Vibha Diary: First Meeting

After joining Vibha, we started receiving mails regarding a team meeting. Vibha members were planning to meet on the coming weekend at a CCD in Koremanagala. Meeting was called to decide the calendar of the next month. Mr. Ashish confirmed his gracious presence in the meeting and decided to drag me in with him. After his confirmation he received a call from Venky who summarized Vibha's work and methodologies. At the end, Venky made sure to invite us for the meeting as an introductory session for Ashish and me.

Without resisting much, I accompanied Ashish. As we did not want to leave bad impression in the first meeting so we reached before time and waited other members to join us. Other folks were late due to traffic chaos in Bangalore. Within sometime few members, including Venky, arrived

Though things were little off track but Venky, without losing much time, summed up everything about Vibha. In his short introductory speech, he introduced us with the history, objective, functionary, and work in India. He told us about the organization structure and heads. He was not shy about narrating the reason of choosing CCD over any Vibha’s office.

This was my first visit to CCD and I was not aware of different kind of coffees available. So I ordered the cheapest one. Rest expected folks joined us within some time and we started planning for the next month and it was decided to conduct at-least one event, in continuation with the previous events, in Hope School.

This event included entertaining the kids, knowledge sharing and promoting moral and social ideologies to kids so it was necessary to plan according to their grasping powers and understanding capabilities. Before I joined Vibha, other volunteers had conducted 2-3 successful events and this proposed event was for kids who were studying in 5th standard.

In the mean time our coffee arrived. Everyone got their coffees. Some were cold rest others were hot; some had chocolates others had cookies and so on. I expected my coffee to be as tempting as others but waiter shattered all my dreams of tempting coffee. He brought a small cup with some black substance i.e. espresso. In-spite of not getting as tempting coffee, I was still hoping for some milk so requested waiter to bring some milk which he denied with courtesy and weird smile. All others were enjoying their coffee whereas I was staring at my cup. I emptied 3-4 sachets of sugar and somehow finished the sweet poison without seeking much attention.

This meeting lasted over an hour and we concluded this meeting after deciding the agenda for the next meeting. Each of us had to come up with innovative gaming ideas for the kids, try to bring in more ideas on table to make event more interesting, propose something better in snacks and last but not the least the gifts for the games. After that we all paid our shares and moved back.

This meeting set the tone for both of us. We were excited and happy with the idea of doing something real.

So stay tuned for next meeting and further updates.

Let me capture fleeting 2011

So here it is, December 31st 2011. I quit my job on November 4, 2010 and started the year 2011 started with lots of expectations, speculations and desires. Year 2011 started with the following expectations.

 1. I had expected to face at-least one thunderstorm in winters. In every newspaper an article was dedicated to report the number of causalities due to cold waves and the decrease in the temperature in Delhi. So due to adverse and rapid effects of Global warming, I had expected fiercer winters this year. 
 2. Another expectation of 2011 was to confront a dust storm in summers. As I had moved closer to the deserts (Mind it Rajasthan is not far from Delhi), so dust storm is a realistic expectation. Newspapers in Bangalore and scientific discoveries related to global warming used to indicate many dust storms in peak summers in NCR.
 3. This was a new company for me, so I had expected lot of new challenges for me. Okay, do not take me wrong but really I had expected at-least a couple of foreign trips. Work does not pose any challenge but cooking, washing clothes and utensils, sweeping and rest could have kept me at edge of the cliff in pardesh. 
 4. This year started with the agenda of completing and moving to the new house at my home town. 
 5. Finding a girl was another big task for people around me. Everyone contributed in this task. Whether they were my relatives or colleagues or friends or brother or my maid all of them contributed significantly to find a girl for me.
PS: I do not want to mention few other blunders.

2011 just fleeted, I did not even realize when a month passed, then another and finally 12 months just sped away and became the past. Though I did not achieve anything significant but I am 1 year older and wiser (Do not argue. Let’s assume it). I had wasted (optimistically -> Enjoyed) my evening in playing TT and badminton. I wasted (optimistically -> Invested ) lot of money in buying books to showcase my bookshelves to people but none of my friends even noticed this. I wasted (There is no optimistic synonym to it) my weekends in travelling to my native place for no good reasons. Amidst all this chaos year 2011 vanished. My achievements of this year can be counted on finger tips. Few important events are the following.
 1. I had visited 3 places in this complete year.
   a. Agra.
   b. Aurangabad and Ellora caves
   c. Ranila, Jain pilgrimage.
2. Our mansion is 90% completed, so my parents can move to our new house soon.
3. Most unexpectedly, I was appreciated first time in my career for my work ;).
4. I have read lot of novels so my count has increased significantly and along with that my reading and writing speed has increased a little in compared to last year.

