Eggs, Sperm AUR kya…

A few years back, somebody just disturbed my otherwise busy schedule by asking me to accompany him to a car showroom. Yeah, never let anybody know that you know something more than they do. Anyways, not quite a harmful affair as the “somebody” was my uncle who wanted to own a brand new sedan. And the only reason that it took him almost 5 years to finally set out was that he isn’t any tata-birlas. He is just another Musaddi lal rather. He needs to adjust on his petrol bills before even thinking of buying a toothbrush so as not to let his budget for the next month go fumble. The idea of adding two more wheels wasn’t just for pleasure either. May be it was to save the cost of first dropping his children to two different schools, then taking his father to a physiotherapist and then patrolling back the same lane to drop his younger brother to his senior secondary and on the way back picking up his father from the physiotherapist’s. This is all within an hour’s duration that he has to go back and forth on the same lane everyday, except for a beautiful Sunday. If instead he had something like a bullock cart or a truck, it would have saved him both time and money. Still, he would have to let go on his “social-status” anyway. Hence the conception of the idea of having something that can do justice to all - a sedan.

Already calculated that it would turn out to be lucrative only if the substitute comes with at least a 16 kmpl tag, we had narrowed down to trusted and established market leaders. Hours of thorough discussions everyday with the car dealers, weeks of “mind blasting” calculations, and worth mentioning the worst part, not even a single test drive made me think I was better illiterate. After almost 3 months he settled for a maruti Suzuki alto the “low(est) price edition”. To bring smiles to the otherwise indifferent faces and to hide the actual reason for buying such a costly public transport equity, he decided to say that he has got it as an incentive for working really hard at his office. That he’d just have to pay for the petrol to own the vehicle in 4 years from now. Pretending to come out as a happy and contented being, he brought me a brick of butterscotch ice-cream as a token of gratitude. Alright, ok, hard work never goes unrewarded but at least it should be somewhere close to what you might be expecting out of it. As if he read my mind, suddenly, out of the blue, he began to say- “I know I have made you walk miles with me merely to decide what I would like to CRUISE in. But you’ll have to believe me that I also wanted to make sure whether you were equally comfortable steering it down your lane.” My goodness and oh dear god, I was then made a 50% shareholder to the still-to-be-bought-sedan.

That was the day I really felt guilty of being the most selfish person on earth. I felt literally shameful of even already deciding what I should get in return for the workout I thought I had been subjected to. May be this is what we have learnt from the world around – don’t set a price tag, sell yourself to the highest bidder instead. It was only for this day that I realised how considerate is every little thing that our elders do and yet they never let us feel the need to mull over asking for anything we ever wish to own.

Well, it wasn’t for more than 6 months that he could feel relieved on his monthly budget when one day his brother asked to let him join an institute in order to fight for the competitive exams after completing his senior secondary. The brother’s proposal didn’t frighten him much, but the cost of materialising it quite did. An amount touching 1 lakh mark usually does to a man like him, be it inwards or outwards. And there goes the alto. 1 lakh 50 thousand after depreciation. I lost a wheel too and got nothing in return . His elder son got merely a first division in high school. He wasn’t expecting much either but wanted to see his son trotting the maths-science lane like him. But with a first division he’s no sure whether to drive down or hunch back. He has to either decide by himself or let things shape up on their own. Both ways he will have to compromise on whatever he has earned through his life- not money, but what actually has made the way to fetch some.
What we are doing right now is for our own good. We, as for now, haven’t once thought of earning and saving for our own trio i.e. husband, wife and the young one. We haven’t ever thought what we now aspire might just become a sacrifice very shortly. It won’t be a brand new Volkswagen, but a medical insurance we would have invested in to secure our loved ones’ health.. It won’t be an i-pod or whatever these over-enthusiastic manufacturers might have in stores then, but a fee receipt from our child’s school. It won’t be a bank account in swiss bank to flaunt about, but a life insurance bond, just in case… It won’t be a holiday on an exotic location but a regular visit to office year after year so as to meet the daily expenses which inturn would be to sustain life and let it haul over. It’s not going to be a garnished meal every month, but the monthly instalments from a house or car loan. And to add to it is the worst part – all of this is then transferred on to our next generations. We train them to live in miserable conditions on the pretext that no one knows what’s decided for whom. Although, throughout our life we would have strived hard to make sure that nothing like this ever comes banging on our children. We would be earning and saving almost everything for them. But this wasn’t anywhere around when we were deciding as to what stream to choose after high school, what to do after senior secondary, what after college. Not impressive enough, right? Just try reading it again, but this time see your parents doing it all in the whole situation above.. Instead of a Volkswagen there would have been a two wheeler, the i-pod was the called transistor, the swiss account used to be in a post office. I wonder who gives them the courage to actually muddle through the series of heists. At least I don’t have the courage to bring all this onto someone I care for. I can’t think of bringing someone to life and then start preparing for its murder by putting it to the intricacies of this barbaric world. For I don’t know whether I can be as brave as my parents are, sacrificing literally EVERYTHING.

