Kashmir - Let's not get Biased !!

I am fed up of reading about Kashmir issue every now and then. I have read a number of articles on the same. Some of them were justifying the killing of Burhan Wani and ridiculing the gather of Kashmiri people for his funeral. On the other hand, some of them were supporting the Kashmiri protesters and thrashing the killing of protesters on the hand of security personnel. In addition, there were few articles giving a balanced view towards the whole incident explaining the mindset of both the parties. Alonwith all these I found articles explaining the history of Kashmir in their own words; again some of them supporting the protests and others spilling the bitterness towards the protesters.

After reading numerous of such articles on internet, I can assure, here, I won't be writing anything like that. Why so? Because I am not interested in learning about the past. I believe whatever the past was, it has past. I don't believe in living in the past, however, I believe in present and want to focus on future. That's exactly what I am going to write over here.

Honestly, being an Indian, I support India and its security forces. I support them wholeheartedly and I do back them on whatever they're doing for this country but I am not able to overlook the sufferings of Kashmiri protesters. All those 40+ people were human beings who died leaving their families to grieve behind them. Thousands of other human beings are injured, a lot of them are losing their eyesight. And I wonder what will happen to them when all these protests will end. Maybe the government provide them with monetary compensations but will that ever be sufficient? Whatever they'll lose now, will they ever be able to gain it back through any sort of compensation? The answer is NO. Thus I wonder what these people are actually thinking while spoiling their lives for stupid reasons. Don't they know that we live only once and we have numerous things to do in this small amount of time.

I can debate on it for long hours but that's not the reason I am writing this blog. I just had one question in my mind for everyone out there and I want to ask that to everyone who is commenting on the issue, giving their valuable suggestions, advices and comments. Actually, I am incapable of understanding their views on this sensitive issue. I believe noone can comment on something unless they have actually faced the same situation. Just by listening or viewing they can't comment and if they're commenting then why they're getting biased. I think I need to elaborate myself in order to get a proper answer.

First of all, (I Don't believe it but) suppose whatever the Kashmiri people are telling us about the harsh realities of Indian Army is true. These harsh realities include several incidents where Indian Army is beating innocent Kashmiri people and youths, raping women, killing innocent lives, so on. Let us agree to this that all these things are happening in Kashmir in a full force. These incidents also include the incident that served as a catalyst for the Burhan Wani and he became a militant. What happened afterwards is Burhan Wani started killing security personals. I agree that Burhan was a youth but do you know the people he killed. Were those people really aged? Didn't they left their families behind themselves for grieving? If your heart pains for Burhan, it should pain for others too. Why? Let me tell you that too. You say Burhan has suffered in the hands of security forces and thus you justify him. Then you should be able to justify the security personnels too because they are also suffering. A number of security persons have lost their lives due to acts done by these militants. A lot of them were the sole bread earners, a lot of them had left their children and families to suffer. The security persons fight without even thinking about themselves or their families and if badly hurt, they lose their jobs too. So it's quite justifiable.

There is also a section of people who do not justify the suffering of Kashmiri people who are violating laws and thus, get injured. For all such people I want to say that you should also be crying for the sufferings of Indian security forces. In short, you should be crying for both the parties or not crying at all. Why are you biasing for just one party? If you feel pain for Indian Army, you should feel pain for Kashmiris too and vice versa. However, I do agree that Kashmiris are actually violating laws and that's why they are getting hurt, but again there is something that is bothering me. Does Indian Government think that hurting Kashmiris badly will solve the problem? I don't think so, because they already have a lot of hatred for the country and by hurting them so badly, that hatred will only be multiplying. All this just seem like a deadlock situation where there is circle of hurting each other. Kashmiris will hurt security forces by pelting stones and then security forces will hurt them through pellet guns.

At last, I am just worried where are we heading to? What's the solution? The situation is worsening only. Even if after few days the situation will seem normal but families of all those who got hurt during these days will only be becoming other Burhans. And whenever a time will come for another protest, they will do it again and that too with much more hatred. I genuinely want to request everyone to stop commenting or biasing or encouraging one of the party. Instead, please put your brains into it and try to learn the main cause and try to resolve it. This is a humble request to everyone including Indian Government, Kashmiri protesters, Kashmiri separatist leaders, all citizens and journalists. Please try to resolve the issue once and for all and clear this deadlock. On my part, I am trying to learn as much as I can and hoping the future will be better than the present for J&K. Please help or at least pray for the same.

