Wednesday 25 November 2015

''Alok Nath to play a cameo role in the next Bond movie!''

''Alok Nath to play a cameo role in the next Bond movie!''

In the land that gave the world Kama Sutra, new James Bond movie, SPECTRE has been censored by Indian film board and has been asked to remove the kissing scenes which features the lead, Daniel Craig.
It has come as a great surprise to its Hollywood producers who are now wondering how a sanskari country like India became the world's second most populous country in the first place!
The Hollywood producers of  Bond flick said, ''This was something we didn't expect. James Bond is loved by all. This is intolerance! I think it's a deliberate move to save the image of Emraan Hashmi as the sole kisser boy of Indian cinema. We have asked Mr. Mark Zuckerberg to stop all posts with #SanskariJamesBond .
You can't troll James Bond like that!''
However, an Indian Bond fan has come to the rescue of producers. He has made a great suggestion by asking the producers to rope in Alok Nath, the most sanskari actor of India to play a camero role in next Bond flick along with Daniel Craig. The bond fan, Akshay 007 said, ''If Alok Nath plays even a second's  role, the censor board will believe that the movie is totally sanskari and then even give the movie a U certificate without even having to censor the scenes!''
Meanwhile, after learning about this development, the producers of Jungle Book are now worried that their movie will also face the wrath of censor board as it has a boy roaming around in a jungle semi naked with only a chaddi! 
Who knows, Alok Nath might again grab the role in Jungle Book which should easily put him in an elite club of Bollywood actors acting in Hollywood which until now only Irrfan Khan and Anil Kapoor were proud of.
- Devashish Palkar

Sunday 1 November 2015

''A Girl in the Valley!''

''A Girl in the Valley!''

Blessed with natural beauty, she lives in a world where she believes magic can happen every day. Mostly, it is because of the bed time stories her grandma narrates her; of flying reindeers, of talking trees, of charming princes and angelic fairies.. There is nothing wrong in the world of this 4 year old daughter of nature. Her world is in perfect order, a state of blissful harmony where her grandma tells her stories all day long while her mother spends most of her time looking after the only goat they rear and her father goes out in search of any little work he can get.
Her day starts with the sun and sets with it,  the only thing she dreams about though is a sunny day where she can play all time with her friends  on the mountain top. Alas, most days are now shrouded by the dark clouds that have started to hover over her world, gripping her with an unfamiliar fondness. The sun never shines brightly these days and her friends hardly come out to play.

- Devashish Palkar

Friday 18 September 2015

''Confused chicken: An autobiography''

''Confused chicken: An autobiography''

Last evening one of my cousins was crossing the streets of Mumbai and got killed. There were some fresh earthworms coming out from the gutter line and as he has been well-taught, 'early bird catches the worm', so he decided to run fast across the street for a sumptuous dinner. But, as he reached on the divider, he saw Uddhav Thackeray and his men ready with swords and knives to kill him. It was a ruse. He quickly turned back and saw Maharashtra CM, Devendra Fadnavis on the other side of the road and decided he should rush back to Fadnavis for protection. In that frenzied moment, as he turned back, an over speeding car hit him and tossed him up in the air, higher than he had ever flown, and killed him. I strongly suspect, Salman Khan's driver was driving the car. Anyways, i want to stay away from that debate. I will let you humans discuss that. But yes, if  Kailash Kher was present there at that moment, he would definitely have sung, ''Toota toota ek parinda aise toota ke phir judna paaya!''
This is just one of the incidents to describe the dire conditions of my flock. We chickens aren't just food! We're birds too. When we are alive, nobody loves us except probably Joey and Chandler in 'Friends' who kept my elder NRI cousin as their pet. In India though, the conditions are far worse for us. We are not cows for Hindus to consider us holy. We re not pigs either to be saved from travelling a Muslim's colon!
We're chickens. And now you humans are politicising us. And even making satires on us as if butter chicken and chicken burgers don't satisfy you. You're obsessed with us. Don't get us into this political melange. And if you think we've become that important for nation, may be declare us as your National Bird by replacing that snobbish peacock. If you impose ban on nonveg food, we will stay alive for the winter, catch swine flu and then you'll kill us for that. We're as such doomed. Please let us know how you're going to kill us. Personally, I would prefer dying in an air conditioned KFC outlet when I am desired by people than to be killed like an abominable thing when I get infected with Swine flu.
Please end this misery and the mystery. It's becoming a sort of curiosity for us regarding how we're going to die. How we came into this world is still a mystery- The egg came first or the hen? Don't let death become a mystery too. If you don't do it soon, we will commit suicide by standing in front of Salman's car and then you'll be able to continue with new debates and news stories. May be you humans need to revise that quote -
''Curiousity kills the cat.. and also the chicken!''

(P.S. This is just a work of pure fiction+ eccentricity!!)

