Say “No” to reservation, not to people!

May 29th, 2007

I am totally against reservation. I reprimand and hate people who like to create a case for reservation for selfish gains. Reservation has not done any good to any strata of Indian society. Its been there for 60 years and only people who have benefited from it our crooked politicians! They have abused this word for their petty gains multiple times. I believe in equality. Be it any person of the society. I just approve of scholorships and that too for the economically underprivileged. Democracy and law must treat everyone else as equals.

There is seemingly other side which is going wrong. One student at AIIMS topped the class and he should have been given a chance to choose whatever position he wanted. It seems, the position went to the second ranker who was a general category student. This is equally “wrong”! How can anyone do this to a deserving candidate? This will make things worse.

Rajasthan just had a fresh case of casualties under the name of reservation. Gurjars (a tribe in India), wants to be included in the scheduled tribe category so that they can harness the fruits of reservation. They did not talk about better education, better hospitals but reservation. Why? Because one of the politicians lured them into it to get the votes.  So why government is not doing it? It seems there is a bigger tribe called “Meenas” who are under the ST category. If government includes Gurjars there too, it will decrease Meenas chances to get the reservation benefit. I just hope that this issue bring up the problems with reservation and some one will think about the alternative solutions. Well, I can just “hope” right now and I am sure nothing will change so soon.

So whats the solution?

Only solution for a person to get a secure job and long lasting prosperity is education. Education will give every person  awareness, knowledge, self esteem and ideas to make his/her life better. Government must spend the required money on setting up educational insitutions where in education till 9th standard must be totally free. Anyone and everyone can come and attend the classes. I totally believe that increasing the schools and judicial courts/judges by 10 times will have a much more positive impact to our country than any other measure. Some NGOs like Akansha are doing a terrific job at it. We need to have many more such organizations and help our country to do away with these evil practices of reservation and the likes of it.

Posted in Culture, Democracy, Politics | 3 Comments »

Two party system

May 29th, 2007

The unconventional head of state Dr APL Abdul Kalam once again sowed the seed of a important political debate - The need for two party system.

We have been having these coalition governments since 1989. Political parties supporting from outside, inside, under, over and what not. Politicians get sold and bought to be in power. Some one said, “Democracy is like the art of running a circus from a monkey cage”. In India, it is almost like running the mafia. UPA government supporting the Mayawati BSP government when even the ideologies (apparently political parties are supposed to have one!) do not match! All vote politics and nothing else.

A system of two parties will at least decrease all these selling and buying of netas. I am not saying it will totally eliminate it, but I am sure it will decrease it. Keep more rules like a neta can not have criminal charges, can not stand for election if he has changed a political party in last one year and it will make it even better. Two parties system also separates one party from the other in terms of ideologies and voters clearly know what one party stands for.  It is not panacea for all the problems. USA has two parties and an ass like George Bush got elected the second time. But it is better than what we have in India. I hope some one takes it seriously and works on it.

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments »

Moral Policing

May 16th, 2007

A country that has 1 billion population, 26 crore people living under poverty line, not enough potable drinking water for everyone, basic infrastructure problems of roads, power and education, so many court cases in backlogs.. what is the most important thing that we really need? I would think moral policing. Don’t agree with me? At least our government does! Government really needs to make sure what we are viewing on the television, if I am close to my spouse in the public and if I am dancing in the pub after 11PM!!! This is the MOST IMPORTANT thing that needs to be addressed. If Richard Gere, the guy who comes to India to help the country fight against AIDS and other issues, how dare he kissed Shilpa Shetty? (Though she does all “moral” things at screen with our supposedly “patriotic” heroes but thats besides the point) Now this is a BIGG problem! We need to get our guards up and fight against it. What crap!

I heard a even more surprising story yesterday. Google employees in Bombay were attacked by Shiv Sena supporters because there was some raunchy content on Orkut! They beat up the security guards and by mistake beaten up the Yahoo employees thinking they were working for Google. It sounds funny but is this kind of crap we want to live with? Police coming in the Chennai pubs and beating people? Schools and colleges defining the dress code? Bangalore pubs getting closed at 11PM? Government banning AXN and FTV? Is it democracy or autocracy? Just give us a working infrastructure, environment to live a comfortable life and leave the moral policing on us. We know best what is good for us.

Richard, Google, We are ashamed and embarrassed for what happened. Please be assured that common man is with you. Our intellect and reasoning is still intact. We just do not know how these clowns and corrupt politicians get elected and make fun of our democratic system. It will take time but we will figure it out.