RIP Asgar

What a horrible day it was; the day started with a horrible news about the demise of one of my dearest friend Asgar. I woke up early in the morning only to read this heartbreaking news that shook me up completely. It was a screenshot of fb post; I couldn't believe my eyes what I have read. I logged in to fb, read the posts and comments on his timeline. Still I couldn't believe my eyes, I was not able to understand anything. So I messaged everyone I could to read all that I have just read. I wanted someone to tell me that I'm stupid; that none of this is true; that its mere a horrible joke.

Soon the chaos started; everyone was talking about it but no one wanted to believe this. Everyone was asking others to read it again, to confirm the news. Everyone was hoping it to be a joke and waiting in anticipation for someone to tell them that everything's fine; he is fine. No one was able to believe their eyes. Everyone was shocked. Everyone was hoping for him to come online and say stop all this nonsense, I'm here.

I was already crying but hoping for someone to prove me wrong. Suddenly then the news for confirmation arrived, a confirmation no one was ready to accept, a confirmation that everyone wanted to deny but no one can; it was on the news. It was true, we had lost our humble friend. It was so painful to read about this, to see his smiling face in the news. He was really no more with us. He drowned in the Lidder river. It was a sudden, on-the-spot death. We all were mourning by then.

I still couldn't believe my eyes. I wanted all this to be a horrible dream. The thought of not being able to see his face again drenched me into immense pain. He was such a nice person. He was a helping hand for everyone. He was noble, kind and gentle man and a very good friend. He was indeed an awesome friend and I am so lucky that I got chance to be friends with him.

Although we didn't share the same mindset, he never let that come in between our friendship. However I- I am unkind and a horrible friend. Yes I want to confess this, I haven't been good to him always. It's been a long time since I had a conversation with him. I didn't even had his new number. The reason being his thoughts were anti- for mine. I avoided him because he had a different mindset and a different viewpoint than me. I should be ashamed now, he was the one who never let these things come in between us and I chose my viewpoint over his pure friendship. I am sorry Asgar, I am very sorry. And I know I can't do anything about it now but I was feeling so small in front of you and I wanted to apologize to you. I am really sorry and I am saying this from the bottom of my heart. You were a true friend and no one can fill the void that has been created by your demise.

Everyone has mourned him in their own way and this was my way. RIP Asgar. You will be missed forever. Who's gonna call me Sonu now :'(

Someone I used to know...

A fun-loving guy in my office, my junior in fact - quite bubbly, always finding shortcuts, saying "kya fark padta h mam kaam to ho gya na". These are one of lovely memories I have of my office. My office; it brings a lot of memories however I want to focus on the particular ones related to the one I'm talking about.

Dishant - what should I say about him. He is a jolly person but a typical Delhiite, anyone can tell that. I still remember I met him for the first time on his first day of our office. I gave him a little training regarding the work he would be assigned to. And I must say he had so much to ask. I wonder either I am not able to explain everything completely or it's just his habit. But whatever it was, at least I knew how much he understood so I guess that's a good thing; right?

As the time passed by, I found out he was starting his career and thus, giving his cent percent. He lived quite far from the office and it used to take near 2 hrs for him to reach home. Still, he used to sit late in the office to share the workload. Because of his talkative nature, we soon became good friends and I always used to teach him that office is not everything. You should do work but don't give up your everything for it. And I used to always quote that common saying "The Company was working before you and it will work even after you. So don't stop living your life for it." I always used to explain him how he should find a job nearby his place and dedicate himself over there. But he never listened.

And then came a shock, he was called in to inform that he was not needed by the Company anymore. In spite of all his efforts and dedications, he was asked to resign from his position. I was upset, very upset. He was a quick-learner everyone can tell that. He had a laid-back attitude but still he used to finish all the tasks assigned to him on time. He used to share the workload equally, no matter how much he got suffered because of this. His dedication din't paid off, that was hurting me a lot. I tried to sort out the situation but I messed it up even more. And then it was final, he had to leave anyway after serving a notice period of one month.

