Koodankulam to Chennai

As banana bajji wrapped in a newspaper took the round of the motley gathering on the roof of a house in Besant Nagar, no one was too keen to have it. They had arrived at the venue at five o’clock as planned, after a tiring day at their jobs and colleges. However, their own hunger was not on their mind right now. They were more concerned about fisherfolk and local residents of a coastal village, more than 700 kilometers south of Chennai, many of whom have not gone to sea or earned any income since they started an agitation more than a month ago. These villagers have been protesting against the commissioning of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, which according to them not only poses danger to their livelihood by endangering the marine life but even holds larger nuclear safety issues.

Nityanand Jayaraman, a well-known environmental activist based in Chennai had called ‘youngsters and other interested people’ to plan a solidarity action on the part of the capital city, through an impassioned appeal on various mailing groups, “We're faced with a tremendous opportunity, made possible by the struggles of thousands of fisherfolk, who are camped outside the gate of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant even as we speak. The Government of India is unrelenting in its insistence that the plant should be commissioned. The Government of Tamil Nadu has made half-hearted gestures that it is in support of the agitation. If people put their weight and support behind the struggle, we have a possibility of getting Tamil Nadu declared as a nuclear-free state, and closed for all future nuclear power plant proposals.”

Though hardly a dozen and a half turned up at the meeting organised today evening at the collective’s office, it did not deter those present to carry on the proceedings with utmost conviction.

Protests against this project have been going on since its very inception, more than two decades ago. The adjoining info-graphic traces its history. Click on it to enlarge.

The present round of agitations started with 127 villagers going on an indefinite hunger strike on Sep 11 as the date of commissioning of the first two reactors neared. Their basic apprehensions rose from the plight of Japanese towns of Okuma and Futaba following the Fukushima-Daichii nuclear disaster in March earlier this year which led to release of radioactive material.

Those present at the meeting concurred that Fukushima disaster being fresh in the minds of the people can also be used as a rallying point in their solidarity action. On the basis of extensive brainstorming, various ideas came up, were rebutted, were shelved or accepted.

Nityanand cautioned that the solidarity action should be immediate but not sporadic. The group narrowed down to a petition campaign as their central medium. However, they argued for it to be more meaningful than just a signature campaign. It was decided that it will include fund-raising, in form of Rs 5 donations, to help the poor agitators, and will invite all those interested to further workshops and seminars on the issue. Besant Nagar was chosen as the venue for the petition campaign where the volunteers will create awareness over the weekend. A photo exhibition and a documentary screening were also planned at various venues which will exhibit the nuclear accidents at Chernobyl, Jaduguda and Fukushima to bring to light the dangers of nuclear reactors.

There was also an appeal to push the envelope further. A suggestion was made in this direction to encourage the petitioners to adopt bio-composting at their homes. The argument was that by doing so, they can reduce their carbon footprint considerably which can act as an alternative to government’s assertion that nuclear energy is the only answer to global warming being caused by carbon-based fuels.

Around half past six in the evening as it started getting darker, the collective members decided to disperse. The action will now shift to Besant Nagar beach which will see the tides of a new commitment, promising to be more than just a token gesture.

Image Courtesy:

My new found interest in Photoshop

Life Within The Four Walls

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 23; the twenty-third edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. The theme for this month is FREE. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. 

Your whole life can be packed in a single room. Within those four walls you can measure expanse of your knowledge, and within those few meters between floor and ceiling, depth in your understanding can be gauged. It is nothing less than incarceration, an imposed limit on your physical space to allow you to wander more freely within your mental space. Even I went through this stage when I decided, like many other brave souls before me, to sit for the civil services examinations.

Immersed in studies within the three dimensions of my room, I soon became oblivious to the fourth dimension of time. The chirping of birds followed by sound of gong emanating from a neighboring boarding school used to intimate me that it is dawn and I should be going to sleep.

My day started with the shouts of my mother followed by incessant thumping on the door to wake me up. The poor creaking door had to go through this ordeal everyday till I finally got up and unlatched it.

In those days, I preferred to stay in my room with innumerable inanimate things accompanying me. The only live things were the lizards on the wall and my reflection in the long mirror on the right corner of the room.

I was envious of the lizards because they could traverse more dimensions within the room. For them the room was infinity, an end in itself, but for me it was just a means to an elusive end.

