"The Most Alien Looking Place on Planet Earth"

An island in the Arabian Sea which is a part of Yemen. 

Courtesy: Wikipedia

The island is very isolated and a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. It forms one of the most isolated land-forms of earth.

It has a tropical desert and a semi desert climate.

Halah Cave: It is located at the east of this island and has one of the highest Stalactites and Stalagmites in the world. It is several hundred metres deep with total darkness.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Considered the jewel of biodiversity in the Arabian Sea. The long geological isolation and fierce heat and drought has led to the formation of unique flora of the region. Has nearly 700 endemic species.

The Dragon's Blood Tree:The most striking flora of the region is this tree. Strange looking, umbrella shaped. Bleeds bright red sap when it's cut, was thought to be the dragon's blood of the ancients. Used today in paints, varnish and dye.

Fauna:

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site in July, 2008.

The name of the island is SOCOTRA in the Arabian Sea, part of Yemen !!

It is surely "The Most Alien Looking Place on Earth" !!

What is the sedition law in India?

What is the meaning of sedition (राजद्रोह)?

• An illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government.
• Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state.

What is IPC?

• IPC stands for Indian Penal Code, it is the main criminal code of India and covers all aspects of a criminal law.
• Drafted in 1860 based on recommendations of the first law commission of India whose chairman was Thomas Macaulay(shown in image below).

Which Section of IPC covers sedition?

• Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code covers all cases of sedition.

What does it mean for India?

• It is a mechanism to impose reasonable restriction on the right to free speech.

• Though it is a British Era Law, but it was included in the Indian Penal Code to prevent the misuse of freedom of speech and expression that would incite hatred and violence.

What does the section 124A of IPC state?

Sedition—Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in India, shall be punished with  [im­prisonment for life], to which fine may be added, or with impris­onment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine. 

Explanation 1.—The expression “disaffection” includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity. 

Explanation 2.—Comments expressing moral disapproval of the measures of the Government with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means, without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section. 

Explanation 3.—Comments expressing disapprobation of the administrative or other action of the Government without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section.]

In simple terms OR layman language OR summary:

• If someone tries to incite violence, by misusing right to free speech then his or her actions amount to sedition.

•  If someone tries to create dissatisfaction against the government without inciting violence, then his or her actions will not amount to sedition.
• There should be a clear danger of violence or a threat to public order, in order to call an action an act of sedition.

Whether the law is anachronistic or whether it is a British era law that has no place in modern Indian society, is a matter of debate.

The Curious Case of Balochistan

              Ever since the Indian Prime Minister has mentioned the name of 'Balochistan' in his speech at the Red Fort. The issue of 'Balochistan' has come to the forefront, we have been reading about it in various forums. So what exactly is Balochistan issue? This post shall give an insight into the issue of Balochistan. 

Location:

1. Balochistan is one of the provinces of Pakistan (Shown in image below). The other three provinces are : Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunwa and Sindh.

• It is the largest province in Pakistan, but also the least developed province.
• Total population: over 13 million, indigenously called 'Balochis'.

History:

• Before the birth of Pakistan in 1947, a princely state was called as Khanate of Kalat(which was a part of today's Balochistan). 
• The rulers of Khanate of Kalat refused to join Pakistan and  Pakistan sent troops in March 1948 to annex the territory. Though Yar Khan, the then ruler of Kalat, later signed a treaty of accession, his brothers and followers continued to fight, triggering the first conflict between Balochis and the Pakistani Army. 
• There have been violent campaigns by the Baloch nationalists for independence from Pakistan. 
• Today, there are several separatist groups that are active in the region, the most prominent of the is Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), designated as a terrorist group by Pakistan.

Culture and Climate:

 Balochistan is noted for its unique culture and dry desert climate.

Tourist Attractions:

Problems of Balochistan:

• The Balochi nationalists accuse Islamabad of deliberately keeping the mineral-rich province poor, while Pakistan’s rulers say the pace of development is slow due to insurgency. 
• But a bigger allegation that the Pakistan is facing, and something which PM Modi tried to highlight in his Independence Day speech, is the large-scale human rights violations in the region, both by the Army and the militants. 
• Every time there’s unrest in the region, the Pakistani Army used brute force to retain order. 
• Even the Air Force was used against the civilian population many times.

Hope they get justice and humanity prevails !!

Nationalism in Modern Times !!

    I took the glass from the shopkeeper with ecstatic joy and the puffy yellow mango shake smelt like a drink from heaven. It was a Friday evening and I had nothing much to do this weekend. I wanted to enjoy my drink and therefore I was sipping it very slowly. I would pull the drink up and then push it down through the straw, thereby creating bubbles. And then I was watching them burst. I was enjoying my life, just then I heard a strange sound. Something had fallen down from a height and I glanced from one end of the street to another, but in vain. Something had fallen I was sure and I was curious to know what it was. 

