Who was responsible?

EPISODE 2

It was 26 February. Prateeksha was coming to Ahmedabad the next day.

‘Yo Bro!‘ Prateeksha called me up from an STD booth at Jhansi Railway Station. She was doing her B.Tech from an engineering college in Jhansi. She was in final year of engineering. She was coming to Ahmedabad for an industrial training.

‘Main tere hi phone ka wait kar raha tha, what is your seat number?’

‘Jaldi likh seat no is 56 and coach is S5‘

‘What nine?’

‘Paanch yaar’

‘Tere samne kaun baitha hai?’

‘Oh man don’t ask me, this entire train is filled with people who it seems haven’t shaved for ages and since the train has stopped on the platform they are shouting “Jai Shri Ram” repeatedly and loudly.’

I could hear the chorus behind on the phone.

‘Par mujhe kya hai?’ she continued, ‘I have a novel and an upper birth I will just read and sleep. Chal I am keeping down the phone, tu aajiyo railway station time par’ she said in typical Delhi ascent with every verb ending with “yo”. She hung up the phone.

For a while I was lost in some other world, receiver still sticking onto my right ear, the line was already disconnected. I could still hear that chorus of slogan, in the praises of lord Ram. I had a phobia for this fundamentalist group as they dislike Muslims (and also people who love them). Also there was a communal tension brewing up in the whole of Gujrat, because of a program announced by this Hindu fundamentalist group to be held in March. Mummy was initially apprehensive and didn’t want to send Prateeksha to Ahmadabad, but I insisted.

*******

The train was due at 2:55 am on the early morning of 27^th February at Godhra Station, but was late almost by 5 hours. On the way of journey, the group of people who were shouting “JAI SHRI RAM” at Railway Station forced one of the Muslim families to shout the same and when they refused to shout they threw them out of the train at the dead of night. Some of these men from the Hindu Fundamentalist group, who were in majority in the train, also tried to pull the beard of some Muslim men and unveil the women in burka for fun.

The train reached Godhra at 7:43 am and in a view of large number of passengers, which included 100’s of kar sevaks, the vendors on the station which included some Ganchi vendors who generally slip into the railways station to sell tea and snacks decided to raise the rate of a cup of tea, to earn some more profit. Some of the kar sevaks refused to pay the high price, and got into altercation, with the vendors and soon this altercation became physical.

A Muslim lady was waiting for the train to Vadodra along with her two young teen daughters. On seeing the fracas they tried to leave the station, but one of the kar sevak stopped her and grabbed one of her daughters by her hair, and pulled her inside the compartment S5.

Godhra is a small town with a roughly equal population of Muslims and Hindus and a long bloody history of communal tension and violence. The Muslims of Singal Faliya area, next to Godhra Railway Station, are Ganchis-a large, un educated and poor community. Singal Falia comprises of auto repair workers rikshaw pullers, auto rikshaw drivers living in slums. A tea vendor, who was a part of this altercation at the station, rushed to the basti and spread the news that a Muslim woman had been abducted and molested. It was 8 in the morning, most adults and young males in the basti had not gone to work. Angry and disgusted, they all gathered at one place along with petrol bomb and other weapons such as butcher’s knife, steel rods and axles of vehicles.

Mean while in the station the train began to pull out. A few minutes later, after it had been moved to less than a kilometer from the platform, someone pulled an emergency chain and stopped the train. Quickly a mob of up to 2000 men collected around the train and began attacking the train with stones and fire bombs. The glasses that were closed were broken. The deafening bangs could be heard to the passengers inside the train who now had lay down, relieved thanking God, after the incident at the station thinking that the worst part of their journey was over. The attack was wild and non-stop, the Muslim mob didn’t even care about the innocent women and children passengers inside the train. Their level of resentment was so much that they hold no place for emotions in their heart. To them it was the fight for their brothers and sisters, who never had mercy from this “Hindu dominated” country that never accepted them and always tried to suppress them. So for their means, if they had to take the lives of innocent women and children, so be it.

