Just Me: The Kratik Malhotra Blog

“

Hello Bhosale Aunty, how are you? (Reading the name from the door)

We are carrying out a survey and doing an analysis in your society, would the shoes do? (Asking as if to come in)

Don’t worry, I’m not here to ask you for any money. I’m here just to speak to you.

As you know, some middle-aged people in the Indian society, infamously, do not take care of their parents, considering as a burden to them and often send them to old-age homes; some even leave their parents on the road to suffer.

Do you know what do these parents do?

These parents pick up bricks at the construction sites, work as labourers or some even work as garbage collectors. So, what we bunch of kids thought, what if we do something for these old people who have been left homeless?

Aunty, you and me, we are lucky enough to get a meal twice a day, wouldn’t you want to help these old people?

(Rest of the time, these people – who lie and call themselves volunteers - cajole these old people, in this case Bhosale aunty and uncle, in order to get money from their pocket)

Read this, they said:

Uncle, you are 75? Well, you look as if you’re 60.

Aunty, uncle has such a jolly nature.

(After they think it’s too much of cajoling done, they start getting to the point)

Aunty, you said right, that you would like to do something for these old people, so how much would you like to donate by cheque?

If you can, I would say please donate 60,000 to support six grannies. For one granny, you can write a cheque of Rs. 6,000. Which bank account do you have?

Don’t worry we accept cheques from SBI also. (Now, when he says this, Bhosale aunty now realizes that these people, who had said are not coming in for any money are actually there to accept money by cheque!)

Then, this guy, who is speaking shows his Helpage India (HAI) card and says that he is working for Helpage India, which he is…so, true. He then, takes the amount, laughs and walks out with his team.

”

Helpage India…Ghanta! I say, Rape-aged India. These bunch of youngsters cajole, convince and emotionally blackmail old lower-middle-class people, who are in need of money themselves, into giving out decent amount of money for charity. Yes, most of the money goes to HAI but not all. A percentage of that money goes to the companies that these youngsters work for. And, they are not volunteers; they are on a pay roll.

Well, the reason why I know this is because I was there with these guys - claiming themselves to be volunteers – incidentally, having absolutely no idea what it really was.

I went for this job interview in Mumbai, for a company that offered a job as a management trainee and claimed itself to be UK-Based MNC and the world’s leading marketing company. The advertisement on the internet said that the company wanted cricket minded people – how crap!

(This was the advertisement)

Well, when I finally reached their office in Andheri (East), I was told that to test my “valour” and skill, I would have to go through a personalized round which would also show me 5% of the company business.

So, I said to myself, wow! This really should be like eating a piece of a cake for me, as I have done DSN and a couple upgrades at YES!+.

I along, with another person (Karanjeet), who was also applying for the job, were sent with a trainer and a girl to Goregaon (West) for carry out a “task”.

Task - bull shit, it was loot!

On the way to the residential complex, he made us clear with the fact that the only thing that they were interested in was profit, and it didn’t matter what a person did to make those desired profit. The way the company earned profit was by doing door to door marketing for HAI and receiving a percentage of the donations that they have helped HAI acquire.

Thus, the only way the company - the trainer and the girl were working for – could earn profits were if people donated money to HAI.

Listening to this, I said, what shit! Because, the people would donate for charity and nothing should go to the companies; it should go directly into helping people. But thinking of it from a business point of view, I thought, “Fair enough”.

We were taken to a residential complex. Well, it was basically a building wherein, lower-middle-class people lived - most of who were retired personnel from banks, railways and other government services. Thus, the houses that these people lived in were provided to them by the government.

For me personally, it was like “not happening” because I quickly realized that the people who these “so-called volunteers” were to target, were not the richest and had financial problems themselves.

The first house that we went to was of a lady called Mrs. Singh. She was alone at home and gleefully invited us in. She was a lady from Uttar Pradesh, who had migrated to Mumbai along with her husband. The management trainer asked her if her husband was present at their home then. She instantaneously said `no’ and guess what, he refused to talk to her; later telling me that, as they only care about profit, they don’t even talk to people who are unemployed, uneducated or not having a chequebook. I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I thought, “Decent business frame of mind” and on the other, I thought, “Why do people not do YES!+?”.

The trainer would tell people that we all “volunteer” for HAI, whereas, he – the trainer - was not volunteering but doing his job and was on a pay roll.

