Teri krupa  jo mujhko mil jaye maiya, Mai sada tumhara sevak rahoonga, sada tumhara sevak rahoonga.

Mere Dil ka andhera mita dogi tow, mai sada tumhara das rahoonga, sada tumhara mai das rahoonga.

Gyan se jo bhar dogi mere mun ko, mai sada gun gaunga tumhara, sada mai gun gaunga tumhara

Hriday mey bas jaogi mere, tow bhaav se poojta rahunga sada, bhav se mai poojta rahoonga sada.

Apne Charno mey sthaan jo dogi mujhe, mai tere liye dunia ko chhod doonga, tere liye mai dunia ko chhod doonga.

Meri bhoolon ko jo tum maaf karogi, tow bure karma mai kabhi na karoonga, bure karma kabhi na karonga.

Mere jeewan path ko jo tum prakshit karogi, tow tere jaikaron se mai jaighosh karoonga, jai ghosh karoonga.

Mere Shatruon ko jo tum parajit karogi, tow mai sada teri stuti karoonga, sada teri mai stuti karoonga

Mera Dhvaj ko sada jo rakhogi ucha, Tere charno mey mera seesh hoga sada, mera seesh tere charno mey hoga sada.

Mujhko beta jo samjhogi apna, Maiya hi maiya pukaroonga sada, maiya hi maiya mai pukaroonga sada.

Teri krupa  jo mujhko mil jaye maiya, Mai sada tumhara sevak rahoonga, sada tumhara sevak rahoonga.

Yugratna Srivastav, a 13-year-old girl from Lucknow addressed the United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York on Tuesday. Yugratna’s speech was cheered on by world leaders including UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon. Yugratna tried her level best to convince the world for a change in our daily life style in order to reduce  the adverse impact on environment. The little girl laid emphasis on including environment studies in school curriculum for better understanding of our environment but how fast her bright idea will be implemented by the world education system is yet to be seen. Yugratna has shown the path and now the world has to follow it to save the mother earth from our anti environment policies. Onus not only lies with the educational system but also on parents who need to educate children about the ways and means of protecting our mother earth. Water conservation and Tree plantation need to be introduced as part of SUPW and children must be taught how to use renewable energy as a resource in our daily life. We should be proud of Yugratna and as her name suggests, she is the real gem of this era. We pray to Goddess above, to fill the minds of every child with the will and energy to protect the environment always and forever.

Our Political leaders suffer from a myth that they are suppose to essentially speak out something, however illogical it may be, when they are invited for any inaugural ceremony. Our home minister, Mr. Chidambram is no exception. During a recent ribbon cutting ceremony for a Police station, Mr. Chidambram lost his balance of mind and went up to say that Delhites must learn to behave in view of the upcoming Common Wealth Games. I am sure this is going to hurt many Delhites and one will soon find some Congress spokesperson defending Mr. Chidambram by using the common defense line ” Mr. Chidambram statement has been misinterpreted”. Just few hours back Mr. Tharoor had to apologise for his tweets and now is Mr. Chidambram hurting the sentiments of Delhites. The interesting thing which Mr. Chidambram did forget about CW games is the delays happening to the infrastructure for the games and no doubt the country may face embrassment due to such delays if  the show is bad on the opening day of CW games. I think instead of telling Delhites to learn how to behave, the Minsiters themselves should first learn how to behave to avoid embarrasment to the nation. If  the Minister knew that Delhites do not deserve for a sporting event of this magnitude, behavioural lessons should have been given to Delhites ever since Delhi was chosen for CW games. May be Mr. Chidambram has drawn his inspiration from China where a person from rural areas was not allowed to enter Beijing without prior entry permit during Olympic 2008, albeit this was never officially confirmed by China. Someone should tell Mr. Chidambram to be more wise in saying something just for the sake of opening mouth at any function or gathering. I am sure Ms. Sonia Gandhi will do this job soon.

