THERE ARE not going to be many takers for the demand that there should be a cut off age for politicians. A nation with a 100 plus crores people, is being run by octogenarians and nonagenarians and the visions these people have for the nation, is as old as themselves, and all their services to the nation, notwithstanding, they need to have a moral responsibility to leave the reins in the hands of younger bloods.
All political ideologies are fine, as so long as they do the business of “nation making”, but the moment they deviate into the realm for personal gains and powers, it is not the political parties that need to be blamed, it is the demagogic politicians. It is their incorrigible pettishness and ignominious attitude towards their voters that makes the whole nation suffer. When people cross certain age, they show some signs of retirement. Therefore, they need to be given a platform, so that they can live the rest of their life with dignity and impart advise and give counsel to the younger generation. This way the best of those, so-called political brains would not go waste, while the younger generation would carry the nation forward.
I feel that the upper house of our Parliament is the right place for all those politicians who have crossed, say, a retirement age of sixty. Our upper house is now a safe haven for all businessmen and one-time beauty queens. It is not the popular mandate that makes them sit on those chairs. It is nomination, internal voting process and outright purchase. So why can’t we convert our upper house into a haven for all those senior ‘politicians’, irrespective of their political party lines? We could be a little more democratic too, by offering them a same platform to act and interact. This would avoid a lot of inconveniences to the nation.
Primarily, they can maintain their honour; secondly, they all will work as ‘think tanks’ for guiding the upcoming political generation; thirdly, they all will be serving the nation in a different way. And finally these seniors would stay off our arterial roads. The last thing would be the biggest benefit for the common man. When a young leader moves out, the population takes up a liking for him and they accommodate him wholeheartedly, but when an old politician of70 or 80, who has been taxing on the exchequer for ages, goes out, he would not be treated by all, alike.
People are fed up with them, and no voter is ready to accommodate them any further in any of the houses, of the state or of the centre. Either, as a concession or as a collateral expenditure, many people may agree to find them in the upper house. And sitting up there, they can do minimal harm, only to the already harmed nation.
So what if we amend our Constitution, as to make provisions for converting our upper house as an old age home for our senior ‘politicians’, of all ‘hues and cries?’ The best thing these men can do to our nation is, retire when they are in their best and let young bloods hold the chairs. Are their any takers for this ‘natural initiative?’
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Myanmar: the military (A)junta’ and human rights
It is quite common these days to find people fight for lower prices, improved healthcare, quality education and better utility services. But it is no longer common in Burama where the Burmese military junta detain people who do such fights. Demonstrations of any such types may be staged provided the parties get prior official permission.The above scenario has come about when a group of 10 civilized Myamarese thought it right to seriously fight for their basic rights.
Carrying placards and chanting slogans, they staged the protest in Yangon’s Thingangyun township, calling for lower prices and improved healthcare, quality education and better utility services. The protest ended peacefully in an hour so, but plainclothes police took away eight demonstrators as some 100 onlookers watched.
That protest was one of the first such demonstrations in recent years to challenge the junta’s economic mismanagement rather than its legal right to rule. The protesters detained in the February rally were released after signing an acknowledgment of police orders that ‘they should not hold any future public demonstrations without first obtaining official permission’.
Then the Burmese military government stated its intention to crack down on these human rights activists in the country’s official press. The announcement, that comprised a full page of the official newspaper, followed calls by human rights advocacy groups, including London-based Amnesty International, for Burmese authorities to investigate recent violent attacks on rights activists in the country.
Anti-government protests in Myanmar
Anti-government protests have been going on in Burma since mid August 2007, and on September 18 thousands of Buddhist monks took out protest demonstrations, and they were later given solidarity by Buddhist nuns on September 23. On September 24, 20,000 monks and nuns led 30,000 people in a protest march from the golden Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, past the offices of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party. On September 22, monks marched to greet Aung San Suu Kyi. But things took a serious turn on September 25, when 2,000 people defied threats from Burma's junta and marched to Shwedagon Pagoda amid army trucks and warning of Brigadier-General Thura Myint Maung not to violate Buddhist "rules and regulations." What followed was a series of arrests of prominent protesters, and matters went to the extent of troops barricading Shwedagon Pagoda and attacking the 700 people within.
Notwithstaning all these developments, 5,000 monks continued to protest in Yangon. Security forces began raiding monasteries and arresting monks throughout the country. The security forces resorted to even firing, killing nine people including Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai.
The junta’s cover up exercise, inteneded to keep things away from the international community, witnessed the blocking of Internet access to the country. If that was the case with international coverup, there were even arrests of people who carried mobile-bourne cameras. But the junta’s efforts to keep things under the carpet did neither succeed nor last for long. The violent way with which they treated the peaceful protesters invited strongly worded international condemnation leading to calls for an immediate halt to the violence.
The international comtemnation also took another dimension when Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fakuda demanded an explanation for killing their photojouranlist Nagai.
Despite increasingly strong calls for peace, the junta continued to attack monks and raid monasteries down the days. Now things have come to such a pass that thousands of monks are unaccounted for and their whereabouts unknown and more and more monasteries are being put under the military scanner. To cap it all, there are cases in which people testifying eyewitness accounts of injured protesters being burned alive by the military regime in a crematorium on the outskirts of Rangoon. And the story goes on and on.
Where do things stand internationally? When UN security council experts went for a Western-sponsored statement condemning the bloody military crackdown in Burma, China pressed for a softer and appeasing language and its Deputy UN Ambassador Liu Zhenmin prefered ‘consultations’ for a friendly and persuaive tone of language instead of the ones used in the draft submitted by the United States, Britain and France. The draft condemns "the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations" and urges the junta to "cease repressive measures" and release detainees and political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
When Italy's UN Ambassador Marcello Spatafora stressed that it was urgent for the council to send a "strong, unified' message to Burma's ruling junta, the United States, finally, has threatened to push for UN sanctions against the military regime, including an arms embargo, if it refuses to halt its crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
How do the world powers look at Burma and its internal problem? Are things likely to come under the controle of these so-called military powers when it comes to another military will, Junta or whatever? Lucky you poor Myanmars, your oppressive junta fortunately does not have any Weapons of Mass Destruction in their reserves.
So, you revered monks, you may keep on fighting till you succeed. Meanwhile, your spiritual intelligence should come to have the reason to fabricate some evidence to show the internatinal community that the Junta possesses some WMD in their military reserves. It would surely attract interntaional intervension. If you succeed at this, the big powers would reinstate peace and even democracy in Myanmar in the following months.
You all should understand that fighting for lower prices, improved healthcare, quality education, better utility services and the like are passe in these days of ‘war for peace’. jaypeesukham@yahoo.com
Carrying placards and chanting slogans, they staged the protest in Yangon’s Thingangyun township, calling for lower prices and improved healthcare, quality education and better utility services. The protest ended peacefully in an hour so, but plainclothes police took away eight demonstrators as some 100 onlookers watched.
That protest was one of the first such demonstrations in recent years to challenge the junta’s economic mismanagement rather than its legal right to rule. The protesters detained in the February rally were released after signing an acknowledgment of police orders that ‘they should not hold any future public demonstrations without first obtaining official permission’.
Then the Burmese military government stated its intention to crack down on these human rights activists in the country’s official press. The announcement, that comprised a full page of the official newspaper, followed calls by human rights advocacy groups, including London-based Amnesty International, for Burmese authorities to investigate recent violent attacks on rights activists in the country.
Anti-government protests in Myanmar
Anti-government protests have been going on in Burma since mid August 2007, and on September 18 thousands of Buddhist monks took out protest demonstrations, and they were later given solidarity by Buddhist nuns on September 23. On September 24, 20,000 monks and nuns led 30,000 people in a protest march from the golden Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, past the offices of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party. On September 22, monks marched to greet Aung San Suu Kyi. But things took a serious turn on September 25, when 2,000 people defied threats from Burma's junta and marched to Shwedagon Pagoda amid army trucks and warning of Brigadier-General Thura Myint Maung not to violate Buddhist "rules and regulations." What followed was a series of arrests of prominent protesters, and matters went to the extent of troops barricading Shwedagon Pagoda and attacking the 700 people within.
Notwithstaning all these developments, 5,000 monks continued to protest in Yangon. Security forces began raiding monasteries and arresting monks throughout the country. The security forces resorted to even firing, killing nine people including Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai.
The junta’s cover up exercise, inteneded to keep things away from the international community, witnessed the blocking of Internet access to the country. If that was the case with international coverup, there were even arrests of people who carried mobile-bourne cameras. But the junta’s efforts to keep things under the carpet did neither succeed nor last for long. The violent way with which they treated the peaceful protesters invited strongly worded international condemnation leading to calls for an immediate halt to the violence.
The international comtemnation also took another dimension when Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fakuda demanded an explanation for killing their photojouranlist Nagai.
Despite increasingly strong calls for peace, the junta continued to attack monks and raid monasteries down the days. Now things have come to such a pass that thousands of monks are unaccounted for and their whereabouts unknown and more and more monasteries are being put under the military scanner. To cap it all, there are cases in which people testifying eyewitness accounts of injured protesters being burned alive by the military regime in a crematorium on the outskirts of Rangoon. And the story goes on and on.
Where do things stand internationally? When UN security council experts went for a Western-sponsored statement condemning the bloody military crackdown in Burma, China pressed for a softer and appeasing language and its Deputy UN Ambassador Liu Zhenmin prefered ‘consultations’ for a friendly and persuaive tone of language instead of the ones used in the draft submitted by the United States, Britain and France. The draft condemns "the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations" and urges the junta to "cease repressive measures" and release detainees and political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
When Italy's UN Ambassador Marcello Spatafora stressed that it was urgent for the council to send a "strong, unified' message to Burma's ruling junta, the United States, finally, has threatened to push for UN sanctions against the military regime, including an arms embargo, if it refuses to halt its crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
How do the world powers look at Burma and its internal problem? Are things likely to come under the controle of these so-called military powers when it comes to another military will, Junta or whatever? Lucky you poor Myanmars, your oppressive junta fortunately does not have any Weapons of Mass Destruction in their reserves.
So, you revered monks, you may keep on fighting till you succeed. Meanwhile, your spiritual intelligence should come to have the reason to fabricate some evidence to show the internatinal community that the Junta possesses some WMD in their military reserves. It would surely attract interntaional intervension. If you succeed at this, the big powers would reinstate peace and even democracy in Myanmar in the following months.
You all should understand that fighting for lower prices, improved healthcare, quality education, better utility services and the like are passe in these days of ‘war for peace’. jaypeesukham@yahoo.com
Friday, March 28, 2008
Leave Pakistan alone!
IT SEEMS that reason has started prevailing over the rhetoric in the US because the deputy secretary of the State, John Negroponte’s response to a query that the US was dictating anti-terrorism policy to Pakistan’s new government sounded so. He said that the US had no plan to interfere in the policy matters of the newly born government in Pakistan. It is more so when it comes to policies on anti-terrorism. But not many in Pakistan are going to buy these words, as they are very much aware of these men.
The presence of another senior state department official, Richard Boucher, has invited some protests among Pakistanis on their belief that these people are hovering around Pakistan to undermine its natural course of democratic destiny, and there are some who claim that these officers have hidden agendas on anti-terrorism moves of the new government.
The apprehensions sound relevant because these men are around at a time when Gilani stands headed to lead a new coalition government. As the nation is slowly coming to terms with a new administrative order, the press is staying really vigilant, and some dailies have come up with editorials commenting on the ‘unsolicited’ nature of these officers. One of them described the US presence in Pak soil as “meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs”.
However, the two officials ruled out all apprehensions and criticisms and said that the visit was already planned two months ago. The purpose of the visit was to reaffirm the US’s support for the new Pakistani government.
“There is no hidden agenda and certainly no desire to interfere or intervene in any way in the political arrangements that are developing,” Negroponte said. “This suggestion that we expect Pakistan to carry out activities on our behalf and at our behest that are not in Pakistan’s interest is simply wrong,” he added.
Meanwhile, the White House has said that it expects continued cooperation between the US and Pakistan. But the number of people, who believed that Negroponte’s visit was an attempt to shore up the President Pervez Musharraf, was very big. If the words of these two men and the clarification thereof from the White House are anything to go by, Pakistan is bound to have a coalition future and the rest of the world, barring the US, can have a great sigh of relief that these impoverished people are finally seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Negroponte and Boucher had better leave the place and let the Pakistanis decide their destiny the same way they did with the elections. These men have no business there. When are these people going to understand that it is unfair to interfere in the internal affairs of others?
The presence of another senior state department official, Richard Boucher, has invited some protests among Pakistanis on their belief that these people are hovering around Pakistan to undermine its natural course of democratic destiny, and there are some who claim that these officers have hidden agendas on anti-terrorism moves of the new government.
The apprehensions sound relevant because these men are around at a time when Gilani stands headed to lead a new coalition government. As the nation is slowly coming to terms with a new administrative order, the press is staying really vigilant, and some dailies have come up with editorials commenting on the ‘unsolicited’ nature of these officers. One of them described the US presence in Pak soil as “meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs”.
However, the two officials ruled out all apprehensions and criticisms and said that the visit was already planned two months ago. The purpose of the visit was to reaffirm the US’s support for the new Pakistani government.
“There is no hidden agenda and certainly no desire to interfere or intervene in any way in the political arrangements that are developing,” Negroponte said. “This suggestion that we expect Pakistan to carry out activities on our behalf and at our behest that are not in Pakistan’s interest is simply wrong,” he added.
Meanwhile, the White House has said that it expects continued cooperation between the US and Pakistan. But the number of people, who believed that Negroponte’s visit was an attempt to shore up the President Pervez Musharraf, was very big. If the words of these two men and the clarification thereof from the White House are anything to go by, Pakistan is bound to have a coalition future and the rest of the world, barring the US, can have a great sigh of relief that these impoverished people are finally seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Negroponte and Boucher had better leave the place and let the Pakistanis decide their destiny the same way they did with the elections. These men have no business there. When are these people going to understand that it is unfair to interfere in the internal affairs of others?
Cashing in on kids’ vacation is dangerous
Vaatupura A Jayaprakash
Where does a modern child suffer the most abuse from? Any idea? The English have a saying in this line: ‘there is virtually nothing that parents cannot do for their children”. Does it not sound good? Sure it does. But this saying has anther clause at the end. It is: “either good or bad”.
So, there is virtually nothing that parents cannot do for their children, either good or bad”. Again, where does a modern child suffer the most abuse from? You know by now. Yes, it is parents who pester their kids to do things they don’t want to. It is again parents who spoil their kids by stopping them from doing whatever they desperately want to do. These two propositions are equally dangerous.
As we are living in an age where everything is taken in terms of investment, educating the kids most cost-effectively and commercially viably is one of the biggest investment challenges faced by our nuclear parents. They go to any length to ensure that their kids get the best of education and, even if they find their otherwise brilliant kid become a moron engineer or an incorrigible doctor, not by any accident but by clear intent, the parents are not moved, neither are they able to perceive the danger it poses primarily to the child, secondly to the family, thirdly to the society and finally to the nation at large.
What all ways our parents adopt to achieve this fiat:
· It is studies all the way: from kindergarten to computer engineering. Students are supposed to study all the time.
· No play of any kind. If ever a child shows some inclination towards a game or a match or a leisure time activity, what the parents see is a catastrophe.
· Never meet or sit with pupils who are less privileged than thou. Socializing is taboo. Right to school and back to school bag and studies day in and day out is the regime.
· Short hours of the night are not meant for rejuvenating your body with a sound sleep. They are for bricking up the pillars of academic success.
· Kids ask for it, and parents have it for them no matter it is a two-wheeler for Rs. 50,000/- at the age of fifteen or an ATM card at the age of sixteen. Kids should never have any cares and worries. They are to make the life of their parents worth looked at enviously by the rest of the world.
· When the kid rams this two wheeler against a speeding lorry and ends up in four legs, the parents prove themselves again to be able to do anything to their kid, either good or bad. Forget it if a kid fires a few bullets at another.
· Today’s parents keep their kids fed (up) with any junk stuff that has an English or alien string attached even if the kid is going to swoon in the school assembly queue or collapse to death in an examination hall as result of this unhealthy food habit.
· Sun, rain, wind and mist are the most unhealthy of natural ‘discomforts’ our kids are exposed to and our parents keep their kids cocooned in, and they grow like broiler chicken. If the power fails for a couple of hours, you will find them either dead or worth culling.
· Running, walking, jumping up or down and falling in fours and threes and getting bruised, climbing trees and poking some fun up there, swimming down or upstream, playing in the mud or splashing in a rain-fed puddle, or getting wet in the rain or going cold in a winter evening are again unimaginable.
· The mother raises the kid and the cleaner of the school bus places it in a seat. In the evening, the cleaner raises the kid, and places it on the stretched hands of the waiting mother. In between these two times our kids are made to pick up the basics of what we call ‘the cutting edge’.
· When kids grow like this, we cannot expect them to be running or climbing up trees or stairs. If you read in the dailies that ‘engineering student got washed way, drowned to death, went missing, or even bitten by a stray dog’, don’t be surprised.
· Our kids know how to make money out of moth, but they do not know how to keep their breath in when they go under water or go up on a tree when a stray dog chases them.
