Shuvashree Chowdhury's Blog, page 42
January 17, 2014
“Man Held On Charges Of Raping German Woman”
“Man Held On Charges of Raping German Woman”… might I have met similar fate as her?
I boarded the Rajdhani Express from New Delhi with trepidation that evening, on a RAC (reservation against cancellation) ticket, of a three tier air-conditioned coach. It was one of those rare occasions that I have taken the train, accustomed as I am since my job with an airline very early in life, to the comforts of flying. But lately, since I’ve crossed the age of forty, I find the urge to do some, if not all of those things that come to mind – of which I might have missed. The current cost of flying only adds to that impulse. Thus I found myself squeezing my baggage under and myself on the lower side berth, along with two men – one of whom was about my age and allotted the berth above, the other assumingly below twenty and on the same berth as me, also on a RAC ticket. Both men seemingly from where we were to traverse – Chennai, or thereabouts, as they spoke in Tamil.
The man my age was very pleasant and I learnt he worked for a power company in New Delhi and was going to Chennai, to be home for Christmas which was in two days. The other, the younger man, was travelling with a group of his college friends, perhaps on an excursion or a sports-meet and who were allocated berths throughout the coach, as well as in other compartments. As I tried to make myself comfortable on the berth with the two men, the ticket checker arrived. He was very matter of fact, when he declared that there was no chance I would get a confirmed berth, as all were occupied. He then walked ahead without making eye contact with me, before I could plead my cause – on how was I going to share the berth with a man for the night nearly upon us, it being after 6 pm.
“Why don’t you go and request the TT to get us a berth before night” I firmly asked of the young man I was presumably destined to spend the night with on the same berth, urgently bending across the elder man, envisaging from the TT’s attitude that he did not consider the problem of a young woman sharing the berth with a male stranger a pressing issue. “He might listen to you.”
The youth looked back at me expressionlessly, but jumped into action and headed to the TT with the elder man urging him to. Chauvinism finds root way before you’re twenty I could not help ponder, much to my chagrin. Then after repeating my instruction to the TT, who this time nodded and said he would try, the young man came back and settled on the berth, his ear-phones plugged to his ears.
After dinner was served, preceded by a tomato soup and breadsticks, followed by ice-cream, which the three of us consumed balancing on our respective laps, I began to get restless. I was as yet under the impression that as a single lady passenger, I would be allotted a berth for the night and that what an RAC ticket really meant was they would find me a berth once the journey commenced. But the railway’s bearers made me confront the reality that there was no such possibility and I might as well make myself comfortable on my berth. To which in exasperation I replied aloud “then they should not have given me this seat to begin with and I would not be on this train.”
The man beside me looked at me sympathetically, but he would be sharing his top berth with a friend who also had a RAC ticket and was allocated an adjacent berth, so could not offer me his berth, even if the thought might have crossed his mind. In front of me was a lady, who had been lying down on the berth ever since I boarded, with her husband sitting alongside and in front were seated two teenaged boys – their sons, and an elderly couple. This lady who had been lying down, and had not eaten anything or spoken a word, was very stout, even though she had a pretty face. One could imagine her having been quite a beauty in her youth if she were slimmer. I could not help thinking that this huge weight that she was carrying must have caused some malaise that she was going to Chennai to have checked by a specialist, as is often with people travelling to Chennai.
When I was almost resigned to spending the night seated, the man of the upper berth having settled atop with his friend, people around readying their berths with the sheets and blankets we had been given – of which I had luckily been given my entire set, the stout lady took a walk to the washrooms. On her return, she sat down squarely in front of me and looking purposefully at her husband enquired, “How is didi going to sit like this all night? It is just not possible, I could never do it.” Then before her husband had a chance to say anything, even as he nodded sympathetically, she told her sons firmly “Both of you get together on one berth and give aunty one of yours. Otherwise either of you share your berth along with aunty.” She looked at them, as though commanding them to move promptly. The two boys immediately complied along with a nod, as their father shifted their bedding to one berth. Then the lady looked at me casually and said as though I were a member of her family “There didi you take that now.”
I was so overwhelmed with gratitude I wanted to hug her enormous frame that held her large warm heart. It was almost like her large heart had needed the big body it had been fit into. But all I did was hold her chubby hands in mine and thank her profusely almost choking with the warmth and gratitude I felt towards this messiah, God had sent me, considering I had a whole day’s journey ahead of the long tedious night it might have otherwise been. I looked at the young man, who I was luckily no longer destined to share the berth with for the night and said, “Why don’t you go up, it will be much easier for you at your age and with your lean frame.”
