Mumbai bomb blast, an overview

26/11, called as India's 9/11, has left a lasting impression in my mind. I was glued to television for the three days of live terror and dastardly killing of people in cold blood. The picture of that lone LeT gunmen Kasab going on a killing spree in the streets of Mumbai will be an unforgettable image. The image of people near the India Gate suddenly bending to the ground to escape the bullet shots, the splashing of blood in the CST terminus, scattered shoes, suitcases, and baggage with scores of dead bodies nearby were perhaps the saddest images I have ever seen in life. These terrorist acts were barbaric, gruesome, and unpardonable actions committed against a civilized and "secular" country as per the statement from Foreign ministry. But I feel this dastardly action need not only strong condemnation in every form but also retaliatory action against the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

I want to focus on various actors in this entire operation

1. Stupid Common Man:
It is high time the stupid common man (from the movie "Wednesday") should rise above the masses and realize their true strength. He“must” act when his beloved Basanti (Motherland India) is in danger, colour (“Rang De”) it with colour of freedom. The aam aadmi (UPA jargon) has no other alternatives to reach their destination, he must take the same land route (not an aerial route which our VIPs use to inspect the flood affected land) using local train or BEST buses to reach his destination. The medium may not be guaranteed the BEST medium, as it has no life insurance with it. The “aam aadmi” calls back home or gets a call from home after reaching his usual destination "safely". (He reaches safely not because there was heavy police bandobast (deployment) on the road, usually seen on the eve of national days, festivals or during any VIP dignitaries’ visit to the place. He reaches safely because terrorists did not want to kill anybody that day with a bomb blast or a landmine. Again, the common man has a very short term memory to remember such tragic incidences for ever. Thankfully IPL Premier league was cancelled, but Rab De Bana Di Jodi and Gazhni will surely make him forget the worst tragedy of the country in a flash of seconds.
Already our own Marathi manoos “Sachin” had dedicated his 41st century for the people of Mumbai as if this announcement sans donation from the richest man of the city will make Mumbaikar forget their near and dear ones with his explosive batting. It is time to forget and forgive, the true Indian spirit….and wait for the next blast… true Opposition style…..For some these blasts and killings are a career mission which will take them to so called Heaven, for some these are an opportunity of their life time to hype it till the next election, for some this is their one time opportunity to increase their TRP ratings and be the media moghul, and finally for someone like a Stupid common man, it is a matter of initial shock, but later forget and forgive and move on….in life, there is no other way out, no other opportunity except to earn one's livelihood.
But Media has found a term for this, i.e. the great Spirit of Mumbaikars.
Do aam aadmi have any choice left? I feel there is no such great spirit, it is a question of people’s survival, question of their daily bread and butter. The breadwinner of the family has to go by him/herself and travel those terrorist infested routes ("read the streets, stations, markets, offices") without any gun toting SPG commandos by the sides. The question arises: What a common man should do now, in such situation? Answer is: first stop watching TV channels, or reading those newspapers which recklessly and shamelessly show live telecast of negative news and try to create fear psychosis and war hysteria among the masses. When the public disallows a biased media to create terrorism of their mind and heart, they can win half the race of their lives.
Next way to live is believe in God more and more than anybody else. Only God can save all. He only can bring the real strength in us, and can be our real strength for all. No one else. We should throw away our emotion and be brave enough inside to face this life head on with any situation. We should increase our faith on the Almighty, the omnipotent and omniscient, rather than on a Patil or a PC. He can tell us if our near and dear ones will return home safely or not had we prayed to Him sincerely. We'd leave everything at God's discretion without unnecessarily worrying.

The stupid common man can follow another path as shown in Wednesday, i.e. he becomes a non-state actor and take revenge on the so called "non-state actors" from across the border. When the state machinery fails completely to protect him, he arises from the masses and becomes a savior for all and takes revenge on perpetrators of terrorism single handedly and wins the hearts of the millions of people of the country. To make it happen, the common man does not need to stand for any religion or caste, but stand for his own survival, his family and his country and its future generation. The corrupt politicians, the weak police force, and the inefficient government officials cannot protect the common citizens of the country. But this is only possible in reel life, and not in reality. As this is a dangerous path, and it will make a peace-loving neutral person a blood thirsty and revengeful player. Tit-for-tat is not the correct way to approach a crisis. Instead we just offer everything to God. We must take all our worries at Her Lotus feet, Let The Almighty take care of all, guide us the true and honest path.

2. Politicians
It is our misfortune that we have been blessed with such callous, insensitive and selfish politicians to rule our country. God has not given us very little option to choose from the scoundrels. May be it is God’s Will that we are force to such power-hungry people to rule this great noble country. Everybody will go through a phase of life where they will learn to transform themselves, they cannot take this life for granted. Everyone in this world is given a chance, a circumstance, in life where they must listen to their inner call, and decide their next step which will change their life forever. If they fail to realize their inner calling, later they will regret for losing the best opportunity of leading an honest and truthful life.

It is futile to scold the politicians in full public glare, in live Television debate, in long Mumbai March or a Delhi candle march near India Gate. Nothing will change the genes of politicians as it is strongly resistance proof.
We need not be ashamed of our unscrupulous politicians who write our destiny sitting in our Parliament or assemblies. They must remember one quote: You can fool all the people some of the time but cannot fool all the people all the time.
God must have found some purpose and reason for bestowing such power mongers among the masses.
The politicians should have united at this tragic incident time and must step in to uplift the morale of the nation which is facing its deepest crisis.

They must not stoop to any lows to play politics on the dead bodies of common man and martyr soldiers and bring shame to country's image internationally.

