tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32345282196678689692024-03-08T09:57:42.331+05:30Forever BemusedRandom, bemused, befuddled, politically-incorrect musings.Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-1181586338619337542015-06-02T13:17:00.001+05:302015-06-02T14:06:59.823+05:30A soldier betrayed.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
They
sent him back with his eardrums pierced, eyes punctured
and removed, most of his teeth, bones broken, and limbs and genitals
cut or chopped off.<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Capt. Saurabh Kalia, of the 4th Jat
Regiment, was captured by enemy troops along with five other Indian
soldiers on May 15, 1999. He was held in captivity and tortured
gruesomely, but the brave soldier did not betray a nation that would soon betray him and the memory of his valiant deeds.<br />
<br />
Saurabh's father has ploughed a lonely furrow for the last 16 years in
the hope of getting justice for his martyred son. The NDA government now
says that they will not take Saurabh Kalia's case to the International
Court of Justice.<br />
<br />
The Indian news channels have gone ballistic on this. One
news channel, in particular, wants the nation to know the reasons the
government purportedly has for not taking up the case of a soldier -
dead and gone - who was tortured in gross violation of the Geneva
convention. They may have their faults but shouldn't we thank the news channels for having picked up this story and running it even though it eats into the time available for hagiographies .<br />
<br />
Did we really expect better?<br />
<br />
After all, this very same coalition of wise men literally gifted us the
Kargil war and the resultant humiliation - it has been well documented
that we were not able to take back all the positions and that some are
occupied till date by the enemy. And who can forget the coffingate?
Party of the moneybags, eh? Couldn't resist making some easy money, right?
Another matter that these very same giants promised us an 'Aar-Paar ki
ladai' when they themselves came under attack. They beat a retreat after
having mobilised the armed forces at great expense to the nation and losing
soldiers to the process. Oh, and then there was the Kandahar
humiliation - a Union Minister escorted hardened terrorists to Kandahar
and then set them free. Now, this very same coalition of giants props up a decidedly
separatist government in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. By some
accounts, the present chief minister orchestrated the kidnapping of his
own daughter in 1989, and set free terrorists to bring her home safe.
The terrorists triumphed over the government of India, and Kashmir was
never to be the same again. So much for all the potent, verbose ironmen
of this great, ancient nation. <br />
<br />
The less said about the UPA the
better. The economist prime minister always seemed extraordinarily keen
to cut a deal with the enemy. Some say he wanted to leave a mark of his
own on history. How? By bartering away the country's interests at
Sharm-el-Sheik? By turning the other cheek after the horrific terror
attacks in Mumbai? By being gullible enough to swallow the enemy's
'non-state actors' argument hook, line and sinker? Oh, how the enemy
must have laughed at us poor, credulous souls. One wishes the scion of the UPA's
first family had half as many words to spare for our soldiers as he does
for the farmers and the middle-class.<br />
<br />
As an aside, one wonders what truth
there is to something one read a long time ago that alleged Dawood
Ibrahim having links with politicians cutting across all party lines, and this
being the reason for him having eluded capture then and since.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the gallant and the macho defense minister has just promised
to take the fight to the enemy ONCE AGAIN - all the while managing to
display symptoms of being afflicted by the very same foot-in-the-mouth
disease that seems to have afflicted so many of his predecessors. Terror-for-terror? Really? This is how we aim to buttress our claims to a permanent seat at the high table at the United Nations? Am all
for paying the enemy back in the same coin but one expects the defense
minister to be acquainted with what the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
advised about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Oh, and by the
way, the defense minister has just torpedoed the deal with France to buy the much needed
fighter aircrafts to bring India's fighter squadron strength up to
notch.<br />
<br />
Shame!<br />
<br />
Saurabh Kalia shall live in our memories, even as these politicians fade into oblivion. </div>
</div>
Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-9212832476977765602014-09-26T23:05:00.000+05:302014-09-29T16:31:06.049+05:30Journaling as Journalism.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Does the word journalist owe its origin to the word 'journal'?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">According to that repository of collective wisdom, the Wikipedia, the word journalism is taken from the French word journal, which in turn comes from the Latin word diurnal or daily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Indian television news journalists - all senior and much celebrated hands with tens of years of experience - seem to be doing true justice to their profession, journaling as they are every minute of the Prime minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US of A, not that things were very different during UPA-1 when the government could do no wrong and the communists supporting the coalition were blamed for all the ills affecting the country, and the economy in particular.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I remember a conversation I had with a very senior and a celebrity journalist with a prominent news channel a few years ago. I mocked the carpet-bombing like coverage of the then much-haloed scion of India's first family, Rahul Gandhi, saying that it reminded me of my much younger days when the national broadcaster would serve us visuals of his father, Rajiv Gandhi, every evening in the garb of national news, how the national broadcaster had come to be derided as 'Rajiv Darshan', and how the news channels in general were now in danger of being mocked as 'Rahul Darshan'. Needless to say, the journalist wasn't too pleased. Today, the same news channels have sent tens of celebrity journalists each to cover the Prime Minister's carefully choreographed visit - a non-state one, mind you - to the USA at great expense - they aren't a part of the Prime minister's entourage given the way he seems to delight in keeping the media at an arm's length - even as they battle an uncertain regulatory and economic environment. Life seems to have come a full circle for them. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Many news organizations in the developed world - yeah, the same capitalist world that we take great pleasure in deriding - claim proud traditions of holding government officials and institutions accountable to the public, even as the critics raise questions about the accountability of the press and its tendency to emphasize negativity and bad news. When I got into the profession I thought we were supposed to be a little anti-establishment by the very nature of our profession. I stand corrected.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Much has been written about how the news business is like any other and how the news channels must peddle what their viewers demand. It is a bit like the argument trotted forth by the Hindi film-makers who would rather make an obnoxious sex comedy like 'No Entry' rather than another 'Mother India' or a 'Gandhi'. The same argument could possibly be put forth in a petition to the Supreme Court, asking it not to press the Department of Telecom to bar pornographic websites cause there is a sizeable number of us who access them on a regular basis - incidents of rape of toddlers and young women by criminals, often right after they have accessed pornographic material as seen in the Nirbhaya gang rape, be damned! </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A visiting American journalist had once told me that hardly any news business makes money in the USA. The news outlets are often subsidised by the parent company's other businesses or funded out of a trust, or paid for by the subscribers. The bond between the news outlet and the audience is a sacrosanct contract that results in the loss of prestige and business, in addition to criminal and financial penalties should it ever be broken. The News of the World scandal across the Atlantic where Rupert Murdoch was hauled over coals and his deputies jailed serves as an apt example of what can happen when this contract is violated. The journalist in question was left a bit stupefied when he learnt of practices like 'Paid News' or of fly-by-night 'Chit funds' operators bankrolling news outlets to serve and help canonise friendly politicians. As I watched CNN last night I realised how much of an international scare the Ebola outbreak is turning out to be with over a million affected already. I don't seem to have seen much about this outbreak, which is now being heralded as the proverbial biblical plague (oh well, news channels will be news channels, no matter where they are!), on our Desi news channels, occupied as they are with debating the merits or otherwise of the Prime minister's</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">visit to the USA at one end and Deepika Padukone's neckline plunging to newer depths at the other - often in quick succession! India, as the perennially under-prepared state, will pay a heavy toll in human life and economic devastation should the epidemic break out of the confines of the dark continent. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What do you prefer - a media that stoops to hailing the emperor of the day from the ramparts of its own violation, or an independent one that may be a little noisy and overtly, perhaps even overly critical of the other three pillars of democracy?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I shudder to think what you, dear audience, will be put through over the next few days as the coverage of the Prime minister's visit to the USA gathers steam.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As for me, I thank god it's Friday as I look forward to a sumptuous Saturday afternoon feast laid out by a dear friend and colleague, and no news television over the weekend!