Last week’s Oil Workers Strike has not only been one of the many harrowing experiences in an average Indian’s life but it has also given all of us a morbid glimpse of the possibility of a future without fuel.

While my dad was scouting the neighborhood petrol pumps for a refuel, I sat at home wondering, what if we hadn’t gone to the mall the weekend before, to waste all those hours doing nothing but plain window-shopping. We could have spent same amount of time at home doing something worthwhile and more importantly, saved those couple of litres of fuel.

Why is it that man regrets his actions only after he suffers the consequences even though many a time he is aware of the outcome. Luckily my regret was soon doused by the joy brought to me by the fact that the strike ended the next day.

This was just a temporary crisis. But what will happen when we are faced with the bigger crisis, the oil depletion crisis. Predictions state that oil reserves will never be depleted, but that is only after taking into account the rise in usage of alternative sources of energy and the possibility of finding new ‘future’ fuels.

So the question is – Is India capable of developing alternative/non-conventional sources of energy to such an extent that our dependence on oil becomes negligible?

It would be a great to know your opinions and ideas on the issue.

It is very easy to put yourself in your comfortable bathroom slippers and tell yourself “I cannot make a difference” or “I do not matter”. I did think the same way until yesterday. I happened to land up in a Israel-Palestine conflict talk, about how the youth can actually make a difference in the world. Trust me, this wasn’t planned because I am the first person to back out of anything to do with protesting or taking a stand in a war, and also the fact that Arab political problems do not bother me. I actually went there for socializing!

It was going out to be a half an hour discussion. But eventually turned out to be a 2 hour hardtalk. All I can recall is the angry youngster, who I thought was insane, yelling at everybody and trying to make a point. (Turns out that he speaks on Al-Jazeera very often!). And also that I did not understand the half the conversation. But the one thing I learnt at the end of it was that if us, educated youth from different countries, do not stand up for human rights or try to protest or make a difference, no one will. At the end of the day, our voice will not be lost in the noise around us. It will be heard and will matter! But that’s if we go together. One person will fail drastically, if he doesn’t have hundred’s by him to support the cause. United we stand, divided we fall makes a lot of sense to me here.

Dear Readers

The following is a news article that focuses on the poor treatment of our freedom fighters, published by the Press Trust of India:

Freedom fighter lives life of neglect and penury

Ruby Nanda
New Delhi, Aug 24 (PTI)

She is a freedom fighter who is fighting another battle — the battle for survival.

Laxmi Panda of Orissa’s Koraput district, who joined the Indian National Army in Burma and fought against the British, is caught in abject poverty and had to work as a maid servant, a shop attendant and a daily labourer.

Panda (84) was here last week to air her grievances before President Pratibha Patil who assured her all possible support from the government.

The freedom fighter has been abandoned by her son and also by the government. She has been running from pillar to post for her freedom fighter pension.

The state government recognises Laxmi as a freedom fighter and gives a paltry pension of Rs 1,000. But the Centre has denied Panda, who fought alongside stalwarts like Captain Laxmi Sehgal, the status of freedom fighter just because she was not arrested by the British.

“Had she been arrested by the British and got a police record, she could have got a pension of Rs 15,000 per month, enough to sustain herself,” says Anil Dhir, a researcher on INA.

Till recently, the octogenarian was sharing a hut with her “drunkard” son who threw her out, leaving her homeless. Once Panda had decided to end her life by immolating herself wrapped in the national flag.

But a positive response by the President, Prime Minister’s Office and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has enthused the frail lady to live on, said Dhir, who is instrumental in tracking her down.

(Click here to view original page)

Disgusting, shameful, disgraceful and shocking. It is often said that India’s youth is not as patriotic as a few generations ago. But who is to blame: the youth itself, or the government that neglects those who put their lives on the line for the country?

Yours Ludicrously

Hey folks! Have you heard about what happened to that poor kid? No dude, it was rajkumar who raped her and then killed her… “Like what the hell, they were drunk?!”

Aarushi Talwar

These maybe the reactions from your friends and relatives when you jobless TV addicts were sitting in front of the screens thinking you knew the Aarushi murder case better than the CBI and were the next recruitment of Scotland Yard because your version of the story was the most convincing.

What is disappointing, is not the fact that you, a common man, were making your assumptions. But what is frustrating is the very fact that you became a part of it. Continue Reading ->

It’s almost clichéd the pictures we see everyday on news channels and newspapers. Pictures of bomb sites,pictures of dying men in  hospitals…pictures of failed efforts by the law enforcement agencies in finding those responsible for these terrible acts of  cowardice. We are accustomed to seeing people dying.It happens everywhere…New York,London,Tel-Aviv,Madrid,Mumbai..Every major city in the world has been bombed by terrorists.We seem to think that we are immune to these attacks…we seem to think that there’s some protective blanket around us that will keep us safe.I dont think so…every person is threatened.We need to wake up and fight about this global threat,leaving this in the hands of politicians is not a wise decision.

The pictures I saw on  a news channel of the recent bomb blasts in  Bangalore and Ahmedabad terrified me.Law enforcement agencies in India are incompetent and corrupt to the lowest level.Terrorists escape scott free,plan another attack and the whole blame game starts again.

It saddens me that such lackadaisical,incompetent and corrupt people have been entrusted with the job of securing the country and making it a safe place for the citizens to live in.A radical and quick change is needed.The people responsible for these cowardly acts need to be treated with nary a mercy.An eye for an eye will get the criminals blind….