Co-incidence..?!!?

It had been a long, boring and very monotonous week at college designing the department newspaper till about 8 or 9 in the night every alternate day. By Saturday I was exhausted yet was busy doing some fine tuning of the final design from my side before the scheduled class with our design teacher at 1:30 P.M.(the session with eventually began at 3 P.M.).

I knew I was not getting anything, I wasn’t able to concentrate and suddenly in the middle of the class decided to leave stating the reason that my system had crashed and dad was not able to repair it!

On my way back home I got a call from dad that he called up a hardware person and system is working again. I was in no mood to go back to college and work till late again!
Luckily as I cancelled dad’s call, I got a call from my friend asking my whereabouts. And then came the tempting offer to spend the evening at India Gate†. I got down from the bus at India Gate but could not trace my friends there. After an effort of 20 minutes of finding each other, we decided to reach Connought Place(CP).

I got down at PVR Plaza and walked to the metro station of B block asking my friends to meet me there. Standing outside the metro station I looked up for the busy Barakhamba Metro Station* stop and made a mental note of the way to be traced while going back to home(I get a direct to home bus from Barakhamba metro station). Next I got a call from my friends to reach Regal Cinema†, Connought Place. I refused to walk as I had already proceeded towards Barakhamba road and so could not see the Regal Cinema and hence was very much confused about the directions.

We finally met at 5:25 at Central Park* lawns near the B block CP and all of us were hungry much because of the Mc Donald’s right in front of us. Two of us went and brought our burgers and Coke. We roamed in the Central Park lawns, enjoying our coke, noticing the kids playing there and then Shruti suggested going to Greater Kailash M block market* near my college instead of staying in the park! Majority refused taking into consideration the distance to be covered. i refused going near to the college! Shoppers of our group suggested Palika Market and yet again majority refused. “Lets go and check the next show timings at Regal”. Just then, before we could even think upon the (not so bright!) suggestion, a little girl in pink dress and a pink balloon gathered the attention of all of us. She came to me and pointed at the balloon wala (from where she apparently bought it) standing above the underground Palika market, almost adjacent to the park I played with her for a few moments and then we decided to sit and enjoy the pleasant weather. Before that we threw our napkins and coke bottles in the dustbin* lying nearby.

And just when we were about to sit a friend of mine got a call about the Gaffar market blasts(the area just next to her door!) and was ordered to reach home ASAP! We left the park that very moment It was 6:24. We could not cross the road for another two minutes because of the traffic and meanwhile I thought of calling my grandmom who goes Karol Bagh area (some famous mandir there) every evening. Failing to recall her number, I called up dad and told him about the blasts! It was 6:30 and I just took the metro tokens. We proceeded to board the train and even before we could board it a dustbin in the Central Park blew up!

In the metro train we got another call about the blasts at Central Park near Palika market at CP! We all were shocked and all the more puzzled. Everybody else thanked god for being lucky enough to escape the deadly blast, everybody else…I could only see the face of the little girl. The blast had happened in a dustbin in Central Park near the Palika! OMG!

Next came the call of the blast outside the Barakhamba Metro station and for a moment I froze. I looked around and saw the underground CP metro complex...for I would have usually rushed to the same metro station to catch the earliest bus but I don’t know why I joined my friends for the CP metro station despite knowing this would not take me home directly and I will have to walk half a kilometer to reach home if I take the metro route.

“That was damn close you idiots, I suggested going to M block (Greater Kailash)” said Shruti. “Had you followed my suggestion we could have left considerably before the blasts…” she continued. It was 6:54 and we get the next call of the serial blasts at M block Greater Kailash! None of us spoke for next few minutes, Shruti stood frozen at her position. Then wishing each other safe journey ahead we got off the train at respective metro stations.

