An Open Letter to Arvind Kejriwal on His Words and Actions

Respected Arvind Kejriwal,

This is a letter to you from an Aam Aadmi.  An Aam Aadmi whom you are showing the dream to make them rid of corruption, decriminalization of politics, empowerment to make governmental decision for own area, making everything accessible easily at low cost and so on.

Sir, your actions after you became Chief Minister raises serious doubt about your real intentions. Your words and actions are not matching nowadays.

During the election campaign, you accused the Congress government for all the corruptions and misery of Delhi. None of your interview or TV shows was complete without condemning Sheila Dikshit badly. But we saw a dramatic change in you when asked to take action against her when you became CM. It was really surprising when you asked for evidence when you yourself were talking of some 370 page evidence against Sheila Dikshit. Recently, you have ordered for enquiry on the Common wealth games but going in to the technicalities of your case it seems nothing is going to come out, it is simply an eye wash.

Though surprising, to some extent this change in you is understandable as you are CM because of Congress support only. But when you say that you are not in politics to become CM or PM, then this statement is hypocritical. If this is not the case then you would not have hesitated to open the corruption related files of Sheila Dikshit. Anyway, I may be wrong here and you might have thought that there are other higher priority things to be done first than going for uncovering the corruption related files.

On the media channels, you are claiming that what you have done in 1month, no other states CM, who became CM after last election, has done. I really do not know what other 4 chief ministers are doing in their state. After you became CM, none of the news channels are talking anything about them. Whenever I switch on the news channels, it’s only you and you. So can’t say whether they have done more or less work than you.

Sir, you state that in 1 month of governance only, you provided free water, reduced the price of electricity, opened helpline number against the corruption and you say that you are receiving ground report that corruption has reduced considerably in Delhi.

It was not expected from the person of your qualification of providing subsidies and freebies. There are people who are carried away with such populist decision of yours but no person with even little economic knowledge will agree with the method you have chosen for reducing the price of water and electricity in Delhi. Providing more and more subsidies and that too for all income level persons can never lead to a strong economical and prosperous state.

Being a Chief Minister, you are taking direct fight with the electrical distribution companies and are always seen threatening them of exposing corruption or cancelling their licences. Instead of always threatening, you should try to hear and work with them to make them efficient, productive and competitive. The way Telecom industry got revolutionised in India and ultimately customers are the beneficiary, the same is possible with electrical distribution companies if you bring competition in them. Customers will get the option to choose the service provider according to the service they get. But in order to this you have to raise from petty populist method and widen your vision and need to think how more and more electricity can be generated in Delhi instead of purchasing from other states as well as how to provide efficient power transmission system to prevent loss and leakage of power.

Sir, you say that you are receiving the ground report that corruption has reduced drastically in Delhi. I agree with you, but do you honestly think that this report of reduced corruption is going to last long? The way currently you are dealing with corruption is like students are not cheating in their examination when their teachers are standing in front of them. The moment teacher leaves the classroom, students start cheating from other’s answer sheet. So along with punishment for cheating, there should be a broader vision of preparing students in such a way that they should not do cheating irrespective of presence or absence of teachers. The point I want to make is that your claim of reduced corruption in Delhi is not effective and permanent. The day you step down as CM, it will be same again. So better think like a statesman and not as hero where everyone is villain against you.

Your recent Dharna on the eve of Republic day and supporting your minister for carrying out the raid in the midnight is utterly disgusting. Being an Aam Aadmi and belonging from an aam (remote) place, I can tell you that there are so many villages, cities and towns in India where people reach to their local leader instead of Police for their complains. Some of those local leader are hard core criminal or corrupt in the national media, but at the local level they are hero for the common people, the way the deeds of your  minister is heroic in the eyes of localities of Khirki extension of Delhi. If you are supporting Somnath Bahrati, then you do not have any moral to say such type of people in other part of India as criminals.

In your Dharna, you have blamed the policemen for all the rapes and crimes in the city and you want Delhi Police under your control as you were not able to suspend some SHO who has not obeyed your minister. Once again I want to ask do you really think that threatening words of suspension and dismissal of police will solve the problem of crimes in Delhi. If we compare our policemen with the police force of developed countries, they way they reach the crime spot swiftly without any chaos, the way they avoid happening big accidents or incidents is not because they are afraid of suspension or dismissal, but they are trained like that. They are provided to use the latest available technology and hence they are able to do more work in less effort. It would have been better if in your Dharna you would have asked to equip Police Force with modern tools and technology than simply suspending them.

