Room To Write

We won't love, anyway

2012-01-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

Beingin love is a great thing. Indeed, everyone would agree. But, being a single ina group that has coochi-cooing couples – for me is not a delightful idea.

Notvery long ago, I was a part of a group that was full of couples. And certainly,it wasn’t a great thing. Many a times, the feeling got so high that myinner-self would ask me to find a date so that I can at least ‘fit’ in the‘all-couple scenario.’

Beingwith a set of friends who are all in the dating-stage can sometimes—rather mostof the times—an irritating experience. So, here’s a peek-a-boo on the‘tortures’ one is most likely to go through while being on a single vs couplespree.

Lonelyweekends:

Howeverhard we may try to convince our ‘in-a-relationship’ friends to catch up for amovie or go for night out on a weekend, they would like to be with their‘special someone.’ No offence to them—off course they want to spend somequality time with their partners. But, while they would be getting mushy withtheir guy/girl, we would be home, sulking and wondering how to get rid ofboredom.

Unnecessarydetails:

Indeed,we want to know about the hot and happening things about our friends’ personallife. But some of them can’t resist indulging in unwanted details. The conceptof boundaries is unclear for some of them. They feel comfortable fighting ordiscussing intimate moments in front of us, without even bothering if we areinterested in get such details unfolded or not.

No‘friend’s only’ time:

Ifour luck isn’t shining too bright, we always find ourselves being dragged intoan all-couple outing. Sometimes, it's okay but it isn't cool every time. Whyare you guys so hooked to each other that you can't go out with friendssometimes? (Earlier you always wanted to go out with me- a constant thoughtthat echoes)

Overdoseof PDA:

It’snothing but natural for you to feel the urge of expressing your love by gettingintimate with your partner. But, why do you have to do that in front of us?Please spare us from the embarrassment of witnessing your mushy talk and actionsessions. You may feel comfortable but we don't. Also, have some considerationsfor people who are looking at us- we certainly don't like to be stared at.

Constantnagging about single hood:

Thisis certainly worst of the lot. You may try to tempt us with stories of howwonderful life is after being in a relationship but, trust us on this-we arenot in one because we don't want to be. Being nagged about our single statusonly irritates us. We aren't single because we are unable to find someone, butbecause we choose to be. It's our way of life, so just let it be. Don't bother.

So,all you couples out there-are you listening or we still need to be louder andclearer?

Making a comeback

2011-07-24T09:24:00.001-07:00

After a very long time, I feel like making a comeback to my blog. I shall start writing often now. Amen.

Commonwealth Games-- 2010

2010-09-08T03:09:00.000-07:00

Controversies galore
Overtly appalling
Mundane stories
Myriad scams
Openly shameful
Nasty deeds
Weak infrastructure
Enormous stakes
Average preparations
Lavish expenditure
Tiresome wait
Hideous egos

Going nowhere
Additional efforts
Monsoon blues
Endless blames
Sluggish developments

The mind of a terrorist

2010-07-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Terrorism mulled over from a general perspective may be illustrated as the premeditated use of violence against civilians in order to accomplish goals that are political, religious or Ideological in nature. However this isn’t what terrorism is all about. It comprises of many aspects some of which are either not easily visible or are not given enough magnitude and concern to be handled in an apposite manner.

The terroristic acts across the globe have witnessed a steep increase over a period of last decade. The reasons may vary from time, location and circumstances but the fact remains that the acts of violence and inequitable means of perpetrating ones own personal interests are on a rise.

Amidst all terroristic attacks that we have witnessed, understanding the mind of a person who commits such atrocious crimes against humanity has largely been left unattended. A terrorist is a person who is portrayed as a personification of evil. He is assumed to be a herald of torment and mass destruction of life as well as property.

But the term “Terrorist” is a biased term as it labels the actions of an inferior nation on a superior nation as terrorist act whereas vice versa is not held to be true. If United States of America carries out mass destruction in lieu of revenge for September 9/11 attacks then it is termed as War for Justice but if Osama Bin laden takes retribution for the slaughter done in the Afghan world it is termed as a terroristic activity. This kind of prejudice is the root of all evils. In essence Psychology remains the same i.e. The Urge to Dominate but terminology changes.

