Maid in India

Now which kid, who has taken birth and grown up in India, doesn't know the importance and materiality of a housemaid in our homes? The "Baai" factor has been one of the driving forces of households in our country since ages. The morning is now, almost synonymous to the bell ringing, signifying the arrival of the housemaid. The afternoons are similar, when the moment you lie down on your bed with the intention of a peaceful afternoon nap, the bell rings again. But, this interruption in our rest never disturbs us mentally. In fact for mothers across the nation, this ringing of the bell is like the relief they get on cleaning their child's room. It satisfies them to the utmost extent and creates an atmosphere of happiness and euphoria.

Today, the most dreaded sentences spoken in an Indian household include the housemaid announcing her going back to her "gaaon", or a leave of a couple of weeks. Other notable ones which give spine chilling goosebumps include the demand of a raise or a "bonus". Such sentences create a sense of horror among the family members and an awkward silence immediately creeps in the house. One of the worst nightmares of the mothers is standing on the road at the peak hour of "baai mobility" and calling out to different ones to negotiate on several terms and conditions. After a considerable amount of hard work and arbitration, does one find a suitable domestic help. This is one huge reason we still have cold feet on imagining the life in the West, without much of a domestic help available easily.

Some unfortunate incidents do happen like when the housemaid becomes kleptomaniac and cause pilferage of small and insignificant household material like clocks, spoons, utensils etc., eventually moving on the more organized stealing and crime. Some more unfortunate ones happen, but this time for the housemaids, when they get employed at someone like Shiney Ahuja, considering it to be a great opportunity to be working at a movie star's. Some people curse their fate for having to cope up with a maid who is legendary at being clumsy, with dropping everything off while mopping or spoiling dirty water everywhere. Some even worse cases, especially with little children at home, include those where the housemaids look like weird Apparitions and can scare off heart patients and pregnant women to death just by mere visibility.

But to be very honest, some exceptions are always there and yeah, there are people out there with the hands of Gods over them, who have managed to continue the same maid for over 20 years. Hats off to those and very Best of luck to the rest!:)

फिर वही सवाल

जब शांत सहमी सर्दी की शाम थी,
जब ज़िंदगी कुछ तन्हा, कुछ बेनाम थी
तब लब हिले तो ज़ुबान पर सिर्फ़ तुम्हारा नाम आया,

जब दूर कही बहुत शोर था
जब अंधेरा भी बड़ा घनघोर था
तब नींद खुली, तो ज़हेन में सिर्फ़ तुम्हारा ख़याल आया

जब सुनसान गलियो में मैं भटक रहा था
जब दिल मे मेरे एक अल्फ़ाज़ अटक रहा था
तब भी मेरे सूनेपन को सिर्फ़ तुम्हारा ख़याल आया

जब रास्ता भी नही था और मंज़िलें भी गुमशुदा थी
जब हर सफलता, हर सुख की घड़ी मुझसे जुदा थी
तब भी मेरे विचलित से मन का हौसला बन तुम्हारा नाम आया..

ढलता सूरज बादलों से झाँक कर कुछ कह रहा है
सहमा हुआ सा, लापता सा चाँद भी कुछ कह रहा है
सर्द हवा भी सरसराती, कुछ मुझी से कह रही है
ज़ररा ज़ररा आज तेरा, हाल मुझसे पूछ रहा है..

पूछ पूछ मैं थक गया हूँ
फिर भी पूछता फिर रहा हूँ
आज फिर सामने मेरे, वही एक सवाल आया-
तुम कहाँ हो, तुम कहाँ हो, तुम कहाँ हो, तुम कहाँ हो?

The Official "Holi"Day... :)

So amidst the tension and stress of board exams and the end terms of thousands of other schools and colleges, here we are celebrating India's brightest and most colourful festival of "Holi". Since Holi has been famous for humour, pranks and playfulness, here I will take a small liberty and talk to students from different fields, streams and professions. But it should be kept in mind that I respect all professions alike and besides "Khoob bura  maano, Holi HAI!" :P

So here is wishing you a very happy, chromatic and splashy HOLI... :)
Here I go -

1. CA Students (My fellows) - Please stop being proud of yourselves as "office goers", frankly, you are nothing but underpaid clerks who put an inverted tick and scrambled signatures to show how cool they are.
2. Engineering Students - Yeah so you got through the toughest of competitive exams to get into colleges. But welcome to India, you are not going to be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. So keep aside your 'passion' and enter the race of GPAs.
3. Doctors - You are not going to be a doctor for the next 10 years, so just sit back and relax, while performing those hideous experiments on anthropomorphous. Meanwhile you can try to be cool by throwing some awful and disgusting sounding words every now and then to your friends.
4. B.Com (Hons.) - You probably did not have any other option in the Commerce stream, and your percentage wasn't good enough to get you Economics (Hons.)!
5. Economics/History/English etc. (Hons.) - Don't try to act creative just because you have an "Arts" in your degree. Probably the creators of streams just could not decide whether to put these subjects in commerce or in science.
6. MBA students - There is nothing as such to be "mastered" here. C'mon just admit, you either wanted to enjoy a college life or you wanted a hike in the salary with which you were not content.  
7. Lawyers - It is going to be a long wait before you can get to be those smartly dressed and intellectual looking lawyers they show in the movies. All that you can practice for now is a normal argument with your parents, even which, you are bound to be defeated at.
8. Architecture students - Its not cool to draw even a teddy bear using those huge scales and weird measurements.
9. CS students - Trust me, only the name "Companies Secretary" is fancy, nothing else is.
10. "Budding" Authors - Oh please, every trash fiction does not become a "five point someone". Lets be original... :)
11. B.Com (Pass.) - I cannot say anything against you. I salute you for the courage of taking up this course. Your future rests in the hands of God.
12. "Wanting-to-be" Teachers - I feel sorry for you... :D

