Joke of Democracy

Adjourned sessions, unhealthy debates, use of abusive language, and not to forget the mother of all entertainment--chair fights are all characteristics of law making forums throughout the nation, but there’s one thing that our legislators have always stood together for –Greater pay. With the 6^th pay commission coming into the picture, the salaries of employees of various government sector organizations and PSUs have witnessed an increment ranging from 12 to 30 %. Even in a situation where the armed forces had to undergo a long legal struggle before being granted a 38% hike, the government implemented a pay hike of 300% to all Member of Parliament against the parliamentary committee’s proposal of 500%.

Well if you feel that this demand is because of the hard time the Swiss banks (which have been long faithful to our politicians) are facing after the recent recession, let me tell you that our parliamentarians have some more logical points to place. If the salaries of our MPs are directly compared with those of the developed world, we find that despite the 200% hike, our MPs are one of the worst paid. In their opinion comparing the percentage increase is a mere sensationalization of facts as they have been underpaid over the years. They urge the people to compare the meager figure of 50,000 to which the salary has been increased from the existing 16,000 rupees. Let’s fulfill this wish of theirs.

Apart from the basic salary our honorable MPs are entitled perks in the form of constituency allowances, office, travel allowances, daily allowances, office, furniture, Internet, electricity, gardeners and what not! Consider the free accommodation being provided to our MPs at upscale localities in the country where the monthly rent goes as high as 2 lakhs . Even when the government run AIR INDIA is facing acute economic crisis, our MPs get 34 single business class air tickets. A rough estimate of the total worth of all these perks by an esteemed news agency sets the figure to a whooping 37 lakhs annually. Comparing not on basis of percentage and takingPPP in USD as the criteria, each MP’s pay and perks together work out to be substantially higher than those of Japan, Singapore, and Italy which are renowned for their highly paid politicians. Well we have not included pension and medical benefits in our calculations and forgot to mention that all this is tax free. Even after all this our MPs who work for merely 151 days a year in comparison to the yearlong effort put in by civil servants feel that giving them a salary less than the cabinet secretary is an insult to the lawmakers and the democracy of the nation. So let’s deal in a different perspective.

Keeping a very much business mindset, we know that an employee in a company is paid a percentage of the worth he adds to it. Extending this to our parliament we find that the hiked salaries are 68 times of what an average Indian earns. Making this kind of disparity in India one of the worst in the world. Well the people who actually are responsible for the kind of average salary that persists in the nation and claim to represent the population feel that their salaries are bigger insult on our democracy than the economic disparity they demand!!

Black Fridays

It was last Wednesday that Lifestyle and Shopper's Stop had announced a discount of upto 50% in their merchandise but the mammoth traffic outside Oberoi mall made me wonder .... have these idiots still not noticed the small upto in the newspaper advertisements. Our cab could hardly snail through this traffic and the fact that I had to catch my train to Delhi was making impatience run down our veins. Since dad was on a tour and dada busy, mom was accompanying me to the station. In an attempt to relieve her fears of missing the train she asked our cabbie “ Has the kandivali flyover opened?”. Now for people not belonging to Mumbai, let me tell you that the western express highway that connects Goregaon to Borivali is in desperate need of this flyover or at least removal of the blockage that it’s construction is causing. Well …. The cabbie replied “no ma’m… its opening on 15 august”. The citation of 15 august made me lost is the in all the masti we we used to have when I was small . Singing of the national anthem in school and then back in the colony eating samosas, jalebies, slow cycling races and competing with each other on the number of flags collected. The strange vibe set out by the principal’s speech on freedom fighters. Watching the same movie ‘Gandhi’ year after year this afternoon. But things have changed . For me school changed to college and the significance of independence day limited to an hour or two hours of extended sleep as there were no morning classes at 8. But surprisingly for mom, whose life was still somewhat the same, things too had changed . At once she ordered “ refrain from being out of campus up til a little after 15 august”. THINGS HAD REALLY CHANGED!!!! “ you know… these terrorists don’t attack on the exact day.. perhaps a nearby Friday”.

