Jagruti- The Awakening

Karma and Ignorance

2012-01-02T02:43:00.003+05:30

Man is born to do karma. All the problems arise when man tries to avoid karma. Man cannot avoid work. Even thinking about something is karma, so man cannot avoid doing karma. Ignorance causes evil. Ignoring something is all about not thinking in-depth about the root cause of it. Taking action or not is another matter, it is a different karma. Monitoring one's thoughts is important as it determines whether we are doing good karma or not.

A tale of 1 country: Brothers in arms

2011-03-29T14:14:00.003+05:30

I stand at my balcony and watch the unfortunate (no not unfortunate) events unfold 2 floors down. Dadi (grandmother) has fallen to the ground and is crying, my mother has a face of steel, its frozen into a blank stare; I know this state, I have seen it before, she is controlling herself showing a brave and proud wife to the world. She is helping dadi. Uncle keeps pointing past the gate and is shouting something at dada (grandfather). Dada has just locked the gate and is walking back to the house.

Past the gate I can see a group of people all clad in white, surrounding something lying on the ground covered with a white cloth. My governess Shobhadi stands next to me holding me, afraid that I'll run downstairs into the scene unfolding. She and and the servants have been given strict orders that I can not be allowed downstairs. Dada thinks I do not understand what is happening, he thinks I cannot comprehend what is going on, but I do.

The year is 1940, my name is Sandip, I'm 10 years old. I think My father just died.

Yes, I'm sure of whats happening. I know enough of the alphabets, I read and understood the headlines in the New India Post today morning, I also saw my father's name mentioned. I do not know my father. Dada said he died 6 years ago in an accident, but from what I've understood from overhearing my mother's and dadi's discussions, my father is.. no, was.. a patriot and joined the independence movement. He strictly instructed my mother not to leave the house or go against my dada, he couldn't force the 2 of us to live like refugees nor could he bear to take me away from my dada. Father loved and respected his family, and most of all my english loving dada.

I look down at the unfolding scene trying to understand what I feel. Am I sad or am I indifferent?? I don't know what to feel.

I look down and see the huge crowd shouting and screaming angry slogans ready to kill and be killed. Bapu, standing a few paces away from me, he raises his hand and the crowd falls silent as they listen to his voice, hear what he says and they calm down. In those last few days, Calcutta was the only peaceful city in the country.

The date is 14th August 1947, I'm at my best friend Ornob's place where Bapu is staying. Ornob's sister and my love interest Deepa stands next to me hugging my hand. I feel the tension and uncertainty radiate from her. Ornob, standing inbetween me and Bapu, looks at me and says "Sandip, do you see what's happening here? The English have broken our India into 2 so that we and now our brothers the Pakistanis can never unite against the west. They have divided us such that we can never outdo the west". I nod as I see the sadness in Ornob's eyes, we are all sad to witness this unfortunate event. Brothers have been separated and pitted against each other. I'm afraid the results of the day's events will reverberate across generations.

The date is 29th March 2011, all I hear about is the upcoming cricket match between India and Pakistan. My grandson Abhiroop, keeps on about how "India will win and destroy the Pakis!". I look at him and try to tell him that we are brothers, one nation divided artificially into 2 by the west who till today plan and scheme and foster the hatred such that we can't unite. There is a photo of Pakistani tourists in the newspaper today. They have come to see the match. Standing beside Indians, they look like us and we look like them. We all dress the same way, look the same way, talk the same way. Yet, we hate each other's guts and keep fighting and bickering over trivial matters. Kashmir, a sensitive issue for the countries, but will the issue exist if Pakistan and India united and became 1 country? Pakistan wants Kashmir and India wants Kashmir. If we are 1 country we both get Kashmir!

I look forward to the day when we can unite as brothers, India and Pakistan should take the step forward, dissolve both the countries and make it into one big nation of peaceful people who work towards each other's betterment, Hindus mixing and matching with Muslims and Muslims with Hindus; like it was before the partitions, like it was before the English came to this land, like it was in ancient times, like it should be.

But instead these children they fight and bicker and waste their energies. People want to split up states, like India was split up. My question is what will you get by doing that? Independence? Like India and Pakistan? We have been fighting each other ever since. If we had solved our problems and become one we would not have wasted so many resources fighting each other but would have developed our economies and homes, eradicated poverty, illiteracy, infanticide and so many deseases! Isn't that better than fighting?

Imagine the Pakistani and Indian cricket team as one. SO much talent! We can easily become the best team / nation in the world. A beacon, a bright and shining light, a model for the world to follow.

WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-> SJ

*Disclaimer: Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental

Where art thou?? Oh! enlightened ones!!!!!

2011-03-23T12:50:00.001+05:30

Sitting on a desk, having gone through hundreds of profiles and tens of interviews, literally pulling his hair out he gives up for the day. On his way back home, driving through the little deserted streets of the city he ponders upon his plight. He rues the scarcity of capable people in his country. Its been days and he hasn't been able to find them. Where are they? Where are these illustrious Indians he wonders. "Have I gone blind or is it a nationwide conspiracy to bring down my venture?"

He sits back on his chair and ponders on his laptop screen superficially going through the social lives of his "friends" on social networking sites. He comes across articles of how proud we should be that X% of Indians are in the NASA, on the moon in a NASA mission, in the pentagon and hell one of them( his acquaintances) has joined the US marines!!! The updates start to irk till he comes across one where a "fellow countryman" is talking about the various scams the country has recently seen and starts a discussion on what should be done and how unscrupulous people are, how ill mannered and erratic life here is and how minimal the returns are etc.

Right about then it starts to erupt. Something snaps within and he asks himself, "Where are these people who talk so well and so intelligently about our country? Oh! wait, they are all abroad!" . Having thought this he retired to his bed hoping that tomorrow he would find someone, at least one capable person.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

A once worshiped man, now forgotten here and worshiped everywhere else in the world including countries like Germany, had said "be the change you want to see in the world." Nobody wants to get their hands dirty but wants to see the dirt cleaned up. Nobody does it and asks why isn't it being done. I have nothing against people pursuing greater comforts under the pretense that they cant be had here, but the least you can spare me is the sermons on the country that belongs to us but I reside in. I am sorry I know no other way of saying this but just saying it. Pursue your dreams be happy, i have no grievances but please don't sermon about this place. I am here, fighting and i might either make it or may break down and join you people. I am not a great man. But the day I join i will make sure that i don't give sermons...

Economy Rise-Does it benefit all?

2011-03-11T11:23:00.000+05:30

The economies are on the rise,
what do they show,human rise?
or rise of some humans in tide.

why economy rise doesn't raise wages?
why the low-paid worker still rages.
what should i call it human ignorance?,
or people over-privileged, only get chance.

why the poverty is so widespread, like disease
while the urban population lives in luxurious seas

We are going for more industrialization
but what is missing is equalization,
of resources, of money, of rights, of society.
Sword nor pen, just human choice is mighty.

So,if India is the largest democracy, and in rise,
then why its farmer families have to commit suicide?

Evil Practice in the name of God

2011-03-11T11:16:00.002+05:30

Orthodox Hindu rituals which have no scientific proof for their results are still practiced at different places in India. I happened to see one such ritual at my own parental village in Uttranchal. It is called a 'jagar'. Jagar is not similar to other rituals performed by Hindus. Its different because the method to worship is very unholy. Some animals like goat, gecko and frogs etc are worshiped and then sacrificed in the name of pleasing the demigods. Some selected people dance like crazy around fire. The village people think that they are avatars of God! So called holy men smoke 'ganja'- or the local form of drugs in communities and dance when they're out, all in the name of God. Few men in the village who are otherwise purposeless and job-less argue in its favor, and tell people to believe this for the fear of God.

People there think that each community or caste has their own demigod(s) that takes care of that particular sub-society! So each caste's people have their own temples and their own demigods.

The rituals are still practiced but as people go more aware day by day, many of them know that it usually has no god-pleasing effects. Women are still the victim of ignorance and the men have no become victim of their own foolishness by conducting such rituals. They are reluctant to accept their past mistakes.

It was a pity to see some people to fake this stuff and others just being ignorant of the truth. I told people around me that i don't believe it and just walked out of there... its hard to fight some established practice like that without having power of legitimacy. Even authorities prefer not to interfere in people's works and beliefs.

The youngsters and children of village seem to just accept it as is, and do not want to fight against it. I felt sorry and powerless. Later i thought about the importance of good education in life, and educating youngsters about this, so that the coming generations don't do it anymore.

glendale: Recollections of a horrible dream.

2011-01-24T21:05:00.000+05:30

glendale: Recollections of a horrible dream.

glendale: CALL OF NATURE

2011-01-24T21:04:00.003+05:30

glendale: CALL OF NATURE

glendale: Recollections of a horrible dream.

2011-01-22T11:20:00.000+05:30

glendale: Recollections of a horrible dream.

Salary hike of MPs

2010-12-13T13:11:00.000+05:30

The salary hike Bill is one more taint on the already receding image of politicians who run our country. The bill, seeking to raise the salaries of MPs three fold has been unanimously passed by both houses of the parliament, leading to a furor among the people.

To worsen the situation, Opposition demanded a fivefold hike, and was unhappy with a threefold increase. Of course, when compared to their counterparts in developed countries, our MPs receive less salaries, but they do not do the equal amount of work. Most MPs visit their constituencies only during election campaign visits.

The provision for raising salary, daily allowance and minimum and additional pension would involve a recurring annual expenditure of Rs.103.76 crore. With problems like price rise and farmer suicides facing the nation, this is the most inappropriate time to hike salaries of MPs.

When there are criminal charges, pending cases, corruption charges against the MPs, they absolutely do not deserve a pay hike. When it comes to Bills that are absolutely necessary for the development of the nation, MPs take days to come to a consensus, but in the case of this bill, which was raised by Parliament Affairs minister Pawan Kumar when it wasn’t even slated in the agenda for the day, the MPs passed the Bill within 2 days.

What skews the argument against them is that most MPs—there are, however, exceptions—are extremely wealthy, as their affidavits with the Election Commission show. ADR pegs the average assets of a Lok Sabha MP at Rs 4-5 crore, even after excluding three MPs with assets of over Rs 100 crore from the calculation.

The payroll has started and not much can be done now. Until of course, we land ourselves on a national financial emergency.

By discussing the pay hike we have nothing left to decide. What we indeed should be discussing is the accountability of the funds that they control (Rs 2 crore per yr for their constituency) and their overall productivity. Let them take some more money if they wish to but they need to work to justify this hike. Twelve ministers of state in Maharashtra govt who cost us Rs 12 crore/yr have no work to do at all. These are the things which all of us should be focusing at.

My blog: manasa-chlamydomonas.blogspot.com

Name: Manasa K Kumar

Location: Chennai, India.

How many more such building collapses would make govt. systems wake up?!!

2010-11-17T16:12:00.000+05:30

How many more such building collapses would make govt. systems wake up?!!

Source: TOI

UN Politics: The Sweeter, the tougher

2010-11-13T03:34:00.000+05:30

Obama's state visit to india is largely a success- more for yankees and less for indians. Obama came here as a salesman in disguise and was pretty successful in his pitch. He signed 20 different deals worth US $10 Billion. india is buying all kinds of stuff from US starting from Military transpost aircraft to passenger aircrafts to jet engines to oil and gas equipment. He claims that he created 53670 jobs for americans. Well quite true! But most of the americans still think that india is taking out their jobs. As obama pointed out, these are "old stereotypes and old concerns ignore today's reality".

But what india got? Nothing solid but assurances that US will back india's quest for UNSC permanent seat and will use its leverage on pakistan to bring 26/11 responsibles to justice. Out of these two,UNSC is definately more important and interesting. 26/11 is gone and Ajmal kasab has already been through trial and the world knows that pakistan is now the epicentre of global terrorism and is unfortunately a soon-to-be failed state. While we keep the past in our head and learn from it,its also important to focus on future. India is back in UNSC after a very long time. The happy moment came after the embarrasing fiasco of 1996 where india was deliberately set up to lose (which i think is western countries punishment to india for being too close to communists). That was what i say " ab tera kya hoga kaliya?" situation.

But things have changed now. India is a growing economic and military giant and has shown it to the world that embargos, corruptions and forced isolation cannot stop this nation to claim it's rightful place. In recent elections India garnered something which can be a UN record. Normally a country needs 2/3 votes to be elected as a member of UN security council but India got the assent of 187 out of 192 possible voters. But as they say great power comes with great responsibilty. What can india expect out of this stint in security council? And how should india work?

Well, the expectation ball was rolled when prez Obama asked india's intervention in myanmar situation. Quite true! India is acting like a rock when it comes to myamnar crisis (today i heard that suu kyi is going to be released). Once in the security council, people will expect india to take steps regarding Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Sudan, Palestine and global terrorism. Suddenly the responsibilities will expand. Western countries are already performing war games with indian forces to increase the interoperability. So the mentoring and grooming has already started for some time now. But in UN - it all about international politics and mature diplomacy. India may have to offend many friends like iran- so we will have to learn the fine art of negotitations.

Pakistan is already miffed with the US endorsement of india's bid for UNSC perma-member seat. Out of the five perma members, China can shoot down india's aspirations. Rest of the four countries US,UK France and Russia are already in sync with india.

Perma seat is still few years away but india has to prove a lot before reaching that level.

- Rakesh

Is Facebook The New "Social Life"???

2010-10-19T02:05:00.001+05:30

Yes, most of us are bored of it, and long gone is the time when "fb" was about those silly never-true-yet-consulted applications, or the ville games.

But, can we afford to deactivate our facebook accounts?

Yes, its a social networking site, though frankly, the need of the "networking site" thingy in the description is decreasing at a significant pace!

Inference: Facebook is our social life!!!

We come to know about deaths, marriages, accidents, meeting, reunions, even college fest's events first through facebook, before the news reaches us through any other source...isn't it...ummm...getting a bit over types?

MOREOVER, we write on each other's walls rather than the contemporary (okay, contemporary for my time,majorly) messaging on phones...is the reason that we rely on facebook more, and believe, that a person might or might not check their phone but is bound to check his/her notifications (and it sounds so funny!). Or maybe, since almost always we are coming back here, and its so damn handy types, that we simply convey everything we want to here!

I am popular amongst my classmates for the status messages i put, and frankly, it affects my blogging...when i can get the thoughts out in a status message which almost everyone reads (also), why should i go to my blog for petty things happening every now and then?

(Facebook is a witch people, it'll take away everything from your life, and then disappear one day...heehahaha...okay yes, this WAS a bit paranoid:p)

P.S. I took an off from my college today, and since i got up at about 11.30 a.m, i have spent almost 90% of the time on facebook (SINCE, i had nothing ELSE in particular to do, and facebook is the only "PRESENT-OUT-THERE" option:p), doing particularly nothing , because, to face the facts, there's as such nothing to do on facebook, and started wondering, there's ought to be something else to do in life, in the free times, even when you don't have anything to do, than facebooking!

- Tamanna Kakkar

2010-09-22T21:25:00.002+05:30

चाहने वाला हूँ तेरा, देख ले दर्द ज़रा;

तू जो वेइखे एक नज़र कारा लखान दा शुक्र सोहनीये!

देख तू कह के मूझे , जान भी दे दूंगा तुझे;

तेरा ऐसा हूँ दीवाना, तुने अब तक ये ना जाना हीरीए !!!

---------------------------------------------

आ सोनी तेनू चाँद की मैं चूड़ी पहरावा,

मैनू कर दे इशारा ते मैं डोली ले आंवा !!!

Guardians of the treasury, looting it down

2010-07-08T03:08:00.002+05:30

I never knew, Indian politicians are flown by IAF planes, until one day, I read the news about model code of conduct being imposed by the election commission of India, for purposes of the General elections of 2004. L.K. Advani, the then Deputy Prime Minister was en route to some place in South India, in an IAF plane. The moment he came to know about the news of the election commission, he immediately landed his plane in Pune I think, and sought private arrangements to be made for his trip, for it would be improper to use the IAF plane.

In the midst of loss of civility by Parliamentarians, greedy for money and power, to come across such an anecdote, made quite an impression on me.

Now let's come down to 2010. 6 years down the lane, use of IAF planes has surfaced yet again in news.

Former Prime Minister of India, HD Deve Gowda owes the Indian Air Force around 54 lakhs, sixty one thousand and four hundred, ninety seven rupees.

He has shifted blame to his party, but is ready to pay whenever the courts ask him. The party, Janta Dal has now subsequently split into several smaller parties. The money is due since 1996-1997. Who shall pay, interest on the amount, is a question, answer to which is still evading me.

Former Prime Minister of India, Chandrasekhar owed five crore and ninety one lakh rupees to the IAF, but now that he has passed away, we the poor, third world nation should forget and forgive. He was the PM for approx. an year, still he managed to run up that kind of bill.
“The civil suit against Chandrasekhar in Delhi High Court in 2001 was dismissed on January 24, 2008, on account of his death.” As quoted by one source. Sounds like a good news for Mr. Deve Gowda, now in his late seventies, who seems to be confident of the Delhi High Court, in which his case is still pending on the admission stage. George Fernandez, the Minister for Defense in the Vajpayee government had taken an active initiative on the dues. But now he is sick, ailing and out of power.

