the dacoits in the disguise of protectors x-(

The other day, me and my friend went to the market nearby at Indira Nagar for regular shopping... It was evening time... around 7 or 8. We saw one thelawala with roasted corns, and stopped there to relish a few pieces of roasted corns. As we were waiting for the thelawala to prepare the corn, a small truck came, with two traffic policemen in it. One was inside it, and the other was outside on the truck. They stopped by, scolded the thelawala to move away from the road, although he was at a safe distance from the road. Then they kept saying something to him and discussing something among themselves. We were not able to understand much. It appeared to me as if they were not so strict and friendly ones who will just ask him to move and drive away... Then they asked him about the corns... From their conversation in Telugu, I guessed, may be they stopped by to buy some corns... or may be will take a few corns as bribe. Then within a flash, the police who was outside, picked at least 10 pieces of corns and drove away... The poor thelawala was requesting not to take that much, but they did not listen... All this happened in just seconds... All the people around there gathered there suddenly... but they could not do anything... we could not do anything... And the poor fellow came back to cater to us and a few customers waiting for the roasted corns... We asked him, "Does he happen always?" He said, "Yes, all the time... " It was tough to watch his sad face.  It was a shock to me... Rest of the time, I ate my corn silently, lost in thought... So many thoughts were filling my mind... And I was eating my corn as vigorously as I could...  

Those were the people who were supposed to protect the people on road. They did that to that poor guy! They were no less than the dadas that I watched in 80's hindi movies. And this happened in our very own Indira Nagar!!! How can we trust poilce, then? They were worse than those gundas! They did not do all this for any discipline! In that case, they would have first thrashed the cars that were parked in random manner blocking the road and making it difficult for the walkers... They did not.. they wanted an easy target.. some one who can not protest! Its true then... all those adages, "only the fittest can survive", "Jor jaara mulak taara" are so true... n in such cruel ways!! 

What will happen to the poor fellow? He must be finding it difficult already to support his family with the meager income by selling roasted corns... How does he handle it everyday? Why does not he voice against them? How can he? When he is the only one to shout or beg! How can he face the snatchers who are backed by the huge bureaucracy behind them! And when the people around him choose to be mute watchers!

The fact that everyone gathered suddenly when they were snatching, and in a minute everyone got busy in their own business, reminded me one of the stories by Ruskin Bond, where, the tiger hides and targets one deer while all the deers are grazing merrily. He suddenly jumps onto one of the deers and all the others flee. The deer is dead and tiger walks away with his food. Then within no time, all the deers come back and graze as if nothing had happened... How are we different as human race from those deers! Just as we have both carnivores and herbivores amongst us!  But then, I was also among those mute spectactors! I too could not do anything! Why? The question kept nagging me! I could have taken a photo of their vehicle... I could have shouted... All those men could have shouted in unison! What could have those two policemen do if all the janta would have shouted! Nothing! But noone did! Why? since we were trying to protect ourselves at the cost of those few pieces of corn? or... we are resigned that such things happen and we have to face the bitter reality? or the mentaility of "It is his problem.. Thank God! not mine...", or the shock and indecisiveness of what should be done? or the lack of awareness and preparedness? that we don't know what should be done in such a situation? May be all of these? 

My thoughts floated into imagining all horrible incidents that happened to me in the past and to the others... the horrible incidents that get highlighted in media everyday and move into oblivion every day!!  What if a girl would have been groped? What if a person would have been looted? What if a woman was raped? What if someone was chain-snatched? What if someone would have been stabbed or shot at? Of course, this incidence of stealing the corns was not  as horrible as I was imagining... But then, the concerns it arose was same... I, as a person, need to be more courageous .. we as people need to be less dumb... We need to act smart.. We need to be prepared.. We should know that we need to act and act smartly in such situations instead of standing as mute spectators....

I came back to my hostel with the same thoughts, but after a while, forgot it and got occupied in my other activities... in the same way those deers did.

