Water-Hour: What'an-Hour

What-An-Hour it was!

On our monthly-music-meet day, suddenly power went off! 

Although the electricity company had declared timetable for load shedding, usually their poor work practices don't allow them to stick to it. In absence of power to music system our lunch had to be preponed.

I picked up my snack plate that was still around me, rinsed it a bit and reused it for lunch. I used the leftover water from my drinking glass. 

My friend exclaimed at my 'funny' behavior. I said I wash my plate regularly at home as well as wherever else possible. Whenever I wash hands, I pick up at least one utensil to wash. Two-birds-in-One: Hands and the utensil washed using same amount of water that anyway I would've used to wash hands!

While writing this post, I remembered the so-called 'countdown to EARTH HOUR (23rd March at 20.30 hrs)'. Just before it had 'begun', the same friend had reminded me to participate in it. Why not observe such HOURS every MINUTE, I had exclaimed. That I had just returned from a around where I'd put off a couple of fans including one in the toilet. It was left ON by the previous user. 

While I do appreciate importance of such HOURS, the intention can be best evidenced by making it a habit taking it beyond the HOUR.

Hats off to those who instead of waiting until such '20.30 HOUR' head right away to 'Switch-off' an appliance left 'ON' inadvertently though. 

Power generation needs human activity, water and other resources. Salutation is because such people are able to see direct or indirect link of almost every wasted human activity to that of waste of water.

Hats off to those who commit to be conscious to a cause in present tense. Hats off because they don't allow thoughts to constipate. Because they go beyond their 'knowledge' of 'zero-wastage'. They make others learn through their demonstration of 'an-action-each-moment-a-day'.

One must experience the satisfaction one derives and the respect one earns by by committing to 'Save Even-A-Little, At-Each-Opportunity, Each-day, Each-Minute...' rather than once a year on a "Happy........ Day!" 

Read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall 

Take Habits For A Ride 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Bird that just chirped

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save ! 

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

Not-Soon, Says Monsoon

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall   

Spare-A-Day On Sparrow-Day !

March 20th: The Sparrow-Day!

When I read about The Sparrow-Day a couple of weeks ago suddenly I realised that nests created for them in my house were missing for over a few months.

We had hung one each in each of the balcony of our bedrooms hosting them since over a decade. All of them were stripped during civil maintenance work of our buildings. I was wondering how come all of us at home forgot to put back their homes.

In the barrack kind of buildings (called as chawls in Mumbai) where I was brought up, almost every alternate week there used to be a wedding or a naming ceremony.

Common area between the two rows of the tenements (each being just about 10x10 feet in size) would get crowded with so many activities including children doing their homework to running tiny businesses such as assembling a safety-pin. Among them one would find a typical mother (self employed on assembly line) feeding it's crying child by her side.

"One bite for the Sparrow, one for the Crow", she would rhyme¹ expecting the child to get pacified. The child would eagerly look around trying to locate sparrows.

We could actually see the sparrows dancing around while crows playing their own mischief. In fact we used to maintain wooden nests for the sparrows to breed. So many sparrows would gather around and chirp making the mornings sound beautiful. Toddlers would love to go after them.

Apart from their entertainment value they would play their role in sustaining ecology.

Where have all of them gone?

Modern cities are actually on the verge of making them extinct. Concrete buildings make it difficult for then to make nests. Concretised and dirty surroundings don't allow them to find grains, nor allow them a dust-bath.

What's the solution?

The least we can do is to make up for our mistakes. I made it up by putting back their homes moment I realised my mistake a couple of weeks ago.

It's very simple. Hanging a plastic bag with some padding inside is enough. Sparrows would do the rest.

I also put back a couple of pots full of garden soil so that they could take dust-bath.

Within a couple of days, a couple each in each of the balcony had already finished survey of their prospective homes. To my luck, within another day they moved in lock-stock-and-barrel.

No Advance, No Deposit, No Rent for (their) homes in a city like Mumbai in exchange of an 'Unwritten-Agreement' by sparrows to entertain and help sustain ecology!!

