Yesterday Beijing Olympic ended with good amount of happiness for Indian sports lover. Indian sportspersons performed well. Few of them were exceptional including three boxers (Akhil, Jitender, Vijender), one shuttler (Saina Nehwal), one wrestler (Sushil Kumar), one shooter (Abhinav Bindra). Others were probably not up to the mark or probably had a hard luck (archer Mangal Singh Champia). But one thing was proved that in Olympic sports, India has progressed. It may be very slow progress but progress is noticed. We had three medals and three other guys just missed the medals. Time has come for all of sports lover to give Olympic sports more attention. A least at par with cricket. People like me have been biased in approach towards sports. Let’s see how. I have been watching Olympic sports (especially Olympic, Asiad) since my childhood and I have good knowledge of Indian sportspersons but I never wrote a blog entry. I have been always assuming that India cannot do better in Asiad, Olympic. Government should finalize a strategy for the progress of Olympic sports with all honesty and with good set of people. People like Suresh Kalmadi cannot take India anywhere. Government should sanction funds to let sportsmen have better training facilities. Corporate should chip in to let common Indian have an increased interest in Olympic sports. Common Indian should have positive attitude towards the sportspersons representing India at different games. We all should think beyond the barrier of Sachin, Dhoni and Yuvraj. Sportspersons should also be more sincere and focused towards delivering good results to fans. If a Milkha Singh do wonders (in Rome 1960) with limited facilities, If a Dinaram Singh can win steeplechase footless, If a P. T. Usha can win four gold medals in an Asiad (Seoul 1986) why not others. Time has come to surprise the world. Best of luck for coming Asiad in 2010.
Lastly…. three cheers for all the sportspersons represented India in Olympic 2008. Hip hip Hurray …….
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
How seriuos we are?
After two consecutive days of serial bomb blasts in two of the Indian cities, common people like me have two questions:
1. How safe we are now?
2. How serious the central government and state governments are to tackle terrorism?
The answer to the first question is we are not safe. At least after several serial bomb blasts in different cities in last 2-3 years indicates the same. If its fact that we are not safe, we should accept that and then start working towards a goal to make this country safer. I am not worried if I know that we are not safe but we are doing every possible thing to make this country safe to live. I am only worried if we live in a fabricated and false world of feeling safe and then doing nothing to tackle terror. That’s what baffles me at least. The answer to the second question is related to this same fact.
I doubt the seriousness of governments and law enforcing agencies to tackle terror. Not even me but even the terror modules are thinking in same ways. Let’s see how. On Friday 25th July 2008, after Bangalore serial bomb blast, central home ministers (Mr Patil and Mr Jaisawal) came with stereotyped comments. I guess now they have every words of these comments memorized because they use almost same comments after each serial bomb blast in last 2-3 years. Anyway we also heard news on TV that government has put all big cities on high alert. Ahmedabad was on high alert on Saturday when terrorists easily placed all vehicles loaded with bomb all over the cities and exploded them in evening. What does that mean? That means that the term “high alert” was just the eyewash for us. Government was not serious. To just pacify the country, security establishment made this comment (putting cities on high alert) and perhaps thought that very next day the same serial bomb blast would not take place and they won’t be in uncomfortable situation. But the same thing happened. Even after Saturday’s serial bomb blast, on Sunday, in Surat two vehicles loaded with explosive material were found parked. Fortunately by this time the common people were more alert and they timely alerted police. But question remains same, why terrorists were were easily conducting their operations when cities were on high alert. Answer is crystal clear that even they were sure that governments were not serious.
Preventing the situation to arise is one thing and fighting after that is another thing. Let’s assume our intelligence network was not quite good to warn us of terror attack and so the different serial bomb blast took place. But then after that, how many culprits of last several serial blasts were arrested by government agencies? How many of them booked and punished? What is the state of different investigations? Loads of questions are unanswered and that make common people think that government in not serious in tackling terror.
We need to live in a real world than living in a false world and understand the ground realities to come up with a concrete plan to thrash terrorism. For that we need honest approach and clear thinking. Coming on TV heavily guarded by security staff and making statements are very easy. People sitting at different government positions need to chalk out plans to tackle terror. Time has come to see just two communities in country one is national and another is anti-national. Time has come to strengthen ourselves to crush anti-national elements at all levels. Time has come for different political parties to come above the caste, religion based politics and work for the betterment of security situation. Time has come for common man to understand the security threat, be alert to avoid threats and also teach a lesson to all political leaders who are not capable of delivering the solution while being in government at different position.
1. How safe we are now?
2. How serious the central government and state governments are to tackle terrorism?
The answer to the first question is we are not safe. At least after several serial bomb blasts in different cities in last 2-3 years indicates the same. If its fact that we are not safe, we should accept that and then start working towards a goal to make this country safer. I am not worried if I know that we are not safe but we are doing every possible thing to make this country safe to live. I am only worried if we live in a fabricated and false world of feeling safe and then doing nothing to tackle terror. That’s what baffles me at least. The answer to the second question is related to this same fact.
