BAN ,BAN and BAN....where is democracy lost....

          India is the biggest democracy that is what I have always learnt in school and that is what I teach my children , but suddenly I wonder are we really the biggest democracy? What does democracy really mean . I always thought democracy means total freedom of speech,thought,movement and life. A government chosen by the people ,for the people and of the people.

           Democracy a word that I very proudly said and felt,but lately I wonder am I really living in a country that said "I have total democracy". Everyday I see some rights of the ours taken away for some reason or other. We live in a country where we struggle for our basic necessities daily ,be it water ,electricity, fresh air ,good roads, clean environment ,everyday every Indian is struggling for it, and if that was not enough now the word 'BAN' has  made sure that many more rights be taken away from WE THE PEOPLE.. Ban of beef ,ban of meat , ban of this and ban of that. Honestly think about it we have no right to even decide what we can or cannot eat, we cannot even decide where we stay as in recent times the building  decide if a vegetarian or non vegetarian family can live in the building or not,flats are sold or given on lease on religion basis. Colleges and schools decide admissions on reservation basis, politicians decide what clothes are decent or indecent, moral police decide if we can fall in love or not. So honestly speaking how do we call ourselves a democratic country? When everything is decided by our leader who are  chosen by us the people. 

       When I voted I did not see if I am voting for a Hindu ,Muslim ,Christian ,Jain or any other religion,I did not vote on reservation basis. I voted for an Indian whom I thought would take good care of my country. I voted for someone who would help India become the best developed country. But what our leaders are busy doing is slowly and steadily taking our rights away, and we the people are forgetting our democratic rights and living our lives with a chalta hai attitude. What  type of country are we going to give our generation next ,a country where they won't be allowed live life the way they want, where they won't have the right to speak up ,coz the generation before them decided to let their democracy be taken away without any hesitation.  Gandhiji fought the British to give us freedom and democracy ,and today it is taken away from the people ,by their own people..and we silently are letting them do it..... seriously this can happen only in India .Mera Bharat Mahaan.

Kothaligad #Peth fort...journey begins.....

                August 15 Independence Day ,the day whole india celebrate our independence,we wanted to celebrate Independence Day differently thought lets go for a trek and so we did though many of our friends could not come ,but 2 of us decided we will still go and meet Trekkers there and so the journey began.Dhiraj his few friends and me decided to go ahead with our plans. 

                 We left Mumbai early morng for Karjat. What a beautiful drive whole way was soo green , the weather was sooo amazing . Though it  was not raining which worried us a little bit but we said never mind we will enjoy irrespective of no rains. "Nothing was going to stop us".. Was our motto that day...

                We had some lovely home made cheese sandwich and chutney sandwiches ,the tasty sandwich and the beautiful scenery and in the background some truckers playing patriotic song boosted us more. We reached Karjat around 10:30 am. Met a group of Trekkers and started the climb to kothligad with lots of confusions and laughters. The climb to the main village was all uphill but thanks to our marathon training, we didn't find the walk difficult. And the breath taking view made us forget all our tiredness. It took us over one and half hour to reach the village ,the view up there was something that just makes one forget everything ,the huge mountains the lovely waterfall and peace mesmerized us... Whenever I see the mountains it makes me feel so protected and suddenly all my worries look so small. After spending some time down in the village we started our climb to the fort,oh my god it was quite a difficult walk luckily the weather God was good to us ,it  was cool and it rained too , coz of  which the path had become mucky and slippery, but fun ,each trekker held each other's hand gave each other support during the climb and made the difficult climb easy and fun, at that time I felt the true meaning of unity , each trekker there had no reservations each one was just supporting each other. Each one was encouraging the other which was the fun of it. We reached the second highest point, what a view if the village view was breath taking than this was something beyond that. We spent some time there checked out the cave saw some lovely carving, the water reseviour, and a canon made by British I guess for it had some English words. And after spending some amazing time there we started climbing to the top,this walk was from inside the cave with lots of steps ,the  steps were soo high and steep, so a little difficult to climb and the crowd was there too so it took a little while to climb . Huffing and puffing we reached the top ,what an achievement each one of us felt , each person were just soo happy reaching the top and the view around was something my eyes experienced ,but my lips can't express . We just sat there taking in the fresh air and the breath taking view. We had some lovely home cooked pulao and home baked chocolate cake  yummy. We sat there for sometime ,met some people shared experiences . Sometimes it fun to meet strangers talking knowing each other. After spending some beautiful moment there we started our walk down.