There are a plethora of reasons ranging from Racialism, Communalism, Self interest to extremism that motivate certain individuals or group of individuals to execute such crimes. Ku Klux Klan largely based throughout the United States is a Racist, anti-Semitic movement with a commitment to extreme violence to achieve its goal of racial segregation and white supremacy.

LTTE or Liberation Tiger of Tamil Elam is a separatist group in Sri-Lanka which has been convulsing over the past three decades for a homeland for ethnic Tamils who comprise of approximately 10% of the island’s population. Many Islamic organizations like Al- Qaeda, Jaish-e- Mohammad etc are working towards usurping the world with their own religious beliefs and aspirations.

Religion is supposedly the base tool for this mayhem especially in the Islamic and the gulf countries where it is considered to be the supreme power. One of the most effective ways to maintain hate and social inequities is to cite religious doctrine. The organizations which claim to fight in the name of religion are so occupied establishing their religion as true that they even forget what it preaches. All religions promote peace and harmony for all but the basic religious definitions and sermons have smeared in the overtly prominent desire to prove one better that the other. Amongst this desire to assert one self Politics remains the father of all. Political influence plays a vital role in the execution of terroristic activities at the national as well as international level. The urge to gain power by dominance over another community, money, and other self directed goals inspire as well as trigger all these kind of organizations.

There are two kinds of people who end up committing such activities- One the Extremists and second the people who are under some influence. Extremists are a lot more perilous as they carry out such crimes thinking of attaining some greater good. The Group dynamics plays a very crucial role.

While leaders are necessary for the synchronized existence of a terrorist organization, the continuation of such a group may depend less on the specific, eccentric leader than on the simple presence of someone in a leadership position who has learned basic group dynamics. The most effective terrorist leaders understand the needs and abilities of their followers and can therefore make best use of their manipulation of the group towards the overall objectives of the terrorist organization. Most terrorist attacks are committed by followers who are otherwise very ordinary people.

Robert Lifton argues that one of the features of highly destructive groups is totalism, which extends beyond an "us-them" dichotomy to an "us against them" philosophy. This belief system pushes individuals to separate from all who are not associated with the group. This isolation of group members from those not associated with the group leads to Lifton's second feature of highly destructive groups—environmental control.

Through environmental control, leaders can manipulate the majority of what is seen, heard, or experienced by the group and the "purity" of the information to which the group is exposed. Group dynamics within a terrorist organization can further ensconce individual hatred and greatly augment the probability of violence. It also tends to cultivate a sense of ambiguity or de-individuation among members.

From a psychological point of view, there are three prime responses towards ending terrorism: reform, avoidance and counterattack. Reform means addressing the concerns of those who are in circumstances that may lead them to identify that frantic measure is the only feasible solution to their problems. If their problems are realistically addressed, the urge to take terrorist action may be reduced. Second is avoidance.

Terrorists often hope that these frantic measures will raise awareness of their concerns and support for their cause. Avoidance occurs when the target audience is dismayed, snubbed, and outraged by the terrorist act as opposed to being sympathetic.

And, finally, there is counterattack. Fundamentally, counterattack involves the danger of castigatory action in response to attacks. Such castigation can range from sanctions to targeted military attacks. Of all the methods discussed above, Avoidance in the absence of the other methods is the least effective. Therefore in order to deal with the problem of terrorism more coherently it is imperative to concentrate on the roots instead of trying to curtail the repercussions.

This god is anything but holy

2010-03-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Media highlights hypocrisy in the right manner says Charu Sharma

India does not have a specific law protecting privacy. But the Supreme Court has ruled that Article 21 of the Constitution states, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law,” includes the right to privacy. Thus what a person does in his personal life is his own business and nobody has the right to intrude into or compromise his privacy. When the media recently exposed the ‘nefarious’ deeds in Swami Nityananda’s ashram in Bidadi near Bangalore, so was the media overstepping the bound of propriety?

