Guns and Roses

Daily reading in the news, on facebook, on whatsapp, on twitter, praises being heaped on our Army men for their great efforts in rescuing people stuck in Jammu Kashmir floods.

Our army men have been relentlessly working hard be it on the border or in Uttarakhand or Maoist areas.

But what bothers me is when they are accused of using harsh force while trying to control riots. Certain “intelligentsia” which is surprising quite in praising their efforts in the Jammu and Kashmir floods, go all out in blaming our brave army when they try to control riots. Those who have commented have smartly put their efforts across as “Duty”. Even during riots they are doing their duty of protecting the lives and properties of innocents who are being troubled because of stupid rioters. There they have to use their guns… and face brickbats instead of bouquets.

Never understood this double standard of our so called human rights activists.

Whatever the case, would like this opportunity to salute our brave hearts. They really deserve this .. and a lot more .. in terms of salaries, accommodations, retirement benefits… but they are not sitting in the parliament to have a “right” to huge packets… they are not sitting in the Air-conditioned cars and halls of power… but they are the first people to come forward and work hard for our country……

Ab ki baar ……

Exciting Day...had expected a victory for Modi...but this one surpasses all expectations!!!

Congress....Mayawati...Farooque Abdulla...Kapil Sibal....all shown their rightful value by WE THE PEOPLE.

They all had forgotten that we have elected them as our representatives to run the country. But the 'elected party' became 'ruling party'.

In which other country can u witness a bloodless overthrowing of a 'ruling party' by more than 50 crore voters.

This is the Power of the Largest Democracy!!

Salaam India.

Raghukul reet sada chali aayee….

Recently set myself on typing a Government contract which was to be printed on a Stamp Paper. Being the unfortunate person who is educated, I found some grammatical as well as spelling errors in the format and corrected them accordingly.

One such grammatical error was “The contract is entered into the contractor”, which I changed to “The contract is entered into with the contractor”.

After submitting the same to the department my person was called back after a day and asked to make certain changes to the contract. He marked all the changes I had made, included the one stated above and also the spelling mistakes I had corrected. In short, they told him they want the contract word to word similar to the draft copy they had provided!!

Yesterday I went myself to the department and asked them how can they “enter” the contract “into” me…. needless to say they were more stumped than amused. They showed me contracts by other contractors who had followed their drafts word to word, mistake to mistake. We have been getting the same contract since years was their argument. After much discussion, with their other colleagues and seniors, it was finally agreed to accept my corrections.

Like one says….Raghukul reet sada chali aayee….what is there is there….no changes are made…things are just carried forward….

Baki sab Theek hai…

The following are the experiences I have heard from numerous people, they are not figment of my imagination…….

Poojya Pradhan Mantriji

Namaskar.

Main ek aam hindustani hoon jo roj mehnat karke apna ghar sambhal raha hoon. Pichle mahine hi ghar ke ek sadasya ka mediclaim reject ho gaya, aapke IRDA ke paas bhi gaya, lekin kuch fayada nahin huwa. Ab doston se aur rishtedaaron se paise udhar leke hospital ka bill chukaya hai. Woh roj mujhse paise maang rahe hai. Kuch logg to naaraj bhi ho gaye hai. Baaki sab thik hai.

Bijli company ne rate badha diya. Bill pe likhke beja hai, pehle paise bharo phir complain karo. Kal notice aya hai, disconnection ka. Baaki sab thik hai.

Paani roj subah subah mil jaata hai. Jaldi uthke bhar dete hai. Hamare sone ke liye jagah thi na, bus udhar 3 drum laga diye hai. unn 3 drums pe ek gadha lagake main so jaata hoon…badi chain ke neend aati hai. Baaki sab thik hai.

Kal mere padosi ke biwi ka mangalsutra chori ho gaya. Do saal se paise baccha baccha ke kharida tha. Police station waalon ne usko gussa karr diya…Pata nahin kitni choriya ho rahi hai….itna keemti mangalsutra pehenke nikalte kyon ho….Baaki sab theek hai…

Dhanda chal raha hai, kha peeke, Sales tax, building tax, Professional Tax, Income Tax, Service Tax bharne ke baad, aapke sarkaari karmachariyon ke visit ke paise bach jaate hai…. baaki sab theek hai….

