Anatomy of a slum dweller !!!

Sometimes i wonder why our society stands where it is today. There is no trust among people, corruption is the norm and honesty exception, cribbing about everything and doing nothing, blaming government about everything [even the garbage, which you threw on the road], .... the list is endless !!!!
What has got us to this point. Everyone dreams to live in a good society, but most people dont do anything towards the cause, or if they do, they dont behave like they do.. I believe that this is one of those things, which should be shown off, if you do.....

Anyways, lets indulge in a bit of introspection !!! A child is born in a slum, and lives a poor life as an infant. By the time he actually comes to the world i.e. when he actually starts understanding the world, what does he see ? He sees children dressed in neat uniforms going to school, whereas he is doing some odd job, or sitting whereas his parents are doing some odd job. Isn't it normal for him to get depressed or is it not ? For me yes, although same may not be applicable to some of the readers. If people who tend to disagree, can actually put themselves in that position and think for a while, may be they will have a different viewpoint, but that's not the point.
The poor child moves on with things. With every passing second, every passing minute, every passing hour, every passing day and so on, he gets emotionally battered or shall i say bludgeoned. BUT, he gets stronger by the day, stronger emotionally. I mention emotion so many times, because i feel that at such a tender age, your beliefs are formed- your beliefs in society, beliefs in human beings, beliefs in country, and so on.. With that sort of foundation he kicks off into the world arena, ready to take on the world, ready to earn his living, ready to rock !!! Don't think the use of 'rock' was intended to be funny, it was NOT.
He doesnt want to live off others, but wants to earn his own livelihood, what does he do ? At the time when he should be going to school, he gets into the real world. He has all the questions in front of him, which are there when we pass out of college or uni, only thing is he doesn't have a degree, and has been living in a different society than we live in.[Honestly, not too different , if you look closely].


He starts working in a dhaba. For those foreign to the term, it stands for Indian road-side restaurant, mostly on highways !!! Wow, he has a job now., one which feeds him and pays him, isnt that amazing !! A Job at 8, tremendous isnt it ? He starts working there, thus earning his livelihood. Just imagine the clientele, he has to deal with - truck drivers, road side beggers, wagabonds ....and so on..... He learns a few things from them, and honesty, politeness, trust, are all there, or did i miss a 'NOT'.
He is being trained for life, he is gettting all the information, all the education which is going to be useful, when he moves on to do 'other things'. He is a good listener, and starts becoming street smart. Street-smart, yes that is the word. May be one day he will become wall-street-smart !!??!! or at least thats what he dreams of..

Dreams, lovely, good there are no limitations in dreams, and there's nothing like living your dreams, at least that's what one aims for.
The poor person keeps on moving from one job to another, without making much money. Eventually he starts seeing where the money is. Black marketing, yes thats where the money lies. He starts selling cinema tickets in black, thus earning a livelihood, and in fact good money. Eventually he opens up a paan shop, and is now well established with a pan shop in one of the busy city areas.

Do you think anything went wrong ?
Whose fault is it that he is sitting in that pan shop selling pan, rather than sitting in a black suit doing investment banking on wall street. He is as capable as anyone else. That's what i can make out of it. His zeal to do something, his entrepreneurial spirit is self evident. He may not have chosen the right path sometimes, but was it his fault. Eventually he is earning a living out of doing something society accepts, and that's when society has not been kind to him at all.

What will it take to make our society healthy ? A society in which no one is devoid of basics such as education, and where there will be no poverty, and anyone can have basic education.
What will it take to bring back the trust we have lost of each other !!!!
What will it take to make honesty the norm, and corruption the evil exception !!!

If you think hard enough, i think you will have the answers, and when you do get the answers, do listen to them. Probably your soul is trying to tell you something. He has been trying for some time, but at least he has succeeded. The soul always wins...

Marine drive tragic episode

It goes without saying, that Shiv Sena's views are totally ridiculous.
BUT, what is disheartening to see, is that the entire discussion/dialogue seems to be focussed
towards the clothes poor girl was wearing, AND not towards the culprit policeman. The things i feel towards this whole episode can be summarised as follows:
1) What one wears OR does not wear, is a personal decision, and
speaking in constitutional lingo - 'a fundamental right'.
As parents/friends, our responsibility is to impart quality values to our children,
so that they can decide for themselves, what's good, and what's not good for them.
If we can't do that, we haven't done our job well. So far as how much is revealed by the clothes is entirely relative, and it depends among other things upon morality attached to the skin-show. For some, showing a cleavage may be the limit, and for others it may be sthing else. It's entirely personal, and should not be interferred with.
2) Societies change, open up, and over a period of time, learn to manage themselves. There may be periods of transition, but that's part of this whole process.
3) Focus should be on making people ACCOUNTABLE. By people, i am NOT ONLY referring to the policeman, who indulged in this shameful activity. The
fabian-socialism, we have been living for so long, has introduced so many wrong beliefs in our society. There is nothing worst than society, which is based on wrong notions. Those of us, who understand this,
should try to educate the society in their own ways. I am not saying to go out marching on streets, but at the
end of the day, SMALL things make BIG difference, and go a long way.
Lets pledge to do at least one thing, which breaks the wrong notions deep-rooted in our society.
It's a slow and painful process, but so is LIFE.