A Simmering Mumbai And The Angry Mumbaikars

2008 Nov27, Wednesday 6.30AM

As usual my wife brought my daily quota of bed-time black coffee and woke me up from a deep slumber. Handling over the bed-coffee, she had some hot news to share with me. “Mumbai exploded again. Over 80 people died. One more terrorist attack”.
I was somewhat baffled and surprised. Not because of the “breaking news”, how did she get to know the news early in the morning! I began to sip the hot black coffee without expressing any emotions. This time she might have been surprised to notice my detached expression. It was quite unexpected and most unbecoming of me.
“Swapna (our daughter) called me just now. She got the shocking news from Neethu. Neethu got it from her would-be in America. The news flashed far and wide”.- Wife was explaining. Even then I kept mum. Handed over the empty cup to her and I was about to doze off again.
“Strange. Really strange”- She might have muttered to herself while moving to the kitchen…


I sat up in the bed, that also as usual, with an empty head, oblivious of all the happenings around me.
I didn’t feel like going through the day’s newspapers, the inherent curiosity in the mind of a journalist was surprisingly lacking that day.

I got out and climbed up the stairs, cool breeze blowing in the misty morning from the east. As is the usual practice, I began to take a stroll along the terrace watching the neighbourhood amid thick greenery, some women sweeping the premises with their brooms, some others washing utensils and filling the vessels with water drawn from deep wells, children preparing to proceed to their schools with much fuss and also listening to the devotional songs flowing from the nearby temple. Really a refreshing and rejuvenating feeling in the morning. Gradually, gradually my momentum got intense and even in the chilling morning with the cool wind blowing I slowly started to sweat, beads trickled down my face then the T-shirt gradually getting wet and sticking to my body. My morning stroll continued for about forty five minutes, and I decided to move down the stairs. Within seconds after finishing my walking, I reached my room switched on the fan and light. Removed my T-shirt, stepped out of my shoes, took the blue towel hanging carelessly on the chair and started wiping out the beads of sweat from my body and hair with much vigour…

Now is the time for paper reading. Three newspapers, one vernacular daily and the other two English dailies. I glanced through all the front pages of the newspapers but the news from Mumbai was found only in the vernacular daily, might be a late night night edition. The casualty numbers only twenty contrary to what I had heard from my wife. The incident might have occurred late in the night and I presumed, the figures might go up as the day progressed.
Going through the news item, I found, there was not much reported about the happenings in Mumbai, I slumped in the chair for about ten or fifteen minutes as if in a meditation, reminiscing the glorious days in the city about three decades back, no terrorist menace, no communal hatred and violence even the sons- of the soil policy and the disturbances connected with that was only in a dormant stage, the life in the city quite calm, serene, peaceful like a pleasure trip across a plain land of colourful flowers and greenery providing shades to the travellers. Sort of harmonious existence.
As the years passed by, the peace and harmony gave way to communal clashes, violence, under-world wars and murders, sons of the soil policy and related violent clashes, blood-bath along the streets and with the onslaught of terrorist attacks, the wheel was about to turn a full circle.
I recall here , in the eighties, what a peaceful atmosphere prevailed in that cosmopolitan city, even late in the night, young women moving along the streets with much self-confidence, a city which once respected the women a lot, people sleeping in the open fearing nothing else, Mumbai was incarnating itself into the financial nerve-centre getting famous the World over. People from across the country, north, south, north-east and north-west flowed to the city daily with dreams of finding jobs and starting businesses, all believing in peaceful co-existence. Their income grew day by day, businesses flourished, young artists from faraway lands carved a niche for themselves, thus becoming glamorous, God-like and cynosure of all eyes. It is worth mentioning the name of evergreen superstar from U.P.- Amitabh Bachan. Many other renowned faces too…
The glorious days are things of past. Just to cherish and fondle them in our moments of loneliness.

