Just a thought

Just a thought

If life is as wonderful as it has been since I was a youngster, there are many things you haven't seen. 

As you grow old, you start meeting individuals who are/were in more challenging circumstances than you are, and you gradually discover stuff. 

You begin to absorb energy or, if I may use that term, learn new things, mostly negative both from your own and strangers.

People may dislike you for reasons that are beyond your control or for no apparent reason at all. You must, however, accept it.

Through time and experience, I've learned that everyone has a light within them. Thanks to that light, individuals may look into the hearts of others.

However, there are many who have lost it, becoming impulsive, egotistical, and vicious. These people perceive darkness in others because they themselves are filled with hate.

Don't be fooled, these fellows despise everyone and you are merely in their line of fire. So chill. 

Remember they are what they are because of their miserable life or how they have experienced or interpreted it. In my view, to get over such people if it is difficult to delete from your life, all one has to do is shine their lights to win.

It's hard but only prudent way.

I have seen how much hate people are capable of. And how much courage it takes to be kind. 

It is the light in the darkness that we must strive for. I have my light in Aaruni. The force that soaked my sorrows and much more.

Even today that light burns bright. All I have to do is to close my eyes and magic happens.

May you all find yours.

A brief summary of my life as I view it from afar.

My Journey So Far

My name is Gaurav Saini, and I reside in Faridabad (Haryana). I am an avid reader, which has been both my hobby and a necessity since childhood and has acted as a catalyst, a source for me towards penning down my thoughts. 

Gradually writing became my passion and transformed me into a skilled content writer as a professional. 

How Did it Start?

To begin with, my childhood memories take me down to Narora, a small government township on the banks of the river Ganges in western UP. Narora was nestled peacefully in the lap of mother nature, where I completed my schooling before being selected for an Engineering course (BTech Electronics) in Maharashtra. 

Studying Engineering was a stimulating experience as one can feel scaling the achievement ladder and making you independent as a college student. 

One learns to tend to his own needs, handling his affairs without any assistance from family. Of course, coming from a small town and sitting down in a city has merits, but it was also disturbing sometimes. 

However, my siesta in Sangli, Maharashtra, was short-lived and ended abruptly when I met with an accident while pursuing my engineering.

The Real Struggle Started  

I struggled to figure out what was more painful, the crashing of my dreams or the restrictive mobility, as I became physically disabled after the accident. 

The trauma of bearing with unprecedented circumstances was challenging but demanding time was a great teacher too. However, with concerted efforts of my family, in particular, my mother and physicians, eventually helped me to improve things. Their motivation and encouragement instilled confidence in me and helped me overcome the odds and stand on my feet again, however, this time with walking aids.     

            

The battle to recover from my dilapidated condition, where for years I was bedridden, was long, stressful and exhausting but was worth fighting for my life.

The future looked bleak during those days, and the agony felt overbearing. However, the fond memories of childhood in Narora were a source of strength and refreshing for the soul. 

From experience, I have learned that the memories we gather through good or bad times etched in our psyche are the reflection of one's life and, as Dr Kalam once said, that the time spent with family and friends and memories collected stays with you during odd times, I too cherished my time well spent with family and friends in school and college during my struggle.

Fight Continues

As time passed and my body stabilized, I worked hard to learn new skills to earn my livelihood. Which began off as a curiosity in reading during school days, then persisted in literature, philosophy, politics, research, then-current affairs at college, enabling me to put my thoughts on paper now with ease. The result was launching my blog around four years back. 

My blog is a rainbow and showcases different facets of life. It addressed a range of topics from fiction to world affairs and was much appreciated by people around the globe, from where I drew my readership. 

Summing Up

In hindsight, I have learned that my most significant strength is perseverance, the quest to discover, adjustable behaviour, acknowledgement of the support of others and cooperation with friends, colleagues, etc., while my weakness lies in the habit of being introverted at times.      

                   

Today, if I seek to find a connection in life between sitting on the banks of the Ganges River during my childhood and living my life in an overpopulated city, I can describe it in no better way than Tolstoy's adage, "The two most strong warriors are persistence and time." One may resolve adversities through courage and perseverance, which is how I describe myself.  

