College Village Trip

'Compassion' is the word that means a 'deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it'. And this is the word that precisely describes the Centre for Social Action (CSA) at Christ College. What started as a small movement by the students for the up-liftment of the children has now become a program for the under-privileged. With the objective of social welfare, this organisation is driven by humanity and empathy and is the only Non Government Organisation that functions within the college campus. All this was just pure hearsay until 22^nd June 2005

Christ college had decided to take the students of the BBM first year for a village exposure trip. This was a compulsory trip organised by the CSA. Surprisingly we were not to contribute to this trip financially. The main objective was to expose the students to the hard .

Our destination was around 35km from college, a place called 'Kanchanpalliya'. We left college at 3 O clock by bus and we were accompanied by our class coordinator and two members of the CSA . The bus was a 41 seater and we were around 65. We reached Kanchanpalliya by 1630 hours. After we placed our bags in the dormitory we split into two groups and went to different villages.

The village I visited was called 'Doddipallayam'. We traveled by some thing like a smaller version of a truck. On reaching there we were welcome by the sight of a number of children. We were taken to the village mainly to interact with the localities and get to know their way of living. Most of the people came out of their houses and were more than willing to interact with us. As a large proportion of us could not understand Kannada , the few us who knew the language had to double up as translators for the others.

Talking to the first few villagers we met i learned that the people living there didn't have to see the worst life had to offer, quite unlike the kind of life we expected to see. The villager we spoke to used to work as a farmer growing paddy. He had a pakka house for himself and could afford the basic necessities of life. He had three kids, two girls and one boy. It was only the girls who used to go to school as the boy was physically in-capable. The boy was suffering from Polio. Doctors had almost given up hope and said that it would be best to leave things to time. All the houses there had continuous supply of electricity and most of them had televisions(most of which are colour TV's). And they didn't face much of irrigation problem too. One of the main problems were selling the paddy. I was told that now a days paddy consumption was reducing in cities and hence the farmers had a tough job finding a market. So some of them reared cattle like goats, buffaloes etc.

Asking about the political leaders they said that they didn't have much to choose. A couple of villages put together had a chairman and the villagers would vote in favor of the party instructed by their chairman.

Most of the youngsters were educated till 10^th class. And surprisingly the girls were also educated. Another problem that i understood was when i came across two ladies who were divorced, and both their husbands were alcoholics. It seemed like alcohol consumption was popular among the people there.

Once we finished speaking to the elder members of the village we spent time with the children. We took all the children to an open ground and played 'Ring around the roses' where most of them learned the song by the 4^th or 5^th round. It was an experience to watch those children play in that joyous mood. We then called each child to come and introduce himself/herself and recite a poem or sing a song. Many of them came and recited poems that they were taught in school but my personal favourite was the girl who came and sang the National Anthem. We then spoke to them for a while and continued playing what the liked the most, 'Ring around the roses'. At around 7-30 pm we had a program in-store for the villagers. We first started it with a dance by some of our class mates. By then some people came out of their houses and were curious to know what we students were up to. The dance was followed by a street play which brought out some of the common problems that prevailed in the villages and showed them how education would help eliminate those problems. There was then a song sung by us to end the show.

Once the program was over we all got into the truck and departed to our base camp. There we had tasty dinner waiting for us(the food was very tasty as we were all very hungry). Once we finished our dinner we had a bonfire lit and had a gala time around it. At 12 mid-night we ended our aantakshari and were sent to our rooms. Not many people could manage to sleep, though i did sleep for an hour.

The next day we had to finish out breakfast by 8-30 and were to visit the sewing firm set up and presently run by Christ College. We got to interact with the ladies working there and got to know more about their lifestyle and about their job satisfaction. All the ladies sounded happy with their job and their salary. Before joining as a regular employs they had to undergo six months of training. There were around 20 ladies who worked with a salary of Rs.1,000 or more. The administration would be soon handed over to the ladies, which is right now managed by Christ college.

Once we finished speaking to the working ladies we got an opportunity to speak to the parents of some of the school going children. I was pleased to hear the parents talk about the importance of schooling in a child's life. Most parents had sent their children to school by choice and not by chance. They spoke to us about small issues like the transport cost being too high to commute to school and that there was no place for the children to go after school till the working parents came home. We finished speaking to the parents by 1 'O' clock.

All of us were allowed to rest till the lunch was served, and that was at 2 pm. Then we had to board the bus only at 3-30, so we sat around singing songs waiting for the bus driver. We all got into the bus at 3-30 and left Kanchanpalliya. The bus drove straight to Christ college and we reached by 5-30. Some of us sat around talking about the trip and all the fun we had while the rest left for home.

This was a truly memorable trip as it was a learning cum fun experience for many of us. To maintaining unity among all of us who come from different parts of the country was a learning experience altogether. I appreciate the efforts taken by Christ college for taking the initiative of taking us for his camp and i am sure that this trip would have been an eye opener for many to realise how lucky we are. The class coordinator also had a major part to play when we talk about the success of the trip, who encouraged us at every right step we took.

-August 2005

How the death of a homosexual cockroach in your bathroom can affect the economy of the country?

The News bulletin screamed, "Homosexual cockroach assassinated". These headlines led to a mass protest for justice by the members of 'Homosexual Association for Cockroaches' (HAC). The reports said that the homosexual cockroach was assassinated by another living being as differences arouse on grounds of sexual orientation. All the cockroaches were on an indefinite nation wide strike to seek justice for the president of the HAC, who was brutally assassinated in a bathroom. This nation wide protest has adversely affected the Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) Industry, as the percentage of goods that are damaged by the cockroaches (both at homes and supermarkets/storage homes) which is roughly 11% has dropped to 0% considering all cockroaches are on a strike. The drop in the number of goods destroyed has reduced the demand for the goods and hence if this strike persists, the FMCG companies will have to rethink their marketing strategies.

Ironically the Homosexual cockroach that was assassinated, according to the post-mortem reports, had also proved HIV positive. The doctors also came up with the conclusion that every homosexual cockroach could now cause AIDS to the human community. This shocking news had sent a wave of tremor and panic among the humans. And this panic had a massive impact on the volatile stock market of the country. People suddenly started to disinvest in company shares and pooled all their investment into the medical health insurance schemes. This crash of the stock exchange by 700 points in one week was an historic record in the Indian stock market and this news made the headline of every newspaper in the country. As the news of the stock exchange crash spread, more people pulled out of share market. This continuous chain reaction had led to the collapse of the stock exchange in no time and had wrecked the countries economy.

The FMCG industry has a large part to play in the success of an economy as it supports many other industries like human resource managements, procurement consultants, television advertising, print media and had contributed a healthy 48% to the advertising sector(in year 2004). Hence the decline of the FMCG industry would certainly mean a major setback to the countries economy.

Similarly the stock exchange of the country, in most cases, speaks for the countries economic progress in terms of capital invested , foreign funds and the progress of the companies present in that very country. A crash in the share market would make foreign and domestic investors skeptical about their profits.

Cockroach is always that part of the house or bathroom that is most trivial. This incident goes to show that people have to be more vigilant, open-minded and reasonable while looking into petty matters of life. After all, who would have thought that some thing as small as a cockroach would take away the jobs of a million people.