Feeling for the cause and Blogging for the Cause..

Before i start writing, lets see some stats, India's population is estimated to be somewhere around 1.2 billion while global population stands at 6.9 billion. Hence India's population constitutes 17.4 % of global stats.Thats huge , i guess!!

Another source says there are around 18 million street children in India and bu street children I mean those children who live on roads, are deprived of care and love and have none of their own. These are those kids who either form cheap child labor and get exploited or who stay hungry. Anyhow their nutritional requirements are not met.

In India, 22 percent of these are below poverty line. So from the stats it comes out that around 264 million people, in India are below poverty line. Assuming that these are those people who are unable to get their required supply of meals. An estimate says that the kids below age 18 make 3% of India's population. So there are  7.92 million children are not necessarily hungry, but they suffer from malnutrition due to their financial condition.

So in total there are around 25.92 million children in India either stay hungry or suffer from extreme form of malnutrition.

To add to this, read the following stats:

925 million people stay hungry or malnutrition-ed and 98 percent of the world's hungry live in developing countries (Ours is a developing too) 

Stats corresponding to children-

More than 50 percent of the world's 146 million underweight children under age five years live in South Asian countries

10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year which accounts for 60% of deaths.

We talk about improving our education system??  Look at this, what else do we need to talk about. I mean I understand the importance of improving education system but first give the children of India, th right to stay healthy and happy. Give them their meals first and then teach them. Child is the father of man, and in our country the "father" stays hungry. So the young generation stays hungry and then we expect our country to grow, to advance like other countries. Every topic considering the improvement of our society is important, but none of them is as important as this.

I felt a shock to see such stats and I see grave's silence in this problem. I hereby request people to contribute in whatever manner that suits them. Contribute to the kids of India..

I have come across this NGO who works for the same cause. As stated by them, I contributed in my way. If you cant do anything just spread the word around. Make people aware of this, you may tell 100 people and only 10 may directly contribute to the cause.. but think if there are 100 people like you, who are spreading the word around, We will have 1000 people working directly  for the same cause.

I have come across this NGO.. The Akshaya Patra Foundation. They feed around 1254807 children everyday. For every one blog on this issue, they will feed 50 more children. Help them in getting this done, in working towards this cause. Donations can be made at  link.

If health is wealth and Child is the father of man..
Why dont you help in making children happy and healthy!!

(Courtesy: http://www.wfp.org)

अतीत की परछाइयाँ

तनहा बैठे बैठे , कुछ उब सा गया था जिंदगी से,

तो सोचा की थाम लूँ बीतते पलो को,

थाम लू इस दौड़ती जिंदगी को,

जी लूँ कुछ पुराने पल,

मिटा लूँ कुछ नए गम,

तो चैन की तलाश में चल दिया पुरानी रहो पर,

और मिल बैठा किसी कोने पर किसी व्यक्ति से,

पर हमे क्या पता था,

की खो जायेंगे हम उन यादो की गहराईयों में

मिल जाएँगे अपनी परछाइयों से

और भूल जाएँगे अपना ही आज,

तो खो गया राही अपने ही कल की गलियों में,

और भटक गया आज की मंजिल  की डगर से,

हिम्मत जवाब देने लगी,

बीते दिनों की खूबसूरती याद आने लगी,

तो कस लिया फंदा उसने अपने गले पर,

और बोला नहीं जीना मुझे इस बदलते आज में,

नहीं भूलना उस सुनहरे कल को,

 जब किसी के कंधे पर दिन और रातें कटती थी,

जिसके कंधे पर दिन और रातें कटती थी,

जिसकी इक मुस्कराहट से बात बनती थी,

नहीं जीना मुझे बिन उसकी चाहत के,

नहीं जीना मुझे बिन उसकी चाहत के, 

और येही कहते हुए टांग दिया खुद को

और झूल गया आज के उस पंखे से ,

कर दिया काल के हवाले अपने आप को,

बस मरते मरते बोल गया,

की हमारा क्या गुनाह था,

जो छीन लिया हमसे  हमारा प्यार,

और छोड़ दिया तनहा इस पराये देश में...

Suicide-de-love..

You stay and you pray,

You fall and you still pray.

In the meadows of love over-crowded by spruce

where your pain is enough for earth to perfuse.

Walking on a path so ominous,

brimming with needles of spruce's pulvinous,

You stay and you pray,

You fall and You still pray.

Standing on the naked mountains,

bathing in the unholy fountains....

You hold a hope to see from highs,

while you cry for relieving sighs..

You stay and you pray,

you fall and you still pray,

Falling in love like an innocent prey,

as if waiting for his own doomsday.