Well people from peaceful places would find her statement a bit canny but in my opinion her fright is justified. One of her friends who had not yet got away with the excitement of promotion and transfer to Bandra branch of her bank was hit by a an iron piece that flew out as a blast occurred in the train passing by her’s. My dad’s colleague had missed the drama at the Oberoi Trident as his seminar got over an hour before the the insurgents broke in. There was a 19 year old guy in our locality who lost his limbs in the in the 2005 local train blasts.

Since I didn't wan’t to spend too much on our Kolkatta trip ( after the recent gyaneshwari sabotage ) it was hard to convince my friend for a’ Durunto experience’ . “Marna hai kya???” was all that he had to say and I finally resorted to dumb explanations of flights being equally prone to hijack as trains are to sabotage. Even my maid now takes a longer route to work from her chawl as the earlier one passes through a failed bombing attempt site in 2005.

With human eyeballs eager to spit suspicion , mankind has now gone to an extent that a burkha clad woman rushing through the crowds is thought to be a man with big beard carrying a few kilos of RDX in a pressure cooker, long pathani coats are only thought of as AK47 hideouts, reference of Islamabad in an uncommon language is at once linked to ISI.

The hate statement sent across the world against Muslims has made many immigrants loose their jobs and denied VISA. In this race of creating a terror free world , mankind’s suspicion has taken its toll not only on the common man but also celebrities like Shahrukh Khan and Neil Nitin Mukesh .With countries such as Switzerland imposing a ban on minarets and France on burkha , we see how suspicious minds in the name of security and cultural unity practice minority crimes.

But a few other facts reveal a different story. Since 9/11 there have been no major terrorist attack in the United States . The last attacks in the UK were the London bombings in 2005. Even in India there have been no plane hijacks in past few years despite of the media accusing lapse in security measures.Is it not justified to suspect a baggage left unattended at a public place? Is informing authorities about unusual happenings in the neighbourhood a crime? Is being a bit more careful and observing surroundings harmful to the society?

But how many of these suspicions come true?

How many of these Fridays are BLACK?

BISMILLAH... STOP THIS NONSENSE (In the name of God stop this nonsense)

1949:On 1 January, a ceasefire between Indian and Pakistani forces leaves India in control of most of the valley, as well as Jammu and Ladakh, while Pakistan gains control of part of Kashmir including what Pakistan calls "Azad" Kashmir and Northern territories.

1951: First post-independence elections.Sheikh Abdullah wins, mostly unopposed. There are widespread charges of election rigging which continue to plague all the subsequent elections.

1947-1952: Sheikh Abdullah drifts from a position of endorsing accession to India in 1947 to insisting on the self-determination of Kashmiris in 1952.

1953-54: The governments of India and Pakistan agree to appoint a Plebiscite Administrator by the end of April 1954. Abdullah procrastinates in confirming the accession of Kashmir to India. In August 1953, Abdullah is dismissed and arrested. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed is installed in power, who then gets the accession formally ratified in 1954.

In Aug 1965, Pakistan undertakes Operation Gibraltar and sends in a few thousand armed infiltrators across the cease-fire line.

1971: An Indian Airlines plane, 'Ganga', en route from Srinagar to New Delhi, is hijacked in January and diverted to Lahore .

1987: Farooq Abdullah wins the elections. The Muslim United Front (MUF) accuses that the elections have been rigged. The MUF candidate Mohammad Yousuf Shah is imprisoned and he would later become Syed Salahuddin, chief of militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahedin. His election aides (known as the HAJY group) - Abdul Hamid Shaikh, Ashfaq Majid Wani, Javed Ahmed Mir and Mohammed Yasin Malik - would join the JKLF.

