Man is a social animal! « Life has no titles! So why should my blog?? :)

It’s time to take a stand! We are no longer the “third person”!!

15 Mar 2010 1 Comment

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs) Tags: Abuse, Society, women

A 14 year-old girl from Patil Estate slum got raped by fellow slum-dwellers last month. She was coming back home from work when the incident happened. After this incident, the slumdwellers have been afraid of sending their daughters to school…

What do you all have to say about this? “Oh yes, we hear about rape cases all the time!!”, or “Tch tch, how unfortunate!” , or “It’s a bad bad world out there!”, and even “Why did the girl venture outside ? Was she going to meet her boyfriend??”? Someone slightly angrier shall also say, “The rapist should be burnt alive, only then will people be afraid to do that!” Somebody apathetic will say, “oh, but what can we do, we are the Third Person, we can never fully comprehend or cure the situation!” In fact, I think even if all of us feel any of the other things mentioned above or not, we all shall invariably blurt the last one, “what can we do??”

Wake up guys, we are not, and never were the third persons! A crime as heinous as rape, is not a crime towards someone else, it is a crime towards the society, towards OUR society. Rape doesn’t just affect the rape victim, but it leaves a deep gash on many many others. Take the example of the Patil Estate rape, the poor girl was traumatised, at the same time, lots of other girls and their parents began to live under the constant fear of RAPE, so much that they even began forbidding their daughters from going to school! Tomorrow, if such a crime happens in your locality, you also will start being extra careful about your daughters/sisters or other female relatives! And thereby spread the most dangerous thing in this world…fear!

It is this fear that actually makes rape an ‘unavoidable crime’ in our society, about which we claim to be able to do nothing. It is this fear that makes rape an ‘irrecoverable harm’, affecting the soul, mind and character, more than the body of the victim. It is this fear that prevents us from speaking and acting openly against this disgusting display of the so-called ‘power’ of men, and the vulnerability of women against all but one attacks – attack on their so-called vulnerability!!

This is the time to wake up and realize our responsibilities friends! We need to protest!! Someone’s mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, friend, nanny, servant, teacher, and so on, gets raped, we read about it, express our ‘displeasurean disgust’ and go on with our lives. It’s high time we do more.

I am not saying that we all take law into our hands and trace and ‘punish’ the guilty. No we can’t do that, but we can do much more!! We can spread awareness about this issue, we can be brave and speak up about this issue, we can stop judging the heinousness of a rape attack on the basis of the victim’s ‘character’, we can encourage the women around us to be fearless, we can encourage the men around us to look at women with a sense of equality, we can educate our youngsters about how important respecting women is, we can stop being the viewers, and participate in eradicating violence against women, there are so many many things that we can do…

and we should do!!!!

I’m back!! :-)

23 Aug 2009 3 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, Notes to readers, Random sightings, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs)

Okay, okay, i’ve been outta circuit for quite some time now, I agree….

Was just going through the grinds of life shall I say…and am still, but I am tired of making it an issue, and don’t plan to do so, any longer!!!

Yeah, so what “interesting” stuff was I doing while I wasn’t here? Well, reading, teaching, and watching movies!! Didn’t travel or trek much, thanks to the bad weather and bad health….uh oh…change the topic!!! )

Yeah, so let’s start with reading (i know a book review is long overdue!!).

After a loong time, I got out my copy of Khaled Hosseni’s “The Kite Runner”. Read it in two nights flat, and my oh my, wasn’t it incredible!! The author managed to actually recreate the whole Afghanistan scene for the readers. The story, a unique tale of immaturity, faith, loyalty and a journey towards redemption, was so nicely unfolded in this book, that I got completely absorbed in that book, I even cried a couple of times!! And Hassan’s character, I think is one of the most well-writtn and yet unfathomable characters I’ve come across!! My heart goes out to the sheer innocent loyalty and, how should I put it, apnapan that he shows towards Amir, the protagonist. Ammazzing, divine, one of its kind!!

And since I liked The Kite Runner so much, I also got hold of A Thousand Splendid Suns, by the same author. This book tells the story of two women in Afghanistan, who are so unlike each other, and yet finally find solace in standing up for each other. Engrossing and with its heart in the right place, all this book lacked, to be mentioned in the league of The Kite Runner was , ofcourse, Hassan!!

