The White Man

As I read my email i found this inspirational email from one of my friend. An inspirational story by Sudha Murthy. The lady needs a little introduction.

It was the beginning of summer. I was boarding Udyan Express at Gulbarga railway station. My destination was Bangalore. As I boarded the train, I saw that the second-class reserved compartment was jam-packed with people. I sat down and was pushed to the corner of the berth. Though it was meant for three people, there were already six of us sitting on it...

The ticket collector came in and started checking people's tickets and reservations.. Suddenly, he looked in my direction and asked, 'What about your ticket?' 'I have already shown my ticket to you,' I said.
'Not you, madam, the girl hiding below your berth. Hey, come out, where is your ticket?' I realized that someone was sitting below my berth. When the collector yelled at her, the girl came out of hiding.

She was thin, dark, scared and looked like she had been crying profusely. She must have been about thirteen or fourteen years old. She had uncombed hair and was dressed in a torn skirt and blouse. She was trembling and folded both her hands.. The collector started forcibly pulling her out from the compartment. Suddenly, I had a strange feeling. I stood up and called out to the collector. 'Sir, I will pay for her ticket,' I said.

Then he looked at me and said, 'Madam, if you give her ten rupees, she will be much happier with that than with the ticket.'

I did not listen to him. I told the collector to give me a ticket to the last destination, Bangalore, so that the girl could get down wherever she wanted.

Slowly, she started talking. She told me that her name was Chitra. She lived in a village near Bidar. Her father was a coolie and she had lost her mother at birth. Her father had remarried and had two sons with her stepmother. But a few months ago, her father had died. Her stepmother started beating her often and did not give her food. She was tired of that life. She did not have anybody to support her so she left home in search of something better.

By this time, the train had reached Bangalore. I said goodbye to Chitra and got down from the train. My driver came and picked up my bags. I felt someone watching me. When I turned back, Chitra was standing there and looking at me with sad eyes. But there was nothing more that I could do. I had paid her ticket out of compassion but I had never thought that she was going to be my responsibility!...

I told her to get into my car. My driver looked at the girl curiously. I told him to take us to my friend Ram's place. Ram ran separate shelter homes for boys and girls. We at the Infosys Foundation supported him financially. I thought Chitra could stay there for some time and we could talk about her future after I came back from my tours.

I was not sure if Chitra would even be there. But to my surprise, I saw Chitra looking much happier than before. Ram suggested that Chitra could go to a high school nearby. I immediately agreed and said that I would sponsor her expenses as long as she continued to study. I left the shelter knowing that Chitra had found a home and a new direction
in her life.

I got busier and my visits to the shelter reduced to once a year. But I always enquired about Chita’s well-being over the phone. I knew that she was studying well and that her progress was good.. I offered to sponsor her college studies if she wanted to continue studying. But she said, 'No, Akka. I have talked to my friends and made up my mind. I would like to do my diploma in computer science so that I can immediately get a job after three years.' She wanted to become economically independent as soon as possible.. Chitra obtained her diploma with flying colours. She also got a job in a software company as an assistant testing engineer. When she got her first salary, she came to my office with a sari and a box of sweets.

One day, when I was in Delhi, I got a call from Chitra. She was very happy. 'Akka, my company is sending me to USA! I wanted to meet you and take your blessings but you are not here in Bangalore.'.

Years passed. Occasionally, I received an e-mail from Chitra. She was doing very well in her career. She was posted across several cities in USA and was enjoying life. I silently prayed that she should always be happy wherever she was.

Years later, I was invited to deliver a lecture in San Francisco for Kannada Koota, an organization where families who speak Kannada meet and organize events. The lecture was in a convention hall of a hotel and I decided to stay at the same hotel. After the lecture, I was planning to leave for the airport. When I checked out of the hotel room and went to the reception counter to pay the bill, the receptionist said, 'Ma'am, you don't need to pay us anything. The lady over there has already settled your bill. She must know you pretty well.' I turned around and found Chitra there.

She was standing with a young white man and wore a beautiful sari. She was looking very pretty with short hair. Her dark eyes were beaming with happiness and pride. As soon as she saw me, she gave me a brilliant smile, hugged me and touched my feet. I was overwhelmed with joy and did not know what to say. I was very happy to see the way things had turned out for Chitra. But I came back to my original question. 'Chitra, why did you pay my hotel bill? That is not right.' suddenly sobbing, she hugged me and said, 'Because you paid for my ticket from Bombay to Bangalore!'