- Devashish Palkar

Friday 14 August 2015

The IMMORTALS of KARGIL- The battle for tricolour


'The IMMORTALS of KARGIL'

''Atop the cold blankets of snow.
A dark conspiracy was what they planned
To throttle our sacred nation. 
With their wicked plans and ammunition..
But little did they know their ambush would backfire..
And when the snow started to melt, 
Their cowardice was out in open..
A battle was on and our brave jawaans marched along..
The tiger hill had to be regained
The battle of Kargil had begun..
The firing bullets roared the cold skies..
Destroying every atom of the enemy's existence.
Blood was shed from our side too..
And sacrifices made..
As the entire nation watched in bated breath..
And with silent teardrops on their eyes.
As the heroes became martyrs 
As mothers lost their sons.
And sons lost their fathers. 
And many more widowed wives..
But little did they care about their own lives.
As scars became their ornaments and martyrdom  became their life time achievement award..
And in that moment they became unafraid of death itself.
As the nation demanded salvation.
And human lives were just instruments
In the gory battle of attrition.. 

They fought and fought till their breaths allowed.
Even as the bullets pierced their very hearts.
Until the fluttering tricolor was hoisted back in its safe place..
Martyrs did not die.
History made them immortals..''

P.S.- As I write this, there are soldiers in readiness guarding our frontiers so that I can make this blog..
Countless sleepless nights in the chilly snows of Kargil and dreadful hot days in the summer months of Rajasthan. All for one reason- To keep the tricolour fluttering high!!
They stand there unflinchingly even as our celebrated leaders enjoy their afternoon siesta in lok  sabha or just bunk it and run away to desolate places for months together. Even as a meagre 25 opposition party members halt the proceedings of the Parliament. And even as Arnab Goswami cribs and cries and roars and shouts and verbally rips apart the Pakistani delegates. They stand there, even as our leaders go out of their way to help a special convict reach out to his ailing spouse, not bothering about their dying parents and ailing children, much less caring for their own lives..
I am full of guilt as i write this, but I don't think we do justice to their sacrifices by whiling our time on nonsense petty talks and sheepish entertainment..
On this independence day, I wish to salute all the jawaans who sacrificed their lives for protecting us day in day out... For this is the least I can do..

- Devashish Palkar

Thursday 30 July 2015

Yakub vs Kalam- Does Religion actually matter?

''Yakub vs Kalam!''

The small town of Rameshwaram is one of the most revered places for Hindus. The Rameswaram temple and the confluence of the seas, the Vivekananda rock memorial only add to its glory.
Thursday witnessed an alarming increase in the worshipers. No, they hadn't come to visit the temple, but to pay homage to a rare and proud son of the land, APJ Abdul Kalam. His religion- Muslim by birth, India by deeds.
Incidentally, in another part of the country, there was much noise and outrage amidst wild celebrations after President and Supreme Court denied Yakub Memon, the mercy plea. Some scholars and seculars argued that Yakub's crime didn't deserve a death sentence. They took the battle to twitter as well.  Shashi Tharoor tweeted that the entire concept of death penalty by state should be done away with.
Yakub was definitely a terrorist as the judiciary found it, in the same manner that they found Sreesanth and Salman not guilty. Whether he deserved a death sentence or not is a matter of irrelevant debate. May I put forward a simple question-
Did the people who die, directly or indirectly because of Yakub deserve to die?
What would happen if you didn't hang him? He would become a liability on state. The taxpayer's money would be wasted to feed him when there are already 100 thousand hungry, underfed Indians everyday. Being a criminal, the biggest advantage is, you never die hungry. A poor common man has no such privilege.
A cockroach is of no use, that's  why we need to kill it.
The same people challenging the Supreme Court judgement didn't protest when Salman was set free. Where were you, Naseeruddin sahab?
The disgusting political leaders like, Asaduddin Owaisi politicised the issue by saying that Muslims were being unfairly treated in India.
But, deep down in the town of Rameswaram, his baseless arguments were proved horribly wrong.
A Muslim man died at age 84 and the Hindus, Buddhists and Christians and Muslims were united in grief, in paying homage to the leader they loved..

Yakub and Kalam sahab were both born as Muslims. Kalam sahab chose India as his religion by the richness of life he left behind.
This just goes on to show that, you may be a Muslim or a Hindu or anyone else, what matters is the quality of work you leave behind. Respect doesn't see religion.
Respect sees character..
IF your deeds resonate more powerfully then, it doesn't  really matter where you come from. Every Muslim isn't  a terrorist in the same manner that every Marathi isn't Raj Thackeray and every Bihari isn't  Lalu Prasad Yadav.
May be, one day, people like Owaisi, who are a bigger threat to the nation  than Yakub will understand..
Rameswaram. It was here that Ram built bridge to Lanka to go and slay the demon king, Ravana. Today again, Rameswaram's son has given us a reason to strengthen our bridges, and not get divided by the politicised opinions of power crazy politicians like Owaisi..
Till then, on humanitarian grounds, I will pray for the souls of both- Kalam sahab and Yakub, for this is what my religion and culture has taught me.
May be, Yakub was not the only one who deserved to be hanged.. Our anti-national religious dogmas too needed to be hanged..
#RIP

Saturday 4 July 2015

THE SOLDIER IN WHITES

''THE SOLDIER IN WHITES''

