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Showing posts from November, 2011

On renaming streets in Chennai

It is with wry amusement that I read an article in today's newspaper (The Hindu)on the renaming of streets in Chennai. Each political party plays it's role on destroying or negating our rich History. The first step was to replace the 'colonial' names with Indian ones. So Mount road became Anna Salai, Nungambakkam High Road became Uthamar Gandhi Salai.. The next step taken by the aethist government was to negate the caste named street. So G.N. Chetty street became G.N.street and Brahmin street in Saidapet becomes Street. This is to erode the casteism. It is indeed amusing to note that both the young and the old still use the erstwhile names! History has been passed word of mouth. Casteism is still in everyone's minds, thoughts and actions which is evident in every political speech, caste based elections, in the common man's mundane life. The British did rule us. They did destroy our native economy etc. Even in their selfish interests, they did something

Journey into the desert

The golden orb in The blushing sky Above the sandy plains Tantalized us. Playing hide and seek Behind the dusty trees The setting sun sank Into the horizon Coloring the sky Into a brick red Rose the creamy gold moon In the sky opposite A simple disc of light In the dark desert sky Comforting us thro Our journey..

A rainy noon

Dark skies and pregnant clouds. Dry earth spreads out To receive the downpour! Vermin and snakes crawl out Trees bow low Flowers cower Fruits cringe Seeds sing Children dance Rivers swell Seas sweeten My soul is still thirsty....

Gratitude

Often we ie my generation, is stuck for words to express gratitude to our parents. It is indeed a unique generation. we never grew up expressing gratitude verbally. Often actions, gestures completed our task. Strangely in our Indian culture it is too formal to say a 'thank you' to our parents! The simple 'thank you' is practically non existent! Is it not strange that in a culture where parents literally live their lives for the sake of children, there is no culture of saying the simple 'thank you'!! Parents and parental duty is taken so much for granted that one gets painfully shy or stuck when it comes to saying a 'thank you' to one's parents. Thank god for the English language. One can roll off the 'thank you' quickly in the blink of an eye. Today there came a situation/event in my life when I needed to express my gratitude to my parents. Of course I did not say 'thank you'. Rather I expressed happiness, wonder, in fact all emo

Roads and rain

I wonder how the PWD officials escape punishment when there is ample proof of their corruption. Nature has a unique way of exposing the corruption. Come rain and our roads go for a toss. What is most amusing is the reaction of people to this ! Blame is squarely put on the buses and trucks!! It is because of the huge vehicles that the roads are in such a bad condition. Shockingly there is no mention of the roads being bad due to the poor quality which is again thanks to corruption. Hence it is jolly good time for the PWD dept as the blame game continues.