education cess paid by us - where is it used?

Since 2004, we are paying good amount of education cess thru income tax deduction monthly and also indirectly in different transactions. This cess was started by P Chidambaram giving reason that we need to educate poor children and for that Indian government needs some money. Very noble cause and really smart way to pool some money. Millions of rupees goes to government exchequer and I always felt that government must be doing something at very base level to boost education system to educate kids of different section. But on 14th November, while watching news on television, I found that still almost 10 million kids doesn’t get chance to attend school mostly because of financial conditions.

Where does my money deducted as education cess by government goes?
Does it get wasted?

Does it get used for some other work?

Does it get lost in between?
Who will answer this?

I felt if I myself had started using that money per month, at least few underprivileged kids would have gone school for sure.

delayed monsoon and water problem

In Pune, monsoon usually arrives in 2nd week of June and we witness good amount of rainfall in June itself. This year monsoon arrived quite late and that too without any rain. Every day is cloudy but it doesn’t rain. Till now it rained just 3 mm in Pune. The water level in dams (which supply drinking water to Pune) has gone down drastically and Municipal Corporation has started rationing on drinking water supply. Citizens are feeling the heat. We usually never bother to save water and when scarcity is seen then only we start realizing importance of conserving natural resources (like I am writing this blog :)). In a recent report, I read that in Pune, Municipal Corporation provides 150% of average water need per person per day to citizens and also 30%-40% water gets wasted just in transmission. With this rate of consumption of water from dam, naturally by June dams get dried up if rain doesn’t arrive. When monsoon gets delayed and water level goes down in dams, Municipal Corporation starts extra rationing. Instead of that if they would have taken action to ensure proper supply with less wastage of water even if monsoon gets delayed or rainfall is below normal, people can have drinking water supply for extended period. People seating at higher level never do any planning. It’s very common with government authorities. Hope we will soon have blessings from rain GOD.

One of those ragging days.....

(This is some part of my upcoming novel and all characters in this small story are fictitious)

It was really very cold outside there in agriculture field where all those guys assembled on that winter night. Well it was past 2 AM and in this part of India mercury goes down below 5 C in winter. 18 first year new joinees of this college of BIHARAT group were taken there by less than 10 second year seniors. It was a ragging night. Seniors were led by Mota Sardar (on-paper leader) but Ranga (undisputed original leader) was also there. Billa was not present. He was out of college for more than 2 months for medical treatment. Juniors had heard Billa’s name and appreciation by other seniors several times during ragging sessions but never had seen his face. It seemed that poor chap had burnt his lung at this tender age with chain smoke and he needed immediate medical attention. So he was not there but his presence was always felt with all other seniors reciting Billa chalisa every now and then (perhaps to keep Ranga happy who was feeling lonely after Billa has gone for treatment). Anyway as soon as all of them reached to the field, Sardar baljit singh sitarawala ordered all those scared juniors to line up else he will show them stars. Another senior Patalu Khas (who was not more than 5ft and 45 kg at that time) unnecessarily screamed to the best of his physical capabilities “hurry up you ben…ch…“.

All juniors lined up quickly. Who can take panga with Patalu Khas? The person who just might be more than 40 kg of weight could slap juniors with the impulse even more than Ranga could create with his slap. Patalu always looked like a thirsty senior who perhaps got ragged brutally by his seniors a year back and looked like he had decided that time to retaliate with his emotions only after a year. Anyway here was this late night game. Patalu Khas explained them that today there will be a competition where all juniors will compete to claim title of PLD. Patalu was over excited today. He pushed his bigger than face specs above his nose and screamed again “hey all you $%&*^&%.... take off your all cloths and keep aside, get yourself divided in 3 groups and decide within 2 minutes that who is the winner.

One… two… three… start……. Each one of the juniors started taking off their cloths and keeping aside. And they formed group and started comparing themselves to choose semifinalist….then finalists….and at last winner. Time was passing by but juniors (perhaps) already had better idea so they were finalizing finalist quickly. Oh my god what’s going to happen? By the time juniors were trying their best to decide the winner; Baljit Singh Sitarawala was silently mixing cloths of every junior. All the underwear, shirts, pants, socks, shoes were mixed to make a single bundle. Baljit Singh Sitarawala was “really” very creative or at least he always tried to demonstrate his creativity with the able input from Mota sardar. Well within time, naked juniors decided that PALDI is the winner. PALDI was a very lean and thin guy. Nobody could have ever imagined that PALADI may be PLD of this batch. SERPANT informed Patalu Khas that we are done. Our PLD is PALDI. Patalu and all seniors rushed to congrats PALADI. Seniors ordered everyone to celebrate PALADI’s victory by dancing and clapping. PALADI was ordered to take “Fake Shabashi”. In “Fake Shabashi”, a person keeps his left hand on his chest and keep looking to sky and with right hand raises slogan three times “Wah Ma…ch.. I am great I did a great job".