An afternoon with the monsoon rain

I just came out of the building, and saw so many people waiting on its varendah.... Oh wow! It's raining! I could not know at all while I was inside this closed building! I am gonna have fun! ... n I walked out in the rain :) It was not raining that heavily... It was a smooth flowery shower :) I had to walk a little to get an auto ricksaw... thinking of the times when I would return from college n tuitions getting drenched n my mother would say, 'Hmm.. you came back drenched... I know you won't wait till the rain stops.' n she would let me in :) Hmm, in those times there were many different reasons for not stopping when it rained. In my place, in monsoon, usually rain continues for a long time, fluctuating between heavy showers to drizzles... I love everything about rain... I just cant help getting into it, smelling the scent of soil, watching raindrops smashing on to the ground, the water pouring down near a lamp post.... And when it rains, usually the road is emptier with people taking shelter in nearby shops and buildings waiting for it to stop. And the whole road is mine!... There is nothing like riding the bicycle with full speed in the middle of an empty road in rain! Its heavenly! :) But the most important thing is the power-cut that follows the rain... And it becomes really dangerous for people, especially young girls, in the dark. Its tougher for girls to protect themselves in smaller cities than metro cities... 

Any ways, with all these memories floating in, I got into a seven-sitter, n the rain became heavier... the driver was playing a bollywood melody of the 90s which just played in tune with the music of rain... a kind of resonance was happening! I could not figured out, did the song become more musical because of rain or did the rain seemed more beautiful with the song? I had very few moments to enjoy that when I had to get down... I had to walk a little to get another auto-ricksaw. As I walked with the same mood I was in the sever-sitter, I felt the gaze of other people, surprised to watch me so relaxed while everyone else was in a rush ... In the rain, even the muddy blackish water looked beautiful, the way vehicles splashed it on the road, creating the waves, the way water drops danced on the gray road, everything was nice... hmm... I got an auto-ricksaw .... after a bumpy ride for a while, the road smoothened... the rain had almost stopped and sun was shining through the clouds... everything appeared golden, and  the cool breeze was still blowing. We passed through a long stretch of Prof. CR Rao road, with trees flanking both sides of it. I always enjoy my time whenever I travel through this road... n the driver put on music.. he played some loud qawalis of 80s, which I never heard, and given a choice, will never listen to... But they too sounded beautiful at that time... may be rain makes everything more beautiful! :) 

Then when I reached my campus, the roads were wet, if there was no water clogging, the plants and trees, were drenched, holding the rain drops dearly... as if they were all smiling :)... I walked ahead... wanted to sip a cup of tea.... just I got my tea n it started raining heavily... I walked into an open hut on the amphitheater under construction... The hut and the amphitheater make a bizarre combination... There was this beautiful hut, under which everyone would sit having their snacks. The amphitheater was built in the same area, but over the hut, instead of removing... None of us could figure out why did they do so? But, the half-hut, (since its lower portion is buried under the cemented steps of the theater) gave as cool shade in the summer evenings when the heated cemented steps just did not let us sit on them. So I found a small dry space for me there and enjoyed my tea..

The sound of rain, the raindrops falling on the roof of the hut, the water flowing through the huts, the breeze, the leaves rustling, the hot air of tea mixing with the cold  air,  the blurred view of the stadium, a handsome black dog running in the rain to play with its mates ... it was just amazing!! It was my time!! My moment, I did not want to go out of there :) but I had to... As I threw away the tea cup, n walked on the wet soil, I felt the small pebbles on it brushing against my shoes.. The sound seemed more beautiful than it usually did... I came back with a smile :) I had a nice time with rain today :)