Loud sirens could be heard approaching the Emergency department of the city Hospital. Nurses and interns were in attendance, ready to tackle the situation. For the intern there, it was his first night duty in the emergency posting. He had been just talking to his mother over phone informing her that he would be coming back home tomorrow morning immediately after finishing his night duty to attend the PG coaching classes. Just then the siren blew off and the ambulance approached.
The male nurse flung the door of the ambulance open and the helpers got the stretcher ready and shifted the patient on it in one fluid motion. He appeared to be a 60 something man who was bleeding profusely and had deep cuts over his forehead, and had bruised hands and legs.. ''A clear case of RTA(Road Traffic accident)'' said the intern..
He looked clearly dizzy from the impact of the injury. The driver of the ambulance informed that probably the man was out on a walk when an SUV hit him from behind climbing up the footpath over which he was supposedly walking. Clearly, it appeared that the driver must have lost the control over his steering wheel and dashed his car over the footpath and had not even bothered to wait and check on the man whom he had severely injured. A clear case of 'Hit and Run'! Hit and Run cases weren't uncommon these days, of course, Salman Khan case was just another incident, there were many which went unreported.
The emergency room was well equipped to tackle all the critical cases but on that particular night there was no consultant on duty, the junior resident doctors and the interns were all who managed the emergency department at night. It is also a learning ground for them as the emergency cases require no consent before administering any treatment as they're considered to be always done in good faith and the liability doesn't rest on the shoulders of the treating doctor. It is here where the interns and residents learn the invaluable lessons in suturing, dressing, blood transfusion to mention a few.
The resident on duty, clad in white apron was a 25 year old boy, from Manipur, a state located in the far north east of India.
 Image result for A doctor in white apron
He had entered the Gujarat Medical College through All India Entrance Exam.
He set about quickly looking at the task at hand. Time was what was most important in matters related with the accidents especially associated with bleeding. The golden hour principle. The prognosis, the chances of the patient's survival depended on quick thinking on part of the treating doctor. He immediately established the IV line and started examining the vitals and found out that it was particularly important for him to ask the blood bank to keep the blood ready as there was immediate need for transfusion. He collected the peripheral blood sample for blood grouping and sent the intern running to blood bank to get the required blood bags for transfusion. Till that time he checked  for any alarming signs of spinal or head injury and luckily there were none. A fall had likely led to a state of semi- consciousness. He got an emergency X-ray done after establishing the urinary catheter. In 15 minutes time, the intern came running with the A+ blood bags. The transfusion line was established and required medications were given through the IV line and the wounds were sutured. It had taken 1.5 hours with this case. The resident patted the intern's back, relived that the patient's vitals were stable now and the patient too appeared to be gaining consciousness.
Just then, the security guard came in and called for the treating resident doctor as the police had called for him. The police had turned up there, knowing fully well that this was clearly an MLC (Medico legal case).
The resident said he was himself going to call them since this was an MLC and needed an investigation.
However, he was surprised when the policeman said, ''Look, young man.. We know that this is an MLC but you shouldn't inform anyone about it. Just treat it as you're treating any other patient.''
The resident was baffled, ''But this is clearly a case of Hit and Run! The driver must be punished not just for driving badly but for the sheer neglect of human values by leaving an old man almost bleeding to death alone!''
Policeman replied with a wry smile noticing his north eastern features and accent, ''You seem to be not from this part of the world. You don't know who the driver was. He was the son of member of parliament of the city. His image shouldn't be tarnished for a trivial thing like this! This old man doesn't have a family too. His only son works far away and won't be home for a long time. Nobody would even know who did the crime or wouldn't even shed a tear if he's dead. ''
Now the resident's blood was boiling.
''Fatal. Not trivial.'', He blurted.
''What sort of a policeman you are?. You should be ashamed of yourself for wearing this uniform.!''
The policeman didn't expect this insult coming his way. He jostled the resident aside and threatened him to do what he was told or be ready for the dreadful consequences and saying thus, he left, leaving a shocked resident and the eavesdropping intern alone under the dark shadow outside the emergency gate.
The intern had come to call the resident in and had heard partially the conversation which took place.
The shell shocked resident went inside, the intern accompanying him in tow.
The resident and intern decided that it wasn't fair and ethical on their part to carry out the orders of a corrupt police officer. They needed to contact the patient's son and let him know the full story.
Meanwhile, there was also a need of additional blood unit and the intern went and got the arrangements made. The blood bank operator informed him that the patient's relatives needed to refill the stock at blood bank. As was the practice in their college, the intern immediately sent the message across on the various Whatsapp groups to see if any of the students voluntarily wanted to donate the blood. It was late night and yet the replies started coming in and in 15 minutes, 2 final year students, who had been preparing for their exams in library, had already arrived at the blood bank.
 Meanwhile, the resident checked the pockets of the patient's trousers and found an identity card. The name of the patient was Sarandas Sharma. The patient was barely able to speak anything. Still,  the resident asked him the details of his son. ''Ram Sharma, Indian army!'' Was the only thing that the man replied that too with a lot of struggle. The eyes of the resident lit up hearing the words ''Indian Army''!
He had a hunch that he had heard the name somewhere. Ram Sharma. He Googled it and to his astonishment found that it was the same Ram Sharma who had lost his life fighting the insurgency in his home state of Manipur, a week back.
His mind went back to what had transpired in the last few minutes. Here was the father of a martyr, lying injured in front of him.. His son had lost the life fighting for the nation a week back and then there was that corrupt policeman not wanting to file an FIR to save the image of an equally corrupt politician.
The resident decided he wouldn't let the man go away without justice being delivered. He got a few contact numbers of the Indian Army thanks to Google and informed them everything that had happened and continued with the treatment protocols.

