"Independence - The Journey" - How Far We Have Reached Till Now ??

Yesterday morning, a casual morning talk with one of my good friend gradually turned into a serious discussion and then a verbal altercation !!! I don't know how and when the reactions started coming out from me spontaneously. By nature, I am not a reactive person. I know very well that in this world of more than 600 crores people, everybody has his/her own opinion and that needs to be respected in a context. Despite of this strong understanding and maturity, I spoke out ...... I wonder !!!!

Indians have some grudges with the country (everybody has different, but everybody has some) and in our age, apparently the grudges come out in strong (or sometimes abusive) words.I retaliated these thoughts and tried to put my point that in the diversity of India, everybody wants his own country, every single person has some negative thoughts about the person, who is not of his own religion, caste, region or complexion (!!!) too.People from UP and Bihar are on receiving end in Mumbai and similar was the case with South Indians few decade back. Sometimes, people from North-East get alien treatment in some or other part of the country. The protest in Kashmir is very much visible to everybody.

Its true that there is a lot of work is still need to be done. Lacking of transparency has marred our democracy in last six decades of independence. Problems are getting bigger and bigger ...... but I do not think that it gives an ample reason to rebuke the country. After all ,our identity comes from the country. People aspire to go to The US and UK and other developed nation; but they often forget that their they will always be treated as third class citizen there(not second class too !!!! ). They will always be of Indian origin, wherever they go in the world. People always start comparing India with The US and UK; but they often forget that there are many other nations in the world, whose citizen aspire to be as par with Indians. United Sates and UK are matured democracy with almost ten times of democratic period than that of India. They have resolved most of their internal conflicts(despite of far less diversity than India, they had the differences !!!! ), and still working on. Are we so impatient that we want to resolve everything within a whisker of moment. It is not possible at all. After six decades of independence, its good that the differences and grudges, which were trying hard to come out from the cozy independent feeling, are finally coming out. Unless they come out, we would not be able to resolve those. Independence is an ongoing journey, it is not a one time phenomenon. It is like a journey, in which you always set a new target after crossing one. There might be some hiccups, there might be ups and down; but we need to address all those because it is our journey. Nobody else would do anything for us.If we want to achieve next milestone in the journey, we must have to take the pain to cross the hilly areas, desert and every other barricade.

We want to achieve everything, we want to see India mighty like US but most of the time we forget that they also have their share of issues; which we cant realize sitting here. The US is "THE US" because their citizen made it. Its the generosity, vision and tolerance of their own citizens that they allowed people from other countries to come and build their nation. In India, we even don't want people of UP and Bihar to come to Maharashtra and hope that India will become The US in five years.

When US or UK were building their own respective nations, India used to be a prosperous country. But they never thought to escape from their own conditions and decided to build their own country.They tried to found out every possible means to build their own nation. They might have taken short cuts and decided to settle in India as it had all the prosperity; but they didn't do that. They continued their journey with all the challenges and their journey is still on.

Our independence journey is in very early phase now. Problems have just started coming out as our generation is the generation who opened their eyes after Independence from British. Our previous generations had a target to get the freedom from The British Raj; which they achieved. They gave us an independent Indian nation; they gave us an Indian Nationalism, which unites us. Now its our generation's turn to take this baton forward to achieve the next target rather than trying to find out short cuts and cursing our own country.

"Other Gender" option in admission form -- Yes it is true now..

In India, while traveling in the train or at a busy traffic signal or at other public places, most of us must have faced transgenders disturbing our peace of mind as asking for some money. Rather they threat one to shell out some money from one's pocket otherwise they would create some unpleasant situation. We all generally shell out Rs. 10/- to get rid of this situation and proceed to our work (the same I do too).