The 6 by 6-foot bed felt like a mother’s lap since the day it got a new pair of mattresses. They were expensive but were needed to cure the constant pain in my back. Despite many rebukes from my father, I continued lying on the bed to study, while the uncomfortable chair that accompanied the study table stood vacant and listless.

I was very fond of the study table which took up most of the space opposite my bed. It had retained its woody smell despite thick coats of varnish and was the only link to nature in this lifeless room. Though seldom used to study, the books with their different-colored bindings decked on the two shelves of the table, were a constant reminder and motivation to keep studying.

The night lamp on the side table became an innocent accomplice in my contemplations. As my thoughts meandered through the unknown reaches of my consciousness, I kept switching it on and off subconsciously. Every other month its bulb had to be replaced, tormented by my thoughts and actions.

On the far left corner of the room, by the curtained windows, stood my personal computer with all its paraphernalia. The dark monitor of the computer always stared at me with expectant eyes, which were only a reflection of my own eyes, waiting to be switched on. But it had already been replaced by my new laptop which lay regally on one side of my bed. The computer reminded me of those days when gadgets were much larger and the life was much simpler.

My mother had the nagging habit of opening the curtains whenever she got a chance. I somehow felt more secure in the darkness and dampness of the room. The sunlight that came through the window seemed to me as an unnecessary intrusion into my own space. The pale-looking curtains became focal point of this unspoken jostle between me and my mother as we tried to outdo each other every day.

Two years had passed in this room when the result of my second attempt came. Keeping the laptop aside, I looked up at the ceiling with moist eyes.

The worn-out fan was revolving as usual, emitting the ugly noises. There was certain movement in it but there was no displacement.

Then my eyes moved towards far corner of the wall where it met the ceiling. A trapped moth was struggling to get free from the cobwebs that had formed there.

The following day, I took a broom and removed the cobwebs from there.

The following day, I opened the curtains to let the slanting rays onto my bed freely.

The following day, I unlatched the windows to allow fresh air into the deoxygenated corners of the room.

The following day, I decided to let go my ambition and venture out to find some work.

Image Courtesy:
My camera (clicked in November 2007)

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This Day, That Year-III

Two years ago, on the 30^th of May, I arrived in Delhi to start a new innings of my life after completing my graduation. I was there to start my preparations for civil services. This is the concluding post in the series of three where I am reliving those initial days by reproducing the diary entries I made on those days.

Before you read this post, it will be nice if you read the previous two(Part-I and Part-II) for the sake of continuity and to make sense out of this one.
Here, I reproduce my fourth diary entry. Read on!

Jun 3, 2007; 1:15 pm

Hello there,
I skipped a day, I know! The frequency, I believe, will go down as I am not in a habit of making diary entries. Nevertheless, I am back today. Yesterday, we started with Public Administration course. Language being used by Sir was technical, not a problem to me, but I could see many blank faces. I hope my face doesn't turn blank this early. There's an aswer answer we have to write as an assignment. Will do that shortly after the lunch.
In G.S., we started with Science; Physics to be precise. It was a kind of revision class for me of what all I studied during my preparation for AIEEE, 5-6 years back. I am looking forward to Biology and Mental Ability part in Science.
While returning, we also got issued for us, the Metro Train passes. By the end of the day, it already had a deficit of Rs. 27.
I walked a lot yesterday. First from Karol Bagh station to the hostel which is very tiring under the noon sun. Then, in the evening back to the station as we (I along with Arun, Narendra(Nainital), Abhinav(Raipur) and Robby) planned to visit the India Gate.
Walk from Central Secretariat Station to our destination and back was very long and tiring. But talking and knowing more about each other, we managed to tread along. We sat for some time at India Gate.
These days, I have been eating just too much, more than twice my normal diet, I believe. And of course, drinking a lot too, I mean water!
Anyways, going for lunch right now. I skipped the breakfast as got up pretty late, it being Sunday morning.

