Dear Indian Constitution,

Today is the 26^th of Jan. It is the year 2007. You turn 58 today!

Happy birthday, Indian Constitution! Here’s wishing you a great day and a fantabulous year ahead. May you grow from strength to strength… or rather, may you acquire the strength that is your birthright.

Your birthday is being celebrated with great pomp and show throughout the nation. Even school kids and college adults have been given a holiday in your honour. All the other adults who behave like kids anyway, have taken offence at this. They too have conveniently taken an off from work. Some have taken it upon themselves and have decided to throw you a birthday bash! They plan to go to movies, coffee shops and party hard!! Revel, rejoice and paint the town saffron, white and green! I’m sure you’ll love that, won’t you?

Others, like my pappa, sit back and switch on the idiot box! And lo and behold, who do we see encapsulated in that much-desired frame, but your present warden – Dr. Abdul Kalam!! See, he’s wishing you by reading out birthday greetings that have been written by his speech writer, in front of the camera! Awww… how sweet!! And look he’s invited Uncle Putin to rajghat especially to bless you!! How thoughtful of him!!

Lil IC, you haven’t been a good child… you know that, don’t you? Its not your fault actually. Your parents – Dr. Ambedkar and his team, who conceived you and brought you into the world in 1950 - didn’t do a good job. They left many loopholes in your system… they handicapped you!

And what’s worse, some people in khadi kurtas and their accomplices in three - piece -suits are abusing you! But you can’t do anything to stop them, can you? You don’t want to do anything to stop them.

But, do something! Plz! For those, who depend on you for their lives.
Grow up soon and make them proud!

Happy birthday!!

Virtual reality

Dreams! I am fascinated by them. Have always been. In fact, when I was a kid, (not that I am not now, I meant chronologically) I found it extremely difficult to differentiate between the ‘real’ world and the one I dreamt about. Needless to say, I did sometimes dream those stereotypical children’s dreams; those about beautiful things in illusive environments (you know, those that are the result of the stuff that is perennially stuffed into children’s brains). But often, I dreamt about people, ‘real’ people who I encountered everyday, and that’s when I woke up and thought that I was still dreaming. I remember asking mama then, if I was in a dream and if she was in my dream. It happened so often… it was so beautiful.

Hasn’t anyone wondered if the world that we step into when we dream might just be the ‘real’ world, and the one we find ourselves in when we wake up might actually be a dream! How do you know that the world you are in right now is the real one? It might be a nightmare that shall pass when you open your eyes. In fact, this mundane thing that everyone calls life might be a dream. And again, this fearful thing that everyone calls death, might actually be a bridge to the real world. Haven’t you ever thought that the person you love might just be a figment of your imagination – a dream! That of course, is a scary thought and maybe no one wants to think scary things.

But hasn’t anyone been tormented by the thought of what is real? Is there anything that is real? Or is it merely us who take things to be real, just to avoid complicating matters. But, isn’t it also a consolation for all those losers (I hate, detest, abhor that word, but I can’t help using it coz I myself am one) who’ve lost this battle called life, to think that this actually is purely a dream! Ah… its blissful to think that way. This is what optimism is actually! Lol… Virtual reality. (Just a lil bit of gyaan – I used this phrase in my first ever poem. It’s a phrase I love, simply because it is so real… to me.)