Hi all,
There has been a huge uproar in Parliament over the controversy generated by reality shows like Such Ka Saamna [Face the Truth]. While this session of Parliament is for debating the budget, our politicians are doing what they do best; digressing from arcane and not-so-people related topics to ones that can be easily identified by their constituents. While their actions are not pardonable, they seem to have raised a valid point.
Reality TV shows in general seems to be catering to our dark sides. From encouraging people to 'voluntarily' disclose sleazy facts about themselves to blatantly showing how different individuals feel about each other(and in the process getting them to spew out a few vulgarities!) to clearly placing the participants in harm's way, anything goes for reality TV. It is this perversion for catching as many eyeballs as possible is what has seemed to create all the furore.
Now big question is where do we draw the line and who does it? Who should be the regulator? What should he/she/they do? What should be considered as matters within the private realm and what can be made public/aired? We find ourselves in a familiar situation. So many questions and so little answers.
I am personally for self regulation. The onus of restricting what should and what should not be shown should lie on the broadcasters themselves. In fact, I am sure that this is what these organisations would want too. Now that they have been used to so much freedom, they certainly would not like 'Big Brother' looking over their shoulders, would they? [Off course these organisations would be dead set against even self regulation but somehow we have to convince them that it is the way forward] Moreover, i am certain that there will be at least one good human being among the thousands in those organisations whose wiser sense will prevail and sanity restored with respect to content of reality TV. This will also encourage responsible content generation and will pave the way for a independent yet responsible broadcasting.
Off course, the government could take the role of a 2nd class regulator and step in and take on these broadcasters if things go too far. Or we could have a independent body, consisting of all sections of the media, play regulator. But the downside of this is that vested interest might creep in and play spoilsport.
What are your thoughts on this?
Lessons from a dead body
Some time back we got a message on the phone that one of my distant relatives died. I attended the funeral along with my parents. I usually like to observe a lot in a funeral as it is quite peculiar place and people behave differently.
That was a small village and when I entered the funeral house there were hardly any people as we were the first to receive the message and people just started coming. I can see the last death vehicle was under construction. I watched it with keen interest as I may have to travel in that one day. The making was simple. They placed two pieces of one vertically cut bamboo in either sides. They filled in the middle space by placing small sticks in the form ofl ‘x’ touching both the vertically placed bamboos. They tied it very hard with jute thread. Then to make it flat, they spread tightly knit coconut leaves on it. That’s it. The last vehicle was ready.
When the time this was over, I could see my dad chatting with a gang of five to six people. The son and the grandson of the lady died were busy receiving the mourners and making arrangements for clearing the body.
Now they brought out the body and I had a glimpse of the full body. She should have been around her early eighties and her body shrunk so badly that anyone can lift her easily with their both hands like they lift a child while sleeping. A one rupee coin was placed on her fore head and her two toes were tied together.
Around six people, after making lots of chaos, lifted the body and placed it on the final vehicle where a single person would have done that as the body was so small. Everyone were trying to prove that they were helping and made that place so clumsy. Someone wanted to place a pillow under the head and another arguing it isnt necessary.
Finally they lifted the body and the procession was very short as the grave yard was only 200 meters away. I went along and stood in a place where I can have a nice view to observe everything. They placed the body near the recently dug pit and started doing all the rituals. Again there arouse a small pandemonium as few people had other opinions on the way rituals were followed. Finally the person with high sounding voice won the game and every one followed as per his advice. I saw the first part of sand fell over the face. It was quite strange to see sand falling on face without victim reacting to it.
Now again I saw my dad along with the same people more or less occupying same places. But now the grandson also joined the discussion. I can hear them discussing on various topics ranging from search of a servant maid, discussion on the character of the current MLA and his prospect of getting chance to contest in forthcoming elections, marriage prospects of another participant of the forum etc.
After a while my mum came out of the home. She was with the ladies sitting inside home and we were waiting outside the house under shamiyana. We decided to leave now and the grand son and son bid adieu with a smiling face.
In the same week I got another message from my mum that one our close family friends expired in the hospital on accident. He was a middle aged man having two kids one boy and a girl. My father and my mother were totally shocked.
They said he was such a nice gentle man and he helped our family in innumerable occasions.