The initial numbness bid farewell. The pain was gradually becoming unbearable.
In the past, whenever the news of terrorist onslaughts broke-down, I felt shocked and a seething pain followed and the pain lingered for days. Such was my attachment to Mumbai. The good old days kept flashing across my mind. I used to switch on the Television, watched the horrible scenes with rapt attention and also with extreme sadness, remaining sleepless throughout the night listening to frequent reports emanating from various quarters watching the tense insecure weeping faces of the common men, the custodians of law and order moving around the city in vehicles fitted with wireless sets and the ambulances speeding along with flashing red beacons, blaring horns carrying both the dead and injured to hospitals and also the fire-brigade in desperate hurry. Mind-boggling carnage taking place in almost all parts of the city without an iota of pity and compassion.
Even after each such ghastly incident, within one or two days, Mumbaikars seemed to erase such gnawing pains from their minds and returned to the normal life. They laughed, they played, cracked jokes, enjoyed music and films and went on with their life with much enthusiasm and vigour.
Two or three months would go by without much fuss and with the cautious optimism that the nightmare would not visit them again forcing them to wake up in the thick of night.
As if from a bolt from the blue, one day all of a sudden, the citizens would be caught unawares by thunder-struck. Bombs planted at sensitive points sometimes even in local trains running at peak hours, would blew up with deafening sounds, killing and wounding innocent commuters, the good Samaritans always a blessing to Mumbai, would rush to the sights from nowhere, shouting and weeping, help in rescuing the wounded by carrying them to the ambulances, and would watch helplessly the mangled bodies scattered here and there and again the media including print and visual rush to the scenes in hurry and commence reporting and also display the ghastly sights to the people anxiously watching the whole things from faraway places across the nation and abroad.
The turmoil once more, the erased memories still emerge back and the whole citizens shudder in shock and pain.
Political leaders, rulers as well as opposition leaders rush to the sights with crocodile tears, console the victims declaring some financial help to the kith and kin of the dead offering condolences to the bereaved families, condemn the whole incidents in no uncertain terms and would assure everybody that the government wouldn’t sit idly and would not be cowed down by such pusillanimity and would bring all the culprits to justice and would flew away from the scene fulfilling their customary tasks.
Again within a few days the citizens wipe out all the bitter memories from their minds and contemplate to begin a new chapter.
Here I quote two lines from Kamaladas’s poem:
“Wipe out the paints, unmould the clay,
Let nothing remain of that yesterday”.
One by one, one by one as the incidents go on escalating, the citizens have become stoic. They expect anything, anytime.

I entered the drawing room, switched on the TV and chose NDTV.
Always vibrant and enthusiastic Barkha Dutt, the typical Mumbai man- Sreenivasan Jain alias Vasu, Priyanka Kakodkar, Shai Venkataraman, Miloni Bhatt, Radhika Bordia each one stationed at each place, reporting one by one intermittently.
It took a few minutes to come to grip with the situation.
This time the ‘modus operandi’ was quite different. The terrorists owing allegiance to Lashkar-E-Taiba, started their journey from Karachi in Pakistan with huge catche of ammunitions by a Vietnamese ship- MV Alfa, and on their onward journey boarded a speed-boat, beheaded the Captain and killed the crew, covering about 7516 miles along the coastline disembarked at a small jetty near Gateway of India. On entering our land, about thirty or forty of them spread in twos and threes to various landmarks of the city like Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) alias VT, sprayed bullets indiscriminately and about 55 innocents killed in the process, other group entered the famous Indian landmark, Hotel Taj Intercontinental, killing all the men they met at the entrance while moving in different directions taking those in the hotel hostages, some entered Leopold Restaurant at Colaba, a favourite tourist spot frequented by tourists from abroad engaged in a killing spree, entered Cama hospital killing three, some occupied Nariman House and it was a massive carnage of Israelis and others occupied Trident-Oberoi hotel and killed the watchmen and held others in the hotel hostages. There also they killed as much hostages as possible.

