Cheerful Zombies?

Four formal interactions later, when there was a subtle picture in-front of us as to how we would be down the lane in our career, one glaring and common advice I got from 8-9 officers, men and women was that 'You need to try and be cheerful!'

Between the Physical training that is extremely draining for a person who never in her life stepped into a gym and the puzzling law complexities,map readings and unarmed combats, there comes a point where there is a lot of excitement of what next while at the same time having the pain of enduring it.

While the system tries to hold on to many things that might not even make sense to a new comer like me, it also makes me cherish these moments all at the same time and sometimes even appreciate something very meaningless for an outsider, which I was,till a few months back.

For a highly nocturnal person waking up at 5 am could be the worst, doing that everyday and having to do things that are inevitably out of your hands makes you feel like a zombie, most of the days. A zombie that walks to the rhythms of Ek - Do- Ek.

Between the formal first impressions,the nasty second impressions and the acquaintances that might never turn into friendships, a glaring indeterminate future awaits us, and all the advise in the world one could get, is 'Stay Cheerful'.

How ,you ask??
I was searching for the answer for quite a while now.
It is difficult to put your finger on the answer when you search for an opportunity to learn in isolation too.Well, may be that is the challenge. None who advised me said 'Happy' everyone was careful enough to say 'Cheerful'. Ahh that blurry line between the two.. Well third time lost the charm and I ask why that particular word, to get the answer that cheer helps you get better at the job too, with 'Happy' you can't be so sure.

Then is when it struck me.. When you realize you don't have much of a choice, when you realize that you ll be pushed to expand your comfort zone to know your potential at any cost and when you realize that the element of surprise is only getting to be monotonous.. You go beyond surprise, frustration, anger, sadness.. All you have left is to grin and try to stay cheerful.. Because deep down, deep deep down, you know it is only making you better in many ways and is helping you guard what is precious in a more possessive way.

Speaking of  how to paste that grin on my face..  Those two friends I made, when they search for me just to say hi.. That does the trick!! Through all the uncertainties, aren't we all just looking for a gaze that means that someone's watching over??

Some day, the cheer will kick the zombie out, I am sure of that.. I can feel that happening already.

After all, Change is good!

Swachhta!

She sighs, tired from a long day, and sits down to scribble a few lines in to her journal.
She rarely does that. Something really profound must have happened.

May 2nd 2012,

My cousin and his kids came home from the U.S. of A last week. I ve been spending a lot of time with them.

Cute kids, they have a lot of energy,so many stories to share, it is so much fun being around them.. Well the younger one is a peach, the kid is in that place where they learn to talk, precious right?! 
Had a really long day. But one incident just baffled me.

My nephew was filling his 'Ben 10' fanny pack with wrappers from all the chocolates and ice creams he had. It was so full he started holding them in his tiny fists and  washaving difficulty holding the other things. 

So my cousin says 'Why aren't you throwing all the trash away?? Why are you collecting everything?' 

The kid complained, 'I couldn't find a trash can dad!'

For which he got a reply, 'No no, you need not search for a trash can , you can throw the wrappers here or for that matter anywhere!'

The kid obliged. What else would he do? He is four!!

Well thank god there was someone who cleaned up right behind him.

I grew up with 2 siblings who did not give any thought before throwing juice boxes, wrappers or cartons right in the middle of the road for 22 years. I even got into a huge fight with my brother over a Frooti bottle and didn't talk to him for hours and got into trouble with my parents for being arrogant, obnoxious and some other things I shouldn't even reveal here <Well, sounds stupid now I guess>. And today, this happens!!

Well I guess you tell and tell, but you only end up being such a bore to your own cousins and nothing ever changes!!


August 16th 2012,

It is one month since Tinku returned to India after her long trip from the U.S. of A, and I couldn't help but notice that she is being really clean about everything around her, conspicuously putting every juice box every small wrapper nowhere but in the nearest trash can.

