The EML that changed a few!

It has been a long time since I blogged about anything. That was because I didn't get any topic that I really felt the urge to blog. And after a long time I've finally found the long lost inspiration to blog. Thanks to Dr. Sunitha Krishnan and her amazing talk on 3rd march at 8pm in CLT on human trafficking.

I'll not elaborate on the whole talk so don't you worry :). Until 2 days before the EML I only knew that she is a social activist who has brought about a lot of change in many lives. On march 2nd a friend of mine pings me a link and asked me to watch it. It was the youtube link of her TED talk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeOumyTMCI8) that she had delivered last year in Mysore. I had thought that it would be like a normal human rights talk that we keep encountering which is powerful enough just to make us ponder over it for maximum a day. But in the second minute of the video I was taken by her words and had goose bumps all over!! The stories that she told about herself (she was gang raped by 8 men at the age of 15) and many other little girls as young as 2/3 years made me wonder where have the humans lost there sanity and humanity.. :( It was then that I decided to publicize this EML and make a huge number of IITians turn up for it. And I am happy many did turn up for the talk.

Her talk itself was for 70 minutes or so. But its not the length of the talk that mattered but the strong message that she conveyed in it which has changed quite a few people. There was not a single person in the hall who was not moved by the stories she told about those little kids. I was in tears!
She spoke about how the small girls and boys are used as commodity for flesh trade, brutally violated and raped. The rapist just takes away the childhood of that kid. When one doesn't have the ability to give something he has no rights to take away anything. I was shocked that how people don't even see that its a child who hasn't even seen the complete world. Its a child who still has to be taken care by parents as he/she doesn't know whats good and whats bad. I was under the impression that human trafficking was just flesh trade and prostitution. But I then learnt that it was not only these two. Many people traffic in the name of adoption, forced labour, circus, beggary, domestic help and camel jockey. The story of the children working in glass bangle making factory who were kept away from sunlight for years was so touching that many people cried in pain. The worst was the story of a 6.5 year old boy who was sold as a camel jockey and was paralyzed when the rope tying him to the leg of the camel broke and many camels stamped him. At least the boy is still alive, but God save those poor souls that get buried in the sands of desert during the race :'(

She then touched upon the most sensitive part of the whole lecture, about sex trafficking. All those girls who became victims of sex trafficking had the same origin, they were either option-less or consumerism took them in. It ranged from showing them faith of good job to good education to promising them Lakme Lipstick! The most visible being the brothels, lodges and hotels. The next most sex tourism and then Pornography. Most people were of the opinion that girls and boys who entered this multi-dollar industry had a luxurious life because of easy money. But only then did we get to know what all tortures they had undergone. Many yielded to it thinking that it would be the end of tortures of their initiation phase but seldom did they know that it was the beginning of a life of never ending trauma. Most of them die of AIDS and as a result even their children (if they have any) are also born being HIV positive! :( These are just a few impacts that this has on their life. The worst being losing their self-esteem, their identity and getting a substance abuser! The impact of all this is that it becomes really difficult for the rescuer to rehabilitate them! The talk then touched upon the rescue techniques and the difficulties they face and the infinite pain they undergo to rehabilitate them.

But the impact part of the EML! I was of this opinion that it is impossible for a person who watches porn to come out of it. But I was surprised to know that after attending the EML some people were guilty and actually took a step towards their first contribution to the cause of abolition human trafficking by stopping to watch porn! :) And I was so happy to know that :) And this was the EML that changed a few and I wholeheartedly hope that it goes on to change many! :)

Trips!

