Evangelist ?

I attended a conference last week. One of the speakers (even I gave a speech about my organization….. :-)) was introduced to the stage with the following words… “It’s my proud to introduce Mr. X who is an evangelist in the field of XXX …..” I was excited to see him and listen to his speech. He came to the stage just like someone who is tired of these activities and gave a good presentation about his area of work…

The presentation was convincing for me. The question is, for such kind of a presentation do he required such an introduction? I don’t know why but I liked the word “evangelist” a lot and I tried to find a meaning of technology evangelist. Somewhere in the net it says that a technology evangelist is “a person who enthusiastically promotes or supports something”.

I was curious to know more about him and somehow I managed to speak with him during the lunch time. During the conversation I came to know that he is working with that firm for a very long time and he is working in the same technology as well. I asked him do you like your job too much that you never changed the company or the technology. The (so called) evangelist told me…“Dude I am fed up with what I am doing but I never had any chance to move out…”

I don’t know how to describe my feelings now…the reasons are

1) He is a very good guy

2) His presentation skills are good

3) He know the product very well

But these facts never allow me to call him an evangelist…

According to me an evangelist is someone who got lot of potential to make a change, Who is like a visionary, Who know what he does and the output to some extend, Who gave his/her life for a purpose etc etc etc.

According to me people who doesn’t comes under this category and still others calls them and evangelist then my meaning for evangelist (for those )goes something like this…

Evangelist = Bullshit

Colorful Life

i had a very strange experience last week. i was traveling and part of that i had to travel by train. i reached the railway station and saw my train there .. i was boarding from the starting station so the train was empty and it just came to the platform. I rushed to my coach and placed my languages there. i was alone since am there well before the departure time. The lights were not switched on in the train… 

While sitting as a guard for my valuables i noticed a man who is there couple of seats away from me. I couldn’t see his face since there was no power. He was arranging his things for that days bread ( oh ya !!!He sells small things like lock, chain etc to the passengers for living). i just casually asked him about the electricity and without any hesitation he told me that the lights will be there in another 5-10 minutes.. 

Slowly passengers started coming and in the meantime the power came. I got some good company and thought that it is going to be a good trip.. 

After some time i saw the same person again.. He was selling some locks to someone. I felt like i got a slap on my face. He was blind. And i was asking him about light… 

i couldn’t resist myself.. While he passed me i asked: 

baba, i am sorry that i asked you about light. You could have told me that you can not see anything. Then why you gave me an answer.. 

He told me: 

This railway station is my home for almost 20 years. I know each and every train with their timings and my mind keeps a track of everything… my world is what i listen and not what i see… don’t worry my life is as colorful as yours. If possible give me some coins…

The first step..

I was speaking with one of my friend (at a tea shop) and he was shouting about the current Indian scenario. He said.. “look at our land. Poverty is still there. Lots of people don’t get proper education… (Mean time one kid came to us with two teas…)Child labor is everywhere..”

After half n hour of speech ( i was pretty bored with that..)We left the shop. That kid was looking us for some tips. But we didn’t paid a single penny..(that’s how we, we speak a lot .. but never act ..)Good… Isn’t it?

After this, while riding home i was thinking about him. He got a very good job (i don’t know, but people say that IT jobs are the best. I love to call them IT slaves…)with almost 70-80K per month. since he is one of my best friend i know about him. I never noticed him paying something towards charity or something of that sort. He still complains about this housing loans and cry for more salary..

i am left with some questions here..

By speaking publicly about helping others will stop the problem?

i can see people with 4-5k running a family in bangalor..so why we cry more ,when we get more ?

The problem is no one wants to come out of their comfort zones (this includes me as well..) But the same time wants to show that they care this world. I think the guilty feeling inside their minds makes them to speak about all these..

As some one wrote ones:

Death is a hope, the only hope

for the wretched and the poor

People that strive and strive in awe

But never get to tie their knot

Death reaches out and console

the poverty that surrounded them about

It’s the only thing that makes

a destined wretched life worth it

It’s the only thing on the other side of

the poverty line that blurres the line and cured it…..

Jodhaa Akbar …..entry restricted :-)

Screening of Jodhaa Akbar was banned in Madhya Pradesh.The reason is rajput community threatened that they will set fire to cinema halls…

”The government has suspended the screening of the movie in the state with immediate effect as protests at cinema halls have posed a threat to maintenance of peace,” Commercial Tax Department Addition Secretary said. In his order banning the screening of the film produced by UTV Software Communications Ltd, Parihar said the decision was taken in accordance to provisions under the Madhya Pradesh Cinema (Regulation) Act, 1952.

Describing the depiction of the Jodhaa Bai as Akbar’s wife in the Bollywood movie as an ”insult” to the community, Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha has threatened to burn the movie reels and cinema halls screening the film, which has been directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar.

What a news.. this is called freedom.. one can make a movie the way he wanted .. others can set fire the cinema halls..

Life of a Saint

Had fate not willed otherwise, Murlidhar Devdas Amte could have ended up as just another wealthy, arrogant lawyer wallowing in luxury. This eldest son of a Brahmin landlord, born on December 26, 1914, at Hinganghat in Wardha district, was completely insulated from the world of abject poverty and the inequalities of the prevailing social structure.
When he was a mere 14 years old, Amte or Baba as he was affectionately called by his family, had his own gun to hunt wild boars and deer. During his college days in Nagpur, he would travel in a Singer sports car with leopard skin-covered seats, and buy two tickets when he went to watch a film—one for himself and the other to stretch his legs on. He indulged his passion for cinema by writing film reviews and also corresponded with the reigning Hollywood stars Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer.
A visit to Shantinekatan and his brush with Tagore’s world of poetry and music and later his association with Gandhiji changed Baba. While poetry transformed him into a sensitive person, his understanding of Bapu’s relationship with God in the form of truth, love, morality and fearlessness inspired him to break the shackles of a secure life and dedicate it to the underprivileged masses.
Baba did well as a lawyer and took up criminal cases for the well-heeled during his practice at Durg in then Madhya Pradesh. But he was appalled by the fact that his clients often expected him to tell lies. “A client would admit he committed rape and I was expected to obtain an acquittal. Worse still, when I succeeded, I was expected to attend the celebration party,’’ Baba once recounted. He started working for Harijans in his own fields although he was not expected to mingle with them. With six leprosy patients, Rs 14 in hand and a lame cow, Baba went ahead to set up the Maharogi Sewa Samiti in 1949 at a time when leprosy patients were shunned and left to suffer supposedly for sins committed in a previous life. After shifting to Warora in the early 1940s, he set up Anandwan (Forest of Joy), the first fully integrated township for the rehabilitation of leprosy patients and people with disabilities. Today, Anandwan is spread over 176 hectares and houses 3,000-plus inmates. This ideal township demonstrated how persons with disfigured limbs could create a self-sufficient world of their own.
So sensitive was Baba Amte to the needs of Anandwan’s inmates that he even developed roses without thorns so that a blind inmate could touch the flower while enjoying its fragrance. Today, Anandwan boasts an orchestra of 150 members—blind, deaf, dumb and lame singers and dancers who enthrall large audiences with their talents. With his wife Sadhanatai standing by him through thick and thin, Baba went on to establish settlements in Somnath, Nagepalli, Hemalkasa and Ashokvan, camps with schools and colleges and hospitals for the tribals and poor in the inaccessible jungles of Gadchiroli. His two doctor sons, Vikas and Prakash, and their equally qualified wives and grandchildren are now keeping alive the flames of hope kindled by Baba. ‘Bury me so that the plants can get fertilizer’

Source : The times of India