Okay, that is all, I could not remember anything more. Shhhh disappointing, is not it? I should not be disappointed so much as number of achievements remains same every year. Every uncompleted task will be carried forward to next year and give heads up in the new year.
So I think following will be 2012’s expectations.
1. Weather Front
 a. I am still waiting for Thunderstorm to shiver my body.
 b. I think for dust storm I have to visit desert once otherwise I might have to wait little longer.
2. Shopping spree
 a. Mummy kept asking me to buy some gold, so she might persuade me this time… Shhhh…. Moms na…
 b. Someone might push me to buy a car.
 c. A House/Flat is in my list for sure.
3. Personal Front
 a. It might not feature in my aims but my Marriage is the aim for everyone related to me.
 b. Yeah my mansion will surely be over next year end. (Suri and Amit ghar poora ho hi jayega salon)
 c. I would like to visit at-least 5-6 places this year.
4. Professional Front
 a. At-least one foreign trip. Work pressure will remain same this year as well. So I do not need to worry about work.
  
Hmmm, I hope I will be able to do everything listed above and keep everyone happy in next year. I am really happy with the way this year has gone. I lived and enjoyed life a lot and I expect to enjoy the next year as well.


HAPPY NEW YEARS FRIENDS, Hope this year will bring more smile on your faces and cheers in your life.

It matters when wait is longer

Papa called me up and his tone of speaking was not as usual. For a long time he is been quite busy and stressed due to amount of work in recent past. Our house is under construction for past ten months and it is not completed yet so He remains busy to make sure none of the workers rests. His tension increases when he thinks none of his sons are married yet and, top of all this, one call from his SDM exaggerates his tensions. Rest other family commitments and tensions make his life more miserable. So his tone was not usual for me.

Most of the times, he calls me to consult or ask something. This time it was different, his voice was cheerful. He broke the news of his promotion after small chit chat. Yeah, my dad got promoted. He has been promoted to Girdhavar(One who manages Patwaris) from Patwari (Lekhpal) and he is a gazetted officer now.

Sahi Mein Bahut Khush hain Pa

I am really happy for him. I have seen him working on one post for past 25 years. First he worked in Irrigation department, and then he was moved to revenue department without any promotion which increased his burdens. In 25 years of his service, he got continuous increments but his work and burden kept increasing but government does not promote people so frequently so his promotion was out of question.

This promotion is quite important for him and for all of us. Papa will get some rest from his field work and he will have lesser things to worry. In my five years career, I have already got two promotions and I never felt proud of it but when I heard about Papa's promotion, a feeling of proud ran through my blood. I was as happy as him and I can breathe a little as I have to worry about him little lesser.

PS: My dad was little unhappy also, as instead of getting salary increment, his allowance will decrease and hence the salary as well.

Vibha Diary: Search for an NGO

I had been thinking to join a social group, but I was lazy enough to type "NGO in Bangalore"@Google, so joining such a group was just a dream. Though the  fuel was always there but the medium to burn the fuel was not available. People in office had lots of different reasons to join an NGO. My office used to support an NGO and my colleagues used to visit the place once a while, but I never took any interest in supporting these workers and their causes.

After 3 years one room-mate left and Ashish came to Bangalore with the fuel and the burning power. Once a while in our inconclusive discussions, we had discussed about joining an NGO and "GIVE SOMETHING BACK TO THE SOCIETY". I was never too sure if I was really inspired to do something like this but as usual we made statements and forgot them after the discussion. But one such discussion clanged to Ashish's mind and our heated and in-depth discussion provided him the inspiration to do something which I dreamt for last 3 years i.e. TYPE "NGO in Bangalore" in Google and enter.

He did not disclose any results of his search but went somewhere on the same weekend. After returning back he told about NGO. This NGO was for dogs, something like PETA. People at this NGO were working for a good DOG life. Ashish was supposed to assist a team which would catch all the stray dogs from the streets and take them to a safer place. Though I am not an animal lover and I argue with people who fight for animal's cause (Quite frankly, they are also assisting but ….). People argue when human cannot be trusted then why not love someone who can be trusted i.e. Dog. Why do we even trust our family, our relatives, our friends and people around us? People say animals cannot speak, cannot demand and cannot hit back then that it is our responsibility to feed them and take care of them. Okay, there are a lot more humans who are living life very similar to this, why not work for them. I know, there are lots of people against my ideology but is it not worth to work for humanity or to work for people similar to you who need help just like the  animals. If we all reach a level where humans are not in need then in such society we can think of uplifting the standard of animals not until someone, like us, is in pain.

