ON LIBRARY IN LIBRARY

Knock....... ‘Abhi.....come on buddy...get up.it is time for library....abhi....kutte...get up’’.......I opened my stressful eyes after being banged by the above sweet(!?) words  from anuraag, my batch-mate..As a normal guy, I always hate the feeling when someone forcefully gets me out of the bed, especially from a morning REM sleep. I felt like a dog as I slept @3am last nightL. After giving some stress to my optic nerve in my dark room, I found out that it was 8.30 am. OMG... I scratched my head in tension because our library opens @9amL. Suddenly I felt as if I am amalgamated with the soul of Usain Bolt. Then I attended the sweet call from nature in a hurry & stepped towards the medico’s morning destination; the LIBRARY.

I know, some of you are wondering about the fact why I sacrificed my much needed sleep. Is it just for a tag of punctuality in my neck??? NO...actually having(capturing) a seat in the library of my college during summer is similar to Ravindra Jadeja bowling a maiden over in a T-20 match!! Sometimes I feel that one has to reserve a seat since the stage of zygote!!Nobody prefers a hot hostel over an air-conditioned library .on the other hand, sitting in library ensures me an extended period of study. That is why I am flying in love with our library. If you have never been to a library of a medical college, then you are reading the right article.

All the hard-core library-philiacs reach the library gate before 8.55am during summer & wait for the officials to open it. Some students are very possessive about their fixed seats so they always sparkle in the queue. The boyfriends always hold 6-7 books (including their GF’s). It is really pathetic to watch some of the underweight boyfriends holding the 4 volumes of Harrison/2sets of bailey-love/2 sets of robbins.....anything for you ma’am!!!. They are definitely good prospects in weight-lifting for India in Olympics.

Some nocturnal animals like me, hit the library at 9.30 am. Even at this time, it takes a lot of effort to get a seat. At 9.30, although 90% of the seats are reserved, you’ll find only 50-60 students in the library having a capacity 500 students!! This is just because of the old Indian disgusting tradition of reserving seats for friends & so-called lovers by keeping a book on the table. Some students keep their book & leave away to have some Tiffin in our inglorious canteen. Some other go to the table-tennis room & return after 6pm!!!

So at around 10 am, all the brains align themselves in a common phase; STUDY. You’ll find 3 different category of students (1) Voracious readers (2) Lovers & (3) Students unable to concentrate. I don’t want to transform my article into a boring one by mentioning about the 1^st category. So let me skip those purely dedicated souls..!!

So here comes the second category; LOVERS.  They always sit next to each other unlike at restaurants where they sit in front of each other. Do you know why?? Actually in the restaurant, the BF wants to check how much his lover is eating, but in the library there is no threat to the wallet!! 99.9% of the lovers are accompanied by a bottle in front of them (rest 0.01% are kangaroo rats!!). The boyfriends bring water in every 30-40 min. I wonder how they become thirsty so frequently at 18 degree centigrade. It won’t be a bad idea to start a project on the topic ‘effect of love on serum vasopressin/aldosterone ’!!  Some undergraduate couples prefer to sit in the P.G section, even if seats are available for them!! I am still searching for the exact reason. Is it for dignity/privacy?! In my opinion, this category is the most efficient one, because they study for 1 hour intensely followed by 10-15 min of romance in canteen which filters out all the stress. Ultimately students from this category come out in flying colours in all the exams. BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL LOVER, THERE IS A LIBRARY!!

Now, let’s shift to our category i.e students unable to concentrate for a long time. It wears the tag of majority. Students of this category study intensely for 20-25 min followed by gossiping in the toilet/stairs/canteen for 15 min.  Their earphones always kiss their external auditory canal. Studying SPM/microbiology in the background music of chiggy wiggy/zoobi doobi is amazing!! The sweeper’s duty becomes difficult because of the huge no of chocolate wrappers & chewing gums below the table of this category. Some of the eyes intermittently search (unsuccessfully) for rare angelic faces sitting in front of them. Externs from Manipal/Mumbai have always been the sources of attraction for this category. 3/4^th of cerebral cortex is for studying & 1/4^th for eyeing on others activities!!

Students from this category do everything. They stare at girls, they stare at difficult charts explaining acid-base balance, gossip about exams, gossip about movies/cricket/affairs etc &
&
&
&. Some of them waste their time by writing articles on LIBRARY .......

siren.........................OMG its 11.00pm.its library closing time...this is enough...i'll start studying from tomorrow !!

[I hope this article hasn’t hurt anybody’s emotions. If it has, then I m not sorry because in my opinion there is nothing in it that is cardio-toxic ] !!

MESS IN A MESS

‘Do you have any other work other than writing against girls in your articles?’ This was the comment fired by one of my juniors ,Ms X. Undoubtedly it was a cardio-toxic comment for a sensitive guy like me, because this comment was pointing finger (middle one) towards my versatility in writing. Well, now my grey matters are accepting this comment with alacrity with the hope that it’ll inspire me to write something beyond my comfort zone (girls, romance, affairs etc.).So thanks to Ms X (no hard feelings for you dear).But what should I do Ms X??You’ll find the tag of error in each & every organism of this universe. Thank u for exposing my errors. So being a part of the psychiatric defence mechanism DISPLACEMENT I m going to expose one of the serious errors in the society.

