Setu's Blog

A painful realization dawned on me recently: I may not be able to exercise my right to vote, for the foreseeable future. That is the life of expats who attempt to make a life in a country different from where they are born. I have spent most of my life in India; I grew up in India, I grew as a person in India. The person I am today is because of everything I saw, learnt, read, heard and observed growing up.  India instilled in me the importance of individual values, taught me that humanity is the most important religion and being considerate to our fellow human beings is the most honest act of worship. My experience of India was mostly academic, filled with idealism, honesty, freedom, optimism and respect. To me, India was synonymous with freedom and liberty. The largest democracy in the world succeeding in its effort to bring together people from different regions, religions, languages, castes and cultures. A melting pot of diversity, color, festivals, and most of all, people...

The world has changed over the last 5 years. The world today feels more polarized and divided, than it has in recent history. There are deep-seated divisions in our society, which come to the fore every day in the form of resentment, biases, abuse and hatred. But in the race to form, express and defend opinions, we have forgotten the importance of something integral that helps us form opinions: Facts. "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."         - Daniel Patrick Moynihan Facts do not belong to a political party, a social position, a religious group or a country. Facts are universal, substantiated, proven with evidence, and grounded in truth. Quite simply, facts are the truth. We do not have to agree on our beliefs and opinions, but we must ascribe to the same facts. Facts form one of the tentpoles of a society. While our scientific and industrial prowess separates us from other living organisms...

Until a couple of years ago, my short temper was one of my biggest regrets and an understood weakness. A lot of times when I got angry over a difference of opinion, my mother would share with me a metaphor: "When the 5 fingers on our hands are different, why do we expect others in the world to be just like us?" That, or the daily recitation of the Indian National Pledge in school that reminded me how India's diversity is its strength and pride, instilled in me the value of every person's individuality, and the respect for the same. For quite a while now, I have seen people (and Indians in particular) struggle with their identities. Especially since a single opinion you have can come to define your identity among a group of people. Support a particular political outfit, and you get branded with a name that is supposed to be an insult. Support a particular idea, and the you will be labelled with an associated leader and interrogated about their mistakes. A lot of th...

It is amusing to me how more often than not, we are more invested in the future than the present. We keep thinking about the what next, planning ahead, measuring our steps today and working steadily towards that well-defined goal. We carve out a path in our head and we try to stick to it, avoid deviating from it. Eventually, we get there. We achieve what we strove for. But, somewhere between that journey, there's this sweet spot when all the pieces fall into place and the vision that kept you captivated is within an arm's reach with no hurdle in between. And that is a beautiful feeling. The last few days have been such for me and the goals I had set for myself a couple of years back, now seem right here. It is an understated, subdued emotion of happiness and serenity. The bearing of fruit of months and years of hard-work and systematic, planned efforts, coupled with the excitement of the life that lays ahead. I keep going back to the past, and realize how it all falls into...

I have respected the need for 'Freedom of Speech' ever since I first understood what it meant, sometime during a Civics class in school. It is the necessity for a society to grow. Ideas and opinions need to flow from one side of the table to the other. As a proponent of free speech, this freedom is something I take very personally and seriously. But, today, almost 18 months after one of the most hallmark decisions taken by the Indian electorate, I wonder if such a freedom exists anymore. It does exist in the Constitution, technically, but on the ground? I'm skeptical. A democracy like ours is very complex for me to explain, but a few things that I believe are underlying to the very fabric of our country are the need for rules and laws that are common to everybody. That all people, all religions, all languages must be treated equally. Yes, the Constitution of India doesn't recognize a national religion or national language. Hinduism isn't the national religion...

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. and no good thing ever dies. I don't remember how many times and to how many people I've recited these lines, in the 6+ years since I watched 'The Shawshank Redemption' for the first time. And yet, much as I keep convincing people to believe in these words, I sometimes find it hard to trust in them for myself, shaking in the belief about the sanctity of these words. For longer than I can remember, I had been certain about my life and the way it'd go on. I knew what was going on, and where I wanted to see it, for whatever time-frame was asked of me. And then, 6 months back, things changed drastically, dramatically. All throughout these 6 months, up until the last few weeks when I found some peace of mind and stability, I had been wondering what is it that kept me going. What is it, that even after the tables had turned, made me want to believe in a better tomorrow than the yesterday? And each time, there was a si...

I can't explain my lack of ability to write anything in more than 3 months. But, I can say that me blaming it on the unavailability of my laptop, or my studies, was just an excuse. You wake up one fine day, and realize that it has all fallen apart. Everything that could've possibly gone wrong, has. And then, by the end of the day, you're shocked to see that it could've and did get worse. But, it just does happen that way. More often than not. It's tough to come to terms with what happens to you. Even tougher to act as if it's just a passing phase and things will be fine. Being in a similar situation in the last few months, gave me a chance to assess myself and what I've been going through. There's just one word to express it: fear. We struggle. Everyday, in everything, all the time. And in all that, the only thing that holds us back, is fear. We begin faltering at simple things, and the devil miniature hovering behind ...

