8 things to avoid for #ResponsibleTourism

1. Do not litter. Carry a litter sack or at least a spare plastic bag if you gonna be munching.
2. Do not deface. Nobody gives a fuck about that heart you drew on the wall of that 200 year old monument.
3. Do not unnecessarily touch things. Apart from saving yourself from getting a million unknown bacteria on you, it also slows the wear and tear of your surroundings, especially for delicate ecologies or monuments.
4. Do not click pictures of hot chicks. Yes this is for you guys out there. Sure there are a lot of hot chicks around. The max you can do is have a good look at them and jack off later in the day. No clicking or even an attempt to touch.
5. Do not break rules. No, it is not macho to break rules. You are a jerk if you do that. These days girls like boys who have a head on their shoulders, not a dick.
6. Do not stay holed up in your hotel. You are touring for experiences. Feel the air, heat and the spices and local delicacies. No five-star property can give that to you.
7. Do not cause trouble/confusion if you cannot help. Listen, analyse, wait for a moment and react.
8. Do not dress like you are walking a ramp. Not because you are not awesome, but because you are not walking a ramp. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Don't do the Romans!

Hazaaro khwaishein aisi!

Hazaaro khwaishein aisi,
ki har murad ke liye dum tod du,
Hazaaro mushkiley aisi,
ki har mod par dum tod du!

Hazaaro sapney aise,
ki aankhein moond kar hi rakhu,
Hazaaro vikalp aise,
na jaane kise na rakhu!

Hazaaro mannatein aisi,
kis kisko yaad rakhu,
Hazaaro manziley aisi,
kya jaane kise sahi kahu!

The Curious case of BJP in Maharashtra

I have religiously supported Narendra Modi for quite some time now and I think the central government is slowly and steadily working towards changing the way India has been working for decades. The systematic effort to shift the paradigm towards accountability and governance is clearly visible if you can look beyond the highly opinionated and skewed media reports that have become a norm these days. While the fourth pillar of democracy is crying out loud that they are being fair, the three pages of advertisements before the first page of today’s Times of India is evidence enough that it is more of business than journalism. The charisma of the NaMo, the face of BJP, has ensured that the party has been a front-runner in most of the elections after sweeping the elections last year.

Now let us take the case of Maharashtra. Maharashtra politics is probably more tangled than the Indrani case (I could have said ‘why Indrani Killed Sheena’ but I don’t believe in Media trials). BJP riding on the Modi wave, went in to the state elections alone as against partnering with Shiv Sena, their natural ally. I am not sure if it was the pride of the UP win that went into their heads or the unreasonable ambition of a local pot-belly, but, breaking the traditional alliance seemed to be out of greed to repeat 2014. After the post poll fracas that continued for a long time is where BJP lost all its credibility for the Marathi manoos. The talks of partnering with Sharad Pawar, the epitome of shrewd politics, just to be in power and not wilt to the mounting pressure of public sentiment and their natural ally has spoken volumes about the priorities of Maharashtra BJP.

Finally, after a lot of unnecessary arm-twisting, BJP formed an alliance government with Shiv Sena. If this volte-face was not enough, the BJP tried to mimic NaMo style of functioning – authorative and autocratic. The most important thing that lacked here was the vision and ability of the state leadership. Nobody knew Devendra Fadnavis until his name propped up for CM. After the mysteriously timed death of Gopinath Munde, the power centre in Maharashtra shifted to Nagpur. For a person with no known credentials to be handed over the reins of one of the most dynamic states proved to be a political master-stroke.

Maharashtra is now reeling under a number of bans. But that is not of any concern to me. Because the bigger news has been smartly sidelined by the secular media. The Fadnavis government has resorted to tax terrorism, as a short term solution to filling up the drying government coffers. The drought tax is draconian and has to be opposed and defied more than the beef and liquor bans. The unilateral decision making of the BJP led government has had the people as well as the allies fuming.