(Excerpted with permission from Penguin Books India from Sudha Murty's 'The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk: Life Stories From Here and There')









Overwhelmingly inspirational. Yes. Yet my paranoid mind was still telling me something is amiss. So i read it again. Gotcha!!! I know what bothered me really.

"She was standing with a young white man"

Well I think Sudha Murthy was not as glad to see Chitra as much as to notice the color of the skin of the person she was standing with.

White Man. So well described yet it certainly was not a appealing word to me. It sounded very racist. She could have used any other word to describe the man or she could have just said MAN but why a WHITE MAN.

Ok probably now i understand may be why she used this word. She was just a 13 year old when in 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. famously said....

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."



..... or maybe i just getting too paranoid

WRITTEN BY Another SOFTWARE Engineer (The Better Version)

My parents had long written me off as a failure and a good for nothing yet somehow i managed to get my degree in software with a percentage even i was ashamed off (Now that was partly because during my time in the college i knew more about marijuana and LSD's than C or C++ programs). So fine i did not make it through the campus placements neither i could get a decent job in a software firm. I did the next best thing joined a call-centre division of an IT company (Compromise!!!-the way of life).What was my aim, it was ok if one day i could not build a house bigger than what my dad had did but all that mattered was one day i could say to myself what a swell job i did of my own life.

So ok i worked through all the calls trouble-shooting ROM's and RAM's and somehow i managed to get through the software industry in two years. So you might say as a software engineer i wasted two years, well bullshit,I infact learnt enough that i could well manoeuvre the intricate labyrinth of the software world.Very soon i got married to my childhood sweetheart ofcourse againts my parents wishes after all who is really cares about their obsession with stupid things like religion, caste, creed, color blah, blah.

Well, i  had a great married life and a good career as a software engineer. In a course i spent my life.  I was transported through six different cities Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Madrid and Houston and i realised living in all these differrent cities was as good as living in different countries. I am not sure of what The "Indian"culture really means but i revelled in all the different walks of life that these cities offered me. My wife and daughter enjoyed it too. The considerable time that we spent in Texas, we enjoyed being america the american by watching ballgames and the tex-mex cuisine rather than wasting our time in the stupid Indian clubs, with women overly dressed in expensive silks sarees and children showcasing badly choreographed bharatnatyam steps.

I never exerted any pressure on my daughter to act Indian or try to be a mathematical genius so that one day she finish on top of engineering or business schools like most other Indian parents in the US did but tried to make her independant enough to choose her vocation wisely. She lived up to my expectations when  she graduated with honours in English literature and worked as a lecturer. Though she did not marry an American because she preferred well mannered Korean botanist as her husband.

Finally i retired and left US to live in India. Well, i did want a penthouse in Hiranandani Gardens but i knew i could not afford it instead i preferred to spend my life in the rural confines of Goa the place i spent my childhood. The plots were at throw away prices and i managed to build a simple three bedroom house where me and my wife spent good happy hours tending our gardens and our dogs. I always loved being an atheist so i never visited the temples in the vicinity but i made it a point to donate old books and footballs to the village school and my wife who is a homeopath worked in the clinic run by a NGO treating sick villagers for free. This gesture made us immensely popular in the village.

MORAL OF THE STORY: LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OUT OF IT!!!!

PS: I did perform all the cremation rites for my parents and i did get a leave from my company for this very purpose. As to my cremation once i am dead i really do not care as to who performs it simply because i am dead.

A Whip

One a whip,
and i am your slave.
Two a whip,
and i kiss you feet.
Three a whip,
and you pull the leash.
Four a whip,
and i thank you.
Five a whip,
and I know how much you love me.

The Ox, Man and the Colonials...

Man (Independent) :A few things that needs to be cleared here

1. The person awarded Padmashri in 1983 was Sobha Singh the sikh painter and not the one above.

2. The person above has constructed most of Delhi including Lutyen's Delhi and Connaught Place.

3. He is the father of one of India's most prolific writer Khushwant Singh.

4.Sobha Singh left a large part of his private estate to a charitable trust, The Sobha Singh Trust, which maintains homes and hospices for the terminally ill and aged all over the country, most recently it built, a dharamsala, within the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital complex, in New Delhi in 2005. He also presided over some of the institutions funded by it like the Deaf and Dumb School and the Modern School. Among his last grants was one for Bhagat Puran Singh's Pingalwara home for the destitute in Amritsar.

