Problems are not Problems- A story promoting eye donation

 Problems are not Problems- A story promoting eye donation

I was standing at A B Vajapayee bus-stop at Jayanagar 9th block Bangalore; and, waiting for 60A bus to go to Vijaynagar. The time was 1 pm and astonishingly, it was a very hot day out in Bangalore, despite of heavy rains previous day. I was famished, devastated and was in a mood of depression as I failed in a job interview.

Two years passed after completing my post- graduation in microbiology. I failed in getting a job that would fetch me the life ,which was really a matter of worry for me. After waiting for 30 minutes, the bus came but unfortunately it was a Marco Polo AC bus. I was having 30 rupees in my pocket and my account was devoid of minimum balance.

The head was drilling in frustration, I went to the conductor and asked the fare to travel Vijaynagar on AC bus, and the lady conductor harshly answered, “Rs 25 to Vijaynagar TTMC”.  “The bus will not move an inch at-least for 20 minutes”. She came hardly at me like a wave of Tsunami came suddenly overnight on the shores of the Indian Ocean. 

I sat in front seat waiting for another bus to come for Vijaynagar . No other bus, not even to other places arrived at the bus stop which was rare as the BMTC buses doesn’t make the people wait for a longer period of time. 

After a heavy period of 20 minutes, driver and conductor came, and the bus was on the go. There were hardly 4- 5 passengers in the bus, and I was in the front seat which usually are reserved for ladies, but not in Marcopolo and Vajra BMTC buses. 

Exactly opposite to my seat there was an empty seat. As a boy of 25 I was waiting for that seat to be filled with a beautiful unmarried girl, to pass my time and to make my eyes cool. I imagined beautiful women sitting beside and opposite seat.

The next stop was Dairymilk double shots for me, half the bus filled and three beautiful girls among those who entered the bus, one beside my seat and two opposite to mine. 

All wearing tees and jeans, three of them fair enough to watch and rejoice. With a beautiful white skin and good physique they wake up any men’s feelings. I was a bit relieved, and my mood changed a bit. “Ahh,  finally something to rejoice” but still failure was crooking my encephalon, the negative thoughts were in momentum. Blaming my fate, with a five rupee coin in my pocket, I got frustrated as kings cigarette’s rate grown to 8 rupees. 

Stomach was squandering as if a rat is running vigorously than ever. Failed interview, thirty minutes of brain storming emptiness in bus, hot and humid climate, conductor’s harsh tone, and to make it worst the AC was off.

I felt I was squeezed again and again. I was in a veil of somber. I thought “Why God is giving me this much torture”? “Why I’m always a loser”?  Why, Why and Why’s? Continued hitting my brain, even the girl’s beauty forgotten by these idle thoughts in the brain.

The bus arrived in Jayanagar 4^th block bus stop, all three girls get down to end a slight rejoice. The place was filled by two more ladies ; whom I was watching keenly from the time they step into the bus, one a mammoth sized fat girl and other a blind. By the time I was watching both of them, my attention turned a bit on them.  

The bus left, and the conductor came to issue a ticket.  The blind girl took out a paper which was normal daily pass, the conductor’s voice raged at blind girl, she shouted “this is a normal bus pass and this will not run here “Take the ticket otherwise get down here, can’t you ask anybody before landing on the bus”. The conductor lost humanity for a second, but allowed her to travel to the next stop after commanding her in a big tone.

While these conversations taking place, fat lady beside the blind girl opened her purse and took two tickets saying one ticket is for the blind girl. The Conductor not objected, she issued two tickets to the lady.  The blind girl thanked her in a shy-full tone, but the fat lady resisted and said “Sorry for giving wrong information, It was me who made you land this bus”.

The blind girl replied “ No No , It was me who has asked you to show 60 number bus; but, I have not clarified you about the kind of bus, and it’s my mistake “and they continued resisting each other. I realized the blind girl wanted to travel in a normal 60 bus and asked the fat girl the bus number, but unfortunately she landed in an AC bus.

They continued each other’s conversation as they both were going to Vijaynagar TTMC. Fat girl promised her to drop the blind girl till her home. When all this conversations ended, I started thinking of my problems for a second and again turned my attention towards them.

Blind lady was telling to fat girl “  Problems are not the problems and the blind girl opened up my eyes with her words while conversing with that fat girl.

“Madam, I work as a teacher in a school and travel daily from Vijaynagar to Jayanagar . Today I took a leave for half day to attend a free eye testing camp held at rotary club".

 "Today I realized, the blindness in me to be remained forever, My eyes cannot be changed even if someone donates. My eyes are having problems beyond cornea, otherwise I would have a chance to see the colors of the world. There is no chance of getting eyes in any means”.

