I FOUGHT,FOUGHT &THEN SURRENDERED

I write this post in utter disappointment and sadness as “Nirbhay”/”Amanat”/Damini (whatever you name her) passed away and succumbed to injury she got during her brutal rape .I cried like I lost a family member and so did everyone She was me,she was you and she was every girl who dreams for a career,for family ,for love,for marriage but never dreamt to live because she thought it was so very normal but No :a barbaric day ,6 demons and she is now confined to coffin it seems she came for a mission to shake up the sleeping nation where women are still second class citizens,where tolerance for eve teasing is very high ,where women are raped every 22 minutes ,where political class seems to cash on rapes .The capital of country erupted in rage ,in anger and a biggest leaderless movement started and the air of Delhi echoed “WE WANT JUSTICE” and came the most shocking and insensitive response from the “so called” representatives of citizens ,Some foolish comments from moral policing to Dented painted comments But the country cries ,screams in grief that “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” .I write this letter as a rape victim to shake everyone so that the bastards get a punishment that one could never dare to rape someone
“If I am raped tomorrow,
Leave me on my own,
Please don’t forward messages for my sake,
I am not worthy of your status’ ache.
Don’t give me your pity,
Don’t pray for my soul,
You are the same people who did not care when I lay there in a hole.
Your E-protests are not getting me justice,
Nor my sisters any protection,
The government is going to sensitize the issue,just to win the coming election.
First they objectified me,
Now the turn is yours,
How dare I step outside, I am just meant for the household chores.
Don’t console my fatherDon’t try to cheer up my mom,
It’s something you can forget tomorrow, but for them I’m forever gone.
I am dead now,
Humanity died with me
For I am a girl, I deserve every bit of this, I’m not to be seen equally.
This society is esoteric
A ‘fatal lie’, a ‘deadly truth’
It propogates such evil, and is the one to protest that it is ruth.
It cries for me and still mocks my death
For a few days later you’ll all forget, hundreds like me will come and go,
For we are all going to reap what we once did plow,
Years ago the seed was sown,
‘She is a woman, she has to be tamed and made to moan.’
Now live with it, and dance with joy,
See her being meddled with, like a cheap plastic toy.
For she is a girl, she deserves every bit of this,
For her’s is weak and Mightier is His !”The recent Incident of Delhi Gang rape shivers the nation down the spine .Rape is much more a mental scar than physical injuries It makes me wonder is this the same society where goddess in the name of Laxmi,Durga and Kali are worshipped Somewhere we associate our families pride,izzat,samman with the women and its so easy to come and play it with .The girls trauma ,torture is disturbing ,barbaric and hey why this hell – just because she went to see a movie ,she took. a wrong bus?? .Any bastard can rape a girl and throw her out of moving bus? My head hangs in shame today when we call ourselves a developing country ,100 years of Delhi’s heritage and blah blah .It was her today ,it would be me tomorrow ,day after your own daughter .So just don’t sit back and ponder over the deteriorating law and order ,make yourself heard ,don’t let this outrage die down ,Media +citizens should pressurize the government to take a stern action ,Castrate the bloody bastards ,hang them so that next time someone even thinks about such act ,the treatment meted out to those bastards keeps them back
“They spoilt me ,I fought
They forced themselves upon me ,I fought
They laughed ,I shivered
I could see hundreds of people walking ,I screamed
I looked for darkness around ,I shrieked
I fought ,I fought and then surrendered
Surrendered amid those animals,their ghastly hands
And then I saw a light ,I saw my mom ,waving her hands through my hair
I saw my dad saying you are my princess
I cried,I cried and then closed my eyes…….
” Don’t tell your daughter to stay safe at home ,ask your son to behave properly “

And lastly some lines by "Farhan Akhtar" which i so wanted to share

"What is this country that i live in

with no equality

and quality of life differs from 

a husband to wife,boy to girl

Hey mister,are you the same

contributing to national shame

where is all of this going

what will emerge from these seeds that we are sowing

What is this country that i live in

that takes away her right to love

and brutalises with an iron glove

rapes her without fear

no justice for her tear

what do i m going to tell my daughter

that she is growing as a lamb to slaughter

we have got to make a chane

REBOOT,REFORM,REARRANGE"

CELEBRATE INDIAN WAY OF LIFE WITH A "PI"

