Let your ears bleed or bleed to death

Last night, I could not sleep even a wink because of the deafening sound of some religious event taking place in the vicinity. The incessant noise stopped only in the morning when it was time for me to start my day. I am sure those who had been shouting their lungs out throughout the night were tired by now and had dozed off, after ruining the much-needed sleep of many like me.

Similar was the case two nights ago, when a party carried on in the neighbourhood, although then the blaring volume of the music was lowered around midnight, to our relief.

Indian courts have time and again issued directives for public to not use loud speakers for any reason - religious or merriment - after 22:30 hrs.

But, who gives a damn to any court directive? At least no one in Uttar Pradesh, for sure!

Many a times, we had to get out of bed in the middle of the night, changed clothes and step out in our neighbourhood to request the enthusiastic revellers to calm down. Sometimes they honour our request but often to only increase the volume again, the moment we turn our backs.

There were occasions, when we had to dial 100 (the police help) which turned out to be our bigger nightmare. The police, instead of taking the necessary action against the miscreants, started harassing us - asking us all sorts of questions - your age, profession, your neighbour's name, what time do you sleep, how far is your place from the location where the noise is coming from, etc. etc.

However, no more I will be complaining about this late night noise business - neither I will volunteer to appeal the noise makers to go quiet nor I will trouble the police to intervene. Rather, I would suffer in silence while the inconsiderate revellers and religious fanatics can go beyond all possible decibels.

Why? The reason is good enough.

This week, a family in the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh was having a party. The euphorics had forgotten the fact that they live in a society of humans who needed to rest at night. The word courtesy was alien to them. Unable to sleep, the tortured neighbourhood complained and the poor cops reached the spot to tame the people who were causing the racket.

The ruckus-makers proved to be mightier than the police. The crowd was high on spirits of revelry and music had blocked their senses. Dancing to the rhythm of blaring noise and swaying on cheap alcohol that had numbed their sense of rationality, the revellers picked up a fight with the police force.

The fight took an ugly turn. The cop who had led the team was thrashed and beaten to death whereas his other mates were left badly injured.

Undeterred and unmoved, the party-makers were back to their noisy business leaving the cops to fend for their lives.
   
The incident has underlined the level of sensitivity and consideration such people have for their co-citizens. After this incident, any person in his or her right senses will not dare disturb their inconsiderate neighbours who live in oblivion and have no sense of their civic duties.

In future, I will never complain about loud noises at night. I will learn to live with it or learn to sleep with earplugs on.

I would rather let my ear bleed than bleed to death!

Prison - A Writer's Den

The founder of Sahara India Group of companies, Subrata Roy, who is more popular as 'Sahara Shri' has brought out his first book, 'The Life Mantras'.

With this book, the clever businessman, who started with a small chit-fund company but grew to it a multi-million rupees worth asset, has became an author. This is the first book of the trilogy, he claims.

The news of the book release forced me to put my job aside, instead jot some musings and share them with my friends and well-wishers.

Jails, I conclude, create a conducive environment for writing. It started in the mid-1940s when Jawahar Lal Nehru wrote 'The Discovery of India', sitting inside the four walls of a prison. The book became an epic.

The reason maybe the isolation in prison that provides ample time to go on an inward journey and introspect.

With nothing much to do - provided you are a VIP prisoner and enjoy some privileges that the ordinary prisoners cannot even dream of, as they are supposed to be involved in hard manual labour, which leaves them dead tired to even indulge in any fantasy, leave aside writing), jail throws at prisoners the opportunity to mull over their deeds - good or bad and judgements - right or wrong.

The silence gives enough concentration to think about the future course of life. The person can formulate his strategies for the time when he or she will be able to breath the fresh air.

The jail surroundings, it seems, assist the prisoners - of course the ones who have in them at least some traces of creative intelligence, to find their muse. Sitting alone in the dark and damp corners of their cells, with no distraction, they let their imagination take a flight.

One need not be Nehru to pen a book from jail, anyone can do it.

Babloo Srivastava, a noted criminal from Uttar Pradesh wrote a book from jail. Once he completed the book, Babloo proudly came out for its release. Dressed in his usual smart attire, hiding behind his RayBan Aviators, he appeared as cool and fresh as summer breeze.

And now, Sahara Shri has turned into an author. Knowing his chances of coming out in the free world are dismal, he has already decided to write a trilogy.

The prison exposing the latent talent of people is an intriguing issue that served as fuel for my curiosity. I spent a few hours on Google to enlighten me on the issue and what I laid my hands on baffled me.

Amazon has a dedicated section LINK on books written in prison.

Wikipedia has a separate page on prison literature LINK

If nothing else, at least this Subrata Roy's Life Mantras has done one thing - it has inspired me to read the books that have been authored behind bars.