The lungs are brimming with  nicotine,

and for death.. You gradually become so keen..

You stay and you pray,

You fall and you still pray,

The death hence achieved is nothing but,

suicide-de-love.. I must say!!

(Image Courtesy :San Francisco Sentinel.com)

"कफ़न" -- प्रेमचंद

Premchand, whose real name was Dhanpatrai Srivastava, was born in the small village of Lamhi a few miles from Benares. His immediate forebears were village accountants in Lamhi. His intimate acquaintance with village life began here and continued when, as a schoolteacher and subdeputy inspector of schools, he traveled extensively for 21 years through Uttar Pradesh State .Premchand's last and greatest novel was Godan (called "Novel of Peasant India"), and his most famous story, Kafan (The Shroud), both deal with village life.

While residing over the Progressive Writers' Conference in Lucknow in 1936, he said that attaching the word "Progressive" to writer was redundant, because "A writer or an artist is progressive by nature, if this was not his/her nature, he/she would not be a writer at all."

I went through Premchand's "The Shroud" (originally known as "कफ़न" ). When I went through the whole text, line by line, I noticed something. It was so descriptive about the scene that I felt as if Premchand has captured snapshots of the society and its condition during his lifetime and then he has translated it into words, very clearly describing the details of the social system that existed.

He is very good at describing emotions throughout the write-up. There are situations where the narratives are so illustrative of the character's emotional condition. The scene represented through words show the multiple problems and prejudices that were prevalent in the social system, during that time. It beautifully brings out the concept of hierarchy of castes and classes and the sufferings due to various causes.

The theme is the condition of  the poverty-ridden lower class of the society. It talks about the irresponsible attitude of two male characters and how their good-for-nothing attitude turns into painful death of their own family member. Even after the demise of the member, their attitude of utmost carelessness continues and they show extreme disrespect towards the tragedy. They get themselves indulged into the worldly pleasures while the dead corpse was left unattended and even without a shroud.

@ Library!!

I remember going to library for studying for the mid-semester exams. I got a new laptop and since many of the courses had e-notes and presentations i thought of going to lib. with my laptop and a notebook. I felt good whenever i studied e-notes over my laptop. It had is own charm and feeling of content. My laptop was black with shiny silver boundary all around it. Ever since i saw that picture on one of the bidding sites,I was very much in love with its beauty.  I was very fond of music, so I had this huge collection of music ranging from latest Bollywood numbers to old classical hits, from heavy metal to instrumentals along with punk, rock, rap, country music and all sorts of  it. So my laptop was mostly about music but as exams approached, i refrained myself from indulging into ecstasy of music. Though i picked up my guitar at times while studying, but that was just like a refreshment treat for my grey-alma matter.


I remember the first time i went to library with my laptop bag hanging by my side, the bicycle parking was full. The parking lot had appearance like an overflowing river brimming far above its embankments. The cycles literally overflowed out of the library corridors, all the way into the gardens. So i spent my first fifteen minutes looking for a vacant space. As I moved slowly with my bicycle, looking around for empty spaces, I could really feel the eagerness flowing with hustle-bustle all through my body. I somehow squeezed my cycle in between two giant monstrous cycles.(similar to those carried by Milkman ;) )

I then rushed to the gate and as I entered the locker-room, the place was overloaded with all different kind of bags, some of them being  jholas, some were heavy-built backpacks, some were laptop bags. I then took my laptop and threw my bag somewhere in the middle of whole of this chaos

By now i had spent 20 minutes i was still not there in the actual library area. So i went straight to the reading section and to my surprise, the place was heavily packed, I mean i couldnt find a single place to sit. I roamed around hunting for a little space where i can keep my butt and study. While searching, I moved from reading section to the basement , then  to the newspaper section and to the reference section till the journal racks, I noticed something strange,  people were even sitting on the floor between the rows of roof-scraping racks of books. So i decided i would waste no more time and sit on the floor and study. As i sat, I had a look over my watch, I had already spent 30 minutes and i have not progressed an inch towards my preparation.

So i sat down kept my laptop on my lap like a newborn child. As my laptop started, i scribbled something in the notebook. I was habitual of drawing tattoos and graffiti on the last page of my notebook.  As soon as laptoop was ready, I switched on the wi-fi at once and started looking for campus wi-fi. The connection was established and my laptop was online for a while, but then suddenly I lost the connection. I re-connected it but the speed was very low. This thing repeated itself couple of times and consequently I gave upon the idea of using wi-fi. I got pretty much irritated with this troublesome wi fi.

