Women Inspirers

I guess I am a feminist as I am inspired by the powerful women who have been and are around in this world of ours. Whoever knows me also know that I devour books like crazy but what they would not have realized would be that I am someone who read/invariably select books where the mainly women are strong and inspirational.

I take as my role model women who have carved a niche in history with their inspirational lives, one of my first role model came to me by accident you can say. Our school had organized a book fair and I was given money to pick up book by my Mom. I went through the entire collection the fair had and finally selected a book on the life of the first women doctor- Elizabeth Blackwell- an autobiography on her life. A woman who was so determined that she wanted to become a doctor she did not think it was impossible instead she strived towards it with determination and hard work in an age and society that deemed women were supposed to learn to be good daughters, wives, mothers and hostess and nothing more.

The second role model was Noor Inayat Khan the first female radio operator to enter occupied France to aid the French resistance. I don’t exactly remember where I picked up her autobiography-Spy Princess- The life of Noor Inayat Khan but this was a book on another inspirational woman who like Elizabeth was determined to do what she wanted to even in adverse conditions. Hers story was of how a demure and innocent looking women was brave and did her bit in the war against Nazi’s.

My next 2 role models has come into my life very recently, and came to me through articles I read in the paper, The Hindu to be exact. One was an article by Navin Chawla on a woman who is known world over and is an inspiration to many- Mother Theresa. Later on I realized that he has written an autobiography on her and coincidentally on the same day as I read the article was able to pick her autobiography from the book fair organized in our office J. I am still reading the book and am not even half way through it but I have able to identify the same traits of resilience and determination that I found while reading the autobiographies of Elizabeth and Noor.

They are strong individuals who are sure of what they want in life and are determined to achieve it pushing past hurdles that are thrown in their way. They dream big and are hell bent on seeing to it that it is realized. I sometimes wish that I had that kind of strength of character and big dreams to realize.

I know I told that there are 2 more roles models and I have just mentioned Mother Theresa. My next source of inspiration came to me through another article I read in The Hindu. It was an article written by her that I liked, I had already read the book written by her which won her the Booker prize during my college days (I think you must have by now guessed whom I talking about), and got me to search for other articles by her on the net- Arundhati Roy. I found her to be one of the sane voices amidst the insanity that surged the country last week- the massive protest against corruption- Jan Lokpal Bill. And I liked her article as it had the same questions and view which I myself had and would have asked. I also loved the interview she gave to CNN- IBN on the massive protest that took place last week against corruption to Sagarika Ghose. I find her brave and to strongly voice on many of the serious issues that the world is facing today and has no qualms on writing them out in strongly worded articles or speaking it out loud.

I rather not be ANNA

The write up by Arundati Roy in Hindu, the only sane voice I felt that resounded in all that tamasha of Janlok Pal Bill. Her article echoes a lot of the questions I wanted to ask. So here is the article for you to read.

While his means maybe Gandhian, his demands are certainly not.

If what we're watching on TV is indeed a revolution, then it has to be one of the more embarrassing and unintelligible ones of recent times. For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you're likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind.
For completely different reasons, and in completely different ways, you could say that the Maoists and the Jan Lokpal Bill have one thing in common — they both seek the overthrow of the Indian State. One working from the bottom up, by means of an armed struggle, waged by a largely adivasi army, made up of the poorest of the poor. The other, from the top down, by means of a bloodless Gandhian coup, led by a freshly minted saint, and an army of largely urban, and certainly better off people. (In this one, the Government collaborates by doing everything it possibly can to overthrow itself.)
In April 2011, a few days into Anna Hazare's first “fast unto death,” searching for some way of distracting attention from the massive corruption scams which had battered its credibility, the Government invited Team Anna, the brand name chosen by this “civil society” group, to be part of a joint drafting committee for a new anti-corruption law. A few months down the line it abandoned that effort and tabled its own bill in Parliament, a bill so flawed that it was impossible to take seriously.
Then, on August 16th, the morning of his second “fast unto death,” before he had begun his fast or committed any legal offence, Anna Hazare was arrested and jailed. The struggle for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill now coalesced into a struggle for the right to protest, the struggle for democracy itself. Within hours of this ‘Second Freedom Struggle,' Anna was released. Cannily, he refused to leave prison, but remained in Tihar jail as an honoured guest, where he began a fast, demanding the right to fast in a public place. For three days, while crowds and television vans gathered outside, members of Team Anna whizzed in and out of the high security prison, carrying out his video messages, to be broadcast on national TV on all channels. (Which other person would be granted this luxury?) Meanwhile 250 employees of the Municipal Commission of Delhi, 15 trucks, and six earth movers worked around the clock to ready the slushy Ramlila grounds for the grand weekend spectacle. Now, waited upon hand and foot, watched over by chanting crowds and crane-mounted cameras, attended to by India's most expensive doctors, the third phase of Anna's fast to the death has begun. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is One,” the TV anchors tell us.
While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare's demands are certainly not. Contrary to Gandhiji's ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official. The Lokpal will have the powers of investigation, surveillance, and prosecution. Except for the fact that it won't have its own prisons, it will function as an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one.

