R.I.P. Loitam Richard

This incident happened a few weeks ago; on 18^th April to be precise. Richard Loitam, a second-semester engineering student of the Acharya NRV School of Architecture died in his bed after a brawl with a couple of hostel mates. To be frank, people have died in fights before too. Male species are born hot-headed and a human body have many vulnerable parts. It’s very easy to kill someone.

So to be honest, what shocked me wasn’t the dead of Richard Loitam but the way the school authority treated us North-East people as expendables. The turn of events that happened after his dead was inexcusable. They downright accused the boy to be drug abused and claimed he died due to a head injury in an accident that happened 3 days before. It was all absurd (and later the forensic report also proved them completely wrong!) But worse of all, they didn’t even charged the two men who bashed his head!

Richard was not only a good son, he happened to be a talented boy who loved to play sports. His photos were over the internet showing him taking part in various extra-curricular activities during High School like playing music, dancing traditional style... It was absolutely demeaning to try and tarnish his image by saying he was a drug user. The school authority tried to stereotype the NE. It boiled my blood.

 What rights do they have to treat the parents who lost a young son to such torture? It was really insulting and unjust. A few days later, this news spread like wild fire. A fire ignited by a young Manipuri lady Monika Khangembam who felt very strongly about the incident. She posted in Facebook about the whole situation. A lot of people who doesn’t even had a clue who Richard was, saw the updates and now feel the pain and injustice of the whole situation.  In just a day, the Facebook page  “Justice for Loitam Richard” got about 5000 members. The movement just begun!

 A supposedly relative of Richard posted a highly disturbing blood stained corpse of Loitam at the page.  The picture showed a heavily swollen head with bruises all over.  It was quite evident that poor Richard bled to death.

When i first saw that horrible pic, i nearly vomited and felt immense anger! I guess it invoked a reaction to everyone else too ‘coz that was when a chain reaction started. The member of the page reached 1lakh overnight and kept on increasing steadily. As of right now there are 2,11,352 members with angry opinions and arguments about racism.

On 29th April there was a sit in protest at Town Hall, Bangalore. Thousands of people from all walks of life came to attend the Solidarity meeting. At the same time there was also sit in protest at Manipur, Delhi and Gwalior. The media picked up the story. Debate about how North-East Indian people are often discriminated and how unwelcomed they felt were highlighted in many News channel.

I have seen this kinda movement for Justice only on TV and movies. However this time it was real. Lotsa supports came from people all over India. Manipuri people finally united in this one big campaign. The case was given high priority and the government finally put pressure to the investigation. On 2^nd May it was reported that the two students who killed Richard are being booked and will hopefully be arrested & punished once the full Forensic report comes. The college suffered a very bad name. Charges against the management could be filed too.

The fight is half over. Now all those sneaky bastards know that crime have consequences. Richard Loitam didn’t die in vain. Somehow his dead showed that there is still humanity left on Earth. And we will continue to fight for his justice!! You can now R.I.P. brother.

Here’s my short poem dedicating to Loitam Richard:

They hurt me today, Mom.

And the night is getting cold.

The wall screamed my pain.

And now I lay all alone.

Wish you were here, Dad.

I miss you real bad.

I wish to hear your voice

And see you both once more.

Let me close my eyes.

Let me rest a while.

Little did he knew,

He’ll never wake up alive.

Beautiful Full Moon - SuperMoon

From the place where I lay right now, I can see the moon beaming down at me through the open window. I can’t close my eyes and sleep. I can’t ignore. I just had to gaze at the magnificent beauty on display for all humanity to see.

Yesterday was Supermoon, they say. Close proximity of Moon to Earth. And today’s a Full Moon. That explains why it’s more handsome tonight.

It is giant and proud and reminds me of things that once was. This same Moon was there shining it’s calm light when i was born. It will still shine when i lay dying. It also reminds me how short our life is. And how beautiful it can be. It must have witnessed the starting of civilization. It will also witness the end of it.

Just look at it standing all alone. No visible clouds. No visible stars. Its glow dimmed everything nearby. It must be so lonely!

It’s 3:00am on a Monday and here i lie fascinated and touched. My feelings in turmoil at the emptiness it felt inside. Though i know not what i craved and i know not what the future holds. All i know for certain tonight is that The Moon inspired me. I’m in love with it :)

Spring

Spring is here and my sun has risen
The darkness in my heart surpassed alright
The wind and the flowers
All colors and warms.
The darkness of the winter has now been calmed.
Little thoughts became clear
And my mind sings along
Happy to dance as the roses bloomed some more
Cheerful faces with kind smile attached
The world rejoiced as beauty took it's place
Spring is here and i still sing
I'll sing till the butterflies goes to sleep.


