Donkey Personified

Hello readers, I’m donkey. I have a name which is used worldwide as a weapon for doing verbal assaults by this not very kind mankind. I could never understand the reason behind using my name for expressing anger and dissatisfaction and why does it connote idiocy. I’m a very innocent and quiet by nature; is not a good thing? I’m very affectionate and enjoy the companionship of people. I need companions; if I don’t get it, I would become very depressed. Unfortunately my masters don’t understand this. My masters leave me on the urban roads amidst of heavy traffic. Some would, even tie my legs and some would paint on me. I’m not as intelligent as them and therefore can’t think of their reason for doing so. On the roads, they all come rushing, riding on round devils that can crush anyone anytime; some, have two, others have three and up to four. My reaction time is very high, and that’s why I get frightened and get struck at one place.

I have five senses which are same in count as that of my masters. But, I don’t have a brain as sharp as them and power as great as them. God also has not been kind enough to bless me with some good features and colours; for that matter, my masters can’t even enjoy seeing me or adopt me as their pet. I think that is the reason, they punish me every time. This is so unfortunate that I can’t even celebrate what I have. I have the strength to remain without food and water for a long time; I can carry live weight of up to 30% of my body weight and dead weight of up to 20% of my body weight. It makes me a very choice for being used in the dry and tough regions for loading and transportation. My qualities still remain unnoticed to my masters.

My life is difficult and I have no idea when my sufferings will end. But, I will live it till its end as I have faith in God as he would have definitely thought of something to take care of his weak child. God won’t overlook me.

The Quintessential Indian Woman

One day while I was driving to my workplace, I saw a middle aged sari clad woman cycling to her work in the burning heat, wearing a cap. I wished I had digital box with me at that moment to capture the scene.  Nevertheless, I have the world’s finest camera with me; my mind. I have tried to recreate the picture here.  She is the Quintessential Indian woman for me.

1.       She is traditional.

2.       She is hard working.

3.       She can take pains for her family.

4.       She can take up any work.

5.       She is not afraid of the men’s world.

6.       She is no longer imprisoned in her house.

Importance of Radical Thinking

Gandhi was more violent than Hitler!!! Surprised?? Well someone thinks that way...

In the month of January I read an item in newspaper. There was something unusually interesting about it. Although, you may find it a raw analysis, lacking a good presentation. I still want to share it with you. Read on.

There was an interview published in TOI on 10th January 2010 of Siavoj Zizek, an American philosopher who was visiting India for the first time. I had never heard about him before. TOI interviewer Shobhana Saxena had introduced him as an unusual philosopher with unfashionably left-wing views. This man thinks that everyone supports violenence. When the interviewer asked him what is his stand on political violence, he answered like this: “In an abstract sense, I am opposed to violence. But nobody is actually against violence. Look at Buddhist. They say you shouldn’t kill, but then they have all the exceptions. During the 40s, one of the great Zen philosophers was writing articles not only justifying Japanese invasion of China but also giving advice on how Buddhist enlightenment allows you to kill without guilt.” When asked that he was also critical about Gandhi; why did he call him violent, he answered, “It’s crucial to see violence which is done repeatedly to keep the things the way they are. In that sense, Gandhi was more violent than Hitler. Though Gandhi didn’t support killing, his actions helped the British imperialist to stay in India longer. This is something Hitler never wanted. Gandhi didn’t do anything to stop the way British Empire functioned here. For me, there is a problem.”

My aim here is not to highlight the never ending debate of “means or ends”. I don’t have slightest intention to either invalidate Zizek’s view point or the opposite.

I was surprised; I was surprised to know that someone thinks so strangely. These are radical thoughts. However, later I thought that even Gandhi’s way of non violent fight was also very radical for the world. Gandhi and Zizek are the two extremes. One had a quest to find the holistic truth the other believes what he sees. Both were born in the same world without any prenatal understanding of anything.

If one analyzes, he will find that one extreme thought gives rise to its other end. Non-violence is there because violence is there. It was English rule that gave birth to a Gandhi. There was a Gandhi and there was a Bose. There are Gandhians in the society therefore, there has to be a Zizek. I think that is the reason for the existence of Maoists and Terror groups. You can think of many other extreme views existing about several other things.

Extremist thinking is important as its gives way to many middle thinkers who analyzes both the ends critically. But, when I say this it doesn’t mean that I support the activities of Maoists or Terrorists. The problem that lies with them is inability to express. Gandhi believed in practicing what he is preaching. He himself practiced non-violence. Imagine if he as an individual had continued doing that without telling anyone. His thoughts would never have had become public. We would not have got a leader like him; people would not have had followed him. It is very important that extremists to express. Today, we don’t understand the reason behind the terrorist activities because they don’t express. They don’t put there demands in front of anyone, what do they want from the world. When radical thoughts remain unexpressed they either get fade away or they give rise to turbulence.

