Speak up to end Child Labor!!!

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Child labor is a menace plaguing our society today. However, as a matter of fact, it has been brutally neglected in the Indian society.  If we come to think of it, in India, politicians have pushed sensitive issues like reservation in educational institutions ,addressing calls for Jan Lokpal, but no major initiative has been taken with respect to child labor. All the above issues have one element of commonality-they secure the vote bank. The solution to child labor rests in stringent legislation, but sadly enough, the people who hold the reigns to legislation see no gain to their vote bank by working to eliminate child labor. What therefore needs to be done is lobbying-socially sensitive people to demand from the government to frame a set of foolproof laws to deter hiring children for the most mundane tasks. The government could respond is by installing 24X7 helpline wherein people who witness child labor can report about it immediately. However, the following administrative procedures must be smooth so that people do not feel disincentivised to make use of the helpline. Children at school and colleges must be sufficiently sensitivised about the implications of child labor, which shall pressurize parents at home to avoid embarrassment in front of their children from hiring young kids. However, while these steps will definitely curb the symptoms of the disease called child labor, one must also uproot its ultimate cause-poverty and lack of opportunities to study. Schools must expand and reach out to slums and villages, the largest suppliers of child labor. This will enable parents to build the strong foundations of their wards’ future on a long term basis and not view them as merely helping hands to augment the family income. This two pronged attack on child labor will require the government to harness the sensitivity of the masses on one hand and allow for expansion of schools to far flung villages and slums. Those who are critical of either of the suggestions-the Anna Hazare movement shows that civil society can awaken the government;  and if we could achieve expansion of banks post 1980, why shall we not succeed when it comes to educational infrastructure?

Botheration or Concern??

I always thought friendship by default means a space wherein you are concerned about the other person. However, in the past few days, I have realized that many people around us tend to forget this concept as they grow in life, both age-wise and in terms of some wordly achievement.
How do you react when a close friend goes on to justify his nonchalant behavior ? Especially when the justification makes them claim that they do not dig their nose in other peoples' business!!
Often it happens that we continue to live in the illusion of past beliefs and the present feelings about somebody/something remain dormant till a certain time. At times, we do recognize the change, however do not wish to acknowledge it, may be due to fear, or by virtue of being status-quoist. In either case, their is imperfect information with the outside world about what exactly is changing within a person.
The only way we can recognise this is when the old pattern of response from the other person begins to break. It is then when the point of indiffernce comes to the fore and proves to be be detrimental to friendship.
I personally believe that its useless to pursue it further, since the indifferent entity has the tendency to become defensive.
Humans are curious by nature. And when it comes to friends, curiosity and concern merge together and pursue us to keep a track of whats happening in our friends' life. But when this merger expires, it also marks the expiry of the bond..!!!!
As I end, one of my favourite set of lines once set by someone to me:


People, even more than things,


Have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed,


And redeemed; never throw out anyone.


- Audrey Hepburn

I did not. I tried. I persisted. But I failed in this one.

Till another one is formed !!!

Life has taken a dull route these days. I am wondering how can I bring about a change.
What is it that will bring me happiness? People say,
"Do things which make you happy!!"
Excuse me..... I couldn't sort of agree. What is it that will that make me happy?
Is it reading books? Or dining out with friends? Or getting fun-doo scores in my tests or winning a debate or a National Competition? Dunno...none of these...one of the options that I have not mentioned is helping friends and people close by...But unfortunately, I have tried doing that too. helped my friends do errands related to daily life, with their work in college societies, and arranging get togethers with school friends. But nothing really seems to be working. May be its time for me to visit slums and experience the true taste fo Social Service and get into the shoes of Mother Teresa.
I happened to grab this book called Secrets of Relationships and in this book I chanced upon a line: Happiness is not in objects outside....its there right inside you. Yes, a re-iteration of what Buddha had said ( Karan, my awesome senior in college, had told this to me-Buddha said: There is no reason for happiness, only sadness has a reason. So stop looking for happiness outside)
And just an hour before I had surfaced over these lines, I had updated my facebook status thanking my friends from school days for a wonderful weekend. After I logged out, I wondered, what a person would think after reading it...I went out with my friends, I chatted, we saw a movie??
And just to warn you, nothing of this sort had happened. I met Shagun, Smriti and Mehul separately, and not for more than half an hour and in that too, we hardly talked. But their presence stirred in me pleasant memories from the past, the trust that we had shared then and which was spilling from their presence even today, when we were separated for months ranging to numbers like 12!!!

I was too lazy to think of an idea for a new blog post. But it was one of my friend's taunts thrown at me for not writing regularly and thus wasting the space that he had reserved for my blog's URL on his blog, that prompted me to write. By the way, I hate him taunting me and he will feel all the more encouraged to do so when he reads this part of the post. But I like to be transparent!!!

To end from where I had begun....the line needs to be reformed-Do things which make you happy...!!
Any suggestions?

A happy School Re-union

Now this was a school reunion in true sense. Even our school teachers had come to the same place for a get together.It was so nice to meet them after such a long time. As though the friends (who are all now at different places pursuing things which are differentiable in some ways or the other) coming together was not enough, the teachers were also there to bring up all the nostalgic moments connected to school life on the surface of the consciousness(the teachers arriving there was a co-incidence). The first thought when I heard of the teachers being there, in the same restaurant, was....Arey yaar...ab shor kaise machayenge..(the same nagging school kid wala thought). Still we all went and touched their feet, the traditional Indian way of revering elders. Then the quizzical moment started, about our whereabouts, colleges, futures plans and stuff.
But I must say, teachers have this wonderful quality embedded in themselves of being able to boost you up in whatever state, good or bad, you are(thankfully, by His grace we all are pursuing courses of our choice in some of the premier institutes of the country). And somehow, even today, the luster of  studying in an IIT sets you apart from rest of the people in the group, with "Waaahs" and "Kya baats" coming straight from the heart. Well, St. Stephen's draws the same reactions to some extent too,,, thanks to my predecessors!!

