SWACHCH BHARAT !!!!!!! MY FOOT

SWACHCH BHARAT, MY FOOT

Today on return from evening walk saw a well heeled lady driving a SUV, a teenage girl, may be her daughter, sitting next to her, throwing an empty wafer packet with banana  peels  out of the window of the running car. She seemed to be saying “I am all powerful.  I can throw my dirt anywhere I want. I do not care as long as my own surrounding is clean”.

A few distance later, saw a Rickshaw puller throwing an empty tobacco sachet on the road. He seemed to be telling “I live in unhealthy squalor anyway. Why should I care if your surrounding is clean or not’?

I am just wondering who is responsible for all the dirt around us- the lady and her ilk or the Rickshaw puller and his folks.  

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that I am responsible for it.  I could not have run after the car and catch the lady and give a bit of my mind but I could have certainly admonished the rickshaw puller. But then I think why the rickshaw puller? Just because he is poor, lives in a filthy atmosphere and hence has no sense of cleanliness?

Again the more I think about it the more I am convinced that I am responsible for it. I could have the audacity to pull up the poor but have no guts to say a world to the powerful even if an opportunity falls in place.

The more I think about it the more I am convinced that I am responsible for it. It was only till yesterday (literally) that I used to do the same. Me the educated middle class preserver of moral values!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But somehow my middleclass values put me on the right path. But my middleclass values forces me to think about these abrasions in our society where the upper class and the downtrodden think similarly on certain vital issues. The yoke of reforms remains on the shoulders of the middleclass.

   

ON BEING A GIFT AND A GIFT WRAPPER

ON BEING A GIFT AND A GIFT WRAPPER

Most of us give or get occasional gifts on birthdays, weddings, anniversaries or festivals. The gifts are wrapped in bright sparkling wrappers. No matter how bright and sparkling the wrapper may be, it does not form part of the gift. In fact the receiver, mostly children, anxious to know what lies inside the packet, tears away the wrapper mercilessly and dumps it in the waste paper basket.  As we should not judge a book by its cover we should not judge a gift by its wrapper. Its job is to wrap the gift. It cannot add value to the gift itself. The value of the gift is judged by the receiver.    

There are many types of wrappers. Have you ever seen the heavily made up actors and celebrities without make up?  This make up wrapper not only hides the wrinkles or the hardened skin but also hides their emotions too. This also makes them fearful to present themselves in public without make up. It can be very depressing but it is not created by the wrapper. It is self created.   

In our day to day life we come across people wrapped in various shades of wrappers. There was this song from a Hindi movie ‘ek chehare pe kai chehare laga lete hain log’ (people wear many faces over a face). They wear masks to hide their true faces. The smile on their faces hides their true feelings. The words they utter may mean exactly the opposite. It is only after the false wrapper is removed that the truth comes out. The only problem is that unlike what we do with wrappers on the gift packets, we cannot tear their wrappers of falsehood apart. It is in the interest of both, the giver and the receiver, that decency is maintained. In fact it is a norm than exception to let the deception flourish. Calling a spade a spade is not considered civic.

And then who can forget the only wrapper, the creator preserved us with for full nine months. All of us were presented to this world in a beautiful wrapper. The wrapper was carefully removed and the gift inside opened in the presence of all concerned. Everyone danced with divine joy. The gift passed from hands to hands.

IT WAS NOW FOR THE GIFT TO PROVE ITS WORTH. WILL IT? THE WRAPPER COULD DO THIS MUCH ONLY.

Life can be as green as a Christmas tree.

Life can be as green as a Christmas tree.

Neither snow nor storm can whither the leaves of a Charismas tree. Does not it sound familiar?

“Nainam cchindanti shastraani nainam dahati paavakah;

Na chainam kledayantyaapo na shoshayati maarutah.

(Weapons cut It not, fire burns It not, water wets It not, wind dries It not.”)

 (Geeta -Chapter 2, Verse 23.)

Christmas tree is brought home on Christmas and decorated with full glory. This possibly is the only tree that can survive the onslaught of winter winds and snow in the Western world. Christmas is God’s reassurance that He is with us all the time. The tradition of decorating it during Christmas is age old. Will it be fair to compare Christmas tree with the eternal Soul? Christianity does not talk of the cycle of birth and rebirth and eternity of life. I am rather inclined to believe that He created Christmas tree to remind humanity of the joy of living, the brightness of life and the eternity of life.