(No hard feeling. I respect and love all professions and fields. HAVE A GREAT 'HOLI' DAY) 

Are We Worthy of Saying "Happy Women's Day"

The World celebrates Women's Day tomorrow on 8th March. However, we should first peep deeper into ourselves to see if we really are worthy of even talking about this day. Every time I have a positive feeling towards amelioration of women in our country, there is a hideous report showing disheartening statistics in the newspaper. With 47% women facing some kind of violence in rural India, we are far away from achieving an equal status for men and women. With eve teasing becoming a euphemism for sexual harassment and molestation, I deny the fact that it is because of the adoption of 'western' culture by us, as stated by many social activists. Blaming westernization for the abject and tawdry mentality of a few men is not wise at all.

Behind closed doors, women are still being tortured in many families. With over 5000 women dying each year due to Dowry cases, the instances of Dowry demands have been notices even in upper class metropolitan families! Besides, since ages we have subjected young girls to the trauma of "Child Marriage", an evil which is unparalleled and highly appalling. One evil leads to other, and therefore due to the prevalence of Dowry in our society, female infanticide and sex selective abortion got introduced. I suppose such a crime of killing a child might be unforgivable even by God. Another petrifying crime that we have witnessed in large numbers even after the many laws passed against it, is Human trafficking.

Education has been an answer to many of our problems. When education was made available to women in large numbers, many Indian women, after centuries to subjugation awoke to a new life. We really need to stress on this point in coming future. Abolition of dowry and limitation 'of marriage expenses were some steps for the promotion of the lot of Indian women. The self-immolation of Snehalata, a Bengali girl in 1914 agitated the youths who demanded immediate constitutional reform to oust this ugly Practice. The Purdah system was done away with.

However, no single blog post and no single day can bring about a huge change. An anarchistic change is required in the mindset of the population of our country which can come about only through education and awareness. I wish someday, I am lucky enough to live in a country where men and women are equally respected. The problems and solutions I have written about have been repeated and discussed millions of times before, but this is just another drop in the ocean to take a step towards a better India.

I want the word to spread and people to awake, to make this country a better place to live for one and all alike. With due respect and great hope, I wish everyone a Happy Women's Day - your chance to bring a change. :)

The Warrior of the Modern Times

Last time I checked, every economy in the world divides the people as 'haves' and 'have-nots'. Its only today, that I came to know that my very own Rajasthan university also practices the same. With 'haves' being the one who can get their work done from the back door entry and some jack, and 'have-nots' being the ones that are described later in this post.
 Now it was one of those important and rare days when I had to visit Commerce College (oh yes, for all those kids and elders who thought I studied in ICAI, yes I study here too), University of Rajasthan.
Now most of the universities in the world might be following separated trends of handing out Admit cards for the year-end terms, but we have devised an absolutely fresh and path breaking system - often referred as "Gundaraj". How difficult can you imagine, be the task of collecting your admit card? As difficult as making a few clicks and getting it printed as in case of CS exams, or as difficult as signing in front of your name and getting it delivered through courier as in case of CA exams. But welcome to RU, where you pray and negotiate with God in the morning to bring you alive back to your home.

Maybe the whole concept has been designed in an attempt to make the students realize the importance of this mere piece of paper called Admit Card. I reached there holding my ID proof in my hand like a king. The window was closed while the students gathered around like bees. After a considerable delay of an hour, the window opened like the gates of heaven and students stood there waiting for the judgement moment. As soon as the window opened, students rushed towards it jumping and howling like wild animals. Soon enough I realized I had to be one of them to be able to "win" my admit card.

I loosened my leather belt and opened a few top buttons of my shirt and amassing all the strength and courage and taking the name of my God for one last time, I let myself in the huge swarm of people. Just like an anti-biotic that we swallow, the crowd swallowed me up. The system works pretty simple here, you just yourself in and the rest happens itself. People from all around pushed and squeezed me. I suddenly could not feel my own hands and feet. Just then I realized that the existence of ID card was in danger as it was slipping out of my fingers, I immediately clutched it with more energy and strength.

Somehow keeping the care for my own body parts aside, I pushed myself further in and realized I had reached the gates of heaven. I punched my hand inside the window and held out my ID proof. Few long and seemingly unbearable seconds passed, and my admit card was in my hands. But this was just the half journey. I realized I was stuck between oddly smelling and weirdly behaving students all around. My hands were stretched out in front of me, and I could just thank god that none of my body part itched at that moment.
Several people from behind thrust their own ID proofs in my stretched out hands requesting me to get their cards too, where the requests ranged from never-heard-before derogatory abuses to some addressing me as "bhaiya". I did the needful (as if I had any other choice) and tried pulling myself back.

Finally I could smell a little fresh air when I knew I was close to freedom and finally with a little jump, I came out alive. I patted my back to have survived the battle with a broken button, messed up hair, surprisingly bleeding little finger, aching knees, and half torn admit card, for which I was there and odd smell of sweat and toil. I almost felt molested, but gave out a sigh of relief to have achieved.

I would never feel such sense of self pride and achievement ever in life again - oh wait! I will... the next year... Ah! :(