Happy bday KG :)

What is life? I always ask..
Is it the things I do or it is the things I learnt..
Is it the people I meet or the time I spent..

Combination of all would be my call
And this post is for a friend who became a part of it all

To my chai partner..

For all the fun that we all have shared
And all the chats that I am sure you still have
For all the fights that we have had
And the vada pav’s and pani puri’s we ate without care

The moments spent was among the best I have had
Thanking you for that, i feel, is a little sad!

One thing that i can say is that..
It isn’t over!! - and this with complete certainty I will add :)

Hope you have a great year!!
HAPPY BDAY :)

The boy on the street

He sat there on the pavement, an idle guy with a towel over his lap. There were some odd rupee notes strewn about on the towel, his hands lying loosely over them to prevent them from flying. He seemed to be about 10 years of age, had a dark complexion, was thin and had burn marks on his chest.

Those were the blatant features - something for everyone to see. But there was something else which was so much more obvious that it has been in my mind for the past few days and refuses to be wiped out. The kid’s face, the manner in which he sat, his expression of total indifference to everything and everyone around him!!

There were people passing by him in either direction. A few stopped to give him some money. But that expression on his face remained the same. There was light wind on that Sunday which caused a few notes to fly. He remained seated. A man brought back the Rupee 10 note which had flown with the wind. He did not even bother looking up. Yet he was sitting on the pavement, a towel spread over his lap.

I am not able to figure out that expression, or rather the lack of it. I have seen kids beg before, their manner of begging coming right out of the textbook. Their “akka, akka, akka…”, the ‘please help me’ look, the light tugging at your shirt. All this probably fed to them when they started. I assume they were told to do and they do. So blissfully ignorant at that age that begging might have been just another game.

So why the difference in this kid? Was he moody? Was he lost in other thoughts? Or was he just not that interested in the game??

What if he was forced to do it against his will and to him it was not even a game! Then don’t we ‘sympathizers’ become a part of what forces him to continue??

There might be factors which I do not know about which may be the reasons behind this kid begging. But I do know that the motivation for those factors to act is given by us! In a span of about 45 minutes, he had collected about a hundred rupees. Why then wouldn’t someone tell him to sit on the pavement rather than send him to school?

Small acts of ours can make a difference and I mean this in both the positive way and the negative. Let us not become the reason for these kids to beg.

zapppp.......

HYPNOTISM!!!

Wake up people, cos you have been hypnotized!! (Nothing to worry about here – it’s been done for the good)

This hypnosis is somewhat along the lines of what Hal was put through (although to a FAR lesser extent) in the movie Shallow Hal.

For those of you who haven’t seen the film, Young Hal is advised by his dying father and following the advice religiously, dates women blindly(just figuratively), based ONLY on their physical beauty. One day he runs into this self help guru who hypnotizes him into seeing only the inner beauty of a woman and the then hypnotized Hal falls deeply in love with overly obese but lovely Rosemary. The hypnotized Hal sees the people for who they are truly are – for their character. To him the world appears different from what is perceived and it is in this world that he finds his true happiness.

The story is quite simple, it might have been portrayed in a little exaggerated manner to make its message apparent but this inherent message was beautiful.

Now having stated the story and mentioning the words ‘Hypnotize’, I think it is time I tell how we fit into this whole picture.

Have you ever wondered why children seem so beautiful? Why don’t all these children, so adorable when they were kids, remain as beautiful as they grow older? Have you wondered why sometimes the hottest guy in office appears to have sprouted 2 horns behind his head, and the person who you initially thought was just okay now seems like the most beautiful person you know. Have you ever wondered why your dad seems like the most handsome person you know and why the appearances of friends changes as you get to know them more.

Someone’s out there looking at the way you look at everything and the moment your vision goes awry – Zappppp! :)

Enjoy the zapped realm :)

(For the unzapped rest – you will also see it someday but don’t wait for someone to make that happen)

Then and Now...

There was once a time when my face said it all,

Be it happiness or grief, be it jealousy or relief

There was once a time when what I said was what I wanted to say,

Be it to a close friend, be it to a complete stranger.

There was once a time when everyone seemed pure,

Be it the class topper who befriended you just for doubts or be it that friend who never meant what she said.

There was once a time I believed people for what they appeared,

Be it anyone, just anyone.

That was the time when my mom said I will not survive in the world.

That was the time when friends told me to grow up.

That was the time when I seemed innocent to a few and a fool to the rest .

Now I think I have grown up.

Now I might just survive in this world.

Now probably I don’t seem as big as a fool as I seemed before.

