Can you see a relation between Mob Killing of Rape Accused in Nagaland and 'Nirbaya' documentary? If no, time to see!

As the whole of India was debating whether it is right or wrong to ban or not to ban the 'India's daughter' documentary....another girl got victimized by a sadist rapist in Nagaland.   This time, the girl came out boldly stating that she was given Rs 5000 to keep quite by the rapist.....Sadist!  Yes, this is exactly a group of student thought and took onto the streets in silent protest.

The same day,  all the prime news channels were only debating full time on the intentions and thoughts of another sadist who is the death row and two other WELL_EDUCATED lawyers who were again and again telling that it was the fault of Jyothi to be on the streets of Delhi, going out to a movie with a boy friend and spoiling our culture!?!??!???

The young peaceful protest slowly became frenzy..the thoughts of letting another rapist lager in our jails for next several years and then giving a chance to give interview to another foreigner and making him a negative-hero was not letting our youth tolerate.  The students were joined by several of the public, protesting and more than thousand people mobbed on the jail and pulled out the rapist and took the law in their hands....lynched him, made him walk naked and finally killed him.   Is justice done to the girl?  Confusion....Interstate dispute, a collector's suspension and series of arrests followed.   

The orthodox way of punishment to an accused again took to the headlines.    When hundreds of rapes happen and accused rapists continue to survive, why did the mob go frenzy this time and took justice in their hands?  Where did the tolerance and time for justice gone this time?   Was the repeate telecast of Mukesh Singh's interview and the debates triggered this reaction of the people in Nagaland

As a woman, I thought if few more such mob justice instances happen this will make the rapists definitely scared for what happened in Nagaland and keep their zips zipped up in care!   But as a sensitive citizen, I was not comfortable to the thought of the way mob took law in their hands.   This was the way accused used to be punished in several parts of India  during 'Kata Panchayat days'  ; but are we not today going by the rotten legal system...We still will dust our old legal books and wait for justice.  Somehow, both are two extremes.    

Yes, taking law in hands is not the right thing.  We should let the law deal with these rapists.  Same time, feeding them and making them comfortably stay in jails ( Notice Mukesh, and other two accused clean shaved, wearing ironed clothes and looking very healthy  - is there no jail uniforms,  and these guys fed well and sheltered for rest of their lives as their mercy petitions will wait another decade....) is not going to be giving justice to the victims.  Justice delayed is Justice denied.

It is time for us to have a balanced thinking.   It is time to make our men promise of respect, care and equality to women around them.  It is time for women to make their families take up this promise for men's enlightenment than just focus on Women Empowerment

The real happiness of celebrating women's day is only when we see the crimes on women coming down not just in India but across the world.   The real pride of being a woman is when we help the fellow women to empower, enrich and earn their self-respect and self- esteem.   What may come, we women should remain strong and focused.  Stay strong and courageous.  Stay firm to ground and reach skies in our achievements.   Stay Blessed!

Happy Women's Day

Remove People from Life ! Who No Longer Matter!

I have come across people whom I desperately want to dispense from my life.  At the same they seem to be integrated into my life so much that I am unable to leave them and move on.  What happens at such instances?  We are forced to compromise.  We are pushed to deal with them with fake smiles.  We are burdened to bear with them including their stupidity, pretending, fakeness and insults.  Sometimes, it becomes so unbearable that we spend most of our valuable time thinking of them, how to keep away from them and how to not getting effected by them and their activities.  Unfortunately the more we try to keep away, they seem to be coming closer in life that we are unable to avoid. In spite of multiple instances of anger, frustration, hue and cry, insults and ego clashes, these people try to patch up.  It is not forgiveness but due to pure selfishness.  Because of some relationship that they think is practically wanted in life for reasons best known to them.  How to get rid of such people?   