I doubt the seriousness of governments and law enforcing agencies to tackle terror. Not even me but even the terror modules are thinking in same ways. Let’s see how. On Friday 25th July 2008, after Bangalore serial bomb blast, central home ministers (Mr Patil and Mr Jaisawal) came with stereotyped comments. I guess now they have every words of these comments memorized because they use almost same comments after each serial bomb blast in last 2-3 years. Anyway we also heard news on TV that government has put all big cities on high alert. Ahmedabad was on high alert on Saturday when terrorists easily placed all vehicles loaded with bomb all over the cities and exploded them in evening. What does that mean? That means that the term “high alert” was just the eyewash for us. Government was not serious. To just pacify the country, security establishment made this comment (putting cities on high alert) and perhaps thought that very next day the same serial bomb blast would not take place and they won’t be in uncomfortable situation. But the same thing happened. Even after Saturday’s serial bomb blast, on Sunday, in Surat two vehicles loaded with explosive material were found parked. Fortunately by this time the common people were more alert and they timely alerted police. But question remains same, why terrorists were were easily conducting their operations when cities were on high alert. Answer is crystal clear that even they were sure that governments were not serious.
Preventing the situation to arise is one thing and fighting after that is another thing. Let’s assume our intelligence network was not quite good to warn us of terror attack and so the different serial bomb blast took place. But then after that, how many culprits of last several serial blasts were arrested by government agencies? How many of them booked and punished? What is the state of different investigations? Loads of questions are unanswered and that make common people think that government in not serious in tackling terror.
We need to live in a real world than living in a false world and understand the ground realities to come up with a concrete plan to thrash terrorism. For that we need honest approach and clear thinking. Coming on TV heavily guarded by security staff and making statements are very easy. People sitting at different government positions need to chalk out plans to tackle terror. Time has come to see just two communities in country one is national and another is anti-national. Time has come to strengthen ourselves to crush anti-national elements at all levels. Time has come for different political parties to come above the caste, religion based politics and work for the betterment of security situation. Time has come for common man to understand the security threat, be alert to avoid threats and also teach a lesson to all political leaders who are not capable of delivering the solution while being in government at different position.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Will this govt survive?
Today is result day for Manmohan Singh government. It is going to face floor test by evening. This political commotion was created because of nuclear deal. A person like me understands very less technical, social, financial aspects of this deal. Few knowledgeable persons are against and few are in support of deal. Thus it’s more and more confusing for common man to understand the different facets of this deal. I am not sure whether I am for or against the deal but one thing is sure that I am in support of government today. Not because deal is good or bad but because I am against Karat and Company. I always felt that communist parties in India are biggest destructive force. I am against them. So if they want to topple the government, I am opposed to them. The performance of Manmohan Singh’s UPA government has been very disappointing in last four and half year on economic and security fronts but nobody can deny that the prime minister is really very honest person and its always pleasure to see people like him with a clean image leading the country. After this recent political turmoil over the nuclear deal, I have more respect for Manmohan Singh because of the courage he had shown to not succumb to left pressure. It also gave a signal that current prime minister is not as weak as we kept on assuming in last four and half year. I know there will be lots of horse trading behind the scene, lots of deal, money and muscle power will play their roles in today’s vote. People from both sides will try their best in all ethical/unethical practices to either save or topple the govt. An honest person like Manmohan Singh had to directly/indirectly endorse these things if he had to save his government. This may not look very ethical but I remember 4 lines of hindi poem:
“आग के साथ आग बन मिलो
पानी के साथ पानी ,
गरल का उत्तर है प्रतिगरल
यही कहते जग के ज्ञानी!”
“आग के साथ आग बन मिलो
पानी के साथ पानी ,
गरल का उत्तर है प्रतिगरल
यही कहते जग के ज्ञानी!”
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Dulcamara (homeopathy remedy)
Rainy days arrive and you can see people frequently catching cold. The dampness in climate causes the cold viruses to survive more. Cold is irritating and may cause frequent sneezing, nose discharge, watering of eyes and sometime flu kind of fever too. For me this is the time to use Dulcamara (30) with Rhus Tox (30) 2-3 times a day and it really works wonder to treat me for cold and mild fever. Cold caused by damp weather indicates Dulcamara as the homeopathy remedy. This medicine also worked wonders for me when the big temperature difference (places where days are relatively warm and in night mercury level falls down heavily) between day and night caused me frequent cold. Here is the link for this medicine http://abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Dulc
क्या निराश हुआ जाए?
