The Year That Was

2008 is slipping away from our hands like sand. It's another couple of hours and then we would welcome 2009. Another year,with which myriads of unknown experiences awaits us. So I thought about writing something in retrospect. This is all what 2008 was like, a plethora of emotions and feelings.

I am not an ardent fan of centrist views, so I would not say that 2008 was a mixed bag. In it's entirety, 2008 was a year of heartaches and heartbreaks. It was a year of mistakes, a year of treachery, of unfaithfulness and betrayal. Although I would not like to call them my faults because they are what makes me a human. But yes, I definitely had made a mistake. I made the mistake of not being firm with my decisions because of which I had lost my self-respect, my self-esteem. But I am a person who learns from his past mistakes, I am not afraid to admit them and/or acknowledge them. So what have I learned? I have learned that true love does not cannot coexist with disdain, dishonor and disrespect. However dear your loved one maybe, if she does not know how to respect you then she does not deserve your love and affection.

Now although I am not a centrist in my view towards life and it's intricacies, I am not a whiner either. 2008 was also a year of shaping up, shaping up as a dreamer. I painted my dreams with new colors, I started to discover hues that I never thought existed. And it was fun. I matured as a writer. I put my efforts on The Chronicles of R and it showed it's results, I got appreciations from people who authoritative figures in both writing and blogging. Genuine appreciations which often put a smile on my face and helped me move forward in life even when it seemed quite impossible to do so at times. Although my mistake made me get away from The Chronicles of R for quite a while, you would see that there is only one post in the month of November. But then after a prolonged conversation with my ego and id (which I called hibernation) I recovered, and I made a comeback and I got my reward. Today The Chronicles of R flaunted a PR3, thank to Google. Thank you Google, it was a nice New Year's gift. In 2008 I was introduced to online marketing by a friend, philosopher and guide who chose to remain anonymous. Thanks to Inam, I was introduced to Srijan. And not only helped me to grow culturally, but it also helped me spend some beautiful evenings under the open sky, listening in awe to some of the eminent figures in the literary domain.

In 2008 I came across a number of good friends, some Sweethearts and Darlings. There was a consistent flow of constant reader on The Chronicles of R, some of whom went onto to become personal friends. And my friends' circle grew quite a bit from nada. I also found my own personal Santa, you are one of the best things that happened to me Ms Santa. The reason I have dedicated a separate paragraph for these people is because they have helped me find myself. They have helped me shape my dreams, sometimes unknowingly.

The most important thing that happened to me in 2008 is that I came to know R more intimately. I came to know R the way she wanted me to know her. Her happiness, her anger, ego, doubts, insecurities and a everything a woman wants her man to know about her. In 2008 I came to know myself through R. And through R, I came to know what love is. And I decided to introduce R to the world. You need to hold onto your horses for another couple of hours, I would let you know who or what R is, what does she do, where she lives at 12am tonight. With the dawn of 2009, R would come out of the veil of mystery that surrounds her.

I might have omitted a few things, those were unintentional. As it is I am not saying my Oscar acceptance speech here. Hope 2009 brings a year of joy and happiness for all of us, hope 2009 brings a change.

The Magic of Touch

"And I´d give up forever to touch you
´Cause I know that you feel me somehow"
-- Iris, City of Angels, Goo Goo Dolls

Touch, one of the most recherché gifts that God has bestowed upon us. It’s a blessing of God in disguise. Although many of us, guys and men specially, do not discern it’s faculties, yet it’s magic can be felt in our everyday life.

A touch can help create bonds/liaisons, it can mend broken relationships, it can heal, it can nurture and above all it can express your love for the person you are touching. With a simple touch you can feel her emotions for you, her feelings for you. You can feel the warmth inside your beloved. You can feel the passion, the burning passion that she has for you. And at the same time, a touch can also show how much you care for her.

Have you ever considered the fact that a touch is always a two way feeling. When you touch someone, you also get to be touched by her. She can also feel your emotions, your feelings, your passion for her. Nothing is better than a simple tender touch to help grow and nurture a relationship, specially the ones which are at the nascent stage and needs lots of care, love and affection for it to grow in a healthy relationship.

