Hi Googlies, 1/4/10
PTL!
Sorry you guys were disappointed. I am on parole big time thanks to the middle published on 12th. Seems I got many negative remarks for many middles so Herald thought it wise to put me on hold till Editor comes back. I FEEL EXILED! The Middle is my exhaust pipe for my funny side and I love being a comic so it feels like someone has put a plastic bag over my head and is squeezing the air out of my lungs at the same time.
I don’t think I got any negative ltrs for previous middles or Gadgil would have mentioned them. Why the hell would he have given me the fortnightly slot when I was hated, for Pete’s and Pandu’s sakes!
Three articles sent to Herald have not been published in the time frame I hoped so I am posting them here for you to enjoy. Please do not send them elsewhere without my permission, OK?
Maria has told me that my short stories should be inaugurated after Easter. I’ve written 3 so far, centred around 8-year-old Sahir, a Punjabi boy, living in Goa. The first one is titled ‘The Pieces of the Puzzle’.
On the personal front, just read an exceptionally humorous story called “Father of the Bride’. Earlier, I had read ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’. These two have been made into blockbuster Hollywood films, both starring Steve Martin in the role of the father.
Hope you had a splendid evening on 27th by candlelight in aid of EARTH DAY. We went to Glenn’s village, Saligao, where the local school had a programme organized for this purpose. We had to carry candles and those who played non-electric instruments regaled us from 8.30-9.30 pm. Last year, India joined in the endeavour and saved 1000 Megawatts. This year, I don’t know how much was saved but I enjoyed being a part of the effort.
Vi$h, I got your final episode. When is it gonna be published? It looks like it has been styled on the Chetan Bhagat books, but it did make interesting reading. How do you find time to write with your hectic schedule? Do you have any contact with Roshan or Darshan Dixit? Tried to see if he is on Facebook but no luck. He will go places given the opportunity and I’d like to be able to help if I can. You and he were my shining stars
Chalo then, bye for now. Do pray that I can continue with Herald. I love writing, I really do.
4m d heart 
Auriel

Articles follow:
1. FATHERS WRITE.
2. ‘P’ FOR POLITICS, ‘P’ FOR PRAYER.
3. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE – A PLAY FOR POWER.

FATHERS WRITE

Dear Reader,

I was almost 18 years old, when my girl friend told me that she was pregnant. Her parents told her, "If you are pregnant and you don't get the abortion, you can't live in our house anymore." My girlfriend told me, "If there is a way that I can get help; I'm not getting an abortion! I'll keep our baby." We were both scared...had no where to turn to.
Then we thought it would be best to get the abortion. Her parents and I paid half each for this abortion. And ever since that day, it hurts to even think about the abortion.
You think about, "Would it have been a girl or a boy...If the baby was alive...it would be 10 months old....what would it look like?" and "If the baby were alive, what would I be doing right now?" I think about it every day. I could have been taking my baby to the park, if it were alive. And bought the baby a teddy bear, or even a juice. And even...go to the toy store and buy the baby a toy. It's hard for me to deal with ...especially when you see families together everywhere you go. They all look happy.
You have a choice to keep the baby and have a nice place to live while you are pregnant. So...please think about what you are doing to yourself, your body, your mind and your baby. And make the best choice...call for help! Okay?

A Concerned Friend,
Kevin (19 years old)
Dear Young Man,
So you want your girlfriend...or maybe your wife to get an abortion. Well, so did I a few years ago. We had been married for ONE SHORT MONTH and I was making close to nothing...struggling to survive. She had to work at least for a year or two. And guess what happened? She gets pregnant. Just what we needed! I said, "No way. We can't afford it. And I'm not going to have to depend on my parents." So I went to the Drug Store And I said to the guy, 'You got to help me.' Well, he gave me some things and I went home and to make a long story short. It didn't work. And nine months later a baby girl was born, Anna Marie.
Yes, those first years were very difficult and we did have to move in with my parents and then with hers...which lasted for almost three years. My wife did work. A high school friend of hers took care of the baby along with her own child or one of the grandmothers would help out. And we managed.
Why am I telling you all this?
I guess its because I am hoping and praying that you might learn something from what could have been the WORST mistake I ever made. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life..but at least I never succeeded in aborting my own child. And I thank God every time I think of it.
Yes, it was difficult...but anything worthwhile is difficult. And where your own child ... your own flesh and blood... are concerned when you are considering an abortion... you are considering aborting your future too.
There is an old saying, "What comes around...goes around." I believe that saying is true. God will help you or send help to both of you during this difficult time. Ask Him to. I am praying for you and the mother of your child. I am hoping this letter helps you to avoid the most terrible mistake of you life.
Take care,
Jack

