Money Money Money

A couple of days ago, I woke up in the post operative room of a hospital in Mumbai and the first thing I heard in my drug dulled ears was the mewing cries of a child saying “ghar jana hai, ghar jana hai”.

The cries went on and on, soft, scared and persistent till I managed to open my eyes and saw opposite me on a bed a mother holding a small child cradled in her arms, who was burrowing her way into her mothers chest crying softly with the repeated plea to go home.

I managed to drag out the words to ask her what happened and why was she crying, and even in the state I was in, I wept when I heard the story.

Her mother explained that the little girl was 4 years old and her name was Heer. It seems that their building is being redeveloped, like a large majority of buildings in Mumbai. During this redevelopment, the residents are still there for some overlapping period and  the builder has put up a temporary water lines to start his preliminary work. This means that the place where the children normally run around had water pipes across it.

The kid being a kid, went out to play in the evening and was trying to swing from this tempting water pipe line when it broke and crushed off two of her fingers. The end tragic result, an innocent child of 4 years or so has to spend the rest of her life with 2 fingers less. My mind took a few minutes to digest the fact.

Once it did, my rage was unbearable. The rage at us ourselves and our stupidity, our greed. I have been to a few society meetings recently talking about re-development and all I hear is what can we squeeze out of the builder, how much more can we get, thats all , more more more.

Even if there is some talk of safety, its not about the safety of the residents, its how do we safely secure our flats, and never never about how do we secure our children and their future.

No society today talks about how safe will the layout be for our children, they talk about how much more carpet area we can squeeze officially and un officially. No society talks about if we will have a green space for the children to play in, its always about how many cars can we park if we convert the proposed green space to a parking lot.

In the last 6 months , at my residence both my cars as well as the cars of all my neighbours are covered with paint spots as a souvenir of the society being beautified, one of my cars got covered in cement the other day thanks to the building next to my office being “redeveloped”. Best part is that out of the 40 odd cars in my compound, I’m the only one who complained, the rest have accepted it as “hota hai”.

Friends, our greed is killing our children's future. When we were children , it was a sheer joy to run around in the compound playing Dabba I spy and chor police. We turn around and pontificate to our children for spending too much time indoors but have we done anything to make them enjoy the outdoors, we are turning what little they have into hells playground.

I wrote last week about Mumbai 227 and how we need to get the right corporators in place in Feb elections who understand that parks are meant for children to play  and not for slums to encroach. But before we embark on cleaning up the city, WE NEED to introspect and get our head straight. Let us clean our own houses first before we start preaching to others.

If we don’t want or demand the basic needs for our children why would the politicians care. They are servants and will only serve what the master orders.

WAKE UP !!! GET ACTIVE !!! Find a green space in your area, collect your locals, clean it up,  give your child a space. Tomorrow it could be your child not Heer who has to live his / her life with 2 fingers less.

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It can be done

Pictures of garden we created from a broken down plot using monetary and time contributions from local citizens and MLA & MP in Versova. Proof that the ordinary citizen and good politicians can make a difference

 

Anatomy of a Mahatma

As my readers may have noticed, I have been unusually quiet the last few weeks. Fact is, I have been introspecting. A lot of my readers have written in and said that I’m doing a yeoman job waking up people and India needs more and more people to light such fires.

Unfortunately, this is a huge responsibility for anyone to carry and it scares the life out of me. With 50,000 plus readers, what if I write something which is not correct ? Even if I’m sure of what I write and do through research before writing, we are all humans swayed by emotions, what if I guide people wrong ?

If a person like me just someone off the street is bowed under such a burden, I got to thinking what an impossible burden it must be like to be a Mahatma and meet peoples expectations. What must it be like to have people like Tushar Gandhi pass summary judgement on you and call you un Gandhian when he himself sells the Gandhi name for a few dollars.

What must it be like to wake up every day with hundreds of reporters waiting to shove a mike in your mouth for a sound byte. What must it be like to say what you feel and have every two bit wannabe dissect and rip it to bits and my eyes filled up with tears.

I started looking deeply at the closest we have today to a Mahan atma (great soul), Anna Hazare. Everywhere I look, people argue back and forth saying that he is modern Gandhi, others argue that it is wrong to call him that, but no one is really looking at why he raises such strong feelings in all of us.

I started looking at some of the qualities which according to me make people call others Mahan Atmas.