Meanwhile, from my college days, while filling up any of the form, one question always struck to me - Why we are not having a third sex in form - Male, Female and Others. God has engineered all and why Third Sex is not getting the opportunity to prove themselves as a normal human being?? Many of the times I discussed this with one of my roommates, Mr. Ramakant Pathak . Yesterday, he e-mailed me that one of my long standing dreams is getting true. NLSIU, Bangalore has decided to add a third sex in their form as "Others". It gave me a great delight and satisfaction. Newspapers or media didn't give it as much focus as it deserved, but it is a great step taken by one of the premier institute of the country and a great leap towards the end of inhuman discrimination faced by transgenders. Naturally, they are devoid of sexual pleasure and by not giving them a fair chance in other fields, we were committing a sin.

Most of us might not be aware, but in the UN's Civil Society Task Force on HIV/AIDS, India is represented by an eunuch. Laxi Narayan Tripathi is the only "Others" in this task force. I came across to this fact last year while watching one of the most controversial television series "Sach Ka Samna"("Sach Ka Samna" is the Indian version of Moment of Truth ). I recommend all the readers to please watch the episodes of this series, featuring Laxi Narayan Tripathi, once. Laxmi Narayan is a person of strong will who proves that trans-genders are as capable as any of normal Men or Women. They only need support from society and law.

With NLSIU coming with this historic decision, we can hope other institutions and government bodies will come with an "Others" option in their employment, admission and other forms. It is not only an issue of ending discrimination, but also a move to prepare a huge workforce to contribute constructively towards the nation growth.

55% of Indians are Poor and Rupee Gets its Symbol

Almost an year ago, I was discussing the notion of Europeans about India, with my German language trainer. The very first thing she mentioned was that it is a land of extremities and contradictions. I am not sure whether it is only a coincidence or fate, that almost every time, whenever India celebrates its economical success or flexes her power muscles, in parallel some other activity starts which forced me to think whether this celebration is fake or real. Few of my previous blog entries have reflected this, and this article is one in that series.

Two days back India released the symbol of its currency. It is nothing but another show of India's economical might and one forward step towards becoming a powerful economy. India is preparing herself for next moon mission; we are organizing Commonwealth Games this year and targeting for Olympic. Now, we are producing winners not only in Cricket but in other sports also. India is one of the biggest defense equipment buyers and our energy thirst is forcing us to explore all the fields to get energy. Sounds Good ...... really we should give a pat on back to ourselves.

But almost the very same day a report released by Oxford University (Multidimensional Poverty Index) shown India her another face. According to it, 55% of Indians are poor (Country Briefing:India). Eight of our states are poorer than the poorest African countries. I would like to name those state - Bihar, U.P, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, M.P., Orrissa, West Bengal and Chattisgarh. Lets have a look the geography of these states. Bihar, U.P. and West Bengal lies in the one of the most fertile land of world : The Great Ganges Planes. The Ganges has provided a natural assistance to the soil of these areas and that is why it add to one of the most densely populated areas of world. This land is one of the best land of world for agriculture which made it one of the first choices for human to live. Rajsthan, Jharkhand, Orrisa and Chattisgarh are most mineral rich states of the country. Still they are poorest !!!! Many of these states are facing Naxal insurgency now a days and government is finding it tough to combat them as they are our own people fighting from our own land.


This all force me to think where did we go wrong in this development saga. Half of India is proceeding to compete few of the richest European nation and the rest is preparing to compete in poverty with poorest of African nations......!!! How contradictory; but its true. It again echoes the words of my German trainer in my ears.

For last few decades, we have talked about social inclusiveness, where all sections of society should get benefited from the development. But it seems that it has been rather social exclusiveness, where the development has become exclusive phenomenon of few areas. Definitely, the credit goes to the government and public of those regions as they made themselves empowered. But what about other states. Have they been found dozing off when the cherry of development has been distributed or they made themselves reluctant to accept any new change and decided to stuck with old ideas of development or the government made them fool ? I think all of the above reasons apply to these backward states. In U.P. and Bihar, the blatant caste politics has made the society blind. The public don't know anything but caste while voting. The ancient idea behind choosing the caste representative has been the development of the particular caste; but now, it has become only a means to make fool of public. So politicians are also milking the cow and drinking the all milk themselves. It has nothing to do with development. The public of these states have made themselves reluctant towards new and progressive developmental ideas and is still stick with age old caste based society. West Bengal has become a battleground of two political parties. Rampant corruption has made M.P. and Rajasthan handicapped while Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand are being exploited by their own people due to their natural resources. At some places, government has been failed to provided a social inclusiveness and at some places public has handed over a cane to government to beat them.

