Archive for the ‘General/Society’ Category
Why US Elections make me sad: And no it’s not about Trump
Elections in world’s oldest democracy and the leader of the free world should have been about all that is good about Democracy. It should have been a showcase to world which can influence non-Democracies to become one. However I am afraid to say US elections make me sad. I’ll tell you why.
The debate should have been about the candidates, the policies, what they can do or not. However I see the media discourse about who is raising how much money. Money, which should have been abhorrent when associated with a candidate, is being considered a virtue. The liberal media is celebrating the candidate who gets more money out of the wealthy donors, the Oligarchs.
Consider the headline on CNN, “Clinton burying Trump: $42 million to $1.3 million”. It reeks of a feeling that a candidate with more money is more virtuous. And this makes me real sad. It feels the real purpose of democracy has gone lost. Each person, rich or poor, was to have equal say. However a donation by rich, which is then used to influence other voters, makes the voice skewed. Rich has more voice even in elections. I am sure if Trump had raised more money, the headlines would have been is his favor. It’s not just CNN, its all media. In fact it’s a general sense.
Whole concept of democracy has become a sham. In the world’s largest democracy, India, it is even a bigger sham. Billions of dollars of black money is spent during General elections. It’s akin to buying votes.
So much money in politics and its naked celebration by media makes me sick. Makes me wonder, where did it all go wrong?
Kashmir Violence: Solutions Please
Kashmir Violence has once again shaken the Valley. This time the agitators have rallied around the killing of a terrorist by Security forces. Each time it looks like peace has finally dawned on Valley, each time the mirror gets shattered. Along with stone pelting, this time there have been attacks on security establishments. National media has also made situation worse. No one is interested in finding a solution. Everyone just wants to pin blame.
Someone has to intervene, somethings gotta give. There are broadly four types of violators in Kashmir. 1st are the terrorists who are trained across the border, 2nd are the terrorists like Burhan Wani, born and trained in Kashmir, 3rd are the rich separatists like Hurriyat who are happy with leading a limited sect of people as long as their riches are preserved, 4th are the poor Kashmirs who come out in streets and pelt stones. There were reports recently that some of these un-employed youth were being paid to pelt stones.
Let’s first accept that some of the stone pelters have genuine issues. Then only we will be able to find a solution. Demonizing them won’t lead to a solution. I haven’t come across a single person who is ready to address this issue. There can be a multiple reasons for stone pelting and agitation. 1st can be as I mentioned getting paid for this, 2nd can be they have lost someone due to security forces, 3rd can be they want Kashmir to be independent or go to Pak. Once we make the list of such issues, we can address them.
For the un-employed youth, the Govt. of Kashmir has to create jobs. There jobs can be skilled/unskilled. As they say idle mind is devil’s playground, youth has to be kept busy. MNREGA could be extended further than 100 days. Govt. cans set up small scale industries across state. People should not be left dependent on Tourism to earn money. Pump in money and get some work done out of the idle youth. Some out of the box solutions would be required. But I am sure the money that would be saved in security would be more than money spent to create jobs.
For the people who have lost someone due to Security Forces, there is no easy fix. If it doesn’t stop now, the cycle will continue. More agitation will lead to more death which in turn will lead to more agitation. Same goes for people who don’t see merit of Kashmir being with India. Both these categories of people need to see the benefits of being with India. And the responsibility lies with those people of Kashmir who are reaping the benefits of India. Kashmiris who have been studying in colleges across India, Kashmiris who have been working in companies across India, and Kashmiris who are making a living across India have to come out in open. They have to raise their voices higher than the agitators. They have to make people living in Kashmir realize what India has given/can give them.
Unless the people of Kashmir who have benefitted from India come out in open, it’s next to impossible to fix the problem. The doctors/engineers/collectors who have originated from Kashmir should inspire their brethren to be with India. Disillusioned people will not listen to a Delhite or a Mumbaikar; they would listen to a fellow Kashmiri. Onus lies on you.
The wrong role models
Bollywood actresses, top women sportsmen are often considered as ideal women roll models. They are celebrated in media and is projected that young girls want to be like them. This media thrusted roll models are all wrong. Even for men, how can a Shahrukh/Salman be a role model? They can be a model in some AD shoot but role?
