Hello? Can you hear me?

There is "strike" trend these days.... For any problem, all we hear is that people are on the streets protesting about something or the other. Usually its the general public that suffers. Whether the strikers achieve their objective or not is case specific, the inconvenience caused in-general to everybody cannot go unnoticed. Few examples:

• Punjabis halted rail transport in Punjab to protest against the firings in Mumbai.
• Mandya farmers are famous for blocking the Bangalore-Mysore road for any small/medium/large problem.
• Gujrars halted trains, burnt buildings, attacked officials etc, to get reservation.
• The farmers had to come on roads to ask for fertilizers and one even got killed in the process! (I personally believe that this was politically motivated, but never mind that).
  

What does this mean? For me it means two things; one, we as Indians have generally become very aggressive overnight. For everything we come on the road and fight. We simply don't believe in getting justice the right/legal way at all. Two, the governing body (state, center whatever) has become so deaf that they won't hear us unless we come and shout on the streets. Or the red tape is so much, even if there is justice given after some 100 years it is absolutely useless simply because justice delayed is justice denied.

Pheee Pheee Stop Stop!

I got a speeding ticket in India. In Bangalore (OK near Bangalore)... can you believe this?

It happened 2 weeks back. I was driving down to Mysore from Bangalore and bhang! in the middle of the road I am stopped by a cop with a cane ready to hit my car!

I get down to see if they are stopping me for some drug trafficking or something (exaggeration huh?)...

But alas! he says "madam neevu thumba fast aagi oodistheera!".. Well 65kmph is "very fast" in India (at least in Karnataka). The speed limit was 50kmph on a state highway :((( There was a board it seems .. I didn't even see that!

I made it a point to see that while coming back.. and believe me it was half worn out already.. couldn't even make out the lettering.

There goes 300rs. BUT I was happy :) no shark has not gone crazy.. I was happy the police had speed guns and stuff.. that they could "record" who went at what speed and also their number plates and stuff. They didn't give a sheepish smile and ask for 200rs without bill. I got a proper bill. I was let out in 5 mins without any hassles. India is progressing after all....

Our Rashtrapatni ji?

Pratibha Patil became a celebrity overnight when the UPA alliance proposed her as a presidential candidate. Before this nobody even knew that she existed!

Anyway all said and done she was proposed for the first citizen post. One thing which did irritate me was the “woman” tag that she had. The newspapers started boasting of first woman president and all that. It set me thinking, is it important to have a woman as our president or is it more important to have a capable person out there irrespective of their gender?

To some extent I have to agree that the President of India does not have as much power in his hands as compared to that of the Prime Minister. But still, it is THE most respectable post. Is it not then the responsibility of the parliamentarians to choose a capable candidate?

I have nothing against Prathibha Patil, but can she ever be compared with the intellectual Mr.Kalam? This looks more like yet another move from Ms.Gandhi, so that she can remote control this post also! If we remember the Office-of-Profit bill faced much resistance from Mr.Kalam and irked Ms.Gandhi to an extent. All this looks like Ms.Patil is expected to be another pawn in the hands of that Italian woman, to make things come more “her-way”.

Lets have a look at Ms.Patil’s resume

• The bank which she had set up for the so called welfare of women “Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank”, had it’s license revoked in 2003 for misappropriation of funds.
• It is believed that she falsely testified as a witness to protect her brother in a murder case.
• The factory “Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana” of which she is the founder directory failed to repay a bank loan and was sealed in Jan 2007.
• She claims to have had a communion with a dead guru.
  

These are only some of her achievements which I am aware of, who knows how many more are there.
The point I want to make is, is she a good successor to Kalam? He who was so respected for his intellectual thoughts… and she who is already full of controversies!
Alas! We do have to agree that if we look at our parliament today, we will not even find one clean (as in without allegations) man/woman, but this woman just didn’t strike the cord for a presidential candidate.

Wish “we” could elect our president!

Today a Bandit, tomorrow a MP

As far as my limited knowledge of constitution and it's rules and regulations goes, I don't think anybody with "proven criminal" background can contest elections, be it state or centre.

Then what are we seeing here?

First it was the famous Poolan Devi, now this one called Seema Parihar! Isn't this unconstitutional?

I don't deny the famous but often mis-used "innocent until proven guilty" phrase. But these are people who made movies out of their life stories where they openly proclaim that they have been dacoits/looters/bandits and here they are becoming MPs to rule us, to become the face of the nation, to become one of the makers of Modern-India :(

I am not being heartless. These people have gone through a lot in their lives. They have been misused, exploited which may have influenced them to take the law in their hands. I am not denying that part. As part of a responsible society, it's our duty to rehabilitate them and give them a good life. But a Lok Sabha seat? Isn't that too much to ask for?