Another Prime Minister of India, PV Narsimha Rao, also used IAF for his personal use but the amount has not come out. Seems, like Indian politicians cannot even make this a political issue, for their profession would be thoroughly insulted, and also for fear of similar secrets tumbling out of closets.

A staunch Indira Gandhi loyalist, former Cabinet Minister VC Shukla owes only four lakh and sixty thousands to the IAF.

This is, my dear friends, why it is necessary that we the people of India, should unite
and
Pay Taxes.

Conservation??? Ha Ha Ha

2010-06-22T23:30:00.000+05:30

SO, don’t get me wrong, but seriously it has become a funny issue.

A small story I would like to share here.

One day, out of laziness, I missed the morning classes, and went to bathe at about 10 o clock. That is the time when the maids of our hostel were supposed to clean all the washrooms and stuff. So, I am taking a shower (we’ll come to that later) and I notice a sudden decrease in the quantity of water. I thought that maybe the hostel water tanks have water supplies sufficient to make through the morning usage only!!!

Later on, it comes into picture, that the maids clean the washrooms in a very creative way. In the four washrooms (there are a total of five, the fifth one occupied by me) they had simply left the taps open, so the water would rebound and spread out in the entire 3 by 3 feet area, so they don’t have to perform the utterly tedious task of doing it themselves. The taps were open for at least 4 minutes straight, and who knows the same technique was used in all the eight hostels of our college!

And we talk about being one of the best engineering institutes in North India, and having the human resources to make our country a better place, etc etc etc, when we have things like these happening in front of our eyes!

And btw, do you know, that’s also how they water the plants in the big lawns, they just leave the hose open at one place so water would spread out on its own and they won’t have to do it manually, that’s when the sprinkler isn’t working.

The water, in fact, clogs in that selected area, and it kills the plants, for excessive amounts bocks the oxygen supplies.

I don’t feel THAT guilty here, for I closed the tap when the gardener wasn’t around to scold me :p

But that was just once, sadly.

Coming to the taking a shower part, I do have this guilt feeling about that, for I was told a shower consumes, or should we say, wastes, 16 liters of water per minute!!!

It’s an embarrassing figure I would say, but after all that cleaning techniques of theirs, I was thinking why should we be feeling guilty about taking our resources for granted when they are going to finish at perhaps the same time because of the so many tiny things happening every day every second in every corner of the world, and maybe, we would regret later, that we didn’t enjoy them when they WERE available!

But that was just a passing thought, we can’t justify our wrong doings by arguments such as those, and for a change I’m not going to go into philosophies.

Only a mention of a very innovative way Tushar had proposed, by using ice to save water

, I was quite impressed when he came up with that one, but what are a few ice cubes in front of liters of water wasted like that.

There are several other ways, like when you cook up pulses they have to be washed thoroughly first, and the water can be used for plants, since its rich in nutrients even.

A small point am proposing, if we want to make use of this “conservation” thing, so that my and your kids do get to see the earth the way it originally was (if that is, it survives till then) is to start form the VERY BASIC level, that includes telling our mommies and maids and everybody else about it also.

Yes, perhaps, we cannot go to an industrialist and tell him to use water judiciously in his factory, particularly when its available cheap and easy, but we can only hope for some day when he’ll wake up from his slumber upon seeing his 7 year old kid saving it!

Behind Closed Doors!

2010-06-20T17:23:00.002+05:30

Behind Closed Doors!

A survey says that 52% would not like to marry their spouses again. What lies behind that closed door is yet another faded marriage which has stifled in the ‘reality stage’ of marriage which is a scary time as the two of them feel disillusionment, keep score, think that the two are in a rut, play power struggle games, and fuss with one another over little things. While, both of them are busy in achieving their career goals things like family holiday, children take a back seat.

What also lies behind that closed door are two lives exhausted, worn out, stressed and thus also suffocated because they find no shoulder to rest upon once back at home. No pat on the back for the good days hard work, because the one whom you expect to boost your morale is perhaps done the same thing as you and finds nothing so special in your efforts. No time for each other, also leads to looking behind those closed doors in the hope of finding a solace. But only if by closing one door another door would have opened.

Behind that closed doors also lies expectations few fulfilled and most shattered. The illusion of beautiful married life traumatized by sheer lack of misunderstanding and crossing barriers and limitations of each other’s potential. In the urge to be equal, expressions like sacrifice, tolerance, adjustment find place nowhere.

No wonder, young people these days are so skeptical about marriage which makes me wonder why one should not get married,

Should you NOT get married if :

-you think your career is more important than family and marriage.

-you want to get rid of your feelings of discomfort about being single.

-you simply feel like "it's time” and age.

-you're hoping it will bring happiness into a life that is unhappy? and finally

Do not marry if you are not ready.

Pranali Sherkar

http://untraversedregion.blogspot.com/

Are We Actually Ready for Relationships?

2010-06-04T00:33:00.000+05:30

Such a vast topic this is, am just going to cover a small aspect of it as for now.

So, I live in a hostel.

And if a girl is on the phone at strange timings, the clear implication: SHE IS COMMITTED!!!

Let alone the possibility that she is talking to some brother of hers in America!

But, its not only limited to this, its just that, the other girls, who aren’t actually committed, feel weird, even though having a boyfriend was something not THAT acceptable till school life.

Result: We just have youngsters falling into relationships, say metaphorically for the reason that their roommate is committed!

Plus, are we actually ready for commitments???

There are some who are going around with the same partner since high school, but there is an out numbering amount of those who just go out, for say, its cool, and is a nice past time!

And, am saying from first hand experience!

For instance, I was just in a conference with a few friends, so a girl is like, you tell your boyfriend’s name, we know everyone else’s here.

I felt a bit weird about the scene.

My best friend told me its okay, because everyone is going around with someone, so its like, pretty normal, to know who is going around with whom.

That’s the problem with us; we take just too many decisions of ours according to others.

Land in college and find it is “in” to have a person by your side all the time, and say yes to the first person who asks you out!!!

Definitely, there are positives, because you have an emotional support, not to neglect that, but just falling in a relation because everyone is, not even knowing if you are mature enough to go through one, is, well, sheer stupidity!!!

I remember, writing on my blog in the initial college days, “if it’s a college rule that every guy and girl should have someone linked with him or her!!!”

And please, don’t call me some gaaon-ki-chorri!!!

Cz I know I’m not, humbly speaking!

Cutting the long story short, I am just putting forward a humble point, that its baseless to fall into relationships, when you aren’t ready for them (a bigger WHEN you’ve just entered into college!!!)

Give yourself sometime, because, surely, the late night phone calls and those mushy talks are tempting enough, but they don’t warn about the emotional pain those “i-give-our-relationship-more-than-you-do” (et al) break-ups cause…

Just, look before you leap!!!

Saath Samundar paar - Vishwatma (1992)

2010-06-02T23:18:00.000+05:30

Jaago Jagruti, Aur Jagaao!!!

2010-06-02T23:01:00.001+05:30

Ummm…I came across Jagruti in 11^th standard I guess, it used to be a highly active place then(I mean, I was new to this blogging thing, and imagine, a blog having so many members that no more could be allowed!!!)…now am done with first year of under graduation, and things are…you have to accept a bit (read that in caps lock…if you may) “different”.

My humble point is, after some 227 posts, with “different” views from “different” people covering almost all the possible “different” topics,,, things, are still the “same”. Then why have “people of all faiths stopped initiating and partaking in a fruitful exchange of ideas”???

Are the very same people bored of the same things happening time and again?

The same rapes, the same economy (yes, it did change a little bit you could say, still!), the same government, the same politics, the same injustices, the same human rights thingy…

So much same same na?

But it all didn’t stop happening and affecting “different” people along the way, isn’t it…but then,,, how we get bored of discussing the “same”?

We all have individual opinions, and individual lives we lead, and individual experiences and incidents we come across…

At the very least we can do is put the incident up here, I might read about some harassment incident taking place, and quote it in the next communication skills class, so that the rest of my 89 classmates hear (i hope), and some 50% of thm actually register it in their neuron reserves , some 20% form an opinion (yes, opinions do matter, a GOOD lot), some 5% find out more and transfer the news (statistics have been approximately quoted, considering various factors, please).

And ditto goes for news about some organization like the Nanhi Kali (like i start saving Rs.1800 for funding a girl's whole year's education from my pocket money!), please don’t forget the optimism, we need optimism DESPERATELY (that’s the biggest thing that can save our country at this point of time, besides intelligentsia, that is, my personal opinion, of course).

Probably you are smiling by now, thinking the girl is talking funny things.

Perhaps yes, and I admit, they are wayyy too simple, but then, simple can be substantial( at times, I hope).

Lets talk simple, but talk at the same time.

Lets “JAAGO and JAGAAO”!!!

A story of rape amidst consensual sex...

2010-05-30T22:04:00.003+05:30

I have written in the past on rape cases and how they are lowering the mentality of Indians as well as global citizens.
However, I am once again broaching up this topic for a fresh news report has arrived in, of a pilot raping an air hostess who was living with him for past some time now.

Now the lady says that the guy had promised to marry her, hence she moved in with him, hence the sex was probably now a rape. This case amuses me to the core. A 22 year old woman, says that for 2 years this man was promising her marriage, and that she believed him and that probably (since rape charges have been filed) had sex with him, now says all that was a rape?
How is that possible? The fact that amuses me the most is the open mockery of women empowerment in India. Liberal working Indian women, do not hesitate to slap rape charges on any guy who refuses to marry them.

If the girl would have been a poor one, probably disadvantaged by illiteracy or poverty, I would have supported the woman's cause. Yes, this is India, and their have been cases that undue advantage of females have been reported. But we are not talking about a rural woman, bound by compulsions or disadvantages. We have here, an independent girl, both financially and socially.
Any guy can rape a woman, sure, but cannot force a modern independent girl (who according to my estimates must be earning a decent salary ) to stay with him, in his bedroom for a year or more. The whole idea seems hilarious. Especially when you add the point that he shall marry you. For 2 years he did not marry you as he had proposed, then move out. Get some life, start over.

Now the most hilarious aspect of the story. The guy did 2 things
1) He clearly wanted her out of his house.
2) He threatened to kill her later. Or throw acid on her, if she left the house.

Now, if I would have managed to throw the girl out of my house, why should I threaten her for life? And if I did not want the girl in the house, then how can I be the rapist?
Anyway, that would have been me. Perhaps the guy's theory would have been the same.

To me, this case is a perfect presentation of modern Indian women empowerment thing. Perhaps the guy got a change of mind or heart. The love he once had, probably diminished. Or maybe he was just one of the many scoundrels looking for sex (and got some) in which case, the girl should be classified as a fool.

So India goes about shouting against the accused. His photos splashed over all the media. No effort was spared to malign him. And modern Indian women empowerment shall win. For what these ladies cannot get, they slap absurd charges on men.

As for me, I will congratulate the brave man. Who did not marry the girl, and made her life hell afterward, as he was not ready. He did not buckle under the marriage pressure and took his time to take a good decision. I think, we should all learn something from him. If unsure, take your time. Even if you want to get married and have some doubts, linger on, till all are clear.

Is India facing a leadership crisis?

2010-05-30T02:18:00.002+05:30

The question I ask to my readers here, is for a simple thing. We all live in a society, an eco - system and we naturally need a leader. The teachers of my nursery and primary classes always told me (and so did the numerous fairy tales and fables that I read) that the Lion is supposed to be the king of any jungle. So to my mind, every jungle has a Lion who is majestic and is the leader, their has to be a cunning fix and some innocent rabbits.

So, where is India's Lion? I am not sure, many people would agree if I say, Dr. Manmohan Singh is the leader we are looking for. Contested elections, just once and lost, never to face the public electorate again, I somehow can not see him as the great leader. If you do, please write in your comments.

Now who is next? Many of you shall say, why not Rahul Gandhi. It is a family business. Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, he has the lineage behind him. But then I am not one of the mass janta. I like to see merit more than the blood. As for his qualities, I think we would be able to find many more politicians having similar or better qualities.

The more I write about it, I feel India has lost the whole apparatus of spotting leaders. In a country that's population is more than a billion people, does not have a leader? It is a disgrace. All the more, for like I wrote above, we have destroyed the apparatus and have no intention, whatsoever to make it right.

I say this with conviction that Indian political parties have now become the political versions of old age dynasty rule India has had. Like the Chola kings, or Mughals, or other dynasties, we now have have political parties in the same avatar. Like them, we have family appointed yuvraj and princes. They amass lot of wealth and live life of luxuries. As it used to happen in old monarchy systems, where the heir apparents, determined by thier birth,were given an area or a region to rule until they became the kings, so happens in India. (An example of that monarchy is like we have Prince of Wales in London, where Prince Charles lords over Wales). In India, we are now repeating the formula, like Rahul Gandhi has been given Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, in other cases as well, till the political heir is not ready, he is given some other responsibilities to nurse over. Like DMK's Stalin ruled over Chennai as the Mayor before taking up as the deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu. (Of course, it goes without asking that this move is a progress towards him getting the throne).

So, the chances of getting a good leader out of such parties is very difficult. I believe that if you are so self centered to appoint your heirs as your professional and social heirs, than you can never be that good of a leader. A good leader will always, according to me, chose a worthy successor. In India, we now only have a handful of parties that are not under dynasty rules. And it goes without a mention that their future is not very bright. The BJP is one, the group of communist parties is another, then their is the Janta Dal United who is doing good, but only for Nitish Kumar.

Public devotion for monarchy is extreme in India, but as excess of everything is bad, so is this devotion. Nepotism, corruption, sycophancy is a result of all this that is weakening our motherland, each passing day. Ideals, values are all going for a toss.

India has had some good leaders who were not necessarily known for their fathers or mothers. One such leader was Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Mahatma Gandhi was another. In modern India we saw Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was perhaps one of the best leaders of his times.

Following shall suffice as the answer to the question I posed in the title;
" India is not facing a leadership crisis. It is facing a crisis of reluctance,
to change and to reform,
to revolutionize and seek,
a system that breeds the best of the leaders,
that protect and uphold,
the integration and dignity of our constitution."

Why Are We Such Cowards?

2010-05-25T14:39:00.001+05:30

Serious (read "social") issues, Tushar tells me, no one is interested in.

Probably yes, he is right.

At the maximum, we people talk; talk a lot, for that matter. Rarely beyond that.

No particular reason for choosing this title, it just came spontaneously, and can be put in the stack of those "WH" questions whose answers we don't have(or rather, don't want to face!).

But yes, something ironical, which I notice many a times.

In my college, in the canteen area there are four shops, Amul one, Nescafe one, Juice one and the Verka one. The former two have small kids working there.

Now, also exists this program called "Pratigya" in my college, where engineers humbly contribute their bit to the society by teaching small kids.

Sometimes, funny things happen. The other day a girl standing with me couldn't drink her glass of juice because she saw the kid putting crushed ice in it!

She was like, "His hands were black black" et al.

We talk about making a difference, yet we fail to accept.

And this "we" I’m mainly using for people I am acquainted with, college going people, the quintessential "youth" of our country.

What stops us from accepting everything and being hardcore hypocrites?

Our cowardness?

Today, I was having a chocolate shake, when I saw this small kid sitting there and looking at everyone.

I wanted to get one for him, but, imagine, I asked my friend if she would hand it over to him, I was hesitant that much!

And, my friend was no different!

Then I had to ask another friend to perform the task, and the shop waale aunty and uncle were talking about it amongst themselves!

Why I was a coward in asking him what he wanted (I just ordered what I was having), why was I such a coward in talking to him?

Why are we such cowards?

A Rs.10 chocolate shake, we don't even come to know where 10 rupees go lying in our bags or dirty jeans, yet we are cowards in sharing that shake, it’s not that we are too stingy with the money; it’s just that we lack that ounce of guts!

A love story will be read by everyone, passed around, yet, "serious-social" issues are found to be boring (not by everyone, we cannot give up all the hope, but still, by "general" means and standards, yes), why?

Because, they need an effort, not that much of it, but still, we are modern-have-to-balance-everything-advanced-ambitious youth of India.

- Tamanna Kakkar

Mundane distortions in the Divine discourse of Bhagvad-Gita

2010-05-02T19:20:00.001+05:30

by BS Murthy

William von Humboldt who wrote seven-hundred verses in praise of the Bhagvad-Gita averred that it is the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue. All the same, the boon of an oral tradition that kept the divine discourse of yore alive for millennia became the bane of the Gita going by the seemingly mundane distortions it had to endure. Strangely it was Sir Edwin Arnold the Englishman who sought to separate the divine wheat from the mundane chaff by branding s23-s27 of ch8 as the ranting of some vedanti in his century old ‘Song Celestial’. While interpreting the Gita in English verse an attempt was made by the author to identify the interpolations in it and codify the same for the benefit of the modern reader. One way to scent the nature of these, if not zero in on every one of them, is to subject the text to the twin tests of sequential conformity and structural economy. Sequential conformity is all about uniformity of purpose sans digression and structural economy but represents the absence of repetitiveness.

