Day 16

February 12, 2010
08:15 P.M.
Friday.

How often does it really happens that after getting up late in morning you directly rush towards your television anxiously to watch the latest updates on some news channel ??....Today, it happened with me. Last night, before sleeping I told mom that tomorrow is a big day....not because of Maha-Shivratri but because of screening of a movie....a movie that has been hitting the headlines continuously for almost a week....a movie whose name is "My Name Is Khan".

First of all a very happy Maha-Shivratri to all of you....may lord Shiva continue blessing your lives always. Now, coming directly to the topic which has captivated my thought process from a long time but recent developments in that matter has agitated me from top to bottom. Well yes you figured it right....I'm talking about the outrageous "Marathi Manus" campaign set off by Shiv Sena and its break-away party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Such movements in Mumbai that is the economic capital of India really forces us to reconsider our status as a democratic nation. To understand the situation lets have a close look over these two parties.

Shiv Sena, founded in 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray with an idea of securing the rights of native people of Maharashtra from its foundation chose an easy way to get into limelight. They just pick a soft target, arouse the feeling of hatred of locals against them by misguiding them and wohaa....they are famous. In its initiation phase Shiv Sena fired a horrid movement against South Indian migrants, claiming that they are decreasing the employment opportunities of locals under the "Maharashtra for Maharashtrians" campaign and threaten them until they left Mumbai. This campaign was powerful enough to set Shiv Sena in the state. After these reforms Balasaheb Thackeray and his T company were projected as the chief patron of marathis. From its formation Shiv Sena had no proper ideology they just manage to steal highlights by creating chaos in state over different matters, by doing such deeds they have tried to develop an environment of religious and regional extremism. From that time Shiv Sena has ruled or rather I should say dictated on their terms in Mumbai until it broke up into two camps over the succession dispute between Uddhav Thackeray(son of Balasaheb Thackeray) and Raj Thackeray(nephew of Balasaheb Thackeray) in January 2006. Raj Thackeray who was an active leader of Shiv Sena was considered as the potential successor of Balasaheb by many party activists including himself, but when Balasaheb declared Uddhav as his successor Raj decided to quit Shiv Sena and established a party of his own known as Maharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) with his supporters.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, was found in 2006 by Raj Thackeray with a motive to project development as the prime concern in regional and national politics soon left the idealistic path of progress and development and followed the path of Shiv Sena for gaining quick popularity....unfortunately, in which they succeeded also. This time the target was set as the north Indians or the 'Hindibhashis'. MNS abolished the employing of north Indians especially people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in Mumbai and Maharashtra. The outburst against North Indian took a violent face resulting in many clashes, many taxi drivers and students were beaten up by MNS activists (rather i should use thugs !!) and were threaten to leave Mumbai. The main agenda of MNS was to gain the support and sympathies of huge unemployed youth. By this campaign Raj Thackeray became popular in a fortnight. When his popularity grew further and started superseding the popularity of Shiv Sena leaders then it resulted into a clash between the two parties. From then both parties are constantly creating issues over different subject like hindibhashi, Mumbai for all to earn some browny points and to gain an edge over the other.

Shiv Sena in this matter was no dumb to take a lesson from Raj' s campaign and also jumped into the "Marathi Manus" crusade in their own way. Along with the common man they started criticizing eminent personalities and idols like Mukesh Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Gandhi and most recently SRK which helped them to steal headlines from MNS quickly. Some of the issues proclaimed by T Company leaders on which Shiv Sena is registering their protest are :

• Shiv Sena will not allow Australian Cricket team to play in Maharashtra to protest against the attacks on Indians(or Bharatvanshi) in Australia.

No matter how many North Indians or simply Indians Shiv Sena and MNS attack in Maharashtra....these damn Ozzys !! how dare they attack an Indian....its our exclusive right !!

• Shiv Sena says Sachin Tendulkar should ask for an apology for whatever he said over Mumbai issue. Further Balasaheb says in his party's mouthpiece Saamana that " Play cricket, not politics....people of Maharashtra will not tolerate you on this."

Let me first quote what Sachin exactly said "Mumbai belongs to India. That is how I look at it. And I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that but I am an Indian first"....well I don't find anything in his statement for which he should be apologetic and that too Balasaheb.... no way !!....and to Balasaheb....lets leave the toleration issue to the people of Maharashtra only....soon we will see the result.

• Shiv Sena is protesting against SRK's recent flick My Name Is Khan....reason being his statement on inclusion of Pakistani Cricket player in IPL season 3. Further Shiv Sena demands that Shahrukh should ask for apology again from Balasaheb for endorsing players of a terrorist nation....moreover Shiv Sena's activists are addressing SRK as terrorist.

Let me again quote what SRK said exactly on this matter "I truly believe Pakistan players should have been chosen, They are the champions, they are wonderful but somewhere down the line there is an issue and we can't deny it"....well again I can't find anything that may hurt the sentiments of an Indian or for a take a marathi and after all sports are meant for bridging the gap between people. And for that case remember Javed Miandad....Mr. Thackeray ??

