A story I was not prepared for...

Our friend has taken a Big Leap and assisted the Director of Thira. We all planned, unplanned, canceled, planned again and made it to the theatre. It was a late night show but still was well-received. Somehow I was not really bothered about the pending work and making it to work the next morning.  A lot of our friends were watching it for the second time. As usual, I was the only non-mallu in the gang. The fact that Thira is a malyalam movie didn’t matter much since a large part of the movie is in hindi/English.

The movie started off fast paced. It was exhilarating right from the first scene. The director did not really believe on building up the movie, which I found awesome. The plot revolves around Shobhana and Dhyan’s search for the missing girls. The flow of the story is logical and amazing. The movie keeps you at the edge of your seat totally.

But I realized I was not at all prepared to see the building up scenes of the movie. When I was younger I consciously avoided every scene that would even remotely depress me. I, somehow, cannot see anything horror, obnoxious, sad or anything that is demeaning to women. Maybe that or I don’t have the guts to face the harsh reality of life (most probable reason). Dhyan, the hero, goes to a factory and manages to find 2 girls who are captivated in the basement (Cannot describe the scene since I closed my eyes after seeing the first shot). He manages to free those 2. I wanted Dhyan to go and search and free the other girls who might have been captivated in that factory too! After all it was such a BIG factory. My mind was screaming at him to go and search for others. As the movie progressed my mind was still stuck in the dungeon scene and wondering what the girls must have gone through. Though it was just a movie and the asst.director was right beside me (to clear my never-ending doubts) I had completely drowned in the incidence that the scene portrayed.

A few scenes later, Shobhana and Dhyan find pieces of clothes with messages written ‘Help Me’, ‘Call my dad’ etc. I was immediately reminded of the bedtime stories my Grandpa told. ‘The escape of a girl from her kidnappers’ was my favorite. He obliged to all my multiple requests of reciting me the same story. Now I understood why. That story was probably his way of educating me and my brother of what should be done in such situations. Probably, the girls who wrote messages on clothes also had heard the story. I secretly wished all of their messages were read earlier and they all were safe in the shadows of their family.

                                                    

Towards the end of the movie, we realized that the kidnapped girls were actually going to be a part of a ‘party’. The who ’s who of the industry were to be present and they actually had the privilege of selecting girls they wanted to spend the night with (read: assault/molest)  on a very hi-tech iPad. The scene sent a chill down my spine. There was alcohol, handcuffs, ropes and what not to please the honchos.  Probably there was everything that would make the night wild and worthwhile for them. Before I realized I had freaked out. Such scenes were shown earlier in different movies too but today I saw them with a different perspective. I was thinking about the million girls who go through all this all over the world; girls who lose their innocence before they even know; girls who lose their innocence before they even realize.

Even if these scenes were just an integral part of the movie such things do make headlines and are often forgotten over a period of time. ‘Human Trafficking’ is prevalent. There are people in this world who equate ‘girls’ with ‘toys’. We have to accept the fact that people see us as an ‘object of pleasure’ many a times. And the threat is not always external. Daughters have been raped by their fathers, girlfriends have been molested by their boyfriends, wives have been forced by their husbands and the list goes on. Today, I wonder if being vigilant is enough for some circumstances cannot be avoided.

                                      

The end of the movie was all happy and I was relieved. All the girls were rescued. The movie dealt with the topic very well. And this was the first movie of this kind that I saw. But the topic dwelled in my mind long enough to pen this down. I wish I were a SuperWoman and could do something about it! I wish all of us were SuperWomen and could put an end to the unjust done towards us all over the world! I hope that day comes soon when the devils become lesser stone-hearted and do not see women only as an object of pleasure; when they think about the heart inside instead of just staring at the chest. Waiting for that day. God Speed.

What kind are you?

