Wednesday, November 16, 2011

# MY TWO CENTS

Dharma and Karma


Two incidents on twitter made me write this post here.


Incident 1


It was 12.37 AM in the night, BH read a tweet and said "Sh*t! Someone is in great pain and trouble. Lets see how we can help out and ran out of the room." He looked concerned. I ensured Bunni is in deep sleep and closed the door behind me to understand what the matter was. BH showed me these tweets.
He looked for highway police-station numbers in Rajkot, many other police stations numbers in Rajkot. None of the numbers on the net were CORRECT! Damn! While there were other tweeples who were skeptical about this incident. There were many tweets going around. Like why is he trying to reach people on twitter instead of calling family and friends? How is he tweeting with that kind-of injury etc. etc.


BH cared about none. He tried reaching out to people who were into media, he thought that would garner some help. While few people on his time-line said, that it is a fake-accident and you  are wasting time, energy and sleep by thinking of helping him. BH said "We should not miss wood for trees. What if he really needs some help? If he is faking, it is his karma. I will do what I can, that is dharma." I nodded. 
By that time, we saw more tweets on the timeline of the victim.
"Ah. Someone helps. I could not have slept on such things. Come lets sleep." 


We slept. Next day, he completely forgot. I kept track of this incident. There was a person who believed this was a fake accident. He worked day and night to find out a few things. And tweets from Ramesh Solanki, Mumbai Secretary, and Gujarat Rajya Sampark Pramukh BVS/SHIVSENA cleared much of the doubts. Here is the snap shot.
I was shocked! Why would someone raise such false alarms?  Just for some attention? Followers? (Ofcourse, his follower count raised from 93 to 270 during that incident.) But, I really wanted to believe that the world is naive. 


Many people including BH had called 100 and 108 to reach out to this "supposed" victim. Complaint has been lodged to the cyber police with some proofs and official reports by a person on Twitter. I told BH the whole story when he came back.


BH: As he sows, so shall he reap. Why bother?
Me: Will you help someone like this again after knowing this? 
BH: Yes. Certainly. There are 100s of requests for blood. I RT (Retweet - Twitter lingo - a form of sharing in twitter.) them faithfully, if mine does not match. I have known people personally who have really wanted help. So, I will do my bit by sharing. What happens next, is left to their destiny.


So, this matter did end. For us at least. 


Incident 2


18 year old high school student Ashley Billasano tweeted 144 times, in the span of 6 hours before commiting suicide. She had 500 followers! NONE took her seriously?! I do not know the handle of the girl, to paste the tweets. I read this article online. You can read it here
Why did nobody help her? If people like Sachin raise false SOS calls. Many would ignore such tweets. Probably. 


In the ending note, world is a curious mixture of people. So, difficult to take a call on social responsibilities.

56 comments:

  1. But we gotta do what we gotta do... like your BH.

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  2. It’s a classic case of “Boy who cried wolf” but only in cyber space. I read some tweets of @yoursachingothi and the way he’s turning defensive makes me blv that it was a false alarm. But anyway, I think BH is very kind to blv and respond to any calls for help. Most of us would dismiss SOS calls as hoax after such incidents… Kudos to BH :)

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  3. What your BH said and did was absolutely correct.there are some who fake pain and hurt as a gimmick but then there are those who are genuinely in need.Not helping or being skeptical is not fair to those in genuine need.Dharma and Karma is the best way to explain it.

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  4. @Nona yeah. But such people spoil the good health of the society!

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  5. this is simply pathetic...just to get a few followers one plays with the emotions of so many people :( and i am sure the next time if this guy is in real accident and tweets nobody will bother to reply ...

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  6. I liked the karma and Dharma theory of BH. If everyone could think like him, probably the second incident would not have taken place. The world is full of all sorts of people. It is difficult to place your trust easily..really admire the nature of BH and many others like him!

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  7. @Prasanna "ThoLa bantu thoLa" as we say it in Kannada. Karma is a bitch Prasanna. It will come back and bite. Hope he will have people around him.

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  8. good information there are so many prank messages these days, i have stopped responding to these (sms) messages entirely. If people are so immature as the one who sent the message, then unless there is some good people then many others, who really need help will suffer.

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  9. @Upasana Yeah. Being defensive does not work actually. He is not revealing the location. Though, there are many people who would want visit him. Sad ya. How people play with emotions.