She wept a bit and continued

“Madam,I have not lost the battle, I see the colors of the world in my student's words, In my colleagues love, in the humanity the people show for me, I request you to donate your eyes ,so that the blind like me who just have corneal problems will get the new life; any how, I thank god for this beautiful life he has given to me ".

" Suppose If I was healthy like you, I would have not faced any problems with the bus, but other problems might have haunted. In-fact problems are not at all a problem, there will be a solution to every problem, today you were my solution, overcoming the problems is a solution to every problem,   blind are those people who get dumped in problems not me”.

Her words were like a preaching to me, all the negative thinking in me washed out. I realized the truth regarding problems, coming home, I opened the internet and searched for online eye donation and donated my eyes, read about eye donation and decided to promote the Eye donation and written this article. 

Hope this article will make you donate your eyes, even if you have already donated your eyes implement it, tell about eye donation to all your friends, relatives, colleagues. This article is a tribute to the blind teacher who eradicated my real blindness.

Sankranti- A meaning-full Festival

Sankranti- A meaning-full Festival

I remember the school days and the next day after Sankranti. We used to take sesame mixed with jaggery, roasted groundnut, dried Coconut kernel pieces, sugar and many more,  these all were mixed in a polythene bag.

It was a dish like preparation done by mother and give instruction all of us to give a bit to all the teachers and bow their feet to acquire their blessings, then distribute it to friends and wish them the best.

Sankranti is a unique and meaning-full festival celebrated in most of the parts of India, named as Lohri, Bhogi, Pongal, Sankranti, Sankramana etc. This festival is meaning-full and depicts the great culture of India. 

This festival exclaims the human relationship with nature and nurture human life as a part of nature itself.  This is truly proved in  festival celebrated in villages by farmers. They bow to nature and worship agricultural land; ornament their livestock, which helps in every part of their lives. 

Apart from traditional worshiping, this festival is the celebration of triumph of nature. Its time for green in India, all the crops will be at their peak; hence, the festival has got greater meaning. The day will be dedicated to animals; they are ornamented and amused with great food and sports.

Sankranti is a joy throughout the country, and it’s specially celebrated in pomp in North-Karnataka region in their own special  way. 

The houses in North-karnataka villages and towns worship land and animals like the rest of the Country; but,special thing I have to say about is the food they prepare for the day of Bhogi.

Jowar and Bajra blended with Sesame, and there will be a variety of traditional North- Karnatakan sweets, curries of Brinjal, a special curry  made of mixed vegetables; which, they call “Bartha”. Carrot, sweet potatoes, radish and many vegetables are used to prepare Bartha and, probably, this is the only day in the year people prepare this special curry because of availability of a variety of the vegetable in the season. 

Along with curries butter, Ghee, spicy Niger seed powder, Fenugreek leaf, raw Radish, Carrot, Boiled Sweet-Potatoes and the list goes on. The menu of food on the day of Sankranti is one of the biggest, richest and healthiest food will ever hear.

A plate of food is taken to friends and relative's houses,everyone relishes each other’s food with different tastes and varieties to impart happiness to everyone. 

In the evening people gather to amuse themselves by singing, dancing and doing various activities. People exchange sesame and jaggery as an indication of exchanging each other’s happiness and miseries. 

Sesame indicates sorrow for its sour taste, and jaggery indicates happiness.

Apart from the celebrations, the festival has got its scientific importance. The festival is to worship the sun-the energy source for all living beings on earth. It’s an astrological event where the sun enters Capricorn zodiac constellation on that day. 

Scientifically, this day marks the beginning of warmer and longer days compared to the nights. In other words, Sankranti marks the end of the winter season and the beginning of a new harvest or spring season.

The period of Sankranti is a season when the skies filled with empty clouds the temperature will be cold for Indian sub-continent. It’s a time when farmers are at the edge of harvesters, forest blossom with green lush, and scientifically it’s a period in which human digestive power will be stronger than any other seasons in the year.  This is why all the food mentioned above is lipid containing items, and this also helps rejuvenate the skin, which has lost its moisture in the cold seasons.

Overall Sankranti is a festival that has got great significance and scientific bases.

Use Social Apps Effectively, Help Build The Nation.

I 

Experienced in my small town; where, people talking in tea shops about the elections and the profile of the candidates in the contest, trends, probability of the winning and losing candidate , which area may vote to which candidate, whether it is cast, or money that is going to take part in the election and  the list goes on and these tea shops were the social stages for the people to talk about the politics just a few years ago.