                   My friend dhiraj says when we come for trek we should explore every part of the trek , so following him like a true friend we decided to do the most difficult part of the trek the circle round the mountain. Prayer in our heart and holding the mountain for support and making sure we don't look down we started the journey ,oh wow ...what an experience. Lovely breeze and view made us forget all our fright. We were so mesmerized with view that we forgot to click photos too. But memory of that is printed in my mind for ever. That experience was something that I can never forget . Thank you dhiraj for encouraging us . After that lovely experience we were in a hypnotised state ,the whole walk down we were just laughing smiling happy and talking abt that amazing experience. The down hill was a cake walk,maybe we were soo happy so we didn't feel the walk down difficult at all. 

                  When we reached down we had some lovely tea and the villager told us to check out the dam ,they said it is a beautiful spot to go. So we went there ,honestly speaking we didn't like the place much coz of the way people had littered and spoilt the place, we were about to leave when we meet this uncle,  Nivruti  kaka  soo sweet man he lived there and gave us some history about the other fort bhimashanker which has a shiv linga what a mountain, he told us when the rains are good u can see wonderful waterfalls and he spoke to us about the temple there. He was such lovely person ,filled with life and peace. There was so much innocence in him which made us fall in love with him. After biding him good bye and promising him that we would come back again we left the place , we freshened up in a small hotel and started our journey back home. The whole way back the fresh air and silence and the mountains covered with fog kept us mesmerized totally, till we reached the noisy city .

                   Let me share some information about Kothligad #Peth fort. It's one of many forts Shivaji had . The height of the fort is 3100 ft. With many reservoir ,caves ,where they hid their weapons, and kept a watch on their enemies . When climbing this fort u wonder how Shivaji and his warrior climbed these forts , and once u climb the fort you realise why Shivaji was called the best warrior. It was a perfect Independence Day for all of us...

Peth fort

Earthquaked and the world crumbled down.

           Last May was our family holiday time ,and we spent it in Nepal . Though to be honest I won't call it one of my best holidays but yes the beauty of Nepal has hypnotised us . The mountains ,the jungles ,the temples,the rivers the lakes everything kept us mesmerized. What impressed us the most were the people ,they were so innocent and loving. Though nepal was not one of our best holiday ,but we still talk a lot about  it ,as we had a near to death experience there,but luckily all my family members came back safely ,but today Nepal is crumbling,the people out there are not safe. It really makes my heart sad to see the innocent people of Nepal suffer,and the sad part is its a natural disaster we can't blame it on anyone .

         When nature does something like this it always makes me wonder that ,1minute we are all happy with the world we built around us ,and the next minute we see that same world crumbling down right in front of our eyes , it hurts to see that beautiful magical world we created getting destroyed and we human just cannot do anything about it. At that point we understand Mother Natures strength,if she can give us this beautiful world she has the strength to take it away also, in front of her we are absolutely helpless little creature,though many times we think we are stronger than her coz we have technology ,science, and nuclear energy with us but everything is destroyed when nature shows her strength .we have absolutely no power to withstand her warth. 

         Yesterday after the earthquake the only thing that I could think  was about those innocent people who saw there world destroy around them ,they must have been looking around helplessly wondering why were they suffering like this? Whom should they blame this tragedy on? But somewhere in everyone's heart each one knows they can't give up ,they have to build their world again,build their dreams again.start life all over again that is what life is all about. Never give up. Dreams never leave us they are always with us in form of that little hope that gives us the power to work hard and build our dreams again and again.

