Opinion Ordeal

Information not only imparts knowledge, it also bestows us with opinions. It is almost impossible to read newspapers, watch TV, talk to people, hear, see, smell, taste, think, basically experience and process life without making opinions.

Opinions can be fun. I still remember that I had a discussion with a friend on politics on the roof of a third floor house while enjoying a beautiful Bangalore evening. It was a rather unique experience. My friend and I put across our views, without the emotionally charged words, high-pitch voice, irrationality or intolerance that usually accompany a discussion of the two dramatically opposite ideologies viz. socialism and capitalism. Neither of us was swayed by each other’s view point but both were enriched, enriched in knowledge and patience. 

Opinions are complicated. Just like the information that builds them, are more often grey. And if one ever has the time and patience to put together comprehensively, I believe all opinions are “correct” irrespective to how different they may sound.

But yes, today time and patience are low.

Because today we don’t have to be a leader, a new paper editor, a TV journalist, a celebrity columnist or a social worker to put forth our opinion in public. Facebook, blogs, twitter and other social media sites are our podiums where it’s our discretion to practice passion, intelligence, irrationality, maturity, compassion, corrosion, idiocy or obnoxiousness, as we express our opinions. There is no social responsibility, no need for editing/revisions and definitely no need to be sensitive. 

We can support Narender Modi or Rahul Gandhi; take sides of Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman; have our opinion on Judi Arias trial; decide if America needs TSA or its ODing on Security; like or dislike Obamacare; perceive miss America as a terrorist; support or oppose gays rights, have faith or be a proud atheist; believe our  parenting style is perfect; support guns or gun-control…. We can openly speak your mind. We can also take on the ones you don’t agree with, by name calling and insults and “FB unfriending”, yes there are many ways to display our immaturity.

Opinions are incriminating. I must be African-American if I think George Zimmerman is guilty; I must be pro-muslim if I don’t want Narender Modi to be the next prime minister of India;I don’t know how to shoot if I am for gun control; if I support Obama I support Obamacare.

What if I think George Zimmerman was guilty because he had the car and the gun, he should have had the commonsense to de-escalate a situation where a boy would not have lost his life; what if I believe that for a country whose biggest strength and weakness is its population, we cannot afford a leader who want to the prime minister by dividing the country, besides of coarse being pro-human and pro-Indian; what if I really love guns, but seeing our failure to curb mindless mass shooting, i want to give gun control a try; what if I think that one of the greatest leaders of present times Barak Obama, fought this hard only for a partial solution, why can’t their be insurance free healthcare.

Opinions vary, reasons behind similar opinions also vary. But the class of opinion holder is not reflected by the fearless or persistent expressing of one’s opinion, rather by his or her tolerance and respect for a different opinion.

Flawed Anna-lysis

Every country is shrouded with corruption. Why it hurts us more is because in our country its prevalent at all levels.

When you have grease palms at your offense of defying the traffic rules to when you are rightfully seeking your own birth certificate; getting your kid admitted in school to when you need special attention in a general hospital; need a job or need a peaceful retirement, it is visible to all.

Though a very curious fact is that corruption, a practice which cannot be justified in any scenario is socially acceptable. Many profiles and jobs are considered lucrative and respectful only because they promise more than the stipulated salary and benefits.

So an ever-pinching, most frequently discussed and universally hated yet socially accepted corruption, got a new spin when Anna campaigned for its eradication.

Anna and his team, took the hefty task of cleaning the corrupt corridors of power through a very intellectual and transparent campaign. The support provided by hero-starved media and common man was obviously unprecedented.

But maybe, this support is because Anna, never asked the common man to change. There was no request made to defy corruption by denouncing giving and taking of bribes. Definitely the political corruption is much larger and it induces more drama to ask the corrupt to make laws to vanquish their own abilities to exercise corruption. But when you are in a room with dirt everywhere, you can reach out to clean from where ever you can start, you do not have to go on fast under the most unclean attic.

In the biggest democracy of the world, the biggest flaw is that all political parties are only superficially segregated. All of them are morally drained and power-cash hungry. This is why anti-incumbency factor is the most widespread feature of our election results. So if individual morality plunge further, one political party will give way to another equally corrupt regime & even the sought-after, fought-after, chaste and all powerful regularity body to monitor them may also fall prey to the same fate.

