Which Direction Are We Going?

Had read about this news about the Amboli killings and the reactions that it draw and only one thing comes to my mind is it going to remain fresh on the minds of the people later or is it going to be one of those incidents where the general public will voice their opinions/reactions but as the day passes it becomes a forgotten memory.

Has anybody given a thought about how to prevent such incidents to prevent in future or what steps need to be taken if one found themselves in such a situation?

I don’t think creating a facebook page or signing petitions are going to help. For such incidents we need to be practical and need to provide solutions which a person can use in case they find themselves in such position.

Merely going gaga over the episode is not going help only to be forgotten later. What happened to the Ruchika case, nobody remembers cause its not in news any more. That’s the sad part of our society.

If we want real changes to happen, we need to make them happen…………

The King of the Roads

Bombay is the city of dreams, and there is no better way of witnessing this in a weekday morning when people are rushing to work and that would be especially catching an Auto Rickshaw.

The length people go to catch an Auto these days really shows our  desperation  just to reach at a place in time. There is no better place than to witness it on a BEST bust stop.

One can see the attempts to make halt almost every Auto even though its carrying it passengers and sometimes none and not even stopping by and tries fooling us by keeping the meter at half down. One can witness the funny side of life at this moment.

Even when an Auto do decides to make a halt, there is a maddening rush to get inside first. In fact two sisters got separated as one got in the Auto and other one got left out as a stranger occupied the vacant space.

If standing on the road does not gets you an Auto and you are with someone, make sure to send them to the other side of the road so that you can have a win-win situation every time a vacant Auto passes by…

The Auto in the city have surely become rare as one has to wait for some time (which could go to 10-15 and maybe an half an hour too) to catch a vacant auto.  There are even times when people actually pray that they are able to catch an auto in time.

No wonder the Auto Rickshaws in Bombay are surely the king of the roads….

 

A New Change in the Offing??

I was walking down the road today and I see an old man wearing a paper headband with Anna Hazare mentioned and his name and number. As I reached another place, saw an old couple walking down the road, with the old man wearing a human billboard in praise of our PM (you know what I mean) that showed support to Anna Hazare’s cause which has the country in upheaval as they try to pass the Jan Lokpal bill.

It’s good to see that finally the Indians have decided to stand for something, not sure if even more than half of them know the difference about the Government Lokpal bill and the Jan Lokpal bill. To see people standing for something really shows that we are ready to bring a change in the nation that it badly needs.

I hope this only the beginning of the more people agitations to come against far more serious issues where our elected politicians need to learn that people cannot be taken granted. The corrupt should be punished and the welfare of the people should be a priority.

Let us all believe that we can be the change that we want to see in the world, the only thing it requires is the drive to make it happen……

So do you have it in you?

The Spirit of Bombay

I am not sure what the above words mean, but they are used every time whenever the city has faced a calamity like terrorist attacks saying it’s the spirit of Bombay that keeps the city alive.

Have started to hate those words, because people who are using it don’t know what it means. It’s not the spirit of Bombay that gets them going the next day when they come across such attacks but the need to get out and go back to their routine lives as they have no control over where the next attack will took place.

Every time such attacks took place, people talk about it, blame the system, politicians and everyone they can think of and then they forget about it unless reminded of it again.

The spirit of a city does not refer to going back to their routine lives the next day when such attacks took place, but to have a civic sense to make sure that such incidents are not repeated if we as citizens remain alert about suspicious activities.

It’s really a shame that even after such an incident, that the death of a tax driver in the city went unnoticed. I think it says it all on how much aloof we have become as a society.

So the next time you use the word “the spirit of Bombay”, think twice about what it means and also are you doing what you expect others to do to keep the spirit of the city going……..

Why You Should Not Vote

I have seen promos of celebrities, people talking about the importance of voting and choosing good governance for a country like ours.  The question is whom are you going to vote? if there are no good people in politics who can bring the change we would like to see in our country.

Every time the elections comes up, the political parties vie for the precious vote of ‘ours’ that would bring them back in power.  Once they are in the power, it’s the same old story of this government not been better than the previous one.  Every one of the politicians seems to be involved in some kind of scams, corruption.  No wonder there wealth shows a huge jump (Check out their wealth declaration in each election) and still they get a hike in the salary of an MP (Member of Parliament).  When the average Indian salary still does not account for that.

It does not matter which political party they belong to, they seem more interested in making money for themselves than serving the country.  No attempt is being made to make the system transparent and fill out the loopholes that advocate its misuse.  The process of transparency is on such a slow track that one wonder if they would even be alive to see it in their own life time.

What is the point of voting when you the person that you elect is going to do the same?  Once elected, they cannot be held accountable for the tall promises they made.  The next time elections are around, one should abstain from voting.  This would send out a strong message to the political parties who boast of having national interest in their heart about the strength of the citizens.  It’s the people who have the power to decide who should run the government.

Only when we are united can a message be send across that enough of the scams, corruptions that’s been taking rampantly and need of greater accountability to set in.