I can’t understand what the govt of India is doing?? Why it can’t be prevented??Is poverty the only force which drags them into this profession??Some of the concerned officials frequently raid some low-profile hotels, Bars & other commercial establishments, which prevents their activity for a negligible period & the sad saga continues!!! Can you guess what I am talking about? Hey, dirty minds!!! I am not talking about PROSTITUTION. I am focusing on CHILD LABOR. Well, in some way these two are similar because of life-ruining properties of these deadly professions. The major difference is that, in the former, freshers are treated as angels. So  my first wish(1) there should be no child labourer in our society (2) if 1^st wish doesn’t  get fulfilled,  they should be treated as angels as their counterparts in prostitution. OK, now give some stress to your optic nerve & have a look at the following data.

	Children of Age Group (5-14 years)
Activities	Number of Children (%)			Number of Children (in 100's)
	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total
Children engaged in "economic activities"	4.18	3.86	4.02	52967	45618	98392
Attended domestic duties only	0.30	3.15	1.67	3770	37208	40788
Attended domestic duties plus free collection of goods, tailoring, weaving for HH only	0.25	1.92	1.06	3178	22693	25897
Children at Work	4.73	8.93	6.75	59915	105519	165077
Attending schools	72.98	61.45	67.44	925350	725964	1651186
Children neither at work nor at school	17.26	20.42	18.80	218889	241255	460205

So, only 67.44% of the children within the age group 5-14 years attend the schools!! But according to the govt. of India formal education is compulsory & free of cost!! So what the hell is going on??There was a dialogue in the movie JANNAT -‘jab garibi darwaje se andar ati hai to pyaar khidki se bahar chala jata hai’’. Now you can replace the word ‘pyaar’ by EDUCATION-‘ Jab garibi darwaje se andar ati hai to EDUCATION khidki se bahar jata hai.’ According to me, poverty is a major factor that germinates child labour.

According to the Indian census of 1991, there are 11.28 million working children under the age of fourteen years in India.

o    Over 85% of this child labour is in the country's rural areas, working in agricultural activities such as fanning, livestock rearing, forestry and fisheries

o    The world’s highest number of working children is in India. ILO estimates that 218 million children were involved in child labour in 2004, of which 126 million were engaged in hazardous work.

o    Estimates from 2000 study suggest that 5.7 million were in forced or bonded labour, 1.8 million in prostitution and pornography and 1.2 million were victims of trafficking. In India, 1104 lakh children are working as labourers.

o    The Hindi belt, including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, account for 1.27 crore working children in the country, engaged in both hazardous and non-hazardous occupations and processes.

o    Over 19 lakh child labourers in the 5-14 age group are in Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan accounts for over 12.6 lakh workers followed by Bihar with over 11 lakh and Madhya Pradesh with 10.6 lakh.

o    However, according to the 2001 census, in state-wise distribution of working children in the 5-14 age group, Andhra Pradesh with 13.6 lakh child labour stands second in the national list after UP.

Dipuna, Jitu, Siba, Jeevan,kalia etc!!!!!???  These are some of the familiar names in my hostel. They are neither gold medallists nor extremely bad students!!!! Then who are they???All of them are aged below 14 years, all of them are illiterate & all of them don’t enjoy any dream in their REM sleep. They are simple workers in our hostel mess who wash the used utensils & the dining tables. We really don’t care for them during lunch/dinner. We just shout at them to clean the tables, serve the food etc as if they were born only to serve us. Giving them 20-30 rupees during diwali/dussera never puts a full-stop to our job. I admit that, sometimes the quality of food in hostel is so irritating (rakhi sawant standard) that we forget to offer them a smile. They are doing so much for us from such small ages. Have you ever tried to read their brain?? Sometimes I feel that somewhere in their heart they must be thinking to be students like us! , to have better life-style like that of students....but...when the ridiculous foods make me their victim I develop mild amnesia.

They don’t expect anything from us, because they know that we are useless in the field of social service. That is the bitter truth as we write articles about them during our free hours & do nothing after that. Even they don’t that the govt. has banned the use of children under14 years of age in any work. I know that we are not in a stage to help them...but we can definitely give them 1 thing that is ‘Good behaviour  & a sweet smile’.....these hostel workers are just like bricks in a large wall....so I request all my friends to behave sweetly with these unfortunates, so that they can blossom some smiles on their tired looking face...............

LAWS OF CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

·         The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory or any hazardous employment

·         Any person who employs child he is liable for punishment with imprisonment for 3 month which can be extended to 1 year or 20,000Rs fine

·         It Provides free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years

·         Many beggar childrens and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and violation of this provision shall be

an offence punishable in accordance with law.

LET’S EXPOSE THE BASTERDS WHO ARE USING CHILDREN UNDER 14....WE HAVE THE LAW,WE JUST NEED TO USE IT.