An Incident that changed me.. Part 2

To read Part 1, click here


I understood and felt that I was truly blessed in every way, when compared to the people I met during the next couple of days. Later, I even chided myself for being critical of the accommodation provided to us.

When I now reflect on how and why my attitude towards life changed so much, I realized that there was one particular incident affected me deeply. It was when I met a poor widow of a farmer...

During the week long trip,my classmates and I met several deprived people, with  problems ranging from  lack of access to education, improper health and sanitation to caste issues and domestic violence. Women trafficking and farmer suicides were the major problems in the area. All the villages that we visited comprised a majority of illiterate people, mainly artisans and farmers. While artisans were plagued with the issue of their dying art forms and did not know any other form of work, farmer suicides abounded due to the huge agricultural losses incurred in the barren lands that had scarce rainfall.

Amongst the scores of people whom I met, the story of a middle-aged widow called Lakshminarasamma, touched my heart. This quote sums it up:

"...the misery is there inside her, like a stone, and there’s no room for any other thoughts.." 
–Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
  
She was neck-deep in debt and struggled to make both ends meet. Her husband, a farmer, had committed suicide when faced with loss of crop yield, unable to pay his debts. These people led a life that was consumed by debt. They were born in debt, lived in debt and died in debt!

An Incident that changed me.. Part 1

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Each one of us, at some point of time, experience certain situations that change our attitude towards life. For me, there was one such incident that totally changed me from the inside out...

While pursuing a post graduate diploma in journalism, I was required to undertake a week-long trip to 'cover deprivation'. All of us students were divided into several groups and sent to various parts of India that were socially and economically backward or faced some troubling issues. Upon our return, we were all expected to file news reports or feature stories based on what we witnessed during our field trip.

I was part of the group that was sent to Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. The trip was a life-changing experience for me. My sheltered upbringing did not prepare me for the harsh realities of life that I faced during those seven days.

The Worm in the Chicken: The KFC issue

A KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) outlet near Pulimood junction in Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala was temporarily shut down on Monday (8th October 2012) after a family reportedly found worms in their fried chicken pieces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTDIo6k_i7I 

Shiju Abdul Basheer had gone to the restaurant to dine with his family. When his wife cut a piece of fiery chicken to feed their daughter, she found live worms wriggling in it. The restaurant staff apologized and offered to replace the dish. But when Basheer refused, they tried to take it away forcibly. The other customers came to his aid and alerted the police as well as the Food Safety Authority. 

 

On inspection, the Food Safety Authority found that the outlet did not maintain adequate sanitation guidelines and some seized chicken pieces were allegedly as much as five months old.