Soon, we went to a house of an old retired 70+ personnel, called Richard. He lived with his wife and with a smile, he delightfully welcomed us in. As he opened the door, I saw that he was dressed in a banyan and trousers. Looking at the walls of his house, it seemed as though the walls hadn’t been painted since an age. Thus, it was easy enough to believe that the man wasn’t the strongest economically. Richard, as he spoke to us, it was clear that he was a man of high virtues. He also claimed that he had done a lot of charity in the past. He shared with us his story of him needing financial help, listening to which, I felt sad for him, in fact, really sad. Even though the management trainer tried his best to get the money off Richard’s pocket, Richard’s financial condition didn’t permit him to take part in charity. I strongly felt that these guys representing HAI should have taken a measure to aid his cause.

Walking up the stairs, we went to a man’s house, a man who had recently been operated for a kidney disease and was almost bed ridden. Firstly, lower-middle-class family, then, someone who has had a major surgery, as a result – almost bed ridden; even joker from Batman would have enough decency to walk out and not ask for donation. But the trainer didn’t. As his convincing power and ability to cajole was immense, he did enough to convince the man and his wife to donate money. Asking for a minimum of Rs. 6,000, he came down to Rs. 1,000 seeing how adamant the was on giving donation. To me, now it was clear that to them, self-respect, decency and moral values held no fort. Sad.

Later, I told the trainer, “Uncle, nice guy.” He said, “What nice, he took so much of our time.” I was stunned. It was clear that these people had no feelings, emotions or respect for old people.

We walked down and went to this lady’s house. She was a very old lady, probably 70 odd years of age. The trainer knew that he had to get money this time and so, he did. He put in everything that he ever had in retrieving the donation. More than anything, his way of talking, convincing and cajoling, irritated me minute by minute but I kept quiet. Soon, the lady started to share her side of story, which eventually lead to her crying in front of us. I felt sad, I mean how you cannot feel sad when people are crying and telling you about something bad that has happened to them in the past. It was disturbing to hear the lady’s story of how she worked for 40 years and was made a fool, time and time again, thereby, losing an awful amount of money.

The trainer started to emotionally blackmail the lady literally forced her to shell out Rs. 6,000 as donation.

But that was still fine, now is the most shocking part. Guess what, when she went in her room to get her cheque book, the trainer started to make jokes and laugh saying “Time-pass Time-pass”. Can you believe it, I couldn’t.

I mean, the lady has recently cried in front of you about something that was personal to her; if you are a human, firstly, you are bound to have enough decency at least not make jokes about it, especially, in her own house. Secondly, have feelings and emotions to feel pain. I absolutely hated that. I still don’t know if these guys are human or not, or whether they have a heart or not. Whatever it is…I had absolutely had enough.

They moment we left the lady’s house. I looked straight into the eyes of the trainer and said, “You know (name), I can’t do this.” The lady needed our help and help of HAI and all these people did was to loot her by convincing her.

Rejecting the company, I was really proud of myself and I respect my decision because cajoling people is not my cup of tea. When a person donates, let her do it because she wants to, not because you want to earn profit from their donation. Sad, really the case.

And look, I know it is great to do charity and be involved in charity in any sort but three things must be kept in mind:

1) Do not cajole people.

2) Do not lie that you are volunteering when you are under salary from a company.

3) Even if you want to target and cajole people, never fool and convince those, who are financially not the strongest.

I respect Helpage India and I, myself have donated long back for HAI but seeing the situation, HAI needs to look at the companies and the people who are marketing for them.

When I am blogging about this, it’s not to share my experience but to spread awareness that there are people, who don’t care who you are or what you do; for them, it’s just about selling their product.

Also, as mentioned above, the way these companies earn money is wrong and must be stopped. We donate to help people, not because a part of the money that we give in on the name of donation goes to these companies. I hope HAI people also read this post and take measure.

Well, this was sung, played, written in less than an hour

A dilettante once walked in the rain,

Feeling cloistered, he dared to dream.

Engaged in fallacy, left in vain,

Wrapped in gauze and feeling cold, he began to cry and scream.

Catching him aback, cutting through the darkness,

Levitating two angels, captivated by beam.

Driving him by her speech, she sorted his mess.

Carving valor within him, he showed him his dream.

To whom you sent the angels with the magical key,

Unlocking the safe of happiness was the real me, just me.

Called Sudarshan Kriya, they presented him with a magical wand.

Sent by the divine, casting a spell to smile within almighty’s aura.

With alacrity, breathing into credence to form a love bond,

He danced to a legato rhythm in the divine’s outlandish orchestra.

He was touched and out went the melancholy,

He was blessed and with ease he ate the quince.

He was answered and he wore a smile happily,

He soon was gifted and bolstered by grace since.

The soul whom you kissed, like a bird flee,

Breathing with the wind was the real me, just me.

(C'est Moi)

(The Two Angels)

(The Divine)

For my teachers and my Guru...