Disclaimer: This post is about adolescents. Others, don't judge us. The phase of being in your teens, in this 21st century, is not easy. I repeat, not easy. With being surrounded by a whole lot of things, and having to balance yourself with each one of them, you tend to screw yourself up. Well, almost... In the whole ball-game, life begins to feel pretty messed up. A few things, if not all, go haywire, hit bottoms. Relationships seem to be dwindling quick. Friends fade out and new friends replace them. Acquaintances, the term, finally surfaces. And all through, you are just trying to figure out who you are and why do some of your close pals say 'You were different'. Most of this, happens when you go to a new college, a new city, or both. Most of this, happens because we feel compelled to be like those we are around. Seniors, classmates, roommates, batchmates. In that whole phase, we seem to forget who we actually were and tend to become someone we never have bee...

It's been over a month in Pune as I begin to write this post. Didn't expect it to be so long till I would write any post since my last, but well, life's like that... You can't predict what happens with you, what will happen and things keep happening... They do, always. So, coming to the point, 'attachments'... I don't know if it's just me or everyone, but, this very word reminds me of a simple thing, e-mail attachments. Just as the purpose of sending an e-mail which is supposed to have an attachment, is not justified if it is not attached, is it the same with life if we are not around those people, things and places that we are attached to? It's a complicated thought. Also, not something you can talk about just like that without actually knowing what it all stands for. Relationships are attachments. Addictions are attachments. People are attachments. Hangout places are attachments. Homes are attachments. In short, we are surrounded by our attachme...

Every now and then, I face a situation myself, or am told one by some of my friend, about the words, sentences, events, happenings which hurt us as people, in general. Rude behaviour, anger, misunderstandings, obstinence, being few of the reasons why it happens. Well, all I say to myself in the end is, 'This is life...' Truly. Beautifully. You'd ask what's so beautiful about being hurt, I assume. I say, that's just as the half-full half-empty glass theory. Simply said, perception changes a thing from positive to negative and vice versa. We learn from everything, and sometimes we fail to realize that. Everytime we pass through some such moment when we felt hurt, it, for every reason, gets registered in our sub-concious that we shouldn't do that again or be the one to hurt someone else in the same way, again, depending on what shoes we wear in that situation. As humans, it is natural to be hurt, bruised, scarred, and then, healed. It's healing that...

Disclaimer: This post is purely a substance of my personal opinion. By this, I don't mean to hurt the sentiments of the republic of India or the person regarded as the Father of The Nation, Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. If anyone would be offended by reading anything that goes against the nation and its principles, even if it's pointing the flaws so that we, the next generation could live in a better India, you would rather not read it hereon, that would be my sincere request to you, as the blogger. Peace. No hard feelings. Sitting on the stage, looking out at the crowd and people gathered around him, he rises and speaks. "I'm on a fast unto death, from now on, till my demands are met." Around 79 years ago, M. K. Gandhi, a political prisoner, changed the way protests were held in this country, India, chiefly dominated by politics and the so-called people's movements... He then rose in this battle, while serving a jail term on political grounds for the eq...

Well... This isn't your usual look-back to the year that you usually read in the newspaper columns... This one's different, pretty different, because here, I want to emphasize on those 12 events of the year, which left an effect on me. Drastic one too, probably. Those events from which I learned, from which I changed, from which, the world learned, from which, the world changed. On to it then... January, 2010 Haiti, 2010 It was a usual evening in Haiti, and one of the worst earthquakes of human history hit this small nation of the Caribbean Islands. Most of us out here in India, don't even know where it is (confession: even I didn't till it began making the headlines)... Probably not a big thing. Probably just your usual earthquake which Indonesia and Japan face every once in a while. But for me, this has one specific importance. The whole of America came together to support this neighbour of theirs. In a world where people of neighbouring coun...

Oh well, well. When you probably begin reading this, you would be of the idea, 'What the hell does he think he is writing on? That too on the world wide web?' Brave! Let me tell you, the first thing, I don't know (I know that's usual that I don't know why I write what I write, even regular readers of my blog may know that) why. It was just something I was thinking about the other night, and I realized, it would be better to just write it down, put it up on the blog, and have everyone to decide what their stand is... So, here it goes... Generation gap. One of the most disputed, and legit topics. Who doesn't know about it or hasn't seen it? Everyone of us can surely point out the difference... Can see why somethings are done differently... So that's that. But, I always, always (not a typo) fail to understand the reason why people would have difference of opinions just because of the difference in the age group... I am just going to point out a few re...