As I stepped out of my home one fine Sunday morning, what attracted my immediate attention was frame of the zig-zag lines drawn in white chalk joined together nicely crafting out a "Stapu" as we used to call it..

Could not eschew myself from completing one round jumping on one leg, lot like imitating "Sridevi-Jeetendra- moves".

It took me down the memory lane as far as almost 15 yrs when I were in all girls school (yes- I've done my initial schooling from Alexandra Convent School).

As the bell rang announcing the lunch break, all girls ran to occupy the most clearly crafted out "Stapu's" in the sandy grounds of the school.

The one who reached first would win the first turn to throw the stone in the box and then complete one round in the succeeding boxes jumping on one leg.

Rules were quite simple:

-the stone had to fall clearly in between the limits of each box;

-player had to jump in the other boxes on one leg;

-the box in which the stone lied had to be skipped;

-the stone had to be picked from the succeeding box;

-after completion of all boxes successfully, one had to throw the stone in the frame from backside, not facing the stapu and the box in which stone landed became the property of the player.

-other players had to skip the boxes occupied by someone through back throw;

-the one with maximum number of boxes would be declared winner.

As I left the memory lane behind and stepped back into present, first thing I could think of was finding out the person who made this frame outside my house, not for (by default) scolding the kid who had spoiled the entrance of my well kept home but rather to ask her (should have been a 'she') if the rules were still the same over the years or have they been changed or modified..

I asked the colony watchman who had done it. He grinned at me showing those tobacco colored yellow teeth and told me that he had already scolded and gave a good thrashing to his 4 year daughter for spoiling the entrance n his wife would clean it as soon as she returned from her work.

I felt bad and asked to him to call his daughter. I wanted to see her but he pleaded me to let it go. I insisted that I did want to see her. Sheepishly smiling at me, he went inside his quarter at the far end of the colony n I saw him dragging his daughter by her ear mumbling abuses. I scolded him to leave her ear and asked her to dry her tearful face.
That miniature figure in front of me went calm as I took out a "Dairy- Milk" from my bag n handed it over to her.

As she was busy unwrapping the chocolate, I asked her:
"beta Tulsi (imagine Ekta Kapoor's impact on the society!!!) ye "Stapu" tumne banaya hai??"

Tulsi: haanji Didi.. Sorry.. aage se nahi banaungi..- as her eyes were near in tears again.

I (out of sympathy for her n detest for her father's cruelty)- nahi bete koi baat nahi.. pehle ye to bataao ke issey khelte kaise hain??

She giggled over this and started telling me the rules showing me the promo of the game..

And there I joined her asking her father to leave as I cherished my childhood memories...

According to the narrative from the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana, the form of Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight a demon. The demon's father Rambha, king of the demons, once fell in love with a water buffalo, and Mahishasur was born out of this union. He is therefore able to change between human and buffalo form at will (mahisha means "buffalo"). Through intense prayers to Brahma, Mahishasura had the boon that he could not be defeated by any man or God. He unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds.
Eventually, since only a woman could kill him, the trinity bestowed a dazzling beam of energy upon the Goddess Trinity (Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati), transforming her into the Goddess, Durga. Her form was blindingly beautiful with three lotus-like eyes, eight powerful hands, lush black hair with beautiful curls, a red-golden glow from her skin and a quarter moon on her forehead.


Each god also gave her their own most powerful weapons, Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandal, Kuber's gada, etc. Himalayas gifted her a fierce whitish golden lion. On the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th day of waxing moon, Chanda and Munda came to fight the goddess. She turned blue with anger and goddess Chamunda leaped out of her third eye. Her form was the most powerful one with 3 red eyes, blood-filled tongue and dark skin; who finally killed the twin demons with her sword. This form of the divine goddess is worshipped during the sandhikshan of Durga Puja festival, as sandhi/chandi puja. Finally on the tenth day of waxing moon, goddess Durga killed Mahishasura with her trident. In the mythologies, the Goddess does kill the demons and ends the existance of evil on the earth to ensure the man kind lives well on the planet.

