Judge not lest ye shall be judged!

Sudan-Famine: Vulture eying the emancipated girl Photo: Kevin Carter

Is there anybody who is not familiar with this pic? This photo won the Pulitzer Prize. The photo was taken in 1994 during the Sudan famine.
The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards an United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away. The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat it.

This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child. The New York Times who published this photo had to run a special editorial saying that the girl had enough strength to walk till the food camp but no one knows the Ultimate fate.

Kevin Carter

The photographer Kevin Cartercommitted suicide three months later due to depression. He not only received the prize but also drew a lot of flak for not helping the child and instead using the  20 mins to adjust lens which got him the prize. Recently on one of the Facebook albums this pic was posted with caption that questioned the human values of Kevin for having taken this photo instead of helping her which prompted this post.

Had he helped, he would have helped one child but this picture caught the attention of an entire world! which is a better outcome and let us not forget his job was to take these pictures. That was his objective of being there. He was DOING HIS JOB!

It is much easier to judge Carter’s values sitting in our air-conditioned rooms and researching the history on our computers using Google. Ever wondered what it must be like to be a war photographer? To see people die in front of you, to be in the line of fire yourself, to see your colleague and friend die in a firing while taking those pics. How easy it is to see suffering like the kind in Sudan and still continue doing your job with the same passion.

Portion of Kevin’s suicide letter read “I am depressed … without phone … money for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners…I have gone to join Ken [recently deceased colleague Ken Oosterbroek] if I am that lucky.” He was a white male who protested against apartheid. He was a member of the “Bang-bang club”. Through his photography he also exposed many other evil practices like Necklacing.

Ok now back to our “Judge others from your comfort zone” club. Here are a few questions for you.

• When was the last time you contributed to a relief fund and how much(this by the way is the least you can do)
• When was the last time you even visited any affected area? Even if you are given a chance most of us would be busy with our own lives or give up the chance for fear of contracting a disease or getting into the chaos
• How much do you contribute to your local society welfare
• Are you associated with even one NGO and what is your contribution to it?
• When you see a begging child, what do you do

1.  Comment on the sorry state of India
2. Give the child a rupee or two and get rid of them
3. Take a child to your house and give a job
4. Take the child to an NGO and try to get help to get make them employable and give the child make it literate
5. Stop the child for a minute and speak to it about the concerns and why the child is forced to beg

Answer these questions and compare yourself to the above Kevin’s work and read the suicide note of the foolish guy who committed suicide even after receiving an award and compare who is more human. The answer would obviously be “The Judge Club”. Of course yes isn’t it more human to be selfish and judgmental! It requires more sacrifice and guts to do what Carter did than just being human!!

Cubevilled

A day in cubeville - Dilbert

I have been cubevilled. No, no, this did not happen yesterday. Just that the realization dawned upon me very recently. I have noticed a few people also recognise me as a corporate prisoner. Doesn’t sound good. I think they are just jealous. These are the ones who could not gain access to the cubeville. Anyway, now I am an inmate of the cubeville proudly 🙂 Now I laugh, cry , sing , dance and live on the days of the week called as Saturday and Sunday. I am the happiest on a day called Friday and use terms like TGIF to describe my happiness.  I also use terms like paradigm shift, leverage and out of the box thinking to gain more acceptance from the folks around me in the cubeville.

Life here is interesting from the normal life outside. People here seem to think they can control everything around them. It starts with conditioning the breathing air around them with devices called as Air-conditioners. Using this they adjust the room temperature to sub zero levels to get a feel of the more attractive far-off Antartic regions which are considered the advanced ones. The people here also try to imitate the species staying there while speaking, laughing, walking and sleeping and eat and wear stuff popular out there. The more similar you are to those species the more worthy you are considered. And then there is planning. It is a must to also have a plan to plan.

And this one has a festival coming up every month(Isn’t that cool? ) and the holy day is called salary day. The major leisure activity around this part of the world is related to something called Internet. It may take the form of forwarding emails, watching videos on youtube, Facebook, twitter, stupid games and random articles. When people here get upset they just download their feelings to something called a blog and continue with their work later on. There is also this phenomenon called “Review/Appraisal” which occurs annually in this part of the world. People dread this day and keep preparing to deal with the day throughout the year.

The language spoken here is called numbers(even the names of the people that are also known as an employee id). And if you happen to speak in any other language the words go unheard of. Although they make a constant effort to also speak a language called HR policy.

Most of the important decisions are taken by a certain sect of people called Managers or bosses. They don’t seem to be liked by the general folk and they speak in a secret language of their own called an MBA language.

So far so good. Lets see how things shape up for me here. Will keep you guys posted on the happenings here. Well, that is if I can, coz family, friends and social life is kind of stigma in this place. You know I have just come in here and want to be the good books of the folks. After all, I am supposed to stay here. Please forgive me if I don’t remember most of you after a few days. Thanks in advance for understanding me.

P.S: You may not have understood the last paragraph unless you also belong to cubeville or cubeville like places. English meaning: It is a nice way of saying “I am selfish and will only talk to you if I have something to get out of you”. The word sycophant in English is close to the above meaning.

