The Dandelion

I am a human,
and I make mistakes,
I get disappointed
when things do not go my way.

I cry a little,
I fret a lot,
To tell the truth,
it looks like an irreparable loss.

When life stops,
Dreams shattered,
Nothing that happens,
any longer matters!

But could winter ever stop
spring to occur?
After each tragedy,
life has a sweet song to offer!

How can it stop me
from dreaming again?
How can fear of falling,
keep me from rising again?

I am an optimist,
who believe things will change,
May be today was bad,
but tomorrow will surely be great!

Crushed, walked over and squashed
though I may,
I am the Dandelion,
I promise, I will blossom again!

No Bargain!

I might not have got a fancy rank,

But I’m glad, I sailed through this time,

What if the ship rather sank?

I might have lost tons of time before finding the right way,

But I’m glad failure has depth,

which taught me in a more profound way.

Sweating, faltering, falling, I might have made my way,

But I’m glad I persevered, 

for “I Quit”, I never say.

I might have taken longer than others,

But I’m glad, He gave me the courage,

to keep fighting the same battle.

I might not have got what exactly I wanted,

But I’m glad, it has brought me far,

really far from where I started.

Her life’s been tough and challenging, people say

But it is surprisingly beautiful as well,

I have learnt it the hard way.

Given a chance to live lost years all over again,

I will choose nothing but this very life,

with not even a single bargain.

I thank Almighty for all uncertainties in my life,

For without this turbulence, 

I could have never made it to light!

NO COUNTRY FOR WOMEN?

Aruna Shanbaug’s life has finally come to an end after 42 years of ordeal. Rape and assault by an inhuman hospital staffer had left her brain dead and in a permanent vegetative state. The death of Aruna has rekindled the debate on life and death and on legalizing active euthanasia. Or atleast for the next few days, the topic would be hotly debated in news channels, the op-eds and the social media posts and tweets, then suddenly some other girl would be raped, molested and thrown out of the moving bus and Aruna, will gradually take a back seat in our short lived memories.

The death of Aruna has actually forced me to look at how diverse human beings co-exist. On one side, we see the perfect resemblence of Hobbesian depiction of human nature as self- centered and wicked, evidenced in Hospital sweeper, Sohanlal Walmiki who sodomised the menstruating 25 year old Aruna and strangled her with a dogs’s chain. While on the other hand,we find the Gandhian belief in the basic goodness go humankind manifested in the form of the KEM nurses who have been Aruna’s family and took care of her as a child, without being paid any extra salary or conveyance allowance. They had refused permission to let her die. They have been her family since past almost 40 years when her actual blood relatives or ‘guardians’ refused to take her home. Aruna's nurses re-affirm one's belief that humanity still exists in people.

I am not attempting any debate on human nature here. What actually concerns me today is the sorry state of affairs for women in this country. 40 years have passed by, but we are still having Nirbhayas. Very, recently, a juvenile girl was molested and thrown out of the moving bus in Moga. Why do we find girls raped and brutally hanged on trees? Why are Dalit women still raped and killed? And these are only the incidents which come to the fore-front due to pro-active media, what about those that go un-noticed and un-reported? Really, have we not made India a safer place for women to live in, in the past so many years? No doubt we have come far in terms of framing of laws for rape and sexual assault in terms of POSCO and fast tracking rape cases. But why is Nirbhaya re-occcuring. Are we creating a society where one section of men is empowered over the other sections of society? 

We really need to re-look at the tardy pace of implementation of our well formulated laws. The offenders should be given strictest punishment under the law and also its execution should be ensured. They should not be dealt with any light handedness as a prominent politician remarked "boys are boys,they make mistakes, why hang them?" It is like giving them another excuse to rape.There should be zero tolerance for rape and crime against women.

We really need to create a society where women can move out fearlessly, wear what they want without being stared at, use public transportation at convenience, do what they love without being stalked or harassed, speak to who ever they want without being labeled as ‘being easy’. Unlesss, this is ensured, the day is not far when India is branded as ‘ No country for women!’

P.S- This post is not meant to portray India in a negative light. The blogger equally lauds the steps taken to ensure empowerment of women. But when it comes to safety of women, much remains to be desired. And this is what the blogger wishes to highlight through her post.

Sarkaari Office-Office

It has been almost two years since I started working in a government department. Belonging to a business family, I had only heard about the inefficiencies of sarkaari daftars, but had no first-hand experience as such to comment on it. Though I was let down many a times and felt like giving up when I visited any public sector bank or even my D.U offices for that matter.

But my past few years’ experience with these offices has actually amazed me of its peculiar functioning. It is these peculiarities that I would like to share in this post-

First is the rampant use of ‘shudh’ hindi in sarkaari daftars. I had to pay for this when one of the babus incharge of our joining asked me for a favour in return for sending me directly to “prashikshan”. And I being unaware at that time of what technical thing this “prashikshan”  might be and that I might lose out on such an important thing in the initial phases of my career, succumbed to it. And ofcourse! I was not sent for “prashikshan” as promised.

Another peculiarity is the novel use of dustbins in these daftars. As per my general understanding, I only knew that a dustbin is used for throwing discarded things, but thanks to sarkaari daftars , I now realize that it can be used for spitting, throwing chewed paan/masala ,washing hands post lunch. And trust me it takes at least a week for this fully loaded bin to be emptied for the same ordeal.

Movement of files from one table to another is also work done. Most of the cases take eternity to be resolved. Only the files keep moving from a higher rung to the lower and then back again to the higher one. Even the mritya(dead), sevanivrita(retired) person’s files keep moving for ages. Even the dead cannot rest in peace here.When I joined my department, a senior officer told me “jitna mushkil sarkaari naukari paana hai, usse kahin mushkil usse peecha chudana hai”. And I cannot agree more with him now.

Sarkaari daftar is one place where gender discrimination is non-existent ( not literally , ofcourse). Here both ‘mahila adhikaris’ and their male couterparts are referred to as ‘sir’! I made blunders during my initial days at office when I never responded to when I was referred to as ‘sir’ , only to later realize that I was the one who was being referred to!

Another peculiarity is the way officers call their seniors ‘sir..sir..sir..sir…….’ breathlessly so much so that I am often reminded of the Centre Fresh ad. Sometimes I wonder when does the other person get a chance to speak in between this long -implausible –unending- repetetive  ‘sir’!

Also the way festivals are celebrated here is unique.Festival celebrations start a day or two prior to the festival and continue post festival too.These are the most relaxing days when there would not be much work and juniors are supposed to meet every senior at the workplace.This is also the time of the year when karamcharis would come and ask for chai-paani, and some like me would literally order chai-paani for them. I realized only after one year of experience that we should not take things literally here, and that the reference to chai-pani can mean other things too.

This is my experience with a sarkaari daftar. Though I am yet to explore many more aspects of it, it certainly is a wonderful and challenging place to work in!