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This labour-of-love blog post comes to you cause of a Facebook status update by my good friend and guide-of-sorts of now nearly two decades standing, Shantanu Guha Ray, about how the increasingly insular Indians haven't offered any help to the African nations at the very epicentre of the deadly Ebola epidemic yet. Please blame Shantanu dada for any torture you might have put yourself through to read this somewhat tortuous (?) post till the very end. I enjoyed writing this out as I have always fancied myself as a bit of a writer. Now how does that Beatles' song goes....'their son is working for the daily mail...it's a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer...but I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer'.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-40306079472637853692014-04-10T17:37:00.001+05:302014-04-10T21:10:43.751+05:30No country for the excluded!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">I voted for a
change today. I must say though, in all frankness, that the experience was
anything but enjoyable or uplifting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">A sustained
campaign by the disability movement in India culminated in the enactment
of the Disability Act in 1995, which guaranteed people with disabilities equal
opportunities in all walks of life. Yet, it took instructions from the Supreme
Court of India in April 2004 to ensure that an electorate which was so far
invisible was able to exercise its right to universal franchise as enshrined in
the constitution of India
- for the first time perhaps - in the ensuing General Election - making it the first truly democratic one since independence.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">The 2004 election
saw a government topple and heads roll. What doesn't seem to have changed is
the sheer apathy of the powers-that-be towards the specially-abled electorate.
Despite news reports, attributed to the election commission, that special
arrangements are in place for the senior citizens and the physically challenged
to be able to vote, there were none it seems - certainly not where Jaipuria School,
Vasundhara, Ghaziabad,
is concerned. I walk with the help of crutches and find even short walking distances
challenging and yet, despite telling the security men at the entrance that I
would find it very difficult to negotiate the distance to the polling booth, I
wasn't allowed to take my car to the entry porch, quite unlike the last time
around, and had to walk about 50 metres to the hall that led to the polling
booths and then further negotiate a flight of steps. To put it all in
perspective, walking 50 metres for me is akin to your running a mile under 15
minutes - no mean feat am told - and having to negotiate a flight of steps thereafter
is like being asked to do a set of jump squats after that mile long run! My
travails didn't quite end there. I had to walk another 75 metres to the polling
booth. A sentry on duty took a look at a, by now, profusely sweating yours
truly and allowed me to jump to the head of the queue. There were other voters
who were far worse off than me - I saw at least 2 people, including a woman,
trying to negotiate the entire maze with the help of walkers. There were no
ramps, no passages with enough width that could be negotiated by wheelchair
users, and certainly no sensitized personnel to assist – people were refused
wheelchairs despite asking for them. My parents, pushing 80 now, too had a bad
time standing in the queue - my father's name didn't even figure in the voting
list for some mysterious reason. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">All this just
goes to show that one shouldn't really rely on news reports and public-relation
press releases - hell of a difference between the news reports and the
situation on the ground to my chagrin. Good intentions gone bad due to poor execution or
sheer apathy? I simply thanked heavens as I heaved a sigh of relief as I
slumped down into my car having cast my vote and run what can, perhaps, best be
described as a steeple chase. I didn’t quite wait to see how the voters walking
with the help of walkers fared as I had to report to office.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">20 years since
the enactment of the disability act and 5 general elections later, the lack of
sensitivity on the part of the Election Commission towards the impediments that the physically challenged face at the polling booths is nothing short of sheer
disappointment, if not outright criminal - is it not the duty of the Election
Commission to ensure that people with disabilities are able to exercise a right
guaranteed by the constitution of India? When the election commission can ensure
that the officials on election duty and the armed forces personnel can cast their vote,
why is it that millions of people with disabilities either dare not venture out
of their homes or return home without having cast their vote? Why is it that
facilities for millions of physically challenged voters are still missing at the polling stations across the country or are only provided at the booths where