Frankly speaking, all these action of yours lead to think you have become same politician as others are and your populist steps are mainly targeted for Lok sabha election. You are utilising the people’s anger against the current government in your favour for your political ambition and luckily you have got the full national media support. You are changing your statements frequently and that too by 180 degree. Now it’s not possible to believe in your words.

You may think that I am writing this because of any inclinations towards any party like Congress or BJP. I want to tell you that I am not a BJP supporter but yes I am Narendra Modi Fan. I would have been his supporter even if he was in Congress. I am Modi fan because of his personal life struggle, his development work, unique ideas and solutions, institutionalising the innovative ideas in to the system. More than political speeches I like his apolitical speeches where he gives his ideas about Leadership, Ways of removing corruption from the system, Technology, Innovations, Visions  etc which our national media never show and discuss on.

Narendra Modi was constantly abused and cornered by our media channels for so long but he remained silent and fought only legally. He worked silently for the development of his state and when International media and magazines started discussing about his development works and initiatives, then Indian news channels started talking something positive on him. One individual, who was constantly abused by the media and silenced for so long, still believes in the system and says that everything is possible in this system and he talks with proof. Like you, he is not labelling everyone as corrupt and villain who ever speaks against. This is one of the impressive qualities of Narendra Modi.

I very well understand that there are many who are carried away by your populist acts and on your Television showmanship, without considering the technicalities. You say your intentions are clear but your actions shows that you are exploiting the anger of the people for your political ambitions of Lok sabha 2014. Due to your ambitions, India may get devoid of stable government with strong leadership at the center.

At the same time I feel proud to say that you are the person who has alerted all other political parties to change their path. You have brought the involvement of youth in politics that always used to avoid talking on politics and political leaders. Instead of always remaining neutral, now people are talking and supporting on what they believe better.

This is what an Aam Aadmi felt and wanted to share with you. I hope to see you not to bring temporary happiness by bringing Rickshwalas to inaugurate hospitals but to make real change in their life. I hope not to see you on Dharna but take your time and institutionalise your thoughts and ideas which should last for long and long. I hope that under your leadership Delhi should come at par with the other capitals of the world.

I would like to see you as an efficient administrator or chief minister first with good governance, better employment opportunities, secured and fearless Delhi; and hence for this election of 2014, my vote goes for Narendra Modi.

Thanks .

An Aam Aadmi

FALL of INDIAN RUPEE and ECONOMY

In last couple of months there was so many times when Indian news channels flashed their breaking news “Rupee touches all- time low against dollar” on each time the value of our Indian currency depreciated to its lowest level, breaking the previous record of its own. The economic experts, politicians, industrialists comes on the prime time shows of the news channel to discuss, argue and debate the current economical condition of our country. They say that the current fiscal deficit has increased; Industries are not able to make profits even equal to the EMI which they have to pay as part of their loan and on top of this due to the depreciation in rupee they have to pay more if the loans are in dollar currency. Other than the service sector, the story of most of the industries and factories are similar.

All this brought a sense of curiosity in me to know more about the economical situation of my country. I listened to the expert’s views on major news channels, googled some facts, read the analysis done by some national and international experts of the Indian economy.

I don’t say I became expert in economics but what I conclude is that the economy of our country is not strong from the core and we are standing on support of other countries. There are ample facts and reasons behind my conclusion.

Let’s take an example of a salaried person. A normal salaried individual will do his economic planning in such a way that his expenses should be lower than his salary. Some part of the saved money is kept for invisible future troubles and rest will be used to make more money. To make more money, the saved money will be used as an investment in Gold, Real estate, Mutual funds, Insurance scheme, Stocks etc. If this is the story of a businessman, then he uses his saved money for the further expansion of his business.

Now what if the same person unfortunately loses his job and the jobs are not available in the market, then the obvious question in front of him will be how long he can survive on the money which he has saved till date. After some time he will start to borrow the money from others and will try to earn the money from the alternate paths. The extreme financial situation can lead to follow unwanted paths for him.

The situation with our country is almost the same. Our country earns money mainly through exports, different tax system like Personal tax, VAT, Sales tax, corporate tax and from the government owned companies. The government spends in Imports, Subsidies, Defence equipments, Salaries of defence people and other government employees and of course the expense of our so many political leaders as there are so many MP’s and MLA’s in our country.