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad’s (ATS) head, Hemant Karkare , Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte, Sandeep Unnikrishnan who led from the front, braved the bullets and succumbed to their injuries, the fearless Jawans who fought for their motherland will be remembered in the years to come and the whole Indian citizens will hold them to their our chest with immense pride.
Soon after the NSG (National Security Guards) flew to the city and with Para-military troops, lost no time in plunging to their duties. Deafening explosions could be heard and it was a horrendous sight to watch the top-floor of the hotel burning with smoke billowing out and same was the case with Trident-Oberoi hotel burning along with deafening explosions of gun shots . It was a prolonged battle between the NSG (National Security Guards) and the cold-blooded ultras lasting about sixty hours- two days, three nights and one morning- and the curtain came down atleast for the moment, with the death toll almost rose to 200.
The citizens were quite angry, shattered, disillusioned and were at a loss to find a way out of the impasse and their patience has reached the nadir, and they find it very difficult to erase the bitter memories and pains this time. All are up against the rulers and are fed up with their empty promises to wipe out the last remnants of terror from our land. If things are going on like this, in future also the response of the Indian citizens is beyond our imagination. Such is their anger and disillusionment.
After 9/11, America have not encountered such mind-chilling instance atleast once. And after 7/7, UK have not yet experienced a militant attack till now. Even after more than fifteen militant attacks across our nation in a span of two years, the rulers have not been able to continue to tackle the menace of terrorism even now, the mind-boggling incidents continue to happen with no end in sight. Why? Intelligence failure to a certain extent or the Governments- past and present? As Shyam Benegal, the renowned film-director put it yesterday- All because of the Government- in plural…
He seemed to be shattered and disillusioned man. In particular his heart went out to the murdered innocents among the faceless crowd at Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST).
Anyhow let us wait for a new dawn…Eventhough I am a Keralite, I am also proud to be a Mumbaikar…

TO SONIA GANDHI WITH REGARDS…

I was contemplating writing to you for the past few months. But I nipped those desires in the bud, because a common man’s letters have an ideal and deserving place in a leader’s office-the waste paper basket. So I refrained from the wish to write to the political leaders. Exceptions are there, I do admit. On second thoughts, with much reluctance of-course, I have decided to write to you. Come what may. But I do not know, what purpose it would serve in the long run. Anyhow let me pen a few lines.
I know you are busy these days. Like a busybee. Elections are fast approaching. The fight for seats have already begun among your followers. And that is going to intensify in the days to come. And you will have to chalk out elaborate strategies at a moment when the new political equations are emerging in IndraPrastha and across the states.
The most appreciable thing that I have noticed from the very beginning was your reluctance and unwillingness to occupy the important chair in the South-Block. Whenever the chair beckoned you, you turned back and found another person to occupy it. Even the pleas of millions of your supporters couldn’t force you to change the decision already taken by you. Some even threatened to immolate themselves and some turned guns to their heads threatening to shoot themselves to become martyrs for a rethink on your part. All proved futile.
But your desire and ceaseless efforts to put your Party in power again is very much on your agenda and that is quite natural.
Loyalty in politics is a good thing. But what about sycophancy? The greed for power by flattering you by those who surround you is a dangerous thing. A sycophant can turn the tables any time and will have no compunctions to turn to greener pastures and I think I need not elaborate it. Even those who keep a healthy relationship may back out at the most opportune time reminding of a stab in the back and form their own Party citing silly reasons like foreign origin and will dare to bargain for seats when the chips are down.
Those who are maintaining a company with you after years of enemity, yes, I mean the Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh are fence-sitters and their only aim is extracting the maximum for them and their industrialist friends and will have no hesitation to bargain for as much seats as possible and for a large chunk of portfolios in the corridors of power. If their demands are not going to be met by your Party, you can very well see yourselves left in the lurch. Their ultimate aim is power, power and power only. Like the woman from U.P, who has nowadays started eyeing for seat of PM at the throne in IndraPrastha and she can go to any great lengths to occupy that position. What is most unfortunate is the leftists, whom I like most in the Indian political arena( yes more than your party) have also extended a helping hand to the lady and I take this opportunity to squarely blame you and our PM for ditching your long-term friends for the immediate materialization of Civil-Nuclear deal with USA. Otherwise at a critical moment like this, the left support might be of immense help to you and your party. But I am aware, in politics, everything is possible.
Like late Indira Gandhi, your mother-in-law, the one appreciable thing I have noticed in you is your compassion and love that you shower on the millions of hapless citizens of India. Your concern for the poor and downtrodden, their helplessness in making both ends meet, dream of a square meal a day, and your exhortations to the Corporate tycoons to contribute as much as they can to alleviate the sufferings of the have-nots at Business Leadership Summit conducted by Hindustan Times were really heartening. Corporate Social Responsibility is an essential pre-requisite in the contemporary India, you took the opportunity to point out to them certainly a laudable thing expected from a ruling party leader. About the poor you said, “Whatever action we take, we must protect them. This is our firm commitment.”
You added further, “the well-being of those who are trying to manage two square meals a day and roof over their heads shall be ensured at any cost”.
The foremost thing that needs to draw your attention is even after the plummeting of Oil-price below 60$/barrel, his Excellency Murli Deora, the Minister of Petroleum has not yet decided to lower the fuel prices, which if implemented would be of tremendous benefit for the millions of consumers-though inflation rate seems to be going down- the prices of essential commodities like vegetables and other eatables are running sky-high. Our Petroleum Minister is seeming to be oblivious of the demands of common man and those below him and now he has come out with an assurance that fuel prices cannot be brought down because of election time and code-of-conduct remains in force. I don’t think that our Election commission won’t agree for a reduction in fuel prices, if they are kept abreast of the realities and they are also well aware of the problems because they are also Indian citizens. Mere meaningless justification for not bringing down the fuel prices solely with the aim of helping the Petroleum marketing companies won’t carry conviction.
Communalism, law and order situation, terrorist-menace across the nation, secessionism, parochialism, wide-spread corruption, nepotism, poverty, unemployment, rampant price escalation- all are squeezing the nation like spiders in a web and as a citizen of India, may I take this opportunity to implore you to turn your kind and immediate attention to look in to all these curses and prevail upon the mandarins in the corridors of power to work earnestly on a war-footing to wipe out all these evils from our body-politic.

