Down-on-the-knees-begging

He: BTW, you are coming to drop your laptop and my stuff today evening, aren't you?

SHE: why should I!? do your own stuff

HE: Depends on you. Take your call.

ME: No!!!! you got to loosen up and give something hon! coz 'A1' is no kind and loving girlfriend! She’s one of the _b****_ ones! She demands favours! and presents... or may be down-on-the-knees-begging. Nothing comes free....

PS: For anonymity purposes, I have decided that his blog-name be A2. Cause' me is A1

champa, money plants, palms and the rest...

“Wow, look at the grass stains on my skin. I say, if you knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.” - Calvin and Hobbes

Well, thats what has been happening to me for the past few months. Though I am very happy about the fact that I am getting married this November. But to talk about the present - Its getting a little dull...

Anyways, I shall sort that out soon.

Meanwhile, I realise, some people are really cruel to plants:

Somebody broke one hand of my 8 ft Y-shaped Champa (Plumeria) tree. If I find that ba*****, I shall break his arm and make him realise how it feels. And if I dont gather enough cruelty to do that, I shall atleast wrench his hair out of his scalp.... hair can re-grow, so thats less cruel, although that f**** didnt realise how he has wrecked my carefully nurtured 9 year old potted baby!!! @#$#$%$%

Another irritating incident, while I was watering my plants early in the morning... one auntyji comes and says "Beta, zara pooja ke liye phool de dena"... I stared at her and gave her few small marigolds.

She gave me a disappointed look and continued "Woh waale de do", pointing at the giant ones.

... "Excuse me!! Thats emotional blackmail in the name of God. First, auntyJI if you would like to offer flowers to God then you have two options: Buy flowers or grow them on your own! Why should my garden contribute to your offering.... and daily at least 50 people cross this lane towards that temple, what if each one of them starts doing the same! Also, these are MY flowers, if they are to be offered to God, I, NOT YOU , shall be the offerer!!! Go, take a walk."................ Well, that was what I said to myself; To her, I politely offered few more tiny marigolds, and a STARE . Stay off from my garden Lady!

Then there was this incident when somebody stole almost all of my gigantic dahlias... and in the process destroyed the plants too.... It was really painful, I cried inconsolably then.

People do speak about their pets, but seldom about their plants. I am an avid gardener, specially considering the limited space that I have. One has to really water them, care for them, specially in the scorching Delhi summers and frosting winters. Poor beings, they can neither use an AC nor a rajaai :( ... They really really suffer.

That brings me to another thought. I feel so helpless on seeing the money plant leaves turn charcoal black (as if somebody has put a candle under it!) due to sun; and a similar helplessness on seeing the palms turn yellow due to fog. How would a farmer feel??.... for me, all said and done, its a hobby/ passion. But for them its their livelihood. I at least have tap water to help them survive through (though not all survive :( ) the peak summers, but what about a poor farmer who put in all his money in buying the seeds, but couldn't make them sprout.... Aah Painful.

To all those reading this blog, I urge you to be more sympathetic towards plants. These are speechless children, they can't describe their feelings, but they do feel.... they really do

Is the BJP justified in sacking Jaswant Singh from the party?

It was a shocker, at least for me. Probably because I had tuned into the Karan Thapar show few days back. I was actually quite impressed how Jaswant Singh was managing to put his views forward without passing judgements about the people involved (i.e. Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru and the rest). Karan Thapar, true to his style, was trying to evoke strong statements from Jaswant but failed. Of what I heard on the show it seemed to be a very objective book.

There are ample reasons why I feel the sacking was unjustifiable...

Talking about Jinnah in a positive light is not a blasphemy to the Indian state or State leaders. Whether or not one agrees to Jaswant's view is a second stance. How many of the 'leaders' involved in the decision would have actually read the book? I do not think Jaswant made any negative comments about the Indian leaders (Patel & Gandhi; Obviously BJP wouldn't mind negative comments about Nehru). I am sure Mr Rajnath Singh would not have cared to read the book.

Secondly, this seemed like a 'mob-decision' from the BJP - wherein few unworthy-to-be-leaders people who just managed to have some voice, out-shouted the others.

Who is representing the BJP in this issue? - The familiar faces for whom BJP supporters vouched (Jaitley, Shourie, Sinha, Swaraj) have all been sidelined. The dignified educated leaders of BJP have been sidelined by the likes of Rajnath Singh (?? Did we even consider him a national level leader two year back!?). So, who has taken the decision on behalf of BJP???

Jaswant Singh was one of the founding members of BJP. And the party who has prided itself for its democratic procedures (Vis-a-vis the family monarchy of the Congress) choose to expel one of the its founding fathers (a greatly dignified man, an able statesmen, a respected leader, ex-external affairs minister, ex-finance minister) in such a rude manner - sans proper discussions, sans 'democratic' procedures, without even a show cause notice...

Thirdly, and most painfully, the question that comes to my mind is "Who is ousting whom??"

People who represented the BJP itself are being ousted(/sidelined/politically-assassinated/ expelled) right-left-and-centre... be it Swaraj, Jaitley, Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Naidu... or even the Grand old man himself, Mr Advani!... so what is BJP without these people? A party of low-rung, sham leaders like Rajnath, Mishra! I mean they are as good as the BSP/ SP 'leaders'...

Though I agree that Jaswant should have resisted his urge to talk about Jinnah till he takes a political sanyas (because at such a senior level, its difficult for a party to disown his views)... but in any case the 'expulsion' is unjustifiable. At the most, he could have been warned.... He is no tom-dick-and harry, he might not be a mass-leader but he was a key BJP man. He was the most important non-RSS BJP leader. He was a senior diplomat who effectively handled strained Indo-US relations in the aftermath of the 1998 Nuclear tests. Even Strobe Talbott could not resist praising Jaswant in his book 'Engaging India' . Jaswant was even honoured with an Outstanding parliamentarian award in 2001.... All this to be expelled by some little regional champ with big voice...

Its with a deep sigh that BJP supporters like me would look at this incident - It seems one more nail in BJP's coffin.... well it just seems a matter of time till....

Or may be they will re-rise like a Phoenix...