A Small Conversation

This conversation happened with me last Friday when I was travelling from Dalsinghsarai (my hometown) to Rosera. I was sitting on the aisle seat of the bus and the bus was overcrowded as all the buses running in and around my area are. And then at some village stop, the person sitting near me, i.e. the one sitting on the middle seat, got off the bus. And at the same time an old lady got into the bus with her bag full of something and which looked very heavy. Since she could not get inside with that seat, she asked me to shift to the middle seat. Without thinking even for a second I did that. After some time I took my hands on my right pocket to make sure my mobile phones are there intact (Thanks to a lot of travels in Delhi Metro, I have got into the habit of checking for my wallet and cell phone whenever I am in a crowded area). And at this time the person (Let’s call him Mr Window) occupying the window seat speaks:

Mr Window: Hum nachne gaane wale log hain. Aisa kaam nahi karenge. Aisa kaam karenge to hamara program dekhega koi stage par? (We are the people who dance and sing. We won’t do suck work. If we do this thing, would anyone watch my program on stage.)

Me (after being quiet for a moment and feeling embarassed): Achcha, kya kaam karte hain aap? (So what do you do?)

Mr Window: Ladies ka kaam karte hain stage par. Gaana gaate hain program me. (I work as a lady. I sing on stage during programs.)

Me: Kahan se hain aap? (Where are you from?)

Mr Window: Waise to hum Deoria me rehte hain, par abhi Rosera ja rahe hain program karne. (Though I live in Deoria but I am going to Rosera now for a program)

Me: Ghar Dalsinghsarai hai kya? (Your hometown is Dalsinghsarai?)

Mr Window: Nahi, Dalsinghsarai hamara nanihaal hai. Kabhi kabhi aate hain yahan pe. (No, My maternal uncles and grandparents live in Dalsinghsarai. I come here sometimes.)

Me: Kahan se seekhe gaana? (where did you learn singing?)

Mr Window: Ye to Saraswati ka aashirwad hai. Ghar pe hi seekhe. Mere pitaji mere guru hain. Pitaji bhi yahi kaam karte the. Ab wo nahi karte, sirf gate pe baithte hain program k time. (This is the blessing of Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning. My father is my teacher. He used to do the same thing. Now he doesn’t do it, only sits at the gate during a program. )

Me: 1 program karne ka kitna paisa mil jata hai? (How much do you earn from one program?)

Mr Window: 850 milta hai humko 1 program karne ka. (Rs 850 for 1 Program.)

Me: Aur mahine me kitne din program karte hain? (How many programs do you do in a month?)

Mr Window: Arey 1 bhi din khali nahi milta hai. (I don’t get rest even for a day.)

And then to keep the conversation going, I talked to him about SPIC MACAY IIT Roorkee Chapter, and talked about a few artists who had visited our college. Though he said, he knew them but I think he didn’t. Or maybe he did. But what make me think are the following points:

• The person earns almost 25k a month. Why did he have that tone as if he was having some kind of inferiority complex?
• He called his singing ‘Saraswati ka aashirwad’. So, why did he term it as ‘ladies ka kaam’ as if it was some very mean work?
• And if money is everything (as I see by the attitude of people around me), what is wrong with doing this work even that people like him have to feel infereior?

And I am still thinking!!

Have You been to A Village?

India is shining! Of course it is but only for those living in the multi storied apartments in Mumbai or who shop in the biggest of malls of Gurgaon. Yes, we are moving towards faster means of communication, latest mobile and web technologies, imported cars, watches and everything but coming out of the metro circle and one would find a very big contrast. And a similar contrast striked me when I visited a sleepy village called Mahe Singhia and the palces around in my own district a few of days ago.

Getting to Mahe itself was a big achievement as the buses from the nearest town Rosera take almost 70-80 minutes to cover a distance of about 17-18 kilometres on a highly bumpy road. I had the real feel of true India in the bus itself which was overcrowded with almost two and half times its actual capacity. And one could see a large number of people occupying seats on the roof of the bus too. And the conductor jumped through the window to collect the money. And all I could remember was the opening scene from the movie Peepli [Live] where the character Natha vomits out of suffocation in an overcrowded auto.

However, after sitting in such a condition for about an hour, I reached a place called Dudhwara from where I was picked up on a motorcycle to tour the villages. And it was when an interesting journey into the village life started.

