Let the bucks not go to Honeymoon

Its been quite long since I spent time writing anything...I was too lethargic to work on anything. Although I had compiled few drafts, none of them moved forward to be able to post them. Anyways am back with a new post.

Our movies do have biggest impact on our lifestyles, this is an undisputed fact. Especially the teen folks and early twenties folks have biggest influence on them. If asked for the favorite destination for honeymoon, we would refer to a famous movie song and say I wanna go there. What would be the obvious destination for honeymoon in Indian films....without a pause one would say "Swiss". Yes, Switzerland has been most sought after destination for our desi folks. We are smitten by the lush green hill slopes and snow capped hill tops...even our own Kashmir didnt cast that sort of magical spell but Swiss did. Thanks to the film makers, and I came to know therez a train route named after Yash Chopra (cant authenticate this one, but read it somewhere) and a Bollywood Cafe on a hill top as a tribute to our beautiful publicity. Interesting isn't it? 

So do you think only our people have got this honeymoon bug or something else of our origin has this tendency to be piled up there in the beautiful cold country?? Yes, our bucks are fascinated to spend their time off in the treasuries of most securely sealed lockers in the Swiss. Our folks have managed to transport all their black bucks safely to their most favorite destination. 

And our Modiji keeps promising that he wants to bring back the bucks from their honeymoons almost in every international confederation. Even in the recent G20 summit, he called for a close collaborations amongst nations to retrieve the black bucks. This is a mammoth task and for India to win back its unaccounted billions accumulated in Swiss treasuries...I am sure it takes no less than decade if all things fall in place. However ideal his promises and intentions might be, do you think that task is not going to put his own party men at stake?  And would they support him if that is the case? Questions are endless. And just today, a French guy has declared he has the data of Swiss account holders and is ready to help India to nab them. "A French digging Swiss soil to find Indians" Sounds alluring?

Why dont Modiji stop the newly wed bucks ready to go to their honeymoon instead of trying to bring back the already settled NRI bucks? It is rather easy to curb the current accumulation of disproportionate assets rather than digging in those who already have had them for a while...I am not saying let them free but don't let the new happen at least. Many politicians/business people are still planning for quick bucks and ditching the system for doing so. They aim to make as much as they can when the grass is greener on their side and immediately jump on the other side when its starts drying. If this is still let loose without any measures to curb, there will be more and more bucks going out for their honeymoons. You bring one and you send two...this is what will happen if the current systems cannot stop these practices. 

It is rather not surprising to know that a street side vendor can accumulate tons of money which will not have any accounts for the source of earning...sometimes it would not only be his white market dealings but also his other secret trades...but he gets away by bribing the local police patrol most of the time. By the time they find out the seriousness behind his trade, it would too late to bring back the tons he amassed. 

I personally witnessed such people with small business set ups making much better money than those who run industries. Why dont the government make a rule to register the small/petty businesses including the ones that are managed to be carried at/from home. Just because we can evade a few rupees, we should not prefer for items/services that are unaccounted for. There are many petty financiers who make millions in no time...there are no rules or regulations for their dealings...why should such activities be let free. If the government makes an easy and authentic process to register every small business just as one pay his bills at an e-seva centre...it would create an accountability. In order to sell, one needs to be identified and his nature of work be registered and taxed accordingly. 

I know my argument appears to be concentrating only on small scale vendors barring the big whales but they are also equally posing a threat to the development. In almost every dealing, our people got used to dealing part in white and part in black. This practice has to be heavily penalized or stringently punished to bring barely any change. At least then, we can stop our bucks to have Swiss dreams. 

Cheers

Jyostna

#NowTrending

Hello Pals,

#TheEbola

The Ebola epidemic is scaring everyone in and around West Africa. There are studies which say only direct contact of bodily fluids of symptomatic patient will affect another person but the rumors are saying it could be an airborne disease. All in all it is indeed a very serious epidemic which claimed 1000 odd lives in a short span. Reports show that there are ample chances for the epidemic to spread to Nigeria and this place attracts many business people worldwide. Anyone planning to fly around Africa, make sure you avoid the trip. World Health Organization has declared Ebola as International Emergency. The drug to kill the virus is still under research and two infected patients were flown to Atlanta to experiment on the same purpose. While many Americans condemned this act, scientists confirmed as long as there is no direct contact and they are in quarantine zones, there shouldn’t be any spread of it in North America. Anyways it’s time to place our hopes on the scientific miracle, a drug that can kill this dangerous virus.