It has been raining here at Pune regularly since last month. In Pune, rainy days are worst to drive in a city. The roads will start seeing water logging and potholes will slowly appear and then grow rapidly. You need to have certain level of driving expertise to successfully avoid potholes. We usually don’t have separate footpaths for walking people and if there are some footpaths they are not in condition where people can walk. Usually people walk at the sides of the road. In rainy season to avoid the rain water accumulated at sides of the road, people start walking at the middle of the road. Thus for me it’s really frustrating to drive on city roads in monsoon season. But I had to. So what do I do? I keep on managing myself to somehow drive safely and decrying the system, government and everyone who looks like closely or remotely associated with city planning and management. Few days back I drove to buy groceries for this month. I was feeling frustrated after that small drive to the shop and somehow search to park my small car. On top of that, the prices of essential commodities made me feel totally down, dejected. In recent times, every month when I see my groceries bill, I start feeling uncomfortable and what can I do maximum? I start criticizing the system, the government and the entire setup. I feel frustrated, helpless and hopeless. While driving down back to home, I was in full swing to criticize everything and express my anguish. Mostly the finance ministry to tackling the inflation. I was trying to find out where they spend majority of tax money they deduct from my pay cheque including the education cess. I still see the same poor children begging on the traffic lights. Where does the tax money go? By now I felt its biggest life time puzzle for me. I thought enough is enough I should express my anguish in my blog. I should write a hard hitting blog to express my anguish, unhappiness, frustration and everything. I should express my thought that how hopeless I feel at road, at shop, when I go out of my home.
Next day I reached office early morning. It was still raining outside. Most of the employees had not reached office. I planned to organize my thoughts before writing my blog. I wanted to make my blog hard hitting and effective. To breathe fresh ideas; I walked into dry pantry of my office and started looking out of the office thru the big glass window. Looked like rain had just stopped and traffic was in full swing on the road. People were rushing to their offices, schools, and workplaces. It was still not very clear sky but not too dark too. Freshness after the small spell of rain was visible. All of the sudden I observed three small girls (looked from very poor background) in dirty, untidy school uniforms with school bags, barefooted enjoying the water logged on the road and rushing towards their school. Looked like they were in hurry to join the government school which is few meters away on the other side of road. I kept on looking at them by the time they disappeared from my sight. I had finished my cup of tea in dry pantry. I started walking back to my seat, I had abandoned my idea of writing a blog to express my thoughts that time had come to feel hopeless.
Next day I reached office early morning. It was still raining outside. Most of the employees had not reached office. I planned to organize my thoughts before writing my blog. I wanted to make my blog hard hitting and effective. To breathe fresh ideas; I walked into dry pantry of my office and started looking out of the office thru the big glass window. Looked like rain had just stopped and traffic was in full swing on the road. People were rushing to their offices, schools, and workplaces. It was still not very clear sky but not too dark too. Freshness after the small spell of rain was visible. All of the sudden I observed three small girls (looked from very poor background) in dirty, untidy school uniforms with school bags, barefooted enjoying the water logged on the road and rushing towards their school. Looked like they were in hurry to join the government school which is few meters away on the other side of road. I kept on looking at them by the time they disappeared from my sight. I had finished my cup of tea in dry pantry. I started walking back to my seat, I had abandoned my idea of writing a blog to express my thoughts that time had come to feel hopeless.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
भेड़, भेडसमूह, भेडचाल और गड़ेरिया !
कई भेड़ , एक भेडचाल
एक समूह एक गड़ेरिया !
समूह कई जगह
ऐसे ही भेड़ओं का
हरेक समूह के लिए
अलग परिभाषित
भेडचाल और
अलग गड़ेरिया !
कई गडेरिये
ख़ुद बने भेड़
किसी और भेडसमूह के लिए
किसी और भेडचाल में चल रहे
किसी और गडेरिये के पीछे !
भेड़, भेडसमूह, भेडचाल और गड़ेरिया !
एक समूह एक गड़ेरिया !
समूह कई जगह
ऐसे ही भेड़ओं का
हरेक समूह के लिए
अलग परिभाषित
भेडचाल और
अलग गड़ेरिया !
कई गडेरिये
ख़ुद बने भेड़
किसी और भेडसमूह के लिए
किसी और भेडचाल में चल रहे
किसी और गडेरिये के पीछे !
भेड़, भेडसमूह, भेडचाल और गड़ेरिया !
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Indian Premier League
By the time IPL entered the semi final stage, few things are clearly visible:
1. In 20-20, big names couldn’t accommodate themselves with this format. Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Laxman and their teams are out of tournament. Except one or two good innings none of them either could play to win matches for their teams nor could they motivate the other youngsters to do the same. They also were major flop as captains of their teams. Although they keep on claiming that they are fit for 20-20 and they should get a chance to represent India but the answer is clear to everyone who understands cricket.