Now the celebration time was over. Suddenly Patalu Khas realized that these juniors have not been slapped even once in this ragging session. Oh how can this happen? He felt itching in his palms and approached those naked juniors under that diminishing moonlight. He completed his turn by giving 20 slaps each to every junior. With every slap Patalu used to spin on his left or right foot. Because of his short height, he always had problem in slapping juniors like MOTI BEKAR, SERPANT, JHADU KHAN. For them he always used a chair or stool in hostel rooms to close the gap but here he just ordered them to lean themselves to make it easy for Patalu to slap everyone. After the rounds of slaps, Sitarawala emerged from nowhere. He had a cryptic smile on his face. He called everyone near to him. Seniors like Chikna Sahlawat, Manindra Punde, Chatur Chintit and Tang Chu also gathered near him. Sitarawala explained next activity. He told juniors that you have 2 minutes and there are your belongings mixed together. He showed them the bundle of cloths he had created. Everyone needs to put on everything in two minutes. Underwear, pant, shirt, socks, shoes, sweaters, jackets everything should be worn within two minutes. If anyone doesn’t get his belongings, wear anyone’s but each one should ensure that they are wearing everything. Race to reach to the bundle of cloths, shoes, socks started. Cloths were full of dust. Naked juniors arrived to the cloths bundle and started picking up whatever they were getting. Bravo… within allotted two minutes each one of them had put on cloths, shoes, sweaters. Only funny part was that they were mostly wearing others cloths. SERPANT (who was 6 ft tall) was wearing chachwa’s cloths (chachwa was just 5 ft in height) and had put underwear on top of pant. He looked a funny double of Spiderman or Phantom. For all seniors it was fun time. One by one they had a look on each of the junior and started cracking jokes. Patalu’s laughing was so loud and vibrant that he lost his balance. Perhaps his centre of Gravity got shifted and he fell down. Juniors had hidden smile on their faces looking at him. Patalu quickly got up and screamed “You ma….ch.. ! I fell down because of you so divide yourself in 9 pairs and start slapping each one 20 time”. Slapping activity started in able observation of Tang Chu, Chatur Chintit and Chikna Sahlawat.

After everyone was done slapping his partner, It was Sitarawala’s turn again. He was not angry. He had the same cryptic smile on his face. He asked each one of the juniors whether everyone has put underwear inside or outside the pant. Scared (some were crying too) juniors nodded their head. Sitarawala repeated his question. He threatened them that if he will come to know that some one is lying, it will be dangerous for that person. Again all junior nodded their head. Actually while juniors were busy in slapping their partners, Sitarawala went to the place where he had created the bundle of belongings and found one underwear still lying. So he was sure that at least one junior has not put on underwear. He felt immense joy within and found an extra opportunity to punish those scared faces. Sitarawala’s voice echoed in that cold calm night,”You Bhen…d….. I am sure at least one of you is hiding the fact. You still have a chance, just come in front and accept that you have not put on your underwear and I will not say anything. But if I will find then for god shake no one can save you”. Still the same silence from juniors. No one accepted Sitarawala’s offer. All seniors assembled there and Sitarawala told them about this issue. Mota sardar came in front and ordered each one of the juniors to unzip their pant and Patalu started inspecting every junior closely in that fading moonlight. Oh my god….. Sitarawala was correct and really one of the junior had not put on underwear inside or outside his pant. He was Laund. One and only Laund………. A very favorite character among juniors. Sitarawala could not hide his anger and pulled Laund out of the group and started beating him mercilessly. Patalu accompanied him and then Mota Sardar, Chatur Chintit and everyone except Chikna Sehlawat. Chikna always had a soft corner for Laund. Ranga also played his part. Laund was lying on ground and seniors were beating him mercilessly. All juniors were too scared to utter a single word. Seniors kept on beating him and all of the sudden Laund’s body started shaking like he was an epilepsy patient. Mota sardar was baffled. He ordered everyone to stop but Patalu and Sitarawala didnt stop because they felt that Laund is acting. They continued there onslaught on Laund. Some juniors were almost in tear. But in reality Laund was not acting. He had got severe beating and perhaps the trauma inside him was shaking his entire body. Chikna Sehlawat intervened here and beating was stopped. Other juniors were allowed to take care of Laund. He was in bad shape. Chatur Chintit was as usual too much worried and perhaps felt that these juniors will complain against all seniors to college authorities. He shared a bottle of water with juniors and seniors decided to take them to final year hostel where they wont get any more beating and will have fun so that things will normalize in due course……………….

