Desh ki 'Amanat'

जब जब नारी पे अत्याचार हुआ, हम हाथ पकड़कर  बैठे थे

कोई दर्द नही, कोई  भय नही बिन फिक्र के ऐसे लेते थे

जाने कौन घडी मै आज हमे इह्सास हुआ, कि अब चुप नही रहेगे हम

दिन प्रतिदिन ये नरसन्गार, ये बलात्कार, ये दहेज के सक्षात्कार को बदने नही देगे हम

ये आतन्क को हमने ही बडावा दिया है अब यही हमको खाने दोडा है

इस घिनोने अत्याचार ने आज आतन्क का मट्का फोदा है

ये हमारा देश है, ये हमारी बेहने और बेटीया है, ये देश हमारी माता है

इस देश की रक्षा करना हमी लोगो से आता है

कयूकी जन्तन्त्र लोगो के  लिये, लोगो से शुरु और लोगो का होता है

तो अगर ये हमारा है, तो हम इस्के कानून मे भागीदार क्यो नही है?

अगर ये कानून थीक नही तो हम ही इस्के झिम्मेदार है 

कयो नही हम इस्की प्रगती और बद्लाव के मददगार है?

आशा करता हू की इस भारत कि बेटी का सन्घर्श व्यर्थ नही जयेगा
आज हमारे भारत मे एक इन्सान पैदा हो जयेगा

Poem by Nitin Dhar

Copyright © 2012 - Present dharbarkha.blogspot
Photo Courtesy:  Altaf Qadri/Associated Press

God's Tough Love

When we are beaming with success or luxuriating in wealth, we seldom feel miffed with god. In our affluence and prosperity, we take his blessings to be a mark of our good fortune. But what happens when we are ripped off of comfort and are faced with situations that challenge our faith in god? Losing a highly remunerative job, a loved one, or failing in life’s countless endeavors are examples of some unexpected mishaps. During privation, we often feel betrayed by god’s grace and his eternal love and begin to question his imperceptible plans for us. Here is a short story that would delineate our unfathomable relationship with god.    


Once upon a time, a survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small and uninhabited island. In his restlessness to save himself, he offered feverish prayers to the lord and desired that he be rescued. Every day the survivor scanned the horizon for help, but none of his efforts or prayers seemed to be paying. Days and months passed by and the exhausted sailor eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to defend himself from his unasked cast away. In his hut, the sailor had his little possessions that he had saved during the ship wreck. One day when the sailor came back to his hut after hunting for food, he found his little hut burning in flames and the smoke rolling up to the sky. The poor sailor had experienced the worst. In his anger and annoyance with the lord, he asked, “Oh lord, why did you have to be cruel with me?” Stunned with grief, the sailor asked, “lord, how could you do this to me?” and he slept feeling bitter and blue. The next morning when the sailor woke up, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that had come to rescue him. The weary sailor asked his rescuers, “How did you know I was here?” The rescuers replied, “We saw your smoke signal.” 


When it is dark and desolate, we can rarely imagine god’s mysterious and profound ways of loving us. His ways may seem abstruse yet they contain life’s refined and pragmatic lessons. When god puts us to a test, we may hold a grudge against him. In our failing faith, we may lose hope in prayers and believe that god’s heavenly warmth has left us stranded. We, however, forget that it is the god himself who wants us to be marooned, penniless, and shipwrecked, so that he could rescue us from our doubts and insecurities. It is god’s tough love that makes us strong enough to find a new purpose in our swamped and submerged life. Hence, from a fragile being during our gala times we turn into resilient individuals during our rough patch. It seems that God’s elusive plans are surreal, which cannot be questioned, but could only be surrendered to. 

