The man that is!

I was reading this article, one of the best articles I have read about the man.

I am brought up in Ahmedabad, the city which made me to what I am today. As a kid, if my parents were not afraid of sending me out alone even in the night times, it is because of that city. As a kid, if I did not know what a power cut was, it was that city. As a grown-up, if I became independent in traveling myself on a 2-wheeler, it was that city. How enthralling is it to watch every 2nd two-wheeler being driven by a woman - a college-going girl, a house-wive, a working lady, a mother of 2 teenage daughters! In which other city can you see that frequency of women on a 50 cc Kinetic or later a 100 cc Honda Activa or now a 125 cc Suzuki Access with unusual freedom on a road as wide to take at least 10 more 2 wheelers like theirs in parallel!

Every single time I land there, I see a new fly-over being under construction and the next time I land that fly-over is fully operational - the time span between two landings is usually not more than 6 months. In which other city would you see the roads which can take 50 times more traffic than the current times? Whether it is the 40+ malls in the city, or the fly-overs or the most successful BRTS system adding lanes after lanes every few months in extremely well planned phases, or the additional 200 mts Sabarmati riverfront being completed every few months or the many world-class educational institutions - which one of these cannot be fascinating enough for anyone to fall in love with the city, more importantly the person behind this development.

There is one question that haunts amidst all this excitement -  'Was he the one?' and I am afraid my conscience forces me to think yes, probably it is. Every time I enter that new BRTS lane, I am forced to think about the frightening times of the Feb-Mar 2002 when we did not have even proper milk for weeks together due to high curfews across the city. My parents stay at the place which is 100 mts away from the place called Juhapura, that area is colloquially known as the India-Pakistan border. I had seen people walking/running in a rage towards Juhapura from our area with some or the other weapon in their hands at 2AM in the night, from the balcony of our apartment on the 3rd floor. I had seen policemen firing tear gas shells just in the lane where we stay. I saw all of these live. I had seen a mob setting a scooter and a jeep ablaze in the middle of the market just like that with no reason - those few seconds of the chill running down my spine is something that I wish no one experiences, especially on the thought that not only the vehicles, but the mob didn't spare even the people on those vehicles! I have friends who watched truck drivers being pulled out of the trucks and burnt alive during that time. When I see the Topaz restaurant or the Kabir restaurant now (my previous office is located in the same building as the Kabir restaurant), I still can recollect afresh the fire and dark black fumes coming out of them on a bright sunny day. Every time I get hurt by small burns on my hand or palm in my kitchen and I look at the wound, I recollect that horrendous news pieces talking about people's experiences like 'first they were hanged, and then were burnt alive!'. How complex are human beings to understand!!!

Was it the same man? I wonder! Recently I saw Kai Po Che movie and again the question 'was it him?' - as many others, I had witnessed the two biggest historic events in Gujarat - the earthquake and the riots. I know what it is to feel you might die the next moment on being collapsed in the rubbles of the building that is oscillating 50 degrees on both sides with you trying to balance yourselves! I also know what it is to feel you could be set ablaze along with your two-wheeler the next moment (though I am not the minority many of whom actually experienced the torment). Thanks to these two historic events I 'fear' something and though I am an athiest, I do keep my hands on my heart and tell the power inside me (you can call this a prayer) try not to let anyone experience such dreadful moments in their lives. Though I know many innocent people experience such things very often in many other forms.

Some day I would want to ask the man in person about the reality!

Now, with all the news about him all set to being the PM, the question I ask myself is would he become the PM? Is he the best to become the PM? Would he do a good job as a PM?

To the first question - I don't think so. I agree he is the greatest administrator of these times and I am a great fan of this quality in him as I also have witnessed the biggest development along with the two historic events in the same place. I would love to see the development extended to the country actually. And I know that event of 2002 will not repeat itself. Even if he was the man behind the event, even if he was not the man behind but is to blame for not taking a corrective action (one of my uncles from Army who witnessed the Babri Masjid event as a Black Cat Commando actually says it is a wise decision for police or Army not to interfere when the mob is in a rage, since the outcome would remain unchanged), that event won't repeat itself with him as PM. Because he plays very safe as I understand and he would not take a step that would give him any more negative limelight and strengthen his past negative image. But honestly, I don't think he will be allowed to become the PM.

To the second question - among all, yes I guess. The discipline, the hitlet-ism that he has is badly needed in our country without which it is difficult to control the 1Bn ignorant humans.

