The following piece in the HT 07-10-08 reflects what people like me are going through today ..hence I present it here for you verbatim...

- about the current state of affairs of the nation and how it has impacted people like me..

The last line underscores the mindset of people like me, who feel helpless about the law and order situation around me, are seeking... and believe me, we are not insane, when we demand a gun for ours and our family protection....

are we not looking at signs of what one can call.. a civil war????

on a side note, I see a parallel between India today and the US of the past, which might have led the gun laws to be set up there 'cos I think the US has probably gone through similar times before it reached today's state.
But that does not help me today 'cos my safety is at stake and I need protection from what the state has failed to control... increasing violence and reducing value of the human life....
-----------

Searching high and low for the law - Gautam Chikermane, (HT)

There are two forces of physics acting upon a changing India today. On the economic front, as India expands into global terrains, a centripetal force is gathering momentum, best represented by the country’s 8 per cent growth rate. This force, however, is being pulled back, through an equally strong centrifugal force that looks inward, is fragmented and savage in its execution. Caught in between are the rest of us. If economic development and mass prosperity have to be delivered, the politics of violence that the centrifugal force represents needs to die. And there lies a political opportunity for
Elections 2009.

The most high-profile wart of this centrifugal force is the Nano’s undignified exit from Singur. Last week Ratan Tata had said that Mamata Banerjee had pulled “the trigger on his head”, forcing him to move out of West Bengal to Gujarat, the trigger being his employees’ safety.
Earlier, L.K. Chaudhury, CEO of the Italian company Graziano Trasmissioni, was beaten to death by workers in Greater Noida, some 20 minutes from the national capital, with the Labour Minister subtly trying to build political capital from the crime by saying, “This should serve as a warning for managements.” (He later backtracked, but the damage was done.)
North Indians are being targeted in Mumbai by Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena as an investment into future elections to garner jingoistic support. Churches are being burnt in Orissa and nuns raped under the blind eyes of the police while the state’s highly articulate Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says he’s doing his job.
A young journalist dies a mysterious death in Delhi and its Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit says women should not be “adventurous” and that companies, not the police, should take responsibility for their safety.
The message from our politicians who have built walls of protection with taxpayers’ money around themselves and their families: India is,and will continue to be, run by thugs, so please watch out for yourselves.

As the rest of us take events like these in stride and get desensitised by the never-ending images on TV, permanent headlines in newspapers and infinite opinions on blogs, never has the need for law and order as the first and foremost electoral expectation of voters been so high, so acute. Law and order is something we are supposed to take for granted. It is only riding this safety infrastructure that we can do anything else — pursue jobs, buy groceries, watch films.
On the other hand, we are gradually beginning to accept lawlessness,particularly by the rich, the powerful and the organised mobs they manage to cobble, as one more dinner-table discussion — ‘Pass the death toll, please.’ As this anarchy gets political support, we are gradually being pushed into a corner, where an unvoiced frustration with governance is systematically eating into our democratic and civilised innards. With weapons in the hands of a small clutch of ineligible political aspirants, the man on the street has never been in as much physical danger as today.

Lawmakers are breaking the law as if it’s their birth right. And when stopped — as Virendra Kumar Khatik was, as he tried to barricade the arms of the law from an anti-encroachment drive, only to face collateral damage — action is taken, not against the honourable Member of Parliament for attempting to come in the way of the law, but against the junior policemen who tried to implement it. They’ve been charged with an attempt to murder and have been suspended from duty. Shed a tear for them.

Those whom voters have entrusted with democratic power and white car privileges — and with them the responsibility to provide law and order — are all but numbed into submission under this new force gathering strength, issue by issue, in state after state. Leadership at the highest levels is reeling under the weight of a moral compulsion to let people, who any right-minded person would call murderers, rapists, repeat offenders, and bad characters, have a free run on the rest of us, feed on our livelihoods, our fears. And our freedoms. (“Today, terrorists are being worshipped,” said Justice J.N. Patel referring to Raj Thackeray, who, in turn, instead of feeling the fear of the law as any law-abiding citizen should, is brazenly asking the court to “define a terrorist”.)

The CPI(M)’s West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee virtually offered a free hand to Mamata Banerjee and her mob to stop workers seeking nothing more than an honest day’s job from working. The Congress’s Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is standing still, watching non-Maharashtrian citizens of India being beaten and threatened, their businesses, taxis and trade being destroyed. The Biju Janata Dal’s Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has nothing more than lofty words to offer Christians being mauled in his state.

