HOW WEALTHY YOU REALLY ARE?? : BEING SELFLESS

There are times when I sit silently in front of my laptop unable to write, unable to deliberate. Sometimes my thoughts just seem so tangled within one another like a variable mass of ideas and believes. I think about one and another follows but then they never seem to make sense when put all together. 

As I look back now and think about the word selfless, I have never seen anybody being selfless to be honest. My mother was selfless but then again all of our mothers are. Besides her I can't recall one single person being selfless. May be I grew up in a selfish society. Come to think of it now, I really think I must have grown up in a selfish society. I think its true because one thing that I have always experienced is when you are constantly surrounded by the same kind of people, attitude, environment and you don't seem to like any of it, all you want to do is make a change and be different. As a kid my idol was Mother Teresa. My mother knew that so she'd get me books on her and I'd seldom read in the library during my school days. 

I remember an incident very clearly. It was one of those jamming days in school. I was in my school's first ever rock band and I was a happy person because I was doing the things that I loved at that time. 

I had this diary I'd carry around. On it I had written a few songs and some guitar chords. I basically wrote down everything I could or felt like besides the songs and the chords. One day some of my class mates were going through my diary, as it could be so easily taken out of my bag. I had gone out for a bit during the recess and came back and found them laughing. I went and asked them "why are you all laughing?" in a very jovial manner as they were my friends and I always felt the need to be included. One of them told me "Kako, your idol is Mother Teresa?" I said yes but asked them "why?" They laughed at me again and told me that I seemed old fashioned.  Let me ask this to you all, it is bad to have an idol like Mother Teresa as a teenager and not some famous actor, singer, player?? Seeing them laugh hurt me more that day because they were my friends and friends are supposed to have each others backs, not go about laughing at each others likes and dislikes...

Today as I have grown up to be what I am it is not only ironical but people think its hard to believe because I am not the person I was surrounded by or grew up with. I am a completely different me. It was long before I noticed it myself when people thought I was kind and hence weak. I don't believe its even just to say that if a person is kind and loves to share the love, he or she is weak from within or is looking for love in return. Now that I look back, I see my self with a kind of innocence that perhaps at that point of time I think was only natural. No child is born selfish, or kind. A baby is just a mass of bones, muscles and blood. They with their fresh mind soak in whatever is being fed. Teach a child to be bad and selfish they will be, teach them to love and share and they will. No body taught me how to be selfless or selfish or how to live my life to be honest. I just gradually grew and found out on my own. My mother used to tell me as kid to love and share but she also warned me to defend my self when there was a need because when people know you are kind to them they automatically feel like you can be taken advantage of. I don't know why but she constantly felt the need to tell me to be strong otherwise the world could break me. Just because I didn't believe her as a child and constantly believed everyone to be just the same as I was, kind, smiling, cheerful, non-judgemental, accepting people the way they were, trustworthy, easy to talk to and always there to help someone in need, I have been broken down on many occasions. So to say I learned it the hard way. It wasn't long when I had found out there were some nasty people in this world who were more selfish then a cat to be honest. And I'm not saying that cats are bad. Yes they seem adorable to many but deep within them it is so clear that they are mysterious and dark. 

Sometimes when I ponder on being selfless I wonder how rich are you really because to me being selfless is a wealth. You are a wealthy person if u have the love and smiles and blessings of many in your heart. The thing you don't have to worry is "will I get the same love in return" because in you heart you are satisfied, you are happy, ever ready to help. Being monetarily rich with no friends and family to love and care for, no people to call you up and talk to, no one to remember you and you remember of, is the last thing that i'd ever want to experience as an old person siting on a mansion of my own, materialistically having all the things I could possibly think of having but no one in this world to share it with. I would't want to adopt a dog just so he'd keep me company beside the fire, during the last cold winter days of my life. I want to be able to hold someone's hand and share what is within me. I want to be able to be sure that I have fulfilled what my heart desired to fulfill and what I wanted to accomplish in this life time (one of them being selfless) just so I could die peacefully without a shadow of doubt.

I saw this video today and it got me so motivated to write. I was literally crying towards the end. It got me so inclined to be selfless all over again. To be completely honest with you right now "YOU" are just a screen in front of me and to you I'd like to write as if nobody is watching. To you I'd like to say that I don't want to change one bit of me because I worked really hard to become what I am today and will go on working hard, whether its likable or not. I only reason with myself on one thing that is will I ever be able to change the heart of somebody today into being a better person? Because I trust that, the joy it will bring, you cannot capture it by a mere camera alone. It can be only captured by your eyes, framed by your heart and kept to cherish forever it in your mind.

Viva la revolución : A PLEDGE TO VOTE

Did you know that the General elections to the first Lok Sabha of Independent India was held in the year 1951 and the polling station for this first general elections ever, was set up at Kalpa in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh? 

Meet Mr. Shyam Negi, who retired as a government primary school teacher in 1975. He has fathered 10 children and is now 97 years old. Mr. Negi is the first voter of independent India and presently the oldest voter alive. Mr. Negi in this video says, "Today is a very special day, an opportunity to do a great work. In those days, there was a lot of heavy snowfall and here in the cold weather, the roads got closed early. That is why our turn came 6 months before any other state. Even today I can recall, that happiness, that feeling of pride which I had felt that very day. Whether it is snowing or raining, I fulfill my duty every single time and even today I feel the same happiness and pride, I had felt before." 