The invasion of ... Polythenes

A few days back, I went to my hometown. One tuesday, I accompanied my mother to Budhi Ma Thakurani (ବୁଢ଼ୀ  ମା  ଠାକୁରାଣୀ) temple. She is known as goddess or Adhisthatri Devi (ଅଧିଷ୍ଠାତ୍ରୀ ଦେବୀ) of Brahmapur. The temple is in a small and beautiful premise. In Odisha, tuesday is believed to be the day of Shakti and religious people worship different forms of Shakti on that day. So, being tuesday, there was lots of crowd in the temple. As soon as I entered the temple, I saw people stood in queues that took a zigzag form and I too joined the queue. People around me were wearing clothes of really bright, soft and cheerful colours. It was a delight to see such colours after coming from south India, where people prefer darker and sober colours in clothings... Then there were also people who wanted to take a shortcut to see Thakurani (ଠାକୁରାଣୀ) and ended up being threatened up by the police woman. She was a really rough lady pushing anyone and everyone without caring if it will hurt anyone. Although I appreciated her dutifulness, I hated her rough attitude.There was a separate shelf in the corner where people were lighting lamps. There was another corner where people were worshiping the Neem tree. The water used for worshipping the Neem tree overflew and made the floor really messy although workers were constantly wiping the floor. I felt proud for being in a culture where people worship trees, but wished people did not pour water and food items so mindlessly. There were lots of deities or Parshva devatas (ପାର୍ଶ୍ବ  ଦେବତା) on the courtyard of the temple and people were walking briskly to worship them because the floor was heated up in the summer sun. It was quite funny to watch the scene. I too did the same :). In another corner, two teenagers in temple duty were collecting the garbage and were throwing them outside. They seemed to be quite enjoying their work and seemed unaware of the crowd around them. Well, to me, all this was normal in temples... except one thing... polythene bags. There were many small transparent polythene bags floating everywhere... I was surprised and disgusted at how these things have easily entered into the premises of a temple, which is supposed to be sacred and we have to follow so many rules and restrictions before entering them... Noone, not even the purohits(ପୁରୋହିତ) had any objection to it. The shopkeepers outside the temple were giving stuff for Pooja(ପୂଜା) in polythene bags. People were taking them upto the inner shrine. Both the Poojari( ପୂଜାରୀ) and people were easily discarding them there itself without thinking anything. Agree that they are not made of any animal body part, they are clean and there is nothing technically wrong in using them in temples. But somehow, I could not accept the scene of polythenes inside temples.  It has become a norm in India that the sight of huge piles of polythenes implies we are about to enter a city. But not this! Not in temples. They are supposed to be beautiful. I do not find any logic to defend myself. But, even the scene of dirt and mud inside the temple premises was tolerable, not these polythene bags!! I felt like they were some cunning shrewd bad people who tricked everyone to make their way to enter to sacred places like temples so smoothly! I so wished to tell someone that, anything but not these polythenes! How come?! 

Even machines need shelter in nature

This afternoon, I came out of the library to take a break and started walking around the campus... Its always a delight to walk under green trees and watching the beauty around me... As I entered this stretch of the road, I saw the beautiful tall and green trees along the stretch. The way these trees are growing, in a few years, they will provide a complete green cover to the road. :) And this road is the most green with tallest and thickest trees in our campus. But I noticed something else too. The Cars... parked nicely under the trees from the beginning to the end of the road. It was funny... When we have the engines on, and AC is on, we give a damn to what happens to those trees, we want wider and wider highways for our cars, more and more parking lots, we won't step out in sun and will remain in car, we won't create a space for plants in our houses since that will waste space, but will carefully design a space for cars, ... and we are very happy with that, since we are progressing, we are rich, we have status, we are modern.  And the moment, the engine goes off, we are desperate to find a shade to park them! It all seemed so funny to me... Even the machines need nature... It looked like a class of small naughty kids were meekly sitting near their teachers not due to the fear of punishment, but due to their helplessness... that they did not have any other option. 

As I walked smiling at myself, I thought, how nice it can be if the parking lots are made of trees? An area with regularly spaced trees, so that cars can get sufficient space to move around. I agree, it sounds stupid and selfish that we are thinking of trees when we need to take care of our cars. But they are nevertheless better than the cemented, heat radiating and ugly parking lots for which so much of money is spent. hmm... not a bad idea! :)

the other side of life I never saw...

