When anger takes over

Man is rational animal or Man is animal who behaves rationally sometimes. More I look around (or more I introspect), I always find truth in second statement.

What really happens when a person gets angry? Why do all of a sudden all wisdom he otherwise has vanishes in thin air? Suddenly ability to 'Think' becomes rare and distant dream. What otherwise would have been damn simple straight forward solution to problem(if it ever exists) seems to be a daunting task. The 'ego' creeps in, 'wisdom' says good bye and we have a person shouting(rather barking) in heated discussions. Emotions take over, what has really happened?

If the reason for anger is valid(which in retrospection and by experience, I don't think that most of the stimuli which made me angry were valid), even then reactions offered in anger make the things worse. Complexities increase multi-fold due to those reactions.

Although I am writing this supposedly anger story which is criticizing evils in lost temper, it doesn't mean I handle my reactions wisely; rather I must not be, because it explains me writing this. People who have 'witnessed' my reactions would be in better position to comment on my behavior. I can be biased with myself.

Why do I get angry? Because things are not happening the way I want them to be. Because the 'other' person has some opposite views(which in politically correct words can be said as difference of opinion). Or the best case would be I am dealing with first class 'Idiot'(read *****) who I think doesn't deserve to be here.

In all these cases, what is required is rational thinking – accepting the fact that not everything you wish will be true. If everyone starts behaving like myself, wouldn't it be robot world? It will be mechanical world, where machines produced in factory all are similar. These machines works well, I am not questioning their efficiency, but there is no "LIFE" in them.  

Differences in Humans makes the "LIFE LIVELY". The better I understand this principle, better would be ability to handle reactions, but I must say this is a very daunting task.

माझ्या ऑपरेशनची गोष्ट!!

 "एक छोटंसं Operation करून Corn कापून काढावा लागेल", डॉक्टर म्हणाले. 
पायाच्या बोटाला झालेलं हे Corn डॉक्टरांच्या सौम्य उपचारांना दाद देत नव्हते. वेगवेगळ्या प्रकारच्या पट्ट्या आणि औषधांचा वापर केल्यावर पण "जैसे थे".

म्हणून डॉक्टरांनी आता त्यांचे मुख्य अस्त्र उपसले होतं - Operation. 
आणि मी होतो त्यांचा "Subject"

"याला काही तरी खायला घाला आणि अर्ध्या तासात हॉस्पिटल मध्ये परत या" डॉक्टर आईला म्हणाले.

बाहेर आल्यावर माझा पहिला प्रश्न  - "या आधी माझे कोणते Operation झाले आहे का?"

आई - "नाही"

मी - "कधीच नाही? "

"उगाच फालतू प्रश्न विचारू नको, काय गम्मत म्हणून करतात काय Operation?"

व!! तर डॉक्टर पहिल्यांदाच कात्री फिरवणार तर!! (नाही म्हणाले तर, न्हावी तसा दर १५-२० दिवसातून फिरवत असतो) - पण डॉक्टरांची मात्र पहिलीच वेळ!!

उगाच कुठे तरी, पायाच्या एका बोटाला, तेही टोकाला छोटीशी जखम आणि त्यावर काय तर म्हणे Operation - मला भीती वाटायच्या ऐवजी गम्मत वाटत होती.

तासाभरान जेवण आटोपून हॉस्पिटल मध्ये पोहोचलो. डॉक्टरांनी मला Operation theatre मध्ये जाऊन झोपायला सांगितले. या आधी Operation theatre मध्ये जाणारी माणसे म्हणजे आजारी, चालता न येणारी असा समज सिनेमा बघून झालेला -  त्या तुलनेत मी मात्र जसा सिनेमा theatre मध्ये चाललोय तशा थाटात गेलो, आणि तिथे जाऊन झोपलो. तिथल्या नर्सनी तो मोठा दिवा बरोबर माझ्या पायावर प्रकाश पडेल असा ठेवला. डॉक्टर आले आणि एक-एक सूचना सांगायला लागले,

ते म्हणाले, 
"तुला local anesthesia देणार आहे, म्हणजे तुला काही दुखणार नाही, पण त्यासाठी पायाला injection द्यावे लागेल"

"बर" मी म्हणालो.

