What if...???

Recently saw "God Tussi Great ho" and found it a pathetic Indianized copy of Bruce Almighty. But the movie became a great topic for debate between my hubby and me. He found the movie "entertaining" whereas for me the movie was a complete waste of time. Then out of the blue, he popped me a question: "What if u were given a chance to change the world in 10 days??? What would you do without being selfish?" Simple enough...for a start, I would stop all terrorism activities, all those bomb blasts, communal riots...that would spread peace everywhere. But how??? To my surprise, I couldnt think of any ideas to do so. Digging deeper I found some possible solutions.....illiteracy and poverty. Earlier I thought, these two go hand-in-hand, but seeing the current ruling (read illiterate)politicians, I've changed my mind. So next lets irradicate illiteracy. I wondered if that would help. The brain man behind the recent bomb blasts came to my mind. He was very well-educated, working in a good company, had a well-paying job and a wonderful family. Still, he did spread pain and terror in the name of religion. So simply reducing illiteracy will not help. The mindset of the people has to change. Why not merge all religions into one common religion? One common caste,one religion, religion of humanity. At least people would not kill each other using religion as an excuse.
Oh, but then people would start killing in the name of states...the place u were born in, the place where u work, the place where ur parents lived, soon it would come down to the place where ur dog was born....kill those who encroach on ur area. Isnt that what dogs do? Go around marking their property and snarl at anyone who dares to cross it?
So, only creating a single religion would not help. Then how about creating one big common country without boundaries for people to live happily ever after? No boundaries, no demarcations, anyone and everyone can be proud of their country rather than of their state or city. But then people would fight over countries...which land belongs to which country. Rather than sharing and enjoying it, start a war and make hell out of a paradise.
So would the solution be vanishing all boundaries between countries too? Imagine a boundary free world....where people only know the religion humanity...everyone is well-educated, trying to make the world a better place to live in........
Too much of a task even for God to be done in 10 days or even in a lifetime....population has increased too much to be controlled and organized....the world has gone beyond turning back....finally, it struck me. What would you do to a very dirty table cloth? Put it into the washing machine. I would try the same with the world. Wash out everything existing. Create a brand new world. Isnt that called doomsday? I guess THAT would really be an end to all problems.

Moral Science !!!

Moral Science -- this was a subject in our school. For us students, it meant 1 hour of rest, relaxation, story-telling time each week. Our teacher for this subject too had a very cool approach. She never exactly taught us anything from any textbook, of course, there were no textbooks nor any specific syllabus for teaching moral science. She used to bring in cuttings of newspapers and read it out to us aloud and and ask our opinons about it. She also used to encourage us to share our experiences where we have been honest and it had helped us. Even now, I dont remember a single experience which was shared or even a single moment where I have actually listened to her lectures on society morals and obligations. But still, there was one such event which had a lasting impression on my mind.

Moral science was not a subject on which one could hold any exams or give any grades. If there was any such exam, all one needed was to be all goody-goody, and one could get the highest scores. So our teacher had decided on a different scale of grading, well, not exactly grading, but judging our level of participation and interest in moral science. She used to conduct our visits to Orphanages in the city. Just before those visits, we used to have monetary donation collected from our class and with that amount, she used to buy some commodity to be donated to the orphanage. Those commodities would vary from spoons to blankets to handkerchiefs each year. We would also arrange a show for them like set dances on popular songs, prepare small funny skits. Our teacher used to supervise us and guide us about the skits in particular ensuring they did not contain any parental sentiments as we were going there to provide entertainment, not point out their misfortune.

Then a day would be set, mostly Saturday morning, where we would set out in our school bus to visit the Orphanage. In my first year visit, I was in 6th std. Being a kid and a hostelite, I was more excited about the dances, skits and the excitement of going out like a picnic with my friends. But I can never forget the first image I had of the Orphanage. It was this dreary building which literally smelt of gloominess. All I can remember was huge halls, dark corridors, children playing in the playground or peeping out of curiosity at us from behind walls and curtains and then, the visit to the infants section. Small babies, right from 1 week old to 3 month old babies, lying in cribs, some crying, some sleeping, some looking at us with bright eyes....eyes which have just started recognizing objects and eyes which are searching for their parents. Even at that young age, I felt something stir inside me. I felt anger at those people who could have done such a thing. How can anyone have a baby and then just leave it at the doorstep of an Orphanage?? They could have their own reasons like they may not be in a position to take care of it, then why have it in the first place? They had no right to bring a human being into this world if they were not capable of taking care of it and if they did give birth to it, it was their responsibility to stick by it. I dont think the babies lying in those cribs would have asked for better milk or better food, they would have been satisfied in the warm caring arms of their parents. All these thoughts started going around in my mind and with each visit, the questions only increased with no answers. Well, even though I did not get any answers, I certainly became more grateful for whatever God has given me, grateful for having such lovely parents, family, a home to call of my own.