celebrities come out in droves and present photo-opportunities? Why are the
security and the election commission personnel not sensitized towards the needs of the
physically challenged and why is it that no action is taken against them when they are
found wanting in the discharge of their duties towards people with
disabilities? Aren’t people with disabilities citizens of India? Don’t
they have the right to vote? Why have all the human-rights activists gone to
ground on this issue? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">In an
interview in 2004, I had asked Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi if people with disabilities
had any place in 'Shining India'. If memory serves me right, he didn’t quite
know how to respond and made the usual diplomatic noises. I guess ‘Incredible
India’ in 2014, just as was the case with 'Shining India' in 2004, hardly has any
place for the physically challenged in its scheme of things. Shame!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I voted for a change today –
now to see if a more inclusive dawn is at hand.</span></div>
</div>
Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-72808051903395689452014-01-02T22:18:00.001+05:302014-01-03T01:23:15.411+05:30A tale of AAP, hum, and a trust motion.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sheila Dixit showed us how graceless she could be when she didn't attend AAP's swearing-in. Harshvardhan cut a real sorry figure at the trust motion. Arvinder Singh Lovely, as bad a ham as any & breathing fire at Aap till yesterday, managed to show some grace at the trust motion and made the best of a bad situation. Arvind Kejriwal showed us what it is to speak with passion, conviction, and above all with endearing humility.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The real worry for the Bjp now is Aap winning seats in the Loksabha. They intend, as media reports will have it, contesting 300 seats. Should they win even a fraction of these seats they can surely play kingmakers or spoilsports - depending upon your perspective.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Food for thought for the Bjp and Ironman-2's (or is that Ironman-3?) fanboys and girls, eh? More the Bjp (and other parties) criticise Aap the stronger the public support grows for Aap. Bjp is now worried if Aap could cut into their voteshare. Aap already may have lured away some of its NRI supporters - that's where their foreign funding has come from for the recent assembly elections.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As for the indian national congress, nothing seems to be working out for them. It has become a classic case of the left hand not knowing, or at least professing not to know, that the right hand has been in the till. Take the Adarsh controversy for example, first, they had the gall to reject the report prepared by its own investigators. Then, upbraided by Rahul Gandhi, they accepted the report in parts and allowed only a few bureaucrats and dispensable party-men to take a fall. They seem to be in a catch-22 situation - damned if they act, damned if they don't. Ek taraf kuan, doosri taraf khaai.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At the time of writing this, Yeddyruppa, that disgruntled BJP veteran with above-reproach standards of probity has come back to the party's fold at Narendra Modi's behest - says something about Modi's concern for the aam aadmi's struggle with corruption in daily life, eh?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now the Bjp can cry 'corruption hatao' till the gaai-maatas (cows) come home but yeh jo public hai yeh sab jaanti hai - we know they are just talking of UPA's corruption and not their own. Bjp will leave no stone unturned to lure UPA's constituents to the NDA's fold and as we know friends, Indians and countrymen, the UPA constituents - or some of them at the very least - are a lovely, honest, honourable lot.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As an aside, I can't understand why Aap is allowing veterans from other parties to join them - they can only bring taint perhaps. Then again, what would I know? Am only another aam-aadmi.</span></div>
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Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-85513241218075622982013-04-16T13:54:00.000+05:302013-04-16T16:26:03.431+05:30The Jaipur road tragedy: A Malthusian take.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The <a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/news/watch-motorists-passersby-ignore-mans-cries-for-help-after-accident/385475-3-239.html" target="_blank">Jaipur tragedy where two members of a family died in a road accident</a> raises several questions once again about the public's insensitivity, the officials' apathy, law and order etc., but no one has bothered to ask what four people were doing on a two -wheeler and why they were in a tunnel where riding on a two-wheeler was forbidden, and why we continue to breed like rabbits. Why are we bereft of common sense even when it could impact our own safety? Do we want to blame the government every time we choose to flout a law? </div>
