learner for life.

2009-05-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

----------- CHILD LABOUR ------------

Would you like him to help you get home ?

..... help you get rid of your junk?

Child Labour is the employment of children under an age determined by law or custom which is 14 years in India.

Child Labour can be factory work, mining or quarrying, agriculture, helping in parent's small business or having one's own small business like selling food or doing odd jobs.
poor families often rely on labours of their children for survival and sometimes it is their only source of income.

Children aren't given an opportunity to go to school and even if they are they aren't allowed to pursue secondary and higher education due to poverty.

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE ...

STREETS,

PAVEMENTS,

TRAFFIC SIGNALS,
RAILWAY STATIONS,
BUS DEPOTS,
RESTAURANTS,
HOTELS,
CANTEENS,
FACTORIES,
WORKSHOPS,
SWEATSHOPS,
MOTOR GARAGES, ETC....

LOOK AROUND YOU........

YOU WOULDN'T MIND HER HELPING YOU CURB YOUR PANGS OF HUNGER......

WOULD YOU LIKE HIM TO CLEAR UP YOUR MESS ?

HIM TO SWAB THE MESS AWAY ?

BIGGER NAMES BIGGER EXPLOITATION !!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Walmart stores,
Disney Inc,
Nike Inc
Hershey's M and M'S And Mars Candybars.
Del monte, Dole, Chiquita, Noboa.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ?
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Dial 1098 and report child labour to nearby ngo or police.
Do not use a child as a domestic help in your home.
Dissuade from buying anything sold by children.
If they do not have any family notify an orphanage and IF POSSIBLE pay for their expenses in the orphanage.

THEY TOO HAVE DREAMS...... !

The Journey.

2009-04-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

Recently I was travelling in train to reach my destination....I was completely exhausted by the sweltering heat. I managed to get a fourth seat in the over- crowded ladies compartment of Kalyan bound local on the central railway line on my return journey- after walking through the streets of Worli and Dadar for almost five hours widout 'chappals' in my feet- they managed to prove unreliable just like our politicians ....( somebody did the honours of pulling them apart in the crowded train. )......

It was 7.00 am ..and I along with my parents had to rush our way to reach Worli to apply for passport. we barely managed to get in the train just when somebody tampered with my chappals while I about to hoard the train. i thanked god that my limbs were still joined to my body.

I had to stand without 'chappals' in my feet the entire journey upto dadar ( hoarded the train at mulund ) ....it was too early and all shops were closed . Moreover we had to reach Worli in order to secure our turn at the passport office ( which opens only at 10. 00) after standing in the long queue for almost two hours and later roaming on Worli streets bare footed - people were smiling thinking I was observing devotion of some kind to a deity. We headed straight to the market, where I purchased 'comfort for my feet' and returned to Dadar. This time I was cautious while hoarding the train .....( people learn only through experiences of sorts) ......lesson learnt. Be careful while hoarding the train!

I was busy observing and listening to the busy bees who were sitting as if they were some relatives of Lalu Prasad Yadav. - reluctant to move their cellulite even an inch !! I was totally disgusted and fed up. The lady sitting in front turned behind and called out to somebody saying " paanch ka teen dena"......

I cud barely observe whom she was calling out to.....there were big fat ladies blocking my view in between.....suddenly when my eyes met with these two small children....a girl and a boy each roughly around 11 and 9 years old respectively.

I felt as if someone had just pinched me. I was awed by the marketing skills of the kids -I bet they could compete with the marketing manager in any mnc's . Hastily I removed my cellphone and clicked their snaps.....

I barely got a chance to strike a conversation with those .....the train came to a halt and the kids disappeared in the crowd......far beyond where I cud see.
But I remember those faces even today......there are some things we never forget !

Negative attitudes.

2009-03-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

Man's actions are more determined by feelings than by logic and reason. His life is governed by jealousy and prejudice. These negative attitudes appear as soon as a certain degree of social
perception and participation is achieved.

Perhaps the most distressing attitude is jealousy, the feeling that one may be deprived of parents' or lovers' affection, of riches, of honour or anything considered worth having.
Men or women who are suspicious, jealous, touchy and sensitive are enmeshed in a slavery of their own making ; they are powerless at home at work and in society.
Evidently jealousy is the offshoot of our insticnt for self preservation. When we fear the loss of something necessary for our safety and happiness we are on guard to keep others from snatching it away..