Soon the kar sevaks reiterated back. They threw stones at the mob picking them up from the railway tracks. But the mob outside was larger in number and well armed. Many passengers were carrying kerosene stoves to cook during the long journey, which made the situation worse inside the train. Soon the passengers inside the train began being unconscious by smoke and carbon monoxide. Since most of the windows and doors of the bogies were closed on one side because of the morning sun, passengers got asphyxiated by smoke and even began to be burnt by the fire that swept the coaches. The arrival of the fire fighters to the spot was delayed by a local Muslim leader, who led a mob that detained the fire engine.

Hues and cries of men women and children could be heard from outside the train. Some of them who jumped outside bathe with fire; those who escaped the fire got hit by stones. There was a line of fire on railways track and S5 and S6 were the most affected as it was the same coach where one of the daughters of the Muslim women was abducted into. Around 60 people died on spot. 45 of them were the innocent women and children.

Giving an eye for an eye, the enraged kar sevaks who escaped aghast with the deaths of innocent people and their brothers attacked the nearby mosque.

*******

‘Wer r u ??’ It was Aaliya’s message.

‘I am at home. Y r u coming to make love with me J’ I naughtily replied her back

She dint answer for next 10 minutes.

‘Are main to joke kar raha tha yaar, did u feel bad?’

‘Stay at home, plz sweetu dnt go nywer, I m goin home, abba hs cum to pic me up’

Aaliya’s father and mother had come to Anand that morning at her aunt’s place where she lived. They were taking her back to Ahmedabad.

‘Wil u tl me wats hapnin n u wnt cum to col tom?’

She dint reply me for another 5 minutes. Whenever her parents were around she always replied me late so that they don’t doubt her in any way. Like every parent, even they hated the concept of chatting through mobile phones and that to with a guy….. Her mother would often snatch the phone from her to check if she is messaging any boy.

Mean while I messaged her again.

‘Btw evn I m leavin 4 ahmdbd in an hour, I tld u na my sis is cumin. Wil my father-in-law drop me as well???’

‘Pls sweetu dont leave ur pg. stay der pls pls’ she messaged me right away. And she sounded very serious which made me get up and take notice of the message. I knew there is something terribly wrong.

‘Tel me wat has hapnd nw’ I messaged her. I messaged her twice.

‘Riots hv broken out bw muslims n non muslims. So pls stay at home’

She didn’t mention Hindus rather she wrote “non-muslims” I noticed.

I left for Ahmedabad in an hour to receive Pratiksha at railways station.

(To be continued....)

Who was responsible?

EPISODE 1

‘u knw every1 keeps telin me dat nly aaliya cn control u’. I messaged her around 7 in the evening. We messaged each other after coming from the college everyday till the time we went to sleep.

‘Really! Who tld u dat?’ she messaged me back.

I had no clue what to say because no one had ever said such thing to me. I thought of a name. I didn’t know whose name I should take because all my friends were her friends as well, so I couldn’t lie. While I was thinking for a name, my cell beeped again. It read ‘1 new message from Aaliya Naqvi’

‘Kya hua? I knw no1 hs evr said such thng 2 u’

I thought how girls could be so intelligent. They are masters in reading minds and in quick succession came another message.

‘Tel me wat u want 2 say? I knw der is sumthng in ur mind’

Now how did she know that I want to tell her something? I had never shared it with anyone and neither had I given her any indications about it. By now I knew that she knows what I want to tell her.

‘wil u b my gf?’

I gathered all my guts and wrote it on my mobile screen. Although it was a five words sms but I checked it 10 times for any correction. I checked if my grammar is right. I saved the message in drafts and then viewed it several times to see how it will read to her when she opens the message. I checked for my spellings and I realized that I should write it in good English.

‘Will you be my girlfriend?’ I wrote, checked half a dozen of times and finally sent her.

‘Who won’t lik 2 b ur gf?’

‘Then you are my official girlfriend from today:D’

“Official girlfriend” now what the hell does that mean? I thought after sending her that message. People generally write ‘I love you’ or some romantic verse on such occasions, ‘what a crap did I do?’ I thought. I had made a total mess of the situation. Meanwhile my phone beeped yet again. It was Aaliya’s message.

‘I hav2 go out 4 dinr. I l cum late. U made my day sweetheart:-* Mmmmmmmmuuuuah!’