The mere presence of such unwanted people makes life miserable.  We spend our energy towards negative thinking of keeping away and not thinking about them.  Honestly, we will be better without them in life.  Wrong influences, provocations of anger and anxiety, circumstances leading to depression and suicides thoughts, bad influence on our day to day activities or any such things are an indication that we have to keep away from people who are responsible for such things in life.  There is nothing wrong in staying away from evil and moving ahead with level-headed, down to earth, like minded people who can make our lives cheerful and successful.   It doesn’t mean that we have to run away from people who face failures or struggles.  It means that we have to run away from people who become repeatedly responsible for our failure and struggles.  We learn from them.  These lessons of life are as important as to how not to be some one!  How not to be an irritant in some one’s life?  How best it is to keep away and redefine our own lives?  This can be our closest relative, a dearest friend for long time or an immediate neighbor or a colleague.  As long as the influence is not negative, hope is not hindered and faith is not disturbed, we can endure. The moment we feel that we are pushed into a thread of trouble that would entangle us towards sorrow and misery, it is always better to stay away than keep on bearing with such people.   Saying ‘I am sorry! I am moving on from you!’ is much better than silently crying,  with thunders of pain gathering inside you, frustrations that are inexpressive and suffering that is suppressed.  Yes, you have just one life to live.  And it is nothing wrong to make it right.  Right the way you want to live. With happiness and peace.  With love to yourself and do what you want.   Learn to live your life. For yourself!

Happiness and Inner Peace!

Happiness & Inner Peace

Date: 9 April 2014

Day 9 @NaPoWriMo 2014

Happiness that wealth cannot bring, good health does

Peace that meditation cannot bring, good deeds do

Good relationships are not always made of blood

Keeping away from evil people, is an unsaid bliss

Staying away from crooked thoughts is never a miss

Don’t hang on to people who no long care for you

Never miss the people who always mean to you

Life is just a bridge between two nothings

Just let it go by the moment of truth as the only thing

Take life with all its routine and internal peace!

 

Evolution from 'Why Me?' to 'Why Not Me?'- A Touching Life of Preethi Srinivasan..A Saga in search of Soul Free

Today we had the Inner Wheel -District 323 -District Conference and something made me not to miss it in the last minute.  I was determined that I will plan to attend and I went with only expectation to catch up with my Inner Wheel friends and also from other clubs in the District.  I have not realized that I would come across another Positive Siddharth...this time a beautiful woman called Preethi.

As she was wheeled into the Conference hall, her care giver and mother sat next to her silently.  We did not give much attention to her,  until she was called on to the stage and she was wheeled on to the dais and got a mic fixed to her dress to start to speak.   
Amidst the business as usual session,  her speech came as a wind of warmth, making our eyes misty, and thoughts stopped for a second. Eyes glued on her and ears wanted to hear her more.  Couple of times, many of us stood in to give our standing ovation to the woman who was in front of us.  She is one and only Preeti Srinivasan from Tiruvannamalai.

Her life goes on in her beautiful words...she was the only daughter adored and carefully brought up by her doting parents.  She had a wonderful childhood, jumping into the swimming pool at the age of 3 and running towards sports ambitions from the age of 4.  She was a swimmer, a cricketer and above all a very bubbly loving child of her parents and her life was in the path that is right as per the yardsticks of the society that we live in.  Her dreams of studying in United States, wanting to make it big in sports and make her parents proud was all part of her life until a freaky accident that tore her life into pieces in a split second.  

The tone of her voice did not shiver when she spoke about the trauma and troubles that came behind her in life after that one unfortunate moment.   Everything came to stand still.  She had a life damaging spinal cord injury that made her life upside down. Without any medical insurance for spinal cord injury, no rehabilitation center for entire breadth of this large Nation, with no civic responsibility caring for accessing positively abled people to commute, access required areas like post offices, banks and book stalls, living in India with such challenge became painful.   Thankfully her parents stood by her.  She was worried when she mentioned that not many in our country are fortunate enough to even afford a wheel chair and are let to die and are encouraged to commit suicide for they are burden to themselves, their families, on finances and to this society. 

Instead of making life easy for people like Preethi, our country still remains insensitive to the basic needs of physically challenged brethren.   Imagine for a day when you cannot move on your own, imagine a day where you cannot use your hands fully, imagine a day when the very air your breathe is making you battle for life....that imagination itself is a nightmare to all of us. 

