Category Archives: People

A Request


Hello reader.

This is the first such post on this blog, that I’m doing, in the 4 years that this blog has been on the web. First, let me set the premise.

Sneha Sadan is a boys orphanage in the city of Bangalore, India that houses over 30 school-going children, who are either orphaned or abandoned by their parents. The orphanage, from a visit I was fortunate to be a part of, seems to be a rather healthy place with enough emotional and material strength in it to ensure a proper upbringing for these kids. However, there is a lack of certain amenities the orphanage could do with. Among these are very basic things like first aid kits, mattresses and shoes/chappals for the children.

I’d like to make a very simple request here and invite donations to Sneha Sadan. If you can directly get in touch with them, the contact details are on the website. But if you would like to make a donation without doing that, I would encourage you to email me – jaymaniyar [at] gmail [dot] com. This way, I can personally discuss and share bank account numbers and other details. In case, you’d like me to contact you, please leave your email address in the comment below. A point of note here is that I invite donations starting from a minimum basic amount of Rs. 200. Of course, higher nominations would be more than welcome.

In general, any substantial donation or personal involvement in any form is invited. India is home to over 257 lakh orphaned children (Source: Wikipedia). It is, hence, worth imagining (and bewildering) just how many kids in this country go to sleep at night without that person(s) sitting by his/her bed with one hand caressing the little head or sing them a song like this one.

Thank you.

[Photo Credit: The PicSnapr]

Politics isn’t People

The funny story with many Indians is that some believe everything, and some don’t believe anything. So when you tend to stay away from an Indian state because of what political party is in running or what ‘kind’ of people live there, you are clearly in a demented state of mind and way more influenced by national media, conspiracy theorists and blood-hungry intellectuals than you ideally should be.

So, if you decide to stay away from a state because your mind perceives it to be ‘like something’, then you miss out on the fun. And pretty much, everything else. To make myself further clear, every Indian state has it’s people. And not every citizen is political, control-obsessed, killing, murdering, raping, corrupt etc. Many (or most) are kind and welcoming. More importantly, they have a culture to present to you. A culture that they are proud of, a culture that exists minus the politics of the state.

That said, yes, there are problems. No state is crime-free. There have been riots and people have died. It is such instances that we must have zero tolerance for, while actively considering all states as an integral part of the same country. For such instances, the state machinery must be empowered while preserving the connect that the state must have with all others of the country.

In short, politics doesn’t define people. People move on. People adopt the ideals of the Constitution far better than the power brokers do. And keeping that in mind, we must open ourselves up to visiting any state of India, and revelling in what it has to offer. And like most things in life, there’s always something good on offer.

If you can see it.

Verdict: Fear

With the Babri Masjid verdict all set to be announced by the Allahabad High Court on September 30th after a deferring by the Supreme Court from the original date of September 24th, India awaits the result with baited breath.

Yes? No. Not really. The issue, as has been pointed out numerous times, does not connect with a new India that is more focused on India’s economic improvements and genuine rise rather than sort out an age-old issue that, yes, did divide the country on communal lines back in the early 90s.

Now, a quiet majority of this country may be glad to put the past behind by hoping to accept any decision from the High Court. But what may have gone unnoticed is that India has already lost, as a whole. Look around you. Talk Babri and you are basically using a word that may be synonymous to ‘Fear’.

From Facebook statuses to Twitter talks, from SMSes to activists visiting houses to ask people to not venture out, it’s nothing more than game of fear. What purpose does any ‘important’ issue serve if the people primarily disconnected with the issue if you talk about India’s young, are driven back to their homes and asked to embrace fear over freedom?

There is so much fear of reactions from either sides of the Babri conflict, that the importance of the verdict seemingly pales in comparison. If sensitivity over historical issues perpetrates a mindset of continuing distress on the people of the country, then how respectable is that sensitivity? This is nothing more than ‘Feelings Terror’, one that may not necessarily be accompanied by violence but succeeds in generating enough panic in the mind and the heart.

There will only be victory if we can get over it.

Why India needs a Toilet Revolution

indpublictoilet
Toilets.

Public toilets. Dog toilets. All toilets.

No matter how much ever you spit at them in disgust (err, figuratively I mean) or frown at the ridiculously dirty ‘sanitation centres’ that India has, you have to accept that you can’t ignore them. But of course, you can’t. And the only way you can ‘Like’ them is if they had a Facebook page of their own. Even then, maybe not.

The Commonwealth Games, set to begin anytime in Delhi, are a perfect example of our utterly disgusting toilet habits. And now the whole freaking world knows our flush systems work as well as Uday Chopra in a movie on Mahatma Gandhi. The entire planet knows our ‘superpower’ talk is nothing but the talk of how ‘superpowerful’ the smells in our toilets are. Mutually assured death and destruction.

billy-bob-dog
Even though we can serve good food, we offer no outlet to take out the rejected contents of that food. Once you enjoy your food, you will have a stray dog welcoming you while gladly taking a dump on the same bed you will be sleeping in. The Express rightly calls it Brown Terrorism. Although, there are a variety of colors. But I can sense you might just screw your computer with vomit on reading all this, so I shall stop.

What we need is a revolution. History speaks of the great independence movements, rebellions and uprisings that brought about change. But today, none of those may be particularly helpful when it comes to cleaner toilets and better hygiene. We need a Toilet Revolution. Change of habits, change of hygiene (for the better, of course), change of public health systems and pretty much a change of everything (including clothes with stains of excreta).

1. Flush!

flush
Do this one small little thing right. And defer infamy on this country, like how the good men handling the Babri Masjid case did. IF you have a toilet and IF it has a flush, then flush till all the contents are flushed.

2. Lift up the toilet seat

Lift the toilet seat. Simple. Lift after use. Lift. Like Bollywood actors lift the country’s consciousness by offering quality cinema. Okay, not like that. But life the toilet seat. If a dump is being taken on a railway track, then kindly do not misunderstand this advise and unshackle the track holders. This is only for toilet seats.

3. Avoid toilet humour

If you think physical toilets cause the maximum damage, then you must know that there is an entire section of toilet humour where spitting and shitting takes place in an area best left for more useful things. The brain.

4. Clear little potty bits

The next step to cleaner toilets is removal of all stains. Ensuring removal of all stains, you might say, is like an IPL event without Lalit Modi’s theatrics and Ravindra Jadeja’s batting. But this is a personal toilet where you need not gleefully smile at leaving behind stains for the next user, but removing them yourself. With water, of course.

5. Flush!

Again. Don’t forget. If you remember now that you haven’t flushed off the last use, kindly head back.

Let us bring change. Not of the type that MS Gill brings to India’s sports set-up or Shibu Soren brings to Beard Studies, though.

[If this post gave you the Ugh-Yuck feeling, then please feel free to let any consequent outrage out in the comments  section below, or on Twitter]