Steve Jobs, the man, who changed the way of life for every single human being on the earth with his inventions, changed his address from this planet to some other planet. He made his departure from here on October October 5,2011, where he had arrived on February 24, 1955.

As a mark of respect ,  we reproduce here produce a  prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University. (Editor)

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

(Nawab Pataudi - 5 January 1941, Bhopal – 22 September 2011, New Delhi)

March 16, 1962, will be remembered as a black day in the annals of Indian cricket; though not, I trust because its events precipitated my appointment to that title, which then stood at the summit of my ambitions, captain of India.

I am not normally, I think, a nervous batsman, but will admit to feeling a certain apprehension that day as I crouched in front of the stumps at Bridgetown, Barbados, ready to receive my first delivery from Charlie Griffith.

It was a typically hot afternoon, with some 10,000 shirt-sleeved fans jam-packed into the small, open-roofed Kensington park arena, and many more perched like hobgoblins on the branches of palm trees and other vantage points outside. The hubbub of chatter and laughter I remembered from a previous ‘friendly’ tour seemed now to have given way to a more positive sound. Hot on the scent of victory, the west Indians were screaming for our blood.

I hope my apprehension did not show, I don’t believe in showing emotion in public, like joy, or tears, any sign of fear is best confined to one’s private room. It certainly does not belong on the cricket field. However, as you will see, the circumstances were unusual.

We had reached the second afternoon of India’s match against Barbados, undeniably the strongest team in the world outside a test team and strong enough to defeat most test teams.

In our task of trying to match the colony’s first innings total of 394 we had lost three wickets for 15 runs and , as the young vice captain , I was acutely aware of the need for someone to introduce stability into the batting.

As I watched Griffith walk back to his marker I found it, difficult to erase from my mind all that had gone before.

So far on this tour, the Indian side had failed to live up to a reputation, enhanced be recent victories over the M.C.C. side led by Ted Dexter, yet we were by no means innocents abroad.

For this match our card had been emphatically marked. Cricketers who had visited Barbados recently had warned us to expect trouble from Charlie Griffith, a giant Barbadian fast bowler with a freak bowling action. This apparently, enabled him to make a ball rise off the pitch at an unexpected angle and at alarming pace.

Right from the start of play every Indian eye had been glued in Griffith. We had a good view of his action from the pavilion balcony, which is situated behind the bowler’s arm, and it did not take us long to decide that those warnings did not exaggerate the danger to s batsman of Griffith’s deliveries, some of which looked distinctly odd.

Early on our captain, Nari Contractor , received a ball from Griffith  which was short of a length, and it rose very abruptly. Nari had no time to play any sort of shot, but at the last moment hunched his shoulders. Even from the distance of the dressing-room we could hear the sickening thud as the ball struck his head.

It was a delivery which has since been the subject of much discussion. One suggestion is that the ball did not, in fact, rise above stump height. As an eye witness from reasonably close range I can dismiss this as completely inaccurate.

Contractor is about five feet nine in height, and when hit was clearly standing upright without having attempted any stroke. In fact, he did not move a muscle until the very last second when he appeared to pick up the ball for the first time, then he hunched his head into his right shoulder in a protective gesture. Had he not done this ball would have struck him in the neck instead of on the head.

It should also be remembered that contractor was already an extremely competent and experienced Test batsman, not easily deceived and still less likely to be scared, by the very best fast bowling.

I can remember turning to my friend Jaisimha, and there was shock in my voice as I exclaimed: ‘My god, Jai, that was a really bad blow.’

We watched our captain sink to the ground. The Barbadian players rushed to help, and a few of them escorted him towards the dressing-room. Halfway there, several of our own players had arrived on the field to give their support.

At first no one realized just how badly Nari had been hurt. Later, as he sat in a corner of the dressing-room, someone saw bleeding start from his ears and nose. At once manager Ghulam Ahmed telephoned the hospital. ‘Send an ambulance!’ we heard him demand.

Play continued. A little later Manjrekar who, technically, I have always considered the best Indian batsman of my time, and who was certainly our best hooker, received a delivery from Griffith almost identical to the one with which Contractor was felled.

By moving his head at the last moment, Manjrekar took the impact of the ball on the bridge of his nose. It was at once obvious that he, like Nari, must retire. Slowly he made his way back to the dressing-room, and on entering announced quite calmly: ‘I’ve been blinded, I cannot see a thing. The atmosphere was so tense; waiting to bat was almost like waiting for the executioner’s axe.