त्यांनी ते injection घेतल आणि टेबलाजवळ आले, माझं लक्ष त्या injection कडे, डॉक्टरांना बहुधा मला ते बघू द्यायचं नव्हते, त्यांनी नर्सला कानात काहीतरी सांगितले, नर्सने येऊन माझ्या डोक्याखाली टेबलाचे काहीतरी हलवलं आणि टेबल माझ्यासकट कंबरेतून वाकला. आता माझे पाय जमिनीला समांतर होते, पण पोटापासून वर डोक्यापर्यंत मी खालच्या बाजूला झुकलो होतो. मी कितीही डोळे फिरवले तरी मला फक्त पायाचा अंगठा दिसत होता. तरीही डॉक्टरांचं समाधान झाले नाही, त्यांनी कुठलीशी पट्टी आणली आणि माझे डोळे झाकले. आता मिटलेल्या डोळ्यांनी मला हा डॉक्टरांचा पराक्रम कसा दिसणार?

मी विचारले " डॉक्टर, पट्टी गरजेची आहे का?"

"अरे, १५-२० मिनिटाचे काम आहे, मोठे श्वास घे पाहू"

आणि मी श्वास घ्याच्या आतच त्यांनी सुई टोचली सुद्धा!! थोडसं दुखले, पण अगदीच किरकोळ.

आवाज वाढला, बहुतेक डॉक्टरांनी त्यांचे हत्यार घेतल होतं. नर्सन पाय पकडला आणि बहुधा डॉक्टरांनी मुख्य 'घाव' घातला असावा. Anesthesia (भूल) मुळे मला काही जाणवत नव्हतं, पण बहुधा बरंच रक्त आले असावे, कारण नर्सनी विचारलं

"डॉक्टर, पायात blood supply जास्त असतो का?",

डॉक्टर - "नाही, मेंदूत आणि चेहऱ्यात जास्त असतो,"

आणि मग त्यांनी मला विचारलं "नचिकेत, दुखतंय का?"

मी म्हणालो "नाही"

आणि पुन्हा एकदा प्रयत्न केला "पट्टी काढू का?"

डॉक्टर उत्तरले "किती रे घाई, थांब जरा"

नंतर बहुधा पुढची ५-१० मिनिटं वेगवेगळी औषधं त्यांनी लावली असावीत, शेवटी मात्र एक bandage बांधल्याच मला जाणवलं.

आणि मग ते म्हणले " काढ आता पट्टी"

डोळे उघडल्यावर बोटाला bandage तयार, काय केलंय ते कळायला काही मार्गच नाही, बंद डोळ्यांनी जे बघितलं(?) तेवढेच.

आता bandage खाली सर्व झाकलेलं. मग मला तसंच १५-२० पडायला सांगून डॉक्टर गेले. वीसएक मिनिटांनी परत येऊन म्हणाले, " आता हळूहळू भूल उतरेल, तेव्हा कदाचित पाय दुखणे चालू होईल, तू जास्त धावपळ करू नकोस, हळू हळू उतर खाली, मी आईला सर्व सांगितलंय, तू आता घरी जाऊ शकतो."

आज्ञेप्रमाणे मी खाली उतरलो, आणि लंगडत लंगडत बाहेर आलो.

आणि आता पुढचा एक आठवडा तरी माझी हि लंगडी चालू राहणार आहे.  

इति Operation गोष्ट 

Money, Myth and Conversations

Conversation One:

"गरिबी हे दुष्ट चक्र आहे" - Roughly translated as Poverty is vicious circle - Explain with reasons. 

In ninth standard this was one of the guaranteed questions in exam -  which had answer something like "Poor people do not have money to get education, as they do not get enough education, they could not get jobs, as they don't have job they are poor, and hence poverty cycle continues."

Our teacher used to explain this in minute details, and as a result I was moved by this new learning.

Some day, when my dad was helping me in my homework, I asked him,

"Who prints Rupees that we have?"

He is used to hear such curious question of mine.

He said, "Reserve Bank of India"

"What is that?"

"It's a government organization which handles all money related things in India".

