Another poverty stricken kid..

I'm no philanthropist myself but the heart does ache to see a poor child begging for food or money or just for a few prayers for his/her ailing mother.  A lot has been written on what we can do for such underprivileged children and our own conscience knows the answer to such queries too. I'm just here to write on what that child goes through every morning, every afternoon, every evening, every night of his survival. How that child fights with the selfish, cruel world to live- every day of his life. 

I feel over-blessed when I think about the lives of these unlucky few in our society. Let's take a vow to help each one of them in any small way we can. 

I have written a short poem to convey what a poverty stricken child feels. How he is braver than every single one of us reading this. How he strongly and boldly faces difficulties in his life- daily, which we can't even think of undergoing.

Pray for me brother !!

I'm tired of the pitiful looks,

Of faded clothes and second-hand books,

I'm tired of begging for alms,

Of the empty stomach and the stretched out palms..

I hate the winters, I loathe summer heat,

The half-naked body, the boils on the feet,

The monsoon floods the heart with spite,

The so-called crop season, but not a grain in sight..

I silently pray for elections every night,

As politicians line up to give us food- to show their might,

It may not last forever, but it gives me new hopes,

To see another day, as life has me on the ropes..

I wish, at times, for a better life,

To have a home, two children and a wife,

To have a shelter and two meals a day, 

To feel wanted and loved, to feel complete- some day...

~Saurav Goyal

Arranged Marriages - A true reflection of our modernisation..

Marriages are said to be made in heaven, but in a typical Indian society, only our parents seem to possess the visionary powers to see this great bonding between two people. The parents have the special ability to foresee the future and the compatibility between two people in one look whereas the concerned children can’t be sure about the future even if they have spent years together now. 

The world has changed a lot in the last decade. Saddam Hussein was killed in public, Osama was shot dead, India’s population increased by a few millions, Apple Inc’s liquid assets increased more than the US’s government - but marriages are still ‘arranged’ in India. The age old formula of meeting the to-be bride’s and groom’s families. Exchanging pleasantries, serving cholesterol filled - arteries blocking food, praising each other’s under achieved, over grown families and then the children are sent out to “talk in private” while the “Adults” of the two families can fix a price on their children’s freedom. Now this can create a controversy as I am talking about the dowry in an informal language. And as we all know, asking for dowry is a punishable offence in India. For this very reason, people don’t ask for dowry, they ask for “things which will make the life of our children easy in future”. Such a sophisticated way of fulfilling one’s greed just because the groom’s father’s X chromosome was dysfunctional in the embryo. A privilege the bride’s father does not enjoy. It really shows the maturity of brains which decide the children’s future. But who am I to go against the culture our society has preserved for centuries. This is the ‘paramparaa’ which I need to imbibe in myself. How delightfully exciting! 

The parents ask their children to meet each other so that they get to know their future partner in the one meeting after which they need to give their assent. We are also supposed to take it for granted that the other person will be their own self in the all important one time meeting and they will not just try to be nice and lovable. How delightfully convincing! All our lives we are taught not to talk to strangers and one fine day they ask us to marry one. 

The irony starts now, in spite of all the negatives, the criticisms; the arranged marriages seem to work just fine. All the married couples seem to agree on the fact that they were mature enough to adjust and mould their life according to their partner. This in turn only made the bond of love between them stronger and everlasting. 

Arranged marriages, for me, is like a game of cards in which you gamble with all your chips. If the outcome is in your favour, it gives you manifold returns; but if you lose, you have nothing left to continue with.