Violence in our lives

It's a very pricking issue in a developing country like India and it's spread across all levels of the society, immaterial of rich and poor, religion, caste and creed. It's there as a open wound for our developing nation.

If we look deep into it, violence are of various types:

1) Post-Marriage - Lots of girls are subject to physical and mental abuse over various issues ranging from dowry to social status.

2) Social - In villages the caste system is still prevalent causing a major reason, misused by those on the higher strata of the so called caste system to do what they like on the lower castes. The violence mostly go un-noticed as no one dares to speak about it.

3) Anti-Social - In most cities, there is a parallel government of the anti-socials, where there is no police, no court and no justice. They just decide and execute at will based on the power they hv acquired. Physical violence is common, at times leading to death.

4) Educational - This is a controvertial source, where some part of the society believe that the teacher has all rights to physically punish the student, whereas a bigger portion feels it isn't correct. How can you justify physical violence or abuse and that too on school kids. They are expected to make mistakes as they are learning the ways of life, the diff btw good and bad. There are other ways to handle them.

5) Family Violence - This is one of the worse that can hit a family rather badly. It can be between parents, between brothers, between sisters, between sons, so on, but it upsets the entire synergy of the family and affects the kids most as they are not always mature to decide who is right and who is wrong.

However, there is a silver lining to the dark clouds as things have changed over the last couple of decades and it is still changing. Two things are required:
1) Social Awareness
2) Education or Literacy.

We can contribute to both in our own ways. Since the problem is also in cities and lot of us are from villages, we can carry the message forward, but before that it is very important, we believe in it.

Give it a thought,that would be your first step to contribute towards the cause.

~Somu.

Bangalore...The Silicon Valley of India

Of late the local newspapers are flooded with lots of articles about the poor state of affairs of the infrastructure in Bangalore. Yes, the infrastructure is detoriating and it gets worse with a prolong showers, causing flooding of the low lieing areas. The roads are filled with pot holes and a lot of flyovers, underpasses are coming up at snail pace, causing more wooes for the residents.

Bangalore, also known as a Garden City, was a peaceful, calm and quiet city till the late eighties. The place was idle for people to settle down after retirement as it was green and blue all around. Green with the trees all over the city and blue with the sparkling water of the numerous lakes all over, most of which cease to exist now. Trees are falling or hacked off to enable concrete structures to replace them. With the ninties, the educational revolution brought in students not only from all over India, but also from various other parts of the world. It also attracted the IT companies, which went on to lead the IT revolution in India. What this caused is a tremendous scope for income and growth, resulting in inflow of people in huge numbers.

The city started expanding, but failed miserably to match the people growth. The lack of stable government at the State Level, only added to the problems, since it slowed down the planning, forecasting and implementing the growth of the city. At present the city is suffocating under the pressure of the population growth. Over the last two years, the fibre optic cable revolution caused extensive digging all over the city, causing the roads to crumble and also loosen the soil. This caused more roads to break than the city can maintain and also a huge number of trees falling down due to the fierce winds. The general tempereture of the city has also gone up and it's more hot these days than it used to be.

The good money from the IT industry helped the expenditure of the residents on the automobiles and the focus has now shifted from public transport to private transport. Everyone in the city wishes to own a 2-wheeler or a 4-wheeler to move around in the city, as they believe that it is faster. However, the problem is again the lack of growth on the public transport system with the growth in population. Of late, there are initiatives to grow the same in terms of underground Metro. Well that would create more infrastructure problems at this moment. Unless the present problems are resolved, it isn't wise to create more.

However, Bangalore isn't full of all that only. There are lot of other aspects which is still encouraging MNCs from all over the world to set up off-shore centers here and individuals from all over India. the hospitality of the localites added to the ease of people settling down. Most of India is quite hot & humid and Bangalore presents a chilling weather, a romantic environment which is what people sought after. Then there are so many places where you can drink all possible kinds of drinks - numerous pubs and bars. Then there restaurants of varied cusines - both indian, continental and chinese. There are various health oriented resorts, the best in India. Then for all the sportsmen, there are various scope for them to pursue their sports. It can be said to be the most cosmopolitan cities of India.

No wonder people still like to stay in Bangalore and very reluctant to leave it.



H

Find your Friends...

My Friends... A few individuals who are my support, my inspirations and essence of my life.

We meet so many individuals everyday, some in person and some on internet, thanks to the technology. We like some, we don't like others. We connect with some easily and feel we know them for sometime, while with other, you just don't connect and don't get along. So most people around us are more of acquaintance, and very few are friends.

It's easy to become an acquaintance, but very tough to become friends and even tough to be a friend in real terms. My personal experience brought me close to many people, very few are friends, mostly remained acquaintances. When I say, someone is my friend, I make sure that I can be there when my friend needs me most. You should at least be able to share your friend's pain, since friendship is tested in tough times.

You will find lot of so called friends around you when things go fine with you, you are happy and successful. There is never a lack of shadow when there is sunlight. Look around and there are numerous of them. However, in the darkness, no one is around but some unknown, invisible shadows whom we can't see but they are around us, and be sure will appear from nowhere in the dark, when you need them. They are your friends.

It's easy to understand them, but tough to identify them. They are nice, selfless, committed and loving individuals. They are there, so we are here. Parents are also friends, but then sometimes, in some circumstances, you need friends, who understand you differently than your parents. So these individuals, who are normally around your age, stay with you and understand you in varied ways.

Identify your friends and don't loose them. They are very few, but they are around. So keep them within reach, help them when they need so and you won't be left alone in your hard days.

~Somu.

What is life? In my words...

Life is like a stage as Shakespeare wrote in his poem 'The Seven Ages of Man'. Indeed it is, and all of us play different roles here. Unlike in a theatre, the director is visible and he pulls the strings of our behaviour, movement, dialogue and interactions with others on the stage. There are incidents when the individual actors, went out of control, and either made the show a hit or flopped it doing it.

In life, the director is behind the scenes and we can connect to him within ourselves. So we have a lot of freedom on our speech, on our actions and on our thoughts. Hence, we have the power to control our lives. As someone rightly said, with great power comes great responsibility. So we should realize that we have to shoulder the responsibility to be at least responsible for ourselves.

Sounds philosophical? Yes it is.

At the same time, it's true. Our life is so uncertain and only thing that is certain is death. Hence, why don't we use our life to provide the best performance and not the one people hate remembering. So what should we do so as to make this performace brilliant is the million dollar question. Nothing happens on it's own, we got to do it ourselves.

The basic success of life is to outlive it. We should do somethings in life which enable us to live beyond our life span. It doesn't matter if we aren't acknowledged about our good things, what matters is the satisfaction you get by doing it. All the adjectives that define the degree of quality are relative like fair, good, excellent. We should not be worried how the work is appreciated, what matters is what would make us happy, make us content that we made a difference.

My idea of ultimate satisfaction, which I have experiences is when I can make a difference in someone's life. It can be done in many ways. You can make a difference by simply be with the person, caring & supporting for needs and make the person comfortable with your presence.
The final aspect which holds the key is the zero or least you expect in return. The least you expect, the more satisfied you are.

This is my idea of life...what is yours? Give it a thought.

~Somu.