to give or not to give...

On my way back from Pune to Kerala, I was sitting on the platform at Madgaon, waiting for my connecting train which was late by half an hour. Beside me was a young guy (let's call him X) impatiently looking at his watch every 2 minutes. A beggar came by asking for alms, he was waved away irately by X. Later, when it was announced that the train would take 30mins more to arrive, X pulled out a sandwich (looked like cheese) and started munching on it. Halfway through the sandwich a stray doggie with doleful eyes came and sat in front of him to whom he gave the rest. Then he (with a slightly self-satisfied faint smile) looked at the dog happily devouring the surprise meal.

I was forced to think about this. How often things like these happen, we shoo away or close our eyes to our (yes they qualify for 'our', they are our countrymen, aren't they?) people who really need help and commend ourselves on doing a 'good deed' which would come way down on the list of 'necessary' acts of kindness.

I give alms to beggars, most of them at least. When you give 2 bucks or 5 bucks to a beggar woman with a child in her arms, you help her with a meal, something so that she doesn't have to scavenge in a municipal dustbin when she’s hungry. How can a person who has to dig through a waste heap for his next meal have any sense of self-esteem left? How then will that person ever feel that he is capable of anything else other than scraping the bottom of a waste bin his entire life with no way out? When a 5 year old child sees his mother rummaging in a pile of rubbish for something to eat, don't you think he subconsciously resigns himself to the fact that he is going to do the same, that that’s all he’s worthy of?

So, all you (non-existent and totalling up to 0) people who read my blog, please think and see if you can spare a few bucks for the next needy-looking beggar who crosses your path....

Why spend your life traveling unknown lands?

Couldn't find a more apt poem to describe why someone would want nothing more than to be able to spend his/her life as a nomad on two wheels....

Why? by James Richmond

"'Why do you do it?' friends often ask, perplexed,
Brows raised, minds sorely vexed.
'The world out there is dangerous!
Aren't you scared? Why do this?
You need steady work, a house, two cars!
You have only a motorbike, and sleep under stars!'

Dear friend, if you must ask, you cannot know
This curiosity that drives me so.
To you it is hidden; in me rises unbidden!
But one day the world I'll have ridden
By iron steed, then perhaps this need
Will have vanished, finally vanquished!
That day will find me on deathbed,
With no regrets for the life I led.

Will you be able to say the same?
Or will you despair a life worn plain?

I will stake my Himalayan memories
Against your estate of a thousand trees.
Pit my Thai sunset
Against your private jet.
Weigh my horse rides at sunrise
To your Italian suits and ties.
I'll rejoice in friends before I go,
Not the figures of my stock portfolio.

And, amazingly, there are more like me;
They reject slavery, and are truly free.
They took the chance we all had,
And honestly it makes me sad
That you didn't.
You thought you couldn't...
What?
Live without the luxuries
Of all our modern amenities?
You choose the bonds of mortgage, but claim to be free,
Wasting a lifetime absorbed by TV.
Why watch it? but live it!
One life's all you get!
Don't put off 'til morrow and continue to borrow
The lives of strangers; 'tis the greatest of dangers
To the soul
Which grows old
Before its time.

Hercules, Columbus,
Guevara, Odysseus,
Champlain, Agamemnon,
The list goes on...
What have they in common?
Regardless man or god,
The soil of continents they trod,
Not in search of gold but adventure!
Not growing old 'cause they ventured
Far from safety; but far be it from me
To Judge...

by James Richmond, Canada, in India

Ego ego ego....

Why is that two guys start with some harmless bantering and finally end up endlessly going back and forth with an argument neither can win? Both see that the argument is getting ugly but neither wants to be the 'loser' so to speak by backing out of the inane conversation. Just goes to show what a huge spoiler our BIG egos can be in our day to day life / with friends.

The next time the two guys are in a conversation it ain't going to be nice and free-flowing (of course, except if it's over a coupla pitchers of beer. In that case, both will be honest and apologize for being such pigs :-) ). Both will consciously / sub-consciously try to steer clear of anything 'debatable' and thus their 'friendship' or pal-o-meter will be turned down a notch.

Maybe its because I'm getting old, and your ego grows with age (?) that it seems to be getting more and more difficult to continue a serious debate without unconsciously trying to eke out a 'win' by the smallest margin possible, even using outright lies sometimes.