Dial 1091

I got onto a DTC bus this morning, number 392. Bringing a dash of color into the largely male-populated bus, a flock of ladies accompanied me inside. For those of you unaware of the government's attempt to 'provide for' the city's women, there are - correct me if I am misataken - 4 rows (8 seats) in every DTC bus marked for ladies, while the rest are, by default, for men.

Three of the rows inside my bus were occupied by men; four of these men dutifully cleared their seats for the ladies who stepped inside. Two however, sat put, avoiding all eye contact with the ladies around them.

Noticing that few ladies were actually asking them to stand up, and in need of a seat myself, I stood next to them and requested them to stand up, pointing to the sign that clearly stated that it was a seat for ladies. One of them looked down and pretended he couldn't hear me, while the other continued staring outside the window with an adamant look in his eyes, muttering some nonsense about "cleaning the seat with his own handkerchief", and thus, presumably, being entitled to the seat. WTF?

I called out to the conductor and asked him to get the guys up. A few feeble gesticulations later, he gave up. He glanced at me evasively and said that he tried, and went back to collecting money.

I stood there, silently seething. Sure, I could stand the whole way, but if I didn't do anything about it, wouldn't it encourage other men to refuse to give ladies their due? My eye caught a sign printed in archaic block-letter type:

Ladies Helpline Dial 1091.
Students Helpline Dial ***
Senior Citizens Helpline Dial ***

I got out my phone in the now-crowded bus and started dialing the Ladies Helpline number. I hesitated a moment: everybody around me would be able to hear my conversation; what if the helpline just laughed at me and hung up? Wouldn’t that only further embolden men to take over ladies’ seats, and discourage women from standing up for their rights even more?

Deciding that it was worth learning what the helpline did anyway, I called. The woman who answered sounded earnest and encouraging, and I briefly described the situation. She asked if I had asked the conductor or bus driver to get them up, and when I answered in the affirmative, she said that the next best thing that she could do was to file a complaint. When I questioned the usefulness of filing a complaint, she answered, “Madame, at least we will get the number of the bus and the name of the conductor on record for the future, so that when they park their bus for the night, some action can be taken.” This woman rocked!

She asked me to get the name of the conductor and the bus number for the complaint. Holding the phone, I informed the conductor that I was on the line with the Ladies Department of the police department, and that they wanted his name and address. Immediately, I noticed a sea-change in the attitude of the men who refused to stand up and in the bus conductor. Fear flitting across his face, the conductor began to motion to the men more vigorously and commanded them to stand up.

More importantly, however, people around me started rallying for the cause. A man sitting in a row behind where I was standing gently tapped my shoulder. “Tell the conductor that he must stop the bus at the police barrier if the men don’t stand up.” A young man sitting next to the conductor began accosting him to get the men to stand up. Pretty soon, men and women from across the bus were lambasting the men.

In a feeble attempt to salvage their dignity, they grumbled their misgivings but soon stood up and vacated the seats.

In the midst of all this, the woman from the Helpline was still holding the line. Breathlessly, my heart pounding from the confrontation, I thanked her as I sat down in my seat. As enthusiastically as she had answered the phone, she answered that it was no problem -"call us if you have any more trouble!”

So Ladies, don’t hold back – Dial 1091!

INDIA BEATS

Tales of resilience

SMITA JAIN

A tour organised by street children offers rare insights into their place in the micro community of a railway station.

Photo: Yashas Chandra

New beginnings: Street children in the Salaam Baalak classroom.

HAVE you ever wondered what life is like for street children who live in and around the New Delhi railway station? If you're anything like me, you'd probably never have even noticed them as you scrambled your way to catch the train to your vacation destination, or as you arrived, bedraggled and dreaming of your bed at home.

For most commuters, the lives of the station-children strike in brief bursts of horror and pity: the near-naked boy with no legs who slides his way through the filth of our compartment's floors; the little girl with sun-streaked, matted hair who wafts through the compartment singing a tuneless melody. By and large, the ephemeral lives of these invisible children — who wander bereft of permanent shelter or family — remain hidden to even the most discerning of eyes.

Innovative initiative

Not for much longer, however. An innovative initiative, spearheaded by Salaam Baalak Trust, aims to demystify life on the streets in an ingenious manner: a two hour tour of the New Delhi Railway station and its environs, led by its true connoisseurs — children who have grown up on the streets.

I arrived, breathless and apologetic, at the appointed hour and location, just as the tour began. Two young, smartly dressed men addressed the group in near-perfect English and introduced themselves as the tour leaders. The first, Shekhar, described his career as a debutante actor. Javed, the second, discussed his aspirations to work with the UNDP after completing his Masters in Social Work.

The excellent oration and the finesse of the leaders baffled me, and just as I opened my notebook to check whether I had misread the part about the tour being led by children from the streets, Shekhar added that he had, as a runaway child from Bihar, spent much of his adolescence on the streets we were standing on. Javed echoed his story. They had both encountered Salaam Baalak Trust in their teens, and through it, were able to slowly unravel themselves from the addictive web of street life.