-Gracy

The Fair

“STOP THIS THING RIGHT NOW!!” , dad shouted below towards the operator who stood there watching us with a grin, showing all his teeth.

Me, my younger sister and dad were in an Indian fair a.k.a Mela riding a copter type thingy that spin round and round in a very loud noise, high up the air.

It was my first time to a fair and I was very excited and happy. My eyes scanned everything, all the colors and weird people and tricks. It was a wonderful treat.

Being a child, it was very easy to forget that I was in a totally different mood a few hours back. The thing was, our Nanny left us. She was getting married soon and so that day we had a farewell party inviting everyone we know for lunch.

I cried a lot when we parted. She was like a sister, a friend and a second mother to me. She had been staying at our house since I was a little baby. Now I was a tall girl of 4^th std. Yet I cant help but cry at the unfairness of all. For all i know, she left us.

So while I was all broken and sad, Dad decided to rescue me and took us to the fair.

Back to 15 min prior to the scene where dad was shouting:

It so happened that I wanted to try out the various rides. And so dad carried us inside this mock train/copter type thing? He consoled us that nothing will happen. He said we will enjoy it.

The ride begun with lotsa sounds of cracking metal. The thing looked like it will break apart any second.

After about 3 high speed spins I was feeling nausea, my sis was almost in tears and dad was screaming! I guess the thick head who're operating the buttons have seen way too many drama. They didn't even bother to look concerned. I peeped through the window and saw one of them laughing at us.

I stared at my dad open mouthed. I have never seen my fearless dad lose his cool before. And so to my young undeveloped mind, the sanity of my Dad was the issue here. It looked like we were about to lose him any moment.

He banged at the metal wall and shouted at them to stop the wild ride.I find myself shouting too. Seeing me, my sister shouted too. Three of us screamed our lungs out. And that my friend was pure thrill. Can't get any more real than that. Haha. And yes, they stopped.

Dad puked once he reached ground and later shouted at them some more too. I guess that made him felt better.

Once we know he was alright, we started to laugh. We told everyone about it when we reached home. We made fun of him.

It was only after i grew up that i realized the implication of his action. He was afraid of heights. He has motion sickness so he never travel by bus too. Yet that day he climbed those stairs only for us. He wanted his daughters to experience something natural which could make us happy. He didn't think about his fears. He could have easily ignored it and we wont have complained much. Or he could have just let us take the ride by ourselves. But he knew we will be scared and so he was there to hold our hands. It was a very selfless act. It is a different story that he panicked later.. ahaha.

A Long bus ride Alone

My bus stopped at a Dhaba by the road. All passengers started to get down.

“Do you know where the bathroom is?”, a girl stranger asked me in a hushed tone . And that started a friendship. :D

Travelling alone for a girl is always uncomfortable for many. But i don’t mind. I can watch the beautiful sceneries and daydream the whole journey.

Also, i don’t get motion sickness like most people. So again travelling by bus is fun. If you’re going by flight or train, you don’t get to see the real view of the places you’re passing through. Trust me!

Assam : source Google

I was on my way to Silchar starting from Dibrugarh. At that moment i was feeling a bit cheated. I was tricked into believing by a certain friend that the bus ride will take only 8 hours from Guwahati. But no! The traffic jammed big time on the narrow twisted road to Shillong and it took forever to cross Meghalaya.

My cell phone battery died since i was on the road for more than 24 hours (bad dying battery). Everyone in that bus was male..old man, young man, teenage boys. Except me and this girl. And i’m thankful for the company. 

The sky was filling up with a strong wind and grey clouds, making it so dark and beautiful. Small droplets of rain splattered on the window pane giving an aroma of water all around. I loved that smell. 

So i sat there staring at the nature and i was glad i had someone to talk about how pretty it looked. She was a medical student from Dibrugarh and was going to Shillong to write an exam. She was funny and witty and we instantly clicked. (Well, that’s not entirely true. We both hunt for a decent toilet for almost 15min together, and that’s how we clicked :p  ) We talked as if we were childhood friends meeting after a long time.

She was also travelling alone and that made me like her by default. I prefer ladies who are independent and fearless. We shared our stories while the rain splattered some more creating more traffic jams and another rumor of landslides. 

Travelling around the hills of northeast was never advised by my parents. There’s always a chance of landslide and getting stuck. So, I didn’t tell them that i was going such a long way. I took leave from work and headed off backpacking. It was a small journey for me, a small adventure nevertheless. 

Source : Google :)

The views were mind blowing. I had this close to nature experience when i saw this blue bolt of lightning striking the green field in the horizon.

