Independence Day.....VALUE IT!

Independence day......the day we left the slavery of British and came into the total control of the ever faithful, trustworthy leaders who managed to stay afloat over several dead martyrs.

Most of us must have read "India's Struggle for Independence". It used to make my hairs stay upright, the very thought of a 21 year old going against the mighty "British Empire" following an ideology that holds obsolete importance in today's time!

I always wonder if I could take such a decision to sacrifice my life for people who I do not know and have no interest in knowing! DIE...DIE...! this 3 letter word scares the shit out of most, yes including me. And a 21 year showed the world that you do not live serving yourself. You LIVE serving others...!

While surfing the net I came across a poll asking people as to "whats your feeling about independence day...?" And I immediately decided to answer this question with the independence day coming close the patriotism was running very high in me. But then I just sat...sat...wondering, pondering as to what do I write? I had no words to describe what I felt freedom was?

Then I sat asking my friends(Faiz, Vishal, Pinto) the question and below is an excerpt from my conversation with them;

Faiz: "nothing special..."

Vishal:"got a break from office...."

Pinto:"HOLIDAY...........!"

And that's when I realised how straightforward and truthful answers they had given nothing to hide, because that was the plain truth. And yes even I felt the same....INDEPENDENCE DAY...nothing so special, just another day that comes and goes every year...

Everyone must have seen the movie "Rang De Basanti" a fabulous movie, how impeccably is the screenplay written and the actors in the movie just came alive...! HATS OFF to each and every person associated with the movie. It reignited the long lost patriotism that had died among most of us.....how could people do such madness, sacrifice lives for the sake of the unknown? I just loved and adored the movie.....!!!! And even then I'm blank as to what freedom means...how pathetic.

This year we celebrate independence when Jammu burns...! India a secular country, how secular are we..? I must say that we treat the so called minorities with more respect and privileges are bestowed on them by stepping aside the so called majority......yes India is secular!

So then what's so special about Independence day.....well its the single most day in the year that we mortals have the chance to cherish and thank the immortals for their bravery, their sheer belief that the seeds sown by them, shall bloom in the years to come and we the lucky ones would be grateful just to be able to say "PROUD TO BE INDIAN!".

Value it...Cherish it....but do not take it for granted. As it was gained fighting and it has to be held fighting.......

Jai Hind......!

Rajasthan Trip - Phase 1

History is something that has always enthralled me...which always pops up the HWW factor in my mind.."HOW?; WHY?; WHAT!". Was it really possible...? is what I usually thought.And the sense that people used to give a damn about their life and gave more importance to valour, integrity and heritage makes me always ponder as to how much have we humans evolved from then to now..!

An opportunity to visit the land of the KINGS- Rajasthan was a chance that I didn't want to miss at all.My colleague(a native of Jodhpur) Ankur had finally decided to tie the knot and like they say here to settle down. So then our planners (Tiju and Faiz) got into the action and started pouring ideas of what to see, when to go..etc. But the thing which constantly was hitting my mind was...."what to do?" It was good on their part they were taking the pain to jot down everything whereas there were four lousy people (Ajit, Vishal, Madhu and yes even me) who were merely loitering around not helping much but hey we really wanted to help, but its just that we did know how to express them. :-)

So then it was decided to book our flights via "Spice Jet" to Jaipur on 18th July and the return flight to Bangalore on the 27th. The idea was to visit as many places as possible in the stipulated time (which we were going to regret later...)

That was it we had the idea, the plan, the finance...... ;-)

But alas as it always happens a very "small" price inflation led "Spice Jet" to cancel all its flights to Jaipur (since the to and fro trip cost us a mere 5500 Rs.). An utter loss for the flight co. Hence what did they decide......well they decided that since the Indian public are used to the idea of adjustments they went ahead and cancelled their Jaipur operations!!! And in the whole mess we got stranded with literally no means of getting there by air since the air tickets, only one way itself was costing 5300 Rs which meant a complete overhaul of our budget system which our "accounts manager" Vishal seemed to oppose ( which had an overwhelming support).

Hell this trip was poised to be a mind blower even before we embarked....

So a change in strategy was what was required and hence we weighed our hopes on all too trust worthy "Indian Railways". that meant a complete change in plans, we added a few more destinations into our sight seeing list. Yup, we added Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Bharathpur to our list. Hence it was decided we were going to start our journey from Mysore to Agra and then to Fatehpur Sikri and finally into Rajasthan.

So we 5 friends (Tiju was going to meet us in Agra) gathered on that fateful day of 18th July at Mysore railway station. And were cracking meaningless jokes and laughing at all things under the sun. And yes Ajit Pintos was at his best of cracking ever lousy jokes!! So we all took turns to take a dig at the poor fellow.So there we were at the station waiting for our train "Swarna Jayanti Express". And as per the reputation of the Indian railways the train was late, man did that make us happy....! Of all the day the train decided to become late that day when we were travelling how more convenient can it get.

Well as obedient citizens we waited for our train to arrive and at last it did...about 1 hr and 10 min late. I had always wondered how people can spend days together in a train. I used to ask my mother;"amma how do people keep themselves busy and tidy..?" Well I was going to receive an answer for that the the end of my journey. We the LOUSY FIVE got into the train and clambered onto our berths which were waiting for us......