Do we really need to talk?

Let silence do the talking between us
Let music be the rhythm between us
Let rains wet the emotions between us
Let books be the language between us

Trust me I can read into words
I can feel their colour and smell
I don't see the writer in them but
I can see the feelings in them
Do we really need to talk?

The cracks in BJP

The party with a difference has recently become the party with many differences. The last two weeks have been tough for the country's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The saffron group organised the Chintan Baithak on 10 August in Shimla to discuss the reasons behind its debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. However, the djin of Jinnah largely marred the three-day summit.
The timing could not have been more appropriate for the party's senior leader Jaswant Singh to release his book on the father of Pakistan. The Baithak made it easier for the BJP's top brass to meet over the issue and expel their senior colleague.
What followed this decision was a series of interviews by Mr Singh to bring further embarrassment to the party. He alleged the party leaders of being ignorant of the country's history.
Mr Singh's outburst has earned him some sympathy from party members including Arun Shourie. Mr Shourie openly challenged the BJP leadership and called them incapable of running the party.
Before the BJP could repond to these allegations, two former chief ministers also joined the rebel bandwagon. Bhuvan Chand Khanduri, former chief minister of Uttarakhand, and Rajastan's ex-chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia have sounded the rebel bugle.
Many say that the party is missing its patriach and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The party has many decision-makers, resulting in many aspirations.
This is the root cause of the saffron brigade's recent woes. Mr Vajpayee has retired from active politicis leaving a void which the party is finding difficult to fill. The party fought the general elections under the leadership of second-in-command L K Advani.
The BJP's defeat was a major setback for Mr Advani and many believe that he is still reeling under the shock and has been unable to control the rebellion. The party clearly lacks a central authority like Mr Vajpayee.
Mr Advani could have overseen decision-making from the outside had he resigned with the responsibilty of the poll defeat. He might have also earned the respect of his partymen and the common people.
Unlike the party's slain leader Pramod Mahajn who had resigned from party positions after the BJP could not retain power in the 2004 elections, not even one leader stepped down this time.
The flip-flop by Mr Advani on the Kandahar issue has also marred his image. He has been accused of lying to the nation by claiming that he was ignorant of that Mr Singh accompanied captive terrorists to Afghan city in 1999 in exchange for the freedom of 169 passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814.
Former national security advisor Brajesh Misra and former defence minister George Fernandes have refuted the claim saying he was aware of the incident.
Since early this year, the party has lost many of its credible faces. Former finance minister and senior leader Yashwant Sinha has resigned from all party posts. Mr Shourie, Mr Singh, Mr Sinha, Mr Vajpayee and Mr Mahajan were the main architects of the BJP's growth.
The party has grown from just two MPs in 1989 to become the single largest party in 1998.
The absence of these men have now left the party in shambles. Several other leaders have also left the party over the past six years including Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and K N Govindacharya.
The trouble in the BJP's camp is good news for the ruling Congress Party. While the lotus party is struggling to keep it's flock together, the Congress is enjoying the play of power thanks to a weak opposition.
So what makes the Congress stronger than the BJP at the moment? The tale of the two Gandhis can easily answer this question.
Congress' Rahul Gandhi and the BJP's Varun Gandhi arrived on the the country's political platform almost at the same time.
While Rahul is increasingly becoming popular in the country, Varun has been almost isolated due to his Muslim hate speech during the Lok Sabha polls in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh. He managed to win the seat but lost credibility as a politician.
However, the BJP has still not made its stand clear on the hate speech issue even after forensic labs confirmed that the voice in the speech was Varun's.
Despite all the odds, one cannot write off BJP. The party has grass-root workers in many states who will continue to work for it.
We as a country need a strong oppostion and if the BJP continues to wallow in its miseries, the country might face one-party domination once again.

Life has many faces

What happens when you lose a dear one? A battle ensues soon after. A battle with oneself and with God.
And it is this battle that we have to cope with, not just for days or months or years, but for the rest of our remaining lives.
I have not lost many people in my life because I never had many. Though, I am no stranger to the feeling of loneliness, I am quite familiar with the void which erupts from nowhere when a loved one leaves you.
My world was torn apart 13 years ago. I can still remember 10 June, 1996 like it was yesterday. This day I was told my life will never be the same again. I didn't know how to react, but a deep silence prevailed, broken only by the voice of my mother: "Why did you let him go?"
I was 12 years old but knew I had to grow up well beyond my years in a flash of time. "He has not gone. He is with us and will always be. He was simply unhappy with the world."
I don't remember crying bitterly that day. I was too busy thinking about my broken family. All day I planned things. Things I had to do in order to take care of my family.
Life has been a roller coaster ride since that day and I have come a long way. I don't know much about life but if there is just good, bad and ugly, I think have seen it all. I really don't think that I would ever be upset if someone leaves me again. Time has made me as solid as rock.
She (life) has given me many opportunities both personally and professionally. But I always failed to capitalise on them. Life has every right to laugh at me right now and she is doing it quite well.
I am tired of lying to myself. It feels like I am staring at a dead end. It is difficult to make friends after "the group" broke. It becomes even more difficult when people try to make it so obvious that you are not welcomed in "our" world.
Friendship is just not about having good times together, it is also about sharing and supporting in bad times. If any of my friends becomes a criminal tomorrow I would never leave him with just his mistakes to think of.
I have a duty as a friend - to help him get his life back. You can't just stop caring in the blink of an eye. You don't get up and leave because someone else is stuck in the rut. You don't make it worse by coming back to humiliate people and accuse them, gossip and pollute others' minds like old women. You don't turn your back and act like you never knew that person. And you certainly don't rub salt into open wounds.
If you have ever done that, know that you are nothing but a quitter. You don't turn your back on troubled times instead of weathering them.
And know that if you have done it, someday it might be done to you. And that day perhaps you will turn in your bed and remember the person who you left because you had nothing better to do.
I'm just human, I've made mistakes too. I suppose I am getting my due for some past mistake. Eventually, everyone will.