MAITRI – 2009

A REUNION OF BATCH 1986 

Venue : Hotel Taj, Lucknow           June 6, 2009    5:30PM 

It was sheer magic right from the word go and not only because we were meeting after 23 years but also because we could connect instantly without a trace of inhibition. It was as if we all had been waiting to explode at the first available opportunity, and when we got, we all had a blast. But to make all this happen needed an advanced ignition technique and the technology was provided by Ritu Mittal. Very rightly she was given the ‘Ignition Award’ for the event. Ritu’s brainchild Maitri, the reunion event of Christ Church College Batch 1984-86, was a product of very sincere efforts by her and Mukta Ghosal. These two had been quietly planning and contacting batch-mates since last three months. The task wasn’t easy at all as all of us are scattered all over the country and even in foreign shores. A comprehensive database was created complete with phone numbers, e-mails and web URLs. However their job was made easier when the batch-mates responded with enthusiasm. And suddenly there was a sense of urgency. We all had to meet; we all just wanted to meet. June 6 was then decided as a date of meeting. Ashish Sinha, who owns an engineering company in Dubai, brought the entire event into shape by organizing and sponsoring the essential elements like venue and the menu. Apurb Anand, Sapna Sahu, Sanjiv Rathi and Mukta joined in from Delhi, Ritu from Mumbai and Ashish all the way from Dubai. All together we were thirty of us entering into forties, but having a lovely time at the reunion.  

The evening began with a formal introduction session where all of us came up to the dais and shared our lives’ experiences post 1986 separation. It was a heart warming experience to learn how well placed and happy our friends are. The careers range from U.P.S.C. and P.C.S. services including an I.A.S. topper, engineers, doctors, defense services, architect, bankers, media, education and business. It is not individual success, but success of a school, a unit of dedicated teachers and a batch of determined kids who grew up to become responsible citizens as desired by our school song. We formally sang our school song – ‘Oh Childhood’s Happy School’ and recited our school prayer – ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ with Father Vijay Rai. Ashwani Sharma sang – ‘Maitri’, a song which he wrote and composed specially for the occasion.  Ashish Sinha was up on the microphone with his lovely poems for the event. Sumita sang, ‘Ajeeb Dastan Hai Ye’ and Mukta, ‘Do Lawzon ki Hai’. Then masti took over the center-stage and there was laughter all around. To spice up the occasion there was a naughty ‘First Crush at School’ session, where we all had to vote anonymously for a person we had crush on. Person with most votes was to be awarded the Most Popular Girl and the Boy award, which was won by Mukta and shared jointly by Apurb and Yogendra.  

Most of us have changed physically. Ashwani and Sanjay Kumar have lost hair; Mukta, Samiksha and Jyoti have put on weight and Vijay, a lot of weight; and Renu seems to have frozen in time with her beautiful self. Apurva, Sharad and Saurav look the same but with some streaks of grey hair. 

Special ‘Maitri’ T-Shirts were put on by everyone for a group photo session. Then, laptops and phones were connected to the friends who could not make it to the reunion. It was nice to hear from Amrita, Priya in Mumbai and Aradhana in USA. We all thanked Priya for the delicious Reunion cake and apologised to Aradhana for waking her up so early in the morning. But we all were actually confident that she would have woken up real fresh after a long time.  

The party went on till midnight. The last hour was at its freakiest best with cute confessions, whacky jokes and salsa-dipped conversations. Love was in the air – the love for friends and friendship.  

All signed a special card and a painting as a memento for the reunion. We all plan to meet again next year in the first week of June, and subsequently year after year. And throughout the year we will remain connected through phones, e-mails and our very own website www.cccmaitri.com .

We were happy when we were in school

Getting up early and morning prayer was a rule

Tie, blazor and shiny black shoes, made us look cool

We ate icecreams and  burgers and moved in pool

Catching grass hoppers and butterflies was a bit of fun

Tree next to the Principal’s house gave us shade from the Sun

Our discussions varied from cricket to Titan

Time table cards, book labels, colorful stickers were our objects of desire

Getting too much homework resulted in our ire

Maths was easy and so was biology, Chemistry was fun and

borning history was full of chronology

We studied hard to score good marks,

But success before exams was always full of question marks.

