Recently I had a mail in my inbox which caught my attention. It depicted the stark reality out there in the society. It made me think..gave me a jolt literally...how we build a cozy cocoon around ourselves and live hating all the trivial problems which we come across..but what about those who dwell in a real world of problems...that is "The fallen Tomato cart" here..read

The fallen Tomato Cart

I pass through this very intersection every morning with so much ease. Today, the pace is skewed. There is a sense of disarray as motorists try to push past each other through the traffic light. The light here always tests their agility because if you miss the green, you have to wait for another three minutes before it lets you go past again. Those three minutes become eternity for an otherwise time-insensitive nation on the move. Today, there is a sense of chaos here. People are honking, skirting each other and rushing past. I look out of my window to seek the reason. It is not difficult to find because it is lying strewn all over the place.

A tomato seller’s cart has overturned. There are tomatoes everywhere and the rushing motorists are making pulp of it. The man is trying to get his cart back on its four rickety wheels and a few passersby are picking up what they can in an attempt to save him total loss. Though symbolic in the larger scheme of things, it is not a substantive gesture. His business for the day is over.

The way this man’s economics works is very simple. There is a money lender who lends him money for just one day, at an interest rate of Rs 10 per day per Rs 100 lent. With the money, he wakes up at 4 am to go to the wholesale market for vegetables. He returns, pushing his cart a good five miles, and by 7 am when the locality wakes up, he is ready to sell his day’s merchandise. By the end of the morning, some of it remains unsold. This his wife sells by the afternoon and takes home the remainder, which becomes part of his meal. With the day’s proceeds, he returns the interest to the money lender and goes back to the routine the next day. If he does not sell for a day, his chain breaks.

Where does he go from here? He goes back to the money lender, raises capital at an even more penal interest and gets back on his feet. This is not the only time that destiny has upset his tomato cart. This happens to him at least six times every year. Once he returned with a loaded cart of ripe tomatoes and it rained heavily for the next three days. No one came to the market and his stock rotted in front of his own eyes. Another time, instead of the weather, it was a political rally that snowballed into a confrontation between two rival groups and the locality closed down. And he is not alone in this game of extraneous factors that seize not only his business but also his life. He sees this happen to the “gol-gappa” seller, the peanut seller and the “vada pao” seller all the time. When their product does not sell, it just turns soggy. Sometimes they eat some of it. But how much of that stuff can you eat by yourself ? So, they just give away some and there is always that one time when they have to simply throw it away.

Away from the street-vendor selling perishable commodity with little or no life support system, the corporate world is an altogether different place. Here we have some of the most educated people in the country. We don the best garbs. We do not have to push carts; our carts push us. We have our salary, perquisites, bonuses, stock options, gratuities, pensions and our medical insurance and the group accident benefit schemes. Yet, all the while, we worry about our risks and think about our professional insecurity. We wonder, what would happen if the company shifted offices to another city? What would happen if the department closed down? What would happen if you were to take maternity leave and the temporary substitute delivered better work than you did? What would happen if the product line you are dealing with simply failed? In any of those eventualities, the worst that could happen would still be a lot less than having to see your cartful of tomatoes getting pulped under the screeching wheels of absolute strangers who have nothing personal against you.

All too often we exaggerate our risks. We keep justifying our professional concerns till they trap us in their vicious downward spiral. Devoid of education, sophisticated reasoning and any financial safety net, the man with the cart is often able to deal with life much better than many of us. Is it time to look out of the window, into the eyes of that man to ask him, where does he get it from? In his simple stoicism, is probably, our lost resilience. Think over it.

Social work!

Me, Vivek were chatting the other day. One thing lead to other and we ended up talking about giving back something to society. I have had so many thoughts about this. I always wanted to take up something to do good for the society. I think everyone who is in staying out of country should adopt a small town or their hometown and do something for betterment of the village/town. It's always better to start with education, which can solve many problems. I have some ideas of setting up a school in my hometown where people can join in for free (or a nominal fees), give them all facilities of a good school - good education, good reading facilities, games are nominal. I think I have also idea of raising funds for this cause by publicizing the cause and letting all my friends know and hopefully they would come to help out. Again, I firmly believe the transformation of the society has to start from every person/ every house. Lets not think how could make a difference, lets have a satisfaction of doing something better to a village/town. Every person thinking this way could bring a sea-change. I also think it is more than just writing blogs, but having ideas makes difference. This kind of thing needs help/initiation from all quarters and all people from society. I also think person cannot think of the society until he has everything all right financially at home.

