Thanks Himanshu

This is a poem written by one of my friends Mr. Himanshu Bhagat.
____________________________________________________
Ramesh told Lord Ram,I am a good Hindu
I pray to theeAnd abide by your rules.
For a 'Ram Rajya'I'll do anything they say.
I even burnt that Muslim man,Who prayed in the mosque in your land.
I promise you my Lord Ram,
I'll even kill a Hindu,If he even touches the Ram-setu.
I am your true disciple O My Lord...Tell me I am...
And Lord Ram just looked at him...

Asif told Allah,O Allah...I bow to thee.
Your holiness sets me free...
May the Prophets be blessed..
And I will spread your word to the rest.
I won't spare a single soul,Who doubted your holiness, I will maul.
But I didn't like that John,He killed your men and mocked your reign.
So I killed him, for your glory, I redeem.
I don't like that Hindu and that Jew too,
Coz one is a Kafir and other kills and hold your Prophet's Abode.
Tell me O Allah!I am your true disciple.
And Allah just looked at him...

Eric went teary eyed to Christ,
Coz yester his father John had died.
He first asked why this had to happen,
And then in anguish he says that it was that Mos-lem.
O Christ, I won't leave those dorks,
Who kill in the name of their God,
I will kill all of them,O Christ, give me the strength.
Another Crusade I will start,
And flush them out from their mountains, those farts!
Tomorrow, I march with my army,
I promise I won't leave a Mos-lem in sight,
Be it that little girl and mother in penury and plight.
And Christ just looked at him...

Manav a.k.a. Human, then went outside his home,
Accompanied by the bright open skies along.
He saw an old lady crossing the road,
And with no second thoughts, helped her in her trod.
Lady touched his head and blessed him for his deed.
And this fed manav's souls need.
He stood for a while, overwhelmed and said
"I don't really pray and don't know if you are there,
I don't really know you, and I seriously don't care.
All I do is be a human being,
And help people around and be as good as I can be.
I don't care for a religion and I hate to kill,
But I don't really know why everyone does that still.."

And suddenly, there was a fine drizzle,
On that bright sunny day,
A rainbow rose and the twittering birds began to play.
____________________________________________________
Very true words indeed......

UCB's bold AD campaign...

After a few serious posts, lets come back to a topic which is not very serious in nature. The advertisements....

Well, today I will upload some ad's by United Colors of Benetton(UCB). These ads are very distinct from the ads we see. No ad talks about the products which are being offered by UCB, not even distinctly. All the ads, talk abt some social, political or general cause. This ad campaign has been one of the most controversial ad campaigns ever. Some of the ads are so shocking in nature that it will not be possible for me to put them on my blog.

This ad campaign was started by a photographer named Oliviero Toscani. Thought process behind the ad campaign suggested that some might love it and some might hate it, but everyone will remember it. One of the directors of UCB put it more diplomatically when he said "We try to get close to our consumers by telling them that we also think about the same problems as they think abt".

Now enough of gyaan, lets talk some business.

1.

This first ad shows faces of people from different nationalities and talks abt the human rights as in US constitution. Hence speaking about human rights and racism.

2.

This is one of my favorite ones. It shows the accepted descriptions of good (angel)(represented by the boy on left) & bad (Satan)(represented by the boy on right). It is a very apt satirical ad on the way we look at the color and hence assume the kind of person he will be.

3.

This ad again talks about the racism and the inequality shown in treating them. It talks about treating all the wrongdoers equally irrespective of their creed.

4.

This ad represents the domestic violence. If you read it carefully, it mentions "Colors of Domestic Violence" and not the usual "United Colors of Benetton".

5.

This one was released just before Beijing Olympics, 2008. It shows a Buddhist monk(Tibetan Monk) and a chinese soldier. Both seem to be acknowledging each other and in the backgound, you can see the word "VICTIMS" written. I think this ad is their own way to show that both of them, the monk and the soldier, are fighting against each other on the streets of China, but actually both are a victim of the politics of the country.

6.
Another ad showing the equality between different human beings. It shows the hearts of different people and shows how they are similar inspite of belonging to people of different creed.