I then started studying, I would have studied for around 20 minutes, I started feeling uneasy and bored, so i grabbed hold of my earphones and quickly plugged it into my laptop.  For next 10 minutes i was lost in my vast ocean of musical prodigy's.While listening to a Pink Floyd track, I decided to resume studying. I felt the need of going to the toilet, so i took quick steps towards it. While standing in one corner of toilet, I brought peace to my body and hurried to get out of the toilet.

As I came out, I saw a friend of mine standing there. He lived few doors down my room. We made eye contact and lent each other a couple of smiles.It was so irresistible to get into a conversation with him, b'coz we talked about literature and philosophy of life. I kind of enjoyed his company and so did he. He was going to CC canteen and I finally ended up accompanying him to the place. We had a coffee and a paneer kulcha, and had a conversation about Ayn Rand and bits about her philosophy. The talks had their own feeling of contentment.

We moved back to library and as we left each other, i looked over the clock hanging on the wall. Oh my god, i have spent 2 hours and i have studied nothing. This thought got struck in my head and i was irritated upto the core of my existence. As i reached my place, I had a look on my laptop and there it was. Curse the battery, it cant just stay working for 2 hours I got nothing to charge, I forgot charger at my room. So with all hopes lost, i moved back to my room . As i entered my room, i wrote something on the wall. It read " wasted two hours @ library."

The Policeman at Bannupur Chowki

A dim-lit lalten hung from the half-corroded metal hook and shook whenever a vehicle passed by the Bannupur Chowki, but a vehicle on that road was as rare as hen's teeth. The wick in the lalten somehow managed to burn while hiding behind the old glass. The chowki had a 35 year-old policeman named "Ramlal". He lived in a near by village and was supposed to guard the chowki overnight, all alone by himself. He was as lonely as a ship amidst the vast expanse of quiet and calm sea. He usually sat on a bamboo chair just below the lalten, keeping a vigilant eye on the vehicles passing by. At times, He took a walk along the roadside to break the boredom of his daily job at chowki.


He usually went back to home around 6 a.m. and his wife would serve him tea after he had taken his bath. His wife was slave of this materialistic world.As he was poor and dint possess the materialistic pleasures, his wife dint like him. So whenever he came back home, she immediately went out to market after serving him tea. At times she demanded shiffon-saree, cotton bedsheets or sweets. On the contrary, Ramlal was a person who had least interest in the worldly pleasures.The wife complained about the monetary issues and they had quarrels and Ramlal generally gave up and went to his bed. She had her reasons for complaining. They survived in a bulb-lit small room which had a kerosene stove at one corner and the old radio at the other corner. The room seemed overcrowded with two of them and the ever-increasing distance creeping between them. They ate boiled potatoes to celebrate on rare occasions. But that was too good for a policeman like him who earned a meager salary, just sufficient to keep two pairs of soul and body, intact.

One night Ramlal had a fierce fight with his wife as she demanded a multi-colour television set. The situation went out of control. He slapped her and soon he left for the chowki for his night shift. He was tensed as well as he had anger rushing through his veins. His hands trembled as he rode his bicycle towards the chowki, he had all sorts of thoughts coming to his mind on his way. By the time he reached the chowki,  only the thoughts of guilt survived his wisdom power while other thoughts were eliminated meticulously. He realized that his fatigue has taken toll over his wisdom which transformed into anger whenever provoked and he felt that it was perfectly okay for her wife to demand such things , due to her feminine nature. He climbed up the ladder to change the wick of the lalten. As he removed the glass of lalten, his hands shook,  he was worried and anxious. He felt sorry for his act and thought of taking some Gajras for her while going back the next morning. As the night grew and the moon rose high into the sky, the solitude and boredom took their charges and made him feel uneasy. So he got up for a walk over the road's shoulder. After he had traveled some distance away from the chowki, he turned around to go back and noticed the dim light of lalten spreading around the chowki in a magnificent pattern, brutally killing the dead darkness of the night. At such a beautiful sight, he was reminded of the good times with his wife. He felt guilty for slapping her.

As he thought about his wife, he heard a sound on the other side of road. It appeared that a cat was hiding in the bushes and he clearly saw the blue shinning eyes of the cat. He at once moved towards it, unaware and ignorant of the road. He heard a large bang and he turned towards the road. As he faced the road, he felt as if he stood in front of shinning sun and was blinded by the shine. He had a strange pain in his head. He fell down and he realized that he was hit by a car. He laid bleeding on the road and still had his wife in his mind. He whispered "Sorry" just before his eyes closed forever. His last word remained unheard and he was cremated next morning along the Ganga Ghat. His wife and entire village stood, lost in grief as his pyre burnt with colorful flames bringing the unavoidable fate of human to his existence.. His body and his feeling of guilt vanished in the silence and darkness of death. but his last word remained unheard ever and ever after..