Image Courtesy - Google Images 

Chandrayaan-2

                      An unprecedented night that is forever etched in memories of many though didn’t yield expected success was in no way ungenerous. Can we infer that a day would come when people would be thronging to their tv sets in the middle of the night to witness ISRO that was on the verge of making history. That 69 seconds or last 2 km proved little more challenging than bargained for in no way makes Chandryaan-2 any small accomplishment in itself and should be rightfully hailed as a triumph.

                    The pessimist and the armchair intellectuals might try to run ISRO down, but we must stand resolute. They say ISRO has failed, let me articulate it, ISRO has achieved in this single mission what no one ever had. The success is exemplary, their endeavor to land on “moon” has created enthusiasm among Indians, ignited young minds, a whole new generation who would be prompted to take on the mettle.

                Chandrayaan 2, hence is a grand success, has made a nonparallel contribution to the Indian space program and will be remembered as a giant step, a learning exercise that will fuel India to take numero-uno space power in times to come.

Image Courtesy - Google 

River Ganges

The majority of this text is taken from another article on this topic. I have added some commentary and notes in some places, but the content has remained broadly the same. 

             The river Ganges with its source in the mighty Himalayan mountains is considered to be the most sacred river by Hindus. The waters of Ganga is believed to be self cleansing in nature and it is said that a single dip in the waters of this holy river can wash away one’s sins. However, people tend to attribute this to religious / theistic reasons and an objective scientific analysis of this has rarely been done, and in cases where it has been done, its results are not known to most people. The objective of this article is to share some scientific insight for the alleged purity and “cleansing property” of the water of river Ganges.

              It is almost bizarre that even though the last rites of the thousands of Hindus are performed at the numerous ghats along the shores of Ganga at the holy sites like Kashi, Varanasi etc, even though thousands of human bodies are consigned to this river and even though Millions of Hindus take bath in the waters of this river everyday – there is no sign of contagious diseases spreading from person to person due to contact through this river water. Nor is there any reported and statistically significant sign of skin disorders etc after bathing in the Ganges. So what is the secret behind its water?

                In 1896, E. Hanbury Hankin (a British physician) after testing the water of Ganga wrote in a paper published in the French journal Annales de IInstitut Pasteur. The bacterium Vibrio Cholerae which causes the deadly Cholera disease, when put into the waters of Ganga died within three hours. However, the same bacteria continued to thrive in distilled water even after 48 hours. He went on to suggest that the water of this river and its tributary Yamuna were responsible for containing the spread of this deadly disease cholera in the region in those days. C.E. Nelson, another British physician noticed that, the waters of Ganga when taken even from one of its dirtiest mouths at Hooghly in Kolkata, by the ships returning to England, remained fresh throughout the long journey. Normally river water begins to become stale over a period of time due to lack of oxygen which promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which in turn gives rise to the smell of stale water.

                 In 1927, Flix dHerelle , a French microbiologist, was amazed when he saw that only a few feet below the bodies of persons floating in the Ganga who had died of dysentery and cholera, where one would expect millions of germs, there were no germs at all. In other words, people had for thousands of years rightly believed that Ganga purifies the dead bodies, which is why probably the bodies of even those who died of infectious diseases were offered to this river for purification!

Recent Research.

Recent Research

                             D.S. Bhargava, an Indian environmental engineer/professor of hydrology has spent a life time studying the amazing properties of Ganges. He measured the remarkable self cleansing ability of Ganges in an exhaustive three year study which showed that Ganges is able to reduce its biochemical oxygen demand levels much faster than other rivers. Bhargava says that the self-purifying quality of this river leads to oxygen levels that are 25 times higher than any other river in the world.The Ganges cleans up suspended wastes 15 to 20 times faster when compared to other rivers! In a study conducted by the Malaria Research Center in New Delhi it was observes that the water from the upper reaches of Ganga did not host mosquito breeding, and also prevented mosquito breeding in any water it was added to. On the other hand, water from other rivers were shown to allow mosquito breeding!

                         There are two major factors which give Ganges its unique abilities
1. The presence of Bacteriophages which gives it the anti-bacterial nature.
2. An unknown factor which gives this river an unusual ability to retain dissolved oxygen from the atmosphere. This might be due to its high concentration of bacteriophage, but this link has not yet been established

What is Bacteriophage ?