We immediately rushed to his home. There were already big crowd and I heard the cry from quite a distance. I can see gangs of people with sad faces discussing about th mode of death in low voices. I joined one of our common family friends. They were feeling so sad and the guy started telling how good his character was. The lady mentioned that he was almost like their family member and he was the one who used to stand in front in all their family functions whether it is good or bad. She felt sad that there was no one to fill his place now. To fill in the gap, I too said that he was such a nice man to be with and I would miss a friend like him.
I had a very brief glimpse of the body which was wrapped in hospital cloth. Someone should have called the electric cremation and I can see their van arriving at the spot. Seeing this, his wife rushed out with her kids. People just held her strong to prevent her falling on the body. The kids were quite young and the guy was studying his 12th standard and the girl just finished her under graduation. Now I can hear a loud cry though I could not see their faces as the entire crowd was around them. She was saying that he let her alone and how would she settle her son and how she would get her daughter married. God should have been kind enough to let him at least until he perform all those duties. Someone tried consoling her.
Amidst her massive cry, they lifted the body till the van. In no time few people climbed the van and it disappeared.
After returning home, I had time to think a little on that.
Why people took the death of the elderly lady very light?
Why the situation was so serious in the funeral of the middle aged person?
Is that because that the elderly lady was not of any use to them, the family were so cool?
Is that because they miss all the benefits they get from middle aged man, they cried so much?
Is this world so materialistic and selfish? (including me)
As I left...
As I left
She was standing by the tree
Her big wet eyes staring at me
She tried, but could tell not a word
She looked up, praying to the lord
And I left
As I left
The road cried as I stepped on it
The clouds rumbled as I took the street
The air whistled through the bamboo woods
I walked past, as my mind broods
And I left
As I left
The moon hid behind the cloud
The lark screamed pretty aloud
The drops of tears left her eyes
As she looked up into the skies
And I left
As I left
Something broke in me, deep inside
As I leave alone my newlywed bride
I wanted to too, but I did not cry
But she did, as she bid me goodbye
And I left for the border – as my motherland calls for me…
A Tribute, to the Kargil War Heroes!!
Controversial??
I don’t know how, but sometimes I develop an uncanny ability to rub the wrong side of both the parties who support and differ on a topic. I think I may do that now by writing this one.
I am an agnostic, so I am not going to use words like God’s will or satanic etc. I just love, observe and hail nature for its massiveness, appearance and system. If you can keenly observe the nature, you can understand that it runs its show not by threatening or advising but by motivating people. I believe nature wants every one of us to learn about life. An inactive person can not learn anything and so it created hunger and ego. The nature wants the life flourishing and so it created attraction between genders, desire, fear of death (they want to leave some kind of their representation in this world after death), fear of life (there should be some one to take care of them in their old age) and sexual satisfaction. Their anatomy is created to complement this.
So here I would like to express my opinion that I dont have enough ground to believe that homo sexuality is natural.
But at the same time, I feel being not natural is not a crime to punish. They don’t harm anyone physically or mentally. So I fully agree with the verdict of the court.
The society don’t have to ill-treat them either because discrimination in any form is inhuman.
Since they don’t hurt anyone and since every human being in this world is free to make their choice in life, we don’t have to disturb them either.
I just dont want to do all the above under the cover that this act is natural.
HC Verdict
Hearing about the verdict in favor of the homosexuals in Times Of India, i happened to read most of the readers comments. Many people against the verdict made statements like -- 'Its against nature', 'Against god's will', 'We r leading the youths in wrong direction', 'Immoral' etc etc
On reading these i would like to ask people who did ever decide what - 'The will of nature is?', 'God's will?', 'Immorality is?' It is 'we people' who years ago decided to give things and phenomena around us names and take decisions. 'We people' gave names like plants,trees,bushes,clouds,house, etc etc. Someone in the past observed trees grow 'up' the ground and roots 'below'. We are conditioned to think 'up' and 'below' are as we have learnt and seen. But what if in history the words were the other way round? We did probably say that trees grow below and the roots up. Similarly we decided what the will of nature is, what is god's will and not the other way around. I firmly believe every individual has the right to live life the way they want to and no one has the right to question them because nothing has ever been defined by nature. Rather people should concentrate on other matters like rape, pedophiles, domestic violence, human abuse, poverty etc which causes distress to humans .If people are so worried about going against nature or god what about the issues i just mentioned? Aren't rape, domestic violence, killing people against nature/god's will? If people think the world is going in the wrong direction is it not their duty to make it a better place by doing their bit in eliminating poverty or providing education or doing something about our degrading environment.
