My external worth

I have been the victim of a spate of thefts in the office recently. First, I lost my sunglasses. By the time I recovered from that loss, my earphones went missing. I am trying to get to the bottom of it, but I am not very hopeful of the outcome.

These events made me realize that our average worth, based on what he wears daily, is pretty high. It might be an interesting exercise to do a quick estimate of your worth, i.e the worth of what you wear daily. Forget the depreciation to make it easy. For me, a couple of days back, the estimate would have been as follows:

Shirt/ Kurta = 340/-

Jeans = 2500/-

Watch= 2000/-

Earphones= 1000/-

Iphone= 25,000/-

Boots= 5000/-

Socks= 40/-

Wallet= 500/-

Sunglasses= 3500/-

Total= 39,880/-

Imagine walking naked with a that much money in your hand.

Give away a few bucks

Give away a few bucks to the poor once in a while. We have been taught since childhood to oppose begging. "They should try and earn a living", is what is commonly suggested. But who offers jobs to the poor? Are they so easy to come by? Where does a product of an unjust, ill-managed, tottering education and social system get employed? The only avenue of work would be to start a small business, selling things to begin with. But how easy is that to secure? To the budding entrepeneurs I ask - is setting up a business that easy? I wouldn't think so. Maybe the beggar makes more of a profit begging that selling wilted flowers at a traffic signal that no one buys anyway. Shouldn't he go with the 'profession' that gives him a little more dough?

I don't think most beggars are organized in syndicates as movies such as 'traffic signal' suggest them to be. I think many of them would use the money themselves. Yes, they may go and buy some cigarettes from it. So what!? Why do they have to be burdened by our expectations for them to go buy 'parle-g' biscuits. We make stupid decisions with our money. Give away a few bucks and let them make their own judgements. Allow the poor to be human.

I just don't want to get sick

I am sick. I do not understand why women get so worked up if you suggest that you don't want to 'mingle' when they are sick. A cold or flu is communicable and will pass from one person to another irrespective of the good intentions of the person who is sick. If I do not have any problem mingling otherwise, why is the simple explanation that I do not want to get sick enough?! And guess who conceded in the argument that ensued? Well, I am sick now, am I not :(

Shiny Swanky Malls

Voo Hoo,

I am free enough to attempt to put some words on my screen.

Living in Pune makes me miss Delhi.

Maharashtrians are nice, unpretentious people. At least, the previous generation was much more than the present one. Give a Marathi lady her gold mangalsutra, a pair of nice earrings and gold bangles and she will be content with her conventional sari and attire. Very few of them branch out to wear ill-fitting jeans and tight tops in an attempt to catch up to the 'modern' style of dressing. However, what may appear to be a good attitude to have has its own downsides. For me, the downside is that these 'maushi(s)' (the equivalent of Aunties here) spoil the look and feel of the swanky, shiny malls and shops they frequent. Everything about malls is meant to be attractive and enticing. They entice people to come, look around and eventually get sucked into one shop or the other. But, the people themselves, as they cross the glass doors, become a part of the mall. So while in Delhi, the well dressed folks add value to the surroundings, in cities such as Pune, they bring down the fanciness by a few notches.

Motorcycle Diaries

Motorcycle diaries - A journey into Che Guevara's mind. A transformation. A medical student who travels across South America on a bike, then on foot. Sees the injustice. Sees the misfortune. The inequality amongst his class and theirs. The equality of the masses from the topmost tip to the southernmost coast. 

Is it just his continent? Is our 'sub' continent different? I am accused to be a romantic? I romanticize poverty. Do I? 

I feel trapped. Trapped by my skills - or the lack of them. A consultant by training. What good are these skills? How can I use them to help someone? A doctor, now he has some skills. What do I pursue. What skills do I need to help others? Communication, passion, hardwork? Only if for a cause. I know I can work hard .... but for a cause. What is that cause? How much do I earn? For whom do I earn? Do I save and distribute? No. My time is much more important. I should donate my time. 

I am trapped. Trapped in this country. In this city. Should I just go back? What to do when I do go back? Is there a plan? How can I help them? Work where. How do I find a job where I have time. But I need a plan. A very different plan. Something that no one else can help me with. Where do I start. Who do I talk to? 

Is it just momentary? Is there a job out there which will satisfy me? Without helping others? Is all that I want is a busy day .. day after day? Will I be happy if I cant decide my work? Do I question everything? Wait for recommendations. Kiss ass for recommendation! Dont anger the superiors! I dont care. Anglo-saxon pleasure seekers. Viruses on the face of this planet. Sad, pathetic souls.

The true expression of oneself - disease induced

I saw a new episode of 'House' today. It is a series set in a US hospital in which an eccentric yet brilliant doctor, Dr. Gregory House, chases down a medical mystery during the entire length of an episode and finally solves it just in the nick of time to the amazement and gratification of the supporting cast. 

In this episode, the patient suffers from a disease that renders his speech involuntary. As a result, he cannot stop himself from saying things that he would otherwise have kept to himself. I had read the description of the episode before watching it and even though I did think of it as an interesting plot, the ways in which this disease manifested itself was hilarious.

The patient is waiting for his MRI and a hot doctor enters the room. The guy says, "Oh my god! You are so hot! I just want to rip your clothes off and dip you in chocolate so that I can lick it off you later". Next scence - he covers his face and says in a muffled voice "I am so sorry for saying that!". Next scence, a senior doctor, also hot, enters. The guy goes "Oh my god! You are even hotter! I would definitely do you! I would do you both, but given a choice, I will do you first!". Next scence, he says "Please dont throw me out". Awesome !

However, on a serious note, the situation does offer one question. Is a person defined by what he thinks, or is a person what he chooses to say? I would imagine that almost all of us dont say what we think more often than saying what we really do think. Since we have been brought up to be respectful of others, to be polite, we often lose ourselves in it. We turn into someone who we really are not. We think something, and we say something else. And the facade remains intact till we remain. Unless you get a disease like that!  

Hello Again - I hope I am back for good

Hello All,

There are not many who follow this blog. However, to the few who do, or did, hello again! I discontinued writing some months back because of 2 main reasons. First, I didn't have much too write about. I now realize that that shouldn't have stopped me. Many people just write gibberish and others find ways to make sense out of it. I could be one of them! The second reason was that I felt that I had lost touch with the skill of writing. Each time I wrote a blog, the words seemed not to do justice to the breadth of emotion that I wanted to express. Moreover, it took too much time to craft a gramatically well balanced paragraph. Accepting it as a skill I didn't have, I dropped blogging altogether.

However, during the past few weeks, I had to write a site-visit report for an NGO I volunteer for. Writing that report reminded me of the joy of writing those well balanced paragraphs that I had come to hate. It still took me many hours to complete the report which a better writer could have finished in only a couple. But still, the joy of reading through those painstakingly well crafterd sentences was a very satisfying compensation indeed. 

My advice to writers who face a block just like I did is to keep it simple! Just go back to the basics of sentence construction. I know that its difficult to stem the flow of thoughts but writing is not about stemming it at all. Its about funneling it. Pour those thoughts slowly and steadily and you will have something well written in the end.