[NOTE: Not everything has to make perfect sense. Neither does my note. So everyone who's here to read something which they think will enlighten them, go read "The secret" or stick a light bulb in your head.]
I'm just saying, sometimes people (I) like to rant. At some point of time, people (I) just lose it and just find an excuse to criticize everything and anything they lay their eyes on. And its happening to me. I don't know if its really the situation or just me. That’s why I’m sharing stuff here...
[And when you rant...punctuation, grammar and spelling don't matter. There, said it...]
As a student I’ve observed three (major) types of people in my field. ( There is a fourth type…the right type, the dedicated ones. Unfortunately there are very few. But it’s these 3 types I’m concerned about….) Now Ive just noticed this in my field, they can be anywhere. I just dunno how to categorize them. Just read, you’ll know what I mean…
I am an ecologist. I am an environmentalist. I am a naturalist. To be an environmentalist, you don’t need a specific research or some random fieldwork. In my opinion, anyone who thinks of the environment, has the guts to look at a person in the eye, who’s throwing rubbish on the road; and tell them off…is an environmentalist. Tell this to any little known or well known expert in the field and you get the, “Accha…?? Oh really, you think so? I did 4 PhDs in this subject cuz I was jobless, didn’t I?” kind of sarcastic look. And then follow a volley of baseless, twisted and “oh I was just checking your knowledge Mr. Environmentalist” type questions. Why do you need to do that? The reason why I’m scared is, sometime ago, I was becoming one. I used to laugh at eager questions and go like “Oh God, You pathetic loser, you know nothing!”. Its sad, but I’m relived I caught myself well in time. Until it directly happened to me, I never realized it. Darwin was right. It’s a competitive world and the fittest survive.
Its depressing and lame.
And again on the other side there are people who get some random info from somewhere and without knowing actual facts shout it out through the rooftops. Like the “earth is gonna end on 21 Dec 2012 theory”. Fine. Even if it does…kyaa kar loge?? These braniac TV-walas (read- India TV) ran this story for two months. My maid used to start crying every time they showed that stupid “special”. She almost went into a semi trauma kind of state and I ended up doing most of her work (As she would start crying when the special was on, i would put on “saas bahu aur sazish” so that she would cheer up. So while she cheered up…I got busy :/ Now as I think of this, I feel stupid and used…. :I)
And then there are over-enthusiastic and do stuff without thinking. All they think about is “This will look so cool on my resume”or “ wait till I tell my tweeple about this…”, people who do stuff for publicity or money or a reference. Read on…
A few weeks ago, I was at this mall. A few people had put up a stall with something to do with Global warming. I guess this was sometime in December, because it was about the same time when the Copenhagen summit was going on. Interested I went over and as I ate my triple chocolate Gelato (yum!), I read the sign…
“SAVE THE PLANET….DONATE FOR GLOBAL WARMING”
My first reaction was, “That’s so stupid”. And then I saw three jars full of money. Bundles of ten, twenty, hundred, five hundred and even thousand rupee notes. I was pissed. And the first picture that came in my mind is the one ive uploaded here (yup drew it on paint, sorry fr the messy work)… I mean seriously what would the money do? I’m sure the amount of money collected by a single NGO in an entire year wouldn’t be enough to fuel even 2 months of research work in this area. Why do people have to be ripped of their hard earned money!?
Im not the "activist" type of person, so no I didn’t go parading around telling people not to donate money. I just shut up and ate my Ice cream in peace. I continued to watch the Armageddon type video they were playing in a loop. I didn’t want to come across as an “Anti-Earth” person or something. My funda is until you don’t mess with me, I wont bother with you. Unfortunately, this one Kajal-eyed, skinny jeans wearing high-heeled teenager did not know that. Maybe I did come across as “a person likely to give in” types because-
a) I was wearing glasses. I dunno why; but I come across as someone really dumb when I’m wearing my glasses.
b) I was lost. No, no. Not lost in my own thoughts lost. I was lost. In the mall. My dad left me for a minute and I was looking all around for him. I passed her station twice.
c) I was wearing my Ranthambore Tshirt. It read save the tiger in big bold letters at the back and hag a tiger embroidered in the front.
(FYI- I started supporting the “save the tiger” program 4 years ago. The 1411 mania is recent, a month old. And wearing tshirts and joing groups won’t help much. And the tigers need more than “much”. I wear that tshirt cuz its made of super-comfy rajasthani cotton :P)
Yup I guess ‘c’ was the major reason why she zeroed on me…
Girl: Madam, we are “so and so” NGO. We are campaigning to save the Earth.