Then I also read Digital Fortress(nice, but very Sidney Sheldonesque), Bourne Ultimatum (good, but not my type really!!), and the Twilight Series!!! About the last one, It needs a sperate blog post to give it full justice!! ))

Currently I am reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. This is also an ammmazingly insightful book, and I am already bowled over it. Just fathom these lines on freedom:

“You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.”

Intriguing aren’t they?? I am already a big fan of this author!! Hopefully, when I am finished with reading the book, I will have much more to blog about it…

Then, movies, well it’s been mostly watching movies on DVD, because of the multiplex strike and the swine flue scare!! Nevertheless, I managed to catch up on a “critically-acclaimed” Marathi movie Gandh (Smell), which went right above my head and contained grey cells!! Also watched the suppper dupper hit marathi movie (again) Mi ShivajiRaje Bhosle Boltoy, which had some good intutive dialogue, but was average otherwise.

And last, but not at all the least, have been teaching: not just English Grammar this time, but also some interesting newly-learnt life-skills stuff. This too, deserves a seperate full-length blog post to make full justice to it.

Ahh, it already feels good having written so much…hopefully will be back soon with more!! Cya people!!

What the hell!!!!

15 Sep 2008 5 Comments

by amruta in Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs) Tags: Anger, Delhi bomb blasts, Exasperation

After a tiring and yet ful-fillling saturday (Wednesday- good movie!!, teaching at Eklavya Nyasa, a visit to the Ganpatis of Pune, and a 90 minutes walk from PMC to KP!!!!), I was just beginning to chill at the CCD(Devil’s Own..wowww). Suddenly I happened to glance at the Plasma TV screen, and whhaaattt… SERIAL BLASTS ROCK DELHI!!!! That was the breaking news being shown on a news channel. And I was like…..WHAT THE HELL is going on here????

Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and now our National Capital!!!! What do these terrorists think our cities are – Bomb testing grounds?? What do they think our people are - guinea pigs to their sadist fancies??? I mean, WHAT THE HELL,man!!!!

Now you must be thinking, why has this girl suddenly got agitated? Bomb-blasts are a common thing now-a-days! (Believe me, a friend actually said that to me!!) I think not…I get more and more angry with every passing attack!! C’mo guys, once can be mourned, twice can be tolerated…but how can you see such things happening to your fellows again and again and again????

As the news and the gory pics started flashing, I called up my Delhi friends to enquire about their safety.. Half of them didn’t even know that such a thing had occured! They and the rest who did, were fine, thankfully!

I was all the more enraged on knowing the locations of the bombs…Karol Bagh, Cannaught Place, Central Park, Gretaer Kailash!! Again WHAT THE HELL!!! Aimed at places that are so much frequented by commoners!!! How can you aim to kill hundreds of people, just like that?? I mean, no human can do that!! Worst of the worse, 1 bomb out of the 3 diffused was in a children’s park!! Children’s park?? CHILDREN’S PARK???? We’d seen this happening in trains, buses, temples, bus stops….. But which pathetic sadist would want to plant a bomb in a children’s park???? Isn’t there even an ounce of virtue/ humanity left in these terrorist orgs???

The irrational long mail sent by IM said that this was to avenge the bad treatment dished out to muslims…Pray how did they ensure that no Muslim got killed or even hurt during these blasts?? Just WHAT THE HELL do these guys think they are doing??????????

Irony??

12 Sep 2008 2 Comments

by amruta in Just a thought!, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, What I hear, n what I read........, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs) Tags: capital punishment, Children, Children cinema, Iran

Read an article in The Times of India yesterday ( You can read it here ) . It said that Iran leads the list of countries which still allow capital punishment to children and minors. Well, horrifying, yes….. but all the more so, given the fact that Iranian children’s movies are well-known all over the world for their sensitive presentation of the world of children!!!

Irony, anyone??

Thought for the day!

29 May 2008 10 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Comical tragedies, Just a thought!, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs) Tags: Life, Money, Work

Do not devote too much of time thinking about how unfairly you are dealt with at work!

There are many things to be done in life, and work, is just a means of getting the money to be able to do them!

Law??

02 May 2008 Leave a Comment

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, What I hear, n what I read........ Tags: Beggars, Children, hunger, Irony, Law, Poverty

I read this piece from here, which was in turn published here. Loved it, hated it, both at the same time. Do go through…

The police carried out a raid and closed a factory. The children, who were working there, were all set free. Some said: “We are orphans. To eat we need a livelihood.” The reply was swift and crude: “It is against the law”.
“Then we will have to beg”, they said, “or else we will have no food.” “That, too, is against the law,” the policeman in charge said rudely.
“If we cannot work and cannot beg, then we will die from hunger,’’ replied the crying children. “That you can do,” was the answer. “There is nothing illegal in dying”.