    

    "Don't worry Sir, its just a packet", the juicewala pointed out noticing my curious eyes. "What packet !", I exclaimed.  "Sardarji on the third floor throws this trash packet and litters the street every single day", he replied. I looked up to the third floor to have a glimpse of the divine being. There he was, with a red turban and a clean white shirt. He was holding a glass in his hand and with no guilt on his face, was smiling at us.

     I quickly moved out of that place with some puzzled thoughts. Like why he was smiling, why he was happy about the incident and why he did it in the first place. Maybe, his throw was not perfect and having thrown the garbage packet just beside me he missed his previous target. But he should have been sad having missed the target. With these unusual thoughts, I moved towards my home. 

    I don't know why but I started observing some incidents as I walked. These differed from the norm, the accepted standards of the society. I saw: 

• A well dressed man in his forties was ambulating with his pet. It was a small little dog ( a 'pug') roaming with his owner, smelling all the cycles, bikes and cars on his way in order to relieve itself. A number of such dogs had created havoc on the road in the previous days.
• A small eatery shop filled with several people, had thrown all the waste products like food, paper, water, sauce, etc right onto the road.
• A barber was continuously wiping out all the bits and pieces of his customers' hairs on the road.
• Some miscellaneous items like 'chappals', clothes, shoes were thrown in the middle of the road.
• People were relieving themselves on the walls of a government owned land, right below the warning 'Trespassers will be prosecuted'. People chose not to trespass, but to take the revenge right on the entrance gate.
• The base of a 'Peepal' tree was occupied with broken idols of God Ganesha, Goddess Laxmi and others.

     All these incidents were not a single incident, they were a trend. These trends once set by individuals, have been followed sheepishly. But the real question is can we stop them from taking place. The answer is Yes. I too should have disapproved of Sardarji's act, but I did not do it. I should have taken the responsibility of making him aware about the repulsive consequences of his act.

     On the morning of every Republic Day and Independence Day when we are watching national programs on Doordarshan, the small little feeling that we have while listening to the national anthem is something I wish that could stay with me forever. While throwing garbage, urinating in public, giving a bribe, taking a bribe or wasting natural resources, we should always be conscious of that small little feeling we had while singing our national anthem. This can be our modern way of nationalism.

    I happened to meet Sardarji again, but this time in a metro. He was about to throw his chocolate wrapper, when I drew his attention towards the logo of my bag displaying Swacch Bharat Abhiyan. He acted as if he was actually going to keep the wrapper in his bag itself. This time I smiled...

Don’t Be Inspired After Reading This

       “Hitler shall meet the same fate as the Jews of Germany. Hail Britain!!”.  The third time it rings, he wakes up furiously at 8.45 AM. Groping for his cell phone, he gives a boiling look as if he was one of the most wronged man on earth. He realises that his left hand is not conscious at all. Trying to relate this to the dream last night, he subconsciously realises that he was a Second World War soldier from Britain. Maybe, “Winston Churchill”. (Because of the ugly reading that he had been doing from few days).

         He quickly checks all his “Facebook” notifications, the latest updates around the world and because of all the weird pages he has liked on the web, he summarises there is nothing new this morning. He opens his “WhatsApp”, checks out all the messages and once again he surmises that all he has got this morning are the forwarded messages of “Good morning” and some really funny jokes that he reads like a prose.

         Glancing in the mirror, he sees his sullen countenance. Again, a damn morning.  A face distorted by sleep, hairs going in all directions. Murmuring, “My smartness has crossed another level altogether”, he starts brushing his teeth vigorously realising he is getting late for his office. All the necessary things that he had planned to implement after reading “Robin Sharma” stuffs like waking up early in the morning, exercising, meditating, jogging and making a good breakfast were circling in his thought process. And then an epic procrastinating idea, “Kal se pakka karenge, ab bahut ho gaya”.

         With a guilt of having reached office late again, he starts working for his daily office chores. He tries to justify himself that he will work really hard today. Just then, he notices a tiny minuscule ant crawling into his keyboard. It disappears and this makes him a little uneasy. He lifts the keyboard, turns it upside down and with a “to and fro” motion tries to desperately throw out the tiny ant. There she was, right on the desk. The black tiny ant crawling over the white mica sheet of the desk. He smiles, and while holding the keyboard he watches the ant steadily moving out. He keeps a close eye on it. The ant stops, and starts rubbing its antennae vigorously. Unwilling to crawl, he starts getting vexed with a little bit of frown on his face. He whiffs at it with full force and it vanishes.

