Your worries or mine?

This happened in Park Street, Calcutta. Standing on a pavement outside a heritage building, a friend and I, were engrossed in some serious discussion. My friend had just lost his job and was speaking his heart out, as I listened on. I must have looked very serious when an old woman approached us. 

She requested us to help her with some donation.

I said a blunt “NO” and with a late realization added “I’m sorry.”

The lady looked at me while starting to walk away.

“What? You're worried? You are lucky! I HAVE WORRIES.”

I could only stare blankly at her direction as she walked away.

Everybody has worries and each of us perceive ours to be on top of the list!

But then, are our worries really worth all the worrying?

As the Hindi song says, “Duniya mein kitna gham hai. Mera gham kitna kam hai.”

I HAVE AN OPINION!

Stages of forming an opinion: 

1. Friends: I should be friends only with people who share my opinion.
 

2. Targets: I should disregard and criticize anybody disagreeing openly with me.

3. Research: Before I form my opinion, I must find what my friend’s opinion is. Whatever it is, I must immediately accept it and say “That’s my opinion too.” 

4. Preach: I must go on all social media platforms and post a sarcastic update criticizing just anyone, because I have to show the world “I HAVE AN OPINION”!
  
5. Yup. I am cool.

Well. “LOL” sounds better than your opinion.

Now, here’s what to do with your opinion:

Image source: http://www.funnyjunk.com/Opinions/funny-pictures/5273857/

One Frame Stories! Frame 12

I came across this amazing concept on Twitter. It's called One Frame Stories (OFS). They upload a theme every Friday, which is a Frame (Picture). Any body can write a story of up to 99 words about the theme and submit on their website by the following Thursday. Every Friday, the team at OFS reviews the stories received and posts them on the website. They also mention the top 4 stories! 

Their website: http://www.oneframestories.com/

                                                     Frame 12 by One Frame Stories.
I submitted the following story:
The Lost Dog
The farmers of a small village found a dog with several wounds and a broken leg. They realized, a speeding car hit it. They took care of the dog and in a few weeks it was fit and healthy. The villagers found a new watch guard in the dog. Children found an adorable new friend. Little did they know that it often ran away several miles to look for its master who had died in a plane crash which killed all the passengers aboard, except one. The dog had survived and ran miles to call for help.

Also, I had written 2 more versions which could not be submitted. (Only one entry is allowed.)

The Dog who wasn’t

The legends had it that anybody who went to the haunted town of Jagginara after midnight disappeared forever. It was cursed by the magician Jaggi who was known to transform humans into animal, just for fun. Over the decades, many people had dared to challenge the belief. All had failed. Investigations for missing people who were last seen at Jagginara ran into years without any result. While stories suggest there was not a single soul in the village for years after the death of Jaggi, the population of dogs has increased since then mysteriously.

Doggy Style

A UFO sighting was reported by an old lady. Nobody believed her.

“She is known to cross limits for even the slightest of attention. No wonder her family abandoned her. She has lost it.”

A week later she had a new visitor in a dog. Neila, she named it. Neila started staying with her. The lady was no longer lonely.

“People don’t believe her. This is the safest place to hide on this planet. I must gather sufficient information. Planet Dogpa shall take on Earth soon. Mission Doggy Style!” Neila’s eyes sparkled at this thought.

Rape? Let's Outrage and FORGET.

"He is a rapist. Kill him."

For every rape, death IS the deserved punishment. One may suggest various ways of killing or causing harm to a rapist. Still, how far does it help improve the safety of women? Not much.

What we need is a system in place to make the country safer for women. ‘System’? No, don’t blame it on the government now. They are not to blame (I will show you how). The onus is on us. Yes, you and me.

www.setyoufreenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Stop-Rape.png
(Image Courtesy)

We hear of a rape and we get angry. Blood boiling and all. Good! We have some humanity left, but is that all? No.