Gaon jaane ke liye train ke ticket nikalwane gaya tha….bees minute line main khade rehne ke baad maalum pada ticket nahin hai….line se nikalne ke baad agent ne ticket karwake diye….thode paise jyaada lage…lekin ticket paanch minute main mil gaye…baaki sab theek hai.

Gaon main hamari jameen Dam ke raaste aa rahi hai karke sarkaar humein paise degi aise maalum pada, main sab kagaz leke gaya, lekin mujhe kahan gaya ke kagaz barabar nahin hai… phir gaon ke aadmi ne kuch paise udhar dilwake cheque dilwaya…jitne milne the uske aadhe to mil gaye….baaki sab theek hai….

Ek builder aaya hai, kehta hai paise leke yahaan se jaao, mujhe yahaan tower banana hai. Woh jitne paise de raha hai, utne main to mujhe yahaan kuch milne waala nahin hai…maine usse manna kiya…lekin ab roj gunde bejta hai….police main gaya tha…woh kehte … negotiate karke khatam karr do…hum baat karre kya….baaki sab theek hai…

Bus…aise hi aapke likhne ka mann kiya…Baki sab Theek Hai!!

Booooooo K

Recently saw a hoarding in Mumbai, about some school claiming to be the first in Mumbai to have iPads instead of textbooks. I scoffed at the idea, thinking this is just another one of those ultra rich stupidities.

Cut to yesterday, when I went to buy my sons school books for the new academic year.  Was actually shocked to see the total amount I had to shell out for the books. The book seller was telling me that these books are still ok, one schools three books cost more than your sons all the books.

Now to think of it, seriously iPad or even a tablet will be a better option. Atleast the kids can use it for 3-4 years, ibooks can be loaded on them. Saves me money, saves paper, saves trees.

Aakaash an initiative by the Government of India failed, for whatever reasons, low cost, low production, whatever …but not a bad idea. Technology has progressed, we should also progress with it.  Maybe schools should adopt this system of iBooks.

Till then I will continue being spooked by the spiralling cost of text books. Whenever I see my sons textbooks….they seem to be scaring me by saying Booooooooooooo ….!!!

The Highway Robbery…..

Everybody keeps asking me how I liked Dubai/Sharjah. Frankly the thing which impressed me was not the Infrastructural Highway but the Internet Highway.

Seriously we Indians are being taken for a ride when it comes to Internet Speeds out here. I experienced broadband, Edge and 3g speeds out there….we are nowhere close to those speeds. We are paying from our noses for 3g speeds here in India but somebody should really run a audit check on the speed which they are providing to us. What we are getting is bullshit. First the government sees a chance to earn black money in the auctions and then it does not even ensure we are getting the speeds which we deserve.

This is Internet Highway Robbery, which we are not even aware of, because majority of us have not experienced what good speeds really are….

Traff*&ked

Being a Mumbaikarr I know how bad it can get when you are stuck in traffic. A two minute distance takes not less than 15-20 mins to cover sometimes. Sometimes the car is just stuck there in the same place. One cant even move in any direction.

Yesterday was stuck for nearly 20 mins at the same place. While there I could hear a faint siren of an ambulance. Now I am not sure if the ambulance was on its way to pick up a patient, or on its way to drop the patient to a hospital… or if at all in line of duty. But yes…began to wonder what would happen to a patient in case stuck in such traffic.

Why just get Traffucked on any road…imagine getting stuck on the road to an important hospital. Take the case of Hinduja Hospital at Mahim. A school in its vicinity with its all ultra rich students coming in cars occupy the road and create jams over there for almost half an hour in the morning. These car owners care a damn about traffic rules, cutting across the lanes, taking U-turns from where ever they feel comfortable. I have seen parents just park their cars and talk to other parents without caring a damn about the traffic situation. I shudder to think of a medical emergency patient getting stuck because of this stupidity. I am being told that there are other schools also, where similar situations occur daily.

Forget ambulance, what if there is a medical emergency to a driver or a co-passenger. Are we equipped for such eventualities?

Surely not. Our State Government has funds to build a stupid monument over the sea. But they have never planned any air lifting medical facilities in Mumbai. This is one facility we need badly in Mumbai, not just when we get Traffucked on the roads, but also in case of disaster management. Is anybody listening????

Indian Ail Lines

Invest and keep in Airlines on the sharemarket. In future it is going to be the most important and most used mode of transport in India.

This was a piece of advice given to me by a Stock Market Investor around 7 years back. But the current situation with most of the Airlines makes me wonder if the future of Airlines is good in India.