The next day, the corrupt police officer had been suspended, an FIR was filed against the son of a politician who was found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol, and the old man, father of the the martyr, was in a stable health. The resident was still there tending to him, even after the duty hours had ended as he stood there awake all night, much like a soldier on a border for whom duty shifts are less important than nation's safety. His white apron was all drenched wet with his sweat and the man's blood.
We need soldiers not just guarding our borders but also the interiors and the main land or if there aren't any, sometimes, we need to be the one.

Saturday 20 June 2015

Mosquitoes to get VISAS on 'HUMANITARIAN GROUNDS'!!

''Mosquitoes to be granted visas on humanitarian grounds..''

The monsoon has started and the potholed-travelling structures-made-of-tar used by vehicles for commuting(read, 'ROADS') have already turned into Olympic sized swimming pools in some of the metro cities like Mumbai..
With this increased stagnation and water logging, the 3rd MBBS students, studying PSM are worried that it will lead to more mosquitoes this season and there are already large number of cases of Malaria being reported from various parts of India.
But based on the Lalit Modi scam out in the public this week, a few dumb students committed to believing that the goal of medicine is not just to cure but to prevent the disease too(now that's very inhuman!), feel there might just be a way out of this muddy, macchhar filled puddle!!
Some students have reportedly taken to twitter and asked Sushma ji to grant visas to mosquitoes on 'humanitarian grounds'!! According to sources, these dumb students believe that mosquitoe bites are against the humanity and to save the humanity of India, mosquitoes should be granted visas so that Indians are protected from mosquitoe bites..
Asked which country they should export the mosquitoes to, the students replied unanimously: Bangladesh!
Interestingly, this was expected after the recent drubbing of India at the hands of Bangladesh in the 1st ODI..
''Yes! We want these mosquitoes to be given visas and sent to Bangladesh where they can bite those raucous Bangla supporters!
To save Indian players, we will make them play using mosquitoe repellant creams and make Odomos as our medical sponsors while Bangladesh,due to it's economic crises, will not be able to afford the repellent creams!''
Hearing this news,  Shahrukh Khan has asked Umesh Yadav(who plays for KKR) to share his repellant cream with Shakib Al Hasan who plays for SRK's side KKR. By this gesture, SRK clearly wants to establish himself as a more caring owner than Neeta Ambani.
Meanwhile, the Association of Physicians of India are miffed with this proposal as they feel they will incur heavy losses if the malaria cases decrease beacuse of this step.
A physician on the assurance of secrecy reported,  ''We are expecting many malaria and dengue and chickunguniya cases this year. If the mosquitoes get visas to Bangladesh, we will lose out on our bread and butter and die of malnutrition! You ask any physician to show you his wallet during monsoon and you'll invariably finds the photos of Anopheles and Aedes instead of their wives and girlfriends as mosquitoes are our best friends, our rain gods! To snatch our potential patients from us;  isn't that against humanity too?''
Meanwhile, there has been no response by Sushma Swaraj as yet on this matter. But there are lot of people who have developed mosquitoe- traps and they're exporting them to Bangladesh across the border..
After all, who needs a visa to cross the Indo- Bangla border?? :-P

Saturday 13 June 2015

WHAT DEFINES YOU?



A 21 year old boy studying chemical engineering from IIT committed a suicide. A 10 year old girl in another part of the world locked herself up in her room for 3 days because she thought she wasn’t beautiful enough to go out..
And then there is Lizzie Velasquez, labeled by cyber-bullying website as ‘the ugliest girl alive’. Yes, there are actually such titles doing the rounds too!! She suffers from a rare congenital disorder called the neonatal progeroid syndrome, thanks to which she weighs just 29 kg at age 26, can’t see with one eye and looks ‘ugly’, terribly ‘ugly’!! In one of her instances she recounts, “There were times when girls in school wouldn’t sit next to her considering her to be a monster!” Once, a stranger messaged her up saying, “Hey, are you the ugliest girl alive? Why are you still alive?? You should be committing a suicide!”

SUICIDE. That was the easiest thing she could have done. That was also what Nick Vujicic, ‘the man with no limbs’ tried to do  when he was 8 years old after considering himself to be a depressing burden on his family. He failed to commit suicide though. He tried drowning himself in a bucket but the water was shallow and he for one had no hands to pour more water!!
Lizzie and Nick earn million dollars today and are two of the most distinguished motivational speakers in the world! And if by any chance you’ve heard either of them speak, you will realize how, we, take our normalcy and non-ugliness for granted and fail to realize the true value of our lives!!
Lizzie, in one of her YouTube videos, asks the audience, “What defines you as a person? That short height? That ugly face? Those rough hair? That black skin? That pimple on your cheek or those misaligned teeth? Or that beautiful soul residing in your body?”

