Sunday 29 April 2012

The (un)ordinariness of Mumbai:

A girl in a very short skirt and high boots walked down the crowded streets of Dadar nonchalantly. None of the street vendors who were sitting on the road even looked up to see her pass.
This was a scene way back in 1992, which as an outsider visiting the city had fired my imagination. Freedom to live life the way I wanted it seemed to be here in Mumbai. It took me around 15 years since then to finally find my way into this city. But when I came here I saw a city which was fraying at the edges and its people edgy and guarded. The riots of 1992 and a series of disasters after that had completely changed the fabric of the city. And post the economic boom of the 90s, people started flooding in leading to overcrowding, traffic, too many buildings, chaos, cheating and callousness. Like Elizabeth Gilbert mentions in her book Eat Pray Love, the word that described Mumbai had shifted from ‘carefree’ to ‘struggle’ over these years.  That scene and that carefree world is nowhere to be found anymore.
But despite that, Mumbai continues to hold its lure on many people, a pull which only an outsider like me will ever understand. The city still has the innate ability to draw you in, make you dream and virtually spin you around till it decides that it’s okay with you. The moment the city accepts you, it lets you be and lets you find your own warm corner or space.
And in the daily chaos and humdrum of regular life, you can still find hidden the warmth and remnants of a carefree life. A taxi driver who at 2 am will take the straight route to your home and quietly wake you up on reaching the destination;  a guy who will continue to hold his girlfriend’s hand standing by the door till the train picks up speed;  an old man who will buy a packet of Parle G everyday and feed the society dogs; a commuter who hurrying to catch a train stops to make sure that the tiny kitten is out of harm’s way; five hands that reaches out to pull the person trying to board a running train; or an auto wala who will defy the strike and backlash to ferry somebody in dire need.
One evening, I was waiting for the three young girls dressed in salwar kurta to get down from the auto. It was apparent that they were excited about something. After I sat down, one of them shyly told the auto driver to give her a call. A quick exchange of phone numbers and names happened post which they went away giggling.
I smiled to myself thinking of a possible romance unfolding. In a seemingly unfeeling city, perhaps all is not really lost.   

Sunday 15 April 2012

Living ‘inside’ the Earth:

I am not too fond of children. I would rather they stay at other people’s homes. Yet even I agree that all children should be given education, which will give them an opportunity to explore possibilities in their lives in future.
For the government saddled with various issues, education is the softest one because there is no controversy or opposition attached to it. All CSOs, citizens, officials, media, world are on the same platform. Yet it took the government more than 60 years to get it right.
Well almost.
The SC’s upholding of 25% reservation of seats across all schools under RTE (Right to Education Act) is being touted as historic by many and is also being seen as ‘the great leveler’. I am going to take a lot of flak from many people for saying this – but forcing 25% reservation in all schools for economically and socially poor students will not lead to equality.  
Social and economic equality as far as I see, exists in a utopian world....in the world of Any Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and not in the current world as we know it. There will always be rich and poor, intelligent and dumb, smart and lazy, powerful and marginalised people. Forcing one on the other in order to gain equality on paper is so not equal or even fair. All idealistic Communist countries have also failed terribly in this aspect.
Like Gandhi calling untouchables Harijan, like reserving jobs for SCs and STs, even this might lead to more widening of the gap than before (apart from creating monetary and social peer pressures on both sides). And though this seems like a good excuse for the government to shrug off responsibility in the urban areas, what about creating opportunity of good education for children in rural India where most villages have access to only government schools? And what about the rest of the 75% in urban areas?
 I have been to government schools in Mumbai where Std 8 students have told me that all living beings live ‘inside’ the Earth. So when a rocket is set off, the Earth parts and it goes into the sky! I have heard teachers explain to the students that only one Emperor Penguin lays an egg and the rest huddles to give that egg warmth!
Like all great laws of India, the RTE (Right to Education) also seems excellent on paper and has the possibility of turning things around if implemented correctly. But with school teachers who cannot spell BLACK, the future of the children with or without RTE does not seem too bright and with that the future of the country too.  
Because half education I feel is far more dangerous than no education at all.

Friday 6 April 2012

Nature of Greed:

At what point in our lives do we say – that’s enough? 
Is it after you get your first house or going by the rate of inflation now, your second house? Or is it after you’ve stuffed your wardrobe with Gucci bags, Jimmy Choo shoes and Paris Hilton perfumes (eww!)? Or is it after your tenth trip to Milan or London just to buy certain products available there? 
I know of people who run up to Rs. 20,000 in credit card bills every month and still crib that they don’t have any money. I also know of people who own two or more loan free houses in Mumbai or Delhi and still say that they don’t have anything.  
A few years back, when I decided to move out of corporate life and take the plunge into social sector, I took up a job which paid me barely enough to meet my expenses (like rent, monthly household items, travel to office and saving Rs. 1000/- per month). I lived for a year without buying a single piece of new cloth, shoes or anything else for that matter and piled on my friends who happily (or so I would like to believe) took me out for movies and dinner. I would not like to go back to that stage of life (financially) ever, but those months made me realise how far ahead we have gone in pursuing superficial stuffs and in our greed to accumulate.
My work thereafter has taken me to many villages, some even in remote areas. Strangely, I have found that the poorer a community is, the more generous they are. If they don’t have milk, they will serve you black tea. If they don’t have tea leaves, they will collect money and get you a soft drink. They might not have bed to sleep but they will make sure you don’t sit on the naked floor. They might not get full ration from the ration shop but they will make sure you eat a hearty meal. And if anything catches your fancy like a piece of handicraft, cloth etc, they will immediately take it down and shove it in your hands to take home.
One foreign delegate visiting us had once asked me – why is that the city people are so serious and unhappy and these (village) folks are always smiling. Shouldn’t it be the other way round? 
When do we take a real DEEP look at ourselves and try and answer that question honestly.