May be flood... may be tsunami... my be earthquake... may be volcano.. who knows...

Enough we have talked about the reason for the flood..

Enough we have blamed on everyone possible..

There are clear evidence from every political party that their statements, actions and propaganda are all centered towards the upcoming election. Their desperation for ensuring the vote citing the flood event is more blatant. Only difference is, the ruling party cites the talent and versatility of its governance in handling the flood and opposition citing the flaws in such versatility and the so called talent.

I am not going to discuss the political motives of such parties, every one is having election as their motive behind their speech and not the real need of the hour for my city and my state.

But, its really hard for us to brush aside these parties as well, because, in the end you have to choose one for exercising your franchise and if you choose wise and sensible representative, then rest will happen in its due course.

Now! Shall we just divert our debate on what is the appropriate requirement and the need of the hour for the city and the state?

To begin with!

I strongly contradict the fact that all water ways and marsh lands of Chennai (Tamil Nadu as a whole / India as a whole / World as a whole / take what ever way you want) to be restored to its original capacity, like how it was in 1960s.

The reason is.. If you want to... then, you have to destroy and rehabilitate half of Chennai, and it would be more expensive than the expense of the damage the city have gone through.

You saw a dramatic flood and you will change the city to withstand this kind of flood in the future. Then an earthquake will come and you will further change your action centered with earthquake, then  a tsunami will come and you will further change the coastal areas adapting to the future tsunami.

I remember the advise given by prominent scientists to grow long trees in the sea shore to avoid the impact of future tsunami and rehabilitate all the fisher man to at least 2 kms from the sea shore.

Do we really think its practically possible? Fisherman's livelihood is in the sea and he would really want to be as close as possible. If you alter your infrastructure for each and every such calamities then we can probably leave this world and find some other planet to live. Because, we have screwed this planet as much as possible and it will definitely react to it by further calamities in the future.

No one knows in which form or way.

May be flood.. may be tsunami.. my be earthquake.. may be volcano.. who knows..

You know how much waste you are generating... You know how much fossil fuel you are using... You know how much natural resources you are wasting... Don't we think we should be reasonable enough to give diligent respect to them, as much as possible and reduce the impact?

A cleaner city... a perfectly linked water ways... an un-evading drainage system... a greener transport... a sensible waste management... a responsible natural resource utilization...

Aren't these the demanding topic for our discussion than to talk about who did wrong and who did write?

Sad that no one is now thinking about the need of the hour, but centering themselves to gather vote...

Sick!!!

Clearing Encroachments and rehabilitation...

The day for me today didn’t start quite well, after I saw the news about the tragic death of a 6 months old child in Delhi.

The Hindu reported that, the kid was mistakenly wrapped into the bundle of cloths when its parents were hurriedly evacuating their home for a demolition drive ordered by the railway authorities in West Delhi’s Shakur Basti.

Even though the hard steps of the officials were condemned by the Delhi CM by suspending the authorities, the railway authorities in a statement said the child’s death was not related to the demolition.

Then, How?

The parents wrapped their kid in the bundle of cloths to play hide and seek with it??

Have the officials kept the people informed about the demolition? Yes says the officials.

"In the last nine months, three notices had been issued to encroachers to vacate railway land. The first one was issued in March. The second notice directed them to vacate by September 30, but they did not do so. The last notice asked them to vacate by December 12"

May be the parents, on their urge to pack things up, failed to notice their kid crawled to a different place or may be something else happened… Only an enquiry would reveal the truth. Nevertheless! An infant have breathed its last! Leaving an incurable hurt for its parents... :( :(

Now! Being a Chennaite... My thought goes with the encroachment clearance which is planned for
Chennai....

I would like to narrate a story which happened exactly 13 years back.

It was a monsoon season, Porur lake got filled due to incessant rain in the season and water released out of the lake went into the nearby residents (Madha Nagar, Movlivakkam, Porur etcs..). There were knee level water on the roads, but apart from few huts which were constructed in the ground level, no other residents got water into their home.