Nick was bullied inhumanly at his school(he attended a normal school, was a very bright student!) and all those negative, discouraging words only made his resolve to do something great only stronger!!
He got his University degree, started an NGO and wrote a best-selling book and is a highly respected motivational speaker today!
Nick says, “We often remember the words which shouldn’t have been spoken to us. Words are indeed powerful. Bad words can hurt your heart; good words can heal your soul. Look at me body! Is your condition worse than me? If yes, I won’t stop you from quitting. But if it’s a NO, then why do you give up on life? If my hopeless state gives you a hope, then I am blessed!”
Friends, it’s really a time to introspect, can you and I be a little less bitter? Can we stop complaining over trivial matters? Can we stop bullying someone for their looks? I know it’s tough because I do it often myself! But we must give it a try! May be, our lives can be better then!!
Thank you for reading!!
Your thoughts are welcome.

Sunday 31 May 2015

VIBHISHANA v/s KARNA- The Moral Dilemma!!?

               Bittu and The Guava Tree!
Once upon a time there was guava tree in the forest. All the neighboring birds used to come and eat its delicious fruits. Bittu, a parrot, was amongst those birds that used to enjoy the tree’s bounty. There developed a great sense of camaraderie between the tree and the birds. This continued for 5 long years. But then all of a sudden, it started to produce less fruits and the birds that once used to come and sit on its sturdy branches found the company of new fruit bearing trees and left the guava tree and its fruitless branches alone. Bittu still continued to be by the tree, unable to leave the company of his friend and still hoping it would start producing fruits again. The other members of the flock found Bittu’s behavior very eccentric and asked him why he was still there long after the tree had stopped producing the fruits. Bittu replied calmly that he couldn’t leave the tree just because it was not useful or productive as it used to be. Its fruits had nourished him in his growing up days and it was his noble duty to be its ‘friend in need’ when it was fruitless. Now, this story could end in 2 ways-

1.     The tree doesn’t produce any fruits, the other birds don’t allow Bittu to come and eat the fruits from other trees thinking he is mad and Bittu dies of hunger..
2.     After a few weeks, the tree produces a bumper fruits and Bittu, after weeks of starvation gets to devour all the fruits and the camaraderie between the two grows and both continue to live happily.

If you were Bittu, what would you have done?
Alright, think about this one now..
 Vibhishana v/s Karna
Vibhishana and Karna, the two righteous stalwarts from Ramayana and Mahabharata have always seemed intriguing to me for the kind of choices they made and the sides they represented. Before the respective battles began, both Vibhishana and Karna were on the side of ‘Adharma’- Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana, and Karna, the adopted brother of Kauravas. As the battle began, both had a choice- To be true to their men and fight for them or to side with the ‘Dharma’, the armies of Lord Rama and Krishna respectively. Vibhishana decided to relinquish the side of the Adharma and joined the army of Lord Rama, leaving his brothers who (must have) needed his wisdom for the warfare alone.
Karna, on the other hand, decided to stay true to his duty and chose not to be lured by the concept of righteousness as he believed that the only ‘Dharma’ was to be with the men who had taken care of him while he was alone in times of their turmoil. He knew that the Kauravas were wrong yet decided to fight for them considering it to be his moral duty.
What then is Dharma and Duty?? To stand by the side of ‘RIGHT’ or to fight righteously for either side he finds himself in??
If standing by the side of the ‘GOOD’ is what you believe in then may be, Karna was wrong! But if you believe that warrior’s duty is to fight righteously for whichever side he finds himself thrown in, may be, Vibhishana should have stood there and protected Lanka and its people?! Karna died a bitter but brave death, Vibhishana went on to be the king of Lanka and if the mythology is true, he is still reading this piece of article(he is considered immortal!).
If anyone here has read ‘The Shiva Trilogy’, he or she would know that Parvateshwar, one of the main characters of the story faced a similar dilemma whether to be on the side of his people or the side of Lord Shiva! He chose to fight for the people of his kingdom despite having his utmost respect reserved for Shiva. Was he right? Was he wrong?
Or let me rather ask you-
Who would you be?? A Vibhishana or a Karna?? I know that's a dilemma in itself!!
As the philosopher Richard Norman said-
"Its a mistake to suppose that there is always a single right answer to every moral dilemma!"



Thanks for reading.. 

Thursday 21 May 2015

GENIUS- A state of Work or A State of Being?



