India is cribbing over the attacks on its students in Australia sipping over the Fosters – Australian for beer. As mentioned in my previous article our memory quotient is high until one religion sets in that’s cricket, just wait for a couple of days till the 20-20 world cup starts, then the attacks is history, the boy whose body in yet to be found in the sewage waters is history, I want to stop my article right here, as we are history. But the only thirst in me to carry on is to unmask the fallacy of our culture – The Racist Lot.

Ok, here it goes when people kill in the name of religion (Babri Masjid – the Kerala Church massacre – Ayodhya issue, arrange marriages among their own castes (Sub-castes), murder people for falling in the sacred knot of love with people of our sects of the society, terming girls as prostitutes for entering into pubs as highlighted in our recent pub attacks, the northies calling all their foreign brothers down south Madrasies, Raj Tackrey glorifying Maharashtrian culture in the name of culling the Bihari Babus, but we must all stand tall together to fight against some other country but when there is such vivid diversity in unity. What a fucking joke!

Ask yourself what are you? A hindu (Iyer, Gowda, Pundith, Brahmin, Lingayath…………………) A Muslim (Sunni, Shiya………) sorry again as I have lost count, but else are you a Tamilian, a Kanndiga, a Mallu or whatever. Or should I call you the common man – A Indian, A Pakisthani, An Australian or an American beauty. Or can I call the basic human being?

We as Indians can start opposing the Australian Government by the stop of using their products, in return they would send back our students, then we could blame them for beating up our students then they could blame us for raping their daughters in Goa. The only common aspect that I can derive out of this situation for that one person to be held guilty is the Human Being( ask yourself who is the stranger in the mirror you talk to each morning – I believe it’s all the drink with the devil – The Satan’s child).

When you sleep tonight into the soul of the above lines, I doubt if you have a soft pillow to sleep. Be it in your cozy homes, the 5 star suites, the people in the slums or the people on the roads. So, are we a racist lot? What a fucking joke!

          Here comes the cricket series Our Politicians, Pakistan, Taliban, The Rajus, and the Indian Common Man are looking forward to, as here comes the time when the Indian Common Man is at his best – at his forgetful best. This is the time when India’s Interim Budget by Our cherished Finance Minister  takes a back seat, Taliban marrying Pakistan takes a back seat, The Rajus eating away 8k cr. takes a back seat, the magazines, the newspapers, the media take a back seat to watch if Rahul Dravid will score a century in New Zealand? Lets bamboo him if he does not – Oh God, this is of great national importance, I know, huh.

This is what the world wants to see, this is what India has portrayed, the world wants to see India through the eyes of the Slum Dog Millionaire and The White Tiger but not through India 2020, they are seeing it the way we are showing it.

Tell me do you remember the death toll of our people in the Mumbai Bomb blasts?

Do you remember the amount of money lost by the investors in the Raju’s scam?

Do you remember the Mangalore pub attacks show casing our culture?

Do you remember?

But I realize all of the above are inconsequential for the Indian Common Man, that’s the reason I am uploading the schedule for the India tour of New Zealand which is of great national importance.

Will Rahul Dravid score a century? Even if he does – will you remember?

India tour of New Zealand

February 2009
Wed 25 19:00 local, 06:00 GMT	1st T20I – New Zealand v India AMI Stadium, Christchurch
Fri 27 19:00 local, 06:00 GMT	2nd T20I – New Zealand v India Westpac Stadium, Wellington Originally scheduled for March 6, 2009
March 2009
Tue 3 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	1st ODI – New Zealand v India McLean Park, Napier Originally scheduled for March 8, 2009
Fri 6 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	2nd ODI – New Zealand v India Westpac Stadium, Wellington Originally schedule for March 17, 2009
Sun 8 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	3rd ODI – New Zealand v India AMI Stadium, Christchurch Originally scheduled for March 20, 2009
Wed 11 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	4th ODI – New Zealand v India Seddon Park, Hamilton
Sat 14 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	5th ODI – New Zealand v India Eden Park, Auckland
Wed 18 – Sun 22 11:00 local, 22:00 GMT	1st Test – New Zealand v India Seddon Park, Hamilton Originally scheduled for March 26-30, 2009
Thu 26 – Mon 30 10:30 local, 21:30 GMT	2nd Test – New Zealand v India McLean Park, Napier
April 2009
Fri 3 – Tue 7 10:30 local, 21:30 GMT	3rd Test – New Zealand v India Basin Reserve, Wellington

         On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Bangalore station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind… Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprised to see the phrase “appraisal letter” on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body’s neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer. I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead guy!My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed…. My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying “no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death” As a fellow worker in the same industry, I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.

            While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the employee’s name in the appraisal letter; hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy’s name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name. It was me who was dead there. While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind splash! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, “wake up man? Come to the meeting room, I have your appraisal letter ready”.

           The biggest asset to mankind is man himself. Which other resource in the world will think of utilizing the best of its own resource with the help of available resources to create markets for a new resource? That’s human resource for you! Man gambles with nature for its necessity to survive the rat race, which makes few things stand apart. That’s when you enter the world of availability to necessity .If you look around, the state of matter, which is difficult to obtain, always attracts the evil inside you, which slowly rejuvenates luxury to necessity, creating a niche market for a product, in my language of marketing. If there isn’t a demand for a product, create one! And then came a product termed marijuana, which again is offered to man by nature itself, to take what he had snatched from it to increase his count in the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind called life.

