In the aftermath of the Mumbai Terror strikes, a lot of people have said much, claimed lots and done very little. Well, now it my chance to do the same.
There is a lot of public outrage on display, particularly against the political establishment's failure to avoid attacks of this scale. In a larger sense, this incident has displayed how much the common man has lost faith in the Indian polity. The politicians have been squarely blamed for their inability to work for the people of their nation. What I want to know is, what has lead to this feeling of disconnect between the electorate and the elected. Why do we hate the politicians so much? Why do we allow the people whom we consider the most inept and venomous creatures to rule us? And what is the solution to the present stalemate?
In the wake of the attack protests, people have come out on the streets expressing solidarity and demanding action. This togetherness in the face of disaster offers a slight glimmer of hope. News channels have shown endless talk shows where the rich and the famous(infamous) blab about the incompetency of our leaders. They have, in the rush of the moment expressed horrendous ideas such as stop voting, stop paying taxes etc. as a means to show protest.
This precisely brings us to the problem's root cause. A nation's polity is only a reflection of its people's mindset. All those intelligent "professionals" who claim that everyone in the government is a fool forget that it is they who have allowed such people to come to power, by not expressing their right and duty to vote. That reminds me of these words by the noted political commentator, Cho N Ramaswamy, who said and I quote
"There would have been greater discipline if he, instead of Nehru, had become the PM. After Independence, we lost sight of our duties and started remembering only our rights. With the Sardar at the helm of affairs, we would have been constantly reminded of our duties and it would have given character to the nation."
To debate over what would have happened if Sardar would have been our PM is a separate matter altogether. But these words clearly specify how we claim our rights vehemently and decline to perform any sort of fundamental duties to our nation. There are numerous Human Right Organisations, but no Human Duties organisations. And amongst our duties , foremost is to vote and elect our own commanders instead of just mocking at their incapability and showing off our own intellectual superiority over them. This reminds me of the elegant analogy that Sociologist Talcott Parsons drew between voting and a bank. Here it goes :
"Political support should be conceived of as a generalized grant of power which, if it leads to electoral success puts the elected leader in a position analogous to that of a banker. Just as money is deposited in a bank, members of a society deposit power in political leaders. Just as the depositor can withdraw his money from the bank, so the electorate can withdraw its grant of power from the political leaders in the next election. In this sense, power resides in the electorate as a whole."
In the absence of the electorate taking part in this process, we are led to what Sociologist Robert Michels called Iron Law of Oligarchy which means that power ultimately resides in a few hands even in a democracy. This is exactly what has happened in India. The elite, educated consider politics too dirty and useless a muddle to put their hand in and hence a new political class has emerged that by wooing the uneducated is able to retain power election after election. Recently, Mr. Kumaraswamy, former CM of Karnataka, conducted a party meeting right in the heart of Bangalore causing enormous inconvenience to the commuters. The jam continued for a marathon 5 hours. And even after that, Mr. Kumaraswamy was bold enough to say "Bangaloreans need not be so angry, they anyways do not vote". This adequately shows how the political class is unmindful of the educated, professional working class, for which only we are to blame.
The recent efforts by Tata Tea, called jaagore is a wonderful initiative. It makes all the information related to your voting available at your fingertips. Then, there are parties like Jaago Party, which have been formed by professionals who were bold enough to sacrifice their cozy lives to take on the challenge of the nation's reform.
Even after these attempts, if we don't wake up, then we don't deserve anything better than what happened in Mumbai on 26/11.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Jaago Voter Jaago!!
The election scene in India is hotting up with 6 state elections due in a few months and the Lok Sabha general elections in mid-next year. Elections are the only mode through which we can exercise our will on the government and shape its policies. However, most of us do not vote, primarily due to two reasons:
1. Absence of our names in electoral rolls of the constituency of present residence.
This might be either because we have never registered or because we have been
registered in some other constituency of India. In both these cases, we can get
ourselves registered on the roll of constituency of present residence by filling up form
6. This in turn removes us from the electoral roll of the earlier constituency if our
names are present on it. The form is available online on Election Commission of
India's website.
2. We do not have a Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC)
This card can be obtained by availing of the several EPIC campaigns held by
government or by simply visiting the election office of the respective constituency to
complete the formalities of obtaining the EPIC.
For other such doubts, visit this link: http://www.eci.gov.in/faq/Elecroll.asp This is the Election Commission of India website's FAQ section on electoral rolls.
Lets vote this year besides criticizing the government and its policies.