The problem of today is that its hard to find good politicians among the dirty fishes.  The only way they can survive if we take the responsibility of cleaning the pool of bad fish.

Abstaining from voting is a greater way to send out across a message to the political parties that the citizens of the country are not living in ignorance and know the change they want to see.

Just Pathetic

When I read this piece of news, I was like what could be worse for this women that she lost her limbs because of thieves or that she lost it because the doctors who could rejoin it decided that it was more important to be part of a strike than to attend critical patients needs.

Doctors are supposed to be next in line after God who can save lives of people.  Their priorities in such a situation is simply uncalled for.  Whatever be the reason for the strike, it does not mean that patients who are in critical condition are left in a lurch.  It took more than 18 hours for them to resume work.  By then it was too late to rejoin the limbs.  Is there no way can doctors go on strike without affecting and putting critical patients life in danger?

To make matters, the women succumbed to her injuries leaving behind a child who witness the whole incident traumatized and grieved husband.

The irony is that a women lost her life but who would be considered responsible for it?

i) The railways which did nothing to prevent such robberies which were on a rise.

ii) The thieves who in their process of earning a quick buck made a family lose their mother and a wife.

iii) The doctors whose priorities resulted the women losing her limbs and then subsequently succumbing to her injuries.

Corruption

There is a saying about the corruption in India that even after paying a bribe one cannot be certain that the work will get done.  One can picture the image how corrupt can corrupt people can be.

Off lately, I have been reading about the various scams that have been reported in the media.  Be it the 2G spectrum scandal, CWG scam or the latest Adarsh society ghotala.  The media is doing its job of bringing the truth out in the open but the question largely remains is do you think all the necessary steps would be taken to punish who are guilty?

The answer is a straight “NO”.  Except for the small fishes who would be made to bear the brunt of these scams, the bigger fish would go scot free and probably none would question their role in the future as the Indian public suffers from short term memory and the media which is hell bent on bringing the truth would stop reporting about it after a certain time has passed as it no longer makes the news it used to…

Corruption is not a new phenomenon in our society and even we as the people have accepted it as a way of life as long as it gets our work done.  For e.g., the diwali baksish that is given to the postman, telephone guy, etc. are a sign that even though we know its wrong for them to ask money for us but still most of us give it so that the services they provide does not gets hampered.

People don’t join politics with the intention of serving the nation in the heart instead they are busy filling their coffers when they are in power.  Look at the past of the politicians and one could see a rag to riches story which might seem phenomenal but there is more than what meets the eye.  Take the instance of the former Jharkhand chief minister Madu Koda who was a mine worker who ended up amassing a wealth worth over crores.  Then there are the Reddy brothers, sons of a police constable who went on to become mining barons and play key decision makers in the ruling government of the Karnataka state.

Its one thing to bring out the scams/corruption out in the open and other to see that the culprits pay for their crime.  The Indian judicial system takes such a long time to book the culprits that when the verdict finally comes it comes too late, too little.  No wonder this only encourages the corrupt people who know how to make use of the loopholes in the system.

Unless there is transparency in the system and the RTI Act is empowered more to bring out information on in the public domain, corruption would never come to an end.

The Ayodhya Verdict

They say god is everywhere and still we are fighting where do the god belongs.

I find it strange that a lot of bloodshed had been done; all because the saviors of religion wanted the god to regain his old place of which he was long displaced long before India got its independence and there were people who tried to build temple for the god by destroying the mosque of another god which as we know led to a lot of bloodshed.  That place is called Ayodhya the birthplace of Ram, Ram Janmabhoomi or the place where Babri Masjid stands today.

No matter what the verdict comes out on the 28th Sept 2010 or perhaps latter, the so called saviors of religion will see to it that they get what they want or else we know what happened in 1992.

Religion has long been used as a bait for politics and this issue is no different.  Why cannot god from both religion be worshipped on the same place which should be the perfect example of peace and harmony given that we are a country of diversity where people of different religions living together?

Then again such a solution wont be acceptable to the saviors of religion would they?  There are far greater issues plaguing the country but the political parties are obsessed with religion so that they can claim a vote bank and continue their hallow governance and keep filling their coffers in the name of serving the people.

Where does it leave the common man in the midst of this?  Does it matter what the common man thinks about this issue?  I don’t think the people of politics give a damn to that.  After all the common man is busy earning his daily living and avoiding such issues so that he doesn’t get hurt in the middle of the war.

No wonder that we live in a world of ignorance where it does not matter what’s going on unless it affects one.  No matter what the outcome is, the common man is only going to hope that it does not remind them of the bloodshed in the past.

It is such an irony that we fight to give god back his place and don’t even care about people who don’t have a home to live…

Fear

Its funny how fear can get to one’s mind and then the body reacts to the single thought that seems innocuous but has the power to control you.  Fear is like the air we breathe; we cannot see it but still feel it.

Everyone has some kind of fears that might be harmless or harmful in the long run and they learn to deal with it in their own way.  One either put themselves in a fight or flight situation or let the fear pass through them and the damage gets done.

