Old is Gold

"And he died....all alone with nobody around him. He had been ill for quite some time and there was no one to take care of him. He had little money so could not afford to be admitted to a fancy hospital where everything would be taken care for him at his advanced age of 82 years. The body was discovered after 2 days almost rotten difficult to identify"....how many times we hear this and how many times we feel that it might be our fate tomorrow. As the average life span of Indians increases people outlast their savings. The country still struggles witht he lack of social security infrastructure for old people. Today as we claim to have the largest youngest population in the world over the years we would also claim to have the largest population of old people in the world and it is about time the country woke up to the needs of the old people. We need to learn our lessons from the economies like Japan who have a large chunk of population comprising of the old.
With harldy any population working in the organized sector old age planning through PFs and pension schemes is avaialble to very few and to those few also it is usually not sufficient for their requirements. Over the years with high inflation usuallly the planning fell way short of what is required for a comfortable living with age. Even though today there are coopoeratives and organizations like Seva which try to provide old age planning to people in the unorganziaed sector but a handful of efforts would not solve an issue whice is basically systemic.
As a nation when we do not shy away from providing subsidies to various social groups based on castes then how can we shy away as a nation from our responsibility of our senior citizens wo have contributed to the growth of the nation through there lives. Why do we want to pinch pennies by cutting down rates of interest from there savings? Why cant we have separate sections in the government hospiatals to take care of senior citizens? Why cant the government fund the treatment of a certsin age group and above? There is today a greater need for better infrastrucutre in terms of customized saving scemes for old age planning, creating greater infrastructure for old people through making availble medical help, old age homes, activity groups etc.
This is also a great opportunity for the busness houses who can identify opportunities for providing services and products speciffic to the requirement of the old people. Some the products which are innovatively being used in advanced natioins are like reverse mortgage of land where a bank pays a person a certain annuity over his/her remaining lifetime against his property. As long as the person is alive he/she can use the property but once he passes away the propoerty goes to the bank. Similarly setting up various activity clubs for the old people where they can come and spend ther time creatively with people of their own age group. Even things like higher retirement age and opportunities for reemployment post retirement. Loans for setting up small businesses post retirement are thing wich the governemnt needs to look into. But equlally important will be the role of the legislature to protect the rights of this vulnerable group. Whether it is against domestic violence, lack of proper care at home or security to people of certain ages and above staying alone.
We are a nation where respect for elders is an engrained value which we grow up with, but sadly we today ourselves need a lesson to take care of our senior citizens...

The aspirational state of being sad

"Have you ever felt as if there are tears just filling you inside as if they will melt and will drown your entire being.....you have this great desire to lighten yourself by shedding all of them but then they don't come because somewhere you know the futility of all."
Sadness or pathos is an emotion which has a romanticism associated with it, the world has always glamorised the under dog. But I believe that man is basically selfish and seeks only pleasure and even when we choose to be sad it is because it gives us pleasure to feel sad, it gives us relief to cry to tell how we have gone through a lot. Mourning for a dear one, when you can think of all those pleasurable times with him/her gives happiness, or for that matter just sitting and thinking about someone whom we once loved and how we felt at that point of time fills our heart with joy since it is easier to miss the days gone by rather than stand up an face today.
As people we are born with this lust for pleasure through out our life and the "navrasa" as they are called give us pleasure in one way or the other at various points of times in our lives .....just think about this next time when you are sad and you would know what I am talking about....I call it "the aspirational state of being sad"

Pitter patter the rain fell

There was a wonderful hail storm a couple of days back in Gurgaon and we looked at it from the glass shades of our office like small children who have been refused permission to go out and play.
How I wish for those days when rains meant going out on the streets and playing and in case there was hail you obviously ate it, coming home all wet and muddy....the unpleasant part was just the scolding from dad. Those wonderful rainbows which would fill my heart with joy. Where there was time to just simply stand and stare at hem from the garden. The wonderful plants in the garden which seemed all fresh and new after a nice long bath. That smell of the mud as the first drops hit the ground and yes the chai and pakoras when dad was home.
I wonder where all of it went and I came down to "Oh! it is raining nice....." and went along with my work.

heavy weights

All you heavy weights there.....have you ever wondered why God made some people fat and some people thin...I wonder how it would be if each one if us just came right out of a mould in the same size, slim and trim....boring uhhhh...but then why do we always torture ourselves trying to get thin and deprive ourselves of the worldly pleasures (namely food).
But however philosophical I might get about being okay with a little bit of fat on me this desire to fit into those nice sexy clothes somehow seems to take precedence over every other desire to eat, drink and make merry......dont know if this years resolution of shedding 10 kgs will ever get fullfilled with the first qurter already closing almost....but the effort continues

Beautiful days..