Clinch the deal now!

Some people have the guts to go where only the brave venture. One of them is entrepreneurship. And in this case, it is my friends who have ventured in the world of e-commerce and they have entered with a bang!  Here is what they have to say about their venture 🙂

Hi,

I am Dealaram. A new name in the world of online commerce. But that doesn’t mean I am short of enthusiasm. No, sir , no. I am here to create a niche for myself in the blooming market and rise to a new level.

Now I am sure, these words would have raised quite a number of questions in your head. I will try to answer all of them.

Who Is This Loud-mouth And What Does He Do?

Like I said, my name is Dealaram. I am a deal aggregator. I collect deals, from different offline and online vendors and I offer them to you for a small amount depending on the savings. You can use the coupon to avail the said discount.

But There Are So Many E-Com Sites.

A Good question. First of all, I don’t call my self an e-com site. I am as I said in the previous question, a deal aggregator. Or rather lets give it a new term: A Dealagator. I snap up deals for you like an alligator. In simpler terms you can say, I am the guy who puts the restaurant pamphlets and discount coupons at your doorstep.

What is New About You?

I have tried to combine a coupon system with the benefits of bulk buying. The deals can be bought in exchange for a few coins. The day you register with me, your account will be credited with 200 coins. There are different ways by which yo can earn more coins eg by promoting me, blogging about me, promoting my Twitter handle and FB pages etc. Other than that, you can recharge the coins in your account. That is our online currency, similar to what you will see in the browser based games. And there are quite a few recharge options available. Moreover there are loyalty based bonuses available.

Is It Free?

Yes and No. Registration is free and the first 200 coins are free. And I will conduct different events, online parties if you wish to call them from time to time where freebies will be up for grabs. But other than that, you will need to recharge the coins.

How does it Benefit Me?

In more ways than I can count. The deals I have, ensure that YOU PAY LESS for what you want. I am planning to have deals not just in restaurants, spas and resorts sector, but everywhere. From Health Check-ups to Summer Workshops for kids. Books to Grocery Stores, Electronics to Furnishing Your Complete Home, Latest Fashion to Adventure Trips, handmade organic products to tailor made designer clothings…..you name it and it will be all at discount…if not now then some time from now.

And more than that, I wish to have a personal touch with all my members. Not in a formal business way, but like a friend. You can contact me through e-mail (two mail ids have been listed below), or via my facebook page or through Twitter. Me and my team members appreciate feedback. Plus I encourage the members to tell me what kind of deals they want. And I will try my best to get them for you.

How Do I Register?

Right now the site is on beta testing and is not fully functional. To register do send an email with your details i.e. name, age, e-mail id and phone number to support@dealaram.com The guys there are good and I assure you they will not sell your number to various telemarketers and neither will they spam your message box with PJs

For More Details, you can drop in a mail to

Mayur: screwdriver@dealaram.com
Prateek: prateek@dealaram.com (He really wanted to use snowleopard but damn the guy above)

In the meanwhile you can check my FB page and Twitter handles. I have been putting up free coupons, which are up for grabs. Don’t miss that opportunity.

Cheers
Dealaram

And I am saying “Go clinch the deal!!”

Are you a titli – Ektitli

The chaos theory states that a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere could create a hurricane half way across the world. I am posting about a few such butterflies who want to bring out a change in the world to save the world and avoid the chaos later on 🙂 . To make the world a greener and better place to live in and pass on to the future generations using the platform of Ek Titli. So here is straight from the horse’s mouth – what Ek titli is all about.

Ek Titli set out to achieve the possible. We all know it, have heard about it and even appreciated it but didn’t bother if we could contribute to it too! Ek Titli gives a platform to give wings to your ‘natural’ instinct.

We provide green solutions, mainly focused on converting chemical farms into organic ones, which, by the way, is something you can set up too in your garden or even terrace, only that it will be called a micro organic farm 🙂

You ask who ‘we’ are here. Well, we are a bunch of idiots who think they can change the world!

We also have a huge online dais that gives everyone an opportunity to talk Green & live greener. So if you have heard of a little birdie doing something appreciable for the green space, our online portal is where it should nest for a while. We spotlight the Green Do-Gooders, we love to associate with them.

We also like to read, write and talk about anything natural, organic and green! So the portal gives space to travelogues, photo features and even interviews with a green orientation.

For more details on what our portal entails, check out

http://www.ektitli.org/category/conversations/
http://www.ektitli.org/category/interviews/
http://www.ektitli.org/category/green-facts/

Drop in a mail if this interests you, or to just say hello to the idiots. We will smile back, and it’s contagious 🙂

vaibhav.dugar@ektitli.org
swati.maheshwari@ektitli.org

Hope this reaches at least a few of you through my blog(Thanks Pal for sharing the info). Remember the song ek suraj ,ek chanda, taare anek….?? Yes, ek dharti, ek life, ek mauka, we as titliyan anek can come together to make a difference. Are you a part of it?