Its Dharavi all around

Dharavi… a name that evokes sympathy and awe as well, is a slum- largest in Asia and a subject matter of research, discussions, strategies  and a vote bank too.

Dharavi which houses people of all classes, professions and caste is but an unplanned development which lacks everything excluding burgeoning population. Sanitation and hygiene are perhaps a luxury and a distant dream for the residents of Dharavi but, why are we, the people residing in urbanized areas, ignoring the hygiene factor and also forgetting a civic responsibility that comes along with the development of a society?

Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack and Khurda to name are cities which are busy, buzzing with business activities in crores but are zero in maintenance of roads, drains and infact everything that has to be maintained.  An immediate argument that would come up is “it’s the municipality which has to manage, what do we do in this case?” the answer can be found in the questions that we can ask ourselves: are we not supposed to be keeping our surroundings, the roads and the environment clean enough to keep away malaria, dengue and swine flu that erupt as a reason of water logging, dumping of garbage and improper drainage? 

Check the overflowing drains or the open fields besides our houses, these are filled with garbage which we carelessly dispose off in the open- polythene sachets, packets and everything which can be disposed off are just flung into the open. Dustbins rarely used and cared for. If there is none in the colony, we care the least to install one by taking initiative.

We have this habit of complaining every now and then that government does not do this and the municipality doesn’t do that…but there is not one question that we have put onto our own selves about what we should have done and what have we been doing?

Just think of the road with crater like holes harvesting rain water and the beautiful overflowing sewage outlets which find their way into the so called civilized world’s arterial roads and just think of the traffic jam’s that happen as a result of these water logging. News channels and we alike keep highlighting the fact that life has become a hell for common man but what steps have we taken till date? 

Oh yes! We have taken steps and measures to block the channels which are meant for free flow of waste water by disposing wastes (read it as dumping) in an uncivilized manner, by using polythene which is banned and is a harmful for the bio that we are surrounded by, we spit, we pee and we do everything that can make a rationale person feel that he/she is living in a slum and not in an urban area, in comfort!  

After all this, we expect the municipality to clean and keep our streets, roads and the environment clean for whatever we liter around and spoil! A municipality is there, in common understanding, for the maintenance of the infrastructure that we call as society but that does not mean we can throw garbage unsystematically onto the road that we travel and curse the municipality for not maintaining it.

How many times have we, the commoners, taken up the task of maintaining a dust bin for all the houses on the street we live in and how many times have we tried to plant the trees or weed out the unwanted growth around them beyond our boundaries?  Or rather, how many times have we reprimanded someone not to spit and stain red, the roads, the walls and every other concrete thing around us? There are so many issues which we, as a commoner can tackle but we do not, because we have the habit of being dependent on the services of others than our own. The moment we all realize that there is always a tag of self service similar to that of the tag in CCD or Pizza Hut, we can be assured of cleanliness and hygiene around us.

 A lack of moral responsibility on our part and a lack of civic sense, a lack of planning while constructing houses and a lack of proper sanitation are all a reason as to why we suffer. While the municipality has not been up to its mark in many of the cities, we too, are irresponsible and uncivilized in the way we live.

 Till the time we stop cursing and start doing something, its Dharavi all around!

an untitled story

The smile suddenly fades. The gaze gets fixed and a sense of serenity prevails. The hearts however beat louder- enough for the ears to hear and the senses to feel the lub dub.

The closeness zeroes in and so do the eyes which get shut as if the world around has plunged into darkness. The embrace is tighter than the one a child would give to his/her mother when the lightning strikes or when frightened on hearing a heavy sound. Those moments of silence were intercepted by the heaving breathing of the two souls lost in each other and at times a soft laughter or a murmur intermittently…

A tear slowly tiptoes its way out of the eye lids which are now closed- shut, infact, trying to shut out the moments and erase the memories of those beautiful moments which were perhaps momentary! The lips which were shivering like a leaf fluttering in the soft breeze are now as if sealed with something other than a smile and shyness they used to express once. The heart beats no more with the same fastness- it is as if there is no need for the beats to be rhythmic anymore and so is the life that it beats for.

