मेरा न ऐतबार करो, मैं नशे में हूँ।

You are so beautiful,

You cannot be loved.

You can only be worshipped,

You can only be adored.

मेरा न ऐतबार करो, मैं नशे में हूँ। 

*मेरा न ऐतबार करो, मैं नशे में हूँ:  Don't you believe me, I'm a bit tipsy.

Wishes on the sands

 

The soft moonlight came in waves,

And poured onto the beach.

It lit up all the sand castles,

Left behind by the children,

It poured out from the windows,

And the doors of the castles,

And lit up the wishes of God's children

Left behind on the sands

Of the beach.

The waves raging in the sea dare not,

Venture onto the beach,

And bring down the sand castles.

It was the night of the angels,

Riding the waves of the moonlight.

Best wishes on Ram Navami.

Killing fields of the gods

 Why did God make the world spheroid,

And not cuboid?

Or more generally, parallelepiped?

Then, so much space on the poles,

So many faces, so many edges.

God said, He had considered all that,

But a sleepyhead would walk off an edge,

Oceans would run off the edges.

But most importantly,

The Universe would look so ugly,

With cuboid stars, and cuboid planets,

Even parallelepiped moons.

Some god or goddess would be tempted

To play the Rubix cube,

With the earth.

Now, that He wouldn't let happen.

Earth is not the playfield,

Nor the killing fields,

Of the gods.

Just round the corner

 

Someone sent me this good wish:

May the miracles you need be just round the corner.

And, I promised to the person:

I'll try and cut corners.

No one can stop me from leaving

It is easy to cry,

When every piece of you cries,

And, it is easy to laugh,

When every atom of you lies,

It is easy to die,

When your laugh is a lie,

When I know that you cry,

Though your eyes are so dry,

And yet,

No one can stop you from loving,

And knowing that,

No one can stop me from leaving.

 

Divinity

I am using 'they' and 'their', 'themself' in place of 's/he', 'his', 'her', or, 'himself/herself' as per the new diktat of the English language.

I connected with an old friend after many years. They were ebullient and happy. Their life had been good. Blessed they were too: accomplished themself, spouse, and children. A small turmoil in their life had happened, if one can call the particular circumstance that: the crab (read, cancer) had gotten into their body, a type of affliction that happened one in a million. And happenstance, it happened to them.

They were told to have radiation therapy done in the United States. 

Now, that was pure shock! Not only did it involve bagful of dollars, as far as they were concerned this was an alien land, with no friends or foes. 

But if you have to go, you have to go.

Now the divine part:

When my friend reached USA for treatment, they found that angels were all around them. Some long lost friend from Philadelphia would visit them, sometimes their children's friends would take them out meals, sometimes the doctors and nurses would take special care. It was a bagful of miracles.

When my friend reflected about their circumstance, their divinity took over. My friend said to themself: one in a million means that now that I have the crab, the other million minus one, are very less likely to get it, in other words, they are saved. I can afford the cost of radiation therapy in the USA, I am surrounded by angels. Not everyone would be. Perhaps that's the reason why I got the affliction in the first place.

Isn't that a truly divine thought? 

Venus is hanging from the moon

 

Venus is hanging from the moon,

That tenuous thread will break soon.

She will crash into the earth,

Kick up a shindy for all her worth.

And then Jupiter too will fall,

With his 92 Jovian moons and all.

Whose will it be the next turn?

Mars, Pluto, or Saturn?

All of them will crash and fall,

Misshapen earth will become very tall.

Reach up into the night sky,

And touch the sun up there high.

Date most ordinary

 

What is this?

10111/11/10111

The world today is divided into binaries.

So, this is today's date divided in binary.

Date, month, year, the ternary.

A date most ordinary.

Waiting will become bearable

 

Days will get longer now,

And nights will go in a jiffy.

Waiting will become bearable,

But, finding my star will be iffy.

Love is quicksand

 

It's like quicksand,

Love is too.

More I struggle,

And, the more I do,

It sinks me more

Than ever before.

So, I will try and let

My struggle be,

For, love is all I need,

To set me free.

