I was recently witness to an incident that made me wonder what does it mean to be alive but not be able to live the way one wanted to. I was sitting in a hospital with a friend of mine waiting for the doctor when a boy was brought in, probably in his teens, for what appeared to be clearly a suicide attempt. The conversation around the boy indicated that he had taken some pesticide or rat poison lying around the house. What was of particular interest is the fact that it took the doctor hardly fifteen minutes to diagnose the patient and send him off. Whatever was needed was available at hand and at no point in the whole event was anyone morbidly tensed as to the fate of the boy. Everyone there knew and believed that the boy will be saved. It is this very feeling that made me wonder what was it that could be missing in the whole sequence of events. At this point of time through whatever means there are amenities available all over the country which may not have been possible in the not very distant past. But what was missed in the whole episode are the reasons which could have triggered the boy, I am almost sure that there will be nothing done to address the reasons for the same.
On a very similar vein, recently a batchmate of mine passing out this year from college was worried about kids said to be just barely above the permissible age of child labour(15 yrs.) working in our hostel canteens. We did not want them to be just thrown out of the work because we did not know where they were going to end up next. A short interview with the child revealed that he worked there along with his father for a meagre sum of money, asked if he wanted to study he said no he did not want to(I cant blame him for it, i don't remember kids actually thinking that education is necessary, the realization comes only later).
As i remember Alvin Toffler the renowned futurist in his books had predicted an age when services and goods will be produced in such quantities that they will be available to the common man. Its in the same age that we are living right now. We did not actually cross the eras of telegraphs and telephones and jumped directly into this age with mobile phones. In the process i feel we lost the ability to innovate and improve upon and bring the changes as an improvement in our lives, rather than as a service. Yes its an era of global cooperation and sharing, but as i recently heard, its the local solution to global problems that is going to save the world. No matter how much we become like one another, its managing our differences and understanding them that's going to make us succeed.
Now merely increasing the quantity would not have the required effect on our lives that we desire, or at least i desire. The need for maintaining high standards of quality in every field of our endeavour, is what is going to bring forward the next revolution in our life.
On a very similar vein, recently a batchmate of mine passing out this year from college was worried about kids said to be just barely above the permissible age of child labour(15 yrs.) working in our hostel canteens. We did not want them to be just thrown out of the work because we did not know where they were going to end up next. A short interview with the child revealed that he worked there along with his father for a meagre sum of money, asked if he wanted to study he said no he did not want to(I cant blame him for it, i don't remember kids actually thinking that education is necessary, the realization comes only later).
As i remember Alvin Toffler the renowned futurist in his books had predicted an age when services and goods will be produced in such quantities that they will be available to the common man. Its in the same age that we are living right now. We did not actually cross the eras of telegraphs and telephones and jumped directly into this age with mobile phones. In the process i feel we lost the ability to innovate and improve upon and bring the changes as an improvement in our lives, rather than as a service. Yes its an era of global cooperation and sharing, but as i recently heard, its the local solution to global problems that is going to save the world. No matter how much we become like one another, its managing our differences and understanding them that's going to make us succeed.
Now merely increasing the quantity would not have the required effect on our lives that we desire, or at least i desire. The need for maintaining high standards of quality in every field of our endeavour, is what is going to bring forward the next revolution in our life.
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