A Dream; to Light a Tunnel

I came across a competition in 'Indiblogger' where we had to write about a good business idea. There has been an idea which has been going on in my mind and I take this opportunity as a motivator to write this blog, and also help organise the idea in my own head

India is a country where we worship Goddesses, yet behind the doors we abuse them. We idealise the ‘bharatiya nari’, a lady devoted to her husband. For her he is a God, and she must accept whatever he does. He may use canes and belts on her, but she submits to it because it is her fate. She does not believe that she deserves a life of dignity and freedom. Many such harassed women do not get out of the miserable life, and the reason for this is simple. They aren’t educated enough. If they run away from their house, where are they supposed to go? They are afraid to go out and face the world. The ones who do, get abducted into the world of shameful professions. They have no place to live nor are qualified for any jobs. Even low end jobs need some kind of degree. Hence, the husband and his family have no fear. They know that they can get away with treating her like dirt.

Many students, residing in hostels, are served half cooked or fully burnt meal. Some bachelors, living in p.gs and rented apartment survive on Maggi Noodles and other ready-to-eats. Young employees eat vadapavs and samosas for lunch, because that is the only available thing in the canteen. None of them have enough money to spare for a good cook or to eat out regularly. They all miss their mother’s food or any homely food.

These are two completely different problems, yet they both point out to the same solution. The two set of people I spoke about could share a symbiotic relation. These ‘bharatiya naris’ have been trained well to cook and take care of the house.  They have been taught well to serve. Maybe they are not educated, but they possess skills of their own. These women can be sent to the hostels and offices to make a good meal. They don’t have to be paid a lot, just enough for survival. We could start a hostel for them to live in. Some of them can work for luncheons and canteens which youngsters often turn to.

Starting a business like this is not the least easy. We will have to look up for good start-up money. Once we get that, we will have to keep in mind that the women in need of help will not reach out to us. They may not be aware of the institute, or even if they are, how to get in contact. Some will be simply afraid. We will need lots of volunteers to help us out. Surveys have to be conducted, and some unofficial spying too. We will also have to approach the companies in need of service and strike the right bargain with them.

For the money part, I will need some millionaire to back me up. I do have faith in humanity, so after some searching I am sure I will find someone. There are many rich people out there waiting to help the world with money; some for a clear conscience and some to boast about it to others. Nevertheless, making the best use of it, I want to do something noble for these women. We will also have to focus on collecting charity from common people. Little drops do make up the ocean after all.

We will need plenty of volunteers, and it is not an impossible task to get them. House wives could dedicate time to the cause and watch two less ‘saas-bahu’ serials. It will be a positive change for them too; many feel frustrated and worthless sitting at home. Some retired employees, who are good in health, can lend a hand too. Most important target will be the college goers. Most of them are dying to be of some use to humanity. They still have a pure heart and hope to change the world, an attitude that gets the job done faster and better. Some more students can be lured by the use of ‘certificates’.

For any business, records have to be maintained, that’s where ‘computers’ and the internet gets a role. Volunteers and workers will have to keep records of the situation in every house. Medical and security aid must also be organised from time to time. A data for each woman we help must be maintained too. Services of Microsoft Sky Drive will help maintain a collective data, instead of keeping separate records for each person. It can be updated from anywhere. Microsoft’s new Office 365 (www.office365.in ) would make the work easier for us, being one of the most convenient, user friendly and secured facility. Sometimes, neighbours of the victim would want to help. They will need a proper medium to get in touch with us. Social networking sites will be of great help here. Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, Share-point are a few popular sites which can help get volunteers.

I really hope I can convert this idea into reality someday soon. It pains to see the helplessness of a female in this “advanced” society and I would want to change it. Being a girl myself, I can understand what many of them go through and how hard is it for them to live. I want us to fight for our respect and freedom, rather than live in the shadow of the devilish male dominant world.

The Oath of The Vayuputras - A Review

This is my first review, so don't be too harsh on the critic. You shall also find the same review on the new blog I work for - www.thesaltysardines.com

After ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ and ‘The Secret of the Nagas’, book lovers across the country have eagerly awaited Amish Tripathi’s ‘The Oath of The Vayuputras’. On reading the two books, many questions have been formulated in our minds. Decisions are yet to be taken and some paths are yet to be trotted upon. Amish Tripathi has promised to tie a knot to all loose ends in this book that completes the trilogy. Does he deliver as he says?