The pundits and the plebeians alike aver that the philosophy of the Gita is the practice of disinterested action. In this context it may be noted that while postulating nishkaama karma, the theory of disinterested action, Krishna was critical of the ritualistic aspects of and the mundane expectations from the Vedic ceremonies (s42 - 46 and s53 of ch.2.). Given that the pristine philosophy of the Gita is to tend man on the path of duty without attachment, the about turn in s9-s16 of ch.3 that formulate the procedural aspects of the rituals and the divine backing they enjoy cannot stand to either reason or logic. Such contradictory averments attributed to Krishna wherever occur can be taken as interpolations and the same are delved into in this article.

Next on the agenda is the aspect of structural economy and one finds the similitude of a given content in many a sloka in the same or in a different context throughout the text. Obviously, some of them are interpolations but which were the originals and which are the imitations could be impossible to find out for they smugly fit into the overall structure. Whatever, save lengthening the discourse, they do not belittle the same and fortunately not even tire the reader, thanks to the exemplary charm of Sanskrit, which for the 18th Century British intellectual Sir William Jones ‘is of wonderful structure, more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin and more exquisitely refined than either.’ Identified here are 110 slokas of deviant character or digressive nature that can be taken as interpolations with reasonable certainty. Readers may like to mark these verses in their Gita and then read it afresh by passing over them for a refreshing experience.

Besides the interpolations s9-s16 of ch.3, s17, s18 and s24 of the same are clear digressions. Such others in the rest of the chapters wherever they crop up are dealt as follows:

Chapter - 4: It should not be lost on one that s11’s return of favour by the Lord is juxtaposing to the stated detachment of His as espoused in s14 of the same chapter. On the other hand, s12 that is akin to s20, ch.7, itself an interpolation, and s13 the contentious chaatur varnyam mayaa srustam - do not jell with the spirit of the philosophy. Why hasn't Krishna declared in s 29 ch.9, ‘None I favour, slight I none / Devout Mine but gain Me true’. Slokas 24 to s32 that are of religious/ritualistic nature seem clearly out of context and character. Prior to this seemingly interpolated body of eleven slokas, the nature of the Supreme Spirit and the conduct of those who realize it are dealt with. Thus, the discontinuity in the text brought about by the body of these interpolative slokas would be self-evident. And s34 that advises Arjuna to seek wise counsel is irrelevant in the context of the discourse fashioned to set his doubts at rest in the battlefield itself.

Chapter-5: S18 avers the Omnipresence of the Supreme in Brahmans, cows, elephants, dogs and dog eaters. This tasteless description could be but an interpolation as it ill behoves Krishna’s eloquence and sophistication of expression seen throughout. Incidentally, the succeeding s19 makes it clear that whoever recognizes Him in all beings attains the Supreme State in life itself. S27-s28 that deal with yogic practices and s29, which asserts the Supreme as the beneficiary of sacrificial rituals, are but interpolation for reasons that bear no repetition.

Chapter - 6: S10-s17 deal with aspects of ascetic practices which are but square pegs in the round philosophical hole the discourse is and so are interpolations, even going by what is stated in the very opening verse, ‘Forego none if forsake chores / Eye not gain ’n thou be freed’. S41 and s42

are clearly interpolations not only for affecting the continuity of the text but also for what they contain. S41 would have us that those who perform the asvamedha (ritualistic horse sacrifice) would reach heaven to be born again rich. Likewise, s 42 would have us that, ‘or such would be born in learned homes’.

Chapter-7: S20-s23 besides affecting the continuity in character of the discourse, would advocate worship of gods for boon seeking that Krishna chastises is s42-s44, ch.2 and that renders them interpolations.

Chapter – 8: It can be seen that s5 places the cart before the horse. Besides, s9-s14 too are interpolations going by their content that’s out of context. It is worth noting that s1-s4, s6-s8 and s15-s22, if read together would bear an unmistakable continuity of argument that the interpolations deprive. And s22 is a seemingly concluding statement of the Lord that only through un-swerved devotion the Supreme could be reached from which there is no return (s21). Then appear s23 to s27 which if literally taken would imply that if one dies when the moon is on the ascent he would go to heaven and, to hell if it’s other way round. Needless to say, these slokas spelling superstition in an otherwise thought-elevating treatise are but interpolations which Sir Edwin Arnold dismissed as the work of some vedanti and thought it fit, justifiably at that, not to include them in his ‘Song Celestial’. In this connection it may be noted that the relationship between the state in which a person dies and his imminent rebirth is covered in s14 - s15 of c14, which seem to be authentic.

Chapter -9: S7, that contravenes s15-s16 of ch.8, and which echoes interpolative s18-s19 of the current chapter, is an interpolation. Also s15 of is but a digression to facilitate the interpolations in s16-s21 and s23-s25. What is more, there could be some omissions from the original, given the seemingly incomplete exposition of the promised dharma in s2. Further, in s 30 and s 31, it is said that even a reformed sinner is dear and valuable to Him. Then in s 32 it is stated that women, Vaisyas and Sudras could win His favour through devotion, sounding as if they are all in an inferior league. Leave aside the Lord's averment in many a context in this text that the Supreme Spirit lies in all beings, it is specifically stated in s34 of ch.10 that He symbolizes all that is glorious in woman. Given this, and the background of the interpolations, s32 surely is a case of trespass. S33 of this chapter is but a jointing medium of the

said obnoxious verse and in itself is patronizing in nature towards the virtuous Brahmans and thus is an interpolation.

Chapter – 11: Owing to the improbability of their being, s9-s14, make an amusing reading. S3 states that Krishna grants Arjuna the divine sight required to espy His Universal Form. Of course, the ESP that Vyasa granted Sanjaya (s75 ch.18) might have enabled him to monitor the goings on at the battleground in order to appraise the blind king Dhrutarashtra about the same. Thus, only from Arjuna’s averments could have Sanjaya gathered what he was divining of the Universal Form, which obviously was beyond his (Sanjaya) own comprehension. But s10-s14 would have him describe the Universal Form as though he himself was witnessing the same, even before Arjuna utters a word about it. In this context it is worth noting that the Lord made it clear in s52, ‘Ever craved gods ’n angels too / Just to behold what thee beheld’. Thus, the Universal Form that was seen by Arjuna surely was beyond the scope of Sanjaya's ESP and hence, s9-s14 that picture beforehand what Arjuna would witness later on are clear interpolations. Contrast this with the parallel situation in s50-s51, when the Lord reassumes His human form, but handled differently by Sanjaya. The s29 which seeks to emphasize what was already pictured in s28, albeit with not so appropriate a simile, could be but an interpolation.

Chapter -13: One might notice that s10, advocating asceticism to which Krishna is opposed, doesn't jell with the rest, either contextually or philosophically, and thus should be seen as an interpolation. S22, which states that the Supreme Soul lay in beings as a sustainer, consenter, enjoyer and overseer, contravenes its very nature expostulated in s16-s18, ch.15. Besides, as can be seen, it affects the continuity between s21 and s23 of this chapter. S30, akin to s15 is an irrelevant interpolation.

Chapter- 14: In this chapter that details the three human proclivities - virtue, passion and delusion- s3, s4 and s19 that deal with the Nature and the Spirit are digressive interpolations.

Chapter – 15: S9, s12, s13, s14 and s15 being digressions are clearly interpolations.

Chapter – 16: S19 which implies that the Supreme Spirit condemns to hell those who hate Him is an obvious interpolation that contravenes Krishna’s affirmative statement in s29 ch.9 and other such averred in many a context in this text.

Chapter-17: S11-s13 that deal with the virtuous, the passionate and the deluded in ritualistic sense and s 23 -28 concerning Om, Tat, Sat and Asat of the Vedic hymns are clear interpolations for reasons the reader is familiar with. However, s7-s10 that deal with the food habits of the virtuous, the passionate and the deluded would pose a problem in determining whether or not they are interpolations. Can eating habits be linked to the innate nature of man in an infallible manner? Perhaps, some future research and analysis might resolve the universality or otherwise of this averment, and till then, it is appropriate to reserve the judgment on these.

Chapter -18: One can note that s12 breaks the continuity between s11 and s13 with hyperbolic averments and s56 combines what is stated in the preceding and the succeeding slokas, and thus both are seemingly interpolations. S41- s48 that describe the allotted duties of man on the basis of his caste are clearly interpolations. In essence, the discourse till s40 is about the human nature and how it affects man. As can be seen, the duties on caste lines detailed in the said interpolations have no continuity of argument. As in earlier chapters, the text acquires continuity if only these verses are bypassed. S61 avers that the Supreme dwells in humans and deludes them all by his maya. This is contrary to what is stated in s14, c5, ‘It’s his nature but not Spirit / Makes man act by wants induced’. Thus, s61 clearly is an interpolation as it contravenes the neutrality of the Supreme Spirit in the affairs of man affirmed throughout by Lord Krishna.

For those who may like to see how the Gita reads if the above cited 110 slokas are bypassed, the same are summarized as under.

Ch. 3: s9 –s18, s24 and s35 (12 slokas); Ch.4: s11 - s 13, s24- s32 and s34 (13 slokas); Ch.5: s18 and s27 -29 (4 slokas) ; Ch. 6: s10-s17 and s41 -s42 (10 slokas) ; ch.7: s20 –s23 (4 slokas) ; ch.8: s5, s9- s14 and s23-s28 ( 13 slokas) ; ch.9: s7,s15-s21, s23-s25, and s32-s34 (14 slokas) ; ch.11: s9- s14 and s29 (7 slokas) ; ch.13: s10, s22 and s30 (3 slokas) ;ch.14: s3 -s4 and s19(3 slokas) ; ch.15: s9 and s12- s15 (5 slokas );ch.16: s19 (1 sloka) ;ch.17: s11- s14 and s23- 28 (10 slokas) and ch.18: s12, s41-48, s56 and s61(11 slokas ).

One may like to read my ‘Bhagvad-Gita: treatise of self-help’ in verse sans the above at Vedanta Spiritual Library or hear the audio rendition of the same at gatewayforindia.com

Super Brain Yoga :: Best Quality

2010-04-23T18:55:00.000+05:30

IPL - A simple story of power and revenge

2010-04-21T12:41:00.003+05:30

Everyone around here must have heard or read or seen on TV about the mess surrounding the Indian Premier League. A league where money, power and entertainment was glossed and embossed up on the game of cricket making it a nice cash cow of an enterprise.

So what is this new mess all about? Well, India is a land of jungles, and it is the law of the Jungles that rules our lands. (The judiciary is too piled up with work as always and legislature well, is another story as always).
So, we have this envious rich man, called Lalit Modi, who is running IPL like his very own private business. He sells teams and contracts at high rates. To cut the long story short, he comes across a minister of the ruling congress party who wishes his best for a close female friend. Wishing best implies, shares in one of the new formed IPL teams.

As it always happens in the jungles, rabbit is eaten by wolf, Lion eats the wolf and the grasshopper was what the rabbit had in breakfast. So Mr. Modi, slightly missing the point, goes ahead and opens up the dirty secrets of the minister. Now how can the Congress government and the Party, sit quietly when one of its ministers have been thoroughly humiliated and also suffered huge financial loss in great probability?

So now 3 years after IPL was formed, the finance ministry now suddenly realized that Modi is evading taxes. As if a Aakashwani happened ( Aakashwani is, God telling u secrets from sky) or because finance ministry folks are geniuses of sorts, in just a few matter of days, the truth has dawned on them that they should investigate all records of Mr. Lalit Modi. Probe every team of the IPL. Tap his phones , put all kinds of financial sleuths to trace funding and blah blah blah.

The BCCI; parent body of IPL is made up of very high profile leaders across the country. From Arun Jaitley of the BJP to Farooq Abdullah of National Congress, Laloo Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janta Dal to Sharad Pawar of the NCP. All are here. Including Congressman Rajeev Shukla. So now, they need a scapegoat too. It is funny if you look at it, that they are behaving as if they don't know of anything Modi has done with the IPL.

So Moral of the Story, ladies and gentlemen. Don't take any Panga with any minister of the Central government. If you do, then be prepared for Income Tax raids, phone tapping and every single secret of your closet will tumble out.

As for what happens to Modi and the BCCI and the IPL now. It is simple. Law of the Jungle. Whoever manages to garner the maximum power and the maximum cash, wins. This is India.

Vedanta

2010-04-04T14:06:00.000+05:30

Vedanta (Devanagari: वेदान्त, Vedānta) was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a sandhied form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedas".

Well, when I was browsing through the TV channels today, I was brought to a halt when one of the Spiritual Gurus were talking about Vedanta and in that 20 minutes of the program, he told a few things about the differences or rather the transformation of Vedas to Vedanta.

The most important thing that I liked was the order of facts. In Vedas, he said, the faith is imposed on. As in, “You need to do that this way and this way alone” the tone in the four Vedas were more orthodox – where the Slokas or the chants instructs one to follow whatever is written/told and not to question. This is similar in other religions, like Christians and Islam, where questioning God or the faith is prohibited in some forms. This looks autocratic on the upfront, but if one thinks deeply, one would find that coercing knowledge or faith or belief at that era, where light was only thing that could bring life to the lifeless, was inevitable and inimitable for most of the people in different parts of the world who were taught different religions and faiths with different outlooks. It was tough to make someone understand those hard languages and thoughts that otherwise sounded irrational and out of the world. Hence, coercing faith was implemented.

At a later stage, when Hinduism softened and was practiced by more developed and civilized people, they understood that faith cannot be imparted by force. It has to come from within – the thought of self realization – self education and self implementation. This is when they started to show people the reality as it is. Not telling them what to do or what not to do, but just showing that this is what has happened and this is what the result of that was. Opening the window towards reality! This was the time when the spiritual gurus showed the mass that if you do so, it might happen like this, as it happened previously. The orders in Veda became stories and tales in Upanishads – and people could see that more clearly. They would now know why they were asked to do a certain thing in the Veda. The mass would question now – to themselves, to their Gurus or to the environmental variables around them. They got the right to question – through Vedanta – which led to self actualization.

Vedanta is based on two simple propositions:
1. Human nature is divine.
2. The aim of human life is to realize that human nature is divine.

As in Science, people asked questions like, ‘why, what, how, why not’ etc. and discovered things that were there already and a step further, they invented things that were never there. It was this time, during the divination of Vedanta, when the mass started thinking and questioning the faith – Hinduism and its sermons – and they went a few steps further and deeper into the religion. People questioned more and more and discovered and re-discovered many more outlooks of the faith. Vedanta gave us the modern Hindutwa – the practice of Hinduism.

It is a very vast concept and an ocean of knowledge where I would love to dip sometimes. Hope the time comes soon. For more information on Vedanta or to explore more about the same, please visit the following weblinks:

What happened to the other sports?

2010-03-25T15:05:00.001+05:30

Hi All,

Let’s be honest...we are primarily a one sport nation. We virtually eat, sleep and breathe cricket. [And many other un mentionable actions...:)] It seems that if you are born Indian then your default sport is cricket. Your sports icon is Tendulkar and sports entertainment means watching cricket in channels dedicated for cricket!

So where did all the other sports go? Just offhand any one of us can probably count 5 other sports which are so popular globally but are barely included even in small talk in India. So why is cricket so disproportionately popular? Who is to blame for this anomaly? And more importantly how can we rectify this lopsidedness?

As for apportioning blame, I guess it has to be shared among various sections. The administrators of various sports who haven’t really been aggressive in promoting their respective sports, the viewers who simply refuse to even temporarily shift loyalties to other sports and even to some extent history! The British Raj left a long lasting impact on us in the form of cricket.

Before proceeding further, I wish to reiterate that I am making a conscious effort to follow different sports. These days’ hockey and tennis are regulars in my sporting menu. I am also anxiously waiting for the world cup in SA later this year. [Now I won’t have hypocrite tags thrown at me...:)] Regarding the question of making other sports popular, I was thinking we must incentivise patronage. So prizes, money and possible fame will lead our masses to new sports. Government support for non cricketing sports will also help.

I am sure you must have heard about 2 new teams which are going to be added to IPL 4. What might(actually must) have shocked you more is the staggering amount of money the winning groups are willing to pay to own these teams. The IPL mopped up more than 3000 Crore Rupees for the 2 newly auctioned teams. [Wow...how many poor kids can that amount of money educate/feed/clothe....anyways let’s leave that discussion for another day...I wanted to focus primarily on sports in this post...]

India win; only on paper

2010-02-23T10:18:00.001+05:30

Hi All,

Sunday's clash between India and South Africa went right down to the wire and till the last ball it was still anybody's game. Even after the last ball was bowled, spectators had to wait with bated breath for the verdict from the third umpire. Apart from the nail biting excitement the match brought to me, I felt something else which I thought I should pen down and share with everyone.

