The helping hands

It is around 07:00hrs in the morning, the morning fog is slowly disappearing due to the warmth of sun rays. A boy aged 10 years slowly picking up plastic waste and putting it in a bag which he is carrying on his shoulders. He is Kittu. He lost his parents in an accident two years back when he was studying in class 3^rd. After that he discontinued his studies, he survives on selling plastic waste to recycling companies in the city.

A busy railway station of a prominent city, Coromandal express just arrived on platform no.5, there is a coach S2. A boy aged 8 years slowly cleaning the floor in that coach and asking for money. He cleans the floor and at the same time observes the entire coach as well as passengers, gives information to the robbery gang. He is Balu. 8 years back someone left him in that station.

A renowned vegetable market near a metropolitan city, shop no.9, a girl aged 17 years assisting her parents in selling vegetables. She belongs to nearby rural area. Daily her parents bring vegetables by a govt. bus. She helps them in selling vegetables. She studied up to tenth (S.S.L.C). Later her parents forced her to discontinue her education citing financial issues. They call her Geetha.

There are so many children like Kittu, Balu and Geetha. Kittu wants to study but he does not have enough financial resources as well as guidance. Balu does not even know that a life called systematic learning (education) exists. Financial constraints limit Geetha in pursuing her higher education.

Everybody tells about problems…..what about solutions?! Yes, there is a solution…..all these children need some helping hands. Donate some amount from your earnings to a reliable helping foundation. If possible spare sometime for them. Initially I thought that it is not possible but when we started a facebook group “Helping hands”, it became real. An industrialist suddenly backed out from sponsorship of HOPE foundation citing financial losses in his firm. Those children were in need of note books and text books as they are going to start a new academic year. When we enquired, we realized that they cost around 32,000/-. Using facebook “Helping hands” group we promoted this and passed the information to friends, colleagues. And within a week we provided note books and text books to all those children. This incident made me to feel that we can do a lot to these children if we could spare a little time from our not very busy lives.

If our family supports, we can even adopt or sponsor an orphan for his/her entire studies. But this is too much for our society as it is still conservative. Many people used to say that life is boring….they feel unhappy and jaded. But the truth is that they deliberately keeping happiness away from them. Because whenever someone feels bored and gets depressed, the best thing to come out from it is to help the needy. Yes, you go to some orphanage, spend some time with them, I bet you will be relieved from all your tensions. I don’t know how it happens but it happens. Definitely you might have felt it at some point of time in your life, especially when you helped someone in need and it yielded good results. Was not it?

We adapt western culture, imitate westerns in terms of their life style but when it comes to western philosophy and social responsibilities, most of us never look at them. I wonder why it is?!

Most of us used to have more inclination towards materialistic things. It is not a bad thing to hate. Definitely we can have as we are earning so we have the right to spend it as we wish. We give costly gifts to our loved ones. We throw parties to friends, relatives for every possible occasion. Off course we can enjoy doing that. But what I perceived is we can have more fun and enjoyment in helping the needy especially orphans and old age people. When you give Rs.10/- chocolate to a 7 years old Ravi, his eyes sparkle with joy….it is not because of that chocolate but of a realization that someone is caring him. When you tell a story to a group of children, they listen with utmost care as if there is no world exists beyond the story. And you can’t value the joy we all experience in that moment. To do this it costs us nothing but gives them something, a something which is beyond a chartered accountant valuation.

An immediate reformation of society is very much required at this juncture in order to make future generation rich in knowledge as well as rich in personality.

And for that we need your “Helping hands”

మొత్తం మీద అలా జరిగింది!

నన్ను చూడకముందు తను నా కోసం ఆరాటపడింది

చూసాక నేను తన కోసం ఆరాటపడ్డాను

భాందవ్యాలకు విలువిచ్చే ఓ మనిషి దొరికిందనీ…..

నా భావాలను అర్థం చేసుకునే అమ్మాయి తను అనీ…..

ఆశపడ్డాను….అనుసరించాను….!

