Judgmental opinions

The latest trend going viral on various groups and on Facebook is , " If suicide ever crosses your mind, just know that I would rather listen to your story than attend your funeral " I am tempted to seek some clarification because of the following scenarios Should I call you only if I feel suicidal or do you accept calls for casual chats also? Suppose I call you casually and you are too busy to talk to me and this rejection makes me suicidal, should I call you back and clarify this point? It may appear I am making fun about the whole issue, but we need to understand a very important point In my opinion, suicide is not a sudden decision; rather it is the end result of piling up of depressing events in one's life time It is possible that timely talk may avert suicide but it is difficult to diagnose which call is going to be the last one Humans are compulsorily social animals and maintaining communication with other humans is very important for survival Depression happens w...

By the looks of it, 2020 has been a temporary year We have all got adjusted to this temporary sense of being While we were so fastidious of the kaamwali baai about not missing her work even on sundays, now we are adjusted to cleaning the house every Sunday... temporarily While we were so strict of getting up early in the morning and rushing to office and worried of even missing a day, we are now adjusted to not going to office in time or even for a day or two.... temporarily While we were worried of children missing classes on festive days or because a teacher is absent, we are now satisfied with only three or four online classes in a day... temporarily While we were so strict of our diet, not missing the Wednesday nonveg day, we are now adjusted to not taking the risk of buying chicken regularly... temporarily How long is our temporary year going to last, we don't know We thought maybe because of the zero record earlier on, life would be back to normal by now, but now its extende...

We have heard of stories in the past when trains or planes were delayed waiting for some Minister or VIP to board But yesterday, one train waited for 30 minutes for group of 10 labourers who could not reach the station in time! We are getting to hear and experience a number of such stories which are very touching Another group of labourers, who were to leave 2 days later, actually gave away their money for travel expenses to some labourers who were leaving the same day, even though they were not known to them We, of course, reimbursed the money to them, but this selfless helping each other is so contrary to the belief we have about the labourers Though I appreciate the anxiety behind the reason for being judgemental, what we are doing is only providing the migrant workers a means of reaching home. We are neither providing them a career at the cost of locals, nor relief in their luxuries And this is not done at the cost of anyone, but merely facilitation of a service what the Governm...

Yesterday was a very hectic but rewarding day of work of registration of labourers for their transit permit Before noon, we were inundated with names of 50 labourers to be registered At the same time, a frantic call came from 10 labourers who were not able to get transportation to go to karmali from margao to board the train Someone managed to negotiate with a bus driver who was willing to transport them for Rs. 4000, cost of which we decided to bear ourselves Meanwhile, we also got the information that these 10 labourers would need some money for their travel expenses, but the question was how to get the money to them Meenal and a colleague of hers decided to go to Verna with the money themself and hand it over to them on their way to the station And this decision has had a tremendous effect on Meenal, for when she returned from Verna after delivering the money to them, her face was ashen She said, when the bus came, these 10 labourers, all between 19 to 20 years of age, look...

A year ago, it was a different world altogether Different social etiquette Different rules Different feelings But some things help from that world I am reproducing below something I had written a year ago "I remember reading Leo Tolstoy's novel "How much land does a man need?" We had a part of it as a lesson in school . And I remembered it again as I reached the peak of a Himalayan mountain 60 km from Gangotri at 12100 feet . We had been trekking 4 days to reach the peak. Living in tents. Eating rice and dal. Using dry toilets. Drinking water from the spring. Carrying our backpacks with our worldly possessions. One water bottle. A bowl to eat from. Two shirts. Two trousers. It looked difficult. Legs straining to climb. Back aching with the load. Lungs panting for air. But, I found that I had A song in the heart, My eyes were smiling. And As we reached the peak, we burst into the national anthem. Our eyes get moist. A lump forms in the throat. Indeed Four da...

For students of Almeida, Angle Sir and Borkar Sir were unforgettable Both taught us English and were always seen together During my school days, both were bachelors English was my favorite subject and I preferred Borkar Sir than Angle Sir Our school competed in elocution competition organized by various schools The star of our school was a girl Vasundhara who was a very good orator Even though I was pretty dumb, Borkar Sir would ask me to accompany the elocution team I remember visiting Mary Immaculate in Panaji and one school in Agassaim where Vasundhara won prizes I was a vociferous reader but poor in communication And I was scoring below average in exams basically because I was not mature enough to take exams seriously After school, I next met Angle Sir suddenly in 2014 or so I was waiting for a colleague at Dhavali when I saw Lawande Sir (Headmaster of Almeida in my school days) and Angle Sir walking I approached them to wish them and introduce myself But I was pleas...

Time sometimes stands still Days breeze past You lose count of the days Yet there are moments when suddenly time seems to stand still You revel in the moment Those times when time stands still forms part of your memories Time stood still when we first fall love Time stood still when we first got the news of being appointed for our new job Especially if it was a coveted one Time stood still when the first child was born As we grow older such moments seem to decrease Years breeze on Now time stands still during that rare feeling of awe and reverence on seeing something wondrous As we near the year end we have lost that sensation of time standing still The days this year rushed through And suddenly I realise that 2019 passed by unnoticed I forgot to make resolutions for the new year I forgot what resolutions I had made last year for this year And I doubt if I would have had the ability to fulfill them So I am holding the clock by the hour hand and think of resolutions...

A friend of mine who has purchased a new mobile some time back forgot to twiddle with the settings in the various apps downloaded in the new one This resulted in his birthday being recorded in the default as 1st January And expectedly he has received a shower of birthday greetings from friends He pointed out this error later in the day today but some messages continue to trickle in It has made me realize how shallow we are in greeting others We greet all and sundry by copying and pasting New year greetings, birthday greetings, festival greetings... do we really mean what we say? Are we really happy and wanting to share the joy and happiness of a birthday or a festival? Earlier in the pre-mobile days, pre-facebook days there was no means of being reminded of birthdays We treasured a few people and made it a point to personally greet them on their birthdays We travelled to each others houses to greet people on festive occasions And the greetings were few but more memorable a...