Angels walk among us

Yesterday my friend's young daughter met with a motorcar accident. She was with her friend and both of the them were injured. The injuries were moderately severe, but wasn't life threatening. My friend and his wife live in Chandigarh and his daughter works in Bangalore. The accident happened here in Bangalore late on the night before.

My friend rang me up at about 7 in the morning about the accident and gave me a number to contact. I contacted the person who owned the number and asked him where my friend's daughter was. He told me the name of the hospital and reassured me that everything was under control. I was familiar with the hospital and it was near my house too. I asked him if I could come to the hospital in an hour because I had a few things to settle at home before coming to the hospital. He told me to take my time. 

When I reached the hospital, I understood the enormity of the situation that he had handled. The young man was a complete stranger to my friend's daughter, or the daughter's friend. Late into the night, he had heard a huge bang outside his paying guest (or, PG as it is called here in Bangalore) and he rushed outside. A car on the road was a mess owing to an accident that had just happened and the driver and the passenger of the car were in a shock. With the help of some onlookers he pulled them out. He made himself as the person in charge of the situation. With the help of some others, he brought them to a hospital, somewhat calming the daughter and her friend out of their anxiety and pain. He then realised that he should take the ladies to another hospital where the facilities for treatment were more and charges were slightly less. With a determined and extraordinary effort he did that too.

My friend's daughter was in such a shock that she didn't even remember her father's contact details. She told him to go her PG and find a bag in her room wherein her father's number was written on a piece of paper. It would be a brave man who would venture inside a ladies' PG in the middle of the night to find a contact detail. He did that too! Mind you, he was just a wage earner who delivered packages like the delivery boys of the popular food delivery services. So, every hour that he was with the ladies was time he would otherwise be out to earn his living. The most humbling thing for me was that he wouldn't even accept my gratitude as if the deed that he had just done was par for the course for him.

Then, about this other girl who came in to help at the hospital at 4 in the morning. This girl, was friends with the daughter's friend. Their friendship had blossomed at the common PG that they had stayed together. This girl is from Manipur. And what a girl she is too! She took charge of the entire admission process of the hospital. This included the calming effect she had on the girls who had met with the accident. This also included the emotional and financial support this student from Manipur gave to her PG friend when the latter was crying out that she couldn't afford the treatment in the hospital. And their friendship was just a year old!

Although, I kept telling her that she could go now, and that I would take it from there, she did not leave her friend till she saw her friend get admitted into the postoperative care ward... after a pretty long operation in the OT. That was late into the night.

I can't forget her gossamer touch on her friend's forehead as the latter was wheeled into the OT. It was just magical.

I really learnt a lesson or two from this gentleman and the lady on selfless service. Angels walk among us.

 

Scrap the sky

 

You scraped the sky,

And made a hole.

Then you took

A lonely stroll.

A blackhole here,

And a blackhole there,

They'd sucked up

All the souls.

They wouldn't let,

The Light out,

Whether you beseeched,

Whether you cried.

Scrap the sky.

Scrap the skyscraper too,

Find your Sight,

Find your Light.

Is empty was full

 

This is a management lesson by the poet Bulleshaa. 

The words written is Hindi in this image roughly translate to this:

Bulleshaa says:

When you see the empty bowl, don't assume that he is going out to beg. It is possible that he has just distributed everything that he had, and has returned.

The management lesson that the poet wants to bring out:

This is a case of,  Is empty, or, was full.

DRAGON FORMATION SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE

This post is by my friend and coursemate, Wg Cdr Uday M Kolhatkar (Retd). This post has been reproduced here with his permission.

DRAGON FORMATION SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE

-Wg Cdr Uday M Kolhatkar (Retd)

 Geopolitical Situation

After the 1st Gulf war 1990 1991 the USA was on a high - it had achieved two great objectives. It had brought down the USSR with assistance from its main ally Pakistan and it had become a powerful force to unite nations against a western perceived common threat during the destruction of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the liberation of Kuwait. Militarily the US was now accepted as top dog.

