Ineffective deterrents

Couple of days back, I saw the lady coming out from her house. To hand over the garbage bag to the corporation worker, who had started collecting it from door to door. Her right thumb and forefinger were busy, tightly holding her own nose. Her left thumb and forefinger were barely used to keep the bag intact in her hand 3 feet away from her body. And she threw the bag into the worker’s hands by standing almost 10 feet away from him.

Of course, the worker was dirty. His vehicle was full of filth collected from other houses. Obviously, that whole mess was not his problem. I am not saying that clean lady should go very close to him and his vehicle and get a feel for it. I am not saying she should attempt to throw a pair of clean clothes to him, which he can use next day – though it is possible for her. All I am saying is try not to over-react to the situation. No way, her such behaviour will become a deterrent to shabby looks of the worker. And to expect that he will arrive from tomorrow onwards in three piece suit, Nike shoes, wearing Titan watch in an air-conditioned Volvo carrier vehicle. He is least bothered about his appearance or the filth he carries, which is not at all his creation. He is only worried about his daily wages, which are peanuts for you and me. At least give respect to him and his profession.

Today, I saw a large group of garbage clearing workers sitting on the road side. I thought, they were on strike, assembled to protest against something. When I reached closer, I found all of them well dressed, neat and tidy. Then I saw all their vehicles parked in line, after giving a good wash. Sandal paste applied on the body, decorated with flower garlands. I realised that they assembled near the Hanuman temple by the side, doing pooja for their vehicles. They would have postponed the ritual by couple of days from the usual day of the year, so that their not-so-neat appearance would not become deterrent to the well-groomed normal citizens. I salute the person who took this initiative to have this pooja done, provide the workers with new clothes, sweets and other goodies. Who knows, the sandalwood  smell, the fragrance emanating from the temple, that nice ambience would remind them of the good environment they could have. Who knows, that might make them demand more sophisticated means and mechanisms to make their job much tidier?

I am an active user of whatsApp. I am yet to find an effective deterrent to the over-usage of it! Yesterday in whatsApp one of my friends forwarded me an article which starts with the statement “Are you a smoker then read on?”. I am pretty sure a non-smoker will enjoy reading it more than a smoker will. It talks about all ill effects and health hazards of smoking. And, how it kills people. As if no smoker is aware of these dangers. I am not sure how effective this will work as a deterrent. Instead the article should list out things that one can do to help him/her quit smoking. When there is an urge for smoking – go for a stroll in a nearby park with full of trees which always emit quality oxygen – or go into an air-conditioned super market and scout around for poison-free fruits or vegetables – or if one wants to be indoor, then try to be a bit more romantic to your partner – or seek medical help to quit smoking. I am not saying here that one should smoke, no. I am also not saying one should get killed, no, that is not in my hands. And definitely not by my hands.

Do I feel like killing somebody in the neighborhood by my own hands? Yes, at times. Could be because of the way they behave. Could be they are too selfish and they don’t care about others. Could be that I simply don’t like their faces! But I don’t kill them. Not because I don’t know the easy ways to kill somebody, I do spend quality time in reading newspaper and watching TV. Not because I don’t have the courage to kill somebody, the actions of some of these morons are such that, it can bring my rage to such extreme levels which can make me sufficiently brave. It is just because that’s the way I am brought up, that is the value system I believe in. Killing somebody is not a solution to the problem. That is why I haven’t killed somebody so far. Not because I am worried that if I commit that crime, the legal system will punish me by hanging until death which is supposed to be deterrent to my crime. That is least of my worries, when I touch that boiling point.

So don’t smoke, don’t generate more waste, don’t kill anybody – if you can’t resist doing these, at least support the cause to create an environment that would reduce these ills in the society. While doing so don’t assume deterrents alone will help that cause.

                                                                                                                                       

Swalpa Adjust Maadi !

“Swalpa Adjust Maadi”, very common phrase one would quite often hear in Bangalore city. It just means “please adjust swalpa ( a little )”. How much swalpa that adjustment would be, it’s anybody’s guess.

Most common and serious adjustments one has to make is when he/she enters into married life. To adjust with the partner.  Drinking coffee will give way for tea, one may have to go to sleep earlier before the other one starts snoring so that the start of sleep is not affected for both partners. This list of swalpa adjustments to be made may not be that swalpa.

I also got married once, many years back. The priest was chanting hundreds of Sanskrit slokas during the wedding ceremony. Looking back after those many years, I am pretty sure one of those slokas was a message to me and my wife that in future we might have to do some adjustments to live happily. Though none of us or the crowd around or the priest himself, knew which particular solka that was.  Had me and my wife knew the message that day itself, by now she would have made a few more adjustments, I too would have made many more !

In Coimbatore city, a newly-wed lady took her life herself. She could not think of living a life without the non-stop use of whatsApp. Husband, a lorry driver by profession, probably knew only one use of his mobile, to make voice calls. He could not understand his wife’s attitude, looking and smiling more often at her mobile handset than looking at him. He could not adjust a bit. He took her phone away and went out. She went in and took her own life.

One should know what extent one can adjust. Like many girls my daughter also started learning dance, Bharatnatyam.  Like many others, she also stopped learning one fine day. Every other month there will be some performance or other organized by the dance school in one of the temple premises. What it meant for me was a lot of adjustments - take half day leave, help the mother in getting the daughter ready and more importantly drive them down to the venue. And of course, sit and watch those performances patiently with occasional applauds.