Anyways Ashish and I again had in-depth discussion about the importance of social work and preferences and somehow I convinced him. Though it was difficult for me to change his thoughts but this time our discussion reached to a conclusive end. So he searched again to find an NGO for children.

Within half an hour we registered for an NGO called VIBHA, which works for underprivileged children. This NGO supports various organizations across the country, mainly in south India. This organization provides financial assistance to other organizations which work for children born with lesser privileges and higher expectations. These organizations try to bring in more children under the radar to improve their current and future life.

Vibha working for under Privilege Children

I was not yet fully sure if I would like to continue this NGO but there are few reasons which might have impacted my decision.

1.     Ashish pushed me a lot to join so that we both can go support each other for the cause.

2.     MBA was much awaited future for me, so I wanted to add something in my resume to increase its worth.

3.     Lots of girls join NGOs so …...

4.     I had lot of time on weekends, so wanted to enjoy my time than wasting it in home.

But all stated reasons were secondary as I wanted to join some group where I might not be able to make a difference but can contribute towards the cause and assist people who are trying hard to make a difference.

More to continue…

Perfume - A story of murderer

Perfume, A story of murderer, started with a lean and weak guy whose hands and legs were cuffed. The guy seemed in ease but the uproar outside the prison demonstrated the weirdness of the story. People were screaming, shouting, stoning. They were having axes, weapons and wooden articles to kill the culprit. Soon the Prisoner was brought in balcony among a higher uproar and shouting of giving him the instant capital punishment but his punishment was read to people there and narrator travels in the past to tell us his past.

A child was born with extra-ordinary capabilities that could smell good or bad, stench or perfume. He could recognize any scent irrespective of the distance of the source. He could smell dust, water, rock, stone, frog, iron, rotten rat and human body. There was not any smell which was hidden from him. Every day he encountered new smells and added them to the list of known smells without even knowing their source.

One day he smelled something extraordinary and became hysterical about it. He started looking the source of such marvelous smell. It was a gal. He followed her without following conducts and manners of society and under some unstated circumstances he managed to kill the gal. He did not stop here, like an animal he smelled her body without any notion of pain or fear in his eyes. He wanted to preserve this smell desperately but he was helpless.

Soon he found one old perfumer who might know the trick of preserving the smell. He created lots of new perfumes for the old perfumer and in return he asked oldie to teach him the way to preserve any smell. Old guy passed his trick to the protagonist but it did not suffice. With this trick the boy could not preserve the smell of iron, dust and animal body. So Old man suggested him to visit Rome city to learn other preserving mechanisms.

On the way to city, the boy realized he was odorless. He was different from people, living and non-living things. So he determined to find his own odor. He reached to the city and started finding new way of preserving the smell. 

He found one and story of murders started from here. He killed one gal and tried preserving her smell but failed miserably in this technique. He learned another way and tried it on different gal and succeeded this time. Here started the spree of murders. Most 13 beautiful gals of the city were his victims and their smells were stored in different containers. Killer was merciless and inattentive and was committed to his duties. He worked like a messenger sent on earth to take beauties back to heavens.

With these 13 smells he created a perfume which was unique and exemplary; and he decided to use this perfume as his own odor and rest of the story should be kept secret.

I have tried my best to keep secrets; everything written above has an explanation in movie. I liked the movie a lot due to its unusual theme, direction, and pace of the movie. There was a sequence of 10 minutes which bored me a little but in all movie is must watch. At each step I was waiting for next step of the psychopath.

Thank You Sir

As soon as I wake up on a working day; two questions pop into my mind. First is "When will maid arrive?" and another is "Will there be huge traffic at under pass?" Maid does not concern me much but traffic chaos@underpass is a big pain in ass.

Under pass, what is this under pass and why is it so crucial on weekdays?

As name suggests it is a way, under National Highway 24, which connects Indirapuram society Ghaziabad and Noida Sector 62. Day by day sky scrapping are inaugurating, no of flats are increasing, more people are moving, and prosperity in the area is booming. With each wealthy individual a four wheeler vehicle is adding to the huge list of already existing vehicles. So in the morning number of vehicles, traveling to Noida Sector 62, is huge and this number is increasing day by day.