In our area of operations i.e. South Asia and Indian Ocean there were a large number of USAF aircraft staging through Karachi. These would proceed onwards to Diego Garcia ( a British occupied island in the Indian Ocean). The US used this base for power projection while carrying out various exercises in the Indian Ocean region. There was a power vacuum as India had largely ignored its military build-up in this area and China was still developing its military. The US had deployed multiple types of reconnaissance aircraft in the Indian Ocean, one was the RC135 version. The US and its ally Pakistan were going to utilise these flights of the reconnaissance aircraft Boeing RC135 version to take extensive photography of the Bombay high platforms North and South. It is estimated Almost 4 or more flights of this aircraft were flown to explore the vulnerabilities of the Bombay high platform from air attack until 8 Nov 1993.

High Value Strategic Target and Vulnerability

Bombay High is an important strategic asset which can be destroyed/damaged in International waters. This would send a powerful message to India that it will be subject to further attacks if it does not hand over Kashmir to Pakistan. The USAF aircraft had already flown a few times over Bombay high without air defence identification clearances and it had carried out orbits at higher levels above FL250 and a large number of pictures would have been taken. These were probably sent to Karachi for assessment and analysis. In 1993 we came to know that there's a good chance of an attack on the Bombay high platform. and so the Jaguars of 6 squadron were used to carry out Dummy attacks on many of the platforms so that the SAM defences were activated and tested. AF and Navy had deployed Surface to air missiles on suitable platforms to thwart any attack by PAF/PN. During the year 1993 further identification of targets were carried out with the help of the Jaguar aircraft dummy attack to study vulnerabilities.

The Pakistani Game Plan

The Pakistani game plan was to carry out an attack on Bombay high and thereby deny the platform's oil output to Indian industry. A critical damage to the energy infrastructure would send a powerful International message that there is potential for war in this area if India does not comply with Pakistani demands. Now the government in 1993 we all know was the Congress government led by PM Narasimha Rao, it was a weak government because of internal dissatisfaction due to the events in Ayodhya in Dec 1992 which are well documented. The Black Friday events of March 1993 are known. Op Pawan in Sri Lanka had ended we all know the results, Rajiv Gandhi had been assassinated and Kashmir Hindu Genocide of 1990 was still fresh in the minds of the people… on the economic front India was on the verge of defaulting and bankruptcy was staring us all in the face.

 Decision to Intercept

In 1993 Pune we had some new MiG29 Squadrons they were still training and not yet sea qualified or equipped. Single Engine AD fighters based in Bhuj and Jamnagar were only permitted coasting out to only 50 Nautical miles by day. Bombay High is located 180 Nautical miles off the coast. The only fully equipped and all weather capable fighter bomber available with visual CCM and Guns were from the Maritime Dragons Jaguar squadron. Luckily 6 Sqn had the CO (Wg Cdr DC Kumaria) and FLT Cdr (yours truly) I had carried out a few Air Defence Interceptions from Operation Readiness Platforms (ORPs) during previous tenure in MiG21 Squadrons. We were both fully aware of the signals protocols etc during interceptions.

The US has a powerful military and is unlikely to tolerate a USAF reconnaissance aircraft being intercepted in International waters albeit an ADIZ even though it was without clearance. However the whole escapade of this aircraft was running jitters through service headquarters.. hence this Sunday morning on 08 November 1993 “Dragon formation” was scrambled to intercept… the call was ….. “Dragon scramble scramble scramble” “Initial vector 280 distance 150 NM climb to 15000 ft accelerate to Mach 1.1”

After getting airborne I joined up with Dragon 1 and we started on our initial vector climbing to 15000. However Dragon 1 developed some technical problems and had to abort the mission. I proceeded as a single aircraft mission. I was getting quite a heavy cockpit noise which made me wonder if there was a problem with the seal. However the pressurisation readings were all good so I pressed on with the intercept. The radar controller didn't have much knowledge about Jaguar aircraft performance otherwise he wouldn't have asked me to accelerate to Mach 1.1 at 15000!

