The Sun is Rising

In the year 2017 we shall be celebrating 70th year of Independence! Seven decades is an appreciable period for a country to charter it’s development plans and policies and  for their effective execution to create health for all, wealth for all and ensure peaceful life for all. But, it didn’t happen.

While our population grew from close  to 35 Crore in 1947 to more than 125 Crore in 2015, our political leaders too grew politically and financially stronger; but, the country and the common man suffered. We erred in framing right policies, we didn’t implement with sincerity whatever was right and we didn’t set goals for our citizens. Yes, the government did have the Panch Varshiya Yojanas, for ritual sake and may be for budgetary provisions. As a result, in the name of development we uprooted our jungles and replaced them with concrete, we did establish big business houses, developed metro cities and slums with them,  created some infrastructure here and there but the rest of India and it’s population remained deprived of the development plans. Even today, if we take detour from the main peripheral roads of big cities and walk two to three kilometres away from the road and into the villages, no wonder, it is likely that there won’t be pucca road, potable drinking water or a good school! Chaotic cities are the limit of development!

It is primarily because the policies  so far have largely not been people oriented. The governments didn’t ever think of developing the people, enhancing their skills and providing them environment to pursue work in their  own field of interest. Secondly, focus so far had been on schemes for physical development which are largely restricted to some areas only and that too with political gains in mind. Thirdly, whatever projects were undertaken were not monitored during execution and afterwards. This resulted in encouraging  the involved authorities for their own short term gains without fear. All this combined together created a class of cash rich people and who were and are still seen as successful people. No wonder why we associate ‘success’ with money only. This definition should change now.

With advent of PM Modi things seems to change now with the initiatives that he is taking and the commitment that he is demonstrating. The emphasis should be to focus on the various critical areas and concentrate on the functioning of the systems of specific and critical area and making improvement in them rather than depending on individual driven systems.

From the bottom of my heart I wish that PM Modi should now take up the project for revamping of our education system. Teaching is not a much preferred option these days; but, it should change now. We must have the best people in teaching profession who are not only knowledgeable, but are effective communicators and who have high regard for the Indian values too. It is not that our people are mediocre, but mediocrity has been forced upon them due to unprofessional education system. The education system should be so designed that the creativity of children and youth forms the core of their education. Then only they can excel in their own field and can compete with the best in the world.

Unless we channelise the energy of our children and the youth and provide them environment to flourish in their area of interest, our dream for be becoming a developed nation will remain a distant dream.

However, with PM Modi at the helm of affairs, I think it is time for our country to shine and shine brighter. I can see the rising Sun!

No more Aman ki Asha but our New Found Might can bring Peace

The seed of Pakistan as a nation and in the name of religion was sowed long before independence by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, also known as Quaid-E-Azam. As early as in 1929, Jinnah in his 14 point charter talked of two nations - India and Pakistan, one Hindu and another Pakistan! When a country is born with such psyche, much can’t be expected from it. We can say, Pakistan is in existence for close to nine decades now, but it hasn’t changed a bit, rather it might have dropped several notches on the human index counts- compared to its own score at inception. With the kind of governance it has experienced and the way its people have been mentored, I see no light in the coming decade at least.

On the contrary, India traditionally being a land of spirituality, powerhouse of knowledge and one that respects all cultures and religions; has left behind Pakistan in almost every field. And it is marching ahead with the world, to bring in more prosperity to its people.

Post Uri Attack and after the surgical strike by India in response to Pakistan’s dastardly act, India has found a new identity of itself – of a no non-sense nation! We must capitalise on it. We must not now fool around with Pakistan holding olive branches and singing ‘Aman ki Asha’. It is sickening. Enough time and resources have been spent on it, to no avail. The only beneficiaries have been tbe Pakistani artists, writers, businessmen,  et al.