Let us give them site/house, monthly pension and maybe a job also, if they are qualified enough to do it. But give them the reigns of power to rule our country?

So, today I become a bandit.. commit n number of crimes. Looting, killing .. you name it. Tomorrow I come up with a sad story of my life.. and make a movie out of it (with the looted money of course!) and day after tomorrow I get a Lok Sabha seat?

To answer the above question myself.. YES!

I live in a different world ....

My daily routine: Home-->Office-->Home. I live in an apartment luxuriously. I get to have 3 meals a day. Actually any number I want… but then I restrict myself to 3. I can “choose” what I want to eat each time. I crib a lot about the taste of it and the contents of it… ah! I can never be satisfied!

I buy clothes as and when I want to, I do not wait for a festival or any “occasion”. My mother had warned me when I was living with my parents that she would kick me out of the house if one more set of clothes come in the house. But now that I live separately I don’t have anybody threatening me. P sometimes tries... but then he fails. He ends up buying more for me!

On weekdays, I travel luxuriously in my company bus. It’s a challenge to find new novels every week to read in the bus! So I end up reading anything and everything that comes to the market. On weekends, I travel to Mysore again luxuriously in P’s car. Or “struggle” and go in the Volvo busses, if P decides not to come. Ah! The AC is sometimes so high in these Volvo busses! And why can’t they put some nice movies? It’s always some old flop movies. When I am paying 160 bucks for the ticket, the least I deserve is a nice new movie na?

Ha! Looking at the above picture, I seem to be like a pampered girl. But then I share my own set of difficulties.

• I have to wake up early in the morning! Atleast by 6:30, so that I can get ready, eat breakfast, pack lunch and leave to office by 8 max
• I have unhealthy deadlines to meet in my project. Though not always... but there is always something or the other which needs to be done “yesterday”.
• I have to endure my father’s advice every weekend, about how to save more money and not spend it like how I do it. He has been trying for 5 years now… but he has not achieved much in changing me! So every weekend I have to think of a “valid” excuse to tell him as to why am I spending so much….
• And my mother is no way less… she is bent on making me a social animal. What with the 100s of visits that I am supposed to do. That “they” will feel bad if I don’t visit them. “They” will think that I have become headstrong after so many foreign trips!

Ah… see I don’t lead a luxurious life either. But I live in a “different” world than these people.

The video has really left me thinking. Have we progressed at all? It’s no wonder that these people are Brahmin haters. If I was treated the way they are being treated... I would have reacted in the same way as they do!

I live in a closed world. I do not see such discrimination around me. We have a house maid, and yes she is not allowed inside the kitchen. That is only because she would not have had bath before cleaning all our houses. But we give her food in the same dishes that we have food. So I thought times have changed and people are accepting other people more easily. But NO!

• Dalit children in schools are not allowed to sit together with other children. So all the fight that Gandhi and Ambedkar did was just a waste of time?
• They are not allowed to have food in the same plates as the upper castes. But then wait! They can wash the plates of upper castes and that does not make the upper castes any impure.
• Inter community marriages are a big NO NO. You can even get killed if you do any such foolish thing.
• The dalits are not only exploited by the upper castes, but they are also exploited by their “own” other classes. One is considered more superior than other! A toilet cleaner is definitely inferior as compared to a cobbler.

I think the situation is “better” in the big cities. But how many big cities do we have in India? The rural India still remains the same old caste divided communities, trying to find one reason or the other to fight against each other! People suffer day in and day out to get 2 square meals a day… and here I am fussing about more salt in today’s daal or half cooked rice!

I know it’s unfair to compare us. Some of us are more fortunate to have had parents who have given us good education and comforts. While some of us are not so fortunate. Just because there are millions out in the world without food... does not mean I should starve myself too. After all, each morsel of food that I eat is also hard earned.

But I can’t help myself feeling guilty when I sit in an AC room and generally blog about issues when I am not doing anything to help them. While on the other side of the world people don’t even know that there is something called this world.. where I live in. A different world. A comfortable world. A world filled with pleasure and happiness!
Thank you God, for giving me this wonderful life.

Update: The “wonderful thing” which I mentioned in my previous post has to wait due to some unavoidable circumstances :( Nevertheless the details will be up here as soon as things get confirmed!

They are Highly Insensitive Vermins - But... Am I Denounced Sinful?