The concerned Underpass is barely enough to provide comfortable pass for two vehicles at a time and the road is filled with digs. Bumpy and small road makes life troublesome for people. So this pass works as a nerve which dampens the blood flow and increases the chances of heart attack i.e. traffic Jam.

The complete problem is not the underpass, but the impatience of individuals living in the locality. In general, to cross the pass, people create a line which keeps things in order. But there are people (XXX i.e. lot of slang to them), who do not understand the moral responsibility and instead of following the unforced but moral rules, break self imposed regulations to initiate the problem. These stupid people do not even act stupidly but also they provoke people who were following the order and it becomes chaos within few minutes. Few individuals get advantage from their heinous act but rest other people have to face the consequences. Sometime it takes 25-30 minutes of time to cross 500 meters.

People need guidance, a law, a regulator or a helper to demonstrate them the right path. This pass found one volunteer. One guy, who neither belongs to any law enforcement department nor any social group nor travels from this underpass, regulates the stupid people from initiating the chaos, He slaps an auto Driver, he shouts at Rickshaw driver, he guides the four wheeler driver to the correct lane, and sometime he routes stupid folks to NH24. Police, standing there, enjoy the intelligence and determination of this volunteer but their intellectual lack the capabilities of managing the underpass in such an efficient manner. This guy, with whole lot of muscles, mustaches and body fit sleeveless T-Shirt, looks like an army man. Once people see him standing in front of pass they themselves understand the order.

He shouts and Suggests people to behave as a human instead cattle.

He has earned a respect, an admiration and a lot of thanks from each selfish individual. Everyday people hope to see him at underpass. If he is not there it means you lost 20 minutes of your time to solve the Underpass riddle.

I do not know his name, his designation. I do not know where he stays. I do not know what he does for earning. I do not know where he disappears on some specific days. I do not know why he is doing all this for society. But I appreciate his work every day while passing the underpass.

I never got guts to ask him his name, designation, place of living. I never got guts to step down from my auto and tell him we all are very thankful for his work, time and charity. I found this platform i.e. my blog(Read by least number of people on earth) much safer and less humiliating to acknowledge the work of an individual to whole Indirapuram locality. He must feel proud and twist his mustache looking into one's eye to tell his role in the lives of others.

Hats off to you sir. Once again thank you very much for managing the underpass and saving our asses from our bosses.

Update: Based on the comment posted, His name is Sanjeev Trehan. He's 52 and a catering firm owner. Thank you very much sir.

Curious case of Ramayana

In childhood we were refrained from arguing, criticizing or analyzing the incidents/stories illustrated or said or taught to us. We believed such stories/incidents with at most respect instead authenticating the roots of the story. Most of these stories were interesting and catchy for a raw mind and due to such impacting nature of these stories, these stories were settled in our mind.

Each childhood story had two extreme ends. Daemons, bad guy, who will try to rule the world in improper manners. These bad people will harm people, promote injustice in society and provoke many other inhumanly acts. At another end of the string was Gods, good guy, who will finish the daemon to restore justice, truth, and humanity. Almost 99% part of the stories would demonstrate devil power and at the end a God would overpower devils who were equipped with enormous powers.

In our childhood these stories were written to manipulate our trust, to exploit our fear and carelessness. Restrictions were imposed on us at the name of religion. We were blinded by the hot rod of religion.

Though I am not quite familiar with other stories but, thanks to television, incident of Ramayana and Mahabharata are quite fresh in my mind. As Mahabharata is quite near to realities (Human characteristics) so I am bringing up questions, related to Ramayana, which disturb me most of the times.

Why do we have Ramayana? Why was it composed altogether?

When Lord Vishnu wanted to kill Raavan, why did he not kill Raavan in the same way he killed other devils? Why did he not choose his fast forward incarnations to kill Ravana? Why did he choose a war which costed lot of lives, money and time? Whether it was Hiranyakashyap or Pritikshit, Vishnu reincarnated just for one day and saved the world just in one day. He killed Hiranyakashyap as a Narsimha, Pritikshit as Bona Pandit and he distributed Amrit as Mohini. Then why did he reincarnate as a normal human being to suffer from earthly pain to demolish another devil?

Did Ramayana justify Vishnu’s incarnation as a human?