While going through the website of Aman ki Asha, I chanced upon a coverage dated October 8, 2016 regarding visit of a youth delegation, that recently visited India. It was led by one Ms. Aliya of Pakistan who has quoted that one of the Pakistani parent on knowing that she is on way to India, commented her ‘Pagal  ho! India kaun jaata hai? Zinda wapis nahin aate wahan se.’  Aman ki Asha started in January 2010, and the above statement after putting six years of sincere efforts for mutual confidence building clearly demonstrates the futility of such exercise. And did it bring down export of terrorists by Pakistan, by any measure? We must stop all such pseudo platforms.

I also pity our Indian intellectuals who bat for Pakistani actors and artists. Do we have dearth of talent at home? At a time when Pakistani involvement in terrorist acts is well known, why we can’t do away with Pakistani artists? My simple question to the so called intellectuals is, if their neighbour happened to kill one of their family members, will they invite the child of the same neighbour to sing for a celebration at their homes, even after a decade? Then, why the soft corner for a terrorist state?  

Peace is a misnomer in context of India-Pakistan relations, primarily because of Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir. It can be achieved only with might. We keep on saying that it is our integral part, why we don’t integrate it in real sense? It is time to flush out all the terrorists hiding within our territories- striking them in a fashion it was done in Surgical Strike across the LOC,  based on pin pointed inputs. One or two such strikes would create an environment that locals won’t dare to shelter them. Also, once we kill a terrorist, why do we bother for religious rituals? They should be left to the vultures and other scavengers.

 Further, Government must take expeditious actions now to develop infrastructure and create means of livelihood for the local Kashmiris. Once we create opportunity for jobs, sense of security in masses; I am sure that the peace loving Kashmiris would never fall in Pakistani terrorists traps and designs. Subsequently, even the PoK residents may clamour for integration with India. I bet!

Uri Attack Avenged!

The early morning strike by pakistani terrorists on Uri Army Camp where 18 Indian soldiers were killed, once again has been very agonising. The unabated flow of terrorists from across the border, their ability to pierce deep into our sensitive installations and attack at will has been a cause of disillusionment to many of us. Specially after the Uri attack, the video footage showing smoke rising over from the army camp kept me distracting. I was asking myself, even after such attacks what stops us to take action against the terrorists and Pakistan, the sponsor and exporter of terrorism. In the process of asking questions to myself to understand the reasons, I had in fact written a full article titled ‘ What Stops Us’ after Uri attack  for this blog, but I kept it aside with a view to further improve it. But now, what I had been asking for in my unpublished post has been answered well by PM Narendra Modi with his Surgical Strike! However, I would like to share some of the questions and to some extent my feelings with you.

Why we don’t take action on Pakistan for its state sponsored terrorism? Is it because of lack of our confidence? Or, it is lack of commitment? Is it our lack of empathy towards our own people or fear of the anticipated external pressures? Or, is it our lack of preparedness? Does only Pakistan holds the license to kill? Can’t we pay them back in the same coin? Many such questions came to my mind, which could answer our indecisiveness on countering Pakistan’s ill designs.

Chanakya, the man with unbound political wisdom had said, ‘ Seedhe Ped aur Seedhe Manushya Sabase Pahale Kaate jaate hain’. I am quoting it here just to stress that India being a peaceful nation has had been troubled by Pakistan for decades. India understands its responsibilities and Pakistan had been exploiting India’s non-aggressive nature by hurting it at will. In my draft article I wanted this non-aggression   to go and had advocated for following ‘ You pinch me, I shall trample you’ philosophy with Pakistan. On 29th September 2016 one of my colleague broke the news to me that India has attacked Pakistani terrorists Camps across the LOC, in PoK. Total forty killed, no casualties on our side!

It was like fulfilling of a long cherished dream, that one had been living with. After coming home from office, i must have watched TV news, press conference by DGMO and all related news for more than two hours! Viewing the news was never so exciting. The surgical strike has not only given a very strong message to the world of terrorism, it has also restored our sense of pride and faith in the government. Kudos to our Para Commandos for their skilful strike without any casualty, heap of praise for our 56” ‘Seena Waalaa’ PM, salute to our Chiefs of defence forces and sincere thanks to the entire opposition party – today India is on one platform. Today for the first time, even Rahul Baba openly praised Modiji for the Surgical Strike.