A touch does not always have to be with your hands. You can touch her the way you want to, of course not in any indecent manner which would only help you get a closer look at her stilettos. Maybe while you are walking together you brush your elbow on a part of her body, or let’s say on a rainy afternoon both of you hold the umbrella together with your hands on her’s. Have you noticed how a person blushes when he/she is kissed by their beloved, that too is a magic of touch. Unfortunately this does not work for me, cause I turn purple when I blush.

A touch is a very powerful and expressive way to show your love. You do need to touch her to make her feel special. Not only her body, but her soul. You need to touch her heart, with your heart. So go and explore the magic of touch, in this journey of a lifetime, together.

Are You Game?

My, my! How times have changed. Years ago when 100 white men chased one black man, we called it the Ku Klux Klan; today they call it the PGA TOUR :)

For all you Golf fans out there, here's an easy way to keep yourself updated about the event results, schedules, plus a map with cool 'zoom to course' views. Enjoy!

A Quick Question

Q. What do you call a man who was in love with another man and for him underwent a sex-change operation to become a woman, but after the operation fell in love with a woman and became lesbian?

A. A bi-polar homosexual :)

The Dreamweaver

Weave, weave, weave,
Weave it like a spider,
Spread thy dreams Woman.

Reach out to the cold solemn moon,
Call the rain Gods
Upon the face of earth.
Let the web of thy dreams glisten
With an ethereal hue.

Let thy dreams allure Woman,
And torture me with it's
Pain of separation. Let
Thy dreams seduce me with it's
Fragrance of the virgin earth.

Entwine me within your dreams,
Don't let me go Woman,
Restrain my hands, oblige my lips,
Let me worship thy grace
For eternity.

Let me cede to thy dream Woman.

Weave, weave, weave,
Weave thy dreams Woman,
Weave thy dreams for me.

Happy Birthday R

Happy Birthday R :)

The Dancing Waters

It took you years
To cover those stair that
Lead to the roof.
But finally
Today we were their,
Together.

The sky was a somber gray
Overcast
With the monsoon clouds.
It looked down upon us,
As if with lots of barren
Expectations.

You went to the edge of
The roof
And stood there,
With you face towards
The wind. The chilly
Wind
Ruffled your hair
And
You looked like Medusa,
While I stood there
Enchanted,
Beguiled, mesmerized, bewitched
By your charm.

You held yourself
With
Both the arms, as if to
Control yourself
Just so that
You
Don't fly away like your
Own emotions.

I slowly walked upto you,
And
Embraced you in my arms,
While Clayderman played
Cavatina
From a distance.

The moments lingered on
With
It's elated, magical effervescence
And the world seemed to have
Condensed
To a singularity.
And the roof, an island.

You turned around, your head
Was slightly tilted on one side and
I saw a speck of tear
Rolling down
Your cheek, it was accusing me
For keeping you
Unaware
Of these alluring
And beauteous journey called life.

I closed your eyes
With my hands like a witch.
And
Kissed you, gently, slowly
On your lips.
And time
Seemed to have stood still.

Enthralled, we stood there.
Motionless,
Savouring the taste of the
Dancing waters.

[ I won't be home this Christmas, but tomorrow is the birthday of R. So I am publishing this today. The Chronicles of R completed a whole year. Hopefully, it won't stop here. I would like to thank all of you for making The Chronicles of R your journey. Your comments are what made me move on. This is the birthday gift for R. And what can be a better gift to R than a poem, so here it is. Once again I should thank Sandip for showing me the dim imagery of this poem. Thanks Sandip. In the end I would like to wish R a very Happy Birthday. I love you R. ]

The Birthday Girl

The Chronicles of R is about to celebrate it's 1st birthday. The official post for The Chronicles of R is dated 25th of December, 2007 and it's almost a year now since I started this journey alongside R.

It had been quite a journey with it's unusual ups and downs. Sometimes R seemed too distant to touch whence sometimes she melted in my arms. Sometimes she was sitting right in front of me, sometimes R seemed just like an illusion. And although it may seem like it yet I must tell you that I have not reached the heights of Twain-ism yet, rather I had quit smoking and boozing altogether.

