Clean India - Begin India

Our Prime Minister kick started the 'Clean India' campaign today. And there are no marks, for knowing, that India is not one of the cleanest places in the world, walking on the roads one can find heaps of garbage, litter here and there, public places and toilets stink. To a lot of people throwing garbage on the roadside, spitting or urinating in public places does not seem like a wrong thing at all. People are ok walking past stink, they are fine with dumping religious offerings and Idols in already filthy rivers and water bodies.
            So, the campaign is not just needed but also a welcome attempt to bring a change in the apathetic attitude that citizens have developed towards cleanliness, hygiene and toilet manners.
               And so it came as a shock to me, when I looked at my twitter TL, and found it full of tweets which were sarcastic, cynical and mocking and it was the same story on electronic media. Some were skeptical whether it would work at all, because Indian mentality is so prone to be unclean. Others were skeptical that it may just end up as another fad. Most terming the campaign as a political gimmick to gather votes. And maybe it is really, a political gimmick. Not a campaign with best of planning, but still it is there to knock us up and out our shells of apathy, to begin doing our bit. But is it not more telling on us as people than the Prime Minister and his politics when all we can see is cynicism in this scheme?

Think.
                                               
Criticising, scoffing, being sarcastic, being cynical that things won't work. That is easy. But standing up for things, that is tough.
                                                  Being indifferent. That is easy. Taking action that is tough and that is why we shrug it off and wait for the next person to do it for us.
                                                  We wait for someone to come and clean up after us. We wait for the next person to remain clean. We will forever keep blaming that government has not provided enough infrastructure to keep cities clean. We will forever keep blaming others that our country, our neighbourhood is not clean, While we keep sitting in our homes, drive around in fancy cars, debate and discuss in our fancy English about the merits and short comings of this campaign on TV and amongst ourselves. But will we ever drop our cynicism to Act? To take onus of our responsibility by doing our bit?

                                             Next time, instead of scoffing, criticising or being indifferent. Act.

If you find someone spitting in public. Stop them. Involve people around you to stop them. And if you find someone stopping people, help them.

If you find someone throwing litter in public stop them. Tell them to take it home and throw it in their dustbin. And do the same yourself. There won't be a need to clean garbage when it is not lying where it should not be.

If you find someone peeing in public, stop them. Ask them how they would feel if someone did the same In front of their house.

If you find the person before you forgot to flush and leave the toilet seat clean. Tell them so.

If you can't find a dustbin around your locality, go buy one and contribute to the society. The RWA's can take initiative and collect contributions to set up dust-bins around their societies.

Recycle whatever you can, search ideas on Internet. Reuse Garbage, Reduce Garbage.

There are so many puja pandals that are made every years with expenses ranging in Crores, requiring lot of permits from MCD. Why not give half that money to Sulabh for toilets? Or to MCD to build toilets and better garbage disposal system?

And Government should come up with better garbage collection and disposal chain. It should provide health protection gears to all the workers involved in this work. It should begin working on constructing not just public toilets, but maintaing them.

These are just few things that do not involve government, they can be done simply by us. There are maybe thousand other suggestions and initiatives which each one of us can come up with, if we leave out our cynicism and decide to do something about the problem. But for that we first have to acknowledge that problem exists. Which is what this campaign is about, it is about changing our attitude from,  It is ok to be surrounded with filth because this is India to It is a problem and it is no longer acceptable in India, and by us by virtue of being Indians, because it is our home.

It is time to put down your excuses, and do whatever you can to do your bit for a Clean India except cribbing.

Enough?

I want more, And I am shameless enough to say that.
More from myself, from people around me, from my relationships, from life itself.
I want better, And again, I am shameless enough to say so.
Better from myself, from whatever I am doing, wherever I am.

One wonders, if that leads to a constant state of discontent and struggle, Maybe, but there is another side of the coin, and that is,

Unless, I want more or seek better, I will not empower myself enough to get more or to get better.

I have learnt to tell those who call me a cribber, that I am a seeker and I have no intentions of stopping.
I have learnt to tell those who tell me to count my blessings and be happy with them, that I want to keep adding to my count, and not just adding but also to share and spread my blessings.