కానుకలివ్వలేనంది……అవసరం లేదన్నాను!

తనకు బాధ్యతలు ఎక్కువంది……పంచుకుంటానన్నాను!!

ఆస్తులు లేవంది…..సంపాదిస్తానన్నాను!

అప్పులున్నాయంది…..తీర్చేస్తానన్నాను!!

నా సిద్ధాంతాలు తనకు నచ్చాయంది!

మన భావాలు చాలా కలిసాయంది!!

నాకేదో అయిపోయింది, అంతా నిజమే అనిపించింది

మనసు గోల చేసింది, ఊహలలో ఊగిసలాడింది

అంతలోనే తన అభిప్రాయం తెలిపింది,

లాగి ఒక్కటిచ్చింది, గూబ గుయ్ మంది!

దిమ్మ తిరిగిపోయింది, నాకు బుద్ధొచ్చింది,

మనసుకి చిన్న గాయమయ్యింది, మందేస్తే మానిపోయింది!

మొత్తం మీద అలా జరిగింది!!

నీతి: ఈ తొక్కలో సిద్ధాంతాలు చెప్పుకోవడానికి తప్ప పాటించడానికి పనికిరావు బాసూ….., కాదు కూడదు ఇది నా వ్యక్తిత్వం, వంకాయ అంటావా……ఇంక నిన్ను ఆ దేవుడు కూడా కాపాడలేడు!

My first philosophical lesson!

A  WBM road which was recently laid by the state govt of Andhrapradesh, There were some mango trees with few mangoes beside the road. Behind those trees there was a hill called Peddakonda. The hill was situated near a village called Kondayyvalasa. A BSA company bicycle was slowly and steadily moving on the road. A little boy aged 7 years sat on the front seat of the bicycle which was meant for children. A man in his late twenties riding the bicycle carefully in order to give a comfortable ride to the child. The child was moving his head front to back and vice versa in such a way people may think the child himself riding the bicycle. The boy was humming a song and uttering the words “Ramba ho…..Ramba ho….ho….”, to make the boy happy, the man was also humming accordingly “Ramba ho….Ramba ho….ho…..”. As the bicycle was moving slowly, the man alerted himself and the boy to keep quite as he was approaching a railway track which had no guard guarding it. He stopped the bicycle, observed both sides of the two tracks and proceeded towards the other end. The young boy was observing all this in awe, now he is not at all humming.

I was that young boy and the man was my Dad.

Dad used to take me there to watch some movies, many times Telugu, sometimes Hindi and very few times English. There was a community welfare centre which was established by then newly constructed Vizag steel plant. They used to play movies on a white screen with some old or already used projectors. They would put mike sets for sound. Though the sound was loud, it would lack clarity often. Still I used to enjoy those movie shows.

Dad used to wake up at 06:00AM every day; I would get up along with him. I would try to imitate him in brushing my tooth with my tiny tooth brush. Fascinated by the taste of Colgate tooth paste, I would make most use of it. Yes you are right; I used to eat tooth paste whenever I get a chance to eat it. By observing my acts, dad always come to me and would teach me how to brush my teeth. Sometimes he would catch me while I am busy in eating the paste. I still remember, he tried several ways to stop me from eating tooth paste, eventually he succeeded.

Every day morning he would give me some home work which I should complete the same day evening. And I was always good in doing so. In the evening after completing my home work I would go to play games with my neighbouring children. One Unfortunate day I was not completed my home work. In the evening I forgot everything and went to play games near our village Ramalayam. I came home, had bath and was waiting for Dad along with Mom. Dad came, after he got fresh, he asked me “bring your homework, and let me check”. I was suddenly realised that I did not complete my home work. I admitted the same. Dad got angry with me; he punished me severely by hitting me on my back. I was shivering and crying. I eat nothing. Later after some time Dad came to me, I was still crying. He tried to console me, but I was not. He explained the necessity of completing a given task. I realised my mistake but still I did not stop my crying. He finally asked me to come and eat food along with him. I told him “I don’t eat this food”. Then he asked “what do you want?” I knew he would ask that. I immediately told him my favourite food….Cream biscuits. He told me “ok I will get them in half an hour, but you should stop crying”. I said “ok”. He took bicycle and within 10 minutes he came back, I heard bicycle sound, I thought he would come with biscuits but how come this early. Later I heard some noise which was not clear to me. But I could understand Dad was saying something to mom.

