Tag Archives: Right

Don’t Drink and Poo!

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A decade back, I would have never talked about it even in my dreams but today, courtesy of working in the health and sanitation sector, I feel compelled to narrate this incident. Just yesterday, a very dear friend of mine happened to narrate to me a story that changed his life for good.

As a youngster, I am sure you must have gone to parties or discos or farm houses and might still continue to visit the likes. And at times these places tend to be located a little away from the city where you wouldn’t generally find any kind of habitation or people especially during the late hours.

My friend happened to visit one such place with some of his friends, a farm house, located nearly 100 km away from the city. They had a blast. They got extremely drunk and while returning, one of my friend’s friend got a direct call from the nature to the extent that he couldn’t afford to control the same for another 70  km left to be covered.

No matter, how fast they drove, it would have taken at least half an hour to one hour before they could reach home. So, they decided to find a place where he could cater to his instinctual urge. Finding no community/public toilet, they decided to take a halt at a hamlet and thought of requesting local folks to help them find a toilet.

To their surprise, they couldn’t find any toilet in the entire village and he was left with no other option but to venture into the bushes. The bushes came along with its own set of challenges and fear. There could be snakes searching for their prey, there could be thief eagerly waiting to bounce at the opportunity of making a buck or two.

But he didn’t have any option but to fight his fears on this very occasion. So, he decided to walk a midst the bushes to look for a suitable place where he could take it all out of his system. After roaming around for a couple of minutes, he finally found a place, where he could see some light in the background.

As he was about to begin with the rituals, a huge shadow came from behind and he became seriously terrified. In order to calm himself down, hallucination was one reason that he could think about for what he was perceiving. But this reason couldn’t last for long as the very next moment, the shadow spoke to him: “what are you doing here?”World Toilet Day 2

Relieved that the shadow was indeed a man who knew the language, all his senses that had become numb due to the overdose of alcohol came right back and he got up from the posture that he was in.

Turning round, he could see a man with his lath standing in front of him. Taking note of the situation, he realized that he was about to poo right next to this man’s house, who had seen him approaching and had come outside of the house.

He knew that it was in his best interests to apologize to this man, which he did. The man replied, “This is not the place, we go to another place which is around 1 km from here” and the man provided directions as to how he can approach the place.

The path that the man had shown him was an isolated place. There was no electricity and it was extremely dark. The urge was high enough to motivate him to venture into the unknown. After walking for another 20 minutes, he finally managed to reach the place of his redemption.

To his horror, the place smelled very bad. In the moonlight, he could see a couple piles of excreta lying everywhere. He felt like puking but he couldn’t have afforded to wait. With no option in hand, he sat down at a place which he refers to as the only possible place. As he was about to conduct the ritual, he could feel something on his leg.

He took out his mobile and realized that a huge object was trying to crawl up his leg. He took out his mobile to see what exactly it was. The moment he put on the torch, he just froze seeing a huge snake trying to crawl up his right leg.

Finding some courage, he caught the snake and threw it away. Thereafter he ran as if a 100 m sprint was going on and managed to reach the place where his friends waited for him. Without narrating the event, he got into the car and had to hold on to his instincts for another 45 minutes.

On reaching home, without bidding good bye to his friends, he ran to the door and went inside. His friends found the behavior a little different from what is expected. But they decided to call it a night.

It was only when they met again the next morning that he could explain things to his friends. On one hand, they all broke into laughter, but on the other hand, a thought struck all of them and suddenly they all stopped to ponder over a very major issue that seems to plague the have-nots in our society, which is lack of toilet facilities, leading to all sorts of health and sanitation issues.

There are more than 600 M people in India who do not have access to toilets, leave alone clean toilets.  It’s a pity that even after nearly 7 decades of independence, we have not been able to provide them with a basic facility like providing a toilet, which makes me wonder why no one thought about it before PM Modi started the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and if it was indeed thought over then why the hell it wasn’t implemented.

Without trying to conduct a post mortem for what has happened in the past, what I would suggest to all of us is to do our bit when it comes to helping the have-nots to achieve a dignified way of living. It could be donating a toilet. It could be donating money. It could be anything that comes under the ambit of charity and trust me, by doing so, the kind of satisfaction one will derive will be no less than what one derives in any sort of meditation.

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The Chulli Effect!

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What a night it is turning out to be! I haven’t slept. It’s already 5:15 a.m. in the morning. Good food, great friends and some awesome bulla (talks), what more does one need in life? 😉

It is quite amazing and entertaining at the same time, that we don’t get tired of talking about our college days and the events ensued in there again and again with similar passion that we possessed when we talked about the same for the first time.

And today, we happened to be talking about a phenomenon which I would like to call the chulli effect. When you enter college, you don’t tend to have a maturity level which would allow you to understand various aspects of life, which can be easily comprehended, say 2-3 years down the line, after having graduated from the same.

To my surprise, this phenomenon was not only known to everyone in college but was also used strategically at times. Now, let me first define the phenomenon for you. Only then you will be able to appreciate whatever I am talking.

Suppose, someone tells you a well kept secret of his/her life and requests you not to tell it to anyone else. You agree to the same, but there is this uneasiness and restlessness both inside you and the person who told you the secret, which forces you to tell it to anyone and everyone whom you possibly can and forces the person who told you the secret to tell it to you. Such kind of arousal inside a person is what I call the chulli effect.urge

There are two stakeholders to this contract. The one who tells a secret, who cannot help himself/herself from revealing the truth as it is too much for him/her to handle and keep it inside him/her. The second stakeholder is the person who promises that he/she won’t tell it to anyone.

