Why caste and class system wouldn't perish in India?

It was a pleasant evening. The drizzling made it perfect. Kids in my apartment complex were playing cricket. Perfect photography composition, i thought. I stepped out of my home to click some moments. A   6-year old girl, my neighbor and her friends came and asked me if i could click their pictures. I was more than glad for having found enthusiastic subjects. So, i started clicking them playing, clicking them running around etc.

After some time, i noticed a small boy standing behind me mused. I stopped clicking and initiated a conversation with him. When i asked if he would like to be clicked, he instantly said a yes with a beaming face. I asked him to come and stand in front of the camera. As he came, the other kids pushed him away and the 6-year old girl, came and put her hand in front of the camera, blocking the lens. The girl insisted that i should not click the boy. When i asked why, she said, "akka, veedu, chaakali vadu, pichi battalu vesukuntadu... vedni photo teeyodhu" ( it means, this boy belongs to dhobi community and he wears rags, so you shouldn't click his photo)

I was startled by her words and immediately chided her. She was still adamant and insisted that no one clicks the boy's photos along with the other kids like them. when i asked her, who told her, she said she knew it by herself. When i asked her how, she responded that she learnt it from the television and movies. In the television and movies, people like servant maids and dhobis who work for us, are always treated indifferently. I told her that its not the right way to treat people and one shouldn't be judged based on what he or she wears. Anger was evident on the girl's face and she said she doesn't like to be told like this. She said, because i clicked his photo, she would now not talk to me as well. So, she said a loud "Kattif" and left from that place.

I did not know how to react, so quietly continued clicking the pictures of the boy.
I do not know if she told it in ignorance or casually, but i know for sure that with 6-year olds like her, who will be tomorrow's india, it is very difficult to dream of a caste and class free society. 

The Judgement awaited

No, it is not about Ayodhya or anything else.. it is something very personal :)


One night....


Mom to Me : your Dad snored very badly last night

Dad to Mom: I did not sleep at all because, you were snoring very badly

I: I don't know who snored, but I had a dolby stereo effect in the next room

Result: all 3 of us are sleeping in 3 distant, different rooms tonight




P.S.: both of them wanted me deliver a verdict next morning on who snored 

Today's Pledge?

India is my Country 
All extremists & lobbyists are my brothers & sisters.
I pity my country & I am ashamed of its corrupt & unscrupulous leaders. 
I shall always strive to distance myself from them. I shall give my corrupt netas, gundas & other undeserving fellows my precious vote & treat everyone with courtesy .
To my netas & my rulers, I pledge my hope.
In their selfish & careless hands alone, lies my bleak future.

From teaching to Guiding

From teaching to Guiding

Gautami Challagulla

The counseling for engineering and medical colleges is on the verge of completion. The huge campuses and grand classrooms will welcome the to-be-engineers and to-be-doctors. There will also be welcome speeches by the management, assurance speeches by the anti-ragging, sexual harassment committees. Two months down the lane, all these will inevitably be followed by news reports of ragging, suicides and other atrocities. This is the cycle that one has been seeing for more than a decade now.

In the last decade, after several discussions and debates, establishment of anti-ragging committees and sexual harassment committees in the colleges has been made obligatory. Today, all the engineering and medical colleges have these committees and many rules and regulations have been formulated. Despite all these efforts, the number of cases of ragging, sexual harassment, acid-attacks and suicides have not reduced. This clearly shows that mere setting up of such committees is not a complete solution to prevent such incidents. The role of these committees is usually restricted to reprimanding the accused. So, it is mostly only a legal or disciplinary action that is taken, but there is no emphasis on a behaviour change. The recent incidents of suicides and murders even by students of the elite institutions only re-iterate the fact that good quality of academic education does not necessarily shape students into strong and sensible individuals. Neither the faculty who impart the academic education nor these disciplinary committees really try to imbibe the moral values in the students. 

In the era when parents are busy, the responsibility and role of an education institution to act as a ‘guide’ becomes more important than ever. One method to mitigate such incidents is the establishment of counseling centers that would have a team of psychologists and faculty members who would attend to the emotional concerns of both the potential victim and the potential accused. Students with any concern like not being able to cope with the course work, liking a co-student, having troubles with peers etc can approach these counseling centers and express their concerns without hesitation. While these centers might not become panacea, they would certainly guide the students in handling the situations with maturity and sensibility. Another simple method that any faculty member can employ is, instead of punishing the unruly and ignoring the disoriented students, take some time out, talk and understand such students’ mentality.