Nityananda’s situation is nothing new. These ‘men of god’ have been falling from grace since time immemorial. However, what is important to realize is the fact that the ‘media’ is criticized many a times for drawing attention to these issues, on grounds of privacy although the time has come when exposing hypocrisy is crucial as well as mandatory.
The very institution of godmen holds tremendous water due to the unrestrained power that is exercised by them in the name of being messengers of god. There are several other public figures like politicians, film stars etc., who stand on a thin line between the public and private life. But in case of godmen the issue becomes more sensitive as they are considered to be individuals with high moral values. They are looked upon as the connecting bridge between men and god. And they have supposedly attained moksha overcoming the temptation of worldly pleasures.
The godmen enjoy grants by the government due to their proximity with the politicians who are highly superstitious and an insecure lot. They enjoy a lot of power with all political parties that grant them land on lease and also support their various activities. As reported by Tehelka, controversial godman Chandraswami from Andhra Pradesh was seen in the portals of Chandrababu Naidu and YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
According to the figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs as reported by IBN-Live during the year 2003-04 s as many as 14,700 groups in India have received foreign funds worth Rs 4,856 crore. Also the United States heads the list of donor countries to India with Rs 1,492.62 crore, followed by the United Kingdom (Rs 677.59 crore), and Germany (Rs 664.51 crore).
Various television evangelists in the United States have also been involved in sex scandals, which have been extensively covered by the media. Simon Jones in his blog mentioned “One major problem about bringing the whole unsavory situation into the public arena is that the God’s kingdom would suffer disgrace.”
Certainly, it is not a matter of questioning people’s faith as these godmen have proved to have serious psychological impact on their followers and comfort them. But when these so called messengers of god are caught in surreptitious circumstances the media is certainly justified in exposing them and highlighting their hypocrisy.
In an interview with BBC, Basava Premanand who has persistently pursued Sathya Sai Baba over the years believes that it is his duty to dispel the ‘curse of gullibility’ blighting his country in the form of myth and superstition, and replace it instead with the ‘gospel of pure, scientific understanding.’
There is an apparent lack of control and accountability these men are subjected to. Hence media needs to work as a watchdog to restrict their activities and highlight them in cases of any discrepancy.

The Fifth Pillar

2010-02-15T15:52:00.000-08:00

Situation One— The most fundamental need of human existence is not a public good anymore. The state government of Delhi has sold the Uppar Kanal of Ganga, which extends from Haridwar to Muradpur, to the World Bank and a multinational company at a price of Rs 200 crore for a decade. Ondeo Degremont, a French company in collaboration with the Delhi Jal Board has been given the project of treating Ganga water in order to supply it to the East and South Delhi colonies. Once the project is completed the water price in the city is expected to increase ten times. Also the farmers around the Uppar Kanal of Ganga would receive only 30 per cent of the water for agricultural purposes after the project is completed.

Situation two—As many as 5000 families in three eastern districts of Assam, Jorhat, Sibsagar and Golghat, are not receiving sufficient quantity of food grains. The Public Distribution System in the area is appalling. Only 40 per cent of rice and around 15 per cent of wheat is reaching the beneficiaries. Likewise, the fund allocated under the Indira Awas Yojana and Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana is pocketed and people have not seen any development. Many roads and houses that were supposed to be built have not been started yet.

Situation three-- Boru is a small village in Kalol, Gujarat. The village doesn’t have a Primary health center (PHC). The nearest medical facility available for the villagers is around eight kms away in a place called Jantral. But here too, the facilities are only for minor illness. There are no provisions for serious and sudden emergencies also for childbirth. The deliveries ware done by midwives and no professional assistance is available. The villagers have been complaining about the medical facilities from the last four years but nothing has been done yet.

Prabhash Joshi, the late editor of Jansatta, in one of his editorial had made the correlation that “the right to know was no less than the right to live” when agricultural workers, with the help of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, a non-governmental organisation, demanded to know whether their contractors were giving full wages that the Government was paying them.

