Corruption

While chatting casually with one person, he was ruing the fact that his wife who works in a government department is unable to get a loan on her pension. He says that when he went personally to meet the concerned officer in-charge, he was asked for some bribe.

What shocks me is that corruption is so deep rooted now, that colleagues are asking for money from each other also to do some work or another. It only gets more disgusting.

Corruption is so deeply etched, that one has to pay money for obtaining a Birth certificate…because its a good news…one has to pay money for obtaining a Death Certificate…not because its good news…but because the person sitting there also has to feed his family!!!!!!!

Forget getting a Death certificate, the crematorium people are so outright rude, you dont give them something extra, they will make you wait for hours to start the last rites.

What “might” have started as a goodwill after having work done has today blown into full fledged corruption. Infact even today, there are people who pay in goodwill after seeing that their work has been done. This goodwill has now become the “right” for doing any work.

The best example in India was MTNL phones. Till they didnt have competition, even a normal diwali gift was a prestige issue for its employees. Any haggling with the customer, and the customer would find that the line has been disconnected all of a sudden!!!! Today with competition and realization dawning on them that they can have problems with their basic salaries also, the service has improved a lot.

So in similarity, should there be competition in Government also. An alternate governing system. Actually not a bad idea. Let there be more than one Governing system. Like subscribers of Reliance Energy, going in for Tata Power, having their services changed, people should have an alternate option for Government also. Then maybe things can improve.

Elections

Beggars cant be chosers……

Why should I care…..

My one vote does not count….

What benefit will I have…..

I have voted for the person who gave me money to build my slum…..

etc etc

The actual aim behind the elections is lost. We have forgotten that we are electing our representative. Without us the mandate is nothing. Yet we feel we have chosen the best amongst the worst…even though the person is not good enough. We have forgotten that we are the king makers. It is our vote that puts this particular person on a seat, which he later misuses against us only.

The basic funda behind choosing a representative has been lost. Initial purpose was for choosing a representative amongst us. Some who would represent us to sort our problems. Today if one goes to the representative with a problem, one has to go through a series of channels to be able to meet him. And even after that there is always a small give and take to sort out the issue. ODD. We are electing our representative and paying him to work for us.

I have seen people talk big after giving their vote…this is my first right as a citizen…i have done my duty, but unfortunately the thinking is limited to just electing. Nobody is aware of his right over the elected candidate and the elected candidate will express his submission to the people again during the next elections…..

Shiney Ahuja

These are a few responses on an status update on Shiney Ahuja on a popular social networking site, , which i thought of sharing :) I have removed the names of the people who have commented….

"My brain... my second best organ!" ... (Shiney Ahuja?)

Tats a MAIDen dude.
LOL.. clean bowled by d MAIDen
another one -- What will Shiney do in Noida , now that he has no movies... Write a Bai-o-graphy
shiney might feel u all are bAI-sed against him...btw all of the above statements are real gems......
His Orientation is BAI-Sexual... *lol* (R.I.P. Shiney - peace)
hehehe, another sick one from me... his favorite sportsman is Bai Chung Bhutia
RIP? Is that ur way of telling shiney BAI-BAI
if shiney takes offence....the Gangster might send his BAI-log after us....
BAI God I never thought of that!!!
attaa ga bayaa jaraa ooge ooge challa
aaa bailla mujhe maaaar after reading this shiney will achieve insanity that to of the highest order....
bai-the bai-the kya kare...karna hai kuch KAAM...Shiney's motto
BAI GOD so many comments

Just a few stray thoughts..

Its been quite a while since I have put up something. Not that life has been quite. Something or the other keeps on happening. So this time I trying to put down a few stray thoughts over here….

E-Book : I have downloaded for myself Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol. Hardly I have been through 11 pages, and I am wondering what am I doing. I miss holding the book in my hands and reading it. I miss turning the pages. I miss lying down and reading the book. Dont know if I am old fashioned, but I am not able to adjust to this idea of Ebooks.

Water woes : Mumbai has been facing shortage of water since past 3 months due to the erratic rainfalls. Our building has one big support line in having a bore well, the water from which is used for flushing. Somehow I have noticed that since past 5 years, whenever the question comes of overhauling the bore pump, there are rumblings over the expenses. People tend to question the expenses involved in the process. Why they cant understand the only expenses they have to incur is the once in 2 years maintenance, while they have to pay for the Municipal water, is beyond my understanding. Whenever the pump fails, it has a tendency to do so every one to one and half years, our management people just start pumping in water from the Municipality for flushing purposes, thereby not having it repaired. Currently the pump is not working since 2 months, there is water shortage, and now after two months, it has been realized that the bore well is required. Its like digging for a well when the fire is out of control.

Diwali : It is odd that here I am typing a blog on a Saturday, and by next Saturday, Diwali will be over. Over the last few years, for me Diwali has been growing less and less glamorous or exciting as it used to be. Dont know why. Cant understand why. When we were small Diwali celebrations used to start 2 week before the actual D-Day. Now it has become more of a 4-5 days affair around the actual day. Dadar used to be full of hustle-bustle during diwali, and one would find it difficult to even find a place to put down ones foot. But now with malls and shopping complexes springing up in far flung areas, the crowd has got divided. There are no more Diwali shopping rushes to be actually seen. Not that people are not buying, but now there are so many places for them to go and shop, that there is less of overcrowding.

Obama wins the Nobel for Peace : My only question is for what? What has he done in that field? The fact is that he has just started his stint. Its tooooooo early I feel for Obama. The poor guy is already living under a shadow of expectations of “Change”. And now he will have to live under the heavy expectations of Peace Keeper. Can American policies make this person keep up with these expectations? I dont think so.

2012 – end of the world? : News channels are going overboard, saying that the current floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons are dress rehearsals for the predictions which state that 2012 will be the end of the world. I feel it is a clever publicity stunt for an upcoming movie by the title “2012”. No doubt, these disasters are taking place, but the publicity guys are having a field day promoting their movie.