Ur Gesture Thoughts

  It is the month of November.  Gunju, a 10-year-old stands outside the NDLS Railway Station in the national capital. She fears the night that is approaching. As the traffic starts to decrease, she can clearly hear the winds howling. She does not have a proper home like thousands of other children. She lives under a temporary plastic shelter on the footpath, a few kilometres away from the tracks.  During the day the sun and the crowd come to her rescue. After the sun sets, the temperature starts to drop quickly. She only has a thin piece of cloth that will protect her from the biting cold. She prays for the night to pass quickly; for the first rays of sun to hit her. One day she sees people coming with cartons towards the footpath where she lives. The people started distributing blankets to all living on the footpath. Gunju waited patiently till one person came to her and handed her a blanket. She looked at him and gave a wide smile. For her, he was a saviour.  The blanket was torn at

  And Lord Shiva was enraged and beheaded Ganesha; And Parvati was pained beyond grief. “Ganesha! Oh My Son! Be it that it was me.” She wailed, and Lord Shiva was moved and transplanted an elephant’s head onto Ganesha and Ganesha became the Deity of Learning and Wisdom                'Shiva Purana' : Hindu Mythology   O rgan transplantation is a process in which an organ is removed from the donor’s body and placed in the body of a recipient, to compensate for a damaged or missing organ. Organ transplantation has succeeded to associate life and death for the benefits of the society. Common transplantations include kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, lungs, bones, bone marrow, skin, and corneas. Kidney, part of the liver, part of the pancreas, part of the lungs or part of the intestines can be donated by living donors, but most of the donations occur after the donor has died.   The procedure of organ transplantation is a crucial health guarantee for society.

  SSSDR is an acronym used for the Union of India.  It stands for Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of India. Here, I would like to emphasize on one term – “Socialist”. It was introduced into the Constitution of India in 1967. Socialism is a political and economic theory which advocates that the means of production distribution and exchange at a regulated by the community as a whole. To put it into simple words, in a socialist system, the power lies with the masses.   India is a diverse land; topographically, culturally and socially. It has seen big empires rise and fall, governments come and go. Governing such a diverse land is a task, which is why governments in India face a lot of criticism from different groups of people for different reasons. The government tries to address the problems faced by public at major level but there is a huge disparity between what is expected by the citizens and what is delivered to them. There are various agencies, individuals and

  M y morning starts with opening the Twitter and Instagram app on my phone even before I attend the nature’s call because the fear of missing out on something important has gripped me forever. On some days the content is still the same as the previous night, on other days the world turns upside down with new updates. The speed at which the things are moving, hashtags change frequently and what you might have ignored previously, is now the burning issue. A post made by a user who only has 300 followers might be re-shared a million times if it strikes the right chord.   The social media is increasingly becoming a different world of only blacks and whites with some people desperately trying to give it a shade of grey. It has led to online groupism, with some extremist groups, some neutral groups and some silent spectators. Initially, social media was only used for sharing personal information but a few years back it became a platform where people from far and wide came together with a co

  Window shopping also known as retail therapy (read shopping) is often implied as a medium to make ourselves feel good. Science proves shopping releases happy hormone like serotonin which lightens our mind, an experience similar to eating chocolate. A 2011 study by Healthline ( https://www.healthline.com/health/retail-therapy#does-it-work ) quotes that unplanned shopping seems to relieve stress which goes beyond the initial period of purchase. If that’s the case and we have nothing to worry on the impulsive spendthrift attitude of an individual, why not channelize the same to donations. Have you ever walked in on store and analyzed the placement of the items. Accessories are generally put in front of the counter to induce impulsive buying because no one walks in the store with the sole idea of buying accessories, they get picked up once the dress is being finalized and generally maximum commission is being generated through it. Window shopping is a boon to the retailers.   But agai

  I went to Bhutan 3 years back on my first solo expedition. Those days, it was a not-much-heard-of-thing in my circle (or even on social media)- the concept of solo tripping. Therefore, it took me a lot of efforts to convince my parents for them to finally allow me to take this plunge, right after I completed my MBA. During this whole conversation, one thing stuck me- when my mother said “You love talking, how can you travel solo?” While post this I started contemplating my hastily taken decision to be my sole companion, I was prudent enough to not show them any signs of confusion lest they exploit it in their favour. Gladly, I got answer to my mother’s question (and also to the topic of this blog) during my rendezvous in the foreign lanes of Bhutan. The whole journey was possible because of strangers who were nothing but considerate, passionate with expectation of nothing in return. I never felt, I am solo. From a stranger who helped me transfer my stuff to another hotel because th

  It's a very important question to ponder upon. I say this because finding an answer to this question led to creation of urgesture.com the way it is now. It all started with a college competition, where 4 of us got to together to explore crowdfunding in India. This led us not only to know more about the different kind of NGOs that work in India and abroad but also their ways of working. We specifically spoke to NGOs that were small to mid scale run by a hand full of people. This when we met Tarun Manav, founder of Prerna Sewa Sansthan 1st, a small NGO working for past 10 years almost and serving the people and animals of Ghaziabad. It is run by a single person with a support of few others. He, along with his son, was working day and night to not only serve but also create social media posts, edit videos and contact donors to make sure that his NGO survives for the next day. During this research we realized that if every single person from our college, which was very near to th