Now, the terrorists and Pakistani government might be planning to take revenge as a face saver; but we have been able to terrorise the terrorists and all of them must be having sleepless nights! The war is not over. We have taken it to their ground. And yes, we have found the medicine for Pakistan.

Let’s focus ourselves in our work, be more productive to our organisations and be frugal in our expenses. Let’s contribute in making the new found avatar of India a force to reckon with, in all the spheres of development.

Jai Hind!

The Real World Then and The Cyber World Now!

I am not going to compare between the stone age and today’s world . ‘The Real World Then’ means to me are the years 70s to 90s or prior to it and ‘The Cyber World’ is the period since 2000 onwards – the advent of Cyber games and the social media.

Since I have referred Stone Age, I am pretty sure that humans then must have really enjoyed their time together; with no FB, Whatsapp and Twitter accounts to monitor, text and wait for the likes, smileys and reactions from the Cyber friends. They lived a simple life, ate frugally, didn’t aspire to own the limousines and loved the company of each other. Today, whether we are at airport whiling away our time or travelling by train, in hospital attending to someone or in a resort on a leisure trip; we keep staring at our mobile screens, keep updating and texting oblivious of our immediate environment and even ourselves! We spend hours together on it, aimlessly and at the same time we talk of paucity of time! While together on a particular occasion, one can see all sitting in a row or a group and tapping on their mobile touch screens ; rarely talking or laughing together. A common site these days, irrespective of age.

As a child, in the village, we loved to be out of our homes and parents didn’t bother much. Spending the hot summer days on mango trees or looking for ripe jamun was a common thing. Loitering in the ‘dalaaln’ or chewing the sugarcane for hours together was not objectionable. Mothers searched for us only if we missed our meals! Today, we don’t allow our kids to go out. Safety, security being their prime concern and shortage of open play area being the other. Kids too do not prefer the outdoor games, instead they prefer cosily sitting on sofa with  their tabs, internet games being much more engaging than simply running around  or playing ‘aais-baais’ with friends and sweating out just for fun. As an adult we fear for their injuries, bad company, or spoiling the well manicured society Lawns!

As a grown up, I saw relatives visiting us and they stayed with us for days together, on our own insistence. It is not that we or other villagers were very rich. Visitors were simply provided a  wooden ‘chowki’ placed in the ‘Daalaan’ having a thick cotton ‘dari’ with a bedsheet and a multipurpose ‘Lota’! What was ensured for the guests was – respect for them, timely food and lot of time! Alas, in villages too the environment has undergone a drastic change. You may agree that, today younger generation is conspicuous by their absence in the villages. Most of the homes are occupied by old denizens in their 70s or above! People don’t mingle, now  televisions and mobiles are there to kill their time. Today, in villages too you will feel as lonely as in the towns!

Earlier, while we were really concerned with the well being of near and dear ones; today, the likes, the emoticons and the comments have replaced them. Uploading the updates, photos of the events, programs on the cyberspace gives us the feeling of sharing and belongingness; which sometimes I feel is right and sometimes I think is a misplaced idea ! Many times I find people forwarding, liking and emoting on posts which were probably not understood by them. It is pathetic. Once I found many ‘Likes’ to a post which mentioned about sickness of a family member!

Today, social media has also created pseudo citizens and pseudo spiritualists! I call pseudo citizens and pseudo spiritualists to those people who actually are not that good in their personal dealings, but preach you by sharing posts about values of life! Open any Group in your Whatsapp account, you will find the same messages being circulated. But, the good thing about it is that it reflects that somewhere deep inside, they value the relation , they value the individuals, they value truthfulness, they value the country, they value the culture.  And that is good enough, if one is able to really add some value to even a small number of members!

I always wonder about - for what we all aspire today -  lot of time, real peace and happiness! For all these things, do we need anything? We need to learn a lot from the living forms – other than the human beings. So were we, in the stone age! Happy!

 The misnomer – development – robbed us of all!

