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Saturday, November 29, 2014

The Power of Indian Voice, to Clean My Mother India.


I am Deepika from a small village near Namakkal, TamilNadu. My home is enclosed with greenery plants and a river stream flowing across the side. The Metropolitans envy about the fresh air available in village which is free from pollution. City people also think that, village people get very fresh vegetables from their own farm and fresh water. On the other side, Villagers used to envy about the city life - gigantic Malls, yummy foods like KFC, Burgers and Pizzas, night out life’s, well constructed roads, talented independent females. But I would like to pen down a sensitive issues in both village and City. 

When I was a kid, I believed water had more colors than rainbow. Every day, I observed water flowing in variety of colors, Red, green, black, brown, grey, sometimes mixture of 4 to 5 colors. It was always a hot topic among the kids to discuss about color of water flowing that particular day. But as I grew mature, realism hurt to my core. I came to know that water is colorless and the color of water is due to the chemical industry’s sewage getting mixed up in river water. Of course, they don’t have a license to mix the drainage water in river, but the industry guys mix it during the night time making it unaware to the people. Police and politicians are aware of this, but it remains as news still now. No step has been taken to stop it. 

People wash their cows, dogs, clothes in the river water polluting the absolute river. For bathing or for cleaning the shit, their only source was river water.  Government had constructed toilets for the village people. But these village guys prefer going toilets ONLY in the open area, contaminating the complete surrounding area. People shit in the pathway and outside the house causing a putrid smell.  Every morning while going to school, I have to pass by seeing the dirt and smelling it. 

     I dreamed about city life, thinking this kind of non-sense does not exist there. Days passed and I got a job in Bangalore. I felt double excited, thinking that City and white collared people are matured, decent and they don’t pollute the environment as in village. But reality proved me wrong. City life was cursed with different state.

     “Bangalore city Junction” the board in the railway station brought a big smile on my face. But when I stepped out of the railway station, my ears were hurt to the core with the horn sounds caused by the Auto, Bus and cab drivers. My eyes were pleased with the big malls and fantastic infrastructure of the building. But my eyes were miserable to see the polluted environment and for a second I suffered from Asthma due to the vehicle pollution. 

My flats have three colored waste separation bin for disposal. One for plastics bottles, one for degradable items like paper, the other for aluminium. But I never saw people separating the items and disposing. The worst part, I observed people staying in the sixth floor throwing the waste items from the balcony to the ground.
Neither city nor village is not so clean as we think. If villagers are polluting the environment in one way, City people the other way. People split their saliva on roads, and in subway walls. People driving in car; just throw their finished water bottles, biscuits cover, and cigarette ashtray through window without bothering the well fare of the other travelers. 
Source - Wikimedia.org
Few months before, I went to a Government hospital for donating blood and saw a pathetic condition. All the injections, cotton pads with bloods, napkin pads, used medicine were accumulated in a corner which may provide a cause for many dangerous diseases. People in hospitals, will be already sick and their immunity will be low. 

This accumulated environment is sure going to worsen the health of the patients. 
Beaches, Lakes and Nature gifted hills, trekking places are spoiled entirely with plastic covers, beer and wine bottles by trekkers.  I am not only writing the post just to criticize. But as a citizen of India, I have created a non-profit organization and every week end I am inviting all my friends and volunteers for a social activity like Clean up drive in all lakes, trekking places, hospital and schools and also spreading awareness program. It’s sad to say that we have collected 40 tons of garbage from beaches. 
Source - Chennai Trekking Club

Finally, the River Ganga which is said to be the holy river of the Hindus, is again spoiled by our customs of throwing ashes and corps into the river. 

Let’s not only admire the nature, but also preserve our Mother India. Let’s exercise the power of our voice and work towards a Swach Bhara by joining hands with #AbMontuBolega Campaign.

Kyuki Bin Bole Ab Nahi Chalega #AbMontuBolega

You can also, Share the following lines in your Twitter and Facebook to spread the awareness.

"Strepsils presents #AbMontuBolega Watch Montu's story as he learns to voice his opinions and speak up! " 




This post is written as a part of The Power of Voice to Clean India Contest organized by Indiblogger.

What is #AbMontuBolega Campaign?

There are places that need cleaning, people who deserve your attention & authorities who need to hear your opinions! Don’t be a silent spectator. Raise your voice and make a difference.
Join the conversation that is organized by Strepsils India and raise your voice for a cleaner India.

