The Human Stories – Part 1

There are over 8 billion humans living on this planet Earth, each having an unique story to share. Their childhood, school, friends, the good things in life, the not-so-good things in life, the struggles, the successes, and their unique experiences and views. I truly enjoy conversing with people from different backgrounds, understanding their point of views & thoughts, which is quite unique to their social fiber. I really enjoyed our stay in China for 6 years, but one thing I couldn’t manage somehow was learning the Mandarin language (no matter how hard I initially tried). This seriously limited my ability to talk to strangers, to the locals, a big regret I will forever have in my life. Last year we relocated back to India, and I am enjoying the life so far. One big reason definitely has been the ability to talk to different people in our native language.

Conversations in local language take great shape and context. Our daughter Aishani was quick to identify and point this to me. It was just a week that we had relocated back to Bangalore, we visited a nearby shopping mall. I parked our car and lost the way to the mall, I met some mall staff in the car park and asked in Kannada (local language of our state) about the way towards the mall entrance. He directed us and Aishani immediately pointed out “Pappa! I am sure you must be happy. You can freely talk here!“. She had seen me struggling with broken Mandarin during our stay in China.

One of my aunts used to say that when we don’t feel happy, feel that life has been unfair to us, we must look at all those people below you in the economic sense, and we will soon realize how better placed we are. There is also this great saying that there are many people out there who would trade your spot with theirs, in an instance. And when we start talking to and opening up to the lower spectrum of economic pyramid, we will realize how lucky we are, how much grateful we ought to be, for the good life. By learning their stories and struggles, we cannot help but be filled with complete humility and gratitude towards our own lives. When I am next to them, I realize the only difference between me and them is purely luck; Lucky to be born to a certain family, lucky to be educated in good school and college, and achieve whatever success we have so far achieved. Thank our stars for this! Sure, no denying there was some hard work, but luck was a major major factor.

Once we come to terms with this, its natural to develop a soft corner and a sense of respect towards such “unlucky” souls; one who have had a rather tough life, continuously enduring the daily struggles, and an unique story. I thought it would be apt for me to compile a series of blogs to share my conversations with them and share their stories. As the very nice proverb goes “Never judge someone, You don’t know what they are going through“. Lets try to understand their side of the story. Lets be less judgmental and thoroughly grounded.

When we relocated from Shanghai, we moved back to our apartment in North Bangalore and had lot of cleaning to do. We booked Urban Company, 4 folks came and went on doing a great job. They were originally from Orissa, a province in East of India, and living in the other end of Bangalore, it was interesting to talk to them and see how much hard work they put in, get money transferred back to family, etc. One of the guys mentioned “Agar Khaam karenge hi tho khaa paayenge” – Only if we work hard we can manage to eat well. We had locked one room completely, we basically disposed most of of this stuff outside our apartment. The maintenance staff of the apartment complex came in and checked around. One of the lady asked if we really didn’t need the stuff we had put out. When I told her yes, and they can take if they need anything, she was pleasantly happy. She immediately called her other colleagues and figured out who took what.

While they were picking up stuff, the lady told something that I will never forget for long long time. “Isstondhu kottidira, nimage punya barutthe“- kannada statement, difficult to translate to English, it means “You have given so much stuff, you will be blessed”. Here, we were throwing away stuff that we didn’t need and she praised us for our “generosity”, quite incredible. Its an under statement to say that I was deeply touched. I casually requested her if she could dispose the remaining stuff, she and her colleagues cleaned up the mess, more than willingly. Some one had shared picture about “Purchasing power” in India, where it was mentioned that we need 23 Lakhs to lead a 100K USD lifestyle in India (Compared to 100K USD in the US). What I felt this day was the “People Impact power” – A power to have deep impact on other people’s lives with the same amount of money, was also very high in India. Sharing is indeed caring!

Back in office, I caught up with our house keeping staff, who had their own stories to tell. They worked from 7am to 7pm, a 12 hour shift, day-in day-out, including 6-hour work on Saturday. They don’t have much leaves, and sometimes even sick leave gets a pay cut. Its not a job that you can work from home, presence is mandatory. Its monotonous, laboring and “boring” work – but they are at it, most of the time with a “happy” face. The lady had issues with their daughter having frequent health problems, son being fostered by her sister, her husband, a taxi driver, who also has health issues. Her daughter got recently married, and she was generally happy with the alliance. The other staff, mentioned his brother had met with an accident and only could take one day leave to go back to his hometown to attend to his brother & family. It was clear that the White collar folks, especially the ones in IT are one pampered lot, with a bloated sense of entitlement. And yet we complain the work is monotonous and boring.

The maintenance and the house keeping staff do a great job, for us to lead a very comfortable life. Cleanliness and Hygiene are very essential part of our lives, and the impact is significant. People travel from their far away villages looking for work in the Urban jungles, work hard and generally do a great job. We must appreciate their contribution to our urban society and give them their due respect. Lets connect humanely.