Leisure at Work

On job I have been extremely busy since 7 to 8 months. Whilst working on the project, I’ve have hardly found some leisure time. The good news is that the project is now officially completed. It seems I’m going to have some good time socializing and doing a bit of self learning.

At this instant, I discovered some time to share a thought or tea with my friends, colleagues, and family. I have been waiting for the moment to spend some good time with them. Now that I have acquired an opportunity, I don’t want to miss it. So here I am, just sipping a cup of gloriously brewed tea with my friends.

Ventriloquism

Whenever I performed in front of the young audiences, I longed to see their responses. Being a puppeteer, however; I always had to stay backstage and handle puppets. It was not possible to face the audiences, and see them responding to my show. I could here them though; and when I heard their excitement and enthrallment, a small part of my longing was satisfied.

However, I could always hear the audience’s excitement and enthrallment, which nevertheless encouraged me during the performance.

Puppets are all that the audiences can see and hear! But for me, they are the one who bridge the gap between me and the audiences.

Earlier when I had started off with my hobby it took me a few years to realize that I had to be a puppeteer since I work with puppets more often; despite the fact that I always wanted to be a ventriloquist. The best part of being a ventriloquist is that they can see as well as hear the audiences’ spur-of-the-moment responses at the same time.

Well! When I compared a ventriloquist and a puppeteer I found many similarities between them.

Ventriloquists are like puppeteers. Both use sense of humour, and sentiment in their shows. It is all about storytelling, magic, and illusion which mesmerize the audiences. Then why can’t a puppeteer take a role of a ventriloquist.

Once I realized I wanted to get out of the box and stop calling myself just a puppeteer, I began practising ventriloquism too.

I understood how puppetry moves an audience, and tried to apply the same methods, and trick to ventriloquism. Being a performer, I learned to have the audiences in my pocket. I need to “wow” them again and again.

After all the audiences should have seen and heard something unique and feeling worth for a show.

Anti-Smoking Drive

A report was once presented in Sydney, which stated that the Australian smokers will soon have to look at the picture of a cancer-ridden lung, or a gangrenous foot without toes, each time they light a cigarette.

Following this practice, pioneered by Australian government, the Indian government said that, it wants the cigarette companies to put graphic pictures, and warnings that cover almost forty percent of front side of each pack, and ninety percent of the backside. It will also have a colored photograph, which shows a cross-section of a diseased lung, or a photograph of a dissected bloodied brain with some kind of a captions like “Smoking is injurious to health” (out-of-date) or “Smoking doubles risk of stroke” (up-to-date), can be used on the cigarette packets.

Well, this point should be considered seriously by the Indian government.

Too long attempts have been made to impose a ban on smoking in offices, and prevent the sale of tobacco to those below 18 years of age, and prevent attraction of smoking.
But, nothing has come out of such actions. Even a ban on smoking in public places has fallen flat on its face, which leaves the police department look ridiculous, and also triggers many question in the minds of people, that why do the authorities insist on introducing laws that cannot be implemented for sure?

Aren’t the constables and officers under enough pressure, maintaining the law and order, or, are they just busy catering to the whims and fancies of the politicians or are they really trapped in cycle of duties, or is this just a sheer ignorance?

This time again the Indian government has made another attempt to eradicate the addiction of tobacco in the masses. The Indian government has declared that smoking should be banned in all public places from October 02, 2008. These places include hotels, restaurants, offices, cinema halls, pubs or discotheques, hospitals, airports, railway stations, bus stops, and shops.

However, smoking will be allowed only in your own homes, streets, and allocated smoking zones. If anyone is caught smoking, they will have to pay a fine of Rs 200. This law is imposed in accordance with the National Tobacco Control Act.

The government is planning to amend this act in the future, after which there will be a substantial increase in the fine from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000.
It is an optimistic anticipation that the amount of smoking will reduce and the anti-smoking law will be a success.

India needs to lead in a more stringent anti-smoking drive, and there has to be some more logical course of action which will help reduce smoking and achieve the target.
For example, the film censor board can clip every scene that shows an actor smoking. Since this is the biggest and worst influence possible.
The directorate of visual publicity can release an advertisement in all media that focuses on how smoking can be a dangerous addiction.
Even the cigarette manufacturers can be heavily taxed in order to make the cigarettes out of reach for many. There are many ways to do, but who will do it after all?

A simple idea could be to realize the dangers of smoking and stop smoking on your own, because “prevention is better than cure.

Apathy Under Fire

“Fire, fire,

Fire burns my desire.

How can I fly higher?

When, I’m covered with fire.”

This is a snippet from the poem ‘Flaming Heart’ by Nastasshea Rozario.

This was the condition of each and every child who was killed by fire in the Kumbakonam.

I had read an editorial which was about the terrible inferno that took place at a school in Kumbakonam village, which killed approximately 90 children.

This was a terrible inferno that had taught everyone a painful lesson in fire safety. The scenes of tragedy have still remained etched on our minds and will continue to haunt every time we see a school or a public building.

It was a mater of deep concern and shame that the children of Kumbakonam had to pay for the short-sightedness of adults with their lives. People all over the world were disheartened about this tragedy. They were worried if the school authorities have fire safety equipments installed in the premises, and an alert and well-trained staff to tackle an emergency.

Such tragedies are waiting to happen else where too, and it is high time that we as citizens, should shed out apathetic attitude towards fire safety.

It is good to have a communal awareness drives on fire safety, but at the same time it is very important to implement them too. Apart from the safety measures at macro level, it is necessary that the children and parents are made aware of the potential fire hazards, not only in schools and workplaces, but even in homes.

Life is precious and it is necessary that we do all we can to prevent another Kumbakonam from happening. Now it is the time we citizens shed our indifference to safety systems.