The beef eaters

It is very difficult to describe how it feels to lose someone that you love. Someone who is central to many lives, often many young lives, who will have no future. Their lives will be a miserable journey without any destinations. A kid will not have something to eat and a mother will have no support when she requires most.

However, it is more difficult to understand the loss of emotion and callousness that has crept in our society. It is unimaginable how a crowd assumes an identity which is so cruel and horrible different from the identities of its individual constituents. Was no-one in the crowd felt the pain of an old man being thrashed to death? Was no-one having any cognisance that they all are committing the gravest crime of their life? Are we becoming so uncontrollably enraged and cruel that human lives have lost meaning? We killed a person because we suspected him of eating beef or killing a cow. I am a vegetarian and devout Hindu but I can never explain what happened in Uttar Pradesh.

More than a decade back, when I spotted Beef on the menu card in a hotel in Mumbai, I walked out of the hotel without a second thought. I could not imagine having food in a place that serves beef. A few years later, I spotted the slaughterhouses near Jama Masjid in Delhi and I ran with a handkerchief on mouth to control the unstoppable nausea that was triggered by the ghastly sight of hanging carcasses. I vomited as soon as I walked out of those narrow alleys. These were my autonomic reactions. Gradually, I developed my tolerance and understood the cultural and social dimension of food habits.

A few years later, I visited a few african countries and I had eat in those hotels where they cooked everything. I managed to survive, often starving myself whenever I could not find something that I can identify and verify. But I ate in those hotels. I could easily see that people on the next table were having steak. I avoided looking there but I knew there is no fault of the people here. They are not even aware of my food preferences and of the fact that what they are eating is a taboo for me.

My hatred for meat eating never translated into this brutal reaction even at the thought level. Today, I feel sad. I am not aware of what is real story there. But whatever be the story, a mob brutally killing a person can never be justified. 

Ensuring Better Outcomes from Government Schools

There were more than 500 comments on Times of India webpage that described Allahabad High Court's verdict that forces government officials to send their children to government schools. Almost all comments welcomed this landmark judgement. And why not, this seems to be a quick way of improving the quality of education in government schools. This is an easy solution and most likely to result in exactly opposite outcome.

The decision is primarily meant to ensure that children, who are not able to afford private education and are studying in government schools, should get better education. I admire the intention, but I seriously question the verdict for its impact.

Let me back my opinion by some facts and clarifications. First, there is an inherent assumption that all the government schools are bad. We know that this is not true. Navodaya Schools, Sainik Schools and several other government run schools are imparting high quality education and these schools are primarily catering to poor, common middle-class households. The moment this verdict will be enforced, there would be a rush among the government officials to get their kids admitted in these schools. There will be less number of  seats available for the rural, middle-class students, as government officials will migrate their kids from the private schools to these better run government schools. So the expectation that the government officials kids studying in government schools will improve the quality of education is not going to be met. The government officials are not going to send their kids to the remote, rural schools which require the attention and quality enhancement measures.

Furthermore, it is a common fact that the most of the government officials are concentrated in district headquarters or urban/peri-urban areas. So this is not going to have much impact on the rural schools anyway.

I feel that instead of this poorly thought decision, High Court could have insisted on creating a mechanism that gives incentives (positive or negative) the teachers and education department officials on the basis of learning outcomes. A third party randomized assessment of learning outcomes of kids and teaching efforts put by the teachers can be the basis.

The Pain of Poverty

When my car stops at a railway signal, I often try to avoid making eye contacts to beggars who are knocking at my car window in expectation of a few rupees. Whenever I look into their eyes, I invariably reach out to my wallet and find out a 5,10 or 50 rupee note and give that to them. 

I know many of these beggars are not needy. They do it everyday and they may be part of an organised cartel but I don’t think too much about this. There might be one or two among them who have no other options but to beg. I don’t think anyone will willingly choose begging as profession. They might get sucked into begging and then find no way out. Most of the people who are begging are kids, women or old homeless people. 

