On my way back home today, there was an old lady on the bus. She started chatting to the young woman standing next to us about the t-shirt the young lady was wearing. It said 'Today 2003', translating to the day that employees of her company elect to do charity work, getting a day off, earning the t-shirt and also earning CSR points for the company (And if you MUST know, the company is Goldman Sachs). And the whole charity part started the old lady off.
"I don't know why they call it charitable work. Charity is a synonym for ove, but I don't see any love coming from anybody doing charitable nowadays. It's more like an avenue for them to shower pity and a little help. We're the second richest country in the world, next to the USA, and what do we have to show for it? What do we do with all that money except fund weaponry to combat unknown enemies? An enemy that remains nameless... we kill people we don't even know in the name of protecting ourselves from the enemy. Has anyone ever thought about who the enemy actually is?"
Standing there, looking at a woman most people would think was shooting off the lip for want of nothing else to do, I thought "What if this wasn't who we think it is?" It takes obscure people doing random acts to sometimes wake our conscience. Joan Osborne got it right,
"What if God was one of us?"
When I hear from my clients saying that Sameer I want a good design for this magazine ad or great logo for this company, usually my reaction is “I’ll try & make it work for you”. Getting a bit befuddled they ask me as to why not simply say that you will design good. My logic is that I’ll design good when I know how to design bad. For me a design simply exists. Exists in every bit of our life. From angled tracks of western railway in mumbai to oval shape of an egg. From grey rainy clouds to curve of our pinna of our ears.
ReplyDeleteAnd thats exactly what I feel about God’s existence. Don't know much about hell, heaven, good, bad, mortals, immortals etc. I simply feel God exists in every pixel of our moments.
You have your faith, I have mine :) To each their own.
ReplyDeleteHow right you are Anya!
ReplyDeleteFor a long time, I looked upon Mom as God.. I still do :) In fact, when I am confused about what is right or wrong, I try and think whether I would be able to tell my Mom about it.. Sometimes, that backfires.. Because I end up confessing to Mom only to get rid of the guilt feeling :D
ReplyDeleteCorrection, your mom would be 'goddess' :D
ReplyDeleteI think religion, spirituality and all that ought to be based on one thing only - faith. Rather than them being systems full of elaborate rituals that someone else has dictated and people follow not even knowing the reason behind it all... the freedom to believe in what you want without being imposed on by others... now that's the real thing!