Talking about Orkut, it seems two girls in Brazil were on Orkut and they made friends with a complete stranger. One of the girls agreed to meet with him and got raped. When the other girl was asked questions about this online behavior, she said, “The risk of getting raped is far far lesser than passing your life without getting noticed!”. Again, can we blame Orkut for it? It will be like Burkhas are safer for women and it will save them evil men. I do not think that rape rate in Burkha countries is lesser than non-burkha countries. The only way to deal with it is by empowering women, creating a safer environment, better law enforcement and a better community. Anyway, this does ask for a separate debate and I will reserve it for another posting.

Update : Arun gave me some interesting links on the same topic. Vir Sanghvi wrote an article on moral policing in Hindustan Times.

Pratap Mehta wrote on Indian Express.

Posted in Culture, Governence | 5 Comments »

Democracy: Will of people or will of politicians?

April 21st, 2007

Democracy is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people. Is it really working in India? It does not need a debate. Every common person will agree to that it is not. The current debate who should be the president is a classic example. The politicians that we have elected have an opposite perspective to the common man. More than 2 lakh people have voted on NDTV in favor of Dr Kalam. Close to 50% are in favor of Narayan Murthy or Dr Amartya Sen. Where as all the politicians want the sovereign power to be a person who will not be an impediment to their dirty politics. Is it really democracy?

Posted in Democracy, Politics | 1 Comment »

Public Interest Litigations

April 21st, 2007

We often hear about public interest litigations raised by several individuals and groups. I always wondered if I can do it and if I am eligible to do it as well. While I was searching for this information, I found couple of good links. From virtualpune:

What is a PIL?
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) - litigation for public interest. PIL was started to protect the fundamental rights of people who are poor, ignorant or in socially/economically disadvantaged position. It is different from ordinary litigation, in that it is not filed by one private person against another for the enforcement of a personal right. The presence of ‘public interest’ is important to file a PIL.

A PIL can be filed when the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • There must be a public injury and public wrong caused by the wrongful act or omission of the state or public authority.
  • It is for the enforcement of basic human rights of weaker sections of the community who are downtrodden, ignorant and whose fundamental and constitutional rights have been infringed.
  • It must not be frivolous litigation by persons having vested interests.

Who may file a PIL?
The Supreme Court (SC), through its successive judgements has relaxed the strict rule of ‘locus standi’ applicable to private litigation.

Any person can file a PIL provided:

  • He is a member of the public acting bona fide and having sufficient interest in instituting an action for redressal of public wrong or public injury.
  • He is not a mere busy body or a meddlesome interloper.
  • His action is not motivated by personal gain or any other oblique consideration.

How to file a PIL:
A PIL may be filed like a write petition. However, in the past the SC has treated even letters addressed to the court as PIL. In People’s Democratic union v Union of India, a letter addressed by the petitioner organization seeking a direction against the respondents for ensuring observance of the provisions of famous labour laws in relation to workmen employed in the construction work of projects connected with the Asian games was entertained as a PIL.
The SC has encouraged the filing of PIL for tackling issues related to environment, human rights etc.

Some more information is available at corecentre.org

Posted in Judiciary | 2 Comments »

Tourism needs a boost

April 18th, 2007

India has immense potential for tourism. With all the disagreements and debates on the actual number, number of tourists in 2006 were approximately 4 million. The earnings from tourism is quoted as 5 billion USD. I am not sure if government includes business travelers in this number as well. I hope not!

It is also estimated that 60% of the tourism comes from North India. Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, UP(Agra) and Himachal Pradesh being one of the top states from North and Goa being the prominent one among all the states. There is so much untapped tourism market out there. North East, Southern India (Kerala being one exception), Lakshwadeep, Andman Nicobar and many more. They need some serious marketing and uplifting to become attactive tourism places. Tourism can be a real good boost to the economy and can feeed so many families. Government did increase the advertising budget to 65 crore ruppes. Is it good enough? Not sure. But we have started to seeing its effect. Below is the advertisement created by Madhya Pradesh (MP) Tourism Government. It is very interesting and fun to look at for sure!



In order to boost tourism, just the marketing is not enough. More number of airports need to be developed, more hotels need to be built and a better services industry need to emerge. According to the report at India Tourism site, Tamilnadu has the highest number of travel operators and agencies! I am very sure the number needs to grow by manyfold to grow the tourism pie. If the government provides the right infrastructure, the market economy will automatically create these travel operators and agencies.

Posted in Tourism | 6 Comments »

Great initiative for under-privileged kids

April 11th, 2007

Shaheen Mistri runs Akansha; a non-profit organization working towards improving the poor children’s lives. There is a great article about her and her dream, her Akanksha. The article is at rediff.

Something about Akanksha from the home page:
“The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to impact the lives of less privileged children, enabling them to maximise their potential and change their lives. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing non formal education through the Akanksha centre and also formal education by initiating school reform.