1989: Militancy increases with bomb blasts. On 8 December, Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is kidnapped by the JKLF. She is released safely on 13 December in exchange for the release of five JKLF leaders. Kashmiri Pandits Jia Lal Taploo and Neel Kanth Ganjoo are killed by militants, the latter for sentencing Maqbool Butt to death in 1984.

1990: In January, Jagmohan is appointed as the Governor. Farooq Abdullah resigns. On 20 January, an estimated 100 people are killed when a large group of unarmed protesters are fired upon by the Indian troops at the Gawakadal bridge.

On March 1, an estimated one million take to the streets and more than forty people are killed in police firing.

For ages saints, kings, sages, and truth finders have turned towards Kashmir as a hot spot for attaining moksha and nirvana.But how come such a marvellous virgin beauty after feasting one’s eyes upto the extent of opening up all barriers of imagination , take away his desires for life??

The weather turned cold and discomfort of wet clothes intensified as strong winds started entering through the open windows of our car… but wait!! Something was unusual. Bilal our driver was rushing the car at an unusual speed. My eyeballs pooped out as I saw the speedometer touching the 120 kmph mark.Also he was constantly in conversation with someone on the phone. Though such unusual things do demand suspicion in a place like Kashmir , but all our rationality was lost in the Baiseran greens and Sonamarg glacier. Lost in the adventures of rafting we were completely unaware of the adventure impending.

But a rational mind finally broke the silence. My dad asked “ Is something wrong Bilal? “ .He hesitatingly informed us about some tension sprouting up in the valley.He could hardly do away with the questions my mom flooded him with, a stone bounced back our car and cracked its rear window. To our horror a mob of 20 was chasing our car hurling stones at us!!It was no longer the beautiful landscape but broken glass pieces , strains of blood and burning tyres that attracted attention . Once again HEAVEN was burning in a fire of greed and illiteracy.

One generally develops a picture of Pakistani militants as the only hell breakers in this heaven but the reality is that Kashmir is a victim of political greed for power and money. Its not only Pakistanis who have made situations uncontrollable but even our own politicians from time to time have en cashed upon Kashmiri emotions.I remember what our cabbie spoke about kashmiri politics…..”the central government doesn't spend on infrastructure in the region for its fears of loosing the territory to Pakistan. And even the funds that are sent to the state government, are exhausted in the lavish orchards of the ministers. If centre asks for an explanation , the state threatens to sing the Pakistani anthem. Illiterate, hungry, jobless people prefer throwing stones in exchange of some cash and evil thoughts for the mind to engage into. “. This is how a small peaceful, local, secular, agitation aimed at the freedom of Kashmir has now been publicized by hungry beasts into an international, armed, Islamic jihad aimed at nothing but keeping the state ablaze for meagre personal benefits.

Let me feed you with a few facts:

It is alleged that the 1987 assembly polls were rigged by the Rajiv Gandhi government as he suspected the militant nature of the political parties that had a greater chances of winning the elections. The result was that these parties were wooed by the Pakistani lollipop of of power and came up in arms. The genesis of Hizbul Muzaedin and Lashkar-e-toiba can be traced back to this event. Some who then didn’t join this bandwagon like Mehbooba mufti’s party because of her good ties with Delhi now on loosing elections speaks a Pakistani tone. The intelligentsia in Kashmir call her a chameleon whose political colours have hardly stayed the same for long.Not known to many but there is a section that believe Farookh Abdullah having ties with terror groups in his young age when his father had quiet a stronghold on kashmiri politics.

Delhi’s attempts to retain kashmir, army’s attrocities and human rights violation, Pakistan’s desperation to encroach upon and poke its nose in the internal affairs of its neighbours, the militants involving children and people from all age groups at gunpoint in their jihad, the political greed of local leaders and what not!!The prime ministers of India and Pakistan from their respective south block bungalows, the UNSC secretaries from their Manhattan offices, the local leaders from their dens around the picturesque chasme shahi bagh admist tight security of the police , CRPF and army play this blame game. The people to whom the situations actually concern the most is the mother whose 6 yr old was kidnapped and sent across the LOC in the name of jihad, the wife whose husband is arrested on charges of terrorism and since then has gone missing, the father who doesn’t send his son to school fearing that the next bomb blasts will take away his sons to another heaven, the head of the family who finds it hard to find a job as he is branded a millitant and his roots traced back to pakistan.