Even now, after 15 years, I still have no answers....but only a solution. Gradually, I realized that maybe the root cause was illiteracy of the people, especially of the economically lower class of the people. Education would bring about awareness, a small job maybe, better income resulting in a better standard of living. My grandfather used to say..." The best deed one can do for society is by spreading knowledge". I know, adopting a child is very difficult step and hats off to those who actually adopt a child. But the least we can do is adopt a child financially. Provide the education fees of a child and give him the power of knowledge. Even if we cannot bring them into our homes and love them as a family member, at least we can make them capable of facing the world when they grow up. Let us try to provide education wherever and in whatever small way we can. Teach the kids of ur maids on weekends. If you have a computer at home, introduce them to the world of computers. If not knowledge, at least you can give them dreams and hope of trying to make a better future for themselves.

I know, it is easy to preach but very difficult to practice. And I have actually been through such an experience. After joining Infosys, we came to know from Infosys Foundation about a small village school close to Hinjewadi IT park. It was a civic school and although they had some computers donated to them by IT companies, they could not afford a teacher to teach computers. All they requested was for our time....time to teach the students about computers. So that when they grow up, they have better job prospects than what their parents had. I went there a few times and I can safely say, it was the only unselfish thing I must have ever done in my whole life. The warm feeling that I felt on seeing the glow on the childrens faces when they handled Word, Excel, Paint, cannot be described. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I could not contribute much to it. And due to lack of volunteers, the initiative had to be closed down.

Well, must say those Moral Science lectures did have their impact, and I truly hope so that this subject is made a must in all schools. We can each in our way try....

"Heal the world, lets make it a better place,

For you and for me and the entire living race....."

Toilets in Japan !!!

I know...cudnt I think of anything else to write about? Yep, many interesting topics going on simultaneously in the world on which lengthy debates can be written but I decided to write about one of the basic necessities of life. This is a real life experience during my stay in Japan. Some background first....I always feel the way a toilet (lets call it RR to give it more respect) is maintained reflects the personality of the people maintaining it. I not only mean about home, but also the personality of the city, state or country. RR's in India....the lesser mentioned, the better. Now Japan is a country which can proudly boast of its clean RR's. That goes to show how much the Govt cares about the personal hygience and basic necessities of the people. In Japan, you will find clean, extremely well-mantained RR's at every corner of the street. And they are equipped specially for usage by handicapped people too. Not only are they very clean, they are very technologically advanced in this section too. I wont go into exact details about how they have convenienced the users in this regard, but fact is many of my friends visiting Japan have expressed the desire to take back a Japanese toilet with them as a memento.
During our initial months in Japan, we were taught a lot about the Japanese culture, the politeness, the respect and honesty they expect from everyone around. During one such cultural trip, our entire group of around 6-7 people with our Sensei were visiting Tokyo tower and we were being shown around the huge tower. Now, while one person in our group was attending nature's call, we were waiting near the exit doors for him. Suddenly, we heard loud alarms going off with red lights blinking over all emergency exits. While we stood wondering what it all meant, we saw security guards running in the direction of the RR our friend had entered. What we saw shocked us...our friend was coming out of the toilet with a very sheepish look on his face and trying to explain to the guard the cause of the alarm. We were concerned about what had happened and if he was fine.....and not in any trouble for starting the alarm. Luckily, our Sensei rescued him and we were enlightened about the whole episode. Unfortunately, the RR our friend had entered was one designed specially for a handicapped person. After relieving himself, he started looking around for the flush. According to him, he searched and searched but cudnt find anything looking remotely like a flush handle. Finally he saw a red button on the wall near the toilet and assuming it to be a typical Japanese sophisticated styled flush, he pushed it. Of course, the next thing he knew was alarms going off and especially ringing very loudly inside the confines of the RR. Frantically, he started looking for a way to stop it realizing he was the cause of it. Then he saw it written in red bold letters just above the red button he had pressed mistaking it for a flush..."EMERGENCY". Well, the guards stopped the alarms and went back amused with the incident. Later, our Sensei took us into the RR to show us the flush button. Being a specially designed RR, it was placed right next to the red emergency button in the form of an infrared sensor which was well blended into the walls. To flush, one had to place their hand on it just for a second and remove it. It did prove to be learning experience for all of us after all....especially our friend swore never to push any buttons anywhere even if it were a real emergency. The guard had told our Sensei that they arrest the people creating false alarms but only in our case they were letting us go. Of course, our friend was at the receiving end of all our taunts for the rest of the week till another funny embarassing incident happened with another friend and the heat was taken of him. But seriously, wherever you go, do visit the RR of the place...it will tell u a lot about the Government of the country and also the culture of the people there.
P.S: I am publishing about this incident with due permission of my friend who went through this incident on the condition of anonymity :)

