कुछ सूखे पत्ते ...

कभी हम दिल की धड़कन थे, आज तुम पास न आई ,

वजह इस बेवफ़ाई की समझ कुछ ख़ास न आई !

क़यामत तक गिला न कर सकेंगे फिर भी हम तुझसे,

मुक़द्दर ही को अपनी ये  मुहब्बत रास न आई !!

Getting to Zero !!!

This was written for essay-writing competition on World-AIDS Day. Being a glib-writer, I had to toil hard to restrict it to the prescribed world-limit of 200 words. But it turned out to be exactly of 200 words (excluding the heading), you can check it yourself. Luckily I also got first prize for this.So here it is.

Gone are the days when ‘zero’ was an 
embodiment of negligibility and insignificance. Now ‘Getting to zero’ is accredited as the international theme for World AIDS Day from 2011 to 2015, the year of Millennium Development Goals of UN.

Any process has three integral stages: initiation, propagation and culmination. Similarly AIDS is to be attacked squarely with the aims of zero new HIV infections(initiation), zero discrimination(propagation) and zero AIDS-related deaths(culmination).

There are over 35-million AIDS-affected people worldwide which makes access to practical,and comprehensible information on prevention of HIV transmission highly imperative.

Educating people about the realities of living with HIV and providing axiomatic information to dispel the myths that surround a positive diagnosis and alleviate the ignorance about HIV can play sheet anchor role in evading misinformation and stigma.

Lastly, abatement of AIDS-related deaths, has to be achieved by starting treatment at the right time and putting a check over cases of people who are diagnosed late and therefore miss out on the benefits treatment could render.

As we get a picturesque picture by the dint of a ‘negative’, similarly we hope to reach to the zenith of HIV-free world, keeping an eye on this symbol of nadir i.e. zero.

जुमलेबाज़ी ..

हैराँ  नहीं हम आपकी हसरत-ए -खिदमत  सुनकर...
कौन दुकानदार ग्राहकों से ज़िक्र-ए-मुनाफा करता है !

मिल भी जाए फिर भी हुकूमत, तो बेवकूफ़ी न समझना...
मुमकिन है कि आपकी नीयत  को मौका एक और हो !!

Every Whatsapp group has these six sicklies

Undoubtedly Rome was not built in a day but it did not take more than a spur of a moment for the online chat services (among which Whatsapp rules the roost) to behead text messages, that now breath occasionaly in case of a bank transaction or on Wednesday and Friday Dominos’ offer. No wonder if the ease of sharing files and attachments will soon detach even the e-mail service providers from the market. But IMO the feature of forming groups in Whatsapp is its USP, on the score of which it can be aptly christened as ‘Mini Facebook’. ‘Mini Facebook’- considering the colossal empire of Mark Zukerberg, can there be a better example of oxymoron!

But every whatsapp group has some clearly identifiable breeds of members who can reach the level of irritation at times. This identification becomes a cake walk when you come online after a gap of few hours, but it applies only if you don’t feel suffocated for those few but pathetic hours of dissociation from  your favorite App. So sit back, read and correlate:

1.The Wishers’ well:  They remind you every six hours that its morning, noon, evening and night. They perform this duty of wishing ‘GMs’ and ‘GNs’ so diligently that it seems as if it’s the last time sun is going to set on the blue planet. They hardly say anything apart from myriad of ‘Gs’.

2. The Imojers: Yes, you got it right. They are the real brothers of Dr. Bean  and profusely use sign language to convey their feelings but never the words. I really doubt if their teeth and tongue could resist rusting because of excessive exposure to air and moisture. I am eagerly waiting for a full-fledged novel of only these smileys and emoticons from any such imoji-freak.

     

                                         

3. The Mr. India: No its not about fighting against the evil or saving the city every next day. The only power I am referring to here is of invisibility. These people hardly show up in any conversation and their presence could be gauged only by the dint of the group info. So when you doubt the proportionality of the number of members with the scanty participation, blame these Mr. X’s.

4. The Name-Changers: They are the honorary workers who unfailingly change the group name and icon as per the occasion be it Diwali, Holi or Nagpanchami or yes the birthdays. And that too exactly at 11:59:59 PM. ISRO scientists should send their trainees to them to brush up their concepts of precision.

