the strike black mail!

Of late there have been so many strikes in our country...by unions, by individuals, by organisations...
Madame Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan's on an indefinite hunger strike for the cause of the displacement of the people of Narmada valley due to the dam surrection..

SBI staff union and the ancillaries were on a 5 day strike.

And now an internet forward is doing the rounds. read on.
" Usually don't forward stuff. But this one's worth it. *** One of us have shown courage. Protest against 49.5% reservation in colleges-AMIT KUMAR GARG, 2nd Year Aero IITB on indefinitely long hunger strike. & if still not heard AMIT will exercise self immolation (burn himself) in front of Main Building IITB. Wake up my friends and contribute by forwarding this message "

Wake up?? hello??!!! What do we wake up to? Some guy getting all furious about the Govt's decisions and trying out all nautanki of a hunger strike? Alright. I must confess we are all furious. But I really dont think a hunger strike is a solution in any which way! And our guy has threatened self immolation if not "heard". I think self immolation is the worst form of coercion, and that itself is a crime.

Ms. Medha Patkar is one one of the most revered and proactive women in India, today. She has been a constant activist of the NBA and has worked for the cause giving her all into it. She has been working for the cause of the people along the Narmada valley selflessly and we all appreciate her motives. But when she called an indefinite hunger strike, it came as a blow. No, am not against a hunger strike as such, but my question is why should she be the only one doing it? Its not for her that she's fighting the govt regarding the narmada issue, but all the people who've been displaced because of govt action. I stongly feel that this could have been a revolution of sorts, had she enrolled all the people she was working for along the narmada. Fine, she'll go on a hunger strike, but her people are going to eat to their hearts' content? This in no way is going to affect the govt lemme tell u. Okay madam is on a hunger strike. So what?
When are we going to wake upto her? When she dies of hunger?

Similar is the case of ourman from IITB fasting indefinitely for the cause against reservations. We all are upset about it, and with due respects all the sc/bc/obc quota, we do believe, we must have an equal opportunity in any field and such reservatiions are clearly defying the same.
This IITB guy, being young and having that kind of energy, could have enrolled scores of his peers into his concern, and it could have been a major transformation of a protest into a revolution. And such things as self-immolation are the worst examples of black mail and coercion and only show how weak we could get if the demands are not met.

If one feels so strongly about an issue and nothing is being done about it, do it yourself. Not black mailing the authorities in ways such as this, but by creating an awareness and by snow-balling it into a major revolution that enrols even the authorities that we question today.

Simba And Me

Animals never caught my fancy, in particular, dogs never did. When Sai got her Odie, a (so-called) magnificent golden labrador, she was on cloud nine, the happiest soul on the planet. Odie, to me was cute as a chubby four month old, but as she grew, looked scarier by the minute! Sai would tell me how people admired Odie and how "pretty" her eyes were. I thought, "pretty??"!! she scares the daylights out of me! How can a dog, man! a dog for heavens' sake look pretty?!
Odie would try to make friends with me whenever I visited Sai's for a session of combined studies or a lazy afternoon chat. Odie would never look pretty or cute. To me she was one scary dog looking at me to pounce, given a chance.

Yesterday, we were all at Chaitu's for another of our group-study sessions, that usually comprise three-fourths of study (no, really!) and one-fourth of good humor. we make a great bunch of merry-makers, trust me. That evening as we sat busy with mundane chatter, Chaitu walked in with this really cute little pup. It was grey with a few black patches, fur so thick and soft, and the eyes! the eyes shone like a baby's. A human baby's. And for someone like me with so much affinity towards babies, and mind you, its mostly mutual! those little black eyes looked at me in the most innocent and childlike way and it was reaching out to me. It was amazing. And the way it simply slipped into my grasp, made me feel almost motherly! Yes, that was exactly the feeling. I think it's all in the way it looked at me and reacted to me. He was called Simba. Yes, Simba the little King! King, in his own right he was. He ruled my feelings with those little sparkling eyes, the touch. Simba tossed and turned as I carried him warm and safe in my arms. He'd yawn once in a while and believe me, there's no sight like that. His little flat tongue would go all stiff and teeth the size of tiny gingelly seeds, but fangs quite sharp! It was the cutest thing I'd seen in ages.
I'd go introduce the Gang to Simba - "Say hi to Lamboo uncle!!", "Say hello Maddy aunty!" ha ha ha It was sheer fun! They teased him asking, "where's daddy?" and things like "here's harry mummy!" awesome fun we had.

I played with him all evening and came to know he was for sale. I promised myself the gift called Simba. He's gotta be mine. My baby. could a pup make me feel this way? Everybody was surprised. But then, things dont really happen the way I want them to. With me, well, its the case almost always. It had to happen this time too. Simba would not be my baby. For reasons, some unknown, some left unsaid, Simba would always be on my mind and in my memories as the first dog that moved me so much.

The Tomboy that I get called, or Harini alias "deemed boy", needs a redefining. At least after i met Simba...