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They say great people have great humor!

Now we regularly hear people blaming the government for all their miseries. It starts from lack of political will to redeem them, goest through lack of infrastructure, and even to the extend that if monsoon is delayed the government is held responsible
Recently we have rediscovered a few more addition to this, not tackling corruption and black money, not doing sufficient to improve the economic situtation, price rise especially petrol etc.

But no one can blame that our beloved governement lacks humor ...and in my personal opinion he/she should be sent to mental asylums. If some one is not still convinced please read the article below.
it is about fixing the demarcation of our most coveted status the Below Poverity Line (BPL... sounds like a euphemism?)

Please take time to read and have a hearty laugh... especialy the final para are the best

here is the LINK

When they say great people have great humor and since we have great humor ain't we great?!!!

courtesy: Times of India

Oh my lord, forgive me if i am wrong

Folks, last week we have had seen the grandeur ceremony of Nimarjanam of Lord Ganesha (the immersion of Ganesh idols), where in the streets of Hyderabad was filled with thousands and may be lakhs of devotees bidding adieu to the lord they were ritually worshipping for a ten day period with every one having a prayer on their lips, 'please take our sorrows along with you, and come again next year early'.  The ritual was marked by different local organising committees almost fiercely competing to keep bigger and better idols than that of others, a matter of local pride. And following which was immersion, mainly in the Hussain Sagar Lake, where the government without fail had arranged big cranes. The even went on peacefully with even the rains not playing spoiler this time. And surprisingly this year approximately 40000 Idols were there for the ritual, 40000 idols

And as usual we are carrying ahead our lives, without even bothering to ponder what happened to our Ganesha. As many might know the Hussain sagar lake is not one might even want to wet their feet, where most of the dirty water of the city is drained. But fortunately there are the people who make these idols who scavenge these plaster of paris and clay idols and use it as the scaffold for the next year. 

An idol in making courtesy: http://www.pulkitvasudha.com

These people whose livelyhood is on the yearly festivals of Vinayaka Chathurthi and Durga pooja are sculptors who originate from different parts of our country. And do the service from makeshift tents spread around Hyderabad, as Kukatpally, Uppal etc.

But if one wants to see what happens to your idol after you forget it, it will be a sad story.

It is thrown along with other garbage, sometimes broken. Even broken is the story of the people who make it.

OK, let us not worry about the environment. Let us not worry about the people who make it. After all India is the land of people who live in dreams, who has no time to see others sorrows as we ourselves are having enough to worry, and yes because of this event many lively hoods are met. what is so new about it.

what made me write the article is not related to any of the concerns listed above. As we, among the privileged and gifted people, were having the daily tea and as ofcourse in the dead of the night at the night tea shop (a regular entertainment for the late night workers like me), we see many of the homeless people sleeping on the roadside and the shop verandahs (and often jeolously looking at their gifted sleep, that they could have sleep in those pathetic conditions too, which we barely have in our luxurious mattresses under the fan, and underneath the bedsheets). Ofcourse as our country is over resourced with the homeless, it is okey, no problem. But as we are having our daily cups, we see those sleep-angel gifted people being forced by the authorities in the dead of sleep to flee from the locality to search for a new place to lay their heads. I guess the street dogs have more luxury!. And unfortunate though this all happened under a tricolour.

One of the scenes after Nimarjan, this is what our beloved Lord after we conveniently forget him undergoes.

Fair to say, it will be unfair to blame the authorities, for these homeless people rarely keep the area clean and often urinate or dirty the area, which is one of the prime commercial are. Needless to mention the security scenario of our country is nothing enviable either and these men in uniform are accountable for any untoward incidents. (I wish all those ******* bombers who target our helpless citizens will go to hell (if there is one), for all that they manage to do is to cutdown the business of nights, increase the unpleasant frisking in airports and railway stations and give the governments a reason to curb the citizens freedom, and at the same time the people of upper echelons (who are the decision makers) rarely seem to be worried on any of these scoundrels handyworks). The average citizen of India barely can make the decision whether to have tea or coffee (and not even know whom they vote for except the election symbols), what change are these $#%$ terrorists expecting to make out of their bombings?. Hope one day they will answer the God.

But what  struck me was that why blame the authorities when we ourselves are to be blamed for. We have the money to spend scores of thousands or may be Lakhs of Rupees on competitively making big and better Ganesha. We have money running in to several tens of thousands to organise the rally of bidding farewell to Ganesha. Oh...did i forget to mention the Prasadam (normally sweets or Pulihara (a local rice dish) we do distribute to all the onlookers. We have the money to book huge cranes for. But did any one ever ponder had we made 10% of the money we grandiosely spend on these rituals, or make smaller Ganeshas, to make a dormitory for the homeless, it would have more than sufficiently saved the embarrassing scenario of waking up one from their sleep (one of the biggest sin as per Hindu beliefs: refer- Hyagreeva Puranam) and that too an underprivileged sleep. It could have augured well to the security situation, overall cleanliness too...