         I pray to lord to give the people of Nepal the strength to raise above the disaster and face life again ,build their world again and dream again. Our prayers are with them . When nature causes disaster she doesn't see which country ,what LOC ,what colour ,rich or poor ,big or small at that point nothing matters to her when she strikes everyone are equal. So when nature strikes even we human should stand together and help each other and pray for the ones who are suffering.

        My prayers are with the people of Nepal hope God gives you the strength to face this calamity.

       Nepal will alway be like this for me.....

       

Son of India.........

        Latest discussion that I hear every where is abt the documentary "daughter of India". Honestly I didn't like the documentary coz I felt it gave a chance for those horrible culprits to glorify themselves. He must have felt like a hero, it was his moment of fame and he showed it through out the documentary. So , I don't want to even discuss that man coz he is nothing but a mad dog ,who should  be put to sleep immediately ,exactly how we would do when a dog goes mad, but our system says he should have a fair trial . I wonder do we do the same ,when a dog goes mad ,will we give it a fair trial ? I don't think so , when a dog goes mad it is a menace to the society , and so are these rapist ,they are nothing but a menace to any living being but our system insist our tax money should be wasted on these anti social elements.

       My actual problem is with the sons of India , especially the 2 learned men in that documentary ,the well read ,highly educated defence lawyers. I always thought education made us human more sensible,  it teaches us to differentiate between the right and wrong,but here what I saw was totally different . What I heard these lawyers talk shocked me so much that now I wonder what change are we looking for when our learned people have such opinion about woman, what those culprits said didn't affect me much ,for ,such talks is expected from an illiterate man who has been bought up in totally different  world ,maybe he has always seen a woman in his family treated badly so he has learnt what he saw , but I wonder what was the circumstances in the house of these so called educated men that even education couldn't make them a human being ,they still remained a MAN.....when Mr Singh claimed he would burn his daughter if she was seen with stranger roaming around at nite, it really made me wonder , what type of environment is he bringing up his daughter ? My heart goes out to her. During the debate he said a good character person is the one who respects his elders , so is he telling us if these rapist treat their parents with respect than they are people with good character who just went astray that too because of a woman. It was shocking to learn about their right and wrong which in my opinion is sooo very wrong .This documentary made me think  how many educated men in our country maybe having this same view as these lawyers. This video was actually an eye opener where I learnt about our educated man's  mentality. By banning the video what are we going to achieve , instead of banning it , shouldn't we be thinking of finding a solution for this issue. But instead we hear everywhere is how bad is BBC work ethics , how badly india  is shown, etc . But I would like to know , what india is going to do abt this issue ? What we the people want?

           Well what I would like to do is educate these educated men more, first of all we women don't want to be flowers, nor mithai ka dabba, nor diamonds , please stop treating us like helpless commodity.  Please stop thinking man's job is to protect women .Please do us a favour and resign from that post. The only favour that a man can do for a woman is by letting her be and not give us so much unnecessary attention seriously by just doing this you will be solving 90 % of woman's  problems, and the other 10% we are strong enough to handle that. Also we women need to educate ourselves that by treating man like god we are just creating more monsters. We are causing more problems for ourselves by behaving helpless . Our culture says women is Shakti ,it's time to show them that. Its time to show few of these Men who believe India has a beautiful culture ,where women is nothing , that this countries culture is beautiful only because of the strong woman who held it together. Our country will only change to better when ever person believes they are equal in every way. When man and woman stand together as equal only then we will be a powerful country. When that happens we all can dil se say "India is my country and I am proud of it". But right now it's going to be like what my friend says " I love my country ,but I am not proud of it".

  

                  

SCMM is here again........

        Standard chartered marathon is here again , we train ourself like crazy for this very day. Whole year we are dreaming about this day ,The day for the most awaited run is here tomorrow , and I can actually feel butterflies in my stomach. I never understand why , I have already run  3 marathons this year but every marathon that I run I feel I am running for the 1st time. And funny thing is I am sure all runners are feeling the same . Each one is wondering how will my run be? Will I complete my run with good timing ?will the weather be good? Hope I don't get cramps . Which tshirt shd I wear hope my shoes is in good shape. Am I drinking enough water. Soooo many questions are running in our tiny little minds.