Mr. Negi, he doesn't need glasses but is hard of hearing. He is an old man and even so he walks to the polling station every single time to vote. By far he has voted 15 times for the Lok Sabha and 11 times for the Vidhan Sabha elections.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/meet-shyam-negi-independent-indias-first-and-oldest-voter/1/223616.html

Seeing a person like him makes me question. It makes me question about us, the first generation Indian voters, are we playing our part? Are we taking up the responsibility of making this nation strong and united?

We all know that most of us have already lost hope in India. Many of us feel like nothing can be done. Many of us sit at home on the voting day with the "India ka kuch nahi ho sakta" attitude and bawl about how badly India is degrading. We try and count the number of uncountable murders and rapes taking place in various parts of our country and complain about how these murderers and rapists are not put into trial. We loath the Indian police for failing to take responsibility and stand as the voice and protector of the innocent. We feel helpless looking at the powerful who like to gamble with the lives of the underprivileged. We seldom feel like a sheep, our hands and legs tied up with an iron chain, being muted by the throat and a butcher slaying us slowly, one tiny stoke at a time. Each day we bleed, pain stricken and voiceless, our hearts full of fear and misery. We are slowly dying and the only solution we come up with is to get out of this country as soon as we can to live a better life, in search for a voice and the democracy we have been denied. 

They say, India is the largest democracy in the world and that the Constitution of India is the longest constitution in the world. It proclaims to be a sovereign, democratic and republic but being a first generation voter myself, whatever happened to these proclamations I wonder.

Nothing can be done to this country...So why should we vote, you ask?? 

Well, today I'm not only talking about my views and opinions but I'm also backing myself up with some facts. I request you to understand that if we do not step up today, tomorrow will be too late to take action. 

According to the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR), India the following facts have surfaced: 

In this diagram we are able to see that in the Lok Sabha there are a total of 543 MPs out of which 162 MPs have pending criminal cases against them. That makes about 30% of MPs corrupt in the Indian parliament.

                              

In this diagram we are able to see that in the Vidhan Sabha or the State assemblies, out of 4032 MLAs about 1264 have pending criminal cases against them. That makes about 31% MLAs corrupt in the state assemblies.

                

Now you might probably wonder if these criminals who decide the way we should live our lives have been punished or not. My friend, the answer is NO. All these criminals who are given the utmost right of making laws in this country, who are chosen to bring justice in India are themselves criminals in the eyes of justice. They have not only violated some major rules and regulations of this country but also have done some serious offenses like: 

                                                       

The shock and the irony of it all is that these criminals who are charged with all of the above mentioned serious offenses only have mere charges framed against them but no FIR have been registered in their name. Now you can imagine if this is the state of Indian government and the law makers of this country are the corrupted ones themselves than how can the normal people looking for justice ever get justice?                                            

Be the voice!!

I remember as a child I used to read in the books that India is a developing country. 21 years of my life has gone by but even now India is still developing. The Gross National Income of India is 4.749 trillion PPP dollars and out of 180 countries in the world India ranks 53 from below. During election time we complain about the corrupted using their money power to buy votes through their vote banks. They promise to give mobile phones, refrigerator, color tv, washing machines. Hell! they even go to the extent of paying off all the bills of an household in order to get their votes. They normally target the poor underprivileged parts of our society. Another fact, according to the World Bank, about 32.7% of India population fall below poverty line of US$ 1.25 ( i.e. 75.01 INR) per day while 68.7% live on less than US$ 2 (120.01 INR) per day. 

Facts like these are insane and makes me wonder that if these leaders are actually gaining from and taking advantage of the poorer groups of the society by forcefully taking away their fundamental rights then why on earth would they ever think of developing these parts of the society? People being poor is an advantage to them so they can mute their voices and take away their most basic fundamental right through money power!

Change cannot be bought at once, change is a gradual process. If you want to change the system than be the system. Be the voice and make a change. Make people aware, organize campaigns, impart free education and awareness to the less fortunate sectors of India. To the children, to the youth and to the old. When we are aware, we can make others aware. I know its not an easy affair but it is definitely possible. If only 1 person out of 10 vote, than how can we expect a change?? Is it even logical?? If 10 out of 10 people vote than we can ignite a tiny spark. Another 10 people's vote will ignite another tiny spark and slowly, if each and every one of us make our voices heard we will create a fire. A fire of change. 

Is it understandable now? How much one vote is worth? How much of a difference one vote can make? How much potential we have as voters to make a change in the Indian map? Elections are approaching, there is an immense stress on the importance of choosing the correct leaders. Please let us pledge to vote friends, its now or never. If you've ever watched the movie V for Vendetta you'll understand this: "Isn't it that beneath this wrinkled well-fed exterior there lies a dangerous killing machine, with a fetish for Fawkesian mask, viva la revolución!"

Be the change. Make the change. Vote.