Run for Inclusion, Inclusion Summit and many more such messages don't reach out governments to make effective transformation in our society.  We don't care or bother unless, something similar hits us.  With the stress filled world., life is just full of uncertainties and we don't get sensitive unless it hurts us personally.  Till such time, it is some one's sad story to hear,  mostly even not listen attentively, and ignore and forget the next day and move on with our lives regular chores.    People like Preethi are left to fight their own battles.  Until they fight, they yell and they become crusaders, the so called normal beings don't even acknowledge the existence of such trauma and people who are craving for life amidst lesser blessings.  

For them getting the basic education is a challenge because our distance education universities don't have ramps to the class rooms.  Employment is a distant dream for not many employers believe that they can be productive, equally determined and capable.  Family and Children is almost ruled out in many lives, for every normal being wants a perfect person as life partner.  The only solace is when they find life partners with some form of similar challenge.  Health care is a very costly affair.  We don't have communities coming forward to help the needy in our next door.   Governments do not care about this minority section, who may never be able to walk to the election booths and cast their votes, so they are negligible to the democratic leaders.   How else can we make them live?

Let alone the bigger dreams that people like Preethi had in life, the very existence in day to day affairs is tough.  They are mostly forced to hide and let to die unless they have some constant support to move on with life and look beyond physical possibilities.   This happens multifold in our rural areas.  When urban world itself is insensitive, illiterate and farming based villages, with no health care facilities and hospitals to reach on time is further more at sad state of affairs.

After the session, me and my friend made it a point to go and give her a big bear hug.  Telling her loud that we loved her..we admired her courage, we thanked her mother and prayed for her long life with health and energy to take care of Preethi.  She will not leave our  memory and her requests for help didn't go in vain.   Funds from Inner Wheel Clubs poured in , which she promised to transform as wheel chairs for friends in rural areas who will be empowered to at least make a move, within their own homes first. 

What she needs more than funds, is to spread her message, make people understand the difficulties and help when you find some one around, run to help and react to accidents on time.  To me ALERT and its golden hour work sounded like god sent.  How many people were rushed to hospitals before they became totally disabled.  Preethi mentioned that there are many people who suffered spinal cord injury not during the accidents but after and it was shocking to hear, for the delay in medical help during accidents make things worse and fatal. 

With my life's own battles, I stopped saying that I am busy, sick or not available to any one and stopped fighting for little things in life, stopped cribbing for failures and started to raise every time I fell.   I learnt to get up and run again in life.  Now I wish I can do something really to the cause for which Siddharth and now Preethi and many others are fighting for.  Unless we fight, we will not get things changed in our system.  For that the basic step is awareness.  Creating sensitivity in our society and people to react, proactively act to support and not just be mere spectators.  Only then dreams of Preethi and Siddharth will come true

To know more about Preethi, please visit her website : http://www.soulfree.org/

I will soon post the picture I have taken with her today, till then, please see the one from Internet.

For more about her

http://www.thebetterindia.com/8961/captain-19-womens-cricket-team-woman-now-deals-disability-inspires-others/

Home Office ? Are you Kidding me? Work from home does not mean no work!!! Give me a Break Guys!

I met an aunt today after long  many years and she was asking me about my office, work hours and said she would kill me if I say I am busy at work.  We are working for what we are paid and she is right.  But the expression she gave me when I said that I have an home office was totally undigested.   She sounded that work from home means no work getting done.  Probably after spending decades running to office every morning, the concept of home office is a not the zing thing for her.  And equally not to many of the people who still think work from home..is a paid holiday.   Give me a break guys!

There are two sides to a coin always.  The few positive sides of being in a virtual world of technology, connected from anywhere remotely is also huge and equally are the negatives of our lives in this environment.

The Biggest advantages of having a home office and also have a corporate that support the work from home culture are:

1.  Save on the travel time - commuting during peak hours of the day.

2.  Stay connected at different time zones.   Be it  IST, EST, GMT or what ever...You are there for the clients

3.  Reduce operational costs for Corporates by not consuming a full office, with parking, electricity, phone usage, transportation and security costs involved.  

