Morning Bustle

This is not how I wake up everyday. The same time any other day yes even a weekend would like quite bustling. It is not the alarm that wakes me up each day. Weekends definitely its my pet Leo. Weekdays are such a routine that you do not need an alarm to wake up to a busy day ahead.

Any other day the same time when I open the balcony doors I see the same picture. Same people, same places and same routine. Two boys, a Mom & a Girl Kid waiting for their school bus. I wonder why do they need to wait! Are the school buses not on time or these people getting ready way early? Moms yelling at their kids in the lobby, elevators hurrying them to schools. I can hear somebody running a mixer or a pressure cooker screaming on top of its voice with just a zest. Cars running in and out of the apartment dropping their kids off to school. Paper boy. Milkman. Maids. People waiting for their cabs, lost in deep thoughts. Though their eyes wander here and there I know their minds are present somewhere else. Only thing that could bring them back to this world is their cab driver honking. Morning walkers. Walking their pets. I exactly know what times who would pass by my apartment or who would cross by me when I take Leo out for a walk.

School buses, cars filling the entire roads like a highway, that I really find it difficult to even walk on the streets around my apartment. Especially the school buses run like ambulance. Is this how busy our mornings are? Is this what we wake up to?

But today was different. I as such woke up late to find a blissfully quite world. Silence. Peace. Serenity. Even the sun who fills my entire dining room with his warmth, did not bother to come out of the clouds. Not even a single person was on the road. No vehicles. No sounds. No one bothered to start the day as if the entire world was put to some spell. As far as me, I happened to have missed that spell that I woke up to such a beautiful morning to witness how peaceful it could be. With a hot cup of coffee, Leo by my side, like everyday I stood in my balcony, at the same place. Watching the empty roads, tall buildings far away guessing how far they actually are, lush green trees swaying gently with the morning breeze, mystic skies not telling you if its going to be sunny or a rainy day.

 I wish life is as peaceful as today not because there is a bandh, but because each of us need to stop for a while. To breathe.

Good Morning.

Fear Of The Unknown

There is no greater creation than giving birth. Mother is the only God I know. Rather Parents are the only Gods I know. I cannot imagine what the parents go through in protecting, raising the life they created. How much can you protect? How I wish the world is all gooey, warm even if its dark. Like a Mom's womb. So that I can just float around in the safety and comfort of endless dreams.

One of my close friends recently asked me to inquire about the best school in town for her 3 years old daughter who will be ready for school next year. How much planning ahead do we do for our kids? Planning before even the kid entered the world. Does everything go as per our plans? And from what I knew, I suggested her this place and I see that the same school today is in news with a 6 year old girl being raped right in the school premises. Is anything in this world a safe place? Is such a thing a myth?

And the school is trying to protects its name from media. Do they even realize what they are doing as an educational institute? Whom are they trying to protect? School's prestige? The Staff? Their Profits? As a school isn't it THEIR responsibility to expose the culprits and do the justice to the parents and kids? Shouldn't it be the school the first to file the case with police. Till now the names of the culprits have not come out. Why doesn't media use their network to pull their names out?
Unfortunately I happened to see a video by Aaj Tak, where in this lady is interviewing the Delhi Gang Rape Victim and Survivor. She is taking him to the same exact places from where Nirbhaya & her friend hired an auto, where they got down and the bus they boarded. I am never ever going to watch Aaj Tak channel. Heights of stupidity. You can watch the video here. This shows to what levels media has stooped down and how good they do their job.

Few of my friends/ colleagues have their kids studying in the same school and they were speculating if its one of theirs. Seriously? Who the victim is of such importance to you? They may have good intentions behind doing this, which I may not understand. But what good does it do you, knowing the kid or her parents. Are you going to provide moral support? Yeah right, that is all we are capable of doing. Ain't it?

And am shocked to see people lecturing on teaching the kids, dressing style etc. How does what a girl wears or how she behaves or what she talks seduce somebody? That too a 6 year old girl. Why is that we have this tendency to defend? Defend the accused, unless you relate yourself to the accused what reason on earth do you have to defend the culprit and give advise to the victim? I have seen this in many a places. Pity comes into picture and somehow showing pity makes people feel like Gods. Do they even realize what damage they are doing to others lives who really are the sufferers? No one has right to take someone's life not even the court, but death is the easiest punishment. Everyone talks about punishment but why do we miss prevention? How can we not have such incidents happening in the first place?

If a normal day-to-day activity of sending your kid to school is such a threat that you would not know what would happen to her/ him, how can you ever be in peace through out your or your kids life?
This is just one incident. How about the accidents? How about the filth, the bad that lingers around almost everything nowadays? There is no way I can teach my kids that right will only result in right. That being good is not a weakness but a  virtue. 

Do I ever want to bring a life into such a place? A place where there is no safety, truth, justice or good? Where everything is corrupt. On my favorite show there is a quote which tried to answer my question - "The World changes when good people raise their babies right". I dont think so. I know for sure that the kid would only end up being a victim or the best case a loner with no one around to trust.

Also posted on MouthShut.