The Kashmir Goes To....

The bus journey between Srinagar and Muzzafarabad has spurred questions about what we really expect this "peace journey" to accomplish. Is it the start of finding peace in Kashmir? I think not. The core of the problem still remains and has not moved any closer to resolution. The Kashmir issue so far has been a battle of egos; And an intervention of super-powers that have no intentions other than poking their noses into matters that are of no concern to them, hoping to leverage something. Everyone is callous to the matter at the core of it all, the people of Kashmir. What do they want? Why can't we let them vote for their future? This will bring up questions about whether the "militants" should be allowed to vote, and I think they should. Yes they are extremists, but they are no different from the fanatical political party supporters in the other states. If they can vote, then so can all the denizens of Kashmir. I have been fortunate to visit Kashmir as a child and have great memories of the paradisiacal state. As much as I want her to be a part of my country, it is only fair that the people who have lost so much to the war decide how they want to be in peace.

On a related note, go here and scroll down to the last-but-one letter. I finally managed to get in after (almost) spamming The Hindu every day! What was published is still quite different from what I wrote. Cheap thrill I know :-)

Government spending wisely?

The American Government sometimes does spend money in useful ways. Let me explain. I contacted the Stanford Blood Center to make an appointment to get tested to be a bone marrow donor. I was a little dubious about their acceptance because I have been turned down at blood donation camps previously because I had either lived or travelled to India too recently. Apparently, that does not apply to bone marrow donations because the stem cells that they care about are not related to the fear of malaria that applies to blood. Anyway, coming back to what I wanted to talk about, the friendly man at the other end of the phone mentioned that the testing fee would be waived for me because I was a minority. It is not waived for Caucasian/Americans as he told my friend India when she made an appointment. This is because Caucasians have ~90% chance of finding a match when they need a marrow transplant, while Asians or minorities have a 20-30% chance! The government, seeing that this was dangerously low, decided to provide incentives to up that number. The outcome of that being the waiver of the testing fee. Not bad, uh? Now all this is of no use unless you, reading this, actually make use of that waiver and get yourself to that testing center closest to you!

Click here for donor center information.

Thinking outward

One of our school teachers once told us, "Before you complain that you don't have a new pair of shoes, think about the man who has no feet". It meant a lot to me. Ever so often, we get so caught up in our lives - our work, our joys, our tears, you said that, I said this - that we forget how fortunate we are. The way I look at it, there are definitely at least a few million people less fortunate than me. And that is why I have absolutely no reason to complain. Easy to say, hard to do. When something affects us, it hits us in a way that hurts - maybe it is something you worked really hard for - but the key is to take in your stride and keep moving. There's a lot of work to be done. It is not always about the self, it is quite often about looking outward.

Keep smiling :)