Note: this post is a long one, I decided to write it in 2 parts. If you have interesting comments or suggestions, let me know and I'll incorporate them too
Thanks for your responses to the previous post! Comments are really encouraging and nice to read!
And of course this gives me an increased enthusiasm to write about the second entity in this series, the television , which over a period of time has had it's time as the intelligent box and the idiot box.
Perhaps this blog post is also fitting because of 2 more things, first , 25 years of Hum Log , which according to me was the symbol of the TV becoming popular in the early eighties. Though, I don't have any memories of that time, I have heard from my mom how this show used to be so famous. In fact, as a school-going kid, I remember reading in Limca Book of Records (circa 1993), that Hum Log was the longest running serial till date, spanning 156 episodes, a number which seems so trivial as compared to the modern era. The second thing, well, let me come to it at the end of the post.
I remember the first TV in our house. A Black and White TV, with no channels. Yes you got it right. It had 2 things on it. A power button and a volume control knob. Just turn it on, it would show DD-1. I always felt envious, because my uncle's place had this extra 2nd channel ( which over the years became popular as DD Metro) . But then, there was a value for this one channel. Every thing that came on this TV was watched with some deal of interest. It was a unique, nice experience. I still remember this popular tune and I am sure most of my readers would too. There were some soap operas that we watched with great interest and of course, you had neighbors coming in and watching TV. Serials like Wagle ki Duniya , Fauji , Circus,Magic Lamp became objects of public conversation and debate and ignorance about them was a taboo at school . Chitrahaar and Chaayageet were perhaps the only source of watching hindi songs on video, and I remember that they typically came up with songs that no one wanted to listen :) . And how could you forget the Hindi movie on Sunday (which moved to Saturday some time), a movie with no commercial breaks and a proper 20 minute interval for Mom to quickly cook some nice snacks for us and give the impression of watching a movie in the theater. Of all movies seen till date, the greatest value must be for those movies that we watched.
The first stint at cable television was when a few operators started telecasting movies in the afternoon, evening and night. It was a new experience. For some years, my parents were against the idea because it would distract us from our studies, but guess they gave in eventually . The concept was really really unique. Cable operators used to print out monthly brochures with movie listings. Cable operators were branded from good to bad depending upon the new movies they telecast. I did have a dream sometime that if I ever did this job, I would do it so much better :) .
The advent of the satellite world came about somewhere in 91-92, starting with 4 channels, MTV, BBC, Prime Sports ( the predecessor to Star Sports) and Star Plus. It was nice and interesting. First, the concept of a 24 hr channel. The feeling that when you turn on the TV at 11 pm, you see something else but those 7 stripes of DD National . Personally, I became a fan of Prime Sports in 1992 during the world cup. For the first time you could see high quality graphics, never-ending stats trivia, and a quality of commentators which was big relief from the Ravi Chaturvedi's and others on Doordarshan. I remember getting up at 3,4,5 am to see matches. It's still a wonderful memory, and I am glad that I could see it then.
The first big revolution in Indian satellite television came with the advent of Zee TV . It was a really pleasant change over the low-quality Doordarshan, in a lot of senses, be it transmission quality, quality of programs, to the way serials were promoted. This phase saw the evolution of commercial breaks and repeat telecasts, things which were new innovations over state-owned television. It also marked the beginning of game shows which were otherwise unheard of on Doordarshan except in the form of academic quizzes which did not quite appeal to the common masses. Game shows like Saanp Seedi and Antakshari became popular, and with this came the introduction of post cards and competition post cards, a kind of pre-cursor to SMS voting today. Those days, all programs would have lucky draws in which someone would select a post card out of a huge bunch.
