Cruelty to animals- bull fight in Udaipur, Rajastan

The morning news story about the bulls fight in Rajastan following a 300 year old tradition is absolutely shocking and saddening too. More so when the channel reports that the bulls were tied around their ankles and made to fight despite tiredness and fatigue, and watched by mute policemen on duty who stand there doing nothing!

The traditions that are followed in India are different in each state and so are the rituals and habits of the people. The police men who are recruited follow different cultures and beliefs and are totally unaware of customs and practices that are adopted in different regions and probably is the reason for their standing as dumb spectators to various rituals that are followed in every state even if it meant danger to precious lives of young and old alike.

As a Banker, I remember the first lesson that was taught to me as a 19 year old that Banking had two inseperable ways. one is the practice and the other is the Law of Banking! I was observing that one could not run a bank if he strictly adhered to the laws and vice-versa. Hence there was a need to balance both these acts to turn out a fine performance!

The Home Ministry in India could formulate common codes for practice by the entire police force in the country and educate them on what is the Law and differentiate the same with the practice.
Most of the policemen and the security are unaware of the Law and go by the traditions and practice adopted by different people of different culture and watch it silently and thinking good about it. It is time that there is a policy of uniformity and balance in thinking and the police force should be advised to adopt the policy of the law of the land and uphold them. This will ease most of the problems faced by the society. Each police or the security personnel would also elevate himself as a Judge in a given situation and act according to Law and contribute his best for the betterment of society at large?

The SPCA should take up this issue with the government in formulating uniform policy and to educate the men in Khaki to act according to Law and not go by their Hearts!!

Tackling Maoists/Naxalites

Nepal was considered as one of the most peaceful countries in the world. The great Himalayan mountains attracted numerous tourists from all over the globe and the country thrived on mainly tourism. The famous Pashupathinath temple attracted several million Hindus from everywhere and the tiny Kingdom was, no doubt, a paradise on earth. The kingdom suddenly witnessed turmoil and the king was shown the doors of exit and the elected government overthrown by the Maoists who enjoyed support from our neighbour China who gave them enough arms and ammunitions to rebel and conquer the little kingdom. Our own CPI (M) gave enormous support to the Maoists and the leaders Yetchury and Karat were shuttling between Nepal and India to mediate which pin pointed their closeness with the rebel Maoists. There were media reports about Purulia arms dropping quite a few years back. The central government did very little to investigate the truth or probably preferred to keep silent as the focus of disturbance was outside our country? Now, the Maoists are here within our own state and targetting innocent policemen, journalists and the people by trigerring blasts, blowing railway tracks etc.. resulting in loss of precious inncoent lives. The Rajdhani Train accident that occurred a few years back claimed the life of my own brother-in-law who was just 37 years is also one of the crimes engineered by these rebels. The next potential place for these Maoists is kerala which is also dominated by the Marxists and the centre, beware!

The rebel leaders are openly challenging the home minister to reign them and the government is just helpless and is only appealing to them to come for negotiations. The PM is clever in handing over the dangerous Home portfoilo to PC who only knows ways to tax people and improve the cash flow to the exchequer! He is, for the first time, getting to know the behavioural pattern of fellow Indians outside his home state and is realising the heat that is turned on him. All these years the ministers from the South India were always given coveted ministries such as Tourism, finance,shipping,telecom etc which were smooth and money spinning in their own ways! The PM has done well in exposing these men from the south so that these Dravidian parties think twice before bargaining for ministerial posts!!

The only way to tackle these menace is to put West Bengal and the Kerala under President's rule and monitor movements of Maoists and naxalites alike. Put up large capital intensive industries in these places and generate employment so that the youth do not face unemployment or poverty and take up arms for their struggle? Build infra structure and connect them to the main stream.

Besides, the government should bring ina suitable consitutional amenndment that there shall not be any other flag fluttering in the country except the National flag be it on top of the building or in schools or colleges or on the roofs of cars and buses or for that matter everywhere! This will inculcate a sense of patriotism in the hearts and minds of the people across the country and bring in pride to call ourselves Indians first and last?

These suggestions may not fully solve the problems but could help the government in solving if incorporated or considered amongst various other solutions!

Jai Hind

Blue film or film Blue? Diwali then and now?

My mother used to wake me up in the shivering winter of Delhi during my school days @2.30 am early in the morning saying" ezhundiru, pakkathu veetula ellam pattasu vedikkaranga"! the translation is wake up my son all the neighbours have started bursting crackers!! The sounds of Red Fort laris and the smell of burnt phosporous was so intoxicating that we used to jump out of our beds even during those cold winters and get ourselves dressed up after a nice oil bath and go out in the street to burst those crackers! My Punjabi neighbours used to grumble and fume about having woken up early in the morning and they would never pardon me for spoiling their sleep at those wee hours. It was the case in all the localities and sreets and it was a known factor that the south Indians celebrate their Diwali early in the morning and the north Indians in the evening establishing a divide in belief even in those days!