India is one of the fastest growing economies. Air travel is now acceptable to even a common person as train travel. One hardly finds seats empty in Airlines. Then what is it that Ails our airlines in India?

Why are there problems with Air India, Kingfisher, Jet…you name it. All are in problems?

Some blame it on Government policies. Some blame it on compulsion to fly non profitable segments. Some blame the airlines for diverting funds.

For me the issue is too complex to understand. Government says privatization will help the ailing National Airline. On the other hand Private players are in a soup. So will privatization of Air India help, when private airlines like Kingfisher and Jet are asking for help from Government? All seem to be flying around in circles.

In all this the people who suffer are just not passengers, but also the staff, who have not been receiving their salaries on time. Irrespective of the huge amounts they receive, it is obvious that their expenses will be as per their income. And now that the income has reduced or stopped, they are facing hardships.

It has become a bad Ailment for our Airlines, with no clear policy … hopefully time will heal…till then grin and bear….

P.S There is no typo or mistake in the title of the blog….

Heads I win…Tails you lose….

The Govt of India thru the Delhi Court is slowly tightening its grip over Google, Facebook and the likes. While it was able to control the print and television media, it had offlate found itself unable to muzzle the general public opinion.
There are two sides of every story like there are two sides of every coin. What the Govt of India is interested in is keep the people of India limited to only one side ..their side.
Its like minting coins for India with only one side, but the problem is that there is still a blank side, and this blank side will be left to the imagination of many. Atleast with the two sides of the story, one could understand the facts and then decide which side is up or right.
But with the action being taken now the Govt is trying to tell the people of India… Heads I win…Tails you lose…

The Emperors New Clothes

We have all read or heard the the story of Emperors New Clothes. Indian Governments current situation is similar….everybody is able to see the corruption around except our leaders. Even a small child is taking part in the support of Anna Hazare and know that corruption is bad, but our shameless politicians are still undecided over the future of Lok Pal Bill.
Anna Hazare has acted like a small child in the story of Emperors New Clothes and raised his voice by declaring that our Government System is Corrupt…….and now everybody has come out into the open by supporting him.
In the story the Emperor realized his folly but will our Government do the same????????
I dedicate this blog to Mr. Bimal Maskara who tweeted this to me…

Why Annas fast is also scary…..

It was always said the Cricket unites our Nation like nothing else. The last World cup victory and the celebrations all over India and also in other parts of the World proved it with people dancing on the streets and tri-colour being waved everywhere.
Now another “C” word has united India….its Corruption. People are actually tired of corruption, which unfortunately is too deep rooted to be removed immediately from our system.
But Anna Hazare movement is a start and I wish, along with thousands of Indians that its can be reduced if not completely eliminated. It has brought the public together for a cause, something which we had always heard of but never seen….Unity in Diversity…..and now getting to see.
But India is a country which along with corruption is also reeling under another threat that of terrorism. It is just a thought…what if someone(could be an insider could be an outsider) manages to create some security issue at Anna Hazare’s fasting place. Two things can happen…either the Government will get a chance to end this protest or the public might revolt badly in protest.
In both cases the cause will come to a back seat, but the worse is the second scenario, if public gets out of hand, it will be impossible to control an uprising. Hope I am wrong…….but yes I am scared…..

Ganda hai parr Dhanda hai yeh….

Seriously sometimes when I think of all the scams by Raja, Kalmadi, Kani and now Maran….I wonder what have they done wrong.
Think of it like a business person. Who wouldnt want to make more money. It was the Government and the system which was gullible. These scamsters(should we be even calling them that till proven guilty?) saw an opportunity like intelligent Business people and made an earning for themselves.
Maybe the profit sharing was not found appropriate by some who got the lesser amount of pie and thats where they got exposed, but otherwise I think now we should stop blaming them.
If our Government with all its capabilities feels that buying a thing for 100 rupees is the best rate they can procure it than why blame the contractor even if the same thing is available in the market for 10 rupees.
It is the system which is wrong, which gives a person the best opportunity to profit more if s/he has the brains to take advantage of the system to earn more. So why get jealous of them?
Agreed crores of money is going in some individuals pockets…but had the Individual decided to leave politics and do the same work than it would have been termed as business and not scam. Public would have invested in their firms and would have been happy to see the bottom line of crores of profit.