The next big revolution came with Star Plus going Desi, with the introduction of two revolutionary players in Indian Television Industry (coincidentally they were launched on the same day ), Kaun Banega Crorepati and Kyunki. KBC, armed with the big B, an amount of cash which seemed unbelievable and a concept yet-so-simple that anyone could understand and play with it, was the one that of course enjoyed the opening glitz . In fact for months, all 4 slots of KBC remained the top 4 in the TRP ratings. It became an element of social change, with people suddenly trying to apply general knowledge. I mean for years, quizzes like Cross Fire, Bournvita Quiz Contest had remained limited to the educated and the scholarly masses. This was one program where the common man could imagine himself sitting on the hot seat with Amitabh Bachchan and winning a Crore rupees. Unbelievable.
Spin-offs and competitors soon followed, the most infamous of them being Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala anchoring an otherwise useless show named 'Sawaal Dus Crore Ka', which was really a comedy show and nothing else .
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The evolution of the Computer
This particular blog type is going to span 3 entities, which I think have evolved during my growing years. - The computer, the television and the phone. and I assure it's going to be an interesting read. The time when each of the posts will come will of course depend on my enthusiasm, as of my readers :)
I still remember my first computer- I was lucky to be in the 2nd standard, when we got a computer at home. It was very very expensive, my mother took it on a loan that would take 8 years to pay (:p), but on a cost-benefit analysis, it was more beneficial to her business [ before that, she used to contract a small computer services for the same]
The specification: 80286 box with maybe 8 or 32 mb of disk space [ yes not RAM, this was about the total disk space] . It ran DOS and the first thing I remember was that DOS prompt which said c:\> . For about 2 years, we used the computer as instructed on a sheet of paper by the engineer who came. I remember that he was no unprofessional that he would sit with a Marathi newspaper crossword when he came, and he would run something, get back to his crossword and then look at the computer after he solved the clue. Perhaps the pre-cursor to people using twitter at their workplace :) .
After a while, Ami took her first computer course [ I was in 6th standard then], and I learnt commands like cd,md,rd, and most important copy con . I was so thrilled by the idea of typing and creating my file, and in the hey days of Kapil Dev, came across a news article which listed all of his 431 wickets [ I was in 7th or 8th standard then], I went through the tedious process of creating a file which listed all of them using copy con. The limitations, if you made a mistake in one line, just redo the whole file . But somehow, it didn't seem tedious since you had never heard of better tools. I mean, even though, you could not correct your mistakes, this was a hundred times better than a typewriter...wouldn't you agree?
And so I did that. Then we made an upgrade. The newer computer was so fast, an 80386 box after all!!!!! It seemed faster, simply because when you typed a command in DOS, it would respond immediately as opposed to the 286. Yes, this was it- a 'fast' computer.
Those days were funny. Funny in the sense how a 3rd grader would respond to someone telling , there's a virus on the computer. My sister Ami was in 7th then, and she was learning about viruses in bio, as microscopic organisms. I remember that once my cousin brought a game on a floppy and it infected the computer with a virus. I had this strange feeling that micro-organisms would crawl out of the floppy disk as I put that in my hand :)
The world of the multimedia/windows was introduced to us by a guy called Manjeet at Tangerine store (Compaq). One visit there, and the world seemed changed. Color monitors, using a mouse, pictures, photos, encyclopedias, I just felt that if I could get that computer , I could just live doing things on it for the rest of my life. And so, after some thinking, Pappa decided to get one for us. It was 486 [which meant super-fast], ran windows 3.1, and it was just so much fun. The Encarta Encyclopedia had a Cheetah video and we must have showed it to everyone who came to our place . Well- yes, people came to our place to see the multimedia computer :)
And then came the internet. A shell account. 500 rupees for 500 hours plus a huge phone bill. It's interesting how in those days [ I was in 9th standard], having no knowledge of 'shell' or 'tcpip' we would tell people, 'Oh, tcpip accounts are too expensive, shell accounts are cheap and pretty good to use'. A shared mailbox between me and my sister, a chat client, and most importantly, the fact that we could send an e-mail to anyone in the world FREE!!! Perhaps seemed too good to be true. Mom made me call VSNL and confirm that we would not be charged for emails sent to the US :).
