DHOOM … DIWALI DHAMAKA

The D day has arrived. The much awaited Diwali is celebrated across the country today.

What’s so great about this festival??
Diwali, also called Deepavali ,is a major Hindu festival. Known as the "Festival of Lights," it symbolises the victory of good over evil, and lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for mankind. The festival of Diwali is rooted in the mythological epic Ramayana, and is a celebration of the return of Lord Ram after killing Ravan the Demon during his exile for 14 years. It also commemorates the killing of Narakasura, an evil demon who created havoc, by Lord Krishna's wife Sathyabhama. This happened in the Dwapara Yuga during this time of Lord Krishna's avatar. (Information Courtsey : Wikipedia)

There was a visible feverish excitement about this festival. People, from various localities of the city, generally do their shopping in a locality known as T.Nagar, which could have witnessed a shopping population equal to the population of Singapore during the last two weeks (Population of Singapore: 4.4 Million)

It’s a fact. No joke. If you don’t believe that, drop in to Saravana stores in T.Nagar to verify my fact. Kudos to Chennai traffic police for handling such a mammoth crowd.

Yesterday was the curtain raiser for Diwali. My mom was busy preparing a lot of sweets & snacks. Outside, there were a lot of kids bursting crackers & few people rushing for last minute shopping
(You must be very careful while driving in this time. You will have a cracker bursting next to your vehicle)

My mobile was flooded was with Diwali wishes from 10 Pm onwards.

Standard message template
“Before the network is congested, I wish you a happy Diwali”. The creator of this message thought that he was smart. But he was wrong. The network got congested by 10.30 Pm itself :-)

After attending those messages, I finally crashed at round 1am in the morning.(Diwali day)

It so happened that I managed to get into a deep sleep mode & was woke up by some stupid crackers at around 5am. Damn…

Can’t the people burst the crackers in silent mode???? :-)(Bad joke... Effect of excessive use of mobile in silent mode)

There is a difference between a normal person & a determined person. I am a determined person & continued towards my goal of pursuing a deep sleep. Unfortunately my determination was short lived & woke up due to fireworks from my dad at around seven. (“Ashwin ... Get up da... Today is an auspicious day”)

Anyway, it was too noisy outside & it was impossible to pursue my deep sleep. As today is a special day, I was supposed to have a “Ganga Snaanam” (Holy Bath). We, Chennai people, are not lucky enough to get water from river Ganges. So I had to adjust with the Chennai corporation water for my sacred bath.

I had a glimpse of outside. Smoke everywhere. I think Kyoto protocol must be ramified to include an exception for this gross violation of pollution norms. Why am I talking about this?? Just like that :-)

PS: Author of this blog (that is “me”) is bugged by mundane television(Diwali special) episodes like “Pathimandram, A day with super star, etc”. So the author is bored & has decided to bug his blog readers with an intellectual crap. Since the author has to go out now, he is leaving this blog incomplete. If anybody can continue this crap, your ideas are welcome. :-)

NOTE: In order to enjoy my so called crap, the readers must be in the same wavelength as that of the author.

GANDHIGIRI in Real LIFE?????

The recent success of "Lage Raho MunnaBhai" has given raise to a new connotation, popularly known as "GANDHIGIRI". This term sounds really cool & it's creators had coined this word with an intention to market "Brand Gandhi” in a big way. The movie was good. The message of truth and non violence was delivered in a comical way.

After coming out of the movie hall, I just tried to retrospect the movie. Is it really possible to follow Gandhian values & succeed in our real life? How can we implement these utopian ideas in our mundane life??(Our moral values have come down to such a low level that honesty seems to be a utopian idea.) Is it possible??

The answer turned out to be negative. It is really impractical & foolish to always follow the policy of honesty & non violence in a country like INDIA where corruption is rampant.

Let's simulate the life of a college student, who decided to follow Gandhigiri for one day.

Scene 1:
Time 7:15 Am
Our hero gets up from the bed to find that he is late. He does his regular morning chores & starts from his house @ 7:38 Am. In normal circumstances, our hero would reach his train station by 7.43 am & would manage to board the 7:44 Am train. For a change, he decided to follow the principles of GANDHIGIRI for a day (PS: Inspiration from the movie & media buzz).

He starts from his house & finds a board stating a speed limit of 40 KMPH. Our hero, decided not to break the speed limit. He reached a junction where there is a traffic signal. This is one junction in which all the vehicles move when the signal is red. Our Hero stood like the model of caliber bike advertisement (An Unshakeable person). Few drivers complemented him with good Chennai Tamil words.

Lesson #1: There are some places in earth where you should not be different from others. Else you will be run over by the next pallavan bus. :)

Scene 2:
Finally the hero reached the station by 7:49 Am & found that he had missed the next train also (7:48 Am Train)

Lesson #2: When you know that you are not going to reach your goal due to some stupid rules, then there is no use in following it. In life, the end result matters. In a highly competitive world, you need to be little cunning to meet your ends. I still have a strong belief that Gandhiji cannot succeed in this present day scenario.

Scene 3:
Time 8:25 Am
The hero managed to reach the station near his college. He has just 5 more minutes to reach his class & he has to walk for 500 meters inside his college. He had 2 options: Cross the track & reach your class in time. Else, climb the crowded stairs & reach your class late.

As our hero was following Gandhigiri, he climbed the crowded foot over bridge & reached his class 3 minutes late. Unfortunately, the staff was before time & had finished taking attendance. Our Hero had an option to ask for his attendance. Our hero felt that he had committed a blatant mistake & silently settled in class. Some of his friends, who came after him, got attendance from the staff. Our hero lost attendance for 2 hours.

Lesson #3: There is just a fine line between being smart & stupid. The last incident comes under the latter category.

Scene 4:
Time 2:00 Am
Our hero has to attend a lab session. In his morning rush, he forgot to bring his record. It was the final day for submission. He had 2 options
1. Bunk the lab & get the record corrected the next day (In India, Deadlines are always on a relative time scale)
2. Confess the truth to staff.

Our hero did the latter. Unfortunately, the staff was in no mood to praise the Gandhian values. Our hero was asked to move out of the lab. Now, our hero is in the HIT list of the staff.

Lesson #4: Honesty doesn't guarantee success.

Finally our hero reached his home & decided that he won't practice GANDHIGIRI again.

Moral of the story: Gandhigiri sounds sexy in reel life, not in real life.

PS: The Hero of this story is a fictional character.

Warning: Don't dare to try this simulated story line.