BLOOD DONATION- NO MORE FEAR

It is fascinating how one unit (in this case 450ml) of blood can save lives of up to three people. It is also fascinating how donating blood feels so good, especially after I have lived with the fear of needles all my life.

It was my first donation today (3^rd March, 2012) and I support the fact that it doesn’t hurt while your donating blood, it just feels nice.

An initial prick (as my friends call it an ant bite), a squeeze ball and a bag of blood, that’s all which blood donation involves. Yes, some people might faint, others might feel cramps but that is only is you haven’t had a good sleep and/or a good meal. Fulfill the conditions of having a good meal, a good night’s sleep (obviously the night before) and just be calm and there you go- you’re all set to donate blood.

‘Rakta daan jeevan daan’, (blood donation equal to giving a life) I am sure one or more of you would have heard this and yes it is actually giving life to someone. One of my lecturers mentioned in her speech that what if, god forbid, your relative or close friend needed blood, would you still give silly excuses like your scared of needles or don’t want to donate as your blood type is common?

A room full of people doing a good cause, a few friends expressing their happiness, a few units of blood was I guess enough to inspire me to donate blood. The entire process is not painful and blood donation is equivalent to new blood in the system which is again equal to energy.

There are more benefits and hardly any harm in donating blood (or probably the only harm is fainting, if you can call it so!). It is not only a social cause but it is also a reason of satisfaction and genuine happiness.

Go ahead and donate blood if you see a blood donation camp anywhere. Don’t just keep waiting for an emergency because you never know when you might not be eligible for donating!

Socho mat kar ke dekho, sach main, achaa lagta hai.

SUPERSTITIONS

It was almost inevitable. I had to see it. It was big and clear in the sky. ‘Poornima’ is just at the beginning of this weekend.

It was shining clearly in the dusky sky. It was almost sun set and the moon was out there to show his face. He was the first thing I had noticed looking up from the balcony. He was bright and pretty.

And then almost instantly I saw the lone star which came as a package with the moon. I couldn’t miss it. I saw it and immediately regretted seeing it. My friend once told me how a lone star should never be seen. If you see one lone star you had to see another two.

So, I craned my neck, strained my eyes but in vain. I couldn’t see any other star. I was disappointed as the story she told me had a conclusion that if you see a lone star it brought bad luck. Now I wondered as to what kind of bad luck it would bring to me.

There were too many things going on in my life and I did not want any of them going off track. So just before leaving the balcony I hoped to see two other stars but only ended up seeing flocks of crows and thought wow how better is this?! And how worse could it get.

I kept myself busy later in the evening but the thought lurked in my head. It kept playing hide and seek through the walls of my mind and I kept thinking what was going to go wrong. Then I thought am I really being dragged into all this? I was scared about a non rational thing and I felt stupid after a while. Had I really given into something of that sort?

Then my mind drifted to another reality. What was with our ancestors? Why did they always want to tag some belief or superstition as we call it today, with every other thing? Why did they always want to make people believe something which weren’t true and logical? Then I thought maybe it was right.

Even though our ancestors had famous names like Chanakya, Aryabhatta, Panini etc., having enough room for logic and invention, we saw the burliest of illogical and non rational beliefs which hang around till today.

Superstitions.

When I think deep into these superstitions all I can think of is that do they really mean what they say? Do they intend to send out the same message as they are speaking? Indeed no, but what else could you tell people of that age rather than ideas which would question their religious or traditional beliefs.

So here I would bring out a few superstitions and try and give their scientific explanations, at least to convince myself.

When people ask you not to walk under a ladder is not because you would stop growing or that you would be possessed by the devil, it is because walking under ladders could be harmful in a general sense. This belief came around at the time when electric lights weren’t yet around and people had to manage in oil lamps at the brightest. Now when you walk under a ladder at such a time when all else is dark except the circumference of the circle around the oil lamp, what else could you expect but be careful. During day time, walking under ladders wasn’t allowed as the grounds during those times were undulated. Now they didn’t have the facilities of tar and concrete roads where all ladders could hold still and not tumble over everything or everyone. This was why the superstition was attached to forbid people from walking under the ladders in the night and in general.

When people ask you not to walk the path crossed by a black cat is not because that would bring you bad luck it is because you could fall sick. Cats whether black, white or any other colour are known to give out energies which aren’t very good for the human body. It is a known fact that every living being has certain kind of energy around them whether positive or negative. When you cross the path crossed by a black cat or any other cat, it leaves behind its negative energy which is not always but sometimes harmful. It isn’t so harmful that a person may die, but harmful enough to give a fever for a day or two. This couldn’t exactly be highlighted by our ancestors or may be explained to other people and so the superstitious tag attached.