That last word made me feel better. I presumed that she didn’t get my “official” message. I was a kind of boy who was a common topic of discussion in our class among girls. In fact as Aaliya told me once, two girls even fought with each other on the very first day of the college, claiming me to be their father’s property. To act so stupidly on one of the most important occasions of life, where your real character is at test, was an utter shame for me.

*******

I had a very limited communication with everyone. Even boys talked about me since I didn’t mingle much with any of them. I spoke to everyone in the class but up to an extent and made a point of sharing a one-liner with every individual, at least once a day. I was also the only outsider, unlike other students from Bihar, UP and even my place-Delhi, who did not stay in college hostel but in a nearby Paying Guest. This earned me a distinct title of 'rahsyamai' in my class. Throughout the first and second semester in my engineering life, my friend circle was only restricted to Aaliya. She sat 3 benches behind me with her friend, Suchi, who had a short height and a joint eyebrow. But unconventionally on one ever linked us up-may be because she was a Muslim and I was a Hindu. An alliance was surely not possible. Until that day….

Aaliya was a simple girl who would never be found involved in gossip sessions with other girls although there was a mischievous side to her. But she very well knew the punctuation of life where to put commas and the full stops. Aaliya too never had a lot of friends but her level of congeniality was more than mine. She had a heart of a mother and she could heal anyone’s sorrow with her sweet words. I often teased her by calling Mother Teresa. She was from Ahmedabad, but stayed here in Anand with her father’s own sister.

I had seen Aaliya for the first time in our workshop lab, where all girls where throwing nets at the boys to finish their metal work pieces as it required rigorous filing to make it into a perfect shape. While other guys were doing the favor with a hope for girl’s heart in return, I had asked for a family pack of Kit-Kat from Aaliya in return when she approached me to finish her work piece. Since that day we walked together after the college. While she caught a chakra from a point about a kilometer from our college, I walked to my pg. We messaged each other all evening and then slept only to come to college and meet each other again. At times we bunked classes to go to Vidyanagar to eat or have coffee at CCD.

*******

Like after the delivery of a child, a female gets the ability to feed the milk to their infants, people in love become poets. We still messaged each other after coming home, but the theme of the message were romantic and “I love you” and “mmmmmmmuuuuuuah” filled half of our inboxes. She still sat with Suchi, 3 benches behind me but every 15 minutes she asked for my notebook in which she wrote somewhere in the middle pages-‘Missing you sweetu badly’. We even decided our kids’ name-Aaryan and Suhana-after all we were SRK fans.

But while all this was going on we never let anyone in our college knew that our friendship has transcend to the next level, not even to Suchi, because we presumed that people around us are not too matured and are orthodox to understand our love. In the past a friend of mine had warned me from walking with her after the after the college, as she was a Muslim. He feared that someone from her community will spot us and will cut me to pieces. Later on we came to know that he liked Aaliya and had a huge crush on her. Beside that Aaliya’s uncle was trustee of the college. We both had decided to play safe in our real lives, while we became more dangerous each day in our imaginary world.

*******

When people are in love they tend to forget the basic laws of nature. They jump in air without realizing that law of gravity will not let them be in air for a very long time, it will pull them down. Religion was never a consideration in our relationship. Neither of us were intellectual enough to give an extempo even for 30 seconds. We knew just one thing that if Shahrukh and Gauri can get married, so could we. If they can complete their love story, so could we. But as they say, some love stories have blood on them.

(To be continued....)

A Page From My Diary....

23rd January 2006
23:01

I found a superhero in me today.

I saw the movie Spiderman today for the first time. It was coming on HBO. While watching that movie I saw a striking similarity between Peter Parker and myself-our thoughts, our looks, our beliefs, our sacrifices, our lives and our love....

Like Peter Parker I wear a frame on my glasses which my friends often say belong to the era of grandfathers. It is black in colour, thick framed and covers half of my face. My friends often make fun of me, but I like wearing them. I personally don't like those rectangular frames. Like Peter Parker even I have an urge to look nice with a prime motive that the girls walking past make a notice of me, the same way they make notice of Pranav Mittal, whom every girl wants in the school. Peter Parker has a secret world of his own in which he lives, when he is alone. Even I have two sides to my personality: one that I show to the world when I am in my class or with my family at the dinning table and the second when I am all alone in my room, behind the closed door. Like he is a subject of humor, even I am a subject of humor all the time among my classmates. And like him, even I have a "Marie Jane" in my life, she is my close friend and the way I feel for her, I don't feel for anyone else in the world.

