Total PageViews :

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

~~'Choice' is the name of life~~

How many of us
~~ wake up in the morning snoozing the alarm through another 5 minutes?
~~decide to postpone cleaning the desk for tomorrow?
~~leave exams to one-day batting?
~~don't get up ask doubts in the class?
~~choose to throw away stuff even if they work?
Choices...aren't they?

How does making these choices affect you ? It might leave you late to work or may be with more work-load....They just affect you , in a little way. The whole society chooses in this way. A bad choice might hurt for a while. If a society makes a bad choice it affects its citizens. But if the whole world is making bad choices, My, it affects in way isn't it?


We took a small example of buying vegetable in our HV discussion:

One can buy from a hi-fi 'Reliance-Fresh', or a local vendor who comes to every lane and makes his living, or from any other vegetable market (like Rythu Bazaar). Buying from

'Reliance Fresh' will surely provide you with comfort of AC and also the delight of vegetables and fruits looking fresh and bright, choice of taking as much as you require(Not quantized to kilos or dozens) , picking up even those goods which you might have forgotten on the way.

Well, if we go on and think about it deeply, does 'YOU' buying vegetables there make a difference to the owner. NO. Right? Does your choice is the choice of another person's livelihood? No, strange isnt it . I never thought that if I bought stuff from the local 'Bandhi-Wala' would actually help a man meet his bothe ends. Buying in Big Shops n Marts would anyway make no difference to the owner who already has plenty to feed his generations!

A/C 's and bright lights , shiny flooring are to make an appeal and attract the customer to buy there. But, did we ever realise that veggies at both these places are equally fresh? Probably the Bandhi-Wala sells better ones. Brands, Posh-ness of the shops, not only destroy are local markets but also use a lott of the country's resources in terms of power, and transport. Is it soo necessary that we need such luxuries to just buy daily veggies? Think again.

Now, one might say such bigg enterprises provide employment to its sales-persons.But, what were these people doing before the enterprise was set-up? They surely werent dying of huger, were they? They had their own ways of making their livelihood. Who would like to do a job where you stand for hours and are merely replacing a weighing machine, when you can yourself run a small shop atleast! Above all, a local vendor is an entreprenuer who sets prices by himself. But here at enterprises, they just have to work under someone all the time...

Moving to a large scale..Name one textile company which is purely Indian! We'd prefer a Reebok Shoe or a Lakhani one? Former. Right? Why are we running around brands? What is more important 'Hype' or 'Quality'?

YOUR CHOICE can make a difference. One cant change the world , but surely can change one's ways. Next time you go to buy something, think about it.Think about its quality. Think about how is it being produced? What are the resources used? How much of transport is being used? Am I helping a poor person make his livlihood? Am I contributing for my country's progress ? Think about it. Think for the society. Think for making a difference.

Friday, February 12, 2010

The NOT-SO ''beautiful''

REVIEW OF A SPEECH BY P.SAINATH, ON "GLOBALIZATION OF INEQUALITY" :
GOOSEBUMPS, accompanied me all throughout this video. And even a 'tinge' of bitterness. It took me an hour and a half to digest what I just heard. And probably more to reduce my temper and feeling of 'feeling sick'.

The title grabbed my attention. "Globalization Of Inequalities" . It was honestly, a striking title. I could decode it in two ways, One that inequalities are now Gobally prevelant. Second, Globalisation has lead to a considerable rise in inequalities. Which way? You have to decide.

First of all the '59 mins' , at the bottom of that window slunk my patience. Probably , you'll feel the same too :P. But still, it somehow started off. Suman sir asked us to write some points down. I tried scribbling somethings, but trust me. I hardly wrote a few words..I was gaping at the speaker!

The contrasting situations in the today's world was the essence of his talk, flavoured by striking examples almost of which I was highly unaware of. Starting with alarming situation in Vayanad ( I hope i spelt it rite) , where farmer's suicides have become an everyday's-news, he contrasted with the exposure of oppulence in the Metro city of Delhi, where theme wedddings (ONE acre of land---ONE Model of a monument---ONE wedding---for only ONE half of a day---spending so much money which I probably can't earn for ONE whole lifetime !). HUH. First rise in temper.