That was a small beginning again, a small difference I had expected from myself by the day of the Sparrow-Day today. Now not only March 20th but for me and my family every-day is a: Happy-Sparrow-Morning wake-up call and a

Happy Sparrow-Day!!!

A ©MaiKu poem on this:

एक घास काऊचा, एक चिऊचा

मोठया घासाचा ध्यास, हाच मोठा विषय चिंतेचा

फरक पडेच 'पड़णा-यास' त्याचा

Footnote-1,
¹In Marathi language the wordings are
एक घास चिऊचा, एक काऊचा ! Read above a ©MaiKu on this.

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Bird that just chirped

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save ! 

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell Me Hey Raam!

The other day someone asked me how should s/he behave with a funny, unpredictable, sham character that always played games at workplace?

I told him to study the difference between epic characters RAAM and KRISHNA-Shyam in order to pick up a few cues and learn therefrom.

Both RAAM and KRISHNA (Shyam is his one of the famous names mostly used in songs and films) are epic characters to be learnt from while sailing through real life.

Both had good intentions!

RAAM always believed that - people always have good intentions, - people always do good. So RAAM always behaved 'good' with all people meaning he applied Saama (साम) strategies. He mostly left people, things and their given situations to themselves, open-ended in order for them to happen and evolve on their own.

Sometimes things did happen as 'good' because as in the epic called Ramayana those times were good as well as people were generally good.

KRISHNA (the character from epic called Mahabharata) also got good intentions delivered from others. But to get measurable delivery in a time-bound and desired manner, he had to keep changing tactics and strategies. He applied Saam (साम) strategies with Raama-like good people but applied guerrilla tactics and strategies (Daamaa-Dandaa-Bhedaa: दाम-दंड-भेद) with bad characters like KANSA.

KRISHNA kept modifying his strategies to suit a given situation because he had to achieve common-good while generally operating in bad times (Kalliyug: कलियुग). In Kalliyug one must face situations fearlessly and courageously.

One must read Bhagwad-Gita to understand Krishna philosophy. As Swami Vivekananda says, in order to understand it better, play football before reading it. You need to be strong physically and mentally to understand it's power.

What's the learning?

While leading our role in achieving a goal for common-good: Be RAAM-like with RAAM-like behavior of people.

But be KRISHNA-like with KANSA-like behavior of people.

A ©MaiKu Poem that the question inspired:

Whenever's a situation sham
Like Saama-Daamaa-Dandaa-Bhedaa' of KRISHNA-Shyam
Not 'Saama' like RAAM

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

How To Make A Difference

What do you do when a dog barks at you? 

IQ, EQ or SQ: What is more important

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Success Or Failure: What Do You Like?

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy! Why? 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Nauseous Communication Gaps 

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !! 

Traffic-Footpath-Economy Jam

If you have yet not experienced the scenes as in the pictures you are one of those lucky Indians.

Due to lack of respect for others or due to lack of Kaizen¹ culture either, one gets into a jam exactly (i.e. JIT Just In Time) when it's not called for. 

Indians are so immune to such dirty-danger-difficult conditions that they somehow manage to win over them end of the day. They get ready to tackle new ones the next day with full zeal. 

Spirit of Indians never dies as they say proudly! 

I took some of these picture during my evening strolls.

A ©MaiKu Poem that the picture inspired:

Traffic-Footpath-Economy Jam

Dirty-Danger-Difficult, Turns Public life sham²

Authorities stay innocently calm

Footnotes
1, Kaizen means Continual Improvement Actions
2, Dirty-Danger-Difficult is the situation everyday (हर सुबह शाम²)

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Want Need-Or-Want

Some want money for desires, others for needs

Desires create debt-traps, Needs: rosy tracks

Some want to be social on media for the sake of it, others for heck of it

For some it becomes a friendship boom, for others a deadly doom

Some want alcohol for fun, others need it as medicine 

For some it becomes a deadly gun, For others a beautiful scene

Some want stocks to hoard, Others need on social board

For some it becomes a major misfit, Others a big benefit

Some want wedding on cool air-bed; Need is just a shade 

When the paraphernalia turns into death-bed; Shade appears a rose-bed

Some 'live' for their greed, some for livelihood need

Happiness turns out to be temporary 'Peace', for others a permanent Bliss

Such behaviors triggered a couple of ©MaiKu poems as follows.