2. Some less known players has been performing consistently and looked better than lots of 20-20 players of Indian team. These performing (young) players should be given chance to represent India on the basis of their superb performance through out this tournament. They have showcased their talent to the cricket world and looked like they have been neglected by selectors earlier.
3. Most of the under 19 players of Indian team which won the world cup 2 months back are not really under 19 years of age as they looked older than the age they may have shown on certificates to play in Under 19 world cup. I also had a feeling that during World Cup 2008 a good amount of makeup work had been done on the faces of some players to hide their real age. They were really looking under 19 in the world cup.
4. I liked ICL too but IPL looked more competitive. BCCI with its politics and pressure on ICC and other cricket board managed to make IPL mega success and steal all limelight although this type of tournament and league was brain child of ICL organizers and BCCI just copied the idea.
1. In 20-20, big names couldn’t accommodate themselves with this format. Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Laxman and their teams are out of tournament. Except one or two good innings none of them either could play to win matches for their teams nor could they motivate the other youngsters to do the same. They also were major flop as captains of their teams. Although they keep on claiming that they are fit for 20-20 and they should get a chance to represent India but the answer is clear to everyone who understands cricket.
2. Some less known players has been performing consistently and looked better than lots of 20-20 players of Indian team. These performing (young) players should be given chance to represent India on the basis of their superb performance through out this tournament. They have showcased their talent to the cricket world and looked like they have been neglected by selectors earlier.
3. Most of the under 19 players of Indian team which won the world cup 2 months back are not really under 19 years of age as they looked older than the age they may have shown on certificates to play in Under 19 world cup. I also had a feeling that during World Cup 2008 a good amount of makeup work had been done on the faces of some players to hide their real age. They were really looking under 19 in the world cup.
4. I liked ICL too but IPL looked more competitive. BCCI with its politics and pressure on ICC and other cricket board managed to make IPL mega success and steal all limelight although this type of tournament and league was brain child of ICL organizers and BCCI just copied the idea.
Friday, May 23, 2008
UPA's four years in office
Yesterday, UPA government celebrated four years in office threw a lavish dinner party and UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia Gandhi had all praise for the Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. So far so good. Patting own back has been in our culture since ages and this one thing Ms. Sonia Gandhi has certainly learnt from our culture.
Now let’s look at the ground realities. Let’s start with our economy. That’s because Mr. prime minister is famous economist. I am not an economist so I would not understand all the big numbers and different term/criteria to measure the economic performance but certainly I do understand the extra pressure coming on my pocket. I will start with the prices of essential commodities. Since august 2003 I have been staying in same city and almost in same locality so I guess the prices I consider must not have any external factors to influence. In 2004, one kg of rice (whatever I and my family eat daily) was costing me Rs 19/-. The same quality rice costs me Rs 28/- per kg. Simple mathematics shows almost 50% rise in price. Similarly 10 kg wheat flour (atta) of a particular brand was priced Rs 135/- to Rs 140/- and now it costs me around Rs. 200/- to Rs. 210/- Price rise for mustard oil has been shocking. In 2004 I was buying one liter mustard oil of a specific brand at Rs 52/- per liter and now its simply Rs 82/-. Simple mathematics tells me its price rise of around 60%. Similarly price of almost every essential commodity increased in range of 40% to 60% during the last 4 years and our prime minister celebrated 4 times and some sycophants kept on praising him and patting his back. When this government took over the office, I always thought people like Mr Manmohan Singh as PM, people like Mr. Chidambaram as FM and people like Montek Singh Ahluwalia in planning commission will take our country to great economic path and we need not to be worried about the prices and economy of our country. But unfortunately it proved wrong. I am not sure how the poor people are managing their budget because their salary has certainly not increased in 40 to 60 % range in last 4 years or so. There is a famous saying in hindi “Jyada JOGI Math Ujad” and this saying is perfectly matching this government on economic front. Now come to the security front. Everyone knows how our government is reacting with all naxalite and terrorist threats over the years. There is no concrete plan to tackle the security problems (at least didn’t get visible in last 4 years or so) and in some cases also looked like the government is trying to appease certain section. That is basically compromising with the national security. They were trying to have a nuclear deal with US which might have taken care of some of our energy needs in coming year but that also couldn’t get materialized. Only one thing they can claim is the rail passenger fare which didn’t increase in last four years but then we all know the how the facilities is getting deteriorated in Indian Railways. Almost no minister now travels in rail so they need not to worry about the facilities in train and railway station. We also know that how if you book rail ticket from a computerized centre of a different city; you need to pay extra money. We also know that how much the charges of tatkal booking tickets increased and number of tatkal reservation seats has increased in last four years. Sometime I felt Mr. Laloo Prasad is better economist than PM or FM because he is sneaking in your pocket and you even don’t come to know about that. You always feel that rail fare is not increased.