A tribute to the most used product of the decade!!

21 Apr 2008 25 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Just a thought!, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs) Tags: food, hunger, instant noodles, IT, Maggi, noodles

Guys, wondering what that is?? Yes, it indeed is: Maggi Noodles!!!!!

Surprised?? Well, enter s/w pros, staying away from home in rented apartments/PG accos. What comes into your mind first when you think of getting a quick bite??

Ofcourse, maggi noodles!!!

What do you think of cooking after a tiring day at office, and your return to home at 10 pm?

Ofcourse, maggi noodles!!!

And yeah, esp. for the guys, what is the cuisine you are best at preparing?

Ofcourse, it is maggi noodles!!!

Mannnn!! What would we do without maggi noodles!!!!

Valentine’s Day is cominggggg!!!!

13 Feb 2008 3 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs) Tags: history, love, saffron brigade, Valentine's Day

Yeah, so it’s the 13th of February, just a day to go for the Valentine’s Day!!! “So why are you bothered??”, quips my colleague at office, “Aren’t you single, and happily so????”

Goddd!! colleagues at work!!!! relatives!! friends’ mummies!!!! It seems that the only job remaining on their ‘to-do’ lists is to find a suitable match for ‘ellligible’ young girls around! Ohh, but we are deflecting away from the topic!

Hmm, so I was talking about Valentine’s Day!! Loyal readers might remember that I have already written a post about Valentine’s day sometime before; but whereas that one addressed an issue about V-day/D-day conflict, this one is on a much lighter note… While we were chit-chatting at office, we just realized that this was the silver jubilee of the Valentine’s days in our lives!! (Hahaha!) So I thought why not, ek article, Vday ke naam!!

For starters, how many of you know how Valentine’s day originated? Not the specific details, but atleast an idea?

Valentine’s day celebrates the life of Saint Valentine who during some king’s rule(amnesia!!!!), inspite of the king’s orders that soldiers in army weren’t allowed to get married; guided them towards matrimonial harmony. Got beheaded as a result!<sigh!>

So Valentine’s day came into being, as a celebration, a commemoration, a remembrance, to the the right to love, and take love forward, into marital bliss!!(That’s sad to some, is it???LOL)

Anyways, yeah, so that’s it that there is to it! Or is it?

What is Valentine’s day to us today? A day to spell out your feelings for your loved ones, a day to take out time for your ‘someone special’, a day to sit and discuss about how many shops the saffron brigade will destroy today? And ofcourse, the day for quintessential debate- are we aping the western culture?? !!&&##$$$

Well, as I have previously said, it is just another occasion for me to celebrate LIFE!! We are so busy with our work otherwise, that we seldom get time to pamper ourselves… So do it on V day…what’s the harm?? Me and my room mates surely did so last year.. Cooked an elaborate meal of Pizza and Custard, did up our house with flowers, and enjoyed!!!!

Now, there’s so much more that I can write about all this, but, why don’t you guys chip in this time? Lemme know what you feel about Valentine’s day, and also how you celebrate it in your own way.. And then, we can have a further discussion! What say people?

Just look around!!! There’s so much to learn!!

09 Oct 2007 15 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Just a thought!, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, Random sightings, What I hear, n what I read........

Was returning home from office yesterday, when I stopped by at the key maker’s. There were a couple of other elederly men there, and were discussing current affairs, as usual. Because of the lack of options, I reluctantly started overhearing their conversation. Little did I know, that this would turn out to be the most sensible talk that I would heard in the entire day, or may be in the entire week too.

The key maker was kinda working late, so an elderly man there were asking him to hurry up. As an analogy, he said that “it is the law of nature, see, even birds go home when the sun sets. Only a few work late, like eagles, kites and vultures, but they too, only till a stipulated time.” This sentence kinda caught my attention. Then the conversation drifted to whether one can see such birds these days, and the same guy said that yes, you can easily find them at Parsi crematoriums, where the funeral rituals include laying up corpses of the deceased in empty wells, where they are preyed upon by kites and vultures, and eagles. “Strange are the ways of some”, he said. The other two people there laughed acknowledgingly. But then the man said, “There’s nothing wrong in that too….In some communities they burn, in some they bury; Parsis feed them to birds: So even after they are dead, they are used in feeding hungry birds. So what if it sounds odd, Parsis make difference to the world even as they leave it!”