The truth is, in a way I am afraid for R to find me, I'm afraid to know what would she say to me, what would she think of me. Wouldn't she loathe me seeing how ordinary I am? Wouldn't she abhor such a mundane life? Or would she simply hold my hand and command me to take her to the moon? I am skeptical about finding R. So I have left the option to her to find me. I am like an Ogre. No, I don't mean to say that I stink, what I mean is that I have layers. Let R unfold them, gradually. Just like I have unfolded her emotions, her pain, her tears, her laughter, her sarcasm.

I would leave it upto R to find me.

[Picture courtesy Sandip]

How to Tell if You're a Grinch - Christmas Jokes

1. You reuse last year's Christmas cards and send them out under your own name. (5 points)

2. You steal light bulbs from you neighbor's outdoor display to replenish your own supply. (5 points, 10 if neighbor's whole light sets or lighted Santa goes out)

3. You have dressed a dog or cat as Santa Claus, elf helper, or reindeer. (10 points for each; if you dressed an endangered species, 5 extra points)

4. You put out last year's stale candy canes for children. (1 point for each piece of sticky candy). If you put out a chocolate or marzipan Santa also, add 10 points.

5. You enclose a shoddy and inferior gift from Target, Walmart, or K-Mart in a Bloomingdale's or other prestige box to impress your friends. (5 points for each infraction).

6. You make collect long distance phone calls to your family on Christmas day. (5 points, 10 if from a cell phone), claiming you are stuck in a phone booth.

7. At the office Christmas party, you horde huge stockpiles of goodies for later consumption at home. (5 points; 15 points if you use this stuff for your own party)

8. You steal the wreath from a parked car to use on your own [Southern California only, others ignore]. (5 points -- nobody but Angelenos are dumb enough to dress a car)

9. After an invitation to a friend's house, you bring a commercially produced fruitcake and try to pass it off as home made. (5 points; 15 points if the fruitcake is from last year).

10. Any stealing from the Toys-for-Tots collection bins is a definite no-no. (20 points)


Evaluate your score on the "Grinch Scale" from 20 to 100.

20-30: You are just a cheeseball.

30-50: You are an apprentice in Yuletide larceny and are probably wanted by the police for overdue parking tickets.

50-100: Grinch, move over. The Meyer Lansky of Christmas crime has arrived.

FREE Christmas Gifts !!!

It's Christmas, and it's time for Santa. I have gifts for all my subscribers this Christmas season, whoever subscribes to The Chronicles of R would 5 wonderful high-resolution Christmas Wallpapers and a Christmas Blogger Template, which is completely AdSense ready. All you need to do is subscribe to The Chronicles of R and then below each post you would find a link name "Email This Author". Just click on it, email me and I'll send you your Christmas gifts. So what are you waiting for, just go ahead and subscribe to The Chronicles of R and claim your FREE Christmas Gifts.

And I promise I won't be bad to spam you, I respect your privacy.

Wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Revelations of R

It's been quite a while now that I have planned to reveal the identity of R. But somehow I was very skeptical about the whole thing. Yet, thanks to Sandip, a very dear friend of mine who provided me with enough courage to accomplish this daunting task that lies ahead of me, I have planned to remove the veil of mystery behind which R lived, dreamt.

With the dawn of the new year, R would get her own voice. With the dawn of the new year, R would get her own identity, her own dreams. It's time R be known.

My First Blogger Award

Finally, my first award as a blogger. And this beautiful award comes from a very special person, Nisha.

Nisha, the word that best describes her is "Superwoman". She is a woman, a daughter, a wife, a mom, a blogger, a thinker, a best friend. Sometimes when I think about it, she has so many varied aspects and qualities within herself that I find it difficult to believe that she is for real. No wonder reality is stranger than fiction. But above all, she is Nisha.

In her own words, "This is a very special award is for all my blogger friends, old and new." You can read more about it here.

Thank you very much for the award. And more than that, thank you very much for being a true friend of mine. I am deeply moved.

Why So Serious?

Have you seen darkness,
Does darkness allures you
In your walk of life?

Do you feel strange in
The light of ignorance?

It's elementary my dear Watson.

Cause
You
Are the creature
Of the knight.