Kota Diaries

The hot and dusty kota summers were at its peak and there was too much work to do. My landlord suggested rampura bazar to get the basic daily needs , so we stopped at an auto and asked "Rampura bazar..... kitna longe??". Looking at us he realized that fresh students have already arrived in the city and the annual loot just begun " Sau rupaye" . To which my mom replied that the landlord told the fare is 40 rupees. " Khud to 500 ke kamre ka 5000 leti hai aur humko thoda bhi kamane nahi deti" he burst out. We argued for some time but finally gave in. On the way the auto driver played some rajasthani music.One of my Bombay friends born in Jodhpur used to admire how sweet the folk marwari songs are. I too had a taste of it. A lady , perhaps an opera singer infected with TB, burst out her lungs through those himesh reshamiya infested speakers. And to add to it were the coughs and sneezes as background music ' Uhh AHH uhh Ahh... Ara ra ra Ara ra ra ra..' .I realised my friend's faithfulness towards his birthplace.

Finally we reached Rampura and 100 rupees seemed was towards entertainment and hospitality charges. I was totally infuriated by the way he fooled us and had never thought that one day i too would share the same choleric views about my landlords as he did.

Even the search for room wasn't that easy. After hours of search we finally got one. The room was fine and more than that my parents found miniature mom and dad in the landlords. Their USP was 100% selection..... no no ... it wasn't a coaching institute!! Aunty, who seemed have done a Ph d in filmy dailouges , kept on saying that her tenants were no different than her own son to her. And according to uncle's dairy of statistics .... just a sec ... he needs a special mention here.. Uncle was severe alcohol addict. His life was confined within the four walls of his bedroom which had basic amenities like a TV, an AC, and enough alcohol to feed an entire army cantonment . He had two sets of clothing , which smelled as if it was preserved in a bucket full of alcohol for ages. According to him there has been no one in the past who hasn't made it to the IITs from their hostel. Now i know why people at IIT get into drinking so early. I was so moved that i almost asked my dad to book the room first and then think of which coaching to join.

As days went by the truth in the promises unveiled . The early noon breakfasts at 12 had stuffed paranthas which required an entire ASI team to find out what was it stuffed with. Then came the lunch....... lumps of rice entangled together with streaks of hair, boiled pottatoes and finally something edible ;dal.

Admist all these were the brutallities of Bansal sir. After classes there were tons of homework we were loaded with. Our life was surrounded with DPPs ( daily practice problems) and sheets. Slowly we were used to it and even getting 10% marks was no more a nightmare.

Especially after dinner there were hardly few who could stick their butts to the chairs...... so to relieve the stress and drive away the sleep we used to stand outside in the balcony hoping that someone would start out a topic. Once started we had too much to discuss and too less time to spare. The world leaders used to sit and discuss topics ranginng from bansal girls to aunty's attrocities , landlord's son falling for a girl 8-10 years younger to him, mumbai terror attacks and even the US oil game. We were a global panchayat. The refreshment intended for a few minutes used to take hours when someone accidentally realised to see the watch and cried chaos. But things didn't use to end here. The next day, another hour was wasted blaming each other for the loss.

Then came those birthday parties...... 18 people in ahostel one for almost all. In most parts of the world there's a culture of applying the the cake icing on the b'day guy's face...... but this part had its own rules. The moment the cake was cut, wild hungry monkeys barged upon it. Within moments it was over. Though Sonu cold drinks exploited his monopoly over the cake market in Vigyan nagar, we still praised him for making us realise that we had taste buds which were long made to hibernate by aunty's boiled potatoes. Since no icing was left after, we resorted to phenyl, spoilt milk rotten over a week, harpic, tomato ketchup . I guess only water from the toilet commode was spared .!!

