The ugly Indian

Venue: the central bus stand, Chennai

What: a wall, quite old or maybe not that. Just that the remnants of betel leave eaters makes it look shoddy. Very dirty indeed. And needless to say the smell of urine reeking from such public places makes the sight unbearable.

Come rains, major parts of the city can be seen flooded with dirty water with garbage once dumped by the roads, floating on it. We knowingly unknowingly become the part of “nation trashers!” Nation, yes indeed! Because the dirty streets, paan spewed roads, garbage filled nook and corners, leaking pipes, unmanned holes and public urination places are a national shame!

For the international visitors to India, India is a land of beauty and a close alliance to nature. But the truth doesn’t lie concealed – nor does the dirt on the streets, the garbage dumped by roadside which houses flies and feral dogs, and the public urination places leave any stone unturned to lessen the beauty.

I feel the NGOs and various committees which organize volunteered beach cleaning, road sweeping events et al do a very commendable and respectable job. The act is a paradigm of success and togetherness at behest of a person’s own will. For not many have the thought of giving back to the society. But again no matter umpteen times the streets are cleaned, the beaches have respite from the plastic and dirt shrouding their beauty, nothing ever changes. It is all back to the drawing board.

It’s time we realize that we have been brought up with the sloppy mentality, the art of keeping our homes clean at the price of dumping trash on the roads and the street corners. It is not the streets, the corners and the beach walk ways which need a sweeping; it is the minds of our very own people. The dirt settled in one’s mindset needs a scraping, for newer and better thoughts to settle there. The thoughts which will force us to think twice before we start littering our streets, with the wrappers of edibles we consume or the paper cups we use.

Why do we not think once before trashing our nation, but the same “we” when go abroad, would not even leave a paper bit on the nicely kempt streets there? Yes, the rules in most foreign countries would ask you to own up even your dog’s poop, let alone leaving you get away with not using the trash bins. If our government can’t come up with such stringent rules, should not we take up the task of being responsible in the li’l ways we could!? There is a lot for the government to do, agreed, but there are still trifling things we can take care of.

By not littering our streets deliberately, to start with. There are dustbins at street corners; we can make use of those. We keep our living rooms spruce and clean, why dump the waste on a roadside and make our nation look sloppy?

Nobody needs to start sweeping the streets or start whitewashing dirty walls, at least we could check ourselves when we are unconsciously or in many cases consciously litter the places outside. We ourselves show a tepid interest in the betterment of our nation, then hell should we expect foreigners coming as tourists to appreciate it. They write about India being hot, polluted, and having beggars wandering all around. True that. But why add more to the list. Doing the small things from our sides would not be a Sisyphean task, then why not do it!?

A cleaner and greener India should not be a distant dream, let us all play our small roles towards bringing that out!



Why SMILE !?

Another day in our life, and we enter the workplace. We meet some faces looking dreary and doleful, right at the beginning of a new day! For some it’s Monday Morning, for others the look is cause of task from the previous day left undone and for some it may be personal problems. No blaming people, for it’s the circumstances! We all face such days! Who does not!?

But looking again, it’s a new opportunity, a chance to get things that weren’t working till yesterday straight in a different way.If we move around with a long face, failing to appreciate the good things in our lives, bored of the routine we go through, or the monotony of the jobs we perform, we are sure to lose joy and interest in our lives.

Whatever we have, is a result of the choices we made! At some point, the jobs we do, the places we go – it all depends on us! Lives change, situations change – but everything that remains with us reminds us of the choices we made. What we have today is something that kept us happy at some point in life.

A smile is a curve that sets a number of things straight – this has been one of my favorite quotes till date. And I surely believe it does. It can make someone else’s day a tad more brighter than usual, less murky than before and dwindle the seriousness of hard-hitting situations.

Don’t ever fail to smile! It might spread one on the face of someone who needs it archly. And moreover, it never costs anything! Does it!!??

And no matter how much towed you are, do ask yourself –



Have a happy day!

So far, but no so good…

Yes! Those are the words in which we can about sum the journey of India from pre-Independence through this era. It has been light years since that time period, since our great great great ancestor’s great great great grandfathers took part in the fight against the colonization of India by the British, and set our countrymen free from their shackles.