Oh GOD bestow upon me the wisdom to change the things I can’t accept or grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change.


For me it’s not only the fittest sperm and the healthiest egg to procure, but ……… may be nothing can do the magic. What about you??

Aaj Maine Ek Billi Ka Rasta Kata!!!

It was the evening twilight when I was returning home from a tiring schedule, doing nothing but thinking what to do. Contemplating over a dead coffee, after all, is what I have been thrown to by circumstances. And believe me, there’s a whole lot of effort required to find ‘nothing’ to mull over after a long stressful mental workout. Anyways, the sunlight had gone lifeless, and the trees had gone to sleep by the time I reached my apartment building. The wind that is believed to confer bereavement on account of tsunami, refused to exist. It was getting colder than the coldest. A shuttle cock lay unattended in the courtyard in search of someone to lend a hand to. There were about a ton of wheels screwed to the steel bodies moulded to serve the mighty creation of the almighty as a wagon. Lifeless, they stood erect as if an epitaph to the deceived. Everything looked like frozen in time. And with me, like the only thing walking alive on the planet, it looked like I had made it to come to a stand still. It was only a few graves away from my apartment that I realised to have forgotten to pick up my apartment keys from where I work – the cemeteries of London. Having a clear vision as to what to do next, I turned about.
As I was about to thump my heavy foot on the helpless concrete floor, I wasn’t prepared for what came running across my area of vision. It was a cat. Something that showed signs of change from its earlier position. It was so full of life that for a moment I forgot that everything else had denied to participate in the celebration- the birth of the idea of a company amidst all the dead. It pounced out of the fences and ran away as if not willing to share the thought. I stopped there and wondered if it was my otherwise human attire that frightened it or is the idea of everything coming to a halt really my fault. I wasn’t done thinking with this when another thought hit me hard. Oops, I might have just intersected a cat’s way. I might have just brought bad luck to the poor creature who, on the other hand, brought to me a healing touch for my loneliness on the planet. What should I do now? What can I do now? What am I entitled to do now? Nothing, but to start believing that it is surely me who is responsible for everything around to actually become lifeless. It is me who decided for the fate of that otherwise fortuitous creature.
Oh, but how could that be true! I am a human and it would have been a bad omen if it had happened the other way round. But no, it isn’t the case. We can’t be ominous to any other race or form of life. May be because, we are blessed with something that no other creature possesses. Or is it because we think that we are blessed with the superiority? People believing in such superstitions tend to forget that even they could have been posing a serious threat to these speechless creatures and then never bothering its legitimacy. How far are we correct in seeing this world to be for our own good and trying to mould and change everything to benefit our deeds. By the name of Genetic Modifications we tried to manipulate the way crops grow. So that we could harvest anything at the time we want it and not when it is meant to be. So now we can have an orange even in the summers, we can now ask for the mangoes to be sweeter.
I remember a stand up comedian praising United States on one of his shows. He said he went to a store there and saw a packet labelled “Orange Powder”. The instructions said “just add water to get fresh juice.” He took it with a little surprise and moved on. Next was a carton labelled “Milk Powder” and the instructions again were “just add water to get milk.” Surprised again, he moved on and this time came across a carton with the label “Baby Powder”, and started yelling America is great!!

