Rain.. :-) or :-(

Rain always brings happiness along- be it for farmers, school children (classes cancelled), lovers and for those who longed for it. Even i feel happy when it rains, for reasons obvious to all- No college, rest from all spheres and all you want to have is a hot cup of tea/ coffee, maggi or garam pakodas... I am already salivating since today again it's raining. Well, all these are the positive sides of rain and till today for reasons unknown to me, i have been in love with the rainy season..
But it has a dark side too. The death of school children in stampede in a Government school yesterday sums it all up and especially when the stampede takes a communal conflict. In our country, each problem seems to go in a vicious cycle, giving rise to other problems. Rain -> Communal Discord -> ?? (What next)... This is just one example. (Read Hindustan times/Indian express for further information regarding this news)..
The water logging that takes place in Delhi, due to poor drainage system and subsequently the traffic jams- all adds up to the miseries of people.
For me also, rain didn't bring much happiness this time. As i had to cancel going for my field work, which has become extremely important to me. And making excuses to convince your supervisor is another sad part. Well, it wasn't that hard to convince my supervisor but the feeling of guilt somehow hits me.

So to sum it up, each event has two sides- good and bad. And lets adapt ourselves accordingly rather than blaming other's. I can understand how hard it is for those family members who lost their children but let's not evoke communalism among ourselves. Before being a Hindu or Muslim, we all are human beings and lets respect ourselves and others for that. What our ancestors have created for us, needs to be rationalised and not blindly followed in the name of God...

What say?

p.s. I am not trying to relate my personal incident with the stampede that happened followed by the death of students; obviously the latter one is an irrepairable loss to the families.. And i offer my condolences to these families...

What is DEVELOPMENT??

Pravah and Internship from Sunderbans has helped me change and question my own views regarding various things, one of which being Development... What is Development?
Well, if you ask me what my views were before internship, i would have said -
1. Infrasturctural development
2. Modernisation
3. Education for all
4. High income, etc

But now i see development as a positive social change, which in our contemporary Indian society will happen very slowly. Its not just economic development but development in all spheres- social, political, economic and basically development of capacities of people. In internship, i could see development of women through SHG's- their financial independence;even though at home same women might fall victim to the subjugation by their male members. Because that is how we women are socialised- to remain dependent on male members.. At young age, its your brother;later on your boy-friend (probably); then husband and later on your son. And this chain of dependency on men can be broken only by women. That would be called Development..
Just by building institutions, making schemes (which dont even reach the masses) and spending huge amounts of money on Common Wealth Games will not ensure development. We are copying west and doing discrimination with our own people and making them more poor by building dams, metros, malls; when 70% of our rural population can not afford going to malls and even using metros. Even they dont get electricity. 70% of rural populations is bearing the burden and facing displacement just for 30% urban population.. How fair is that? And we talk about fundamental rights- Right to equality, Right against exploitation.. We have everything in India but that is just written and not implemented.
Merely copying the west in its developmental approach and not looking at the needs of our people is not going to take us towards a positive move and we all need to realise this. We are a democratic nation and we have all the right to demand justice for all and if Government fails to do so, then we have to take action. Development should be for all and shouldnt cost anyone; not on the theme of maximum benefit with minimum losses bacause who is to decide that who will bear that cost? Just because people are illiterate and a victim of circumstances, doesnt mean that we have any right to further victimise them. They are humans too and the sooner we all realise, sooner we will move towards growth, prosperity and success.

Internship @ Sunderbans

The excitement of going to a new place is always accompanied with many apprehensions and a fear to adjust with the place, moreover when you know that you are gonna go to an altogether different social environment- a rural place. Same happened with me as i was packing my bags to go to the place.. There were many feelings simultaneously going on in my mind like the feeling of happiness, fun, fear, concern, adventure etc..
So finally was off to Sunderbans (with 2 more friends) with huge luggages, which we didnt realise while leaving from Delhi.
The journey began with lotes of hopes, expectations and a force to change the world for betterment; with the enthusiasm to discover a new place and have fun friends to optimal level; with the motivation to get out of comfort zone and be ready for challanges.
Fun, tea, gossips, making videos, clicking photographs, munching, excitement all followed in the train. The girls, oops the smart girls, as complemented by agency supervisor, were expected to stay the whole night in some Railway Yatri Niwas at Railway station...and this terrified us bad.. All horrified what to do, the same supervisor came to our rescue and picked us up from the station and dropped us at the Kolkata head office (Sabuj Sangha).. As social workers, we are though expected to do anything and everything but as human beings, getting scared is a natural process...
Next early morning, we were off to Sunderban.. The moment i was in Sunderban, i was totally mesmerized by its scenic beauty and calmness. But with time and in the period of one month, i realised that this beauty is enwrapping the gloom beneath it- the flood prone area and the recent cyclone (AILA) that had struck the coastal areas of West Bengal added to the heaps of miseries of people. Poverty is a major setback to the progress of people and the reason of their migration from this place to other areas where they would get livelihood opportunities. And what do they do? They mostly migrate to either work in cold storage and mills, to work as domestic maids and get basically involved in manual jobs. Our system pays to the brains and not the hard working hands. And is this leading to further discrimination and stigmatisation of those classes who lack bookish knowledge, skills (as is accepted by the larger society)? Are we creating more disparity than trying to reduce it? Well, these are some personal conflictual questions which keep raising within me, when i think about this place.
Anyway, from getting exposed to a rural place to getting adjusted in the place- everything has imbibed within me adaptiveness, struggle to learn and discover, being open and has helped me to be self-aware and i realised finally that small thins make a huge difference in our lives and these learning will keep unfolding from time to time...

Internship has made me learn to value things in life and to love all without discrimination because situations have forced us to be what we are.. May be even we would have born in a weaker section and then how would we feel to face ridicule, shame, humiliation, disgrace, dishonor by the dominating sections??