Regards

Our Godfather In The City

It was not even a love-hate relationship. There was no love lost between us. I hated her. I feared her, for no fault of her. The very sight of her was nauseating, disgusting.
She was always affable, loving, calm and quiet. She didn’t do me any harm. In fact no harm to anybody in our room. Except Valiyachan( my step-father) my other room-mates also disliked and hated her. Unlike me, my room-mates ventillated their ire and anger by kicking her to the outside uttering choice epithets in the absence of Valiyachan. If he had come across such a scene certainly, yes certainly he would have thrown them out because he was our godfather and in a sense our local guardian in that far-away city. Such was the intensity of his love and affection towards her. In fact she was like one of his children. While he was in the room he always called her in sweet and loving tones, “Chellu my naughty girl, come on”. In no time she would appear from nowhere, jump into his lap casting her serene eyes at him, I didn’t know whether she was conveying her secret sorrows and joy through her looks, he would caress her plant kisses on her, uttering sweet nothings. Never did he forget to bring fish-fry from the nearest hotel wrapped up in a rough paper and would feed her, watch her eating the fish with a kind look.
We would grit our teeth in anger and hatred and would move out, and would spend our time watching people moving through the streets, speeding vehicles and vegetable vendors lining along the pavements shouting “Baji, Baji” to all and sundry. The smell from the fish market always permeated the atmosphere.
Chellu’s ‘Kandakasani’[ bad time] commenced from the moment, I started living in that room. Still, I recall the day I arrived in the city on a misty morning of December. Dadar station was crowded with commuters as always, the platform bathed in flood of light, along with other passengers I moved out of the compartment to the platform with my luggage and as my arrival was already intimated to Valiyachan before I started from Alwaye in Kerala, he along with his youthful room-mates Ravi, Raju, Bhadran, Kunjumon and Thankachan all in their sweaters to escape from the chilly morning, anxiously searching for me among the faceless crowd.
Valiyachan fished me out from among the crowd and all others still strangers to me came near me, shook hands with me, introduced themselves to me, inquired about my journey with smiling faces and led me out of the platform to a world of lights with countless number of taxis parked outside. In fact I was thrilled very much, and forgot my home-sickness for a while. After having tea from a nearby Irani restaurant boarded a taxi which was driven by a Sardarji. The taxi sped along the streets, the street lights looked like welcoming the “new cityman”, the rush of the vehicles was about to pick up in one or two hours. The cold winds were needling me and I was shivering like anything, I was the only person in the taxi who had not worn a sweater.
Within fifteen minutes we reached Labour camp area of Matunga. The car screeched to a halt in front of a small room with tiled roofs and stained white-washed walls. Valiyachan locked open the door, switched on the lights, all of us entered the room and to my horror I saw a white cat with brown patches here and there, with glowing eyes, approaching Valiyachan crying ‘Miaow Miaow’. The sight of Valiyachan picking her up from the floor planting kisses all over her while sitting on the single cot in the room calling “Chellu Mole, Chellu Mole, you feel cold , eh, poor Chellu” in affectionate tone was nauseating and allergic to me. I shuddered with fear and cast my eyes on the faces of my young room-mates. They were also gritting their teeth in anger and hatred to the creature. I felt some relief. Atleast I have got a company here! Thank God! I soliloquized.
Thus life went on in the city, I got more and more acquainted with my room-mates, became intimate, but fear of the creature mounted day by day. Like me my friends also wanted to get rid of the creature without creating any suspicion in the mind of Valiyachan. If our plans got leaked some how we knew what kind of future awaited us. We wanted to find a way out scratched our heads thinking how to get rid of her without leaking the news to anybody.
“Yeah, Yeah, got it. got it! I have found a way out! Simple. Quite simple”- Raju was in a jubilant mood. He reminded me of Siddhartha attaining enlightenment after years of ‘Thapas’(meditation) at Bodh Gaya. “Raju has turned out to be a Buddha”- I smiled to myself.
Raju began to explain his plans in detail. We all sat close to him with bated breath.
‘Our god father will go to work at about 4.30AM. After the day’s work, he will be reaching the room only in the evening. Soon after he is out of station, in the wee hours of the morning, we will pack our “dear Chellu” in a sack and all of us will move to Bandra carrying her and leave the sack carrying Chellu at a remote place, run away from the scene, catch the train to Mahim and rush to the room’- What about my idea? In self congratulatory tone he cast his glance at us. We were wondered exhilarated, smiled approvingly and patted him on his back - “Raju, you are great!”
“What would be our godfather’s reaction?”- Ravi was somewhat apprehensive.
“He may miss her badly for atleast one week or two. Then he will also forget the entire episode. These kinds of things are the order of the day in a big city like this. Being the senior most among us, he knows the truth better than us”- Raju went philosophical.
As expected Valiyachan reached the room at about 8PM in the evening, The fish-fry wrapped in a packet was with him to feed his beloved daughter ‘Chellu’. His smiling face gave way to look of gloom. While pretending to be engaged in our daily chores we were watching his reaction.
“What happened to my pet? Chellu, Chellu”- he called aloud. No response. He was dumb-struck. “What must have happened to her”?- As if from some characters in a film we looked at each other with our eyes wide open.
“Chellu Chellu”- We joined the chorus. Raju was the ‘saddest’ among the lot. I saw him wiping his eyes and I held back a laughter with much effort.
With frustration writ large on his face Valiyachan spent days pondering a lot about his beloved.
“She was a loving and affable cat. She was like a child to me. Even among humanbeings such love, affection and gratitude are very rare these day”- He always wanted to share his sorrows and reminiscences about his foster-child. He always prayed to God and sought blessings for her safe arrival from somewhere.
Days, weeks and months went by. Valiyachan’s anxious wait and prayer continued unabated.
Contrary to all our foolish beliefs, one evening at about 9 'O’ clock, while Valiyachan was taking a rest on his cot and ourselves engaged in our routine works as if from no where, Chellu landed on the hairy chest of Valiyachan with her “ Miaow, Miaow” , like music to his ears.
“Chellu, my naughty girl atlast you have arrived. Where were you my naughty child? I was very much sad. Now I am very much happy and excited.” Valiyachan, his eyes welling up with joy and sadness, was seen caressing and kissing her to his hearts content.
All of us felt like weeping and from that day onwards we also began to love her….