Isn’t that insightful? I mean, being so much educated, and supposedly fitting into the ‘intellectual’ category of people; I had not even thought about why Parsis could be cremating their dead bodies that way; let alone thinking about them so profoundly. But an elderly,lonely, probably not very educated country man woke me up from my delusions. Philosophy, my friends, isn’t the copyright of Paulo Coelho or Ayn Rand; or even the myriad Yogis and sages. Philosophy is delivered by any one who wants to think, and say his thoughts aloud!!!

Well, I am generally delighted when I get to know anything that is informative and at the same time intelligent and insightful; and given that, the man surely made my day!!!

In search of the First Citizen of India………

25 Jun 2007 2 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Man is a social animal!, Zor ka jhatka!('Current' Affairs)

Once every five years, our country experiences an embroglio over who should be (s)elected as the First Citizen, i.e. the President of India. This year too, a lot of bandwidth, that of print, television, internet, and human mind as well is being used up over the discussion about who should be the next President of India, and why. The 3 key names in the fray are of Pratibha Patil, BhairoSinh Shekhavat and APJ Abdul Kalam. These 3 contenders have the respective advantages of being an eminent woman politician, experience, and being the role model of the country.

I shall not dwelve into the issue of which political party shall support which candidate and what reasons. We have heard, read and spoken a lot about that already. What I would like to dwelve over is what are the qualities that we are looking at, while selecting the first citizen of India.

Well, strategically or politically, the Indian President doesn’t have very high powers of decision. So, I don’t think its necessary to have someone with great experience in the political field. I think Presidency is an honour, a token of appreciation for the path-breaking work an individual has done, and an acknowledgement that inspite of being a supremo in his/her own field, the candidate has enough knowledge about the functioning of the country.

We need to see the President as someone with a vision, a vision of betterment of a country whose first citizen he/she is. Someone who can motivate the youth, and remind the elderly of their golden youth! He should have a clean reputation, keen civic sense, and ideally should have contributed enough to the country to bestow upon him the honour of being its first citizen. He should have enough knowledge of how the country runs( sounds as though it were a machine, but now speaking of it, isn’t it analogous to one, sans the human aspect??), no political/reginal/communal bias, and we, as a country should be proud to have him as our President.

So do any names strike your minds? NRN was in the race for some time, and yes, I feel he deserved to stay and win the race. For after all, he was second only to Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, according to me, the novel choice for the first citizen of India.

What say readers??

Provoked!

10 Apr 2007 Leave a Comment

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!, On Movies People Make,Here's my take!(Movie reviews)

Just happened to watch the Aishwarya Rai-starrer ‘Provoked’. I said ‘just happened to’ because I didn’t intend to in the first place, but when I did, I was glad I did! Seriously… Here’s one Indian movie that has handled a sensitive subject so well, that they didn’t need to show excessive violence or gregarious acts of abuse to make the audience realise the trauma of the victim; they didn’t need to show excessive melodrama, K-style rona-dhona , etc to depict the pains and sorrows that the victim had to endure; they didn’t have to glorify the protagonist to crucify the villain, and yet the movie succeeded absolutely in conveying the correct message!!! Just like Kiranjeet Ahluwalia, the protagonist states at the end of the movie, “I may not be important, but the issue is!!”

You all must have heard the story of Kiranjeet Ahluwalia, the simple and sober Punjabi girl, married to a sophisticated guy residing in England and having a split- personality. After 10 whole years of enduring continual abuse, she finally fired up one day, literally. She set fire to her sleeping husband in the middle of the night, not really intending to kill him. When he died of his burns, she was convicted for murder, her pleas of abuse and provokation as the causes of murder not withstanding….

She was put behind bars, but after 10 years of hell, this is where she found freedom. She experienced and enjoyed all that she had never done in her married years, she learnt to speak english, to play, to do things she wants and chooses to do. There in the prison, she found friendship, warmth, and support. Later with the help of South Hall Black sisters(An NGO that works for the support of abused women), and her inmates at jail, she was paroled, and went on to lead her life with her sons, and on her own terms.

