About Me

Sunday, November 29, 2009

IRRATIONAL VERSION OF DEMOCRACY IN INDIA


India’s democratic period is short lived. It begins at the commencement of any election, survives through the voting process and ends there itself, doesn’t even last till the results are declared.
WE voted you for your promises, we chose you because we believe in you. You promised to make our lives better, you promised a beautiful India for us, BUT TODAY I HAD TO PEEP BACK INTO MY DICTIONARY TO CHECK OUT THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY. Today, I again read the literary connotation of this term, tightly packed inside the pages. I feel since many years democracy has been suppressed inside the D order of dictionary and what we have survived with till date is just a mirror image of it. Wanted to check my thought process on this but, from time to time autocracy in diplomatic formats have appeared from the bags of almost all the political parties who corresponds to the wider practice of equality. Do I need to name a few? BJP, RJD, MNS or Shiv Sena (I think same stuff), Trinamool… ok, these are only examples. Not even scholars and sports personnel have spared themselves, no wonder the sports authority of India is studded with questions about the gloomy sporting spirit of Indian players!
Think about the scholars of yesteryears who had the mighty power of the pen to bring in the best out of those hammering days of British Raj. And today the blessed brains have allowed the political bug to nibble them to insanity. These are dignitaries of India but no moral can be drawn from their methodology, for today politics is the prop of the criminals of yesterday too. Wherever opportunity flashes, it seeps its way to a battleground, be it the parliament or the news channel office, both of which are exemplary structures of democracy. The recent uprisings in both these houses have mocked the very foundation of democratic India. It has gone beyond shame and how happy must be the ghosts of those that made India bleed during the freedom struggle. The irony is that politicians are quarreling, scholars are outlining logic and the criminals have become mentors of the state of affairs, tables turned!
Freedom of Media is shaken many a times or always. Questions and debates are conducted yet the participants or the host of such shows have no idea that they are only giving smiles to those who love an autocratic system in the veil of Democracy. I LOL away such shows where editing sieves away the democratic content from the shows.
Here we experience Democracy in the format of BY the People, FOR THE POLITICIANS & OF THE POLITICIANS. Now what obstacles are on the way for full practice of democracy in India? This will continue to be debated now and then without intimidating the autocrats of the season. Globalization, nuclear power etc. are other side effects showered upon us. I wonder, with this mirage of democratic syndrome, how far India can survive the blows from China and Pakistan or for that matter any other country.
If I have to conclude, then I need to continue telling that India is yet to experience democracy. Give us the democratic aura even after the elections gets over.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

A Differently Abled Child at Home

If at all my words makes sense it is possible that this is not half of the ordeal we have been through in the last 34 years. What is different? She talks like me, she thinks like me, she feels like me, she is emotional, she feels the cold, she knows what needs to be done in summers, she laughs like me, she weeps like me… yet she is different. Her heart and mind are of just a 5 year old and it never grew beyond that. She is still that little child. Maybe all cannot understand how trying it is to have a child who is different, who is not normal or more so who is differently abled.
As a closed knit family we have been so happy and I along with my two sisters had a very blessed childhood. Soon my parents’ toughest battle started and they were not aware or didn’t accept at that time that this is a life long struggle and perhaps will continue even after that. The realization that my younger sister cannot continue her studies further in a normal school. At that time her age was just 5 years and to go beyond K.G. class was not possible. She was unable to grasp things after a certain stage and the principal nun of that school called my parents to say so. Here was a shock, my parents were so ignorant, and tried to find the roots as to what went amiss. I am too less with words of expression, me and my elder sister were too young to even get the vibes of our parents agony. I cannot recall that day and for how many more days they must have ran from here to there in search of truth. Went back to the doctor in whose hands my sister was born, a very much normal delivery. The doctor is my dad’s cousin and definitely took utmost care in everything. The reasons couldn’t help in her treatment and we had one option and that is to go with the truth. Should I skip writing my parents’ those moments? Has anyone gone through such torments? Can anyone give me some words to describe?
Now what, at play I would be guiding her and keep a constant vigil, all I knew was that she is different. Often my lil’ troop makes fun of her inability to play a game well, where I stood fighting for her and wouldn’t allow anyone to even come near her. She was the angel of our house and her protection was the foremost duty for us two sisters. Gradually we learnt to live with the shortcomings before we learnt that she is differently abled. From medical treatment to tantrik tricks we have not spared a chance to see her as one like us. Don’t know how much money has flown away for our one wish and that to without seeing a pinch of success.
Ok much later we learnt that she cannot be cured 100% but sure to a lot if proper methods were adopted. Sometimes she is very sweet, sometimes aggressive, all in various moods which seemed difficult to understand. It was a struggle for all of us to keep her happy, simple she wanted love, and she understands only the language of love. To understand the gravity at large I even attended workshops whenever feasible for me.
She wants to talk, speak out everything in her heart, she goes to a special school and wants to share all her day to day activities. All we need is give her attention. Sometimes it’s very difficult to cope up as we too are also preoccupied, and do feel guilty of not being able to take care as required. To move over the social stigma was not easy, and still we find it difficult to confront certain sections of the society. To answer in-numerous questions of these people, Gosh! Ask me how much effort is required to tell them that they are harmless, love them and you can mean the world to them.
I know she also has a dream of having her own family, maybe she too wants a man in her life who would pamper her, love her, but is this possible? I sometimes feel she wants to express such things, knowing that it is not possible I can only change the topic to more of a childish play. We are trying to make each day a happy one for her, for us, don’t know the success rate yet and maybe we will not count and look back either. Now that years have gone by we are still not sure of what we finally want to see.
She is just one child in the house and there are so many around, and the families must have gone through the same. We need to single out what is special about them, in many and major aspects they are not you and me, let us count on their capabilities and enhance them, only we can make place for them. Let us make some time for them. Let us love them.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Online Scams…. My Story