Elizabeth Gilbert, the best selling author of ''Eat.Pray.Love'', in one of her TED talks, titled- ''Your Elusive Creative Genius'' shares her thoughts about the fear which grips the mortal creative man who has just been labelled a  GENIUS..
Her book, 'Eat.Pray.Love' became a runaway success, an international bestseller and that is when she realized that for the rest of her life, any good work she publishes,  will always be weighed up against 'Eat.Pray.Love' and if people don't like it as much, she would be labelled as having become less of a GENIUS..
And isn't she right?
Harper Lee published only one book in her entire lifetime and it was the super hit, ''To kill a Mockingbird''. She could not write down anything again, anything as moving and powerful. May be, she suffered from the same fear..
But where does this whole notion of GENIUS come from?
In ancient Rome, creative people, the sculptors, the poets, the architects, the musicians, were believed to be 'Having a Genius' within them for the time they did their best craft. GENIUS was a magical, superhuman spirit.. The people who did something extraordinary, weren't considered to 'Be a Genius'!!
According to a folklore, 'GENIUS' passed from one creative person to another. From one generation to next..
As times changed and science advanced, man became the centre of everything- the good and the bad.. And the concept evolved from 'Having a Genius' to 'Being a Genius' which has had it's fair share of admiration, narcissism, and a whole new burden of expectations..
But, if we continue to believe 'we have a Genius' rather than 'we are a Genius', it would all be so easy, so modest and so humble..
As the philosophy of the Cosmic energy goes, we indeed do not possess any energy.!! All energy is Universal! You can have it for the time being but you can never hoard it too long!! The GENIUS evolves and gets transformed to another level just like the ENERGY.. And when this Universal Energy which everyone has a hold of momentarily, gets tranformed to an altogether unprecedented levels of artistry, we call it GENIUS!!
This Genius is free, and is not to be burdened by expecatations.. The GENIUS might leave us but the Universal Energy still exists for everyone..
So, is GENIUS- A state of being or a state of work? I prefer the latter..
''There is a GENIUS sleeping within us all! The question is- Do we have enough ENERGY to wake it up?!''

Thanks for reading..
- Devashish Palkar

Sunday 3 May 2015

''Irfan Pathan offered a role of SITTING President of Russia!''

At this year's IPL auction, Irfan Pathan went unsold for the first round. But then CSK realized the need to have more drinksmen so they bought him in the squad.. He has since been warming the already hot benches of the CSK dugout.
Reports are coming that Vladimir Putin wants Irfan Pathan to come to Russia as the 'Winter Is Coming' and he will need somone to warm his Chair. And who else can do it better than Irfan!!
According to sources, his family members are excited with the news! Irfan's dad was quoted as saying- ''I always believed my son would do something big! I wanted him to take the position of Kapil Dev bt its a moment of pride that he will now be sitting on the same chair as Putin! Inshallah, the god is great!''
But there are reports that Shiv Sena is miffed with this proposal. Uddhav Thackeray was quoted as saying, ''This will harm the Indo- Russia relations. Irfan is a Muslim. He has been out of India side for more than 2 years now. Who knows, he could well have turned into a Pakistani agent?!''
To this,  Maulvi of Jama Masjid reported that, ''Uddhav Thackeray is mad. Does he not know the fact that Irfan demolished my great Pakistani batsmen with a hat trick?!'' To which Uddhav Thackeray commented- ''And still we lost the game! '' asserting his love for Indo-Pak games..
Meanwhile, MS Dhoni is pretty unhappy with all this fuss. He has secretly approached Mitchell Starc through his contacts with another bench warmer, Mike Hussey and has requested Starc to donate his stem cells to Irfan Pathan so that he may start bowling well again..
Meanwhile, Mitchell Starc was unavailable for comments.. According to CSK management, the plan before the start of IPL was to keep swapping the role of Bench warmer between Ashish Nehra and Irfan Pathan. But Ashish Nehra's unexpected good form has changed all the equations!
If Irfan keeps going on and off to Russia for warming the chairs, it will beat the record of foreign visits set by PM Narendra Modi,  who is very nervous after learning this news.
Modi has even unofficially sent a whatsapp message to Ashish Nehra pleading him to return to bad form!! Modi has also been sending videos of Ashish Nehra's earlier spells where the bowler used to distribute runs at will for free..
Narendra Modi has also appointed a standing committe with N.Srinivasan as the head to FIX this matter straight!!
Meanwhile, Yograj Singh was quoted as saying- ''Dhoni is responsible for all this. My son deserved to go to Russia. Bt there's a CSK conspiracy behind it! It's biased!''

The next game of CSK will surely generate more hype than the Mayweather vs Manny Pacquio match.
P.S.- Irfan Pathan was unavailable for comments as Ashish Nehra applied FeviQuick to his trousers and Irfan is still stuck to the bench at Chinnaswamy stadium..
-Devashish Palkar
(P.S.- This is a REALLY FAKE article! ;-) )
😛😜

Sunday 12 April 2015

Hitler vs Mandela!!

