Innocent questions and love

A sharp rap of something falling woke me up. I rubbed my eyes and looked around as she snuggled up into my quilt. I picked up the clock on the bedside table it showed 1:30 a.m. The reading lamp was still on and the copy of “Of Love and Other Demons” had fallen off my chest on the carpet.

“Are you awake?” She asked, her voice husky with sleep.

“Yeah, what happened sweetheart?” I asked.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

I pulled her up over my chest and kissed her forehead. Her head moved as my chest rose up and down as I breathed.

“What is love?” She asked.

“Umm what…?” I wasn’t prepared for such a question from her in the middle of the night.

“Do you know what love is?” She asked sitting up beside me. She rubbed her brown eyes. Her black hair tumbled down on her shoulders as I held her by her waist thinking over her question.

“Well”, I said, pushing a strand of hair away from her forehead, “Love is what’s between you and me. I love you.”

“Why do you love me?”

I looked at her amazed.

“I love you because… you are the most beautiful girl I know. And because you share your chocolates with me. I love you because you look like me when you laugh.” I said, tickling her ribs. She wiggled in my grip, laughing and laid her head on my chest.

“Does mom love me?”

A flurry of memories came back to me in an instant. The fights over petty things had begun two years after our marriage. Some days it would be just a few minutes of silence followed by a bit of making up with flowers and kisses followed by passionate love making. On other days she would lock herself up, until she cried herself hoarse.

“Yeah she does.” I replied with a sigh patting her small back.

“Do you love mom?”

I played with her hair. My thoughts still traced our common path which had come to a point where Ira decided to take a different turn. She wanted to continue with her career in advertising. I did not want my daughter growing up under the care of a hired help. She filed for divorce and a long battle for the custody of our daughter started. I won the case but the win left me emotionally exhausted and a sour taste in the mouth.

“Dad?” She raised her head and looked at me. I saw her eyes were exactly like Ira’s.

“Yeah, I was in love with her.” I replied.

“Was! You mean you are not in love with her anymore?”

I smiled wondering how her little head could analyse so much. Ira always told me her thought process was like me.

“Why doesn’t she live with us? Why does she live with someone else?”

I didn’t have the answers to her questions, only excuses. She sensed it in my eyes.

“I think love is a living being.” She said.

“Really! How?” I asked, surprised at the seriousness of her voice.

“Yeah, you see it begins, like being born and then it lives for some time and then it dies, like between you and mom.”

I looked blankly through her. The love between me and Ira was born when we were in college, but it was short lived and had died long before it could grow.

“Miss Shalini says sharing is loving. Is it true dad?”

“Yes it is, in a way.”

“You remember the donut you packed me for tiffin this morning?”

I nodded.

“Well I shared it with Aamir.”

“You mean the boy who saves a seat for you in the bus every day.”

“Yeah, and he shared a cheese sandwich with me. I think we are in love.” Her innocent voice was heavy with sleep. I smiled seeing my daughter growing up so fast.

पुरानी किताब (An old book)

पुरानी किताब
तुम्हारी अलमारी में आज एक किताब मिली
काफी पुरानी
पन्नो को पलट कर देखा
एक अक्षर में तुम्हारा नाम था
काफी बार पढ़ी थी तुमने लगता है
पीले पन्ने सिलाई से निकल रहे थें
एक पन्ने का मुड़ा कोना बता रहा था
तुम पढ़ते पढ़ते शायद वहां पे सो गयी थी
एक पन्ने पे पानी की बूँद से बने दाग ने बताया
के तुम वहां पे रोई थी
मैं वो पन्ना ढूंढ़ रहा था जिसे पढ़ कर
मेरे बारे में सोच कर तुम शरमाई होगी
नहीं मिला
काफी पुरानी किताब थी शायद.

Independence Day. Really?

Independence Day. Really?, a photo by CellPhoneClicker on Flickr.

