Dec 3: Hope or tragedy?

Dec3 is personally always special to me. This year also I woke up with a smile on my lips and a song in my soul. It was just unlike any other day it was special. Sun was shining; cool breeze of December was playing in its own tune.

Soon I remembered an old story and the smile started disappearing. It was a day when many didn’t wake from their sleep. It was a day of chaos, disaster and death. It was a day when mothers didn’t know their children had died, children didn’t know their mothers had died and men didn’t know their whole families had died. It was the day when methyl isocyanate gas (MIC) escaped from the Union Carbide’s underground storage plant in Bhopal.

It was a city where I grew up, I played, I went to school. Luckily my parents moved with me to the city when I was a small kid, only after few years of the tragedy. But even now I can remember the grim tales of shock, horror and betrayal which I heard. Many of my family friends and relatives who survived the accident didn’t believe that they will actually see us again.

A picture speaks thousand words. I have posted three different pics of the tragedy. I wouldn’t have written this blog about an incident which happened 25 years ago. But after seeing these images I cried. I had promised that I wouldn’t cry again but I couldn’t control myself today. I cried for the mothers, for the children, for the fathers and for all those countless lives which were lost because of human greed.

More

http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2009/12/dec-3-hope-or-tragedy.html

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Bundelkhand; Hot market for wives, daughters

It a long time I wrote something. I couldn’t think of something. I felt as if I have suddenly lost all the inspiration. I wrote couple of poems but couldn’t finish them. Two weeks ago I was leaving the town for one week. I came home late on Sunday. I was supposed to board the train early morning Monday.

I was feeling restless so thought of spending time some time with the Idiot box. I was surfing channels when news about Farmers selling their wives caught my attention. I was shocked. There was an interview about how a mother was forced to sell herself to feed her children. All this happening in India!!!!!!!!  It happened in the India’s heartland in Bundelkhand in UP where the one of the fierce political battles was fought between Rahul Gandhi & Mayawathi during the last election. We talk of record food production & here mothers are forced to sell themselves to feed. What a shame on this civilized world. Why couldn’t our Govt or politicians take note of them? UP government was innovating on new plans to divert tax payer’s money to erect status of the political brass. Why the media has to come up with such exclusives every time before the government wakes up? What is to be so proud of? Godowns full of bumper crops or the tale of fateless farmers who cannot even afford the crops they produce? There is Bundelkhand Divisional Development Corporation (BDDC) which seems to be interested in the development of BSP party only. Where is the congress, the BSP, SP who spoke for hours highlighting the poor farmer’s life to garner more votes? Where are you “the Son’s of soil”. Why they should worry now, they can think about these when the next election comes.

The farmers reportedly sell their women to money lenders at rates ranging between Rs 4,000 – Rs 12,000 with more beautiful faces fetching more. The trade is given a legal approval by using stamp papers!!!!!!! For each stamp paper used Indian Govt. is getting revenue. Government earning revenue by forcing their women folks to sell themselves, shame on you political cattles. Looking at the grave situation they would have got enough revenues to survive next few years. This is a place where every year millions of tones of food grains are lost or damaged in godowns. I have even heard news about how food grains are destroyed so that the prices remain high!!!!

The practice is so common that a book has also been written on the social evil by an activist in the region. However, the administration, generally attempts to suppress such cases just as they deny farm suicides. The protracted drought in Bundelkhand has not only been forcing people to commit suicide but also coercing many to ‘mortgage’ their wives and daughters to moneylenders in a bid to survive.

Many of those who read this may not be aware of the not so shining part of India. We are fortunate enough to have food at least 3 times a day. My heart goes to all those mothers and children.

Couple of decades back our Prime minister said “Jai Jawan, Jai Kissan” (Victory to soldier, Victory to Farmer). There is not much jai left… only the feeble cry of hungry children, the untold story of the horrors the mothers faced.

I want to write more but cannot. Whenever I think of that story my eyes become watery, even now I could feel my wet cheeks. I can’t write more my soul is disturbed….

(Officially in India about 28 % people are below the poverty line but yesterday I read an article according to which if the calorie intake is considered more than 50% of Indians are below poverty line. Even after so many years of Independence if 50% of people are below poverty line, who couldn’t support a wholesome meal then surely it’s the high time we changed our programs in alleviating the downtrodden.)

http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2009/09/welcome-to-bundelkhand-hot-market-for.html

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My birthday celebration

It was my birthday celebration with a difference. After almost a decade I celebrated my birthday. Usually my birthday celebration is limited to few sweets & a lunch or dinner with my best friends. I was not sure about this year’s celebration. After last one years great survival in my new life I wanted this year’s celebration to be different.