For any country like at individual level, the income should be more than the domestic expenses and then the additional saved money are used in further strengthening the economy by providing infrastructure facilities like roads, bridges, airports, railways etc which helps in fast growth of economy. If this situation prevails then the economy is said to be progressive and vibrant.

In the current time, the expenses of our country are more than the income. The falling rupee is adding fuel as it has led to increase in the import cost. If this continues then in order to survive further, the country has to take loans from International banks and then they will provide the loan based on their own terms and business conditions and off course higher interest rate. Ultimately this will lead to vicious circle of debt in the country.

There are several reasons which affect the economical conditions of a country. Some of the main points which draw our attentions for this messy situation of our economy are:

1. India is 3^rd largest country in the world in coal reserves but still it imports the coal from other countries for the power generation.
2. India is one of the largest consumers in electronic goods and computers. Every year we get more than 4 lakhs of new technical graduates but still most of the electronic goods like mobile phones, LED/LCD TVs, Smart Phones, electronic toys and their hardware parts are imported from other countries. The computer and laptops are only assembled in India.
3. Most of our defence equipments and around 80% of crude petroleum are imported. We never tried to become self reliant on fuel sector by aggressive oil exploring activities.
4. Our IT sector will be termed as export as we are exporting the services but again this export is not in the control of Indian government. If tomorrow USA, UK or European countries decides to stop the services from the developing countries, that’s almost an end of the most of the IT companies operating from India. In fact this has already stared due to the political pressure on the government of these countries.
5. Our obsession to foreign products and foreign mentality also leads to the increase in import. Most of our everyday usage items are imported ones. The BMW car is seen as a normal car in UK or European countries and is used by a common employee but in our country the BMW is seen as Royal status symbol. We attach our show off with the imported products.

 Most of the developed countries of the world, first made them self reliant and then come to the other parts of the world to increase their business for further earnings. So if they separate themselves from other parts of the world and try to live in their own world, they can survive very well. But we cannot survive for more than a month if we stop the trade relationship from other parts of the world. In the name and process of globalization, we got too much dependant on the economic and political conditions of other countries. In order to save the economy our government is asking the foreign companies to invest in India in the name of FDI. Indian Government is making the conditions easier and easier for them but most of them are not willing to invest due to the loss of trust and poor governance from the centre. The Rupee is falling and will fall further if there is no improvement in such situation as this will directly put less demand of rupee.

We all will be impacted individually of such worse economic conditions of the country. The depreciation of rupee will lead to inflation. Inflation may be supported by increase in salary and subsequently printing of more currency notes from RBI and very soon we will see the big currency notes of Rs 2000 or Rs 5000. The lower value of currency from Re1 to Rs100 will be of no value. The strength of purchasing power of rupee has declined and is on further decline. The biggest currency note of USA is 100 dollar and for UK its 50 pound note. The strength of their currency is almost the same as it was 25-30 years back.  Today in India the purchasing power of one lakh rupee is equivalent to around Rs1000 around 25-30 years back.

The question in front of us is how our economy can be vibrant and more self dependant.

On the big scale, our country needs a strong and visionary leader who should not only think of and beg to the other parts of the world to come and invest in India to provide the jobs. There should be a will to improve and boost the local industries of India so that the Indian product should be competitive enough to the other parts of the world. Instead of just becoming consumer market for the whole world, India should be in the position to export its product throughout the world and make the whole world as the consumer of Indian products. There should be globalization to compete with the whole world but self dependency should be the first priority. We should be fundamentally so strong that the recession in west should not shake us at the core. In the current scenario any political or economical decision in other parts of the world shakes our economy and the fears comes in the form of recession, rupee depreciation, falling of Indian share market, job loss etc.

There is no doubt that the effective and rapid solution is only possible form the effective policies of our government. We as an individual can contribute by avoiding the use of imported products in our daily life. We should mainly use indigenous or swadeshi products in our daily life. 

India is a big country and rich in almost all minerals and natural resources. We have a huge pool of young and energetic human resource. There is all potential and possibility for India to become self reliant and leader of the world in terms of education, science and technology, innovations, Agriculture and service sectors.

The day we become self reliant, we don’t have to bother even a little on what political or economical decisions are taken in US, UK or in any parts of the world, rather the world will be watching, analysing and predicting the India’s next political or economical step for their own betterment.

