Perils of Street Advertising and Their Impact on Me

"Shaver Set Sir..."
"Imported Leather Purses..Imported Leather Purses..."

"Can I have a minute?...I am not a Sales Person Sir..."

This is what I face every day while walking up and down road between my house and office. And my response is similar :

"Sorry... I am in a rush..."

And everytime I tried to listen, it has been severely disappointing.

But it seems, that has made a negative impact on me finally. Or rather was about to make an impact that I always wanted it not to. About to because, I finally did not commit the grave mistake. The grave mistake of not helping a person who was genuinely looking for help.

This morning while I was walking to my office, I was approached by a person carrying a similar file that those representatives carry. I thought to my myself "Damn they are starting so early huh." Because it was really early in the morning at 7:30 a.m. And in my typical response, I said " Sorry I am in rush." Was I in rush? Absolutely no. But that is my only way to avoid hearing the crap.

And after I said I am in rush, he did not try to pursue and started walking away. And to my horror I realized that he was not someone advertising. He was merely looking for direction. I sincerely apologized to him and gave him the directions. After giving the direction, I again apologized to him for the my mistake.

I kinda goofed. But I was also happy that this event reminded me of my own commitment that I will deal every event on a case by case basis and not generalize and not act on a general perception ever.

I was happy that I did not commit the mistake. Otherwise I would have felt really upset.

Moral : Do not generalize ever. Always listen before making a decision.

Can 21st Century India throw up an Obama?

Well!! That was the question posed on IBN Live news channel yesterday. A very interesting question indeed. Suddenly Obama is a role model that every country wants to produce and every channel wants to discuss and debate upon.

Oh by the way I have been myself thoroughly impressed and inspired by the kindness, humility and openness of Obama movement who quite expectedly became a phenomenon by touching the hearts of the people where it soothes and reassures the most.

Coming to the question, I feel every nook and corner of India has produced Obama at the grassroots movement. The problems and intricacies of India have produced several Obamas.

There are so many names that come to my mind.

Who in this country does not know Kiran Bedi? She touches the same chord when people think of her.

How about Aruna Roy? The architect of Right to Information
How about Medha Patkar?
How about Baba Amte?
And there are several others.

There are several leaders in this country tirelessly working for the oppressed.

Our political system is so established that you have to work in a party system and it is such a catch 22 quagmire. Number one is, you cannot join any of the existing parties because they are so rotten. At this moment, when the elections come, good God, I cannot even think of who to vote? BJP? Congress? JD(S), CPI(M)? I just cannot think of anyone. I am pretty confident that there may be good people in these parties like some diamonds in the ocean. But they hardly make a difference.

And then, when someone thinks of starting a party, do they get money backing? people backing? encouragement? Rarely. The first question that comes to mind is, "ahh!! why the hell do they want to start a party? must be some evil intentions". This is because people are tired of the filth in the politics in India. People are tired of divisive politics. Tired of caste politics. Tired of language politics. We ask, are we moving towards a mature democracy or an immature one?

And the real leaders of this country today rather work in the small pockets and make real differences there without entering the big picture of politics.

So, I feel we have several leaders. I will not call them Obamas. Rather I wonder if Obama got inspired by them. The bottomline is, I get inspired by both.

There needs to be a movement and an upheaval and may be there will be one when the cumulative goodness that believes in no separation, that believes in unity, that believes in inclusion, that believes in healing, to stand up and take on the onus of cleaning the filth.

And when we will be proud to say : We are Democratic!! We are Mature. And many Seema Goyals need not have to go on record on TV saying "I am not proud of my country".