Rohit Sharma

India is celebrating the 150 th birth anniversary of Mr. M. K. Gandhi and today was the 71 st death anniversary of him, of Mahatma Gandhi, many call him Bapu . He was a normal man born with no charismatic qualities. There was a lot he embarked upon from M.K. Gandhi to being Bapu. The incident when he was thrown out of an upper-class compartment of the train in South Africa where his seat was reserved but he was racially treated by Britishers changed his life course. He fought for equal treatment and rights for South Africans when he was in South Africa. Satyagraha was his invention. Gandhi Ji was a religious fellow and he had read many religious texts thoroughly (as I read in his self-autobiography). He was an ambassador of nonviolence led freedom struggle . His plain ideology that if someone slaps you, put forward your second chin, forgive instantly and do not retaliate with violence. He spent half a decade in prison fighting for freedom struggle which proves that it was not rheto...

In the morning as he woke up, earlier he used to thank God for the wonderful sleep he got last night and feel the present moment, his own presence, and his surroundings, about past day, about the future courses of action. Now for him, things have changed. As he woke up, he immediately felt compulsive to pick up the phone, log in to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, one after another to check the responses he has received through his post the last day, or the past days before. He was worried and wanted to know how many people liked his post and commented on it. As he thought that more the likes, more he is actually liked by the society and the small ‘fake friend’s group’ that he has built around virtually with the help of the surveillance technologies, so-called social media, now de-socializing the world. It is clearer now as the world knows & articulates that data is the new Gold mine. More the number of pictures, better face recognition; as more number of the types of “like” ti...

I was not sure what will be the traffic early morning in this new city where I first embarked for a ride. As it turned out, there still were many vehicles. The road I traveled was passing through a green belt as I could see in the google map. It was foggy some feet above the ground. Some streets were empty and the street lights over there were not serving anyone but the silent and dynamic air. The light had to steer through the while fog surrounded it. It might be their private time. They also know that soon they will be filled with countless vehicles rushing maddeningly through it, I thus swiftly moved without disturbing them, only a few pictures for my record, that's it. My hands were cold as I forgot my gloves in hurry. Actually, I didn't take it speculating that I could do without it. It was freezing and fortunately, I had my jacket on. I had to stop after some distance to rub my hands for heat. At times I paddles single-handedly putting one hand inside the jacket. As I s...

It is difficult to attest to one religious teaching when you see there is not just one but so many of them in the world at different parts of it. There is Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism etc. All of them have some audience who follows it in varying degree. It is human tendency to pick the one which attracts him the most. It is important to see at what circumstances do these religions came about into being at different times. The world is pretty much in conflict because of the intolerance at the boundaries of various religious interactions. One kind of followers want to change others at the same not wants to reform themselves, their traditional shortcomings. Some argue how religion is also a tool to control the masses. In history, we have seen many kingdoms that were theological in nature. Some kings ruled with the authority claimed through God’s wish, that they are their hands on earth. All the time, people happened to believe and brought changes in their lives. We c...

When looking at the statistics of the age of women married in India, we are always overwhelmed with the number showcasing the situation of early-marriage which prevails heavily. There are multiple reasons that Indian parents wash-off their hands from the girl child. They consider it their responsibility and want to get rid of it as early as possible. Some think that if a girl is sought to marry late, it is likely that a groom won’t be found. There is societal pressure as well which keeps a hawk-eye on to the growing age of the girl in their society. In many parts it is the past prejudices around marriage e.g. early marriage means early parenthood & thus when children get older their parents will not be that old, some consider that rape cases may increase if a girl is not married early. Economically backward states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh etc. lead in numbers. Marriage is nonetheless one of the reasons of declining sex ratio of th...

We have seen in newspaper and popular speeches of the political leaders the push towards GDP growth and talks around it. It is one of the parameters that measure the country’s growth in terms of the overall economic activities within its boundary. This includes all kind of activity that adds value to the economy both material and non-material, i.e. services. If there is economic activity within the country, it will lead to more people engaged in livelihood (if assumed that it is equally distributed over the population). This although shed insufficient light on the actual growth of the quality of citizens, reason that it tells us nothing about the widening wage gap, it speaks nothing of the quality of economic activities e.g. even if there is construction of dam it counts in the GDP but it does not relate this with the disrupted social life due to acquisition of land, displaced people and their lost livelihood, uprooted forest etc. This is India’s forecast is ~7.3%. India is a d...

There is a general understanding that the western democracy where plebiscite takes place for every policy decision is a better version of the representative democracy that is a much younger form of democracy which persists in India. A plebiscite can be a soothing idea that everyone part of the country can have a say in the policy. They obviously would vote with the immediate calculations in their local surroundings. However, they at times fail to take bigger factors into the picture. They might be expert in their own field of engineering, or art or accounting but wider policies need to mandatorily have a wider scope. Indian democracy has been passing through some speed breakers. We have a good start at the beginning of constitution forming. In fact, every constitution decision was poured upon with an ample amount of discussions. Besides, we took the best of what is available in other countries e.g. federalism, adoption of fundamental rights and fundamental duties, later on, direc...