A different story rite! A very good subject to make a movie on; cause this story needs to be told.. Whether we want to believe it or not, there are thousands of women even in today’s world, who face physical, mental and sexual domestic abuse; and yet pray around the Banyan tree, that they get the same husband for the next 7 lives. (Tangentially thinking, this thing sounds like an infinite recursive loop :-) , but lets not deviate from the topic now, we’ll take it up later!! hehe). In a land where a woman symbolises Shakti, it rarely makes sense that she has to foresake all her Shaktis and be a servant to her husband.

This movie in no way preaches murder..Aishwarya Rai even admits in one scene when her plea is being turned down, that she had sinned and would have to pay for it. In fact in her book ‘Circle Of Light’ (the movie is based on this book), Kiranjeet Ahluwalia has clearly stated, that she doesnt say go kill ur husbands if they abuse you, but if your marriage is a bad marriage, just get out of it as soon as possible!

I think the movie surely takes this message across, and that is the success of the movie!

On the performance front, Aishwarya Rai is brilliant as the naive, inconfident and grief-striken wife and later as the transformed-yet-aware-of-her-past woman. Other cast too is well-chosen, and chip in perfectly.

The dialogues, set design and direction is brilliant…esp. Note the mirror in the prison, and the dialogue that Veronica Scott(very well played by Miranda Richardson) says while chatting with Aishwarya Rai, and playing scrabble. She announces a triple score on board, just as Aishwarya is telling her what an Indian girl is supposed to do: Get married, Have Children, and be a proper Indian woman! Brilliant! In fact there are many such good, crisp and thought- provoking dialogues in the movie.

Yeah, I agree that there are chances that I grade the movie a little higher than what it should be, because I am a feminist.. but even then, this is definitely a must-watch movie for everyone seeking art and heart from a movie. And the cause is well-meant, too! Go for it!

Rating: Green, most definitely!

(Not Just)Another activity on saturday

12 Feb 2007 2 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!

Have you ever experienced that when you go to do something good to someone, in reality it does more good to you!! I went Last friday and saturday, the kids at Eklavya Nyasa, the NGO where i go every saturday as a part of my CSR, attended a workshop conducted by marathi Teen magazine “Kishor”. I went there on saturday as the counsellors there told me that the children wanted someone to encourage them. And you know what, I returned from there with my spirits lifted too!! The kids had a great opportunity to interact with veteran film and television actor Mr. Kamlakar Sontakke, the editor of the magazine “Kishor” Ms. Dnyananda Naik, Dr. Kumar Saptarishi, Dr. Sucheta Paranjpe, and eminent theatre critic Madhav Vaze, who taught them different arts like writing scripts, essays, poetry, enacting of plays, anchoring a series of plays, public speaking, etc. The kids at Eklavya Nyasa were also joined by the students of Nutan Samartha Vidyalaya and Apte Prashala. In the poetry writing session, the children were asked to write poems, and a few of them were selected to be published in the magazine “Kishor”. The children also performed short plays written and directed by themselves. Some plays showed the typical amateurishness, however, there were some that showed tremendous insight to the art of drama. Like for instance the mime play called “Dushtacha asta”(which in English means – The fall of the wicked). The overall storyline of the play was like this… At the fall of night, there emerges a well from the ground, through which emerges a dangerous evil demon. He scares everyone around, like a fellow-witch, and an obnoxious drunkard who happens to venture that way, and then, when its morning he himself is afraid of the onslaught and jumps back into his well, which collapses back with him in it. This short play had excellent sound effects, with the distinction between day and night, the terror of the ghost ,etc. being shown only with the different sounds! After the play, Dr. Kumar Saptarishi had a word with the kids regarding different aspects of life and wasn’t it a must-hear!! He said he didn’t know whether there existed something like Paradise, but children and adults, who spread happiness on earth, were creating paradise right here! He asked the children not to ever fall prey for concepts like caste differences, ’cause finally, all human bodies had similar organs, veins, and blood. Being a doctor himself, he said, if we were in any way different from others because of our caste, doctors would have to learn to dissect bodies of all specific caste. Then a doctor’s signboard would read, he said, “Dr. XYZ, MBBS, Dissected body of caste ABC, PQR”. But then again, students at medical school get to dissect only unclaimed bodies, most likely belonging to beggars. So since doctors were qualified to operate only on the beggars, as they dissected only their bodies, who would operate on the rich?? So, refrain from prejudice based on religion, caste,creed,breed,state, colour, gender, financial status,etc, he pledged! Well i could go on describing what all the kids learnt during the workshop and who said what; but more than what they learnt, I am pondering on what I did….Seriously, right from the poems the kids narrated(fathom writing this line “Jagna marna ek koda ahe..Jata Jata Sodvun Bagh”—-”Life and death is a puzzle, try solving it before you go”…well I wouldn’t have thought this line at an age of 10 or 12!! Ammazing man!!), to the plays they enacted, to the advice they got from the invitees, everything was a biiig learning experience, and an enriching one at that!!