Another thing that our society is lacking is proper health care, I am not talking of preventive health care, I am just saying the basic health facilities. Many people from small towns have to come to a bigger one to get basic diagnosis of most common ailments like cold/cough/fever etc., Another idea is to convince the doctors from a bigger town to take a day off to that small village on a turn basis and provide them with some kind of health camp on a periodic basis. I have come across an organisation of this kind from my place which has few doctors as its members, who periodically take turns to visit nearby villages. This organisation is called Seva Bharathi .

I had an opportunity to talk to inmates of on of their affection homes(they prefer to call this to Orphanages). I was there to feed all the people on the occasion of my dad's 13th day. It was a wonderful experience. We (my brothers, cousins, nephews) served them and that scene reminds me everytime I waste any food. There are people out there who need food really bad and we sitting here wasting it. Then after they finish their dinner they would fold their hands to say "Thank you!", I was almost into tears. That whole incident made my intentions clear about what I am going to do in what I can in near future. Never get discouraged by how much you are contributing, you dont have to always do contribute financially, give them some of your free time to teach. I call upon everyone to change their attitude toward your home and try to give it back something you got so much from!! something to think about !!

Theist - Atheist

I do chat a lot with my friends..its a kind of obsession for me to chat daily with someone or the other. Its no surprise that most often I'll be chatting if I am with my laptop. Recently I was chatting with one of my friends when we came across this topic in our discussion. She said that she believes in God even when their family members do not actually believe in idol worship. I said I dont believe in God and things like idol worship. I questioned the rationality behind her believing in God. I asked why ? This sparked off a discussion between us. We shared some views on the topic which I am writing here. She says that she needs someone to believe in ...some kind of power where she can believe in times of distress. While I never believed in any kind of deity even though I believed in my religion. I was never a ritualistic person. Later she told me that there are organisations like Nastika Kendram etc. in Andhra Pradesh which do experiments on things like presence of GOD etc. They also do social activities, I came to know from her. Then I sat down to do my part of research in this aspect and searched on Google to find out more about such organisations. While doing this I found some interesting things on web. Some of them are regarding the debate between atheists and theists. They first thing to be thought over is why atheists are arguing with theists about the existence of God. Is it for converting them into atheism or just winning over a argument. I just couldnt understand. I just dont believe in worship thats all.

How Internet changed my life!

I saw this discussion on rediff.com where people were discussing how has internet changed their lives (if at all it has!). That lead me to a thoughtful idea of writing the same here in my blog too. First a prelude, I have been using the internet forover 7-8 years. In the beginning it was more for just emails checking, sending and then slowly I started chat. There was a time I used to think internet was like drugs, but then I wasnt aware what can be achieved through I. Then I came to US where I started to use games, chat, songs on I. After that I actually started to use it for worthy causes. I started to believe Google, Amazon, eBay are the best things that happened to us on I. They can be ranked the best thing that changed the World.

Now, If I dont have a hig speed internet, I think I am handicapped. I spend most of my time on I. Following are the things which speak of themselves how I changed my life

• Google is my home page (speaks volumes for itself)
• Whenever I need to buy anything, first thing I do is go to Amazon.com and search for it.
• I am more comfortable shopping at home online than go B&M shopping
• I do use it alot for getting my lot of office work done
• Google helped me survive my first job
• I learnt lot of SQL Server skills all online
• I found Kamal Hasan- starrer- Mahanadi Songs online when I couldnt get them anywhere

Following are few crazy things that happened to my acquaintances using I

• Ravi Vummagoni got a contact for a Visa Appointment broker using Google (unthinkable for me!)
• Boti's dad almost finished his Ph.d in Pharmacy

I was also wondering what if google is made Paid-Site? I cant imagine that, if it all, I will one of the biggest payer for that site (LOL!!!)

Vivek, do you want contribute anything on this. I am sure you have tons of stories.

See the other side

I am here to write my opinion about what Vivek wrote about!