However, twenty minutes later to everyone’s relief, Manjrekar found he could see again. He wished me luck as I went over the top or rather out of the pavilion to join Jaisimha in the middle.

Less than twelve months earlier I had been involved in a car accident which cost me of this sight in my right eye, but my good one provided a vivid picture of Charlie Griffith charging towards me as if meaning business.

I saw him land at the crease at a wide angle, his chest square and left foot splayed outwards. Down came his arm – them nothing. I completely failed to pick up the ball at any point in its flight, though I could sense that this time it wasn’t a bumper. Fortunately, the delivery was off target.

I also failed to pick up Griffith’s next two deliveries, but caught just a glimpse of his fourth. It seemed to come towards me from mid off, and I could do nothing in time to prevent the ball from shattering my stumps.

At close of play the scoreboard showed we had scored 80 for six. But for a brave stand by Jaisimha and (Farookh) Engineer  we would have been in even worse trouble.

We returned to our hotel to await news of the captain. Since none came, the whole team decide to visit the hospital. You cannot see him now, he is in the operating theatre and under anaesthetic, we were told. We were allowed to wait in a room immediately below the operating theatre. Soon sitting there quietly, we could hear Nari’s voice quite clearly. He was cursing fluently in Gujerati, a language which, fortunately perhaps, few West Indians can understand.

Then everything went quiet again. Through the silence Chandra Borde heard an owl hooting outside. In our country the presence of an owl is regarded with grave concern because it is said to be a harbinger of ill fortune. Most of us feared the worst when a doctor entered the waiting-room to announce: ‘I’m afraid I have bad news for you….

But after a pause, the doctor continued: we want you to give your blood for the captain-it will help him through this grave operation.

Borde, Umrigar and Nadkarni, senior players who were of the appropriate blood group duly volunteered to give blood, together with Sir Frank Worrell, the West Indian Captain, who had made a special journey to be present Another visitor, Charlie Griffith, was obviously very concerned.

Contractor had sustained a fractured skull. The first treatment he received was an emergency brain operation, and this undoubtedly saved his life. Another critical operation that followed, this time performed be a specialist flown in from Trinidad, was to relieve a blood clot which had formed from the fracture, and which was pressing on Nari’s brain.

Happily Nari contractor survived and is still around to tell the whole tale, if he wishes. But he has a plate in his head as a remember of that near-fatal accident, and needless to say he has not been able to play test cricket again.

Manjrekar, however, recovered to such a remark able extent that in the second innings of the match he completed a magnificent century, as a fighting gesture, this must rate as one of the greatest I have ever been privileged to witness on the cricket field.

 (These are the excerpts of Nawab Pataudi’s autobiography ‘Tiger’s Tale’ published by Hind Pocket Books, New Delhi being reproduced here as a mark of  respect to the departed legendry player of the cricket who led the Indian team from a casual play team to a professional one.)

New Delhi : Aug 23, 2011 Posted at  18.48 IST

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the anti-graft campaign leader Anna Hazare to end his fast. He through his letter has assured of considering the Jan Lok Pal bill, prepared by his team to eradicate the corruption from the system.

Following is the full text of the letter:

“Over the last few days, I have watched with increasing concern the state of your health. Despite the differences between the government and your team, I do not think that anybody is or should be in any doubt about the deep and abiding concern which I and our government share about your health, arising from your continuing fast. I have no hesitation in saying that we need your views and actions in the service of the nation, from a robust physical condition and not in the context of frail or failing health.

“I have maintained that your and our object is identical viz. to reduce significantly, if not eliminate, the scourge of corruption from this country. At worst, our paths and methodologies may differ, though I do believe that even those differences have been exaggerated. The government is committed to passing a constitutionally valid and the best possible Lok Pal legislation with inputs from Civil Society with the broadest possible consensus. We are ready to talk to anybody. However, we will have to keep in mind Parliamentary supremacy and constitutional obligations in matters of legislation. As a government we respect and are responsible to the Will of the Indian People as represented by Parliament.

