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We live in Waste Age

What gives us the right to pollute the environment and show scant regard for natural resources? What’s with the disrespect?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

I have had an epiphany. Courtesy of my dad.

We human beings have this tendency to name the era we are living in. And why not, since our history textbooks taught us to follow nomenclatures? We had the Dark Ages, Industrial Age, Jet Age, and several others, and so I would like to add another one to the list with Waste Age.

How did I arrive at this name? This name was not self-realised but rather, it came about because of my father.

My father has always taught us sustainability. His mantra in life has always been to optimise usage of the things that we purchase. Whether it has been the TV , his scooter and even his cupboard. He is the one who also instilled values in us about walking home to save money and getting valuable exercise at the same time.

I am sure that most of us have had such experiences and looked at our parents’ generation through a faintly critical lens. Our generation believes in and appreciates the boon of abundance. Why should we repair a TV when repairing will cost Rs 5,000 and you can buy a brand new TV for Rs 10,000? I should buy a new phone because my phone is outdated – it is two years old!

But now I wonder – do things really become old in two years? When we were children, ‘two years’ was a healthy amount of time for our possessions – they were just about new if they were two years old, and far from old.

With our possessions becoming old in just six months, we are living in the Waste Age. We like to discard more and save less. We make no effort to repair something broken, or tune something that needs a helping hand. Since new replacements are so cheap, we choose to throw away our stuff rather than reinvest in it.

It’s not just about our personal possessions, but about the natural resources we use so carelessly. We might see a million ads that talk about saving water but weWasting water in Mumbai are the first ones to go skipping to a rain dance for a Holi party. Every year, we Mumbaikars are told horror stories of how the lakes have water for just one more month and that there will be water cuts. And even as we read these news reports, we leave the taps running for no reason at all. We think nothing of leaving the lights on in vacant rooms, or our computers running all night. We are quick to preach about cleanliness, safe biodisposal and immediate clearing away of garbage, but how prompt are we to conserve our environment and keep it healthy and usable for ourselves and our children?

We do not believe in repairing things and using them for a little more time because advertising and marketing have made us believe that we should live with the times. Since we can find replacements for all our possessions easily, we have stopped loving the things we own and we are not as attached to them as we should be.

My father still loves the watch that was gifted to him on his wedding day 33 years ago. And how’s this for a fun fact – that watch still works! It’s not just down to the care and affection he has showered on his watch all along, it is also because the watch is made of superior materials. These days, I am hearing stories of how companies are making items with inferior materials so that they conk off sooner, necessitating a new purchase. One of my friends was telling me about how airconditioner companies make cooler condensers using aluminium instead of copper, so that their durability decreases. Companies and marketing gimmicks have contributed a lot to our inherent wasteful tendencies.

Somehow, we have become more informed but we are less aware. And this is what is worrying. We spare no thought to anything we do these days – the simplest example is discarding your old phone. Either we sell them at cheaper rates or just toss them in the garbage. Did you know that mobile phones are the largest contributors to e-waste? The developing nations are tottering under the weight of locally-generated e-waste and that which is dumped on them by developed nations. And this is hazardous and toxic waste that poisons everything in its immediate environment.

Enjoy the Waste Age, everybody. We’re not going to be alive too long because of it.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t believe in growing up, because if he grows up he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy nswai.com, shybuzz.blogspot.com. Images are used for representational purpose only)

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Help save Mumbai

A Mumbaikar makes a fervent plea for all of us to be more involved in saving Mumbai, our home city.
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

Mumbai…

We have always spoken this name with a positive emotion.

The city’s name invokes a great sense of pride in the minds of those who live in it. Others swear by its spirit, its bravery, its innate humanity.

But if we’re so proud of the city, why are we murdering it?

Mumbai is being killed in bits and pieces by those who felt they were its legal custodians. They wanted to claim first rights to its guardian of a city that they never made in the first place. We have so many guardians now that everyone has been killing it slowly and softly. From the real estate mafia to the babu taking bribes under the table, to the politician diverting funds meant for the city’s improvement to his own bank account, this city is now reduced to a shell of its former self.

Over the years, the sentiment of Mumbaikars has changed from “I love this city!” to “I love this city’s people!” Because that spirit is still intact. Everything else is just falling apart. The city is now just a facade that tries hard to show that it is still as fabulous as it used to be. The middle class of this city is still its middle class – in the current atmosphere of inflation and corruption, it can hope to do no better – when it could easily count as the upper middle class in other towns, even other metros.