That eventful night - Part 1

(This is some part of my upcoming novel and all characters in this small story are fictitious)

It was almost 12 in night. The much hyped techno-cultural festival was just ended. One of the main security incharge of that techno-cultural festival, Manduwa of BIHARAT group was just back from his duties and was sitting in his 3rd floor room in EKALAVYA bhawan with other Biharat Group members Chacha, Golua, Takla, Charlie, Lungi, Laund Boss, RD Boss, Doctor, PLD and Malik. They were happy that how they managed to get college girls *NOT* allowed in the rock show which was the last event and held late in the night. Manduwa shared his security related experiences during the rock show and info about some small fights which broke out during rock show between few of their batch mates from different college groups. All together they were happy and were feeling satisfied with their effort to convince college authorities and city police to not let girls come to the show. It was a big victory for them (why? Read that in another blog). They were also feeling relaxed because this entire college event had been very controversial and disturbing for them and now it was all over. Around 12 PM in night, Sangwan of electrical batch came to meet them. He was not from BIHARAT gang. He was neither a good friend nor a rival for BIHARAT ies. He told Manduwa that he wants to thrash MOTU who was staying at 2nd floor. Looked like Sangwan had an altercation with MOTU during rock show to get near the stage where the performance was going on and because MOTU was a security committee member and had good friendship with few of BIHARAT group members so he felt safe and he fought with Sangwan and threatened him for bad consequences. Sangwan felt humiliated and he grouped some of his close friends to go to MOTU’s room and teach him a lesson. He came to Manduwa’s room to ask whether BIHARAT will interfere if Sangwan and his friends will thrash MOTU. Takla (who was friend of MOTU) quickly advised all of BIHARAT members. He told them that in last 6 months he too realized that MOTU is exploiting his proximity with some of the BIHARAT group members and trying to do DADAGIRI with other students of their batch. He expressed that its good time to get him thrashed and later take him for first aid if MOTU gets injured. Deal was done. Sangwan left that place. Few of BIHARAT members came to the 3rd floor lobby from where stairs were going to 2nd and 1st floor. Jhadu Khan and BHOOT (also BIHARAT guys) too joined. As expected within 5 minutes of time, in calm hostel night, all kind of fighting noises with extra ordinary abusive language heard. MOTU was beaten badly by Sangwan and gang. After 5 minutes or so Biharat members waiting on 3rd floor first made sure that everything is back to normal and then one of them (BHOOT) went to 2nd floor and visited MOTU. He was totally thrashed and his face had swollen like bread. He was badly injured and was having pain all over his body. Bhoot asked him to come with him to 3rd floor. Biharat members expressed their unawareness of entire stuff and queried that why MOTU didn’t called for any help from them when all this happened. Everyone was sympathetic towards MOTU. Perhaps MOTU had got a hint that it was already in BIHARAT’s knowledge that Sangwan and co is planning to beat him. He didn’t answer anything. JHADU offered his help and took Jinwa’s bike to take MOTU to a nearby medical polyclinic for first aid. Others again assembled in Manduwa’s room and were laughing and discussing further about that entire episode……………..

Jai ho.....

A R Rehman recieved two oscar's for his music and song in Slumdog Millionaire. He is a good musician.... infact very innovative. He already has given very good music in many Indian films. May be better songs than "Jai ho..." several times. I always felt that he is today's R D Burman but perhaps Burman was ahead of what A R Rehman is now. Burman never had any oscar because he never explored himself beyond Indian film industries. Bottom line is if you want to get oscar awards, explore yourself beyond Indian boundaries. India doesnt have talent scarcity. I also feel this year only Indian film industry had several films better than Slumdog Millionaire.