· And come vacation, our kids are the worst affected. There is nothing called going to natal family, visiting friends, engaging in any kind of country games, sleeping for a few more hours, preparing for a personal interest, why should I say more, speaking the native language or showing some inherent signs of misbehavior or mischief. They are all anti-kid and are brutally shunned.
· And many of our kids grow into rogues of some rare orders. A few of them make it to the best of professional order, and the rest come to be called executors of crime and precipitators of many criminal tendencies.
· Snatching ornaments from unsuspecting women on the road, engaging in organized crimes like quotation work, donning some political clout and become a rogue politician, dealing in drugs or driving away stolen cars and two wheelers or taking pride in the worst forms of asocial activities like mafias.
· Our god’s own country has already become a perfect breeding ground for this rare breed of kids meticulously raised to meet the most severe test conditions. Another feather on the cap of those parents who prove again and again that there is nothing that they cannot do for their parents.
Summer vacation is round the corner. Vacation class industry has already started buying column centimeters in all major Dailies. These centres are out to catch them young and offer them the rare Midas touch in them in the long run. Private school managements and their precariously protected teachers have started hovering around families to grab the latest arrivals; infants and toddlers for future bookings. And our omnipotent parents are raking up their heads as how to find a better institution this time of the year so that their kids would make the best of hay when it shines in the long run. Where are our poor kids and their killing childhood liberties and interests going to end up in? Smoke!!!!!!
It is really difficult to be a kid. There was a time when kids were asked to live their life dangerously. Those times have gone. Now they are asked to live in perpetual dangers. These dangers include the ones pitted against them by their own parents.
Tailpiece: Summer vacation is to be made pressure-free for kids of all ages, and any effort, concerted or obvious, to make these two months tough for them, either by parents or by institutions, should be curtailed. The word ‘vacation’ includes a “vacat” in it. It needs to be defined as ‘vacate our kids from all their academic actions’. In the meantime, we need to include a lesson in our kids’ early curriculum elaborating on their own rights, privileges and responsibilities. It is this poor consciousness that makes our kids mere tools that help their parents fit themselves in the milieu they live in.
Where does a modern child suffer the most abuse from? Any idea? The English have a saying in this line: ‘there is virtually nothing that parents cannot do for their children”. Does it not sound good? Sure it does. But this saying has anther clause at the end. It is: “either good or bad”.
So, there is virtually nothing that parents cannot do for their children, either good or bad”. Again, where does a modern child suffer the most abuse from? You know by now. Yes, it is parents who pester their kids to do things they don’t want to. It is again parents who spoil their kids by stopping them from doing whatever they desperately want to do. These two propositions are equally dangerous.
As we are living in an age where everything is taken in terms of investment, educating the kids most cost-effectively and commercially viably is one of the biggest investment challenges faced by our nuclear parents. They go to any length to ensure that their kids get the best of education and, even if they find their otherwise brilliant kid become a moron engineer or an incorrigible doctor, not by any accident but by clear intent, the parents are not moved, neither are they able to perceive the danger it poses primarily to the child, secondly to the family, thirdly to the society and finally to the nation at large.
What all ways our parents adopt to achieve this fiat:
· It is studies all the way: from kindergarten to computer engineering. Students are supposed to study all the time.
· No play of any kind. If ever a child shows some inclination towards a game or a match or a leisure time activity, what the parents see is a catastrophe.
· Never meet or sit with pupils who are less privileged than thou. Socializing is taboo. Right to school and back to school bag and studies day in and day out is the regime.
· Short hours of the night are not meant for rejuvenating your body with a sound sleep. They are for bricking up the pillars of academic success.
· Kids ask for it, and parents have it for them no matter it is a two-wheeler for Rs. 50,000/- at the age of fifteen or an ATM card at the age of sixteen. Kids should never have any cares and worries. They are to make the life of their parents worth looked at enviously by the rest of the world.
· When the kid rams this two wheeler against a speeding lorry and ends up in four legs, the parents prove themselves again to be able to do anything to their kid, either good or bad. Forget it if a kid fires a few bullets at another.
· Today’s parents keep their kids fed (up) with any junk stuff that has an English or alien string attached even if the kid is going to swoon in the school assembly queue or collapse to death in an examination hall as result of this unhealthy food habit.
· Sun, rain, wind and mist are the most unhealthy of natural ‘discomforts’ our kids are exposed to and our parents keep their kids cocooned in, and they grow like broiler chicken. If the power fails for a couple of hours, you will find them either dead or worth culling.
· Running, walking, jumping up or down and falling in fours and threes and getting bruised, climbing trees and poking some fun up there, swimming down or upstream, playing in the mud or splashing in a rain-fed puddle, or getting wet in the rain or going cold in a winter evening are again unimaginable.
· The mother raises the kid and the cleaner of the school bus places it in a seat. In the evening, the cleaner raises the kid, and places it on the stretched hands of the waiting mother. In between these two times our kids are made to pick up the basics of what we call ‘the cutting edge’.
· When kids grow like this, we cannot expect them to be running or climbing up trees or stairs. If you read in the dailies that ‘engineering student got washed way, drowned to death, went missing, or even bitten by a stray dog’, don’t be surprised.
· Our kids know how to make money out of moth, but they do not know how to keep their breath in when they go under water or go up on a tree when a stray dog chases them.
· And come vacation, our kids are the worst affected. There is nothing called going to natal family, visiting friends, engaging in any kind of country games, sleeping for a few more hours, preparing for a personal interest, why should I say more, speaking the native language or showing some inherent signs of misbehavior or mischief. They are all anti-kid and are brutally shunned.
· And many of our kids grow into rogues of some rare orders. A few of them make it to the best of professional order, and the rest come to be called executors of crime and precipitators of many criminal tendencies.
· Snatching ornaments from unsuspecting women on the road, engaging in organized crimes like quotation work, donning some political clout and become a rogue politician, dealing in drugs or driving away stolen cars and two wheelers or taking pride in the worst forms of asocial activities like mafias.
· Our god’s own country has already become a perfect breeding ground for this rare breed of kids meticulously raised to meet the most severe test conditions. Another feather on the cap of those parents who prove again and again that there is nothing that they cannot do for their parents.
Summer vacation is round the corner. Vacation class industry has already started buying column centimeters in all major Dailies. These centres are out to catch them young and offer them the rare Midas touch in them in the long run. Private school managements and their precariously protected teachers have started hovering around families to grab the latest arrivals; infants and toddlers for future bookings. And our omnipotent parents are raking up their heads as how to find a better institution this time of the year so that their kids would make the best of hay when it shines in the long run. Where are our poor kids and their killing childhood liberties and interests going to end up in? Smoke!!!!!!
It is really difficult to be a kid. There was a time when kids were asked to live their life dangerously. Those times have gone. Now they are asked to live in perpetual dangers. These dangers include the ones pitted against them by their own parents.
Tailpiece: Summer vacation is to be made pressure-free for kids of all ages, and any effort, concerted or obvious, to make these two months tough for them, either by parents or by institutions, should be curtailed. The word ‘vacation’ includes a “vacat” in it. It needs to be defined as ‘vacate our kids from all their academic actions’. In the meantime, we need to include a lesson in our kids’ early curriculum elaborating on their own rights, privileges and responsibilities. It is this poor consciousness that makes our kids mere tools that help their parents fit themselves in the milieu they live in.
The presence of two US Officials irk Pakistanis
Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash
It seems that reason has started prevailing over rhetoric in the US, because the Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte’s response to a query that the US was dictating antiterrorism policy to Pakistan’s new government sounded so. He said that the US had no plan to interfere in the policy matters of the newly born government in Pakistan. It is more so when it comes to policies on anti-terrorism. Well and good. But not many in Pakistan are going to buy these words as they are very much aware of these men for long.
The presence of another Senior State Department official Richard Boucher has invited some protests among Pakistanis on their belief that these people are hovering around Pakistan to undermine its natural course of democratic destiny, and there are some who claim that these officers have hidden agendas on anti-terrorism moves of the new government.
The apprehensions sound relevant because these men are around at a time when Mr. Gilani stands headed to lead a new coalition government. As the nation is slowly coming to terms with a new administrative order, the press is staying really vigilant, and some Dailies have come up with editorials commenting on the “unsolicited” nature of these officers. One of them described the US presence in Pak soil as, “meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs”.
However, the two officials ruled out all apprehensions and criticisms and said that the visit was planned two months ago. The purpose of the visit was to reaffirm US support for the new Pakistani government.
"There was no hidden agenda and certainly no desire to interfere or intervene in any way in the political arrangements that are developing," Negroponte said. "This suggestion that somehow we expect Pakistan to carry out activities, on our behalf and at our behest, that are not in Pakistan's interest is simply wrong."
Meanwhile, the White House has said that it expects continued cooperation between the US and Pakistan. But the number of people who believed that Mr. Negroponte's visit was an attempt to shore up President Pervez Musharraf was very big. If the words of these two men and the clarification thereof from the white house are anything to go by, Pakistan is bound to have a coalition future and the rest of the world, barring the US, can have a great sigh of relief that these impoverished people are finally seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Mr. John Negroponte and Mr. Richard Boucher had better leave the place and let the Pakistanis decide their destiny the same way they did with elections. These men have no business there. When are these people going to understand that it is unfair to interfere in the internal affairs of others? May reason prevail over rhetoric?
It seems that reason has started prevailing over rhetoric in the US, because the Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte’s response to a query that the US was dictating antiterrorism policy to Pakistan’s new government sounded so. He said that the US had no plan to interfere in the policy matters of the newly born government in Pakistan. It is more so when it comes to policies on anti-terrorism. Well and good. But not many in Pakistan are going to buy these words as they are very much aware of these men for long.
The presence of another Senior State Department official Richard Boucher has invited some protests among Pakistanis on their belief that these people are hovering around Pakistan to undermine its natural course of democratic destiny, and there are some who claim that these officers have hidden agendas on anti-terrorism moves of the new government.
The apprehensions sound relevant because these men are around at a time when Mr. Gilani stands headed to lead a new coalition government. As the nation is slowly coming to terms with a new administrative order, the press is staying really vigilant, and some Dailies have come up with editorials commenting on the “unsolicited” nature of these officers. One of them described the US presence in Pak soil as, “meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs”.
However, the two officials ruled out all apprehensions and criticisms and said that the visit was planned two months ago. The purpose of the visit was to reaffirm US support for the new Pakistani government.
"There was no hidden agenda and certainly no desire to interfere or intervene in any way in the political arrangements that are developing," Negroponte said. "This suggestion that somehow we expect Pakistan to carry out activities, on our behalf and at our behest, that are not in Pakistan's interest is simply wrong."
Meanwhile, the White House has said that it expects continued cooperation between the US and Pakistan. But the number of people who believed that Mr. Negroponte's visit was an attempt to shore up President Pervez Musharraf was very big. If the words of these two men and the clarification thereof from the white house are anything to go by, Pakistan is bound to have a coalition future and the rest of the world, barring the US, can have a great sigh of relief that these impoverished people are finally seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Mr. John Negroponte and Mr. Richard Boucher had better leave the place and let the Pakistanis decide their destiny the same way they did with elections. These men have no business there. When are these people going to understand that it is unfair to interfere in the internal affairs of others? May reason prevail over rhetoric?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Globalutilisation, food and food culture
A. Jayaprakash
“Globalization, in simpler terms means, global utilization; utilization of resources and services, no matter whose resources and what way one is utilizing them”.
Globalization has opened up innumerable avenues for making our life more comfortable and convenient. It is by way of exchange of markets, services, products, conveniences, technology, and opportunities that these days take a seemingly healthy and buoyant look. Of course, food is also a component that makes our life more comfortable and enjoyable. Are these exotic dishes that we devour every day going to let us enjoy this already comfortable life for long? It is a disturbing question indeed. If we look at the statistics on life style diseases, the answer to the above question is a resounding negative.
Since countries keep their borders open for commercial interaction, international food chains like Kentucky, MacDonald, Pizza and their domestic variants have started operating in the third world countries. These companies are but subsidiaries of a global capital culture and their aim is nothing but ‘capitalizing.’ They don’t look into the long-term effects of promoting an unhealthy food culture in countries such as India. They invest huge amounts in the market with a clear eye on profit, and in that pursuit, there is no room for social commitment, obligation of anything like that. Globalization in simpler terms means global utilization, utilization of resources and services, no matter whose resources and what way is one utilizing them.
Life is getting busier every passing day and time is in short supply. The number of people who relate time in terms of money is increasing and we do not have to talk about spending hours in the kitchen cooking age-old traditional dishes. The market outside our kitchens is full of eateries, restaurants, hotels, drive-ins and eat-outs. Their mouth-watering culinary creations are much more than what is needed to stop our kitchens from smoking. People, irrespective of age, are much better and cozy with tastes dished and spooned out by these outlets than with any oft-quoted delicacy we find in our tourism promotion brochures. When our dishes win foreign currency by way of tourism, a junk food culture silently, like a killer disease, eats away the very fabric of our culinary heritage. .
Our children don’t learn anything from their mothers’ hands. Our kitchens don’t smell food at all and, above all, our small kids don’t come around our dining tables. Rather they sit in front of the TV eating chips, choco-bars, wafers, lays and kur kureis. A burger with a cola, a Kentucky with a little sauce, a pizza followed by what it takes with it is more prestigious and image-promoting than a cuppa and meen curry or idli and chutni or dosa and sambar. This is a state of mind that has been created by these international food peddlers. We are addicted, addicted chronically to additives and taste boosters.
What would happen to our culinary boasts like Meen curry, Olan, Kaalan, Aviyal, Sambar and rasam after a few years? Are they going to be seen as specials only during Onams and Sankranthis or are we going to customize them for occasions like marriages and similar social functions? Our food culture is dying out of hunger, hunger for healthy habits. We are dying of more and more filling foods. Our Puttu, Appam, Idiyappam, Paper/Nei/Masaala and Onion Dosas are fast becoming Indian kitchen museum pieces. Yes, there is a positive side to it. We can market them by creating a new tourism genre called kitchen and culinary tourism. We may display our three-piece ovens, shell spoons and spatulas, earthen dishes and cups, pans and potteries and why not our chinaware, chimney sills and exhaust holes.
Consumerism takes a new avatar in this food scenario. Supermarkets are showcasing tinned, frozen, packed, cooked, semi-cooked, processed and ready-to-serve food items in large varieties and quantities and these difficult-not-to-buy food packs are helping housewives save plenty of time in their life. This lease of time unfortunately is now being wasted in front of the TVs watching programmes sponsored by these multinational food giants. It is TV commercials we watch more than TV programmes. This leads to what we call sedentary lifestyle diseases.
This avatar of modern commerce takes the life, culture and the healthy eating habits of our country by making us believe that we cannot live without their products. How about our products? They are desis. So they lack colour, prestige and value. We don’t produce. We don’t promote. We simply consume our own health and healthy eating habits, and we prestigiously end up in corporate healthcare facilities. There is a saying, ‘you are what you eat’. And now we are what we eat. Junk. A little food for thought is here for all I believe. jaypeesukhakm@gmail.com
“Globalization, in simpler terms means, global utilization; utilization of resources and services, no matter whose resources and what way one is utilizing them”.
Globalization has opened up innumerable avenues for making our life more comfortable and convenient. It is by way of exchange of markets, services, products, conveniences, technology, and opportunities that these days take a seemingly healthy and buoyant look. Of course, food is also a component that makes our life more comfortable and enjoyable. Are these exotic dishes that we devour every day going to let us enjoy this already comfortable life for long? It is a disturbing question indeed. If we look at the statistics on life style diseases, the answer to the above question is a resounding negative.
Since countries keep their borders open for commercial interaction, international food chains like Kentucky, MacDonald, Pizza and their domestic variants have started operating in the third world countries. These companies are but subsidiaries of a global capital culture and their aim is nothing but ‘capitalizing.’ They don’t look into the long-term effects of promoting an unhealthy food culture in countries such as India. They invest huge amounts in the market with a clear eye on profit, and in that pursuit, there is no room for social commitment, obligation of anything like that. Globalization in simpler terms means global utilization, utilization of resources and services, no matter whose resources and what way is one utilizing them.
Life is getting busier every passing day and time is in short supply. The number of people who relate time in terms of money is increasing and we do not have to talk about spending hours in the kitchen cooking age-old traditional dishes. The market outside our kitchens is full of eateries, restaurants, hotels, drive-ins and eat-outs. Their mouth-watering culinary creations are much more than what is needed to stop our kitchens from smoking. People, irrespective of age, are much better and cozy with tastes dished and spooned out by these outlets than with any oft-quoted delicacy we find in our tourism promotion brochures. When our dishes win foreign currency by way of tourism, a junk food culture silently, like a killer disease, eats away the very fabric of our culinary heritage. .
Our children don’t learn anything from their mothers’ hands. Our kitchens don’t smell food at all and, above all, our small kids don’t come around our dining tables. Rather they sit in front of the TV eating chips, choco-bars, wafers, lays and kur kureis. A burger with a cola, a Kentucky with a little sauce, a pizza followed by what it takes with it is more prestigious and image-promoting than a cuppa and meen curry or idli and chutni or dosa and sambar. This is a state of mind that has been created by these international food peddlers. We are addicted, addicted chronically to additives and taste boosters.
