An Appeal To Preserve Childhood

"Moin Khan was seven years old when he hugged his parents in Bihar before boarding a train for Delhi. Three years later, his parents boarded the same train last night for Delhi, where the child they loved is now buried. He was ten."
This is an excerpt from a leading daily and sets up the tone for the argument I am going to present here. To understand the pain of the tragedy here, one has to be a parent, and if one is not then let me take a big stride in past where I see our hands are holding pens or cricket bats or in case of the fairer sex Barbie dolls. I can see all of us wearing good clothes (which we never washed), going to good schools (which we never cared for), eating chocolates (obviously from the pocket money) and having all amenities in our homes which is necessary for a well privileged life. I suppose the most amazing image we all are experiencing, is of our parents sacrificing their luxury to add it to ours.

Now lets come back to the present after that precious ride we had into our past. I don't know how many of you think it this way, but I certainly think that I was lucky enough to be born under parents who could afford me. (Even if it meant to cut down on their own luxuries) And I guess we all should be proud of having lived this life in our childhood. We now know ourselves as the civilized lot of the society but remember it came out of sheer chance. Now how many children really get this kind of chance? What happens to the children who don't get this kind of a chance? Unfortunately by the time we are thinking of an answer here, India produces another Moin. 

Our policy makers couldn't take care of this basic fact (now curbing up policies merely for vote bank). But aren't we responsible for letting this damn thing called child labor happening around us. Its time to rise up to the occasion and make sure we make a thick dark line in our humane thinking and at the least at an individual level discourage child labor. I appeal to myself and to all my countrymen who are reading this blog to discourage child labor at every single place. Just avoid any place where you see child labor and if by accident you seem to encounter any child serving you at any place just be harsh with the owner giving him a good dosage of your abusive vocabulary (not literally). Lets encourage children to think big and support them whatever way we can(financially,emotionally,education etc.). Just watching another Moin's story on the news every now and then and uttering the words 'Uff/Aww/Bechara/F**K' or in an extreme case of sympathy two drops of tears won't help anyone. Every child has the right to see and fulfill dreams and for this he needs all the support in the world. We got it during our times, now its time for us to provide it. 

PS: Dedicated to Moin and a million children like him..

Bus Journey To The Office

Hi Friends, apologizing for being so late but a writer's bug had hit this so called new writer. Today again lying down on my bed I am going through a lot of emotions which somehow had to come out. Let me take you all to the experience I had during all those trips from my house to the office. I moved to Thiruvanmiyur (1 hour's bus journey from my office at Porur) about 18 months ago and from that day onwards my bus journeys in Chennai started.

Initially it started with lot of struggle as I was never accustomed to travel by buses everyday. The heat of Chennai making your sweat glands excited, the crowd constantly fighting for a seat to keep their butts down, the ticket collector (conductor) asking for change all the time, traffic signals, all the other drivers around and a completely alien language going on in and out of the bus. All this gave an impression that this hour of the day would always be the saddest hour of my day. Though in any circumstance there is a human tendency to adjust to things around him on a day to day basis. I did so too, but then I am different; I dint adjust to it but I started liking it. I figured out what are the things I can do in this 1 hour. Got my Ipod charged for this daily occasion, got some books/magazines and made sure I had change for the dear Mr. conductor. I started using these amenities and the time seemed better. Not only reading and music I also started utilizing the time for my deprived sleep. Many times it happened that I crossed my office building and reached the next or the last stop. Every hour spent gave me a new relaxation. The best part of the journey was to observe people. I won't say I have become qualified enough to be an HR, but then at-least I have seen people and their joys and sorrows. Though it din't matter me but it was always a sight to experience the human nature. We never experience anything within ourself, at-least I was getting an opportunity to experience others. The kids, middle-aged people, love buddies, old women and the hawkers in the depot; everyone of them made me feel the value of life and the value of livelihood. I also met a cheat in the depot who used to talk nicely and finally build up stories to procure money from people. There were people who would think twice before catching a deluxe bus as its fare is Rs. 2-3 more than the normal ones. All this made me understand the importance of small amount of money in one's life. The fights between one driver and a drunk passenger made me realize how much strain a driver could have within himself. It gave me a chance to understand the alien language to some extent and I always talked to the conductor and the people who asked me addresses in Tamil. It taught me the geography of the city and the very important bus numbers. The meetings I had with some amazing strangers were in these bus journeys in which I always learnt something new.

