Yeah, She Is A Girl...So What???

Yes she is a girl, you told me, with a smirk on your face,
yeah she is a girl , so what?
Isn't the same blood flowing in your veins too?
Isn't her every breath ,smile,tear, pain,anxiety,love and hate ,exactly like yours?
Isn't she the biggest survivor in your brutal,chauvinist & selfish world?
Isn't she the one who is fighting for every bit of respect keeping her head high?
And you say with that lust and a sense of disgust ,that she is a girl?
Yeah ,she is a girl , so what?

She is not just a mother ,a sister or a wife ,
putting together the broken pieces of your life,
Neither is she an object of your dreams,

She is more than her body ,she is more than her dress,
She is more than that news, that yesterday you read in the press,
Just like you ,she too is a bird ,with those beautiful wings,
She too wants to fly and she too wants to sing,
But what is wrong with you ,what is bothering you so hard?
What pleasure do you get in turning her songs in her screams?

Yeah I know what gives you jitters and shakes you to the core ,
It's her power that you think will erode your sanctity,
that you have kept since long ,under the aegis of you vanity,
It will prove that she is equal to you and probably better too,
And that will be end of your era...sad but true !

But how long can you stop her ,abuse her & beat her down,
that immanent light will eventually come from horizon,
Cos the more you hit,the more she will rebound,
and remember a day will come when her endurance will find that resonating sound,
Eclipsing your power,vanity, position & finally your self proclaimed crown,

She doesn't want your privilege,
She doesn't want your ring,
The only thing that she really deserves ,
is to be treated like an equal human being.

So next time ,when you say that she is a girl, be graceful,
That the other half of our existence is still beautiful.

" Monsoon & I "

I was walking alone with the thought unknown,
Thinking of this unfair world and mulling over my life,
Under cloudy sky and in my cloudy mind,
Deep in my thought I was a bit pained ,
And suddenly it 'rained'...

Clouds in my mind started melting with the clouds ,
And it washed away all my thoughts,
And here I was ,happy and free,
Leaving all my worries ,like a drunken spree

Was it a magic or some wonderful dream?

I played with those drops like there is nothing else around,like I am free again,
Without any worry of my office,my home ,friends,or that last train,
Life was here ,life was now ,endowing on me its priceless crown,
In those trickling drops was my world ,
And with all my smiles ,I was ready to drown,

I walked past the road ,crossing that kid, playing with his paper ship,
Past that girl ,shrugging off her hair droplets on her lover's cheek,
Past that grandpa trying to impress his wife in his old romantic wit,
Past that lady trying to cover her husband under that small umbrella's kit,
Past that gang of friends trying to dump their restaurant bill as a friend's treat,
Past that beggar trying to save his home infront of that famous mall's street,

For a moment though, they all were happy ,amidst all their plights,
And I looked up in the sky ,and said
Welcome Monsoon , Thanks for all such delights....

Changing Lives Through Reading ...

Somebody has correctly said "to read is to fly, it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history ,human psychology and varieties ,ideas shared experiences and fruits of many inquiries of some of the most brilliant minds".
The above lines clearly sum up the essence of reading in human lives.Reading offers a rare insight into the minds of some of the greatest thinkers, philosophers, and human beings who have preceded our era and changed the lives of people through their unparalleled intellect. Through reading , we map our minds to the minds of the greatest of thinkers and experience the same level of freedom ,that has pushed human race forward. It bridges the gap between mediocrity and excellence.
Reading frees our minds from all malice and transcends our energy towards bigger purpose of life. And when our thoughts transcend these stereotypical norms of society and strive for excellence ,then our lives change, forever. We become a part of that race which makes this world a better place.
Through reading diverse arena, we come across different facets of life ranging from lives of affluent to people struggling everyday just to survive. It allows us to have a peek into lives and suffering of millions and tempts us to do something for them. It presents before us the beauty as well as contradictions of life.
There are times when we are down and out , we lose hope, we feel unwanted and unworthy ,and we want to hide form rest of world. That is the time when a good book really acts as a teacher, a philosopher, and a guide and rekindles that simmering fire within us.It gives us a new lease of life and reaffirms our faith in ourselves.
When we read lives of great people ,we come to know about their struggle, suffering ,perseverance and all the qualities that made them great .It inspires us to emulate them and simultaneously tell us what it takes to be great. Lives of greats like Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther king ,Nelson Mandela etc have inspired a whole generation and made our world a better place to live ,and by reading about them, in the process,we become a better person. Krishna , Kabir ,Prophet Jesus,keep guiding us through their words, and that strengthens us to constantly fight the devil within and out.
I have always believed that all wisdom, all knowledge & everything lies within us. But it lies in hibernation under a thick cover of ignorance and most people die in mediocrity, unaware of that untrammelled treasure , simmering within them. Reading uncovers that layer and presents us with the key to excellence. The more we read ,the more we move from darkness of ignorance to light .And when we see that that light ,it literally astonishes the world. When we see that light ,it connects our lost chord and brings us in sync with that divine energy, what we call "god". And when we come in sync with that energy ,that is what is limitless. That is what is freedom .

