Making a Difference

This Independence Day was the most eventful one in my life. Being a member of a social service goup we had visited a school for hearing impaireds. And just a couple of hours changed the whole way I look at life. I saw small children who can't hear or speak perform skits and dance to music to the instructions of their teachers. They seemed so normal, so fine, until you see the wires hanging from their ears. Poor kids, they could not hear anything, only they knew to make the movements when the teacher told them to. But the zest in them to perform their best was overwhelming. It reminded me of Sudha Chandran. I feel no problem is a problem unles it is in our mind.

Few days back some volunteers went to an institution where young children having aids were kept. They came back with horrible stories of sex crimes. Some of the affected kids were born HIV positive. But as for the rest, they got it as a result of being raped. And just to think they are just kids! Facing the double trauma of sexual harrasment and approaching death. Most of the kids were sex workers. In a country where child labor is banned. This is what the supervisor had to say - "We learned the prevention from the west, but we never learned to use them".

The main aim of our institution is to provide education to the under priviledged. We sponsor the education of several children of orphanages and poor parents. But a strict vigilance is required to be sure the money is not wasted or ill used. So we often visit the orphanages and teach the children english and mathematics, things we feel they need to hone on. What surprises me most is to see the sharpness of mind and the eagerness to learn of some of the kids. I had been a lecturer once. And my previous experience tells me that ambitious parents spend a lot of money ingetting a bit of knowledge into heads that are as impervious as rocks. I also get surprised by the emotional detachment of the kids. Till date not a single one has cried to come along with us when we go. God has his own way of healing wounds.

The Four Liquid Stages of Life

The Theft............

We had a theft at our house last week. Well, our fault. One of us forgot to close the door properly. But the incidents that followed is something that I'll never forget in my life.

I reached home round 9 pm and was shocked to see the door unlocked. With my heart in my hand, I entered the apartment full ready to confront anyone waiting inside. But everything was intact. Everything. TV, DVD player, digicams, ipods, everything. It took us sometime to realize that the only items missing were the jewellery boxes. We acted according to our instinct by calling the Association Secretary who advised us to call the police. But then the drama started.

It was almost 11:30 at night when the police finished their routine checkup. They were still downstairs telling us to lodge a formal complaint, when all of a sudden from nowhere a man appeared and started barking at us. It took us sometime to realize the nature of our fault. What he had to say was that at that time of the night we had no right to call the police and disturb him (We didn't even know who he was). And that if we do this again the police will not come to help us. That we are here for a few days and they will have to bear the brunt always. Although we were out of our wit at the change of events but we finally realized that he was the secretary's husband who had missed his dinner because his wife was out with us.

I remember such an incident happening when I was at home in West Bengal. It was 3 in the morning and a neighbourng house was being burgled. The owner was away in some vacation. The people in the floor below had detected movement and had alerted the neighbours.. But even during that time of night not a single person had hesitated to move out of the house. And here we were being barked upon by a stranger for calling the police for a theft of "JUST" 17000 Rupees. Possibly he would have been satisfied if one of us were looted, raped and killed. That could have been a valid reason for calling the police.

Chennai is the only metro known for being self centered and for closing it's eyes to the rest of India. And I realized I stay here.