NATURE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

Hello,

I am Nature. I want you to hold on everything and listen to me for a moment. On 15^th and 16^th June, 2013 you have seen one of the demoralizing face of mine in Uttrakhand state of India and subsequently along with you I saw how some of your fellow beings on this earth had lost their near and dear ones. Some saw their kids dying in front of them and on their laps, some became orphan losing all of their family members. Many ran and moved ahead leaving the dead body of their relatives in the mud and pebbles. Some gathered the courage to cover the dead body with their clothes and then pushed in the flowing water as the only last ritual. I saw the humans walking along the corpses and spent the days among the decaying corpses.

Believe me I am also traumatized to the core by the tears, ordeal, loss, pain and suffering of human beings there. It was never my intention; I was only in the process of restoring my lost balance.

My Dear Friends, I am all for you and without you I am not complete. I know you all love me and I feel very happy when you admire me. I sense your excitement when you see the Colours of Ocean, Sound of waves, Rainbow in the Sky, Mountains, Moving Clouds, Valleys and Hills. I feel excited when you capture my beauty in your cameras as variety of Flowers, Birds, Animals, Plants, Dewdrops on the Grasses, Snow covered tress and so on. I get pleasure when you travel from long distances, spending great deal of money to view and enjoy my gorgeousness. To impress you, I try to come in with different image of beauty in different season and yes though you do not listen I always thank whenever you admire me in your poems and literature.

I am charming and attractive for you today and was same for your ancestors and forefathers and I promise to be more and more lovable and delightful for your coming generations.

I know sometimes you panic and suffer due to my extreme events in the form of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Cyclones, Hurricanes and Tsunamis. I feel very sad as I never want to see you in pain but these are something which goes out of my control and I have to go through this for the balance of myself in long term. You have made good progress in technology through which you can predict most of my extreme events in advance. I am sure you will always be alerted and remain safe in such extreme events of mine.

However, I want to say that you all are directly responsible for some of my actions like Floods, Drought, Landslides, Cold waves, Heat waves, Heavy Rains, Soil erosion etc. You create imbalance and then I am required to restore my balance. You do not think about me when it comes to your personal, social and economical development. I keep on alerting you through small signals and warnings against your irresponsible action towards me.  In most of the time you go on ignoring and neglecting me, as if I am no one for you.

I am all in your control to avoid this and you have rightly decoded some of the working process of mine. I do not want to give lecture on how to control all this as I know you are taught all this in your schools and colleges in the topic of Deforestation, Increasing concentration of green houses gases, Use of non decomposable stuffs like plastics, Impact of constructions on the bank of river, Impact of dumping garbage and chemicals in rivers etc. What makes me concerned is that you only read and understand but when it comes to follow then you intentionally ignore for your immediate livelihood and development. None of you takes the responsibility and in every tragedy you make your politicians only as default criminals.

I have taken enough of your time. Once again I want to say that I am for each one of you. I do not want to see you suffering from the calamity like Uttrakhand. My beauty is incomplete without your compliments. I always want you to stop and stare on me as much as possible. I am here to bring happiness, calmness and excitement in your life.

My only request to you all is not to ignore but always consider me whenever you take any decision for your personal, social or economic progress and development.

Thanks for your patience! Always Yours! Bye!

RAPE:WHEN and HOW RAPE WILL STOP IN INDIA

The recent rape and brutality on a 5 year old girl in Delhi is extremely shocking to hear for any sensitive person.  Feel of her immense pain, her cry without properly shouting for help from someone, not having the energy to push them off and run, and the way she was thrown like garbage is spine- chilling.

The rapists left and locked the spot thinking her as dead. But the Almighty has sown life in her again and now she is recovering. May God give her all strength and energy to lead her life like other kids. May God erase this part of her memory from the rest of her life.

Most of us say that this is not the first time it had happened and not the last.When we say that our culture holds the dignity and respect of woman above all then the incidents like this let others mock on us with the comment that we Indians are the biggest hypocrites. What has gone wrong in our DNA and blood? What is that which has percolated in our society which made us so numb and insensible to even the pain and cry of a five year old baby?

This type of insensitive feeling does not come in a day, month or year. This indicates the failure of our family values, our education system, our ethics and culture. It’s the failure of vision where we are trying to lead our beloved country. Our society has gone weaker and people are behaving like loose cannons.

After the incident, so many discussions and debates had happened on almost all the news channels. Some says westernization is the root cause while others blame existing Indian culture. Some says the law and punishment is not strict enough to protect women from such atrocities, some said that our current government is very much insensitive towards normal people. Some blamed the mentality and attitude of the men while others blame the girls are only who invite such heinous act on them.

