Airport .. An intense experience

Today, during yet another "long" wait at the airport for my travel back home,I recollected a lot of happy and sad memories and journeys I have shared with "AIRPORT" and then a random thought came to my mind... How must an Airport be feeling as it shares such a variety of intense moments with so many people at the same time ...

　

At departures ...

Airport observes bored sleepy look on the faces of frequent flyers and happiness of families getting ready for their long holidays in some cool resort on some Island. It also observes the joy of kids going back to their own homes after a happy holiday in grand parents place. It shares the rush of people running to catch the flight and long waits for delayed ones.

It shares moments with many students travelling to start their studies in some American university or "Software Engineer kids" travelling for their first "onsite". Most of them not exposed to external world , never travelled out of their country, even for holidays. It can see the uncertainty of travelling to an unknown country, the fear of leaving their parent's shadow in their eyes and yet it can also see lots of dreams of a new beginning, sparkling in their eyes too .

But sadly It can not avoid seeing sorrow faces of grand parents separating from their grand children whom they may see only after an year or so. It can not avoid worried eyes of the parents saying good bye to their children with eyes full of tears as well. It has to witness the families stopped by security people, still standing for long time to see the last glimpse of the dear ones moving away through the departure gates. And it has to experience the grief and anxiety of the son travelling eagerly to say good bye to his demised father.

At arrivals ... there is an equally emotional scene.

Here the airport can see some exhausted travellers returning from their business visit or holidays, some eager and astonished faces trying to gauge the new place, some worried eyebrows thinking of "How to convey family about their safe arrival?". It also smiles at the people coming back to home after fulfilling their dreams.

It not only shares sleep of the hotel stalwart waiting for yet another new guest but also the anxious looks in the eyes of families waiting with flowers and checking each person coming out of the gate, thinking it will be their beloved. It wipes the tears of happiness on the face of father holding his baby for the first time or a husband holding his wife in his arms after a long separation...

　

May be that's why I sometimes feel airport is like a "Saint" who sees all yet keeps on working day in and day out without getting emotionally involved in the joys and sorrows of the people who share their intense moments with it ...

Indian Political system - Can it improve ?

Recently Team Anna ended up yet another "Fast" very fast and decided to enter in politics. Finally they realised that the politicians can not be changed by sitting outside the system and going on fast or satyagraha. These things used to work in 1940s when even brutal British government had to care about the people, but same is not case in 2012.

Even in the ceremony when our Parliament completed 60 years, all politicians agreed that they need to behave to make it a respectable place. So politicians also agree that functioning of Parliament needs a re-vamp.

If you ask any middle class Indian , if he will like his child to enter politics ? Answer will be a "BIG NO" !! Then one asks himself, which channels a parent will not allow his kid to watch. it will surely include the channel which shows live telecast of Parliament , as people will not like their kids to watch elderly people of her grand parents age fighting, abusing and throwing things at each other in a place meant for discussing issues of national concern.

So one thing is for sure that all people including the politicians, the social workers and even the general citizens of India feel that the political system has deviated from base values on which it was set up just after the independence and this deviation is not towards betterment of system. So as a citizen of this country some random thoughts came in my mind in regards to the betterment of this system

What are the visible problems in our political system ?

Power hunger:

Democracy has become a number game than a social system. Since last few elections a single party is not getting complete majority in the house. Any political party supporting the government has more say than people running a government and can make things happen like policies twisted, decisions reversed and ministers toppled. One can feel a lot of power game or Horse trading happening in the background, some times clearly visible when members of parliament show the currency given as bribe in the house itself !!!

Corruption:

If a news paper prints without a news on corruption charge related to any prominent leader then citizens of India will feel that they are out of India. In fact sometimes one can feel that the rise in amount of bribe given in each scandal can be considered as a indicator for devaluation of rupee value !! It is not sure if there is zero corruption in other countries, but it is sure that no one can bit India's ranking in this criteria. Just refer the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_in_India for details !!! As per the site first one was worth 80 lakhs in 1948 and latest one in 2012 is worth 1,070,000 crore (Hope I have not missed any zeros ;) )

Criminalisation:

One can see many people sitting as member of parliament with a number of pending cases against them. In fact it will be easy if one tries to find out the number who do not have any case against them. But no one can say that parliament is full of criminals, as our judicial system says one can not be considered criminal unless proved in the court (and then there are so many courts on top of each other to go :)) .

Family politics and boot-licking:

Indians are traditionally known for their devotion towards gods , kings or gurus than a thought process. Now a politician families have become a part of this list. In fact many people even do not feel it odd to present them as 'Avatar' of gods !!

Lack of behavioral decency:

Throwing shoes microphones and talking loudly has become part of basic culture of house both in parliament and assembly. When one looks at the functioning of Parliament in other countries like Great Briton or United States,it makes us feel shameful the way world's largest democracy is run.

What is the root cause?