"Oh, so is it our government which prints money?"

"Yes"

"So, why can't it print large amount of money and distribute it amongst poor? So there will be no more poor people in India". I was using my childish imagination to attack him with flurry of questions.

He tried to explain me something about foreign exchange reserves, World Bank and all. And it was, of course, too much of Economics for me to understand.

Conversation Two:

Last year of College, placement season -

"Which is your Dream Company?"

"Dream… amm..….Google."

"Sale, aaj tak koi program khud se likha hai kya… Google bolta hai…. Mujhe to koi bhi chalegi.. bas mil jaye koi to… aaj kal… its difficult to get job as fresher… koi puchega nahi college ke baher.."

"Ha…. Yaar…waise apna college accha hai.. bahot companies aati hai… koi to le hi legi…"

Conversation Three:

May end – Waiting for appraisal

"I need bonus this time badly."

"Why?"

"There are so many things; I want to buy blah, blah and blah…"

"We will get to know in couple of days, let's hope for the best."

Conversation Four:

"I am not happy with my appraisal, there is much politics here…Some people who don't know ABC they got promotions not only hikes….They should work"

"Calm down.. You are sounding frustrated.. I understand your frustration…..Your salary must be greater than mine, so compare with me instead of those who got more hike….So you'll feel better J"

"aare tase nahi,  its not about comparing money, but its about comparing work and money. Work should be directly proportional to Money. Here I feel it is inversely proportional"

"SHOULD BE"... but it is not ….and u know u cannot CHANGE IT"

"i am feeling like i should not work as did last year.. but my mind said that is not the money which will determine how u will work?  my mind seems unstable today"

"Yes… it is unstable… switch on music player in ur cell… and start ur favorite songs in FULL volume"

Conversation Five:

It was promotions day,

Some project manager was promoted to senior project manager. I overheard many people coming around and congratulating him. In response Congrats from someone, reply was,

"Are kuch nahi yaar, junior chaprasi se senior chaprasi ban gaya!!!"

Conversation Six:

Two biggies from management,

"Its very difficult to run business these days…"

"Why .. so.. ?"

"Are ..aur nahi to kya…

 Employees want 10% hike every year

Client wants productivity increased by 10% every year

Directors want revenue increased by 10% every year…

Sabko sub kuch chahiye.. Mein kaha se launga…"

Conversation Seven:

Last two minutes of Abhishek's movie – Guru

"Mera Bapu kehta tha… Beta sapne mat dekho… wo sach nahi hote…

Par meine sapna dekha….

India ki sabse badi company banana ka…

Kya mera sapna such hua??"

Crowd cheers…."Yes"..

"To …kya hum ruk jaye…

Nahi… hum dekhenge ek aur Sapna….

Duniya ki sabsi badi company banane ka..

Kya aap mere sath hai…?"

Again…Crowd cheers…."Yes"..

Conversation Eight:

In a meeting with our CEO, Anand, someone asks about bonus being given to top two bands A and B

He replied.

"Whatever I do, its by numbers… only 30% of people will be at the top.. and they will get more…"

"Its by numbers… all other will be unhappy… If you want I can call everyone Vice president.. if it makes you happy… "

"After all…Happiness is state of mind..!!!"

Conversation Nine:

Courtesy : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Lessons-to-be-learnt-from-Bihar-says-Bill-Gates/articleshow/5931899.cms

Ex CEO of Microsoft, person who topped list of world's richest people for long time, founder of biggest software giant – Bill gates  -

Narrating a personal story, Gates, whose foundation has given $1 billion to India alone for health projects, said, "Once, I showed my daughter a video about polio and what we do. Watching, she asked me what happened to the crippled girl in the film and how did we help her? I didn't know. I realised we talk about numbers and maps and eradication targets. But what about the real people? It is interesting to see the world through the eyes of children."

"I knew that I was going to give away the wealth I was making through Microsoft. But I didn't know how, back then"

We, The Indians; India, Our country, not mine, not yours and not theirs, it is OUR COUNTRY

In our school days, we used to take pledge every day -
"India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country…."

It's a long time when I left the school and I hardly remember it.

