12 years a Slave

Dear Sir,

I think we have become more and more insensitive (that is the only reason I find). Reason...we have become more and more materialistic and there is no end to it, only sky is the limit! Teachings of Kanchi Paramacharya, who would listen in the present times when people are busy buying things for themselves and their family? Stopped thinking about downtrodden, a momentary pity comes once in a while but that too we forget very soon. I may sound very pessimistic, but that is what is happening. Even if we do a little act of charity we want the whole world to know about it and we think we are saints!
Solution for all this.......nothing in sight. Occasionally we read in papers (not on the main page) somewhere inside about some exceptional people who do something for the world without any expectations. We read, appreciate and admire them. There ends our role.
My personal opinion is that our conscience tells us if we are doing the right thing or not. But most of the times we do not listen to it and ask it to shut up.
As Priyasrini said..let us start from our home first. We have our servant, driver and others who make our life comfortable....let us peep into their lives and a beginning can be made in our own small way. If children see what we are doing they also would learn atleast a little and become compassionate human beings when they grow.
A thought provoking and at the same time we feel guilty also about the whole scenario!.
Lupita Nyong'o' dialogue made you write a wonderful thread which everyone should read and try to follow.
Thank you.
Syamala

 

Well said, that effort should with every one of us introspecting, 'are we paying our maid servants enough ?' ..'are we fair to them' ?...........in that way !

 

A thought provoking one Cheeniya Sir. And I believe that the most obvious ones that suffer always are the ones taken for granted, knowingly or otherwise. For those people who take this advantage, such 'ignorance' is bliss! When they suffer even a minor setback, they start cribbing that people take advantage of them!

Also, there is always the 'have's' and the 'have nots' right from the beginning. While the 'have nots' do all the work, the have's claim that as theirs. This sounds like a typical argument for a man who believes in socialism. Isn't it? I am not one but. While I would be seeing something else in the Oscar shows, you saw this and wrote to explain us your views of it. Nice. Thanks for sharing. -rgs

 

Excellent post Cheeniya sir. I think the present world people have become self concerned worrying about one's happiness or sadness. People have forgotten the courtesy to acknowledge other's effort to make their life easier. Even though simple words like 'thank you' 'please' 'sorry' have become more in use these days, its not from heart and more like a covering one's mouth during sneezing . Some of them dont even say that considering their ego.

Let me quote this incident. Last month I went to the beauty parlor. I had a longer wait time and later it took longer time for the lady to provide me change. The lady kept on thanking me for being patient enough. I replied her saying that "I respect your profession. You stand the whole day working hard to make others look beautiful. I can definitely spare couple of mins and those few minutes I cannot change the world." Two things are important for any human being patience and appreciation. I keep telling my dad that everytime when we eat, we should mentally thank the farmer and wish that he gets atleast one meal a day. With the current plight of the farmers they can hardly make ends meet.

I've not watched 12 years of slave but I read the movie storyline. I somehow found it similar to Bala's 'Paradesi'. It was also heart touching and emotional. It took me two days to recover.

 

Dear Cheeniya sir,

All that preparation for Oscars on TV! I wonder what you would do if you were to be at the Oscars in Hollywood. I was there a couple of years ago, not on Oscar's night but a couple of days or may be even a week before that. Phew it was simply crazy and all I could think of was who would want to be there. Obviously many! For me personally, it is Ellen - I adore that woman and her sense of humor and her magnanimity.

That said, even before the actual show when we were viewing the who is who on the red carpet and the interviews, when Lupita was spoken to, I could not help but feel some what mesmerized with that woman. There was something about her and not being a movie buff, I had no idea who she was and all such fun details. Now reaidng what you have written only reaffirms my feelings then. Just this morning, a friend shared this clip Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o's Speech On Beauty That Left An Entire Audience Speechless and I am completely in awe and still contemplating on what she had to say by this statement in the clip I have shared "I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy!"

Looks like I got carried away by Lupita than the message you were trying to convey. But I hear you sir, loud and clear. Some how we have this mind set that one has to be so and so to be considered successful, education became important and I am sure it has helped us in many ways to progress as a nation but we have somehow lost track of what really matters in that forward movement. I get goose bumps as I meet many people who pursue what seem to be not main stream professions. I wonder what drives that person to be an artist, a gardener, a painter whatever they are choosing. They all seem to be proud and happy doing what they are doing and some of us seem to be busy sitting in judgement. One of the things I notice in the society I live in how much a deliberate appreciation is offered to a couple who run a library using their own books and seeking books as donation, how much a mom and pop store be it for groceries, delis are appreciated and patronized, how well the farmer's markets thrive, how well I know that pet shop owner next door. It is the community and the society sir. We have to learn to pause and acknowledge. That poem by Emerson about the Mountain and the Squirrel is a good reminder for me personally. It is not about haves and havenots, it is our view I think and our willingness to share and respect.

I just finished reading a book that DS was reading and it is "The boy in striped pajamas" I urge everyone to read it sir and believe me it took me a week to get my bearings back. The range of emotions I went through, knowing it is fiction but also knowing that it could have been the truth was unbelievable. That book, this movie make me feel grateful for the times we are born in and if only we remembered and kept in perspective that everyone is trying to make a living and trying to make a meaning of that living! And Les Miserable, the less said the better. If I start on that, I am sure I will only take up another para in your space. So let me just say that I thoroughly enjoyed the musical entertaining similar thoughts....like that book!

 

Sir, i dint watch the Oscars , never do, though i love to look at pictures of the gowns the ladies wear for the red carpet parade. But this time, Lupita has become a minor sensation in the cyber world. Her speech about her discovery that black is beautiful ( she calls her skin the colour of night ! Lyrical, isnt it ! ) is all over the Net, with indian women in particular wanting to stick it next to Fair and Lovely ads. In her speech, she mentions the breakthrough that came with a black Supermodel's hard earned success , which gave a bigboost to the flaggging self esteem of generations of black girls living amidst white populations. I dont know if the quote you've mentioned is somehow related to this, but its Pure Cheeniya to grasp a tiny ember from somewhere and kindle a fullfledged blaze of self enquiry and introspection out of it .




They say, sanathana dharma requires that every humanbeing perform the pancha yagnyas to pay respect and show gratitude for all we have recieved ( to the ancestors for blood, to the rishis for knowledge, to Nature ( incl. animals) for the resources, to other people for providing everything we use in the course of living and to the gods for creating us ) As part of the Manushya Yagnya, we are required to give back to the world whatever we can. People who realise that our lives are built on the toil of others always find a way to give back. It may not be anything spectacular, but even a small gesture born out of true, heartfelt gratitude counts.
Your frequent nudges to draw our attention to things that get stuffed in the botton drawers of our mind also count. A lot. Thank you, sir. This post is one Oscar sideshow that interested me more than the red carpet gowns this time.