Showing posts with label Indiblogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indiblogger. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

#LookUpStories: Moment of Optimism and Hope for the Future :-) :-) :-)




My moment of pushing towards a positive vibe and a strong optimism came from the most unexpected corners of life.   Those were the days of anxiety, struggle, and fight for survival and bottlenecks at every turn in life.   

In those vulnerable circumstances, one gets pushed to a state of negativity, closed and absence from social life.    However strong, emotionally balanced and educated, intelligent and well behaved, some depressing circumstances make you forget what you are.   It was a day of these dominant factors.  I was working in Raheja Towers in Mount Road, Chennai; one of the most architecturally beautiful buildings of Chennai.  I was driven with all emotions that would have succumbed me unknowingly.   

I went to the 9th floor of the building and sat down staring at the passers-by in the road nearby.  The steps were vacant and there was no one around.   The loneliness was what I felt was the need of the hour.  I did not realize how depressing it can make a person.   I did not eat that afternoon and was just wanting to kill the hours, not wanting to go home after my shift got over.  I was not happy to go home and face the negative people who created toxic images in my life.   I wanted to be left alone.  Left in my own world of silence and oblivion.  To an extrovert person like me, this was the best self-punishment for not being positive.

Suddenly I heard loud noises and laughter coming from the lift adjacent to the staircase.  I was so frustrated on that noise for spoiling my silent afternoon.  I walked to the lift in anger, to see who the hell are the people who are disturbing my so called ‘peace’.    In less than fraction of a minute, my anger flew off.   That’s the first time I saw Siddharth Jeykumar, happily smiling and laughing loud.    

Siddharth fighting celebral palsy achieved greater heights where most of the people of his condition would have been affected by the sadness and demotivation of their own people and family.  Sidh had a totally motivating family whose main purpose was to ensure that Sidh lives in comfort, achieves what children of his condition find it hard and to get him to education and employment in the main stream definitely would not have been an easy journey.  

I saw my close friend and colleague with him in the lift and I jumped into the lift without a second thought.  They were laughing that they forgot to get down at 7th floor where the doc checking team works and they decided to play up and down in the lift.  Giggling all the way they all went down the lift to the ground floor and Sidh was cracking jokes all the while.   His positive energy was wide spread and it honestly lifted me from the sense of loss to the sense of positiveness.  I decided to take my life in my stride, my control and in my choice.

If you leave your life in the hands of others, and decision making for others to take for you, then you will be at loss only.   The moment you smile away your grief, feel that you are born this way to prove yourself and be sure of God’s plans for you, you will leave all regrets outside the door.  For that is where the garbage is left every day. Why the hell do we carry the garbage in our heads inside our homes and hearts?   You don’t have choice for few relationships in life, but you can always decide how you want to handle that relationship.  Keeping the bitter one’s away may be initially tough; but that would make you feel better and happy in the long run.

Sidh without knowing touched my life in a strange positive way.  He showed me that no matter what, life is precious to be losing in regrets, fear, anger and past.  Looking ahead and learning from past, cherishing what we have than what we want will make our lives more meaningful.  We may not be rich to be the country’s biggest philanthropists.  But you can give yourself, few things that don’t cost anything but hope and optimistic thoughts.   You can give yourself happiness, hard work paving way to success, self-esteem and determination making you successful.   




Thank you Sidh…for you made me look back at life and cherish the best I had.  You inspired me to look forward, be positive, be optimistic about life and looking forward at future with hope and admiration and cherish the joy of living, giving and celebrating life, the way it has to be.

#lookup  #housing.com
#housing.com   https://housing.com/lookup.

 
 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FXdCjk505w


https://housing.com/.




 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

SAY NO TO CHILD LABOUR- World Day against Child Labour- June 12, 2013



As the world today is celebrating ‘No Child Labour Day’ , the sound of the shrill call from a elite friend of the past resonanced in my ears loudly again-   “Rama-   Ekkada chachavey”….meaning Rama, where the hell have you died….

The just 10+ year old child ran to her ‘Madam’ side in a less than a minute and this fabulous rich civilized woman creature gave her a kick in her pit saying that she should stay in her sight all the time.  The little girl was embarrassed for I was there watching this happen …and as I tried stopping this so called friend.   The Madam gave the instructions to Rama to start pressing her legs as she stretched them on the coffee table from the sofa.  I felt like pushing her sofa upside down.. The poor little girl started to obey her silently for everything she was instructed to!.  


This is just one of the millions Rama’s who silently endure the pain of a heavy childhood, not see a penny of their earning which get sent to their parents in the villages,  fed on the leftovers and let to sleep on the floor even in chill winter nights.  These children help in domestic chores of cleaning, cooking and washing.  Few help the elders run errands for them.  Few are destined to be baby sitting all the times as mothers keep busy with kitty party’s and clubs and sometime genuine work schedules.   