This has distorted the priorities of entire generations. Guys putting on fake raybans in ‘tashan’ and girls pouting and putting on ‘laali’. A poor woman who works hard, educates her children and who then pulls their family out of poverty is my role model. A man born in poverty and toiled hard, now sipping tea from the balcony of his own home is my role model. Such people made difference due to their hard work. A role model should be one whose example millions can follow. Not like Cricketers. Hardly 1000 cricketers (that too after IPL) prosper, rest all have nothing. Hence I don’t consider Sachin or Sania as role model. I like role model whose example, millions can follow and succeed.
I consider participants of Special Olympics as role models. Millions who are handicap can take courage from them. Not for sports but getting back up in life. How can a Kareena, Sonam, Sonakshi, Kajol be role models? In fact they distort the definition of feminism. Feminism is not about wearing skimpy clothes or putting on makeup, or living single. Feminism is when girls make difference to society. A Kiran Bedi success is feminism for me. Millions of women went to school taking spirit from her.
I have no issues with what these fashionistas do in their life. But when they are celebrates as role models for women, I have an issue.
Also I take issue when dynastic breeds are regarded role models. A Mayawati is a role model for me. A Sonia Gandhi is not. Mayawati inspired millions of Dalit women to fight for their rights. She gave millions of Dalit’s self respect.
Maybe this distorted world deserves such distorted role models. Who the hell knows!
Nice Guy gets Bullied
With the horrific pictures of Nice attack coming in, world has once again been left in disbelief. France has been the quintessential Romantic destination for the whole world, and thus this attack has impacted a lot of people across the world.
Please forgive my insensitivity but I recall a seen from a TV Series Southpark where a character bulldozes the crowd in a similar manner. If was funny when I watched it. It is funny no more. I feel the horror. Imagine walking down the street in celebration and next moment someone comes from behind and crushes you. What will it all achieve, I ask? Other than global destruction!
The misguided and brain washed youth carrying out such lone wolf attacks. What can be more defeating to the society? First Bangladesh and Now this; the well bred, well fed people showing such hatred against society is beyond understanding. How can the world move ahead from here? Such lone wolf attacks are devoid of any intelligence input. There are no terror camps, no formal training. All that is there is TV and internet. It’s like self radicalization. The challenge is unprecedented. One fine day, anyone can pick up a knife and kill me on the street. Even authorities can’t do anything.
Though abhorrent, I can at least understand some rationale (or ir-rationale) behind, if someone from Iraq or Afganistan fights to avenge some loss. But what have these misguided youth in Bangladesh and now Nice have lost to avenge? It’s like a chip which is being implanted in their brain. Inception of the worst kind. Today they kill as they feel one with the terrorists in name of religion, tomorrow they can feel the same in the name of caste, creed, color. Where and How will this stop?
Top political, military and diplomatic minds are burning the midnight oil to solve this very riddle. Hope they get some solution sooner than later. I am afraid to think otherwise.
Animal Eating society agitated on Dog Attack. I mean really?
A couple of days back, a video went viral where a dog was flung off the building by a sick mind. To harm an innocent animal is not a good thing. But what I saw after, made me question my own sanity.
There was a hue and cry and call for the culprits to be arrested and put behind bars. Like always, media gave it airtime and discussed at length with experts. What amazed me was, the very same reporters who wanted the animal (Cow) be allowed to be killed and people be allowed to eat it, were the same people who were disgusted by dog brutality.
Maybe I am real dumb as I fail to understand how a society which kills and eats animals can raise such a hue and cry. Killing and eating is ok, but beating up is not? If this is not hypocrisy what is. I am not justifying the attack on the dog, it was wrong. But what I am against is the animal eating society talking high moral ground and singling out the culprits.
It is these dual standards that confound me and question my own sanity. How can the society as a whole be such hypocrite, maybe it’s just me who is insane. So if I throw a goat off the building, will it be criminal too? Or Hen for that matter? Or cat or mouse? And if I kill them and eat them, will the criminality go away. Is there some restricted list or while list?
I feel society of killers and animal eaters is trying to quench the morality by singling out few people. And I fail to understand this.
On Mallya’s friends: Suhel Seth and Harsha Bhogle
You might know Suhel Seth and Harsha Bhogle. I chose these two people coz first one is a self-proclaimed holier than thou and authority on calling out other people and second one has been playing victim card and has been hailed as a nice poor guy.
It amazes me how ‘scratch the back’ and ‘self-sustaining’ club these people have made within elite and media circles, that nobody is calling them out for what they are. They are aiders and abettors to the crony capitalism. In fact they are product of this very corrupt system that they seem to portray they are not part of.
