Within the Mask.

I was going through my old CD collection today and i came across my old Michael Jackson Video collection of the Album "History". I played one of my favorite videos, that of the MTV music awards 1998 where he had given an excellent performance. After the end of his part of the show the crowd had gone altogether hysterical. There were shots of his sister Diana Jackson nodding with appreciation of her brother's performance.

A brother who had been a victim of almost every bite of fame, own and others. To begin with he had the pigmentation of his skin changed so that he would not be discriminated as Black. Hours of practice gave him the gift of perfectness which he exploited until his body broke down. His own personal life went for a jump with two divorces (atleast that i know of). He was then branded as a pedophile by people who accused of him sleeping with their own children. Today he is nowhere. He has filed for bankruptcy and no one remembers him, until maybe one day when he is dead.

Closer home.
An armed forces officer while doing his duty charged for the rape of a mother and her daughter. He is now proven innocent by DNA tests. One should consider the pain that he would have undergone during the time when he was taken as accused. His family, his friends, his unit would all have been affected. Today he is no more charged for the crimes he was accused of. But the punishment has already been conferred. For the rest of his life he and his family will remain branded.

Two kids in a Delhi school experimenting with each other. One records it with the camera in his phone. It spreads like wild fire all over the country. (I got access to it myself but could not get myself to watch it....come on they are just kids man!). Once again all the unsolicited media attention. The parents cannot leave home coz the media follows. The children cannot study in school coz nobody wants to sit with them. The teachers cannot teach coz they now belong to a school with no morals. Good lord...just because two kids did not know the consequence of their actions. The action? They recorded their actions. Voyeurism made them famous, other than that its an open fact about sex in schools. We only chose to be blind.
Death of innocence.

A girl is rushing towards stardom. She choses the most easiest and the most common method, sex. One of the rungs in the ladder records it. Viola – Miss Jammu case. Now forensics say its not her. But who cares. As long as she is concerned she is as good as dead. No one will marry her. Family will not forgive her. The world wont forget her. Another living death.

How much of us is dead when we are alive. Is time the healer or is time the killer. We have more access to each others' personal lives than two years back. At this rate one day we will live in glass houses. Are we to blame for ourselves or are we to blame others. Maybe its both. Mans quest for more, whether its for fame or for information, will always be peppered with sprinkles of shame to himself.

But in the end only those survive who have dignity and honour. For only they will not fall into the depths of shame, because their heads are held high and their gaze towards the skies.

Thats not a stray animal. Its our company pet -- Suwarna. Found by one of our men at the back gate of our unit, as a lamb,one stormy cold Jammu night

These kids got really happy when they saw us. 

Train Window Photo. 

Colourful India. 

Me in the engine. A childhood dream come true. 

Us... 

Sunset by the tracks. 

Poetry.

Some really simple and nice poetry......
http://ashwita.blogspot.com/

Temptation..... 

A Farewell, A Funeral.

I never knew being in a peace station could be so hectic.

Yesterday i was in a farewell party in which a few men of our company were getting posted out and one of them was retiring. They were being given the complete treatment...... garlands, giftts, farewell speech with only good things being told about them, tears.... They were surely going to be missed for a long time to come.

I couldnt help to think (in the wierd mind that i have), it resembled that of a funeral. The garlands, the good things being told of the deceased, tears.....

Even they are missed for long.....

But in the end all are forgotten.

My sister - Rowena. She came to Secunderabad for the weekend to visit me. She works for Infosys in Bangalore. The tunic she is wearing is hand made and available chiefly in Jammu and Kashmir. Its about Rs 150/-. (P.S. -- Its about 800 bucks in Bangalore !)

The boat in which we went boating on Hussain Sagar lake 

There was even a dance show on the boat to entertain us..... 

The Budha Statue in Lake Hussain Sagar, Hyderabad. While they were installing it a couple of decades back, they dropped it into the water. They put deflated floats under the statue, underwater, and then inflated it..... Forcing the statue to finally float on water. The whole affair cost the government a few crores.

A Banyan tree decorated by the Hyderabadis for god knows what. This tree is near the Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad. Thats my sister - Rowena, me, Himanshu and Charu in the photo. 

New Base.

This is the longest I have been from a net connection in recent times. I now connect from a Hutch phone to the net. Finally the technology is in India and about time...

Now we are in a peace station. Secunderabad.

A far cry from the militant infested mountains of Jammu and Kashmir. It feels so odd to walk about without a weapon. You feel somethings missing when you go to the market or a movie. Yes the armed guards who always accompanied me everywhere no longer are with me. Now thats freedom. Four years in hell in the so called 'Jannat' has me really old and tired.

Gods own forsaken land. Where the people have a different idea of independence. People who value peace on their endless wait for the same. Sometimes it feels great to live so happily in a place like Bangalore where the people have no idea of whats going on in
J & K.

The mess of a place that it is, is compounded by the lack of any kind of industry that may sustain a common man. You either have a shop or you have a field. There is practically no public transport, atleast not something you can be proud of, no entertainment avenues and all the glitterati that a decent town or a city holds. Buying land is illegal. Renting is risky. The people survive with sheer hope and refuse to leave for much more peaceful parts of the country.

So why do i miss the place?

Guess its too beautiful.

Worth fighting for.

Worth dying for.....

Wallpaper 

Whole villages buried in the snow during winters. The people migrate to warmer places during the winters and return for greener pastures for their cattle in the summers. 

Thats me again on one of those days.