“LIFE OF PI” – A movie which was strongly recommended by everyone and I always had a plan of watching it for I am an ardent admirer of stories of courage, will power, adversity ,no doubt my favorite show .on television happens to be"i shouldn't be alive" and ya the movies was so beautiful

This blog post is for an idea that I loved about the film – An Indian way of life in its pure and honest form avoiding being judgmental or criticizing .We all here are born and brought up in an environment that may seem mysterious to an outsider –Religion is an integral part of our life and so is science .We all have a mother in our family who warns us of all possible disasters that may occur if we don’t perform our morning prayers and a father who explains us that reasoning and science is the biggest god. We grow up. we form our own affinities, make friends from diverse religions and beliefs ,we counter, we debate ,we dine together over festivals still debating someone declaring he is an atheist ,someone a staunch vegetarian and somehow we fail to notice that religion in some or other way has slowly crept into our lives

And this is WE –we have been like this from the great Indus valley civilization like this only .we have our own set of superstitions ,our own favorite gods among the crores of them each having their own weird stories ,our own castes and preformed set of rules for clan n caste ,the system may seem to have weakened from ages but it still persists and its here to stay forever

With all our imperfections ,our flaws it’s the same country where science evolved in ashrams and gurukuls –be it medical science or the chemical ones and Life of Pi was all the more adorable because may be in a very small form –it showed the world a real and apt picture of Indian way of life .India is not only a country of child trafficking and” slumdogs” ,India is just not a country where you halt for “PRAYING” after eating and before falling in love ,India is not only a country of loud mouthed punjabis who dream to settle in Canada ,India is just not a country of weird NRIs it’s a place of some of the best brains and creative persons,India is just not a country of Kamasutra it’s a country of charaksutra too ……..its a country which is so deeply ingrained in spirituality but still progressing in the 21st century and that’s why I expect the global cinema to portray

"SHADOWS OF WAR" MY ENTRY FOR GET PUBLISHED CONTEST

The Idea : Its a story inspired by a real life story ,story of a girl and boy and their sweet romance which turns into madness when the boy turns into a soldier and the girl into a woman .A story of longing,a story of distance ,a story of waiting sleeplessly for your loved one,a story which is effected by war

What makes the story real ;the story is real for every soldier has a sweetheart ,every soldier has a love story ,every soldier has a memory of those days spent with his love ,kissing passionately and days spent in each other's arms ,for every story that is somewhere lost in glories of war

Extract :
Recalling back the old times when we met brings a cute smile on my face.it happened so that we used to study in same coaching class and i have not yet said hi to the guy ,i knew a guy used to come straight from his badminton practice all in a mess and one fine day sir scolded me for not recalling some facts ,i had this “i don’t remember” look in my eyes and looking up our eyes crashed ,he smiled n his eyes said “chill ,it happens ” and we smiled…………….i still remember that smile

Suddenly from the next day he started coming well dressed and me wondering ;what happened to him? (much later he revealed that it was to impress me) *TING* and we continued our hi n byes

One fine day he asked me could i help him in his presentation ,i said yes why not (as if i was the only angel on earth) but reason was he was too cute to say no ,next day in class i gave him a paper saying i had jolted down the points which would help him and after an hour asked the permission from sir to leave early as i had a wedding to attend to ,he stood up in a second saying”sir i need to leave early too,have to work on presentation “.So we both left early with separate but imp works n had a talk in the parking space and were so engrossed in talking that later realised that the other guys from class were coming out and it just became clear that we were talking for full hour n actually we both had to leave early (Don’t giggle)…

Endnote: This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published contest, which is run with inputs from Yashodhara Lal andHarperCollins India

WHEN ADVISES BECAME .......TORTURE

A day comes in your life when you act foolish,weird ,the world seems falling in places and..........okk i would stop being melodramatic and narrate you a crazy"hairy"day which turned out to be torture