7.
This ad is their take on the religious conduct and behavior. This shows a priest and a nun kissing each other. I guess the question here is "Is the wrong always wrong and is the right always right?"

Think.....

God's men???

What's happening to this country? or should I say what's happening to this world?

just when we thought, the problems India is facing cann't increase, we face another problem in Orissa. People forcibly trying to convert others back to their own religion. Well, in a country where every one has a right to decide the religion he wants to practice why should any one have any problem with religion conversions.

Aaahhh...., you say that conversions are being done by bribing them or forcing them.... hhhmmm.... that is certainly wrong.

But then what else are you doing in return. Aren't you or rather I should say WE are using the same tactics to get them back. Where is the free will of a person? My religion, Hinduism has taught me to let a person do whatever he wants till he is not posing a harm to anyone. So I don't think by changing his religion by his choice he is harming anyone. So where is the problem?

ohh....they say the problem is with bribing and allurements for conversions?

But isn't it a situation caused by your own people?

When WE cann't educate those people, when WE cann't provide them proper jobs, when WE cann't provide them proper infrastructure to save their crops from floods or draughts every year, when WE cann't provide them security from the attacks of terrorists and their foes, when WE cann't save them from dying from hunger when foodgrains are rotting down in godowns of some other state, How do we expect them to act rationally? and when they don't act rationally WE humiliate them and/or kill them.

HOW BRAVE OF US.... ! ! !

If we look around, where do we have problems with these forceful conversions? Each area where we have such problems is a backward area. Ever heard of such a problem in Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore? I haven't.

So brothers and friends, don't kill them for refusing to come back in ur religion, don't humiliate them for practising some other religion..... lets provide them proper living conditions where a person is not humiliated/disgraced by himself everyday.

& if we cann't do that..... lets stop these killings, this mayhem and our incoherent babbling about religion, which no one understands. Because my religion is a way of living not a symbol.

But then, as they It takes two to tango..... although I have condemned the ways being used to force the people back to Hinduism, but this doesn't mean the methods being used by other communities/religion are justified. Most of the allegations being laid on them are correct & none of them can be justified anytime, anywhere in the world. Still, two negatives don't make a positive.
& the media is not helping et all to solve the situation.
Just a few days back, one of the commentators in the editorial of one of the leading newspaper had this to say "If it is legal to advertise by saying one free if you buy one, then why cann't same be done for conversions?"

URGHHHHHHH........where is your logic? or lets talk about more simpler things, where is your common sense and respect for a human being? You compare some articles on sale with a human changing his religion....??? One must be very sick in his mind to do that. & this is happening in the editorials of the most famous English daily of India. GOD, please save Indian media.

Area GREY

It has been a few days since I have posted on my blog. Well, thanks to MBA, never got enough time to write something new. (You might not work, but it is fashionable to say "ufff, I have truck load of work")

neways, for the last few days, I knew what I wanted to write on the blog but due to the time constraints, could not.....

A few days back, during my retail mgmt class, the class discussion drifted towards a very unlikely topic - Indian Mythology & Science. How much are they related? Generally, as soon as we say Indian mythology, people create a picture of following mindless rituals and rites without any logic or scientific proof.

I will say that they are not scientifically proven because of the lack of research & surely cann't agree to the fact that these are not logical. Think about them, study about them and they start to make a lot of sense, logically. Don't believe me???? Let me give a few examples

1. The first written proof of knowing speed of light was not given by Galileo in 17th century but you can find it in our own "Rigveda"
2. If you have studied holy "Shiv Puran" and know about the Big Bang theory about the creation of Universe, then you will realize that both of them are pointing finger in the same direction.

& this is not the end. There are many things in Hindu myths for which a logic can be provided. All you need to do is LOOK AROUND. There are many books (& books well researched ,and by well known authors and a few by some scientists as well) which talk about the same thing.

Once a friend of mine asked me"If there is so much knowledge in these books/myths, then why don't WE understand it or why is it written in such a cryptic form? & If our ancestors were so knowledgable, why did we loose there knowledge?"