It was the year 1996 in Beawar, Rajasthan. From being a poor peasant’s mobilization movement of a small village, it became a massive social liberties and human rights movement, which later translated into the Right to information Act of 2005.

Is it possible for a common man to make the administration, public offices or judiciary stand in the dock and ask them questions? Few years’ back it was not, but people like Aruna Roy, Shankar Singh, Nikhil Dey, Chunni Singh, N C Saxena, Mohanji, Susheela, Chunnibai and more, made it possible.

RTI has opened spaces, which were beyond the capacity of the common man to reach earlier. It empowered him with the authority to question any publicly funded scheme, institution or project. This act commands that timely reply be given to the citizen’s request for government information, state as well as central.

Under this act public offices “have to maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form, which facilitates right to information.” It has helped people’s movement for justice of all kinds—social, economic and political.

Although RTI was nationally accepted in 2005 but it was adopted by many states earlier like Tamil Nadu (1997), Goa (1997), Rajasthan (2000), Delhi (2001) Maharashtra (2002), Madhya Pradesh (2003) and Jammu and Kashmir (2004).

The kind of egalitarian system we live in, it is apparent that the politicians as well as the government officials indulge in immense corruption pertaining to the fact that there in no governing authority over them. Also, the Officials Secret Act, 1923 and other such laws made it simpler for the public offices to get away with any explanation.

But with the advent of RTI it was the first time people got the opportunity to define their own predicament.

“Earlier all the governmental documents were barred by Official’s Secret act but after RTI came into effect, the citizen of India can ask for reports, questions different projects and participate in the governance,” said Ashok Halagalli an advocate and RTI activist based in Bangalore.

Halagalli also said that since independence, common man was under darkness, but now using RTI, it is easy to access information.

“In a kind of system we live, problems of a person don’t have any place. Earlier one couldn’t question anything but now, they (government) can’t say No!” said Shankar Singh, an RTI activist from Rajasthan who has been involved with the movement from its infancy.

“Now people are fighting for small things using this tool,” he said.

However, there have been several disclosures of government officials as citizens from all walks of life have filed RTI’s to get information. There are numerous challenges that the RTI is facing. Several attempts have been made to amend the law and curtail its power. Also a study done by Arvind Kejriwal, an RTI activist and PCRF shows that only 22 per cent of the appellants get information.

The murder of whistleblowers, or the RTI activists like Manjunath Shanmugam, Satyendra Dubey, Venkatesh has also raised significant questions related to the security of the people who try to go against the system. “If we try to expose corruption it can be little problematic. I was threatened, when I asked for certain information related to corruption in the government,” said Ashok Halagalli, who is the first RTI activist to have got police protection.

The information commissioners who are appointed are also the retired bureaucrats. Hence it is likely that they would be biased towards their colleagues and therefore accomplishing justice is questionable. Facts suggest that the information commissioner of Maharastra has dealt with only 85 applications in a month whereas in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal it is three and nine respectively.

Nevertheless this piece of legislation has changed the realities on Indian governance. As pointed by Aruna Roy in a public forum, “Five years after it became a law, the RTI act has created unprecedented dialectics between the individuals and the government officials, and has created a climate in which honest and enabled people can step out and say something in the public domain. She is one of the initiators of the RTI movement. According to her it is more revolutionary than taking a gun.

RTI has not only increased the extent of transparency in governance; it has also become a key that has opened doors that were earlier shut for the common man. It has tilted the power relationship between citizens & governance. It has changed India from being a elected democracy to a participatory democracy.

Small Is Beautiful

2010-01-25T06:47:00.000-08:00

With the success of Jharkhand and the rise of xenophobia in Maharashtra, the case for smaller states gets stronger by the day, says Charu Sharma

As the country stands on the threshold of carving out its 29^thstate, Telangana, the criteria for “statehood” or the minimum requirements to become an independent state of the union has resurfaced and, with it, the case for small states.

The States Reorganization Commission formed in 1953 recommended that India’s states should be formed on the basis of their shared language and that the larger provinces and princely states should be merged or divided according to this criterion.