      Running is a passion which I know each runner who runs long distance understand. When I started running I started it just to make sure my husband gets into some form of workout. But I don't know when this workout became my passion. It changed my life in many ways. Running gave me sense of self confidence , I started totally believing in myself , I loved that ME time, I get when I am running. I don't know when the group I run with became my best friends , we became each other's support system. We loved sharing our happiness our sadness , our fears and ever feeling we felt. The best feeling is each runner is encouraging each other before ,during and after the run. When we see someone giving up during the run,some co-runners will give us a word of encouragement and you are back in action. Each runner is looking out for each other. We don't care if we know each other or not, but once we start running we all become a different breed of people who share a common passion, and that passion we call is RUNNING . It's wonderful to see people who get up early in the morning to stand on the sides of roads to just cheer us runners, making sure that we get enough water , fruits , sweets and best of all lots of love and encouragement. We runners feel so proud when we hear so many people cheering for us ,it's that love that helps us during the most crucial time of the run. Running is truely a mind over body sport. After 14 -15 km when our body starts giving up its this cheering we hear around us makes our mind active and our heart happy which actually helps us to complete our run.

        When we reach that finish line the hugs and the applauds we get gives us a high that you can never imagine it is feeling that can be only understood when it is experienced.  Honestly ,I think it's that high that makes us come back for run again and again and again.

      So before I go back to checking my tshirt and shorts, checking my bib number yet again, and seeing if my shoes is still in its place let me take this opportunity to thank my coaches suhas sir and samson sir for giving me this confidence and training me for my run, Sushma and Nitin for introducing me to running, to all my running friends who have become my closest friends, to the traffic police and mumbai police for making sure we runners are safe , for standard chartered for this wonderful experience, to my family and friends for their support . Last but not the least the people out there who get up early in the morning to just cheer us, without all your support the run would never be complete.......now let me check my bib again..... Thank you all .

      

  

Terrorism in name of religion...

   Children are our dream , the future we see in them. They are the future of any developing nation. And what happened in army school in Pakistan is shocking ,more than shocking its barbaric. So many children killed in name of religion. 

   Sometimes I wonder which religion is this that teaches people to be barbaric . As far as I know Hinduism ,Christianity ,Islam,Sikhism, Buddhism  or any religion can never teach us to harm any other living being. Religion teaches us to love each other, protect each other ,than , what religion do these people follow that teaches them to kill innocent people ? I wonder when they said they were retailiating to an action taken by the army against their family, they  wanted all to feel their pain, have the talibans ever thought about the kind of horrifying acts they have spread around the world ,if their family and loved ones are suffering it is coz of their own action. When they spread terrorism do they realise innocent people are the victims who suffer in their hands, in the same way the barbaric actions of the talibans put their own family and loved ones also to suffer . So if they have to blame anyone , they should blame themselves for the pain their family members suffer and not blame the army for the same.

     I am a mother I know how I feel if my child gets even a small scratch, For me it's unimaginable to even feel what those mothers are going through who have seen their innocent babies dead bodies. Just reading about it has made me a nervous wreak ,what are those kids , who experienced this nightmare going through is something none of us will ever know and pray we never know. I pray that God gives them the strength to face this tragedy though I know that is not going to be possible. These terrorist not just killed those children they have killed the whole family. The children who have survived will have this scar that ,they will carry with them for the rest of their lives, they have made them lose their faith ,coz somewhere humanity also died yesterday. Do they realise they have destroyed the future of their nation with their own hands ? Terrorism can never have any religion , these people are cowards who hide their cowardism behind religion. And people who blindly follow such cowards are bigger sinners and the ones who create such terrorist are the worst kind of human race ,I don't even think calling them human is justifiable.

