Layers of onion and a country called India

Why we hear govts in India getting toppled on the prices of onions than more serious issues like law and order, development etc?
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Because the country itself is like an Onion !!!

From outer layer all are Indians...
Peel one.....different religions,
Peel next one...different castes,
Peel another.....different languages,
Yet another.....different cultures,
Peel another...different food habits,
Keep peeling...you will never hit the end....

Layers - All different and all indifferent.

And....The more layers you peel, the more tears you will get.....much like a real onion.

Life is calling.....where are you?

Once I was taking a public bus to my office in Singapore. It was a bit crowded. After couple of stops, this adorable, chirpy, little (around 4 -5 years old) Singaporean girl boarded the bus with her mom.

I gave her my seat, she sat and immediately pointed out to my bag in front of the seat "Whose bag is this?". I smiled " It is mine, with your permission, may I keep it there?".

She said OK and got busy in her own sweet little world and started singing la la la la....

Very sweet voice...then "we are a family" and then some other songs....Her mom started feeling embarrassed and asked her to stop making noise....

Noise? You call this noise? ... and why do you feel embarrassed?  you have such a sweet happy kid, please feel happy not embarrassed.

And guess what?

Most of the people in bus had their earplugs on, were completely into their smart phones, Facebook, emails, gaming and what not.....not even bothering to look up.... 

Hello....there is life happening around you and don't want to witness it? You just want to be slaves to an Apple.... ( Remember, what an apple did to this earth)?

Be in the present, folks......There is God singing through an innocent little kid...maybe an elderly person is standing next to you and he/she needs the seat more than you do....

Maybe.....

This incident reminded me of a story :

In a train, there was a young man with his parents, whose behavior was not "normal" ....

He was jumping with joy at small things "Look dad, the trees are running so fast in the opposite direction...look at so many cows in the field..." and so on. His parents were overjoyed and tears of happiness flowing down....

One fellow passenger gave a very weird look and said " I think you should take him to a doctor?"...The father said " Sir, We are just coming back from a doctor's place...Some kind soul like you donated his eyes and my son can now see...after being born blind..." 

This too shall pass

Poorvi Koutish has been voted out, I felt sad and my daughter cried....

I am talking about a singing reality show called Indian Idol where one of our top favorite contestants was voted out. Does it matter? Why, how?

Before that, a small story : Once king Akbar challenged Birbal to tell him a phrase that can make one happy when one is sad and make him sad when one is happy. The wise Birbal said "This too shall pass".....

Our religions and philosophies especially Bhagvad Geeta teaches us to be Nirvikar( unaffected).

Some people feel that these shows ruin the life of young contestants. They expose them to temporary glitter and fame at an early age and when they get eliminated, they are unable to face the harsh realities of life.

I think these reality shows teach us that :

1. A poor man's son/ daughter can become a success/ celebrity if he/ she has talent and hard work. So, focus on your strengths, work hard and the bad time shall pass...

2. The contestant who may be hot favorite for almost all episodes can get voted out in last round. So, good times shall also pass. Don't take them for granted.

3. The young viewers like my daughter experience happiness, dejection, anxiety, almost all emotions for contestants who are actually complete strangers to us. But once the show is over, life is normal soon again and we tend to forget them. It actually teaches us the importance and also the short shelf life of emotions.

I feel one doesn't need to suppress the emotions but find a way to live them and yet experience the detachment, the Nirvikarness....

History repeats itself...

It is said that the history repeats itself. Probably because we weren't listening the first time.

Some recent experiences convinced me on this :

(1) If you go to MG Road, Gurgaon on a weekend evening, you will see BMWs/ Audis or such expensive cars parked outside on the roads. I would like to believe that someone who can buy a car for Rs. 30 lakhs or more will have Rs. 50 to pay for authorized parking. So, I assume that these people park their cars on the roads not to save Rs. 50 but to escape from the hassle of getting into the parking queue. Now, imagine the hassle of getting a towed vehicle back, or worse, a stolen vehicle back.....

(2) People would walk on the crowded MG road, wave a hand to stop the speeding vehicle and run to cross the road. To save 5/ 10 minutes some people just outsource their life's responsibility to someone they don't know. The person who knows that there is a crowded road ahead and still driving at 60/ 80, either is drunk or doesn't care about pedestrians. Can someone treat his own life so cheaply? See it to believe it...

(3) You see the new age rich young ladies carrying numerous shopping bags on the escalators in the malls, leaving their infants to the poor maids, who in all probability, never handled a small kid before and escalators are like UFOs for them. What is more precious , the kid or a dress bought at 50% discount?