Random Ramblings

Of late I have noticed few things about my blogging habits - I often pick up my laptop, beginning to type a blog post or anything ... I start and then I decide to discontinue as I don't manage to gather sufficient motivation or inspiration or just even sufficient energy to overcome my laziness to complete that post. Often I have ideas in mind but by the time I sit in front of my lappy, the idea fizzles out or gets relegated to a low priority corner, and that idea never gets materialized. When my lappy goes kaput, as it did today and as it did on my birthday eve some 40 days ago and I somehow got it repaired at some local hardware shacks at Sikar and Jhunjhunu, I crib about being denied opportunities to log on to blogosphere. In general, I somehow or the other let many a thoughts die a silent death within the confines of that volatile thing safely enconsed within the confines of my cranium. Maybe, some motivation is needed ... Somebody, please bring some carrots!!! Well, this post ...

This time just a few random images. And yes ... It gets much darker than this !!! A typical scene inside a dilapidated Roadways bus running on a mixture of OK and horrible roads 20-25 people in/on the jeeps are not uncommon in this part of the world. A scene inside a city, creating a big stink on account of old and damaged goods, ready to b picked by a rag picker Getting into a bus is a fight, getting a seat a privilege! Another overcrowded bus Aspirations?

The title of this post finds its origins in a novel with simlar name written by VS Naipaul. Set in India, some 40 years ago or so, this is a kind of travelogue of author's brief stay in India where he found it to be full of superstitions, ignorance and darkness! Many decades and many MNCs and malls later, few parts of India seemed to have chucked off that tag, but there are many places that haven't and continue to remain shrouded in ignorance. Move few hours away from a city, travel in a second class train compartment or a dilapidated state transport bus and you get to see the dark underbelly of India Shining. As one of the characters in the movie Rang De Basanti says "Yahan zinda rehne ki jung mein logo ki zindagiyan nikal jaati hai" . So true it seems! My day today was spent being kind of lost in similar thoughts. To start with, I when I boarded the ST bus, a woman was wailing. She may be in her 20s or something, but she was crying in some peculiar musical tone. At...