I grew up listening to this line from my mother, “Do not sweep the home after sun set. ‘Lakshmi’ will walk away from the house.” Indeed according to her, if you sweep the house post sun set, you lose money. However, every time I questioned her about it she told me it had a logical explanation but she had no time to explain it. So one day I got on her nerves, irritated her and budged out the logic. Supposedly in times of ill lighting, people usually lost their valuable as they swept houses post sun set. As no one actually could clearly identify what was being swept away, people faced a few loses of valuable metals. Thus the superstition stepped in and forced people to give up the habit. This holds no sense today when we all work under electricity and also waste it as much by using it even when not needed.

I go on about a few more superstitions but I think I am way too bored writing about it. Nevertheless, I shall talk about one last thing. I have been questioned various many times about the fact that why Hindus don’t eat beef and why it is a taboo. Of course, the ‘Holy Cow’. But why the ‘Holy Cow’?

I grew up in a Hindu Brahmin family and I know the rules of praying to God at least once a day. So also did I learn about a few things about the Hindu culture and the Hindu mythology. According to it, there are 33 crore Gods a Hindu can pray to and kneel before. Interestingly all these 33 crore Gods reside in a cow and its various parts.

Hindus are believers of love and brotherhood. Not like any other religion or belief’s people and followers aren’t. This is not what I am trying to portray. Coming back, they have been using the cow for centuries now. To them it gives them milk, butter, ghee, it a beast of burden, helps them plough the fields (both the cow and bull) etc. this means that the animal is actually giving them a lot. It was also the main object of barter amongst many communities and also signified wealth to certain other communities. The cow’s skin comes handy as leather when it is dead and the skin of the animal is taken off only after it is dead. When so much was done by an animal, the Hindus decided to show some amount of respect and love towards this animal amongst others. That is how the ban on killing cows for their meat came up from times immemorial (basically since our ancestors gained a sense of things around them and started forming laws) and considered this animal holy and worth preserving.

This animal’s mythological importance gave it another stand still and held it in high priority of preservation and kept it against torture for many years and generations but not throughout.

This is how the cow gained the Holy status and people went about negating it and wanting to have more of the meat of this Holy animal.

These were some of the thoughts that propped up only from looking up at the sky. So far, the bad luck has only been in terms of India losing its first of the three matches against West Indies in the five match series and me suffering from a bad stomach. I don’t think this has been so bad but let’s wait and see how bad this can get!

Until then start thinking of new beliefs and logic to the old superstitions.

DREAMS…

Those were some of the best moments of my life. I know I always fancied the idea of having tea from a large mug in a balcony or terrace or anywhere close to nature.

I have always been in love with nature and the idea of tea with it is like one of the best things happening to me.

The strong smell of tea leaves with a mild odour of ginger in it, a bird flying high in the sky and the sounds of nature along with man made noises (which is a little disturbance but tolerable nonetheless), I could live my entire life that way and never get bored.

For a person who loves moment writings, that is the best setting. Thoughts flow and there is no way you can forget them. Type them out later and celebrate achieving one more piece of writing.

Nature gives me peace of mind and piece to write on, both of which are my happy priorities.

There is something about watching the sky and enjoying the birds soaring high above. However, this which I loved more when I was young is less enjoyed by me now. I do not know if it is the pollution, ozone hole or man to blame, even though all the three are interconnected. I tire my neck by looking up for long minutes to catch a glimpse of a bird flying high in the sky but in vain.

It doesn’t usually happen nowadays and honestly it doesn’t surprise me anymore.

I have a dream. It includes a lot of things put together. But one piece of that dream is to sit outside every day, sip at my tea mug and think about more things to write, this time on a wooden armchair in a house made from opal wood.

The closest to nature (according to me!).

‘BASANTI’ TO ‘BILLO’?

It is indeed true. Movies have moved on from “Basanti” who used to be an “abla naari” (a gullible women) who falls prey to every other villain in a movie. Now women are stronger and avoid the general stereotype which has been attached to them since times immemorial.

Talking about stereotyping, a stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. This is given in such a way that people who wish to escape also can’t manage to do it. Because of the beauty of it being tagged to the whole group, individuals suffer its wrath. Now not all Arabs wish to bomb the world. Do they?

As I am covering gender stereotyping in movies, I shall be talking about the shy women who constrained themselves to the kitchens, cooking in the hot “chullas” to the women who went out killing their husbands, there by standing against social evils (at least this is what the movies show!).

