PARENTS ARE NOT SUPER HUMAN!!

Very rarely have I come across any teenager who does not have a problem with his/ her parents. For that matter even a husband caught between his wife and mother or a an ambitious daughter wanting to break the shackles of restricting traditions or a son who is not able to find his calling in life yet…they all seem very grieved with the fact that their parents don’t understand them!!

“How can they not understand us, their children?”…they demand to know!

I was blessed with a certain insight a few years back. I’ve no explanation of how it occurred to me but the thought was very simple and true-
“The moment we stop looking at parents as being super human and look upon them as being individual human beings- like your neighbor, your friend, your colleague, your boss or your own self!- the matter will be much simpler to handle”

Just because they have given us birth- which by itself is a very scientific and definable process (SEX!)- does not mean they are overnight blessed with a mind that encapsulates and overviews all worldly matters. It does not enlighten them or attain them a state of supreme understanding.
They do develop a paternal care and concern which motivates them to take care of us and provide for us the amenities that they do but at the bottom of the parental layers they still remain individuals with expectations, ego, envy and various other complexes of the human mind.

If we as grown up teens or beyond, have the right to feel betrayed when we are not justly rewarded for the acts we do to please them then they too have a right to be unreasonable ( i.e. according to children!)

For while we very recently found our mind and started molding it, the parents have a large baggage of so many years when they have consistently tried to do their best for us!!

I’m not expecting children to surrender absolutely to their parents and give in to their every demand and restriction but if it comes to a matter of being short changed…it does help if you think of them as mere individuals…not as your parents!...not as Mr and Mrs XY but just Mr. X and Ms. Y!!

What say?

One does not need a laughter club to release the toxins in the body or recharge yourself…but yes what one definitely needs is A NEWSPAPER!

1) Married couples can kiss in public, Lovers cannot!
This is something that’s happened in our capital Delhi where the court has come out with a ruling that couples who are married can indulge in PDA. The verdict came out after a public interest litigation was filed against acts of PDA that youngsters indulge in embarrassing the public or rather making them jealous or horny!!
I’m sure the debate must have been between decency and rights of a couple and thus a result was reached that would satisfy to some extent both the grieving parties. (Elections are round the corner remember!)
So now I figure you can kiss provided you have a marriage certificate or any evidence to prove that you are married for I suspect a marriage invitation card too is admitted as such evidence in the marriage registrar’s office!
So the person next to you can go blue with embarrassment but if you are married you can smooch your way back into love! What happens then if you both are married but are kissing your respective lovers who too are married!! Gets a tad bit complex hey?
Is it so difficult for someone to notice the entire point of this issue? But then it would not have been funny then what say?

2) Kanda Poha Vs Vada Pav = democracy?
For the uninitiated, Kanda Poha is a food item prepared from rice flakes and onions while vada pav a preparation of potatoes and gram flour.
Now while we were fretting and fuming about roads full of potholes and hawkers, the ruling party and the opposition were at loggerheads in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation over stalls for “Kanda Poha” and “Vadapav”.
The Shiv Sena supports the Vada Pav for the Marathi manoos and had launched its “SHIV VADA” with all the fanfare of a product launch at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park!
And now the Congress is launching its “Kanda Poha” with much the same enthusiasm at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan!
The debate in the corporation was over the allocation of number of stalls each food item (read political party) would get!
The debate for the respective attempts- supposedly made to provide employment and cheap food to the masses-went to the extent of a congress corporator claiming that Vada Pav is made of ingredients available in the north hence it is a NORTH INDIAN DISH!!, while poha since containing rice is a MAHARASHTRIAN dish!
And this comes at the end of an effort which began in the first place to take some lime light off the ‘sons of the soil’ issue raised by Raj Thackeray’s MNS party!
It thus remains to be seen who rules us in the next term- …I’m definitely voting for scrambled eggs!

3) Lastly…Revolution by a drug addict!!
For months now the commuters at Mumbai’s Borivali suburb were grumbling over the lack of trains and the construction of additional platforms.
The additional platforms are built a kilometer away from the main station and people thus have to catch an auto or take a bus to reach to the ‘real’ Borivali station!!
All the same having been used to fretting and fuming, life went on for these victims of democracy when one day Mr. Panchal took the step.
Panchal was and is a drug addict who that night needed his dose and as usual had no moolah to buy it. very innocently he plucked a piece of wire from next to the railway tracks, sold the copper from wire and got himself a Rs. 15 worth of ganja!
Oblivious to the effects of his act his life went on but next morning….
Each train got delayed by 10 minutes…causing progressive delays for the wire he had plucked had caused multiple signal failure as a result of which all trains were cautiously plying! The delay had already caused dismay to the ever in a hurry and forever tormented souls of the Mumbai working class when the efficient railway authorities cancelled a train to get some sanity to the already haywire schedule!! Tempers has begun to flare by then…but the final nail in the coffin came with a new train was announced from the old platform and when the crowd reached the platform the wrong train came in while the right one royally stationed itself on the new platform a kilometer away!!
THAT WAS IT!
For over 6 hours, 4 lakh office goers were stranded, 80 train services cancelled, 32 persons arrested and 12 policemen injured!!!

Immediately the political parties came forward…they started fighting over signature campaigns…and credit taking for the protests thereafter…

That was 5th Feb.… protests are regularly held at either side of the platform by different political parties…some woman had to give up their jobs as they got arrested on the fateful day for being bystanders and had to give up their jobs as their husbands and in laws thought it shameful to grant them bail!!...auto rickshaws have found a new halt outside the new platforms as they are so away from the main station…and yes…Panchal is yet to be counseled into rehab!!

I too had a Dream...

Verghese Kurien is the father of the milk revolution.

This statement although is magnanimous, it does not convey the magnitude of service that this man has done for our country...