Whether it works or not depends on how we view corruption. Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an egregiously unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority? Imagine, for example, a city of shopping malls, on whose streets hawking has been banned. A hawker pays the local beat cop and the man from the municipality a small bribe to break the law and sell her wares to those who cannot afford the prices in the malls. Is that such a terrible thing? In future will she have to pay the Lokpal representative too? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure that people will have to defer to?

Meanwhile the props and the choreography, the aggressive nationalism and flag waving of Anna's Revolution are all borrowed, from the anti-reservation protests, the world-cup victory parade, and the celebration of the nuclear tests. They signal to us that if we do not support The Fast, we are not ‘true Indians.' The 24-hour channels have decided that there is no other news in the country worth reporting.

‘The Fast' of course doesn't mean Irom Sharmila's fast that has lasted for more than ten years (she's being force fed now) against the AFSPA, which allows soldiers in Manipur to kill merely on suspicion. It does not mean the relay hunger fast that is going on right now by ten thousand villagers in Koodankulam protesting against the nuclear power plant. ‘The People' does not mean the Manipuris who support Irom Sharmila's fast. Nor does it mean the thousands who are facing down armed policemen and mining mafias in Jagatsinghpur, or Kalinganagar, or Niyamgiri, or Bastar, or Jaitapur. Nor do we mean the victims of the Bhopal gas leak, or the people displaced by dams in the Narmada Valley. Nor do we mean the farmers in NOIDA, or Pune or Haryana or elsewhere in the country, resisting the takeover of the land.

‘The People' only means the audience that has gathered to watch the spectacle of a 74-year-old man threatening to starve himself to death if his Jan Lokpal Bill is not tabled and passed by Parliament. ‘The People' are the tens of thousands who have been miraculously multiplied into millions by our TV channels, like Christ multiplied the fishes and loaves to feed the hungry. “A billion voices have spoken,” we're told. “India is Anna.”

Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People? Oddly enough we've heard him say nothing about things of urgent concern. Nothing about the farmer's suicides in his neighbourhood, or about Operation Green Hunt further away. Nothing about Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, nothing about Posco, about farmer's agitations or the blight of SEZs. He doesn't seem to have a view about the Government's plans to deploy the Indian Army in the forests of Central India.
He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and has praised the ‘development model' of Gujarat's Chief Minister who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims. (Anna withdrew that statement after a public outcry, but presumably not his admiration.)

Despite the din, sober journalists have gone about doing what journalists do. We now have the back-story about Anna's old relationship with the RSS. We have heard from Mukul Sharma who has studied Anna's village community in Ralegan Siddhi, where there have been no Gram Panchayat or Co-operative society elections in the last 25 years. We know about Anna's attitude to ‘harijans': “It was Mahatma Gandhi's vision that every village should have one chamar, one sunar, one kumhar and so on. They should all do their work according to their role and occupation, and in this way, a village will be self-dependant. This is what we are practicing in Ralegan Siddhi.” Is it surprising that members of Team Anna have also been associated with Youth for Equality, the anti-reservation (pro-“merit”) movement? The campaign is being handled by people who run a clutch of generously funded NGOs whose donors include Coca-Cola and the Lehman Brothers. Kabir, run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, key figures in Team Anna, has received $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last three years. Among contributors to the India Against Corruption campaign there are Indian companies and foundations that own aluminum plants, build ports and SEZs, and run Real Estate businesses and are closely connected to politicians who run financial empires that run into thousands of crores of rupees. Some of them are currently being investigated for corruption and other crimes. Why are they all so enthusiastic?