WORDS AND DEEDS OF DR.MANMOHAN SINGH

The doctor had already diagnosed the malady. He knows the remedy also. Unfortunately, he is reluctant to prescribe the medicine and that is baffling to say the least. He has been entrusted with the duty of alleviating the miseries of all especially the malnourished millions and the middle-class. His sympathy as well as the empathy are with those at higher echelons of the society. Incredible and incomprehensible!
A renowned economist, a man of honesty and integrity, uncorrupt, a statesman honoured and respected by all. However he pays a lot of lip- service to the sufferings of those languishing at the bottom of the society.
He knows his predicaments and dilemmas also. He knows he is only a half-Minister. Also he knows the other half is in Washington.
In 1991 Sardar ManMohan Singh was appointed as the Finance Minister of India under the leadership of late PM P.V. Narasimha Rao. Rao was looking earnestly for a competent Finance Minister, if possible a renowned economist to don the mantle of prestigious post of Finance Minister and he promptly fished out the most deserving ManMohan Singhji.
Indian economy was in shambles. To wriggle out of a pathetic quagmire, you may recall, our gold reserves had to be hypothecated and physically transferred to England (Such was India’s credit worthiness then before the World) to bail out our economy. Former young-Turk the late S,Chandrashekhar was the PM and Yashwant Sinha, BJP Leader was the Finance Minister then.
After assuming charge our then Finance Minister ManMohan Singh in his budget speech before the Parliament, dwelt on the then economic scenario prevailing in our nation. The most striking one was about the flaws of heartless consumerism and also the need for uplifting the neglected sections of agriculturists and our backwardness in the areas of education and health. Let me quote his words- “A vast number of people in our country live on the edges of a subsistence economy. We need credible programmes of direct government intervention focusing on the needs of these people. We have the responsibility to provide them with quality social services such as education, health, safe drinking water and roads. In the same way, the development of capital and technology intensive sectors, characterized by long gestation periods, such as transport and communications and energy will need to be planned with much greater care than ever before.”
“In highlighting the significance of reform, my purpose is not to give a fillip to mindless and heartless consumerism we have borrowed from the affluent societies of the West. My objection to the consumerist phenomenon is two-fold. First, we cannot afford it. In a society where we lack drinking water, education, health, shelter and other basic necessities, it would be tragic if our productive resources were to be devoted largely to the satisfaction of the needs of a small minority.”( Courtesy: Frontline Dated November 7 2008- an article by Era Sezhiyan)
Contrary to what he had assured while addressing the honourable members of Parliament, he backed out of his promises to the down-trodden and the middle-class who even now find it very difficult to make both ends meet. Our education standards have fallen down, poverty, malnutrition and diseases are on the rise, infrastructure development in doldrums, in short all his promises went astray. The gentleman who minced no words in deploring heartless consumerism found himself on the wrong track. Consumerism flourished like anything, the haves became more and more richer and the have-nots became more and more poorer. Stock Markets boomed and the corporates became fat cats and even now as the Prime Minister of India, his whole attention and anxiety are in the welfare of the Corporate Dadas due to the financial melt down across the globe. ( otherwise they may starve to death!) One week ago, he even took the opportunity to convene a meeting of Corporate tycoons of CII, FICCI, Assocham and other Corporate groups and found time to console them who found themselves in “dire straits” owing to the enormous losses suffered by them in the global melt-down. As Prakash Karat, the CPI(M) General Secretary pointed out, our economist PM didn’t care to hold a meeting with our farmers’ representatives who feed the millions of Indians. Neither did he feel like discussing the recent financial turmoil with our trade union leaders.
Our only comfort and also relief is that our doctor has already diagnosed the disease, but is hesitant to take the remedial action. May be the doctor is testing our patience and our staying power. A big “hurrah” to him.