I slowly went to sleep thinking about cream biscuits. I woke up at 06:30AM as usual. But that day I was feeling very hungry. I went to mom and asked for some food. She told me to brush my teeth first. I did it hurriedly. Then Mom gave me my favourite cream biscuits. I was on cloud nine. I was very hungry and I have my favourite food with me. I ate all of them in a lightning speed. Again I heard some noise; mom was saying something to Dad. Dad finished his breakfast. Mom handed over him a lunch box.

I was ready to say bye to Dad as usual. But today Dad did not give me home work.  I was very happy because, the entire day I can play as I wish. I said bye to Dad, but to my surprise he was not riding bicycle instead he held the handle and walking with it slowly. After going for some distance he was checking the back tyre of the bicycle. I asked mom, why it is? Mom told that bicycle tyre got punctured. I asked mom “Then how Dad brought me biscuits yesterday night”. Mom told me “yesterday night itself it was punctured, Dad went to the shop by walk and came by walk, by the time Dad reached here, you were already in sleep, he did not want to disturb you, and hence I gave you biscuits in the morning”. I was shocked, because the shop was far away from my home (around 3KM). It means Dad went there by walk just for biscuits that to in night. After a while mom told me another shocking news that as I was slept with empty stomach, Dad did not eat anything and felt very bad for punishing me.

After an hour or two I forgot that entire episode and I became busy in playing games with my friends. In the evening Dad came and asked me whether I completed my previously pending home work or not. I said “No, I forgot”. He said nothing. Actually I was not forgotten but I thought that Dad would never ask me about it. The next day morning Dad gave another home work. I tried to complete it but suddenly I remembered about my previous pending home work. Then I tried to complete the previous one first. I got confused. Eventually I could not complete both home works. That evening I did not go to play games. I forgot the procedure for my previous home work and I could not understand the present one. I felt very sad.

Dad came in the evening and asked me about the home work. I told him that I could not make it as I was confused. I cried in front of him with shame. He then took me in his hands, put his right hand on my head and moved my fore head hair towards backwards. He did it affectionately for few minutes. Then he told me “You can avoid doing certain things but you cannot avoid their consequences”

He explained same to me in detail

“You avoided doing your previous home work in order to enjoy the games; you did not do it even after getting another day for it. But you have to move forward, you got another home work to do. Without completing the first one, you cannot understand the present one. You got confused. You can neither complete the previous home work nor attempt the present one. You could not escape the consequences and now you are crying because you felt like you are helpless”

I realised my mistake and its root cause. That was my first philosophical lesson which I got from my Dad.

I LOVE Balayya!

One day when I was in sleep, I got a call from home. I was told shocking news. That’s all afterwards though I need some sleep, I could not sleep! Though I was hungry, I could not eat! I was in a state of shock. I switched on my system to listen to some good music. But was of no use, I could get no relief. I tried to engage myself in watching some comedy movies of a Telugu actor Dr. Rajendra prasad. Even greatest comedy classics of Late Jandhyala (famous Telugu film director) and Vamsy (critical acclaimed Telugu director, noted for his out of the box classic comedy films) were unable to give any relief to my heartbreak. I was in confusion, I was in dilemma. What to do? What can be done? How should I react? My mind was running out of ideas….running out of everything!

Exactly at this juncture I got a message from a friend…..that reads

One day Telugu heroes went to a restaurant,

Chiru: Coffee, strong ga undali (coffee, should be strong enough)

Nag: Tea, sugar takkuvundali (Tea, put less sugar)

Venky: Boost, chikkaga undali (Boost, should be thick)

Balayya: Milk, white ga undali (Milk, should be white in colour)

Involuntarily I was smiling……..!

