Monday, August 31, 2009

Unexplored wealth of land and mind

The starting of the Mangla oil project which is likely to earn good revenues for Rajasthan is very welcome. Come to think of it, what lies behind the mega success is the appetite for risk, vision and human determination smoldering to succeed. Cairn Energy bought these belts from shell who thought it was not possible to get any yield from this land, so, what one saw as an opportunity the other found insignificant.

Any research, any exploration starts with an idea and vision .If it fails it teaches us lessons and if it succeeds, state puts tax on it. Discussing need, level of tax and how to improve efficacy of hard earned money of tax payer is another matter which will deviate me from main purpose of this post. Here what I am trying to suggest is the Government should play a proactive role and let the entrepreneurs, engineers and scientist do their job. Human mind cannot function to best of its ability when shackled by invisible chains in form of controls and regulations.

There is a drastic need to provide impetus to entrepreneurship and research if we want to be self dependent and self reliant. Times have changed and many of the controls and regulations have become irrelevant. We are not into the days where we need a supervisor with a whip to control the manual laborer from scrounging. These are the times to promote and give wings to young minds with dreams, to provide them with facilities for research and exploration so that they can do for India what they otherwise do for cairns, shells, Intel’s and Bell labs and then, we can be owners rather than being tax extractors. It is the wealth of our land and our minds which is deservedly ours but sadly we are content only with the topping of royalty and taxes.

Well, what goes wrong why we are content to follow? Why do we still look to west for discovery? Why don’t we promote research in real sense? Why is our education only symbolic? Why is 95% of our researchers’ content to cut and paste work of other people? Why are our guides not very particular and stringent about originality? Where are we headed by making a brigade of degree holders who will only agitate and block ways for reservations and jobs because they don’t know their subject and are not expert in their chosen area. Education system has not developed their mind because degree is handed to them on platter on name of reducing stress. Questions too many answers bleak………

Best minds capable of originality and thought, still leave us. With opening of economy they can be located in India but still they are not ours. Why? Money is important but more essential is freedom of human mind .You can’t put shackles of so many norms and procedures and expect a fertile mind to produce. The problem with the government today is it wants to put its nose in everything it sees profitable till it becomes liability. I am not advocating a total ‘laissez-faire’, because I feel our society is not ready for it and there is a promiscuous absence of national character in an average Indian.

Thought is a complex process of recognition and incorporation, which unfortunately lacks in present system of training people. This is the reason why people are prepared to imitate and follow and are content with the salary they get at the end of month for switching on and off their machines.

Please develop thought and rationality rather than being eluded by whims and unfounded beliefs. If we remove the thought then the link between a human and trained animal will also be lost .Stagnant mind then, like stagnant water will only breed reptiles prepared and content to crawl and sting.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Jodhpur 'Bandh' by LAWYERS

I admit that I am not so knowledgeable about law, IPC and the way our courts operate. Still as a citizen of a democratic country I am enraged about the ‘Bandh’ called by the lawyers which has led to loss of working hours for students, government and general public.

The basic questions that I have in my mind are following

1. Is person living in Mewar or Haroti region of Rajasthan, a lesser Indian so that he should be deprived of the justice?

2. A normal administrative case might take five to six years to sort out; doesn’t it mean that person residing in Udaipur has to come to Jodhpur to attend court, most of the time to get another date?

3. We know justice delayed is justice denied may I dare ask, what the association of lawyers that calls strike for their benefits, has done to improve the situation for the common man. This strike has meant loss a working day and so many cases scheduled for today have been delayed by months. Are they prepared to work this Sunday to compensate for the loss that has been done to every aggrieved whose plea was to be heard today.

Correct me if I am wrong, but If the core reason is that if there is bench at Udaipur, then the lawyers operating from here will get lesser cases and that will impact their business. If that is the reason then the doctors at AIIMS should object to opening of AIIMS at Jodhpur because that will mean lesser patients being referred to them Delhi? The laws are for people or people are for the laws?

As the population increases the facilities have to increase and come within the approach of common citizens. Can institute meant to provide service to public can be monopolized by city boundaries? We the Indians are good people but attitude like this strengthens my apprehension that if there is a last drop of water left on earth we are going to kill each other for it.

The ill impact of the Strikes and Bandh is too common to write about and I have already expressed my anguish on air on this matter.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/fe9fc6f2-9dca-4b63-82bd-91746f88bbeb/is-Jodhpur-bandh--justified

I truly fail to understand how the profession of people can be linked to reputation of Jodhpur.I can understand the agony of lawyers as it is effecting their business but if someone in media links this to repuattion of city and compares this with olympic gold , then it is sad . The role of court is to provide speedy justice .Don't you think denial of that to a common man besmirches the reputation of the whole judicial system. For me what is important is that timely justice is given to a common man and it is immaterial from where they do it.