Apart from rail fare, another good thing was the image of PM Manmohan Singh. He is really an honest person and in current political environment, if you see an honest person at powerful position you don’t loose hope with democracy. We had some hope when we saw several young people won the election and were active in parliament (they were called as BABA log in parliament in 2004) but all the hope were shattered. No one did anything and looked poor copy of their father, mother or uncle who was also the same kind of politician (TANY TANY FISSSSSSS…). They just kept on talking big (in hindi LAFFEBAZI) and are slowly getting converted from young to old with time………..
Now let’s look at the ground realities. Let’s start with our economy. That’s because Mr. prime minister is famous economist. I am not an economist so I would not understand all the big numbers and different term/criteria to measure the economic performance but certainly I do understand the extra pressure coming on my pocket. I will start with the prices of essential commodities. Since august 2003 I have been staying in same city and almost in same locality so I guess the prices I consider must not have any external factors to influence. In 2004, one kg of rice (whatever I and my family eat daily) was costing me Rs 19/-. The same quality rice costs me Rs 28/- per kg. Simple mathematics shows almost 50% rise in price. Similarly 10 kg wheat flour (atta) of a particular brand was priced Rs 135/- to Rs 140/- and now it costs me around Rs. 200/- to Rs. 210/- Price rise for mustard oil has been shocking. In 2004 I was buying one liter mustard oil of a specific brand at Rs 52/- per liter and now its simply Rs 82/-. Simple mathematics tells me its price rise of around 60%. Similarly price of almost every essential commodity increased in range of 40% to 60% during the last 4 years and our prime minister celebrated 4 times and some sycophants kept on praising him and patting his back. When this government took over the office, I always thought people like Mr Manmohan Singh as PM, people like Mr. Chidambaram as FM and people like Montek Singh Ahluwalia in planning commission will take our country to great economic path and we need not to be worried about the prices and economy of our country. But unfortunately it proved wrong. I am not sure how the poor people are managing their budget because their salary has certainly not increased in 40 to 60 % range in last 4 years or so. There is a famous saying in hindi “Jyada JOGI Math Ujad” and this saying is perfectly matching this government on economic front. Now come to the security front. Everyone knows how our government is reacting with all naxalite and terrorist threats over the years. There is no concrete plan to tackle the security problems (at least didn’t get visible in last 4 years or so) and in some cases also looked like the government is trying to appease certain section. That is basically compromising with the national security. They were trying to have a nuclear deal with US which might have taken care of some of our energy needs in coming year but that also couldn’t get materialized. Only one thing they can claim is the rail passenger fare which didn’t increase in last four years but then we all know the how the facilities is getting deteriorated in Indian Railways. Almost no minister now travels in rail so they need not to worry about the facilities in train and railway station. We also know that how if you book rail ticket from a computerized centre of a different city; you need to pay extra money. We also know that how much the charges of tatkal booking tickets increased and number of tatkal reservation seats has increased in last four years. Sometime I felt Mr. Laloo Prasad is better economist than PM or FM because he is sneaking in your pocket and you even don’t come to know about that. You always feel that rail fare is not increased.
Apart from rail fare, another good thing was the image of PM Manmohan Singh. He is really an honest person and in current political environment, if you see an honest person at powerful position you don’t loose hope with democracy. We had some hope when we saw several young people won the election and were active in parliament (they were called as BABA log in parliament in 2004) but all the hope were shattered. No one did anything and looked poor copy of their father, mother or uncle who was also the same kind of politician (TANY TANY FISSSSSSS…). They just kept on talking big (in hindi LAFFEBAZI) and are slowly getting converted from young to old with time………..
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
sad part of entire story
So almost after one week of Jaipur serial bomb blast, our PM Mr. Manmohan Singh realized that the main problem is less number of police force in our country. Not sure why a prime minister equipped with all kind of resources took more than four years to find out the "root cause" of increasing terror threats in different parts of our country. But please hold on.... if this is really the main cause then who has stopped him to increase the number of police personnels in the country? That is one question probably neither no one ever asked him nor he would like to answer. In last one year or so, many bomb blast has taken place. This shows the failure of intelligence agencies of our country. Prime Minister may again has an execuse that even the intelligence agencies doesnt have enough man power but why does he forget that all these agencies are mostly busy with investigating some political cases and wasting thier time in less important investigation. Even we keep on hearing (several allegations) time to time that these agencies work on the direction of ruling parties to spy against opposition political .
As soon as this kind of incident takes place, our "beloved" ministers Mr. Sriprakash Jaisawal and Mr. Shivraj Patil come into action in front of TV cameras and repeat the same statement like "we wont compromise" or "we will take stern actions" and once the heat goes away and attention of nation diverts with some other issues, no one knows about what kind of stern actions they are taking. At least some results should have come and visible to nation. I will request these responsible persons to talk less and act more to make our country a safe place.