Gender stereotyping began with civilization itself. It is a known fact that women are physically weaker than men. Probably that is the only field where they lack. Due to this women have always been restricted to kitchens and taking care of children at home. Even during the early man stage, women stayed back to look after the children where as men went out to hunt.

This idealism and thought has been carried forth to centuries. With the advent and growth of generations and mankind as such, there wasn’t much change to this theory. However, only recent five or six years see a change in the society where women are given importance too.

As movies and films came into being, their stories revolved around the society. Hence, most of these presented the same theme of women being the weaker sex. Unfortunately in the rush to bring out that women are weak and had to be contained at home, atrocities and oppressions against women became a major sub-topic.

Movies always reflected the society, even to this day. It became a habit to every director and script writer to include violence against women in movies. This grew and some of the best movies came out of this. The list includes Daman (starring Raveena Tendon), Lajja (starring Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala), Mehndi (Rani Mukherjee). All these movies show the violence against women but end on one note- the victory of women over men and the evil social customs.

But this transformation came in much later. Prior to this, women were still featured as sorry figures. They were not only restricted to kitchens but were withheld on the grounds of dowry, non marriage of widows, no freedom to women to express views etc. Water and Paap amongst others are some of the movies which feature this. Then came the women who worked in industries, offices at respectable positions. But there was a catch there as well. In the movie Corporate, Bipasha Basu is a well to do woman but she lands up as a scape goat in a corporate scandal.

The evolution wasn’t complete and neither did it stop here. I am sure the growing and developing society and mentality of people was tired of watching all this negativity. As they say ‘born out of ashes’, then came along a line of movies showing strong women in strong roles like Khalnayika- a strong vamp, Fiza- a strong sister, Chak de India- strong bunch of sports women, changing the definition of women and taking it to its best.

Movies currently feature item numbers. And with Bollywood trying to ape Hollywood to the core, with vulgarity and nudity increasing, rather than sensual and beauty, the poor ‘‘Basanti’’ is now transformed to a ‘‘Billo’’. This has not only lost the respect towards the female gender but also has left her to an object rather than human. She is now a showpiece to draw on or an unwanted sexual (not sensual) element in a mattress advertisement.

Men however, have moved on from being the heroes to villains but maintain their ego and position in movies- villains because, anything that goes wrong, is blamed on the man. He is responsible for all the wrong and evil in the society and he is the one who always commits all the atrocities.

I am not trying to draw conclusions. The society has been carrying this thought and has been molded in this way. Though for the past few years (I dare say), the society is changing its thought process. How good or bad it is I have no idea but it has its own repercussions.

Unfortunately the woman who was a mercy creature earlier has now been reduced to an item girl with men more or less the same.

SPORTS-THEY LIVE IT!!!

It’s funny when it is the 90^th minute with a plus three and there are three angry men in the room. Too much of three right? This is the match between Liverpool and Norwich. These three men are hell bent of making Liverpool win and even screaming their lungs out obviously trying to make the players listen to them. But I don’t think that seems to be working much.

I am furiously typing away at my laptop while Liverpool and Norwich end at a 1-1.

There is disappointment and anger in the room but I think things will sink back into normal.

I know my share of work. Talk as much less as I could to my friends, let them do what they are engaged in and try to be calm myself. With three men screaming at the top of their voices, trust me it is freaky. You need to be here to see and feel it.

AMALGAMATION- THE PERFECT “KHICHDI”

ARRANGED MARRIGE:

Arranged marriage is a very common way of having long or short term legal relationships with a known or unknown family in India. It is a concept which begins with happiness and ends in turmoil and tension, not always though. Marriage is a sacred institution where two people along with their families come together to make a bond which supposedly gives them happiness.

Arranged marriages have a varied concept in different parts of the world. In India, they are usually an example of remaining in culture and making family ties with in the same cultural background or ethnicity. As India is suffocated with a varied variety of cultural diversity, there are different ethnic groups from which result different kind of marriages.

In India an arranged marriage is considered to be the best for two families as parents have an upper hand and can scrutinize the to be bride and groom respectively. They also hold the right to call off a marriage if the “needs and demands” aren’t fulfilled. With arranged marriages come the extra benefit of dowry and where else but in a large chunk of Indian landmass can this be seen?

With the tradition of haldi, mehndi and jaimaal, come the extra tension of giving away the girl and overtly agony struck parents and relatives can be seen. It is not like love marriages are the most happiest and successful marriages in the world or even India for that matter, but in many cases love marriages save the pain of dowry and bring the extra ethnicity under the same roof (as in many cases the bride and groom are from a different ethnic background). Though statistics say that love marriages are less successful than arranged, people love to go against the rule.