Children working as child sex workers silently, not knowing of pregnancy and child birth, and subsequent consequences are another side of this sad story.  Children trafficked to other countries as domestic help and baby sitters, forbid of their rightful education and growing up years of childhood to enjoy, the poverty of the parents push them to the chores beyond their age. 

Millions of children work in remote villages in farms, silently inside the rooms of the factories,  do demeaning chores hidden inside the industries and sadly in the red light areas of the country doing jobs beyond their age and understanding.  

Construction laborers’, hotel waiters and cleaners, domestic helpers, courier boys, news paper boys, car cleaners,  workers in quarries and as wood cutters, cobblers, painters and potters.  These children do not know what is it like having a four square meal, a good night  comfortable sleep,  education and alphabets,  money and savings and no dreams of a sustainable future.  They get for the day, they eat and sleep what ever is possible and carry on with their lives.   By the time, they realize what they lost, they can never get back -  the precious childhood and hopes of education

 Thanks to the night schools and no child left behind campaigns, the children today are getting the required awareness and attention.  However, there is yet a larger segment of the society that is not careful of this menace between us.   Thoughtlessly employing children at any form of work is made illegal in most part of the world, but the law remained in the books far away from action. 

Time to say NO to Child Labour and put a strong end to this in our country.   Every child need to be set free to dream and dare to move in their lives with confidence and choice than be pushed to labour and burdened childhood.



Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Dark is Beautiful- Skin Color is still an issue. Why? (Inspired by the Dark is Beautiful Campaign)

In the darkness of sky, I find the brightest stars!
In the midst of the world, lies the darkest cores!
In the mountains, we find the darkest peaks!
In the depths of oceans, we find the rarest gems!
True....No one got a right in this world, to make you feel that your color of the skin is an issue.  You are beautiful in your own right.   The beauty of heart is more important than the color of the skin.  Everyone  knew this, however the society is still obsessed with fair people.   Fairness of skin is considered wanted, confident and attractive.   Even the darkest people have the beautiful outlook, however this is ignored.  

The shade of our skin takes over the strength of brains and will of our hearts.   Unfortunately, not only in India, but in many parts of the world, the cosmetic market is making, that the fairness is the thing that the world wants...  The advertising business and marketing world, creates a inferiority complex in the minds of not only adults but also children that being fair is important for existence.  What they don't care to understand is that it is hitting hard on the psychology of young minds and making them feel inferior, left behind and introverts in nature.   

Schools and colleges do not encourage dark skinned students to come front on the stage.... Dark skinned talents are pushed to back seat when it comes even for job interviews,  marriage proposals,  or today even adding to your friends list in Facebook.... Every person, is trying to put the best of display picture, Photoshoped and hiding their real self....Why is this crisis?  Why is the stigma still continuing even after having the Presidents of Nations who have darker shades of skin?   
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Our beloved church in Glendale, where we enjoyed being
accepted and loved without any bias
Looks and appearance matters,  to some extent in the industry like Cinema and Media, however, the same industry saw success stories like Rajnikanth and Nandita Das and we still think talents are only in white skinned people.    Were we not called Brown people from times immemorial.   Why are we so obsessed with the Nations where they have people who are fairer.  In fact in those Nations, the people are trying to have tanned skin,  respecting our people equally and consider us one among them and respecting us for what we are and not for how we look...

Happy my favorites god are all dark!
My story is a classical example of this discrimination.  I was my dad's dearest daughter, as he always wanted me not to feel inferior when the whole world kept commenting that I am the darkest kid in the family....It was in fact, it was him and my class teacher Satyavathi teacher in 7th grade, who made me overcome this complex, and patted on my back and said that I should explore oratory, essay writing and be on stage playing my favorite dramas...However,  my younger sister got to act as angel and I always got the Three men from East, or the cattle, where my face is covered in the dramas.  But those days, I didn't even realize that my skin color was a problem.  I kept winning and it became a habit..and noting bothered me....

Solid Rock Relationship-  nothing comes in between
 As a teen, my mom always had the fear that I may not have a proper marriage proposals as I am short and dark among st our three sisters.   The first pinch of discrimination came in when my mother in law, sighed heavily that she got a dark girl for his handsome son....that was when the reality dawned on my face of adulthood.   I cried.  But it was my husband who stood behind me and said that the goodness of heart is million times better than the fairness of the face.   His statements that I am beautiful,  I have a very artistic features, and so on encouraged me to divert my attention towards positive things and ignore the nonsense comments around...

Happy Family....
When my child was born, I cried.  She was pink bundle of joy.  I could not believe that I can have the fairest baby in the world in my arms.  I thanked God that she will not have to endure the skin color complexes that I had to withstand and kept fighting all my life....