But my friendship with her was short-lived. She got down at Shillong and we didn’t even exchange numbers. And i travelled all alone from then on occupying double the bus seat all to myself.

 That night i saw a big moon. The next day was “Supermoon” which was why i was going to meet a friend. We wanted to stare at the moon together in this historic event and also play holi.
Supermoon. Remember that word? It was supposed to have the biggest view of the moon. I tried to click some picture from my non-SLR digital camera and it came out like this. But sadly, this time i got no one beside me to share its beauty. 

Supermoon snake : The camera shake while the bus moved. hehehe

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This post is for Indiblogger 's Expedia Contest. I enjoyed sharing my experience.Travel more with Expedia by visiting  http://www.expedia.co.in/ \m/

Math equals Writing

Mathematics and writing stories are almost the same. That’s what i learnt in the last few weeks of typing this garbage of mine. Math deals with numbers while writing deals with letters and punctuations. Before you labelled me crazy read my explanation.

You see a mathematical problem. You think you can solve it. But you can never know for sure unless you start scribbling down the numbers and solved it one line at a time. Writing a story is the same. You see an idea. But you can never know how it will turn out unless you produce the word one line at a time.

You need to let the story develop. The characters started having a life of their own. And you feel like you are just a medium for them to come out to this world. Or maybe that was only me while writing “The Tale of the Lady in Black”. And you must be thinking i’m acting all high and mighty by just writing one short story. Well if you are thinking that then F U ! :P

And now, please allow me to bore you more.

Well today’s the end of Feb. And with it end my promise to blog everyday in my last month's post “Boring Garbage's History (with dates)”. I did it! Can’t believe it!! but i really wrote everyday for more than a month. And the funny part is, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I learned a lot of new things, made many new amazing blogger friends. I actually felt like i'm a writer. I know I know, blogging can't be called a serious writing but it was an approach on being a writer. A small step. Nevertheless a step right?

I also noticed that every artist needs motivation. Be it from your mom, dad, sister, lover, friend or in my case the commentators of my blog. I feel encouraged whenever someone commented something cool, something good. I feel a new sense of energy and there was times when i even jumped and laughed like manaic. Hehe. I guess.. We all have a little bit of hunger for appreciations. Call me needy, I'm like this.

So i dedicate this post to all the sweet people who managed to survive my garbage inspite of the stench! :P

29^th Feb. This leap year day will be remembered for more than one reason. :D

This ends a short journey

rambling mind of mine

I don’t know what to write today. Should i write about the salary day? A day which always managed to bring at least a small smile in everyone’s face.

 Or should i write about how i am feeling? since today’s my last day for my past one-and-half year long project? Tomoro i will be a new person with new challenges and new colleagues.

Or should i write about the auto strike they had in Bangalore today? which made me pay twice the amount to an auto driver..  making me realised that life without an auto is so dark.

Or should i stretched on how i have not being listening to any mp3 since the past four months?

Well.. i guess i’m not in the mood for any of that. So i will be rambling my thoughts in poems.

This mood of mine

Being a woman is plight

It still confused my life

Why my thoughts jump out of time?

Swing, swing.. my mood plays with mind

Dreaming is fine.. Dreams kept me alive....

Tarots

One of my friend at facebook whom i’ve also known since childhood became a Tarot Card reader! How the fuck did that happen?! And when? (hope she won’t read this post while keeping busy with her magic wand)

 I saw her updating post about tarot stuffs and thought it was a joke. Then she started posting that she is giving a course on tarot cards with real fees (6.5K a month). Handing out emails to send her any queries and charging consulting fees. And i thought damn girl, how did u become an artist!

I’m baffled! People still need a medium to see what is right in front of their eyes. The card say “you’re a very sentimental person who doesn’t show others that you feel lonely” and you’re sold! (i’m just kidding, i don’t know how they’re being sold)

But the point is, i find this very funny! Even i read love stories for my friends through playing cards and most of the time they told me it’s true. Does that mean i got a power? (crap! should have charged consultant fees)

You see everything in this world is hidden except OUR MIND. Well, even your mind is not completely open. Gays denying they are gays and stuffs like that. Some people don’t know what they are or what they really want. And your perspective can do so much as to grasp what little you can and try to understand what it all means.

Like whether she really love you? (you’ll never know for sure) Whether you will become rich? (you may die tomoro too) and all other small silly things which is not so silly to you.

 These are secrets that you will never find out. Hence tarot card, astrology, numerology and all this medium become useful to help the uncertainties! Those desperatos who can’t bear the mystery of the universe turn to them for answers.

I hope my friend get rich with her tarots. Its bullshit but the world needs it. Enough said, now i got to go and consult her about the date when i might be publishing my first book! :D