Follow @ Strepsils India and Tweet #AbMontuBolega 

Thursday, November 27, 2014

ஆனந்த விகடன் / 03 Dec, 2014 / நில்... க்ளிக்... செல்ஃபி

Today, My Selfie submission to "நில்... க்ளிக்... செல்ஃபி" has been selected by ஆனந்த விகடன் and published in நில்... க்ளிக்... செல்ஃபி column



The Cover Image of Vikaten 



Tuesday, November 18, 2014

"Toilet for Babli"

 Toilet for Babli

We were all waiting in the meeting room for Varun Mittal, the producer of the TV show “Satyamev! Satyamev!! Satyamev!!!”.  I know he must be in rage, as the channel Television Rating Point (TRP) and particularly "“Satyamev! Satyamev!! Satyamev!!!" rating was dangerously low.
Varun entered the room with his latest MacBook and a few set of files. He was straight to the point, "Listen folks, I don’t want to scream about the rating. It’s past and nothing we will gain discussing about it. I need your inputs and suggestion to bring back our rating for the program”

Satyamev! Satyamev!! Satyamev!!! Is a reality talk show that pours spot light on the day to day un-said social, family and country issues. The program concludes by offering a solution to the problem and it was a major hit for the past 2 years and was in top 5 viewer’s favorite program list. But for some reasons, the TRP rating had come down and it not only worried the producer, but also the team who works for it.

“Why don’t we show something about Early marriage or Child abuse or domestic violence again?” I started the discussion first.
“These issues have already been hosted by Amir Khan in “Satyamev Jayate” program. I need something very critical and a burning issue, that entire population face in day to life and a part of the people (population) suffers the most.”

It has to be the red-hot issue for a part of the population? As well as it has to be faced by everyone, at least once in their life time? We all went deep in thoughts.

“Think well. I will give you a week of holiday; I need you guys to rejuvenate and come up with an extraordinary idea. I don’t know whether you will Google or read books or scan all blogging sites. But when you are back, I need an extraordinary issue that our nation is suffering.” Varun ordered and left the place.
"Chill folks, I got an idea. My grandma's village does not have electricity. Statistics says that 90 per cent of the villages still don’t have electricity and entire country, face electricity problem once in a day at-least. Even we, when the power goes off, we suffer a lot to charge our mobile phone. We should make a trip to any of the village and capture the electricity problem.” Our team mate Tanushree replied.
We decided to opt for Bheemeshwari village which is 100 meters away from Bangalore and capture the issues faced due to the lack of electricity. After reaching Bhemeshwari, we four travelled in bullock cart ride for almost 75 kms to reach a small village.

The villagers were so excited to see us and we were warm welcome. We were also given a place to stay in Papa Mohan’s house. He is the Panchayat head and villagers said it was the biggest house in the village to occupy visitors like us. It was a small hut with 5 ft ×5ft space. But yes, the house was so clean.

We opened our suitcase and asked the daughter of Panchayat head “Kanmani” to take us to bathroom so that we could freshen up. She said she don’t have anything as such in the entire village. I was taken back with surprise.
“How do you bath then?” I asked with concern in my voice.
“We have a river bank, which is 30 minutes’ walk from here. Men and children’s take bath over there. But women can take bath only during the night time. Even though it’s dark, men used to hide behind the trees and observe us bathing. We face a lot of challenges during full moon day. Sometimes, the force of water may be high and people lose the grip and get washed away. So far, 15 people have been washed away by the water, while bathing and washing the clothes” She completed with a worried tone.
“Why don’t you construct an easy 4 frame walls with the help of coconut leaves or Sari in the house itself?” Wait, to make her understand better, I just showed one picture which was available on my mobile.
“We can’t take a chance. Since there is no roof, we have to be so conscious that some guy may peep from the top of the palm team or coconut tree, which Is around all the houses. And, these are easily washed away by winds. We don’t have money to re-construct again and again.” She continued, “Even our schools don’t have toilets, we need to walk for 3 minutes for a bush or cactus plant to hide behind and pass our daily needs. Sometimes, dangerous snakes and venomous insects may be even present over there. During raining seasons, leeches will suck our blood while we stand over there and piss. We also suffer from breathing due to the pungent smell of the shits.”
How un-hygienic is that? Since, it’s the main cause for insets accumulating in one place and spreading dangerous disease like dengue, cholera and malaria. I thought and asked my final question which was running in my mind. “How do you manage those t …t…t..the.. the.. three days without toilets”
“We always think that it’s a curse. We sit idle at one place to avoid the fear of changing the clothes” my eyes were filled with tears.
How many times, we suffered a travel while travelling? We rather avoided buses and book train for our journey only for one reason ie – Train has toilets. How many times, we wished that a good bus facility is not with video, or AC but with a toilet which is still a dream and a wish? I still avoid preferring toilets in cinema theatres and bus stand as its not hygienic. While I drive in my car, I never find any toilets near toll gates or in highways. Countries like Malayisa have toilet in the highways. Why is India not constructing toilets in highways? We have to look for hotels and order a cup of coffee just to use the hotel toilets. Mobile toilet during marathon are placed every 2 kms. They know the mandatory for having toilets. India’s biggest problem was not lack of electricity, but lack of toilets. I called my team and discussed about the same. They all subscribed to bring this issue in the television program. Not the sake of TRP but for the sake of humanity.  We all got ready and switched on the camera to record the issues faced by the village due to lack of toilet.