A drawn result would have been more comfortable with me, for the kind of character that the South African lower order showed and for the not so extraordinary performance displayed by India. Before I get branded as a traitor, let's get something clear here. South African top order, sans Jacques Kallis, did collapse and probably deserved to lose. But help came from unexpected quarters and how. From about 180/7, the lower order ensured that the match went down right to the last ball.

The temperament shown by the SA batsmen especially Wayne Parnell is applaud able and worthy of a lesson for any lower order batsmen. The way he stood up to the challenge and nudged his team almost to the finish line will probably live in our memory for some time to come and serves as a constant reminder to the unpredictability of the cricket. Indian batsmen could take a leaf or two form Parnell's books.

P.S. Yesterday's MOM Ravindra Jadeja was also the same man who lost the match for us against Australia last year when India were chasing a huge total and Sachin made 175 and almost single handedly won the match for India.

Valentine in Love

2010-02-14T00:00:00.004+05:30

Well, I was waiting for my wife to come back from office and I am still waiting. She is yet to leave from office. And then I thought of writing something – I have not written for a long time. And I wrote a small poem – Valentine in Love. Yes – I am waiting for my Valentine to come back home. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and it will be our 4th V’day together. 4th in 12 years of love in 28 years of life – little too less, I know. But think of it – from now on, it will just increase and will keep on increasing!

Saint Valentine’s Day all over the world is celebrated as a day of love. For young lovers around the world, this is like independence day (lol) or may be Christmas or may be Eid! And in our India? We have Pramod Muthalik and a few similar lead astray minds, who have converted this day into a scary day. People are scared to go out on this day – be a married couple or one in love – even a brother thinks twice before picking his sister from school, in fear that these molesters may intervene and assault them on road. How pathetic is that? I remember the case last year – in Mangalore. I saw the scenes on TV how these filthy ‘dead’ people beat those teen girls. I have never seen any girl getting thrashed like that – that too, a gang of those hooligans attacked a handful of girls in a pub. The government did not do anything – nothing that could bring these people on ground and teach them a lesson. Neither the effort from the mass could do anything measurable. The Pink Chaddi Campaign did not help, it seems. This year again, these good for nothing gundas have stood up saying they would boycott the celebration. At times I think who would take care of us? The army is busy standing on the border, shivering in cold nights and waiting for the foreign foes to attack us. What will happen to the enemy we have inside the country? Who will take care of these heartless nincompoops? No, the government will do nothing for us – it has never done, and it will not do anything, apart from saying in a press conference that strict action will be taken, only after there is a massacre – so, wait and let that happen first…

Well, this post is not only anti-Muthalik or his terror group called Sri Ram Sena, I just wanted to write about this thought that came to my mind when I saw a few common men being brave and abuse that fanatic in public. A couple of days ago, while Muthalik was chipped in an interactive session on Valentine’s Day celebrations organized by some Kannada TV channel, a few valiant ‘common men’ took pen ink and blackened his entire face, right beneath the nose of his Sena and police stranded for his security. I am happy that the crowd present there and the policemen did not try to capture any of those brave hearts. I loved his face, for once. And I really appreciate the people who did that – from the bottom of my heart.

Go on people. Go out with your Valentines and prove that love still exists and will continue to exist and will not be deterred by this toads in the well. And I wish to get some severe punishment to these extremists. If we can fight the Maoists and the LTTE so wide and open, we can easily throw these gangsters out of our society. The other groups that I mentioned had a thought in their uprising. That could have been correct too – but I have never read about those philosophies and hence, I am in no position to comment on them. But I know what Muthalik in Karnataka, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and similar groups in other parts of the country are doing is wrong. Let us come together to fight these too. Why would the government protect them, while the police should protect us from these pests of the society? Let the names ‘Muthalik’, ‘Thakrey’ be an abuse. Let it be a curse and let every mother in India come up and say, ‘I would rather be barren, than having a son like this filthy fellow and all those who support him.’ Only then, when we would resolve our own issues inside our own country we will be able to develop and fight foreign invasions. We need to clean and sterilize our home, before trying to do that to our neighbors.

Phew! Chuk it!

Have a good time people and enjoy life. And yes, Very Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Tall leaders....?

2010-02-10T17:23:00.000+05:30

Hi All,

We all know a political veteran passed away last month. Condolences came in thick and fast from every corner of the country and leaders, across the political spectrum, heaped praises on him and his ability to connect with the masses. Before i go into the topic, let me clarify that this post is not about this man.

Watching this spectacle made me ask one question to myself....how does one measure a leader's effectiveness. Who should be called a good leader and who is the rotten one.Should the number of years a person spent in politics be a figure of merit? Or should we take into consideration his/her volume of supporters after all ,as the phrase goes, there is strength in numbers...

I have observed that we Indians tend to get confused when asked to rate a leader and in good old Indian fashion play it safe and brand him a great leader. Especially when he is above his 60s at the time of death and had had a good fan following in his heydays. The media, for its part, starts to go on a sympathy overdrive for the very man they thrashed a few days back. And bingo....we have a 'great leader' who has just passed away. How sad...

So should we finetune the standards that are used to measure a leader's effectiveness and success. Pour in your thoughts....

The Tiger

2010-02-06T16:37:00.002+05:30

________________________________________
Tiger Tiger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
________________________________________
These are the lines from the famous poem, The Tiger by William Blake. I heard these lines from my father when I was in my growing years. What a wonderful Poem! At times I feel the poet might have travelled to India and looked closely into the eyes of the Royal Bengal Tiger before penning down the immortal lines. The poem, no doubt will remain immortal; but will the subject be? If we do not care and do not take steps right now, the subject of the poem, the tiger will not remain with us for long. India is one of the countries of the world which has shown drastic and rather alarming fall in the population of tigers over the last few decades.

The country started the last century with a count of over 40,000 tigers spread all over. Now, after a hundred years, as human population rose in multiples extensively, the population of tigers has fallen down and the count as of today is mere 1411 – a shocking number! And I am afraid that the tiger populace may be falling further as I am writing this.

It is time that we stand up to the cause of saving the tiger – our national animal. Yes! Its time we do something. It is not only the duty of the government or the NGOs working towards establishment and sustentation of a poacher free country to bring back the tiger population. It is our job too – the mass; the common man; you and I can make a difference. If we realize the loss we will incur by expunge of tigers from our country and if we want to prevent that from happening, we need to take the oath ourselves, stand up and contribute. This is the time when we are needed and this is the time we can show that we care.

The situation is same outside India too and the world is feeling the need to act together and save the species. Different initiatives are on all over the world to save the tiger. India is fighting back too. It is just that we need to plunge into the movement and save our tigers ourselves, before they too, go extinct. The last of the Bali tigers was killed in 1937. The Caspian tiger was declared extinct after 1950. Javan tigers were not seen after 1972. The South China tiger is almost extinct now. The Royal Bengal Tiger, would soon also be extinct, if the poachers of Sundarban are not stopped. A major part of Sundarban has now been converted for human dwelling, decreasing the tiger habitat in turn.

The two major reasons for depletion in the tiger numbers are poaching and loss of natural habitat. With increasing human population and in a quest for more and more living area, we are converting natural tiger habitats to human residences – knowingly or unknowingly. Here is the need to spread the thought and educate the people who live in and around the natural reserves for tigers about the necessity. Cutting down of trees for paper and furniture and molesting the forest environment bringing up sky-scrapers also cause diminution of natural habitat of tigers (and for any wild animal for that matter) in turn provoking more and more reduction in the overall population.

Tigers are poached and killed for different parts of their body. It is illegal to use animal fur or any other part of animal bodies in many countries around the world. However, the demand for the same in the black market is high. Different parts of tiger body, ranging from the corpus, skin and nails to their teeth are in high demand in the illegal poacher market where these items are sold for millions of bucks. This is the reason, poachers and dacoits tend to kill tigers and get some easy money in return – the irreversible extinction of the animal from the planet is not what they would cry or mere think twice for.

This has to STOP!

And this has to stop immediately. The government has been trying hard to save the tiger but as we can see around us, it is not enough. We need to stand by the organizations that are working day and night towards saving the tigers and other near-extinct animals of the world and our countries. We have taken much from the wild and it is time we should return a bit back to them. If not, it will not be surprising if our children read William Blake and ask us what he was talking about. We only see a Dodo in clippings of Ice-Age; we only see a Kiwi on cover of shoe polish. Let this not be the only destination of our beloved, respected and feared tigers. Let’s hold hands and let’s stand up. We can make a difference and stop the downfall of tiger dynasty only if we stand together. Let’s roar – let the spirit be heard – let the tiger live for ages to come! Let us take a pledge and work towards saving the tiger – our national animal!

As Bapu (M. K. Gandhi) said, “Be the Change you want you see (in others).”
________________________________________
Here are some links, if you want to browse through and know more about tiger and various activities going on around us to save our tigers.

The Tiger - a poem by William Blake

Tiger Reserves in India
SaveOurTigers – an initiative by Aircel, India
WWF India
ProjectTiger.nic.in
IndianTiger.Org

The above list is not exhaustive; but sadly, the tiger population may exhaust in no time, if we do not SAVE the TIGER NOW!

________________________________________

The article published at: Thus Spake Tan!

Awareness Through Literary works

2010-01-26T21:45:00.002+05:30

Project Gutenberg is a unique project in the sense that it encourages free distribution of various literary works. This maybe through discs or online. You can get more details from gutenberg.org

You can donate, ask for free CDs and DVDs which they distribute or volunteer in this great movement as well.

Frivolous Ads...

2010-01-18T16:09:00.000+05:30

Hi All,

Something has been ticking me off these days. The ubiquitous irritant is delivered through the idiot box right into my living room and the only way to avoid it, is probably to switch off the box altogether. Yes, I am talking about ads. The little messages which come in between your favourite shows, the ones that television channels broadcast when you are on the edge of your seat and biting your nails not knowing what will happen next. It makes economic sense for them as ads are the revenue lifeline for them.

Let me get something clear from the start. I don’t have any issues with ads across the board. Most are ok and some are even revolutionary, innovative and way ahead of their time. My sticking point is with the ones that are misleading, stereotypical or just downright disgusting.

Take for example the ‘Pond’s Age Miracle’ ad- the one that shows a husband going out of his way to woo his wife to marry him ‘again’ just because she applied the stupid cream and looks younger. Repulsive isn’t it? Since when did husbands start disliking their spouses just because they have grown older and have a few wrinkles on their face? [At least this is not case in India and hope it remains that way.] The ad also denigrates women who would, I believe, wish to be judged and liked by their content of character and not by their appearance.

The other one is the ‘K factor challenge’ ad which promotes the eating of cereals to lose weight. The problem is the way in which it does it. The mother consumes the ‘magic’ cereal hoping to tone down and fit into that ‘red dress’ upon her daughter’s request. [Just petty at its best, I would say.] Have more ads like this and the time won’t be far away when every kid in the block is going to place unreasonable demands on the physical appearance of his/her mother.

So what do you people think about these ads. What can we do to ensure that young impressionable minds are not influenced by these seemingly naïve ads?

Laal Selaam, Jyoti Babu

2010-01-17T18:03:00.006+05:30

Jyoti Basu, veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) Leader and the path finder of Communism in India has left for heavenly abode this morning. He was 95 years old. He was ailing for a long time and was fighting hard, until he lost his final fight to multiple organ failure and passed away today (Jan 17, 2010) at 11:47 AM in AMRI, Kolkata.

I never met him; I remember going to mass addresses of other leaders and Prime Ministers of India when they used to go to Agartala, but I don’t remember of going in any of his gatherings. Having said so, Jyoti Babu has always had a lasting impact on the people of Tripura. Everyone in the state always looked forward to Jyoti Basu and his contribution towards development of Tripura. The state being only the third communist state in India, was very close to Jyoti Basu’s heart.

Jyoti Babu, was the longest serving chief minister of West Bengal (and the country) and he served for a period of 23 long years, since 1977 till 2000 when he left all public appearances. In 1996, when the NDA government was going to form, he was requested to become the Prime Minister, to which the CPI(M) party disagreed. Basu later called it as, “Historical Blunder” for the communist party and the communist ideology.

I remember a childhood incidence when a child in school was asked about the chief minister of Tripura and he steadily pronounced the name of Jyoti Basu. Thus was the impact of the pragmatic leader. He had a long political career of 60 years, since he came back from London in 1940 and joined the communist party in West Bengal. He was a London returned barrister and could have earned a huge fortune for himself in those times, but he chose to serve the people and took to politics.

I know how much my father is hurt today. I talked with him the moment I heard the saddening news. He would not shed tears, but deep inside, he would cry rivers today; for he has seen Jyoti Babu from close vicinity and have known him since long. Same goes for my father in law. I talked to him too. They pretended to be sound and tough over the phone, but I know – I know what is going through their hearts and millions of communists and Bengalis in and out of Bengal.

I wish I would have known the leader more closely and could have learnt something from his ideologies, but life never gave me that opportunity. Now that he is no more with us, I would not get the opportunity ever again. I am happy that I lived during his lifetime – I’m honored more!

As a last gesture towards humanity and the cause he lived for, he left his whole body for medical and scientific research. This tells the story of a man, who lived for the people and when he died, he was only thinking of his own people.

I render a Red Salute to Comrade Jyoti Basu. May his soul rest in peace! Long live Communism! Long live Jyoti Basu’s legacy!

The Ruchika Case and How we never shall learn

2010-01-12T17:57:00.003+05:30

It is an old one now. Several years ago, a girl is molested ( like that happens almost every hour of the day even today) then she commits suicide and you people now must be knowing all the details.

What makes this case interesting is that even as we all display shock that a powerful man got away with it, we have not gasped in disbelief. Cummon, we all know that powerful men like Rathore can get away with crimes such as these. It is no big deal that politicians of the day supported him, the school, a premier educational institution of its time, run by God fearing, missionaries and nuns lends it support to the culprit and are we shocked? Really?

The answer is no. We all know this happens. On this very blog I had written about a case in another convent school in another part of the region.

Holding marches and lighting candles shall serve not much purpose as we are still not looking inwards but outwards. Spitting anger on one man shall not erase the fact that we Indians have become used to molestation and the dirt of it. That Ruchika was molested, she would have been just another child, like several others who are being ill - treated even now perhaps as I am typing these words. She chose to fight it till the end, up till death and for this courage I will not be able to write or describe words for.

In her death, Ruchika taught us so much, that little teenager showed us a path we never saw.

The path to righteousness. The Idea not to compromise and move on but to fight and fight with full courage.

Ruchika Girhotra today is no more amongst us. The nation who no longer has the righteous respect for its nationalist leaders like Gandhi or Bhagat whose philosophies we have very conveniently dumped deep in dustbins, shall forget her soon. But even for a brief time, this girl shall stand as an Icon. An icon of hope. A hope that if a fourteen year old could stood up to lustrous demands of an Inspector General of Police then how come we are so helpless to improve our very own country, our planet.

But this case also gives us a reason to hang our heads in shame. For around two decades we never woke up to the gruesome reality of Ruchika. That girl had a right to live and had she been alive she would have grown up to be a beautiful young woman today. We Indians, citizens of this land are somewhat responsible for her death. Aren't we?

The Kingdom...a compelling watch

2009-12-04T18:30:00.002+05:30

Hi All,

I had watched the movie 'The Kingdom' on TV a couple of weeks back and since then I have been itching to write a review/post about it. The movie started close to midnight and went on well past 1 am. The fact that I was glued to the idiot box all that time and didn’t even dare to switch channels, lest I miss a few seconds of the film, should be sufficient to convey the intensity of the movie.

'The Kingdom' is based on a semi fictional plot on the bombings of the residential quarters of foreign workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The blast leaves the many dead and several more injured. The America Diaspora is devastated and furious. It doesn’t help that the atrocity was carried out by men masquerading as Saudi policemen. The monarchy, understanding the gravity of the situation, promises action but at the same time utilizes ambiguous laws to prevent American sleuths from investigating this carnage.

But remember this is an American movie and the Americans always win...:). So in comes the FBI with all their men [and women] and their gear only to find that the maximum role they will be allowed to play will be that of mute spectators to the whole spectacle. During a dinner with the Saudi prince, the FBI lead successfully persuades the prince to allow them to play a more proactive role. From this point onwards, the team realizes apart from the burden of collecting and deciphering evidence they also have become soft targets themselves.

The movie is action packed pretty much throughout the entire duration. The car chases are pretty exhilarating and will certainly ensure adrenalin courses through your body the same way blood does. Exchanges with terrorists are decent enough to satiate the goriness quotient of any typical Hollywood movie.

The film doesn’t leave you wanting from the emotional aspect as well. The scene where a father narrates to the visiting FBI team on how his son was trying to put back his mother jaws using a band-aids tugs your heart and touches the sorrowful aspect of terrorism. For a moment you are able to relate this to the loss of innocent lives as 26/11 unfolded. The film also smacks the conservative attitude of the monarchy through the example of a female character being denied invitation from the prince due to her gender.
The movie ends with promise of more revenge from both the sides. I would certainly recommend this movie any weekend watch.

