Hot on the heels…

of the earlier awards received, for this space, are a few more, shared by warm souls, in their generosity. This is going to be a smile splattered page 🙂 🙂

The ABC Blogger Award – from Soma 🙂
The Rules:
Go on and share and spread the joy around, as you tag and gift as many bloggers as you wish 🙂

Share something of yourself, in a word or two, for each letter of the English Alphabet 🙂 Else if you wish to try your own language, vernacular, you are welcome!

The 7X7 Link Award, from Soma and Tito 🙂

Tito had been also mentioned in the same list of awardees (Oh! how important that sounds :P!), and he has kindly passed it on to me, along with a few others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Genuine Blogger Award, gifted by Soma again 😛

 

 

 

One Lovely Blogger Award, From, who else, Soma!

Here’s my list of winners… all of you, infact, who come by, are free to carry it back to your blogs. Seriously 🙂 All the same I’d like to make a special mention or two 🙂 (Of course, there is always a catch 😛 😛 )

 

 

 

 

The ABC Blogger Award says you have to describe in a word or two, the first thing that comes to your mind, about you, when you think of the letter of the alphabet 🙂 Here goes;

A – aesthetically inclined as against academically 😀
B – Bossy?
C – Certified 😛
D – Dumb, but daring 😀
E – easily charmed 🙂
F – fiercely loyal
G- gooood gurl (Neeti 😛 ) – from My Fair Lady 🙂
H- Harps incessantly at car drivers who take women drivers for granted 😀
I – incredible? Lol.
J- Just
K- Keen, on most things
L – Lively, in class, at least 🙂
M – moody
N – nerdy
O – on overdrive, pun intended, most of the time 😛
P – perceptive
Q – queer, in the real sense of the word 😛 (now dont go getting ideas :D)
R – Raring to go… errrm … where did you say?
S – Sweet? Nah! Serious? More likely
T – Turbulent
U- unputdownable 😛
V – verbal massacre -er
W – weird
X –  now that is a trick letter – will follow Soma’s tactic – Xtra lenient during the final exams in corretions 😀
Y – yearns , a lot… 🙂
Z – Zany. Been wanting to use that word for ages 😛

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The Link 7 X 7 Awards ask you to link seven of your own blog posts you like. Only 7? Oh. Here goes: My seven.
Liminal
Pirouette
Sepia Dreams
Beyond Sepia Dreams
A Woman Extraordinaire
Job Description: Teacher. What’s that, you say?
I am Twenty-five 😀

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Awardees, please line up, in order please 🙂 🙂 😆

The list is exhaustive, from my favourite regularly visited blogs, to those I have discovered recently, and more importantly, those who found this space, “follow-worthy” and have done the deed of clicking “Follow”. Your patience has to be rewarded, even if you stopped just to look at the home page 🙂 🙂

Indyeah Am so darned happy to see her back! Sincere, bubbly and soulful… 🙂
Smitha – her book reviews, and her posts on parenting/education are really good
Shail – Shail’s Nest and her verse , Words in Verse, I haunt 🙂 Versatile, and awesome, all the way. I covet her Luci, and her writing skills 😀
Indian Homemaker – for all the reasons there are 🙂

Sashu
&
Soumya
Both bloggers I’ve grown with, though they’re my kids’ age, they’ve taught me so much about everything 🙂 My inspirations 🙂
Govind – wit, personified. Subtle, but rib tickling always! Wish you’d write more often!
Soma – a sensitive, beautiful soul, whose heart is on her page 🙂
Deeps – a place I love to visit!
Hitchy – poetry, to prose, to cricketing history, statistics and critiques…all there
Deboshree – prolific, and always there with a kind word
Pallavi – views, humour, a day’s tale, parenting… you have it all!
Bindu John – empathy for one in the same boat 🙂 Only she steers better, I have found 🙂
Meena – a blogger, writer, thinker who goes deep, in thought and expression
Ajith – or ordinary guy he calls himself… more than ordinary writing… lots of humour, stories and experiences shared!
Shilpa – Counting down for herself, the 1000 days to her 30th. She’s a high end achiever, a script writer, director, film-maker, amongst a whole host of other things 🙂 A former student, for whom I did not take class, but was highly inspired by… 🙂
Sunitha – yet another student from my class, a regular encourager of this space too 🙂 Writes lovely verse 🙂