Remember the campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill gathered steam around the same time as embarrassing revelations by Wikileaks and a series of scams, including the 2G spectrum scam, broke, in which major corporations, senior journalists, and government ministers and politicians from the Congress as well as the BJP seem to have colluded in various ways as hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were being siphoned off from the public exchequer. For the first time in years, journalist-lobbyists were disgraced and it seemed as if some major Captains of Corporate India could actually end up in prison. Perfect timing for a people's anti-corruption agitation. Or was it?

At a time when the State is withdrawing from its traditional duties and Corporations and NGOs are taking over government functions (water supply, electricity, transport, telecommunication, mining, health, education); at a time when the terrifying power and reach of the corporate owned media is trying to control the public imagination, one would think that these institutions — the corporations, the media, and NGOs — would be included in the jurisdiction of a Lokpal bill. Instead, the proposed bill leaves them out completely.

Now, by shouting louder than everyone else, by pushing a campaign that is hammering away at the theme of evil politicians and government corruption, they have very cleverly let themselves off the hook. Worse, by demonising only the Government they have built themselves a pulpit from which to call for the further withdrawal of the State from the public sphere and for a second round of reforms — more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources. It may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee. Will the 830 million people living on Rs.20 a day really benefit from the strengthening of a set of policies that is impoverishing them and driving this country to civil war?

This awful crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people. Do not be fooled by the flag waving. We're watching India being carved up in war for suzerainty that is as deadly as any battle being waged by the warlords of Afghanistan, only with much, much more at stake.

Womens Reservation- The debate

Women reservation bill was tabled and passed in the Rajya Sabha around a month or two ago and it was a major topic of discussion all around. One such discussion happened at office over coffee and one of my colleague voiced that he resented the bill and smugly asked that women allege that they want to be equal to men then why the need for reservation?

A question I am sure in the minds of many of the opposite gender.

Why reservation when you demand equality? Reservation do not exist in developed countries like the US, UK or Australia then why here in India?

Well I support the reservation and am firm advocator of equal rights for both.

In our country reservation is to help the down trodden, the socially and educationally backward in the society and I feel no one fits that bill better than women.

In our country womens struggle for survival starts from the moment she is conceived. If she is lucky enough then she gets to see this beautiful world as we all do or else her fight perpetually ends in the safe haven of womb itself. Coming into this world is not an end to her fight rather it is just a start. After birth starts her fight for survival, education, equality, honor, making her choices in life.

You might argue that it does not hold true in today’s India where people are educated and we read reports of women having achieved a lot.But I will have to disagree and say that it is still the same in most parts of our country. Yes there are a lot written about and we feel that a lot is happening in the right direction but that is for a very small percentage representing the humanity called women.

There are villages in India where it is difficult to find a single female offspring. They are either aborted or killed soon after birth. It is justified by the archaic village panchayats. How else could you justify the skewed sex ratio’s that are reported by the census and various other reports?

Why villages? There are a great sections in our cities that have a stigma attached to girl child. Be it by aborting them, abandoning them after birth, depriving them of education, prohibiting them from joining work and much much more.

Yes there is a slow and definite change in the mindsets happening today but to discard what was being followed from centuries will take time.

Reservation of women in the parliament is a small step in the direction to help women achieve the equality she demands. These women elected and representing the millions of women in the country would see to it that laws and rules are passed that would invariably help the women get better opportunities. Better education, nutrition, living conditions and much much more.

In countries like US, UK and Australia where there is no discrimination for being a girl child and where every opportunity is rightfully given to her there is no need for reservation but in a country like India where there is discrimination everywhere she turns, reservation is a necessity till she can stand shoulder to shoulder with man and demand for equality.

'The Book'

I have already written about the two persons who inspired me or were the reason for me to start blogging. Today I am going to talk about a person who inspires me to continue writing it and whose one question for sure whenever I give him a call is whether I have posted any new entries?