Playfulness: One thing common between Gandhi and Hazare is the playful way they treat some topics. Playfulness and child like innocence in certain matter is according to me one of the key elements in becoming a Mahatma. Unless someone is one with his / her inner child, everything in the world seems grave, somber and dark

Persistence: Another thing which I see as the signs of becoming a Mahan Atma is the conviction of knowing the right path and then sticking to it come what may.

Simplicity: Mahan atmas live life with very few trappings, as Anna says ,the total sum of his possessions is he has a bedding and a plate.

Good of others before onesself: A Mahan Atma always thinks and talks in the terms of greater good, never in selfish terms. Every word he utters and every act he undertakes reeks of what will benefit others and general society and never himself / herself.

Readiness to give up his life: A Mahan Atma knows that life is illusionary and that death is but a counterpart. This readiness to give up his life for his principles is another of the trademarks of a Mahan Atma.

Non violence: A Mahan Atma has realised that violence is the last tool of fear and stems out of it. A real Mahan Atma practices non violence in all walks of life and not just in words.

Some of the people I would qualify as Mahatmas  based on the above are Mahatma Gandhi, Osho, Sharmila Irom, Sai baba of Pasupatty and of course now Anna Hazare. (This list is just off the top of my head and is not all inclusive)

Now me being the devilish person I am, of course couldn’t help making a comparison chart against our current day politicians:

 

Trait	Mahan Atma	Politican
	Gandhiji, Osho, Sai Baba, Hazare	Sharad Pawar, PM, Sonia Gandhi, PC, Sibal, RG
Playfullness	Many examples of jests on record from each	The closest we ever get is perhaps a something said in moronism instead of jest which turns funny eg RG’s remark “ how long will you beg….”
Persistence	From Hazares fasts to Osho’s sticking to his ideas even to the point of death	Manmohan Singh says one thing one day and reiterates the next. Munde says he will throw Enron into Arabian Sea and then calls them saviours
Simplicity	A plate and a bed , living in a temple	Palaces of gold like the Reddys or being caught at an American Airport with a roll of Dollars and a Columbian drugloards daughter as a companion
Good of others before onesself	From Hazares fast to death and almost dying to Gandhiji’s fast for Harijans	I don’t even need to say anything here, its self apparent
Readiness to give up his life	Each one of the above has been ready to lay down their life for a cause they believe in	Our politicians are so afraid for their lives that they run around with gun toting guards
Non violence	Each of the Mahatmas has professed that he would rather die than have even one iota of physical violence committed against another human being.	Politicians use violence at the slightest drop to cover their fears, from Jallianwallah Baugh, to midnight raid on Baba Ramdev’s shibir.

Friends, lets face facts, Mahatmas are a rarity and when we do find one , lets not wait till after he is dead to put garlands on his pictures or use him as an ideal image to push guilt onto our children, lets go up to him NOW when he is alive and throw our arms around him.

Let them know that we acknowledge that we cannot even be one 100th of the person they are. Let them know we understand that the burden he / she carries is enormous and we appreciate whatever he/ she is doing since they are doing it for us.

Satyamev Jayathe, Vande Maatram

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AARAKSHAN

I am in splits. Sometimes politicians are so funny without even knowing that they are being so. I just heard that politicians are insisting on reservations in Lokpal.

Now let us understand their twisted logic. Reservations are meant as a handicap where there is lack of something and the playing field needs to be levelled for the greater good eg backward classes have a problem getting into good schools so we have reservation to allow them to move forward.

For example in Education, this means that a person with much lower grades than a normal person can get into a prime school if he is from a backward class, this is by presuming that he had a problem getting a good education and giving him a handicap. ( see my earlier article on reservations and why Indians like being a backward class)

Lokpal is an anti corruption law, does having a reservation means that some people who are weak in corruption should be given a handicap so that they can catch up to others ?

By this twisted logic of the politicians, reservations in Lokpal should mean that we should allow someone with a corruption taint on their name onto the panel just because they belong to a certain category of society to sit on the panel with completely clean people to create a level playing field since they may have had a disadvantage which made them turn slightly dishonest ?

Jai Ho !!

Merry go round

When I was young , whenever we visited the local mela (local fair), one of the things I wanted to ride the maximum was a merry go round. Now that I’m grown up, I no longer see the fascination in it, however it looks like no matter how old our politicians grow they never seem to want to get off the political merry go round.

We have Advani at 84 years young still harbouring ambitions of being the next PM of India.

