Let's stop those organisations from being exploitative

                        Reading newspaper is my favorite time pass in the morning. This is not only a source of news and information but I also gain insights to the life of common people. By common here I mean all those middle class families and persons who constitute largest part in the population and face common issues. While going through news in today’s newspaper, where restaurant owners pleaded with folded hands before green tribunal to not shut their restaurants, the owners gave the reasons that the livelihood of 2000 workers was at stake. The reason is genuine and I also agree that the families of daily wage earners will suffer but tell me honestly how many of you feel that the owners are that much concerned about their life? I believe that not even 90% of those are genuinely interested in the life of their servants.

              One of my professors, who was carrying out research in the case of violence in Maruti plant in Manesar which left one manager dead and 40 injured. He revealed his findings that how those employees got so much frustrated. I don’t know how much truth is there in his findings but I can’t deny after what I had to face when I had to join an organisation for internship, I had to deny the proposal. Let me share the story of the employees there. The employees were on a tight schedule without appropriate breaks. The equipment and dress which they had to wear use to eat up all the time which they used to get in brakes in keeping them in their appropriate place. If they would be late by even one minute they were given half day salary for that day. One employee’s father kicked the bucket so he had to go to perform rituals but he was denied for that. They told him we don’t care if you would not be here in three days you would be fired and he had to lose his job. The immediate reason which resulted in violence was workers were asked to reach factory premises one hour earlier without any compensation. This wasn’t mentioned in any newspaper. 

                       This is the story of an international company which shows in their balance sheet that they are spending millions in social work. What is the use of that if they don’t care about their own employees? This is happening in almost all multinationals and big firms.  If you don’t agree then show me examples.

     Even I faced similar situation when I applied for internship in organizations. Most of them are taking full work from us without any inclusion of training or workshop still paying meager amount and support it by arguing that we should be more than happy because atleast we are getting something for internship period. These companies are asking us to completely isolate our personal life.  If they care about anything is just profit on the cost of our life.  We are slave to them. Now I understand why most of my friend wanted to join government organizations.

   You must have faced similar situations or you may have seen it from your own eyes. Now let’s unite together and expose them. We should stop those organizations from going that big that they can exploit their employees without any fear of law. Join this campaign so that we will build a better tomorrow for everyone.  

Injustice of the system

     
                                My education cost my family a fortune. The total fee itself has crossed one million Rupees, let alone other expenses. If I would have gone to any convent school for primary and secondary education, it would have been double and when the other expenses would be added up in this (which is directly or indirectly related to education), it would cross five million Rupees. After spending this humongous amount when my college sent me for internship, the stipend was just 5,000 rupees and when asked about the future prospectus I was told that after 6 months I would get a salary of 10,000 Rs Per month. I was dumbstruck.  It is when I am considered in the better half of the class, I am more worried about the other half. This is not just me; it is the story of millions of well educated youths.

   The system is unjust everywhere. The law itself seems unjust, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi or Mr. A. Raja who galloped thousands of crores through scams are free even after being convicted of crime. On the other hand ‘police beats teenage boy to death for petty theft’ is on the news very often and these boys always belong to poor family. Saint Asaraam (some also call him pyasaram) has millions of followers despite of many criminal charges against him, while on the other hand, you will always hear people criticizing Arvind Kejriwal for his methods, no matter how good his intentions are.

   Like Gandhiji, I also experimented with truth but on different context. When I wrote bullshit on my facebook status I got many likes for that, for the stupid humorous two lines which I copied from somewhere but when I shared something about issues which are faced by societies in which I put a lot of efforts to write that just two persons bothered to read it. Again some stupid lines again likes and again some serious issue, it was plainly ignored. Now you decide which post deserved more likes. By the way, I am just citing examples; I am not hungry for likes. How unjust.. isn’t it???

      The political parties are unjust; people from a rich background have more chances to get a ticket in the parties. The citizens of this country are unjust, they are more likely to vote for the person who has more power; he can buy voters with money or fear. Employment system in this country is unjust, they choose candidate from the four rounds of interview. How can anyone judge our personality, attitude or anything for that matter by just talking to us? Even the god himself will find it hard. Why not put the candidate in the real job for some time period and then decide whom to choose and whom not to ?

