Showing posts with label Social Causes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Causes. Show all posts

Friday, December 26, 2008

To Be or Not to Be

"It was raining outside. There was not much for him to do. He was tired of reminiscing now. He wondered if he should go back to sleep. The nagging headache too was bothering him. Probably a visit to the doctor was imminent. He must tell his parents about it. Coming to think of it, he realized that he had not spoken to them for nearly a week. In fact he had not even been busy. They had not called him and he did not have anything important enough to call them up and tell. He was worried that it was fast becoming yet another thing he was getting used to.

Distant thunder brought him back to reality. He vowed to himself that he would find time somehow this month to make a visit home. He needed some space to clear his head. Wasteful thoughts had been practically clobbering him down. The glorified education was filling him with murderous rage. The futility of the learning, the philosophy behind the course, the vainness of the whole exercise mocked at him as they had been doing for a long time now. He did not want to know how to multiply money. He wanted to know how to create money. For those who did not have it. Reinvestment of the investment felt disgusting. It did not have the nice ring to as one meal-a-day to two meals-a-day. Rice with water to rice with dal was what he wanted to know about. But nobody near him knew about it. The course refused to talk about it. He wanted to kill himself for letting IRMA pass by when it came knocking.

He did not want to be a huge failure of an MBA earning peanuts when his class mates would be running corporations. He did not want to remain wistful seeing people LIVE life. But he did not want to work towards creating wealth for those who probably did not need it. Need it as in NEED and not WANT. He was torn between the niceties of life which come at a price on one side and the happiness which comes from obeying one's inner command on the other side. He did not want to travel the road not taken. But he knew he would have to return back to it sooner than later. What he would miss lest he treads the conventional path was clear to him but the question of whether he would miss them enough to give up the life he had dreamt of while growing up taunted and tossed him. He was troubled by his own double standards. He wanted to be rich but he did not want to do what pays money. He wanted to live in Mumbai but wanted to work for uplifting the villagers. He wanted to travel the world in a cruise yet wanted to make sure no kid goes to the bed hungry. If wishes were horses, he would have owned a million stables by then."

What I personally feel is that he is making the situation too complex for himself. He has a lot of time on his hand. All he needs to do is soul-search and come up with wishes which do not contradict each other. He just needs to steel himself and make the single major decision of his life: to be or not to be. If he decides not to be, he needs to have the maturity not to be guilty or attach any moral strings to it. If he decides to be, then it is important to stick to it and work smartly towards the cause, come what may.

To be or not to be??

Thursday, April 24, 2008

'V' for Vendetta ??

Scorching heat
Freezing cold
Gutsy typhoons
Shattering quakes

Magnitudes are beyound your imagination.
Triggers are beyond your comprehension.
Dont try to get even.
You wont be spared to regret even!

Thresholds have been crossed
Treasures have been lost
Reckoning is not far away
Unless you plan to mend your way.

Respect nature.
Acknowledge the right to life.
Live in harmony.
Ratify your need & not your greed.

Bring down the abuse.
Listen to the warnings.
Observe the anomalies.
Fear the ramifications.

Care about something other than you.
Be in harmony with the things around you.
May be.. Just maybe there is still time.
To stop the jaws closing around your neck and mine.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Myths Galore !! Come forward to bust !

Today (April 7) is 'no-honking' day in Mumbai. This has been given a very wide publicity by the BMC and so far the raods have been a lot calmer than the usual.

A few repetitions of a good initiative like this will make people horn less by habit. Everyone will learn to steer themselves in busy roads without blaring the horn.

At least,people now know what controls noise pollution. The general problem with today's environment related drives is that the focus is on the damage we do instead of the remedial steps. Everyone panics but noone knows what needs to be done.

As a teenager I have often wondered 'How can water be wasted?' whenever I hear the slogans for saving water. In Chemistry and Biology, I had been taught that water follows hydro-cycle, ie. water keeps changing forms. So I used to think that even if I used more water than was necessary, it was sure to reach us back again. Only when I was doing my undergraduation did I realise that huge amount of power is wasted in purifying and pumping water. Water cycle makes sense only when local reservoirs store water and the same is supplied to the nearby areas. So isn't educating people about how wasting water has an effect on power shortage and inturn fuel shortage a part of such campaigns? Similarly, I thought that leaving the mobile charger switched on will not consume power as it is not a closed circuit!! As we know, little knowledge is indeed dangerous.Unless the mass is educated , the situaton cannot improve. So, everyone needs to be aware of the following two things:

1. Any green house gas unnecessarily emitted is going to accelerate global warming.
2. Any unnecessary action which consumes fuel is going to deplete us of it faster than we think it will.

So let all the campaigns bust the common myths related to environment. Like eucalyptus sends the water table down and hence should not be allowed to grow near residential areas ! It is better to have an eucalyptus than nothing at all!!! Or inter-linking of rivers will solve our water problem and bring heaven closer home! Lets give all this ideas a break. Let's educate whoever it be,if we see that we can improve their awareness a bit. Little drops make up the ocean, cliched though it is!!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

The bell tolls for thee !

One thing got me pretty interested last weekend.. And kept me thinking throughout this week too!

