A victim of circumstances or a victim of apathy???

"It is perhaps every teenagers dream to holiday in bali and shop in dubai. It is perhaps every software engineer's routine to party in places where a glass of vodka costs more than three meals for an entire family. It is perhaps every 17 year old boy's hobby to go to a shopping mall, look at beautifull women and thank God for making life so much more worthwhile. It is perhaps quite okay for a father to buy his son a Mitsubushi Pajero for passing 10th grade, while on the other hand money is being saved by cutting down on the salary of the housemaid. But while we are engrossed in our most serious ventures, we should perhaps step out of our own shoes and see those things that we ought to see, to hear those things that we ought to hear, to stay silent and think about what we really have to speak about.I am writing here fully aware of the cruel ironies and sorrowfull contradictions in the world today. We live in a society that plays on a see saw not caring enough to see if the person on the other end is heavy enough to balance the apparatus. We live in a not so condusive atomosphere where luxuries are no longer enough but instead an ambition to go beyond is visible. Yet on the other lie people who are troubled by the voice within, who cry and scream on the inside watching a poor soul's hope lies on the edge of a cliff and yet cant do anything to help.Death represents to most of us that evil force that will take us away from everything and everyone we love and cherish while for her it is perhaps a source of liberation, freedom from responsibilities that burden her back and strike her down, end of a punishment called lifeWhile we fight our battles against boredom, against mediocrity and against simplicity as opposed to vulgar extravagance, she fights a battle for food and shelter she fights a drunken husband and for good education which her children rightly deserve. While a kitchen knife to us, represents all those times we have hurt ourselves trying to chop vegetables, it reminds her of the day she came to her employers home shocked and not knowing where to go with the knife thrust into her back, by the very person who was supposed to love and protect her.While a good convent school represents to us affordable means of good education and money worth spending on, for her it represents an agent of financial burden and yet at the same time the right place for her brilliant daughter. It represents a situation where it is less food today and more money tomorrow or enough food today and a hopeless future tomorrow.It is true that she and I are from different sides of society. Yet her greatness and resilience is beyond anything I have ever seen.I stand here with the hope that her honesty is not rewarded with misery and sorrow; that her sincerity is not returned with starvation; that her nobility and integrity doesnt bring a drunken mad man whose only motivation is alchohol.Yet I also realise that hope isnt enough and neither is Rs.4000/- as fees for 10th grade. Gratitude has lost is meaning and concern signifies guilt and frustration. I stand here at the face of a society that is over eating and obese and yet refuses to share, at a government that continuously fights over our language and yet doesnt listen to the people who speak that language.I am also aware that words are not enough. Heck they may even discredit me as the person who only speaks and doesnt actually do anything. Yet it is with the hope that someone will listen and someone will listen good that I am here. I am here not telling a story about a individual but about a host of maids in Bangalore who fight drunken husbands, increasing costs of education and narrow minded employers and the apathy of society. This is the story of a housemaid whose drunken husband is absconding at the time of paying fees for the daughter’s term at school. This is the story of the housemaid whose drunker husband has drained her of all the money she needs for a cataract operation. This is the story of those millions of people who clean the houses of people they don’t know, ensure the family’s good health by tidying up the place and are yet ill treated as outcastes and cheap labour.I stand here lost in a different way thinking and pondering and still not able to understand anything. I would prefer my intellect to stay idle than to live with the frustration that I wasnt able to figure out another way, my eyes would rather prefer to be blind than see a soul lose its hope near the cliff and still not be able to do anything, my ears would prefer to be deaf than listen to the cries of those who need help and still feel helpless, my mouth would rather prefer to be dumb than say things and not be able to do anything promised. Justice and equity seem more like concepts on paper than operative words in today's world. They say that God is like a lawyer, i.e both are approached only when people can’t think of a way out and I would say I am also such a stereotype.To all those teenagers who own pajeros for passing 10th grade, who party at “The Capitol” spending more on booze than people could afford on proper food, I would like to say that a world exists parallel to ours and it is suffocating and it cries for help. It struggles to keep its residents alive and begs for someone to intervene. If you are a person to whom things beyond luxuries are a necessity, for whom comforts are more of a right than a privilege and for whom drugs and cigarettes are worth buying, then it is only fair that I wish you the best of luck.But as V puts it in his speech in V for Vendetta, if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel and if you seek as I seek, then please post this article on your blogs and spread this to every blogger you know for more the speakers, more will be listeners."