But through the ages, the devil has again been dwelling as manifestations of the ignoble passions in human mind. like the very evils of dowry killing, female feoticide, bribery, red tapism, castism.
Those were the ages when the Humane race was endangered for the fear of the devils who would kill them for power. Even today, the devils in the minds of Human still starving for power, make them toil again their own race.
Celebrating the festive season from Navratri to Dussehra to Dipawali as the symbol of triumph of good over evil is no use unless we kill the demons residing inside ourselves who dont hesitate to kill our own fellow beings for greed.

The sole reason behind the creation of Godess Durga becomes void if we fail to live with love and affection as we were intentend to be, in a world lacking the devil. And demons inhibiting in our minds have to be thrown out to complete the omen of these pious festivals.

Last week on an Industrial visit , with my class (I am the lecturer, though most of my students are elder than myself, they all have had work experience before joining in for MBA) got a chance to visit the sub-urbs of the city.

The scroching sun in the rainless monsoons was making us all look for drinking water with each passing 10 minutes. The Merchandise Shop located in the locality was making money, selling "mineral water bottles" n "Colas" to the thirsty crows on the Industrial visit.
As I emptied the tumbler carrying with myself, I heard some disturbances among the students.. I cornered to interrupt and ask what the matter was. Shipra seemed annoyed with the rest on being teased as "Ms. Super Hygenic" for she were asking them not to buy the "so called bottled water" for it not being actually the "Bagpiper", rather being adultered..

I had a look if she was right, n she was right. a piece of plastic paper was bound n joined together instead of a seal that should have been there on a mineral water bottle.
Its not just one case, we come across many such happenings in our immidiate surroundings everyday.
We get along numerous brands right from the dawn, when we "Colgate" our teeth, till late nights when we switch off our "Sony's", to get up to another day with trusted brands.
But sometimes when we find out that our reliable Brands aint exactly wat we bought, we feel ditched.
Many a times, we go shopping in hurry and pick up our routine things with a glimpse of familiar logos, designs, graphics on the packaging. And on discovering "FLAIR & LONLY" rather than "FAIR & LOVELY" some of us, really dont do anything like complaining against the vendor.
The fake brands are being sold in the market like as such and the counterfeiters are making money.
According to a FICCI study, the impact of counterfeiting was highest in the software sector to the extent of 70 per cent, next came auto parts where the impact was about 35 per cent, down the ladder came the pharma sector with 15 to 20 per cent impact, and then the FMCG sector with between five and 15 per cent impact.
These "look alike" products are not just a substitute for the genuine brand, but not maintaining the quality standards, these counterfeits, are hazardous to the users.
Unknowingly, we entertain such "business-people", who donot hesitate taking lives of the people as a five year old treats his "teddy- bear".


Many of us dont know how "TATA SALT" becomes "TAJA SALT" or "NIRMA" becomes "NISHMA", not even do we spot much when "COCA COLA" becomes "CAMPA COLA" and "LIFEBOUY" becomes "LIEEBOYE".
Apart from the harmful effects on the consumers, these counterfeitings, are bad for the Brands as well.
BRAND is a company's greatest asset. Brand is a promise of value and an assurance of quality that every customer looks for. Yet counterfeit products, artful lookalikes, are constantly entering millions of homes and bleeding brands of their reputation.

According to a survey was conducted in Chennai where a fake product was given to 100 customers, out of the 100 people surveyed for this, about 85 did not realise that they had got a duplicate product. About five persons said `it's my fate' ,another four were angry and were on the verge of marching to the distributor, which they did not finally do, and one person said he was going to write to the company about the fake product being in the market. Shows how much awareness consumers have about the products they want to buy.

This is a problem even higher in rural areas and sub urban areas.

Look- alikes are fun, but only in wax museums.