19B - To Give or Not - A Begging Issue

Begging in India is rampant. This is a known fact, this is also a business for some people. I sometimes feel it is so big that it has to be given an industry status. Yeah the Begging Industry .

One Company of this industry does operate in the T.nagar bus terminus. A bunch of 4 to 5 women with little children are the CXOs of this company. Their labourers are some less than 5 year olds, I sometimes wonder whether these are their own real kids or were they borrowed or stolen from some places. I also wonder if some people rent their kids to these beggars to beg.

One does wonder why should these people give birth to kids whom they cannot take care of, on the other hand it maybe a rampant industry practice to give birth to kids so they can be used as catalysts for begging.

This group must be aged around 35 or so, with very good hands and legs and can do labour work sits idle or sometimes carries the kids around and begs. They also have a chit that says please help us we are affected by Bhuj earthquake . I can only smile on reading this, I was in school when the quake happened and if still these people are suffering , then no wonder they don;t do any work.

The poor kids go around buses, telling people they are hungry and ask for money. I am not sure why the authorities of the stand do not do anything, the bus drivers and conductors do not encourage this. One day the bus started leaving the stand when a kid was still inside and he shouted "anna anna". The driver give a sound trashing to the kid before he let him go out. It was the most unpleasant sight one had to watch in the morning before going to work.

Are they really weak - No they can work, their mothers or so called mothers are physically well fit
Are they their own kids - I doubt, were they kids that were kidnapped from somewhere else? Where is the father? No male is seen around these women.
What are the authorities doing? - Are they getting a share of the loot (yes I call it a loot as it doesn't seem right)

With these hard pressed questions it is difficult for one to give the poor kids any alms. Most likely it is going in to wrong hands and one is only encouraging the practice.

PS: Having said all this, Begging is present all over the world and I have seen beggars in every country. Only difference with India is that its population is huge so the number of beggars are huge. If one takes percentage of total population to that of total beggars it may be mor eor less comparable to other countries.

DD Days : A journey back to DoorDarshan

It was quite amazing feeling to be able to talk about a particular program on TV the next day at school knowing exactly that every other person in the class would have watched it. It was not the over hyped IPL match or the recent block buster movie but the daily soap operas and weekly movies on the TV. Yes I am talking on those days where Chitrahaar and Rangoli were the only hindi song programs and Oliyum Oliyum was the only tamil song program for an entire week. Imagine hardly 1.5 hours of filmi music for a whole week!

It might be hard to believe for kids and teens of today but those were the days of doordarshan. The music of Pandit Ravi Shankar on Band-1 Channel-4, Band-3 Channel-7 were like a grand opening to our evenings. One channel one program, all viewers were the mantra those days and the emptiness on the streets were proof of the fact that everyone watched it whether they like it or not. There were no fights for remotes, in fact I hardly remember a remote :)

There were no malls to hangout and no pepsi/coke products to drink and most televisions were black and white. Life was simple too and TV watching did not complicate it. There were only a very few peeks available to the world outside one's own. There was the DiDi's comedy show and the World This Week which showed glimpses of Western world. Disney cartoons were shown for an hour every week.

This is a series, rather a nostalgic trip to those programs that marked our days in Black and White .

19B: It is a matter of "change"

On any of the MTC bus you travel in Chennai , change is evident. By change I do not mean the change that Obama meant, it is the change for the currency or the exact bus fare. Conductors are always on the lookout for change, one can evidently see that they are well trained to first look for exact fare from the passenger and only if he/she does not have it they give it.

Fair enough. One can see boards inside the bus and maybe in major bus stands also asking and announcing passengers to tender exact fare. Though reasonable it is not practical. One usually sees that both the conductor and passenger understands the nuances and share the change :)

However sometimes things go out of control, there are the usual response , medium response and big response from conductor.

The usual response is when the conductor says you have to bring change and if  everyone shows me a 100 rupee note how can I give change to everyone and reluctantly gives it or asks for other denominations to match it.

Medium response is when he shouts on top of his voice same as above and is adamant in getting the change or gives the ticket to the person at last after he gets some change. Once it was ridiculous that one of the conductors asked an American lady for change and said "Daily you come by this bus you have to bring change" in a rude voice, the same dialogue which he repeats to all fellow passengers. One for a fact I hardly saw the lady before and it is not easy to spot a white lady in a MTC bus and secondly it was bad advertisement for the country to treat a foreigner like that. I am sure she never would board an MTC bus again.


Big response is when he asks one to get down and stop the bus.

If things go bad one can complain at mtc_edp@dataone.in

However on the flip side of the coin one has to see that it is reasonable for the passenger to carry sufficient or decent change. The conductor usually does not demand all change from you but if you have alternatives he should be happy, except in cases where he is already in a bad mood. One tip would be that if you already know the fare provide some change already, like if ticket is say 45 rupees, you can provide a 100 rupee note with 5 rupee. Mostly the conductor is happy to see the 5 rupee.

In case one needs bigger change for say 500, it is better to let the conductor settle down after issuing tickets or while one is getting down to get a change rather than asking for change when conductor is busy issuing tickets.

A little bit of understanding always helps in a smooth ride and a fresh start to the day.
Well on retrospect, it is true for any relationship too.

Sachin and DRS

Cricket was once a gentlemans game. If you knicked the ball you just walk to the dressing room. There was no hot spots, no snickometer, no third umpire, no replays, no technology. It was just pure heart and soul.

Well as modern man progressed so did his cricket. Maybe cricket is just a reflection of the culture of mankind. Whenever I see a Virat Kohli throwing expletives often and even in unnecessary situations I can see that the gentleman's game is long dead.  Not even when the infamous MonkeyGate happened was this a feeling, it seemed provoked and Aussies are known for it. It felt good to give it back in the same coin.