©MaiKu-1

Need was to marry
Some wanted it airy
For the couple, cause turned fatally scary

©MaiKu-2

Confusion of Needs-with-Wants
Ceremony full of self-destructive flaunts
Forever the effect haunts

Footnote

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save!

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics
Bust-wants, Boom-needs

Should one care for value? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

What You See Isn't What's Made

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Less With More And More Gets Sore 

Should one care for value?  

How To Make A Difference 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Bird that just chirped

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

A Ride To Hell

Front-n-back a ride-to-hell

Left-to-right like-a Swinging Bell

A sure death-knell if you don't spell

That was the ¹©MaiKu ringing in my ears while a bus took me for a ride. 

Last couple of occasions while returning from Dahej, taxi that I booked couldn't reach to pick me up at Borivali station due to traffic jams. While I resorted to BEST buses as an alternative mode between 9-10.30 pm I experienced hell-like driving by the drivers.

1/ At curves it was really dangerous particularly at blind-corners while at times the driver tried to negotiate brushing passes at the dividers. He was driving as if he was in a race.

Like a pendulum the passengers were literally made to swing 60-to-90 degree. Imagine the plight of senior citizens with ailments such as backache or vertigo etc. as also that of standing passengers.

In case of travel on the 7th, a few passengers including me did try to suggest to the driver to drive safely with reduced speeds. But the conductor advised me "not to advise the driver" and that "they have that expertise".

This is a typical case of not being proactive  to prevent fatal accidents. I later wrote to the authorities about accidents due to similar causes in past on the same road. One can see the logical linkage of Cause-n-Effect relationship of accidents due to unsafe practices in general and unsafe driving (behavior) in particular.

2/ In case of travel on the 21st, I had a heavy bag with me. I was sitting near rear door. I told the conductor that I want to get down at Luis-wadi stop. Conductor kept telling me to walk to the front door in running bus. I expressed my inability to do so with a heavy bag in hand. I had requested him for a 'Stop-Bell' so that driver takes a patient 'stop'. The conductor kept telling me that driver won't stop unless he 'sees' me near the front door. That was a funny behavior particularly when I wasn't able to walk in a speedily 'jolt-fully' running bus.

Finally driver did what he wanted to do ignoring justified patient-stop request of the customer. I had a 'good swing' between the two doors and a 'jolt' between the front door and the road while finally 'managing to negotiate' to get down.

What Next?

1/ I requested the authorities to escalate this matter for appropriate action.

2/ Also as a commitment to the SAFETY-cause, I offered to help them to systematically bring in change in such unsafe and reactive behavior of their staff and managers. Merely 'telling' them to 'drive safely' or 'slow down at turns' or 'don't exceed speed limits', etc. with corresponding 'signboards' won't be of much use. 

What's the learning

You get what you deserve if you don't play your role to bring about change.

Staying indifferent is like supporting the undesired. I registered a suggestion-cum-grievance rather than merely a customer complaint to both the deliverer of service on-the-spot as well as to their management with a probable solution. I also made an offer of my help to make a difference.

I didn't bother about success or failure of their buy-in while making the offer. Now it's their choice.

Footnote:1. ¹©MaiKu Is My-Haiku

Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes

Any objective topic it chimes

Casuals Turn Serious, Shun Inaction

Leaders seriously enable casual's work
Turning serious, casuals shun inaction-n-quirk
Excellence springs in action of all men-at-work

The above Haiku is inspired by spirited action at  grass-root level on work-floor (Gemba) of a chemical complex in Western Gujarat.

I returned happy from there. Enthusiasm of faculty as well as of the management team was mirrored on shop-floor. It was genuine. 

Thanks to the 16-strong leadership team, the Director and the CEO for their whole-hearted participation at Gemba. They worked on the grass-root level concerns by removing Dirty-Danger-Difficult part in their work.