3. Journalists/Media Fraternity:
The Media calls this attack as “War on Mumbai”. They were fortunately able to create a false War Hysteria and terrible fear psychosis on the masses, that entire country was brought to a standstill. Such is the power of media in this age of Internet and communication. Getting such live news can be accepted as part of freedom of expression or freedom of speech. But the way the fact was presented before the public was highly deplorable and unpardonable. The entire media, both electronic and print, so called fourth pillar of democracy, brought a sorry picture of the nation at its distress. They failed miserably to work as a force to bring solace to the suffering public, but went to claim best TRP ratings for their live coverage. They didn’t care for the safety of a fellow SPG commando who is jumping into the fire and rescuing innocent victims, but they went after showing the pictures of the devastated hotel just minutes after the blast leaving no clue to the police. They had a running race to claim the number of dead bodies, the victims: Our channel is the only channel which has brought the figures of dead as 200. It is a matter of great pride for our channel to bring this news first for the public. So callous…so insensitive… we have become towards the society, to the suffering public. These channels won’t even care even if their CEO’s child got killed in that terror attack.
Instead of acting as a vigil for the public, acting as a pillar of strength, the media failed to unite the public and politicians at the grave crisis. They were able to showcase the entire country as a place of death and destruction, utterly helpless; there is no hope left from the government of the day.
Instead the media should have used this opportunity to build the nation, and not divide the nation on linguistic or religious basis; they should not have shown immense maturity in not showing the pictures of dead bodies showing their religious allegiance. The outpouring of emotion and fear psychosis among the masses must have been controlled. They should have shown positive news out of all these negative atmosphere; They should have shown “Hope” in place of “Helplessness.” They should not have started or telecast any blame games among the politicians when the country is in crisis. The post mortem can be done later in a much professional and impartial way.

India and its vibrant democracy

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”
Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA

If there is one place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is INDIA."
-Romain Rolland, French Scholar

Just think of a peace loving, spiritually strong, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic civilization with a rich cultrual heritage and great thinking minds.

But after 61 years of independence, have we really achieved anything great in the real terms? It is time we'd ponder over this....

Has our country succeeded exceedingly or failed miserably?

India has succeeded because.....

1. It has survived against all odds and put forward a showpiece "National Unity" despite so many diversities.
2. It has shown a vibrant democratic system to the world, which can exist with so much diversity. Here a son of a school teacher from MP can rule the country for five years, son of a untouchable village physician can become a President...also a Dalit girl from remote corner of UP can aspire to become a Prime Minister one day. Democracy has given so much freedom and choice to people to think uniquely and contribute towards the nation building.
3. It has survived many worst religious riots, many ethnic clashes, many regionalistic chauvinistic clashes, and some worst terrorist attacks.
4. It has survived the impact of Globalization, national companies were not swept away by the entry of MNCs into the Indian market.
5. It has become self-confident and resilient nation with tremendous growth in all sectors the last 61 years.

India has failed in the last 61 years, because...

1. It has failed to attain a strong national mind and national character. It has failed to evolve an inspiring national vision and a strong sense of purpose. This national character was visible in Japan when people of the war-torn country after WWII, resolved to make that nation world's leading nation. Today Japan boasts of being the second richest country in the world.
   
2. It has failed to reduce the wide gulf between the rich and the poor and rural-urban divide.
3. People of India belittle themselves to such an extent to spread cynicism, apathy and inaction all around. They depend upon the Government for all round progress and upliftment.

THE SECRET....by Rhonda Byrne

The Secret: Book Review

I have come across this amazing book when it was gifted by my sister's friend two months back.
I didn't start reading this book until one day when I googled about this book. I find this book has transformed millions of peoples' lives around the world. To my surprise, there is a TV production house which is promoting this book's essence through live films, documentaries, interviews (both from the authors and the readers who became successful after reading this). These success stories compelled me to read this book.

The summary of this book lies over one single idea or concept "Law of Attraction". This is the great Secret of Life.

The law states that "like attracts like, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you".

The law of attraction is a law of nature. It is as impartial as the law of gravity. Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts. Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think thoughts, they are sent out to into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source --- You.

You are like a human transmission tower, transmitting a frequency with your thoughts. If you want to change anything in your life, change the frequency by changing your thoughts.

Your current thoughts are creating your future life. What you think about the most or focus on the most will appear as your life.

YOUR THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS....


These are some of the quotable quotes about Law of Attraction. The book is full of quotes and its detailed explanations. I cannot write all the quotes here, but I advise all to atleast read this book once.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother

I believe in Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's ideals. I and my family have accepted them as our Guru, our Guide, our Strength, our Mission, our Goal. I feel really fortunate to come to know about their Presence. They are not two different beings, both are one, represent one soul, but manifested in two external forms. Before I speak more about Sri Aurobindo or Mother, I should advise all to read atleast one or two books written by them and feel the difference. It is very easy to talk or write about them, but very very difficult to practise their ideals, their way of living, their advice to universe.

When you feel The Mother's presence every moment, you can feel the difference in real life. I now realize where I am making a mistake, when I am taking a wrong path in life, when I am deviating from my goal, why my progress is taking too long to happen, why I should change my way of living, how I should make a difference to my life and others' life.

First and foremost rule of Mother's yoga is to maintain complete silence inside. It is to become conscious of Divine every moment, every work. When we get up from bed, bathe, eat, drive a vehicle, talk to colleagues, talk to a shopkeeper, see a movie, sleep at night, dream, talk over phone, enjoy a trip to a foreign locale with your family; in essence, every where....and at every moment....BE CONSCIOUS.....OF DIVINE.....The divine element is inside us, outside us, above us, below us, we just have to be aware of this spark every seconds. This is the true essence of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga.