Dushera Effigies
Every year we celebrate Dushera with much pomp and show culminating in the burning of effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghanada. Here Ravana and his allies are characterised as the symbol of all evils.
History and Puranas shows that Ravana was a man of many virtues. He was an able administrator, an intellectual giant a renowned scholar, a great warrior and above all a gentleman. It is ironical that a person of Ravana’s stature is ridiculed in this manner when our own standards in public life have reached the lowest ebb. To symbolise Ravana as the synonym of all evils is travesty of facts, to say the least.
Can we not celebrate the festival by burning the effigies of real evils and taking a pledge on this auspicious occasion to eradicate the evils of corruption, dishonesty, immorality etc from public life?
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Dr Kalam & India's Missile Programme
Dr.Kalam and India’s Missile Programme
Kudos to Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam for winning the highest civilian award-“Bharat Ratna”. Government also deserves congratulations for conferring the award on an eminent scientist and architect of India’s integrated guided missile programme, thus making a welcome departure from tradition. Dr. Kalam’s contribution to our missile programme and self-reliance in military hardware are unparalleled in the history of the country.
India has a vast reservoir of scientific and technical manpower. However, despite having abundance of talent in the country, our achievements in the international arena are dismal. It does not require a Commission of enquiry or research scholar to find out the reason. We Indians are not only reluctant to recognise talent but also suppress and strangulate talent. While Indian scientists and technocrats are holding exalted positions in various parts of the globe, many of us still believe in super power screwdriver technology. No wonder even after 50 years of independence our achievement in indigenisation and self reliance are paltry.
We quote Japan day in and day out but never follow their qualities. In Japan everybody whether a teenager or an old man stand on his own feet, in India even highly placed persons proudly talk of their connections implying that they can not stand on their own feet. There is a popular joke that a Japanese impressed with the rich and diverse resource of India, offered to make India like Japan within a period of one year, Indian made a counter proposal to make Japan like India within a period of six months
It is hoped that Dr. Abdul Kalam’s incredible achievements and the latest laurel he achieved will inspire other budding scientists and technocrats to reach greater heights in the years to come. This will be the harbinger of Indian resurgence in science and technology.
If we make a little change in our outlook and attitude by recognising and rewarding talent, India can make spectacular progress in all the fields and thereby remove the oft repeated slogan chanted by our students of commerce and economics that “India is a rich country inhabited by poor people” from our lexicons.
Kudos to Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam for winning the highest civilian award-“Bharat Ratna”. Government also deserves congratulations for conferring the award on an eminent scientist and architect of India’s integrated guided missile programme, thus making a welcome departure from tradition. Dr. Kalam’s contribution to our missile programme and self-reliance in military hardware are unparalleled in the history of the country.
India has a vast reservoir of scientific and technical manpower. However, despite having abundance of talent in the country, our achievements in the international arena are dismal. It does not require a Commission of enquiry or research scholar to find out the reason. We Indians are not only reluctant to recognise talent but also suppress and strangulate talent. While Indian scientists and technocrats are holding exalted positions in various parts of the globe, many of us still believe in super power screwdriver technology. No wonder even after 50 years of independence our achievement in indigenisation and self reliance are paltry.
We quote Japan day in and day out but never follow their qualities. In Japan everybody whether a teenager or an old man stand on his own feet, in India even highly placed persons proudly talk of their connections implying that they can not stand on their own feet. There is a popular joke that a Japanese impressed with the rich and diverse resource of India, offered to make India like Japan within a period of one year, Indian made a counter proposal to make Japan like India within a period of six months
It is hoped that Dr. Abdul Kalam’s incredible achievements and the latest laurel he achieved will inspire other budding scientists and technocrats to reach greater heights in the years to come. This will be the harbinger of Indian resurgence in science and technology.
If we make a little change in our outlook and attitude by recognising and rewarding talent, India can make spectacular progress in all the fields and thereby remove the oft repeated slogan chanted by our students of commerce and economics that “India is a rich country inhabited by poor people” from our lexicons.
Development Sans Morality
Sub: Development sans Morality
According to a report of the Central statistical organisation (CSO) the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow at 9.2% in the year 2006-07. So far so good. However, social and economic inequalities are increasing which is not a healthy trend. Moreover, millions of people are still deprived of the basic minimum facilities. Further, We talk of development in the narrowest sense only i.e.; economic development. Increase in GDP, per capita income, infrastructure facilities etc is not the only yardstick of development.
Economic development without moral development or moral degradation is meaningless. We have fallen deep from our glorious Indian culture and civilization. Our value system is declining and human virtues like honesty, integrity, morality, compassion etc are confined to dictionaries. Making material progress has become the motto of life and man is measured by his wealth and not by his virtues. Economic progress without social justice is not sustainable and will have far reaching and disastrous consequences.
It is high time we should make a self-introspection of our dwindling culture, traditions, values, ethics, morals etc. Let us make a judicious blend of our past glories and present technological achievements to bring peace, tranquility and prosperity in our great land of sages, scholars and social reformers.
E M Adithyan
10th February 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal - 679576
Kerala.
According to a report of the Central statistical organisation (CSO) the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow at 9.2% in the year 2006-07. So far so good. However, social and economic inequalities are increasing which is not a healthy trend. Moreover, millions of people are still deprived of the basic minimum facilities. Further, We talk of development in the narrowest sense only i.e.; economic development. Increase in GDP, per capita income, infrastructure facilities etc is not the only yardstick of development.
Economic development without moral development or moral degradation is meaningless. We have fallen deep from our glorious Indian culture and civilization. Our value system is declining and human virtues like honesty, integrity, morality, compassion etc are confined to dictionaries. Making material progress has become the motto of life and man is measured by his wealth and not by his virtues. Economic progress without social justice is not sustainable and will have far reaching and disastrous consequences.
It is high time we should make a self-introspection of our dwindling culture, traditions, values, ethics, morals etc. Let us make a judicious blend of our past glories and present technological achievements to bring peace, tranquility and prosperity in our great land of sages, scholars and social reformers.
E M Adithyan
10th February 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal - 679576
Kerala.
Death Penalty
Death Penalty
A fresh debate has been started about the desirability or otherwise of the death penalty. Death penalty is awarded in the rarest of rare cases and this cardinal principle is reviewed by eminent judges in a three tier system Viz; District Court., High Court and Supreme Court. Though death penalty seems to be barbaric, it is awarded only to those dreaded criminals who have perpetrated the most heinous and dastardly crime. Some self styled social organisations and human rights activists appears to be more concerned about the rights of criminals rather than protecting the basic right (right to live) of the innocent and hapless citizens. Nobody appears to be bothered about the sorrows, sufferings and trauma of the families of victims of these horrible crimes. A hardened criminal if comes out of the jail after completing his life term will be unacceptable to the society. In all likelihood he will create a rein of terror and will become a perpetual hazard to the society.
A national debate on death penalty may be initiated. Opinions may be obtained from the families of minimum 1000 victims from the length and breadth of the country starting from the latest incident of Delhi bomb blast. If majority of them suggest that death penalty should not be abolished, a decision contrary to this will be tantamount to adding insult to injury and rubbing salt on their wounds. The need of the hour to have a fresh thinking on the implementation of death penalty, whether by the medieval method of hanging or some other scientific method.
E..M.ADITHYAN
1st November2005
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal-679 576
Kerala
Commonwealth games
Letter to Editor
Commonwealth Games
Delhi will be staging the next Commonwealth Games in the year 2010. Media, especially Delhi based newspapers are making a misplaced publicity that Delhi will become a global city after the Games. However, the moot question is whether the motto of staging the Commonwealth Games is to improve the standard of sports in the country or improve the infrastructure facilities in Delhi. If the objective is the latter it could have been served by spending half of the amount or even less without staging the Commonwealth Games. After staging such mega sports events, whether we are going to improve our standard of sports and medal tally, nobody knows. Will we be able to win few medals at the 2012 Olympics just two years after staging the Commonwealth Games? The tragedy is that inspite of spending billions of rupees in the name of sports, common man has very little to cheer about during India’s participation in international events.
Delhi the capital city of India should get out of its dubious distinction as the city of road accidents, dacoity, murder, rape, bride burning, kidnapping, lack of civic sense, insensitivity, scams, scandals and last but not least corruption. It is said that in Mumbai, even pick pocketers are gentle to the extent that they will not do any physical harm to their victims and after taking the money they return other valuables like identity card, driving license etc to the owner by courier. Media has to play a major role in changing the mindset of Delhiites, to make it a more livable city, as Delhi has some of the excellent infrastructure facilities (Which is the envy of other Indian Cities) comparable to global standards. Let us not bid for Olympics till we become a force to reckon with at least in the Asian circuit, otherwise we have to see the massacre of the host and swallow the insult, ignominy and humiliation heaped on us by the sports powerhouses of the world
E M Adithyan
20th January 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679576
Kerala
Commonwealth Games
Delhi will be staging the next Commonwealth Games in the year 2010. Media, especially Delhi based newspapers are making a misplaced publicity that Delhi will become a global city after the Games. However, the moot question is whether the motto of staging the Commonwealth Games is to improve the standard of sports in the country or improve the infrastructure facilities in Delhi. If the objective is the latter it could have been served by spending half of the amount or even less without staging the Commonwealth Games. After staging such mega sports events, whether we are going to improve our standard of sports and medal tally, nobody knows. Will we be able to win few medals at the 2012 Olympics just two years after staging the Commonwealth Games? The tragedy is that inspite of spending billions of rupees in the name of sports, common man has very little to cheer about during India’s participation in international events.
Delhi the capital city of India should get out of its dubious distinction as the city of road accidents, dacoity, murder, rape, bride burning, kidnapping, lack of civic sense, insensitivity, scams, scandals and last but not least corruption. It is said that in Mumbai, even pick pocketers are gentle to the extent that they will not do any physical harm to their victims and after taking the money they return other valuables like identity card, driving license etc to the owner by courier. Media has to play a major role in changing the mindset of Delhiites, to make it a more livable city, as Delhi has some of the excellent infrastructure facilities (Which is the envy of other Indian Cities) comparable to global standards. Let us not bid for Olympics till we become a force to reckon with at least in the Asian circuit, otherwise we have to see the massacre of the host and swallow the insult, ignominy and humiliation heaped on us by the sports powerhouses of the world
E M Adithyan
20th January 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679576
Kerala
Code of Conduct for Politicians
Code of Conduct for Politicians
Associated chamber of Commerce and Industry of India has advocated the need for code of conduct for politicians, training for Parliamentarians in Economic Management and public policy and reorientation of the bureaucracy. All the right thinking persons would welcome these suggestions as absence of these and several other factors are responsible for the continued backwardness of the country.
It is paradoxical that whereas candidate for a class IV job also require some qualification, politicians who guide the destiny of the Nation does not require any qualification worth the name. Naturally, the common man has come to the conclusion that people who are unable to serve the nation through any other profession viz. Scientist, Doctor, Engineer, Accountant, Bureaucrat etc. could become a successful politician.
Politicians have lowered the image of the nation on several occasions through their words and deeds. In the process many phrases have gained opposite meaning. For example unparliamentary language is no longer the synonym of foul language because parliamentary language has occupied the place of east while unparliamentary language.
The tragedy in India is that people who do not have the elementary knowledge of the subject often holds exalted positions in various fields. Further there is a growing tendency to post right person at the wrong place. While the most intelligent class of people like Scientists, Doctors, Engineers etc. command the least power, less educated people like politicians, Businessman etc. control the entire system. Moreover, our moral fabric has reached to such a stage that we refuse to recognise human virtues and instead salute the chair of power. This syndrome has completely demoralised the intelligentsia and resulted in large-scale brain drain. There is a popular joke that after the creation of universe Lord Brahma told Lord Vishnu that one country called India has been provided with all the necessary resources. When Lord Vishnu asked Brahma as to whether it was not unjust to provide all the resources to one country Brahma replied. “But see the type of politicians I have sent there. They will take care of every thing”.
Politicians belonging to all parties should understand and emphasis the need for education and training to Legislators and Parliamentarians on all aspects of the country’s governance. Moral education should be an integral part of the training as the country is faced with the biggest problem of crisis of character. Let our politician’s syntheses their energies for the service of the nation instead of service to self. People expect the politicians to show the same unity of purpose, which was shown while passing the bill increasing the pay and allowances of MPs, for taking the country to the next millennium. India with vast reservoir of resources at its command has all the potential to become a world power provided our politicians and administrators show the will power.
Associated chamber of Commerce and Industry of India has advocated the need for code of conduct for politicians, training for Parliamentarians in Economic Management and public policy and reorientation of the bureaucracy. All the right thinking persons would welcome these suggestions as absence of these and several other factors are responsible for the continued backwardness of the country.
It is paradoxical that whereas candidate for a class IV job also require some qualification, politicians who guide the destiny of the Nation does not require any qualification worth the name. Naturally, the common man has come to the conclusion that people who are unable to serve the nation through any other profession viz. Scientist, Doctor, Engineer, Accountant, Bureaucrat etc. could become a successful politician.
Politicians have lowered the image of the nation on several occasions through their words and deeds. In the process many phrases have gained opposite meaning. For example unparliamentary language is no longer the synonym of foul language because parliamentary language has occupied the place of east while unparliamentary language.
The tragedy in India is that people who do not have the elementary knowledge of the subject often holds exalted positions in various fields. Further there is a growing tendency to post right person at the wrong place. While the most intelligent class of people like Scientists, Doctors, Engineers etc. command the least power, less educated people like politicians, Businessman etc. control the entire system. Moreover, our moral fabric has reached to such a stage that we refuse to recognise human virtues and instead salute the chair of power. This syndrome has completely demoralised the intelligentsia and resulted in large-scale brain drain. There is a popular joke that after the creation of universe Lord Brahma told Lord Vishnu that one country called India has been provided with all the necessary resources. When Lord Vishnu asked Brahma as to whether it was not unjust to provide all the resources to one country Brahma replied. “But see the type of politicians I have sent there. They will take care of every thing”.
Politicians belonging to all parties should understand and emphasis the need for education and training to Legislators and Parliamentarians on all aspects of the country’s governance. Moral education should be an integral part of the training as the country is faced with the biggest problem of crisis of character. Let our politician’s syntheses their energies for the service of the nation instead of service to self. People expect the politicians to show the same unity of purpose, which was shown while passing the bill increasing the pay and allowances of MPs, for taking the country to the next millennium. India with vast reservoir of resources at its command has all the potential to become a world power provided our politicians and administrators show the will power.
Celebrating Failures
Celebrating Failures!
We are celebrating our golden jubilee year of independence with much pomp and show. Celebration is normally done for victory, success or achievement, but here is a classic example of celebrating failures and fumbling.
During these 50 years after independence, our development has been on a snail’s pace compared to many other countries of the world. Even those countries, which attained independence after 1947, have crossed miles ahead of us. Unfortunately, our progress has been more pronounced in the negative fields like population growth, pollution, road accidents, robbery, rape, dacoity, kidnapping, bride burning, scams, scandals and last but not the least corruption.
The evils of the Casteism, communalism, regionalism, linguistism, parochialism etc have become so rampant in the country as one can hardly find Indians in India. Quality of life, product, services, etc have all gone down. Despite the fact that we have won many awards, rewards, medals, recognition, ISI & ISO certificates, the actual quality has come down in many spheres. We have systematically strangulated our morals, values, ethics, traditions, and flora and fauna. Our standards in literature, culture, arts, sports, are fast eroding.
After the independence our planners have visualised an India of self-reliance, self-dependence and growth coupled with social justice. However, even after 50-year of independence we are more and more dependent on foreign countries for our survival. Under the pretext of liberalisation we have invited multinationals to invade India and today we depend on them even for cool drinks and potato wafers. We believe in screwdriver technology and heavily depend on foreign countries for all the requirement of critical items-whether they are used in the manufacture (nay assembly) of sophisticated equipments or consumer durables. Over dependence on any country will slowly leads to slavery.
There is a wide gap between what we preach and what we practice. This is further compounded by contradictions like a scoundrel giving sermons about morality, criminal talking about social justice and corrupt politician preaching probity in public life.
Barring some isolated achievements here and there we have nothing to rejoice, nothing to celebrate. This is at best an occasion for introspection to find ways and means to get rid of the clutches of corruption, chaos, confusion and murky political state of affairs.
We are celebrating our golden jubilee year of independence with much pomp and show. Celebration is normally done for victory, success or achievement, but here is a classic example of celebrating failures and fumbling.
During these 50 years after independence, our development has been on a snail’s pace compared to many other countries of the world. Even those countries, which attained independence after 1947, have crossed miles ahead of us. Unfortunately, our progress has been more pronounced in the negative fields like population growth, pollution, road accidents, robbery, rape, dacoity, kidnapping, bride burning, scams, scandals and last but not the least corruption.
The evils of the Casteism, communalism, regionalism, linguistism, parochialism etc have become so rampant in the country as one can hardly find Indians in India. Quality of life, product, services, etc have all gone down. Despite the fact that we have won many awards, rewards, medals, recognition, ISI & ISO certificates, the actual quality has come down in many spheres. We have systematically strangulated our morals, values, ethics, traditions, and flora and fauna. Our standards in literature, culture, arts, sports, are fast eroding.
After the independence our planners have visualised an India of self-reliance, self-dependence and growth coupled with social justice. However, even after 50-year of independence we are more and more dependent on foreign countries for our survival. Under the pretext of liberalisation we have invited multinationals to invade India and today we depend on them even for cool drinks and potato wafers. We believe in screwdriver technology and heavily depend on foreign countries for all the requirement of critical items-whether they are used in the manufacture (nay assembly) of sophisticated equipments or consumer durables. Over dependence on any country will slowly leads to slavery.
There is a wide gap between what we preach and what we practice. This is further compounded by contradictions like a scoundrel giving sermons about morality, criminal talking about social justice and corrupt politician preaching probity in public life.
Barring some isolated achievements here and there we have nothing to rejoice, nothing to celebrate. This is at best an occasion for introspection to find ways and means to get rid of the clutches of corruption, chaos, confusion and murky political state of affairs.
CBI Unfettered
CBI Unfettered
The Supreme Court’s landmark judgement giving functional autonomy by unfettering CBI from executive and political control is laudable. However, whether it was necessary to put the CBI under the control of the Central Vigilance Commission will remain a debatable point. Often, obnoxious proposals are made by various quarters to scuttle and strangulate the investigation process, and but for the Supreme Court intervention, the practice could have gone unabated.
Last year Government came out with a proposal to bar the Central Bureau of Investigation from initiating any legal proceedings against serving or former ministers without prior permission of the Prime Minister. That came closely on the heels of the suggestion to exclude MPs and MLAs from the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the finance ministry’s proposal to obtain its prior permission before initiating action against officers of public sector banks in the rank of general managers and above. All these proposals would have helped only to make a mockery of the rule of law as by the time investigation starts after getting permission from the appropriate authority, the person involved would have covered his tracks well.
The Supreme Court decision also proves a point that the concept of “equality before law” enshrined in our constitution, which was hitherto considered a myth would soon become a reality. At a time when pillars of democratic institutions start crumbling, it is heartening to note that the Supreme Court has come to our rescue by enforcing the rule of law.
.
The Supreme Court’s landmark judgement giving functional autonomy by unfettering CBI from executive and political control is laudable. However, whether it was necessary to put the CBI under the control of the Central Vigilance Commission will remain a debatable point. Often, obnoxious proposals are made by various quarters to scuttle and strangulate the investigation process, and but for the Supreme Court intervention, the practice could have gone unabated.
Last year Government came out with a proposal to bar the Central Bureau of Investigation from initiating any legal proceedings against serving or former ministers without prior permission of the Prime Minister. That came closely on the heels of the suggestion to exclude MPs and MLAs from the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the finance ministry’s proposal to obtain its prior permission before initiating action against officers of public sector banks in the rank of general managers and above. All these proposals would have helped only to make a mockery of the rule of law as by the time investigation starts after getting permission from the appropriate authority, the person involved would have covered his tracks well.
The Supreme Court decision also proves a point that the concept of “equality before law” enshrined in our constitution, which was hitherto considered a myth would soon become a reality. At a time when pillars of democratic institutions start crumbling, it is heartening to note that the Supreme Court has come to our rescue by enforcing the rule of law.
.
Bharat Ratna Award
Letter to Editor
Bharat Ratna Award
Shri L.K Advani Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP, Opposition Leader and veteran BJP leader has recommended Bharat Ratna award to doyen of Indian Politics and former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mayawati UP Chief Minister and leader of BSP has recommended that Bharat Ratna Award be conferred on Late Kanshi Ram, founder of BSP. Earlier the highest civilian award was the prerogative of only politicians and an illusion was created in the minds of common man, especially the literate and semi-literate, that only politicians do public service. Few years ago, a welcome departure was made in this trend and people who have excelled in other fields viz. Dr. M.S. Subbulaxmi, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Bismillah Khan, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam etc. were conferred the highest civilian award of the country. Thus we displayed in unambiguous terms that we Indians too can recognize and reward meritorious and outstanding service which has helped to enhance the image of the country in the eyes of the world. Barring few exceptions, most of our illustrious and legendary personalities were first rewarded by International institutes and foreign countries and only after that we started recognizing their outstanding service.
It is high time that we should make a change in our attitude and start recognizing and rewarding talent, excellence, outstanding achievements and dedicated and meritorious service without waiting for the outside world to reward them first. I as a common man without any power at my command humbly suggest that Bharat Ratna Award be conferred on an unsung hero- Shri E. Sreedharan, the architect of Konkan Railways and DMRC. The type of work executed under his dynamic and inspiring leadership was even beyond the dreams of many people. DMRC is an epitome of efficiency, punctuality, dedication, devotion, discipline, highest moral & ethical standards etc. This is not to belittle the Konkan Railway which is a trend setter in achieving “impossible” tasks. Even adjectives are insufficient to shower encomiums on DMRC and Bharat Ratna to Sreedharan will be virtually a reward to the dedicated workforce of DMRC.
There is not an iota of doubt whether E. Sreedharan deserves Bharat Ratna or not. We Indians want more Sreedharans to take this country to the top of the world. It will only be a small gesture in this direction to confer Bharat Ratna on E. Sreedharan. This will herald the beginning of a new culture and a loud and clear message will be sent to the whole world that in India unsung heroes are a thing of the past.
E M Adithyan
18th January 2008
a
Elangalloor Mana
P.O. Edapal-679 576
Kerala
Bharat Ratna Award
Shri L.K Advani Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP, Opposition Leader and veteran BJP leader has recommended Bharat Ratna award to doyen of Indian Politics and former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mayawati UP Chief Minister and leader of BSP has recommended that Bharat Ratna Award be conferred on Late Kanshi Ram, founder of BSP. Earlier the highest civilian award was the prerogative of only politicians and an illusion was created in the minds of common man, especially the literate and semi-literate, that only politicians do public service. Few years ago, a welcome departure was made in this trend and people who have excelled in other fields viz. Dr. M.S. Subbulaxmi, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Bismillah Khan, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam etc. were conferred the highest civilian award of the country. Thus we displayed in unambiguous terms that we Indians too can recognize and reward meritorious and outstanding service which has helped to enhance the image of the country in the eyes of the world. Barring few exceptions, most of our illustrious and legendary personalities were first rewarded by International institutes and foreign countries and only after that we started recognizing their outstanding service.
It is high time that we should make a change in our attitude and start recognizing and rewarding talent, excellence, outstanding achievements and dedicated and meritorious service without waiting for the outside world to reward them first. I as a common man without any power at my command humbly suggest that Bharat Ratna Award be conferred on an unsung hero- Shri E. Sreedharan, the architect of Konkan Railways and DMRC. The type of work executed under his dynamic and inspiring leadership was even beyond the dreams of many people. DMRC is an epitome of efficiency, punctuality, dedication, devotion, discipline, highest moral & ethical standards etc. This is not to belittle the Konkan Railway which is a trend setter in achieving “impossible” tasks. Even adjectives are insufficient to shower encomiums on DMRC and Bharat Ratna to Sreedharan will be virtually a reward to the dedicated workforce of DMRC.
There is not an iota of doubt whether E. Sreedharan deserves Bharat Ratna or not. We Indians want more Sreedharans to take this country to the top of the world. It will only be a small gesture in this direction to confer Bharat Ratna on E. Sreedharan. This will herald the beginning of a new culture and a loud and clear message will be sent to the whole world that in India unsung heroes are a thing of the past.
E M Adithyan
18th January 2008
a
Elangalloor Mana
P.O. Edapal-679 576
Kerala
Beware of Sycophants
Beware of Sycophants
The country is confronted with a plethora of problems. While many problems are discussed and debated on various forums there is at least one problem, which did not get any attention in the political or bureaucratic circles. It is paradoxical that some people have not considered it as a problem but as a virtue.
Sycophancy is perhaps the second oldest profession in the world and one of the few areas where Indians have excelled. The perpetrators of this art has made a mockery of meetings and discussions by simply staying as ‘Yesman’. In the process the idea of pooling of minds, critical analysis, constructive suggestions etc. have thrown to the winds. The situation has become so bad that difference of opinion is treated as a dissent and a challenge to the authority of the Boss. The coterie revolving round the leaders feed distorted news and prejudicial views in the form of sugarcoated capsules.
The situation takes another turn in Seminars and Conferences, which becomes a forum for mutual admiration. It is pathetic to see veteran politicians falling to the feet of their political bosses, so called intellectuals and highly qualified professionals accepting unpalatable views and verdicts, which does not stand even the test of common sense, without any murmur. It is a matter of shame that even highly qualified professionals behave like “His Master’s Voice” and becomes puppet in the hands of others. Sycophants have lately adopted a slogan “Boss is always right”.
History is a mute spectator to the fact that sycophants were largely responsible for misguiding their leaders which has eventually lead to their downfall. Inspite of this sycophancy and flattery flourished in this country and of late it has created an impression in the minds of public that these are essential prerequisites for achieving something. At this rate professional coaching institutes will sprang up in several parts of the country to impart specialized coaching in sycophancy. Sycophancy is a blot on the civilized society and is a modified form of mediaeval aristocracy and slavery.
Let our politicians and people holding high positions make a beginning to eradicate this evil by displaying a board in their chamber, which reads as follows:
“Beware of sycophants and flatterers”
E M Adithyan
24th February 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679 576
Kerala
The country is confronted with a plethora of problems. While many problems are discussed and debated on various forums there is at least one problem, which did not get any attention in the political or bureaucratic circles. It is paradoxical that some people have not considered it as a problem but as a virtue.
Sycophancy is perhaps the second oldest profession in the world and one of the few areas where Indians have excelled. The perpetrators of this art has made a mockery of meetings and discussions by simply staying as ‘Yesman’. In the process the idea of pooling of minds, critical analysis, constructive suggestions etc. have thrown to the winds. The situation has become so bad that difference of opinion is treated as a dissent and a challenge to the authority of the Boss. The coterie revolving round the leaders feed distorted news and prejudicial views in the form of sugarcoated capsules.
The situation takes another turn in Seminars and Conferences, which becomes a forum for mutual admiration. It is pathetic to see veteran politicians falling to the feet of their political bosses, so called intellectuals and highly qualified professionals accepting unpalatable views and verdicts, which does not stand even the test of common sense, without any murmur. It is a matter of shame that even highly qualified professionals behave like “His Master’s Voice” and becomes puppet in the hands of others. Sycophants have lately adopted a slogan “Boss is always right”.
History is a mute spectator to the fact that sycophants were largely responsible for misguiding their leaders which has eventually lead to their downfall. Inspite of this sycophancy and flattery flourished in this country and of late it has created an impression in the minds of public that these are essential prerequisites for achieving something. At this rate professional coaching institutes will sprang up in several parts of the country to impart specialized coaching in sycophancy. Sycophancy is a blot on the civilized society and is a modified form of mediaeval aristocracy and slavery.
Let our politicians and people holding high positions make a beginning to eradicate this evil by displaying a board in their chamber, which reads as follows:
“Beware of sycophants and flatterers”
E M Adithyan
24th February 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679 576
Kerala
Best Players, Bad Team
Sub: Best players, Bad Team.
The latest Times Cricket Rating makes interesting reading. Six Indian are appearing in the top 25 cricket players of the world, which is 24% of the total. Inspite of that we do not find a place in the top 5 teams of the world. It is pertinent to note that though not a single Sri Lankan player is appearing in the list of 25 best players, Sri Lanka is rated as the 5th best team in the world. In the aggregate points tally India is far ahead of Australia which is rated as the second best team in the world.
The figures throw light to some stark realities. The fundamental difference between India and other sports powers is that while they create formidable team with average players, we make mediocre team with talented players. This is not the case with cricket or other sports but in almost all our team activities. No wonder, whatever little progress India has made in sports after independence are all due to individual efforts whether it is Ramanathan Krishnan, Prakash Padukone, Milkha Singh, Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Michel Ferreira, Geet Sethi, P.T.Usha, Viswanathan Anand, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhoopati etc. In almost all the team games whether it is football, hockey or volleyball our standard has steadily declined. Even in cricket, inspite of having world class players, paying fabulous fees and perks to players and plethora of publicity, our world rating is none too impressive .
It is high time to make a serious introspection about this deep routed malady. Lack of team spirit makes havoc with everything. This is the basic and foremost reason for our tardy progress in various fields. For decades, our students of commerce and Economics are chanting the slogan “ India is a rich country inhabited with poor people.” Perhaps no other country in the world is having that much rich and diverse resources as available in India. We have become more and more selfish, unpatriotic and started adopting a crab mentality. There is a popular joke that one scientist collected crabs from various countries to make some experiments. While the jar containing crabs from other countries were covered, jar containing Indian crabs was kept open. To a question whether Indian the crabs will not escape, it was told that before any crab reaches the top of the jar others will pull it down. This crab mentality is the biggest stumbling block in our way of progress.
Let us pray the almighty to give us good sense to bring peace and prosperity both materially and morally to this great country.
Atrocities against Women
Atrocities against Women
A Joint House Committee of Karnataka Legislative Assembly has submitted a report suggesting various measures to prevent atrocities against women. If the report is passed, it will add to one more to our long list of legislation. We are having a plethora of laws on all and sundry subjects and enacting one more legislation is no panacea for the evils of the society. It is paradoxical that in a country having the largest number of laws, lawlessness is also the highest. No wonder, the crime rate-whether it is robbery, dacoity, murder, kidnapping, bride burning, rape etc. are all increasing at an alarming rate.
In India we are still following many of the laws passed decades ago. Most of them have become outdated and lost its relevance. Ambiguity is the hallmark of Indian legal system. Where the law is expected to be elaborate, it is silent and where the issue is immaterial explanation is elaborate. Even our constitution after 85 amendments is silent on many vital issues. During the colonial period rules were made with ambiguity so that it could be interpreted in this way or that way. It is unfortunate that even after 50 years of independence we are still following this procedure. Our hidden maxim of legal administration is “You tell me the person. I will tell you the rule.”
Atrocities against women are increasing mainly due to cultural degradation and consequent depletion in moral values. Invasion of foreign and satellite television channels have done considerable damage to our culture. Women should demand more representation in Censor Boards and ensure that more decorum is maintained in visual and print media.
Women who make loud protests against atrocities on the weaker sex are themselves to blame for many of the evils. It is a common phenomenon that in most of the cases the enemy is within though many people will not realise or recognise it. There is an old story that when human being invented axe, trees arranged a meeting. They expressed concern that their life will be in jeopardy. One elder tree consoled that no one can do any harm so long as they also become party to that. Similarly it can be seen that in majority of the dowry related cases women will be involved: either Mother-in-law or Sister-in-law or both.
Let us not enact more laws to simply remain as paper tiger. Let us not make law a cobweb where the poor and weak are trapped in and rich and mighty breaks it. The need of the hour is scrapping of outdated laws and standardisation, simplification and effective implementation of the existing laws instead of enacting additional laws.
A Joint House Committee of Karnataka Legislative Assembly has submitted a report suggesting various measures to prevent atrocities against women. If the report is passed, it will add to one more to our long list of legislation. We are having a plethora of laws on all and sundry subjects and enacting one more legislation is no panacea for the evils of the society. It is paradoxical that in a country having the largest number of laws, lawlessness is also the highest. No wonder, the crime rate-whether it is robbery, dacoity, murder, kidnapping, bride burning, rape etc. are all increasing at an alarming rate.
In India we are still following many of the laws passed decades ago. Most of them have become outdated and lost its relevance. Ambiguity is the hallmark of Indian legal system. Where the law is expected to be elaborate, it is silent and where the issue is immaterial explanation is elaborate. Even our constitution after 85 amendments is silent on many vital issues. During the colonial period rules were made with ambiguity so that it could be interpreted in this way or that way. It is unfortunate that even after 50 years of independence we are still following this procedure. Our hidden maxim of legal administration is “You tell me the person. I will tell you the rule.”
Atrocities against women are increasing mainly due to cultural degradation and consequent depletion in moral values. Invasion of foreign and satellite television channels have done considerable damage to our culture. Women should demand more representation in Censor Boards and ensure that more decorum is maintained in visual and print media.
Women who make loud protests against atrocities on the weaker sex are themselves to blame for many of the evils. It is a common phenomenon that in most of the cases the enemy is within though many people will not realise or recognise it. There is an old story that when human being invented axe, trees arranged a meeting. They expressed concern that their life will be in jeopardy. One elder tree consoled that no one can do any harm so long as they also become party to that. Similarly it can be seen that in majority of the dowry related cases women will be involved: either Mother-in-law or Sister-in-law or both.
Let us not enact more laws to simply remain as paper tiger. Let us not make law a cobweb where the poor and weak are trapped in and rich and mighty breaks it. The need of the hour is scrapping of outdated laws and standardisation, simplification and effective implementation of the existing laws instead of enacting additional laws.
All the VIP's Men
ALL THE VIP’s MEN
The news item that Delhi Police is devoting about 60 percent of its their time for VIP duty includung traffic control during VIP movement and sentry duty at VIP’s houses was quite amazing. The VIP duty of Delhi Police is in addition to similar service provided by other para-military forces like CRPF, ITBP and the elite SPG commandos. People who are provided with special security include several former ministers and retired bureaucrats.
Of late, request for security cover by the so-called VIPs is often used as an alibi for retaining palatial Government accommodation and as a status symbol. Is it necessary for the former ministers and retired bureaucrats to stay in the capital at the cost of the Public exchequer? The alarming rate of crime in the capital is due to the fact that majority of Police personnel are engaged in VIP security ignoring their primary duty of maintaining law and order.
Delhi roads are already overcrowded and the movement of VIPs especially at peak hours throws the traffic system out of gear creating untold miseries to the hapless commuters.
People sitting at the helm of affairs should realise that high security cover to VIPs has been necessitated due to poor law and order situation. Government should give more emphasis to improve the general law and order situation so that requirement for VIP security will be automatically reduced.
A country which has failed to provide even basic amenities like potable drinking water, food, shelter, clothing, primary education etc to a large segment of its population even after 52 years of its independence can ill afford such colossal expenditure of crores of rupees for the protection of its self proclaimed VIPs and in the process exposing the lives and limbs of common man to great peril. It is ironical that in the largest democracy of the country, substantial portion of tax-payer’s hard earned money is spent on a miniscule section of the population instead of using it for the overall development of the country.
Adulteration
Adulteration, a social menace
Reports of dropsy deaths in Delhi and neighboring areas in the aftermath of adulteration in mustard oil makes disturbing reading. This shows the gravity of the deep-rooted malady. Adulteration is so rampant in the country that common man finds it difficult to find unadulterated items in the market .If, even the popular brands available in sealed containers are not free from adulteration, what precaution the common man is expected to take is anybody’s guess. It is paradoxical that in a country having plethora of laws, lawlessness is also the highest. It is a general feeling that rules are made to be broken and not to be followed. Our moral fabric has decayed to such an extent that lawbreakers are treated as heroes and brave and law abiders are dubbed as fools and idiots.
National Capital of any country is expected to be a role model for the rest of the country. The incidents in the capital will have its reflections and repercussion in the in other parts of the country. Unfortunately the Capital of this great country is infested with multifarious maladies like robbery, dacoity, murder, adulteration etc.
Let us hope that government will take stringent action against adulterators, black marketers, hoarders etc to alleviate the sufferings of the common man and create a sense of security in the minds of general public. It is high time to arrest these evil tendencies before the situation reaches alarming proportions.
Reports of dropsy deaths in Delhi and neighboring areas in the aftermath of adulteration in mustard oil makes disturbing reading. This shows the gravity of the deep-rooted malady. Adulteration is so rampant in the country that common man finds it difficult to find unadulterated items in the market .If, even the popular brands available in sealed containers are not free from adulteration, what precaution the common man is expected to take is anybody’s guess. It is paradoxical that in a country having plethora of laws, lawlessness is also the highest. It is a general feeling that rules are made to be broken and not to be followed. Our moral fabric has decayed to such an extent that lawbreakers are treated as heroes and brave and law abiders are dubbed as fools and idiots.
National Capital of any country is expected to be a role model for the rest of the country. The incidents in the capital will have its reflections and repercussion in the in other parts of the country. Unfortunately the Capital of this great country is infested with multifarious maladies like robbery, dacoity, murder, adulteration etc.
Let us hope that government will take stringent action against adulterators, black marketers, hoarders etc to alleviate the sufferings of the common man and create a sense of security in the minds of general public. It is high time to arrest these evil tendencies before the situation reaches alarming proportions.
Administrative Reforms
Letter to Editor
Administrative Reforms
Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) headed by the former Karnataka Chief Minister Mr. Veerappa Moily has made several laudable suggestions which will increase transparency in public affairs and thereby accelerate our march towards progress. It is an irrefutable fact that corruption is the biggest menace eating into the vitals of our body politic. Understandably, ARC has focussed corruption as the crux of the problem. Political parties on several occasions tried to torpedo good suggestions without realizing that bad practices will boomerang on them sooner or later. India, the largest democracy of the country is in a vibrant state and let us rise above our personal, partisan and political interests and think in terms of wider national interest to make this glorious country the greatest democracy of the world and a role model for others to emulate.
It is hoped that the politicians, bureaucracy and people in power come out of their shackles and think in terms of wider national interest to realise our great Indian dream. Let us also hope that all political parties and parliamentarians forgetting their ideological differences, will show the same unity of purpose which was shown while passing the bill for increasing the pay and perks of MPs, for accepting the recommendations of the second Administrative Reforms Commission in the interest of their countrymen who voted them to power.
E M Adithyan
19th February 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679 576
Kerala
Administrative Reforms
Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) headed by the former Karnataka Chief Minister Mr. Veerappa Moily has made several laudable suggestions which will increase transparency in public affairs and thereby accelerate our march towards progress. It is an irrefutable fact that corruption is the biggest menace eating into the vitals of our body politic. Understandably, ARC has focussed corruption as the crux of the problem. Political parties on several occasions tried to torpedo good suggestions without realizing that bad practices will boomerang on them sooner or later. India, the largest democracy of the country is in a vibrant state and let us rise above our personal, partisan and political interests and think in terms of wider national interest to make this glorious country the greatest democracy of the world and a role model for others to emulate.
It is hoped that the politicians, bureaucracy and people in power come out of their shackles and think in terms of wider national interest to realise our great Indian dream. Let us also hope that all political parties and parliamentarians forgetting their ideological differences, will show the same unity of purpose which was shown while passing the bill for increasing the pay and perks of MPs, for accepting the recommendations of the second Administrative Reforms Commission in the interest of their countrymen who voted them to power.
E M Adithyan
19th February 2007
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679 576
Kerala
Accountability
ACCOUNTABILITY
Delhi Development Authority has the dubious distinction of constructing a largr number of flats without proper foundation. When the matter was exposed in the press, DDA took action against some Junior Engineers. Without going into the merits or demerits of the case, one would like to ask the DDA whether it wants the public believe that these Junior Engineers were independently incharge of these projects? It is common knowledge that such gross irregularities cannot be perpuated without the connivance of senior officials. However, the axe always falls on the junior staff and instances of action taken against senior officials are few and far between.
Responsibility and accountability of a person increases with the increase in status and position. However, this theory does not seem to be made applicable to India especially in the Government departments. Consequently always the small fish is caught in the net and the big fish continues its activity with almost total impunity. Finding fault with juniors only has become a part of our national character and unless we eschew this tendency and enforce accountability at all levels, things are not going to improve much.
Delhi Development Authority has the dubious distinction of constructing a largr number of flats without proper foundation. When the matter was exposed in the press, DDA took action against some Junior Engineers. Without going into the merits or demerits of the case, one would like to ask the DDA whether it wants the public believe that these Junior Engineers were independently incharge of these projects? It is common knowledge that such gross irregularities cannot be perpuated without the connivance of senior officials. However, the axe always falls on the junior staff and instances of action taken against senior officials are few and far between.
Responsibility and accountability of a person increases with the increase in status and position. However, this theory does not seem to be made applicable to India especially in the Government departments. Consequently always the small fish is caught in the net and the big fish continues its activity with almost total impunity. Finding fault with juniors only has become a part of our national character and unless we eschew this tendency and enforce accountability at all levels, things are not going to improve much.
Abject Surrender
Abject Surrender
Indian Cricket Team’s drubbing at the hands of South Africa in the just concluded ODI series is pathetic to say the least. Winning or losing is a part of the game but this is abject surrender. In all the four matches we played there was not an iota of doubt the final outcome, and India did not give any semblance of fight. Such one sided matches kills the spirit and interest in the game.
We often lament about the lack of funds and facilities for the poor standard of sports in the country. BCCI is the richest sports body on the earth and Indian cricketers are highly paid compared to their counterparts in other sports. Despite such fabulous fees and five star facilities, they fail to perform match after match. It was distressing to watch some of our celebrated cricketers playing like novices under pressure. It is mainly the absence of 4 Ds ie; devotion, dedication, determination and discipline which are responsible for our poor performance.
After every debacle we start searching for scapegoats instead of trying to find the root cause of the malady. Let our sports bodies be managed by professionals and make merit and performance the sole criteria for selection and retention in the team. On the other hand, if our politicians introduce quotas and reservation for different categories based on castes with an eye on vote bank, that will be the waterloo of Indian sports.
E.M.ADITHYAN
December 4, 2006
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal-679 576
Kerala
Indian Cricket Team’s drubbing at the hands of South Africa in the just concluded ODI series is pathetic to say the least. Winning or losing is a part of the game but this is abject surrender. In all the four matches we played there was not an iota of doubt the final outcome, and India did not give any semblance of fight. Such one sided matches kills the spirit and interest in the game.
We often lament about the lack of funds and facilities for the poor standard of sports in the country. BCCI is the richest sports body on the earth and Indian cricketers are highly paid compared to their counterparts in other sports. Despite such fabulous fees and five star facilities, they fail to perform match after match. It was distressing to watch some of our celebrated cricketers playing like novices under pressure. It is mainly the absence of 4 Ds ie; devotion, dedication, determination and discipline which are responsible for our poor performance.
After every debacle we start searching for scapegoats instead of trying to find the root cause of the malady. Let our sports bodies be managed by professionals and make merit and performance the sole criteria for selection and retention in the team. On the other hand, if our politicians introduce quotas and reservation for different categories based on castes with an eye on vote bank, that will be the waterloo of Indian sports.
E.M.ADITHYAN
December 4, 2006
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal-679 576
Kerala
A oble example
Letter to Editor
A Noble example
Chief Justice designate Justice K G Balakrishnan suggested that the post of Chief Justice could also be brought within the ambit of Judicial enquiry bill. At a time when hypocrisy is the hallmark of Indian system and people in power want themselves to be exempted from any scrutiny, Justice Balakrishnan’s remarks deserve the highest accolades. Not long ago a proposal was mooted by some political parties to exclude MPs and MLAs from the purview of the prevention of corruption Act. People in higher positions should lead by example and it is hoped that Justice Balakrishnan’s remarks and actions will herald the beginning of a new era of transparency in public affairs. Let us hope that people in power will emulate Justice Balakrishnan’s example and realise that they are not infallible so that this world will become a much better place to live in.
E M Adithyan
26th December 2006
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679576
Kerala
A Noble example
Chief Justice designate Justice K G Balakrishnan suggested that the post of Chief Justice could also be brought within the ambit of Judicial enquiry bill. At a time when hypocrisy is the hallmark of Indian system and people in power want themselves to be exempted from any scrutiny, Justice Balakrishnan’s remarks deserve the highest accolades. Not long ago a proposal was mooted by some political parties to exclude MPs and MLAs from the purview of the prevention of corruption Act. People in higher positions should lead by example and it is hoped that Justice Balakrishnan’s remarks and actions will herald the beginning of a new era of transparency in public affairs. Let us hope that people in power will emulate Justice Balakrishnan’s example and realise that they are not infallible so that this world will become a much better place to live in.
E M Adithyan
26th December 2006
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal 679576
Kerala
Republic day Thoughts
Republic Day Thoughts
Musings of a Common Man about the issues confronting the Nation
We claim to be the largest democracy of the world. But power is concentrated in the hands of a few politicians. Posts are filled by nomination and not by election. Is this we call Democracy?
Socialism is in books only. India is having the largest number of Billionaires but people living below the poverty line are also among the largest in India. Gap between rich and poor, haves and have-nots, mighty and weak etc are increasing day by day.
Our forefathers dreamed an India of self-reliance, self-governance and growth coupled with social justice. Today we are dependent on multinationals even for cool drinks and potato wafers.
Concept of Equality before law is a myth even today. Popular perception that Law is like a cobweb is more relevant today. Consideration is given less to truth and justice and more to money and power.
Crime rates are increasing at alarming rate. As per agency reports only 6% of accused are convicted in India
Even after 60 years of independence, colonial mentality is still in our blood. Our younger generation are blind followers of western culture.
The virus of casteism, communalism and partisan politics have become part of our blood so that if the Father of the Nation comes out of the heavenly abode and contest an election anywhere in India as an independent candidate, he will definitely loose the deposit money.
India is perhaps the only country where people demand to be notified as “backward community” despite their social and economic status.
We never follow good qualities of foreigners like punctuality, discipline, respect for rule of law etc
We do or pretend to do work at late night instead of early morning forgetting the fact that early morning is conducive period for intellectual work.
People feel proud of being ignorant. “I don’t know even how to……..”.
Our educational system is in shambles. While it produces Engineers, Doctors, Scientists, Managers, Accountants, etc. it has miserably failed to produce good human beings and good Indian citizens.
Though our communication facilities have improved leaps and bounds, we have become less and less communicative on the personal front. Relations have been commercialised.
In today’s world everything is sponsored. We hire people to clap, to laugh & also to cry during tragedy.
Quality has gone down in all fields (Quality of Humans, Quality of Consumer Goods, Quality of Service etc.) Through we have won awards, rewards, medals recognitions, ISI & ISO Certificates, actual quality has come down in many spheres.
Our politicians and bureaucrats are experts in finding simple solutions for complex problems. Eg; Excluding MPs and MLAs from the purview of Prevention of Corruption Act, exclude manufactures and traders from the purview of Prevention of Adulteration Act, changing colour of Red line buses to Blue line buses etc.
Our moral fabric has gone down to such an extent that law breakers are treated as Heroes and brave and law abiders are branded as fools and idiots.
Indian culture, art and literature are the best in the world. However, we forget our own culture and feel not at all proud of our great civilization.
No other country is having such rich natural resources coupled with human resources as available in India. Still we are far behind in development and projects boost in economy merely based on seesawing market forces.
We have become more and more materialistic. Amassing wealth has become the sole aim of life. Health, happiness and peace is eluding to the rich people also.
India has a large verity of food items. A month long Indian food festival can be conducted without repeating a single item. Still we go after foreign food having few varieties.
We give bravery awards to those who saved their kith and kin. It should be given more often to those who saved a lot of strangers risking their life without any selfish motive.
We are not only reluctant to unearth and nurture talent, but we often try to suppress and strangulate it. We recognise people only when they get international awards or recognitions be it Satyatit Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Arundhati Roy or E Sreedharan
We are averse to do physical labour. Physical labour considered as taboo to white collar people. Consequently youngersters are easily prone to diseases.
Defence Awards given to high-ranking officials only. Award should be given for exemplary work irrespective of the cadre/rank.
Man is measured by money and position instead of knowledge and wisdom.
Virtues like Honesty, Integrity, Morality, Love, Compassion, Respect etc. have been confined to dictionary.
Though almost everybody is using computer, very few have understood, adopted and imbibed the fundamentals of computer like being logic, rationale, unbiased, impartial etc.
We have human rights organisations, but NHRC etc. very often take up the case of criminals and anti social elements that have large support base. Who will protect the interest of Common Man?
Sanskrit is one of the richest languages in the world. However, today we have more Sanskrit scholars in Germany and France than in India.
Ayurveda is one of the finest systems of Medicine emphasising on the revolutionary principle of “keeping healthy than treating disease”. However, it is not given due recognition. On the contrary we import slow poison (Allopathic Medicines) worth 45000 crore yearly
We pay to foreigners many times more than what we pay to an Indian for the same job. We induct foreign coaches who are failures in their own country by paying fabulous fees, whereas his Indian counterpart gets peanuts
Our mentality has become very narrow. Central Ministers, who are expected to see the interest of the whole country, are pampering the vested interests of their constituency / community/ regional party.
If we travel through the length and breadth of India, we will not find an Indian. We will find only Madrasis, Punjabis, Bengalis Biharis or Brahmins, Banias, Chamars etc. On the other hand we will find Chinese in China and Americans in U S A.
We spent lot of money on the security of self-proclaimed patriots fearful of death and who want only others (common people) to become martyrs.
Politicians who claim to be Messiahs of the poor spend crores of rupees on their birthday parties.
Many of us get sadistic pleasure in creating problems for others. If you cannot help at least do not create hurdles, if you cannot motivate do not de motivate, if you cannot love, at least don’t hate
We still have decades or centuries old laws. Ambiguity is the hallmark of Indian legal system. Large number of cases pending in our courts is mainly due to our cumbersome, ambiguous and voluminous laws.
A country which is having the largest number of laws, lawlessness is also on the highest
Sycophants and flatterers rule the corridors of power. Even highly qualified peoples are becoming puppets in the hands of their bosses.
India is perhaps the only country where inefficiency, lethargy, non performance etc are rewarded
We are hypocrites. Everybody is so busy that they have no time to even wish. The same people spend hours together in watching cricket matches and mega serials
Many of the Government Employees including those occupying high positions show loyalty to their bosses assuming the role of a domestic servant instead of public servant and conveniently forgetting the fact they are paid from the national exchequer. At least those with balanced mind and who can stand without crutches, should be loyal towards the organisation and nation rather than to their bosses who are also public servants.
People should be loved and things should be used. We do the reverse.
We still suffer from brain drain: the cream of India goes abroad to prove their worth. Many Indian scientists and technocrats left the country not because of greed for money but due to non-recognition or rather insult, harassment and humiliation in their own country.
We worship more reel heroes than real heroes.
Education is not for gaining knowledge but for earning money.
Creating records requires extra ordinary talent and effort. However, in India records in petty things are bought and sold. For example: making 5 lakh Ladoos. Anybody having money can break the record by making one ladoo more
We use inappropriate terms eg; “Public School” to describe private schools, “Un-parliamentary” for obscene words while what is heard in the Parliament are worse than obscene.
We eulogise the corrupt and the crooked and scandalise the unselfish and the patriotic.
Salary of many Government/Public Sector employees are more than their counterparts in multi national companies, if we calculate the hourly pay based on actual hours of worthy input (Instead of hours attended)
According to ancient Indian concept, Good things happen in the morning and Bad things late at night. Still we prefer to do “Kumbhkaran Seva” in the morning and sit late into the night to attend dance parties.
The points mentioned above are only indicative and not exhaustive. Where are we heading for? Let us make a self introspection to make this country a better place to live in. Heaven and Hell are created with the same material. Choice is ours.
E.M.ADITHYAN
25th January, 2009
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal, Kerala-679576
Musings of a Common Man about the issues confronting the Nation
We claim to be the largest democracy of the world. But power is concentrated in the hands of a few politicians. Posts are filled by nomination and not by election. Is this we call Democracy?
Socialism is in books only. India is having the largest number of Billionaires but people living below the poverty line are also among the largest in India. Gap between rich and poor, haves and have-nots, mighty and weak etc are increasing day by day.
Our forefathers dreamed an India of self-reliance, self-governance and growth coupled with social justice. Today we are dependent on multinationals even for cool drinks and potato wafers.
Concept of Equality before law is a myth even today. Popular perception that Law is like a cobweb is more relevant today. Consideration is given less to truth and justice and more to money and power.
Crime rates are increasing at alarming rate. As per agency reports only 6% of accused are convicted in India
Even after 60 years of independence, colonial mentality is still in our blood. Our younger generation are blind followers of western culture.
The virus of casteism, communalism and partisan politics have become part of our blood so that if the Father of the Nation comes out of the heavenly abode and contest an election anywhere in India as an independent candidate, he will definitely loose the deposit money.
India is perhaps the only country where people demand to be notified as “backward community” despite their social and economic status.
We never follow good qualities of foreigners like punctuality, discipline, respect for rule of law etc
We do or pretend to do work at late night instead of early morning forgetting the fact that early morning is conducive period for intellectual work.