What would happen to our culinary boasts like Meen curry, Olan, Kaalan, Aviyal, Sambar and rasam after a few years? Are they going to be seen as specials only during Onams and Sankranthis or are we going to customize them for occasions like marriages and similar social functions? Our food culture is dying out of hunger, hunger for healthy habits. We are dying of more and more filling foods. Our Puttu, Appam, Idiyappam, Paper/Nei/Masaala and Onion Dosas are fast becoming Indian kitchen museum pieces. Yes, there is a positive side to it. We can market them by creating a new tourism genre called kitchen and culinary tourism. We may display our three-piece ovens, shell spoons and spatulas, earthen dishes and cups, pans and potteries and why not our chinaware, chimney sills and exhaust holes.
Consumerism takes a new avatar in this food scenario. Supermarkets are showcasing tinned, frozen, packed, cooked, semi-cooked, processed and ready-to-serve food items in large varieties and quantities and these difficult-not-to-buy food packs are helping housewives save plenty of time in their life. This lease of time unfortunately is now being wasted in front of the TVs watching programmes sponsored by these multinational food giants. It is TV commercials we watch more than TV programmes. This leads to what we call sedentary lifestyle diseases.
This avatar of modern commerce takes the life, culture and the healthy eating habits of our country by making us believe that we cannot live without their products. How about our products? They are desis. So they lack colour, prestige and value. We don’t produce. We don’t promote. We simply consume our own health and healthy eating habits, and we prestigiously end up in corporate healthcare facilities. There is a saying, ‘you are what you eat’. And now we are what we eat. Junk. A little food for thought is here for all I believe. jaypeesukhakm@gmail.com
Ecological equilibrium: The Costa Rica example
Costa Rica was once known for beef and timber. These two were the biggest foreign currency earning resources. Costa Rica is now a tourism destination and the genre of tourism this small land of timber and livestock promotes is ecotourism.
How has this switch over come about? Was it political will? Or it was innovative and extraordinary thinking? Or it is out of sheer opportunity that Cost Rica got out of serendipity? If that was so, what was that development?
It is reported that Costa Rica was thinking in innovative lines as to make their people participate in all their nation building affairs regardless of their being educated or intelligent, rich or poor, or modern or aboriginal. Yes, Cost Rica has very wisely and widely made use of their resources, both natural and human, alike in such a way as to make the government look people friendly and the contributions to the society, eco-economy friendly.
Here lies their success. And it is here we fail. Our bureaucracy is blasphemously hostile to the public initiatives, and our economy is a by product of a set of external forces: globalization, international trade, inflation, forex, FDI, stocks and stakes, currency appreciation and this index and that index. To Cost Rica their economy is a by-product of the people and their patriotism. The people are much more willed and patriotic than any other populace.
When the whole world suddenly woke up to realize the impacts of globalization, development, ecological imbalance, carbon emission, climate change, ozone depletion and the like, Costa Rica coolly realized the potential they had in their surroundings. When the whole developing world was protesting against the carbon emission caused by industrial giants, and the collective damage these giants caused to the whole world, Costa Rica stayed apart and looked around to find out what they could do to solve this problem. Since ecological balance is the only cure for this imminent environmental disaster, Costa Rica found a never-ever exhausting resource in the mountain ranges, timber farms, hill locks and lagoons.
Their innovative thinking in this line made them come up with the idea called ecosystem service. Ecosystem service is normally done by nature. When we depend on our nature in a natural way, the nature shows the generosity to keep the resources balanced. Nature has an inimitable mechanism to recycle things into resources. This has been going on for ages, and when man’s dependency crossed the level of nature’s natural ability to recycle, it started to react in the form of climate change, rising temperature, melting glaciers, fall in rainfall etc. for example, the amount of carbon emission is far beyond nature’s endurance, and nature is unable to recycle this much CO2 into Oxygen.
Cost Rica has been intelligent enough to understand this vicious circle, and Cost Ricans had been pondering over a solution to this. And finally they came up with a novel initiative: a participatory ecology maintenance endeavour in which any willing individual will be rewarded by cash if he/she is ready to protect certain area of ecology following the conditions stipulated by the State. The initiative was oversubscribed by people of all statuses, including tribal and aborigines.
The government announced that any individual land owner who has got minimum one hector of land and is willing to maintain it following the ecological standards set by the government will be given $60 per year as ecosystem cost. And the defined services for which this cost is paid are biodiversity, water, carbon sequestration and scenic beauty. And of course performance indicators are set and elaborate monitoring and assessment exercises are being periodically carried out. The result? Today, ecotourism is Costa Rica’s number one industry. Though this initiative cost the exchequer nearly 20 Million US Dollars per year, it is worth it. The revenue they generate via tourism is many times more than this.
Among those factors that have played key roles in achieving this goal, universalisation of education is the first and foremost. Other factors are: fall in the price of export items, impact of carbon trading, decentralization, commitment to financial incentives and a command and control state.
How far is the above innovative environment management system effective in our God’s own country, Kerala? Do we have enough individual land owners with not less than one hector of land? Do we have enough tourism spots that could be promoted on the basis ecological services? Do we not still have enough forest cover to keep our environment balanced or free from the shackles of global climatic fluctuations? Can our forests be protected without the participation of individuals? How many of us are conscious of the fact that there are innumerable number of eco-friendly business initiatives that could be promoted without the government’s intervention and investments? Are these ecosystem-service-related businesses not potential enough to bring in revenue, generate employment, protect the surroundings, and above all, keep the CO2 recycled and thereby maintain the most-oft-discussed ecological equilibrium? Here there is enough room for very serious thoughts and deliberations in this direction. jaypeesarefine@gmail.com
How has this switch over come about? Was it political will? Or it was innovative and extraordinary thinking? Or it is out of sheer opportunity that Cost Rica got out of serendipity? If that was so, what was that development?
It is reported that Costa Rica was thinking in innovative lines as to make their people participate in all their nation building affairs regardless of their being educated or intelligent, rich or poor, or modern or aboriginal. Yes, Cost Rica has very wisely and widely made use of their resources, both natural and human, alike in such a way as to make the government look people friendly and the contributions to the society, eco-economy friendly.
Here lies their success. And it is here we fail. Our bureaucracy is blasphemously hostile to the public initiatives, and our economy is a by product of a set of external forces: globalization, international trade, inflation, forex, FDI, stocks and stakes, currency appreciation and this index and that index. To Cost Rica their economy is a by-product of the people and their patriotism. The people are much more willed and patriotic than any other populace.
When the whole world suddenly woke up to realize the impacts of globalization, development, ecological imbalance, carbon emission, climate change, ozone depletion and the like, Costa Rica coolly realized the potential they had in their surroundings. When the whole developing world was protesting against the carbon emission caused by industrial giants, and the collective damage these giants caused to the whole world, Costa Rica stayed apart and looked around to find out what they could do to solve this problem. Since ecological balance is the only cure for this imminent environmental disaster, Costa Rica found a never-ever exhausting resource in the mountain ranges, timber farms, hill locks and lagoons.
Their innovative thinking in this line made them come up with the idea called ecosystem service. Ecosystem service is normally done by nature. When we depend on our nature in a natural way, the nature shows the generosity to keep the resources balanced. Nature has an inimitable mechanism to recycle things into resources. This has been going on for ages, and when man’s dependency crossed the level of nature’s natural ability to recycle, it started to react in the form of climate change, rising temperature, melting glaciers, fall in rainfall etc. for example, the amount of carbon emission is far beyond nature’s endurance, and nature is unable to recycle this much CO2 into Oxygen.
Cost Rica has been intelligent enough to understand this vicious circle, and Cost Ricans had been pondering over a solution to this. And finally they came up with a novel initiative: a participatory ecology maintenance endeavour in which any willing individual will be rewarded by cash if he/she is ready to protect certain area of ecology following the conditions stipulated by the State. The initiative was oversubscribed by people of all statuses, including tribal and aborigines.
The government announced that any individual land owner who has got minimum one hector of land and is willing to maintain it following the ecological standards set by the government will be given $60 per year as ecosystem cost. And the defined services for which this cost is paid are biodiversity, water, carbon sequestration and scenic beauty. And of course performance indicators are set and elaborate monitoring and assessment exercises are being periodically carried out. The result? Today, ecotourism is Costa Rica’s number one industry. Though this initiative cost the exchequer nearly 20 Million US Dollars per year, it is worth it. The revenue they generate via tourism is many times more than this.
Among those factors that have played key roles in achieving this goal, universalisation of education is the first and foremost. Other factors are: fall in the price of export items, impact of carbon trading, decentralization, commitment to financial incentives and a command and control state.
How far is the above innovative environment management system effective in our God’s own country, Kerala? Do we have enough individual land owners with not less than one hector of land? Do we have enough tourism spots that could be promoted on the basis ecological services? Do we not still have enough forest cover to keep our environment balanced or free from the shackles of global climatic fluctuations? Can our forests be protected without the participation of individuals? How many of us are conscious of the fact that there are innumerable number of eco-friendly business initiatives that could be promoted without the government’s intervention and investments? Are these ecosystem-service-related businesses not potential enough to bring in revenue, generate employment, protect the surroundings, and above all, keep the CO2 recycled and thereby maintain the most-oft-discussed ecological equilibrium? Here there is enough room for very serious thoughts and deliberations in this direction. jaypeesarefine@gmail.com
It's snowing all over here
It’s snowing all over here
It is snowing all over here,
Like a bare bed down the moonlit skies
At the short hours of the night, I lie,
And upon me they go on tapping;
the little drops of your snowy skin.
It’s snowing here all over me again,
As if you do, when we are out loving.
It’s great that they come again,
Leaving the grounds of my senses bare.
I get my senses up when they get by my skin.
Away I go, again I come, away I go again.
Our days are different but for their makes.
Know, love, ‘we go like these falling drops’
Come, fall upon and shatter into dribbles of love.
Let’s get abandoned ourselves deep in our move.
These times, unlike other times, are faster, dear.
And the day is about to break; come, let’s shatter.
It’s snowing and my mind is going free.
A beautiful melody I hear in between.
Is it the reveling of that dribbling spree?
Or of that fight which I get thinking of thee?
It is snowing all over here,
Like a bare bed down the moonlit skies
At the short hours of the night, I lie,
And upon me they go on tapping;
the little drops of your snowy skin.
It’s snowing here all over me again,
As if you do, when we are out loving.
It’s great that they come again,
Leaving the grounds of my senses bare.
I get my senses up when they get by my skin.
Away I go, again I come, away I go again.
Our days are different but for their makes.
Know, love, ‘we go like these falling drops’
Come, fall upon and shatter into dribbles of love.
Let’s get abandoned ourselves deep in our move.
These times, unlike other times, are faster, dear.
And the day is about to break; come, let’s shatter.
It’s snowing and my mind is going free.
A beautiful melody I hear in between.
Is it the reveling of that dribbling spree?
Or of that fight which I get thinking of thee?
A tribute to Amitha Nair
A tribute to Amitha Nair
I have never known this flowerlike girl
Never have I bothered of those two-wheeler invitations.
For, this mobility is nothing short of menace
Parents are at times pitiless sinners.
What is this concept called God
Which oversaw this fall, fall of dame of 19
At a premises where He should have stayed away
For, campuses are the consummation of Eden?
My eyes broke once again and sent tributaries.
When columns read the news
I fell unsettled; my jaws tighten
I feel that I have known
this girl for all her years nineteen.
What death denies is not life alone
Death denies all doctrines.
When death claimed her brain,
her heart and vision longed to live.
That self, who wouldn’t love?
that truth, near ones will never believe.
Amitha, I love you dear, from this day and on.
Amita Nair, the girl who got killed in an in-campus bike accident at engineering college Trivandrum
I have never known this flowerlike girl
Never have I bothered of those two-wheeler invitations.
For, this mobility is nothing short of menace
Parents are at times pitiless sinners.
What is this concept called God
Which oversaw this fall, fall of dame of 19
At a premises where He should have stayed away
For, campuses are the consummation of Eden?
My eyes broke once again and sent tributaries.
When columns read the news
I fell unsettled; my jaws tighten
I feel that I have known
this girl for all her years nineteen.
What death denies is not life alone
Death denies all doctrines.
When death claimed her brain,
her heart and vision longed to live.
That self, who wouldn’t love?
that truth, near ones will never believe.
Amitha, I love you dear, from this day and on.
Amita Nair, the girl who got killed in an in-campus bike accident at engineering college Trivandrum
The sound of December
The sound of December
The sound of December sun
Sends silence in everyone.
Taps of December nights shake
Beds, bedding and blankets alike.
Half-closed eyes see through the ears
Every move is wanton.
Never will I miss these nights again.
For I have another psyche who is one such.
King is being extolled
Kindness sheds light over shadows
Might be, these days make
Dumbs sing and blinds see.
Nearly a thousand December
Dichotomously stood.
This one leaves a benchmark,
But for whom the love we all make?
The loving always get loved
The loved often leaves a divide.
The divided only unite,
‘The united’ today get ‘still’ united.
This age seems proving again, “the god is the heavens
Everything is right with this world”*.
It irks to believe in this age where
Rights wronged and wrongs, you know.
Who hasn’t got something for something?
Freely we all get this or that. Feel free in giving.
A good world it will turn out to be when we give
Inadequate it seems, years two thousand,
For us all to do the reverse.
I feel the best in me when I give.
If a wheel is not free-moving
It’s but a wheel of suffering.
We suffer a lot
for what we have got.
But, ‘I do have things to give out’
is the best of words to listen to.
*Bible centred thought I treated. I don’t know when.
The sound of December sun
Sends silence in everyone.
Taps of December nights shake
Beds, bedding and blankets alike.
Half-closed eyes see through the ears
Every move is wanton.
Never will I miss these nights again.
For I have another psyche who is one such.
King is being extolled
Kindness sheds light over shadows
Might be, these days make
Dumbs sing and blinds see.
Nearly a thousand December
Dichotomously stood.
This one leaves a benchmark,
But for whom the love we all make?
The loving always get loved
The loved often leaves a divide.
The divided only unite,
‘The united’ today get ‘still’ united.
This age seems proving again, “the god is the heavens
Everything is right with this world”*.
It irks to believe in this age where
Rights wronged and wrongs, you know.
Who hasn’t got something for something?
Freely we all get this or that. Feel free in giving.
A good world it will turn out to be when we give
Inadequate it seems, years two thousand,
For us all to do the reverse.
I feel the best in me when I give.
If a wheel is not free-moving
It’s but a wheel of suffering.
We suffer a lot
for what we have got.
But, ‘I do have things to give out’
is the best of words to listen to.
*Bible centred thought I treated. I don’t know when.
THE OPULENCE OF BIENG ONE AND MOVING
THE OPULENCE OF BEING ONE AND MOVING.
Where shall we go this monsoon?
Dear, where shall we go this monsoon?
Places where monsoon slants
Places where monsoon bents
And places where monsoon beckons
Where all should we go, my mind sings.
Do you feel now the wealth of company,
the opulence of being one and moving?
What if we leave all our cares out in the rain
And look on from distance how do they fair?
Or let’s shed all our dislikes in the monsoon sleet
And stay bare knowing one another nothing?
Or what if I take you to a place of my dreams
Where I’d show you, like little babes,
My likes and dislikes going all over you.
And in your search for you, ending up nowhere
but in you where you are not much more than me.
Now do you feel the wealth of company?
The opulence of being one and moving
Is the love I’d like you to be having?
Where shall we go this monsoon?
Dear, where shall we go this monsoon?
Places where monsoon slants
Places where monsoon bents
And places where monsoon beckons
Where all should we go, my mind sings.
Do you feel now the wealth of company,
the opulence of being one and moving?
What if we leave all our cares out in the rain
And look on from distance how do they fair?
Or let’s shed all our dislikes in the monsoon sleet
And stay bare knowing one another nothing?
Or what if I take you to a place of my dreams
Where I’d show you, like little babes,
My likes and dislikes going all over you.
And in your search for you, ending up nowhere
but in you where you are not much more than me.
Now do you feel the wealth of company?
The opulence of being one and moving
Is the love I’d like you to be having?
NEGATIVE HAS A NAME
Negative has a name.
Negative has a name.
The same way
all things around
do have theirs.
That which stands
Is that which falls
The things that fall
Never get the same stand.
I just don’t understand
Why things are round.
The very meaning of these days
Is not that flat.
All things and beings that get made
Are through circles and friction
You call it the other way round.
Sorry to say, it is but friction.
The thing that gets in between the ins.
The so-called morality.
Negative has a name.
The same way
all things around
do have theirs.
That which stands
Is that which falls
The things that fall
Never get the same stand.
I just don’t understand
Why things are round.
The very meaning of these days
Is not that flat.
All things and beings that get made
Are through circles and friction
You call it the other way round.
Sorry to say, it is but friction.
The thing that gets in between the ins.
The so-called morality.
WISH (U)
WISH’U’
Let me be a little more I am
In this lovely morning one
As flowers, fruits, flames and fumes,
……. divine forms and ‘figurines’ ….
A vision of wealth and affluence, make.
Let me be like a flowering branch
Yellow, green, buds and ‘blowns’.