आज रात बारह बजे हमको छब्बीसी चढ़ गयी. इसलिए जबरन घुटनो में हाथ फेरा और सर्वप्रथम उनसे हमेशा मस्ती में बने रहने की मनोकामना की. उसके बाद आँखों को सेका और कुछ पुस्तकों से जूझने की ताईद बताई. वो मासूम है और चंगी भी. बोली 'जब तक है जान, घबराओं नहीं' और चमक उठी. फिर सर में हाथ फेरा और बालों से हौसला बरकरार रखने की गुहार लगाई.  ये कभी-कभार रूठ जाते है और बोरिया बिस्तर बाँधने लगते है. सरकार को इनपे कोई दफा निर्धारित करनी चाहिए तभी समझेंगे. टेलीविज़न ने भरपूर काटा है हमारा. बचपन अनुसार अभी तक फरारी, बंगला, हवाईजहाज अपने आप आ जाना चाहीये था, पता नहीं कहा अटके हुए है. शायद हमारे ही मंसूबे बदल गए. खैर, शक्तिमान, सुपरमैन भी बनने वाले थे, बाद में पता पड़ा की जे तो मनोरंजनमैन थे. अब मार्किट में नये लोग आ चुके है और अब हमें अतिजैविक शक्तियों का कोई लोभ नहीं रहा इसलिये की बेहतर है की धरती की सोचें. हां अलादीन का चिराग मिले तो देखेंगे. लेकिन कुछ कहा नहीं जा सकता. तो फिर भाई छब्बीस तुम जल्दी आ गए की हमी ने ज्यादा ख्वाहिशे फ़रमायी थी? कोइ बात नहीं. अब आ गए हो तो ठीक है, पर देखो महाराज, ये उम्र व...

"Fire and fury were unleashed at the city when on a certain day the peak of tolerance was melted and countries black-turned their spirits in revenge citing justice and on the other hand demoning the earth. Civilians forcefully recruited and posted at vulnerable sites across the country. There is National Emergency and all the fundamental rights of the citizens are subdued, communication networks severed, press & media knee-broken, currency plunged as aggression prevailed. There is cacophony, chaos, cries, tears as relatives held apart and missing, friends died and the pool of blood flooded the once flowered city. While they comfortably sitting in conditioned rooms, analyzing the grounds through various CCTV cameras, drones and satellite images, carried on their rhetoric in the name of the motherland, promising peace and equality to everyone, one day. No one knows when that day would come. It has never come in the past, neither in the mythology when  God supposedly resided th...

I thought to express myself the next day. That night was mysterious, believe me. There were no stars still the sky was light bluish & I was wondering and equally at awe with the power of the lonely half moon that midnight. What determinism had gotten into him? I make myself sit next to a couch which I pushed near to the window half open. It was dreadful to expose my presence fully. You see, it was damn cold and silence had stuck the city. No single human was awake. I felt no surprise to that. It has happened before, I have felt it but in towns. Such nights are uncommon for this metropolitan city. People budge in this city in millions. You see what I mean. I didn't know what got into it. There was a peak and it extended for sometime before I could hear something, a pale, slow howling of the street dog. They broke the ice of the moment. It was like the city breathed again. Thereafter I could see moon sparkle. Later so many started to howl. It got uninteresting so I came back...

There is a thin line between bullying and trolling someone or some organization on the internet using social media platforms. We may be at the hands of manipulation when half news or a clip of the discussion is presented to us with the help of various channels & groups that are operating within the social sites with malafide intentions. It is said that when a lie is spoken repeatedly, it appears as truth. Busy in our world when we return to the internet for some gratification out of daily-life frustration, we take shelter in these clips, share it and comment on it varyingly. Let us look it the way, when we upload a new profile picture portraying us in best of shape both physically and mentally, we expect the rain of likes and from the moments of uploading we keep on logging and checking the notification. It has dangerous psychological effects. We may start living in a false balloon of too much appreciation or self-built contempt hampering our confidence. There is news of people t...

We are living in an age of connectivity with the advent and penetration of internet services globally. From the scribbling of symbols and pictures in ancient age to the cohorts of writing the manuscript in tree leaves to the invention of printing press, newspaper and now the internet, revolution is passing before our open eyes. You don’t have to belong to a privileged group but to a more liberal, tolerant country where they advocate “Right to speech and expression” may be at varying level. 18 year old from the Saudi Arab who recently fled the country and later took to various social media platforms to reach various international organizations preventing herself to be deported back & arguing the rage of patriarchy and intolerance. The Internet may be setting the right tone of the intermingling of masses to put forward their regional concerns, showcasing their individual talent in art, gymnastics, poetry etc. & hence a community building at the global level. There are sev...