PS: This is written by Ash and since I like to consider myself as a concerned citizen of the world... Here it is! :D
Check it out: http://ashinbangalore.blogspot.com/2007/05/victim-of-circumstances-or-victim-of.html

From where...?

Where do you get all of this from?
This is a question that I have been thinking about for quite sometime. Have you seen how many shows, contests and such offer you a chance of a life time to win your dream house, car, gold, and tonnes of different kinds of prizes! And then you have the money that you can win! I just keep on wondering from where does all that money come from? And has the world become so very generous that they are giving these huge amounts of money away.
Maybe they are gaining it in huge amounts and maybe it is gained in a wrong way so then they think that by giving some money away they are freeing themselves from the guilt! Maybe they were exploiting their workers! I can think of more wrong ways that they can get money. I have to look at the other side though. Perhaps they were gaining money from their viewers, maybe from the viewers calls, smses to the show or such! All they want to do is just give and share their profits with us!?
These are merely assumptions of mine! I do not wish to be pointing fingers or anything but these questions have arise within me and I can not help uttering them out loud! Have you ever questioned the same? Did you find any satisfying answer? Because I sure haven't!
And what would I do if I was given such money? Would I take it? I have no idea... I have to get the above questions answered for! It is quite confusing to tell you the truth! I am not sure they are doing it out of their good will.... There is absolutely more to it than this! The problem is that we are all mislead to think that they want to benefit us. We have to question it though.
What would you choose? Would you take the money willingly?

Lost...

While listening to the world. I some how lost sense of what is going on with my life. My problems are seen as shallow, my cries are heard as whispers, my laughs are only smiles and my joys do not matter as much -I know, I know, this should be a poem instead :P-. I think I need to have a new insight on my life. I can not keep on doing this. It is just not right! I need to know that there might be bigger problems in the world than my own and greater joys but I should not compare them to mine. My own are the ones that I should learn from and they should be the ones that enrich my life! It is my own life and so I do not believe I might have another chance again to live another life which -for me- I see as a positive thing since I'll try to give my best in this life. I know I deserve as much.

I understand that my sorrows are the ones that keep me attached to real life and puts me back on my feel if I ever like I can fly away from my own happiness! They should diffently matter.

I can appreciate the things I have in my life more while I am caring and hearing more about some of the suffer in this huge world. I should not lose the meaning of things that occur to me. I think I need to work on this, because sometimes I do sink in my own problems and see that I have really a reasonable share of them as everyone else. I have enough that can keep me buzy for a while. Yours might be much bigger but who is to say really? I am always azazed when anyone says I've been through more than anyone else, how would you know really?

I have to give the things I go through their share of importance but I do know that it should not be so much that I might end up being so self-centred! I know I will be able to accomplish that but it needs some work!
At last I just want to say don't lose yourself through out the way... :D

List of things to do.

I normally wouldn't make a list of the things that I have to do and end up forgeting them. But these are some important things to get done:
- Send an email to our YFCI members asking them about what is the ideal behaviour in our org.
- Send mails to encourage our members to post.
- See what I can do to get VOY help us promote BTCA.
- Get info about HIV/AIDS and send them to Zach and get our OBCO site going.
- Write about 'cyclone gonu' for the A2I blog
- Write the YFCI chat meeting report.
That's about it I think!

What's happening?

It has been long since I have posted in my blog a bit of nothing. I miss it very much. It is Thursday and nothing much is happening! I went shopping with my mom and I bought a skirt . My exams are coming soon and school is about to finish. This semester has been great fun. Looking back at this school year it has been.... Lets just say it has been unpridectable.
Summer holidays are just days away, even if it was spent in total waste then it would be fun I'm sure. The not-so-much-fun part is the horrible heat around. Maybe I'm just being my complaining self but it is true.
Another random thing which is a song that I'm in love with at the moment. It is 'How to touch a girl' by Jojo and the wonderful thing is that I found the song which doesn't happen that often mind you. Have a listen....
Let us hope nothing happens and the school lets us go after the 9th of June, I don't have the least idea why they keep us in school so much. I'm sure it's not because how much appealing we are to them and how much they like seeing us -their dedicated, hard working students who are always accompanied by a book :P-
Let us seek for dedication, motivation so that we -I should say I- can pull through my finals! But they are no big deal... Who am I kidding really?
The big party is coming on Sunday and we're all very excited. We are good and lets hope we do well.
Anyways I can say as much for now... Nothing has been filled...