One of the villages I visited was Dengrahi in Singhia village panchayat area. Located on the banks of Baghmati, the village gets flooded every year during the monsoons. Away from the nearest railway station Nayanagar by at least 10 km and inhabited by the people comprising of both forward and backward castes, the village still holds on to a rigid caste structure as far as education is concerned. The students of the village are ill treated not only by the forward caste students who come to the school but also by the teachers who are teaching. The Dalit students are beaten up by the Brahmin boys if they attend the school.

Here, the help and support from Asha comes as a real boon for the poor backward children. Managed by the Asha volunteer Mr Manoj Sahu along with three other teaches, the organization is trying its level best to bring lower caste children to the schools. They also run a center in the village where they impart education to these children and have taken several steps to bring them to school including counselling for parents and coordinating with the local Aanganbadi Kendra.

Despite these continuous efforts, the problems are never ending. The parents are unwilling to send the children to school after the age of 10-12 as they don’t see a benefit in formal studies. Even after studying up to a certain standard, there is no guarantee of a decent work other than what they are doing and hence, children are then sent to work in farms, brick factories and even to other states so that they can support the family income.

“But I guess, their fathers must be getting good enough amount for working as labours in farms or any other places. So, why do they send the children to work?” I asked Manoj ji. And what he replied showed one of the saddest scenes of rural life in the state and the country as a whole. “They do earn good amount, in fact very good amount which is complemented if the mother is earning too but generally half of the money is gone in liquors which leads to financial problems.” And at times, the local country-made liquors even kill a person in thirties and the child has to go to work in order to support the family.

Moreover, this habit of tobacco and liquor is again infused in the children as well. I met some children in Gonwara (another village where Asha is working) who used to collect cigarette butts and used to smoke them. Some even stole money here and there for buying bidis or ganja. Despite all this, many children knew how to use mobile phones and navigate around the mobile softwares. Strange, ain’t it?

In Gonwara, I met the mothers of some children who could understood the importance of education for children (Thanks to the efforts put in by the Asha volunteers ) but were helpless because there is only one government run school in the radius of 2-3 kms and that too is dominated by the forward caste teachers and children. The only hope for them lies in their Manoj Sir (the Asha volunteer) to open up an Asha center soon for them.

On one hand, we get tired of browsing through the designer shirts, t shirts, sweat shirts, jeans and other clothes to get one of our choice, the children in these villages put on whatever they get, and at times are happy wearing the dirtiest of clothes. One would think them to be rustic and uncultured (as I thought while sitting in the bus in the morning and frowning at the villagers), but would come to know their real conditions only after spending some time with them.

However, a lot is being done by Asha Parivaar and its volunteers so that these children learn to remain clean and look good but a lot still remains to be done. Hope Asha Parivaar continues to burn the light of hope!!

Tour de 2010

Taking the tour of a year actually takes a year because the experiences of life one gets in a year can never be put into words. One can tell about a few events, a few big ones which matter more than others and are fresh on the memory. But there are so many subtle incidents in life which, apparently, don’t register on the memory but play very significant roles in deciding how we feel. And there are such small subtle incidents of life which we encounter most of the times, and not the bigger ones.

So as I sit writing about the year that passed, some of the bigger events which come to my mind are getting a job, leaving the college, reluctance to join the job I got at college and my desperate efforts to find a new one, finally joining the same job with much reservations in mind, meeting new people at Jhinjholi (during my job life at Surya Roshni Ltd), quitting the job, finally taking a call about not joining the regular jobs (despite having one such opportunity) and a fair amount of travelling throughout the year.

Though I always wanted to pass out of college as soon as possible but I have missed college days a lot after passing out. Not because I very much loved to stay there abut I guess because I was addicted to a certain kind of lifestyle in college and I find it difficult to adjust to a new one. But leaving college led me to learn bigger lessons in the University of Life, which I simply adore.I learn a lot about the Big Bad World out there and learnt how to deal with it to some extent. I also became a little clearer about what I want to do with my life.

The job life, however, short was quite exotic and different. Though it was not all good but it exposed to some entirely different things. Jhinjholi, Vipassana (meditation) and Naturopathy Camp were such new experiences.

The year saw me as a student, an employee and finally as an unemployed graduate. So, how does being unemployed feel? Frankly and honestly speaking, lack of engagement has is never comfortable for anyone but I have the satisfaction of not doing something which I actually don’t want to do.

