How Festival Of Lights Turned Tormenting!!

It was Diwali morning and I woke up to my mom’s gentle push and heard her saying, Padmaj! Meow’s dead. I got up with a jerk and rushed towards the veranda to find my little cat lay motionless on the floor. I did not understand how to react to this situation. I just sat and kept staring at her continuously until a drop of tear rolled down my cheek ferrying my emotions to a flashback; a flashback that reminded me of the way how I shared my chapatis with her, how she licked milk and shrikhand, how she hopped through our stairs to get into our house, how she played with mats, how she caught every visible cockroach and played football with it, how she ran inside our house finding dogs around.

I was distracted from the flashback when I saw my dad moving towards her to pick her up and carry her to the burial site. I remorsed for not saving her from the callous dogs who attacked her and left her to succumb over her injuries. I started walking and every step closer to burial site seemed heavier than the previous one and finally there was a moment when I was right in front of her final resting place where her corpse was laid, showering few flowers and a handful of sand over her, praying to the supernatural being to rest her soul in peace. I tried to dissuade weeping, but every attempt was in vain.

There are some things in this universe that touch your heart intensely and this little kitten was one among them. Now who’s gonna come mewing to me to share my chapatis? Who’s gonna caress my leg pleading for fish?

I remember the moment when Dheeraj expressed his views on how much he missed his cat when he was far away from his house for months together. I never thought that he felt the same as much as I did. These are the moments which make u feel the importance of something, something that really meant so much to you.

I’m missing you so very badly sweetheart and I’ll keep missing you for the rest of my life baby.

The Ironic Fate Of Kali River Bridge

The Kali river bridge, built over the Kali river at Kodibag, Karwar, is one of the best places which is surrounded by Western Ghats, beautified by the tiny-appearing islands in the near vicinity, and the view of sun blushing crimson at the brink of Arabian sea making it intensely charming and beautiful. Youngsters and the aged-ones love spending time with their friends and breathe some fresh air to relax their mind and body.

But behind every beauty, lies a darker part too. People of excellent intellect enjoy the beauty and feel a sense of peace around them but the perturbed minds come with an intention to rest in peace forever(which they don’t). The river has been undesirably accepting the applicants who break into the Kali river without a call letter using bridge as a platform and maybe this involuntary activity of the river to engulf the disturbed minds is why the river splashes away its tears in the form of waves, hitting the rocks and singing an elegy.

People love to jump into rivers after looking at the calmly flowing water, but this is one of the few rivers where people would not even dare to swim after knowing its history. Two of my young friends who were excellent swimmers, and used to swim daily in the Kali river, once never returned back from the river alive. And when some of the localites went in search of their bodies underwater, they found both of them together in an almost-to-hug position holding each other’s arms. Localites believe that some evil power might have pulled them downward and they both might have fought together but couldn’t succeed. The reason behind it is still a mystery. When I once dived into the river during our sailing expedition training to search our ropeless anchor, I had all the stories in my mind which I had heard. These haunted stories are the reasons why one fears to get into the oh-so-calm river.

There have been so many deaths in the past years that people are now scared of even walking over the bridge at late night. There is an incident that has deepened this psychological effect. An auto-rickshaw driver, while returning back home at midnight was stopped by a young lady and he agreed to drop her looking at the time and worried of her insecurity. On the way, he asked the destination of the young lady and received no response. He pardoned and yet again found no response. Then he turned back to check why he wasn’t receiving any response from her, and this was the time when his night turned into a nightmare. He found that the lady had vanished from his auto-rickshaw. Totally feared by the incident, he returned home on full throttle and took time to get over this.

These small-small incidents intensify the terror and bring about a psychological pessimism in the minds of many. The Kali river bridge was built to END the distance between Kodibag and Karwar, but people are using it to END their lives.  The perturbed minds are still not understanding the preciousness of life or maybe they don’t intend to face problems in their life.

Nature doesn’t care. Birds chirp out early morning, sun rises and sets, river flows through its way, people provide a little sympathy; but all that is lost is a precious life which could have been beautiful if lived.

Padmaj Kalgutkar's photostream

Padmaj Kalgutkar's photostream on Flickr.

NCC- The whole and soul of Indian defense aspirants

    

          NCC(National Cadet Corps) has been a platform for many young talents who aspire to join the Indian defense forces and pursue a career in it, making their lives an adventurous and respectful journey. The organization has always tried to re-mould and re-exercise the activities and boost up the moral values of the aspirants to create a wholesome multi-talented personality who, in future, would render his/her best to safeguard the motherland, on whom resides the trust of 120 billion people who sleep peacefully at night.

If you haven’t enrolled yourself as a cadet in NCC, then you have missed all the fun and excitement one experiences as a cadet. Starting from the day you expand your chest after looking yourself in the mirror a hundred times, adjusting your beret, hackle, belts,  and then as you are promoted to higher ranks, you start adjusting your kamar-bandh, jhallar, decorating the badges you own and the medals you’ve won, thinking of the people who would stare at your eye-catching dress. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t been in camps, shouting “Jai Hind Sir” to the seniors and the NCC staff members who burn their calories just to make you successful and keep the morale high. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t been in the queue discussing possible dishes you might be served which ultimately would quench your hunger. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t looked at various guns and discussed about them, waiting for that precious time when you will finally fire those bullets with them, concentrating the bull’s eye to score a complete 8 point per shot which is every shooter’s dream. You’ve missed all the fun if u haven’t polished the raw pieces of the ship models(in case of Naval wing cadets) and aero-models(in case of Air-Force wing cadets). You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t been punished with your troop for your misbehavior, wherein you later meet together to discuss the mistakes and collapse on your beds to make your body ready for the next session of the training. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t been with your group to wash your clothes together, begging buckets from your friends. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t sat around the bonfire during that last night of your camp, cracking jokes with fellow-cadets and sirs. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t rowed a boat, pitched a tent, performed semaphore, learnt various knots, read the maps, studied service subject, marched together with your troop members, sailed on a Naval ship, flew on a helicopter, entered into the tanks, travelled in the canters, etc. etc. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t been a part of a contingent and represented your directorate at directorate level camps, watching VIPs and VVIPs, presenting the cultural programs before them and curiously waiting for the trophy to be yours. You’ve missed all the fun if u haven’t sat late night polishing your shoes, remembering the dialog of the teachers saying -“tumhara chehra usme dikhna chahiye”. You’ve missed all the fun if u haven’t worn the blazers of your contingent and felt proud of representing the directorate. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t travelled together for various camps, playing antakshari during the journey, laughing out loudly and starting the count-down against the opposition for not zeroing on a succeeding song in a quick swish. You’ve missed all the fun if you haven’t been a NCC CADET!

NCC provides a platform for the young talents to develop their abilities not just to serve the country, but produce a well-mannered social human being. All the cadets who have used the platform, have been successful gentlemen in their lives and have appreciated the organization. Providing the cadets an opportunity to qualify the SSB interview without writing the UPSC exam, reserving seats in medical and entrance examinations, NCC has been blooming well in the minds of millions who aspire for a career in uniforms. Its upto us what we make out of it. Is it just the ‘C’ certificate that we need, or the adventures, excitement, moral values, opportunities and the exposure that NCC provides?

If you wouldn’t have enrolled yourself as a cadet, you wouldn’t have known how precious you are! So grab the opportunities and prove yourself at the earliest because ‘today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s waste paper’.