An Experience of a Lifetime

The boisterous roar ricocheted from each and every crumb of firozshakotla stadium as if the GOD himself has resurrected from death in front of his disciples. And why it shouldn’t be the case, it was none other than the GOD of cricket “SACHIN TENDULKAR” himself who was smashing the small ball so hard as if it appeared to him to be a size of a humungous football.

17^th March 2010, Wednesday, Firozshakotla Stadium Delhi, IPL -3 Mumbai Indians Vs Delhi Daredevils is all what describes about the day on which I had an Experience of my Lifetime.

It was also one of the darkest days of my life as my 5^th semester results were also disseminated on that day, which showcased the worst scores of my academic career with the sole exception of the debacle in JEE-2007.But even this potent failure was not beefy enough to arrest me in my frantic thoughts and keep me away from the sport that was once the passion of my life.

It was only the three of us (Basant and Nitish besides me) and we reached the heartland at 8:30 p.m., late by half an hour. By the time we were there in the stands the master blaster was already on the song. The first sight of the plush green stadium and the little maestro accelerated the blood in my veins to the speeds of Bugatti Veyron .The barnstorming, charismatic and jampacked crowd, and the flamboyant and glamorous cheerleaders bowled me out completely and it took me some time to realise the fact that I was not amidst the world of my dreams. Though the bee espoused the home team which was the Delhi Daredevils but there was none who didn’t boogied or whose heart didn’t sing with the rhythmic beats generated by the bat of none other than the little Master himself.

After the mammoth 200 in ODI’s, he again silenced his critics that there is none in this cricketing world, till date, who can match up with him in any version of the game. His blistering knock of 63 of just 32 balls helped the visitors to put a colossal target of 219 in front of the hosts. But again under the sage captaincy of the most experienced cricketer, the fantasy of the home team to win the match was shattered and they lost the match by 98 runs. Though I missed those astronomically high fours and sixes from the bats of Viru and Gauti but still there were a huge lot of moments that I can cherish for lifetime.

An Eternal Talisman

“I will give you a talisman.
Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self
becomes too much with you, apply the
following test.
Recall the face of the
poorest and the weakest man whom you may
have seen, and ask yourself, if the step
you contemplate is going to be of any
use to him. Will he gain anything by it ?
Will it restore him to a control over his
own life and destiny ? In other words,
will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and
spiritually starving millions ?
Then you will find your doubt
and your self melting away. "

Obviously this bunch of sage words is not written by me but it is one of the last notes penned and signed by one of the greatest man ever born on this earth, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It was found among his papers after his assassination on January 30, 1948.

It’s the same bunch of enlightening words that plays a cameo in the most commonly renowned N.C.E.R.T. books being prescribed by C.B.S.E. for our academic syllabus every year, but always fail to leave an imprint on our minds.

It was during those impasse times, when I was going through the most dreadful and roughest patch of my academic career, one day I was just sitting in my hostel room sweating, astronomically stressed out and constantly gazing at the ceiling of the room, thinking about the various dogmatic approaches which I took that slipped me into an infernal future, adventitiously somewhere from my subconscious mind this talisman popped out like a spring and it was then I was forced to cogitate nothing else but the veiled and bonafide meaning of it.

Helpless, worried, distraught, hopeless, cadaverous and dirt poor faces of all the destitute people whom I have come across throughout my life started knocking the locked doors of my mind. Although their pathetic and impoverished conditions made me feel relieved from my sorrows for the time being but at the same time it directed me to think about the subject that has hovered in my mind ever since I became mature enough to understand the intricate script of life, about the various inexorable differences that are contained in our lives. The difference between mirth and dismay, fortune and bagatelle, luxury and austerity-the major chunk of which is being begot by POVERTY.

Poverty is nothing but those broke people who are a common sight at traffic lights, markets and all the public places evincing their torn clothes, rugged hair, mud and dirt covered bod forming a stinking shield around them. Poverty is nothing but those uncountable creatures that have no other option but to squeeze and fit themselves under one small roof at a very pathetic and unhygienic place that is often denoted by us as slum and if one has a hostile luck by his side then he has to find his bed out on the bustling and dazzling streets where they even have to cope up with the fear of losing their lives at any time due to hit-and-run accidents. Poverty is nothing but that effete person who loses a dear one due to lack of funds for his proper medical treatment. Poverty is nothing but those numerous kids who never attended schools or left their studies in between just to join some local tea shop to earn a piece of bread for their family.

So, poverty is nothing but something that we witness everyday at the streets, in the news and even in our homes. From our homes, I am simply referring towards those numerous impoverished home servants that have become a basic necessity of our lives.

But did we ever try to slip behind those black curtains and investigate how these people dwell? What hard and real time challenges they face every day, every hour, and every moment? Let alone the idea of feeling for their agonised conditions but do we ever try to find out what dictates so much of disparity in our society? What leads to poverty?

It would be very hard for the present generation, who is being brought up with silver spoon in their mouth, to digest the fact that even after more than 50 years of Independence India still has the world's largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 260.3 million are below the poverty line, of which 193.2 million (more than 75%) are in the rural areas and 67.1 million are in urban areas. According to the definition by Planning Commission of India, poverty line is drawn with an intake of 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories in urban areas. If a person is unable to get that much minimum level of calories, then he/she is considered as being below the poverty line. These potent facts are self evident of the inexorable differences being possessed by our society where on one hand a person has all the privileges of the world to pursue his education abroad while on the other hand nearly 260 million people are deprived of even some of the basic amenities of life.

There are many reasons that can be held responsible for the widespread of this epidemic but the foremost and major reason for the swelling of this social sinister is the inappropriate distribution of wealth. The riches of the society are getting richer day by day as they have all privileges and resources of the world to prosper but only a very minute section of the remaining are being able to come out of the powerful clutches of backwardness and misery to live a respectable life, due to the lack of opportunities.

Whom to blame for all this mess? Are the riches of the society culpable or our government, whose sole responsibility has been to toil in order to create brighter future for each and every citizen of this democratic, secular and liberal country, ever since it has gain independence?

But in my views this barbaric canker cannot dwell due to lack of ignorance of one section of the society or due to lack of proper governance by the demagogues. But, it is due to the collective efforts of each and every socially responsible, self sustained and the so called respectable citizen of our Indian society that nurtured the fecund atmosphere for the proper nourishment of the weed named poverty to spread in our society.

This social demonic not only hampers the economic development of our country but also gives birth to various other social satanic like racial biasing, communal woes, illiteracy, suicides, crimes like looting, robbery, snatching and the list goes on.

So the talisman Gandhiji wrote, in reality provides us a medium to get rid of our grievances by showing us the darker side of our society which we have always ignored consciously but it doesn’t provides us with the solution about how to deal with this lethal sinister neither do I am going to discuss them but to know your state of mind I would like to ask you all something.

What are the various ways in which a literate, socially responsible and the respectable citizen of our society can contribute his bit to wipe out the weed of POVERTY from our society?