Moving on, we all met, pulled each others' legs to our hearts content; or rather no, I didn't; I am game for yet another Get-together if someone else can co-ordinate it this time.
We all had chosen different paths three years back, to pursue the same common goal of cracking the JEE, some went to Kota, some cleared the entrance for VMC(and thus leaving others to the chidings of their parents by setting up a live example, which was to stay on for two whole years...!!!!) and the left overs joined FIITJEE, I being one of them. Many of us had little knowledge of what actually we were set upon to do, and thus eventually, some of those many landed up choosing the unconventional path, like I did and Akhand might just do the same. And yes, Naman was the only one in today's gathering who did not study for IIT for he took Commerce right after 10th standard.
Some really good things happened today, like Shrey and Samarth exchanged each others numbers, after a long period of cold war(Okay guys...sorry for bringing it up  in public). Abhinav was a diplomat at his best and its thus proven that he is perfectly suited for Civil services and so, Sahil and Tanmay, you can very well exploit your friendship with him in years to come(Sahil and Tanmay were encouraging Abhinav to go for Services inorder to get favours:P). So, Abhinav made full use of this opportunity to hone his social skills.:P
Whenever it came for food, Shrey would sweetly poke his neck out and would gesture at me!! I agree that I was the unappointed co-ordinator of today's gathering but then, our boys started suspecting in the middle of the meet that I had come there only to eat and thus I restricted my reactions; as I grew conscious of this  sentiment rising in those seated around me!!
We skipped the main course, no where did it seem to be like a youth Get-together if you were to go by the appetite. I felt somewhere at the back of my mind that some of us were either saving money or had already had food before coming(which also would amount to saving money, and Akhand had, in fact, eaten already)!! I guess the teachers ate a lot more than we guys did for our main focus wasn't food but to sit, gossip and chit chat with each other.:))And yes, we did FOCUS!!! :P
All of us missed girls in the gathering, especially guys from IITs. Sorry guys, but I am sure next time we shall invite girls; Kartik's idea of having Sophians(Non Marians, please note that Sophia was a girls school very close to our school and we had very friendly relations with them) in the Get-together, can also be incorporated.
And Somil, for all the information on Yes!+, you can direct your browser to either or all of these:
www.yeplus.org 
www.wayeonline.org 
www.bawandinesh.name.
I got to know recently that Yes!+ is now a credit course in 43 US universities, Cornell and U-Penn being some of them. So now you can well judge the relevance of Yes!+ in the life of a youngster.
Its even happening regularly in all IIT's, IIM's and XLRI's !!!

Thats all for today. I was so enthusiastic about this post that I forgot to switch on the fan upon entering the room.:)
BBye
As I leave, I cannot resist the temptation to chuff in another pic from today's collection. And this reminds me of the urgent need to carry my cam around places, and thus to buy one!!

Abhinav, stop being so protective about Sahil..:P

Do drop in your comments. I love to read them.

Summer Magic is still ON

Summer magic was the most beautiful thing that happened to me in the last one year. My first trip to the ashram-simply superb, amazing and fantabulous. Nine days passed just like the click of mouse and still so much was left behind to be explored in that unearthly place. Yes, I call it unearthly because the place has such serene and uplifting vibes that even the most insensitive person on the earth can catch them, and I have never experienced such a high before!! You hardly feel low or sad over there, those feelings are so evanescent when you are on campus.

I have been enjoying practicing the newly learnt techniques and am quite thrilled about them; just like I was when I learnt the meditation for the first time, way back in standard eight. 

Moving on to what is keeping me busy these days, I would say that I am busy doing nothing; which includes mostly catching up with old friends, visiting relatives living close-by and playing cricket on the Tanmay's(school buddy) terrace. Today we played cricket till the sky grew dark, and as the darkness increased the number of overs per match kept on decreasing from six overs, to three till we came down to only two, and then the ball went invisible and we had to stop. A small get together of school friends is on the cards and the details will be finalized soon. My friends have been asking me about my plan for the rest of the break. I have not finalized anything formally. These days I am reading the Hindu scriptures. Currently busy with Yog Vashishta, which was a lecture given to Lord Rama by his Guru, Rishi Vashishta.

The peculiar feature of this scripture is that it is the only one "updesha" given to God, unlike others such as Bhagwat Gita, in which the Lord himself(or may be "herself" in certain scriptures, and then it will read-Lordess) speaks for the world.

I am quite liking the narrative which is full of interesting stories with a moral running in the background. Actually, thats the trick which most of the Vedic texts and Hindu scriptures have followed, they give a message through stories because the human mind remembers stuff through examples more easily than merely theory(some of you might be different!!!)

Now that I have started blogging, I shall try to be regular on the blogosphere!!

Keep checking for updates!! And do not forget to leave your comments. Would love to know what you think, whatsoever it is!!!

P.S.: For those of you who are left wondering what Summer Magic was, you may check out http://bawandinesh.name/summer-magic-2010/

In a nutshell it was a youth festival organised in the Art of Living International Ashram, Bangalore.
I shall find time to upload the pics soon.....

Manchit