Just one day in the year we think about our nation, about the people who laid their lives for our freedom. And we celebrate the conquest of our freedom fighters by watching movies on TV, changing DPs on Twitter, Facebook or the more enthusiastic ones amongst us may stand and salute the tricolor at the flag hoisting ceremony taking place in their apartment complex.

Come 16th August and we are all the same again, cribbing about the politicians, the conditions of the road, the scams happening and the government doing nothing about everything. Why can't we celebrate Independence Day each day, just once each day?

Just once each day try to be a better citizen. I don’t think it’s much to ask for. While you are driving just don’t honk the horns of your vehicle unnecessarily or drive responsibly without jumping the lights or cutting the lanes. Just once each day, switch off the lights, fans and the water tap when not in use. Instead of pledging to fight corruption by signing online petitions, just once each day try to fight it by not paying the traffic hawaldar without any receipt, or not purchasing something without any proper receipt, or not paying the babu in sarkari daftar to forward your file.

Weren’t these things taught to us in our schools? Why did we forget them?

Remember the 80/20 principle, I don’t think more than 20% of our nation is corrupt, the rest 80% of us are good, indifferent to our situation but good. Just once each day, if each one of us took care of these small things our nation would not need a Lokpal Commission at all.

After 64 years this is our time, we are one of the strongest economy in the world today, the most powerful nations look towards us in the times of world crisis, let us not waste this opportunity. Let us all do our own one small part each day. As the equation of synergy goes the sum of parts is always greater than the whole.

140 - Character - Less

Some of my very very short stories that I have written for Twitter and Facebook. Some of them are lesser than 140 characters.

Yeah you can follow me on Twitter @vivek13th and on Facebook too Viveksingh.

• He thought he heard her call his name. He turned around and found her talking to someone else. She turned around and looked through him.
  
  
  
• He cracked his knuckles. His neck ached. He'd been lying there for hours. He felt the cold metal trigger as he saw her appear at her window.
  
  
• It would have been a night to remember hadn't the bullet missed. It still became a night to be remembered.
  
  
• They had walked 20 miles in the scorching heat. The crowd at the well looked like a fair from a distance. The daughter & mother stood gaping.
  
  
  
• The price of one roti was Rs. 1.50. He had Rs. 3 with him and four mouths to feed. He had 3 options to go with. Beg, steal or kill.
  
  
• Mumbai is all about running, run after the train, run after the taxi, run after your job, your client, run or the signal will change. Run.
  
• The sun lay shattered into a billion shimmering pieces, on the surface of the sea. She picked them up with her lonely brown eyes.
  
  
• Each night he doused the fire within. Each morning he rose like a phoenix from its own ashes.
  
  
• She picked up a bunch of keys, handed it to a shopkeeper & said 'I found these on the ground'. Somebody was going to have trouble with locks.
  
  
• Time to start a new chapter. Time to chase new dreams.
  
  
• There's a pileup on the highway called life.
  
  
• When the sun goes down and I am all alone, will you be my refuge? When the days are still and the nights are violent, will you be my refuge? When the time is gone and no one remembers me, will you be my refuge?
  
  
• कुछ सुन लिया तो लिख दिया... कुछ दिख गया तो लिख दिया... कुछ कह दिया तो लिख दिया... कुछ बिक गया तो लिख दिया

Which one did you like?

उम्मीद (Ummeed - Hope)

सुबह की किरणों ने फिर एक नया उमंग है जगाया
आसमा को छूने का नया सपना है दिखाया


उड़ने के लिए मैंने भी पंख हैं फैलाये
पर कड़ी धुप को देख मेरी उम्मीदें डगमगाए


गुमसुम चुपचाप सा मैं कोसने लगा किस्मत को
क्यूँ आज ही तपना था इस सूरज को


ध्यान मेरा एक पंची ने मोड़ा
मेरे भ्रम को उस नन्हे से जीव ने तोडा


कड़कती धुप में भी वोह चह्चहा रहा था
मानो सूरज को अपने गीत सुना रहा था


हिम्मत उसकी देख मैं मुस्काया
और मेरी समझ में यह आया
के बिना हौसले के किसी ने कुछ भी नहीं है पाया.