Sometime I know very well that the money I give might be spend on buying a smoke, liquor or some sweets. But even we spend money on that. Our justification is that we earn that money. But we indulge in these things to get some happiness or satisfy our addiction. My contribution or not, these people will find a way to satisfy the addiction. Sometime, in absence of lack of money,  they will do something that might permanently (selling their body for money, doing illegal things for others etc..) harm them or others. 

I have often given people a 500 rupee note and walked away. Just to give them that unexpected happiness. I am not bothered what they spend the money on. But the look on their face is worth it. 

I wish we had a systematic and functioning beggar rehabilitation plan. Beggars do not have any place to get them treated for even the common of diseases. These disease prove fatal for them. They do not have schools where their kids can be accepted and given quality education. In fact, most to the kids are physically and mentally handicapped due to lack of nutrition and care in their early stages. Studies suggest that nutritious food and care in pregnancy decides the future development of the kid. If they do not get the required nutrition their brain is underdeveloped. 

If we want to get the beggars away from the streets we need to invest in resources and facilities that economically less fortunate people can avail. I know of many cases when many of my friends tried to get the beggar kids admitted into the schools but kids relapsed into begging. First, their parents were dependent on the money the kids were bringing once the kids started to go to school they started starve. Second, the school kids looked down upon them. Parents and kids both were not keen to continue. 

We cannot just do one thing and hope that everything will change. We have gradually eradicate this evil. Unfortunately, in the giddying growth of our urban centres and development focusing on the needs of the middle class, the pain of poor people is not felt by many who are in charge of making potent decisions.  

Free Writing: My Saviour

Photo Credit : https://www.flickr.com/photos/crdot/

For many years (I started blogging as early as 2004!) I have been trying to develop a habit of daily writing. When I started  blogging the goal was just to express myself,  but later on the goal transformed into something else. I started dreaming about writing that one novel, that one story, that many people dream of writing. Of-course, being the most severe critic of my own writing, I want to make sure that my writing does not suck. Professionally, I have been a stickler to rules when it came to producing any professional written documents. But professional writing or rather I should say business writing is all about providing some information to the reader, however, writing fiction is more about evoking emotions in the readers. In fact, those whose jobs require them to write business documents regularly, often develop a writing style that is too cold and mechanised. 

So, developing the habit of daily writing was my antidote to safeguard my writing style from being ‘cold and mechanised’. Unfortunately, developing this habit proved to be a rather tough task. First, I was not sure what I should be writing daily. Second, following a daily routine has never been my forte. 

I searched, inquired and read about other people’s experiences and it came out that daily journal writing is the way to go. So, I started a daily journal. Since, I spend most of my time in front of my computer, and physical journals are risk to one’s privacy, I decided that I would write on my laptop. My journal writing strategy was simple: I was writing about how my day went. In next few days, I realised that I am getting repetitive, as most of the day my routine was very similar. 

After trying out several other strategies such as using prompts, writing about past memories, to make myself write I found that most of these strategies did not work for me. Finally, I thought of trying out Free Writing. I was sceptical of this initially. But I found out that this really works. I never thought that this simple technique can be so effective. 

I started just writing whatever came to my mind and in some time I realised that I am able to incorporate more variation and scope in my writing. 

Free-writing was also instrumental in making me write daily. Earlier, the problem was that every time, I sat for writing, more than half an hour was spent on deciding what to write. And, that never helped me in getting consistent. Many times, I just wrote a line and then walked away. With free-writing I was able to get my thoughts flowing. 

It has worked for me, and I believe it can work for many. 

(I am going to write about my experiments with writing in my future posts. I would love to know more about your experiences on the same.)

