home...

Home is where the heart is... My home... Oh it is in this foreign land that I miss home the most.. I travelled a lot while I was in India.. but didnt feel it was so far away.. Here I feel that home is really far away.. and going back home is the only thing that runs on my mind these days..
When I was home..i fought with my mom and dad..but now when I am away..i miss them the most.. Oh how I wish I was back home in Mumbai....

Re chech, Koch chech and jithu.. i miss them too... Himas, teena, bets... miss them too... :( but most of all I miss my mom and dad..i wish i was with them...

Fly away...

I am quite positive that this song "Fly away" by John Denver was written for me .. hehehe.. yea many years before I was born. It is absolutely about a city girl like me. I am sure all of my friends would agree with this song... There are times when each of us wish to fly away....

These are the lyrics of the song...
All of her days have gone soft and cloudy
All of her dreams have gone dry
All of her nights have gone sad and shady
Shes getting ready to fly
Fly away, fly away, fly away

Life in the city can make you crazy
For sounds of the sand and the sea
Life in a high-rise can make you hungry
For things that you cant even see
Fly away, fly away, fly away

In this whole world theres nobody as lonely as she
Theres nowhere to go and theres nowhere that shed rather be
Shes looking for lovers and children playing
Shes looking for signs of the spring
She listens for laughter and sounds of dancing
She listens for any old thing
Fly away, fly away, fly away

Words and music by john denver

I wish... I could just FLY AWAY.......................

Finally they free Dr. Sen

Dr. Binayak Sen has been granted bail, after long two years. That's a major victory for the humanrights movement in India. But the (false and fabricated) case id still on. The case is an "index" case. It clearly shows up how draconian laws are can be and are actually misused. And how stupendously difficult it would be for a lesser being! And even Dr. Binayak Sen, with 22 Nobel laureates appealing, national and international medical community protesting, foreign governments making queries, retired Supreme Court judge appealing, it took two long years just to obtain a simple bail, which as per the Supreme Court directive should be norm, not an exception. This again shows up the the huge irrational arbitrary powers that the "state" is invested with to crush an ordinary citizen, and a dissenting voice, in particular. This small but significant victory must reenergise the human rights movement in India. We must mobilise ourselves to firmly demand that the Central government must immediately initiate action to create a legal framework to subscribe to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in toto.

Tomorrow it would be you and me...

Am I safe in India?

Dr. Binayak Sen's incarceration is has trigged out a lot of public outcry. A doctor who works for the cause of tribals and poor people has been pushed down and locked up. His charge is that he works for the cause of the poor, his charge is that he and his wife dared to work with people whom the State thought they could just overlook, his charge was that he raised his voice against the injustice happening in Chatisgarh, against Salwa Jugum [Salwa Judum (translates as "Peace March") is a anti- Naxalite movement in Chhatisgarh, India, which started in 2005 as a "civilian movement amongst the tribals of the region", and later evolved into a militia as a counter-insurgency strategy in the ,to bring the area dominated by Naxalites (Indian Maoists rebels), back under government control.]

The police arrested him with the charge that he passes letter to naxalites but they have not been able to prove a single charge against him. He has been denied bail all the time. I am waiting what the Supreme Court now gives him.

This doctor is arrested and kept in prison, tomorrow it will be you and me. Tomorrow you and me can be arrested for being human rights activits. Tomorrow I can be arrested by charging me. I work with prisoners and this can activism of mine could be altogether made to stop by simply incarcerating me using a draconian law.

I kept telling my collegue Sana yesterday, "Atleast people know Dr.Binayak Sen.. Who would know Ms. Reena Mary George if she is arrested someday?" We need to voice out our opposition towards the arrest of Dr. Sen because today it is him -- a human rights activits, tomorrow it would be you and me....

Binayak Sen

India is the largest democracy! But the question is ... Is it really democracy or dictatorship??How can a doctor (Dr.Binayak Sen) who works with the tribals and common people's causes be incarcerated for two long years without anything proved against him. The police claims that he passed on letters to naxals!!

I am sure, if this is the way India is 'progressing', then people like me will end up in prisons as well. Atleast Binayak Sen is a largely known public figure... Who would know any Reena Mary George... who works for the rights of prisoners??? Some day they might just not want me to work for the cause of prisoners and charge me with some absolutely nonsense case and incarcerate me as well... Are we, human rights activits really safe in a country like India where the State players do not want any development in this country, where the State players want to put down human rights activists like Binayak Sen behind bars, where the the State players do not want to uphold human dignity? Am i safe in this country?

It is time... that we fight back and not be silent... One of the poems I heard yesterday at Dhuru Hall, Dadar (A programme organised by the 'Release Binayak Sen Committee') it said... Keeping quite is the biggest mistake we all do... When things go wrong and nothing moves within us..then that is the biggest mistake... lovely poems read by contemporary, progressive readers...

I would lose hope in the Criminal Justice System of India if Binayak Sen is not given bail this time by Supreme Court of India.

Ain't I a Woman?

Truth delivered her best-known speech in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. The speech has become known as Ain't I a Woman? after Truth's refrain.

The speech as shown here has been revised from the 19th century dialect in which Truth spoke.
“ Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne five children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.”
--Sojourner Truth

Was it my vote?!

So just who are you Judge?And just who are you President?

Who made you the Honourable Judge?Who made you the Honourable President?In My Democracy.
Was it my vote?!

So just how much did you know 14-year-old Hetal Parekh, Mr. Judge,(just so we know how much you felt for her)And just how much did you know Dhananjoy Chatterjee?
The same questions to you to Mr. President.

In what judgment did you sit Mr. Judge?Was it legal, was it moral?
Did you give life to Hetal Parekh, Mr. Judge?Did you give life to Dhananjoy Chatterjee?Maybe you did Mr. President?Did you?

What is "life", to you Mr. Judge?And when does it become precious, Mr. President?
Whom did you hang, when 15,310 people died in Bhopal and 300,000 were maimed by Union Carbide?How many people did you hang when the Children of Kumbakonam roasted in their school?Where did you hang the officials, who rotted grain and caused starvation deaths in Orissa, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and in many other states of India?Why didn't you hang the politicians of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra whose "politics" have caused scores of debt-ridden farmers to kill themselves?And whom do we hang for the destruction the nuclear tests have brought, on a poor tribal community in Rajasthan?

So just who are you Mr. Judge?And just who are you Mr. President? Who made you Judge?Who made you President?In my democracy.
Was it my vote?!

- by Lillian D' Costa

(This a poem found in a christian magazine... by Lillian D' Costa... a very well written poem...I would probably ask Mr. Abdul Kalam the same questions if i meet him....)