Yeh Duniya ek Circus hai!!!!

22 Jan 2007 9 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!

“Circus hai bhai Circus hai!!! Ye duniya ek Circus hai!!”, And so went the title track of a popular Hindi TV serial, aired a few years ago..An immensely popular serial, it did its bit in explaining to the common man what the triumphs and traumas of the world of Circus were…It was the “zamaana” of DoorDarshan, and its every episode was watched by youngsters and adults alike with great interest.

At the time the serial was aired, i was in the age group of watching the actual circus rather than the TV serial. Everytime the circus caravan arrived in town, my parents took my sister and me to watch the acrobats, the lions and tigers, the clowns…..Going to a circus was definitely considered as a huge huge treat!!

Reminiscing about your childhood always gives you such a fondly lingering nostalgia na!! This new year, we decided to relive this nostalgia!! On the 1st of January, a couple of friends and I decided to go to the Circus that had just come to town. I don’t need to tell tell how most of my friends reacted, do I!!!! Most of them started laughing at us the moment we uttered the sentence, “Hey!! How ’bout going to the circus??” Others said “eee!! Circus!! How boring!!”. Many also carried out the task of reminding us that we were no longer kids!! <Sigh!!> (Why do people have to keep telling you that!!! )

But regardless of all this, our trio went ahead to watch the Rambo circus, to reopen that folded chit of paper, that had remained ignored in some pocket of my mind, since several years!!

Reading ‘long-forgotten-about’ chits of childhood can be so much fun, I tell you!! Its somewhat like rediscovering hidden treasures of childhood, the marbles, the stones, the coins, the pencil shavings,wow!! The small of joys that they gave largely contribute to make a very happy childhood!!

This is what i always believed, and my belief was reinstated on the 1st day of this year!!! At the Rambo circus!!!

All excited and geared up, we reached the venue, and selected comfortable seats. After some wait, the circus finally started with one of the most interesting items…the Trapeze!!

The sight of several acrobats synchronously swinging from one side of the dome to another attracted quite a few rounds of applause!! Not to forget the histrionics of the star of the circus…the Joker!!!

Then the other regular acts followed. Gymnasts tried their hands at different drills and balancing acts. Clowns came in between items and tickled the funny bone of the audience! Animals in the circus were limited to Horses, Elephants, dogs and parakeets; since there is a ban on wild animals being used as acts in circuses. Nevertheless, the antics by dogs and parrots, the game of cricket played by the elephants, the horses and their riders all gathered the appreciation of the public..

All-in-all, it was a very nice experience! Although there were moments in which the items couldn’t hold our interest persistently,thanx to our so-called maturity that comes with age; we thoroughly enjoyed the time of 2-2 n 1/2 hours.

But yeah, the constant thinker (unnecesarily, as some of my friends feel..hehe…) that I am, during, and after the circus, I kept thinking about the different things that came to my mind while watching the Circus.

The professionals working in the circus , for one! I don’t know if many of you are aware, but it’s a fact that most of the circus artistes are not just underpaid, but also don’t benefit from the regular employment facilities like pension, insurance, etc. They are quite susceptible to fatal injuries while practising/performing their dare-devil feats, but yet are provided with no insurance or hospitalization cover. The animals in the circus too are supposedly ill-treated and not fed well.

Well doesn’t this present a real ironic situation in life?? The people, the animals who entertain us a lot, help in reviatalizing our health(laughter is the best medicine , remember??…..and he who is happy is also healthy!!) are themselves deprived of basic amenities of life! Their dresses while performing may be all glittering, but their future is definitely not gold..

Mostly, people who work in these circuses come from a very poor background; like those where it is hard to feed children, and are hence sent off to work at circuses. Most of the acrobats in these circuses are so flexible , so athletic, that if given proper training, can actually participate in international sports events as gymnasts. But alas they don’t have the money, the opportunity, awareness or the motivation..(As a child I always wondered why Indians never qualify for events like Gymnastics…now I realise that the medal deserving lot is sweating it out at the circus, instead of holding the Indian tricolor high at the olympics!!)