5. Finally the testimony against Bhagat Singh, he committed one of humanity's greatest deed.......

HE SPOKE THE TRUTH


Man (Independent): Yes another fact Bhagat Singh was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment for his role in Assembly bombing. He was hanged for his role in major Saunders assasination.


Ox (sturdy): I agree with the error in terms of the Padma Shri award. I have read the article on Wikipedia. However, what you call humanity's greatest deed is not necessarily always a great deed Goutam. It's priceless to be truthful, but as the teachings in Bhagwad Geeta says, one lie that can save a person's life is greater than a thousand words of truth.


Ox (sturdy): And how smart to sentence a man to death for a murder committed in '1928' after arresting him in '1929' and sentencing him to 14 years of jail for the bombing attempted in '1929', won't you say? You seem to be quite amused with the attrocious ways of the Brits, eh?


Man (Independent): When we know that truth is priceless than why do we need to read such things even if it is written in a book as sacred as Bhagwad Geetha. Even Geetha is finally a scripture that was written over centuries ago (and it has its own flaws; a lot many scholars still have not been able to understand it precisely to an extent that now everybody has his own version of it) and nobody even knows its right origins. Lord only knows how many times it may have been re-written just to satisfy a few selfish individuals.you know the truth is you may save a person life's by speaking a lie but think your lie is actually not saving him his life but your lie is actually putting him to death in a different way... Brits were atrocious no doubt if we read the case files of Bhagat Singh clearly we would find that the second crime led them to his involvement in the former crime. Again when you say Brits were atrocious, i may correct you saying, the Brit Govt. was atrocious but the judiciary wasn't that is evident when even today we follow an almost identical judiciary system in India based on the British lines.


Man (Independent): I beg your forgiveness if i am taking this a little too far but understand. You saw a post that you felt was true and shared it for millions to take a look at it. In fact what you just did was that you defamed a respectable person's image in front of a million people. Well, you could had simply consulted Wikipedia and found all the answers for yourself. Now put yourself in Sobha Singh's shoes and try to understand.


Ox (sturdy): ‎Man (Independent) agreed we follow an identical judiciary and no wonder where we are today! When you know so much about this country's history, you should also know what led Bhagat Singh to turn into a rebel (Jalianwalabagh massacre). You MUST justify that incident too, since the Brit judiciary as well as their govt. simply washed their hands with the blood of thousands of innocents and denied it and yet you are such an ardent admirer of their judiciary system that is being followed till date! No wonder truth is priceless and we have an efficient judicial system working so hard at it, Kasab is still being fed a guest's meal inspite of being caught red handed during the 2008 attacks! It has been 4 fcuking years! Why don't you propagate your philosophy of TRUTH in voicing your opinion about such incidents???


Ox (sturdy): again, since you are feeling so bad about Sobha Singh's humiliation, and I'm pretty sure you have consciously practiced it multiple times, everything comes at a price. A lot of money hungry sharks hide their attrocities behind layers of charity. If he really is your hero of the day, why did he never participate in this country's freedom struggle ever? Because he was busy licking Brit shoes for his own selfish means! You got your answer.


Ox (sturdy): Oh, as far as the Bhagwad Geeta is concerned, the teachings are rather simple, regardless of which VERSION and ALTERATION you read, the core value is the same, i.e., if you have the basic understanding of the later Vedic culture and Aryan civilization, superficial folks will definitely not understand the depth of it's teachings. Since you say it's just a scripture, it's atleast not a religious promotional tool and simply teaches the values of everyday living without propagating the oh so greatness of Vedic religious beliefs. Well, I don't expect a foreign passport holder to even understand the depth of the 'scriptures' and it's 'values' since it cannot be attained by means of a Bong and weed!


Ox (sturdy): I don't care what you think, what I would still support is that a man who gave up his family and life for this country deserves to be honored rather than some Brit boot licker who hid his betrayal and selfishness behind the mask of charity. To quote you "Lord only knows how many innocents have been sacrificed to establish that man as a knight in the eyes of the Brit govt." Any answers????


