Freedom, expressed

"What is freedom of expression? Without freedom to offend, it ceases to exist". So said Salman Rushdie. A lot of us would agree to it, maybe even swear by it. The reason is simple enough, every person in this world is unique in his own way and is entitled to have an opinion. Hence it is justified for a person to think that his take on a subject is accurate and therefore the world should accept it. Thus arises debate and for the more belligerent souls, an arguement and maybe a fight would not be far behind. Well, what happens when a certain individual has accepted an ideology and then as time passes by, he swerves from it? Change in perception, is after all, human nature. Would he be condemned by his fraternity, shunned by all those who had looked up to him admiringly or in reverence?

Well, that has just been the case with Mr. Jaswanth Singh, our former financial minister. Jaswanth Singh, a veteran politician was dragged into controversies because of his book "Jinnah:India-Partition-Independence". Apparently, in this book he had yet again strummed on a sensitive issue, the partition and who was responsible for it. According to this book, he portrays Nehru and Sardar Vallabhai Patel as the demons responsible for the partition. Jinnah is visualised as a lesser, maybe even the more admirable of the trio, the consequences of whose actions still bring out feelings of animosity and stir painful memories for most residents of the sub continent. But, isn't history itself an opinion? A prejudiced treatise on social conditions and traditions? In any case, the whole truth wouldn't be unveiled, would it? (Like the legend of King Arthur. Who knows if there was a Camelot?) In most cases it is romanticized, sugar coated and often manipulated to depict the glory of a nation or a race. Of course, there are those who think otherwise and have tried to disagree, Jaswant Singh being one of them for which he has been condemned by his berthern. Him being a senior party member of Bharatiya Janta Party, known for its Hindutva ideology, was literally a scrumptuos feast for the eternal mud flingers, fault finders, chair pullers and the like. The book was banned, so was Singh from the BJP.

This whole issue paints a much more profound picture. Was Jaswanth Singh, who had been in the BJP for over a decade, unaware of the party's ideologies? Certainly not. Just that for once, he stood up for his intellectual views and personal priorities. Trying to set his expulsion as an example to the rebels within the party, BJP is trying to clean up the chaos that had seeped into the party mechanism. After all, the lesson has been learnt. Maybe the political scenario would improve henceforth, as the Opposition of a country should have a strong grip on issues which is hardly the case with BJP.

Was Jaswanth Singh right in bluntly putting his views forward or was it a way of showing his disapproval of the party ways or was it publicity for his book, he can only tell. Maybe freedom of expression was his way of finally attaining freedom from this mindless power game. Only time shall tell.

Coke float,dad and I...

Well, my dad is great. As in really great. He's a doctor. Self-explainatory huh? Well yeah it is... Kinda..umm I think. Well, firstly, he has nooo idea, absolutely no idea whats going on my life. Secondly, he thinks I'm still, what, a four year old kid in pigtails! Ok, so P, thats why I wasn't hyper excited at the prospect of going out shopping with my dad. Well, I'm a self confessed shopaholic and I'm those kinds of women who thinks a girl can never have enough. I mean just telling P how many kinds of shoes I wanted made him gasp! Ok, so we went shopping, my dad and I. The whole ride to the shopping mall, was spent telling my dad at placements! Yep, you heard it right, which companies were coming to my campus and all. I was trying to tell my dad about really cool ideas like, a couple of my friends trying to go into the agriculture business and he scorned it, yep he laughed at it without even letting me finish. If that wasn't snobbing me enough, I had to buy a kurti, an orange kurti, when I wanted a black chic skirt! Sigh! I stood in line to pay the bill, when he was standing out oblivious of the world around him.

Next stop in our bonding trip was McDonalds. I wasn't even hungry but finally gave into him 'cos maybe I thought he wanted to eat there! I was trying to tell him how MCD worked out cheapest for us, me P and the rest of us, permanent members of the perennially bankrupt assosciated. He wrinkled his nose with a disapproving nod. Well, he also compared this burger to the one he had a couple of years back when Rang De Basanthi had released. By now, I was open jawed. Come on, RDB? That was like 5 years ago!!! After the whole episode was over, the only question he asked on our way back, "Whats so much fun in what we did? I mean that was a hangout right?"Sure dad. Sure!

I love my dad. But, the thing is he fails to treat me as an individual capable of taking mature decisions. P says that's because I behave like a kid most of the times throwing tantrums and all. Leaving all that aside, the eerie and uncomfortable silence the whole time we were out, was because I think he felt left out from my life. Maybe the realization finally hit him, that I had grown up. Maybe......

Strange Love....