I was very intrigued and grilled her for the reason [well my wicked plan was to work it on Pinku so he could change too.. ;) ] when she said that she was shamed by our nephew (the four year old with the fanny pack) in-front of his foreign friends. He said, and she quoted 'Se,e don't litter this place with all this plastic,if it is India, you can.. But you are not in India anymore,so here you ll have to put it in the trash can.'

Though I can't play this card on Pinku, it got me thinking. It took a long expensive trip and shaming by a four year old for Tinku to realize.. And the worst part is, she is educated and all!

I wish I could smack on Pinku's head and the keys fall in the right place, that would be so much easier!!

October 2nd 2014,

My cousin and his kids are visiting again. The kid threw some trash on the road.
I asked him to pick it all up and hold it till he finds a trash can when Pinku said, 'Well I don't know which India your father grew up in little fellow, but here, we don't do that anymore!'
He happily obliged!!  Well, he is just six, but he ll never do that again. Not here!

<This is not fiction. It is very much veridical!>

Might not be as moving, but we are literate and sensible right? 

So the next time you mindlessly stop to pee on the roads, realize that you are making approximately 60% of India's population vulnerable to cholera, diarrhea, typhoid etc..

The next time you drop a juice box on the roads, realize

that there thousands tourists who dread coming to India,well you are just slackening up the chance for a low paid employee to construct his own toilet.

The next time you spit on the road, the next time you throw a still- on-fire cigarette butt on the road, realize that there are many girls dropping out of the school because they don't have good sanitation facilities, you are robbing them of their future and dreams.

'Nirmal' or 'Swachh', good intentions can never let us down. 

Every effort to fulfill our duties is also patriotism.

I am that change. I hope you are too.. 

So we can meet on the other side where the grass is greener and India is cleaner!

The Art of Convincing People

Advertisements: A chance given to the viewers to follow two programs scheduled at the same time. 
Good Advertisements: It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relieve-able by purchase.

Many experts on Advertising believe that a consumer has shut his brains to advertising in places he knows he is going to bombarded with various ads. Hence, today a marketer should try and reach his customer when he least expects it and in places most unlikely. This will help the brand to be registered in consumer's mind. As much as we can agree with this, a good and an innovative ad is what people are looking forward to these days. There have been some advertisements  for which I restrain myself from changing the channel. 

The Vodafone campaign of Zoo Zoos had a similar effect on many, and the feel- good Cadbury ads with impeccable looking fresh and pretty artists sure did. However, the government campaigns on increasing awareness scorned at. I can not defend  the 'Mukhesh Harane' ad as a warning against smoking. I mean, that is not the way to get people to stop from smoking, proven effective are the illustrations of disease effected organs on the very pack of the cigarettes in Australia,may be it is time we stringently followed that. However, I am able to make my peace with the new advertisements parading 'Quit Smoking'. They explicitly emphasize on Second hand smoking and appeal to the 'Pathos' of a quintessential Indian- the family. Well, this might actually have more impact than rotten lungs and surgical instruments on 75mm.


Of all the domains of influence and persuasion:: Ethos, Pathos and Logos.. The persuader, though free to use any strategy.the  persuadee always has an upper hand of making his own choice. Keeping that in mind, sensitizing the advertisements to cause awareness is in much of a necessity.

Well, this post is in praise of some advertisements that might actually have an eternal impact, well that would be exaggerating,they might actually have an impact on me for a really long time.  

Here is an advertisement that I loved in the recent times:: NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation)

The new campaign, launched on January 28, has been produced by BBC World Service Trust. NACO has spent a whopping Rs 7 crore to book air time on radio and TV channels for a month. The advertisements aired till February 28.

I am sick of all the advertisements where a lesson is taught by a voice we don't know[being taught, really?? Are we still not ready to show that some of us are already aware and empowered?]. This advertisement, made it a point that ::

• People were already aware of the discrimination.
• They did not actually 'exhibit' the ways of discrimination.
• They have the courage to stand up to make a voice.
• Once these are done, The rest do not have a choice but make way to change.

Though it might seem like these are but trivial issues, they attracted me a lot. There are no surgeries shown, no sick people shown. It only portrays the responsibility we have, to stand up and protect the people being looked down upon, with immense intellectual integrity. 