My mentors who encouraged me to be
good professional, no bias faced on my overseas
trips and happy I was just accepted as I am
Today, my thoughts, my achievements and self-contentment of being a blogger, writer, poet and a good professional and above all, being a happy wife, proud mom, sister, and daughter makes me overlook all the issues, I had to face due to my skin color.  


Trust me, I also tried every damn fairness cream in the market expecting overnight results and slowly realized that nothing is going to change by the fake promises made by the cosmetic companies.  

The change has to be within me, on how I look at myself in the mirror everyday. ..I can look and say, I am dark...and feel inferior...or I can take a look, give myself a strong  smile and say, that I am beautiful, both internally and externally.  The beauty is surely lies in the happiness of your mind and the sparkle in your eyes.    It is important how you feel about yourself than how the world feels about you...ultimately the world around you will change to the way you feel....... Beautiful in your own way!



Saturday, April 6, 2013

Sevai Karangal- A special pool of love and service thats flowering in Chennai

Around an year back, my friend and colleague Vadi introduced me to his friend Thilak.  A simple and soft man with a great vision,  simple aspirations to bring in smiles in under privileged children and elderly,  a calm person but with strong convictions.   Slowly as we started understanding what Sevai Karangal is...we realized its way beyond a typical NGO.  


It has its wings flying high above the clouds...and shining hard with the new sunshine adding every single day... I can only be glad to be associated with this team of committed, hardworking professional, who find time to spend their way of contributing to the society.    



What makes them special is the variety of things they do to contribute to the society..... Sevai Karangal 'Chankya' project of educating underprivileged children started reaping results with Yazhini securing Medical Seat on merit at Madurai Medical college and lot more to follow.  Book distribution is part of it, and Home of Hope is just an example


Old age homes started having visits from full time professional who spent their time with the elderly giving hope and love, spreading joy and sharing sorrows.... Sahaya Illam is one of the pet projects.  for all their celebrations


SIP home, the home for HIV kids and children of HIV positive parents, is a destination of hope.  This home which usually is a far reach for normal society, is a regularly visited home to spend joy and provide relief and support to the beautiful garden of children

If education, support, medical aid, and festivals food distribution is one part, the next part is the consciousness towards environment and happy outings.     Be it fortnightly tree plantation around Retteri area in Chennai or pruning and growing them and repeat visits to ensure the trees are growing as planned.

Trekking is a passion for this group and taking children on social treks is fun, a responsibility and educative way of preserving our environment.   Running , Walking and Cycling events are all where you can find a volunteer from Sevai Karangal waving their hands extending help.  They are also a very special part of the most famous Chennai Trekking Club now having more than 18000 enthusiasts and still growing...

Causes are abundant., their care for the society is plenty, their hard work is abundant, and their love for the less privileged is just too valuable.  Wishing Thilak, his wife Dhana and the entire Sevai Karangal gang abundant happiness in all their endeavours, success in their projects, love spread beyond the extended hands of help and may god bless them with loads of opportunities to serve and succeed to carry on with peace and hope.   Joining hands ....all along....

Happy 5th Anniversary dear team:-)  God bless you all.....


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Internet is Fun- Its a way of Life!


As I keep on my Run!
Every day it’s a sin
Without Internet to win!

Crazy games that I play
Funny jokes that I share
News on the go!
I am ahead of the row!

Songs that keep me tuned!
RJs who dive me pruned
Facebook that is the only face
I see every day for every race

Tumbling upon the Oddee site
Googling everything this earth has
Cant imagine life without Internet
For we know life is intertwinednet

Illusions that get shared
Our breadths to take away
Videos that make you go gong!
Or just relax with your favorite song!

Where is life today without Internet?
I know there is no fun as I can bet!
There are flowers the bloom everyday
In the virtual world we are living today

Internet is not just another technology
But it is the way of life- a new mythology
Its more of connecting lives today
The way we interact and live every day

Fun, that is just a spring that sings
Internet is the hub of the blings
Passions, hobbies and friends
Social media that makes our lives no ends!

We wake up with a beep of the net
YouTube wishes with yoga videos abundant
Mom’s cooking live telecasted on skype
We eat and breath broadcasting across

Birthday parties and e- parties come alive
Across the oceans and vivid timezones
We share our thoughts and prayers
Live our lives connected through wires!

Gardens we grow and farms we share
Changes to peep in other worlds with glare
Join any housing, job or fun fares
With just the click on my mobile world

 I may die and perish
But my virtual world will live on
I may forget living,
But art on my walls will be built on!

To go beyond and bust the myth
That there is no change ever constant
The lives of the digital world
Will live just not long but wide to prolong!

So, Here I repeat!

Internet is Fun
As I keep on my Run!
Every day it’s a sin
Without Internet to win!