Ladywhispers – Pssst, and your name is? Love the way you involve the words in your writing!
Arjun Sharma – A young, talented writer. The third sailor I know, named Arjun. The other two are here and here 😛
Ladynimue – loverrly verse there 🙂
Tito – a writer always on the go… who makes you think; and whose sharp wit  you always come back for 🙂
Leo – Met him through twitter 🙂 ( @startonomics) His share of the Homily given by his uncle, on the death of his friend, is worth reading. As are a lot of his other from-the-heart shares 🙂
Maryanne Pale – interesting blog, with much history on the ethnicity of the natives of the Pacific, between Australia and the American Continent.  And some lovely poetry!
PinsandAshes – A blog that is so alive 🙂
Jessica – of Authored Angioplasty (her blog). Exquisite poetry 🙂

All the awardees are to accept please, and go on and share the happiness 🙂 Spread the love and cheer, as Soma says 🙂

Phew. 2 days, and the hyperlinking, gosh. Clean takes a disc away from the spine 🙂

But I loved doing this. Congrats to all who have got the awards. And those who pass this way, if your name is not here, please consider this an invitation to pick any one, or all three off this blog, and add it to your own 🙂 Congrats to you all too, and thank you, for doing it 🙂
5 February, 2012

Added to the Mantelpiece are…

three more awards, from Shail Mohan, Bindu John and Soma Mukherjee. The versatile Blogger award,the Christmas award and the Candle Lighter Award! Congratulations to all the bloggers who have received the same, and my thanks, to each of you, Shail, Bindu and Soma, for considering this space worthy of the honour you bestow.

Shail, of the blog we all love so much, “Shail’s Nest”,  is a blogger par excellence, and the most deserving of the Versatile Blogger award, when one thinks of the excellent stories, essays, photoblogs, and moving poetry she pens. Versatility should have been her first name, and it most certainly is her second.

Bindu John is a blogger whom I met, virtually, only recently, but her writing and her concern for her students, for humanity, for the ways in which we could better ourselves, is clearly evident in all that she shares on her space “I Think So”.

Soma Mukherjee is yet another warm soul who happened to chance upon this post, on the other blog I ramble about in, A Quest, where I had strung together the poetic comments written in by Govind, and had replied there. On her blog, “Somkriya”, I have read a variety of poetry, stories and essays, and they have all assayed the sensitivity of an aritst, and of a mother, and above all the empathy that permeates and touches, through her writing.

It is indeed an honour to have been picked by these bloggers for the Versatile Blogger award (though I am a most infrequent blogger :D). Shail has also graciously conferred (:D) the Christmas blogger award too. Well there is time till next Christmas, so she reminds me, when she speaks of the “rules ” of receiving the award! And Soma has passed on the Candle Lighter Award!

Thank you Shail!

Thank you Soma Mukherjee 🙂

The rules then.

The Versatile Blogger Awardee has to…

1. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post. (Done it :D)
2. Share 7 things about oneself.
3. Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs you enjoy reading.
4. Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

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The Christmas Blogger Awardee has to… (copy pasted this from Shail’s Nest 😛 )

1. Nominate 10 fellow Bloggers

2. Inform the Bloggers of their nomination

3. Share 10 POSTS  you have enjoyed reading of ANY of your Blogger friends

4. Thank the Blogger who nominated you

5. Your Post should be PUBLISHED by 24th December 11 p.m (disclaimer, here, please note is that the year is not mentioned… Courtesy, Shail  😀  )

 ADD the Christmas Blogging Award picture to your Blog Post

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The Candle Lighter Awardee, well, has to enjoy it and pass it on in appreciation, is what I have been given to understand!