These days the government has come down firmly and made it mandatory for people not to burst crackers before 6 am and not after 10 pm ! Added to this is the education in schools which motivates them not to buy and burst crackers since there is an involvement of child labour which is anti-law and secondly, all these contribute to the pollution, which is quite true! The enthusiasm amongst children to fire crackers has come down drastically and no one is interested to indulge in them! Further, the Television channels compete with each other to give their best capsuled programs involving films and other cultural aspects that the children are least interested to get out of their houses and fire crackers.

One of our family friends said that they are going to watch "Blue Film" with their children and I was wonder struck and dumb for a moment only to realise later that there is a Hindi movie titled "Blue" which was being released on Diwali Day!!

The colorful function of our days has changed colors and what we say as colorful does not necessarily mean colorful to our children and what they see as colorful and entertaining may not be to our taste and liking.

I remember my mother sending a plate full of home made south Indian sweets and other savouries to all our surrounding neigbours in Delhi which was reciprocated equally and with warmth with sweets made at their homes and this was a kind of pot-luck party with sweets and eatables of different kinds and tastes! The modern times see more of a blessed kitchen which is always neat and clean with no signs of any preparations as everything is available in shops! Even the exchange of sweets carry the same taste and is not different from what you have in the house.

Having said that, I have to mention about Vada-Malai for the Hindu god Anjaneyar at Hanuman temple on Irwin road, Connaught Place. The parents specially the mother, take a vow of making 108 Vadai and offer it to the god in the form of a garland for some reason or the other for which I have seen my mother toiling the whole day and sweating it out in the kitchen, take bath and get ready for the temple visit with the offerring! We used to take a bus ride from Karol bagh and reach the temple and once the hands of the priests feel the freshness of the Vada-malai or the offerring that is brought, they are full of smiles and apply a big tilak on your fore-head and recite some mantras. you feel very happy, contended and satisfied but unhappy when you see the priest emptying atleast half the vada-malai into their kitty leaving only half the quantity of the offerring for your consumption! I could not miss the priest giving away our offerring as Prasad to many others who offerred some cash to the priests and walked away satisfied to taste the Vadai that they got without any effort! I used to advice my friends to follow this practice of tipping the priests and walk away with the precious Vadai from the malai which someone else would have offerred thus saving them of precious energy and time! The modern days are witnessing a sea of change in the entire system be it religious, cultural or social. I am still longing for the good old days and will we ever see a Deepavali of the 1960s in our life time again?

Koi Lauta de mere Beete huye din... beete huye din woh haye pyare pal chin!!!

Deepavali- celebrations then and now!

This particular festival is undoubtedly the best of all festivals not only because of the new clothings that we used to get from our parents but also due to the fact that we used to enjoy school holidays

very close but far off !

The stand off between the pilots and the crew recently appearing in the media is nothing new! Travelling in the enclosed space for hours together brings certain degree of cordiality amongst the crew and the pilots. At the disembarking stations,both are put in the same hotel with facilities alike which allows the crew either to have a sumptuous lunch or dinner within the allowances. The modern times lure the humans alike who venture out to have fun and in this process, mutual invites are offered and accepted for spending joyous time together. I remember the days early in 70s when there used to be only Indian airlines and the Air India. I happened to know at least half a dozen Indian Airlines Pilots who used to fly the Air Bus from Chennai to Delhi and stay at the Lodhi Hotels. I could never see them in the midst of Air Hostesses or the crew as the divide between the jobs that they held persisted during those times. There used to be mutual respect for each other and the pilots had their place of importance! These days, pilots who are very young join this lucrative job and want to enjoy everything that is normally done by the modern youth which includes going out with the crew to Pubs and other joints to relieve their stress. This leads to familiarity and naturally breeds contempt! In what is said to be the aftermath of such relationships, liberty is taken and the extent is not known either to the young plots or the air Hostesses resulting in such situations where the management is compelled to suspend the pilots and the crew and order enquiry etc.. which suggests an ugly situation not only for the company but even for the families of those involved in such incidents. It will be better if both the parties understand their limits and draw out a Lakshman Rekha for a Happy Co-existence !!

We are also doing such similar mistakes while bringing up our children. Remembering our past and the distance that we had with our parents, we try to be friends with our children and allow them to sit with us and share our company which sometimes include a drinking session as well. This sometimes leads to dangerous situations specially with the boys when such generosities are misused without understanding the limits and becomes a challenge to yourself in many ways. Sometimes, I really ponder as to who is right? our parents- who always had a space in terms of our bringing up or us-in bringing up our children like friends and forced to face grim situation which is an embarrassment sometimes? We are left to ponder over this situation and are at Cross-roads X !!

