I am among those many people who happened to read the Chetan Bhagat Bestseller Five Point Someone years back, before the movie 3 Idiots came into picture lately. And I must congratulate Chetan for such an entertaining piece of work. The book is indeed one of it's kind and I had been a great fan of Chetan since then. I was hooked up to FPS like a bee to a hive and had finished the book over a long weekend, almost within three days. To brief the overall experience of reading the book, it was altogether a very unique genre of story telling - a graphic way of writing wherein words were simply used to create pictures in front of your eyes. That is the beauty of this IITian. I loved the book, the plot, the characters and the style by which the author had put forth the story. The story doesn't stop with mere being entertaining rather, it imparts a very serious message to the society - the drawbacks of the current education system. And that is the significant feature of this masterpiece. With all the fans this first time author has won, which is a very rare phenomenon these days, Chetan truly deserves more than just a big applause.

As a first time reader, I was very much aware of the fact that the book was soon to be molded into a Hindi film. That is exactly what was being published on the cover pages of the book. And I am happy that the movie is live and starred by one of my favorite actors Aamir Khan in the lead role. I happened to watch the movie this weekend and this was when I felt like commenting over the fuss that has been gaining bandwidth in air and space in the newspaper columns. For a while, I have been reading the reactions of the supporters and the critics who have watched the movie but not read the book, read the book but yet to watch the movie and the ones who had watched the movie and read the book as well.

As a result, prejudices and mixed opinions were engulfing me before I was about to watch the movie. Given that the movie was made by some reputed director and was enacted by one of the most successful movie stars who believed in quality work, I expected it to be a good piece of work. To my dismay, it stood below all my expectations. Although, the film was successful in collecting huge money all over the country, that really doesn't gain much significance in my opinion esp. when I think and compare it to the original creation of the author - his book. I really do not want to get into the dirty politics being used by the film makers of the movie to promote and sell the movie. That is something that the Bollywood folks are best at. The movie at times gives us a good chance to stretch our lips - all credits to the father of the original wits, the author himself. On the other hand, the innovation that the film makers have tried to push within the movie makes it nothing better than pathetic. Their creativity fails with their silly attempts to feature a baby delivery scene in an obscene way. That is where Bollywood sucks at. It really hurts when they say that the movie is loosely inspired from the book when the primary concept, the jokes and the message was used from the book.

I am forced to accept that the entire episode and disregard duly hurts the writer community at a broader level. I can feel the disgust when Chetan wrote on his blog 'Imagine someone takes your child, dresses him up and tells the world it is theirs'. As far as Aamir's comment on this issue is concerned, I disagree to it too. When the author said that he felt neglected, it just meant that he merely expected his well deserved recognition; popularity ain't the destiny of the talent. You are indeed a great actor and so be it and your fans really do not need your comments on this issue.

Authors and script writers have always been one of the driving forces behind great cinemas and plays. The entire episode was an outburst of the front stage players overriding the back stage inspiration. Come on Bollywood, you need to learn to play a gentleman now.

I always thought that there were two kinds of Dalits – the first ones who thanked the noble soul of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on 14th day of April for bestowing them a holiday filled with processions, liquor and street dances. Whereas, the second category has always been pondering at their pitiful social statuses and wondering what under the sun made this man so famous and great. Even after more than sixty years of Independence, the plight of a common Dalit living in the slums of the nation seems to be the same.

Caste-ism has always been deeply rooted into the veins of the Indian culture which is something that I hate to be proud of. In a society where last names are only meant to identify the sect, sub-castes and creed of a person, how can we really expect a change to happen in terms of social and economical upliftment of the poor? Slums have always been looked upon as the vote banks by the modern political leaders. It is sad but true that it is easy to lure them by enacting a pretentious savior or throwing away unforeseen promises. It hurts to see a significant number of followers to the leaders and political parties that are trying to categorize the citizens based on the language they speak. Their malicious and undemocratic division of the nation will only ruin the ethics and the cultural heritage of our country. In this course, the simple yet powerful teachings of Bharatratna Dr. Ambedkar often go unheard.