And through the years, we have seen the nation developing – be it in the field of agriculture, economics, space, nuclear science, transportation, education, technology, so on and so forth. Moving forward there was a slight improvement in the status of the females in the society. Why I said ‘slight’ has a reason. On one hand, we have come ahead of the time when the majority of Indian population was afflicted by the attitude of looking at a baby girl born as a burden on the family. Now women can walk freely in the society unlike the former days of purdah system and a rampant sati system. That’s something good. On the other hand, though we are living in a modern era, there are some parts of the nation, where female foeticide and infanticide is still prevalent and a widow is seen as a crestfallen human. So despite the education system growing, the rural parts are not reaping any of the benefits. They are still engulfed in the murkiness of past mind frames – the one which causes many mothers to abort their own child when they come to learn it is a girl, many families losing their daughters to the fiendish act of dowry, and surly statistics of the sex ratio in the nation, owing to the number of rapes, acid attacks, male rage acts and domestic violence crimes committed against the fairer sex. Today, the ladies in our nation have come ahead in every field and set an example for the other ladies to follow. Along with males, the females have conquered all arenas – be it service sector, entrepreneurship, entertainment, space, media and journalism, law – you name it – and some among us are already there. And the success gained by these ladies – Kiran Bedi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kalpana Chawla, Barkha Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Uma Mazumdar Shaw, Arundhati Roy to name a few – is huge and veritable. But that is the brighter side, and definitely something to take pride in.

But every day through the media, is exposed news of atrocities committed on the ladies in our society despite the advancement and milestones achieved in the past decades. We say we are growing, but daily there will be news of a female killed for dowry – her child gone motherless for the rest of its life. Every day we hear news about a slain couple – for the sake of their families’ honor. Does anybody think about the importance of the human life lost? Daily we hear how India is becoming unsafe for ladies by the day – how women irrespective if their ages are raped and their bodies shoved down a drain. Every day the media also misses a number of stories as to how a woman was beaten up by her husband or how a jilted lover threw acid on a girl to destroy her life. We bask in the glory of the pride earned by the famous ladies of our nation, but aren’t we missing out on the lives of the less fortunate ones. Every person born on Earth has the right to live a privileged life – then where do the males who commit atrocities on females, get that right from? Why can’t a woman moving on the street move around freely, without a lecherous glance from so called stronger males?! The strength of a male doesn’t depend on how brawny he is. It depends on how much of a protector he can be, how safe a female can be when around a man. His power doesn’t come when he can overpower a lady and take pride in her misery or haplessness – it comes when he is able to take her misery away, and make her feel protected. A father is the giver of life, he is supposed to protect his daughter – and not kill her in order to protect his “honor”. If the overall sex ratio of India in 2012 is 940 females to 1000 males, then it is mainly because of the ghastly crimes against women today, if we keep aside the lack of proper medical facilities and insufficient number of infirmaries in the rural areas and also if we rule out the suicide and post-birth deaths. The government owes its people a major fraction of the awareness spreading schemes, but a part of it can start from us. If only we move past the segregation between the sexes – we realize that we are all humans, with an infinite potential to achieve and prosper in life. There is nothing that a man can do, and a female can’t – that is the pettiness of out mindset that refuses to think past the male female separation. We need to rise above the pettiness, think of each of us as human – and put the inhumanness at a caesura. The males owe it to the ladies to be able to walk with pride and not ridden by shame. Women are at par with men today, but some souls find it hard on their hubris to take it. If women are at par with men (if not, they are only better – for they can give birth to a child, something a man would never ever be able to do – and it is something which makes a female a step ahead of a man), that is something a man in this nation, and around the globe should take pride in. And it is her who completes his family – as a daughter, as a sister, a friend, a wife and a mother. If the males take themselves to be the stronger sex, so be it – your strength should make it possible for you to protect the opposite sex, not torment them with it. There lies the real strength of a man. Together we can improve the quality of life in our otherwise developed India, and make it a happier and a better place!

The art and joy of giving!

The dawn gifts us with another beautiful day in the course of our life. The sky brightens with the sun shining to light the world, the azure sky smiles at the world with a flock of birds flying through and the plants look bright and green after the darkness took to a hiatus.

The nature puts forth a beautiful example of giving in front of us. The sun shines through the day and brightens and lightens the world evading darkness. The trees give fruits, and shade much as a succor from the blazing heat. The skies rain upon us filling the wells, and underground reservoirs to maintain an unremitting supply of water. The raining skies give relief to the dust and dirt-laden plants, giving them respite from the heat and pollution. It makes the world look beautiful and new!

And neither of the sun or the trees or the clouds expects anything in return of what they give us!

These are beautiful lessons from the ubiquitous parts of the natural life we come across daily, and seldom take notice of. Isn’t it beautiful?

Giving others from what we have indeed is a beautiful feeling, for what we give others may play a significant role in their lives! Quoting the writer Hafez who says, ‘Even after all this time The Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that, it lights up the whole sky.”’

Whatever we get in life becomes a privilege for us, we are thankful and proud owners of our health, wealth, jobs, assets, happiness, contentment et al. Giving a part of money we earn in no matter how wee an amount, helps the needy and spreads a smile in their life too.

What good comes from the joy of amassing wealth if we cannot share it with the penurious? Sharing happiness doubles the joy, it is said! Giving some of what we have to the destitute can help them in ways we might not know!

“What we earn makes a living, however what we give a life!”

Let nature teach us all the art of giving, and the joy trailing it.