Dadaji expired last December, and I remember during his ill health days, he often used to tell me, that there are very few men in this world who live for their dream. He said that although every one dreams while they live, but very few live for their dreams. And those who live for their dreams, they know that they are here on this planet for a special purpose-to fulfill their dreams. Only last week after I got up in the morning, I realised that I am here on earth for a special purpose and the God has given me that power-a strength to live for my dream. I dream to be a Soldier. I dream about it all day and night, since my childhood. Every time I see a movie based on army, it moves me. I am here on earth to fight for my country, to save it from the enemies and may be die performing my duties....

It was my farewell day before yesterday, when Shagun came to me and told me something that I was waiting to hear all my life.

She told me that I mean a lot to her. She feels incomplete without me. She can't think of living her life without me and she realised all this when our school was off during winter vacation. She loves me. The way I took care of her, she confessed no one ever has ever taken care of her. And she went on....

And as she was speaking, I quietly turned back and started walking away from her. And while I walked away, a tear came trickling down my eye. I could not tell her how much I waited for this moment all my life but I could not not be hers because I am here for some other reasons. I was born to be a soldier and can't give her a false promise that I will be with her all my life, because life of every soldier is written on the bullet of enemy. I can't be hers.

As Uncle Ben said "With great power, comes greater responsibility"

Immortal that Mr. Sibal wants to be.....

I have been waiting to write this article ever since I was in class IX because that was the first time NCERT books (which is the Bible for CBSE) underwent a change. The syllabus was changed drastically and as a result, among others, history, which was 300 page thick was trimmed down to 50 pages and the four subjects of Social Studies-History, Geography, Civics and Economics were combined in a single book unlike before when we had four different book for each of these. Misfortune was of our batch while the batch, 1 year senior to us studied topics like World War and India's struggle for Independence, we mugged up the locations of Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar and other monuments. As far as my memory goes, the seed of the grading system was planted at that time only.

Like my all other articles, my this article also emphasize on a basic ideology of how proud I am to be an Indian but I feel unfortunate to be living in this country.

Every time there is a change of guard at the center or the state government, the ruling party and its ministers sit on their chair and mold the entire system their way. The ministry of Human Resource Development(or the HRD) is one of those important ministries which makes a loud noise about the ruling party's work at the end of their tenure. Consequently when the BJP comes into power, they alter Indian History in a way that it projects Sangh Parivaar as the ultimate hero. They will also remove sex education from the science text books, even when Aids is rising alarmingly. But they will make yoga mandatory(and why not that is what people in RSS do!). When congress comes into power they will change the writings in the text books to show the world how great Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi have been. And this time it will be computers that will be made mandatory(by the way Rajiv Gandhi was the one who brought computers to India!).

And in every political regime there comes many over ambitious men, who with their vague ideas try to bring a revolution, with a prime motive of making themselves immortal(That what it seems to me). Mr. Kapil Sibal, The HRD minister, is one of them.

Mr. Sibal is one of those "Wannabe", who in the name of reforms, is spoiling the future of Indian students. He is preparing the final draft for the students of class Xth but as a student, I can say his idea is mindless. I have heard and read almost all his interviews where he talks about his "Ultimate Reforms". These are some of the questions I have in my mind.

1. "What is the point of introducing grading system in class Xth? All his life, from class 1st to IXth, a student will be adjudged on the basis of marks. In Xth he will be introduced to Grading System. Then again from XIth he is back on Marking System.
2. Why does he, in all his interviews, constantly give the reference of the western world? Indian schooling is different from our counter parts in the West. We can not allow a girl wearing Spaghetti inside the school like the West.
3. If they are genuinely committed to reforms, start it from the basic class 1 and then ascend above. Why always class Xth students are experimented with?
4. Why is there so much fuss about the pressure students have, when our parent's generation successfully wrote exams of 200 marks. We write it for 100.
5. HRD has only CBSE under its jurisdiction, but what about the State boards which are under the control of their respective governments?
6. And does he wants to say there is no difference between a 90% and 94%?
   