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The Seven Point Me 😀

#1 A ditherer. If there be such a condition. I should have been a Gemini or a Libra (who I am told cannot really decide once and for all! ), if one goes by that eccentricity I carry around.  😀

#2 Love plants, flowers, trees. Don’t, can’t garden, much I try and make an attempt. Some mental block, I think.

#3 Am a cat/dog/animal person. You’ll find out soon enough, how insanely I am that 😀

#4 And so, I am like a dog with a bone, on certain issues, and can be very stubborn 😛

#5 I hoard. I collect. What? Stuff. Almost everything from scraps of embroidery, paper on which something has been scribbled, pens… well, stuff. I am sure I should not continue… writing about them here, I mean!

#6 I’m a survivor. (*smiles mysteriously* 😀 )

#7 Promise you won’t laugh? Please? Pretty please? I am about to shatter my image with this one, but I have promised myself that I will be who I am, so … I enjoy reading all kinds of books, but have had a penchant for Mills and Boon, ever since college! So there! 😀

The common one is that we pick bloggers to whom we’d like to pass this on to, and here is my list of 15. (I decided to go by the maximum :D!)

I’d like to pass these Awards to the following bloggers, though they may have received it already from others 🙂

1. IHM (for all seasons, an inspiration beyond compare)
2. Soumya Sinha (poet, philosopher, and Oh! so young yet!)
3. Sashu (a dreamer she calls herself, an awesome poet too!)
4. Deboshree (earnest, and interesting, her views, her perspectives)
5. Govind (provides food for thought, and for laughter!)
6. Achyuth (a young blogger, who has a way with words!)
7. Tito (sharp sometimes, honest always 🙂 )
8. Shail ( 🙂 )
9. Bindu ( 🙂 )
10. Soma Mukherjee ( 🙂 )
11. Pallavi (always makes me smile, with her posts, her replies too!)
12. Deeps (engages you in a multitude of topics and thought! )
13. Dhiren aka Hitchy: Cricket fiend, and someone who can write on just about anything else too!
14. Shilpa Krishnan ( an extraordinarily talented ex student of Bhavan’s who  is blogging a post per day in “Chronicling the 1000 days before I hit 30 ). She’s already three quarters of the way there!)
15.  Trinath (Musings of a Wanderer, whose muse calls out to him, and he writes beautiful poetry)

I have to also mention 10 blog posts of ANY blogger that I have enjoyed reading. So, offhand, here goes:

Tito’s :  http://indianthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/2011-bloody-awesome/
Hitchy’s poem: http://hitchwriter.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/the-flame-still-flickers/
Soma’s : http://somkritya.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/autism-is/
Bindu’s : http://bindujohnroy.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/stop-cooking-for-heavens-sake/
Shail’s : http://shailsnest.com/2012/01/03/tigers-threaten-suicide/
Govind’s: http://satmuse.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/lesson/
Sashu’s : http://adorablesashu.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/moon-kissed-this-love
Deboshree’s : http://paneerandpulao.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/year-end-laziness-topped-with-mustard-sauce-meow/
Soumya’s: http://jstfrndb4u.blogspot.com/2011/06/days-tale.html
IHM ‘s : http://indianhomemaker.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/so-how-did-you-begin-your-new-year/

Phew!! I wish you all well, and hope that you will read the posts shared above. They are a delightful mix of poetry, of pictures that speak, of the sharing of self, and of a blogger’s Dharma… Thou shalt keep writing, because thou dost it well 🙂 🙂

8 January, 2012

Commodore Vijay K. Pisharody, Nao Sena (नव सेना) Medal

Commodore Vijay Kumar Pisharody, IN, Nao Sena Medal

 

Here it goes, an ode to you,

For another capped feather, all anew.

In 2011, the Republic Day,

You made us proud in every way.

Once again you’ve proved your mettle,

To  adorn  your chest, you’ve  earned the Nao Sena Medal.