I sometimes feel lucky at having seen this wonderful process. Having lived in a world without computers makes you aware of the importance. I still feel great when I open up a chat window and chat to someone on the other side of the globe.
I still remember my first computer- I was lucky to be in the 2nd standard, when we got a computer at home. It was very very expensive, my mother took it on a loan that would take 8 years to pay (:p), but on a cost-benefit analysis, it was more beneficial to her business [ before that, she used to contract a small computer services for the same]
The specification: 80286 box with maybe 8 or 32 mb of disk space [ yes not RAM, this was about the total disk space] . It ran DOS and the first thing I remember was that DOS prompt which said c:\> . For about 2 years, we used the computer as instructed on a sheet of paper by the engineer who came. I remember that he was no unprofessional that he would sit with a Marathi newspaper crossword when he came, and he would run something, get back to his crossword and then look at the computer after he solved the clue. Perhaps the pre-cursor to people using twitter at their workplace :) .
After a while, Ami took her first computer course [ I was in 6th standard then], and I learnt commands like cd,md,rd, and most important copy con . I was so thrilled by the idea of typing and creating my file, and in the hey days of Kapil Dev, came across a news article which listed all of his 431 wickets [ I was in 7th or 8th standard then], I went through the tedious process of creating a file which listed all of them using copy con. The limitations, if you made a mistake in one line, just redo the whole file . But somehow, it didn't seem tedious since you had never heard of better tools. I mean, even though, you could not correct your mistakes, this was a hundred times better than a typewriter...wouldn't you agree?
And so I did that. Then we made an upgrade. The newer computer was so fast, an 80386 box after all!!!!! It seemed faster, simply because when you typed a command in DOS, it would respond immediately as opposed to the 286. Yes, this was it- a 'fast' computer.
Those days were funny. Funny in the sense how a 3rd grader would respond to someone telling , there's a virus on the computer. My sister Ami was in 7th then, and she was learning about viruses in bio, as microscopic organisms. I remember that once my cousin brought a game on a floppy and it infected the computer with a virus. I had this strange feeling that micro-organisms would crawl out of the floppy disk as I put that in my hand :)
The world of the multimedia/windows was introduced to us by a guy called Manjeet at Tangerine store (Compaq). One visit there, and the world seemed changed. Color monitors, using a mouse, pictures, photos, encyclopedias, I just felt that if I could get that computer , I could just live doing things on it for the rest of my life. And so, after some thinking, Pappa decided to get one for us. It was 486 [which meant super-fast], ran windows 3.1, and it was just so much fun. The Encarta Encyclopedia had a Cheetah video and we must have showed it to everyone who came to our place . Well- yes, people came to our place to see the multimedia computer :)
And then came the internet. A shell account. 500 rupees for 500 hours plus a huge phone bill. It's interesting how in those days [ I was in 9th standard], having no knowledge of 'shell' or 'tcpip' we would tell people, 'Oh, tcpip accounts are too expensive, shell accounts are cheap and pretty good to use'. A shared mailbox between me and my sister, a chat client, and most importantly, the fact that we could send an e-mail to anyone in the world FREE!!! Perhaps seemed too good to be true. Mom made me call VSNL and confirm that we would not be charged for emails sent to the US :).
I sometimes feel lucky at having seen this wonderful process. Having lived in a world without computers makes you aware of the importance. I still feel great when I open up a chat window and chat to someone on the other side of the globe.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
New and Improved 'Life n Times'
Reminiscences of a desi guy's first days in Uncle Sam's land
I was just about settling in Uncle Sam's land. It had been barely 2 weeks that I was away from my homeland, and each day getting to be a learning experience in this "new world". I was to travel to an airport first time since I came here.To begin with, I had an option of spending 15 dollars to go to the airport by shuttle, or to "just" change 3 buses and reach the airport. The importance of money at that moment, and the ease of bus travel as described by some seniors made me go for the latter, and what followed was an adventure I'll remember all my life.
