Ammaji

     

    Ammaji                                                                   

Her mother in law is one of the most weird person I have seen. May be she is saying this because she has not seen other’s mother in laws. Sigh !

    

Manika’s mother in law left her studies in class 5^th so that her brothers can study and she can take care of the house. This is the very first reason of her frustration. She always indulges herself in family politics and backbiting. She has that strange habit of keeping important stuff to herself. Life for her is only watching TV, roaming around, & attending kirtans not for the religious purpose but for networking developed there. She has this equally strange network of like minded mother in laws. When she was young she used to attend Kitty parties. Kitty party is a concept of organizing meetings by equally frustrated middle aged women when their husbands are either working or cheating on them, and kids are either in school or involved in drugs and love flings.Of Course there are normal people also, who attend kitty parties just for fun.  It's not like that she is very religious, but now kitty parties has replaced Kirtans(not much spelling difference rather). She is the very first lady I have ever seen who is not religious at the age of 60 and a wonderful actor who pretends to be religious for a time being.

In India over aged and aged women are considered to go to kirtans, satsangs  and the likes. They are not like their western counterparts who at the age of 55 or 65 or may be more, still have multiple boyfriends, partying, drinking away their woes and seems to enjoy their lives. So I was telling you about her mother in law, whose life was full of frustration and now she was dispelling her bitterness. Unfortunately her mother died when she was two only, and that also adds to the insensitiveness which she scatters. One of her three brothers is a criminal(a la pakiya and chappan kalia – J not with bigger profile). He was not a celebrated criminal otherwise I could not have written anything on him. He just did a single murder and few frauds, and alas ! that kills our chance to be in fame. Had he been some right or left hand or leg of some D man than we would have been somewhere else. Anyways what to say its destiny.  Another sigh!

      

Amma (Nickname given by not so happy people around her) was never pally with any of the relatives. I still try to understand her psyche behind everything she does. She was never in tune with any of her female relatives. I believe this is a part of family politics which is there in most of the Indian families. Life here is full of insecurities and if someone get success then he/she will be victim of other’s jealousy and bitching. This is a very natural human behaviour. Amma’s life revolve around Television. Earlier I used to think when ever I saw my mother that her life revolves around her family of four people. But now I have learned that there is a vast canvas of “Colors” and “Zee” also. MIL’s day started with “Saas bahu aur saazish” and ended with “Pavitra Rishta”. Not even I single scene she leaves for anyone. When we dictate our kids not to watch “The dirty picture” or “Jism” why not terms for elders, what to watch. It was my friend Manika’s love that she shares everything what she feel in her house. And I completely sympathize with her. She feels disgusted when maids are working at home, and this dialogue of any of her serials falls like a hot coal on ears – “Shaadi key baad waali suhagraat ke bare mein to sab jaante hai, mein nahi bataonge shaadi se pehle kya kya hua”. And best part is you will fall down on the ground when you will see the expression on her face while watching this stupid scene. These Serials are ofcourse killers of our integrity, compassion and esteem. Uff !

           

That was the moment when I felt that those who can not hear are the happiest of all. Whole her life Amma has been so frustrated doing what others told her to do, that she now does everything which others does not like. I sometimes feel empathy for her on her thought process.

Whenever Manika called up a Kabadi waala or any other worker like plumber, electrician,chair repairing man or a vegetable seller, she will be sceptical about whatever he is doing. She is even antagonistic towards maid servants working at home. Either Manika have called her or there is some other reason that he has become her greatest foe now. She will be too loud and hyper against him. That was the strangest thing I noticed about her. Why on the earth she is insecure because of these people? They are for her support in the house. People for her are enemies until n unless she is benefitted from them. Diffidence, anxiety and inadequacy is the biggest weakness of a person. I have seen this kind of behaviour in highly educated, influential and rich people. People should understand that nothing can make them feel inferior except their own thoughts. Strange but true !

