Super Superstitious INDIA

Initially I wanted to write about ladies’ favorite day, Karwa-Chowth; I even wrote few lines.

‘I can give you a better idea. Why don’t you just hang a lemon with few green chillies on the belt buckle of your Husband? It will save you from fasting and your husband will also work fine as our shops, trucks, Buses run fine with that. Isn’t it easy and more convenient method? And yes, even Kapil Sharma’s comedy nights have it and the results you know.’

But then I thought there are more funny things happening around in this super- superstitious country - INDIA. So let’s just spare this Karwa-Chowth and the beautiful ladies for one more year and pull the knuckle against our Government AGAIN. You know what’s so good about this government? Whenever you want to say something bad or criticize something, our poor government is always there; it will never disappoint you and gives you plenty of reasons to do so.

I thought of writing on superstitions today and here it is. Somebody dreamt about certain treasure hidden somewhere, and our poor government threw full force to find it. Come-on boys, Is it some kind of a joke or you took ‘FUKREY’ movie too seriously. Shobhan Sarkar playing Chucha’s role in the movie and the ASI (Archeological Survey of India) playing lead character’s role.

Our so called economist Prime Minister Mr. MM Singh; even he didn’t have any clue about how to get the fading economy back on track; so he also backed Shobhan Sarkar’s dream. I was happy when our future Prime Minister hopeful Mr. Modi mocked this gold hunt; but soon – too soon he retreated his words. Either he also became superstitious or initially he forgot that he needs hindutva votes.

Whatever may be the results of this madness, whether they will find the Gold or not. I will be happy with both, if they won’t find it then in future people will not believe (I hope so) on such superstitions and if they find something that will be good for the Indian economy. But in this mad gold rush I am afraid that, silly people don’t go after every old monument to find hidden treasures: keeping my fingers crossed.

PS: It would be great if some government (present or future) take Baba Ramdev’s claim on black money seriously instead of Shobhan Sarkar’s dream.

People's Police

People’s Police – In India, people will only laugh on this word; it seems quiet an alien thing.

Police and that to for people, haaaa….. If you ask somebody about police in India, then you will not get even a single positive response; there are hundreds of thousands of stories which highlight the poor condition and plight of so called rakshaks (saviors) of the our society. But then there are people who are not only complaining about the condition of the law and order but also working to reform it.

Last weekend I got a chance to meet Mr. Prakash Singh (retired DGP). And that meeting was an eye opener. Hundreds of times I bragged about the lawlessness and poor policing of our country; but never thought about it in a way which Mr. Prakash made me to think.

The Indian police in its present form has its structural framework based essentially on the Police Act of 1861. The British raised a police which would be “politically useful” to the imperial masters. The police would carry out all their orders, right or wrong, lawful or unlawful, constitutional or otherwise.

But at the dawn of independence, it was expected that a new philosophy would be defined for the police, that it will be made accountable to the law of the land and the people of the country. Tragically, the sour arrangement has continued even after independence. “The only change is that, the relationship that existed between the police and the foreign power before independence was now continued between the police and the political party in power”.

The police force has completed 150 years of its existence. Normally, this would have called for a celebration. But there are no talks of observing the anniversary; as the police department has failed in its basic duty ‘to serve the people of the nation’. It has become a slave to the political powers; and the country has paid a very heavy price for this political stranglehold. The tragedy of 1984 anti Sikh riots could have been averted if the police had played a bigger role than just of a mere spectator because the hoodlums belonged to the ruling party. The demolition of the disputed shrine at Ayodhya in 1994 even in the presence of state and central paramilitary forces at the location; and the Gujarat riots in 2002.

To end the stranglehold of the politicians on the police department and make the police subservient and accountable only to the laws of the land, two retired police officers Mr. Prakash Singh and Mr. NK Singh filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in 1996. In 2006, the Supreme Court while delivering its judgment, aiming to make the police objective and de-politicised, issued several guidelines to reform the police system in the country. And obliging to our Indian culture, even after six years of the Supreme Court ruling, nothing has changed but matters have gone from bad to worse.

The Court battle will go on, God knows till when. But what we can do is to build an atmosphere in favor of Police Reforms and help the persons, who are fighting for us.

P.S. Please do check http://peoplepolicemovement.com/

Happy Independence Day?

We are a free country! Or we say so...... But in my view these are sixty six years of freedom but not independence. There's still so much that ails this country. More annoying is that we don’t do anything even when we are aware of the issues.

After a bloody struggle for independence did India get what she wanted?

Independence – Independence from slavery, poverty, Hunger, corruption, lawlessness? Or was it meant to be, Independence from Britishers only? 

We have an ever-burgeoning population, ever-increasing rates of inflation and to add on to it, an inflated amount of dissatisfaction. We need to get Independence from all these ailments.

India’s population stands at 1.27 billion and soon we will top the charts. Still there are no checks on it and it’s pretty difficult in an uneducated country like ours, where still children are considered ‘Bhagwan ki dain’, where buying a condom is considered to be a shameful act. We need freedom from such narrow mindedness.

Where are India’s daughters? In a country where majority of the gods are female, the sex ratio is astonishingly low; 940 girls for 1000 boys and in states like Punjab and Haryana its alarming 893:1000 and 880:1000. Can we call ourselves educated? With rape cases ever increasing and home abuse so common, can we say our girls are enjoying independence?

A survey conducted by Transparency International ranked India 94th on the corruption index. So much black money stashed in foreign accounts and never ending corruption charges on almost every politician. Today’s politicians follow Gandhi but the only Gandhi, imprinted on the currency note. And they say “Poverty is a state of mind”. With more than 20% of India’s population going hungry, is this just a state of mind? We need independence from such ministers.

