"Hug of Love" , "Prakash Baba Amte" and "Clean India Movement"

Today i read a news in "Times of India" titled "Hug of Love" and "Kiss of Love" which indicated that students from some universities came on road to protect their right of displaying their affection publicly.

This stirred lots of mixed emotions in my heart. Firstly I felt happy that the new generation of India is not dosile and is open to challenge the norms set by the traditional Indian society. I also felt happy that they have a common view on some cause and they feel an urge to come together and express their views. But then part of my mind asked me, was it really worth?

Few days back, I saw a nice Marathi movie, called "Prakash Baba Amte". It is a story of a great social worker Dr. Prakash Amte who devoted his life along with his wife Dr. Manda Amte for upliftment of the tribals in Hemalkasa, a remote place in Maharashtra where people were surviving just like animals. Strange thing, when Dr Prakash started his journey towards Hemalkasa, he was also of the same age to that of the students today, who are protesting for "Hug of Love". To add to the equation, marriage of Dr Prakash and Dr. Manda was a love marriage !! So he was also having similar attractions of life in his age as that of today's Gen Y. But he considered it important to utilize his energy for displaying his affection for the tribal, suffering from poverty and basic human needs than getting right of public display of his affection towards his partner.

A couple of events in last few days made me think deeply........

I stay in a housing complex which conducts many social activities. Currently we are enjoying "MVPL" in our housing complex, a cricket competition we have annually. I am amazed to see the active participation of Gen Y in this event. Everyone is full of energy and present much before time for playing as well as cheering in all the games. The environment is full of joy and youth, which makes me feel very positive.

Few days back, we also organized another event to support "Clean India" movement. More than hundred people participated in that as well, including small kids. But one thing that made me feel very sad was, minimal presence of the youth of our complex. The energy and interest shown in cricket competion was totally lacking from Gen Y side in that event.  

I don't want to challenge personal lifestyle or individual values of these youngster, neither do I want to term them good or bad. This is their personal life and they have complete right to enjoy it the way they want.  I just want Gen Y to introspect on one aspect. It is evident that they have a lot of energy, but is it getting utilized completely and is it getting utilized for right cause?

A polite request to the Gen Y to think about this with open heart, otherwise they can simply forget this considering yet another "Random Thought"

For more such random thought, do read http://pulsethoughts.blogspot.in

Acche din aa gaye?? NO, not at all

Can Modi do the miracle .... tomorrow??

Election 2014 had been a really hot and happening event. Although during campaign, there were we some incidents of typical communal vs. secular or caste based campaigns or some mud throwing at each other, for the first time campaign mainly focussed on development and change. Media and Social media were also very active in projecting this desire of Indian people, especially the educated ones. Now that the results are out and a new government with a strong leader are ruling the realm , have we got the "Acche din" which were sold as dream during this election?  

To answer this, we need to ask ourselves.. Can the new government stop the road side COP from taking bribe, starting tomorrow? Can it stop the rapes happening across the country in no time? Or can it even stop the people from spitting on road or from breaking the signal?  

Even for big concerns for which Modi was voted in by people like corruption , inflation and lawlessness  we need to think ..  Is corruption in political system going to stop from tomorrow? Is inflation going be negative from tomorrow? Or is lawlessness in our country going to disappear suddenly ?  Can Modi make some miracle and our country will become an ideal country, the way it was in past? If you ask me, the answer is big "NO".

Merely getting a new stable government and vibrant leader can not make any change to the dismal condition of our country, at least not immediately. As not just government but we ourselves are responsible for this situation. For the so called good days to come and for the system to change, more than government or Modi, we all Indians need to change ourselves. We need to have a clear definition of "Acche din"  a vision for tomorrow's India in our minds and be ready to contribute for that at personal level, forgetting our short term personal interests. We need to get back to the core Indian values respected by the world. Just voting and waiting for government to serve that dream as a ready meal is an impractical approach.

"Jugad" and "Chalata hai" and people sitting on fence.

India is known in world for its culture based on ethics and values. Every Indian feels proud about this. How ever for "Acche din" to come, we need to look back in past ten to twenty years and check are we still representing the same culture or have we deviated drastically from the core and have become self-centered individuals who are not not bothered about the society and nation.  

Recently I read in one of the articles that the word "Jugad" was accepted in Oxford dictionary and many Indians felt proud about this contribution. It is really sad that the country which was once known for being firm for its values contributed by giving the word "Jugad" which means adjustment at any level.

Another well-known term used by the Indians is "Chalata hai" which means "its ok" even for the most hopeless thing happening around them. People are so busy in earning money for them selves, they are knowingly doing a blind eye towards the immoral things happening around them, so long as they are not impacted. No one is bothered if some one is spitting on the road so long as his clothes are not getting dirty. They are also not bothered even if someone  raping a woman so long as she is not his mother, sister or daughter. For "Ache Din" to come, we all need to overcome these perils created by ourselves by running behind luxury and unnecessary pleasures.

Another problem with Indian society is the quick route taken by many smart (?) Indians of leaving the country calling it "unsafe" and "Not and place for me" . They are open to be critics of the country by sitting on fence; but are not willing to contribute for improving it. If the country needs to improve, it needs all to work together than just passing the buck on the problems in political and judicial systems

So, is election of a stable government and strong leader of no use to India?