4. Ensure safety of women working in odd shifts and giving them flexibility as diversity employees

5. Enhanced productivity that comes with alertness of being online for the full business hours

6.  Less distraction and cafeteria chat timings and giving more time to work.

7. Better work life balance with giving more time to work and personal things

8.  Staying virtually connected 24*7 helps in regular team collaborations, meetings, conference calls and there is no difference in the way we work

9.  People who work remotely are more engaged, focus on health and have lower stress levels

10.  More alert to work requirements, productivity, flexibility and availability increases at work force

The other side of the coin, where the pitfalls make work from home equally painful are:

1. Need continuous attention and keep increased watch on alerts for calls, meetings and deadlines making it stressful

2.  Distractions in case the home office is not isolated from the main living spaces and visitors

3.  Feeling of isolation when looking for business solutions that need brain storming and expert guidance

4.  Lack of people around to share moments of anxiety, team collaboration and participation

5. People who cannot draw thick line between personal and professional priorities have difficulty to separate work from home

6. Working hours are usually longer with very few or no breaks to refresh and work productivity

7.  Work place developments that are usually heard through grape vine is not available in home office

8. Danger of losing the visibility at work place by less presence in groups and office get together

9.  Work from home needs loads of self-discipline, proactive work atmosphere and learning to handle distractions and self-pity of being lone and working long

10.  People usually think that those working from home, are either jobless or lost their jobs and hanging at home, creating a embarrassment for families still living in running to work culture

However, like every situation that throws at us several advantages and disadvantages, Modern Home Offices are also still evolving with its own dimensions.  When people are high willed, strong determination with integrity and good professional values, working from anywhere doesn't really matter, as long as business outcomes are the same, client value is delivered, milestones are met and deadlines are not extended.   

Making your professional lives shine is all in the game of how you handle your visibility, performance, attitude, team work, stretching that extra mile and doing one bit more than others to prove your value adds to the growth of you and your organization.   

Appraisals are not what your managers decide for you and what companies give to you.  It is what you give to yourself for the money you are getting paid.  It is what you feel at the end of an hard working day fulfilling your obligations, responsibilities and duties both as a professional and also as a individual makes you what you are.   

Numbers, Money, Promotions, Awards or any other form of recognition is just another aspect in our lives.  Self-Satisfaction of doing your best, feeling the pride of achievement and sense of belonging-ness to your team, your company and your family is what makes you successful.  As long as these basic things are in place, it really doesn't matter, where you work from...Be it a multi-storeyed tech park, or an isolated factory shed, or from the couches of your home....what matters is business and its outcomes at large!

Happy Home Officing! 

 

Courtesy: Internet

 

 

A year gone by as we lost our Delhi Braveheart - Yet the Crimes continue with no shame!

Every 20 minutes a Rape happens in India.  1128 rapes registered in 2013 compared to 468 cases registered in 2012.   This is still prevalent…Despite the change and campaign that engulfed after Delhi’s Brave Heart was gang raped in Dec 2012.   Police humiliation in handling of the rape/ sexual victims is still in existence, people walk out free after being involved in rapes, sexual assault and exploitation and stalking.   

India woke up to speak up against violence against weaker gender.  However, the men don’t stop zipping up given a chance, be it in a lift, or a corridor in office or a deserted street.  Forget the marital rapes and abuse that happens time and again inside the four walls of our India homes.  Unfortunately laws have its own loop holes and people still do not fear the law of the land to harass a woman.   Sex trafficking is a big business in India.   

Sexual harassment is every day “Breaking news” in the TV channels.  Acid attacks and stalking are every where in the newspapers.  Sending out our girl children out of our homes alone is always like having fire in the belly.  Leaving children with elders or even grand parents care is no more a security for there is a scare of the molestation.  Walk, Rise, Talk and Fight against Rape.  But nothing makes the mistakes stop.  Women are time and again raped, gang raped and left to die on the streets.    

Women’s rights are only in law books and not practically followed in India.   Fight for better law and order and not revenge still continues flustered.  Many women do not feel safe even in the public places.  Using public transportation without getting pinched on your backs or men rubbing from behind is still a distant dream.   Minor accused escapes in name of Juvenile law.