Changing Lives

I tried my best to balance myself on the bricks that were strategically placed in the annoying puddle of sewage that was coming out from the nearby households. The bricks were there to help us cross the puddle without getting our feet dirty.  Every morning I had to cross the puddle, whose size grew randomly, in order to go to my school. There were not many student keen on doing this, they had several excuses to not go to the school. And, not many people were bothered. School for many parents was the place to park their kids when the kids were being a nuisance at home and/or they were not old enough to contribute in the agriculture or household work. My family and I both were exceptional. My family sent me school for studying and I never tried to find excuses, like many other kids, to not go to school.
Our village was fortunate  to have a primary school as there were no schools in the surrounding five-six villages. Students from those villages walked, with a home-made bag and a old grain/fertiliser sack, 4-5 kms every day to attend our village school. The sack was filling in for lack of desk and bench.
Our school three teachers, two rooms and zero toilets. But we never needed a ‘toilet’, there were many options. But anyway, for us learning was always dependent on teachers and not on the infrastructure.
Our teachers used the school time to pursue their many hobbies (such as reading Gulshan Nanda and Kushwaha Kant novels) and occupations (scouting for good buffalos for their business) but still they found sometime to teach us. All the five classes were held together, as there was only one room that was functional. It was not a big issue as there were no syllabus or routine to be followed.
Surprisingly, amidst all of this we learnt a few things. Of course, not all the students benefitted equally. But some really did well. I am one of those. I look back and find that most of my classmates never studied beyond class ten. A lack of resources, family pressure and lack of understanding of impact of education frittered away all the possibilities of developing the future potential.
Today, in hindsight I understand that a better education system, better teachers and a better pedagogy would be have done wonders to many human lives. And, there can never be a more noble profession than being a teacher. I would surely like to be a teacher. 

Let's buy air-purifiers!

Air Pollution in Delhi - (image from Huffington Post)

“People with young children are reluctant to move to Delhi.”  - my European colleague confessed.
“Delhi is now one of the most polluted cities in the world and everybody is concerned about the impact of pollution on health.”

I nodded in agreement. The word is out. Almost all expats working in Delhi, especially those with foreign missions and embassies are asking for their office and residences to be fitted with air purifiers. Many organisations and governments have already have agreed to their demands.

We have done the assessment of air quality in our offices and outside and it is confirmed that the air contains several times more than the permissible quantity of PM2.5 and other harmful gases. Air purifiers for our office are on their way.

In our growing years, we never realised the need of water purifiers. We grew up in small towns never bothered about the quality of the water that we drank. The water tasted great, and, even if, we fell ill sometimes, the doctor did not force us to install a water purifier. Our water was clean and potable. Today, water purifiers are in every household that can afford them. The air-purifiers may be soon be ubiquitous in Delhi households.

Rich people have several options to deal with the hazard that they have created. But those with poor income have no option other than to suffer from havoc caused by luxuries and greed of rich people.

Protecting common people’s interest is government’s responsibility. However, day by day deteriorating quality of air and water is not yet seen as a challenge that need comprehensive intervention by our government. 

Sad, Unfortunate and Foolish

Gajendra Singh committed suicide in AAP rally today. The news hit reflect the sorry state of affairs in our today's politics. Is it politics at its new low? Was this a political drama gone wrong? Or was this a genuine hopelessness and frustration of a farmer forcing him to end his life?
I hope that we come to know the truth soon. This is was a sad, horrible unfortunate and foolish act. Suicide is not an option. I am also surprised at the insensitivity of the people in that rally. How can a farmer attempts  suicide in a rally in a full public view and nobody stopped him.
If this was a staged drama gone wrong then Kejriwal or whoever is responsible should be given harshest punishment for this. This is politics at its nadir. 

Craving for Clean Air in Delhi

Most men racing towards 40s spend a lot of time thinking about the increasing waist size and receding hairlines. One cannot do much (yes, wigs and hair transplants are always considered) about the receding hairline but there are a few things that they can do about the increasing waist size. jogging and running are supposed to the most popular and easy options. 

Every day, at the time of getting dressed for office, my waist reminds me of the promises that I have made to myself. The promise to run or jog to burn the fat that make me look like a python that swallowed a goat. I want to be honest to myself but there are several challenges. 

In Delhi, there are not many places where you can run or jog without consistent threats of a rich kid with big car and tiny civic sense running over you. The public parks and running tracks are luxury for most common men. Luckily, I live close to (close enough to reach there with a 10 minutes walk) a public park. But, for that one needs to get up by 6 pm. There is no shame in accepting that I am not one of those morning persons. Getting up at 6 pm does not come naturally to me. It is a rather forced and unpleasant thing. Post 6 pm, I do not want to take that 10 minute walk to the park; the smoke and the traffic threaten me to a level that I would prefer dying as fatso than walking. 