Then at that moment itself I realised that he is the man who can make me laugh. Immediately I entered I hate balayya sites (atually I love balayya). The funny GIFs, super funny photos and antics of Balayya. Creatively crafted spoofs what not each and everything that involves Balayya makes us laugh.

For instance, comparision between Spiderman and Balayya

Spiderman tries very hard to stop a running train whereas Balyya stopped the train just slapping his thigh with his hand! Wow! What an idea sir ji?! Spiderman nowhere near to our Balayya.

Another one, Balayya is the only man who can travel to Pakistan from India by using a parachute (Remember only one parachute). I bet, is there anyone can do it?!

If Balayya were to act in the following movies…..the titles would be

1. Avatar                                                                         Bavatar
2. Spiderman                                                                  Balliman
3. Superman                                                                   Booperman
4. Terminator                                                                  Berminator
5. Robot                                                                          Babot
6. Orange – O range love story                              Banana – Thokkalo love story
7. Titanic                                                                         Bitanic

 I laughed heart fully. After some 30 minutes, I was completely relieved from my tension. Hats off to Balayya! He did what no one could do for me. Hence I LOVE Balayya!

The modern JAILS!

My dearest friend Mr. Subbarao is a software engineer by profession. Recently he got a promotion and his salary increased significantly. With this new hike in salary he planned to get a loan to purchase a new flat in a posh area. He immediately went on search and in no time he got an apartment. After having a look at the interior of that apartment he was so impressed that instantly he paid advance and booked a flat.

After three months and consulting with a high class priest (people say that he can pick up an apt muhoorth for any individual, don’t know why people still suffer after going through these so called very effective and efficient muhoorths) my friend entered the flat with a grand opening ceremony. Everyone from relatives to friends to colleagues praised Mr. Subbarao for his excellent taste in choosing a flat. Mr. Subbarao is on cloud nine.

The first day, the second day…..the first week, the second week….all the flats were sold out, after one month the struggle started!

One day Subbarao was talking on the cell phone to his parents. He was doing it in the veranda of his flat. Suddenly someone came from outside and interrupted Subbarao saying that “Sir please don’t speak loudly or else go inside and talk”. Subbarao stunned and said “off course I am inside only this is my flat.” That someone who is actually a security guard of that complex said “that’s fine Sir but your neighbours may get disturbance” Subbarao said “they may get but not right now, is not it?” The guard said “Actually they complained Sir” Subbarao got sick and said “it’s ok”

Another day Subbarao’s child who is of four years old was playing in the veranda along with his father. He was screaming with joy by seeing his father’s antics in order to entertain him. This time a man in his early forties came to the flat without ringing the bell and asked Subbarao little rudely “Can you please maintain some silence and give us some piece”. Shocked Subbarao said nothing but nodded his head in acceptance. The confused child suddenly stopped screaming put his thumb of right hand in the mouth and came to his father slowly. He held his father’s right thigh tightly with his tiny left hand, still keeping the thumb of his right hand in his mouth. Subbarao forced himself to put a smile after having a glimpse of his child’s innocence face comprised with confusion.

Some other day as Subbarao was watching the TV, a lady in her early thirties came inside and asked him politely to reduce the sound. Subbarao wondered because in reality the sound was moderately low, he was thinking how this much low sound can make disturbance to others?! The reason was different, though the sound was low, the construction of apartment was in such a way, even a small sound can make into the others flat because the thickness of the partition walls between those flats is very less. At the same time most of the people living in posh apartments are little bit self absorbed who used to make it a point even for simple things.

