A bit like Ali, a bit like Shakira...

As the compere for the India Today Conclave 2014 says, Maysoon Zayid lies when she says she is not inspirational.

Channeling the Jay Z song, she says she's got 99 problems, and nonchalantly adds that her cerebral palsy is just one of them. Throughout her shows (she is an actress and a stand-up comedian), she stresses mainly on the issues she has to face due to her faith, being brown skinned, living in New Jersey (!), and more. She actually states some of the perks of having CP (yes, she finds advantages in her affliction), such as that 'she can eat whatever she wants, because her CP causes her to shake so much that she just loses all the calories'. And, at the end of it all, she still claims that she is not inspiring.

Her talks and comedy shows move the audience not because she is differently abled, but because of her optimism. While she very visibly has a physical disability (and she makes it a point to point it out during some of her talks), when she begins to speak, you only notice her optimism, her humor and the cheer she spreads. She comes across as a talented, hilarious person, not as a person with an affliction, giving a public speech. And that is exactly the kind of awareness she tries to spread. To make everyone realize that every person is much more than their hair color, their eye color and their disability.

Her anti-discrimination comments may not change incorrect stereotypes about her faith. However, she is changing attitudes worldwide about people with disability and their acceptance into society, and it is up to each of us to decide to link arms with her, and change the world to make it a safer, more inclusive, kinder and more accepting place.

Watch her talk at the India Today Conclave here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPGUt1W7bXo

SPINACH & CHEESE’ PIZZAS

Everyone knows Venice to be one of the most romantic cities in existence, with its picturesque canals and its breath-taking gondolas. And it is. I know so from my visit there a few years ago. But I remember it not for its canals. Or for its gondolas. Or for the little bridges you have to duck for while on a gondola. Or for its beautiful churches. I remember it for its fridge magnets and for the pizzas.

About the fridge magnets, perhaps another time. But for now, more about the pizzas. Perhaps this makes sense, since I was in the land of pizzas and pastas and ravioli. But what really made it memorable was that the pizza I ate was pretty strange by most standards.

Now, since I was a child, I have had a very strange taste in food. My mother tells me that when all other parents told their kids to eat spinach so that they would be like Popeye, it was hard to make me stop. I hate the pizzas that are sold in Mumbai. I love vegetables, including Brussels sprouts and broccoli. A large salad with an ice tea makes a good meal for me. I like the taste of mustard. And I love bitter gourd. So yeah, I have a strange taste in food.

But I was thankful for it when I went to Venice. After a leisurely gondola ride and a pretty relaxing trip on the town-bus/water-taxi type contraptions, we walked around, admiring the quaint little place and searching for lunch. We spent into one of the many not-so-different traditional Italian food places around town, hoping for quality vegetarian food. I went through the menu, through a list of the regular pizza fare- pepperoni, chicken, margherita, tomato basil, and more.

Then I stumbled upon something that seemed pretty novel and awesome, at least to me. A spinach and cheese pizza! I was pretty excited, actually, and when it came and I bit into its cheesy, crisp-leafy goodness, my life was changed forever. I have never ever looked at pizzas the same way, ever again!

VEGETARIAN, WITH A BIT OF BACON

One of my best family holidays ever was our trip to Switzerland. Our small family of three visited Switzerland in summer a few years ago. Although I was a young child of ten then, the images of Switzerland have stayed with me since: the rolling green pastures, the mellifluous duet of the cow bells and moos, the pretty little flowers in the meadows and the meandering silvery rivers snaking along, burbling merrily. I remember walking along the lovely quiet streets in the tiny town of Interlaken, having been promised by the locals that it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. I remember the walk down the quaint beautifully lit Lucerne Bridge, which has been burnt down and rebuilt many times.

I remember one of the most breathtaking experiences in my life that also happened at Interlaken. We saw a few brightly colored paragliders in the sky, and were captivated. We walked into a nearby adventure sports company and looked at the details. We booked two instructors and two sets of equipment for later in the afternoon.

When the time came, we were driven up a hill, to a height of about 1800m. There were two instructors with us, and we were asked to choose who each of us wanted with us. We said we had no preferences, and so I happened to be allotted to the younger instructor, who also happened to be the lighter one. My father and his instructor took off first. They had to run to the very edge of the cliff, and then just lift their legs off the ground and allow the wind too take over. I was to take off after him, and my mom had stayed in the town downhill. To my young 10 year old mind, it seemed sheer insanity to purposefully run off a cliff, and I was extremely panic stricken even though I had not seen the height that we were to jump off from.

Finally we (I) gathered enough courage to run off the edge. We (my instructor and I) linked ourselves up to the canvas wing that would suspend us on the sky. As we ran to the edge of the cliff, I remember lifting my feet of the ground just a second too early, while my instructor ran a step or two more just to make sure that the wind had complete hold of us (though of course it had better, especially since we were at the edge of the cliff!!). Then one of the harness ropes that suspended us from the wing snapped into my face, knocking my glasses askew.

Ironically, although I had been nearly scared to death simply by my knowledge of how high we were, at the actual moment of us stepping off the cliff audaciously, my only thought was, “My specs!!!”

I soon recovered my wits and my specs, only to lose them (my wits, that is, not my specs) promptly once again at the breathtaking vista unfolding before my eyes. It was so utterly entrancing that it would be sacrilege to disgrace it by putting it into words, so I won’t. All I can say is that it must be experienced to be believed.