So far, I have not been able to jog or run for more than once or twice in a month. Recently, I did all the hacking of mind and motivational nudges to make myself up for the challenge of morning jog. I have started jogging.. well.. I have done it for a couple of times to be exact. But I might be switching to running on a treadmill in gym. Delhi air quality is getting worse and worse every day. I was under the impression that I am running in clean air but that was just an illusion in absence of information. 

I hate running indoors. Nothing can compare running with trees by your side and morning wind hitting your face. Sadly, it seems that if I want to run in not so polluted environment I have to switch to gyms fitted with air purification systems and use a treadmill. 

We need to be more conscious of our lifestyle and economic growth. We are paying a horribly high price for our luxuries, egos and greed. 

The DNA of Politicians

Anyone who follows Indian politics (or politics anywhere else) will agree to the fact that almost all politicians hate being criticised. The politicians also perceive themselves to be beyond questioning and assume that they always act in the best interest of party, country and the people. These traits seem the inherent part of a politician’s DNA.

Mamata Banerjee, Narendra Modi, Mulayam Yadav, Indira Gandhi.. the list is tiresomely long. I wonder whether this is one of the basic attributes of being successful in politics. I am utterly disappointed by our politicians. In a democracy, politicians are to represent peoples view and work for people’s interest. This requires a personality and attitude that are accommodating of criticisms, different opinions and an open mind  for participatory decision making. Sad that our politician’s DNA  does value these things.

Arvind Kejriwal is the newest entrants in the list and a very apt example. His entire tirade was against the centralised and dictatorial processes and he promised that everyone will be part of the governance and decision making both at the party level as well as in the governance of state. But  he seems to have developed allergy to criticism. Whatever be his intentions and however selfless be his acts, criticism is something that cannot be ignored. Criticism is part of the process. It need to be factored in and properly addressed through a transparent process.

The Better Team Won

Today, we lost the world cup match to Australia. I was afraid of this result but hoped that we can beat the Australians. At least the last 3-4 matches suggested that we have got the momentum.

The victory against South Africa was the main reason behind for this hope. We outplayed South Africa in that match. South Africa  is a great team and beating them was no small achievement. But South African bowling and batting both did not click in that match. Nothing like that happened today.

Our weaknesses were exploited and our strengths were tested. We have been blessed with some remarkable individual performances in this world cup from our top 4 batsmen but there was always a concern that against a good bowling attack our lower order will of now use.

Raina and Jadeja are great players in Indian subcontinent and against average bowling. But they have too many weaknesses against genuine pace attack. It is difficult for them to score at quick pace without playing risky shots. When their aggression works, they are hero but against a team like Australia it is difficult to score if you have weaknesses against short ball and rising deliveries. Jadeja is not a dependable lower order bat outside Indian subcontinent.

Dhoni, one of our most experienced and trusted players in crunch situation often has the tendency to leave things for last minute. Many times this has worked but I can recall several matches where he let the required run rate go beyond the manageable limit and succumbed to unrealistic demand of scoring 50-60 runs on 15-20 balls. He is a great runner and great hitter of the ball but he too depends too much on aggressive shots for making quick runs.

Anyway, this is a young team and this would be a great experience for Sharma, Dhawan and Rahane. We hope that this long Australian trip has given them the lessons that will make them win big matches in Australia and England in forthcoming tours.

The sorry state of education in Bihar

An examination centre in Bihar (image source :BBC)

Mass cheating in secondary school examination in Bihar may surprise some people but for those who are from Bihar or lived in Bihar it is a routine affair. Post 1991-92 there were some improvements and mass copying reduced for a while but cheating in examination never stopped. Cheating, mass copying, question paper leaks these are very common. In fact, these have got acceptance very much like dowry practice in these areas. Most people do not see anything wrong in it.