Robert Browning once said, 'This looking down that makes one dizzy.' The man who has his looks riveted on the narrow little circle of his own experience cannot see life in its true perspective.

Our attitues towards nations, castes, creed , customs and ideas are often based on and are
reinforced by emotion, which is another way of saying that they are biased and prejudiced.... in such cases we often accept and approve or set up an attitude of favourability towards various things without clear evidence and perhaps in a conventional , irrational or emotional manner..

A common element in prejudice is ethnocentrism : an emotional tie-up with our group, race or caste so that we accept all its attitudes as more right and reasonable than those of other groups. Another sign of arrested development is 'xenophobia' - fear of strange, and therefore readiness to hate him. It is an unconcious and automatic response that has nothing to do with known characteristics of the stranger but only with the fact of his strangeness.

Perhaps the most obvious field in which emotional atttitudes are found is that of group differences . We have mental images of certain groups of people which make us qualify these groups with certain uniform characteristics like barbers, mother- in law, politicians, cooks, taxi drivers etc..... There is hardly any large group in society which does not assume some stereotyped characteristics which are attributed to all its members, however unrealistic and inappropiate such attribution maybe.

" For the most part we do not see and then define, we define first and then see. "
A way to overcome emotional prejudices is to train ouselves to judge the race, not the people,
to study the ideas not the man.

.

seven types of love....which one is urs??????

2009-03-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

consummate love = intimacy+ passion+ commitment (a complete love, ideal yet difficult to attain)
companionate love = intiamcy + commitment( long term committed friendship such as a marriage in which the passion has faded )
empty love = decision/commitment alone (decision to love another without intimacy or passion)
fatuous love = passion+commitment( commitment based on passion but widout time for intimacy to develop shallow relationship such as a whirlwind courtship)
infatuation = passion alone ( passionate, obssesive love at first sight without intimacy or
commitment)
romantic love = initimacy + passion ( lovers physically and emotionally attracted to each other but widout commitment, as in summer romance )
liking = intimacy alone ( true friendship widout passion or long term commitment)

COMMITMENT PHOBIA ??

2009-03-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

The irony is inescapable.....even as bollywood and the idiot box obssesively glorify that great institution - Marriage !! ......real life scripts itself somewhat differently........
Yes the surface glitter- mehendi, sindoor, rituals, raazmataaz is all there but increasingly
the post script to the celebration is being written in the melancholy confines of the family courts and divorce proceedings !!!!!

Are we as a a society going through an emotional transition and examining our institution afresh? divorce rates spiralling is now an old story. "Commitment phobia" is growing especially in urban India....people are more concious of their own identity and wary about any possible threat to this identity.

The changing dynamics of Indian society have undoubtedly placed a lot of pressure on institution of marriage. Women are now not only more concious of their rights but also of a 'quality of life' and so they are beginning to expect more and more out of marriage. The burden of relationship which was shared in a joint family now falls entirely on the couple making it very difficult for them.

Most importantly since family and community have weakened so much , the sense of failure linked to divorce that used to touch one earlier doesnt matter anymore. ''its just another way of life" This decreasing social stigma even in small towns is emboldering people to decide on breaking marriages that have soured rather than suffering in silence.

Those seeking divorce largely belong to upper middle class and the ones who have been
married for less than a year, 5 years,10 years, 15 years or even 50 years !!!! Thats because life doesnt end at 50 or 60 anymore . Increasingly the attitude is :-
" I have only one life, why shudn't I make the most out of it ? ".

This individualism combined with lower tolerance levels is a a productof the ' Me -first' ethos of post liberalisation in India. All kinds of hitherto relations are now coming out into the open- there are socially unconventional man-woman relations, gay relations, singlehood is accepted as a choice one makes.

Marriage can no longer be seen as a vehicle for the procreation/ recreation or as a buffer against social stress. It needs to be seen as a an equal bond between two individuals ,
a bond that needs to be given time, energy and commitment. and the sooner we junk
outdated theories about this institution the better !!!!!!