About Right To Elementary Education

Sixty two years have elapsed since we attained independence. But enlightenment seems to have dawned upon our ruling elite in recent times. But,I feel sometimes this enlightenment had already dawned upon them but unfortunately “selective amnesia” is their problem.
Two weeks ago the government decided to introduce a Right of children to Free and Elementary Education (RTE) bill in the current session of Parliament.
What is quite puzzling is that it took more than six decades to enter in to the heads of our ruling elite the importance of providing compulsory elementary education to hapless children of our nation. Nearly fifty percent of our children are illiterate. Most of them toiling day-in and day-out under the menacing eyes of small-scale industrialists earning a meagre sum to fend for themselves. In the process they are cruelly assaulted and forcibly thrown in to prison-like dinghy rooms without feeding them for days. Others are street children begging and crawling before the laymen to earn for their daily subsistence. Drug abusers are galore among them and also the victims of paedophiles. These children have also colourful dreams of their future, they also aspire to be literate, one day hold on to responsible positions in the government or other reputed firms. Social activists like Harsh Mander are doing a lot for these children by educating them, providing food, clothes and shelter to them while government turn a deaf ear to their pathetic wails.
One question nagging me after going through the report of the decision to introduce the Right to Free Elementary education to children in the current session of the Parliament is- will the enactment of this law be able to put in to practice so easily at a moment when majority of our impoverished children are groping in the dark to earn for their daily sustenance. Their parents are also helpless and are in dire straits and it is not because of their apathy that they are not sending their kids to the schools. They also keep colourful dreams of their children emerging with flying colours in future. Even after enrolment in schools after spending one or two weeks in schools many of them drop out of their institutions due to lack of food and other essential needs like clothes, slates and pencil. They go back to begging or hard labour for a pittance. How can we blame these children or their parents who are also struggling for existence.
It was said that to prevent drop-outs, the government introduced mid-day meal scheme. A nice idea, if implemented judiciously and also sincerely. But the implementation of this scheme is done in a haphazard manner, the micronutrients and other nutritious food items are diverted by those people who are entrusted with the proper implementation, no auditing taking place and even the attendance of the children are not taken on a daily basis. Corruption is ruling the roost everywhere and those deserving the most are left in the lurch.
Add to this is in the remote corners of India’s rural areas, there are not enough teachers to teach the young ones and there are only two or three- they are most often on leave. Children come to study and after finding the school empty they leave their studies and opt for their past activities.
Due to lack of servants to prepare the mid-day meals at most schools the teachers themselves engage in the duty of servants and the ultimate sufferers are the students because teachers don’t get enough time to enlighten the students.
If things are going on like these, how is it possible for the government to enact the compulsory elementary education to the teeming millions of our impoverished children.
Our doctor ought to keep his eyes wide open and must have the political will, sympathy and empathy to address these basic necessities at the earliest. Now that his friend is almost out of office, (who the people of India love deeply), the general elections round the corner and globalization and liberalization ebbing he can for the moment heave a sigh of relief and proceed with renewed vigour in full capacity…

