Another incident on the roads...(Guest writing by Manasi Trasikar)

While coming back home from my lab today, saw a chain reaction in front of me. There is a park on my way home. A kid was pestering his mom to buy him one more packet of popcorn from the road-side vendor, and his mom was pulling him away from the vendor to cross the road on their way home. Unaware of a bike racing towards them from behind. The guy driving the bike however saw them in the front and jammed his brakes right in time and avoided the bang. The lady completely unaware of this nick-of-the-time saved accident, right behind her back, continued crossing the road, and the kid eating his popcorn. And just behind the bike-guy, a huge truck had saved the bike by applying the brakes at the right time due to the sudden occurances. And the most amazing part was that the bike-guywas totaly unaware of the mishap from which he had just been saved by the truck driver. What I saw overall was pretty scary and edge-of the seat experience because I saw thse three things happening within a span of seconds. I felt as if it was a remote controlled game being operated in front of me by some external force. But then just started analyzing it as I walked further.

This entire incident can be seen in various parts and stages and many conclusions or observations can be derived out of it. Firstly, the lady and the child. Many times we are completely unaware of things around us and get out of situations without even knowing as to what has happend in reality. Nothing to worry as far as no harm done. Can say that. For the bike-guy, many times in life you see the problem in front of you, try your best to solve it, and when you find the solution, give a sigh of relief. But you never know that at the same time, somebody else has taken you out of a bigger disaster, for example, as the truck-driver did here. God, as we call Him, or the Supreme External Control, whatsoever you want to call it. I am comfortable calling it God. God always gives us indications. We see it and either analyze it or don't. And I believe even if we don't analyze it, it always gets recorded in our memory and gets analyzed by default. Just does not get expressed everytime. Sounds very Alchemistish. Positively. Completely aware of the fact. I am one big thing impressed and affected by Mr.Paulo Coelho. No wonder. Read this book just once till now, around 3 years ago. But till date I keep relating day-to-day incidents with it and keep discovering new angles and dimensions of looking at things. Just while this hoard of thoughts was going on in my mind, at the next crossing, here I was about to bang into a motorcycle. The man driving it pulled his brakes right in time, he was coming from the wrong-side of a one-way. But still if it wouldn't have been his control over his driving, I would have been in little trouble. At that moment, it struck upon me, that when we stand audience to an indication, as I call it, we analyze it to the fullest but we never take the indication as an indication for ourselves. Maybe the event I just 5 minutes ago was an indication for me that I should be careful and avoid accidents like this. But we get so busy pitying others, blaming others, advising others, we often forget that we too belong to the same world and the same rules apply to us too. Learning things from experiences and observations is appreciable and beneficial. But what is important is to apply it in future relevances and ofcourse for ourselves too. Just reminds me of a saying, when one door closes, God opens another. But we often keep staring at the closed door for so long that we miss to see which door had opened. Not exactly related to the experience I mentioned above, but is an extension to it.

Maybe after reading this, you will say that, we know this already, this sight, this way of thinking..............Some say it out, some don't.

Just another Rainy Day (Guest Writing by Manasi Trasikar)

This was written as a comment to the post "Worlds of our own". But I think it should be published as a proper post. Relates to rains on 30th Jun 2007.


Yesterday, was pouring over here in Mumbai. Dark, pleasant and romantic climate. I will just put forth before you, two events I witnessed, maybe the reader would link them, or just find them to be two independent events. I leave it to the imagination and emotional point of view of the reader. But I would be happy if this piece of writing would just evoke a thought process and realization of things in life which we tend to oversee in the hustle-bustle of the everyday chaos. No self realization-session to be started. Just an observation on the roads.

I was on my way to the station to make an attempt to reach my workplace. Even though at the back of my mind, I had a feeling that I would not be able to reach office succesfully, but the regular Mumbaite definitely makes an, most of the time futile, attempt of being 'normal' and 'regular' during such occasions. I saw an uncle walking on the footpath ahead of me, dressed in a windsheeter, cosy and comfortable in the rain, enjoying the walk with his dog. A very handsome small doggie, with a cloth shirt....I mean it, dressed up and the cherry on the cake was that the uncle was holding an umbrella over the dog's head so that he or she doesn't get wet. I just stared and gave a smile at them. I reached the station and was waiting for the train to arrive which was very late than its scheduled time because of the rains. Suddenly I heard a small clatter behind me and turned to locate the source of the sound. There I saw one uncle who had slipped because of the muck on the platform due to rains. He was a guy who probably sold idlis and earned his living, a road-side vendor. His saambar and chutney had spilled completely on the platform, idlis were intact. But he just stood there watching the spilled food. His entire day's could-have-been, would-be earning...

That was just another rainy day in Mumbai...

Who is She?

This is a part of one of my diary entries.
Dated 1st Jan 2006.


Then why is it that I am writing about her in this diary?
Starting with the simple thing, I like her thoughts.
Yes, thats the thing. I like her thoughts.
Her thoughts are similar to mine and that's what makes me like her.
May be love her.
She understands me, my thinking.

