God wants you to be high!

There is an intention behind it all...
There is an intention behind all the people you meet,
And every conversation you make..

The conversations are louder than this line,
The people are brighter than this day,
Why else, If not for this high of a kind?
God knew you needed it now!

In his little own ways didn't he already say it?
God wants you to be high!

There is an intention behind it all...
There is an intention behind each road you've touched,
And every journey you've made..

Those clouds will be filled with the best drops,
The roads will be filled with the fog of your favourite kind,
Why else, If not for this high of a kind?
God knew you needed it now!

In his little own ways didn't he already say it?
God wants you to be nothing but high!

Pledged it, Lived it!

As soon as everybody gathered in the playground for an assembly under the scorching sun, The Principal took over the mic. That wasn't a very good news. He would either paste us for something  or announce new rules for the new year.

But when he started talking about the importance of green, it striked to us that it was, "The World Environment day"

The day we were all supposed to talk and discuss about the importance of keeping our environment clean and all of that.
But this year they started a new formality. The formality of taking an oath.

The oath read something close to this...
"being a citizen of this country,  I take a pledge that I will not litter, dirty or spoil my environment. I will, to the best of my ability protect the trees around me and save our planet"

The principal read this and we all re-sounded him with our hand up. That took a few minutes and ouch, that hurt.

This was 7 years ago and i proudly say that I have kept up with my pledge!

Photo courtesy:
memecenter.com, google.com

A sealed packet of Air!

Who knew that one day air could be sealed and sold?

What is he charging for? For, capturing air? To recover machine maintenance cost? Or for his other fixed expenses? 

Maybe, a proportion for all of it. But he is charging for capturing some possibly fresh, hopefully clean and omnipresent AIR!

For what? No! I am not here to tell you that.

We all buy a number of gadgets on a number of E-commerce sites and we know what difference that packet of air could do!

But go back by a few 100 decades!

Could be - Take whatever you want from wherever you want and do whatever you want with it! There is no gap between demand and supply whatsoever!

Could have changed to – Barter System – Take this from me and give that from yours. Because… Boss! Everything can’t be for free.

Is – Trade – Let me give you this at that cost and you could decide the cost at which you could sell that. Ofcourse…. Too much demand and too little supply.

Evolution it is! This is over a lot of years and beyond imagination. Now, keep that sealed packet of air (No! I Do not mean a packet of lays) in front of the guy in first scene and how do you think he would react?

Before you continue reading, think about his reaction.

This is what I could imagine.

Being the curious ones that we humans are, he picks it up and takes a closer look at it. Finds it funny but not at all appetizing and hence, decides not to eat. But since there was just one, it was more like a souvenir and he decided to preserve it.

With time, he died and entered The Earth and after passing a number of generations, now just an empty packet entered the earth too. 100’s of years later, that is now… someone were digging the ground and found this semi-decomposed polythene cover.

No! Not a lot of us know that polythene and plastic takes over a few 100 years to de-compose.

You litter and leave but that stays and hurts the planet for the next 100 decades to come!

Do not litter! There are better ways in which you could be Immortal.

The Joy in being "A Dustbin"

(Around 12 year ago when I was a school kid)

I aimed at a stone on the road and spat the chewing gum from my mouth straight onto it. Like most of those aims, my chewing gum landed short of my imagined destination. I looked down with disappointment and ‘raaaap’ went a strike on my head.

Someone hit me!

 Fierce fully I turned back to face my older sister.  She had a very irritated look on her face and she looked straight into my eyes angrily. Before I could recover from all those scary looks, she screamed... “Sai... what did you just do?

I very promptly confessed that I spit out a gum and that I was trying to aim it at something. She closed her eyes for a moment as if to think something and said, “Didn’t you know that you should always wrap a gum in a piece of paper before throwing it?” and looked at me questioningly.

“Ummmm no... But why?” went my answer straight.