Talking about the case of the recent gang rape in a moving bus in Delhi – the reason behind the ongoing outrage across the nation, I am angry too. But, more than that, I am disturbed. I have been avoiding reading about the case, or tweeting about it, or even following it on news channels. Maybe I am a coward, or maybe I am just as human as you are. But, my inside hurts every time I read or hear about the issue.

All I could think I could do was to come up with this post. After someone is raped, your anger can’t help her undo the incident. But, if we stop putting efforts to make the society safer, we can definitely let more girls get abused. This, we do not want. Right? 

Here is what I think can be done:

1. Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp. These are the places where we are before, during and after some psychopath destroys a girl’s life. So why don’t we use this power to make the society stronger! Here’s how – imagine an app, which is linked to FB, Twitter and Whatsapp. You see something wrong going on around you (Domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse for example), and whether or not you decide to confront the culprits physically, you can post a tweet or an FB post or a whatsapp message to some pre-defined number and the app posts it everywhere instantly. Imagine everyone would know it LIVE and people and police near to the location (mentioned by you) can rush to help. Even if a million posts lead to just 2 persons turning up, would it not be helpful? Makes sense? APP DEVELOPERS. WHERE ARE YOU?

2. What we need to do is remain angry. All the time. Yes. Store that anger somewhere inside us, but not let it out at once. We need to let that anger out in bits, every now and then. We need to channelize it towards the cause of keeping the society safe.  (Thank you Paloma Sharma for the idea ‘direct anger towards a cause’ on your blog - http://palomasharma.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/velvet-curtains/)

3. Social Infrastructure

India shining & India rising are all about economic might. This is where we have forgotten how weak we are when it comes to social infrastructure. Maybe that is one of the reasons why we have been a developing nation for decades.

This is right. That is wrong. What will the society say? What will the society think? Hell! We are the society. We must make it stronger, not weaker. Be the strength and support the victims need, not merely ‘an outraging lot’ that forgets their purpose in a few weeks. Remember, how we outraged for issues like Reservation, and then Corruption? Then we forgot it all. DON’T LET IT GO!

4. “A suggestion for Mr Shinde, Home Minister: Why doesnt the Govt put up hoardings everywhere, saying: Rape Strictly Prohibited?” – Pritish Nandy’s tweet. (@PritishNandy on twitter)

You may find it funny, you may find it annoying. I find it worth doing. Hoardings like this can help us remember what we must not forget. This message is not just for rapists, but for the society also.

5. Government? Who?

You see we don’t need the government and politicians for the cause of making the society a better place. We find it easy to blame the government and move on. Let’s say, the government is hopeless, then what?

Those hoardings could even be put up by NGOs or private firms, or even local clubs. The government should know what it needs to do. We, on our part, should know how important our social infrastructure is. If a government fails to establish and implement policies, why vote for them?

THIS IS NOT THE END. 

You can come up with your ideas and share them wherever you can. Or you can even share this post. Do anything to spread awareness. Put an effort. KEEP IT GOING

The following text was added later:

Addition 1 - 

I just sent an email to justice.verma@nic.in suggesting how we can put an end to Rape and crimes against women. Along with the points above I added this one -

Let's have an annual 'Crime against women' evaluation (like we have annual railway budgets) presented live by the "Minister of Women's Affairs"

The performance of the government can be evaluated in this way, and the government will always have a "motive" to improve policies and thereby their own performance.

Things that should be covered in the report:

• Rate of crime against women as compared to the preceding year
• New policies/laws proposed and brought into effect in the current year.
• Status of existing cases of crime against women (Nos. of pending cases closed; Nos. of cases in process currently etc)
• India's ranking on the list of "safe countries for women" and the reason for it's performance, whether good or bad.
• Rehabilitation and support for victims - initiatives and performance.
• Plan for the next year.

 I hope this gets implemented someday soon!

Addition 2 - 

I have come to know that an app similar to what I was thinking of, already exists. It's called 'FIGHTBACK' Go ahead, install it. Be safe.