Unfolding 'The Seattle', he showed how , this heart-breaking incident had risen the indices of five major stock markets to their 'historic-high'. People rejoiced the leap , while the-affected suffered. One man's joy, another's life. The life's of the hundreds were meaningless to the stock market, yet they were meaningful in rising it. How?Smell of reconstruction dollars, he says. The greater the misery ,the better the stock exchange. How insane can that be?! Sensex, is the misery index, he says. He says with bitterness and sarcasm, that the generosity was deeply genuine, and was deeply appreciated by the fishermen who were wondering what to do with the 'neck-ties' given to them! Heights of insanity.
Forcibly destroying around 84,000 huts was a barbaric act, in Mumbai , of which I never heard of, till I saw this video. Why isn't it covered in the news?! The Govt. , a scared-cat as,their voting rights were also suspened. Heights of Injustice. Second rise of temper. Bitterness started. The saddest part was when a Bulldozer driver was feeling so bad to destroy their huts, but was forced to do it. I hate the Govt. Simply, hate it was the first thought which came to my mind. Bastards, our politicians are. There was a astonishing but true mail I had got a few years back. Where it quoted a question. "Which the organisation in our country, where 99% of its members involed in scams, 80% had illegal wealth, 96% involved in aqusition of Govt lands, them and their off-springs involving in murders, violation of human rights ,rapes , drugs and alcohol?" I was wondering.. After scrolling down, it said "The Parliament"
Generosity, had reached its essence when bed-nets had been sent to people who dint have beds. Globalisation of communicable diseases, he says. SARS had come into the news because it affected the ''beautiful" people. But severe cold which affected many 'old' and 'not-so-beautiful' people did'nt even make a bottom corner in the newspapers. Providing cheapest drugs for anti AIDS provided by an Indian company, was again intervened by the MNC's (in Pharmacy) and prices rose. And we wait to get placed in such MNC''s.
The top 20 % consumed EIGHTY-SIX % bottom 5% live using only 1.2% . These inequalities have been growing faster in the last 15 years , than the last FIFTY years . The top 20% of the world have doubled their net-worth in the last four years.Alarming such examples, he stated. Couldnt believe they almost shook me up, totally.

He ended his speech narrating the stunning story of Nero, an inhuman King, who burnt prisoners alive to provide light to a dinner-party to all kinds of people to win their hearts. I thought how could people stand and have dinner when others are dying of pain?! But when he said "WE are Nero's guests", I was taken aback. The whole speech dint strike me as much as this one line did. Yeah, YOU and I. WE are Nero's guests. We eat at not 42 rupees a kilo of rice, but at the cost of a farmer's death. At the cost of hundreds of hungry, working to reach the morsel to our mouths. INHUMAN, aren't we?



My first ''Love'' !

It happened probably 10 or 12 years back. He had a round face and even a round body.(His height was as much as his diameter!) His features were almost insignificant. His eyes were just two small dots and had two small unsymmetrical curves as his eye brows.His nose was jus one straight line just as his fingers. His lips were curved into a smile facing me. (Rather beaming at me).His big huge belly was somehow borne by two straight lines as his very very thin legs. Such a man could never probably exist. But it dint strike me then.And i dint care.HE was the man of my heart.My man of my imagination (then, not now :P). My first 'OWN' drawing.

Yeah, it was at that moment when I had my first love, trust me a life-long love of "ART". It just began with that drawing of a man at home (On my OWN), when i went and showed my mom. She was happy and must have said some great things about it(Probably, I must have been too stupid to believe them though). On and on it went. First drawing. Then crayon work, then water colours,then sketches,then pencil shading,then poster colours, and finally today i can (though not correctly) do some oil-painting too.It was probably the only thing loved doing as i spent the whole summer holidays of school life with my art books.

I had attended(In my 4th class) a few months classes with Dr.B.A.Reddy as my master where he never taught drawing. But brought it out of us. He gave simple topics like a 'play-ground','hide-n-seek','road-side-vendors','My pet'and i had to imagine and draw. I had to fill my own colours of my own choice. And after i finished he questions why did i draw it like this? why did i colour it like this ? And i had answers,somehow. It went on like that for about 6 months. Every weekend i used to go to his house where about 30-40 kids used to come too.I dont really remember how and why i left that institute (or rather his house) but i dint leave my love.Then i dint go for any classes for about 3 years.

But all those years , I has school work to do(Charts , crafts..). Then i came across another artist (art-teacher) Mrs. Alkalal.I had attened her classes again for about 6 months in 7th class, where she had a different stlye of teaching. She asked me to imagine how an object looks like when light falls on it. How and wat size of a shadow is created. How the shades differ.That was when i learnt how to shade. How magical colours were...How to merge colours...How tremondously beatiful this world was...Honeslty, painting taught me not only how to paint but also how to look at the world. It was a great vision this teacher had given me. Its not just painting on paper. It was the world i am painting!

After about 6 months , i had to leave her classes as i had began pounding on my acedamic career again by joing the well known (for seenu sir) Sharma institute. Then my art life began falling. Dint paint , dint even touch my paints for about many years. But again i kept my love alive. This time i started participating in many painting competitions.Which gave me confidence, ideas,time to paint and finally to keep my love alive! I had won plenty of prizes too!Appreciation was one more thing i found as a by product of art...It makes you happy and paint more too!

I have seen many people asking me ''where did you learn painting?'' .Trust me, it can never be 'taught'. It can just be guided, nutured and...believed in! The whole 'science' of fine arts must ideally deal with imagination and capturing it, not achieving perfection in shading and blending. A child need not be taught how to walk, he ll learn it by himself. Similarly here...One doesnt need to learn drawing and sketching. It is all in-built in each one of us...Encoded in our DNA!
Finally, I am just still one little peck among lakhs of artists across the world...I have a lott more to do and learn...But trust me , after all these years of painting i have learnt that doing something you love doing, for ur passion, to fuel ur love, makes it beautiful and magical...And above all, I have learnt that 'True Love' never dies !