Receiving course books at the beginning of new session,

was exciting and full of enthusiasm

Getting new school bags, new shoes was our right,

Parents followed it religiously to see us come up bright

Teachers were classified ugly , bad and good

some were soft and some were rude

Some of them controlled us through scale made of wood

But class teachers were normally good

Rainy day and childrens days made us smile

Teachers day was celebrated in style

Our affection for teachers and friends was displayed in sharing of lunch

Drinking water directly from the tap was always a fun

Dozen years in school, gave us knowledge, kindness and cool,

Albeit we must have then looked stupid and fool

New dreams, renewed vision, aspiring to be on top of the world,

We left school to face the real world!

School ke dino ki yaden mun mey sajoy, Hum aaj yahan aayen hain

Kuchh kahi, kuchh suni aur kuchh ankahi bateyen, Hum aaj dohrane aayen hain

Adhuri preet ko, bhuli huwi meet ko, phir se jagrat karne aayen hain

Kuchh Meethi kuchh khatti yadon mey khud ko bhulakar, ateet ko yaad karne aayen hain.

kuchh chhan yaad nahi, kuchh hum bhool gaye, kuchh sapne ban kar toot gayen

Tow kuchh apne ban kar bhi rooth gaye

Jo pal bitaye thay humne vidyalaya ke prangan mey, woh khushian bankar baraste hain ghar ke aangan mey

Jo seekha tha humne pathshala mey, woh aadhar bana hai jeevan ka

Bachpan mey jo ankit huwa manas patal per, woh hi aaj deep dikhata hai jeevan path per.

Kuchh lamhe jo ban gaye smriti lekhni ke phool, unko bhi vyast jeevan ne asamay murjha diya

Lekin phir barishh ki phuwaren aayin hain, un lamho ko hara bhare karne ki bari aayi hai

Aur isliye humne  aaj ki yeh milan bela sajayi hai!

“Sawan ki us ek shaam ko humne ki thi batey mithaas ki,

Aur Peepal ki chaon mey mun ki pyas bujhai thi.

Preet ke sajoy thay sapne jo, do mun ko pas laye thay,

Vishwas aur madhurta ke pankh khud hi humne lagaye thay,

In pankho per hi baith kar humne apni preet jagai hai.

Aaj phir Sawan ki shaam aayi hai,

Jeevan ke madhur chhano ko phir yad kar, hum khud hi ab sharma jate hain.

Lekin  Peepal ke komal patton ney humko lajate huwe phir kuchh yadi dilayi hai.

Kuchh khoya kuchh paya, phir bhi is rukhe sansar ka saath nibhaya ,

Apni komal bhavnaon ko hi humne prerna ka shrot banaya,

Aur khud ko hardam anurag aur preet mey sarabor paya.

Sukh dukh ka har chhan jo jiya hai saath saath, wahi hamari dharohar hai,

Aur Saath ho hamara saat janam taq, aisi kamna hai

 Isilye tow humne preet aur vishwas ka deep jalaya hai.

Asha aur umaang ka phir din aaya hai.

General elections in India has a special significance for every individual who believes in democratic form of government. This is the only time when the Political leaders try to connect with the common people and humbly fold their hands in front of the voters. This is also the time when we keep getting news about violence, leaders using abusive langauges, false promises, hate speeches, assurances of political parties to  develop the country like instant boilers heating water in our bathrooms. Amid all such frustrating happenings, there is small town in Madhya Pradesh which has a reason to celebrate not because of political issues but because 23 year old Priti Maithil, the daughter of a daily wage labourer in Sehore has ranked 92nd in the UPSC examinations. This is definitely a reason for the family and the town to cheer. This is called real transformation for the betterment. Maithli had the will and support of her family and she proved that nothing is beyond the reach of present day woman. Unfortunately all the Television channel prefer to play bollywood and Political masala news rather than transmitting this news up to so many unprivileged woman for whom Priti can be a role model. It can also give a message that we do not need political promises for our growth. It is our own hard work and willpower needed to transform ourselves for a better future. Maithil’s success has also proved that the woman from rural India which was so far been kept under social fetters is now ready to look beyond the village.Time has come for us to recognize and utilise the potential of our village folks.