5. The Preacher in 3D: Today if I look for an AIDS infected needle in a theatre seat, or about pesticides in the soft drinks or about beef and other filthy stuff in every food items: credit goes to these people. These agents of fear post so many life threatening messages that kids are now doubtful if Munch is made by dried shit of some endangered species. Nothing to say about the loads of emotional messages about friends, mother, father , uncle, cousin and who not. Have some of them reached Assam : its kinda flooded these days!

6. The Ketan Mehtas: The so called 50 Mb ‘short films’ and videos are so enthusiastically shared as if it was produced under their banner and they have invested crores. Seriously! Given the 1 GB datapack in Rs. 297, who would download those ‘memorious’ bulky videos about some self proclaimed actor Varun (not Varun Dhawan). But thanks to office wi-fi that makes me feel sometime that I am kind of overpaid.

But why do we have to endure all these nincompoops, just because these groups provide some valuable info at times. But again your participation is subject to the whims and fancies of the group admin who can anytime kick you out. Will it not be awesome if we could have these info without being forced to bear these unbearable?

Jagendra was not dead till today!!!

Yes! a mining mafia, rapist and corrupt ruffian cabinet minister tried to kill him. (I deliberately did not use 'allegedly', as that iks not at all needed here). But he did not give up the ghost. He was still breathing through the agony of his mother who did not eat anything for so many days demanding justice, through the suffering of his sons who could not cry peacefully on their valorous father's death on the score of restlessness to get the perpetrators punished. But today, all this has been trampled over by the omnipotence of humungous (for a poor villager at least) sum of 30 lakh rupees and the 'promise' of job to his sons. So today this braveheart breathed his last,who could have earned anything ,had he tread on another path,  as is said in the world of reporting, silence is auctioned at a much more price than speech. However for this his family is not at all to be blamed, rather lets have a glance on those who forged so many scars by stabbing the body of this great man.

The sheet anchor role in this was played by his fellow brethren i.e. the members of his community of journos. Why? Well if you slap a autorickshaw driver, the whole city will come to halt untill that culprit is punished. Was any such integrated effort witnessed anywhere from the bearers of the fourth pillar, that has been rusted by the dint of the menace of TRP.Had it not been for filling the ostantatious customary of 100,200 or 222 news, he would have hardly found any place in this platform. The media that boasts to have turned the tables over the oldest party of the nation and claims to possess the calibre of making Modi and Kejriwal what they are today, looked so helpless actually disinterested. 

Secondly the opposition, if it does exist in the state, also has a lion's share in this great act.There are great players like BSP, BJP and AAP (which is yet to get off the mark), the members of which are not in myriads in the assembly. But a lot could have been done that is still undone. The reason being very simple that this man was from the community of journalists who do not form a whooping vote bank such as minorities and backwards. So these well versed leaders did not consider it wise enough to condemn it with an agression with which they protest against the 'vivaadit bayaan' (controversial statement), which is in vogue these days.

Now the most awaited performer. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, put you hands together for the so called Socialists. Mr. Yadav could not even dare to sack the minister let alone his arrest. Yadav number 3 in the party said 'no minister will be sacked without 'proper' investigation'. 'Investigation' - you kidding me! As per the law, nothing in this universe can be stated against a dying declaration, which was given by Jagendra in the presence of the magistrate. Now  lets not beat about the bush and come to the point. This minister represented a particular community of the state. So why to gamble with this packed vote by doing anything for the sake of a very very very common social network journalist?

Last but not the least, lets not forget ourselves.We feel so proud or even modern, dynamic and what not in flooding the social networks with multitude of hashtags for issues like Yulin,  a reporter criticising the cricket team, derecognition of a discussion group in a prestigious institute and the list is endless. But did we consider this killing and brutal murder worth reacting?

In nutshell, it was very wise on the part of the family to end the protest. Many advocates of the pragmatism would support this by saying there is no point in in this wild goose chase as Jagendra is not going to come back now, so why to put the life of his family on the cannon's mouth. Was this really futile. Will all this end up here only. Well! another journalist has been killed in MP for writing against mining mafia.

 Long live justice!