He first looked at me, then abruptly looked away, and replied, “But I won’t me comfortable on the top berth.”
I looked at the youth and could not help wondering at the mother who would bring up such a chauvinistic disrespectful son, even as I struggled in the dark to make up my berth on the very top, with sheets and blanket which the elder man and his friend who were on the side upper berth held out to me one at a time. From atop my berth, I could view the young man stretch out luxuriously on the berth I had just vacated and plug his ipod’s earphone into his ear, even as he kept its rhythm with his toes jutting out of the blanket. I fell asleep soon after I climbed onto my berth, but not before thanking the mother who had just pressed her teenaged sons into discomfort for the night, in thoughtfulness for a complete stranger.
The next morning, I vacated the borrowed berth early, so that its rightful owner – either of the two boys could sleep well, way into the day. I returned to sharing the berth with the insolent youth, but through the day did not say a word to him, even as the man of the top berth remained on his, working on his laptop. The stout lady slept through most of the day, her husband by her head. It was when we were readying to disembark, with Chennai about a quarter hour away, that the lady got up. On enquiring she told me she was stretched out through the journey and had not eaten, as she suffered from a bad bout of motion sickness and was confident she would be fine once she got off the train. It was over our brief chat now that I learnt she was from Chandigarh and was going to Chennai on vacation with her family. I offered to give her my number before we got off the train and asked her to call if she needed any help in Chennai, to which she smilingly replied in Hindi after giving my hand a warm squeeze, even as I looked at her still overwhelmed by her big-heartedness “My husband is with the Indian navy and we have relatives in Chennai. But if God wishes we will meet again someday.”
I have contemplated writing of this experience that has left a deep impact on me, making me glad I undertook this journey for the lessons it imparted on life and humanity. But it is reading this article in The Hindu yesterday, titled “Man Held On Charges of raping German Woman” in the link http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/man-held-on-charges-of-raping-german-woman/article5579501.ece ….that compels me to word my thoughts now.
December 28, 2013
Random Thoughts In The Year Gone By
12th December, 2013:
Sympathy is the most easily available of all elixirs, while empathy and applause the most allusive. The dying man often has more well-wishers than does a robust one, just as failure attracts more camaraderie than success does, even though the trail to the latter is usually more precarious.
24th November, 2013:
A bird when it flaps its wings to fly, does not fret about being alienated by the universe, it looks towards an endless sky, assured that at some point it will be joined by some close friends and some new, then they will fly in patterns of ethereal beauty, for all they left behind to see, not concerned with those whose eyes hurt to look at them due to the glare of the sun.
21st Sept, 2013:
In the last two decades, I’ve confidently – promoted, campaigned, even given interviews to both print and television media – for products and services ranging from tour packages, airline seats, luxury-hotel rooms, branded jewellery, skincare, lifestyle stores, bookstores, mother care and children’s products, a café, even promoted humans in executive search, and what not…but now when it comes to promoting myself, my book, I feel a debilitating fear of rejection :)… of my first born…
31st July, 2013:
My life’s been like a game of ‘snakes and ladders’… Just when I think I’ve climbed a tall ladder, and am getting closer to the finish, I inadvertently step onto the head of a sneaky snake (circumstance) and I’m back down again to start the climb over on another ladder. However, though I keep changing ladders, and I step over numerous snakes …I never quit the game…
There comes a time in your life, when you have to leave the past behind, move onto what’s new and bright, for only then a new life you’ll inscribe.
It’s time to embrace new friends – who open up their lives and want you to step in; leave those who have long shut their hearts; carrying those – who never leave your side whether you’re a success or a failure in life, knowing how hard you’ve tried to scale every rung you climbed, falling flat on your face so often, while they have great luck they’ve been given.
It’s painful but it’s true – you outgrow relationships and friendships once true, just like you do clothes and shoes too. Why then do I keep holding on to the past – imbedded in my heart, not allowing new relationships to flourish – afraid they will not match what once was – though its long lost and gone.