The filth we see all over the city refuses to abate. The hardworking citizen is still part of an unwanted sandwich in local trains, the sincere Mumbaikar is still mocked at by the real estate prices in the city. Over two and a half lakh houses have been unsold in the city for about two years now, but still the builders will not lower prices as it would result in a huge real estate crash. And how would they recover the money they’ve pumped in to build those homes, plus the bribes they’ve paid to get the requisite permissions?

But this is not somebody else’s problem. It wasn’t just ‘other people’ who ruined the city. We did, too. In earlier years, we could get away by saying, “We didn’t know these problems existed.” But now there is an unprecedented amount of activism, news reaches us the moment it happens. There is no excuse to “not being aware” any more. Sure, most activism these days is driven by agenda. But not everything people do is driven by commercial interests. When we circulate Facebook messages about a lost senior citizen in Mumbai and discover that widespread sharing helped find the person, there is no commercial agenda driving it. When we share pictures of men harassing women travelling in public transport and get them booked, there is no commercial agenda driving it. When we band together as citizens to save the Aarey stretch, where is the commercial interest for us?

Today, Mumbai’s largest green tract, the Aarey zone, is facing an enormous problem. In a city fast losing its last vestiges of green, the trees in Aarey are going to be chopped. We have had many parks, many open grounds forcibly taken away from us by the corrupt. Isn’t it time we banded together to claim our city?

And if you think, “Why should I bother about Aarey?”, I have just one reply: You should bother because you are losing your city.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is Jatin’s take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Picture courtesy lifeinmumbai.co.in)

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Please stop ‘following on’

It is time to unplug the noise in the virtual space, before we all lose whatever original opinions we have.
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiiin_sharma on Twitter

An ‘opinion’ is a pencil that sketches an individual’s mind map. Opinions are collectively responsible for seeding a society.

Let me use another metaphor to sum up what I want to say next: The jungle of opinions is currently being deforested. Sure, that sounds pompous and pretentious. But that’s what most of us have become.

Today, every individual – you included – is going through an information overdose. Look around you: whether it is the number of TV channels, YouTube videos, films or the number of posts on Facebook and Twitter, as a person active in the digital space, you are exposed to at least 250 communication messages a day, or even more.

You are constantly on your phone and you are watching the world every minute of the day. But this constant hammering of communication from the world has taken away our personal time from us.

Even our opinions are increasingly being diluted, due to the several messages we constantly receive. Many conspiracy theories float around as ‘facts’ and we start to believe them as the truth. A moderately well-written post backed by the wrong statistics makes us gloss over its inaccuracies, so entranced are we by the presentation. Slowly and steadily, we are all ‘following on’ the moment something goes viral on the Internet.

An opinion different from the others’, a video that is being circulated widely, anything that is even slightly ‘hatke‘ makes us align our opinions to go with the popular flow. We are extremely quick to jump on to the bandwagon, without asking the most important question of all: ‘What for?’

Take the ‘Je suis Charlie’ movement, for example. When it was launched in France, all the so-called ‘intellectuals’ in India changed their statuses on social media to ‘Je suis Charlie’. That is totallyChanging opinions 1 allowed, but how many of us asked some tough questions, told the Government to back off when the AIB roast got roasted? Most people I know, who had laughed heartily while watching the roast videos, later changed their opinion when actor Aamir Khan decided to term it as ‘violent’. And I don’t see any ‘Je suis Avijit’ posts following the killing of atheist blogger Avijit Roy in Bangladesh, either.

We are changing our opinions not just to align with what’s popular, but with what’s crueller, too. If what we say and write seeks to mock, to wound another (a case in point is how so many men, under the guise of humour, attack feminists in the crudest ways). There are still many more of us who will state the obvious (such as ‘We must respect animals!’) merely to get ‘Likes’ on Facebook. Our opinions, if we can in fact call them that, constantly swing from one side to the next, before finally settling on the majority’s opinion. The worst is, we actually believe that the majority’s opinion is our own.

Your opinion, arrived at after thought and reasoning, is your own and it embodies your mental prowess and maturity. But we are content to be swayed. And somehow social media and such an overdose of media in our life is draining us of our

It needs to be said, people: It’s time to unplug.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is Jatin’s take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

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What lurks behind child labour

It seems like an easy fix to rescue children from their workplaces. But who will put food on their plates?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

The sheer size of this country never ceases to amaze me. No, I am more amazed at how ignorant we all are.

Call it a problem of numbers. After all, there are too many people to take note of, right? explains how we realise about one Indian among so many others only when that Indian’s face is splashed all over the news. Ask Kailash Satyarthi or anyone. I mean, the guy was doing his good work against child labour way before the Nobel Prize came knocking at his door, but had any of us heard of him? Nope. Now, of course, we’re so proud of him, we’re going on Liking and Sharing any and every news story that details his achievements.

