spells;

There is no breath,no living stir,no cry

No tread of foot,no song no music,call

Only the sound of melancholy bells..

The voice of Time,survivor of them all!

AN OLIVE BRANCH FULL OF THORNS

Jharkhand is one of the richest areas in the whole country, rich in minerals deposit and forests.

Coal alone contributes about 92- 93 per cent to the total revenues from mining received by the Jharkhand government. Infact Jharkhand receives the maximum mining royalty among the coal producing states of India.

Since its formation, the Jharkhand government has been laying the red carpet for industrial investment by offering sops. Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (JSMDC) and four major Companies of Coal India Ltd namely Central Coalfields Limited, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd., Eastern Coalfields Limited and Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd. are contributing to the production of coal. Other entrepreneurs like Tata Steel, Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd. and Damodar Valley Corporation also have captive mines in the State.

But as one traverses down the mining lanes of Jharkhand, ground level reality of the industry that is the integral part of the state’s economy tells a tale of apathy, negligence, gross corruption, lack of understanding and political will. One is confronted by the poor and dejected community, eking out a living on the fringes of a mine that employees local residents. Their families live in grotty hovels and shabby quarters in and around the mining areas.

This is trickle down economics at work, honoring those who have been forced to sacrifice their land in the name of growth.

Jharkhand is a rich state of poor people. It has concentration of some of country's highly industrialized cities like Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad. Despite the fact that it has First Iron & steel factory at Jamshedpur, biggest explosives factory at Gomia, first methane gas well, still, it has several towns and innumerable villages with sub-standard civic amenities. Urbanization ratio is 22.25% only.

Every area surrounding mines has its own issues that the inhabitants live with. Jharia has been combating underground mine fire for about a century now. Huge open cast and underground mines are threatening the health and homes of thousands. Villages or colliery slums like Bokapahadi, Kujama, Ghanudih, Baghdighi, Jairampur, are mining areas in and around Jharia where hundreds of families live above the fire. The land beneath their feet is hot and everywhere smoke and sulphurous gases escape from thousands of fissures and cracks.

CMD of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) T.K. Lahiri says that with the approval of the Rs 9,657-crore master plan by both the Centre and State governments and subsequent division of responsibilities between JRDA and BCCL, there remains little confusion.

People of Jharia have no choice. As Jharia burns, the people who have chosen to make this place their home brave the fire and fumes to somehow make a living and feed themselves two square meals a day. Most end up with a film of soot covering their lungs and by the time pneumoconiosis is detected, it is too late to do anything.

A social worker associated with Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) who has worked for residents of the coal belt for years stated, “Most of the diseased people are not treated because of lack of are awareness. This has resulted into shortening of life span of the locals.”

The inhabitants of Bokaro and Karanpura coal fields also face threat of eviction. Majority of the health problems in these areas are caused due to unchecked pollution and high levels of toxicity, mine tailings and mine disasters. The expanding operations of mining company Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) are posing an immediate threat to the survival of 1,000 indigenous people facing eviction from the village of Kusum Tola.

These issues are not unknown to the people in the power yet less has been done at ground level to uplift the mass. For those that pull the strings of power, talk of development is simply a means to an end. Health and education projects matter only to the extent till mentioning them helps placate the public.

Nevertheless, the miners and their families work and dwell in these areas, pitted against all the forces. For the workers who are part and parcel of the industry that is backbone of the State’s economy – the richest industry of Jharkhand yet its men are poor!

Walk On -- Motherjane

Last... now that I can see

The future ain't what it used to be.

Like a poet without vision

An object of mockery...

A dreamer who lost his dream to reality.

Won't give up, though the going's slow

I'll trade all my footsteps for a shot at tomorrow.

Tattoo my intentions across these streets of time

And fight till the future is once again mine.

'Cos I'm the immortal..Baptized in fire.

Unable to die, unless I desire,

I'm the light piercing the darkest dawn.

I'm the human spirit Walking on.

I'm down and so close to out

I'm the foot soldier who suffered the rout

But I'll stand again in conquest of pain...

To walk on as a king among men.

I'll make mistakes of that I'm sure.

Lose my strength when I need more.

Taste my fear in life's battlefields

But I won't trade my sword for the shield!!

An Encounter with the Dravidians!!

One of the notable features of the Indian Party System is the presence of a large number of regional parties. By regional party we mean a party which generally operates within a limited geographical area and its activities are confined only to a single or handful of states. The term ‘regionalism’ has two connotations. In the negative sense, it implies excessive attachment to one’s region is preference to the country or the state. In the positive sense it is a political attribute associated with people’s love for their region, culture, language, etc. with a view to maintain their independent identity.

But what actually are the implications when regionalism drives a community beyond just holding up its identity, when conserving one’s own language becomes more than a socio-cultural issue? This is what, as far I understood in 2 years, the Tamil Nadu politics thrives on. It cannot but be a concern of every right thinking man to live with the social anomalies in the so called Dravidian land. This is in fact my personal account as an ‘outsider’ to pen down some strange yet ironical experiences of mine.


The first question my landlord asked me while renting me the house took me by surprise. Mr. Ramalingam, my landlord was not interested in where I came from, where I worked. He rather asked me if I was an Aryan or Dravidian. That is not all, you need to pay more for the same house if you are an ‘Aryan’ ! You might be thinking then what decides whether you are an Aryan. Well , that is too simple for the people who claim that they, the Dravidians are true Indian and rest were nomadic groups who settled in ‘their India’. But is that historically true? Surprisingly enough, no one cares in Tamil Nadu. Their only belief that South Indians or the Dravidians true and pure Indians and rest ‘the north Indians’ are mixed blood or descendants of some nomadic tribe. This is infact the soul of every political agenda there as the names of the political parties suggest Annna Dravidra Munnetra Kazagam . Infact the first manifestation of regionalism was the demand for reorganization of states on linguistic basis, but the most effective play of regionalism was the victory of the DMK against Congress in Tamil Nadu in 1960s.


Now it is deep rooted than where it started. It’s a social issue and not confined to political parties anymore and its further implication whether grave or better can only be seen with years to come. This is just an personal attempt to bring out the irony of the much prevailing phenomena, with which perhaps every ‘North Indian’ who has lived there will agree.