Monday, January 29, 2007

I live in a different world ....

My daily routine: Home-->Office-->Home. I live in an apartment luxuriously. I get to have 3 meals a day. Actually any number I want… but then I restrict myself to 3. I can “choose” what I want to eat each time. I crib a lot about the taste of it and the contents of it… ah! I can never be satisfied!

I buy clothes as and when I want to, I do not wait for a festival or any “occasion”. My mother had warned me when I was living with my parents that she would kick me out of the house if one more set of clothes come in the house. But now that I live separately I don’t have anybody threatening me. P sometimes tries... but then he fails. He ends up buying more for me!

On weekdays, I travel luxuriously in my company bus. It’s a challenge to find new novels every week to read in the bus! So I end up reading anything and everything that comes to the market. On weekends, I travel to Mysore again luxuriously in P’s car. Or “struggle” and go in the Volvo busses, if P decides not to come. Ah! The AC is sometimes so high in these Volvo busses! And why can’t they put some nice movies? It’s always some old flop movies. When I am paying 160 bucks for the ticket, the least I deserve is a nice new movie na?

Ha! Looking at the above picture, I seem to be like a pampered girl. But then I share my own set of difficulties.
  • I have to wake up early in the morning! Atleast by 6:30, so that I can get ready, eat breakfast, pack lunch and leave to office by 8 max
  • I have unhealthy deadlines to meet in my project. Though not always... but there is always something or the other which needs to be done “yesterday”.
  • I have to endure my father’s advice every weekend, about how to save more money and not spend it like how I do it. He has been trying for 5 years now… but he has not achieved much in changing me! So every weekend I have to think of a “valid” excuse to tell him as to why am I spending so much….
  • And my mother is no way less… she is bent on making me a social animal. What with the 100s of visits that I am supposed to do. That “they” will feel bad if I don’t visit them. “They” will think that I have become headstrong after so many foreign trips!

Ah… see I don’t lead a luxurious life either. But I live in a “different” world than these people.

The video has really left me thinking. Have we progressed at all? It’s no wonder that these people are Brahmin haters. If I was treated the way they are being treated... I would have reacted in the same way as they do!

I live in a closed world. I do not see such discrimination around me. We have a house maid, and yes she is not allowed inside the kitchen. That is only because she would not have had bath before cleaning all our houses. But we give her food in the same dishes that we have food. So I thought times have changed and people are accepting other people more easily. But NO!

  • Dalit children in schools are not allowed to sit together with other children. So all the fight that Gandhi and Ambedkar did was just a waste of time?
  • They are not allowed to have food in the same plates as the upper castes. But then wait! They can wash the plates of upper castes and that does not make the upper castes any impure.
  • Inter community marriages are a big NO NO. You can even get killed if you do any such foolish thing.
  • The dalits are not only exploited by the upper castes, but they are also exploited by their “own” other classes. One is considered more superior than other! A toilet cleaner is definitely inferior as compared to a cobbler.

I think the situation is “better” in the big cities. But how many big cities do we have in India? The rural India still remains the same old caste divided communities, trying to find one reason or the other to fight against each other! People suffer day in and day out to get 2 square meals a day… and here I am fussing about more salt in today’s daal or half cooked rice!

I know it’s unfair to compare us. Some of us are more fortunate to have had parents who have given us good education and comforts. While some of us are not so fortunate. Just because there are millions out in the world without food... does not mean I should starve myself too. After all, each morsel of food that I eat is also hard earned.

But I can’t help myself feeling guilty when I sit in an AC room and generally blog about issues when I am not doing anything to help them. While on the other side of the world people don’t even know that there is something called this world.. where I live in. A different world. A comfortable world. A world filled with pleasure and happiness!
Thank you God, for giving me this wonderful life.

Update: The “wonderful thing” which I mentioned in my previous post has to wait due to some unavoidable circumstances :( Nevertheless the details will be up here as soon as things get confirmed!

13 comments:

GuNs said...

I believe I am just a bloody lucky assed bugger to have such an easy life. All credit to my father who worked hard enough to support the family and educate me like he did. He always told me "Dont worry about the fees, I'll manage them. You just have to do well". I did well of course. I couldnt NOT DO WELL after looking at him work that hard at his age, experience and seniority in the organization.

You don't see a 43 year old Production manager go to work on a bicycle, do you? I did - for so many years. He's passed on that 25 year old bicycle to me and till I passed it on to my younger sister, I posessed and cared for it like the most important material thing in my life. It probably still is. I went to my first job interview on that bicycle dressed in a suit. I had a bike then but I soimetimes personify that bicycle to be a matiovating and a grounding force in my life.

If you are REALLY concerned even one bit about the things you wrote, give UPSC a shot this year. I missed it this year because I came to the UK. Next year, I wont.

