Everyone in India, going through a newspaper daily, must have by now read about Manjunath Kalmani. So who is he? Why has he became famous?

Well, the details you can get at this site, a brief of the same is here:

In a nutshell, this is the story:

• Engineer from India loses job
• Has car accident
• Paralyzed – can barely talk, but uses a laptop and sip-n-puff & Morse Code to communicate
• Visa expires, gets sent to India, dumped in hospital where family abandons him
• Laptop vanishes.

Something is amiss here, and I’ll complete the pieces shortly, but let me ask a frank question to you all — do we really care is someone is dying? do we care if someone is dying due to utter neglect?? do we really care if someone is dying for the want of right medical treatment and the cost to avail it???

NO! We all know we don’t care. This is the truth. I may be a bit blunt here but isn’t really this is the truth?

You could have saved one life when you though you have something more important to do than to save a road accident victim! If you would not have cared about the blood-stain on your car-seat cover, you’d have taken him to hospital and may be he would be alive. But No!

If you’d care about person dying due to utter neglect, you’d first look into your own house — your old parents in the smallest and dingiest room possible. The same persons who nourished you to grow, to become a great personality. Have you ever thought about those persons who have became just a show-piece in your house, and that too broken, whom you prefer not to show to any friends. Have you tried to spare some time and talk to them even on weekends? No!

Have you ever been caring enough to send some money to a charitable organisation like CRY or Prayas? Have you ever tried to fund the medical expense of any unknown person, or even a known person who is not related to you? You have been to hospitals, and seen many poor, rickety people sleeping on the floor in January — you have always put a handkerchief on your nose and passed by commenting how filthy they are — have you ever thought of funding them to get a room, a bed, clean cloths? No!

(And mind it, when I say you, it means an average Indian, myself included)

Then? what is that is special in Manjunath? Fine that he was a techie and went to US for job. But when he met with the accident, he was already jobless — laid off, and more importantly with out a medical insurance. Why? — It is said that he didn’t had money to renew the insurance. Then why was he still at US?

He met with the accident and US have done whatever they could on humanitarian ground. They could have left him to die, specially since no one was there to take care of him. Medical assistance was provided to him on state expenditure, as is the case in US and UK with other residents. It was only when his visa expired that they had to send him back to India. He was technically being deported, but in a special air ambulance, free of cost!

When he was brought back, even his family members were not willing to come to Delhi and visit him. However, when the money started pouring in, they came to Delhi to meet him. Is this how an Indian family works? Leave their son to die knowing that he’s not well and needs medical care.?? No! I believe and Indian family would never leave it’s member to die even if they don’t have any finances to fund his medical care. Anyway….

I don’t mean to say that people who have donated money to save Manjunath are wrong. I’m not saying that PM is wrong in allocating Rs 2,00,000/- for his treatment. I’m not saying that TOI is wrong in raising a campaign to save Manjunath.

What I mean to say is that there are countless Manjunaths in this country that you’d meet at every nook and corner — do you ever think to help them? ever???

A pleothera of social networking sites have come up of late and has started a debate whether they are good or bad for the society… what are your views?

There have been instances where people have been luring young girls to elope from their home and even a murder in Mumbai which was linked to a social networking site. There is abundance of fake profiles all around and people indulging in all sorts of anti-social activities — be it crime agains any specific person, or a crime against a language/society/country/religion. But does that mean that the tools is wrong??

“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder“

I strongly believe in the lines above and I believe that every tool in this world that has been devised for a good purpose can find it’s usage in bad deeds as well.

For example, the same saw, that is used for cutting wood to convert it into beautiful furniture can be used as a murder weapon. Almost anything that you see around, a wire, a match, a gas cylinder, electricity… almost anything can be a deadly weapon if you do not use it judiciously. Does this mean that all these are evil things?? – NO!

It depends how you use the tool that is available to you for use.

I personally have used Orkut and Alumni.net a lot and really they have helped me to get in contact with long lost friends — friends who have been out of contact for more than 16 years! Thanks to these sites that I have been able to contact my school friends whom I had lost contact with long ago!!

I would say — use these tools, use judiciously and they can benefit you!

As the 10th and 12th board approach, newspapers have started posting news about suicide and suicide attempts by students who are due to appear their boards. What is this happening??? — I fail to understand.

I don’t understand why there is so much stress on the students? — Is that because they have to score above 95% in their boards?? — Why??? — to get admission in a good school/college for their +2/graduation! Ah, I got the answer myself!

This is the reason that there is pressure from peer and even from the parents to score 95% plus or face their wrath. But why?? — I am again pushed to the darkness of ignorance by myself!

I haven’t seen anyone scoring 99% (or for that matter 100%) in his/her 12th and getting a good job just after that. The point is — even if you get 100% in your 10th or 12th boards, still you have to fight for admission for technical courses where 65% is quite enough to appear for the exam and then it’s your aptitude that helps and not what you have crammed! For getting admission to graduations also, some colleges do demand 90 and 95 percent plus marks for admission. But have we ever given a thought over what happens after admission?? Do all those who get admission to reputed colleges get a decent job after they finish graduation??? I think they have to again fight with everybody for job interview/exam where again 65% is a decent enough score!

So why this fuss all about? I remember my days when getting even a bare 60% was deemed good enough and achieving that also was no mean feat. What has changed since then? — the marking pattern in board, where people get 100% even in literature subjects? Or it’s just about parents wanting to brag about the marks obtained by their child?

Whatever the reason, I believe that this is all not good and we are loosing valuable lives. Can we think of doing something that could avoid this all?