Reference:

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQS8yMDEwLzAxLzEwI0FyMDE0MDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Kindness Kind People Kindly Note is Not Always Kind

Something was going in my mind since a long time. But, I got a chance to write today because due to some fault in it, TV at my home has not been working since past two days. Also, I’m now free from the college things and as far as my new office is concerned, it’s a Sunday holiday for me. Writing needs sincerity and deliberation. Though I’m an amateur writer but, since I was editing my college newsletter till sometime back; I feel that it’s a great responsibility on any writer who wants to share his/her work with others. I was free enough to take that responsibility today. Other than that, something happened last week which strengthened the thoughts which had originated and were getting flourished in my mind. Read on.

My father went to meet his friend at his place. My uncle (my father’s friend) is a very kind- hearted and a noble person. He is practicing Yoga since past five years. Now, he also teaches Yoga and it is his part-time but, a prominent activity. My Uncle happened to visit a municipality school in a nearby locality for teaching Yoga there to school kids. When he met my father he narrated his experience and expressed his feelings. He told my father “students in municipal schools come in ragged uniforms; nobody looks at it, and this makes me feel very sad.” My father said “you are right and I understand your feelings but the fact remains that economic classes from which the students go to the municipal schools, it more important to see that they go to school, leave the uniform aside.” Then he told his experience of the Yoga class, “I asked the children in the school to raise their hands if they drink milk daily and I was surprised to see that they were very few hands up. On the contrary when I asked if students drink tea, there were majority hands up. I explained to the kids that tea is bad for health and they should drink cow’s milk every day.” He was seeking appreciation from my father but to his dismay my father said something else. “Do you know how much fee do the students pay in that school?”. He said, “It must be less than hundred for a month.” My father said, “Then do you think that their families would afford to provide milk to them; they were taking little amount of it in tea and you asked them not to take even that.” Uncle, little disheartened now tried to counter argue by questioning “Jain sahib what education the students get in municipal schools? What is so great about it? You don’t know when I went there I saw teachers scolding kids, punishing them. I felt very bad for the kids. I have decided, making a declaration he said, from now onwards I’ll go and teach to them in my free hours. I want you to come along. And I have also decided to assist at least one student financially for his education.” He further said making an indication towards my father, “I’ll also ask my some friends to adopt one such student.” With this Uncle had almost finished. Now, my father’s turn; he told uncle, “That’s a very noble idea of supporting an underprivileged student. I’m already doing that for an orphan child in MP and I would further like to do that for a deserving student without coming in the view of the student or others. But, as far as coming to teach the municipal school students is concerned, I don’t think that we should take up the work of teachers in our hands. It is not our job; it is someone else's job. When you saw a teacher scolding kids, did you try to understand at the teacher’s place? How much do you think the teacher there would be getting paid? Do you know the other work of elections and census surveys are given to them? What you should also think of doing is, motivating the teachers there to teach in a better way. They can reach to larger number of students than us. Giving a small gift like a pen or a book to the teachers in these schools would be great gesture to begin with. You can then organize a training camp for teachers.”

My father told me about this whole conversation with uncle. Then I thought over again about the bug that was biting me in my mind since a long time. Sometimes, we try to become so kind that we tend to look at problems from surface and not from the deep inside. And we end up doing wrong things or things with unmeasured results. We don’t uproot the disease but try to cure the symptoms. Many of my friends are associated with apparently a noble cause where they go to teach English to school kids in municipal schools. My question to them is if they have ever analysed the need to teach the municipal school students English? Students in these schools are children of mostly labourers. By teaching English are we trying show them the dreams of becoming “doctors and engineers”? Maid who works at my place has three children, two out them dropped out of the school after 4^th or 5^th Standard. Third kid is very small right now. But, he also seems to have the same future. All her three children would end up becoming labourer like her. We have no right to show them a dream that will shatter just because we want to show a kind gesture towards the underprivileged people. And if at all we want to do something, we should guide them towards a right path. Government launched a Skill Development Scheme in 2008. They have more than 40 courses in vocational training. We can give an orientation to kids in municipal schools, their parents, their teachers about these courses and mind it, not in English but, in the local language. We can finance their vocational trainings also. Because, the fact is that we cannot improve the lives of this generation which studies in the municipal schools. I feel sad about their conditions, about the fact that they are not very blessed. But, we should think about a broader, long term, strategic solution. If these students get trained in the vocational courses after their elementary education, they might not get in position as god as a “Doctor and Engineer” but, certainly their next generation would be.

My aim is not to discourage good work from happening. I’m sure all the kind-hearted people would be kind enough to take my criticism positively and would come up with better thoughts.

Being kind is not enough; kindness should be for a right cause and in a right direction. All we need to be doing is ANALYSIS.

Launch of "EDiOTS"

My friend Bhushan Bawankule recently got his Brand "EDiOTS" launched by Dr. Vijay Mallaya. "EDiOTS" is an up coming humor clothing brand. See http://www.ediots.in/ . The video has been shot and edited by me.

Karuna, compassion is the basis of morality.....

I was short listed for the Bharti best student award and therefore as one of judging criteria was extra curricular performance, I made this short film on the theme nature. This subject is very close to my heart. I was in standard 7th when I stopped burning crackers on Diwali. I educated my mother to minimize plastic usage. Then, I also wrote article about pollution in Roller coaster, Indian Express. This is a 10 minutes film which was made in a very less time (around 12 hours). All the pictures and videos are shot in and around EDI.