Today there was a party somewhere in Nizwa about sport activities... So I was there, now it was as usual a girls' only party and we were sitting and other girls presented the show.. Now there were a few kids but the person next to me didn't look at them the way I did... She said they were boys... Now I believe they weren't older than 10 years old but anyways let her look at them the way she wanted to that wasn't my biggest issue... Then she said they were supposed to put boys in the front and they should have been seated in the front and girls in the back. I couldn't help wondering the reason behind such a belief so the being lost look covered up my face and I asked 'erm... Why?' She said things just worked like that... Now I told her that this sort of thinking isn't right because there shouldn't be an order where girls and boys sit... It is just not right! Discrimination is just being applied with no reason. I said we have to move on from such ways of thinking... I don't think she understood what I meant and I included that by her saying in a sort of sarcastic way 'Oh so every girl should sit by the side of a boy?' Now I wasn't suggesting that and it would be very stupid to say who sits where!
If there was discrimination in those most simple things then how about who gets education? The other weird thing was that it came from a well-educated person whom I really admired at first. I still do admire her but...
Is this way of thinking we were born to adapt? I am not too sure on this, because I see alot of people who think that this is really really normal! But is it really? We ask why discrimination exists and here there are people who think it is just as normal as taking the next breath...

Let me leave it there... Who knows? Maybe she will realize someday that this thinking only leads her to have a side role in her own life in which she should take the leading role!

Our Friends

One of the privileges of being twins, is that we get to have the same friends and not only offline friends, here's something for our online friends:

Laura: She's such a sweet girl, very caring... and she wants to change this world for the better.. and we're proud that she's a friend of ours... we hope you find what you want in this life.

Evil_slayer -Boody-: a great person.. very funny.. and he's one of those people who will change this world starting from his country.. keep it up;)

Saudamini: She's such a 'sweetie' and she's our source of Indian music.. always great fun talking to her.. all the best..

Ash: one of us is going to kill him and the other one, he's relying on to save him.. a great friend.. we're lucky to know him..

Bhishma: He's very cool and doesn't know who's who.. he just says:'you sure you're Huda or Noor?' out of nowhere in the conversation.. and we love talking to him..

Zach -our boss-: can't ask for a better boss... so much fun talking to him.. we'll rock the world together.. you're an inspiration to all of us.. and you're dedication motivates us..

Rohit: can't believe how much he knows.. we're both huge fans.. keep rocking..

Medha: We have fun every time we talk to her.. we love you and just know we're there..

Waed: a great great friend.. she's such a cool nerd.. waiting to see her again.. all the best

Rux: she's so much fun.. and soo sweet.. always ready to give you an advice.. luv ya

Anu -AA-: one of the brightest people alive.. we love replying to her posts and learning about India from her.. she's a true compulsive thinker.. we're waiting for her to be our tour guide in India..

Fathi: instead of asking us 'how are you' he says: 'had your lunch? and what did you have' he'll know how we are from those questions.. he's an awesome friend.. you're invited anytime to come and have lunch with us and taste mom's cooking.. have fun at the gym:P

Amy: can't ask for a cooler friend.. and she's so talkative.. love talking to you..

Sharu & Aska: they're very cool ... can't wish you anything but the very best..

PS: we wrote this in a jumble order.. :D
This is posted by N&H

Debating over lunch....