As soon as this kind of incident takes place, our "beloved" ministers Mr. Sriprakash Jaisawal and Mr. Shivraj Patil come into action in front of TV cameras and repeat the same statement like "we wont compromise" or "we will take stern actions" and once the heat goes away and attention of nation diverts with some other issues, no one knows about what kind of stern actions they are taking. At least some results should have come and visible to nation. I will request these responsible persons to talk less and act more to make our country a safe place.
Vijay Tendulkar
Yesterday Vijay Tendulkar passed away. I had heard his name in my childhood days but could come across his work only when I was in college and was seriously looking for a good script for college one act play competition. I got a chance to come thru his play “Khamosh Adalat Jari Hai…” (hindi translation of “Shantata court chalu aahe…”)
His style was unique and the script looked so heavy to us that we were hesitant to start rehearsals and take the play to the stage because we felt that we may not do the justice to this play with all of our skills and efforts. Thus we had to abandon idea of staging this play and start with some other play. Later I realized that Aakrosh and Ardh Satya (hindi movies) were written by this same person. He had revolutionary way to narrate his story which was always hard hitting to audience. May his soul rest in peace....
His style was unique and the script looked so heavy to us that we were hesitant to start rehearsals and take the play to the stage because we felt that we may not do the justice to this play with all of our skills and efforts. Thus we had to abandon idea of staging this play and start with some other play. Later I realized that Aakrosh and Ardh Satya (hindi movies) were written by this same person. He had revolutionary way to narrate his story which was always hard hitting to audience. May his soul rest in peace....
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
insurance policy renewal with New India Assurance
I own a Hero Honda bike and since the time I bought this, it is insured with New India Assurance Company limited (NIA) which is a public sector organization. Every year I get my insurance renewed by visiting their office in wakadewadi, Pune. They never bother to give me any reminder about expiration of my policy (usually private players does that) and so I had to put my own reminder. I never thought to change my insurance provider because going to another provider will again require filling the forms and all mundane stuff and I wanted to avoid that and also till last year my office was at a walking distance to their branch office. Last Friday my mobile reminded me about the expiry of my bike insurance and then I thought of visiting New India Assurance office. I reached office at 10:15 AM and found that office was locked because it was “Mahavir Jayanti” vacation. I was disappointed but then I thought I will visit them again on Monday. On the main gate of office they have painted the office timing as 10 AM to 5:30 PM (Monday to Friday). I took note of that and came back.
On Monday, I traveled all the way in Pune traffic and managed to reach NIA office by 10:15 AM. I was happy that I reached well on time and will get my policy renewed quickly so that I can join my office well within time. To my utter surprise, I saw there were just 3 employees in to the office. Branch manager was also not in. Fortunately the officer who was responsible for renewal of policy had come and so I approached him. He took my “about to expire” insurance policy papers and forwarded the same to another lady on next table. This lady had 2-3 applications kept on her table but she was not processing any of them. She was arranging her table. I asked her to process my request and she told me please go and have a seat and wait for my turn. They had put a sofa in front of manager’s cabin and there is no fan to make you feel comfortable while waiting there in summer days. I came and sat there. Few customers were already waiting there. I started looking here and there and trying to kill (waste) some time. I saw they have put calendars on the wall. One of the calendars was having Mr. B. R. Ambedkar’s photo. Another calendar was for national language “hindi”. I remember once visting branch of a public sector bank. There was a calendar of Mr M K Gandhi and his quote that how precious time is for people and nation and also how important a customer is for an organization. My clock was showing 10:25 AM. By this time few more (2-3) employees had come and were trying to settled down to their tables. Branch manager was still not in. All of sudden I heard my name and ran to the lady who was processing my application. She conveyed me that I need to pay Rs 617/-. I pulled out my wallet to pay that amount but then she gave me back my paper (where Rs 617/- was written) and told me that payment needs to made to the cashier and not to her. She also informed me that cashier is still not in and I should have a seat and wait. I started the most annoying wait seating on the sofa with some other poor customers of NIA. After 10:45 AM, more and more employee started to come and started talking with each other, signing the attendance sheet and arranging the table. I spotted the lady who was supposed to be on cash counter. She was in to the office but still had not gone to her counter. Most importantly, branch manager was not in till that time. I was helpless and so were other customers. We all were getting late to go to our workplace to join duties. At last we started forming a queue in front of vacant cashier counter. Around 11 AM the lady luck smiled and counter opened to receive money. I came with proper change and she took money and directed me to go to other table. On other table one gentleman just had the work to press a button on the keyboard and collect 3 page printouts and hand that over to the customer. He did same for me and directed me to go to the officer in charge for policy renewal. He was the same person who started process earlier. I went to his table and he signed all three pages and directed me to go to another table. I thought perhaps some more process remains after the signing of documents. I approached to the directed table where a person was sitting with a stapler and some empty envelops printed with NIA address. He took all the three printout papers from me and one by one separated original document with duplicate by removing the stuffed carbon paper between them and stapled, folded the original pages to put them in envelop and handover to me. He informed me that I am done with my policy renewal. At last my policy was renewed. I was happily (?) returning from office of NIA by 11:15 AM and while returning I take a look at the branch manager’s cabin. He was still not in to the office.