Even Ram, rebirth of Vishnu, was a human being but writer could not justify it. He left many loopholes to show Ram more than a human. As per the author everything was well thought and well set before he could take first step on earth. Among many loop holes few were

1.     Hanuman was planned to meet Ram to assist him in his search.

2.     Sugreev was planned to roam around in forest so that he could meet Ram.

3.     Jamvant was assigned the task to enlighten Hanuman about his power.

4.     A traitor was sent to Ravana's home.

5.     Raavan was cursed to not touch any woman though he was allowed to drag any woman into his flying machine.

Do not you think, Ram did not live perfect human life. Gods, super Gods kept assisting him in each and every step. This incarnation can be termed as buggy as it did not depict Ram either God or human.

Assuming Vishnu reincarnated himself to depict the suffering of human being and to show case the right attitude/path/direction in adverse situations, there were few things which were not written@humanity front.

Why did Kaikayi chose 14 years for exile? Why did she not choose life time exile for Ram?

How did it help her cause? Did she want to see her son to sit on throne just for few specific years? Because she knew once Ram is back, he should be handed over the state's charge as he was eldest brother of all. Then she should have asked for lifelong exile to erase any possibility of dethroning his son.

Why did Ram let his father die?

Even though Dashrath did not accept Kaikayi's demand then why did Ram accept these demands? Even though Ram knew his father would die but he chose Rajput Dharma over his father. Which is prior? I think father, who has taken his care for years, should not be left behind to die.

Why did Ram take Sita with her?

Ram could have avoided Sita from his own suffering but he chose otherwise. Did he reduced his own suffering by taking her as a companion or was she 'hukm ka ikka' for God’s plan or was Ram weak enough to sustain the strain of forest?

Why Laxman?

Next comes Laxman who acceptable exile with no logical reasons without his own wife. First of all, why did he suffer the pain of forest? Why did he not take his wife along with Sita? She(Urmila) would have been Sita's better companion and Laxman would not have discarded from worldly pleasures.

Did Ram n company survived on vegetarian food in forest?

As per the Ramayana, Ram and company lived on fruits and roots during his exile. If it was true then why did Sita need the golden deer so desperately? Was not it another misconception or confusion created by interpreters here? Ram was kshtriya and he followed his Kshtriya path rigorously then why did he change his eating behavior?

Why did Ram kill Bali from a hidden place?

Why did not he face and kill him. Ramayana says Bali used to suck 50% strength of the opponent. Is this not the incorrect and unethical behavior? If this is the right human behaviour then we all, following Ramayana, should not care while deceiving someone else.

Why did they need to construct a bridge?

How much time would it have taken to construct the bridge on 100 miles? It was huge efforts and times involved. Why did Ram not take Hanuman’s help to carry all the monkeys by aerial route? It might have solved the issue faster.

Why did Ram ask Agni Pariksha from Sita?

Did we hindus not acknowledge it as a torture on females? Why was a female counterpart asked to prove herself? Ram also stayed few years away from her and knew lot of ladies in between, cannot someone(Any Pandit or Sita herself) ask him to prove himself. Was not it another display of disparity between 2 important genders of society?

On what grounds was Sita sent to forest again?

Once they moved back to Ayodhya, everything was perfectly fine. But one day one messenger saw a washer man cursing his wife and cursing Ram to accept Sita after living in some else’s house for so many years. After hearing this Ram decided to send his better half to Jungle. This incident created lot of questions in mind.

1.     Was this the first time someone had made such derogatory comment?

2.     Was messenger stupid enough to communicate this stupid comment to the emperor?

3.     Was not there any hierarchy where some intelligent people could refrain messenger from delivering such comment at the hour of washer man’s rage?

4.     Was it necessary to keep public and private life so open to world or Was Ram not able to convince himself about purity of his own wife?

5.     Was Ram looking for some chance to throw his dear wife away because she was a dirty spot in his public image?

Possibly there may be not any of the reason but is not this something which made you rethink about the condition of female protagonist. She had faced all the adversity of the world and still she never got chance to live her as an empress. Was this the right attitude toward a specific gender in Ram Rajya?

Significance and process of Ashvamedha yagna has been altered in Ramayana. As per the other information available this yagna was to sacrifice the horse after completion of the yagna whereas our altered epic tells about releasing the horse after yagna is completed.

Anyways I am not saying every story needs to be perfect without any humanly mistakes but when a story has such a huge significance then it has to be nearly perfect, otherwise society may lead to wrong directions. We should question our epics to make them better and bring them next to perfect. When epics were written they were perfect, then they evolved, modified, tweaked and currently we are following the tweaked versions of those stories. Let’s put across our questions and try to achieve the near perfect epic back to stores.

