Editorial

        WELCOME TO THE NEW-AGE INDIA!
While going for a walk yesterday I read a poster of a movie…it looked dull and worn out. Marked with red patterns of spit and muddy splashes, it read…
UPA government presents…
“New-age India”


Directed by: Sonia Gandhi


Asst. director : Manmohan Singh


Produced by: The World Bank


Starring : inflation, corruption , unemployment , nuclear deals, serial blasts, naxalism , rail accidents, doping, World Cup, Lokpal Bill, Delhi Belly, pollution and communal riots.
I came to know that the movie was a record breaker…and is watched by thousands of Indians everyday…and is a super hit!
Yes, this is the new India! Face it! World’s largest democracy, it is the most vulnerable country aboard. A country with colossal man power and more cell-phones than toilets, India is pacing the likes of America, Britain, China, etc.


With its pompous culture and diverse celebrations, the new-age India is competing in the cosmos in myriad ways. With light-speed development, India with Tongas and cycles has perished somewhere and has remained confined within R.K laxman’s cartoons.


But everything comes with a price tag and India has already started paying for its development!
The emerging India of the 21st century is spelt in a different way. Its no more the “sone ki chidiya” we used to roam in…its way far!


Very soon you’ll be teaching your kids this:
I for INTOLERANT


Greatest artist ever born in India, died in exile, in London. Creative ventures like Jodha-Akbar and My Name Is Khan face fundamental turmoil. Girls get beaten up in pubs and are asked to marry a random person from street. Is this the face of a civilization? India’s intolerance is hard to imagine.


N for NEEDY


$9.3 billion were given to India by the World Bank for 2009-10 fiscal. The highest recipient of monetary funds, we always project ourselves poor and deficient. While quintals of wheat and rice are rotting, thousands die of hunger. Money for basics is donated year after year but our condition seems never ending! We are never tired of being tagged as ‘WE NEED MONEY” country.
D for DISEASED
21st century India is diseased with corruption, laziness, unemployment etc.And literally speaking, with polio, HIV, hepatitis etc. With ministers resigning after been allotted with portfolios such as “water supply and sanitation”, we can only ponder over India’s health. And who is responsible!
I for INFLATED


India is over-blown with prices of petrol, vegetables, cooking gasoline and cereals. Thus, inventing the worst case of inflation, ever. The global commodity market has increased its rates, drawing a thin line between luxury and necessity. With prices reaching soaring heights, the ‘common man’ can hardly afford luxury. And yes, certainly thinks that a cycle repair shop is a better career option.
A for AGITATED


An agitated Indian is worse than a mass-murderer. He burns life in form of effigies and has no distress.The agitated form of India is visible all over and is hard to tackle. Godhra riots and violence post-Ayodhya verdict was all due to the stir of anger. And almost everyday, many Jessicas, Ruchikas, Neerajs fall prey to some angry, agitated Indian! Such anger leads to tremendous pain for humanity and faith.
Well, this is how the new-age India is spelt! 30 years back, India was different. Under-developed. Famine faced. Bewildered. But certainly in better shape. Today we promote money, power and supremacy. What rules are cuss words, corrupt netas, cricket and oily food. This India is for plutocrats not for majority. Its 64 but behaves like a rebellious teenager. Everybody wishes for its goodwill and wants this teenager to get back to its old school behavior. We all want to breathe the freshness of a healthy nation but we all falter to begin. And it is obvious! In such a perplexed state of affairs, we all think before letting out a hand of help.


The conclusion of this article was written in a clichéd way, suggesting ideas of how to play your part in improving the nation. Also, how you can be crucial in its progress. But now as I write, I feel that India needs something else…it doesn’t need minds, it needs hearts. But I’m still confused. I won’t tell you how to treat this sick, unhealthy nation and what dose to give because I am also stuck. Just like you. In middle of water still not a drop to drink. I can just hope for a healthy, smiling nation, with all my heart! And hope that someday I can live the ‘India’ my ancestors lived. All I know is that it was a bigger hit.




                                                      GET WELL SOON ‘India’
By:
KARNIKA SAXENA


End of the World?


