My conversation with God

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(G: GOD himself and M: myself) God has a mobile phone up there....and he has stored my number. M: Hello... G: Now, what happened? M: I am very angry with you... Why do have to make things that I don't like? Or why don't you use your magical powers of making me invisible when Sapta is looking for a bakra to get 'vox-pops'. G: What is this 'vox-pops'? M: arre...you don't know?? The term vox-pop comes from Latin phrase vox populi, meaning 'voice of the people'. G: My dear, the way you hated Math in school, I hated Latin. The way you don't know what is eight times seven today, I don't know what is vox-pop.... But so what about it? M: Well, I feel like a beggar when I have to go asking people on the road for their opinions......

Gujarat's Asmita? Ohh... really???

10

February 2002, Ahmedabad: I was preparing for my final exams for that degree that hardly matters now. The exams were to start from March 15. More than studying during that study-leave, I was dreaming about my holidays... where would it be this time? Mountains or beach? But before I could decide, channels flashed the news of S-6 of Sabarmati Express set on fire... More than 50 ramsevaks dead, including women and children... Honestly, I was unaware of the magnitude of the massacre that day. Soon news trickled in that Vishwa Hindu Parishad had called for a Gujarat Bandh. And before I could digest the news that kept flowing after that, I soon realised I had developed a serious indigestion, something that I have yet to recover from. In days to follow, Muslims were set on fire, butchered, raped, abused, humiliated, tortured, killed, disposed, buried... and forgotten. But it was the....