YES YOU CAN OBAMA…PROVIDED

November 4, 2008
As the results trickled down, the margin got wider and wider, the victory assured, the whole of America erupted in joy and applause, the streets filled with dancing youth chanting Obama Obama. The people the world over felt elated and exhilarated, over the unprecedented victory of Barack Obama, the first African-American President.
The majority of Americans as well as the people across the globe were badly in need of change. They saw in Obama, a saviour who could transform USA which was under the belligerent, arrogant rule of George Walker Bush.
“We have to throw ourselves out from the deep hole, we have plunged into”.- As Obama put it. A young man, only 47 years, charismatic, cool, diplomatic, peace-loving and with a personal magnetism he could capture the hearts of people of USA, white and black alike. So fed-up were they under the long eight years of misgovernance by George Bush. They wanted change. A change for the better. An America of peace and prosperity to all.
The victory was expected and unexpected. Expected because, enamoured by his charismatic appeal and his voracious oratory, and also for his promises from his heart, it was somewhat assured even before the elections.
Unexpected in the sense that whether the probability of Black-American becoming the first President of USA was feared to be an anathema to the white men of that nation. Political observers and majority of intellectuals were apprehending the ‘Bradley effect’ at the last moment. Tom Bradley was a victim years ago. Inspite of assurances by the white Americans to vote for Bradley and more than 7% margin in his favour in the last moment, they turned the tables against him and was defeated at the hustings. The whites considered the blacks a stigma on the nation. They were of the belief that they were the sole-heirs to rule USA. Such was their feeling of superiority over the blacks. I think this time they have atoned for their sins and misconceptions ensured that Barack Obama is the deserving candidate to ride the crest of popular wave.
“We are infallible. We will never apologise for United States of America. What ever may be the facts”- George Bush senior once declared before the World. His son, junior Bush followed in the foot-steps of his beloved father. Such was their arrogance and conviction. With those words indelibly imprinted in his mind Bush junior went on the rampage and in the guise of a messiah of democracy, targeted Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Korea and without compunction intervened in the internal affairs of other countries. Keeping thousands of nuclear arsenal and deadly weapons in his armoury, the man preached before the World the sanctity of disarmament and democracy like proverbial Satan.
The war erupted in Iraq in 2003 is still raging. Mr.Bush and his obedient allies could not find a trace of weapons of mass destruction, the allegation they pointed against the Saddam Hussein regime to wage the chilling war. Even after devastation of the whole Iraq and the brutal hanging of Saddam Hussein after a mock trial and the installment of a puppet government in his place, his thirst for blood has not been satiated yet. Millions of innocent civilians perished in the attacks and the last remnants of Mesopotamian civilization wiped out- inspite of all these dastardly acts the average Iraqi citizen is in a defiant mood and is endangering his life for the freedom of his beloved country. Their thirst for freedom dates back to Mesopotamian period. The Americans certainly will have to bow out in the near future.
Barack Obama has already taken a decision to withdraw from Iraq within 16 months period.
So far so good. Within a short duration, the euphoria will settle down. Obama is well aware of the enormous gigantic tasks that lay ahead of him and also the tall expectations of the Americans and the people the World over. The whole World is watching with eagerness, anxiety and hopes the course of action he is going to take up.