So, here's how you would do it, they said. Go to this nice website, and it'll give you which buses to take from where and it'll get you to the airport without any hassle. Perfect plan, and money-saving too, so with a printout and a small bag, I left home, hoping to complete my 3 bus voyage and reach the airport. The first instruction said, go to the NW corner of Hoover and 28th Street.
I reached the intersection, so far so good, but then, how would you find the NW direction? It's something you would have never given a thought to.But then , you had to figure it out. At 9 30 am in the morning, and without a single soul on the street, I realized that the only way to resolve this might be to look at the sun. Interestingly enough,the trick worked, and I could figure it out. Caught the first leg of my itinerary , and got down at the next stop.
This time, I again had to find a particular corner, but wasn't so fortunate this time round. It was almost noon, and the Sun was right above me! With no other way out, I was thinking at what could be possibly done here. At a distance, I saw a board:
SOUTH 101 -------------->
This, probably, was a "godsend", and with a smile on my face, I immediately began to calculate north, east and west. The curve on my face soon reversed, as I suddenly saw another board, which said:
^
|
|
NORTH 101
|
|
And, all my calculations became irrelevant. It was an amazing bit of luck and skill which eventually took me to the airport.Though, i realized on the way, that the bus drivers were quite reminiscent of the conductors in BEST buses of Mumbai, always insisting( read forcing) for 'Sutte Paise' (Exact Change). Here too, the driver told me, you either put the exact change, because otherwise you will not get no money back . For starters, I took a bit to understand the American grammar interpretation of this sentence.As you might know, 2 negatives do make a positive, but the Americans don't care, I thought.
And then I had my first dash with the airlines here, and it was quite surprising to see the kind of ways people could use to save money. In true 'Water No Ice' tradition, I asked the air hostess to serve me a juice without the ice that was supposed to be the main ingredient instead of the juice. However, keeping up their reputation, I was served exactly 1/3rd glass of juice, the air hostess implying that she knew precisely how to handle people like me ;) . Thus, after an amazing voyage, I finally reached Phoenix. I guess the journey was much much more memorable than the destination itself
It's interesting how the first few days, though difficult and uncertain, eventually turn out to be the most precious memoirs of your life. Little things, like learning to save money, like making new friends at 3 am in the night, like teaching your mother to use the computer while chatting on MSN, with things like 'There'll be an icon that looks like this to the left of the screen', like meeting new people like you who are roaming around in campus with a small plastic bag, a map, and the wish in everyone's eyes to 'make it'.
And then, all the firsts, the first time you got a job by yourself, the first paycheck, even if it was for 7 dollars an hour, the first "raise" (so what if it was just 25 cents),the first time you took a girl out for coffee ,the first time you celebrated a night out with friends, the first time you felt that your family hadn't called you for some days, and they are now probably used to your absence , the first time you went to Artesia and got a taste of what good life in US might be like, the first time you borrowed a camera to take pictures of your University and send them back home.
It's been five years that I have been in the US of A. At times, it seems I just came a day ago, and at times it seems ages have passed! It's the most amazing time I have had though.
I was just about settling in Uncle Sam's land. It had been barely 2 weeks that I was away from my homeland, and each day getting to be a learning experience in this "new world". I was to travel to an airport first time since I came here.To begin with, I had an option of spending 15 dollars to go to the airport by shuttle, or to "just" change 3 buses and reach the airport. The importance of money at that moment, and the ease of bus travel as described by some seniors made me go for the latter, and what followed was an adventure I'll remember all my life.
So, here's how you would do it, they said. Go to this nice website, and it'll give you which buses to take from where and it'll get you to the airport without any hassle. Perfect plan, and money-saving too, so with a printout and a small bag, I left home, hoping to complete my 3 bus voyage and reach the airport. The first instruction said, go to the NW corner of Hoover and 28th Street.