Coming back to DRS, if playing fair was the main aim and playing in spirit was the right attitude then why should use one be averse to technology. Just because technology is not as reliable as a human why should it be rejected. If one can accept a human error why not accept a technology error.

Coming back to the dismissal of Sachin, it was shocking to read an article in Indian Express 
scolding umpire Erasmus for using technology. Well shouldn't one be happy that the right decision was made in the end. Did you guys not shout when Steve Buckoner gave such Howlers in the infamous Sydney test.

Why is Sachin always measured with a different Yard Stick. 

Somehow my definition of a gentleman would have walked long before the square leg umpire was even called.

 

The protestor - what does she want

When the anger of the protestor is totally justified, some of the demands are extremist and maybe not practical. This is an attempt to see what is the middle path, which is where the truth and practicality always lie .

One just wonders what is the need for so many people to flow on the streets of the capital and demand justice. This is not the first time, maybe many forgot the same happened the day after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai demanding action. Has anything been done?

What were the demands of the protestors then? Our then Home Minister PC had said in a debate "please try to understand, we cannot have one policeman for every citizen"

What are the demands now of the protestor?
1. Speedy Justice - This is a very valid point for in India justice is always served cold after the victim goes runs from pillar to post for 10 to 20 years and sometimes the culprit even dies. However does it solve all problems?

2. Death penalty - Well this is a joke as our beloved ex-president had pardoned 5 such cases and in one such case the guy had died 5 years ago of AIDS and he was pardoned posthumously. So the law is already there, so what is the demand?

3. Safety - Yes this is a valid point and someone has to ensure that this point is taken note of and steps taken but who is going to do it. What was lacking on the fatal night? I guess there were already enough laws against tinted glasses and policeman available. What stopped them? laziness? Who is accountable? Long term decisions are the need of the hour.

4. Convene parliamentary session - Now here comes the ego of the politician. If the session is convened it means they have bowed down to the protestor and is never going to happen

Questions to the protestor
1. Mumbai had the same out pour after terrorist attacks. What did happen? Are you safe from another terror attack?
2. How long will this last. The government has all the time in the world to wait out. It is a matter of who blinks first. The aam aadmi is going to provide food for his family soon and sit on his TV for welcoming the new year. Who is going to change his mindset?
A bigger and long lasting platform is needed and is the need of the hour too.


My view: Extreme views are always welcome and must exist but the truth lies somewhere in-between, the sooner this point is achieved the better

Generation Gap - What Lacks Indian Politics

The Media houses are blazing and shouting where is my India, what are the politicians doing, call for an urgent parliament session,  each news channel is suggesting many ideas to the government on what needs to be done and calls for discussion with 8 panelists who suggests 80 things to be done.

There is one thing that lacks here - ACTION

One can clearly see the face of the protestor is a  young woman and sometimes is accompanied by a young or older brother, rarely the parents do accompany. The age of an average protestor is between 20 and 25.

In stark contrast when one does a caricature of a typical politician, his hair is either grey or he is bald, he has a large tummy and saggy eyes.

There is a stark contrast staring naked at us - There is atleast one generation gap between them if not more than one. The aam Indian politician is not in touch with this aam Indian citizen whom he boasts of representing.

No wonder insensitive comments like 'painted and dented' and 'no skirts', 'wear pardhas' come from a typical politician who later realizes that he is suffering from foot in mouth disease. In fact he suffers from what is called generation gap.

The laws which his forefathers wrote were even older and have developed cob-webs much like his principles on which he stood.

The youth Icon of congress is 42 years old, the youth wing leader of DMK is 60+ and has grand kids. No wonder both the politician and the protestor talk but neither listens.

Its time the youth step up to the plate and hit a home run, bridge the gap and change the face of Indian politics.

Human Life and India

It is quite surprising that my post on lack of importance to human life in India (human-life-cheapest-thing-in-india) brings most of my search engine traffic. I initially thought that all traffic maybe from Pakistan, as it is natural for them to search what they want to read about :)

However it seems many people want to know about this. Especially with recent brutal rape in the capital, one can confirm that human life is not much valued in India. There has been lots of examples in the past, be it the 1992 roits or the Godhra Carnage or Sikh riots of 1984, neighbor killing neighbor, grown men killing kids have occurred in the past and no Govt can guarentee it wont happen again.

For India is a land of diversity, every one can easily find other diverse from hi sown ideas be it language, caste, creed something or the other is different. So when one point is taken it is a matter of showing strength to the other. It is easily said and done, flaming of communal tension is an easy matter.

Having said all this, all hope is  not lost. The main reason one can see is because of increasing population and lack of resources. When TN asks for water, what does Karnatake do - deny it, why? because it is a resource they need for themselves, it is not for sharing, mind you is the reply.

Population, population, population, with the advances in medical field only God knows where this is going to end. With this huge population statistics does not lie but as Commentator Sidhu says it reveals more but hides the vital parts. The vital part is the percentage. Every country has its problems and issues, it may not be seen big because the population is less.

Assuming the same problem exist for 1% of population in Sweden and India. One can imagine the magnitude in India (1% of 2 billion!) is huge.  To cut the story short, all countries have issues be it the afro american development in US or the SC/ST development in India, it is the same level playing field. Even if our percentages are same, our numbers are high.

Population control is needed but I am not going Sanjay Gandhi way .. well that is for another day.

So folks looking for human rights violation in India - look in to your own backyard. We do wash our dirty linen in public but you do yours first.