PS: This blog is medium to understand some mysterious circumstances or find answers of unasked questions, Influencing or hurting religious sentiments are not the intentions here.
PS1: Deepika Ji was my favourite actress at the time of Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan.

Aurangabad Trip -> Manjiri's Shadi - Day 2

Two days were passed within a blink of the eye and it was the third day of my small vacations. Day 3 started quite early. People woke me up at 7AM and none of the rooms were empty so I had to give my sweet sleep up. Though office's work was still troubling me (I do not have have much work in general but the week before my vacations was exceptional for me) but I had to care about more important things i.e. to get ready, have breakfast and if time permits then click few photos.

Vinay and Manjiri, who were looking magnificent in Marathi attires, were ready for to kick off the day. They were sitting next to the havan kund for the next round of Pooja.

The Bride.

Pandit Ji was chanting mantras. Along with his chanting, he was efficient enough to provide instructions, mostly in sign language, to the couple and the couple was following these instructions religiously. This mantro-uchcharan(chanting of the mantras) continued for four hours. Sitting in-front of nasty smoke for four hours was another incentive of marriage to the couple. Lot of rashms were completed in these hours but I could recall Mangal Sutra and pheres only.

Vinay is ready with Mangal Sutra. The Most important tradition of Hindu Marriages

After the pooja, couple took some rest before reception party. Reception took another 3 hours but even after in visible pain and tiredness both of them handled and welcomed all relatives and friends in enthusiastic manner. Neither Manjiri nor Vinay showed even one ounce of frustration or pain in standing at stage for so long.

Manjiri and Vinay@Reception

After the reception ceremony guests had the lunch and there were few more customs before calling the day off. After another short break, the tired couple was on the roll again. It was time for Kanya-Dan (Where all the relative of the girl release themselves from her responsibilities and delegate those responsibilities to her husband).

Kanyadan process

Kanya-dan was lengthier than kanya-dan in north Indian marriages. Once the Kanya-Dan was over, it was time for the girl's departure i.e. Vidai which, I think, is the saddest part of a marriage. ( In my childhood I always had one question, why does girl need to go? Why can't the guy can stay with the gal's family? Ham bhi khush vo bhi khush.) Everyone was heart broken and had wet eyes but none had the powers(rights now :) ) to stop Manjiri. After saying good bye to each and every one Manjiri and rest other baratis boarded the bus and left. We folks collected our stuffs and traveled back to home. This is how I spent my third day of my vacations, starting the day at high and ending it at low.

Next day was scheduled for Ajanta and Ellora Caves and my return to NCR.

Heart Beats of India - Trains @ Indian Railways

Indian Railways, Department undertaking of GOI overseen by the Ministry of Railways, has 113,617 Kms tracks and 7083 stations spread across the Indian subcontinent. 30 million passengers use IR everyday and 1.36M employees work for it. It is the 4th largest railway network in the world. It was one among the few positives of the East India Company. Britons proposed railway network in 1832 and since then it has been serving the masses of India. IR trains have been the most convenient transportation medium for people in India.

Indian Railways' success should be attributed to its relationship with all categories of our society. Most of us travel with Indian Railways in different sorts of compartments. A train, part of IR, contains five sorts of compartments. General bogie, a mean to travel cheap economically, physically and mentally, is for poor people. People having meager pays choose general compartments to travel. Sleeper class is meant for middle-poor class. People of this class enjoy restricted luxury (A sound sleep in natural air instead of AC). 3rd Tier AC compartment is used by people who wish to pay additional money to travel in a hassle-free environment. These compartments are generally filled by middle class or salaried class families. Next class of compartments are the 2nd tier AC, which are filled with middle-rich family. Last but not the least, 1st tier AC compartments are filled with rich and elite people of India. Apart from all these compartments, trains run with one of the most important compartment i.e. the pantry which provides tasty food (We all love it, is not it?) for all the people traveling.

Every train journey is a unique experience. These experiences are sometimes sweet, neutral at times and bitter rest of the times, better to say most of the times. Overwhelming chaos, chattering, pollution, and huge crowd, across all the stations, trains and ticketing windows, make the travel inconvenient and painful.

I have traveled in 3 types of compartments i.e. 3rd AC, Sleeper and General and based on my past experiences I may not like to travel in general compartments (most inconvenient) any more but I feel these are the most lively compartments. I know it is childish but there are solid reasons supporting my childish statement. 