The Neelkanth is in search of the evil bothering the nation. In his quest, he joins hands with the Meluhans, the Swadeepans and the Nagas. These three races, which are known for their rivalry and enmity, put all differences aside and accept the different ways of life. The uptight and ‘true to their word’ Suryavanshis, and the passionate and follow their free will’ Chandravanshis mingle with each other and exchange their ideas to strengthen Shiva’s troop. The out casted Nagas also get accepted as mere humans who are good in intentions but left bitter by their own flaws. The Vasudevs lead Shiva in the quest of true evil, an evil that shocks everyone.

An evil which has always been there among them, unrecognized. An evil which has divided the races and caused hostility among people from the same mother land. It stirs chaos among families and loyalties are questioned. Love comes in between the goal, causing more complications and making it simpler. Some courageous characters fight still the last drop of blood, to protect their people and eradicate evil. Some give in to their cowardly vices and betray their cause. As a well-planned and organized war goes wrong, Shiva is left with just one option – The Vayuputras.

Amish Tripathi writes for the mind and the soul. While the philosophies stir the minds, the emotions touch the soul. He has portrayed different relations between characters well. Though Daksha wants to destroy Shiva, his protectiveness for his daughter Sati stops him from attacking the group. Bhagirath is constantly worried about his sister, Anandmayi and ensures that no harm falls upon her. Parvateshwar’s respect for Shiva is reciprocated well, though they choose different sides. Ganesh places trust on his younger brother, Karthik, to lead a fight.

Tripathi is an ace when it comes to description. The picturistic words used to describe intricate designs and architecture shows that he not only cares about the details, but savours it. The dialogues used are so powerful and thought incepting. He has given a scientific angle to many symbols and practices, which has some truth to it. Mythological elements are present in a different light. The parallelism drawn to the stories we have grown listening to is fascinating. One example I find very astonishing is how he explains about the plague in Branga, which could be related to a concentration of cancer cases in Bengal in a modern day world.

However, a lot more trees went down for this cause than should have. 600 pages were unnecessary; the story could have been shortened to 200-300 pages easily. At a point, the story just seemed to be dragged to no end. The details were too much; a little air of mystery could have been maintained. A story like this deserved a better ending than it got. I am not discouraging anyone from reading the book; you should read it anyway, especially if you have been bombarded with bed time stories on Shiva, Devi and Ganpati.

ACP Dhoble Is Just What Mumbai Needs

This is one of the topics in Speaktacular 2013, a debate competition organized by MS-TSEC. Being a part of the Club Team, a team mainly responsible for debates, literary events and quizzes(intellectual events), I was among the moderators. As I had to listen to them and take down notes, I decided to elaborate on some of the topics I personally liked.

He is one party pooper we all hate, don't we? Obviously there is a lot to speak against the topic. Yet it was the proposition who won this one(and they went on to be the winners of Speaktacular 2013).

This time I will start with the opposition. They started with a quote from Spider-Man - "With great power comes great responsibility." And Dhoble is a man with power but misuses it. He acts as an extra constitutional authority. He is a dementor who sucks the life out of a party. He is against night life and closed minded. In 1989, he was suspended from duty for accepting bribes, while he was posted in Pune. Also in 1994, he was sentenced 7 years in prison to have tortured one of the inmates, Abdul Gaffer Khan, to death. He was fined Rs 1 lack for the same. He was also responsible for replacing 12 dossiers related to Dawood  Ibharim. He is a man who himself has records against him.

Also he was blamed for the death of a hawker while raiding the streets of Santacruz(E). The hawker succumbed to cardiac arrest. He couldn't bear the hockey stick of Dhoble. His livelihood was in question. If not a street vendor, how will he feed his family? How will he put a roof under them? Agreed that it is illegal, but what other options do they have? 

Dhoble was compared to the likes of Saddam Hussain, Adolf Hitler and Muammar Gaddafi. He is inclined to tyranny and takes up responsibilities he shouldn't be. 

The media has shown light on his negatives, leaving his positives in a shadow. We judge him only on what the newschannels and papers tell us.

Let us not forget the raid in a so called spa in Powai. He rescued 7 girls who were forced into flesh trade. Isn't it one of his good doings? He saved innocent girls from a fate so horrendous. He also shut down illegal hubs and parties causing nuisance to the neighborhood. We all know that many of these public services have skeletons in their closet. Corruption has seeped into the blood of us Mumbaikars. For our own convenience, we turn a blind eye to wrongs. 

Recently, a fire erupted in a nightclub 'Kiss' in Santa Maria, Brazil. The nightclub served a regular hangout spot to the many students Santa Maria homed. The band performing in the club used some fireworks, which were to be used outdoor. They didn't have many exits. Many dies due to suffocation, some due to stampede. 300+ deaths were recorded. This could cause questioning to safety as Brazil is set to host the FIFA World Cup next year. The officials were blamed for this. The club's license had expired in August, the previous year. There were no proper exits for the victims to escape. Many harmless illegal activities put together fueled the fire.