It was 3 pm and the AC was in full swing. My eyelids were heavier than they were a minute ago. I glanced at the monitor every once a while to assure myself that this too shall pass. I tried to speak up in between so that my lead thought I was paying enough attention (which I was clearly not). My mind was full asleep and I could have fallen flat on my face any moment. Suddenly she said, “I know you can do it. You know everything”. And I lost all my sleep. The ‘Knowledge Transfer’ session was over and I was expected to know ‘everything’. I looked at my colleagues and realized they were totally excited about the new project. I opened my eyes and looked around. My workplace suddenly seemed categorized:

1.  The ‘You know everything’ people – All bosses, leads, senior professionals fall under this category. This category enjoys the freedom and frequent opportunities to say ‘You know everything’ to all the people working with them. The other sentences that they use is ‘You can do it.’, ‘Ask me if you have any doubts’ etc. But when you actually have doubts they are too ‘busy’ to help you out. They make you feel like a Superman before they give you a critical task. People wear ‘Superman’ T-shirts but sometimes you feel like wearing a T-shirt that says ‘I am not a Superman’. Additionally, they have all the authority to levy additional responsibilities on you (can be personal too). But you have to be in good books of this category because they have full control of your career.

2. The Blessed – Some people are just blessed with whatever skills. A few ones are always in demand. If you have knowledge you can show off. The first category fights to hire people from this category. People from this category are super blessed to be never out of work. They earn all the perks, accolades, love, and compensatory offs (the most important). They can demand anything from the first category and believe me, they get it. They can make the first category dance to their tunes. They are not really worried about their appraisals and feedbacks because they know they are wanted. Basically, they rule.

3. The Butterflies – There was a saying ‘Jack of all trades but Master of none’. Well, people from this category are the Masters of all trades. The above saying does not hold true for them. The people from this category are everywhere and they are good at whatever. The guy can be an award-winning employee and win a modeling contest too! These people are social butterflies and hence are omnipresent. They know everyone and everyone knows them. They are demi-celebrities. You can easily recognize people from this category because they can be seen wherever you go.

4. The resources – A chunk of the employees fall in this category. The people from this category generally come to work before the working hours begin and work till forever. They seldom take breaks and are always tensed. They easily fall prey to all the ‘important tasks to be accomplished over the weekend’. They worship work. ‘Fun’ is a far-fetched dream for them. They are the ‘nice people’ who never complain. ‘The more the merrier’ is what they think about work. They adhere to all the deadlines and they are the only ones who take clients seriously. The people from category 1 need people from this category. This category secretly wishes to be like category 3 and is envious of category 2.

The ‘other’ people: GrandPa

GrandPa...

I reached the station. It was not as crowded as I thought it would be. I started looking out for him. I thought I would see him on the bridge, but could not find him. I went to the place where I saw him last but no luck. He was an almost 70 year old Grandpa; will not call him a beggar. I saw him for the first time 5 years ago. He was sitting on the station with his entire luggage. He surely did not look like a beggar to me. I thought he was waiting for a train and hence passed him off as just another passenger. He caught my attention a few days later after I saw him sitting at the same place.

I always wondered what brought him here, the reason of his loneliness, if he was thrown out by his own son and hence had nowhere to go. Every time I decided to go and talk to him something stopped me. Probably I had no guts to ask him his story or did not have the heart to. I was too afraid to listen to his side of the story. I gave him a part of my pocket money every time I saw him. But today I could not find him and I wondered where he had disappeared – shifted to some other station, found a new home or the worse…was no more.

I was wondering if I could have changed his life if I had mustered a little courage to talk to him; if I could have increased his life span if he was no more; if I could have helped him in any way. But I was helpless myself and had no capacity or courage or whatever. I did help him in whatever way I could but could have done no more.

This made me wonder how selfish we can be; selfish and self-centered. There are a lot of ‘other people’ who need our attention. There are moments in our lives when we shed tears for things like a laptop, better television, money or ‘that’ guy. But those tears are such a waste of time. One selfless act can change a life. If not ours, someone else’s. But lives can be changed. All we have to do is make an effort to go out there and do our bit for the less fortunate; make the world a better place to live in.