The Doomsday Conspiracy

Hello,

Before beginning the actual post, let me thank you all readers for helping me win a gift card from Google Adsense. Inspires me to write more frequently. :)

This post is about the day before 9/11. No, I was not in America then.  Although many of them when asked 'Tell me your Dreams' mentioned their American dream...I never had any intentions to go to American then. So how I am related to this? 

My answer is...I was in my 1st year of Bachelor's degree then. Not the degree that I hold now. Therez another little story which I would reserve for a later time, but for now the 1st year mentioned did not really end as an year. It only began. Confusing isn't. Let it be. Coming to the actual topic, you know how we bunk classes and spend time under trees and cafeterias chatting all sort of gossips and nonsense some times. And rarely even girls do have nothing to chat. I know this comes as a great surprise for men out there but this is true. And so happened with us. We ran out of the blabber and so we ran behind the books. Don't panic for the strange behavior, books I meant were novels. By then Harry Potter had not made his advent into the Indian book lovers industry...so the craze was all for Sydney Sheldon. His books were the secret treasures of what we were restricted to watch or talk outside boldly. Now even the kids do not hesitate to utter many words that we never dared to spell. Apart from the over 18 content that Sheldon's novel had, they had the most interesting and thrilling content which kept the readers on the edge of their seats. This gripping narration is what made me glued to his books for days n days. So how does his novel relate to the 9/11?

Here it goes...We bunked the classes and due to scarcity of topics to chat, one of us started reading the Sheldon's famous novel "The Doomsday Conspiracy". To prove that girls do have intelligent and profound conversations, I have to tell you that reading of the novel subsequently brooded into an intelligent coffee table discussion about the Pearl Harbour. Well, if you ask me how did this transition(Sheldon to Pearl Harbour) happened?, you only will understand if you are familiar with such conversations.

This Sheldon's Novel was all about the male protagonist chasing a secret and being chased by the secret in the later half. But our discussion drifted to the Sands of time back to the Pearl Harbour Attack. Only couple of us have an idea of what Pearl Harbor attack was and so we shared with the rest...."It all seemed like the Sky is Falling with hundreds of comets hitting the planet at once in Hawaii on Dec7, 1941. While the Other side of the Midnight (Japan) remained calm, the harbor burned down. These Memories of Midnight chased Japan Morning, Noon and Night. Following day, the powerful nation unleashed its Naked face and declared If Tomorrow comes there will be a war waged against Japan. While the powerful nation remained the Master of the Game, other countries supported the Bloodline and turned this into World War II eventually. This discussion followed by our own individual doubts about the world's powerful nation's defense system. Whether America's intelligence and defense system failed to predict the attack or was it not strong enough. Whether any group or nation would ever dare to attack such powerful nation. If so, how intelligent would they have to conspire and how will they ever enter the nation with a plan like this in mind. So many questions made their way in to the discussion. We concluded finally when the bells started ringing in our bellies. The conclusion was having had a very strong and robust defense system, it is almost impossible for any one to sketch some Best Laid Plans against America.

The very next morning there was the heartbreaking 9/11 news all over. We were shocked to know the news than anyone. The fact that our discussions were so coincidental shocked us even more. This resulted to the superstition that reading of that book and discussions brooded after that, followed by a fatal news of 9/11 eventually led to the doom of The Doomsday Conspiracy book from our  book list.
No Nation wants to wake up to watch such fatal news. Sympathy and Prayers to the victims of 9/11.

Let there be peace and harmony!

Cheers

Vennela

Glimpses of reality

Namasthe,

While I am comfortably relaxing in my couch penning down this post, my mind has been revolving around a peasant couple somewhere in the corner of rural West Bengal, India. Coming from an urban background, I rarely made visits to my grandparent’s village. My grandparents also moved out to the cities and so our connection with the village was very less although my father had great love towards his ancestor’s place. The only relation with village that exists for me even today is having my paternal aunt who stays in the village. All these years she has been working on the rural development programmes, but she never mentioned in any of her conversations that there were extremely poor villagers who cannot afford very basic needs like food and shelter. Reasons are the villages around my city were quite well farmed and cultivated as most of them fall along the flow routes of two major river basins. And of course two major dam’s irrigation canals flowing in the region are another reason for abundant water supply. So, I never really heard from my aunt or any other extended family member who stayed in villages complaining of major issues in farming or their co-villagers suffering in below poverty line. In fact these villages were quite prosperous and green most of the year.

But this was not at all the case about this peasant couple that I mentioned; they were not being able to afford one meal a day. Isn’t it heartbreaking? If you wonder how did I come across this couple... recently a show was aired on BBC named "India on Four Wheels" which featured two enthusiasts from Britain driving across the urban and rural Indian routes covering all major corners and what they encounter or confront in their road trip was all included in it. The show was certainly one of its kinds. I hardly watched any such show with a purpose and yet interesting in the regional channels recently. Not to deviate but a much needed mention here is about the Doordarshan channel, which used to focus on such real issues but of course mostly in a documentary which is why it didn’t get many eyeballs glued.

Although we Indians being quite familiar with the huge economic disparities in the country, I was so emotionally touched while watching the show. Especially when on north western corner there was this Maharaja of Udaipur flaunting his vintage Rolls Royce collection. And not being able to maintain the huge palace on his own, leased out it as a hotel which seemed as an answer to his biggest problem. And on the north east corner therez this poorest peasant couple starving for days even after working so hard on their farm and on top of this one of the storms had swept away their entire year's toil and the little piece of shelter they owned. This extremity shattered me. I have no complaints against this Maharaja's extravagant living style; I indeed enjoyed watching his huge collection of the royal living and fabulous wheels until I saw the poverty in the other corner.

Poverty itself is such a scary term to many of us. Would we ever imagine us being there???...No, not even in our wildest dreams. Not having a square meal a day is really really worse. The couple I mentioned did not complain of anything but food and that too grown out of their little farm. While the luxurious richness and prosperity of the Maharaja seemed like a fairy tale, the dearth of this peasant family knocked of the fanciness and gave a glimpse of the reality. 

This whole thing actually reminds of a scene from Swades one of my favourite films, where the peasant family reveals the paucity of very basic necessities for their existence. (From 3:00 to the end)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u18Hv6eTWow&feature=fvwrel

Well, I don’t know if I could stop this emotional outburst here and forget it in a while because it moved me so much so that I would expect this could see some positive repercussions.

Cheers

Vennela