Saturday, June 12, 2010

ireport3

I woke up and discovered the deadly invasion of the grey haired league. Overnight, I had a shock of grey hair not reminiscent of the late Indira Gandhi but close.
It worried me momentarily, my vanity, my visual self but then I delved into the deeper meaning of this. And yes there was the answer (for the first time not spiritual!!!) Forgive me, God for I have sinned.
It so happened that the CM and his competent Finance Minister along with other imp. Ministers had gone to Delhi to meet the Planning Commissioner Montek Ahluwalia in regards to the plan outlay. Well. They came back victorious with the spoils and increase in the total outlay to 9150cr. No, mean feat. My main concern is that there should be development rather than full –scale colored photographs in all newspapers. We need less inaugurations and more actual work done. It seems we spend more time covering news or tracking our ministers starting projects which will culminate in the next few years (please note the vagueness…) on the so important glistening granite stones. I wish the same attention was given to detail in execution of projects. Shoddy, haphazard work is done, the line of actual responsibility gets lost in hierarchy of minions.
Instead of lamenting what the centre has done, the injustice meted out, the step-motherly treatment from which Punjab suffers, shouldn’t we rise to the challenge to take up matters in our hands and do something constructive. At least in this manner I wouldn’t go completely grey! Another important thing which I think they need to allocate is for the greening of Punjab before the slogan ‘hara –bhara’ Punjab turns into barren Punjab in all sense of the word. Pun intended.
My grey hair given by my children, the environment is a cause of worry for my maid who thinks the 2rs packet from Godrej would cure me of this, but I wonder if I should follow the path laid by the politicians and do a cover up???

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

ireport2

Ireport2
This one is for all the special women…who make this world possible for others, daughters, sisters, mothers and yes, girlfriends too! I have discovered the secret of keeping our clothes white ones specially the white ones pristine white. (And, I am getting myself nominated for the Maa award of the year through this nukkad wala who know‘s this guy who is a peon on the nominating committee for the Indira Gandhi Special Awards under special category). The bribe being that we plan to farm his land so that he is assured of his thekha(we at Sangha Farms are known allover Punjab for prompt payment and we are not land grabbers). Before, I launch on a self-promotion of my family, let me desist right now.
Actually this lightening struck when I kept on seeing day after day our politician’s .The white pristine bleached starched ironed to perfection with crackling creases complete with the Gucci loafers or the trendy Nike’s( the new David Bower man’s , if you please). The success to this Rin like safedi is being oblivious to people’s plight. Why should we bother about how the lesser mortals live? Ki farak painda hian…votes are bought, deals made in a/c rooms with bartering done and areas demarcated. People are divided according to caste; emotions are roused up to play hate politics. Religion is used to rouse up animal instincts and the common man gets slaughtered in this divisive politics. Mind you, all this time there is not a single blot on the kurta...it remains white and heaven forbid, if it would crumple or wilt under accusation. The textile companies secretly in cahoots with the politicians of India have developed this new material which is available to the elitist politician and is only available if you get elected to the select club (oath administered on the same lines as the freemason’s society).
Accordingly, if you develop a T- Rex Type hide where everything bounces off, poverty, social unrest, and environment, corruption, where man is easily dispensable and value is decided in accordance with the votes that garner. I feel the brilliant white gets intensified with each passing day as if by wearing and dazzling the common man one can try to blot or at least diffuse the long list of problems /woes the common man face. Glaring injustice delays in execution and face-saving justice is meted out under the system which is a mockery. The single most dastardly act of Union Carbide people get 2 yrs and then getting bail and simultaneously showing Anderson having 1.2 million $ home ; but having no money to pay as compensation suggests what? Where do our politicians stand? Does it mean that wearing white automatically suggests purity, truthfulness or has the system made us all color-blind? Be crumpled, rumpled wear color but at least be true.

An afterthought: A committee is being set-up to find the textile companies involved in the production of so-called white cloth. So that at least the washing, starching of white clothes is reduced to save water. Products like Rin, Tinopal will be affected but …. What to do. I would appreciate general public to come forward to apply for this committee. ..aloos and coffee on me!

Monday, June 7, 2010

i report !!

