Among our leaders and freedom fighters, there was some greatness in Lal Bahadur Shastri. Before the departure of physical body, he served as the second Prime Minister of free India for a short period. Throughout his life he illustrated qualities which are unthinkable on the part of modern leaders.

  He belonged to a poor Brahmin family from UP. He struggled throughout his life right from childhood and never thought of power or wealth till his end. And yet, the same (power and respect) flew to him due to his honesty and dedication. There were two separate tragic train accidents (one in Tamilnadu and other in AndhraPradesh) during his tenure as railway minister in 1956. It was a great shock to him. Though there was no way he was connected with it, he submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

  After the death of Govind Vallabh Pont, he became Home minister in 1961. At that time he had no personal house of his own. “The Homeless Minister” as called by people, had only a rented house in Allahabad at that time.

  During the struggle for freedom movements, he was sent to prison several times. When he was in, there were two unfortunate events, which proved his truthfulness. First, at that time, one of his daughters was seriously ill. The prison authority agreed to let him go home for a short time. They asked him to give in writing that he should not indulge in the freedom movement during that period. He denied that saying it was against his self-respect. As the prison officials knew about his honesty, they set him free for a fortnight. Unfortunately, his daughter died before his arrival. After the funeral rites he returned to prison before the expiry of leave. In another tragic incident, his son was laid up with influenza. He was permitted unconditionally to go home for a week only. His son’s condition remained as such and his leave was complete. Shastriji bade farewell and left home for prison. Those were the examples reflecting how Shastriji was true to his words throughout his life.

  The days of Gandhiji, Nehruji and Shastriji were gone. We learnt about them from our parents, teachers and books only.

  Now the present days belong to the leaders like Arvind Kejriwal. He is the first Chief Minister to refuse security on the ground that there should be only provisional security for leaders. He surprised everybody not shifting to the official residence of the CM. On the wake of the issue, the question is raised whether he would be able to live up to his own moral standards for long. Because the West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee, too began on an austerity note but, over a period of time, she was a victim of pressure and accepted the office.

  Ministers in India may not be having fabulous salaries, but the perks they enjoy in terms of accommodation, travel, staffs and others are so huge that even the billionaires of the world cannot match.

  We have witnessed how Shastriji was one in a billion because of his honesty. So we cannot rule out why Kejriwal would not stick to his pledge to be so.

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This Saturday evening was perhaps the darkest evening of my life. The setting of Sun in the occidental sky had given a golden color to the atmosphere. Soothing winds were blowing. I could hear the chirping sounds of birds. The dry leaves started to rustle as I walked to the graveyard. It seemed to me as if the whole nature was paying condolence to Dai Jan. Now it’s one year since she had left. It’s true that now I can’t find her any more but in the silent depths of my heart as I can still hear silent voice. After lighting up my candles and giving the boutique of roses to her I walked to the sea beach. At that point of time I wanted to enjoy solitude. As I sat down a flood of thoughts rushed down to my mind. I remembered my childhood days when she said a lot of stories to me as I was retaining to bed. She made me eat even the toughest vegetables with her buttering words. She supported me. She encouraged me and she stood beside me even in the dark of the darkest periods of my life. She was perhaps my best friend with whom I could share all my feelings.

  Then I recalled how a vandal brutally battered her to death. That day I had a very important seminar at my college. I was completely engrossed in its preparation as I took the lead role in my group. Then suddenly my cell phone rang and Papa said that he and Mama had to go to hospital for my uncle had met an accident. He also informed me that Dai Jan, our maid was there at home alone. I had lots to do, so I said that I would arrive late. However, my seminar was over and I got a good response.

  It was quite late in the evening and I rang up our land phone. Dai Jan said everything was fine and that I should return peacefully. I reached home and clicked the calling bell a number of times. Strangely, Dai Jan was not responding. Then suddenly I heard a loud sound, very loud cry. It didn’t even take a second for me to recognize that it was of Dai Jan. I threw my bag and rushed to our backyard. Fortunately, the back door was open. I was in complete shock, everything distorted.