India has undergone a rapid social and economic change following opening up of economy, in fact it is still undergoing the changes. The economic growth has given ample money and sudden visibility of numerous luxuries to the people who had to wait for a year for scooter or had never seen a mall in their life. This has resulted in grid for all pleasures even when a person may or may not afford it which in turn has made people opportunist and characters have developed ethical deficit forgetting previous traditional values.

What needs to change?

Selection process:

How many of us actually go for voting ? Looking at the percentage of voting declared it feels that the decision of forming a government is taken by handful people and most of the people are not bothered as they are very busy either in worries of their life or in the luxuries of their life.

Also out of the people who vote, how many know the person whom we vote? Traditionally people have set mind to vote for a particular party irrespective of the candidate of that party being capable.

Can we have some educational and ethical pre-requisites and criminal or legislative limitations to make sure sensible people lead this country than the ones who have a tainted records ?

Appraisal process:

Every school has exams at regular interval or at least a periodic evaluation process and success or failure of the student is decided based on that. Every professional organization makes an employee undergo appraisal and their salaries are made to vary based on the rating they get !!

How ever one can not see any appraisal or assessment process for any of the government organizations including Parliament. Why is this so? When these member of parliament are meant to serve the country and run the most critical house which can decide the fate of of country why is their no appraisal process for them and why are their benefits / tenures dependent on that ?

Not sure if people who are actually responsible to bring upon these changes but sadly are busy in filling up their own pockets will care about these changes, but at least mentioning these on a blog give a common man satisfaction of expression.

How costly is happiness today?

    Yesterday during bus travel I heard an interesting conversation ... A dad was talking to his friend about his son .. He was telling that his son is not happy as his bed room is not having separate TV even when  the parents have ... and the solution that man thought was "Let it be .. will buy him a new one .. few thousand more" .. I was amazed .. not because he was going to spend so much of money for the TV which may not be even used.. but because the father thought it easy to "buy" happiness for his son by shading off money  .. Happiness was really costly here !!!

       So my mind started thinking ... can we we buy happiness? may be yes ... should we buy happiness? may be yes ... but how far should we go to buy the happiness ? And should we first understand the real happiness someone wants ?

   In  the incident of TV ... why is son really needing a separate TV in his personal bedroom? Obviously because he is not getting enough of time from his parents and is looking for that company in the TV... To get this new TV, what will the parent do ? May be work a few hours more in the office to get better incentive or may go for tour to earn additional chunk ... effectively giving even further less time to the kid .. so is the son getting the real happiness and is effort taken by parent worth it ?

  TV reminds me of my childhood, when there used to be one " black and white" TV per building than per room .... We all used to gather in the neighbour's house to see the TV. There used be a group of at least 15 to 20 people .. but no one felt it be crowd and enjoyed the movie together ... happiness did not need money then ..

   Someone will say it was past .. gone are those days .... in today's world we must spend to get the happiness .. so thought to share one more incident ... Recently one evening when I was waiting on the Bandra Terminus for a cab, a poor family waiting for their late night train was relaxing around. The son was getting bored, so the dad took out a coin of 1 rupee and got him 2 chocolates .. The son was so happy and enjoyed eating the chocolate and playing with wrapper for nearly an hour ... happiness does not need much money now also !!!

  During my "Art of Living" course they made to undergo an exercise, which many felt to be stupid or funny... We were told to sit, closing our eyes and a half piece of grape placed on our tongues.... With closed eyes and focused minds we were told to taste the grape slowly. Some found it boring, but with a focused mind some enjoyed the taste more than ever with just half piece of grape. They were able to get the happiness which even a kg of grape eaten without focus could not have given in regular life ... shared this just to say .. even for happiness quality matters than quantity ...

Happiness is priceless ... if we can classify the needs wants and luxuries and treat to them like that .. believe in quality of happiness than quantity .. we can get unlimited happiness for free ... :)
  

Corruption Pollution and Population .... Anna Hazare

I am not planning to give any view on Anna Hazare or the series of recent "Live TV shows on FASTS" !!! But adding Anna in the headline catches eyes of a lot people hence did so. Since we have started with Anna, let me start with Corruption! What is corruption for a common man and what are areas where it impacts him the most in "day to day" life. Being from a middle class, service going family in Indian metro, I come across the corruption mainly at 3 or 4 places. When a person like me buys a house he visits many government offices and spends a lot of time in moving across them. When he goes for buying a car or a bike, he visits again some government offices. But these are less frequent or rather once or twice in lifetime events. Then when do we "meet" corruption daily? May be when we travel on the roads and meet friendly cops? Or try to catch a rick with a tampered meter? Or some similar instances. "Is there any corruption involved there?" is the first question that comes to mind of most of us.

        ... Problem is exactly there. We have accepted these as part of our life / system. Our mind and values have accepted them as a legitimate part of us and since we don’t find them as something wrong happening around us, we are not able to change it. It’s a problem of mind set!