My instructor and I together were so much lighter than my father and his instructor,that we floated a few hundred meters above them. In fact, we were so light that instead of sinking a little in the air, the glider actually floated upwards. We may all try all sorts of adventure sports that can make us dive through the air like a bird, wind rustling our feathers hair, this was the closest ever I ever got to actually soaring like a bird. I remember swooping and swerving, climbing and diving, and then once going off course to chase a few stray balloons. (We failed)

Once on the ground, we were cold, and so went into a café, and ordered veg spinach soup. We were vegetarians and so faced difficulties in a lot of countries we visited. So actually finding vegetarian soup was a boon. Just to be on the safer side, we explained our preferences thoroughly to the waitress. She nodded, and brought us our fragrant, steaming soup, with orange-colored grated something on top. We were delighted that there were carrot strips, but we just wanted to check, as it seemed too good to be true. We called her and asked what it was, and if it was vegetarian. ‘Yes it is, sir,” she said earnestly, “Vegetarian, with a bit of bacon!”

With the "Dumb Ways to Die' video going viral, one day I decided to watch it. I think it is one of the smartest ideas I have come across. It carries a very significant message in an endearing and touching form. In case you haven't watched it, please do so. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyZhw_DOe2M

It is a video that was created by the Melbourne Metro to inspire people to be safe around trains. However, it focusses not just on trains but on multiple aspects of safety. The unique thing about it is that when you look at it for the first time, it seems like the various activities that we are warned against are very absurd and no one sane would do that. But the video goes on in a loop inside your head, and soon you begin to link it to life.

For example, to take one of the most extreme examples, it says it's a stupid way to die to poke a stick at a grizzly bear. A lot of people, especially youth would perhaps do some foolhardy act like that just to 'show how brave they are'. It is also targeted at young children. For example, it says not to use the clothes drier as a hiding place. When kids are playing the fun game of hide-and-seek, they search for the best places to hide, and may not stop to consider the implications of hiding in a place like that. 

Many people, to satiate their adventurous nature, may try some extraordinary antics such as keeping an exotic snake as a pet. The video warns us basically to think of the possible consequences before doing anything.

But the actual message begins only in the second half, with the part where there is a boy standing on a parapet listening to music on his headphones. He seems at bliss, listening to music, when suddenly, he loses his balance and falls off, just as a train arrives. Then there is a part where a man is waiting in his car at the closed boom gates across a railway crossing, and he decides to drive around them, and ends up being hit by the train.

There are many more instances like these, which we see everyday. In India, we read so many such stories in the newspapers everyday. It is quite scary when we read about it, and we may think that it is such a foolish thing to do that we would never do something like that. However, It is when we are faced with a particular situation that we are tempted into trying these dare-devil acts.

This learning from the video can be extended to the case of many other accidents that we see or hear of everyday. We must always be vigilant, and think of possible consequences before we do anything. Someone was telling me the other day that when they were on one of the local trains of Mumbai, they saw a man standing just inside the doorway of the train. He was chewing betel nut, and he wished to spit out (a bad idea in itself). Without pausing to think, he jutted his head out to spit onto the tracks. Before he could withdraw his head, he was hit be a pole which the train passed by and ended up with a fractured skull. He lost his life just because he didn't stop to think before doing something.

So, I think it is in order to repeat the clichéd wise saying: Look before you leap. We may think we know something like the back of our hand. But I staunchly believes that Murphy's Law can't ever be disproved.

A few days after my previous post, I saw a column in the Times of India newspaper, dated 24th December, 2012, which spoke about the recent protests in Delhi.










I was in whole-hearted agreement with the opinions of the writer. I feel that freedom of speech and expression is vital if one wishes to preserve democracy and freedom in a massive nation like India. However, the effectiveness of a person or group in having their voice heard depends not only on what they say, but also on how they say it.

This is something a lot of us may have noticed in out day-to-day life.Consider two people, one who presents his views, arguments and opinion in a civilized, cultured and polite manner, and the other who feels that the strength of his message is proportional to the volume of his voice. We subconciously have more faith and trust in what the former says, and will give him more of our time and respect than to the latter.

To conclude, I feel that it is excellent that the people of India are coming forward to stand up for their rights and for the safety of Indian citizens. I hope, as well, that they are able to make their voice heard in a civil, firm, non-violent and educated way.
 

How do we stand up for our rights?

Yesterday, one of my teachers sent me an email that carried a link to a particular video in upworthy.com. The subject line was so intriguing as to make procrastination practically impossible. It said, 'two monkeys were given unequal pay...see what happens next!'

 

This was quite fascinating in itself, because we usually think of unequal pay in the context of businesses and disgruntled employees and favoritism. But who would've thought that a researcher would actually see the responses of monkeys to unequal pay!! I was itching to know how the monkeys reacted to such favoritism, and so I promptly started watching the video...

The narrator, Frans de waal, a primatologist, ethologist, and professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University, spoke about how the researcher Sarah Brosnan created the setup for the experiment..... Watch the video, it's much better than my narrating it:

http://www.upworthy.com/2-monkeys-were-paid-unequally-see-what-happens-next?c=upw1

The most amazing thing was that the Capuchin monkeys were much more forthright than us humans in voicing their displeasure at the unfair treatment being meted out to them. The monkey that was being discriminated against actually threw its pay (food) back at the researcher. Humans are so much more concerned about what others would say, that very often we give up on our own rights to stand up for what we want/need and what is good for us.

I wondered whether we need to learn to stand up for ourselves.  I realised that if there are just a few people who stand up for their own rights, there is such a huge population that is ready to criticize them for their 'uncivil' behaviour. The population of naysayers in human community outnumbers the little group of independent thinkers and doers by far. I think it is important for the ideology of standing up for one's rights to be inculcated in the society at large.

Also, it is important to remember that there are many ways of voicing displeasure or opinions. Violence and drastic acts like self-immolation, in my opinion, do not have serve any purpose. 

I feel that society as a whole needs to strike the fine balance of expressiveness and restraint, without tipping the scale towards violence and chaos.

 

Hola!

Sparkles and cinnamon.....coz these are a few of my favorite things....