Save The Vowels !

Mrng, H r u , tc and k . This is what I got today morning and it was just the proverbial straw that broke my back. Honestly, these short forms are driving me nuts. I am not one of those grammar Nazis. Heavens forbid but when in the morning one starts checking the messages and these short forms come, I wonder what everyone is doing with the saved vowels.

Is there a secret society that I don’t know about or don’t belong to? How come everyone majorly eats up the vowels? We are not on twitter nor are we driving at that time that one needs to save time or is being a smart alec to make a point on the twitter feed. We all belong to a time when the colonial hangover was still looming on us, we all went to school and were taught proper sentences and perfect spellings. I just don’t know what happened with the advent of the smart phone. We all are vehla’, and are sitting on the throne and sending messages that seemed to have lost vowels.

My dear, saving the vowels and taking them to heaven are not going to get ache din back. All we can do is change ourselves now and seize the moment. In our lives now, we all profess to be busy and have no time for life and its moments. All we can do is complain and curse and find fault in the government, who are also human, it’s us who they govern but we just don’t want to be governed. All we can do is break laws, not take care of the society, its infrastructure and always play the blame game. Then we are the shrillest. How many of you would actually go plant a tree, or help clean your street? We would rather sit glued to the third arm extension we have and register protests on the virtual platform. I don’t think the God there listens (there are so many God pages) .The administrator there is also human.

A fast pace of life, trying to juggle activities, multi-tasking, networking, and just living the façade of a fake life has changed us. We all are guilty of this, we read, we ignore, we send a perfunctory K, and dismiss. Not realizing, sometimes these are cries for help. Sometimes, these statuses, messages all can lead us to a saddened, depressed person who can be helped.  All, I say is when you reply, just do so with a complete sentence not eating up the vowels, respect the receiver. 

How would you like it? If , one day the vowels just protested and disappeared and became extinct? No DNA sample would bring them back, like the white rhinos. Sometimes ,its good to savor the moment, to go slow, just like the tortoise and enjoy the journey. It’s all about the journey, not about the destination. Life is not about coming first, that is why we have the number line, and someone has to come second, third, so forth and last.

And, next times just make a conscious effort to use the vowels. You’d see the difference, and just don’t get me started on the punjabi english , hindi khichdi that has invaded my inbox.I think its all about being this old fashioned puritan or as they say Buddha ho gaye, tussi .Could be that I am in my dotage, and this fast pace is not for me.

However, I am starting an online crusade where I am going to save the vowels from extinction!

K.

The Curious Case of the Urine test

One of the best whatsapp forwards came today, I wish I could post the Punjabi one, but a loosely translated it means that a politician took the urine sample of someone and passed it off as his. A few days, when we went to laboratory for the report, the compounder congratulated him saying, you are all clean and congratulations you are pregnant.

This is just one of the jokes that have begin to surface regarding the new policy of the government of making it compulsory to be tested for drugs.

I agree, it is a bold step and they have also boldly announced death penalty for the offenders. This already existed since Independence but why has there been such a severe laxity and a conundrum between the police, state officials, politicians and just about everyone. I am sure we all agree that no one came from the next country, and not even the next one or Mars. No green-eyed funny Martian came and sprinkled dust on us and voila! We were addicted. It’s happened in front of us, slowly and slowly poisoning the children, the youth, the elderly and it’s just a catastrophe.  We have all been so busy in blaming the other political party just to swing the votes, so the new one came what did they do? Have the waved the magic wand? Have the deaths finished, have they suddenly all reformed. Instead of shouting, blaming, throwing allegations and trying to do arm chair politics (Punjabis come number one in this sphere).

I have two boys who attended my evening school a few years ago who are addicts. They did everything what we as Punjabis are famous for, took money on loan, did the Middle east circuit, made money, came back to the village, flaunted the money, built the customary ‘kotha’, made everyone jealous with the wealth and married an innocent girl, got her pregnant and became an addict.

It’s the story just out of the next Raj Kumar Hirani movie. The sad part is these boys don’t make any blockbuster money, nor will it run to packed halls. They just die behind the old, dilapidated school alley, found the next day by some one who went to the pans early morning. This is the true picture. The amount of money that is going to be shelled out for testing and to make headlines the next day could be used effectively for the rehabilitation. It is so expensive for the common man to get them treated that they just try once and eventually give up. Friends, Punjabis, countrymen, lend me your ears, try and bury drugs. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with drugs. I am loosely borrowing this, and changing it to suit my subject here. But, I honestly wish for a cooperation of the parties together that can change the horizon for tomorrow, otherwise the coming generations if it survives will not forgive us for being mute spectators. Do not worry about the shrinking water table, if none are left, who will use and farm the water? We were once the pride of India; do not be reduced to the shame and blot of India

The Curious Case of the Urine test

One of the best whatsapp forwards came today, I wish I could post the Punjabi one, but a loosely translated it means that a politician took the urine sample of someone and passed it off as his. A few days, when we went to laboratory for the report, the compounder congratulated him saying, you are all clean and congratulations you are pregnant.

This is just one of the jokes that have begin to surface regarding the new policy of the government of making it compulsory to be tested for drugs.

I agree, it is a bold step and they have also boldly announced death penalty for the offenders. This already existed since Independence but why has there been such a severe laxity and a conundrum between the police, state officials, politicians and just about everyone. I am sure we all agree that no one came from the next country, and not even the next one or Mars. No green-eyed funny Martian came and sprinkled dust on us and voila! We were addicted. It’s happened in front of us, slowly and slowly poisoning the children, the youth, the elderly and it’s just a catastrophe.  We have all been so busy in blaming the other political party just to swing the votes, so the new one came what did they do? Have the waved the magic wand? Have the deaths finished, have they suddenly all reformed. Instead of shouting, blaming, throwing allegations and trying to do arm chair politics (Punjabis come number one in this sphere).

I have two boys who attended my evening school a few years ago who are addicts. They did everything what we as Punjabis are famous for, took money on loan, did the Middle east circuit, made money, came back to the village, flaunted the money, built the customary ‘kotha’, made everyone jealous with the wealth and married an innocent girl, got her pregnant and became an addict.

It’s the story just out of the next Raj Kumar Hirani movie. The sad part is these boys don’t make any blockbuster money, nor will it run to packed halls. They just die behind the old, dilapidated school alley, found the next day by some one who went to the pans early morning. This is the true picture. The amount of money that is going to be shelled out for testing and to make headlines the next day could be used effectively for the rehabilitation. It is so expensive for the common man to get them treated that they just try once and eventually give up. Friends, Punjabis, countrymen, lend me your ears, try and bury drugs. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with drugs. I am loosely borrowing this, and changing it to suit my subject here. But, I honestly wish for a cooperation of the parties together that can change the horizon for tomorrow, otherwise the coming generations if it survives will not forgive us for being mute spectators. Do not worry about the shrinking water table, if none are left, who will use and farm the water? We were once the pride of India; do not be reduced to the shame and blot of India