Archive for the 'humanity' Category

Help is Human

Published by Karthick Raghavan on August 25, 2012 in General stuff, humanity and people. 3 Comments

I am trying to break my long blog silence with this post. This is a true story, happened a few hours ago.

With wife out-of-town, I was starting the weekend catching up with the “Breaking Bad” series on Netflix. From no where, around 9.30 PM, got a craving for burger from in-n-out. I was in my PJs and did not care to change. I put a decent t-shirt on and drove to the nearest in-n-out joint in Burbank, CA. Since I was in my PJs, I thought of taking the food over to my place and continue watching the TV series. When I was about to pull into the drive-thru, I saw an Indian guy, let me call him “X” for the rest of this post, probably in his mid or upper 20s going around people’s cars asking for something. I was waiting for a family to cross the parking lot and saw X coming towards my car. When I rolled down my window, he told me his car’s battery was down and asked if I had jump-start cables. Unfortunately, I did not have them. I politely answered no and asked if he had AAA (Auto-club membership). He replied negative and I felt sorry and drove toward the drive-thru lot. Something occurred to me and i wanted to help this guy. I called one of my best friends, Subra (who is also my ex-room-mate), and asked if it is possible for me to help X with my auto club membership. Subra is a super helping guy. He gave me the specifics and I decided to help X.

I pulled out of the drive-thru lot, parked my car and offered to help X. I called my auto-club help line and they dispatched someone from local repair shop. I told X to wait and went inside to grab my favorite cheese burger, fries and Vanilla milkshake. Man, I love this stuff from in-n-out. Seriously, I should write a separate post about it.

When I was in line, looking at the friday night crowd around realized I was wearing my PJs and felt little embarrassed. When I was waiting for the food, help from the auto club came through and so did X. He came in looking for me. I went out showed my membership to the repair guy and he started charging the batteries. Meanwhile, X’s wife “Y” came out of the car and the three of us chatted up for a few minutes. They were happy that I could be of help. X got my phone number and said we should meet sometime. I wished them good night and asked them to drive safe and bid good-bye.

I went inside and grabbed my food and left home. Here I am, at home, writing this post to share the little help I was able to offer someone today. I am not a rich, I don’t have big savings, I don’t do much charity but I felt really good when I was able to help someone in distress. As my parents would put it, you don’t need to have money to help someone. All you need is a good heart and good will.

Seeing someone happy is priceless, I saw that in X and Y’s faces today.

P.S: Call it timing or coincidence, I happened to look at the AAA’s Roadside app for Android installed in my phone today and was wondering what all my membership offered. It said it included battery service and replacement (for an extra charge).

3 Comments

My Space

Published by Karthick Raghavan on March 16, 2007 in humanity, people and provoking Perceptions. 3 Comments

Office, night shift, personal work kept me busy for ten days and my blog seems to be dormant. Someone even joked that he can hear my blog snore. Here I am to break the dormancy.

The title is no way related with the community website myspace.com. My space is nothing but the boundary or space I am concerned about. I draw a boundary around me in my day to day life. I enjoy my space within this boundary.

Can the boundary be seen?

No. It is virtual one that does not have any thick lines or ropes.

What does this boundary signify?

My boundary gives a space around me which I can enjoy. Which means, I draw boundaries within the greater boundary to have healthy relationships with people. For example, there is a certain boundaries around me for my friends, relatives, people from family etc. That is, anyone I interact with comes under one of these categories will fall into the respective boundary. I expect them to keep at keep a check at the boundary line they are in. If someone crosses the limit and tries to invade into other boundary, either of the two things may happen.

a) I consider the person’s behaviour and his relationship with me and I may let him cross the boundary and fall into the next category.

b) I may not like his invasion to the other boundary and may stop him then and there politely.

What if the other person does not stop invading or switching boundaries?

I try to be polite and say that the other person is crossing the limits which I do not like or expect him or her to do. If it still does not work out, I try to stay away from the person or evade the questions.

I like this concept very much that I relate it much with my colleagues or my relatives. As much I yearn for my space, I respect other person’s space. At least I try to avoid getting into others’ boundaries. I ain’t a master when it comes to the concept of boundaries and space. I am trying to master it out so that my life becomes easier.

Recently, I realized it much when a colleague of mine was asking about my week off plans. I tried to avoid answering and but he persistently talked about the movie I was going to and he was curious enough to know the group accompanying me. I was polite enough and tried avoiding it again. He did not realise my subtle responses and went on and on. The emotional part of my mind tried to take precedence to show the outburst in an emotional way. Fortunately, the rational part of my mind took precedence and analyzed the situation and guided me accordingly. This made me think and I subtly informed him that he was trying to invade into my boundaries which I did not like. I hope he understood it. He did not ask me again.

So, I am trying to watch my space and respect others’. What do you think on this?