     An eye for an eye can never be a solution it is the cause of all problems around the world ,and in all this the innocent people are the ones who are suffering. I hope that every nation around the world take firm action against such terrorism and also make sure the ones who protect such terrorist who call themselves protector of their religion should be punished severely.

    I pray for the children who lost their lives rest in peace , and children who survived this tragedy have the strength to be strong again. 

    It's truely said ' The Smallest  Coffins Are Truely The Heaviest '🌹🌹🌹

Need ur support plsss.

Hello

This year for SCMM I have decided to run for a cause. And I am raising funds through the Mumbai Marathon – Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA).

In this Season of Giving, I am sure, you have many causes tochoose from and many who will appeal to you, as I am!

CMCA or Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness has been doing unique, path-breaking work for the last 14 years, as one among very few organizations in India which focuses on strengthening citizenship and democracy values in children and youth, through ‘active citizenship’.

At a time when our newspapers are filled with news of women being molested, or threats of radicalisation by political groups, or our open grounds and trees being slaughtered by vested interests, it is ONLY ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP that can save our democracy.

Is our education system preparing our young to put the nation above self and to engage with governance processes to preserve and strengthen democracy? Our current education system is sorely lacking in this area and that’s where Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) steps in.

Our students have filed RTI applications, complained to civic authorities, participated in clean-up drives, spread awareness on issues ranging from Right to Education to voting in elections. A group of students in a government school evenfreed their classmate from a factory and got her back to school!  You can read more such stories of our young “Action Heroes” and more about our work on www.cmcaindia.org.

Support Active Citizenship!

The Mumbai Marathon of January 18, 2015 is an opportunity for you to support ACTIVE CITIZENSHP and CMCA - an opportunity to be responsive to the urgent need for citizenship values in our nation.

Donations received by CMCA are used for the running of the civic club programme in schools, where it is run free of cost.

All donations raised through the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon are routed through the official charity partner – United Way of Mumbai.

Donating is quite simple.  You may send me a cheque in the name of “United Way of Mumbai” and I shall send it to them.  Alternately, you can donate online through the following link: 

http://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/fundraiser-4075

I will be highly obliged if u can help me raise funds for a cause close to my heart. Looking forward for ur support. 

  Thank u 

Sushma.

Blame it on the clothes....

     A man slaps Guahar Khan on the sets of  a show ,is an article I read today... It made me wonder ...we always think the older generation would be the one saying wear decent clothes wear covered clothes don't show your body blah blah blah... Not that I blame them ,that was how they were bought up . But here we have a 24 year old man saying this rubbish . We believe this is the new generation with new thinking we live in the new progressed world . We believe this are the generation who believe in change... Now ,this incident makes me wonder ....

   When I was reading the article I really wished I could go and meet this man. I really want to know does he really believe he is sane ? Has he ever heard himself speak ? According to him women in short clothes make boys /men sexually attracted to women and force them to commit crime like rape .they spoil the head of the man. Come on men for God sake stop hiding your perverted minds behind women's clothes. 

   Men always have some excuse ready for their perverted mind . They feel  women who wear short clothes ,wear it only to attract men . It's like we women are so desperate to get men's attention that we have to use such tactics . Seriously perverted minded men stop giving yourself so much importance . Honestly do men even ever know what a women wear . For such men even if a women is fully clad ,she is always naked all ready for him to oogle at and then say the women messed with his mind with her attire. Think about it why are school girls teased ,why women who wear sarees teased they are fully covered ,but still the men don't  spare them . If women's clothes were the reason of rape and Eve teasing then only the ones who wore such clothes would be raped then why a saree and salwar kameez clad girls get raped ? why are small girls raped ?why are babies raped? 

    Sometimes I wonder what would happen if women told men stop looking handsome you are messing with our minds ,stop wearing tight clothes you bring bad thoughts in our minds. After all women are human too they too have the same needs like the men have.. And believe me we too have minds . 

    To all such perverted minded men stop hiding behind women's attire to hide your own weakness and twisted mind . Show your manhood by changing your thinking instead of changing women's appearances ,afterall it should be easy for you. You ARE a MAN.....