Man (Independent): You say Jallian wala bagh massacre was the fault of the british :) probably... But who pulled the triggers of the guns Indians... In fact i really wonder how did a country as big as the smallest state of india could have the courage to rule india for so many years... Ok lets look at the bhagvad geeta... Well it is one of the chapters in the epic Mahabharata where in Arjun fails to see any reason in warring with his own brothers and Krishna tells him how the war is inevitable.... Now go to last chapter of the epic ... Krishna boys down to Gandhari and accepts his mistake that yes the war could have been avoided contradicting his own earlier in fact contradicting the entire bhagvad geeta ... And sadly when does he do it exactly when the whole man kind has already suffered because of the greed of two families ... Now comes Mr Kasab ... Give it to this guy and he shows us how good our national defence an intelligence is when it comes to providing the citizens with security ... Here they are safe guarding the dead glaciers when the terrorists may entire our country as if they were entering their own house through the backyard... Well i would have treasured this man and very tactfully tried to extract information that might lead up to the bigger fish involved in the menace of terrorism. And when speak of vedas they say hemp weed is among the five most sacred plants on earth which gives an individual the strength to look at both sides of the coin... One side being the beliefs that have been put unto us and the second side being our conscience, our rationality...


Man (Independent): Wow this appears a real nice argument i may use for my blog... Thank you and i truly respect you lady for you are one person who had the patience to argue word to word...


Ox (sturdy): I'm not for those Indians who pulled the triggers out there, the Indian recruits of the Brit police and army also continued lathi charges under their command. What is also to be seen is that a country full of poor inhabitants already ravaged by numerous wars and foreign invasions and religious wars fell prey to the sweet words of friendship spoken by Brit merchants and thereby leading them to the throne of the country. What you are preaching here, my friend, is to repeat the same mistake. Sadly most of our leaders today do the same. As for Kasab, I wonder how much vital info has been gathered from him in the last 4 years that there already have been 2 incidents of bombing within this period in the heart of Mumbai.


Ox (sturdy): Krishna was a shrewd politician, he knew well the importance of that war and thus aided the Pandavs against the Kauravs. Also remember, the war was not initiated by him, it was initiated by Duryodhan under the influence of Shakuni (the original Gandhar prince) who had vowed to destroy the Kuru dynasty to avenge the death of his brothers and father in the Kaurav dungeons whose flesh he had fed on and used his father's bones to carve the pasha he was so famous for. Gandhari also bore equally hateful regards for the Kuru dynasty and covered her eyes for the rest of her life as she despised the sight of Dhritarashtra (who she was forcefully married to despite being physically unfit) contrary to the popular belief that she did so to prove as the perfect life partner for him, which was a good political cover up to appease the common people. Maternal instincts are natural and she was no exception. She was a grieveing mother post the war and thus Krishna had to pacify her and take the blame upon himself to save the Pandavs from her wrath or any further conspirations rising from within the royal families in order to prevent a second Kurukshetra. Interpret the Geeta and the Mahabharat correctly, my friend, or you simply might be mislead for though it is a complex script, if you understand the true interpretation you will know each shrewd political move behind every major and minor character in the epic. From Krishna, the Pandavs, the Gandhars and Kauravs to the involvement of the tribal ruler brothers duo Atyujwal and Anujwal.

Ox (sturdy): Speaking of hemp weed or Soma or Ganjika (as it was known then) was considered sacred owing to it's medicinal properties. Not for it's abuse in the form of a form of intoxication and definitely not for oral intake 24x7 for God's sake! You should know the effects, for as far as I knew you. You have already owned up saying it was an abuse on your part in your blog.


Ox (sturdy): Look my friend, you write well and I respect you for that but when you point at things to spark a debate, you need to get a bit of facts in place. Sometimes being harsh has it's own benefits and also has it's drawbacks, you need to decide which side of the scale is heavier in order to interpret your actions. We are only trying to spread awareness that our true heroes never received even 1% of the respect and recognition that they deserve and that they deserve th...

GOA NEXT IT HUB of INDIA -- A Reality or Just a dream

So we just had the polls and we have visionary idealist Mr. Manohar Parrikar become the CM of the state. So he decides to make the Goa the next IT hub of the country. Let us look at some of points that might go into the favour of this decision and somethings that might not...

An IT industry in Goa seems reality why....

1. The resource Wealth - Goa has always mantained excellent standards of education. We have a large crowd of IT professionals working outside Goa who are eager to come back home. So in terms of resources we can provide this industry with people having excellent skills. Importantly we have a good English speaking crowd which certainly proves a great boon to this industry since most IT projects originate from America or the Europe and the work involves constant communication.

