THE MALL CULTURE

Recently, i had been to Cochin for a CA students conference. The valedictory function of the conference started on Saturday, the 22nd of August, at 5 pm. i had gone there with 4 of my friends. As soon as the valedictory started i heard a hissing sound from my right and saw my friend trying to call me. Friend asked my "Why should we sit for the Valedictory function? Lets skip it and go to the Oberon Mall". This is where it starts.

I decided to stay till the valedictory function got over, and asked my friends if they wanted to go before the function got over to go ahead with their plans. But, they waited and after that they left the place. I stayed back for a few more minutes to talk to the chief guest and other dignitaries. After that i too left and caught up with them at the mall.

The mall had all kinds of shops ranging from cloths, books, shoes and what not. Nice place to go shopping. i wanted to buy only a pen and few chocolates. My friends got into a cloth shop to buy some dress. I stood near the entrance chatting with a security guard over there. His name was Sasi. He didnt mind chatting with me at all.

I started chatting with him casually asking about him first, then asking how the sales were etc. After chatting for 5 minutes i asked him if the youngsters that are going into the cloth shop or any shop for that matter purchase anything? He smiled slightly and replied, majority of the youngsters who go into these shops come out empty handed only. Why so? Is it because the prices over there are high? i guess not.

After this i went inside looking for my friends. There were 2 guys in our group who were from Cochin itself. i chatted with them and they said they had been to the mall many times, but they hadnt purchased anything from there. They had gone to the mall so as to look at the girls who come there. Girls are roaming around over the mall too. Dont know what motive they have.

Recently in Calicut, in our own very dear Focus Mall, the supermarket called spencers got closed. Why? Naturally, the cost that they might have incurred must have been more than there revenue. Here comes the biggest question. If these people cant get the expenses that they incur from the sales that they have why should they have a shop there? Thus arises the next question. If no person wants to have a shop there, why have the malls there? In this scenerio, there are malls that are being build in our country without any proper analysis of the situation being done.

i feel a scheme has to be implemented where by only people who declare what they want to buy from a mall shall be let into the mall and that too for a time that is specified. Or else, the youth of today who are to guide the nation in future will waste there time in the unproductive malls just like i did on saturday.

Let this blog be a cause for some change atleast in the minds of the next generation.

Vande Mataram

A SPEECH EVERY INDIAN MUST HAVE READ

WELCOME ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 11, 1893

Sisters and Brothers of America,

It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

For the audio of this, pls visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxUzKoIt5aM

VANDE MATARAM