I am an Indian

I am not a Hindu, nor a Muslim, nor a Christian, nor a Sikh, nor a Parsi, nor a Jew, nor a Buddhist nor a Jain. I am not a Brahmin, nor a Kshatriya, nor a Vaishya, nor a Shudra, nor a Shia, nor a Sunni, nor a Protestant, nor a Catholic, nor a Hinayana, nor a Mahayana, nor a Digambara, nor a Svetambara. I am not an aam aadmi nor a VVIP. I am an Indian.

My history precedes that of every other civilization. I know more languages than a citizen of any other country. I count Shree Rama, Shree Krishna, Gautama Buddha, Mahavir and the Ten Gurus in my ancestry. I count Aryabhatta and Ramanujan as my compatriots. I have the valor of Prithviraj Chauhan, Shivaji and Manekshaw in my blood. I have the message of Gandhi in my heart. I am an Indian.

Valmiki and Vyasa wrote epics that inspired the world, but were composed in my homeland. Mirza Ghalib, Kabir and Tagore left their footprints on the soil of my country. Thoughts from my land, awakened the world's soul. I am an Indian.

Thieves may try to steal my riches, foreigners may try to rule my land, tyrants may try to enslave my people. But in the end, they will fail and I will prevail. I am an Indian.

Inspiring Indian War Stories

This post is to declare my intention of starting a new blog very soon, which will be of a slightly serious nature. In the sense that it will be a set of stories of brave deeds of the Indian Armed Forces pre and post Independence.

I come from an Army background and hence have heard of a number of amazing war stories, things which civilians have never heard of, things which our textbooks should have, but don't. I am no historian and would never dare to write anything fictional about the Armed Forces ever. Hence what this blog will have, a set of excerpts of amazing true stories from all over the Internet and from some books.

I do hope you visit the blog once it is opened and I also hope it does excite you, entertain you and in some small way make you feel even more proud of being an Indian.

I don't intend to come across as being pretentious, but I am 22 years old now, and I have never heard anyone in the mass media focus on these amazing stories. If even one of these stories is new for you, the purpose of the blog will be served.

Happy Violent Times Day

I won't go into the cultural aspect of whether Valentine's Day is good or bad... that's for each of us to decide for ourselves. But somehow it seems that this time of the year some people get a license to be violent en mass. The news channels show these losers on screen thrashing people and yet they never get arrested. If this trend continues, we might as well rename it Violent Times Day, a day for violent people to go out on the streets and thrash people!

Sad to see such trends in our "non-violent" country.

Worst part was seeing a police constable thrash a woman in Haryana, yeah man... way to go... hail your sadist culture where you use force on a woman! Then we had a case in MP where a bunch of cultural thugs mistook a brother-sister pair on the roads as "lovers" and thrashed the guy until they were told that the guy was her brother! So apparently on 14th Feb, if you're seen with a girl, she better be your sister - or else...

Then we had cases in Maharashtra of couples being "married" on the streets, with a bunch of sadists clapping away to glory as a sobbing girl garlands her "husband". Insanity seems to prevail in the country on such days.

And then a lot has been written about this topic already and I don't want to be repetitive, but this is no way to treat your countrymen.

One rarely gets to hear of some boy harassing a girl on such days , but we always hear of the people who want to prevent the damage to Indian culture, harassing people. It is a mockery of the law and order, the cop thrashing a woman just proves what kinds of people are out on the streets to protect the innocent. Frustrated losers should not decide what Indian culture is.

Anyways blogging about it also doesn't help much, but then at least making your point of view known is a start. Hopefully power will go to sensible people in this country... someday!

I Play For India... Now, more than ever - Sachin

The best thing about being a Sachin fan is that he gives you so much to be proud of. Almost every month he does something that brings joy to the entire country. Today he completed one of the 2 so called incomplete tasks his critics keep talking about, he scored a century in the 4th innings on the last day and India won. The only other incomplete task he needs to complete is to win a World Cup for India, while the latter task can wait for a couple of years we can celebrate his achievement today.

It all began with Virender Sehwag unleashing hell on the unsuspecting Englishmen who felt they were safe with a total of 386. India needed 387 and in an hour's time Sehwag changed the outlook of the game, he ended up getting a deserved Man of the Match award.

But the highlight of the game was the masterclass of Sachin Tendulkar. He played exceptional cricket, not for a moment did you think India was in trouble once he came down to bat. Yuvraj Singh bettered all expectations and did a fine job to support India's win. In fact at a stage it looked like he might even go on and steal the century away from Sachin. Yuvraj then played out a few dot balls which were cheered by the crowds who wanted to see a Sachin century and there were too few runs to get for both Sachin and Yuvraj to score hundreds. Eventually Sachin scored a couple of boundaries and made it to his 41st Test century with another boundary which also brough up India's historic win.

Some pics related to the game -


















Here's a little excerpt from an article on Cricinfo about Sachin. It is an awesome set of lines which truly describe what this genius means to India:

Those that aren't Indian struggle to fathom exactly what Tendulkar means to so many millions, and it's doubtful whether even those that live here really comprehend just how much a part of the national consciousness he has become. He is such a unifying force, a personality capable of stirring the emotions in every nook and corner of a vast land. And in these times of distress and anger, it was so very appropriate that it would be Tendulkar who put the smiles back on at least a few faces.