There was nothing which could enchant her. No comedy which could make her smile. No sight, no words which could spark a joy in her eyes which are now lost into the nothingness from where only he could retrieve her. She cursed herself every moment in her thoughts for it- why did she ask him to forget her when she loved him crazily? Why did she take a promise from him forcefully asking him not to meet her ever when she knew he would never refuse a word of her? Why did she ask him not to contact him anymore? Why?

… the moments which could have been a memory for life time suddenly  transformed into a realization which bought them back to the world where they lived. A sense of guilt prevailed. A silence more painful than death crawled onto the nerves as both of them sat staring at the floor – eyes fixed, yet unstable in thoughts. It seemed as if a thousand commands were given as input for a single program creating confusion and a maze like situation for the CPU to give a conclusive output.

He tried to speak but there was something in her speech which made him keep silent. Heart heavy with promises she had asked him to accept, he left her place with a book she gave him – the last memory he clutched to his heart.  Walking nowhere but still walking in the brightness of the noon and thinking about the darkness that had suddenly engulfed him, he messaged to her – am sorry to have hurt u,wntd to c ur smile as always but gifted u …

Before he could complete the message and send it to her, he was already home.  The phone however was ringing and it lay unanswered on the asphalted pathway -dark and newly laid.

 While the body lay on the road surrounded by people who were anxiously staring at the wounds caused by the auto rickshaw which hurled him a mile away, the soul traveled all the way to reach home in a flick of a second safely but hurt and wounded.

He was still carrying the book she gave him. The title of the book made his soul smile - Love …was never mine!  

She never got a chance to see him, nor talk again. She was now lost in the nothingness, from which he retrieved her once, forever!

The Killings

The field so open and vast was silent except for the mercy sounds which pierced the air around. Except for the sound of the knife being sharpened, there was no other noise. There were only curious eyes waiting for the blood to be spilled.

A split second later, an old khan sahib, grey with experience in slitting the dumb animals, kneeled by the side of a standing goat, tied and fed, and held it by its neck. Sensing what was going to happen to it, the helpless animal already in a noose, tried effortlessly to free itself from the clutches of the butcher and the sharp edge of the knife which would cut loose the veins and leave it to die.

A tug at the neck with the sharp instrument by the khan sahib made the animal wobble tremendously before it fell onto the ground with still some life left. The blood soaked the dry, parched earth which the rains forgot to fill with and once the animal was dead after a struggle, the butcher dragged the warm body to a place, sat on a bench made of rocks piled up and severed the head off its body.

By the trunk of a tree hung the headless body- freshly executed and peeled off. A man in his late 50’s was dissecting the already dead animal’s internal organs as if it were a science lab and the biology teacher would give grades for the minute dissection and identification of the parts. After he was done with it, he placed all the organs on a platform along with the severed head, as if he were displaying his wares in an exhibition for the public to purchase. The rest of the victims watched their companion massacred, peeled off, slit open, hung and put on for sale by the merciless humans who cared nothing about the pain and blood so spilled.

They saw every part of their companion being offered at a price, which the eagerly waiting eyes were buying and walking away with black poly bags. The torture would not end here for their companion who was subject to such painful death. He would either be deep fried in oil or spiced up on flame for the family members to relish the taste of it.

There was no place where these animals could have gone to complain against these superior beings God created. There was no place where they could mourn the death of their companion and there was no way they could avenge the death in a more painful manner. All that they could do was to bleat and struggle trying to free themselves from the clutches of these deadly superior beings who never feel it a crime to murder a goat and relish it as a food item with their family members.

Thousands of such companions get killed every day in front of those thousand eyes which wait to grab a bit of liver or heart or limbs to be cooked up. Blood so spilled is never considered a crime by any law in the world.  Many argue that they have been created by the almighty to be mercilessly killed and be ending up on our dining tables as a part of our menu; there are groups which oppose to it. While the debate over the fate of these animals continues, several thousands of these innocent animals end up on our tables as an edible item, life no more!

Tear a drop can tell a story, can create history and can even destroy an existence.