She considers that simple living and what's written in the destiny is the key.
She hates people who pretend to be someone or something that they are not.
She believes in saying things openly and frankly.
She is aware of the web that's present around her, woven by her life and she has the courage to fight it out.
She is not afraid of crying when life makes her to do so.

She tells me about her problems, quests and dreams.
Is this enough to like her or love her?

Good can remain Good

It is difficult for good people to remain good in this world. The world is evil these days. May be it was always like this but I have realized it now. People don’t trust people. Loved ones are hesitant to accept that their loved ones are still good people. Sounds crazy. But true. It is faith that keeps two persons together. It is a simple relationship. The more is the faith between two persons the lesser is the chance of misunderstanding. Faith fills the gap where misunderstanding can creep in. Even if misunderstanding happens it is important to fill that gap again with faith. And this requires immediate action. Talking. Communication.

Communication brings forth the hidden reasons of misunderstanding. On the other hand being passive may led to a situation where things become difficult to mend. People don’t trust each other. Two persons - both good. But when they see other people around, they don’t see the same goodness in them. Then a thought comes in mind – “Everyone around is bad…What are the chances that he/she has also become one of them”. And this is the time when the other person has to communicate – “Although the odds of me being bad seem very high, I am still what I was and you can still keep the same month of faith in me”.

This closes the slit through which misunderstanding could have crept in. But most of the time people think that since they are good they don’t owe anyone any explanation. They don’t need to prove anything. But they need to – to avoid any chances of ill feeling – to prevent from their loved ones going away from them.

But other thing to ponder upon is that why loved ones are so insecure about you? And the answer is - because they love you. They don’t want you to be in trouble. They want you to know the correct way the life needs to be lived. That’s why they worry. And I feel there is nothing wrong in it.

Dimensions of Goodness

Who is a good person? How can we define goodness? People say you find all answers in religion. But this is a question for which even religion has no precise answer. Different religions have different yardsticks to measure goodness. While one religion asks not to kill even the weakest being other might not mind asking to kill others for the safety of the religion.

But this is not a post about religion. I am talking about goodness. Let’s start from the start. I was a small kid. My parents told me to be good. They taught me basics of goodness. They wanted me to be good to everyone else. The idea was good, simple to follow and seemed to be the only way to live life. To project myself as a good boy I had to respect my elders, obey my parents, be good to other guys, sleep in time, eat on time, go to school regularly etc. It doesn’t sound tough right. Believe me it was not.

Then I grew up a little. It was somewhere around high school. My parents asked me to study well. Even teachers had the same point of view. Other guys were segregated into good and bad based on the percentages they scored in exams. Nothing else mattered. A Measure of goodness for example – sleeping on time changed to sleeping late and studying. Parents didn’t have any problem with me studying late nights now, although they were a bit worried. Teachers wanted each of their students to study late nights. Students who had such odd timings were new heroes to the class. In front of academic performance other measures of goodness like sports, good behavior, obeying parents, respecting elders etc didn’t matter. There was a time when a single percentage used to change the whole image of a student. A single percent was capable of converting a first class to a second class. And being second class was as good as a failure. Even genuine reasons like bad health were not acceptable reasons. I have even seen parents wishing for bad health of competing students. Terrible. Anyways, in that phase academics was the only measure of goodness.

Then I moved to college from school. Again the dimensions of goodness changed. Academics lost its shine a bit. Sports and extra curricular activities were the new things. Girls around no longer cared for geeks. They were crazy after hunks on bikes and in cars. Bunking lectures was the in thing. College festivals and not exams were the occasions to show how good you are in anything but academics. The more a person was courageous to argue with professors, the more heroic he was. Respect to elders – what are you talking about? Listening to parents – so old fashioned. New things were in line to be indulged into – cigarettes, boozing, discs, and even drugs. All those things which in any civilized society would be considered as a strict No-No were “Cool”. Girls were crazy after such guys. It didn’t matter whether a person has a good heart or good thoughts or good values. Things mattered were good looks, good money to spend and a reputation of being a brat. So goodness changed again.

Now I work to earn my living. I have spent 25 years in this world and the word “Goodness” is still as unknown to be as it was. At different stages of my life I have seen different meanings of the word. In a workplace people are considered good if they are able to earn profit for the company. Nothing else matters. The colleagues are not concerned if the same “Good” person goes home drunk everyday and beats his wife and children. The boss is never concerned if the person throws out his old parents out of home. He is good because he is profit maker. A CEO is good even if he has no respect for any woman in the world and a sweeper is bad even if he steals just Rs. 10 for a his ill child. A disparity. Various dimensions of goodness. No place for emotions. Emotions are for emotional fools. People are ready to be animals without emotions than to be good emotional human beings. Love, affection, care, humanity, sincerity, helpfulness are words not in line but opposite to goodness. I was not told this story of goodness and so I cannot accept this face of it that the world is trying to show me. For me goodness still means being true, being able to love others without expecting anything in return. It still means healthy competition and no back stabbing. It means basic goodness that is taught to a child. It can’t be different than that pure goodness.

