Sleepless Nights

Since a past few days I am coming across incidences that have raised the levels of compassion for my fellowmen dramatically. One of them I had jotted down in my last post. I am not able to sleep since a few nights as the thought of people spending their nights on the footpath keeps striking my mind. 

Just read an article on http://bhushan.quora.com/How-to-live-on-Rs-26-a-day-the-income-of-officially-poor-in-India. I would like to rewrite some question that the article poses:

"It disturbs us to spend money on most of the things that we now consider excesses. Do we really need that hair product or that branded cologne? Is dining out at expensive restaurants necessary for a happy weekend? At a larger level, do we deserve all the riches we have around us? Is it just plain luck that we were born into circumstances that allowed us to build a life of comfort? What makes the other half any less deserving of many of these material possessions, (which many of us consider essential) or, more importantly, tools for self-development (education) or self-preservation (healthcare)? "

Finally, early this morning I drove my car to a garden where I spent time with myself and thought how I can get rid of these sleepless nights. Seems soon I will discover the very cause of my life....will need wishes and lots of support soon...so that together we can make the world more worth living not for us but for ALL.

Lot more to pen...

We all will be old some day...

It has been too long since when I have not tried catching time to write here but today I felt to share one more experience.

The morning was as fresh as always has been on 5/4/13. The same preparation of lunch kit, a cool shower and then I climbed the bus and soon I was among my favorite crowd of students. The lab session it was when two old rather very old men came searching me. They were members of the old age home just opposite our college and were searching for some student. They had been told that I would be able to locate the students they were searching for. I did help them locate the student. Things were going great till I started talking to them.

They shared many things about them and their lives. One of them was from my district. All his family members had shifted to the USA but he was some how here in the old age home.We talked about my grandfather and his grand daughter. He was talking and talking with us and something was hurting hard in my eyes. My students showed a video which they captured when they visited the old age home as a part of their campaign. And sadness was crawling in my heart and soon the cloud cracked into rain. I cried a lot. I don't know why? but I cried. Very first time in my 8 year carrier I had tears on my work place. May be I remembered my "Dadu" who had enriched my life with all compassion and good virtues I carry today. Or may be I really felt bad about the situation, about the current state of elders and about the growing number of old age homes. I took permission to visit the old age home next day from my HOD.

I valued my family a little more then ever after this. I always want to do my niche for the suffering in the society. But I have concluded over the years that without money we cannot do any thing solid for the betterment of sufferers. It will take time to earn that amount but meanwhile there is a humble request to all the young readers that DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PARENTS ALONE. THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN YOUR STRENGTH. HOWEVER THEY ARE, THEY ARE THE REASON BEHIND YOUR EXISTENCE. YOU ALL, WE ALL WILL BE OLD SOME DAY....

A lot more to pen...

PreRequisite

One day I got a call from the heads of our department that I have to spend whole of my summer vacation to teach something called C language to students who are not having computer as their core branch. It was called "PreReqisite" course for the diploma to degree students.

I have been teaching computer, IT field students since years. This was my first chance to be with the michanical, chemical, civil and electrical minds. I readily agreed to take up the duty. And soon the compressed teaching of C programming began. The experience was an eye opener for me. I taught them with all my efforts and even then I was not reaching the perfectness of knowledge imparting task assigned to me. I thought somewhere I was lagging in inculcating the interest in the subject. But soon I recognized few students who did very well in the subject and others just following them. As the rapport between us started to build i came to know that I can't clap with one hand. It was me who was thrilled to teach them but on the other hand there were students who just wanted to pass the subject. They were determined not to be interested in the subject. I started taking lectures in laboratory and it worked. They were although not interested but they were atleast able to program. They were no more naive to C programming. I was satisfied that atleast I have done my job. I also learnt that why they were least interested in these "PreReqisite" classes. Since they joined the college before 1.5 year after passing 3 years of diploma they are supposed to clear the creditless pre-reqisite subjects in their vacations. Some of them away from home since long months. I can empathize with thm completely. Above all most of the subjects they study are not in relevance with their respective branch of study. I feel really sorry for them. Having such courses is good but it should not be burden to the students.

Above all I will never forget a student who remained absent for 50% of the classes. He came and managed to pass in the exams taken as mid-terms. But still he will not be allowed to keep the term as his attendance was lagging!

I am feeling really bad for my those students and specially the latter one. As a teacher I really feel helpless, I feel bad for being a part of the system and not being able to make it better.