    If you think those politicians who are running this country deserve the positions they have held, if you think that the persons at the superior positions are better than you. If you think you are getting equal opportunity in jobs, promotions or anywhere, it means the system is fair but I know there will just handful of persons who think it that way. It has been unfair to most of us.  

                   ‘How to improve this system’ is the most difficult question I have been grappling with. No matter what we want to become; a doctor, an engineer, a sportsman, a writer or anything our schooling is same, we study same subjects in schools. Until and unless a man doesn’t acquire enough wealth, power or atleast a criminal case, we don’t consider him as politician. Our behaviour changes from person to person according to his economic status. Why serve that injustice. To change that, we need to change ourselves first so that we will take one step further towards a better tomorrow.

Need of lessening the gap between Poverty and Prosperity

                 India, a majestic country, is growing at the second fastest rate economically. Enter into this country through Delhi or Mumbai, look around at the infrastructure, business hubs, educated population etc., all these tell us the story of growth. Indian businessmen are making their way to some of the wealthiest persons in the world. Brand India is becoming more and more popular among the western countries. Companies like Walmart and IKEA are paving their way to enter this country keeping in mind the increasing purchasing power of the citizens of this country. These might be some reasons to cheer about but the ground reality is totally different.

                More than half of the population is living under poverty. One-third of the population is in extreme poverty. This class is vulnerable to exploitation, diseases, drugs addiction and many kinds of negative things. These are the people most affected by natural calamities. Lack of education and awareness makes these people devoid of employed, consequently, forcing them to enter into world of crime. 

             

            Poverty and prosperity both coexist here but we can say poverty in more rampant here. Thousands of children can be seen walking on foot to their government school in any crowded street in Delhi in comparison to some fifty children would be found sitting on their SUVs making way to any international school. Despite of more than 60 years of Independence, the government has failed to bridge the gap between haves and have nots. This economic division is becoming more and more dangerous for this country for the youths who don’t get the same opportunity on jobs (or anywhere else, where they are discriminated because of their economic level).  

              

                Increasing crimes rates and involvement of mostly poor people shows the frustration brought by this gap. The rich flaunt their prosperity in such a way that it makes fun of those people who can’t afford to have that luxury. People’s behaviour also changes towards person depending on their prosperity level, no matter how inhumanely or corruptly he had acquired that immense wealth. Why rich people are getting richer and poor people are becoming poorer? This question needs serious debate on the part of policy makers of this country. The government should improve the level of education and bring it on par with those costly international schools or the government. Education should also be more customized for different group of students, student with different ambitions and future plans should get different kind of education.

             

          Has anyone wondered about why people from developing countries are in the wealthiest persons list ?  It might make you feel happy that many Indians are in the billionaire list but it certainly makes me sick. They have made their way to the list because millions of people never got the opportunity in all those businesses where a single family owns hundreds of business. They suppressed their less wealthy competitors by bribing government agencies for approval. How do you suppose these conglomerates are specialized in every business they are in, from telecom to glass making, from salt to automobile? I will never get amused by the growth rate unless I will see the happiness in the face of poor. Though if the poor remains poor after getting equal opportunities in comparison to rich people, then it’s not anyone’s fault, then I will not condemn rich.   

      

               I know if everybody is provided with equal opportunity despite of their economic status, I believe that the gap between rich and poor will be bridged. There won’t be any billionaire like Ambanis and there won’t be any poor like a landless farmer and that will be when we will be heading towards a better tomorrow.

What these 'Religious Sentiments' are doing to this country ??