To the third question - I am sure he will do a great job of developing the infrastructure but with an unbiased view, he might be a threat to many of my friends - not about the minority factor, but probably his reluctance to accept western culture. He might impose certain rules which may not be liked by many of the youth (though actually in Gujarat there are no rules like that but probably that part of the country is not yet too westernized also!). What if he declares the country dry! :)

What's in a Name? :)

I came across this article in an in-flight magazine. It is an article by someone who has the name 'Rajesh Khanna' :) What a sad moment that day was when this legend passed away! I simply love the Kishore Kumar's songs picturised on this legendary actor! Anyway...

Having the same name as that of a 'Bollywood' icon! Ask me! Whenever I introduce myself as 'Sridevi' (notice that the 2 spellings - of my name & of the actress' name match too, otherwise there are variations of the name like Sreedevi, Shridevi), people have a very pleasant smile on their faces & most often people react, "Mr. India?" :) :) On the first day of my college in St. Xavier's Ahmedabad, someone asked me my name. I said, 'Sridevi'. He said, 'Aur main, Salman Khan..hahahaha". I didn't know what to say, "Mera naam sach mein Sridevi hai.", I said. He got shocked, "Hain...sach mein Sridevi hai? Yeh kaisa naam rakh liya...". Pratik - I would never forget this :)

In South India, this name is very common - in all 4 Southern states I guess but more common in Andhra Pradesh, next comes Tamil Nadu as per my knowledge. But my name did always raise eyebrows in that part of the country also along with a pleasant smile. The actress has a sister named 'Srilatha', coincidentally my sister's name is also 'Srilatha' (notice the 'tha' & not 'ta' :), a trademark of southern India - it won't be Prashant, it would be Prashanth, Srikant would be Srikanth etc.). But does anyone care about this 'Srilatha' coincidence? Now we ask, what's in a name? Yes, there is a lot in a name that has a lot of fame :) I vaguely remember asking my grandmother in my childhood about why they named me like this. She said at that time the actress was gaining all the fame & so when I was born, they named me after her, so that I would also make a name like that in my life. Apparently there is this God named Balaji, the one who has a golden temple to himself in Tirupati, one of his wives is also called Sridevi. Thankfully my family didn't name me after that God. Gods I tell you & especially this Tirupati one <sigh>...let me store this discussion for another blogpost of mine.

When I asked this question to my naani, internet was not there so I could not check the details. But now when I check on the internet, I actually notice that this was the period when the actress had already made her strong mark in South India & was rising to new heights in Bollywood too.

What surprises me is the immediate reaction "Mr. India?". The movie was not at all a woman-centric one, and Sridevi was not looking too good, neither had she acted too well. The extremely important & major attraction was the Mr. India himself. Then why Mr. India??? I actually like her in Chandni a lot, but no one's immediate mention on hearing my name is ever 'Chandni' :-) I personally like her very much in Chandni, she looked her best in this movie I feel & what amazing music & songs the movie had! 'Lagi aaj saawan ki fir woh jhadi hai...', 'Parbat se kaali ghata takraayi...' & more...wow!

It is good to have coincidences but these kinds of coincidences are very special, one big advantage is people will always remember you. Thanks to the 'Sridevi' & all who make 'names' & thanks to my family who named me after this actress. If I rise to similar heights in some other field of course & not Bollywood, I can already anticipate the media headlines :)

But sometimes it might actually get scary for the relatives like in the movie 'Gandhi My Father', Harilal, the son of the Bapu is being asked his father's name by the hospital staff when he is literally in a dying state. He says the name 'Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi', & the hospital staff says, "he is the father of the entire nation, tell the actual name" - Harilal actually dies in the hospital without anyone knowing about him. How sad can something like that be!!!

Like the author in this article mentions, thankfully, no one has said anything like this to my family or relatives, "Okay, stop joking & tell me the actual name"!

What...is...in...a...NAME!!!

10 years - still so fresh in memories!

27th Feb, 2002 - just after we were remembering the damage created by the earthquake to our lives in the past year of 2001. It was about 3:00 PM when we got to hear about the mob setting fire to the Sabarmati express at the Godhra station. People spoke a lot about that, everyone was discussing about various options while the news spread that the coaches were coming to Ahmedabad, honestly I couldn't follow a word of what was happening as that was the first time I was hearing something like that! Almost everybody was sure, there would be something that would happen. What would happen, what impact would it have, how much impact would it have, who all would be affected, when would it start, when would it end if at all....nothing was known. Slowly the day passed & towards late evening, fear started spreading around the city - immense fear. Next day morning, things started & nothing in our country can initiate at such a fast pace as what we know today as the historic riots in Gujarat 2002.

I can't describe the details - but the damage it had done to all the lives has not yet healed entirely. Almost everybody has views about the riots, all sorts of questions - who did it? why they happened? how they happened? About the political icons involved in the riots - all these in the fastest developing city of the country.