Be a babe beneath the shade, try and reach,
..….your smiles and those ‘milds’….
its frames as our love wish-like blows.
While we find our fortunes reflect on them
Are not flowers the musings of Gods?
When we stay thus with oodles of prayers,
…..their echo, sound and repeat…..
Let me, let me be a little more I am.
Let me be a little more I am
In this lovely morning one
As flowers, fruits, flames and fumes,
……. divine forms and ‘figurines’ ….
A vision of wealth and affluence, make.
Let me be like a flowering branch
Yellow, green, buds and ‘blowns’.
Be a babe beneath the shade, try and reach,
..….your smiles and those ‘milds’….
its frames as our love wish-like blows.
While we find our fortunes reflect on them
Are not flowers the musings of Gods?
When we stay thus with oodles of prayers,
…..their echo, sound and repeat…..
Let me, let me be a little more I am.
The colour of affluance
The Colour o Affluence
This flowering is really painful.
Philosophically she bares herself
And puts on a cover, transparent.
I feel like closing my eyes at ‘hers’.
The mood she made in me was mild
Like gold and its lenient luxuries.
Why is there no leaf or a little shade
To be put on her here and there?
I feel shy seeing her clad only in gold.
What else has she ever had to bare?
But this, ‘that I have nothing to hide’
What is bare, you know, is beautiful.
The Vis(hu)ion of this tree makes all eyes glow;
and all the ones who try to frame her ‘Yellow’,
blissfully happen to ask, out of pure innocence;
What, y’know, what’s the colour of affluence?
She sheds it like still-minted coins of all dimensions.
*Vishu is a festival of the Hindus, and during this period a tree with yellow followers blooms herself all over leaving no leaves on her but only flowers. This flower is a sign of wealth and prosperity for the upcoming year. This tree paints all streets yellow and makes the whole state go gold.
This flowering is really painful.
Philosophically she bares herself
And puts on a cover, transparent.
I feel like closing my eyes at ‘hers’.
The mood she made in me was mild
Like gold and its lenient luxuries.
Why is there no leaf or a little shade
To be put on her here and there?
I feel shy seeing her clad only in gold.
What else has she ever had to bare?
But this, ‘that I have nothing to hide’
What is bare, you know, is beautiful.
The Vis(hu)ion of this tree makes all eyes glow;
and all the ones who try to frame her ‘Yellow’,
blissfully happen to ask, out of pure innocence;
What, y’know, what’s the colour of affluence?
She sheds it like still-minted coins of all dimensions.
*Vishu is a festival of the Hindus, and during this period a tree with yellow followers blooms herself all over leaving no leaves on her but only flowers. This flower is a sign of wealth and prosperity for the upcoming year. This tree paints all streets yellow and makes the whole state go gold.
I understand
I Understand
Looking deep in me these days
I understand that I’m different.
The difference now I understand
Has been in me ever, ever since.
Why I took this long to wade away
The pall of similar and the familiar?
This sense of difference I feel in me
Is the diminishing of margin I have.
I tutor me - a little naughty toddler-
And give lessons and reasons better.
He in his turn goes calm and cooler
As never before he knew it anymore.
When I understand a thing or two,
New and becoming, I understand me.
When I let one do it-a thing or two
New and becoming, I understand me.
None is different unless one understands.
What one understands is one’s difference.
Looking deep in me these days
I understand that I’m different.
The difference now I understand
Has been in me ever, ever since.
Why I took this long to wade away
The pall of similar and the familiar?
This sense of difference I feel in me
Is the diminishing of margin I have.
I tutor me - a little naughty toddler-
And give lessons and reasons better.
He in his turn goes calm and cooler
As never before he knew it anymore.
When I understand a thing or two,
New and becoming, I understand me.
When I let one do it-a thing or two
New and becoming, I understand me.
None is different unless one understands.
What one understands is one’s difference.
A daybreak in a Jan.
A daybreak in a Jan.
Tup tap, tup tap, tup tap,
It’s here, it’s there,
It’s up above there
and down below here;
it’s where you are up.
Moon is making vain attempts
To press in mounts of fog and mist.
Day-call birds are up and out
The days of Jan are here about.
I crouch myself into a shroud
And keep my nose and eyes
Half-closed and soft- pressed
against my own reluctance.
It’s four or five or six or what?
Kill all those who venture out
Crying out their worries aloud.
This pass is for the ‘different’.
Rise and fall of hairs are heard.
Dreams are going un-chartered.
One and one go making one
When? Knows no one.
Bed and body go making
Venues and rendezvous.
What the different wake up with
Is but a blush of flesh and blood.
It’s four or five or six or what?
‘Kill all those who venture out
Crying out their worries aloud.
This pass is for the ‘different’.
Tup tap, tup tap, tup tap,
It’s here, it’s there,
It’s up above there
and down below here;
it’s where you are up.
Moon is making vain attempts
To press in mounts of fog and mist.
Day-call birds are up and out
The days of Jan are here about.
I crouch myself into a shroud
And keep my nose and eyes
Half-closed and soft- pressed
against my own reluctance.
It’s four or five or six or what?
Kill all those who venture out
Crying out their worries aloud.
This pass is for the ‘different’.
Rise and fall of hairs are heard.
Dreams are going un-chartered.
One and one go making one
When? Knows no one.
Bed and body go making
Venues and rendezvous.
What the different wake up with
Is but a blush of flesh and blood.
It’s four or five or six or what?
‘Kill all those who venture out
Crying out their worries aloud.
This pass is for the ‘different’.
Haikus on my love
Haikus on my love
I go pretty sure 1.
That ‘I am what I am’
Sitting by your side.
You know what I mean.
My heart is heard out 2.
My heat cools down.
I feel my inner peace
‘I’ve one lass of lore’.
Little I feel of me 3.
Light I go about
Eyes see things
They’ve never seen.
Limbs and fingers 4.
Feel like loitering
And go combing
All your hairs-through.
My face goes hiding 5.
Behind my feelings.
A veil of passion
Is what it soon puts on.
Ears ignite me. 6.
Fingers fine-tune.
Lips and tongues
Go lush and teasing.
Whiff of our breath 7.
Go like combing breeze
Down the grasslands
Of all our pastures.
Down my very face 8.
When I see yours
My eyes go damp.
Yes, your innocence.
When my face is pressed 9.
On your shoulders wide
I breathe the scent
Of all your inner current.
Legs look lovely 10.
Lush and long.
Bunch-like they brim
To burst open down.
Their fingers are buds 11.
Soft and moon drops.
I feel holding them
Like a sacred offering.
The wealthy blend of all 12.
Those buds and blossoms
Bents, winds, falls and shades
Beautiful to you, all and me.
Short hours send in me 13.
A sense of little sins.
Your frame and mine
Transcend to be one.
As if in tragedies 14.
We’ll go searching
And finding each other
We shall go breathtaking.
Marks and little linings 15.
We shall find ourselves
And deep in us as well
They’d go demarcating.
You lap up me today 16.
and in all our coming days.
Let’s be our own babies:
Press; and let me press thee.
Caress me in the cradle 17.
Of your coziness.
Let’s create a lovely locale
Where in we’re bed and bedded.
Again and again 18.
We shall wake up.
Top and deep and bottom
We’d feel, yes, we own up.
When we go hand in hand 19.
In the morn, noon and even,
Let’s take a little lavishes
As to make us both love and loved.
Let there not be yesterdays 20.
Let there not be day-befores
We’ll have only days always
The one today and tomorrows.
No more is yours 21.
No more is mine
Mine is yours
And yours mine.
Let me feel, ‘I like things’ 22.
That my love too likes.
You may go on liking
Whatever you feel “liking”
When I ask you a little 23.
Give me whatever you’ve.
When you need me a little
Free. You grab me per se.
Once or twice 24.
you go cross.
Then and there
You’d find me lost.
Not that we’d be happy-go 25.
But that we’d be happy.
It’s is in the make of ours
If we’re one or the other.
When we see things 26.
That we love most,
Let’s look at our faces
And smile, ‘that we love’.
Leave our fingers 27.
Touch down softly,
Like flower and bee,
On each other’s tastes.
When I ask you 28.
‘One more time’,
Just go giving me
A hundred times.
Let’s stay glued 29.
Like two bubbles.
One’s will to be out
Would make the other go out.
When we both wait for; 30.
No matter who is out,
Let’s wait like lost loves
‘they’re sure to come back’.
When one of us sends 31.
the other one off and afar,
Shalln’t we say goodbye
And simply cry?
When one of us is back 32.
Say, after a day or so,
The other is also back,
Yes, a couple of days or so.
How do you feel 33.
When I take leave?
I don’t know for sure.
Let’s feel when we leave.
Is there anything routine? 34.
Is there something we hate?
If ever we find ourselves so,
Isn’t it good to make amends?
Let’s be ourselves 35.
Head on and going.
This and that ways
Make our ways hard.
When I do things 36.
See, you’re being made.
When you do things
Let me be the same.
Leave my face embossed 37.
on your, know where and what?
In me your pleasures may find
Grasslands to ply and hop around.
Legs and limbs may make 40.
Lean-overs and pillows alike.
And upon them we both
Find ourselves left loose.
All your hairs are mine 41.
Nowhere you have one.
They all grow fired to me
And to my killing desires.
Intentions are fine, dear 42.
Believe me, I mean.
I wish not to go too far
Unless you let me in.
When you let me do 43.
I’d go doing great.
When I let you love
D’you feel go doing?
All my greed is but 44.
The greed of my make.
Never, will you find in me
One you ever love to hate.
What I find in you 45.
Is the fruit of all my days
HE has bestowed on me
Taking all my trying times.
Your way back to me 47.
Is HIS will, I believe.
I had no other way out
Till you did come back.
A picture of me, otherwise? 48.
I shudder to make a rewind.
Gutter or gully I would find?
Sorry, dear, I am all tears.
That ‘you are back in me’ 49.
Is a sacred religion, I feel.
I simply recite and worship
The words and deeds of thee.
What shall I call you with? 50.
A name or a new habit?
What are you happy with,
My name or your mischief?
Interface
Where have you been all these years? 51.
Where, where, have you dear been?
Know, I’ve been shedding my days?
Do you know I’ve been shedding?
I go pretty sure 1.
That ‘I am what I am’
Sitting by your side.
You know what I mean.
My heart is heard out 2.
My heat cools down.
I feel my inner peace
‘I’ve one lass of lore’.
Little I feel of me 3.
Light I go about
Eyes see things
They’ve never seen.
Limbs and fingers 4.
Feel like loitering
And go combing
All your hairs-through.
My face goes hiding 5.
Behind my feelings.
A veil of passion
Is what it soon puts on.
Ears ignite me. 6.
Fingers fine-tune.
Lips and tongues
Go lush and teasing.
Whiff of our breath 7.
Go like combing breeze
Down the grasslands
Of all our pastures.
Down my very face 8.
When I see yours
My eyes go damp.
Yes, your innocence.
When my face is pressed 9.
On your shoulders wide
I breathe the scent
Of all your inner current.
Legs look lovely 10.
Lush and long.
Bunch-like they brim
To burst open down.
Their fingers are buds 11.
Soft and moon drops.
I feel holding them
Like a sacred offering.
The wealthy blend of all 12.
Those buds and blossoms
Bents, winds, falls and shades
Beautiful to you, all and me.
Short hours send in me 13.
A sense of little sins.
Your frame and mine
Transcend to be one.
As if in tragedies 14.
We’ll go searching
And finding each other
We shall go breathtaking.
Marks and little linings 15.
We shall find ourselves
And deep in us as well
They’d go demarcating.
You lap up me today 16.
and in all our coming days.
Let’s be our own babies:
Press; and let me press thee.
Caress me in the cradle 17.
Of your coziness.
Let’s create a lovely locale
Where in we’re bed and bedded.
Again and again 18.
We shall wake up.
Top and deep and bottom
We’d feel, yes, we own up.
When we go hand in hand 19.
In the morn, noon and even,
Let’s take a little lavishes
As to make us both love and loved.
Let there not be yesterdays 20.
Let there not be day-befores
We’ll have only days always
The one today and tomorrows.
No more is yours 21.
No more is mine
Mine is yours
And yours mine.
Let me feel, ‘I like things’ 22.
That my love too likes.
You may go on liking
Whatever you feel “liking”
When I ask you a little 23.
Give me whatever you’ve.
When you need me a little
Free. You grab me per se.
Once or twice 24.
you go cross.
Then and there
You’d find me lost.
Not that we’d be happy-go 25.
But that we’d be happy.
It’s is in the make of ours
If we’re one or the other.
When we see things 26.
That we love most,
Let’s look at our faces
And smile, ‘that we love’.
Leave our fingers 27.
Touch down softly,
Like flower and bee,
On each other’s tastes.
When I ask you 28.
‘One more time’,
Just go giving me
A hundred times.
Let’s stay glued 29.
Like two bubbles.
One’s will to be out
Would make the other go out.
When we both wait for; 30.
No matter who is out,
Let’s wait like lost loves
‘they’re sure to come back’.
When one of us sends 31.
the other one off and afar,
Shalln’t we say goodbye
And simply cry?
When one of us is back 32.
Say, after a day or so,
The other is also back,
Yes, a couple of days or so.
How do you feel 33.
When I take leave?
I don’t know for sure.
Let’s feel when we leave.
Is there anything routine? 34.
Is there something we hate?
If ever we find ourselves so,
Isn’t it good to make amends?
Let’s be ourselves 35.
Head on and going.
This and that ways
Make our ways hard.
When I do things 36.
See, you’re being made.
When you do things
Let me be the same.
Leave my face embossed 37.
on your, know where and what?
In me your pleasures may find
Grasslands to ply and hop around.
Legs and limbs may make 40.
Lean-overs and pillows alike.
And upon them we both
Find ourselves left loose.
All your hairs are mine 41.
Nowhere you have one.
They all grow fired to me
And to my killing desires.
Intentions are fine, dear 42.
Believe me, I mean.
I wish not to go too far
Unless you let me in.
When you let me do 43.
I’d go doing great.
When I let you love
D’you feel go doing?
All my greed is but 44.
The greed of my make.
Never, will you find in me
One you ever love to hate.
What I find in you 45.
Is the fruit of all my days
HE has bestowed on me
Taking all my trying times.
Your way back to me 47.
Is HIS will, I believe.
I had no other way out
Till you did come back.
A picture of me, otherwise? 48.
I shudder to make a rewind.
Gutter or gully I would find?
Sorry, dear, I am all tears.
That ‘you are back in me’ 49.
Is a sacred religion, I feel.
I simply recite and worship
The words and deeds of thee.
What shall I call you with? 50.
A name or a new habit?
What are you happy with,
My name or your mischief?
Interface
Where have you been all these years? 51.
Where, where, have you dear been?
Know, I’ve been shedding my days?
Do you know I’ve been shedding?
It’s homecoming.
I feel-like going home;
What my new home is like?
What is there in
that I do not like?
I feel-like going home.
It’s in the rush of life
I go quiet.
In the presence of my likes
I am but a kid;
Put in the midst of opulence.
I don’t know what I have done
as not to be what I had been.
Could that be a kind of luck
Or some favours that come by chance?
This home homing could but be
A “come full circle”,
‘it has been a long way already
and you have no way to go pursuing’.
The way I have at hand
is but my new way home.
Must be. I believe so.
Even if it’s not,
still I love to believe so.
This homecoming is
What I have been after.
I did never pray,
nor did I complain.
What I did utmost was
‘I stayed constant’.
Again and again I asked,
“Do I do what I should?”
Or “I do things the way they come by?”
I don’t know why
some questions defy
Answers that look
Really very close by?
Now I feel,
when I feel like going home,
that it’s true to all.
No matter where you come from.
It’s home that makes you one.
It’s the same that gives you your room.
What my new home is like?
What is there in
that I do not like?
I feel-like going home.
It’s in the rush of life
I go quiet.
In the presence of my likes
I am but a kid;
Put in the midst of opulence.
I don’t know what I have done
as not to be what I had been.
Could that be a kind of luck
Or some favours that come by chance?
This home homing could but be
A “come full circle”,
‘it has been a long way already
and you have no way to go pursuing’.
The way I have at hand
is but my new way home.
Must be. I believe so.
Even if it’s not,
still I love to believe so.
This homecoming is
What I have been after.
I did never pray,
nor did I complain.
What I did utmost was
‘I stayed constant’.
Again and again I asked,
“Do I do what I should?”
Or “I do things the way they come by?”
I don’t know why
some questions defy
Answers that look
Really very close by?
Now I feel,
when I feel like going home,
that it’s true to all.
No matter where you come from.
It’s home that makes you one.
It’s the same that gives you your room.
Gender based representation, an antidote for corruption
‘Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts (men) absolutely’
INDIRA GANDHI, Pratibha Patil and Sonia Gandhi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh, Imelda Marcos in Philippines, Margaret Thatcher in the UK, Cristina Fernández in Latin America, Condoleezza Rice in the United States, and the list of women who have made history and news around the world is getting longer and longer. Coming back to India, we have got great number of women torch bearers who have been known for committed social work and work for the general good of the state.