I Have Ants in My Fridge

I am a great admirer of the nature and it's creations, big and small alike. And the untiring Ants are one of my favourites, but certainly not something to keep them in my fridge. But I have them, in hundreds! Though they are not a permanent resident of it, but surely they are treating it as a great source of delicious eatables! The continuous two way traffic of the Ants to and fro from the fridge carrying bits of their loot, but in a disciplined way like a soldier has truly impressed me and humbled me like never before!

It all started when I got commissioned an old fridge kept in the bachelor accommodation allotted to me recently at my new place of posting. After thorough cleaning with liquid detergent and sanitising it with antiseptic Dettol, I started using it. Initial two days were incident free as I was busy in stocking the fridge with ready-made namkin, biscuits and certainly some green vegetables. The next morning I opened a biscuit packet and had one or two with morning tea. The remaining packet was duly kept secured in the fridge. In the evening upon returning from office I opened the fridge to have something and I picked up the same biscuit packet. Suddenly I found a few Ants on the back of my palm and then I realised that the packet had many many more Ants,  little agitated as I disturbed them by moving the packet. Seeing them in the biscuit packet shocked me and I felt a bit frustrated too! My immediate mental response was like – Oh My God!  How come they are here? And the next moment I pulled open the fridge door to find if any more Ants are there? And to my surprise , they were there and in big numbers lined up in a queue and moving freely in and out of the fridge from the small gaps between the rubber seal on the door and the fridge!

And then begins my struggle to keep them away from the fridge. That evening, I left them for the night to continue their feast, I also put back the biscuit packet in the fridge for them to gorge on. In the night itself I had my strategy chalked out in my mind, to seal the gap with tissue paper and cello tape. The next morning I woke up with one point agenda, to keep them away from my fridge. Like an sculptor, I felt the contour of the rubber seal on the inner side of the door and fashioned a shape from soft tissue paper of appropriate thickness just suitable to seal the entry of the Ants. Satisfied with my work, I wiped the fridge clean to remove every single ant and secured the tissue paper seal with cello tape. All done, I opened a namkin packet to have with tea and put the packet back in fridge, assured of my successful attempt. However, in the evening I again found a thin wavy line of the Ants entering and exiting the fridge as freely as they had been doing it!

What more could I do! I traced their path and found that they were climbing the fridge from one of the legs of the fridge stand. How can I stop them from climbing? I asked myself. And then the next thing I wanted to do was the technique adopted commonly in the roadside sweets shops, wherein the shopkeepers put the legs of the sweets display units in steel bowls which is then filled with water. You know, the Ants can’t jump the water to reach the sweets. Next day, while returning from office I went straight to buy the bowls and placed the legs of the fridge stand in the four bowls. Filled them up to the brim to avoid early evaporation of the water. Once done, I was confident that now the Ants won’t have their way. I slept well.

The next day I found the technique to be working well. After all, human beings have dominated the world with their mental acumen! I once again took a fresh packet of biscuit , tore open and took out a piece and kept back the packet. Went to office with a sense of accomplishment, by keeping the Ants away . During office hours, my thoughts often drifted to my fridge and I kept visualising the army of ants trying to cross the water barrier, upon climbing the bowl! Ants are not quitters, so I was just imagining about the efforts they must have been putting the whole day in around the water bowl. But I was wrong. They were not anywhere around the bowls. I felt triumphant!

I opened the fridge. My heart sank. There was movement inside the fridge, lot of movement of the Ants,  as energetic and enthusiastic as ever! But how come? From where? Again!

I try to trace their movement . After coming out of the fridge, they moved down - underside of the fridge and after travelling back they climbed over the power cable, to the power point, to the wall and to their place – and it never occurred to me that the power cable too might be one point of access! Ants outsmarted me, they demonstrated it. I felt humbled by their persistence, their team work, their spirit to overcome the challenges in such a simple fashion and to keep looking for alternate solutions.

I know that I can resolve my problem by simply changing the rubber seal. But I want to do without it, just to see whether I can outsmart the tiny creatures! I am yet looking for a workable  idea, to beat the tiny Ants in their game.

Do you have an idea! I have Ants in my fridge!

madhukarmohan@gmail.com