See you later,
Vipul Grover

My apprehensions about my frequency of writing, as revealed in the very beginning, proved right. This happened to be my last diary entry and with time I totally lost track of my 'Dear Diary'. Reasons behind it are not far to fetch.
One, I got busy with my coaching classes. The initial 4 ¹/₂ hour schedule got extended to 7 hours and eventually to 9 ¹/₂ hours as the date set for the course's conclusion approached and the syllabus meant for completion kept piling up.
Two, I made some good friends. Top on the list was Arun bhaiya. Then there were Narendra Singh Bisht and Abhinav Agrawal both from Law background and room partners. We four formed a close group. Rajesh(the talkative Hyderabadi mentioned earlier) and Devendra (a Marathi fellow from Nagpur whom we named dhila due to his perpetual laziness) were also good friends and so was Vijay who happened to be a Delhiite but had put up in the hostel to concentrate on studies. It's a different matter that most of the times he was back home as the poor guy could not cope up with it. However, when he was there, he was a great help as he usually gave us a free ride back and forth, the institute and the hostel on his Honda City.


Otherwise, our mode of transportation was Metro in the evening/afternoon(depends upon when we got free) and in the morning it was initially by bus, though soon we switched to auto rickshaw(which costed additional Rs.5 per head). The reason I mention the amount is because we were very particular about the money initially and tried to save as much as possible. But with time, we had to give in and give priority to our comfort and health. With time even those tiring walks from the Metro Station to the hostel, mentioned in the diary entry, gave way to a cycle rickshaw.
Talking of health, I have also mentioned about my increased diet in Delhi. With time, I actually started hating the food being served. The aloo paranthas, I praised earlier gave me a nauseatic feeling at times and the tea felt more and more watery and syrupy. Same was the case with other Nirman 'delicacies'. However, I still kept eating a lot. I still find it difficult to comprehend this paradoxy. On returning to Chandigarh, my mother was amazed at my increased capacity to devour the food. However, she revealed this only when I was back to my normal diet eventually.

In the second image:
From Top to Bottom- I, Narendra, Arun Bhaiya, Devendra, Abhinav and Rajesh sitting on the stairs of Nirman House during our last few days in Delhi.

Image Courtesy
1. http://www.lutyenstrust.org.uk (edited)
2. From Personal Collection (edited)

This Day, That Year-II

Two years ago, on the 30^th of May, I arrived in Delhi to start a new innings of my life after completing my graduation. I was there to start my preparations for civil services. This is the second post in the series of three where I am reliving those initial days by reproducing the diary entries I made on those days.

I had totally forgotten this diary of mine, till I found it lying in one of my book shelves some days back while finding some pages for rough work for a cousin. Flipping through those pages gave that intense feeling of deja-vu. I thought it would be nice to blog it. Please read the first post before continuing further.
Here I reproduce my third diary entry.

Jun 1, 2007; 10:45 pm

Hello there,
The month of June has begun and with it began my coaching classes. I was up at half past five in the morning. The sleep was irregular, waking in between a couple of times.
We had our breaf breakfast and left for Rau's at around quarter to seven.
The first class was that of Public Administration. Our teacher Mr. Maj Manoj Sharma took us through on a ride thou through the 'compact' syllabus.
This was followed by Khan Sir taking our G.S. class. A humorous person by nature, he gave us tips and suggestions on G.S.' preparation.
Back at Nirman, we had lunch, I had a good two hour sleep, then tea followed by a stroll and a little shopping with Arun.
Today the food was much better. Both rajmah in the afternoon and dal at night were not watery as yesterday. As a guy commented about yesterday's dal; 'It was like earth, 80% water and rest...'
And of course, All Aloo paranthas in the morning were also tasty. Tea served here is really good. God knows why am I making so many spelling mistakes today!
Maybe I am tired and need a sleep. Or maybe, sweat is making my fingers slip over the pen.
Ahead lies a lot of hardwork and I must prepare myself for it. What better way to do so than sleep. In Khan Sir's words even six hours sleep is a luxury. I beg to differ as I have been sleeping twice that time and cutting down by half is not that easy.
Anyways, time to sleep right now. What a luxury it will be under this fan!

See you later,
Vipul Grover

Sitting in my air-conditioned room right now, I wonder how I managed to survive those days. At night to keep my room a bit cooler, I had to open all the windows. But these open windows welcomed all kinds of insects. My room was burgeoning with a zillion species of them, most of them I saw and got stung by for the first time in my life. Once I had to live with a swollen eye for a week or so which looked pretty ugly and was painful at the same time. At other times I got rashes on my body which itched badly.
My pet song those days was-'tadpaye tarsaye re, saari raat jagaye re, pyaar tera- dilli ki garmi'. (I hope you remember semi-clad Amrita Arora dancing on the original song from some forgettable Bollywood flick.)