P.S. I have taken the liberty to describe a good portion of the film in this post as it was released 2 years back and hence any description would not amount to a 'spoiler'.

IF smoking is injurious, it is for everyone.

2009-11-29T01:50:00.001+05:30

I had taken this picture zooming my camera from my window seat in a train i was travelling near Agra Cantt. station while travelling back from Kota. What was going through my mind at that point of time was the nonchalance of that unknown woman. She was lighting her bidi, sitting outside her home. But then what made me click the picture was the thing which upsets me is targetting the youth, the hypocritical behaviour of people who have a problem if the young are smoking and say 'its okay' when they smoke. Now this woman in the picture is not young and urban or a woman living independently on her own. SO don't just target the young and independent for smoking. If smoking is an issue , don't say its bad when a young woman or a young smokes. One cannot say that 'these young women are into smoking because they are living alone, they have money to spend and noone is to stop.' This may be the reason but then what is the reason for the woman smoking in the picture?
Smoking is injurious for everyone's health, whether its a man or a woman, a teenage or an old person and its better not to target any one segment or one particular gender.
This is my opinion which may be liked or disliked.

- Shaista Dhandha

Dat 7th Class Incident...

2009-11-25T14:02:00.003+05:30

"U noe Weneva i see ne1 teasin gals or get teased. That caligraphy teacher's face comes into my mind. Huh. In fact he has ruined my life i see ne guy looking at me i get so intimidated like y o y is he looking at me Huh"

I got this message a few hours ago, sent by my best friend. Yes, it did stir up memory that been buried deep down in my mind, consciously.

This anecdote is of the time i was in the 7th class . Some well known personality had come to our school to teach us all calligraphy...In which bamboo ticks and ink are used for writing. I guess a room had been arranged...yes it was the room behind old auditorium...a large number of benches had been put...i remember me n my best friend sitting alongside...after da session my friend was shaken sorts...i asked her what had happened...she said that teacher had touched her chest from under the table while he was standing there to teach us how to write properly...i can't even find more modest words for what he had done...not to say da disgusting feeling I'm getting right now...
He was around 50 yrs old, all white headed and seemed to be a grandfather-ly figure to one...in fact he must have carried on dat image in minds of many...no one must be remembering him even till now...
My friend dus...
We had a male teacher as our class in charge so we couldn't tell him anything...
We alone, cz she said she didn't want to tell anyone else, went to da Vice-Principal, a Sister..i dun know what my friend had tld her as i had waited outside, but i came to know what da Vice-Principal had told her didn't include taking any action...
After all, why wd da school create a scene involving an eminent artist?
My soul screams 2da, as i think we weren't able to do anything...
I dun know what to say to my friend...after 6 years also da incident haunts her...i dun have words to express...what do I call it?Anger?
Or is it pity? Or helplessness?

Inner party democracy, anyone?

2009-09-21T15:18:00.000+05:30

Hi all,

We always pride ourselves with the fact that we are the world's largest democracy. Every five years when we go out to vote, we leave the rest of the world in awe. We make them wonder how such a staggering exercise is being conducted without major hiccups. The statistics alone is sufficient to rattle any planner and put him/her out of sleep for days.

For all the chest beating that we indulge in, there is a darker side to our democracy that we usually don't visit that often and would certainly like to keep it under the wraps from prying outsiders' eyes. Probably you would have guessed what I am talking about right now.

Inner party democracy has not been on the agenda of many political parties for a long time. They, conveniently, forget the fact that charity starts at home and that being propagators of democracy also means that they themselves have to practice it both in letter and in spirit first. Most of the political parties today somehow give inner democracy a miss. Dynastic politics seems to be the order of the day. If not that then it is a single strong man whose whims and fancies decide who and how the party is run.

Is this what democracy is all about? We all know it wasn't meant to be this way. Why are our political parties behaving in a manner that can be best described as being devoid of democracy? And whose responsibility is it to put the house under order? Where do we draw the line between democracy and indiscipline? Should academic exercises like writing a book come under the purview of a party's ideology?

p.s. I didn't want to get into the gory details of dynastic politics and strong men who control their parties with an iron grip...we all know it too well don't we...:)

"What Independence means to India?"

2009-08-31T13:49:00.001+05:30

"We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?" - Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his very famous speech of "Tryst with Destiny" August 14, 1947.
Today, we decidedly have gone eons ahead in the journey that began with tragedy and chaos but slowly and steadily progressed towards peace and development. Sure, there are some impedements that are stumbling roadblocks, but with the dedication & determination of our fellow Indians we shall overcome. Hum Hoonge Kamayaab ek Din!
But, there are some questions which creep in our glitzy world and beg for more thought and pondering. Have the fruits of development reached all? Some random strokings of Indian-pride by some advertisements and campaigns may at best arose patriotic feelings, but are we really working towards it. Campaigns like "Mera Bharat Mahaan" and "Jagoore" and even the repeated appeals by film-stars and other celebrities and Election Commission have fallen on deaf ears if the the poor turnout rates in recent elections are any indication.
Why is that 100 crores of population can't create an environment suitable for development while many of our brothers are damn successful outside India. Sure, in recent past, India has justifiably claimed its position as a power to reckon with by successfully even averting the full effects of slowdown. But then, equality is not an ideal which is to be adored in public, while it has no implication in real life. We may rationalize the negative points, pretend that they never existed, or safely say "Mera Bharat Mahaan". But then, greatness can't be bestowed by anybody, it must be commanded through our actions. When, millions of our brothers are starving, being molested, exploited etc we may choose to close our eyes but that doesn't alter reality.
Some genuinely sincere intellectuals who tried their hand in India, failed and moved abroad to find new avenues, claim that India as a state has failed them. I beg to differ. We Indians, failed INDIA. The lofty standards set by a host of great Indians such as Gandhiji, Nehru, Sardar, Bose, Bhagat Singh and many many others who weren't lucky enough to enter the hall of fame was through sincerest dedication which demanded nothing selfish from others but their own welfare. As aptly summed up by one film, people always want a Gandhiji to be born, not in their own house, but neighbour's.
Abdum Kalam, in a speech noted that the very same Indians who give a damn to rules of India, very obediantly follow rules while residing abroad and most ironically claim that the other nations are neat and clean. Why? Some claim that system is such the it breeds corruption! Many politicians are so powerful that we can't face them. "Yatha Raja, Thatha Praja" was the maxim of past. The history has turned one full circle and now the maxim is "Yatha Praja, Thatha Raja" in a democratic republic like ours. Indian electoral history is replete with examples wherein a very powerful incumbent was thrown out of power once he lost his sympathy with masses. If he could be thrown out, then it does mean that masses are really capable of coming out of their safe confines and determine the fate of the nation.
So, this means, that the system is such, because of our own tacit approval. Indians have always misunderstood the law of Karma and there has been opposition to this pattern of thinking from leaders. So much ingrained is the idea in India that people come to accept whatever becomes of them in resignation saying that this is fruit of karma. Very true. But it is only after we have fulfilled our duties to the fullest possible extent, that we can sit aside and watch the result. Patience is not a virtue if it means tolerating everything with no sense of esteem. We always wait for the arrival of some great person to lift our lives from the misery. But, it must be understood, that we can't sit idle until that person arrives. Because of this mentality Indians suffered unspeakable misery because they believed that some day justice will be done. But so long as well place our fate on the "other" factors we would never be able to shoulder our responsibilities.
unan-o-Misra-Ruma sab mit gaye jahan seAb tak magar hai baqi namo-nisan hamaraKuchh bat hai ki hasti mitati nahin hamariSadiyon raha hai dusman daur-i-zaman hamara
Iqbal, Indian poet and thinker
The poet says that whereas the ancient civilizations of Greece, Egypt and Rome have all disappeared from this world, the basic elements oJf our civilization still continue. Although world events have been inimical to us for centuries, there is 'something' in our civilization which has withstood these onslaughts.
That 'something' which Iqbal mentions, points out to the most inherent strength of Indians. Its "character", its "unity in diversity" and the most tolerant culture. What Gandhiji created was not something new. What he factually did was to help Indians re-discover themselves. We needn't battle the ills in India by imitating from others. We need to create our own home-grown solutions to the problems that abound us. Most importantly we need to feel a strong sense of belongingness towards our motherland. Then, rest would follow.
Madhav ( www.metamorphosisinside.blogspot.com)

Did India really gain independance on 15th August 1947?

2009-08-19T12:56:00.000+05:30

There are four people in the xerox shop doing the work that one is capable of handling. They work only when there is power, which is obvious. Power is a rarity these days. 'Unscheduled' load shedding the Electricity board say with such indifference. Sometimes, their phone isn't answered because the line is dead. From the looks of things, communication is impossible between 'concerned' electricity officials and the telephone exchange.
Next door is a 'paan' shop, where beedis are bought in large numbers. They're smoked like there's no tomorrow. There are wine shops on both sides of the road. Late in the night, after a "Hard" day's work, many a person can be seen drinking OMR outside these shops, and those who can't afford it settle for hooch. Soon they're so sloshed that most of them call it a day and settle into bed, which consists of the thin asphalt of the road. The beat police turn up later, and give them a few whacks. Meanwhile, their spouses are waiting at home, waiting for the money called 'salary' to pay for their kids' 'Government school' primary education. Those below the poverty line, don't even know what an education is, or can do.
The rain gods have failed farmers once again. They fail to reap any produce. Those that do, travel long distances to sell. Often they are disappointed with the prices, and so all is in vain. Tomatoes and onions are dumped in yards. Protests are held. Effigies are burnt.
A few Farmers commit suicide, unable to bear the 'burden' of supporting their families. Compensation is announced for the dead, as if to say his/her life can be equated to money.
Government jobs provide security in these turbulent times. An influential politician's son is promoted, where as the profile of an Civil services' officer, who has come up the hard way, with support from NGO's for his education and coaching, is shown the door.
The 'Assistant commissioner' of the divisional Corporation office, as he calls himself, has a few more assistants working under him. No one under him can question his authority. The irony is, he himself is an assistant to someone:p.
There is a H.P petrol bunk, one of many, that supposedly offers services through the night. Pay a visit after 11, and one will inadvertently find that those 'servicing' vehicles are snoring away. One Petrol bunk needs about ten people to run it. A separate guy to collect the cash.
The Urban Rural divide is unfathomable. Next door to the Radisson hotel under construction, one will find an 'un-official' vegetable market.
'Soil picking' is a proffesion. Child labour is payrolled. Children resort to sniffing Erazex for kicks.
A girl child is sold to a richer person, simply because she is a girl who cannot carry forward the 'family name'. It's atrocious to be associated with such a family.
Some would say it isn't, because IGNORANCE is bliss. Some faiths believe that a kid born is God's will. So they will continue to have children, until God decides they can't. Science is irrelevant in the simplest of issues.
Money equations are in, Truth and non violence was out long back. Gandhi took it with him to the grave.
Our population is our biggest strength. Sure, publish it in journals, magazines, papers. It is our biggest weakness. Democratic movement or not, who cares?
I'm just like any other Indian, voicing my concerns. I still am patriotic at heart.
But really, ask yourselves, Did India really gain independance on 15th August 1947?

P:S-- I wrote this in tthe 'moment', it may be a little deep, but i'd like to know if others would agree.

source: www.insipid-kish.blogspot.com

So What?

2009-08-18T17:28:00.000+05:30

Hi All,

A national calamity has befallen our nation. We have been wronged and humiliated. Our existence has been questioned and eminent citizens of our country, all of a sudden, suffer from trust deficit.

This would be the conclusion anyone would have come to if he/she had watched the media coverage following SRK's 'detention' at Newark Airport on Saturday. It was as if his detention was as important,if not more, as the day itself. Clippings of Independence day celebrations took a back seat to SRK's 'ordeal' speech! As all of you are aware the issue is still raging on with some celebrities and many politicians coming in support of SRK while the rest dismissing it as yet another publicity stunt for his latest movie. (Coincidentally(?) his upcoming movie also deals with similar incidents).

Now let me come straight to the point. I am angry and disappointed in equal measure with the media and the person in question,SRK. The media went into frenzy mode when the news first broke out and many channels started airing voice clippings of SRK speaking out on the issue. The constant barrage of the 'sufferings' of SRK made me feel obnoxious enough to switch off the idiot box and let the dust settle. After portraying SRK as a fallen hero, now some sections of the media wish to occupy the moral high ground and question the reactions subsequent to SRK's detention and ask what is all the fuss about!

SRK on his part did all he could to make this incident into that of racial profiling and garnered, to a great extent, lots of sympathies from the general public who probably saw this as yet another attempt of humiliation of one of their kind. To make matters worse, he even disclosed the reasons provided by the authorities for detaining him knowing fully well that these very reasons could flare up emotions back home. The least he could have done, in my opinion, is to downplay the incident and brush it aside like Abdul Kalam.

Now i ask, SO WHAT? So what if SRK is questioned. So what if he made to sit in a room for a couple of hours and made to answer a few uncomfortable questions. Is he above the law? Couldn't he have been the one of those randomly chosen people to undergo further screening? What about all those Indians who have been subject to outright profiling? Why hasn't the Indian media spoken up against this practice,with the same amount of intensity shown for this incident, in the past?

I wish to clarify that i am not condoning racial profiling. On the other hand, like all good people of this country, i condemn it outright. But we(media, public and the concerned persons) should stop reacting in a knee jerk manner every time an Indian is questioned or frisked and put all sorts of theory behind the incident. Rather we should look at it objectively.

Media’s role during troubling times

2009-08-14T17:12:00.001+05:30

Hi All,

Love them or hate them, you just can’t ignore them goes an adage. This couldn’t apply more to the media than anything else today. Print, electronic or any other form of media pervades every aspect of our life; informing us and determining, to a reasonable extent, the formation of views and our response to developing situations.

The ongoing Swine Flu Pandemic has highlighted the media’s role yet again in informing, educating, spreading information and awareness among the masses. In fact, I reckon, without the proactive media we have today in this country, the flu could have posed a much bigger threat than it currently does.

Having said this, there are proponents of the argument that media is primarily doing this for the sake of TRPs. Undoubtedly there is great public interest surrounding this flu and media outlets just want to cash in on this frenzy. They point out that we experience greater numbers of mortality just due to preventable diseases like malaria etc. So where was the media all this while, they ask. Fair argument by any measure!

So what are your thoughts on media’s role in this pandemic and in troubling times in general?

The Orangy Pen competition

2009-08-07T23:57:00.004+05:30

With the kind of content various Orangy sites are getting, the appreciation and response that we are getting is immense. Hence to reward some very good written articles, Orangy Consultancies has decided on a book prize to be given monthly. All the articles sent to us through our web e-mail id, orangy.in@gmail.com shall be seen for popularity, good content, theme and presentation and shall be judged accordingly.

Do Participate in, and also write in as to which entry do you think should be termed as the best !!!

Now Orangy and Jagruti both are available on Twitter as well.

http://twitter.com/Orangyin

Amendment to the 'Public Office Act circa 2009'...:)

2009-08-06T21:44:00.001+05:30

Election Commission [EC] Circular:

The following 'rules' have been added to the already existing criteria for filing nominations to run for office.

• Ability to shout down opposing views. It is mandatory that prospective member clear the prescribed 'decibel-o-meter' test with flying colours.

• Should be strong enough to yank the speaker's microphone out in case the speaker asks you to stop speaking or says anything that is not in your favour.

• Ability to fall asleep while serious discussion is going on. Candidates with snoring that amounts to just a whisper will be preferred over the rest.

• Compulsory absenting on Fridays so as to take an extended weekend holiday. Punitive action will taken against members who insist on attending sessions on Friday.

• Ability to smuggle in wads of currency notes and display it in the well of the house at the most opportune moment in the full glare of the cameras. Conceiving unique smuggling ideas will attract incentives such as 'black money limit' extended to 10 crores and relaxation in the 'less than 5 years' in prison rule by another 2 years.

• Asking ONLY questions for which members have been paid for. Extra questions will be charged at 420/question.

P.S: This post was never meant to demean anybody or any country... :)

Reality TV...taking it too far?

2009-07-31T00:29:00.000+05:30

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

2009-07-29T22:14:00.000+05:30

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 12^th 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)

Oh God. Sometimes the lessons from life are so cruel.

As I left...

2009-07-27T20:52:00.002+05:30

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??

2009-07-24T11:42:00.002+05:30

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 would request all of you to read this post with out any perception as I said in my previous post. (Whoever hasn’t read my previous post, can read here.