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  10. @Muhammad Israr That is one of the reason I guessed. Maybe he required attention, or emotional support or some other reason. I really do not know.
    No-one will help him in future!

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  11. @Uma Right Uma! Learning from all phases of life. People teach us many things, we should buy positive things.

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  12. @RamesH rightly said Ramesh! People really in need will suffer. Best example is the second case. Probably, she just wanted someone to listen her out. :(

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  13. @Sahana RaoHow true! I wonder what do they get out of doing so! Doing so for sympathy and followers is downright horrible.Its really sad!

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  14. I agree with your husband, totally! ;-) I would act exactly the same way!!

    Reading about the girl somehow made me quite sad... People are strange, I would agree. I myself wonder and ponder endlessly about this.
    It's about caring and about responsibilities towards other human beings. But we are becoming stranger and stranger, more selfish and self-centered each day.. :-(

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  15. People take twitter way too seriously! Really. They need to get a life. The ones who help and the ones who do not, both. I kinda had a feeling this is all crap, who the hell tweets with a broken limb and bleeding on a high way?

    As far as the girl who was to commit suicide, well if I comment here today, I am going to slit my wrist? Why should one care? Nonsense!!

    I think, today's generation needs some life.

    I have witnessed the whole episode on that accident on twitter, excuse my disgust and anger about the matter.

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  16. Second incident is different, she wants someone like companion to hear her worries, i think everyone took it as HOAX...
    In future people may tweet while falling from tower as " Am committing suicideeeeeeeeee "
    http://deepakkarthikspeaks.blogspot.com

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  17. btw, come to think about it..., how sick can you be to be doing that on twitter, just to get extra hits or attention!....
    the police could've been doing other important things, or saving other lives, instead of wasting their time looking for an injured person who did not exist!! they should give this person a fix fine, so it is an example also for if other idiots get it into their heads to do something like that..

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  18. Well, I stand with your BH. The intention being only to help someone in real need, we shouldn't be sitting idle in such situations. Even if 99 out of 100 such tweets were fake, the 100th would be real.. no matter 99 of them got help when not needed but it does matter if the 100th don't get.

    Cheers to your BH :o)

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  19. I would just agree to what BH said.. seriously..

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  20. What crap was that.. I really dont understand why people go fake... just for some publicity.. When do we know who is fake and who is not. Its better to go with your husband's approach.. Whatever be the case, atleast we have some peace of mind.

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  21. It's like those emails that say each time this mail is forwarded,mr x will receive one cent to help him out. we send it forward in blind faith. But what that sachin guy did was no blind faith. sigh.
    lovely post :)

    PS, if you get time, could you read a post of mine, and vote for it if you like it? I'd really appreciate it, I'm in dire need of readership :P

    http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=90039

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  22. Your BH is one nice man and as you say, it is his Dharma. Raising such false alarms definitely harms people who really seek help:( Thoughtful post, Sahana!

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  23. What your BH said, my B would have said the same thing. I think social networking has screwed our lives. Anything for attention. Why people tweet their problems, talk to people who really care about you.

    Anyways, even I believe in Dharma- Karma theory. The good you do comes back to you and the vice versa.

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  24. Kudos to your BH for keeping the spirit of helping alive even after encountering hoaxes, but I am sure most people would fall into the other category and shy away from such episodes after hearing stuff like this :(. I feel very similarly about karma definitely coming back to bite such people in the a** !

    Nicely written Sahana :) !

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  25. "We should not miss wood for trees. What if he really needs some help? If he is faking, it is his karma. I will do what I can, that is dharma" <-- This is just perfect!! Your BH is right, we need to do our dharma, rest we will leave it for our / others karma.. This world need Good Samaritans!!

    About false alarm on twitter, it seems to be a cruel joke!! People do it. You see, its all about the numbers!!

    Bloggers Park

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  26. OMG! I really get annoyed when I find things like this. We cannot ignore it . I think your BH is right. We have to do our duty. rest leave it to there karma ...

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  27. BH has done the right thing I believe. Kudos to him, of i was in his place, i don't think i will bother that much.

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  28. A very shocking incident!! I am happy and feel safe that there are ppl like BH who would try their best to help in anyway possible.. Had it been someone else, and if they knew they were fooled once, they wouldn't really bother the next time!! And the girl's case is seriously shocking and disturbing!! I hope she finds justice at least now!!

