Well I was in 10th standard when I first heard the term “Unity in Diversity” in my civics class. That was an attempt to teach the kids about the greatness of our country and the different languages and cultures India posses from Jammu to KanyaKumari. It was 15 years ago and when I look back now I feel what have we learnt?
While browsing through the World Wide Web I came across couple of wonderful yet moving article about a charity organization in my home town. Reading the same clearly brought some tears to my eyes and yet I was proud that I was involved in making a difference in these children’s lives. I have been involved with this organization for 5 years now and have been sponsoring 3 kids. I am really happy that I have been able to bring some happiness to these kids. I just hope that god gives me more wealth so that I can take care of more kids in the future and see these kids happy as they should be.
http://blogs.rediff.com/notanobserver/2006/08/
http://blogs.rediff.com/notanobserver/2006/06/10/udavum-karangal/
My husband’s brother died of Cancer 6 years back. Ever since then, my mother-in-law visits an institute called Udavum Karangal on his death anniversary and sponsors food for the children of the orphanage run by this NGO. This year she was unable to make it during the anniversary. She was very upset and we promised to take her next time she comes to the city.
I normally don’t access my Facebook account. The only reason I use the Facebook for is to publish my articles from my blog. Even that gets automatically published when I submit a blog. So I got a friend request recently and the name looked very familiar. I had friends by that name in both school and at work. I did not even look at the person’s profile before accepting the request.
Yesterday my wife who was just looking at my Facebook page noticed that there was a obscene picture posted on my wall. I was shocked and found that it was that person who I had accepted a week back who had done that. I was really frustrated and embarrassed. I immediately removed that picture and removed that guy from the list.
It is sad that people use trust of others in a wrong way. I am still not certain if it was my friend from the work but I guess it was my mistake of not doing proper research before accepting him as my friend. It is a warning and I will surely learn from it. I would just tell all my friends, please make sure whom you approve as friends and make sure that you really know that person before giving them access to post on your wall, tag photos etc…This was a very bad experience.
I really apologize to my friends if they saw that picture and got offended. I will from now on make sure that this does not happen on my page again.
Shahrukh’s recent brawl with the MCA (Mumbai Cricket Association) staff and the security personnel has made the headlines all over. It seems as though the film personalities cannot keep themselves away from the media albeit for the wrong reasons. I was obviously not at the scene of the incident nor do I know what exactly happened and who was at fault. But in India justice and law is different for celebrity and for a common man. Everybody starts judging the common man based on the arrest. Common man probably loses his job for his antics. His life gets turned upside down.
Common Man:
Common man’s kids play on the ground. Security personnel man handles them (According to what Shahrukh told the press). Common man gets angry, screams at them using lots of expletives and pushes them around. MCA staff comes in gets a mouth full from the common man. Police come in and arrest the common man, put him in jail.
Celebrity:
Celebrity’s kids play on the ground. Security personnel man handles them (According to what Shahrukh told the press). Celebrity gets angry, screams at them using lots of expletives and pushes them around. MCA staff comes in to pacify, gets mouthful from the celebrity, even the ACP isn’t spared. Celebrity walks out of the ground free with his family. Comes out and gives press statement. Celebrity gets banned from entering the ground for 5 years. His colleagues and well-wishers (also celebrities) extend lots of support giving character witness. Chief Ministers and BCCI chiefs get involved and ask the MCA staff to call truce, drop the charges. Everything is hunky dory for the celebrity, life is back to normal. Gets great publicity for his upcoming movie releases (if any).
This is India for you.
I was in the 6th standard when this weird incident happened. We were at that time living in Royapettah, Chennai in a two storied building. We had a huge terrace where I used to spend lots of time. Most of the times playing with my friends but sometimes I just preferred to hang out up there as it was one of the tallest buildings in the street.
Aamir Khan’s Satyameva Jayate previewed last Sunday
First things first we need to appreciate Aamir for taking such a show to venture into television. At least he has the intention to take the already known problems to the living rooms of the people. At least this will get the people thinking. There have been lots of articles online about the show and there have been criticisms. The criticisms are unwarranted as this is a TV show with a social message. Take what you can from the show and if possible change the way you look at the issue or else just consider it as an awareness show. Don’t expect Aamir Khan to be the messiah to save people from their troubles. No TV show or movie can accomplish that. It always lies in the hands of the individuals.
This is the problem with the Indian society, we are extremely defensive. If someone points out an issue in the society we will not believe and if someone points that out with the statistic we expect them to do more than that. It is always someone who has to change things. Life is not a movie where a hero will come in and abolish all the social evils that exist. The TV show is supposed to make people aware and since it is hosted by a celebrity it will grab the attention of the big leaders too which might actually help the people affected. The message will also reach the masses as at least they will watch this to see their star Aamir Khan hosting it.
It is a known fact that India only listens to celebrities. The two journalists who took so much risk in exposing the doctors running these centers did not receive any help from the government. This is absolute appalling and the fact that they are made to run around to different courts in Rajasthan is even more ridiculous. As soon as “Satyameva Jayate” aired on TV Rajasthan chief minister took action on the sonography clinics, shows how even the politicians listen only to movie stars. But we can be happy that something came out of the show.