Jai Gurudev :)

Kratik

Dreamer! Yes, I still am to an extent. But have you ever wondered, how cool would that be if everyone in Pune observes silence for a day?

I know it does sound crazy and out of the world but the idea in itself is probably a very transforming one and one that needs to be implemented.

Maharashtra is home to days such as “Maharahstra Band”. Now, Maharashtra Band is a day when everything in the state of Maharashtra -right from the educational institutions, to banks, to offices - is shut down. Well, when people think that it is decent enough to have a day when the no one in the state works, would it not be a good idea to combine one of these days with silence. Let’s consider a city instead a city in Pune instead of the state Maharashtra.

What is silence?

The term “silence” is often used by most people in order to moan after someone’s death. But that’s not the silence that I’m talking about. That silence is a minute silence. In contradiction, I wish we’d have a day of silence - silence not to moan but to celebrate.

A day of silence would mean a day of absolutely no communication. No communication means definitely no talking; also no communicating with actions. People ideally, should refrain themselves from even looking at others.

It would mark a day when each one of us rises above our current spiritual level and start to experience the “real us”.

As Guruji (Sri Sri Ravishankarji) once famously said,” We were born with silence, and as we grew up, we lost the silence and were filled with words. We lived in our hearts, and as time passed, we moved into our heads.”

Silence helps us to empty our head with no thoughts and enables us smile relentlessly. With silence, what also comes is “seva” (service).

When silence combined with seva, it makes you feel “wow!” Believe me; for once you actually feel good doing something for the country and the society, keeping “the you” aside.

Wouldn’t it be absolutely brilliant, if every one of us shut our bamboozles and work for a day in order to form a better society. Feeding someone who is desperately in need of food, planting a tree or even helping someone to clean a utensil can be seva. Seva can be anything which you do for others without involving a selfish motive behind it.

(People leading my example - doing seva by cleaning roads)

Doing seva and maintaining silence even for a day, would help bring about a better society, thereby, a better city. Just imagine, for a day, no pollution. In fact, on the contrary, people working towards making Pune better city to live in.

“When you make service the sole purpose in life, it eliminates fear, focuses your mind, and gives you meaning. Be grateful for any opportunity to do seva”., says Sri Sri.

When a few thousand people work to clean (in every aspect) the city, we do get a relatively clean city. If the number of people working - even for a day - goes up by one thousand times, Pune could revamp its reputation in being the most celebrated city in the country.

Concern:

Although a day of silence would bring inner centeredness to a person and make him experience an unparalleled pleasure, but it may cause the crime figures to go sky-rocketing. With the theft rising each day, how many dacoits would not steal on such days? How many murderers will not look at this day as one ideal to rip someone apart? How many criminals will not commit crime on such days?

They all will.

But the sole reason for that is that these people are still on level 0 of spirituality. They need to realize their “self” state. As Guruji says, “Our nature is to love. Spirituality nourishes the human values of compassion, love, caring, sharing, and acceptance.”

So, in short, everyone needs to undergo the spiritual practices, thereby, undergo the Art of Living ans Yes!+ workshops. Wouldn’t it be absolutely cool to smile endlessly, experience silence and more importantly make our city a better place to live in.

(Art of Living volunteers having undergone spiritual practices, smiling endlessly)

He came, he spoke.

As we were listening, an influx of love grew within us.

He touched thousands present there for those sixty minutes, My Guru…Sri Sri.

It was January 13. I woke up early, did my Kriya, picked Vernika from Symbiosis and rushed to MIT for the second day of the first-ever Bhartiya Chhatra Sansad (Parliament of Student Council Leaders). For me, it was not about attending the student parliament; I mean who wants to hear Sharad Pawar and co. speaking (Ok, APJ Abdul Kalam, Narayan Murthy and Kapil Sibal were exceptions in their own right), it was about seeing and listening to “him” speak.

Early in the morning, as I was on my Kinetic, on my way to Vernika’s hostel, I could feel some sort of indifferent but extremely powerful energy. Was it the Guruji coming to town or the excitement to see him, I still do not know. But it sure felt like I was swimming with the wind, getting close to my destination without knowing what it really was.

Poster making

We were about 36 of us who were volunteering for YES!+ for the event; and yes, we reached MIT on time to set up stuff. After listening to APJ Abdul Kalam, who still appears and sounds to be the most deserving candidate for the post of the Indian President, it was time!

Guruji had reached MIT and minor Sudarshan Kriya started in my body.

I and Aakash Baid had somehow sneaked in to the auditorium without a pass, only to get kicked out just before Guruji’s talk. So, we were looking for “alternatives.”

All the security guards, all of a sudden started to seem as though they were major snobs, not letting us in.