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

2009-07-20T10:53:00.000+05:30

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards
Aprajitha

Confession Of A 'Carefree' Soul

2009-07-13T11:19:00.005+05:30

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

2009-07-10T17:56:00.001+05:30

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 Maharashtra border, it didn’t mean anything for me. Couple of minutes after the train left the first or second station in Maharashtra, I heard a little bit of unusual noise from the first part of the compartment. I looked at that direction only to find nearly 15 transgender people clapping hands and asking something in Hindi. I have to admit that I don’t know Hindi more than ‘ak gauv may ak kishan rahuthatha’. But I don’t have to know Hindi to comprehend what was happening there.

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 Bombay. Every one treats them as an animal to make fun off. When I was speaking to one my intellectual friends, he said ‘neglection is more serious than death sentence’. How will we feel when we are neglected by our own parents? They are facing neglection from the whole society. I think this sense of neglection and hunger put together made them as what they are now. At the time when court recognised the homo sexuals, I wish the society would recognise transgender people. When we can treat a blind as handicapped and help crossing a road, why can’t we recognise them? Aren’t they handicapped?

Image courtesy: http://www.shaarique.com/miss-koovagam/.

Naming conventions

2009-07-09T10:57:00.003+05:30

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

BURQA BAN-AN APT STEP??

2009-07-05T08:52:00.000+05:30

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.

Direct Cash Transfer

2009-07-03T17:59:00.002+05:30

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.

Nostalgia - A trick played by our mind.

2009-07-02T16:04:00.000+05:30

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 9^th 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.

Unless we understand this, we would spend our life hating the present. I am sure the present is going to be a wonderful nostalgic moment in future. May I suggest everyone to understand this truth and love our present.

Image courtesy: http://www.marx-brothers.org/

And a year passes By...

2009-07-02T02:58:00.002+05:30

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

I am a Racist..

2009-06-29T12:49:00.003+05:30

Now a days, after the abusive attacks on Indian students in Australia got highlighted media attention. Everyone is talking about how racist Australians are, or are not. Some of the more enlightened gentry pointed out that racism is not limited to Australia, it is widespread and well documented even to the present day. Current England, America or any of the other countries is not insulated from discrimination. Even right back here, racism is very prominent amongst the tolerant Indians.There were some documented cases of racism in India, both negative and positive. Students from African nations complained of being loathed at

even in the colleges where they studied in India while gore log said,they were given preferential treatment but just as well considered to be easy to be taken to bed.I do not know whether the attacks on the students in Australia was my by comrades.

Because under the circumstances those attackers could just as well have been, people who had just lost their jobs and livelihood and were looking for someone to blame. With the risingglobal economic powers of India and a general media created perception
that any job lost anywhere in the globe on the pretext of cost savings
has just been Banglored. Accompanied by the facts that Indian diaspora
in Australia is fast rising in the local social and political circles
to prominence. A few of such attack even though specifically aimed at
Indian nationals, not just people with brown skins was inevitable. But I would rather call it, the hiccups of a bumpy ride to increased world recognition of India as an unstoppable Goliath in the world economy,than anything racial. I beseech such so called racists from damning my true compatriots who serve to a much more prime vial purpose.Which said, we human are social by nature and in the times of scarcity of resources or under attack from other groups (or tribes) we will fight as one to safeguard what is ours and everyone of us while eliminating every other social transgressor.

And no matter how hard any of you enlightened folks try to eliminate me and my fellow soldiers, we are at the very core of human nature.Instinct of survival has evolved around us. You may suppress us for awhile, during the times of abundance but the worse you make the situation for yourself. The stronger we get.

Sent in to us by email by Puneet Piyush

Virtues

2009-06-27T14:39:00.001+05:30

Ø I don’t know why but one fine day it happened for me to mumble a song from a Rajnikanth movie Raja Chinna Roja. Starting like this, I am not going to write a lavish praise for the beauty of the song or enchanting and soul fulfilling picturisation of the it as both are absolutely mediocre. But accidentally a couple of seemingly innocuous lines from this song provoked me to think half a day on the subject of life.

Ø Let me explain, Rajnikanth would take a gang of kids to a forest where a notorious kid would set a monkey’s tail on fire. The monkey would jump from tree to tree to spread the fire across the entire jungle. An elephant for whom, the same kids helped early, would clear the fire carrying water in his tusk to retrieve them safely. Now the song goes like this, ‘Nanmai ondru seitherkal, nanmail vilaindhathu. Theemai ondru seitheerkal, theemai vilainthathu. Theemai seivathai vittu vittu nanmai sevathai thodarungal. (Translation for those who don’t know Tamil: You did some thing good, and you got good result. You did something bad and you got bad result. So stop doing bad and continue doing good).

Ø Does virtues play a hand in success. Almost every being in this universe looks for money and power and attaining that is celebrated as success. Is this money and power goes only to those people who practice virtues or does it help them any way in achieving this? It is a very easy question for which the answer would be a big NO. we can see ‘n’ number of criminal politicians and corrupt officials not only lead normal life but also extremely successful. I asked my self several times if these virtues and good manners exist only for the use of fairy tales.

Ø If we clearly observe, we can see that life tries to give us a message at every stage that it takes us through. Its up to us to grab it to move to next level. Only those messages will take us near the happy state of mind that we are striving subconsciously. I don’t think we are searching for money or power. We are behind the happiness that comes out of money and power. Its only the virtues that helps us to see beyond our temporary objectives to uncover the messages. Lack of it would get us struck in the same level. Normally people tend to get stuck in money level.

Ø I believe life is a journey with an objective of finding the destination. We are supposed to collect clues in the way to find and reach the destination. In the way, we got to play lot of games to acquire the clues. If we forget that we are here to acquire the clues and play the game for other rewards, we would loose our journey.

Image courtesy: http://www.everythingthatslily.com

How to vote - User manuel

2009-06-22T12:05:00.003+05:30

This is not the user Manuel for how to vote in electronic voting machine. As a result of poor voting sense, now we are privileged to have criminals, corrupt, comedians and lunatics as our honourable members of Parliament and assemblies. I have been to the parliament once and I helplessly witnessed how the honourable members wasted people’s money and time shouting for unreasonable cause amidst speaker's feeble voice in front of foreign guests. I felt deeply concerned and for a moment, I thought those terrorists who attempted to strike parliament long before should have been let in to take on some of our diplomatic terrorists.

I am not worried about the low polling in India at all when dignified personalities across the country trying to create awareness terming it as social welfare activity. What if they vote for wrong person? I think everyone would agree to quality is important than quantity. So gentlemen, I decided to give a user Manuel to people of democraticIndia on how to vote.

Never vote for parties instead vote for individuals. This would help parties to hold right individuals in due course.
Do not vote for candidates with corrupt or criminal background.
Do not vote for religion or caste based parties even though they post right candidates. (It would spoil the national integrity).
Do not vote for candidates without basic political knowledge.
Do not vote if they give money. (you should realize this is an investment)
For candidates who were already on power,

Do not vote them had they had poor attendance in assembly.
Do not vote them if your review on their previous promises are not satisfactory.
Do not vote them had they not actively participated in assembly.
Do not vote them if their answers for any criminal or corruption charges while in power was not satisfactory.

You can help me in extending this. Don’t say this is a piece of work already looks like a propaganda for 49 'O'.

Image courtesy: http://subu.org.uk

Complaint regarding unfair website blocking of IRCTC

2009-06-22T02:36:00.000+05:30

Saturday, 9 May, 2009 9:01 AM

From:

"adarsh sharma"

To:

care@irctc.co.in

Cc:

teamjagruti@gmail.com

My name is Adarsh Sharma I wanted to book 3 tatkal tickets today for 14 May 2009 from Delhi to Bngalore for 3 adult passangers (Mohan Sharma, Male, 56; Usha Sharma, Ambuj Sharma, Females, 52 yrs) sharp till 8:00 PM today. 48 tatkal tickets were available and the moment I pressed the button to book the ticket I got a message on the IRCTC website stating service unavilable. After that whatever I did the website kept showing service unavailable message infact the IRCTC website would not open for the next 10 minutes and same message would be displayed. After 10 minutes when the website opened all the tickets were sold out. We had to attend to a family death situation and we are not able to book tickets.

I fail to understand why the message popped up when I was on time to book the tickets and when tickets were available. Was the website purposefully disabled so people cannot book tickets online and some agent could book them over the counter. If that is the case then it amounts to unfair treatment to the customers using IRCTC to book tickets. What is the point of having an internet booking system if you are going to block the site at the nick of time and allow agents to book tickets in bulk over the counter.

This is very very disappointing and you cannot take away your responsibility by stating that there was a technical problem, because since 7 PM in the morning there was no technical problem on the dot at 8PM when the tatkal booking starts the problem starts - how do you explain this.

I demand and request and explanation and a solution to my problem as I am now unable to book tickets.

A copy of this complaint is also sent to Consumer Forum through Jagruti and I hope either of you will provide justice in this matter and give us an alternate solution

Adarsh Sharma

98804 72640

080 4162230

Copy to: Consumer Forum (Consumer Affairs Department), Team Jagruti (Jago Grahak Jago)

Legions of Slave Women in the Mahabharata

2009-06-21T11:46:00.001+05:30

Awakening to the Bhagavad Gita (series) - 1

For, taking refuge in Me, they also, who, O Arjuna, may be of sinful birth—
women, Vaisyas as well as Sudras—attain the Supreme Goal!

How much more easily then the holy Brahmins and devoted royal saints (attain the goal);
having obtained this impermanent and unhappy world, do thou worship Me.

The Bhagavad Gita, Chap 9, Ver 32, 33

So women are of sinful birth! As well as all kinds of workers, business men, entrepreneurs, most of the general population. The only people of virtuous births are priests — Brahmins — and royal saints, meaning saintly royals, meaning noble Kshatriyas.

No wonder then that Yudhishthira — to reinstate whom this whole Mahabharata war has been fought — maintained hundreds of thousands of slave women! Take that number again: hundreds of thousands! He had so much gold, he could afford to. He had so much virtue, but he wanted more! Let's find the facts and figures from Draupadi's own words. Here Draupadi is recollecting the past glories of Yudhishthira before their exile:

Alas, that Yudhishthira, who was daily waited upon by a thousand sages of ascetic merit, versed in the Vedas and having every desire gratified, as his courtiers, —that Yudhishthira who maintained eighty-eight thousands of domestic Snatakas with thirty maid-servants assigned unto each, as also ten thousand yatis not accepting anything in gift and with vital seed drawn up, —alas, even that mighty king now liveth in such guise.

Okay, normally the characters of the Mahabharata exaggerate figures heavily, impelled as they are by Veda Vyasa's delirious imagination. For instance they would say, 'hundreds of thousands' for 'hundreds'. But here Draupadi is giving precise numbers, so there is a greater likelihood of them to being true. Yudhishthira and his brothers plundered the wealth of the country in blitzkrieg looting and pillaging campaigns, and what they were doing with all that wealth is this. Earning virtue by feeding everyday nearly a hundred thousand Brahmins, gratifying their every desire, and allotting thirty maid servants to a majority of them! This is a huge number of enslaved women! Women, after all, are of sinful birth, the only occupation they seem to fit is that of servant maid or bonded labor!

Elsewhere in the epic, Draupadi corroborates the numbers. Notice that there is little deviation.

Formerly, eight thousand Brahmanas were daily fed in the palace of Yudhishthira from off plates of gold. And eighty thousand Brahmanas also of the Snataka sect leading domestic lives were entertained by Yudhishthira with thirty serving-maids assigned to each. Besides these, ten thousand yatis with the vital seed drawn up, had their pure food carried unto them in plates of gold. All these Brahamanas that were the utterers of the Veda, I used to worship duly with food, drink, and raiment taken from stores only after a portion thereof had been dedicated to the Viswadeva.

Continuing her description, Draupadi comes to the female slaves personally attending on Yudhishthira. The number of them is not ten, not twenty nor thirty, not hundred, not two hundred, not a thousand, not two thousand, not ten thousand, not twenty thousand, but a hundred thousand, or more likely two hundred thousand!

The illustrious son of Kunti had a hundred thousand well-dressed serving-maids with bracelets on arms and golden ornaments on necks, and decked with costly garlands and wreaths and gold in profusion, and sprinkled with sandal paste. And adorned with jewels and gold they were all skilled in singing and dancing. ...I knew the names and features of all those girls, as also what they are and what they were, and what they did not. Kunti's son of great intelligence had also a hundred thousand maid-servants who daily used to feed guests, with plates of gold in their hands.

A hundred thousand for singing and dancing, and a hundred thousand more for serving the guests!

We get further corroboration of Draupadi's figures from a speech of Duryodhana addressed to his father after he had witnessed Yudhishthira's new-found wealth for himself.

And amongst men of all orders I beheld not a single one in the mansion of Yudhishthira that had not food and drink and ornaments. And eighty-eight thousands of Snataka Brahmanas leading domestic lives, all supported by Yudhishthira, with thirty serving-girls given unto each, gratified by the king, always pray with complacent hearts for the destruction of his foes. And ten thousands of other ascetics with vital seed drawn up, daily eat of golden plates in Yudhishthira's palace. And, O king, Yajnaseni (Draupadi), without having eaten herself, daily seeth whether everybody, including even the deformed and the dwarfs, hath eaten or not. And, O Bharata, only two do not pay tribute unto the son of Kunti, viz., the Panchalas in consequence of their relationship by marriage, and the Andhakas and Vrishnis in consequence of their friendship.

88,000 X 30 is by the way over 26 lakhs or 2.6 millions — of slave women, of sinful birth, all at one place. And all in the service of utterly useless holy Brahmins, who knew nothing but eating and enjoying the services of their slave women besides the usual chanting of gibberish mantras, people who didn't generate one ounce of wealth. These are the people, Krishna says, would attain to Him most easily! I think they have already attained Him, the Supreme Goal!

All these holy Brahmins were being looked after by the plundered gold and regular tributes collected from all over the country. Ah those golden times, but thank God they didn’t last for ever! This unhappy and impermanent world, deplores Krishna. If it were up to Krishna I think he would have allotted hundred slave women to each Brahmin, lakhs of them, and made the girls serve the holy men for all eternity.

I would say no to 33% to ladies

2009-06-19T11:56:00.000+05:30

MP, MLA, Minister, Chief Minister and Prime minister are the supreme posts of the democratic India that directly influence the well being of the people. Even a small mistake by them may make the people to suffer for generations.
At the moment, majority of ladies are not exposed independently to face the real world. They are dependent and shielded. This makes their general personality poor and their knowledge limited.
Now tell me, do you think it is worth taking a risk of exposing ladies with substandard qualities directly to supreme posts. Don’t you think they are most prone to make wrong decisions because of lack of exposure? And as I said early you know how much these wrong decision may affect people.
This world belongs to every living creature. No one can be neglected. Ladies should actively take part in politics. No doubt about it.
But to do that, we need to create good environment for them to accumulate the qualities required to acquire the top position in politics. If you want to make a man win the running race, we need to give good food to make him strong and good practice to sharpen his skills. Instead we cant just place him 20 meters ahead of others or ask others to run slowly.

Am I a racist?

2009-06-18T20:13:00.001+05:30

Recently I read a long story written by a fellow blogger about how she is racially abused by foreigners only because she is an Indian. She said she lived in various countries and went on to accuse Australia, Canada, US, UK and Israel as racist countries. I would like to disagree here because I feel racism is not present in certain countries or races, instead it is omnipresent. Yes. I feel almost each and every person in this world has a bit of racial intentions. Let me explain.

What is racism? Leaving away the formal definition of racial biases etc, let us asses it from a psychological background.

Every human being in this world wants to be better than others. For example, we are participating in Indiblogger of the month because we want to be better than other bloggers. We are participating in a running race, because we want to be better than other participants. In this world all the successes and resultant happiness is determined comparatively. Based on various reasons, we develop a perception that certain people are not competent enough to overtake us. If those people tend to outsmart us, we want to invent certain activities to irritate and spoil their happiness to keep them below us. This activity is what I am going to term as racism. If we see in this angle, we are all racists. What do you call the behaviour of cricket fans in India to Andrew Symonds? What do you call the violence unearthed in Chennai Law College? What do you call the behaviour based on casteist disparities in India? What do you call the behaviour of people in superior posts towards their subordinates? What do you call the tratment of maratis towards Biharis in Mumbai?

My point is that we don’t have to develop hatred towards certain countries or race as it is not an activity present within them alone, instead it is the outcome of a basic attitude called dominance which is present in almost every human being. We need to understand that good people and bad people coexist in every part of this universe. Racism can be eliminated only when people tend to believe success is not a comparative term.

Pink Chaddi doesnt suit me

2009-06-12T18:35:00.003+05:30

I never support separatists for their narrow minded ideologies and the barbarian methods they use to implement it. Particularly when they beat women, going to pub, I felt it is totally inhuman.

I remember reading 'pub going broad/ forward women'. I cant call a woman broad minded or forward just because she goes to pub. Being forward is different and it takes a lot. Though I severely condemn the act of beating women who goes to pub, I cant support them to get the freedom to go to pub as the cause is not noble.(But the episode of sending pink chaddi is very funny).