---------------------------------------------

The morning Sun rays filled my heart with a new hope

It gave me a new dream to reach for the skies

I stretched my wings to fly

But the heat from the Sun jaded my spirits

Silently I blamed my fate

Why the Sun had to beat down like this when I had to take off

A bird attracted my attention

And it broke my fallacy

In the heat of the Sun the bird was singing

As if it was singing in the praise of the Sun

I smiled at his courage

And I understood

That without courage and hope no one has ever gained anything.

You have been Vuvuzelaed.

Come appraisals and people start talking about the torturous corporate life. Of many things that they talk one thing is common in all the offices and that’s the ‘corporate bamboo’ or as my ex-boss used to pronounce it ‘bumboo’. So everytime she got it up her’s she would very gratefuly pass it on to us or should I say up to us. But I have a feeling that after this FIFA World Cup the ‘corporate bumboo’ will be replaced by the ubiquitous Vuvuzela.

The Coporate Vuvuzela. The word itself is so annoying that it will make people shudder. When a boss will call an employee inside his cabin who had just missed a deadline, the people outside would be saying ‘Oh the guy’s gonna be Vuvuzelaed today’. I was even wondering since Mr. Obama isn’t very keen on outsourcing and now that India is not the only hub of outsourcing jobs, the phrase ‘your job has been Bangalored’ will be changed to ‘your job has been Vuvuzelaed’.

One must be thinking why should the notorious bumboo which has been there ever since the corporates came into being, be replaced with something as new as Vuvuzela? Let me tell you:

• Vuvuzela, as wikipedia says, derives its name from the word ‘zulu’ which in African means to make noise and was invented in 1965. So its not as new as one thinks it is.
  
  
• The Corporate Vuvuzela (due to its shape) can serve a similar purpose with as much ease as the Corporate Bumboo.
  
  
• And while its being used the victim is bound to make noises though the type and source of noise in the case of Corporate Vuvuzela will be a bit different.
  
  
• And last but not the least it can be used by anyone and on anyone without much training irrespective of their age, sex, qualification or communication skills.

So once again its appraisal time. Some of the companies are already through with the process and some, like mine are still at work. So one can see people huddled in groups during coffee breaks and lunch breaks discussing who will get the corporate vuvuzela.

So when the boss calls me to hand over the appraisal letter to me he would say ‘Dude I tried very hard but you failed to impress us this time. I was expecting a lot more from you. But if you perform well next time I promise you, you will get a lot better raise’. So along with the invisible carrot I see something written on my appraisal letter, something which cant be read by anyone else ‘You have been Vuvuzelaed’.

The Twitter Quiz.... #WTF me #Fail.

Ok I am doing it 'cause @nadhiyamali said that many of the tweeples would like to read this... If you like it do reply

1. What time did you get up this morning?

Around 7:15 for my morning jog.

2. How do you like your steak?

as long as it is chicken anything will do

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?

LOVE AAJ KAL .. went watch Kaminey but the theatres were closed

4. What is your favorite TV show?

Friends have watched all seasons 953 times :-P

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Shimla or any place where it snows and has hills

6. What did you have for breakfast?

I Skip breakfast but cornflakes mostly with some milk and no sugar... would love to have Mom made besan ke paranthe everyday

7. What is your favourite cuisine?

Chinese... can have chinese four times a day... I like south Indian moghlai and tandoori as well.

8. What foods do you dislike?

Cabbage, tomato.

9. Favourite Place to Eat?

Since have been living away from home for long I crave for home made food... in Mumbai bade miyaan copper chimney urban tadka prataps dhaba... in Delhi karims and momos at south ext... in Jamshedpur blooms, hong kong, thele pe chinese...