His one month notice period was the time when we actually became good friends. I came to know a lot about his life, the seriousness in him hidden behind his jolly nature. He expressed all his good and bad time experiences. At that time, I had a cold war with one of my friends and he always used to encourage me to amend my relationships giving me lectures on friendship. He was the only one forcing me again and again to take proper breaks during office hours. He kinda used to drag me to the cafeteria with him.

I knew I'm gonna miss him and I actually did. It was nice to work with him. It was pleasure to be his mentor even for few days. He says I taught him a lot but I don't know, I think he is the one who taught me. He taught me to be funny even under enormous pressure. He taught me to be dedicated at any cost; to do anything for the things I want to achieve in my life. I know we're on parted ways but I also know that we'll be in touch forever. God Bless him and impart him the success he deserves.

I have so many things and so many memories to share but that will convert this blog into a mini book. It's better to stop myself here and conclude this Blog. At last I just want to thank him, Thanks a lot. Thank you for being so much patient and dedicated which resulted into the completion of this blog. It would have not been possible without you. Thank you ;)

Its Time for Change

Its been couple of days since Pakistan is violating ceasefire along the International Border in the state of J&K. Although ceasefire violation by Pak is a normal routine, this time the situation has intensified. This is because Pak is targeting the civilian population this time. A lot of people have lost their family members, their houses are damaged by the Pak bomb shelling, and their cattles (on whom their life depends) have been killed by the Pak firing.

The present situation is that Pak is firing along 150 villages and 70 BSF posts. People are migrating from these tense areas to the rehabilitation centres at safer places. At some places, a virtual war like situation has prevailed, in fact the situation this time is even worse than the war times. Various people died and a lot more have been injured till now. There has been a massive destruction of houses and other structures in the border villages.

Its really commendable that Indian Army is retaliating with full force. And this is happening for the very first time in the past 10 years. But what makes me tense is the situation is still intensifying. The retaliation is not solving the purpose, people are dying, they are losing and that's too in both the countries. Pakistan is just increasing the level of its shameless acts. So I can clearly say that its not the right solution.

I just read today two women of same family died in a village during the shelling. But the worst thing is that they cant be cremated now because all their family members are injured and admitted to the hospital. Besides this news, I read a statement made by our PM Narendra Modi that "Everything will be fine soon." Although I admire him a lot and I know he can't change the mindset of Pak Army but I really want to ask..."Is it so?" Is it possible that everything will be fine. Maybe it'll for the rest of the world but what about the people who have lost their family members, their sources of income (cattles) and their houses - what they have lost is lost forever. The loss can never be amended.

No matter how much relief material the Government will provide, their life is effected to a greater extent. Wars always does this harm. Wars always let people suffer and these people have witnessed many. The memories of 1971 and 1999 Kargil War is still fresh in their memories as they had lost their homes even then too. People of these villages have suffered even at that time. They've just started to explore their lives again but now this.

So I just wanted to ask both the countries why and until when they'll be like this. Its the time that both should understand that Wars can only destroy them. It will not give anything except bitter memories. And in fact, we can't even let go of this issue. We have to solve it with mutual understanding but have to do that once and for all. If they still have some doubt in their mind, they should ask their respective Army how much they're gaining from all of this. And I hope they'll understand that they're gaining nothing but losing everything.

Fighting with myself

A scene at home feeling sad and fighting with myself:

Me (getting anxious): "Its been more than 36hrs since I have talked to him. I cant live like this anymore."
Inner voice: "Stop this non-sense and focus on your task. You have to do this to be strong and fight for him."

Me: "But I can talk to him once."
Inner voice: "No stupid. You have to fight first, you have to talk to your parents and get an answer for him. Only then you should talk to him."

Me (looking at my cousin and thinking): "OK. BUT what is she doing here since day before yesterday? She should have come here few days earlier or few days later. Why she had chosen this time? Otherwise I would be having a discussion right now."
Inner voice: "Not again stupid! You have an exam tomorrow morning. Doesn't matter she is here or not, you should be studying right now."

Me (making faces) switching on my laptop, trying to search what I need to study at this moment. As usual, first of all opening my emails and thinking of him.
Me: "I can at least ping him to ask how is he doing and tell him that I miss him."
Inner voice: "Just shut up now. You're giving me a headache. Focus on your exam and study you fool."

Me (again making faces) reading few topics for my exams and listening to songs to focus myself.
Cousin: "Hey di, what are u doing? What are you studying?"
Me (thinking): "Doesn't matter she is here, I have to study, I can't talk about him at present."
Me (talking to her): "I have an exam tomorrow morning, so I am preparing for that and side-by-side listening to songs on Youtube."

