Blindness........

every day at around 5:45 pm, I catch a train home from Chinchwad Station, its a place in Pune where I've been doing my summer training for the past one and a half months. There, at the foot of the bridge, sits a small weighing machine, the ones you find on the platforms, but in place of all the flashy lights and the colorful graphics you'll find an old blind man trying to make a living. Every time he hears some people rush past him he shouts out "wajan kara" (thats marathi for check your weight) in a very rhythmic increasing tone. The weighing machine is tied to his toe, cant trust the world. he makes 1 rupee for every weight check, not much, but he is earning a dignified living, something far more expensive. Rather than begging he decided to do something.
sadly I never once saw his machine occupied.

This scene had become a daily routine for me . So I decided that on the last day of my training I will check my weight, even if it scared me. The last day arrived, However as I reached the station I saw him surrounded with people. Happy and content to see this I went to the platform with a smile. the train was 10 mins late (as usual).
While I was sitting there planing my next few days at home before college, a middle aged blind lady came to the platform. if it weren't for the red taped stick you wouldn't recognize that. I had seen her around a couple of times before. I think she worked there.
lets call her Hope.

so Hope kept walking in careful and confident strides, with her stick dancing in different directions, hitting objects, trying to make sense of her surroundings. She found a small bench like thing and tried to sit on it. It was actually a cement structure with sand and rubble every where. realizing this, Hope immediately got up and dusted her sari with force.
Her being blind did not compromise her right to a dignified living. so Hope started the search again. She came across a vase and tried to sit, but instantly recognized that plants and mud are not supposed to be a part of a 'dignified' bench.
Still determined she continued her expedition.

Then suddenly she changed course and started heading towards the end of the platform. the local was about to arrive on that track in a few minutes. All this while I was observing the scene from a distance thinking that some one will get up to help her, save her from falling, getting killed.... but none did. Hope got dangerously close to the edge and still people sitting only a few feet from her chose to comfortably ignore everything.

I couldn't see it any more so I ran up to her, grabbed her hand and took her to a nearby bench.
And then followed the stares, I could translate some of them "So you think you are too kind and smart huh? ..... what are you trying to prove kid... running like this....that we don't care.... I was just about to get up before you rushed in". I did get a few smiles though. it all felt like a scene from some Hindi movie. I enjoyed my few minutes of glory till the train arrived. I had left the lady on a bench crowded by other women passengers, hoping that they would help her get on the train.

The train arrived, I climbed and glanced back at the crowd.... a cocktail of immense rage and guilt overpowered me, she was still trying to find her way to the boogie. The other female passengers had abandoned her to catch the last few empty seats. Hope was now trying desperately to get a hold of someone, anyone, who could help her into the train. But all she got were nudges and desperate pushes. Finally she caught hold of a college girls bag and started following it, hoping that it would lead her in. But eventually she realized that the bag was running away from the train... the girl was trying to get to her boy friend who had come there to pick her. It was too late the train started moving and she couldn't climb, I shouted to a few people to help her, but no use.

I sat down with heavy heart, the guilt started to sulk in, I could have helped her, I could have gone home in the next train. its easy for me. but just imagine how many attempts she has to make to reach home every day, avoiding the casual brush with death.

You see Blind people go out into the world with this immense faith in humanity... a brand new hope..... everyday, that someone will be there to help them, today, some one will not let them fall off the platform, today, she will reach home on time...and alive..... today, the preachers of values and humanity to the world, will practice it too....
Thinking that, so what if we cant see, there are others who can.... who would not like to start their day with the visuals of blood and flesh on the tracks... they would save me, they care for their 'day'. all of them, working in their BIG I T companies wearing fancy I cards, listing to their I pods.....living in their sweet little I worlds. they wouldn't let anyone disturb it.

MY STAND ON: the OZ attacks

There has been a lot of hype about the recent oz attacks on the Indian students, the so called racist attacks. People here as usual have started questioning their morals and make misleading films on the same, but there is something quite not right with this.

first of all Let me start by saying that I, as an Indian, am totally appalled by the attacks on the Indian students in Australia, but I don’t think they can be termed as racist attacks. Racism is just an outcome of the other obvious anger the Australians have, the anger of some foreign national coming to their country and taking away their jobs. We should not forget that in the end it is their country, they pay taxes to live there. And anyways, we should be the last people to be offended by it, coz aren’t we doing the same thing in our country. Aren’t the Maharashtrians kicking out the north Indians for the same reasons?

And as far as racism is considered, there is something I need to say.
I have this theory on people, to analyze the mentality and mindset of a community, you should see the types of commercials that go around. Coz in the end these commercials are what influences them, to buy things and spend their hard earned money. So what type of commercials do we find in India.....…
Here is an example of a commercial currently being aired on the television

“He's the rugged type, with sculpted arm muscles. He rides a
motorcycle and wears a trendy tank top, wraparound sunglasses and
slicked-back hair. There's only one problem: His skin color dark. His
fair-skinned love interest won't even accept his offer of a rose. But
in this ad, the protagonist is able to buy a magic cream that will
change his status in life, turning his brown skin several shades
lighter and causing his beloved to swoon”.

The commercial of a well known fairness product (fair and handsome or something)
And not just fairness creams, these ads sell fruit juices to cement portraying exceedingly fair models and actors. From Bollywood to Tollywood (thats south Indian by the way) every where we have (need) "fair people". why this obsession with fairness. we are not supposed to be that fair, we are known for our brown color. so if we need to change it so desperately (coz fairness creams for guys is the limits), that means we must be very insecure of our dark complection
and if that is the case then how can we blame someone for discrimination?

a very shocking fact I recently found out was that most of the students who go there don't do so with the intension of obtaining quality education, rather to get a shot at getting a permanent resident ship. I thing it is nothing more than ironic that the country they so desperately want to leave behind has become the reason for their apathy.

As far as education is concerned, India has a fairly decent education system, from IITs to IIMs to AIIMS to NITs to a lot of good collages all of which have a very transparent and merit based selection procedure. Any hardworking and deserving student can get in to them and obtain world class education. I did…..
if education was really the reason they would have gone to the American universities or even European. Given the GRE or GMAT and gotten a good scholarship too, then why Australia.

so i don't think Indians have the moral high ground in this case. But as usual our Indian tendency to dramatize every thing and our birthright to teach the world some values and culture, will not allow us to let it be treated as anything more than sensible and rational anger.