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  29. Dharma karma,itz all left to human being upto wat extent he will do good for others...wat BH planned to do is his dharma,itz humanity.. offcourse there will be people who misuses our personality...
    but very sad to know that girl's incident...one of my classmate did the same way,he send SMS to some frenz and he commited suicide before everyone reaches there...

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  30. As long as people like BH are there, the world has hope. It doesn't matter what others are doing as long as you are doing the right thing. Kudos to BH.

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  31. Thats really sad state of affairs!!! sometimes v really dont know if things r real or fake....as BH said..

    "If he is faking, it is his karma. I will do what I can, that is dharma"

    We have 2 do good from our side, who knows if someone really needs help!!!

    The second incident was really WTH!!!! She had time to tweet and not think abt her life for a second??? Really its difficult to take a call on social resp!!!!

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  32. @Upasana We should just call them cheapos and forget it Upasana!

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  33. @Ziva How true "we are becoming stranger and stranger, more selfish and self-centered each day.. :-(" We can never claim to understand ppl ANYDAY!

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  34. @TheBluntBlogger Social media has its own pitfalls Chintan. It is like fire, which can be used for light and burn. How one uses it, depends on the individual. But, here when we come to talk of social responsibility, it is hard to ignore. At least for me.

    I understand your disgust though :)

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  35. @DeEpAK KaRtHiK (420) Again then Deepak, you never know how people will react :D
    You might have mentions which says 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhh!!'

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  36. @Ziva I really felt bad about that. There would have been someone else who required attention, this guy created so much drama and made police/ambulance go around looking out for him. SICK. MENTALLY SICK!

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  37. @Prashanth *Respects* for you Prashanth. Will convey ur wishes to him :)

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  38. @ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ/ Ashwini "x" seconds to fame is the motto now. People can go down to any level for that.
    Agree. It is better to be safe than sorry. :)

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  39. @The Story Teller I do not believe those emails. This was too hard to let go. I mean, we were getting updates in seconds. It is like hearing on phone from the other end..
    Probably it should be termed blind help :)

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  40. @Cloud Nine Right. People who are need may miss the train. Hope people in need always get some help.
    Thank you :)

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  41. @Saru Singhal But networking has made the world shrink Saru.. Can you imagine I can just mention my problem to the concerned politician by just a mention? How it is dealt with is a different question.
    People tweet problems, Maybe to get some help.
    But, when there are such people, it does a lot of harm to the good ones too :(

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  42. @Binu Thomas And the irony is, they get lost in the same number game some day. When they are really in a problem, they 1 in xxxxxxxxx a big number.

    Agree with you. World needs good Samaritans. :)

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  43. @Rambling Of A Single Girl In The City Ignore or to care is the toughest call. But that question comes when we think of the genuineness of the help-request. TRYING to help is all what we can do. :) Thanks a lot for sharing your views!

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  44. @Harish Thank you.. Will convey that to him :)

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  45. @The life-a-holic First incident, let Karma decide its way!
    Second is really sad. Girl needed some ears. None could lend. Pity. :(
    Value your views. Thank you :)

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  46. @ಗಿರೀಶ್.ಎಸ್ That is really sad to know Girish about your friend. Maybe you did not have that much time to help. He did not want you ppl to reach, but here maybe there could have been some help.

    People use or misuse, we should not change our original self!

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  47. @Neeraj Kumar :) Hope so. Will convey that to him. Thanks a lot wording that.

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  48. @Ashwini I know Ashwini! I really was skeptical about helping. But the theory of Dharma and Karma did give me a lesson.
    Am happy too :)

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  49. @KallyI know Kalyan. Probably we should not think about the genuineness of the victim when we go out for help.
    2nd incident, maybe she thought about life NEGATIVELY. So, she took her life! Sad state of affairs. YEah.
    Thanks for expressing your views. Really appreciate that :)

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  50. I too agree that we should care about our dharma. The person who is spreading false incidents will not be trusted by others anymore. And may not get help when they're actually in trouble. But at least we should check once for our satisfaction. What if the person really needs help? So we should not ignore such things, even if some stupid idiot is spreading the words of their dumbness like this guy @yoursachingothi thinking that they are super cool!

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  51. Well it is really mind-numbing. But it is good that one should at least move forward and approach that person. There is no harm in that. Rest it is their destiny.

    Like the title of the post. It is apt.

    Love
    http://www.meghasarin.blogspot.com

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