In 2004 during his visit to India Javed Miandad was invited and offered a grand daawat at Maatoshri (Home of Balasaheb). Thackeray lavished praise on him for his performance in Sharjah, especially in a match against India. This meeting was even reported in Saamana. After meeting Miandad, Thackeray even addressed the media waiting at his residence saying, ‘I like Javed as a cricketer and cannot forget the lofty six he hit off Chetan Sharma to win the Australasia Cup in Sharjah in 1986’.

For your information Miandad is related, by marriage, to Dawood Ibrahim, the prime accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. Miandad’s son Junaid is married to Dawood’s eldest daughter Mahrukh Ibrahim. Now, after reading this piece of information whom would you like to call terrorist SRK or Thackeray ??


There are many such incidents which can be stated against T company....allegedly it is also said that Sena also does hafta vasooli in the areas dominated by it. Now, this is upto the citizens of Maharashtra and Mumbai who need to be strong and retaliate against such political leaders who are dividing us for their greedy intentions. Come on people lets show these morons that we believe in unity....we believe in diversity....we truly believe in India. Today, I salute all Mumbaikars and especially SRK for showing T company that their vandalism is really very small against the courage of true Indians....Mumbaikars have just showed these Thackerays that we the people of India believe in democracy. Lets take a pledge to keep the feeling of brotherhood and unity high above the regionalism and the religiousness !!



May god bless our Unity,
Ravi Sharma.
(A proud Indian....today and always !!)


P.S : Sorry friends for breaking the promise of making Incredible India as my next post....but I think you people understand !!

Day 15

January 18,2010
06:32 P.M.
Monday.

Heyy everybody....I'm back on the blogger with another post and that too within a week....now that indicates the level of our 'foktaii' or idleness these days. Well as we all know days of comfort never last for too long as we had to resume our college from today. Usually during holidays or at time of our GT's I used to develop a habit of getting up late in morning....rather I should say getting up early in noon....and even after awaking I take a long time to regain my consciousness. But today, it was all different. Noticing my pace....mom inquired about my intentions and she was 'totally shocked' after learning that I am getting ready for college !!....let me quote her exact reaction which goes like "abhi se college ??....abhi to exam khatam huye dus din bhi nahi huye hain....collg abhi se khul gaye kya ??"....then it took me another half an hour to make her understand that in all other previous semester there was also no such thing like semester break....we use to take that break on our will and this time for a change we are not taking that huge break(although the inner me was aware of the fact that this was not for a change....this time our intentions were a bit different !!)

After that the time that we spent at college was also superb....I mean it was really awesome to see the faces of our respected faculties who were jolted after seeing us at the college in the very beginning of the session. It was fun to see the condition of faculties who were in a great dilemma after our traumatic appearance. Although the strength today was only thirteen but it was enough to compel them to move their butts to the classroom and take the lectures. The situation can be easily estimated by the instance that the time table which was in effect from the 11th of January was circulated to the concerned faculties after our appearance in the college. Well the most positive thing about the time table of this semester is all senior faculties are allotted to us this time time. Well I'm afraid that I'll be able to enjoy these moments for two days only because I have to leave for Mumbai on 20th.

Ahh....Mumbai....another excursion and I guess it will be the last one in my engineering tenure so I want to enjoy it completely. Here, I would like to tell you that I'm a touring freak. I love to visit different places, different cities, roam there, meet people of different cultures and know about them. Well the only reason for my this passion is the real incredibility of incredible India. India is said to be the land of cultures, religions and diversities. Geographically, it is distinguished by the rest of the Asia by the great Himalayan range and stretches upto the Indian Ocean in the south and from Arabian Sea in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east. Amidst these boundaries India virtually holds every imaginable landscape. An abundance of mountain ranges and that too in every region, rivers, national parks, forest etc provide copious opportunity for adventurous activities such as trekking, river rafting, camping etc that fascinates me the most. I have already been to many parts of this divine land but still there is a lot to discover about it. I would love to give you a glimpse of this splendiferous country but then this blog post will break all the records of lengths, but I promise to deliver that to you in next post.

Today, when I came back from the college in the evening I was traversing through the various channels on television and found something to be cherished about. The legendary song "Mile sur mera tumhara" is being re-picturised and i guess re-recorded also under the name "Fir mile sur" featuring Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Salman bhai and many others and whose launch is scheduled on the 26th of January thats Republic Day. I still remember when I was small and there was no flood of such commercial television channels the stand alone entertainer was Doordarshan. Although the telecast of each day always used to began with Vande-matram still the frequency of other patriotic and nationalistic songs immensely increases while approaching towards any such National Holiday. I hope almost all of us have at least listen it once....any way for the ones who haven't and for them who wants to hear it again I'm posting it here.

Now, this is a song which is self sufficient to project the unity among the different diversities in India whether be it region, religion, culture or just anything. In that promotional video for fir mile sur I found Salman Khan saying that this song is almost next to National Anthem for India which is not wrong in any sense. Well I'm very much eager to see the new version of this great song. On the closing note let me wish you a a very happy republic day in advance, as would not be able to go online from 20th to 27th of January, till then be good, do good and keep loving your nation !!