“As you are aware, the Lok Pal bill is now before a Standing Committee of Parliament. I have made it clear earlier and would like to restate that all options are open before the Standing Committee. Undoubtedly, they would be entitled to consider, in detail and clause by clause, subject to their discretion, not only the Bill introduced by us but the Jan Lokpal Bill and other versions like those prepared by Ms. Aruna Roy. Equally, I do maintain that they are fully entitled to make any changes to the Bill introduced by the Govt. and referred to them. In that view of the matter, the formal non introduction of the Jan Lokpal Bill version by the government is irrelevant and would largely boil down to a semantic debate.

“Nevertheless, in view of the concern repeatedly expressed by your team that the Jan Lokpal Bill version should be before Parliament, but more particularly and more importantly, in view of my deep and abiding concern for your health, our government is prepared to request the Speaker, Lok Sabha to formally refer the Jan Lokpal Bill also to the Standing Committee for their holistic consideration alongwith everything else. Furthermore, if you have any anxieties about time and speed, the Government can formally request the Standing Committee to try, subject to its discretion and the necessity to reflect deeply and spend adequate time on an important Bill, and fast track their deliberations to the extent reasonably feasible.

“I would like to say that this letter and each suggestion herein is actuated solely by the twin considerations of deep and genuine concern about your health and the emergence of a strong and effective Lok Pal Act in accordance with established constitutional precept and practice.

“I do hope that you will consider my suggestions and end your fast to regain full health and vitality.”

New Delhi, Aug. 19. Posted at 11.58 AM  IST : The latest symbol of the national aspiration for a corrupt free India -Anna Hazare , finally came out of Tihar jail in Delhi after 68 hours. He was greeted with cheers of the thousands of his supporters camping outside the jail for the past 3 days.

Anna  was arrested by the police on August 16, when he was to proceed to J.P.Park in New Delhi to sit on a fast unto death. It was  to press his demand for an effective Lok Pal bill in place of a lackluster bill in presented in the Lok Sabha, presented by the Manmohan Singh government.

He went ahead with his fast even when lodged in the jail. The arrest created an uproar in the country and people took to the streets holding rallies and torch light processions to support Anna and condemn the government’s oppressive act.

This forced the arrogant UPA government to retreat. Release orders were issued in a haste within few hours of the arrest but Anna refused to come out. He wanted the permission to fast without unjustified conditions, as were imposed earlier by Delhi Police.

The unprecedented support to the Anna movement in the country had left the decision makers with no option to withdraw their shameful 22 conditions.

Now the Anna fast shall continue at the Ramlila Maidan, the venue denied earlier by the police.

Bhopal, Aug 19. Posted at 08.26 AM  IST :  The inquiry commission set up by the Madhya Pradesh government to investigate the causes and consequences of the Bhopal Gas disaster of 1984, has invited information from the people. The commission has been set up in the wake of the court verdict in the issue last year in June.

The CJM court had convicted the then Union Carbide india Ltd. (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others for causing death by negligence. Each one was awarded a sentence of two years imprisonment. The verdict had come twenty-six years after the world’s worst industrial disaster that killed an estimated 25,000 people in Bhopal.

The unhappy and agitated people over the ‘unjust’ verdict in the case created a worldwide agitation forcing the state and the union government to reconsider its insensitive attitude and do something to save the situation. Hence, the union government of India decided to a) offer a little more compensation to the victims and b) apply before the Supreme Court for the reopening of the case against the killer Union Carbide company. However, the half-hearted attempt of the government of India fell flat in the apex court, which preferred the case to be heard in the Bhopal district court once again.

The state government, on its part, did constitute an inquiry commission to investigate a fresh the entire issue of the disaster. The commission headed by Justice S.L. Kochar  is expected to probe the causes of the tragedy and the role of the then state government and other people vis-a-vis the accused.

The commission would also investigate whether the Carbide plant was issued license as per the rules and whether it had adequate safety arrangements in place to avoid any possible accidents.

The issue of the safe disposal of the chemical waste from the plant was taken care off or not, too is covered under its ambit.

It also is suppose to probe the controversial release of Union Carbide Corporation Chairman Warren Anderson’s arrest and mysterious release within hours in Bhopal on December 7, 1984.

It may be recalled that the first commission constituted to investigate the similar issue, Justice N.K.Singh Commission, was abandoned halfway in 1985. No justified reason was offered by the state government at that time.