Picture from First Post

                        Lately, I have been wondering where this country is heading, looking into the recent happenings all over the country.  Atleast forty people have died in communal riots in Muzaffarnagar so far. If newspapers are to be believed the chain of events is like this, a Muslim youth stalked and sexually harassed a Hindu girl. Two men (apparently her brothers) killed him in a fit of rage. This sparked anger in other community resulted in the lynching of two youths. Meanwhile, a video got viral showing a mob lynching two youths. Though that was shot in the Afghanistan some two years ago but people thought this is the same incident involving two youths. Some persons from Hindu community gathered for the revenge. On the way while returning home they were attacked leaving approximately eight persons dead and the riot followed and now mostly those persons are suffering who didn’t have anything to do with that riot.

               Tell this story to persons from any developed country and it will be very hard for them to believe that a fake video could spark so much of violence in the country. How could watching a video make them kill other people?  

                  These incidents are the result of religious extremists and this extremism is  going to destroy mankind very quickly if this continues.  Whenever something hurts the sentiments of people, they demand banning of that. When M. F. Hussain drew paintings of nude god many Hindu groups cried foul, some even attacked his house and vandalized his artwork. When Salman Rushdie wrote Satanic Verses he had to face outrage from the Muslim world. Similarly, Dan Brown had to face criticism from Christian community.  Taslima Nasreen was forced to leave Bangladesh as she was critical of Islam in particular and religion in general.  A cartoonist was put behind bars by Mamta Banerjee for depicting the prevalent situations there. 

        A month or two before, an IAS officer, who was checking on illegal sand mining, was suspended by state government citing the reasons that she hurt religious sentiments of people. Her dutiful act was convicted of a crime which was against religious sentiments of people.  These ‘religious sentiments’ were behind the scenes all the time and people were driven by religion. In my opinion, if they think they saved the country and by banning the above mentioned people, to really save the country by all these unfortunate events, they should have banned religion so that no innocent people would get killed in riots, no writer, painter or any other type of artist would face such fate and not a single honest officer would be suspended for doing her duty.  Those people should be banned from living who become killing machine by watching any stupid video, painting, poster or by listening to any speech full of hatred.

  

              The hatred because of the religion differences is deep rooted in the hearts of people. If you want evidence for that, go to the recent news-posts of newspapers which are covering the latest riots in Muzaffarnagar and read the comment by readers, bunch of idiots are fighting and justifying the misdeeds done by their community.         

                     As a student I am concerned because this is not what I was taught at my schools, this is not what I read in my books and more importantly this is going to harm my future. As a citizen I am concerned because I never want my fellow citizens to meet such faith despite of the religion they follow. As a son or a brother, I can feel the agony which those families are going through after losing their family members.

                 I know this article might hurt the sentiment of some religious extremists as I am asking them to close their business, deterring them from doing terrible things which they do in the name of religion. If they get a chance to read this and who knows they might even ban this blog or bar me from writing but fortunately I am not that popular and they would never bother because they know that a video spreading hatred would do more harm than a blog post from a common man who wanted to change the mindset of people from immorality to morality would do any good.

                 Why can’t we stop this stupidity in the name of religion?
                  Why can’t we live together as a family, as a human being?  

                 Why can’t we be so strong and rational so as not to driven furious by a fake video?

and most importantly why can’t we head towards a better tomorrow???

It’s Now or Never

                     We might be the creation of the situation but when given a chance if we blow up our chance to change the situation then we don’t deserve to blame our situation. Despite of the democracy, we've always kept grumbling over the situations of the drowning country whether economically, morally or in any other way. While attending one class, a professor who’s been to other countries like USA and China, talked about the situation there, how people roam round freely at night without the fear of being looted, girls dress the way they want. He asked to the whole class ‘how long will our country take to reach to the position’? Nobody had the answer. He is few of them who look concerned about the situation of our country and make an effort to bring change by one way or other.