Because, there is nothing stronger in the world, than the will of a person, And no one knows this better than human race, the power that lies in the will of  a human being to survive, to seek more, to make things better, our civilization where it is now, owes it to the will of those who were not willing to have just enough.

So, do not let anyone, set a limit on your dreams, on what you seek, on the distances you want to travel, the heights that you want to scale. Be the one to define yourself. Be the one to set your limits.

I Believe...

                               When you live with the consequences of your choices.
                          Reminding you everyday what a lousy choice maker you are.
                                                                        That,
                        is when you have no alternative but to learn to laugh at your mistakes
                                                                       and
                     to do whatever it takes, to let them remain lousy for as little while as you can.
                                       This is what separates winners from whiners.

I have been whining for a while, trying to figure out how to turn my lousy choices into less lousy ones. I have not managed to make much headway so far, and I am lost and weary, but the silver lining is, I am still far from giving up, because the road for ever goes on

Be

I have been missing from this space. This is a fact.

I doubt anyone noticed my absence because I am probably the only one who bothers checking out this space. This is an assumption.

Facts and Assumptions.

Our lives are contained within the premise of these two words.

Paths we choose

Journeys we take

Decisions we make

The stories that our lives become,

Are penned 

In the ink of these Facts and Assumptions.

And yet when it comes to stocking up our facts and making our assumptions

We hardly deliberate

run amok with emotions

we rush.

We rush to gather our facts

We hasten to make our assumptions

And

then we wonder, how come we ended up as and where we did.

Breathe

Hold your breath for a moment

And 

For the length of that breath

Hold 

Yourself Still

Be

Just be

In the length of that moment 

Allow yourself  to just Be.

How long has it been since you have done this?

Been in just the moment?

Celebrated being just alive?

How long has it been, since you have found joy in just your own existence?

Not in your accomplishments, 

But 

In just being you.

In this race against time

Life has become a list of things to do

When was the last time, you gave in to the impromptu?

Laughed without a care

Breathed instead of sighed

Let go your fears

Cry

Laugh

Rejuvenate

Feel

Celebrate

Live

2014

2014

It scares me, this year to come, I am afraid of the uncertainty, of the fog that lays before me, blinding me, my road is lost and I am wandering groping in dark.

It is scary isn't it? But the one lesson that I have learnt over the last year was, to move, no matter what it takes, no matter where u lay the next step, no mater where the next step takes you, the most important thing is to keep moving on, because standing still is definitely not taking you anywhere.

So with all my fears, my despair, I am choosing to keep moving, to take tiny little steps, silently hoping that I may eventually find my way through the fog. I wish for strength, the strength to hold on, to persevere on, to not be overwhelmed, to pursue my dreams and to bring them true.

And 2014 did begin absurdly for me, but then it just got better, I was on a vacation in koh samui, got drunk and lost in the madness of New Year celebrations, was furious with my friend, apologised for my behaviour, but can't yet stop kicking myself in the butt for having been rude and unkind. See what I meant, when I said, this year scares me, it gives me jitters, to the extent that it has left me sleepless with night terrors.

But like my friend pointed out, it can't get worse than it already is, so maybe it will only get better. I will say Amen to that and work to make it better.

So 2014, let us get on, you and I have a lot that we need to accomplish together,

To begin with let us get on with focusing on finding the next best career move (moving abroad and maybe a change of career)
Along with that more travel, because the only way to get over travelling is to get on with travelling more, I have in my itinerary Northeast, Hampi, Leh (again!), Palau, Greece, Turkey and Australia.
To cook and read about cooking more, reading and getting more creatively active and finishing off my 2013 travelogue.

So, dear life, I begin this year, afraid, yet with determination to see myself through the challenges that u have in store for me, I wish, only, for courage and strength to see myself through, for ray of light
when I feel dark within, for a nudge when I am sinking down, for a kick in the butt when you deem it fit and a bang on my head when it needs one, in return I promise not to let you down and give up. I promise to give you the best of me and to make the most of what I have been given. I promise to become a better person than I am (I will begin with that by saying, how sorry I still feel about having been rude and harsh to my friend, hopefully I can make up for it someday).

I promise, to do the most wonderful thing that there is to do - To live, not just survive, but to be truly madly deeply alive, kicking and laughing.