Then and Now

Our mind never stops. It constantly generates web of thoughts. Moving or jumping from one thought to another thought; generating one thought from another thought. As one chain of thoughts breaks, another starts. Until and unless one really stresses and concentrate on something, his mind would move sometimes hap hazardly like a man walking in drunken state and sometimes sequentially just like an any logical person.

Few days back, I was driving back from my (training) office in Gandhinagar to my home. It is approximately 15 minutes run by car from my office to home. I normally drive at the speed of 60-70 km per hour since have learned that speeding beyond this consumes more fuel. Therefore, I was constantly giving side to the speeding cars which were showing dipper and honking at me. I noticed a sudden increase in traffic. When I was child, I used to come to Gandhinagar with my family on holidays to enjoy the peace. It was then, when I used to wonder if there is any sign of human life in Gandhinagar. Now, I see so much traffic, people standing at the bus stops, traffic police standing at the Koba Circle; ST buses have also increased in number. It is no longer the same Gandhinagar where I used to come in my childhood. Is it only the traffic or something else which is making it look so different, I thought. Also, I noticed there is a sudden decrease in the number of trees on the both sides of the Gandhinagar. It was then, when the road was so green; there were dense trees at both the sides of Gandhinagar Road. Now, it looks so naked; I can see the patches of dry land behind the thin line of trees which have been left from being cut. Like a child, I wished that it should rain nicely this year and it should again become green everywhere. A poem came in my mind which I read in 9Th standard. " सतपुरा के घने जंगल, नींद में दुबे हुए उंघते अनमने जंगल” Such a nice poem it was, the rhyming, the alliteration were superb. Satpura jungles must have been so beautiful that the poet could write such a beautiful and lively poem. If there would be no forest, there would probably be no poets writing romantic poems. The poems that have already been written will probably loose their meaning as there would be no one to understand and appreciate them. Next generation would not like to read such poems. All this filled me with a sinking feeling.

From reading poems, I again went into flash back. It was then, when I was in primary school, I used to read so many “chitra katha”. I remembered reading and rereading picture books of Mahaveer Bhagwan, Gautam Buddha, King Ashok, Meera Bai. Tinkle was another favourite comic book of mine. It was always an excitement for me to read the main story and “Supandi” in every issue. I never used to read the second story about basic science facts and experiments which was a regular feature of it. I repented not reading them, I don’t know why. “Gokulam” and “Naandan” were other children’s magazine that we used to read. I and my sister used to walk down with my father to a newspaperwala’s shop. My sister used to complete reading at least half of the latest comic standing at the shop itself. Now, I wonder if the kids born these days with so many cartoon channels on television, laptops and mobile phones in hands really do read such “chitra katha” and children’s magazines. Suddenly, I felt one generation older.

I was not really able to come out of the thoughts about my school and childhood. Until I had come in 11th standard I was so happy. Everybody in my school, my teachers, juniors, seniors knew me. In my school, one student was allowed to participate at max in three individual and two group events. It was always difficult for me to make a choice between English debate and Hindi elocution. For group events group song and General Knowledge Quiz were my most preferred choice. I was not good at dancing, that is the reason why my teachers never used to select me for any dance competitions. That is how I developed disinterest for dance. But, still I used to get lot of attention in my school. When I was young I cared less about what world is thinking about me, may be my world was small. But, slowly I was made to realise that world is not this. Pressure of 12th boards and the sentiments of so many people attached to it. This brought my detachment with my previous public activities. I started caring about what world is going to think about me. When I went to college, I found that were girls smarter than me. My detachment with public activities became stronger. World there was bigger and I became almost invisible to this new world. This confession to self made me little restless. My mind tried to go in a deceptive mode. But, then I controlled it to stand-by the truth. I don’t know how my mind linked all this with the chain of thoughts that had started with something else.

I was moving smoothly until a crossing came. I applied sudden brake to let the lateral crossers go. This brake also broke the thought process for a while. I saw a person on bicycle crossing the road. After a few seconds I resumed my driving and thinking. I thought it was then when I also rode bicycle to go to school daily. Now, I have a car to drive. How fast I have graduated from bicycle to Kinetic to car. But, I no longer enjoy driving car in the wish to reach faster every time; I get so impatient when I get stuck in traffic. Not only cycle but I also used to travel in city buses so many times. My mind again dragged me to another story book that I read in my childhood. Its name was “बस की सैर ”. It was a small story about a small village girl describing her excitement of travelling in a bus. That story is definitely out dated now. These days, I don’t think I or anybody for that matter would enjoy travelling in buses. It is out of compulsion that one would choose to travel in a bus and not out of choice. It was then when calmness in the life of people that they used to enjoy living even without the things which are basic necessities of today. Now our aspirations have changed so much in fact they widened so much that we don’t even enjoy what we have in our hands.

As I could have thought beyond this, the crossing for my house came and this chain got broke. From the ordeal in the sea of thoughts I came back to my usual life. Our mind never stops thinking but we are not very thoughtful always. That is the reason I thought it to be worth writing and sharing.