Happy Raksha Bandhan!!

One of the many amazing things about living in India is the sheer abundance of festivities that celebrate some occasion or the other.

Being a melting pot of a huge chunk of humanity, practicing multiple faiths and belief systems, something or the other is always going on (or, worst case, just round the corner) at any given point of time!

However, even among the multitude of such events, there is a day that always stands out for me: Raksha Bandhan.
There aren't many occasions as pious as a day celebrating the love of a brother for his sister, and vice versa.

Without even any religious copyrights or boundaries, one that is completely understood, liked, practiced across all faiths - appropriately enough, because its idea and concept is not endemic to a religion but to humanity. No wonder, any sane person/family appreciates, understands, and even practices it, irrespective of any religious affiliation.

A day that also recounts and reaffirms a brother's duty and sense of responsibility for his sister.

Quietly.
Piously.
Warmly.
A simple ceremony where the sister ties a rakhi on her brother's hand, does a simple teeka/tilak, followed by a pooja (equating and acknowledging a brother to no less than a divine blessing), and the brother too, as a token of his love, exchanging sweets, gifting his sister, and most importantly, acknowledging, appreciating, and reaffirming his love and responsibility towards her.

Without any shenanigans.
Nothing over the top.
Nothing against any other festival but this is a day, which neither carries the baggage of liquor-induced tamasha of a Holi nor the agonizingly gory display of self-inflicted violence of a Muharram. Heck, not even the ear-deafening blitzkreig on a Diwali.

Nice, plain, and simple.

As part of a sense of the occasion, what is also worth sharing and is something I've always felt could be extremely helpful in today's times of lack of trust and safety for women, is a sense of responsibility towards every woman.

I must also confess that it would be too idealistic or foolhardy to expect that everyone should see every woman (except his wife) as his sister only.
Yes, this ain't Satyug yet.

However, what surely is possible, is that no one should count it as his right to harass anyone.
You might not need to see/call everyone as your sister but please do have a sense of responsibility towards everyone's sister.

This video (courtesy/credit: Varun Pruthi) is perhaps a wonderful example of what it is truly, to celebrate Raksha Bandhan, in the best way not only on just that day, but also on every single day.

A nice, simple, and wonderful way to make our society better.

We have also had cases of women misusing their current status to manipulate/harass men too, but I believe, that just like most men aren't bad, most women aren't either.
Just a case of a few rotten apples on both sides, who unfortunately, tend to dominate our view when it comes to forming opinions about any person/gender.

So if I can ask anything of every guy, it is only this much:
Even if you cannot call everyone your sister, let us all make sure that we protect and care for not only our sister(s), but also everyone else's.
No one (across any gender) has the right to harass any individual.

Perhaps the day when we could see every guy adopting such an attitude as part of his core, conscious belief-system, that day would be the day when we would be making our world such an infinitely safer and better place.
That would be the best way to celebrate Raksha Bandhan!

Here's to a much happier, safer, caring, responsible, and empathetic world: Happy Raksha Bandhan!!

Hichkiyaan

हिचकियाँ 

कहते हैं कि कोई याद करे, तो हिचकियाँ आती हैं
कोई दिल से बुलाये, तो गले के ज़रिये बताती हैं |

माफ़ कीजियेगा, पर ये तो है एक झूठ सफ़ेद
वरना मेरे याद करने पर ही क्यों करेंगी वो ऐसा भेद ?

उनके आने-ना आने का तो राज़ नहीं जानता हूँ
पर अपने मन की भावनाओं को तो पहचानता हूँ ।

उनके प्यार में अंकित आँखें सिर्फ उन्ही के लिए नम हैं,
उनकी मिठास के आगे दुनिया भर की चीनी भी कम है।

जिसने हमेशा मुझे हर पल सिर्फ और सिर्फ बेशुमार प्यार दिया,
जिसके लिए दिल की धड़कनों ने पागल हो जाने का इज़हार किया
उस पर  कैसे ना हो ये दिल हमेशा के लिए निसार ?
कैसे न निभाऊं मैं उस से, ज़िन्दगी भर अपनी तरफ से भी प्यार?