It was the same ADMK government in power, by then. There were serious allegations raised against the government regarding the encroachments made in the channel, which is supposed to take the excess water to the nearby Adyar river.

I was in my +2 at that time. One of my class mate came to my home and said the government officials were demolishing his home saying it was constructed in the channel without approval and their family is on the roads.

Shocked by hearing this, I went with him to see the place. I still remember the agony and pain of my friend’s family. His father was a mason and a very hard working man too. He with his limited daily income, saved money and constructed the house himself. I even remember my friend once saying to me proudly that his father himself constructed his house.They were not having electricity till he was in his 10th. The reason he would say is the authorities were asking for 3K to provide the EB connection. Later his father managed to get the EB connection as well. 

If the land was an un-authorized one, how the EB connection came? No words from the authorities for this...

I saw his father standing there watching his own house demolished by JCP.

At that time, the priority for the government is to clear the encroachments and show to public that it has cleared them with iron hands.

Yes! It was a deadly iron hand, which came as a blow to my friends family which lead his father paralyzed in few months and he passed away after a year.

Obviously! The government would say that it or the demolition drive it conducted is not responsible for my friend losing his father.

But, no one knew the impact, the incident created in his life. Despite being a topper in studies, he was not able to score good marks in that year's public exam. Despite getting a seat in a private engineering college through a kind hearted well-wisher, he was not able to continue his studies, as his father was paralyzed by that time.

Not only his life. Like him, we have lakhs and lakhs of people living in unauthorized land either as encroachment or as slum dwellers.

Now in Chennai! We are even talking about restoring the water ways and marsh lands which were now become approved plots, IT parks and residential area by the government.

I can see some politicians now making statements to clear the water ways by removing the encroachment with iron hand. 

Again!!!! :( :(

The question comes to my mind is... How many such family is going to bear the brunt now?

Do we think a notice by the authority is enough for demolishing a house?

Almost for all of them, the only earnings they have for their life would be their home and nothing else. If we take a survey of all of our people, those who have investment and account balance to protect their financial loss can be counted in fingers.

Now tell me! Do we really need an IRON HAND to clear the encroachments or a responsible sequential process to restore the water ways through various steps of rehabilitation?

My Chennai

It was 8:30 in the night yesterday!

Me and my wife were watching TV. After browsing few channels, I landed up in "Kiran TV", it was "Theivathirumagal".

"I love this movie", I said...

"Please change.. I cant cry seeing this now... ", said my wife..

"Ok! Lets check the flood situation.... ", I changed the channel to a news channel...

'18 ICU patients died due to Oxygen cut off in Nandambakkam MIOT' - came the news.......

We switched off the TV!

Despite knowing my family is safe there... I dint get sleep...

My Chennai!!!! I will not curse you for your 44 degree hot sun anymore...

Please heat up! Save us!!!! :(

P.S: Guys please don't hit like to this....

He saved us all….

Its Diwali vacation! I along with my family was travelling from Bangalore to Trivandrum to my in-laws house, in Bangalore-Kanyakumari Exp.

Around 8:15 AM in the morning, the train was stopped in the midway, 10 mins after leaving the Thripunithura station. We thought it’s stopped for some regular signal. After waiting for around 15 minutes, I enquired with the chaiwala, he said, “there seems to be some problem with the track, the railway officials are looking into it, mechanics were coming from Ernakulam to correct it, it would take 1 hour for the train to move again.”

All our reaction for it were just “Ahhh… !!!”

 “It’s gonna delay the train again…. ”, said my wife with disappointment.

We felt happy, when the train moved at 9AM. We reached Trivandrum at around 1:40 PM, which is 1 hour late from the scheduled arrival time. We cursed the train for its slowness and left the station.

This happened yesterday…

This morning, when we opened today’s daily, there was small news about the incident with the title, Train saved from de-railing!

Mr. Alexander, from Thiruvankulam spotted the broken track, informed the local key man, local key man informed the local station in-charge, and through him the engine driver. Knowing this, the loco pilot has reduced the trains speed. In an attempt to save the passengers in the train, Mr Alexander took his daughters chudidhar shawl and ran over the track towards the coming train.