I am not particularly against pub going ladies but I wouldn’t approve of few people who pretend to follow western culture because they think westerners are well mannered and their culture is superior to Indian culture. I have been with lots of western friends and I love and cherish their culture but we need to understand every culture by its pros and cons.

What is a culture? When human race begun to live in groups, the leader or philosopher or ruler should have laid a set of rules to bring order in the group or to take the group one step forward in life or for his own selfishness. The rules that were made by wise people and which were more appealing stayed long enough to survive the current AD.

Long long ago (so long ago :)) western people explored the external life for their happiness, while people inIndia explored the world which was inside a human being, to achieve the same. The people who did that were called as saints. Since the rulers of India had trusted their wisdom, they created a new post called Rajaguru and every decision was made in approval of them. I believe most of the Indian culture shaped through this.

Because it is handled by variety of people these many years, the philosophies of the culture were distorted naturally. Few well thought interactive lessons became mere rituals. Few sects of people, to ensure their suvival, added some unnecessary procedures using people's fear. Few of the esteemed procedures were treated as barbaric as there is no one to explain the reason behind that.

If you prefer better management of external life you need to choose western way of life. If you are interested in finding the real meaning of life and exploring the inner self, Indian culture would be the best. But if we follow Indian culture, we should be brave enough to question all the nonsense that it has accumulated over the years or else we would fail in understanding the core.

Two points we need to remember though. There is no culture inferior or superior to one another. But If we follow something, we need to follow it fully and only after understanding it clearly. We should not follow it just because ‘Johnny follows and me too’. And also we can’t keep one leg on Indian culture and another on western as few people here do now. That is really disgusting.

Law on arresting a woman in India

2009-06-12T12:20:00.002+05:30

An incident took place in Pune - a young girl was attacked by a man posing as a plain clothes officer; he asked her to come to the police station when she & her male friend did not have a driver's license to show. He sent the boy off to get his license and asked the girl to accompany him to the police station. Instead he took her to an isolated area where the horrendous crime was committed.

The law [which most of us are not aware of] clearly states that between 6 PM and 6 AM (from sunset until sunrise), a woman has the right to REFUSE to go to the Police Station/Jail, even if an arrest warrant has been issued against her. It is a procedural issue that a woman can be arrested between 6 PM and 6 AM, if and ONLY if she is arrested by a woman officer and taken to an ALL WOMEN Police Station/Jail. And if she is arrested by a male officer, it has to be proven that a woman officer was on duty at the time of arrest.

Note: Read National Human Rights Commission Report for elaborate details.

My Words

Thanks for the forwarded email. However, I got this information a few months ago when I did a small research on the same and stumbled on a couple of forum links which I will share with you. I was unable to find any truth associated with this matter. The links provided below also talk about the same thing. I request you all to go through the information and I am sure this will be helpful.

I just do not want anyone to get into a mess due to wrong information. I am not able to find the accuracy of this act as mentioned above, and neither do I say that the information on the forums are cent per cent correct. I just want you to see both sides of the coin and decide the best on your own. If anyone has some more information on this, please feel free to share with me.

Forum Links:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/2912216-woman-arrest-law
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/right-to-refuse-police.html

I Write at: Thus Spake Tan!

Please Vote.... and spread the word to vote

2009-06-08T20:27:00.004+05:30

Members and patrons of the blog.

Our blog has been nominated for the Indiblogger of the month, April.

It is my humble request, that you vote for our blog as some recognition to the blog shall benefit the recognition for the cause we all are working for here.

Please vote in large numbers here:

http://www.indiblogger.in/nominations.php?id=2

if you are unable to locate the blog, simply press control + f and search for the word jagruti.

Thank you all.

Regards,
Tushar Mangl
For Jagruti

Tourism In India

2009-06-08T07:57:00.009+05:30

I'd been to the famous Sun temple at Konark sometime back.The place is beautiful and is frequented by tourists,both from India and from abroad.For it's maintenance the government charges an entry fee of Rs10 per person from our people while a foreigner has to pay 10$ for the same.And thats the price fixed for all other monuments across the country I believe.

I'd been to the place some years back too.The place was swarming with foreign tourists then.They were happily touring the large precinct of the temple and clicking pictures.But this time,though there were lots of tourists from India,I found a decrease in the numbers of the foreign visitors.It was the time of the year when the famous Konark Dance festival was on.The festival draws many art and dance enthusiasts from across the globe.The crowd was still there,but then somebody who had seen the crowds before could easily note the decreased numbers.

While having refreshments in a restaurant outside I got into a chat with two of the tourists.I'd seen them taking pictures from outside the temple premises.They were art students from Germany.They told me they were backpack travellers and were on a limited budget.Shelling out 10$ every time for visiting a monument was hard on them.In fact one of their friends was inside clicking pictures while they were waiting for him outside.

That kinda explained the reduced numbers.I'm not sure if thats the case everywhere but considering the number of backpackers and student travellers who visit the country,this would be a big turn down for them.It would also deter the visitors to visit our country for the second time.This can adversely affect our tourism.The govt should also consider that 10$ isn't equivalent to Rs10.They should lower the amount so as to ensure more tourist flow.They may gain 10$ from one tourist but they are losing out on many others.

The 15th Indian Parliament

2009-05-26T13:19:00.004+05:30

सत्यमेव जयते (Satyameva Jayate): Truth

Alone Triumphs! Let this be in deeds too. With the new government sworn in last evening,

I am all excited and geared up to see the new India under the new authority. On the same day of my blog’s anniversary the new Indian government sworn in. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is all set to setup the second consecutive government.

The elections are over. The exit polls are gone and the counting has ended. We have the results out. The UPA has won beating the other parties and Dr. Manmohan Singh is the new King of Indian politics. He is going to take charge for the second consecutive term and I am sure he will do best this time – well, alike billions of Indians, I have the same hope and dream. I wish him all the very best from one and all. May God bless him and may he succeed in whatever he does in the coming 5 years. Incidentally, he swore in on the same day 5 years ago!

Along with the Prime Minister, a bunch of old and new faces entered the cabinet. Each one will have their own ministry and responsibilities. I hope we have chosen the right people and they will do only good to the country and its countrymen. Here is a collage of the ministers – for all of you to know.

I have a lot of hopes, as all you have. I hope the recession passes away and we see new avenues of employment and opportunities. I hope there is more tax collected from places where it was never done before. I hope our defense get good support from the DRDO and it gets good support from the new government. I hope we filter our opportunities and realize them successfully. I wish to see more medals in the Olympics and a better National Football team. I hope to get the zealous Hockey team back. I wish to have a better future for us – for me, for you and for all those who breathes in India. I wish to wake up in a better tomorrow. I hope to see the rainbow next time it rains! There is no end of my wishes – hope I see an end in terrorism.

Let us all wake up in a better tomorrow and let the people of Indian socialist sovereign republic get all that they deserve and have longed for. They have been chosen by the people and have been filtered out of the people – now, let them work for the people too. In this occasion let me remember the Golden Words of Abraham Lincoln (during The Gettysburg Address): Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

जय हिंद

Cross posted at: Thus Spake Tan!

A peek into reality

2009-05-22T09:35:00.002+05:30

As a part of my summer internship I am suppose to do a survey of the slums in Mumbai. The survey is to find out extent of Financial Inclusion in Slums of Mumbai. Financial inclusion is defined as, "The process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost."
Much has been done for the rural poor – not that the life of the rural poor is significantly better now, but at least at the level of policy making, there are a host of policies framed keeping the rural poor in mind. Since I am doing my summer at the central bank of India (RBI), I do not have much exposure to the implementation of such policies thus I limit my self here at the policy making stage.
Facilities like-
Business Correspondent (BC) -where bank send officials to provide banking services at the footsteps of the rural poor , such officials are BC's and they provide a host of services to the poor, ranging from Savings ( both deposit and withdrawal) , filling up forms of opening a bank account or applying for a loan . This has helped the rural poor to a great extend as now he need not travel to the bank branch.
Smart card - These are bio metric cards given to the rural poor, these are equivalents of ATM's, the difference being the access is not through a pin code but through finger print and which can be used through BC's.
There are a lot many such options available to the rural poor, however the urban poor has been neglected since a long time, the only privilege he has got is "No frills account" which RBI had asked all the bank branches to compulsorily open. These account have minimum balance in the range of INR 0- 500, also the host of documents required to open savings account( ID proof, Address proof,etc) are relaxed , thus encouraging the urban poor to open a savings account . Yet the urban poor are deprived of the basic access to formal credit and saving account.

My project is with respect to the urban poor, I am suppose to find out why is it that the urban poor are still financial excluded.
Last 2 weeks have been spend on identifying the slums where I would conduct the survey, and framing the questionnaire and finally today am going to begin my survey.

The slums identified are –

Chamunda nagar – Slum consisting of roughly 125 families, in Bhandup. People leaving here work mostly as maids, sweepers and daily workers. .

Ganesh Nagar – a slum located at Borivali, consisting of 175 families , and the most developed slum among the 3 that I have chosen ( By developed I mean, few men in these slums speak correct English and are working in banks, yet there are also house maids and sweepers living as their neighbours )

Pathadwadi – A slum located at Byculla, these are mostly pavement dwellers , and this slum is one among 8 slums located at the same place . These are mostly daily workers.

These 3 slums are chosen as it covers the 3 corners of Mumbai.

Bhandup being at North East Mumbai.
Borivali being at North West Mumbai
Byculla being at South Mumbai.

I have had a few visits to slums last week for identifying the slums for the survey, and the experience was unique in its own kind.It pains to see that 49% of Mumbai lives in the places called slum ( All India Average being 15%- That is 15% of the urban India lives in slums ) .

Yesterday I had gone to a slum named Sudan jhopri, it's in Colaba . For those who are not familiar with Mumbai, colaba is a posh area in south Mumbai .On my way to the jhopri I had to walk though colaba market, it is a place where one can see more foreigners than Indians, who come there to buy Indian jewellery, antique decorative items , Cloths with Gods/Goddesses printed on them and more of these .
There was a at least a dozed Brand outlets there in the same road, and ironically hardly 5 min walk from such a place is Sudam Jhopri where people live in make shift huts, and the few who are lucky to have a House made of Bricks share it with a dozen others making the huts look more spacious. As I walked in , and started speaking to a man in his 40's , the first question he asked me was " Mujhe kya faeda hoga" , he was asking me if he agrees to answer my question how would he be benefited, it took me a good 10 min to explain things to him . But isn't this what all of us think always – " our benefit" .

Inside I was spoke to 7 people in total, and Few myths which were there in my mind were broken few of them being

I always thought that since the urban poor do not have any Identification proof they are unable to open a savings account, but the fact is that they all had Ration cards ( which is accepted by banks as a proof to open "no frills account") , and out of these 7 people only 2 had a bank account .

I was told that the poor were denied access to credit , but I realized that they did not want credit, :) they prefer living with what little they had than taking credit, out of these 7 only 1 man had taken credit that too, to repair his house .

Those who did have a bank account were not aware of basic facilities like ATM, and those who did , were not given ATM's by the bank . Later when I did visit a bank ,I realized that though the bank claims that the "no frill account" holders can avail of ATM's , but it was given to them only if they requested for it. I wander how they expected the urban poor to know the usage and benefits of ATM .

These findings were based only on 1 visit. So PLEASE do not jump to any conclusion.

The experience -

It was around 3 p.m when I approached a NGO – SPARC located at Byculla Mumbai, after telling them what I am there for, he took me to cycle chachaji who is the local leader of the slum called "Thandi gali”. His name was so coined because he had a small cycle repair shop. I spoke with him for roughly 25 minutes .The people staying there are migrants from Eastern India. Very few of them had bank accounts, chachaji told me about the difficulties people faced there while opening a bank account.
As per RBI, banks can relax certain norms while opening "no Frills account”, hence any Identification proof should be accepted by the bank while opening bank accounts. However the banks nearby accepted the Ration card as proof only if some one who already has an account in the bank introduces the new member. Sounds simple right? But it's always the case that such guarantees (who have the luxury of a bank account) exploit such people, demand fees for introducing the poor to the bank.
The place which was home to 700 families was nothing but houses made of aluminum sheets or plastic sheets on the pavement. I wandered why the road was named “Thandi Sadak” meaning cold road, perhaps as people are deprived of the various luxuries which we are gifted with ,they became cold with fear, frustration . Chachaji told me that in the past 10 years 3 fake societies had collected money around Rs 500 from people living there – money which means a lot to them. These people earn hardly 3000 a month, and this sum is used to feed a family of four, roughly 750 per person for a month that’s it – That is all they need.
People like me spend 8 thousand for a descent life of course it includes 3500 PG rent, yet that means 4500 I spend on myself and right there in front of me there were 750 families who spend half of what I spend to feed 4 times more people. The value of 1 rs can be felt only at such places.
The fake societies after collecting INR 500 from each of these families simply fled, vanished in thin air and along with them went Rs 375000 (750 * 500), money which could have been used for a child school fees or for the medicine which could have saved a life.
Chachaji asked me one question, " Babuji humara paisa leke who bhage to kisi ne kuch nahi kia, police ne complain likh li , but aaj tak kuch nahi hua, lekin babuji agar hum mein se koi aap jaise logon ka 100 rupaya bhi churay to humeh jail bhi hotih hain aur humeh peeta bhi jaatahain , esa kyun? " ( Sir, they ran with all our money and yet no one did anything , we did lodge a complain with the police , but nothing has been done , but if one of us steal even a mere INR 100 from people like you , We would not only be in jail but we would also be thrashed – why is this so? ) - When I heard this a cold shiver ran through my spine – I was blank , I did not know what to answer to this, very conveniently I changed the topic back to the survey I was suppose to do. I wander if I could have done something more than empathize. I could feel the coldness in his eyes when he spoke.
As I walked further, I saw a scene which flashes in my mind every now and then since I visited the place, there was this lady in her 30’s washing clothes at the roadside, a petty normal scene right? but right in front of this lady there was a small girl- age 4 years , hair all wild, dirt shining on her cheeks , and covered by only a small piece of cloth around her waist , there was a shirt in front of her and a brush in her hand, with the small hands which should be playing with a doll she was struggling to clean a shirt trying to remove the dirt on the shirt, hardly bothered about the dirt on her face , I wonder if any once can ever remove this pain from her childhood. This was a stark contrast to the way we are bought up isn’t it? It was really disheartening to see so many infants losing their childhood. I truly believe in destiny, and this was an perfect example, did these kids chose to be born to pavement dwellers in Mumbai - Where 2 meals a day is a luxury, well all of us am sure would agree that it truly is something much powerful and visionary than our choice that decides this- why? How? I don't know, but surely there has to be some reason for this, one of my friends always says that “just because we do not understand or see the logic behind something, doesn't mean that it is illogical or irrational. It could also be the case that the logic is so complex that it is far beyond our understanding”. The moment I saw those children doing mundane tasks and as I was pondering over there destiny I could only think of these words.
These people were also efficient civil engineers that too without a formal degree, they engineered a two floored hut. The hut which is made of things like aluminum sheets and plastic was divided into two floors – miniature version though.
There was however something strange , people were constantly asking my if I was from income tax department, It really did not make sense to me at first, a man who claims that he earns less than 3000 INR a month , is tensed about having a income tax raid, this really did not make sense . Later on, my guide told me that there are some people living in the pavement who earn much more than what they claim and the people who fear income tax department could be one of such people.
The survey took me 4 hours, I was there asking people questions and the problems they face while opening a bank account. Very few of them had bank accounts , those who had were those who were lucky enough to have both a permanent ration card and a ID proof like voters card , and these proofs were made long time back somewhere in 1995, so invariably men and women aged 40-50 had such proofs and hence bank accounts ,the people aged 31-40 , did not have bank accounts for two reasons , first many of them did not have a photo ID card and secondly since they had no photo card they required a introducer- a person who already has an account in the bank and thus introduces this new member. However such people often charged for introducing, that is just for saying that he knew Mr.X, he was charging a hefty fees thus encouraging financial exclusion.
Very few people had actually tried opening a bank account; rest simply assumed that it was a next to impossible task to open a bank account. There were people who earned very little thus need not feel the need of a savings account., but there were also those who were savings 500-1000 INR monthly but did not open a bank account thinking its a very difficult process. Hence such people saved their money with NBFC's (non banking Financial Companies) or informal co-operations/ NGO’s.
I was happy however to find one thing that the people who did not go to school did send their children to municipal school, and hence at least the path for a literate India has been made. As the poor have understood the importance of education yet at the time when they don't go to school they are mostly doing house hold chores.
The NGO located at this place had done a lot for these people , from providing informal savings deposit to providing them credit in times of need , apart from the financial needs, the NGO also worked to rehabilitate thee people to a proper place, and provided those who remained with the basic facilities like a public Toilet , drinking water .

The next day I went to Chamunda Nagar slum.