Maybe intelligent and non-corrupt people like us can improve the situation. Atleast I hope we can.

-PeAcE
--WiTh
---GuNs

Priya said...

Shark: You are right. Not everyone gets the pleasure of seeing or getting things in their day today life. I won't say miserable. Life is measured in terms of wealth, education, status so on.
In India its a mindset for people if you are not a professional person. How rude? How many wud have sacrified their dreams to get into someones dreams. Not every doctor/engineer or lawyer is able to feed their family when they compare witht heir partners or co-workers.

Surviving with what we have and to improve is always tuff. If you are lucky with better communication, good looks and education, then you are better off in your market.

pavan kumar said...

nothing wrong in enjoying the benefits one has.. if you dont enjoy them full-heartedly, it goes waste, someone more deserving could make the fullest use of it.. so enjoy your AC and luxury, and what is appreciable is the concern you have for others, the thought of helping and some good deeds to help others achieve better life

and as regards to the "wonderful thing", my first reaction was "uh-oh".. hope it is within the next few days (and dont forget to mail my full-meals, plz?)

Anonymous said...

reading this post was like watching a well made movie.
first half of the first half: fun
second half of the first half:sobre
after interval: serious and emotional
ending:happy yet sad, with tears of joy as well as sorrow.

(with the update, you still have your audience in the edge of the seat....waiting for next FRIDAY'S RELEASE!) ;)

Anonymous said...

Ditto here Bellurs comment.
You start so practical & turn out to be totally emotional... enri idu hmmm?
hogli UPSC exams anthe bariri, IAS officer aadaaga mostly enaadru maadbahudu... aadre adakke age limit ide gotta ?
I guess its 30, check it out & hurry up :-)
Take Care & have total fun^nu

Kavi said...

Thought provoking. I guess we need to be thankful for the big mercies that God has given us.

At the same time, we indeed can think about alleviating the sufferings of the multitude. We cant do much as individuals.

But whatever we do, is much !

Anonymous said...

I am reminded of the India Poised campaign on reading this post.

And reg the 'wonderful thing': Waiting with bated breath for it! :)

Srik said...

A sad state of affirs. Im dragged into a kind of depression my dear friend. :(

Apun Ka Desh said...

Hmmm... :)
Lemony Yellow Life it is ! What does it mean? Lemony Yellow?

Anonymous said...

guns:

"You don't see a 43 year old Production manager go to work on a bicycle, do you? I did - for so many years."

what was your father's diet all those years? hamdard kaa cinkara?

your father appears to have stayed at 43 longer than most girls i know (or heard about) stayed at (sweet) 16! i need to borrow it for my father!

- s.b.

GuNs said...

S.B. :I guess dad was just motivated to make sure his kids did well in their life. I am sure your dad has had the same motivation too.

As for the diet thing, he's just a normal guy who grew up in a little coastal village in Karnataka near the Goa border and he cycled around 25 KM everyday to go to college. MAybe that kept him going.

Whats YOUR story?

-PeAcE
--WiTh
---GuNs

Anonymous said...

Shark
it is avery good one. I agree with Bellur in toto with is comments
In villages I have seen even though the caste divide is there but they live very harmoniously and each other will support. In my own village which I visit every year there are people belonging to all castes,there are muslims by birth but are devotees of sri.raghavendra swamy and anjeneya. it is not that they dont worship allah but there is a very good sense with the people. In moharam lot of hindus participate and take oath to perfomr some thing in next if their wish is fulfilled. life is like that. village people are really good and the visit of them to cities spoil them. any festival in a village is a village festival.

Shark said...

@guns: my father was also exactly the same! He used to walk to college and used to study under the street lamps. But then he built his existing empire all on his own from scratch! and I am so proud of him for that :)

@priya: very true!

@pavan: I know.. I am not cribbing about what I have. And most of the time I am more than happy with what I have, but sometimes I can't help feeling guilty!

And "that" is on Feb 9th :)

@bellur: Will SRK be ready to act in this ;-)?

@veena: What ma.. you are declaring I am 30 so publicly on the blog ...I will kill you...grrrrr ;-))

@kavi: Yes, have to agree as an Individual can't to "much"... but I think just like "Little drops of water makes a mighty ocean", each of our little effort counts!

@mysorean: Good to see you back! Thought you had forgotten me completely!

@srik: I am sorry I put you under depression! But then, lets do our best and leave the rest to God. He knows best and he will do what's best for us :)

@apun ka desh: It's a color :P ;-)

@praneshachar: Yes. though I have never been to a village before, I have heard it from others that they live in much more peace and harmony than city people like us!
I think villages have small concentration of people of "like-mindedness" so it's easier to acheive harmony.
But in a city with so much of "diversity" it's a BIG task :(