Mumbai Meri Jaan !!!

A very hard hitting reality displaying movie based on the Mumbai bomb blasts. Saw the movie, felt dejected at the low level to which journlism has scooped for publicity, felt the pain of the people in the Mumbai bomb blasts and then went off to sleep promptly forgetting all about the message the movie tried to get across. Next day got involved in major issues in release with client at work and was frustrated all the way back from home. The whole day kept feeling the unfairness of the clients, the frustration built up as I thought of how they kept pointing out our small mistakes without seeing the good work and effort taken to make the release a success. After returning home was wondering what to watch, when the movie I had seen yesterday came to my mind. Although I am more of a newspaper person, for a change thought of turning on some news channel to check what is their "Aaj ki tazaa khabar"....and no surprises, they delivered without fail. First the news showed about the floods in Bihar. They showed the pathetic situation there with particular stress on how the Govt is not able to reach to the 30 lakh people trapped in the flood waters. Well, a question or them, how did they reach there to show the footage? And if they did manage some miracle, could they not carry some supplies with them for the people stuck there or use their channel helicopter for better purpose by transporting a few people to safer areas?
Next they showed news segment where a suspended police officer was being interviewed about the case filed against him. The first question itself showed the IQ level of the interviewer. "Aapko kya lagta hain, kya aap begunah hain?" My dear fellow, I think its time to re-open those journalism books once again....who in the ever wide world would answer honestly to such an idiotic question? No one in his right mind would admit yes, I am a culprit. Questions with obvious answers have no meaning.....
But the major impact of those news on me was, it drove away the thoughts of my ruthless clients from my mind and made me realize how mundane my worries were. What was the worse thing that could happen? Another trouble report to fill....some more releases....and after a week everything would be forgotten by the client as well as me. For me, life would go back to normal. But what about those people who lost their everything in those floods? They would never lead those same lives again...they dont even know when they would get their next meal? Inspite of all such thoughts, I cannot do anything for them except pray. If I contribute monetarily, it is bound to land up in some politicians pocket. And that makes me think, is there any way to contribute to humanity? As kids, I always used to think, I'll find all answers when I grow older. Now I realize, that was just a mirage, a hope....even now, the questions are the same....and still no answers. The movie did have its impact....it just took time for me to realize it.

Yatta !!!

Yatta !!! That means "Finally done it" in Japanese. For me it means, finally I did it. Finally got down to starting a blog, and penning down some thoughts which pass in and out of my head in random. Mainly it is the result of constant goading by my husband who made me sit down and write down whatever I often discuss with him. Now I suspect, he did that so that I had a medium to express my thoughts rather than pour them out to him. He thinks he's been saved by the blog :) but I wonder how long this interest will last considering that my previous such interests were very short lived. I will certainly try my best to keep this frequent but just wondering, what is the real reason behind blogging? Actors and actresses do it to get publicity and mainly to get back at journalists who have been quoting them wrong since long. But what do we, mere mortals who in no way can influence the government with our opinions, nor can we have any impact on the global warming issue through our blogs, nor change the success or failure of a movie, achieve through blogging? Even I dont know the reason behind blogging...maybe its just a medium to express your thoughts, ur opinion, a forum where your friends can view, discuss or comment on what u've written. For me, its a way of maintaining some sense of balance between personal and work life. In this hectic IT industry where one lives life on the run at the tick of the clock, writing a blog is like spending some time all alone with your thoughts, connecting with yourself on a higher level and giving a voice to your soul as a person. A bit too philosophical ??? On a practical level, I must admit I planned to write coz its a never-dying medium. I can be ensured that even after 6 to 10 years down the line, provided I continue this writing process, my blogs would still be there for me to read...so on this positive note, I publish my first post. And keeping my fingers crossed that there will be more posts.