I reached the intersection, so far so good, but then, how would you find the NW direction? It's something you would have never given a thought to.But then , you had to figure it out. At 9 30 am in the morning, and without a single soul on the street, I realized that the only way to resolve this might be to look at the sun. Interestingly enough,the trick worked, and I could figure it out. Caught the first leg of my itinerary , and got down at the next stop.
This time, I again had to find a particular corner, but wasn't so fortunate this time round. It was almost noon, and the Sun was right above me! With no other way out, I was thinking at what could be possibly done here. At a distance, I saw a board:
SOUTH 101 -------------->
This, probably, was a "godsend", and with a smile on my face, I immediately began to calculate north, east and west. The curve on my face soon reversed, as I suddenly saw another board, which said:
^
|
|
NORTH 101
|
|
And, all my calculations became irrelevant. It was an amazing bit of luck and skill which eventually took me to the airport.Though, i realized on the way, that the bus drivers were quite reminiscent of the conductors in BEST buses of Mumbai, always insisting( read forcing) for 'Sutte Paise' (Exact Change). Here too, the driver told me, you either put the exact change, because otherwise you will not get no money back . For starters, I took a bit to understand the American grammar interpretation of this sentence.As you might know, 2 negatives do make a positive, but the Americans don't care, I thought.
And then I had my first dash with the airlines here, and it was quite surprising to see the kind of ways people could use to save money. In true 'Water No Ice' tradition, I asked the air hostess to serve me a juice without the ice that was supposed to be the main ingredient instead of the juice. However, keeping up their reputation, I was served exactly 1/3rd glass of juice, the air hostess implying that she knew precisely how to handle people like me ;) . Thus, after an amazing voyage, I finally reached Phoenix. I guess the journey was much much more memorable than the destination itself
It's interesting how the first few days, though difficult and uncertain, eventually turn out to be the most precious memoirs of your life. Little things, like learning to save money, like making new friends at 3 am in the night, like teaching your mother to use the computer while chatting on MSN, with things like 'There'll be an icon that looks like this to the left of the screen', like meeting new people like you who are roaming around in campus with a small plastic bag, a map, and the wish in everyone's eyes to 'make it'.
And then, all the firsts, the first time you got a job by yourself, the first paycheck, even if it was for 7 dollars an hour, the first "raise" (so what if it was just 25 cents),the first time you took a girl out for coffee ,the first time you celebrated a night out with friends, the first time you felt that your family hadn't called you for some days, and they are now probably used to your absence , the first time you went to Artesia and got a taste of what good life in US might be like, the first time you borrowed a camera to take pictures of your University and send them back home.
It's been five years that I have been in the US of A. At times, it seems I just came a day ago, and at times it seems ages have passed! It's the most amazing time I have had though.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Ever felt a shock?
With the advent and subsequent popularity of reality shows and contests in India, I have started to believe that most people consider these as a part of their lives. I am not a very big fan of these shows, but I saw two videos which just gave me this enormous sense of happiness.
Kamlesh Patel
Susan Boyle
Sometimes, when you think, that oh, I have been unsuccessful in life, or oh, well I really don't know what I am doing in life, maybe watching this video will make you realize.
Too many things to say, but maybe the emotions are not getting translated to words.....I leave it to you guys to add words for these :)
Kamlesh Patel
Susan Boyle
Sometimes, when you think, that oh, I have been unsuccessful in life, or oh, well I really don't know what I am doing in life, maybe watching this video will make you realize.
Too many things to say, but maybe the emotions are not getting translated to words.....I leave it to you guys to add words for these :)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Life n Times...
No, actually, if you were a regular reader of the Life n Times , it's not one of those. It's just a small sum up of how life is going on at this point.