“Party like it’s the end of the world,

Party like its 2012.

We gonna live like its end of the world.

It ain’t the end of the world.

The whole world is ours eternally..”



Most of us might probably be moving to the beat of these lyrics by Jay Sean, as the hype of the apparent Apocalypse in 2012 makes its place among the top topics for the dinner time discussions.

The infamous “Doomsday”, December, 21, 2012 is inching forward every second raising the heats of speculations. Some might be planning to gear up to reach the safest possible place on the planet while others, the more lively, adventurous and Hollywood inspired bunch, might propagate that one should stop worrying about career, “don’t bother, buy a house or a car and append the last days of life doing the things which you might once have put on your ‘things to do before dying’ list.” The idea certainly sounds fascinating and thrilling. But for once, realistically speaking, it is absolutely necessary to know if we are living a myth.

The story begins when the much studied but less understood Long Count Calendar from the ancient Maya culture of Central America prophesized the end of the world. However, going into the details would clarify that the base of all predictions is the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012, known as the end of the Great Cycle. To put it in the simple words, according to the Mayan Calendar, the Great Cycle we are currently in, began on August, 11, 3114 B.C and will end on December, 21, 2012 (these dates are as per the Christian calendar). The question rises here is whether the end of one ancient calendar can be interpreted as the end of the whole world? Thus, it is essential to understand, how much one can rely on a subject like this.

We live today in a world of crude commercialization. Everything can be easily blown out of proportion. So, when it is been fed with the business of blind faith and fear, anything is possible, even the complete destruction of mankind. The food for thought here is, how much relevance could be given to a reference of cryptic symbolism which can be decoded in a number of ways. It might also be helpful to realize that no system is perfect. If a culture stands out for its extensive proficiency, it may have a dark side as well. Talking about the Mayans, they had interesting beliefs and insights about life and cosmos. While some of them reflect the scientific observations today, there are other things which might make one think twice. For example, Mayans believed that our sun is a God, powered by blood from human sacrifices.

Instead of putting a blindfold, we also need to pay attention to the other side of the story. Archaeologists and mythologists interpret this day as the day of Human Enlightenment, a beginning of a New Era, instead of the physical end of the world.

One of the most celebrated authors of the recent times, Dan Brown mentioned in one of his novels ‘The Lost Symbol’,

“Legend holds that the verbatim significatium is buried deep underground, where it waits patiently for a pivotal moment in history as a moment when mankind can no longer survive without the truth, knowledge and wisdom of the ages. At this dark crossroads,. Mankind will at last unearth the Word and herald in a wondrous new age of enlightenment…

“…this prophecy of a coming enlightenment is echoed in virtually every faith and philosophical tradition on earth. Hindus call it Krita Age, astrologers call it the Age of Aquarius, the Jew describe the coming of the messiah, theosophists call it the New Age, cosmologists call it Harmonic Convergence and predict the actual date as December 21, 2012.”



We, humans are a species filled with immense faith and hope. Therefore, the above interpretation appears extremely appealing. But despite the hope, one must not ignore the fact that we seem to be standing on thin ice. We have played with the Nature like spoilt kids, molded it to the best of our convenience. And perhaps now the time has come to pay for it. Natural disasters have been occurring with great frequency. Earthquakes of the magnitudes more than 6 have hit Argentina, China, Japan, new Zealand, Alaska and have left the whole world shivering at its sight. Floods in Australia, Brazil, Wildfire in Arizona, Volcano eruption in Chile and the numbing death of thousands of birds and fishes in the last 6 months of the year have serious implications.

It may or may not mark the beginning of the apocalypse but it is evident that Nature has had enough. It aint taking anymore! The need of the hour is that we put a leash on our actions and stop this exploitation. Otherwise the scenes of buildings collapsing, earth’s crust tearing open, cities vanishing under mammoth waves will not just remain a narrative of a movie but become a reality. We are inviting something as dreadful as the end of the world; Ultimately this lies in our hands. It is a prophecy that our actions will command.

And amidst all this, “hope” and “end” will still remain. However, the future will depend on how we deal with them; as “a hopeless end” or as “an endless hope”.