KR Gowri, Jayalalithaa, Mamata Banerjee, Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharti, Sheela Dikshit, Ambika Soni and so goes the list of women who have made their marks as leaders and ministers. Though they can’t be called spotless when we look at the credentials of these women, they are all doing much more than what their male counterparts are doing in the name of politics, leadership and nation building.
Even after 60 years of independence, our nation is still vying hard to call itself a developed nation. We have immense resources but many a times our credibility as a nation gets questioned. In the list of most corrupt nations in the world, we have a not-so-low position. And it is this cancerous malady called corruption that eats the economy of this vibrant nation day in and day out.
How can we eradicate this scourge?
It is too ambitious to be thinking on these lines because we tend to sabotage any new social order if it has the least sign of involvement in our individual and personal life.
Still, I think it is fair to hope against hope that the time for this new order has come. I call it gender based representation from panchayats to the Parliament. Many may laugh at it and asking me, hey, where do you think you live? Washington DC? Because the bill for 33 per cent representation for women in the Lok Sabha is gathering dust in the shelves, and not many are optimistic that it would ever see the light of the day. Unless we wake up to the facts, we are going to be in this rut of corruption for ages.
It is not a matter of 33 or 43 per cent. It is a matter of genders and their due representation on the basis of sheer numbers. For example: imagine a panchayat that has 30,000 voters and out of these 30,000 voters, 18,000 are women and 12,000 are men (figures have been rounded up for convenience). Let us assume that, when democratically divided, the panchayat is supposed to have 10 seats, which is one seat (member) for every 3000 voters. So 18,000 thousands women will come to have 6 women representatives, and 12,000 male voters will have 4 male members. In a democratic set up, there is a big difference between 6 and 4. It may sound utopian in this country. But it is worth pursuing, as we are vociferously talking about women empowerment, freedom for female child, gender based discrimination and representation of the poor in the administrative spheres.
Let us see how these 6 female and 4 male members are going to contribute their shares of corruption in terms of power they come wield. We need not go for a study on this proposition. We do not have to be suspicious about the social and developmental contributions these female members are going to put in. Undoubtedly, we can say that these women in power would do much better than those men in power in terms of social harmony, health, general welfare, freedom and development.
Women are known for kindness, care and understanding. They listen to others and understand the basic problems of their own counterparts in the society because they themselves have experienced it. Women feel the pulse of their surroundings, and above all they are abler than men when it comes to translating authority into reality. And most of the societies in our country, women outnumber men, and this superior strength would make very big difference at the grassroot level as well as at the national level.
Gender based proportional representation holds the key to the evil called corruption. Women are clean in matters like money allocation and management. They have great skills in prioritising and identifying problems and solving them. They are god-fearing, cautious of the outcomes of their actions, and are better than men in maintaining a balanced lifestyle with almost no bad habits and association with unholy nexuses. Women who possess great administrative calibre manage millions of Indian families, but unfortunately they are made to confine themselves among the four walls of our culture-obsessed families dominated by male egos.
This has been their plight ever since our civilisation took shape, and we miserably failed to tap and channel the strengths and contributions of our women for the betterment of the nation right after independence. This nation would already have been a developed nation if we had the wisdom to understand that children of a family of two productive and working parents will get better life, health and education than those children who belong to families having only one earning parent.
It is not too late. The whole nation should come to terms with the fact that women are a force to reckon with, and no government can do justice to if a minority runs the majority. In a democracy, numbers hold the key. Whether it is in panchayat administration or in a village, sports club or administration, there should proportional representation based on gender. In multi party election eyewash, the party that gets elected holds the least number of votes as the sheer number of candidates chips away the majority of the votes and distributes those among many political, communal and regional interests. We must understand this miserable plight of modern multi party democracy, and especially men need to know that development cannot take place in a platform where due representation gets sabotaged and corruption rules the roost.
When more and more women show their men that they can run the show equally well or better than their counterparts, both the genders would come to a consensus which in turn may lead to a mutually benefiting social, national and world order. Let us hope and dream and strive towards the same. A completely corruption free society may not come to materialise, but a new order of corruption free representation will take shape.
Large number of women in power leads to smaller number of men in power. In other words, it leads to less corruption. ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts men absolutely’. Is gender based proportional representation not worth a try? It is. I am sure it is. Chak de India.
INDIRA GANDHI, Pratibha Patil and Sonia Gandhi in India, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh, Imelda Marcos in Philippines, Margaret Thatcher in the UK, Cristina Fernández in Latin America, Condoleezza Rice in the United States, and the list of women who have made history and news around the world is getting longer and longer. Coming back to India, we have got great number of women torch bearers who have been known for committed social work and work for the general good of the state.
KR Gowri, Jayalalithaa, Mamata Banerjee, Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharti, Sheela Dikshit, Ambika Soni and so goes the list of women who have made their marks as leaders and ministers. Though they can’t be called spotless when we look at the credentials of these women, they are all doing much more than what their male counterparts are doing in the name of politics, leadership and nation building.
Even after 60 years of independence, our nation is still vying hard to call itself a developed nation. We have immense resources but many a times our credibility as a nation gets questioned. In the list of most corrupt nations in the world, we have a not-so-low position. And it is this cancerous malady called corruption that eats the economy of this vibrant nation day in and day out.
How can we eradicate this scourge?
It is too ambitious to be thinking on these lines because we tend to sabotage any new social order if it has the least sign of involvement in our individual and personal life.
Still, I think it is fair to hope against hope that the time for this new order has come. I call it gender based representation from panchayats to the Parliament. Many may laugh at it and asking me, hey, where do you think you live? Washington DC? Because the bill for 33 per cent representation for women in the Lok Sabha is gathering dust in the shelves, and not many are optimistic that it would ever see the light of the day. Unless we wake up to the facts, we are going to be in this rut of corruption for ages.
It is not a matter of 33 or 43 per cent. It is a matter of genders and their due representation on the basis of sheer numbers. For example: imagine a panchayat that has 30,000 voters and out of these 30,000 voters, 18,000 are women and 12,000 are men (figures have been rounded up for convenience). Let us assume that, when democratically divided, the panchayat is supposed to have 10 seats, which is one seat (member) for every 3000 voters. So 18,000 thousands women will come to have 6 women representatives, and 12,000 male voters will have 4 male members. In a democratic set up, there is a big difference between 6 and 4. It may sound utopian in this country. But it is worth pursuing, as we are vociferously talking about women empowerment, freedom for female child, gender based discrimination and representation of the poor in the administrative spheres.
Let us see how these 6 female and 4 male members are going to contribute their shares of corruption in terms of power they come wield. We need not go for a study on this proposition. We do not have to be suspicious about the social and developmental contributions these female members are going to put in. Undoubtedly, we can say that these women in power would do much better than those men in power in terms of social harmony, health, general welfare, freedom and development.
Women are known for kindness, care and understanding. They listen to others and understand the basic problems of their own counterparts in the society because they themselves have experienced it. Women feel the pulse of their surroundings, and above all they are abler than men when it comes to translating authority into reality. And most of the societies in our country, women outnumber men, and this superior strength would make very big difference at the grassroot level as well as at the national level.
Gender based proportional representation holds the key to the evil called corruption. Women are clean in matters like money allocation and management. They have great skills in prioritising and identifying problems and solving them. They are god-fearing, cautious of the outcomes of their actions, and are better than men in maintaining a balanced lifestyle with almost no bad habits and association with unholy nexuses. Women who possess great administrative calibre manage millions of Indian families, but unfortunately they are made to confine themselves among the four walls of our culture-obsessed families dominated by male egos.
This has been their plight ever since our civilisation took shape, and we miserably failed to tap and channel the strengths and contributions of our women for the betterment of the nation right after independence. This nation would already have been a developed nation if we had the wisdom to understand that children of a family of two productive and working parents will get better life, health and education than those children who belong to families having only one earning parent.
It is not too late. The whole nation should come to terms with the fact that women are a force to reckon with, and no government can do justice to if a minority runs the majority. In a democracy, numbers hold the key. Whether it is in panchayat administration or in a village, sports club or administration, there should proportional representation based on gender. In multi party election eyewash, the party that gets elected holds the least number of votes as the sheer number of candidates chips away the majority of the votes and distributes those among many political, communal and regional interests. We must understand this miserable plight of modern multi party democracy, and especially men need to know that development cannot take place in a platform where due representation gets sabotaged and corruption rules the roost.
When more and more women show their men that they can run the show equally well or better than their counterparts, both the genders would come to a consensus which in turn may lead to a mutually benefiting social, national and world order. Let us hope and dream and strive towards the same. A completely corruption free society may not come to materialise, but a new order of corruption free representation will take shape.
Large number of women in power leads to smaller number of men in power. In other words, it leads to less corruption. ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts men absolutely’. Is gender based proportional representation not worth a try? It is. I am sure it is. Chak de India.
Who will tell the President, Bush?
THIS IS a huge question without any takers. Unfortunately, the world cannot afford to be complacent any more with this question and someone must take on this issue and tell the President of the United States. Otherwise, the world will become more and more vulnerable to blatant beliefs and capricious collusions that in turn would metamorphose into a heap of nuclear ashes. Is it a proposition worth ignoring in today’s world of mutual coexistence? I do not think so. Therefore, someone will have to tell George Bush at any cost.
We must tell Bush that what he terms as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are not found elsewhere in the world but in his own backyards. We may add that poor Iraq is as sovereign a nation as United States is, and Saddam Hussein was as honourable a leader as the President himself. We must tell the United States President that no national or rational leader would be respected if he is heard saying, “kill him”, referring to another leader, framed for possessing WMD.
Who is going to make Bush deviate into ordinary sense and understand that war breeds war, not peace? I think a three or four year old child, whose father is keeping peace in Iraq, will be the right person to tell this to him. Or a kid of that age who has lost his / her father, mother or sister or someone known to him or her, in Afghanistan or Iraq will carry out this mission impossible.
Troops pull out’ in military terms means, withdrawal of troops from the war front when they are no longer required there or they have done their job or when they have failed to do the desired job. This is normally done either en masse or in a phased manner. Unfortunately, the president has been telling the world that he is going to withdraw troops. At the same time, he is knocking at the doors of the Congress for more war funds. He even prepares more troops to be deployed in peacekeeping operations. Who will tell him that ‘troops withdrawal’ in plain English means calling the troops back and not ‘pumping more money and military in’?
The sheer size of the loss of troops in Iraq would make any military leader introspect or at least heed the words of thousands of families whose near and dear ones are on the war front fighting for something imaginary. Do these families need to tell their President every time they get information that there was an ambush, bomb blast, sabotage and suicide attack on United States marines?
Who can tell Bush that his own intelligence agency is able to undercut his own White House saying that Iran has not been pursuing nuclear programmes for the last four years? He must be told that a notion of war with Iran is better shelved and the president start doing something to save his and Dick Cheney’s face in the first place, and should stop imagining of getting other countries to team up against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Don’t you readers think that it is not fair for Bush to ask another president to explain why the latter defeated or defamed the former? With his own intelligence report in hand, which clears Iran off a much discussed Nuclear position, is it sensible for a president to cry out, “Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous.” “And, Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” “And, we are not going to change our position on Iran.” Somehow, we must tell the President that the whole world is laughing at him.
We forgot one thing. We must tell him that ‘if someone is not with the United States, that someone (let him be anyone) is with someone else in the world, and not necessarily with the enemy of the US’. This wisdom would have secured him a lot a PR mileage in the gallop polls. Unfortunately, Bush went vociferously describing everyone as enemies of the US.
It is the duty of every citizen of the to do something to stop terrorism, whether it is masterminded by Bin Laden or some other Al Qaeda stalwarts. Meanwhile, we must tell Bush that, ‘if an organisation is able to hijack a few flights with full complement of passengers and crash them against the twin towers of World Trade Centre, converting them into a Ground Zero, and pilot one of the planes to crash-land under very nose of Pentagon, certainly that organisation will have the common sense to harbour its leader, Bin Laden, somewhere safe.’ The President need not have gone for a ransacking operation in the mountain ranges of Afghanistan. It was foolish. We must tell the President that Bin Laden is an intelligent man.
Who is going to apprise the President of the fact that it is not his job to invent peace or reinstate democracy elsewhere in the world? When will he get to know that one nation, however big and powerful that may be, cannot keep on aiding and supporting and strengthening and safeguarding the interests of the rest of the world? This is to be told very urgently, because one of his colleagues the other day, at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, defended US aid to Pakistan and described Pakistan, ‘a key ally in the war on terror’.
As a writer I won’t be doing justice to my creed if I fail to tell the President that carbon emission, global warming, ozone depletion, climate change, melting ice caps, rising sea levels are very much real and scientifically proven.
I must add that it is this common sense that makes around 200 representatives from more than 190 countries around the world sit in Bali, Indonesia, to find ways and means to offset this crisis. I am confident that when these people meet the next time, there will be at least one member from the United States to address this life threatening problem caused more by the United States than by all these counties put together. I must tell him at any cost.
And finally we have to tell Bush that Indo US Nuclear deal involves two parties, India and US, and it is an option give to both parties either to decide in favour of it or against it. But he need not rack up his little brain and worry about Indian energy security and its nuclear and defence capabilities.
Yes, it has been long time since we started parading issues that we need to tell Bush. It has been so long that we need to remind him once again, else he may forget, the fact that Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares victory over the United States and other world powers in the dispute about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. And the United States intelligence report supports Iran’s assertion that its nuclear programme is for energy not weapons.
Who will tell him that the world has gone far ahead of his current tenure, and the new world order is going to be decided more by consensus and common sense than by United States and its intelligence? We must tell him.
It is extremely urgent to tell President Bush that it would be better he reads newspaper reports to understand how his intelligence agency works.
A leading American newspaper reports the United States based its analysis of Iran’s nuclear weapons activity on the intercepted conversations of Iranian military officials.
The New York Times quoted unidentified senior United States intelligence and government officials as having obtained notes on the conversations several months ago. ‘The officials then tried to verify the information extracted from the notes, which found that Iran stopped a nuclear weapons programme in late 2003’ (Voice of America).
We must tell Bush that what he terms as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are not found elsewhere in the world but in his own backyards. We may add that poor Iraq is as sovereign a nation as United States is, and Saddam Hussein was as honourable a leader as the President himself. We must tell the United States President that no national or rational leader would be respected if he is heard saying, “kill him”, referring to another leader, framed for possessing WMD.
Who is going to make Bush deviate into ordinary sense and understand that war breeds war, not peace? I think a three or four year old child, whose father is keeping peace in Iraq, will be the right person to tell this to him. Or a kid of that age who has lost his / her father, mother or sister or someone known to him or her, in Afghanistan or Iraq will carry out this mission impossible.
Troops pull out’ in military terms means, withdrawal of troops from the war front when they are no longer required there or they have done their job or when they have failed to do the desired job. This is normally done either en masse or in a phased manner. Unfortunately, the president has been telling the world that he is going to withdraw troops. At the same time, he is knocking at the doors of the Congress for more war funds. He even prepares more troops to be deployed in peacekeeping operations. Who will tell him that ‘troops withdrawal’ in plain English means calling the troops back and not ‘pumping more money and military in’?
The sheer size of the loss of troops in Iraq would make any military leader introspect or at least heed the words of thousands of families whose near and dear ones are on the war front fighting for something imaginary. Do these families need to tell their President every time they get information that there was an ambush, bomb blast, sabotage and suicide attack on United States marines?
Who can tell Bush that his own intelligence agency is able to undercut his own White House saying that Iran has not been pursuing nuclear programmes for the last four years? He must be told that a notion of war with Iran is better shelved and the president start doing something to save his and Dick Cheney’s face in the first place, and should stop imagining of getting other countries to team up against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Don’t you readers think that it is not fair for Bush to ask another president to explain why the latter defeated or defamed the former? With his own intelligence report in hand, which clears Iran off a much discussed Nuclear position, is it sensible for a president to cry out, “Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous.” “And, Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” “And, we are not going to change our position on Iran.” Somehow, we must tell the President that the whole world is laughing at him.
We forgot one thing. We must tell him that ‘if someone is not with the United States, that someone (let him be anyone) is with someone else in the world, and not necessarily with the enemy of the US’. This wisdom would have secured him a lot a PR mileage in the gallop polls. Unfortunately, Bush went vociferously describing everyone as enemies of the US.
It is the duty of every citizen of the to do something to stop terrorism, whether it is masterminded by Bin Laden or some other Al Qaeda stalwarts. Meanwhile, we must tell Bush that, ‘if an organisation is able to hijack a few flights with full complement of passengers and crash them against the twin towers of World Trade Centre, converting them into a Ground Zero, and pilot one of the planes to crash-land under very nose of Pentagon, certainly that organisation will have the common sense to harbour its leader, Bin Laden, somewhere safe.’ The President need not have gone for a ransacking operation in the mountain ranges of Afghanistan. It was foolish. We must tell the President that Bin Laden is an intelligent man.
Who is going to apprise the President of the fact that it is not his job to invent peace or reinstate democracy elsewhere in the world? When will he get to know that one nation, however big and powerful that may be, cannot keep on aiding and supporting and strengthening and safeguarding the interests of the rest of the world? This is to be told very urgently, because one of his colleagues the other day, at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, defended US aid to Pakistan and described Pakistan, ‘a key ally in the war on terror’.
