A Lot like Life

Life goes on and stops for none

I look back to see what’s come and gone

I realize it’s all been in vain, do I have a choice.

Do you think I can go back to where it all started?

Do you think I could change a few things here and there and

Make it picture perfect?

Life is what is gone and what will come

All that’s gone can never change

And that which is yet to come you cannot transform.

Mistakes are not what we anticipated

They are just the slips that were already premeditated.

We are at the mercy of time, helpless and so dismayed

Life is a wonderful journey

You find companions all along

Few stay throughout, some come and go

You have such souvenirs called Memories to keep with you

Memories of times that can never be relived

Sweet tear drops that they bring with them

Are worthier than the diamond studded band.

Life gives us a lot.

Lessons that are written in our book of Life

Bitter though at times, for the sweetener at the end.

Our experiences are build on tough grounds of our sour times

Our strengths come from the bonds that we have made so long.

A hundred reasons to shed tears, plus one for that golden smile

Life needs contentment from you, only thing

That makes this journey easier than it is

Contented you can be, if you have no complaints.

A handful we find who have seen happiness so closely.

We can join that clan if only we overcome our gluttonous desires

Life gives us a lot if only we have the eyes to see it!!

Living in Self denial

Life has always been a learning lesson for me so far. Life is your best mentor and time the best teacher. I have come across so many different kinds of people in this small journey of life and to mention the experience has not always been so great either. What I am today is the cumulative effect of days of retrospect and self judgment; I have left judging people cause as Mother Teresa had rightly said “when you judge people you have no time to love them”
Here is a strange acquaintance that I would like to share with you and remember this peculiar creation. I met this lady through a friend of mine, Liza. Liza was years older to me and her first impression was that of a very self deprived and depressed soul. I am personally attached to depressed souls, reason being unknown. My friend, who gets this credit of acquainting us, had to leave for some official engagement and after that I frequently started visiting Liza. We became friends; don’t take the literal meaning of the word, what a friend is beyond Liza’s common sense. I was also fool until then considering her to be a good human being. Believe me or not god has created such variants that each one is different in his/her own ways. A small mistake that he made was the differences are so very positive or negative, not balanced at all. I am too small to challenge the lord almighty, so I would not converse about better strategies of human creation.
Respect is the most important emotion and feeling in any relationship, be it with your parents or your friends or your boy friend. Honoring the person in front of you is the basic of ethics, no one can teach you that, you grasp it from your surroundings your upbringing. Liza was quite deprived of this lesson since childhood, so her actions were missing this first lesson of ethics.
Everything that surrounded Liza was much less than the image of perfection itself. She was living in a illusionary world, a world that she created for herself, which had people who she thought were not humans but slaves and she was the proud master of those slaves. She was a lady in her early 30’s who had a background of broken relationships, her friends sympathized with her for her past. She thought she is perfect and the best, no one could compare to her. People live in an illusion and I pity them. Liza was alone and she knew that, trying to cling on to relationships that were just an image not reality. Life for her was at her terms, human values and respect had no place in her moral dictionary. She was lost in her own wilderness. She was floating in a sea that had no shore and drowning was inevitable. Liza had some disorder, multiple personality disorder only difference in her case she knew about both the personalities.
One was the innocent lady in front of you who had cheap, cruel and selfish people all around her, who was being always used by others and the other one was the one that was hidden from the common world and needed such expertise to be seen. Liza had dressed herself up for this show called life. Her role was that of a poor deprived lady and backstage she was a selfish ungrateful and shameless girl. She made all her friends front stage only an unlucky few have access to the backstage reality. I would say rather lucky. I was one of them, but I don’t feel unlucky today, I thank god to have made her cross my life line. Liza loves sympathy; she loves when she is the star of the party and if she is not given undue importance that she claims she is not going to spare you from her vengeance. I was also one of them; Liza could never tolerate someone else but herself to get all the limelight.
First few experiences weren’t that bad because I was also playing my part front stage until then. But one day I got this peek-a-boo into her reality, thanks to Cyndi. Cyndi was a victim of this reality since the past 1 year. Cyndi was always a very practical and mature girl in my eyes. She was clear in what she wanted from life and her priorities set right. Staying together you tend to share your personal life and opinions about people with your room- mate. Cyndi had also made that mistake not knowing the real Liza. She didn’t spend a moment extra from the day she smelled her true colors, she refrained from sharing her personal life with Liza and neither did she share her actual friendship with Liza with others. Not because she wasn’t hurt or irritated but because she also had learnt the first lesson of ethics.
One fine day it happened I became the victim of Liza’s vengeance. I had tried to violate the laws. Lion is the king of the jungle and one who doesn’t honor him you know how insulted the king feels. I had challenged Liza’s authority. Someone had tried to show her the mirror. I was the one person who knew about both the Liza’s and even had the guts to tell Liza that I knew about it. I was at the risk of my life. This lady was shattered. She was used to her slaves and no one could raise their voices, she didn’t know people can have their own say also. She didn’t know people had their own voices, because her poor friends didn’t have the guts to make her come face to face with reality. The respected her, cause they had learnt the first lesson of ethics.
When you speak the truth people cannot take it and Liza couldn’t either. Her last resort was self destruction of my image in her circle of slaves and in front of me. She was unsuccessful in that too. People who have a clear conscience can never be broken Liza! They are always happy.
I always thought behind those stress lines on her forehead there is a disturbed soul, who has had a distressing past. I was highly mistaken. Those were the lines that were to misguide fools and trap her preys and later make them her slaves. I am lucky enough to have escaped and learnt my lessons. People like Liza are living legends from the clan of Ursula. I just wish Liza could come out of this illusion and her slaves can only help her out!
God be with you till we meet again.

