what was that in those eyes!

What is a blog really? What one goes through? Or what one feels? Well, I will write about what I think of what is happening around me.

I attended a certain training program at IIT Bombay during February 2008. It is only fair to add that the trainer and the facility were extremely good and the knowledge I then gained is of immense help today in my work.

IIT Bombay is a place frequently visited by preeminent entrepreneurs and one such Greg Mundy of Microsoft visited IITB on the last day of our training program. By virtue of being on campus, we had an opportunity to hear him speak and also had an open house for a good 15 minutes (which is lot of time considering the stature of the person we were trying to speak to!)

One of the participants asked a question about the price of Windows pack for schools in rural India (or something to that effect, I now fail to remember) for which Greg Mundy replied, “We do not make profit out of the worlds poor”. The response did not hurt me as much then as it hurt me on my way back home.

After the day’s course was over, we said goodbyes and I walked back to the Director’s bungalow where my in-laws stay. En route, I had to give way for an auto rickshaw which stopped just behind me and a slender modestly dressed woman stepped out. From behind her came an equally slender man even humbly dressed and both of them walked towards an old man sprawling on the foot path apparently drunk and dazed. Disgusted, I reverted my gaze quickly only to spot a seven year old child sitting in the same rick waiting for his parents to get back in with the old man and go home. I was moved, for what I saw in his eyes was not anger or shame but pity. For whom and for what, I will never know!