Mumbai Terrorised

I was gazing from the balcony of my flat & saw the dark clouds hovering over the city.
These clouds signified the terrorised moments the city has witnessed over the last 3 days. Official toll till now counts to 195 but that is just a govt number. Hundreds of human lives have been lost. Nothing seemed rational, there is mourning & regret everywhere. There is anger in minds & feeling of helplessness in the hearts all citizens. Mumbaikars cant beleive such a terrorist activity has befallen the city in a massive scale. For more than 50 hours of valliant battle between the army & the terrorist, this was clear the terrorist were well prepared & had a well planned motive. The Taj, Oberoi, Trident, all 5-star hotels, became the victim of terrorism & hundreds of innocent peoples were brutally killed.
I wonder again how human beings could be so motivated to kill fellow human beings. I just cant comprehend whats in the mind of a terrorist. I consider he is just a sick person, but not mentally unstable. Terrorist are highly motivated beings, & the person who train them & actually unstable minds.
Its really frustating to see the Goverment be just a spectator in the hands of terrorism. Ample amount of criticsm is seen in news channels, & really Indian politics is surely lacking guts to handle terrorism. Its just the ordinary man is fed up of the robotic comment by our politician ("pls stay calm, we will do our best to curb terrorism...etc....etc"), which only sound too familiar for each terrorist activity, but hardly anything been done in this regard. I am not sure till what time this country has to bear the brunt of losing innocent life for terrorism. Even as I am writing this blog entry, at each moment I am trying to limit my frustations, & put only words of hope.
Like any other common man, I am too pissed off at the inability in our ways of handling terrorism. We are just helpless creatures at the mercy of terrorist activities. We have power but only for optical illusion. Reality is we fail to take it seriously; our politicians are only too bothered to seek & remain in power & they care least for anything else.
I mourn the death of each individual & would duly like to pay my tribute to them. My greatest regards to those fighting valiants who lost their lives fighting the terrorist. I have simply no words to express my respect for each martyrdom, the army man & the NSG.
I dont wish to discontinue with this blog because my feelings are not all expressed here. I have mixed feeling of hatred, sympathy, helplessness & hope. I am a no critic & no leader, but I certainly hope, somewhere this voice is raised in unison & its high time we flex our muscle against what is morally wrong & be pragmatic at handling critical issues like terrorism. Lets hope the sleeping minds are awaken & they pulled up their socks to couter attack against wrong deeds. Worst is over, lets now be prepared to do our best.
Bhola

Birthday blessings

Whew. I did not consider myself so sociable, but I am amazed today to findout, I have so many well wishers. Overwhelming messags/orkut scraps/mails from frens, relatives, office colleagues. Thanks to each one of you. You really made my day today. I felt so special.
Well again, sorry to say this has been a working day today & I am still at office. No plans as yet, probably my roomates have decided that weekend would be the best time to let me empty me wallet for a treat. Oh yes, my roomates, - 3 (Punit, Sagar & Jaggi) of them are hard-core violent persons & they are heartless too, yesterday they literally played soccer in form of giving me bumps. Poor me, I was so helpless & those ruffians showed no mercy with my back. There were 2 more frens & (Ajit & kamlesh) who showed their best talent in violence. I took an oath, will not live these guys when I have my turn in future. Sure.
Hm, well the birthday cake had been cut yesterday & we celebrated quite nicely, it was a college like affair; & then we went to play table tennis till late night & guess what, I was the winner & champ of yesterday's game.
The eyes opened late in morning today, only to find many missed calls & messages. Sorry again.
Reached office early today (in hope of leaving early) & again there were so many colleagues who greeted me Bday wishes eagerly. I felt so happy & so special. But still could feel yesterdays' pain :)
Well, well, I dont know what else to write, but I must pack up things now in order to leave early.
The day had been entirely good & happy. Perhaps I thought this could be my best & last bachelor birthday; my parents gave a proper indication today. Me getting married next year. No comments right now. I need some space please.
Thankyou again all of you who made me feel so special today. Your wishes & blessings counts to me.
Cheers
Bhola

Weekend Blues...