Giesha- An Eye Opener

Something’s always interest you, specially the ones that sound more mysterious and forbidden. I as a child was always one of those who had this eye for mischief, sly as I would call myself then as a kid My grandfather had this huge library in his house on the first floor. It was always my fun place. From P.G. Wodehouse to famous five to Enid Bylton and Agatha Christie and my favourite genre horror. It had Stephen king and Omen all parts. Summer vacations were a gala time for us. Afternoons used to pass by reading these books in the cool breeze from the cooler though. Apart from these child fictions there were some other cupboards that had spiritual ,philosophy , travel , health and many more.
I happened to pick up this book once”Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthor Golden. This book had this peculiar cover that appeared to me more of a horror story then and that was the best bargain for me all time.
The story started in rural Japan, where Chiyo is sold to a Geisha house. She passes her childhood serving the beautiful Geisha ladies there, unknown from the fact that her fate would also lead her there some day. She is renamed Sayuri and finally Sayuri cannot escape this forbidden world. She grows up to become one of the best and most sort after Geisha in Japan. This was just a novel which has such unparalleled depiction of a world, a culture that is now almost wiped off.
In 2005 came the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Rob Marshall. This movie was a scene by scene depiction of what Arthor Golden had written in his book.
Many of us would associate Geisha to a world of adultery and prostitution, but there is a huge difference here. Geisha is made up of two words Gei-Art and Sha- person so literally it would translate to person performing arts such as Japanese classical music and dance.

There are two stages in this process- 1st is the Maiko and 2nd is the Geisha. Maiko are the apprentice or the trainees. They are trained by professional Geishas. Training starts at a very early age and mostly many girls are sold to geisha houses, which is not a very common practice in privileged districts.
The first stage learning stage- learning elaborate classical Japanese dance forms and arts. After passing this test the next stage of the training is ‘minarai’ when they are on field duty. They are relieved of their housekeeping duties and are then allowed to attend parties. They are taught conversation skills and learn gaming skills to entertain their clients. They do not indulge in any other forms of entertainment apart from dance, elaborate forms of conversation and distributing cards for different games, overall their presence is just a symbol of the elite society and does not include any kind of adultery.

