Too cold - Too hot !

My friend walked into my house the other day. This time, not alone but with his brother in law. I was happy to see a new person, we have one more to join our discussions and get a fresh, different perspective. So all three men sat together over a cup of tea. As usual I and my friend started talking. Roti kapda our makan, sholay, mein khilladi tu anadi, Dhoom 1,2,3 and prospect of 4. Our third man remained deep in the boundary, no intention to come towards gully. Then we switched to Broom, Hand, Lotus ( this order is by no means indicate our preference/bias. I just listed them in alphabetical order.) Third man is still on the fence waiting for a miscued shot. Jobs, salary, promotions, career, when these came up he opened up a bit. Cursed his company and boss for not giving enough growth opportunities, or a decent pay hike and then he went back to the shell.  He looked like he didn't want to open his mouth unless otherwise he is provoked to an extreme extend. My dreams of getting fresh perspectives remained as dreams.

This is one extreme.

A few years back while getting ready to drive to office, my colleague called me up asking for a pick up. I painfully realised that not only I need to drive those 2 extra Kms, but I need to listen to his non-stop talk for another hour which would only add  to boredom of my driving. We had aptly nicknamed him Chatter ( short form of his surname which you can easily guess ). Soon the Chatter got into my car, started as why he had to depend on me that day. He has a vision problem. He is seeing two two objects in place of one. Obviously he can't drive then. And he is explaining this to 2 Sundareshs, so he tends to say same thing twice. He went on explaining the science behind vision and eyes. How true it is when people say that if a person is handicapped in one area, he will have sharper skills in some other area. No doubt, Chatter's diminishing vision is amplifying  his chattering skills. 

This is another extreme.

Don't we see extremes in almost all fields?

The other day my friend Prasanth commented on FB on my post that in the US people have released video of boiling water, when thrown out of window, turns into ice in no time. What a simple, an innovative way of checking how cold it's outside? At the same time, news from Australia is that it is very hot now in some interior parts and the temperature would cross 50 degrees. They may have to think of deploying large water coolers to take a "hot water bath", if this condition extends to cities. Other extreme.

Economy is no different. US is worried about low inflation, with no change for last 2 years. It's not an encouraging sign for them, with the fiscal measures taken it should have resulted in more growth and more jobs and inflation should have gone up. Are they alone ? In India our worries are for the same inflation for a different reason. Inflation is going up and up with no let off. While the debate is on whether rise in  inflation  is genuine or artificially created and how it can be controlled, the common man  is punching holes every other fortnight a centimeter up closer to the buckle to tighten his belt. At this rate, after a few more months, the belt can be used as a noose around his neck and he can invite himself  the "inevitable" in an unnatural way, without waiting for another few more months to happen it naturally.

When I joined a company, during first day of induction program in an address by a senior executive, he made the first statement "Those who are in this room can go only in one direction in this company, that's upwards." (That is the first and last time I heard this statement in that company during my reasonably long tenure, that's a different story). I thought I will make a similar statement now - not inspiring but cautioning - not to be heard only once - "Number of instances of these extreme cases in almost all fields can go only in one direction - upwards".

People are there who think, these things are going to adversely affect only a few generations down the line and they will not be there in this world to witness it. I would like to give death penalty to all these in my country -no, not death penalty, that might wipe off half or more of the population in 2 months - life time imprisonment till they die in prison ! We have many prisons for this, if we run short we have numerous government schools, anyways running empty, that can easily be converted to prisons.

Each one of us has a duty to contribute towards making those upward trends as slow as possible, whichever small  way. Scope is plenty, but willingness needs to be. We should attempt that at any cost. This time let me stop with this demand, instead of a usual request. 

Bye for now.

( one of my friends asked me whether he can share this with his friends. My answer is yes. Do not limit to your friends alone, you may share this with your foes too if you want to punish them in a small way !)