Yet another post on the Jan Lokpal Bill

Pre Script - This post is lengthy. Take some time out to read it. Please suffer the points that I have laid out in the first few paragraphs. It summarizes the situation till date. Go through those links if possible. India Against Corruption is not the same as the Jan Lokpal Pal. I am totally supportive of the former, apprehensive about the latter. 


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The (jan) lokpal bill has sharply divided the aam junta of this country. Television, the newspapers, posts on Facebook/Twitter among others have made us sit up and take notice of Anna Hazare and company.

Prima facie, this group is trying to eradicate corruption by introducing a Jan Lokpal or the citizen Ombudsman Bill. They want to make this bill a part of our constitution. The seed of this bill is to institute a body which is independently elected like the Election Commission members and the judges of the supreme court. The primary objective of the body will be to be act as a bridge between the government and the common citizen. By extension, it will have a say in every bill that is tabled in the parliament, process and investigate charges of corruption/misuse of office/inaction against government servants of the legislature, executive and the judiciary across all levels - micro and macro.

This group which calls itself a citizen activist group has been for some time now amassing mass support for its agenda - the jan lokpal bill. Enough support garnered, it approached the ruling government to pitch the bill in the parliament. The government agreed to pitch it
but came up with its own version of the bill. The government's bill was unacceptable to Anna and company as it claimed that the lokpal that will be created will be without teeth and will in the future merely be relegated to another of the million committees that India has.

The government on the other hand and many other political parties believe that the Jan Lokpal bill in its present form is unconstitutional and if implemented will shake the pillars of
constitution on which our country stands. It has also claimed worry about misuse of the powers of Lokpal by a few individuals and the eventuality of the country being held hostage by unelected representatives. 


The primary objections summed up. They by no means, bring all reservations under the sun but have juice in their arguments. View 1, View 2, View 3. None of the views are the authors own but I do agree with a few of them.

Enough can be said about the present protests and calls for revolution that is spreading throughout the country. And you are already abreast of the developments. (Google news will suffice)

After all the idle banter which I am sure there was no need of, I want to come to my point - Not one individual in the country or the world can disagree that rampant corruption exists and has always existed in India (Among 178 countries, India is the 87th Most Corrupt Country). People was and are disgusted and dis-illusioned by  successive government's inability to provide basic social security and infrastructure to all of us. If a few in the government are corrupt, then most are indifferent to the chair they sit on. Saying that, among other third world countries, India is perceived as a nation with a strong democracy with a powerful economy.

Things have gone wrong and things have gone right. Each and every citizen has taken part in the development and the lack of it from 1947.
If you are still reading, hear the whispers of fundamental change that is knocking on our doors. This is not a call for protest or for revolution. This is simply a call for participation. A simple,
rationale and most importantly INFORMED participation. 


If the jan lokpal bill doesn't pass through, nothing much will change. 


If it does pass through, heaven shall not descend on earth. 


If it does pass in the present form, it will change the future of the country and the fundamentals on which our country stands.
I as an ordinary citizen with average intellect believe that a lot of evils plaguing our development will indeed be cured if such a institution is actually formed.


All that I worry about, is that, this bill has become Evil v/s Good. That, there is not enough public debates on reservations against the bill. That, this is bill is being perceived to be a tool to exact revenge on a class of people called the politicians and the bureaucrats of India. The overwhelming cries of the people who support the bill shout - corrupt f***ed up politicians, down with the congress and reduce anyone against the bill to an anti national devil.

The ones against the bill,  throw the Fascist stone at Anna and company apart from throwing mud and clinging on silly remarks about his nehru topi. They search for petty motives behind Anna and company's stand. 



Why such blind rage? It's a proud moment for our country that a citizen group has garnered this kind of mass support and that people genuinely want to take a stand in improving their lot. But why are there muted voices on the bill itself? Why are there not enough counter proposals to eradicate corruption and make the 'Chairs' more accountable? Why not more voices about why the present system is being abused? Why not more voices on why the future system cannot be abused in the same way? 


Above all, why is the cry only on post-event punishment and not on preventive maintenance. I have absolutely no solutions to offer at this moment. The only motive of this post is to raise questions. To make you ponder and analyze the consequences. Go on the street, debate and discuss - don't simply raise slogans. Don't brand good and evil on your Facebook walls- Status update valid arguments for and against the bill. Raise awareness not merely of bringing the current political class down but how to breed a better lot. The incentive to commit corruption is high in our country - Ponder why! And while you ponder - reflect on human nature too...