GEISHA HISTORY- Source-http://www.japan-zone.com/culture/geisha.shtml
Geisha have their roots in female entertainers such as the Saburuko of the 7th century and the Shirabyoshi, who emerged around the early 13th century. They would perform for the nobility and some even became concubines to the emperor. It was in the late 16th century that the first walled-in pleasure quarters were built in Japan. Like so many aspects of Japanese culture, they were modelled after those of Ming Dynasty China. After they were relocated in the mid-1600s, they became known as Shimabara (after a fortress in Kyushu).
Meanwhile a marshy patch of land (Yoshi-wara) in Edo had been designated as the site for a brothel district under the auspices of the Tokugawa shogunate. Brothels and the like were not allowed to operate outside the district and strict rules were applied. Included among these were that no customers were allowed to stay in a brothel more than 24 hours; courtesans were to wear simple dyed kimonos; and any suspicious or unknown visitors were to be reported to the Office of the City Governor.
With Japan enjoying a long-awaited period of peace following centuries of civil war, many samurai found that society no longer had such need of their services. It's thought that many daughters of these formerly noble families became courtesans, with the result that quarters such as Yoshiwara and Shimabara were places of refinement and culture. Peace also brought an increase in prosperity and the rise of the merchant class, or chonin. Add that to the presence of artists and an atmosphere free of the strictures of the outside world, and it truly was something of an adult amusement park, with culture thrown in for good measure.
Within the hanamichi there were many different classes of courtesans, and over the decades the hierarchy and the standards expected of them changed many times, not always for the better. The situation deteriorated in the mid-18th century to the extent that a new form of entertainer emerged in Kyoto and Osaka. The earliest geiko were men, while the first females, who appeared shortly after, were odoriko (dancers) or played the shamisen. Female geisha soon became popular enough to be able to steal clients from the courtesans, and in the case of Yoshiwara it was decided to start a kenban, or registration system, to keep them under control and force them to pay taxes. It strictly controlled their dress, behaviour and movements and was considered so successful that it quickly became the norm at hanamichi across Japan.
These strict rules in fact allowed the geisha to flourish as artists and entertainers. Though more simply dressed than the courtesans, they became regarded as fashion leaders. But many aspects of the lifestyle itself were less glamorous. Young girls were sold into the geisha life by their families until the mid-20th century and were often subject to the ritual of 'mizu-age,' whereby their virginity was sold to the highest bidder. Such practices were eradicated after World War II and the geisha profession went into a steady decline. Today, if geisha are hired to entertain at a private party outside the upper eschelons of society, they are most likely to be seasoned veterans, more akin to your favourites aunt or even grandmother than the girl next door.

India Rising

Finally the verdict was passed over the most awaited Nithari killings case. Both Pandher and his household help Surinder Koli were sentenced to the gallows. Koli confessed to all his hideous crimes whereas Moninder Pandher had denied all such allegations and being sided by the Supreme Court, he was able to get a clean chit in all the Nithari cases so far.
So now what we awaken is to a new age India, where the law is not blind, where now you can expect your voice to be heard, where a small protest to any injustice will not be left unattended. Are we heading to a better iNdia??
I would say yes. We are now what would really personify the “Developing Nation” Justice by all means should be fair for any kind of development. What would be the say of our modern generation youth on this? Get heard is the buzz word. Speak up against injustice. It could be something as minor as getting the seat for a lady in a local bus that is supposed to be reserved for “Mahilaye” deliberately occupied by some uncouth man or could be some big shot breaking the queue at any ticket counter.
Rang De Basanti by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra was actually an inspiration to one and all. I remember watching this flick in my 4th year of engineering in Pune. As we all know pune has a real youthful crowd. And after the movie not one but it left the entire crowd cogitative alarmed and motivated. So, such inspirations really work! What we saw after that was the huge protest against the Jessica Lal murder case in Mumbai and Delhi and other places all over the country. Justice was given to Jessica’s case as well.
Indian youth today has lots of potential, can be compared to the likes of Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar and many more heroes of our Indian Freedom. India doesn’t need an Obama we have examples to be set from our past only and we have enough. We don’t need to venture to other territories to cite examples for our youth. Our youth would identify more with our past heroes.
After the terror attacks in Mumbai we Indians are left aghast! Is it some kinda game? India has become the dart board for all targets. Is it so easy to break into our country and get away just like that? Salute to the NSG commandos, the real heroes in the real sense of the word. A small message for the youth here, it’s you who can make the difference. Small unattended actions that we might ignore just to not get into the mess are actually the ones that we need to take up as the cause for a better future a better India. The future is in our hands. We need to make a difference, start at grass root level form your house to your schools/colleges to your offices. We need to spread this flame of patriotism. The modern day patriotism doesn’t mean standing at the border armed with guns. It has a new dimension to it, we just need to view it with a new outlook!!