Movies depict tears with an emotional touch perhaps greater than what we can think of. While in the world of reels, glycerin is a catalyst which enables the emotions to look real, in the real world it is the relations and the situations which are the reason for tears.

A child born brings happiness, a prize won brings cheers, a praise or hard work awarded brings tears of joy, a departed soul stirs emotions which remind the relations of the bonding that was, a break up (the anchor sheet of many Indian silver screen hits at a point of time or say, family dramas) are some of the instances we come across in our life every day.

Whats so special in these tears which binds or breaks a relationship?  Why is it that we either are swept away by tears or get weak when someone sheds tears before us?

Silent lover

A FICTIONAL STORY

Chapter 1.  Silent lover

Thousand thoughts. Skipped heart beats. Imaginations of a life with her and finally drained away guts to drain away the dream for infinite number of times.

We studied in the same college and fortunately enough in the same school three years pre matriculation. I don’t know when I did start liking her and when that liking turned into a love so strong for her that I saw her everywhere. I would just smile and pat my self- she is not yours dude!

All it takes is some trying with a lot of guts to speak your heart to the one you love and while I did have the love creeping into me every moment I thought of her or every time she crossed my path, I never dared to speak a word to let her know that I loved her.

It was a mixture of fear of not seeing her ever again and a mirage of her being mine for ever which of course was more an opaque vision than what a mirage can be, that kept me on back foot.

She is Sachi.

The heartbeat of those thousand thugs who flirt their way to chance a cup of coffee with her and some moments of chit chat!  I don’t know what keeps me at bay, but all that I know is that I won’t be able to talk to her even for a while looking into her beautiful eyes with long lashes and thin eye brows which look like the curved new moon tilted and painted black above her eyes.

I don’t know why a tsunami rises in my heart every time she talks to me the same way she talks to every other guy in the college. I don’t know why I try to steal a look and capture it in the camera of my eyes every time she is unaware of me observing her every step. I know nothing when she is around- not a thing matters me.

This is the feeling I had since last 8 years which I have never expressed and perhaps in the life time would never express it to her. Perhaps by the time I would tell her I love her, she would hand over to me an invitation to attend her marriage and all that I would be left with is some tears and a broken heart with memories to care for till I die.

“Whatever be the future, I don’t wanna spoil the moment for myself”

So this is how I love her silently. I don’t know and don’t ever want to know for how many years more I would love her silently, without letting her know that I loved her.

Love what you do to stay motivated

I was partly driven by a desire to prove myself when I started Student magazine at 16. My friends and I wanted to give our generation a voice in the issues of the day, especially the Vietnam war

Bransonspeak | Richard Branson

How do you maintain your motivation to generate new ideas and execute them?

-Gunita Migliniece, Latvia

My motivations have changed a lot over the past 40 years. In retrospect, it’s clear that this has been a long-term process, and I acquired new motivations as time went on.

I am not sure anyone could have predicted my future career arc, except perhaps my parents. I was not a promising student, probably because of undiagnosed dyslexia. My parents did not see my trouble with learning as a limitation. Rather, they helped me to find my strengths by teaching me to constantly look for new challenges. Achievements in sports and early business ventures such as a Christmas tree farm taught me to be inquisitive, and also to rely on my own persistence and creativity when problems came up.

Since I wasn’t doing well academically, I was partly driven by a desire to prove myself when I started Student magazine at 16. My friends and I wanted to give our generation a voice in the issues of the day, especially the Vietnam war.

We started the magazine on our own initiative and because of our convictions, and we loved what we did. It didn’t matter that we were working out of a basement in West London, in cramped conditions and with no financial backing. We had no business or publishing experience, so we just threw everything we had into the venture and secured advertisers and interviews. It was terrifically hard work, but for us it was also fun and exciting and, above all, a project we felt strongly about.

That sense of fun, enjoyment and purpose underpinned our expansion to selling records and then establishing record stores. Our stores had listening posts so customers could sample recordings, it had bean bag chairs for people who wanted to hang out, and the staff was passionate about the music we sold. Our next move, into the recording business, was no different. My love of music and concern for the people behind that music ensured I was never short of motivation—just sometimes short of cash!

