My Diet with the Evil Soup.

Ok , Today is day One and I am joining the ranks of people who diet to lose weight . I think its mainly as a personal challenge and to see if I can stop the incessant munching that I do. I have been joined on this ambitious diet plan by two strong hearted comrades who promise to follow me and support me. Geographically , they are hundreds of kms away but in mind , spirit they are with me. The diet plan entails me to drink oodles of evil -knievel soup which is watery ( i think smelly too) and no matter how much tabasco I put in  it , the taste will not change. But , apparently the cabbage will make the fat globules which stick melt and disappear just like the tough stains on my whites. Maybe, all I need to do is put myself in the washing machine and wring and spin away the fat :((.
Just , the soup itself , drinking it I mean is enough for my body to shudder and lose weight . We have also been reminded by the torture experts to drink at least 10 glasses of water . So, does this mean we spend our days in the loo? Just there. Maybe, the laws of gravity will work for me.
Please, bear with me for the next seven days and my crazy wisecracks. Any one who wishes to join in , please do . The next post is at night and I will tell you how day 1 went ....

Is patriotism defunct?

Is patriotism defunct?

A visit to a local theatre, an evening out and standing up to honor the national anthem being played has raised so many questions and a debate in me which has left me shaken and facing an issue which is so futile that it should not have been raised in the first place. How much is 52 seconds of your life? I mean of one’s day. Minuscule, zilch and if one has to stand to salute or pay respect to the unknown soldier who lays down his life irrespective of whether you are Punjabi, Haryanvi or a Keralite. The bullet kills not asking the caste or creed. They die fighting at the orders in skirmishes which are never reported but the coffin comes back and a little column is printed, the human behind the commission number dismissed.

 Have we as a nation forgotten the sacrifices made to achieve this nation? Is patriotism only valuable for the speeches given by our honorable politicians to swing the votes and by the movie industry to churn out blockbusters playing on sentiments inflaming them to a crescendo?

I had one debater say,’ how can one standing up (or not) demonstrate one’s love for the nation? And then this learned gentleman further says why should one love the nation in the first place? A nation and its symbols the songs, anthem, flags are just political entities. They represent the political system and not the country. All the Indians crib against inefficient political system but feel offended when one doesn’t respect the symbols. I love my country, but don’t feel obliged to respect the nation.

What, where how, when did this mindset happen? I am shocked, dismayed, saddened by the fact that standing and paying respect for a nation al anthem (wherever it is played) is deemed as tres’ bizarre. Have become so cynical that we see a conspiracy by a motley crew of 800 odd politicians who run /rule this country? It is infitissemaly better to live in a corrupt country where there is freedom than an Islamic nation or a pseudo fake democrat country. I feel, we the present generation and the next have had it too easy. Every thing is available; we have had no struggle. In fact the struggle for a normal Punjabi male today is to sell his land and a bigger SUV than his counterpart; and for the young Punjaban girl it is to get the next designer outfit. Why has all the jazba been frittered away? Has the blood been so thinned by years of aping the west that we have become so nonchalant that we say yes I love Punjab, my country but I don’t give two annas (Pun) for my nation and its symbols. I mean when did you divide the nation and the country?

I remember, and people from the village get it slow, we are enclosed on the map, in the same nation and the country. And, to make fun of a soldier who chooses his job as he has the junoon and the jazba and not because of the pay, well only Captain Haddock sums  up my feeling to this insensitivity,” Billions of blue blistering barnacles in ten thousand thundering typhoons!”

Patriotism is not an invisible thing , it can’t be seen touched or bottled or sold at the nukkad shop but it is a living jazba in one; and trust me someone who says it’s not there , mister you are so missing Mera Bharat mahaan .

Jai Hind

Ravneet Sangha.

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

How Much is too Much- the Anthem?

How much is too much?

Every Friday, a movie gets released and crores of Indians faithfully pay homage to the stars to which we look up to. Ask any self –respecting Indian he/ she will know what is happening in Saifeena’s life, where they are going for their honeymoon and the clothes, the guest list and yes, the food (we live on menus, please). And, I did the same to watch a great movie.

