Imposters

"The nation wants to know
why there are no real role models any more?"
they seem to have disppeared with
the death of those who fought for independance
where are the real heroes, the ones
with bravery, integrity, grit and determination?

Today, we have only the imposters
caricatures of the real men & women
those who imitate, make a lot of noise
but then cats,no matter what they do
can hardly become lions .. or can they?...


Edit: Found this you tube video that is relevant to the post.

Environment Issues

The little kid was aghast

"You ate, drank, made merry

wasted precious gas, water, power

raped the forests, shook the balance

now want us to make amends

and pay the price! ”

“You are right son” sighed the environ activist

“We are a failed generation

that destroyed and lived

without a care for future generations.”

 “Alas, now there’s no choice

but to work hard on reversing trend

else flora and fauna, life as we have known it

will disappear for ever

from the face of this planet….

Ps: This poem was recited by me at the Guntur International Poetry Festival on 21st September 2017

A Landmark to Cherish ( 10 Years of Guntur International Poetry Festival)

From the passion and love for poetry
of two enthusiastic teachers
Prof Gopichand and Prof Nagasuseela
of the English language department
of JKC college Guntur was born

the concept of an International poetry fest
that would soon become a feather in the cap
of not only the JKC college but
the entire town of Guntur!

The seed grew,became a reality and bloomed
with the blessings of the college management
the enthusiasm of of student volunteers
and active participation of poets who
simply love the Guntur fest for
its energy and dedication of organizors!

In all of ten years, the basic theme
that reverberated was that of peace
and its variants of love, hope, happiness
The first anthology " Heart Throbs" in 2008
to "Symphony of Peace" in 2017
adorned poets from all parts of India
and poets from Europe, US, Asia and Africa!

This is a trtibute from a fortunate me
who experienced first hand and witnessed
the unique traditional honouring of poets
the confidence building of students and
the core spirit, vitality and hospitality
of the Guntur International poetry fest!

Although this landmark of ten years
is no mean achievement, one prays
for many more laurels for a concept
that took shape for the sheer passion
for the love of poetry!

A Second Chance

Friends, I had not entered my blog for the Indiblogger awards. However I got a mail from the team in the form of a second chance which read  " There has also been a huge upturn in registrations that a lot of people are yet to apply for the Blogger Awards. We have no choice but to extend the call for entries until midnight of October 3rd"

So why not? Who knows what is in  one's destiny? So here I am throwing my hat into the ring- Kindly give it some love and post a testimonial..

It is still not too late. So fellow bloggers who like me had not entered the contest can now join in- the more the merrier! Do give your testimonials and send me your link in case you have  entered your blog for the contest so that I can give mine.

https://www.indiblogger.in/iba/2017/entry/73418 

Oh for some breath of fresh air....

I am Kannan. I live with my parents, my sister Alamelu and grandparents in our big house with a wonderful courtyard. Elders tell us that we had two more brothers and a sister who died due to an epidemic, even before we were born .We love our Town Vellore; we have lovely lakes and a calm serene atmosphere. We are proud that our father is serving as an official in the administration of our king, Nawab of Carnatic. 

My sister and I go to the best school in town in the present times (1685). I study in 7th and my sister in 5th class. Our best friend is Kumaran who has come to our town only six months back. His father was working in the big city of Chennai under British administration and Kumaran is always telling us of the exciting life in the city. His father is interested in making new things. Kumaran told us that he wants to make a machine that will make small objects look bigger! He is also trying to make flying machines. All this sounds so exciting! That is why we spend a lot of our free time with Kumaran.

Our house may not be as big as that of Kumaran’s.But we are very proud and happy to live in it. With tall ceilings and huge windows in every room, we get plenty of air and sunlight. We have lot of trees and plants around the house. Every day, we wake up to the happy twittering of birds. Our servants clean and wet mop all the rooms daily and keep them free of dust.

In Kumaran’s house, his father has a big separate room for his experiments. Whenever we visit, we secretly enter this room when his father is not there. The kind of things that lie around there is fascinating. One Sunday when we visited Kumaran, he said that his father was working on a secret machine called “Time machine” by which we can travel from one time zone to another. We did not know fully what this was all about but when we saw the machine, we, Alamelu, Kumaran and I could not help sitting inside it and fiddling with the knobs.

Suddenly there was a hissing sound and the machine started shaking violently. Now, we were very scared and started calling out to each other “Alamelu! Kumaran!”, “ Kanna…”  “Anna!”  Before we knew it, we were in a strange place, so different from our lovely town Vellore. There was so much of smoke everywhere with motor cars swishing past. We have never seen so many cars together in our lives! We ran and ran, away from the streets and entered a house, which was in a very tall building, so different from the houses in our town. Two boys stared at us as we came in. They were wearing some sort of masks.

                                     Courtesy: Free Google Images

“What is this?” we asked in English, as they did not seem to know Tamil. Fortunately, they understood English and replied that it was worn to protect from all sorts of air and dust pollution. One of them ran inside and brought masks for us as well. I looked at a calendar on the wall, which showed the year as 2030. We asked the boys where we were and they answered “Bengaluru”. The boys said their parents have gone out and will return only in the evening.

Akhil and Aditya were very kind and gave us a lot of food to eat, so different from our usual meal. Yet we felt stifled in the place that had a suffocating atmosphere. When we asked Aditya and Akhil about it, they said that all kinds of gases are in the house such as fine particles and Carbon monoxide – an odourless, colourless gas produced by appliances or heaters. Earlier their father used to be a chain smoker and that was a big cause for the problem.

