Ravi has gone

A few days ago, I shared the story of Ravi, a watchman's son and one of the 400 million children in India. He came to school every day wearing the same tattered clothes, yet always remained calm and cheerful. I had the chance to teach him a few times and found that he excelled academically. His only area for improvement was English, as he came from a Hindi-medium school. Ravi was consistently present at school and eager to learn, but then he vanished. He never returned after the Christmas vacation.

Kaushik suggested that Ravi might be on an extended break and would return later. I waited, but Ravi never reappeared. One day, Kaushik informed me that he had visited Ravi's home and learned that Ravi had left with his family for Uttar Pradesh without notifying anyone. He left just as he was about to complete 2nd grade and advance to the 3rd grade. I had planned to support Ravi's education financially and in other ways, but he was gone. I wanted to confront his parents, to ask them how they could make such a decision. This child had potential and could have become someone, but now he has been denied even a basic education. I felt heartbroken, helpless, and sorry for Ravi. He represents one of the millions of Indian children with great potential who yearn to study but are deprived of the opportunity. I hope he gets to pursue his education someday.

It is a startling fact that India, a rapidly developing nation boasting impressive industrial growth and economic progress – with 70,000 crores spent on hosting the Commonwealth Games, 1.5 lakh crores lost in telecom spectrum auctions, and a chief minister spending 4,000 crores on parks and statues bearing her name – only has 15% of its population reaching high school and 7% graduating. Our national education budget is not even half of what was spent on the Commonwealth Games.

** I wanted to paste Ravi's pic in classroom but unfortunately I don't have one. I have seen him studying and it looks exactly like someone praying...

The One in Life

Agar khud par hosla rakhon to main sekdo se bhi lad jaunga,

Aur agar na rakhon to khud hi ladkhada kar gir jaunga.

life is all about finding that one thing
you really care about.
That one special thing
that means more to you than
anything else in the world.
......And when you find it,
you fight for it.
You risk all
You put it
in front of everything...
your future, your life...
all of it.

Even if I try and put in my best to explain by what I mean by this I might not do justice to it. It's very introspective, just introspect.

I Kept Faith

Day before yesterday (18th Feb, 2011) I met with an accident. Though I was not unscathed but I definitely escaped any fatal injury. Seconds after (seconds) I was up on my feet analyzing my torn trouser, bleeding knee, bruised left hand and ready to move again on my scooter. The people, who gathered to help, asked me to sit and take some breathe but to stop and let my pain and blood be seen is the last thing I wanted after the skid. I don’t know why I try to skip the fact that even I can be hurt, be vulnerable at times. I just hold back these emotions and smile and say, ‘I’m as good as I can be’.

Where did this ‘As good as I can be’ come from. Why am I growing too conscious and too fearful of everyone around, even the best friends of mine? I hope there is no pride in me, just some emotional issues that I needed to resolve within myself. It’s harder than anything I have ever had to do before. I knew the fact that the world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows but somehow was protected for long from every dark night. This world is a mean and nasty place, and things hit you so hard sometimes that you dare not get up again. I was hit hard and I didn’t want to be hurt again so I remained on my knees… still moving but on my knees. I could have taken a lot more and kept moving. That day, the same day when my accident happened, I got this message from my friend, ‘Hey r……whr r u? Y hv u disappeared???? :( ’. I never disappeared but I was apprehensive. I really wanted to hear from you. I was feeling low, quite low. I expect many things from myself and my friends, and when I don’t get them I grow impatient. I try to communicate something and when anyone understands me I feel some optimism, calmness… in simpler terms I feel good. Thanks God for guarding my faith in people, in love and in life.

I had to make a note of it and remember this day. There will be many times in my life when I will be hit hard and feel that I have problems that I can never solve, there will be times when I’ll feel that life is unfair and too painful to live. But I’ll have to keep going as I know every problem is not going to last forever. Now I am back on my feet… moving and what I did that evening was to call up a friend, an almost forgone friend and told him how much I missed him. I invited him for dinner on Sunday and we felt nice, happy… yes we, I could feel the vibes :)

The Humbles

I know the winners and I have seen them,
I know what winners are like
Winners are not like you and me.
They do not mourn, they do not rejoice
They do not cry, they do not smile.
They don't have time for all this
Until they cover the extra mile.
They don't do all this
Until they reach the destination they sight.
I have seen winners and they are not like you and me.

Winners are not born, they do evolve
Time challenges them and they fight with a resolve.
They can't be stopped, they can't be destroyed.
You can put hurdles, you can try to resist
Winners are winners and they know how to exist.
I have seen Winners and they are not like not you and me.

The end may also be the beginning

Before I started writing this today, I re-read my previous posts. The year that was, not a great one though rather rough, but it had a beautiful beginning and a beautiful end. It had all the flavors love, laughter, pain... surety, uncertainty... decisions- right and wrong... hearts- pure and shallow... people- good and bad, but I survived them all with my spirit of being me :) 
I'll live like this till the last. I won't mourn over yesterday cause I have a lot to celebrate than to waste time over the blows that were struck. I just won't turn back to people who turned their back on me, for I know it is easy to hurt but difficult to heal. I will live my life to the best and work hard till my muscles ache and keep going on until the life comes to an end. I will welcome my day with love in my heart, make new friends, cherish the older ones, capture tears from their eyes, spread smiles all around. They might not hear me, they might not trust me, they might reject me but I'll win all the hearts, with the gift of God that I have. I will live with my belief that I am God's son and He'll protect me unless I'll do anything wrong. I might not know the significance of the things that I do but I'll do them as it is important for me to do that. I'll strive to make the impossible possible, I'll strive to power my dreams. If life tries to knock me down, I'll get back up, I know the only thing that defines me is not how I look, what I eat or drink, whom I meet but what I do. After all it's better to die trying to live meaningfully and achieve something than just trying to feed ourselves.