I have fears, lot of fears.  There are some that I avoid, some that I face and still it sends out the same jitters as it was the first time.  Even though I am aware of my fears, I am not able to get rid of them.  I am still trying my trial and error methods but don’t seem to shake them off.

Isn’t it strange that it takes only one “thought” in your mind to instill fear in you and somehow all the attempts that one makes to ignore it, it only becomes more stronger and then one loses control over self.

Being afraid is not a bad thing, it helps us realize the eventuality of a situation we might be in.  It makes you aware of the things that could go wrong.  However not everyone is able to decode fears correctly and most of the times they end up hurting themselves as they let the fear control themselves instead of the other way round.

Fear arises only in two situations; when there is uncertainty and when one is desperate to have things in their favor.  Its only then the mind wanders through the woods of thoughts and unknowingly one picks up the ‘one’ thought which then either becomes the fear or tells one what they need to be aware of in a given situation.  How they react to it determines the outcome which can be fight or flight response.

So the question is how does one overcomes their fears?

First, one needs to start filtering out their thoughts.  Check the facts against the thought that makes one dread and then face it.  The more one avoids their fear the greater the leverage one gives into it.  It takes a lot of practice facing one’s fears to overcome them.  It won’t happen overnight and will take time.  One has to find their own way to deal with them or seek help when one struggles with it.

This quote describes fear in the best possible manner:

Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God; your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

— From the Principles of A Course in Miracles

So what are your fears?  Are you ready to face it?

P.S:  This is a different approach to the usual Human Pschye posts and hope you find it good.  Do give your feedback

Justice Delayed; Justice Denied

The verdict of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy fits the above quote perfectly with its “mockery of justice”.  It has been a long wait of 26 years for the leaking gas victims and in the end the 8 accused gets away with lighter punishments of a maximum imprisonment of 2 years and a fine of a meager sum of 5 lakhs.  The fact that they were able to secure bail (Rs 25,000 bail amount) within a few hours of the verdict rubs the salt on the wounds of the victims.  Yet the victims’ hopes for justice, the bigger fish to be caught responsible for such a disaster so that there could be a closure for them of the dark night that took away their near and dear ones and left some impaired for the rest of their lives.

This is the tragedy of the Indian judicial system where seeking justice sometimes results in fighting court battles for years and when the verdict was out it was too little too late.  The Indian courts are full of back logged cases and even a simple open and shut case takes years to give out a verdict.  All one keep getting is a date for the next hearing.

If one looks at the Ruchika’s case, it should not have taken almost 20 long years before justice could be delivered.  In that 20 years of long struggle the victim Ruchika gave up her life, her brother had cases registered against him and ended up tortured in the hands of the protectors of the law.  The family shifted to another place to get away from the harassment.  The irony is that no body gave it a thought why a molestation case was taking so long to deliver the verdict?    The verdict finally nailed the accused but the victim who went through an agonizing pain was not there to see it. The pain, torture & the long wait the family went through in their fight for justice cannot be compensated.  Their fight is still on as they seek to nail the accused for the abetment of suicide of the victim.

This was one of the cases that could have be lost in the number of the court cases that goes on if not for the media which brought it to the attention to the public which I believe helped changed the fate of this case.  Who knows how many such cases are their which is still trying to seek justice?

If one looks at the statistics according to the Aug 09 data, there is said to be 52,000 cases pending in Supreme Court, 40 lac in High Court and 2.7 crore in Trial courts.  As each day passes new cases are filed adding additional burden to the backlog.  Consider this with the number of judges recruited; falling short of the allocated numbers.  It only get worse for the under trials who end up spending their time in jails even before their trial begins.  Steps have been taken recently in this direction and over 92000 under trial prisoners were released across India.

The sheer number of backlog cases still does not deter the courts to take their regular vacations (which varies from 48 to 63 days).  Apart from that they can take 14 days casual leave and also get day off on public holidays and on the weekends when the courts are closed.  A high court judge is suppose to work for 210 days a year but if one does the math the numbers comes lower than that.  The same also hold true for the Supreme Court which also undertakes vacations.  Such provision for vacations does not exist in countries like US and France.  How can one expect of  speedy disposal of cases with so many issues dodging the legal system?  No wonder the process of delivering verdict within an acceptable time frame does not happens often.

There have been talks of legal reforms in order to provide verdict within an acceptable time frame but not much headway has been made in this regard.  How does one expects a common man to fight for justice when cases gets dragged on for years and ends up eating their  only savings which was kept for children’s education, marriage, retirement thereby making it a burden?  Seeking justice has become an expensive affair and some of the people have to depend on lawyers who are willing to work for a lesser fee.

 Take the example of Anil Gidwani’s case who had a complaint filed against him by a traffic police for parking his car in a no-parking zone.  The trial of the case went on for three years and was finally disposed off when he raised the issue in the High Court.  This only goes on to gives us a picture how the judicial system badly needs reforms for a speedy trial and quick disposal of cases.

Unless legal reforms are brought into action, the backlog of cases will continue and no matter what the verdict is;  it will stand out as justice delayed…