Ever happened to you that something you’ve been planning falls into place by itself? Iam sure it has. Happens to all of us sometime or the other. One such event occurred the other day which got me thinking.. And cracking!
Just that morning, I was re-reading The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman. In that he illustrated a story about a young man who wanted to be a reporter but didn’t like the way Associate Press functioned. So he created his own blog which he used to publish interviews with people which he took himself.
At the onset, let me clarify that I harbour no ambitions to be a reporter. But I thought I could implement a similar idea here in my city. Not to take interviews of famous people. But of people whose opinions count. The common man.
Now the idea was churning in my head for the entire day in office. Being tied up in work, i got quite late leaving from office. My regular transport had left and hence I had to use the one mode of public transport that all of us love or hate and love to hate….The (in?) famous autorickshaw. My driver for the journey, Sanjeev, was a little man (physically) with salt and pepper in his hair indicating his experience of life. Now for the first 15 minutes of the journey he was quite silent. We passed several very well put up Ganpati mandals on our way. One such mandal had young children acting out the life story of Ganpati. On seeing this, he suddenly spoke up: "These mandals with live performances really make me feel great" He then went on to explain to me at great length about how the mandal near his house showcases live performances..
All these things got me thinking. What Lokmanya Tilak started decades ago still holds a lot of relevance in today's world. In todays age of flat screen TVs, Playstations and Xbox 360s, Cell phones, DVDs, MP3s etc etc, this very primitive form of entertainment still lives on through these pandals and continues to entertain millions and bring humans of different walks of life together.
Suddenly some crazy biker cut us off at a signal. That was enough to get him started on how difficult it is to ride on the streets of Pune and how disciplined the Mumbai traffic is. Then he started to explain to me how he wasn’t always a rickshaw driver. I was surprised to know that he was part of the groundstaff at Nehru Stadium in Pune. He had also worked with the Deccan Gymkhana cricket club.
Now cricket brings out a kind of jingoism in us Indians that precious other things can. I call it jingoism and not patriotism because it has the potential to be highly polarised. My driver was this typical Indian cricket fan whose world begins and ends with Sachin Tendulkar. As expected, the topic veered to Sachin and how Sanjeev had watched him play at Nehru stadium against Australia and waited for him to get to the 10000 run mark.
Soon we reached my home. He stopped the rickshaw and as I paid him he asked me if he could talk some more if I wasn’t in a hurry. I was enjoying myself so decided to humour him. He went on telling me how he had a picture with Sachin framed at home which he treasured more than his life. He went on about how he enjoyed creating pure batting pitches and how batting was the most enjoyable part of cricket.
As I left his rickshaw (9:40 pm at night), I couldn’t help but wonder… The common man CAN put forth some of the most uncommon views and put a different view on seemingly obvious things.
I should do this more often!
Just that morning, I was re-reading The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman. In that he illustrated a story about a young man who wanted to be a reporter but didn’t like the way Associate Press functioned. So he created his own blog which he used to publish interviews with people which he took himself.
At the onset, let me clarify that I harbour no ambitions to be a reporter. But I thought I could implement a similar idea here in my city. Not to take interviews of famous people. But of people whose opinions count. The common man.
Now the idea was churning in my head for the entire day in office. Being tied up in work, i got quite late leaving from office. My regular transport had left and hence I had to use the one mode of public transport that all of us love or hate and love to hate….The (in?) famous autorickshaw. My driver for the journey, Sanjeev, was a little man (physically) with salt and pepper in his hair indicating his experience of life. Now for the first 15 minutes of the journey he was quite silent. We passed several very well put up Ganpati mandals on our way. One such mandal had young children acting out the life story of Ganpati. On seeing this, he suddenly spoke up: "These mandals with live performances really make me feel great" He then went on to explain to me at great length about how the mandal near his house showcases live performances..
All these things got me thinking. What Lokmanya Tilak started decades ago still holds a lot of relevance in today's world. In todays age of flat screen TVs, Playstations and Xbox 360s, Cell phones, DVDs, MP3s etc etc, this very primitive form of entertainment still lives on through these pandals and continues to entertain millions and bring humans of different walks of life together.
Suddenly some crazy biker cut us off at a signal. That was enough to get him started on how difficult it is to ride on the streets of Pune and how disciplined the Mumbai traffic is. Then he started to explain to me how he wasn’t always a rickshaw driver. I was surprised to know that he was part of the groundstaff at Nehru Stadium in Pune. He had also worked with the Deccan Gymkhana cricket club.
Now cricket brings out a kind of jingoism in us Indians that precious other things can. I call it jingoism and not patriotism because it has the potential to be highly polarised. My driver was this typical Indian cricket fan whose world begins and ends with Sachin Tendulkar. As expected, the topic veered to Sachin and how Sanjeev had watched him play at Nehru stadium against Australia and waited for him to get to the 10000 run mark.
Soon we reached my home. He stopped the rickshaw and as I paid him he asked me if he could talk some more if I wasn’t in a hurry. I was enjoying myself so decided to humour him. He went on telling me how he had a picture with Sachin framed at home which he treasured more than his life. He went on about how he enjoyed creating pure batting pitches and how batting was the most enjoyable part of cricket.
As I left his rickshaw (9:40 pm at night), I couldn’t help but wonder… The common man CAN put forth some of the most uncommon views and put a different view on seemingly obvious things.
I should do this more often!
