Bangalore is known as the garden city. As the influx of population increased, the city was turning into a garbage city. Primarily due to lack of scientific and organized garbage disposal mechanism, the city was facing a crisis. Garbage is collected usually by the mornings, however most of the population in the city does not work on the basis of a specific time limit. This caused garbage to be dumped at irregular intervals and get accumulated. The presence of food and decaying elements make the situation beyond description. So far, stray dogs have been the zero cost solution to combat the rising volume of garbage and the menace of rat infestation on the city streets. If planned and organized systematically, the role of stray dogs could have been crucial in combating garbage, rat infestation and crime rates in an eco-friendly manner. 

I came across a pack of stray dogs while I worked in the offshore unit of a Hollywood post production company in Bangalore. My work schedule was hectic and often I had to wait for the cab to pick me up and drop me home at odd hours of the day. I remember a face that accompanied me during those one and a half years of my struggle. Often escorting me to the door step and chasing away strangers at 2 AM, while I wait for transportation or open and close gates after taking my vehicle out. The stray dogs are a menace that could be converted into a benefit. Most of them respond to drunkards and strangers and bark them away. These dogs are extremely territorial and they maintain their segments of territory. This could mean that each territory has its watch dogs. This comes extremely helpful in a city where crime rates are high and it gets less safe to park vehicles outdoors. They also get rid of rats that infest the city streets along with piles of garbage. It was a fascinating system within the city. However it is important to keep the population under control, since it could lead to dog fights and emergence of violent packs. Local administration and independent bodies have come up with neutering and vaccination as a solution for this crisis. Yes neutering and vaccination is a bitter pill to chew to keep the population under control, however it works in benefit of a larger population. Vaccinated and neutered dogs are left with a significant portion of their ears cut off to mark that they have completed the vaccination phase. It is done so as to make identification easier while capturing strays from the streets for rehabilitation. The process had been in place in the city for over two decades and animal rights activists had not efficiently responded against this or came up with a viable solution other than adoption drives. Bangalore is an amazing city driven by technology. However it is horrible to find disfigured dogs roaming the city whose ears are infected as a result of 'marking'. It would not be too hard for the authorities to come up with a viable solution that will solve this issue in a more humane manner.

Yes, growing population of stray dogs is a menace for any metropolis. However it is the need of the hour to thank these friends for their services. Scared and disfigured dogs roam the city and such a sight is not what Bangalore want to project to the International community. To many of Bangalore's working population who reach home late, the particular stray dogs present in the streets they live in are common faces. At the cost a biscuit or two what is offered is friendship and security to an extent. These dogs accompany civilians during their long walk from cab or while waiting for transportation at darkest hours. Cleaning the streets from rat infestation and garbage as they serve the city more than any average citizen. Bangalore is famous of its common sense approach to solve its various problems. The city stands tall among other older metros in India for its vibrant culture and attitude. The disfigured faces of these friends raise not just the question of morality but how human beings can thank their fellow beings. It is time for Bangalore to go out of the box and stand tall yet again as a glaring example.

Many a times I had wondered about the tradition of lighting lamps in Kerala tradition before auspicious occasions or in the evening. Last day I came across an article about this tradition. According to the tradition, light signifies knowledge. All our activities should be governed by the light of knowledge and dharma. By this knowledge, ignorance or darkness is dispelled and righteousness is let to prevail. Light symbolizes the beginning of awakening. The oil or ghee in the lamp symbolizes our negative tendencies and the wick, the ego. When lit by spiritual knowledge, the negative tendencies are exhausted and replaced by positive energy. Light symbolizes the absence of darkness, grief & unhappiness. Light is considered as the source of each form of life on Earth. In darkness light is considered to be the representation of the presence of the Sun, guiding us throughout the dark. Positive energy is spread all over the house through this representation.

In life there are moments beyond the realms of language. In Portuguese they called it 'saudade': a longing for something so indefinite as to be indefinable. Love affairs, miseries of life, the way things were, people already dead, those who left and the ocean that tossed them on the shores of a different land - all things born of the soul that can only be felt. A churning in your soul that thoughts cannot put to rest. Sometimes it is better to be indefinite and unfocused. There must be empty spaces in ourselves to liberate us. Vacuums in human life that remains unexplained and undefined to complete our overflowing lifestyles. That incompleteness that defy the logical choices to attain perfection. Let life be a journey to the emptiness within. For are we are not striving to be shining examples of perfection, but only to answer our conscience.

Landing Gear

I was afraid all my life. Afraid of every change and every moment of truth. May be we all know what I am talking about. We have all lived in fear so much that one day we wake up to realize that there is nothing more within us than our devotion to fear and reluctance to change. Indeed the easiest path to self destruction was also the most secure and longest journey towards death, encapsulated in the walls of false security and ego. This was how it started. I wanted to break free, I wanted to change. I wanted to reach out and break the walls that suffocated me. 

That day I was learning a new feat. How to do a perfect backflip. I was 27 years old. That meant according to conventional wisdom, it was not the age to do something physical like a back flip. But according to me it was a dream. It was a signifier of liberation from limitations my mind had constructed around my existence. When you do a backflip, you have to vision it in your mind simultaneously with the physical action. If your mind disconnects, it fails. The peculiar aspect was that the 75% of the backflip involves your mind. The process was really simple. You need to jump to a moderate height. Force your mind to make sure that your body is safe to roll on then flip and then feel free to land on both feet.

We are all made to believe that freedom is a product to be consumed. A product to be consumed immediately or face the risk that it may perish. I need to free myself from the weight of the world. Though I walk over the world, I felt its weight all over me. The ultimate freedom of weightlessness. Our fear of losing overshadows our abilities. I feared nothing to lose while I jumped. I feared not to go back and revisit my fears, I was immune. I saw the world flipping one moment at a time till I was upside down. It was amazing and soothing. Just the same way once I was once in my mother's womb, I was in the warmth of the world and weightless. My feet kissed the skies. Back to reality, but I felt my own presence for the first time. I landed on the sand. My first backflip. My statement of survival and rebirth. I may die one day, but till that day I am immune to fear, I will survive changes yet to come and flip kick the world.