Nepal – needs your help

The recent devastating earthquake followed by three days of aftershocks that wrecked the Himalayan nation – Nepal has shocked everyone. This reminds me of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake in India which also had measured 7.7 on the Richter scale leaving approx 20,000 dead. The current death toll of Nepal is said to have crossed 4,000 which is surely going to be way higher once all the international rescue teams start their operation. More dead bodies will be fished out from the rumblings left by the massive earthquake.

The 2 main reasons of me writing this post are; thousands and thousands of people who are affected due to this quake need our help and secondly I had plans on visiting Nepal during this year end which I suppose will now not be possible. I am not as much concerned about my trip being thrown off but am more worried for all those affected by the quake.

This is not going to be an easy fix. The humanitarian aid is the most immediate necessity for the people in the affected parts of Nepal. Basic provisions like shelter, food, water, medical care and communication is what they need. You could also become a part of the monetary support to the organisations providing humanitarian aid. There are many such organisations out there you can donate to – pick the one which is reputable and trust-worthy:-

• Facebook has started donation campaign where they will match the equal amount of your donation and give the amount to International Medical Corps.
• Even TOI has started with a campaign “Reach Out, Aid Nepal” an initiative to help the people in Nepal. Today’s front page of TOI has the details of the same or you can click on the below link to read it :
  http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=TIMES-CARES-Reach-Out-Aid-Nepal-28042015001010#
• Time.com has provided a good overview of six disaster relief organizations you can donate to: Click on this LINK

No matter how small your donation, providing monetary support to reputable organizations is one way we can all help the disaster relief efforts in Nepal. Don’t hesitate and lend a helping hand to the needy.

The scale of destruction is too huge and the suffering of the people agonizing.

Mailbox

Yesterday my daughter asked me to read a letter which she had written as part of her home work. The subject of the letter was to invite her best friend to come and stay over for the summer vacation. While reading the same it reminded me of my school days, way back 2 decades before where in the only form of communication during those days was letters, telegrams or very rarely connecting through telephone that too landline. Words like mobile and email were not yet born when I was in school atleast in India.

I cannot forget my childhood days when we used to see the postman almost everyday in our society and we as kids would run to him to ask if he had any letters in our name :). Well I did expect letters in my name as I had registered myself with a Penpal club and I also had one Penpal from SA. Those days Penpal clubs were in much demand and I too very enthusiastically had got myself enrolled for it. Depending upon age, likes, hobbies, country, religion, languages, etc, match-making of Penpals were made and contacts of each others were exchanged.

Writing long letters, sharing details about oneself, family, school, college, festivals, sending pictures, small gifts and many more topics was something which we (myself and my pen-friend) used to share with each other. The main reason of writing long letters was the time taken for delivering the letter at the destination. Local delivery of letters use to take days and in my case my pen-friend was from SA so you can imagine the waiting period for the next reply.

No smartphone, no selfie, no Whatsapp, no Facebook, that was the era which I have passed through and even after being denied of all these I have managed to maintain my relations with my pen-friend. I still am very much intouch with VP (my pen-pal) but now no more old fashioned letters but through social media. But I miss those old days, the wait for the letter, asking the postman for any letters, the handwriting, the aroma inside the letter, the colourful handmade designs specially made for me and few things which I leave for you to imagine :). VP – I am thankful for you being with me through all these years.

Recently I came across a blogger http://happsters.com/2015/02/05/happstermail/, she has started with the idea of match-making of Pen pals, same like the old traditional way i.e. by writing and exchanging letters. Incase anyone of you are interested then you can sign up with Happsters.

Following someone….

Recently I happened to bump into one of my ex-colleague, who also happens to be a good friend of mine and we were just chit-chatting about our old days and the time we spent together in office. All of a sudden he asked me “So who are you following now?” At first instance it did not strike me and I thought I was caught following someone :). I was trying to find words to say something. My friend understood and pounced back saying “I mean on social media”.

So who do you follow? If this question was asked to me about 15 years back then obviously my answer would have been Sachin Tendulkar or Amitabh Bachchan (I love cricket as much as I like watching movies). Very strange question isn’t it?

And then came the revolution, the entry of “Social Media”

Now on present day I am on Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram and zillion more social media sites. Although I get tired using Facebook and Whatsapp hardly leaving me with any energy to open Twitter or any other social media apps. The continuous feeds on my Facebook page and enormous messages I get on my Whatsapp are already too much to handle for me in a day. And truly social media is addictive and specially Whatsapp (I already have mentioned in my earlier blog).

So now if I am asked the same question “Who do you follow”, my answer will be many bloggers, twitter handles (news, celebrities, politicians) and I have many followers on my blog and my twitter too :).

What about you? Who do you follow now? And who were you following a decade back?