Even Sachin heard the sound : Dravid

Sports. (Cricket)  August 18, 2011 : “My first instinct was that I had not hit it. But there was a loud noise, and I couldn’t figure out where it had come from. So I asked my partner (Sachin Tendulkar) and he said there was a big noise.”

Sachin was right and Rahul was too rightly confused. It was a shoelace sound that played the trick on everyone at the Edgbaston ground on August 12 and sent a ‘not out’ Rahul Dravid back to pavilion.

According to a PTI report from London; Rahul Dravid today said that he did not ask for a review of the umpire’s decision in his bizarre dismissal during the third cricket Test against England as he was confused how a sound had come though he was sure he did not edge the ball.

Dravid was ruled caught behind off James Anderson in the second Indian innings of the third Test at Edgbaston when actually his bat had hit the shoelace and he hadn’t edged the ball.

Dravid said instead of trusting his own instincts, he had relied on the judgement of umpire Simon Taufel and non-striker partner Tendukar, who both felt that he was out.

“As soon as I got back to the dressing room I told the guys I had to see the replay. I could never have imagined it was a shoelace,” he said.

…Over to Ramlila Maidan

NEW DELHI.August 18,2011. 06.26 AM  IST. :  After a series of hectic parleys spread over 36 hours, the team Anna and Delhi police have reached a settlement over the duration of Anna Hazare’s  anti-corruption protest. The Gandhian has accepted the offer for 14 days of hunger strike beginning on Thursday at the Ramlila Maidan.

“Anna has accepted the DP (Delhi Police) permission for two weeks (of fast). Anna now shall be at the Ramlila Maidan post 3PM”, tweeted Anna team member Kiran Bedi.

The breakthrough came late midnight after a half an hour long meeting between Hazare aides Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Police commissioner B K Gupta at the latter’s residence in Chanakyapuri .

Police  commissioner agreed to grant the  permission for 14 days of protest by Hazare at the Ramlila Ground, after an initial offer of 7 days. After the agreement team Anna consisting of Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal left back for Tihar Jail, where Anna inside and a huge crowd outside has been carrying with their peaceful protest against corruption. Anna by fasting since 16^th morning and crowds by raising slogans and sitting in the most orderly fashion.

The team, on return first briefed Anna about the outcome of the meeting. Once Anna nodded to the agreement, the news was shared with huge gathering outside Tihar jail. This was greeted with loud voices of cheers.

This is being seen as a huge victory for Anna protest over the government of the day, which had imposed earlier none less than 22 conditions to allow the Anna protest against corruption and the demand to introduce Jan Lok Pal Bill in place of the weak official Lok Pal Bill. Now almost every unreasonable condition like a maximum of 3 days fasting, limited gathering of 5000 people and parking for only 50 vehicles at the dharna site has been withdrawn.

Anna gives them a sleepless night !

-          Raajkumar keswani

August 17, 2011. 07.10 AM   IST : Anna Hazare is reported to have slept well in a specially allotted room in Tihar Jail. I presume, he dreamt of a corruption free India, leaving the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cronies like P.Chidambaram, Kapil sibbal and Ambika Soni to spend a sleepless night.

78 year old, steel willed Anna Hazare has created a ‘between the devil and deep sea situation’ for the government in Delhi. They initially under assessed his strength and arrested him in an arrogant and indecent manner. The act, the gang regrets now.

The regret has not come just like that. It’s the people’s power, which emerged on the streets in every part of the country to protest the arrest of the man, who has emerged as a voice of people’s unheard woes. This was more than enough to see the truth for those blinded by the arrogance of power.

‘The truth hurts’ – is a common belief. In this case the Truth has hit them hard in the face. Hence, to save themselves from any further fatal injury and losing power, they attempted to whisk the crusader away from their vicinity to his village Ralegan in Maharashtra. But Anna is no Ramdev. He is one up on the gang. He refused to come out of jail unless was given an unconditional permission to carry on his fast unto death against corruption at J.P.Park. This, obviously, has put the government in a bind. To allow Anna in the capital is a big risk for them.

To add to their problems, Anna is reportedly continuing his fast even inside Tihar. I guess, even the Prime Minister and his gang too has not been eating almost for an equal time. Obviously, not to support Ana but hammering their heads as to how to snatch Anna’s support system.

rkeswani100@gmail.com

RTI activist shot dead, police still clueless

Bhopal. August 17, 2011. 06.11 AM  IST : In a shocking incident in Bhopal on Tuesday morning an RTI activist and a great supporter of Anna Hazare movement, Ms. Shehla Masood was shot dead and the police is still groping in the dark.