There was a friend

There are times when tomorrow is just a wee bit too late,It's today, my heart is in this abominable state.

There are times when tomorrow just cannot dry,The millions of tears on your shoulders I would cry.

There are times when your presence would have made my world seem all right,But I need it today, to bring me a new insight.

When my heart is weary and my soul seems sad,and you say "you took me for granted", I feel so bad.

Every time that you've called, be it night or in day,I've lent you my shoulder, I've shown you a way.

I've stood by your side through the thick and the thin,I wonder if I did wrong, committed a sin?

Sometimes I think its your way of saying "Move on,My need for you, seems now to have gone."

I know you must your horizons grow,I know the world to you, has a lot to show.


May you find fresh promise with each new tomorrow,For me, my yesterday was full of sorrow.

I needed you then, as you've many times needed meI'm learning, though slowly, things aren't what they seem to be.

I wonder how many tomorrows our friendship will weatherI know I'm close to the end of my tether.

For me

I know you're mad at me, It's ok. I don't know if you realise anger comes with love, joy with fear, upsets with caring and that love and hate are but two sides of the same coin. For me, every day is a roller coaster of despair and managing. Elation in between is rare. Contentment is the best solution, and I get there occasionally, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Within the same day, I can despair coz of you and feel very content too. Sometimes it is difficult to control either emotion, though I try very hard with both. However, I am like this, on an emotionally roller coaster ride most days. What is difficult about me is to remember that once the emotion is expressed, either in writing or it is said, it is over with. I am fairly like an open book with no malice. I realise it is difficut to deal with, which is why I ask you to forget me, when I do.

A trip that wasn't

One Friday night we were all scratching our heads to find a perfect birthday gift for Dielle. By exhausting all possible ideas I had already made my friends’ job a little difficult.

Vinod left early only to start thinking again the next day. Meanwhile, I poured a drink for myself hoping to better my thought process. Yash was savouring his drink as he always does. After a while my thoughts were all fuzzy. Royal Stag did it again; my few grey cells have this habit of going on a strike as soon as they feel some alcohol in the blood. Nevertheless, I think better without sweating my brain. "Everybody deserves to be pampered and we all need a little tranquillity now and then. D likes adventure and yes at times pampering as well."

Yash was taken aback when I made the above statement. Yash almost screamed, "How about a trek?" Vish improvised it by tossing up Gokarana as our destination.
Everything was planned and finally the ‘D-Day’ (read Dielle's Day! ) came. But, more fun was in the offing. In the morning we found that oil firms were on an indefinite strike. What the hell. I had told mum not to vote for Congress. She didn’t listen to me. They can’t even give us an uninterrupted gas supply.

The early morning excitement soon became a disaster. After endless number of calls to Bobby and Yashpal I had to call the trip off. No the story was not over yet, a twist in the tale was waiting. Bobby being a true juggler managed to arrange gas. Hurrah!! our trip plan was still afloat.

Knowing that 10pm is late night in Mangalore, we didn’t go out to buy stuff for the trip. No booze, no football and no sandwiches.

However, we started our trip at 5am, see we all are early-risers. lol

Singing, dancing and laughter full throat. I could sense that good times were ahead. Suddenly, D realised we are on the way to Udupi, "idlis on banana a leaf", she said in an overexcited tone. But to her bad luck, Udupivalas are not early-risers. No eatery was open. We had to wait for another 45 minutes to have our breakfast. Sipping steaming coffee and having warm idlis was an ideal way to start our day. As speed of the car increased our enthusiasm drastically went down. Idlis really made us sleep but Bobby had something else on his mind. He made us sing on his tunes or rather on tunes of his car’s accelerator. He was driving at 200kmph. I had never seen Vinod so alert. Meanwhile, we reached Gokarna. It didn’t give the look I was expecting. It looked like any other small town. But it was nature’s way of fooling me. As they say, best always comes later.

Meanwhile, as the car negotiated with the curves of the hilly way to the Om beach I was getting restless to see the famous blue waters of Gokarna.

To be continued…

Lines for me

Sometimes a voice can help me through, much more than any song,
Sometimes a line will speed me on, when all else is going wrong,
Sometimes when troubled winds blow strong, when life is not worth a penny
Then I look to you for strength, as times before, they've been many.
When friends seem foes, when each face seems strange
When all my thoughts every day I must rearrange,
It's then I think of words you said from where much hope I've drawn
It's then I remember each new day that my life it is not forlorn.
"You are strong, you can fight."
The sky is blue, the clouds are white
When I search I know the day is bright.
My mind seems clouded and confused
I see things as if they are diffused.
I know there is a waiting light
I know it is merely out of sight
I must have faith in my own self
Or else, me, I cannot help.
I must not think that all is lost, I must not feel "I cannot",
I must do things I know I must, it's only time that I have bought.
I will work well because I know I can, not because it will make me a man
I think I'm worth it so I'll prove it well, not that otherwise I give a damn.
My life is mine, for me to lead
I am my source of energy
I am the sun, the ocean waves
I will not be anybody's slave.
I do not need to anybody prove
what I am made of, that is my own groove
I will strive to better my own self
to be there when others need my help.