BJP has lost every bit of sympathy they had garnered in the general elections with its headstrong and cocky politics. Rural Maharashtra - the age-old Congress and NCP bastion – had opened up to the idea of a different leadership. But the government policies devoid of field facts and on-ground experience have ensured that they would never get another chance. The CM taking it on his ego to win the Kalyan-Dombivli elections is proof enough of the lack of vision for the government.

There have been reports of horse-trading where a municipal corporation ward seat has gone for as much a 75 lakh for tickets that are almost sure to be won. The Fadnavis government also tried to get the 27 villages that wanted to be a part of the corporation to break away to form a new corporation because they knew that the Shiv Sena holds sway in these wards.

Looking at the way the Fadnavis govt has performed since their arrival in office, it seems the Maharashtra BJP needs a reality check and a wake-up call. Failure, they say, is the best teacher and being a staunch follower of Narendra Modi, I hope the BJP lose their upper hand in the KDMC elections. Playing second fiddle should remind them that they were chosen as an option to Congress-NCP corruption and not because the BJP had promise. May be then, the government will be knocked back to senses and start working with the people. A government that is at loggerheads with its own people cannot be successful no matter what they do!

Dear PM, No - I won't give away my subsidy - because that is all I have got!

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

Being from a family that had a take on political scenarios and involvement in attempting to do good for people, politics was something that I grew up with. The damning ten years under the Congress rule, I had seen the society and the economy being crippled by the unscrupulous crony capitalism and favouritism. The KG basin reserve prices quadrupled in less than a decade, the coal blocks were allocated to family and the exact land was bought just before it was to be acquired by the government for plum projects. It was the resentment of the entire nation that flushed the Congress out and not the genius of the BJP. You were chosen by the rule of elimination and I think you already know that.

The promise of the persona of Mr. Modi – the talks of development and the right-wing inclinations – was something that the majority fell for after the decades of loot and selective appeasement and it is not their fault too. I also agree to a major extent to the efforts you have already put in to driving a much needed change. The angry government officials speaking ill of you are a testimony to the biometric attendance that is making them come to work every day if not on time – it is a beginning of a change in due course. I appreciate the compulsory annual declaration of family assets by government officials – something that can be used as an indicator of the corrupt. Your efforts to project India as a progressive nation, the inspired logo of Make in India and a sincere effort to make business easy deserves an applause. There may be a lot of other things that I am unaware of and a big thank you for all of those.

BUT

This does not give the BJP any right to tell me what to eat and what to drink. I am particularly appalled by the beef ban in Maharashtra and the vine of liquor ban. I do not eat Beef – the only Hindu thing about me – and I still am completely against the Beef ban. You may be wilting under the weight of the Brahmin RSS ideology – I am a Brahmin too – but you being the government have to pull yourself up and stand tall. Are you listening Mr Devendra Fadnavis? I am an ardent follower of the RSS too – family you see – but what is wrong is wrong. The RSS has been monumental in keeping the nation together and stemming the evangelist rot to retain the ‘hindutva’ of this nation – but then agreeing to everything that they have to say shall ruin us.

Remember the essence of ‘Hindutva’ it is the collegium of wisdom of ideas of saints/scholars that have run down over millennia as against the single headed jargon of the newbie religions – it is this difference that has kept us sane and not made fanatics out of us. Let us take the example of the honourable Father of our Nation. One man headed our freedom struggle and his followers shunted the others out if they were an inch close to possibly steal his limelight. See what we have now – a Pakistan and a Bangladesh – progenies of the same land and yet perpetually at war. People were fooled for the next 60 years at least by people who only carried his name and claimed the legacy for the power of rule. You have to reign in your zealous commanders to strike a balance that is much more essential for the nation – for you to stay in power and continue doing good for the country.

