tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86668120243730502892024-03-14T01:31:22.035+05:30In my point of view: Tarun Mitra's BlogLife, Law, Business, Facts, Fiction and everything else in between. Why so many? Because mind should be responsive to each senses and not only to the particular one.Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-11010721279583429092012-02-27T23:14:00.001+05:302012-02-27T23:14:30.342+05:30The Burning Desire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yU2PFfgM1lk/T0vAsCofGDI/AAAAAAAACDU/9_-pjLQ67gU/s1600/IMG_0076_13.01.2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yU2PFfgM1lk/T0vAsCofGDI/AAAAAAAACDU/9_-pjLQ67gU/s320/IMG_0076_13.01.2011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">The Burning
Desire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The Burning desire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">That seeps within<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Who knows - from what, where<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Fire keeps burning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The Burning desire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Deep within<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Burns with me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">and my thoughts and dream<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The Burning desire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">scorching my heart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">And my mind suffers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">from blistering heat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The Burning desire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">ceases to stop<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The piercing heat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">melting carrion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The Burning desire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">with me its burns<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The glowing incandescence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">My ashes flew hereon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The Burning desire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Its my funeral pyre<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The fire will burn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Till I am gone.<br />
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The desire seeks no end<br />
The desire drives and stops<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The desire leaps and descends<br />
The desire fuels the very fire<br />
and the desire burns<br />
and within me<br />
The Burning desire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;">Tarun Mitra</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span>27<sup>th</sup>
February, 2012</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-49456464893744044112011-12-31T16:34:00.000+05:302011-12-31T22:45:06.979+05:30Last Post for 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">With
1<sup>st</sup> January, 2012 just few hours away, I think it would be the best
time to summarize my entire 2011. Speaking about my blogs, I wouldn’t say it
was a great year, I wrote and posted much lesser than I did last year, but for
everything else this year has been a watershed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If
life is collection of moments: and moments making events: and events making
memories, then this year have been a collection of all type of memories, the
good, the bad and the ugly; with each one leaving a deep impression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Like
something written in sand, impressions in life too gets washed away with the sprinkling
waves of future, or the quite torrent in the horizon of life. Nothing is permanent;
nothing is predictable except of course writing about them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Today,
at this juncture I am not apologetic that I don’t write further, I am not
apologetic that I led someone cross my life, I am not apologetic that I ignored
the requirement of my eyes and avoided specs, I am not apologetic that I prefer
to stay aloof, I am not apologetic that I don’t give alms to beggars, I am not
apologetic that my demeanor is of an angry young man, I am not apologetic that
I talk straight and I am not apologetic for being me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Happy
New Year to you all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Logging off from 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Tarun<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-77276722834159488382011-07-23T09:52:00.000+05:302011-07-23T09:52:46.852+05:30Delusion of Love: Part IV<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This is the final Part of my poem "Delusion of Love" you can access first three parts by clicking on <a href="http://braindeaf.blogspot.com/2011/07/delusion-of-love-part-i.html">Part I</a>, <a href="http://braindeaf.blogspot.com/2011/07/delusion-of-love-part-ii.html">Part II</a> and <a href="http://braindeaf.blogspot.com/2011/07/delusion-of-love-part-iii.html">Part III</a><br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Part IV<o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Essence of love is pain</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Untruthfulness its bane </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I suffered both</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">In her hands the most.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">That day she lied</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">As she met her ‘flyby’</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">For him she called up</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">And told me to shut up.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I was hurt to core</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I wished to live no more</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Stuck by axe of deceit</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">The body became bag of meat.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">She called up next day</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Explaining her way</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">She said she loved him</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">She cannot forget him.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Why you lie my dear?”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Why you drew me closer?”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“I was happy alone”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Why you gave me such delusion”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“I never loved you”, She said</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Its all in your mind”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Its him I loved”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“And will love – till the end of time.”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“You should’ve told me straight”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“You should’ve never lied.”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“You insulted me – my self respect”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Giving a wound – unrestrained”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">It is where the logic fails</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">In the altar of argument</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">As accusations gained momentum</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">It was hurt that pained.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">With a heavy heart</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I bid her farewell</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“I still love you” I Said</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">But she won’t gel.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I once was in love </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">But it was mere illusion</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">And my heart still singes </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">From this delusion.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">© Tarun Mitra</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">July 19<sup>th</sup>, 2011</div></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-90093323280604728472011-07-22T10:03:00.000+05:302011-07-22T10:03:39.422+05:30Delusion of Love: Part III<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This is the third and penultimate part of my poem "Delusion of Love" <a href="http://braindeaf.blogspot.com/2011/07/delusion-of-love-part-i.html">Part I</a> and <a href="http://braindeaf.blogspot.com/2011/07/delusion-of-love-part-ii.html">Part II</a> can be accessed by clicking on then respectively.<div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Part III<o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">One day – She did say ‘No’</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Over the telephone</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">My heart clenched, eyes cried</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">As if nothing happened, I smiled.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">It was hard I guess</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">But it was fine</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Only brightness of truth can</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Cut through forest’s pine.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">My love is pure</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">My adoration – pristine</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I’ll give whatever she asks</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">My love is unselfish and kind.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">When you love someone dearly</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">When you love someone true</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Its for them you care the most </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Even if its hurting you.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I told “I’m your friend”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“And I’m there for you”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Don’t you worry dear!”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Nothing will hurt you.”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">© Tarun Mitra</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">July 19<sup>th</sup>, 2011</div></div></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-59021740613900963522011-07-21T11:45:00.000+05:302011-07-21T11:45:40.164+05:30Delusion of Love: Part II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This is the second part of the poem "Delusion of Love" you can check out<a href="http://braindeaf.blogspot.com/2011/07/delusion-of-love-part-i.html"> Part I here</a><br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Part II<o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I knew I was in love</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">And it was no illusion</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I thanked gods above me</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">for allure of such delusion.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Love is not a trophy,</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">decorating our shelves.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">It is an unending feeling,</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Illuminating itself.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">This unending feeling</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Which hits you in waves</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Gives a blissful pleasure</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">An entertainment serenade.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Here mind is the servant</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">To whims of heart</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Senses surrender</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">To its unflinching desires.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">It also leaves a dilemma </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">In a manner sedate</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">A space, pitch black</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Shadow of illuminate.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">All the logic, every reason</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">All the rhyme, every season</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Fails of ignite a simple thought</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Of rejection – a broken heart.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I believed I can let it go</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">If she said me ‘no’</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I’ll stand besides her</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Quite simply! I liked her.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">© Tarun Mitra</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">July 18<sup>th</sup>, 2011</div></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-83409642551984748652011-07-20T10:06:00.000+05:302011-07-20T10:06:00.951+05:30Delusion of Love: Part IThis is the first part of my new poem 'Delusion of Love', I hope that you will like it.<br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Part I</b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I thought I was in love</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">But it was a mere illusion</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Oh! My Lord why did you</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Gave me such delusion</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">She came to me slowly </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">With her sweet intoxicating smile</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Inebriated with her charm</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">On my dreams I lied.