Media plays a very good and important part in getting marriages in and out of place. With the extra hype that media gives every agenda these days, if an actor or celebrity is even considering buying a ring that would end up as breaking news. Heard of honour killings- a very non conceptualised and illogical option according to everyone but the bride and groom?

Arranged marriages are an ego boost to everyone including the elders in a family and putting aside the Bollywood drama everyone considers it a necessity. Media plays an active role in giving a very durable imprint to this ego and highlighting it without considering a fall or a rise in anyone’s status or family matters. Till date media has done more harm to the “fame” than good as far as projecting this scared institution is considered.

POLITICS:

A theory which deals with power and its overuse which brings extra ordinary fame either in positive or negative light. Right from college addas to husband wife relationships, agony aunts to bosses, politics is seen everywhere. And limiting one self’s knowledge to the overly ambitious and “useful” politicians of India is bad idea!

Politics is a phenomenon one addresses and experiences right from the lower kindergarten. Even if a kid is unaware of it then, later on in life he/she would re collect an incident which reminded them of politics. Going by the most common belief in India, politics is a gutter which no one really wishes to clean up. It is a perfect example of an oxymoron- amazingly pathetic and not only for an oxymoron it has defined many other figures of speech of the English language in an absolute perfect sense.

When the classification of living beings was done, the theory of politics was used there as well. Even the ants and bees have political brains though division of labour is the best terminology that fits there. But with the advent of who is to collect food and who is rest and lay eggs, the queen bee does rule to dictate her power.

Form the flyovers that we travel on, to the drinking water that helps us wash our buffalos, politicians have kept their word in doing a great deal of Politics happens to be the favourite pass time of media these days. When they have no better wonder like a human face fish or a Yeti to show, they come up with showing politicians rubbing off on each other with more bad than good.

Politics is India is majorly associated with the Leftists and Rights who are always busy bashing each other in public and doing little good work. However this is the current scenario as 60 odd years ago India was a free but divided state due to politics and the politicians. There was a little good work done there but the repercussions still exist and the current generations are facing its brunt.

This perfect opposition has created a balancing stand for media which has its perfect platform to be the Doberman instead of the “kutta” and create its own identity by being the cat who walks away with the cake when two monkeys fight over it. Though the media is bashed as well but people believe in the dirty politics played by the media against the politicians. The events or facts or even the minutest information shared by media is taken to be the inside story without inspecting for the truth.

INDIA:

India is the perfect conglomeration of various ethnic groups and cultures where communal harmony is an everyday habit. It is also a land of hypocrisy where communal violence if any is dealt with so much love that it leaves many civilians dead and others crippled for life.

India has always been a major country in the southern Asian peninsula and more than any other SAARC country it has had a major positive influence on other nations that is to say it has been less involved in either keeping terrorists as pay-in guests or bombing other countries for the sake of it. Not like India has been at its behavior best as she has been majorly involved with some of the crude war fares.

With slogans like “atithi devo bhava” and “God’s own country” it hasn’t been able to gather much positivity around it as many Scarlet Keelings get raped with every foreigner and tourist that comes to India is welcomed by testosterone high men who use their “tool” to think on seeing White people especially girls.

A country if not rich in resources but rich in culture, has over a period of time developed itself too much for any other poor nation (though it is a derogatory term and is not to be used as laid by the UN). Now India happens to be a developed country with great amount of self sufficiency even though it has a huge amount to pay off to the World Bank.

India is the house of varied gods and goddess who appear in various forms and have done a lot of good to their devotees. Religion in India is a major sensitive agenda and anyone including the media loves to finger it for their own good (mostly in monetary value). To the outside world India is that land of epitomic symbolism of goodness that no one dares to wish against her good will except for extreme orthodox groups which hold a long term unnecessary grudge and haven’t been able to move on.

India is shown by media in a number of ways both good and bad. Though for the media India is that golden goose which gives golden eggs everyday and media sells the eggs to the highest bidder. Gone are the days when India was the “sone ki chidiya” today it is a toy and less of a mother land to all those people who pledge that India is my country but can do anything to sell her off in a foreign market. All this is openly broadcasted by the media to fill its pockets and earn more than just the livelihood.

MOVEMENT- THE EVERYDAY SCENE

‘Parents bring children to witness “second” freedom struggle.’ This was one of the headlines of The Hindu, page 10, dated 22^nd August. This is what the Nation has come to. India, which has the largest Constitution in the world, has taken the utmost care to see to it that none of her citizens feel any agony and pain at any point of time. Due to this, 64 years ago the Constitution was drafted with a view that everyone would share equal rights.