#GovernorSacked

An eighty year old governor has been sacked from her position for alleged corruption and other maleficent activity charges. She is Kamala Benwal, former Gujarat state governor. Why I was appalled at this news was because the age of the lady was shockingly irrelative to the charges she was said to be guilty of. At her age, I wonder what motivates her to be still corrupt to amass more wealth or still poke into matters that should be almost trivial to her,..like the state affairs of Lokayukta appointment. Firstly I don’t buy the fact that these aged persons can hold key positions in politics or governance except for sitting on the advisory bench. Now, given her age the row of charges she was sacked for is ascertaining that our politicians (99%) are and will be greedy till their last breath. There was a famous line quoted in one of the regional flicks by a bureaucrat to the chief minister that ‘a politician wants to earn so much that his grand childrens’ grand children can live filthy wealthy lives’. Kamala’s case appears no less than this. Well, the congress as usual alleged that this is political vendetta as she has been their representative for long. But what about the record of misusing government funds for her personal pleasures and trips? There was another lady who can’t be missed when discussing misuse of government funds as she holds a higher caliber of the same. She is none other than ex-president Prathiba Patil…another white clad and veiled embezzler who was famous for her foreign trips at government expense. We cant forget another infamous rather cheap scandal involving another ex-governor ND Tiwari for going to the extent of using Raj Bhavan for exercising his personal pleasures.  If governors and presidents too prove that they are no less than any common politician, how can we expect the system to be in place?

#HalfGirlfriend

The Half Girlfriend is the new release by India’s biggest selling book writer Chetan Bhagat. This name has almost become a household name today. Needless to mention that this guy had managed to capture the majority stake of the market…not avid book readers though. There have been arguments in almost all social networks about his writing, books and speeches. He has been acclaimed the best by some, thrashed by some and neutrally remained some others. I could see the craze in non-readers to pre-order the book, which proves this is definitely a rocking trend. I have given answers in Quora many a times about Chetan and his writing, many a times I had to brace the bricks and bats from his fans and sometimes I had to receive the comments from the inbetweeners (who remain neutral because that is another trend) backing Chetan and advising me to be like them and so on and sometimes supported by like minders. I still stick to my opinion that this guy is a writer for the masses,. Masses often look for entertainment not the preaching-teaching stuff or more intriguing stuff bores them to death, so this guy being an MBA from IIM identified the gap for a mass product and catered the same, ensuring his place in the shelves with of course a short life span. I often compare his books to the Bollywood commercial flick contents. For those who argue that he is a writer who writes what he likes, I want to say it again that who denied he is not writing what he likes but I will still deny that he is nowhere close to the greatest authors the history has witnessed. And I am not saying this for the sake of criticizing or to show off that I read masterpieces and nor because his intellect is making me insecure. His books are all about love stories, break-up stories and other college gossip stories, which many movies cater….I didn’t find anything new to appreciate hence his books don’t lure me. About the writing style, it dint captivate me either. Anyways to be blunt, he is a mediocre writer and better business man who knows the pulse of the mass and caters what goes well with them.

