People Land and Sky

Mother vs Motherland

So this is death, the dying soldier thought.
To avoid this, how my mother had fought!
As she felt her spirit soar,
She faintly heard, her mother's roar.
"You won't live for me, your mother!
But don't mind dying for your motherland! "
"Not everyone dies mom, and life has no guarantees."
she had coolly retorted and even now, she didn't rue her stand.

Owning Land

"Dadi, is the mango from the tree in the Big House really verry tasty?" the ten year old girl asked her grandmother. "Yes." replied the sleepy grandmother.

"How do you know?" asked the girl, unwilling to sleep. "My dadi told me" replied the tired woman.
"How did your dadi, know ?"whispered the persistent girl. "She lived there" her dadi said sadly. "Ma!" the girl's father warned.

Excited the girl asked "She lived in the Big House?"
"No." replied the tired granny."She lived in a small house on that land, but her father had planted those mango trees. Then one day, men came with sticks and knives and told them to leave. And then later those men, sold the land to some other people and then the Big House came up with those Big Gates and Walls."
"Enough. Now go to sleep." chided her mother.
"So the Mangoes are ours?" she asked excited, ignoring her mother.

"No" mourned her granny "Those trees have died, and now, its their fruits that have become trees, and anyway we don't own the land."

"So how can I own a land?" the girl asked after few minutes.

Her granny pretended to snore. But she shook her and repeated the question. "You buy with money" came the curt reply from her father.

"But did the men with sticks give money to your dadi's father, dadi?"
"No but those were different times" sighed the granny and turned the other way and faked sleep.
The girl stared into the darkness,  unable to sleep, inspite of the suggestive snores.

She snaked her arm around her grandmother's waist. Then whispered "Tomorrow I will go with sticks and own the land near the river. Then I will sell it and make money and buy lots of lands. And then we will plant lots and lots of mango trees. And then my grandchildren and their grandchildren will taste the sweetest mango ever."

She expected applause but just got few giggles.

Hiding on the Land

She watched her mother anxiously touch her little brother's forehead and shake her head at her father.
Agitated, he said "I will take her to the doctor". But her mother said it would be risky in the middle of the night. "They might stop you and ask for papers." And continued to sponge her brother with a wet towel.

She stared at them anxiously, hoping she could provide a solution. Her mother had told her, to not talk too much about her father, because he was an illegal immigrant. She wondered if they would allow her to take her little brother to the doctor. She was not sure if she was also illegal but didn't dare to ask her mother that, and add to her distress. She stared at the line of ants, on the wall, and whispered, "How do you find out if you are illegal?"

Territory, Entity and Identity

"I won't tell you, even if you cause me pain." she said defiantly.
Her captor sneered,"Aaah a fighter, lets find out how much pain you can withstand..."
Later, he casually asked, "So how, is the pain?"
She managed to gasp, "Not greater than the pain, of not having a motherland"

"Oh, you will have one, if you stopped resisting and started accepting"  he said, as he searched his tool box.

"Accept!! Accept that your people can do anything to us, because you have firepower? Accept you are mighty and you can strip us of our Identity?" she snarled, before blacking out with pain, from his latest tool.

Free Sky

"Was it me, in all those short stories? "
the soldier's soul wondered,
as towards the sky, it soared.
Did everything happen, to me, in this birth,
or were some from before?"

The Patriot - The Celebrity with Duty

Beaming Bollywood Producer (BBP) "Our astrologer has suggested a Patriotic movie to launch my son".

Superhit Scriptwriter (SS) "Excellent! An Angry Hero is upset with the corrupt government.."

BBP "No No they might mistake him for a Naxalite, nothing anti-government."

SS "Hero is a soldier.."

Son of Rich Producer (SORP) "No that would make the movie boring and drab"

SS "A non-violent journalist,"

BBP "Again boring character. Make it a romantic patriotic movie"

SS "Hero falls in love with a girl from another country.."

BBP "No Way! Look what happened to Sania!"

SS "Hero is a pop star, who has made it big through a reality contest."

BBP "Excellent, we can show off His dancing skills"

SS "We open with Hero on stage, head down, hearing in his mind, the comments of the Reality Show Judge (some old star who wants to make a comeback) berating him for being a poor orphan with just hopes, going up against his classy prodigy. Someone shouts Action and the spotlight turns on him. He faces the camera and comes up with a mix of rap and soul number, with Vande Mataram, Mera Bharat Mahan and ends with Jai Hind". The audience and the other judges give him a standing ovation. While the Reality Judge reluctantly applauds him. Later this Judge tellsHero, its not easy to get voted as the winner since, smses costs money. Few days later, he becomes the winner closely beating his rich competitor.

