Meet Aniruddh

I risk sounding judgmental, at large, bizarre here, but that won’t be able to stop me from airing my voice. For last one decade, I’ve been completely irritated on an absurd phenomenon creeping into our so-called ‘classy’ class’ minds. I name this phenomenon as ‘holier-isolation’.

To put it in simple words, I take the case of few exceptional ‘Indians’. What about those Indians who always suffer from a colonial hangover? I mean, I’ve met and fought with many Indians, residing abroad, who visit India and at every point of their conversations, try to deny any Indianness in them. They’ll go on saying, how ‘Indian mentality’ sucks, how our societal framework is callous, how our leaders are corrupt, how our future is bleak, how ignorant we’re about the ‘real’ happening world and so on!! While talking to them, many ‘wanna-be’ Indians nod their heads and would say, “Sahi hai yaar… hamare yahan toh kuch nehin hone walla hai!!”

So basically, those NRIs are just not Indians while they are in India. Fare enough! But my question is – what changes when they’re abroad? Why, every time, they face any problem abroad, they take the shelter of ‘Indian’ identity? When an Indian student, studying in any 3^rd grade university of the US, UK or Australia comes to India, he just can’t pronounce English in Indian way!!! Many of them pretend that they’ve forgotten Hindi and stamp it as, “Sorry dude, am grossly out-a-touch o’ the Indzian ways, you know!” Cool enough!

But when the same student faces racist attack in Australia, he keeps crying out his ‘Indian-victimhood’.

An Indian will eagerly, if not happily, wash dishes or clean floors in food joints abroad, but India, he/she just go mad of the domestic help, at the drop of the hat!

An Indian will eagerly, if not happily, drive a cab abroad, but in India, he just can’t stand our transportation system!

And Indian girl will go for a strict 9am-11am study-work regime abroad, but in India, she just can’t wake up before 12.

And Indian would eagerly, if not happily, start running every time he/she spots an immigration officer, but in India, he/she will not even bother to wear seatbelt or hell mate!

Personally, I just can’t stand these jerks. I’m proud of my country and this Indian identity. Yes, we’ve many problems, far too many than many other countries. Many of such problems frustrate me to the core, but nevertheless, they never pose a question mark before my love for this country or for everything that is Indian.

I don’t know whether you guys will agree with me, but I request you not to value anyone, however Indian his/her surname is, if that person doesn’t value our (as a matter of fact, his/her) country! And I hate it when Indian newspapers go gaga about any NRI doing great in life abroad. I mean, give me a break. One day, I read all the newspapers saying – TIME magazine says, “Dr. Manmohan Singh has changed the lives of millions in India.” So? Big deal? We know who Dr. Singh is and what his qualities are. We value him in our way. Why do we have to so excited about TIME uttering the words which are already proven a zillion times in India itself? Funny how anything foreign is so sexy to us!!! Typical colonial hangover! 

The latest case in point is Mr. Amartya Sen, who feels ‘sad’ being called an ‘Asian’ on international ground. Ahan, and we value the same Sen-babu as Indian treasure! Is that why we’ve got a headline today which says – “I feel at home when I’m in India – Hillary Clinton” ???! Think about it!

Guys, think about it, in the history of civilizations, we’ll never be able to take FILMFARE to bigger height if Oscar is all we care about! We’ll never be able to make Bharat-Ratna the biggest achievement if Nobel is our limit. We’ll never be able to make National Games the biggest if Olympics is all that we get awed at!

I’m not saying, India is ready to create such History now. But no country gets it on the platter. Everyone earns it. So will we, provided we set out minds on the right track! If the US could do what it has done, if Australia could become what it is now and in Japan could be what it has become, then we could be what we already WERE – the glorious, the oldest, the grandest, the greatest civilization – India!!! Look back in the past, shape the present, future will be ours. But it all starts with the right mind-set!  

Let’s not corrupt our minds in colonial hangover… let’s believe in India and let’s believe in ourselves! Jai Hind!            

Yes, I religiously hate this lady. I mean, she is the only person who kills almost all of my Sunday pleasures. Her irritating, baseless, ego-centric and illiterate columns, published on every Sunday Times of India, as POLITICALLY INCORRECT, are garbage at its best! Just read on few of titles of her columns –

Political babes in the woods 

The 'new' desi girl is here, don't mess with her

Bollywood bachao!

Mind your lingo

Taslima, go home

All these columns are full of ego-centric blabbering of a perfect wanna-be Ex-page-3 loser! I fell and believe, her sole aim is to pick up any one of the happening personalities, who gets any kind of highlight by media, and bash that person with typical Shobhaa De venom. If these stupid and irritating titles weren’t enough, dare to read any of her columns; I assure, once you’re done reading one (which itself is a difficult task), you’ll be left with a peculiar sense of guilt in your mind, fueled by one question – ‘Was I really out of my mind that I decided to read her?’

This week, she broke all her records and went on comparing the Union Budget presented by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, with none other than the baseless Kambakth Ishq. In the whole article, she didn’t utter a word about the merit or demerit of the budget and its plans (that didn’t surprise me given the ocean of knowledge that she has). The entire article was on Pranab Mukherjee’s pronunciation-error. No wonder, she finds Mr. P Chidambaram as the ‘sexiest man in India’!!! 

Starting from her comments on Jhumpa Lahiri, Taslima Nasrin, Saurav Ganguly, MS Dhoni till her nonsensical blabbering on terror attacks in India – she has proved it again and again, that she is absolute embodiment of a good-for-nothing jealous figure.

If Times group really cares about its readers and their opinion (if not its own money), it should immediately cancel the contract with Mrs. De. It’s a national embarrassment to see that stupid lady sharing the same page with great columnists like Swami Ankleshwar Iyer and Swapan Dasgupta. She was at her best as an editor of Stardust. Someone please ask her to blow her dust there. She is a woman who can teach only one lesson to Indian Women - ‘What Women Should Not Be Like’!!!   

What is it that you can do, if

I take away the little-left life? If

I stand defeated in the mirror, if

I shut my door to myself…

What is it that you can do?

What is it that you can say, if

I scream out loud? If

I ask them to stay away, or if

I choose to be silent…

What is it that you can feel?

What is it that you have ever done, to

Ease the chocking breath? To

Palm my forehead burning in fever, to

Speak the hidden lies out?

What is it that you have ever done?

So, stay away you, stay away, when

I say it’s over, when

I say I don’t need your cover, when

I push you away… so far away…

So, stay away you… just stay away.

I’m talking to you

Yes, I’m talking to you!