~ '' ARE WE GHETTOISING SOMETHING?? "~

Sitting in a room with all the contingency of employing the best luxuries in the world makes life easy but the point is how can you seek a perfume of your choice without sniffing an ounce of its fragrance?? The proliferation of the poor with the standard of the rich in the same country is alarming, we all know. We do not have reasons to be jubilant if we are the epitome of unnecessary modernity in a poor village. You do not adapt yourself to this techno-freak world and you are tagged “staid”, no matter whether making your manoeuvres for or against the technology is a choice or a compulsion. It is akin to standing near the gate of a bus allowing a crowd to push you inside when you require getting in and then push you out when you require getting out. Talk of inflation on everyone’s mind and you won’t bother yourself to stay in the conversation until and unless you are an “earning soul” or someone who has no time to participate. It is just because you dont care ! You would rather become a sloppy soul for the matter unless someone among the participants toutingly stiplulate your area of concern in the topic.
If you are planning a vacation outside your city , you would rather be interested in the rumblings that provide you a cue of what should be the condition of the “bandh” on the day you are leaving so as to ensure the fact that your travel tickets do not become useless for you but once you are out of the city … who cares?? This might have affected many in the respective city or may be outside, many would have died in a severe agitation but then again if you are not anyhow a part of it then who cares?? Yours would be a non-chalant approach .. ! This approach has actually bogged down a lot of things in our country. It has beckoned to a crisis looming . The condition reverts sporadically to a positive side but it does not avert. It is an enigma and unfortunately a travesty. The situation is not yet cluttered, hence can be rearranged. At this stage we do not want bemused leaders or workers for our country, rather we require fecundity.
In a country where Independence day is gradually losing its importance and has not remained anything more than “just a holiday”, a gradual decrease in its importance as a
dire change should not be seen with a very surprising eye in the next 50 years or so. It might nab away the least positive aspects of the day. But this is yet a challenge. Sadly, In the same country power is the implicit prerogative of the rich. This should not be considered a moot issue. The topic is scrumptious which is only tasted and swallowed in, blithely.Yet it fails to suffice the hunger for something more scrumptious.
A dogmatic approach is another prevailing curse. Is it that our beliefs are too fragile or is it that we have succumbed ourselves to defeatism Which provides unecessary constraints to the upward trajectory of our self-development?? Are we preparing to leave the room in huff which carries these discussions?? May be yes , perchance this is the reason why these questions are STIL Questions. And these questions still looking for answers don’t bring us plaudits on our part atleast. ..

- Shruti ~~~~

~~ THE LAST THIRTY SEC0NDS ~~

We often hear these words being said by an invigilator in an examination hall which means that its time for you to wind up with all that you have prepared to make it palatable to the examiner’s eyes and give it a concluding eye in THE LAST 30 SECONDS.
Also, these might be the words of concern when a biker has to finish in time to make his successful mark in a race. If not successful then atleast laudable in THE LAST 30 SECONDS.
These words might hover on your mind when you are over the phone, wish to continue but you cannot, only because you are running short of balance. You are then reminded of making the possible use of THE LAST 30 SECONDS.
But how would it feel to you when you are asked to summarize all your possible feelings, your penchant for a person, your grounds of affection and your level of trust for the person concerned?? You might not be able to define the camaraderie you share with your chum but you might have been asked to define that tremendous flow of feeling. Wel.. I have had been made to tussle and come out of the most unexpected quandary of my life. I knew I was never born with such innate aptitude but it was unpleasantly titillating. I don’t know if I “really” ploughed but I had “tried” irrespective of all the possible ramifications thereafter. It was a rainy day, the last day of our meeting. He had been a good friend and a close companion. We had decided to meet up for one last time, may be because the things did not work out well and it was time to make a new beginning but with an end..(to a relationship).
It was a conscious decision and we had no regrets, only pains… We shared no personal grudges against each other but only few unforgettable moments for life which we were about to prepare to preserve as a memory for life ahead. It seemed that life within us had been drubbed by the circumstances but we had fallen short of perseverance, I feel. The feelings were all irrepressible yet very much calculated. We sat together waiting for each other to speak until he broke the silence and said – “Its time for me to leave now. It had been a wonderful journey so far . . . but you still have THE LAST 30 SECONDS..”(he smiled). I knew it was my last chance to speak my heart out but it would not have been an erratic behaviour for those who had been in such a situation before. We had reached the venue after a long tiring walk yet we seemed so fresh. The silence between us demanded time but unfortunately we did not have one !
He looked at me with a “bright satisfactory smile” and I wasted another few minutes excavating the reason behind it. It was one of his idiosyncrasies. I began to weave some thousand threads of past memories recalling how we had met for the first time, how we shared things, how we had been in the possible topsy-turvy of each other’s lives, how we had missed the presence of each other in a crowd of all those people who claimed to share a concern for us, how we had been successful in hiding the tears from each other and turned it into a smile as soon as the person at the other end smiled. We must have fought over petty things in life but on this “last day” our thoughts mingled in harmony. We departed and parted.
I do not know what I had left him with.. but he surely has left me with some infinite moments which had petered away into the memories of THE LAST 30 SECONDS.. . . . .

- Shruti ~~~~~