26/11 3rd ANNIVERSARY - A BAFFLING PARADOX

 It' been quite some time since I have been away from my blog but today, I believe I had a reason to pen my thoughts over again. A reason that completes 3 years since it transpired. The memories of what Mumbai met with 3 years back, on the very same night has still not taken a bend from the ballistic minds of people whose hearts are burning with revenge and anguish towards the perpetrators of the blasts. The night when the country had witnessed one of the worst terror attacks. Ajmal Amir Kasab, the Pakistani gunman who unleashed horror in the Mumbai city along with his nine associates , is still bleeding state coffers three years after he killed more than 100 people that night.

                     Ajmal being the lone terrorist to be captured, 3 years after he accomplished his mission of what he thought would pave his way to "Jihad", I must say he was true in all sense considering his fate till this moment since the attacks happened. Today, he is India's most high-profile prisoner with government of Maharashtra having already spent over 16 Crores on him. This includes the state home department having spent crores on his accommodation which necessitated building a special cell and deployment of special forces from Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) apart from expenses on his food, safety and medical treatments. It should also be noted that the expenditure doesn't include the fees paid to the special public prosecutor and his team. And it's reported that the state government is taking a stock of the huge money spent on this Pakistani national in the wake of the third anniversary of the 26/11 attacks.

                             Even the President of India would not be having so much of value and aegis for her life. When the Supreme court of India had suspended the death sentence of Ajmal, saying that it would like to hear his plea challenging his capital punishment at length as the "due process of law" has to be followed, the temple of justice failed to uphold the pain and affliction of many innocent lives who are still struggling to come out of the bloodcurdling memories of that night. Ajmal Kasab deserves nothing short of a capital punishment and he is least worthy of being given a chance to plea. The fact that the supreme court failed to consider the social jurisprudence while deciding the fate of this anti social radical is completely baffling. What message are we giving away to the youth by refraining to punish people like Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru?

                            "Why is Kasab still alive? Why has he still not been hanged?" These are questions Arjun Kamte, 11, often asks his mother. Arjun's father Ashok Kamte, additional commissioner of police, Mumbai East, was gunned down by terrorists near Cama Hospital on November 26, 2008. Three years on, the wife of the slain officer has no answers to questions that have been debated time and again since the carnage wreaked havoc in Mumbai. All she can do is try to handle the situation with tact.

Candle light processions, statues of martyrs, promises of economic rehabilitation of the martyrs’ families and celebrating the anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks are not the proper salute to the martyrs in the true sense. India must seek motivation from nations who have managed to come of such catastrophes before. Citing the American Government's activities post 9/11 attack, our government must endeavour to make sure that they provide the best of security to their countrymen. To me, how Ajmal’s fate has shaped up since the horrific terror attacks is a baffling paradox and I pray that this doesn’t happen again.

My heart goes out to the victims of 26/11/08 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

JAI HIND !!

THE HATCHWAY TO A NEW BEGINNING

"What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence, The only consequence is what we do." 

This famous quote by John Ruskin was one of my major source of motivation all throughout the phase from the very inception of the idea of blogging in my mind an year ago to the day this idea transformed into a reality. Honestly Speaking, the desire to start blogging stuck me about an year ago but it was only by now that I was able to put my heart into it…….An year ago I thought was the perfect time to start blogging simply because I was out of another phase of my life then…. College days, and there were too many things that I was raring to drop a line on……..about my experience at college. I did not live an extraordinary college life but I did enjoy most parts of those 4 years in my own way. Made a lot of friends, learned a lot, had lots of fun, crushes……….the list goes on. Besides, I can assure you that my experience at college did influence me in a lot of positive ways so much so that I can righteously feel the difference I have attained in the level of my personality and confidence compared to the level of my strengths 4 years back. 

But when asked about something special that I will cherish for my entire life from the pages of my college reminiscence, I always got drifted towards a state of perplexity. As days went by, I realized that all those memories I gathered from my college, which I cuddled to while stepping down from the academy and which I thought will always stay close to my heart as an epitome of bliss and delight slowly got altered to the semblance of insignificance and triviality. This ambivalence I developed towards my college memories can be, to a great extent, attributed to the level of involvement I got into with the latter developments in my life that I hardly had any time to think about my past. And over this period of one year, those memories got laid down over by the days and weeks that followed. And even though till a month ago, recalling those old days didn’t fail to bring a smile on my face every time I mulled over it…. It let me down in giving the kind of motivation I was looking for to start realizing my blog. 

Since a couple of months ago, I have been amidst a lot of happenings……..new job, new place and new people. Suddenly, I started learning and comprehending a lot of new things around. I could feel the change I was going through in all my character idiosyncrasies. My approach and my attitude towards people and life found new dimensions and I sensed that this change was the result of the wisdom and experience I was going through each day. That’s when I learned that the prominence of knowledge was beyond my imagination and that there is a plethora of opportunities around us. The zeal to start doing something constructive, meaningful and beneficial stuck me and the result was the birth of this blog.

I know there are millions of blog already surviving the varying tastes of the readers but majority of them are very much ineffectual and inconsequential when it comes to the content and intend. I really believe that blogging is a powerful social tool and has got much more to offer beyond a virtual page to list your everyday activities and events. But if someday I hear that majority of these blogs are being actively used for knowledge diffusion and valuable discussions, I would be the happiest person. I intend to use my blog in the best of possible ways. Going ahead, I wish this blog be transformed into a platform where the best of things be discussed about and the worst of things be condemned. I wish each one of us here have the liberty to express and share ideas and notions and finally I wish this blog be transformed to an arena where virtues be personified and principles be build. And this wish can only be fulfilled with your active support and involvement.

A man’s life is an amalgam of different phases namely childhood, teenage Adulthood and teenage. As we conclude from each of these phases and step into the next, what remains with us will be some traces of memories from our yesterdays and this traces starts to fade away as we get into the peak of the latter phase. This phenomena transpires all along our existence and to the last what we are really left with will be the best of reminiscences we muster over our life time. I hope years later, when I look back to my better days, the thoughts about this blog would only enrich us with satisfaction and content.