We, the silent majority, have allowed this small band of hoodlums to decide whether we have the right to work, to religion, to celebration, to life, to love. Too busy to look beyond the prosperity that the economic centripetal force has brought, in the form of our 2-BHKs and iPhones, we are allowing a new political culture to invade our country.
It’s almost as if we are being conquered all over again, this time by some of the smartest minds this country has produced, minds — like the smart lawyers, accountants and financial engineers who recently ran the global financial system aground — that are finding and punching holes in the law to usurp power.
A leveraged buyout is underway, where a small bunch of private interest groups cobble together to create visible damage for maximum impact. We are being forced into believing that violence is the currency of political or social intercourse in a modern, trillion-dollar economy. That if we want something bad enough, we can just go out and collect thugs. This faith needs to be destroyed. These mobs and their political masters need to be dragged under the purview of the law, before this belief system becomes a mass religion. For any responsible party, this presents a so-far ignored political opportunity. In the last elections, with a focus on economic growth, our attention moved from ‘roti-kapda-makaan’ to ‘bijli-sadak-pani’. It’s time now to go back to basics and devise a new slogan around ‘suraksha-kanoon-dand’ (safety-law-punishment) — and implement it ruthlessly. Political profits are guaranteed.

Until that happens, can anyone tell me where I can buy a gun?
(C) HT 07-10-2008

I have been attached to this city over a long time. I in a way fell for it's open grounds, spaces and greenery which have always been a part of my living times all along.
So it was probably nature that makes me connect with this city.
But with the recent times, even that connection seems to be wearing off.
The city wears a deserted look, with all the big trees, 50-100 yr old trees being felled for want of space.

I have lately reached a conclusion that this city is on the verge of going into negative growth in real terms than really showing all round growth.

I will explain with simple instances of locations which anyone would assume would have changed positively over the last 10 yrs. But unfortunately, the situation is in the exact opposite.

before I write anything about the locations or the city in general, I must admit that the attitude of the citizens of this city has degraded to the worse that one can experience.
The reasons are many - the city has an influx of people from the nearby villages (which themselves are in the state of becoming small towns or extensions of towns).
The citizens have a VERY HIGH LEVEL of immaturity written all over their face and they inherit the aggressiveness that comes with this immaturity.

The citizens have very limited levels of patience and those who belong to the uncivilised gentry have no patience at all.
I have had instances when people would ram their bikes into mine though i am right at the edge of the traffic and then turn around showing aggression lest their show gets spoilt.

On the other hand, the apathy also has increased towards any incident. There have been incidents where people have been hit by vehicles or have been attacked at the slightest provocation and the rest have just watched the duel unfold.

People carry knives and sickles which they have no qualms about taking out at the time of any slight altercation to show their might, and they would not think twice using it either 'cos the law and order has taken a back seat and takes no action on erring citizens. money power has come to rule the roost as in most cities of the country.

coming to the degrading situation of public attitude, the locations which are these symbols of deteriration are
a. Jail road - the junction and the area around there has turned into a virtual mayhem. Especially the signal where there is no order in following the rules of traffic.
People do not care about pedestrians at any place in the city, esp. now with the city roads being dug up or being dug out since ages, where there seems no scope for any road to exist and unruly people driving bikes, scooters, autos and 4 wheelers consider the road their sole domain to drive.
Imagine a 100 thousand people thinking this way on narrow streets and you have the situation of the city roads and junctions.

On top of this, the parking of vehicles has assumed hugely mismanaged proportions.
The city has NO parking system. You would find streets where people have parked bikes, hapazardly, and next to the bikes, you would find 2 rows of cars parked. Effectively a 40 ft road is reduced to a 10 ft for both sides of traffic, with SUVs and cars and autos not only plying along those roads but also making random U-turns and reversing to get into bylanes where there is virtually no parking rule.

Another aspect of driving esp. at night is that everyone drives with their headlights on high-beam. On top of this, there are some folks who, in order to show off their new found immaturity put white neon headlamps and drive with full high beam, virtually blinding people driving on the opposite side. Esp. since there are no road dividers, the chances of one individual getting blinded and tailgating the one in front is very high.

Being the centrally located state of the nation, and being geographically located in a plateau with the Narmada river serving most of it's water needs - the Malwa Plateau, MP, and it's cities had an advantage for almost all kinds of industries.
Unfortunately, the lack of political will and focus on some real development for the state has landed this state into more of a dependent status than being independent and contributing to the nations' GDP.
Though things are likely to change, it takes a huge amount of time in this state to take decisions, most of them being passed around like a bucket of popcorn.
The Global Investor's meet in Indore, that the MP government called for last year should have probably taken off in a huge way, had things really been moved positively.
Several reknowned people and companies did agree to participate then. I was not able to find out about any further details on the success of the meet and any action items highlighted in the same.
Things still are at a very basic level of planning even today, and implementation details are thus awaited.
On a personal note, I know of one company - SemanticBITS which wanted to invest in Indore, but has backed out and decided to locate in Hyderabad. I'd say, a loss for the state. Another level of loss comes from the relocation of existing companies like CSC, who, finding infrastructure development very slow have decided to get most of their work moved to locations like Hyderabad, Chennai and Noida.