As a writer I won’t be doing justice to my creed if I fail to tell the President that carbon emission, global warming, ozone depletion, climate change, melting ice caps, rising sea levels are very much real and scientifically proven.
I must add that it is this common sense that makes around 200 representatives from more than 190 countries around the world sit in Bali, Indonesia, to find ways and means to offset this crisis. I am confident that when these people meet the next time, there will be at least one member from the United States to address this life threatening problem caused more by the United States than by all these counties put together. I must tell him at any cost.
And finally we have to tell Bush that Indo US Nuclear deal involves two parties, India and US, and it is an option give to both parties either to decide in favour of it or against it. But he need not rack up his little brain and worry about Indian energy security and its nuclear and defence capabilities.
Yes, it has been long time since we started parading issues that we need to tell Bush. It has been so long that we need to remind him once again, else he may forget, the fact that Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares victory over the United States and other world powers in the dispute about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. And the United States intelligence report supports Iran’s assertion that its nuclear programme is for energy not weapons.
Who will tell him that the world has gone far ahead of his current tenure, and the new world order is going to be decided more by consensus and common sense than by United States and its intelligence? We must tell him.
It is extremely urgent to tell President Bush that it would be better he reads newspaper reports to understand how his intelligence agency works.
A leading American newspaper reports the United States based its analysis of Iran’s nuclear weapons activity on the intercepted conversations of Iranian military officials.
The New York Times quoted unidentified senior United States intelligence and government officials as having obtained notes on the conversations several months ago. ‘The officials then tried to verify the information extracted from the notes, which found that Iran stopped a nuclear weapons programme in late 2003’ (Voice of America).
Bicycles: Silent killers on the road
BICYCLE HAS always been a very good mode of transport for the movement of men and material for ages and it continues to be so in these times of supersonic flights and sophisticated cars. This common man’s mode of transport has gone through many changes over the years, but it seems to have failed to keep pace with the changing needs of modern thoroughfares and highways.
In Kerala, it used to be an offence to ride a bicycle without the headlight on, at night. It was serious offence to travel pillion on a bicycle and very serious offence to ride a bicycle on the wrong side of the road. And this author, many a times, has had the tires of his bicycle deflated by angry police officers for having committed one of the above offences. The story has changed now.
Unfortunately, this once-ineffectual mode of transport is increasingly becoming a threat to many motorists. It is not the fault of the poor two-wheeler; rather it is the way people take the power of this vehicle for granted. For them, it is a simple mode of travel, and it is so simple that it does not need any license; no need to particularly keep left or right of the road while on the move and anyone can ride it now without caring whether its headlight switched on or off at night. And even if you make it carry three people and go for a ride on a road with a beeline of high speed cars, two wheelers, buses, trucks and tippers, nobody raises a question on your safety, not to speak of the safety of innumerable other road users.
In these days of increasing carbon emission, depleting ozone layer, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and changing climate, the cyclists are given a free wheel, and they are looked at with respect and regard, as they do not contribute to the pollution of our environment. A good bicycle, if maintained properly, will last for ages. And riding a bicycle adds to one’s health, benefits the environment and is the cheapest mode of transport, second only to walking or running.
This is the upside of the bicycle story. But statistics on road accidents show that out of a hundred accidents that happen in the suburban and semi-urban areas, careless and casual cyclists, who go hither and thither on their way to their destinations, cause 20 per cent of those accidents. They simply take twists and turns - sometimes ‘U’ turns and sometimes even ‘W’ turns - so unexpectedly that the unsuspecting motorist, say a car driver, out of his instinct, not to hurt anyone, is forced to negotiate his vehicle out of panic, ending up in accidents, killing and injuring many, including himself.
Newspapers report, ‘the accident occurred when the driver of the car tried to save a cyclist’. But the accident might have ended up killing four or five people. But no one asks a question as to find out how that particular cyclist had behaved on the road.
When it comes to accident, it is always the driver of the bigger vehicle who bears the brunt. The cyclist and even motorcyclists, for that matter, go scot-free. It is interesting to note that motorcyclists are also doing what these poor bicyclists do on the road, by way of U turns and swerving in unexpected ways and most of the heavy vehicles that get involved in accidents are forced to shoulder the responsibility.
Under normal circumstances, not many bother to investigate and find out what a particular motorcyclist or cyclist did to make the driver of the heavy vehicle turn left or right, leading to an accident.
When we focus on these bicycles, the problem takes greater magnitude. Bicycles are so silent in their movement that they come and get people killed as silently as death itself, so silently that the person who gets killed does not even get a whiff that this ineffectual vehicle could cost him his very life.
Another shocking and suicidal behaviour shown by both cyclists and motorcyclists is this: keeping to the right on highways. They feel that it is all right to keep to the right on highways as highways are wide and it is difficult for them to cross the highway so as to get to the left side. In the event of an eventuality, will a speeding car or truck driver save his life by hitting the person on the wrong side or save the person on the wrong side and get himself killed? Most of the time, the latter is the option, and the motorist, out of panic, tries to save the cyclist or motorcyclist, and meets with fatal serial collisions. This has happened many times and this will continue to happen again on our roads. Therefore, it is high time we did something to make cyclists and other two wheel riders more responsible and law-abiding on the roads.
How can we make our coming generation understand the basics of traffic rules? I think it is worthwhile to include an exclusive lesson in the curriculum of school children, so as to make them understand the importance of following traffic rules. It doesn’t matter whether a mode of transport is motorised or manual, it has to follow the very rules and regulations all vehicles on the road are expected to follow. A large number of school children these days depend on various types of bicycles to get to their schools. It is a matter of great concern that they happen to go through their school life without knowing the fundamentals of road safety.
Parents should ensure that their kids are law abiding when on the road and careful while on the move. Cyclists have the right to use the road, but not at the cost of someone’s life and property. They should be responsible while travelling on the road.
Traffic officials may take initiatives to make cycling more responsible and road-friendly. Otherwise, more and more people would get killed or injured. Cyclists should be asked to fix reflectors on their bicycles, keep their headlights on when they travel at night, always keep to the left when on the move, use bells to alert the pedestrians and, above all, make it essential that the cyclist is mature enough to ride on the road.
More kids use vehicles these days than ever before, and when they are on bicycles, life on the road is unsafe. Let them cycle their ways to good health, not to unfortunate accidents. All these problems notwithstanding, bicycle is the most eco-friendly and healthy mode of transport. Let us make sure that it is safe for all people concerned.
I believe riding pillion, keeping to wrong side and riding without headlights at night should be made punishable offences. A few incidents of flattened tires and public warnings would make a big difference in the road safety awareness of our people.
In Kerala, it used to be an offence to ride a bicycle without the headlight on, at night. It was serious offence to travel pillion on a bicycle and very serious offence to ride a bicycle on the wrong side of the road. And this author, many a times, has had the tires of his bicycle deflated by angry police officers for having committed one of the above offences. The story has changed now.
Unfortunately, this once-ineffectual mode of transport is increasingly becoming a threat to many motorists. It is not the fault of the poor two-wheeler; rather it is the way people take the power of this vehicle for granted. For them, it is a simple mode of travel, and it is so simple that it does not need any license; no need to particularly keep left or right of the road while on the move and anyone can ride it now without caring whether its headlight switched on or off at night. And even if you make it carry three people and go for a ride on a road with a beeline of high speed cars, two wheelers, buses, trucks and tippers, nobody raises a question on your safety, not to speak of the safety of innumerable other road users.
In these days of increasing carbon emission, depleting ozone layer, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and changing climate, the cyclists are given a free wheel, and they are looked at with respect and regard, as they do not contribute to the pollution of our environment. A good bicycle, if maintained properly, will last for ages. And riding a bicycle adds to one’s health, benefits the environment and is the cheapest mode of transport, second only to walking or running.
This is the upside of the bicycle story. But statistics on road accidents show that out of a hundred accidents that happen in the suburban and semi-urban areas, careless and casual cyclists, who go hither and thither on their way to their destinations, cause 20 per cent of those accidents. They simply take twists and turns - sometimes ‘U’ turns and sometimes even ‘W’ turns - so unexpectedly that the unsuspecting motorist, say a car driver, out of his instinct, not to hurt anyone, is forced to negotiate his vehicle out of panic, ending up in accidents, killing and injuring many, including himself.
Newspapers report, ‘the accident occurred when the driver of the car tried to save a cyclist’. But the accident might have ended up killing four or five people. But no one asks a question as to find out how that particular cyclist had behaved on the road.
When it comes to accident, it is always the driver of the bigger vehicle who bears the brunt. The cyclist and even motorcyclists, for that matter, go scot-free. It is interesting to note that motorcyclists are also doing what these poor bicyclists do on the road, by way of U turns and swerving in unexpected ways and most of the heavy vehicles that get involved in accidents are forced to shoulder the responsibility.
Under normal circumstances, not many bother to investigate and find out what a particular motorcyclist or cyclist did to make the driver of the heavy vehicle turn left or right, leading to an accident.
When we focus on these bicycles, the problem takes greater magnitude. Bicycles are so silent in their movement that they come and get people killed as silently as death itself, so silently that the person who gets killed does not even get a whiff that this ineffectual vehicle could cost him his very life.
Another shocking and suicidal behaviour shown by both cyclists and motorcyclists is this: keeping to the right on highways. They feel that it is all right to keep to the right on highways as highways are wide and it is difficult for them to cross the highway so as to get to the left side. In the event of an eventuality, will a speeding car or truck driver save his life by hitting the person on the wrong side or save the person on the wrong side and get himself killed? Most of the time, the latter is the option, and the motorist, out of panic, tries to save the cyclist or motorcyclist, and meets with fatal serial collisions. This has happened many times and this will continue to happen again on our roads. Therefore, it is high time we did something to make cyclists and other two wheel riders more responsible and law-abiding on the roads.
How can we make our coming generation understand the basics of traffic rules? I think it is worthwhile to include an exclusive lesson in the curriculum of school children, so as to make them understand the importance of following traffic rules. It doesn’t matter whether a mode of transport is motorised or manual, it has to follow the very rules and regulations all vehicles on the road are expected to follow. A large number of school children these days depend on various types of bicycles to get to their schools. It is a matter of great concern that they happen to go through their school life without knowing the fundamentals of road safety.
Parents should ensure that their kids are law abiding when on the road and careful while on the move. Cyclists have the right to use the road, but not at the cost of someone’s life and property. They should be responsible while travelling on the road.
Traffic officials may take initiatives to make cycling more responsible and road-friendly. Otherwise, more and more people would get killed or injured. Cyclists should be asked to fix reflectors on their bicycles, keep their headlights on when they travel at night, always keep to the left when on the move, use bells to alert the pedestrians and, above all, make it essential that the cyclist is mature enough to ride on the road.
More kids use vehicles these days than ever before, and when they are on bicycles, life on the road is unsafe. Let them cycle their ways to good health, not to unfortunate accidents. All these problems notwithstanding, bicycle is the most eco-friendly and healthy mode of transport. Let us make sure that it is safe for all people concerned.
I believe riding pillion, keeping to wrong side and riding without headlights at night should be made punishable offences. A few incidents of flattened tires and public warnings would make a big difference in the road safety awareness of our people.
Either a one-year bond or five lakhs: a catch 22 for medicos
The Kerala government has set a precedent prior to the issuance of Medical Entrance application forms by adding a provision in the application that all those who get medical admission via merit needs to submit a bond stating that once the candidate passes out, he or she would work for minimum one year in the state rural service, and if the state wishes him/her to continue, the bond period may get extended to a maximum of three years. This is applicable to those who enroll themselves via entrance merit and get placed in both government and management medical institutions.
In today’s globalized professional level playing field, it is common to find professionals of all disciplines go looking for greener pastures either in country or abroad. This scenario has been taxing the medical fraternity a lot by way of running institutions, conducting courses and finally losing the finished products. These products find their deserving slots elsewhere and the state health department that produces them is left in the lurch with health indices falling as a result of staff shortage.
The situation is very acute in rural areas where medical infrastructure is very poor. And a budding medical practitioner would find a super specialty medical facility much more attractive than the makeshift medical enclaves we find in rural landscapes. There lies the problem. The present condition set forth by the medical council would make some difference in the way public health centres in our villages work in the coming days.
As the condition is set at the time of entry itself, the possibility for bunking it is very rare, and the candidate is left with two options, either a seat with a year long ‘bonded’ state rural service or be prepared to pay 5 lakhs compensation reimbursement. The later is earmarked for offsetting the expenses involved in grooming a student into a medical professional.
This new prerequisite needs to be strictly carried out, and the young medicos may be aware of the fact that medical practicing is an opportunity to learn things practically and it is the first hand knowledge that makes one a professional. The possibility for the same is much more in our rural India than anywhere else. Rural India offers the most diverse and complex medical cases and a young medico would find his maiden service practice really challenging and rewarding in the long run.
There could be a few incentives for those who spare more years in rural areas. Every additional year they voluntarily put in needs to be appreciated and the same can be added as additional advantages when it comes to migration or relocation. If we could make it so, the candidates who initiate to spare 5 or more year’s service in rural areas could be given some faster prospects in the form of promotions and better pay packages. This would entice more medicos not to think too many times when they are left with what we call Catch 22 situation set by the government. So it is for the medicos ‘to be or not to be’ in the rural areas.
In this connection I think it would be fair to look at some of the prospects both the happen to enjoy:
· Life in the villages would get much healthier leading to better economic outcome.
· Young professionals can have first-hand knowledge on strange medical conditions which rural India is know for.
· Access to medicine can be ensured to the poorest of the poor.
· The money paid by those who opt out of this scheme can be used to augment medical infrastructure.
· This precondition will develop a kind of social and moral commitment in every professional as it offers not surprise.
· Ambitious candidates, who desperately want to be in a much developed medical environment, are given a clean option that they can pay five lakhs, pack up and go.
· This new system will streamline Indian medical sphere which is known more for self service than for selfless service, because medical education is a wise investment option here.
· Those who are well off can invest five more lakhs and look for better turn over from elsewhere.
· Since it is the merit that wins great number of poor students their coveted medical seats, they would happily spare a few years for the poor in the villages.
· The divide in the health indices can be offset to a great extent.
So the precedent the Kerala government has created would make great shifts in the way medical system is going to work in the rural India, say after five years. Let’s wait for the first batch to pass out and see for ourselves how many of our medicos are taking their profession selflessly or selfishly.
In today’s globalized professional level playing field, it is common to find professionals of all disciplines go looking for greener pastures either in country or abroad. This scenario has been taxing the medical fraternity a lot by way of running institutions, conducting courses and finally losing the finished products. These products find their deserving slots elsewhere and the state health department that produces them is left in the lurch with health indices falling as a result of staff shortage.
The situation is very acute in rural areas where medical infrastructure is very poor. And a budding medical practitioner would find a super specialty medical facility much more attractive than the makeshift medical enclaves we find in rural landscapes. There lies the problem. The present condition set forth by the medical council would make some difference in the way public health centres in our villages work in the coming days.
As the condition is set at the time of entry itself, the possibility for bunking it is very rare, and the candidate is left with two options, either a seat with a year long ‘bonded’ state rural service or be prepared to pay 5 lakhs compensation reimbursement. The later is earmarked for offsetting the expenses involved in grooming a student into a medical professional.
This new prerequisite needs to be strictly carried out, and the young medicos may be aware of the fact that medical practicing is an opportunity to learn things practically and it is the first hand knowledge that makes one a professional. The possibility for the same is much more in our rural India than anywhere else. Rural India offers the most diverse and complex medical cases and a young medico would find his maiden service practice really challenging and rewarding in the long run.
There could be a few incentives for those who spare more years in rural areas. Every additional year they voluntarily put in needs to be appreciated and the same can be added as additional advantages when it comes to migration or relocation. If we could make it so, the candidates who initiate to spare 5 or more year’s service in rural areas could be given some faster prospects in the form of promotions and better pay packages. This would entice more medicos not to think too many times when they are left with what we call Catch 22 situation set by the government. So it is for the medicos ‘to be or not to be’ in the rural areas.
In this connection I think it would be fair to look at some of the prospects both the happen to enjoy:
· Life in the villages would get much healthier leading to better economic outcome.
· Young professionals can have first-hand knowledge on strange medical conditions which rural India is know for.
· Access to medicine can be ensured to the poorest of the poor.
· The money paid by those who opt out of this scheme can be used to augment medical infrastructure.
· This precondition will develop a kind of social and moral commitment in every professional as it offers not surprise.
· Ambitious candidates, who desperately want to be in a much developed medical environment, are given a clean option that they can pay five lakhs, pack up and go.
· This new system will streamline Indian medical sphere which is known more for self service than for selfless service, because medical education is a wise investment option here.
· Those who are well off can invest five more lakhs and look for better turn over from elsewhere.
· Since it is the merit that wins great number of poor students their coveted medical seats, they would happily spare a few years for the poor in the villages.
· The divide in the health indices can be offset to a great extent.
So the precedent the Kerala government has created would make great shifts in the way medical system is going to work in the rural India, say after five years. Let’s wait for the first batch to pass out and see for ourselves how many of our medicos are taking their profession selflessly or selfishly.
