Life is not a bed of roses.. but it definitely is a bed of thorns for some

I have known Mumbai since my childhood. I was ten when I first saw the marvelous architecture of Gateway of India, when I first ate bhelpuri at chaupati, when I first witnessed a rain that seemed like it would never stop, when I first saw a city that slept at 2 am and woke up at 4am. What I didn’t see at that time were the slums that existed somewhere among huge tall buildings.

The movie “Slum dog Millionaire” has brought me face to face with some very bitter realities of my own home country. Danny Boyle, the director, has shown the true story of an impoverished teen from aamche Mumbai called Jamal Malik. The illiterate chaiwala is mocked about by the host of the most famous TV show, Kaun Baneyga Crorepati, for making it to the show. When he wins $1Million, they cant believe him and think of him as a cheat. They torture him before the next episode just to find out that his twenty years of life in slums has given him all the answers.

But I perceive the story a little differently. I think it is the story of those millions of Jamal Maliks, who wake up every day not to hurriedly pack up their bag packs, but those who can be seen begging on streets every morning. Some of them don’t have hands, some don’t have feet, and some of them don’t even have eyes. If I had not seen this movie, I would have, perhaps, taken them for victims of road accidents. Since two days ago, I didn’t know that there existed a world where such young, lovable, delicate, innocent living beings are taken hostages by organizations posing as orphanages and turned into beggars. A few even more unfortunate ones, who can sing well, are blinded so that they can get more money. Young girls are sold to pimps and rechristened as cherry, rosy and chameli .

I have seen so many destitute kids in my hometown Chandigarh also. Every time I was approached by any such child, I had hushed him away. I recall an incident when we were coming from a friend’s party and we had joked around a kid telling him “Aunty se mangoo, aaj unke party hai”. In another incident I was almost on the verge of hitting a child hard when I was discussing something with a friend and he said “bhagwaan aap dono ki jode salamat rakhey”. I never strained my nerves to understand that they are not doing this by choice. Rather, they are taught to do this. Lest they don’t do this, they’ll be beaten to death.

As a child, my mom had always asked me to be kind to such people and give them something to eat and to never give them money. I wish I had taken another step ahead and done something extra not only to help such kids but also to help our society at large.

Life is certainly full of SuRpRiSeS

Its been close to 1 month since I asked you to keep visting my blog to check about the real story of the child soldier, Ismeal Beah. My readers might have lost the hope of reading it here as the time elapsed undermines the zest I showed in my previous post. Please excuse me for some more days because I don’t want the same to happen to a recent event which I want to share with you all at the earliest.

It was a beautiful day. Surprisingly, I woke up with the first alarm. I browsed through my wardrobe and without much struggle picked up just anything. I made tea while Gaurav got ready. I was very happy and nervous at the same time. Finally the day had arrived for which I had worked hard for last 1.5 months. It was my First Ever Candle exhibition.

I had never thought that I would get such an opportunity in my lifetime. If you say life is full of surprises, I would say this is the biggest and most pleasant surprise life has given me. Well, I had never made candles, and here I was, exhibiting my candles in a country that I had known only for last seven months, for an organization that I had known only for last two months and for a cause that I had known for last 25 years but had not done anything about it. It was an Artisan Fair organized to support cancer affected patients and their families.

We reached there on time. Gaurav helped me to set-up the table. Surprisingly, Gaurav was giving me better ideas that day. We decorated the table to the best of our abilities. He then went out to get me some change. I waited very anxiously for him for ten minutes and prayed that no customer comes before he comes back. I was feeling butterflies in my stomach. Gaurav then came back with my breakfast. He quickly finished his own and asked me to finish mine. But the butterflies were not letting me eat anything.

“Oh, that’s pretty” said the first person who came to me. She liked the floating roses and asked me how much they were for. We had decided that we’ll sell those for $6 for a pair but I don’t know why I asked $5 for the pair. “Is that all? You have must put in a lot of effort for that”. I was a little discouraged with the fact that I had under-estimated the prices but at that point I desperately wanted her to buy those. She purchased a few. Next one hour brought the maximum number of admirers and customers. I had also developed some confidence till then and didn’t feel nervous when Gaurav told me that he has to go for nature’s call. To any person who came, I offered candies, told them about the specialty of each candle and gave them my business card that had some candle burning tips. “ Ehh!! We didn’t know this” many of them responded after reading those tips.