First let’s come to Suhel Seth. He comes on TV debates and fakes authority on social and political issues. He gives gyan and lectures people how they should behave. He is a socialite and metro elite. Recently there was a controversy in London when Mallya attended the same event as Indian High Commissioner. You know what that event was? That was the Suhel Seth’s book launch. People like Seth who are in bed with people like Mallya, then come on TV and lecture others. What is sickening is they are allowed to let away due to the quid pro quo group they have created.
Next is the Harsha Bhogle, the nice guy. He played victim for being kicked out of commentary contract. First of all that was a temporary contract. Second he wouldn’t have got the contract renewed for so long had he not been part of the cozy club himself. He reaped the benefits of quid pro quo for so long and when he was at receiving end, he played victim and his friends carried that charade along. Anyways remember that video that went viral which Mallya’s son made in London, wishing RCB all the best for IPL final. There was guy sitting with Mallya in that video, you can hear Mallya junior calling out Bhogle’s name in that video. And then Harsha Bhogle is hailed as the poor victim. Really!
The least we can do is not hail these people and show them their real place. Else they keep exploiting the system and keep preaching us how not to do it.
7th Pay Commission: Why are Govt Employees not happy?
On an average pay commission hikes are done every 10 years. Thus 70 years since independence equals 7 pay commissions roughly. When I read that 7th Pay Commission recommendations were being accepted and it will cost Govt around 1lac crore per year (0.7% of GDP), I thought it was a bonanza for Govt employees. Average pay hike is 23.5%. But I am hearing about resentment among junior employees, non-IAS civil servants and defense personnel w.r.t the pay hike. Most of us would be confused as to the reason. Let me demystify.
- The resentment is always there as the union leaders want to give an impression that they are fighting for more for the employees.
- Govt. improved upon 6th Pay Commission recommendations in 2008. (And hence same was expected this time, given the fact that Govt. employees form the core of the vote bank for BJP.
- It was a wrong time for the announcement. Dal/vegetable prices are at all time high at this time of the year. Hence feeling is that pay hike would go mostly towards inflation. This is not the case in reality. Govt. could have chosen a better time when new crop came in and prices were down.
- Entry level basic pay has been hiked from 7000/- to 18000/-. Unions demand more. But it’s also unjustified demand. Commission concluded that entry level Govt. employees are already getting better than corresponding private sector ones. Hence entry level pay hike %age is not as high as was expected.
- Junior level employees (Drivers etc.) want more. But as commission concluded, a Govt. driver gets 30000/- now, while market cost of a driver is around 15000/-. How high can we pay for the same job? Hence it’s wrong to blame the commission and Govt. here.
- Resentment is that higher posts people (including IAS cartel) are earning huge as compared to junior and mid level employees. Their hike was highest, around 25%, while junior employees got the smallest 14%. This resentment can be justified to an extent. IAS lobby are the one calling the shots, the exclusive golfers club as some call it. But then these are the brightest people available. Even in private jobs, salaries are skewed towards top level jobs as agree to it or not, there is a fight to get best people, which are a scarce resource. Govt. could have done some parity to preempt this however.
- Defense personnel are left behind. With the pay commission recommendations, allowances for civilian employees have become more than defense personnel is few cases. This could have been avoided. For example, hardship allowance an army officer will get for serving in Siachen is less than that of a civilian working there.
Mostly the resentment is that hike is skewed towards the top. Govt. has form committees to address the demands, as is the norm. I feel once the employees will get increased salary in July, most of the anger will go away and smiles would be back. The fact is as salary base increases %age hikes get smaller. Same happens in private sector. So %age hike in 7th pay commission might look less than that of 6th. But 1lack crore bonanza is huge when compared to paltry 20k crore by 6th pay commission.
How fast time flies
Recently one of my relatives gave me a call. Their son had got selected in JEE and they wanted some advice on which IIT/discipline to select. While in conversation, I recalled it’s been 12 years since I did the same exercise. 12 years. Seems like yesterday. But the figure 12 pointed to the time that has gone by.
Made me wonder how fast time flies. I was a teenager then and am 30 today. A dozen years. In those dozen years, I graduated, worked with 3 investment banks, got promoted, worked on 2 failed startups, fell in love, got married; went through myriad of emotions. If I reflect back I have lived a lifetime and an enterprising life in these dozen years. It seems yesterday when I clicked on computer to check my JEE rank.