Religion, supposed to unite and bind; but in our country we get only bloodshed, mass murder and wrath all on the name of religion. In a so called secular country there are countless riots on the name of religion. We are for sure free from the English but slaves to the politicians.

This is the land of lawlessness – Jumping a traffic signal, switching lanes without a signal, run over someone and you will get off scot-free because of your political status, women are raped and groped every passing minute – law and order is almost non-existing.... almost.

In my view it would have been great, if Indians would have freed themselves from these ailments, doesn’t matter under Britishers or present oppressors.

The Divided States of INDIA

Welcoming 29th state of India and many more to come

550 princely dominions were integrated into the Indian Union in 1956 and then new states were created on linguistic basis. And then the politics started…….

Telangana- They say now it will be easier to lead the place to prosperity. Have they studied the condition of the other new born states: Utrakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand…..???  All the states are almost at the same level as they were with their mother states.  No one has fared exceptionally great. If you talk about the division of prosperous Punjab, which happened many years back; it still remains an affluent state. So, you can’t tag its wealth to its division.

 Saying all this, doesn’t mean I am against smaller states. I believe smaller states are easy to develop. But here the division isn’t meant for development; infact it’s only politics, they are least concerned about the prosperity of the society. If it isn’t for politics, they wouldn’t be waiting for these issues to heat up till they blast and then act. If these politicians really want to work positively, then the first state which needs a division is Utter Pradesh, then Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Why they are not thinking about that; but no, they will wait for the issue to become more severe, they will wait for bloody protests; they will wait for the innocent killings, then they will divide the state on the name of development. And we, the MANGO people, as always will believe them. 

When Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966, from that day, these two states are fighting for Chandigarh and sharing of water resources. Even a stupid person can understand that these issues will never be resolved. Still in every election these issues are raised and people come on roads for the bloody protests. From last 3-4 years political parties were drawing undue advantage of Telangana issue; and in near future they will fight elections on the issues of Hyderabad, the newly carved UT. But nobody will care about the development of any of the two states or the common Hyderabad.

In my view, there should be a definitive program to have large number of states (35-40); but only for good governance and fast development not for political gimps. So, my dear Mango people do not arrogantly ask for different state but for the growth & development.

Virginity- the big V

‘Virginity is not a dignity it’s just lack of opportunity’ Every Indian male must have used this phrase at-least once in his teens or to say in his adulthood. I am not sure about the above statement but it’s definitely not the only mark of purity.

I was not much shocked on reading this news article last week, which made headlines after officials in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh, conducted virginity tests on prospective brides of a mass marriage. But I definitely want to ask a question from those people who up-surd over Malika Sherawat’s remark’s that ‘India is a regressive society’. What will you say about such episode? Isn’t it a mark of regressive society? Isn’t it a mark of your double standards? Doesn’t it show what really you think about the fairer sex? Doesn’t it show that you treat woman as a sex slave only?

I ask you, how important is it for a bride to be a virgin? And if it is really important then why the same is not applicable for men also? This clearly shows that in our so called great country, gender equality can only be found in books.

Most men want their brides to be virgins, which they themselves are not ready to adhere to. For me it’s totally illogical, that an intact hymen represents the total worth of a woman upon marriage. Even if you say otherwise; then let me tell you, this small tissue can rupture during intense exercising, running or working under harsh conditions and more importantly it can easily be replaced.

And moreover, sex is not a crime it’s just a physical need. Earlier Indians got married at the age of 18-20 or even before that; so there was no question of pre-marital sex. Now the scenario has changed, average marriage age has moved up the ladder to near thirties. But the needs of the body including sex are same. So it’s better to have pre-marital sex than to think about it all the time and becoming a despo.

I know that some people will find this article inconvenient. In our Indian society talking sex, even for the sake of education is considered illicit. People who think like that and always howling about the Indian culture must not forget that India is the place of Kama-sutra and that’s not a sin.

Please stop considering pre-marital sex as taboo.

Please let us WALK

Few weeks ago while returning from office, I saw laborers working on service road to NH-8 near Bharti airtel building. I was happy, at last the administration thought about the pedestrians and is working on footpaths; this road needs one badly. But that happiness of mine survived only few days.

Couple of days to the newly laid footpaths; and there are big bill boards covering full width of the footpath. And those boards were put by none other than our traffic police department.

Government officials are always blaming people for heavy traffic and not using public transport and not opting for a walk for small distances. But where is the space to walk. It’s not only difficult but dangerous to walk on Gurgaon roads (we have to walk on roads as there are no footpaths). I can’t even go to the nearest market without a vehicle, as pedestrians can’t walk without fear of being run over. Metro station is less than a mile away from my home, I want to walk to station but it’s not possible because of heavy traffic and non-existing footpaths. Let aside footpaths while designing so called world class metro station (HUDA city Centre) the planners and developers had not thought about the road crossings at that point; it needs hell lot of guts to cross the road at HUDA city centre where traffic is merging from all directions.

At some places where these footpaths are available these are being used by the street vendors and the shopkeepers for advertisement boards. Few days ago, one of my NRI friends while walking on the footpath near sector 40 market bumped into a billboard standing in the middle of the footpath and had three stitches on his forehead. His only mistake was that, he thought footpath is only for the pedestrians; sorry dude ‘its INDIA’.

It’s clear that administration has no eyes for those who walk. That is why pavement is the first casualty of street widening process to accommodate cars. The need of the hour is to build pedestrian-friendly streets not the extra wide streets; this will help a lot in solving traffic problems.