These few lines are a reflection of the apathy of the general public towards our hardships & the apathy of the government as well!!


I hear, we have crossed the sixtieth year,
Standing guard without any fear,
Another day in the desert sun,
Or a night at height, with a freezing gun,
Tell me my India "What I am worth."
For the Battles and Wars that I fight,
Never asking which one is right,
From Dawn to Dusk and then to Dawn,
Your Bishop, Your Knight Your Eternal Pawn,
Tell me my India "What I am worth."
While you fill your coffers today,
Wondering where and how to make,
Another fortune, another buy,
Your aspirations are now touching the Sky,
Tell me my India" what I am worth."
You make a mention on your political line,
Come to my post, wine and dine,
Then run to your stock, while I stand your guard,
Killing and dying but still fighting hard,
Tell me my India" what I am worth."
The other day I was on TV too,
You came up to me with your educated crew,
Told me to speak cos you seemed to care,
Wrote your story stripped me bare.
I was so naive I didn't know,
For you it was the nine o'clock show,
The country wants to hear some line,
Before they sleep, knowing they are fine,
Tell me my India" what I am worth."
My Men tell me, that they are strong,
Would fight for their country, for all that's wrong,
While I tell them to stand and fight,
You ignore my existence, my very right,
Tell me my India" what I am worth."
I thought I would tell my children in time,
How I fought for this country, this love of mine,
I wonder, if I should mention it though,
Don't want them embarrassed, while they start to grow,
Tell me my India" what I am worth."
I was your ambition, your child hood dream,
Your Pilot, Your Sailor your Jawan in green,
Where did we part as friends,
our ways I never let you down a single day,
Tell me my India" what I am worth."
Why do I still serve you?
How you play with us, did you ever see?
At Seven, I had decided what I wanted to be;
I would serve you to the end,All these boundaries I would defend.
Now you make me look like a fool,
When at Seventeen and just out of school;
Went to the place where they made 'men out of boys'
Lived a tough life …sacrificed a few joys…
In those days, I would see my 'civilian' friends,
Living a life with the fashion trends;
Enjoying their so called 'College Days'
While I sweated and bled in the sun and haze…
But I never thought twice about what where or why
All I knew was when the time came, I'd be ready to do or die.
At 21 and with my commission in hand,
Under the glory of the parade and the band,
I took the oath to protect you over land, air or sea,
And make the supreme sacrifice when the need came to be.
I stood there with a sense of recognition,
But on that day I never had the premonition,
that when the time came to give me my due,
You'd just say,' What is so great that you do?'
Long back you promised a well to do life;
And when I'm away, take care of my wife.
You came and saw the hardships I live through,
And I saw you make a note or two,
And I hoped you would realise the worth of me;
but now I know you'll never be able to see,
Because you only see the glorified life of mine,
Did you see the place where death looms all the time?
Did you meet the man standing guard in the snow?
The name of his newborn he does not know...
Did you meet the man whose father breathed his last?
While the sailor patrolled our seas so vast?
You still know I'll not be the one to raise my voice
I will stand tall and protect you in Punjab, Himachal and Thois.
But that's just me you have in the sun and rain,
For now at Twenty three, you make me think again;
About the decision I made, eight years back!!

SWIGGIN’ JANES

With drinking no longer taboo for middle class urban Indian women, they’re imbibing it with much spirit drinking! “I love dancing when I’m drinking! Dancing when you are sober is just not the same!” exclaimed a female friend of mine. Another chirped “I love how the music gets into you,and your body sort of sways with the music. Drinking makes me happy,chatty and uninhibited.” These friends of mine are one of the thousands of urban middle class Indian women who head to a bar a couple of times every week,to wind down with a drink after a hard day’s work,or pass the night in a hedonistic blur of potent cocktails and shots. Fuelled with their new financial independence and the increasing social tolerance of women’s drinking, more urban women are drinking than before. They might begin their drinking careers with innocuous-tasting Baileys and breezers;comforting the sweet confections which, nevertheless, contain hard spirits. But they soon move on to undisguised and unabashedly stiffer drinks-whisky,vodka,gin.

What’s even more appaling is, more than half the number of women who drink are “binge drinking” – putting the drinks away as fast and furiously as their male counterparts. At most parties, when everybody agrees that one’s level of merriment is measured in direct proportion with the number of drinks they’ve downed, binge drinking becomes almost a social obligation. It’s a daunting challenge to persistenly sidestep your hosts’ outraged cries of “Where’s your drink?” Neither does it win you any admirers. Another female colleague of mine has reserved her most scathing contempt for teetotalers. “Why would you come to a pub and then not drink? That’s boring!” she declares. “You risk being labelled a moralistic tightass, unable to relax. At such parties and get-togethers, sober people don’t fit in.”
It isn’t the same environment anymore, not by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a world where the spectacle of a tipsy woman tottering on high heels isn’t confined to a Bollywood allegory of fallen virtue, but a sight so common now that it no longer raises an eyebrow. Where girls nursing pounding hangovers outdo one another with tales of how cataclysmically ‘wasted” they got the previous night. Where the mid-week ‘Ladies night’ orgy of free cocktails has become the riguer in any watering hole aspiring to be the next it-bar. And with a quarter of the Indian alcohol industry’s 15 % annual market growth being fuelled by women,liquor companies are constantly diversifying their arsenal to make sure women don’t stray away from the bar. Advertising their wares might be banned, but this does not stop them from sponsoring exactly the sorts of events that attract hip young women - rock concerts,club nights,parties-to sample newly launched liqueurs,breezers and pre-packaged shots. For the increasing number of women with the social sanction and disposable incomes to have access to this beguiling array of booze,it’s hard to stop at just one or two.

Well, it’s a strange world we live in these days and even stranger the people we interact with. But I guess the men folk will agree that there’s nothing more sexy than a woman sippin’ on a drink in a bar. Its an equally colossal turn off to watch a pretty face get wasted in an array of alcoholic spirits. So whatever the reason for drinking, watch your step ladies, ‘coz its quite slippery down where the road to “spirit villa” leads. But for now I’m off to the bar to watch some pretty young faces down their drinks almost with a vengeance and see them shed their inhibitions and dance…..till then Adios amigos & senoritas….