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.  

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.