The third bomb blew in Delhi barely a few hundred meters away and the fourth one as well! Though I could not even hear the explosion yet I have this strange feeling of luck having left the place barely five minutes before the blast. For moments I was shaking but to be really honest, I felt frustrated as if I missed ‘something.’ And the frustration grows up as I write this…. Throughout the evening I have been to as many as four places which were the targets (two blasts happened and two were later diffused). I actually felt like going back to Central Park right that moment...
Why? I myself cannot answer this at the moment! All I know is that I have a trip pending to...


* Places where the blasts happened in Delhi.
† The places where the bombs were later diffused!
Too much of co-incidence…wasn’t that??!!??
I would like to state here another strange fact.
In the afternoon I was asked (rather ordered) by some one to post another article at my “dead” blog! I was given the deadline of Sunday 7 P.M.(I know I am 3 hrs. late but at least I did!).
So I was wondering what to write in such a short span, matching to the genre of my blog (if I can call it so!!), that too when I was expecting a lot of changes to be suggested by the design teacher which means a lot of homework! At the same time I knew I will have to write something. But what? Nothing striking at that very moment, I went for the designing class not bothering much about it! (I am so very sorry!).
I could hardly concentrate in the class and thought of doing something more interesting and again the blog came to my mind. I thought hard but could not figure out anything. Left with no choice, I tried concentrating at the computer screen praying for something ‘strange’ to happen for me to write!

A Protest Against Insanity...!!

In the course of a single day itself, hundreds of devotees visit Akshardham Mandir, thousands of workers land up at the construction site of Commonwealth Games Village and as many commuters traverse the Nizamuddin Bridge but literally a very few takes the notice of it. The traffic woes over the bridge forces them to spend about an hour crossing the 750m stretch, the time they spend appreciating the beauty of the Mandir or commenting at the plight of the deteriorating Yamuna river. The sight of the upcoming Commonwealth Games Village excites them all. But nearly all are either unaware or ignorant of the fact that between the two colossal structures and on the periphery of the bridge lays unrest! A movement that took birth over a year ago and, sadly enough, is still in its infancy.

I have been one of the commuters and had been noticing the banners since the past couple of days. To be honest, being a sports enthusiast, I never read the banners on the day I noticed them because the first thought that came to my mind was that the protest is against the Commonwealth Games! “How insane is this? These people don’t want games to happen, spoilsports!” The banners and the whole idea of the protest against kept repeating in my mind all through the day and I made it a point to remember reading their ‘words’ the next day. To my surprise...yes it was a protest, a protest against the Commonwealth Games Village, but…but for a humanitarian cause! I felt shocked and more than anything else, I was embarrassed by my thoughts…but the very next moment I resolved to bring to the notice of every person I can…

It was raining heavily ten minutes back and its shining brightly now. But these conditions don’t affect their spirits. Everyday they worship the huge framed portrait of Mahatma Gandhi-their mentor. The trunk and the branches of a huge tree supports their plastic shed beneath which they spend their entire day in protest…a protest for a noble cause…a plea to save the Yamuna and hence mankind…
“The Yamuna Satayagrah was launched on August 1, 2007 under the leadership of Rajendra Singh against the construction of Commonwealth Games Village on the riverbeds of Yamuna…mind you, its not against the games...” one of the members started briefing me about the history of the campaign(in hindi) and continued till we were joined by the vice president of the movement, Baljeet Singh.

“Sarkaar ko isse kya matlab hai, wo to iss sab se paise kama rahi hai…humare pet pe laat maarkar…hum kisaanon ko beghar kar ke…” (Government isn’t bothered about this issue; they are only earning money…leaving the farmers starved and homeless!) remarks Baljeet Singh, a retired teacher, PGT Economics and the vice president of the Satyagrah.