Dear Mr. Finance Minister

Sir,
I was listening to your budget speech and was not able to control myself from swearing out loud when you said that the Refund process is been made faster and simpler.
My wife is waiting for her Income Tax refunds of more than 5 assessment years. I have personally been following up with the department since more than 7 months now and have been able to get only refund till date.
This week I had the opportunity to sit with the Officer for more than 2 hours and the experience brought back memories of my travails over the past 7 months. The system is very clear. A person who comes asking for his refund the very first time is heard, his data checked and sent back saying that the refund will be released after a month. A person who comes back after a month is told that the refund should have come out by now, since it hasnt, it is better to put in a request in writing. On followup after giving the request in writing, the papers which are stored in “Bundles” are to be found. After one more visit to the Department, the Bundle is found, and the papers are found to be “Missing”. Next step is file an affidavit. Once the affidavit is filed, the person is again asked to come back after a week or so. During all these visits, I am not accounting the number of times the peon or the officer is not to be found on the table. Finally after a year the refund is released, if at all.
Btw…let me clarify, I am still to receive the refunds. The receipt of refund experience I am sharing of others.
Sir, you have not made e-filing mandatory for quick and easy refund. But even after e-filing the papers are still to be couriered to the Department in some place of our Country…as far as I know..to Bangalore.
These e-filing data’s are not “available” to the Income Tax officer for reasons best known to the department. My wifes last years returns are still not being shown on his computer, inspite of filing the returns electronically.
So all in all, some loophole is still there in the latest system also.
Yes I had the opportunity to visit an Higher Authority last week. He was very helpful. He has asked me to write a letter to the Department. So my saga continues………

Yours faithfully
A Citizen of India who is paying is Taxes so that your Department people can draw their salaries as per 6th Pay Commission

Jai Hind

Monuments

In the past I have written about the waste of money planned on building the Shivaji Maharaj Statue in Mumbai. Now with the Government which had planned for the statue back in power, for the next 5 years, the work will be starting soon on it.  Recently I  read the novel The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Since I have not ever been to Washington, I saw the pictures of the monuments mentioned in the book on the net.

These monuments built ages ago are today a symbol for the city of Washington. That made me think of any monument present in Mumbai.

Well we do have some structures….under Heritage Structures….but I dont think they are taken good care of. We have age old gardens like Hanging Garden, Five Garden, National Park….but they are all in a very bad shape. We have structures like the Victoria Terminus, Central Library, Rajabai Tower(the less said about its condition the better). But are these monuments really looked upon as tourist attractions.

There are other places in India which are hardly taken care of …..Jalianwala Baug in Amritsar, one doesnt even come to know of the infamous well, which has now been covered up, and not a single signboard has been kept in its vicinity to indicate its history. The bullet marks on the wall are left to everybodies imagination.

So that again make me think, that if we dont want to take good care of such huge monuments why build them at all. Ofcourse a developing city like Mumbai needs tourist attractions, but first atleast take care of the existing ones. If we cant take care of our existing monuments, there is absolutely no need for additional ones.

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.

Shivaji Statue and the waste of money

Maharashtra Government has gone ahead with a plan to build a statue of Shivaji Maharaj in the middle Arabian Sea, almost on lines of Statue of Liberty. What is bugging most is the expense of 350 crores being done on this.

Mumbai has got problems galore. Everytime we hear politicians say that the budget allocation by the Central Government leaves a lot of be desired. After every budget we read in the newspapers that Mumbai only gives but does not receive in terms of monetary gains.

Not surprising this decision makes one wonder from where the 350 crores will be used for the construction. And of course, the Bandra Worli Sea Link has proved that the mid-sea endeavors by our government have also escalated to more than the original cost. So we can safely assume that this cost will be over and above minimum 500 crores. We are not talking of Rs.150 difference over Rs. 350, but a difference of over 150 crore rupees.

This money can easily be utilized for improving the infrastructure, improving the water supply system, drainage system. No I wont argue, that in Mahahashtra farmers are committing suicide, I am arguing for my Mumbai, which is collapsing daily. We want better quality of life. Instead of building statues, why isn't the waterway being developed as a public transport system. We have a good chance to explore the sea as an alternate route of transport which is much needed.

Why cant the open drains(nallahs) be closed all over Mumbai. There has been a definite drop in Mosquitoes in areas where they have been closed.

There are many more options, but statue is surely a big waste of money. 350 crores for the statue, and other expenses per month to clean the bird shits which will be covering it daily……..