I was planning to visit few orphanages & spend some time with kids, play with them, and laugh with them. May be, now I could understand them better. Children’s of which age should I visit? I asked this question to myself many times. At last I thought I will spend time with small infants & toddlers. There are the sweetest. They don’t know about the different barriers erected by our cruel society. Their smile, the hug from them is the purest. I called couple of my close friends to accompany. With a long weekend of Independence Day no one was actually around. (even I wanted to go alone, If I had asked a second time many would have come but I didn’t want them to change their schedule for me, few were with their GF’s & few others were searching their independence in drinks. Since I don’t drink or smoke I don’t go to such parties & during such long weekends I can spend time with my books or guitar)

At last I decided to go to Nirmala Shishu Bhavan (an institution of missionaries of charity, it is an adoption center), I bought few sweets and Cheque as a birthday gift for them. It was not a big amount just the usual amount which I would have otherwise spent with my friends dining in some restaurants. I called the mother superior & my visit was scheduled for 3 PM. Children up to 7 years were staying there. I was excited but had a lot of questions. How will be the children, what will be their questions, will they come near me. I don’t know why & how such countless questions surfaced in my mind. All these questions vanished from my mind when I saw the first smile. Meenu was standing at the door with the sweetest smile. I stretched my hands and she came running towards me and hugged me tight. Soon few others joined her. My physique is not so large but one child had different idea. She started climbing on my as if I was a mountain!!! With two kids in my both hands & few on my legs I was stuck at the door. Soon sister rescued me from this impasse. Hearing the noise few more children came near me. I thought they need some distraction. What a better diversion that the sweets packets I had. Eureka !!! I opened the packets & I could see the smile on their faces widening. I got a volunteer in Anju. She took control of sweets and started distributing. Most of children couldn’t open the chocolate wrapper. From one end I started removing the wrapper and placed the chocolate in their mouth. I got the sweetest gift also for this effort. Kisses & hugs … they were in planty sometimes for the chocolates, sometimes for the smile. Normally shy children were also coming and started asking me a lot questions like my name, what I am doing, my home. Soon I became one among them, on my knees. Small children were interested in my spectacles. Some even tried to take that. I wanted to take few snaps but with children all-round I couldn’t even take my camera out. But still I managed to click couple. Seeing all these children I felt so sad. How could their parents leave them there? Warden said that few children were not fully orphan. Their parents were so pooer that they couldn’t keep them.

There were new born babies also with the youngest one only 16 days old. She was so cute & small lying there in the crib. I gently touched her with my fingers. When her little fingers held my fingers I was almost in another world. I talked to the caretakers and sisters. I saw a mission in their eyes , in their noble deeds they were much closer to God.

It was the time to say goodbye to all. With a promise to return I bid them all farewell and walked towards my car. I was one of the happiest person at that moment on this planet.

It was one of my best birthday celebrations ever something which I could remember for a long time. I always thought when I cross my 30’s and reach mid 30’s how would I survive. I don’t think books, poems and all the research stuff will hold my interest. Maybe now I know the reason to live, the reason to die for… It was always a thought only. I used to say that I will adopt one child even if I had my own. It was only a thought, then it became an idea but now today it has outgrown the idea and became a decision. Sometime back when I said about this idea one of my friends said that cant I produce my own. I haven’t tried it yet and not sure whether I will ever also. But now I feel that I can adopt one. In this materialistic world only thing which we can give is love. This is one investment which we can give without the fear for being going bankrupt. What difference will it make whether it is an adopted child or my own? I can only love. I am trying to flush out the jealousy, anger and all those emotions from me. I thought about the couples who spent millions for producing their child. Of course mother hood is the biggest boon and feeling.(for me mother & motherland are much bigger than even all the treasures of heaven) But cant we spent some amount on these poor souls also? If we adopt one will it make a difference? I know it will be many years after when I will have to make a decision on this but still I thought of sharing it….

At last …Happy Birthday to me 😀

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No vote for Demo ‘crazy’

The grand show of the planet has begun, the largest democracy going to polls. When many nations are fighting for survival it’s a wonder that such an exercise of such magnitude is happening in this part. Media’s all over the world will be praising this gigantic effort. Such pomp, glamour, heat, passion where else can we find?