Idol makers, a baby girl playing with an unfinished Ganesha; courtesy: The Hindu.

We could have made smaller Ganeshas, with maximum 1 ft and then could have easily immersed him in an artificial tank, having clean water, any where in the city. It could have been much more ecofriendly and thus Lord friendly if we have it made of soluble material which is not toxic. We could have had intricately designed sculptures but smaller, so that our sculptors doesnt go hungry? 

But as usual who bothers?...After all Ganesha for us has nothing to do with the love to lord rather than show of strength, to intimidate the other religions...right? Did it occur to anyone that such intimidation will further tear apart the communal harmony (which anyway is fully torn). Balgangadar Tilak transformed the Ganesh Chathurthi into a big event for the union of people, to fight our colonisers and to maintain communal fabric among hindus. Are we using the same sword to break apart?

Why dont we transform the festival of our beloved lord to an eco friendly, social friendly event bridging the communal gap. Why dont we solve our social issues in a modest way by using the festival as an event for charity.

Of course, as we Indians we donot give a thought worth a grain of salt to anything other than the shoes of Hina Rabbani, weight of Aishwarya Rai after pregnancy, score of India in Lords, the number of days Anna Hazare spent at Ramlila Maidan, do We?

And I have a prayer to Lord Ganesha...

If I have expressed here is anything against your wishes oh lord please forgive me for my ignorant thoughts, but if atleast anything is with yours please give me the wisdom to understand these....

As a tail peice...

In my childhood I read a story from the Esop Fables (which i have quoted extravagantly). the story goes as this
 

Street dwellers in Mumbai, obvious scene in any of our cities

A wise man who was a scholar was so scholarly that even god the almighty had respect on him. Once he was invited to the heavenly abode by none other than almighty, even while he was alive.  He was taken to heaven and the scholar was very pleased. But he conveyed his wish to the lord that he wish to see hell too. God was not willing, but atlast yielded to the scholars demand. Contrary to his perception Hell was not all that bad. There were no frying pans, no fire, no chilling wind either. There was a  table around which a group of people were seated. Every one had the best ever delicacies in front of them. The scholar was amazed that even after having food infront of them the sinners looked eternally hungry. But on close observation he saw that their hands are tied to a big spoon, with the elbows being tightened with the tail of spoon making it immobile, and it was not possible to take the food from the table and put it in own mouth.

By seeing this scenario the scholar laughed his stomach out. God was not amused and asked him what was so funny there to laugh so much. to which the schoral quipped...

"oh Lord, you are not after all as wise as i thought, infact you are stupid...these sinners cannot take the food from own plate and feed themselves agreed...but they can of course use the spoon to feed some one seated opposite to them (because only the elbows are immobile, while the hand is free). They can easily circumvent your clever torture technique"

 

The Lord retorted: " After all it is you the one who are not wise enough, had they been willing to do this while they were on earth, or ever, they wouldnt have been here in hell, will they?"

the scholar bowed his head in shame...

Disclaimer: I have used many of the images published, but for representation purpose only. Nobodies copy right violation is intended. Kindly bring it to my notice if any one has objection to the contents here.

Photo courtesy and copy rights:  http://www.pulkitvasudha.com, The Hindu, Wikipedia, The times of India

The economics lessons.

Dictators failing, but why the democracies...

I found this article by Thomas Friedman interesting. It is about the recent trend of overthrowing dictators and failing democracies. The last part is exceedingly good especially from the United States perspective. Please find time to read.
READ HERE


March to socialism under Indira.

Some how i feel the economist guys are very well paid for an armchair job. Else they will not comment so obnoxiously. Many feel economics is all about money making and not about profit or no humane. I do completely otherwise. what is the point of having a 20% growth, where 80% have no proper food, education, medical facilities. Only thing we then would be proud of having 499 of forbs500 billionaires are from India. This they call reforms, which means...yea give us opportunity so that we will make money (only for us is unsaid). In Indira's time, India had a larger than life image, did so much of unthinkables such as stopping the privie purse, creation of Bengladesh and much more. More than anything she has to be acknoledged as a person who integrated India. Had we left it for these economist guys I would have been writing this from the Thanashahi Republic of Hyderabad.
my view is economics is much more valuable than the typical cutthroat business and more than you egomaniac economists think...it is one of the most humane subjects which touches every human. Give the humane value to it.

Those of you feeling to read the article is HERE