Seeking inspiration from success stories of Narayana Murthy is important, but imbibing principles of Vivekananda is also necessary.

Your cocooned Child

Your cocooned child

Outdoor games are need of the hour for a child’s overall development.

Gautami Challagulla

Ketan, a 10 year old, class V student at present suffers from obesity. He is also diagnosed with child depression. Sriram is a 16 year-old class XII student, who was recently caught at a gaming centre trying to sell his mother’s gold ornaments. Sindhu who turned 13 this august is hardly seen in the playground, as she is busy playing with the new X Box 360 gifted by her parents.

These are not just the stories of Ketan, Sriram and Sindhu, but tales of children brought up in today’s cosmopolitan cities. However, children are not the only ones to be held responsible. While the apartment culture today restricts kids from playing outside, the corporate schools ensure the children do not get time to play outdoor games.

Sharvari Priya, a student of class XII talks about her routine. Till class VIII, she had one and a half hours of playtime per week. In classes IX and X, the time was cut to forty-five minutes and once she entered class XII, there is no playtime. She says, “My course work demands more study hours. Even when I find some time, my friends are all busy so, I do not have anyone to play with.” However, she prefers playing outdoors as the factors like shouting, running around make the outdoor games livelier.

When it comes to Tarun and Keertana, siblings from Hyderabad, they hold opposite views. While Keertana loves playing outside and at present, is part of the National basketball team, Tarun loves the virtual games and is addicted to computer. Their parents have complaints only with Tarun. “Tarun’s gaming habits have reduced his concentration levels and his grades have constantly come down, whereas Keertana has become more disciplined. She never woke up early in the morning till she joined her basketball game. Now, with or without her game practice, she wakes up at 5:00 in the morning”, says her mother.

There are several other reasons that can be attributed to these changing habits. The busier parents neither have time to spend with their kids, nor do they have time to take them to public parks. Even if few parents intend to take their children outside, well functioning public parks are a rarity. It’s under such circumstances that games like play stations and X boxes sneak into a child’s schedule. With games like these on one side and new applications like Farmville on the Face book and virtualpets.com on the other side, children today, do not realize the magnitude of the loss they are at by missing out on the outdoor “real” games.

In addition, health issues are offered as bonus. Obesity is a major problem which today’s kids face. The number of cases of child obesity have increased manifold in the last decade. According to obesitysurgeryindia.org, 30% of kids today suffer from obesity, lack of physical activity being one among other major reasons. The virtual games do not just ruin a child’s physical fitness but can also result in issues like depression, selfishness and introvert behaviour. 

World Health Organization (WHO), considering the increase in child obesity, has released recommended levels of physical activity for the age group 5-17. The physical activity for the children of this age group includes playing games, planned exercise, transportation, recreation and physical education in school. They suggest the children between age groups 5-17 to have moderate to intense physical activity for at least 60 minutes in a day. They emphasize that physical activity for more than 60 minutes provides additional health benefits and the most recommended physical activity is aerobics. Exercises that include muscle and bone strengthening should be included for at least 3 times a week.

The virtual games though appear as creative and challenging, force the users to think in only one way, usually the way in which the game is designed.  However adaptive the games are, there sets in monotony after a point. An outdoor game, as simple as playing with dry leaves can make the child think in several ways. For example, a child can play with dry leaves for a whole day, painting them, preparing a garland, or making a tiara. So, outdoor games not only ensure the kids’ engagement with the game, in the most creative manner, but also serve as a base for them to think differently in different situations and come up with best possible alternatives.

A virtual pet can never lick you like a real pet and one can never run, sweat and stay fit playing virtual games. So, parents wake up; Pull your cocooned children out of the virtual world and help them play in the reality.

Names of few children have been changed to protect identity.

Who killed Rahul's Mom

“Mom, I got 3^rd rank in the annual examination. I promise I’ll secure 1^st next time” said Rahul, a class 3 student. But, his voice was devoid of any excitement. Because, like any other kid, he was not communicating this message to his mother, but to his mother’s picture hanging on the wall.

