Reply to the article 'Dissent and Aadhaar'

This is in reference to the article titled „Dissent and Aadhaar“ appearing in the Indian Express issue of May 8, 2017. http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/dissent-and-aadhaar-4645231/

 

I read the article with a lot of interest, however with all due respect to him; I disagree with the author on several accounts. Firstly why would any UID create dissent? This is not a new concept and has been widely implemented in various countries of the world. Inspite of all these UID systems in western countries they have not reached the zero-crime state, so neither will we. In European countries and also the USA where, everything works fine just with one’s unique social security number, one can access medical care and so much more with this ID. Of course India is a huge country compared to other smaller countries of Europe geography and population wise and hence implementation will take time. There will be technical difficulties and mistakes. We are still getting there. Initially Aadhaar was proposed to be a mandatory thing but later had to be declared voluntary due to opposition from many sections of the country. Making it voluntary defeats the entire purpose of this project. But as you rightly pointed out that it will prevent identity theft, which is a big concern given the numerous terrorist attacks (BTW, terrorism is a global nuisance now). We are dealing with many more issues apart from corruption. Firstly the connection of LPG with Aadhar has curbed black marketing of which every common person has been a victim of, some or the other time. Getting the correct spelling or age on the Aadhar card is not such a big hassle. Why should the widow claiming pension, understate her age? You talk of corruption at contractor level. Sadly corruption is a huge problem at all levels in our society. So Aadhar at least removes it at the lower level, eliminating duplicity.  The BOFORS and 3G/4G kind of corruption cannot be prevented with this. Our nation is fighting a battle at so many fronts. We are evolving and Aadhar is not the end. It only makes the life of common person easier, getting a SIM card, registering agreements, opening bank accounts, applying for passport, licence etc. All these things had become painful for the common man who was always caught in red-tapism and bureaucracy.

I am very optimistic that Aadhar has come as a boon and should be made mandatory. It will bring honesty and integrity among citizens. I have seen the benefits of it in my life as a common citizen and even to my domestic helpers who belong to the lower income group. Such articles only try to create confusion and hence ‘dissent’ they talk about in the article.

The world turning right!

I hold no expertise in politics but am so thrilled to write about this issue which obviously is not new to many, but  which I began discovering only recently.  Narendra Modi’s clean sweep win in the Indian elections in May 2014 and the win of Donald Trump, were unimaginable for many. For many leftists and so-called liberals it was equal to rise of another Hitler. When about two and a half years ago, Modi won the elections it never surprised me, maybe because I am biased towards him. But being not such a fan of Trump I was as surprised as others to no end. Initially I thought America is largely sexist and hence elected Trump over Hillary.

While reading and finding more about this win, I realised that Trump won despite all his dirty laundry and despite the entire US media being against him. So what made it possible? He may be right winged or with a dictator streak (as is being propogated), it waits to be seen. He is sexist, misogynist, racist, war-monger and much more, yet the mandate stands with him.

All this indicates then, the rise of the rightists. Even parts of Europe are predicted to see far-right heads in upcoming elections say in France, Hungary, Austria and maybe UK and Germany too. Why so? I think maybe in the past two decades, globalisation has not achieved the desired success. Probably localisation has become the need of the hour. These rightists have been accused of many things and primarily of racism. Maybe so because they really talk about reforms and benefits for their own race which is their fellow countrymen.  They talk of ample jobs for their countrymen. They talk of fight against radicalism-generated terror. They talk of curbing the immigrant crisis. Maybe it is time to look inwards and acknowledge the real issues facing the real people. The ‘still developing’ countries want to jump to the ‘developed’ bracket. The developed and super powers are fed-up of losing their jobs to the cheaper outsourcing. Industries in one’s own country are far and few. Self-Reliance is decreasing. And all in the name of globalisation. I think this is the most abused word of today. You can defend any ill-logic by throwing in globalisation, today. So what the Indians and Americans probably saw in the rightists was Nationalists and may be they are. It is easy to associate both, as they can both stem from the same needs. So even Europe seems to be turning right.