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive?

I can drive any kinda two wheeler

12. What are your favourite clothes?

jeans t-shirts mostly but also sometimes like to dress up in my black suit with black shades tryinh to act like Will Smith in MIB

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?

Saturn to see its rings

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? ???

Cup??? How about a glass half full on the rocks :-D

15. Where would you want to retire?

wanna die with my boots on... so to my grave

16. Favorite time of day?

Night listening to some music tweeting sometimes and working like crazy

17. Where were you born?

Jharia ever heard of it :-P... largest coal belt in India... hence the colour

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?

Tennis

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?

I am following 800 odd tweeple so the list will be long

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?

@nadhiyamali 'cause she ordered me to do this

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?

all the twabes

22. Bird watcher?

yup chicks mostly :-P

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?

Night

24. Do you have any pets?

nope

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?

started my own venture...

26. What did you want to be when you were little?

wanted to be BIG... suno sunao life banao :-P

27. What is your best childhood memory?

flying kites... playing tops.... climbing trees... my colouring book

28. Are you a cat or dog person?

Dog

29. Are you married?

Nope... havent met my match yet :-P

30. Always wear your seat belt?

I don’t drive a car and my bike doesnt have a seat belt

31. Been in a car accident?

nope but thokoed my bike thrice

32. Any pet peeves?

None

33. Favourite Pizza Toppings?

Tandoori Chicken Paneer tikka mushrooms

34. Favourite Flower?

Anything that the lady likes

35. Favourite ice cream?

Any flavour by gelatos

36. Favourite fast food restaurant?

McDonalds :-P

37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?

What drivers test in India... pagal hai kya???

38. From whom did you get your last email?

Copyblogger

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?

Hard Rock Cafe with my friends \m/

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?

Sang you're beautiful in front of all my coleagues

41. Happy with your job?

bored kinda happy

42. Broccoli?

eat it forget it

43. What was your favorite vacation?

Four shots of vodka... 8 people... one SUV... 3 in the morning... driving to Shimla... four days before the final sem exams... heaven

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?

you mean the one I want to remember... with my family.

45. What are you listening to right now?

Rock Rules on VH1

46. What is your favorite color?

Black

47. How many tattoos do you have?

one

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz?

three four five may be six who knows how many i will remember to tag

49. In What time did you finish this quiz?

too long must have taken me an hour or so

50. Coffee Drinker?

Chai... or coffee at barista

My tags: @nadhiyamali @streetanchor @hiyer @krithikan @WickdWeirdWitch @thenewbnb @OldmonkMGM @prateekgupta @pallaviade @kyrasinging2 @meerasapra

Tagging all my twitter buddies who I like to interact with and RT ... sorry if ur handles not here doesnt mean that I dont like interacting with you...

Sex and Swine Flu!!!

by viveksingh | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

Windows '98

While returning home I saw some kids roller skating on the road. They would hardly have been 7 or 8 year old. I remembered my own days as a kid. To enjoy we would generally stick to games like cricket or playing tops or flying kites. But today its the age of roller skates or skate boards and virtual games.

These kids have been born with these gizmos in their hands. Mobile phone is a normal thing for them and is a hep thing for an 8 year old to have. Internet is something without which homeworks are out of question. Google is the present version of the good old Oxford dictionary. You aint kool if you dont have the biggest Bey Blade (most of us dont even know whats that) or if you dont watch, or play or have a set of Pokemon gizmos.

I know that I am too young to talk like this but think of the time when our kids will come to this world. Blue tooth enabled appliances will be the norm. Simulated strategy games which will be played in real time would have taken the place of roller skates. The latest version of windows which would run on your palm tops would be Windows don't know what. The latest Pentium offering would Pentium 10^10 a 100 ghz processor. The hottest selling toy would be BOOMLAKUA and I have no idea what that would be. But times would have changed drastically. Technology would have changed and we who think are using the latest technology proudly flashing our high tech gizmos in front of our friends would suddenly become outdated or in terms of an IT professional obsolete.