It is almost the same way I used to think when I came to USoA. I do agree to many of them but now I think in a different way. All the way I have learnt to see the Good part of anything now. Well, Vivek you were saying why people come here leaving near and dear, I would say you should ask the same question to yourself. Lemme tell you why I am here, when I failed miserably in GATE and couldn't make it in IIT for Masters' I decided the same day that I should writing GRE (Thanks to Vishy for his timely advice!). So I am here not by choice by chance and as a last resort, but I am sure going back to India sooner/later.

You were also talking about many things being the other way round here. Guess what, did you ever think a boy/lad born and brought here visits Hyderbad for a vacation and he feels the same way you did, simply because he is so used to see the steering on left of car and driving on right of road all his life and now all of sudden he sees the things the other way. And what do you expect him to say "hell, World is the other way here!".[Also, did you know we are the minority when it comes to people who drive on to left of road]. So it is the matter of habit.

As you mentioned about the civic sense the people here, there are other good things about this country.

• People are indiviualistic here and we are social in India. Social life is good until it becomes too much that we want our privacy back. They love for being what they are. They are so independent in their thinking from their childhood, I like that. You have that independence that you could do what you like. The best part these are not hypocrites.
• I call these people are the best managers in the world, that they never manufacture anything and all they do market the stuff. And at this rate, I anticipate that there will be no manufacturing in this country soon.
• I love the way these people have love for technology and common sense, I see they use a lot of technology to make their lives easier or be it putting the trash can near the creamer/sugar table in starbucks coffee rather than placing it away [affordability and availability are the key!]
• I also like the way they make comfortable by standardizing the stuff around. I meant say that they have universalisation of many of the daily things we use, that is not there in our country. [I cant think of an example]
• availability of resources be it books/musical instruments or any kinds of hobbies. They have it all.

that's all I can think of now. Also leads me to ask you a question, why in general the youth in Hyderbad want to come here other than doing Masters' here.

It's an absurd world out here...

I'm writing this post not to spit out my feelings but to show my angst against America..the USA. Its really a mad mad world out here. One question puzzled me all through my life till now..why people come here leaving all those close buddies, their families...I think I will never understand why??? Is it money, luxury or the freedom to be away..far away?? Well definitely travelling makes a person wise but that shouldn't be at the cost of one's motherland. Anyway thats what I think...but to say US is a big bundle of contradictions..the only thing which keeps it high is the wealth it has...the way people pay taxes here is highly commendable. And the road discipline..aah its wonderful. The first time I crossed a road in US was while I was returning home from college. I started crossing the road as I used to do in India..a car was coming towards me so I stopped for it to pass by, the driver too stopped. I didnt understand why he stopped so I went behind the car and crossed. All the while he was seeing me strangely, later I came to know that he stopped for me to cross. This is the amount of discipline they have on roads. If we Indians have such civic sense then I firmly believeour place would see a sea change. Now coming to the not-so-good things in US indeed mad things I came across here. Almost everything you find here is the complete opposite of what you find anywhere else on the planet earth. So here they are...

• The road rules are opposite..everyone knows..so cars with steerings on left!!
• English grammar is awful
• Spellings are different
• Door knobs..other way round
• Taps open other way round
• Nothing made in America but branded in America...and we buy cheap things at exhobitant price tags
• The way people hold a pen or a pencil is entirely different..funny if you people have observed. Donno what makes them hold it so awkwardly
• Switches are upside down
• Doors of refrigerators, ovens....everything is opposite
• They wage wars for peace..ha funny

Cant say more..list goes on..its endless. Donno why the people have such an attitude of making rules for themselves. Really its mad. But still people cling to this nation of contradictions like bees stuck to nectar. This is a land of contradictions. Better not get lost here. I dream of a day when all Indians living in America are back in India and put in their effort, then that will be a day when India will emerge a superpower. Any answers people reading this..comments are welcome.

The Begining...

Me, Vivek were chatting on a casual day and we started off talking about his profile on blogspot, I told him that it is too much of him :-), he was all laughing about that. Once I read his profile I did think that more and more we both think alike. And it struck to us why not team up and share a blog and write about something. This was more important - something. We have not yet decided what to write. So I took the initiative of writting how it all began. Hope many more things to come in near future. We represent two different chronological times. I represent late 70's and he represents mid 80's. And we thought this is a perfect blend of thinking to speak out/opine on any kind of topic. Hope this turn out to fun.