Who knows, when you are out there on the road when you bump into someone you met long back? How many times it has happened to you? To me, very often. Suddenly, out of nowhere some known face comes in front you and surprises you... some evoke pleasant emotions and a few evoke sorrow. This evening, I had such an encounter with a little girl... n it was both pleasant and sad.  She was one of the slum-kids who used to come to our institute to study in the afternoons. Their entire slum was demolished few months back thanks to some stupid visit of PM. And those poor people had to relocate to other places. I never saw them after that as their new place was far away from my place. Today, I saw that l'll girl. I was very happy to see her. She is a brilliant and smart girl. It was pleasant.. a pleasant surprise! I asked her, how was she, how are her friends and how come she is here? And she answered, 'We moved here.' That was normal. I asked about others. She mentioned one of the other girls whose mother died of an accident and they had to shift back to their village. It was a shock. But still, I was ok. Then me and my friend bought some cookies for her and thought we should drop her home. On the way, I met her mother. It seemed she was waiting for her. We got a chance to talk to her. She said, "My husband died  three months back. Here, I know someone, so we came back here."... That was another shock. ok..... I wanted to know if she is earning and is capable of raising her kid. I was relieved to know that she earns Rs 3000/- per month. I do not know if that is sufficient for a full family, but yes...it is better than nothing. Then she mentioned another girl and said that she n her mother stay with them too... I was like...ok...what about her father? She said, he was suffering from AIDS and he died too. That was a shock...a real shock.. but the worse part did not come yet. The little girl and her mother were also HIV positive! These things were something meant to be watched in TV, in movies, serials and programmes like Satyamev Jayate... not to experience! Very first time, I saw all that! And the shock did not stop here! She asked for a help. She told that her husband had a keep, and he has some money in bank and the nominee is the other woman. She wanted to get that for her kids and she wanted to know how to apply for it. And, the other woman had also died. We went to her home. As we entered into their cozy little house, much cleaner than my room, I saw one baby lying and ofcourse the l'll girl she mentioned about. I was wondering, what is their fault that they are HIV positive? What is their fault that they are suffering? She showed her documents and I promised them that I will ask my friends back at my institute and try to figure out something. I do not know if I can do anything for them ... but yeah since then, I am disturbed till now... not able to concentrate on my work at all.  This life, I never imagined in my mind despite of so much awareness through the media. In newspaper, I read Andhra Pradesh is the state with maximum AIDS patients...and I wondered, "Where does this happen?" I saw those kids with sabby dress, brown hair, rough skin... but never imagined their life could be so miserable.  They are sweet, naughty, lovely, innocent, vulnerable, yet tough.. They were not flinching at all when they were talking about so many deaths. Something people like me will not even dare to imagine. And those women, are  the real strong women. Those women had to carry the burden of irresponsibility of their men, of the misery of being poor and of not earning enough. Yet, they were strong, standing tall, fighting with life unflinchingly.  I will try my level best to be of any help to them..but there is something I want to say to some people... to those people, who think that girls need not be educated since in the end they have to work in kitchen. To those who think girl child should be taught only because it will be easy to get a suitable groom for her when she grows up. And to those who think most women actually do not need to earn the bread for their home and it is actually the modern middle and upper class society's women who work these days... And to those who say that a woman is dependent on her father, husband and son at different phases of her life and does not have the strength to lead an independent life. All these beliefs, myths, superstitions ...whatever you may call it, do not apply to these women. And there are many such women, I am sure.. And they are definitely not the face of modern India. They are there since ages, fighting, struggling, holding their head up.

The woes of a pedestrian

And the pedestrian is an old man. Well, I was eating out last evening and was having a nice time... and in the middle of the conversation my eyes fell on the highway that runs next to the restaurant I was in. The road was in perfect shape apt for heavy and fast vehicles. All the vehicles starting from 2-wheelers to heavy loaded trucks were moving in high speed. And in the middle of the road an old man was standing alone raising his hand to stop the coming vehicles so that he can cross the road. And he stood there at least for five minutes, in the middle of the road, moving here and there trying to save himself at the same time. As I was watching, my heart raced up..what about that poor fellow? And no vehicle was caring to stop! And after 5 minutes (that excludes the time before I noticed him), somehow he managed to cross it. We sighed in relief.. What if one of those vehicles would have turned into a monster that evening and crushed him? 

One may say, well there are overhead bridges...roads are for riding n driving...its the pedestrian's responsibility to be safe...I want to answer this. Hello... that was an extremely long stretch of highway...you won't find an overhead bridge or zebra crossing for at least a kilometer...where it is a compulsion for a pedestrian to face the monster vehicles and cross the road...  And that's how it happens everywhere in Hyderabad and, I am sure, in many other cities...

With this, I pray for the safety of all the pedestrians on the road...

Motivation...

Well, I wanted to start this blog since long time...when I was in Chennai and was traveling for at least 3 hours everyday. Everyday, I would observe something that was an experience, sometimes wise, sometimes funny, and some other times tragic... Well, my laziness dragged me till today for almost five years  and now I am doing the Sri Ganesha of it .. O My God! Its been five whole years!! कोई नहीं ! देर आये दुरुस्त  आये!

So, as I said, I am gonna share, in this blog,  the happenings I observe as a passive onlooker that others may also observe with equal inquisitiveness or ignore like trivia... 

Enjoy!