Image Courtesy
www.storycraft.com (edited)

This Day, That Year-I

Two years ago, on the 30^th of May, I arrived in Delhi to start a new innings of my life after completing my graduation. I was there to start my preparations for civil services. In my next three posts, I'll relive those initial days by reproducing the diary entries I made on those days.

Here, I reproduce my first diary entry.

May 31, 2007; 12:45 pm

Hello there,
Here I am, finally sitting in my 'own', 'independent' room on a study table(I mean a study chair adjoining the study table), as far as I remember, writing a diary entry for the first time in my life.
This thought of jotting down my feelings just happened to me as I realised that finally I am all alone in this big big city, heart of our nation, New Delhi.
Mummy and Papa left back for Chandigarh a couple of hours ago. We arrived here, at Nirman House, the hostel where I am residing, yesterday evening.
It felt all normal to me but as time proceeded and night fell, I started feeling a bit dull. I didn't let these feelings of my heart to be conveyed to my parents through my facial expressions.
Anyways, now they are gone and we parted with a nice hug. 'I love them'.
The room is nice and spacious. I have a double bed, nice long study table, spacious almirah, dressing table(I know that sounds girlish), a T.V.(where is STAR WORLD???) and an independent toilet cum bath room with a western 'pot' and wash basin.
All in all, good living conditions but there's no A.C. and I don't need one as I am here to struggle. All great men have struggled in their lives and if I want to become one I have to sacrifice at least something. And sacrifice at what 'cost'?
My dad is already paying 8000 bucks per month to provide me with these living conditions and food.
Food, that's something I have to try as yet. Lunch time is approaching and I'll have my first encounter with my diet for the next five months or so.

See you later,
Vipul Grover

Well, the day didn't end just there as I was back to my 'Dear Diary', once again finding myself all alone in my room and in the city of course, after the dinner. So, here I reproduce my second diary entry. Just read on!

May 31, 2007; 10:45 pm

Hello there,
Well I am back writing for the second time today. In these ten hours, I have experienced the 'food' twice and made a couple of friends.
Food is 'O.K.', dal served in both courses. It was just too watery. In lunch there was additional paneer and in dinner, mixed veg. They were nice. Chapatis and rice were also good.
As far as friends are concerned, there is Arun Munde, a Marathi staying in the adjoining room. Age 24, he is a Masters in Biotechnology with same optional as mine,i.e., Public Administration. So we'll be in the same class. Even he has perched out of his home for the first time, so shares my apprehensions and dilemmas.
Then there is this talkative and 'over-friendly' Rajesh from Hyderabad, Pawan(I believe I heard his name right) from Bihar, Narendra from Nainital and others. I also met a Punjabi Surd briefly. His name is Robby, though he did not impress me much in our tete-a-tete.
Sweating is profound in this Delhi heat under a solitary fan. Temperature at this hour is 35.3°C as indicated by the nice gift given to me by my friends before leaving for Delhi.
I have started reading Shashi Tharoor's 'India:From midnight to millennium'. He has quite a balanced opinions and hence the articles have impressed me.
Tomorrow is my first day at Rau's. Class begins at 7:30 a.m. So will have to rise early. Better I go to sleep right now.

See you later,
Vipul Grover

Despite the fact that I were soon-to-be-22 when I went to New Delhi, my apprehensions about leaving my home were same as any 10 year old moving to a boarding school. Those first couple of days, I felt quite miserable. Anyways, so ended that day for me.

Image Courtesy
http://creativewritersden.blogspot.com (original)

The Three Risk-tak(e)ers

Friends
An ode to our friendship

A fictitious non-fiction

This post has been submitted for 'Friends Forever' under Blogadda's Win This Wednesday contest.

This is the story of three friends- Aniket, Vimal and Shashi- who were not content with 'what is' but wanted to test their potential to reach what they believed as 'what ought to be'. With their passion to keep their future at stake, they came to be known far and wide as 'The Three Risk-tak(e)ers'.

The story starts with Aniket. He too planned to become a conventional engineer as had his other two buddies post their matriculation. But fate had something else in store for him. After putting in two years of 'hard work' or at least as others believed he did, his results were not worth landing him anywhere. So he had to be content with a B.A. rather than a B.E. It was here that his interest in theatre and drama started and by the end of three years, our small town boy had packed his bags to try his luck in the tinsel town.