People feel proud of being ignorant. “I don’t know even how to……..”.
Our educational system is in shambles. While it produces Engineers, Doctors, Scientists, Managers, Accountants, etc. it has miserably failed to produce good human beings and good Indian citizens.
Though our communication facilities have improved leaps and bounds, we have become less and less communicative on the personal front. Relations have been commercialised.
In today’s world everything is sponsored. We hire people to clap, to laugh & also to cry during tragedy.
Quality has gone down in all fields (Quality of Humans, Quality of Consumer Goods, Quality of Service etc.) Through we have won awards, rewards, medals recognitions, ISI & ISO Certificates, actual quality has come down in many spheres.
Our politicians and bureaucrats are experts in finding simple solutions for complex problems. Eg; Excluding MPs and MLAs from the purview of Prevention of Corruption Act, exclude manufactures and traders from the purview of Prevention of Adulteration Act, changing colour of Red line buses to Blue line buses etc.
Our moral fabric has gone down to such an extent that law breakers are treated as Heroes and brave and law abiders are branded as fools and idiots.
Indian culture, art and literature are the best in the world. However, we forget our own culture and feel not at all proud of our great civilization.
No other country is having such rich natural resources coupled with human resources as available in India. Still we are far behind in development and projects boost in economy merely based on seesawing market forces.
We have become more and more materialistic. Amassing wealth has become the sole aim of life. Health, happiness and peace is eluding to the rich people also.
India has a large verity of food items. A month long Indian food festival can be conducted without repeating a single item. Still we go after foreign food having few varieties.
We give bravery awards to those who saved their kith and kin. It should be given more often to those who saved a lot of strangers risking their life without any selfish motive.
We are not only reluctant to unearth and nurture talent, but we often try to suppress and strangulate it. We recognise people only when they get international awards or recognitions be it Satyatit Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Arundhati Roy or E Sreedharan
We are averse to do physical labour. Physical labour considered as taboo to white collar people. Consequently youngersters are easily prone to diseases.
Defence Awards given to high-ranking officials only. Award should be given for exemplary work irrespective of the cadre/rank.
Man is measured by money and position instead of knowledge and wisdom.
Virtues like Honesty, Integrity, Morality, Love, Compassion, Respect etc. have been confined to dictionary.
Though almost everybody is using computer, very few have understood, adopted and imbibed the fundamentals of computer like being logic, rationale, unbiased, impartial etc.
We have human rights organisations, but NHRC etc. very often take up the case of criminals and anti social elements that have large support base. Who will protect the interest of Common Man?
Sanskrit is one of the richest languages in the world. However, today we have more Sanskrit scholars in Germany and France than in India.
Ayurveda is one of the finest systems of Medicine emphasising on the revolutionary principle of “keeping healthy than treating disease”. However, it is not given due recognition. On the contrary we import slow poison (Allopathic Medicines) worth 45000 crore yearly
We pay to foreigners many times more than what we pay to an Indian for the same job. We induct foreign coaches who are failures in their own country by paying fabulous fees, whereas his Indian counterpart gets peanuts
Our mentality has become very narrow. Central Ministers, who are expected to see the interest of the whole country, are pampering the vested interests of their constituency / community/ regional party.
If we travel through the length and breadth of India, we will not find an Indian. We will find only Madrasis, Punjabis, Bengalis Biharis or Brahmins, Banias, Chamars etc. On the other hand we will find Chinese in China and Americans in U S A.
We spent lot of money on the security of self-proclaimed patriots fearful of death and who want only others (common people) to become martyrs.
Politicians who claim to be Messiahs of the poor spend crores of rupees on their birthday parties.
Many of us get sadistic pleasure in creating problems for others. If you cannot help at least do not create hurdles, if you cannot motivate do not de motivate, if you cannot love, at least don’t hate
We still have decades or centuries old laws. Ambiguity is the hallmark of Indian legal system. Large number of cases pending in our courts is mainly due to our cumbersome, ambiguous and voluminous laws.
A country which is having the largest number of laws, lawlessness is also on the highest
Sycophants and flatterers rule the corridors of power. Even highly qualified peoples are becoming puppets in the hands of their bosses.
India is perhaps the only country where inefficiency, lethargy, non performance etc are rewarded
We are hypocrites. Everybody is so busy that they have no time to even wish. The same people spend hours together in watching cricket matches and mega serials
Many of the Government Employees including those occupying high positions show loyalty to their bosses assuming the role of a domestic servant instead of public servant and conveniently forgetting the fact they are paid from the national exchequer. At least those with balanced mind and who can stand without crutches, should be loyal towards the organisation and nation rather than to their bosses who are also public servants.
People should be loved and things should be used. We do the reverse.
We still suffer from brain drain: the cream of India goes abroad to prove their worth. Many Indian scientists and technocrats left the country not because of greed for money but due to non-recognition or rather insult, harassment and humiliation in their own country.
We worship more reel heroes than real heroes.
Education is not for gaining knowledge but for earning money.
Creating records requires extra ordinary talent and effort. However, in India records in petty things are bought and sold. For example: making 5 lakh Ladoos. Anybody having money can break the record by making one ladoo more
We use inappropriate terms eg; “Public School” to describe private schools, “Un-parliamentary” for obscene words while what is heard in the Parliament are worse than obscene.
We eulogise the corrupt and the crooked and scandalise the unselfish and the patriotic.
Salary of many Government/Public Sector employees are more than their counterparts in multi national companies, if we calculate the hourly pay based on actual hours of worthy input (Instead of hours attended)
According to ancient Indian concept, Good things happen in the morning and Bad things late at night. Still we prefer to do “Kumbhkaran Seva” in the morning and sit late into the night to attend dance parties.
The points mentioned above are only indicative and not exhaustive. Where are we heading for? Let us make a self introspection to make this country a better place to live in. Heaven and Hell are created with the same material. Choice is ours.
E.M.ADITHYAN
25th January, 2009
Elangalloor Mana
Edapal, Kerala-679576
Nothing Official
NOTHING OFFICIAL ABOUT IT
E.M.Adithyan
¨ Chaudhary, fond of speaking in English, requested his friend Makhan Singh to give some tips about English Speaking. His friend advised him that whenever he doesn’t get appropriate English words, he can use Hindi words by making the pronunciation sound like English. He had a God sent opportunity when a South Indian Sreenivas was transferred to his department from Bangalore. One day Sreenivas was searching for some thing when Chaudhary asked him "What are you dhoonding?" Since he could not comprehend the meaning of the word, Sreenivas started searching the meaning in the dictionary. Unable to find the word in the dictionary he sought clarification from Chaudhary. Chaudhary told him that the word is undictionarable. Sreenivas again started referring the dictionary. Having failed to find the meaning again, he asked Chaudhary, “What type of words you are using?." Chaudhary told Sreenivas "There may be several words which will not be found in dictionary and these words are called undictionarable."
¨ NOTINGS IN FILE
A. In a Purchase File:
"The original purchase requisition was misplaced on my table and with help of Indenter the same was traced out and a suitable order is proposed"
B. Audit Objection:
“ If 10" shoes and 8" shoes are available at the same price why don't we purchase 10" shoes?”
C. "The enclosed file is neither available in your section nor in my section. Kindly arrange to trace it out and send it to me in a closed cover".
D. In a purchase order file for pickle there was a typical (read typographical) error. Instead of 20 tins it was mentioned as 20 tons. The Supplier thought that his pickle has become very popular with Factory workers and they eat more pickles than chapatis, rice and curry.
F. There was an audit enquiry on indigenisation. Reply to the enquiry went like this "Audit Enquiry on Indigestion".
G. A condolence message " It is a repairable loss"(Read irreparable)
¨ With the standardisation of application forms employees have to fill up the blanks only. But still people make blunders. Here is an example.
Application for Provident Fund Loan
Reason "Funeral of.. . .Self
¨ With photocopiers having been installed in almost every department, everyone insists on retaining the original document and submitting the photocopy for official use. One employee came to the Provident Fund Section and asked. “Will you accept photocopy of bills, cash memos etc. with my loan application?"
"No problem, if you are willing to accept a photocopy of the cheque”, was the reply.
¨ An employee asked the Treasurer of Death Relief Fund Association "Sir, what are the death benefits under DRFA rules?".
He received this reply. "You ask me when it becomes due to you."
¨ Personal Assistants and Private Secretaries though working in key positions are a neglected lot. Unions and Associations do not take up their case because they think that these employees are "chamchas" of the Management. Management also does not care for them because they are very submissive. Once all the PAs totaling nine went to Assistant General Manager (Personnel & Administration) and told him:- "Sir, our work is very tedious. We aren’t to take leave when we need to. We have to take dictation from our Bosses even though they are not dictators. We have to handle all the people our bosses don’t want to. Inspite of all these we don't get promotion in time.”
AGM (P&A) retorted
"Who says that you don’t get promoted? Take Vinod’s case here. Earlier he was PA to Manager, now he’s PA to AGM"
One person asked his friend working in a PSU. “ Do you have Pension Scheme?”
His friend replied. “ No we have only tension scheme”.
Boss asked a report immediately. Since lot of data has to be collected and compiled, the subordinate asked for some time and requested his Boss to kindly bear with him. Pat came the reply. “ No problem. I can have beer with you”.
An officer was boasting to his Messenger. “ You know, I can speak in 5 languages:
Messenger “ Sir, I can take photocopy in all the languages”
English is a universal language and people and places across the globe have made significant contributions for the development of this language. Our tiny village has also made its humble contribution. Here is some typical Maharajpur English
· Both of you three are going alone?
· You came just now or after some time?
· How you are cutting time these days?
E.M.Adithyan
¨ Chaudhary, fond of speaking in English, requested his friend Makhan Singh to give some tips about English Speaking. His friend advised him that whenever he doesn’t get appropriate English words, he can use Hindi words by making the pronunciation sound like English. He had a God sent opportunity when a South Indian Sreenivas was transferred to his department from Bangalore. One day Sreenivas was searching for some thing when Chaudhary asked him "What are you dhoonding?" Since he could not comprehend the meaning of the word, Sreenivas started searching the meaning in the dictionary. Unable to find the word in the dictionary he sought clarification from Chaudhary. Chaudhary told him that the word is undictionarable. Sreenivas again started referring the dictionary. Having failed to find the meaning again, he asked Chaudhary, “What type of words you are using?." Chaudhary told Sreenivas "There may be several words which will not be found in dictionary and these words are called undictionarable."
¨ NOTINGS IN FILE
A. In a Purchase File:
"The original purchase requisition was misplaced on my table and with help of Indenter the same was traced out and a suitable order is proposed"
B. Audit Objection:
“ If 10" shoes and 8" shoes are available at the same price why don't we purchase 10" shoes?”
C. "The enclosed file is neither available in your section nor in my section. Kindly arrange to trace it out and send it to me in a closed cover".
D. In a purchase order file for pickle there was a typical (read typographical) error. Instead of 20 tins it was mentioned as 20 tons. The Supplier thought that his pickle has become very popular with Factory workers and they eat more pickles than chapatis, rice and curry.
F. There was an audit enquiry on indigenisation. Reply to the enquiry went like this "Audit Enquiry on Indigestion".
G. A condolence message " It is a repairable loss"(Read irreparable)
¨ With the standardisation of application forms employees have to fill up the blanks only. But still people make blunders. Here is an example.
Application for Provident Fund Loan
Reason "Funeral of.. . .Self
¨ With photocopiers having been installed in almost every department, everyone insists on retaining the original document and submitting the photocopy for official use. One employee came to the Provident Fund Section and asked. “Will you accept photocopy of bills, cash memos etc. with my loan application?"
"No problem, if you are willing to accept a photocopy of the cheque”, was the reply.
¨ An employee asked the Treasurer of Death Relief Fund Association "Sir, what are the death benefits under DRFA rules?".
He received this reply. "You ask me when it becomes due to you."
¨ Personal Assistants and Private Secretaries though working in key positions are a neglected lot. Unions and Associations do not take up their case because they think that these employees are "chamchas" of the Management. Management also does not care for them because they are very submissive. Once all the PAs totaling nine went to Assistant General Manager (Personnel & Administration) and told him:- "Sir, our work is very tedious. We aren’t to take leave when we need to. We have to take dictation from our Bosses even though they are not dictators. We have to handle all the people our bosses don’t want to. Inspite of all these we don't get promotion in time.”
AGM (P&A) retorted
"Who says that you don’t get promoted? Take Vinod’s case here. Earlier he was PA to Manager, now he’s PA to AGM"
One person asked his friend working in a PSU. “ Do you have Pension Scheme?”
His friend replied. “ No we have only tension scheme”.
Boss asked a report immediately. Since lot of data has to be collected and compiled, the subordinate asked for some time and requested his Boss to kindly bear with him. Pat came the reply. “ No problem. I can have beer with you”.
An officer was boasting to his Messenger. “ You know, I can speak in 5 languages:
Messenger “ Sir, I can take photocopy in all the languages”
English is a universal language and people and places across the globe have made significant contributions for the development of this language. Our tiny village has also made its humble contribution. Here is some typical Maharajpur English
· Both of you three are going alone?
· You came just now or after some time?
· How you are cutting time these days?
Murder of a Mouse
Murder of a Mouse
E.M.Adithyan
His Excellency Mr.Rat-the official carrier of lord Ganesh has a unique place in our History and Puranas. You can either love him or hate him but can never ignore him. The contributions made by rats in spoiling our agriculture (Culture too) and other household items are unparalleled in the history of the world. Still we treat them with great reverence. Any Research scholar can take up a topic on the role of rats in spoiling our agriculture for a thesis leading to Ph.D. Degree.
Few years ago a world food conference was held at Hyderabad. Scientists and food technologists from all over the globe participated in the Seminar, Symposiums, Lectures, Discussions etc. Scientists came out with startling statistics. Almost 1/8th of the world food production is eaten by rats. I am not quantifying it because one line will not be sufficient to indicate the quantity in Kgs. People came out with various suggestions. One scientist from the Peoples’ Republic of China suggested that we should start eating rats. It will have multiplier effect as apart from saving food, we will be creating supplementary food also. Chines people have got practical solutions for every problems. No wonder, China is emerging as one of the top nations of the world. However, whether anybody has acted on the suggestion, nobody knows because one definition of meeting is meeting, eating, chatting, cheating (by giving exaggerated facts and figures) and forgetting. Whether China’s resurgence in sports has anything to do with eating of rats will make an interesting study as rats are great athletes.
Once in a Kerala village rat menace reached alarming proportions. Local Panchayat held an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation. One elder member suggested that we should negotiate with the Rat Commander and sign a peace agreement. However, the younger generation pooh-poohed the idea. (According to the unwritten law of Indian Politics Politicians below the age of 70 can be considered in the category of young). In a country where even the legitimate demands of Pandavas were rejected outright, the proposal of a peace agreement with Rat Commander seemed ridiculous. Majority decision was taken to wage a war with the rats. Budget allocation was made and arms and ammunitions purchased. Black cat commandos were recruited and task force created. After one month of extensive battle 3 rats were killed. Casualty on the other side is not known. Cost of killing one rat runs into thousands.
Since the budget allocation was exhausted they have to find other cheaper methods. (As the Panchayat election was nearing there was no scope for increasing taxes). Meeting was held for hours but nobody came up with any new idea. Meeting adjourned and again reconvened but to no avail. During the meeting peon came to serve the tea. He requested that if the Chairman allowed he could give his idea. The proposal was to give an open offer that anybody who brings the corpse of a rat should be paid Rs.5. The decision was given wide publicity among students. From next day onwards students started queuing up in front of Panchayat office to claim their dues. Hundreds of rats were killed including those from nearby villages. However, since it was difficult to distinguish whether the rat belonged to this village or that village, everybody who brought the corpse of a rat was paid Rs.5. A novel idea to how to use youth power for destructive activities.
Mr.Ramlal, a Central Government employee got the allotment of a ground floor flat after waiting for 30 years in a semi-posh south Delhi colony. After he started staying in the flat, Ramlal noticed that rats were freely roaming in his house. He started abusing them in Hindi, Haryanvi and Punjabi but there was no reaction. He told his neighbour Mr. Chatterji about the incident. Mr. Chatterji got the clue that since the previous occupant of the flat was a Tamilian, perhaps the rats understand only Tamil and a little bit of Bengali. Next day Ramlal purchased a book on learning Tamil through Hindi and hurled the choicest abuses in Tamil. The result was instant. At least they avoided coming in front of Ramlal.
However, one rat did not go. Afterall, it was the resident of the flat alongwith all the previous allottees and it deserved a permanent resident status and the Rat’s claim over the flat is better than that of Ramlal. If the rat had approached the Court to enforce his rights, perhaps Mr. Ramlal would have been directed to vacate the flat. One day Ramlal brought a rat trap. After two days rat fell into Ramlal’s trap. Next day early morning Ramlal left the rat on the other side of the drain far away from his house. After 3 days a rat again appeared at Ramlal’s house. This process continued. Ramlal had a doubt that the same rat is coming again and again. In order to confirm his doubt he decided to put some identification mark on the rat. Since he wanted to adopt a foolproof method, Ramlal went in search of indelible ink. After enquiring at several places Ramlal came to know that one shop in Connaught Place deals with indelible ink. However, the shopkeeper refused to supply the same on the plea that it is used only for election purposes only and he will not give it to anybody without the written consent of the Chief Election Commissioner Mr. T.N Seshan. Even his attempt to bribe the shopkeeper did not succeed.
Having failed to get indelible ink, Ramlal decided to use turmeric paste for identification. (At this point he realised that since the rats do not take bath, any type of identification will remain for some time). His doubt was confirmed that the same rat is coming again and again. One day Ramlal procured a cat to kill the rat. He directed his milk vendor to supply an additional quantity of one litre milk from next day onwards to keep the cat in good humour.
