Visit to a religious place – from the eyes of a 7 year old

I am on my way to a sacred place. My parents tell me that the trip will be enjoyable. I am excited about the drive – they tell me that we will pass through a forest full of animals like the tiger, deer, bears and leopards. I hope we can sight a few of them along the way. We drive through the forest during the day time. It is hot and all we see are more cars coming down the road. The forest looks deserted and dry, very dry. The disappointment apart, we finally reach our destination – this holy place. We alight and are immediately hit with the confusion and the mass of people! There are people every where milling around on the roads. I am submerged in this sea of humanity. I am a little scared but make sure that I am always around my family. Going away for even a second would mean being lost in this

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Migration

We have hired a cook who comes in every day. His value to our livelihood is immense – he ensures that the primary requirement in every day life is resolved by cooking our food. He has his quirks, we all do. He goes around to 12 other houses in a single day, repeating the task in a seemingly tireless way. He works hard. He is up from 6:00 a.m in the morning, reporting to his first house at 6:45 a.m, returning home for lunch and a nap in the afternoon before another bout of cooking across multiple houses resumes in the evening. He finishes the day at 10:30 p.m, returning home for dinner and a night’s sleep. He forms part of a large migrant community that moves from a smaller town to a big city in search of opportunities and a better livelihood than the one that they experience back home. The blueprint has remained the same through centuries and

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Honor "No"

As a child, the Amar Chitra Katha was a major source of Hindu mythological stories. The stories often dealt with the kings and queens of the years gone by, part mythological and part historical. Now, the kings, being kings, would order things done and voila! there it would be. One such story narrated the happenings – the king would only have to shout, “Who is there?!” and there would be a few courtiers, soldiers that would come running to receive his orders. Nowadays, if I were to shout “Who is there?!” at home, I would hear back: “What is wrong with you? Who else will be here?” Indication enough that I am best off doing what ever task there was to be done, by myself. Move to the office, shouting “Who is there?!” whenever a task needs to be done urgently will return inquisitive looks from all within ear shot. Of course, the source of enormous levity at dinner table

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Time moves slowly?

I often felt how time seemed to slow down when I visited my grandparents’ house. The pace of life seemed so much more relaxed in the smaller towns. Of course it helps when we are the out of town visitors once in a year, pampered to a fault. We would often visit the “native” town during the summer holidays. My grandparents lived on the seaside so the weather would invariably be hot and humid during the months of April and May. The freedom of the mind as kids would tell on us as we would be completely impervious to the heat, power cuts and even a supposed shortage of water supply! Those were the days of endless cricket matches – played with a rubber ball and a make-do bat. The wooden planks lying around the yard, the dried coconut tree leaf would serve as cricket bats good enough for us to re-live the latest exploits of Mohammad Azharuddin and Venkatapathy

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Service Invisible!

  Checking into a hotel, I look around the lobby area. I notice there are neat bonsai trees on the counter top, a few pots around the region, plush sofa sets. Minimalistic, modern and clean. Not many people mulling around, all looks good. We walk up to the room and the corridor is clean, the room is impeccably maintained, well aired, the A/C, TV work and importantly, the bathroom is neat, dry and clean. We walk down to the restaurant and once again, the ambience is neat and well kept. It all looks very impressive. The next morning, the story continues – the cleanliness is maintained. I notice janitors and cleaning staff only once in three days of my stay at the hotel. I have moved in and out of the room fairly frequently and uniformly, there is a sense of cleanliness right through. The cutlery at the restaurant is always clean, the plants always look impeccable, the newspapers in

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