But the million dollar question is that will we be able to instill, the same values, the same culture, the same ethics that our parents have given to us? The sense of patriotism that I somehow feel is slowly diminishing in today's youth will that be wiped out by then? Will people start becoming obsolete like Technology?

Did you say no?

Think about this the number of divorce cases have been rising steadily. The number of extra marital affairs has been rising steadily.The plight of the knowledge worker is on the rise. The nuclear family system is on the rise.The time people spend with their families is decreasing. The time people give to their children is decreasing. The number of old people homes have been rising steadily.

Are we working towards our own doom?

Think about it or one day we might be obsolete like Windows 98...

Sex Tourism

What is Sex Tourism?
Sex tourism is defined as traveling to a foreign country with the intent to engage in sexual activity with others. Sex tourism of children would therefore be defined as traveling to a foreign country with the intent to engage in sexual activity with a child younger than the age of 18. It is against the law for any citizen of the United States to travel to another country to engage in sexual activity with any child younger than the age of 18. Individuals who partake in this illegal activity are subject to prosecution in the United States even if they committed the crime on foreign soil.

While much of the initial international attention on sex tourism of children focused on Thailand and other countries of Southeast Asia, there is no hemisphere, continent, or region unaffected by this trade. As countries develop their economies and tourism industries, this form of tourism seems to surface.Economic difficulties, civil unrest, poverty, and displacement of refugees all contribute to the growth of this industry. The United Nations International Children's Educational Fund (UNICEF) released a report in 1997 estimating more than 1 million children, overwhelmingly female, are forced into prostitution every year, the majority in Asia.3 End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), however, also reports increasing evidence of children being exploited in former Eastern Bloc countries. Reports of children entering prostitution, being exploited by foreigners and aid workers, and trafficked to Western European brothels are coming from the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Russia.

Introduction
To many governments around the world, international tourism can be the answer to economic growth and development. Tourism also brings consumerism to many parts of the world formerly denied access to luxury commodities and services. Growing consumerism and the commodification of sexuality may also be contributing to an increase in sex tourism of children.

Why Does It Occur?
Children will continue to be victimized by these sexual predators for many reasons including
Anonymity
Availability
Affordability
Lack of child-protection laws in foreign countries
Low risk of detection
Role of the Internet

Unfortunately there are still numerous small travel companies throughout the world that promote sex tourism of children by identifying resorts where prostitution is widespread. Because these companies are so small, they rarely draw attention from law enforcement.
In addition the advent of the Internet has revolutionized the growth of the sex-tourism-of-children industry. Some Internet chatrooms, message boards, and online organizations not only encourage this form of tourism, but give detailed instructions about how to partake in it.
The various areas of the Internet allow offenders to communicate with others who have already traveled to another country for this purpose. From the comfort of their own homes, they can plan their vacation and purchase their tickets with relative anonymity.

Statistics
Although it is nearly impossible to provide accurate statistics about the number of children involved in prostitution, the examples below provide an overview of the problem.
Cambodia: As of 1995 one survey found minors from 13 to 17 years of age comprised about 31 percent of sex workers.

China: As of 1994 the Peking People's Daily reported more than 10,000 women and children were abducted and sold each year in Sichaun alone.

Costa Rica: The capital city of San Jose is home to more than 2,000 child prostitutes. Across the country, children are regularly sold to foreign pedophiles as part of sex-tour "packages."

India: In 1995, 20 percent of Bombay's brothel population was composed of girls who were younger than 18, at least half of whom were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive.

Sri Lanka: 100,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14 are kept in brothels and an additional 5,000 children between 10 and 18 are working in tourist areas.

Taiwan: Estimates indicate the number of children in the sex industry to be around 100000.