VARUN & NAVDEEP

In Hindu mythology, Varun, is the ruler of the sky and the upholder of cosmic and moral law, is guardian of the west and is particularly associated with oceans and waters.

We know another Varun these days. According to DRDO – ‘Varun, Vehicle Mounted Water Cannon System, provides an effective, non-lethal means for dispersal of violent mobs.’ Note the word ‘violent’ in the definition. The crowds in Delhi during Nirbhaya protests come to mind. And the farmers today.

Navdeep - The soft-spoken son of a farmer, who turned the jets of today’s Varun off last night. And then he took a leap. A leap of faith. A leap for generations. Navdeep – New lamp. New Light. New flame.

Of all Hindu deities, Varun is the judgemental god, providing justice and punishment to everyone. His noose tightens and the sinners plead.

The Varun of myth stood for the weak, against the tyrants. The Varun’s of today stand with their jets facing the weak. It is up to the Navdeeps of today to carry forward the light.

Sinners beware. The noose is coming.

#FarmersProtest

#SpeakUpForFarmers

 

 

TERRORISM & 26/11

BREAKING NEWS! PM Modi says India can never forget 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Oxford English Dictionary defines terrorism as - A system of terror; Government by intimidation; A policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized.

Sweet!

First install barricades, throw in large stones, huge concrete blocks – tied with large chains, put barbed wires on the barricades, throw a large pile of mud behind the barricades, park trucks and other large vehicles on bridges to block the paths.

Then when they come closer – start with water canons (it helps that it is freezing cold and they have already spent a night on the roads), and follow it up with tear gas (oh it dearly helps… what with the elderly, especially all those Matas in their 80s and 90s… we love them in Bhartavarsh… the Maas and Matas).

What? They still keep coming! Why we have the police in riot gear, backed by all sorts of other forces. Bal Prayog! Ah.. that’s but a way we ensure our citizens stay obedient.

Didn’t work?

The DC and SP get the press together. We have video recording of who all broke the barricades, we have seen who were violent. Appropriate action against will be taken against them. What did you say? Ah! the state is never violent. What? Canons and tear gas?

Even the threats didn’t strike ‘terror’ in their determination to march on?

The state smiles.

How far can they go? The same set-up awaits ten kms down the road.

We will break them. One by one.

What? It is 26/11?

Yes, India stands united against all forms of terror.

#FarmersProtest #SpeakUpForFarmers

Genies Don't Wait

The twelve-inch black and white Onida was switched on and volume kept to a minimum as everyone else slept. The TV will not be switched on this early in the morning too often in its decades’ long existence. Dipak Patel bowls the first over and Srikanth being himself holes out for a duck. Ten years old, he had never owned a bat till then (other than the cloth washing bat ‘thaapi’ that his mother had) nor he will own one later, but after the 1992 cricket world cup spirit of Imran Khan called him and he announced that he wanted to be a cricketer.

The parent’s day at school is over and he says bye to his mother at the gate. She walks the half kilometer to DC chowk, saving five rupees that the rickshaw would have charged. As she limps to her bus, he puts the ten rupee note she had just given him in his pocket and runs to his hostel dorm where boys are busy going through the goodies’ parents have left behind for them. One of them has a lot of fancy chocolates. ‘My uncle in merchant navy got these for me. He earns lacs every month.’ When school principal asked him what he wanted to do, he announced proudly, ‘I want to make a lot of money.’ Although he never set foot on one, at that time merchant navy ships called him.

Three years at Mumbai office were over. HR asked him where he wanted his next posting. ‘Some place like Brazil or Caribbeans,’ he joked a wish. Five years later as he submitted his resignation, having been to more countries than his wish but never Brazil or Caribbeans, his then boss looked at him questioningly. As a longing, of soil, of words, called him, he answered, ‘I want to go home.’

A few days back, as he lay in his bed, on the threshold of sleep, (and on the threshold of the fifth decade of his life), he heard her voice.

‘Your three wishes.’

He knew the voice that called. He didn’t know the answer.

‘I need to think,’ he said.

‘Genies don’t wait,’ the voice said.

In the dreams that followed he was a young boy chasing dreams.