        Pollution ... everyone talks passionately about this. Let me tell you an excellent event that happened few days back... and happens every year. Recently we finished with the "Ganesh fest" and there was hue and cry about the "Eco-friendly Ganesh idols", still most of the idols were made of Plaster of Paris and everyone was silent as it touches so called "religious" feelings. Not only that on the next day of immersion procession, there was heap of soiled plastic cups and bottles on the roads, curtsey - water provided to people in procession by various political parties and social organizations. And people felt it their right to dance throughout the time on loud music. So effectively people were causing all possible types of pollution and sadly enjoying it.

        It’s been long time since people have accepted that cars run on horn than the accelerator or carrying a cloth bag for shopping is "down-market" or "Inconvenient" or keeping dry and wet garbage separately in "Waste of time". So same question resonates in our minds, "what’s so wrong in that?"

         .... And yet again problem is exactly there. We have accepted these as part of our life / system. Our mind and values have accepted them as a legitimate part of us and since we don’t find them as something wrong happening around us, we are not able to change it. It’s a problem of mind set!

        Now let me touch upon the biggest problem faced by the country of 1.21 billion ... Population (Hope the counting is correct?). True that it’s our strength sometimes (like in deciding where the cricket matches will be played etc.), but more often it is our limitation. I read an interesting comment after recent Delhi blast, "People of metros in India are sitting ducks for any blast". Next day I was at Mumbai CST and I wondered how can we have security for a railway station which carries people equivalent to population any small country in Eastern Europe every day within morning hours? It is practically impossible.  Effectively the value of human life has gone so cheap that politician’s feel giving a few hundred thousand for people’s death in blasts a huge charity!         The country which accepted the kids as "Gift of god" (especially male child !) has not understood the importance of family planning even after so many years of independence and sadly politicians are happy as they are able to get more and more poor people whom they can buy for votes. When a common man thinks of all this.. he feels "It is like this for years how can I change it? and even if I feel it wrong is it going to change?"

         .... And yet again problem is exactly there. We have accepted these as part of our life / system. Our mind and values have accepted them as a legitimate part of us and since we don’t find them as something wrong happening around us, we are not able to change it. It’s a problem of mind set!

        All the three major problems ask the same set of questions ... "when will this mindset change?" which makes us think.. "Do we have leaders whom we can respect and who can change this problem of mindset?" which in turn suggests "Do we really elect proper set of people who can help this?”..

        We "All" need to think and answer these questions without letting our "mindset" and "inertia of stagnancy" coming in our way, if we really want to change .. than opting for and momentarily cheering "Live TV shows on FASTS" !!!

I wonder why !!!

when a kid throws mud at another kid, he also throws it back ... sadly our politicians also behave same way .. just that they lack the clean heart of the kids.. but i still go for voting ... i wonder why !!!!
in last thirty years i have not seen a single politician who is not either corrupt or not supported corruption dirrectly or indirectly for his or her benefits ... i have not seen a single government office where bribe is not taken or even a single case of bribery being punished by court .. i still believe in the democracy and judicial system ... i wonder why !!!
everyday comes with a bad news and everyday life here is becoming full of problems and sorrows ... but i still want to stay in this country ... i wonder why !!!

They really need help - Can we help them a bit ?

I recently visited to Snehajyoti Blind School during my visit to our native place. It is situated in the remote village of Gharadi, Taluka - Mandangadh, District - Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India.

This school is run by selfless and devoted teachers who have sacrificed their comforts and pleasures for the cause of this school and the blind children. Starting from scratch in year 2003, the school today has 30 students and a small building with hostel, classrooms, music room and a mess for children. The school is run entirely on the donations and not on any govt. grants / funds.

The school provides free education, accommodation and food to the blind children who hail from the nearby villages. Believe me these children come from very poor families who cant even think of educating and sustaining such children. Many of the parents even do not have money to visit their kids.

When we travelled to that school we were astonished to find out that the school is run such a remote place and with very limited resources. The roads on which the blind teachers travel to teach the students are in real bad shape and there is severe shortage of water for the students who stay there and learn.

After seeing the conditions of the school and the passion of the teachers working even with these constraints, I thought of writing with a special purpose, a selfless purpose which will help to make the blind children's life confident and beautiful.

A small help from each one of us can make a difference to the lives of these blind children and will go a long way in shaping their future.There could be many more ways in which you may help and contribute to this good cause, only if you wish to. I am sure this contribution of yours would not go waste on the contrary it would be the most fulfilling one. Should there be any reservations / difficulties on your part to contribute directly, you may still contribute by spreading the word to all your known contacts who in turn may spread this word for help.

Also for any additional information please visit ---  http://www.sjvidyalaya.org/

If you can once visit the school personally it will be really great. Address of the school is :  Village Gharadi, near Dahagaon, Taluka - Mandangadh, District - Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India.
Contact: 91- 8806200615 / 91-9673474623

Hope and retained earnings account

Yet another year is over and everyone is getting ready to celebrate ... I think why? yet another sun set and another morning will come .. but then my mind answers my brain... this is the book closure of all good bad , happy sad moments ... where god has given us opportunity to move all profits and lossses of life in the 'retained earnings' account and start afresh a new book of memories... thank god we have this day called 31st dec...