Mass copying and cheating are in most cases happen with full cognizance of the invigilators, teachers and other officials involved in the process. During the 10th and 10th examinations in Bihar, parents are more stressed than students. They try their best to get more marks for their kids. Sometime by helping them in copying, sometime by bribing the answer sheet evaluators, and sometime by getting the question papers leaked.

This seriously ruins the reputation of many hardworking and honest Bihari students who work as hard as any other student to do well in examinations. In fact, due to mass copying and cheating going in examination, most of the evaluators assume that every one has copied and evaluate the answer sheets with this assumption. In such cases, students get less marks than what their written responses deserve. So an honest student always suffers. An honest student is considered a fool by other students and often ridiculed.

These malpractices have ensured that those who can enroll their students in CBSE and ICSE (Bihar School Examination Board conducted examinations are usually suffer more from this practice) affiliated schools do not enroll their student in Bihar School Examination Board affiliated schools. Unfortunately, CBSE and ICSE affiliated schools are mainly in district headquarters or bigger towns. So there are not many options available for good students coming out from rural areas. The result is they get poor marks in 10th and 12th examinations. A quick comparison of the percentile and percentage marks obtained by the students appearing in these three different examination systems (ICSE, CBSE and BSEB) will reveal that the top 1 percentile of BSEB students hardly score more than 80% (despite all the copying and cheating!!) of marks, while top 1 percentile of ICSE and CBSE get more than 95-98% in these examinations.

I would like to remind that these practices are in no way any indication of diligence and intelligence of these students. Most of the students who either go out for higher education or compete in other competitive examinations (where malpractices in examinations are not possible) perform at par with other state students or often outperform them.

Personally, I believe that as a society we are not devaluing honesty and integrity day by day. In some places it is more conspicuous in some it is concealed. The key factors are not absolute belief in these values but social acceptability. If something is dishonest, unethical but socially acceptable we do not see any harm in doing it.

Shame on Us!

I just watched this interview of the lawyer who is defending accused of Nirbhaya’s rape case.  To say the least, this is utterly disgusting to here his views on rape and women.

The lawyer is obviously justifying his asinine opinions of woman and sex through his imbecile arguments that are based his contorted understanding of what he calls Indian culture. Unfortunately, the lawyer is not alone in putting the blame on rape victims (he explicitly mentions that there is no rape without a girl/woman’s consent), his views have been reflected by many of our politicians, policemen and godmen.

This is a more serious concern that despite all the education,exposure and media campaigns, women are still seen in a very demeaning and cruel way in the society which ironically asserts “Yatra Naryastu Pujyante, Ramante Tatra Devata (Where women are worshiped, divinity resides there)”. We, as a society too, have been able to force change this thinking where women are seen as sex-objects, not equal to men and several stupid stereotypes that men creates.

Somewhere I see failure of our education system and social sanctions that have not made people discard these kind of thinking. I wish along with pointing out what is wrong with our society we also start seriously focusing on how to change the situation.

Is AAP an idea that has failed?

The recent events in the political environment of the country have saddened me immensely. AAP as a party garnered support from some unexpected corners because of its promise of providing clean and effective politics. However, it can be safely said that it has failed on many fronts and is being perceived by many more people as no-different than other political parties.

We can presume several reasons for AAP turbulent existence and the way it has been damaging its own credentials consistently. Unlike other political parties, AAP is a very interesting mix of young people with zero political experience and ideologies that are significantly different from those of our earlier generation politicians. Furthermore, the approach, and social mobilisation strategy resorted to modern technology and intensive connect with the common people; this gave it a significant political dividend but also magnified its errors. It also failed in vetting its key members’ profile to ascertain their suitability for various roles which required separate skills and attitude. Also, AAP’s success became a magnet to all kind of opportunists who were looking to start a political career to garner money, power and fame.

All organisations and movements go through a chaotic process before they get stabilised. AAP is going through the same process. The leadership needs to ascertain that the chaotic process should not result in destruction of the core values and transform the whole idea into another run of the mill political party.

Arvind Kejriwal has the propensity of taking decision which are not based on a thorough analysis of all the factors and forces in play. What aggravates the situation more is his style of leadership which has some resemblance to dictatorial  leadership. All of these are ignored if things are moving well but these get magnified once things go wrong. Arvind Kejriwal need to reinvent himself as a leader.