“Because a gum thrown just like that can get stuck to someone’s foot wear, body or even worse… imagine it on your hair?? I’m sure you don’t want that to happen. Next time you throw a gum; you will wrap it in a piece of paper and throw it. Alright?”

My sister who was just another girl around me looked a little too cool to me that moment. Whatever she spoke made sense. And because it came from an “elder sister” her words automatically made a little more meaning. Without another word I nodded to her and decided to take the word seriously. That was the last time I ever spat a chewing gum without wrapping it.

One good practice and one halo on my head. It made me feel good.

(Around 9 years ago when I was a high school kid)

After attending a wedding, the whole family was driving back home. I finished the last sip of water in my disposable glass and left the glass flying outside the window. Oh!  that ‘raaaap’ again and no marks for guessing who gave it.

I turned around to look at her with a puppy face. She was as angry and irritated with me. Being a high school kid, I was not needed to be told about the harms “plastic”/ “polythene” cause to us and to the environment and how important it is for us to keep our surroundings clean. This time I was not explained or told. That look made me understand. I raised my hand apologetically and promised her not to repeat that again. That was the last time I threw waste anywhere other than a dustbin.

Two good practices and two halo on my head.

But with the second practice I had to counter quite a few consequences. I picked up fights with relatives and friends for throwing waste on roads during trips. I had arguments. I had a couple of nicknames too. One of which was “dustbin”. This was because I had a separate compartment in my bag only for my friends and other members to put waste. They fondly called me that. We had a laugh over it. But eventually it all made sense to everyone. The same friends and relatives make it a point to carry an extra bag to drop waste in, during trips or atleast handover things to me when they don’t find a dustbin around. The change in them is what gives me more joy!

So bottom line… we all know the importance of keeping our surroundings clean and most importantly the harms of throwing polythene outside.  A result of which not only makes the surroundings dirty but pose a remarkable threat to our environment. If you are still one of them who don’t dispose waste properly, now is the time to change and add a halo! J

You made me a New Me! Thank You!

It was 7 in the morning when I woke up. As a routine, I always woke up late during college. But this day was different for some reason. I felt the movie of memories playing in my head and it struck me…

“Today is my last day in college!”

And this college is something to me. MCC made me brave. It thought me to speak up, stand for myself and thought me to have a straight face to anything.

MCC thought me to be a fearless woman.

From that shy girl who sat in the last bench to a girl who will go up to talk on stage any time.

From that girl who strived hard to score marks to a girl who kept her books aside and bunked classes.

From a girl who was bitterly confused in life, to a girl who has a career lined up.

From a girl who didn’t know something to a girl who knows a lot.

MCC has thought me and thought me the right way.

If MCC was phase I of my story. BMTT’s are phase II.

 If at all anybody was standing there in time of trouble, it was only these bunch of 25 girls. Not because we were best friends but because we 25 walked together and faced every problem together.

The small number made everyone a little skeptical about BMTT’s, but we were successful in proving them wrong. We were a perfect example for the line, “Happiness comes in small packages.”

You guys were the best, and I will miss you!

Phase III – Beautiful and the Best!

You guys ate when I was hungry and you guys ate even when I was not hungry.

You guys made this journey all the way more beautiful. MCC would never be fun without you “Seven”

Few things start to end and I wish this journey never ends, because the end of this journey simply means beginning of responsibility.

No more pocket money, no Nescafe, no tang, no short break eating with 6 hands on 3 boxes, no running around for attendance. Nothing at all!

But if I love MCC and remember it as a sweet memory throughout my life, it’s undoubtedly because of you Super Seven Angels!

Few of us are still sticking around and few aren’t. But you guys have definitely made a difference.

So, thank you!

I love you guys a ton and I will miss you all the most.

Phase IV- "The Responsible Prathima"

Everything here ends with a responsibility. I was given a responsibility too. The responsibility to host the second biggest fest of MCC – “Cross Currents”

You guys made this victory extremely special by sharing it along. With you all, I’ve learnt lot. So thank you.