After few days both the cat and the rat became fat. There appeared to be some secret understanding between the cat and the rat. After all both were permanent residents of Delhi, the hub of political activities and they must have learned some finer points of politics from local and national level politicians, Having realised the futility of maintaining a cat, one day Ramlal left the cat beyond the Delhi border spending huge amount on conveyance.
Rat trap again came handy. Rat again was trapped. This time Ramlal sentenced him to death by starving him till death. The decision was conveyed to all the members of the family. After about one month, not only the rat did not die but also there was no marked deterioration in his health. Ramlal was surprised with the resistance power of the rat. During all these days Ramlal’s children secretly used to feed the rat after they came from the school.
Months passed and rat was still alive. One day Ramlal was casually going through the Guiness Book of world records. He noticed that the world record in fasting is 118 days. Ramlal had no doubt that his rat has the potential to beat the world record. He wrote to Guiness Publishing Co. In reply they informed that normally only human beings are considered for world records. However, considering the potential of the rat, they agreed to review the case sympathetically once the rat breaks the world record and he is given some name and identification number.
Ramlal had absolutely no doubt about the name to be given to the rat-Ratlal, because Ratlal is 83% Ramlal. As regards the number, Ramlal checked up with his office to allot Ratlal some number but the concerned officer advised him to come through Union Public Service Commission. One of his colleagues suggested that he might obtain a number through the muster roll of the contractor. He approached a Government Contractor who informed Ramlal that as per the latest rules, Provident Fund has to be deducted from day one and he can help him only after getting a no objection certificate from the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner. For the first time Mr. Ramlal got annoyed with the Government rules and procedures which prevented Ratlal to become a world record holder.
Impressed with Ramlal’s caliber to become a world record holder, Ramlal commuted his death sentence. One fine morning Ramlal put Ratlal on the top carrier of a bus bound to Hardwar and bid adieu to him. Few days passed. One day had to attend a marriage at Chandigarh. Since he had to go early morning, he took out his suit and kept it on the sofa on the previous day so that he need not disturb others in the early morning. Next day morning while wearing the suit Ramlal noticed a big hole in his coat. That was not the handiwork of some anti-social elements but that of Ratlal only. Ramlal got infuriated. He cancelled his programme and sent a telegram to his host, which reads as follows.
“Ratlal spoiled the suit. Unable to attend the marriage unsuited. Your inconnivance in the matter is highly regretted. Will definitely attend next time.”
At last Ramlal decided to commit a cold-blooded murder. ( How a cold blooded person can commit a murder is anybody’s guess. Committing murder requires not only hot blood but boiling blood). One day early morning at about 3 a.m. while Ramlal was going to toilet, he noticed Ratlal in the bathroom. Ramlal closed the bathroom and took out his helmet, hand gloves, safety shoes and hockey stick. (Remember Ramlal was a veteran Hockey player.) He entered the bathroom and closed the door. Seeing Ramlal in a terrible mood Ratlal got frightened and it started running helter-skelter. Ramlal started hitting him with his hockey stick but all was on the floor and wall of the bathroom eluding the rat. (Hockey coaches may please note that playing with rats will improve the skill and stamina of the players). Fight continued and in the process Ramlal threw all the rules of fight to the winds. (Being a person hailing from Kurukshetra, Ramlal should have stick to the rules of the war). Once Ratlal came on the floor and Ramlal tried to press him with his shoe. Ramlal could manage to hold the tail under his shoe and hit the rat. Ratlal retaliated and bite Mr. Ramlal. After a long fight Ratlal was killed and Ramlal won the war. However, Ramlal had to take shelter at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and undergo long treatment for rat bite.
(E.M.ADITHYAN)
E.M.Adithyan
His Excellency Mr.Rat-the official carrier of lord Ganesh has a unique place in our History and Puranas. You can either love him or hate him but can never ignore him. The contributions made by rats in spoiling our agriculture (Culture too) and other household items are unparalleled in the history of the world. Still we treat them with great reverence. Any Research scholar can take up a topic on the role of rats in spoiling our agriculture for a thesis leading to Ph.D. Degree.
Few years ago a world food conference was held at Hyderabad. Scientists and food technologists from all over the globe participated in the Seminar, Symposiums, Lectures, Discussions etc. Scientists came out with startling statistics. Almost 1/8th of the world food production is eaten by rats. I am not quantifying it because one line will not be sufficient to indicate the quantity in Kgs. People came out with various suggestions. One scientist from the Peoples’ Republic of China suggested that we should start eating rats. It will have multiplier effect as apart from saving food, we will be creating supplementary food also. Chines people have got practical solutions for every problems. No wonder, China is emerging as one of the top nations of the world. However, whether anybody has acted on the suggestion, nobody knows because one definition of meeting is meeting, eating, chatting, cheating (by giving exaggerated facts and figures) and forgetting. Whether China’s resurgence in sports has anything to do with eating of rats will make an interesting study as rats are great athletes.
Once in a Kerala village rat menace reached alarming proportions. Local Panchayat held an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation. One elder member suggested that we should negotiate with the Rat Commander and sign a peace agreement. However, the younger generation pooh-poohed the idea. (According to the unwritten law of Indian Politics Politicians below the age of 70 can be considered in the category of young). In a country where even the legitimate demands of Pandavas were rejected outright, the proposal of a peace agreement with Rat Commander seemed ridiculous. Majority decision was taken to wage a war with the rats. Budget allocation was made and arms and ammunitions purchased. Black cat commandos were recruited and task force created. After one month of extensive battle 3 rats were killed. Casualty on the other side is not known. Cost of killing one rat runs into thousands.
Since the budget allocation was exhausted they have to find other cheaper methods. (As the Panchayat election was nearing there was no scope for increasing taxes). Meeting was held for hours but nobody came up with any new idea. Meeting adjourned and again reconvened but to no avail. During the meeting peon came to serve the tea. He requested that if the Chairman allowed he could give his idea. The proposal was to give an open offer that anybody who brings the corpse of a rat should be paid Rs.5. The decision was given wide publicity among students. From next day onwards students started queuing up in front of Panchayat office to claim their dues. Hundreds of rats were killed including those from nearby villages. However, since it was difficult to distinguish whether the rat belonged to this village or that village, everybody who brought the corpse of a rat was paid Rs.5. A novel idea to how to use youth power for destructive activities.
Mr.Ramlal, a Central Government employee got the allotment of a ground floor flat after waiting for 30 years in a semi-posh south Delhi colony. After he started staying in the flat, Ramlal noticed that rats were freely roaming in his house. He started abusing them in Hindi, Haryanvi and Punjabi but there was no reaction. He told his neighbour Mr. Chatterji about the incident. Mr. Chatterji got the clue that since the previous occupant of the flat was a Tamilian, perhaps the rats understand only Tamil and a little bit of Bengali. Next day Ramlal purchased a book on learning Tamil through Hindi and hurled the choicest abuses in Tamil. The result was instant. At least they avoided coming in front of Ramlal.
However, one rat did not go. Afterall, it was the resident of the flat alongwith all the previous allottees and it deserved a permanent resident status and the Rat’s claim over the flat is better than that of Ramlal. If the rat had approached the Court to enforce his rights, perhaps Mr. Ramlal would have been directed to vacate the flat. One day Ramlal brought a rat trap. After two days rat fell into Ramlal’s trap. Next day early morning Ramlal left the rat on the other side of the drain far away from his house. After 3 days a rat again appeared at Ramlal’s house. This process continued. Ramlal had a doubt that the same rat is coming again and again. In order to confirm his doubt he decided to put some identification mark on the rat. Since he wanted to adopt a foolproof method, Ramlal went in search of indelible ink. After enquiring at several places Ramlal came to know that one shop in Connaught Place deals with indelible ink. However, the shopkeeper refused to supply the same on the plea that it is used only for election purposes only and he will not give it to anybody without the written consent of the Chief Election Commissioner Mr. T.N Seshan. Even his attempt to bribe the shopkeeper did not succeed.
Having failed to get indelible ink, Ramlal decided to use turmeric paste for identification. (At this point he realised that since the rats do not take bath, any type of identification will remain for some time). His doubt was confirmed that the same rat is coming again and again. One day Ramlal procured a cat to kill the rat. He directed his milk vendor to supply an additional quantity of one litre milk from next day onwards to keep the cat in good humour.
After few days both the cat and the rat became fat. There appeared to be some secret understanding between the cat and the rat. After all both were permanent residents of Delhi, the hub of political activities and they must have learned some finer points of politics from local and national level politicians, Having realised the futility of maintaining a cat, one day Ramlal left the cat beyond the Delhi border spending huge amount on conveyance.
Rat trap again came handy. Rat again was trapped. This time Ramlal sentenced him to death by starving him till death. The decision was conveyed to all the members of the family. After about one month, not only the rat did not die but also there was no marked deterioration in his health. Ramlal was surprised with the resistance power of the rat. During all these days Ramlal’s children secretly used to feed the rat after they came from the school.
Months passed and rat was still alive. One day Ramlal was casually going through the Guiness Book of world records. He noticed that the world record in fasting is 118 days. Ramlal had no doubt that his rat has the potential to beat the world record. He wrote to Guiness Publishing Co. In reply they informed that normally only human beings are considered for world records. However, considering the potential of the rat, they agreed to review the case sympathetically once the rat breaks the world record and he is given some name and identification number.
Ramlal had absolutely no doubt about the name to be given to the rat-Ratlal, because Ratlal is 83% Ramlal. As regards the number, Ramlal checked up with his office to allot Ratlal some number but the concerned officer advised him to come through Union Public Service Commission. One of his colleagues suggested that he might obtain a number through the muster roll of the contractor. He approached a Government Contractor who informed Ramlal that as per the latest rules, Provident Fund has to be deducted from day one and he can help him only after getting a no objection certificate from the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner. For the first time Mr. Ramlal got annoyed with the Government rules and procedures which prevented Ratlal to become a world record holder.
Impressed with Ramlal’s caliber to become a world record holder, Ramlal commuted his death sentence. One fine morning Ramlal put Ratlal on the top carrier of a bus bound to Hardwar and bid adieu to him. Few days passed. One day had to attend a marriage at Chandigarh. Since he had to go early morning, he took out his suit and kept it on the sofa on the previous day so that he need not disturb others in the early morning. Next day morning while wearing the suit Ramlal noticed a big hole in his coat. That was not the handiwork of some anti-social elements but that of Ratlal only. Ramlal got infuriated. He cancelled his programme and sent a telegram to his host, which reads as follows.
“Ratlal spoiled the suit. Unable to attend the marriage unsuited. Your inconnivance in the matter is highly regretted. Will definitely attend next time.”
At last Ramlal decided to commit a cold-blooded murder. ( How a cold blooded person can commit a murder is anybody’s guess. Committing murder requires not only hot blood but boiling blood). One day early morning at about 3 a.m. while Ramlal was going to toilet, he noticed Ratlal in the bathroom. Ramlal closed the bathroom and took out his helmet, hand gloves, safety shoes and hockey stick. (Remember Ramlal was a veteran Hockey player.) He entered the bathroom and closed the door. Seeing Ramlal in a terrible mood Ratlal got frightened and it started running helter-skelter. Ramlal started hitting him with his hockey stick but all was on the floor and wall of the bathroom eluding the rat. (Hockey coaches may please note that playing with rats will improve the skill and stamina of the players). Fight continued and in the process Ramlal threw all the rules of fight to the winds. (Being a person hailing from Kurukshetra, Ramlal should have stick to the rules of the war). Once Ratlal came on the floor and Ramlal tried to press him with his shoe. Ramlal could manage to hold the tail under his shoe and hit the rat. Ratlal retaliated and bite Mr. Ramlal. After a long fight Ratlal was killed and Ramlal won the war. However, Ramlal had to take shelter at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and undergo long treatment for rat bite.
(E.M.ADITHYAN)
Kerala Land of Contradictions
KERALA – The Land of Contradictions
By E.M. Adithyan
Kerala – the God’s own land, this is what Tour Operators, Travel Agents and Tourism Development Corporation propagates about Kerala. There is absolutely no exaggeration in this as the land is blessed with the beauty of nature. It’s long and beautiful beaches, back waters, lakes, rivers, tea gardens, rubber estates, waterfalls, wild-life sanctuaries, temples of architectural marvel, churches etc, are treat to watch for the tourists. They way many other places in the country are designated as picnic spots, every nook and corner of Kerala is a picnic spot. Kerala is a cynosure to eyes during festive and spring season and even in summer, it is not dry and drab.
However, there is another side of the picture too. Kerala is a land of contradictions. The State, which is having the highest literacy rate in the country, higher education is at a premium. There is only a very few professional education institution and students from the State have to migrate to some other places for higher studies. While students from north India come all the way down to south like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, students from Kerala also start their journey to various destinations. No wonder very few candidates from Kerala clear the All-India Level examinations.
Kerala is a highly politically conscious and volatile State. While in many other States “Gram Pradhan” or “Village Panchayat” mould the entire masses of a village, in Kerala even the head of the family cannot dictate terms to the family members as to whom they have to vote to. Inspite of such political awareness, political instability is the bane of Kerala. Coalition Government has become a tradition in Kerala from the very inception of the State. This political instability coupled with militant trade unionism were primarily responsible for the agricultural and Industrial backwardness of the state. The political parties in power are too much pre-occupied with settling their internal squabbles and keeping their position intact. Thus, they have little time to keeping their position intact. Thus, they have little time to think about the long term development of the State.
With the high density of population and literacy rate, getting a job in Kerala is a “Herculean Task”. Unemployment among educated youths in Kerala is the highest in the country. Still, strikes and lockouts are a common phenomenon in Kerala. While lack of investment by the Central Government can be attributed to the step-motherly attitude towards the State, private industrialists are averse to invest in the State, mainly due to labor problem. I am not advocating that the employees should not fight for their legitimate rights, but one should not forget the cardinal principle that anybody investing in industrial enterprises are doing so for getting some returns, just like people who do fasting and prayers do it for their own well being and not for the sake of heaven.
On one side, there is marathon run for the white-collar jobs, whereas on the other hand there is a big scarcity of labor for manual jobs, semi-skilled jobs and traditional jobs. Cultivation, especially paddy and other cereals has become a losing proposition due to non-availability of labor and high cost of inputs. The State of rice eaters is not even producing twenty per cent of its rice requirement. Kerala vegetables are very popular and many of the vegetables produced in Kerala’s soil are much tastier than the imported ones. However, they are not available for sale even in the remotest parts of the State as the very few who cultivate them are doing so for their own consumption. Kerala heavily depend on the neighboring states for all the requirement of vegetables, cereals, pulses etc. and according to a conservative estimate Rs. 1200 crores worth of vegetables are dumped into the State yearly.
The infrastructural facilities available in Kerala can be compared with any other metro cities minus its drawbacks like pollution, over crowding etc. All the facilities that are akin to a welfar4e state like education facilities, public transport, communication, hospitals, reading rooms, libraries, sports grounds, art clubs and sports clubs etc are seen even in the villages of the State. Public Transport System in Kerala is better than what is available in most of the advanced countries like America or Australia. Even though, the Gulf-boom has brought its side effects like alcoholism, drug addiction, increase in crime rate etc. Kerala is still a better place to live in as compared to many other parts of the country. Most of the Malayalees working in various parts of the globe prefer to return to their remote villages after retirement. Kerala has the potential to match or even surpass many developed nations. If the people and political parties in Kerala put their head and heart in the development of the State forgetting their petty, political or partisan considerations, Kerala will find q unique place in the world map, in the not too distant future. Otherwise Kerala will remain a permanent state for erecting petty political dramas.
By E.M. Adithyan
Kerala – the God’s own land, this is what Tour Operators, Travel Agents and Tourism Development Corporation propagates about Kerala. There is absolutely no exaggeration in this as the land is blessed with the beauty of nature. It’s long and beautiful beaches, back waters, lakes, rivers, tea gardens, rubber estates, waterfalls, wild-life sanctuaries, temples of architectural marvel, churches etc, are treat to watch for the tourists. They way many other places in the country are designated as picnic spots, every nook and corner of Kerala is a picnic spot. Kerala is a cynosure to eyes during festive and spring season and even in summer, it is not dry and drab.
However, there is another side of the picture too. Kerala is a land of contradictions. The State, which is having the highest literacy rate in the country, higher education is at a premium. There is only a very few professional education institution and students from the State have to migrate to some other places for higher studies. While students from north India come all the way down to south like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, students from Kerala also start their journey to various destinations. No wonder very few candidates from Kerala clear the All-India Level examinations.
Kerala is a highly politically conscious and volatile State. While in many other States “Gram Pradhan” or “Village Panchayat” mould the entire masses of a village, in Kerala even the head of the family cannot dictate terms to the family members as to whom they have to vote to. Inspite of such political awareness, political instability is the bane of Kerala. Coalition Government has become a tradition in Kerala from the very inception of the State. This political instability coupled with militant trade unionism were primarily responsible for the agricultural and Industrial backwardness of the state. The political parties in power are too much pre-occupied with settling their internal squabbles and keeping their position intact. Thus, they have little time to keeping their position intact. Thus, they have little time to think about the long term development of the State.
With the high density of population and literacy rate, getting a job in Kerala is a “Herculean Task”. Unemployment among educated youths in Kerala is the highest in the country. Still, strikes and lockouts are a common phenomenon in Kerala. While lack of investment by the Central Government can be attributed to the step-motherly attitude towards the State, private industrialists are averse to invest in the State, mainly due to labor problem. I am not advocating that the employees should not fight for their legitimate rights, but one should not forget the cardinal principle that anybody investing in industrial enterprises are doing so for getting some returns, just like people who do fasting and prayers do it for their own well being and not for the sake of heaven.