Am I following the pledge?
Only "Idiots" will ask this question and "Idiots" will answer it. So let us not even ask it, so answering is automatically kept aside.

 "India is no longer left a country to sacrifice something for"


"भारत देशासाठी काहीतरी करून दाखवावे असा देश राहिला नाही आता आता हिच गोष्ट बरोबर वाटू लागली आहे ... देश म्हणजे काय हो  ? इथले लोकच ना ? आणि लोकच असे असतील तर कोणाला ह्या देशासाठी काहीतरी करावेसे वाटेल ? .... "

These are extracts from some blogs that I read recently.
Are these statements correct?
I don't know. I don't want to find out whether these are correct or not.
And even if I ever want to find out answers of these, I admit (with all due respect to everyone, actors of the state, and writers of these statements)– what should I do with these correct statements or wrong statements? Do I know the remedy? I might know… do I have power/ authority to fix it? Is it possible to completely eradicate the devils which resides in "us"?

So, in short, the questions are unending. I am leaving them aside.

Some days back, when I read these statements, I was confused, What should be the reaction? Anger, pity or total agreement……!!!

It was a reaction, without any application of thought, conscience. Now, after a little thought, I am very happy with these statements.

These are clear indicators of awareness amongst us. If people are reading it and they are replying to these, it means, yes, there are people who are thinking about country, they are ready to spend some time of their busy schedules on this very important subject. And I thank all of you of raising the concern.

This subject will always lure creative minds, have a look at movies that depict shows common mans anger. A character says, "लोगों में घुस्सा बहोत है, उसे आजमाना बंद करो!!".
Kudos to the writer of this of catching the nerve of people in very correct words.

We will always have writers and film makers who will raise these concerns. (Or as some says, they will cash on popular subjects, knowing its guaranteed hit!!!)

OK fine.

We should thank all of them, but what next, don't we need to stand up and resolve the problem. This reminds me of sentence from management book, "Problems have a way of hanging around and growing larger if ignored". How we want to see ourselves? As passive, inactive, cribbing person? Or as proactive, reliable and with "Let's do it" attitude. The answer is with us.

Now, let us get little bit realistic and try to solve problem.

Being in software industry, I will use our parlance.

Everyone of us is able to find existing problems – Corruption,

Unemployment, Illiteracy, Nexus between politics and bureaucracy, terrorism, increasing crime, population….

The list is never ending.

Can I say that, we have identified the 'Problem Statement'? Yes, I can.

Is the scope very wide? Yes, it is.

What do I do, when my customer gives me unrealistic demands, I strip them down to a extent which is possible for us to deliver.

So can I strip our 'Problem Statement'? Yes, I can.

What should be followed up and what should not be? Let us take it one by one -

Corruption  - Do I have authority/ power to check on corruption? (In ideal case, everyone has authority as a citizen, but in ideal case, aren't we suppose to ensure zero critical bugs in releases? We are, right, so why do we have production supports? So, let us stick to real life scenario and not get too much idealistic)

Unemployment, terrorism, increasing crime and so on and so forth, it is not easy to find feasible way of 'Contributing to Solution'.

As we do in our work life, I am here trying to find out 'Commonly agreed most feasible solution'.

Illiteracy – Can something be done here, I think, yes. But, how?

Can we support Persistent Foundations effort -  Student Sponsorship Program?

Can this be a start-up towards achieving bigger goals?

Can we "Proactively" spend some time in making sure that the children are not dropping from school after they are being sponsored for a year or so?

Yes.

This can be first step.
This can be our first 'Module', The First 'Milestone'.

Let me go back to the 'Problem Statement' again. It is very huge responsibility, isn't it, if so, we need support from everyone to get it done. Right? (Do you remember management keywords, team efforts,
collective responsibility.) I think we apply these jargons only in our professional life and keep them locked in safe when it comes to social life.
If I am cribbing about the way, we are governed in this country, then, it is high time for me to 'Improve my performance in social life also'. There are no 'Performance Improvement Programs (PIPs)' here.

I leave this the discussion here, and will wait for second milestone to be discovered by the team.