I read a lot this year and hope to continue that for the next year too. However, I got a little bit lazy with my blog which I think I should take care of the next year.

Now as all of us wait eagerly for the New Year, I wish it brings more experiences and learning. And at the same time, Happiness for Everyone!

Adios 2010! :-)

Random Stuff About LIFE

Human life is strange are even stranger are the facts we come across in life. Today I came across one such fact which strengthened my belief in the uncertainty of life and the various faces it can show to anybody.

Most of us know well about R K Narayan and for those who don’t know, he was one of the pioneers of Indian Literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao and in common language, he is the creator of the ever living and ever refreshing town of Malgudi. But how many of us know that the great giant of English literature could not clear his university paper of English, despite the fact that English was his favourite subject? And during the idle year, he discovered his love i.e. writing. What would have happened if Mr Narayan would not have got a back in the subject? Perhaps we would not have R K Narayan, the great writer among us. We could never have known about the lives of his ever living characters like Swami, Chandran, Krishna, Raju, Rosie, Raman, Nagraj, Thannapa and many others. Quoting Steve Job’s words here, I would say:

It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

This reminds me of the well discussed ‘Butterfly Effect’ as well. How can a small incident or event or a course of action change the entire life of a person for good or bad. Failing in an exam or not getting a job or something like that are, I guess, smaller things. The accidents which happen on roads are, I guess, because of a wrong judgement of a fraction of second. Sometimes, the state of mind of the victim in that particular second may change the entire course of events. Sometimes, it’s the same state of mind again which can pull a person out of a big trouble.

People call this thing destiny but I call this thing the diversity of life. Every individual’s life is different and different things happen with different individuals in the same situation. This is what the beauty of the universe and our lives is. Sometimes, I think what would have happened if everybody were to be governed by the same rules of living the life, being born in the same kind of surrounding, being cared in the very same manner as a child, getting the same education, doing the same thing as others. Obviously, that can’t happen for practical purposes but what if that could have happened? Could the life have been as interesting as it is today? I guess no, absolutely no.

So, it’s good that some are born to be writers, some actors, some engineers, some doctors and some even JESUS!!

Merry Christmas!! :-)

Puri Yatra

Yesterday, I returned from a three day trip from Puri and needless to say that the trip was refreshing. Puri is one of the places I love a lot. It has the best beech I have seen till now (of course, I have to visit Mumbai and Goa first and only then, I will be in a position to declare the supremacy of Puri Beech over all the Indian beeches), you get nariyal paani (coconut water) at real cheap rates and the most important of all, being situated in a less developed area, the place still maintains its natural beauty and delicacy.

There are two things which make me deeply concerned after this trip. The first is the Naxalite problem which prevails in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and other Indian states. But how does the Naxalite problem come in between my trip? Actually, I had no idea that after the (suspected) Naxalite links in the Gyaneshwari Express train accident in May this year, all the traing running at night between Tata-Kharagpur section were stopped and train traffic would only start after 5 am in the morning. And because of this we had to stay at Tatanagar railway station throughout the night unnecessarily. The trip schedule got affected a bit and we had to face some difficulties as well. And when I think of it, it really scares me thinking of the people who live in the Naxal-affected area as when a big organization like Indian Railways can get helpless in front of the railways, what condition and fear must the people be living in the area!! On the other hand, I came to know that all the Naxalites in the region have some political contact and support and which prevents the police to act against them. Jai ho Indian Politics!! (Hail the Indian Politics!!)

The second concern is the sad state of the Indian temples which are more of a market place for the pandas or pundits (priests). And I came to know that the Jagannath Temple in Puri is the most affected by the tyranny of the pandas on the visitors. They don’t let you walk inside the temple premises peacefully unless you keep on throwing money wherever and whenever they suggest. And the worst of all is the fact that they stick to you like a fly on sugar until and unless you pay them off with some dakshina (money). This is despite the fact that the government has taken the temple under its control and fixed salary is given to all the priests. And the most surprising fact is that the pandas even used physical assault on visitors to get money from them. Use for abusive language is still prevalent, even we had to face it :-(. I know money is involved with most of the religions and almost all the temples in India but what I saw at Puri and Sakshi Gopal Temples could not be termed anything less than loot.

But who said one travels across to other places to see the places only? One travels to experience different cultures, people and lifestyle and a lot of other new things and the trip excelled in providing a very different experience of life. And the best of all was the awesome Puri Beech. Hope to visit the place again soon!! :-)

Are We a Part of Odyssey??