The honour bestowed… much deserved,

More laurels for you are surely reserved.

In the years ahead, as you go the length,

May you sail from strength to strength.

(written by Captain Vinod Kumar Pisharody, my younger brother 🙂 )

(Alert 🙂 Long Post… but I hope you will stay with it 🙂 )

That is my elder brother. The brightest star, on our horizons. The one with the Professional Acumen (my FB’s words!). Genius. Integrity. Dedication. Sheer presence of mind. Great bulldozing tactics 😆 (well you need that you see, when you command men 🙂 ). Yoga fiend. Health freak. No-nonsense. Huge Hindi Film Fan. Mohanlal too :D. Great fun.

He’s got what it takes, and has done what needed to be done. Not many do both. And for Devotion to Duty, he has been awarded the Naosena Medal, NM as it is referred to. I cannot of course, stop here. 🙂 That would be sheer injustice to the subject, the blog and the eccentric rambler, who cannot act out of sync with her image now, can she? Lol!

A word on the Medals and Awards given to Defence Personnel, and announced on the eve of Republic Day, each year. This year’s awards can be viewed here, on the Press Information Bureau’s Website. (Select 25 Jan 2011, as the date on the left sidebar, and you will notice a link further down , 440 Republic Day Gallantry and other Defence Decorations Announced – (This year we were pleasantly and awesomely (!!!) surprised to hear one of us being named as an awardee. The actual ceremony takes place later, in May I am told. And is telecast live on Doordarshan 🙂 Will post an update on that as soon as I know)

Medals are given for Devotion to Duty or for Gallantry. The Ashok Chakra, the Kirti Chakra, the Param Vir Chakra, the Vir Chakra, the Shaurya Chakra are all gallantry awards of the Highest Order. Next come the Sena Medals, the Sena (Army), the Vayu Sena Medal (Air Force) and the Nao Sena (नव सेना) Medal (Navy) which can be either for Gallantry or for Devotion to Duty. The PVSM (Param Vishisht Seva Medal ) and the VSM (Vishsist Seva Medal) follow. Each with its due credit and importance.

My father is a VSM recipient, having been awarded in 1970, when he was involved with setting up the communications network for the Naval Airport in Goa. (Trivia: My younger brother is a Naval pilot –have mentioned him here – who is stationed there, President,  AIRCATS –  Aircrew Categorization and Inspection!). He, my father, ie, retired as a Commander, having worked his way up from the ranks. Sheer hard work and dedication. As my younger brother remarked, first my elder brother outranked him, when he became a Captain, and now a Commodore, and now he has out medalled him as well, with an NM- a Nao Sena Medal!

Viju, as I call him, Pisha as he is known to his coursemates (Common Name for both my younger brother, (and me while in school) 😀 ), and Pisha Sir as he is known to the others others… :), is someone you might say is… (*hunting desperately for a word, and failing to find any*) an allrounder. It’s cricket season, and he loves cricket, plays very well, so let us use that metaphor for now. You’ll understand what I mean as we go on 🙂

Born at the height of the ascending of the Sun (മേടം രാശി, സൂര്യന്‍ ഉച്ചത്തില്‍ medam raashi,sooryan uchchathil), during the Uttarayana, in the Malayalam month of medam (Aries, by the Western Zodiac – a perfect offspring of the sign 🙂 ), on the monrning of Vishu, the new year, that year, in 1962, his planetary positions, according to my mother, were near perfect! That is not to say that all he has achieved is because of them. This is to say that even that had fallen in line 🙂 The perspective is that it could not be otherwise 🙂

As a young boisterous laddie, in Delhi, he managed his first FEAT. Twice in a row, around the same date, consecutive year, he fractured his right arm, between his wrist and elbow. Once, it was while trying to climb a pole that some of us, me and few other children were instructed to hold. We, being awed, and being us, 😆 let go, in sheer admiration, (the pole, ie), and he took a gentle tumble, fracturing his right arm. The next year, same time, he was showing us how to dive off the bed. Bingo. His arm was fractured again. And would you believe the coincidence? Same place, bone, and spot! He lived to tell the tale, swing some mean shots, on the Cricket field, Captain the NDA team, and sail in regattas. Unputdownable. That says it all.