Power is disorienting, we are already aware of the team Anna itself giving very absurd, ineffectual and inept comments under the arch lights. So may be Anna should turn back to the followers and start a less glamorous campaign of social purification rather than political immaculacy.

CWG!! So Indian!!

I have always found it difficult to explain India.

When the bridge near the CWG village collapsed and four thousand rupee toilet paper rolls became a talk of the town I controlled myself from blogging. I wanted to know the full story and not just comment on the preface….

India as a corrupt, unorganized and unrespectable nation would have been too simplistic to define the gargantuan and exponentially complex nation…

The epilogue now is very different with the dazzling opening ceremony, the sportsmen and sportswomen making the most of the opportunities provided and a clean closure ….

After nine years of experience in Indian software industry I cannot help but draw parallels with a project where things go wrong because of many reasons but someone decides to pull up their socks and ‘take it to the heart’. It’s a promotion, a glory or a passion …and the sinking ship miraculously sails….

Indians are individualistic. We have many Indians in Forbes list but the large part of society has unending struggle with poverty. We have so many great academicians and philosophers still a part of society is neither open-minded nor evolving. We have so many honest individuals though the leadership rots with the leprosy of brazen corruption and very meager moral values …

So what next? All glory?
Not really, the wrongs are not ignorable … But analysis and accusation will see only more mud slinging and public embarrassment

Will the people who did wrong be brought to justice?
You got to be kidding!! the judicial system in India are one of the worst things about our country. When murderers, rapists and thief’s can go scot free, what justice can be brought to high profile money guzzling, irresponsible politicians who are guilty of being callus about the image of their country ….

Will there is lessons learnt?
May be… oh no!! By no means!! Not by India …but may be learnt by other sports federation who do not like the thrill of last minute gaffes and uncertainty of scrapping an international event …

India should stick to Filmfare Awards, Star Nights, Miss India and Mega Model events where a company pays event organizers to make success out of an evening…. Team spirit, leadership, common mission and vision …..naaa

Like everything in India, CWG was also bittersweet!! How very Indian!!

Where is the Honor?

“Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.”- Leo Buscaglia

Those who read the newspapers regularly would differ, Love is the new death. The surge in the number of cases of family members performing “honor killing” is disturbing, inhumane and reprehensible, very much contrary to the name.

Prejudices and intolerance are expected to blur in the light of education. Family and parents are expected to be the source of unconditional love. Caste and communities are expected to strengthen the society.

Nothing happens as expected. A father kills his daughter for eloping with a lover and not staying married to mismatched man 15 years elder to her. A young journalist smothered by mother for falling in love. A whole community affirms murder of men and women who seek relationships with individuals outside their Gotra. A maternal uncle on TV supports his niece’s murder. Khap, the modern day tyrants exist as groups of incompetent, ill-informed, inconsiderate and intolerant individuals who advocate murders.

For heaven sake, we are civil society where even capital punishment is not given without deliberation in court of law.

It’s irrefutable that our society is full of uneducated literates. Paradox reign supreme. We can converse with stranger in a train with obnoxious familiarity; we can advice strangers in hospital with idiotic authority; we can bond with anyone standing with us to watch cricket match in front to a TV shop; we can compete in class without qualms; we can work and coexist in a society of individuals from different caste and religion; we can admire a movie star or cricketer paying no heed to his/her religion or caste; we can even worship a cow … but we kill our own offspring. This has to be the rock-bottom of rationality.

If we as a nation are moving towards development and growth, I am sure we are taking a long detour because we are not even close.

Advantage India !!

When my Working-Visa in US ran into trouble and my return to India was inevitable; a friend called to console and said ‘he was so sorry’. The usage of this expression which is used as commiseration at a grave loss was offending to my patriotism.

After this incident I was gripped with the fear that I will behave like many others who stay in US for a very short duration compared to the number of years spends in this country. Yet, they come here and click photographs of cows sitting in the middle of roads, weird English names of small shops, dangling electric wires, poor kids depicting the language of deprivation and post them on facebook. They go to vegetable market and faint. They search for the shops and seek gol-gappas made in mineral water. They cringe and flinch, to separate themselves from the less fortunate never-have-been-to-foreign men and women. Hunh!!