Mr PM, I – the upper caste middle class common man, have been suffering from the socialist measures drawn under the garb of concern for the less fortunate for ages. I pay taxes from my nose for the politicians who waste crores of rupees for the parliament sessions doing nothing but passing a resolution for a pay hike for themselves while chewing subsidised rotis, driving in cars and fuel paid for by us and living in airconditioned palaces maintained by us. And we do not find it funny at all when someone like a Vadra or a Pawar applies for a farmer or declares assets less than 10 crore year after year. We do not find it funny when the service tax is increased by 2% to cover for national debt when there is billions of dollars of unaccounted money here in India – forget about Seychelles and Mauritius and Swiss banks. We eat in to ourselves to save our pennies and then you levy a tax on the fixed deposit interests. Are we supposed to never grow? Or just start evading tax like most to add further tax burden on those who pay?

Mr. PM, I particularly get angry when you in your soothing voice you request us to give up our gas subsidy for the less fortunate. No – I will not ever give it away even if I am earning a million rupees a day. You first justify why I have to study in a tier-2 institution after scoring 99% marks when someone with a caste certificate and a score of 40% gets admitted to a tier one institute? Tell me why his fees too are waived off (paid by the government)? Why don’t they get to choose from one - concession in marks or fees? Thousands of engineering, medical, management seats are going vacant – why can’t they study there free of cost? And if they want to opt for a concession of aptitude they should be made to pay. Why do we have to pay both ways – just because we are from a supposedly superior caste?

After 60 years of independence and decades of reservation – the supposedly lower castes have been fast forwarded to being in top positions on most government institutions and we all see how mediocre these institutions have become. I am not being racist – but you cannot have a concession for aptitude as the decision making then affects a billion people. Reminds me of a head of a national institute giving an interview on Cloud Computing and having reservations about the functioning of the system when it rains!

Mr. PM, none of your dreams will bear fruit if you have such people at the helm – there can be no substitute to capability – not money, not caste. So, the next time you would want to appeal to us to give away our limited privileges – be prepared to be abused to the core and not because we hate you. Because, we think you can bring about the change – the right change and not a right-winged change.

https://www.change.org/p/prime-minister-narendra-modi-remove-the-caste-based-reservation-system-1df7feb1-fac9-4a98-b361-4f7ca71f4e10?recruiter=368226652&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

Organised Chaos = LiveLodgycal ???

While we are busy looking for logic in everything that is done,

the moments of absolute mirth are the ones with dearth of logic.

Having said that, it is that want of Logic in everything is what is keeping us from becoming ISIS !

So when someone comes up with a product ‘Lodgy’ and drives the campaign around ‘Live Lodgycal’, you know for a fact that a lot of logical arguments have been already shown the door :P ;)

Anyway, the Renault Lodgy is something that will logically appeal to most people of the country. We are still a far way away from the West where a family is a man, a woman and kids of the two. Except when we travel for office, we have a fleet of people called ‘family’ waiting to get into the car. If not family, at least your old neighbour would want you to drop him to the next block even if you are embarking on a thousand mile drive and you can’t say no because ‘Sanskar’!

Well, even Alia Bhatt is appealing for me. So what if she comes across as dumb as Rahul Gandhi? But is she logically right for me? That would be something like buying a Rolls Royce by selling your only house for the down payment and raising the rest in loan. (I am sure it is technically impossible but then you can’t explain logic without explaining illogical). So what I meant with all these words was that is the car Value for Money? And I think it is. It has two head lamps and two tail lamps. It has three seating rows, three outlets for AC, three 12V charging points. It has four wheels, four power windows, four decent speakers and a four cylinder highly efficient diesel engine.

It has five doors for you to get in and shove your luggage, six gears in the 110 PS car and an option to seat seven or eight people.

The equipment, features in this car are at par with the competition but it loses out a bit on power, especially when you talk about the 85PS. It is a downer again with those quirky French looks but that’s where it ends. It is almost as spacious as the Innova – something that people in India swear by. 

Where it starts winning is when you talk about ride and handling. It is not really Ferrari fast but then that is okay because you can’t go 7/8 people in a Ferrari. It brakes okay and can be chucked into corners where it will stick and not scare you with humongous body roll like most boats in the market do.