[ This poem was originally written by me as a comment on Anindya's blog ]

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

All through my childhood I believed in Santa, thanks to my parents. Every Christmas morning I used to find a gift tucked away neatly near my pillow. I used to be very eager to know what have a got this year. Many parents all over the world simply love to see the joy and excitement Santa bring to their child. For many of them, their childhood memories of Santa Claus are the best Christmas memories they ever had. But keeping a child believing in Santa is a daunting task. Just just buying a gift and setting it up for the child won't do. Here are a few things that you can do to keep your child believing in Santa Claus.

Encourage your child to write a letter to Santa. Children are always too eager to write a letter to Santa Claus, but your guidance is necessary to pull it off easily. You can ask your child to write about a special gift that they want in that letter. Once done, you can post the letter to Santa Claus, 1 Candy Cane Lane, North Pole 00001. Don’t bother using a return address, you wouldn’t want it to return as ‘undeliverable’ for any reason.

Ask your child to leave cookies and a glass of milk for Santa. Leave boot marks near your fireplace and door, on Christmas morning make sure to draw your child's attention towards those boot marks. It would help to strengthen their faith in Santa's existence.

Finally, you can get your child a letter from Santa. Make sure it is a personalized letter, along which you can also get your child a certificate for being on Santa's "nice list". Trust me, this can work like magic. So go ahead and make it a Ho Ho Ho Christmas this year for your child and your family.

Ms J - Part II

Once again last night, I was overwhelmed with the flurry of emotional outburst of Ms J. Now I am in a real confusion as to whether to take "joker" as the best compliment of my life or not. Cause what Ms J had told me last night is way better than that ladies and gentlemen.

Last night I was rechristened as an angel! Yes, even I could not believe my ears when I heard it the first time. Me, an angel! So what I knew was true, those horns on my head were indeed there to hold the halo straight. I should also have wings then, can't see them though. But never mind that, being called an angel by the most sweetest girl on earth is far more touching that having a pair of fluffy wings. All they would do is to contribute to some insufferable itches.

Jokes apart, I am glad Ms J that I could make you smile for the first time last night. I would really be grateful to you if you let me be with you, forever.


Hugs and Kisses,
( Don't worry, I have brushed my teeth twice and have used the deodorant abundantly )
Mr Nautanki

Ms J - Part I

Ladies and Gentlemen, do you remember Susie, Susie Derkins? In case you don't this is the same girl that Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) simply "loathes", needless to say that the "feeling" is mutual. Well, the reason I am sharing this with you is because a few days back I met my own, personal, fully customized Susie Derkins. I call her Ms J. And as expected she had already passed on some complements for yours' truly.

To begin with I was called a "joker". No no, not the Heath Ledger one. I am sure she meant one of those cute, mushy types that girls simply love to play with. Ok, that last part was an exaggeration, girls don't play with jokers, they play with Barbies. But yes, she certainly never meant me to be the nemesis of Batman. And why was I honored with this noun? Well, I made the mistake of saying Happy instead of Harry in Tom, Dick and Harry. Isn't it heartwarming? This is one the best complement that I have ever received in my life. And I was grinning head to toe when I heard this. Why not, I mean one of the sweetest girl on the face of this earth called me by a cute name. And imagine that that was just the beginning. And since then she's been flooding my chat boxes with such flowery associations.

Now I am writing this to let you know Ms J that I too hate you a lot, much like Calvin hates Susie. Thanks for those complements. They are most precious to me.

Signed,
Mr Nautanki

Partners in Crime

Blogs I Hate (Cause they write way better than me):

Priya Handa
Believe With Love
Are You Going To Scarborough Fair?
Vanessa Rowe
Sandip
Priyanka Bhowmick
Aksinia
:: L i F E ::
Aftermath
Crazy Quilt
Orange Peels, Ferris Wheels and Alpha Tauri
Dilbert Blog
Rupsha
Anupama
Fali
Jyotsna
Nicusor
The Great Bong
Ritu Bhowmik
Seraphic Girl
Shweta Jindal
Payal
Sunrita
The India Uncut Blog
Vantage point
Winston Rand
Rashmi Bansal


Other Notable Bloggers:

Shawn Hessinger
Projecting A
Thomma Lyn
Random Thoughts
Kelley-Online.com
Stupid Dinosaur Lies
Assistive Technology
Anu Shankar
eNidhi India

Deathly Pale

Which side of the moon
Were you looking at, that
It had left
It's everlasting impression
On your face.