After one week there was a society meeting in which the owner of the complex sat beside the chairman of the society with a bunch of documents. After confirming the arrival of all the residents of the complex the owner stood and informed all of them that from next month onwards they are going to revise the rules and regulations of the apartment complex. The details are as follows, he read out carefully

1. Service charges for water supply                        : 500/- per month
2. Service charges for security                                 : 700/- per month
3. Service charges for housekeeping and maintaining sanitation : 950/- per month
4. Service charges for providing communication facilities     : 1050/- per month
5. Service charges for electrical works and power supply       : 450/- per month
6. Service charges for complex maintenance works                  : 450/- per month
7. Service charges for providing entertainment to the residents : 400/- per month

Total charges per month per flat                                                        :  4500/- per month

Concession for all the flat owners                                                      : 25%

So total amount to be payable per month                                          : 3375/-

Per month 3375/- per annum 40,500/-. On realising this Subbarao almost got a heart attack.

All the flat holders raised their voice how you can do this? The owner simply showed them the documents on which the flat owners duly signed thus accepting the terms and conditions. Later he showed them the conditions which are in small font and at the bottom of the page.

During the agreement finalisation no one was concentrated on those tiny font words. Now all of the flat owners got a big blow.

Subbarao thought for a while, “we can’t speak on the phone as we wish even inside our flat, we can’t play with our children even inside of our flat, we can’t bring more relatives to the flat as per our wish even though the flat is owned by us, we can’t step in or step out from the flat without informing the security even though the flat is owned by us”

Subbarao now concluded that these apartments are nothing but “The modern JAILS”

The world through my camera lens -2

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From the running Train…..

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The world through my camera lens!

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A fortuitous meeting!

It was around 15:00hrs, I was eagerly waiting for the announcement regarding TATA – Yaswanthpur Exp. My eyes were struggling to focus on the distant display board which is showing the time schedules of various trains coming to Vijayawada station. The itinerant passengers were moving vigorously from right to left and left to right. Almost all of them were in hurry and all of their body language was similar to each other.

As I was busy in studying the people’s emotions over there, a man with 1980’s style specs and dressing came into the frame. He is super cool, his body language completely different from the herd. He is in his early fifties it seems. I did not know what prompted him to come to me but he came to me and asked

“Do you know when will Swarnajayanthi express arrive here?”

I said, “No, did not you enquire at enquiry counter?”

“Yes, I did! But they said, they don’t know”

He again asked me, “Where are you going?”

“Bangalore! You?”

He said “Delhi”

Again he asked me “what do you do?”

I said “I am working in L&T” (I thought that there is no need to mention the division)

He asked “which division?”

With little surprise, I told him “ECC Division”

And I asked him, “What you do?”

He smiled and told me that he is working in McKinsey & Company the top most business management consultants in the world.

He asked me “do you know about it?”

I said “No, but will know now!”

He slowly sat beside me and told “Your company is going stronger these days; it is also venturing into Hydro carbon and oil sector.”

“Yes it is”

“But in this company there is a lot of Chemchagiri it seems” he said

Astonished with that sentence, I asked him “Who told you?”

He said “Some of my friends who were once worked in this company”

I asked him “Can you give me an example”

He started the narration

One of my friends who is a management post graduate from California University decided to work in India due to family issues and chose this company. She worked hard and used to complete her work before the schedule. But she never got the deserved recognition for her efforts. Sometimes she worked late nights in order to complete her work in time. But her superiors never appreciated her and all the credit was gone to some other who never did anything appreciable. Later she discovered that it was all due to Chemchagiri!”

I told him, “You said that your friend was masters in management from California University but she did not even know how to manage her superiors. She worked late nights to complete her work in time; it means she was inefficient and incapable to complete her assignments within the prescribed time.”

He said “it is not all about efficiency but also about politics”

I told, “Politics are there everywhere, we need to be clever enough to handle the situations by using our presence of mind”

He said “You mean no need to care about ethics”

I told him that we can manage our superiors even without compromising our ethics, and the best example is the person you are talking to right now!

He asked me “How long you have been working in this company?”  

“For 6 years I worked in this company, then I went to abroad and came back due to some personal issues”

He asked me “is that due to recession?”

“No, it was due to some personal problems, after all this recession was not happened suddenly it was actually created”

Do you know how this financial crisis started?

I said, “Due to the sudden bankruptcy of some reputed banks of USA”

Off course! But do you know the real cause for this?