It Is The Journey That Counts

Have you ever thought that beneath a great victory lies a stroke of small yet profuse efforts? In our aspirations to achieve and our eagerness of being victorious in the countless endeavors of our life, we often forget the efficacy and the outcome of our small actions. We loose sight of the incremental advancements that we make while enroute to the destination of success whether in job or business, in acquiring knowledge, in relationships, or when making a social call. What we chiefly remember though is the grandeur of the triumph. But we seldom look back at those myriad moments of tiny feats that like a bridge of faith, hope, and positive intentions passage us to progress.

Let me take you back to the epic of Ramayana that narrates making of the ‘Rama Setu’ by the ‘Vanar Sena’ an unforgettable saga. To rescue his beloved wife Sita from Ravana’s confinement in Lanka, Lord Rama was determined in his mission to cross ‘Sethusamudram,’ the sea that separates India from Sri Lanka. The Lord’s heroic army of monkeys thus constructed a massive bridge or ‘Setu’ that ultimately became a platform to reach the final destination. It is said that the width of the bridge was about two ‘yojnas,’ each of which were eight to ten miles long.  Hence, one by one thousands of monkey heroes jumped in joy all across the forest to fetch gigantic stones, logs of wood, and reeds to initiate their cumbersome voyage. These courageous and dedicated monkeys broke many rocks and trees and dragged them away to the sea. They filled the ocean’s core with a heap of elements. Some were huge while others infinitesimal. Few other monkeys brought peaks of crags while others drew up long strings to keep the rocks balanced in a straight line.

With immense energy and industry the monkeys build just enough leagues of masonry that could help the lord and his army to cross over to Lanka. Each day after a surmountable work, the monkeys celebrated the sweat of their chores. Instead of feeling low and doubtful of success, the monkey army glorified each day as a threshold to progress. Their enthusiasm in completing each masonry league brought them an opportunity to behold the fruition of their labor and realize that success was at close quarters. The monkeys’ perhaps was an optimistic army that believed in commemorating every fraction of their journey of building the bridge with a leap of joy.

We are the modern day ‘vanaras’ and our life is like an ocean. Our every small success or step is like a bridge of diligence, which ultimately becomes the brick and mortar of a larger mission in our lives. It crowns us with a resolution to achieve bigger goals in life. By recognizing each diminutive success, we thus leave a humble impression on ourselves and on others for a stronger foundation in life.

Copyright © 2011 - Present dharbarkha.blogspot
Photo Courtesy:  strengthisbeauty.com/images.google.com

Learning From Anna Hazare

From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India’s divine land has bore many sages. The transcendental teachings of these esoteric and learned saints and monks have enlightened us in different garbs. As miracle workers, some of these orange clad holy beings have been wandering high in the Himalayas, while some have been literary genius residing in the plains and sharing their spiritual knowledge through their profound speeches or writings. Few others have sustained the sanctity of society through their ideals of social service. 


In the diversity of their philanthropic mission, these sages have glorified humanity with love, selfless service, and contentment. The moral teachings of these saints are paragons that have helped us to upkeep our personal and social values and have sometimes even encouraged us to the path of self-realization. It would be iniquitous to deny that some of these ascetic qualities seem to be present in Anna Hazare who has created an enigma of social change throughout India. Anna’s values of simple living and high thinking have not only resurrected Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent philosophy. But have also awakened a nation to the savagery and malice of man against man in the form of dishonesty, bribery, and exploitation of the weak and vulnerable. 

Anna’s beliefs that ‘manav seva is madhav seva’ (service to man is service to God) imbibe similar principles as propounded by our ancient scriptures and swamis. Anna says that life is an illusion, which we often spend in self-indulgence. He believes that instead of internalizing the simple pleasures of life, we externalize them through obsession with material gains and selfish interests. Anna’s emphasis on moral values has indeed brought forth the essence of collective responsibility to social justice and has encouraged many to evolve out of caste bound prejudices. Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Anna encourages everyone to have purity in thoughts and actions. He asserts that the more we have the capacity to bear other’s scorn, the better individuals we become by transforming our egoistic visage and molding it to serve the mankind. 