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">As the days passed</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">And trust grew stronger</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Within me I knew </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I couldn’t hold any longer.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">One day she told me</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">There’s a guy she liked</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">For five years she’d loved him</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">My world came crashing by.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Gathering my self and emotions</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">I prepared to say goodbye </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">She said, “Hey! There stop!”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“It was past, doing flyby.”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">A faint smile sickled in my face</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">When her eyes shown and twinkled</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">As she mentioned me as “Special friend”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Her voice did a jingle.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">For her happiness I prayed</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">To Saints and Gods above</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">A feeling of eternal longing</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">is what I felt for her.</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">© Tarun Mitra</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">July 14<sup>th</sup>, 2011</div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-82365025536959392262011-06-10T13:25:00.000+05:302011-06-10T13:25:17.803+05:30Public Financial Institutions: Effect of latest Ministry of Corporate Affair Circular<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The <a href="http://mca.gov.in/">Ministry of Corporate Affairs</a>, Government of India (or Central Government) issued a General Circular No. 34 dated June 2<sup>nd</sup>, 2011 “Guidelines for declaring financial institution as Public Financial Institution under Section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956” which dealt with guidelines for recognizing institutions as Public Financial Institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Public Financial Institution or PFI is nowhere defined under <a href="http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/companiesact/companiesacts.htm">Companies Act, 1956</a>. Its major reference is only available in <a href="http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/companiesact/s4a.htm">Section 4A</a> of the Act, wherein certain institutions are referred as PFI. However, the term Financial Institution is defined under two statues:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://www.lawzonline.com/bareacts/recovery-of-debts-due-to-banks-and-financial-institutions-act/Section2-recovery-of-debts-due-to-banks-and-financial-institutions-act.html">Section 2(h)</a> of ‘<a href="http://www.lawzonline.com/bareacts/recovery-of-debts-due-to-banks-and-financial-institutions-act/recovery-of-debts-due-to-banks-and-financial-institutions-act.html">The Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993</a>’ defines “Financial Institution” as:-<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(i)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">a PFI within the meaning of Section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(ii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">the securitization company or reconstruction company which has obtained a certificate of registration under Section 3(4) of <a href="http://www.lawzonline.com/bareacts/securitization-and-reconstruction-of-financial-assets-and-enforcement-of-security-interest-act/securitization-and-reconstruction-of-financial-assets-and-enforcement-of-security-interest-act.html">SARFAESI Act, 2002</a>;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(iii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">such other institution as the Central Government may, having regard to its business activity and the area of its operation in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place> by notification, specify;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://www.lawzonline.com/bareacts/securitization-and-reconstruction-of-financial-assets-and-enforcement-of-security-interest-act/Section2-securitization-and-reconstruction-of-financial-assets-and-enforcement-of-security-interest-act.html">Section 2(m)</a> of ‘<a href="http://www.lawzonline.com/bareacts/securitization-and-reconstruction-of-financial-assets-and-enforcement-of-security-interest-act/securitization-and-reconstruction-of-financial-assets-and-enforcement-of-security-interest-act.html">The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002</a>’ puts the definition of “Financial Institution” as:-<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(i)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">a PFI within the meaning of Section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(ii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">any institution specified by the Central Government under Section 2(h)(ii) of the Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(iii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">the International Financial Corporation established under the International Finance Corporation (Status, Immunities and Privileges) Act, 1958;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(iv)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">any other institution or NBFC as defined in Section 45-I(f) of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, which Central Government may, by notification , specify as financial institution for the purpose of this Act;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Sub-section (1) of Section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956 mentions six institutions to be regarded as PFI for the purpose of the Act. Sub-section (2) of the said section empowers Central Government to declare an institution as PFI by notification in Official Gazette provided they follow the following criteria:-<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(i)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">it has been established or constituted by or under any Central Act; OR<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(ii)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">not less that 51% of the paid-up share capital of such ‘institution’ is held or controlled by Central Government.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Central Government, vide notifications under Section 4A(2), have added 54 institutions as PFI.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">From the above, it is amply clear that the term ‘Public Financial Institution’ or PFI do not conform to a particular definition. However, it is also certain that such institution is usually a Financial Institution primarily into the field of industrial / infrastructure finance and only on it notification becomes a PFI.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Coming back to the circular, the Central Government has made it clear that the Companies (or Financial Institutions) applying for being declared as PFI has to fulfill the following criteria:-<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.75pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(a)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Establishment under special Act or Companies Act being central Act (in conformity of Section 4A(2)(i))<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.75pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(b)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Main business should be industrial / infrastructure financing<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.75pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(c)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Net worth of Rupees one crore or more<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.75pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(d)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Registered as Industrial Finance Company with <a href="http://rbi.org.in/home.aspx">RBI</a> or as an Housing Finance Company with <a href="http://www.nhb.org.in/">National Housing Bank</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.75pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(e)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">In case of CPSUs / SPSUs, no restriction shall apply with respect to financing specific sector(s) and networth. (in conformity with Section 4A(2)(ii) and also adding state government entities to the preview)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The effect of this circular is that is paves the way for Financial Institutions in private sector , specifically in the field of infrastructure / industrial financing, which usually have long gestation period, to get registered as a PFI.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Certain benefits which a PFI enjoys under Companies Act, 1956 are:-<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Issue of Shelf Prospectus for raising monies (<a href="http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/companiesact/s60A.htm">Section 60A</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Appointment of Auditor in a company where such PFI has significant stake,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by special resolution (<a href="http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/companiesact/s224a.htm">Section 224A</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Relaxation in making inter-corporate loans and advances (<a href="http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l299-Section-372A-of-the-Companies-Act.html">Section 372A</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Reference to the Tribunal for Sick Industry (<a href="http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/companiesact/s424A.htm">Section 424A</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(5)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Operating Agency for reviving Sick Industry (<a href="http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/companiesact/s2.htm">Section 2 (31AA)</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">This would certainly enable the private Financial Institutions to have a better position and say while extending loans and advances to industrial / infrastructure projects. It also provides better conditions for raising funds and monitoring investments made in these sectors where gestation period is high.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">June 10, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">References:-<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/companiesact/companiesacts.htm">Companies Act, 1956</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1799426848"> </a></span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://www.lawzonline.com/bareacts/recovery-of-debts-due-to-banks-and-financial-institutions-act/recovery-of-debts-due-to-banks-and-financial-institutions-act.html">The Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://www.netlawman.co.in/acts/securitisation-reconstruction-financial-assets.php">The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/Circular_34-2011_02jun2011.pdf">MCA Circular No. 34, dt. June 2nd, 2011</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-70459461680099316742011-05-27T11:54:00.000+05:302011-05-27T11:54:41.561+05:30Non Compete Fee: Is SEBI going too far for investor interest<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">In a recent Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) judgment SEBI directive to include non-compete fee in offer was turned down. E-Land Fashion China Holdings Limited, the appellant appealed to SAT with regards to SEBI directive to amend its offer letter by adding the Rs. 15/- of non-compete fees to the offer price of Rs. 60/- per equity shares offered to the equity shareholders of the target company Mudra Lifestyle Limited. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Non-Compete fee or Control premium is an amount over and above the agreed purchase price paid to the promoters of a target company preventing them from engaging, whether directly or indirectly, in the similar business for an agreed ‘non-compete’ period. It is often a case that the promoters are hands on with the business and know each and trade secrets. They have the right contacts in that particular business and are usually repertoire of high end technical / commercial information. Therefore, in order to protect the interests of the acquirer and also of the small shareholders who decide to stay with the company, a non-compete fee is paid to the promoters for not engaging in similar business for a period of time. Such, amount is not added to the price offered to the ordinary shareholders of the company, unless it is more than 25% of the offer price as mandated in Regulation 20 (8) of SEBI (SAST) Regulations, 1997, or simply Takeover Code.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">However, a contrarian view can also be taken with regards to non-compete fee or control premium. It can be argued that it is a way of benefiting a large shareholder for the control over the target company, denying other shareholders the same benefit. Even SEBI Takeover Advisory Committee in its report dated July 19, 2010 suggested that such payment would not be fair on the minority shareholders of the target company, as the benefit should accrue to the company not only to a particular group of shareholders.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Coming back to the case, it was argued on the behalf of the SEBI that since the original promoter still hold 18.8% of the post offer shareholding and will have the right to appoint two directors, jointly select two independent directors and will select one Joint Managing Director, it can be presumed that they will be in the joint control of the target company. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The counter arguments provided by the representatives of the appellant focused on decided cases of Tata Tea Ltd. and Cementrum IBV and the fact that the directors of a company can also resign from their directorships. It was urged that the outgoing seller have managerial as well as financial capability to compete with the target company and to avoid such eventuality such non-compete fee is paid to the promoters. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The Tribunal concurred with the views of the appellant and held such payment to be valid and not to be added to the offer price. Defending its view, following logic was propounded by the Tribunal:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">“It is the case of the appellant which is not disputed by the Board that Mr. Murarilal<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Agarwal and Mr. Ravindra Agarwal are family members who were earlier promoters<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">of Bombay Rayon Fashions Ltd. which was carrying on business similar to that of the<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">target company. They separated from that company and promoted the target company and built it up as a strong competitor in the Indian textiles business with the assistance of Mr. Vishwambharlal Bhoot. The promoters have more than 20 years of experience in textiles business and have extensive knowledge of the market and intimate knowledge of the target company’s business, employees, suppliers, customers, systems and technological know-how. In this background, they are capable of offering competition to the target company. The appellant, on the other hand, belongs to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">South Korea</st1:country-region> based E-Land Group of Companies which has limited operating experience in the textile manufacturing industry in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Having taken over the target company, it would like to take the benefit of the knowledge and expertise of the promoters in managing such a business in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> and it is for this reason that they are being associated with the target company. In this background, we are satisfied that the promoters have the capability of building a strong business from scratch and as a result of their understanding of the market they have the ability to compete with the business of the target company. If they were to do that, it would neither be in the interest of the target company nor in the interest of its shareholders. We are further satisfied that the payment of non-compete fee in the instant case is not an attempt on the part of the appellant to reduce the cost of acquisition to discriminate against the public shareholders.”</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The Tribunal had the similar view in earlier cases of Tata Tea Ltd. and Cementrum IBV. In the case of Tata Tea Ltd the Tribunal had held “<i>When an acquirer takes over a business from the outgoing seller(s), it is obvious that the sellers have specific knowledge of that business and have access to and are in possession of crucial trade secrets of the target company which if disclosed or misused would be detrimental to and could cause irreparable harm to the target company and its continuing shareholders and by virtue of their association with that business, they (out going sellers) are capable of offering competition to the business being taken over. In such cases, it would be legitimate for the acquirer to enter into a non-compete agreement with the promoter sellers if he feels threatened by a lurking fear of competition from them. It is neither for the Board and not even for this Tribunal to analyse the threat perception of the acquirer. We are of the view that a non-compete agreement would then protect not only the target company but also its continuing shareholders</i>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Therefore, in all above cases, it was held by the Tribunal that non-compete fees is valid given the position of the promoters in the market and the law which mandates it. SEBI though have the right to vet the offer in terms of Regulation 18 of Takeover Code and suggest changes which should be carried out by the acquirer. However, it must tread carefully while deciding whether non-compete fees should necessarily added to the offer price for the benefit of the ordinary shareholders. It is an unalterable fact, that in many cases it is the promoter’s ingenuity that gets his business to new height and same ingenuity can be used against the company when he sold out, and instead of benefiting the ordinary shareholder it would only harm the existing holders, who in good faith acquired the company. It is up to the SEBI for not going too far in name of investor protection and let the investors decided themselves what is good for them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">May 27, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">References:-<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4hW6kkZomMRYWZhMzMwYjMtMzA3OS00ZjA5LWIxNWMtOGYzYWI5MGMyMmZl&hl=en_US&authkey=CJne5JQM">SEBI (SAST) Regulations, 1997</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4hW6kkZomMRNjRkMDc1NzUtZWYyOC00Y2RhLTkyNTYtOTRlNTEzNzg4MzJk&hl=en_US&authkey=COeZ57MN">SEBI Takeover Advisory Committee Report</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4hW6kkZomMRZDBlOWExMzQtNTUyZC00YWEyLTljMTMtMjJiZmJlMjNiZmY4&hl=en_US&authkey=CIjM5Y4I">E-Land China Holdings Ltd. V. SEBI (2011)</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4hW6kkZomMRMWExM2EzMzUtMGY4Ny00MDVlLTgxYzItOTMwNzczMDg3NDBl&hl=en_US&authkey=CMyb-Vg">Tata Tea Ltd V. SEBI and anr. (2009)</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_489201710"> </a></span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4hW6kkZomMRMWJiYzI4NjgtMzFhYi00ODE4LThjMjAtNWE3YWU1MDc5NzVj&hl=en_US&authkey=CNbhqtkI">Cementrum IBV V. SEBI and anr. (2008)</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The Mint, <a href="http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/18211613/Promoter-buyouts-noncompete.html">“Promoter buyouts: non-compete payments on a different footing”, </a>October 18, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The Economic Times, “ <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-05-25/news/29581817_1_noncompete-fee-payment-of-non-compete-fees-open-offer">Non-Compete Fee: SAT Rejects Sebi Directive</a>” May 26, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-83266168418058341472011-05-25T11:23:00.000+05:302011-05-25T11:23:48.268+05:30Star-Zee Distribution Alliance: A Challenge to Competition Law<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 17px;">The Mint, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Delhi</st1:place></st1:city> edition on Tuesday, May 24, 2011 reported that the Star TV and Zee Network are joining hands for distribution of their television channels. Both the networks, which have in their portfolios television channels with the highest viewer ship in the country, presently distribute channels through their own respective joint ventures, Zee Turner Limited and StarDen for Zee Network and Star TV respectively. This proposed joint venture between two top television companies could have serious impact on the Cable TV industry of the country; it would not only affect the Cable TV distributors and DTH operators but also the local Cable TV operators and the end consumers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">This proposed joint venture, poses a serious challenge to the Competition law, as there is clear cut absence regarding the status of the joint ventures in the Act. Although, the Act talks about the cartels, but proviso to subsection (3) of Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2002 provides that:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">“Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall apply to any agreement entered into by way of joint ventures if such agreement increases efficiency in production, supply, distribution, storage, acquisition or control of goods or provision of services.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Which will clear cut provide a defense to the companies to claim that their JV is in nature of “increasing efficiency” of distribution, as Mint reports quoting an unnamed Zee TV executive <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“move should be seen in view of the growing piracy of broadcasters’ signals as well as the monopoly of large cable networks in some markets such as Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Some states are monopolized by a single operator and we find it hard to collect subscription fees”</i>. It is an open secret that cable TV signals are being pirated and in many instances mafia controls the cable TV operations, however by making the consumer pay by their nose is any solution.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Such move will only lead to cartelization by the broadcasters to increase the revenues. Such cartel will not only squeeze cable TV operators but also increase the subscription rate, which will give no leeway to the consumer to seek recourse. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The report further states other broadcasters might also join this joint venture, making it near monopoly situation in the market. Further, it is also believed, as the report states, that the both companies are scrambling to declare their JV before June 1<sup>st</sup>, when the Combination regulations comes into force, thereby bypassing the law. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">However, as it is stated earlier, that the law regarding to Joint Ventures is vague and can form a grey area in the Competition Act. But if this joint venture happens, it will surely will one of the greatest challenges to the emerging field of Competition law in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">May 25, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">References:-<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><h1 style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">The Mint, “<a href="http://www.livemint.com/2011/05/24002816/Star-Zee-to-join-hands-for-di.html">Star, Zee to join hands for distribution</a>”, May 24, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></h1><h1 style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4hW6kkZomMRNmVhZTk1NDktYmY0Yy00MDdiLTgzNTgtZTQ0ZGFlYmNhOGZl&hl=en_US&authkey=CNiA_e8G">Competition Act, 2002</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></h1><h1 style="line-height: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">T<a href="http://www.cci.gov.in/images/media/Regulations/CombinationRegulation110511.pdf">he Competition Commission of India (Procedure in regard to transaction of business relation to combination) Regulations, 2011</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-72648881694975102102011-05-21T15:50:00.000+05:302011-05-21T15:50:52.396+05:30All Poor are equal, but some Poor are more equal than others<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poverty and deprivation get covered as events</i>” writes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palagummi_Sainath">P. Sainath</a> in his critically acclaimed and bestselling book ‘<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Loves-Good-Drought-Districts/dp/0747276161">Everybody loves a good drought stories from India’s poorest districts</a>’ “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yet, poverty is about much more than starvation deaths or near famine conditions. It is the sum total of a multiplicity of factors… Hunger-again just one aspect of poverty-is far more complex here. It is more low level, less visible and does not make for the dramatic television footage that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Somalia</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ethiopia</st1:place></st1:country-region> do.</i>” Off late, with release of movies like Slumdog Millionaire and with tourist coming here solely for the purpose of clicking the deprived class, the poverty and the poor has seen massive dramatization in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the world. But when it comes to counting them for the purpose of their welfare, the whole task becomes much more complicated as understanding the poverty as a process in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The Central Government on Thursday May 19<sup>th</sup>, 2011 approved the proposal of head counts of poor in the country, for the sole purpose of better targeting of the numerous welfare schemes it operates. First such census was done in the year 1992 to count the number of families below poverty line. This time it would be a paperless exercise using handheld devices manufactured by <a href="http://www.bel-india.com/">Bharat Electronics Limited</a>. Apart from counting rural poor, which used to be done earlier, this time urban poor would also be enumerated. The <a href="http://rural.nic.in/">Ministry of Rural Development, Housing and Urban poverty alleviation</a>, which is the nodal ministry to conduct this exercise, along with <a href="http://www.censusindia.net/">Registrar General of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> </a>would jointly conduct this exercise. A new methodology for determination of poor would be used, according to Business Standard “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The new methodology for the rural census would divide the rural poor into three sections. One set of the population would be included in the BPL category, while another set of people — the economically affluent but socially deprived — would be excluded from the BPL category. A third set of the population would be enumerated on the basis of seven socio-economic parameters. The methodology for the rural census would consider the economic conditions of the family and attach only moderate importance to factors like social backwardness.</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.5pt;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">The urban population would be enumerated on the basis of three criteria — residential status, social vulnerability and occupational vulnerability.</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">” However there is a catch, for the first time religion and caste would come into picture, that is, the religion and caste of those counted would also be determined.