Stanleys and Ishans of our world…!!

Watched the movie Stanley ka Dabba today, initially the movie reminded me of my good old days at school, the fun we had at school leading a very carefree life with no tensions of project deadlines and presentations. I was missing my school life all through out the movie but was also shaken a bit towards the end of the movie. I know we are in position so that we can choose our food and delicacies, but it really hurts when a kid has to struggle to get his food and is forced into child labor. I know everyone will say what am I doing for them, just by writing something is not going to change anything in their lives. But since I am not here to explain anything to anyone, I would like to keep my mouth shut on this, I am very well aware on what I am doing and I know from the core of my heart that it gives peace to my mind. But think of this, if we can really spare a bit of our leisure time to help them learn something about real life, that will really help them in being someone. the best way to do this is to do it anonymously and never expect a return from all this.

There are lots and lots of these kids around us losing their innocence of life in struggle of mere existence in this highly paced lives around them. Least we can do is to at-least stop and think about them even if we can’t so anything right now. If we start doing this now, who knows one day we may really do something to help them.

We the strange bunch of people..!!

We fellow Indians are really strange bunch of people. We may celebrate a cricket match win but will be skeptical in celebrating festival of other religions. We can question the quality of our teachers but will have full faith in our politician, just because he or she belongs to our own caste.

We can spend crores on safety and stay of a terrorist but can’t think about spending a single rupee on street child education. We would never go out of our comfy homes to vote but can sit and blame our government for hours over drinks. We can tolerate hundreds of Osamas but get irritated by one Medha Patkar.

We blame our politicians for all the mess around but never hesitate to go to one to get something done out of way. We may raise our eyebrows over garbage lying all around but will never give a second thought before throwing an empty water bottle out of our car window. We may reach office late due to our urgent work but other’s urgent work looks like lame excuse to us.

 We are hesitant in going to religious places but can have cocktail parties on every festival holiday. We love to speak English but feel a bit shy to speak our own mother tongue. We may not know what happens in our country but are aware of each and every bit of What happens in Vegas. We complain all the time about traffic jams but will never hesitate to drive in wrong lane beat it. We can complain about always rising price of petrol but can’t switch off our engines at traffic signals even if it means keeping engine on for more than few minutes. 

Although we as general public are still struggling for basic facilities like water, road and basic infrastructure but still we are happily paying our taxes without any resistance. We pay fine for late payment of our dues but are least bothered to fight back if we are charged by our service providers wrongly. We pay for an unlimited Internet connection but still accept the “fair usage policy” enforced upon us once a specific data limit is crossed. We pay full charges for booking a flight ticket at last moment but never demand any explanation if airline is delayed by few hours.

We really are a uniquely strange bunch of people…!!

Delhi nights and early mornings…!!

Any city always amazed me at nights. You can see the true colours of that city, the people inhibiting that place and if lucky you are in a position to praise both. This is my experience of several night outs and my experiments with Delhi, the capital city of India. And yes I am considering Delhi NCR while writing this.

 

Although I am a nomad but by far I was never able to appreciate the infrastructure of this city during the day time due to clutter and mess across the city and the food joints and places which are either too much fussy or too much crowded.

 

This myth of mine was broken when I started to venture out during late nights and early mornings in this city. The parathas, maggie and tea at roadside stalls near Ship building, Convergys building and near to Machan on Golf course road. Equally tasty was the food available near to CP. You can see people from everywhere eating it without any complains and enjoying the taste of it, the same people who would not even look at it during the day time.

 

These places are open till wee hours every day and are always full of people having fun there. I enjoyed these places across all the seasons, in the rains, in foggy nights and in windy summers seamlessly.

The roads which made me loose my temper everyday during day time looked very smooth and peaceful all of sudden at night. they looked more colourful and much more lively to me as if they were inviting me to explore them more and more.
Although there was not much of change in the scenario at both the toll gates on NH-8 (which became even worse due to that strange hike of Rs. 01 in toll fee) but still who cares when you are loving the city :)

Only thing which continued to irritate me was the manner in which people drive here. Somehow they love to drive on the wrong side of the roads (efforts to control those is again in progress by installing devices to deflate the tyers for these special breed of people) and those who are either impatient at traffic signals and are happy to jump the read lights risking their and everyone else’s lives.

 

But still the city kept on moving with its admirable pace. Even at 6.00 AM in the morning people were in rush to reach somewhere. To the airport, to their jobs or to meet someone special in their lives.

I met several people during these trips of mine, some drunk to the core, some sober, some rude, some careless, some in their own world, policemen who were rude, some who were happy to help . In all till date my experience encourages me to explore more and more of this mysterious city and know it better.

And the ever inviting roads remind me of these lines…
I have miles to go before I sleep again….

PS: Special thanks to Devesh Singh for allowing me to use his pictures :)