The only thing I would say that female feticide is a serious issue in India and Satyameva Jayate has just brought it to light and obviously the seriousness of the issue. There are many other social issues which need to be tackled in our country and these sorts of shows are the need of the hour. Instead of criticizing the show I would be happy if the people try embracing such shows by trying to bring some change in the society. We don’t need to question the intention of the show but just look at the good things the show might do. It is like this when some celebrity or a millionaire does some charity we don’t appreciate them because we think that it is done to save on taxes, but we need to think that at least they did charity and the money went to some good cause. How many of us will even do that?
We think that life around us is rosy and nothing is wrong with the society around us. There is no need to get defensive about our country. Unless we embrace the issues we cannot eradicate them. The country grows and improves only if the issues are tackled. India as a country for ages has always ignored the serious issues and we always want to live in a fantasy land. If we see a video of child labor in India we cry and then complain why that video is even put online instead of thinking of ways to help those children in some way. We only think why someone posted that video to disrupt our great, smooth life. We don’t want to even think about issues faced by others nor do we want to help anyone. The only thing we can do is write some articles to criticize someone who is at least doing something. He might not eradicate female feticide, Child labor or various other issues in India but at least he is trying to educate people.
Satyameva Jayate is a show which is the need of the hour. Take the show for what it is. Try to think that the show is to educate people rather than a one which is started to make sweeping changes. There cannot be a Robin Hood who will come in and eradicate all the problems and especially a TV show which will never accomplish that. I like the show and I think it deserves all the accolades it is getting and definitely does not deserve the criticism. I would like to ask all the writers who have questioned the intention or the effect of the show as to what they have done to tackle the social issues in India, have they even written about it before the show was aired? Think about it and you will get the answer. As of now Aamir has done as great job with the first episode and I hope that he continues to tackle more such issues and people living in defensive mindset realize life isn’t as rosy as they think. This is not a movie, this shows real life and real people and we need to realize that these people are around us.
I came to the US in 2003 for my studies and it was not until 2007 did I visit India for my vacation. Four years might not sound too long but it felt like it was an eternity when I landed in Chennai. It was a complete change and the development was alarming. In spite of everything good that was going around one thing I noticed during my visit is that poverty was still the same. There were still kids without proper clothing or food. There were still kids running behind cars and coming out to watch a train pass by.
I thought to myself things haven’t changed much as I had imagined. While some of my friends thought that it was the mistake of the parents of those kids but my argument was what did the kid do to deserve this? With that thought I came back to US after a month’s visit and I saw a mail which my roommate had gotten and it had a charity organization (Don’t want to mention the name as I am not writing this to promote any organization) name on the top. I went online and checked it out and found that they help underprivileged kids for their studies and food.
That gave me an inspiration and started a research on my own, found a credible organization and started to contribute for the studies, food, and clothing for one child for an entire year. It has been 4 years since I started the contribution and I feel great. I also contribute whenever I can for other social causes, like some natural disasters etc. in any part of the world. I just feel that such things can actually make a difference. I am not writing this to boast about myself or to prove I am great but this is something I wanted to serve as inspiration to at least couple of people like my roommate did for me 4 years back.
I never wanted to share this with people and wanted these things to be discrete but I thought sometimes such thing coming to open is a good thing. We are always ready to jump on rich people and say they don’t contribute enough. We lambast the politicians for not doing enough to the society but when it comes to ourselves we get defensive. Contributions need not be high, small ones work too. My Indian colleagues come here to US and involve themselves in various charity works. Some people even adopted US soldiers; yes it is very good cause but again none for the country we grew up in. I am not saying that no one contributes, like I said there are lots of them who do but we surely can be better. Again I hope this hits the right chord with the people and does not come out as a preachy article.
A lot of people do excellent work in India and I really salute them for their efforts. In comparison to them I feel that I don’t do enough but I am happy with the start. Whenever I get the child report sent to me by the organization it just brings a smile on my face.
Few years back the only way to wish someone on their birthday used to be over the phone. This means that first you need to remember their birthday and then remember to call them on that day. Even though some people were able to do it, I for once struggle to remember too many birthdays. Nowadays Social Networking such as Facebook has for sure gotten friends closer and has made communication easier.
I have found lots of my old friends whom I never thought would meet again and also have been able to be in touch with them. It is surely a great medium and has surely revolutionized communication. Even though there is a danger of people resorting to online communication rather than having personal dialogues, it is still a great tool. Even though there are some negatives to social networking I am not going to delve on it at the moment.
Birthday wishes has been pouring since last night on my Facebook wall and I am really thrilled about the same. Thanks to all of you for your wishes.
I was like any other kid in India growing up in Chennai. Like most I was drawn to Cricket at a very young age. A wooden plank and a rubber ball and you are good to go. Cricket is one of the most inexpensive outdoor games anyone can play. For me as a kid I started playing the game even before I understood the rules.
