Rs5000 + 20 days = A valuable lesson in LIFE !

Me and Mr. Extravagant, both synonyms! But that’s a fact of the past now. The last 20 days has taught me something. With a strong mindset and resolve to do something better, for a change, nothing is impossible. I’ve been working for over two years now, and that too in one of the metro cities of the Indian sub continent. But that doesn’t serve as a good excuse for the way in which I’ve carried myself around and the way I’ve spent foolishly and without any second thoughts, and in the process almost becoming on the verge of claiming a bankruptcy, just like the small banks are doing in the US now. But unfortunately I won’t get any financial aid to recoup like them. So it was upon me to do something to show and prove to myself that, even in a city like Chennai life can be lived, and that too with minimum out of pocket.

I’m back home now after my first, last and the only extravaganza for the month, a movie at one of the multiplex here at Chennai, which in a metro and especially in Chennai, considered to be the most extravagant and costliest thing to do next to traveling in an auto!! Step your foot into an auto here and you'll regret it for a lifetime if you're new to this place. They'll start with the price of the auto to take you just down the road for probably a kilometer. Anyways, you won’t believe it, but due to some unfortunate circumstances, unwanted spending and debts I brought upon myself, my bank balance on the 2^nd day of this month was just Rs5000!! The immediately previous month and for many months before this, I had found it so tough to make both ends meet, with slightly more bank balances. But not this time, I had a purpose and a strong mind to do better at least once before I probably call it quits.

I’ve spent the last 20 days on basic necessities like food and travel, cut short my other fantasies and urge to buy books, hanging out with friends and other things I’ve been doing over the last 2 years. Looking back it doesn’t seem so tough now, and the results are in front of me. A valuable lesson learnt and a better perspective achieved on how to spend and how to live with what little one has. I used to think how people with low incomes could survive, not only in a metro but also in any town. What with the inflation rates becoming other worldly (The price of every commodity is rising, except one’s salary!!). But I’ve learnt something now. The more your income the more you spend. With only Rs5000 to spend and debts still left uncleared, which is piling up to huge amounts, I had to do something about my being a spendthrift. I learnt a few valuable lessons and got a few pointers from my roommate in the way he spends. Added to it a few points of my own, by pondering upon what and where I’ve been spending on without any actual need for it, lo and behold! I learnt my own practical lesson to live life KING size in my own way. In the end that’s what matters, how you think you’ve done it, and how well you’ve enjoyed each moment. I had the same feeling when I was a spendthrift. I used to roam around without paying any heed to what others used to say and I enjoyed it because I loved doing what I did. Even now I do enjoy, but in a different way and now I understand so many others like my roommate. This is probably just a beginning, but something for me to go by in the coming months and years.

Save the tiger !

Off late I've been seeing so many ads with some meaning or a message. Climate change and the adverse effects on environment has been running the show since last many months starting with the Copenhagen summit of world leaders. The global climate change, which stems mainly from the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting effects on climate, is a matter of primary concern if we're to preserve the ecological system for the generations to come. Another measure which takes prime importance at this stage to preserve the ecological system is to protect and preserve the food chain and its individual elements. By individual elements I mean the participants in the food chain. One main element is the predator or the one who consumes and sits at relatively higher position in the food chain. Human beings or homo sapiens fall in this category, so do tigers, another mammal. According to World Wildlife Federation (WWF) a quarter of the world's mammals face a high risk of extinction within 30 years!!

I for my side hate or rather would like to stay away from all animals starting from the smallest, an ant, to the largest, a blue whale!!You may call it a phobia or a fear, and in spite of many attempts I've never come to get away with this fear. But that doesn't stop me from thinking of the future, my future, their future and the future of the environment as a whole. Tigers are the largest of all Asian big cats, at the top of the food chain at par with human beings, and also one of the most culturally important and beautiful animal to exist on planet earth. But they are also one of the most vulnerable and threatened species on earth. As per latest reports and expert estimates there are as few as 3200 tigers are left in the wild!! Of the 9 sub species of tigers that existed on planet earth, the Bali, Caspian and Javan subspecies have become extinct over the last 70 years. Wild tigers number have fallen by about 95% over the last 100 years, its range decreased by 93%, and the remaining 6 sub species namely Amur, Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan, South China and Sumatran also risk the same fate due to illegal wildlife trade, poaching and conflict with people unless we do something about it. If we do not respond to the plight of wild tigers and the needs of the communities that share their home with tigers—most of which is outside protected wildlife areas – we will witness the loss of one of the world’s most irreplaceable natural wonders of our lifetime.