December 23, 2013
As I Traverse
As I Traverse:
Green green green…is all I can see
As I slice through the face of diversity
Crossing over from the south to north
Of a country enigmatic to say the least
Tall white birds fly low over lush grass
That twinkles delightfully in the sunlight
As shimmering rivulets and lakes gush
Below pretty bridges on which tracks run
Clusters of multi-coloured graves with crucifixes
Are embedded on earth amidst palm groves
As tall the bright deity engraved temples stand
Their colourful idols carved large on pink walls
Amidst stretches of endless brown fields
Haystacks stand like clusters of village huts
On tall trees strewn amongst them white birds fly
As sunburnt men and women bend over their work
My eyes glued to the sight from my berth
Music playing into my ears from an ipod…
I concede to culture so diverse south to north of India
Just as the landscape slowly but distinctly changes hue
PS – I’m writing this, sitting on my lower side-berth on the Rajdhani Express, from Chennai to Delhi. Wanted to undertake this journey alone for a long time now and it’s been worth it – truly amazing, watching the change of topography and culture.
September 13, 2013
The Newspaper Review’s/Media Coverage links of “Across Borders” by Shuvashree Ghosh
(Click on the picture above to enlarge and read)
The Telegraph review of Across Borders: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130913/jsp/t2/story_17343876.jsp#.UljewuIUYt9
The Hindu coverage of the Delhi Launch: http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/between-the-lines/article5508192.ece
The New Indian Express, Sunday Magazine author interview: http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/1927216?fb_action_ids=10152083698974974&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/185382/The-New-Sunday-Express-Magazine/17112013#page/11/2
On Across Borders – A letter from Dr P.V Krishnamoorthy, the first Director General of Doordarshan: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=548085161926172&id=422992421102114
On Across Borders – compliments from Pranay Gupte (Author; biographer; historian; columnist):
The TOI coverage of the Calcutta launch of Across Borders on the 7th of October, 2013: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JS00vMjAxMy8xMC8wOCNQYzAwNTE0
The Telegraph (3rd Nov, 13) – the Calcutta launch of Across Borders covered in the article – Border Ties: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131103/jsp/calcutta/story_17523613.jsp#.UnXDJrQUYt-
In the north east issue of the Telegraph: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131108/jsp/northeast/story_17543250.jsp#.UnzsKbT872p
The New Indian Express coverage of the Chennai launch of Across Borders: http://m.newindianexpress.com/chennai/69359
The Hindu covers the Chennai Launch of Across Borders: http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/events/borders-and-beyond/article5358237.ece
The Times of India, Page 3, covers the Chennai launch of Across Bordersas ‘An Evening To Remember’ in the links below: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549170335150988.1073741835.422992421102114&type=1
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQ0gvMjAxMy8xMS8yMCNBcjAyMzAx
The Assam Tribune Review: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=576699309064757&set=pcb.576700002398021&type=1&theater
Pictures of the Calcutta launch at Oxford on 7th October, 2013: 2013: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.527481180653237.1073741830.422992421102114&type=1&l=14d538ddf6
Pictures of the Chennai Launch of Across Borders on the 14th of Nov, 2013: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.546464922088196.1073741834.422992421102114&type=1&l=58590d9b1d
Pictures of the Delhi Launch of Across Borders on 19th Dec, 2013: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.564831846918170.1073741836.422992421102114&type=1&l=29abb8da9a
The Calcutta Launch of Across Borders – on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W_2ubxVAwY – video 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTQatqdgf8k – video 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU13BecaYRA – video 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJlb1E0peWI – video 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EWpRKkyZA – video 5
The Face Book Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Across-Borders/422992421102114
Across Borders is available at stores pan-India, through India Book Distributors (IBD)…also at flipkart.com & amazon.in, in the links below:
http://www.flipkart.com/across-borders/p/itmdq8h99zrvzvtw?pid=9788192012650&otracker=from-search&srno=t_1&query=Across+Borders+by+Shuvashree+Ghosh&ref=0f24f88a-3eaa-4248-a2a0-db3c8b8d2fe8
The newspaper review’s/media coverage of my book “Across Borders”
(Click on the picture above to enlarge and read)
The Face Book Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Across-Borders/422992421102114
The Telegraph review of Across Borders: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130913/jsp/t2/story_17343876.jsp#.UljewuIUYt9
The Hindu coverage of the Delhi Launch: http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/between-the-lines/article5508192.ece
On Across Borders – A letter from Dr P.V Krishnamoorthy, the first Director General of Doordarshan: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=548085161926172&id=422992421102114
The TOI coverage of the Calcutta launch of Across Borders on the 7th of October, 2013: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JS00vMjAxMy8xMC8wOCNQYzAwNTE0
The Telegraph (3rd Nov, 13) – the Calcutta launch of Across Borders covered in the article – Border Ties: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131103/jsp/calcutta/story_17523613.jsp#.UnXDJrQUYt-
In the north east issue of the Telegraph: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131108/jsp/northeast/story_17543250.jsp#.UnzsKbT872p
The New Indian Express coverage of the Chennai launch of Across Borders: http://m.newindianexpress.com/chennai/69359
The Hindu covers the Chennai Launch of Across Borders: http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/events/borders-and-beyond/article5358237.ece
The Times of India, Page 3, covers the Chennai launch of Across Borders as ‘An Evening To Remember’ in the links below: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549170335150988.1073741835.422992421102114&type=1
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQ0gvMjAxMy8xMS8yMCNBcjAyMzAx
August 9, 2013
The Colours Of My Passion
The Colours Of My Passion
I dialled your number so many a times
Love my love, why didn’t you reply?