Your eyes, sunk deep inside
Looking
Like craters on the
Moon. A sign of years of
Sleepless nights.
They
Sure leaves a hollow feeling
Of discomfort.

Your face, pale as a cadaver
With all it's glory
Of
A full moon night
Sans it's beauty.

I cannot hold your breath to
Create
Caricatures of my heart
On a frosty window pane anymore.

I am lost, lost within you,
Yet I live,
While
You once had died in my arms.

The Chronicles of R : A New Beginning

The Chronicles of R started a long time back, honestly I don't even remember when. Initially it featured as my personal online diary but then I deleted everything. My writing a personal journal was sort of a hobby for me which surfaced every now and then and then sank deep down in the depths of everyday life as mysteriously as it had once shown it's ugly head. So by deleting my posts I never lost much. I don't remember pretty well but I think I also wrote a couple of poems which were not even worth a dime. Not that my new poems are worth a million, but atleast I have the solace that I was honest when to myself when I wrote them. And this continued for sometime.

Things took a different turn last Christmas when I was taken aback by a comment on one of my poems "Lonely this Christmas". I never really thought that I created something which would earn me a comment from a person who's writing I adore a lot. And since then I never turned back. I went on writing and The Chronicles of R started to reach people and touch their hearts like it had never done before.

R was always a mystery, I have been asked about R by my friends and almost all the readers of my blog. In Fali's blog The Chronicles of R is listed as "Intriguing R". R was, is and would be my love interest. It's been almost 5 years that I haven't met R. Yet the bond that we had shared once was so strong that R and her memories still help me write, she still help me live. And yes, I am crazy about R. I have always said that people fall in love, but a lucky few rise in love. I rose in the love of R.

Now for the past couple of weeks I was hibernating. Not in a cave but in the midst of a sea of emotions. I was in a trance of self-introspection through which I realized a few bitter truths of my life. One of them is that I have been dishonest. I have been mendacious to both my readers and to my own self. I almost turned The Chronicles of R into a commercial blog! I brought in SEO tutorials which could not have been a part of The Chronicles of R. The Chronicles of R was never a commercial blog. It was meant to be about R and so shall it be. I am not a person who turns blind eye to his mistakes, so it's time for The Chronicles of R to come back. I'll give The Chronicles of R a phoenix like rebirth. Because The Chronicles of R is my commitment to R. The Chronicles of R is R herself.

It's time for The Chronicles of R to be reborn.

How Can A Bad Day Turn Into Worse

Having a bad day? Forgot to smile? Ever thought how worse it could have been? Read ahead and you would know.

A woman walked into a hair salon with her husband and three kids in tow and asked loudly, "How much do you charge for a shampoo and a blow job?"

A woman was at the golf store comparing different kinds of golf balls. She was unhappy with the women's type that she had been using. After browsing for several minutes, she was approached by one of the good-looking gentlemen who works at the store. He asked if he could help her out with something. Without thinking, the woman looked at him and said, "I think I like playing with men's balls."

Two women were at the mall and passed by a store that sold a variety of nuts. As they were looking at the display case, the boy behind the counter asked whether he can be of any help. One of the women replied, "No, I'm just looking at your nuts."

While in line at the bank one afternoon, a toddler decided to release some pent-up energy and ran amok. Her mother was finally able to grab hold of her after receiving looks of disgust and annoyance from other patrons. She told her that if she did not start behaving "right now" she would be punished. To her horror, the child looked her in the eye and said in a voice just as threatening, "If you don't let me go right now, I will tell Grandma that I saw you kissing Daddy's pee-pee last night!" The silence was deafening after this enlightening exchange. Even the tellers stopped what they were doing. She mustered up the last of her dignity and walked out of the bank with her daughter in tow. The last thing she heard when the door closed behind her were screams of laughter.