All such fears proved baseless. It was home coming. I remember my cousin asking why I fold my hands when I say ‘namaste’ even now; I have stayed in US for too long for this ethnic and humble greeting. I took it as a compliment.

All said and done when another friend asked me the advantage of being in India, the salient good features… I was dumbfounded. I could not think of one.But then I realized India is a way of life, a thought process, a feeling. In fact, I find the cliché good and bad about us that they show in movies like ‘Outsourced’ nasty.

Back in Jaipur, at the railway station, dad left me and mom with luggage to go and check the reservation list. When I realized his reading glasses were with me in my purse, I ran after him. When I reached the notice board I saw some three men looking hard at the list, trying to find ‘Sankhla’ for an old man who forgot his glasses. And I knew I was back in my land. It’s a hard to describe sentiment.

It’s a warmth or comfort or feeling of home turf or confidence of finding my way through, I am not sure.

And yes, I crib and complain. I whine and huff. I refuse to agree and comply. I find the need of change. I see evident avenues for improvement. I find some facts appalling.

I am still a very proud Indian.
Happy Independence Day!!

India today!!

If you return to India after a considerable period of time you are bound to notice the following:

• If you wouldn’t know what Indian flag is like and that faces can’t be flags, Dhoni’s face is so frequently seen that it can well qualify as the symbol of our nation.

• Once existing small currency denomination problem has been resolved. Now everything cost a hundred bucks or more.

• There is still no right hand driving or left hand driving, it’s the good old ‘I own the road’ driving.

• You will see a new form of child labor on Indian Television, portrayed as singing/dancing prodigies and new form of dramatic genius in the form of judges of talent hunt shows.

• Pink is the new blue for men (eeeeiiikkks)

• Free incoming calls on cells, abundance of print media to substitute for high-speed internet and local shopkeepers for GPS/Google maps are a welcome change.

• You will be reminded what complications innocent rain can bring to your life, from power outage to cell phone connectivity to no cable TV to traffic jams to flooding of roads to no local trains. There seems to be a Rain Demon and not a Rain God.

• There is no parking place left anywhere.

• The Aloo Tikki burger at McDonalds, shopping for Indian dresses and the look on your parents face when they see you will be three of the many highpoints of your stay.

Indian Elections '09

So the elections are over. An exercise with this magnitude and importance do have a few lessons to learn; actually it can be mapped to the existing wisdom in form of phrases.

• Over the Top: 15th Lok Sabha elections
• Go lay an egg: 47% votes casted by mumbaikars
• Your Guess Is As Good As Mine: the analyst who claim to know the mind of Indian voters, are proclaimed wrong, again
• By hook or crook: Varun Gandhi use hate speech to win elections
• Turn Over A New Leaf: India elects 226 MPs who are less than 50 yrs of age
• Actions speak louder then words: Sheila Dikshit delivers a perfect score
• Count one’s chickens before they hatch: Hopes of the, India’s regional party leaders had been hoping to play kingmakers is dead.
• From Rags To Riches: Rahul Gandhi once flayed for dynasty politics, is now being applauded and celebrated as a catalyst in UPA victory.
• Don’t Burn Your Bridges: The likes of Lalu Yadav, Amar Singh, Ram Vilas Pawan said they will not unconditionally support Congress/UPA before the elections, fearing the anti-incumbency factor. Yes, now the roles of seeker and seeked have reversed,
• Dead Duck : Blooming trouble, BJP can't get its leader right
• When It Rains, It Pours: Indian Rupee, Bonds, Index Futures Gain on Election Victory

The Curious Case of Varun Gandhi

In a country where divisions are plentiful, and usually underlined and used by the power seekers; the election times are notorious for the blatant display of the ugly face of unethical people who seek to rule the democratic India.

So why should Varun Gandhi’s idiocy be a reason of such discomfort?