His name is Vikas Verma and he is a friend I got at my stint with Satyam in Hyderabad. He is also the one who inspired me to write the blog titled ‘consequences of marriage’. He was one of the boyfriends whose initial confusion after marriage was directly seen by me and inspired me to write it. :D

These days in addition to asking about new entries he also asks whether I have started to write ‘The Book’. He believes that I could very well write a book and would be successful in it. For that faith of his in my writing I have promised him that if and when I write a book it would be dedicated to him. It is as a gratitude for his belief in my writing a belief I do not have in me.

I have forever dreamed of writing a book, I do not know if I will but when I have a friend who believes and pushes me to it I am sure I might end up writing one in future.

The better part of this deal is that I am assured of having 100 copies of my book being sold. He has taken it up to himself to sell a 100 copies of the book that I write and hence would be the first book in the history of mankind to have sold a 100 copies even before the author started writing it (imagine a smiley with a sheepish smile here).

Vikas this entry is for you and the book when I write it would also be dedicated to you. For the faith that you have in my writing and in turn for the faith you have in me. Thank you. :)

Avatar- Watch it for the message

Watched the highest grossing movie of all time Avatar and loved the underlying idea in the movie of living in tune with nature. Life existing in such a way that the balance in nature is not disturbed. That was something our ancestors did, living in balance with nature, taking from her only that which could be replenished by her.

I also admired the heights of his imagination where he digitally created a home away from home. The beauty, splendor and detail with which he created its flora and fauna is amazing.

But what I prized the most was the way Na’vi and Pandora coexisted. It is similar to the relation man and nature had ages ago when man worshipped nature and took from her bounty and gave back to her. In today’s world it is actually a message to stop the atrocities that man is committing against nature. Man do not realize that in his greed for money he is slowly killing himself and destroying a place we all call home.

If our ancestor were as greedy as we are now we wouldn’t have had all the beauty that we see around us. The high price of this unscrupulous destruction is going to be paid by us and the future. We have already started paying for the plundering with the rising temperature, diminishing water levels, natural disasters and many of the changes we see in Mother Nature.

Destroying that what we received as a blessing from the creator is easy but do keep in mind that we are killing ourselves and the generation to come by our actions and greed.

Loss due to technology

A thought crossed my mind the other day that with the rate at which technological progress and advancements are happening. Wouldn’t our future generations miss on some of the beautiful experiences we have had as kids?

I still fondly remember the summer vacations of my childhood. The 2 months of summer vacation divided between my paternal and maternal ancestral houses in Kerala when we came down from Mumbai. It was a time when all of us aunts, uncles and cousin would have a ball of a time walking around in the lush greenery surrounding the house. Splashing and bathing in the pond or the river, plucking ripe cashew from the cashew trees, picking fallen nutmeg, mangoes, guavas and the endless amount of fruits that doted the house. Running behind chicks which were specially hatched for our arrival by my maternal grandmother timing them in such a way that they would have hatched just the day we reached or would hatch within a day or two after our arrival. There were so many endless activities that beheld our attention in the months that invariably flew off fast. Even though there was no TV in both these places it was never missed or for a fact thought about at all during the stay.

But when our kids have their summer vacation what would be kind of experience they would have? The experiences they would have would be of watching TV, playing games on the computer, surfing the net. Wouldn’t they miss on all the amazing memories that we created on the wonderful experience that we had in the 2 special months every year of our life?

Would they get to have a vacation where they would be one with nature? Just walk around and play in nature’s bounty, play with free flowing, pure water, get unabashedly drenched in the rain, feed the cow and its young, run around behind the chicks, hunt for and pick warm eggs once the hen start clucking after having laid it.

I don’t know! But I have a gut feeling that they won’t. We have missed on many a wonderful experience that our parents have had during their childhood. Though the cycle of life might let our kids grow in an age where technology is far progressed from what we had in our childhood, they would be missing out on a lot of the real life experiences which we as their parents had when technology had not advanced this much.

Assisi - Adieu !

First ever article that was written by me.... it was for the school magazine :D

June 1st 1995 - I entered into the Assisi Campus with my Mother and Sister. There were lots of unfamiliar faces all around me and a great hustle and bustle as parents and children rushed about looking for their respective classes. Yes, you've guessed it - that was my first day at Assisi. I looked with trepidation into this ocean of unfamiliarity..... There, next to a pillar stood a girl of my age. We walked in that direction and introduced ourselves. I came to know that her name was Neethu Jaleel and she too had joined in Class VI. Together, we walked into the Class marked "VI" which was on the first floor....