It was the day before Rob's eighteenth birthday. He was living at home, but his parents had gone out for the evening, so he invited his girlfriend over for a romantic night alone. As they lay in bed after making love, they heard the telephone ring downstairs. He suggested to his girlfriend that he give her a nude piggyback ride to the phone. Since they didn't want to miss the call, they didn't have time to get dressed. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, the lights suddenly came on and a whole crowd of people yelled, "SURPRISE!". His entire family: aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and all his friends
were standing there. Both he and his girlfriend were frozen in a state of shock and embarrassment for what seemed like an eternity. Since then, no one in his family has planned a surprise party again.

One of the funniest "most-embarrassing-moment" stories I've come upon in a long time was about a lady who picked up several items at a discount store. When she finally got up to the checker, she learned that one of her items had no price tag. Imagine her embarrassment when the checker got on the intercom and boomed out for all the store to hear, "PRICE CHECK ON LANE THIRTEEN, TAMPAX, SUPER SIZE." That was bad enough, but somebody at the rear of the store apparently misunderstood the word "TAMPAX" for "THUMBTACKS." In a businesslike tone, a voice boomed back over the intercom. "DO YOU WANT THE KIND YOU PUSH IN WITH YOUR THUMB OR THE KIND YOU POUND IN WITH A HAMMER?".

Mumbai 26/11

Check out the WTF news of the day:

But Kasav is given enough to sustain him. Breakfast comprises tea and five slices of bread; lunch is five rotis, dal, sabji, yoghurt and papad; there is afternoon tea and dinner is rice, dal, chana-masala and papad.

If this is what you need to sustain then why is the average Indian not getting this? Who gave the right to these politicians to waste the tax-payer's money to feed him a King's supper? Why is he so important to us that we are making news out of him and in a way giving him the same limelight for which they did this bastardly act! Some people might say that we can gather information out of Kasav, I say what information? There whereabouts? And what then? We had all the information from intel even before these terrorists came down to India, what did these politicians do with those information? Some went on to form new coalition, some went on to solve domestic problems, some went on to suggest forming of a central force (as if we would attain moksha by constituting a central force) and some just wiped their nose with that intel report and slept over it while Mumbai burnt.

For quite some time we have howled and cried over the fact that how shameless these politicians are, and how they need to do this and how they need to do that. Yet we have failed to notice that how shameless we have become over the centuries that we have stopped protesting against these politicians. Have we forgotten that it was not these big names which got us our freedom? It was those nameless faces that got us freedom, and if we can do it then we can do it now. We can and should drag these politicians down to the street and make them live the life of an ordinary man so that they can feel what fear of life is, what pain is. It was not any of these politicians or their families which were destroyed in the Mumbai massacare, it was us, the ordinary citizen of India who suffered, who were killed. Had it been any of these politicians been attacked then we would have seen actions being taken against these terrorists. Mr Manmohan Singh, it's very easy to talk about forming central forces and blah, blah, blahs when you get to ride a bullet proof hooter attached vehicle guarded by dozens of security, come down to the street once and then we would listen to your big-talks. But it's us who needs to remind these politicians that they cannot just get away by holding meetings and forming useless agendas and coalitions, they also need to act!

Now coming to the forming of a central force of defense, how on earth would you explain your incapabilities as a Prime Minister when the commandos were sent late because they were not given their choppers that they had demanded, would that incapability vanish into thin air just if you form a central force? How would you define your inabilities as a Prime Minister when your ministers failed to heed to the warning of intel, would just reshuffling the cabinet suffice? You could not figure out how incompetent these ministers were until Mumbai 26/11 occurred, so would you wait for another mishap to see whether these new set of ministers are equally incompetent or are they even worse than their predecessors? If you want to try out this trial-and-error method with us, the citizens of India being the victims every time while you sleep peacefully night after night then better come down to the streets with us, sans all the grandeur that you enjoy being a Prime Minister and then you are free to try out anything, be it forming a central force of defense or reshuffling the cabinet. And what about the Robin Hood of the Marathi manoos, why is the Robin Hood so silent? Why haven't we heard anything from him? But as we already know that no news is always good news, so he is better shut up than talking his usual crap.