Yesterday, while speaking to K , I suddenly felt a deep desire within myself to do some things I like, I love to do. One amongst them, being penning down my thoughts without pressing the backspace key. Be it fun, amusement, happiness, fear, grief, anger, or just that 'whatever' kind of emotion, I felt it could come across.
For now, I think the emotion would be happiness. I was thinking as to how this word has had different meanings for me all my life. When I was 4, it used to be a cadbary chocolate that my Grand Mom used to bring for me. When I was 9, it used to be that Best Student shield, that I felt I won with so much effort. When I was 17, it meant the admission to my desired Engg College. When I was 25, it meant that job that I so much so much wanted. But then, it struck me.
Probably, it looked so much big, when it was not with me. Same with things I could not get in life. Always thought that life would be just wonderful, if I had them. And then, I thought of the wonderful things I had got, sometimes unexpected, and that moment of happiness which was just so heavenly. Like that email from the Qualcomm HR informing me of my first ever internship. Like the look on Mom's face when she saw me after one and a half years ( in 2004, and in an hour, she was crying and telling me, you have matured now, I am so happy for you). Like that wonderful feeling you get when you remember your old days ( and nights) spent at Leavey library.
A wise person told me once, that Happiness is just a state of mind. I somehow agree to it, but cannot quite follow it with a lot of heart. Maybe, it's time for a change [Obama ishtyle]. But yes, due to a lot of events in my life, I started thinking that I need to live for today. For the moment. Each day. Every night, if I start counting all the things I did today for which I feel happy, ecstatic about, I find that sometimes I don't even find one. And maybe that's where the change needs to come. Hopefully it will :)
Yesterday, while speaking to K , I suddenly felt a deep desire within myself to do some things I like, I love to do. One amongst them, being penning down my thoughts without pressing the backspace key. Be it fun, amusement, happiness, fear, grief, anger, or just that 'whatever' kind of emotion, I felt it could come across.
For now, I think the emotion would be happiness. I was thinking as to how this word has had different meanings for me all my life. When I was 4, it used to be a cadbary chocolate that my Grand Mom used to bring for me. When I was 9, it used to be that Best Student shield, that I felt I won with so much effort. When I was 17, it meant the admission to my desired Engg College. When I was 25, it meant that job that I so much so much wanted. But then, it struck me.
Probably, it looked so much big, when it was not with me. Same with things I could not get in life. Always thought that life would be just wonderful, if I had them. And then, I thought of the wonderful things I had got, sometimes unexpected, and that moment of happiness which was just so heavenly. Like that email from the Qualcomm HR informing me of my first ever internship. Like the look on Mom's face when she saw me after one and a half years ( in 2004, and in an hour, she was crying and telling me, you have matured now, I am so happy for you). Like that wonderful feeling you get when you remember your old days ( and nights) spent at Leavey library.
A wise person told me once, that Happiness is just a state of mind. I somehow agree to it, but cannot quite follow it with a lot of heart. Maybe, it's time for a change [Obama ishtyle]. But yes, due to a lot of events in my life, I started thinking that I need to live for today. For the moment. Each day. Every night, if I start counting all the things I did today for which I feel happy, ecstatic about, I find that sometimes I don't even find one. And maybe that's where the change needs to come. Hopefully it will :)
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Pakistan media reaction
I believe for a while there has been a discussion about the increasing role of the media in today's society, which came to light a lot more during the 26/11 attacks in Bombay. This article from Greatbong gives a good summary of things, and this is an old post about how the media doesn't seem to find even decent articles.
There could be criticisms for the media to be over-intrusive, using people's emotions to increase their TRP, and compromising security details during the blasts, but still it was just to a level where we could just 'criticize' them. Say that, 'Please don't do such a thing'.
Till, Priyendra sent me these videos yesterday. And you suddenly went, "Hello???" or, more succinctly " What the ....? "
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Watch the videos and you'll know what I am talking about.