The spectre of terrorism looming large over the World, the emergence of a multipolar World (gone are the days of unipolar World, with the gradual decline of USA in the eyes of the World, in terms of financial growth and also the tremendous development of the developing nations in various fields, the surge in the prices of petroleum products resulting in the enormous prosperity of the Gulf nations and the defiant and fearless attitudes of third World countries towards USA’s so-called superioritycomplex and arrogance- the image of the “World Police” is nowhere in sight).
The Afghan imbroglio is staring right in the face of Barack Obama with Taliban moving ahead with ferocity to the citadels of power with ever increasing abduction killings of the innocents and huge bomb explosions rocking the nation devastating a whole nation. North-Western frontier of Pakistan has turned out to be a safe-haven of Al-quaeda and Taliban elements, haunting nightmare for Pakistan as well as Afghanistan. Besides adding fuel to the fire is the predicament of the inefficient and corrupt regime of Hamid Karzai who has up-till now not in grip with the nuances of that nation, being an American educated product installed by none other than George W Bush, as a puppet. Whether Obama can take on the wild-goings on in that accursed country –we will have to wait and see.
In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, Obama’s hope to intervene in the dispute between India and Pakistan as a mediator is not likely to be welcomed by the Indian government. Such an apprehension is doing the rounds in the foreign policy establishment in New Delhi and Obama’s hope is unlikely to materialize because India has never agreed with any government for a tripartite discussion on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. This is also for us to wait and watch.
Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin and Dimitry Medvedev is now in a position of strength with the enormous flow of Petro-Dollars, thanks to its rich oil resources. They are not at all expected to move an inch from their convictions and in the Caucuses Russia proved to the World the country’s might and strength on the issue of Georgia’s unexpected attack on South Ossetia killing thousands of civilians. Russia jumped to the front in no time and within a short span forced the Georgian soldiers flee from the war-zone inflicting huge casualties thus forcing Michael Sakaashville biting the dust. Contrary to the expectations of Sakaashville, USA and European countries evaded from intervening in the whole affair and remained spectators only condemning the action of Russia. After the bowing out of George Bush, the foremost thing expected of Obama is his diplomatic and peaceful approach to Russian leaders and enter into good terms and avoid a situation of confrontation.
Like Russia, the Latin American countries are also watching the emergence of Obama with great expectations and happiness. Congratulations apart both Cuba and Venezeula in their message to Obama wanted to have a relationship of peaceful co-existence shedding decades of rivalry and confrontation and work for a new dawn of peace and prosperity.
Yet there are a lot to be discussed and analysed. The West-Asian crisis, relationship with China, Japan, The Koreas, Climate change all prominent in their own way.
But more than everything else, the first and foremost thing that Barack Obama has to get engaged with is the financial meltdown threatening his nation and nations across the Globe. Now that Bush has become lame-duck and is on his way out after turning the entire economy in shambles due to his fondness towards the market economy and deregulation, Obama has to bear the whole brunt. How is he going to bring back the economic right in the track? How will he bring back cheer in the face of each and every American citizen? To the people who lost their apartments due to foreclosure, the health-care facilities of the average American, unemployment bonus to the educated youth and those at the bottom of the ladder?
“While Dalal Street thrives, we should ensure that the Main Street does not suffer”- These are Barack Obama’s words.
These words show he has grappled with the situation and that is heartening. Let us hope for the best and for that we will have to wait and watch.
And let us hope for something positive to emerge in the G-20 meeting scheduled to be commencing in USA on November 15. Perhaps a way out for the whole World . To be optimistic is good thing…..