So people before you make harsh statements, look around you, think, there is a lot more to be done than simply commenting and deciding for others.
'I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.' -- By Ayn Rand
www.myworld-2009.blogspot.com
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Regards
Aprajitha
On reading these i would like to ask people who did ever decide what - 'The will of nature is?', 'God's will?', 'Immorality is?' It is 'we people' who years ago decided to give things and phenomena around us names and take decisions. 'We people' gave names like plants,trees,bushes,clouds,house, etc etc. Someone in the past observed trees grow 'up' the ground and roots 'below'. We are conditioned to think 'up' and 'below' are as we have learnt and seen. But what if in history the words were the other way round? We did probably say that trees grow below and the roots up. Similarly we decided what the will of nature is, what is god's will and not the other way around. I firmly believe every individual has the right to live life the way they want to and no one has the right to question them because nothing has ever been defined by nature. Rather people should concentrate on other matters like rape, pedophiles, domestic violence, human abuse, poverty etc which causes distress to humans .If people are so worried about going against nature or god what about the issues i just mentioned? Aren't rape, domestic violence, killing people against nature/god's will? If people think the world is going in the wrong direction is it not their duty to make it a better place by doing their bit in eliminating poverty or providing education or doing something about our degrading environment.
So people before you make harsh statements, look around you, think, there is a lot more to be done than simply commenting and deciding for others.
'I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.' -- By Ayn Rand
www.myworld-2009.blogspot.com
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Regards
Aprajitha
Confession Of A 'Carefree' Soul
She has been waiting for her son from the time she saw this pretty girl in last navrathri puja,whose family fortunately turned out to be one of acquaintance of her. ‘She is a perfect match for raul’, she thought. Sheela is a very heretic, quiescent kind of women, who brought up her son with lot of love and prudent manner after her husband expired.. From that time, she had been working as a math’s teacher at St.Teresa Model School. She believed, this time which seemed interminable is going to end, once her son brings her, a daughter in law. In a country like India, parents especially women build this thing of seeing their children getting married soon and dream of seeing grand children playing in around home. Sheela belonged to such cohorts.
He arrived at the door, when she was done with making rosogolla,roshoboti,mishti and many eatables and arranging them at the dining table for him. The fog of excitement that had hung over the house from last few days at last dissipated quickly after looking at her son. He settled very quickly & made her mother feel satisfied about him. He knew that his mother would start about his marriage anytime and this is the right time to say his mind, after all everything hinged on the outcome of this conversation that’s going to come. He hoped highly, she would understand him rather than terming it as an act of felony. The happiness of her was sacrosanct to him but he didn’t have any other choice.He changed his clothes, after having a shower and came downstairs to the kitchen via hall room.
“maa… “He called her standing at the kitchen entrance.
“Hmmm…” She responded, not looking at him, continuing the cleaning of utensils.
“I need to talk to you… “
He waited for her to turn, in order to let her know how worrying and important this thing is to talk about.
“Even I need to talk to you about lot of things…. Let me complete this..i will be right there”
“Ok” He turned towards the hall.
He waited for her arrival, for exact 2 mins 56 seconds. He wasn’t keeping the track of time, but time wasn’t passing at its usual speed. Then she was there, sitting next to him.She forwarded the photo she carried in her hand and said in an almost loquacious tone “she is preethi, age 23, had completed her degree in commerce and works as a financial consultant. Her father manages his export-import business in Kolkata. I have verified, they belong to a nice family. Isn’t she pretty?“
He responded, raising his head, without a glance at the girl’s photo.
“Yeah ...She is….”
“So shall I proceed with it? “
“But…”“But what? You don’t like her..?”
“No! I mean it’s not about her “
“Then what is it about? “
She looked at him with one of her usual alarming looks. It’s been 2 years she had been cribbing in front of him, to get married. He had been postponing his marriage for various reasons which she never digested till day.
“How should I frame it maa...” He was prepared for it, but the generation gap, the topic’s typicality and its filthy nature in the society, His mother’s reaction that’s going to come fractioned his will in some way, He continued“ Maa… I don’t want to marry anyone. I am not interested in marriage.”