But one must not forget that about half a century ago, Hitler rose to power under such circumstances and on such needs. So maybe we need to be cautious and smart to be able to realise, when a nationalist can turn into a fascist. In fact the early leaders of Freedom Party (FPO) of Austria were SS officers. This party as of now is a strong contender for ruling party in upcoming Austrian elections.


So maybe we need to be cautious and smart to be able to realise, when a nationalist can turn into a fascist. And we the people alone have the power to show our power.

I came across many articles while reading about this issue and links of some I am sharing here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/19/the-rise-of-the-far-right-in-europe-is-not-a-false-alarm/

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://time.com/4504010/europe-politics-swing-right/&ved=0ahUKEwjjmdHL-57QAhWDuI8KHVUsA1EQFgg2MAI&usg=AFQjCNG0z1vv0gvgGgjtcbTa-Ztl-iyalg&sig2=C4fIsxDnCffEEyW3WFrysQ

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36150807

I am still learning and so your inputs are valuable.

What a busy day!!

This is my husband’s favourite quote these days. One of the ‘mashoor’ dialogues of the character Dr. Mashoor Gulati from Kapil Sharma’s comedy show. I am writing this while watching one of those episodesJ

I wanted to pen down this really busy day, actually the past few busy days for memory. We have started renovation of our home, a long pending task. Nothing else has changed. Kids go to school, to their extra-curricular activities and I have a busy schedule at college (I am studying, yes!). We have made plenty of rounds of the tiles market, the granite shops etc. but today we wanted to finalise everything and I had a test at college too. So, in the morning we realised that we need to vacate half the house in a speedy manner. I rushed off to college after that and around afternoon, from there, joined my husband to purchase tiles. During all this while we had to go from shop to shop, take quotations, and refuel the scooter. On the way we saw the ‘Tajiya’ procession for Moharram. We returned by 6:00 in the evening and there were more inspections and discussions to be done and we had not yet had our lunch. In the 10 minute window we ate quickly, after which I went to drop my daughter to her badminton class. There too the traffic was crazy, because a football match was being played at the stadium where my daughter trains. After coming home, the tempo of deliverables arrived and the unloading went off till late into the night. At night after having dinner now we are just relaxing before going to bed.

I wish to do some blogs on the challenges faced while renovating and the approaches we used and the lessons we learnt. Maybe some day!

The rantings of an optimistic mind----Why Hindus worship the Peepal tree......

It pains me to see the newspaper full of stories about rationalists a.k.a atheists, their deaths, the Sanatans, the RSS and to top it all Hinduism or Hindutva trivialised by the self-appointed watchdogs of Hinduism. Hinduism being such a free religion, it has become very easy to have thousands of sects, guides, and leaders (read God men) and, equally easy it is to curse and swear upon your own religion. It is very fashionable and trendy to condemn your own religion if you are a Hindu. Also, nowadays I find people feeling embarrassed to even claim to be a Hindu. Hinduism has been very cleverly equated to saffronisation and that in turn is spoken about in whispers as if it were the disease about which no one talks openly.

Anyways, I am just attempting to write about very small traditions or you can call them rituals, which have lost their significance today and are ready to be buried as superstition. These are things which I feel uncomfortable discarding just because they are not trendy any more. I refuse to believe that my ancestors, thousands of years ago were fools who, without any thought made up some rituals at random, and then passed it on to us to be only rejected and thrown away. So, I am just making an effort to think what could be the scientific basis for these rituals. Some I have learned from people, books, internet and some I make up as I go, of course with a scientific or an over-imaginative mind. You are welcome to add, comment, suggest and criticise. I would encourage you to make me wiser.

I begin with why Hindus worship the Peepal tree. I used to ponder, why only the Peepal tree and why not Rose or Lily or some other. This tree which is not so common to find, finds mention in many of our holy scriptures. But I do not want to go into those legends. I simply state my reasoning below:

1.     I cannot establish its authenticity, but many people claim that it has been scientifically proven that Peepal tree can make oxygen even during the night. Even at night, it takes in carbon-dioxide and expels oxygen.