They: 'You're planning to volunteer with the UNICEF????? Why would you want to do that? What are they doing?'
Me and Huda: 'They are doing much to help children all over the world'
They: 'How come we don't hear much about it?'
Me and Huda: 'Well, we know alot about what they do....'
The debate when we were sitting eating lunch continued with two girls of our acquaintance. Then they couldn't help contradicting themselves by saying that UNICEF doesn't do much besides what they publicize. They claimed that UNICEF only wants fame and wants people to know that they are actually doing. Another pointed was that if UNICEF was donating money or was holding a campaign why would they publish it? Don't they care about those poor people and what shame they might be feeling if the whole world knew they were poor and they needed money. I thought first they said that they didn't hear much about what UNICEF is doing and now they were suggesting that the UNICEF should do more and publicise less!!!
I couldn't help telling them they were very much wrong... I talked and mind you very freely and very much about my dream of joinning the UNICEF one day. I also mentioned how much they are doing. Now we moved on since I drifted away and started talking about the world's problems and I mentioned about the project we're trying to do. Which is for kids in Africa who are born with HIV. Now, I gave them something to protest to. Why is it kids in Africa that I was caring about? What about my country's children? Mind you I don't say this much but this is where nationalism sucks! Why wouldn't I care about them? Or would that mean I don't care about the kids in my country? I really hate it when people say stuff like this because it'd like they are saying 'What do you care about your country?' Making assumptions such as these isn't nice at all.
How much was going during that lunch. At last they only said that they weren't against caring about these things and I do have to give them some credit, they said we have high dreams! I took that as a compliment!
Now my sister's friend couldn't help hearing and said a thing I liked very much, she said that it was nice that I was caring about such things but what was it that we are doing, is there a noticeable change? I couldn't say YES! But I said that we have to care and try to make a change which was a satisfying answer for her.
Also, I listed some of the things I do which is also boycott some stores and I managed to highlight some of the injustice that is being done to the workers in these shops...
It was such a great debate but the other team had weak points! :P
No one won though. It was only supposed to be a family dinner with some of our friends! Which was fun and actually those people we haven't seen in nearly two months which was a long time since we used to visit them regularly. It was nice to catch up and have this GREAT debate!

Will keep on caring about what is going on..... :D

a life in fear!

As I was talking to my friends the other day, somehow polygamy popped up and they started giving their opinions on it. I was sort of shocked to hear that one of them said she was dreading it. The reason was that her uncle married on his wife another one and the reason was that because he felt like it. I felt sad for her because I don't think anyone will be by her side if her husband actually married on her. I tried giving my advice and said 'Make sure the one you marry is open minded and well educated!' They were sure they would do that, I should rephrase: They were sure they will try to do that.
Isn't it really funny that someone at the age of 15 thinks or rather dreads having such a husband? I thought it shouldn't really happen. What about kids living their lives without worries or maybe at least such worries. We all should be secure enough to know that nothing will happen to us unless we choose it and no matter what occurs then we can always control it.
It isn't fair for these things to happen.
There was this girl who used to go to school with us in the same bus, we saw her everyday but she wasn't that social so only good morning was passed between us. Anyhow this year she didn't show up for school, we didn't think it was strange because perhaps they moved or she changed the school. Anyways not much thought was given to it and the school year was spent like every other one. Let me get to the point though... Well my mom was at their house recently and she said that the girl is to be married. Her marriage is to take place tomorrow. She is only 16/17. That wasn't the big shocker though. I am somehow used to hearing about this but she will be the second wife. I don't know if she wants to get married, or she is forced to because her family's condition isn't that good.
Is this where we have lived to be? Can we move on to a better place? I don't think it is a matter of the ability to do so. We have to move on and leave this to the past. It is not the medieval times that we're living in.

What happened to persuading your dreams/goals? If it is your choice then I will leave it to that, but if it wasn't. Then something has to be done regarding this!
We shouldn't be afraid! But what if there was no other way but to be afraid? What can someone who is in the shoes of my friend do if she was up fronted with such a situation?
I would say... Ask for divorce, if you did your job as a wife then he would have no right in marrying someone besides you.
Just thought of letting that out!

from here and there

hey,
how's it going? It has been long since I posted in here. I know I know... You all missed my posts :P
Nothing much have been happening but we actually won first place on the Nizwa Project For Healthy Lifestyles which was awesome. They didn't announce it yet. I had enough courage to tell our teacher that we demand announcing that we've earned it and won!! She simply said that they still haven't informed our school officially. Anyways at least she promised she would when they inform the school... Our afforts have to be rewarded!
Another thing which happened today was that we went out, because the lesson had to be taught out side because it was on astronomy, anyhow I can't even start talking about how hot it was. It was nearly 12:30 pm and we had lost all of our enrgey and we only wanted to go home. The only thing which made it acceptable was that today is Wednesday!!

Another annoying thing happened which was that the social studies teacher gave us a short quiz with only 2 questions... Now the questions weren't hard but doesn't it just bug you if you asked the teacher about a question and then it turns out that they gave you the wrong explanation!

Life is good though, we hardly study nowadays! Who would study if school is just about to end and there is a couple of weeks untill exams come... well, not me at least...

Oh yes, I watched a movie... It's called 'Aquamarine' and I truly liked it. :D finally I saw a good movie.