It has got a touchscreen system if you are ready to spend like a good fifteen lakh or else you will have to be happy with quirky looking system. It has cruise control at the top end, but unless you are driving on the Yamuna or Mumbai-Pune Expressway, you will not be able to use it for more than two minutes at a stretch. The Multi-Information Display gives you the trip log and any other information you want on the go.

I am not going to say only good things about the car because Renault and Blogadda hosted us at a super luxury property in Goa for two days and treated us like royalty. For me the car is value for money except for my reservations about Renault service back up. If I am buying a diesel people mover, I am expected to travel and if my car spares are not going to available readily, I would certainly be really pissed off. Also, a slightly bigger clutch pedal would keep our wet, muddy or just worn our soles from slipping off making it slightly more comfortable.

Yes and for the next face-lift, please rope me in for the design of the tailgate!

For the Detailed Review : The Renault Lodgy First Drive
For Detailed Information : The Renault Lodgy Features

Away I go!

Flitting through the countless fields,

Sampling eyes cutting the yields,

Holding on to each one of my shields,

away I go!

Masquerading a million dreams,

Looking for that perfect one of the creams,

The leather with its bursting seams,

away I go!

Taking cover with a submarine,

Wondering if my slate is clean,

Carrying my badly bruised sheen,

away I go!

Ohhh that longing to ride,

Wanting no rules to abide,

None of the million gods by my side,

away I go!

Mission Bolt : Accomplished!

April 19, 2015

Target: Raid De Tiger Point

Mission: Bolt 

Operation: Secure target and report to base. NO casualty allowed. Absolutely not. No Weapons.

0600 hrs
      - Ready to leave safe house. Pickup point 25kms away.
      - I start my red devil and zoom

0700 hrs
      - Pickup is at the stroke of the hour – perfect timing. The Transporter HK is raring to go.

0800 hrs
      - Meeting point – Café Infinito
      - Co-agents introduction – Sanjay and Purujeet

0900 hrs
      - Bacon and chicken sausages with fruit juices and yummy sandwiches (You need to stuff yourself up to think straight in crunch situations)

1000 hrs
      - Mission Brief
         o Task one – conquer the DOTS
         o Task two – beat the sun
         o Task three – burn the tarmac
         o Task four – get a cooler and get back to base!

1100 hrs
      - The CAR
         o A bright red Tata Bolt. (If James Bond swears by the Aston Martin, just because it is British, it has Tata for me. Not that I cannot get a Jaguar – Yes, its Indian now – blending in with the crowd would be much easier with so many Tata cars on the road!)
      - The Equipment
          Well, the list is long, really long but here are some highlights
             Revotron – the first petrol turbocharged engine developed by an Indian manufacturer
             Voice Command with Touch Screen Entertainment – I am a secret agent and to do a trillion things when I am driving, I need the car to listen to me! So, I got Harman-Kardon to custom build one!
             Corner Stability Control – I am going to be driving like a mad man most of the times trying to save the world. Commoners get 8th-gen but I have a 9th-gen ABS with EBD with a bit of special assistance through corners to ensure that I do not have to worry about making the turn while saving the world.

1200 hrs
      - Task One – We ran around the dusty cones trying to find traction on the withered soil, baked to the core by the blaring sun on to the hurdle. While we braced ourselves to avoid being tossed around in the car, Purujeet made a mockery of the dots making us look like fools as we glided across the hurdles.

1300 hrs
      - Task Two – We had to drive a 100 kilometers on an exceptionally hot summer afternoon.  You could almost cook an omelet without even a magnifying glass. But the HVAC engineers have pulled a rabbit out of the hat, just like the suspension engineers. With no tints to save us, the cabin mercury levels never got a chance to shoot. The ride was so comfortable that I actually thought we were doing 60 when we were actually doing 80. *cough*120*cough*beyond speedlimits*cough

A video posted by High On Throttle Customs (@godsentevil) on Apr 19, 2015 at 8:49pm PDT

1400 hrs
      - The essential F&B break. Time to hydrate yourself for the daunting task three. The food was sumptuous. A morsel more and I would have forgotten the mission!

