It takes all kinds to make this world…

Last night I received a call from my cousin across the seas, asking me to help his friend who has recently moved to Mumbai and is completely lost and confused. He was worried that she might go into depression if she did not find something worthwhile to do. I called her this morning and asked her what would she like to do? “Social work” she said “I just need to kill time.” “What kind of social work would you like to do? What are your interests? I asked her. She was not sure what she wanted “I want to do something like what you do. I like children, find me something where I can help children” she said. I asked her if she would be interested in teaching to slum children in Byculla, I thought she could help my friend in Byculla who runs activities classes for slum children during late afternoons. She said she didn’t want to go too far “No, I don’t want to go too far, can you find me something close by, in Bandra or Khar” she said. So I asked her to go to Carter road, early mornings, and there are free classes conducted for street children there. She said she cannot get up so early in the mornings because she has late nights and cannot sleep before 5a.m She wanted to do social work at her own timings and at her own conveniences.” Fine” I said “so what do you want to do?” “I am very lonely and I need somebody to stay with me, a paying guest will also do. Can you find for me a paying guest?” she said. Now she was asking me to get a paying guest for her. “How many rooms do you have?” I asked “I have only one room but I can share it with them. I don’t mind sharing my room with them. That way I will have company” she said Hello! Paying guest need space, they rent a room to keep their luggage and rest their feet. They are not there to keep company. I wanted to tell her about the pains of sharing your space with strangers. In one room it will be even more difficult, what if they want fan at a higher uncomfortable speed? What if they snore? What if they want to put off the light when you prefer to read? Too many sacrifices are needed if you accommodate people and charge them rent. They want full value for money. They are not there to fade away your loneliness. “I will see if I can find a paying guest for you” I said and wanted to end the conversation “No but I need something to do,” she continued “I need to talk to you, can I come over and spend some time with you? She said Now, since last fifteen days I am having guest, where is the time to listen to her? I told her that I was busy with my guests and she could come when I am free. She wanted to know when I will be free….My own work is pending, there was too much back log already and how do I answer her. I told her to come next week. “Is there some club or social gathering where I can find some friends?” She asked I told her about laughter club where people meet early in the morning at 630 am. I was not sure if she would be interested because it would mean getting up early in the morning at 6am. “Oh! There is a laughter club in Bandra?” She said “Yes, but it is in the morning so I m not sure you will be able to attend it since you sleep late.” I said “I think, I can try to get up early in the morning if you can take me there.” She said I told her that I cannot go but I gave her my friend’s name and contact and asked her to meet her (since she was a regular and friendly) at the laughter club and that she would introduce her to the group. I informed her the benefits of the laughter club that she would meet many people, who are jolly and maybe find some solutions for her loneliness, and they go for regular picnics, do social work and meet everyday to laugh and to exercise. The prospects of joining this club are good enough for her and she was quite pleased. I am feeling good to be able to find some solution for her and prevent her from going into depression…I hope she finds some comfort and joy and my overseas cousin might be happy too.

Phone call to God?

Are they really serious? A report published in Delhi newspaper says that Rahul Gandhi is working on an idea of setting up a call centre so that anyone can reach him by a call or by sms. It further goes on to say that you can send all your complaints and grievances to the General Secretary of Congress and he is there to solve your problems. And that he is just few calls away. Jr Gandhi is working on the idea of solving the Aam Janta problem and breaking the myth that leaders are inaccessible. This idea will never work in India. People, who have no guts to talk face to face, become quite abusive on line. Most of the calls and sms will be crank calls sent by idle people. Seriously distressed people in India prefer if their problems are solved by some one whom they trust. And people in India have no faith in government. Nothing in India works without a bribe. Everybody is corrupt and selfish. If Rahul Gandhi sits on the other end of line listening to people’s problems, he will last for only an hour. There are too many problems, and most of them have no solutions.

Blogging Mania

Obsessive internet use is a public health problem which is so serious it should be officially recognized as a clinical disorder, according to a leading psychiatrist. They suffer four symptoms: They forget to eat and sleep; they need more advanced technology or more hours on-line as they develop ‘resistance’ to the pleasure given by their current system; if they are deprived of their computer, they experience genuine withdrawal symptoms; And in common with other addictions, the victims also begin to have more arguments, to suffer fatigue, to get lower marks in tests and to feel isolated from society. I am not sure if I have this clinical disorder, I just spent all my free time on the net in quite a harmless activity called blogging. I love visiting other bloggers, reading their views and mainly to learn from them the new tricks of the trade. The new trend has started of winning the best blogger award. These blogger awards are not official but just expression of showing their love to the blogger. I stumbled upon one blogger who had collected so many awards that she could make one complete post on it. So what should I think about them? Must I feel envy for those intellect bloggers or feel sorry for myself that I do not qualify for such awards? It is easy to win these awards. You give one and you get one. The more friends you have, the more awards you get. The law of karma applies here. .’What you give is what you get’. But the craving for awards loses our creative ability. I mainly blog on things that interests me, well, initially it was like that. Then as I became aware of my readership, I started to get responsible and felt I was talking to that particular group of people who would read my work. The more traffic I would get, the more encouraged I was to write some more and before I realized I was blogging too much. Reading, researching for facts and blogging takes up so much of my time that I have to actually wean away from my computer to watch some TV program. Presently, I am following just one TV program regularly and that is during my dinner time. On those days when I have guests at home, I squeeze few moments to just check a blog or two, but writing or researching on topics during those days is difficult, unless the guests decide to stay for a week or more (then it is easy, how much can one talk to the guest who will stay more than twenty four hours?). Few days ago, I had some guests who came to spend a week with me. During their visits, I found time to sit on the net only when they were resting in the afternoons. My guest asks what I would do if there were no computers. Good question? I would be more useful then. When there were no computers, life was more fun. I found time to read novels, watch TV, go for walks, play scrabble, draw and paint and make lots of handicraft stuff like cross stitch, crochets, knitting..etc.. With computers my life has come to a standstill. This is the only window that I seem to be looking at. I have this disease called ‘Computeria’ and I wish there some rehab where I could be detoxified off this computer. I hope to be normal some day.

Be Creative to win an Award......

We Must Be Responsible Citizens Too

Nowadays there are endless talks and discussions on TV about what went wrong during the terrorist attack and all the fingers point towards the irresponsible coverage of the media. They argue that nobody stopped the media from reporting at Trident or at Taj, there was no cordoning off the media and no control on broadcasting. Millions of people in India were watching the TV during that time, why didn’t they object? I was watching the live coverage too, I was getting offended with some of the useless talks that reporters were grilling at the public, but all I did was to change the channel and see what other channels were reporting. Not once did the thought come to my mind that I could call up the TV channels and ask them to stop reporting and telling them the dangers of exposing the details to their big bosses who were in constant touch with those terrorist, doing mass destruction. If the police and the government are in wrong for not stopping the media from reporting, then we are partly to be blamed too.