Hindu. Muslim. Dalit. Brahmin. Sunni. Shia. Protestant. Orthodox. Caste. Religion. Language. Come on, we all squeeze ourselves in the same compartment, every morning and evening, braving the rush hour and sweat, while fretting about everything wet. We travel on the same road, every day; there is no way one can distinguish a Hindu from a Muslim in that massive traffic jam. A Tiwari (Ouch!) motor-mans the 7.04 Karjat fast? Refuse to board, will ya? A Patil drives me to the nearest railway station every morning and evening; I pay the full fare :-) In times of accidents and crisis, we don’t have a quota system to allocate more money for dead and injured basis caste and religion (why do have quotas for jobs, even now?!) A Hindu pays Rs.200 for a kg tur dal, and so do Christians, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs etc. At times, we occupy the table at a favourite joint, that might have been previously occupied by someone from another religion, caste and gender; was it a Khan who made Sharmas favourite Dal Makhani on their wedding anniversary? What’s the caste and religion of farmers who nurture the grains that we consume, every day? What was the religion of the “heart throb” on your most recent flight? All of us, cutting across religion, have families. We pay for electricity bills; none less than the other. Attend school. Have Monday morning blues without reservations. Struggle to make ends meet. Celebrate. Marry. Have children. Remain single. Flirt. Love. HUMAN. We all pay obeisance to an almighty in our own ways. We Believe in Faith. 300 years ago, a handful divided us, and manipulated generations. Grow up. School gaye ho na? Scored low in History? No problem. What about Civics?

A 5-year-old girl brutally abused in New Delhi, the capital of India. Yet another incident in a city, the epicentre of a (self-proclaimed!) wannabe world-power, that headlines about a growing GDP, stable Government, Mars missions, bullet trains and cries hoarse for a nomination on the United Nations Security Council! Governments come. Governments go. If the city - residence to the President of India, one (supposedly) popular Indian Prime Minister and Forbes-renowned women in power and opposition - witnesses such gruesome crimes without any fear of law, then what happens elsewhere in the country, is simply unimaginable! We are celebrating Navratri at the moment, where we worship the almighty Goddess Mother, an incarnation of "Shakti". One sincerely hopes and prays that those in power and opposition realize that the FUTURE of this country, especially the girl child, needs much more than a mere selfie-with-daughter and annual women's day celebrations; we need to nurture the future on streets and inside Homes that are safe and secure. Where uncle, "bhaiya" and Daddy, Shield. Not force the FUTURE to yield.

Snapkart and Flipdeal, could you please add tur dal and all other varieties of dal under a new, flamboyant and amazon “pulse racing” section? Affirmative? Then, could you also include an EMI option per kilo, if possible? In the interim, yeh Diwali, Dal waali; na khaoonga, na khaane doonga.

Buoyed by repeat announcements of a Metro connecting Bombay and Thane, I promise my 6-year-old niece that I will take her for a ride the day the Metro is inaugurated, which, by experience, is most likely to coincide with her 25th birthday. She asks, why not earlier? I relent in response to her repeated questioning, and take her to the location where the “Bhoomipujan” was scheduled to take place last year, but was rescheduled to some time, next year. She isn’t overjoyed, and asks, what if the Metro isn’t ready for the inaugural ride on her 25th birthday? Hey, we also see a brand new multi-storey slum settlement in and around the location where the “Bhoomipujan” was to take place; what’s more, the settlement has a temple, too (Mandir wahin banayenge, remember?!) Banners of upcoming high-rises adorn the skyline nearby, advertising “1 BHK at a starting price of Rs.1 crore ONLY (!)”. Thankfully, it’s evening, and I show her the stars; drawing inspiration from those who made the (proposed) Metro announcement, I console my niece: “beta, Mat ro, if not the Metro, at least the girders will be in place”. By the way, Kahin door jab tur (dal) mil jaye, praan jaaye aur bacha na jaye!

Vajpayee's stature and statesmanship. Singh's intellect. Shastri's honesty. Nehru's Vision. Maulana's roar. Vallabhbhai's iron fist. Bhagatsingh's patriotism. Ambedkar's dream. Bose's courage. Gandhi's revolution. Jee nahin, these days, it's about "Shaitani" ruler and "Devil" Opposition; leaders with grace and dignity in language and conduct are legendary! Iska Bi har OR Uska Bi har, koi bhi ho, hoti sirf hamari haar! By the way, say na, if the littérateurs of Sahitya Akademi wouldn't have done the Kasuri of returning their honors, then Bombay would've saved face from spilling ink? What brand of ink did you use? Huh? Daag Acche Hain? Yes? Aur Din?

6.31 pm. Kalyan Fast. General compartment. Midst the rush, a father and mother board the train with their kid of about 2 months. They shelter and protect the child from the rush of urban folk headed somewhere. The child starts to cry. The parents are concerned. The mother caresses the child with all the love and affection befitting the benevolence of a Mother. She covers the child with all her Saree. Midst the chaos, my thoughts go out to the helpless and wailing animals and their family served on a platter. For celebration. Garments. Footwear. Et al. Ironic? No? OK. I need to alight, while the child is still supremely hysterical. No man, no animal can, until there's a frying pan.

Once upon a time, when Mohan failed to be Man, despite being Sonia to all 3Gs and their Commonwealth coal, Nar decided to flex his 56" chest - "airy" or scary remains a lingering question - to show how to project India's Sundar Pichai to the world. Nar started off with a See-Public Day charade, er...parade, and extended his "C, IA" invite to a gum-chewing President, who ended up as a cheap guest to Wrigley his way through the entire ceremony! Having got the President in his Barack, Nar reminded Mohan of all the Vadra that the latter had failed to keep, though at a certain Modi, Nar somehow ended up following (10-lakh) suit, upholding "principles" of Raje, Swaraj and unke Munde, and all related dhan ki baat. Currently, Nar is on a mission to spread a positive image of India in the USA, who, themselves are on drone missions to Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi, China, Japan, Red Sea, Mount Everest, Indian Ocean, space, moon (?) etc! In his quest to seek a stamp of approval (cave mentality, anyone?) from the richest country on this planet, Nar also pulls aside Mark Shutterbugs. An image is created. in USA. For all internal updates on image and action (?) in Varanasi, "Grams" of Vidarbha, Marathwada, hinterlands of India, Nirbhaya's bus in Delhi, bylanes of Bombay, 8.31 pm Virar Fast, surpassing prices of dal, chawal and atta, and progress on the nearby flyover, just Google, why fire?

The arrival of the Lord marked the revival of a dormant monsoon; its been raining in Maharashtra, since day one of Ganeshji's arrival. The areas that were declared drought-affected are witnessing a heavy downpour. No technology, however advanced it may be, predict nature's surprises and the almighty's gift for her children. Faith can change fate. Even on a receding monsoon date. Believe. Try karke toh dekho.

He gave up a London practice to fight the might of an Empire whose sun was famed never to set. He spent half his life in a dhoti, walking miles for days, fasting weeks, and lodged in jail for months. These days managing teams is a KPI; He mobilized 300 million people, in times when there was no social media, since Zuckerberg was still a young lad in his previous birth! Gandhi. I wonder, if all those who criticize him from the cordons of Z-plus security and public-sponsored palatial mansions, ever lead a life of dhoti-clad austerity, the way He did? Partition? Well, we have an even bigger exercise in partition these days in the name of religion, caste, money, real estate, language, gender, etc; all these are being spread in the most vicious manner by his own lineage and critics alike! Gandhi. Bande mein tha dum. Nahin maante? No problem.