I have always had a habit of reading non-fictional stuff, and read up history and try to figure out why and how is it different from the history we were taught. For example , a lot of good things that Mohammad Ali Jinnah did, were conveniently skipped in our textbooks, and so were the actions of Congress in a number of sensitive issues. I think it does make sense up to a certain extent that sometimes the news channels /history books will be a bit biased towards their country or in particular about their beliefs.
However, these videos, which according to me reflect some extremely irresponsible and without any kind of evidence supporting their claim, on National TV came as a big surprise to me. For whatever reason, I don't believe that journalists can't be this biased.
There could be criticisms for the media to be over-intrusive, using people's emotions to increase their TRP, and compromising security details during the blasts, but still it was just to a level where we could just 'criticize' them. Say that, 'Please don't do such a thing'.
Till, Priyendra sent me these videos yesterday. And you suddenly went, "Hello???" or, more succinctly " What the ....? "
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Watch the videos and you'll know what I am talking about.
I have always had a habit of reading non-fictional stuff, and read up history and try to figure out why and how is it different from the history we were taught. For example , a lot of good things that Mohammad Ali Jinnah did, were conveniently skipped in our textbooks, and so were the actions of Congress in a number of sensitive issues. I think it does make sense up to a certain extent that sometimes the news channels /history books will be a bit biased towards their country or in particular about their beliefs.
However, these videos, which according to me reflect some extremely irresponsible and without any kind of evidence supporting their claim, on National TV came as a big surprise to me. For whatever reason, I don't believe that journalists can't be this biased.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
A trip to Gujarat - and some thoughts
As a part of my India trip, I went to Gujarat, first to Bhavnagar and then to a place called Palitana which is one of the holiest spots for Jains. For non-Jains, a brief background . Palitana is considered to be a place where a large number of Tirthankers attained Moksh (or Nirvana). It's a hill with about 3800 steps, and it is considered to be a good deed to climb up and down ( by yourself or in a 'doli' lifted by 2-4 people) once. The tougher things to do are to do this 7 times in 2 days without food , and also to do this 99 times in your lifetime ( Called 99 jatra).There are about 863 temples in Palitana. Every time I go there, there are always plans to build some more, or to build some 'upashrays' for Jain monks and nuns.
As I started the journey this time, I had something in my mind. I have always seen small children ( mostly under the age of 14) working as small time labourers here. Typically, their job is to carry a bottle of water, or a carry bag for all these 3800 steps. All this is for an extremely paltry sum. I started off with some money in my pocket, and kept handing over 50 Rupee notes to any such child I found on the hill. When I gave it to a girl for the very first time, I saw a twinkle in her eyes. She was very surprised, even thought I would ask her to carry some luggage, but she then smiled and looked so happy. The first thing, that came to my mind, was the Master Card commercial. It might sound funny, but this is precisely what i thought
Trip to Palitana: xx Rs.
Cost of staying there: yy Rs
The price the girl gets for carrying that bottle up 3800 steps: zz Rs.
The look in her eyes when she actually felt someone was doing good for her: Priceless :):)
And that's when it struck me. There's probably more 'punya' in helping people in need than to build a temple in an area which already has so many temples that no one ever manages to visit each one of them. Even more so, I am sure that if there is God, He would be more happy to see the betterment of living beings, rather than a blind following of religion. I would personally prefer that the next time I give a donation it goes towards building a school instead of a temple. Education, awareness, health facilities , is the key to a better society and a better world for all.
I am not an atheist. I do believe in God, because I feel that is something that propels me to do good, whose fear stops me from doing bad, and something on which my hope rests in a time of crisis. But then, I do not believe in following things blindly. Thanks to some very noble and educated people at Jain Centers in the US, I have known things about religion in the correct way. And the belief, that it does not make sense if you know every verse of every sutra by heart, unless you know the underlying meaning, and you understand and accept it. Like, how many of us know, that Jainism believes that the earth is not spherical ( as scientifically proved) but more close to a flat earth . A fact which is obviously not correct. Or the belief that the Tirthankers have existed for millions of years, which is again a contradiction to the scientifically known fact that human civilization has not existed for more than 5,500 years?
