The Kid On a Traffic Signal

 

I have a few memories of the time when I was a kid and used to go to school on a ‘school rickshaw’ in my small hometown. It was a manually pulled rickshaw, with specially made wooden trailer, where four or five kids used to sit facing each other in each of the two parallel rows. I think I still have some glimpses of the rickshaw-wallah who used to service our school-rickshaw. He was dark skinned, had nice hair, and was very talkative. And how the roof of the rickshaw was made of “tin” like metal which used to make sound whenever the rickshaw moved or came across a jerk! When railway ‘gumti’ (level crossing gate) came, a couple of boys used to get down and push the rickshaw so that it could ride the small hill called the ‘railway gumti’. We also enjoyed the other side of it, when the rickshaw rolled down at high speed due to the slope.

Recently, after many-many years, I had stopped at a traffic signal and noticed that there was a ‘school van’ standing besides me. I think it was a yellow colored ‘Tata Magic’ vehicle which is popular as a school van these days. There was a kid sitting near a window, perhaps a boy, and he happened to observe the vehicles who were stopping at the red traffic light and said to his friend in Hindi, “Jo log imaandaar hote hain, wo rukte hain” (Those who are honest, follow the traffic rules and stop when the signal is red). His statement instantly went deep inside my heart.

The kid had thought that stopping at a traffic signal was a conscious choice of riders which could tell about the person’s integrity. This was such a touching thought. I think after growing up, today I believe that most of the people who do not stop at traffic signals do so because of general carelessness and disregard to the traffic rules, irrespective of their personal integrity. Although I stop at traffic signals most of the times, but the boy’s statement made me reflect on several occasions when I did not. I did feel a little embarrassed. I was not aware that if I did not stop at a traffic signal, a kid could be watching and judging me, thinking that I was not an honest person.

The way the innocent kid pronounced the long word “imaandaar” in Hindi still wanders in mind when I think about the incident. May the magical thing called childhood be always enjoyed by all kids everywhere, in all times and places.

- Rahul

Cow, in the Middle of the Road

 

While going somewhere in my hometown, I came across an interesting scene which made me wonder. In the middle of the road, unfazed by the passing traffic, a cow had started feeding a calf. The cow was totally white while the calf was totally black; but it was possible that it was her own child. I was in awe with the cow’s courage, or her lack of bother for ‘external validation’ (if such a thing exists in animal world too), that it decided that the calf needed to be fed then and there because it was hungry.

At the same time, I felt disgusted at the owners of the cows who force them to wander on the streets and eat whatever they can scavenge, just to save some money. This happens only in the towns and cities and not in the villages where there is plenty of free natural fodder available.

There is a very popular idol of a cow feeding her calf which is considered sacred in Hinduism. Cows are associated with many gods in Hinduism, along with Shri Krishna who acted as a cowherd in childhood. But I never imagined I would come across the sacred cow feeding her calf in such a modern context: in the middle of the road.

May the cow and her calf enjoy a happy long life, always.

- Rahul

Travelogue: Delhi Airport (Terminal 3)

 

Travelogue: Area around Patna (Bihar) in Rainy Season from an Airplane

 

Travelogue: Night View of City from an Airplane

 

Stray Dogs Menace in India: Why Everyone Should Cooperate and Rid Our Streets from Dogs

 

Currently, there is a huge outrage in India over the increasing population of stray dogs, increasing dog bite cases and deaths due to rabies. Supreme Court of India has taken Suo moto cognizance of this problem in Delhi after which hell has broken loose and from media to common people, everyone is discussing this subject. Here are few of the points I want to mention about this issue.

Disclaimer: I love stray dogs, especially pups and if you read my blogs, you would know; otherwise also it is fine.

1. There are many people who are saying that they do not have any problem with stray dogs and stray dogs have never bitten them. But it is important to note that the most common victims of stray dogs are small children, old men and women, poor people, ragpickers, maidservants and beggars. We need to think about welfare of these vulnerable groups of people instead of our own feelings about this issue.

2. Population of stray dogs increases because of easy availability of food on the streets. India is plagued with general lack of hygiene in public spaces and hence it has created this situation where there is huge quantity of food is available for dogs, cats, insects, pests, etc on the roadsides and in the garbage thrown everywhere around.

3. Due to the above reason, people who go out on the streets to feed stray dogs are actually being foolish. It is an invitation for stray dogs to exist in areas where they do not find enough garbage. If dogs are dependent on their artificial feeding, what will the dogs do on the days these people do not go out to feed the dogs?