Death penalty: It needs to stay
FOR AGES, there have been arguments for and against capital punishment. Time and again people come to the conclusion that life is God given, and no legal or religious body constituted by man is liable to take something god-given. A human life, whether it belongs to a criminal or cannibal, it is the most precious thing in this world, and its loss is irredeemable.
When it comes to crime and punishment, capital punishment becomes a bone of contention even in international forums. But if we look at crimes alone, we can understand from around world that most heinous of them are carried in broad daylight, and the culprits walk away scot-free. The law of the land goes on pondering over evidences, witnesses and ridiculous ‘beyond doubt proofs’ of prosecution to stamp a criminal with what he deserves.
Whose stance get vindicated, the courts’ or the criminal’s? A case of pre-meditated criminal act that involves the death of an innocent should be seen through a different legal prism. Here it is to be noted that a premeditated act of violence does not justify any God’s intentions. The person, who does such a crime, is the worst of all human forms, and such forms are potential threat to the rest of the creations of God.
When we realise that they do these things to achieve something material or monetary in their life, the gravity of the issue gets multiplied. One’s life is taken to augment another one’s life. It is the most ungodly of acts. So such elements, whatever creed they belong to, need to be eliminated by a court of law.
If a legal system is to safeguard the freedom and fearless co-existence of human beings, it has to have provisions to impose death penalty. This is to be executed with extreme caution, as death does not leave any room for second thoughts. It is a one-stop solution to the most heinous social malady called ‘willful killing’. Willful killers need to be put to death willfully.
Therefore, the provision for death penalty in all legal systems around the world that needs to stay. It is for the general well being of all beings in this world.
If a civilised person wills to kill another, the former does not deserve to be living. Here human conscience should prevail over the so-called divine ‘commissions’. Only death deters death.
Killing a drug peddler, an impulsive rapist, a self defending innocent, an innocuous thief and the like do not augur well for any legal system, however divine that system claims itself to be. There are criminals who deserve death penalty. The law of the land must have provision to honour such ones.
When it comes to crime and punishment, capital punishment becomes a bone of contention even in international forums. But if we look at crimes alone, we can understand from around world that most heinous of them are carried in broad daylight, and the culprits walk away scot-free. The law of the land goes on pondering over evidences, witnesses and ridiculous ‘beyond doubt proofs’ of prosecution to stamp a criminal with what he deserves.
Whose stance get vindicated, the courts’ or the criminal’s? A case of pre-meditated criminal act that involves the death of an innocent should be seen through a different legal prism. Here it is to be noted that a premeditated act of violence does not justify any God’s intentions. The person, who does such a crime, is the worst of all human forms, and such forms are potential threat to the rest of the creations of God.
When we realise that they do these things to achieve something material or monetary in their life, the gravity of the issue gets multiplied. One’s life is taken to augment another one’s life. It is the most ungodly of acts. So such elements, whatever creed they belong to, need to be eliminated by a court of law.
If a legal system is to safeguard the freedom and fearless co-existence of human beings, it has to have provisions to impose death penalty. This is to be executed with extreme caution, as death does not leave any room for second thoughts. It is a one-stop solution to the most heinous social malady called ‘willful killing’. Willful killers need to be put to death willfully.
Therefore, the provision for death penalty in all legal systems around the world that needs to stay. It is for the general well being of all beings in this world.
If a civilised person wills to kill another, the former does not deserve to be living. Here human conscience should prevail over the so-called divine ‘commissions’. Only death deters death.
Killing a drug peddler, an impulsive rapist, a self defending innocent, an innocuous thief and the like do not augur well for any legal system, however divine that system claims itself to be. There are criminals who deserve death penalty. The law of the land must have provision to honour such ones.
Ecological Deficit: A grave concern
What is natural is right.
- J M Barrie
SINCE TIME immemorial, man has been depending on the environment for most of his basic needs. But, because of the industrial revolution, technological explosion that followed coupled with globalisation, machines and factories have become omnipresent and they have metamorphosed human life and life supporting activities forever. This has led to an over consumption of resources. According to Worldwide Fund for Nature’s bi-annual report, our over consumption is threatening all species including ourselves with extinction.
The problem: There is a decline in the planet’s capacity to provide food, fibre and timber and absorb carbon dioxide. We are using 25 per cent more resources than are renewed naturally in a year. Uncontrolled deforestation and habitat destruction are the causes for man-animal conflicts the world around. This growing pressure on the ecosystem may threaten both biodiversity and human life. For example, deforestation has endangered the biodiversity of the Amazon rain forests. According to an environmental group’s latest findings, the ecological ‘overshoot’ will be 100 per cent by 2050, making the likelihood of large-scale ecosystem collapse likely, and conflicts and political tensions certain. War on ecological claims may not be an exaggeration in the coming years.
The way out: There are many ways to cut down on this ecological deficit. Having smaller families can slow down population growth. Thus we can improve the quality of life and reduce consumption. Using excessive resources for the production of luxury goods should be prevented. Reclamation of land through better management and protection of soils, fisheries and forest will help a lot.
Encroachment on rivers and riverbeds, filling and reinforcing of marsh lands need to be controlled and sand mining, which kills rivers, should be banned outright. In short, organs of our Mother Nature need to be kept as they are and we have to facilitate their well being by fitting ourselves to our surroundings and not the other way round, which is usually the case. We change things to suit us. That is not the nature’s way and would be disastrous to us.
Participation: An all out effort to offset this burgeoning threat needs to be taken up by every individual in an impeccable and uncompromising manner. There has to be an attitude, an attitude to one’s surroundings. NGOs, cooperative societies, SHGs (Self Help Groups) and similar social organs can do a great service by way of educating the public and encouraging what is called ‘minimum utilisation of available facilities’ and maximum re-utilisation of spent facilities and resources.
Homework: Life style changes need to be initiated from the school level itself. If we could catch our young when they are at school, they could be assiduously taught what ecological deficit is and how best they themselves can contribute to contain this issue. And coming back to our indoors, we all should learn to live with minimum food and facilities. Instead of demanding exotic dishes and similar extravaganzas, we have to develop a food-to-be-fit and fit-to-be-fed diet culture that promotes what is absolutely needed and discourages what is extraneous and unwanted.
Development: Yes, we cannot do without development. Therefore, all development initiatives need to be studied threadbare to understand whether they are going to contribute to what ecologists call ‘ecological overshoot’ in the immediate or distant future. When our very sustenance is at the brink of collapse, any new project that does some harm to the ecological balance is better kept back or shelved.
In short, all growth must be sustainable keeping our environment in the picture and brought about in a manner that seeks to nurture nature. This can be achieved by factoring the environment primarily in all our projects, and a proper assessment of the environmental impact of all such ventures. Let us not expect our government to take initiatives. Rather we should jump into the ecological bandwagon so the rest of the world follows our example.
- J M Barrie
SINCE TIME immemorial, man has been depending on the environment for most of his basic needs. But, because of the industrial revolution, technological explosion that followed coupled with globalisation, machines and factories have become omnipresent and they have metamorphosed human life and life supporting activities forever. This has led to an over consumption of resources. According to Worldwide Fund for Nature’s bi-annual report, our over consumption is threatening all species including ourselves with extinction.
The problem: There is a decline in the planet’s capacity to provide food, fibre and timber and absorb carbon dioxide. We are using 25 per cent more resources than are renewed naturally in a year. Uncontrolled deforestation and habitat destruction are the causes for man-animal conflicts the world around. This growing pressure on the ecosystem may threaten both biodiversity and human life. For example, deforestation has endangered the biodiversity of the Amazon rain forests. According to an environmental group’s latest findings, the ecological ‘overshoot’ will be 100 per cent by 2050, making the likelihood of large-scale ecosystem collapse likely, and conflicts and political tensions certain. War on ecological claims may not be an exaggeration in the coming years.
The way out: There are many ways to cut down on this ecological deficit. Having smaller families can slow down population growth. Thus we can improve the quality of life and reduce consumption. Using excessive resources for the production of luxury goods should be prevented. Reclamation of land through better management and protection of soils, fisheries and forest will help a lot.
Encroachment on rivers and riverbeds, filling and reinforcing of marsh lands need to be controlled and sand mining, which kills rivers, should be banned outright. In short, organs of our Mother Nature need to be kept as they are and we have to facilitate their well being by fitting ourselves to our surroundings and not the other way round, which is usually the case. We change things to suit us. That is not the nature’s way and would be disastrous to us.
Participation: An all out effort to offset this burgeoning threat needs to be taken up by every individual in an impeccable and uncompromising manner. There has to be an attitude, an attitude to one’s surroundings. NGOs, cooperative societies, SHGs (Self Help Groups) and similar social organs can do a great service by way of educating the public and encouraging what is called ‘minimum utilisation of available facilities’ and maximum re-utilisation of spent facilities and resources.
Homework: Life style changes need to be initiated from the school level itself. If we could catch our young when they are at school, they could be assiduously taught what ecological deficit is and how best they themselves can contribute to contain this issue. And coming back to our indoors, we all should learn to live with minimum food and facilities. Instead of demanding exotic dishes and similar extravaganzas, we have to develop a food-to-be-fit and fit-to-be-fed diet culture that promotes what is absolutely needed and discourages what is extraneous and unwanted.
Development: Yes, we cannot do without development. Therefore, all development initiatives need to be studied threadbare to understand whether they are going to contribute to what ecologists call ‘ecological overshoot’ in the immediate or distant future. When our very sustenance is at the brink of collapse, any new project that does some harm to the ecological balance is better kept back or shelved.
In short, all growth must be sustainable keeping our environment in the picture and brought about in a manner that seeks to nurture nature. This can be achieved by factoring the environment primarily in all our projects, and a proper assessment of the environmental impact of all such ventures. Let us not expect our government to take initiatives. Rather we should jump into the ecological bandwagon so the rest of the world follows our example.
Curbing the streak of violence in our kids
AND FINALLY it has come to our country too. So far it has been a matter of somebody’s kids killing somebody else’s kids. Now it is our children shooting and killing the children next door. Is it not time for introspection? If school is not safe for our kids, then this whole world is not going to be safe for them. We need to look into this new gun culture seriously.
The event manifests all the characteristics of an international school shoot-out. Two students of the same age and class engage in a shooting spree and kill one of their classmates. The curtain rises to reveal another social disorder and sets parents across the nation thinking. If a simple altercation between two students on the one side and another on the other could lead to pulling the trigger five times, taking turns, what more is in store for us from our kids in the coming days?
It is really frightening to visualise the sequence of events. The two accused are reported to have taken turns to shoot the innocent classmate point blank. The victim, Abhishek, received four bullets and was declared dead at the hospital. What makes our kids take to guns?
Children these days are much more than what they are really supposed to be. Their demeanour is something which their own parents and teachers cannot fathom. Many instances show that kids behave really menacingly in their circles. Most of the time their rage and reservations defy comprehension and as a result, they cut a sorry figure.
The family ambience is to be blamed for this. Parents these days pander to their kids and even take pride in publicising such pandering on their part. The amount money these affluent school children wangle from their parents poses another problem. Money is a menace when it comes to school kids. They develop a tendency to view everything in terms of money. This leads them to believe that it is alright to do things which are not socially binding, for money is all powerful. They learn this lesson from their affluent parents and elders.
Society has to take the blame for this falling standard of children’s behaviour. It is complacent and increasingly accommodates any aberration on the part of children after a few bouts of hesitation and rejection. Once accepted, the kids pick up antisocial practices and put them to use whenever there arises a chance. For example, the male-dominant society increasingly feels that it is alright to intimidate girls. This notion is picked up by the kids and exploited when they grow up. So is the case with habits and practices. Who doesn’t know that smoking is harmful? Who would accept a school boy who drinks? But, there are numerous boys and girls who are exposed to drug and booze.
In the past children were kept at a distance. There was a healthy distance between parents and children and there was a strong barrier between what children can access and cannot access. Children were free to do certain things and not at all free to do certain things. Making money was difficult, not speak of laundering it. Pressure was limited and so were ambitions and anxieties.
What is happening now? Children and parents are friends. There is nothing wrong with it though. Still, parents are parents because they are the ones who impart to the children the basic lessons concerning righteousness and crime and many other facts of life.
But what do modern parents do? They want to use their children as tools which can help them in becoming successful in life. These kids are pressurized and pestered by parents, peers and society, this pressure mounts to such an extent that they get restive, impatient and short-tempered. When they give vent to their frustration, innocents get killed and schools become breeding grounds for crime. So I think the ball is in the court of the parents themselves. It is time they took stock of the situation.
The media our children are constantly exposed to is full of incidents extolling the heroics of gun-wielding characters. The trigger-happy heroes and villains kill people point black. The story also explains how the police case thereof is politically and monetarily dealt with. What lessons do our kids pick up from the media? The atrocities the more-than-a-hundred TV channels beam under one pretext or the other, keep the kids glued to the screen. For the kid, seeing is believing, of course.
Even the food habit of our kids is undergoing a transformation. They stuff themselves with what is called ‘exotic food’. These food products boast of ingredients which can cause emotional and hormonal imbalance in kids, especially those in their formative years. Many children from affluent families suffer from the after-effects of an alien food culture and eating habit. This is also one of the reasons why our kids these days are heftier.
The first-ever incident of this kind at a Gurgaon school is enough to warn us that the menace is around the corner and more and more kids who have access to guns in their homes would think of imitating the shoot-out. The seed has been already sown and the most unfortunate thing is that some of our leading schools are excellent breeding grounds for this new gun culture. Things have come full circle and our society too would ‘come of age’ soon, a la foreign societies: guns for self-defence. It does not augur well for a nation which has given the world a new order and forced the world to dedicate a day to non-violence. Gandhiism is increasingly becoming relevant. Non-violence is no nonsense.
Once a mother and her son visited Gandhi and sought some advice from him. The boy had this bad habit of eating too much sugar. After listening to the case, Gandhi advised them to come back after a week. When they returned after a week, Gandhi called the boy around and told him gently, “Dear child, sugar is good, but too much sugar is harmful to health. So don’t eat it too much”.
“You could have told this last week itself, Gandhiji. We would have been spared of the journey back and forth”, said the mother.
Gandhi said nothing. Later he admitted that he himself had the habit of eating sugar and it was unfair for him to advise that boy. So he let them come back after a week. By that time he had quit the habit of eating sugar himself!
If we want our kids to stay away from guns, we have to be away from them, in the first place! All gun-holding parents, (whether the guns are licensed or not), please note: “It may be your kid’s turn to get killed tomorrow. There is nothing that parents cannot do for their children, good or bad. Good or gun? You decide”.
The event manifests all the characteristics of an international school shoot-out. Two students of the same age and class engage in a shooting spree and kill one of their classmates. The curtain rises to reveal another social disorder and sets parents across the nation thinking. If a simple altercation between two students on the one side and another on the other could lead to pulling the trigger five times, taking turns, what more is in store for us from our kids in the coming days?
It is really frightening to visualise the sequence of events. The two accused are reported to have taken turns to shoot the innocent classmate point blank. The victim, Abhishek, received four bullets and was declared dead at the hospital. What makes our kids take to guns?
Children these days are much more than what they are really supposed to be. Their demeanour is something which their own parents and teachers cannot fathom. Many instances show that kids behave really menacingly in their circles. Most of the time their rage and reservations defy comprehension and as a result, they cut a sorry figure.
The family ambience is to be blamed for this. Parents these days pander to their kids and even take pride in publicising such pandering on their part. The amount money these affluent school children wangle from their parents poses another problem. Money is a menace when it comes to school kids. They develop a tendency to view everything in terms of money. This leads them to believe that it is alright to do things which are not socially binding, for money is all powerful. They learn this lesson from their affluent parents and elders.
Society has to take the blame for this falling standard of children’s behaviour. It is complacent and increasingly accommodates any aberration on the part of children after a few bouts of hesitation and rejection. Once accepted, the kids pick up antisocial practices and put them to use whenever there arises a chance. For example, the male-dominant society increasingly feels that it is alright to intimidate girls. This notion is picked up by the kids and exploited when they grow up. So is the case with habits and practices. Who doesn’t know that smoking is harmful? Who would accept a school boy who drinks? But, there are numerous boys and girls who are exposed to drug and booze.
In the past children were kept at a distance. There was a healthy distance between parents and children and there was a strong barrier between what children can access and cannot access. Children were free to do certain things and not at all free to do certain things. Making money was difficult, not speak of laundering it. Pressure was limited and so were ambitions and anxieties.
What is happening now? Children and parents are friends. There is nothing wrong with it though. Still, parents are parents because they are the ones who impart to the children the basic lessons concerning righteousness and crime and many other facts of life.
But what do modern parents do? They want to use their children as tools which can help them in becoming successful in life. These kids are pressurized and pestered by parents, peers and society, this pressure mounts to such an extent that they get restive, impatient and short-tempered. When they give vent to their frustration, innocents get killed and schools become breeding grounds for crime. So I think the ball is in the court of the parents themselves. It is time they took stock of the situation.
The media our children are constantly exposed to is full of incidents extolling the heroics of gun-wielding characters. The trigger-happy heroes and villains kill people point black. The story also explains how the police case thereof is politically and monetarily dealt with. What lessons do our kids pick up from the media? The atrocities the more-than-a-hundred TV channels beam under one pretext or the other, keep the kids glued to the screen. For the kid, seeing is believing, of course.