I am today going to meet one of my school friends after may be 10 years. It is a funny feeling, while I am so happy that I will be meeting her after such a long time I can distinctly remember how she was in school and I wonder how much she would have changed.
Today I am on a nostalgic trip down memory lane of school. Those beautiful years where fights were on sharing pencils and erasers. A beautiful pencil or a colorful pencil box were the most coveted possessions. Even as we tried to come first in class we didn't think twice or calculate before helping somebody with studies. Lunch breaks were great equalizers as everybody ran to conquer a seat on the swings. Where it was simple to understand who your best friend was when she took you along to distribute sweets across classes on her birthday. Those unforgetful school rides on cycle rickshaws where we took turns sitting on the favorite window seat of the rick and playing games while we waited for the rickshaw man to come. How we begged our rickshaw man to pluck "imlis" from the huge tree outside the school or those times when everyone would yell at me for stealing mulberries from a house near my school. As we grew up up the discussions changed from pencil boxes to boys, I started going to school on my bicycle (another prized possession) the hems of skirts started climbing up and the socks started getting rolled down. Rushing for coaching classes right after school and climbing across gates to make it in time. While our teachers struggled to keep a set of giggly girls under control as they struggled to give us some basic education on growing up (hehe that was what it was called).
The first socials where each one shared clothes and shoes to match to impress a group of 16 year old boys who would have fallen even if we were dressed in rags and to top it all the day after discussions which focused around how many guys one danced with or which guy bought whom an ice cream.
Those sessions in chemistry labs where we discovered the wonders of mixing colourful liquids and begged the lab assistant to help us with the readings and the salt. The lessons with our dear biology teacher who insisted on directing every discussion towards man woman relationships and tose outrageous point of views which came tumbling out of 16 year old minds, those sessions in the physics lab where getting the circuit right made us feel like Newton or Einstein. Those wonderful lessons in english where I seemed to dwell on unrequited love of Pip from Great Expectations.
Those sports day where houses where religion. Where singing competitions and annual sports day were wars and the best house cup was the biggest trophy. When nothing seemed impossible as we let our dreams fly and reach new horizons. As we freely shared our dreams without being guarded or thinking "what if we did not reach them" or when we tried to sell of our favorite pair of jeans to fund a school trip (Ya! somebody actually tried doing it).
Alas!!! they are all gone by but the memories stay and leave a sweet after taste which lingers on..........

Jodhpur

Recently I had the good luck to visit a very beautiful part of Rajasthan and I was completely enamored by the beauty of Jodhpur. Even though I saw very little of the city but the Mehrangarh fort completely had me awestruck with its beauty. Along with the fort I also visited the local market there which was like any other small town market. We also had a beautiful evening over camel rides, bonfire in the middle of desert, local folk music and dance followed by a sumptuous traditional dinner. Even though we missed out the view of seeing the sunset behind the sand dunes we were rewarded by a beauiful rainin the desert something which even the locals are granted only once in a wile. However among all this gaiety something which also struck me was the poverty of the locals, whether it was the guides who showed us around, or the men dressed in colourful traditional clothes posing at the fort, or the waiters who served us, the people who took us for the camel rides or even the local market shops across the city. I was shocked that even despite the rains the dancers performed without adequate cover. While the speakers were covered the dancers and their instruments were not given any shade. The reason as I guessed was that they would not be paid unless they performed in the evening. Eventually we all did come out and stood there and enjoyed the performance but the discomfort of the performers was apparent as they struggled to cover their instruments which would lose thir melody if seeped with damp.
I wonder that even though Rajasthan and especially Jodhpur have registered themselves as a favorite tourist destination, what with a couple of high profile weddings having been recently performed in the city with great glam and shine, then why are we not being able to reap the profits of a flourishing tourism industry. Why is the lot of people who are the original inhabitants of the place not changing. Even though additional jobs are being generated but the quality of jobs is also important. Is the cause for it apathy from the system which fails to organize services in a way. Even if we look at the infrastructure of the city it is extremely poor and connectivity in terms of frequency of flights it is fairly low and the services provided at the airports is also not of the highest quality. Illiteracy is fairly rampant across the various sections of people we discussed above...in our bid to attract tourists to the rich tradition of the city are we also selling them our poverty (I saw tourists clicking pictures of naked kids and women dong manual labor (unknown to them in their own countries)). I believe it is time we sat up and looked at ways not only to attract more tourists but also develop tourism as an industry within the region so that the locals can earn a better style of living.
Somethings which we can quickly correct are:

• I went through the market looking for traditional art and craft and found very shops which were few and far between. Even the quality of stuff they were selling was very limited. Greater experimentation which targets not only international tourists but carries novelty even for the local tourists would ensure greater growth of the city in terms of the general living standard of the people.
• Though this has been hared on for long but educating the local craftsmen and setting up something along the lines of e-chaupals to ensure they can get good rates for the work they do will ensure that they are not cheated (the traditional handicrafts that are sold are not only made in Jodhpur but the surrounding villages also).
• More forums and creating opportunities for the locals to showcase the rich heritage will also lead to greater sales and higher standards of living whether it is through setting up traditional markets on the line of "dilli haat" or whether it is through organizing on going shows across the city for the folk music and dance.
• Reducing the disparity of the services available in the city at one end there are the 5 star hotels and their restaurants on the other end it is the roads-side food. Today there is a requirement for various classes of restaurants and services across the city.
• The goverment can come forward with scemes for ready available capital for small businesses which can help the locals create their own set-ups rather than being dependent on other bigger set-up to buy their products and services
• Above all this the most important thing would be to aggressively marketing the place as tourist destination and ensuring better infrastructure and greater connectivity would help reap rich benefits for the city and locals residing there and prevent various folk arts from dying due to poor commercial value of the same.

Striking the balance

Complacence, satisfaction and ambition....I often wonder what is equation between the 3. Ambition breeds dissatisfaction because it makes you reach out for something which you do not have already...imagine had there been no ambition and everybody was happy with what they had and did not strive for more...we would most probably be still staying in the caves with not even the basic amenities...this desire for doing something better is the key to progress. Necessity alone is not the mother of invention without the fuel of ambition no amount of necessity can translate into anything better. However this leads to the question of complacence and satisfaction......does it breed mediocrity in life. Are we who as kids have been taught about about excellence and ambition destined to spend an entire lifetime dissatisfied with what we have; always moving from one goal to the other. Is it wrong at some point of time in life to step back and say, "enough i ave doe my bit and time to take it slow". There is no end to ambition and sky is the limit if one dares to dreams but as somebody once said "what is a life that is full of care, if you have no time to sit and stare".
Everything has a price while complacence will lead one to maybe a smaller paycheck in life ambition will ask the price of loss of those special moments with oneself and the people who are dear....and we all go along leading a life struggling between striking the balance between the two.