Yes Indian Education system needs reforms but not a direction less one. A much wider picture will have to be taken into consideration and a proper road map has to be prepared and strictly followed. What Sam Pritoda did to the STD booths or what Verghese Kurien did with Milk Revolution was done by working it out from the roots. Otherwise Mr Sibal, there are many other ways of immortalizing oneself, may be you can learn more about it from Maya Memsahab(By the way, I quite like her idea).

The Lost Indian Dream(and the dirty fishes)

Since I have come to Delhi, I very rarely get a chance to sit and read newspaper, the way I read it in Bangalore. But I do make sure that I go through the headlines once in the morning just to keep myself informed of the issues that are making news around the world. Many headlines catch my special attention, those are special ones, for which I steal an extra minute to go through the first few lines under the bold letters. One such piece of news that never misses my eyes(although it disgusts me too) is about the on-going debate over Star Plus' new reality show Sach Ka Saamna.

I am not writing this post, to put my own views about the show-whether it should be banned from showing or not(Although I firmly believe it should be banned), the spectrum of my perspective is much bigger than that. The post is about The Lost Indian Dream and dirty fishes that are making the pond(read our society) dirty and Sach Ka Saamna is one such dirty fish.

Indian culture stands for honesty, truth, love, respect, faith, brotherhood. But look around you, what we are seeing today is not Bharat-a society that Ved Vyasa had envisaged when he was writing Mahabharata. Ask your self is it the same country where great leaders like Harshvardhan or Shivaji were born-fearless and poise? Is it the same culturally rich land that gave birth to half dozen religions of the world and had space to accommodate many more? Is it the same democratic republic which Pt. Nehru was talking about in his 'tryst with destiny speech'?" I quote:

...Through good and ill fortune alike she(India) has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength...


We are losing our individuality day by day. Our culture is getting dissolved, in the pursuit to materialistic satisfactions. Nudity is selling like hot cakes both in electronic and print media. Children are brutally murdering their parents, dumping the age old values. Even the festivals, that were made by the great men thousands of years ago to create a decorum in the society, have been commercialized. Politicians are selling the country for pennies to fill up their pockets. They have time to discuss Negar Khan-how she was shown bathing on a reality show on Sony Channel and the disgrace it is bringing to the women in India, but they don't have time to discuss the woman's reservation bill which is pending from the past 25 years. And when the question arises "Who is responsible for all this?" the blame game starts-we point at someone, they point at someone else and that someone else point on some other 'else' and it goes on and on until the circle complete and then...... another circle starts.

The truth is that we all are responsible for this. The common man, the politicians, the film stars, the media, the businessman every one-from top to bottom-is corrupt from inside and it includes both you and me as well. We all basically are hypocrites and I can prove that too.

• Marriage is no longer about union of two families but about a partnership between two families to exhibit the might of their bank balances.

• We will sit and watch films like Kambakht Ishq and Murder with our kids, but when an add about the use of condoms, issued in public interest, is being displayed on TV, we will change the channel.

• We keep criticizing the newspaper and TV channels for promoting vulgarity, but its we who demand for it(else why would any one buy you something, when you do not need it?)

• We abuse the politicians for filling up their pockets, but when there is a need to build an extra floor to our house or get our children admitted to an engineering or medical college, who themselves could not pass any entrance exam, we are the first ones to push the bundles of cash forward.

• We design a TV character called Mihir, keeping Lord Ram in mind and make him do everything that Lord Ram himself never stood for. Mihir marries Tulsi(character based on Sita) and then marries Mandira(no idea on whom her character was based) after Tulsi leaves him. Later on Mandira is out, Tulsi is in. Then Tulsi is out and Mandira is in. Then Tulsi again comes back. Thirty years later. Mandira's Son is in and Tulsi's Son is out. Then Tulsi's son is in and Mandira's out....... And we see Lord Ram in Mihir.

The conclusion is simple. We all have become hollow from inside. Therefore either we should stop cribbing about everything that is happening around us or else we become the change we want to see in the world. In my opinion western influences, are not always bad, but we must make sure that it doesn't change us, the person we are inside.

The day of our Independence is on the horizon and what better day could we have to pledge and start working towards the betterment of ourselves and the society. We must unite in this common interest. We must fight so that India no longer only known as the back office of the American companies but as a country that stands on its own beliefs and values, something that no one can uproot, come what may. Let us pledge today that our culture and values are going to live on and it will survive.