          “Is everything alright, Ramesh?”, inquires his colleague. “Maybe, he was watching me”, he prompts in his head. “Yes Peter, the day is awesome”. Happy that he had at least taught the ant a lesson of a lifetime. Sadism, at its peak.

            He completes his daily tasks in office, reaches back home by 6 o’ clock evening. He calls his several friends, his parents and siblings and laments about the workload in his office. He justifies them (and himself too) that it was a very tough day at work. He quickly opens his laptop, and with a “fear of missing out” logs on to facebook. Quickly going through the “news feed” and updating himself about all his friends, he opens his “WhatsApp” and reads all the forwarded messages again. Some really funny jokes are read by him like a prose again. He feels content with his life now.

            He has his dinner and now he has all the time in the world before the morning comes again. He calls his fiancée and talks to her over all the futile, trivial and frivolous topics. (He decides to refrain from telling about the ant that made his life miserable that day.) Covering a wide spectrum of his so called important topics for three to four hours, he decides it’s very late and he should sleep now.

           He pounces on a book kept below his laptop, “The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma”. He pretends to read it subconsciously and gradually falls asleep. This time he is against the “Apartheid System” in South Africa. Oh! Wait a minute! Is he “Nelson Mandela” today?

P.S.   Don’t vegetate like Ramesh does.

Have a fixed set of goals in your life and work towards them.

Don’t just be lost in a reverie. Go there and do it !

“Kat to rahi hi hai,

Kat to jayegi hi,

Kucch aisa kariye,

Ki zindagi gaaye bhi.”

An Obsession of a Winner

          The Plebeians giggled how the little man fell down, stumbling at something where even a naïve could have done better. The critics pointed out, “Here, here you could have done better.”

           But this little man, in the coliseum, in the arena fighting valorously, striving hard but because of his misjudgment falling short again and again. Erring flagrantly but learning with each fall. He knows the great enthusiasms, the great struggles, the great dedications. His face fraught with dust, sweat and blood. He knows the glory of a victory, the happiness that comes at a cost, the breeze of content that triumph brings.

            The little man, even if he fails, at least fails in this commitment shall always find his place a notch above the coward, cold and timid souls, who never tasted victory nor defeat. This man, this little man is a true CHAMPION.

The "Pain" called "Nostalgia" !!

               The clamorous sound entering my ears from the balcony of my room was enticing, I had heard them before. It spoke to me with blithe ignorance. I frisked there and saw children fighting with juvenile enmity over a cricket match episode. Yes this was enticing, not because I tried to be a judge or something but because, I was visualising myself down there.

               I decided to take a stroll down the memory lane. After years have passed (with no substantial addition to my wisdom ), I realised, I did not take time out from my busy life to harbour some memories that bring smile to my face.

It  was yesterday that I thought ,

Papa was a superman,

Mummy was a stringent,

Sister was an obedient,

Brother was an authoritarian.

                Today, I believe I can be all four at different times (or together) : superman, stringent, obedient, authoritarian. Times change with time, this is the obvious excuse people give. But, time flows like an ideal fluid : with steady flow, with no viscosity (that’s the only way, I can thank all the physics I have studied since class sixth).

               Such has the time changed, that we don’t have a moment of laughter in the entire day. We don’t have that touch, that blessed touch of our mothers, of our loved ones. Living several hundreds of thousands of kilometres away from our family is obviously a curse in disguise. Yes, we’ll have our reasons for it and they might be very true but the truth is we know this and we try not to think about this. And we'll always evade this. Ask yourself do you miss your family?

              So, we grow and grow bigger in stature, money, wealth and wisdom but we also evade the truth. The truth that we are in this world for a purpose, which the great ‘Gandhi’ identified as serving the fellow countrymen, the great ‘Lincoln’ identified as fighting for the slaves and the great ‘Castro’ identified as freeing his country from American domination. Ask yourself what is the purpose of your life?

               We’ll perish one day and be finished. Our descendants would not know us because obviously we did nothing substantial to expect them to remember us.

Here’s the rhetorical question.

Yes we earned money, yes we attained knowledge, yes we attained properties but did we attain happiness?

Ask yourself in the mirror.

THE TREASURES IN YOU !!!!!!

There are treasures in life,

 but owners are few

Of money and power

to buy things brand new.

Yet you can be wealthy

and feel regal too,

If you will just look

for the treasures in you.

These treasures in life

are not hard to find

When you look in your heart,

your soul, and your mind.

For when you are willing

to share what’s within,

Your fervent search

for riches will end.

The joy and the laughter,

the smile that you bring;

The heart unafraid

to love and to sing;

The hand always willing

to help those in need;

Ones quick to reach out,

to labor and feed.

So thank you for sharing

these great gifts inside;

The caring, the cheering,

the hug when one cried.

Thanks for the energy,

encouragement too,

And thank you for sharing

the treasures in you.