Men came from the local station and fixed the problem. It took just 45 minutes for the workers to fix the problem.

This news was reported, in local edition, in 14^th page at the bottom.

I myself happen to read this, because I traveled in the same train the previous day, and it was my family whom this man Alexander saved, by his responsible behavior.

Just in case if this track problem was not noted, and there were a huge accident! Apart from the personal tragedy that we would have had, the news would be a national headline.

All news channels would have reported the issue with all due attention, all writers would come forward in analysis report of railways lack of effectiveness! A complete analysis on the track maintenance etc., All social shares would have hit a record high, with the photos of the tragedy and the stories of the victims!

With all condolence! All condemnation! All talks! This would have hit the national headlines!

When a tragedy happens, its news value is huge!

When the tragedy is prevented, the news value is zero!

Pathetic!

We can’t blame anyone for this nature of focus! Even for me, this news gets value only because I was part of it. Otherwise, this news would have been of no value for me as well.

We always tend to search for negative around us, and we cautiously loves to read negative news compared to positive ones. This is the most precarious decision we take.

Let’s appraise the positives around us, only that would make a better world. We should realize this!

This is India Gopi.....

It was a busy evening, I was on my way to home in my office cab. My cab driver is a nice gentleman, he is little close to me, we use to share many of our thoughts during our hour long journey between my home and office.

Anna and me were sharing some ground nuts and having a chat on that day. After finishing the ground nuts, I tried to gather the waste remains and packed them to keep in my pocket.

"what are you doing", anna asked...

"will put in the dustbin in home", I said.

He took no time to pull those packets from my pocket and thrown out of the cab in the main road and said...

"This is India Gopi..... "

Soo what... And why soooo? I got shocked.....

I didn't try explaining him, nor did I offended him. Because, I clearly understand his words "This is India!".

Because! In India, its not only OK to litter, but it is mandatory too....

Bull Shit!!!!!

It is more than a year since our prime minister launched the "Swachh Bharat" campaign....

If we take closer look in the past 1 year... Apart from some people movement, only few were involved in spreading this word of cleanliness... Where others were busy in criticising the ruling government and trolling them for launching this.

"First let them clean their heart and then they can clean India", said Congress.

Wonderful! When someone ask you to clean your home and surroundings, you will reply to them "you first clean your heart! You are religious! You are capitalist! You are this! You are that!", but will never try to think the importance of the message, and will never persuade anyone for cleanliness, since it was launched by a party which we oppose....

Great!

It is this mentality of the cab driver which persuaded him to throw waste on road.

Even before this government, there were many organization in our country tried their level best to spread the word of cleanliness in the country. Organization like "The Ugly Indian", have gone one step further by not only cleaning the dirty places but also in protecting the already cleaned places from further litters.

It doesn't matter who advocates the cause! Its the cause that matter!

In recent days our media and several other parties were claiming that, "Swachh Bharat" campaign is a failure. If it is so, don't we as a whole nation should take the blame of not taking it to a success?

This is a democracy, here every one have their right to speak, write and preach. But no one have the right to litter!

Should I be a BJPian to spread this word?

Isn't it enough, if I just be a Good Indian? I wonder!

Me and my Muslim friends...

We were 8 friends in total, we use to play volley ball together everyday morning. We were doing our +1 at that time, when we never forget to ignore our classes and give priority to play as it was a honeymoon period of +1 after the deadly intense study for SSLC.

Among us were two of my Muslim friends, Mohideen and Sajjad. We use to play everyday, without barring a single day.

After few days of play, it was the month of Ramadan. Mohideen and Sajjad, were on fast.

For initial few days, when they took part in the play, all other friends asked them to play light. And, if the ball goes outside the court, we never allow them to run behind it, instead we ran and took the ball in. Despite that, when we saw them both struggling during the evening time, we stopped our play routine.

I am talking about the days, which was around 13 years back, when we were teenagers getting to know the world. All we know is Mohideen and Sajjad were our friends and we share everything with them, including food. We know their constraints during the month of Ramadan and we respected that.