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Call me insensitive but the truth is that quite a few Indian families would have the children taken away from them by the authorities if they were in a first world country. Perhaps, only a few African and South-Asian countries would come close to us when it comes to utter disregard for human life. Now, it is nobody's case that only the rich should be allowed to breed but shouldn't there be a base standard that assures our children nutrition, education, health, shelter and a right-to-life in a child-friendly, safe environment? Shouldn't the government raise taxes instead of lowering them? Shouldn't our reimbursements be taxed as well - well over a third of our take-home salaries? Shouldn't all deductions be taken away? You want a home, pay for it and please don't expect tax concessions. Perhaps, it was the decision to offer tax sops on home loans that created this land -mafia, ever-rising-property-prices free-for-all. </div>
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The other day I saw Maruti Omni vans full of children careening wildly on a road in Greater Kailash-1. Am amazed when I hear people say: 'Arre, hum bhi toh palein the', 'Sab ho jayega' etc. Isn't a slogan - hum do, hamare do - coined in the 1970s' a little passé? Shouldn't it read 'hum do, hamara ek' or even 'hum do, hamara ek adopted'? Isn't even this 'hum do' bit on its last legs in a modern world?</div>
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The way the population is growing, we shall all be spilling over into the 'Bay of Bengal', the 'Indian Ocean', or the 'Arabian Sea' soon enough - Malthus's nightmare will seem like a walk in the park.</div>
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Am afraid I have no words of sympathy to offer - I am, after all, the 'insensitive public'. </div>
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Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-74475474295729834392012-11-18T01:37:00.000+05:302012-11-20T13:22:31.781+05:30Updated : One maniac short.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So, they kept the old man hanging on to dear life for days, didn't they now? Could it have been so cause the Mumbai Police and the administration were just not ready to bid the old chap goodbye? It certainly seemed the case going by the sheer lack of crowd control on display till about couple of days back. One was almost afraid for the life of the aam-aadmi-mumbaikar, especially the one belonging to a religious or an ethnic minority. Any one remembers that 'when a big tree falls...' comment attributed to a former prime-minister?</div>
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Once upon a time there was a Mahatma Gandhi and then there was a Bal Thackeray - this is what the eulogies on certain national news channels will have us believe. Nary a mention in the passing even of his hate-driven ideology and the calling to arms of his fanatical cadres to butcher and maim minorities of all shades and colours at the faintest of excuses - the fascist thinking is now being nicely dressed up as 'nationalist', 'hardliner', 'right-wing' etc., on the idiot-box. It escapes one's somewhat limited understanding how any right thinking person, leave alone journalists who ought to know better, can paint a parochial thug (charitable me!) as a nationalist. Pundits will perhaps discuss his legacy for years, but did we, the aam-aadmi, miss noticing his nudge-and-wink act when it came to the corrupt practices of the rank and file of his party and the allies? One wonders how many of us remember his bosom-buddy days with a certain 'treasurer' and 'poster boy' of the allied Bhartiya Janata Party - a real 'entrepreneurial' spirit if there ever was one? Ah, the fond memories of a certain chief minister he hoisted on the people of Maharashtra when the Shiv Sena briefly came to power in cahoots with the Bhartiya Janata Party - this worthy 'social-entrepreneur' (aren't they all?) was made to resign mid-term following a public outcry. Well, guess one need only 'walk on to the other side', as 'The Doors' crooned, in India, to be absolved of all acts of omission and commission, and be canonised - not for us the years long careful scrutiny of the Vatican (we are a race of doers - right here, right now is our war cry). </div>
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Ms. Sushma Swaraj is supposed to have mentioned him as a lion in a tweet today (there was a ticker to this effect on a news channel). If true, then someone in her party needs to brief her that the departed soul always modelled himself after a tiger and not a lion - any kindergarten picture-book should suffice to prove the point should the likely prime-ministerial material choose to argue the point. If the ticker was incorrect, then it speaks volumes of the material our temples of higher learning are churning out by the bucketful. Oh well, we should be an extremely worried lot either way. </div>