She (looking in my books): "What is this? What is it related to?"
Me: Its Aptitude and I am studying few new shortcuts to ease my calculations in the exam."

Inner voice: "Explain her fast and get yourself indulge in the studies. You don't have much time."
Me (thinking): "I hope I could have talked to him, I would have felt better and energized for the exam."

She: "What is your syllabus? What you have to study for your exam?"
Me: "Dear, the syllabus is easy but its level is high which makes it difficult. I have five sections, 200 questions and 120 minutes. This is an another factor that creates difficulty."

She: "OK, I can understand. You carry on and All the Best."
Me (smiling at her and thinking): "May be I could have said him to wish me luck as that matters for me the most."

Me again reading the topic I was reading and searching for few more topics to read. But still somewhere waiting to talk to him.

Me (thinking): "How I am gonna talk about him? What will I say to Mom? Is there any hope?"
***Sighs***
Me (thinking): "So I should be readying my weapons for the war as I am gonna have a fight for him on Monday if my cousin would have gone by then. By the way, How will I start?"
Inner voice: "Jerk, stop this otherwise you'll loose this chance. You know this is a very important exam as it will let you be in Jammu and you can be with him. So if you really love him and want to be with him, focus on your exam today and after that give your best."

Me: Its true, if I really love him I have to do something except thinking. I have to give my best to both my Career and my Relation. I have to fight for him and its better to make other things clear before I start that war. So I should give my 100 percent for the exam now and then 100 percent for the fight. I know its gonna be tough but I cant live without him and the proof is in front of me right at this moment. And thus if I really want to live I have to fight and I will do it. And I have to do that as early as possible cos even he would have been missing me; even he would have gone mad by now.

In the afternoon:
Me: So everything is decided, now I just have to make it practical. Oh God Please help me.

Finally focusing on my syllabus with a determined mind. Lets see what I'll do and how much I'll succeed. Wish me LUCK!!

On Special Request

Hi Friends,
Just like my previous blogs, this one is also about someone I know. Actually I am writing this one on a special request by someone. Hope you all have fun reading it. :)
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It was 2nd of January 2012 and two new joinees were about to join our team in Innodata. We all were excited because our team was expanding from 8 people to 10. Obviously, it was a good sign; it meant that we were doing our job properly. Well, both of them reached on time. We all met them; their names sounds lil bit similar to me (I don't know about others). In fact, earlier, I thought they both knew each other before joining us. Although, later I came to know that it was not true. ;)

Our TL gave them an overview of the Tasks they were gonna face during their tenure with us. He decided that first of all we will teach them QA tasks. At that time, I also used to deal with the QA tasks. So, our TL decided that I will explain them one of the Tasks I was assigned to. I agreed and started teaching them. That was my first one-to-one interaction with both of them. During this, I observed that one of them was quite friendly. Being interactive, he was clarifying his doubts by asking various questions. On the other hand, the other one was quite and calm. I was confused whether he really understood everything or actually nothing. He did not asked a single question and said he understood everything. Later that day, my TL asked me about their review and being friendly I told him all this clearly.

To my surprise, both of them learned the work very fast. Although they used to have few doubts; but still their progress was good. And I came to know that the 'other one' has actually understood all the facts which showed that he was a quick learner and had a sharp mind. In my words, his mind had the same level as of mine in terms of work. Rest, I still didn't knew.

I must mention here that I love to read people; I observe people and try to find out about them. In his case, even after minute observation I was not able to find much about him. He used to keep quite and don't get much involved. I knew about his mind level but rest was still not sure. Either he was shy or he was a keen observer; I still had to find out.

I remember correctly that my first proper interaction with him was in the Office Shuttle. It was a normal chit-chat; I asked him most of the questions like from where did he belong, what has he done as graduation, etc. I came to know that he was a B.Tech and joined our team to start up his career. After that interaction, he started opening up a little bit. This proved that he was a bit reserved-type and take time to open up. Later on I also find out that he used to observe too but he kept most of his observations secret. He don't discuss everything; may be he don't trust much.