4. Because of easy availability of garbage and leftover food, dogs’ population is expected to keep increasing exponentially. It is important to understand that stray dog population will increase “exponentially”, just like any species population. And hence, a point will come when things go out of hand and mass culling of dogs will be needed. Hence, it is important to manage this problem before things go out of hand.

5. Municipal corporations in many cities spend lakhs and crores of rupees doing forced sterilization of dogs, which is expensive; since the same money could rather be used for better purposes, like feeding homeless people or educating children of the poor. No amount of sterilization will be able to control dogs’ population if it keeps rising exponentially. 20 years of population control through sterilization can be undone in 5 years if sterilization is stopped. Hence, sterilization is not a sustainable or permanent solution to this menace.

6. Many people are calling for pet keepers to adopt stray dogs, but this is not going to be widely popular because people keep dogs of foreign breeds for status-symbol purpose and most of them won’t keep local stray dogs because the purpose they keep dogs is not for charity but for amusement and companionship.

7. Since the matter has reached the Supreme Court which has already ordered all stray dogs to be captured and sheltered, everyone should cooperate, and municipal corporation of Delhi should obey the order religiously and leave not a single stray dog on the streets.

8. Govt should make a law that if anyone abandons their pet dogs on the street, the dog owners will be sent to jail.

9. Municipal corporations all across India should use mix of sheltering and sterilization of dogs to reduce the population of stray dogs to zero.

10. After stray dogs population will be reduced to zero, population of stray cats will rise, and municipal corporations must ensure good cleanliness of localities in order to avoid us getting into a similar stray cats’ catastrophe.

- Rahul Tiwary

To Speak or Not to Speak is the Question: The Marital Fraud Conundrum

 

Everyone comes across frauds at some point of time or the other. In this world, there are cheats, there are liars, there are backstabbers, and there are frauds of all kinds. But if we come across a fraud who takes away only objects and things from us, we are lucky. Worst kinds of frauds are those who take away the very essence of what constitutes us – a part of our life. I am talking about marital frauds.

There are people from both genders, who marry only for money. If they marry for money but still be with you, it is still a win-win. If they marry you but steal only money and objects from you, you are still lucky. But what if they marry and then take away part of your family – how can you cope with that? You feel incomplete forever. Marital frauds are the worse kind of inhumanity on earth.

When something like this happens to you, you find it very difficult to keep it all together. Would you still have faith in the goodness of this world? Would you still be able to trust others? Would you still have faith in the institutions you have trusted and revered all through your life? Will you still be looking at the roses and not the thorns? It is one thing to be left to die. But if you are victim of a marital fraud, your every living moment is hell. You wish every moment that you better die and then perhaps this endless pain stops.

There is a term called “heartbreak”, which we do not understand until we go through it. Every boy experiences it in his teenage, when they realise that the girl they though was the prettiest in the world does not love them. Then if your friend ignores you, or someone you respected abandons you. All these are nothing when compared to if your spouse defrauds you.

I remember coverage of Raja Raghuvanshi on Times Now Navbharat channel. This TV news channel has a wonderful host named Sushant Sinha. He was telling about this crime and when he came to the point where Raja Raghuvanshi’s wife asked her friends to kill him, he described the moment in a very touching manner. He asked to imagine how Raja would have felt when he realized that his very loving wife was getting him killed. At that moment, would he think of saving himself or be pained with the reality of his wife? That was heartbreaking and beyond it altogether. I would say Raja Raghuvanshi was very lucky that he departed. He would have found it more difficult to live with the true identity of his wife he so loved.

While marital frauds destroy the very fabric of our soul, sadly, there are no laws and institutions to give us justice once we are its victims. There is no surprise that so many people can’t come to terms with it and just give up. Everything has a breaking point.

The worse part of it is that this is not a legal problem to solve. This is not even a social problem for all – because it does not happen with everyone. Those who are at its receiving end suffer mostly in silence. They are silent because they fear ridicule if they speak up.

Hence the title: to speak, or not to speak, is the question.