A lowly developed part of the semi urban town left to which is a bathroom with walls made of reused saris supported at wooden pillars. At more left there is a dilapidated lake eaten to all known kind of pollution but it is the main source of water to the community which accommodates the area the temporary soiled lane goes to. Some possess goats to help their economy. Wood is also used to cook food in the chulha i.e. earthen stove or the little bhatti. These days it is hard to obtain wood since most nearby forest areas are either dead or are occupied and fortified leaving little access. At right, a man wearing turban sits at the verandah smoking tobacco. What he might be thinking is what I think about. Some talk that these areas are illegally occupied and municipality must evacuate this. Sanitation is foreign to these people not because they don't want it, but it is not in their reach. They even wonder how will they pass the coming summer. This year rain was scarce. Sun, moon, sky...

There is something fishy going on with in the cabinet of the government of India. This is election year and no doubt that we are going to encounter many moves from there which will sound populist, the thing which we call 'vote bank politics'. We may be observing from quiet some months how the political parties like bjp, congress and other organizations like RSS have been making turmoil in Kerala going against the Supreme court's sabarimala verdict. Some have thrown bomb into the MLAs house the other day when actually 2 srilankan women could coup into the santum of the temple, supported by police. Because of this Ayodhya's Ram could breath sometime out of headlines!  In a matter of 2-3 days cabinet had yet again passed a bill regarding giving reservation to 10% of the economically backward(as per them who earn less than 8L a year) Upper caste citizens. This was swiftly passed in Loksabha as well with nearly NO DISCUSSION and with a meagre opposition of 4 bravehea...

"जमुना किनारे मोरा गाओं, श्याम रे अई जइयो, श्याम रे अई जइयो", खूब पेचीदी लाइन लगती हैं. हिप होप, पॉप आदि गाने भले ही हिंदी सिनेमा में छाने लगे हैं, लेकिन आज भी कोई हारमोनियम और चिमड़ा लेकर बैठ जाए और भक्ति गीत या फिर और भी कोई लोकल संगीत गाने लगे, उसमे कुछ और ही बात हैं, रोंगटे खड़े हो जाते हैं, मन प्रफुल्लित हो जाता हैं. नब्बे के दशक में जन्मे भारतीयों के सामने कुछ और ही चुनौती हैं. हर पीढ़ी की तरह हमने भी कुछ और ही समय का स्वाद चखा हैं. टेक्नोलॉजी का प्रकोप. कुछ नहीं से सब कुछ. कभी लगता हैं की चिट्ठी ही लिखा करते तो अच्छा होता. ये सौभाग्य हमसे पहले वालों के पास था. इसलिए की ख़त का एक एक शब्द स्वर्णिम होता. मम्मी के पास कुछ पुराने ख़त संचित कुचे रखे हैं. अलग लगता हैं पढ़ने में. मैं तो चाव से पढता हू. 'हाय' नहीं 'आदरणीय' का सम्बोधन मिलता हैं. 'बाय' की जगह 'सप्रेम' या तो 'आपका' लिखके विदा लेते थे. रात में बिजली चले जाए तो भी मोम बत्ती के बिना दुनिया कुछ ज्यादा प्यारी लगती हैं. कम से कम बाँध बनाके नदियों को मारा ना जाता. दिन में सैकड़ो सेल्फी ...

She was ambitious. She wanted to fly high and touch the sky, hover around and glide in the rainbow besides. Little did she know what the outer world aspires to. She was busy in her own world while still in her childhood. She used to gossip, crack jokes and eat a lot. Her only two years elder brother was fairer than her. And for this, she used to quarrel with her mother. Mother, why is brother fairer? Her mother secretly proud of his son’s fairness find this appreciatory, although, somedays worried about her query. There used to be a nod ahead but no answer and a puzzling face. This has no easy answer.  Although his brother had lesser acumen than her, somehow he saw more opportunities in front of him than she, in front of her. Her father used to see her as a gift to be given at a later age, but, she was her father’s daughter. Her father just wanted to send her off with an extravagant ceremony to be thrown at her marriage. He used to say that this is his long-cherished dr...

As soon as Indians are increasing in number, a lot has been happening around with respect to old traditions, new laws, women’s right, poverty alleviation, hunger, nature conservation, crime, GDP, health etc. Something recently in the news is the Sabarimala verdict which has allowed temple entry of women which was banned considering them impure because they menstruate. We all know menstruation is a natural process and a taboo to be spoken in public in India. More on this is that only 18 percent of the women are actually accessible to sanitary pads in India and thus it has several evils attached to it, e.g. school dropouts, infection, unnecessary social shame. Kerala is in turmoil because after the verdict there is a huge protest going on against the Supreme Court verdict. More interestingly, the majority of the protestors belong to the ruling party at the center & its Nagpur originated pseudo-Hindu Rakshak party. They are doing all kind of melodrama which has also led many writers...