 The atmosphere affected their mother who was an asthma patient, the most. “Now father has completely given up smoking,” they said.

The boys said that the family has taken steps to improve the ventilation in the house, particularly in the kitchen. They are using dehumidifiers to reduce moisture and encasing their pillows, mattresses, and box springs in dust-mite-proof covers.

All of a sudden, the knobs of our time machine became visible and three of us started hitting and turning them frantically - Lo and behold, we began to shake violently and  we set off once again. We hardly had time to  bid adieu to our new friends. The three of us were praying hard to be back in our good old town with its pleasing and healthy environment.

But sadly our prayers seem to have fallen on deaf ears. We did not know the place that looked completely different from our own town. We could hear people speaking but could not understand a word. Once again, we ran into the nearest house. There was an aunty inside who asked us questions that we did not understand. She also could not understand fully what we were speaking.

Finally, she called out to her daughters who came and spoke to us in English. “Today is a holiday. We are celebrating the 70th Independence day of our country.” they said. “Normally we go to our school, Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Bhopal for the function; but today we are not going since my sister Arthi is not well said the elder one Mithali. “Instead today we will watch the PM speak from the red fort on TV.”

We liked interacting with the sweet girls who were more or less of our age. Just then, I noticed an ashtray on the teapoy. I thought it right to forewarn the family of what is going to happen in the future. The three of us, Alamelu, Kumaran and I excitedly shared the tips given by our friends of the 2030 era to combat indoor pollutants. After all, if they take preventive steps in 2017, many problems can be avoided in the future.  

The girls were happy to receive the tips and thanked us.” We are lucky though that recently the Asian Paints company has come out with a product that arrest indoor pollution. Our father has already decided to but it!” said Arthi. . Mithali  further explained, “Royale Atmos is a paint that reduces harmful air pollutants and makes the air cleaner. It also absorbs various foul smells & makes the air fresher. We were happy for these kids who had access to a product that helps to purify the air and improve the air quality inside the house. They are so lucky compared to Akhil and Aditya!

https://www.asianpaints.com/atmos 

At that time the knobs of our time machine were once again visible. The three of us made a grab for it and in seconds, we started shaking violently and in a few more seconds we were back in the study of Kumaran’s father. Notwithstanding our adventure, we were relieved to be back home. We vowed to never again play or fiddle with the gadgets in uncle’s lab. We are grateful to be back in our peaceful, healthy and serene town; thankful to be living in our era….

Captivating Lines from Here and There-19

                       

• If you are going to do anything. you must expect criticism.But it is better to be a doer than a critic.The doer moves,the critic stands still and is passed by- Bruce Barton, Author, Advertising executive and US politician
• The mind is it's own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell,a hell of heaven- John Milton, Poet in " Paradise Lost"
• Without question, the most abundant, least expensive, most underutilised and constantly abused resource in the world is human ingenuity (inventiveness).
• Negative self scripts are ideas and beliefs about ourselves that are self damaging.These are ideas about our own personality that we have passed on to our subconscious through bad or undesirable life experiences- John peace. Law of attraction Guru
• We are obsessed with learning from our mistakes.But why not allow our successes to multiply enough to crowd out the unsuccessful.Why not follow up with our happy customers and ask why we made them happy?- From "The thin book of Appreciative inquiry" by Sue Hannis Hammond
• Applying Appreciative inquiry- At the end of a meeting, ask "What did we as a group do well in this meeting?"- Sue Hannis Hammond
• I am only one;but still I am one. I cannot do everything but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do- Helen Keller, Author, speaker,political activist
• As you grow older, you need people not dollars and cents.
• Dream lofty dreams;dreams are the seedlings of realities- From the book " As a man thinketh
• Things are not brought into being by thinking about their opposites.Health is never to be attained by studying disease and thinking about disease- Wallace.D.Wattles, Author
• The soul of business is confidence- J.C. Penny in " Lines of a layman  

It is all Darkness

She knew it was coming. After all she had made quite a few enemies and also earned reputation of a fearless journalist. Now who are the four people at the front gate? Should she go and investigate? No, not necessary, they are coming in. she half opened her mouth to speak.Bang, Bang, Bang! what's happening? Hey,can't see a thing; its all darkness.....

Foot Note:  Is this darkness happening only to one person or is it an indication of darkness to come for an entire nation?

Do you Know your History?

Viral video of an Oxford university debate
featuring eloquent Indian MP, Shashi Tharoor
is causing shock and surprise
amongst the young British
at a time when they are set
to celebrate the glory,the 150th aniversary,
of the British colonialisation,
come November 2017....

" We never knew, were never told
this side of the story either in school
or in daily casual conversation"

Perhaps the details of history and statistics
would be equally surprising to the Indian youth
some of whom believe that the railways,
the infrastructure and the modern civilization
all emanated from the contribution
the kindnes of the white man!

Pride in what and where we were
visavis other nations and civilizations,
prior to the loot and plunder
is the starting point for rekindling spirits,
for regaining past glory

The first step then is to know the truth
and pass on the truth
to the present & future generations
let our history texts focus
less on might of invaders
and more on Indian culture
and her innnate strenghts

Placing mother India back
in her rightful place
among the comity of nations
is a challenge that beckons

Knowing true, correct history
is the need of the hour!

Edit: Found another piece of information "Lord Mccauley's address to the British parliament about the Indian citizens of that time which also gives hints about our history-

http://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/945906d3-b846-4aac-aad1-ebe72b47cf21-original.jpeg