A Bal Krishnan Blog

उखड़े उखड़े से कुछ अल्फाज़ यहाँ फैले हैं; मैं कहूँ कि ज़िन्दगी है, तुम कहो झमेले हैं.

Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year 2011


Towards the end of the December, the flow of greetings via SMSs and mails and the ads of fun-sellers have started to tell us that something significant is going to happen and we have to rejoice it. It’s a new year. 

Actually, per se there is nothing remarkable in a new year; it’s more or like the same as a new month, a new day, or so: just the punctuations made to make the otherwise a frightening eternity, convenient to human perceptions and idiosyncrasies. It’s just a unidirectional stream of time passing constantly and winking at us. But, we have to celebrate it, for, to celebrate is human. And that’s why I want to cheer up all and wish everyone a happy new year. IN FACT, I wish all a happy new year, if it's really possible; and more so if my wishes could make it possible. I wish!

For all of my friends, I’m saying, I hope the next year’s time will be utilized by you very well, and will bring good lot of satisfaction to you! I appeal you to maintain all your good enthusiasm and cheering spirit. I assure you of my company everywhere from the alcoholic cheers to the saline tears!  

I wish a very happy new year to one friend of mine, Satyajeet, who like most of the other Indians, still harbours a strong feeling of patriotism; and does whatever he feels, can make India better. Besides working hard and honestly in his office, he remains very careful in consumption of power, water, paper and yes, money. He tries to save a lot of money so that he can spend it liberally as tax to the people’s government at all his dining, riding, travelling, purchasing, ..-ing, ..-ing, …-ing. (except breathing). He knows very well that we have to give a lot of money to the government, because it’s the people’s government. It is of people, by people and for people. It is our moral obligation to cooperate this system. He becomes just amazed when I reveal to him the idea that to serve the government has no longer remained equivalent to serving the nation. 

Yeah, it was a dream; but it has remained a dream. After a period of 63 years, the scenario remains still that if you want to really protect people’s interest now, you must shoot away the people who are busy making their fortunes by hard-earned money of people and those who make and maintain laws to defend them. Only the ethnicity of enemy has changed.

I wish a very happy new year to Jokhu kaka from my village who always remains very keen to understand the world’s dynamics through daily newspapers and is very optimistic about the society’s future (who can be more optimistic than the person who still believes that whatever is presented before you is the truth and that the common man is still counted when talked about India or the world?). I hesitate deeply to tell him that the drama is over..now he has to fight himself for what he feels is right. The mirage of democratic state has disappeared..there is no nation…no representative…no concern of people’s cause. Regardless of the boundaries of profession, be it legislators, corporates, journalists, judiciary or bureaucracy, a unifying thread of stinky corrupt ambition for personal prosperity binds all together; whatever conflicts surface out, result either due to business conflict or are necessary to show off. The world has reverted to its medieval barbarism; but now, it’s rather sophisticated. If he wants to protect his future generations, he has to rise against this armada of crooks himself and root out this entire new face of empire.

How can I tell him that he is living in an era when all the divisive lines of principles, obligations, profession, affiliations have obliterated to give way to a new kind of global brotherhood aimed at mutual cooperations needed to exploit the earth and its resources (the most important one, human resources).
 
I wish a very happy new year to the minority people (err..don’t misunderstand, I’m referring to the people who still think they can make big changes in the system, no matter what the other people say). It’s very difficult to appreciate the difference between glamours of right and might. But, now we don’t have time to waste on such nonsenses….don’t you see how fast we’re progressing anyway?  I’m afraid to say that society no longer needs them to make its year happy. Fool, it’s not time of ‘Gandhi’, it’s time of ‘Guru’ (Guru Kant Desai, Maniratnam’s). Stay off and let me celebrate the New Year party with A Raja.
 
Then, I wish a good future to the new crops of Indian educated youth which is cultivated by selling them professional degrees just on paying appropriate fees. Believe me, where is money, there is degree; and who doesn’t like this?  

I know, for any sane person, it’s tough to be happy in this era; but, if you won’t be happy, the coming year will not be happy. Yet, the year has to be happy… For any measures! Redefine the standards of happiness. Take cocaine..stimulate your hedonic centres…adjust your happiness threshold. Don’t fear, this is the demand of hour and we have been doing it. Everything in the society that may disturb our conscience and that way sleeps of nights, we try to ignore! We try to become immune to corruptions, used to the dirty politicians and want to rejoice glamour of dishonesty. We have to be happy, so we attempt to redefine the morals. To eradicate the illegal activities, just legalise the corruption. Today is the time, our society really needs cocaine: of corruption, money and glamour! ….Because the year has to be happy.

I really want to wish now a happy new year to a few people like the IAS Surendra Singh who has recognized himself and his duty very well. From the very first month he was appointed as a collector, he has proven that corruption can be efficiently checked in all the sections of public service provided the administrator is really passionate to do so. He is a big slap to the people who attain even higher authorities but keep defending their submissiveness to the polluted system. I wish a long and successful tenure for you sir!

I devote my end of year evening in respect of a few people who are the real torch-bearers of truth and the right. I’m wishing all the best to the people’s leaders like Aung san suu kyi and the voices of truth: Assange or Tarun Tejpal.  

However we have been boasting of a golden era of democracy and human rights; the grim truth is that we are still living in a dark age.

 I wish that my wishes could have been realized merely by wishing; but, I don’t nurture any such belief. My dreams need solid, real-world fuel for their realization. If you really want to bring the morning, you have to turn the Earth around….gone are the days when sun used to appear just on praying! 2011 years passed: it’s important, but only if it really signifies something. Numbers matter only till they are associated with something material; otherwise they become only the numerologists’ wonderland.

He who laughs
Has not yet heard
The terrible tidings. -Bertolt Brecht

Friday, December 24, 2010

The first Spandan

Hi the world of blogs!
Spandan word stands in Hindi for the ‘heartbeat’, or ‘pulsation’. Prior to putting up anything else here, I feel it worthwhile to talk something about why this word enthralls me and why I got enticed to use this word for my blog; the corollary of which will also be what range of substances this blog is meant to encompass in the forthcoming posts.

On hearing the word ‘spandan’, the objects that pervade our minds are sort of or somehow related to: life, enthusiasm, passion, emotions and constancy. And that’s what this blog will be all about!

For me, the elements that comprise life are: Energy (or optimism), Curiosity (or reasoning), Changeability (or progressiveness), Sensibility and Compassion. This very type of life is that the first command to live: the first spandan, asks us to adopt…A life progressing ceaselessly, against all the odds, always afresh, and spreading love and energy in all of its surroundings! These are the elements that accomplish a life to be: Satyam (true), Shivam (good) and Sundaram (Beautiful)!  This is when a life becomes not only a thrilling trip, but also a sacred duty! A duty that one has to perform on one’s own, without seeking the help of even the non-existents.

Spandan is the song of nature. One may perceive it as the command to a warrior; the love song expressing the deep, tender feelings from the closest to one’s heart but too distant to be heard or seen; or a melody that forces one to contemplate over the magnificence and richness of beauty the nature possesses. In any case, it is the stimulus that keeps reminding one to move on, celebrating the festival of life!

It’s easy to give up, blaming the unavoidable factors; it’s easy to be pessimistic; it’s easy to lose one’s conscience! But, it’s always easier to commit suicide than to live. Life is not all about easy things. It’s a mission to be accomplished: full of obstacles, lots of background music as well as lots of noises. It’s a sang-dil haseena whom one has to impress.

Only if one comes out of this whole journey with one’s conscience unscathed and the spirit uncompromised; her/his affair with life has been successful! And one has gotten message of the spandan right!