            

Amma always love to be in control of circumstances. She can call her younger son from far off place just to take money from him. He, like a good son will come and go to nearby ATM to fetch money for her. Amma is of the thinking that her sons are there for money fetching machines and  she can ask for anything from them. But sometimes Manika and me too, think this is actually good that she has strong faith in her sons and they also take care of her very well.

If someone is coming home and getting gift for her than he is most welcome, else he can go to hell ! J She was a materialistic person. She was a true representative of the saying “Money makes world go round.” She will always expect money and gifts from others but will never give anything in return. I will pick a positive heid from this. If you are not gifting(read unwelcome) others then after some time they will avoid meeting you and this will save your money for feeding them or arranging for their stay. That makes are very economic Amma. J

But some people are too weird to be be considered seriously. She is one of them. Not all are alike and comparable. The best part of her was she could change her statements and mince her words according to her convenience. ‘Yes’ can any time be ‘No’ if it suits her. Now that called real political intelligence. Manika always try to learn these tactics from her but everytime fails. L May be this is not her cup of tea. I always wonder what makes people so eloquent, that it may hurt others. Why some people are so locked up inside them that it makes them inconsiderate. Manika sometimes felt very frustrated  She said she is tolerating her only because of the love for her husband. After all she has given birth to him and was grown in the environment where at least women are respected. I always tell her that she should understand that only love and respect matters for a women, may be not in the same order. Moreover she is the fortunate one to get both of them. And she nods in a smiling yes. J

Absolute happiness !

I was born and brought up in a small town of Uttar Pradesh. Though we were brought up in a comfortable set up but I did notice lots of unfortunate and less privileged people and specially children around us, the inequalities in the society always disturbed me. I always wanted to work for the betterment of the less fortunate of our society but how and when I had no clue..
It's been 14 years since the capital city has given me so much that now it’s the time to return something back to the society.

As a trained logistics professional I wanted job satisfaction from my work which I was not getting and that compelled me to change my work place.

So in continuation to the same, when there was not much work in my consultancy firm, last year I decided to give my career a new dimension. Last year I joined an NGO as a fellow. My work as a volunteer with another NGO helped me as a fellow. We are trained to organise a community instead of doing only charity. I also got this golden opportunity to meet and be with street children who beg at tourist places for their living. Meeting them has changed the whole perspective of mine regarding happiness.

My work now gives me satisfaction. I feel satisfied when I interact with  under privileged children and youth who are happy and in high life condition oblivious to difficult and life threatening conditions they live in. It was truly amazing to meet children of #jamghatcommunity who are beggars near tourist places of Delhi. One such place is Jama masjid where we went to meet street children for few hours. They met us as if they know us for long. 

They were all over that small room calling as didi, didi. It was their lunch hour by the time we reached that congested building in the bylanes of old delhi. They were made to sit in a circle to have their food. All of them picked their plates and spoon from the small table on which they were kept. They were given food one time a day and that was enough for them. Comparison was obvious with our 5 course meal on daily basis.  It was heartwarming to see them eating food. I instantly compared them with my kids whom I feed while running after them. :) After the food they were taught english subject for about an hour. But the best part was their visible joy and happiness in those difficult living conditions. After lunch they took us to see us their families who were staying in camps or on road sides.

Then we went to see Jama masjid with them. Few of the children surprisingly begged then only and bought Parle G biscuits for us. It was so touching. We had so many things in our life and had nothing to offer them and they had nothing in their lives and so much to offer us. 

After this visit there was a kind of vicissitude inside me which can't be described in words. Those benign gestures are unforgettable. It was indeed a life changing experience for me. #lifechangingday

Whenever I read and watch atrocities happening all over the world, weaker section being repressed, minorities manhandled, violence and gender inequality it gives me goosebumps but then I read the fourth silent prayer "peace and happiness to all humanity" after the Prayers, it gives me tranquility of mind thinking that this is the best thing I can do for unhappy people miles away from here.

The difference between rich and poor has always struck my senses, I wanted to bridge the gap between the two, bridging will not be the right word. I guess I want to shorten the distance between privileged and underprivileged ones. 

Our society from time immortal is in need of such reforms. #society