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Although this mammoth exercise of determination and labeling of poor would be undertaken by the <a href="http://rural.nic.in/">Ministry of Rural Development, Housing and Urban poverty alleviation</a> along with <a href="http://www.censusindia.net/">Registrar General of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region></a>. But those who will get benefits would be only identified by the <a href="http://planningcommission.nic.in/">Plan Panel.</a> As report in Mint says, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">While the Planning Commission estimates the number of poor in the country, the ministry of rural development identifies the poor. The processes used by the two are different: the Planning Commission estimates poverty based on consumption, while the BPL census uses socio-economic characteristics such as household assets</i>.” Therein lays the anomaly. Though data would be determined on a different basis, the information from it would be extracted from it using totally different criteria. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">This only shows serious lacunae in Government policy making at the highest echelons of the governance. The editorial in the Mint bluntly puts it like this<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,” On the list of this government’s most serious lapses in policymaking, this one should rank somewhere near the top. The below poverty line census, due to its methodology approved on Thursday, will identify more poor households than officially estimated. But, because the government has also decided that the official estimates will serve as a ceiling, the additional poor families will not benefit from poverty alleviation schemes. In other words, the government will pick and choose who is to be officially poor and who isn’t. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> has always had trouble with the ways and means of defining poverty and identifying the poor. But Thursday’s decision says something about the government’s confusion over the political handling of poverty. It is almost as if the aam aadmi’s government was telling some of its votaries: “You may be poor, but you ain’t poor enough”</i>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">More than Rs. 612, 000, 000,000/- (Rupees Six Hundred Twelve Billion) is spend annually by the Government on welfare of poor and how much actually reaches them is the mystery of the millennium. As it is no state secret that government programs for welfare of poor are usually not in sync with actual requirement and often the money flows out through the bureaucratic leakages. If they are not, the schemes provide incentives for diverting the resources meant for poor, for example, in National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (or loot if you prefer) monies are given for digging up pits and filling them up and calling it work.</span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Now if to this determination of poor, if we add in the factors of religion and caste, instead of a portable solution to this chronic problem, it would only provide a heady cocktail to the political parties, dry gunpowder which can be lightened up by smallest spark. Further, Supreme Court in many occasions has pulled up Plan Panel for putting a ceiling on the number of poor in the country as if putting a ceiling would end <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s poverty problem. The Mint reports that in one such instance the Honorable Court observed,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The bench made the critical remarks while dealing with a PIL filed by Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) complaining about large scale corruption and irregularities in the PDS mechanism of the country. Questioning the plan panel rational in fixing 36% as the percentage of BPL families in the country, the bench said, “It is astonishing as to how you can fix 36% people in the BPL category in 2011 by relying on the 1991 census data… How can you fix such a limit when the per capita income varies from state to state?... The bench also questioned the Commission for fixing the per capita daily income of Rs. 20 in urban areas and Rs. 11 in rural areas to determine the BPL category…How can you justify fixation of this meager amount when even in the rural areas the amount is not enough</i>”, further the Bench also extolled Deputy Chairman of Plan Panel to file a comprehensive affidavit in this regard. Now with such arbitrariness in determination and selection, isn’t the government is playing with the taxpayer’s money. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman">Milton Friedman</a> once quipped about government spending,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government.</i>” With such anomaly at the highest level which in fact will direct expenditure of billions of rupees, done with arbitrary manner, is it worthwhile to ask, whom the government is trying to please, itself by claiming poverty is down, its finances by claiming they are doing things efficiently or the electorates by providing benefits to chosen few and beating its chest to the rest about reduction in poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” writes George Orwell in his famous book ‘Animal Farm’, today a poor might say, “All poor are equal, but some poor are more equal than others.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">References:-<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri;"> <div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Mint, “<a href="http://www.livemint.com/2011/05/20004539/Quick-Edit--Uncommon-incertit.html?h=E">Quick Edit | Uncommon incertitude</a>”, May 20, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Mint, “<a href="http://www.livemint.com/2011/05/19232055/UPA-courts-trouble-with-BPL-ce.html">UPA courts trouble with BPL census</a>”, May 20, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Business Standard, “<a href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/cabinet-approves-bpl-census/436235/">Cabinet approves BPL census</a>”, May 20, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.5pt;">Mint, “<a href="http://www.livemint.com/2011/04/20134447/SC-slams-govt-over-fixing-BPL.html">SC slams govt over fixing BPL criteria</a>”, April 20, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div></span><br />
</div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-23948522454342141172011-05-20T14:03:00.001+05:302011-05-20T14:09:11.022+05:30I am not here, but I did not die<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">While changing the template of my blog, I have observed one thing; since 2009 when I started regular posting, my posts have progressively decreased. This story is same across by photo blog. Many times you might have seen the I write apologizing myself for not writing at all, or even trying to reason out for the same. But today it might not be the case.<br />
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My last post was on the 25th day of March 2011, it was a poem which I wrote a year back and which I feel is haunting me presently, anyhow, but the point is, even there it was not something fresh I wrote, it was from my records and I just pasted it. It is true for many of my posts, especially poetry, where I have shared something I wrote long back and stumbled upon them as I didn't have anything new to share. Even the last story I wrote was in November 2009, almost a year and half back. I am not apologizing for not writing, neither reasoning out my fallacies. One thing I have learned from the churns and twists of my life is that nothing is certain, especially when one sees certainty, at the very immediate moment the most uncertain thing happens, washing away everything, leaving a clean slate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is on this clean slate that new stories are started, and it is on this slate old memories are shared. It is from this clean slate I wish to venture again. In this new venture, there might be lack of continuity and again the same thing might be repeated once again. But as it is the human nature to try and to think, this wheel won't stop. From now on, many of you might find the contents boring as there would be more business and law items, but as I said the wheel must keep turning. Otherwise it will rust in the sands of time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In conclusion, I must say, even though I might not be writing lately but:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am not here, but I did not die.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Regards</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tarun Mitra</div></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-72912680815092742672011-03-25T09:00:00.002+05:302011-03-25T09:04:05.381+05:30She was like a bright light blinding my eyesight<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She was like a bright light<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Blinding my eyesight<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It was when I first saw her<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And had something moved forever<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She was a delicacy of delight<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And even for an untrained eye<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It was very hard to escape <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Her innocent presence-everyday<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Like bud of a flower<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Readying to get blossomed<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The fragrance she radiated<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Entranced me forever<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And as the days passed<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">My shyness in me elapsed<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She approached me for a talk<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">As I was taking my walk<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It was dream come true<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Which can be felt by lucky few<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Thought we talked only law<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I saw her without a flaw<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Impressed- that was she<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">By my knowledge and ingenuity<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Little she’d noticed she’d me over<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">That her beauty had a follower<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">We met now quite often<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For one reason or another<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Sooner she’d the hint<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Why I’ve mouthful of mint<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It wasn’t tobacco I deceived<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Her presence is that besieged<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The me in me from myself <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Just for her from herself<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And then one day with a cusp of courage<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I acknowledge her the beauty she is<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Her face, her hair, her body gestured<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">In accordance with me<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">As if like a silent communication<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She knew that I meant for her<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Never did she approved or disapproved<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The love I have for her<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Just for her one glimpse<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I willingly wait for eternity<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And whenever she came<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She bought joy to my sordidly <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I wish if this could go on<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Till the last moments of time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">But time cannot be held hostage<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">To human passions, emotions and pride<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And one day<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She walked away<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Away she went<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Without giving a clue<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">With no reason assigned <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She walked out of my life<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Away with her newer self<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">To a new world with newer friend<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Feigning ignorance of my presence<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">She loved company of her new friend<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I tried to see her from different ways<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">From net, mobile and bouquet<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Roadblocked all my way<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Heartbreak came without delay<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Why did she do it? I say<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Wasn’t I brave enough to say<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The deepest words of my love<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Or she’d always looked other way<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Brimming with vagrant hatred<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The brightest light turned dark<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The black hole of my emotions sucked<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The delicate portion of my heart<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Cursing myself for this cowardice<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I killed the poet in me<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">But the poet’s pen refused to die<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">On the paper it cried<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The void in me remains unfilled<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">After years of endeavors and tries<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Every time our eyes met<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">A piece within me dies<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Why did she do it? I often ask<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Just I was un-brave<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Or it was other one she craved<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Killing me again and again<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The Prince Charming gets his Princess<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">But Romeo poisons himself and dies<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Life is never romantic fiction<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It is a fact that seldom cries<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">There will be a judgment day<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">When lives will be put on scale<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">That day I’ll ask her<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Why did she walk away?