Today, let us celebrate our Independence Day.

From The Venus

As a young boy I saw my sisters and questioned myself, if boys are biologically stronger than girls? In freezing winters of Delhi, while I had an option to wear a track pant beneath my school trousers, my sisters had no such alternatives for their skirts. I would wonder who designed trousers for boys and skirts for girls, when it should have been vice verse. Obviously when boys are, by nature, stronger between the two then why not boys made to expose their legs to the cold?

Fortunately I was grown up in a family where the siblings were not differentiated on the basis of their genders. The basic rules set for we three kids (my two elder sisters and me) were the same. But I saw my other friends, the female ones, who often suffered discrimination and injustices in their family. While their brothers, younger or elder, were allowed to make mid night entries at home, curfew was imposed for them after 7 in the evening. Whenever I discussed my feelings with my mum, she would always point the finger towards our society. She would often tell me, “A family’s respect is in the hands of the ‘female’ members of the family”. As I grew up reading books, I came across a beautiful novel-The Thousand Splendid Suns. A novel about two ill fated women in Afghanistan who from childhood days had to pay the price of being a women-first to their fathers, then to their husbands and later to the society(which in this case is a fundamentalist group in Afghanistan that misinterpreted Quran). That novel shook me from my roots.

Only recently, the government of Pakistan has signed a deal with Taliban in the Swat region of Pakistan, agreeing to the introduction of Sharia Law. In the name of implementing Sharia Law, the draconian practices will be legitimized and women will be the worst sufferers. Taliban has already blown up the girl’s school and colleges in the region. Girls are punished or even killed for having careers or desiring to go to school. While scholars of Islam says neither the Quran nor the Hadith(Traditions of Prophet Mohammad) allows men to subjugate women. Nowhere it is said that women be barred from seeking ilm (education). I quote

They (women) have rights similar to those against them. - The Quran (2:28)

The implemented Sharia Law is skewed against women. The punishment for adultery is sangsar or death by stoning. Also four male witnesses are required to testify rape of a woman. I repeat FOUR MALE WITNESSES are required TO TESTIFY RAPE of a woman. And why go to other’s land, when in our own country, on the land of ‘Bharatmata’ daughters are often burned alive because they are considered a calamity. Men are free to do what they want but woman, whether in cities or villages, can’t do that. Any little self-assertion can invite physical aggression.

This brings me to another two questions that I keep asking my mum from past two decades of my existence. Why does she keep a fast on Karva-Chauth while papa has a normal 5 course meal? And why does she address papa’s parents as mummyji and papaji, while papa addresses her parents as uncle and aunty?


There is a need to celebrate the female spirit. If a mother can have the courage to kill a daughter-born or unborn- just to save her from the fate that has befallen her, the women needs to be shown that there is a choice. That her daughter can have a better life.

Guddi

Guddi is a strange word. Even I am not aware of the exact meaning of the word (I don’t know if its slang or not), but it is often referred to in the conversation and associated with people who overnight become talk to the town. For example, when Sania Mirza was always there in Tennis Circuit but the day she came in the top 30 rankings of WTA, she suddenly became a regular face in the media, appearing everyday in the newspaper and every half hour in news channel. We could then say ”Bhai, aajkal Sania Mirza ki guddi chad rahi hai.” (Guddi of Sania Mirza is rising).

It is a weird term, that has its origins from Punjabi and can’t be used for every Tom, Dick and Harry but is only used for people, who become famous overnight and so the rise of their popularity is phenomenon. Fast is their rise; faster is their fall from the grace. Let me give you one more example. Kareena Kapoor ki aaj kal bahut guddi chad rahi hai(Kareena Kapoor’s guddi is rising these days). She joined film industry in 2001, but she was never as famous and in demand as she is today and that too suddenly after a bold act of hers in one of her recent films.

This article will tell you the name of some personalities whose guddi is on the rise these days. And before I begin, know that everything that goes up, eventually has to come down. And everything that goes up fast, eventually comes down faster.