While riding back to my office I had lots of questions blowing my mind away. Few of them were:
1. If they can’t entertain customer at 10 AM, why do they put working ours from 10 AM?
2. Who was/were responsible for wastage of my time?
3. Why there were having a separate table and separate person sitting to do a single small work in the process of my policy renewal? Like calculating the sum, accepting the money, taking the printout, signing the document, separating the original and duplicate and taking out the carbon paper and folding the signed document in an envelop was done by 5 different individual. Does not this clearly depict hidden unemployment?
4. Where was the Branch manager till 11 AM? If he was on leave, who was the acting manager on that day. In these cases even people are willing to escalate the issues to higher authorities but mostly they themselves will be absconding.
5. Why doesn’t government or responsible authorities desire to improve the functionality of public sector?
On Monday, I traveled all the way in Pune traffic and managed to reach NIA office by 10:15 AM. I was happy that I reached well on time and will get my policy renewed quickly so that I can join my office well within time. To my utter surprise, I saw there were just 3 employees in to the office. Branch manager was also not in. Fortunately the officer who was responsible for renewal of policy had come and so I approached him. He took my “about to expire” insurance policy papers and forwarded the same to another lady on next table. This lady had 2-3 applications kept on her table but she was not processing any of them. She was arranging her table. I asked her to process my request and she told me please go and have a seat and wait for my turn. They had put a sofa in front of manager’s cabin and there is no fan to make you feel comfortable while waiting there in summer days. I came and sat there. Few customers were already waiting there. I started looking here and there and trying to kill (waste) some time. I saw they have put calendars on the wall. One of the calendars was having Mr. B. R. Ambedkar’s photo. Another calendar was for national language “hindi”. I remember once visting branch of a public sector bank. There was a calendar of Mr M K Gandhi and his quote that how precious time is for people and nation and also how important a customer is for an organization. My clock was showing 10:25 AM. By this time few more (2-3) employees had come and were trying to settled down to their tables. Branch manager was still not in. All of sudden I heard my name and ran to the lady who was processing my application. She conveyed me that I need to pay Rs 617/-. I pulled out my wallet to pay that amount but then she gave me back my paper (where Rs 617/- was written) and told me that payment needs to made to the cashier and not to her. She also informed me that cashier is still not in and I should have a seat and wait. I started the most annoying wait seating on the sofa with some other poor customers of NIA. After 10:45 AM, more and more employee started to come and started talking with each other, signing the attendance sheet and arranging the table. I spotted the lady who was supposed to be on cash counter. She was in to the office but still had not gone to her counter. Most importantly, branch manager was not in till that time. I was helpless and so were other customers. We all were getting late to go to our workplace to join duties. At last we started forming a queue in front of vacant cashier counter. Around 11 AM the lady luck smiled and counter opened to receive money. I came with proper change and she took money and directed me to go to other table. On other table one gentleman just had the work to press a button on the keyboard and collect 3 page printouts and hand that over to the customer. He did same for me and directed me to go to the officer in charge for policy renewal. He was the same person who started process earlier. I went to his table and he signed all three pages and directed me to go to another table. I thought perhaps some more process remains after the signing of documents. I approached to the directed table where a person was sitting with a stapler and some empty envelops printed with NIA address. He took all the three printout papers from me and one by one separated original document with duplicate by removing the stuffed carbon paper between them and stapled, folded the original pages to put them in envelop and handover to me. He informed me that I am done with my policy renewal. At last my policy was renewed. I was happily (?) returning from office of NIA by 11:15 AM and while returning I take a look at the branch manager’s cabin. He was still not in to the office.
While riding back to my office I had lots of questions blowing my mind away. Few of them were:
1. If they can’t entertain customer at 10 AM, why do they put working ours from 10 AM?
2. Who was/were responsible for wastage of my time?
3. Why there were having a separate table and separate person sitting to do a single small work in the process of my policy renewal? Like calculating the sum, accepting the money, taking the printout, signing the document, separating the original and duplicate and taking out the carbon paper and folding the signed document in an envelop was done by 5 different individual. Does not this clearly depict hidden unemployment?
4. Where was the Branch manager till 11 AM? If he was on leave, who was the acting manager on that day. In these cases even people are willing to escalate the issues to higher authorities but mostly they themselves will be absconding.