I love Jodhpur for its peace, harmony and culture, but I fail to understand how having a bench at Udaipur is going to harm Jodhpur .The purpose of this post is not to offend anyone but is educate myself about the core problem , If someone has the answer.

Monday, August 17, 2009

You ,I and THEY……....


I think detaining Shah Rukh Khan, who was not even traveling on diplomatic passport to US, at Newark airport, is being blown out of proportion, by media. Even when facts are not completely known, this is being linked to, sniffing of former president Mr. APJ Kalam, reflects on lack of understanding of protocols and superficiality of our media.

For me, what is more important than his being detained is he now trying to pull a racial card on this. What evidence or logic he has to come out with a statement that he was subjected to this because he is a Muslim. Why these celebrities, first Azzaharudin, then Imran Hashmi and now SRK link Religion and race with what happens to them at the personal level.

‘After the event even a fool is wise’. Sadly, we have not learned much from the incident of attack on parliament. Security is not about fixing responsibility, asking resignations, and having a blame game after the event .Security is about being cautious and vigilant. It is about having a protocol and not deviating from that under any circumstances. . It is the preparedness and vigil in US (call them paranoid if you want to) that there has been no major terrorist incident in US after 9/11 where as here we have a bomb blast almost every week. The reason is before implementation of the law we see the person and his stature.

Every time Salman Khan comes to Jodhpur to attend the court, media creates such hype. Officers treat him like a star, local papers shows him smoking and sitting as if he is kind of celebrity where as he is an accused criminal booked for killing poor animals, for his fun. I am surprised why these police officers who show power of their badge to a common man, do not take him to a corner and give him couple of slaps to teach him the way he should sit in the court during trials. The problem is people treat these film stars as if they are from mars and worship them. As a consequence these icons start behaving like lesser mortals above the laws of this land.

Once we allow search dogs on Gandhiji's samadhi, just before President Bush visit, why then such hue and cry about Shahrukh Khan being held for an hour at Newark airport. We can have reactions if he was not treated in a courteous manner .If he was assaulted or abused. Shahrukh khan is an icon at least in India, but should that be reason enough for somebody is exempt from questioning in US? Nobody knows if his “Don’t you know who I am?”, got him into this.

My question to all those angry fans out there is, would they all be just as angry if this had happened to common man from the same religion as SRK. It is sad that previously it was just petty politicians here who exploited religion as a means to gain more popularity, and now these film stars call themselves victim when the reality is they have a fragile ego that has utter disrespect for law of the land. In US they started trial against Clinton when he was in office, don’t forget the Watergate scandal and Nixon, they simply don’t care who you are SRK? Nothing comes before safety and security of nation.

Only thing I can say SRK, There are already communal riots on the name of religion in this country so be sensible. Watch “The Wednesday” and learn to be a common man. Stardom will come and go, what will remain is civilisation so, learn to be a good citizen.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Strong people, key to strong nation

It is Independence Day again.

For many of us it is the time to remember the sacrifices of our freedom fighters and martyrs while for some it is the time to take potshots at our petty politicians and leaders.

The word freedom and independence has different meaning for different people. For some freedom may mean, setting off barefoot on a 500 km pilgrimage, leaving their womenfolk and children in their village at the mercy of God .Some find that they are free to drink infected and soiled water from some particular pond considering it cure to all their problems. The question is, when such a person becomes infected and spreads this infection to fellow members of society then his freedom becomes a social problem and he himself becomes the responsibility and liability of state.

I have been always the biggest supporter of personal freedom of an individual but, at the same time to deserve freedom, an individual should have individuality, principles, values and a deep understanding that others living in this world also enjoy similar freedom. To quote Stephen R. Covey “Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom, the power to choose, to respond, and to change.

Freedom is supposed to be natural state of humankind but when human inhibit a common world they are governed by certain rules of society that are supposed to ensures a harmonic co-existence. A good country is collection of good citizens and every act of greatness truly begins with self. So, the need is to free our minds from cobwebs of irrationality that defy the logic and reason. The need for an individual is able to look at his own-self, objectively and measure him on the standards that he uses to judge the world around him. How I wish the effort of every individual is directed at improving himself and in becoming a rational, reasoning and compassionate individual and citizen. Collection of such citizens will surely make the country we can all be proud of.

To add to this, comes to my mind a Hindi song which in some sense epitomizes the sprit of freedom

Hum ko man ki shakti dena, man vijay kare
Dusaron ki jay se pahale, khud ko jay kare

Bhedabhav apane dil se saaf kar sake
Doston se bhool ho to maaf kar sake

Zooth se bache rahe, sach ka dam bhare
Khud pe hausala rahe, bade se naa dare
Dusaron ki jay se pahale, khud ko jay kare

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