                     He said ‘we need more Kejriwals in our country’. I strongly agree with him but I fear the fate which Kejriwal is going to meet, (if we believe the survey of the news channel which I saw yesterday in the evening)  I don’t know how many Kejriwal will dare to even think of standing against the democratically elected autocrats. According to that survey Aam Aadmi Party is going to secure only 8 seats.  A shudder went through my head to toe, thinking of the efforts put by Kejriwal, thousands of his supporters and all those families (even if they are contributing just Rs 10 as a donation to the party) all going to waste. When at the same time Mrs. Sheila Dikshit is wasting a huge amount of public money (which was meant for developmental works) on putting glittering posters fooling the public, like a poster read ‘Delhi has the largest fleet of CNG buses in the world, Development is evident here’. If she will come and tell it to my co-commuters from Palam in the route 727 in the morning rush hour and I am sure they will beat her to death. They never say that income earned by public authorities and government from the state of Delhi could be enough to take care of the whole country if spent wisely.

               India is a democratic country but democracy doesn't do any good here, if it would be doing well, then there wouldn't be any person everywhere cursing politicians. Democracy works for the country where almost every person is wise and rational in making decisions. People here are greed-driven, you just need to show them piece of paper with the picture of Gandhiji. I hope you know what I am talking about. Besides that, people always complain that they didn't have any choice. Speaking broadly, the candidates which were nominated by parties previously weren't always honest. People did have to choose any one. That’s why many people chose to maintain distance from politics and political parties but when for the first time they are getting the chance to elect honest candidates. They may believe that if elected, whatever they’ll do they will never be corrupt and if in any case they get corrupted they cannot get away with it.

  

         My Appeal to the people of India (presently to the residents of Delhi), Don’t blow this chance otherwise it will become your last chance.

Hey Congressmen! Don’t give us the fish

                          There is a lot of brouhaha over food security bill in parliament. Congress is gung-ho about passing it as it can have a positive impact on voters as Loksabha elections are coming nearer. Lokpal Bill is still in motion from many decades but yet to be passed but this food security bill seems to be the fastest bill passed on this country. The haste of this party in making this food bill a reality has been questioned many times by opposition parties but the party in power is in no mood of leaving any stone unturned. It could be a game changer for political parties but I suspect the change it can bring into the lives of the poor of this country. This bill is expected to benefit 82 crore people of this country but I fear the real beneficiaries from this bill would be few people who are either part of this party or involved in the distribution system in some way or other.

                  Similar to this scheme, there is already a scheme which is already in existence, which distributes a major amount of food grains, sugar and kerosene oil through so called ‘Fair Price Shop’ and we all are aware who the real beneficiaries here are. Though everyone with a ration card is allowed to be benefitted from that only few of us bother to go there and get the benefit. Let me tell you why, because the quality which is provided is non-edible. Is this the quality which the person in the top wants us to have or is it being replaced somewhere between the long system of distribution.

                 Ask me, how much I want to have Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi taste this food, taste the rice and let the poor taste the food provided in the parliament canteen.

                   Besides that, the reason why I don’t want this food bill to be passed because whenever I imagine the scene of getting this cheap food distributed in my village I think of a alcoholic man, who will gamble sitting in the village shop rather than involved in some productive work, who can buy as much as food as he needs with just 2 days wage. This is not the story of my village alone but I know there are persons of this kind in almost every villages.  Some of you might ask me ‘what is my problem if he gets enough food’? the problem is I believe in a philosophy where I want able-bodied people to get only what they have earned through their work, their contribution in the production and only that much part of the same which they can return to the society. Though this might sound vague to some, but this is my personal opinion.

                Economically, I must say macro-economically, speaking, this food bill is going to have far-reaching consequences to already gloomy economic situation. The amount which will be spend on this could have been used on improving infrastructural facilities in far –flung areas which will impact positively in long term.

                     I don’t understand, what is the need of feeding every people, just like a critical patient is fed in hospitals by their relatives. Everybody is not patient here. Even the poorest of poor can buy his whole family enough food with the wages he will get from employment guarantee scheme.

•          Need is to have the proper implementation of policies which are already in existence.
•          Need is to provide the farmers the equipments and training facilities which will improve their productivity
•          Need is to have transparency in the system so that only those person get benefitted who are meant to.

       AND MOST OF ALL – NEED IS TO TEACH THEM HOW TO FISH RATHER THAN GIVING THEM THE FISH.