Go light your bulb

I watched Swades today on TV - it was probably the third or fourth time I have watched this film so far. In my opinion Shahrukh has given his best ever performance in Swades - even better than that in Chak De. Each time I watch this movie, I go through a strange mix of emotions. This time they were slightly more prominent, especially the positive ones. There was the usual lump in my throat during the part where Mohan goes to collect money from Haridas and returns a changed man. But what I remembered long after the film had ended was the line spoken by Mohan Bhargav's boss towards the end of the film - "Ok Mohan, go light your bulb."

I think this optimism in me has something to do with the events of the past evening. On Saturday, I attended a Partners' Meet organized by World Vision India in Bangalore for interaction between sponsors and donors with the staff of the World Vision (including the CEO). It also included a cultural programme by a group of sponsored children who had come to Bangalore from Gundulpet (near Mysore) especially for this event. There was a skit by the children depicting social evils like child labour, dropping out of school, child marriage, child abuse etc. The performance by those 6-10 year old kids seemed straight from the heart as some of the kids had been on the receiving end for the evils they were depicting on stage. There was also a dance performance by the girls, the soundtrack for which failed to work unfortunately. But these spirited kids did not give up and they danced and sang - such a great sight it was!

Dr. Jayakumar Christian, CEO of World Vision India, presented some amazing real-life stories during his address. But when he presented the number of donors in India (just over 35,000) and in Bangalore ( just about 2000), they were disappointingly low. In Bangalore where there are so many high-earning IT and ITES professionals, there are just 2000 people who can spend Rs 600 on a child who is on the verge of losing his/her childhood to poverty and illiteracy! Don't we spend the same amount on a single drink or dinner or movie - more than once a month? Like Dr. Christian pointed out - it is truly amazing how 200 million of us well-to-do Indians choose to conveniently ignore the existence of 856 million of those living below poverty line.

Isn't it time we started lighting the bulbs in our own small ways?

Image courtesy: www.matthewsalomon.wordpress.com