It was full of students who all seemed to know each other very well. We sat on the first bench; the only one left unoccupied. Two benches behind a boy wearing spectacles with weird hair standing all up straight as though it had received an electric shock, was busy chatting away to all those around him, thereby setting up a hilarious mood in the class room. Later, I came to know that he was called Remy.

Days, months, years flew by intercepted by exams, holidays, new friendships, quarrels, new comers and partings....seven years later, here I am at good old Assisi suddenly faced with a threatening reality of it being my last year here. Of course, I am no longer the lost young girl I was. The class I look upon is filled with my friends, who over the years have grown very dear to me. And Remy was still there with his hair looking weirder still and his blabbering continuing nonstop, inevitably succeeding in sending his listeners to sleep. There are many new faces and also many missing. I and my friend are about to leave Assisi and all of a sudden we realize how hard it is going to be for us to separate from the big Assisian Family we have become so much a part of.

We will leave Assisi as students with better personality, talents and a sense of individuality. Thank you, Assisi, for every thing you have done for us. I am not sure enough whether I am ready to step out into the new world and I think that the same goes for the others too. Our teachers who have led us through the complicated maze of Life so far, would not be there any longer to advise or protect. Nor will my friends be there to lend a comforting shoulder to sob on in times of distress.

We have a word of advice for our juniors, i.e., Enjoy your school days at Assisi to the fullest, in the best way possible, so that at the end of all you may look back with fond memories. Teachers we are really going to Miss you. Though we have not often said this to you, we take this opportunity to say "we love you very much and thank you" for all that you have done for us. Please don't forget us, the famous trouble-makers and remember us in your prayers as we step out from under your protective shadows into the big, wide and strange world before us.
Sweet Adieu, assisi.................!!!

Consequences of marriage

Some of my good friends both guys and gals have taken the plunge and have started on the bend in road, “marriage”. And it is wonderful to find that there is pattern that is common existing to all of them. 3 of my girl friends (don’t get me wrong friends who are girls is all that this means) and 2 of my boyfriends (same applies here guys who are my friends).

My girlfriends have quit their jobs and moved to Mumbai, Bangalore and US where their better half are employed. All 3 of them have taken it as their life’s mission to excel in the world of culinary art. As they have quit their job and are now endowed with the name of housewife till the time they find themselves another job in the cities they have migrated to, their major source of entertainment is that of cooking. I guess they are trying to prove the saying that “The way to mans heart is through the stomach”. Well I think this activity would ensure one thing, them getting into shape with out having to hit the gym :)

Well with regard to my boyfriends they seem to have achieved greater levels of maturity in matter of days. One of them is in the process of setting up his house from scratch and the effect of this effort on him has terrified the rest of us into taking this step in life. They seem to be suddenly entrusted with responsibilities and rudely awakened to a life they never thought would happen to them.

Alone in the teeming crowd

Have you ever experienced this feeling of being all alone in this world with no one to turn to and there is no place you get that contentment and peace that you are looking for. When you are choked up till your throat and you just want to get a shoulder or an arm into which you can fall into and cry your heart out. And when you thought that you would get it from one of hundreds that are milling around in the crowd but nobody seems to even look into your direction and does not even seem to notice your distress that’s when you get the feeling of being ‘Alone in the teeming crowd’ .

This feeling makes you want to run to the ends of the world from the teeming crowd……. A place no man exists ……from all these people but you can’t you tied up with ropes and can’t move. Your choked up tears are threatening to break the barrier that has it contained but yet not one person in the crowd is extending that hand. It is really hard to hold onto your sanity at these moments.

These are moments when you get to really know the crowd that are swarming around you because you had always believed that this crowd cares for you and will always stand by you through thick or through thin but it seems like it never was that way.
It was always meant to be that you would be ‘Alone in the teeming crowd’

Life in Hyderbad

I have already written my experience of the first job has been very different from what most of my batch mates have experienced. My first thought, when I had joined the project that I am into now, was that I am going to quit and go sit at home. But my experience of the 1 year and more has made me realize that how shortsighted I was because I wouldn’t trade this time I have spent here with anything else how much ever enticing it might look or seem.