This young man in school,  Balwinds Boys’ High School, Bangalore, was consistent. Topper in class. Consistent. On the sports field, in the swimming pool, always there, always bringing back medals. It was sometimes difficult for me, the ham of the sandwich (errm, I have an equally competent and brilliant younger brother! 😛), to live it down. The green eyed monster kept rising to the surface. Then I learnt to deal with it, hatke! I just decided not to conform, and a rebel was born. Ah! but I digress. This one is for the First Born. Viju.  🙂

In the eleventh standard, he found his calling. Well, I was not so sure then.  (I told him he was training his head – that should be engaged in doing complex stuff at IIT- to be an enemy’s target!!! 😛 ). But now, in hindsight, the bigger picture unfolds. There is something called destiny. You do not realize it in proximity. It is always the distance that leads one to focus on what counted, and what still counts 🙂

At that time, he was a member of the Karnataka State U-19 team, that returned home, runners-up! He maintained a demonic schedule, even way back then. Early morning, cricket camp, back home, school, back home, studies, and play, and back all over again! And then, he was selected to train at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. The year was 1979. He had decided to join the Indian Navy, just like his father, Cdr. U. K. Pisharody, VSM. My dad too… :P!

The rest as they say, is History! 😀 But I must share a few moments from that 🙂 In the NDA, he was an Eagle, ie he was in Echo Squadron, (my younger brother and my first born also went there. All belonged to different squadrons- Vinu, my brother was Bravo-Alpha-Bravo,  and Arjun was Alpha then India ), and to be certain, he did fly very high. He was Captain of the Cricket Team (they called him the Kapil Dev of the Academy 😛),and his exemplary performance got him a Cricket Blue – an honour given to remarkable and gifted and consistently high achievers of a particular field. The blazer that is given is proudly preserved even now. As is the yearbook of the Academy of that time.

>>Fast Forward a few years. He was commissioned as an Officer of the Indian Navy in 1983, and served in various establishments, and ships. In due course there are very many more feathers he has donned on his well deserved cap. After his Long Course/ Specialization in Logistics, he has done courses at the IIM, Kozhikode, Defence Management at the premier institute, College of Defence Management, in Hyderabad. He was part of an Inter-Services team that went to the United States of America and Canada to attend an International Supply Officers Course in 2006. One thing I remember him telling us on his return was about the ocean currents off Nova Scotia, Halifax, that we had learnt about. The warm current and the cold current and their mingling creating rich sea life. It stands out, because he mentioned that it was fascinating to see, for real, something that is abstract for us, in a Geography text book. I concur entirely! Even I was fascinated by his description!

One of his stints was at his Alma Mater, the NDA. Newly married, in 1988, he took up the duties of a Divisional Officer, of the Alpha Squadron. At that time, my younger brother was in the NDA, in the self same squadron, that his elder brother was in charge of. Poor chap, Vinu (the younger one), he had to move out to Bravo Squadron! (And that made it a Bravo – Alpha – Bravo shift for my younger brother, as he was first assigned Bravo, then shifted to Alpha to even out numbers of their course, then back to Bravo, when the elder brother arrived on the scene 🙂 )

There is yet another interesting tidbit : The first ship he served on was the INS Mysore (the erstwhile), which incidentally, was the last ship my father had served on! INS Mysore has since been decommissioned and now we have a new ship that goes by the same nomenclature. I have always wondered at this coincidence, and found it a fitting event 🙂

He also served on other ships the INS Deepak, INS Taragiri, INS Mysore (the new one), and in  Materials Organization, Mumbai and Vishakapatnam.

