Feeling safe

My recent visit to Delhi some 7-8 months back had me being very cautious (though I guess those who know wht all happened will disagree) but I was!!! Atleast there was this constant sense tht this city is notorious for its treatment of women and so beware. Strangely I didn’t find any man staring (and by tht I guess women and even men wud know hw and where) or ogling and I am not talking abt just me but even at the other women. No comments either from any passerby or any other form of eve teasing, still I had this sense of apprehension.

On other hand is the comfort u feel when u r in some tribal region, esp in the hills. I ve never for a second thought twice about going for long walk, even in the wee hours in Darjeeling, Guwahati, Nainital and Ranikhet . Last year’s incident therefore came as a big surprise. It was in Lolegaon, in the Darjeeling district. We 3 frnds had planned our break from the city, not paying heed to many a well- meant- advises that lasted till the time we left home for the station. The journey and the time spent there is another story but I ll get back to why I was talking abt this….i was out for a walk and the weather cold (it was January!! Wht else cud we expect?) and a very dense cover of fog with reduced visibility to about 10 feet…(I was poor in maths so if I got it wrong pardon me!! But all I can say is tht I could hardly make out the trees at the sides of the road) . but I was having a wonderful time, njying the cold crisp afty, lost in some thought and at some turn there are 4-6 men taking a break from repairing the road and fagging. And thanx to having no experince of the sort in this part of the country walked on oblivious. Until I heard one of them make that weird kissing sound tht some men make tht makes ones skin crawl and want to get hold of them and give them a good bashing. That incident shook my false sense of comfort and since then I ve become a little careful L

Call me a fatalist but I believe that if things r meant to happen they can happen at the safest of place otherwise not even in the most dangerous ones…and before u argue, I also agree that it doesn’t mean that we go looking for trouble….

The point I am trying to make is tht so often we label things to be something and live our lives believing them to be true until something drastic happens to change tht…..the small- but meaning actions by the delhities r forgotten in the wake of the acts by some crazy members and hope to see that day when the city is really safe and I don’t hav to hear another scary story from the ex-army officer at NIPCCD….

Happiness

After days of moaning, grumbling abt life and the people in it I woke up feeling wonderful, Happy actually....wht had got me there?? still trying to figure it out but i guess it was hope....hope of having a better day and a better tommorw. This got me excited and i was planning stuff tht id like to do ( for those who hav known gemini's and esp a particular gemini frnd of mine will surely relate to the fact tht we love the flight of fantasy and invariably nothing much will come out of it but it fills u up with a grtt sense of joy and sees you through some real difficult times....

I was told that according to the hindu scriptures (pardon me coz i dont remember the exact words) - the person who goes to sleep dreaming of things and wakes up filled with the deisre to accomplish them is truly a happy person... found it profound and found instances of it in my life too....

2 different treatment for 2 invaders

Our biasness against Islam is too deeprooted....almost everychild brought up in a hindu household in ways(sometimes subtle sometimes blatant) hears why (s)he should be wary of them...an intersting example was in my own family...My mom was excited and happy to buy another hindu idol to add to the already long list and kool with us getting us a symbol of christianism at the idea pf the suggestion of getting a poor replica of a Mazaar she refused point blank....Christianity is still seen as a progressive religion and Islam as a not so progressive one and our own somewhere in the middle?? but then the concept of progress changes from time to time....
am still thinking how come we accepted certain aspects of Islamic culture as progressive and wonderful but not like as a whole and with the other invaders (the christians) we fall backwards and consider it all good....

Pets- my problem with the idea

A friend of mine had a bought rabbits, she always wanted a dog, but then had to settle for a rabbit and no amount of dissaproval, me trying to drill sense helped. Then my bro went ahead and bought an aquarium, everytime i took a look at it I felt sense of feeling trapped, guilt and desire to let them free. All i saw when i looked at them was they were in a cage, no matter how big or how beautiful and how many others they had for company. I remember reading in some literature book in school tht freedom was prized the most....Would you accept a so called beautiful life without having freedom? i guess many of us do in some ways and the question of wht really is freedom would also come up....
and the captor always had some fancy logical explanation for keeping one under captivity, my frnd's was tht they were better off and happier at with her at her place than with the shopkeeper who wouldnt feed tham properly....but in this dont we forget tht demand fuels supply? the more u buy the more they trap and the more they have for u to buy....how do we break the chain?

9 years on.........

Finally....differnt team almost 10 years down the line but the same venue and the same GOD playing....a differnt result....i dont even have to make an effort to remember that fatal day in 1999 sitting in a hotel room with my bro and a family frnd and biting my nail away, the plans for hitting the beach put on hold untill the winning run was hit. It never came!!!the GOD was in pain and made human, with belt slung around the waist, not playing any pull shot, he succumbed (trying to sweep, if i am not wrong) and u could hear the silence in the stadium and our hotel too....and then i heard my dear bro saying dont worry the rest of them can make atleast this much. It never happened and famous "tu ja mein aaya" used for the indian middle order happened again but this time with the tail. Looking at Wasim Akram (some1 i liked) dancing with joy made me furious and we switched off the television and decided to hit the beach, wanting to forget it all......but no it wasnt meant to be, no1 could talk abt anything else and wht made my blood boil was tht they all blamed the Great himself, forgetting everything else- tht he was in pain and we had got this far coz of him. We hit the beach and pushed it all to the back of our minds...but thnk of the team and esp the man himself......redemption happened today and what a way.....I HOPE THE GOD CAN BE GIVEN MORE BREATHING SPACE nw....