This is the way 'companies-on-excellence-journey' choose to give message of their 'seriousness' and their 'sense-of-urgency' to change-for-better. They work towards allaying fear of failure.

Unfortunately in many companies most managers, HR in particular, play Administration (HRA) role rather than  action-oriented HRD role. 

HR role is one of Developmental (HRD), necessary to build people for culture-change like the one demonstrated by leaders as above. Building people requires working with them hand-in-hand rather than mere instructions. It is to invest time (more than money) in making serious efforts in order to enhance their knowledge, skills and capability. 

Kaizen-Claps to all of them for doing so! Eagerly waiting to take them to next step en-route the TPM initiative in second week of the New-Year.

HAPPY-YEAR-Ahead to One-&-All!

MaiKu© Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  

ABCD of India Shining

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

Nauseous Communication Gaps

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Will It Work Here? 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

That's how some business partnerships work

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Do You Ask Right Questions? 

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Take Habits For A Ride 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ant Knocks Elephant Down

Ant knocks elephant down

Fishing trawler hits warship, sinks it's crown

Phishing stinks, makes Naval-vigilance frown

Above MaiKu© is inspired by the News "Fishing trawler sinks after colliding with Naval warship".

It highlights the importance of powerful vigilance using 7-Senses. 

It tells you to keep one eye on long-range vision and the other on shorter-range planning and actions else crisis might strike unannounced.

It tells you to keep one eye on strategy, the other on tactics.

It tells you to keep one eye on telescope, the other on microscope.

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blog-posts hereunder: 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Old-Problems, New-Reasons ! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Why do strategies fail
Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits
Will It Work Here?
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
In-big-problem-wear-hats-to-solve-it
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It!
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis
Will It Work Here?
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Does recognition really matter
Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
ABCD of India Shining
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'?

Encroachers o(w)n open land

Encroachers o(w)n open land

Top statesmen Number-One to offend

Make it difficult for Defence to defend

Inspired by the article...
Maharashtra leads in encroachment of defence land

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Power-fool Become Powerless

Power-fool become powerless

Likely to harm everything while not-in-power

Didn't do anything while-in-power

Above Haiku is inspired by poll results of 2013.

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Listen To The Iceberg Beyond Tip

If you want to solve a problem accurately then first step is to define it accurately.

In order to define it accurately you need to listen to various versions of the problem. 

If we don't listen we'll end up learning only tip of the iceberg. Listening is "hearing what isn't said" as Peter Drucker emphasises about "The most important thing in communication".

We don't learn new things because we don't listen. Before even hearing completely, we silently get busy in strategising to speak out our disagreement with other's ideas.

Even in dictionary there's a difference between the two. Listening is 'to pay attention'. Hearing is to be able to 'perceive' sounds that fall on ear.

Most often we get distracted by the speaker's inability to communicate. In a given situation, rather than grabbing her real feelings and the content s/he tries to present we lose most of the information, inadvertently at times. 

Many a time thoughts presented to us get sensored by the presenter depending upon her hidden agenda. It could be dangerous if one gets influenced by presentation-quality of the presenter under such circumstances, be it a customer, a supplier or an employee. Better the presentation better is the impression likely to be and vice versa. 

But after all an impression need not be a reality. As a result we end up 'perceiving' depending upon our impressions and what we hear.

Listening is 'to pay attention' to the deeper content and feelings scratching beyond the surface. In other words, to put it more accurately, we need to actively-listen.

Active-listening is like the way a mother 'listens' to her child. Even an illiterate mother is able to do so to her new-born one. She has her own way to find out what the child tries to communicate through her crying 'speak'. She 'throws' various options at the child and does a quick 'mix-n-match' of the 'contents' to find out near-perfect need of the child. She creates easy channels of communication and keeps them open through her judgemental PDCA¹ cycles in real time until the problem is captured and solved in totality.

This is an important skill to improve behavior of people and to improve relationships with an aim to resolve conflicts between two people or among groups of people.

Intent of the listener should be unbiased though. 