Because the hope that many Indians have had in the youth of the country is damaged. The hope of a nation with leaders and citizen one day will take care of the real issues rather then diverting us took a beating too. The hope that the likes of Sachin Pilot and Omar Abdullah gave us is dented.

A young moron with nothing but a legacy decides he wants to do nothing, try nothing but play the communal card to get the ticket to parliament.

If you look from another perspective, it’s a slap on the face of the seasoned, people dividing politician. It’s like a child who put stethoscope around his neck and thinks this is all what his dad did to become a doctor.

Varun is just a reality check.

Oxymoron

A liquor baron bought Gandhi's five personal items which went under the hammer in New York for USD 1.8 million

Seriously?? India’s leaders think we need his five belongings… the nation of his dreams today rubbishes his ideology , that it so desperately needs… and its his physical possessions that we need???

Today violence occurs and erupts in this nation on most mundane events… From lyrics of a song to a road accident to petty criminals caught by public…everything gives a reason for mob frenzy…

The caste divide he fought is today stoned by laws that force caste based reservation. No body pays heed on his vocational oriented education. In fact today Indian education system not only failed its citizens by not equipping them to easily get all kind of jobs but also fail to build rationalism. The education system imparts mere literacy and not education. The effect is that petty politicians like Raj Thackrey find new ways to divide country.

Women empowerment, economic self-reliance, easing poverty, simple living and many other of his ideologies are all so relevant to India, buy are pushed under the carpet by power hungry politician … and all they feel a sense of achievement in getting his five simple assets …

But for those who can even use Lord Ram as an excuse to kill for political gains …Gandhi was just a sane voice..…

Excerpts from Raj Thackeray’s Diary…

“I sit in this dark and stinking jail cell and I can’t, just can’t help smiling…

I was the right hand man of my uncle Bala Sahab Thackeray and expected him to let me become heir to the Shiv Sena. But when he choose his son over me, his nephew, I did not give up. I created MNS called Maharashtra Navnirman Sena but actually it stands for Menace and Nuisance of the Society.

In Shiv Sena I learned how fascism works, how it catapults you into limelight. But today I have outperformed this ideology of my former party that axe me.

I had it easy. Everyone wants more then they deserve. I target the poor. Tell them their poverty is not their inability to earn better but the fault of a more hard working north Indian. They also listen to my gibberish.

Not all get convinced by my tactics but I have found enough “Marathi Manoos” to be a known face in dirty poliics. The media has given me required focus. I did use the name of Bachchan family and took offense by their non-offensive statements to get media’s attention. And they started writing Nike and prorogue in hindi on showrooms because of me …

I finally became a known face, folding hand while getting arrested was a little filmy but I am sure they must be showing the same again and again on the news channels.

I have already made enough arrangements and instructed my people to create enough impairment and violence to make people realize that a popular leader is in jail.

Soon I will win in elections and get my aim of becoming the chief minister. To reach their soon I will have to soon change sides woe North Indians as their votes need to be harnessed too. I have nothing for or agaisnt marathi manoos … they were just meant to serve a purpose and they did …”

I feel important …

For long the Indian middle class was supposed to be not a great place to be. These were tax payers who had moderate means but great dreams. For them getting their children to good school was a status symbol and their kids getting into good college a definition of their life’s success. As most Middle class Indians believe, this is the strata of the Indian society that embodies Indian culture.

Education has paid high dividends as always and India at prime in the outsourcing culture is growing leaps and bounds; lot of focus has come on the middle class. Most have seen their parents save and stash, and they now want to spend. They are now a confident regular income class whose consumerism is throwing India’s economy in spin.

It seems the my mundane middle class is creating waves…worldwide

Already hit by the subprime and infuriated by India’s agricultural policy, America and Miss Rice are making unkind comments on the food grain consumption of the “affluent” Middle class. And Prime Minister of India tells repeatedly that paychecks and purchasing power needs to be kept under check for the neo-rich. The inflation is in bad state and the new manta of “Living Today” a norm.

I am not very sure how this will unfold. But I somehow find it very interesting that the law abiding, moderately rich,tax paying, education oriented families, fixed deposit creating strata becoming a nightmare for economist…” Fate, It Seems, Is Not Without Its Sense Of Irony” …ha ha ha

Whose country is it anyway?

