Sunday, June 25, 2017

Damn the nightmares...

Damn the nightmares... my brain is yet to make adjustments to the new emerging rules post demonitisation.
As an inheritance from mother, I developed the habit of hiding the currency in between the sarees , under the PAPERS in the wardrobe. I was so distrustful of myself that I never hid them at the most obvious places.
On November 8th night, after our mitr ended bashan on TV, I came home and opened the Godrej almirah and searched the most obvious places but did not find more than a note or two. I was relaxed but then I thought, is this all I saved? No there should be more to it, but from where do I start to ensure that the black snakes are not sitting somewhere silently to settle the scores with me later for forcefully hiding them away from the world.
Next day after the man left I closed the bedroom door opened the wardrobe believing that I am going to unearth a lot of hidden wealth. To my utter dismay I couldn't find more than a couple of old rs500 notes. I wasn't satisfied with my efforts in searching because I had confidence in the bharatiya nari in me.
When we stuff a note here and then in the wardrobe it is always with a noble intention of helping the families sail through the tough times. Actually it helped me big time once, when I lost everything to the tumbled nifty, the hidden wealth saw me though the tough times for a month. 
I called my dear saroj to dust every saree. She while doing the same shared that her mother too had the habit of saving money the same way. And mother always had enough to meet the unexpected, unforeseen emergencies in the house. Unplanned needs too were fulfilled by her unanticipated savings. She would give money to brother to fix the cycle puncture, give her a rupee or two to buy bangles in the mela, her sisters tuition fees too was met with these savings. Father was never aware of the backdoor transactions. Rich or poor once we are wives and more important mothers, we think alike save alike and spend alike.
Saroj and I finished the dusting activity by midday, we were successful in finding a couple of the much disliked despised notes, but not to the extent I expected. I was happy and unhappy both at the same time. I left for work and since then till date every discussion in virtual world or real world is all about money... 
When I came back from office, while having coffee I asked saroj ...kuch rreh gaya hoga re. she : aap ka vaham hai babhi, Maine har ek sadi ko jhatak ke deka, jo mila uthna hi tha
I made peace as I had 50 more days in hand to dispose, if i accidentally discover any more of them. But everyday there is a new law regarding the abandoned notes. 
With 30th Dec around the corner, I am getting jittery about finding the demonetized notes later and then being jailed for the same. Bringing in a lot of disgrace, to the family for stocking the abandoned currency. All this punishment just for the innocent ways we inherited in the name of small domestic savings.
Every Indian housewife should become brave bold suave and demand her share of white money from husbands in their bank accounts, and be provided with a debit card and if possible a credit card too from here on...
Our handsome 56" inch broad chest bachelor mitr should get this idea in his Mann and declare his Mann ki baat as a diktat on one chosen Sunday, Men should be penalised for not declaring their wealth to their women all these years, because of this women developed a habit of saving the savings in the most ancient methods, which caused a havoc in their financial planning recently.
Before the hell breaks loose let me go and dust my wardrobe one final time to save the family dishonor of being branded as black money hoarders, if I discover anything more than a meager rs10, 000 I will be penalized humiliated isolated branded and maybe when I go in search of suitors for my children, they will call us, hey this is the family which once upon a time hoarded rs100000000000000000 (from mouth to mouth a zero gets appended at the end very naturally), hey ram shub shub socho
Rs 50,000 penalty for holding old notes after December 30?

AND IT IS THE JOURNALISTS WHO ARE FAILING TODAYS INDIA.

I open my wardrobe, and it’s time for my daily dilemma of what to wear. The girl notices it and offers help…mom as today is Sunday and you follow the weekly astro color code strictly , so wear this red kurta and pair it with white Patiala, as sun(Sunday and red) and moon(white , Monday ) are friends , this combination shouldn’t upset them, and you may in fact get the benevolence of 2 planets on one day. I don’t laugh at her snide remark on my strict adherence to color code but follow her choice of dress for the day.
She interrupts my thought process by saying mom what if modi ji brings in a new rule tomorrow about limiting the size of wardrobe, what will you do with all these sarees??? I hoarsely chirp at her “preesha shub shub bolo “… mom: - you are upset just at the thought of cutting down the wardrobe, I can guess the impact of it on you, if such a rule is made.
The man calls the girl, and they discuss in meek tenor about my mental status ….I over hear words like aging, frustration …. I yell at them from bedroom, humare shauk hai hi ithne se “few good clothes, little jewelry, and few pairs of sandals” isme bi pabandi hogi tho gussa nahi aayega kya? … She answers back gently , mom what about the perfumes and all the lotions stacked up on the dressing table. i shout back , Please don’t scare me by making me imagine glimpses of govt officers coming and clearing my dressing shelf too.
While driving to work, I realize that I am really getting paranoid reading all the forwards on whatsapp, debates on fb and watching news on the TV, (thankfully off late I have become less of a newspaper person) about people dying in the ques, army taking over a state, rs 5 crore plus of fresh currency seized in bangaluru, a govt officer caught with crores of old currency, bank employees doing money laundering for commission. News reporting is not limited to journalists any more, and journalists are not neutral any more. We are fed by Biased, corrupt, and sold out media 24 hours a day .
Added to this is another nuisance of every party’s back office staff , releasing pro party messages, images, articles ,data into the grapevine … and sadly also the morphed, distorted deprecating and denigrating images of their rivals , and we aam insaan share them frivolously. I don’t know what has taken over us that we don’t think twice before using the forward button.
To be honest I as aam insaan don’t know the real effect of demonetization or good/bad effect of the imposed gold limit or of the pending announcements. I get swayed by the strong make believe current, by the general sentiment created by media. It should be the job of JOURNALISTS to help the truth to percolate to the bottom most layer of the pyramid.
AND IT IS THE JOURNALISTS WHO ARE FAILING TODAYS INDIA.
I finally decide to stop bothering myself about all the good and bad news being spread around and tune into FM, luckily I get arijit for company
“Acha chalta hoon Duaaon mein yaad rakhna
reporter dost mere , kaam tum log sachha karna
i hum along.........................