Netizens, we as a responsible citizen of India can make a lot of difference. I still believe that the pen is mightier than the sword, that's why the Government tries to hush up the media first during these kind of mishaps. So write, if you have a blog, write a post protesting these grotesques butchering of India and it's citizen by our neighboring country while we keep on ranting about peace talks with them. If you have a social network account, be it Orkut, Facebook, MySpace or anything, inform your friends to voice their concern against not only these terrorists but also against these corrupt politicians. Cause remember, it's your country and it's you who is responsible for saving it. And this is time you start it all by yourself, else you never know but the next victim of this blind jihad might be someone from your family.

Keep The Candles Burning...

[Thank you Abhijit Da for passing on this mail to me]

He is the "manoos", he is the busy "mumbaikar"… he is the youth….he is the aged…he is the oppressed… he is the angered… and today he is just an Indian!!

Thus, with threat of 4 kgs of RDX seized at CST (which later turned out to be true), with the threat of some terrorists still moving about scot free in the neighborhood, with the threat of a political unrest…he comes out from the safe recluse of his daily routine and starts walking through the hustle and bustle of the CST station and Hutatma Chowk, crossing the Flora Fountain, to reach one destination… The Gateway of India!

He must have received a sms or a mail which asked him to be present at the Gateway of India for a cause that affected him…his family…his co-passengers….people he had known.. people he had not known… but today he was there to prove his existence amidst the ocean of humanity by the sea, for his country.

"His Country", a sentiment long publicized to earn money for film-makers, used to gather votes by political parties, a sentiment he felt has been drubbed within the pages of the History Book.

He took to the streets out of compulsion, on the 26th of July, the 11th of July…he was compelled to stay back home on the 27th of July… but today he had had enough.

Suddenly I notice, that this "he" was in fact "everybody"….

I did not have a choice but, be a part of this "everybody"….

Well then… be a part of this "everybody", reach the "Gateway of India" and do what?

Hurl slogans to demand resignation of politicians? Demand to curb all facilities for politicians at the cost of public money? Scream slogans of death for a neighboring nation? Try to establish that we are living in horrific conditions where we do not have a way out? Demand better training and equipment to fight terror for our police?

A group of people even went to the extent of demanding the "return of bargirls"….who, they proclaimed, could protect the city better than the politicians we had elected.

The agenda was however, one that of paying homage to the deceased in the blast & shootout and condemn terrorism.

Whereas, Slogans that raged on like a storm were blowing fire… the fire of frustration that this city and this country had endured for years… All of them spoke of hatred…they were all protesting against the system that has cut them into many pieces.

As on observer and a participant one opines that there were more to this gathering than just giving way to frustration.

Maybe we did not realize, but probably it was the first instance after the Indo-Pak war that, a non-political mass of people had gathered out of their own will, essentially non-violent, fuming and fretting with anger, chanting "Bharat mata ki jai" and "Vande Matram" making the opportunists tremble with the echoes.

Maybe after a long time the common man had decided to take the onus on himself to fight injustice, not waiting for somebody else to do it for him.

Maybe after a long time, the old and aged would not dare question the patriotic sentiment of youth in this nation, who had worked hard to convey messages of protest against NOT BEING INDEPENDENT in their own country in this gathering.

Maybe after a long time somebody was asked to tear his clothes and make a TIRANGA out of it, when in his spree of enthusiasm he almost tore a flag when he tried to get one for himself from a lady distributing the same at the venue.

Maybe after a long time, the mob did not want to stand in front of the media cameras installed wherever possible, such that their folks back home get to catch a glimpse of them at the venue….Today everybody wanted to move ahead… they knew that they were not here to have a nice little picnic going.

Maybe after a long time such a huge mob had conducted themselves so well in a gathering where the situation could have gone out hand at any moment.

Maybe after a long time, people wanted concrete results arising out of this statement of protest! They did not want to forget this bruise in a short while……….

As the night progressed, the crowd thinned… the wind started blowing stronger by the Arabian Sea….

A small tree at the Gateway seemed unruffled with the wind……. Where a hundreds of candles burnt around the bark of the tree… a small bouquet of roses was kept with a message…."Dear Patriots… We the people of INDIA salute you"

A little kid was seen bending down on the sand, beside the tree, trying to light yet another candle there… His father was helping him out against the strong wind that had started blowing.

My appeal to all my fellow countrymen…. This time…..let us keep the candles burning!!!