I hope though that the state does a lot more to invite companies, esp. by ensuring quick deployment of infrastructure and power and zero red-tapism for companies to set up and do uninterrupted business in the state.

All over the world, one thing that really stands out in stark contrast is the amount of destruction that mankind unleashes in the name of development.
So also, in a city like this, I was appalled when I came across the fact that the so called city planners were totally unprepared at the influx of people into the city and over the last 5 years or so, have unleashed unplanned development projects in the city... at the cost of high amounts of destruction - of nature.

The first prime targets of all development are the lungs of a city, the trees.

The destruction of trees in Indore began almost 4 years back, at various locations including the existing A.B.Road which passed outside the erstwhile old Indore city. The excuses given by the city planners was that the trees were a hindrance for development and hence they must go....

I wonder what kind of qualified planners these people are that they failed to recognise the need for building their designs around existing natural structures than destroying the structures to the extent that the whole city feels the impact.
Almost 40 odd trees were cut down on the Starlit road to widen it to accomodate more traffic and more commercial structures.
Around 100 odd trees were cut down on the A.B.Road all along from the outer ring road on the South till Scheme 74 on the North, under some plan, where they were to widen the road.
But today, the plan has been scrapped and no one has bothered to calculate and consider the loss they have unleashed by destroying trees that were probably more than 100 yrs old.

Open lands have been usurped by the builder politician nexus, killing the real spirit of progress for the city.

Unfortunate again, that the common citizen in that part of the country is one who seeks for his self, there is no collective conscience that the citizens bring together to ensure that their city preserves it's charm at least for the sake of the Nature that it was known for;

Shab-e-malwa - the glorified evening of Malwa - an erstwhile oft repeated Urdu phrase that described succinctly the glory of the breezy evenings of the Malwa plateau that Indore is part of, now no longer retains it's meaning or charm.
The balmy breezy evenings have been replaced by hot dusty winds that bring in dust covering everything in it's path, turning the landscape into a bleak, dreary, hot parched brown cover.
So much so the price to pay for development in once upon a time beautiful city.

61 years - 61 summers 61 winters 61 monsoons, 61 billion and counting…- this is the story of what came to be called the Golden bird, the land of Spiritual renaissance, the elephant that was learning to dance, the tiger that never got it’s due and the abode of Gods.

The sum of the age digits add up to 7 - a lucky number for some, probably has several hopes pinned on now to hold lucky for not just an individual but for an entity, a nation.
India’s astrological star sign is the Leo – the Lion, if it ever means that India was really ‘born’ on 15th Aug 1947.

Though it existed long before it was born, discovered or for that matter ‘created’, India – a capricious notion - existed in various states, geographies, beliefs and spirit much before it was ‘still-born’ in it’s 19th century polity that the planet Earth is actively keeping history of now.
So after 61 years of that fateful midnight, a conflicting and fighting mass of people was shorn off - a forced caesarian of sorts of a predominantly British mother – to be recognized as an individual polity/entity, albeit with a polit-o-genetically misaligned twin attached at it’s head - a head that today is very messed up.

The train of fate for these, almost million odd men and women, fighting, conflicting at various levels of existence, hurriedly switched tracks to rush off into an unknown direction - much like a toy train that, totally ignored by a bored child - that accidentally slips off it’s toy tracks and veers off trying to balance on it’s tiny toy wheels, till either the child turns it’s attention to put it back on it’s tracks, or is left to crash somewhere, unattended.
Today, 61 years later, the toy train, is really ‘lucky’ for not having been pulled down by gravity - gravity of the situation it has found itself in, since then.
Lucky – to be still on it’s wheels, trembling, shaking, teetering on a path not designed for it’s wheels, but yet, somehow keeping itself up, balancing, yet chugging along laboriously with increasing mass - the bored child nowhere in sight - looking for those lost rails that it was probably smoothly running on up until 300 years back.
Even after 61 years, with its hurriedly chopped off psychogenesis umbilical cords still dangling from it’s disintegrating and misappropriating spirit and it’s unattended psychopathology, this entity is alive, and is considered an anomaly of sorts by – pardon the pun – even God.