The friendship that blossomed here within the group that I got into is so strong that they are the extended family who look out for and take care of you here. The friendship and the time I spend here is making me wary of taking the next step in life because if I take it I am going to lose this and I really don’t want to lose this but want enjoy this as long as it lasts. I had heard a lot about the politics that is there in an office but then I never experienced that here instead it was like an extension of the life at college where we used to work together as a group in the assignments given to us. This could be because of the reason that the whole groups of us were fresher from MBA colleges and this was our first jobs and first project. And we were lucky enough to have Mckinsey consultants on this project who guided us in the work we did and incorporated in us their work culture which is so much different from the work culture seen in our country.

So instead of rivalry amongst us there blossomed a friendship which has been something which is really great. Now we are like the characters of the famous TV serial FRIENDS but of course without the romance angle that is present in the serial. :P

Hostel

I have made all my good friends through my stay in the hostel, life in the hostel opens up the whole new family away from home. The friends you make here are for life and they are there for you all through. I have lived in 2 different hostels in my 5 years of college life. The kind of friendship and relationship you have with your roommates and hostel mates is very deep and they know you really well. They have been with you through your up and downs in life and they too are going through pretty much the same turbulences that you are facing.

Hostel life also makes you become really independent and take care of yourself as you don’t have your parents or guardian by your side guiding your way. You make your own decisions and gain or lose from it. I can definitely say that I became the person that I am today only through my experience of being in the hostel. Student life in itself is fun and staying in a hostel only adds to the memories.

When in hostel in Bangalore there used to be the rules that there was silence hour from 9’O clock every night where we had to be our in our respective room and not seen in any of the other rooms. Till 9’O clock none of us feel like talking or going to the other rooms but as soon as the bell rings indicating the start of the silence hour that’s when you want to visit the other rooms across the hall or even another floor. There have been many instances when I have been caught by the warden in other room during the silence hour and there been times when I have hid behind doors, cupboard and underneath beds just to avoid getting caught.

Hostel also helped me in my academics when there is an exam approaching the whole hostel gets into the exam mode and you naturally get attuned to it. So when in hostel we study hard and party harder.

Now that I have finished my tryst with hostel I am missing it a lot. Though initially I was sad and was in the belief that being away from home and staying in the hostel was the worst predicament that could ever happen to a person it is only now when I look back to my life in the hostel that I come to know that God had planned the greatest life I could live. He had added all the spices of life in proportion so that when I look back in life I come to know that it was the most perfect way I could have lived and it couldn’t have been any better.

Circus...Play of Poverty

On the insistence of my friends I agreed to watch the circus which was running in the grounds near to where we stay. I have been to the circus when I was a kid and I have not enjoyed the act then as well.

Because of the ban imposed by Maneka Gandhi on the use animals in circus the whole of the acts for two and a half hour is put up by humans since there is no activist who speaks for this species yet. The only animals that were used in the act were dogs, horses canary and elephants. What I felt most depressing is the fact that almost 90 to 95% of the acts are done by young girls who are barely 18. And many of the daring stunts which usually get our hearts thumping hard into our chest are done with little or no precautionary measures. And what do these girls get in return for the work that they do very minimal I should guess and I am sure they do get lots of harsh words and severe beating if nothing else.

This act made me wonder in India there is a law against child labor. Would these innocent girls be covered under this law?

The lives of these girls are really pathetic these girls go on touring with the circus and hence not getting the opportunity to study. Even if they want to do something else in life they won’t be able to do anything decent as they know nothing more that these acts that they learned in here. The life of the people who work in circus is a virtual circle as I see it those who are part of the circus troupe more or less marry within the troupe and their children in turn become part of the act put up by the troupe and this circle goes on and on. What is most depressing is the poverty that can be seen and felt when we go to the circus the condition of the humans and animals are pitiable the props they use are old, the dresses that they have to wear is dismal all in all there is very sad feel to the whole act and atmosphere.

A very depressed me was what got out from the circus feeling sad and useless of not being able to do anything to better the condition of these girls and these people in whole.