An eventful day and encounters with anger

I am writing this in moonlight, with the small light that my cell phone screen is providing. It took almost 10 minutes to find out pen and paper. My mom is already shouting at me, asking why the hell I need pen –paper when there is no light in the house. But thank god, it was full moon yesterday, so there is little light and of course not to forget my Sony Ericsson, which is helping me the most here.

I have a firm belief, reactions are always 'Reactions' and most of the time - momentary. So at this moment, when I have lost my temper, I thought it's better to capture the 'Reaction'!!

It's been a frustrating day. In morning when I was getting ready for the office, I realized that there is no ironed dress and by the time I found dress to iron the light was gone. (In Pune, we call light instead of electricity) and then came the news, my younger brother was reading out news "There will be power cut from 8 to 6 in our area". So I had no option but to go with whatever clothes I had. So there I was rushing towards the office.
Office was as usual routine, nothing good, nothing bad, same bug fixing, builds and mails.

At 7, I dropped status mail and left for the day, not knowing what is waiting for me. Had a lazy walk towards bus stop as I knew the bus comes at 7.30. (By the way, MSEB GODs have bestowed us with the light,
so I am switching on light and fan). No matter how slow I walk, bus stop is not more than 15 minutes walk. So there I was, at bus stop at 7.20. I am travelling in PMT for almost 6 years now, so it was nothing special for me to wait at bus stop for ten minutes. I was waiting for bus, looking here and there, watching the hopeless guys rushing as if they are shooting for Dhoom-3. Law college road is really a small road compared to traffic it carries. It's connecting road for Kothrud and Chaturshungi. There was usual (I mean heavy) traffic on the road. As we are proud of our undisciplined drivers and riders, thanks to them, there was deadlock at SNDT signal. Due to this deadlock, two way law college road suddenly became one way. It wasn't possible for anyone to come from Kothrud side. So our proud riders and drivers took the opportunity and started using the other side also. The result was - no wonder, mess!!! With this mess, the chances of my bus coming from Karve Road were diminishing. Then it seems, cops had their say, I the signal started clearing slowly. As the signal cleared, I saw red PMT slowly approaching towards bus stop. We were, at least 10 people
waiving hands for the bus. The bus came, driver saw us, but it seems he forgot to apply the brakes. Bus did not stop. Few tried running behind it. But I was experienced traveler, I knew, "जो एक बार छुट जाती है, वो वापस नहीं मिलेगी".

It was first sight of anger.

I decided, now I will straight away reach the bus depot by catching next bus and will complain against driver. How the hell he could just ditch us? (So insane of me!!) After some time, private bus came, he stopped and asked "Chinchwad ka?", I jumped into the bus. There was no question of crowd, standing journey – bus was empty. Some radio channel was playing chartbusters. I sat happily. By the time, I reached half way, the music had its effect. I left idea of complain, thinking "जो होता है, अच्छे के किये होता है". If I would have got into PMT, it was for sure standing journey. Compared to it, this one is better with some good numbers running in background J

But day wasn't over yet. I reached home, power cut, which was supposed to be from 8 to 6, wasn't over yet, although it was already 8.30. As there was no light, there was no water. And mom decided not to cook, so there was no food. So we had no option, but to eat outside. We went to nearby restaurant, had dinner. Thank god no surprises there!!

When we came back, dark house was welcoming us. It was 10, and light wasn't still there. Before I parked my scooter, I called MSEB. By the way, I have special affair with MSEB, I don't need address book for its number, it's by heart – 27275163. As usual, it was busy. I had no patience to deal with now.

Second instance of anger.

Now, I am going to complain. So I was riding my small scooter through dark, bumpy road towards the MSEB office. I reached office – To see that locked shutter was waiting for me there. What the hell? If the damn office is locked, how come its phone is busy? It should ring, but the staff was much smarter than me. The notice board was displaying number of head office. So I called there. After 10 tries and at least 200 rings the person picked up. Thank god!!
I was almost about to explode now.  I asked,

"Where is your office in Tathwade?"

"Near Pandit pertolpump, so and so chambers"

"I am standing there, it is locked."