Some pointed out that the easy availability of porn materials including the child pornography is one of the biggest cause as in this case also it’s revealed that they watched the porn and then to release the sexual energy they very easily and conveniently lured a 5 year old baby. Almost everyone agrees that the current porn materials are not about love making and sexual education. It’s about atrocities, perverted and distorted display of love making. They show the use of unwanted and unimaginable materials in the women body and unfortunately this is getting followed in our society and even on the Children. This is alarming to all of us.

 Like other industries, the competition is growing here also, so don’t know what type and what different forms of sexual display and use of women body will be projected by porn industry to compete with others. Everyone agrees that sex education and sexual awareness is the need but not in the form of such porn materials which leads in exploitation of women’s and children body in such a brutal form.

Due to the latest revolt and demand of the people in Delhi, the government of India had passed a strong anti rape law. I wish this law should help in preventing such atrocities rapidly. At the same time our history tell us that the other evils which were prevalent in our Indian society were eradicated from our society not merely by law but by the involvement of the common people on root level. Each and every generation in their life time contribute in the abolishment of evils and uplift of the society towards the betterment. Today we are here and so it’s our time to contribute to the society to reduce and abolish the existence of such atrocities and to pass a clean and civilized society to our coming generations.

Now the question in front of us is how we as individual can contribute in creating an emotional and sensitive society which should not give birth to such cruel and insensible human beings and no child, girls or women should become victim of such ghastly atrocities.There can be so many ways which can be decided based on the fabric of society where we live. Some of the prominent and common solution which I can think of is as below:

We have to go for both immediate and long term solution. Under the immediate solution situational awareness is required against the already existing rogue, depraved, deplorable and perverted elements of our society.

All should encourage their sisters, daughters, friends to definitely carry some sort of defence weapons with them. It may be in the form of chilli spray, small knifes and they should have at least basic knowledge in judo and karate or any martial arts. Each and every family should teach their female family members to biting, scratching, hitting, screaming, yelling, fleeing, struggling or any other physical self defence techniques. All different resistance strategies in risky situations should be taught very well to our female members of the society.

These are the only short term strategies I can think of now to protect ourselves from the rowdy element of the society but at the same time it is our responsibility only to make our society free from such troubles permanently. When such incidents happen, it gives a very bad name to our country and makes our head down with shame. So we should also take steps to eradicate this completely from our own society.

One of the biggest drawbacks of our society is when a girl is harassed, then family members are not disclosing due to the feeling how society will treat and see them. We have to be supportive of such family and people. It is not their problem rather it is someone who is making them suffer. Those perverted people should get the message that society and family is not going to hide but defame and will not accept them in their society and home whoever will try to think of doing such heinous acts.

We all see the portrayal of women body in advertisement of products to lure the customers. Now a day’s almost none of the movies are complete without so called item songs. We all understand the double meaning of those songs and how the movement of cameras happens on the women body. Here I mean to say that all these are making our society sexually charged and impact is there mainly among the teenagers who in the process of releasing their energy lead in doing heinous activities may be due to sudden feelings or outbursts. We all have to think what we need to boycott from entering our society and what we need to accept.

 Some people say that it is our attitude and our mentality only that someone is utilising for commercial purpose.  They say, in silence we want the characters like Sunny Leone and that’s why someone gives her opportunity in India. We demand such things and hence someone comes to supply. We all have to think where we are leading and what will be end of this as the impact have already started to knock on our doors.

 We have to prove what and how we want to see the society. We don’t need to learn such type sexual education and love making techniques from the perverted porn stars. Our ancestors and forefathers have taught the whole world the pure way of love making in the form of KamaSutra and these industries can never stand in parallel to the knowledge our own ancestors have accumulated for us . They are more pure and pious than porn materials.

In the case of the rape of Delhi medical student, six persons were there but the alarming to us is none of them got any bit of pity feelings towards her. So through the educational institutions our society should encourage for the building of emotional feelings and bonds right from the childhood not only within the family but with the society also. Our education system is creating self centric individuals and money earning professional human machines only. We must have life-building, man-making, character making, sensible and emotional human beings from our education system.

I will end my typing here with the word that today the medical student who got raped in Delhi moving bus  or the five year old girl may not be personally related to me and you but there is no guarantee for tomorrow if we will not introspect ourselves and stop the percolation of impious stuffs in our society.