Bansal sir had strong dislike towards cyber cafes in the city and asked us to stay away from them. Initially i thought it was merely an eggaturation as i didn't understand his reasoning of addiction towards computers. But our DOTA king opened my eyes and proved that successful and experienced people hardly give wrong advices. He used to spend hours.... i mean 2 hours daily ... no no.... not at the cafe!!.... in his room to complete his quota of sleep and gain momentum for the hard core 22 hr gruelling session of DOTA at a nearby cyber cafe. His eyes had permanently turned red and resembled very much the drug addict chambal dakos in the movie "Bandit Queen" who used to rape young girls. Once ,he had even symbolically picked up a knife over a small fight on some petty issue. This triggered an emergency meet of the Global Panchayat . The panchayat discussed his actions, behavior, his fate, alleged him to have lost his mental stability, and even had the opinion that he could do anything including murder someone if denied DOTA.... God!! we were too serious with the responsibility we conferred upon us...

Most of our entertainment was the panchayat and my post dosn't complete without specially thanking our ' sarpanch ' Siddhant Khattri 'who took all the responsibilities of organising meetings and bore aunty's bashings for no reason. Poor chap!!!.. a victim of ' easy channeling of human frustation'.

Though there are bitter memories of the rudeness of the locals, but Kota has even given me a few friends for life. And above all it has made me achieve a goal i had only dreamt of. My eyes always fill with respect when the name Kota comes to my mind.

Golden Words Only Sound Great

It was 2009 december and i happened to switch on the tv to get a review of 3 "idiots" .I generally switch the tv off on an annoying channel and as expected it was india tv .And to my surprise the headlines said 'Amir Khan's view on Indian education ' ......... I rubbed my eyes..... No it was true... india tv was talking of education!!! I wonder was rakhi sawant's swamwar over or there were no more failed attempts tof bombing India tv's national heritage rated headquarters at dharavi.

Later I watched the movie...truly enjoyed it .... it was a laugh riot. And as a week passed by the social networking sites were flooded with social messages on education SYSTEM . Even the guy who used to pass exams courtesy grace marks writes " The WHOLE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION IS TO TURN MIRRORS INTO WINDOWS"..... well i guessed his interpretation :developing a technology for reflective window glasses. People did a postmortem of Amir's khan's movie.

Soon the news channels were flooded with debates. Some accused the system of making students view science as Newton viewed and put an end to their own creativity. People said that the Indian education system emphasizes more on rote learning and even alleged that Indian industries don't promote R&D because of such a flaw full system . People from all spheres of life put all their energy in bringing out the ills of the system. They spoke about how the existing system has been unable to produce enough Nobel laureates despite of having such a large population. Some quoted it responsible for the BRAIN DRAIN. And when the nation comes into such a state of severe crisis, which we happen to realize only after the release of three idiots, even my dhobi talks grade system and common exam board .

No doubts on the fact that these problems cost a lot to the society. But are the golden solutions actually practical. Is it possible to integrate NCERT with Harvard.

Better reforms include better utilization of teaching hours at school. More interactive sessions where students are made to learn through observation and visualize for themselves well established concepts at primary and early secondary level of schooling. at the secondary level students should be asked to refer to number of books to get to know many viewpoints and develop one of his/her own. Even better textbook designing committees can help in this regard. In a nutshell it's syllabus redesigning . But to bring about such a change we need a much more trained teaching force. But with the Mayawati government slashing down the B Ed. enrolment requirements to 45% from 50, it seems less probable to change the scene. However I don't blame Mayawati completely for this. The reality is IF YOU PAY PEANUTS YOU GET MONKEYS . Only a few private IB schools and some fees-ed schools in urban areas can afford to pay high salaries to teachers. Where from will we be able to pay such high salaries to a village primary school teacher??

