Summer of 2011 : Part 1

It was a hot sunny summer afternoon. Adel was playing hide and seek with his friends since morning. In the deserted roads of the summer afternoon, their count of 1 to 50 was clearly audible from the 8th floor balcony. Every time the count started, Adel’s mother shouted for him and asked him to come home. He wouldn’t even bother and would run away to hide as if he was going to hide at a place his mom could never find. She cursed the other ladies as to why they were letting their children play in this heat and then again shouted at Adel.

After an hour of intermittent useless shouting, Adel’s mother stepped out of her house in anger. She would not let her son be a victim of the scorching sun. As she reached the play area, she frantically started searching for Adel. Smart as Adel was, he quickly hid in his secret place to escape the prying eyes of his mother. But to the utter surprise of Adel, one of his friends went to his mom and pointed his secret hide out to her. With an intense look of revenge, Adel left the ground while his mom was still shouting and scolding him. “You useless boy! Don’t you have any shame left? I have been shouting at you since last 2 hours and you didn’t even respond once. Do you know what time of the day it is? Is it the time to play? You have driven my crazy.....” his mom went on and on......

Sitting in his bed, Adel was sobbing. His mother’s harsh words were still clearly ringing in his ears. He is a big boy now. It’s his summer vacations and he had done his homework too. Then why can’t he play? What problem does his mother have when he was not even disturbing her? Why can’t adults be sensible like him and not disturb him when he is not disturbing them? “I won’t live in this house any more. I am a big boy and can live alone. Then I can play whole day and would not have to listen to my mom’s blabbering”, he thought and left the house. He did not bother to tell his mom where he was going. His mom thought he was upset and that would return home in sometime after sitting on the stairs. He had done this before when he had been upset. But this time he didn’t return. An hour went by, another hour, and another, the clock struck 6 but still Adel did not come home.

.....continued in part 2

Some people go because they want to go,
Some others go because you let them go.

You are busy mourning over the gone.
They comfort you, make you smile,
And walk with you all the mile.

Silently they make their presence felt,
Waiting for your grief to melt.
Never do they reveal what they feel,
Waiting for you to heal.

They understand you all the while,
But when they say, you ignore it over a smile.
Your smile is what matters the most,
And thus leave those who matters the most.

They are gone not because they wanted to go
But because you let them go!

Drivers drive me crazy!

I have always enjoyed travelling and whenever I was forced to think of a hobby of mine, this was the first thing which came to my mind. Unlike other travelogues, I would not detail out the places which I travelled to during my 2 month internship. This is about my interesting and not so interesting encounters in my journey.

In these 2 months, I have travelled by air, sea, rail and road. My project required me to travel to Pune from Mumbai every Monday morning & back to Mumbai every Friday evening. This was not as easy as it sounds. A cab used to pick me up from my cousin’s place at around 630 in the morning. The painful part was guiding the driver to my cousin’s place. No driver had even faintly heard of that place and it took around 1 hour to reach that place from central Mumbai. For his convenience, I had to get up 1 hour before normally I would have got up and explain him the directions in details. And still no one turned up in time. From 630 onwards my aunt, my bhabhi and I would be popping out of the balcony to see if the cab is coming. One of my bhabhi’s neighbours had even asked if it was some kind of a ritual for the three of us to stare the roads from our balcony every Monday morning! After getting into the cab, I used to feel that my work for the day is over and now it’s time to rest and the next three hours of the drive were well spent in day dreaming :)

One thing which I found common among all the drivers who used to pick/drop me was their irresistible desire to keep blabbering all the way. Some would talk about the route to my cousin’s place, some about their previous/next pickup, some would describe Mumbai from their experiences, some would want to know which place I belong to and get into details like where my family members are & their work. However much I hated it, I would still respond by saying just a yes/no or nodding my head for all their conversations. However there was one driver who kept bugging me and wasn’t quiet even for a minute in the entire drive. He seemed to have served many bookings from my company. He told me the names & addresses of all employees from my companies whom he had picked/dropped. And he did not limit the conversation just to this; he even started telling me about his conversations with those people! I was just too frustrated by all this and started talking over phone to avoid any further conversations with him. And suddenly he started asking me the directions knowing very well that I would surely respond to this even if I am busy on phone. I told him to go straight for another 10 kms but even if there was a small road going out of the main road, he would ask me whether to take that turn. I was staying at a naval base which was almost like an island into the sea and there was just one straight road connecting it. I was totally pissed off by the time I reached home. After getting out, I genuinely told him to take the same route to go back to which he replied “haan madam, sea se to nahi hi jayenge! mujhe raasta pata hai...aapko kis floor pe jana hai???”