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">But waiting for the final pyre<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The poet still haven’t died<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">In spite of limitless tries<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">On the paper the pen still cries<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">“She was like a bright light<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Blinding my eyesight.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra</span></p> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><div style="text-align: center;">January 26, 2010</div></span>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-37010470998336489252011-02-17T17:10:00.004+05:302011-02-17T17:26:48.090+05:30Meghe Dhaka Tara (Cloud Capped Star)<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">I am no film reviewer; neither on this case I will try to review the movie. After all a diamond remains a diamond even if an untrained eyes dismisses it as just another stone. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">The name “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054073/">Meghe Dhaka Tara</a>” or the “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054073/">Cloud Capped Star</a>” appears first time in the movie in a letter written to the protagonist, in which she is described as an cloud capped star by her lover. This movie is directed by great <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritwik_Ghatak">Ritwik Ghatak</a>, who along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyajit_Ray">Satyajit Roy</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrinal_Sen">Mrinal Sen</a>, can be considered as doyen of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_cinema">Bengali Cinema</a>. It is the same Ritwik Ghatak, who wrote the script of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilip_Kumar">Dilip Kumar</a> starrer “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050665/">Madhumati</a>”. More about him can be read in the incorporated links.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">“Meghe Dhaka Tara” along with “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komal_Gandhar">Komal Gandhar</a>” and “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056537/">Subarnarekha</a>” completes a <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Calcutta</st1:place></st1:city> trilogy, depicting the plight of victims of partition and subsequent atrocities in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Pakistan">East Pakistan</a>. Though I have not watched the last two, but the first one has left a deep impact on my consciousness.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">This is a story of selfishness and of being parasitical. Neeta, the protagonist of the movie, works her way to her death, only to see her family happy. His, older brother, Shankar, a budding musician, only one to understand her plight, but cannot do anything as he has to do his riyaaz, apart from listening the tantrums of being unemployed and eating on the salary of his younger sister. Her brother, Monty, and sister, Geeta, are two other characters who are at their best are interested in her salary for getting themselves some shoes or saree. Her mother always keeps whining and her father, a school teacher, is more interested in Wordsworth and Keats. Finally, her lover, Sanat, a former student of her father, unable to getting a scholarship for research, ends up in a job and marries her sister.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">The movie begins rather slowly, and as it progresses, it gathers a speed with sense of irony and injustice. A family which is almost completely dependent on the income of its eldest daughter, and its member whose fancies is also met by her, irrespective of her own genuine needs. He the battle to see her family happy and contented, Neeta sacrifices her own future, her own beau and her own life. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">When the question of marriage arose in the house, Neeta’s mother directs her father to marry of Geeta to Sanat, the reason was if Neeta, even if she is eldest is married, on whom they are going to survive. Geeta, even after her knowledge of Sanat’s relationship with Neeta, seduces Sanat and later taunts her sister “Not everyone have patience to wait”. Sanat, who thought of becoming a researcher, cannot hold on to his own principles. Monty, given the first chance of living the house leaves it. Shankar, after surrendering to taunts and watching her sister Neeta, leaves for <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Bombay</st1:place></st1:city>, only to return later. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">When Monty gets hospitalized, Neeta, despite of her falling health, gives her best to restore her brother’s health. During this time, Neeta realizes that she should have protested the injustice done to her, she should have thought about her, but then it was too late and she has some work in her hand. When Monty comes back, entire family is contened because he is reinstated and his salary has increased apart from getting some compensation, but no one asks about Neeta who makes it possible. Neeta now stays in lonely room, doing her chores on her own. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">When Shankar returns after gaining fame and fortune in Bombay, his family puts a long list of demands before him, mother asks from a two storey house, his sister Geeta (who is was pregnant) asks for a necklace for her new born, only Neeta fails to meet him. And when he meets Neeta and finds that she was suffering from Tuberculosis and is at terminal stage, he is devastated. He breaks this news to his family, who at their best only can offer their sympathies. His father, a senile old man, on listening this cries “I accuse” to which he replies “to whom” signifying all are guilty in this manslaughter. He leaves the home for booking a sanatorium for her diseased sister.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">In between, taking the view of the upcoming new born, the mother persuades the father for asking Neeta to leave. Father, with tears in his eyes, packs her belonging, and gently tells her to go as her breath is venomous, she is free now, and they can only give her their sympathy. On her way back, she encounters Shankar, who takes her to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanatorium">sanatorium</a>, in the hills, where she always wanted to be. In the climax of the movie, she clings on her brother and cries “Dada ami bachte chai” meaning “brother I wanted to live”, with all her emotions, all her truthfulness all her honesty, her plea echoing through the hills of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shillong">Shillong</a>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt">The movie itself is melodramatic and it is given a surrealistic effect by providing sounds of lashes at the scenes where Neeta is undergoing emotional churning. Though, nowhere in the movie it is the mentioned that her family is refugee, but it can be presumed, given their appearances that have crossed the border. The characters portrayed in the movie, I would plainly say, have a direct or indirect resemblances to real life. An average Bengali can easily find within his family or within his knowledge a person gung ho about ‘English’, a male member committed to ‘football’ or a female member in love with herself. But for me story resembles like a quote from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo">Victor Hugo’s</a> master piece ‘<a href="http://www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo/les_miserables/">Les Miserable</a>’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“They belonged to that bastard class formed of low people who has risen, and intelligent people who have fallen, which lies between the classes called middle and lower, and which unites some of the faults of the latter with nearly all the vices of the former, without possessing the generous impulses of the workman, or the respectability of the bourgeois.”</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt">The characters here where once intelligent people who became the victim of their circumstances. Now, they would feed on anyone who is different of them. Any one who earns is food for them and once he or she is finished, they throw it out, just like any garbage is thrown out. Many of the watchers will find the traits of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism"> feminism</a> in this movie. However, in my point of view, it applies to anyone whether male or female.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt">At the beginning of the movie, Neeta’s slipper breaks as she was heading home, she hides it and kept walking, Shankar sees this and ironically at the end another girl’s slipper breaks down, and she does the same, Shankar was there watching it, thinking of seeing a deja vous of Neeta.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt">For the last scene click on the this Youtube link</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt"><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/exy-ga6w3ls" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.5pt">© Tarun Mitra</p> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><div style="text-align: justify;">February 17, 2011</div></span>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-65555799220211909162011-02-04T10:15:00.003+05:302011-02-04T10:19:16.719+05:30Just My Thoughts…..<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" ></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" > <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Just My Thoughts…..<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">January 24<sup>th</sup>, 2011 will always remain as a memorable day in my life. Though I passed my CS Final on August 2010, got my MSOP done on January 14<sup>th</sup>, 2011 and was finally admitted member of this esteemed institute, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, on January 20<sup>th</sup>, 2011. But it was on January 24<sup>th</sup>, 2011 on which I was allotted my membership number, culminating a long and arduous battle. As I said, it has ended a battle, just a phase, not the war.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">For the last few months, I have not shared anything in my blogs, whether it is this one or Target Aim Shoot, either I had refrained myself or I was too lazy to share anything. It is a feeling that has become a common fixture in my character in 2010. The world has also meanwhile turned into quite a smutty place, with each one of us from every strata of society dying to gets its pie.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">Whether is corruption in the government, or in the roads, or in the media or even stupid reality shows. We have metamorphosed into an eternally corrupt society which accepts the basic tenet <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">that if something is above for free then it must be welcome</i>. We can see murder and pretend nothing happened, we may even enjoy it, cherish it and relish its memories later. Of course, you can argue that I’ve being cynical, but just honestly, take a minute out and look into the mirror; you will definitely find the answer. Alas! The word ‘honesty’ no longer figures in the dictionary anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">But still there is some sanity, or some faint resemblance of it. We all want to move and we do move, but at which direction, we do not know. We are rather unclear about the destination and unsure of the path we have taken. We go on complaining but we seldom try to find the problem in the first place itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">Sorry for diversion but just cannot help it, you just can’t blame god and government for everything. Coming back to me, I have joined twitter few months back, and I’d found it rather too fast for my palette. It just like a quickie or a blind date where it happens and ends within few minutes and only one realizes is the sensation of something that had happened. It is too fast for my sub-conscious and sometimes elicits response you just don’t want to give. But I’ll be there slowly in my own way, although I find it too overwhelming.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, I will be doing more off technical writing here than just sharing of my memories, poetry and stories. But I finding it would be more fruitful to share what I have learned. It is indeed difficult to maintain two different blogs or third one would be even tougher. However, I will be writing some literature (or gibberish as you may rate). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">‘<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">Is all is well in the world? No it isn’t. As I said, the war had begun now and many of my MSOP mates can concur with what I said. MSOP has been a great platform to make new friends and those 15 days were very special for me, I was just like passing out parade were each participant jelled like a family. Now, we many be in different parts of the country, but we will never ever forget that once we all got together out of compulsion of statue but have to leave with a heavy heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri">February 4, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></span><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-29038153413386770392010-12-05T10:37:00.005+05:302010-12-05T11:35:50.960+05:30The Microfinance Muddle<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >The saying goes <i>‘the whole is more than sum of parts’</i> and when it is applied to the Microfinance institutions, it couldn’t be more appropriate. After all, it is the small foundation of microloans upon which their empires of millions are being built.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >It is not the criticism of the business; in a capitalistic economy everyone has the right to do <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ethics">ethical business</a> within the framework of law. Such endeavor is entitled for its benefits, that is, <a href="http://www.investorwords.com/3880/profit.html">profits</a>. However, a business whose foundation is usually based upon service of the downtrodden without any expectation of profits and this very fundamental character of being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not-for-profit_corporation">not-for-profit</a> gets altered with growth of business surely raises eyebrows. It is the business of Microfinance, where such thing has happened and is happening. It not evil though, provision of credit to the poor, banking to the unbanked. But it is the way and manner of conducting of business which puts this sector into spotlight.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >The model of microfinance is not unique to India; it first gained prominence when it was introduced in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh">Bangladesh</a> by <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/">Nobel Laureate</a> <a href="http://www.muhammadyunus.org/About-Professor-Yunus/cv-of-professor-muhammad-yunus/">Prof. Muhammad Yunus</a>. As success has got many relatives, from there it spread across the world from Mumbai to Mexico City touching as many rural and urban poor who are in need of credit. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance">Microfinance</a> can be defined as <i>provision of broad range of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_services">financial services</a> like loans, deposits, payment services, money transfer, insurance products etc to the poor or low income households, for their microenterprises and small businesses, to enable them to raise their income levels and improve their <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/standard-of-living">living standards</a></i>. But what differentiates it from normal <a href="http://www.investorwords.com/5413/banking.html">banking</a> is its willingness to provide credit without any collateral and for taking such risks it charges rate of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest">interests</a>, which are normally twice or thrice the bank rate. The Microfinance Institutions or MFIs usually bets on the reputation of its customers, because irrespective of any hardship the poor will payback. It is a business of informality, personal touch, relations and contacts, therefore not surprisingly given the scale; millionaires can be made out this very basis of small loans.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >In an editorial in <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/">The Economic Times</a>, Delhi Edition, <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~ap2231/">Mr. Arvind Panagariya</a>, <i>Professor at Columbia University and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/">Brookings Institute</a></i><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/">,</a> expounded that there are three players in the microcredit market; the Self Help Groups or SHGs which are principally promoted by the government, the Microfinance Institutions of MFIs which are either NBFCs or Body Corporate or NGO or a not-for-profit enterprise and the local <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneylender">money lender</a>. These three constitute the entire spectrum of microcredit to the needing masses. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >SHGs works on the principle of applying c<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_wisdom">ollective wisdom</a> of the group and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_pressure">peer pressure</a> by which it tries that credit is productively used and loan is repaid. MFIs can be in form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGO">NGO</a>, not-for-profit enterprise or an <a href="http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_NBFCList.aspx">NBFC</a>, it accepts almost no <a href="http://www.investorwords.com/929/collateral.html">collateral</a> and since it seldom gets any help from the government it charges interests which can be twice or thrice of bank rate. Local money lender can be any person who may not be registered with any authority and provides credit at a high rate of interest with or without collateral. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >From an analysis of the characters of these players it can be deduced, as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y._Venugopal_Reddy">Dr. Y.V. Reddy</a> former <a href="http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/governors.aspx">Governor</a> of <a href="http://www.rbi.org.in/home.aspx">Reserve Bank of India</a> puts, that MFI is essentially a leveraged money lender, whereas the local money lender normally lends out of his own funds, MFIs are actually borrowing monies from depositors, bankers or from shareholders, <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privateequity.asp">private equity</a> funds etc and lending the same. SHGs on the other hand depend primarily on government, and given the political compulsions that ruins a democracy, the government usually shows an eagerness to waive loans. This very tendency creates a moral hazard which leads to non-payment and when a financially strapped member of SHG approaches another SHG for loan it makes the entire structure of SHGs weaker and steroidal. This in turn also gives an impression that for profit MFIs are sound, hiding their weaknesses and coercive practices.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Having come this far, it would be prudent to focus on the type of customers on which MFIs usually cater. Usually at the fringes of the society, they are primarily unbanked and do not have any recourse to credit. Even if they have any, it is usually the money lender who can charge high interest and is coercive in recovery of his loans. These people rank really low on creditworthiness and solvency. On these people MFIs with their borrowed money bank upon. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >I am not suggesting that poor do not have any right to grow or they do not have any right to do business, but easy credit is a tempting hazard and that is why more and more people are finding themselves drowned in perpetual debt trap. There can be two reason for this, firstly there is a stiffer competition amongst various MFIs to gain new members, irrespective of their solvency or credit history, and secondly the sources of funds of these MFIs. Since sources of funds of MFIs are banks who lend at commercial or market rate and investors who ask for good return, MFIs have to charge an interest rate which is usually charged on credit cards. Further, there are many MFIs in the market with similar sources of funds all wishing for good return on investment. These very pressures usually lead to cost control amongst the MFIs which can only be done through outsourcing and coercive collection practices. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >MFIs cater a market which banks do not touch, that is, people with low solvency. Ultimately, as Mr. Reddy points out, it is some sort of sub-prime lending. This is type of lending where the credit is forwarded to person who have low ability or have no ability to pay back. As a MFI grows in size and institutionalizes, it’s very basis of informality and intimacy between the borrowers and lender ceases. In addition, when a MFI hits the stock market, it is then entrusted with newer responsibilities to governance, return, compliance and performance.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >This very sector of microcredit is unregulated, that is, there are no standards of maximum interest to be charged or to whom loan is to be provided. Often it has been found that people, who have obtained loan from one MFI, take loan from another MFI for repaying their first loan and fall in <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_debt-trap">debt trap</a>. This practice plagues the MFIs with the same disease with plagues the SHGs. This story is same across the world wherever MFIs operate and have resulted in converting a boon into bane. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >An effective regulation of the sector, in letter as well as in spirit, is the necessity of the moment. Already it is been speculated that many MFIs would shut shop as their sources of finance, that is the bank loans, have dried up and government diktat of controlling the interest rates would lead to loss. It is imperative that the sector is needed to be regulated but such regulation should be only from one authority, which will give some predictability and clarity to this sector. Multiple regulators can only act as nails to the coffins of this ‘sunrise’ sector. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >It is a season of scams and scandals, and in this we are lost in the maze of <a href="http://www.india-server.com/news/nira-radia-a-raja-phone-tapping-25355.html">Niira Radia</a>, <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/what-is-2g-spectrum-scam-66418">2G</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Commonwealth_Games">CWG</a>. Why not? Once exposed they give us a good punching bag to trade punches without being hit back, and if there is any sense of ‘justice’ left we might even get a scapegoat. But just take out few minutes of time to think about this, whatever may call it, I’d prefer to say muddle, which directly affects our banks, economy and the very person who brings our milk, washes our dishes or even produces our food. This muddle affects them directly, and if you don’t think about it now, few months we might again be arguing. What is government is doing about poverty?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >© Tarun Mitra</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">1.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">2.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064038915009.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064038915009.htm</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">3.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><a href="http://microfinance-in-india.blogspot.com/">http://microfinance-in-india.blogspot.com/</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">4.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.bsp.gov.ph/downloads/regulations/attachments/2001/circ272.pdf">http://www.bsp.gov.ph/downloads/regulations/attachments/2001/circ272.pdf</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">5.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments--analysis/Getting-it-right-on-microfinance/articleshow/6979476.cms">http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments--analysis/Getting-it-right-on-microfinance/articleshow/6979476.cms</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">6.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/For-profit-MFIs-worse-than-money-lenders/articleshow/6973551.cms">http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/For-profit-MFIs-worse-than-money-lenders/articleshow/6973551.cms</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">7.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span><span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/22232535/Hollowness-in-banking-a-major.html">http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/22232535/Hollowness-in-banking-a-major.html</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></p>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-45952841548991928572010-11-17T11:18:00.003+05:302010-11-17T11:29:37.569+05:30Reach up and touch the skyI am not writing regularly these days, not even in my diary. So here goes an old poem not shared earlier. Hopefully by next month I will be able to write some article or short stories.But for now I am sharing a poetry written on 2006, 5th March to be precise. Hope that you will like this.<div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Reach up and touch the sky<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They’ll try to pull you down,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They’ll try to push you in,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Regardless of challenges you face,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Reach up and touch the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They’ll say there’s no ground beneath your feet,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They’ll say you’re flying too high,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Regardless of what they say,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Reach up and touch the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They’ll say a lot of things,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Which may impinge your thought process,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Regardless of this insinuation,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">You should always move in your way.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They’ll try to cow you down,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">In every, nook and corners of life,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Better be ready to face the challenge,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And lead your way upright.