He was a born ‘dalit’ – that is how he was tagged when he made his entrance to this wicked world. Things were never as they look like today. It was hard to breathe a life of an untouchable – to affix a broom behind your waist and wipe off your footprints on the village streets, to not have the right to fill or drink water from the common well and to feel ashamed of oneself when a non-Dalit abused you after your accidental touch. The rights to education and to choose a profession of your choice were the options that a Dalit of that time wouldn’t dare to dream of. Ambedkar never wanted to be a leader in the true sense but yes he was a struggler. During his lifetime, he was humiliated every single day and I reckon, that must be his source of inspiration to fight against the society and get educated to such a great level. He was a thinker who strongly believed that man is the creator of his own destiny. All his life he tried hard to inculcate this ideology into the minds of the downtrodden sections of the society. Society is a no person and neither is the government. Every person has to fight his own battle to survive and excel. He was a man with exceptional abilities, immense confidence and a strong willpower. But to the deprived society, he was a messenger in the true sense.

A majority of the young non-Dalit population of modern India thinks that Dr. Ambedkar was all about creating unjust reservations in the constitution of India and that he is up to a certain extent, responsible for stretching the unjust practice of Caste-ism. I must recite that such thoughts are a result of shallow thinking and a narrow outlook towards our much broader society. A society with equal opportunities is never built in a day. When one feels that he lost his hard earned seat of an Engineering or Medical college to a less deserved Dalit candidate, he is just not covering the entire picture. It is just that he never owned a stake in the seat secured by the Dalit candidate. Colleges are mere representatives of our society. And when they are representatives, they represent the population. It is a hard fact that several Dalits are not even aware of something called as reservation. Many a times, reserved seats are helplessly allotted to a general candidate due to lack of eligible candidate from the reserved category. This shows nothing but the grim level of awareness among the masses.

In the world of today, to regard that every Dalit is poor would not be wise. There are handfuls that have progressed to a considerable level. But the progress is just not enough with regards to the huge Dalit population. Given that zillions of them are battling for their daily bread and butter, it is very hard to imagine them actually coming up and availing the benefits of reservation. Things were never easy and would never be; struggling and working towards self appraisal is the only way out. Ambedkar had a very clear motive towards generating reservations. These are no tools but mere means for the social upliftment of the long deprived Dalit population.

Today, the nation is celebrating 119th birth anniversary of one of the greatest gems of our country, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. No matter, his teachings will keep on inspiring many generations to come. I feel sad to see huge hoardings of Dr. Ambedkar conjoined with the local political leaders all around the city streets. In his pretext, they will continue to dance with joy and bliss. Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations will gain a true meaning only if a common Dalit really understands what this great soul really had to say.

A chorus of young kids singing our national anthem woke me up this morning. It didn't take much time out of my early moments of the day for me to realize that it was the republic day flag hoisting being performed out a few yards from my bedroom window. The 26th of January and 15th of August are the two days that are pretty close to me. They remind me of my novice days as one of the school going lads standing in a queue on the school playground in neat, pressed white uniforms waiting for the chocolates to be distributed. India is our country and all Indians are our brothers and sisters were what we pledged immediately after our school prayer. We said it and we did it all for the sake of a mandate. Today, after a long unexpected midnight support call from the client, all that matters is that it is a holiday. The Republic day has always gifted us - with sweets to the kids and a lazy holiday for working professionals, hasn't it? Sad and true.

More than six decades after independence, seems to be an ample time in the life of young India. Lives have changed and continue to change. Our schedules are busier in the attempts to sustain our own self. This is the time when things are getting real difficult and the situation is getting only worse with the passage of time. The lessons of fraternity and brotherhood have been long forgotten into the pages of the history of the freedom struggle. In a time when it is difficult to protect our own families from getting scattered, how easy is it to think about the country?

Patriotism has gained a new meaning and a newer way of expression. It is exhibited by swaying tricolor flags on the vehicles and motor bikes on the republic and independence days, which is over a day getting replaced by the flags of political parties. It is all about hoisting, saluting and wearing the paper-made tricolor on the national days and later disposing it off recklessly among the other bits of paper. It is about bearing the inconvenience of terrorist attacks on our cities, feeling and seeing the blood of our neighbors spilled around and hoping that things will be fine the next day. It is about watching the political scandals over the news channels and taking it for granted as politics. It is about finding it worthless to cast our votes on the Election Day. It is about considering it as a part of process to bribe the government official in order to get a timely delivery of your marriage certificate. It is about finding it a nuisance to stand up for the national anthem after buying an expensive multiplex movie ticket for the flick you were long trying to catch up with. It is about singing the national song without really understanding the meaning of it.

Today we are celebrating the 61st Republic Day of India, the day when India wrote and implemented its constitution. It is time we ask a small question to ourselves as to what significance it really has had within our lives. In this age where the creamy layered are more passionate about foreign citizenships, whereas the poor is endlessly battling and blaming the circumstances, is it fine to say that we are truly republic?