From Floppies to CD's and toffees to 'beedies' !!
It rained heavily that evening with thunderstorm. After a long spell of humid air rains brought a favourable change. I called up my friends in our society to have a chat. We had a consensus on a movie at PVR Priya. Six friends on three bikes, what had been decided to make the day more memorable. We had an accurate expectation of Traffic jam on the outer ring road. After curling and bending through the gaps between the vehicles-the only fun to ride bikes, we finally reached Munirka and then we took left for Priya.
We stopped at a traffic signal and like other signals we waited for it to go green. Apart from it the rains brought the green theme in the atmosphere. The trees and grasses looked greener. Half dead flowers appeared as a bed of cushion on the wet road. A very lively looking girl, Jugnu aged six or seven (by an estimation) played marbles with her friends close to her home in one of the organised slums in Vasant Vihar. She was very keen to defeat her friends in the game and her friends, too were adamant on a strike they believed had been faked.
I decided to intervene and asked my friends to get the tickets in the interim. They were shocked at my unapologetic response. Finally they stranded me at the traffic signal and left for PVR. I asked Jugnu if I could help her. 'Saab aap jao, aisa to hum roz karte hai' (Sir you please go, we do it everyday) exclaimed Jugnu. I gave her the same chocolate which my wife had given me few hours earlier. She first refused to take which kind of surprised me a lot-chocolate being the favourite of every kid. Then on being forced she snatched it and ran towards her slum colony probably to her home. I followed her to take a look at the slum and how people dwell there. Small kids between 8 to 15 were busy in smoking which could be anything from tobacco to ganja. I stepped forward to stop them but then retracted my steps. Jugnu handed her chocolate to a kid who could be her brother. He, instead threw it on the sand. Jugnu picked it and went inside her home.
I was amazed at this gory sight which reminded me of the transformation these impoverished kids were going through. Not very long ago chocolates or toffees made them happy and they used to gather in groups to relish them. Now 'beedies' or Cannabis have taken over them. Childhood of kids is largely tunneling into the world of darkness. Without knowing the implications they simply know these are the materials of ecstasy.
If I rewind my present life to school days then it would remind me of school uniforms, terrifying home works, notebooks and textbooks cluttered into a fashionable school bag. It would be hard to forget Floppies which was a buzz word during that period. Floppy Disc was a magnetic storage medium which used to store usually a very small amount of data. A normal 3½ inch disc used to store not more than 1.5MB data. Storing a presentation or a video file was a dream. Then CD's have taken their place and it brought a huge transformation in the world of data and storage devices. With every revolution in IT , the ease of doing and carrying work was prioritized and so CD's slowly became the integral part of this journey.
The question is 'Are we really advancing?' ' Is it benefitting every strata of society?' -The answer is 'may be not'. In this journey from 'Floppies to CD's' we had advanced to a new light of sophistication but the negative journey from 'Toffees to Beedies' brought us to a world of shame, contempt and humiliation. The insipid youth needs right direction and education to start a positive journey and we all have to hold hands to grow them up in the society. Probably then we can find answers to the questions raised above.
After all these I headed straight to PVR Priya and joined my friends in the interval. They shouted at me but I smiled at them as the whole "Jazbaa" stood glorified though in a different way.
I am with you.
Rajesh
We stopped at a traffic signal and like other signals we waited for it to go green. Apart from it the rains brought the green theme in the atmosphere. The trees and grasses looked greener. Half dead flowers appeared as a bed of cushion on the wet road. A very lively looking girl, Jugnu aged six or seven (by an estimation) played marbles with her friends close to her home in one of the organised slums in Vasant Vihar. She was very keen to defeat her friends in the game and her friends, too were adamant on a strike they believed had been faked.
I decided to intervene and asked my friends to get the tickets in the interim. They were shocked at my unapologetic response. Finally they stranded me at the traffic signal and left for PVR. I asked Jugnu if I could help her. 'Saab aap jao, aisa to hum roz karte hai' (Sir you please go, we do it everyday) exclaimed Jugnu. I gave her the same chocolate which my wife had given me few hours earlier. She first refused to take which kind of surprised me a lot-chocolate being the favourite of every kid. Then on being forced she snatched it and ran towards her slum colony probably to her home. I followed her to take a look at the slum and how people dwell there. Small kids between 8 to 15 were busy in smoking which could be anything from tobacco to ganja. I stepped forward to stop them but then retracted my steps. Jugnu handed her chocolate to a kid who could be her brother. He, instead threw it on the sand. Jugnu picked it and went inside her home.
I was amazed at this gory sight which reminded me of the transformation these impoverished kids were going through. Not very long ago chocolates or toffees made them happy and they used to gather in groups to relish them. Now 'beedies' or Cannabis have taken over them. Childhood of kids is largely tunneling into the world of darkness. Without knowing the implications they simply know these are the materials of ecstasy.
If I rewind my present life to school days then it would remind me of school uniforms, terrifying home works, notebooks and textbooks cluttered into a fashionable school bag. It would be hard to forget Floppies which was a buzz word during that period. Floppy Disc was a magnetic storage medium which used to store usually a very small amount of data. A normal 3½ inch disc used to store not more than 1.5MB data. Storing a presentation or a video file was a dream. Then CD's have taken their place and it brought a huge transformation in the world of data and storage devices. With every revolution in IT , the ease of doing and carrying work was prioritized and so CD's slowly became the integral part of this journey.
The question is 'Are we really advancing?' ' Is it benefitting every strata of society?' -The answer is 'may be not'. In this journey from 'Floppies to CD's' we had advanced to a new light of sophistication but the negative journey from 'Toffees to Beedies' brought us to a world of shame, contempt and humiliation. The insipid youth needs right direction and education to start a positive journey and we all have to hold hands to grow them up in the society. Probably then we can find answers to the questions raised above.
After all these I headed straight to PVR Priya and joined my friends in the interval. They shouted at me but I smiled at them as the whole "Jazbaa" stood glorified though in a different way.
I am with you.
Rajesh
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