Children on Children's Day

That children are the citizens of tomorrow- is an oft repeated phrase in a speech a child gives on Children's Day. In fact, yours truly is guilty of starting this post with it. International Children's Day is celebrated on June 1, and Children's Day in India on November 14th of every year. While usually it is a day celebrating children and their innocence, it is also a day that one is reminded of the numerous kids that are exempt of the privileges that some of us have so shamelessly misused.

Here's my crib. Why remember them on the day that's meant to be theirs? The rest 364 days, forget about them or don't give them that much attention. In no means is it a generalization, there are lots of people who have devoted their lives to ameliorate the kids' lives, but they too go unnoticed until its Children's Day. Remember the dead when they died is it? News websites in India flash reports about malnourished children in rural India, the sorry state of affairs prevailing all their life, that money directed to uplift them often fails to even be heard of.

Where do we go from here? Feel sorry for them on the day we are meant to think about them and then go back to our business of doing petty chores that we so relentlessly run behind? Or do something that will in deed be of help? Where do we go from here....

Here's a nice TedTalk I stumbled upon today...Sort of connected...but not I suppose, either or its a good talk

What to do...

Being selfless is often a virtue human beings desire others to possess, but not something they would easily picture themselves having. Sadly, this wasn't the case with her. It was unthinkable for her to be selfish, even if it meant doing something she knew was detrimental to her in the long run. In fact, it was the opposite in this case, her friends yearned for her to be selfish.

It was hard to decipher her. Putting herself first before making a decision wasn't ever the right thing to do, every time she thought about it, there was an impending guilty feeling in her conscience that made her step back. She'd struggled hard enough to make everyone happy, never hoping for a return. But it wasn't enough...people had higher expectations for her every step of her life. Was it because they thought she was capable of doing it or they were vicariously living through her life was indeed debatable...

So what should a girl like this end up doing...Wait for someone to tell her how to change her life or in fact make her own decision...

Abandon sex the TV way

Disclaimer: Dad, if you are reading this, sorry, but you know I had to write about this, its stupid how these people think. There goes creative thinking down the drain- and hence I never adopted it.

Agreed. We've got a population problem in India. Increased population leads to increased pressure on the economy, on the food chain, such and such. Clearly, you can see I am least bothered about the population problem by itself.

Indian Health Minister, Ghulam Naqbi Azad, in an interview about ways to reduce increase in population has said that heightened viewing of television, especially in rural India, will reduce the production of babies. Firstly, LOL at that. (Daddy, LOL=laugh out loud). I mean really, seriously, really? Where did you come up with that Mr. Azad?

I quote him here- "Television has one great benefit above all... if electricity reaches every village people will watch television late into the night and will have no time to produce babies. I would believe 80% of birth control be taken care of by television." Again, LOL. Imagine the plight of the birth control pill companies, even worse poor I-pill was just launched. How will it survive?

Obvious outrage in me, hence the lack of coherence. Someone asked me, what channels will be shown to these people- I say GOOD QUESTION. Now answer that Mr. Azad. Please do not show them something equivalent to the History Channel, cause then they might as well, spend time having sex, and if there's something on TV that's useful(in every sense of the word), then more incentive for them to check it out (;)). I mean learn stuff from TV if you wish to. TV as birth control, yea right.

So all those villages eagerly waiting for electricity, its coming, cause Mr.Azad thinks it will give you something to do. :D Sure it will...

Good Will Hunting

The human race is an odd species. Half its time goes away trying to contemplate the possibilities of maintaining reputation. We are so consumed by what our place in society is, what it will be, we forget who we are. Some would argue that this is not a bad thing necessarily, after all its the survival of the fittest. But take a step back and think about it- is it really worth it? We are in a constant struggle to be someone people want us to be, or what people expect us to be, what we think people expect from us, what will it take to be us? Imagine a world where everyone was exactly who they were- would it really be that easy and playful to live in?

I watched Good Will Hunting for the 'n'th time today and the last scene without Matt Damon finally made sense. He could have been what he was being sculpted into by a frustrated Math professor. But he knew what he wanted. Sure its a Hollywood story, but in retrospect it could be our life...It really isn't about others, it's about us as an individual.

Life has become about others, while death the individual....odd ...

Death...

Disclaimer: This is going to be a very depressing article, both due to the content and due to the fact that it was written on a weekend (great choice of day there). So reading along is totally up to your discretion. And no I am not suicidal, this is just a post.

Last Monday I woke up with an odd feeling- that this was going to be my final week on Earth. My final week to live. And then full stop. Period. Done. That's it, I wouldn't have to wake up in the morning, I wouldn't have to think about what was to be done, make an agenda, procrastination would have no consequences, I wouldn't have to be answerable to anyone, I wouldn't to worry about keeping people happy...oh the number of 'I didn't'-s and 'I wouldn't'-s that I could come up with....

Oddly enough, I wasn't sad or concerned about it. It almost seemed like a relief. I think the rationale behind it was that no matter what we do in life, and no matter if we achieved the fame we all yearned for, one had to die someday with or without that fame, with or without that knowledge. Hence, not a big deal. I sat down thinking to myself how life, in reality, was too long. On average, we live to about 70 years these days. Sure there are exceptions. But we can't help admit that life expectancy has increased. And yet, we seem so concerned about life being too short. I mean how much more time do you need to figure out your life. If you haven't done things by then, you won't do it anymore.

We are scared of death- no doubt about that. And living with that fear, we ruin every ounce of potential fun we are entitled to, or at least think we are entitled to. Almost seems like, things we do are to avoid death. That we know of its existence, should technically make it simpler for us to live, not complicated to the core. That knowledge should in fact just let us live...not die while living...