Life is living within a physical body and death is the perishing of the body due to accidents, illness or ageing. It is therefore very rational to decorate this body as long as the soul is within this body. We need not decorate this body in the usual terms. By decorating I mean, decorating our overall thinking with noble ideas of honesty, truthfulness and compassion for the less fortunate. We celebrate our festivals with gusto, spend fortunes and forget all our owes during these festivities.

But there are millions who are deprived of basic needs in life. Presently my thoughts are for the people who live on footpaths and have no shelter for the life threatening cold nights. Government provides them night shelter bit no blankets. Some cannot move to the night shelters because of logistics. North India is reeling under a very severe cold spell and colder than even London. News papers are carrying photos of people stranded at the Railway stations because of delayed/cancelled trains. Most of the passengers have woolens on and some have even blankets. Just across the platforms there are urchins in tattered clothes collecting empty water bottles.

Have as much fun as you can but give a thought for these less fortunate people and do weigh your own miseries with that of theirs.    

ALL ABOUT FACEBOOK ADDICTION

ALL ABOUT FACEBOOK ADDICTION

YOU ONLY WANT TO BE LOOKED AT, YOU NEVER LOOK

This is a line from a movie dialogue where the wife blames her husband for neglecting her because he only wants to be looked at, but never looks. This can be said in so many other phrases like:

 You only want to be heard but you do not listen or,

You only want to be followed but you do not follow.

Let me try to apply it on FB posts. Lot of surveys have been made and more will be made. Presently FB is mainly for the younger people. There are few seniors like me. May be many seniors enrolled but found it too fast, like fast food. You order the food, it is warmed in the oven in seconds, handed over to you and you eat it while walking or driving to work or home. It is not like ordering al carte from the menu, waiting at the table for being served at a placid speed and eating it leisurely as if you have nowhere to go. Face book is not the platform for serious discussions.

FB is updating your status on the drop of a hat and wait for the ‘likes’. You do not even expect comments as there nothing to comment. The ‘like’ says everything. For you the ‘like’ is an appreciation and for the person hitting the ‘like’ button is a formality. Yet the measure of popularity is the number of ‘likes’ or comments one gets. Like followers on Tweeter, I was told ‘friends’ and ‘likes’ on FB can also be ‘managed. You know what I mean.

Presently almost everybody who is anybody with a internet supported phone or computer is on FB.The embarrassment arises when you are friend to your children or relatives like chacha-chachi, tau-tai, mama-mami, bhai-behan, beta-bahu, beti-damad, bhai-behan, nana-nani, mata –pita. Some of their or your updates may be revealing. And then it is but natural that there should be mutual race for hitting the ‘like’ button or else what is the use of having ‘friends’ within the family and relatives? Failing to hit the ‘like’ button may end up in severance of relationships by simply ‘unfriend’(ing).

The more you ‘like’ others’ ‘status’ the more you are likely to get ‘likes’ on your own ‘status updates’.  This is directly proportional to your own actions. Some may get more ‘likes’ than what they do in turn but that is because of a formal acknowledgement or respect for your post. There are status updaters who do not ‘like; but expect ‘like’ from one and sundry. It may also be paraphrased as “

You only want to be ‘liked’ but you do not ‘like’

For posting comments one has to read the post but in this time of fast food, not many have the patience to spare time or inclination. Sometimes the first few lines speak what is likely to follow and there is no need to hit the ‘see more’ link in blue.  It may be okay to ‘like’ a photo update but I am at loss to understand what a ‘like’ means when someone’s ‘like’ does not indicate if he/she ‘liked’ if after reading the full post or not.

The moral of the write up is, if you have not already guessed, if you want to be looked at, you have to start looking, if you want to be heard, you have to start listening and if you want to be ‘liked’ you have start ‘liking’.

I know you will hit the ‘like’ button  without reading this post but do it anyway because I am your senior and am in minority. Mind you if you do not do so you will be indirectly telling to back off.