The tour leaders took us across railway platforms, through traffic-choked arteries of Paharganj, and to favourite street children-hangouts. Seemingly nondescript locations were transformed, through the eyes of these unlikely storytellers, into an animated stage upon which the budding dreams and blighted hopes of children were played out every day. Pointing to the train-washing track, Javed revealed a nugget of street-life wisdom. "Children take their showers on those tracks, usually on Fridays, as it is a special day for station-dwellers. Not for religious purposes, but because that is the day that Bollywood films are released!"

As we stopped on Platform 12, Shekhar gave us a first-hand account of the station mafia in true Pacino style. "Nearly 300 runaway children arrive at the station every day. The mafia leader of a particular platform captures some of these children and trains them in "skills" such as picking pockets, singing and begging.

Symbiotic relationships

I walked ahead hurriedly, stopping at a fruit stand. "Railway children have a special relationship with fruit sellers and chemists," Javed pointed out. "Immediately after a luxury train arrives, children run through them to find uneaten fruit and then give it to the fruit seller. In return, the vendor allows them to sleep on his vendor ceiling at night, and even protects them when the station police arrive. The police sometimes beat the children for no reason, though," he said ruefully, "and that's where the chemist shop comes in handy."

The importance of these symbiotic relationships is not to be understated, the leaders emphasised. "Though there is suffering, life on the railways is also about friendship, love, and a strong feeling of community. Even in the direst of circumstances, people look out for each other."

My admiration for the leaders peaked as they told me of their plans to publicise the tour in an effort to draw national attention to the lives of station-children. "We want more Indians, especially students, to join us and learn about the issues that these children face," said Shekhar. For an inimitable insight into the courage, determination, and resilience of the human spirit — and for some fun — book your place on a tour. For more information, contact Shekhar at: +919873130383.

Voices

Do you know of inspiring people, places, or ideas that could use some publicity? Leave a comment or send me an email with the idea and I'd be happy to follow it up and write about it if possible.

Everything Is Possible

INDIA BEATS

Everything is possible

SMITA JAIN

Walk on fire? Why not? A novel approach to corporate training and organisational solutions.

HANDS-ON APPROACH: Making change possible in organisations.

IN the corporate world, it may not be uncommon to overhear an employee describing her weekly presentations as "walking on fire", or describing himself "hypnotised" during an especially boring talk. But for Training Alternatives, an organisational development training consultancy, fire-walk and hypnosis are just some of the unconventional weapons used in its corporate trainings. "The biggest challenge in personal and organisation change is the lack of individual conviction that change is possible," says Santhosh Babu, founding director of Training Alternatives. "Most of us think that we cannot walk on fire. In a similar manner, we believe that we cannot achieve a certain target, or reach a personal goal. The tools that we use help us challenge these deep-set beliefs and unlock our potential, and through this, the potential of the organisation."

Changing beliefs
In a typical fire-walk, a thick board of firewood is lit up and set on fire. Immediately after the fire has died out, the red-hot, burning remains are spread out into an eight-foot bed. One by one, participants walk across it — though not without a measure of trepidation. "When it was announced before the session that our team would be walking on fire, a lot of employees said they wouldn't do it, reasoning that `it wasn't a part of their QRA'," admits Shankar Prasad, COO of Airtel UP East. "But not only did everyone participate, the most hesitant ones walked over the bed repeatedly because they were so excited they could do it!" Over 5,000 people — including the management of top-tier blue chip companies such as Electrolux and LGE — have undergone the trainings. "At one workshop, we had asked the senior management of LG to put a snake around their necks," says Santhosh. "Though they were reluctant at first, they were amazed at what they had done. In fact, after our `changing beliefs' sessions, people are astounded at their achievement." Indeed, Training Alternatives has found that unleashing the power of the individual is the magic mantra of successful change within organisations. "Our workshops are geared at building the power of the individual. Tools such as hypnosis help show employees what the human mind is capable of, and help us step out of our comfort zones," says Santhosh, who is a trained hypnotist. At a hypnosis show recently conducted at IIT-Roorkee, Santhosh turned normally meek, well-mannered IIT-ans into crying babies, drunken wanderers and Brad Pitts. Not your typical day at IIT, for sure.
In fact, Santhosh stands as a testament to the immense potential latent within us. A self-taught hypnotist, magician, amateur actor and palmist, he has consistently sought new ways to understand himself and the world. "Experience is the best teacher," says Santhosh, "so our focus has been on providing memorable and meaningful experiences."

Specific solutions
Training Alternatives' hands-on approach to training — emphasising an "experiential" versus the traditional lecture-demonstration approach — sets it apart from others in the training sector. While many training companies offer standardised trainings, Training Alternatives' workshops are built on the assumption that, like human beings, organisations are dynamic entities that require specific solutions to their challenges. "We stay away from a `one size fits all' approach to organisational solutions. We develop customised training to tackle specific challenges," says Santhosh.

And of course, an element of fun is always a part of the equation. Santhosh and his team are constantly experimenting to add to their stock of unusual training techniques. They are soon going to introduce a theatre component to their trainings, "as it helps to break inhibitions, opens one to criticism and opens new communication channels," says Santhosh. So don't be surprised if, at your next corporate meeting, your boss is "acting" more baboon-like than usual; you just may have Training Alternatives to thank for.

India Beats features stories on the unusual, the exotic and the extraordinary.