Well subsequently I saw the target aircraft and he must have also acquired my position electronically so he started dropping speed and since I was quite fast I had to drop my speed quickly. I managed to roll a barrel so that I would not fly past him but just stay in his rear quarters. That's when I managed to take a film of his aircraft with my camera. Thereafter I dropped my flaps and maintained a speed 160 Kts in the left echelon. (Thank God for my days in Thunderbolts!). I finally managed to make VHF contact on 121.5 and the conversation went something like this:

Me: USAF RC135 aircraft flying over Bombay High FL 150 this is Dragon 2

USAF RC135: Dragon 2 this is USAF aircraft go ahead

Me: Sir you are in the Air Defence Identification Zone and you need an ADZ clearance.

USAF RC135: Confirm we are in international waters? Me: You need clearance from Indian Air Defence before flying in ADIZ. This is a repeated mistake on your part. You have violated our Air Defence Airspace on multiple occasions without clearance.

USAF RC135: We are over International waters.

Me: Please contact our Air Defence Radar on 127 Mhz

Surprisingly the voice of the pilot was very Asian, almost like an Indian. Thereafter I was asked to return to Base.

Everyone was relieved that it had gone normally with expected objective being achieved, and no untoward incident occurred.

AFTERMATH

After landing the film and debrief was sent to Air Headquarters.

The USAF chief was on a visit to New Delhi at a later date and he was told in detail about the incident. He claimed he was unaware of this incident and promised it would not happen again. I think this was for the first time the Jaguar Ground Attack aircraft was used as an interceptor! I am sure it will be great to catch up with the Dragons on the 80th Anniversary from 17th to 19th March. We all have fond memories of our time with 6 Sqn and are quite blessed to have been a part of the Dragons! God Bless and keep the Dragons flag flying high!

Friendship's boat

 

From my worn out pages:

-Feb 1974

I swayed and swayed in life's sea,

But the waves rolled on and on,

In friendship's boat, I took refuge,

And found the storm had gone.

Let my mirage remain

 

Like the silhouette of rain,

Like the shadow of pain,

Like water on stain,

Let my mirage remain. 

बेशक, साथ हम भी होंगे

 

मुहब्बत करनेवाले कम न होंगे,

बेशक, साथ हम भी होंगे।

'New' Moon

 

New Moon

A new moon has appeared in the sky. It is not the new moon we know of. It is a new new moon.

How it will affect Karva Chauth and Astrology remains to be seen.

What is the colour of dark?

 

What is the colour of dark?

What is the colour of light?

From the festival of colours,

To the festival of light,

The colour for me,

Outside of me, is only one.

And, that is dark.

Others call me blind

In hushed whispers.

They say:

There is mindfulness,

There is heartfulness,

And there is blindfulness.

Happy Holi!

 

Have a vibgyor day,

And a moonlit night,

A bit of rang,

And, a bit of bhaang.

Happy Holi!

When she stopped singing

 

When she stopped singing

And started crying,

Rumblings in the heavens stopped,

And, it started raining,

Many millennia since

Her eyes were arid,

Many millennia since

The earth was parched.

These walls need a little blood to fall

 

From my worn out pages:

Others asked,

Why do you bang your head

Against the wall?

He laughed and said:

These walls,

They need a little blood

to fall

-08 November '81

We are still drifting apart

 

The sun's rays reached me

Eight and a half minutes too late,

The twinkle of my star,

Reached me eons too late,

And the Universe

Is still drifting apart,

We are still drifting apart.

Ego

From my worn out pages:

I was standing at the horizon

With a sledge hammer,

for the sun to come up.

And, when it did come up,

I smashed it to bits.

Let me wait a whole night for it , would it?

I'll have no such impudence.

And I an earthling!

A Man!

-8th Dec 79

 

Ides of March

 

I received this video from a friend.

The folks who woke up late, or the man who dropped off his kids to school before work, or the lady who had to go home to change her clothes, were all being warned -as per the video - like how the soothsayer warned Julius Caesar on the lurking danger during the Ides of March. It was as if the warning was from the heavens. And, the fortunate folks of nine-eleven heeded the warning. 

Now, if we flip the argument, does it mean that the folks who  unfortunately perished during nine-eleven were deliberately not warned by the heavens? It would have been easier for the heavens to ensure that the flights that subsequently rammed into the twin towers did not take off at all. Don't you think?