Survival of a believer

"Njandukalude naattil oridavela - Chandramathi"

I just finished a book by the eminent writer Chandramathi. The book is not a work of fiction but talks about her fight and survival against a rare type of cancer. The writer who had gone through trials and tribulations of the dreaded disease has beautifully expressed her life during that phase. It's full of hope which radiates to the reader. This book makes the reader think about love, life, hope, despair, triumph and might even kick off an introspection. It teaches you how to cope and fight against not just the dreaded disease but the life's unexpected setbacks. Every chapter starts with an one-liner or a famous quote which is deeply thought provoking. The book successfully emphasizes the importance of having a family, faith in god in one's life. I recommend it highly to anyone who's going through a low phase as this work of heart and soul definitely instills confidence and the will to fight in the mind. I'm sure there will be a definite difference in life after you read this

Thank you ma'am for the inspiring piece of work

Fakes all around the place - A tribute

I guess there is an amount of "fakeness" in every (Every ??? or may be most) human being. You take a look at the world and you can see a lot of fakes moving around in all shapes and sizes, You check out things in the market and you see fakes there also. Once I'd a conversation with a friend about the most desirable companies in IT sector. As we were talking about various things like HR practices, back ground checking, the pay packages, the usual blah blah, he made an interesting revelation that a prominent MNC bank doesn't care even if they find out their employees had produced fake experience certificates. Well this made me think a little bit deep into the matter and I just couldn't find a plausible explanation for that. Then I turned my eyes to the nature, the universe and I could see analogies there also like clouds looming up in the horizon threatening a downpour and the a couple of minutes later revealing a brilliant blue sky. I had an introspection and then found out that there is some "fakeness" in myself also. This saddened and amused me at the same time. Sadness because it was a hit on my ego. Amusement came from the fact that I'd been accepted by the world without any apprehensions. I just realized that the world doesn't have any problems in dealing with fakes. It's just like the other side of the coin, like black and white, like life and death, like love and hatred etc... you just can find zillions of analogies. So I just started thinking about the people around me and came across a specimen case who I thought was quite a natural(frankly speaking I don't like judging people because judging brings in inevitable comparisons which are just a waste of time and energy and keeps your mind off the track from the goal) but was actually a fake wearing the garb of a liberal, secular person. It was disgusting to say the least. He sure is a talented person but trying to be a "jack of all trades" is not just his cup of tea. I could see the poison filled fangs in that smile and intolerance he shows when someone criticizes him. And that was a revelation which left me reeling. I thought about this but nothing came out except the raw admiration to the guy's ability to fake. Hats off pal for carrying of that image of a natural.

As darkness looms ahead,
I could feel the chill of the poison filling my heart
Oh the great lord of fake
Surrender I do to you
Rein in my heart
Rein in my heart.

The pseudo-secular class

It's been quite a fashion to be branded as a secular in India and we see people doing anything to get that label, the popular being 'Hindu bashing'. The media especially the English ones accentuate this thought by their selective picking and highlighting of incidents where minority persecution is done by Hindu fundamentalists. And they do turn a blind eye towards the incidents where members of minority community are the crime perpetrators. This is pure double standards and actions by these elite strata of society goes a great deal in polarizing people on basis of religion and poses a great threat to the social fabric of the country. Unfortunately this has been taking place unabatedly for the past few decades and if you analyze the growth of BJP you can be sure of how much this class has contributed to its growth by their policies.
Taking a look at the "secular" class of India would throw some interesting details. Their jumping to the fore on Hindu atrocities including Gujarat riots(which is a permanent blot on face of India), molestation of Christian nuns, vandalism against artists etc which are really admirable, but if someone points out their criminal silence on the matters like the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, 1984 sikh riots, Christian insurgency in the North-East he is branded as a fundamentalist and the whole lot raises in unison to rip the person. I guess these "seculars" have a penchant to be in the limelight forever and best way for that seems to be the bashing of Hindus . However they don't realize that their one sided rantings help only in polarizing the country on basis of religion and it is driving the country to a terrible catastrophy. I wonder where this is headed to and how long India can hold on to the secular fabric that is so admired and celebrated through out the world.