Ofcourse, this in no way means that these artistes don’t contribute to our country….As I’ve already said, entertaining the public is no small achievement…however, they actually are not contributing to themselves. A lot of talent that could have been used to get medals and decorations for our country is being spent in earning claps and whistles from the circus-goers. Ofcourse, I can’t staright away claim that its bad….. coz looking at it in another perspective, they are bringing joy to people , who ofcourse make the country.

Hey…we looked at the circus in so many different ways rite now….But the Kaleidoscope can still be tilted even more…..but for the sake of all those who reached this far, won’t torture you ppl even more…More about circus, life at the circus, life in the circus, and the circus of life, in some other post..

What does one need more?? Knowledge about life or the understanding of life???

02 Nov 2006 1 Comment

by amruta in Blogroll, Keeping my eyes open!, Man is a social animal!

After quite a few visits to Eklavya Nyas, we decided that we should now focus on teaching the kids something concrete. So this time round, we went with a map of India, to teach them the states and the capitals, but not in form of lectures; quizzes and games. It was a huge success actually, and the kids picked the info, and remembered it pretty well!!In retrospective, we all had a mail session, asking each others feedback….Presenting a part (again!!! heheh )of the mail i wrote…

“And yes, the learn@fun strategy is a must!!! there’s no way we can make kids learn something unless we introduce the fun side of the learning…. this clearly reflects in the attitude of the children too…as Nandini(one of the kids whom we met last Saturday at Eklavya ) said “didi jab hum log book leke baithte ho padhne ko tab kuchh capitals wagairah yaad nahi rehta…par aaj achchese reh raha hai…..”

Another thing i would like to suggest is that when we are talking about the overall development of the children, we should not just restrict ourselves to increasing their knowledge; we should also focus on increasing their capacity of thinking and understanding, not just in terms of numerical or logical problem solving, but in terms of making them understand their general concepts about life(which is very important for them because they come from such an unprivileged background). I m saying this because right from the time i met these kids first in July; i have always felt that they are very brilliant, and can excel in academics and other fields; its just that they don’t really see a reason why they should…..motivation to live life normally is what is lacking in them…..and i won’t say its their fault…they just need to be reminded that they too are important members of the society, and what they think and do makes a difference to the world!!! Like what a gentleman whom we met that Saturday there did!! He was talking to the kids about life in general, and i would say the response he got was mixed.Some kids were very interested, and gave such thoughtful answers to his questions, that we were amazed!!! i mean absolutely amazed!!! He was talking to the kids about whats the meaning of being good and bad, and what’s God….and to this, guess what Navnath(a real bright kid. i must say!!) said!!!! He said “We make idols out of stone and offer flowers,oil and other goodies to that idol…if instead we use the same money and efforts to help the needy, or for some good cause; then that’s called God!!!”….i was completely stunned…and so was everyone there….. such insight, such thoughts are not definitely expected from a normal 12 year old…. I am not claiming that this thought was his own; may be he read or heard it from somewhere; but the fact that the thought appealed to him, that he understood it, that he believed in it and also had the courage to say such a diagonal thought in front of everyone; is really commendable!!!

The other kids also had their own different views on these topics, and i wont discard any of them. Some din’t hav any ideas and were very quite, so as a task, it wud be nurturing the thoughts of children who already have some of their own, and encouraging others to start thinking as well… So i wud suggest that apart from knowledge building activities, we should also slowly start looking for ideas to involve these children in “thinking process”…that ofcourse will not come soon, again for them, and for us…:-)) I think it wud be better if we ask the elder memebers of CSR to engage in such stuff, coz most ppl of our age are not mature enough to do that…also, as i observed last time, the children look forward to meeting us, and they look up to elders for what they feel and have got to say. Well these are just a few additive thoughts…these apart, our normal activities and those now suggested by Joseph n co will definitely help the kids, and help us in getting a smile on our face!!! “

My first (official) experience at social service…

01 Nov 2006 15 Comments

by amruta in Blogroll, Man is a social animal!, My writing stints(or stunts)!!