I was born in India. Although not as make-believe as Karan Johar expression of patriotism, I indeed love my country. Even though democracy prevails in my country there is nothing that reflect my views and visions.
The issue is that with the substantial fruits that political office yields in India, all involved are ready to stoop at any level, overlooking logic and humanity to hold on to the chair of profit. So even as I have a right to vote, I don’t have any one echoing my thoughts, to vote for.

Is there anyone who thinks the following?

• Taslima Nasreen should be allowed to stay in India. As a writer she should not be harassed to appease any community. In fact, all artists like M.F. Hussain, Salman Rushdie should neither be witch hunted because of their religion and extra-ordinary intolerance existing in other religion nor any creative artist be allowed to kick-up controversies to sell their work. The person who created controversy by asking “Aaja nach le” title song to remove a paragraph that says “mocha bhi khud ko sunar bole”(for being derogatory for backward classes) should be given life imprisonment for having a sadistic and narrow minded approach and wasting resources of a nation on such misinterpretation.

• Raj Thackray should be removed from the face of earth, without media coverage and fan fare like any traitor is vanished. Any one like Shiv Sena or MNS trying to highlight regionalism should be handled without intervention of media.

• Cricket is a sport. It’s heartening to look the way commerce has spun around it, by noticing the IPL actions. But other sports need help. I wonder what is happening of the commonwealth games India plan to host in 2010. I believe it should be taken seriously as a matter of national pride and keep it clear of corruption and controversy.

• As US face economic recession, and has pulled down the economy and stock market across the world. Shouldn’t it at least now focus on its home affairs, instead of telling China how it should deal with Tibet.

• The education system has three most coveted career paths viz. IITs. IIMs and IAS. Its disheartening to see the controversy surrounding them. The merit list have been quashed for IAS by yet again on giving reservation candidates a rough deal.

• Media is the new necessary evil for our country. But someone should lay rules of what story they are making. Aaj tak making a one hour news program on film actors with no chest hair is acceptable then the media quoting people who create divide in name of religion and region. They actually stood in front of Raj Thackray’s house to take his pictures as if he was some celebrity.

• Can somebody please take notice that the world is actually cracking a joke when they say India would be the next superpower. No country can be unsafe for their women and be a superpower. And India will lose any and all tourism if tourist women are continued to be attacked at the rate they have been in the recent past. And the attack on these foreign women is only because of the general disrespect Indian men have for the women kind. For any riots and display of religious intolerance women like nuns are often attacked. Instead of seeking 33% reservation for women, may be we can try making India safe for them and they will not need any such artificial assistance to bloom.

Lead India

Lead India according to me was a very well thought initiative. Not that I believe that the participants will change the future of my country or that youth will choose politics and community service as its mission from this day; but because we are exposed to many rational views and thoughts.

As Mumbai, is held at ransom by political aspiration of a nobody called Raj Thackray, this show became voice of the people living in cities who unfortunately are not a vote bank. In fact many of them, like me cannot vote as we are born and living in different cities. And that may be one more reason why we abhor regionalism and communalism; hence Nanavati lost to Mishra.

We heard people rationalizing on SEZ, reservations, capital punishments for rape culprits and foreign relations with Nepal and China.

The prime time TV looked beyond regressive serials created in the name of family and culture, and brought to reality that you can go to a slum and place a fire alarm system or get justice and hope for someone who meets with an accident. Though these tasks will be a little difficult without the camera and crew, they are still achievable.

Not a Nano Issue

The Ratan Tata 1 lakh car, brought joy of the common man.
But why?
Because prosperity is associated with owning a four wheeler? Or because a developed country is the one with many & only cars on the road?
The problem is not the nano car, the congestion on roads and not even the threat to the environment. It’s a mindset and lack of foresight of Indians. With the kind of population India has, the best and most prosperous mode of transformation can only and only be the public transport.
An efficient and safe public transport is very fuel efficient, control damage to the environment with access fuel emission. It also prevents the government from spending disproportionately on the big cities in the name of infrastructure development.
India and Indians need to stop looking towards the developed countries to define development and affluence. Different set of positives and negatives define us, population being the one most important deciding factor.