We all are hoping that AAP as an experiment evolves, cleanse itself of all the pernicious elements and remould itself into what it promised to many supporters: an honest, transparent and effective political party.

A Bibliophile and bookshops

Harmony Bookshop in Varanasi

The digital bookshops are not only giving us discounts and enormous amount convenience but also robbing us from the pleasure of being in a physical bookshop. For last 4 years, since I started using Kindle I made a decent balance between buying physical books and digital books. But, I did not change my habit of visiting bookshops.

Every time I see a bookshop I want to walk in and spend some time exploring books, being surrounded by the racks full of immortal words.The bookshops have been described using many superlative analogies but for me the bookshops are an emotional thing. Books transformed me and the bookshops/library provided me the perfect place to gift some quality time to myself.

The charm of bookshops is beyond the setup,interiors and the number of books that it contained, yet old bookshops in a small cities are special. Places like Varanasi, Rishikesh, Jaipur, Bhopal, Pune all have a one or two bookshops that every bibliophile is nostalgic about. Recently, I was in Varanasi and got a chance to know about the bookshops in Varanasi. Varanasi, the most ancient living city on the planet and the must visit city for any tourist with interest in spirituality, Indian culture or religion, has a number of bookshops that are special.

I found a number of bookshops that are an attraction to bibliophile and tourists here. Each of these bookshops have a rich collection of titles on one or other topic. But, for anyone interested in Hindu religion, Indology, Buddhism, Samskrit, Hindi Sahyitya these bookshops may have the best collection in India. Most of the bookshops are now also have a publication unit and publish books on niche topics. The shopkeepers are knowledgeable and have good understanding of the topics they specialize in.

I stumbled upon some of the rare books on Varanasi, Samskrit and folk-tales. And, several books in vernacular that I never saw anywhere else. The big bookshops based in the malls usually ignore the vernacular books. Good vernacular books are now being confined to book fares and libraries. This has posed a serious threat to our vernacular classic. I found a book on Varanasi in English which is a translation of a Hindi book. I immediately asked for the original Hindi book. The shopkeeper informed that there are no copies of that book available now. The shopkeeper was himself looking for the original copy so that they can run a reprint. He informed me that there are several such books whose original copies in vernacular are lost and we are selling the translated version.

I bought quite a number of them. I love my books and I love even more when I get a book in my mother tongue: Hindi. The bookshops in Varanasi have a good collection of Hindi books. I wish bookshops in metros should give more space to vernacular literature.

The biggest contribution of AAP and Arwind Kejriwal

There are several criticisms of Arwind Kejriwal and many are very well justified. Amidst of all these criticism, allegation and question, there are a few things that Kejriwal should be appreciated by everyone who believes in democracy. 

I have been following Indian politics for quite some time and it made me afraid of our political system. It made me commit that I would never join politics. This is not a big thing for many people. But it is for me because I decided that I would work for the issues that I believe in. I would work to make to make a better future for people, all people including those who do not even believe themselves that they have a future. Here politics can play the biggest role. The political institutions have enormous impact on solving some of the problems that society face. My decision to not enter politics was akin to discarding the most potent weapon in our armory in fight against an almost invincible enemy. 

I explored myself that why I am scared of politics. There were several reasons but most prominent one were those which are (or were) almost inherent in Indian political setup.

1. Winning election required huge investment and resorting all kind of unethical and unfair practices.
2. Almost all the political party preferred candidates big surnames, political family connections or ability to donate obscene amount of unaccounted donation to political parties.

Both the reasons were big deterrents for me. I do not want to win election by unfair means and compromising my conscience. Furthermore, I do not any thing such as political family, riches or muscle-power that make me attractive to political parties.

Sometime back when Kejriwal participated in  the Delhi Assembly election for the first time  many people who would have never dreamt about winning an election won. And, many of these people are like me. 

AAP and Kejriwal’s victory made politics a choice for ensuring better future for people. To me, this is the most important contribution of Kejriwal. He may goof up and squander the trust given by the people but he has shown that there is a way.