“Why not? Please raul don’t talk like this.. I am not able to understand what‘s worrying you so much. Everyone gets married; I don’t know why you don’t want to marry”
“Maa. I cannot ruin a girl’s life by marrying her. I simply cannot spoil so many lives.” He gave her the sealed envelope with a letter which he wrote sitting at his study table in Delhi before leaving for kolkatta. He knew that he might fail to tell her verbally what he had planned to, hence he thought to write a letter confessing to her mother of his being gay.She read the letter with complete silence. He explained to her that he realized his being like that when he was 16. He tried to avoid, as it seemed to be not-a-normal thing initially. As years went by, it turned out to be a bitter truth. He Said, he can marry a girl, if she wishes him to, but he also warned her that he cannot guarantee about the girl’s happiness whom he would marry and he requested her not to expect happiness from him who would be giving his only physical presence to it. He said that he is in love with a guy udaykiran who lives in delhi and he cannot think of living his life without him. He apologized for the abashment caused and asked her to forgive me if she can.
She left to her bedroom in a despondent mood. After she left without uttering a word, he sat there pummeling his right thigh and then everything that he came across. He wanted to be relentless and that is what seemed fairer to him, no matter how exacerbated his life becomes after all this. He didn’t want to sound agitated but devising a new way which is circumvalent too was difficult, especially in front of her mother. He wished his mother would understand him and he could live his life happily with his love, if she permitted him.
Kolkatta, 21st March: Last night a 48 years old lady and her 27 year old son committed suicide. Reasons are unidentified. Police says the deceased, hanged herself after reading a letter which they suppose, and was delivered in the evening. As the letter was burned, they couldn’t verify the reasons. They also said the man committed suicide consuming pesticides and was found dead in the kitchen. They found a suicidal note in his hands which police officers are denying to talk about except that fact that it was a love thing.My experience with trans genders
After my college days, I was happily placed in one of the then top 5 IT companies through campus interview. Propelled by the unbearable politics inside the company, I resigned my job within four months to find myself in a lengthy jobless period as it was September eleven attack time. Myself and my best friend decided to use this chance to travel to Mumbai and stay with my old school friend to hunt for a job.
I was very happy and looking forward for that moment as it was the longest train journey in my life and it was my first time to Mumbai. Before boarding the train, with the usual youth self, we promptly checked the reservation chart for any beautiful girl names around our age. I cant remember if we found any but we were enjoying every moment of it.
When a very informative co passenger informed me that we crossed
These transgender people were asking money from the passengers. When they refuse to give money or when they offer less money than their expectation, they embarrassed the passengers by touching their cheeks, partly undressing, sitting on their laps etc.
The first person refused to give money and enjoyed all these rituals. The second person gave ten rupees and got little bit of abuse. No one escaped their teasing and abuses except a person who handed over 50 rupees. What do you think I did? I took my wallet immediately to take fifty rupees and kept it ready in my front pocket. I really didnt’t want to give any money as I wasnt aware of my requirement in Mumbai. But I was more than definite not to let them anywhere near my intimate zone. They were just one row before me. I was waiting like a kid who would handover the paisa given by his mom to the temple elephant. Nothing note worthy happened. They got the money from my hands and moved on to my very informative co passenger who refused to give any money. I enjoyed all the rituals done to him. But you know, he escaped with out giving any money at all.
I saw similar incident through out Mumbai in my one month long tenure there. This is almost like a theft. Instead of threatening to take your life as other thieves do, they threaten to damage your self respect. I was very furious loosing my money in this way. I remember blaming even the government and police people for not taking any action for this. Even in Tirupur, where I live now, one transgender person entered my friend’s office in a complex and threatened to create chaos if he doesn’t give money.
Though these activities of transgender people seem to be uncultured and disgusting, I got other ideas when I thought deep in to this issue with empathy.
I have never seen anyone employ a transgender. Even their parents get rid of them once they come to know their identity. No one in the society, right from street youths to elderly people, recognise them as human being. I have never seen a movie depicting them with respect other than Manirathnam’s
Image courtesy: http://www.shaarique.com/miss-koovagam/.
Naming conventions
A page from my diary
Year 2019- My 7 year long world trip ended this year. Am returning to India from my last stop, Timbuktu. I got down at Mumbai airport to catch my connection flight to Trivandrum. The Timbuktu national airline 'boombakakku' gave me a rough ride and so I thought of catching some sleep on our good old Indian airlines. Hey stop, whats that name on the ticket? Na, Its not Indian airlines. Oh, they changed the national airlines name to Bajiv airlines. Whatever, Who cares anyway? Walking with sleepish eyes, I somehow managed to locate my seat. Even after traveling the world, I still love the window seat. And I love it even more when a beautiful lady sits beside me, which happened luckily this time too. She was carrying a cool handbag with 'Bahul bank of India' written on it. I thought it to be some local money lender or worse some new age bank. I started the usual 'sweet talk' without which no lady can escape from near me and that's when she told me that the Govt re-christened the state bank of India as 'Bahul bank of India'.