Albeit the number of times discussion on online scams here are some encounters which I surfaced to during the last couple of days. No doubt there is a super flow of emails where surprisingly without applying anywhere my ID win lotteries and blah blah … of course I was not caught with these gimmicks and be intelligent to understand that no one is going to pay for nothing that you have done.
The great recession too is approached with creative scores by these scammers where original letter heads of reputed organizations are used with true copy of agreement but mind you… if interested then send back mails in private IDs and not to company email IDs… Gosh! I was almost caught with this one… thanks to a timely article in an online edition of Times of India which brushed my apprehensions. Now to mention those scammers with AFF links in their profiles to increase their hits in such adult portals have flooded the internet from time to time.
To be more lucent with my idea of doing this blog here is one incident from where I give into being internet savvy, especially if you are a woman… look back if you were ever trapped within your innocence. The social portals have much to offer and friends can be just great ones dressed with cool attitudes, God fearing and those who never fail to sprinkle sweetness in the most adverse moments.
Mostly Nigerians working as a team, these elements move at a slow pace to meet their ultimate goal after convincing their candor…all are fakes and some use pics of white origin to establish their point. Even if they claim to be situated in UK or elsewhere, if a proper check is done one can easily see their location as Nigeria. Usually trying to catch single women for their own convenience for they are easy catches. Well! To reveal here my bit…nah! Absolutely not, I was ever trapped with anyone. By the time this one person entered my arena I was already aware of scammers.
Naturally my digging nature allowed him to gradually grow with the friendship where both our goals were met…his plans for scams and mine to pull him out of the shell. Oh! The jolly good hunk was finally in need of money and I was closer to my destination and in the mean time I extracted all data about this fella from the internet. Now what? I agreed to pay him as much as he wants and asked him how should I be sending the sum and here it goes… all his account details was in my mails… Ok here the situation wasn’t really to the mark…he was sued from that particular social portal with reason being a scammer, that’s it.
Wished the data could have been utilized to break the racket… Phew! He still exists in other sites and maybe in the look out for new catches… BTW, later on many similar profiles which I believe are either the same or his gang members, both men and women started visiting my arena…until a few days this continued….
I still feel if rightly approached a new dimension will be discovered in search for scammers.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Security Malice & The Common Man


Our PM deeply regrets the death of Sumit Verma a kidney patient of Chandigarh and in his letter to the family states that "I have issued instructions so that in future authorities are more sensitive to the concerns of the common man while imposing such restrictions for reasons of security,"
Who should be blamed? The PM, the security planners, the state ministers or who else can be dragged and made a scapegoat. He writes to the family of the deceased just a case handled by media.
Since you started sitting behind tinted glasses and drove away at a super speed, Mr. PM forgot the woes of the commons who suffer amidst such security measures. The entire VIP Mandal has brought such traumatic situation in different places at various times. The state or regional drama is at its fullest to make the visiting VIPs happy even though at the cost of the common man’s security, health, time etc.
I was once trapped in such a situation when the President was on her visit to Assam. Traffic was brought to a halt in evening hours through the route from airport and I had to travel 2 hrs back home after the day’s work and with me was thousands of passengers waiting who suffered the same issue. There was not a trace of any city bus from hours before her flight landed and it continued till late in the night perhaps until she left the city. At that time there was none who thought for the Janta. I wonder how come it didn’t click in the mind of the highest authority of the country as to why the streets were so clean or was this effect of population control! Until and unless one sees the natural happenings within a city, how do we expect one to bring solutions to our grievances?
Another similar incident took place when her highness Sonia Gandhi visited. The entire city was in a chaos, how & where the traffic was diverted no one knew and as a result of these there was hours of traffic jam. This started in the morning hours and continued till late in the afternoon. Oh! The lil’ kids were returning from school and in the scorching heat with hungry bellies had to wait for hours to get back home. The pain that these kids or the rest had to face was no one’s issue but Sonia Ji khush hai. Many must have reached their work place late risking their jobs… who will answer the boss?
Sumit Verma is just one case in the entire nation and thanks to media who made it so national. I believe the media surge will not end here and more truth will be uncovered with similar symptoms.
Wait! the story doesn’t end here, in the city the movements of the ‘state level’ VIPs is no less torturous when traffic is halted until the CM’s or other ministers convoy passes off and mind you this can happen at any time of the day. Our time, money & health… Phew! Care two hoots! Lekin Janta vote dete rahna! Never stop voting.