Commercialisation of Education – The Hindrance for Superpower India

Let New India arise out of the peasants’ cottage, grasping the plough; out of the huts of the fishermen, the cobbler, and the sweeper. Let her spring from the grocer’s shop, from beside the oven of the fritter-seller. Let her emanate from the factory, from marts, and from markets. Let her emerge from groves and forests, from hills and mountains.

                                                                                        --- Swami Vivekananda

Once I was reading an article and there I found some exciting data on India “Today over 35% of the population is below the age of 20. By 2020 it is expected that around 32.5 crores (325 million) of people will reach the working age which will be the largest in the world and this will come at a time when rest of the developed world will be faced with the ageing population. It is estimated that by 2020, US will be short of 17 million of working age, China by 10 million, Japan by 9 million and Russia by 6 million. At the same time India will have surplus of 47 million working age.” To check the accuracy of this, I started to Google in different ways and found similar data from other different sources.

Next day I was casually turning over the pages of the quotation book of Swami Vivekananda and I read the above words of him on how the India should arise including all sections of the society. For some time I kept on thinking between the Swamiji’s words and India’s population structure by age. My analysis led me to conclude that this is the apt time for India to become a superpower and the most developed nation of the world before we breathe our last and we can very well become part of this transformation.

I thought that education can play an essential role here but at the same time I think that the current situation of education can also become a big hindrance for us.

Education plays the most fundamental role for the growth of a nation. It is only the quality education which leads to a civilised family, society and a prosperous country with a booming economy.

Currently, the higher education in India is becoming a distant dream for most of the economically middle and poor class families. A huge part of the savings is spent on the tuition fee of the universities and colleges of India. Most of the students pursuing higher education are already on the pre burden of educational loans. In metro cities, the primary and secondary educations are also extremely expensive. If this trend continues then we cannot hope and expect that all the sections of the society can get proper access to education.

When our government was not able to take care of the education from the government’s expenses, they brought private players in to the picture. Now many Colleges and Universities are run by private institutions or individuals and this has made the educational sector as a commercial sector of India. Here the main focus is not to provide quality education but to extract maximum money. Even the government’s contribution of funds is not sufficient to run government colleges and eventually the monetary burden comes on the students and their parents.

As India is still coming out from poverty and backwardness, the main expectation from higher education is mainly a medium which can provide good salaried job to them and can help them in getting rid of economical problems. When a child gets admission call from so many colleges after the entrance result, they and their parents first inquire about the placements which college can provide to them. Rarely any one inquires about the quality of faculties and education provided. It may take 2 or 3 generations when Indian students will go for higher education mainly to show their creativity and innovation or to fulfil their real dreams. Almost 99% of the Indian students pursuing higher education have the main aim of getting good salaried jobs. Understanding this mindset of the people, private institutions approach the corporate world, for the job placements, and then charges huge amount of fees. There is no need to work hard to clear the semester examination as most of the questions will be out and the evaluation of the papers will happen internally.

There are many young students who are ready to work hard and study but they cannot go beyond secondary education as they are not having economical support. They cannot get the loans from the bank as the bank demands some guarantor and financial securities. The percentages of such people are not less as some of the survey tells that around 70% of the educated youth do not go to colleges.  There are good percentages of people who cannot even afford the secondary education. They end up in doing small jobs and their hard work and earnings never come and counted in the growth of India’s economy.

Under these conditions we cannot see India emerging as developed and superpower nation. Providing quality education to all is more the responsibility of government than each parent. But I will say that we should not wait and watch to see some nice policies from our government on the educational reforms. Already there are lot of policies but the impact is not visible on the ground. Here I will not discuss what the our government can do in this direction but yes how we as an individual can contribute more and more in this direction.

We can make our contributions in various ways like

• We can contribute through NGO in spreading education; can contribute in the  construction of schools and colleges on one’s own level.
• We can take the financial responsibility of at least one orphanage student from any NGO.
• We can make regular visits to some schools and colleges to take some classes for free of cost. We can take the computer classes for free for which they are charged in huge amount.
• Helping the needy children with books, notebooks etc. We should take moral responsibility that from my own village each and every kid is enrolled for the school. If not, we can make the parents aware and help them for the same.

There can be many more other ways we can make big or small impact in this direction.

India is known as young country because around 50% of the India’s current population is below the age of 25 and around 65% is below the age of 35 and so India will remain as youth country for another 30-50 years. The work forces in other countries are declining sharply and their government’s expenditure is increasing on providing healthcare facilities. More and more people are coming under the category of pensioners. For us, this is the best time to channelize the energy of youth, kids and children in the proper directions.