Strange as it might sound, a secret remains a secret only when it is known to you. The moment you tell a second person about the same, rest assured that it will be known to every significant and insignificant person in your life. So, think twice before you tell a secret to anyone in the World.

How many times have we heard what I have just mentioned in the previous couple of lines? I guess, innumerous number of times and yet we are unable to prevent this urge from surfacing in our life.

Without going into the psychology as to why we are not successful at keeping this urge (chulli) in check, I would like to tell you about this effect which was used strategically by some in college in such a subtle manner that you would only realize it when it has happened to you twice or thrice.

There used to be some real smart guys and girls in our college. Before telling you about such guys, let me ask you this simple question. If you have to tell something to others and you want to make it a propaganda of sorts, then what would you normally do?

I guess, you would go to the persons you want them to know about this and tell them straightaway. But what these witty and smart guys used to do was that they would go to one person with the strongest urge on planet Earth and would reveal their well kept secret to this guy/girl. Before leaving they would request this guy/girl not to tell it to anyone.

The moment that information was received by the guy/girl with the most amount of chulli, it used to spread like a virus in the entire campus, thereby spreading the word around and ensuring that these witty guys achieved what they wanted at the end of the day, and which was to spread the word around about a well kept secret. (sometimes I wonder whether the term viral marketing has had its origins in this chulli effect concept)

As a result, these witty guys would use this chulli concept in order to create a buzz in the campus. What their intentions might be behind doing the same is a different issue altogether and can be talked about separately 😉 .

But the crux of the matter lies in utilization of this phenomenon to one’s advantage. I guess these witty guys are the ones, who have tasted success the most, particularly in the private sector.

Why they have been so successful is quite obvious, considering that they have been real street smart throughout their entire lives. They have understood the concept better than most of the others and have been able to put it into practice, thereby reaping the benefits of their sowed comprehension.

So, the question that comes to mind after reading all the above is, have these street smart and witty people been able to overcome their chulli in life? Well, if they had they wouldn’t be telling their well kept secret to anyone for that matter. But they do tell and ensure that they use this phenomenon to the best of their capability at the same time ensuring that it works in their favour.

These people have conquered the art of using this urge (chulli) so perfectly that it has become very much a part of their lives. No doubt, they have turned out to be successful, but what about the credibility of the same person, in case the others come to know about the strategy that he/she might have been using all through in his/her life in order to meet his/her ends.

On second thoughts, some might be tempted to suggest that the chulli effect can be used in a positive manner as well. It all depends on what your aim is and what you intend to achieve by using this phenomenon.repentance

Very true, indeed! There are always two aspects of the same thing. One aspect motivates and enables you to chose the so called right/moral path. The other one, which is often easier than the first, tells you about what all you can achieve by behaving in a notorious manner and in turn makes you lose control of yourself.

As a result, one ends up indulging in things which one might repent for, sometime later in life. So, before you try to use this phenomenon, think twice about the intentions and aim behind using the same and the consequences that might follow such an action.

At the end of the day, it is you, who will be sole decision maker when it comes to making the right choices in your life and you better be upto it, for you don’t want to spend the rest of your life with a lot of repentance.

Source for Image: http://www.blogussion.com/community/urge-community-response/, http://www.gaychristian101.com/Repentance.html

The Mysterious Curiosity!

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It has happened to me and I am sure that it might have happened to atleast a few amongst you. It is not often that such a thing happens but whenever it does, it is quite bemusing to the core.

A couple of days back, I met a guy who can surely be called self-obsessed by all means. Whatever he does, he thinks, is right. Whatever opinion he has, he thinks, the world should be having the same. Whatever his actions, he thinks, the world should be emulating the same in order to ensure the best for them.

No matter how much you try to contradict the person about the irrationality involved in his thought process, he will come with arguments trying to prove that only he is right and rest which is not in coherence with his thought process is entirely wrong.11118567

It was like I was talking to a wall with no response coming from the other side. In fact it was worse than a wall, for if we try to throw a ball at it, it will surely throw it back at you, courtesy the elastic nature of the same.

But here, it was a totally closed system, much like a black hole where, no matter what you throw, will never come back. It only continues to emit what it is supposed to be emitting.

After having made an unsuccessful attempt of trying to convince the same person, I decided not to pursue the cause any more. And for that matter, if he thinks like what he does, he has got full rights to have his own say and opinion on things, courtesy the nature of the government that we have in our country and which we proudly refer to as the Democracy.

As long as it is not having a harmful impact on others and as long as it is not affecting the law and order situation or the stability in our country, it is upto the man to have and do whatever he wishes to and no one can deprive him or force him to behave in a manner which the majority might like or want him to emulate.

That is the beauty of democracy, for if he was in China, either he would have disappeared for good or he might have been locked up behind the bars for uttering the non-sense that he is so very proud of.

For me as an individual, it was an opportunity to meet someone who can be called really unique in what he thinks and does. It was truly a different kind of experience, one which I haven’t experienced so far in my entire life till date.

It reminded me that no matter how much we might want to consider this world and its people a simple place to live and get along with respectively, it always seems to surprise us with a new facet which we might have not been able to uncover earlier in life.original.0

What seems to amaze me the most is the mysterious nature of this world where we all live in. There is so much to discover and so much to see. I wonder where this curiosity in me will take me.

Some say: curiosity is the mother of all inventions. On the other hand, some say: curiosity kills. I wonder what this curiosity will do to this world. But being the positive person I am, I would want to believe in the former rather than the latter. 😉

Source for Image: http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/09/mystery-central-banks-buying-australian-dollars/, http://www.hark.com/collections/lmlxxpxtys-mystery