It just happened one fine day that i got an invitation for a conference in Goa (don't give me that look.yes it was a "conference"in Goa) and my marathon preparations started as if i was going for a kingfisher calender shoot 
The shopping,apparels,footwear was ready ,appointments for parlour were fixed and the adrenaline rush on just thinking about beaches,feni and a free bird environment was uncontrollable 
Out of the blue someone suggested that i should sport straight hair for the trip and here the story took a tragic turn .the hair presser was quite a costly affair and then one of my "Fashion conscious"friend suggested using iron for the same 
Ignoring the fact that when god created me he forgot to install a software called delicate hands,being careful and yeah you guessed it right i ended up with flicks of cauterized hair
Disaster 2: When the fashionista's suggestion gave me fizzled out,burnt hair i returneed back to the age old "Daadi maa ke nuskhe" my mom told me to apply a paste of banana,papaya and honey .I won't blame you maa.u said a paste and i just mashed them with hands and applied ,after an hour went to wash the hair and whoa the banana was badly stuck to my hair and inspite of washing it for hours it didn't come out properly .In between the long bath ,water went away and i suddenly realized i was in Delhi where water is priceless this day was not only turning out a disaster but a long one too .I rushed my maid to fetch some water from neighboring flats and she proceeded i could hear verbal abuses in her local dialect and to my utter helplessness i could not say anything
Finally managing to partially remove the banana pieces from my hair i came out from the bath only to find my dog sniffing in air trying to locate the source of fruity smell and this was only left for the day to complete
I rushed to the nearby salon unless my Goa dream turns into a nightmare where she oiled my hair and shampooed it with Sunsilk only to get that flawless,straight ,free flowing hair........and how could i miss that simple thing 
So Goa trip came to a start and i was pretty sure that my hairs looked fabulous after the three dreary episodes
Moral of the story -Don't ever follow the advises blindly,they might turn out to be torture

WHEN MUMBAI BURNT..........REMEMBERING THE HEROES OF 26/11

26/11, a date remembered in infamy, forever etched into India’s consciousness. An attack so brazen, that a country was left reeling in shock for days afterwards. But amongst the chaos, there emerged stories of incredible heroism in the face of terror, where it proved that despite the best attempts of those who would seek to destroy it, the spirit and nobility of humanity would always shine through The more than ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai which began on 26 November 2008 are referred to as 26/11 on the lines of 9/11 that reminds of the attack on the Twin Towers in US. The attacks lasted until 29 November, killing at least 173 people and wounding at least 308. Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai including at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Orthodox Jewish-owned Nariman House, and the Metro Cinema. 

The whole country saw Taj burning, Kasab’s  footage at CST terminus ,brave hearts of India ranging from NSG to police forces ,an irresponsible coverage by media and the breach in intelligence where terrorists dared to attack us from front Remembering the heroes of 26/11 when Ajmal kasab is still alive in Indian jails 

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Ashok Kamte, Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Arun Jadhav, Constable Ombale and many others. You were Heroes.. We shall never forget what you did for us till our last.... Salute to the lions!!!

“Do not come up, I will handle them", were the last words which Major Unnikrishnan told his men as he was hit by bullets while engaging well armed terrorists 

"But how then are we to remember
Those that have been torn from the fabric of our being
Those that we have come to so desperately miss
Often only once they have been taken from us?
How do we honor the ultimate sacrifice
How do we construct that eternal pedestal
Upon which our loved ones will stand,
In all of their splendor and magnificence......Sehar

A DAY TO REMEMBER..........CREATING SHARED VALUE FORUM 2012

“Life is not a matter of milestones but of moments”CSV FORUM2012 organized by FICCI and NESTLE was one such day and I had this pre realization when I got the invite for it .The whole idea of” Role of business in development” was an amazing one and the pragmatic shift from Corporate Social Responsibility to Creating shared value was felt at global level

The venue was superb, the nestle  staff were sweet enough to send a pen drive to furnish us with details of previous forums and yes the “the water blog &the water resources group” and “The moga story”

The pre event lunch was wow and yeah I donned a skirt for it J Janet Voute from Nestle explained us the way nestle was involved in CSV followed by Mr Sanjay Khajuria ,India head after which the spectators grilled him on various issues especially Maggi being a healthy snack or not for which the only thing that satisfied me was Janet’s statement ”We are not projecting Maggi as an apple and saying- a magi a day keeps a doctor away”

Amid the expert panels ,enlightening talks ,bullshit talks by politicians and representation from all walks of life I was sitting there as The CEO-NAARI and some superb topics were touched upon be it water crisis ,malnutrition ,rural development ,beyond philanthropy with budding social entrepreneurs ,social leaders ,business tycoons from all over the world sharing the stage

To talk about all the panel discussion would make the blog hell of lengthy but let me share with you some experiences that left me smiling:

POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA- Social media has reached upto exemplary heights today ,realized this when I met “Peter Blackshaw-the social media leader” and his team he is a complete sweetheart ,ready to absorb ideas, a wonderful person to discuss global changes and he asked “Is half of the India owned by tata???” I smiled –thought about the reach of tatas saw the taj hotel.mineral water bottle and even the table cloth which said”A TATA product” and I replied “Kind of” .Secondly the media section didn’t comprise of conventional journalists but the bloggers and twitter celebs from all over the world

MODESTY IS THE JEWEL OF ACHIEVERS- I met many delegates there be it from Thailand or the darling Ruth from Kenya who have achieved volumes of respect in the social sector and whoa they were so modest –sharing lunch, having coffee ,Ruth invited me to Kenya, hugged me and said “Blessings little girl ,you are doing a noble work” .The one who was brilliant among panelists was #Harish Hande ,CEO – SELCO who was the man of action because he had spent his prime in working at the grassroots explaining me the perfect financial management of vegetable vendors in villages ,you remain in awe of harish when you talk to him

The day ended with some new ideas, enlightened thoughts, many visiting cards ,enhanced contact list in phone and the most important thing-friends for life

These are the days when u can sit back and say to yourself that may be life is throwing up new challenges every other day, you managed to sustain yourself strong amid the tides and as I always say “when you do something for someone without any self intrest in return ,the heart felt blessings give you a larger return some day”……………Sehar

"“A sacrifice you make today 

Will never ever be gone
A sacrifice you make today 
Will soon be passed on

A sacrifice you make today 
Will stay in many hearts
A sacrifice you make today 
Help many play their parts

A sacrifice you make today 
Will never be forgotten
A sacrifice you make today 
Will never be mistaken

A sacrifice you make today 
May even change history
A sacrifice you make today 
May be kept in someone’s memory

A sacrifice you make today 
Might light someone’s day up
A sacrifice you make today "

FOR A HERO CALLED............MALALA YOUSAFZAI ,WHO STOOD AGAINST FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER

I haven’t been this angry in a long time. Maybe I’ve never been this angry. On October 9, 2012, Taliban militants stopped a school bus filled with girls returning home from school and asked for a girl named Malala Yousafzai. Malala is a 14 year old girl from the Swat Valley in Pakistan. From the age of 11 years old, she has been an activist demanding for her right to have an education. She was forced to do that because the Taliban had been taking over Swat and blowing up girls schools and committing other atrocities. Whoever resisted, they beat them, humiliated them, shot them, beheaded them, and then left their corpses out in the streets for everyone to see. Despite all of this, Malala had the strength and courage to fight back by learning wherever she could whether it was at school or at home. Last year she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize and awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize by Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister of Pakistan at that time.

So you can understand my horror and my fury when it was reported that these Taliban monsters hunted down a 14 year old girl and shot her simply because she wanted to go to school. Thankfully she is still alive and the bullet was retrieved when she underwent surgery, but she’s still fighting for her life. I’m amazed by her bravery and shocked that there are girls who are literally risking their lives just so they can read books and learn math. I doubt that many Americans think twice about how precious an education really is while riding their bus to school. I know I never did. I never had to fight for the right to learn because it was always a given in my life.

A Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, justified their actions by saying, “She has become a symbol of Western culture in the area; she was openly propagating it,” Mr. Ehsan said, adding that if she survived, the militants would certainly try to kill her again. “Let this be a lesson.”

All day I’ve been cursing in my head at these disgusting creatures who dare to call themselves men. No, they’re not even human. I hate them. I actually hate them. Who does shit like this, let alone justifies it? And I’m even more frustrated at the fact that I feel completely helpless. For everything that the Taliban has done, for all the lives they have destroyed…I hope they get what’s coming to them. Something far worse than death. I thought I would only read about such brutality in history books, not the news.

Please read and watch this video by Adam B. Ellick and Irfan Ashraf about Malala and her father Ziauddin, who is a schoolteacher and a huge advocate for girls’

- My ‘Small Video Star’ Fights for Her Life

    By-lena sharef   

Some think bravery is living without fear
But that is not true
Bravery is living despite the fear
And doing what needs to be done
Even though you’re scared to death
Some can stand on the sidelines of life
And be content with what could have been but never was

That is not me
I will not look back at the end of my life
Thinking of what could have been
I vow to live my dreams no matter what
I will stand up and be counted
Even when I’m one of the few or standing all by myself
I will proudly state before God and all who see
This is who I am and what I want to be..............sehar