We allowed them to abide by their religion without interfering in it and without commenting on it.

After 13 years, even now, my friends are still my friends. I demand biriyani for Bakrid with them.

Ours is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic nation. In this, if some Hindu beats a Muslim, another Hindu should condemn that act first, and vise versa when it happens for Hindu as well.

But, whats happening now is exactly the opposite.

If there is any crime committed by a Hindu extremist group, instead of the Hindu moderates condemning it, they stay silent. And with the advent of social media, non-Hindu moderates takes very less time not only to condemn but also to de-fame the complete section of people, irrespective of how moderate or extremist they are. This is a dangerous behavior which questions the countries Unity in Diversity.

We Indians have shared our course for more than 700 years. Its not a small time. Its over 15-20 generations. We should understand this.

Religious and Cultural harmony will happen, only when we start respecting each others sentiments and customs. Not by defaming it.

Also Read: My previous blog: Almighty should save

Mighty India: Almighty should save...

I began my conversation with my friend,

"Am not getting proper sleep these days...."

"Why? What happened?” he asked!

"Well! Multiple reasons! After reading this!” I said showing the newspaper...

"Ok, list me your reasons, let me check if I can solve something for you!" he winked...

"You can't", I said and smiled…

He went more curious and asked for listing…

"Russia entering Syrian war - conflicting with America’s strategy, Taliban capturing Kunduz – most formidable victory in 14 years – US air strike on a Kunduz hospital to tackle Taliban, Nepal enacting new constituency – complaining about India in UN, IS militancy isolated incidents in Bangladesh…", I listed...

He in the midst of controlling his laugher said, "All these are reasons for you… not getting sleep?"

"Well! I will tell you one more incident, happened little close to us... near Delhi…” And I explained him the lynching incident in Dadri village...

His reaction was furious!!!

Until then he was in a kiddy mood... Since those were international news... But this one was having a direct impact on his mood...

He became serious and took no time to blame the ruling party for it…

So, it is taking not more than a sec for people who hear about the incident to blame the ruling government...

Incidents like this can easily be brushed aside by the ruling party, giving an isolated incident tag….

But the impact it creates on one’s mind matters a lot…

I sincerely plead... Please don’t destroy the religious harmony in my country....

Consolidating one community is at the cost of preparing them in opposite to other communities... we should understand this....

Child Safety: Is my 3 yr old kid safe?

For people who have jumped in just by seeing the title... My kid is absolutely safe in my hands.. Please continue reading...

Few months back, I went to a private school to get admission for my kid in nursery. During my conversation with the school principal, she said this,

“Sir, we employ only lady teachers and in case for certain subjects which we find difficulty in getting a lady staff like ‘Kannada’, ‘PT’, ‘Sanskrit’ etc., we employ gents staff but we ensure that there will always be a presence of a lady teacher in that class”.

Hearing these, my wife got relaxed thinking my kid will be safe in school. But, something started bugging me from that moment. That bugging went on bothering me for the past 6 months which ended up in, me writing this blog.

When I learnt my Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Tamil from my well-versed and efficient male staff whose teachings I remember and cherish even now, why can’t my kid get her knowledge from a male staff?

This is in no way offense to any lady staff. Of course I had efficient lady staffs who taught me as well.

But, my worry is, what started people to think against men?

For the past few years our country have seen lot of people movement, with more intensive public participation, which in fact have made a large political uproar, thanks to the social media and the alarming reach of print and digital media. It may be the fight against corruption or may be the fight against sexual abuse for women, or may be the fight against sex slavery etc.

Now at present, I can see people from Indian media begging (portrayed as fighting) the international media not to portray India as an un-safe place for women.

Few days back I saw a post in Facebook, encouraging men to treat women with respect and take responsibility for her. Like, a colleague taking responsibility on a lady co-staff and going with her till the auto stand, and the auto driver taking responsibility on her and leaving her safe near her home and a neighbour taking responsibility on her and going with her till her home.

Also, I saw a post about warning people not to put theirs or their girl child’s photo in social website which will make them prone to a possible human trafficking.