Due to his quietness and un-involvement with us, we doubted him to be a case like Ranjay. We were frightened of this fact. And this led my TL to focus on him to make him friendly at least with him. He started talking to him a lot; asking him lots of questions. Finally one day, he said to me that he was not a case like Ranjay. He was different from Ranjay; he gets involved with the world and he had a girlfriend too. This was really a relief for all of us ;)

He took time but he got involved with all of us too. He started discussing topics other than work at least topics related to the sarcasm of our PM :P He was a nice person. After few months, we started having lunch together. I came to know that he was a fun-loving guy and don't take work very seriously. He used to keep himself calm and light on work. He also discussed his future plans with me. Slowly and steadily, he started discussing about his friends and his life events. He became a good friend thereafter. 

I have spent only few months with him. I wish we could have spend more time together but whatever amount of time we had that was wonderful. From all that time, I must say he is a lovely person. He is a lovely companion. He is calm, focused, prepared, reserved, passionate, fun-loving, determined. He has done a lot of planning for his future and is putting his 100 percent into it. I wish him Good Luck for his venture. Hope we'll be able to meet again :)

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I know its been a long time since you requested me for this blog, so sorry for the delay. I have tried my best to collect all the lovely memories and put them together over here. I hope u liked it. As I said that I have spent only few days of my life with you, plus you are a reserved person; I think may be something was still pending for me to explore about you. I hope I am not correct because if it is true then there will be just one word for you....that you have a profound/deep personality. :)

A Thing Called...LIFE (Part – II)

Life is really amazing, it let you go through a number of phases – some of them are good while some are bad. However each phase teaches you something. Really, Life is the biggest Teacher of all…..

When I talk about phases, one name surrounds my mind. She is going through a bad phase right now. I conversed with her in the morning, she asked a question to me and I really don’t have any answer for her. She asked me “Why people think that I am something which they can play with or throw away, whenever they want?” I usually don’t believe in such sayings, but what she is going through, I was speechless to answer it.

She had a friend. Both of them used to work in the same company. She got friendly with him and used to take coffee breaks with him only. They used to interact very well regarding their office work as well as personal life. And soon became very good friends. They started meeting even outside the office. They keep meeting even after she shifted her office.

Suddenly something happened, she still don’t know, he stopped replying to her messages. They had a little fight earlier, so she thought that these are the after-effects as she had abused him a lot to overcome her sadness. Later on, she felt regretted and apologized to him. At that time, he said it’s alright but stopped talking to her. However, when she recalled everything, she remembered that he started ignoring her even before that fight and abusing part. This meant that something else had happened which she din’t knew. And it seemed that their friendship ended up when she actually started liking him. She used to miss him a lot.

But the amazing fact is – as soon as she held herself and let herself believe that they were not meant to be friends and he was not worth her liking; he contacted her again. He messaged her, kinda apologizing for previous ignorance and maybe hoping for getting back like earlier again. But how can she trust someone again. He is just reminding her about all the pain he gave her. How can she believe him again? What if he’ll do the same again…?

These questions are very obvious for her. She can’t trust him again. After all, all this is happening again in her life. She had faced the same situation previously. During our college time, she had a friend with whom she used to spend all of her time. She used to share everything with him. He was her best friend. Actually, both of them used to be so close to each other that everyone believed they had an affair. He used to say that we’ll be together forever; no one can separate us.

When our college was about to end, he started ignoring her. He avoided her phone calls and never replied to her messages. She cried a lot; she wept a lot but he was gone. She was heartbroken. She just kept crying in her room; it was so difficult for us to let her live again. It took her an year to overcome his absence. And when she did that, he came in front of her apologizing for the past year. She needed him so badly that she forgave him with a new beginning in her mind.

They started talking and meeting again. She started trusting him and depending on him again. Even we were so happy to see them together again. But to everyone’s surprise, he again started avoiding her and started keeping himself away from her. Their meetings reduced, their phone chats got reduced. He started building a bridge in between them. They are friends now, but there is a lot of difference. They are no more best friends, not even good friends. It’s like they are just acquaintances.

After experiencing all this, how can she give a chance to someone else to play with her emotions again?? I don’t think she can, and in fact she should not. She should learn from her past. It will be painful for her to ignore her apologizing friend but it will be even more painful, if he would do that again. I think she should not take this risk and move forward.

I just hope and pray to God to end her pain and let her be happy. I hope her life will show its best in future. May God Bless Her…!!