1500 hrs
      - Task Three – I take the Revotron. I had only heard about it, but nothing prepared me to come to terms with what it really was. The first Indian turbo petrol is a gem. There would be many who would point out its shortcomings – the foremost being economy – which is true – but, the way this engine behaves, is a revelation. You keep the tacho needle a tad above 1500 and you are at the sweet spot. Till 4500, the car is just going to add oodles of power. Yes it has a sport mode which has all the magic. The Economy mode, as most Indians would prefer using, though, is not really tragic. In terms of performance –no – you expect the car to be mellow but economy – yes- it is a bit tragic. The diesel in this regard is the perfect buy for the lousy Indian car buyer. Just enough power to lug you around and loads of miles per drops of a gallon!
      - I revved the petrol hard, gunning through the winding roads with two of my co-agents and a damsel (no she wasn’t in distress) holding on to dear life trying to force a smile on their faces just not to possibly offend me in case I may decide to go even faster.
      - Reached the vantage point. The tiger covered! No casualties. Just passed under the radar!

#BoltDrives @blogadda @harishk99 Hyper Lapse! We bolt through the expressway!

A video posted by High On Throttle Customs (@godsentevil) on Apr 18, 2015 at 11:52pm PDT

1600 hrs
      - We stopped for a cooler. Time to split and bid adios to my co-agents. And yes the damsel too!
      - Well, until the next time! Mission impossible is just too cliché!

      It was a Sunday well spent at #BoltDrives with the Bolt, the brand new hatch from Tata Motors in association in our good friends – Blogadda. The car looks fresh and new but carries over the legacy of the legendary Indica in terms of humungous cabin space. But the best part is what it doesn’t carry is the lack of refinement, NVH and bad handling and poor interiors. The new car defines the new ideology of Tata Motors where they plan to build cars that are well built, good to look at and nice to drive and luxurious to be driven in!

To know more about the Tata Bolt and read expert reviews, 
http://www.carwale.com/tata-cars/bolt/

The-press-ion : the art of living a fucked up life!

दिल मे लगी आग को बुझाओगे कैसे?
होंठों के बीच अंगारो को, पैरो तले जैसे?
वक़िफ़ तो है हुम अप्ने मुक़द्दर से मगर,
बसे इस जेहेन मे सिकन्दर को, मिटाओगे कैसे?

कोशिशे कि लाखो, पर नैय्या कभी लगी ही नही,
जिस किनारे घर हमारा बना हो जैसे.
वो साहिल हि था, जो दरिया से दरिया ले चलता हमे,
के बवंडरो से कश्मकश हि थी जिन्दगी जैसे!

Poetry is that lucky emotion to find words to express itself. Not that I am a great poet or something, but the words above have just been put together by yours truly.

So sad is the back drop of this story that I sometimes wonder how badly depressed I am. Meet the Speedosopher, the guy who is excellent in giving unnecessary gyan because probably that is the only thing he thinks will not fail! I had written about ‘the Rock Bottom’ before and no Dwayne Johnson has anything to do with it. It was then, when I was trying to mask my depression under the mask of thought.

But then what is the point in hiding! My life, my depression, my fucking choice! It has been quite some time that I have been trying to do things right for a change and it turns out that I am digging my own bloody grave. We all have been taught that doing the right thing will always make you happy. But the truth is, fuck my lord, it doesn’t.

That is because – here is the crux – you can not define the ‘right thing’. The right thing, by virtue of its definition, is that deed which when done would probably make the stake holders of your life think you are not going to the dogs yet! Reminds me of ‘Sadda Haq’ – what an amazing composition by AR Rahman – getting the emotions out of the noted perfectly!

I am no politician. I believe in doing things the right way and it doesn’t matter if the thing is wrong in the first place. If I have chosen to do it, it has to be precariously planned and ruthlessly executed. Well, this brings me to my professional life. Well, I am lucky enough to find a workplace that seems to be awesome and the job that I do feels super awesome. I guess it is the excess of ‘awesomeness’, like Barney says, is screwing things up. I may be wrong, but from where I stand, I see a lot of disparity in the responsibility vs authority matrix. I thought the two years I was wasted in MBA, were a complete waste but no! Mistaking accountability for micro-management and trying to measure everything are the two biggest mistakes one can do and if that gets drilled down as a culture in a growing organization, it’s a disaster in the making.