2.     If you look at the Peepal tree, it is a huge canopy like leafy tree with a long thick trunk and all the leaves just branching out. It looks like a huge umbrella, making it ideal for a large number of people to sit under it. Also the leaves, if you notice, have a hand-fan like structure, which, when the wind blows, make it a little stronger. So you will feel less hot under the tree than under any other tree. For that reason even Mangoes and Banyan are such trees and these trees also find an important place in Hindu culture.

3.     As per Wikipedia, due to the structure of the leaves, the leaves of this tree move continuously, even when the air around is still and no wind is blowing. Just imagine the blessing it is, in hot summers. That is why I love Hinduism; we attributed this movement of leaves to Gods residing in the leaves and turned it into something pious and worth preserving.

4.     The ritual of watering it daily and tying a thread around it could have been to promote many such trees in an era devoid of electric fans and air-conditioners. Make it into a religious ritual and it becomes easy to take care of community resources. It was that simple. 

5.     I think tying the thread could have been to support the weak trunk of the baby tree. Like we too have to do with the young plants which have not yet grown into a full thick-trunked tree, we need to tie its small weak shoots to give it support. And in an era devoid of nylon ropes, the organic 'soot' or cotton thread would break at times. So the ladies turned it into a religious ritual and that aspect of caring for the young Peepal was taken care of. 

6.     Also, the Peepal leaves and bark have numerous medicinal uses in the Ayurveda....an ancient Indian way of treatment.

7.     In ancient times people would construct a small seat like concrete structure around the tree called ‘chabutra’ for men and women, old and young to sit while the children played in the shade of the tree. This brought about a social connect among residents, which the air-conditioners of today cannot.

So weren't our ancestors wise enough to make it easy to promote such a useful tree by attaching some simple rituals with it? And with so many benefits attached to the tree why not promote it.

A not-so-good experience with Vidya Valley School

We returned to Pune on August 1, 2015 from Germany, but only after a short stay at my husband’s home town. The day we landed, which was a Saturday, we washed-up, got ready and went to Vidya Valley School for kids’ admission. We didn’t want to waste even a single day. We were pretty confident that the school would take back our kids as the principal Ms. Sengupta had herself assured me before leaving for Germany. We happened to speak to Mr. Gupta who already raised doubts about our son having to repeat a year. Anyways he called us again on Monday afternoon when the teachers would be relatively free and then they would test my son for concepts of class 7 (which he had completed in Germany). We promptly reached the school on Monday and after a lot of waiting we were told that my son would be needed to appear for class 8 tests. The students of class 8 have already finished a lot of syllabus in last 2 months and so they would be testing my son for the same. It came as a shocker as we had not anticipated this. Plus any sane person would understand that this is unfair on the child when one knows he has not attended class 8 for even a single day. Anyways the next day being Tuesday he was called upon to take tests in Physics and Bio. We came home and helped Vishnu prepare the entire 6-7 hours that we had in hands for these tests. He borrowed books from his friends and even got a test paper for Bio. On Wednesday he was asked to appear for Chemistry and Maths. We repeated this procedure for our son. In Maths too he got the test paper. Coincidentally he got the same papers for Bio and Maths. And these two subjects he performed extremely well. Oh! And yes my daughter too took a test for English and Maths though she is in grade 4. After this we waited more than a week to hear from them. My husband was getting frustrated and finally called up Mr. Gupta. Thankfully he arranged for us to meet the principal the same day. Upon meeting the principal (of course after a long wait) she said that my son would need to repeat class 7. This was a great disappointment. Initially they tried to pin it on my son getting the test paper in advance. But when we suggested a re-test or an interview then and there itself they diverted to reasons like a huge gap. The principal said that she does not know what Vishnu learnt there but here students have learnt so many other things like music, guitar ort etc. Well in this whole discussion the bottom line was that he will repeat and there is to be no debate. As Mr. Gupta is so fond of talking more and listening less we could not explain much, our side of the story. He said that now don’t go home thinking if it was a battle won or lost. Of course I will think it was a battle lost. Because you make me think that I made a mistake by shifting to Germany for a year. No one in this world should relocate elsewhere because then they will repeat the entire thing. My child might want to take a sabbatical or break later in his life for further studies or anything else. It is not required now to make him lose a year. And if we meant to hide the fact of getting the test paper of two subjects in advance we would have not asked our son to tell the truth if anyone questioned him. I can bet he must have scored better than 50% of the class who has done class 7 in VVS. How can the school guarantee that my son is not well prepared for class 8 while their other students are? Also his past records at Vidya Valley and his teachers will tell how sharp a kid he was. Plus this in itself is creditable that he scored so well after getting the test papers when he had only 6-7 hours in hand combined for two subjects to prepare. Only a sharp kid can prepare so well in this limited time even when you have the papers. Though, we know that he just went through those papers and did not just prepare the papers. We let him see those in the end when he had prepared the entire subject.