Youth is defined as the time when a person is young (at heart of course), energetic, enthusiastic, vibrant with new ideas and ready to try out new things for him. This time, the person is restless and wants to explore as many new things as possible. It’s the time to experiment with life, a time to go on a long and adventurous journey, both inside and outside. It’s the time to live the Odyssey Years in the true sense of the term.

But the greater question is: Are we a part of the Odyssey? Are we willing to leave the comforts of a cozy office and a handsome salary cheque? Are we ready to deviate from the pre-laid path our families and society has set for us? Are we ready to explore new things?

A friend of mine joined the IT sector about an year back and is about to quit. Reason: boring work, extra long working hours, lack of freedom and exploitation by the team leader and the project manager. And the most important of all, he doesn’t see a future for himself in the IT sector because copying some codes from one window and pasting them in another doesn’t make him happy. And hence, he wants to leave the job.

“What next?” I asked him. “I don’t know”, came the reply, “but this is sure that I can’t work in IT.” May be he will try higher studies or do something which he actually wants to do and which gives him satisfaction irrespective of the amount on each month’s salary cheque.

This is one example of trying to live the Odyssey years but what about the rest of the junta? Interestingly, my friend says that none of his colleagues is happy with the work the IT sector is providing. But none of them has the courage to take the plunge. Because there is always the question of ‘what to do’ looming over the head as if a degree in engineering closed doors for all the other possible options of livelihood. Some give the argument that the IT sector has huge potential for providing a good future. And here a good future is synonym for a hefty salary regardless of job satisfaction and overall happiness quotient of life.

And this is not the case with people in just one sector or two. Everywhere around us we can see the years of life meant for exploring and taking risks being spoiled to make a more secure and happy future. What makes me wonder is, “Can an unsatisfied present lay down the foundation stone for a happy future?”

The String of Self Identity

Wake Up Sid (released last year) was especially liked by the young crowd which goes to college. And it was liked not because it was a love story (though it had elements of love like almost all the Bollywood movies) or a war movie or a period movie or it was of any genre which is very popular among the youth but the movie was adored because it touched a string which connects us to our inner self, the string of self identity, the chord of individuality, the desire to live our lives the way we want to, the desire to do what we actually want to do.

Everybody is born to do something specific, something unique, and something different from the rest of the world. And the purpose of an individual’s life is achieved if and only we do that particular thing. And the best thing about our lives is that we get numerous indications from our destiny about what we are made to do, be it in the form of love for a particular profession or passion for doing something out of the box. Sometimes, the indications can be subtle and can tickle the mind everyday in some form or another and sometimes, the indications can be in the form of a big event or an accident which change the course of one’s life.

But the real conflict arises when a person knows what he or she wants to do but is trapped in the jingle of a so called secure future. People say that happiness is a state of mind. I think that the same can be said about freedom. We are free if we have the liberty to do what we actually want to do. We live in a sovereign state and choose our own leaders and those who make policies for us. But do we live in a sovereign state of mind? Do we choose our own careers according to our wishes by listening to our inner callings? And even if we want to do that, are we free to do that? Is the society we live in liberal enough to allow us to do something out of the box and unconventional? Is our family even liberal for letting us experiment with our lives by the way we want to?

The answer to above questions is a big ‘NO’ if we talk about most of the young people of India about whom we boast with pride and with whom we dream of being the superpower someday. And the irony lies in the fact that even if we become the world leader in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or National Income or some other similar parameters, the Indians would still be running the rat race for a more comfortable life instead of trying and striving for a more fulfilling and satisfying life.

A few days ago, we celebrated our 64^th Independence Day. But at times I wonder about what such celebrations of our ‘physical independence’ mean to our young crowd which bears the burden of bringing the country on the top of the world. For me and all of them like me, these days are nothing more than a holiday (and this year, thanks to Sundays, even that holiday was scrapped). We need and we want to celebrate a day when we are liberated mentally and are free at the mental level.

Everyone in this world strives for happiness and that is the ultimate goal of life. And nobody is happy when the mind is captured in the cuffs of secure future or a comfortable life. It’s time we realise that we can be happy only by connecting ourselves to our inner selves and living our lives the way we want to. And only then we can make our lives extra ordinary!!

Carpe Diem!!