Perception change....in progress

Recently the results of "A day in india" contest organised by TOI was declared. Many deserving entries got admired and got awards as well . So many not so famous people have special talent in fields like photography ,cartoon sketching, videography is a great thing . Things become interesting when the theme is to see india from different angles , after all, all of us claim to know our country the best . I still wonder how Britishers ruled this country without becoming part of it , an achievement for sure because all invaders who came here got assimilated and became part of india. There are people who claim to have solution to problems as complex as corruption , its easy to enjoy lighter side of corruption with reference to our country.Knowing india is like knowing multiple faces of the entity....i have gone through introductory chapters if i consider India as whole book.

As i look back and try to know how did i know that live in india? The answers are vague , may be those school national anthem sessions .May be those Information displayed on doordarshan , specially that population clock of india and who can forget that "mile sur mera tumhara" song which almost became another national anthem in those days . Modern version of the same song easily failed to give any competition to original version. My days spent in train journeys have helped me a lot in my quest to know india .I can't say as of now that i have discovered all faces of india , but i saw people of all states in india in trains . Most touching part of train journey is how people resent entry of new persons at a station and when they say bye to each other at further stations its complete deviation from earlier situation , some bonds are created . Special mention to nice faces and i cursed each time for not possessing telepathic powers.

As i write about train journey one special activity that defines one special moment is when the train crosses a bridge.If its a long bridge , people get ample time to show their fear/devotion to river goddesses . Talking about the activity , people throw coins into the river , some say its required to appease the river goddess as we are crossing her without taking permission . As a child i used to ask dad for coins and enjoyed this whenever i got chance to perform this activity . In one of those train journeys i remember one not so good comment by a fellow passenger targeted towards a lady who did perform the act of dropping the coin into the river. He said , " its a waste of money " . Friend of mine could not digest that caustic remark and retorted , if this is waste of money , so are all forms of worshipping of god. As i recall this incident i was a believer and worshipped god everyday , at least once in a day to be specific. Things have changed over the years, i don't know when non believer in me did born.But this coin tossing into the river while crossing the river bridge remains one of the sweets activities admired by me.

One recent experience which signified how thought process changes with time ,this is all but weird observation . I was going home this April , by train , one person prepared and got the logistics ready for the coin tossing activity . The weird observation struck me , Man! this money is going out of circulation . The repercussions can be immense to our economy . RBI has to replenish this money by infusing liquidity . This is not healthy for our economy , specially if its developing economy like india and Inflation can create havoc for the poor people at the expense of some innocent person throwing the money out of economy.Clearly this is like blowing things out of proportion .This abrupt observation ends here , i know this is perception change in progress :)

Before closing , even if i can not do things on my own and enjoy special activities like the coin tossing activity into the river ,I can always watch others doing this and enjoy. One of my favourite lines these days ,"irony is not bad in all instances".