A brilliant technicolour feather in his cap is his tenure as the Station Commander, or what they call Commanding Officer, of the renowned Logistics and Management Training Establishment, in Mumbai, known as INS Hamla .  He served almost two years, from 2008 to 2010,  in this capacity, bringing a sea change (pun intended!!!) in both the training and day to day running of the establishment. My son happened to be there, for a brief course, while his uncle was the CO 🙂 He speaks of the awe in which the others held the CO, and the fact that he was called a terror. All of which, instead of putting Viju off, merely added to his pleasure 🙂 🙂 Likewise his sister and brother. We are all honoured to be known as terrors in their own fields 😆 !!!

Presently, he’s a hotshot :D! The Principal Director, Procurement, Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy), in Delhi. There is much more to add, but due to constraints of your time and energy, 😆 , I shall spare you that!

1798. Word Count ie. Time to stop. Not before congratulating my brother, and his wonderful family, his wife, Anuradha, his children Archana, and Arun, along with my parents… and wishing we have a re run of the joy when the younger one (Captain Vinod Kumar Pisharody) also brings in his dues 🙂 Or rather, the Navy recognizes a long overdue duty they need to do, to him :). For now, we’re celebrating a rare honour, and basking in the reflected glory 🙂 🙂 !

25 February, 2011

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The Constitutional Support of and for India!

In anticipation of Republic Day tomorrow, here are a few thoughts, and more rambling, this time on the Constitution of India. Indian Home Maker had the invitation held out, to join in, to do this as a sort of Tag.. 🙂 So here it is, my few paise on it. 🙂

[Click on the picture to go the Wiki page]

In the CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

The Preamble states:

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST` SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation; IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

[Sourced from Wikipaedia]

Therein, above, enshrined lies the precious lifeline of a Secular Republic. But how many of us, this day, 60 years on, from its having been the guardian of a Nation’s Being, give it more than a cursory glance, or a thought, for that matter, except on Republic Day, or perhaps while reading/teaching from an NCERT / SCERT /CBSE text book?

When IHM asked if I could join hands, [I like that idea :)], in writing about the Constitution of India, for Republic Day, there was both excitement, and anxiety within. Excitement at the thought of it, and anxiety at the reality, where I know of it, but little about it. But let me do it the way I best can. Ramble. I promise, however, to stick to the topic 🙂

The Constitution of India, the largest easily in volume, as this link to Wikipaedia will tell you, in exact numbers, is our safety net, securing the Nation, and delivering upon Promises when troubled citizens knock upon the doors of the Judiciary, and Justice is done. No, I am not familiar with any individual case studies, in this context, and shall not flatten my face further, in the pancake of ignorance I have spread before myself. 🙂

But I do know enough to be Proud of the Constitution of India! Yes, indeed. Not for its record breaking volume, but for its Creator and its Content. Of course he did not do it single-handedly, but he did lead the team that did! I truly hate referring to caste, religion and class, but I am darned proud that this document of the highest order, of greatest reverence, worthy of high honour has been written by a man whose caste is that which learned men of yore called Dalit. The Untouchable.

Dr B. R. Ambedkar

How much of an irony, and at the same time, how much of an achievement is it, truly, to give the land where discrimination flourished (and sadly, sometimes, still does) The Constitution! That is why I am proud. But at the same time, discovering that Dr Ambedkar later converted to Buddhism, and was denied being cremated at the Dadar Crematorium because of Caste notions, delivered a more crushing irony.

Onward to the Preamble. The pillars of the Nation’s true and secular, socialism are its core values of Liberty, Justice, Equality, Fraternity.. all of which have been simply and easily conveyed there. Tell me of another nation, more diverse, another more brilliant in its tapestry, in its intricate mosaic of a multiplicity of language, culture, peoples and religion! Where each is promised and given his/her due.

A Constitution to hold this teeming, sometimes seething, brilliance of diversity has to be one of Strength. It is.

This I know.

The Constitution gives, it provides

• Women an equal share in their father’s property, all women in India!
• Children , the right to be educated
• A citizen the right to voice his opinion, practice his religion, settle anywhere in India!
• Guidelines by way of Duties, Directive Principles…

And so this Republic Day, I thank God I am an Indian!