     

I wonder why!!,

        I wonder why!!!! A discussion at dinner yesterday with my sisters made me wonder ,why ?? Well it was a discussion about a marriage of a girl we know who lost her dad ,so now for her wedding her mother won't be giving her away coz in India we don't let a woman who loses her husband be a part of any auspicious occasion ,and funny thing is we let a man be a part of any occasion even if he loses his wife.

      Why so much difference between man and woman. Woman gets married leaves her loved ones comes lives with man and his loved ones , she starts her life there ,adopting her husbands life as her own, starting a new life in new environment, she gets pregnant ,9 months she carries the baby in her womb and when child is born ,immediately the baby needs a fathers name . It's always about a man. Mother nurtures the baby ,she gives her whole youth and life to the child. Her every dream is for her child, she dreams of all the best things for her baby, she dreams of the day her little angel get married and starts her new life , she dreams about giving her daughter away to start her own happy journey, But suddenly if she loses her husband then she loses the right to give her child away too. I wonder why ,just coz the woman loses her husband ,how ,does she lose the right to give away her child ,why should she lose her dreams ? why should she lose the right to give her child away whom she has loved with her whole heart? What really changes in the mother and child relationship? So actually if we  think about it woman have absolutely no identity. She is just a daughter ,sister , wife ,mother with no rights without a man.

        How is it that a man when he loses his wife is allowed to dress the way he want ,he is allowed to sit for puja alone, give his child away , be a part of any aupisious occasion, Do what he pleases . Life doesn't really change for him, he can grieves for his wife for sometime and then go back to living his life just the way he wants,while for a woman everything changes . Society expects her to grieve for the rest of her life. So many don't , so many superstitious hockus pokus is thrown on her . 

        We call ourself people from developed country but somewhere we are still so backward. It's high time we stop all these superstitious nonsense,even if the mother is a widow it is the right of the mother to give her daughter away, it's she who has sacrificed herself for that child and honestly as a woman I don't want to be auspicious nor inauspicious let the woman just be a woman her marital status has nothing to do with being alive. Why can't we start treating a man and woman equal after all both are human ,the only difference I see between a man and woman, is man has xy chromosome while woman has xx chromosome. 

        

  

Life .... A learning process in every stage.....

         Life is a learning process in whatever stage we are in. Sometimes the learnings are good ,it changes you to be a better person ,and sometimes life takes tests which makes you wonder what is better ,to be good or to be bad..

        Sometimes people we meet really confuse us. It makes you wonder can we really trust anyone ever. Recently we met many people from different walks of life. We remember talking to these people listening to their problem sympathising with them, trying to understand them, believing every word they said. Their smile their love looked so genuine ,so real ,till reality striked. Every word they spoke was nothing but a lie. Nothing but an illusion that they wanted us to believe. Believe that good work is never forgotten, good work always pays . How they blinded us with their words. 

      But honestly were we really blinded or we just preferred the illusion than the reality. And what is more confusing is how people think , people know a person is good they know whatever work was done was totally for the people and it really helped the people, they were all only praises for him, he was appreciated by the world for his good work , he changed the whole place worked unconditionally for the people not thinking of his family  or himself ,and then what ,he was back stabbed by his own people. The people he trusted did not support him.

       Honestly what do people get by backstabbing , do they even realise that now they are a laughing stock coz everyone knows whom they back stabbed was truely a honest man. Who will be helping them now ? Will that person who was back stabbed ever be able to trust we the people. We say we want honest hard working educated people to work for the country and we the people only bring down such people ,did we really believe we made a right choice or we just closed our eyes and blindly followed a wave. Blindly followed words  not action. 

       Anyways I believe good people are always winners , coz their work will always be remembered ,they will always be protected for somewhere out there good people are appreciated  , and back stabbers will also be remembered for the stupidity they did and stupidity will always comes back to strike .Anyways all the best people hope life does not put you through a test where you wonder what you did was good or bad ........