''THE ART OF FORGIVENESS''

Sometimes we are too angry with ourselves or that we feel we are just too big to make all decisions and end it all up..
May be in the hindsight we gotta realise that those weren't the best decisions.
Wait.
Take a deep breath..
Do we think our decision was correct?
Do we have a chance to correct ourselves?
Oh yes. We always have. Bt sometimes the EGO comes in. Nd that Hitler within our brains comes up and yells- ''Yes. Killing the Jews was wrong. Bt hell. You took the decision. Now be a man. Stand by your decision! Try to prove the world that you were superior and they were wrong!'' Hitler is never right..
When i look back at the history of our tiny planet, I am amazed (and ashamed of being of the same species) how a simple genuine apology or a kind word could've changed the course of the world..
Nelson Mandela fought non violently initially, got frustrated and developed a hatred for the white skin and ended up being declared a terrorist in his own nation.. He was then made to spend 27 years of his life in prison and it could ve made any person so bitter that on coming out of prison, the first thing he would ve done would be to kill any white being he encountered... Bt he chose a different path. The middle path of reconciliation. Of quitting hatred and choosing compassion..  Of shaking the hands again.. He didn't let the Ego come in the way..
The world salutes him not the Hitler..
Can we try being a Mandela some day?
I know it's tough. Bt sometimes we need to learn the art of forgiveness.. May be there's never a wrong time to make a new beginning. 😊

Thursday 2 April 2015

CHOICE vs PRIVILIGE

She is jst 17. She sweeps the floors of a hospital. She is a nurse. She is a sweeper too.
And in 7 days she will be a wife too. And probably in a year(hope not less than that) she will be a mother too.. She isn't happy with this. She isn't sad either. For she feels her life has been scripted by her parents and their lives by their parents and so on. She often watches movies. Bt she has no inkling to what Deepika Padukone makes up about the idea of #MyChoice. She can't read. Thankfully she can't understand English either. If she could understand English and if she did watch that publicity stunt, she would be stunned. Stunned by the most horrendous usage of a word called 'CHOICE'. For its not CHOICE that Deepika rants about, it's a PRIVILIGE, a PRIVILIGE that can only be awarded to you if you're rich and successful. But hang on. Does it stop here?
Even the lady PepsiCo CEO (Ahh what's her name? Yea let me Google it up) Indra Nooyi has had to go through phases where as woman she has had no CHOICE..
On the day of her appointment as the CEO, her mom tells her- "Let me explain something to you. You might be president of PepsiCo. You might be on the board of directors. But when you enter th

is house, you're the wife, you're the daughter, you're the daughter-in-law, you're the mother. You're all of that. Nobody else can take that place. So leave that damned crown in the garage. And don't bring it into the house. You know I've never seen that crown."
So while our beautiful Deepika can talk all about #MyChoice, it doesn't strike a cord with normal everyday Indian woman..
Forget woman. Not even every man in the country is blessed with that CHOICE. Apart from of course, the eternal bachelor,  SalmanBhai Khan!!
Its as futile as discussing why to choose an International board school instead of State Board School while the 40% of Indian children attend a school with no regular, dedicated teachers..
The real women empowerement on her part would be to not accept a role that objectifies a woman. Is she willing to accept it? If not may be she should do what Rahul Gandhi is doing right now- DEEP INTROSPECTION.. Nd may be then she should return and be a part of more sensible videos which cater not only to the ''elite'' class that she herself belongs to..
The video which is being falsely projected as pro-woman is anti-(middleclass)woman!!
I think it's more derogatory to an everyday Indian woman than AIB knockout..
Some women might call me a chauvinist, but then it's #yourCHOICE and you're fully entitled to your opinion just as I am to mine..
#MyChoice
Ending it here with a hope that Indian women get their basic human rights if not all the PRIVILIGES which Deepika finds hard to CHOOSE from..
#MyWISH
[P.S.- No personal grudges Deepu.. Can't wait for Piku.. ;-) ]

Saturday 21 March 2015

Has someone been a Parachute in your life?


Has there been a Parachute in your life? 

Perhaps the fiercest of all post world war-2 battles was fought between the USA and Vietnam from 1955 to 1975.
Charles Plumb was one of the greatest fighter pilots of USA Navy in those days.. He was successful in bombarding Vietnam a record 75 times. During 76th attempt,  his fighter plane was shot by the enemy missile. However, by sheer miracle Charles landed safely with the help of a parachute.
But the area where he landed was in North Vietnam. He was cordoned by enemy soldiers from all sides and was made the prisoner of war..
He had to face brutal hardships at the hands of enemy soldiers for long and painful 6 years of imprisonment.
The war ended and ultimately Charles was one of the many prisoners of war to be released by Vietnam.
He arrived home to USA and received a hero's welcome..
He was a war-hero. Wherever he went he was received by huge audiences who were always eager to listen to the tales of his adventure and heroism.
Charles was always a proud man as he narrated his experiences to his fellow citizens.
On one such occasion as Charles was about to finish his speech an old man approached the podium and said, ''Charles, I am really happy to see you. Do you remember me?
I was in the USA navy.
I used to make Parachutes for the fighter pilots!''
Tears started rolling down Charles' cheeks as he realized he had been so boastful of his adventures and achievements but it was only because of this old guy that he was alive..
It was only because of the parachute that he had meticulously prepared for him that he could miraculously manage to survive.
Since that day Charles continued to express gratitude to this parachute-maker wherever he went to deliver his speeches.
He would conclude by urging his audience to contemplate deeply and find out if there was someone who had acted as a parachute in their lives and had saved them in troubled times..

