Another Freedom Struggle

Its not often that great events repeat themselves. India is not a place that would merit a place in the lexicon of the ordinaries. We are a country of anamolies, of incredible love and unbelievable hate, a country of great thought and abysmal thoughtlessness, however we will always be known as a nation who embraced non violence when the pain was unbearable.

It worked once, and it looks like it will work again. I love Anna Hazare, I hate Anna hazare. I respect him and thank him. I dont agree with all that he does, but that does not dilute my respect for him one bit.

Make no mistake, I have chronicled his life mentally through all that wikipedia and youtube have to offer. He is already a great Indian even before his Ramleela's.
He is my belief that human beings have a soul and there exists a god above.

Enough of rhetoric. Now to business. Read through what the Jan lokapal bill has to offer.

Key features of the Jan Lokpal bill

1.To establish a central government anti-corruption institution called Lokpal, supported by Lokayukta at the state level.
2.As in the case of the Supreme Court and Cabinet Secretariat, the Lokpal will be supervised by the Cabinet Secretary and the Election Commission. As a result, it will be completely independent of the government and free from ministerial influence in its investigations.
3.Members will be appointed by judges, Indian Administrative Service officers with a clean record, private citizens and constitutional authorities through a transparent and participatory process.
4.A selection committee will invite shortlisted candidates for interviews, videorecordings of which will thereafter be made public.
5.Every month on its website, the Lokayukta will publish a list of cases dealt with, brief details of each, their outcome and any action taken or proposed. It will also publish lists of all cases received by the Lokayukta during the previous month, cases dealt with and those which are pending.
6.Investigations of each case must be completed in one year. Any resulting trials should be concluded in the following year, giving a total maximum process time of two years.
7.Losses caused to the government by a corrupt individual will be recovered at the time of conviction.
8.Government officework required by a citizen that is not completed within a prescribed time period will result in Lokpal imposing financial penalties on those responsible, which will then be given as compensation to the complainant.
9.Complaints against any officer of Lokpal will be investigated and completed within a month and, if found to be substantive, will result in the officer being dismissed within two months.
10.The existing anti-corruption agencies (CVC, departmental vigilance and the anti-corruption branch of the CBI) will be merged into Lokpal which will have complete power and authority to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.
11.Whistleblowers who alert the agency to potential corruption cases will also be provided with protection by it.

Now, what I ask of this great movement is for all the followers to be informed of what he/she is supporting.

Start thinking of the implementation challenges in a massive nation like India.Work hard to make Anna's and every Indian's dream a reality.

Work and think more to live in a corruption free India. Dont just fast/ sing songs and waste more fuel in rallies!!

Jai Hind!

Long time no see....

what goes through someone's mind when there's a lot of work to do.....
....usually a lot of work is a term associated with bloody hell i dont want to do this...so to procrastinate is the natural response.....then the mind says...arent you hungy..go get a snack.....suddenly the best movies are on TV and cricket;s interesting...not to mention the brilliant news bits on the internet...and then damn you come across this brilliant site that lets u stream some of your fav movie for free.....the streaming is slow...but u really dont worry about...u enjoy the intermittent bit stream....oh have something to do....life is wat u do in between work....that you dont like doing...:)

I am back

after a long hiatus and with a "Boom" ...bang..... In the interim, we have lost our dear king of Pop, who consumed a cocktail of solids and now lies ina freezer some where unknown to all humanity, while his music lies secure in our hearts. Thanks MJ, for all the music, we love u King of Pop.

Another bright day

Its another bright day in Hyderabad. Its another day of 0 Comments on my Blog. Things are back to normal. My wife thinks I'm Booker material, not that you would risk reading Arvind Adiga to verify that, however general consensus is that less then 0.00003% of all those who read my blogs understand enough to come back.

So the verdict is pretty obvious is'nt it. Everyone cribs abt Saas Bahu serials and cricket overdoses, but who the hell gets the TRP's. Its obvious, been staring at me all along, commercial sells, bloody hell that's why they call it Commercial!!!

Get ready for Phase 2 and a relaunch of my blog. Plethora of mushy love stories and moving apple sellers, and poor auto wala's who are honest to a fault and hardworking Bihari's will surface. Come on not all of it is fictious.

Song sequences too if the mood is right and maybe a couple of fights....hmmm the comedy track is what's amiss......another esoteric post......no wonder them comments vanish!! :) Incorrigible aint I...wait for Beta phase 2.0......

Overheard at the Canteen

The Djokovic: Federer match was in progress. True to my status as a hardworker I was in the cafeteria watching.
A crowd puddled up behind me, and soon I was listening more and watching less...

Person behind me : Hey waat match daa..
Second voice : Federer match man..
PBM: Oh he's winning eh.., hey he's losing
SV: yeah 2 sets down..
PBM: who's he playing with..
SV: Reading from the scoresheet on the screen DOKOVIC (doko' wik)
PBM: why are you pronouncing with J silent..
SV: Come on ya..you pronounce San Jose (as San Hose right) just like that....

hmmmmm.....serbian names in Andhra pradesh....
Let them try Venkata Naga Babu Yediyurula........haaa trick here is nothing is silent......:)

Conversations with Cabbies

Since my relocating to Hyderabad, I have seemed a more cheerful person. I have found time to smell the roses, and breathe some fresh air, oh Okay I am exaggerating, I have not been stuck in traffic. In one amazing instance I reached my office in 10 minutes flat and I repeated it every day for the last 7 days.