It drove me crazy, it drove me wild
Knowing, you were at the end of the line.
You had said, I was not good for you
Cause, in my rage I had abused you
But you know darling, that it is true
I am jealous of anyone else near you
But now that you’ve let down your guard
And let me back again into your heart
Wait till I show you – oh my love!
The colour of my passion is not only green.
I wait in anticipation again on the road
For you to pick me up at my door
We drive away into the sunset once more
Heart to heart, soul to soul, together at the core
As we sit down by our favourite shore
My passion brighter than the setting suns glow
You kiss me tender, you kiss me soft
Igniting the cinders of your passion once more
Unable to withstand the longing any more
We mindlessly devour each other by the shore
The sky and sea, mute spectators to our spree
As we cling together like sand to the feet
How did you think you could let me go?
The longing inside you, gnawing you so
As you gently lower your head to taste my peak
A meteor, I shatter into a thousand stars in ecstasy
The myriad colours of my passion, love do you see -
Passing through the prism that is me? Purple, orange,
Vermilion, gold – green is not the only colour it knows.
Oh my darling! Don’t you see, your light defines the hues in me
July 27, 2013
Rewinding Life:
REWINDING LIFE:
Sitting at the rooftop coffee shop,
People around us we silently watch
Are they all just as happy as us ?
Sharing their life over coffee thus
A lifetime nearly since we are friends,
Though now we reside at different ends
Having come to our hometown now
Allows us to catch up on life somehow
Would you want to live life, over again ?
Sipping my MINT ice-tea, I wistfully ask
Going back to college do you think ?
We could once again bring back the zing
Digging into her blueberry muffin she sighs
AH!The fancy free days and multiple-date nights
When classes we missed for movies and PUBS
Would do anything to get them back again
Life is now monotonous and a lot less fun
Duties, responsibilities we cannot shun
Wife, mother, daughter all in one
Being a boss is the most difficult one
After a sip of her café latte she smiles
Remember the cute guy with the crush so high ?
Also, the one who chased me in and out of class
It all seems now so much of the past ?
With close friends like us, one can really be
Only “ME” – from all other classifications free
Sharing our failings with each other now
We step down being superwomen somehow
The guys who chased us all over town
Married to us chase their careers now
Children too once grown will leave
On our friendship then, may we still lean
Life’s road often is steep and uphill,
Holding each others hand we trudge on still
Why can’t we again really be?
Carefree like we once used to be.
By: Shuvashree Ghosh
July 26, 2013
Together For A Day
Together For A Day:
As we stood there by the sea shore
Lost in our private thoughts, galore
The waves crashing loudly on the shore
Reminding us we were together, no more
Tomorrow will decide our love’s destiny
A love that once was, but can now never be
As we have come a long, long way now
Leaving our love behind somehow
As the judge unties our marriage vows
Setting us free from the clutches of doubt
No longer will we be together from now
Can we just not remain friends somehow?
Tomorrow is still a day, one more
Today is what we have for sure
Deciding to be the ‘perfect couple’ for a day
In the hope this memory will forever stay
Leaving our inhibitions behind for a day
We drive away to that faraway place
For one last time we defy our fate
To change what has now become hate
The room is cozy warm and true
It’s our passion that rings untrue
Just one time can’t we honestly be
Happy like we once used to be?
By: Shuvashree Ghosh