Friendz

‘Friends’ a sweet name given by someone to the greatest relationship that can exist between 2 people. ‘Friends’ you have them by your side wherever you go and whenever you need them. They become more important to you than any other relations that you have, they will be there for you during your times of sorrow and distress, they lend you their shoulder when you cry, they are there during your days of happiness, and they multiply your joys in ways unknown to you. There is some way known only to them to make the ordinary days most special for you. Friends come to know you better than your own parents and in some cases more than we know ourselves. They know what hurts you and see to it that you avoid those things that hurt you.

Though we make a lot of friends over the course of our life not all are friends made for life only some of the special ones are for life. They would be there for you always just a phone call away any time that you want them. Some of them are with you only for a little time and then you leave them and they leave you behind and go ahead with life. And in our walk of life memory brings in them back to us and we remember them fondly like a sweet chapter that we love to revisit again and again. Always wondering what they would be doing now and how they have fared in the journey called life. :)

Speed! It thrills but kills.....

Speed thrills but kills a phrase often seen on the highways asking us to slow down on the highways. But speed does give the thrill which makes us forget that it might also lead to our death if not careful.

I love zooming on my Honda Activa through the highways in Kochi. It is a great stress reliever for me and I did not realize how much I missed the rides on my Activa until I rode it two weeks back after a gap of 6 to 7 months when I had gone down to Kochi for a few days. It is so exhilarating to zoom on it through the highways in Kochi as road are clear and congestion free and we can go up to an 80kmph for sure and need not go below a 60kmph for a major portion of our rides.

While on the Activa I love the wind blowing against me, sneaking my way through the huge traffic blocks, the stress ebbing out of me with the increasing speed ohhh!!! I just love this and more. I consider myself more a bike lover than a car lover as I just love the rides taken on the bikes be it a pillion ride on the bikes or just simply ridding it.

While doing my MBA whenever I felt bored at hostel I used to sneak out with my Activa for long rides through the seaport airport road (which is wide straight stretch which joins the airport to the seaport for transporting the cargo fast and smooth) as it did never saw much traffic. Zooming through this road was and still is one my favorite pastimes whenever I get the time to do it on my vacations in Kerala.

The Activa I think is the best gift given to me by my parents. The independence and freedom experienced while riding it cannot be explained. It surely is exhilarating to just zoom on it. :)

Marriage

'Marriage' a word that bring nightmare into the life of most of the girls. The nightmare starts the moment the parents decide that their little girls have grown up and need has to be married of. Then starts the most complicated process of finding the guy for which parents depend on the broker and the endless myriad of family relatives and nowadays the internet as well.


The first phase consist of the girls being dressed up and get her snap taken, no snap taken is good enough as there would be some flaw or the other in these. A perfect snap never comes out and then when the eligible guys details comes in the girl is asked to make a decision which is often not wholeheartedly supported by the whole of the family. Either the Mom does not feel he is the correct one or the Dad or the siblings who have greater decision making power than they have ever had. This is a period during which a girls fights the most with her parents and when they feel they are not understood by any at all. What I don’t understand is how in the world is the girl going to decide who among the lot is best to become her life partner. On what parameter do we come to this conclusion after all it is a question of sharing our whole life with that person!!!


Then is the tradition of sashaying the girl before the proposed guy, his parents, and relatives which is a ritual in our country. The girl is the one who has suffer in this as she is the one being scrutinized and questioned during this entire ritual and the amount of mental trauma she goes through when finally the proposed guy rejects the girl for reasons like not being fair enough even though she must be as fair as the model in the fairness ad. Enough to get your self esteem low. I know that you would say that you need not take all those seriously and personally but how much ever you say that, they are after all human being and it would affect these gentle souls in a way or the other.


I am still in awe with my friend who got married recently going through this traditional method followed in our country. All I want to know from them is how did they know that he was The Right Guy or the Prince Charming?

Ice age...Stoneage..... Evolution happening!!!

Our QT ma'am from MBA class told us about a topic one of her ex student was doing research on; it was the shift in the behavior of men and women. She said that the researcher felt that women are taking on the characteristics which were earlier seen prominently among men and the men were changing in their behavior which was earlier akin to women.

The example she cited was the change in the way men wore colors like pink and pastels which were considered feminine and never used by men. They give more prominence to their appearance by visiting beauty parlor for manicures, pedicures facials and so on, so much so, that companies have come out with fairness creams exclusively for men. They also take active participation in taking care of the kids; they babysit them and are comfortable taking care of their kids even if their wife’s are not around.