Naturally, we’re now talking about child labour like never before. Suddenly, the little boy who brings us our post-lunch cup of tea grabs our attention. The little girl selling hair clips and other odds and ends on a Mumbai local becomes the cynosure of all eyes. The five-year-old leading his three-year-old sibling across the road in his torn rag of a shirt arouses sympathy from us. We stop to stare in sympathy at the little shoeshine boy on the footpath. ‘What will their future be?’ we ask ourselves before we get on with our lives. Some of us go a step further and rain abuses on the restaurant owner that hires children to wipe the tables or get glasses of water for customers.

But will merely rescuing children from their workplace solve a problem as big and as grave as child labour? Child labour doesn’t begin because people Child labour in Indiawant young children to work – though there are cads who hire children especially for their young age, in firecracker factories and sweatshops. Mostly, child labour is born when families have too many mouths to feed and too few hands to bring money home.

So while we’re busy taking selfies and tagging each other for ridiculous challenges, there are children watching us from afar, wondering if there will be food in their bellies that night.

We are only scraping the surface of the child labour menace in our country. Sure, it’s easy to get up and yell at the chaiwala who hires a chhotu to clean the glasses. We fail to understand the puzzled look in chhotu‘s eyes, who is probably thinking, “What’s his problem? Why is he making sahab fire me?”

So no matter how far our GDP grows or how many more people in the country learn to speak the English language, the fact remains that we are a country focussing on the lives of a privileged few while ignoring the cries of the distressed majority. When we bring economic reform, it cannot only be about bringing more money for businesses, but about putting some money in the pockets of the poor. It pains us when railway ticket prices are raised dramatically after 20 years, but when was the last time we stopped to think the effects of rising inflation on the homes of the poor?

I’m sure there’s no easy solution to the problem, but I believe the solution isn’t so difficult to come to terms with. Instead of stopping children from earning, we need a framework that invests in skill building and skills management, so that the chhotu cleaning glasses at a chaiwala‘s today can tomorrow get the chance to make something of himself.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is Jatin’s take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy business.rediff.com, mief.in. Images are used for representational purpose only)

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People, celebrate your daughters

Why do many parents call their successful daughters the ‘sons’ of the family? Do they think it is high praise?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

A friend recently informed me that two weeks ago was Daughters’ Week. Being a bit of a dreamer, I was lost for a few minutes with thoughts of how fathers must feel when they see their daughters. Do they feel a pride they cannot always express? Do they struggle to hide their tears when their daughters get married? Do they recall their daughters’ first milestones with fond nostalgia, smiling to themselves even as they go about their daily lives?

I have many female friends and some of them claim that they come from ‘forward thinking’ families. Till now, I confess I haven’t really understood this term ‘forward thinking’. These people I know are not the Jetsons of our age, nor do they use James Bond-style gadgets in daily life.

The ‘forward thinking’ tag comes because the men in their families allow their daughters to study, let them have nights out with friends, and are cool with them having boys or men as their friends. And if the girl fell in love with a boy, they would ‘allow’ her to marry him.

I am not okay with this. But let me tell you what happened recently.

I met the parents of a friend, and I was appalled by something they said. They were justifiably proud of their daughter – she had been a Fathers and daughtersStraight A student, had finished her MBA studies with good marks, she had a good job in an MNC. On her part, she was the quintessential ‘good girl’ – always obedient, to the extent that she let her parents pick a suitable boy for her. Besides, she never ‘took advantage’ of her freedom and liberty.

All was well till both the parents looked at their daughter and proudly announced, “My daughter is my son!” Everyone beamed at everyone else at this atrocious statement, including the daughter, who probably felt rewarded for her ‘goodness’. Then I realised that this is a statement most fathers and mothers of women achievers make – they feel they have given the highest praise when they call their daughter their son, signifying that she is (almost) as good as the son they never had.

I want to ask these parents: if you let your daughter be an independent individual, why do you drill it into her head that she must not ‘take advantage’ of the liberty and freedom that you have so graciously given her? Do you think you are doing her a favour by letting her breathe or go out with her friends? And what gives you the right to speak this way to your daughter – a woman who is responsible, understanding of your problems and pain, and the rock of your home – and call her the ‘man’ of the house? Will it kill you to acknowledge her as a woman?

Why does a daughter become a son in parents’ eyes, when she more than meets their expectations?

I didn’t smile when my friend’s parents spoke that revolting statement. They were a little puzzled, and Aunty asked me, “Beta, is something wrong?”

