an evening in sonmarg

Memory of an evening..



Sonmarg,2010.



I had sat down



by a lonely shepherd



in the lush pastures



of sonmarg



under the shadow of



the Thajwas glacier.



He did not say much.



However , i still remember all he said..





It is beautiful..this valley,my home.But it is not easy to live here.



We fight with the elements,it is a tough ride all the way to summer.



And our children,they suffer for there is no school for them ,no college,



no education...our life is uncertain for there is no peace here.



Our home,this valley..we love it..
it has beauty but it has no peace.
What is beauty without peace?
We do not know if our children would live
to see the coming season
or will be stolen away by all the forces here.To face
each day...we do not know how we face one day
after the other..his voice broke shattering
the silence in to a million pieces..
Terrorism and counter terrorism..i understood.
Courage
That night the moon was full and i have probably never
seen anything more beautiful then moonlight in Sonmarg.
Was there peace...i do not recall if i slept that night...

solitary cell and freedom

This is a remnant of my visit to Port Blair..

An encounter with the cellular jail...

To come face to face with a shared past ...so harsh...so inhuman.

Of a hostile climate...a demoniac jailer and the brave men who were

incarcerated there,not criminals...freedom fighters.

men of principles and ideals...one in particular..

Mahavir Singh Lahore Conspiracy Case ( 1929-1930)
Born 16th September 1908, Shahpur, Tahala- Etah, U.P.,s/o Kunwar Devi Singh.

Was a student D.A.V. College, Kanpur. Joined H.S.R.A.

Drove the car by which Bhagat Singhand Rajguru escaped.

After gunning down Saunders. Arrested in the summer of 1929.

Sentenced to transportation to life. Deported to the Andamans.

Participated in the first hunger strike and fell victim to the brutal force feeding process.

He died 17th May 1933.

He went on a hunger strike.He was force fed.He resisted and lost his life.

To step into that very cell,to face all that those men had given up so that

India could be free..

Courage.

after so many years i picked up my courage to pick up my brush again!

Who are the Fukushima 50?

This is a true story. This is not my story but perhaps mine to tell. This is the story of fifty brave men... "The Fukushima 50" are fifty Japanese nuclear workers, among them retirees, who volunteered to stay behind at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant to prevent a nuclear meltdown and prevent a global catastrophe after their country was rocked by two natural disasters; an earthquake and a tsunami.Before the crisis, they were seen as ordinary nuclear plant workers with normal careers, but their selflessness and love for their families, nation, and the world motivated them to risk their lives and lifelong health to save Japan and possibly the entire Pacific region. These are fathers, brothers, uncles, and neighbors. One woman said on Twitter that her 59-year-old father volunteered to help out at the nuclear site after working for an electric company for four decades and is six months away from retiring. He told his daughter, "The future of the nuclear plant depends on how we resolve this crisis. I feel it's my mission to help." Many hail them as heroes and see them as the modern embodiment of Japan's old Samurai caste. The Samurai were expected to sacrifice everything for the sake of their mission or lord, even if it meant dying in the process. Ignoring the threat of death, the Samurai would rush into battle, and in the same way, the Fukushima 50 rushed to volunteer and stay behind to avert catastrophe, even if it meant a slow and painful death from radiation poisoning. On one hand, the 50, who have since been joined by 150 others, are all that's right in the world, true symbols of selflessness and sacrifice for the greater good. On the other, they're also sad reminders of the horror Japan's recent tsunami wrought—five of the men are already presumed dead, and others have said they're certain the radiation will kill them eventually. The men's brief messages home have been chilling in their beautiful simplicity and frankness: "Please continue to live well," one of the 50 wrote in an e-mail to his wife. "I cannot come home for a while." Courage!

Eco-logical ....essentially.

This is a true story. This is not my story but perhaps mine to tell. This is about two young people... committed to cause and motivated from within. How ever they said that it was not about them but other people who are are even more so.. Before the story...a statement. A statement of fact. As recently as the early 1980′s, there were approximately 40 million vultures in India, comprised of nine species. Now there are only 60,000 of these important scavengers left.The most effective cause is the use of a banned drug Diclofenac. In the course of treatment, if the cattle dies, and the vultures scavenge on these, it leads to the dehydration, visceral gout, and kidney failure in vultures within a few days. Experimentally it is established that even if less than 1% carcasses contains diclofenac, it can lead to such a drastic decline. The grim picture is that over 10% of the carcasses have prevalence of diclofenac. Captive breeding efforts are in progress, the last hope of saving these birds from extinction. But do we know and do we care? And do we care enough? We may not but there are people who do. So these two people gave up the comforts of home and ease of big city and travelled all the way to the inner regions of rajasthan. Leaving the bed at the crack of dawn ,observing, taking inventories and after a long back breaking day of covering miles filling up endless stream of entering and organizing data. learning about real life...they said it was how people live ...tough lives. If we have one earth and we don't care enough to preserve it and protect all that is ours.....what do we live for...they said. Courage.