The person on the other side of phone was little surprised after this. He says

"Can you try its phone -  its 27275163"

I shouted, "I have been trying it for ages now, and hence here I am coming here to visit it"

"Give me number of your RTI officer"

Now suddenly he was more polite, "Sir, I don't have it. You can get it in our head-office. "

Waw, head-office of head-office!!!

"Give me its phone number"

"27271402, but sir no one will be there now. It closes at 6."

"Ok"

I dialed the head-office number, and the cassette started "Please check the number you have dialed"

I was bursting with anger. There was nothing I could do, So here I am writing it down. Capturing the "Reaction"!!

Earth Hour, A token, A symbol, which needs to be carried forward

Couple of days back, we had a very novel idea implemented throughout the world – Earth Hour. Everyone was requested to switch off electrical appliances, which most of us did. While watching the news related to this, I thought we have made AN EVENT out of it. Why otherwise having (or to be precise not having) Abhishek Bacchan’s video in the so called program is creating news? Anyways, people can create news out of anything, here; I wanted to talk about something else.

What is this Earth hour? And why are we talking about this?
We all know that our environment is facing biggest threat - climate change. (And it’s not only environment, but in turn all of us on Earth).
We already had Copenhagen conference where all the global leaders discussed how to control global warming, carbon emissions etc. (Unfortunately, Its outcome is subject of controversy and can be a subject of another article.) And why go on global stage - in our Persistent we have (?) Green Persistent movement is in progress. This means there is increasing level of awareness at every level about the environmental cause.
As per Wikipedia, Earth hour is organized to increase public AWARENESS about global warming and it is global call of action to every individual, business, school and community to take a stand against climate change. This necessarily means it’s a token, a symbol which is asking for more action from all of us.

So what can me - as an individual can do for this global cause. (I know that we have already gone through such appeals, and how we react to them. I don’t want to blame anyone, but we tend treat them as “GOOD TO HAVE FEATURES” and never make them “PRIORITY ITEMS” .

So here are few simple things which I tried to follow,
1. Never ever take a receipt of printed transaction on ATM unless you really need them. (Or you are keeping them in your daily account summary, and I am sure no one is doing it!!!)
I previously used to take them, have a look at them for few seconds and then throw them away. The information on this receipt was remaining balance, which I could have easily checked on screen of ATM machine. So basically I never needed them, but was printing them just as a habit. Once I stopped printing them, I tried observing people around me in ATM and the result wasn’t much different, almost everyone was doing same.
2. A colleague of mine has an Email tagline “Please consider the impact to the environment before printing this email”. This, although looks small, but consider around 10 lakh IT employees in India, if they fire even a single unnecessary print then its waste of 10 lakh pages.
3. Switching off unnecessary lights (I don’t think we even need to say this, this needs to be DEFAULT condition programmed in our brain)
4. I understand that machines take time in startup, but this doesn’t mean that I should never shut them down. I know many of us tend to just lock the machine and leave for the day. And while doing so we think, what will happen due my SINGLE machine. Here again consider its not only me or you, remember the number around 10 lakh!!!

This list can be never ending, we can find as many ways as we like, it’s just of our will. And of course we need to remember that earth hour is one of the initiatives to increase our will, our awareness, it’s just a token, a symbol, which we need to carry forward in our everyday life.

गाभ्रीचा पाऊस

पाऊस!! पावसाचा आणि माझा एकमेकांशी संबंध तरी किती, एक सोपा निबंधाचा विषय म्हणून, काही प्रसिद्ध कवितांचा विषय म्हणून, वाफाळलेल्या चहाबरोबर - गप्पा मारत खाल्लेल्या भज्यांचा सोबती म्हणून का ओल्याचिंब नायिकेला न्याहाळताना दुर्लीक्षिलेला म्हणून.. शहरात जन्मलेल्या मला आणि माझ्यासारख्या बहुसंख्य जणांना पाऊस भेटतो तो फक्त असाच. त्याचे माझ्या आयुष्यातील महत्त्व ते किती - नगण्य, कारण तो नाही आला तरी माझ्या आयुष्यात काही फार मोठा फरक पडणार नसतो. परंतु शेतकऱ्याचा आयुष्यात....... तिथे मात्र हा आपला प्रेमळ शहरी मित्र, एका कधीही न सुटणाऱ्या यक्ष प्रश्नाच्या रुपात समोर येतो.