Over the past 15 years, the organization has expanded from 15 children in one centre to over 2,600 children in 51 centres in Mumbai and Pune, with an additional 2100 children in 10 schools. A commitment is made to support each child by giving him or her a strong educational foundation, a good time, self esteem and values, and to help them plan how they can earn a steady livelihood as a step towards improving their standard of living.”

I had the opportunity to meet Shaheen in Pune. My wife is interested in being part of Akanksha and she got an appointment with Shaheen. The sheer exuberance, confidence and the passion to do something for the kids was so obvious. We were swept by her dedication to reach out to as many under privileged kids as she can. Shaheen is not just trying to educate these children, but she is taking more holistic and practical approach to actually spread the model. She is trying to bring changes in the educational system that can help these kids. She told us that she is working with Anu Aga (Thermax Foundation) to run a municipal school.

I am sure few will disagree that good education and inculcating good values in our children is the key to a developed India. Of course we need many more Shaheen Mistris all over India. But what we can do to make our education system better? Any thoughts?

Support Akanksha and be part of a good cause!

Posted in Children, Education | 5 Comments »

Save the Children, Now

April 2nd, 2007

I have for a long time now, been upset with the kind of upbringing Indian children are getting. This refers to children born in the 90s and after. Things like the ones below simply disgust me, cause me pain and despair.
1) Children watching violent/ explicit movies that even adults feel horrified to see
2) Kids fighting with parents for the latest toy/ dresses/ gadgets.. what have you!
3) Teenagers sitting in Coffee Parlours….sipping a cappuccino worth 60 bucks
4) Teenagers surfing the net on the behest of ‘studying’
5) Students carrying mobiles (latest ones mind you), ipods, owning personal TVs
6) Children eating junk food and not good old Indian Cuisine of roti, dal and sabji.

This list is almost endless for me. I get this extremely discomforting feeling inside whenever I witness these things. And for those people who say that upbringing is better in the eastern cultures as compared to the west, I think it’s about time they realized it isn’t so, at least not now. I have observed so many families where at least two of these things are pretty much an everyday affair. And these are regular, normal, happy families.

Less than six months ago, I met this teenager who according to his parents surfs the net to get more information on his subjects. This kid now has his own profile on orkut. He goes to school, is about 16 years old and I wondered if he has ever read even his own books. I wonder why a kid his age would need to be on a social networking site. If you tell me, it helps keep in touch with friends, isn’t email good enough? So what is he doing unmonitored on the web? I shudder to think of the possibilities.

I have seen teenagers sit for hours on end in café’s. I don’t understand how these kids manage to get that much money. As a child I never got pocket money. And any money I did get for small kiddy parties used to be monitored. Now I am not saying that we should curb all freedom of youngsters, but I fail to understand how gossiping in coffee days’ and barista’s helps improve their lives. To add to this, some kids even smoke. Why if you ask them, answer just spats out you ‘Its Cool!’. Cool??? I will let you decide.

Even worse is young girls (I can’t even call them young, these are toddlers below the age of five) dancing to really invigorating Hindi movie numbers. And parents actually feeling proud! What has happened to the parents?? Have any of you seen the boogie woogie dance show, the kids version. Man, how I hated it. I could not stand it for a second. I don’t get why kids need to dance to numbers like ‘Dhak Dhak karne laga’ when many sweeter songs like ‘Imli ka boota’ exist. Isnt it time for children to dance to ‘Clap your hands’ kinda rhymes. I mean they have the rest of their lives to dance to other songs. I wonder what happens to moral policing when it comes to these shows. And historical movies like WATER get the axe….

I could go on and on about how every thing is dark and gloomy. Thankfully, I have come across two (yes, only two) families with amazing parent child bond. The relationship is open/ honest and I have never seen kids of these families needing to lie or hide stuff. I wish that one day we stop hiding things below the carpet, and have more open parent-child relationships. I think the clock is ticking away on this. I worry for the child of tomorrow. Save the children, Now.

Posted in Education, Family | 6 Comments »

Driving License: License to kill OR privilege to drive?

March 29th, 2007

I do not need a survey to claim that almost 100% of the folks are frustrated with the traffic woes in India. I have been to many cities and all the cities have this problem albeit of different magnitude. Pune probably has one of the worst and maximum traffic violators. Virtually no one respects red lights, one ways, lane culture, speeding and high beams.

Few months back, one of my friends in Pune took the protected left turn (For the uninitiated, left turns in India are mostly free - left side driving) and a cop stopped him. My friend accepted to pay the fine and then he saw many people jumping red lights. He pointed that to the cop and the cop responded that its fine to jump red lights as it eases the traffic jam!!! The traffic discipline needs to be inculcated in the citizens as well as cops.