Indian IT Industry: The Dark Side Of The Moon ...

This article is dedicated to all those big Indian IT giants, who claim to be the bellwether of Indian economy by posting growth story worth million dollars every quarter. They claim to be the rescuer of our otherwise stagnating economy and aim to bring India strongly on global map by generating enormous job opportunities for our young population, enabling us to reap the benefits of our demographic dividend. This superficial story seems to be all rosy and fills you with a sense of pride, being an Indian.
However if we delve deeper into this fairy tale, we realize ‘the dark side of the moon’. Indian IT industry is mainly about services and solutions that these companies provide to their customers, spanning all over globe. The geographical advantage of having located just opposite to US (the biggest market), on globe (for 24/7 work), availability of cheap labor and few emerging Indian companies in this field, have really propelled the growth in this sector, especially in post globalization era.
The business is growing aggressively on the abilities of these companies to find the untapped potential in new sectors, banking, retail, Insurance to name a few. And so is their intake of employees. Few companies are even going to the extent of hiring almost fifty thousand people per year. So they have a big force of employee and growing every year. Being a service based entity; the primary focus of these companies rightly is on customer satisfaction, so as to bring more value to customers and business to the company. But among the hullabaloo of customer satisfaction and race of earning more revenues, the employee satisfaction takes a severe beating. These so called altruistic companies claim to follow all the laws of land on paper, but actually bend each one of them for their own benefits. And among all this noise of growth story and billion dollars revenues, the ultimate loser is the employee.
Almost everywhere (except a few generous ones ) ,employees are paid for eight or nine hours but are made to work for twelve to fifteen hours every day and in many cases on weekends too. And the higher authorities justify it by calling it ‘going beyond the call of duty’. The employees in most cases lose their personal lives (health, relationship, peace of mind) just to keep themselves alive in this rat race. And this does not happen for a day or two or for a month. It happens as long as someone is there. A psychological propaganda is spread inside these organizations, where anybody opposing it, is either thrown out or subjected to severe mental pressure leading to anxiety, frustration and depression. I mean what is the meaning of paying someone handsomely at the cost of one’s rights to live.
There is no denying this fact that customer satisfaction is the primary goal of any service based company and it must be ensured with the best efforts. But isn't there any meaning of ‘employee satisfaction’? After all its employees, who are the basic building blocks of this growth story. And an employee is as much human as a customer. Then why are they subjected to such dual standards? We must come out of this colonial exploitative mentality.
If there are more work and business coming in, wouldn't it be a noble idea to hire more number of people instead of pressurizing the existing ones to stretch? Wouldn't it be nice for our economy and our growing demography? And in longer run more number of employees will eventually be able to generate more revenue. It’s a win-win situation for everyone .But for this to happen, these companies will have to come out of their ‘revenue-generation-at-any-cost’ mentality.
Since IT industry is our primary vehicle of growth and is covering more and more people in its ambit, we need to address these reforms, period. The reforms that address the human side of people working in such places. And for a change , we need to consider that the person sitting next to that computer is a human , not a machine.