गाभ्रीचा पाऊस हा असाच एका शेतकऱ्याचा, त्याच्या आणि पावसाच्या लपंडावाचा, त्याच्या कुटुंबाच्या प्रतिक्रियांचा चित्रपट आहे. या चित्रपटाला विदर्भात होणाऱ्या आत्महत्यांची पार्श्वभूमी आहे. चित्रपट सुरु होतो, तोच मुळी एका आत्महत्या केलेल्या शेतकऱ्याचा घरात. नायिका मृत व्यक्तीच्या पत्नीचे सांत्वन करण्याचा प्रयत्न करत आहे, पण खरेतर तीच मनातून खचली आहे, कदाचित माझा पतीपण!! नायिका हि चिंता आपल्या सासूला सांगते, आणि मग सुरु होतं नायिकेचे कायम आपल्या पतीवर लक्ष ठेवणं. तिचे कायम आपल्या मुलाला त्याच्यासोबत पाठवणं, उधारीने खरेदी करून त्याला पुरणपोळी करून खायला घालण, आणि अशाच काही प्रकारे आपला पती कायम आनंदात राहील याचा प्रयत्न करणं. चित्रपटाच्या एका दृश्यात या दाम्पत्याचा मुलगा मयतीवर फेकेलेले एक रुपयाचे नाणं उचलतो, आणि नायक त्याला फटकावून ते फेकून देतो. नायिका सर्व प्रकारे आपल्या नायकाला मदत करण्याच्या प्रयत्नात असताना, नायक मात्र एका विवंचनेत पुरता फसलेलो असतो. तो कधी टीवीवर पावसाचे अंदाज बघत असतो, कधी शेतावर पेरणी करण्यासाठी बैल कुठे भाड्याने मिळतात का ते शोधात असतो, कधी त्याला बियाण्यासाठी लागणारे पैसे कुठून येणार याची चिंता असते, तर कधी मोटार लावून पाणी खेचण्यासाठी वीज कधी येणार याची काळजी असते. ग्रामीण जीवनाच्या दाहक वास्तवतेला स्पर्श करत चित्रपट पुढे सरकतो. आणि चित्रपटाच्या शेवटच्या फ्रेममध्ये आपल्याला दिसतं मयतीवर फेकेलेले एक नाणं. अनेक प्रश्न अनुत्तरीत ठेवून चित्रपट संपतो.

एखाद्या सामाजिक विषयाबद्दल जन- जागृती करण्यासाठी चित्रपट या माध्यमाचा किती प्रभावीपणे उपयोग करता येतो याचा प्रत्यय चित्रपटाच्या प्रत्येक फ्रेममध्ये येतो. गाभ्रीचा पाऊस या चित्रपटाने एका अत्यंत गंभीर विषयाला वाचा फोडली आहे. कलेचा अविष्कार हा फक्त औट घटकेच्या करमणुकीसाठी नसतो, हेच हा चित्रपट सांगत आहे.

आपल्या अन्नदात्याच्या, शेतकऱ्याच्या जीवनातले यक्ष प्रश्न चित्रपटाने आपल्याला विचारले आहेत. ते सोडवणे हि प्रशासनाबरोबरच आपलीही जवाबदारी आहे. मला माहित आहे, कि प्रत्येक जण प्रत्यक्षपणे जाऊन प्रश्न सोडवू शकणार नाही, परंतु ते समजून घेऊन, त्यांच्याविषयी आपण कृतज्ञता तर नक्कीच करू शकतो. तेवढे कृतघ्न तर आपण नक्कीच नाही!!!

Do I really need it?

Do I really need it? I don’t know. (Or rather I know but I am not ready to admit it!!!)

Recently I was watching a movie named Confessions of shopoholic. The movie is a about a girl who is addict to buying anything that she could see in the stores. The movie, as the name suggests, is about her addiction buying unnecessary things. A friend of our heroine sends her to some clinic where experts try to help addict people. The counsellor asks a question to all people “Do you really need it?” and then asks everyone to repeat the question – Do I really need it? Do I really need it? Do I really need it? And it goes on and on.. I don’t know what happens next in the movie as I left it there and moved on to another channel.