RTI Act
As you would know, the Right To Information Act is a very powerful means to ensure a non-corrupt and vigilant governance. However, there is very little information available on this and hence the usage of this Act is still very limited. I have just been trying to find out a resource that adequately explains how, when and where can this Act be put to good effect and solve our grievances in an non corrupt and timely manner.
I found this site www.rtiindia.org very useful. This site is an excellent resource that will tell you what the RTI Act is, what it means and there are some petitions archived too. It will help you to file a petition too through community sharing. I would request you all to have a look at this site and use RTI to your personal and societal welfare.
I found this site www.rtiindia.org very useful. This site is an excellent resource that will tell you what the RTI Act is, what it means and there are some petitions archived too. It will help you to file a petition too through community sharing. I would request you all to have a look at this site and use RTI to your personal and societal welfare.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Why should one give the Indian Civil Services Examination??!!
Just finished with my civil services mains exam for the year 2008. And wanted to write about the experience and also try to suggest why and who should take this FOAE (Father of All Exams). A word of caution though; I am no officer or no expert on the issue. I am just an aspirant who decided this as an option last year around October, wrote the preliminary this year in May and the mains in October this year. The motivation behind this blog article is to help out people who might be considering this as an option or just have a strong zeal for making a difference to the lives of the people around them.
My motivation
Lets start off with what led me to even try this when most of my classmates had either secured admissions to top notch universities in the US or had cracked the CAT which I call the MOAE( Mother of all Exams). After my twelfth, I was sure that I had to do engineering from a good college in Electronics & Communication because it always mesmerized me. I sincerely felt that electronics has led humans to the next stage of development - from hunting to agriculture to industry and to electronics which has started the stage of mass consumerist culture. I did not know much about the subject though and hence worked pretty hard in college to learn it beyond what was required for examination sake. I think I did reasonably well at that. By the third year, the thoughts of what I would be doing next in life started haunting me. I was never a great fan of studying in the US somehow for doing masters, because of the fact that I wanted to stay back in India itself and do something, did not know what though, for the people around me (almost all of us think of this, I am sure). But still I wanted to prove myself in academics and hence took up GATE as the target. Gave GATE in the year 2007 . But my preparation was very shoddy. I just read up some fundae and believed that those would sail me through. The preparation was not short of commitment I thought, but it was in a wrong direction. I never understood till that point of time that an objective examination required a different type of preparation. (no wonder I failed miserably in JEE and gave a below par performance at AIEEE). Anyways, I gave the examination and expected a reasonably good result. The result came. Many of my classmates smashed the exam inside out. I went and checked my result only to see a rank > 1500 (I don't even remember the exact figure). That was one of the saddest days of my life. Suddenly feelings of self doubt overwhelmed me and I cried my heart out (alone of course) like a small child. When I was wetting my handkerchief with bucketful of tears, my friend Ambicaprasad came to my room. He had smashed the AIEEE and he explained to me that objective examinations required a lot of paper solving and stuff.. something I had never concentrated on. Thanks Ambica for that advice.. will always be grateful for that.
Thereafter, I kept working in my academics and lo!! I got a placement call from a company of repute in my field. It seemed to bring my self-confidence back and I was on top of the world once again. Shifted to Bangalore for work in July 2007. Work was going well, but as I still felt that I need to do something more, something that is consistent with my larger goal of trying to change the things around me. At that point of time, I felt there is still a void in my life that needs to be filled up. After exploring the internet data for various examinations-ISRO/IES/IAS etc etc, I finally converged on IAS examination. It seemed to be the most coherent with my goal and hence decided to give a shot at it.
This brings me to answering the question which is the title of this blog.
1. If you also feel that you want to do something for the people around you and try to make a difference to their lives, however local or global the effect of your actions may be, this is a good option. If you place this craving above the crave for something like a house with a swimming pool inside or sitting behing the Porsche wheel, give it a shot.
2. If you do not fear hard work, give it a shot. This exam, I believe requires immense hard work, probably more than any other exam I know of. It does not test your intelligence as much as it tests your ability to study intelligently. If someone has cracked this exam you can be pretty sure of the fact that they have displayed the following qualities in huge measures-hard work, smart work and committed work.
3. Even if you just want to expand your knowledge about India in general, give it a shot. I have experienced how, through the process of this examination, your views on social matters tends to become more balanced and practical. Your vision adds new dimensions. So the next time you think about removing reservations of all kinds and live in a perfectly meritocratic society, you would also consider the situation of the 21% below poverty line people and the millions who have no access to education before taking your stand.