Yes, Rahul is a class 3 student and he recently lost his mother and his unborn baby brother.

Exactly 7 months before this date, Rahul’s house was full of celebrations when they heard that Poornima is going to have a kid again. It was the most awaited arrival for Rahul because, he had been longing to have a sibling whom he can play with, whom he can boss over and whom he can take responsibility of.

Jan 2^nd 2010 – Poornima started having terrible pain and discomfort and since Pramod was relatively new to driving, he was panicked to drive his wife to the hospital. So, they called in for the 108 service and the ambulance was at their doorstep within 10 minutes. All three of them, Pramod, Rahul and Poornima started to the hospital. The paramedics were assuring that Poornima was fine and in another 15 minutes, she would be in the hospital. But for Poornima, 15 minutes seemed like 15 hours and she was unable to bear the pain anymore.

It was a Friday evening, and everyone was in a mood to rush home as early as possible.

After 10 minutes, the ambulance carrying Poornima was stuck in a traffic jam and came to a halt. Pramod who was sitting behind along with Poornima and Rahul could not see what was the reason for the jam. He peeped through the side window, and saw that the vehicles were all over the road.

Pramod waited for 5 minutes and then got down to see what the issue was. As he headed towards the front of the ambulance, he saw that there was a group of people who was watching something. Suspecting an accident, he moved close enough to get a clear view. And then, he saw that it was not an accident, but a petty street quarrel.

There was a young man who must have been in his early 20s and another person who appeared to be in late 60s. Both of them were shouting at the peak of their voices and all the people who were watching them appeared to be enjoying the live tamasha. Some of them, he realized were even becoming active participants of the argument.

He then went back to the ambulance and checked with the driver if there was any alternate route to reach hospital. But, the driver said, it was impossible to move out of this jam, because, the vehicle was in the middle of the road and was encircled by the other vehicles from all the sides. The paramedics now called Pramod and told him that Poornima’s condition was turning critical as she started bleeding and her pulse started declining.

Pramod immediately headed towards the place of argument and started requesting people to move aside and give way to the ambulance. But the spectators were so engrossed in watching the show that no one appeared to be bothered by what Pramod was saying.

He then squealed into the crowd, caught hold of the young man and requested him to let go of the other person. The young man turned to Pramod and with a harsh tone replied that he was not the one to withdraw till the old uncle gave him the money for the broken headlights of his new bike. Pramod turned to the old uncle and requested him saying that there was an ambulance behind and it was carrying his wife whose condition was serious. The old man gave an even more shocking answer. He said that if his wife was important to Pramod, so was his scooter to him. Pramod turned to the young man and volunteered to pay for the loss, but neither the young man nor the old man nor the crowd was ready. Some people even raised their voice in protest when Pramod said this. Knowing it’s of no use, he returned to the ambulance and the paramedics now said that, Poornima was drifting into coma due to the blood loss and low blood pressure. Rahul who was still too small to understand the gravity of the situation asked his dad when will his baby brother be out and when can he play with him.

The deadlock situation unwounded only after half an hour and by this time, Poornima was completely unconscious. Pramod was holding his tears and watching at the pulse meter that he noticed was going down and down. 68,67,65,59…

Paramedics were doing their best to prevent the pulse from drifting further. After one and a half hour, the ambulance reached the hospital. As the hospital staff rushed to the ambulance and they opened the door, Pramod heard a beep that was the most dreadful beep of his life. It was coming from the machine that was connected to Poornima and it went blank. All the curves that were being displayed till then vanished and now there was only a simple straight line and the loud beep. The staff nevertheless took her to the emergency ward and tried restoring her pulse, but it was in vain. Pramod who by now understood what was on to him and his little kid’s life silently took Poornima’s body and traveled back in the same ambulance that drove them to the hospital.

While returning too, he encountered numerous traffic jams, but he was no longer interested in resolving those, because, the irreparable loss had already occurred.

Tears dropped from Pramod’s face only when little Rahul asked him, “Where is the baby brother, when can I play with him?”

Do any of us have an answer for Rahul’s question?

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