Undoubtedly, after watching our program many companies came forward to construct toilets in highways, all villages and rural school. The initiative was named as Domex Toilet Academy (DTA) programme and was driven by Domex.

This post is written as a part of Happy Hours "Toilet for Babli" contest which is organized by Domex in association with indiblogger. 




Saturday, November 15, 2014

GOD IS A GAMER BY RAVI SUBRAMANIAN - BOOK REVIEW By Deepika Muthusamy

GOD IS A GAMER BY RAVI SUBRAMANIAN - BOOK REVIEW 

Ever since the novel, "If God Was a Banker" was published and went viral I always had the curiosity to read Ravi Subramanian novels. I heard a lot about his hits and first-class reviews about “Bankerupt” and "The Bankster" novel, but unfortunately, I never got a chance to read his novels till date. And as the famous Paul’ saying goes, “If when you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."  And yes, it was accurate in my case. Ravi Subramanian's latest book "God is a Gamer” has been bestowed upon me with 2 surprises.

  1. It was a winning copy from Blog Adda which was part of the biggest  Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers.
  2. Hooray – The Book was a personally signed by the award winning author Ravi Subramanian (how lucky I am :)

     The novel beings with Phishing attack, sudden death of Gillian Tan, romance of Tanya, fight between two gangs over territorial rights for drug trading, death of Nigerain citizen, murder of Malavika, ATM attack and. . . much more twist. My advice to the readers - don’t read this novel during bed time, because you may end up staying awake, reading whole night without sleeping. The novel will sure hypnotize and make sure you end up reading one chapter and just one chapter and keep reading next chapter till you reach the climax.

You will learn a lot about new things, Information about bit-coins, face-book and its gaming application, marketing strategy behind gaming apps. The Chemistry between Aditya Rao and his son Varun was nice, but definitely 2 questions arises in mind. “How did Aditya all of a sudden turn up for Varun, help him in coming out of Nigerain death and trusting/listening to Varun for his business ideas rather than trusting his very good friend Sundeep." 
"Was really technology that bad to hack credit cards of just 20 customers and withdraw a huge million in a day?!? Phishing attack also seems illogical!!! When they got the first compliant, they must have taken a step to stop it/shut down immediately
Starts with Washington, then New Delhi, Mumbai, Goa...and its keep switching between places making readers to lose the interest and focus in the initial few pages but the novel takes a turn after 100 pages it goes in jet speed with many twits and guess.

Overall an must read, entertaining novel. 
3 Things I love the most:

  1. Too many twists make us keep guessing. 
  2. Title font and its display in the book cover. The letter "O" engrossed in the word "GOD" was simply creative. 
  3. Simple and appropriate usage of language. 

CONS:


  1.  Romance between Varun and Tanya. Felt, it was added just as it has to be. 
  2. Very short chapters. Many places, felt the current chapter could have been clubbed with the previous one 
  3. Adrian Scott's way of findings was amateurish. Since he is an Federal Bureau of Investigation head, his approach could have been very creative and out of the box. 

My Rating - 3/5
Book Details:

  • Title: God is a Gamer
  • Book Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruba41fF1Ag
  • Author: Ravi Subramanian
  • Publisher : Penguin Books India

  • Genre : Thriller
  • ISBN/ASIN: 9780143421399
This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers.

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Want to get your Book Reviewed?

Send an e-mail to deepika.tester@gmail.com with the subject "Request for Book Review" and I am happy to do it. Currently I am not accepting any e-copies to review.