4. If you feel alienated from the society- you might be having lots of money but you still feel disconnected with the people around you, when you want to do something for them but you feel powerless, when you are working well but you still find it to be meaningless, give this a shot. I do not know to what extent one can make a change to the society once he/she enters the civil services but it surely grants you the authority to take decisions that can affect many more people apart from your family members alone. You might be holding any academic degree but if you still have this feeling of alienation, give a try for this examination. We criticize the government with elan. We seem to have all the answers for the government's misdoings. Then, why not take it onto ourselves to change things instead of blabbing about our intellectual superiority while criticizing the government. The government can be only as good as its people after all!
Considering all these things, I gave the prelims in May 2008 and got through, thanks to a change in approach to objective examinations. Wrote the mains in October. Don't know what will happen next but would certainly want to keep challenging myself to crack the FOAE!
My motivation
Lets start off with what led me to even try this when most of my classmates had either secured admissions to top notch universities in the US or had cracked the CAT which I call the MOAE( Mother of all Exams). After my twelfth, I was sure that I had to do engineering from a good college in Electronics & Communication because it always mesmerized me. I sincerely felt that electronics has led humans to the next stage of development - from hunting to agriculture to industry and to electronics which has started the stage of mass consumerist culture. I did not know much about the subject though and hence worked pretty hard in college to learn it beyond what was required for examination sake. I think I did reasonably well at that. By the third year, the thoughts of what I would be doing next in life started haunting me. I was never a great fan of studying in the US somehow for doing masters, because of the fact that I wanted to stay back in India itself and do something, did not know what though, for the people around me (almost all of us think of this, I am sure). But still I wanted to prove myself in academics and hence took up GATE as the target. Gave GATE in the year 2007 . But my preparation was very shoddy. I just read up some fundae and believed that those would sail me through. The preparation was not short of commitment I thought, but it was in a wrong direction. I never understood till that point of time that an objective examination required a different type of preparation. (no wonder I failed miserably in JEE and gave a below par performance at AIEEE). Anyways, I gave the examination and expected a reasonably good result. The result came. Many of my classmates smashed the exam inside out. I went and checked my result only to see a rank > 1500 (I don't even remember the exact figure). That was one of the saddest days of my life. Suddenly feelings of self doubt overwhelmed me and I cried my heart out (alone of course) like a small child. When I was wetting my handkerchief with bucketful of tears, my friend Ambicaprasad came to my room. He had smashed the AIEEE and he explained to me that objective examinations required a lot of paper solving and stuff.. something I had never concentrated on. Thanks Ambica for that advice.. will always be grateful for that.
Thereafter, I kept working in my academics and lo!! I got a placement call from a company of repute in my field. It seemed to bring my self-confidence back and I was on top of the world once again. Shifted to Bangalore for work in July 2007. Work was going well, but as I still felt that I need to do something more, something that is consistent with my larger goal of trying to change the things around me. At that point of time, I felt there is still a void in my life that needs to be filled up. After exploring the internet data for various examinations-ISRO/IES/IAS etc etc, I finally converged on IAS examination. It seemed to be the most coherent with my goal and hence decided to give a shot at it.
This brings me to answering the question which is the title of this blog.
1. If you also feel that you want to do something for the people around you and try to make a difference to their lives, however local or global the effect of your actions may be, this is a good option. If you place this craving above the crave for something like a house with a swimming pool inside or sitting behing the Porsche wheel, give it a shot.
2. If you do not fear hard work, give it a shot. This exam, I believe requires immense hard work, probably more than any other exam I know of. It does not test your intelligence as much as it tests your ability to study intelligently. If someone has cracked this exam you can be pretty sure of the fact that they have displayed the following qualities in huge measures-hard work, smart work and committed work.
3. Even if you just want to expand your knowledge about India in general, give it a shot. I have experienced how, through the process of this examination, your views on social matters tends to become more balanced and practical. Your vision adds new dimensions. So the next time you think about removing reservations of all kinds and live in a perfectly meritocratic society, you would also consider the situation of the 21% below poverty line people and the millions who have no access to education before taking your stand.
4. If you feel alienated from the society- you might be having lots of money but you still feel disconnected with the people around you, when you want to do something for them but you feel powerless, when you are working well but you still find it to be meaningless, give this a shot. I do not know to what extent one can make a change to the society once he/she enters the civil services but it surely grants you the authority to take decisions that can affect many more people apart from your family members alone. You might be holding any academic degree but if you still have this feeling of alienation, give a try for this examination. We criticize the government with elan. We seem to have all the answers for the government's misdoings. Then, why not take it onto ourselves to change things instead of blabbing about our intellectual superiority while criticizing the government. The government can be only as good as its people after all!