3 Comments

Dog’s world

Published by Karthick Raghavan on January 28, 2007 in humanity, Just for Jolly and life. 3 Comments

Yesterday morning, on my way to home from office after a good week of night shift, I hit a dog while riding my bicycle and fell down. I took the cycle from the cycle stand and after a couple of turns there was a dog who was ferociously barking after something and did not notice me. I did all my best to apply the brakes but my cycle did not halt and hit him in the stomach. He was thrown a few yards away. And there he stood up barking ferociously again. This time his subject of attraction was I. All this long, I was there down with my hands filled with mud and my jeans drenched up a bit with the stagnated water in the near by pot-hole. My butterfly type handle bar in the cycle changed to a new figure which I cannot comprehend with my little knowledge in geometry. Whatever the dog thought, he went away barking for a few seconds and did not bite me. There is a Ayyappan temple near by and an adjacent flower shop.The lady and the man, I assume them to be the owners of the flower shop, helped me wash the pant and my hands with the hand pump. The man went ahead to say that I was lucky enough that the dog did not bite me and also I might have escaped a big accident. He showed the temple and went on saying that Ayyappan saved me. I did not disappoint him saying that I don’t believe in God or religion and instead thanked him for the gratitude and expressed how I felt bad for the dog.

On normal circumstances, I would have cursed the dog, pelted stones or cursed the government for the poor road conditions. But this time, I really felt bad for the dog . The first thing I asked mom when I reached home was “Does it pain for dogs when they are hit by vehicles? I have seen them whining away and not showing any pains after a while.” She gave me a glare and might have thought that I got a few screws loosened after this small accident withstanding the cycle.

Me : What happened in me that makes me to feel for the dog?

My Alter-ego : singing the Padayappa song,

நேற்று வரைக்கும் மனிதனப்பா , இன்று முதல் நீ புனிதனப்பா

Translation

You were a human being till yesterday

Today on, you are What a man!

Me : grrrrrrhh!

P.S. :- Umesh writing about dog and I quoting the song and line from the movie Padayappa consecutively for the second time in a week is all co-incidence.

3 Comments

Daddhimaan Returns

Published by Karthick Raghavan on July 21, 2006 in General stuff, humanity, life and people. 3 Comments

Balaji calls me a daddhi in tamil. It means I am a lazy goose. Am I really? To be frank, I am one. With mom falling ill and Balaji griping about his woes, now I realize that I am doing justice to the salutation (daddhi).

A few years back, I was not this lazy and I used to do some household chores. I remember washing my own clothes, mopping the floor, helping mom in cleaning the house. At least, I was taking care of my activities. That lessened the burden on mom. Believe me, she is one clean bug. She wants everything at home to be neat and clean. As always, I am the one who gets blamed for all the dirt. Yeah! I will say 90% of the dirt accumulated was through me.
After joining a call center , I was not mentally and physically prepared to do household chores. One hard reason was that I was sleeping when everyone was awake. I slept around twelve hours a day. But my job demanded that kind of rest.

I quit call center and started feeling the sun’s heat after a very long time. At least now I see people during day time. But the laziness bug has bitten me so hard that I am behaving the same way. Last week was really terrible. I think I have expected more out of Balaji. Now I feel how hard it is when people who baby feed you are not present.

Oh man! SHould not I start working on these?

I have started mopping the floor,washing my clothes. I don’t want to bother mom or anyone by being idle. Let us see, how far I succeed.

P.S. :- Gayu calls me Kutchimaan. (Inspired from Shakthimaan, as I am tall and lank resembling a kutchi which means stick). Now that I am a daddhi, daddhimaan will suit me better.

3 Comments

Homeless Man Returns Wallet With $900

Published by Karthick Raghavan on April 18, 2006 in General stuff, humanity and life. 0 Comments

I am really happy to see this kind of thing making news after a long time.

In Santa Ana, California – A homeless man searching through garbage bins for recyclable cans found a missing wallet and had it returned to its owner.
Kim Bogue, who works as a janitor in the city’s government buildings, realized that her wallet was missing last week and doubted she’d ever get back the $900 and credit cards inside, she said.
“I prayed that night and asked God to help me,” said Bogue, who was saving the money for a trip to her native Thailand.

Days later, a homeless man found the wallet wrapped in a plastic bag in a trash bin, where Bogue had accidentally thrown it away with her lunch. He gave it to Sherry Wesley, who works in a nearby building.

“He came to me with the wad of money and said, ‘This probably belongs to someone that you work with, can you return it,’” Wesley said.
Workers at a nearby relief kitchen said the man, who didn’t want to be identified, insists on paying for his food.

“He has a very good heart,” said Bogue, who gave the man a $100 reward. “If someone else found it, the money would be gone.”
Isn’t this a great deed? I am so proud of this guy who could have easily gulped down all the money and walked away coolly. But, he did the right thing by returning it. I remember reading a non-detail lesson during my middle school days. The tile was some thing like this.

“Where love is, God is.” I don’t believe in God but I will add that “Where Truth is, God is”.
For people who are greedy of money and properties, this is really a good lesson. I am bowing myself at your direction. Hats off!

0 Comments