Well, this is the crux: You don't show what is wrong, in explicit detail, while it plays a major role in plot, what needs to be done is the main issue. It may as well lead to an attitudinal change that the ad is aiming at.

Though, wittily, they went towards a modern approach in FM advertisements and stuck to the more conservative path on Video advertisements in the campaign to promote condom usage. May be, that was for the best, not to fire up a debate on issues that were proven socially sensitive. 

Technically: The lighting, manipulation of camera angles with symbolically portraying the boss (once or twice) from the eyes of the employees caught my eye.

Well, one would but expect this from an advertisement aiming at social change. The not-so-recent Tanishq ad, a completely corporate endeavor took a completely different stand,not adorning a woman just because of the ornaments she wears. [The ad did not have the need to explicitly state the impending re-marriage,as it would have been a contrast and a misfit with the subtle] I must say, it was not elusive. Loved the colorist, and the step to move away from every possible stereotype. 

What can I say, Advertising is the life of Trade, and the very essence of Democracy.

The Two One-Liners

The two lines I want, etched into eternity,what better place than here... 

Honesty is an expensive gift, Don't expect it from cheap people.



Once you start changing for the better, everything seems to magically fall into place!


Just to make sure I wouldn't forget,ever!

So Close, Yet So Far!

Only 2 days before the journey I was looking forward to recently, I came across this really disturbing article, which got quite popular on the social networking sites, claiming that the death of the rape victim was hushed up for a few days with money. My friends were also a little sceptical about that. However, I chose not to believe some random article to blame the system to be so corrupt, we've seen the protest was profound.I just made peace with people having different lookout on different things and moved on to other articles. May be, I was not ready to accept the fact that those in such responsible positions, by saying responsible, I don't mean the officials alone,will be using such a sensitive issue to take a chance to make money.Naive! That is the only word I can think of for describing myself!

Days after she lost her life,Just when my friend was telling me today the rape, in a two or three days there will be some other thing, we ll turn the pages of the newspaper and forget it, I had to take a cab, the very next day, not so early in the morning, but quite early at 8 a.m and I was glad even though the police stopped the car just 2 minutes after we started and I was getting late, but I was glad because they stopped the cab because the glasses were tinted light grey, translucent vision for the outsiders, not the completely opaque tint, I felt good, as the repercussions of the rape case brought in some really strong measures, and unlike the traffic rules, which are more often than not violated are being strictly mandated and taken care of. I felt proud, to have known that all is not lost. A moment of happiness and reassurance for not taking into the articles. Well that didn't long last!

After about 10 minutes out of the cab, the driver came back in and started driving towards the destination. I was curious to know how he got off from the police. He casually answered 'I gave him Rs 200!' . I can't say I was shocked,but I felt really sad. Just when I thought, we are getting close as nation, a step,though tine, closer to making women feel safe, this incident took me light years away,pushing hope into abyss! Oh! So close, yet so far! Reiterating, yet again, that laws can not be all.. I shut my brain up! Not one is to be blamed. We are all the same, and that is a shame!

Just when I thought the taint of this city, I love like crazy, of being a rape capital can be washed out, with organisational determination, the malady of corruption comes from behind with a dagger,betraying while making space to restate inefficiency in every form possible. Are we really hoping for too much? Can the dreams of the head being held nigh ever come true? Well even if there is a remote chance of that happening, the fare seems to be too high to pay.

Money!! Money!! Whether we sail or drown, whether the terminus will be sought in good shape. Yeah, true but tragic, money, it seems is the one thing that deceives us from dreams and makes vulnerable enough to succumb to the desires! 

Why was I so upset, when I already knew what was going to happen? It was nothing new. Well, I could answer that only with one word 'Hope'. Hopefully, atleast that ll never die. I guess I am too curious to know the power of unity to say 'No'. The collective urge to realise that 'Being Human' just means, a little trust and faith, a little give and take, a little philanthropy and selfishness, a little rage and equanimity,a little sorrow and a tad of happiness, all put together. May be that is the miracle we are all working together for.