Keeping in mind the present economic condition of India, organizing short term motivational camps in schools across the country. Even private sector can help us by advertising with us like...........' Colgate presents young Einstein' ..... these camps would also educate the students about the various options they have after school. Only when more students take interest in unconventional fields, such fields could be enhanced .

Another aspect of quality education is the freedom of an individual to choose a stream for himself. The biggest hindrance that arises here is pressure from parents. The government should take steps to educate the parents about different streams available through advertisements on tv and street banners. This will ALSO help increasing literacy rates in India ; this is how:-

Many poverty stricken parents don't send their children to school as they feel that school and university education will be of no good to people who eventually end up working in workshops and factories. The central government run ITIs for producing skilled working force to boast the evergrowing manufacturing sector of india. Now many parents are not even aware of such reforms.

The ills of our education system that we are following for the past 60 years have now setteled down in the very hearts of the society and needs to be removed from the grass root level.

Slogans of removing extra academic burden on students do attract public attention. But the reality is that in a globalized economy with so much competition , a developing economy cannot afford to compromise on quality for comfort. Though the cirricullum shouldn't be reduced in volume but should be better structured and made interesting.

Vegetarianism

One must have heard innumerable discussions on this very topic and most of us feel that here judgement falls undoubtedly in favour of vegetarianism. Arguments such as an individual's freedom to live and grow, ecological disbalance and inability to regain the lost animals come to rescue vegetarianism. Lets have a look from a diffrent dimension.

If living right activist talk about the pain and sufferings of animals, how can they oversee the same caused when fruits, cereals, leaves are torn off from a plant's body. It has been well established that plants too feel pain as animals do. If living right activists fight for animal life then why not for plants and make humans starve to death????

The truth, though bitter , is that we donot have a hold on these natural processes. Nature has created a cycle called food chain that takes care of the ecological balance that we humans are striving hard for . The very fact that our digestive system has the ability to digest meat is itself nature's consent to humans to be non vegetarians.

Some may argue that killing of birds and animals for meat has caused a disbalance in natural ecosystems and is gradually disturbing the food chain. But i don't get it how do poultry farms that intentionally make chickens breed in large numbers and make them available for meat disturb the environment . Let me make a point clear i'm focusing on non veg food and not justifying the killing of animals like kaziranga rhinos for their horns .

A very well known rule of nature 'survival of the fittest'; as every other intelligent species who rules over species inferior to him, man too has the right to indulge in actions that do not disturb the ecology to a state that would harm him . I am not against vegetarianism. In fact i do respect individual ideas of an individual but what i have to say is b'ing non vegetarian is not a crime!!!!

Nothin special...But....

Another morning starts..... and this time again as i had expected, the sun was right above my head. But not even this could have made me wake up. It was roomie's scream cum reminder about the major's papers being distributed at 10. I hurried with my toothbrush to the washroom but still lingering in my mind were the plans i had made from 2 weeks before the 'xams to go out on a jog and feed a bit of my precious tummy to mother nature.

The thought now seems more and more unrealistic as two days have passed by since the majors ended and i have wasted them on stupid stuff..... atleast i'm happy that i spent my last night more productively than the night prior to it when i was listening to some bullshit by an equally disgusting person.....annnaaaaaa...... lets not spoil the day thinking about him.

Waiting at the insti we were completely drenched by sweat, ... not our's!!! but of people around us!! The holy bath finally ended and we entered the room . I was relying a lot on this paper as but things hardly turn the way you want them to !!!! ...All my hopes for a decent grade were shattered ..... had i been my normal self my tears could have even drowned famine stricken villages. But now i have stopped worrying .... I call it " sab moh maya hai "(" every desirous object/abstraction is merely an illusion -- for those who are weak at Hindi).But i couldn't resist myself from abusing the invigilator who didn't allow me to borrow a sharpener . I even called his mom a lesbian. Finally i was back in my room and yippeee !!! i have finally started blogging.