I am a young boy studying in school. I am 4 years old. Everyday when I go to school, I get weird stares from everybody. Nobody sits with me. Not even Ramu, who is the best boy in school and is friends with even the watchman. He is always smiling and talking in class, but he is upset with me. I don’t know why. He does not talk to me anymore.
Everything was nice and beautiful when I joined school, I had friends. I played with them all the time. We drew pictures together. We had lunch together. But something changed when my teacher got to know about my mom, dad and me. We are a nice family like any other. My mom and dad are nice, they buy me whatever I ask for. But strangely they can’t buy me friends. Neither do they have friends. We never visit anyone, nor does anybody visit us. Not that we are bored with ourselves, we have the TV and video games, but we sure could use some company from time to time.
My mom says I have to get used to living alone. She says we have been cursed with something. I ask God everyday if I have done something wrong, but I don’t get any answer.
My mom silently cries sometime in the Pooja room or in the bed room. My dad is sometimes engrossed in deep thought. I don’t know what they are so sad about, but I think they also miss friends like me.
Now my mom says I can’t go to school any more. I like going to school, it is so much fun. I cried, and she cried with me, but insists I can’t go there anymore.
WHY? Why me?

I am sure these were the thoughts in the young boy’s mind when he was sent home from school. After all he was HIV infected. The dreaded infection!
This infection incidentally is more dreaded because of its “cause” rather than it’s “effect”.
I had a friend, who was doing her masters in social work, and she happened to do some research on AIDS patients and yes, it is traumatic. Especially when the patient is in the last stages, it is impossible to even look at them. They will have acute infections in their private parts and a simple thing as going to the loo is a traumatic exercise.
But then, isn’t any disease traumatic? What about Cancer? What about TB? In all these cases the patients die a slow and painful death. But why this terrible discrimination only against AIDS? Is it only because it is transmitted sexually? The answer is YES.

First and foremost, let us clear some myths about this disease:

1. HIV infection does not necessarily mean AIDS. HIV +ve simply mean you have the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Just like any other infection, if this is also treated in the very initial stages of infection, chances of NOT getting AIDS are high. But then we must also note here that most of the patients who are HIV +ve contact AIDS at some point or the other simply because the initial infection went un-noticed.
2. HIV infection (or even for that matter AIDS) is NOT transmitted just like that thru air. It does not affect if you sit in the same class and study together. (Only lice and common cold get transmitted that way!)
3. It’s NOT a person’s fault if he is infected. People catch so many infections and he/she has caught this one. It is as simple as that. And for heaven’s sake it is definitely not the fault of a 4 year old kid!!

What can we do to stop this discrimination?

1. EDUCATE: Start from schools. Educate the children as well as the parents about the infection. Its causes, its effects and the myths/stigma surrounding it.
2. Promote usage of condoms. Make it available in colleges and universities and educate people about it.
3. Advertise. With the power the media has today, it can do wonders. Tell more and more people about it. Knowledge is virtue. But half knowledge is dangerous. People now think of only the sexual part of AIDS. Hence the treatment is also the same. It's time to remove that mental block.

Incidentally, a little away from the topic, I feel us Indians are major hypocrites. When it comes to population we are the second largest in the world. When it comes to AIDS, we are the epicenter of the epidemic. We gave the world Kamasutra. I think we are the only culture who glorifies sex (what with the “first night” preparations and all). BUT when it comes to talking about sex… SHHHHhhhhhhhh. That is something which is not to be talked about!!! Why this treatment? By not talking about it and making it a stigma we are indirectly giving more importance to it. But at the same time, since the education level is so low and the awareness about safe sex practices is almost nil … it is not a surprise that we are in such a situation today.

Having said all this, I don’t think even education will solve everything. I don’t know how my parents would react if they came to know that I was close friends with a girl who is HIV infected. Though at present I am not sure how they would react, but I can tell for sure that they will definitely not be very happy about it.

So what is the solution? Let us, from our generation at least make an effort to accept these people as a part of our society. It would be too idealistic to say we will eradicate AIDS. This is kind of too far fetched, as there is no cure/vaccine for it as yet!Till some brilliant people find something about it, let us join hands together and educate our fellow country men and women about the disease and let us make this world a better place to live for the already suffering.

P.S: Reasons for this post:

1. This Link

and

2. Pavan's request.

I am back... yahoooo!!!!

I am back in India. My home.

I had realised this before also.. when I lived in Germany for sometime, that no matter what all problems we have, no matter how dirty our country looks as compared to the developed countries, no matter all you get as "welcome" at the airport are dirty stares from men around, no matter the first thing you do after getting out of the airport is fight with the auto/taxi guy for the fare, this is MY country. All said and done, I belong here. I feel more at home.

However advanced the other countries maybe, however comfortable your life maybe there, you are always an outsider, a potential immigrant, you are always a foreigner.