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">In the end of the life, you’ll find,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">If you’ve followed your path,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">If you’ve faced your challenges,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">If you’re unbowed,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">You’ve surely, reached up and touched the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15.8333px; ">March 5. 2006</span></p></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-28211861963210152062010-10-27T22:02:00.000+05:302010-10-27T22:03:19.423+05:30Home<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">A little girl asked<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">“Auntie, how do we make a home?”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Auntie answered<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">“Using clay, bricks and stone”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And she went to her chores<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">But I wondered.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Is it the clay, brick or stone<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Which makes a home?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Or something more than stones<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">A man, <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">A woman,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Some children,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And some family,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Bound together<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">in the bonding of love.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It may not be of clay.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Leave alone gold and stray.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Leave away the iron mikes.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">But must compose of love,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For love, which bonds together.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For love, powerful than iron mikes.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For love, which makes a straw,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">worthier than glittering gold.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Makes a home sweet home.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">January 31, 2006<o:p></o:p></span></p>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-47909561819791049352010-09-22T00:14:00.001+05:302010-09-22T00:15:53.422+05:30Back Again<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Writing after really long time, it has being more than two months. But why it is still hard for me to write. Why there is no inspiration in spite of full of seasons. I don’t know but in this one I will share few things that have held me for last few days.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It has been really long, for the first time since I have started regular blogging that a month has gone without a post. The story is same for my both blogs. So what is it that held me, lethargy, laziness, work or anxiety, or probably mixture of all?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Before I began, I give my sincerest apologies to those fellow bloggers whom I have not read during this period. I am sorry, but I cannot help and those I have read, thank you for reminding me that I have to post. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">What is blogging? Well, when this concept was invented this was supposed to be some sort of online diary, before it evolved into some powerful medium. Blog was primarily meant to be a diary, so it first comes to diary.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Diary keeping, a habit to keep records of daily happenings of our lives, so that one day we could read them and try to evaluate and relive those days. I started maintaining diary possibly after my 12<sup>th</sup>, though not regular, but still they are able to provide me the insights of my mind during that period. Many of my poems that you have read here were the pieces from those papers. But I must again admit that I was never regular.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I have started blogging out of curiosity of sharing. I was exposed to this tool from the newspapers and faint articles of the revolutions that it was brining. It was supposedly a cyclone at Orissa which bought this technology to my consciousness. It was an enduring picture of a person with Ham radio and another person with laptop trying to trace relatives of the victims that has being etched in my mind. If this tool was such powerful, then what good that it can do to me? I thought and started my first blog.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">My first blog was a disaster, it never got any reader. The reason may be because I never knew the tricks of getting readers or increasing hits. I kept posting, without even having a reader for it. Eventually, my old e-mail account to which the blog was linked got hacked in July 2008 thus ending my first tete-a-tete with blogging. Although, I made myself available a new e-mail account within few days, but it wasn’t till 2<sup>nd</sup> October 2008 that I started this blog and rest is history.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">But today, as I write down this, after more than two months, it’s not the history that has prompted me, but the retrospective vision of my past in concurrence with my present. Life, it is said that evolves continuously and during one such transition I caught myself during last few days making me difficult for me to pen down something, and there were other reasons directly connected to my situation present.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Today, as I post this draft, am a qualified Company Secretary, and it has being a journey of almost seven years and innumerable examinations, long hours of arduous study and patience. It’s been almost a month since my results were declared but alas as I said, my present also has a dubious role to play for not updating you on this.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Now, it would not be coincidence that I started keeping diary when I passed out my higher secondary examination, a same period when I joined this course. Going through the course of my life, I have found numerous instances where I have been alone, dejected, lonely and defeated but I survived. There has being instances where I have seen (and still seeing) my peers leaving me behind and I trudging along on the same broken path, but I have survived. I have seen time when everyone I knew was having a cool time, partying and I was peering over books. I have seen times when people who studied with me in the same course passed out and qualified, and I failed to make a mark. Gosh! I have seen a lot, and still I survived and today when I have passed I can at least safely say I have failed, but I was never a failure. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Now, please don’t ask about what Company Secretaryship is all about, kindly google it. It is professional degree at par with Chartered Accountancy and Cost Accountancy and is managed by an Act of Parliament. It is the actual Corporate Governance course available. However, very few people may know that. But for me it has been a journey of sorts with more than its fair shares of ups and downs. And on retrospective I might say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">c’est vie.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">After reading these lines, you all might be angry, and may ask “Why the hell now, after a month?” For this I would simply say, and as I have said, my present. Its push, pulls and pressures has its own role to play for stopping me from not writing. But now as I have written, I will try to be more regular. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">After my result last month (it was 25<sup>th</sup> Day of August) I wanted to write a post, about my journey till now. But not anymore, goal should always be at front of you and not backwards. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Now before I conclude this long write-up, which started from my brief history of diary keeping and blogging and to my present qualification. I must say, they both were intertwined. They both started at a period when I was at the edge, they both helped when I was falling down from the edge. They both challenged me and kept me going. It has being a long journey, I retrospectively sometimes I feel I should have finished it long ago, but alas! Now as I have, I am going for another one. Goal should always in front.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:1.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-53998244022364245962010-07-27T00:00:00.002+05:302010-07-27T00:02:35.500+05:30Death in InstallmentsThis one has its inspiration from a news item I was forced to watch on India TV. Hopefully I have done justice to the emotions<div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Death in Installments<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">A boy jumps into a river<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">“Wait for the moment” the presenter says<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The river was raging<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">10 seconds – will he live<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">15 seconds – will her survive<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">20 seconds – will he die<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">25 seconds – looks at his friends <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They’re petrified<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">30 seconds – he is struggling<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Or is he tired?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Or the river got better of him?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">32 seconds – he disappeared<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">35 seconds – he reappears<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Is this a miracle?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">40 seconds – no one in sight<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">1 minute – whether he is dead or alive?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Where the current have taken him?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">What can we do anyway?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It was death <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Presented to you<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">In installments<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span>Written on June 28<sup>th</sup>, 2010</p></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-10173523472408455802010-06-30T22:49:00.003+05:302010-06-30T22:55:01.954+05:30Beast of Burden<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rODeVZNSLmY/TCt86cI6vXI/AAAAAAAAAks/cSoUpuELe3c/s1600/IMG_0093.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rODeVZNSLmY/TCt86cI6vXI/AAAAAAAAAks/cSoUpuELe3c/s400/IMG_0093.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488617914308935026" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Beast of Burden<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span>I carry</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">On my desiccated back<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The loads<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Of people-over the mountains<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Over the hills<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Through the valleys<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For a living<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I am not tired<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I am not retired<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I am not old<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Age cannot bar me<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">How can it?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">If load ensures<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">My kin’s daily meal<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">How can it?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">If load ensures<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">My mere survival<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">How can it?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">If load became<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">An inseparable part of my life<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Remove it<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And my breaths collapse<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Remove it<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And my bones crack<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Remove it<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And my blood drain<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I am a Beast of Burden<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For ages I am there<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For ages I will be<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I am a beast, not a human<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I am not a beggar<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">I’ll never be.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">This is my first posting for the month of June 2010 and one after a long long time. Indeed there was some slackness on my part but also it would be pertinent to mention that I was busy with my life. I was following only few blogs (apologies to others), but Delhi heat and power situation can be unforgiving. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The picture was taken by me on my trip to Mussoorie. It was taken on 11th June, 2010 and now it seems a long time ago. </span></p>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-36762351951902465792010-05-19T22:40:00.003+05:302010-05-19T23:13:54.636+05:30Award for me<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rODeVZNSLmY/S_QbuWCMwtI/AAAAAAAAAjA/wvmUVnPlYjE/s1600/Kuchiki-Rukia-bleach-anime-33176-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 209px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rODeVZNSLmY/S_QbuWCMwtI/AAAAAAAAAjA/wvmUVnPlYjE/s400/Kuchiki-Rukia-bleach-anime-33176-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473029930164732626" /></a>Well I must confess it is my third/ fourth award. But honestly I don't remember when I was awarded the earlier one. Secondly I was blissfully unaware of rules therefore I just said thanks to the person who awarded me. My awards were given by <a href="http://fullofcherries.blogspot.com/">Megha</a> and <a href="http://nalinihebbar-poetry.blogspot.com/">Nalini</a>, both wonderful bloggers.<div><br /></div><div>My this award is given by <a href="http://beyondinvestments.blogspot.com/">Karan</a>, who happened to drop in my lonely blog and regularly shared his view. Thanks a lot buddy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now as rule of accepting the award I must forward it to my other fellow bloggers, I would like to give this "Cool Award" to</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fullofcherries.blogspot.com/">Megha</a> <i>for great stories and great photos</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://nalinihebbar-poetry.blogspot.com/">Nalini</a> <i>for great poetry and great photos</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sensible-bakwas.com/">Tavish</a> <i>great blog mate and too regular</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gyanban.com/">Gyanban</a> <i>needs no introduction</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://anu-lal.blogspot.com/">Anulal</a> <i>for heart rendering poetry</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blogs.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/">Mridula</a> <i>for encouraging me into blogging</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Thanks again <a href="http://beyondinvestments.blogspot.com/">Karan</a>, because it is for you now that I am posted again.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-35495909115232326882010-05-02T13:09:00.004+05:302010-05-02T13:15:26.309+05:30Death of Emotion<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">For the last few days its being easier for me to write poetry (though sporadically) than articles. Lets see whats next in store.</span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;">Death of Emotion</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">His heart clenched</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When he saw her on board<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A wishful prayer<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Of God bought forth</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">She walked inside</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Took a seat facing his back<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He kept turning<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">To figure her outta pack<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It’s being few months since<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He’d last had a glimpse<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The place was same<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But the time different<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But this time<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">T’was a long haul<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He kept turning<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As history strolled<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">They’d talked once<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He’d always remember<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Days of adolescence<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Were full of adventure<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">They’d walked together<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Talking ‘bout world<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As one’s fancies flew<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One’s was unruffled<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He confided his love<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As his nature was so<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He paid a price<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">She forget him soon<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">They met twice again<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But she didn’t ‘cognize<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As his heart clenched<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Her beat fine<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Today when she board<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">His emotions soared<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And gave a shriek<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Of an animal getting caught<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It’s being long time<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He consoled himself<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The death of emotion<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">is consolation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">© Tarun Mitra</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">April 16<sup>th</sup>, 2010</span></p>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-6577282236755150062010-04-25T11:28:00.000+05:302010-04-25T11:29:40.997+05:30Web of Life<div style="text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Web of Life<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Those who spin the web of life<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">May have never thought about strife<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">That exists between man and man<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">When every man gives the best he can<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Little knots of this web<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Loosened by the lessee itself<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Who has never pondered himself<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The shelter service the web provides<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And yet he is hell bent<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">On destroying the creation<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Of owner of heaven<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Those who spin the web of life<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">May 6, 2005<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-87891740835236243962010-04-22T15:28:00.003+05:302010-04-22T15:44:49.520+05:30For the one last time<div style="text-align: justify;">It have being callous not to write about it. But what to write about, Dantewada represented all what is wrong with India's security apparatus. The 'MASSACRE' of 76 Jawans is the grim reminder of fact that the nation is still not united and there is still a fire in the belly. But I am more or less appalled with the general reaction of blogging community, who failed to mention it. When bomb exploded at the Bangalore stadium, we sprang into action writing pieces, when Pune happened we where shattered, but why on earth our reaction is so different when it comes to massacre in Dantewada, Silda or Orissa. Why are we such callous about maoist violence. Just because it doesn't affects us directly or it is just not glamorous. In this incident of Dantewada I have seen many news pieces but not a good reaction of city slickers. We are too busy with IPL tamasha.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, after this short but true lecture, I present the poem I wrote about the slain Jawans, not the only ones who died at Dantewada, but the one at Silda, Orissa, J&K and any other part of the country fighting the insurgents. It is the least I can do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Her cell-phone rang<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">“Take care of kids” he said<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And the line went dead.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He unlocked his gun<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Aiming for the target<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Bullets have him overrun<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He prayed to god<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He thought of his loved one’s<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Till a bullet stuck his jaw<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He took a deep breath<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Taking cover under a tree<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Landmine tore his leg<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He took an aim<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Killing a few<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Then he was slain<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He hurled the grenade<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The usual thud<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Then he found six coming<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He took her picture out<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Holding it to his heart<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Falling! His hand held it tight<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He feared for his life<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Firing at all direction<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">One got is balls out<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">His life went through his eyes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Childhood, youth, manhood<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Laid there, in blood<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He wished to live<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Amongst the dead<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He gathered his ‘tines<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He gathered his dreams<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He wanted to be an artist<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Battlefield became his sheet<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He wept to live<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The battlefield’s sympathy<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Bullet through his brain<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He waited for death<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Miles away from home<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">His brothers made him bled<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He saw his blood<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Nothing was different<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Between their flag and his blood<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">He blew the whistle<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The final attack <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Bayonets on barrel<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They called for help<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">And nobody came<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Laying their bodies to rest<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The class war claim<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The lives of poor<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Whom the class represents<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They came back home<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Draped in flag, packed in coffin<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The dead were somber<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Their widows cried<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The future was bleak<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The promises hollow<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They were criticized<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For their tactics and strategy<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Their sacrifice unnoticed<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">For the one last time<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The Nation outrage<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The dust settled<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">On wilderness came IPL<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">For the one last time</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">They turned in grave<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Asking for the vengeance<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Crying on decadence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> © Tarun Mitra</o:p></span></p></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666812024373050289.post-86231191609940153262010-04-18T09:34:00.002+05:302010-04-18T09:36:34.220+05:30Legal TangleWhile waiting at a government office for getting the work done I wrote these few lines just for passing my time. The work was not done and the lines are before you.<div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Legal Tangle<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It is something called legal tangle<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Size more confusing than woman’s bangle<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">If the problem is countered at wrong angle<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It becomes difficult to untangle the tangle<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">It’s much easier to break the bangle<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">© Tarun Mitra<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Tarun Mitrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07121533974931375556noreply@blogger.com11