The usual motley mix of people was there. A sprinkling of oldies, young gen x, and couples with kids out to have a good time. Before the movie started, one watched the trailers of upcoming movies, and then suddenly sponsored by BIGG BOSS 6, the national anthem plays requesting the audience to stand up.

Well, its precisely 1minute 15 seconds for the entire national anthem but that is not sung in totality, what is sung commonly is a mere 52 seconds.

What ensued has me shocked, upset and just stunned and also now I realize why we don’t progress? Half of the crowd stands up, and then some belatedly so, more than ¾ th of the audience talks and is embarrassed that they have to stand up or they are standing to pay respect. I still can’t get that out of my head. Why are we embarrassed? Why don’t we feel pride, in standing up and commemorating our country, its very existence? The clip shot so beautifully and poignantly shows how our soldiers brave the extreme cold in Siachen Glacier – 40 degree Celsius safeguarding the border against not the presumed by default enemy but the one which strikes without checking the nationality first, nature and its cold wrath.

The students from the Local colleges were making fun, sniggering and talking and some were shuffling in trying to find their seats. The over -confident swagger and the attitude.

Where did we go wrong as a nation? If, we do not introspect now, we will lose all. In fact, the danger is not from the enemy but is forms within as we are ourselves are vulnerable and susceptible to a fast spiraling dark hole, an abyss.

I was sad, and upset and in despair seeing the action and mannerism of the youth who instead of being silent and saluting our brave soldiers for a mere 52 seconds were laughing and making jokes.

How much time is 52 seconds? What all can be done? Can one stand still and more importantly be quiet?

But, a cynic in me thinks, at least my rose tinted blinkers are off. In fact, if one does not have it in the hearts then why pretend?

Oh my broken hearts mend yourself. They gave their today, for our tomorrow, I ponder what we will give for them….

Ravneet  Sangha

goodv/s bad 2

Atleast, this reading gives me the satisfaction of making people think, it's wonderful to read/ hear and to just plain ol' discuss whether we are on the right path. I know you are all going to nod and say well. it's all circumstantial and the choice is made at that moment. Moment being the key word here , how does one decide the moment(the most oppurtune one) or seize the moment. Wars have been fought, people have been slaughtered history is testament to it... because it was the need of the hour. My question self -searching though it is;Is how do we weigh the moment in terms of good or bad ?

Burn Your Inner Demons

Burn Your Inner Demons

Dushera, Diwali is around the corner and we have Navratas carrying on. Everyone says burn your inner demon and exorcise the devil which resides in you in this pious month. In fact the burning of the effigy of Ravan is tantamount to burning the evil that lurks in one self.

How wonderful it would be that we could get away with washing away our sins by burning little voodoo dolls made in our image? Just imagine, the scenario outside one’s house and there is a line of dolls made with crackers in them and then they are set alight!

What would be the scenario in front of the politicians that rule us? Would they do this? It should have been made compulsory by the sages, and priests who set up the precedence of burning the effigies, that anyone found guilty in the eyes of public should publicly burn an effigy so as to vanquish the evil and bad that is in them and also to serve as a reminder that the high and mighty also fall.

We must remember and rise above the false -hood, which cloaks our daily lives. We find that life and the turn that society has taken is just the opposite, we were taught that good triumphs over evil. Good is pure and just and it wins in the end.

It however seems that this is not happening, life is becoming increasingly superficial and we are losing the true meaning and spiritual significance of the festivals.

Worldly success is measured in terms of material objects; possessions and morals are being sacrificed to attain more prestige and false honor.

This season, instead of burning an effigy in the local grounds exorcise the inner demon which lurks in all of us, the one which lusts, is full of avarice, covets, hates and sometimes commits heinous crimes and thinks that the red eyed devil or shaitan is hidden but he or she is within us; it depends what we feed.

I don’t mean go around , burning people but look within and make a conscious effort to get rid of the demon or the shortcomings and grasp the true meaning. Be it dusshera which symbolizes the destruction of Raavan and bringing back cheer and Diwali which marks the return of King Ram to Ayodhya where lights are burnt and crackers are burst.

Both symbolize the triumph of good over bad , and vanquishing evil . Thus this festive season let’s, return to the true meaning of the festival sand not get caught up in superficiality and artifice.