I reached the place by 8 am, and found that in many ways it was similar to Thandi sadak but also drastically different in many other ways. People here generally worked as sweepers or house maids.
Speaking to them I came up front with the harsh reality. People there were in abject poverty, there was a temple in the same compound and it had the name of " Chamunda nagar Trust" . When I enquired further with the people there, I was shocked to hear that the trust people who at the face of it should be helping the poor slum dwellers actually add to the problems.
The dwellers told me that, people give a lot of donations to the trust at the temple right in front of these people in the hope that the necessary help is provided to these poor people., but the trust generally do not provide any help from the donations to these people, and if at all they do then the person who has the privilege of getting the monetary support or food is subjected to grave insult .
When I enquired about the office of this trust, they were not in a position to tell me.
This was in striking opposite to the byculla slum, where NGO had done a lot for the people there, but here the very people who should facilitate the donations to such people are depriving them of this facility. Often due to various reasons , they are compelled to take loan, and the only option available to these people are the local money lenders , who charge 150 % interest rates from the dwellers of chamunda Nagar, the people completely ignorant of the high interest rate charged pay this huge interest as the formal institutions failed to provide them access to formal credit.
They fetch drinking water from the nearest railway station, and when there is a sudden need of water at midnight , they cross the railway tracks at the darkest of hours for a bottle of water, many have paid for this right to drinking water by their life.
Ladies had to wait till dark to relief themselves as there were no toilet, the station nearby did have a toilet but it charged 3 INR per usage, and they could not afford this luxury. 3 Rs was all they needed to get relieved, I could never have understood the value of 3 rs , better than here. When I was walking towards this place, I had seen that one side of the road men were taking bath, and right opposite to them , the women tried to cover their modesty while taking bath, its such a shame that while we boast of women empowerment, powerful women CEO's ,these women have only one objective – protect their modesty, they may not be the most powerful CEO but the fight they pursue daily is nothing less.
The people here reflected the spirit to upgrade, they wanted to move up the social and monetary ladder . Out of the 37 families I had spoken to at least 15 families told me that they did try opening an account in bank, but they could not succeed as banks demand a photo ID card like "Voters card or Employee Id " or something of similar kind , but they did not have these documents at most they had a ration card that too a temporary one . Banks often asked for someone who already had a count with the bank and could introduce the new member which is a huge hassle for the poor .
Those who had all these documents, faced another problem , their ration cards had the addresses of other areas, but banks specifically wanted ration card denoting their address where they were staying .When they went to apply for a fresh ration card or change the address then they demanded bank account proof , thus they were caught in this unbreakable loop of bank account and ration card.
There was one more thing common between these slums- the shine in their eyes., it truly is remarkable that these people who are surviving with the minimum are still happy ,and their eyes reflect joy, which they see in their loved ones. in the one plate of rice they eat after a tiring day, cherishing the taste of each grain because it take may take many days or weeks before they have this luxury again .

Children were happy playing in dust, there nose wet, half naked, they were enjoying themselves – satisfied with what they had- quite the opposite of the urban kid who wants the latest car or Barbie.

"My cousin touched me there"

2009-05-15T23:12:00.002+05:30

Note: When Tan suggested me to post this here...I gave it a thought. I felt he was right.

yeha I know in the election times ..people would be more inclined to politics. Well still..just give it a read :)

For the first time when she came in I knew she is going to be one of my best pals. she was bubbly chirpy sociable and a caring human being.she was I felt my true copy. But what I felt wasn't true and I'd never known that trait of hers which never matched mine had such a reason behind it.

She never liked to talk or be familiar to the opposite sex. I found this irritating but I just used to remember all her other traits which brought her close to me and made her one of the closest beings to me on this Earth.

As she and I had got very close in friendship that we began sharing secrets which we never thought would come out of our mind. And I thought I understood her as I thought she was me.

Then one day as we were alone in my room I asked her why she was so unfamiliar and irritated with boys. I felt I had opened up some wound which she got long ago. She broke down. And amidst of all this she just let out the words......

"my cousin touched me there"

I was taken aback. I was wrong to be claiming that I understood her. I was wrong.

Ps:) This is not a piece of fiction its the cruel and crude truth my dear friend went through.

A sad reality many face..due to lack of knowledge about the issue : (

Trail of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab – A joke!

2009-05-13T05:05:00.004+05:30

Who do you trial? Who does this? What is this all about? Is this playing with justice or is it just a mockery of the whole thing? Well, there are lots of questions and I find very less of answers to all these.

Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab is the only survivor from the pack of Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008 (better known as 26/11). He was captured while he was on a rampage killing scores of people and injuring hundreds, on that dreadful night in Mumbai. There was a lot of fuss in the last few months about him being a Pakistani or his age to be prosecuted in an adult court or with his captivity. Recently, the long awaited trial started and everyone is waiting to see what the court will decide on his fate.

Ridiculous!

What is there to decide? Hang him!! Simple…

Well, I do not want to hang him without getting all the information from him and only after proving that the attackers were all from Pakistan and the whole incident was built up by the Pakistani Army, Government and LeT. Once we prove that and bring it in front of the world, we can very well start the response by slaughtering his throat! Is not it?

One would laugh when I will tell that, days before Kasab was taken to the court, he asked for a few ‘very important’ things in life. He wanted to read a Urdu NEWSPAPER every day morning (along with his bed tea and toast, I suppose). He wanted to have flavored TOOTHPASTE. He wanted to have a STROLL in the lobby in the jail where he was kept. These were his humble demands while he was in jail! Maybe next time, he will ask for Chicken Tikka Masala from Taj Restaurant; and I am sure there will be some hard core professionals (like the defense lawyer who decided to work with Kasab, after having a long time career with underworld) who would ‘think’ about providing this humble man with these modest necessities!

Why don’t we just shoot him???

I asked the same on twitter and a few replied that we are supposed to be cultured and rational human beings and hence, we do not do that! How good is that? You come to my house, beat me up, take my belongings and I remain indifferent to all these and smile – as because I am cultured and rational? Oh! I just laughed at those responses.

Anyways, I am waiting for the final judgment on Kasab. There are some 86 cases filed against him, I believe. I really think people in India has very less work to do now (thanks to recession) that they sit down and thing of all the cases that could be filed against this man! Hehe… rational bunch of nincompoops!

This is one of the reasons that Air France treats our passengers like cattle and Andy Bichel (the old Aussie Pacer) could address Agarkar as ‘bloody Indian’ – still in 2009!! Call that rational and show more humanity and some historic culture!

Let’s see what the court says – for I just do not want to say anything else right now. Let the court decide, and once decided we can see it ourselves. I hope we have not forgotten those sleepless nights and hours of terror.

Kasab is lucky, that he killed Indians and not Americans. Else, there would have been an Iraq or an Afghanistan by now in the country of ‘purity’ – Pakistan! (lol)

Crossposted at: Thus Spake Tan!

Jaago Grahak Jaago

2009-05-07T01:49:00.005+05:30

Declaration: In continuation of my previous post on the Counterfeit Halocast.

Yes this is the punch line the govt of India is using to awaken us- the consumers of India. Since we all know the mal-practices manufacturers and sellers have been pursuing in regard of making money without considering the ill effects of those on the consumers.

This is more importantly due to the fact that the consumers are unaware of their rights.

Nevertheless, it is never too late to be informed.

The consumer protection act 1986 is a step that has been brought into force by the govt of india in order to as the name suggests, protect the consumers.

It defines CPA as- An Act to provide for better protection of the interests of consumers and for that purpose to make provision for the establishment of consumer councils and other authorities for the settlement of consumers' disputes and for matters connected therewith.

The rights of the consumers underlined under this act are:

1. Right to Safety: The right to be protected against goods which are hazardous to life and property.

2. Right to Information: The right to be informed about the quality, quantity, purity, price and standards of goods.

3. Right to Choose: The right to be assured access to a variety of products at competitive prices, without any pressure to impose a sale, i.e., freedom of choice.

4. Right to be Heard: The right to be heard and assured that consumer interests will receive due consideration at appropriate forums.

5. Right to Seek Redressal: The right to get relief against unfair trade practice or exploitation.

6. Right to Education: The right to be educated about rights of a consumer.

Not just these, but the consumer can bargain on the MRP of any product as it is inclusive of the profit margin of the retailer.

Also, there are different redressal forums where the consumers can appeal if they feel cheated.

District Forum—

The District Forum has the jurisdiction to entertain complaints where the value of the goods or services and the compensation, if any, claimed ''does not exceed rupees twenty lakhs.

A complaint shall be instituted in a District Forum within the local limits of whose jurisdiction,—

(a) the opposite party or each of the opposite parties, where there are more than one, at the time of the institution of the complaint, actually and voluntarily resides or carries on business or has a branch office or personally works for gain, or

(b) any of the opposite parties, where there are more than one, at the time of the institution of the complaint, actually and voluntarily resides, or carries on business or has a branch office, or personally works for gain, provided that in such case either the permission of the District Forum is given, or the opposite parties who do not reside, or carry on business or have a branch office, or personally work for gain, as the case may be, acquiesce in such institution; or

State Commission —

The State Commission has the jurisdiction—

(a) to entertain—

(i) complaints where the value of the goods or services and compensation, if any, claimed exceeds rupees twenty lakhs but does not exceed rupees one crore; and

(ii) appeals against the orders of any District Forum within the State; and

(b) to call for the records and pass appropriate orders in any consumer dispute which is pending before or has been decided by any District Forum within the State, where it appears to the State Commission that such District Forum has exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it by law, or has failed to exercise a jurisdiction so vested or has acted in exercise of its jurisdiction illegally or with material irregularity.

A complaint shall be instituted in a State Commission within the limits of whose jurisdiction,—

(b) any of the opposite parties, where there are more than one, at the time of the institution of the complaint, actually and voluntarily resides, or carries on business or has a branch office or personally works for gain, provided that in such case either the permission of the State Commission is given or the opposite parties who do not reside or carry on business or have a branch office or personally work for gain, as the case may be, acquiesce in such institution; or

(c) the cause of action, wholly or in part, arises.

National Commission—

National Commission shall have jurisdiction—

(a) to entertain—

(i) complaints where the value of the goods or services and compensation, if any, claimed exceeds rupees
one crore; and

(ii) appeals against the orders of any State Commission; and

(b) to call for the records and pass appropriate orders in any consumer dispute which is pending before or has been decided by any State Commission where it appears to the National Commission that such State Commission has exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it by law, or has failed to exercise a jurisdiction so vested, or has acted in the exercise of its jurisdiction illegally or with material irregularity.

Besides this, National Consumer Helpline is here to help. Feeling cheated with any product or service? Underweight?

Overpriced? Delivery, not as on promised date or not up to your satisfaction? Contact us, and we'll tell you what to do.

- As advertised in TOI dated 12th April 2008, Page 23

Just Call: 1800-11-4000 (Toll free from MTNL\BSNL lines)

011-27662955-58 (Other user, normal call charge applicable)

Black vs White

2009-05-02T13:52:00.002+05:30

This is a mail I got from a relative. Apparently, this poem was nominated by UN as the best poem of 2008:
When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow

When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you gray

And you calling me colored?

Me Taliban

2009-04-25T17:54:00.000+05:30

I belong to the Taliban and I am a Talib.....says who? Says Honorable Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju.

Oh did he...I guess he must have strong valid reasons, right? Well, he does have a reason, yes.

Gosh...so you guys have infiltrated into Indian mainland, you must be a spy, right...what else would you be in India for? Hmm...I've always been in India, you see, I was born here, have been brought up here, studied here (though we hardly study in engineering colleges:D), intend to work here too if a certain IT major does not forget me...ohh n btw, I love India too but that I suppose is besides the point.

Hmm...so why did he call you a Taliban? Lemme see, I guess you practice hate, right? Hardly...love is the very fuel of life is what I believe in.

Probably, you do not support girls getting educated along with boys if at all they should get educated, right? Let's just say that one of the foremost reasons for me traveling almost one hour from Central Calcutta to the outer fringes of Southern Calcutta to attend college was the incentive of ogling at a couple of really pretty faces in Electrical '05!!!

You must be having AK 47s stashed in your locker, right? The only things that I have stashed in my locker are DVDs of movies (mostly Holly flicks) and a pack of cards...in fact, I don't think you could even call it a locker considering it doesn't have a lock:D

Ohh I suppose you deliver sermons denouncing USA and advocating killing of innocents in a high pitched tone of frenzy, right? The only time I get in a frenzy is when Maria starts smashing those one handed baseline winners:D

Damn you, then what did you do to warrant that statement from Justice Katju? I sport a beard and that's what makes me Taliban because you see according to the Hon Judge, a beard and burqa are symbols of Talibanisation of India.

It so happened that this young 16 year old guy studying in a convent school in MP started sporting a beard which he was promptly asked to shave off by the school authorities citing school regulations...the boy surprisingly went on to challenge the decision in the highest echelons of justice in the land. The petition of the boy was rejected on the grounds that the convent being a private enterprise did have authority to formulate it's own sets of rules as long as it did not go against any indispensable part of any religion and the beard was deemed not to be an indispensable part of Islam. Justice Katju then went on to say "We don't want to have Talibans in the country. Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa. Can we allow it?"

So keeping a beard makes me Taliban...OK, got it. BTW, Sir...is it a general rule for all and for all types of beards or does the beard have to be of a certain free flowing kind and the face has to go by a name only belonging to a certain community...you see, am curious coz I have this goatee sort of stylized beard and as for the all people thing that's just because if it's a general rule for all people then am in exalted company, right from Manmohan Singh to Amitabh Bacchan to Vijay Mallya...ohh n shucks, are we being governed by a Taliban member for the last almost 5 years...I don't think so.....I suppose it does have to be a certain kind of beard belonging to only certain people with certain sounding names that you are talking about, right?

Ohh and pray tell me Hon Sir, what is wrong if a free minded girl in a free minded country of her own free will decides to wear a Burqa, how does that Talibanise the country. Isn't it entirely a matter of individual free choice in a working democracy.

Coming to the judgment based on the fact that the private school has rights to set it's own set of rules...it should not be a problem when you want to practice secularism in it's strictest sense, that of having nothing to do with religion...it should not be a problem if you ban all religious exhibitionism...it should not be a problem if you lay down rules that every student should be in trousers and shirts, polished shoes and necktie with smartly cropped army style hair and with no other visible symbols to differentiate him in any way whatsoever from the basic class of "student of the school"...the problem however arises when there is selective stipulations on selective things for selective people...hate to be reactionary but I suppose you must also disallow tikas on the forehead, turbans on the skull and kadas on the wrist based on the basic logic of equality.

I have studied in a convent school...I have even attended the mass on a number of occasions and I don't think it was wrong at all..in fact, it was great. I had friends in school who sported beards, who wore turbans, who had tikas on their forehead, who had kadas on their wrist, who had crosses on a chain round their neck and we all assimilated together...we obviously believed in "Unity in Diversity". Now,, it should be either be that or it should be "Unity in Commonality" wherein everyone looks the same and is just a "student". There is no middle path and if someone follows it, it must be derided and challenged and spoken against.

Do I come across as a hard nosed and regressive propagator of burqas n beards...hell no, all am advocating is free will...all am talking against is generalizing...all am ranting against is projecting beards n burqas to be symbols of Taliban...all I am asking for is equality...all I am propagating is it should be either all or nothing.

If that makes me regressive, so be it.
If that makes me Taliban..so be it!!!

The 'shoe' mantra

2009-04-19T23:26:00.000+05:30

So, there has been a lot of show throwing off late! For one it was Bush and then our very own P. Chidambaram. I stand witness to the fact that the ‘shoe’ off late had become so important that some one hour or maybe two at my institution went discussing it. My classmate argued and argued upon the emotion that shoe has become a symbol of suppressed agony which is finally finding a way out. Well, I think, if this is what it is, there would be soon a good demand for shoes. Now, we all know that in and across cultures the throwing of shoe is seen as an act of doing an insult and am not going to bore you with all that history of the shoe-be it Bata or Lakhani but would highlight some quirky thoughts which my mind could just not do away with…

• In some years, when the journalists would enter a press conference they would be asked to open their shoes outside. Because they wouldn’t want a room full of stinking socks, even the socks…
• If you are planning to throw shoes at some dignitary, take care to carry along another pair. It doesn’t look good that you walk out with a bare foot. Izzat ka sawaal he bhai!
• Look out for a show which is old and useless. This would also give you a reason to buy another pair in its place (supposing you are one kanjoos)
• But if you’re concerned about your reputation, make sure the shoe is a quality one. The least you can do is polish it before the throw.
• If your wife has been pissing you off late, take her latest and most expensive pair to throw. If she gets back to you with all her other pairs, don’t blame me:\
• Keep a good stock of shoes. You never know when they would run out. (demand is always more than supply in such situations, you see)
• Remember, it’s more about missing your target than hitting it.
• If you’re not the kind who would throw shoes at anybody, just wait and watch. Yes, who knows you can make a collection from the collected shoes and put them on some exhibition. Modern art ka naam nahi suna?

Well, that’s it for now. Time to get ‘shoe-d’ before you ‘shoo’ me away…

Hail thy shoe!