- Rahul

A Saint from the Internet

 

I know many people have very low opinion of those who watch or enjoy ‘Bigg Boss’ TV show. But I happened to watch and follow last season’s beginning and later episodes and hence became well versed with it. If you followed it too, you would have found one participant of the show, his name was Afreen Khan if I remember correctly. He was introduced as a “life coach”. The producers of the show thought it was worthwhile to explain to the audience what a “life coach” does, and hence they consumed many hours around the same theme. Luckily, I had come across one such man claiming to be “life coach” on the internet before this Bigg Boss happened, and hence I was aware of it.

I had happened to find one “life coach” on the internet. Initially I had mistaken him for another man I used to follow many years ago on Orkut, but later realized he was a different person. Now, this person was an author – he had just published a book at the time I started following him. You can guess the topic of the book – it was motivational – in line with his “life coach” badge. Reading about him, I got to know that he had a family business in manufacturing which he had joined and was devoting his life to it, until one day he met with a road accident and took time to recover. After surviving the accident, he quit managing his business as a full time executive, hired employees to manage everything, and just overlooked the work as an owner. Instead of doing real work, now for many years or decades, he was just focusing on his health and wellness. He used to tour around the world along with his wife, took very nice wild life photographs with his expensive camera, and had a knack for writing and hence he used to write all through the day on the internet. The topics of his writings were about teaching people what to prioritize in life and what to focus on – which was health, peace of mind and family life. It was pretty basic stuff – he was preaching what he was practicing. I was impressed and fascinated with his writings and things he was doing.

Given that he was a life coach and a writer of motivational stuff, he used to always preach others on how to speak, how to behave, how to dress, how to manage money, etc. Hence, I chose the title of this blog post as “a saint from the internet”. Everything was going on well and many months or more than a year passed, when suddenly I discovered a new face of his.

Once he had written about something, praising some people who were doing something, and I felt differently and hence I posted a comment mentioning my disagreement and futility of what he was appreciating. I received a terse reply from him within a minute! He did not use any bad words but just used “sarcasm” to ridicule what I had said. I was taken aback, since I was not expecting such a response from “a saint from the internet”.

Exactly same behaviour repeated afterwards whenever I posted anything in criticism. Through his terse replies, he had made it clear that he did not like what I said (i.e. he did not like me expressing what I did not like). At the same time, he never used any bad words, or did not block/ban me, which was a relief. Since I understood that he did not like criticism, I almost stopped writing any comments/replies on his posts. I even avoided writing comments in appreciation, because naturally, if he did not want both good and bad from me, then he did not deserve anything from me.

Many times I did not like what he said but stopped myself from writing any comment in criticism, fearing his reaction. But after a year or so, this morning I once again posted a comment in disagreement with what he had written. Again, within a minute, his sarcastic reply came. He did not change!

The reason why I am writing this blog post is to send a central message that the “saint from the internet” was not really a saint but just a human being who had learnt to tell nice things to others. He had projected an image of being a very successful businessman (while he had already quit his full-time job), a man in total self-control and a role model to follow for others (while he snapped at every single criticism like his deck of cards were to fall down with a single gush of wind). He was living in a make-belief world, and I decided I was done with him.

I know it is pretty common for people to be very protective of their writings or ideas and to get upset whenever someone criticises them. But they do not claim to be saints, or life-coaches! If one is putting himself on a high pedestal of being a life coach and a motivational writer, one has to also practice a bit of self-control and show some tolerance and empathy. I have seen many people who are not very brilliant or geniuses at what they do – but they are more tolerant and accepting of criticism, and such a maturity is often rated more highly over other forms of excellence.

As I shall let him go down my forgettable memory lane, I would take away a lesson from his life. It is better to be a human who does mistakes, than to be a saint who shouts at any finger that points at one's mistakes.

- Rahul Tiwary

Death of an Influencer

 

Recently, a very popular Indian social media influencer died due to an ailment. He was a meme creator and a photoshop artist. He went by a pseudo name on social media platforms and had used a profile picture which showed his face only partially but gave away his age and fitness to a certain extent. I had come across his posts many years ago, and although I suspect I could have interacted/commented on his posts a few times many years ago, now I don’t have any memory of any interaction with him.

After news of his death came, his fans and other social media users started mourning his death. There was a huge shock and disbelieve among people, though all newspapers had published about the death. People were horrified with the news; perhaps many even cried. He was still young, to make it worse, newspapers told he was only in his late 20s. After reading people’s posts, I understood that they did not know how to cope up with this news. This brings into my memory my first experience of coming across such a news: death of an influencer.