Even the food habit of our kids is undergoing a transformation. They stuff themselves with what is called ‘exotic food’. These food products boast of ingredients which can cause emotional and hormonal imbalance in kids, especially those in their formative years. Many children from affluent families suffer from the after-effects of an alien food culture and eating habit. This is also one of the reasons why our kids these days are heftier.
The first-ever incident of this kind at a Gurgaon school is enough to warn us that the menace is around the corner and more and more kids who have access to guns in their homes would think of imitating the shoot-out. The seed has been already sown and the most unfortunate thing is that some of our leading schools are excellent breeding grounds for this new gun culture. Things have come full circle and our society too would ‘come of age’ soon, a la foreign societies: guns for self-defence. It does not augur well for a nation which has given the world a new order and forced the world to dedicate a day to non-violence. Gandhiism is increasingly becoming relevant. Non-violence is no nonsense.
Once a mother and her son visited Gandhi and sought some advice from him. The boy had this bad habit of eating too much sugar. After listening to the case, Gandhi advised them to come back after a week. When they returned after a week, Gandhi called the boy around and told him gently, “Dear child, sugar is good, but too much sugar is harmful to health. So don’t eat it too much”.
“You could have told this last week itself, Gandhiji. We would have been spared of the journey back and forth”, said the mother.
Gandhi said nothing. Later he admitted that he himself had the habit of eating sugar and it was unfair for him to advise that boy. So he let them come back after a week. By that time he had quit the habit of eating sugar himself!
If we want our kids to stay away from guns, we have to be away from them, in the first place! All gun-holding parents, (whether the guns are licensed or not), please note: “It may be your kid’s turn to get killed tomorrow. There is nothing that parents cannot do for their children, good or bad. Good or gun? You decide”.
TV anchors: Other side of their dress codes
IT IS really atrocious and unbecoming to find today’s TV anchors in dress codes that are not only alien to our native culture, but also detrimental to our very sartorial tradition. Since the time we have been living, we have a tendency of calculating everything in terms of money. TV channels, producers and programme generators are very much aware that air time is the costliest of times, and if failed to invite maximum attention in such times of extreme market value, their very profession would be devoured by competing channels that go to any extent to win a few points in the viewership index they manipulate to hoodwink their clientele.
It is this monetary mentality that goes into the making of these anti-social dress codes, obscene body languages and disgusting language affectations. Sorry to say, we do not have a native language, we do not a have a dress code and we do not have a set of socially accepted facial expressions. We take pride in the mixes: Mixes of dresses, languages and mannerisms.
Think of a popular TV anchor. A pair of low-waist trousers, precariously adorned with the help of a belt that is much longer than the waist-circumference, and a couple of the most comfortable fingers thrust into its front pockets. And not to forget a made up face, and top it all - a language that is sufficient enough to shake any listener’s normal thinking process. This is the appearance of an ordinary TV anchor, who hosts a programme or a talk show. The funniest thing is that the above dress code could be attached to a male or a female anchor. A few differences you may find are - where and how the fingers are thrust in and which fingers s/he finds most comfortable for making this style statement. Yes, it is called style statement! To cap it all, if you find a male anchor sporting a blouse-like shirt, or a girl leaving a belt of her skin in between the trousers and the top, don’t raise your eyebrows. They are here to stay, and you may expect much more attractions in these presenters themselves than what they are going to present in the shows and programmes.
Some female anchors look as if they have just been pulled out of their bathrooms. You cannot predict whether they were dressing up in there or undressing when this most heinous act took place. Some female anchors are found hosting in dresses that depict a different story altogether. Slits and sloppy side-shows happen to appear unpredictably from anywhere of their dress-scrapes, and the viewers are left with all their faculties of imagination and fancy.
The flip side: A cable TV operator charges you Rs 150 or 200 for a month, and he funnels in your interiors some 100 plus channels. Most of these work 24/7, all day long. That is five to seven rupees a day for 100 channels; five to seven paise per channel. With all the attractions and varieties of the programmes these channels offer, a cable TV subscriber is kept satisfied with visual treats of dress, body and its language of anchors of all denominations. What do you want more? Nothing? Then just sit glued to your TV and watch these signs of shining India! In the meantime, try to go to the nearest supermarket and buy the products these programmes promote during commercial breaks. Eat them sumptuously sitting in front of the TV itself, and again watch and go to hell or hospital.
Don’t we actually need a dress and a decency code for our anchors? Are they not able to influence people in a 24/7 grid? How can we protect our families from these atrocious sartorial insanities? Snap the cable or unsubscribe the connection? Or, let’s understand the obvious fact that our life had been much better, calmer and more comfortable (before the advent of these aerial entertainment extravaganzas) than it is today? The last proposition may help you make amends in the way you approach cable TV. You may find that “Yes, my family and I can do without it”. Just do without it. The sooner, the better.
Tail piece: I am very much conscious of the fact that this article blindly criticises all cable channels and programmes. I am aware that there are many informative, educative and entertaining channels aired from in-country and abroad as well, and these all have excellent media culture, which could be simply emulated. And if we could distinguish between what is good and what is bad for us, all these channels could be tapped through our cable network. But how many of our youngsters want such channels and programmes? How many of us are able to spare time for quality information and entertainment? We go for what we like, or what is made to be liked. So there is no room for such discussions. If you belong to the second category of people who are able to distinguish between what is good and bad, you may please excuse my one-sided writing.
It is this monetary mentality that goes into the making of these anti-social dress codes, obscene body languages and disgusting language affectations. Sorry to say, we do not have a native language, we do not a have a dress code and we do not have a set of socially accepted facial expressions. We take pride in the mixes: Mixes of dresses, languages and mannerisms.
Think of a popular TV anchor. A pair of low-waist trousers, precariously adorned with the help of a belt that is much longer than the waist-circumference, and a couple of the most comfortable fingers thrust into its front pockets. And not to forget a made up face, and top it all - a language that is sufficient enough to shake any listener’s normal thinking process. This is the appearance of an ordinary TV anchor, who hosts a programme or a talk show. The funniest thing is that the above dress code could be attached to a male or a female anchor. A few differences you may find are - where and how the fingers are thrust in and which fingers s/he finds most comfortable for making this style statement. Yes, it is called style statement! To cap it all, if you find a male anchor sporting a blouse-like shirt, or a girl leaving a belt of her skin in between the trousers and the top, don’t raise your eyebrows. They are here to stay, and you may expect much more attractions in these presenters themselves than what they are going to present in the shows and programmes.
Some female anchors look as if they have just been pulled out of their bathrooms. You cannot predict whether they were dressing up in there or undressing when this most heinous act took place. Some female anchors are found hosting in dresses that depict a different story altogether. Slits and sloppy side-shows happen to appear unpredictably from anywhere of their dress-scrapes, and the viewers are left with all their faculties of imagination and fancy.
The flip side: A cable TV operator charges you Rs 150 or 200 for a month, and he funnels in your interiors some 100 plus channels. Most of these work 24/7, all day long. That is five to seven rupees a day for 100 channels; five to seven paise per channel. With all the attractions and varieties of the programmes these channels offer, a cable TV subscriber is kept satisfied with visual treats of dress, body and its language of anchors of all denominations. What do you want more? Nothing? Then just sit glued to your TV and watch these signs of shining India! In the meantime, try to go to the nearest supermarket and buy the products these programmes promote during commercial breaks. Eat them sumptuously sitting in front of the TV itself, and again watch and go to hell or hospital.
Don’t we actually need a dress and a decency code for our anchors? Are they not able to influence people in a 24/7 grid? How can we protect our families from these atrocious sartorial insanities? Snap the cable or unsubscribe the connection? Or, let’s understand the obvious fact that our life had been much better, calmer and more comfortable (before the advent of these aerial entertainment extravaganzas) than it is today? The last proposition may help you make amends in the way you approach cable TV. You may find that “Yes, my family and I can do without it”. Just do without it. The sooner, the better.
Tail piece: I am very much conscious of the fact that this article blindly criticises all cable channels and programmes. I am aware that there are many informative, educative and entertaining channels aired from in-country and abroad as well, and these all have excellent media culture, which could be simply emulated. And if we could distinguish between what is good and what is bad for us, all these channels could be tapped through our cable network. But how many of our youngsters want such channels and programmes? How many of us are able to spare time for quality information and entertainment? We go for what we like, or what is made to be liked. So there is no room for such discussions. If you belong to the second category of people who are able to distinguish between what is good and bad, you may please excuse my one-sided writing.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Door-to-door marketing: Some tips for consumers
RECENTLY, MY family happened to buy a product range, introduced to our doorstep through direct marketing sales executives. Impeccably dressed executives, with their glib and oily tongue were able to convince my family and the latter, more out of compassion and a little humaneness than out of any fascination for the product range, decided to take a few nonstick cookware. Moreover, a set of three cookwares for some six hundred rupees sounded attractive to our mom. The deal was sealed and the executives receded from the scene.
The problems, these cookwares brought into our kitchen are still pestering us and our search for their manufacturer and distributor continues. How can we stay away from these hoodwinking marketing executives and their gift of the gab? Are they entitled to press our doorbells and interfere into our personal space? Who the hell are those who set these men in motion and reap enormous profits? Do we not have a system in place to monitor the marketing networks operating in our rural and semi urban areas? Unsuspecting housewives are hoodwinked in broad daylight and these well dressed ‘executors’, go scot-free. We need to do something to control this intimidating market practice. What can we do?
Never ever invite an executive in, unless he has an appointment with you.
Do not get carried away by the price tag of the products introduced. Remember, cheap price will get you cheap things. In other words, peanuts will get you monkeys.
Do not t buy something that you do not need, even if the neck-tailed executives convince you of its use and convenience in a later stage.
If ever you buy something, ask for an invoice, their complete address and contact numbers.
Look for guarantee, warrantee and disclaimers in the product range. Read the fine prints carefully.
Discourage unsolicited calls and reprimand anyone, who does it again and again.
If any executive is found to be doing something that you do not like in your premises, for example, if a sale person is pestering you with offers, forcing you to buy things you do not want, digging at your person on monetary and status grounds to make a purchase, then tell him or her in clear terms that it is your place and not a market place.
· Check if the direct marketer is authentic, and products shown are of some standard. We can use our common sense here.
· When they say, this door purchase will give you a discount: Ask about the details and why is it so.
· When you hear the word ‘discount’ from a marketing atmosphere, be sure you are not going to get any discount at all. Discounts are stupid.
· Always remember that the purchase decision is yours. The customer holds the key, not the executive.
· When you find some unhealthy trade practice being followed by these door-to-door sellers, report it to the local self-government office or to the nearest police station.
· All said, but never show any kind of disrespect or disregard to a genuine person, who approaches you with a product or service range endorsed by an authority.
· Selling door-to-door is a trade practice, which does not offer you any choice. You are forced to buy things from a very limited range and variety. Forced buy is not ethical.
· Above all, do keep in mind that chains of sales windows that offer all types of products and services surround you. Take time off and go out and indulge in your shopping sprees, once in while. It may cost you a little more than what it really does, but it is much better than getting cheated by an executive at your very doorstep.
· Sales boys and girls who introduce themselves as one, at a place and other at a different place are clean cases of cheating or impersonation and you have every right to take these people to task.
· It is quite common these days to find youngsters in the guise of students from colleges, go around selling this and that to get the feel of marketing. Unfortunately, these kids are mere tools in the hands of a huge nexus that exists between multinational consumer giants and their local promoters.
· These distributors print exorbitant MRPs on the price tag, and these executives are given enough leeway to sell it, the way they like.
· You know that MRP stands for Maximum Retail Price. But you are entitled to get things for Minimum Retail Price. Start bargaining from 50 per cent of the tag price, if you are very much interested in buying.
· Door-to-door salesmen are usually self-employed people, and their ultimate aim is to make a living. But, many of them are indulging in unhealthy sales practices, making the whole system corrupt.
· And finally, beware of these phrases: Introductory offer, festival discount, clearance bonanza, launch price, buy one get one free, exchange the old for a brand new one, certain per cent off, buy before a particular date, season, month or whatever.
Whenever you happen to listen to these phrases, say from a door-to-door salesman or from a wayside vender or from an exclusive sales window, these are meant to hoodwink you. Nobody offers you anything free. There is nothing called a free meal. It is more so in today’s marketplace.
Housewives and all those women living in modern isolated, self-satisfied homes may take note that there is a huge industry called ‘direct marketing’ flourishing around them, and this industry is exploiting the ignorance and poor intelligence of unsuspecting people like you, and if allowed, this menace will sit on your shoulders and start calling shots.
Therefore, I request everyone not to get cheated by these salespeople. If you want to make a door-to-door buy, do it after seriously considering the factors like - check the authenticity of the person, the brand of the product, price tag, billing method, guarantee, warrantee, etc. It is a good idea not to invest a lot of money on things about which you have never heard of. And if you are going to do that, by simply believing in the words of a person who has just pressed your door bell and gave you an ‘impression’, go ahead and do it, otherwise you are going to regret it later on.
The problems, these cookwares brought into our kitchen are still pestering us and our search for their manufacturer and distributor continues. How can we stay away from these hoodwinking marketing executives and their gift of the gab? Are they entitled to press our doorbells and interfere into our personal space? Who the hell are those who set these men in motion and reap enormous profits? Do we not have a system in place to monitor the marketing networks operating in our rural and semi urban areas? Unsuspecting housewives are hoodwinked in broad daylight and these well dressed ‘executors’, go scot-free. We need to do something to control this intimidating market practice. What can we do?
Never ever invite an executive in, unless he has an appointment with you.
Do not get carried away by the price tag of the products introduced. Remember, cheap price will get you cheap things. In other words, peanuts will get you monkeys.
Do not t buy something that you do not need, even if the neck-tailed executives convince you of its use and convenience in a later stage.
If ever you buy something, ask for an invoice, their complete address and contact numbers.
Look for guarantee, warrantee and disclaimers in the product range. Read the fine prints carefully.
Discourage unsolicited calls and reprimand anyone, who does it again and again.
If any executive is found to be doing something that you do not like in your premises, for example, if a sale person is pestering you with offers, forcing you to buy things you do not want, digging at your person on monetary and status grounds to make a purchase, then tell him or her in clear terms that it is your place and not a market place.
· Check if the direct marketer is authentic, and products shown are of some standard. We can use our common sense here.
· When they say, this door purchase will give you a discount: Ask about the details and why is it so.
· When you hear the word ‘discount’ from a marketing atmosphere, be sure you are not going to get any discount at all. Discounts are stupid.
· Always remember that the purchase decision is yours. The customer holds the key, not the executive.
· When you find some unhealthy trade practice being followed by these door-to-door sellers, report it to the local self-government office or to the nearest police station.
· All said, but never show any kind of disrespect or disregard to a genuine person, who approaches you with a product or service range endorsed by an authority.
· Selling door-to-door is a trade practice, which does not offer you any choice. You are forced to buy things from a very limited range and variety. Forced buy is not ethical.
· Above all, do keep in mind that chains of sales windows that offer all types of products and services surround you. Take time off and go out and indulge in your shopping sprees, once in while. It may cost you a little more than what it really does, but it is much better than getting cheated by an executive at your very doorstep.
· Sales boys and girls who introduce themselves as one, at a place and other at a different place are clean cases of cheating or impersonation and you have every right to take these people to task.
· It is quite common these days to find youngsters in the guise of students from colleges, go around selling this and that to get the feel of marketing. Unfortunately, these kids are mere tools in the hands of a huge nexus that exists between multinational consumer giants and their local promoters.
· These distributors print exorbitant MRPs on the price tag, and these executives are given enough leeway to sell it, the way they like.
· You know that MRP stands for Maximum Retail Price. But you are entitled to get things for Minimum Retail Price. Start bargaining from 50 per cent of the tag price, if you are very much interested in buying.
· Door-to-door salesmen are usually self-employed people, and their ultimate aim is to make a living. But, many of them are indulging in unhealthy sales practices, making the whole system corrupt.
· And finally, beware of these phrases: Introductory offer, festival discount, clearance bonanza, launch price, buy one get one free, exchange the old for a brand new one, certain per cent off, buy before a particular date, season, month or whatever.
Whenever you happen to listen to these phrases, say from a door-to-door salesman or from a wayside vender or from an exclusive sales window, these are meant to hoodwink you. Nobody offers you anything free. There is nothing called a free meal. It is more so in today’s marketplace.
Housewives and all those women living in modern isolated, self-satisfied homes may take note that there is a huge industry called ‘direct marketing’ flourishing around them, and this industry is exploiting the ignorance and poor intelligence of unsuspecting people like you, and if allowed, this menace will sit on your shoulders and start calling shots.
Therefore, I request everyone not to get cheated by these salespeople. If you want to make a door-to-door buy, do it after seriously considering the factors like - check the authenticity of the person, the brand of the product, price tag, billing method, guarantee, warrantee, etc. It is a good idea not to invest a lot of money on things about which you have never heard of. And if you are going to do that, by simply believing in the words of a person who has just pressed your door bell and gave you an ‘impression’, go ahead and do it, otherwise you are going to regret it later on.
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