Train ka 'Suffer'

Any stay in Mumbai is incomplete without travelling in local trains. Just to explore, I with my cousins & friends decided to travel in local from CST to Lower Parel. Very confidently we bought the tickets and started inquiring about the platform from where we can board the train to our destination. It was then that we came to know that locals from CST didn’t go to Lower Parel (this station is covered by western line and not the one from CST). We frantically asked people what to do next. Then someone suggested that we take the train and get down at Curry Road & that Lower Parel station is at a walking distance from there. After confirming this with some other passengers, we finally boarded the train. However we had absolutely no clue when the train would reach Curry Road. After a couple of stations had passed, we just asked our fellow passengers when our station would come. They asked some other passengers and this chain followed. In the next 5 mins, almost 70% of the people in our bogie were shouting to each other “Curry Road kab aata hai?” It turned out the next station itself was Curry Road and thus ended my first real experience with the lifeline of Mumbai.

I was quite amused by the speed and simplicity of locals and used locals to commute in Mumbai after that. One Sunday evening, I was travelling from Bandra to Churchgate. The ladies compartment didn’t have many people and I comfortably sat near a window. Having nothing to do or think about, I just started checking out a few combs which a woman was selling. And within a few seconds, that woman just left the entire box of combs on my hands, mumbled something in Marathi and walked away. Before I could realize what was happening, all the combs fell from the over-stuffed box. Taking a clue from my lost expressions, the girl next to me told me that the woman had given me the box of combs to see and choose one for myself. In the mean time, these sellers just stand near the door and enjoy the breeze. Painfully, I spent the next 10 minutes in picking up all the combs from the floor. By the time I finished picking up combs, it was time for me to get down. What a way to kill time!

I generally don’t like talking to unknown co-passengers while travelling. So during my short 3 hour train journeys from Kolkata to my home town, I watch movies in my laptop. This time also I boarded the train and started to watch Ragini MMS after settling down on my seat. An elderly uncle was sitting next to me and his wife had already gone to sleep in the other berth. Just as I started watching the moving, I felt something unusual. I turned to see what that uncle was doing and found him peeping into my screen so closely that I had almost hit him while turning. I squeezed more towards the window (not much space was left) and turned my laptop so that he couldn’t see clearly. Had it been some other movie, I still wouldn’t have minded anyone peeping into my screen. But I could not watch that kind of a movie with a person of his age. Much to my dismay, he shifted towards me and was now peeping into the screen much more. I tried this once more by almost turning the laptop by 45 degree. He was just too determined to watch the movie and so finally I placed the laptop in a way both of us could see without having to intrude in other’s space. I was using my earphone and he was watching it as a silent movie. Still at the end of the movie, he said that it was a nice movie. God knows how one can find a horror movie good without any sound. Even ‘other scenes’ of the movie were worthless. And not only this, throughout the journey, he was behaving as if he was my relative. When the attendant gave us our packets of bed-sheets, I just kept it on the top berth as I hardly used it during my 3 hour journey. That ‘new found relative’ took out the towel from my packet and gave it to me saying, “Beta, ye kaam aayega. Isko pass me rakho.” I didn’t want to say anything and just took it. His concern for me didn’t stop there. When the food was served, he made space for my plate first and asked me to keep it there. Throughout the next 2 hours he kept offering unsolicited help. Then came the turn to tip the train staff who was serving our food. Generally everyone gives Rs 10 each and as I reached out to my wallet, that uncle gave the 10 rupee note and said that I was also a part of his family! Before I could give my 10 rupee note, the staff had left. I was too annoyed and just waited anxiously for this journey to end.

Vivadon wale Baba

"Dont try to be a Baba Ramdev," said one of our esteemed profs while asking us to take up small doable projects. Surely, Baba Ramdev has taken up a task without knowing how and what is he going to achieve from his protests. It is very easy for him to tell the government to bring back the black money but does he know to the smallest detail how this can be done. How should the bill/ordinance be framed to achieve this, who would be responsible to ensure its adherence, there are so many questions which need to be thought of and answered before starting such a protest. He doesn't even know what exactly he wants from the government (read PM) as an assurance of acceptance of his demands.

To add to all this, he has now come up with the idea of creating a Nationalist Force. He is planning to train thousands of volunteers in arms. Even when the arms are used for self-defence, it is considered to be violence. How could he even think of calling his protests as non-violent and himself as an ardent follower and supporter of Gandhi's principles? The naxalites and terrorists also claim that they use arms only to protect themselves and their interests. This move of his would also misguide many and propagate the use of arms. If not stopped now, this would be just another force to bleed India.