In case the energy of youths and children are not channelized in the proper direction to get the economic stability then the unemployment and frustrations may lead to criminalization, loot, robbery, gang war and so many. If this time is not utilised, then there is a chance that India can go back to 20-30 or 50 years ago in terms of development. If such a strong and huge youth force is left starving on their own when some will be leading a luxurious life in front of them, then it will increase all illegal and criminal activities. More and more will become part of Maoism and Naxalism or any other such groups.

Once again I will say that we need to awaken the sleeping India from each and every corner of our society and I can say with confidence that “If this India wakes up, the world will tremble.” 

I would like to conclude here with the words of Swami Vivekananda on the responsibilities which lie on us.

“Arise, awake, for your country needs this tremendous sacrifice. It is the young men that will do it. The Young, the energetic, the strong, the well-built, the intellectual for them is the task.”

“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who have been educated at their expenses, pays not the least heed to them!”

“Get up, and put your shoulders to the wheel-how long is this life for? As you have come in to this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise, where is the difference between you and the trees and stones? They too come in to existence, decay and die.”

“Let us all work hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work depends the coming of the India of the future. She is there ready waiting. She is only sleeping. Arise and awake, and see her seated here, on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was-this Motherland of ours.”

DOWRY SYSTEM and its EVIL IMPACT

Mamta was asked to call up her parents and tell them that they should send her Rs 20,000 as was promised earlier. The villagers said that since this demand was not met, her sister-in-law, husband, father-in-law, mother-in-law and two brothers-in-law gathered and harassed her throughout the night and in the early hours of next day; they allegedly tied her to a nearby tree and set her on fire. (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-20/nagpur/30421508_1_villagers-goregaon-tehsil-sadak-arjuni)

Kalpana (26), hanged herself to death in her flat. A double graduate with a bright future was driven to the extreme step after persistent harassment by her husband.Even though the couple had been married for two years, the husband agreed to keep Kalpana in his house in Bangalore only when the family agreed to pay the money as was agreed earlier. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/article2844350.ece)

These stories are not from any movie or TV Serial but a real incident and such atrocious incidents are increasing in our Indian society with the end results of bride burning, mental tortures, physical violence and suicide. The cause is one of the accepted evil of our society called Dowry System.

If we go in to the history of this system, it started when the bride’s family used to give their daughter a part of land or other gift items at the time of her marriage as the daughter was not considered inheritor of parent’s property. With time the greed of individuals enlarged and now the boy’s family select only such type of family who along with his daughter can give large sum of cash, gold, clothes, vehicles or any other consumer durables.  Earlier it was due to the affection of the parents towards their daughter but today it has taken the shape of such an evil spirit that this is directly demanded from the boy’s side and has become a big liability to the parents of all daughters where the planning starts right from the time when a daughter is born.

 It should be very clear that this system is prevailing not due to the unemployment or illiteracy of the society. This is flourishing very well in almost every part of the society. They may be Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, IAS, Managers or any respectable profession we can think of. There are strict laws against the dowry but like corruption this has also become an integral part of Indian society. Everyone knows and everyone discusses openly. On mutual agreement the law against the dowry is violated by everyone and everywhere.

The big and perplex question is can our Indian society ever be free from this evil. Could this ever go into one of the dark and grave histories of India like Child Marriage or Sati Pratha. If yes, then who can and from where it can start. It is said that education is the solution of almost all the ills of the society. But in this case education is of not that much use because more education and good job means eligibility for more and more dowry.

Before going further let’s see how this system impacts the individual’s life and retards the growth of women in India.

The existence of dowry system creates a sense of economic fear among the parents of girl child. If it is the story of middle class then they prefer to have only basic higher education for their daughter and save the money so that with the saved money they can get excellent earning and qualified partner for their daughter’s marriage. Some sensitive parents listen to their daughter’s wish and let her go for higher education but now parents always remain in anxiety to get the money arranged for the marriage.  Most of the time due to lack of money for dowry, it ends up in having unsuitable partner for the daughter and this brings sense of guilt to parents.

 In some cases daughter’s love make father go to any extent to arrange money for the dowry so that his daughter can have good qualified life partner for the rest of her life. They may sell their lands and can keep their home on mortgage and this makes their rest of life economically liable to someone.

