Poor Old Raj

“Raj”, Shahrukh Khan made this name extremely popular, when he starred in Aditya Chopra’s debut, “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”. Till date this movie is considered as a modern day classic and the pair of Raj and Simran has been engraved in hearts of many Bollywood fans, perhaps just like Laila-Majnu or Heer-Ranjha were in the previous century.
However the Raj that we know of today is “The Raj Thackrey”. The fundamentalist, divisive, almost terrorist leader who calls for the blood of Nort Indians. Whatever happened to the Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra agenda. Oh I am really sorry, the Hindutva agenda is patented by his uncle Bal Thackrey and his old ally Advani(old man desperate to be PM before he departs to God knows where). Take a moment and think about it, what is the difference between Raj and Osama Bin Laden. Osama asks the “Kafir”- non-believer Americans to leave the holy land and then rages a terrorist war against them. Well, he doesn’t exactly fight with them himself; he only uses those infamous video clips that appear on Al-Jazeera mysteriously, to “inspire” his followers. It’s much easier for Raj. He gives sound bytes. He doesn’t need to send mysterious messages to TV channels. They run after him to get his quotes. Infact they run after his men too, to shoot the visuals of them beating up an innocent man or breaking a poor man’s cab. So Raj can openly call for the blood of North Indians (most of them Hindus) and his men can keep pelting stones and killing innocent people.
Let me for a hellish moment assume that I agree with Raj. Lets say that we should start asking people from U.P., Bihar, etc to leave Maharashtra, where do we start? Shouldn’t we start at the very top? Oh yes, that’s why Raj first targeted Amitabh Bachchan. What a visionary! However, I urge Raj to start even above Amitabh. Surprised? Which North Indian in Mumbai is even above Amitabh? Shahrukh? Lets not get into the Shahrukh –Amitabh war now, we already have enough of them. Ambanis? The richest men in India and among the richest in the world? No, no, Ambani bhais are Gujratis, so what if they are not “originally” from Maharshtra, they are not North Indians. S.M. Krishna, Governor of Maharashtra ? Now lets leave Soniaji’s man out of this controversy, as we know if she really gets angry on Raj, we know whom we will be bidding farewell tomorrow! I was mentioning the other Krishna actually. Lord Krishna.
Raj, first throw out all the idols of Lord Krishna and Shri Ram from temples in Maharshtra! Yes, after all their birthplace is U.P as well. Why should Krishna and Ram be allowed to prosper in Maharshtra, when their “gaavwalahs” are not? Also, immerse all the Ganpati idols. Isn’t Ganeshji supposed to be living with his father Lord Shiva on the Kailash Parvat, somewhere in Uttaranchal. Once you can do that, then ask the common man to leave.
However poor old Raj can only ask weak humans to leave. He can only instigate some losers who have not achieved anything in life yet, like their leader. I am sorry, isn’t he doing all this in the first place to become a political leader. Does his party even have a MP? Not one MP? Isn’t that the real issue Raj? If not, then abandon Ram, Krishna and Ganpati, then I will believe in your cause.

In Pursuit of Happiness

As kids we all want freedom. Freedom to play, freedom to have fun, freedom to have all those things which we don't have. As we grow up we want to be better. We want better looks than our friends, better outfits, better lovers,etc. Finally, stepping out of teenage we look for better status. More money, better job, more rewards and thus better education. What we keep searching in all these pursuits is happiness. This nine letter word is the rarest commodity on earth. And I learnt it in one night.
Tonight I chatted radomly with five people, people whom I have known closely for a long time now. I chatted one on one, with all of them. One common sentiment among all of them was of unhappiness. Let me start with this friend of mine here in Canada, who has been frustrated for sometime now as his plans are not going the way he wants them to go. He had imagined his life in a certain manner couple of years back but now things seem to be rather different from that rosy picture he had in his mind. I have known him for a few years now and have never seen him unhappy or atleast understood it. Tonight I know and I do understand.
Next, is this really old friend of mine from engineering days. Tough guy, always has a go getter attitude. Always brags about his hot sex life and the girlfriends he has in all different parts of India. Today's chat started in a similar manner. However, as I digged little bit below the surface I unconvered the hidden sorrow behind the big talks. Although he had made love to innumerable women, he never fell in love with any one of them. The only woman he loved, never had the courage to love him.
This third one, I had been expecting for sometime now. A good friend of mine, got married to a rich banker, moved to US of A. A dream for many young Indian girls. To many it would sound like a fairytale. However, as the old saying goes, money does not buy happiness. With a social life close to zero, lack of friends and late work hours of hubby, my good friend is not feeling that good anymore. She is unhappy that her young years are passing away, sitting at home when she can acually do something great with it. Loneliness and an east coast winter is almost a perfect prescription for unhappiness.

Fourth up, is a really close friend of mine whom I have shared my most intimate feelings with. Today he told me that he still remembers 'Strangers at Last Sight' and thinks about how he can relate to it. How he still looks at lost oportunities and thngs that could be. In short the unhappiness bug had struck the southern hemisphere boy too.

Finally, the fifth one, was yours sincerely. My life is going just the way I planned. I am not unhappy on being lonely, I have tons of friends n Montreal, good social life. I am not tired of meeting random people, in fact I have hardly got that wild. However, I still am not happy. Is there anyone out there who truly is?
'Ek masoom dil hai aur sitam hai kitne. Is mohabbat ke siwa aur bhi gham hai kitne'