Yes. I am extremely delighted about coming back home, but at the same time I was extremely dissapointed at the Delhi airport. If that is the welcome our country's capital gives to the visitors then God help us! It was far from being even "satisfactory"! Atleast I expected much more from our capital's international airport! The loo was in a bad state! with toilet paper all around.. with water running from the taps.. with a strong smell! Yukkkk! All this is when the cleaning lady is just sitting there looking at each coming passenger and expecting them to give her some money.. for what? I didn't understand though! She gives a sheepish smile when you are coming out.. and acts as though she is helping you with the luggage.. the help which I don't need because I have a trolley with me.. just so that I will give her some money! If she had atleast kept the loo spic and span I would have whole heartedly given some money!

The customs officials... shabby clothes, wrinkled and dirty, undone hair ... I know that 2 in the morning is not a good time, but come on! they are at work and they are supposed to be presentable. And what will somebody loose if they smile at each person they are checking?

I think we as Indians lack some basic courtesies! A smile at a passerby, a response when asked for, a thank you once in a while...
Interestingly we are the best hosts when somebody visits our home.. we take care of them so well.. we go out of our way to accomudate them and show them around.

I think, it's time to realise that India as a country is our home too.. an extended home!

Bangalore gave me a much better welcome! The loo was cleaner and the airport also has a kind of sophisticated look. Thank god for that! I also noticed that the situation in Hosur road has imporved drastically! With that useless drainage cannals closed, and the road widenened.. the commute is not as dreadful as I imagined it to be!

Even with all this "yet-to-be-done".. I loved

1. The aroma of bakery (this I surely missed in USA)
2. The sound of suprabhatham early in the morning from a near by temple.
3. The shoutings of the vegetable vendor on the road
4. The early morning coffee aroma... ahhhh bliss.
5. and most of all it's so cheap to have a cellphone here! I don't have to wait till 9 in the night to call people ;-)

P.S: It looks like nobody missed me while I was away.. no messsages asking where I was and all that... If you guys hadn't noticed I was away for almost 15 days :(
I think you can atleast send some nice and warm welcome messages!

Auctioning INDIA... Unbelievable prices…. Any takers?

Bidding starts… 500 million dollars for INDIA, base price. 500m ONE, 500m TWO 500m THREE…… It appears as if there are no takers! Howz that possible? After all we are the land of elephants (and they are heavy and expensive). We are the land of snake charmers… if we are capable of taming a snake we can achieve anything right?
We are the land of brainy computer engineers, though it’s another matter that most of them are currently outside India. But come on… the resource pool is here. So why are there no takers?
Ah, I get it. Nobody wants a “complete” package. Everyone is interested in bits and pieces.

After re-consideration, bidding starts again.

10 million dollars for Kashmir… 10m ONE…10m TWO **bhang** (sound of a gun shot). The bidder is killed by a militant. For the fear of getting shot everybody agrees that Kashmir will go to Pakisthan. No cost…free… as a token of “friendship”!

5 million dollars for Arunachal Pradesh… 5m ONE… 5m TWO… wait! Wait! A Chinese representative comes to the dais. “Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of China from the beginning, how can you even sell it now? It belongs to us. Period.If we don’t get this, we won’t send anymore Made in China goods to India.”
For the fear of not having plates to eat, mobile phones to talk, bed to sleep (all products made in China).. people give Au.P off to China as a token of “Thanks” for providing us with cheap house hold goods.

100 million dollars for Bangalore… Forget it, the bidding won’t even start. If Bangalore is not handed over to the US, then all those lakhs and lakhs of ABCDs will be sent back in 10 days… oh my God! That would be disastrous. Who will marry them if they are not in America? Ok, Given. Bangalore sold!

100 million dollars for Mumbai (or was it Bombay?)… **bhang** **bhang** **bhang**!! The underworld goons won’t let anybody else sell Bombay. They have already sold it to some Dubai Sheiks!

Chennai – LTTE all over it… it’s difficult to even set a price for it as it is no longer in our control.

So, that’s it. INDIA sold in parts to all the interested parties. After all we are a peace loving secular nation. Who cares if parts of it are ruled by different nations? Who cares if someone invades us? Who cares if someone claims some part of us as theirs? They are free to take whatever they want. It’s available for general public!

Do you think I am weaving a sarcastically funny story here? Wait and watch, this will happen really for sure. With the kind of apathetic administration that we have… this day is not very far off. With people like Abu Salem ready to contest elections, with people who are in power bothered only about vote banks and not the welfare of the nation, with leaders who are too scared to take any aggressive decisions, with terrorists being pardoned, with rapists and murderers let go scot-free, what more can we expect?

Hey Bhagwaan… is din ko dekhne se pehle mujhe uthaa lo!!!