I LOVE Ahmedabad - I give most of the credit to that city in making me what I am today. I hate the fact that the city saw such high impactful incidents like the earthquake, riots, floods back-to-back. But each time, it stood back up to normalcy. But of course some things remain silent, unspoken but they remain - in the form of distances between people, distances between friends, distances between communities which were once sharing celebrations of festivals together!

10 long years now - the city has seen amazing development in terms of infrastructure, in terms of ease & peace of life! The only thing it was lacking possibly was the jobs sector which now has not remained a big concern with many IT companies setting up their offices there & also some companies considering some of their outsourcing operations to be set up there.

I keep reading a lot of stuff occasionally on the riots front - news pieces, some video snippets etc. a week back, when I was seeing the documentary by Rajdeep Sardesai on this I remembered the experiences I had also during the riots - there was indefinite curfew which after 1.5 months or so, started opening up just for 30 mins to 1 hour only for women & kids - the shops has stinking eggs, no milk, no vegetables - all we could do is cook some rice & eat it with something like a pickle - we south Indians can survive just with rice & some pickles or some powders. Fear was in the air - police releasing tear gas shells just in our street, sudden curfew announcements happening which would throw current through your spine - we could see mobs going with as many kinds of weapons as possible to just cut down anybody in the rival side - all from our own balcony. It was truly terrifying, there was fire everywhere, lots of well-known shops, restaurants were set ablaze, every road had vehicles burning, some friends described seeing incidents of setting people live on fire!!! I pray such an instance won't happen again! At least I don't have the courage to see it again!

To all of those who suffered in the riots passively, to all those who got jailed for no reason, to all those whose families got affected for no reason, to all those who are probably still suffering & lacking the basic amenities, to all those who died innocently, to all those whose businesses were washed away, to all those whose livelihoods were ripped apart - hats off to their strength! And prayers that the human race gains some wisdom to not let such incidents take place ever again!

Read the Outlook issue of March 5, 2012 here generally on some other related articles.

The 'ugly' face of Gujarat!

Parzania was a movie which I wanted to watch for quite some time now. I knew no matter how much the director would try to get the public to get a feel of what happened in the Gujarat riots, he would be unsuccessful. However, the thorough effort made to make the movie should be commendable. I still remember the cover page of the India Today issue during the riots!

27th February 2002, I was in Ahmedabad (આપનો અમદાવાદ - Our Ahmedabad, ગરવી ગુજરાત - Proud Gujarat) my parents' place, the place that has made me to what I am now, the place where people like to be in peace, the place of complete freedom, the place of least fear, the place I love the most and claim to be the best city in India; around 4PM when the news floated all around that the Sabarmati express was set ablaze in Godhra railway station, it was horrendous to hear more and more details about the incident. Later, people discussed about the bodies coming to Ahmedabad and everybody almost was sure that things would get worse and it would result in a communal violence - how long? how strong? Whether it would be of similar intensity of the one in the early 80s? No one knew...but all knew that the coming few days or weeks would be far from peaceful.

28th February, 2002 - all expected and unexpected unpleasant things started to happen in full swing, curfews imposed in almost all of Ahmedabad, the entire air of complete freedom turned in air of extreme fright. I went up the stairs of our building to the terrace to see actually what the city is like - there was smoke seen in all 4 sides & 4 corners of the rectangular terrace that I was standing in, of different shades of black and grey all around, - depending on the intensity of the fire, depending on what was burnt or how much was burnt or how many were burnt may be! Almost every known place was in the news to have got burnt - the very own Topaz restaurant, Kabir restaurant, the Paldi area, the Vasna area and more, and more - almost the entire city & the entire state actually!

I heard, saw and read about Narendra Modi being involved in this most remarkable incident in the history of Gujarat and India. Modi, is an icon I respect very much, admire very much - when his speech comes on television, I and my entire family make sure that we watch it and we feel good listening to him. I have witnessed the development of Ahmedabad - the roads in and outside the city (when you see flyovers constructed to accomodate 4 times the current traffic, when you drive on NE-1 which is a part of the 5,806 km long Golden Quadrilateral and reach Baroda from Ahmedabad in just 1 hour), the other facilities (absolutely no power cuts, various transport schemes like BRTS and so on to put forth)!

I never denied Modi's involvement in the 2002 happenings but I always thought someway if it wasn't true. I was reading through the Tehelka reports 'Operation Kalank' and watched a couple of videos (do read through and you would feel fearful churning in your stomach), wherever there was Modi written along with Gujarat riots 2002, I would hope it wasn't something that I don't want to see. But I wish it wasn't true. I don't trust any politician for that matter and everyone would be involved in some or the other happening like this, and more may be. It is probably just that Modi's was proved to be true? And rest weren't proved yet?

To all those who drove the massacre, shame to be called humans, forget about appending the adjective 'civilized'!