#DisgustingPhotoshoot

Next and disgusting story is about a photo shoot by Raj Shetye depicting the nirbhaya issue in the bus. The photos released were shockingly mocking the incident. To take such case as a theme, one should either be totally out of mind or foolishly thinks that people will accept any damn creation. His response seems to belong to the latter. Fashion photos are limited to the magazines and internet most of the time, however the photographer quoted he wanted to throw some light on such incidents…yes he did throw light on that incident but that was totally uncalled for. Especially the designer wear chosen for the female model simply proves the comments made by the senseless true….that revealing clothes are reason for rapes. Intertwining this with the discussion in Rajyasabha yesterday which was regarding child abuse and rapes, one of the MP preached women to wear dignified clothes. His comment may be true to some extent but how does that apply to the context? While he himself has been part of film industry where women are encouraged to dance in skimpy clad clothes and obscene item songs, he came out advising the rest of the women in the country to dress decently. What sexuality does a 5year old has to seduce a beast?? And to make such comment in this context is extremely senseless. We have a bunch of such morons in most prominent posts..be it in media or politics. One man thinks showing the rape in fashionable sense is creation and another man thinks traditional wear can keep rapists at bay….out of words for both of these super thinkers.

So the trends are any positive? No right…looks like am also smitten by the media bug which highlights only the negative news on its headlines. Next time, I will try to come up with posts projecting positivity. Anyways this is just a post mocking the hashtagged witter style trends. Will come up a another one shortly.

Cheers

Jyostna

The Brand Ambassador??

Hi

Its been a longggg while since I wrote...I was not too busy but was a bit out of this to write down something. But am back with a new post. Hereafter, I thought I am gonna add one picture that I clicked for every post of mine...I hope you'll like it.
Today's picture is a rainbow that popped up after a long rainy day at London UK. Dont forget to get your lens ready when the rainbow pops up.

Digging in to the topic I want to express my opinion about....celebrities and controversies go hand in hand...no matter how trivial the issue is, it can be blown out of proportion in their case. The same has been happening with the Indian Tennis ace Sania Mirza. Since she has entered the limelight, many controversies have been floating around her....be it the choice of her dress or her outspoken attitude or her choice of life partner. 

While being a public personality its quite common to be surrounded by gossip mongers and rumor columns and several unwanted opinions and advises, it isn’t right to be scrutinized and judged because she chose someone from a country that the nation had been rivals with for a long time. The nationality of her partner has been a topic for discussion every time she comes out on the public platform. Her achievements have never been able to save her out of these controversies. Whom she wants to choose as her life partner is entirely her choice and anyone except her family should have nothing to say. Using her choice of getting married to a man from a rival country as a reason to show that she doesn't suit to hold any positions in this country is absolutely ridiculous. 

And now, the Telangana CM choosing her as brand ambassador for the state has been the most discussed topic in the social networks and in the media. This included unwanted comments and hateful opinions criticizing her for several reasons. The reasons to oppose her as the brand ambassador turned out too harsh and became another reason to expose the mean insecure remarks our people can resort to. The way she had to prove her identity time and again to answer such people is also not encouraging. Whether her being chosen as brand ambassador of Telangana is justified or not, the hateful remarks against her are not appropriate at all.

But, coming to the discussion of Mr.KCR choosing her as brand ambassador of the state,...there can be several reasons why he shouldn't have chosen her in haters opinion but there are definitely many other reasons why she is not the right person to be where she was chosen to be. 

First and foremost reason is comparison with other eligible people who seem to be appropriate to hold the position better than her and who may not be opposed by majority of the public. But Mr.KCR always has been the dictating kind of person who hardly cares about the public opinion and this decision is no less an evidence to that. The questions like what was her contribution to Telangana in particular?? how does she precede many other eligible people? why does she need to be given a huge amount of money if this was something an act done to support the newly formed state as she mentioned in her comments? were answered. The cheque worth Rs 1Cr give to her became equally critical as the person chosen. At the same time, the Olympic medal winner Saina Nehwal who also belonged to the state was not even paid the prize money she was promised. How come this act seems justifying? Instead they could have paid Saina Nehwal her prize money before going for this. But this did not happen leading to more controversy. KCR however seemed deaf ears to all the comments that were being hurled across. Also the hypocritical version of this issue is that, KCR issuing citizen cards to core Telanganites raised questions like when other people who have stayed out of Telangana for different reasons/were not born in Telangana but brought up in there do not fall in to Telaganite category how come a person who was not born in there and is married to a man from different country and stays outside the country is eligible for an honourable post?? Learned Mr.KCR only should answer this.