The start was good. He landed at the doors of the man under whom superstars like Retake Roshan and many other star-kids had groomed. He ended the acting course with the sorts of 'first class first pass' distinction. However from here the real struggle started. Hunting for movies he ended up acting in two serials.

In the first one which got telecast on Mony T.V., he had three scenes and well in each scene the poor guy, playing a villainous role had to bear a couple of slaps and a punch from the main protagonists.

In the other one on Moon T.V., he played the role of one of the friends of one of the many lead protagonists of the serial. However, before our poor Aniket could show some of his talent the serial was taken off air as the producers realised the only people watching it were the near and dear ones of the dozen actors and actresses who got to debut in their low-budget venture.

Alongside, Aniket also acted in a movie based on the lives of gay prostitutes in which he played one of the leads but the movie couldn't lead him anywhere as even after a year or so, it was craving to see the lights of a projector room of any multiplex. So Aniket had no reason to be 'gay' after all as the only thing he got post-movie were the snickering and gay jokes of his two buddies.

From here we move to the lives of our other two characters. Well both of them successfully completed their engineering unlike their actor buddy. However, Vimal had the childhood dream of becoming an administrator. To pursue this dream, he decided not to take up any job and get into the preparation mode for undoubtedly, the toughest examinations of India.

He was all pumped up as he left his city and reached the national capital to take some preliminary coaching. New city, new life, new friends were there for just about half a year as then he returned back home to continue further.

Soon he found himself trapped within the four walls with his 'books and books'. Most of the friends had left the city to take up their jobs or pursue post-graduation. Though for some time Vimal got distracted thanks to an ill-timed relationship, he was back to his senses in time to fall back in love with his books. With a couple of years gone by since he completed his B.E., Vimal was still preparing and appearing for the exams though better prepared than before.

Unlike Vimal, Shashi got placed in a highly reputed consultancy McKaunsi and got pay package worth envy. Within a year he also got a chance to visit the country of honeymoons in the laps of the beautiful Alps, on a business assignment. But somehow Shashi was not content despite his stability.

Meanwhile on the global front, stability became a paleolithic word as the markets started tumbling and businesses began closing. Companies were finding pretexts to chop off manpower while the poor executives were having sleepless nights fearing for their future.

Amidst all this, out of no where, Shashi decided to leave his secured job and go in for his own start-up. Starting a new business while others are closing down by dozens, seems a bit vague. However, Shashi wanted to join the league of the other two 'extraordinary not-so-gentle men' and no one could stop him. A couple of months passed since he gave resignation but still his web-based company was nowhere to be seen in the network jungle.

These three friends have their own distict dreams. They can't take things as they come. There are many others like them who dream big. Many perch out to realise them. However others prefer to follow the conventional trends because for them security is above their self-actualisation.

These three and numerous other risk-tak(e)ers may succeed or they may fail but one thing is for sure, decades hence sitting on their arm chair they won't be sulking upon thinking- I wish I had given it a try.

Disclaimer:
This story is not based on anyone (except Ankit, Vipul and Shashaank). Any resemblance to anyone living or dead or kept on ventilator as not yet brain dead is purely coincidental.

Image Courtesy
http://meaninglessguy.files.wordpress.com (edited)

Babysteps to Babudom

Way to go!

As the results of the 15th Lok Sabha elections started trickling out on Saturday, many hearts were bound to beat. However, my heart had a totally different reason to become hyperactive. I had to face my Civil Services Preliminary Examination on Sunday, that is, technically yesterday as right now its already two and half hours since the clock ticked 12 at night.
There were reasons to be nervous as I am already one attempt down, an attempt well wasted thanks to my immaturity. However, this time the preparation for at least the first stage, i.e., the preliminary was better, much much better.
The exam went fine and I hope to get to the next stage this year. I have my fingers crossed but the question is for how long can I keep them in this position, as our UPSC babus take nearly 3 months to compile the results irrespective of the fact that this is an objective type paper done on OMR sheets.
However before this result comes out there's another exam I have to face. That's Mains exam(second stage) for the Haryana Civil Services coming up in late June or early July. Well, ofcourse I took the first successful babystep to babudom by clearing its preliminary stage conducted late last month.
So got to start the preparations as soon as possible. For the time being, just signing off to get a peaceful sleep after some tension filled nights!

Image Courtesy
http://maximizingmomentum.com (original)