For next couple of minutes we were wondering why isn’t anyone coming in. I realized how difficult it is to sell. Then, many of my friends came and bought a lot of stuff. The day was full of excitement and at four we packed up the things that were not sold. Me and Gaurav then went out to celebrate our success.

Today, I feel proud of myself to have successfully made through this. But more than that, I feel more proud of Gaurav, my brother, my sister, my parents and my friends who encouraged me and showed complete confidence in me. I wish and hope I get many more such opportunities where I can give back to society while utilizing my free time.

P.S. – I got a call today morning from a lady who met me in the exhibition and wanted to buy some more candles from me :)

Life is full of SuRpRiSeS

Oct 1, 2008. On board our flight from Philadelphia to Durham. Gaurav was engrossed reading some book, I don’t know which. After all this is one of those few things that I hate the most. I constantly stared into his eyes to catch his attention and not to mention to bug him. But OMG, he was enjoying it like a boy reading playboy. He is deep into his thoughts or is at least good at showing that off. This is one of the MANY things that set me apart from him. He is an avid reader and I am an avid bugger for such readers. I sank back into my seat and started rolling through the pages of American Airlines magazine. Oh!! I just recalled that I am an avid shopper too. Lets scroll through those jewelry pages, I said to myself. Ehhh, poor stuff and I started staring Gaurav in his eyes again. Fortunately, he looked back this time and in a worried tone he suggested that I should read good books. Yawn yawn, I’ll utilize my time in sleeping rather than killing it in knowing about someone whom I don’t even know. Immediately he took out two books from his laptop bag and asked me to pick one. “For a seven day trip, he is carrying three books, isn’t that too much” I questioned to myself. Confident that either of the two choices given to me would be equally bad, I picked one. 240 pages, that would take years for me to finish. I giggled and started reading. Hold on, did I mention that I didn’t even care about the name and the author of the book. The flight attendants have a good timing. Just in the nick of time, they started serving drinks. It’s the decision time. Coke Diet/ Coke zero/ Ginger ale/ tomato juice/orange juice. I had been on high diet for last three days now, so I chose to stick to orange juice. Taking small sips from my plastic glass, I started enjoying my book. Oops, I mean, I started pretending enjoying my book. Sixty minutes later, I heard a sound in the back ground. It was Gaurav. “Get up baby, the plane has landed”. I closed my book that lied on my chest and with all the due respect, handed it back to its owner.

Oct 3, 2008. On board our flight from Durham to Seattle. The flight attendant announced that it would take us 6 hours to reach Seattle. Before keeping his laptop bag on the shelf, Gaurav took out his book. I tried to escape his eye. Six hours and I’ll sleep in peace, I thought. Hey, but why did he took out two books? I recalled the green cover of the book I held in my hands 2 days back. Ouch, and I started pretending again. “A long way gone” it said on the title page. Unable to sleep due to 2.5 hours time lag, I started anxiously waiting for the drinks. “They must be running short of the drinks” I thought as I couldn’t find another reason for this delay. Unable to do anything else, I started searching if the book has some pictures. Books are so much easy to decipher with animations, I thought. But then why would Gaurav possess such a book. Finally, I decided to read the prologue of the book. After two minutes of concentration, I finally made out it was a story of a child soldier. Caught by the sensitivity of the issue, I decided to go on until I doze off in my dreams. “Would you like to have something to drink madam” asked me the flight attendant. I checked my watch. It was already 45 minutes since we were air-borne and I was still awake. This time it wasn’t difficult for me to decide that I wanted to have a diet coke. After next 15 mins, Gaurav tapped me and asked if I don’t want to have my coke. Man, what has happened to me. I was so taken off my the true story of this young child soldier called Ishmael Beah that I kept going on until Gaurav told me that he has finished his other two books and wanted to read this one now. He encouraged me to go to sleep this time. Errrrr, but I wanted to read. We tossed a coin to decide who gets the book. God was punishing me for not reading for so long. Gaurav won.

It had been three days already since he started this book and I was getting anxious about what was taking him so long to finish it. He reads 200 pages in 20 mins, so is he tricking me, I thought. At the end of 5^th day, finally I got my book.

It must be a no-brainer to guess the topic of my next blog. So keep coming back friends, kyonki picture abhi baaki hai mere dost J