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!