More sweet talks and then the food arrives. I take a glance at the glam air hostess. She didn't care to look at me and in her eyes, I could read a 'free from section 377' glow directed at my co-passenger. Seems like in 10 years, the law has done a lot of good, bad and bood. I finished the tasteless lunch and was cleaning my hands when the name on the tissue paper caught my eyes-'Driyanka caterers'. Aah! This is getting interesting. The next few days in my native country, I felt as if I was in an alien world ruled by a king obsessed with naming everything after his clan. Wherever I turned, the names of somebody from the clan was there. Traveling on the roads were a confusing exercise as Bajiv cross ended up in Bahul junction from where Bajiv double cross road started. The Driyanka main road was a stone's throw away from Jonia flyover which will get you to Bajiv circle. Its as if someone killed all our imaginative minds in the last 10 years. Did somebody mention thought police?
The old man at the pan shop told me that all this madness started some 20 years back. At first, it was some small roads which were named like this. Then, some big welfare projects also started getting these names. The turning point happened 10 years ago, when this big bridge over the sea in Mumbai ended up with one of these names. It was the work of some shameless sycophant. Our land boasting a big number of the sycophant creed, was not the same from that day. Almost everything in sight was renamed. There was no question on what the name of a new project will be. I felt like in a scary dream world which perhaps George Orwell would've articulated well if he had written '2019' instead of '1984'.
Depressed, I took a walk along that old road near the cemetery. This is the only place which has given me some solace and peace right from my school days. I plucked a rose from the wayside and decided to place it on the tombstone of our friendly old neighborhood uncle. I walked in past the board of the cemetery, obviously named after the clan. But, I got the biggest shock of my life when I saw all the tombstones with a single name. Yes, one from the clan... Hey wait, did I just hear the clan's name being chanted from the nearby temple, mosque and church? I have to preserve this diary. I think this is the only thing in the whole of the country which doesn't carry the clan name..Oh No, What was I writing till now!!!
PS- Overheard from sycophant's house- "Lets ask Mayawati to name her statues after Bajiv!"
- E-mailied in by Praveen SR
Year 2019- My 7 year long world trip ended this year. Am returning to India from my last stop, Timbuktu. I got down at Mumbai airport to catch my connection flight to Trivandrum. The Timbuktu national airline 'boombakakku' gave me a rough ride and so I thought of catching some sleep on our good old Indian airlines. Hey stop, whats that name on the ticket? Na, Its not Indian airlines. Oh, they changed the national airlines name to Bajiv airlines. Whatever, Who cares anyway? Walking with sleepish eyes, I somehow managed to locate my seat. Even after traveling the world, I still love the window seat. And I love it even more when a beautiful lady sits beside me, which happened luckily this time too. She was carrying a cool handbag with 'Bahul bank of India' written on it. I thought it to be some local money lender or worse some new age bank. I started the usual 'sweet talk' without which no lady can escape from near me and that's when she told me that the Govt re-christened the state bank of India as 'Bahul bank of India'.
More sweet talks and then the food arrives. I take a glance at the glam air hostess. She didn't care to look at me and in her eyes, I could read a 'free from section 377' glow directed at my co-passenger. Seems like in 10 years, the law has done a lot of good, bad and bood. I finished the tasteless lunch and was cleaning my hands when the name on the tissue paper caught my eyes-'Driyanka caterers'. Aah! This is getting interesting. The next few days in my native country, I felt as if I was in an alien world ruled by a king obsessed with naming everything after his clan. Wherever I turned, the names of somebody from the clan was there. Traveling on the roads were a confusing exercise as Bajiv cross ended up in Bahul junction from where Bajiv double cross road started. The Driyanka main road was a stone's throw away from Jonia flyover which will get you to Bajiv circle. Its as if someone killed all our imaginative minds in the last 10 years. Did somebody mention thought police?