The reply to the first question from my point of view was that

• They must have written it in the form they knew the best. We understood it originally, but with the passage of time, we no longer understand it. Because instead of practising them (as was told in these texts) we started to preach them.

But I didnot have any answer to the second question, till a few days ago. During the same class, I mentioned above, my teacher said "To start something new, the old has to come to an end"

Is it possible, that to start a new civilization (of which we are a part) the old civilization disappeared and their knowledge was lost?

Definite answers??? NO......

Logic ????? May be.....

Faith???? Possibly.....

Science??? Will love to prove that.......

Adieu

Ankush Singla

(De)Part of Life????

Yet another bomb blast in Delhi, capital of India.

5th city to suffer from serial blasts in last month or a half......

Reminds me of a dialogue on one of the recently released hindi movie. The gist of the dialogue is that it seems for our coming generations, bomb blasts will be a way of life. When I heard this dialogue, I didn't think much about it. But today when I think about it, it sends a chill down my spine.

Living in a 'normal democracy', where the bomb blasts are as regular as a country under a civil war, today for the first time I feel afraid to live in this country.

Till now, I always thought this is something which will pass. I was just beginning to understand this world when terrorism was its peak in my homestate Punjab. What I actually saw was the decline of terrorism. For me, It was like the break of a vicious circle. I thought, we have been able to curb it in one state so following it should not be an issue in other states.

But, how wrong I was. In those time states affected were, J & K, Assam & Punjab. Look at it today. Every other state has a security problem of its own. If there are foreign terrorists in J&K, then there are Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh. 

If there is any state, which is not affected by such 'terrorists', then its own people are disturbing the peace of their state/city. 

What are we coming to? Is there a solution to it? 

I know a lot of people will say why do you only speak? why dont you do anything?

Well, this is where the ethical dilemma lies.

From the past personal experience, I have realized that the politics of this country is too dirty and too dangerous to be part of. One my close relatives, who is an active politician had a near death experience when he was attacked by goons of a member of the party he was opposing.

& as I don't want to be the part of the system, I have no moral right to condemn it.

However, I have a very simple question to ask.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO IMPROVE THE SITUATION?

& this time it is not incoherent babbling of a disturbed mind......

(de)spirited????

Watched movie "Black Friday" today, A movie based on the very famous serial blasts in Mumbai. To be precise, 1993 blasts of Mumbai, 'cause in the last few years the town has been a target of so many blasts that a few more may make the citizens of this city insensitive to the agony of the blasts(if they haven't become insensitive to them already)

This same point brings to me the famous "Undying spirit of Mumbai".

This spirit is saluted each and everytime there is any threat on the city, may it be bomb blasts, floods, electricity failure or anything. Each time the way the Mumbaikers get up the very next day and get back to work has been hailed by many as the ultimate salute to the undying spirit of humanity.

It really is different from other cities. After 9/11, New York was not normal for many days. London shook for many days even after the blasts. But Mumbai, UP & READY THE VERY NEXT DAY.

But, being an outsider, having never lived in Mumbai, to me this spirit does not seem to be a salute to the humanity. (I might not be the right person to comment on this topic, but you can say that I am misutilising my right of speech)

So is this really the undying spirit of Mumbai or is it something else.....

Is it the resignation to the fact that to survive in this city you have to behave normally or otherwise you will not survive?

or is it the resignation to the fate itself by the mumbaikers?

To me it seems a combination of both. The way the Govt's after Govt's have failed in providing basic necessities to the city, it is but natural that the citizens will resign themselves to the fate that whatever is being provided is all they can get.(It is not that other govt's of other states have performed any better) & to improve your living conditions all YOU can do is work day in and day out.

So, you cann't avoid getting up everyday and being a part of the rat race again irrespective of the environment around you.

So I come back to the original question. "Is it the undying spirit of Mumbai?"

May be or may not be. I guess citizens of Mumbai are in the best position to answer this question 'cause they are the ones who understand this city better than anyone else. However I can just continue my incoherent babbling......

Sayonara.....

Ankush Singla