Even before Delhi Brave heart who stole the country’s attention, there are several Sunitha Krishnan’s who rise beyond the sense of being lost and raped and reconstruct their lives and silently set a path for others to survive and rebuild their own lives.  Government plays a very minor role in rescue and providing rehabilitation as after such incidents the families and society disowns them.   Effective legal procedure with a sense of responsibility and law enforcement is the need of the day.   Though now more rapes are reported, the legal system is still not adequate to put an end to this menace.  

People peace marches, candle lighting vigils, talk shows and repeated TV campaigns and political parties and social organizations did bring in a lot of awareness of sexual harassment of women.  Unfortunately the Mumbai Shakthi Mills Rape case, Tejpal sexual harassment case of a journalist, and several hundreds of reported cases continued in 2013 giving no respire to Indian women.  There are thousands of other incidents that go unnoticed, unrecorded and silently suffered.  More and more there are campaigns going on to prevent such issues; more seems to be the cases coming up.   

Probably the trend of violence was always there and only gaining momentum to fight after the death of India’s Brave Heart named Nirbaya.  Only wished her real name is known and we know her face to pay her rich tributes or may be silently visualizing the way we want is a better solace.  

A year gone by …and women of India and the world continue to fight for their safety and honor.  The fight only seems to strengthen day by day bringing people together to fight against injustice.   The age old law books seem to be no where clearing the dust and re-writing the pages of history with punishments that would bring in fear in the society to do such crimes.    

No one can save us, except ourselves.  Instead of teaching arts, science, dance and drama, parents should first make self-defense a compulsory education to children both girls and boys.  This should ensure that they protect themselves against any form of abuse and molestation.   Work place harassment should come to an end with corporate’s and government houses tightening up the internal policies and make people aware of the consequences to such acts.

We need to make our boys and brothers respect women, treat them with dignity and respect their emotions and safety.   It is only when women at grassroots and homes teach their children and bring in the moral values instituted in from a very young age, we can get rid of this perverts in the society.  

RIP Brave heart.  A year went by since your struggle for life started, and you disappearing into the test of time becoming an angel of fearlessness and voice of the Nation against such crimes.   

Wishing that a new dawn is in store in future when my country wakes up with a happy song of its girl child and not the shrill cry for justice.  Jai Hind!

FOMO- The new disease in the block! Time to Say Good Bye!

The first thing I look upon when I wake up is to check my cell phone for any message and I jump out of my bed and get ready for a coffee with my morning newspaper. Inadvertently, my hands reach to the iThing around… Be it the iPad, iPhone or the nearest laptop, and my poor wireless blinks at me with tiring looks. Yeap, probably I would have shut it down just a few hours ago forcing myself to sleep.

The morning newspaper gives me its hate look… with all the dirty news of the world these days we are forced to chew in…
Accidents, political big wigs shamelessly screwing each other, children forgotten in cars,  parents committing suicide along with their innocent children, and women getting raped time and again, gang raped be her a child of 3 or a grand mom of 80, all they need is a hole to screw…  
Shameless perverts who roam around in this world even after such worst crimes.   

Then runs my eyes to the new movies page, which I usually don’t watch, and to the new restaurants advertisements that I scroll through… Of course, I do make time for this and what attracts me the most is the happenings in my City- yes, Events!   For they help me to plan my “out of work & home” hours, as if it were another 8 hour routine in my life every week. Forget about the reminders from the secretary of the clubs I am associated with, sends me frequently about the meetings- General Body, Executive Committee and Projects… Yeah… >Projects Everywhere!

Amidst all this going on, I still feel the vacuum!  Is this a depressing condition?  I asked my doctor one day.    He says that my body and brain are fighting with each other and  my brain is not letting the body rest… Why is this so? 