Long Live India
Ravi Sharma

Day 14

January 12, 2010
01:03 PM
Tuesday.

First of all to start with....A Very Happy New Year to all of you....may this year bring new heights of success for you and add new accolades in your life. A new year has just commenced...full of new hopes....new targets and not to forget new resolutions, leaving behind the memories of the old one. Lets hope this year will be peaceful, brighter and more prosperous for all of us.

Phew....again a huge break....again many excuses (though some are justified too)....but OMG !!....I forgot the first anniversary of my blog that was on 8th of January....oops I missed it....anyways belated Happy Birthday my blog. Well quickly coming to the main concern of today's post....how many of you know that 12th of January is celebrated as "National Youth Day" in India....and how many of you know that on whose birth anniversary this day is celebrated ??....If you don't know....don't worry you are still in majority !!

On 12th January, 1863 a boy named Narendranath Dutta was born in Calcutta which was then part of Bengal Presidency of slave India, who later turned out to be a legend and was known as Swami Vivekananda to the whole world. The same Swami Vivekananda who changed the way the world look at India, the same Swami Vivekananda who showed a path of success and enlightenment to the Indian Youth. The one who taught the lessons of spirituality , self control and human service to the whole world. He was the chief disciple of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and later established Ramakrishna Mission on his name.

Since birth Narendranath was more inclined towards spirituality and realization of god. While searching for a man who could directly demonstrate the reality of God, he came to Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and became his disciple. As a guru, Ramakrishna taught him Advaita Vedanta and that all religions are true, and service to man was the most effective worship of God. After the death of his Guru, Vivekananda became a wandering monk, touring the Indian subcontinent and getting a first-hand account of India's condition. He travelled through rail and road to different parts of the country and studied various cultures and literature. He also gained information about various religions being worshiped in India. He visited almost every part of India and in this continuation he lastly visited southern India. At Kanyakumari, the Swami meditated on the "last bit of Indian rock", famously known later as the Vivekananda Rock Memorial for three days. At Kanyakumari, Vivekananda had the "Vision of one India", also commonly called "The Kanyakumari resolve of 1892". He wrote,

"At Cape Camorin sitting in Mother Kumari's temple, sitting on the last bit of Indian rock - I hit upon a plan: We are so many sanyasis wandering about, and teaching the people metaphysics-it is all madness. Did not our Gurudeva used to say, `An empty stomach is no good for religion?' We as a nation have lost our individuality and that is the cause of all mischief in India. We have to raise the masses."

Vivekananda Rock Memorial

Swami Vivekananda went to Chicago to attend The Parliament of Religions. His journey to America took him through China, Japan, Canada and he arrived at Chicago in July 1893. But to his disappointment he learnt that no one without credentials from a bona fide organization would be accepted as a delegate. He came in contact with Professor John Henry Wright of Harvard University. After inviting him to speak at Harvard and on learning of his not having credential to speak at the Parliament, Wright is quoted as having said, "To ask for your credentials is like asking the sun to state its right to shine in the heavens." Wright then addressed a letter to the Chairman in charge of delegates writing, "Here is a man who is more learned than all of our learned professors put together."

The Parliament of Religions opened on 11 September 1893 at the Art Institute of Chicago. On this day Vivekananda gave his first brief address. He represented India and Hinduism. Though initially nervous, he bowed to Saraswati, the goddess of learning and began his speech with, "Sisters and brothers of America!". To these words he got a standing ovation from a crowd of seven thousand, which lasted for two minutes. Dr. Barrows, the president of the Parliament said, "India, the Mother of religions was represented by Swami Vivekananda, the Orange-monk who exercised the most wonderful influence over his auditors." He attracted widespread attention in the press, which dubbed him as the "Cyclonic monk from India". The New York Critique wrote, "He is an orator by divine right, and his strong, intelligent face in its picturesque setting of yellow and orange was hardly less interesting than those earnest words, and the rich, rhythmical utterance he gave them." The New York Herald wrote, "Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation." The American newspapers reported Swami Vivekananda as "the greatest figure in the parliament of religions" and "the most popular and influential man in the parliament".

Swami Vivekananda not only helped to restore a sense of pride among Hindus over their religion but also enlightened the Indian Youth and provoked them to be thoughtful and be united. In many institutes, students have come together and formed organizations meant for promoting discussion of spiritual ideas and the practice of such high principles. Many of his quotes were responsible for this....some of them are :

• “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.”

• “We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”

• “We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.”

• “The goal of mankind is knowledge ... Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.”

There are many such quotes said by Swami Vivekananda which elucidated the thinking of many Natonal Leaders and inspired them. He will be remembered as a great spiritual leader and will be seen as a great idol for youths. Today's post is completely dedicated to this great man who is regarded as one of India's foremost nation-builders. To end with

"Arise, Awake! And stop not until the goal is reached"

Wishing you an enlightened year ahead,
Ravi Sharma