Intolerance Any One?

With the entire country going gaga over the statement made by Aamir, the last thing we need is another write-up about how Aamir is a jerk. Don't worry I am not going to talk about Aamir and Kiran here. I am here to share few instances with you and let you make some decisions based on them.

Just yesterday me and 2 of my friends went over to have some chaat in front of our office. Waiting patiently for our Chinese bhel out of nowhere a beggar kind of a mad man came abusing and blabbering while continuously staring at us. He kept doing this for almost like 5 minutes and suddenly angered by the smiling face of one of my friends, he shouted "Hass mat, honth kat dunga tere" (Don't laugh or I'll cut off your lips). In no mood to laugh now, the three of us were shell shocked and pretty scared. Suddenly he started to spit towards us and unable to take it anymore, I shouted at the top of my voice. Three of us ran hither and thither away from the mad man. Here i may point out that, near the Chaat wala, few guys from my company were also standing. And it being broad daylight and a place right in front of an IT giant, it was heavily crowded. Yet we three girls felt tormented and helpless. No one offered any sort of help, or shooed away the man. People did not even turn their faces or stop doing their chores. The chaat bhaiya finally attempted to scare him away ONLY when he started to come dangerously close to his stall. He only went away before any turning around towards us and abusing us to his heart's content.

Picture Courtesy - sploid.gizmodo.com

 Now I really don't want to sound like a whiny girl wanting people to rescue her. But don't you think under such circumstances at least someone from the crowd should have stood up? It that asking too much? At least those guys from my company, they could see the company tags around our neck..But no, they did not even bat an eyelash during the entire scene. This is really a scary scenario - people not standing up for each other. And it was not the first time I got to witness it. I had a somewhat similar incident some years back.

I was traveling in a shared auto rickshaw and a middle aged man was trying to be over-smart. His elbows kept poking me at all inappropriate places. First few times I thought it to be an accident (although I knew it wasn't) but when that jerk did not stop I decided to teach him a lesson. Little did I know that it would be me and not him learning all the lessons. The moment I confronted him he started shouting that all my accusations were false and that he was innocent. None of the 3 other people in the rickshaw spoke a word. Feeling that I was loosing the battle, I forced the rickshaw guy to pull off and demanded that I will not travel with that guy by my side. At this point I thought that the guy will get down or be forced to get down the rickshaw. But to my horror again no one said a word. And since I had proclaimed that I will not travel with the man and he refused to move, I was left with no other option but to move out myself and continue my journey to office by foot. I was so shattered to think that without any mistake of mine, I have to face the abuse - both from that man and everyone else in that rickshaw. That man got to sit and ride in the rickshaw while I had to walk in the scalding sun. How is it justice?

Now tell me, is the place we live in tolerant? Are we really tolerant? Do we need to change our outlook first and then throw dirt at Aamir and other?

Everything said, even after facing many issues and disappointments in this country, the thought of leaving this country never entered my mind.

LOVE:
SEPO

Diwali 2015

The thought of spending the first Diwali away from home was driving me into a state of depression since days altogether. But things started to look good when one of my close friend from office invited me over for lunch. The thought of going over to their place made me all excited and happy. The visit itself turned out to be awesome. Great company together with fabulous food.

What increased the happiness was the fact that my roommate was also here for Diwali and she had this rangoli and a mini celebration thing all planned. So all in all it was not a depressing, boring diwali I had thought it to be.In fact it was quite the opposite. I will let the pictures do all the talking.

Do let me know about your diwali in the comments below:

Love:
SEPO

Readers' Block

All of us well familiar with the writer’s block. It is a condition by which a writer is unable to pen his/her thoughts into words. Nothing comes to the mind or even if it does the pen refuses to oblige. It is a very serious condition especially if your livelihood depends on writing. The topic is discussion today, however is about something totally opposite to that of a writers block. It is what I am calling the Readers’ block.

I am an avid reader. My idea of a good time is curling on my bed with a good book. I am open to reading via different mediums, you name it- hard copies, soft copies, pdfs, kindle. I have experimented with almost every medium, with hard-copy being my favourite, closely followed by the kindle. Although I mostly like to read friction I am not opposed to other genres out there. Saying all this to make you understand the fact that how much I like to read. I also had this condition wherein I just had to finish reading a book however boring it maybe. Leaving it half-read made me restless and unable to start and concentrate on any other book. I was happy with this condition as it let me enhance my list of read-books. Life was good. Until....

Picture Courtesy - www.stuff.co.nz

 Chase to now and things are so different. I have a new restlessness which does not let me finish any book I lay my hands on. I have forgotten the count of books I tried to read since the last 3 months. Out of 7 or 8 books I have only managed to finish 1. Only 1. That too a short book of some 300 pages by an Indian Author (big font). I am so devastated with this analysis. But however hard I try, I just can’t manage to finish. And i am picking up good books showcasing rich cultural heritages from different types of the world. I left "The Teahouse fire" by Ellis Avery which highlights the Japanese culture of teahouses (frequented by Geisha's). I had also picked up “The handmaiden's Tale” by Margaret Atwood which is fiction set in future about Christian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government.

Somewhere down the line I though maybe I have had enough of the heavy duty stuff, so I picked up some light books by Indian Authors. But sadly even that failed to do the trick. The condition persists. I don't know what is causing this sudden change into my otherwise loyal attitude towards book reading. Since the time I remember, I have always fallen asleep while reading a book. Sadly I don't know what caused this habit to be broken. And perhaps that's the reason I do not get peaceful sleep these days. Lots of dreams and frequent breaks to see the time.

Maybe it is the addiction to TV series? FYI, I am currently binge watching the desperate housewives and I face no trouble in completion of the episodes.
I guess what I need is a good book which I find hard to put down, captive and enchanting.
This is a help call. Any suggestions are welcome.

LOVE
SEPO