But the resulting federation was an amalgam of the very large and the very small. As economist and commentator Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar points out, “Assuming 20% population growth since the last census, Uttar Pradesh has 198 million people, more than Brazil, Russia or Pakistan. Maharashtra has 106 million, West Bengal 96 million and Andhra Pradesh 90 million. All are much bigger than France or Britain. At the other end of the scale, Sikkim has just 0.6 million people, Mizoram 1.1 million and Arunachal Pradesh 1.3 million. Clearly, statehood has been determined by political expediency, not logic.”

There is a strong case for some uniformity in the size of states, or at least for the largest to be divided into smaller ones. The most compelling reason is administrative efficiency. The newest states of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttrakhand (carved out of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh) have done very well after they were formed in 2000. Chattisgarh has achieved a GDP growth rate of 7.35%, Uttarakhand 9.31% and Jharkhand 8.45%. The growth in these states could be attributed to the huge amount of private investment these states attracted.

But the important point is that that none of these states were divided on a linguistic basis, as all these states are broadly Hindi speaking states with some differences in dialect. The decision to grant statehood to Telengana has invariably raised concerns that it might have a domino effect across the country and spark agitations for more states. But Telangana is 63-year-old issue whose history can be traced to back to independence: it was the part of the Nizam’s state of Hyderabad state which became the part of the Indian Union in 1948.

Smaller states make the power structures more accessible to the people. It also means better governance in the form of greater access for and responsibility to the people. But while Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttrakhand have witnessed faster GDP growth, they still struggle with issues of law and order as the spread of Naxalism in the first two shows. More than just carving out smaller states, the real challenge is to reform the system.

The formation of a new state is an expensive proposition as it involves heavy administrative expenditure (another legislature, another government and more bureaucrats). The division of states also results in conflicts over sharing of the resources especially water, like the Cauvery issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Also the formation of smaller states could result in the monopoly of power for a particular political party which, in the absence of checks and balances, could prove detrimental to the people. But smaller states may result in a more efficient administration and better governance.

The states receive a lot of money from the Centre. Under the terms of the Justice Sarkaria Commission set up in 1983 to look into centre-state relations, in particular the distribution of finances between state and central governments, the decentralization of financial powers from the centre to the states has increased. This has in turn made smaller states more viable than their size, population or other resources might otherwise have allowed.

Many fear that smaller states would somehow affect national unity. But smaller states undermine ‘sub-nationalism’ based on language; and the development they promote helps national cohesion. More important, treating states as administrative units and not historical and cultural entities, allows for greater economic integration. All resources, whether water, minerals or agricultural produce can be treated as national assets, transported and sold freely and taxed rationally.

Sixty three years after Independence, India is in many ways more divided than Europe where, for example, any good produced within its borders can be freely shipped, people can come and ago and boundaries are ceasing to matter. India to this day bans the inter-state transport of a variety of commodities, levies a multitude of state taxes that increase the cost to the consumer and, in extreme cases like the Maharashtra Nirman Sena, prevents Indians from residing or working in places of their choice.

The landless villagers of Jageri

2009-11-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

“I have been staying on this land, cultivating it, making a living, from the past thirty years, but still this land doesn’t belong to me”

This is an unvarying account of the villagers who stay in the seven villages of Jageri for the past three decades. They live in a constant fear of being thrown out from the land which is theirs, but doesn’t belong to them.

The traces of the conflict over the land of Jageri go back to 1993 when a Writ petition was filed by S. Puttaraju, ex-Pradhan of Satyagala Mandal Panchayat and resident of Satyagala village. Puttaraju in his petition stated that the land of Jageri has been illegally occupied and hence the forest cover over of the land has been destroyed. He also stated that any kind of legal documents of the land could not be given to the people staying in the area as it is against the Forest Conservation Act of 1980. This act states that no portion of the forest land could be used for any other purpose.

Jageri, which falls under Kollegala taluk of Chamrajnagara district, is a cluster of seven villages. The land, 12,260 acres and 30 cents, on which Jageri was formed is called Satyagala Jahangir forest and is under the survey no. 174. According to the law this land could not be used for any kind of purpose such as cultivation, residing or any such activity because it is a forest land.