Thanks a billion Sachin.

The Armed Forces and the botched up 6th Pay Comission

I was deeply saddened to see the state of affairs in the country today. Actually that's something one can say everyday, but this time the Govt. has really hit rock bottom. It's regarding the 6th Pay Commission. Now for those who don't have a clue as to what the 6th Pay Commission and the related controversy is; read This ->.

Here we have people who risk their lives day in and day out, men who are retired at the age of 36; they're called jawans; and they are paid salaries which are lesser than those of a private security guard. The so called security guards do nothing more that salute big 'egoed' sahibs and sit around all day. Not once have they prevented a rape at a call center or nabbed a robber in a society. And yet these guys are paid more than a jawan who deals with mortar fire and grenade attacks; thanks to terrorism, which again is a creation of political mishandling of issues. The Indian Armed Forces are the worlds most respected Armed Forces, being the only one's to have separated an entire enemy country into 2 parts through tactical superiority within 7 days [read as the creation of Bangladesh].
Few people know of the "Last Man Last Round Battle" in the 1962 war, where the Indian Soldier fought against wave after wave of Chinese infantry until the last man standing fired his last round. They were given instructions allowing them to retreat, but they chose to fight and die courageously rather than give a walk-over to the enemy.
The only courage our MP's show is when they're busy throwing chairs and mikes at each other inside Parliament.

Then we have some 'economic patriots' complaining about the impact of the 6th Pay Commission on our economy. Well, what difference does an amount of 450 Crore rupees make, when we can loan off 6000 Crore rupees in an obvious vote hungry move. 450 Crore is a not such a huge amount, and it's the fault of the Govt. that it has come to such a state that for so many years the Armed Forces were denied their rightful pay.

The worst thing is that we have people, sitting in their cozy sofas commenting on how the Armed Forces should not 'indulge' in protests and 'focus' on their jobs. Well my friend, when you know you could die at your work [and by die I do not mean die in a car crash or in a case of drunken asphyxiation; I mean die by the bullet fired from an enemy's gun or from the shrapnel flying off from a grenade burst], the least you expect is that your family should not be begging hand to mouth after you die doing your duty.

We have software professionals who get appraisals every 6 months or after 1 year. Let me see how he feels, if he is given a pathetic increase, an increase so puny that the fresher of the neighboring company gets more than you. But then we civilians can switch jobs, should the Indian army soldier switch to the Pakistan army [which incidentally is one of the highest paid army in the world]?

The Armed Forces are not asking to be given demi-god status, all they are protesting against is the step-brotherly treatment they are getting in this country, from the very people they protect. Another thing to be remembered is that the soldier is also human, he too has a limit of tolerance, God help this country when the soldier gives up hope. The backlash of this hasn't been foreseen by the current Govt. and the Finance Minister. Wake up people, the Armed Forces and their rightful demands must be honored.

Avengi Ja Nahin

Rabbi's masterclass continues with this exceptionally soulful album, which infuses soulful music with power through great vocals and guitar arrangements.
Its great to hear an album that's totally worth buying. The lyrics are in Punjabi, barring 2 songs. One song is in English and the other in Hindi.

Here's some praise for this album -

"I do not know those words which are even close exhilarating as this album is. Rabbi has added a new dimension to the Punjabi music which is largely known for bhangra beats and crass lyrics. Even great singers like Sukhwinder and Daler Mehendi have not been able to inspire as differently. I liked all songs especially Bilquis, AJN, and Challa. Music and lyrics of ‘Bilquis’ are really noteworthy. I think there should be a video made out of it to remind people of martyrs like Manjunath and Navleen Kumar. Its not hard to imagine that this can stir up media and ordinary people to take the cause of these long forgotten cases. I can simply sum up by saying that Rabbi’s music is not only contemporary and awesome but has soul and purpose beyond making money."

"I’m particularly impressed that Rabbi has taken on some political causes, including a very angry Hindi-language song about communalism, called “Bilquis”…

Also named in the song are Satyendra Dubey, a highway inspector who was killed after he tried to fight corruption, and Shanmughan Manjunath, killed in much the same way.

With songs like this, I see Rabbi as doing for Indian music what singers like Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie have done in the U.S. — documenting injustice, and telling the story of a society as they see it. It’s vital, and necessary."

Album Description : Album: Avengi Ja Nahin
Singer: Rabbi Shergill
Label: Yash Raj Music
Lyrics: Rabbi Shergill
Music: Rabbi Shergill
Track Listing:

01 Chhalla
02 Karachi Valie
03 Maen Bolia
04 Avengi Ja Nahin
05 Ballo
06 Tu Avin Bandra
07 Pagri Sambhal Jatta
08 Bilqis (Jinhe Naaz Hai)
09 Return To Unity

Here's a bit of a mini review from my side.

Special mention for the following songs -
Challa,Karachi Valie, Ballo [brilliant], Bilquis, Return To Unity.

Return To Unity is an English song, it's amazing. All the songs of the album are quality products. Avengi Ja Nahin as an album has a chance to get a Grammy nomination at least if it's given the correct promotion.

Bilquis has mind blowing lyrics, it's in Hindi. The musical arrangement consists of a chord arrangement from our National Anthem. It's amazing. Take a bow Rabbi Shergill.