Thursday, January 19, 2012

Permanent shelters...Impermanent decisions

Please read this: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article2714197.ece

This was just before the winter in Delhi reached its peak. Today it's 3-4 degrees outside and still govt is continuing with its 64 permanent shelters for the homeless and shutting down all temporary shelters! One can understand why India, despite being the 5th largest economy in the world (I doubt the statistics though), is still not considered a developed country. There are many lacunae for India being not taken seriously in World arena:

1. India's lack of sensitivity towards humanitarian ideology: The above stated report is one example. There will still be many which can be listed here. I abstain.

2. India's lack of sensitivity towards animal welfare: I have met many people who still laugh at Maneka Gandhi for being an active proponent of animal welfare. I don't understand what is there to laugh! Indians' apathy towards atrocities to street dogs is striking. I strongly believe that the value system has to change. Animal poaching is another issue!

3.  Deforestation: Same ignorance towards the nature. It's a pity that the foundation of the civilized (!) India was based on a concerted effort of deforestation, started in a massive scale under the colonial rule and continued till the present times being driven by lust and hunger for money.  Should the civilized India have forgotten the tribal way of subsistence based on calculated exploitation of forest produce and a symbiotic relationship with the nature? There's a lot to think about.

4. India's lack of hygiene: This is really one aspect where we have to learn from the Europeans or the Japanese for that matter. And this is really something for which I can never boastfully pronounce: Mera Bharat Mahaan! We will have to stop spitting here and there, stop using plastics, and really really stop pieing in public places. The government has to make strict law and order as well as build public conveniences at every nook and corner of the country. We must realize that until and unless the people of a country looks developed and behave developed, the other countries are never going to accept it as developed.

5.  India has to understand its strength as a nation; the virtuous social norms should be retained and nurtured, the vices to be abolished. Women needs more empowerment, or rather social security; women should be in a social environment where they will automatically feel equal to men. The Indian man's preconceived social dominance or superiority should be questioned and curtailed.  This is a far more deeper problem than we normally perceive it to be - it's hidden inside every Indian's mind and hence need a much more effective and penetrating movement or reform to be remedied. I will spare my views for another piece on this.

6.  India should be more proactive and try to be more participatory in sports and similar activities such as geographical explorations, film making, heritage preservation, adventure, etc. etc. Although the govt has an active role to play in this, the people should be also ready for challenges. Defeatist mentality and lack of unity is a big problem in the Indian society.

7.  Lack of public awareness despite the presence of a strong media: I just want to present a small example here. Just before the Delhi Commonwealth Games, the city roads were widened and cycle tracks were laid on both sides of the roads.  The idea was to facilitate smooth traffic by providing cyclists (mostly from the lower rung of the society) a safe passage. One year after, we see all cycle tracks being used for parking or illegal petty business establishments. Who is responsible for this. I blame the media as well as the cyclists.  The cyclists never used these tracks, they preferred the vehicle roads instead; but then it was media's responsibility to bring an awareness among the people who use cycles to commute in the city that those tracks were prepared for them and them only. From my public interaction with people from the lower rung of the society in Delhi (who usually use a cycle to commute), i have, sadly enough, come to know that they were never aware of the fact that those were actually cycle tracks. This is a failure of the nation as a whole. It may sound like a small thing, but then we are so insensitive, and dumb to understand, the Other's issues. Our media, which is always busy either in analysing our relationship with neighbouring countries or the issues bothering the elite class or the petty crimes happening all around, is so dumb to understand that public awareness doesn't necessarily mean highlighting the faults in the public itself, but to highlight issues that are for the benefit of the public. Jaago Media Jaago.

A country cannot be run by a management mechanism. A country does not have a theory, nor it is a system - it does not have a method. It is an entity which also has its emotions. Whenever we tend to configure the entity within a system, the emotions will suffer; whenever we give importance to the emotions the system will falter. We need a balance, and the balance should come from within every individual, every man should be the judge of the other and himself.  And then only the country will prosper.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Legend of the Mountain, the Sea, the River, and the Rock

You: Where are you heading to?
           The mountain beyond the village
           Or the sea that we have never seen?

Me:   Do you really believe you can find God
            In the darkest caves of that ugly mountain
           Or in the monstrous waves of that condemned sea?

You:  The mountain brings peace to my ruffled mind
            The sea provides depth of thought
            And in both you find a faith
            That can win wars no heroes have ever fought!

Me:   The sea has never moved;
            The mountain stands where it has been
            for thousands of years.
            I shall follow the river that runs between them
            Ask her the stories of the battles that were won
            And the wars that were lost.

You: The red river has always moved on
            with a speed that nobody can catch,
            leaving the scars on those pebbled banks.
            Why would you trust the fables that it creates?

Me:   I believe in the speed that it moves
           I believe in the changes that it brings

You: It's so dark, I can't see the lines written on your chest
           that you always sing whenever the river cries
           that you always believe is the epitaph of time

Me:   If speed is your belief and change your religion
           I am the mighty rock that you can call God!