I used to sit quietly and meditate for long. Laze on a weekend siesta with an old book, just to re-read the pages I loved… or just look around and do nothing, but give space for words to write my most cherished poems.  But in the last couple of years, things have changed.   When I feel vacuumed!  Seemingly left with nothing to do after finishing everything I “HAD” to do… I take the interesting part of every one’s lives today, the drama of the day to unfold.  What’s happening in the other people’s lives?   Who is going where?  What is that they got today?  Where are they heading to for the weekend?  Who is celebrating their birthday today …or who is having a sick moment, where I can hop in and say a regular Hello!

From the time Face Book took over people’s life, agriculture became virtual Farmville, and Twitter became Flash News and LinkedIn became permanent open live resume, Orkut became the first death in the social media, hotmail nailed underneath leaving behind yahoo and Gmail to take over and online banking became the mode of trade… My pages on poem hunter became my live storage of my scribbling uneasy lyrics, and eventually my blog became my outlet, an open diary and a solace… I am for sure most of us are suffering from the new disease - FOMO- the Fear of Missing Out!

Even people who were once upon a time, with “Who Cares” attitude, today silently watches the social media space and enjoy the fun of the drams unfolding on everyone’s walls each day.  

These silent sneekers are the people who do not post anything or comment on anyone’s posts, but who turn out to be the most frequent visitors, who are keeping track of everyone. 

Those who frequently post, find this as a medium of outlet or take this as a comfort factor that there is a whole world out there to share your life day after day… right from buying a fish, sleeping in the noon to organizing a event and being part of a larger cause…they type, they forget and leave the news for the rest of the world to eat the way they want to…like a banquet dinner to chew!   There are few people who still worry about the privacy of the information shared and keep it very restricted. Probably they are the one’s who are very cautious of the good-bad internet world and they actually enjoy a right balance of information, fun and the cyber space.  

Companies and Employers are keeping a close watch on the social media activity of the employees… Today it is made as part of the business conduct, that what you post is your responsibility and not that of your employers and advices for a social responsibility to whatever you vent in the free virtual world that is not completely organized and controlled.

However, it is very important to keep track of what you do and what you share.   One thing is frequent, posting good pictures is causing jealousy amongst our own set of family and friends… For those who are mostly indoors, feel left out when friends post pictures of vacations and out door activity.  Sometimes, frequent updates from few people irritate us as if they are over boarding us with unnecessary information.  Few updates are very knowledge oriented and welcomed by many.  Few events keep us informed and educative.  They make each one of us think

The quotations and moral messages come in every day from every corner of the world.  Even if few inspire us and follow even few of them, our lives will change for good.

Above all,   it is time to stop – the Fear of Missing Out

• Students are losing out on their study time to the time on internet
• Employees are getting distracted during their working hours on the stuff that is not so important to work
• Friends are feeling jealous and envious at time, and breaking relationships
• Families are getting united, at the same time frustrations are getting on top and creating havoc in most unexpected turn of events
• Communal violence and protests are sparking up with the wrong motivations and communities targeting all sides to influence those who are weak and vulnerable
• Humor is finding its new place and lot of things of things are educating people in terms of cartoon, same time it should not go over the thin line of control…as long as no body is targeted, insulted and injured in this process….social media will remain a blessing

 As we control the fear of missing out, we get to be more cautious about the time we spend on useless surfing, spending on unwanted search engines…and being excited on staying connected through any of the channels. Be it Face Book, Emails, Twitter, LinkedIn, Whatsapp! Tumbler, Hi5 or Instagram!.  

The first step:  Decided to spend just 15 minutes every day on personal mails, 15 mins of social media and spend rest of the day in old style…going out and talking to people than on SMS and phone,  playing games outdoor than on Xbox….chatting with neighbors’ over the real walls,   pruning a little garden than planting trees in Farmville,  and above all taking time for a cause than to support with 1000 likes on a face book page…and make the best use of  internet time to get out of this nonsense FOMO -   I will not let any disease to take over me. 

Defiantly FOMO-  Its time for you to GO!

Note:  All pictures are taken from Internet! Any copy right issues, please let me know-  Umasree Raghunath

I am Malala.....

Malala...Today, this name is synonym to courage, braveness and fearlessness.  This word resounds the courage of a young girl to fight for her rights.     Her strong words with which she ended her speech at UN echoes from all parts of the world towards Education for Children.  especially for Women.   