In case of a fight between two children, for instance, a matured mother would listen to content (complete facts) and sense negative or positive intent if any of both the sides with a positive intent of resolving conflict for common-good.

Extending this analogy of lack of positive intent by the big brother further one would be able to find out roots of why and how 'gossipers', 'informers' and 'frenemies' (enemies who 'act' like friends) get born in various settings and walks of life. 

So if you don't want to get disappointed later it's important to focus more on content and the intent of the speaker (the need to be a good listener) rather than fluency and beauty of communication (the want of a bad listener). Better to focus more on substance rather than style.

That way not only presence of a person is more likely to get recognised and respected but also iceberg of the problem is likely to be acknowledged and captured more accurately. 

Correct definition is like reaching half the solution to the problem. Rest half gets addressed with continued active-listening.

A MaiKu© poem on the subject:

Rains out-of-season

Child cries at 3 A.M. for no reason

Miss the bus on most occasion

MaiKu© Is My-Haiku

Footnote-1 ¹PDCA cycle of improvement as in Kaizen: Plan or Assess. Do or pilot-implementation as per preliminary assessment. Check or Validate the pilot-implementation before full implementation. Act or Improve by next cycle of assessment.

Bust-wants, Boom-needs

Inspired by Voters-Verdict

Bust-wants, Boom-needs
BROOM corruption, appeasement and greeds 
BRING governance, performance, jobs.. Not subsidy-feeds

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save!

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics

Should one care for value? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

What You See Isn't What's Made

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Less With More And More Gets Sore 

How To Make A Difference 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Installed Capacity Stalled

Installed Capacity Of Electricity Stalled!
That's the way governance in India shines!!

कडाडली विजेवर वीज, 
पॉलिसीची, परफॉर्मन्सची,
सरकारी-सबसीडीची की वीज-चोरीची?

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

कधीतरी सापडेल का शोधता-शोधता ?

This one is about evolution of life on the planet with greedy human being around !

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say.
But what happens if desires become necessities? 

Truly-desired-inventions will surely lag behind the inventions-for-desires. And then man will get what he deserves of his own making... The Global-Warming !

Within 35-years, even lowest monthly temperature will be hotter than we experienced so far !! And then it might be too late a realisation !!!

कधीतरी सापडेल का शोधता-शोधता ?

माकडांचाच सीनियर-वानर आदिमानव तो भिरभिरता
भूकेला कोंडा, निजेला धोंडा तर लाजेला होता झाडपत्ता
गाय, बैल, मांजर, पोपट; बायकोसह सारे आले पहाता-पहाता
सिक्युरीटीला त्यांच्या गॉडी-कुत्रीचा, डॉगी-कुत्रा पण भुंकता

सुखासाठी बायकोच्या, तंगडतोड भटकता-भटकता
दिसला कापूस एकदा त्याला जंगलतोड करता-सारवता
बनवली लगेच गादी त्याने, तिच्या ऐषो-आरामाकरता
नवनवीन स्वप्ने पडती स्वत:च त्यावर क्षणभर पडता
मग काय, लागती शोधावर-शोध तनिकसे त्यावर लेटता
कोंडा-गोंडा-धोंडा झाले, रोटी-कपडा-मकान बघता-बघता

नॅचरल कापसाचा बेड आता नरमा-गरम पॉलियुरेथीनचा
कपडा चिकचिकीत करणा-या चकचकीत सिंथेटीकचा
दाल-रोटी जागी हाती फास्ट-फूड-पिझ्झा कॉन्स्टिपेटींग मैद्याचा
गादी बैठकीजागी सोफा-कम-बेडवर हाती पेला मद्याचा

बार्लीची-बीअर, बाईचा-बार, शेत-जमिनीचा एफ्एस्आय्.. सारेच हु..र्रे
कोणी-अरे, कोणी-कारे, हाणती एकमेका आई-बा काढता कारे?
"आता पूरे..!" भेदून-ओझोन येता येता उपसले अंती सूर्यानेच सरसर सूरे
मग काय?.. "आटताच पाण्याचे झरे, चमकले कारे दिवसाढवळ्याच तारे?"
जीव कासावीस झालारे, गुदमरला भातारे, भिरभिरलं डोकंरे, अरेरे-अरेरे !
उपयोग काय वाटून आता, रोटी-कपडा-मकानच होते बरेरे !
कोंडा-गोंडा-धोंडाही मिळेना कायरे? लेट झालाय हेच खरेरे !