“Vote humara wohi lega, jo yamuna mein sanan karega” (We shall vote for the one who will take a dip in Yamuna) says a banner, “Kutab se Taj, ek hi awaaz, jiye Yamuna to jiye jan jan” cries another! But depressingly, their cries are confined to their shed only. They lament the progress of their cause due to ‘occasional media coverage’. “Haanji media ka kuch saath to mila hai lakin uske bavajood bhi ye abhi tak ek mass movement nahi ban paya hai…media aur logon ko isse kya lena hai…” says Mahavir Singh. He continues “Aap future ki soche, aage to pani ki kami sabko satayegi…tab pal bhar mein ka kar lenge ye log? Hum to aane wali peedhi ke bare mein soch rahen hain…” (You think about the future, in near future we all shall face water shortage…what will they be able to do then within seconds? We are thinking about the future generation…)
Baljeet Singh further elaborates on the same focusing on the reasons for people’s and media’s ignorant behavior. “More than eighty percent of the residents of Delhi are not migrants from other states who have settled here either for education or work/money. Why would they be concerned about the Yamuna and its deteriorating water quality when there are getting packaged water in the market? It is we, the poor people who depend upon natural water resource, who are being affected the most…. Media hasn’t been able to transform this into a mass movement because we don’t have a celebrity attached with our protest. Is this justice?” He then points to a white board with ‘368’ written on it with green, blue and red ink, signifying the 368 days of their protest against insanity…

I was wondering ever since we sat down for the chat that why these people were against the progress of the riverbed-DDA’s conscious effort…but already being too embarrassed by my thoughts I could not muster the courage to question them… “Here they are echoing about the usefulness of riverbed… Of course it would be a crazy question to ask” I restricted myself a ten times. But fortunately Mahavir Singh’s further criticism clarified the residual doubts. “Hum ye nahi chahte ke sarkaar is kshetra ka vikas na kare, kare, lakin riverbed ko riverbed he rehne de phr chahe ye jameen hum kisan ke paas ho ya phir reliance k paas…aur jahan tak khel ka sawaal hai, aur bhi kayi jagah hain jahan iska nirmaan kiya ja sakta hai…” (We don’t say that the government should not develop the region, it should, but the riverbed should remain a riverbed irrelevant of the fact that its ownership is with the farmers or with a private company! And as far as the games are concerned, the village can be built at many other alternative places…)
“The riverbed is now being converted into a concrete jungle! Moreover they are building multi storey flats, malls, hotels and other residential quarters inside the Games village. It shall even include the metro complex! Is this what I riverbed is used for? This will severely impact the survival of the river which is already under stress. Ask the government or us the farmers whether the sand here can withstand concrete?” complained Baljeet Singh, almost in tears by now… “Moreover mukhya mantri Sheila Dikshit ji kehti hain ke ye waste land hain…hum sirf isko beautify kar rahe hain…” (Moreover Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit says it’s just a wasteland and we are only beautifying it!)

By now I was convinced, and I am sure many of you would also be, that this site isn’t the best place to host foreigners for a twelve day event leaving behind our own farmers homeless, jobless and starved for their entire life!

“The protest isn’t just against the construction of the Games Village at this place, a similar protest, at a much larger scale, was launched in 2000 as well when the site got the approval for the construction of the Akshardham complex. But the government, using the police force, suppressed the voice of the protesting farmers and succeeded in vacating the area for the construction”, continues Baljeet Singh. “Hum kisaanon ko to pehle he beghar kar chuke hain…humari rozi roti ka saadhan cheen liya…ghar cheen liye…mandir hata diye, ye sab kuch sirf ek Akshardham banane k liye…” The moment I heard those words, I was shivering. It was pity and anger, anger against the government. His words were extremely provoking! And the beauty of the temple, that I too once appreciated, seemed to be of no relevance anymore!

Welcome!

Hi
Well here's another beginner-this is my first ever blog(as well as my first homework as a journo student..!) so it might just not be very well updated(an excuse I can give just for the inital phase!).
However I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep...

Anything in the limelight becomes a point of discussion, sure you will find my opinions on them as well, but things that go unnoticed is something that interests me...covering them would be a perfect blend of fun and work...
I shall connect with you as and when I have something good, unobserved and interesting to share...

Cheers!
Purn!ma