An Addition to the Gol Gappa...

...to make it even tastier. So, what's the addition? Well, me - Chaitanya Gupta - a terribly lazy person; never expect me to be punctual. Thanks to Shri Chandra & Deepak, you now get to enjoy the ramblings of this wicked soul. I have to say, choosing "GOL GAPPA" for the blog title was pure genius. It describes so many things so well - our lives, our world, the way we it, and, of course, this blog. Kudos to the founders. Keep up the good work guys.

THE IDEA OF INDIA.. an article

This is an article I wrote for the college magazine but unfortunately my dear seniors lost this article in a bagful of lose pages.. I was really upset when this didnt make it to the mag.. but hey! Blogger's to the rescue again..

The Idea Of India


Miles of manuscripts, thousands of articles and hundreds of books have sought to explore and describe a nation that transcends boundaries in virtually every respect. A nation, blessed with nature’s bounties, huge manpower and a heritage that is an epic in itself. Yes, India is a land of dreams and dreamers. A land that was once exalted as ‘The Golden Bird’ in the Medieval era. It has been a source of inspiration for several writers, poets and artists who’ve tried in their own inimitable styles to portray and immortalize the soul of India. Its only pertinent here to mention that the way India has sustained its secular image and preserved its traditions through centuries of turmoil, indeed is a matter of great pride for its one billion strong population. Of late India has witnessed a tremendous rise in its economy and its prowess in the IT sector is acknowledged world-wide. India has undergone a digital transformation if I can say so, in the past decade and a half. It has emerged as one of the leading nations in the world and is getting the much due attention. On the whole India is prospering and growing at break-neck speed. It is finally stamping its authority and rightly so. This is not a dream that India is living in but then you may just put it that way because it is nothing short of a dream.



Not so very far away from this land of dreams, irony is waiting to smack us right in the face. A family still waits in inexpressible desperation to see a semblance of food, clothes and water. Poverty shatters this great Indian dream. There are people who have to walk miles for that lone drop of water so that they can quench their long parched throats with just a bit of that liquid, whose name they try in vain to remember. Its true you would have heard this story ad nauseam but its also true apathy has just become a way of life for all of us. I do not spare myself on this account because I realize that the buck is only going to be passed till we forget these lines and till some one again brings it up. I’ve in more ways than one, accepted the futility of the situation like most of you. “Is desh ka kuch nahin ho sakta” is one of the more often heard excuses. It would not be wrong to say that hypocrisy is as rampant as ever. And the dirty game of Indian polity only adds fuel to the already raging fire. India has had great leaders and their great ideologies to follow. It has gifted the world personalities like Mahatmi Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, just to name a few who’ll forever illuminate the history of Indian politics. Its saddening to see that in spite of their noble ideologies and their wisdom, we’ve time and again failed to capitalize and give life to their ideas, which remain forever confined to the yellow, frail pages of books long forgotten. Poverty, illiteracy, water, clothing still remain the sole topics on which elections can supposedly be won as they’ve been since independence. Diabolical and manipulative politicians ensure that they accumulate the votes by hook or by crook and return to power pompously. All this and more when they should be formulating policies to take the nation forward. They even murder communal harmony if it hinders their votes from getting to the ballot-boxes. What a shame this is for all of us Indians, even as a hundred articles before this that might have advocated and voiced the same cause.



When we fight against our fellow Indians, India bleeds and cries but we only pretend to be deaf and that is the best we can do. I know each and every Indian govt. till date has promised the moon and only ended up in the ignominy of doing, well, almost next to nothing. What we need today is that young leaders with noble intentions in their hearts to take up the cudgels on the behalf of all those who would prefer to work behind the scenes. There’s got to be a start somewhere to restructure a gangrenous system that is only biding its time before the ultimate collapse takes place. We the youth of this nation have all the power and the resources at our disposal. We have the latest technology and the media to carry out our revolution. Instead of wasting this technology, we should be channelising it towards the betterment of the society. We have aids that none of our predecessors ever thought of possessing one day and that is our greatest power.



Through websites, through cell phones, through various other media, we can educate people. Governments in states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are taking the technology to the rural level, and example that is being emulated world-wide. If we can not take a specific campaign to each and every house in India through the word of mouth, we can campaign online. If only the youth of this great nation can be inspired and has the will to inspire can a change be brought about. A change that’s been much publicized and written about, but no one seems to have to have the slightest of hints where to begin from. The students throughout colleges and schools in India can utilize whatever extra time they get exploring India and how they can contribute in projecting India has a force to reckon with to the world. I know you would be ridiculing me for the fact that its all very easy say and write but its not so easily done. Well, you could call me a mind reader then, but yes its not going to be easy. It’s a hope that has to be kept alive till the time we do not rubbish it as impossible. The opening can only be decided through a consensus and in unison. Fellow Indians and the future leaders of this country, its time and this is the hour of truth. Do you have the courage of standing up and be counted? I sincerely hope the answer is yes. This article has no ending in actuality because the IDEA OF INDIA is a never ending process of discovering the very essence of understanding of India and its people.
A couple of lines, that inspired me to write this, which are with reference to the very understanding of India – “ Born to privilege, you can’t, born in a humble home you must!”

THE OPENING POST.. THE GOL GAPPA!

I wrote and then I deleted the whole line exactly 9 times before arriving on a perfectly apt opening post. A flamboyant title was what I proposed, unfortunately Shri Chandra deposed rather indifferently. He wanted some thing much more earthy; much more, well, closer to earth. We mulled some really fatuous and amusing choices- I went to the extent of suggesting ‘raison d’être’- discussions took place in sessions of 2 hours each over two days. It seemed as if our decision or rather indecision would have far-reaching consequences, potent enough to cause international turmoil or so we thought. So we couldn’t let the matter rest just like that. And then genius struck. Shri Chandra whipped out a magic wand and let loose one of his quips, that luckily I took seriously. It was a funny situation and both of us broke into girlish giggles, only this time there were two grown gentlemen at it. And thus, ‘GOL GAPPA’ a metaphor for our ideologies, was born! Yes, quite remarkably we had agreed on a common ideology! Let us explain ourselves please—Deepak Gauri is a precocious young man who dreams and dreams and has never bothered to act. Shri Jayant Chandra on the contrary is a very real person, rooted firmly to the ground. Shri Chandra as I call him here is a venerable senior and a guardian angel literally. While walking down the mile long road from college to hostel we hit upon the idea of this blog. Both our individual blogs weren’t exactly buzzing with activity. An unsolicited inertia had settled in and I in particular was finding it difficult to breathe. So that sudden stroke of thought sparked off this whole idea and are we glad or what! GOL GAPPA is actually the way we look at the world. An oddly shaped hollow shell at first, is broken from the top and different ingredients forced into it until they are indistinguishable. Those very disparate ingredients coalesce to create a world of their own, unlike any. Furthermore, a GOL GAPPA never tastes the same at two different places. The taste and the style of preparation are endemic and thus change from region to region, just like people, languages and cultures do. Therefore, there couldn’t be a better motif for a blog that has set out to do just that. There are millions of blogs on the internet and blogging in India is only just trickling down. Different people have different purposes for blogging, some do it for business, others just for the kicks of it and still others who dream like me! We as a team would like to veer away from what’s already said and done. Did I hear you say some thing? What! Everything’s already been said and done? Is that so? Think again!