I got a chance to attend a concert by the Isha Yoga Centre's 'The sounds of Isha'.

This is not the run-of-the-mill music group who practise for a month before every stage performance and are so clearly aware which song would go for that coveted 'Once-more' chant !! They were all amateur singers who are mainly volunteers with the group and have a common interest but not traditional background in music. A mixed group with one from Lebanon, two from the US, two from North India, two from South India, and one from some Arab country. And their instruments too were created at their own backyard: the kitchen pots had become one or the other kind of percussion instrument (of course the string instruments were not created by them!).

Believe me when I say this amateur group churned out wonderful, wonderful music for two hours without once letting the tempo down. And the songs did not fall under any of the catgories you can think of:

1. One song was in Arabic thanking the Guru and celebrating the Guru - disciple relationship.
2. One song was in Tamil celebrating Rain and forests (a folk number)
3. One was in Hindi about rain and water again.
4 One was about train and journeys in general (named S3 after the compartment in which they created it).
5. A classical rendering on Lord Shiva (because he is the yogic guru)
6. The rest were instrumental not coming under any genre : folk or metal or classical or whatever it may be

I was impressed for many reasons:

1. They have not learnt music.
2. They do not get time to practise unlike the other musicians.
3. The diversity ofthe group and the way the the people from US sung Tamil songs without any accent you associate them with. Or the way the Tam guys sung Hindi songs again without any accent spoiling the song.
4.The theme of the concert. Revolved mainly around mother nature and rain and forests. A very interesting theme for a concert in my opinion.

As is well known, I am a pessimist and the biggest agnostic you would come across. I don't connect with people who believe in Gurus and human deities (inspite of (because of!) being brought up in Kanchipuram known for the Shankaracharya lineage). But Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev makes me sit up. I am stirred up by his speeches. His reasoning. His logic. His charisma is overpowering. It draws me to him inspite of my inner protests that I don't know much about his idealogies or philosophy. But my dreams were dominated by him for three consective days after the concert. I was seeing him play football, hearing him talk to the kids, seeing hime plant saplings !! And I wondered if he is a hypnotist.. Then I realised mass hypnosis works only when you hear someone's prolonged speech;that too only if you are made to concentrate on it intensely.

I now want to go to Vellinagiri hills. To see the Dhyanalinga he has painstakingly built. To drown in the experience as told by those who have visited it. When I think of what the group is doing, I feel belittled and worthless. There are so many of them working for the wellness of the society. Many of them are from abroad and don't even have any obligatiosn to give back anything to this community. Global warming is a every day terminlogy for each one of us but we wont raise a finger against it. And here they are planting 8.5 lakh saplings in a single day. In the quest to restore 30% of the forest cover of Tamilnadu by 2012.They conduct rural health camps to treat those who have no access to healthcare. They open schools in villages where children have to travel a lot to attend school.What do they stand to gain? Only the satisfaction of having done your best towards achieving what is good for the world.Probably that pretty much compensates for everything they are deprived of (If at all they feel that they are).

For once I think I understand what professional satisfaction means. Doing something which you not only find interesting but which also makes a miniscule difference to someone's quality of life. Not in terms of automating it or making it easier, but in terms of uplifting those lives where only your contribution actually made the difference!

I am having a strong urge to join hands but I have to wait and watch if this is going to pass or if it is with me to stay. If it does, my MBA would be put to a good use (assuming sooner or later I would be one) !!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

TOI's Lead India

Owing to the public demand, I am back !!
Just kidding! Was busy for some time and then the office blocked blogs!!

The tenacity of Indian IT engineers to unblock Orkut or Gmail is not very well known in US till now I guess ! Someday, this too will become famous and well admired all over the world just like the Mumbai Dabbawalahs!

Anyway, the only news hogging all the space is 'Vikram Pandit' becoming the CEO of the Citigroup. As the jingoists we Indians are, this is of course expected! School teachers remembering 'extremely shy and brilliant student' and doodhwalah proud of supplying doodh to the CEO !!! Vikram Pandit's achievement is extremely laudable and inspiring. But before our chests explode with pride, it would do us very good if we sit back mfor a minute and think what makes us so proud.

The 'Boy from Nagpur who still (?!) is a devotee of Gajananji' has not even completed in his schooling from India. While it does not take away anything froom his credit, we should stop shouting that 'An Indian now heads Citigroup'. If an namesake Indian succeeding elsewhere is the only measure of achievement, we as a nation are indeed pathetic.

If we have a close look at many famous Indians, a pattern does emerge.Most of them have gone abroad for Bachelor's or atleast Masters'. The culture and ethics imparted by those universities have a greater stake in determining the individuals these are, rather than the primary school education here. It might sting, nevertheless we are a bunch of mediocre individuals happy with whatever 'people of my country' achieve abroad. We will identfiy ourselves with them even if there might not be an iota of similarity between what life has offered him and us.We are happy to pledge our allegiance to anybody who says 'I am proud of the Indian heritage and my roots are deeply Indian'.

