Long long ago, i had read an article in a sunday supplement of a leading english daily about an impending ufo sighting; a specific day in the coming week with time, to be precise.It was in the pre-liberalisation days, let me assure you people in those days took the newspaper as the gospel.Needless to say, the said article and its astonishing exploits about this encounter of a third kind proclamation was enough to create a flutter in the vast readership.The anxiety laden week started with frantic enquiries and possibly mass procurement of over the counter night sky watching nick-knacks.At last this once-in-a-life-time moment of truth was upon us.i distinctly remember bending twice over the balcony grills, over the terrace parapet and scurrying down to the enclosed playground nearby to get at least a fleeting glimpse of the visitors from far.The night passed,no sighting, not a flicker, absolutely no dancing of lights as promised.A depressing and did-i-miss-it? syndrome ridden week later, it appeared in a corner article as an answer.The newpaper had a good laugh at the cost of its readers.i was a miniscule speck they needn't have bothered laughing at.The date! they poetically pointed out.You could have guessed it from the obvious choice of date it was published.First of April!No offence but just thought it would be a good occasion to whip up a solid laughing spree in case the idea caught on.It did.
Later i found myself shaking my head at the foolishness of believing such an incredible idea of visiting spaceships,my juvenile age bracket at that point of time notwithstanding.But now for the last few years, i am equally appalled at the serious tone with which the channel, 'discovery' and its clones, air the alien propaganda. They have these fat farmers from Australia or Virginia who rant on camera as to how they lost their favorite cow to the aliens with huge sucking machines. Why only cows? Why not rabbits? The aliens have a very limited choice it seems.i doubt there was ever a missing persons complaint filed for a fat farmer sucked up by the aliens. For all the crazy stories you may have heard about dancing lights in the sky and thin green men, no hard evidence is present to sustantiate the claims.'i saw them there' is the usual one liner you would hear from a retired army officer or some bored housewife making their time to time appearance on television;read discovery,our own aaj tak ect ect. While i have no doubt the former channel is a respected one with a huge fan following the world over and the latter is a desi top of the heap hindi news channel, they simply cannot peddle these insane stories in the name of enmassing viewership.Like a lot of things unproven, undetected inspite of the latest advances in science, things like the ufo phenomenon too continue to take popular imagination by storm in the face of an all believing, all lapping, ignorant, rumour happy population.A historical reference too is found in the engravings it seems. Yet no body ever remotely claims to have made any direct contact or even reported a conflict with these so called visitors from far.Only stories are told by a stray attention monger and filed by unscrupulous agencies.i hear a collective laughter whenever these episodes are aired or printed, the joke is again on us,me.

INDIA FORUM

Apni chatri tum ko de dein,

kabhi jo barse pani,

Aur kabhi naye packet mein Bechein

Tumko cheez purani.

These tacky lines are from a SRK starrer called 'PHIR BHI DIL HAI HINDUSTANI'. The now- noble -now -shady situational cartwheeling capacity of us Indians is highlighted here. We the people, Nandan Nilakani's people of idea of India, prof Amartya Sen's, argumentive Indian, Nehru's people who had a tryst with destiny are truly unique. Colourful,simple,vibrant,copious,greedy,helpful,brainy,jesty and enterprising. Its not easy to describe us in mere words. The tumulous world market has gone crazy trying to stay afloat on a wobbling plank supported by the trio of dollar, euro and pound. But the rupee keeps us merrily sailing, the world be damned.The soul of Indian economy is the enterpreneur in India, be it the wealthy old fashioned business men viz the Tatas, Birlas or Ambanis, the educated, sophisticated Murthys,Bhatias or plain instictive Biyanis and Premjis. At every stage of the post independence era this very model of business has taken the country forward to the new millenium with heads held high.Ours may not be the fast food variety of the west which only thinks big and bigger, its rather the slow cooked nourishing meal, which keeps good warm company in cold, bad times.The collective strength of our young and middle aged citizens is a very very poweful force to be ignored. We have a long way to go and the difficult times will only test the true mettle of the famed Indian entrepreneur. A lot of new ideas are floating around as to how we shall eventually reach the top slot at the world stage. A top nation with a very sound economic health isn't really that distant a dream any longer. In fact we can all see it in our lifetimes, the developed and poweful India. However some of the persistent problems must go by then, like the lacklustre governence we see all the time, plus the amount of corruption eating into every strata of society. A very bright talent pool like this is good news, whereas the evident regressive approach of the power-brokers is sad news.Let's all take a joint initiative to spell out our minds towards all the possible ways we can tackle the problems ie find the best solutions for future course of action.Thus we exchange ideas and listen to each other and perhaps give the government a good picture of what's in store for non compliance of the very demand of the people.A huge sounding board like, say an online public forum with the active participation of the ruling government seems like nice idea. All students,teachers,traders, proffessionals,experts,scientists,public servants ect can voice their opinion or suggestion in this forum and possibly elicit a suitable response from the government or the responsible agency in response to the big picture. It need not be a one way traffic, people can appeal to the general public, answer queries or perhaps start a separate debate. Such a site will definetly handle a lot of traffic and may place some moderators;self appointed or through a selection process to avoid repatation and malintention. This hopefuly would throw up myriad viewpoints and ideas towards a well governed and better behaved country. Some obvious clauses would be no joint demand,no involvement of\by the armed forces,no nuclear policy related issues,no raising issues pending in the courts and no appeals towards certain foreign policies.Some areas are best left to the efficient ministries of the centre.We can chat through to the new world order! Happy blogging.