On one side, there is marathon run for the white-collar jobs, whereas on the other hand there is a big scarcity of labor for manual jobs, semi-skilled jobs and traditional jobs. Cultivation, especially paddy and other cereals has become a losing proposition due to non-availability of labor and high cost of inputs. The State of rice eaters is not even producing twenty per cent of its rice requirement. Kerala vegetables are very popular and many of the vegetables produced in Kerala’s soil are much tastier than the imported ones. However, they are not available for sale even in the remotest parts of the State as the very few who cultivate them are doing so for their own consumption. Kerala heavily depend on the neighboring states for all the requirement of vegetables, cereals, pulses etc. and according to a conservative estimate Rs. 1200 crores worth of vegetables are dumped into the State yearly.
The infrastructural facilities available in Kerala can be compared with any other metro cities minus its drawbacks like pollution, over crowding etc. All the facilities that are akin to a welfar4e state like education facilities, public transport, communication, hospitals, reading rooms, libraries, sports grounds, art clubs and sports clubs etc are seen even in the villages of the State. Public Transport System in Kerala is better than what is available in most of the advanced countries like America or Australia. Even though, the Gulf-boom has brought its side effects like alcoholism, drug addiction, increase in crime rate etc. Kerala is still a better place to live in as compared to many other parts of the country. Most of the Malayalees working in various parts of the globe prefer to return to their remote villages after retirement. Kerala has the potential to match or even surpass many developed nations. If the people and political parties in Kerala put their head and heart in the development of the State forgetting their petty, political or partisan considerations, Kerala will find q unique place in the world map, in the not too distant future. Otherwise Kerala will remain a permanent state for erecting petty political dramas.
What Ails Indian Sports?
India’s performance in the recently concluded millennium Olympics was pathetic to say the least. Not that we were expecting a big haul of medals but because of the fact that a country with more than 1 billion population could manage a single bronze medal only. India’s position in the medal tally is a poor 74 out of 81 medal winning countries. The fact that barring few exceptions majority of our competitors could not advance beyond the preliminary stage adds insult to injury, where as many tiny countries with few lacs of population figure in the medal tally much ahead of us. The following table speaks volumes about India’s poor performance. (This is only indicative and not exhaustive).
Sl. No
Particulars
India’s Position
No. of Contestants
Remarks
1
4 x 100 Mtrs relay heats for Men
7
8
Britain reached last due to some fauxpas in baton change
2
4 x 100 Mtrs relay heats for women
6
6
Overall position 23 out of 24
3
4 x 400 Mtrs relay heats for Men
5
6
Due to disqualification of Algeria
4
4 x 400 Mtrs relay heats for women
5
6
Reached 5th place due to some brilliant running by Beenamol
5
Javelin throw for women
(Gurmeet Kaur)
32
35
According to a comprehensive statistical study conducted by Australian Statistical Bureau taking all parameters into account Viz.; size of the country, population, number of participants etc etc, Bahamas will be at the top and India’s position is at the rock bottom ie; 199 out of 199 participants. Can there be a greater humiliation than this?. China which has started taking part in International sports barely 2-3 decades ago, have emerged as a leading sports nation of the world. It is not a matter of a few medals but the goodwill and prestige of the country which is at stake. Indians with their dismal performance has become a laughing stock at international arena. Inspite of such pathetic performance by the Indian contingent, majority of the IOC Governing body was re-elected unanimously. A classic example of rewarding inefficiency and incompetence. Can this happen in any other country, other than India?. Let us make an introspection of the maladies afflicting Indian sports.
While Indian sportsmen are physically weak compared to their foreign counterparts, their mental faculty is also far below par. It is the mental faculty, which becomes the crucial factor between the winner and loser. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that while we defeat formidable teams in inconsequential matches, we struggle even against mediocre teams in crucial matches. In football or hockey if our team trails by two or three goals our defeat is almost certain. Similarly in cricket if two or three top order batsman are out for paltry score, we normally see a parade of the remaining batsmen. Only on very few occasions we saw a resurgence of Indian team against all odds.
Our sports administrators and organistions often lament about the lack of funds and facilities for the poor standard of sports in the country. It is not the lack of funds or facilities, which stands in the way of our progress but the lack of dedication, sincerity, killer instinct and team spirit. Delhi which is having one of the best sports facilities in the country has not produced any sports person of international standard for the last several years where as African countries ridden in poverty has produced sportsmen of world standard. Countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Bahamas etc performed creditably well in the Olympics. Even in India many sports persons belong to poor families and they come from remote villages of the country where there are absolutely no sports facilities. P.T.Usha, I.M.Vijayan, Harikrishna and Bula Choudhary were born in poor families.
After the independence barring few exceptions whatever little progress India has made, are all due to individual efforts whether it is Ramanathan Krishnan, Leander Paes, Milkha Singh, Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Michel Ferriera, Geet Sethi, Viswanathan Anand, P.T.Usha or Harikrishna. This clearly shows that no tangible results have been achieved by the large amount of money spent by the Government and other allied organisation for the development of sports in the country. Even the criteria of development is ridiculous as Associations’ annual report indicates the amount spent on sports compared to previous year instead of Indicating the achievement in physical terms. It appears that our achievement in sports is inversely proportional to the amount spent on sports.
Indians were pioneers in many sports like Hockey Archery etc. We were the undisputed champions in Hockey for many years. In Archery, even today no other country has produced archers of the stature of Dronacharya, Arjuna Karna, Ekalavya etc. We were also a force to reckon with in many sports like Volleyball, Basketball etc. at least in the Asian circuit. We were the undisputed kings of Hockey for several years. In spite of the fact that Hockey is our National game, Government and people’s interest in this once popular sport is dwindling. On many occasions national level hockey matches are played in front of empty galleries despite the fact that admission is free. TV mania and our continued failure have made many games unpopular.
One of the rarest things seen in India is national pride. When the government owned and controlled agencies do not avail the rare opportunities of awakening national pride what to talk of the common man? In the Junior world hockey championship tournament held at Milton Keynes (England) During October 1997 Indian team reached upto the final. On the way to the final we dethroned defending champions Germany. Even in the final we lost the medal by a whisker mainly due to some bad umpiring decisions. However, millions of hockey fans all over the country were denied the excitement of the glorious, thrilling and pulsating moments of the game thanks to the apathy and callous attitude of the Doordarshan authorities. It was after long time India played in the final of a world championship. Our 1980 Olympic Hockey Gold medal triumph is worth only 12 carat because Hockey giants like Pakistan, Germany, Australia, Holland England etc did not participate in the Olympics. Watching the national team playing in the final of a world championship will at least momentarily help to create a sense of patriotism and feeling of Indianness in a country otherwise divided over caste, creed, region, religion, language etc. This is not an isolated event and there are instances galore.
India has no dearth of sports talents. There are innumerable examples to prove this point. During October 1996 a small boy from a remote Andhra village Harikrishna won the world sub junior (under 10) chess championship. Tata Football Academy a team of teenagers from Jamshedpur whose average age is around 18 years coached by Habib, a veteran footballer of yesteryears always pose a big challenge to other big clubs of the country. TFA boys were a bunch of enterprising, energetic and enthusiastic youngsters. Their speed, ball control, dribbling etc are superb. The fact that a top football club like Mohun Bagan had to sweat it out for the entire duration of the 1997 DCM Football Final is an eloquent testimony of the caliber of TFA boys. During February 1998 Rourkela Municipal College team comprising mostly adivasi boys from Orissa won the Nehru SAIL champion’s hockey tournament defeating Australian University in the final. Australia is a formidable power in the world hockey and they are having an enviable record of achievements in the international hockey. Therefore, a victory over an Australian team is not a mean achievement. All the above instances and many more conclusively prove that there is no dearth of sports talent in the country. A pertinent point to be noted in the above examples is that in all the three cases players involved are teenagers. While our junior players are more sincere and dedicated, senior players play more politics in and out of the field.
We are having good football coaches like Habib, P.K.Banerji, Chattunni, Nayeemuddin, Sukhvinder Singh etc. However, inspite of having good coaches in the country, we engage foreign coaches who are themselves failures in their own country by paying fabulous fees, which is many times more than the fees paid to their Indian counterparts. Indian football reached its nadir during the stewardship of Rustom Akramov, a Russian coach. He committed the biggest blunder by asking Joe Paul Anchery to play in the defence. Anchery is a lethal striker and even now he has the temptation to overlap and assume the role of a forward. However, for us Indians, foreigner’s words are like priest’s sermons and we meekly accepted the blunder.
Lacks of recognition, ingratitude, humiliation, insult, insinuation etc are not new to Indian sports. P.T.Usha one of India’s foremost athlete and one of the best athletes of Asia used to stay in the Nehru stadium hutment during her training/ competition in Delhi. Daily allowance of our national hockey players who are expected to uphold the prestige of the country in the International competition is a paltry sum which is not even sufficient for two square meals, what to talk of nutritious meals. Harikrishna’s winning of the world sub-junior chess championship did not attract much media attention. While we eulogise some sports persons , treat them as demigods , shower them with awards, rewards, medals and money it was rather unfortunate that a child prodigy could not get his due. He could participate in the world championship with the money donated by his well wishers and villagers. India’s veteran goalkeeper Subbaiah was not included for the 1998 world hockey championship. A person who was selected “Man of the match” twice less than two months ago in our test series with Pakistan was suddenly found to be out of form- a novel discovery by IHF selectors. Though the ostensible reason for sidelining Subbaiah was ‘out of form’ the actual reason appears to be his taking up the legitimate demands of players with the IHF authorities. Similarly some senior players who played a stellar role in regaining the Hockey Gold medal at 1998 Asian Games were unceremoniously removed immediately after the games. Do the federation expect that our players should behave like cowards and slaves? How can we expect giant killers and world beaters from meek and coward sports persons?
Our selection and training procedure also leave much to be desired. It is the connection, which is the main hidden criterion for selection relegating quality and merit to the background. Regionalism and group factors also play and important role in the selection process. It is alleged that even our veteran players pull strings to include their favourites in the Indian eleven with utter disregards to quality or merit. No wonder, we induct local lads in predominant positions while playing at Bangalore, Mumbai or Mohali and they turned out to be superflops. We should realise that our ultimate aim is to win the match and medal and not to give a chance to the son of the soil.
We select our team just few days prior to the start of the International event, where as advanced sports countries announce their teams months ahead of the competition and give them much needed combined match practice. In team games team sprit and rapport between the players are of paramount importance, more than individual brilliance. Due to the absence or inadequacy of the combined match practice, we find the maximum mispasses from the Indian team and often they make a mockery of the game. We hire and fire coaches like casual labour. We should learn from the great epic Mahabharat as to how great coaches (Gurus) like Dronacharya were revered and respected even by their adversaries. Frequent change of coaches and consequent change of strategies makes our players a confused lot.
The fundamental difference between India and other sports powers is that while they create formidable team with ordinary players, India makes mediocre team with talented players. There is abundance of sports talent in the country. Our sports administrators should come out of their air-conditioned rooms in big cities and search for hidden talent. Our adivasi boys are excellent archers and our fishermen can bring medals in swimming if they are trained and guided properly. A martial art form of Kerala –Kalaripayattu is similar to fencing and exponents of this art can bring medals in fencing. Our corporate giants who spend crores of rupees for advertisement can adopt few sports persons in selected disciplines and give them intensive training. Let us make a concerted effort to win few medals at least in the next Olympics at Athens. Few years ago, India was to force to reckon with in Wrestling. That was primarily due to the untiring and dedicated efforts of a single individual, the grand old man of Indian wrestling-Guru Hanuman. Most of our wrestling stalwarts and medal winners were his disciples. Indian wrestling standard gradually declined after his death. If one individual can make so much impact on sports, our jumbo-sized organisations and giant companies can do much more. Indian Olympic association should concentrate on a few disciplines where we have a fair chance of winning medal instead of sending a huge contingent like a package tour. A country, which represents 1/6th of the world population or the biggest populated country in the world (by that time we may overtake China in terms of population) should not continuously face the humiliation and ignominy for our poor performance in international sports.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sl. No
Particulars
India’s Position
No. of Contestants
Remarks
1
4 x 100 Mtrs relay heats for Men
7
8
Britain reached last due to some fauxpas in baton change
2
4 x 100 Mtrs relay heats for women
6
6
Overall position 23 out of 24
3
4 x 400 Mtrs relay heats for Men
5
6
Due to disqualification of Algeria
4
4 x 400 Mtrs relay heats for women
5
6
Reached 5th place due to some brilliant running by Beenamol
5
Javelin throw for women
(Gurmeet Kaur)
32
35
According to a comprehensive statistical study conducted by Australian Statistical Bureau taking all parameters into account Viz.; size of the country, population, number of participants etc etc, Bahamas will be at the top and India’s position is at the rock bottom ie; 199 out of 199 participants. Can there be a greater humiliation than this?. China which has started taking part in International sports barely 2-3 decades ago, have emerged as a leading sports nation of the world. It is not a matter of a few medals but the goodwill and prestige of the country which is at stake. Indians with their dismal performance has become a laughing stock at international arena. Inspite of such pathetic performance by the Indian contingent, majority of the IOC Governing body was re-elected unanimously. A classic example of rewarding inefficiency and incompetence. Can this happen in any other country, other than India?. Let us make an introspection of the maladies afflicting Indian sports.
While Indian sportsmen are physically weak compared to their foreign counterparts, their mental faculty is also far below par. It is the mental faculty, which becomes the crucial factor between the winner and loser. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that while we defeat formidable teams in inconsequential matches, we struggle even against mediocre teams in crucial matches. In football or hockey if our team trails by two or three goals our defeat is almost certain. Similarly in cricket if two or three top order batsman are out for paltry score, we normally see a parade of the remaining batsmen. Only on very few occasions we saw a resurgence of Indian team against all odds.
Our sports administrators and organistions often lament about the lack of funds and facilities for the poor standard of sports in the country. It is not the lack of funds or facilities, which stands in the way of our progress but the lack of dedication, sincerity, killer instinct and team spirit. Delhi which is having one of the best sports facilities in the country has not produced any sports person of international standard for the last several years where as African countries ridden in poverty has produced sportsmen of world standard. Countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Cameroon, Bahamas etc performed creditably well in the Olympics. Even in India many sports persons belong to poor families and they come from remote villages of the country where there are absolutely no sports facilities. P.T.Usha, I.M.Vijayan, Harikrishna and Bula Choudhary were born in poor families.
After the independence barring few exceptions whatever little progress India has made, are all due to individual efforts whether it is Ramanathan Krishnan, Leander Paes, Milkha Singh, Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Michel Ferriera, Geet Sethi, Viswanathan Anand, P.T.Usha or Harikrishna. This clearly shows that no tangible results have been achieved by the large amount of money spent by the Government and other allied organisation for the development of sports in the country. Even the criteria of development is ridiculous as Associations’ annual report indicates the amount spent on sports compared to previous year instead of Indicating the achievement in physical terms. It appears that our achievement in sports is inversely proportional to the amount spent on sports.
Indians were pioneers in many sports like Hockey Archery etc. We were the undisputed champions in Hockey for many years. In Archery, even today no other country has produced archers of the stature of Dronacharya, Arjuna Karna, Ekalavya etc. We were also a force to reckon with in many sports like Volleyball, Basketball etc. at least in the Asian circuit. We were the undisputed kings of Hockey for several years. In spite of the fact that Hockey is our National game, Government and people’s interest in this once popular sport is dwindling. On many occasions national level hockey matches are played in front of empty galleries despite the fact that admission is free. TV mania and our continued failure have made many games unpopular.
One of the rarest things seen in India is national pride. When the government owned and controlled agencies do not avail the rare opportunities of awakening national pride what to talk of the common man? In the Junior world hockey championship tournament held at Milton Keynes (England) During October 1997 Indian team reached upto the final. On the way to the final we dethroned defending champions Germany. Even in the final we lost the medal by a whisker mainly due to some bad umpiring decisions. However, millions of hockey fans all over the country were denied the excitement of the glorious, thrilling and pulsating moments of the game thanks to the apathy and callous attitude of the Doordarshan authorities. It was after long time India played in the final of a world championship. Our 1980 Olympic Hockey Gold medal triumph is worth only 12 carat because Hockey giants like Pakistan, Germany, Australia, Holland England etc did not participate in the Olympics. Watching the national team playing in the final of a world championship will at least momentarily help to create a sense of patriotism and feeling of Indianness in a country otherwise divided over caste, creed, region, religion, language etc. This is not an isolated event and there are instances galore.
India has no dearth of sports talents. There are innumerable examples to prove this point. During October 1996 a small boy from a remote Andhra village Harikrishna won the world sub junior (under 10) chess championship. Tata Football Academy a team of teenagers from Jamshedpur whose average age is around 18 years coached by Habib, a veteran footballer of yesteryears always pose a big challenge to other big clubs of the country. TFA boys were a bunch of enterprising, energetic and enthusiastic youngsters. Their speed, ball control, dribbling etc are superb. The fact that a top football club like Mohun Bagan had to sweat it out for the entire duration of the 1997 DCM Football Final is an eloquent testimony of the caliber of TFA boys. During February 1998 Rourkela Municipal College team comprising mostly adivasi boys from Orissa won the Nehru SAIL champion’s hockey tournament defeating Australian University in the final. Australia is a formidable power in the world hockey and they are having an enviable record of achievements in the international hockey. Therefore, a victory over an Australian team is not a mean achievement. All the above instances and many more conclusively prove that there is no dearth of sports talent in the country. A pertinent point to be noted in the above examples is that in all the three cases players involved are teenagers. While our junior players are more sincere and dedicated, senior players play more politics in and out of the field.
We are having good football coaches like Habib, P.K.Banerji, Chattunni, Nayeemuddin, Sukhvinder Singh etc. However, inspite of having good coaches in the country, we engage foreign coaches who are themselves failures in their own country by paying fabulous fees, which is many times more than the fees paid to their Indian counterparts. Indian football reached its nadir during the stewardship of Rustom Akramov, a Russian coach. He committed the biggest blunder by asking Joe Paul Anchery to play in the defence. Anchery is a lethal striker and even now he has the temptation to overlap and assume the role of a forward. However, for us Indians, foreigner’s words are like priest’s sermons and we meekly accepted the blunder.