But, fuck that. That is not what is bothering me the most now. Is it not super awesome when you get hired for a role where well, you will have to figure out what you would do. Take my word, it is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Because, you can not tread on to any one’s closely guarded territories unless your appointment letter says so, neither can you expect a good appraisal because they were always so many things you could do. And when you have friends like mine, well, I will have to wish you the best of luck twice over.

But fuck that too. That’s not again the point. After years of doing the right things, trusting the good in people, I still am stuck. I have a rusted motorcycle, my car is in shambles, I haven’t been on the road with no chut telling me to slow down and at the end of it, I don’t even have money in my bank. I am tired of living a good life.  I am tired of doing the right things. I am tired of being what I am – a foolish wreck. But the best part of this is, if I break away right now – hell would break loose. Not that I fear it, but somehow I have got used to avoid it.

ढुंढते रहे वजूद, अनजनी उन लेहेरो मे,
आके कोइ बतलाएगी आशियने का पता जैसे!

Tick tock tick tock tick tock.

PS: Do not expect me to thank you for the sympathy or empathy or whatever, I don’t need any of those. This is my shit, my choice! 

Fighting thy Demons

Well, I am back! Hell yeah!

For those who thought this mad man really had a million masks, well – he does. It is just that most of those are either built of cars or bikes!

The Versys 1000.

Enough said?

No.

260 kilos and tall enough to make a six footer toe-tip and packs a little less than a hundred and twenty horses across its mid-range.

I have ridden two wheels packing 180 horses before, and I know a lot of people would be starting to get ‘wuss’ into their minds.

Clocking speeds over two tons on a straight line on these kind of motorcycles is not at all an achievement. As I climbed on to its saddle at Kolhapur, it seemed as if I was hovering above the burning tarmac. The straights till Belgaum gave me enough time to calm my nerves and get comfortable with her.

But it was the Chorla Ghat that kicked me out of the comfort-zone. As I tried tipping the motorcycle into corners, the diva in the Versys started throwing her tantrums. She likes straights, she likes to go easy on brakes and she hates being leaned on to.

I had been out since 6 in the morning after a 2 hour nap, the night before. We had been shooting and the sun showed absolutely no respite, roasting us clad in full motorcycle gear. I was tired, and a bit fried and a bit cranky.

And Chorla it was. The rough levelled tarmac on the narrow curvy mountain road was what I was riding for all day – to brake late, brake hard, turn in with a knee down and bang the throttle open at the apex, powering out of the corner like it was the last one I ever had!

The battle was intense and every drop of adrenalin added to my blood-stream made me madder. I was looking two corners ahead, looking for its exit, planning my entry, gauging the pace without even realizing how fast I am right now, with my head just about two and a half feet away from the tar. I was talking to myself, trying to remember every word someone or the other had to say about sport riding.

‘Brake late, but don’t trail-brake’ 

‘Get your arse out, anchor the thigh’ 

‘Get your balance right – the gyroscope needs to be in your favour to make the next corner’ 

‘Steady throttle before the apex, gun it after that’ 

‘Try entering a corner like you have no brakes’ 

‘Keep your head Steady’ 

‘Hold the line and NEVER cross to the oncoming lane’ 

‘You need to work on your right handers’ 

‘Keep your hands light – flap them like wings into a corner’

Damn, so much to do and the bike was not really happy being held by the scruff of her neck and shoved wherever I wanted. It was exhilarating. It was a moment of no fear, no remorse, clarity of thought, attention to the minutest feedback – It felt like Nirvana!

I think I conquered quite a few of my inner demons then – the fear of letting loose, the fear of uncontrollable bursts, the fear of missing a detail. 