The UK’s recession of the late 1970s coincided with a slowdown in our record sales and a lack of hits. By that point we had created a close community at Virgin, and I wanted the people I worked with and cared about to enjoy their jobs; I was also deeply concerned about job security. We were running at a loss, and I had to decide whether to consolidate our stores and rein back the recording business, or follow my instincts and invest in new artists.

Hoping to expand our way out of our financial problems, I bought two nightclubs and invested more money in our record business. Its managing director, Simon Draper, was a great talent, so I backed him to create the UK’s largest independent label.

Our resulting success in the music business saved the day. The strength of the brand meant that we started to look beyond music for business opportunities, and about this time my motivations broadened again. With our old and new businesses, we were developing a community of customers, so my goals now included Virgin’s becoming one of the world’s most respected brands.

At this point, everything came together. The different motivations added up to a strategy of setting up businesses Virgin employees were passionate about, trying to shake up markets and win the trust of potential customers. We often succeeded as we targeted leading companies in established sectors where we felt the customer was no longer well served. In quick succession we moved into airlines, trains, drinks, financial services, health clubs and hotels.

Over the past decade, my motivation has broadened to encompass large-scale philanthropic endeavours, as the global scope of the Virgin Group’s businesses has put us in a position to help address the great challenges humanity faces. This led to the creation of Virgin Unite, which was instrumental in establishing The Elders, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship and the Carbon War Room—all exciting tools in the fight against poverty, illness and catastrophic climate change.

What will keep me motivated in 2011? The thousands of people who work for Virgin, the many people around the world who rely on us, and the work of Virgin Unite. Also, of course, my restless curiosity and enthusiasm. I am constantly challenging my management team with new ideas, innovations or ventures I would like set up—in double-quick time.

Come to think of it, my original inquisitiveness and desire to seek out new challenges can be seen in our Virgin Galactic space adventure. Following a busy year culminating in the inauguration of the Spaceport runway in New Mexico in October, my dream of space tourism is getting that much closer. A big project for 2011 will be getting our underwater exploration business up and running. Drawing on the late Steve Fossett’s work, we are keen to chart the deep-sea trenches.

You may wonder if such adventures are appropriate for a man my age—60—which brings me to my last motivational rule: “Screw it, let’s do it!”

BY NYT SYNDICATE

©2011/RICHARD BRANSON

Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group and companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active. He maintains a blog atwww.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog.

Lonely ...am so lonely

Life keeps on operating at its own pace. It keeps on ageing every day, every minute and every second and nano second the clock chimes. All that we are left with is a story to tell.

For some the story is about how successful they have been throughout their life – personally and professionally while for some it is a story of hunting, hunted and being haunted. The time limit for all of us is the same – 24 hours in day, the year and the days in the calendar are also the same, but what matters for us is how they are framed and structured by the one whom we revere as God. The only event that is differently set for all of us is the final destination – death!

It’s never the same.

There may be many tsunamis’ arranged at every step or there may be a slide to let you glide to your destination.  That’s fate and at times something what we call as luck! Once we reach a particular destination, what are we left with when we are not absorbed with what we should be in our respective fields of discipline? Even a CEO of an organization would be feeling it.

It’s Loneliness.

It is something which perhaps every living being would be feeling when suddenly the world around it stops ticking!  It pinches more than a new shoe.

You don’t need to feel lonely only when someone you are close to leaves you or in simple words, divorces you in every way possible. Loneliness is a feeling which comes to you even when you are close to your loved ones or perhaps sleeping on your mother’s lap.

One may well argue that loneliness will be felt by the people who may have many desires or dreams unfulfilled. What I feel is that even a man or a lady with every desire fulfilled also may feel loneliness at some point of time or the other. Life is not a calendar of events preplanned nor is the mind that ticks every nano second – at times faster than a lightning and at times slower than a donkey’s. Hence even if there is a life free from desires there still may be a void left unattended which would lead one to loneliness.