1. Sanjay Dutt: Munna Bhai has suddenly become Mr. Dutt-plus-no-offence-to-Mrs. Dutt these days. Till yesterday the man who was walking holding hand of his sister has suddenly realized the greatest truth of the world: “No sister ever likes her brother’s wife”. May God Bless him! But how did this sudden image makeover of a vulnerable brother to a ferocious brother took place? Is it the magic of Samajwadi Party. He is not first one who is spell bounded by it, Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, Jaya Pradha and many more have already experienced the magic and so consequent rise of of their respective guddis. And the man who gave these people's guddi a reason to rise is none other than the greatest deal maker of the century, Amar Singh. Jai Ho!


2. MS Dhoni: He came, he saw, he conquered. His guddi started rising after leading India to a famous victory in T20 world cup. Today he has started endorsing more brands than the God of Indian Cricket himself. He has replaced the top models to walk on the ramp. He has started partying with pretty ladies from Bollywood and then there is this news that a temple is being built on his name, that will have an idol of Dhoni in Ranchi. Not bad for a person whose house was stoned badly by the same group of people after India’s early exit from the World Cup two years back.


3. Rahul Gandhi: Is it not coincidental that there is a huge cry from all corners of the country that Rahul Gandhi should be the next PM and Manmohan Singh falling ill? All throughout past one year Congress kept denying any plans of removing Dr. Singh from the top post and just three months before elections there is a news from the congress headquarters that Dr. Manmohan Singh is not keeping well these day. Implies stage is being set for the Gandhi scion. But my question is that what was wrong in Jyotiraditya Scindhia or Sachin Pilot, who are in this mud of politics for more than 5 years now? Why didn’t there guddi rose like the guddi of Rahul Gandhi that rose within a year of his entering into politics? May be cause they didn’t go on “Discover India” tour the way Rahul did.


4. Akshay Kumar: When it was in case of Hrithik, I agreed. When it was in case of Ranbir, I again agreed. I wonder what this 40+ gentleman did, to raise his guddi suddenly. After earning his bread for nearly a decade by showing his martial arts Akshay Kumar changed his gear to comedy and suddenly there was this huge tide of him everywhere. I have seen Welcome, Bhagam Bhag, Singh is King; all stupid, non sensical comedy films, that had the trademark Akshay Kumar words- Chaddi, khote, etc throughout the film. I desperately wanted to laugh, but landed up sleeping while watching all the three movies. And then came a day when he became bigger than Shah Rukh Khan. Thats what guddi does to you.


5. Narender Modi: Maut ka Saudagar has become MoU(Memorandum of Understanding) ka saudagar. Chief Operating Officer of Godhra Riots has been recently voted as the most capable prime minister in waiting by the COO of various multinationals that came to Vibrant Gujarat Meet. What went wrong with the CEO, LK Advani? Why did his guddi refused to rise after so many Rath Yatras. I think Manmohan Singh was right when he famously said, “Advaniji needs to change his astrologer”.


6. Barack Obama: I have great respect for Mr. President. His rise of guddi is worth aspiring. He is a visible example of a Slum dog Millionaire. He came from nowhere in this race for President and took up challenges step by step and removed all the hurdles on the way. He gave a new slogan to the world, 'Yes, We can'. It is now left to be seen, whether he will be able to perform or not. Whether he will be able to bring United States from darkness to light. Whether his guddi rise or fall.


7. Himesh Reshamiya: He is a dreamer. He is a god’s gift. Himesh Reshamiya has a very important lesson for the people who want to raise their guddis, do something new and keep doing something new till either people start liking you or else you start being liked by the people(which means the same thing, something impossible happens). He produced television serials, people didn’t like him. He went on to compose music, people didn’t like him. He hosted a reality show, people didn’t like him. He started singing, people didn’t like him. He went on to acting, people didn’t like him. He trimmed his beard and grew hair on his bald patch, again people didn’t like him. So how he manages to keep his guddi raised all the time? Someone prompted, tandoori nights.


8. Mr.&Mrs. Bachchan: What happens when the beauty meets the destiny’s child? Answer is simple: Rise of guddi. Mr and Mrs Bachchan could not have enough of each other. Aishwarya kept up with her policy of plasticity(maintaining a perfect plastic smile). While Abhishek Bachchan was seen happy only in the company of two people-Aishwarya Rai and John Abraham.