Just A Thought

We often get to hear that India is a nation of Gods. According to some theories there are approximately 36 Crore Gods and Goddesses that reside in the soul of India. Every state, every city, every town, every village in India has their own God or Goddess. Most of these Gods are revered and worshipped because of one or multiple miraculous deeds that they performed when they appeared on earth. Krishna, Shiva, Durga, Vishnu, Hanuman, Kali, Ganesh, Lakshmi and even minor Gods like, Indra, Varun, Vayu have numerous miraculous acts associated with them. Now, whether these are just stories or real miracles or if there are some other clarifications which can be given for them, we will discuss at some other time. Today I want to explore and understand a God who is not associated with any miracle throughout his appearance on earth, he couldn't fly, couldn't shift shapes and on top of that even though he is considered to be an incarnation of all powerful Vishnu, he had to depend upon a

According to Hindu belief system, its scriptures and books associated with it, the time is divided into four Yugas. It started with Satyuga when every one was righteous. It was followed by Tretayuga, the Yuga marked by the presence of Shri Ram and the way of life established by him. Then we entered into the Dwapar Yuga, when Krishna set foot on this earth and gave us a new way of life. And finally came the age or the Yuga in which we all were born i.e. Kali Yuga. The reason I started off with a brief description of Yugas is because if we take out Satyuga, the age where everyone was righteous and Kaliyuga, a time when which is marked by chaos, we are left with two Yugas, Treta and Dwapar. These two yugas were specifically important, because in both these Yugas, world witnessed the emergence of two iconic personalities, whose deeds were so great that they were conferred with the titles of Vishnu Avatars or Incarnations of Vishnu. With their deeds and efforts they established new ways o

On the evening of 23rd March 1931, when The British government hanged Bhagat Singh along with Sukhdev and Raj Guru, they were merely 23 years old. With a smile on their lips and sparkle in his eyes, they kissed the noose and met their death as if they were meeting a long lost friend. At 23 when our youth are still confused about what they intend to do in their lives, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev inspired millions of Indians with their revolutionary ideas and the call for complete independence and laid down their life for his nation. But today after 70 years of India’s independence, can we stand up and tell those martyrs that we have created an India of his dream? That their martyrdom has not been wasted and India has achieved total independence, from oppression, from obsession, and imperialism. The answer sadly is NO. We have not only failed Bhagat Singh but we destroyed his dream and built a nation that is being destroyed by its citizens and leaders more than its enemies. Bhagat

“A stone pelter is pelting stones for his nation.” Farooq Abdullah “Indian government should resume talks with Pakistan or be ready to lose Kashmir.” Farooq Abdullah “Valley is losing faith in Indian Democracy.” Karan Thapar It has become a fashion for the elite intellectuals of India to lambast every policy of the government or every action of the Indian Army in Kashmir as a fascist approach. And on top of that now they have started warning the government of India and its citizen that they are on the verge of ceding Kashmir to Pakistan. The first thing that I want to say to these pseudo seculars, pseudo-intellectuals, and pseudo nationalists is that they should stop looking at India as one big sized cake that can be sliced and distributed to anyone who comes with a knife. The thread of Unity that binds this nation may be multicolored, but it is not so weak that anyone can break it. Today everyone is concerned about the hard stance of the government against cross border terrorism, and

I was sitting in my room, watching a program on TV about a traveler riding on his motorcycle across the length and breadth of India. Many times when he was in the middle of a small village and was hungry or needed a place to stay for the night, he knocked on the door of any villager and he was provided with food and shelter. No questions asked. While watching this I remembered an incident narrated by one of my Uncles which I happened to overhear and it stayed with me. He told us that he had gone to play a cricket match with his friends and by the afternoon when the match got over, he was very hungry. The cricket ground was near a village. So he went to one of the houses in the village with a few of his friends and asked the old lady in the house if he could get something to eat, and the old lady without asking who he was and where had come from went inside and got him a plate full of rice and dal. What struck me about these two incidents is the colossal difference in the thinking betwe

The election results in the 5 states where polls were held recently threw quite a few surprises. BJP created a history of sorts by grabbing more than 300 seats in UP and also winning the highest tally of seats in the state of Uttrakhand in the history of the hill state. It also opened its account in Manipur for the first time. Congress on the other hand won handsomely in Punjab and also emerged as the single largest party in Goa and Manipur. If there were winners it is but natural that the other side would be occupied by some losers.  If the wins were spectacular, losses were equally surprising. BSP could only manage 19 seats in UP, its worst tally ever, and third straight defeat after 2012 and 2014. SP's family drama and Akhilesh Yadav's development cry and a so-called masterstroke of aligning with Congress did not convert into votes. Congress is all but finished in UP. However, the most shocking defeat story and the one I am interested in discussing here is the that of Aam Aa

A lot of times when I am sitting alone a voice from inside calls out to me and every time it poses a question, "Do I know the real me?" And every time I can't find an exact answer. Each one of us is born with certain qualities or interests which define our individuality, which separates I from WE. Some of us are artists, some are sportspersons, some like to play with numbers, some of us want to explore the science behind everything, some are explorers. The list is endless, but everyone has their individual trait which separates them from the rest of the world. It is an individual world within this huge world where we are most happy. But how many of us get to live in this world of ours throughout our lives? We may be rich, successful, powerful, surrounded by a loving family and friends but don't we all have a moment when we look at a painting, watch a match, look at a beautiful picture, watch an actor perform, and we want to be the person doing those things. That is th

Ever since the results for 2014 union elections were announced in India and Narendra Modi stormed to power in Delhi with an absolute majority, thanks to a large extent to a near clean sweep in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), BJP has been trying to wrest the state from the hands of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for a dual benefit of increasing its telly in Rajya Sabha considerably and to ensure that it has the best chance of getting back in power in 2019 Union Elections. Now that the Election Commission of India has announced the dates for elections in Up along with Uttrakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab, there has been a sudden surge in the political antics of all the parties to woo the voters. Today I am going to only talk about UP. Being the biggest state in terms of the Assembly seats and being the hub of political power in India ever since independence, this state deserves special status. Moreover, after a long time voters of the state are going to witness a