As we continued with our efforts, we heard a roar from the crowd sitting inside the auditorium.

So, we rushed and entered the auditorium door and guess what… Magic, whatever! The guards didn’t stop us only.

After hearing two dynamic speakers speak, it was “the moment.”

Guruji was to speak on the topic “India v/s Bharat.”

To introduce Guruji, the guy hosting the event says, “And now, we would like to welcome, Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar.” I thought to myself, extra respect, additional “Sri” Jai Gurudev J

He started with a Shlokha, which I didn’t understand. Maybe because I was lost!

I was feeling overly grateful for everything, thereby, losing count of whatever he was speaking.

All I remember is Guruji saying, “I wish parliamentary members thought from heart and not through mind. Then we would not have to wait for 20 years to see a Super India”.

And once again, minor Sudarshan Kriya started to happen.

As I got back to my normal senses, Guruji was speaking about the name of the months being an Indian invention. Months like November have “ember” which in Sanskrit means “cloud.” So, September means, the seventh cloud, like wise. He also introduced us to an interesting piece of knowledge – why is March called March? March means a month to start, thus, called as “March.” He added that some of the countries of the Middle East tend to celebrate New Year on March 21, this being the prime reason. Staying on months, he said, January 12, January 13 and Pune have a strong relation with him in his dictionary as on these dates for the last six times in his calendar he has been in Pune.

As he said this, I prompted, Antarnaad!

Ok, it was more than a prompt; it was kinda loud, so much that everyone around me started to look at me with super weird expressions.

He soon was speaking on an average Indian. He said, “The best quality of an Indian is that an Indian is very strong – Even if he wants to walk alone, he can and achieve whatever he ever wished for. But an Indian ‘s worst quality is a ‘Chalta hai attitude’ that is imbibed in him” He urged all the students to learn different qualities from all over the world like team-work from Japan, precision and perfection from Germany, etiquettes and decency from Britain, marketing skills from the US, duplication from China.

One of the most inspiring things that he said was, “I do not want to talk about GDP but GDH i.e. Gross Domestic Happiness as our roots are very important. Don’t give up on your smile. Do everything happily as anger causes destruction. Even if you want to hit anyone, do it with a smile.” And then he laughed. Wow, that was some moment.

He spoke a lot of other things as I continued to experience these minor Sudarshan Kriya fits. So, it was too difficult to collect everything.

Before I could realize, it was time for Q&A with Guruji.

A girl stepped up and asked Guruji, “How do we attain internal awareness?” Now, none of us, including Guruji understood the question. Or maybe, Guruji, might have understood the question but wanted it to be understood by others, so asked the girl to translate and ask the question in Hindi. As it turned out, she didn’t know the English word for Mukti and so was calling it “internal awareness.”

Guruji smiled and replied, “Even something as small as solving a minor problem gives you Mukti.” He added, “Translation into Hindi and asking what you wanted to ask, gave you you Mukti ki nahi?”

Wow, that was that!

Hail Guruji!

Soon, there were questions related to flushing out emotional garbage, being upset and being happy. Guruji replied with calm, ease and a smile ever so erect, “Spiritual knowledge helps you overcome an upset frame of mind and helps you to get back on track. And ones who are happy, it helps them to increase their happiness.”

Now, Himanshu Nagarkar, teacher from Pune, had made us aware that we as volunteers need to tell as many people as we could about the Art of Living and YES!+.

He carried on answering questions and occasionally slipped in Art of Living.

Believe me, it was not us, it was Guruji who told people about the course and I don’t know if it reads right to you but in his own way he gave people an Art of Living intro talk and what an intro talk it was. Such was the impact of the talk that people started to come to us in order to express their desire to do the course.

I mean, we did nothing at all, still we had hundreds who all of a sudden wanted to do YES!+

Guruji soon left. Although, I couldn’t meet him but I grateful to him that he made me listen to his talk and see him.

The day continued and we carried on volunteering. This time it was different. With Krishna Sood on the guitar and vocals, Shashank, Preeti didi, and Manasi didi on the vocals, we played, we sang, we attracted people and got thousands singing with us. Even I did vocals for a couple of songs (College Days comes to mind). It was so much of fun.

The people who would come, I would tell them, “We are YES!+ people. Look at the difference between others and us. Other stalls are so Thakela, ours is rocking! We rock!” And people would go, “But why?” and I would say, “Because we enjoy”

Normal volunteering, telling people about the course

One of the guys who was singing with us

In fact, I got people who were volunteering for different organizations at different stalls to sing with us. It was a party.

It was a super experience with super people and a super guru, who took everyone’s breath away in those sixty minutes.

Jai Gurudev J

Love J

Kratik