Ultimately it is the responsibility of government and public both to decide in which league they want to be shown. Social inclusiveness is not about the reservations on basis of caste, it is about the proper implementation of policies and identification of disturbing elements and their removal.Public must realize its responsibility as they are going to be labeled with "THE POOR" tag.

May Cricket Prevails

Yesterday, while having a discussion with one of my friend, I got a point to ponder. Now days, the IPL controversy is in limelight and naturally it drew our attention at tea time. He loves cricket but he does not love IPL. Let me generalize the thing; there are many who are ardent fans of cricket but ardent critic of IPL. Apart from controversy and limelight, IPL provides a full package to a cricket lover. Nail biting matches, extremely good performances, fours and sixes, dream teams where Sachin and Sanath can open the innings and Shane Bond and Shoaib Akhtar spearhead the bowling attack; all what a cricket lover would love to watch. With lightening performances of Sachin, Saurav, Rahul, Kumble, Kallis, Symo.....it has also been proved that this format of game has a lot to do with class and it’s not all about power. So why people do not treat it like a sport......??????????????????????????

After few minutes I got the answer too....it is not an India-Pakistan or Australia-New Zealand match or its not Ashes, where prestige of a nation is on stake. Agreed....but it is a reason enough to strip IPL??? After all it is all about cricket; money is involved but professionalism is very much needed to raise the standards of any sport. Nobody complains about English Premier League?? Except World Cup Football, soccer only played at club level. There is no series like Ashes or no rivalry like Indo-Pak or Trans-Tasman and there is more money involved in this than IPL; but why more than cricket people love to watch EPL(now Barklays Premier League-BPL)????? Because they want to see Rooney, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Zidane, Bekhem. So why there is partiality with Cricket???????

Some have also the views that it is entertainment not a game.....but I think that the sole purpose of any sport is entertainment and physical exercise. That is why our forefathers have evolved with concept of sport. A sporting concept was never been thought as a War. It was and it is always for the art of that game, entertainment of others and physical fitness of participants...That is why we have SPORTING SPIRITS not WAR SPIRITS.

I agree that the recent controversy has marred the image of IPL but it has nothing to do with Cricket. Those who have marred it either are politicians or are businessmen. Business Houses run EPL(BPL) too; but EPL is still clean!!! Reason......a proper regulation. Government is doing all what it should have done two years back. There are few other aspects which have degraded the IPL image in general public i.e. Late Night Parties etc. These things need to be regulated properly. After all cricket is cricket and it is what a cricket fan would love to watch. I would like to quote Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (former Indian Test Captain and IPL Governing Council Member) " Baby is clean, only water is dirty; we need to clean the water"....

I wish Cricket would win among all of this.....I wish the spirit of sports would win....

Are We Paying a Heavy Price for Democracy ???

Today is the day which has forced all of us to rethink. Rethink about the democracy in which we are living. Rethink about the liberty we are enjoying. Today Maoists have killed...or I should say butchered 75 CRPF soldiers and still they are enjoying the support of some sympathizers in the country. I can say it is possible only in India. Had it been in China, only God knows what would have happened to them. Had it been in USA, they would have been given them in same manner or in harder manner. But we are living in a democracy where anybody can abuse the integrity of nation on the name of democracy.

I would like to ask to all so call Maoist sympathizer- Is this the way to raise the voice in a civil society? I seriously suspect the very motive behind these organizations. Government is giving offers to talk, vocational training, money, employment opportunity; but now Maoist doesn’t want this. Now the real quest is for power and money. Now they want to run their parallel government. Are the Maoist sympathizers not sensing this or their so called ideology has made them senseless? A kid can sense that the people who are bombing the schools and trying to close the factories has nothing to do with education and development. They are only using the innocent tribals for their selfish motives; but the irony is that for those Maoist sympathizers, these incidents do not make any sense!!!

