Slavery

A few days ago I visited the museum of slavery at Liverpool. In the first place when my husband said lets go to the slavery museum I was like...'what.. do you even have museums like that??' he said, it seems like this one has a lot of facts and is quite RAW... its not been sugarcoated by a 'lot' of factors.And then we decided... yesss, lets go there.

At the entrance there was a statement that said something like 'Each and every person should be informed about slavery and the sort of tortures given to the slaves during older times...specially the tortures undergone by people from Africa'

I don't know where to start from. From when Africa was discovered, Europeans were awestruck! They couldn't figure out how to borrow, steal or exploit the riches in their nature. They started one by one, not only with spices, grains, oils and gold but they also wanted to buy or just take away the people as their 'Slaves' such that their lives were enriched.

Slaves not even maids.. they were called slaves and they were assured of getting back one thing from their masters at some point of time while discharging their duties- 'Insult'. They were carried in large cruises, dumped in them to be transported to various other places like UK, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, France, Germany, North America,South America, The Caribbean Islands etc.

Liverpool was the capital or the junction of slavery..mainly because slaves (according to me 'naive people') were brought form Africa... held at Liverpool and transported to the west..across the Atlantic to North, South America and the Caribbean Island for helping the local or the immigrant European's life easy.

Slave trading was such a big trade that there are statistics of 1 million plus slaves sent to the Americas in the 13th century, 2+ million in 14th, 4+ million in 15 century and it went on to 6+, 7+ million toward 19th century. HOLD ON...this statement FREAKED ME OUT. My blood was pumping more than usual!

They were harassed, treated badly, dumped like animals, exploited like machines, insulted, not cared for at many occasions.

After improvising the European cities, towns with the help of naive people, after getting all their personal/domestic work done, after having attained a comfortable life because of them, after obtaining a bright future for their kids... is this what they should do? Isn't there anything called empathy?

Beyond all this the worst thing is the misuse of 'Race'. Slaves were reminded and cursed that they had to suffer due to their race..they weren't good due o the race, they were not beautiful due to the race and what not... pick up a weak point..and that was pointed out at thier race..the so called 'coloured phenomenon'. Didn't they have heart and feelings like everyone else?

I'd like to conclude this sensitive topic by writing a statement that was said by a slave (a naive and a great man) and which is recorded in the museum 'The masters own/buy/hire us in order to improvise their cities, their homes, their workplace in order to have better life for themselves, their children, their family, their friends, their society.'

Does your memory amuse you?

I was thinking about this while traveling in the train across the city. I travel everyday in a reasonably fast underground train  lasting approximately 45 minutes. Since its underground I can't look out and hence I get bored at times. Also its crowded most of the times at various places. It takes 21 stops for my train to reach the destination and today I just realized that I remember what stop comes after what in the first order and the reverse order :-) yes just tested myself for 21 stops just like how you test kids to say January to December and the reverse order and everybody seems to be thrilled when the reverse order comes right... so was I :-)

Why is it that our memory is very clear and sharp at times and why is it so bad at times. Why do we forget our critical passwords at times... there could be so many questions in our minds... we sometimes forget names of people, places, etc but we remember things that are not very important.....we forget important tasks and feel stupid when reminded... we forget to report at a given place and time but remember something very trivial..... the analysis of memory amuses me...  what about you :-)

First Impressions

How far are the first impressions about people true? Does one believe in them these days? Is the first impression still the best impression? I don't think so. People are very complex. A man who is gentle could turn out into someone very aggressive or an aggressive man's aggression could just be under the surface to go BOOM which wouldn't be noticed during the first impressions!! The smarter/ cleverer the person, the tougher it gets to form an impression, the curve goes exponential! But its human tendancy to form opinions, to judge people, to have a first impression, it doesnt matter if you are right or wrong!

The Old Cobbler

After heading back to my office from the Cobbler's Kiosk, I thought I should write about it soon. But i'm writing about it after ages. It has touched me quite a lot and that's why its time to pen it down.

I once bought fancy looking slip ons from a posh place in Bangalore. I loved it and I almost wore it everyday to office. I also got compliments for it. After a while it wasn't so new so I would run with those slip ons , wear it in the rain and basically rough handled it. It so happened that one of them got torn. I was like.... "damn... we pay so much and it doensn't even last long!!!" Thankfully there was a small cobbler kiosk near my office, actually right opposite to my office. There was a middle aged man and I gave him my torn slip on. While he was mending it I remembered my childhood days. Back then we visited the cobblers quite often as against the present times where we have too many shoes and discard the torn ones immediately.

But I had no other go. I had to get back to work and there was no shoe shop close by and had to get my shoe mended.This middle aged cobbler made a shabby fix and asked me for ten rupees.I was not so happy to give him ten for the job he did but anyway he didn't ask for a fortune, it was just ten rupees.I gave it to him and got back to work.

A week later the other slip on got torn in the same place. I was cursing these shoe makers for making delicate shoes and tagging them with high prices. Again the same solution. I walked to the same cobbler kiosk.