Not certainly!

Ok, I will tell you now!

He started explaining me the real cause of recession

“The process of the creation of recession in USA was started four years back itself. At that time there was a huge infiltration of Latin Americans into USA for several reasons. They came to the US and started some businesses. After earning some good amounts they wanted to build their own homes, so that they could settle down there permanently. But the US rules did not allow them to do so. Hence they decided to purchase new homes which were already built by US citizen. They went to banks to get the loans as they did not want to put their own money into it. Due to the competition in the banking sector, all the banks instantly gave them home loans without conducting any thorough enquiries.

And when the oil prices increased and dollar value came down (it was controlled by oil mafia in the US) all the Latin Americans thought that it was time to leave US now. As they had taken the home loans earlier they offered the respective banks to mortgage their newly bought homes in place of the debt. The banks did the same.

As the demand for new homes was rapidly come down, the banks were forced to reduce the prices of the new homes that they have taken over from the loan takers. But it was too late there were no takers. All the banks which are related to this lost their money and few major banks were bankrupted. The US citizen immediately went to the banks and asked for their money which is nowhere in the banks now. People who had money, kept it safely and deliberately stopped its flow.

In no time the entire world realised this and every one in every country followed the same and stopped the money flow instead safely secured it. And when there is no financial exchange there would not be any business, and when there is no business there would not be any services required, and when there is no services requirement there no need for employees. Thus the pink slips arrived and people lost their jobs.

A crisis was created and it was named “The recession””

Saying this he asked me “is it clear now?”

I said “Double clear!”

And I looked at my mobile, it was already 16:25hrs

I told him that I had to rush; he gave me his mail id and told me that he is an IIMA graduate of 1980 batch.

I was stunned! I was arguing with an IIMA graduate!!

P.S: The intention of me writing this article is nothing but to accentuate the simplicity of this highly calibre and knowledgeable person who in spite of his qualification and educational back ground valued my opinions and sometimes countered them even though I am nowhere of his age, experience or qualification

The lethal injection that has been killing billions of people since centuries!

There were certain rules and regulations in ancient India regarding war. Based on which it can be said that no one should attack their enemy immorally or in other words back stabbing is strictly prohibited. Women and children shall be spared from the war. If possible the loser can be left without any harm. (Remember Prithviraj Chouhan forgiving Muhammed Ghauri)

The first it was Muslims who invaded few parts of ancient India. Though they tried their best to infiltrate their religion into India, it was partly successful. But that was enough to spoil the Indianity (Don’t go for dictionary, it’s my invention) in Indians. By applying new stratagems during their rule, the invaders crooked down the Indian cultural aspects and finally infected a sizable nation.

Then arrived, European tribes. The Portuguese, Dutch, French and British who were already mastered modern war techniques (unethical and backstabbing techniques). The poor Indians were believed them and welcomed them thinking that they had come for business, but the Europeans thought otherwise. Particularly the British, who floated East India Company and started business activities from Kolkata (Then Calcutta). By using another outsider Meer Jafar, they successfully established their hold in India.

When Indians resisted their domination, they worked out a plan in order to safeguard their supremacy at that time and in the future as well. Thus born the idea of making English as an official language in India. All the major constitutional records were made in English and all the higher educational courses and the respective universities were instructed to opt for English as their main medium of teaching as well as learning. Eventually English has become the professional’s and educationist’s language and the people of India programmed to think about English as intellectual language. The British ploy was highly successful. Not only language, they made Indians to feel inferior and manipulated the poverty into helplessness which in turn made the poor Indians to show loyalty towards the British. They conquered the rich Indians culturally by projecting British culture and way of living as more attractive. Even today the so called rich Indians are proud to imitate western culture. Virtually the British blocked the minds of rich Indians and made them to follow their instructions. To do these all things the British mainly used the western philosophical ideas.

Thus, the lethal injection that was injected to Indians by Muslims and Europeans has been killing billions of Indians since centuries.

And now the Indians are no more Indians but “Muslimoeuropeanodians”