Since we are in a democracy, anybody can ask question.....but why some people use this liberty to abuse the nation. They abuse the nation in Kashmir, they abused the nation at the time of 1962 war by proving the point for China only and now they are abusing the nation by supporting the Maoists. Sometimes I think whether we are paying the price for democracy. Time has come to show some stern reactions, not only toward Maosit but also towards so called sympathizers because those are the people who are giving ideological and political shelter to the killers. A political will is needed to flush out the maoist killers, and more than that a social will is needed to flush out these so called intellectuals who do not see any crime in killing their own soldiers. Beware!!!! We are fighting a civil war now……

33% Women Reservation - How Much We Are Going To Achieve-1

During last few days, the Fair Sex has been in news for various reasons. Sometime due to 33%reservation bill for women, or other time for the Rupee Garland of Ms. Mayawati or due to mix reactions over the marriage of Sania Mirza with Shoaib Malik. We can say that we are living in a transition age where many defacto standards for women are cracking. Society is undergoing through a change process. I have termed this change as a 'Process' because it may take time and we may have to wait for a generation or two to reap the fruits of this change.

I would like to comment on 33% reservation bill; which made enough front page stories and editorials in all leading newspapers due to various reasons. The bill attracts both, the followers and the critics. The most interesting fact about this is that the parties, supporting this bill, have not more than 10% female candidates contesting in elections. Apart from this, application of this bill would require again a reservation of seats; we already have few reservations in parliamentary seats. The most important question is that whether the parties would be able to get ample female leaders to represent the constituencies or it will again be a series of dummy candidates)???); as it used to be in Panchayat and Municipal Corporation election. Let me make it clear that I am not questioning the leadership qualities of Indian Women. From Vijaylaxmi Pandit to Indira Gandhi to Sushma Swaraj to Sonia Gandhi to Meera Kumar to Brinda Karat to Mamta Banerjee; we have all the names which have been making glitters in section of powers. But these names are handful. Is there any process or system in the parties which reserves the seats for Women at party position??? At local levels, how many women are holding key positions in political parties??? Women reservation is already there at Municipal Corporation levels but if we analyze, we will found out that most of the female candidates are shadow candidates only. As I mentioned earlier, it is a process, and I think it is always better to start process at root level. Parties first provide a reservation to women at party level to make them eligible enough to represent 33% constituencies of India independently; not as shadow candidates. The current Lok Sabha contains 59 women MPs but most of them are relative to some strong Male leader. What are the parties doing to empower women at local level and party level? All of them are making hoopla about 33% reservations for vote bank but what exactly are they doing to implement this in true sense. I think it would be a better idea to implement this reservation first at party level and then only at parliamentary level; otherwise we may feel that this is something which we are forced to implement rather than a natural implementation.

Right to Education Bill - A Welcome Move

Today, Government of India implemented the bill of The Right to Education for Children. Undoubtedly, it is a welcome move in a country where more than 10 million children are deprived from proper education. Now, when we are growing consistently with 7% growth rate; the Government has ample money to fund the basic education of a child. After all it is the next generation, who will excel the country growth rate.

The one of the most important aspect of this Act is to include private schools in the process. In India, although 93% school going children go to public school, the rest 7% holds the advantage due to private school education. It is not that they are more brilliant than the other students; it is only because of the better monetary situation which they inherited from their parents. It is always a better idea to make the public schools at par with those; but till this happens, why should our future be deprived of quality education only due to their monetary condition?

All of this draw my attention towards one unaddressed issue - Regulation of Fees of Private Schools. In India, there is no regulation over the fees of primary education. It all depends on management how much they charge from parents. Many of the elite schools charge fees more than Engineering and Medical education. While admission, they ask for the bank statements of parents to check whether the parents have the capability to pay the fees or not. It is a standard symbol in our society to send children in Delhi Public School or other Convent School; not because they provide some extraordinary education, but only due to their high fees which can be bear only by elite class.