My first election duty-a series of folly

Suddenly one day I and my other 16 women colleges some lecturers like me, some office assistants and also assistant professors had a call from “The govt. of India” that we are supposed to perform duty as reserved polling officers for the elections. I was fractured and thought I would not be able to perform the duty properly (not knowing the duty was not going to affect my injury much). No one in the institute were ready to help me, at least they could have explained my role so that I would stop worrying. Above all, my doctor was too scared to write a line that I am not supposed to stand or sit for a long time. The worst case was of a friend; she got this duty when she was having her P.G. exams.
We were told to reach for a meeting at 11 next day. Where? No venue was mentioned and no one was worried to tell us. We finally got the venue we all reached there on time and we saw several people who had same kind of duty as we had. Everyone else signed and went on their way. But most of the staff of Nirma University, didn’t leave the place (the best thing we have learnt at nirma is performing the duty well). Thus the duty had been assigned to us as they needed and not to the people who just signed and went away. After sitting aimlessly in a room of some strange school in a strange area of a strange city (it had no water facility even) when we were mentally exhausted I and my friend got posted to perform the duty at some other school given the reason that the polling officer, which we were supposed to join is too slow! Who was unlike us, a trained officer!
Let me explain the term reserved polling officer word by word. “Reserved” which generally means kept aside, extras kind of. But for elections, reserved people are those who have to fill the places of those people who were given some duty and had some connection with some government employee and thus got a chance to flee from their duties.
“Polling officers” are those who help the voters to reach till the ballet box, the electronic polling system. They verify their proofs, take their signatures, mark on their finger and keep a count of number of voters etc. There were a variety of voters. There were people who were enthusiastic, who were illiterate, who were asking us which button to press (which actually means secret voting), some were irritated after a long process before reaching the polling booth, some just went away without voting, some sympathized on us for having such duty, some annoyed but we did the duty whole heartedly, ignoring the other people on duty talking about us as if we were aliens from nirma.
Finally, the voting stopped and the struggle started. We were not paid on the spot. I had to go alone to the central office as my friend felt ill after a tiresome day of summer. There I found around 40 staff members of Nirma on collection duty. I waited for one and half hour for my payment. Finally, when I was getting the payment, someone spoke something ill about nirma employee (the people who had charge had no manner of talking) my tolerance broke and I fought verbally with them giving out all my annoyance of two days. At the end of the day I had big heads around me saying “sorry madam” which didn’t touched me at all and a question in my mind “Can’t anything be done with this rotten system? What is the meaning of election where all people are same, sick!”
The biggest irony – most of the people performing election duty don’t get chance to vote. A few do their duty honestly and the major remaining lot are the most dishonest and corrupted people in the world.

Nice poem

નદીની રેતમાં રમતું નગર મળે ન મળે,
ફરી આ દ્રશ્ય સ્મૃતિપટ ઉપર મળે ન મળે...
ભરી લો શ્વાસમાં એની સુગંધનો દરિયો,
પછી આ માટીની ભીની અસર મળે ન મળે...
પરિચેતોને ધરાઈને જોઈ લેવા દો,
આ હસતા ચહેરા; આ મીઠી નજર મળે ન મળે...
ભરી લો આંખમાં રસ્તાઓ, બારીઓ, ભીંતો,
પછી આ શહેર, આ ગલીઓ, આ ઘર મળે ન મળે...
રડી લો આજ સંબંધોને વીંટળાઈ અહીં,
પછી કોઈને કોઈની કબર મળે ન મળે...
વળાવા આવ્યા છે એ ચ્હેરા ફરશે આંખોમાં,
ભલે સફરમાં કોઈ હમસફર મળે ન મળે..

Poem I like

જાણીબૂઝીને અમે અળગાં ચાલ્યાં ને

છતાં પાલવ અડક્યાનો મને વ્હેમ છે

સાવ રે સફાળા તમે ચોંકી ઉઠ્યાને

પછી ઠીક થઇ પૂછ્યું કે કેમ છે’ ?

આટલા અબોલા પછી આવો સવાલ,

કહો કેમ કરી ઊતરવું પાનું?

મૂંગા રહીએ તો તમે કારણ માનો ને,

હોઠ ખોલીએ તો બોલવાનું બ્હાનું !

હું તો બોલીશ છતાં માનશો તમે કે

હજી દુનિયા આ મારી હેમખેમ છે !

વાયરાથી નળિયાને ફૂટી છે પાંખ,

થઇ ચાલતી દીવાલ થકી ઇંટો ?

ભર રે ચોમાસે હવે છાપરા વિનાનો,

કેમ કોરો રહે સ્મરણોનો વીંટો ?

દુનિયાની વાત મૂકો, માનશો તમે કે

હજી આપણી વચાળે જરી પ્રેમ છે ?

- હરિન્દ્ર દવે

Every moment we are new

I came accross this line during a training
"Ëvery moment we are new"...
Very true .. We are always pulled back in the activities we do by thinking it as monotonous..we hardly try to find the newness in our surroundings as we lac in finding the newness of ourself.
Everytime I talk to a student i learn a different way of thinking a new perception to the thing i m looking at or the text i m reading..
once you start experincing the newness i promise u will never b bored never be tired or frustrated..
Treat the life not as a whole but in parts..in moments...n enjoy being invied to new experinces...they may be good or may be bad but the ultimate pleasure is they are new..
so enjoy the new you