Here we have someone who is actually trying to avoid the same in Mumbai. Someone who doesn't concede to corruption. And how do we react? By hating him. He is like a strict parent who just cares for our good. He has learnt a lesson from being suspended of accepting bribes. Once, my friend and I were walking down the road where we met a policeman. He told us how helpless they were against corruption. It's not bribes that tempt, it's the threat against their loved ones that compel them to turn their flashlights off to the happenings in the dark. And when someone stands up against fraud, we shun him instead of respecting him.

On the charges of the street hawker, he died of brain haemorrhage. He was externally untouched. It was an unfortunate incident, but not something you could blame Dhoble for. Congress MP Priya Dutt blamed him for the death, and we blindly believe her. She is not someone who has done great deeds to even be considered a say in the matter.

Good or bad, ACP Vasant Dhoble shall always create a stir with his loudness. But one must read the entire story before judging someone. 

Religion and Traditions Hold Us Back From A Fresh Perspective

This is one of the topics in Speaktacular 2013, a debate competition organized by MS-TSEC. Being a part of the Club Team, a team mainly responsible for debates, literary events and quizzes(intellectual events), I was among the moderators. As I had to listen to them and take down notes, I decided to elaborate on some of the topics I personally liked.

I liked the debate on this for one reason. I was for this statement, but the opposition were convincing enough for me to question my stance. 

The proposition started with how religion hold us back. We are so stubborn to the words written in our religion that we don't accept something new. Sexism is a major product of these preachings. Christians, Jews and Muslims believe that a man is supposed to protect his woman and the woman to serve him. They define the roles for both the sexes, hence leaving no freedom for us to decide our own fate. These religions are against homosexuality. Many gays and lesbians faced problems as severe as death for being that way. It was considered a sin. Premarital sex was another sin, so was masturbation, which is a seemingly harmless act. One can understand rape being a sin, but why the others? Nicolas Copernicus and Galelio Galeli faced death to go against religious facts. They were right on the astronomical discoveries yet termed as sinners. By the time we started accepting science, it was too late.

Following traditions blindly cause in a great waste of money. The same money can be put in charity instead. I know families that will spend lacks or even crores for their beloved daughter's wedding. I know that we all want to celebrate, but spending so much? In my family, during funerals, we feed a few Brahmins one time meal. Back then, Brahmins did service for free and this was like a way to repay them. But now they earn a fortune on human stupidity. Each one of them have a tummy of the size of a bear. They own such stylish bikes. Wouldn't you rather spend the money feeding the poor?

Religion is an obstruction to free will. We have to follow the so called word of God rather than write our own words. Religion is greatly unfair to women. In Saudi Arabia, we still have to hide under a burkha. The Kashmiri girls band was issued a Fatwa; they couldn't express their musical talents. Feminists were claimed to be witches and burnt to death. Sati and unfair treatment to widows is not justified. Polygamy was observed by men, but a lady doing the same is a disgrace. 

We know that jihad is another ill effect of religion. Many Kasabs were picked on from the streets of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were told to kill and sacrifice in the name of God. Which God would want such worthless sacrifices? How is this any different from diabolism? Kasab and many others could have grown to achieve great heights in life. With the loyalty to the cause they showed, they could have made Pakistan proud, if well educated. The country would have come out of the great mess it is in. But they rather increased the mess by indulging in terrorism. Brain washed that it is the right thing to do, they had no chance of living a life every human has the right to.

But one man's poison is another man's food. Again it's you who make the choices. The opposition started the argument by saying how religion increases our morality. Like everything else, religion has also evolved over time. Due to Raja Ram Mohan Roy's interference, Sati and other unjust laws were abolished when its evils were brought out.

Great men like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi were inspired by religion and dharma. Gandhi followed the path of non violence and truth because it was his morals which made him so. Morals imbibed by religion! He led the country to a free today. He even tried to unite both Hindus and Muslims. Martin Luther King also believed in the word of Jesus that one must love their neighbors and enemies. Hence he adapted the method of non-violence. Religion influenced them to avoid bloodshed and follow an alternate path.

We have been taught about the great emperor Ashoka in our schools. He was blinded by power to conquer places. His anger was fierce. He killed around 500 men because they were disloyal. He even tortured women by putting them in harem. He fought a war to add the kingdom of Kalinga to his. He won the war but lost to his own conscience. He saw the amount of blood shed and felt remorse. It was Buddism, a religion, that changed him. Gave him a fresh perspective in life. He gave up on all the worldly desires and went on to be one of the greatest emperors and human we have ever seen. He popularized it amongst his subjects.

