Someone said to me "It's one of the most difficult things to lead a simple life". Ever since I have tasted corporate waters in a large urban island, I have felt this very often. Being genuine and simple at heart are rather cliched terms here. My profession has taught me to play articulately with words, control emotions, say the right thing to the right person at the right time et al but it is like a trap - the more you try to excel at it, the more you complicate matters! For sometime now, I was rather disturbed by people and situations that never allowed me to be myself, that did not allow me to answer simple questions in a lucid, speculation-free manner.
In November 2009, I had a chance to visit this very small place with very large iron ore deposits, namely, Meghatuburu, in Jharkhand. 'Meghatuburu' in tribal language means forests as dense as clouds. Beneath the dark, dense forests lay huge, simply huge deposits of iron ore. I am told these iron ore mines are nearly a piece of heaven for global steel giants.
The 'irony' though is that there are virtually no roads to get there. Huge bumpy mud pathways, metallic road in patches and no infrastructure for decent living in kilometres of radius of the place. The only real inhabitants of the place are the families of mining engineers who work in the iron ore extraction plant there and the natives (mostly tribals and other rural folks) of the land.
I had a chance to put up in the SAIL guest house there by virtue of my father's employment with the organization. While our day long stay was characterized by 'fresh air and peace', what really impressed me was the simplicity of the people serving us and other local folk.
I don't know how many of us will be able to picture this - their innocence was untouched by any fear, ugliness, worry, negativity whatsoever. In a place which doesn't even have a school or hospital in less than 10 kms, people do not complain about anything. And in this mega city that I live in, people are ever complaining - about friends, colleagues, people on the road, salary, traffic jams etc etc...
People who do not have adequate lights in the evening do not feel sad in the darkness but in a city that never sleeps and is ever bedazzled by lights has many people who feel 'darkness' in their hearts everyday.
People who do not get access to pizza, pasta etc cook and eat such lovely dal, chawal, aloo fry, salad and dahi that you only can taste it to believe it. And here the options are so many that people are now looking for 'health' food ;-)
People who have never been to school are so deep in their thought and sincere in their feelings even towards a stranger. This doesn't closely match even the most generous of friendships in this city.
I am really not exaggerating - I warmed up to it in just a day. Mosquitoes were hounding us but I didn't feel the pain, atleast for that day.
People learn 'art of living' and all sorts of other things to restore the peace and joy that's somewhere lost. On a more optimistic note, the stress levels of urban working people in India is lesser than that in some of the developed countries, I hear. I wonder what becomes of them in times of distress.
More we learn to accept people and things at face value, the more we learn to live in the moment, the more we learn to trust and love, the happier we would be..:-) No one's ever got peace by maintaining diplomatic relations. Not even two countries!
In November 2009, I had a chance to visit this very small place with very large iron ore deposits, namely, Meghatuburu, in Jharkhand. 'Meghatuburu' in tribal language means forests as dense as clouds. Beneath the dark, dense forests lay huge, simply huge deposits of iron ore. I am told these iron ore mines are nearly a piece of heaven for global steel giants.
The 'irony' though is that there are virtually no roads to get there. Huge bumpy mud pathways, metallic road in patches and no infrastructure for decent living in kilometres of radius of the place. The only real inhabitants of the place are the families of mining engineers who work in the iron ore extraction plant there and the natives (mostly tribals and other rural folks) of the land.
I had a chance to put up in the SAIL guest house there by virtue of my father's employment with the organization. While our day long stay was characterized by 'fresh air and peace', what really impressed me was the simplicity of the people serving us and other local folk.
I don't know how many of us will be able to picture this - their innocence was untouched by any fear, ugliness, worry, negativity whatsoever. In a place which doesn't even have a school or hospital in less than 10 kms, people do not complain about anything. And in this mega city that I live in, people are ever complaining - about friends, colleagues, people on the road, salary, traffic jams etc etc...
People who do not have adequate lights in the evening do not feel sad in the darkness but in a city that never sleeps and is ever bedazzled by lights has many people who feel 'darkness' in their hearts everyday.
People who do not get access to pizza, pasta etc cook and eat such lovely dal, chawal, aloo fry, salad and dahi that you only can taste it to believe it. And here the options are so many that people are now looking for 'health' food ;-)
People who have never been to school are so deep in their thought and sincere in their feelings even towards a stranger. This doesn't closely match even the most generous of friendships in this city.
I am really not exaggerating - I warmed up to it in just a day. Mosquitoes were hounding us but I didn't feel the pain, atleast for that day.
People learn 'art of living' and all sorts of other things to restore the peace and joy that's somewhere lost. On a more optimistic note, the stress levels of urban working people in India is lesser than that in some of the developed countries, I hear. I wonder what becomes of them in times of distress.
More we learn to accept people and things at face value, the more we learn to live in the moment, the more we learn to trust and love, the happier we would be..:-) No one's ever got peace by maintaining diplomatic relations. Not even two countries!
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