Yesterday it was a brutal rape, today a sewn time bomb inside a jawan's belly.What all we get to see!! And we talk of being human! The only things being constant are corruption and deception, and they always give ample space to the acute veneration for tomorrow. Is any step we take really taking us forward?

Sigh!

Doubts

Doubts, yeah doubts. I have too many of them.

Is today's 'Education' really the panacea we are looking for? Or is there more?

Many things we need can wait, but the child can’t. To him, we can’t say ‘tomorrow’. Because his name is ‘today’. 

Lately, I realized, contemplating comes involuntarily most of the times. A wide smile that lights up a room doesn't always mean complete, absolute happiness. Change can be as minuscule as maximal it can be. But whatever it is, it is good. Because, yeah... I came to make peace with the notion that utopia is utter boredom,there always has to be some place for change. May be it is but an exaggeration, but I am here to throw light on what I came across recently, and I just got caught up there. May be I should get it out of my system to move on,so I write.

As always, I boil down every human problem to the only panacea I realized since childhood, and that was, is and I guess which always will be ‘Education’. I thought education can change everything, as much as I realize I was right I also realized I couldn't have been more wrong. I miss those days where we can run along the corridor, catch up with a teacher who is taller than you, just to ask a doubt.. So that she can bend down to listen and clarify what is bugging a tiny brain. I miss those days where you raise your hand to get the teacher’s attention just to ask a question so loud to be audible enough to get the doubt clarified. Yeah, back then, I had math doubts.. May be languages and sciences.. But now, I cannot even place some doubts into any genre and my mind doesn't stop blabbering. Well, 20 days at home a bunch of movies and awesome food, may be everyone gets many doubts.

• Change doesn't come to us running if we sit idle. It has got some ego, we need to go there and persuade it to come along and join us, and so is success. While we criticize ego, we try to hold on to it, as that is what gives us the identity we crave for,right?

• Whatever the change the visionaries have anticipated, and strove for, I speak now, actually, we speak now, with the benefit of hind sight that it is inadequate, but we take time to realize that it was relevant and that was what has helped us pave the way to reach this day. Why is it that change has never been overhauling? Why is it always in small doses? Is it like a medicine that the societal system can only take as much as it can agree?

• Just because you know it is panacea, it doesn't mean that it will be the right thing to follow blindly. Doing the right thing is not what matters. Doing the right thing right is what beckons change right into the lap. Every idea that is in shape has to be efficient.It is the idea that is the world around us. So we say, Action has to always accompany idea, so there is no such thing as a handicap right?

• Aspirations can never fall short. But they have to spend more time with action. What appears as the toughest time, as Aun San Suu Kyi said the other day is the time when you think success is round the corner, but sometimes, turning round seems like eternity. There are no short-cuts to truth are they?  Why is it that there is no end to where inspiration can take us?

• Does beauty really lie in the eyes that behold? Don’t you think, all our eyes are tied with the handcuffs of stereotyped socialization? Let me tell this small thing.. fair is beauty, dark is ugly or tall is appealing short is not. At least that is what is endorsed in the million dollar ads that are all around us. If it is so, then where does the eye have space,to make a choice of stamping something as beauty, without going into various apprehensions?

• Initially the bell had no religious symbolism. It was used to grab the attention of the masses. Mind is where things are born. Mind is wonderfully weird while being cautiously vibrant. How is it possible that it is always capable of rhetorically giving life to antonyms, while placing side by side, making conflict inevitable?
• Why is fear so timid? It ultimately takes the form of the brave,it succumbs, with no choice,none at all.

Yeah, I got all these ramblings shouting at me from inside my brain after I watched a bunch of movies. Hmm.. Of what, like, say 5 languages. I know, mind is one thing that never shuts up I guess. Well, here is the realization part, these days I answer everything with this: The Sword and Shield analogy.