Anna’s social movement imbues a monumental mission. It has kindled the need for change not just in polices and procedures, but has instilled the thought that ‘ask not what we can take from others, but what we can give to others.’ Such cognizance comes with self-introspection and with a conscious effort of limiting ourselves from an overwhelming desire for more, be it in terms of money, power, or earning privileges of life at the cost of oppressing the needy. Anna’s crusade for social change has certainly swayed the nation by his impulse for ‘parivartan,’ which he believes is initiated by altruistic actions to liberate ourselves from bigotry and injustice. With austere means of subsistence and abstinence from physical desires, Anna in many ways has truly lived up to the quote of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” 

Copyright © 2011 - Present dharbarkha.blogspot

Photo Courtesy:  Manish Swarup/AP

The Changing Face Of Parenthood

A Guest Post by Cyber Nag

Parenting has been getting tougher with the passing generations. When we were kids, large joint families were still the norm and the children grew up with several siblings and cousins and uncles and aunts galore. While some sets of parents were stricter with their children when it came to disciplining, the general rules were set and everyone was expected to follow them. Going by the way my generation has turned out, I think our parents did a good job, don’t you think?

In small towns and villages, children roamed free and sometimes even ate in the house they were playing in at the time of a particular meal! Children were also allowed to mix freely with the neighborhood. This still happens in such places where people know and feel comfortable with each other. The only difference today is that the mother of the family where your child might be, would call and inform you that your son or daughter would be having lunch at her place! Contrast this with the formality involved wherein we have to get an appointment even to call someone on the phone, lest we ‘disturb’ them!

Though not so relaxed as my parents’ generation, mine too took the bringing up of kids in its stride. We took care to involve them in special activities, introduced them to the joys of reading and planned outings and trips with the aim of giving them the exposure the changing times demanded. The large joint family had given way to the ‘nuclear’ joint family, with our kids growing up with their grandparents and making yearly visits to their uncles and aunts.’

I was happy if my kids had eaten at their friends' house (usually better than what they might have eaten at home) and would gladly return the favour for the neighbour who had fed them! During my visits to my parents in the village when my older son was a toddler, I would often not see him from the time he had his bath and breakfast in the morning till late in the evening – all grimy and dusty from playing under the trees and in sundry houses of his ‘friends’ and admirers! Needless to say he would not have missed a single meal or the mandatory glass of milk in the evening!

By contrast, today’s parents have a tough job raising kids. Often coming from small families themselves, with just another sibling or even being a single child, they don’t have much opportunity to see small children at close quarters or participate in activities of raising a child. Nuclear families are the norm now, with grandparents having become part-time ones -- either they visit their children and get to spend some time with their grandchild (yes, most are single-child families now!), or have them visit for short periods.

Parents today have to contend with dangers that were unheard of in the olden days, or that had at least not assumed such horrific proportions. When I used to travel by train with my young boys, I would happily allow them to play with a friendly co-passenger; did not worry too much if I couldn’t pack food for the entire journey, relying on the train food to fill the gaps; ignored the racket when they tore around the compartment with a bunch of other kids. Though the cold virus was always a danger, one was not so worried about the likes of swine flu and such, that make parents think twice and thrice about exposing their children to sundry co-passengers.

When we were recently travelling in the interiors of Tamil Nadu during a pilgrimage, a group of girls oohed and aahed over my little granddaughter and one of them patted her cheek. Had it been a quarter century ago, I would have felt thrilled that my child had brought joy to someone, but that day we were all agitated. What if the girl was carrying a virus or two? What if her hands had been dirty? You understand what I mean, don’t you?