Ravneet Sangha

two minutes or twenty

Two minutes or more like twenty.

Ladies and Gentlemen, primarily the alpha pack, I wanted to ask you a question of serious importance and gravity. What is the average time taken by you to consume a plate of chow Mein? Is it, fast medium or slow?

Apparently a learned and distinguished scholar of repute and social political standing in the nearby state has come to the conclusion that eating fast food like chow Mein causes a hormonal imbalance and that leads to an urge to rape. So, you see, you young girls and women it’s not the man to be blamed his primal instinct is because he eats chow Mein and fast food.

Methinks, this is a conspiracy to absolve the country from the 1962 debacle and to now blame the Chinese for the war.

What a bull, cockamamie story oh sorry, and being of the weaker, fairer sex is I allowed using such words? Maybe the wrath of men may fall on me. The study says (if you call it) eating fast food causes directly an urge to rape, so help me here does the eating of the particular food do this? Or does that yummy food do it? Or is it that you men are eating too fast? Can’t you all eat slowly, for heaven ‘s sake? Didn’t your mother teach to eat slowly and that too 32 times?

This also has made me reach at interesting conclusions:

a)  Women don’t eat fast food; they aren’t quick to catch it you see. We aren’t fast.

b)  If they eat fast food on the sly, they don’t get the urge tot rape. Why Bhai, what’s wrong? Go ahead; give into your baser instincts.

c)   All the Orientals are raping each other; they all eat fast food you see.

d)  A national advertising campaign has been started silently and secretly whereby an extra zero has quickly sprung up on the bill boards changing the famous yummy, comfort food of millions from two to twenty. The word ‘instant’ is extinct and has been banned. .

My advise, men eat chow Mein albeit a bit slowly, relish it and don’t let that invisible ingredient which causes hormonal imbalance get the better of you and you start raping us on the streets or the new fad moving cars. Get a life guys, and live happily ever after and please go-slow. (I know I sound like a broken record).

On second thoughts, is all the street food also fast food?

Shoot, now we all are in trouble.  There goes my favorite golgappa.

Ravneet  Sangha

What is Spirituality?

What is spirituality?

The most misused and name-dropped word in today’s terminology. I met someone, at a dinner that as polite conversations go asked me what I did? I answered with. And then something struck her and she said but you don’t look at all spiritual. Well, what is someone who is spiritual or has an inclination supposed to look like?

Am I supposed to give up wearing my clothes and start wearing coarse, hand spun cotton to establish my credentials? Or should one be stern looking with a mala in hand and open hair, to look the part? I feel, as societies we are judgmental and like fitting people in niches which make us feel comfortable rather than giving the other person a choice.

How many of us say, oh she is of a loose character (a word I have never figured out because does it mean her cells are loosely packed or she has wispy fly by the night character?). In fact, just because I don’t have the minimum grey hair to qualify and wrinkles to justify the spiritual angle it translates into me not being a blogger for a popular site. I write because I feel and spirituality I think is life in action according to an unwritten code where we respect life and its sanctity, by keeping foremost the Creator in mind. It is love for some, it is nature, it is the unwritten cosmic which keeps the earth and its inhabitants in motion.

It is the beauty in the moon rays, which can warm the heart even if one says the moon is cold, it is the beauty in the shade of the tree, and the dew drops on the grass. I can go and on like the energizer bunny but spirituality is that special place where one can retreat into like a special friend’s embrace. Comfortable, quiet and no questions asked.

Spirituality and Religiosity are two different things. One is spiritual and is free to soar in the skies, not bound by dogmas or a set of laws. In the former, you question, see and embrace nature and its beauty believing that in all reside Him.

It is the unexplainable, uncontrollable divine element that cannot be put into words but exists In fact, I think I do my best and leave the rest to God and his mysterious ways to see it through.

In today’s day and age we are a world of cynics, wandering my, mystics, questioning everything, we do not accept but have to raise fingers at everything. We, have become more self centered, more materialistic as a nation but on the whole there is a change in the society or in humanity where we are becoming more spiritual and that is what makes us move on .We, all try to carve out a special moment in our busy lives (crazy times, believe you me).

Spirituality is exploration, shifting, evolving, changing, and yes challenging and stretching this cosmos to understand the void.