                                       Bacteriophage are those viruses which kill bacteria. What a cat is to a mouse, the bacteriophage is to a bacterium. In fact what Hankin reported in 1896 about the antibacterial nature of Ganges was the first modern observation/documentation of a Bacteriophage It was Herelle, (who again observed the anti-bacterial nature of Ganges) who coined the term Bacteriophage (meaning bacteria eater ) for these viruses. The high levels of oxygen in the waters of Ganga gives it the unique ability to remain fresh over a prolonged period of time. The waters of Ganga when added to other water resources in adequate amount, causes the bacteriophage in it to quickly multiply cleaning the new water resource of any bacteria present in it. Which is why the ancient Indians used to take Ganga jal back home to clean their local water resources. People practice it even today, except that most of them dont know the actual reason.

                               In other words, the water of river Ganga can be an alternative for using antibiotics to treat bacterial diseases. In fact it was in the former Soviet Union that the most active research about using bacteriophages to treat bacterial diseases was done at the George Eliava Institute ! This research institute was co-founded by George Eliava and Felix DHerelle after D’Herelle introduced Eliava to the wonderful world of Bacteriophages following his experiments with the water of the Ganges.

The death of anti-biotics?

                                 Today more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. The world is running out of antibiotics! We need an alternative, & a potential alternative is Bacteriophage therapy.

The emergence of pathogenic bacteria resistant to most, if not all, currently available antimicrobial agents has become a critical problem in modern medicine, particularly because of the concomitant increase in immuno-suppressed patients. The concern that humankind is reentering the preantibiotics era has become very real, and the development of alternative anti-infection modalities has become one of the highest priorities of modern medicine and biotechnology. - Source Phage International

Phage Therapy Research in India

GangaGen Biotechnologies , a bio-medical research company based out of Bangalore, is now leading the alternative therapy of Bacteriophage based treatment for antibiotic resistant bacteria. It is the first firm to have developed bacteriophage based commercial products. Their first bacteriophage based product was to treat the problem of E.Coli in Cattle.

The content of this article is almost similar to its original article.
Source - Google
Image source - Google
You can write to me at- garv560@gmail.com

Cacophony

Life stressed on trusting...
Trust you?
I did trust you, but, you betrayed me, stabbed me in my back,
I saw you everyday in her eyes and i heard you every-time she laughed,
Felt you every moment when she called me papa,
And you, betrayed me, you,, without remorse broke my heart for no fault of mine,
Was trusting you my culpability ?
Life looked deep into me and replied...
Sense of reasoning,abandoned you, made you lopsided, in grief,
It's true, i am in all of it,
I am the darkness n the light,
I am the sunshine n the storm ,
True i was there in her smile, but i m here too in your pain,
I didn't forsake you, you closed yourself,
I am an outcast at dawn and orphan in pain,
I am the reason for everything,yet i don't owe the responsibility, so,
Don't try to live without me....
Gather yourself, n don't think of living without me...
Clueless i am, as i earlier was.

It's Not The Size Of The Dog In The Fight, It's The Size Of The Fight In The Dog.

                    In this article, i am discussing about a sensitive issue targeting a small section(around 3% by official estimates) of our population. Here, i would like to talk about "People with special needs" or as in our dialect we say "Disabled People" (DP) . I always believed and stand by my opinion that, Indian society is one filled with ruthless, self-centered and hypocritical people with cruel intentions. Firstly, our society generally treat the people with disabilities as outcast, they are not supposed to be smart, butt of joke with people trying to ridicule them at the slightest provocation .

                 There are few, who are brilliant in concealing their twisted mindset, the concern they portray lasts the moment DP shows disagreement or refuse to comprehend the terms dictated(usually unfavorable) and thus,he(DP) declines to put his foot down, this is when these hate mongers reveal their true identity. The usual discourse starts with trying to subdue DP psychologically by emphasizing "the big favor" he/she granted to DP which is exclusive thus making DP realize of benevolence shown by maniac and a subtle way of reminding DP his unfortunate condition. These nuts firstly, aren't doing any favor, you(DP) are bringing him business and he is after your money, lets be realistic, there's nothing more to it and it hardly matters to seller if the customer is physically fit or not as long as he shows the money. There is cut throat competition in this country, and people are too oblivious of one's misery, everyone tries to get better of DP and hence, finds it convenient to bully a DP into submission.