There were also comments that there are strong political motives behind choosing her...especially to appease the Muslim vote bank, which I think is true. But again, brand ambassador should be a person who can be relatable to the common man of the state...unlike a person who is mostly known only among educated circles. Keeping in view that many rural areas of Telangana are still underdeveloped and disconnected to the happenings around the world, the person should be able to connect with everyone as such only then the brand works…else it would be a namesake post. 

I personally think, though not a Telanganite...this decision of the state to choose Sania Mirza as brand ambassador is not justifying for many reasons. However, hurling abuses and hateful remarks against her nationality is also not right.

The hypocrisy of this topic is that, the people who called Sonia Gandhi as an Italian even after her being married to Rajiv Gandhi and after living in this country for several years, also called Sania as Pakistani….why is Sania who is born and brought up here and won medals for this land not an Indian??? When Sonia who was also born and brought up in Italy an Italian? If Sonia remains an Italian because she was born there, then Sania too remains an Indian by origin no matter where she lives or whom she marries. When Satya Nadella was choosen as CEO of Microsoft, we rejoiced that he was Indian more than anything, in spite of the fact that he is an American citizen although originated in India…and works outside India. Why were we able to acknowledge him as Indian when he doesn’t live or work in India and holds an American Citizenship?? This remains the biggest hypocrisy of our country.

 I think the remarks to oppose the decision should be sensible and secular...otherwise it only proves our intolerance and insecurity. 

Cheers

Jyostna

"In"sensitive Rant

Hello Readers,

Its been extremely long since I wrote anything. I had written couple of posts but really missed to post them in this space. I couldnt post them later as they dont seem relevant anymore. Anyways I do miss this space and will try to be regular.

What really motivated me to come back and write this post was the recent Beas River Tragedy at Himachal Pradesh. The students who lost their lives were being mourned by the entire country. While it is really sad to know so many lives were lost due to an unfortunate incident, I do think the media has been extremely crazy with this incident. The amount of attention given and the way it was all twisted and presented cannot be appreciated. It is certainly so tragic to the families who have lost their hopes, but it is not because of a negligent instructor or an official of the Largi dam. In any excursion trips, it is quite common that students do get over excited and tend to break rules. Breaking rules is not always safe. Incidents like this could happen. How can anyone blame others for this sort of incident. What if there was no dam and it was natural gush from the upstream who would the media blame? the instructors for not monitoring them or the college authorities for organizing a trip like that? or the parents who sent their young ones to the trip?. I may appear insensitive making these comments. But I cant agree with the media's over enthusiastic and biased reporting. Also the families, I do express my heartfelt sympathies for them but I dont think they should start blame game to make it worse. And of course the co-students of the trip and college authorities shouldnt really be biased when they judge situations like this. 

Its a river with dam upstream and there could be a sudden surge at any time. This might be unknown to the students but the flow that started coming can be clearly seen. Even in the video released revealed that the first few seconds clearly show a very low level of water and ample space for the students to escape the flood. But only until the water level rised the students did not start to make a move. This was clearly seen. How could this act be some one else's responsibility? When you are visiting a new place its a common sense fact that you need to double check your personal safety. One's personal safety cannot be responsibility of a second person. Students were not school goers but matured enough to understand what is safe and unsafe. They were just pretty excited to see natural scenic beauty of the place that they ignored the safety issues. At least the first instance of flow was not ferocious to not be escaped. It was either the delay in plan or spontaneity or sheer excitement that ruled out options for escaping. However, it was brave of some students who risked their lives to save their friends. I have been seeing Facebook posts from the students of the college posting that this was an injustice act done to their friends. I am seriously in doubt that if these students were blindly carried away by the media attention. There has to be some common sense judgement before we get into allegations and that too allegations that involve other people's lives. Those students and youngsters who blindly support this because you think its human to do so, please do give a second thought. Are you not aware of incidents where people get washed away in gushing waters and should know your limits while crossing such borders?? Are you not aware of escaping a flooding channel as soon as you realise it may rise?? Are these not common sense thoughts??? Am sorry for those students who lost lives but I wish you guys were a little more careful and alert. As a saying goes "Time and Tide wait for none"...this was nothing but unfortunate.