Today, this growing, once-upon-a-time-stillborn entity, is still a kid at heart, though 61 years old.
The kid that wants all that the world can give it’s consumerist population; the kid that still wants to be on the stage struts its glamour stuff with the grandeur of cinema, music, with it’s ill-kept but still considerably beautiful contrasts of human life with nature; the kid that cries loud for a seat in the security council yet not being able to get past the bullies that guard the seat; the kid that wants to grow into a mature adult, but ‘luck’ in one form or another hushing down it’s need for growth…

So what does it mean - to be an Indian - 61 years later - today??? I say -

It would be incomplete if I mention Indore and do not mention my alma mater - St. Pauls H. S. School, Old Sehore Road, Indore.

I plan to thave a series of thoughts on my alma mater as time and inclination permits.

Let me start this series by touching upon the latest news from the school - a memorial day event. An event that began a a homage to departed souls of the 1988 batch, who once upon a time were my playmates and lab mates and house-mates.

But this day has been eternalised as a day to pays homage to all students of the school who now rest in peace due to their untimely departure from the living world.

The 1988 batch was first of it's kind
- a batch that was the first class XII (10+2) batch of the school
- the first batch to get a general promotion (GP) by the then CM, Arjun Singh
- a batch which had almost 40 of it's students getting selected in PET for engineering college admissions

The pictures here should suffice to say that under the initiative of some die-hard St. Pauls alumni, the Smruti Divas (Memorial day) has been launched officially.

I would fail if I do not mention a few of the wonderful teachers who have been with us through these years guiding us in their own way, with their invisible presence in our lives, who have shaped us the way we are today.



Mr. Amitabh Saraswati - the man with the western look way back then, never was able to understand if he was the rebel with a cause or without one.

Indore as a city has evolved like the other cities of the nation, albeit in a different way. The city earlier was not so well known for it's education prowess, but it was since 1995 that some inroads began into the city for the education industry. This was esp. possible because the city began to have a better connectivity to the North and West by rail and road.

It was a fact since a long time that Indore produced some very talented people in the media industry. Some very familiar names are Lata Mangeshkar & Kishore Kumar(who studied in Indore, though he came from Khandwa) from the music industry, Vijayendra Ghatge from the acting field, Salim Khan, the script writer of Salim-Javed duo who wrote for Sholay (dad to the most popular Khan - Salman) and in the last decade names in the National News presenters - Akash Soni and Siddharth Sharma.

So the city has created an image for itself of being a city of opportunities. Indeed the opportunities have emerged and along with it, have people. Pouring in from the smaller cities, the city has seen exponential population growth though infrastructure has been slow to catch up, as usual.

The changes that the city has seen have put pressures on several aspects. One is safety and security.
- of vehicular traffic drivers
- of Senior citizens
- for children being ferried to/from schools
- of houses from burglaries

Pressure is there on infrastructure development at the cost of losing the green cover.
Impacted by the loss of green cover is the increasing levels of air pollution, heat levels, decreasing water content and impacts on the psyche to develop related diseases.

So also with increasing number of people from the nerby cities, when they come to the mini metro, they come with a set mindset that the big city will give them all the freedom to live and exist the way they want to - away from the pressure of family control.
It is this attitude that needs a huge change.

Unfortunately, it has been seen that the mindset of the people who come from the rural areas is initially very much self oriented. They do not understand the complexities of living in a city life compared to the small rural life they had. As a result of this notional belief, very often the city life is very disillusioning. This kind of an attitude leads to inflated ego levels.
People think they have a right on everything and anything.

Indore suffers from this attitudinal inflation in a huge way. Most often you will find that people want to show off themselves in a lot of ways. They get into fights in the smallest of incidents, they try to ensure that they are in the center of the limelight by adopting shortcuts in life.

It is this that makes people very vulnerable and also very dangerous.
The need of the hour in the city and in the state is sensitization.
Sensitization towards all the above problems and their associated side-effects and how individuals need to have a broader perspective when they live in a city.


Unfortunately, in this age of rapid fire progress, people can't stop for a minute. People are in a rush to live and make it better than they were. In the process they lose more than they gain. But they do not stop to think.

It is the importance of this Pause that is very much needed to be 'taught' to the people in a variety of ways. the media is one such agent. But the media itself in such cities needs to first grow up and over their smaller interests that they had earlier.

The media and the law of the land have to be the first participants in this change by being abreast of all impacts of change and ways to handle this impact.
They should then become guides to people who are experiencing and causing the changes in their individual and collective city lifestyles.

Not sure if people in these times still understand the tradition and concept of 'city elders' but it is the city elders who have to change for the better, First.
The movie 'Happy Feet' depicts beautifully, what I am alluding to;
Maybe something of a change can come in slowly in the outlook of this city from such media.