We hear so many horror stories of molesters that we have to be wary of everyone we meet. Deviant behaviour is rampant and one has to be constantly vigilant about safeguarding the children from any such person. So naturally we look at everyone with suspicion and teach the kids to be wary of strangers who even smile at them, chuck their chins or try to touch them. It makes it very stressful for the parents. One of my friends used to go to the bus stop at the end of the road to drop and pick her daughter up till she was almost a teenager for fear of eve-teasers and deviants lurking about. Then the schooling itself. It used to be a relaxed five years before one went to school in my time and three and half years in the time of my children. Today ‘play schools’ and Montessori’s have advanced it to an unbelievable 18 months of daily sessions. Children are given ‘tests’ before being admitted even to play school, when they are asked their names, alphabets, colours and rhymes and God knows what else! Though the better known schools have supposedly dispensed with such tests, the rest still follow them.

Present generation children are so much smarter and sharper than their predecessors that they require the parents to be on their toes just to answer their questions! I have seen my son and daughter-in-law take care even to regulate their activities including TV viewing so that their child is not affected by it. And most of the young parents today give a lot of thought to what their kids are watching and reading and even observing! I don’t remember being so vigilant when my boys were younger! :)

In short, what used to be just a routine thing for my parents’ generation, became a little more involved with mine, but has become a lot more complicated today. All things considered, I would say that this generation has risen to the challenge admirably. I think it is unfair to compare it with my or even older generation of parents and find it wanting, for this generation has more things to contend with than the older ones ever did!

Copyright © 2011 - Present cybernag.in
Photo Courtesy: cybernag.in


About The Author:

Zephyr, as she is fondly called by all her fans and followers is a prolific writer. She is blogger from cybernag.in. Her creative and imaginative posts are nothing less than a stimulating pot of hot curry. She believes that nagging can be an art, if done inventively. Through her innumerable and interesting posts on diverse issues, Zephyr takes an avant-garde approach to blogging. Her mission though is to enrich the cyber space with a tinge of this and that about everyday issues. Not to be missed is her L&M and the Brats series, which will find echo in every reader's heart.

Slimy Death

A Guest Post by Farida Rizwan

Who in this mortal world can be so clever?

As to escape death and live forever.

Whoever at a time had a chance of life’s greeting,

Sure with death will have an appointed meeting.

 Nothing can escape death, be it however strong. 

Everything has an end, though some may live very long. 

The sun, moon, stars and all the milky way, 

Will have to face death, on a certain day

 Merciless death! Who all have turned into corpse? 

Once livid things, how sad they now sleep like tops. 

A painter who could depict his mind on canvas, 

A man with a voice that could sway the mass.

 A killer who for money had taken many lives, 

And the one who must have widowed his many wives, 

A being with a heart of gold or the one with temper wild, 

A mother who was yet to feed her newborn child.

 A soldier fighting out bravely in midst of a battle, 

An innocent child was enjoying his rattle, 

The one who had no fun but lived in strife, 

Along with the one who cared a lot for unfaithful life.

 The person worth a lot for his knowledge was great 

Death never cares when it is out of straight 

It shows no discrimination to any living man 

For each it has fixed a certain life span

 Carelessly it plucks from kids their mothers 

Death is a must for even those who spent their lives for others 

The wailing mother can earn no pity from death 

Nor a thousand tears can earn a single breath 

Death does not stand admiring a soldier brave 

It just goes about on its job of filling the grave 

Death is not bought or sold at any store 

It may just strike from blue or from earth’s core

 It may strike one who has trodden enough on the earth 

Or one who is just enjoying his birth 

The poor cannot sell it, the rich cannot buy it 

The weak cannot hide from it, the strong cannot tie it

 The shadow of death lurks here, there and everywhere 

It can be found hiding just about anywhere 

When it holds life with its steely grip 

Life has no chance, but to start its final trip

 When will come the dark angel, my hand to hold? 

Just the thought makes my blood run cold 

To strike the paper with pen as my hand bends 

Death must be leading how many towards their ends?????