I used to write blog posts, and there was a very popular blogger who wrote mainly on politics. I shared his political inclinations too and I understood that he was a senior person while I was only in college. I quickly began to look up to him and was fascinated by his knowledge and understanding. I remember he adored me too, like his younger brother. A few times he would write comments to guide me or enlighten me on political topics, since I was really a novice back then. He had an image of Bhagwan Ram carrying a Dhanush Kaman as his profile picture, since those were the days of post-Ram Janmbhumi Andolan and perhaps he was inspired by the movement. Both of us had a few common connections (bloggers) who we mutually respected and I remember once another blogger said to me, “Oh, you are also a Ram Bhakt” and I took it as a huge compliment because I knew she was a big fan of that senior blogger and I was flattered because she had counted me in the same league of Ram Bhakts.

After many years, the blogging platform looked deserted since most people migrated to social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and after a gap of few years once I found him on a platform. He was very popular there too and I realized he had entered politics by that time as I understood he assisted some politician in Haryana.

Once he gave me his phone number, asking not to share it with anyone else (since he was in politics) and he asked me to call him and meet him whenever I was in Delhi. Once a common connection had tried to call him for a get together but he was not available. Afterwards, I visited Delhi few times without remembering to meet him and then once finally I thought to call him. Now I don’t have exact memory if I did call him or if my call did not get through or what happened. But I remember that I tried to check his blog and social media accounts to check on him and I came to know that he had died a year or few years back due to an illness. I guess he must be in his late 50s or early 60s or somewhere in his 60s when he died. His daughter had posted using his social media account about his death. I was shocked for many days and I remember I did not know how to process that news.

How to mourn the death of a person you never met but have only read his writings on the internet? You have never met him, so you don’t have his images and pictures in your mind. You have never heard his voice, so you can’t recall what he said and how he said it. With passage of time, you do not remember even his exact blog posts or writings. All you can garner are glimpses of his posts and some broad category of topics which he chose to write on. I don’t think human brain has evolved to fully connect with totally virtual experiences. Or maybe it has, by believing virtual entities as real, just like I imposed “big brother” image on him based on how he interacted with me in the comments section or chats.

This whole experience of coming across death of social media influencers also makes us think about the time we shall be in their place. If we are writing/posting on the internet, there are many others who know us only by our writing. Maybe they also project some kind of image on us, like a brother, friend, senior, or an enemy. In the end, everyone deserves a coping mechanism.

It has been about three weeks since the photoshop genius died. I searched about him on the internet and realised that barring the news of his death three weeks ago, not a single media house published any single news about him after that day. Maybe because they did not know anything about him other than the known facts that he was a photoshop artist, his age, real name and picture, which they had shared in their breaking news article about his death. Or maybe they did not care.

Such things make us realise the mortality of everything we are about. After we die, a few family members will remember us for many years in the real world. But in the virtual world of the internet, people will not really remember us because they never knew us, and now, with fading memory of many things, I am not even sure people will remember our writings, or our poems, or anything about us.

In the end, we shall all become like an unnamed star in the vast sky. Or maybe, we were always one and did not know.

- Rahul Tiwary

 

 

Books: Stories Short and Sweet, by Ruskin Bond

'Stories Short and Sweet' is a wonderful collection of 12 short stories by Ruskin Bond, set in the hilly small towns of India. The book captures various facets of life, including humor, nostalgia, love, friendship, trust, and betrayal, often through the lens of childhood experiences.

Here are the chapters (stories) included in the collection:

1. Those Three Bears 

2. The Coral Tree

3. He Who Rides A Tiger

4. The Thief’s Story

5. When the Trees Walked 

6. A Bouquet of Love

7. The White Pigeon

8. Pret in the House

9. The Overcoat

10. The Tunnel

11. The Snake Charmer's Daughter

12. The Wild Fruit

I loved the stories, "The Coral Tree", "The Thief’s Story", and "A Bouquet of Love " a lot. “The Coral Tree” tells the story of a young man leaving his grand father’s house in India for England permanently, and touches the emotional aspect of parting with a place. Reading the story, it strongly feels like we are the boy and an urge to make the boy not leave. "The Thief’s Story" is a touching story of a thief who tries to steal from his own friend, and the associated dilemma. “A Bouquet of Love” tells the story of an elderly woman living a solitary life in a cottage on a hill station and how once harsh weather takes her life.

Each story is crafted with Ruskin Bond’s signature warmth and gentle humor, making it a delightful read for all ages.

- Rahul