These letters were taken from a prolife website and I share it with you to highlight the fact that not just the woman, but even the man, goes through trauma after a ‘medical termination of pregnancy’. Very often, the father of the child is never consulted nor are his feelings considered, the premise being that it is the mother who bears the brunt and therefore must make the choice.
Society must acknowledge their responsibility in such crimes because it delivers the verdict of guilty and sentences the boy and girl to a lifetime of guilt. If society understands that a life is more important than outward appearances and teaches its children wisdom and prudence, instead of safe sex, I bet we can turn this tide around.
It is not old-fashioned to be chaste and pure, and to abstain before and even after marriage for a higher purpose. Even animals know this better than us, for don’t they ‘come together’ only for mating? We tell a youngster, “Beta, use a condom.” What we are actually saying is its ok to use a woman as a sex object as long as you don’t get her and yourself into trouble.
Sex education should encourage chastity and abstinence instead. Do we think our youth are dense that they can’t understand these words? You will be amazed at how many youth just want right direction and respect those who give it to them without mincing words. I have taught boys of the sixth standard about this and they are so open and appreciative of these ideas. Some may say, “Isn’t that too early for a child to know?” My contention is if you allow them unrestricted TV viewing and every second episode is rampant with couples kissing and making out, what do you think our children are learning anyway?
We are spirits inside a body and we fail to see that our calling is not just to make love and babies but to lend a hand in creating a beautiful world, like the world God created for us ‘in the beginning’. So let us not thwart God and defy his plan with our own warped up, narrow-minded concepts of sex and procreation. Self-control and chastity are the keys that open the door to a freedom of the mind that knows no boundaries. Once we make the right decision, that door will always be open for us.
And when the mistake does happen as it will even in the best of situations, it is not wise to throw ‘the baby out with the bath water’, but to acknowledge one’s mistake and rectify it by not repeating it and definitely by not committing another, that of hiding it through an abortion. In such times, courage and respect for life are what is called for.
I appeal to parents especially to understand the needs of your children. When they do not get love in their homes, they turn to the world and can be horribly deceived. I ask you to teach your boys and girls to respect themselves and others and preserve themselves pure and holy as a beautiful gift to their spouses on their wedding day. These values only you can give them.
I appeal to the young to listen to your elders for they have lived longer and, though they may sound old-fashioned, they will ultimately be the ones who will say, “We told you so.” in the end. Chastity is not a bad word. Safe sex is.
______________________________________________________________________

‘P’ for Politics, ‘P’ for Prayer.

‘Mr. M.P. charged in land-filling case’, ‘Mr. J.F. held for rape of R…’, ‘UP Minister caught in sleazy video’, ‘CM runs away from home’. Oh, I can go on and on and on. A single thread runs through all these headlines – a politician’s human failings and subsequent falling. As recipients of the decisions these men and women make for our welfare or ‘woe’fare, we have the right and responsibility to act. Often, however, we only react. Either we get volatile, spewing venom, or we remain passive, ‘tut-tut’ing in protest. In rare cases, we act, as the villagers did at the rally on March 4th to implement the RP.
I must admit, at the onset, that I too am guilty of reacting to the deeds of our politicians. Who likes to hear heinous tales of a hormone-hippy MLA or a money-mad MP? Whether one rapes a woman or a piece of land the havoc created is the same. People are hurt, lives are destroyed, trust is lost. Of course, it angers me when I see the poor victimized so that the rich can buy them with their own money. It saddens me to think of women treated like prostitutes in their homes or workplace, abused and misused just because they are dependent on their ‘bosses’. I am aghast to hear that hospitals leech their patients dry when they should be giving them a new lease of life. And I have to hang my head down in shame that I have elected to the chair a person who is most likely going to bring the downfall of my country or state.
So I urge my fellow compatriots actively engaged in the battle to create a change of heart in our leaders, to get down on your knees with me and pray for them.
Jesus said once, “Have the faith to move mountains.” Is our faith that strong? When Joshua believed God and circled the mighty wall of Jericho, it came crumbling down. David defeated and killed the giant Goliath with stones, flung from a child’s catapult. Daniel was protected by God in the lion’s den and Joseph was given the post of governor in Pharoah’s court so he could save his family. God is definitely all-powerful. I am certain He alone can turn things around, if we only give Him full control. We need do only whatever he tells us to, and our actions should always be coupled with compassion - for our politicians were created as pure as we were in their mother’s wombs.
Pray for them – ‘They do not know what they do’. When the rich man died and went to Hades, he realized too late that all the ill-gotten wealth he had accumulated was of no use. It could not even get him a drop of water to assuage the heat of Hell’s fire. Many of our politicians amass wealth for their children and their children’s children at the cost of our children and our children’s children. They need our prayers desperately for their children will inherit their sins as well.
Pray for them – ‘They do things so that people may see and praise their deeds’. Ever heard of the herd mentality? We see it in young men and women, teenagers especially. ‘Everybody is doing it so I too must join the bandwagon. If I don’t I will be sidelined, ostracized even. I will lose my position, my power, my prestige.’ Our leaders too are rarely ‘one of a kind’. They all ‘herd’le together forming a well-knit family of fiends. The Zilla Parishad elections have been a classic example of this herd mentality. The fanaticism each party exhibits and upholds so fervently is distressing. So pray for true democracy and for ‘one of a kind’ leaders like we had in the past – Gandhiji, Nehru, and now Rahul Gandhi.
Pray for them – ‘Their God is money.’ All politicians begin with good intentions but somewhere along the line they forget these and embrace the immoral ideals of stalwarts in the field. Who ever heard of leaders having cars and houses on a meagre salary in the past? Even if they claim to be doing honest work, is that the right example to give the aam aadmi who has to walk with blistered feet and live in thatched huts? Even the attire they don is as expensive as their taste in branded models. Khadi, once spun by Gandhi on a chakra for a song, now costs a bomb. Visits to casinos, fist fights in airplanes, manhandling reporters are all signs of a power-puffed politician.
I have great faith in prayer to move mountains, and in God to achieve the impossible. My only fear is that he will ask me to find five righteous people so he can avert the destruction of the ‘Tower of Babel’ing fools and I will not be able to get even one, not even myself. (823 words)
_____________________________________________________________________