Well, ok P I admit, I cannot walk with heels on. There! Happy(That doesn't mean I will stop wearing them!)? It was a beautiful day today, my favourite weather(all cloudy but no rain!). So P and I decided to embark on a small adventure of our own. We wanted to do something really wild, like go bungee jumping wild wild, like those insanity waves which just hit you and you remain restless till you do something impulsive, that wild! More the merrier, so we decided to call our friends U and G, who were jumping at the prospect of adventure(Insanity is in the air I presume).Ok, I know I'll sound cliched but I'll just say it anyways. Initially I thought it was more of an adventure, visiting new parts of the city(in a train) I had never heard of, let alone been to, but the journey proved as an insight into myself among other things. Hyderabad is a huge city. I mean huge! Where I live, study and hangout are all three different areas, but maybe they just account to one- fifth of the whole city(combined of course!). G and I were in for a rude shock when we got down the train, it was as if we were transported to another area, a smaller village or something, with a largely Muslim population. Which freaked G out. Me, well that's another story. The place was well how do you put it, dirty. Not that I'm a neat-freak or something, but I just couldn't digest the fact that there were areas like this in Hyderabad. It had drains, open sewers, pot holes and it smelled. Not that the crowd was great either. The guys were pretty excited, P said something about it being exotic! U was all cheerful for... ummm... well he's usually cheerful, I think. It was not as though it was a slum, but I couldn't stop judging the place. Not that anybody said anything to me(not with P and U around!). I definitely can say, I would never go to that place all alone, its those places which creep you out instinctively. P and U maybe right when they say its wrong to judge a place, there is equal good as there is bad everywhere, but as a girl I think that I should go with my instinct. Or maybe its just my paranoia speaking.
Love makes people do strange things, maybe not love, maybe just the anticipation of love or romance or whatever. They are complex things, liking and loving, going out and commitment, date and a hang out . I wouldn't even start explaining either. Just what I've observed today, strange thing this love is, for instance

1. Surprising your girlfriend on her birthday with cake and flowers. Especially when you don't think birthdays are a big deal.
2. Getting into an overcrowded city bus, just because your girlfriend doesn't like the area around. More surprising so, if you are the kinds who would never travel in a bus.
3. Drinking coffee for the first time in your life.
4. Holding hands in public. Mushy right? But you tend to do it unintentionally, without any seeming discomfort. Comes a point when you actually start liking it.
5. The thought "can I take her there" strikes when you think of a restaurant or a hang out spot to go to.
6. When you start thinking, how true, when your friends say you give your girlfriend a lot of importance.
7. When you know your in trouble, when you hangout with your friends among whom a girl you liked a long time back is present.
8. When you are disturbed when you don't get a text reply within 5 minutes of you sending it.
9. When you actually think before hanging out with a friend because you said "NO" to your girlfriend when she asked(Huge trouble! You can get your ass kicked!)
10. When you wonder if you have really changed when your girlfriend said so!
    

Like I said... Strange Love... I've seen U and P go through it, any given day I would laugh at it but not today. What I realised today was that there is something beyond all the dating, going out, hanging out and commitment. The emotional bond. That's Strange Love!!!

Koffee with Kulfi!

What started off as a general question turns into a heated discussion. Happens to me a lot. Mostly because I'm the one who tends to disagree... A LOT! Lets not get into that now, for this post is about something more pressing. A friend and I were at the Hi-tech city station, waiting for the train(We missed the previous one by a minute), and I decided that it was the right time to do some introspection(not that I had anything better to do). Turns out by the time we reached our detination we were having a heated discussion about politicians and their sons. I won't go into the specifics of what we discussed but the discussion followed a trail like this

Career Option->Beggars->Slumdog Millionaire->China->Black Money->Correction Facilities->Government->People's mindsets->Government->GDP->Politicians->Lal Bahadur Shastri->Politicians sons!

Yep, I know, thats one of the hazards of having a conversation with me! (Verbose? What else is new?)Maybe, but on the whole it was a pretty animated conversation me, with my passionate "lets go kick some ass" and his passive "inaction can sometimes be the solution" philosophy. I guess we entertained the whole compartment! Well on the whole the conversation was an eye-opener, Activists can never be journalists! Me and my big mouth would've gotten me and P into a lot of trouble today. There was this siren which was going on incessantly and I had chosen that exact moment when the auto dude(a Muslim bhaiyya) stopped infront of a mosque to say "What is that horrible noise?" Figures that the siren stands for the end of roza(fast Muslims keep in the holy month of Ramzaan)! Ooopss!!! Me living in Hyderabad and every other street vendor selling Haleem it didn't even occur to me that it was the month of Ramzan! Poor P could only mange an embarassed "I-don't know-her-don't kill- me-for it" smile. Had the most amazing kulfi, in the rain, getting totally drenched, all thanks to P again. You see I'm not the types to experiment much (If its raining I'd like a hot mug of coffee and some cookies)! But, kulfi and rain, well the rather prejudiced me has to admit, P it was good, but nothing beats coffee and cookies!:)

My first post

Here goes.... This is my very first post in my blog. That is quite something for the lazy me, but, hey, change is always good right?