                      I am speaking from my own experience (17 years back, met an accident) as i move around, thankfully, I am financially well off so it obviates any need to struggle but i get disturbed to think of many more who aren't this fortunate. From my personal experience, i have encountered the sick mentality of our society. Perverts won't shy in passing sordid comments even at funerals, such is the travesty. As they say, only the wearer knows, where the shoe pinches, it is safe to assume no one will understand the struggle and challenges faced by a DP. On their part, DP shouldn't expect any generosity from others. At the same time, never accept things lying down. Your courteous nature, if is misunderstood as weakness ,its definitely not your fault, fight for things that's yours without being perturbed about consequences.

                        Don't harp on to emotional stuff, have thick skin, mark my words, people will call you names behind your back even your servants,don't be overly sensitive. Choose your battles wisely, and the one's of choice should be fought with everything at your disposal. Never, ever make compromise with your honor and dignity, respect others and demand the same without any dilution. Never allow others to belittle your achievements and never oblige to ridiculous proposals. You are not responsible for something that was beyond your control so you shouldn't be ashamed of something that has happened to you, it can happen to anyone, anytime.

                    Don't expect society to change anytime soon, ostracization of DP is a naked reality. The one's who consider you inferior will try to compete with you with frivolous excuses in hand as an insurance. The DP on their part, should learn to stand for them self, be assertive, and do not wilt under pressure. You are a gem in your own way, and there is absolutely nothing wrong in you and the non-believers are shit minds that needn't be taken seriously. 

Loneliness

                           Man is a social animal who normally strive for secure social environment to thrive. Right from the early times, man has survived in social groupings, from nomadic times (hunting) there after when started living a sedentary life. So, it isn't unusual that people are scared to be alone and there are numerous ways adapted by society to wane it. From our childhood we are programmed to find company. Friends in school to looking out for perfect partner during our young age is all considered and a well established normal process to search for a companion.

                      So is loneliness a disease that we all are obnoxiously possessive about? Even though our urge to be in company is innate or maybe inculcated from birth yet it would be silly to believe we don't feel lonely even in the best of the circumstances and in the company of our loved ones. Some of us always had solitary life by choice or fate depending on individual's perception. What and whether an individual feels lonely is also important, you could have people around you throughout the day or even be in a lifelong marriage, and still experience a deep, pervasive loneliness while a person may not feel lonely even when there is no one by his side.

                                Some of the finest works in arts, literature, science were performed by people who weren't exactly in the company of others. So why do we fight against loneliness? As mentioned before, it's considered prudent to find a right friend in childhood, then marriage and there too after a while, we become bored of each other and find salvation in kids. Fully aware the kids would grow up and eventually move out thus, again we are left alone. So is it true that like death, loneliness is our constant companion and grips us, the moment our determined or undiminished struggle against it gets weakened.

                             Isn't it worth to make peace with oneself and embrace life in its full colour with different shades, without fretting about the consequences. Enjoy the time you have alone. Schedule solitude. Literally. Mark off time in your day planner or calendar for spending alone with yourself. Any time that you can spend alone with yourself to reboot, meditate, focus, relax, create, produce, and/or think deeply is better than no time.

My Angel

Dear Aaruni,

My love Aaruni, its been over two months when fate fiddled around nastily and snatched you away from us, since then, life has never been same again. You came to my life as a miracle, showering blessings, a ray of divine hope after prolonged darkness. You were like sweet nectar to my parched soul, first droplets of rainwater embracing gasping Earth.

It still feels like yesterday, when i firstly took you in my arms, cuddled you. You were so little, opened your eyes and smiled and i felt complete, the most beautiful day of my life. I must confess my baby, i hadn't seen a more beautiful wonder before. You had this magic power of weeding out my sorrows, agony, all my failures vanished hearing your chirpy voice. Your voice made me call you my little birdy. I was mesmerized at times, by your sweet innocent gestures making me stand in awe. There had been moments when i feel happy and privileged just by looking at you while you were sleeping .