  

"IF WE COULD SEE INSIDE OTHERS' HEARTS": LIFE, in 4 min

INDIA ENTERTAINING UNLIMITED

Ruskin Bond, the famous British writer, living in Mussorrie, India,  was once asked why he preferred to make India his home.He replied ‘because one may die in India due to any number of reasons but boredom is not one of them’. He explained that India is a vast country of many hays and colors and something interesting and entertaining is happening here 24x7 which gives him enough material for his writings.

I think we all will agree with this. India is said to be so many Indias within India. With over 26 languages and innumerable dialects, cultural vivacity, political opinions and diverse food habits, India is a huge Corporate which I call “India Entertaining Unlimited’. Let us take a few recent picks:

Jayalaitha goes to jail in disproportionate assets case but people are talking of her 2000 pairs of shoes, 10000 sarees and of course boxful of jewelries. She was a film actress, a successful actress at that and she was also a ‘friend’ of the great MGR. I do not understand what is the big deal about shoes, sarees and jewelries. If people want to get entertained, so be it.

Take the case of another madam Mayawati,  ex CM of  UP, called ‘behanji’ by her supporters. She too has over 2000 pairs of shoes, 5000 ladies bags, 1000 diamond ear rings and tops and of course equal sets of ladies salwar suits to go with that. Once she sent state aircraft to Mumbai to fetch the imported shoe consignment to Lucknow. She was neither an actress, nor a successful advocate for which she trained but she had millions of supporters who voluntarily contributed to MBDF every year.  She was also a favorite of Kansi Ram, the founder of BSP by virtue of which she inherited his wealth. I again wonder what the big deal about her shoes, bags, ear wears and suits. She has only provided some grit to the rumor mill.

PM Modi launched  SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN  and cleaned the roads. So did some ministers and high ranking Government officials. Today our Cricket God Sachin Tendulkar also took to the broom. A very good start. I wish if they could clean the garbage lying for days behind the residence of our ex PM, MMS. But that would have been showing some favor to MMS and Media would have speculated if he too like Shashi Tharoor is joining BJP. No one is talking about the regular safai karamcharies who clean the garbage of these broom holders round the year.

Maharastra and Haryana are going to polls on 15^th and a good bye has been hailed to alliances. There remains to be seen who sleeps with whom after the results are out. Every one is keeping the options open. Politics is the name of possibilities and it hardly matters with whom you slept with and who really is the father of the child.

Feel free to add more entertaining news. There is no dearth of it.     

  

BURDEN OF PERFECTION

BURDEN OF PERFECTION

The other day I heard someone say that he feels uncomfortable in the company of idiots. This reminded me of William Hazlitt telling his son that if there were no foolish people around who would care for the wise ones. He also said philosophically speaking, foolish people need our empathy rather than ridicule.  This particular person, to me seemed to be one who can never go wrong as he thinks he is perfection personified.

Perfectionists are by nature tend to go into minute details before taking a decision. They take a deep breath before they speak. They do not trust people on their face value. We find them in offices and at home. They are feared and admired with equal measure. It is not that their decisions do not go wrong but they do not hesitate to own them. People in general try to be perfect in whatever they do.  Nobody wants to fail or falter.  Some of our greats, about whose private life we know little or nothing are the embodiment of perfection in public life. There are many such personalities in the field of art, science, literature, performing arts, music and even families. They are hardworking, balanced and cautious. They spend a whole lot of time in meeting the exacting standards of perfection they have set for themselves. They may not show it but they inwardly enjoy the appreciation and rewards that come with perfection.

Perfection must be a huge burden. There can be no improvement on perfection as there is nothing beyond it. The burden of not doing wrong must be keeping them on their toes all the times. They cannot go wrong is burden enough. The pressure must be killing.  Failure may be scaring them. The race to perfection may make them recluse as they may not comfortable in the company of lesser mortals. There is no wonder that some of them are not in a position to carry the burden and scum to drugs and alcohol.  Not able to hold the failure on other fronts, mainly family and relationships, they may get depressed and commit suicide.

But then the world would be worthless without these perfectionists. They have created many benchmarks we can be proud of. They have contributed in the field of science, medicines, art, culture, religion, yoga and many other areas making life worth living. It is rather an irony that many of them could not carry the burden of perfection, the latest being Robins William, the actor, who committed suicide.