Falls Tour of Tamil Nadu organised by TTDC

When I read the Advertisement given by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation about the 4 day tour of Water Falls in the state, my happiness crossed boundaries as I was just looking out for such a tour to be with nature and to be myself. I asked at least a few of my DTEA friends if they were interested to join me for this tour. My family members were just not interested to go on this tour in Non-A/c coaches! Though my friends evinced interest none could make it happen due to pre-occupation. I decided to go with the tour all by myself. This tour was by a 20 seat er non-air conditioned bus which set out on 1st October,2009 at 8.30 pm. The drivers of the Bus were expert drivers who knew the routes well. The Bus halted for relief at about 7am while proceeding towards Kumbakarai falls at the foothills of Kodaikanal. The halt was at the roadside and the facilities for toilets were far from satisfactory considering the number of buses and tourists present at the site! The guide was quite fair enough saying that better hotels having good toilet facilities did not allow TTDC to halt at their premises as the tourists would not spend for eating at their outlets! Anyways, the bus proceeded ahead and we reached Kumbakarai and were quite eager to see the falls! It was a bitter disappointment that there was hardly any Falls and all that we could see was small little ponds of water and small stream lets gathering strength to flow! The afternoon heat and the absence of Falls did dampen our spirits but we were hopeful of seeing some better view of water falling from a height at the next destination which was Suruli which was bordering Kerala. The moment we came near the spot, there was a noticeable decrease in temperature and the climate became cooler. Here, we were not disappointed as we could see a lovely water fall and all of decided to get into it and derive pleasure by standing underneath the falls and allow the water to massage your body. It was fun as you will get some ideas from the picture that is appended.
We had our night halt at Madurai at one of the T T D C's hotels. The single room that I had was nothing less than a 3 star hotel suite and it was neat and clean with fresh towels and soaps provided. The only draw back that these TTDC hotels have is that you never know if they would serve you the food that you ordered with the room service? This happened with me too as I fell on my bed like never before and never even woke up to realise that the food that I ordered never came to my room!!

The next morning We set out on our 4 hour trip to Courtallam. Your heart knew no bounds of Joy seeing the mighty Courtallam falls which was a wonderful sight to admire and relish. After a good oil massage of your body which costs Rs 200/-, all of us jumped into the huge crowd already assembled there to take bath at the falls. The water pounded each and every possible place in your body. within minutes, there was no trace of oil on your body and it was such a lovely feeling. We felt so hungry after this 1 hr of bath. Lunch awaited us at the Tamil nadu Hotel and we all ate as if we had just arrived from Ethiopia!!

We proceed to yet another falls near Courtallam popularly know as Papanasam where a holy bath is believed to relieve a person of all his sins and clear the way for his Mukthi or in other words, there will not be a re-birth for the person! The falls though weaker in strength gave us immense pleasure and joy and probably each of us thought that we have attained Moksha or the ultimate?

Next came Mani mutharu which was about 1 1/2 hrs of journey. This is also popular place as the government has built a huge dam to store water. There was security around the area and our group had to register themselves to go further to have a look at the falls. This place was as amazing as the courtallam falls and was surrounded by scenic beauty of nature!

We reached Kanya Kumari around 9pm to halt for the day and rest by night! The 5am darshan of Goddess Kanya Kumari was blissful. Mythology says that Goddess Durga vowed to kill Banasuran, the demon before marrying Lord Shiva who was known to the world as sundareswarar. The marriage could not happen since Goddess was focused on killing the evil-Banasuran and thus the marriage was called off! The food items which were prepared for the occasion was thrown on the sands of the beach and that's probably the reason that even today you find particles that resembles food grains on the beach! The place which is otherwise known for its Sun Rise and the Sun Set and the merging of the mighty Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the ultimate Indian Ocean was overcast with clouds and light drizzle leading to disappointment amongst the tourists who wanted to witness the sun-rise spectacle. On a clear day, one can see the Sun Rising from the East-Bay of Bengal side and setting on the west-the Arabian sea side and people throng to see this spectacle from all corners of the country and elsewhere.

We proceeded to Tiruparappu adjoining the borders with Kerala. After nearly 2 hrs of journey we were absolutely delighted to see a wonderful Falls. The falls had murky water and I was curious to know the reason as all other falls had clear water? After trekking a few hundred yards, I found a river on top of the falls and on either sides people were taking bath and washing their clothes!! no wonder, the water was pale and had been beaten by the in-humane approach! Its the sheer size of the population that is challenging the authority in every sphere which takes away the lustre and beauty of mother nature. Its time that our people are taught about conservation of rivers and its utilities for the future generation to exist. I tried to explain to a few as to why they should not use soaps and other detergents while taking bath specially in rivers and falls lest they should turn "False" in the years to come!

The 20 hour journey back to chennai helped our minds to determine the number of bones that our body comprises! Nevertheless, it was worth the visit and my thanks to the Tamilnadu tourism that they could take me so near to reality and nature.