The old man at the pan shop told me that all this madness started some 20 years back. At first, it was some small roads which were named like this. Then, some big welfare projects also started getting these names. The turning point happened 10 years ago, when this big bridge over the sea in Mumbai ended up with one of these names. It was the work of some shameless sycophant. Our land boasting a big number of the sycophant creed, was not the same from that day. Almost everything in sight was renamed. There was no question on what the name of a new project will be. I felt like in a scary dream world which perhaps George Orwell would've articulated well if he had written '2019' instead of '1984'.
Depressed, I took a walk along that old road near the cemetery. This is the only place which has given me some solace and peace right from my school days. I plucked a rose from the wayside and decided to place it on the tombstone of our friendly old neighborhood uncle. I walked in past the board of the cemetery, obviously named after the clan. But, I got the biggest shock of my life when I saw all the tombstones with a single name. Yes, one from the clan... Hey wait, did I just hear the clan's name being chanted from the nearby temple, mosque and church? I have to preserve this diary. I think this is the only thing in the whole of the country which doesn't carry the clan name..Oh No, What was I writing till now!!!
PS- Overheard from sycophant's house- "Lets ask Mayawati to name her statues after Bajiv!"
- E-mailied in by Praveen SR
BURQA BAN-AN APT STEP??
THE BURQA IS NOT A RELEGIOUS SYMBOL, BUT A SIGN OF SUBSERVIENCE AND DEBASEMENT"
-Sarkozy, the French prez.
So we see that according to the French President, Mr. Nicholas Sarkozy, burqa means something which “imprisons the women behind a screen cut off from the social world and deprived of all identity.” and that is how he justifies the ban on burqa in France as this is not the" French idea of freedom". Keeping apart what others have to say about this step of Sarkozy (that it’s a political opportunity for sarko), the outcome of this ban would be feminist and secular. Good for the women who are forced to wear them. After all if “all men are born free, how is it that women are born slaves??"- Mary Astell.
But on the flip side, lots of women willingly wear the veil. They see the veil as a garment liberating them from the male gaze. So it’s a bit unfit to assume that all women who wear the veil are being forced to do so. Many of them even do it as it’s in their religion.
Thus we see that the situation is extremely complex. As already the famous social commentator Faisal al yafai said last year,-
"Muslim women who choose to wear the veil (not all do) often claim that they are reappropriating their own bodies from the public sphere. The veil is complex. At various times it has been seen as both -an instrument of male oppression and of female liberation."
So we, the onlookers who are still deciding which side to vote for must realize that either we should totally eliminate the idea of feminism from our dictionary or we should forget about secularism where every religion is allowed to flourish without interruptions with all due regards. There exists no third option for such a problem, except WAIT, WATCH AND ACCEPT.
-Sarkozy, the French prez.
So we see that according to the French President, Mr. Nicholas Sarkozy, burqa means something which “imprisons the women behind a screen cut off from the social world and deprived of all identity.” and that is how he justifies the ban on burqa in France as this is not the" French idea of freedom". Keeping apart what others have to say about this step of Sarkozy (that it’s a political opportunity for sarko), the outcome of this ban would be feminist and secular. Good for the women who are forced to wear them. After all if “all men are born free, how is it that women are born slaves??"- Mary Astell.
But on the flip side, lots of women willingly wear the veil. They see the veil as a garment liberating them from the male gaze. So it’s a bit unfit to assume that all women who wear the veil are being forced to do so. Many of them even do it as it’s in their religion.
Thus we see that the situation is extremely complex. As already the famous social commentator Faisal al yafai said last year,-
"Muslim women who choose to wear the veil (not all do) often claim that they are reappropriating their own bodies from the public sphere. The veil is complex. At various times it has been seen as both -an instrument of male oppression and of female liberation."
So we, the onlookers who are still deciding which side to vote for must realize that either we should totally eliminate the idea of feminism from our dictionary or we should forget about secularism where every religion is allowed to flourish without interruptions with all due regards. There exists no third option for such a problem, except WAIT, WATCH AND ACCEPT.
Direct Cash Transfer
Hi All,
Direct Cash Transfer(DCT) is a term that i came across in Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India and it has caught my imagination since then. It refers to the practice of government placing some amount of cash, based on requirement, into an individuals bank account in order to help him/her tide over a certain difficulty or to offset the removal of government subsidy that had been in place till then.