That evening the venue was a near-by Siva temple. As one would find, the approach to many of these temples start with very broad road and as and when one reaches near the temple the road narrows and narrows further. Finally there will be a still narrower outer entrance to the temple and the narrowest door opening where the deity really abodes. I stopped and parked the car when the first broad road ended and narrowness started opening up. I told my daughter and wife I could not adjust any more. They better walk the rest of 200 metres on foot, adjusting to the curious stare of bystanders who were a bit less appreciative of any form of art, compared to the people who sat inside the venue.

My friend Kumar also had a dancing daughter. He was also as adjustable as I. His daughter was also part of the dance program for that evening. He also took half day leave. He also cooked the lunch at home that day. He also did many more unfamiliar things. And they set out in his car. One difference was his car was new and he was new to driving. Another difference was he succumbed to his wife’s pressure to take a chance to drop them at the entrance of the venue. I was standing there when they arrived there ceremoniously. He got into a spot, dead-end in front of him. Only option for him was to take the car reverse for a good 50 metres or so in that narrow lane. It was unimaginable for a person like him who barely knew how to take the car in the forward direction. He jumped out of car with full rage and shouted at his wife throwing the car keys at her “You only asked to bring the car till this point, now you take it back”. Poor wife, she had to do a lot of adjustments to sit properly even in the passenger seat, sitting in the driver’s seat was beyond question. Finally, a lot of adjustments had to be made by the street vendors, moving many things by lifting and keeping aside, including Kumar’s new car !

If you are subjected to too many adjustments, you may react arrogantly, irrationally, illogically. That day I was traveling alone to Bangalore from Calcutta. The flight got delayed by many hours. I finished glancing through all the newspapers available. I finished pretending to going through the documents in my laptop computer, which I had done several times before.  Since there was no internet, wifi, 2G, whatsApp, FB etc, I had to remain local, no way I could go global by which I could have killed my time easily.  I had to shift intermittently from left to right and vice versa while sitting in that uncomfortable chair at the waiting lounge to minimize the mounting pain in my ass. There was no clue as when the flight will depart. Finally the call came for check-in. I didn’t see any smile on her face when the lady at the counter asked me “Window or aisle?”. With the same rude face I replied “both”. I could see the displeasure on her face, at least I got an opportunity to vent out my anger for the series of adjustments I had to make. Didn’t I deserve that much adjustment from them? What seat I got was immaterial, I was momentarily happy that I took some revenge on them, fully knowing what would be in store for me ahead till I reach Bangalore!

So when we hear or we say, ‘”Swalpa Adjust Maadi”, that swalpa is very important. If swalpa, turns out to be jaasti ( more )  then there is a problem, then it is no more an adjustment, It is a sacrifice by one party. And rarely someone will like to sacrifice, with no merit.

Are you a sinner ?

“Are you a sinner ?”. Nobody might ask me this question, but one never knows. Somebody might. I would never know the answer to that question.

A person might be practicing something from his childhood. His father does it. All his ancestors used to do it. Eating beef.  For him it is like others eating banana, rice, fish et al. For him, it is never a sin to eat beef. But somebody next door does not perceive it that way. For him eating beef is a sin. For him, eliminating somebody who consumes beef is not a sin. So he lynches the beef-eater. But there is something called law of the land. By that law, killing somebody is a sin, it is a murder. So the eliminator is brought under the judiciary, tried and punished to death by hanging. Human rights people take it up from there. For them hanging anybody, taking life out of anybody is a sin. So committing sin is never ending, it is a continuous process, it endures by different perceptions by different people.

Certain people believe that if they do not commit a sin in this life, in next life they will not become a donkey or any other low-IQ  animal. Good belief. With all that even if they go through hard times in this life, they will console themselves by believing that it is all because of the sins they had committed in their previous life(s).  Still a better belief. At least the crime rate in this world will come down if more people start believing in that.

My colleague Gangadar was like that. In fact he was one step ahead. He did not want to commit any sin even unknowingly. His only sin was writing faulty software programs which could not have been understood or fixed by others/ even by himself. He committed that sin neither knowingly nor unknowingly, he was just going through the motions! We were in Singapore working together at a customer site. One day, after a day’s full of sins on the computer terminal, he joined us for dinner. We headed to McDonalds, the place we all liked most. Gangadar ordered a veg burger and ate happily. After reaching home, he got a doubt. Was he served a non-veg burger? Did he end up in eating non-veg stuff? For a strict vegetarian like him, it was unimaginable. For him it was a sin. None of us knew an easy way to find out the truth, either in an invasive or non-invasive way.  Gangadar did not sleep that night. He did not sleep the next night too. In between he did not see the computer terminal to commit any more of his usual sins. He took the first flight on the third day back to India and went straight to Tirumala temple, begged pardon for his sin.

When a sinner goes to fast, God makes the day longer – they say. I am sure all of you would have eaten jack fruit at some point of time in your life. It is a crime. You are depriving jack fruit tree of its reproduction by throwing the seeds carelessly in places where they cannot grow into another plant/tree, to keep its traditions intact. But there are chances that one of those seeds find the right place and grow. That’s why you would get a minor uneasiness in the stomach for a short duration. But, there are people who would cook and eat even those seeds. That is a serious sin, totally eliminating the possibility of growing another tree. For such cruel seed-eaters, the punishment will be severe, they would get major stomach pain which can last for days.

So, it looks like even simple, humble eating revolves around a lot of sins. With all these sinful thoughts in my mind, the other day I had gone to a nearby restaurant. I found something interesting there –“Sinful Punjabi  Paneer combo”. If you haven’t tried that yet, I strongly suggest you do. If you had committed many sins, you will instantly be forgiven for all those sins the moment you eat that stuff. If you are a puritan and have not committed any sin so far, you will know what committing a heinous sin really means – by ordering that combo ! In either case you will be fully convinced!!