AC compartments are reserved by people who have some etiquette and reservations. Either People, traveling in these compartments, do not wish to talk or their discussions are way far from understanding of a common man. Things that interest them, i.e. economy, history, books, and jobs, do not flatter a common man. 


People, in AC compartments, do not like intruders who can be problematic to the comfort so they keep their mind clear of not sharing the seats with anyone else. Along with all these comforts if you are lucky, then you can find some girls sitting next to your seat without their parents. So all in all AC compartments provide hassle free travel with few boring people. If you want to spend 24 hours in boring travel then be it's guest and pray to god to not hitting a seat next to few uncles and aunts.

Sleeper class receives people who are stuck due to non-availability of either tickets or money. When these two ends(Less Ameer and Less garib) end up sharing the same compartment then it takes plenty of time to break the ice. In sleeper class discussions are not as boring as in AC. People in sleeper class talk about sports, movies, songs, religions and superstitions. Cricket is ever green and the most discussed topic over here. Religions and superstitions are the second most discussed topic there. People share stories about ghosts, bad dreams and temples where blood thirsty souls find peace. Discussion about films and songs are rear and limited to young people. People in these compartments do not discourage intruders much and share their own seats with these intruders. All in all sleeper class is neither much interesting nor much convenient.

Let’s talk about the most evergreen, lively, and interesting compartments of a train. General bogie reflects most of the India. It has people who belong to different social statuses, castes, religions, and regions. These people try to figure out a way to make their journey a little better for the people who are suffering most. People in these compartments have the appetite to accommodate passengers 2-3 times of its original capacity. There is a fight for everything. Sometimes to enter the compartment; Sometimes to save yourself from falling back; sometimes not able to balance the body on one toe; Sometime to settle  at gate; Sometimes to escape from sharing the bench with four additional passengers. Toilets in the general compartments are additional incentives on top of all other human problems.  

Even after so many problems, these compartments are the most entertaining compartments of the train. People are not sophisticated, knowledgeable and literate much but they are curious. They do not talk about businesses, sports, films, money and economics. They talk about dances (Some chammak challo dance in some movie), salvation, love, girls, families, ghosts, problems, travels and places. Most of the discussions primarily revolve around human characteristics which anyone and everyone can understand. Striking the chords with anyone is simple. Within 5-6 hours you will know all about a person's family, business, and reason of traveling, receiver at platform, return date and lot more.

I remember a small conversation between a sage and few fellow passengers. The sage was dragging shots from his chillam and he was releasing the smoke in the compartment. One guy got frustrated and started confronting the saint, whereas few others joined to wrestle with Shiv devotee saint.

Guy 1: Bharat mein sadhu banke bas ganja peena hi dharm ho gaya hai, sharm to ati nahi. (In India, Sage do not have anything to do other than dragging, shameless people.)
Sadhu: Yeh to sambhu ka Prasad hai beta, beta ek baar pi fir dekh tujhe khud bhole dikhenge. (It is Shankar bhagwan's prasadam, try it and you will find him.)
Guy 2: Han baba sahi bol rahe ho. Apka to koi dharm nahi hamara bhi bhrast kar rahe ho.(Yeah, yeah, you do not follow any religion, but do not spoil us)
Sage: Sambhu peete hain, yeh to Moksha ka darwaja hai beta. (It is way to salvation.)
Guy1: Baba, moksha ise peene se milta to sab tum jaise ho gaye hote. (That is why you are here waiting for salvation.)
Sage: Beta moksha aise hi milege. (Accept it, it is the only way to meet Shiva.)


The conversation which was started to persuade the sadhu but did not end and it kept changing paths from one to another character/god. The Sadhu and passengers started discussing moh, maya, ramayan, and mahabharat. It looked like entire wisdom of the world was resting next to my seat. All of a sudden people, who were behaving like retards (before settling down), started behaving professors of philosophy, mythology and history. Everyone started telling truths of the world. 

Now you know why general class is great and interesting. People facing so many problems get the time to laugh, share and advice. To watch the real face of India, travel in general compartment for once in life time. You will realize the beauty and beast of railways. If you are lucky these people will persuade you to join sanyaas as well ;)

An Enchanting Love Letter

I was studying in class 11th in Sarkari/bada school (Sarkari because it was funded by government and bada(Large/Big/Huge) because it was the largest school in my village). At the start of the session, tables and chairs were assigned to us. Within a month, or two, tables and chairs yah to langadi looli ho gayi yah fir allah miyan ko pyari ho gayi (were either handicapped or broken into pieces) and the remaining wooden pieces were thrown into junk yard. These wooden piece were used as fuel for warming hands and playing cards (favourite past time for teachers whereas at the same time intelligent children were busy creating more fuel to increase the time of these sessions) sessions in winters. 