Democracy or Demo ‘crazy’

But on retrospective is this true representation of the billion people of India? The final percentage of polling will be around 60-70 % that means 30-40 % of Indians didn’t have any say in the Govt formation. This 30 % is a huge number much bigger than the total population of many countries combined. There was money, liquor, power to influence voter decision. What about these percentages?  No body has any figures.

Add the fear and security dimension to this and the situation becomes really complex. Today news channel were abuzz with news of people killed during. Personally I don’t like violence, it is good in films but in reality it’s bad. The ideology should clash & not the bullets. But it is a harsh reality that we take ideas to our hands, trying to enforce ourselves on others by force. Personally I believe barriers break when people talk (Professionally, personally or in any field that matters).

Reject all
Today I was in a big confusion. Whom should I vote? There was no option between all the candidates in the arena. There was no option to reject them all. One candidate whom I would have supported openly was Shashi Tharoor but he was contesting in a different place. The election commission of India should have given me the power to reject all the choices. Most of the cases people are forced to select the lesser evil. Can’t we select some good people? Normal citizens won’t have much power in the selection of candidates for any political group. They are forced to select the devil or Satan. This is one of the factors which bring down the poll % in many areas. In some places people are forced to select between a dacoit or smuggler. (On a lighter note I think the more dangerous people should be selected in such cases for at least 5 years people will be safe in their homes)

Poll Reforms
Our great forefathers had thought about such a situation. They had kept an option called Rule 49-O. But this doesn’t give the secrecy of ballot (or EVM there is no ballot left). I got the following from Election Commission.
“It is clarified that under Rule 49-O, the voter has an option not to vote at the election after he has been identified at the polling station and his name has been registered in Registers of voters (Form -17A). The Presiding Officer shall thereupon make a note to that effect against the name of that voter and obtain his signature (thumb impression in the case of an illiterate). In such case, the voters who exercise the option of not voting at the election under Rule 49-O would only be deemed to have abstained themselves from voting and under the law, the candidate who secures highest number of valid votes polled, irrespective of his winning margin, is declared elected.”
I don’t think this should be exercised openly. Nobody should know whom I voted or whether I rejected all.

Minimum representation
In all places decisions are taken by majority and not by the margin of leader. To get selection the candidate should get at least the support of 51 % of the people. Now even if a person get the support of only 20 % or even less (80 % didn’t want him) can be declared winner. How can such democracy function for long? For the true representation this process of selecting the leader among the pack should be abolished and only those wop can get a minimum of 51 % of votes should be elected.

My Request
These are my suggestions for the EC of India
•    Option for secret “NO VOTE”
•    Power to Re-call any selected representative
People have the power to elect so they should have the power to recall any selected representative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_election)
•    Ban criminals from politics for ever.
•    Minimum representation
•    A retirement age for politicians
•    A minimum educational qualification. (This is biggest job of the country & here you don’t require any qualification, any one without any credibility can run the show!!!!!!)

I said what I felt; you all can share your views.
You can spread your idea by voice, articles, e-mail but no muscles or bullets :D.
Write to newspapers, blogs, TV all the places where you can be heard.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?gid=169944555149#/group.php?gid=169944555149
http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2009/04/democracy-or-demo-crazy-india-goes-to.html
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=86370261

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The lost (killed) daughters of India

It is the holocaust of India, the biggest massacre. But nobody is listening. Over 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years!!!!!!
We have heard news about un-born foetus in drains, sacks and all other places. They were the stories of murder in daylight but still it continues.

The methods adopted to kill unwanted children in India are often cold-blooded and cruel.

The ritual is performed by a family member or a professional killer, by swaddling a new-born in a wet cloth or simply giving her a spoonful of paddy grain with milk.

It simply cuts her tender throat, suffocating her to death.

At times, the mother is forced to hire a sweeper for a small sum of 25 -100 rupees to dispose of the child by simply poisoning the baby with the latex of the calitropis plant, or holding her so close to a table that she cannot breath.

In the early 19th century, British colonel Alexander Walker recorded his horror at seeing a mother drowning her newborn girl in a trough of milk in the western Gujarat region.

But now abortion of female foetuses or “female foeticide” has become common with the easy availability of ultrasound sex tests.
It’s an unholy alliance of tradition and technology. Ultrasound was not meant for sex selection.

It is a myth that who seeks to find out the sex of their unborn child is poor, rural and illiterate. We the so called educated savages are in front killing the un-born miracles for no fault of them & only because of their gender!!!!!