Its weekend & unseasonal rain in Bangalore has disrupted the India-England 4th ODI match.
What a pathetic moment I thought to write a blog. I was infact looking for options what else can be done. Yesterday was no fun & I had kept my room-key inside & went outside & added to my woes, my roomates were out of town & would arrive late in the evening. Entire day I had to look for shelter & food. It was then I really felt the words of famous song: "Ek akela is shehar me....raat me aur dophar me...abodana dhundta hai....aashiyana dhundhta hai..."
Wonderful song it is. Oks I was talking about the weekend blues. I realize whole weekdays I keep yearning for Saturdays & Sundays, & while during the weekends, I keep finding options how to spend them, only to realize later in the evening, the day was not at all worth anything except for good sleep. Perhaps I become too paradoxical about the way weekends should be.
At home I only sleep, sleep & contemplate of more sleep. At other times I think the day had been entirely wasted, since I didnt do any creative thing. Anyways, I am no good at it either, but I have general satisfaction of heart which always convey that my mood is set for the weekdays, after the mind is washed out of its office-shit during the weekends break.
Well, again this blog entry has taken many days only because of busy hours occupying me & preventing any poetic thinking & I was running out of ideas & mood to put some comments as scrap here.
Hey wait, day after tomorrow i.e. on 25th Nov, I shall be celebrating my birthday (dont mean any party) but I would like to have sometime out of office hours & wish myself Happy Birthday.
For time being now, the match have resumed & India have managed to score well in limited overs match & England have been given a daunting task of chasing a mammoth 194 in 22 overs.
So let me enjoy the game & see you sometimes soon. All the best England, hope you survive the series.
Cheers
Bhola

Mumbai ka Local...Yeh kahi aur ka nahi....

When you talk of Mumbai, the foremost thing which comes to mind is local train....the city's lifeline. Yes the Mumbai Local Trains which are world famous. These run in abundant here & are the prime source of convenience. Mumbai local trains are so famous; they are respected for their timings & are considered the lifeline of this huge city. The number of passengers who travel by local train is brainstorming. When you see a local plying on the subarban tracks with jam-packed people, you feel like the whole city has come out for an exploration. You again feel amazed by the sheer crowd all breathing into each others body & so seemingly adjusting to each others composure. Human beings appear like bunch of insects heavily packed.
Yes this was the initial feeling I used to had when I first started commuting with local train & always wondered what a pathetic way to lead life here. Always thought the biggest problem in Mumbai is to travel by a local train. Again at the same time I realized, without it, the city cant survive. Thats a fact. You get to see a real India inside a local train. You get provoked of your thoughts inside a local train. This inspired me to dedicate one entry in my blog solely for the Mumbai local trains.
Ok, for 2 years I have travelled on the Central line from Vikhroli to Dadar. That was about 20 mins odd journey each side everyday. So everyday for the 2 year period I spent 40 mins in local train. After the morning shower & in gentle professional attire, I used to leave for office all in fresh mood. Then arriving at the station & gazing at the time-board to look for the approaching local. Me & my then roomate Gurchet hardly used to miss the 9.23 AM FAST local from Vikhroli.
Many a times we were late by 5-10 mins, but it was contending when after reaching the station, the sweet & loud voice of the lady announcer would convince to all passengers that the local too, is late & is due arriving. That we thought was the greatest message of the day. We were so delighted & always used to thank the faithful 9.23AM FAST local who never betrayed us.
It was a like a bond the local had developed with us & we were too delighted by the timing service it offered to us. We were all praise to her & never ever boarded any other local, except when sometimes it was cancelled.
The local was faithful, no doubt, but me & Gurchet were pretty obsessed by the number of passengers is used to carry. We always contemplated why such a huge crowd boarded the same local as us. We pitied them.
Once getting into the local in an already packed compartment, the next thing was to fight an appropriate & comfortable position to get into. While Gurchet had mustered the art to get into the local as the firts person & hence occupy a comfort zone, I always thought its best to stay near the main door to get the fresh air, hence used to board last. It was good to stand at the door, but mind you it was risky too, because the compartments are already heavy packed & the locals ply at high acceleration. Nevermind, after a year of experience I preffered the corner side.
Hey, just a minute, there is a brawl between 2 people out there, one person is accusing the other that he had pushed him & that he has no manners how to stand in public. The argument gets heated up & both start abusing each other. It was quite fun to watch the scence, because you now, its just a war of words; people hardly get into physical action in local train, unless the situation is some exception. The rest of the spectators would ask both passengers to calm down, as these things keep happening in crowded locals. Both would be unconvinced & would frawn at each other. That becomes just a part of entertainment for the rest of the spectators. Shuuuu... & your destination station is to arrive next, & now you must arrange yourselves into another 'line' for getting down from the local. You always ask the fellow next to you if he is too alighting at the next station, otherwise, you politely ask him to excuse & give you way. The train halts at station in no time & you have inadvertently pushed the fellow in front of you, feets away on the platform. Everyone then starts running to reach a spacy zone ahead, because the next moment the platform will be full of crowd with no space for feet to adjust. You again experience Real Mumbai.
Once out of the platform, the entire freshness is washed out & you realize your morning office attire has turned into rough look, with the ironing of the dress all faded away & your dress is crumpled into a smothered paper to be thrown in the dustbin. But you are happy, you managed to reach office on time. :) You say thanks to the local train & happily walk away speedily in delight as if you have won some battle this morning.
This is the routine of an everyday commuter in Mumbai.

Cheers
Bhola