I will miss the little dance we did when we got the main sponsor; I will miss the group hug after valedictory. I will miss the running, crying, laughing, and celebrating. I will miss is all.

With the pen rolling between my fingers... and with a lump in my throat…

I would just say one thing…. MCC!

A place for every girl to study!

“Making someone smile weekend”

When I sat amidst a set of old people listening to a boring lecture, my eye lids closed and my head fell back and I jerked as I felt I was falling off a cliff. That’s when I realized that I just dozed off. To check if anybody had noticed my act, I turned around and I was definitely happy to know that everyone were concentrating quite a bit on the lecture. Though no one saw me, I was quite embarrassed. To avoid further embarrassment, I had to do something to get rid of my boredom or get rid of my sleep.

I pulled out the water bottle and sipped in some water. I have a notion that drinking water helps you concentrate. But here that dint help either. I felt like avoiding the shutting of eyes by holding in between my eye-lids a piece of stick, like tom, the cat does in Tom & Jerry.

But given the positing and place in which I was, doing that was almost impossible. So I decided to scan the hall which was filled and flooded with banners. One picture caught my attention. A picture of a little kid smiling ear to ear, I went on to read the Banner and the banner boldly said, Lakshya...Changing lives...

Though I continued to read on the other banners, Lakshya was just stuck in my mind and suddenly a good news hit my mind.

It was the Vote of thanks.

A round of applause filled the air and I was more than happy to listen to the MC say Tata bye bye to the crowd. And before he completely wound up the program, he announced that there is a team called Lakshya who would want to talk to the crowd.

Since the banner attracted me, I was all ears and a man in a black t-shirt which said Lakshya took over and started talking about the group which they started about 4 years back. He said how a group started by 4 friend with no perfect plan or goal except to help the needy had taken a complete shape over these 4 years.

He spoke about how they are concentrating not just on food and clothes to poor kids but also about their living as well as their future.

I was quite flattered with the whole concept and I thought this was the right way to involve myself with something completely worth it.

I grabbed their cards near the registration counter and immediately left them a email with my contact details and I got a call from one of the volunteers next day and when I told him that I wanted to be a part of Lakshya, without asking further details, he asked me to visit one of their events and then I could decide how I could help them.

I was asked to meet them at a school called Rainbow home, a school for homeless or for kids whose parents couldn't educate them. This was about 17kms from my home. Though initially I was hesitant about travelling 17kms, I decided to visit them just because I had already promised to meet them.

It was only after I went there; I realized how much I would love to travel so far even if it meant travelling every single day.

Once I started visiting Rainbow home as a part of Lakshya, I was simply the happiest.

Because the kids were innocent, curious and true sweet hearts. I was welcomed by a set of warm people (Lakshya team). Warm people are hard to find and I loved the fact that they were here.

 It’s been a journey of 3 months with Lakshya and it’s the best way I have discovered to spend my weekends as a part of teaching team. Any weekend as a part of Lakshya is always a bliss.

Teaching the kids, playing with them, celebrating festivals and birthday’s with them, be it anything, it simply brings a broad smile on each one of our faces at the end of the day.

Though I deny the number of outings with friends or family, I’m never questioned because they all think good work cannot be questioned.

So, come be a part of some good work and get to know how to spend your weekend the happy way. There is nothing like seeing a lil one smile and there is definitely nothing better than knowing that the lil one is smiling because of you.

Let every weekend of yours be a “making someone smile weekend!”

To know how to be a part of a great cause, Click the below link:

http://lakshyachanginglives.org/

Killer Corruption!

Demanding hands at the tip of begging hands,
Demanding the money,
The money of sweat!

They know just pain,
And hard work that's in-vain,
He knows talking,
Taking and bribing!

He is not someone new to you,
He is not someone unfamiliar to you,
He is just someone who has an effect on you,
An effect that is indirect but still so direct!

He is over-looked, cursed and then again accepted,
his glory to your death,
Else his death to your glory!
That's all the way to win!
Kill Corruption!