The consequence of female infanticide and, more recently, abortion is India’s awkwardly skewed gender ratio, among the most imbalanced in the world. Infanticide is illegal in India (though never prosecuted), and laws are also in place to stop sex- selective abortions. But in some places, national rules don’t hold enough sway to overcome local religious and social customs – which remain biased in favor of sons over daughters.

Campaigners have been trying to alert the government to the potential long-term social impact of the phenomenon, warning that, among other problems, it will make it harder for men to find wives. In China, where a one-child policy is strictly enforced, prenatal sex selection has resulted in an estimated 40 million bachelors.

Technology is simply making it easier to eliminate the girl child. And in a society where the girl itself is seen as a genetic product to be eliminated, this has frightening implications

India stipulates that only a government hospital, registered facility, or medical practitioner with appropriate qualifications may perform an abortion. The reality, however, is that only about 15 percent of all abortions take place under such circumstances, according to the Indian Medical Association. About 11.2 million illegal abortions are performed each year off the record. Such abortions are often “female feticide,” experts say.

In Salem district, for instance, signs posted in towns reinforce the societal message: “Pay 500 rupees and save 50,000 rupees later,” a suggestion that aborting a female fetus now could save a fortune in wedding expenses in the future.

Nearly 60 percent of girls born in Salem District are killed within three days of birth, according to the local social welfare department. That doesn’t count the growing number of abortions there to ensure a girl baby won’t be carried to term.

Amid such stubborn statistics, activists are at work to counter the forces of tradition. A focus of their work: improving the standing and self-image of women themselves.

In pockets of India where female infanticide persists, the practice is rooted in a complex mix of economic, social, and cultural factors. Parents’ preference for a boy derives from the widespread belief that a son lighting his parents’ funeral pyre will ensure that their souls ascend to heaven; that he will be a provider in their later and that he will preserve the family inheritance.

Personally I prefer to be in hell rather than heaven built on the poor souls of my sisters & daughters. How could God give permission to these murderers to enter heaven? A girl or boy both are the divine form of God. Why should we discriminate against each other? By killing the un-born child we are not booking our seat in heaven but securing a free visa to hell.

Trivia
This is not a story of India alone; we can find these dark stories from every continent from every country;
In the case of China, social scientists are talking about a future in which 15 percent of men won’t have wives. According to Asia expert Nicholas Eberstadt, the trend, termed the “marriage squeeze,” is an anthropological phenomenon partly due to China’s “one child” policy that began in 1978 with the intent of slowing growth in the world’s most populous country.
“The world has never before seen the likes of the bride shortage that will be unfolding in China in the decades ahead,” writes Mr. Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, in a recent study, “Power and Population in Asia.”

• Characteristics of Gender-Ratio Imbalances in India: http://www.unfpa.org/gender/docs/studies/india.pdf
  
• Lost mothers of India: http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2009/03/lost-mothers-of-india.html
  

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We love Oscars not Slums : India

Many criticized the makers of Slumdog millionaire. They complained that India was projected in a bad taste. Poverty was shown but not the prosperity.

Recently there was a case before the Supreme Court of India. In an astounding position before the SC, it has held that one has to earn only Rs 455 a month in urban areas and Rs 328 in rural areas to escape the poor tag. “At present, on 1999-2000 prices, the poverty line at all India level is Rs 327.56 and Rs 454.11 for rural and urban people per capita per month respectively,” said the health and family welfare ministry in a recent affidavit.

In the government’s scheme, the poverty line drawn on the basis of monthly income varies widely from state to state. To classify as poor in the four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai — the person’s monthly income has to be less than Rs 506, Rs 540, Rs 410 and 475, respectively. Which means, if your daily earnings cross Rs 17 in Delhi, Rs 18 in Mumbai, Rs 14 in Kolkatta and Rs 16 in Chennai, you are among those fortunate not to be counted by the government as poor!!!!!!!! Despite using these ridiculously low monthly incomes to classify a person as poor, the government has identified a huge chunk — over 260 Million — as poor because they do not even earn these paltry sums. Now imagine this number.

As someone said we love Oscars not Slums. These figures were an eye opener for me. Certainly India is not shining for all those. We make a lot of noise when sensex drops by few points but nobody cries for the millions dying every day because they cant afford to buy food every day, because they cant buy medicines, because we don’t care for them.

I want the Indian Government to help these downtrodden rather than spending billions on war machines and all those glossy Advertisements to make India shining for elite few. These unfortunate people are also human beings. Help them. They also have right to live a dignified life.