In women she said they prefer black and darker shades to lighter color which were earlier considered feminine. Also earlier the fact of women working and earning was not there but today she says the women are keen on pursuing career making them sacrifice marriage and family. Earlier the women used to get married early at an age of 20 to 25 but today we see that women are not ready to settle down until they 30 and then also they think a lot before having a family because they feel that it will dampen their career aspiration which was the way men thought a few years back. The men on the other hand have settling down earlier in their life.

There was a recent article in the newspaper about the fact seen in the matrimonial sites, the article mentioned that they found that the marriageable age of men has come down with most of the men getting registered and married as young as 23- 25 . They also highlighted the fact that marriageable age of women has gone up they found the women registering to these site the age has gone up to 25 -30. The article also mentioned that they find that the women felt that marriage would curb their independence a feeling which was seen among men a few years back.

This has got me thinking if there has been a shift? Or has evolution brought about a change in the behavior of the genders. I feel this research is worth looking out for and I would be definitely looking forward to the findings.

Valentines day !!!

Valentines Day!!!! A day highly commercialized by the card companies, soft toys and flower industry in the initial years. Today it is commercialized by any business or industry who is in any way directly or indirectly related to this day.....just yesterday I saw a Valentines Day special offer by Go Air giving special discounts if traveling with your partner....How is air travel and valentines day related? we would wonder........but there is the relation put up by Go Air.... travel with your loved one and get a discount on the second ticket purchased (still not able to get the connection between air travel and love)

Valentines day gained prominence in India mostly over the past 10 to 15 years and this can be attributed to the opening up of the Indian economy and the FDI flowing in. The day is so much commercialized today that there are write ups and offers for the day lined up even months before the D-day. It has influenced the young minds of India so much that we see little kids at school too celebrating the day spending stupendous amounts on buying gift for the ones they claim they love (rather early I would say to have found their soul mates in class 1). They start their Valentines day by buying flowers and chocolates (budget constraints) and move on to buying jewellery, electronic gadget, diamond and other expensive as they grow up.

Instead of it being just a day long celebration ...recent years show that it has turned into a weeklong celebration and I am sure not far away is the time when the whole month of February would be celebrated with offers and special discount for travel, food and clothing and anything which can be related to this day dedicated to Love.

I often wonder if any other Saint in Christianity has attained so much popularity around the world....and if any other day other than Christmas in Christianity has gained such popularity among all faiths around the world. Also wondering if any of those who celebrate this day with great splendor know that 14th of February is the feast of St. Valentine and we are actually celebrating his martyrdom for helping people who loved each other.

Adieu...

I was leaving Kochi the city in Gods own country where I had spent some of my most cherished years of ma life......It was a nostaligic farewell as I was saying adieu to the beautiful city after having compeleted my studies and was goimg to enter the big bad world..... I was gonna start working.

I was leaving behind faces and people held dear over my course of 2 years of study here in Kochi.......But then the best thing about home is that it was always bids me adieu in its own special way and this time too it did bid me adieu in its special way.......with a Rainbow.... No it was not raining but as I was leaving for the airport between the cloud were visible two beautiful rainbows....

I was sad leaving my behind my friends but the rainbow felt for me as a beautiful reminder of the wonderful years I have spend in this wonderful city.

The boy who lived!!!

The breaking news on CNN-IBN on the 21st of July 2007 "Harry Potter survives!!!". An event which saw people across countries all around the world waiting with baited breath to know. The fate of their hero 'Harry Potter' in what J.K. Rowling claim to be the last book in the Potter series. I was one of those fans eagerly awaiting to know the fate of the boy wizard like everyone else.

The last book is indeed what the fans were waiting for.It has the same effect as the rest of the preceding books in the series it has the thrills, the sadness, the nerve tingling suspence and much much more as any true Harry Potter fan would know.

It is indeed great to know that this book has lead to breaking many records and creating history with the amount of books being sold and also the box office collections on the movies based on these books. But what I think is the greatest achievement of the book and its author is the fact that she was able to bring back the reading habit among kids which had gone down greatly over the years.

A book which depicts that good always wins over the evil and that if you have faithful, loving and trusted freinds along with you crossing any hurdle how great it might look is going to be easy.