SS "While flying abroad for a tour, terrorists take over his aeroplane. Since he is popular they want to hold him hostage to get their colleagues released. (They explain Indians might not care much for a minister's life, but will care for him since he has got the maximum votes amongst all reality stars and reality shows reflect the real India) The heroine is a flight attendant who initially pretends to hate him, but is actually his biggest fan, who is extremely rich and got a job as an airhostess, simply to meet him. Hero fights back with small help from heroine. We can have a parachute, sky diving chase scene, rescues everyone and hands the terrorists to the police.

He sings a duet with the heroine and goes to New Zealand for his concert." We can have a fast catchy number for the concert.

To avenge their colleagues arrest, terrorists plant a bomb during his concert and blast occurs at the end of the concert.  The Hero looks at the death and destruction all around him and becomes distraught. And we go for the intermission."

Gets approving nods from BBP and SORP.

SS continues "The only survivor is a small girl holding a teddy bear who has seen the terrorist who planted the bombs. She has lost her family, and the Hero decides to take care of her and sings a bubbly kids song to cheer her up since, next day is her birthday. "

"Great that will make it a wholesome family entertainer" booms BBP.

SS continues, "The heroine is actually a painter. So she paints the picture of the terrorist, after getting the description from the girl."

BBP "Excellent! Since the heroine has a role of substance, we can get any star we need."

SS,  "Hero realises he has seen this person at a hotel and goes to the hotel, just when this guy is checking out. Here we can have a Hot Car Chase. Hero catches the guy and thrashes him and makes inquiries. The guy says his Boss is hiding in the jungles of Brazil and is planning to attack India with missiles, after getting his colleagues released. If missile concept is outdated, we can have a virus with no cure."

"Hero hands over this guy to the authorities in New Zealand. But when they say their hands are tied, they can't extradiate the terrorists, he decides to take matter in his own hands and goes to Brazil, with his girlfriend and the sweet kid with the teddybear. He explains to them, he has a facebook friend in Brazil who has herself been a victim of terror and thirsting for revenge. He arrives in a nightclub and we can have an item number by a Brazilian Babe. She agrees to help him and points out a local thug who might know the location of the terrorist. After a beach brawl with knives, the Hero finds out the exact location. And makes a plan with the Brazilian Babe. The heroine gets jealous and we can have a melody number at this point, as he tries to convince her, he loves only her.

With Brazilian Babe's help he goes into the jungle. Fights crocodiles and giant snakes. Then after a high speed boat chase with water skis etc in the Amazon river, catches all the terrorists and packs them for justice in India. The heartbroken Brazilian Babe requests him to let at least the Saccharin kid stay with her. The kid too wants to stay with the aunty, so he relents with tears and promises to visit them frequently." 

Back home he gets a hero's welcome. A TV journalist explains, "One of the terrorist captured, is the 2nd Deadliest Terrorist according to USA and now USA is begging India to have access to this terrorist." A huge cheer goes up when he lands and journalists scramble for sound bytes. A female with blond hair from CNN asks in accented Hindi "You are a celebrity. Why did you take so much risks?."

He says "When I think of my motherland, Its Duty first, even if I am a Celebrity!".

And everyone claps. Even the Reality Judge who is watching the interview at home. He stands and salutes the TV screen, and we finish with our Hero, with pumped fist in the air, shouting "Jaaaaaai        Hind" We can name it The Patriot  (A celebrity with Duty)".

SS pauses. BBP is thrilled  and hugs SS with tears in his eyes, while SORP is on the phone with someone.

BBP explains "The story sounds good, but my son is not old fashioned like me. He is running it through his Tarot Card Consultant, before okaying the Project".

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Kalmadi's Top Ten

Suresh Kalmadi is outraged at the suggestion of incompetence and corruption. "CWG's not a Calamity !" shrieked Kalmadi. But he didn't get to this position without realising the importance of a backup plan. To scorn the critics, he has lined up new responses to those silly allegations. Here are the Top Ten of them.

1. Even iPhone couldn't live up to expectations. Stop having unrealistic expectations. And Jobs didn't resign, did he?

2. Even Obama has Teaching Moments. And don't forget we are a developing nation.

3. China got envious and decided to sabotage the structures by doing an underground nuclear test.

4. The new rupee symbol created a currency confusion. Don't worry every new and old rupee will accounted and tracked after a committee looks into it.

5. The structure seems unsafe, hey thats a cultural reflection of our karma philosophy, Ask Julia. And for your information, she is so inspired by us, she has agreed to the sequel "Cheat, Smirk and Pray".

6. Naxals are firing, Kashmir is burning, North East is burning, Inflation is burning a bigger hole and you want to talk about CWG and few crores? How petty and unpatriotic can you get?

7. We knew you would criticise, thats why we spent 2 crores on getting goras to say they enjoyed CWG.

8. We were advised by the police to not make it a success, since success attracts security concerns.

9. We will answer all your queries, but would you first like to savour samosas from Switzerland, just one lakh a piece.

10. Our hands were tied, we couldn't rename it KommenWealth Games and make it a success.