There are various teachings of Lord Mahavir which are quite correct, like non-killing of animals, non-violence etc. But, some teachings might not have been correct. The problem though is, that as a part of his teachings, it was almost a sin to change even the pronunciation of any line of any sutra [ For Jains, this is one of the things for which you beg forgiveness in Pratikaman], and the teachings were carried over for generations ( about 500 years) before people got together and documented them correctly. And hence, no one has ever tried to change or challenge it. And that's where we are not going correct. Maybe I'll get my elders to think on this :)
[A small disclaimer:I personally believe that good/social work should not be publicized. The only reason why I wrote about that girl is because I think that this might inspire more people to do good. If you believe that that deed was good, do it yourself the next time on]
One more thing is, when you give money to a disabled person/child , don't give a rupee or 2. Give the person 10 rupees. Why, you'll ask? Don't you complain to your boss about inflation/rising prices/bad economy ? That's why.
As I started the journey this time, I had something in my mind. I have always seen small children ( mostly under the age of 14) working as small time labourers here. Typically, their job is to carry a bottle of water, or a carry bag for all these 3800 steps. All this is for an extremely paltry sum. I started off with some money in my pocket, and kept handing over 50 Rupee notes to any such child I found on the hill. When I gave it to a girl for the very first time, I saw a twinkle in her eyes. She was very surprised, even thought I would ask her to carry some luggage, but she then smiled and looked so happy. The first thing, that came to my mind, was the Master Card commercial. It might sound funny, but this is precisely what i thought
Trip to Palitana: xx Rs.
Cost of staying there: yy Rs
The price the girl gets for carrying that bottle up 3800 steps: zz Rs.
The look in her eyes when she actually felt someone was doing good for her: Priceless :):)
And that's when it struck me. There's probably more 'punya' in helping people in need than to build a temple in an area which already has so many temples that no one ever manages to visit each one of them. Even more so, I am sure that if there is God, He would be more happy to see the betterment of living beings, rather than a blind following of religion. I would personally prefer that the next time I give a donation it goes towards building a school instead of a temple. Education, awareness, health facilities , is the key to a better society and a better world for all.
I am not an atheist. I do believe in God, because I feel that is something that propels me to do good, whose fear stops me from doing bad, and something on which my hope rests in a time of crisis. But then, I do not believe in following things blindly. Thanks to some very noble and educated people at Jain Centers in the US, I have known things about religion in the correct way. And the belief, that it does not make sense if you know every verse of every sutra by heart, unless you know the underlying meaning, and you understand and accept it. Like, how many of us know, that Jainism believes that the earth is not spherical ( as scientifically proved) but more close to a flat earth . A fact which is obviously not correct. Or the belief that the Tirthankers have existed for millions of years, which is again a contradiction to the scientifically known fact that human civilization has not existed for more than 5,500 years?
There are various teachings of Lord Mahavir which are quite correct, like non-killing of animals, non-violence etc. But, some teachings might not have been correct. The problem though is, that as a part of his teachings, it was almost a sin to change even the pronunciation of any line of any sutra [ For Jains, this is one of the things for which you beg forgiveness in Pratikaman], and the teachings were carried over for generations ( about 500 years) before people got together and documented them correctly. And hence, no one has ever tried to change or challenge it. And that's where we are not going correct. Maybe I'll get my elders to think on this :)
[A small disclaimer:I personally believe that good/social work should not be publicized. The only reason why I wrote about that girl is because I think that this might inspire more people to do good. If you believe that that deed was good, do it yourself the next time on]
One more thing is, when you give money to a disabled person/child , don't give a rupee or 2. Give the person 10 rupees. Why, you'll ask? Don't you complain to your boss about inflation/rising prices/bad economy ? That's why.
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