Another example is that we have politicians who fail year after year in even the basic issues like controlling onion prices and allow it to yo yo at Rs. 120 at least once a year for some reason of the other are still kept in the chair as Agricultural Minister and if you point a finger at them, ulta chor kotwal ko dante ( the thief reprimands the police)

The other day this situation was thrust in my face when I couldn’t help but notice a very funny contradiction in the local Times of India. On Page one, was an article saying that Sharad Pawar made fun of Anna for saying that he is supporting corrupt politicians and therefore deserved the slap and maybe many more.

On page 5, there was a second article, about how the NCP is taking back its suspension of a rape accused MLA since it needs his support to win the upcoming elections. (pic enclosed of both articles)

Please keep in mind that NCP is a political party led by Sharad Pawar.  

Has anyone wondered how is it our politicians get away with such blatantly false statements. Simple, its our own idiotic “chalta hai” attitude. We are to blame.

Let me share another example is, we have a Govt which flip flop every few hours of each and every point in the Lok Pal Bill. The PM says something, and few hours later, there is a Cong meeting and he does a volte face. What do we do, shrug our shoulders and say “mind it, we are like this only”

Honestly friends its now so bad that I doubt that even one thinking person in India can stand up and honestly swear that he truly believes in his heart that the UPA will bring in a strong anti corruption bill.

Its again and again thrust in our face that politics is a funny funny game and we can do nothing about it.

The other day , I happened to pass by the Andheri office of our local MP and saw a swirling mass of humanity. I naturally asked what the issue was and was informed that Andheri was a ladies reserved constituency in the upcoming municipal elections. This means we need a female candidate come municipal elections in Feb  and that this was a drive to register the local female constituents as to who would like to be a councillor.

I looked around and was shocked with the quality of women candidates present. We must remember that Versova has a large fisherwomen contingent. A unusual number of them seemed to be present all dolled up as if they were on their way to a wedding and the raw hunger I saw on their faces was amazing. It was as if the elections are a lottery and that this was their way of buying a ticket to riches. I can bet my hat that maybe one out of the couple of hundred women there would be able to understand the importance of having BRIMSTOWAD as a urgent drainage solution. ( see my earlier article on the current quality of councillors who control the life and death decisions of Mumbai)

If even one of them actually gets the Congress ticket, I can understand the reason why Mumbai has lost almost all of its green space, since they looked like the kind who would be more comfortable if the local green space was encroached upon instead of cleared as soon as possible.

In this context, I must say the MNS has shown one step in the right direction by having a preliminary exam for its potential and sitting candidates, but as we can see from the article above political exigencies may force all good intensions out of the window.

Friends, One valiant effort being made and one which I fully support is called the Mumbai 227.

One group of active Mumbai citizens have finally had enough. Mumbai has 227 wards and they have decided that they would make a candidate stand in each and every ward in the next Municipal elections under a single banner called Mumbai 227. If even 10% of them happen to win (just 20 odd seats) , a significant amount of transparency would come into the system since these councillors would then act as a check and balance.

Of course the natural questions came into my mind when I was introduced to the concept and I spoke to them about it. The first was, what would change ? I was informed that there are 5 weaknesses they have identified with the earlier citizens candidates as of date and have tried to plug each and every one.

1) Most of the work done in the BMC is in Marathi so the candidate has to be fluent in it

2) Just 1 or 2 candidates winning seats would not help since He / she would be deboned in no time 1 civil society swimmer against 226 potential flesh eating political piranhas , so it has to be at least 10% to make a dent.

3) There has to be a open continuous review mechanism in place post elections by the people in the respective wards with no political bosses to answer to.

4) Most current candidates put forward by political parties need to work half for themselves and their public and half for their parties to ensure that enough grease is available to keep the wheels running.

5) The selections of the candidates must be done in a clean efficient transparent manner. (Mumbai 227 has enlisted the voluntary services of a HR company to shortlist the candidates and pre screen them to ensure suitability)

Its a mammoth task  Mumbai 227 has taken on and my hats off to them. 

To all of my readers who write in regularly expressing their helplessness at the carnage around them and asking what they can do to change the situation, I say:

Now is the time, grab the moment, “CARPE DIEM”

Log onto mumbai227.com, register yourself, give them time, give them help in whatever way you can. Every little bit counts.

Friends, if you don’t do it now, along with the fancy cars and multi crore flats, you leave your children, you will also leave them a festering stinking city where slum dwellers camp right outside their compound walls and they can do nothing about it.