For he was the man behind AMUL...The man behind DHARA...The man who fought to uplift the farmers by cutting down the middlemen in food chain and by setting up co-operatives the true system of democratic business institutions.

"I too had a dream" is a must read for every Indian. I happened to pick up this book for i wanted to write a story of a urban youth getting involved in the village problems, by chance...as i looked around for something to read along these lines i came across what was my exact story or in fact even more dramatic! The story of Verghese Kurien...a man who accidentally lands up in a sleepy, dusty village of Anand in Gujrat in 1948 and ends up spending all his life there transforming India into the largest producer of milk in the WORLD!!

Here are some excerpts from the book...

If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to rejoice in another's happiness and wise enough to know that there is enough to go around for all of us then we would have lived our lives to the fullest...Kurien writes in the prologue which is a letter he addresses to his grandson, Siddharth.

"Working with the dairy farmers i saw when you work for profit the pleasure is transitory but if you work for others the deeper sense of fulfillment and if you work for others there is a deeper sense of fulfillment and if handled well there is adequate money too."

"I began to see then that when the government enters business, the citizens of India get cheated. The greatest repercussion of the government entering into business is that instead of safeguarding people from vested interests, they themselves become the vested interest."

"I have always maintained that since all the ambitious and selfish people from the villages make a beeline for Mumbai, Delhi and other glamorous cities what are left behind are only good people. It is necessary that we mobilise these people and involve them in the process of development."

What we needed to do was organise the farmers, place them in command and be their employees to provide technical, administrative and other strengths. This unbeatable combination at National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is what became the organisations irresistible force.

What was painful is that in my own country there were powers who did not want the common man to become stronger.

I have always believed that once you identify the right person for a project and tell him or her exactly what you expect and then entrust him or her with trust, allow the person to work without independently without any interference. Such a project is bound to succeed.

Nothing is ever gained without takings some risks. There are so many opportunities that pass by and if you do not seize them, they are wasted.

We Indians are an extremely intelligent people but we can progress only we learn to unleash the collective power of our people...whenever this happens it disturbs a lot of people for they know that the giant is waking up.

There is no Govt agency which after spending 1000 crore which the NDDB(National Dairy Development Board) did, owns nothing. and in this i take great pride.

The tragedy with India is that we have no respect for Indians, Indian efforts or India successes. (Referring to the oil- "Dhara" which was looked down upon despite high quality and a noble effort(co-operative) and at an affordable price as against the multinational oils present in the market).

Kurien narrates an encounter with a high-ranking govt official in Delhi at the height of AMUL's success, the official said, "Kurien , these Nestle chaps are truly great people. What marvellous things they achieve. You must go and see how they run their dairy". Kurien retorted, " And shall i tell you how well the British ran this country? Should we call them back?" The official was silenced...THAT WAS KURIEN...no mincing of words.

Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin to Kurien- "Anyone who has seen the dairy plant, anyone who has looked into the eyes of the farmers in your village here, know what you are doing. You are eliminating the bloodsuckers. You are giving strength to the people. You are constructing structures and institutions of the people. What you are doing is absolutely correct."

As far as the multinationals are concerned Money is and will always be their GOD!

Kurien to Nestle Chairman, "I know your problem...you have met people in India who know about dairy more than you do. Your problem is that you are unable to pit a price on me or buy me out which is what you normally do but let me tell you that you cannot buy me out now can you ever buy AMUL."

...These are just a few of the gems in this treasure that narrate a story of guts and glory of fight, betrayal and triumphs of a vision that was rare and a vision that was accomplished.

Kurien gave all his life for a cause benefited millions of farmers and the country,

It is a story that inspires and makes us proud to be born in this land no matter what we feel at times or otherwise.

For more on this please read http://ameybooks.blogspot.com/

CANT WALK WITHOUT THE TALK!!

Sunday evenings i usually go for a stroll around the block. Its been a habit for a long long time. It helps because i laze around so much on a Sunday that it helps me loosen up and besides also since i'm in a trance all day, it helps me observe the rush and the crowd around me with a persepective!

This also used to be an occasion when i would often bump into a childhood friend or too...friends who stay around the block but we never cross paths due to our 'supposedly busy lives'...these also are the same friends with whom i would play cricket for hours, everyday of the week. We would play...fight...part ways and then meet again the next day...same time...same place!

However i ran into a friend of mine last evening...we were seperated by a 5 feet wide road in between us but we could not cross over, forget about exchanging a hug...we could not even say a 'Hey' to each other...the wave too was a clumsy one handed effort...FOR WE WERE BOTH TALKING ON OUR RESPECTIVE CELL PHONES!!

In a moment that it took for both of us to cross each other we attempted to say a lot..."Hey how are you?, Long time no see!, Whats Happening?, Hows everything?...Lets catch up!" and all of this happened through the one hand wave and an awkward smile!!

I looked around then and realised a very important evolution of mankind happening around me!! For we would initially walk on four legs and had a tail...then through varuous stages we found ourselves walking on two legs with hands that swung along as we walked...and NOW we have only one hand that swings while the other is glued to the ear!!

Most of the people who were walking alone were either talking on phone or fidgeting with their cell phones. The stillness of the mind that is required to enjoy a walk has deserted us. We need some activity at all times and our cell phone stands by us as our most trusted companion!

This restlessness reflects in various other areas too like we cannot enjoy a film that has a slow song with slow visuals, we cannot wait for our destiny to give us the results, we believe in pushing harder in getting them or get impatient and upset if we dont get our due IMMIDEATELY!

They say if you dont change certain habbits on time they turn to addictions...and cell phone is one such example...usefull as it may be...try leaving it at home some day and you'll realise that far from doing other secondary activities, as a human being you wont even be able to WALK... WITHOUT THE TALK!