5. Why doesn’t government or responsible authorities desire to improve the functionality of public sector?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Confusing creamy layer
Yesterday Supreme Court Judgment cleared the path for 27% seat reservation for OBCs in central institutions. I believe at state level, mostly this reservation is already in place. I only got confused with the term associated with the judgment "creamy layer". First of all what will be the criteria to find out whether someone will come under the creamy layer or not and secondly who will decide that criteria and implement it. I am sure once the criteria will be decided (in future) a new practice will get started to exploit the loopholes where an able guardian (who should come under creamy layer because of wealth and property owned) will start (legally) declaring that they have dissociated themselves with their son/daughters. I wont be surprised to see grandchildren of Mr. Laloo Yadav applying for reservation with an affidavit attached that his/her parents doesn’t inherit any property from Mr. Yadav and so they don’t come under creamy layer. In India although the law is well settled but there is enough lacuna to exploit it.
Aconitum Napellus
An excellent homeopathic remedy. It’s very helpful for anyone who gets easily affected by the change in surrounding temperature. Perhaps that’s the reason I found this remedy useful because I am very sensitive to the changes in surrounding temperature and this remedy helped me a lot. Assume you are walking on road and its very hot and all of the sudden you entered your office which is centrally air-conditioned. You may develop some kind of discomfort (like headache, sneezing……) and this is the perfect use case for Aconitum Napelles. Similarly if you are suddenly exposed to hot weather and develop problems this remedy can be tried. You can read more about this remedy here http://abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Acon on internet. For quick effects try lower potency.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Ayurveda and Homeopathy
Sometime back, one of my close relative was diagnosed with jaundice and Hepatitis B. She was getting treatment in my native place in Bihar and was taking all precaution (like complete bed rest and eating habits) to avoid any further deterioration for liver. Her bilirubin level was around 10 (that is suppose to be dangerous level). In one more week it (Bilirubin level) climbed to 17 and doctor expressed his suspicion that she might be having lever cancer. Patient was although able to talk and was not feeling too much weakness. The treatment continued with all precautions and in another week Bilirubin level instead of going down, reached 31 which is supposed to fatal. Hepatitis B was positive in all different tests. In our small town we don’t have enough medical facilities and we couldnot find a liver specialist to look for her liver condition. We were feeling hopeless because doctor advised that in such condition even moving her to big hospitals in New Delhi might be dangerous because she now needs no movements and should not have any exertion. Here the patient was put on ayurveda remedies. There were two different thing tried on patient simultaneously. One was suggested by an allopath doctor somewhere and came in knowledge to us thru someone. It was ½ ounce of juice of castor (in hindi arandi) leaves (grind the fresh arandi leaves and extract out all juice) mixed with another ½ ounce of coconut milk (grind the fresh coconut pulp and extract out all the white color juice) and to take in empty stomach for three days continuously. Another remedy was suggested by Baba Ramdev and Shri Balkrishna on aastha TV channel to use Phyllanthus amarus (Bhoomi amla in hindi). Baba Ramdev and Shri Balkrishna believe that Hepatitis B is totally curable thru Ayurveda. Within a week of using these ayurvedic remedies, the bilirubin level of patient came down to 17 and then 5, 2 in three weeks. Starting fourth week she diagnosed no jaundice with Hepatitis B negative. It was like miracle for all of us. She is now totally fit
Ayurveda and homeopathy was extensively used in India till sometime back and then slowly the western style of medication started dominating. Government also doesn’t encourage homeopathic and ayurvedic study and treatment. Now the situation is that we don’t find enough experts in these areas and so we go towards easily available allopath. After the work done by Baba Ramdev and Shri Balkrishna, now again we started knowing the power of ayurveda and lot of ayurvedic remedies with proper medication advices are easily available.
Similarly homeopathic treatment is also very handy and can cure lots of diseases easily with minimum side effects. I read about some of the homeopathic medicines recently and tried out with the advice of a homeopathic doctor and found homeopathic treatment is also very useful. In my childhood days, I was mostly treated by homeopath. In next few blogs I am planning to write about some of the homeopathy medicines and their effects.
Ayurveda and homeopathy was extensively used in India till sometime back and then slowly the western style of medication started dominating. Government also doesn’t encourage homeopathic and ayurvedic study and treatment. Now the situation is that we don’t find enough experts in these areas and so we go towards easily available allopath. After the work done by Baba Ramdev and Shri Balkrishna, now again we started knowing the power of ayurveda and lot of ayurvedic remedies with proper medication advices are easily available.
Similarly homeopathic treatment is also very handy and can cure lots of diseases easily with minimum side effects. I read about some of the homeopathic medicines recently and tried out with the advice of a homeopathic doctor and found homeopathic treatment is also very useful. In my childhood days, I was mostly treated by homeopath. In next few blogs I am planning to write about some of the homeopathy medicines and their effects.
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