2. The Location - Goa lies at the centre of three major IT hubs of India, Mumbai, Pune & Bangalore. A lot of It work involves a constant travel between two locations and having a center at Goa might well work for the IT companies. Another major benefit of having an IT center in Goa is that it would be that it would ease the pressure off which the IT industries have created on these cities in terms of housing and commutation.

3. Human Developement - Goa has mantained high standards in terms of urbanisation and human development which certainly would attract people to work here.

4. A sustainable industry - IT industry certainly scores over the unreliable tourism industry and the exhaustive mining industry. The need to shift focus from these two tarditional industries replete with drawbacks to a more sustainable industry has always been felt. An economy dependant on the IT industry appears a much more stable economy. It generates a much greater employment and is also a much cleaner alternative than the mining industry.

An IT industry in Goa still a distant dream....

1. Unstable Politics- Politics is still a considerable headache to this plan. We have one party supporting it and the other opposing this move. To make matters worse most the politicos are still either directly or indirectly connected with the mining industry. A stable IT industry would soon diminish the over dependance of the mining industry on the the economy and most political big wigs and the mining barons may try to lobby against this move. Their method is sure fire, they would certainly indoctrine the people with the ill effects of this move and we might see a tremendous back lash from the people of Goa opposing this move.

2. Traditionalism - Goans have always mantained a very sussegad approach to their lives. This may prove a disaster to the IT industry. Well you may ask me how. Consider living in Pune, we always mantain very high levels of professionalism by being on time to work, by always completing work on time, by working under high levels of stress etc. I am not sure whether Goans would forego their very lazy habits to embrace the fast paced world of IT. Another very disturbing aspect of the Goan life are the number of social gatherings and family functions one has to attend which puts a huge pressure on professional commitments. ( I had personally faced this facet of life when i worked in Kolkata, just like the Goans the Bengalis too do not miss their social commitments and that strains their professional output).

3. Regionalism - Sadly even though we are highly liberal in our thinking we have still not embraced immigrancy in the right way. We still refer to non goans by derogatory terms like bhingta, bhiknakar, bhaile etc. In fact we too are planning a an IT industry with just Goans in mind. We need to understand that having a IT industry requires a more rational thinking and the success of this industry depends upon how much regionalism we can do away with.

4. Infrastructure - Infrastructure in Goa does not seem adequate enough in terms of housing and commutation required by the IT industry.The sever scarcity of land still appears a major problem. I am unsure how Goa would tackle a major inflow of people.


The Verdict

When i first started writing this article i struggled to find points that might support the idea of Goa as the next IT hub. The drawbacks were far too numerous to list down. There are far too many dead ends we might encounter while making this plan work. In my opinion this idea still appears a distant dream for all Goans. Though the IT industry appears a far more beneficial then the other flourishing industries of Goa but the Goans have still been too pessimistic about the benefits offered.

Rantings!!!

So cool we just had another Indian win the Miss Asia-Pacific. That takes India's medal tally to 5 miss worlds, 2 miss universe and 3 miss asia pacific. They have certainly changed India, made tall promises only to tell the women of india how ugly they look and how using the cosmetics they endorse would make them beautiful. Made some stupid films and in fact hardened our beliefs that women in a cinema are nothing more than a glamour object.

So what am i ranting about. It was May 14th, 1931 when a Albanian woman of the same age as the women who won the pageants decided to denounce the material world. It was the same woman clad in cotton sareewith blue border and armed with determination started serving the destitute. She made India her home and the sufferings as her own.Lepers from Calcutta, Siege of Beirut, Spitak Earthquake of Armenia, the droughts of Ethiopia and the woman proved how much strength she has.

True she did not have the beauty of a nymph but she had the heart of a God. True she does not live on the hoardings selling fairness creams but lives in our heart realising dreams.

The hunter who killed the lord

I had mouths to feed, and woodlands to wander,
I felt tired as longed to sleep like a log.
I had nothing left and could here the rumblings,
mocking birds laughing at me as i stand not to collapse.

And i see a foot of the deer as i look through the shrubs,
i turn my eyes to the lord above.
I lift the bow and point the arrow,
with determination i would never miss.

I shoot and i see a human falling,
As i clear the mist from my eyes,
i see the human with the blue skin,
curse and i have just shot the lord.

With the i fulfilling the prophecy,
of a hurt woman who lost her hundred sons,
in a war which the lord could have saved,
for i am who just started the age of darkness.