Lacks of recognition, ingratitude, humiliation, insult, insinuation etc are not new to Indian sports. P.T.Usha one of India’s foremost athlete and one of the best athletes of Asia used to stay in the Nehru stadium hutment during her training/ competition in Delhi. Daily allowance of our national hockey players who are expected to uphold the prestige of the country in the International competition is a paltry sum which is not even sufficient for two square meals, what to talk of nutritious meals. Harikrishna’s winning of the world sub-junior chess championship did not attract much media attention. While we eulogise some sports persons , treat them as demigods , shower them with awards, rewards, medals and money it was rather unfortunate that a child prodigy could not get his due. He could participate in the world championship with the money donated by his well wishers and villagers. India’s veteran goalkeeper Subbaiah was not included for the 1998 world hockey championship. A person who was selected “Man of the match” twice less than two months ago in our test series with Pakistan was suddenly found to be out of form- a novel discovery by IHF selectors. Though the ostensible reason for sidelining Subbaiah was ‘out of form’ the actual reason appears to be his taking up the legitimate demands of players with the IHF authorities. Similarly some senior players who played a stellar role in regaining the Hockey Gold medal at 1998 Asian Games were unceremoniously removed immediately after the games. Do the federation expect that our players should behave like cowards and slaves? How can we expect giant killers and world beaters from meek and coward sports persons?
Our selection and training procedure also leave much to be desired. It is the connection, which is the main hidden criterion for selection relegating quality and merit to the background. Regionalism and group factors also play and important role in the selection process. It is alleged that even our veteran players pull strings to include their favourites in the Indian eleven with utter disregards to quality or merit. No wonder, we induct local lads in predominant positions while playing at Bangalore, Mumbai or Mohali and they turned out to be superflops. We should realise that our ultimate aim is to win the match and medal and not to give a chance to the son of the soil.
We select our team just few days prior to the start of the International event, where as advanced sports countries announce their teams months ahead of the competition and give them much needed combined match practice. In team games team sprit and rapport between the players are of paramount importance, more than individual brilliance. Due to the absence or inadequacy of the combined match practice, we find the maximum mispasses from the Indian team and often they make a mockery of the game. We hire and fire coaches like casual labour. We should learn from the great epic Mahabharat as to how great coaches (Gurus) like Dronacharya were revered and respected even by their adversaries. Frequent change of coaches and consequent change of strategies makes our players a confused lot.
The fundamental difference between India and other sports powers is that while they create formidable team with ordinary players, India makes mediocre team with talented players. There is abundance of sports talent in the country. Our sports administrators should come out of their air-conditioned rooms in big cities and search for hidden talent. Our adivasi boys are excellent archers and our fishermen can bring medals in swimming if they are trained and guided properly. A martial art form of Kerala –Kalaripayattu is similar to fencing and exponents of this art can bring medals in fencing. Our corporate giants who spend crores of rupees for advertisement can adopt few sports persons in selected disciplines and give them intensive training. Let us make a concerted effort to win few medals at least in the next Olympics at Athens. Few years ago, India was to force to reckon with in Wrestling. That was primarily due to the untiring and dedicated efforts of a single individual, the grand old man of Indian wrestling-Guru Hanuman. Most of our wrestling stalwarts and medal winners were his disciples. Indian wrestling standard gradually declined after his death. If one individual can make so much impact on sports, our jumbo-sized organisations and giant companies can do much more. Indian Olympic association should concentrate on a few disciplines where we have a fair chance of winning medal instead of sending a huge contingent like a package tour. A country, which represents 1/6th of the world population or the biggest populated country in the world (by that time we may overtake China in terms of population) should not continuously face the humiliation and ignominy for our poor performance in international sports.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Vanishing Values
Vanishing Values
E M ADITHYAN
Indian has a glorious past and a great civilisation embedded with all virtues which was once the envy of people the world over. However today even our highly educated youngsters are not much aware of our own culture and traditions. The Swadeshi movement, which was propagated during the independence struggle, has evaporated and the shadow of colonialism still hangs over our head. Consequently, we condemn our own virtues and blindly follow the western culture. Let us make an introspection of our vanishing values.
Sanskrit is the mother of all Indian languages and one the richest languages of the world. Some of our most outstanding epics and Upanishads are written in this language. Some people may say that Kalidasa has not won any literary award but the fact remains that he is the greatest writer India has ever produced. Our successive governments whether at centre or states did not make any serious attempt to promote this glorious language. Today, there are more Sanskrit scholars from Germany and France than from India. If we had promoted Sanskrit with right earnestness, we could have bridged the language barrier and cemented the friendship and fraternity among people of different regions.
We are least bothered about our own language and culture and even a student of literature is blissfully unaware of the happenings in other regional languages. While our highly qualified people take pride in talking about Spanish or French literature, they are totally ignorant about Indian literature. It is appreciable to have a universal out-look but it should not be by sidestepping the language of our own country.
India has one of the finest systems of medicine in Ayurveda. No doubt, it takes protracted treatment to cure an illness but many of the diseases once cured will not occur during one’s lifetime. It has neither any side effects nor it is slow poisoning. While in Allopathic the symptoms of the disease are suppressed by anti-biotic, in Ayurvedic system the disease is rooted out gradually. Even our Government and Public Sector Organisations give step-motherly treatment to Ayurveda. While the Allopathic treatment is reimbursed in full there are many restrictions on the reimbursement of Ayurvedic treatment. Is it because Ayurvedic system is completely indigenous and does not make a drain on the precious foreign exchange of the country? Still we believe in Allopathic only and many of the drugs, which are banned in other countries, are freely sold in India. Adulterated medicines and out of date medicines are also sold with almost total impunity, as the conviction process in India is abysmally slow and cumbersome.
Indian music, classical dance and folk dances are praised the world over. Our renowned artists perform in the prestigious auditoriums of the capital of India in half empty halls, despite the fact that admission is free. One of the greatest classical dance dramas – Kathakali – was on the verge of extinction a few dances back. It was due to the dedicated efforts of the great poet Vallathol that we could salvage this great art form. He took art to the various parts of the globe and only when foreigners started showering praises, we realised the beauty of this art. Do we always need somebody- nay foreigners to educate us about the greatness of our own art and culture?
Our filmmakers particularly from West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka have produced some of the finest movies equating world class standards. However, even Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan or Girish kasaravally finds it difficult to get a theatre to show their film for a Sunday morning show in the capital of India.
We are pioneers in many of the martial arts and sports like Archery, Hockey etc. Even today, no other country in the world has produced archers of the stature of Dronacharya, Arjuna, Karna, Ekalavya etc. However, today, we do not even qualify in the Olympics or world championship. We taught the whole world how to play Hockey and we were the undisputed kings for several decades. However, today we are fighting a battle for survival. Even our sports enthusiasts who listen to Cricket commentary from morning till evening have no time and interest to know what is happening in the field of Hockey.
Our traditional way of living and daily routine has lots of scientific base-whether it is taking early morning bath, Surya Namaskar, meditation, Pranayam or Yoga. No wonder people who live in traditional style are hale and hearty even in their eighties, whereas others who live with fast food and Multivitamin tablets are prone to disease at the slightest provocation.
It is high time we should make a self-introspection of our dwindling culture, traditions, values, ethics, morals etc. Let us not make a mad rush towards westernisation. Even in the craze for foreign and western, we have not understood and adapted their good qualities like discipline, punctuality, team spirit, cleanliness, competitiveness, quality consciousness etc. We have learned to imitate only their bad qualities. Let us make a judicious blend of our past glories and present technological achievements to bring peace, tranquility and prosperity to our great land of sages, scholars and social reformers.
_____________________________________________
E M ADITHYAN
Indian has a glorious past and a great civilisation embedded with all virtues which was once the envy of people the world over. However today even our highly educated youngsters are not much aware of our own culture and traditions. The Swadeshi movement, which was propagated during the independence struggle, has evaporated and the shadow of colonialism still hangs over our head. Consequently, we condemn our own virtues and blindly follow the western culture. Let us make an introspection of our vanishing values.
Sanskrit is the mother of all Indian languages and one the richest languages of the world. Some of our most outstanding epics and Upanishads are written in this language. Some people may say that Kalidasa has not won any literary award but the fact remains that he is the greatest writer India has ever produced. Our successive governments whether at centre or states did not make any serious attempt to promote this glorious language. Today, there are more Sanskrit scholars from Germany and France than from India. If we had promoted Sanskrit with right earnestness, we could have bridged the language barrier and cemented the friendship and fraternity among people of different regions.
We are least bothered about our own language and culture and even a student of literature is blissfully unaware of the happenings in other regional languages. While our highly qualified people take pride in talking about Spanish or French literature, they are totally ignorant about Indian literature. It is appreciable to have a universal out-look but it should not be by sidestepping the language of our own country.
India has one of the finest systems of medicine in Ayurveda. No doubt, it takes protracted treatment to cure an illness but many of the diseases once cured will not occur during one’s lifetime. It has neither any side effects nor it is slow poisoning. While in Allopathic the symptoms of the disease are suppressed by anti-biotic, in Ayurvedic system the disease is rooted out gradually. Even our Government and Public Sector Organisations give step-motherly treatment to Ayurveda. While the Allopathic treatment is reimbursed in full there are many restrictions on the reimbursement of Ayurvedic treatment. Is it because Ayurvedic system is completely indigenous and does not make a drain on the precious foreign exchange of the country? Still we believe in Allopathic only and many of the drugs, which are banned in other countries, are freely sold in India. Adulterated medicines and out of date medicines are also sold with almost total impunity, as the conviction process in India is abysmally slow and cumbersome.
Indian music, classical dance and folk dances are praised the world over. Our renowned artists perform in the prestigious auditoriums of the capital of India in half empty halls, despite the fact that admission is free. One of the greatest classical dance dramas – Kathakali – was on the verge of extinction a few dances back. It was due to the dedicated efforts of the great poet Vallathol that we could salvage this great art form. He took art to the various parts of the globe and only when foreigners started showering praises, we realised the beauty of this art. Do we always need somebody- nay foreigners to educate us about the greatness of our own art and culture?
Our filmmakers particularly from West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka have produced some of the finest movies equating world class standards. However, even Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan or Girish kasaravally finds it difficult to get a theatre to show their film for a Sunday morning show in the capital of India.
We are pioneers in many of the martial arts and sports like Archery, Hockey etc. Even today, no other country in the world has produced archers of the stature of Dronacharya, Arjuna, Karna, Ekalavya etc. However, today, we do not even qualify in the Olympics or world championship. We taught the whole world how to play Hockey and we were the undisputed kings for several decades. However, today we are fighting a battle for survival. Even our sports enthusiasts who listen to Cricket commentary from morning till evening have no time and interest to know what is happening in the field of Hockey.
Our traditional way of living and daily routine has lots of scientific base-whether it is taking early morning bath, Surya Namaskar, meditation, Pranayam or Yoga. No wonder people who live in traditional style are hale and hearty even in their eighties, whereas others who live with fast food and Multivitamin tablets are prone to disease at the slightest provocation.
It is high time we should make a self-introspection of our dwindling culture, traditions, values, ethics, morals etc. Let us not make a mad rush towards westernisation. Even in the craze for foreign and western, we have not understood and adapted their good qualities like discipline, punctuality, team spirit, cleanliness, competitiveness, quality consciousness etc. We have learned to imitate only their bad qualities. Let us make a judicious blend of our past glories and present technological achievements to bring peace, tranquility and prosperity to our great land of sages, scholars and social reformers.
_____________________________________________
Need for a new System
NEED FOR A NEW SYSTEM
BY. E.M.ADITHYAN
Political scenario in India has undergone a metamorphosis during the last few years. Politics, which was considered a saga of social service in the pre-independence period, has become a lucrative business for earning quick returns. Corruption and criminalisation have made politics a synonym of all dirty tricks and a profession unfit for men of principles. Over the years an impression has been created, that a person who is unfit to serve the community through any other profession (viz. Scientist, Doctor, Engineer, Bureaucrat, Accountant, Businessmen etc.) could, however become a ‘successful’ politician. Politicians who join hands with the criminals and anti-social elements with the ulterior motive of annihilating their adversaries often fall prey to their own misdeeds, as on many occasions their actions boomerang.
With the multiplicity of political parties based on regional, casteist, communal, linguistic and parochial considerations and the fast eroding base of national parties, hung assemblies/parliament and coalition set-up has become the order of the day. Even the national parties are adopting the idea of ‘Marriage of convenience’ to boost their electoral prospects in different regions with utter disregard to their principles and ideologies. Common man is losing interest in the election process, as they don’t find much difference among the alternatives. Even the popular verdict is not a true index of the mandate of the masses as on many occasions it is due to the negative voting to defeat the party in power. It is ironical that in the largest democracy of the world politicians enjoying the mandate of miniscule section of the masses are holding exalted positions in the Government. Split and the division in the parties are caused not because of ideological differences but due to personal prejudices. Our political parties appear to have unknowingly adopted a slogan “Growing to split and splitting to grow”.
Coalition Governments formed with the internal and external support of the parties having heterogeneous and divergent views with the common minimum programme of clinging to power will not make a stable set-up. The threat of withdrawing support to coalition always hangs as a “Damocles’ Sword” over the head of the Government. Decisions are taken under extraneous and narrow considerations and in the process national interest will become the biggest casualty.
Under the circumstances, it will be worthwhile to consider a new system of Government i.e. formation of an all party Government. Under this system, all the elected representatives will form an Electoral College and they elect the Prime Minister/Chief Minister and other Ministers by secret ballot. A person who has been elected as a Minister should be precluded from holding any party position. Since the cabinet collectively takes major decisions and policy matters and as the powers, duties and responsibilities of Ministers are defined, there should not be any cause for confrontation or confusion. In order to maintain the stability of the ministry, the practice of moving no-confidence motions shall be restricted to remove only a Minster, Ministers or the Prime Minister/Chief Minister. Ministers will also be free from the pulls and pressures of their political bosses as only a majority within the composite structure can remove them.
This system of governance is already prevailing in several organizations where the members elect the managing committee who in turn elects the office bearers. It is hoped that all the political parties will ponder over this issue and arrive at a consensus in the larger national interest and if necessary amend the constitution for formation of a stable Government, which is sinequo-non for the progress of the country. A truly National Government like this only can save the country from disintegration and anarchy. Otherwise India will become a permanent stage for enacting petty political dramas.
BY. E.M.ADITHYAN
Political scenario in India has undergone a metamorphosis during the last few years. Politics, which was considered a saga of social service in the pre-independence period, has become a lucrative business for earning quick returns. Corruption and criminalisation have made politics a synonym of all dirty tricks and a profession unfit for men of principles. Over the years an impression has been created, that a person who is unfit to serve the community through any other profession (viz. Scientist, Doctor, Engineer, Bureaucrat, Accountant, Businessmen etc.) could, however become a ‘successful’ politician. Politicians who join hands with the criminals and anti-social elements with the ulterior motive of annihilating their adversaries often fall prey to their own misdeeds, as on many occasions their actions boomerang.
With the multiplicity of political parties based on regional, casteist, communal, linguistic and parochial considerations and the fast eroding base of national parties, hung assemblies/parliament and coalition set-up has become the order of the day. Even the national parties are adopting the idea of ‘Marriage of convenience’ to boost their electoral prospects in different regions with utter disregard to their principles and ideologies. Common man is losing interest in the election process, as they don’t find much difference among the alternatives. Even the popular verdict is not a true index of the mandate of the masses as on many occasions it is due to the negative voting to defeat the party in power. It is ironical that in the largest democracy of the world politicians enjoying the mandate of miniscule section of the masses are holding exalted positions in the Government. Split and the division in the parties are caused not because of ideological differences but due to personal prejudices. Our political parties appear to have unknowingly adopted a slogan “Growing to split and splitting to grow”.
Coalition Governments formed with the internal and external support of the parties having heterogeneous and divergent views with the common minimum programme of clinging to power will not make a stable set-up. The threat of withdrawing support to coalition always hangs as a “Damocles’ Sword” over the head of the Government. Decisions are taken under extraneous and narrow considerations and in the process national interest will become the biggest casualty.
Under the circumstances, it will be worthwhile to consider a new system of Government i.e. formation of an all party Government. Under this system, all the elected representatives will form an Electoral College and they elect the Prime Minister/Chief Minister and other Ministers by secret ballot. A person who has been elected as a Minister should be precluded from holding any party position. Since the cabinet collectively takes major decisions and policy matters and as the powers, duties and responsibilities of Ministers are defined, there should not be any cause for confrontation or confusion. In order to maintain the stability of the ministry, the practice of moving no-confidence motions shall be restricted to remove only a Minster, Ministers or the Prime Minister/Chief Minister. Ministers will also be free from the pulls and pressures of their political bosses as only a majority within the composite structure can remove them.
This system of governance is already prevailing in several organizations where the members elect the managing committee who in turn elects the office bearers. It is hoped that all the political parties will ponder over this issue and arrive at a consensus in the larger national interest and if necessary amend the constitution for formation of a stable Government, which is sinequo-non for the progress of the country. A truly National Government like this only can save the country from disintegration and anarchy. Otherwise India will become a permanent stage for enacting petty political dramas.
Mind Your Language
Mind Your Language
…Before others do it for you says E.M.Adithyan
The Staff working in the offices of senior executives love to flaunt the little English that they know. The results may be disastrous but they never do give up.
One day in the absence of the Private Secretary, a peon was occupying his seat. The phone rang. “Can I talk to General Manager?” asked the caller. The peon knows that the GM was not in his seat and therefore replied, “Sir, he is no more.” There was a stunned silence. After the initial shock, the caller suggested that the GM may be around some where. The peon went to look for the GM and found he had just left the office. He came back and replied, “Sir, he was here sometime back but just now he passed away.”
