NavDharmyug

A new thing exploding today on the media is the charges of the Congress about snooping on WhatsApp of some 1400 accounts using some spyware, Pegasus, from a private Software maker from Israel, NSO. Congress de-facto chief, Rahul Gandhi was on foreign travels, when the campaigning for Maharashtra and Haryana elections started. He was back to oversee the rout of Congress in the two state, and having planned havoc on the nation with country-wide protests on the sinking economy, which as per reports is not able to purchase underwear.  Rahul Gandhi is, in the meantime, on another round of holidays, ostensibly, to meditate. That the Rock gurus from the West would travel to Rishikesh in India to meditate is another matter. However, as is usually the case, I believe absolutely unrelated, when Rahul Gandhi is abroad, which is often, some controversy or another will come up. Earlier it was a message parlour in the UK which, with its three employees also doubled as a news agency, ru...

The weather has changed. Skies are clear once again, fog lifted. Azure, cloudless skies; trees bare. The dawn descends with the shy, blush of a fair, newly-wed woman. The days are not yet jaundiced with the pale, bright yellowness of the summers. There is a distinct hint of red in the yellow.  Writing is sporadic, very less. A few intermittent blog post. Unwritten words sit heavily on the soul of a writer. To accept oneself as a writer is to embark on a dangerous path. It is a solitary profession and a hard one at that.  I read to prepare to write. I tell myself. Be at some point, even reading has to make way for writing. Writing is not a quick job. It takes time, time and sitting all agitated inside and all peaceful outside, the incongruous internal and external world pulling one apart, in diverse directions. Writing takes time. One needs to tie that heavy stone to the neck of a reckless, wandering mind and allow it to sink to the depths. Bubbles of air escap...

कहते हैं , जब रही ना मुझे ताक़त ए सुख़न  जानूँ किसी के दिल की मैं क्यों कर कहे बगैर।   This delightful verse comes from Ghalib, which is so meaningful in today's world where truth is being replaced by rhetoric is laden with so many interests. I had once written about it and named it "Responsibility of a Writer- As Per Ghalib. (http://www.saketsuryesh.net/2016/04/responsibility-of-writer-as-per-ghalib.html)"   The couplet means as below: If I am no longer blessed with the Power of my Pen, why should I have access to the recesses of someone's heart.  What Ghalib is essentially saying, in my interpretation is that "unless my pen has the will and the strength to honestly convey the interests and thoughts of those who cannot speak, why should I continue to enjoy their trust and have access their hearts. This takes an important perspective in today's context, where a day ban on NDTV has given an opportunity to Ravish Kumar for making his point...

Courtsey: Google Images The social media has brought in great changes in the way we live our lives. It has touched the way we shop, the way we connect to the people around us, the way we think. We no longer drive to our friends to have tea with him and talk to him or her, rather we poke ( not a nice word, I think) each other. These are the changes brought in to our lives by all pervasive social media, but that is not what I wanted to talk about. I have been thinking about the impact social media is making with respect to the causes which we follow as masses and the impact of social media on it. The twitter, Facebook pages and now, the cause pages has made it much easy for us to pursue a cause. It is easy to pursue, easy to get angry and as violent as the non availability of physical media could permit on the Internet. It is at the same time as addictive. We closes the twitter at night with anger and wake up in the morning, all charged up with renewed fury, scouting for the lat...