Considering all these things, I gave the prelims in May 2008 and got through, thanks to a change in approach to objective examinations. Wrote the mains in October. Don't know what will happen next but would certainly want to keep challenging myself to crack the FOAE!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
अनुव्रत गीत
This is one of my favourite prayers. In Kendriya Vidyalaya, this prayer was sung once a week. I really love the lines of this one. They are simple and yet thought provoking. Thanks to Nivedita for sending across this prayer to me, when I was desparately in search of it.
Here it goes...
naitikta ki sur sarita mein jan jan man paavan ho
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
apne se apna anushaasan anuvrat ki paribhaasha,
varna jaati ya sampradaya se mukt dharm ki bhaasha.
chhote chhote sankalpon se maanas parivartan ho,
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
maitri bhaav humara sabse pratidin badhta jaaye,
samta sah astitve samanvaya neeti safalta paaye.
shudhh saadhya ke liye niyojit maatra shudhh saadhan ho,
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
vidhyarthi ya shikshak ho, mazdoor aur vyapaari,
nar ho nari bane neetimayi jeevan charya saari.
kathni karni ki samaanta mein gatisheel charan ho,
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
Here it goes...
naitikta ki sur sarita mein jan jan man paavan ho
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
apne se apna anushaasan anuvrat ki paribhaasha,
varna jaati ya sampradaya se mukt dharm ki bhaasha.
chhote chhote sankalpon se maanas parivartan ho,
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
maitri bhaav humara sabse pratidin badhta jaaye,
samta sah astitve samanvaya neeti safalta paaye.
shudhh saadhya ke liye niyojit maatra shudhh saadhan ho,
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
vidhyarthi ya shikshak ho, mazdoor aur vyapaari,
nar ho nari bane neetimayi jeevan charya saari.
kathni karni ki samaanta mein gatisheel charan ho,
sayyam mai jeevan ho.. ooo...sayyam mai jeevan ho!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A masterpiece
I really love these lines from Harivansh Rai Bachchan's poem "Himmat Karne Waalon Ki Haar Nahi Hoti"
The indomitable spirit portrayed in these lines is very inspiring.
Asafaltaa ek chuunauti hain, sweekaar karo
Kyaa kami reh gayi dekho aur sudhaar karo.
Jab tak naa safal ho, neend-chain ko tyaago tum,
sangharshon kaa maidaan chchod na bhaago tum.
kuch kiye binaa hi jay-jaykaar nahi hoti,
himmat karne waalon ki haar nahi hoti.
रचना : हरीवंश राय "बच्चन"
The indomitable spirit portrayed in these lines is very inspiring.
Asafaltaa ek chuunauti hain, sweekaar karo
Kyaa kami reh gayi dekho aur sudhaar karo.
Jab tak naa safal ho, neend-chain ko tyaago tum,
sangharshon kaa maidaan chchod na bhaago tum.
kuch kiye binaa hi jay-jaykaar nahi hoti,
himmat karne waalon ki haar nahi hoti.
रचना : हरीवंश राय "बच्चन"
Pathik
path raah hai, marg hai, lakshya ki prapti ke liye ek safar,
jo iss path par hua agrasar, vahi hai pathik-ek raahgujar.
ek musaafir hai woh, aashiyaana hai uskaa hawaaon ke paron par,
path par hai ladkhadaata magar apne lakshya par hai kendrit uski nazar.
pathik ek naavik hai, uski naiyya hai vichaardhaara,
pag-pag par avrodhakon ke sailaabon ki mandarati us par bhavya chaaya.
kabhi woh nirdeshit path par chalta hai, to kabhi apne raaston ka hai swanirmaata,
kabhi woh raahon ko swayam modta hai, to kabhi bani raahon par hai khud muudna.
Jeevan kya hai???
Jeevan ek path aur hum sab hai pathik,
iss par mod hai anginat aur aseem,
kuch chalte hai path par apni zindagi paane ke liye,
to kuch apne astitva ki hi avashyakta dhundhne nikle.
apne path ke swanirmata ne chui safalta ki paraakashthaa,
aur jo path se bhatke, unhone bana diya bure bhagya ka bahaana.
avarodhakon ka saamna hi pathik ke charitra ka parichaayak hai,
uska path hi uska strot aur prernadaayak hai.
Kabhi hona hai path ka shilpkaar to kabhi hona hai pathaanuyaayi,
jo pathik rahaa atal, avichal ; safaltaa uske kadam chumti aayi, safalta us hi ke kadam chumti aayi...
रचना : प्रणय
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