In economically poor family, the terror of dowry leads to sex identification of foetus and then to abortion.  The sex identification through ultrasound is illegal in our country but in small cities and towns, the identification of sex in pregnancy is not a hard job.  If you want to know from the main doctor, you have to pay more otherwise just keep some money in the hands of doctor’s assistant, who takes care of ultrasound during the pregnancy check, and they will tell verbally. From the context of Indian society there are many reasons for abortion and dislike towards the girl child but there is no doubt that existing dowry system is a predominant one.

In most of the poor and middle class families, only the boys are given preference to get the education from a good school and college and not the girls. If you go and ask the reason they will say if girl is educated then they cannot get an educated partner for her marriage as they are poor. The daughter listens and bears for being a girl. She can’t fly and can’t dream like her brother. She only restricts herself in cooking, painting, and tailoring or any other household decoration things so that at least her parents can boast of these things and can get some what good life partner for her.

The existence of dowry makes people corrupt. Most of the time the cash paid as a dowry is generally through corrupt route and the money disappears without having any legal documents or without the knowledge of income tax office.

In the schooldays everyone would have written notes on the topic of Dowry. At that time everyone keeps the feeling of hatred against the dowry. But once grown up and time for action comes then forget what they have written. Even the parents do not give any lecture to their kids on dowry because they cannot present themselves as role model to their kids in the fight against the dowry. Even mothers demand dowry for their son. She forgets how her father has struggled to arrange the money to get her married through dowry. It seems no one is sensitive towards others. Everyone thinks about themselves and for that instant only. Everyone one says that when the actual time comes, one must be practical instead of becoming emotional and sensitive towards others.

 I really can’t think of effective solutions to bring down the dowry from our society. In the current system of education, more educated and qualified means eligible for more dowries and so no hope from literate section.  The existing law against the dowry is openly violated with the mutual consents. The law is brought in use only when the marriage is not successful even after the dowry.

I want to end typing here. But before closing this I just want to say to all the bachelors and their parents that when they are discussing about the dowry or offering the dowry, it creates fear in the society and somewhere this act of yours leads to abortion of baby girls, somewhere some girls will get devoid of higher education with their dreams devastated, people will be forced to follow the corrupt route for money and again somewhere someone like Mamta will be burnt alive and someone like Kalpana will decide for suicide.

GOOD BYE FOREVER - 2011

Hi All,

I am 2011 and now for me time has come to say you good bye.

On the eve of my arrival, you celebrated by sending sms, emails, greeting cards, wished your near and dear ones that I should bring all happiness and good luck for them. The moment I arrived on your doorstep, I saw you were singing, dancing and watching music and dance shows of your favorite celebrities on your Television Set. I saw you have written my name everywhere in colors and lights on the roads, buildings, clubs etc. It was “Welcome to 2011” or “Happy New Year 2011”.

I also saw some of you drinking, smoking, shouting and dancing in front of loud speakers and was cheering for me.

The next morning was very silent and slowly I entered in your life. I became part of your life. You mentioned me in almost every formal, legal or informal document. I was part of your past and future references.

Though I became part of your life, but I was trying to find the same enthusiasm and energy which I saw among you on the first day of my arrival. Many times I got disappointed seeing you always running with a sad and tensed face and always cursing your life and luck. From my first impression I understood that you all are very jolly, incredible and lively persons.

I saw you gathered with your friends and near and dear ones on some occasions. I came to know that such days are very rare in your life and you wait eagerly for those days to have relief from your normal repetitive routine. This led me to think whether my arrival was also an occasion or opportunity for your celebration or the intention was really to welcome me..?

I have spent 365 days with you and I saw almost everyone of you are doing the same activities everyday from the moment you leave your bed to the time you again go to your bed. I tried to understand and to some extent what I understood is that your life is centered on money. This is playing a very pivotal in your life and that is why you are repeating same boring activities every day. You stay up too late and get up too tired.

I also saw some pain and sorrow among you. Believe me I am not your culprit, I do not bring any happiness or sorrow. Yesterday was same as today and tomorrow will be same as today. It was only due to your own actions or deeds.

Now, I am going out from your life. As you know I am part of time. So, I do not stop or wait for anyone and never come again. Hence this was my first and last stay with you.

Based on my experience of 365 days with you, I can very well understand that you are again eagerly looking for my last day to have some break in your daily routine. Before leaving I also want you all to see in the same jolly and energetic mood which I saw when I met you for the first time. Finally I wish each of the 365 days of the New Year should bring more and more happiness for you all.

May the Almighty fulfill all your dreams and desires and make each day of 2012 a wonderful and memorable day.

GOOD BYE FOREVER,

2011