A Day From The Past - 2

26th January 2001 8:46 AM

It was Republic Day... A holiday... As all holidays I was sleeping peacefully with kitchen sounds in my background and I feel  my bed moving,  I think it is my mom trying to wake me up and I beg her to sleep for a few more minutes. Then I hear my Mom shouting...........

"Beta Bhag Bhukamp."(Run Son its an Earthquake)

90 seconds... 90 seconds it lasted... And in those 90 seconds around 19000 people died.. 167000 people injured... 400000 people homeless.. Estimated loss of $5 billion.... Its funny how such little time can bring dramatic changes in the life of so many people.. I was in Ahmedabad so the devastation was comparatively lesser then the near by City of Bhuj... But I still saw certain things which are unsettling.. I have seen people losing homes... relatives... I didn't realize this then but I do now...

So when this earthquake struck.. my Mom asked me to run... I ran from our 2nd floor apartment...Somewhat sleepy somewhat terrified somewhat confused... I didn't really understand what was happening around me... I couldn't run straight I couldn't my eyes open and a little scared... While running I saw bikes falling a tree uprooting all this was very weird to my brain.. The adrenaline was pumping now and I was running scared to turn around and look back... Only once I stopped I realized that The quake had too and I see around... Nobody they all had stopped running long back...

Only after it stopped and I didn't see anyone... My first thought as any child would have was of my parents where are they? I see them looking for me anxiously, they call me back... "There they are" I say to myself... Its the thing with parents you will always find them when you need them no matter how far you are... That's it the worse was over for me.. On the way back I meet a friend and we are both laughing at the turn of events and how exciting it was and what were we doing when it happened and retelling the whole story..

For the 11 year old me that was the world my parents and friends and school (which I had no news of and later came to know took some damage and we were moved to a different branch)... I came to about the severity of the event when I saw people gathered around our car trying to get some news on the radio.. Only All India Radio was functioning all FM stations were out... Funny how we criticize the govt and only govt stuff works in such situations...  Serious expression on every adult's face... Scared and serious face...

Only once the power was back on we saw what has happened around the state... Fallen building... Dead people... Injured people... Seeing all this was a first time and it was disgusting... I couldn't watch it... But there was something in this time that brought people together... Everyone stood by each other no matter the differences... People were willing to help.. We had collected food and clothes by going from house to house which came up to 3 truck loads and it was sent to Bhuj where people were more effected.. It was something in the times that make people generous giving.. Don't know if it is the fear of death that makes them like that or the fear of God after Death.. But whatever it was it worked.. People were back to work schools were up.. Shelter homes were empty very quickly... It brought a feeling of being one and facing the issues... Yes the state has had its share of communal tension but this was not the time and that was everyone's thought..

A cloud with a silver lining is still a cloud... So yes I get scared every time I hear about such news anywhere in the world... The scenes are not pretty... the effects of people's lives are not easily mended...But as Shahrukh Khan's famous dialogue goes.. "Haso jiyo muskurao... Kya pata Kal ho na ho"..

Fake Citizen

A Day From The Past

26th January 2001 8:46 AM

It was Republic Day... A holiday... As all holidays I was sleeping peacefully with kitchen sounds in my background and I feel  my bed moving,  I think it is my mom trying to wake me up and I beg her to sleep for a few more minutes. Then I hear my Mom shouting...........

25th January 2001 - Sometime in the evening

I was in 7th Standard that time so say I was about 11 years old that time.. As my usual routine, time I reach home from school and quickly grab something to eat while my Mom as always keeps asking questions about what I did in school? And since exams were approaching or they had just finished I don't exactly remember but her questions were harder to answer then usual.

Anyways so I try to finish my evening snack as quickly as I can to avoid more questions plus since it was the winter I didn't get much time to play in the evening if I was late because it gets dark early. So I finish my snack and just bolt to the ground, not that I was much of a sports guy just that it used to be fun or at least looking back now it seems fun. We had a large ground so we used to play pretty much everything Cricket, Football, Volley ball, trying to look cool when the girls are watching... yeah that was a game too and every guy always lost. So we used to play, I wasn't a really bad player but I pretty much sucked at every game. I was one of those guys who used to get picked just before the that fat kid.

So we finished playing and we all guys were like hanging out poking fun at each other and pulling each others leg teasing them with some random chick.. yeah that was the in thing to do that time, and the poor guy used to turn pink or blue depending upon the situation or how bad the prank was. And we start talking about the Republic Day celebrations. I never used to attend those, till date I am not sure if my school even had Republic Day celebrations since I have never been to one I have heard rumours though. But we had it in our neighbour hood, I join in the conversation knowing full well that I won't be there  but since everyone was talking I joined in nodding my head every time I was asked something. Probably they were just talking about the free food they will get.