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE.- a play for power.

(Scene opens in a dingy room of a motel on NH-17. The curtains are drawn and the door bolted. Two men are seen huddled around a box; the other four are sitting on a huge king-size bed, jumping up and down as if to test whether it can withstand their strength.)
Agent Mango: (Quivering with excitement, his goggles almost falling off) Open the box! Open the box!
Agent Mouse: (Stroking his receding hairline) Patience, Babs. Wait for Agent King Kong to come. He is vital for our mission.
Agent Slicker: This suspense is too much. Why is Agent King Kong taking such a long time?
Agent Light Bulb: (with a dazzling smile) You know how it is! He is forever getting caught up with health issues. Must be one of those days for sure.
Agent DeeJay: I left an inauguration of a massage parlour to come here. Why can’t he do the same with his job?
Agent Lampoon: Try asking that to him, you moorhen. Health is wealth these days, don’t you know?
(Silence fills the room. Twiddling their thumbs, the G-7 keep giving furtive glances at the box, then at each other. Suddenly from the far right, there is the sound of a blaring horn, followed by the strains of ‘Crazy Frog in the House’)
Agent Mouse: (hurrying to open the door) The ‘Naal’ has finally come. Get up from the bed and let’s get down to business.
(Agent King Kong saunters in and greets the six with a high-five each, then spots the box on the floor.)
Agent King Kong: Aila, ala kai? What has Shredded Power sent us now?
(Squatting, he rips open the brown wrapping, lifts the lid and takes out a glass bottle carefully from the tissue lining inside the box.)
Agent DeeJay: (squinting hard) There is a message in the bottle. See there, it’s folded and fixed to the mast of the ship.
Agent Mango: (Reading aloud) XLMITY. Aha, seems to be a Russian ship. Got groovy lines too, just like our River Princess.
Agent Light Bulb: (pushing Agent Mango aside) Break the darned bottle, man. Let’s get to the bottom of the mystery, for crying out loud!
(Agent Slicker takes a paperweight from the table and gives it to Agent King Kong who ceremoniously breaks the bottle. Reaching for the message, he nicks his finger on a jagged edge and blood oozes out. The paper drops to the ground and everyone scrambles to get a hold of it. The paper tears in two: Agent Mango gets one half and Agent King Kong gets the other half.)
Agent Mango: (reading from his half) It says here: “Dear Digs, I am writing to tell you that I am happy with…..”
Agent King Kong; (reading from his half) “…..Alemao. Tell the G-7 to behave and humbly apologise. S.P.”
Agent Mouse: (in a frenzy) What utter nonsense! We can’t allow this message to reach Digs. C’mon, think, men, think. (Looks at their vacant expressions) Ah, never mind, let me have a look at the two bits. (He stares at the message for a couple of minutes, then beams) Simple Salmons, I have a brainwave. Let’s rearrange the words. Dumbo Digs will not be the wiser. (He snips here and he snips there, then sticks the pieces together carefully)
Agents G-7; (reading aloud, together over Agent Mouse’s shoulders) Dear Digs, I am writing to tell you that I am happy with the G-7. P.S. Tell Alemao to behave and humbly apologise.
Agent Mango: Let’s go right now to Malbhat. We must strike while the iron is hot, the champagne is bubbling, the…...
Agent King Kong: (Hitting him on the head) Aare, Vedia, don’t you know Tuesday is a bad day to do anything good? Let’s go first thing tomorrow instead. Tomorrow is Wednesday – Budh-Var, you know?
Agent Deejay: Yeah, yeah, good one, Boss. We’ll go first thing tomorrow. Catch the rooster before he crows. Then let him bell the Cat, what say?
Agent Light Bulb: (eager to have the last word) Miaw! Let’s hope he doesn’t run away again when he sees us coming. Seems only just yesterday, he ran when those Active Ishts of ours bamboozled him with the RP demand.
Agent Mango: (equally eager to have the last word) Amen to that! A CM at home is worth two in the casino. (Earns a stare from Agent Mouse and shuts up)
Agent King Kong: (Shaking his fist in the air) Victory to the G-7! Pao to Alemao!
(They all shake their fists in a victory sign in the direction of the capital as the curtain falls)
(778 words)