As I slowed down at the top of the Chorla ghat, I was exhausted – exhausted by the happiness I garnered in those 30 kilometers of dark tarmac, exhausted by the goose-bumps I had when I knew I haven’t gone so fast here ever before, exhausted by the fear of never being able to come back to this, exhausted by the fear of life!

Communities, conversions and conversations!

WARNING : The following opinions and content is controversial and reader's discretion is advised to avoid any hurting of sentiments. If you are reading this further, it is at your own risk! 

It has been a while the ‘Pro-Hindutva’ government has been at the helm and the secularists have gone on an overdrive raking up the conversion issue. The communal tensions in Mumbai have just added fuel to the fire – the embers that have been carefully kept warm all these years.

India is a conclave of diverse faiths, traditions, geographies and languages. The political system in India, has been pretty much successful in maintaining the divide with one tool – reservations. It started with reservations based on caste for the upheaval of the bereaved – a noble intention to get all classes of the society at par. But what it resulted is in doling out undue sops to the unworthy. It is a known fact that the average aptitude of the reserved classes is lower and when such people rise through the ranks to be decision makers, you are going to have more decisions that go wrong than the ones that do good. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, must be really riling in his heavenly abode for the idea that he brought into the system. The man was good, the intentions were good, but, the en masse was not really up for it. The illiterate got literacy certificates but the maturity of thought that comes through generations of knowledge was absent. When the going becomes easy, there is no enhancement and it is evident.

Coming to religions, Hinduism is not really a religion as all the ‘experts’ say. It is more of a way of life where you have a set of gods you pray to. You have to be born a Hindu and can not be converted into one as faith is imbibed into you and cannot be just taught to you. It is the main reason why different religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism et al could grow and prosper on this land. If you can take the cue, none of these religions believe in proselytism except Buddhism. And then, proselyte religions like Christianity and Islam made way to this land. The Muslims brought people to their fold with a dagger in their hand as chronicled in the history books while the Christians used coercion. Evangelism was celebrated for centuries and continued under the secular rule after Independence. Billions of dollars were pumped in through various routes to ensure smooth flow of the rituals. The question that how much of this actually helped the people is a different story all together!

It was all hunky-dory until the emergence of the ‘Hindutva’ bandwagon and its aggressive outlook. The secularists, who all these years had successfully manipulated the majority population in to believing that the minorities are different species that need special quotas and handling and sops, suddenly ran into a dead wall. When the majority started voicing their concerns about the right to equality, hell broke loose. The minorities who were by then used to the spoon feeding, took it as their birth right and started crying foul. The cash rich church wasn’t bothered. They have gobbled up billions worth of real estate for ‘convents’ where Christianity has always been portrayed as modern and sophisticated (which is kind of true as the literacy and knowledge quotient there is quite high. That may be also because of the knowledge and sophistication our foreign rulers got here with them) The Muslims though got stuck in their sandy roots, no real money as such, living in ghettos, oblivious to the world outside. The whole community, in general, seems to have missed at least a couple of decades of growth of thought.

The juncture, where we all stand now, is very critical. The majority that had been lying dormant now perceives a threat to its existence. The minorities, that faced only scathing glances till now, are being pushed back to ‘size’ (as many would like to portray). But this has been the course for a multicultural society. The minorities will always be slightly sidelined unless they shed their minority tag and be a whole hearted part of the mainstream. That is democracy where the majority always counts. Giving undue importance to trivial things like race or religion and identifying yourself with it will only widen the divide and create further tensions. Add proselytism to it and the mix will turn explosive.

‘Ghar Wapsi’ should not be about religion at all. Ghar Wapsi should be about making yourself at home with everyone and not confining your good intentions and good work only to your locality, community, caste, creed, religion or region! ‘Ghar Wapsi’ should be that umbrella under which you should need no crutches to establish your identity. It is all about your tryst with the truth. Your truth is that illusion you believe you have seen. If you believe that the country is a family, you will not bother if your sibling is white or black or Hindu or Muslim. And that is when India will start to grow!