Me: (Cuz my mouth’s full with ice cream and its rude to talk with your mouth full I didn’t speak…actually, who wanted to talk anyway?): *shakes head vigourously, thus indicating “not interested”*
Girl: Ma’am, we are supporting global warming….
Me: *arches eyebrows meaning “what??”*
Girl: umm…uhh…I mean we are against supporters of Global warming.
Me: *eyes in slits meaning, “really ??”*
Girl: Please donate for the cause...
Me (finally swallowing my ice cream): Why??
Girl: *surprised look, gets a chance to arch her eyebrows, meaning “isn’t it obvious, don’t you know
anything? Oh you stupid fool”*
Me: What will you do with the money?
Girl: (pat came the reply) Donate it.
Me: To whom?
Girl:(not so 'pat' now) To bigger organizations…
Me: And…?
Girl: They will also donate…
Me: *initiating a Cheshire cat like smile* go on…
Girl:(looking around for help) Give to people who need it.
Me: (Smile complete) I thought this was about global warming….
Girl: I go and call sir…
Me: I don’t want to talk to “sir”. Just don’t go fooling people around. And don’t do things you don’t know about. And don’t scare people into doing such things. ( If I went on I would add “And brush your teeth at night, drink milk and listen to your mum”….so I shut up.)
Girl: Even ten rupees you can’t give?
……
Some people won’t listen. Some people just won’t learn. And people, who want to learn, are not encouraged. I don’t know what I want to say or conclude.
Im not saying,” All experts are asses” or “ Don’t donate to any cause from now on”- (had she given me a good explanation, who knows, I may have given her a tenner) or “Don’t join any fb grp on saving the tiger, cuz it wont help”.
I mean you’re smart. Think. Ask questions. Be the answer. Open your senses and conclude for yourself. I know it’s easy for me to say…
It’s what I’m just saying.
But seriously… Donating for global warming… ?? wtf?
4 comments:
Why do we give money or feed the beggar on the road? Why do we put those twenty bucks in those transparent 'DONATE FOR CANCER RESEARCH' boxes we see every where these days? Who knows whether they are fake or not?
its just that in we don't give thought to those things which require the most thought. We just try to 'do our bit for the world' without even knowing what we are doing for it....
As for the donate for global warming shit...no one could have expressed it better than this...
i agree as well as diasgree with u(devyani) on some points :
Agree-
that kajal eyed girl wearing skinny jeans( my mind wanders a bit here.. :P) had no business being part of something that she had no clue about and acted pretty dumb(nw thats a nice quality..my mind wanders even further :P) People should not get involved for causes just for the sake of it(my mind is back to earth/reality..:P). More than the money, little actions(changes in our habits/routines) can make a huge difference.
Disagree-
Now by your description these ppl had collected abt 10k or so. Now thats enuf to pay a months fellowhip for a research scholar. A couple of lakhs collected by a few such ngo's and u can set up up a scholarship for research in glodal warming. I assume that you will check this organisations credentials before donating. My point here being that donating (even a tenner which u could have spared even for a bogus organisation.. just dnt have that gellato that u were eating..:P) for a cause like global warming need not necessarily be "wtf'
Shaan Bhaiya: Was just venting, I was really fed up!
Pratik:
Well, I did check up the organizations' credentials, it was not very popular. The NGO Business is taken very seriously in Mumbai and most of the NGOs ive interacted with, are VERY professional and straightforward and know what they are doing. So this one came across as "unprepared" and very subprofessional. And like I said, this happened around the Copenhagen summit time. What you say about the research scholar thing is very true and correct but If they ACTUALLY wanted to do something of that sort, I would've seen their stall the next week too (which i didn't-I went there to buy my phone, thts why i remember.) They were clearly sensationalizing the issue and scaring people into donating money, which is unacceptable. Had you been there you'd known. So yeah, donating money is "wtf". I'd rather stop global warming by not wasting electricity, using public transport and reducing my carbon footprint. I'd rather have a gellato, than donate to such stupidity . Heck, I'd have five.
And...I'm not gonna comment on your wandering mind, LoL.
well except the wandering mind bit i was not sure of anything else or what i was writing... my mind does wander a lot :P.. hell even now its wandering :P so i don't exactly know if i have read your comment properly...
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