समस्यांचा मॉडर्न डायनॉसॉरच समोर, ठाकला उभा-आडवा होता
माकडांचाही माकड होउनी राहीला होता आता तो तर पूरता
वाढताच गुंत्याचाही गुंता, स्व:शी झालाच तो एकदाचा बोलता
" ... थकलोरे ! वाटच लागली नव्या शोधांची वाट पहाता-पहाता,
स्वप्नच काय, नाकी नऊ येती झोपही आता येता-येता
कळुन चुकले मला, गरज आहे स्व-शोधाचीच खरं तर पहाता आता ... "

What do you do when a dog barks at you?

I mind my business if the dog minds it's own business. 

But what do I do if it barks at me?

What options does one have when a dog on street barks at her while s/he is busy minding her business?

Option-1, Fail-to-notice or Simply-walk-away hoping that it won't harm me.
Option-2, Flight as they say or Run-away thinking that it will harm me.
Option-3, Fight-back 'Acting' or Be prepared to Hit-back-hard (in order to prevent dog becoming offensive).

If you have tried each or some of these options sometime or the other in past, it may be interesting for you to study the consequences you faced. 

'Funny' were those days when I faced such situations particularly on lonely streets while returning late from library during my college days.

If I simply walked away, the dog would continue barking. At times it became aggressive too. What-if I had not 'acted' to hit back with a stone? 'Fear of consequences' itself used to force me to 'act' anyway. I still continue the practice of 'acting' if needs be.

Once while a friend was with me, by-design I 'acted' to run away. And the dog became aggressive. It ran after me. Of course we were well-prepared to protect ourselves.

What's the learning?

If you keep quiet when someone hits you, be it a physical assault or a competitor's attack, actually you end up reinforcing the aggressor's behavior as justified. Like the street-dog, aggressor might become aggressive every time you are in sight.

Unless there's clarity-on or fear-of 'consequences', the aggressor would continue enjoying the bullying.

What's your role then? To subscribe to the famous Gandhian principle of "If someone slaps you on one cheek, show him your other cheek."? Or behave like epic character Raam?

If you misinterpret this statement to your detriment, you should be responsible and accountable for the consequences.

Perhaps Gandhiji himself didn't mean it that way. At least I am not ready to believe this at the cost of facing consequences of some Gandhian researcher's annoyance though.

I believe that Gandhiji himself hated cowardliness. Perhaps difference in his approach was that he was bold enough to be ready to face adverse consequences, if any, of adopting non-violent mode while fighting for just-rights.

My corollary in understanding Gandhiji is if I am not bold enough to face consequences of choosing non-violent mode then I must either take help of available lawful modes or in fact hit-back-hard in case of emergency or rather fight back well-in-time (proactively) in order to prevent one from arising. Care-before-Cure I mean. It might mean using Krishna-tactics to ward off sanely-looking people but insanely-inside.

Title-line of a Hindi song aroused P.J.-poet in me to pen down my belief in Krishna-kind of philosophy in this context to live in the modern world.

जैसे को मिले तैसा

जैसे को करें ऐसा-वैसा
राम संग बर्ताव राम जैसा
तो मुँहमें-राम बगलमें-छूरीवाले
कंस संग कृष्ण जैसा
समझले वरना खुदी हो जाओ ऐसातैसा

जैसे को करें ऐसा-वैसा 

राम संग राम जैसा कंस संग कृष्ण जैसा

क्युं है ज़ड-जोरू-जमीन पे भरोसा
अंतमें ज़ड को सारोने परोसा
तो जोरू ने अच्छेसे तरोसा 
जमीन ने खिसेको जो खरोसा
समझले वरना खुदी हो जाओ ऐसातैसा