This is a call to Participate Smartly- http://www.lokpalbillconsultation.org/page.php?page=3

My Freedom's Fire

Imagine this grand room
This huge empty room
With a high ceiling stretching to Heaven itself
Beautiful flooring and ornate walls stretching for miles ahead
From one end of my memory to the other
Huge..


With french windows lined on both sides
And no furniture to be seen
Bare walls with beautiful carvings on the pillars that rise on them
Sunlight streams in through the french windows
And lights up a few carvings and shadows others

Imagine this grand magnificent piano
That's there in the middle of the room - The only object in the middle of it all
This sunlight tat streams in through the windows
is winter sunlight - cold to the touch and warm still
And you can see dust pollens in the sunlight band
These rays of gold and dust pollen ~ magic dust
lighting the room up


A fews keys on that grand piano are pressed
Like a quick flutter
The bars of sunlight shimmer in that sound...
The room itself is caught in a state of nervous ecstacy with those few notes
Few strands of music prances around the room
Like a few temporary butterflies
Lighting everything up
Inspite of the sunlight, inspite of the sunlight...


Imagine this very instant,
Imagine you are there...
And then put them all together
And its you
My Freedom's Fire...

You are going to be in such a room someday
And you are going to think about me a little on that day
You wont be able to place it immediately but somehow I will be there in your mind
And you are going to remember me for making you imagine this setting


You can make beams of sunlight flutter when you touch it
You deserve things worthy as described in those few moments of the sunbeam
Those moments are worthy of being all your life
And never anything less..never anything less...

My Freedom's Fire...

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You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one ~ Imagine, John Lennon

I am the aam autorickshaw driver that you hate

Dear Bigger Apples,


My story is a little similar to the municipality mango clerk from Ratnagiri. Instead of Ratnagiri, I blossomed into a mango fruit at Patna.

I lost my parent mangoes when I was only a small keri. And being a Keri without a tree, I was very sour and bitter to taste. My friend mangoes were all rag-pickers and that's what I did through my childhood and early teenagehood.

I fell in love with a pretty looking Keri ragpicker. She loved the movies and we used to often travel to nearby villages to watch open air movies. We also used to gather up the leftovers after the show and practise the dance steps that we had seen.

That's how I came to know about this big apple Mumbai and the bigger apples who lived there. It was my dream to come to big apple and become alphonso mango moviestar aka mithunda and govinda.

To cut a long story short, myself Keri and herself Keri came to mumbai and tried our shot at the movies. One thing led to another and instead of acting or eating alphonso mangoes, we built a hut of thrown away mango crates. Myself Keri started driving an autorickshaw (a huge improvement from ragpicker and a little less than that coolie amitabh bachpan) for a alphonso apple sethji and Herself Keri started producing three more keris and washing clothes for other big apples and alphonsos.


Now coming to the main seed of this mango post - myself Keri, my autorickshaw and the fruity things I do that makes all you big apples so red in the face. When I started driving the autorickshaw, I was in awe of the places I will visit in big apple mumbai and all the different apples and mangoes that will sit in my autorickshaw. I was always eager to be flagged down and drive these big fruits to different places.

I drove on the Bandra - borivali belt, usually in andheri. I remember looking up in awe at all the big apple buildings and when I looked straight ahead I saw big apple cars crawling among autorickshaws. Doing this, I first broke all the suspension of my auto and even managed to break its nose on a car ahead. Many beatings and abuses later, my alphonso sethji executed me by wiping away five months of salary. I was also to pay for the fuel and repair my rickshaw for the next five months.

Poof, bang and boom - I landed on earth and have never left it eversince. By loans and various other secrets that I wish not to divulge I repaired my auto and paid for the fuel. I flatly started refusing any journey within two kilometers from where I was flagged down. I flatly refused to ply my rickshaw on road craters bigger than the moon. Fuel prices started becoming as costly as alphonso mangoes and even jaali fuel made Keri chutney of my family income. 

I found out a pleasure for a different kind of fruit/veggie drink - one that made me wonderfully happy at night and sick in the morning. Little dry crushed leafs chuna marke became my chewing gum of first choice. By this special drink and special chewing gum (that turned blood red when I spit it out) , I could bear the moon craters, I could bear constantly inhaling black smoke in serpentine traffic jams, I could bear the constant monstrous noise from my own auto and others around me, I could bear my alphonso sethji's abuses and much more, I could bear my auto breaking down every third day, most of all I could somehow bear the constable mangoes constant heckling and needless fines and finally I could bear the constant cries of the big/small apples/mangoes questions of asking why are you saying NO. 

I say NO, because of all the above reasons. I say NO because I believe I am running a business and can refuse a bad investment of time and fuel.