  I was extremely terrified calling Dai Jan. I ran up and saw the tiles of the stairs were broken. I banged the door of my parent’s room. Oh My God! A man was taking out the jewelries and cash from the locker box. I shouted and rushed to him. I even slapped him. But all of my stamina and strength had to bow down in front of him. He gave a powerful blow and my head got dashed against the edge of bed. I was bleeding hard. He came near me and pulling my hair, said that no-one could cause any harm to him; not even God. I tried hard to take that bag from him but he kicked my face and went through the window.

  All my screaming and shouting went into vain. Suddenly, I saw the bath room door was open. I could see Dai Jan’s feet. Then what I saw was literally soul shaking. I was dumfounded. That vindictive man had squeezed her neck with a pipe. Oh! No. I shouted to my extreme pitch. I was shivering. With trembling hands I unfolded the pipe. I checked her pulse. She was no more. Her fingers had turned blue. I was blank. I ran down blindly and rang up to papa. Sheet!! No network. I had no idea about what to do. I rushed to my neighbor, Ria. She was already standing outside her house. She was taken aback for a while, when she saw me bleeding. By that time I was speechless. She wanted to take me to her house and dress my wound. She asked me what had happened and I was so nervous that, “Dai Jan! Dai Jan! “ were the only words I could say.

Before me she said that that day nothing was going well. I was bleeding and a man had died just there having met with an accident. Strange! My eyes all of a sudden fell upon the huge crowd. They were out of sight and out of mind. Banging her hands I ran to the road and to my utter surprise I saw that the same man was taken inside a van. A person looked at me sorrowfully said, “Sorry mam ! The man was spot dead”.

 My parents came. Both of them were equally shocked as I was. This was a great blow to our family.

 Investigation took place. We got back our possessions. But the damage which that rascal had caused was irreparable. Dai Jan had formed an integral part of my life.

“Divine Revenge! Yes Divine vengeance “was the only term I reflected at that point of time and observed by an unseen eye.

  At His court, justice is guaranteed. Every night I perceive her sweet touch. Every morning I hear her tender voice. Today also no one can fill the vacuum, which Dai Jan has created in my life. She may not be now around me but she will continue to live in my heart for ever and forever.


                                             ------      by     Madhumita  Mishra   (   Guest  Post  )

This is the age of Information and Technology, when information is treated as knowledge and power. As much information you have, as powerful you become. From the early Stone Age to the present, the media to spread the information has so many changes. Like water, it finds its own course automatically. The mode of exchanging information has improved from pigeon stage to IT stage. With the advance of technology, like smart phones, laptops, tablets and inbuilt apps for social media in it, this becomes easier to be connected with each other immediately. When Face book has started in 2004, it defines the importance of social media as a day to day need. Till now there are more than one billion of active users of Face book. As far as the influence is concerned, it is going to play a major role in the forthcoming general election (2014) in India. Apart from politics, while discussing current affairs, reviewing a new movie about to be released, going for a vacation to an unacquainted place, choosing a good restaurant, applying for a nice job, searching a life partner or choosing the best hospital for a critical illness, the job is done immediately through social media platform like twitter and face book. Though there are a number of social websites like Pinterest, Stumble upon, Xing, Redit, LinkedIn, g+  etc. Twitter is next to Face book in popularity. The micro blogging social website, Twitter, uses a limited characters (140) blog known as tweets with the use of hashtags (#) for keywords. Twitter can be connected with Face book account to post something with one go. And if you connect your website efficiently, tons of traffics can be directed from it without any extra effort and money.

Some success stories which create social influence for certain issues:

In the US, the last Presidential election campaign was done online through social media.

The “ Jasmine Revolution “ in Egypt , where the huge crowd was gathered at Tahrir Square to protest against Hosni Mubarak, was monitored through all social media to get support from all over the World. This led Mubarak to step down as Egypt’s President.

Malala Yousafzai, the 16 yr. school student was famous through writing articles about her native place, Swat, Pakistan, through social media websites. She was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

The other side of social network:

In the process of gaining popularity through social websites, you have to sacrifice your privacy.

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