Travelogue

Travelogue 
I got down from the cab
saw the crowd hustling at the trolley stand 
I moved aside, pulled the handle of my trolly bag, converted it into a makeshit trolly hanged the other bag onto the handle and dragged myself into the que with luggage at the main entrance.
The noise and chaos at the entrance was reminiscent of the bustand in my small town.
A middle aged man appeared from nowhere in the que , he made space first for himself with awkward gyrating movements and then for his wife, my “excuse me “ "excuse me " failed to make it to his temporarily deaf ears.
I reach the gate, show the guard ticket on my tab, my instinct says the guard is faking attention, so I show the ticket date, the destination, the photo on the i card and then point to my face……he nods reluctantly and allows me to move forward…
I get into the check in que, the airline guy appears more of a cop with a walky talkie in hand than the security guy at the entrance , trimly dressed, stern body language , doing a lot of policing ...
The girl at the check in, asks me to load the luggage on to the scale , I am petrified about exceeding the weight limit , ( never worried so much about the kilos getting added on to my body every year )the lady says 2 kgs extra, pay for it, my Indian brain gives me an instant jugaad, I open the trolley , take out the laddu box given by mom in law and shove it into hand luggage with a giggle , the girl gives a helpless look for failing to earn extra bucks for her company thereby hurting her incentives, she asks to get my hand luggage weighed, as i meet the standards , I give her a victory glimpse , collect the boarding pass , security tag and move towards security check .
At the security check , IT employees move at snails pace, loading their laptops and various gizmos into the trays to pass through the scanner, I load my bag and stand in line to get frisked , the young lady does her job in seconds and stamps my pass with elan , i surge ahead to collect my bag and reach the gate to board the bus. 
Passengers jostle to get into the bus , as if it is the last bus towards life, as it is the last bus out of war zone, I follow the crowd and struggle to get into the bus and also to get out of the bus , we fail to understand that the flight will not leave without collecting the passengers and their baggage, it is bound to take all the checked in passengers with their checked in luggage. But we have this inbuilt scarcity insecurity insufficiency of missing of losing of starving.... our fears are so unrequited , irrelevant at many places... 
We stand as soon as the flight comes to a halt, in spite of the knowledge that disembarking wouldn't start in next 15 minutes , we collect our hand baggage and wouldn't let the old or the lady with an infant standing behind us to move ahead of us , the few minutes which we save really makes no difference in comparison to the generosity we can extend to the passengers who really need to get down ahead of us... I don't know from where this meanness has creeped into our minds, why have we become so petty , to fight over trivial issues like who gets in first or leaves first , or who gets the storage space just above the seat in the overhead bin, or who collects the baggage first at the belt... 
I while away my time reading playing with the child in the other row , trying to start a conversation with fellow passenger , talk learn exchange extend inform update ... 
This life can become a beautiful one if we become a little giving, a little accomdative, making little bit of space for others, extending a hand of friendship of help.... and In my observations the young behave with more maturity than the middle aged in the above mentioned scenarios ... our hope certainly lies in the young India

ఆకారం స్వరూపం లేని ఆత్మకేంతెలుసు

ఆకారం స్వరూపం లేని ఆత్మకేంతెలుసు 
మనసున్న శరీరాలకు ఉండే భావాలు , భావోద్వేగాలు 
అద్దె ఇంట్లో ఉన్నట్టు వ్యవహరించాలని అతిథి లాగ ప్రవర్తించాలని 
హిత బోధ చేసే ఆత్మను ఎలా నమ్మాలి ఎందుకు గౌరవించాలి
మనసుని చంపుకొని బ్రతకాలని ఆదేశాలు మార్గదర్శనం జ్ఞానోదయం 
అస్సలు అనుబంధాలు పెంచుకొవద్దు అని జ్ఞాన బోధ చేసె వెలుగువి నీవు 
శవానికి అంటిన నిప్పు చల్లారకముందే ఆత్మ విముక్తి కి మరి పూజలెందుకో ?
ఆత్మ సాక్షి కన్నా మనసాక్షే గొప్పది , నిజమైనది
స్పృహ ఉన్నన్నాళ్ళు శరీరం సత్యం, ఆత్మ మిథ్యం
శారీరిక మానసిక అవసరాల కోసమే నా తపన , తాపత్రేయం 
నవ్వుతు ఏడుస్తూ ప్రేమిస్తూ గెలుస్తూ ఆడిస్తూ
నిండుగా నా శరీరమై నేనై జీవిస్తా 
చచ్చినాకే ఆత్మనై , ఆత్మ గా చలామణి అవుతా 
అంత వరకు నాకు ప్రేమలు అనుబంధాలు సంబంధాలు 
పంచేద్రియాలు కలిపించే అనుభూతులు , ఇవి ముఖ్యం 
to hell with detachment and liberation ..