HP and i

With the first Harry Potter book coming out in 1997, a year  after I was born, and the rest of the series, both on paper and on the big screen following in quick succession over the years, Rowling didn’t just start a series but rather opened up a whole new world for us.. My generation practically grew up with Harry, feeling his fears, reveling in his glories, and living every single phenomenon that happened in that world of wizardry.. The series taught us so much. And the relationships we formed with the characters of the book are nothing less than real. Dumbledore’s death, Sirius and Harry’s short time together, Dobby’s sacrifice- all of it made a huge impact on all of the readers, making us feel as real a loss as that of a dear friend.
With the end of the series in 2007, and the last movie releasing in 2011, it sealed the fact that like all things fictional, even this had come to an end, and the 10 year leap in the epilogue of HP-7 is something we will have to make in our lives without Harry and Co. to hold on to, and to share it with. This did not just end an era, but also shook all the fans who had lived their lives with Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of the folks at Hogwarts, as it sealed any further chances of making the transition from the teens to adulthood with our friends from Hogwarts.

2011 ended, and with it went the Harry Potter phenomenon.. there will be no more of the waiting for hours in line for the next book, anticipation about the end of Voldemort, hopes for a return of Fred, or any more of the Magic that was so much a part of our lives for so long. They came, they taught all that they could, and they left. Now we get up, brush ourselves, and move on and make them proud.
This is all too corny, but deep down most of us have felt this way at some point since the last page of the 7th book was turned. The book was closed, and even though we’ll return to it from time to time, we all know it is something that will never happen again.

While we bid adieu to 2011, and usher in the new year, we can only hope and pray that there is another person on a train somewhere preparing to create another world that would capture and give another generation something to hold on to, something to grow up with.

J.K.R. <3

Ashamed.

19th December, 2011.
22.40 hrs

I am in the train on my way back home from Rourkela. When the bed linen was being handed, my mother asked for a cleaner pillow case and a few extra napkins. The railway attendant pleasantly offered that this was his first day at work, and hence probably the lapse. He was better off at Kargil, he joked. Wars are easier than daily laundry battles, he added.
These days I'm reading Songs Of Blood And Sword, by Fatima Bhutto. It's a memoir of her father, Mir Murtaza Bhutto she's writing, especially to provide her younger brother Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Jr., a way of remembering the father he lost when he was only 6. The book covers a lot of Pakistan's political history, in vivid detail. Any way, there during my read, i came across a part where Fatima mentions that Gilani, Yousuf Raza Gilani, the current Pak PM, was an Army official in Gen Zia's regime, and was something of a favorite of the dictator.
The point is Pakistan's not-so-popular Army continues to enjoy extreme respect, spontaneous or forced, even to this date. And in spite of having been an active part of the military regime that executed Pakistan's first democratically elected PM, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Fatima's grandfather), Gilani goes on to become the second most powerful person in Pakistan today.
And a man who fought for our country in the freezing Himalayas, a mere 12 years back, and made God knows how many personal sacrifices for us, works as a railway attendant after his retirement from the Army.
Most of us Indians have great reverence for our servicemen, and while reading this will be as overwhelmed with emotion, as I am while writing this.
But most people who will come across him in this new job of his, on a regular basis now, will most probably be unaware of his background and will probably mistreat him the way they usually treat "railway attendants", without realising that this man risjed his world 12 years back for our sake. When he didn't know about us. Like we don't know about him today. Same situation, actions worlds apart..

What am I feeling now?
Overwhelmed?
Sad?

None actually.
Right now I am an ashamed Indian, ashamed of my country that doesn't know  how to show gratitude to people who are the reason we are not in the pitiable state that Pakistan is, even aft er 64 years of independence.

-An ashamed Indian.

the very first one.. :3

my first post on the BLUE MAIL..

look at me, all nervous, and conscious about what i type out.. as if someone's going to judge me and rate me.. didn't we all take to the web-logging forums only to defy judgement of any kind, to show that we don't care how relevant people think we are, and just cos we have something to share??

then why am i so nervous, trying to phrase things as well as i can possibly do right now? why am i looking for the best words, why do i have the thought of impressing people constantly nagging me??

probably we have gotten too used to the idea of having an A+ report card being framed and shown off every time someone came home.. and i guess it's time we chucked that.. a lot of you'd say that you don't know what i am talking about and you aren't self-conscious in the least bit while you're typing something, at times something as little as a comment on a picture, you don't think of what would be the most appropriate and appealing thing to say, rather than just putting down the first thing that you can think of, or nothing if that's all that comes to your mind..
well, this is all i can come up with at the moment.. maybe there'll be better stuff later, may be not.. i don't care. or at least i am trying not to.. goodnight folks!! :) :)