But what about the announcements of exgratia by the ministers?? Does that seem a valid justification for the parents? What about people who have been washed away in floods? Has the government or media been so concerned in such cases? Every now and then, we witness incidents like school kids being washed away in flooding waters of small creeks in villages, but have they been compensated for those incidents? This was a fun trip and they wantedly went beyond danger points spotting no sign of water. And unfortunately water started flowing and claimed lives. Had they been a little more alert and quick, at least another 10 people would have been alive. RIP dear youngsters. Again I may sound rude but I dont see a point why they should be compensated?

I had a discussion with one of my colleagues who worked for long in the Himachal/Uttarkand region researching the quality of soil, ground and nature of rocks etc. He opined that this region is an extremely sensitive region and is not suitable for heavy habitation. Whereas our people have ignorantly over developed it to spoil the eco-system of that region. Uttarkand floods last year was the best answer we humans could get. However, we are still going for more and more irresponsible development. While this is not completely the reason, the infrastructure development has brought in immense tourist attraction for this place, but its often ignored that there are many hidden dangers too. One such is this. Although this is not a natural disaster, this could have been avoided. 

Coming to the authorities and their negligence to inform, don't we know how well the system in those regions has functioned all these days? And how could we risk our lives trusting some unknown authorities? What happened to signals given by the locals? Why were they ignored? I think its high time we stop blaming different people for the incident and erase the negative propaganda that the media has been making. It was not anyone's fault but misfortune. My deepest condolences to families and friends who have lost their loved ones. 

Jyostna

Every Other Day

Hi Readers,

Election fever it is these days...whom do we chose is the biggest debate going on. Have you chosen the right candidate yet? I know there are too many choices in some states, but do chose with your wise instincts, do not go by caste, region, community and stupid freebies. I do have a lot to write on this topic…will soon do it.

Coming to today's post, I am confused, worried and scared to start writing on this topic. My heart trembles before I open the news to read, before I step out of the home, and whenever I have to travel alone. As we hear more and more incidents about the assaults, rapes, molestations, abuses against women, the question of safety arises every now and then. The pain that comes through all this is hard to bear. Though we aren’t related, we aren’t there to witness it directly; still the news shakes and leaves us numb. We tend to become over careful, too alert, too doubtful and worry too much about safety. It is a shame to a country like ours which has had a culture of respecting or treating women like Goddesses and where there are sayings like "Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata" is now in the clutches of those few rascals. Why should the country bow down to such mean men? Why are we unable to stop these incidents once for all? There are so many debates, talk shows, opinion polls, law amendments, discussions, campaigns, and protests about violence against women. But was there any difference? Why do these men not fear any punishment? Are they too bold to commit any sort of crimes? Or are they immune to the judiciary? Or are they too rich to buy the system? I have a million questions to ask them. 

All these days we have been asking the victims about their trauma or about the incident or their future plans etc., why should we even bother the victim? Sympathizing and reminding the incident is also another sort of crime in my opinion. The society in a way is compelling her to remember the incident always. Calling them ‘rape victim’ until they breathe their last is a sort of an embarrassment to them. One of the NGO founders who works for women's welfare has said that it is the society which injures the victim more than the rapist in many cases. We as a society are trying to keep the talk go on so that she never forgets what has happened to her and she weeps every other night about the incident.  When these incidents happen, we always start judging the victim....as in why she was there at that hour, why she was alone, why she was with a boyfriend, why she had boarded a private bus, why she took a cab....the questions are endless. But, have we ever thought, in spite of all the precautions, worst things do happen in public?

The sinners aren't ashamed of groping or molesting or abusing women in public, why would they be afraid of raping in private? Groping has become so common that even women got over it. This statement might seem harsh but how many of us are fighting it back when we are groped at a public place? There are many women who don't want to fuss about it and they think it’s an embarrassment to fight it back. As long as we shut ourselves down, the abuse keeps happening.