Indian Women!!

As per the UNICEF report titled ‘Progress for Children’, Fifty-four per cent Indian girls and women aged between 15 and 49 said that a husband or partner is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances.
The circumstances enlisted in the UNICEF report are: Wife neglects the children, wife goes out without telling her husband, wife argues with her husband, wife refuses sex with husband, and wife burns the food.
“In the context of gender inequality, women’s response to abuse reflects their relatively fewer options to change or leave the relationship and their assessment of how best to protect themselves and their children,” the UNICEF report also stated.


These findings are unfathomable for some of us. It is very difficult to comprehend a mindset like this. We may believe that violence against women as outrageous. We may even call it primitive or oppressive and feel superior for our modern outlook.

But it is worth taking a stock, as to in how many layers, does the Indian society exist? There is no comparison of attitude, aspirations, visions and needs of Indian women across various strata. In India some marriages break as the women seek more space and some marriages/relationships persist despite physical abuse.

And population sporting the later attitude is in majority.

And people talk about India being the next superpower!!! Duh !!!

The new Indian Society!!

India was always been divided by various factors… religion, caste, regions, language, ethnicity, economic status …and many others. Yet India was always known as hub of culture and literature, known for non-violence and tolerance and essentially looked upon by the world.

But now Indians are divided on by a single reason into two categories: the powerful and the powerless.

The powerful have money and connection and hence the spirit to shoot at people serving them drinks at party (Jessica Lal Case ), murder the love interest of their sisters(yadav brothers), murder their son-in-law (todi’s), rape and murder (priyadarshani mattu case) and make mockery of justice. I wonder what would have happened if media had not highlighted these cases. While the powerless are on the receiving end of justice, long court cases kill both seeking and receiving justice. A convict in Maharashtra spent 13 years in jail as an under trial before he was given a sentence to serve 10 days for giving false information in his passport.

The powerful hold the right to be offended. They can get offended by what M.F. Hussain paints, Mira Nayar films, Taslima writes and Madhuri dances to. Of course at appropriate timing like when BJP needs votes , kolkata government wants to divert attention from Nandigram and UP government is scared to loosing dalit votes.

The powerful can insight riot and kill innocent men and the system including CBI protects them like accused of 1984 riots. They can be associated with murder an heinous crimes, still hold important public offices, amass inappropriate wealth and practice evident nepotism.

To take the focus away from this divide and stay powerful, these men and women again and again bring to focus on the earlier prevailing divides of religion caste etc, making mockery of humanity.

This is why hue and cry is made over one line of a bollywood song, calling it derogatory for dalits while crime against them is on the rise. Who can forget the crime done against a dalit family in the village of Khairlanji near Nagpur on 29 September 2006.

Inciting religious hatred is now an official way to grab a vote bank. A very very mutilated picture of fundamentalism has surfaced reaching epitome with the heinous murder of family of Graham Stains, Demolition of babri majid, Gurjat riots and many such black days.

Terrorism reigns and continue to kill the powerless as money and personal guard the powerful.

India is now a nightmare for artists; superstition and fallacy represent culture, and the frustration of common man manifesting as mob violence.

Redefining Apathy …

Five years ago a state and humanity burned in the name of religion. Unsaid and unfathomable crimes were committed. The government and administration was accused for assisting this barbarism. The government retains power for five year after that incidence, even when the whole system viz the government, the law makers and the law enforcers were the main accused.

Five year later, when a large section of the population of the state still simmer in the pain of injustice and vandalism faced by them, an sting operation with the confessions of the barbarians and the talks about involvement of the administration in the roits. is captured by the media.

The timing is convenient, just before election.
Just when you feel nauseated about using the pain and death as instrument of gaining votes, there is more. The state government bans all channels showing this sting operation.

They want to blackout the past and not repair it. No ones mourning the death of humanity.

I am sure today Allah and Ram hugged each other and cried … did it rain in Gujrat?

Indian Sports

I was ecstatic when India won the Twenty20 world championship. Leaving office early on a hectic Monday and hitch hiking to reach home in time, seemed so worthwhile when Sreesanth took that catch.