Later few mats were assigned for sitting purposes. But there were not any respite for authorities. Our room was a wrestling room for street dogs so instead we enjoying it, dogs were more ecstatic. These dogs found warm place for resting after wrestling rounds. Along with rest, they use to demonstrate their frustration of losing on the mats. In frustration their sharpened teeth were used to perform skilled work of tearing and damaging the mats. Do not know how it helped them to win more competitions but their stupid actions provoked our teachers to leave our bumps exposed to cold floor as if we had torn the mats with our Dhoodh Ke Dant(Weak teeth). 
Winters had already started so we were compelled to sit either on cold floor which was cold enough to shiver us from bottom to top or on dusty ground, in the middle of school, which had few grass patches here and there. As each room was territory for different groups of dogs, So it was a general practice for each class to find its grass patch on the dust filled ground to accommodate all batch mates. In our batch we were approximately 30 people but we used to find a patch where 40 people could sit easily because 9 brahmin and astoundingly beautiful (given that we all were blind, hence prove all my girls batch mates were astoundingly beautiful) girls needed more place to maintain a considerable distance from untouchable bechara and ugly boys.

One such day, when sun was providing plenty of heat and wind was enough to shudder us; we were sitting under the tree shade on a grass bed and waiting for our late lateef adhyapak jee (Teacher who was never on time). But before our teacher could honour us with his presence, we saw few gundas(Bad people) rushing toward us. Before they could pollute Savitri(unpolluted) girls with their devilish presence, we moved toward them. Few of them, thinnest in group, were carrying hockey sticks and rest were holding bicycle chains. These folks were famous in entire village for their bike stunts in the crowded market place; for numerous girl friends and love sessions which were halted by girls' relative; and for fights. My dad had instructed me to keep a distance from such people, so I was last to reach the yudhbhumi. Two groups started confronting. I was searching for a known face among the intruders so that confrontation could be halted before producing unprecedented and unwanted results. I found one and due to my reputation, this fight was stopped. Girls were panicked and scared and were waiting for us. I rushed to disclose the breaking news; why miss a chance to talk to girls? :)

Till now I did not know the issue. This was the first incident where we were attacked by someone outside the class. It was shocking and disturbing. Our teacher came to the class and started abusing (with all sort of words) Chashmu, who was not even present in the class. I knew something is unusual but what?

After 15 minutes of Shlok Vachan(Slang session) we were deserted. I asked, could someone tell me what had happened?

Bandar told me that Chashmu gave a love letter to Chand. This letter was not a usual love letter. It was a special letter for which he spent 100 Rs, wow, 100rs was luxury in childhood, is not it? There was a Bangali tantric in our village that had few Sidhdhies and had controlled few witches. The tantric had spread some magic itra(rural scent) on the letter. Due to itra, this letter was an enchanting love letter. According to tantric baba, Chashmu should hand over the letter to the girl and the girl would follow all the orders (orders only - mind it) written in the letter.

A Letter Of Love

As per few speculations following were the content of the letter.

Priye Chand(Dear Chand),

Mein tumhe pyar karta hun, aur chahata hun ki tum bhi mujhe pyar karo. Shyam ko five baje ganne ke khet mein milo. ..... (I love you and I order you to love me as well. Meet me at sugarcane field at five in the evening and please do not worry I have arranged security as well.)

Tumhara(Yours)
Chashmu

Somebody told me as soon as he gave the letter to her; there was a sound of powerful tamacha (slap on face.). Later Chand gave the letter to her brother and her brother was moved with the letter whereas the affects of the letter were damn opposite on the lover boy.  Chashmu was thrashed, beaten and dragged and after a session of one sided wrestling chashmu's condition was similar to a cloth washed at Dhobi-ghat.

Still you must be wondering who visited our school. I was also stunned to see these folks in school but sooner one more story unfolded. Chandu was Chand’s lover, and he came to teach the lesson to new age lover Chashmu. Arre yaar ham Mar gaye the kya. I did not know how to express myself?

Should I laugh on such stupid act or amuse on chashmu's courage? Before I could figure out my own stance, someone came running and shouting "Chandu has caught Chashmu and he and his friends are beating him". Instead of figuring out my stance, we all ran hard to save our friend.