This is where TOI is doing a commendable job by starting 'Lead India'. No one knows how much of the initial intentions the campaign would achieve by its end, but at least an attempt would have been made to bring about a change; to instill interest in administration in common man; to shake off the apathy and the indifference we have developed towards all the injustice and inefficiency us. Some of the candidates picked up by TOI really inspire.. There is a guy who chucked his TCS job to join an NGO ..there is an ex-CEO who retired early to give back something to the society and you tend to pin your hopes on such people despite the cynicist you have become. They are the real heroes we should be proud of, men who should be celebrated. Not because they are altruistic.Because they are the ones who have been through everything India represents.

We have seen Nayak. We have seen Indian. But we shrug our shoulders as soon as we are out of the hall.For reel heroes dont inspire. A living hero does. I am praying taht TOI is successful in what it plans to achieve, even though the primary aim of TOI is publicity !!!

Friday, March 9, 2007

Women's day !!!

Hmm..Yesterday was women's day..
What did it mean to me??

Nothing. Perhaps the sad reality that every year we have to raise our voice and make a lot of noise to remind everyone that we still have a long way to go...

Average wage of a female worker in rural areas = 62% of that of a male worker's .
Average wage of a female worker in urban areas = 61% of that of a male worker's.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why I have given this here.

If I ask you genuinely why is it so, then I am branded a feminist.

I should not ask anyone why I cannot go to Sabarimala.
Or why I should not remain unmarried and study as much as I want to.
Or why my parents alone should spend their life time savings on the mega event of my marriage.
Or why I should take care of my parents in law when my husband would not even raise a finger to look after his.
Or why hostels lock up girls inside because the guys roam about drunk? Why not the vice versa?
Or the simple question of why I should cook and clean while my husband reads newspaper?

Rarely, very rarely you might come across men who do cook and clean. And when you do meet such a man, you have to treat him with extreme reverence.He is God's gift to the earth!!!! After all, who has heard of men who clean the dining table after the meal? They deserve all the praise and even more.

He does these at home; Wow !His wife is the luckiest.
He does not ; That's ok. Its enough if he does not have any bad habit (even tobacco!!)
She does ; Huh ! Whats the big deal? Everyone does.
She does not; She is the talk of the town. Too much freedom given by parents. And did I mention too much education also ?

Well, if you dont hear this dialogues, its not because society has become forward minded. After all, these girls will start talking Feminism and no one has the time or the patience to listen. They all need a break.We have had too much of feminism this century!! Huh!

Amitabh Bachchan (You are right.The same Big B.) was asked in an interview what he thought about his daughter-in-law-to-be Aishwarya Rai. Amitabh promptly replied, "I find her very sweet, simple and domesticated." Yes. You heard it right. Domesticated was the word.

I very much like to give Amitabh the benefit of my doubt that probably he chose a wrong word to convey what he wanted to. But two lines later, there was a question ' How do you think Abiash marriage will increase the brand value of the Bachchans? ' for which he promptly replied, 'I find it very offensive to evaluate a relationship with money.' .Wah Mr.Bachchan! Wah! He did not find it offensive to use the word domesticated but the word brand value offended him..Superb. From A to Z every household wants a 'domesticated' and 'docile' daughter in law.Who will not split the bonds of the family she is entering. Never mind, she was just torn apart from her family to become a part of yours..

I recall a poem I read somewhere :

We use you as a prop, we use you for our play;
We burn you regularly; for dowry they say;
We make you a Goddess; or a cheap lay;
We keep 364; You get one day;
Happy Women's Day ????

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Who will cry when they die??

Thanks to Mumbai traffic,my taxi had to wait in the signal for full five minutes.I saw a girl of around 13 years asking for alms from everyone.I could not help but notice the rags she was dressed in.She could hardly make anyone shell out a single penny for her and was visibly disgusted with us. 'Of course, she has every right be', I thought.How much do I spend on luxury in a month?

Dining in a fancy restaurant on weekends knowing fully well that the bills are nothing short of daylight robbery;
Movies in multiplexes when I have a hell lot of studying to do;
Travel by taxi when BEST buses and local trains connect virtually every corner of Mumbai;
Branded clothes from Westside and Shopper's stop and so on.

Sigh!'What a hedonistic Lifestyle!' If I want to, I can change the lives of such people.I can give them education or atleast two square meals a day.Is it not the responsibility of the society to uplift such people?If only each of us can spare 10% of our expenditure on luxury,it would spread joy in thousands of families.But, wait! Am I talking socialism here?Gosh, I thought I was against socialism because it makes people lazy.Coming to think of it, I am.My grandfather was pretty much in the same position 90 years back.He had no father to guide, no money to survive and no rich uncle to take him under his wings.But, he fought against all odds and became a rich landlord and single handedly uplifted his entire clan.

But, is it the girl's mistake that her grandfather was not industrious as mine?? In all probability, she does not even know who her father is.I know that in a year or two she would be begging in the same signal with an infant on her lap..God,this is indeed a vicious circle.I am not able to place my arguments correctly.Both sides are having some merit.May be I should help;If not for her sake, atleast for my sake;To get rid of the guilt I have to swallow with every gulp of Cafe Coffee Day's coffee...