Worlds of our own

All of us live our lives in our own small world. People see, hear and think things but they consider them out of their small world never trying to give it a slight bit of seriousness. One of such things is the unwanted childhood that some children are forced to live. I am calling it an "unwanted" childhood, but for these children it is the only childhood that they can think off. Because like us they also have their own small world beyond which they don’t see.

The problem with having a small world of our own is that it does not allow us to look beyond a capsule in which we enclose ourselves. But sometimes we break this capsule and peep beyond what we usually see, hear or think. I also try to do it. I try to see world from others' eyes quite often. Daily I travel one and half hours in local train of Mumbai towards my workplace and that is when I try to explore others' worlds.

There are better things and there are worse things. I see both kinds of things. But worse things catch my attention easily. One such thing is the "unwanted" childhood of the "unwanted" children of the society. Life is lived only once and when I think of these children living such life, I feel bad for them. I see children on tracks, on platforms, in trains, on traffic signals. Each time I see a different kind of childhood. Sometimes I see it picking rags, sometimes polishing shoes, sometimes begging and sometimes washing cars. The other day I was traveling in train and this kid came in the compartment with his little kit of polishing shoes. He asked each and every person sitting in their compartment, stopping at everyone for some time, in the hope that at least someone would get his shoes polished. Nobody was interested. I was looking at him. Finally he stood there at the passage still looking at people. It was touching. The look on his face was to be pitied for. He looked hungry. Then when he was sure nobody wants a polish, he quietly kept his brush along with other stuff in the plastic bag and stood there till the next station. I thought of helping him by paying some money. But he was not a beggar. He was earning his bread. I didn’t want him to convert from a person working for his food to the one who begs for it. Even if I would have given him that day who would have given him the next day? But the amazing thing that I noticed was that nobody else even cared to have a second look at him. And that worries me. It tells me that may be people have taken it for granted. May be having such kids around is OK for this society. And when such thinking creeps in nothing can happen. Because people don’t see it as a problem. And when there is no problem what do we need a solution for? But there is problem and that kid deserves more than this. He deserves a good childhood.

Most of us love our old memories – when we were children. One day these children will also grow old and will have their memories too. What kind of a memory will that be? They will ask who is responsible for such a memory? They were innocent so they are definitely not. In some cases may be their parents. But to a large extent it’s the society to be blamed. If a society is ok with its large section to have this kind of childhood then who else can be blamed for it.

The problem is that we have accepted it. We have accepted that if a child spends his whole day picking rags on the railway tracks with sun blazing on his head and still he earns not enough to feed himself, it is because it is his fate. We have accepted that after all this effort when he goes to buy some bread and some policeman takes a major part of that earning, then it’s the way it has always been. We have accepted that if there is a mafia involved in making children physically disabled and using them for begging, it is just one of the many problems in India. We have accepted that educating these children is of no use because they do not have that sharpness of mind required to get educated.

I am sorry…They don’t have sharpness of mind to get Educated???
Do you remember a small child once picked your pocket - that requires sharpness of mind. Have you ever seen a small child selling newspapers with some big news. You buy that newspaper and read it only to see the same old stories - this requires sharpness of mind.

Some people take initiatives for making society a better place. There have been cases where people sponsor the education of a child. But on some occasions they stop sponsoring them because they find child uninterested in studies. Why should I waste my money?? To such people I would ask that if their own child starts disliking the studies then would they stop his studies or will they try to motivate the child? Educating any child needs constant motivation because in many cases children don’t understand what is good for them and there comes the role to be played by the guardians. These children also need guardians.

Most of the times we leave this role to be played by the government. Ideally we should leave it to government only. It is also government’s duty to take up such issues. But I personally have no faith in government. The problem with government is that it is a highly complex organization with lots of hierarchy and lots of people. When there are lots of people involved things have to go wrong, specially when there is no control. And that’s exactly what happens when government takes up such issues as child education or child labour. I am very sure that some people truly want to lift these children to better life but I am also very sure that there are many others who don’t give a damn about anything else other than themselves. They also want special programs to be arranged for these children not because they care for them but because it opens a possibility for them to soak their hands with the money flowing for such programs.

But for how long can we ignore this issue. Not for long to be sure. If India as a whole needs to succeed, this section of the society also needs to be educated. Literacy acts as an asset for a country and Illiteracy as a liability. We have a major chunk waiting. Now we have to decide whether we want to convert them into an asset or a liability. Society needs an awakening. Nobody else will do it for you. If we want to accept illiteracy of children as their fate than nothing is required to be done. Let there be increase in liabilities which again will be a liability for the society and its people in terms of underdevelopment, increased taxes etc. On the other hand if this section gets converted to asset we will be having more hands contributing to economy. If we want India to stand tall in world this section of society cannot be ignored. And the choice does not seem so difficult.