My top traffic grievances:

a) Jumping Red Lights: I just feel like killing those folks who jump red lights or honk me from behind when I am waiting on a red light.

b) High Beam: Couple of days back, I was driving from Indore to Pune and it was dark on Jalgaon-Pune road. All the vehicles (Bikes, Cars, Jeeps, Trucks, Buses) were driving on high beam. When it is pitch dark and you are driving on single lane highway on a hill with these vehicles coming to you with a high-beam, it just blinds you. If you are not vigilant and active as an owl, you will bump into the vehicles in front of you. No one understands and respects this law of driving on low beam. These vehicles are creating situations for accident to happen. For heaven’s sake, drive on low-beam unless necessary!

c) Driving on the wrong lane: Driving in the wrong lane is not only dangerous for you but for the oncoming traffic as well. It irritates the hell out of me when I am waiting in my lane for the traffic to get cleared and there is one indica crosses me from the wrong lane to beat the traffic. My time is as precious as the next person. Respect traffic, respect other people on the road and follow the lane discipline. It will not only clear the traffic jam quickly but also reduce accidents.

d) Two bikers driving side by side at 30kmph and gossiping on the road: I am very sure you have witnessed this camaraderie on the road. Two bikers going side by side on a road with 30kmph speed and covering the whole road. If you honk, they will give you a stare as if you are tress-passing their property! Be little aware and responsible while you are on the road.

e) Disrespecting one ways: One ways have been created for a purpose. It is to make our commute better. If we our-self abuse it, the whole purpose of one way is lost! I was cruising on NH4 from Bangalore to Chennai (part of golden quadrilateral) at 100+kmph in the rightmost fastest lane and suddenly I saw a guy(wearing a lungi but thats immaterial) on a bike with 100 odd plastic bottles on the back driving towards me! It scared the shit out of me and I had to shift to a left lane in fraction of a second. When I saw in my rear view mirror, that guy was actually shouting at me! Golden quadrilateral has cost the tax payers a fortune. Lets use it in the right way to maximize the return on its investment.

f) Parking at the turns: You do not have to be Einstein to understand that parking vehicles at turns create problems for the other vehicles. The turning radius increases and the vehicle taking the turn can not see if other vehicle is coming from the opposite direction. Be little understanding and park away from the turns in the designated parking spots.

Solution For Traffic Problems:
In my humble opinion, the traffic laws enforcement is very week. That’s why people have utter disrespect for the laws. They know if they violate a red-light, they will get away with paying 50-100 bucks as against to 200-500 bucks which is the actual fine. What if the actual fine is 2000 or 3000? Would not the cop ask for at least 500 rs in bribe to let the culprit free? If an auto driver has to pay 500 bucks for the traffic violation, he will think twice before jumping red-light. If the cop has a potential to make 500 bucks (thought with corruption), he will be more vigilant to catch these violators.

Another initiative to tighten the law enforcement can be that each traffic inspector needs to generate x amount of revenues in traffic fines every month. This will make them more vigilant and improve the law enforcement. May be these cops can get 25% of the excess fines collected as bonus every month. It will not only improve the traffic in cities, but also decrease corruption, increase taxes (as cops make more white money) and reduce traffic delays and frustrations!

We all need to understand that a driving license is a privilege and a responsibility and not a license to be disrespectful and threat to others.

Posted in Corruption, Traffic | 9 Comments »

The politics of city name change

March 28th, 2007

Bangalore - Bengaluru, Madras-Chennai, Bombay-Mumbai, Calcutta-Kolkata.. How significant is the name change? What is it’s positive impact on the city and its people?

Trivandrum became Thiruvananthapuram during the United Democratic Front’s rule in 1991
Bombay became Mumbai during Shiv Sena’s rule in 1995
Madras became Chennai during the DMK’s rule in 1996
Calcutta became Kolkata during the Left Front rule in 2001

The whole name change exercise involves crores of tax payers money! All the sign boards, government and private forms, notices need to be replaced and tenders of crores of money are opened. All this money is spent without a direct or indirect benefit to the citizen’s life. The money that can be invested into city’s infrastructure to make the citizen’s life better. That precious tax payers money, yours and my money goes into the hands of corrupt politicians, their friends and family. It just makes these good-for-nothing politicians better off by increasing their excess pile of money and probably some more votes to their kitty. We keep using the old names. I know my friends from “Kolkata” still prefer to address it as Calcutta, “Mumbai” is still Bombay for the people who have been living there for ages, Madras will never be Chennai for all the inhabitants. Do we really not have any checks and balances into our system to prevent such abuse of our money?

Taking cue from such easy way to dupe citizens and steal the tax payers money, many more name changes are the pipeline: Indore-Indur, Bhopal-Bhojpaland even more karnataka cities like Mysore, Belgam, Mangalore etc.

Other links on the same topic:
Rediff blog
outlook india article

Posted in Corruption | 1 Comment »

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