The boy with the balloons

Some things are always right in front of our eyes and still are so well camouflaged in the daily chores that even the brilliant minds fail to register them.

Post a pompous dinner yesterday when we stepped out of the restaurant, an intellectually differently abled kid (sugar-coated for all those who feel not using the word retard solves half the problems), was selling balloons at the roadside. One of my friends was touched and purchased all the balloons that he was carrying. The incident took me back to one similar realization almost a year ago. NCR, the rape capital of country is known for girls not being out on street alone after nightfall. After one of our team party’s at Samsung when we came out of the pub at around 1 am at night, a few young girls, not more than 10-12 years old flocked us to sell red roses. So, let me put it more bluntly, 1 am at night, in a place like Noida, outside a Pub, young girls selling *immaterial*, does that raise “some” concern? And yes this was just after December 16^th had happened. Stories are never ending, I have quite a few more and I am sure reading this even you might have recalled a few of your own experiences.

Coming back to the broader picture, the question that stares us in the face is, that who is responsible? Who is answerable? Who takes the corrective measures? Browse through the government website (http://india.gov.in/my-government/schemes) and who will see the basic flaw in the structure of these schemes. They all say, come to us and we will help you out with free education or food or whatever, but the pertinent flaw here is that, how do we facilitate the interaction between these schemes and the targeted beneficiaries. (Yes credibility in implementation of the schemes is another story, let’s ignore that for now)

Is the DA kid selling balloons on the road supposed to reach out to some govt. aided NGO for help or is it the vice-versa? Was the police responsible for ensuring that those girls were not out there on the street, hawking? Was I responsible for helping those kids out, not by buying what they were selling but by finding a way out for them? And what about you?

I don’t wish to make this very long as I do realize that I am no Arnab Goswami or Chetan Bhagat for that matter that you’ll find time to go through all this “not called for wisdom”. This blog is not ask you to get up, leave your room and do something about the issue, it is for everyone to reflect upon and think if it is also our responsibility to take care of these kids around us, it is for us to think if we can make even a minute difference, it is for us make a promise to ourselves that we shall find out opportunity to do our bit and we shall change the scheme of things.

“There is hope for some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.” – Alfred Tennyson 

The Horizontal Limit -- DIU

“The waves were lashing out at me as I walked forward, as if to remind me of my limits. But there I was, walking across the sea, defying all rules, looking the setting sun in the eye, reaching out for the horizontal limit – the zenith in the sky.”

What was meant to be a short fun filled trip to Diu, turned into one of those rare occasions when you get much more than what you bargained for.

The frozen night: Well, okay may be a few things went here and there. The journey to Diu for one wasn't that pleasing. With Sona Mahapatra singing tantalizing songs one after the other, it was very difficult to pull yourselves out from the venue and leave for the trip. By the time we did manage to get over the awe-inspiring songs and make our way out of the venue, I had just fifteen minutes to run to my room pack some essentials and rush to catch the bus. As a result, I, actually not only me but all the three boys (Raj and Ajay Inclusive) missed out on any warmer. “Bas fir kya tha, raat to kaali honi hi thi.” Such was the pathetic freezing breeze that ultimately I had to approach the bus driver to find out if he had any blanket, but, in vain.

The beautiful day: Thankfully everything went uphill from there. A splendid beach, some awesome friends, a bright sunny day and an infinite sea staring at your face, what more does it take to make your day. Jet skiing was fun, more so the fact that Akriti fell downJ. But in the end it is always the quality time that you spend with friends that are most enticing so the best part were the hours we spend splashing in the water. Ajay, the “scared” one, had to be first dragged into the sea and finally had to be repeatedly pulled out of it too.  That’s what nature can do to you, this time it was the sea, I have seen snow, even mountains have similar effect on people; you just don’t want to leave. Amongst the other highlights, Akriti made something that she said was a snowman (made of wet sand) but trust me our interpretation of what it seemed to be wasn't very pleasant. And we found a small “dhaba”, actually it doesn’t qualify to be a”dhaba” but still, where the food was finger-licking-ly tasty.

The best part: Fun and frolic apart, a short interaction like this with the nature does help a lot to clear your mind. The vastness of the water body ahead reminded me of the freedom that we all inherently have in our lives. No bounds what so ever. Needless to say, there shall always be some tides to push you back but that doesn't mean you are restrained from reaching out to the never ending scope of “living” that lies ahead of you. As I allowed my body to float in the water, it felt like the receding waves were soaking all the negativity out of me.

I can keep going a lot about that, but the point is, everyone who has ever hit the road just for the sake of moving ahead, or trekked a mountain because that seemed to be the best thing that he could have done or just given nature, in any form possible, an opportunity to take control of him/her, would know that that inner peace is something which is priceless. So if haven’t yet tried that out please do so.

P.S. Since this is the public version, so I might have missed out on a few facts that helped propel these outright emotions.