But now I wonder why people needed a mask in the first place

Now I wonder why we tend to not let the simple things be.

Now I see the phrase “Life’s just a play and we are mere actors” in a whole different light.

The thoughts revolving around an elephants pee!

Chain of thoughts is a fascinating phenomenon. The human mind thinks and correlates incidents, facts, observations etc in the most amazing and unpredictable manner. There is no way to calculate what thought one’s sight/speech might trigger. It is even more interesting to figure how these thoughts originated and traveled. For instance, while standing in the mess queue one afternoon, a friend of mine commented on the sheer volume of an elephant’s urine (approx 5 liters/urination!!). She went on to talk about this documentary she had seen on some channel which made me perceive the bladder of an elephant as a humongous reservoir with a broken valve!

While I was shocked at the topic of the conversation I was involved in, right before my meal, what I was more curious to know was why she had suddenly pondered over this particular topic. I could see no relation between what we were talking about earlier and an elephants pee, and I could not resist finding out how!

This is how it ll started - The basins at our hostel are such that we tend to make our shirts wet while washing faces or performing any other activity which requires us to slightly bend towards the basin. To avoid a watery patch on our stomachs we have to consciously perform all our basin activities in a posture which involves tucking one’s stomach in and balancing the body in a not-very-comfortable 60-70 degree position from the hips onwards. I, in an attempt to avoid unnecessary complications in life, prefer the watery patch to early morning gymnastics. My friend, on the other hand, ends up getting her shirt wet invariably :P

This particular afternoon was no different for her. We were happily chatting away while waiting for food and for some unknown reason (probably the wind), she noticed the dampness (that’s an understatement!) of her shirt. This led her to wonder how people would have reacted if the patch had been on the other end. And observing the size of the patch she contemplated that it had to be some large creature (elephant) to have left such an impression ;) And then she remembered the documentary :D

Now what prompted me to write on this topic?? I was reading Shana’s post a few days back and the first thing which came into my mind was Hypnotism. What looks like a leap, is in reality just a continuation.

Why hypnotism? This, I will write about later :)

Some day…

The sky was clear, no clouds, no stars, just a bright moon and its tranquil reflection in the rivers calm waters. A mother was feeding her 1 year old, her face perturbed. She came here every night. There was something sacred about this form of nature. It calmed her, told her stories, made her think, and made her dream. It took her away from the everyday life. It took her away to a world inhabited only by her son and herself.

But it couldn’t remove her worries today.

Her son is too small to understand the thoughts reflecting in his mothers eyes but notices the difference. He looks at her with a confused expression, and the innocents concern makes her want to pour her heart out to him...

She tells him

“One day….

One day I will not begin my day with someone else’s death
One day I will live without the fear of losing a human to the insanity of another.
One day everyone’s life will have a value

One day people will think for a change
One day the young will not be used to spread terror
One day kids will grow without seeing terrorism

One day our people will wake up to all this
And that day our country will glow in all its beauty

Some day…”

What do you all say?

This incident happened today morning in our city Bangalore. A bus, a lady traveler, a misbehaving conductor and my friend who witnessed this. What should he have done in such a situation?

This is a small incident which we hear about every now and then. I myself have not witnessed such an incident in Bangalore and greatly respect the BMTC staff for doing just their duty and nothing more but there are bound to be some people who take liberty in the fact that a small indulgence on their part could be masqueraded as a slip of hand in a crowded bus. This isn’t new information. I am sure every person, male or female, who travels by bus, knows this.

What would I do if someone misbehaved with me using the crowd as a shield? Well, probably just give a dirty stare and stand in a place where people can not take advantage of the crowd. Is that it? I am ashamed to say it, but yes. Will that dirty stare do any good? Will it make any difference to the person doing it? He would probably give a smug smile and target someone else!

What do people do when in such situation? Most take the easy way, my way. And so did the lady who we were talking about. My friend, a mere witness to the whole scene thought that wasn’t enough. He raised his voice against the conductor condemning him for his act. I do not know what happened after that. All I know is he saw a wrong and raised his voice against it.

This was a small incident which in itself represents all the wrong happening in our country. I represent that section of the population who knows about this, sees it and does nothing but mind their own business. My friend on the other hand represents the hope against all of this, a voice which makes sure it is heard, someone I will look up to for what he did, and someone I would want to be.

He on the other hand is thinking whether what he did was right or wrong, if should he have lost his temper like the way he did. What do you people say?

(A correction - the bus was a private bus and the lady was waiting at the bus stop and not travelling when it happened. Sorry for getting the facts wrong but the question still stands!)