comment to http://directorvishalkohli.blogspot.com/

aah, nice job, but i must say that this could have been a biased compliment. you always tend to like things that shape up your way, right? i can now remember a few words you used to say - people like those things that they wish to see happening and not what actually happens. i surely haven't portrayed it as rhetoric as it used to come out as your own words.
anyways, whatever, i find this article very much to be a true picture of what has really been witnessed for a long time now. i agree with each and every word of it. i wished to write a comment right away when i finished reading it i.e a couple of hours when it was actually posted. had i done that i would have missed the chance to comment on the comments then. and i found indi's one to attack at. but as i came down to your response to her comment, i found every single thing already answered the way i just thought it to. still there's one for her question:
C)whom are you taking a refrence nation to compare indian developement? USA? A more than 150 year old democracy with the recent indian one?

alright if you don't have a competitive approach towards things you can achieve in life, there's a not-so competitive analogy. take the case of China, india got independence in 1947 i.e to say india was free to do whatever it felt like after 1947. while China got its freedom only after 1950 which is 3 years from that of indian independence. now see where india stands in front of china even after more than what 60 years of INDEPENDENCE.
China hosted the olympic games quite competitively a while ago, while we can't think of it even 15 years from hence. ok leave olympics aside, we are even not sure as to what honor are we going to be conferred with hosting common wealth games this year. alright, let's leave these so much talked about things also. let's see how well are we doing otherwise. take the case of indian railways. can you give me a rough figure for the speed you think the fastest indian train would be running at??
it is trivendrum rajdhani at 162 km/hr. mind taking a look at the fastest chinese train-"Maglev", with a breathtaking whoosh, it rockets to 300 kilometers per hour in two minutes flat. touching 500 kmph in test runs this train touches 431 kmph as its top speed. and to your surprise i would here like to divulge the fact that even USA, a what like 150 year old democracy, as you pointed out, didn't match it any closer because this train happened to be the world's fastest at its launch in as early as 2002. i think i made my point clear of not comparing ourselves with someone but giving someone else a fanatic desire to match our records.
education in india is not left far behind. the indian institutes of technology, topmost engineering schools in india, start after the world rank of 40 with IIT kanpur to be at 42nd position. i.e the first in india is 42nd in the world. even after such a disruption our politicians, for the sake of their vote bank, are reluctant of waiving the quota system which works as a catalyst towards this disruption. according to you the solution is to come out of your luxury cars and resolve it on your own. let me remind you of what happened when lakhs of doctors turned out on roads demonstrating against the then education minister Honorable Mr. Arjun Singh to put an end to the rising quota. all in vain. nothing changed. i here find the lines from "rang de basanti" quite lively- kuch nahi ho sakta is desh ka. what are we proud of, is desh ki badhti population par ya yahan k corruption par. after all, yahi to wo fields hain jahan we top the charts.
and emerging to be called a developing nation with such a disruption at hand, at least i feel shameful rather than being proud of my nation. i feel like becoming a center of mockery with the spot light on us. on every 15th august and 26th january i wake up early in the morning to be the first to salute my country but to my disappointment i find not even a single thing to be proud of.
what exactly are we proud of, the chandrayaan completing its mission. technically it failed, but we tried to cover this blunder by the fact that it was a coup to have found water on moon's surface and most of us are more than happy with this. now that's something to be proud of.
abhinav bindra brought a gold to india's fame but how many of us know that he wasn't trained in india. india doesn't even have the rifles and shooting ranges he used to practice with. he had his private shooting range in his bungalow to practice which again was nothing indian. the only thing indian was his birth. but we can even cheer this by saying it was destined to happen so because we people are very optimistic and we have a "b positive" attitude right? what i think is this being positive attitude is hiding our shortcomings and craving for a better tomorrow with a limping leg.
ohh this is endless. i am so sorry for all this. probably, i shouldn't have written this here or anywhere else coz i know still is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta.