Apu1niceboy's Blog

The city never sleeps..

apu1niceboy — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:12:28 +0000

Twelve months ago everything went wrong..We were in the brink of a global recession. It hit with the fury of a tornado and shook our faith in the financial system. Economists groped for answers as suddenly the nano issue also became a much hyped dilemma.. From decisions to their executions, everything went wrong.. There were rallies, marches..chaos everywhere..unfortunately, the city of joy forgot to smile even..

Twelve months on, some controls are said to be in place. In the year gone by, we have seen a national election that returned the ruling combine to power. In West Bengal however, the ruling Marxists humbled in election after election, to a point where many believe that the outcome of the 2011 Assembly Election is a foregone conclusion..people are changing and so are their views and ideologies..

Everything costs more- rice, pulses, sugar, oil, potatoes and onions..crisis everywhere. It is into this heaven of freedom that we awake each morning, from this heaven of freedom we take break every night..everything seems to be going wrong..

In short, at no point of time in recent memory have we needed the distraction of festivals than we do now. The people need to find their lost spirit..yes, we can smile, we can celebrate..there are still enough reasons left that deserves cheer, a shout of joy..and now as devi durga has descended on earth..the city will never stop celebrating..because these are the times when the problems dissolve in the spring of joy..and as for our city goes, Kolkata never sleeps..the city of joy has found a reason to laugh..

When the stars snored and the clock struck six….

apu1niceboy — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:08:22 +0000

Today I start a new habit: my morning routine( to be honest, I am practicing it for a couple of days now but unfortunately still haven’t quite grabbed it). Actually, my problem(or may be, one of my special attributes) is I am a late riser. No matter how much I try, I usually end up with clock ticking ten!! So, every time I make a morning routine I try to leave slide that early rising part and go on with other things…
I’ve actually tried different versions of a morning routine in the past year, and have enjoyed them immensely with a slight chaos..All of these routines kept my late rising habits intact until one day my granny bitterly irritated by it came up with an ultimatum, “Either u leave the bed early, or you stay wake the whole night!”.Now that’s truly impossible for me to see the stars twinkle for the whole night! So I ultimately got a new routine made:

Morning Routine

1. Wake at 4:30 6:30 a.m
2. Drink water( now that’s a thing you should do frequently).
3. Set 3 Most Important Things (MITs) for today(got utterly confused in setting this)
4. Eat breakfast, read newspaper(these two things usually go simultaneously for me).
5. Exercise (run, bike, swim, strength, or yard work) or meditate.
6. Shower
7. Prepare for my upcoming exams no way I am on a vacation here then..have a chat with my friends they might be well offline, then..do whatever I like( this sounded the best for me)

The routine looked nice for me if not the best! And so I started for it a couple of days ago. To get early the first thing you should do is to sleep early. So I finished all my jobs before going to bed as early as, on 11 p.m. But I didn’t feel like sleeping( god knows where all my tiredness went that day!). I kept staring at the sky. Hey, don’t they feel like sleeping too? Don’t they get tired of twinkling all night along? The very thought of this got me feel the stars are shutting it off. Hey is it my imagination or is really happening? The stars have stopped twinkling..The night is now darker a lot…it’s pitch black outside. No, somethings wrong with me..I can hear some noise now..like some(not some actually, but may be hundreds!) are snoring! The stars are sleeping??!! I must be mad..or may be not! Where has all the twinkles gone anyway? There are no clouds! But even though it’s a peculiar kind of snoring, I know this sound. It’s not like that comes from my granny. Well they are stars after all, their sleeping habits must also be different. But that sound is making me feel uncomfortable if only god knows why!!

And then there was light, no not sunlight. Like someone from the sky is giving all the spotlight on me. I should have got surprised but I didn’t. A whole lot of incredible things are happening here , it made me feel like everything is possible tonight! But again that stupid snoring, god knows when they will stop it..hey, now wait a minute I can remember something. No not about that light silly, I know that sound..it’s my alarm clock ringing hard as if it is determined not stop today without waking me up!! And I wake up at the shuddering thought of my granny screaming again at me!

Well she didn’t scream that morning( yes, it was morning finally) for I had made a personal record then. It was a nice morning and…the clock tickled six!! Thanks to the snoring stars!

Citizen Activism: the rising heroes

apu1niceboy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:52:49 +0000

Jessica Lal was not just a murder victim or a blood-spattered headline. Shot at the Tamarind Court Cafe, Delhi on the night of August 29, 1999 she became immortalized as the guiding light of citizen activism. The candle lights vigils, protest marches and public and media pressure forced the judiciary to re-open the case against Manu Sharma sending him behind the bars for at least 14 years. Take the recent Nandigram and Singur issue of West Bengal. The leftist government took a harrowing decision on the man management problem and the political parties became busy in blaming each others as blood feuds ran deep enough to paralyze the rural Bengal. Out roared the common people and the intellectuals as the Government finally stepped down on the Nano issue. Sorry, but it could be handled much better. Angry middle class India fought for justice, for all. Public will is the ultimate symbol of democracy and undoubtedly, the most powerful weapon to fight against injustice or oppression. The Mumbai floods also literally opened the flood gates of citizen activism with over 2,500 PILs being filed and online signature campaigns launched to clean up the mess that the city has degenerated into.
It was not just Delhi or Kolkata or Mumbai. Ordinary people became the new urban heroes as, across the country groups and colonies rallied together to take on the establishment and usher in a new and potent force in social transformation. The individual has become the collective.

The first rains..

apu1niceboy — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:19:30 +0000

There’s romance in the rains. In watching a rainstorm in the dead of the night, having soliloquies with solitude and feeling the drops in your skin…The season’s first rains have set in. And so have innumerable images of a rain-soaked Kolkata that could make a romantic’s heart go aflutter. There is an amorous delight in curling up on broken benches at the Lakes while the eyes catch the incessant drizzle on the water surface. There is romance in the eyes of a toddler, crying with glee while trying to save the raindrops in his palm. There is an element of flirtation that a rainstorm triggers in the heart of a cupid-struck teenager, staring at the sky with half-closed eyes while raindrops wet his face. And there is also a strange kind of passion in the fingers of a bereaved father trying to immortalise his son’s name on the sea beach, only to see it getting washed away by the rains. Much as they usher in a sense of euphoria, rains drench and comforts the heart which otherwise tends to be dry and parched on it’s surface….welcome, monsoon! We have been waiting for you.