Shehla Masood, had emerged in the past few years as a strong campaigner against corruption in Madhya Pradesh. She had become an eyesore for the corrupt politician and bureaucrats in Bhopal. Currently, a senior officer of the M.P.Police, illegal mining and malpractice in the state’s wildlife conservation were at her target. She has been raising serious questions regarding several tiger deaths in the state.

The 35 year old Model turned activist Shehla did not make a family and devoted herself to the social causes. At around Tuesday morning, before leaving for the protest venue at Boat Club organized in support of Anna Hazare, she updated her facebook account with this message ‘ Gandhi “the purpose of civil resistance is provocation”. Anna has succeeded in provoking the Govt and the Opposition. Hope he wins us freedom from corruption. Meet at 2 pm Boat Club Bhopal.’

Soon after she came out to proceed for the protest venue from her house at Koh-e-Fiza locality.  She took the driver’s seat at her Santro car but could never start. She was shot at by hitherto unknown killer at point blank range.

Forensic experts, curiously, have given a new twist to the murder by talking of a possible suicide case. Dr. D.S. Badkul , Director Medico-Legal Institute at Bhopal after post mortem of the body has raised the issue. ‘Her car was shut from all sides and she was shot from the front’ he says.

According to a PTI report , ‘ police could not recover any weapon from the murder site or inside the car to establish that it was a suicide case. The bullet that was recovered from Masood’s neck has been sent for examination, said police.

The music of the flute will never die

- Raajkumar Keswani

‘The music of my flute will not die…’ said the 20th century great rebel poet of Bengal, Kazi Nazrul Islam, in his famous ‘Rajbandir Jabanbandi’ speech which he delivered in the British Court of Chief Presidency Magistrate Swinho on January 16, 1923. He was facing the sedition charges and was sentenced to one year of rigorous imprisonment.

I hear the flute again. This time it’s Anna Hazare, who is playing the anti-corruption tune. People are dancing and the corrupt are shivering. In between the two, stand the protectors – King’s Police on one side and the Truth on the other. History suggests – no police bullets have ever been able to kill the Truth. And the truth- that it’s the time of national awakening against the corrupt system has been revealed aloud by the sounds of fury on the every street of the country.

Anna Hazare and thousands of others have been arrested for speaking the Truth. It’s time to revoke the spirits of our freedom movement and recall a few orations of the era to light up the path for the journey of the brave soldiers of ‘Second Freedom Struggle’ going on in the country – we call Bharat, The Republic Of India.

I reproduce here a few selected excerpts of the ever inspiring speech of Kazi Nazrul Islam ‘Rajbandir Jabanbandi.’

“One is a king with a scepter in his hand; the other is the truth, with the scepter of justice. On the side of the king are state – paid government employees. On my side is the King of all kings, the judge of all judges, the eternal Truth – the awakened God.

…What is behind the King is insignificant; behind me is Shiva. The goal of the side of the king is selfish, monetary reward; the goal on my side is the Truth, the reward of bliss.

… The message of the king is like bubbles; mine – the boundless ocean. I am a poet, sent by God to speak the unspoken Truth, to give form to the formless creation. God speaks through the voice of the poet. The message is the revelation of the truth, the message of God.

… Truth reveals itself. No angry look or royal punishment can suppress it. I’m the lyre of that timeless self-revelation - the lyre in which the message of eternal Truth has been resounded. I’m the lyre in the hands of God. A lyre may break, but who can break God?

… The music of my flute will not die simply because my flute has been confiscated- I can play the music through another flute I can get or create. The music is not in my flute- it’s in my heart; and the flute in my creative skill of constructing it. Therefore, neither the flute nor the music is to be blamed.

… Am I a rebel because I voiced the distressed cry of the Truth stricken by this unjust rule? Is it only my own crying? Or, is it the united, loud voice of the entire oppressed in Heaven and Earth?

…I know the cataclysmic roar of my voice is not mine alone- it’s the cry of the suffering of the entire world. This cry cannot be silenced simply by intimidating me, even killing me. Suddenly, in someone else’s voice, this lost message will be heard thunderously!”