However I digress. I wrote to tell you all about the amazing conversations I have been having with cab drivers and auto wallah's for quite some time now.

The Aam Aadmi campaign might have brought Congress to power, but looks like the development is seeping down to all who are willing to work. From the call center/ IT employee who is willing to spend his nights answering phone calls , doing paper work or driving people from work to home and back, there seems to be work for most people.

The upshot is that work is a nice thing. It in simple terms keeps one occupied, no time for negativities. " Every one is so busy, says my cabbie. I went away for Hyderabad 10 years ago and now I come back and feel so bad. This place has grown so different. My frineds didnt have time to talk to me, have to report for work they said and went missing". "Now , its the same case with me. I hardly have any time, my mobile rings and I have to report for work".

Most of the cab drivers I have been talking to, have at some point dawdled about going to the middle east in search of that pot of gold under the rainbow. " Dont!" I assure them with the assurance of a man who can see the future". Though I vehemently throw my argument in favour of india, telling them that the competetive forces will kick in. You will work more sane hours, you will keep making more money, I tell them, and truthfully, that is exactly what I feel. The rupee is getting stronger, cabbies are learning processes, they have to report in punctually. They dont have time for idle chatter, most waiting time is spent catching up with the forty winks. I also talk to them about the emotinal side of the madness, you go back to your family every day or night , now how much money is that worth. They all seem to agree.

They all see the light and its not some idle mirage. Twenty twenty champions we are, but the long battle is what every body will claim is most important. We have learnt to win, its about a lot of things, but its mostly about desire and there's a lot of that in this country.

An autowalah in Chennai was telling me about the new flyovers they were building to the airport, as he pulled into a shell petrol pump. I told him that its a snazzy looking pump. He said, Chennai is going to become like Singapore, only better he tells me. Suddenly the rhetoric and the language of the country is very different. I still know the north east and north west have to catch up, but it will be a matter of time.

Suddenly the tone across the country is not accusatory, its proud, its fearless. Its a country that is realising that its not second to any other in ability, effort, size, beauty, intellect and prosperity.

till the next post.....happy hacking...& chao!

God Fearing

Smeared with ash on my forehead and my arms and the bright glow of sandalwood in the centre of my forhead with a red kumkum mark to add I stepped out of my house. I carried my office satchel and a light bag of my lunch.

"Lets go, he said and I meekly nodded. My cab was waiting. No sooner had I got in, that we set off in motion, sometimes with accelerations that would do rocket engines proud.

I managed to perch myself lightly at the edge of my seat. I always made sure that in addition to the seat belts I always tied myself to the seats. My lips chanted the Vishnu Sahasranama fervently, we were doing 60 kmph on the wrong side. We accelerated.

There was a blur and suddenly we reappeared on the right side of the road, no actually everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road, i relaxed a bit. It was a few buffaloes thinking the grass was greener on the other side. We followed the biffaloes to the right side of the road. We accelerated.The road was filled with Lorries, so many that you thought you were driving in a lorry assembly line. All the lorries were overloaded, slow polluting and overtaking each other. When two lorries try to overtake each other at sub 10 Kmph speeds we loose paitience and so we did.We were overtaking a slow lorry on the left, we didnt see the bus that was coming to the left from in front of the lorry. A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead, the Vishnu Sahasranama was in a loop once again.

We were approaching one of the 1300 intersections that all Bangalore's main roads have. The Tata sumo stood at the intersection. It was waiting patiently. He had let two overloaded sand laden lorries pass. Life didnt seem fair to the Sumo driver, it was always he who let the other guy pass. His childhood was also filled with people whom he allowed to pass, while they finished school he had just started. It wasnt going to happen again he thought to himself.

The sumo moved into gear always straight into 4th gear due to some inexplicable mechanical imboglio, the sumo wanted to reach the main road before the rest.
We in my cab had just completed our service to humanity having shifted from the wrong side of the road to the right, we couldnt do all the charity ourselves.

Newton was asleep or plain out of his mind if he discussed decceleration in his work, in an accelerating economy we never discuss decceleration. So when we saw a 10 ton Tata sumo hurtling towards us at a 100 kmph we decided to do better. We moved into a higher gear. The prayers had no words, no meaning, we were about to be one with God. An instant later it all passed, grazing metal friendly swears and a very wet me.

There was lot of water in the cab and it wasnt all perspiration.A friendly chuckle emerged from the human at the wheel, we werent done yet.

My fists were clenched and I was kneeling, I remembered no more prayers. A honk, a grunt and screeching tyres told me we had reached. My prayers had been answered. Now it was 8 more hours before I had to leave, life wasnt all that bad.