DCT has been experimented ,with varying levels of success ,all around the world and on the whole the beneficiaries of this concept have given it a big thumbs up. DCT tends to have a whole lot of advantages associated with it. I will state some of them here.
1.) Targeted Subsidies - Only a fraction of the subsidies today actually reach the intended audience. With DCT, subsidies can be targeted and made to reach only the people they were meant for. For ex. LPG cylinders being supplied to rich households are subsidised to the same extent as the ones beings sent to middle/poor households. This clearly doesn't make sense.
2.) Massive Savings- Apart from making perfect logic, DCT will also translate into good savings for the government. The cash transfer is going to be made only to families which need them and not to everyone by default, which is how the present system works.
3.) Responsible/Reduced Usage - Because DCT will only compensate for a finite amount of resources consumed, it will encourage beneficiaries reduce their usage of these resources. For the sake of continuity, lets again take the case of LPG:
Actual cost of one cylinder - 550
Cost to consumer - 350
Subsidy - 200
If the government sets the cylinder limit at 8/family/year then it would need to deposit 8*200=1600 into the accounts of the families and carry on and sell each cylinder at actual cost price.
Advantage 1: Subsidy provided to people who don't need it(read Ambanis' and the likes) will be eliminated.
Advantage 2: If families use more than their stipulated amount of cylinders, they would have to do so at actual cost of the cylinder.
Now that we have seen the merits of this system, i would like to highlight the challenges this system poses.
1. Mammoth Task - Creating bank accounts for millions of house holds across India will be no easy task and will require many changes/simplifications in the procedures for account creation. Orientation and acquaintance courses must be held to make the masses more familiar with banking terms/formalities etc.
Silver Lining - The banking system in this country is quite strong and that banks and their ATMs are spread across the width and the breadth of India.
2. Unwillingness - People might not be, initially, so receptive to the the idea of universal subsidy being removed and a more targeted system being brought in to replace it. Stiff resistance might be encountered from families which are large in number(5 or more) as they certainly would need more of these resources.
Silver Lining - This concept is politically "sell-able" due to its obvious benefits. Some Indian politicians were even making some noise about this in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. So for once, we can actually confide in our politicians to get the convincing job done!
So what do you guys think about this concept of subsidy delivery. Please share your thoughts.
Direct Cash Transfer(DCT) is a term that i came across in Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India and it has caught my imagination since then. It refers to the practice of government placing some amount of cash, based on requirement, into an individuals bank account in order to help him/her tide over a certain difficulty or to offset the removal of government subsidy that had been in place till then.
DCT has been experimented ,with varying levels of success ,all around the world and on the whole the beneficiaries of this concept have given it a big thumbs up. DCT tends to have a whole lot of advantages associated with it. I will state some of them here.
1.) Targeted Subsidies - Only a fraction of the subsidies today actually reach the intended audience. With DCT, subsidies can be targeted and made to reach only the people they were meant for. For ex. LPG cylinders being supplied to rich households are subsidised to the same extent as the ones beings sent to middle/poor households. This clearly doesn't make sense.
2.) Massive Savings- Apart from making perfect logic, DCT will also translate into good savings for the government. The cash transfer is going to be made only to families which need them and not to everyone by default, which is how the present system works.
3.) Responsible/Reduced Usage - Because DCT will only compensate for a finite amount of resources consumed, it will encourage beneficiaries reduce their usage of these resources. For the sake of continuity, lets again take the case of LPG:
Actual cost of one cylinder - 550
Cost to consumer - 350
Subsidy - 200
If the government sets the cylinder limit at 8/family/year then it would need to deposit 8*200=1600 into the accounts of the families and carry on and sell each cylinder at actual cost price.
Advantage 1: Subsidy provided to people who don't need it(read Ambanis' and the likes) will be eliminated.
Advantage 2: If families use more than their stipulated amount of cylinders, they would have to do so at actual cost of the cylinder.
Now that we have seen the merits of this system, i would like to highlight the challenges this system poses.
1. Mammoth Task - Creating bank accounts for millions of house holds across India will be no easy task and will require many changes/simplifications in the procedures for account creation. Orientation and acquaintance courses must be held to make the masses more familiar with banking terms/formalities etc.
Silver Lining - The banking system in this country is quite strong and that banks and their ATMs are spread across the width and the breadth of India.
2. Unwillingness - People might not be, initially, so receptive to the the idea of universal subsidy being removed and a more targeted system being brought in to replace it. Stiff resistance might be encountered from families which are large in number(5 or more) as they certainly would need more of these resources.