Now this time there was a very old cobbler.He looked very weak, was wearing torn clothes and his glasses were so big that I almost concluded that he was blind.I thought this old cobbler might be the middle aged cobbler's father! Since I was unhappy the previous time I just thought I would ask this old cobbler to stitch it a bit more nicely but then I looked at his innocent face and something stopped me at once!!!

He started mending my slip on slowly.While he did that I peeked inside his kiosk. Saw some photos of God and a big photo of a lady who was young and vibrant. Her photo had kumkum and garland which meant she was no more. I was thinking whether she was the cobbler's wife or daughter. Who ever she was, she was someone dear to the cobbler. I felt quite bad for him. Then he interrupted me saying he mended my slip on.

I just had a look at it. It was done so well, so really well that I was taken aback. The half blind, weak cobbler wearing torn clothes and having the grief of losing an important woman in his life mended my shoe so well. I thought for a moment that if I had instructed him before I would've been ashamed of myself.I would've hurt his feelings so much!! I gave him ten rupees staight away. Then he said its only five rupees and started digging his box for change. I looked at him and said I don't want the change, smiled at him, said thank you and left. He was confused. While I was walking back to the office I had a great urge to go back to him and give him more money like a charity but he seemed like a shy old cobbler. I was unsure about him accepting it. But by giving him  more than what he asked for made me so contented.

When I sat on my chair at office I felt the old cobbler has touched my life by showing his perseverence, simplicity and innocence. I had tears in my eyes and then I worked peacefully.

The Tube

London metro has always been a fascination to me. A facsination due to its connectivity,the colourful insides of the trains,the pretty names they have and the differnt levels they operate at.

But why is it called a tube.It was always a wonder for me as to why it is called "The Tube" or "Tubes" and the station called the "Tube Station". I figured it out due to my curiosity and it goes this way.... London has a large connectivity of trains underground and the tunnels look like tubes running here and there and so are the trains... they are so rounded off that they look like tubes... hence the name.. Its so simple :) This picture shows the present day tube platforms.

Well the londoners can really boast about their tube history because the metro project started off way back in the 1800s.It is so hard to imagine men carrying those heavy materials to dig the tubes in various levels and connect them. London has had overground as well as underground tubes way back in the 1800s and currently serves 268 stations by rail! Have a look at this picture which shows the metro construction during the early 1800s.

Picture 3 shows us the central london railway locomotive in the tube station in the 1800s.

The underground station has subsurfaces and deep level classifications. You can travel to different places by taking tubes for different lines/routes in different storeys! The tube stations in london have Europe's longest escalators to reachout to the deepest railway track. Isn't that amazing!!This is the present day picture of the escalator at angel station.

Not to forget the point where tubes were saviours for civilians in the world war era.The authorities in London, after being put under pressure from public, did make use of about 80 underground Tube stations to house about 177,000 people. Back ,those lines were not electrified so the people could sit on the rails, keep their belongings and sleep peacefully in tube stations with their families.Hence,the tubes have helped millions during the world war.

There used to be a very sweet marketing strategy for the early birds to try out london metro. Have a look at this picture and read the message "Swift and Sure" :)

These days in london metro/tube stations, people make the place dirty by spilling out their drink,leaving newspapers on the chairs and stuff like that.There are also some negatives like delays in train, escalators being closed for a while but the bright side of these tubes should never be forgotten. In my eyes "The Tube" is still a wonderful achievement by man on earth.

The Feel Good Factor

So how does your food taste today?? Finger Lickin good?? (Sorry I stole the copyrights from KFC ). Ok lemme change....

So how do you feel today??? Feel Good?? Then STICK ON!!!
The feel good factor adds zing to your lives and a twinkle in your eyes...
It makes your teeth sparkle and your hair shine...
It makes you sing like the BeeGees -stayin alive...stayin alive...
Your heart feels featherlight and your foot starts tapping

If you have these symptoms then Yes... you are in the feel good factor city.Please extend and expand your FGF city cuz it would always help you,serve you,support you and embrace you.
It triggers energy, positive thinking, makes you offer a helping hand and also some generous time to pamper yourself.... and when you'd consciously see good things around you... you'd say "I'm Lovin' it" (Sorry i stole the copyrights from Mc Donalds now ) :P :P :P

Courtesy Dr. Arti,KFC,Mc Donalds

The monster in you

Any guesses.... It sweeps as a wave inside you... starts as a small wave...builds up and then goes down... While this is happening inside you,lets see what happens on the outside... no focus,sulking,bitterness,indifference!!!

But when the wave builds up to the size of a monster then you blurt it out... and then what happens??? anger, denial,difference of opinion... and then the cycle goes on ...the monster becomes big and small .... big and small...

Now this monster is quite dangerous and it can also change its form....say from a wave to a creeper...it builds inside you like a creeper... if not cut at the roots it can trouble you more!!

And then you'll never really know if its you talking or the monster called EGO.