Gradually you started growing and as you embarked on the journey learning new things, i felt like a proud father. I must acknowledge i was frightened from the beginning for you, even decried the idea of giving solid diet lest you grow up, but you allayed all my fears making me confident of things i couldn't foresee that eventually extracted heavy price. As you started crawling and then waking, it use to make me nostalgic. I missed every moment, embraced every second, as i had the pleasure to grow alongside you.  This complacency made me foolish into believing in destiny taking turn for good, and went along as it fiddled with me, only to wake up from slumber by rude jolt. It has been nightmarish ever since.

I sit in silence sometimes and try to feel the plants that waved at you, birds on lemon tree that you chatted with, pigeon still come in verandah looking for you. Your water tub lay idle, and so are your toys😥.The void created by your loss, the damage incurred is irreparable but soon I discovered, no matter how great my loss was or how deep my grief, the world does not stop. Some people tried sharing pain, some tried to walk along, everyone tried their bit to comfort us in their own way but this misery doesn't subside. On my part, i tried many tricks but futile. I am still struggling relentlessly to come to terms with reality and is learning to live with my loss. Sometimes, i feel my pain is visible to others and i employ ways to deflect attention from my grief.

I have learnt that love never diminishes rather it grows with time. I used to believe the cliché that everything happens for a reason, it is part of God's plan and just need to have faith in him, your loss however made me question this belief. Although a part of me died on that dreaded day of April,time continues to tickle and we carry on with our responsibilities, but it would never be same again. I carried you in my mind while u were still in your mothers belly, and been carrying you in my heart the day you came to this world and will always be part of me till my last breath.

I often ask myself why you had to leave me? I could have held you forever, and I guess in some ways I always will, only just in my heart and not my arms.I don't know if i will ever be able to absolve myself of this unknown guilt that i wasn't with you when you needed me the most. I couldn't save you, had it been possible would have begged almighty to take me along with you.My story continues although your chapter ended, but I will carry you to the end of my book of life.

I will always be your Papa and you my little angel, will cherish every moment we were together.

Intricacies Of Life

                                            Its been almost a month and events that unfolded in last thirty days ,have shaken my belief on myself, my thought process which i have boasted in silence, was lying in tatters. It can be easily summarized as month of reckoning, the life seemed to have taken a complete circle and made me stand naked to face the intricacies of life. It seemed someone smirked and challenged me to continue to follow the philosophy of life that developed over a period of time after my unfortunate accident 17 years back.

                                         The month started(early October) on promising note, ushering in hope, a dear one who was languishing for last two years in pitch darkness was finally on the verge of discovering one of the most beautiful gift to mankind, to see the rainbow of life once again, in its full blossom. The festival of lights graced family with restoring eyesight to my father . It was even more joyful as it was the first Deepawali of my angel, my little sunshine. The karma finally paying heed i thought, the cycle seemed to have turned for the better. The philosophy of karma, is a borrowed concept for me, gradually cleaning the cobwebs of mind and firmly shaping my outlook for life.

                                          Karma, i am told has everything to do with how we lead our life. Karma (past deeds as well as present) determines your present and future, so basically one decides his own destiny. With time, i developed strong affinity with this principle, and adjusted accordingly. Even death of an elderly during this time didn't alter my belief, neither did i question the timing. But the horrific accident and pain endured by my loved ones, the hour which i have to sit alone, waiting for news about on accident, jolted my belief on theory of Karma for good.

                                     These theories, in my opinion are nothing but attempts by humans to find reason where nothing exists. These theories are nothing but attempts by humans to find rationale where nothing actually exists. These theories like religion are fake. What is there to say? There is only so much anyone of us have, any control over good or bad , we are puppets who play according to circumstances. We all have to learn to move on, giving too much credit for things, we were mere spectators off is silly. You just embrace the reality and move on. I mean what fucking alternate does one really has? Guess there's nothing like destiny, just circumstances unraveling before us , nothing to do with past or anything like that and how you react becomes your fate.