Finally it made me feel that this is how life is; its just a zoom of this 1 hour journey to many thousand hours. We travel to reach new goals (new bus stops), pay for it, adjust around it, meet so many strangers in it and so many analogies. We never know when a bus would meet up with an accident and similarly we never know about our life; all we know is we can make our journey beautiful by keeping ourselves engaged and learning from everyone around us. I am going to leave this city in 2 months and the journey to my office would eventually come to a halt, but then a new journey is awaiting me and so it is for all of us. Lets all enjoy it :).

Sayonara..

College After Years

Hey Friends,

Today sitting on my chair at 2:30am in the night in Chennai, I am just wondering what I gained and what I lost in the past 2 years. Don't get too excited as I am not going to tell you guys everything about my private life here :P; but yeah I want to share some of the things which I have inculcated and seen in my day to day life.

First things first, I don't deny the fact that the college life was special in all the ways as it had all the flavors of life around me. In particular the flavors of excitement,dreams,carelessness and etc etc etc.. Though some of these flavors still bound to stay with me, some have found their replacements. The best thing I have taken from my college life are the invaluable friends who hold the special nerve in my heart.Enough of the college stuff lets move on now :)..

'Chennai', heart of the 'South India' indeed does have a big heart in it. This is one city which apart from the diversity has learnt to stay peacefully. Now many people would be thinking or arguing the fact that being a so called 'North Indian' why or rather how am I boasting about 'Chennai'. Well there are facts to prove my praiseworthy thoughts about this lovely city, but there is something beyond facts which I have personally felt too. It has a good security system, tight administration, good educational institutes, high literacy rate, good roads and transportation, huge industries (Automobile industry, IT industry) and has an affinity towards peaceful leaving amongst people which is second to none and scores the maximum point. Yeah language can be a problem at times but then at any place in the world you need to know the basic words in the local language. (both good and bad ones :P..)

Okay enough of Chennai as a city, lets move on to my life in Chennai :)..I joined IBM 2 years back and had big dreams in my mind. I was free from college and had entered a new world altogether with so many questions inculcated from the office culture they show in Bollywood movies :P.. After 1 month of the coooooooooool training period (any IT guy's best time in IT :P), I was mapped to a project and then started the transformation from 'a boy to a man'. I used to get lot of pressure from work and I also thought that this is my time to work as I have to grow faster than others. Life is a race stuff n all..I tried my best to keep a balance between my personal and professional life too..Though I think I gave my best but at times that never proved to be enough. For a year I worked like a slave, the only difference being a slave has no goals or expectation and in contrary to that I had huge expectations,goals and enough salary to sponsor myself for movies,restaurants etc etc. :)..

After a year like this the boy inside me had almost transformed to a man. (the boyish side is still there deep inside me though :)..) I started enjoying responsibility, I started managing my time, started talking freely and after another year of professional life I have learnt a few important aspects of professional life. Free and Innovative thinking, Goal setting, Communication and Network are some of the keys to grow.

Now there has come a time when I know what I could have done better in the past 2 years both professionally and personally. But instead of thinking 'Life could have been like that etc etc etc.' I infuse myself with a positive energy and take the decision to grow. A free mind and body is the key to growth. I have learnt that the small world around me and the small things which I do in life all matters, and at the end of the day it all accumulates to give a big picture of what I am doing. Talking of relationships, yes definitely I enjoy a healthy relationship with the special people in my life to name a few my Guru,lord,family,relatives and friends; and I would encourage everyone to always value relationships as they are the wheels of the transport we travel in (wherever we go the wheels come with us and without the wheels we cannot go anywhere)..

Referring to the point I said at the beginning that I was listing what I gained and what I lost; I would rather say its a part which is out of my control. If 2 years ago I would have said that I don't want to work in Chennai, there would not have been this opportunity to learn the things which I did. 'Ups and Downs' have rocked my world but the only thing which is there in my hand is to give my best shot every time. The best I give, the more I grow; the more I grow, the more I am satisfied; the more I am satisfied, the more I get closer to 'The Pursuit of Happyness'. So better stay happy and make people happy. (which comes in small packages)

I would conclude by saying 'Life is indeed Beautiful'.