Punish these rogues on street, quick and severe, corrupt PM, CM, minister or MP no more bothers me...

The corrupt gas agency owner who operates gangs to sell cooking gas in black and harasses households, the cop who holds you at traffic for sole purpose of warming his own pocket, the public bus operator who runs over children every day and gets away, the auto rickshaw driver whose business is part of organized mafia, the touts at passport and transport offices, the thugs who call themselves shopkeepers, the street eatery operator nearby who spits and pisses at same place, the Govt. bank clerk who thinks you are begging when you withdraw your own money, unsolicited caller on cell, THESE are people who must be caned in public, if not shot dead out rightly, till it cripples them. 

Romanticism of howling at corruption at high places does not excite me. 

The top-down method to fight corruption has been tested and failed again and again. Thinking that when people at higher places will be caught everyone will be scared, is like living in false hopes. Do you think once PM is held, auto rickshaw will behave like mouse? That can go on, but get these everyday rogues off my back immediately I am tired...

Which India we want....

Hameed was my elderly colleague in Mumbai, nearing his retirement. During 1993 days when even city like Mumbai got into communal frenzy rarely heard of earlier,  I asked him to be careful while travelling. Hameed had been travelling every weekend to Baroda to be with his family. He showed me a 'Janeo'(Yagyopveet) which he had been carrying all his life !! I felt ashamed that our own people had to be so scared of us in their own land. 

When Hitler was after Jews, others were relaxed and some even rejoiced that it is 'they' not 'us,' but later none was spared and heat reached every one who opposed him. Herein Bombay we have seen this happening to south Indians, Gujaratis, Muslims now Biharis... it will go on as religion has nothing to do with this , it's greed and passion for hatred and the power which flows through that. This is how FASCISM works. They will not stop at one community or culture. It's wolf and lamb story and lambs must guard themselves with widsdom and rationale not emotions, lest it is late.

There is another version how we Indians, perhaps, keep the country one. During  Mumbai riots of 92/93 , we used lived at Borivali. It was disgusting and scary to hear that people had been carrying municipal records in hand locating and killing even those who had Muslim sounding names. Many Parsi elderly people were assaulted for that sake. However it was the spirit of Bombay a secular , business and humane city, that the most male residents of our building used to guard whole night during those  riots. That was just for one Muslim family in our building with 100 plus flats. There were many similar stories from those days. 

My friend Lalit used to live in Meera Road amongst predominantly Muslim neighborhood and I was generally worried about him and his family. Somehow I could make contact with him after 4 days during that dark period and he managed to visit  us. I told him to shift to our house till normalcy returns. Lalit said that he has no worry. The local councilor , a Muslim, with his sons and friends visit him almost every day and assure him that no harm will come to him. He said they had formed a committee of youth which patrols at night to guard Hindus living in that locality !!!  

Let  spirit of Bombay rule the nation ...

Muzzling Blogs…

Could attempts to throttle blogging and internet discussions,restricting and spying phone conversations be seen emanating from possibly low level of technical expertise at disposal of Govt? 

It is obvious that no high end IT technologist would love to join Govt. services these days. Since they can’t match the earnings compared to those who are recruited by private IT biggies, they would seek comfort in empowerment. It will be matter of debate that many of the irrational decisions and debates at policy level could be result of this aberration . 

These novo-‘experts’ like old time bureaucrats may love to see themselves behind new genre of public ‘controls’ imagining themselves to be eyes of IT policing and enjoying empowerment. 

Even one of the reason ( beside greed) for the enigma behind seasoned politicians getting sucked into billion rupees scams could be IT brains feeding crisp (and possibly vendor driven) presentations to graying and technologically handicapped politicians and bureaucrats. 

Vendor driven technologies may be introduced at huge costs, usefulness of which even auditor would hardly question due to same lack of knowledge at their end. 

These mediocre technocrats could be one and possibly a serious reason behind the gullibility to which otherwise seasoned decision makers fall for. And also behind some irrational policy discussions .

Dishonesty of political bias appears clear on some TV channels

Couple of English news TV channels have been unashamedly  provoking  and challenging  invited guests leaders for certain behavior in parliament as per the wishes of the anchor.

It is becoming nauseatingly uneasy to digest that all this is sans any private agenda of certain media. Parliamentary democracy is being  reduced secondary to farcical drama being played at TV channels. These channels seem to always have ‘documentary evidences’ for all malignancy our systems has  and that too ‘exclusives’.  Investigating agencies appear to have abdicated their role to TV journo. It was so easy to investigate then why we have millions of pending cases? 

Cosmetically this all looks very appealing where anchors shout down all reasoning while getting supporting applause from 'chosen' guests to make it appear true beyond questioning. Govt. might have failed to pin corrupts down or maybe they are doing it now (gulping bitter pill for good of the country bad for present Govt),but what and how it is being played at TV channels in evenings, is fast track to political anarchy . 


Dishonesty of political bias appears clear on screens of these channels and the way anchors are seen tutoring ‘dos and don’t’ to MPs is a dangerous trend. This must stop. 

The Distance

‘The Distance’  by Saborna Roychowdhury

It was merely a hunch that made me pick this book up from Flipkart, of course on cue from a facebook friend.  

One who has walked past Esplande , New Bazaar, Saltlake, only  a couple of times, would feel such proximity to this city that smell of fish and Bengali sweetmeats would cover me with so much of nostalgia ,  was unimaginable till I finished the last page. ‘The Distance’  eventually emerges as possession worthy to show off.

Mini  was not just ordinary middle class girl , she was strong and decisive young woman. She did what she decided. Always.  Saborna sketched not just the life of Mini with quick broad strokes , she drew a ‘Google  street map’  with micro-details that overwhelmed me with déjà vu of sort as I was made to live her life riding on story form drawn so beautifully . That too with such  concise,  compact style !

Saborna appeared  as if she shadowed some real Mini for years living in her soul and capturing her aspirations ,  noting down her bold acts and pain. Story telling ability of Saborna  is definitely of a seasoned writer and held me captivated till last page.  Angry youth revolutionary Amitav or IITian expat Neel had their version of what life should be about, but it was tales of  women of Calcutta struggling to emerge out from cocooned middle class battles which Saborna narrated with distinctive  élan, that  book is actually about .

Mini epitomized that struggle with mind of her own.And I ended up loving her wishing to fill the vacuum left by Neel and Amitav. That's success of Saborna.