As I watch Rahul Gandhi addressing a press conference in New Delhi this morning, I feel pity on Congress. Without being asked a question on black money issue, Rahul started speaking about black money. The BJP has finally got the issue which is hitting the Congress party badly and Congress leaders know this well. The issue is not whether future Indian Govt will be able to bring the money back home or not, it is the education being imparted to common man by BJP on this issue that is making the Congress nervous and sending shivers in the partyline. Congress’ nervousness is understandable because the large amount of the black money stashed in foreign bank belongs to Political leaders of parties (party?) who ruled India for majority of years after Independance. Before the advent of television screen, many of the deals between the government and other agencies have escaped from the radar of media. It is clear to everyone, young or old, that the maximum period of independent India has been ruled by Congress and hence by simple logic one can conclude that the money stashed in foreign banks has largely been deposited illegally by……. . Imagine a scenario that this black money is finally brought back to India, the government will then be forced to disclose the name of account holders and that will be disastrous for…..party. The common man has then right to lodge a criminal case against the account holders (mostly not alive) for depriving India of such a wealth for so many years. The amount of money estimated to be stashed can make 25 world class airports, can ensure education to every child, can make every individual avail best of medical facilities and also can provide safe drinking water to every citizen. So the anger is justified and has energy to wipe out even the biggest and most liked political party from the scene of Indian political spectrum. Nervousness among Congress leaders is graspable.

The great Indian Tamasha of Political circus is now at its peak. Hate speeches, challenges, self praise are all what political parties have for their road shows and it appears that all political parties are confused and have not even tried to convince the voter to vote for them. It is really surprising that the ruling party intead of informing voter about its achievement during last five years, has resorted to adopt an approach to malign BJP image. When the election campaign started congress was rated much ahead of its rival BJP  but as we pass through the crucial phase, we find more and more gains for BJP. This is also reflected in the record low muslim voter turnout. Albeit Indian muslims may have beed misfed by Congress for 60 years, the muslim voter also understands that the congress has been doing so not because it wants Muslims to grow and prosper but because congress wants to rule the country at the cost of muslim votes. The equation is simple, Majprity of non muslim voters are divided between BJP and Congress equally and the party who secures Muslim votes forms the government. Congress has been relying on this equation for long but with the slowly developing trust for BJP among muslims, the equation has now changed. BJPs involvement of muslim leaders in its think tank group has also shown some results. Muslims also recognize the strength of Indian constitution and are sure that their future is as safe as any other religion in India and no party can play with the so strong constitution. The muslims of Gujarat have seen the riots but they have also seen the growth and prosperity because Gujarat government and largely the people of Gujarat have secular fabric and this is the reason why BJP has been performing excellent in post riots Gujarat elections. Other political parties may be trying to tell the Gujarati muslims that BJP is pro Hindutva party but the Gujarati Muslims know the reality and that is why there is no muslim anger against BJP in Gujarat.

States like MP, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh have set a bench mark for growth and development and this has happened during the BJP rule and this is why speculations of BJP sweeping these states is true. The surprising results are expected to come from Uttar Pradesh because common man is observing that Mayawati is more interested in creating her own effigies rather than creating public utility infrastructure and facilities. The murder of PWD Engineer and the criminal record of majority of BSP candidates is also working negatively for BSP and its votes are shifting to Congress and BJP.  It is expected that almost two third of UP seats will be shared between the two national parties.

Nitish Kumar in Bihar has done a good job and people are appreciating this in the form of support to Nitish Kumar. The number of kidnappings that took place during RJD rule have come down drastically and the crime rate is continuously heading south in Bihar.

All the above factors are a reason for BJP to cheer as it is the main constituent of NDA. If BJP has campaigned for itself, Congress has campaigned, though indirectly, for BJP. Certainly celebration days are ahead for BJP. Credit goes to good governance promises by BJP and blame BJP culture of congress.