जैसे को करें ऐसा-वैसा

 राम संग राम जैसा कंस संग कृष्ण जैसा

क्युं तू करे पैसापैसा
भूल गया आया तू नंगे कैसा
जाओगे खाली हाथ वैसे के वैसा
होना ही है एकदिन ये तमासा जैसा
समझले वरना खुदी हो जाओ ऐसातैसा

जैसे को करें ऐसा-वैसा

 राम संग राम जैसा कंस संग कृष्ण जैसा

Who's Just, Who's Unjust

Just read about a journalist releasing news sitting over shoulders of a flood-affected villager. He was dismissed from service by the media company as soon as the news broke out. Perhaps the quick action was to tackle public pressure or was to pre-empt competition from enhancing their own TRP by over-publicizing it.

While I am not justifying his 'misdeed', some other questions do remain unanswered in my mind. I tried to capture them in the form of a poem in the end.

Could the journalist have covered the news in the 'depth' that he wished to, by any other means? Perhaps yes as one might tend to think so from the video. 

But then were other means available to him there? Video tells only part of the story. Under what circumstances and with what facilities was the journalist operating there in order to collect total news in 'depth'?

Anyway having done so, was he 'sitting over shoulders' with an intention of atrocity? And if at all it's a mistake, in retrospect one may find number off them at one's own personal level. 

Let's look at it the other way round. 

If there was an opportunity for the flood-affected villager to earn his bread for that day by helping carry the journalist over his  shoulders, what right do others (be it public, a corporate house or government) get to snatch it from him? Have there not been Human-Rickshaws in Kolkatta earning their livelihood for so long on similar lines?  It has been a socioeconomic need!

If at all one finds the journalist atrocious then there have been many more so far in not providing alternative job opportunities to needy forcing them to resort to inhuman jobs such as Human-Rickshaw pullers.

Likewise if we shift our attention to in-discipline in other disciplines and fields, one might find many such atrocities.

If someone dies in an accident while negotiating a road full of pot-holes that s/he couldn't spot due to non-functional street-lights, are the concerned authorities considered atrocious? Do the concerned authorities such as municipality or electricity-boards, etc. get sued and convicted for dirty-danger-difficult conditions on road?

If a city like Mumbai goes under water due to illegal constructions and hutments in and around nullahs blocking water-flow resulting in colossal loss to lives and properties, are the concerned authorities, goons and politicians supporting them considered as atrocious?

These are realities not 'ifs-and-buts' stories. If one deep-dives into crises or near-miss cases or studies fatalities she reads about each day, 'atrocities' might be found in abundance. 

Who will decide then 'what's right' and 'what's wrong', 'what's an atrocity and what's not one'?

Who will decide 'who's right' and 'who's wrong' in cases such as above?

If the journalist's act was wrong and atrocious then the sense-of-urgency demonstrated by the concerned is commendable. In that case, can decision-makers in other disciplines and fields such as above demonstrate similar sense-of-urgency in awarding justice in case of bigger and criminal atrocities?

Hope to receive your comments on tips covered in here and on the poem titled:

Who's Just Who's Unjust (कोण न्यायी कोण अन्यायी)

कोण न्यायी कोण अन्यायी
अन्यायी जाहले बेलगाम मुक्त
न्यायी मात्र कडेकोटात बंदिस्त

कोण न्यायी कोण अन्यायी
सुस्त बेशिस्त अविचारी स्वधुंदीत स्व:त्वात जे मस्त
की जे विश्वात्मक शिस्तीचे वक्तशीर भक्त

कोण न्यायी कोण अन्यायी
ते, जयांचे शील जाहले स्वस्त
की जे विचारी-परोपकार-करी निवांत

कोण न्यायी कोण अन्यायी
जे अन्यायान्याय सही, परी ना करी व्यक्त
की जे अन्याया-वरी जात्या कृति-शील-शिस्तवान साधूसंत

कोण न्यायी कोण अन्यायी
अन्यायी जाहले बेलगाम मुक्त
न्यायी मात्र कडेकोटात बंदिस्त

Await English version of the poem soon.