Silver Lining - This concept is politically "sell-able" due to its obvious benefits. Some Indian politicians were even making some noise about this in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. So for once, we can actually confide in our politicians to get the convincing job done!
So what do you guys think about this concept of subsidy delivery. Please share your thoughts.
Nostalgia - A trick played by our mind.
There is a famous dialogue in the movie Mudhalvan (Its Nayak in Hindi. I don’t know if Hindi version has the same dialogue).
‘How nice it would be if we got ‘forward’ and ‘rewind’ button in life also as like we have in a tape recorder ?’
I used to like that dialogue a lot and never failed to mention this to my pals when ever I get a chance. But later on, when I think deeper and in an unbiased way, I tend to realize that nostalgia is a trick played by our mind.
My school days were not all rainbows and sunshines. I still remember my disastrous days there along with all the happy time with my friends. I love the first time I went out to cinema bunking the class in my 9th standard. Though I can clearly identify it as harmonic infatuation, I loved the moment I saw a girl of my taste. I loved all the time that I spend with my friend discussing nothing but girls. I enjoy every bit of immature behaviour that I exhibited then. I enjoyed the thrill of exchanging papers during exam. I loved the sense of achievement that we got after firing crackers in front of our warden's room irritating him to the core. If only for these things, I would definitely want to go to my school days. But I also remember the amount of trauma I go through when ever I need to get my progress report signed by my parents when I got poor marks. The fear I develop for my teacher’s stick. The butterfly in my stomach when I was identified as one of the main culprits behind the strike that we did in school. Though these reasons sound to be silly now, the fear it created in my mind was no less than the biggest I face now. So I think life is absolutely same through out its tenure with happiness and disaster well mixed. But when we think about our past, we generally remember only the good moments, comfortably forgeting the nasty times that we had. This is the reason why we want to go to our past.
Image courtesy: http://www.marx-brothers.org/
And a year passes By...
For all those who don't know, and for any one who forgot, on 1st of July, 2009 Jagruti completed one year of its existence.
Congratulations to all of you, readers, members, supporters, critics, everyone. My gratitude to all I express.
A special mention for Sid, Karthik, Aakriti, Richa who all in their own way helped in shaping up Jagruti to where it stands today. I made several experiments for the betterment of the blog, failed in most of them still these people stood by firm.
Change is neccessary and change has to happen. Jagruti, earlier being a mere blog like millions of others associated with blogspot is now going to have it's own identity. And this identity is being given in form of jagruti.orangy.in
I have tried, in the past, of forming various administrative teams, so that a democratic social structure can be established for the blog. But most of the times, the idea just didn't go well. So now I have got rid of that anomly by associating this blog with Orangy. Now, Jagruti wont be a blog but a website. A professionally managed website. Memberships as such are being done away with. Everyone who wishes to contribute shall be doing so through orangy.in@gmail.com
The old members, can still contribute through thier dashboards.
However, the only thing that shall remain intact is the social charter, our commitment towards causes of the society, especially youth, women and religion.
Hope, you all like the new initiatives. Orangy's world traffic ranking, till date stands at
6,281,091
Regards,
Tushar Mangl
Admin
Orangy
Congratulations to all of you, readers, members, supporters, critics, everyone. My gratitude to all I express.
A special mention for Sid, Karthik, Aakriti, Richa who all in their own way helped in shaping up Jagruti to where it stands today. I made several experiments for the betterment of the blog, failed in most of them still these people stood by firm.
Change is neccessary and change has to happen. Jagruti, earlier being a mere blog like millions of others associated with blogspot is now going to have it's own identity. And this identity is being given in form of jagruti.orangy.in
I have tried, in the past, of forming various administrative teams, so that a democratic social structure can be established for the blog. But most of the times, the idea just didn't go well. So now I have got rid of that anomly by associating this blog with Orangy. Now, Jagruti wont be a blog but a website. A professionally managed website. Memberships as such are being done away with. Everyone who wishes to contribute shall be doing so through orangy.in@gmail.com
The old members, can still contribute through thier dashboards.
However, the only thing that shall remain intact is the social charter, our commitment towards causes of the society, especially youth, women and religion.
Hope, you all like the new initiatives. Orangy's world traffic ranking, till date stands at
6,281,091
Regards,
Tushar Mangl
Admin
Orangy
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