I wanted to express the euphoria the very next day in my blog because I was scared of the India-Australia ODI series and worried that my emotions will sound irrelevant very soon.

I was sure it would happen and it happened.

Listening to the entire discussions of our esteemed commentator’s, experts and coffee room chit-chat, I have come to a definite inference. I know what is wrong with the India Cricket Team, for sure. The only problem is that a billion people watch them too closely, just too closely. It’s a sport to enjoy. Sadly people don’t realize that it all ends there. They blow hot and cold at the poor cricketers(not financially :) ).

The victory rally that happened in Mumbai, I believe was misplaced. It would have been more deserving, for the two army Major’s who died in Jammu Kashmir yesterday.

Cricket is awesome, unlike many other games, it is easy to understand; hence the mass appeal. But in India it is like that huge tree which takes the air, water and sunshine away from all other sports and not allowing them to flourish, even exist.

In recent past, the stars of Indian sports are dazzling. Be it Nehru Cup in Football,
Anand becoming the World Chess champion, Asia Cup in Hockey or World School Rugby Championship…it’s undoubtedly a party in Indian sports scenario, except we are adamant not to join it.

Public Madness

A lot of people believe that India qualifies to be a next super power just on the basis of its population. Others believe that the arguably great Indian culture rest on the community dynamics of the society. This dynamics give the Indian society its unique flavor and conscience.

But lately, this same “Society” is, holding India at ransom. Earlier the mob was seen as the main villain in riots, destroying people property and humanity in the name of religion. But lately their presence has greatly increased.

They block national highways to seek reservations, murder and burn public property to protest accidental deaths, attack and kill policemen, take law and order in their own hands by punishing criminals and even the ruling of panchayat of murder and rape being executed by the mob.

The mob, part of a society is going against it.

This could be more detrimental for India then the terrorist attacks.

Happy Independence Day!!

In many sections of Indian society, couples on their sixtieth wedding anniversary, get married again. Along with, a generally extended family, a lot of mixed experiences of life and earned wisdom, they redo their vows.

I believe that’s exactly what India should do on the Sixtieth Independence day.

I believe the real threat to India is not from the terrorist but the fundamentalist; not from the criminals but those who resort to destroy public property as a mark of protest on any and every issue; not from law-breakers but from people who have made finding loop-holes in law and manipulate witnesses; not from the corrupt bureaucrats but those who do not raise a voice against them; not hideous politicians but those who refuse to vote out of the despondency of the situation.

I think the seven vows that we need are, based on the experiences of last 60 years.

Vow 1: First and foremost we should safeguard the most precious thing called democracy. All political party should be made to follow rules like not inciting violence, respect secularism and law. Any violation to these laws should result in dissolution of the party by the election commission.

Vow 2: The judiciary, which on more then one occasion have proved as the sanest and most unbiased institution in the company, should work to come up with a process to dispose the cases at the earliest. Because we have seen over and over again that justice delayed is justice denied.

Vow 3: The education at schools should be overhauled to prepare students for self-employment rather then university education. The current system of education is single handedly responsible for the blooming service industry and crashing agriculture.

Vow 4: We should do everything to stop the rise of caste-based divide. This divide was caused by reservations in modern times, hence they should be discontinued immediately, except for reservation in education institutions and jobs based on physical (and if possible, few types of mental) disabilities.

Vow 5: Women need to be empowered. I strongly believe, the way to empower them is not be any reservation but by making the society very safe for them. Neither their parents nor they should miss opportunity because some job, some area or some city is not safe. The laws to safeguard them should be strictly implemented and any case involving crime against women should be solved with in a year, to help the victim carry on with her life.

Vow 6: Growth of population need to be addressed with punishments like loosing promotion and loosing government jobs, some incentive for girl child can also be planned. Not more then two children should be allowed per family baring exceptions.

Vow 7: India in my view took a great decision in the past of being member of group of non-aligned nation in the past. It should once again lead the world, in terms of opinion and guide the world away from the big brothers who are immature and whimsical and patronize nations and they only damage the peace of the planet.

Some one thought, motivated, worked, suffered and even died for the freedom with which we live, think, dream and express today. Long live Independent India!

Happy Independence Day!!