I’ve been thinking of starting a little blog well I have one and the best part of is it that there is complete freedom expression and I don’t need to answer to anyone. Read it, critique it and more important laugh and then ponder over it….
It’s called ireport... I’m hoping this doesn’t ever come under the Apple scanner and i get sued my pants off in my case it’s my demure salwar..This is just a reflection of the times from my eyes; call it cynicism, jaded or maybe one of the times just plain ol’ innocence and before I forget my jat pigheadedness.
What brought this one on was the passing of World Environment Day and the day before that the sad demise of Dilnaaz Kaur. We all viewed it on Ptc, made the proper noises of regret and then lambasted the poor mother; that she didn’t take care of her. I mean, get real folks which mother would willingly throw her daughter down a bore-well? Do we in our air-conditioned rooms with backup generators ever realize how the poor commoner ever lives? They still play in the open and wander over to every nook and corner not worried about the temperature and the beating sun. The retort to this one would be she should have been careful or taken care, yes but accidents happen but when the media makes a mockery of emotions and also tried to hike its TRP ‘s by sensationalizing the news , that’s when we lose ourselves. Politicians flock and try to give their condolences and compensation is given but how does one value a 2and half yr old? Is it calculated according to the years she lived or scared over the disparity which was shown over the train accident/air crash victims?? That by the way, was last week’s news….and we had voting over it. It’s a sad reflection of our times when we start valuing people in lieu of votes.
The second one which made me think was world environment day; it visited Punjab government’s calendars earmarked by the special date. The proper noises were made, conservation was lauded and loads of programs were launched where we are going to save the water, have specialcancer trains, have more Ro systems , and also have more vigilant teams to monitor sowing of paddy. Ironically we have a news item where paddy is being sown before the due date in Khidhikiyan wala because the landlord is close to the ruling party!! And, mind you water conservation projects have all been initiated there. I wonder why rest of Punjab is in slumber, must be due to the heat or the euphoria that ki farak painda hian!! No thought has been given to forest conservation. I wish we would learn from Tamil Nadu where they have risen from .3% to a close 50% and that also when a spiritual leader called Sathguru initiated planting trees and Project Green Hands. The reason being…how is one going to meditate if there is no tree to sit under?!!!!!
I genuinely laughed over that one. And as he says it’s a collective effort, involve everyone emotionally ( that’s our weakness) emotional aatyachar always works, I say.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

zero accountability

Zero accountability is the word I've been looking for and guess where I found it; in all the places...a movie called Iron-Man which I watched just because it stars one of my favorite actors Robert Downey Jr. aka Sherlock Holmes. And by chance, it figures as the word that aptly describes US these days.
You're all going to shake your heads and say there she goes again. And, the best one is who is she to question us or preach? She doesn't practice what she preaches.
Actually, yes I'm as guilty as all of you. We've collectively, the hope of India, the shining India (coined by the BJP which miserably backfired) have just calmly taken a back seat because we are all so cushioned and cocooned in our little worlds where the sun rises and sets according to our whims and fancies. We complain the most about rising temperatures, power cuts, fall in the water table, NREGA and its impact, rising costs, inflation, corruption (the deadliest of all) and the one which hurts me the most lack of national pride. Why is that we all would love to escape to countries which a) our not our own , b)would always treat us as second-class citizens and lastly ,where we would work our butts off but still come back to India to show our monetary wealth off??Who better than the Punjabis who flaunt their wealth with bigger houses and flashier cars?
This increasing dis -enchantenment , lack of pride in being Indian and finding fault in everything from the sewerage to the road conditions ( deplorable the Page 3 babes will say,’ the M1 in England is so smooth , just like a baby’s bottom.. I wonder when the last time she actually touched a baby’s bottom: the maids are meant to do that!!) And yes, the favorite line there is so much mitti here …
I mean get real folks.
We all have our grouses; we all can write paeans and have long-winding discussions about what is wrong in this system and our country. But have we ever held ourselves accountable for any of this? We all coolly pass the buck to the politicians who we choose, vote for, and give funds so as to cushion our lives for the next 5 yrs. It’s amazing how we nonchalantly pass the buck to our leaders and distance ourselves. Is it because we are cushioned by wealth, status or we are connected to someone who knows someone who can help when a problem arises. This increasing rot I feel is passing to our children (I think we all have the national avg. of 2.1 kids here!!) Around me kids or teenagers would rather leave the country to study abroad or just shift pass ‘n parcel as that somehow, automatically guarantees success. Why has this transition come about? How did we fail as a generation? Are we confused? And more still, why can’t we choose plain old vanilla over the chocolate?
All our failures can be traced back to ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY.
Just pause, ponder and think if you can come up with solutions and please don’t say ‘Kucchh nahin ho sakta”. I’m not into quotes but here I think if we borrow from someone who borrowed from India……Yes, We can! (Obama).