'karma is a Bitch'

                                      It is dreadful and gives goosebumps to infer what might have gone through, the mind of Mrs. Sahani in her last few days while breathing her last . By hallucinating and trying to gauge her ordeal send shivers down the spine of any sane person's mind. The shear helplessness of an elderly, lonely lady confined to her home, where she had been reduced to become an unwilling security guard, is enough to understand the pitying condition of elderly personal like the deceased and many more like her in our society today. The senior citizens seems to have lost their voice and influence they once commanded in today’s transforming society . Indian society and culture we all are proud off and boast about, is decaying, the moral values are nonexistent and lethargy towards elderly is omnipresent . Look carefully and one can easily grasp the myth of happy united family . This is not something we should take lightly but is a scary scenario starring at our face.

                                As I have mentioned earlier, Mrs. Sahani's case isn't the first case or a secluded case, we should read the recent government reports, testifying to the rotten state of affairs in our society . With increasing westernization as well as economic opportunities available outside the cities of our parents , elderly are left to fend for themselves with no physical or emotional support in their our of need as youngsters leave for greener pastures . In this particular case, the elderly lady begged her son to register her in some old age home, a bare minimum, she can expect from him who was settled in USA , which was unfortunately denied or whatever maybe the truth we may never find out as the dead don’t speak. The news about decomposed body of Mrs. Sahani discovered almost three months later from the last phone call also points towards indifferent attitude of people in general .

                                 We have often come across news about elderly people abandoned in fares(Kumbh mela is notorious), these illiterate people couldn’t return to their homes knowingly or otherwise, but such malice remains hidden in the hysteria of fares. The widow homes of Mathura presents a starker reality, that should force society to look deep within and comprehend some tough uncomfortable questions to itself . We read reports regularly about scores of country’s elderly people are forced to live a life of humiliation, abuses and isolation in their homes but no murmurs of justice to victims is ever heard . Such humanitarian issues are conveniently ignored and is a nonentity till ghastly case like Mrs. Sahani jolts ones consciousness. The murderous campaign of lonely elderly citizens of Delhi, that shook the nation made everyone took notice of the deteriorating crime conditions prevalent in major cities, towards safety and wellbeing of elderly with better literacy levels , one can just imagine about the humiliation and exploitation elderly have to contend with in illiterate and inhuman poverty conditions of hinterlands .

                           The case of a retired elderly judge being deprived of his home by his son, and almost, identical case of an industrialist in miserable condition after his retirement due to betrayal from his son, points towards a sick pattern of selfish, egocentric society, where parents howsoever rich and powerful in their heydays are confronting within their homes . The recent report by UN points towards the increasing elderly population in India which according to reports will treble by 2030(around 300 million) and hence the civil society should impress upon government to take immediate steps, to work for the needy and distressed senior citizens for their health , residential and other social issues plaguing them as our elderly deserve our respect and undivided attention. Laws should be formulated with senior citizens be provided with more attention, rights, psychological support with counseling if required and safeguards as they are one of the most vulnerable section of the society.

                            And finally to the unworthy son of the deceased Mrs. Sahani, what I wanted to say couldn’t be said in a civilized manner, and might actually pain the departed soul who silently endured all hardships. Some might argue my unnecessary intervention in a private family matter , unfortunately I don’t see this death as personal affair, in my opinion its murder by negligence with necessity to fix responsibility and being a part of society I find myself duty bound to speak against repression and injustice in all its kinds. The death of Mrs. Sahani should act as an eyeopener for any civilized society and lessons must be learnt to avoid such frightful instances to reoccur ever again . As for the children, the laws of Karma is non negotiable and is constant, you will repent and pay dearly for what you sow cause Karma spares no one .

Chandrashekhar Sitaram Tiwari

                                 In today’s time and age when fiery debates are order of the day . Epithets are flung at remotest provocation , some true some half baked. Even being a nationalist is seen with an angle of perceived ideology whether one endorses it or not . Words like “DeshBhakt” or “Bharat Mata ki Jai” are scoffed at and are hurled as abuses implicitly . Here,in this viscous environment, I have read and is sharing a valiant story of a freedom fighter who inspired millions, his valor and indomitable spirit still gives goosebumps and is held by masses in reverence. His awe inspiring tale has and will continue to instigate passions for the motherland till posterity. I am beginning to share the story , we all have heard and cherished to believe that what I stood for is true and will continue to serve my motherland in whatever miniscule way I can. To believe that nationalist feelings aren’t outdated and concocted lies won’t stand the scrutiny of time.                                                                                                                       

                       “Your name?”