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE !!!!!!

Here I am, walking through time 
taking these steps, through this life of mine 
Where am I now, and where will I go 
Is it all an illusion? - I really don’t know. 


Days seem to pass, before long it’s years 
While I’ve been contemplating life's hopes and Life's fears. 
Watching and waiting, just looking on 
before I knew it, my whole life had gone 


I awoke from Life's dream, and now here I stand 
Looking back at my life with God at my hand 
I learned about life and the meaning of love 
amidst tears of pain, but was that enough? 


In life we can live out our dreams if we want to - its true 
the one who decides, takes chances, makes choices 
IS YOU 


So before you let your life pass you by 
think of these words, Live your dream - don’t be shy 
All you need, you have within 
So live your dream now, let YOUR life begin.....

A SPARKLING ANECDOTE

               A flash of light glared my eye. Suddenly, I found myself into this conscious world. I tried to remember where I am right now, only to find myself on the streets of my hometown. A tear drop rolled down my eye, there must have been a dribble of such drops. My eyes were misty. Disturbed, perturbed and vexed by thoughts of my future, I had lost my power of thought. My power of analysis seemed to be waning. It had been a tough day; in fact instances that very well challenged my little self.

               Mediocre performance in every step of life. I didn’t know what my mettle was. People say everybody has a talent. I didn’t know my talent. I was just flowing and moving on, as my life moved on. It was not what I wanted, but it was what my life wanted. And a plethora of questions, but nobody to answer. It never happened with me before, and I couldn’t understand myself. Nobody cared to think about me so much, so as to make me realize my talent.

                I noticed some struggling people on the road. People who fought day in and day out just to survive and flourish, with a hope of getting prosperity one day. Here are some of them:-
• A labour (maybe) had a very sound sleep on the footpath, felt as if a heaven for him.
• A vendor who used to sell some sweets had a very bad day and was counting his pennies.
• An auto rickshaw stopped by me looking for a passenger desperately for his vacant vehicle.
• A small child carried four buckets brimming with water, on a cycle.
• A handicapped person with no legs was on a block of wood with four wheels and moved slowly.
• A carpenter was working overtime and was desperate for a very small project.
• A rickshaw puller with three passengers and two extra children, tried to wrap up his days’ work with the best deal.

                These people were very simple people but seemed like warriors. I was startled to see their energy, their ebullience. It was a kind of overwhelming feeling. Anyway, I had failed in an interview and my failure seemed to be dwindling down because of these buoyant personalities.

                It started raining, a perfect time of the year for the rains to come. The ambience became so tranquil that I could hear the rain drops falling. People started running for shelter and I don’t know why, but these rains came as a joyful surprise to me. Maybe, because my tears were lost in these rain droplets. I wanted to enjoy the rain but the grave aspects of life had to be given a good thought. I decided to walk down to my home.

               I reached home; my small little puppy sprang upon me and licked me, tried desperately to flaunt his new ball. I was very upset, at the opportunity I missed and messed that day. I went to the bathroom, had a quick shower and yelled “Mom, feeling hungry, had a very tough day”. I didn’t want to do anything, I just switched on the television and it was the “Discovery channel”. I was just shocked to see how people reach the North Pole, where the temperature is 50 degrees below the zero degree (the temperature at which water freezes). Icy storms that end in two or three days. “What drives them to reach there?” This question puzzled me and I switched off the television.

                I had great food, but there were many questions that had to be answered before I slept that day. I asked my mother to oil and massage my head. I don’t know but it definitely has some magic that can charm and invigorate you. I asked my mother, “Mummy, why do people want to live when they have nothing with them?” What an innocent question from a son to his mother!! She replied, “When people have everything with them, then they have nothing to live for. It is the problems that make a human life interesting”. Too stodgy at that instant, I got it though. What followed was a night awakening introspection and retrospection.

                 “Gaurav, get up!!!! It’s very late, here’s your newspaper”, my mother said. I always have a habit of welcoming my new day with a newspaper. I tried to recollect what happened yesterday and my spirits circumscribed. I read my horoscope, which I believe is incumbent for everyone; I rushed to the editorial section. I was reading an article and had a feeling of déjà vu. “It’s my article”, I squalled at the top of my voice in exhilaration. I was so delighted to see my article right up there. I was extremely happy and yes it was a matter of pride. My cell phone rang and a very heavy voice comes from the other side. “Well done, boy!!!! You have your space here and you’re working with us now”, said the editor of ‘The Indian Express’.

                 “This was my mettle, this was my talent,” I realised. Just above my article I saw a quotation from William Shakespeare. “Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head”. I wondered it was for me. I quickly went to my mother touched her feet, called up my father and said “Papa!!! Your son is working with the Indian Express now”.