The Good The Bad and The Ugly !

The Good The Bad and The Ugly !

The Good:-

I was barely 12 when I first witnessed eve teasing, the subject being my own cousin(I have more than 12 of them !). Gallant, as I was back then, I chased those rats down to their holes, created a havoc, caused some public embarrassment not only for them but for their families too. For them, a burly 12 twelve year old fighting back with tears dripping down his cheeks and squeaky voice was astounding. As influencing and sympathizing as an honest and innocent protest could be, I was able to sway their own family members in my favor, although the guys didn't got beaten up, I could see them wary of that possibility, All this drama didn't last more than a few minutes, but those were my minutes of glory. Back home I was hailed for being a hero, my cousin who spent hours crying over the incident came running when she saw me crying apprehensive of me got beaten up by those foul creatures ! I enjoyed some very delicious and expensive chocolates that evening. So far so good.

The Bad:-

Six years later, I was traveling in a bus and like most of the buses it too was crowded. May be that was one of the bad days I had, maybe I had a bad and inciting company(having said that, I have nobody to blame but myself !), may be it was the festive frenzy getting better of me, may be the girl standing beside me was too beautiful to ignore, but surely that was the day I humiliated myself, only to realize later the severity of what I had done. Some of you would understand how difficult is it to put into words one's own humiliation. To my defense I would have said such groping and touching is commonplace, but now I realize that such things become commonplace when good people like me(Yeah I do believe I am a good man !) falter in our rarest moment of weakness. The ugly is yet to come !!!

The Ugly:-

I was raving furiously when I got hold of the guy who sent a lewd sms to another cousin of mine. He had company and I was cautious of that, but being a hunk of a guy has its advantages and I would have turned violent but something snapped. Some say anger and grief are twins, I couldn't differentiate between the two, as the memories of the bus incident came rushing, I saw the line between the molester and the protector diminishing. I let his friends intervene, let them go with just a warning.

Conclusion:-

I have been following the recent events closely. Now that I have given a lot of thought to this, I believe that all of us have been corrupt once in a while, all of us have been gross, all of us have faltered some time or the other(kudos to those who haven't !!!) but that doesn't mean that we are all devils. If we could find a way to repent and confess, there is still hope. Please do not take it for a blunt and brazen act of garnering some support for those who have been heinous. As a matter of fact I suppose none of us should be impune of these little sins of ours. But more important is the fact that we should help ourselves and others not falling prey for  the second time or for that matter of fact, even for the first time, we protest against something wrong, help those who we ourselves victimized once and let the good inside us prevail over the bad and the ugly.

My Frisky Abode!

Characters and Hot-Spots at I Top

A brief sketch of my wing and wingies.

Unlike pleasant languor or the iconic sloth that surrounds the man himself, Raghav's place serves to be the epicentre of all jocund cackle radiating outwards to rather remote and inarticulate corners of our wing, occupied by seemingly studious and frustrated to the limits of nymphomaniacs, CSE guys, with the only source of commotion for those parts being Gargi's early morning chortles of glee on watching BBT which served as excellent alarms waking me up for morning walks last summers. Rattling on the way, very dignified as compared to the rest of the wing, mainly due to some feminine presence, tech savvy and gadget furbished, I suppose it would be foolish to call it just a room, Zade Software Labs. Despite all it's ferocity, this noise meets impudence passing through the rooms or should I say territories of Punjabi duo of our wing living right opposite to each other, overwhelming with music composed in extremist ridden parts of Punjab and the sole intent of such music could be torturous vengeance against all Non-Punjabis for all those jokes on Punjabis. Echoes of such message of hate trembling lover-spot turned double room of the wing with its only inhabitant making it a place of frequent tryst after long library hours. And the last hotspot of our wing being the extended robo-club where lives the recently blown out of proportions Ayush running after his day's quota of productive work while all around him indulge themselves in counterproductive activities.

Vijaydashmi'12

At the core of all earthly pursuits, a man is looking for a soul kindred to his own.

Despite of me staying back in the campus this Dussehra, the true spirit of the festival thrives in me, and the savior this time around being food instead of the usual, much cherished and should I say well deserved, given that I being an IITian spend most of my days in "testosterone charged and estrogen starved campus", pleasure of ogling girls. Although some awesome company of Shwet Kumar did play it's part but I would not do myself justice writing about anything else when the only thing I focused on all day was appeasing my first of many to come, 9 days long, and culminating with a Nirjala Upvas on Navmi and  sumptuous cuisines on Dussehra, hunger due to fasting.

If you  have already begun wondering over the stark contrast of the title and content presented uptill now, the tittle is the only possible explanation I could come up with, while I saw Ravaan burning down to ashes with all the heat from exploding fireworks driving away momentously the infant winter chill that hung around, for the pertinent quest that Ram underwent for Sita. And the realization struck me that we being lesser mortals unlike Ram should make at-least a valid effort to connect, with our pursuit being not only to hold on to love we share with old friends and family but also to make new ones specially amongst those around us who end up being on the fringes separating friends with acquaintances. And that I suppose is the true spirit of Dussehra.

Today may have been the day to mark an end of the Dussehra celebrations as I know them to be, and I sorely miss those late night bike rides on congested Jabalpur city roads with people swarming around Devi Idols even as late as 2am, Remix Bhajans being played on loud speakers, delicacies prepared with more piety than hygiene served at pandals, the Kheer that Mom conjures for Aasthmi Pooja, Punjabi Dussehra and all fireworks on display there, and last but not the least the sight of girls dressed in elegant traditional costumes, giggling around looking ever so charming.  But, I do understand that the spirit of Dussehra lives and frolics with new made friends, junky CCD food and lame Ravaan Dahan at Nankari.


Amit Kumar Koshta
AM 02:45
25-10-12