The cause might be good but the means adopted has nullified it. We need to take the cause forward but not the means. I believe this cannot be achieved by just framing laws but by revolutionizing our judiciary system. The 2G scam case would also be like the Satyam case which would be in news for some months and then no one (accused, judiciary involved, politicians, public) would give a damn to it. Only when our judicial system is much more effective and efficient, can we go ahead and have laws to stop corruption and bring back our hard earned money.

Happy Earth Day !

It s been a long time since I updated my blog, or rather even visited my blog. Last couple of months I was just too occupied with my curriculum, dating my books day & night in hope of a decent CG thereafter. It seems dating is not my cup of tea...not even with my books. Marks ditched me and left me & my CG in a condition beyond repair. Anyway, I had a month’s break after my break-up with my marks & I thought I would return to my ever-loyal friend with no complaints & no demands...my blog! My vacations started and I thought of many blog posts but the only place where I spent my time writing turned out to be facebook. Numerous status updates, comments, photo & video sharing kept me busy and I never really took time out of this site to update my blog.

Today, as usual I spent hours on status updates of my friends. Some had silly jokes while some had poems...some heart-broken folks had ‘dard bhari shayari’ where as others had wishes for weird ‘day celebrations’. This is one of the new trends I have noticed on facebook recently. People would just crazily find some weird thing particular to that day and update ‘Happy XXXXX Day’. To add to it, some 20 people would like it and another 10 would share/copy it as their status message without even thinking twice if it actually had any relevance. Well I can list down top 50 crazy things on facebook but I would save that for my next post.

Today I saw some 10 people sharing about following Earth Hour. Earth Hour in India is on March 26th, 8:30-9:30 PM. I was about to share the same but then I paused and thought for a moment. Will I be actually following this? What is the purpose of following this Earth Hour? Is it to save electricity or is it to generate awareness among people and make them conscious about saving electricity. I think this would serve neither of the purposes. Even when everyone strictly follows this, the electricity saved in this one hour would not even be 1% of the electricity we waste daily. ACs in huge offices are on when hardly 10 people are working, lights & fans of each room are running ceaselessly when just one room is being used. Then why do we have to constrain ourselves for that one hour and live without light when we can save much more electricity by being a little cautious one full day and not waste electricity.

If generating awareness is the intention, then this Earth Hour fails even more miserably because many people don’t even think once about the electricity they waste. They just feel happy about the fact that they are also a part of the group that ‘celebrated the Earth Hour’.

There is a difference in the way I use electricity when current is there in my house and when the current is not there & inverter is being used. Not that I compromise any of the comforts when using inverter, it’s just that I don’t waste electricity because I know that once the inverter dies, life would be hell without electricity. It is necessary to believe that electricity would not last forever while using it. Only then will our natural tendency be to minimize its wastage and I think this feeling is missing in most of us. ‘Earth Hour’ doesn’t address this basic need & hence I feel it is not serving its purpose. Any campaign which induces this feeling of resource scarcity can only drive us save electricity in true sense.

I would try and treat every day as Earth Day and save electricity. Will you?

PS: This does not mean my facebook status would have ‘Happy Earth Day’ everyday ;)

A murder or a death sentence?

After being sexually harassed for three years, Rupam Pathak thought her miseries would come to an end and the guilty would be punished when she filed an FIR against the MLA of a district in Bihar. But her wait for justice seemed never ending and in a quest to punish the guilty, she stabbed the MLA to death this morning.

Prima facie it appears as an act of brutal murder. A school teacher is supposed to teach by example and killing a person would be the last example any society would want to set for its children and youth. But then, is it actually an example of murder or an example of punishing the guilty and hence preventing people from committing this heinous crime?

A similar case had been filed by another woman against this MLA a few years back. But thanks to our corrupt socio-political system, he was given a clean chit in that case. Had he been punished suitably in the first instance itself, Rupam would have been saved of her misery. This is not only true for this case but also for many cases being filed in India. We all know the famous Aarushi Murder Case. It is a shame that court has not been able to find the guilty till now. Or rather the guilty is powerful enough to tamper with the judicial system successfully every-time (s)he wishes to. In this scenario, I think Rupam was left with no other choice than to break the law and give justice to herself.

What is even more disheartening is the way politicians and media commented on this incident. Almost all articles have framed the incident as murder and have reported only one side of the story. No one has even hinted that this act could imply that patience level of the public is now peaking and soon such fate might be meted out to other such politicians. They should thus restrict their criminal activities and corruption and concentrate on doing what they are elected for. No one pointed the fact that if justice would continuously be delayed (and hence denied), people would be forced to break laws and punish the guilty in their own ways.

In my view, Rupam has given an apt reply to these sucking politicians and the sick judicial system.