Once a security guard allowed one of his relatives inside the factory. The relative stayed there overnight and died in the factory premises. The Security Officer sent a report to the Corporate Office which read as follows: “Mr. Dharampal allowed his relative to stay inside the factory and his relative died on the same night with out taking permission.”
There’s also the case of the senior officer who was fed up with the spate of phone calls he received everyday. He told his new PA that such calls need not be transferred to him. As for persistent visitors who claimed they had come all the way from Mumbai or Chennai just to discuss something urgent with him, the officer said they could be politely told, “Sorry sir, everybody says that.” During the day the Boss’s wife called many times but the PA did not put through the call to the Boss. Infuriated, she stormed into the office and was just about to enter her husband’s cabin when the PA stopped her, “Sorry madam, Boss is very busy, you can’t go inside.” The lady shouted, “It is very urgent and besides, I am his wife.” Retorted the PA “Sorry madam, everybody says that.”
But why poke fun at the lower level staff alone. Many senior officials make awful gaffes too. Here’s an instance: an employee had gone to meet a senior officer. He opened the door a little and peeped in. Said the officer in a patronising tone. “Why are you outstanding? Please income.”
Then there are these interesting replies picked up from interviews:
For the post of Accountant:
Q: What is the difference between single entry and double entry?
A: If you multiply the single entry by two, it will become a double entry.
For the post of Material Control Officer:
Q: Can you define material?
A: Anything, which is not immaterial, is material.
For the post of PA
Q: What is the difference between AGM(PA) and PA to AGM?
A: Practically no difference. In one case PA is prefixed and in the other it is suffixed.
For the post of Medical Officer.
Q: What is the difference between hospitalisation and hospitality?
A: Post hospitalisation treatment is hospitality.
Then there was this extraordinary reply to an advertisement for the post of graduate stenographer: “Eventhough, I am not a graduate, my English is far better than the so- called bachelors. Inaccuracy in typing is unknown to me. My speed in shorthand is fantastic.”
…Before others do it for you says E.M.Adithyan
The Staff working in the offices of senior executives love to flaunt the little English that they know. The results may be disastrous but they never do give up.
One day in the absence of the Private Secretary, a peon was occupying his seat. The phone rang. “Can I talk to General Manager?” asked the caller. The peon knows that the GM was not in his seat and therefore replied, “Sir, he is no more.” There was a stunned silence. After the initial shock, the caller suggested that the GM may be around some where. The peon went to look for the GM and found he had just left the office. He came back and replied, “Sir, he was here sometime back but just now he passed away.”
Once a security guard allowed one of his relatives inside the factory. The relative stayed there overnight and died in the factory premises. The Security Officer sent a report to the Corporate Office which read as follows: “Mr. Dharampal allowed his relative to stay inside the factory and his relative died on the same night with out taking permission.”
There’s also the case of the senior officer who was fed up with the spate of phone calls he received everyday. He told his new PA that such calls need not be transferred to him. As for persistent visitors who claimed they had come all the way from Mumbai or Chennai just to discuss something urgent with him, the officer said they could be politely told, “Sorry sir, everybody says that.” During the day the Boss’s wife called many times but the PA did not put through the call to the Boss. Infuriated, she stormed into the office and was just about to enter her husband’s cabin when the PA stopped her, “Sorry madam, Boss is very busy, you can’t go inside.” The lady shouted, “It is very urgent and besides, I am his wife.” Retorted the PA “Sorry madam, everybody says that.”
But why poke fun at the lower level staff alone. Many senior officials make awful gaffes too. Here’s an instance: an employee had gone to meet a senior officer. He opened the door a little and peeped in. Said the officer in a patronising tone. “Why are you outstanding? Please income.”
Then there are these interesting replies picked up from interviews:
For the post of Accountant:
Q: What is the difference between single entry and double entry?
A: If you multiply the single entry by two, it will become a double entry.
For the post of Material Control Officer:
Q: Can you define material?
A: Anything, which is not immaterial, is material.
For the post of PA
Q: What is the difference between AGM(PA) and PA to AGM?
A: Practically no difference. In one case PA is prefixed and in the other it is suffixed.
For the post of Medical Officer.
Q: What is the difference between hospitalisation and hospitality?
A: Post hospitalisation treatment is hospitality.
Then there was this extraordinary reply to an advertisement for the post of graduate stenographer: “Eventhough, I am not a graduate, my English is far better than the so- called bachelors. Inaccuracy in typing is unknown to me. My speed in shorthand is fantastic.”
Illusion & Reality
IIIusion and Reality
E.M.Adithyan
The crime prevention detection and prosecution process in India is abysmally low. This coupled with half hearted approaches of the law enforcement authorities and innumerable loopholes in the legal system ensures that only a negligible percentage of the accused are convicted. It is paradoxical that in a country having plethora of laws, degree of lawlessness is also the highest. According to agency reports only six percent of the accused are convicted in India. This percentage will further make a nosedive considering the fact that many crimes are not reported and many others, which are reported, and many are not recorded by the law enforcement agencies. There is a popular joke that whereas American and Scotland Yard police catch the culprit within hours of committing the crime, Indian police is well aware of the impending crime hours before is being committed. No wonder the crime rate whether it is robbery, dacoity, murder, bride burning or gang rape – are increasing at an alarming rate.
The concept of Equality before law enchained in our Constitution has become a myth as dispensation of justice is different between the haves and havenots, mighty and weak, rich and poor, seasoned criminals and ignorant unabiders of law. While thousands of under-trials (who know how many of them are innocent?) are languishing in various jails for years people who committed heinous crimes and amassed ill-gotten wealth are freely moving in the society with almost total impunity. Time and again we confirm the popular perception that law is like a cobweb where the weak and poor are trapped in and the rich and mighty breaks it.
After the independence our planners have visualised and India of self-reliance, self-dependence and growth coupled with social justice. However even after 53 years of independence we are more and more dependent on foreign countries for our survival. Under the pretext of liberalisation we invented multi-nationals to invade India and today we depend on them even for cool drinks and potato wafers. We believe in screw-driver technology and heavily depend on foreign countries for all the requirements of critical items, whether they are used in the manufacture (nay-assembly) of sophisticated equipments or consumer durables. India has become an ocean of poverty with few islands of prosperity. Over dependence on any country will slowly leads to slavery. We have to learn a lot from our neighbouring country, ie:China.
We make tall claims from terrace tops about our achievements in terms of quality and quantity. In the name of development, we have systematically strangulated our culture, tradition, ethics, value system, flora and fauna and ecology. While we have won awards, rewards, medals, recognition, ISI and ISO certificates, the actual quality has come down in many spheres. People talks proudly of their clock purchased 50 years ago still showing accurate time, whereas an automatic watch purchased two years ago running fast five minutes per day and a 20 year old mixer is giving uninterrupted service, whereas an ISI marked mixer is giving frequent troubles. Are we not fooling ourselves with manipulated facts and figures and window dressing?.
The tragedy in India is that there is a wide gap between what we preach and what we practice. This is further compounded by contradictions like a scoundrel giving sermons about morality, a criminal talking about social justice and a corrupt politician preaching probity in public life.
It is heartening to note that while the pillars of democratic institutions start crumbling, judiciary has taken a lead role in upholding the rule of law. This country has given birth to great luminaries and social reformers like Gautam Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Sankaracharya, Gandhiji etc.
Let us come out from the shackles of our illusory world, restore the old values, bring back the past glory, make development in the true sense and spirit, to make this country prosperous- both materially and morally.
E.M.Adithyan
The crime prevention detection and prosecution process in India is abysmally low. This coupled with half hearted approaches of the law enforcement authorities and innumerable loopholes in the legal system ensures that only a negligible percentage of the accused are convicted. It is paradoxical that in a country having plethora of laws, degree of lawlessness is also the highest. According to agency reports only six percent of the accused are convicted in India. This percentage will further make a nosedive considering the fact that many crimes are not reported and many others, which are reported, and many are not recorded by the law enforcement agencies. There is a popular joke that whereas American and Scotland Yard police catch the culprit within hours of committing the crime, Indian police is well aware of the impending crime hours before is being committed. No wonder the crime rate whether it is robbery, dacoity, murder, bride burning or gang rape – are increasing at an alarming rate.
The concept of Equality before law enchained in our Constitution has become a myth as dispensation of justice is different between the haves and havenots, mighty and weak, rich and poor, seasoned criminals and ignorant unabiders of law. While thousands of under-trials (who know how many of them are innocent?) are languishing in various jails for years people who committed heinous crimes and amassed ill-gotten wealth are freely moving in the society with almost total impunity. Time and again we confirm the popular perception that law is like a cobweb where the weak and poor are trapped in and the rich and mighty breaks it.
After the independence our planners have visualised and India of self-reliance, self-dependence and growth coupled with social justice. However even after 53 years of independence we are more and more dependent on foreign countries for our survival. Under the pretext of liberalisation we invented multi-nationals to invade India and today we depend on them even for cool drinks and potato wafers. We believe in screw-driver technology and heavily depend on foreign countries for all the requirements of critical items, whether they are used in the manufacture (nay-assembly) of sophisticated equipments or consumer durables. India has become an ocean of poverty with few islands of prosperity. Over dependence on any country will slowly leads to slavery. We have to learn a lot from our neighbouring country, ie:China.
We make tall claims from terrace tops about our achievements in terms of quality and quantity. In the name of development, we have systematically strangulated our culture, tradition, ethics, value system, flora and fauna and ecology. While we have won awards, rewards, medals, recognition, ISI and ISO certificates, the actual quality has come down in many spheres. People talks proudly of their clock purchased 50 years ago still showing accurate time, whereas an automatic watch purchased two years ago running fast five minutes per day and a 20 year old mixer is giving uninterrupted service, whereas an ISI marked mixer is giving frequent troubles. Are we not fooling ourselves with manipulated facts and figures and window dressing?.
The tragedy in India is that there is a wide gap between what we preach and what we practice. This is further compounded by contradictions like a scoundrel giving sermons about morality, a criminal talking about social justice and a corrupt politician preaching probity in public life.
It is heartening to note that while the pillars of democratic institutions start crumbling, judiciary has taken a lead role in upholding the rule of law. This country has given birth to great luminaries and social reformers like Gautam Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Sankaracharya, Gandhiji etc.
Let us come out from the shackles of our illusory world, restore the old values, bring back the past glory, make development in the true sense and spirit, to make this country prosperous- both materially and morally.
Come, Cook & Eat
Come, Cook and Eat.
Ignorance of the fundamentals of cooking will lead to a plethora of problems-Says E.M.ADITHYAN.
Whether cooking is an art or science is a debatable point. However, I feel that cooking is not only an art or science but also a conglomeration of all conceivable topics. There is an element of Economics, Law, History and Literature in cooking. For simplicity sake, let us call it an art. It is an art, which is difficult to master as its boundaries are infinite. No wonder, no university has introduced doctorate for cooking technology for fear of countless claimants propounding new formulas, theories and inventions. This write up is a tribute to all great cooks (crooks also) all over the Globe.
Once my spouse left for her parent’s house in Kerala leaving me alone. From next day onwards my routine underwent a sea change. After partially doing the homework, there was little time left for cooking. I took one glass of preboiled milk and two slices for my breakfast. Next day I prepared uncooked food for my breakfast-tomato slice with sugar sprinkled on it. On the following day again I managed without cooking-with-ripe mangoes and grated coconuts. With the uncooked food, it was virtually semi starvation as these can serve only as supplements to a meal and not as a substitute. A new Economic theory was emerging that there can be starvation without poverty, famine and inflation.
Since these short cut methods could not continue for long, I bought a book on cooking. After going through the book I found that it would not serve my purpose as the quantity of many items is mentioned ‘as required’. How does a person who knows nothing about cooking quantify the item as required? Further, a fresher will confront with several crises but there was no chapter on crisis management.
On the fourth day fine morning I got an idea, and accordingly I made an open offer to my friends and colleagues.
“Come, Cook and Eat”
My colleagues include unhomely men (opposite of homely women), pure bachelors and married bachelors. (In fact all are basically bachelors of various disciplines-Arts, Science, Commerce, Humanities, Engineering etc). Though I was expecting a lukewarm response, to my great surprise the response was overwhelming. I had to allot suitable dates for the applicants. In view of the over subscription, the basis of allotment was finalised without consulting any stock exchange.
On the first day it was the turn of Mr. Arora. (I allotted the dates strictly as per alphabetical order, though I could have made allotment according to my sweet will). He offered to prepare mouth watering Punjabi dishes. He gave me long list of raw materials. I had to visit several shops to get the desired items. He assumed the role of a super chef and all the ancillary duties I had to perform. I had to even fabricate super chef’s uniform by knitting Lungies and Dhoties.
Next day my guest was a Bengali Brahmin, Mr. Banerji. He gave me a preprinted list (computerised) to procure the items. Almost 50 percent of the items were new (compared to yesterday). Procurement of raw materials again took a long time. Incidentally Mr. Banerji once introduced me to his friend as his ‘Ghost’ This procedure continued for a week. I found that my cash balance was fast depleting and kitchen space had become insufficient to store extra raw materials. By this time the scheme had become popular in the office and was one of the talking points at tea. One day, I overheard that some of the so-called Superchefs who adorned my kitchen were novices. They never got an opportunity to try their experiments at their own houses because their wives knew that they would make a mockery of the cooking. For them, it was a God sent opportunity to make my kitchen an experimental theater by lavishly using the ingredients and other infrastructural facilities. I did not purchase an additional kitchen rack, since it would have further increased my cost and overheads.
During all these days none of my colleagues including those who occasionally visited my house to enjoy South Indian items like Idli, Dosa, Vada, Sambar, etc did not invite me for dinner. Then only I realised the meaning of the old adage “Those who get sumptuous meal at home only are welcome as guests”.
After one week I prepared a cost statement, which revealed that the direct material cost alone, was sufficient to have dinner at a 5 star hotel. Therefore, I decided to call it a day and short closed my offer. Fortunately, the affected people (my colleagues only) did not take recourse to legal action for the violation of the contract and claim damages!
Moral: - Cooking-theory and practice should be an integral part of school curriculum.
Ignorance of the fundamentals of cooking will lead to a plethora of problems-Says E.M.ADITHYAN.
Whether cooking is an art or science is a debatable point. However, I feel that cooking is not only an art or science but also a conglomeration of all conceivable topics. There is an element of Economics, Law, History and Literature in cooking. For simplicity sake, let us call it an art. It is an art, which is difficult to master as its boundaries are infinite. No wonder, no university has introduced doctorate for cooking technology for fear of countless claimants propounding new formulas, theories and inventions. This write up is a tribute to all great cooks (crooks also) all over the Globe.
Once my spouse left for her parent’s house in Kerala leaving me alone. From next day onwards my routine underwent a sea change. After partially doing the homework, there was little time left for cooking. I took one glass of preboiled milk and two slices for my breakfast. Next day I prepared uncooked food for my breakfast-tomato slice with sugar sprinkled on it. On the following day again I managed without cooking-with-ripe mangoes and grated coconuts. With the uncooked food, it was virtually semi starvation as these can serve only as supplements to a meal and not as a substitute. A new Economic theory was emerging that there can be starvation without poverty, famine and inflation.
Since these short cut methods could not continue for long, I bought a book on cooking. After going through the book I found that it would not serve my purpose as the quantity of many items is mentioned ‘as required’. How does a person who knows nothing about cooking quantify the item as required? Further, a fresher will confront with several crises but there was no chapter on crisis management.
On the fourth day fine morning I got an idea, and accordingly I made an open offer to my friends and colleagues.
“Come, Cook and Eat”
My colleagues include unhomely men (opposite of homely women), pure bachelors and married bachelors. (In fact all are basically bachelors of various disciplines-Arts, Science, Commerce, Humanities, Engineering etc). Though I was expecting a lukewarm response, to my great surprise the response was overwhelming. I had to allot suitable dates for the applicants. In view of the over subscription, the basis of allotment was finalised without consulting any stock exchange.
On the first day it was the turn of Mr. Arora. (I allotted the dates strictly as per alphabetical order, though I could have made allotment according to my sweet will). He offered to prepare mouth watering Punjabi dishes. He gave me long list of raw materials. I had to visit several shops to get the desired items. He assumed the role of a super chef and all the ancillary duties I had to perform. I had to even fabricate super chef’s uniform by knitting Lungies and Dhoties.
Next day my guest was a Bengali Brahmin, Mr. Banerji. He gave me a preprinted list (computerised) to procure the items. Almost 50 percent of the items were new (compared to yesterday). Procurement of raw materials again took a long time. Incidentally Mr. Banerji once introduced me to his friend as his ‘Ghost’ This procedure continued for a week. I found that my cash balance was fast depleting and kitchen space had become insufficient to store extra raw materials. By this time the scheme had become popular in the office and was one of the talking points at tea. One day, I overheard that some of the so-called Superchefs who adorned my kitchen were novices. They never got an opportunity to try their experiments at their own houses because their wives knew that they would make a mockery of the cooking. For them, it was a God sent opportunity to make my kitchen an experimental theater by lavishly using the ingredients and other infrastructural facilities. I did not purchase an additional kitchen rack, since it would have further increased my cost and overheads.
During all these days none of my colleagues including those who occasionally visited my house to enjoy South Indian items like Idli, Dosa, Vada, Sambar, etc did not invite me for dinner. Then only I realised the meaning of the old adage “Those who get sumptuous meal at home only are welcome as guests”.
After one week I prepared a cost statement, which revealed that the direct material cost alone, was sufficient to have dinner at a 5 star hotel. Therefore, I decided to call it a day and short closed my offer. Fortunately, the affected people (my colleagues only) did not take recourse to legal action for the violation of the contract and claim damages!
Moral: - Cooking-theory and practice should be an integral part of school curriculum.
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