Discovering Life

How many of us actually go to an election rally to listen to what our candidate wants to say? Well, I don’t think many of us see this as a mandatory or an important event from an attendance point of view. Basically, if we look at it, it appears to be one of the most crucial platforms for a political party to address millions of voters in one go. The irony is that in many cases, the majority of the crowd needs to be artificially created by giving out free transport, meals and even money so that the attendance appears all swollen up. There are statistics on the number of rallies attended or conducted by the star campaigners showcasing their footprint before the campaigning phase ends.  Frankly speaking, the campaigns have not succeeded in creating interest among the common man or a woman to attend with all excitement. By now everyone knows each parties’ tricks and manipulation in statements. While one political party is termed as pro-rich, the other is termed to be pro-poor o...

The last few weeks have been quite encouraging as well as tormenting at the same time. On one hand, there have been thousands of young students taking over the streets to protest against the citizenship amendment bill and on the other hand, they have been beaten, harassed and killed for speaking up their minds. Freedom of speech and expression appears to have taken a beating. A peaceful protest goes through the scrutiny by the policemen. They wait with tear gases and lathis and of course the rifles and other ammunition to ward off the protesters. So, a protester has to be mindful of all that can harm oneself physically and mentally. Young student protesters in Delhi braved the biting cold this winter season which was the lowest in the last 118 years. They sang the national anthem at India Gate in the chilling weather during the last hours of 2019 when the whole world was celebrating the New Year’s Eve.  These protesters do not have any vested interests. They only want the...