I also OVERCHARGE and have rigged my meter Keri chutney style because I need to feed myself Keri, herself Keri, three little keris, pay for fuel, give money to sick mango cops, give my bloodstained money to the alphonso sethji who owns this god-forsaken contraption and finally I OVERCHARGE because I need that magic drink (fondly named as Desi Tharra) and that magic chew to bear it all. Yes, I earn but never enough, never enough....and there are no promotions in my job.

So, my dear big apples, 'I am sorry for inconvenience caused - but work in progress, not charity.'





Mango wala wink P.S - And big apples - fyi - I earn nearly the same amount by ferrying all you alphonsos as I do by taking special mango girls at night to mango hotels and back. I earn as much by taking kiwi fruit tourists to setting wala hotels and if by the grace of Alphonso mango almighty - a Washington apple happens to flag me down, then I expect unexpected diwali bonus. So, I shall here-fore say NO and rig that meter darned fruity.

(Cartoon image of Autorickshaw courtesy : http://shashwat-artisticblur.blogspot.com/2010/05/auto-rickshaw-ravan.html) 

I am an Aam Corrupt Manoos

I am Aam manoos. I love mangoes and all my childhood memories are centered around mango trees. My "bapu"ji was a menial worker at a big mango orchard at Ratnagiri Maharashtra. I was his 8th Alphonso.


There were 5 female and 2 male Alphonso's before me. And there came to be 3 more Alphonso's after me. I learnt my basic reading, writing and phonetics by memorizing all 11 Alphonso names. All 24 english alphabets were covered in the 11 names.


Ratnagiri was brimming over with mangoes during harvest time and my family used to get its fair share too but the Alphonso mango was very scarce. The master of the orchard where my Bapuji toiled, used to send us only one crate of Alphonso's every season. Thus from a very early age, my craving for the elusive Alphonso took seed. The rate back then was a huge 20/ rupees a dozen. 20 Rs also happened to be the cumulative school fees for all us Alphonso siblings.


To cut a long story short, I ripened into a graduate and became a clerk at the Greater Mumbai Municipality. My craving for Alphonsos had only grown (and the rate for 12 of them was now Rs 350). My salary being Rs 3500, I could only afford 10 crates of Alphonso during the season and there being 13 of us including Bapuji and Ma, I could not fulfill my dream of sending each one of them a crate of Alphonso. 


This went on for a few years and I started having my own brood of Alphonsos to manage. But slowly, I started seeing a different kind of Alphonso on the streets of Mumbai. Huge malls, big cars and tiny flats very high up in the sky. Now, not only did I want crates of Alphonsos, but I wanted the Alphonso car (BMW), I wanted the Alphonso Flat (20th floor penthouse at Prabhadevi) and to send my Alphonso kids to the Alphonso country (USA). 


Now how can I afford all these different kinds of Alphansos, you definitely will ask me. My answer is - In Ratnagiri I grew up watching people with huge lands planting trees and getting fruit. In Mumbai, I saw people planting roads and getting fruits during monsoon because they had to replant them. This was an altogether new Alphonso for me. I started moving around with these magic people and soon had a construction company of my own. Every summer I now build roads and after every monsoon, I build them again. I start building bridges and dams and in the middle of construction I go for a large holiday with my family. We go on pilgrimage to all Yash Chopra locations around the world. And when we return the Government doubles what it was paying me earlier. 


Now I not only eat Alphonsos but also send different kinds of Alphonsos to my friends in the Sarkar and the opposition Sarkar. But I have a small worry. It's been growing for a few days. 


All these well educated journalists at English dailies keep talking about something called "Corruption" and other big educated stuff. My wife tells me I may get arrested soon.


But if I do get arrested, I will tell the police Inspector (he is the oldest Alphonso among my siblings) - Brother, what did I do wrong? I simply was a clerk in the "Greater Mumbai Municipality" and wanted a few crates of Alphonsos and I wanted to eat it in this lifetime. Is that wrong? 


Pray tell me, my dear Alphonso loving readers, Am I wrong in desiring Alphonso mangoes?

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On a parallel note: Please feel free to visit a call of action against corruption and taking a stand: http://bindthepleiades.blogspot.com/2011/08/and-citizens-ombudsman-awaits-citizens.html




And I have no views on the Lokpal Bill but do go through the link and choose - http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/

PS - Yes, I am actually starting to develop views on the Lokpal Bill and this link is one of the influencers. Its a must read for the democratically inclined - http://kafila.org/2011/04/09/at-the-risk-of-heresy-why-i-am-not-celebrating-with-anna-hazare/