Leaves of My Tree

Its August 15, 2010. Its independence day today. 64 years ago, our leaders fought for freedom and independence. Finally we became the masters and makers of our destiny. For some of the most silly reasons, human errors, erractic egos, we divided the country. People who were cordial neighbours belonging to the same roots suddenly bacame staunch enemies. Like all enemies, we needed a reason for hate... We successfully found it ... Kashmir!! Since then, the valley of beauty and wonder has never seen peace, never experienced bliss. Since 1948, Kashmir has always faced wars, terror attacks, the so called 'cleansing missions' etc. The 1948 agresssion, the 1965 war, the 1989 cleansing mission which drove out all the Kashmiri Pandits from their homeland and the 1999 war again...Each one of these cowardly acts has made the valley unsafe. Call it our procrastinating attitude or appeasing politics, we have failed in establishing our hold on the valley not only in the internataional s...

Hello... Long time... I was away for a while. Was busy getting married... and this will be my first blog post after marriage. I am here to thank all my near and dear ones who carved out the event so beautifully. My humble gratitude to thee. In the midst of runnning around, finding things there were many light moments of laughter, heavy moments of parting, tense moments of arguments, anxious romance, exciting surrender and finally the best and the most commmonly found was natural and simple grandeur in everybody and in everything including dressing, thoughts, expressions and actions. Thank you all for making this event one of the most memorable events of my life.

Unity in Diversity… a phrase which I learnt from the Social Studies textbook, a phrase that makes special appearances on the 26th January and 15th august every year. This phrase intends to develop a sense of unity amongst the Indians though they speak different languages, follow different customs, dress differently, look differently, believe different Gods etc. However, what caught my attention today is the oxymoron created by the words used and their purpose. Though the central idea of its purpose is to unity, the central idea of the language is diversity! 63 years ago, this phrase sounded apposite. It was immensely necessary to find that unity amongst diverse cultures. That was a time when our leaders had to imbibe the fact that though we are Kanndigas, Tamilians , Punjabis, Bihari, Marathas etc, we are also Indians. Therefore it was right for our leaders to highlight our differences but also pinpoint our similarities. Since then, we have come a long way. I do not feel the necessity ...