Sept 10th: Understanding Others, Educating Ourselves.

Was filling up the marathon registration form and came across the fine print, 'Do you want to run for a cause ?' which requires a monosyllabic answer, but then again let me tell you a story. BTW this happens to be my second post with the same heading.

A short time ago, in the galaxy of the digital third dimension, a society in evolution, a place for extroverts, where rivers flow freely, where introspection is a byproduct, where opinions go unfiltered, where one pulls from rather than pushes upon, where I think therefore I am, where I stumbled upon the Chronicles of Eliza. Eliza, in the real world is known as 'Jaya' and in Never Never Land is called 'Jayama'. So like a lot of us Jayama has this dream. But before dreaming of building old age homes in the air, its important to build a foundation on the ground. So last wqeekend, I decided to take her to the 'Home for the Aged', on Husor road close to brigade road, which I had visited eons ago. As per plan we split up and decided to just go around and talk to people. I came across this person named Michael who has walked those interconnecting passageways for the past 5 years. I remembered him from a previous conversation wherein he told me about the people of similar blood that he 'considers' as family and then about his liking for carpentry, both showing respective emotions on his face. He was making frames the last time we spoke. So when I met him again I asked him about his carpentry which he had a lot to say about, and then he left. But then he came back quickly as I was leaving and told me that he wanted to show me what was his uncompleted prized possession. I went to his room and on the top of his cupboard he pointed out to a miniature crib (home). He told me about the pending work and coating of paint and polish that he planned to use on it. The material would "cost him a lot", but as they say in the movie 'Munich', "every home always does", ask any Palestinian or Israeli about that.

Another friend recently told me about this incident while she was commuting by bus. A woman in her 40s, but who aged faster, came and occupied the seat next to her. She emitted a repugnant odour, kept counting a few dollars over n over again... red eyes, talking to herself, singing.... swaying between reality and her own never never land. My friend said that she lied that she had to get down, the lady wishing her goodnight. She then changed her seat but felt very guilty about it, as she didn't want to be next to the lady even though she was donating part of her first salary for charity work. A lot of times ppl just donate money and when you do that you feel you are doing some charity work, 'charity' in the 'out of our way' sense that most of us idealise it to be. I mean even I feel that when I donate. But when you meet and talk to ppl only then do you sometimes feel that maybe its not 'charity'.

Coming back to the question of 'Do you want to run for a cause?' and ask your friends to pledge something when you run. Well here is the gist of the pledge I am soliciting from you guys.. i.e. if you want to. Errr.... so no money, just time... lets say one hour, which I think is reasonable. So the idea is to spend one hour at any orphanage or old age home of your choice. If you need directions, Sneha Nilaya is an orphanage and then there is 'Home for the Aged'. Both are close to the Cisco Systems office in Shantinagar, Bangalore. Just go there and observe and maybe have a one-on-one talk if you feel like it. Orphanages, they cling on to you for attention, old age homes, they cling on to memories and some just have very very low self esteem. You can go there with no intention of returning but it will make a load of difference, maybe to you too.



Sept 11th: The Company I keep