After few days this question suddenly came to mind, Do I really need this? And although I am not shopoholic, I was left contemplating about the question for lot of time, and hence here I am writing about this.


I think I am not a potato couch, but very often I have found myself browsing channels just for the sake of it. When I reach home from office, I don’t want to do anything, absolutely anything, so I choose to switch on the TV. And I end up flipping through channels at a rate one channel per ten seconds. Do I really need it? Don’t I know the answer of this question? I know, but I am not ready to admit it.
This flipping continues till I find something worth(?) watching. And it is even more intersting to know what is that worthy channel that I am selecting. Most of the times, it is the movie which I have seen already. If I start counting, I will definitely find that there are many movies which I have seen more than ten times and I know each and every dialog, each and every frame. Is this activity called as entertainment? I know its not, but I don’t have the courage to admit it. Recently, I saw a movie named Condenmed on Star Movies. By the time the movie finished, I was cursing myself, why the hell I am watching this. And this is not the first time it happened to me, I have watched most insane movies like Anjaam, Singh is King. And this not only happens with movies, it continues with news also. I always think that I should be aware of whats happening around me. So what do I watch at news? Take yesterdays example, I was watching a debate over Sania Mirza – Shoiab Malik marriage. So called socialists were analyzing the issue(?) with so much of sincerity, there was also a psychologist who was analyzing behaviour of Shoaib Malik in press conference. And everyone will be amazed to know his deductions. They were able to deduct that Shoaib Malik was hiding something, this dedcution was based on the evidence – which was – Shoaib scratching his head, he being not ready to look into the camera….. and the argument goes on. Do I really need to watch this? I was able to answer the question this time, I immediately swiched off the TV.


My tryst with this question continues to many things that I do in my day. Take the example of browsing, which I know most of us are very fond of. What do I browse, first I go on Orkut, check all the scraps. Oops while writing this, I am stunned to type in the word SCRAP. Doesn’t it mean an old, discarded, or rejected item or substance? (courtsey : Dictionary.com) I think, the term is very correctly coined by Google engineers. Next I check my friend list on Orkut and on FaceBook. Then I find out how many on Orkut friend list are not on FaceBook friend list and vice-versa. Then I start sending requests to all of them!!! Waw, what a important task, isn’t it? Do I really need it? I think,no, I don’t need it. I can very well connect to all my loved once with one of these J. But I don’t know where to stop. I think, I am using computer, but it’s the other way round, the computer is using me.


Let me just traverse back in time and find out what I was doing without these exciting(?) gadgets – TV and computer. It was my eleventh standard. We had bought new house and shifted to new place. The place was then on outskitrts of city, our society was in secluded area. So there was no cable provider!!! (And Tata Sky wasn’t even born!!) I think, this is the year when I watched least amount of TV. Generally, people prepare for IITs and similar stuff, but I wasn’t doing anything of that sort. So I had ample time. I remember, I used to see Sun rising every day in the morning, this continued for the complete year, I even saw movement in the place where Sun rises on the horizon. It moved from one conrner of the east to other during the year. We had lots of rose plants in our balcony, red, yellow, white, pink, and the one which had two colours, pink and white. I used to water them all. It was the most a pleasant experience to see plants bud. Radio Mirchi was newly introduced in the Pune city. Saathiya was a chartbuster then,I remember myself waiting for Saathiya title track to be aired on the top 20 list. If I want to sum up everything in one sentence, it was the best time. Then slowly the place became crowded, cable providers came. Now I had TV remote, computer to play with. And by the time I reached second year of my engineering, all the rose plants died because I had no time to look at them. Currently, I don’t have any plant in my house.

Anyway, I know I have diverted the topic from where it started. So coming back again.

This list of places where I can ask the question “Do I need it?” can grow forever, I believe we all will have some or the other addiction like this. And of course no-one will admit it. And hence I’ve started loving this question – “Do I really need it?” More often I ask it to myself, more time I will get to the things that I love doing most.