आखिर क्यों ये दिल उनसे दूर होकर भी हर दर्द ख़ुशी से पीता है?
क्यों ये मन हर वक़्त, हर पल सिर्फ और सिर्फ उन ही के लिए जीता है?

तुमसे प्यार सिर्फ कह के नहीं,
हर तरह से कर के भी निभाउंगा 
जो भी तुम्हें ख़ुशी देगी,
हर वो बात, हर चीज़ ख़ुशी से कर जाऊँगा ।

जैसा भी हूँ, हो सके तो रखना विश्वास,
कि मैं ख़ुशी से हूँ हर पल तुम्हारे साथ
तुम्हें प्यार करता था, करता  हूँ,करता रहूँगा,
हमेशा थामे रखूँगा तुम्हारा हाथ।

झूठ कहते हैं लोग, कि किसी को याद करने पर हिचकियाँ ज़रूर ही आ सकेंगी
ग़र ये सच होता ना मेरी जान, तो तुम्हारी हिचकियाँ तो कभी भी ना जा सकेंगी ।  :)

Thankyou for a special century!!

I will keep this one short and simple:
This post is meant to simply express my heartfelt gratitude to all the readers for their support to this blog, over all the years!!

My sincere thanks to all the readers of Choc-a-blog, for your support, in crossing a special milestone:
We are now 100+ on our FaceBook page.

I promise to continue writing whatever I believe I can add to.

Thanks a lot, for all your support!

Happy Reading :-)

An Open Letter to our Pride Minister

Dear Pradhaan Mantri ji,

Hope you are doing better than what you were/did on May 19.
I am not among those who think you are the wrong person in the chair, but you might not be able to count me as your blind-to-any-fault supporter either.

Perhaps even your strongest critics do not doubt your charisma and public speaking skills.
However, this one time, the script has perhaps gone haywire.

Your speech in Shanghai, China has evoked a strong reaction on social media with your "earlier-you-were-ashamed-of-being-an-Indian".

Well, it must be said that the comments were avoidable, to say the least.
It could be a fact that Indians feel more proud an assertive today than in times gone by, but that does not mean we were ashamed of being Indians.

Sir, your claiming it and ascribing it on a billion people as their mentality is certainly inappropriate and flawed.

Yes, we might have had (and continue to have) our flaws here and there (which country doesn't?), and there have very well been more reasons to be proud of ourselves as Indians.

However, this does not mean that the people of this country were ever ashamed of being Indians before you came to power.

For all the progress we have made in recent years, with or without you at the helm, those pessimists/cynics who felt ashamed earlier, might well continue to feel so even now, or later too.

We cannot pronounce judgement on an entire nation's mentality, on the basis of a miniscule group of such critics and cynics.

There was also a more than obvious hint there inyour speech, which seems to suggest, that the (flawed sense of) shame went and was replaced by pride in being an Indian, almost as a direct after-effect of May 16, 2014: or after May 26, 2014 to be precise:
Dates when the election results were announced sweeping you to power with an unequivocal, absolute majority, and the day when you were officially sworn in as PM, respectively.


Sir, please do not doubt the patriotism, pride, and sentiments of all Indians, based on a handful of the kinds who exist everywhere, in every country.

Please do not assume that we (surely, the majority of Indians) were ever ashamed of our identity.
Just as any other country, we reveled and took (and will continue to take) pride in what we and our country achieved over the years.

The problem is not in the shame being felt by any individuals. The problem is in it being foisted as a national sentiment for everyone, and imposing your copyright on us now feeling an enhanced sense of self-esteem, thanks to this government and your leadership alone.

Please ensure that as you lead us, we, as a nation, become the pride of the world.
Everyone's self-pride will take care of itself.

Regards,
Just one of the forever-proud Indians