On the other hand, why are we not evicting the sinners from the society? Why should they be masked when they are arrested? What do they have to hide? They should be publicized so that the society knows who the criminals are. There is no point in masking neither their identities nor their faces. Even if they escape the punishment, the society should be able to punish them by discriminating them against their basic rights just as the way we have been doing with the victims. The TV shows have also been biased in this aspect, because the focus is always on the victim and not on the criminal. The very renowned show Satyamev Jayate’s recent episode has done a lot of research from the victim's end but not from the criminal's end. While I do appreciate their efforts to bring out many facts, I think given the resources the team has, it would have been easier for them to approach the criminals and understand their mindset. I know it may appear stupid when I say that. But, the way to stop these atrocities is to understand the root cause of the problem and try to eliminate it as much as possible. Very few researchers have done a study on this aspect. However, I have to contradict my own statement here because the current scenario doesn’t allow us and sit back and think upon the causes. It’s high time to act against them. I was wondering why our law won’t implement stringent and harshest punishments such as castration and amputation. Because, the rate of crime against women has escalated in such a waythat, many outsiders starting seeing India as a rape capital. The country which was famous for its great culture and tradition is now famous for worst reasons. Where are we heading?

As Gandhiji said, "it is real freedom to a country when women can walk fearlessly in public at the stroke of midnight hour", I do think it is true. Lot of mid 80s and 90s movies have quoted this but we only din’t care about it then as much as we do now. And we are no way close to that sort of freedom.  It’s high time for the society to start seeing the other side of the coin. Stop pointing fingers at the victim. Let her forget what had happened or at least let it confine to her nightmares, let us all do not add to her trauma. Next time you come across someone like that, do not express your sympathies nor express your anger against the crime. Behave as if nothing had happened with her. I have written earlier that it’s important to cleanse the roots before protesting against these incidents. But the growing incidents insist me to change my mind. Now I want to ask why we don’t implement the barbarous punishments to curb the violence.  Just as a tumor which can kill the body if not got ridden, mean men who commit such acts should also be got ridden from the society as soon as possible so as to send a strong warning to those who intend to take the aftermath easy. I don’t want to read these incidents every other day. If I have to say a strong prayer, I would ask this violence to be stopped forever!!!

Cheers

Jyostna

#HNY

Happiest of New Years to all dear readers.

2013 has been a year of learning to me. Learnt to endure, explore and many more things. I wish 2014 will be a joyful year and a memorable one too.

Resolution time it is and as usual I made up a list of resolutions. I so wish I accomplish them successfully unlike previous years where I partially accomplished my resolutions. I am sharing them here so I can come back and check this space out and see how many worked with you all as the witnesses.

1.)    Shed some more kilos…I am on a spree to shed kilos which as you all know is not very easy, you gotto eat things which won’t impress your tongue.

2.)    Exercise at least thrice a week…which again is a daunting task as I hardly have time during the weekdays, but I still have to make time.

3.)    Go on a holiday….I have been longing to go on a beautiful vacation but never planned it seriously. This year I shall make it happen!

4.)     To Paint – Off late I am so motivated to do some painting but never managed to make time. This year I sure want to make some time for this.

5.)    To Give – giving is a pleasure; I wanna relive this pleasure by giving to those in need.

6.)    To Save – this is definitely the hardest, I have always been a spendthrift and never idealized the concept of saving until I got some jolts last year, and hence I decided I’ll save some bucks to avoid the risky route.

7.)    To go greener – as an environmental engineer, I had the concern for the environment and I do my little bits, now I wanna take a step further and do a little more.

8.)    To get a driver’s license – to drive in India is not something I would love to do but the necessity makes it mandatory for me to drive….my automatic transmission driving skill will not fetch me a DL, so gotto get the harder way.

I think I already made a long list. Folkies please wish me the best to keep up my resolutions and so will I to you.

Finally herez my mantra for the Happy year & Happy Life

Live with purpose, Say the courageous thing, Celebrate the simple gift & Follow your dreams!!!

 

Cheers

Jyostna