I said, “She is not your son, she is an amazing daughter. I don’t think a son can do what she has done. And if he was ever as fabulous as her, you wouldn’t say to him, ‘You are the daughter of the house’, would you?”

They thought I was extremely rude. The father probably gave a talking-to to his daughter about her choice of friends. In fact, my friend later spoke to me and said I shouldn’t have said what I said, that her parents hadn’t “meant it”.

I did not answer. But I am writing it here today, to all parents, “If you don’t mean it, don’t say it.” Will it hurt you to respect your daughters? Or does a woman deserve respect only when she exhibits ‘manly’ attributes of success?

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy rayaprolu.wordpress.com, indianshaadi.org)

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Such a forgiving nation

Since when do we forgive criminals and cry for them? Why don’t we extend the same courtesy to other criminals?
by Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

Once upon a time someone had said to me, “Indians are born hypocrites!” I remember fuming at the time, wanting to take the man to the top of the tallest building and give him a nudge, so that he would feel the fresh air on his way down.

Don’t think badly of me – all of us have killed at least one person in our heads at least once in our lives. But why do I remember this incident today? Because, if I met that same man who said what he said, I would agree with him. I would even shake his hand.

What has really irked me is how ‘forgiving’ we have become, and in matters that should not be forgiven. Sure, we come from the land of the Buddha and Gandhi, and I am not asking anyone to be violent. I’ll tell you what got to me – I saw promos aired by an Indian TV channel, where they showed ex-cricketer Sreesanth dancing away to glory. As per the format of this show, in a few weeks, he will be seen crying on air for votes, there will be a few questions asked hinting about his recent cricket controversy, he will give an ‘honest’ confession on air, and bingo! All will be well and he will come off looking like a nice guy caught in the wrong place in the wrong time.

How is it logically possible for somebody to be a disgrace one moment, and a TV celebrity the next?

Monica BediCynical, much? Not really. Remember what happened with Monica Bedi’s appearance on Bigg Boss? Didn’t her involvement with gangster Abu Salem acquire a different sheen in our eyes after the show? Today, Monica works in Indian TV soaps, and nobody speaks of her past any more. All is forgiven.

So Sreesanth, after his infamous match-fixing scandal and the subsequent confession (which he later said was given under duress) and then, his cries of innocence, was banned for life from cricket and from representing the country. The matter is now subjudice. He has since got married and is now embarking on a reality TV show stint.

Pardon me, but wasn’t this the same guy who was taken to the cleaners by the Indian media when the controversy was at its peak? He was labelled a disgrace, he was completely left out in the cold, nobody had a kind word to say about him, and what’s more, all of us collectively revelled in his vilification. And now he’s on a TV show. He will surely also make it to Bigg Boss.

And then I ponder the matter some more, and I am less surprised. Sreesanth’s career from now on will most likely follow the graph of such other worthies as Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, and Nikhil Chopra – just some of the names found guilty of match-fixing. They are, however, the most visible faces on TV today when a cricket tournament is underway. Yes, they’ve done their time, but they were also labelled as a ‘disgrace’ to cricket. How is it logically possible for somebody to be a disgrace one moment, and a TV celebrity the next?

Entertainment channels will argue that they are not in the business of nation-building. They will always find legal loopholes and ensure that controversial personalities feature on their shows to help garner more ratings.

But, don’t the heads of these channels think that somehow, by allowing these match-fixers to rejuvenate on their channels, they are actually supporting past acts of crime? Don’t Sreesanththey consider that they are providing a platform for these criminals to try and garner sympathy for themselves? What gives these channels the right to glamourise a crime, present a person as a victim rather than an accused, and try and change the complexion of the crime with added drama thrown in? Is this a good lesson to teach our children – do what you want, and if you get caught, lay low for a while and then show your jhalak in public, amidst tears and applause?

It’s utterly sad that as a society, we watch shows that feature these controversial characters and worse, that we look for reasons to forgive them. I am sure Sreesanth must have signed a three-show contract with the channel and he would be looking forward to being trapped in a house with other roommates later this year. I am sure that we Indians will watch his side of the story then too, and have tears in our eyes that we will wipe with a ‘towel’. What’s more, he will receive many votes from a sympathetic audience.

This is what we’ve been doing for long – not rewarding the good, and letting the bad go unpunished. Achche din aanewale hain? May be. But for that to happen, we have to stop forgiving criminals, and focus on the good parts of society. If we’re letting match-fixers go unpunished today, we might as well let other criminals off the hook, too – like rapists and murderers.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his weekly take on our quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy tellynewsindia.com, indiatvnews.com)

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