Let me take 'Education', as I mentioned earlier. I am not here to endorse or criticize any government program. Because I always think that change that is eternal always comes from within and not from the external push. Education, as a shield, can only protect you from what you don’t want to be. It is rout.It can’t change anything, like we know.. It is memorizing and blurting out. A shield is incapable of inducing change. However, Education like a sword,creative, agile and intelligently adaptable, will protect you, while you shape your surroundings according to what you aspire. A sword, it is creative, dynamic and at the same time protectively hindering. It is not a dagger that kills. A sword moulds what is at your disposal to whatever is the best thing that could be at use right then, right there.

I could not help myself from applying that to 'Talking'. Talking, when used as a shield, is just a protection. It will not give you the dauntless valour to defend against the wrong. Most of the time, it makes you end up ignoring or overlooking it, just to appease to the surroundings. But, talking, as a sword it is one thing that empowers you, that is when you actually talk of the ideas, the vibrancy of the human mind is articulated. Furthermore, I could immerse myself in reasoning this analogy for Listening, smiling, relations and everything, and just when I was thinking, everything has two extreme ends of application,I realized,there is always a third option. Not the both, or may be the both. The sword and the shield. After all, the best wars were won where they all had utilized the both. Well, it is time to for us to get out of the stereo type education systems, and socialization. Well beyond the sword and the shield,there is always more to explore, that is where our vision should lead the light to. That is where we can say, aim of life, not of the dreams. Dreams always have the chance of ‘if’, if we really are here to aspire, I don’t think we can leave that little space. I hope, I made some sense, as this is going a little over my head right now. Or may be I have more doubts. 

Yeah true, now I realize it is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.

I think it is time to say Night night now. Adios!

PS:: A really long hiatus beckons.Living sans technology is finally appealing to be fun. <Hibernation mode>

Black and White. And also the Greys..

Just because we look, Doesn't mean we like it..
Just because we like, Doesn't mean we love it..
Just because we love it, Doesn't mean we'll love the whole..
Just because we love the whole, Doesn't mean we'll love it for all times to come..
Because, change is the only thing that is constant, 
The only thing that keeps us going.. 
The way we embrace it is the way we see, 
The perspective, the future.. 
The look might make us love the whites, 
Get awed by the blacks of the picture.. 
But, the thing is we always comfortably ignore the greys 
Only to find that the whole life lies there..

Brought up by the old, 
Growing up with the young, 
That is the rule of the nature..
We have all seen the black and the white, 
The thing is how we imagine the grey.. 
How we start treasuring it..

The bad doesn't get better without a change..
The bad doesn't get to being the best without the greys.. 
We have to pass them all.. see them all.. know them all..
And all we know, is we are comfortable ignoring them..
Though we know,the only way to change.. Is not overnight..

For all those who say, tomorrow is going to be the same..
Millions of people pity you..
Because they know that tomorrow is better..

For all those who ask, what the change was..
Take a hard look at what you do everyday, every minute..
Because,there are a million voices saying that they have seen the change..

For all those who say, no one has done anything to improve,
A billion voices, respectfully disagree..
Only to ask 'Are you the no one?'

For all those who ask, what did the land give me,for me to give back..
Millions of eyes show you that..
A mother gives you birth..
What else would you want as a reason to love her..
And make her live the way she wants?
You are what you are, because she made you that!


There is something unique in this soil, which despite many obstacles has always remained the abode of great souls.

And they are all taking the 66th step.. Only towards a brighter, happier, optimistic and sought after India..  

Where there are accessible, affordable and accountable medical facilities, literacy and education, awareness and employment, and oppurtunities for all.. Free and harmonic social relations with regulated freedom. Now that we are here, it is time to prove that every change has to be towards the better, and that we are the agents of it to happen..

But before we say something pessimistic,Let us remember that..

Shades of grey wherever we go..
The more we find out, the less that we know..
Black and white is what we wish to see..
But shades of grey are the colours we see,
May be it is just an assurance,
The blacks blend to greys.. Only to meet the whites..
Making "Life".. PICTURE PERFECT!
And every second we move towards it.. Strive for it..

-To, my mother India..!!
Nope... May be, I'd want to say,Our mother India! :)