For the food chain to persist and for the ecological balance to be maintained it is important that each and every species is taken care of from becoming extinct. by the different governments and others? Encouraging private participation in generating awareness among the general public is what I believe can make great inroads in making them aware of the importance of each species and the importance of individual and group participation in preserving them to maintain the ecological balance. In this regard I feel happy off late when I see the AIRCEL ads which run in between movies giving us a startling insight into the number of Bengal tigers, the sub species in the Indian sub continent, remaining; just 1411 !! Imagine just that many human beings. What would the world come to? Nothing. On similar lines, whole ecology and the very existence of mankind may be at stake due to tigers becoming extinct. Now that is hard to imagine right? But if you remember your science lessons in elementary school you can probably recollect the food chain and importance of each individual species in it. Well tigers and humans are both part of the chain. So tigers becoming extinct, can round up finally to  have an adverse effect on us. Not only tigers but other species also has its importance and significance in the food chain and so we should ensure and take every little step possible to create/maintain a salubrious and  functional ecology.

On February 14, 2010, the Chinese lunar calendar rolls into the Year of the Tiger. The plight of the tigers do not call for much celebration. So lets join hands to do what little possible from our side to save these endangered species. Today as I write this, I pledge and swear to take part in campaigns and promote the message to the general public. In this regard I've started following the activities of WWF and have decided to contribute in whatever ways possible for establishing well-connected protected areas, restore natural habitat and reduce human-tiger conflict. Its your take - survive and let survive or perish. So are you with me?

  

 *** Images, Facts and figures, courtesy WWF ***

"THE ME" within me speaking...

Penned down on the reverse of the train ticket for my journey from Chennai to Payyanur on 4^th Feb 2010, for my brother’s marriage reception on 5^th Feb and my sister-in-laws’ cousin sister’s marriage on 7^th Feb, my 5^th train journey in the last 4 weeks and the 3^rd one alone.

As I sheaf through the pages of a book “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri trying to read and understand & imagine the scene described in words in the pages in front of me, my gaze and thoughts are wandering away in its own world. I sit gazing at my shadow intertwined with the shadow of the window bars which form immense number of patterns as the train sped along the tracks it is so used to travel along daily, passing the shrubs, bushes and trees which bear as mute witnesses to its journey. Before my eyes danced a haze of dim flickering lights of the many houses that passed by, with people whom I’ll never see, unaware of my birth, existence or death. The many roads passing before me, curving and extending beyond my current realm or line of vision, reminds me of the roads I’ve traveled upon and the turning points in my life. It also makes me think of what lies ahead for me, which path I’ll be traversing next, where it will take me, what lies in store ahead before I complete my journey of life fulfilling or not fulfilling the purpose of my existence. My thoughts wander yet again to the life I lead now. It has been quite some time since I’ve started contemplating a change long overdue. My eyes are dazzled and my thoughts broken by a sudden blaze of lights outside. Seems to be a marriage hall, where 2 people would be thinking of their future together, just like I think of mine, in a sea of people running around me, each with their own thoughts. That familiar face, the look of understanding, that sweet smile which says a thousand words by itself without a single sound being produced is missing, long lost in the numerous friends I’ve parted ways with, over time. There was a time when I used to be surrounded by them, like a shipwrecked sailor lost on an island surrounded on all sides by the sea to as far as the eyes could see. Those best days of my life when I used to be an extrovert, without me being aware of it, seems to be in a distant past, where I existed and lived. Living and traveling alone and being an introvert is something I’d never dreamt of even in my wildest dreams, but a fact that has been forcefully thrust upon me, with friends I cherished for a lifetime moving apart, lost and confused with their own problems.

That charm, the smile, that captures a million hearts, which I boasted of once, lost somewhere where I dare not tread for the time being for fear of losing those happy moments forever. When did I change? Where and at which point did I change? What brought about the change? How much have I changed? These are questions that haunt my mind always these days. I wish I could be the same person I used to be once, at least a faint whiff of what I was. But alas! I barely recognize the me of yester years now. Feels like it was a mirror image of myself physically that lived in the past and just asked me to continue from where he stopped, but with a mind empty as a slate and a hunger to see and learn things he never heard of or could conjure up in his mind.



I’m disturbed…I’m shaken…I feel cold and numb, not because of the cold and damp air that whispers its secrets in my ears, but more because of my current state of mind, which knows not where it is leading the physical me to. I feel stiff, arrested and unable to move, not because of the confined space I’m in currently, but more because of not knowing what to do. I feel blind even with my eyes wide open, not because I’m not wearing my spectacles but more because of the uncertainty that fogs my mind about my future. I feel deaf and dumb not because I don’t have anyone to talk to and open my mind or no one to listen to, but more because I’m at a loss to understand what’s happening around.


I’m shaken from my thoughts and lamenting by my co-passengers on this journey who are making preparations to tuck into their berths into a world of dreams, asking me to switch off the lights, and hence bring to an abrupt end my chain of thoughts which I’ve penned down, quite contrary to my usual self when I just let my thoughts wander off into oblivion with no record of what conspired.