But I worry.
Has our Constitution become a mere paperweight?
Has it become a white elephant? [I read on a comment, in one of the blogs that India has 3 epics, the Ramayana, the Mahabharatha, and the Constitution!]
Has it become a document to practice editing, to suit one’s conveniences?

There have been several Amendments, some during the infamous Emergency period of the seventies, and later to accommodate Reservations.

I know the values of Equality and Justice and Fraternity are yet to be realized fully. Which is why reservations are needed. And yet who benefits these reservations? In the limited scope of my knowledge, during and after Admissions to Professional Colleges, the underprivileged castes who do get that seat, or those seats, are never economically backward, and in a sheer twist of fate the impoverished upper castes now pay for their ancestors sins of having been the Oppressor. I find poetic justice here, but not a solution to the problem. Can the Constitution not be amended to include those in dire need of reservation, the economically backward alone? And not any other consideration? This has been a desperate thought within for a long time now.

However, all said and done, I am glad I am here, this day, enjoying that Freedom my country has been led to, especially with this wonderful Constitution.

Disclaimer: All opinions shared here, are mine and mine alone; all the ignorance displayed here may please be excused and forgiven. Thank you 🙂

***

An Honour bestowed by Balvinder Sir

May I take this opportunity to share on this space proudly a Blogger Award, an honour bestowed by Balvinder Singh, this Republic Day? Honoured and Humbled by this generosity.

[Click on the picture]

The Citation

On the eve of the Republic Day of our country, i take this opportunity to present this award to my blogger friends who have made a difference by writing their frank opinions in their blogs as well, as in the comment columns of other blogs. These bloggers have not written any sensational or luscious stories to attract traffic to their blogs, but they have put down in prose as well, as verse, whatever they have felt strongly about, may it be about their personal lives or about a burning issue of the society. The sole purpose of their writing has been to make a difference. I wish that their ideas may fructify and bring a change in the society for better. I salute them all.

***

Thank you, Balvinder Sir, for all the care, the thought, and the simple generosity of wanting to create something like this, and for sharing it with us. Indebted.

25 January, 2008

Warmest of greetings on the Occasion of Republic Day, to everyone. Be proud to be an INDIAN!!!

A Republic Day Honour :)

In the tricolour of the Nation
Is borne the strength of a peoples

The sanctity of a saffron spirit
Seeking to express the divine within
Soliciting care, and depth of experience
Protector of a benediction of Heritage divine!

The Purity of white, that sees all!
That carries a universe of hues
That reflects the purity back
From whence it pours, on a land welcoming!

The fecundity of a green, ever fresh
In the prolific innovation,
In the creative renewal
In minds, souls and hearts, ever warm!

On a day such as this
When the land rejoices a birth
A coming of Age, once more
Let me too join, with a flight
Of the Tricolour, dreaming dreams
For my Land, hoping hopes
To ever shine, and be uplifting.

For, as with a Nation, it is
A day to celebrate, a treasure
A gift, of warmth, of appreciation
Of Honour, most high!

And this is in Thanks to the spirit
And creativity of Balvinder Singh
Who designed and awarded this
Beautiful motif;
Indebted Sir, and much more than that
Glad that in someway one shares
A common platform where perspectives
Meet, mingle, find acceptance and Grow!

Thank you Sir!

Salutes!

25 January, 2009

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The Citation

On the eve of the Republic Day of our country, i take this opportunity to present this award to my blogger friends who have made a difference by writing their frank opinions in their blogs as well, as in the comment columns of other blogs. These bloggers have not written any sensational or luscious stories to attract traffic to their blogs, but they have put down in prose as well, as verse, whatever they have felt strongly about, may it be about their personal lives or about a burning issue of the society. The sole purpose of their writing has been to make a difference. I wish that their ideas may fructify and bring a change in the society for better. I salute them all.

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Salutes to you too Sir!