Jageri consists of seven villages. Out of these Silivaipuram, C R nagara, Paschal nagara and Sri bole thanda are Christian villages and Halai kote, Shanti nagara and T G doddi are Hindu villages. Most of the people living in Jageri are tamilians who have come from different parts and settled here.

Although it is difficult to trace the course of events with accuracy as no proofs are available it is said that in the year 1934-35, after the construction of Mettur dam covering around 15,540 hectare in Tamil Nadu, people staying in the area lost their land and got displaced. Most of the people relocated to Matahalli and Odeyar playa in Karnataka. Since these people didn’t had any source of living here, most of them worked as labourers. It is noteworthy that Matahalli was earlier a part of Tamil Nadu, but after the shuffling of the state boundaries in 1955-56, it became a part of Karnataka. The people, now the inhabitants of Jageri, started coming here in late 1970’s and had been staying here since then.

Shauriappa, a resident of G R nagara said that they are deprived of many basic facilities as they do not have any kind of legal authority over the land which they sow and live on. “We have approached the government many times but nothing happened”, he said. Ravi Chandra, another farmer of Jageri, said that they are forced to take money from the money lenders at higher interest rates as government doesn’t help them in any way.

The major source of income for the villagers of Jageri is agriculture, but they don’t get any kind of loans or subsidies from the agricultural department as they do not have any legal documents for the land. Chandrashekahara, assistant agricultural officer, department of agriculture, said that they do not give any kind of subsidy on seeds and fertilizers to these farmers or any loans as they don’t have patta (documents) for the land.

In response to the petition filed by Puttaraju, the high court of Karnataka ordered eviction of the area in 1998. In response to this eviction order, 424 persons, all residents of Jageri, filed another petition in the year 2000 asking for a stay order on eviction and issue of legal documents. But the villagers lost the case and the court said that “effective steps for the eviction of the unauthorised occupants in the forest area should be taken.” But the issue has not been resolved until now.

Puttaraju, who has been staying in Satyagala- a village near Jageri, said that his intention behind filing the petition was to save the forest cover and the interest of the local people. He said that the area was covered with thick forest earlier and had animals too. He also said that certain illegal activities were carried out by the people such as poaching of animals etc. “I have done my duty, rest is government’s job,” he said.

It is ironical that the villagers could not get documents as it is forest land, but 16 to 18 people were issued Right to Tenant Certificate (RTC) in 1968-69. K. Govindhan, retired rain forest officer, said that he had RTC for eight to ten acre of land in Jageri. Also in the year 1992, the government of India accorded permission to release 50 hectare of forest land to Karnataka Power Corporation limited for Shivasamudram seasonal power scheme which was later cancelled.

Sheridara, office manager, revenue department, Kollegala, said that this land is an ex-inam land. After the abolition of inam under that Karnataka Inam Abolition act of 1977 this land has been handed over to the forest department. He also said that since the land is unauthorised “no revenue comes to the government.” The whole land needs to be surveyed and the matter needs to be settled legally, he said. Sheridara said that the politicians have been supporting the people in order to get their votes. But he also said that it is not possible to evict the people now.

Mahesh, manager at the assistant commissioner’s office said that the boundaries of the forest need to be fixed by the forest settlement officer. Only after this is done the matter can be resolved. He said that the government has allowed the people to stay on humanitarian grounds and might let them stay further too. But the government will have to fix the boundaries of the forest in order to prevent further encroachment.

In the middle of all this politics, it is the villagers who are paying the price. They cannot make pukka houses for themselves as they don’t know the future of this land. The villagers have access to electricity and government schools but no transport facility. They have voter identity cards on the address of Jageri irrespective of not having any documents for the land. Although the government seems to have a slightly easy stance on the matter now but nothing is clear yet and they still live in bewilderment.