How can I have both emotions together? How could I have lived a lifetime in the blink of an eye. I think the secret lies in living the moments. I have lived the moments that came by, and hence I treasure each and every moment, with limited regrets. These years went by so smoothly that I don’t feel the burden of the time went by.
A dozen years ago, I used to get overwhelmed by situations; I used to think a lot about circumstances; I used to take a lot of tension. Sometime down the line I made a promise to myself, I will not over analyze situations and will take as less tension as possible. It changed my life. I completely avoid people, situations that give me/have potential to give me tension. People don’t like that, but it lets me be happy and worry free.
Some might call it running away, I don’t care what it is called. I believe I have limited life. Why the hell do I run into everything? Like me you also have option of ‘not running into’ all and sundry. Chill and live your life with as less worry as possible. In next dozen years or so, I again want to look back to years as ‘lived a lifetime in blink of an eye’.
Why are Baba’s and Guru’s relevant in society?
Couple of disclaimers first, I don’t go to any Baba and Guru and nor do my family. Secondly, I will restrict myself to Hindu Baba/Guru’s for the sake of this article. But same thing can be extended to all religions. It’s a societal issue and not religions issue.
When Asaram went to jail amidst sexual allegations, a lot of people I knew felt pained and were devastated. These people have put their faith in Asaram for years; revered him as their God. “Humare Bhagwan ke saath yeh kya ho raha hai?” one of them lamented. They were common people who were genuine in their regard and their pain. Asaram exploits brought a lot of disrepute to the religious Guru’s. The murky secrets were out in the open.
But the issue I want to touch upon goes deeper. Why do people need these Baba’s? What is it that these people are searching for in life? What is it that these people lack in them? It’s complicated. I feel it goes much further. It goes to “Why we are here?” People have been trying to find the answer to this question. What happens after death? Such things trouble us. Next is the race in life. Everyone wants to be more successful than the other soul. Some look for answers, some look for advice, some look for success. Whichever Baba/Guru provides whatever, people go to him.
I will be very blunt here with no disrespect to any one in particular, Modern high profile Guru’s are nothing but a sham. They do this just to make money. People cometh the last. VVIP Baba’s and their VVIP functions. If you have money, you will sit in first row in the Baba pandal.
For me a Guru must be above the money. If I see VVIP front row seats in a Baba’s pandal, I have no respect for them. But most of them are such. They try and keep up their humanitarian side by PR of helping the poor. This gives their rich followers some ammo to quench their morality.
Such Baba’s exploit the fears of people and become a pied piper to them. But I can’t blame them completely. If people are ready to be duped, what can anyone do? But the TV and VVIP Baba’s are not for me. I prefer meditating in silence instead.
Curious case of a Victim Mindset
I got an email from my Boss today. There was a story about a guy who started fixing the problem, before even trying to understand if there was a problem at all. I could totally relate to the story as I myself have been the culprit a number of times.
That got me thinking why it is so. Why do people think there is a problem, when faced with simple situations in life? Why don’t they believe that it is a general situation which might not even require a fix? Why they tend to put in a fix altogether unrelated to the problem at hand.
There are a multiple of reasons I could think of. First and foremost is the victim mindset of the society we live in. We constantly feel people are conspiring against us. With such a mindset, comes paranoia. When a red paint stain, is feared to be blood. When a butcher with a knife is misunderstood a killer. So on and so forth. We should take a step back and gain confidence in ourselves. Make ourselves believe that we are not so unique a personality that everyone will conspire against us.
Next is the rush that we are in. The fast moving modern life has made our mind numb. We don’t stop to think, to dig deep into a situation. In IT world, Google has become our co-conspirator. Most of the times, we are in a rush to finish the job at end, catch a cab and go home and start the cycle all over again the next day. We end up Googling an Error Log snippet, copy the first link we get and email to the team. Most of us don’t even try and read through it completely. The modern life rush and the rat race has rid us of our most important treasure, thinking.
With the victim mindset and maddening rush, we feel we are always being picked upon and end up fixing the wrong problem, if at all. What is important here is to catch a breath. Take a break. Relax. Give yourself space to think. Time management and job prioritization is what will help you the most to handle our life situations in a better way. Decide on what you want to achieve; How much work-life balance you need to have and make effort accordingly.
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