            Life in the species of Homo sapiens has different meanings to different minds. But there are people like Nikil who like to believe that they have a mind which brings out the best in them, where he can doesn’t see but observe life on a broader horizon, which he proclaims to be psychedelic state of mind. I did meet a man from that world, the psychedelic world; He was this fun loving, easygoing, jovial personality. I was new to the city wanting to sell myself, that’s what Nikil always told me, if you can’t sell yourself in an interview how would you make a good sales man? Yes, I had come to the city in search of butter, as I wanted more than bread.

            I can never forget that evening when Nikil and I planned to have a drink, as we could know each other better. He told me to wait for an hour. In the meantime he told me make some mango milkshake and pick up a few beers. Then finally he called me in, he had decorated his room with posters of lord Ganesh and Shiv having voracious colors around them. All Nikil said “Get stoned”. I had not read anything termed stoned even in the tabloids. Quite puzzled I said, “Excuse me”, he just smiled and took out a packet, which I couldn’t see in the gloomy room, which looked gloomier under the dim lava lamps. He then crushed something the way my security guard did when he used to crush his tobacco before stapling it below his lips. Nikil empted a cigarette and mixed the green stuff and the tobacco in a rolling paper. And then he said “my Eiffel tower is done” He told me to light it, I was scared, as I had a very conservative upbringing, and had always heard that ganja as they used to call it in my native, was dangerous. Then that night he got a phone call, after which he was quite tensed, he said no coke tonight. Marshall the drug peddler had missed his flight. He spontaneously got up and looked under his bedding; he almost had tears of joy and screamed out aloud “am off to white castle”. Then he said go get the shaving kit, he ripped apart a couple of blades, in the process it cut his hand and started to bleed, but that hardly went noticed, “Push it in slowly”! He chuckled, entering the dark encapsulated pulp that slowly engulfed his blood stream numbing his knee caps and tripping his benevolence to glory. We need to score more, I laughed and said we have already won the cricket match, on the barter basis he mocked at me that scoring is the local term used to obtain euphoria in the common man’s world, and it just meant he needed more of it. He said am not addicted to coke, as that’s for the rich, affluent class and my pocket money is not sufficient enough. But I think I am addicted to green, that’s because it’s so easily available. I questioned don’t the police do anything about it? They do bust them sometimes but its back like a phoenix.

            Now the heaven as termed by Nikil, our room was vacuumed in smoke, I asked him how he is feeling, he said he was lost; he took out his personal kit which was the Pandora’s Box to me. His eyes were red as blood, and he said let me put in some eye drops, as they might clear them and then popped in a pill as well. I asked Nikil-lets have dinner? He said ok and put on his shoes and questioned me again “Where were we supposed to go?” I said hey man, it’s for dinner, he said he was stoned and his short term memory was retarded for the moment. We then went out for dinner at this Chinese restaurant that was pretty close by; alas they had closed down by then. I said it’s just luck; maybe the lines in our hands don’t run on this route. He said don’t ever bet your future on the lines in your hands as people with no hands have a future as well. I used to always feel, he used to come out with ideas that were so unique and logical that even practicality couldn’t question, I asked him how he gets money for all this. I manage with the money I get, that’s not money management; it’s just that I stopped crying for shoes until I saw a man with no feet. He said the show must go on. The wind might change the dunes in the desert but not the desert. I did feel he knows a lot of things that were alien to me. Maybe I forgot the only constant in life called change.

           A week later was the best day of my life. I had cleared my interview, I picked up a wine bottle and went home, his joy grew beyond no bounds, he hugged me and said “So finally sold, I said finally stoned, and just giggled. The next evening I came home and noticed that for the whole of last week Nikil hardly went out of his room, his room looked completely messed up and all that mattered to him was who will score for him, he had made arrangements for that as well. Every couple of days a Nigerian man named Marshall would visit him and hand over his nectar. I asked Nikil, why you don’t just limit yourself you are going overboard. That’s the day he wept in my arms and said I sold my kidney that was the moment which shot every particle of dust that engulfed the room. I scolded him to have crossed his limits. I shouted at him, why didn’t you tell me? Nikil said I just needed money for survival, that’s when I realized that he had lost his race of life, in the quest of paradox that went unnoticed .He couldn’t stand erect as the drugs over the years had taken a toll on his body eating away his bone marrow. I did take him to the doctor the next day; I was puzzled to see Nikil, that dogmatic university topper failing in life. He told me to go to office, as I had not made a single sale in that week. That evening when I returned, I met Marshall on the stairs, I said don’t come back ever, you are killing him, he just left in silence. I rushed to his room, where he sat smoking a cigarette; I said what’s wrong with you? He said I can be invincible, I have some good news and bad news for you, and what would u like to hear? Taking a deep breath I said, bad, he said; I have lung cancer. My eyes were wet but smiled and hugged him and said, everything will be fine but I couldn’t control myself anymore, I burst out into tears, don’t you want to know the good news, he asked, after a minute of silence he said “I FINALLY QUIT” but I bet it’s too late now. He said I need a favor from you, I am a common man in this world, but make me a promise, whenever you write a story, it will be on my life, the good, bad and the especially the ugly. A month later Nikil was stoned forever. Let’s all remember there will be an eternal voice that will want you to quit and you will make it now, it’s now or never. I can never forget Nikil, but in management a vital human resource, lets wake up and rise, we are in the best age of technology, then why go back to the world so called stone age. Life is a journey and the experiences that mould us into people whom we are. Let us score knowledge for a better trip tomorrow. Have a happy and safe trip in the journey of mind so that it makes a better place for you and for me.