(Trivia: Orissa and Bihar account for more than one-fifth of the total poor in India. As per affidavit, Jammu and Kashmir is least afflicted by poverty.)

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Festivals and celebrations: An introspection

Vijaya dasami & Dusserra was celebrated across India today. The whole country was in a festive mood. For the past few years I don’t feel the celebrating for me Christmas, ramzan, onam etc are same. Somewhere I have lost the zing to celebrate.

For most of us the festivals has become a symbol of the old culture. We don’t know how and why we are doing this. We are lost on all those big festive offers from business groups, the big festival TRPs shows in television. We prefer to walk in the crowd.

Vijaya Dasmi symbolizes the victory of truth, of knowledge over darkness and ignorance. The intellectual knowledge of the society is increasing. Most of us have double qualifications but are we progressing in the right direction?

Knowledge should help us to be a better human but the growing intolerance to other creatures proves than we are not growing. Still the victory is not final.

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American crises & Indian IT companies

The great meltdown has begun. Americas top 3 financial companies out of business and the rest also in serious problems, share market across the globe tumbling down , in china almost 66 % and other developing countries including India up to 40% doesn’t provide a rosy picture of the financial situation.

Many asked me how it’s going to affect India in general and IT sector in particular. They were worried about the lay offs with Satyam leading the pack with 4500 layoffs. Frankly speaking even I am worried by the recent developments. But still there is some hope. The situation is not so bad.

The current crisis is man made it’s a long awaited correction happening in the consumer America. The problem is of credit crises and liquidity crunch. No major financial institution is ready to lend capital to others. The financial sector has lost the confidence. This is the reason the major national banks like Federal Reserve is pouring billions of dollars into financial sector to cool it down. (I know it didn’t strike a chord with most of you. Reading too much finance news? :D)

As far as India is concerned, she will also feel the heat but since the market is not so tightly coupled with US financial market, she can survive. For the next couple of quarters the profit margin of the major companies even IT companies will come down but then it has to go up. In this crisis everybody is talking of efficiency and improvement and the Indian outsourcing & IT companies are providing that to the world. As far as layoffs are concerned well that’s happening almost every year. Satyam might have given the pink slip to 4500 but they are recruiting around 12000. So that should cool you all.

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India in nuclear club; third largest emitter of CO2

According to Center for Global Development (CGD) India is in the third position in the list of biggest CO2 emitter through power generation after China and the United States.

In the recent years, India’s energy consumption has been increasing at one of the fastest rates in the world due to population growth and economic development. Another study shows that by 2017, India’s energy requirement is expected to be 335 GW. This is a quite big number. This is going to put severe demand pressure on the traditional energy source of the planet. China and India will directly compete with the developed countries for fuel. Imagine what will happen then? Ever increasing fuel cost, high emission of green house gases, not a pleasant view huh? Now itself India is the 3rd largest emitter of green houses gases in power sector with the state owned NTPC leading the march. And this trend is upward.

In this context Nuclear power is the good source (Cant say how safe it is, still we don’t know how to handle nuclear waste properly).It is a clean source that can reduce the dependence on traditional energy source. India didn’t get the NSG waiver because of this. The writing is on the wall. Companies like Blackstone Group, GE and many other corporations are eying the lucrative energy sector of India. Once approved by the respective countries they can sign contracts worth multi billion of US dollars. I don’t think there is anybody, who don’t want their hand in the plum? It’s a scramble for energy sector much like the defense contracts of India. It’s a win- win situation for all. But then by doing so aren’t we creating a wrong precedence? What happens if tomorrow another rogue country comes up with similar arguments (India has a clean history of nuclear non-proliferation which even some of the nuclear super powers can’t claim?). This is a sensitive issue with world energy market in one side and nuclear non-proliferation in another side of the balance. Let’s hope that everything goes fine.

Public support for nuclear power had dramatically decreased after couple of high-profile accidents, such as at the Three Mile Island reactor in the US in March 1979 and the Chernobyl reactor in April 1986 in the erstwhile Soviet Union.

However, in recent years, the nuclear industry has become less defensive about its safety record. The World Nuclear Association (WNA) website, for instance, points out that these are the only major accidents to have occurred in more than 12,700 cumulative reactor-years of commercial operation in 32 countries. The risks from western nuclear power plants, in terms of the consequences of an accident or terrorist attack, are minimal compared to other commonly accepted risks. Nuclear power plants are very robust, it asserts.

But we should look & develop other source of energy also like the wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy. These are much better and clean than the nuclear energy.

It’s a beginning… Let’s see how much we move forward.

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