My son himself refused to go to VVS in class 7 because of shame that his friends will be ahead of him and that too for no sane reason. When we asked Mr Gupta and Ms Sengupta how they plan to tackle this psychological impact on my child, they said we will need to talk. As if all this talk will remove the bullying that will ensue. It looked as if they did not want to take him in the first place and were looking for a way to refuse. In his new school after just attending for a week, his science teacher told us that he is a very bright and positive child. She was surprised that VVS did not want to take him in class 8, because no school would want to lose a student like my son. Well that was enough for me. Ms Sengupta reasoned that Vishnu had not read any classics in class 7. Maybe not....but he had read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and done an assignment on it. He had enjoyed reading it and had got very good grades for the assignment. I can challenge the school to pick out even ten students from class 8 who are even capable of understanding The Alchemist. Most people read it in adulthood. Also when I told Mr. Gupta and Ms. Sengupta about this, both had expressions of surprise. Well I am clearly unhappy with the treatment meted out to us. But the thing is that one cannot challenge private schools as their authority is supreme. My son was probably underage, a fact I knew all along, but the school realised now and wanted to rectify at the cost of my son’s one year....just because they had overseen it at the time of admission earlier.

The whole episode has left a dent on my mind and makes me regret my return to India sometimes. It leaves me sour. The school had not responded to many of our emails that we sent from Germany. Though they themselves had asked us to write to them in advance.

Also I would like to mention that Vidya Valley school has not till date shared the results of my son with us......maybe because they have something to hide?

Bonn diaries 2

This incident occurred few months back when I was in Bonn. I had written it down but not posted it.

Today had a very nice experience here in Bonn. I was travelling with a bus back home from my course. In a very narrow lane the bus cut in too close to a cycle rider. As the bus driver drove on, the cycle rider chased him at full speed shouting something at him. I heard him say, "Haben Sie Führerschein?" Which translates to "kya aapke paas license hai?" In many such cases I have seen people resort to "tu-tadak". The bus driver stopped the bus and apologised profusely to the cycle rider. He explained that he had not seen the rider and he is extremely sorry for that. Wow! what a civility! Wish we had more such people in the world. As opposed to this, once, I had a bus driver shout at me in Bonn itself. We were travelling with a family pass which allows two adults, 3 children and a bike on the bus if it is not too crowded. it was night time and the bike could have been allowed. The driver did not know the rules nor did he know English. He did not allow us the bike and my husband had to ride the bike home. It was very upsetting. But in any case we wrote a complaining mail to the SWB for which we received a reply promptly. They apologised profusely and asked us to continue using the services. They stood by us and promised to have a word with the said driver and warn him too. This professional handling of a not so pleasant experience makes me wonder why can not everyone be so. Is it actually so difficult to apologise?

new chaar lines

I have returned from Germany about 3 weeks back. Ironically, my last post is about my first day in Bonn and the next one is upon my return from Bonn to India. The transition is always difficult. For me this 'akelapan' or solitude is difficult to express even though I am surrounded by family and well-wishers. Most of the time it brings out the poetess in me. Penned a few lines just a couple of minutes ago. Thought to immortalize them here ;-)

 भूलने का सिलसिला कुछ इस तरह से चला ,
निकली थी क्या करने मुझे पता न चला। 
यादों की यादों से जूझती हूँ मैं ,
अब भी ज़िन्दगी का पता पूछती हूँ मैं।

When I look back at what I created, I find that it aptly describes my state of mind. Maybe that is the reason it came out in the first place. I hope it does not get too boring :-(