"One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first." From Malala speech at UN

In a world today, filled with the dangers of wars, frequent conflicts and failing government and economies, here is a girl who is fighting her best towards a cause.
 
A cause that is important in changing the thinking of hundreds of extremists towards positive world filled with no fear of existence and no struggle for survival.   Every child and every human being should have the right to education and peaceful living.  However, today the world has become a center stage for dramatic politics, religions intolerance, terrorism handling the countries, economies that create poverty and unemployment, and natural calamities that are beyond our control as human beings.  

The least we could do is join the campaign - ' I am Malala...' and provide our support and promise towards providing education and empowerment to our women and make learning a way of living so that this world become a better place to live

As Malala, reiterates Education is the ONLY Solution.   We don't need Preachers, Saints, Researches and Scientists to tell us what we should aim to build in this world in times of crisis.  Awareness comes from knowledge and knowledge comes from Education and hence 'Education is the Key'  and Malala happens to be the way to move forward.  She is not an individual anymore, she is movement that we should all join hands with.

Towards a better tomorrow,  and a fearless future...arising from the clutches of death, towards the route of optimism, turning every adversity into an opportunity, today this girl is teaching us again, that every problem has a solution and every child has a right to education.....

Malala at United Nations

 
Long Live Dear Malala with good health, happiness, purpose and greater education that you dream for.  

For the full speech of Malala at UN:  Please visit the site:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-full-text-malala-yousafzai-delivers-defiant-riposte-to-taliban-militants-with-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly-8706606.html

 

    

Child Begging Racket- Begging - a existing phenomenon for Child Trafficking, Drug Abuse and Untimely deaths- A Social Menace- A Sad Story!

 

Heart bleeds to see the children hanging on their 'Rented Mothers'  who bang on the car windows, run across the roads chasing bikers, or sit lost in the railways stations and bus stands with children sleeping silently in the laps.   The mothers look equally innocent besides the fact that they are part of a huge child trafficking racket without even knowing about it.   Both the rented mothers and the children are dusty, pale, mal-nourished and destitute.     They wear torn clothes, carry empty milk bottles and equally dusty bags carrying one set of clothes and not sure what else.   But the fact that these children are sleeping all the time is 'alarming'.  The Big Question is Why are these children sleeping all the time.

Every day on the way to office, a woman with a child used to bang on our car door asking for few pennies.   Though I used to feel sad, I always felt the need not to encourage this begging.   But to my dismay and shock, this woman started carry different children every other day.   The child varied from 3 months to 3 years and most of the time, the Child is again Sleeping!  

 Moreover, the child at times have a broken arm or a bandaged leg.   Why?  
How is the Child Hurt?   And the Big Question is Why is the Child Sleeping every time I see during the same time of the day ?  Do children sleep so and all the time?  The same lady on the way back also used to carry the kid still sleeping. 
After months of observations, I wanted to stop the car, and get to the lady.  The minute I did, she ran away.  I could see a fear in her eyes, haste in her legs and tremors in the body.  One auto driver standing next to me, said that there is no use trying to find her.  They are controlled by the big gangs who in turn rob / kidnap or buy these children, rent them to the women on daily basis, and take away a huge part of their begging collection.  What is further more alarming is that these children are fed with Vodka and Drugs so that they just keep sleeping and hanging on to the woman's shoulder bags.    The fact that no real mother would use the sick/ mal-nourished child for begging makes us feel more at discomfort seeing these 'Young mom's... sometime, we see them as young as 12 years old and they themselves look like children.
 Feeling Sad, sick and frustrated and equally not able to do anything about this, I thought I can least vent my sadness in my blog so that someone will give me a hope for a solution to this menace we see in every day routine.  

The least I could do is not to give alms to these beggar women .  Unless we have law to stop begging, governments to rehabilitate destitute women, and safeguard our children from the clutches of this cruel business,  we will still be seeing this horror stories on the streets every day. 

Pictures here speak volumes than my words and most of them are sourced from the internet