NATION:

A nation is an area which has a fixed territorial border and a certain cultural and ethnic background. India has always had a fixed territorial demarcation with a certain exception to the ever disputed Kashmir and the now POK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir). India has always been horded with a huge array of cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity. Due to this a dictionary meaning of a nation is satisfied in this case.
The idea of a nation also comes from the people living in it. Hence the concept of society and community take a very strong upfront. When a community which comes out in the number of tens of thousands on streets and protests for a certain reason, it becomes a major concern for the government. Government which is an important part of a nation helps in protecting the rights of its citizens and keeps things under control. But what happens if the same government loses control? Who are the citizens supposed to turn to?
It is under these circumstances that the idea of a nation is the strongest. India being a democratic country gives its citizens certain rights. To raise a voice against the violation of the rights becomes a duty. Under the current scenario, where there is a huge nationwide protest to free the country off its corruption is a right that every citizen holds.
The movement lead by Kisan Babu Rao Hazare or Anna Hazare, is a huge movement comprising of various sects of people and sees the inclusion of political institutions like ABVP. It is for the first time that the opposition parties have bonded together to bring something very important under one roof. Everything in the power of citizens is being done to get the Lokpal Bill passed by the Parliament.
When talking about a nation, especially one like India which has a high population of youth and the most varied cultural ethnicity, it is a difficult idea to get people together. A place where discussions are made on every orthodox community and there is always a resent between them, a term like corruption becomes a binding factor.
But with the right to stage a protest also comes the duty to hold complete knowledge of the subject and to understand what is being fought for. Unfortunately in a place like India where people are given a limitless amount of power, the ego and the authority to do anything comes naturally to them. Due to this the current campaign sees its own problems. Assuming that at a given point of time there are about 2 lakh people in an area assembled to support the movement. If 10% of these people are taken into consideration and asked at least 5 points in the Lokpal Bill, they wouldn’t be able to answer all of them. Also how many people or supporters as they would like to call themselves, know that 16 conditions of the 20 have been accepted by the government and only 4 remain to be accepted?
The idea here is with power of the right, the responsibility of a duty is forgotten due to which people move on to terms like fasts for which the government has to budge and all this because India as a nation is a democratic country. Form this comes the idea of a nation as described in the notes where a nation is any place which has a fixed territory and holds its own governments, national emblem, national symbol etc.

QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT:

The most dramatic and large scale movements of India at the time of freedom struggle, the Quit India Movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi and turned out to be one of the most bloody and non violent movement, completely against the Gandhian principles. The Quit India Movement went bizarre due to many reasons. The absence of a leader (as the leaders were arrested as soon as the movement was put into force), the frustration of people due to the British and to see the country free against colonial rule made the movement bloody.
India is facing its second “freedom struggle” not against any foreign rule but against corruption which has been piled up by her own country’s politicians and bureaucrats which has gone so far that the margin between the rich and poor divide of the economic strata has widened beyond measures. The recent decade has seen a huge number of scams which got before the public a humongous amount of money that jaws had to drop and the need to raise a committee to keep a check on the unthinkable and extreme collection of money was needed.
When an ordinary social activist raised a hue and cry against this corruption and for a committee he had to face the sentence of the very same government who was so fiercely involved in spreading the corruption to every single corner of the country. Though different people hold different opinions about the movement, there was more than proof enough to see that something was hugely amiss with the current system of pattern of work and governance.
This movement has a leader and such a strong one that somewhere people have forgotten that there is a need to support the movement and not only the leader. The shout of slogans in support of Anna Hazare is not non ethical but the mention of his name which has become synonymous with anti corruption had gained more popularity. As a result of this any and every statement or talk by the leader is followed and are considered words of the wise. A leader who wishes to alter the boundaries of a certain system of democracy must know how he is altering the chain of thoughts of a huge mass of people and what is he leading them into. This becomes immensely important because the presence of a strong leader provides a huge communication barrier between people and the government and every word said by the leader(s) is only paid heed to.
Under such dire circumstances, a negative impact on people can also be put due to which the masses can be turned against the government in a negative way. The currengt campaign though against corruption is valid, but the disconnection between the citizens and government or the connection via the leaders of the movement is unethical as all the valid and ethical information is not being shared.
a country where democracy gives immense power to its people is where they misuse it and due to this disparity between the citizens continues. The campaign against corruption maybe right but its execution is wrong and its followers more so. The government can’t see its citizens dying and forcing the government to do so is just the biggest misuse of a right and the most horrendous abuse of a duty.