Even Eagles Need A Push Movie

UNICEF India - Real lives - UNICEF supports teenaged tsunami survivor to bring smiles on children’s faces

UNICEF India - Real lives - UNICEF supports teenaged tsunami survivor to bring smiles on children’s faces

The girl who grew up to fly.

This is a true story.

This is not my story but mine , perhaps, to tell.

This is about this young woman pilot...who said that it was not about her

but about being part of a team...who said it was about people...

real people who were suffering who were stranded ..

and who deserved to get home.

Libya,2011,strife and trouble and common people caught into the crossfire.

Women and children stranded in the middle of nowhere with not a hope of

getting home.

This is about the glimmer of hope brought to those in distress by this

young woman pilot and similarly minded team of pilots and aircrew

who flew a remarkably long distance to bring them back home.

Rescue Operations for Indians from Libya were continuing and till now

about nine thousands people been brought to India from Libya.

Special flights are being provided from Tripoli,Sebha and from also

Tunisia to bring Indians to their native.Hundreds of peoples came via Dubai .

Chartered flights also been provided from Tunisia to recover the Indians.

The Operation which is known as "Operation Safe Homecoming" began

to evacuate the Indians from Libya.Its been in news that many Indians

are also trying to escape by road to Egypt ,those people been helped by

the Indians official to stay in Cairo and booked flights for them to come

home safely.

The Kingfisher Airlines decided to provide Air crafts to bring people to India.

As this young woman pilot said...

it was about the first smile the rescued children smiled..

Courage!

The story of Ray

This is a true story. This is not my story but perhaps mine to tell. The land of the rising sun and cherry blossoms, an island surrounded by waves , waves that wander waves that sing , waves that we know , and sometimes not, the force they are , the joy they bring. Common people /ordinary lives....The daily grind of the daily lives,the life and the world as we know. An ordinary day in the life of the ordinary joe.. The men and women going about the business of their daily lives. The men living the daily business of work ,fathers and grandfathers taking care of their families,engineers ,carpenters,electricians ,taking care of their work. here in the very heart of MINAMISANRIKU lives and works the good doctor, dedicated to his profession,devoted to his duty. Every day he went to work on the fifth floor of the hospital.. every night he returned home to his wife who was expecting a child. The women,giving ,caring,making life go on.The good doctor and his wife planned for a future full of joy and happiness. For their home was ready to ring with the cries and the laughter of their yet to be born child and their life waiting to be fulfilled. Because that is what a child is , happiness ,joy..life itself. Existing in world of wonder...dreaming. However if yesterday is good,it is not necessary that today will be better. Anything can happen today. Disaster can strike any hour and scream death and destruction. death from the core of the earth ,the core that clashed and crashed and moved ad built up in a terrible wild movement...It happened on Friday, March 11. A massive earthquake hit the north east of Japan causing a powerful tsunami. A huge 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan in Tokyo at 05.46 am on Friday morning. The huge earthquake shook Japan, unleashing a powerful tsunami that sent ships crashing into the shore and carried cars through the streets of coastal towns. Officials said that the waves from the tsunami were a high as 10m (33ft). The earthquake has destroyed Tokyo's Disneyland car park and caused severe fires in the surrounding area, including one at an oil refinery. The number of people killed continued rising.There were aftershocks shaking the area since the quake hit that morning, including one tremor in particular that was felt in Beijing: almost 1,500 miles away from the epicentre. And the toll continued to rise. Doctor Takeshi Kano was working when the building was hit by a wave which reached the fourth floor.despite the imminent birth of his child ,he stayed there treating the tsunami victims .Meanwhile the devastation remained on rampage claiming lives.. From the ashes of burnt houses ...from the rubble of fallen down cities there rose a strong prayer...it swept through the land. Dr kano worked relentlessly on the fifth floor of the hospital,while the wild killing waves ...they kicked a storm even at the fourth floor...equally relentless. All the time wondering if his wife was alive and well, was his about to be born baby safe.. Tsunami roared on oblivious to the turmoil within..claiming innumerable lives. Yet the indomitable human will...to survive..against all odds. Courage lies in the fact that he worked all through for the good of the people ...selflessly. Naming his baby Ray because a newborn baby brings hope...