It has been long since I made a post! No time! End sems and then some SoE work and then Mumbai trip and finally the fun trips with mom and dad! :)
Lemme begin with my Mumbai trip.. Went to Mumbai for NIUS exposure camp for 10 days.. The flight was a memorable one.. Not only did I check in at the last moment, thanks to the server failure of Indigo but was also carrying so much baggage that added to the anxiety! In Mumbai I went to the same old HBCSE where I has been for the chemistry OCSC. Stayed this time in the new hostel that was far better than the accommodation at BARC. But the best part about the camp: awesome lectures by a few scientists. The ones I enjoyed the most were by Prof. Simon of IMSc. He spoke quite a lot about Quantum Information and was very bold and confident about his thoughts and opinion. One unforgettable lecture was the 9pm to 10:45pm lecture. No one (according to my information) slept! This camp was different because of the way I utilized the time I had and how much I learnt! It was 'fun-learning' :)
Once back in Bangalore the only thing I did was have fun! My first trip with parents was to Shivagange a rocky hillock in Karnataka. At the foothill there is a Shiva temple which is inside a cave! The speciality of this Linga is that if one smears ghee on it, it turns into butter! I didn't believe it initially but later I had to as I saw that happen. There is one more interesting thing about this temple. Its the water body between two huge rocks known as Patala Gange. This might be the reason it is named Shivagange but I am not quite sure. The most interesting part of the trip is the climbing this whole hill to its topmost point. It was completely rocky and I had to climb it barefooted!! But the presence of so many people there made it quite easy. At the top there is a huge Nandi and again a Shiva temple. The top is also famous for being the suicide place of Rani Shantala wife of the ruler Vishnuvardhan. Climbing down was way more difficult as it was too windy!!! Down there is a Sharada Mutt and we arrived in time for the MahaMangalarathi followed by some yummy food served in the Mutt!
The second trip was a two day trip. We boarded the KSTDC bus to Mantralaya, a pilgrimage place in Andhra Pradesh where the saint Raghavendra is said to be in a Jeeva Samadhi. From there we went to a place called Panchamukhi in Karnataka where saint Raghavendra is said to have had the darshan of Panchamukhi Anjeneya! From there we went to Hospet a place in Karnataka. During the journey "Sivaji. The Boss" was played and I can tell that it was the weirdest movie I have ever seen!!! Hospet is a nice place with a good weather.. we stayed right near the famous Tunga Bhadra Dam and its view was mesmerizing. The next day we went to the world heritage centre of Hampi.. My blood literally boiled when I learnt how it just got destroyed! We saw the Virupaksha temple, Ganesha Images, an awesome 6.7m high Lakshminarasimha monolith seated on a seven hooded serpent, magnificent elephant stables, stepped Pushkarnis, the beautiful Lotus Mahal (a blend of Hindu and Muslim architecture) and the magnificent Vijaya Vitthala Temple with stone chariot! This was a visual delight! A link to its 3-D image: http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/south-asia/india/hampi/vittala-s-temple-stone-chariot/sphere-flash.html . From there we went to the to the TB Dam and had a top view of the dam and the garden. It seemed as if the dam partitioned an ocean and a green stretch of land! Later we saw the most boring musical fountain on earth! And with this ends my trips of the 'summer of 09'! These were definitely some of 'the best days of my life'... (I am a new Bryan Adams fan!)

Will keep blogging (at least will try to :P)
Vasuki :)

Change: The only constant!

What is in store for one, nobody knows! But one thing that anyone can be sure about is "Change". Yes you read it right! Change as the title itself suggests is the only constant! who knows even the speed of light might change! I might be sounding as a philosopher because I am talking about delicate things like change and all! But why I am talking about this has a lot to do with what I have been experiencing from quite sometime in the institute.
It so happened that one time I couldn't sleep till 5 in the morning (God knows why!).
Fortunately or unfortunately my room-mate has a bad habit of sleeping really early (maximum till 10pm) so I had to discuss this topic of change all with myself!
What actually is this change that I am talking about?????

I am talking about the change when your birthday becomes just like any other day in the year. Nothing really to cheer about. Come on! How can we be cheerful once we get to know that we are nearing the end!

I am talking about the change in outlook when a boy becomes a man and leaves his mother to old age home telling she is a burden to keep at home without even remembering the times his mother did anything and everything for him, forgetting that he once said "Mother! I can't live without you!"

I am talking about the way people are treating their partners. I observed this in a train journey while noticing an elderly and a young couple. Uncle made his wife's bed, made her sleep with a comfortable pillow and wrapped a blanket on her. The young man there let his wife do her own bed without even noticing that her's was the top berth and just signs off telling "Goodnight dear!"

I am talking about the change in the way students now approach education. It was once a medium to lead one to the ultimate knowledge of life and now, it has become a thing of prestige, a medium to earn in crores. (I was once told many people join prestigious institutions only for this reason!)

I am talking about the change in my condition. From being a princess at home, having mother beside me for everything, having her for noticing that i moved while sleeping and waking me up and giving me water, having her for switching on the fan during summer when I just don't realize that I am sweating out doing some problem to now being so alone that I don't have anyone to ask why I am not able to sleep. No one there to fetch water for me and I have to do everything, it may be as weird as climbing down 4 floors and refilling the dispenser and drinking a cup of water at 4 in the morning, thinking it can get you in touch with the queen of sleep!

This is precisely why I had to discuss change with myself! I hope I didn't bore the reader too much! Thanks for your patience!

Yours,
Vasuki