And these posts went viral in social media bringing a perspective of raising awareness in everyone’s mind. But in a way it spread an absolute wrong perspective about Indian men.

Are we so bad?

Will my wife doubt me for handing over my 3 year old girl child alone for some time with me?

There is an absolute dearth of trust on men. From a society in which we worshiped women as Parvati, Lakshmi and Sarasvati, we are heading towards a society in which no woman believes on any men.

Sick!!!!

In all my life time, I have come across many men. My father, my uncles, my teachers and my co-workers, and I dint find anyone problematic to women in the way how men are portrayed now a days. They all respected their fellow women. So, what made the world to think otherwise?

Let me take your attention to one incident which I saw myself.

It was a rainy day and there was a huge traffic jam. I was wading through the road in my bike. As the vehicles were moving slowly, few people were trying to cross the road to go to the other end. I saw a young lady trying to cross the road concentrating on the vehicles. From opposite direction a guy came crossing the road and went near to the lady and tried to abuse her. This was happening during the peak hour of 6PM traffic in a public place very near to a bus stop. The lady pushed him away and managed to cross the road. Nevertheless she was terrified with that man’s action and gave a staring look to him. In a fraction of moment the guy disappeared in the crowd. This was my first incident of violence against women.

I was pondering on this incident. That man had so much of reflex, that in the few seconds of road crossing he wants to abuse a fellow citizen. Now, how can I send my wife outside to work! Will this incident not come to my mind all the time?

This is an example of a negative incident. Such incident happens all over India and through the social media and digital media the incident are coming to the lime light. Result: No one trusts anyone. Especially no men are considered to be trustable, no matter whether they are a relative or a friend or a teacher or anyone for god sake.

In one of our parliament session, respected MP of Kannauj madam Dimple Yadav spoke in Loksabha in a discussion under rule 193 on the need to have stringent legislation to check increasing atrocities against women and children in the country. This speech was posted in YouTube.

The most worrisome thing is the comments that came for that video. Instead of commenting on the problem that is been discussed, there were comments on the madam’s appearance and the speakers behaviour staring at her etc. What the hell!

We behave so genuinely to our mother, to our sister, to our kid and to our wife. When we go out, our behaviour differs with strangers. Why So!

More than in public, when we sit in front of internet our behaviour utterly changes. Why So!

This behavioural change is clearly evident in the comments and post made in the video discussed above in this blog.

I would like to point to the below two facts based on various reports,

1. Pornography websites stands in 43^rd position in terms of most used websites in India.
2. Men are more prone for committing crimes when they are in the influence of alcohol than when they are normal.

Let’s assume that our government blocks all the pornographic sites. Are we going to say that it’s our right to decide what to watch and what not to watch in internet and blocking pornography is against net neutrality? I want at least one guy to say this and show his face.

If men under the influence of alcohol are committing crimes more, then, who is the actual culprit? The one who drinks it! Or the one who gives license and allows it to be sold!

There are few miscreants in the society who we should and can deal with law. But there are wonderful people all around us, why losing the trust on them.

When I ask this to my wife, she had her answer ready,

“If you are not an upper middle or high class women, then you will get abused at least once from your 12 to 35 years of age. Which miscreants you are saying to deal with law? The guy who simply puts his hand on us in public? The guy who disturbs us from the rear seat of bus, train, theatre? The guy who stands beside us in the crowded places? I have always thought, all guys would be sex maniac when it comes to strangers. Don’t those guys have mom, sisters and wife? They do! But all that matters is whether they care or not for it.”

That was a serious concern! So it’s not the perspective of women that has to change. But the behavior of guys! Do we respect our opposite gender?

Isn’t this an important aspect which we have to keep our children aware of? Isn’t this a certain responsibility of a parent? Our current generation is sick! Don’t we have the responsibility of curing it?

I want my mother to trust me!

I want my wife to trust me!

I want my sister to trust me!

I want my co-worker to trust me!

I want my fellow citizen to trust me!

If my little girl grows up and have a kid for her, she should trust me and give her kid to me and say “papa please take care of her, we are going out”

Will this become a bigger ask? Am afraid!