If there's a Parachute-maker in your life, don't forget to express the gratitude to them..
For that's the least you can do..
And if possible, try being a parachute to someone else.. :-)

(Translated to English..
Written originally in Hindi by my mom, Shyamali Palkar based on a column which appeared in Gujarat Samachar. )

Wednesday 11 March 2015

PLAYING IT RIGHT.. :-)

Jst last week i was watching some visuals from Kabul. No. Not the terrorism or war videos bt something similar, a few people firing Kalashnikovs. Not at someone. Bt in the air. A rarity.. Reason? They had beaten Scotland. No not in economic development. Not on HDI scale.. Not even in war.. Bt on a circular green field where wars are fought without guns. Nd where balls are hurled instead of bombs. It's a rare victory.. A sweet victory.. One that gave the war ravaged nation a reason to celebrate.
With his fitness and agility, Samiullah Shenwari would've been an asset to Taliban. Thank god he chose a different war for redemption. A holier war if not more religious..  It was an endearing sight to behold...
So the world cup is on in full swing.
If you think which worldcup?  May be you're not a cricket fan.
Or i should say, you're not Indian or Sri lankan or pakistani or Bangladeshi or a (cricket loving) Aussie..   If you're still not a cricket fan may be you're 'cool' i should say 'kewl' and i am not.
If we look back at our childhoods we will realize that CRICKET has been an integral part of most of our lives. Like the seam of the leather ball it gripped our childhoods while we kept striding forward and running between the wickets.!! We grew up and realized there are many other sports too.
And then we realized cricket is jst too commonplace. Let me support a new sport and dab we ordered a ManUnited jersey..  Bt its again that time of the year when we go back to Cricket..
May be CRICKET's biggest contribution has been the one of unification. Yes, we might hurl abuses at Shahid Afridi but thats jst a small part of the banter.. Yes, jst like any other religion which has its fair share of fanatics, we too have our Ladens and Kasabs in the form of Meiyappams and Srinivasans..
But on a broader perspective there's nothing that unites so many Asian nations in one breath as Cricket does. Let's not be belittled by the fact that ours is but a subcontinental sport..
Americans play Basketball. Bt the entire world doesn't play it with as much frenzy. Do they feel belittled? No..
It's time we celebrate this game. There are flaws in our game too.. But slowly and surely our game is going to corners of the world once unknown, unheard... Nd if football fanatic tells a Cricket fanatic that Cricket is 'Asia's football' a cricket fanatic will say football is 'Europe's Cricket!' Talking in demographic numbers, he would add. ;-)
Any which way, the game of Cricket will survive, you hate it or love it.. Nd sporting lovers and romantics like me will strive to carry this 'religion' forward... Ahh no. Religion is a dreaded word..
I will jst say, We will keep this MELA(Carnival) going..
If 121 crore people can find a reason to celebrate, a reason to leave their daily dose of disappointments aside and a reason to sleep well then i don't think it's a bad game after all..
Let Man U jersey be in your wardrobe..
Let RF cap of Roger Federer be there too.
Let's not fight regarding which sport is better. Let Cricket vs Football not become Salman vs Shahrukh or better still Messi vs Ronaldo..
If we can still celebrate Neymar's goal and Maxwell's reverse sweep with equal zest, ''Sports is the winner at the end of the day!'' (Talking like Ravi Shastri)
Nd btw the Indian team seems to be doing alright as of now..
May be that's jst the inspiration you need to hold that old cricket bat lying in a dusty corner of your home back in your hand and go around and play a few shots (and please spare a thought for that bowler too. .Our game can't survive on a Bowling Machine after all. ;-))
Ending it here with a wish we will all be shouting INDIYAAA INDIYAAA on 29th of this month..
Enjoy..
Be a SPORT.. ;-)
#BleedCricket
#BleedFootball
#BleedSports 😊😊

Thursday 5 February 2015

''THE BEGINNING!''

'What a caterpillar  calls the end.. The butterfly calls a beginning. !'
The law of life is eternal transformation.. We are energy manifest into life.. And jst like energy can neither be created nor be destroyed, our journeys too never end..
The end of something is always the BEGINNING of something...
Here, i try to put these feelings in the form of a poem..
Let's celebrate a new day.. A new moment.. And a new Beginning...

             THE  BEGINNING
''A leaf falls to the ground
As the autumn comes around..
An old man turns to soil
After a life full of struggle and toil..
A twinkling sky tuns into a moonless wonder..
Marking the end of an old calendar..
And as we fight for all our right
The time catches us very tight...
But Dark night brings with it a promise for the radiant morning...
And sweltering afternoon brings with it a promise for a pleasant evening...
And just like music brings forth a dance
A risk brings with it a golden chance..
The fear of grave makes us all the more brave..
But-
An end of everything is the beginning of something...
So the phoenix promises to rise again ..
Because there are many lost battles yet to regain..!''

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A DARK winter day..

It was just another usual day. We woke up at 5.30 to the calls of  ''Allah U Akbar!'' from the neighbouring mosque. My hus...