There’s this organization in Pune called ”Eklavya Nyas” , that supports the children of Commercial Sex Workers. Recently, my employer company asked for volunteers to go to this school and interact with the children. I jumped at this opportunity! We were divided into batches which would rotationally go there every weekend, and spend time with the kids as ice-breaking sessions. Once we were all comfortable with each other, we would start with proper teaching sessions!! It was an overwhelming experience!! As a first session, we decided to play with them and speak to them about Traffic rules, Personal Hygiene, and India in general, with the help of skits. Since we were the 1st batch to go, we also had to share our experiences there with the batches who would go on future weekends. I am just copying a part of a mail that i wrote to the group……. ”Alright, as far as yesterday’s experience goes, there’s loads and loads of stuff to write.For starters, I would like to say that these few hours that we spent gave us peace of mind, and disturbance of mind, in equal proportions.Peace, because its a wonderful and soothing feeling to be amidst these children; and disturbing, because behind those smiling faces is hidden a truth so bitter, that makes us feel very very fortunate as compared to them…..and the difference hurts!Ok, so after a fair amount of brainstorming on Saturday, we met at the DagduShet Halwai temple on Sunday, practised our skits, our dialogs, went through our “Do’s and Don’ts”, and there we were at the place where the kids gathered to read and play! Indranee(if that’s the way it is spelt) was there and so were a couple of kids. We sat down and started speaking to them. sticking to our formula of “likes-n-dislikes: yes, personal-n-family questions: no”. Slowly, lots of other kids started flocking in, and believe me, if one did not know their background, they would all be thought of as normal kids.We started asking their names, their favorite movies, games, actors.

We played antakshari with the kids, and the younger lot seemed to enjoy it a lot. But there were older kids too, and they looked a little bored..

Hmm, then it was time for the long-planned skits…..but no…the children outrightly refused to do any sort of skit. They were pretty much interested in mimicry n stuff like that, but when we tried coaxing them to do skits on topics, they wouldn’t budge.

So, the change of strategy…. we simply had to get all of them talking as to how much they know and understand about traffic rules, personal hygiene, and India.

Much to our surprise, they knew most of the things. Traffic Lights and Zebra Crossing, Washing hands and having bath, dressing wound, brushing teeth, they knew it all…that they didn’t really practise all that is another thing.

They knew our National Anthem very well, and the Pledge too(which i’m sure most of us volunteers did not….). They also knew the 3 colors of our flag, the Ashok Chakra, etc. And they had a quest to learn, beacuse when we mentioned Ashok Chakra to them, they started asking us questions about the Ashok Stambh, the sarnath stupa, the “structure with 4 lions” that u find on currency notes, etc.

I mean all-in-all, they were a bright lot. They were extremely interested in listening to stories. so we had story telling sessions with them. We played Games too, and they knew all those games before.

One thing that many of them did not know was reading the time. so each of us collected a few kids and taught them how to read the watch.

There were quite a few talented kids, and well informed ones too. for eg. we were pretty surprised when a boy called Ramzan told us that Italy won the FIFA world cup, and there was a head-butting controversy during the match.

Vaibhav is very good at painting, Sooraj at making crafts(he had made this very cute caged lion), and most of the other kids seemed genuinely interested in learning something creative, BUT not in form of lectures or the typical “study” ways. that was pretty obvious by the fact they they rejected our idea of skits forthright.

ok..now to the darker side, cause the above description shows only 1 side of the picture. there was this girl Pooja, who asked me atleast 4 times whether they were going to get “dabba”. there was this girl who was called as “Don” by her friends beacause she was quite violent at times(reason for her violent nature being her abusive father ), there was this guy Ramzaan who generally kept to himself and didn’t get involved with others, simply because if there was a fight, he couldn’t control himself. Well this list could go on and on and on, but I don’t know whether this is the right platform to list everything.

Neha came up with a very good idea that we can have some kind of a collaboration with the Andha Vidyalaya, wherein the older children from Eklavya Nyasa could write the exam papers of younger kids. This would have 3 benefits: 1) the kids will get to interact with the outside world, 2) the ones who will write the papers will feel that they too can be of some use to others and may be 3) they will realise that there are other underprivileged people in this world.

Another thing I would really like to appreciate is the way the guys gelled with the kids. I have always observed that boys generally don’t take to young kids, girls are anytime better…but i must say that all 4 of these guys completely washed away my belief. The children really flocked towards all of them, and they too handled them absolutely comfortably.

well there’s a lot more to say….but already i’ve written such a loooong mail that i think half the intended recipients are not going to read it fully ))))

so more about this, when we actually meet…..

but as a bottomline, this was definitely a very enriching experience, and it would be a pleasure and an honour to have more of such kind.”

So far, So good!!

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