In Sanskrit there is a saying.. "Yatha Raja, tatha praja" which means people follow the leader. If the prime minister and government are not sensitive towards the issues of corruption, women safety and national pride, how can the people of the country feel the same.  So when I ask myself, is presence of a stable government and strong leader of any use to India? I feel we disparately needed a stable government and sensitive yet strong leader who will feel pain of people and be first to console them protect them. We do not need the government and PM  to just take contract of solving the issues created by new society which has got exposed and suffered from the  perils of open economy, but to guide and motivate us with own example on how to protect our society from them. What Indians expected from their leader in past and expect even today, is their leader taking a specific stand and guiding them to take correct decision for many new problems it is facing due to sudden change in social values and economical status of society.

Overwhelming mandate given to the new PM is a good start towards the "Acche din" we all dream of but we all need to know that this is just the beginning and we need to travel a long a road for "Acche din" to come.

If you agree with me on the aspects mentioned in this blog, please do an introspection on how can we start the change from ourselves, else forget this article as just another "Random Thought"

Are we becoming a society of living dead?

Yesterday, on my way back home, I entered the Petrol pump and was waiting in the queue. A college going youth was standing just behind me. Despite the fact that mobile usage is prohibited in petrol pump due to associated risks, he took out his mobile and started typing message. I tried to convey him, not to do so and he ignored me. Thinking of safety I tried to convey this to the person working on the pump and the people around. But they also ignored as well. In fact the expressions on their face were as if "why this fellow is so anxious, everyone uses phone on petrol pump". It may be a very insignificant incident, but it made me think, have we really stopped bothering about the wrong things happening around us?

Recently, I was amazed by some news. First one presented the cricketer showing victory sign to the crowd even when caught in spot fixing and not for freedom struggle. Another one was a detailed coverage of procession of a film star convicted for keeping AK47 which he received from the one of the most wanted terrorist. Another painful news showed the top most leader and self proclaimed prime minister candidate of India waving flags for flood relief sent for impacted people in Uttarakhand as if starting the F1 race. I was not astonished by the news themselves, but either applause of certain set of society for these news and ignorance of remaining society towards them.

I remember the first series of bomb blasts in Mumbai around 1993. We all were shocked to the core. Everyone was fearing to move out the house and Mumbai was virtually closed for nearly a week. But people came out and started working after that. All applauded the courage, calm and patience shown by people of Mumbai But then ... ? It became a routine. Every year there was a bombing couple of times and people got killed. Next day or in fact within next few hours the life attended a normalcy. We all got used to these blasts. We all accepted it as part of the life. 

Just a year or so before, we had a big wave of anti-corruption movement. I fail to see any change due to that in our life. Even today there are big scams becoming public. Same is the case with the discrimination of women. Even after a movement lead by a few and creation of "Nirbhaya fund" I can read news of countless rapes. Starting from small things like 'pollution caused by plastic' , 'spitting on the road' to the complex problems of 'corruption' and 'social discrimination of women', we can not see any problem being resolved. Rather these problems becoming integral part of our life.

Question is why and how our society which was once known for its sensitivity and ethics, reached current state. It is very easy and obvious that we blame all these problems to 'N' number of reasons like lack of visionary national leadership, corrupt political and judicial systems or even globalization of Indian economy, as it is very easy to point finger to others. But have we not adopted ourselves  to this change, or rather are we not the ones who constitute this ruthless society? 

These problems are just the symptoms, the real worry is ... Are we becoming a society of living dead?

By the way its just another random thought...

Once upon a time when ... "I was offline"

Recently I had time out with my family at a beautiful hill stations. The place had nice nature around and was free from all sorts of pollution. But the key aspect I observed was that the hotel where we stayed had no network connectivity. Effectively "I was offline" temporarily as it was impossible to take calls, check mails or visit Facebook !! Initially I felt very itchy, due to habit of being 24X7 online and connected, but then started enjoying the solace of this offline life....
In fact, this stay reminded me the old days .... Once upon a time when I was offline
The Mobile was not present. Only one or two people had a landline phone at their home amongst all the people in entire small town. Phone had a simple bell ringtone and caller-tunes was a also the same bell sound ;).Computers were named with numbers like 386 /486 and were a wealthy possession of few renowned institutes , labs and offices. Concept of a super-rich person included possession of a personal computer. World was not horrified by possible Y2K problem and Sabir Bhatia was yet working on the concept of hot mail. There were laps but no laptops. There were tables but no tablets and there was no word like "Social media" invented by then. There were no phone calls, mails waiting to make anyone feel important. There were no likes and comments on Facebook to make anyone feel "connected" to their friends.
First I thought life was so boring, slow, empty and pleasure less but then felt one thing was for sure, everyone had time, peace of mind.
Office work could wait till next day even after being critical. Friends could meet each other rather than calling over mobile. People liked seeing printed copies of photos over a cup of tea rather than sharing the soft copies photos virtually. Everything had a personal touch. Everyone could share a real smile than just smiley over chat.
Being "online" today may be good or bad, but it surely is a necessity of life. So is the fun of old days lost for ever? Can we control our hunger of being 24X7 online , so that we can enjoy the midas touch of old life style, while using these gadgets and facilities for office work and for connecting with far away friends?
By the way it was just another random thought... :)

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 ... :)