Is it about getting older or about getting mature?

Two months back I was on a trip to Mumbai from Delhi. This was my first long distance trip by train and that too alone! It was a journey of around fourteen hours. I was prepared, to spend these fourteen hours sleeping and reading M. K. Gandhi’s My Experiments With Truth. By choice, I had an upper birth booked. At the lower births two other boys were traveling. I guess, these two guys recently became eligible to cast a vote. I can say this after hearing there conversation. They were talking about there board exam performance, there plans of getting into some premier engineering college, there experience with there last date (which I guess, was, probably their first date!) and every probable thing which any normal teenage guy talk.

Hearing them, i said to myself, these are really kids and knows nothing about life (as if i've done Phd on life). Slowly, my thoughts turned away from there conversation towards the analysis of change in my attitude in living my own life in last four years. Let me explain it in following way:-

Earlier workout meant, body building by going to gym and following weight training. Now workout means, yoga, brisk walking, meditation and yes, Baba Ramdev’s pranayam!

Earlier for me a long drive meant, driving madly through the traffic in a zic-zac way with loud music, now long drive means going for a drive late night with maximum speed of fifty kmph even when there is hardly any traffic on road with the volume of music just enough that it’ll reach only uptill my ear drums.

Earlier, exploding on the person with all possible Hindustani gali if his car even touches the bumper of my car, irrespective of who made the mistake and now, with a smile on my face just saying “no issues, it happens” even if the accident created a big dent on my car. But mind you, there is hardly any chance of accident these days because now I go very slow!

Earlier reading Times of India meant, directly going to sports page and then to Delhi Times which incorporates beautiful pictures of beautiful beings! Now, reading Times of India means going through the main newspaper in detail, which is actually full of failures of mankind and taking note of these failures by clubbing them under “important news” and at last getting stressed after reading it and saying its kalyug!

Earlier good food meant, eating what ever one wants to eat especially from the road side stalls like burger, deep fried momos, chole kulche etc. Though, even now I buy eatables from road side stalls but they are strictly "fruits and narial paani" with a hope that i'll not die early!

Earlier for me, Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi was simply a festival of brother and sister in which sister gets lots of money and gifts just by tying a rakhi on brothers’ wrist and brother gets nothing else. And now, the meaning of Rakhi has so drastically changed that the same brother is going fifteen hundred kms away to Mumbai to meet his only sister to celebrate Raksha Bandhan.

I think life has changed a lot specifically during last two years, for good or bad only time will tell. We, as a human being should accept what ever comes in our way whole heartedly.

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The School.

Recently, i got a chance to go to an intermediate school at Ghaziabad. It wasn't a private school may be that was the reason for its poor infrastructure. The school took me five decades back, and i felt as if i am watching 'Malgudi days', a television series, written by R. K. Narayanan. Guys, I asked myself, still we have such schools left, especially in a city like Ghaziabad where municipality has a budget of Rs. 1000 crore for an year. Absence of doors and glasses in the windows was allowing hot air to pass through the room; noisy ceiling fans crying for the change; no clean water to satisfy the thirst, forget having a water coolers; thank God, kids get summer holidays. All this reminded me of the 'rasna add' where the sun sucks all the energy from the kids, playing cricket.
As if all this was not enough, broken benches, which create sounds as if they'll break down when you'll sit over them; floor was soo much dirty that i felt, it wasn't cleaned since it came into existence. We can say, it wasn't about poor infrastructure, actually, its about no infrastructure!

Despite such a bizarre situation, i noticed, kids were very happy, they were playing, making noise, as if for them all these things were not at all important or we can say they are not even aware about what they do not have. I think Its true, "Ignorance is a bliss". What you think?

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What's His Mistake?

After seeing the cover page of Frontline Magazine, i was in deep pain. There were certain questions which came to my mind like:--
In Our Country small children die because of hunger, Who says, green revolution made India a "food self-sufficient" country?
What is the point in claiming "India has one of the highest GDP growth rate in the world", when we can't feed our children?
Where God has gone, can't he see such a painful situation?
Why these small children are paying for our misdeeds?
What we will achieve through moon missions, developing our own cryogenic engines?
Do we really deserve to be called 'a great civilization'?

Likewise, many more questions arouse. After thinking for more than an hour and searching within myself, i got only one answer and that's. No doubt, the reality is hard but this should not stop us from doing our work. I mean, take for example, a software engineer, working in a multinational company having an airconditioned office, earning a decent amount of money, having all luxuries at home, in a way having a successful life, if pays his taxes honestly then he or she is contributing, though indirectly.
I think, every body need not to become a social activist because we need engineers, doctors, pilots, lawyers, managers, architects, authors, and also politicians!
If you have some other view also then kindly comment. I am really looking forward for your views.