Religion and mythology have given us great heroes to worship. Even female ones like Durga Maa. Durga Maa's legend taught us that of having a penis is not a reason to not fight evil. Her display of courage is an example to all those women who are subjected to torture on a daily basis, those who live under the fear of being tainted every moment. Jesus Christ taught us to be persistent and put others before oneself. 

Coming to the point of terrorism, the opposition raised an excellent point. Terrorism is a result of bullying kids to follow falsely interpreted religious prophecy. Rumour has it that many like Kasab were threatened to embrace terrorism. Their families lived on a gun point. It was religion that gave them hope. Belief in Allah that makes them all believe that a better tomorrow will arrive.

Religion plays an important role in our lives, whether we like it or not. To take the best out of it is in our disposition. 

Internet Pacifies the Urge to Explore

This is one of the topics in Speaktacular 2013, a debate competition organized by MS-TSEC. Being a part of the Club Team, a team mainly responsible for debates, literary events and quizzes(intellectual events), I was among the moderators. As I had to listen to them and take down notes, I decided to elaborate on some of the topics I personally liked.

The proposition started the debate with defining the word 'explore' and the opposition started theirs by defining 'pacify'. Explore basically means to investigate and find out more on a matter. Pacify means to quell the excitement. Both the teams went along the same points and examples, showing how it justified their part of the argument. This topic and the debate attracted me for the simple reason that I have felt both ways about it.

The proposition agreed that the Internet is a medium with more control, simplified to users, interactive, free, verifiable and social. No denying either of the points. We get all information we need at our finger tip. Internet has curbed our will to get out of the house. We feel like watching a movie, there is torrents. Online shopping saves us the trouble to actually go to all the shops and find clothes for ourselves. Those treasured books on travel and cookery have lost meaning. Pranks have become more of a YouTube thing. Feel like having a pizza? Dominos is now online for us. All those budding Sheakspeares open a blog to display their talent(guilty). What happened to submitting articles in the newspapers and waiting for it to get published? Photos and videos are intended to be posted on Facebook, not laugh about, 10 years down the line. 

The proposition mentioned about the time when Columbus set out to discover India, but ended up in America. He had an adventure worth of a lifetime. Now we have all we need on Google. Also the time is dead when sitting in the library for hours searching for an information was a trend for all the Hermoines out there. We spend the whole day on the net rather than getting out there and interacting with the world.

Well there is another side to the argument as well. The opposition claimed that Internet instigates and not pacifies the urge to explore. We go searching for one little detail on the Internet. Before we know it, we jump from one link to another, saturating ourselves with information. If you follow the right kind of accounts on Twitter, you get news all around the world. It urges you to go about finding out more about the matter in hand. The information is also upto date, unlike in books which are out of date.

Internet being cheap, except for the wifi you pay for, it doesn't restrict the amount of knowledge you can obtain. Be it from some free online guitar classes to content for your debates. We can learn so many recipes and experiments on YouTube. We get exposed to music which channels like MTV and VH1 don't show. We get more options when it comes to shopping, without sweating it out in the sun. Many YouTube celebrities like Ryan Higa and Chester See have got recognisition thanks to the Internet. Howstuffworks is one of the best sites to explore science and technology. You also get to interact with people from different countries and get to know their culture first hand. You don't have to go anywhere to search for anything, so it doesn't discourage the lazy bones to go about exploring.

For quiztacular, being in the club team, we had to google up good questions. I remember spending hours on the Internet learning new stuff, and trivia about my favorite artists, actors and athletes. I learned so much about happenings around the world. I actually discovered the story behind many songs of The Beatles. I would deviate often into mythology and history of a lot of stuff. 

Also the opposition mentioned a personal example. He said that he had a RAM problem once. So he went on the Internet and searched for shops or people who could repair it. After hours of exploring, he actually figured out the way to do it himself. It saved him some money and he learnt something new.

In the end it all sums down to how you use it. You can copy paste your assignments from Wikipedia or go to 10 different sites and engross yourself in the topic in hand. 

Break the Defeat

Nothing inspires a poet like their favorite team winning after all odds against them. Here is a poem dedicated to FC Barcelona, which taught me how never to give up.

We made it through the wind,

We made it through the fire;

We broke down all walls,

Raised ourselves even higher.

When times seemed so dark,

Hopes seemed so dull;

We fought back again,

We came back for the run.

All passion seemed lost,

The spirit to battle died;

We believed in ourselves,

Through the spell we would glide.

Those failures left us shattered,

Fallen and scared deep within;

We picked ourselves up,

And grabbed us the win.