But today is the era of Android and windows, where millions of people using the man’s finest invention called as Smart phones.  According to a new study, there are 51 million smartphone users in urban India, an increase of  89% is  expected every year  from 2012. India ranks fifth among the countries  using smartphone.

It’s not just in bigger cities, but spreading viral in small towns and cities which I experienced myself. One of the construction workers who was illiterate messaged his owner in Whatsapp’ ; that he is not coming to work for a day. This was a small incident which inspired me to scribble this.

Times of India reports says The number of social media users in urban India reached 62 million by December 2012, and it is estimated to reach 66 million by June 2013.

Role of Social media and Apps

·         38% of those who use social networking sites (SNS)  promote material related to politics or social issues that others have posted.

·         35% have used social networking sites to encourage people to vote .

·         34% have used the tools to post their own thoughts or comments on political and social issues.

·         33% have used the tools to re-post content related to political or social issues, that was originally posted by someone else.

·         31% have used the tools to encourage other people to take action on a political or social issue.

·         28% have used the tools to post links to political stories or articles for others to read.

This statistic tells  the role of Social media and apps like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, WeChat, blogger, Hike messenger, Skype, Youtube, Yahoo messenger, Rediffmail on general elections.

I was chatting with my friend whose thinking made him a  philanthropist as he always talk about society, country, people. As the discussion moves on, the  topic came to elections and the truth came out, his age is 26 and he never voted not even once in his lifetime in any elections; either it may be local body elections or parliamentary elections. 

He spent 9 years of his life after getting power to vote. This is just an example. Even those who talk of development, nation, politics do not vote, the people talking about responsibility forget their responsibilities. It is the question of choosing leaders who lead your place, It is the question of the leaders who rules your area, it is the question of the leaders who build your nation.

In his book “How I BRAVED ANU AUNTY AND CO-FOUNDED A MILLION DOLLAR COMPANY’ Arun Agarwal writes, how kitty parties and the voices in the party helped him to start and improve his business. He adds mouth to mouth spreading is the greatest way to increase business. The same can be implied to raise our voice through social apps. 

On December 31, I was resolving  a conflict between two of my friends, who fought a lot in Whatsapp chat, and I was successful to rejoin them. There I thought social apps are our voices now.

When we see the traditional way of elections, youth show dis-interest, especially the one who are far away from their place. There can be many reasons for their dis-interest.

1. Wish not to go home just to cast vote.

2. Disinterest in elections.

3. Lack of awareness.

4. Lack of profile candidate.

5. Disinterest in politics.

6. Disgusted of the system and many more.

The reasons can be many and this is why 60-65% voting still hold the record in India.  Importantly the voting in youths is still a miserable statistics.

When we keenly observe the growing popularity of social sites and use of internet; social apps can be a good choice to increase voting in youth. Most of us might have observed  US presidential elections, where the candidate's profile will be available in every social site;especially in micro-blogging sites like Twitter.

India is no less to the US and thanks to man’s finest invention Smartphone.

The emergence of the AAP in Delhi proved the different strategy of election and motto. They have pulled the youth to polling booths, and they won the election to break records.

The next person who used social apps effectively to gain youth's confidence is Mr.Narendra Modi. There are a number of apps on his speeches and videos, even Youtube is making a big impact definitely. If I open my FB page, there will be at least one post on Modi.

It’s good that, the Election Commission of India has brought the Internet and social media under the election code of conduct. The Election Commission has issued a notification, according to which candidates are required to declare educational qualification and criminal records and details of their social media accounts.

What Can be done:
1. Make apps that helps everyone to acquire information of election procedure right from getting voter card to the prime minister oath.

2. Collect information of every candidate in every constituency and post them in social apps and spread it as much as possible.

3. Build games that encourage the people to get interest in politics.

4. last thing can be done by election commission ; they can form online polling booth  to allow everybody tovote to any constituency from such booths all through india.

Social apps are the things on which youth are fond off, Use Social Apps Effectively, Help Build The Nation.

New Year Desires

May the happiness clatter

May the Filth and grief slaughter 

wishing everyone a happy new year 

Every mother’s oculars

Fill with tears

of gaiety and happiness

Every child fly in jollity 

decreased futility 

and increased fraternity

Father hung in satisfaction

Reach his desire of intention 

Hug his dreams resurrection

Every youth fly up the skies   

Achieve their, own milestones 

His notion attains, consciousness arouses

Elders attain deliverance 

and attain a breathing space

into the world where they attain peace

Wish of freedom from suffer and illness

Acquire auspicious renaissance

and wishing the world a peace .