While Government is trying hard to provide basic education to child, many of programs are being run i.e. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, School Chalo Program, Midday Meal; we all are contributing towards those programs (through 2% and 3% Education Cess from our salary), it would be a better idea to regulate the fees of the Private Schools so that more and more children can get benefited by already existing good education system. Education is not a Privilege and the new act justifies this; it is high time for Government to come with a law for private school fees regulation.

With this a strict implementation of existing laws for public school betterment is very much required. My cook told me a shocking story that the Government School is illegally charging 500/- Rs. for his children in his village (Duttpur Village, Dist Jashpur, Orissa). Nobody is here to monitor this. Government has given clause of 220 days compulsory teaching for teachers but the question is who is going to measure that. In most of our rural schools, 'Master Ji' uses to fill the full month attendance at one day only. The lack of a strict performance measurement system for teachers is still haunting us and nation; especially in the case where government is pumping a big chunk of money to improve the education and literacy in our system. The advent of Unique Identity System for each citizen can solve the problem, through which an electronic monitoring will be possible for every teacher's working hour. Unique Identity is one of the most ambitious plan government has undertaken but the outcomes of it are still under carpet and we will have to wait for that.

The Road Ahead From Here.......

Daily, while returning from office, I see some children or some elderly person or some underprivileged fellow on Bangalore roads, trying hard to earn their livelihood through begging. Some of them are capable enough to earn but most of them are really underprivileged and cursed to do the activity. On the other hand, it is the same city where you will not get a movie ticket of INR 1000/- (!!!!!) on weekends. Two extremes of life....and these extremes are persistent everywhere in India. The great Indian Development Story is going on and it has pushed many from Lower Middle Class to Upper Middle Class.......sounds good and it's true. Many are reaping the fruits of booming share market, high IT and Management salaries, increasing organized retail chains....but.....a big pause is after this. Most of the development effected only to educated middle class. Some low profile jobs have also been created but they are really not enough to combat with increasing inflation. Gap between rich and poor is still widening. Wealth is being generated but still not being shared or invested through proper channels. The money, which goes to inflated school fees or inflated movie tickets, does not add to nations growth or wealth sharing. The rise in school fees and grain prices has been steeper than the rise in salaries and it is again widening gap between rich and poor. Access of quality education to lower middle and middle class is still a dream. It is education only, which has added most to Great Indian Development Saga, but it gradually getting inaccessible now to lower middle class. Without quality education, it would be very difficult to continue this development story.

The next point of concern is decreasing trend to accept agriculture as profession. With increasing grain and vegetable prices, the highly paid executives are also looking their salary as meager one. With decreasing agricultural land, this trend is only going to be stronger and stronger. Agriculture sector is still seeing not more than 3% rise whereas Service Sector increasing faster compare to this. This trend is alarming. Having best agriculture land in form of Ganges Plane, the decrement of agriculture is only adding to our woes. Service Sector growth is a dependent growth; whereas Agriculture growth will create an independence. We must pay attention to agriculture otherwise in this globalized era, we will become more dependent only. We are still dependent on Monsoon for our agriculture, which is getting more and more unpredictable; courtesy to global warming.

Clearly, somewhere we are lacking in vision of wealth sharing and adding to future growth. I don't think that it is justifiable to spend 1000/- Rs. to watch a movie in a country which still has more than 42% population below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.

Let me make it clear that I am not advocating communism here; because somewhere down the line, it discourages wealth creator to create wealth due to fear of sharing it with non-eligible persons. It would be a better idea to self realize the importance of money and where it should be invested (not spend). Money is getting costlier day by day and with decreasing value of 100/- Rs. note, we have to think, what economy we are going to give to our coming generations. Because it is quite possible that they won't see a 200% rise in their salaries but the same rise (or even more) is quite likely in education, food prices, medical facilities and energy sources. It is high time when we should behave more responsibly in spending. As a developing nation, we have a better role model in form of USA, which slipped into Great Depression and Great Recession only because of irresponsible spending. Please keep in mind that USA has no hostile neighbor (except Cuba, which virtually presents no threat now) and India has to deal with China and Pakistan both.