Random Ramblings

"Hi, How r u doing ?" "I am fine" "Howzz life ?" "M doing great. Life is great." "Great. Life is great at my end too... you tell, What's new ? "Nothing special. Enjoying at Delhi" How many times has this or one of its variant been repeated! Maybe often, be in case of two friends catching up after quite some time catching up probably on a social networking site like Orkut, or catching up through chat or mails. Maybe, in case of a telephonic conversation, it may last a bit longer getting to some the specifics. But more often than not, the script is similar. Usually people are always doing great, they are always happy. The facade usually remains similar. But how much of those times do we actually manage to look beyond the facade? Maye, very rarely. Maybe many of these goody goody things are quite 'good' if not great. But often behind this are many layers - layers which are hidden from majority of the outside world by means

Below is one of the signs I saw at the extremely busy Platform number 1 of Allahabad railway station recently ---> I wonder, How 'secret' or 'intelligent' the department's services would be !

"Freedom of expression is the freedom to say what you want, as long as you say what they want to hear" - Freedom of expression – One of the hallmarks of great societies of the world; one of the basic rights guaranteed by our constitution. But is it all in theory? Take the case of Tasleema Nasreen or M.F. Hussain or students of MS University, Baroda or many others who dare to express things against the norm, but have to face wrath of some self-appointed moral police every now and then? … Or consider countless others who do not even dare to express, because of the fear of consequences from likes of Shiv Sena or Bajrang Dal or infinite others self appointed guardians of our culture. Yes. As a nation we have had fairly decent record on this front, if not anything great … but that is not enough. It must be made much better if we need to progress as a society. But where are we heading for ?