Chhapra, Bihar mid-day meal tragedy

23 children dying due to presence of pesticide in oil. The headmistress of the school should be hanged to death along with her grocer husband. And yet that will not be enough!
It's bad, bad & just bad. To top it, the politicians are making the most of it.

Indore Municipal Corporation Elections- 11Dec. 2009

Yet again, elections are round the corner! The city is well charged. People of Indore will be voting for Mayor and Corporator on Friday, 11 Dec.2009.

Indore bears a festive look these days with processions, loudspeakers, songs and drum- beatings taking a preceding. Whatever! It does liven up the spirits and I feel happy. And so do others I feel. Indore. A city of Festivals. Nay! A city of marriages. If I may say so. For be it rich or poor, marriages take place in an elaborate manner here. But let me come back to the point. Just the other day, while returning from work late in the evening I noticed a lady contestant, with shimmering red 'chunni' over her head, going from door to door asking for votes. At the first glance she did appear a bride to me.

Be it BJP, Congress or the independents, I know everybody's agenda by heart now. "Plenty of water... Cemented paths... Good roads...Development of the city and blah, blah, blah! And that's when my mind shifts to the big challenge we are facing now-Climate Change. But then, I feel sorry for the political parties. I know they have to talk of "plenty of water" to the down-trodden and the ordinary folks, for they are the ones who nurture huge expectations. And, they don't understand environment problems. Besides, they are the ones who vote for sure. So, that's that.

The other day, I told my maid to close the tap when not washing the utensils. An everyday refrain, frankly speaking! She probably had it enough for she spat out," Here you tell me to close the tap, and several times during the day I notice one or the other overhead tank overflowing."(meaning me I know). "I will tell Chowkidar Bhaiya (watchman) to check the tanks more often." I murmur. If only all residents of our colony were careful, the supply would remain in limits. I mutter to myself.

Talking about 'Cemented roads'. My mind races back to what happened a month ago. It was one of those lazy Sunday afternoons. While I and the rest of the residents of our society, were merrily enjoying the afternoon siesta, my husband noticed a group of 3-4 men all armed to dig a big hole in the newly cemented path right outside our Complex. They wanted to insert a pole for a small community function they were organizing there. And that called for a canopy. That was when I was rudely shaken up by my husband's shouting, who also immediately went down to give them a piece of mind. But that makes me think, how long will our cemented path survive?


I belong to the breed of 'Common Man' and I am helpless. But I wish to draw the attention of all politicians to the stray animals- namely cows, dogs, pigs that cause a lot of inconvenience while driving on the roads. I wish something would be done on this regard.

A Peaceful, Naxal-Free Village called ' Tale ' In Maharashtra

These days I remember my parental village a dozen times in a day. A small village named 'Tale' in Kolaba district, now Raigarh District in Maharashtra- a few miles from Pen and Panvel. I remember the S.T. Bus that we would catch from Mumbai. In the 60's and 70's, the bus would roughly take 6-7 hrs to reach our place.

The bus ride used to be fun. From absolute non-entities, we would become very important at the bus stand itself. I would find the driver and conductor knowing my mother and vice- versa. "oh, they are Vatsala's children. And so, me and my brother would get a royal treatment. One particular incident remains etched in my mind even today. We were going for the last rites of my paternal grandfather. As our Mumbai bound train had got delayed, my mother feared that we would miss the bus to Tale that day. Hurriedly, she took us from station to the bus stand. And rightly so, the last bus was about to leave. The tickets had to be purchased and what not. That's when my mother hurriedly looked for the conductor. And there he was telling the passengers to get in fast. As expected, she knew him. Next minute, I saw her rushing to him. Well, if you can guess the problem was solved. The bus waited till we got the tickets and climbed in. Maybe management people should learn something from this?


I also remember the Tais' and dadas' ( the elder girls and boys), who were like elder sisters and brothers, They would ask us about city life. I being more talkative, they probably found me an ideal source for securing information. On one of our visits I told them, that my father now had a motorcycle. My elder Tai asked her younger but more intelligent sister," what is a motorcycle?" " It's...a phatphati", she replied. Now as I look back, I realize there was never any jealousy in their talks. If I have to put it correctly, they were trying to learn the ways of the city life. And today I am really proud that all my cousins, Tais and Dadas are doing very well. Even better than me or my brother! Some of them have even gone abroad. Naturally, their children are doing well too.


My village'Tale" has come up very well, I am told. I think, they only lack a college now. There are auto-riskshaws and all facilities there. And so from filling pots of water from the wells, these simple village folks have come a long way indeed. It is their positive approach that has helped them, I guess. Also there were lucky not to have Kishenjis and Thackerays i.e. Maoists/Naxalites and Shivsainiks to pollute their innocent minds! Or else, these folks would have also taken to arms and destruction instead of studying to improve their lives.

Mr. Kapil Sibal- Wise Step.Poor Support.

I was delighted to watch HRD minister,Mr. Kapil Sibal announce on TV that minimum marks for appearing in IIT-JEE exam would be raised to 80-85% instead of 60% in class 12 board examination. It was mainly to check the mushrooming of coaching classes. And, he was very right. I wish the politicians (be it any party), had not made it a political game. Which they actually did! Stating that village children would be deprived of opportunities.


I wonder why the media kept quiet on this issue. This was the time when they should have gone all out to gather statistics as to how many children in the villages have really heard of IIT i.e. Indian Institute of Technology. And if they have, how many really think of doing this course. Absolutely no opinion poll was conducted. If only they had, all the opposition parties would have kept quiet.


I work in an ad agency and I know what happens on the eve of IIT-JEE, Engineering or Medical results. In fact before the actual facts and figures come out, we at the agency start writing ads declaring these coaching institutes No.1. This naturally triggers a mad rush for admission to institutes. Not just that, some parents even think it wise to remove their children from regular schools and have them registered at places the coaching classes suggest just to fulfill the minimum attendance.



Frankly, the Indian media knows it all too well! It is just profit, business and money that is keeping everybody quiet. But then someday, it is all going to backfire. Something like, when we dig holes for others, we fall into it ourselves.

Insignificant is significant. That's India for sure!

Anybody closely following Shashi Tharoor's 'Cattle Class' will agree for sure! Agreed it was a lousy joke, but then don't we all make mistakes at times? And frankly, apart from media and our reverend politicians none have taken exception-not even those who fly regularly by economy class. I am glad our PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh, intervened or else it would have continued till some major mishap took place.

I know, I should not be saying, but everytime there is some such nonsense, a bomb blast takes place in that area. Our politicians and the learned media should have long realised this! Further, are we going to be so sensitive about everything? This way, we'll end up having very dull people at the helm who will do nothing but mind their P's and Q's!