                         The boy replied back nonchalantly “Azad”.

                       “Your father’s name”?- “Azadi”

                       “Where do you live?”-“In Prison”   

                              Taken aback by the fearlessness of a teenager, a Parsi magistrate Mr. Kharegat , known for awarding severe punishments, ordered 50 lashes of severe caning . The boy seemed unperturbed while facing the Jailer Ganda Singh, notorious for his cruelty and torturing the prisoners. The boy was punished more for displaying his contempt for the magistrate than his actual crime of throwing stone at the police officer. Much to the disappointment of the Jailer, with every stroke of cane lashing and tearing his skin apart , boy continued to yell “Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai”. 

                            As the news of the youth’s bravery spread, people from all walks of life converged, to accord a hero’s welcome and the slogans of “Chandrashekhar Azad Ki Jai” reverberated the streets of Varanasi . A revolutionary , a Star, glimmer of hope,a 15 year old Sanskrit student Chandrashekhar Sitaram Tiwari , thus transformed into heroic patriot Chandrashekhar Azad . This is how, the story of one of the greatest warrior a true brave heart of Indian Independence movement came to limelight. 

                                 The year was 1918, the British Government introduced the dreaded Rowlatt Act, to suppress the growing clamor for independence. It’s aim was to suppress political agitations under the pretext of “sedition” as disenchanted people raised their voices against additional levy of taxes due to First World War. The country was up against the Rowlatt Act,  and Mahatma Gandhi led the Satyagraha which was brutally suppressed by British government. Scores of people were killed in police firing and infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred in Punjab on Baisakhi day in April 1919 . The atrocious policies perpetrated by British knows no boundaries which further fueled the discontentment and unrest among masses and Azad was no exception to it.

                                 Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the non cooperation movement was launched all over India in 1921. Varanasi too was caught up in the frenzy , as students boycotted classes, and demonstrations were held . Azad being a rebellious by nature, left his studies and actively participated in it, but the Chauri Chaura incident(1922) and the abrupt suspension of Non Cooperation movement by Gandhi ji disappointed him immensely. His disillusionment with non violent movement made him believe and trudge the path of armed struggle for Indian Independence. 

                                Disillusioned with non violent movement and burning zeal to overthrow British , Azad joined Hindustan Republican Association( HRA) under revolutionary Sachindranath Sanyal. The organization was greatly influenced by the Russian Revolution in 1917 which overthrew Czar NicholasII. This organization was later renamed and reorganized by Azad and his associates like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Batukeshwar Dutta etc. as Hindustan Socialist Republican Army( HSRA) 

                                    Two daring raids carried out by HRA was the famous Kakori Case and (HRSA) assassination of two British police officers Saunders and Scott(escaped) to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai who were brutally lathi charged and mortally injured in 1928 while leading a demonstration at Lahore and thus infusing the spirit of nationalism and new lease of life in the freedom movement.

                                      On the ill fateful February 27, 1931, Azad was with his friend at Alfred Park  Allahabad, planning his next course of action when betrayed by his associate Azad was surrounded by police . Fighting against all odds and surrounded by 80 sepoys, Azad refused to surrender and resulted in gunfight . True to his name undeterred by circumstances , valiantly he fought like a cornered tiger till the end. He kept firing at the British police with his pistol, till he had just one bullet left. With no intention to surrender, he placed the pistol to his temple, and pulled the trigger.

                                    The story I recalled didn’t end here , Chandrashekhar Azad didn’t die that day , he lived in the minds and hearts of countless nationalist. His story is told and gives strength to generations thereafter. The story is a folklore inspiring patriots stimulating our nationalism, galvanizing us as one and prompting us to shed the narrow selfish beliefs and unite us as Indians. In prevailing acidic public discourse where slogans like ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ or ‘Vande Mataram’ are mocked and makes you an outcast , it best to remember the umpteen sacrifices of martyrs who went to gallows holding their head high for the future of this nation . Never wilt under pressure or get seduced by the gimmickry of unscrupulous elements who nowadays have slowly seeped into our society , these self professed intellectuals have for long continued with their despicable agendas enticing the gullible. The nationalism or patriotism will never go outdated as long our hearts resonate to the calls of nation.