Shaking Neighborhood

2009-08-29T02:51:00.000-07:00

Internal and external peace is Inseparable. The way internal and external peace is eminent for a human being, likewise it is indispensable for a country to grow and prosperous. The relationships between India and Sri-Lanka have always been complicated due the impregnable presence of LTTE i.e. Liberation Tiger of Tamil Elam in Sri-Lanka. LTTE, which is a separatist group in Sri-Lanka, have been convulsing over the past three decades for a homeland for ethnic Tamils who comprise of approximately 10% of the island’s population.

Regardless of the fact that LTTE is banned in India as a terrorist organization because of its murderous activities that also includes Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination India still wires peace process between Sri-Lankan government and LTTE.

It is to be noticed that the increasing hold of LTTE in Sri-Lanka may adversely affect our nation too as Tamils comprise of a major group of people living in the southern part of our country. It is a familiar verity that LTTE interferes in the internal affairs by financing Indian political parties, in providing training to Indian militant and extremist organizations, and had extended insurgency infrastructure to bandits such as Veerappan and his forest gang.

LTTE also converts black money of Indian politicians into white money through its illegal Eelam Bank in the Jaffna area. It also has connections with India’s terrorists such as Naxalites and ULFA, and with ISI of Pakistan and even Al Qaeda (which now has established camps in Chittagong, Bangladesh) as well as with separatist Indian political parties such as Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Dalit Panther and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK).

It is a matter of serious concern for our country to maintain national interest in geographical neighborhood and to have a rigorous standpoint in order to check the growing network of LTTE in India.

Visionary Sensation

2009-05-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

I see us dreaming

Dreaming an intricate dream

Dream of a naive heart

Heart which knows no boundaries

Boundaries that entrap the flight

Flight of our dear reverie

Reverie which gives us hope

Hope that everything is feasible

Feasible I know is our love

Love which holds us together

Together we prevail over impediments

Impediments that may keep us apart

Apart we are sure we can’t stay

Stay embracing each other everlastingly

Everlastingly we will hold ourselves

Ourselves in this eternal thread

Thread that tie our souls

Souls fused into one another

Another world it would be darling

Darling, where we can be distant.

"Sigh Of a Mother's Heart"

2009-05-17T05:16:00.001-07:00

Floating through this stillness so deafening,

I feel an irrepressible twinge,

The night walks through me burly,

Not for a moment I could blink.

Reminiscences of the moments passed,

Make my eyes sad and teary,

Holding my hand you grew so much,

But now everything seems scary.

The time when I held you first,

I felt blessed with an angel so bright,

A thirst in me got quenched,

And everything else went out of sight.

You didn’t had words to explicate,

Still your meanings were implicit,

You couldn’t walk unaccompanied,

And my support was requisite.

We weaved dreams together,

Every step of you was planned,

If you had to seek me around,

Just beside you, I would always stand.

I gave you wings,

You flew in the sky,

But now its time,

That you come by.

My hopes have vanished,

My vision is now blurred,

I am lost and lonely,

I need to be heard.

I know you have a lot to do,

You have your own world to look after,

Still I ask for you now,

As its only you I can seek hereafter.

Pleading "Not Guilty"

2009-03-30T02:10:00.000-07:00

Pre-Script..A girl is being raped by her Father and She kills him. She kills him inspite of the fact that he was her father. But did he deserved anything better??
She is now being trailed in the court of law as a Murderer..This poem reflects her angst towards him and her pain.
This is partially inspired from three real life incidents that have occured one in U.S. and two in India recently.

Time is running against the clock

Here I stand in the dock.

Eyes piercing me with questions galore,

I witness a startling furor.

They scour my face for a probable cause.

And marvel at how callous I was.

To have slew the one who brought me to earth,

And bring reproach to my own birth.

But do they know it was not homicide?

Oh! He was a beast in a human’s hide.

If he was behind my geniture in this world,

Why did he acted like a curse’s herald.

I cried, I wailed, I suffered every night,

For me, even to breathe was a fight.

His covetous body, my spirit so pure,

With his lustful venom my adolescence he tore.

He racked my soul, He ailed my flesh,

With his sins so harrowing, my vehemence he enmeshed.

It was me, yes it was me,

I had all the cogent reason to be.