So finally I bid adieu to my friends and start walking home, as I reach I dread the sight of it, my Mom is standing in the balcony looking down on the road which means.... I am late. So I climb the stairs even more slowly just to avoid the shouting I was going get for a little longer. Its like an addiction of alcohol or smoking, you know you are going to die but you still have to do it. So I am there I don't remember what did she said to me mostly because I didn't listen half the time.(I do now).. Later part of the evening was pretty dull Dad came home so I became the best kid in the world, I still didn't do my homework though, I never did, I never understood why but I just never did. So I had dinner watched some TV and slept. Like any other day. Oblivious to the fact that tomorrow will be so different.....

26th January 2001 8:46 AM

It was Republic Day... A holiday... As all holidays I was sleeping peacefully with kitchen sounds in my background and I feel  my bed moving,  I think it is my mom trying to wake me up and I beg her to sleep for a few more minutes. Then I hear my Mom shouting...........

"Beta Bhag Bhukamp."(Run Son its an Earthquake)

To be Continuied

Fake Citizen

Venting Citizen

Right... So I am not really sure what made me start this thing... But well I did and you my friend took out the time to read this. So I am really new at this and will take some getting used to so lets just see I don't even know if I will post again ever...But hey... what the heck right!!!!

Venting

So I am not the kind of a person who really gets upset with what goes on in the country.. I might get surprised once in a while but not really bothered.. I don't even watch the news often, the closest I have been to being upset by something on TV is when India loses matches on the trot(well... got used to it now). But the thing that happened in Delhi has been running in mind from some time now and I don't know why but like many others it has pissed me off and I don't know what to do about it rather I am just too busy( read lazy) to do anything about it... probably that's the reason I started this blog... I needed to vent.

What happened there is shameful agreed... people are upset angry accepted.. government is not doing enough given.. police is not effective again agreed... But within all this there have been very few and far people who really questioned the society at large!!! We as people or citizens of this country where do we stand?? Oppression towards women has been going on from ages...Take Sita for example from Ramayana.. Just to say... I daresay I was bemused by the reaction of people on social networking sites and BBM and whatsapp or whatever or wherever... putting Black dots as ur profile pics!! Setting up #safetyforwomen or any other for that matter... people are forwarding the horror that poor girl went through to people... please for god's sake have a conscience.... I personally was utterly disgusted by this... I had a chat with once guy once on this over bbm and he said to me if I have slightest of humanity I will put up a hash tag as my status... Is it suddenly cool that you are putting up a status by someone else's misery... It is very easy to do all that you just sit in ur couch or bed all comfy cozy change your picture put up a status and that's it we have done our part now its upto the govt to take care of this mess and punish those guys.... We will go to sleep...

Media has raked in the maximum advantage of this... they call her Nirbhaya... Anamika... Damini.. and a few more name which I cant remember now... They have created this whole huge situation and in most ways it is a good thing... Bring such things to light and then following up on it and keeping it in headlining news for such a long time is commendable in a country like ours where there is more news then the pages in the news paper... But what they have done in the process is that the actual issue is now lost some where! It went from the rape to judiciary to police to politics to politicians making dumb statements to Khaps to everything in the world... The have now just created so much confusion for people that they are now not able to concentrate on the actual thing of how to stop this thing from happening again... I dont blame them completely there have been so many things happening that it is difficult to concentrate on just one thing at a time... They need to run a TV channel at the end of the day... Arnab, Rajdeep all have tried to cover as much as they can..... and in the process rake in as much money as they can...

We have always known that our politicos are down right dumb (apart from a few).. They do dumb things... They say dumb things... Then they withdraw the statement... How much dumber can someone become... I mean every single time there is an issue there are at least 5 to 6 dumb statements..... Few examples below:-

I love the part when Arnab just owns Mukherjee....... Do I need to say more???? No...... OK...


Just to say... Mr. Bhagwat said that Rapes happen in India not Bharat.. What he implies is that it happens only in urban India and not rural India... this article shows differently ... And god knows the the number of cases that go unreported by fear of banishment from the village and lack of support from cops and judiciary....

All in all what I wanted to say we try to blame everyone in the world.. The thing I heard was that someone is blaming a singer for vulgar songs.. Khaps are blaming Chowmien!!!!!!!! Bollywood is responsible.. Please understand people that Movies and Songs are a mirror of society and not the other way round.... and Chowmien is well Chowmein its food.......

Some also go to say its the woman's fault.. she should stay at home and cook look after kids and husband.. Well.. I don't want to say anything to them... Blame everyone but the rapists... And on top leave on out of it cuz he is 17...

My last hope for her... Let her rest now... don't reliven the horrors for her and her family again.. And lets just see how fast the justice comes in this case.. And we forget that there are hundreds of other girls and women out there with whom similar atrocities have been inflicted hope they dont go unnoticed amid all this... My point with writing this was not to bring a change or be heard... I just needed to vent since I am not part of the protesters getting mauled by Delhi Police.. Since Morning to night daily I work.. I don't have time for all this I am sure nor do you... Lets not bring a change... Lets not awake... First lets just look at ourselves for once...


Fake Citizen