BY: Farida Rizwan

Copyright © 2011 - Present Chaptersfrommylife.blogspot.com

Photo Courtesy: Chaptersfrommylife.blogspot.com

About The Author: 

Farida Rizwan is an inimitable and an inspiring blogger from Chaptersfrommylife.blogspot.com. She believes that every piece of her life has been like a chapter that has always left her with an inevitable lesson. A striking yet touching chapter of her life surrounds around her strength to survive stage 3 Cancer. Farida believes that the disease left an indelible mark on her personality besides providing her the power to reinvent her life in many ways. Farida today yearns to be a self-actualized individual. She believes that sometimes god chooses the direction for us and we just need to believe in his chosen route for us.          

Silent Treatment: The Hidden Abuse

A Guest Post by Life Riddles


If you are in a relationship of any kind, at one point or another you are going to encounter it!

It is not: Time Out, Giving some space, lay off, Cooling off or any other fancy description, It is a form of abuse called: The Silent Treatment,

Do not let the name fools you though; this is one serious relationship breaker that keeps bugging you or your partner until one of you cannot take it anymore and call it quits. It is a form of social rejection that affects couples everywhere and everyday, at its worst; it is Continual Silent Treatment, where the person gives a partner utter silence for days or weeks on end, and some will make the effort to avoid being in the same room!


The causes

Every relationship is composed of Passive and Aggressive partners with a variation in the degree of aggression. Which in turn reflects in the way each of them uses the silent treatment:

• The passive partner uses silent treatment as a form of defense: Ignoring the problem will make it go away, or as a reaction to a hurtful situation which demands some space to think things over.
• On the other hand; the aggressive partner uses silent treatment as a measure of control, or as a punishment for something his or her partner did. Now we are talking about Abuse

The effects:

• Physical: Silent treatment triggers what is called “Social pain” in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex of your brain, the very same location of actual physical pain.
• Emotional: Since it is a form of social rejection; it affects the caudate nucleus of your brain provoking a mix of negative emotions including: Frustration, intense anger, and eventually, resignation and despair.
• Psychological: You will suffer from low self esteem, a sense of loss and not belonging, increased stress and loss of control.
• Behavioral: The constant fear of receiving the silent treatment casts a shadow of uncertainty in your life, you begin to watch closely for every word and action on your part and you second-guess yourself: Am I doing the right thing? Am I saying the right words? In other words: You try hard to avoid it, which changes you onto a person that is no longer YOU.

How to deal with it:

Keep your anger in check:

Reacting to silent treatment in anger reinforces the abuser sense of control over you” Hey, it works! I’ll use it again” and the episodes keep on coming.

Apologize first, ask WHY later:

You cannot read minds so might as well start a conversation anyway; apologizing for something you did (or did not) is the softer approach in any conflict. And then ask why, you have the right to know if that person is giving you the cold shoulder for a reason. If your apology or question falls on deaf ears; do not blame yourself and start looking for a way out of that relationship.

Express your feelings:

Admitting to your partner your pain as a result from him/her giving you the silent treatment is not giving up control, it is simply putting the issue up front and center, it shows your intent on keeping that relationship going.

Have an open mind:

To what your partner has to say about his/her reasons that ended up with the silent treatment. Make sure you do not ridicule them no matter how trivial they sound; after all, we all have different personalities.

Do not fight silence with silence:

That would make things even worse, it leads to a complete breakup in communication, besides, one of you has to be the grownup!

And finally,

Explore the alternative:

Ending an unhealthy relation is far better than staying in it and ”biting the bullet”, life is too short to spend in hate, anger and daily turmoil.

Copyright © 2011 - Present Life Riddles
Photo Courtesy: Anonymous


About The Author: 

We are a husband and wife who love to blog about everyday’s life; we take turns being logical and emotional; though she is stronger on the emotional side by nature, we share the good times as well as the bad times and look forward to the challenges of a new day.

You could only imagine what would:  She Said and He Said as our pen names bring to the conversation,
Life is a big riddle; we all live it!!