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Baba Ramdev ji, sir, what were you doing visiting the good soul? Sir, were you peddling a last-minute, life-saving miracle cure to one who never balked at thundering 'off with their heads'? It wasn't too long ago that the gentle soul was slamming your good friend, Anna Hazare, and the anti-corruption, pro-lokpal movement. One could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that either Anna Hazare surrounds himself - the simple, honest, honourable good man that he is - with well-intentioned friends the likes of which Julius Caesar was blessed with, or perhaps those wisps of rumours about Anna Hazare and your divine goodself being in bed with certain interests - clandestinely, one might be pardoned for imagining, what with stones being cast half-heartedly in the direction of those of a certain hue - were true after all. </div>
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Truly, an era has ended as Shahnawaj Hussain of the Bhartiya Janata Party is reported to have remarked today. One would like to hope that Mumbai will now usher in an era of peace and genuine tolerance - a mighty difficult task. One simply had to count and be amazed at the number of industry (sombre) and bollywood (tearful) czars and czarinas queuing up like the faithful to pay their last respects to the man. So much love for the man in an age where zilch comes for free? What brought upon this display of zealotry in a time when even former union cabinet ministers merit merely a mention in one of the inside pages of a national newspaper when they kick the bucket? Does one dare to put it all down to favours bestowed by the great man? Or was it a need to be seen sharing in the grief of well-groomed goon generations two and three - life and business are such uncertain matters even when planned and handled well. Did the thought that should they be unlucky enough to have a run-in with the successors, it is very unlikely any arm of the establishment or the system will come to their aid given the glowing tributes - rather side-splitting a few - from politicians across the ideological divide? Sirs, let's declare a 3-day national mourning, with the national flag at half-mast across the nation. A Bharat Ratna in due course, sirs?</div>
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Shiv Sena's disproportionate clout in Mumbai's politics and social life will forever remain an enigma. Here is a party that has repeatedly failed to measure up to much at the electoral hustings and yet continues to punch much above it's weight. The people of Mumbai don't vote them into any seat of legitimate power - is it cause they still haven't totally been turned by the politics of hate or cause the business-minded folks know that peace, justice and equality are pre-requisites for economic prosperity? Still, a word from the clan and the entire city grinds to a halt. The people of Mumbai have perhaps been granted an opportunity to set right much of what is wrong with their city. Will they take the bait and nip trouble in the bud and avoid history being revisited? The successors have rather large shoes to fill and it can be taken for granted that they will likely espouse even a more extreme thought and action - one hasn't even accounted for the competitive pressures that each individual legacy-inheritor of a likely divided house of the Thackerays will face from within and without to prove himself cut from the same cloth.</div>
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Mumbaikars, ask not for whom the bells toll cause they could very well toll for thee.</div>
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Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-8172483515156417332012-11-15T01:12:00.001+05:302012-11-20T13:26:16.862+05:30One maniac short.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Half-past-one in the morning and I can't tear myself away from the ever more idiotic Hindi news channels broadcasting the scene outside Bal Thackeray's residence as he hopefully breathes his last, and they are all fawning over him!<br />
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Shameful the way modern India's icons like Amitabh Bacchhan have flocked to Bal Thackeray's bedside. How can Amitabh Bacchhan lay claim to being a pan-Indian, dyed-in-the-wool secular idol now?<br />
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Thackeray's only legacy has been ethnic-communal divisiveness, intolerance and gun-to-the-head-blackmail-politics. Another matter of course that he couldn't have been what he is without the support of cynical politicians of all hues. These very same leaders, including Sharad Pawar (he who seldom tires of beating the secularism drum), too have flocked to his residence.<br />
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It would have been so much better to just let have Thackeray fade away as we did with that architect of the 1984 riots, HKL Bhagat.<br />
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Anyway, friends, Indians and countrymen, we are soon going to be one maniac less. <br />
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Bombay-wallahs could of course face some trouble in the morning but then they put Thackeray in the driving seat in the first place. <br />
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Ganpati Bappa Morya!<br />
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Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-40596361846359746322011-01-17T01:42:00.012+05:302011-01-30T14:51:12.453+05:30Bemusedly yours: The government's fuel policy.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My sunday mornings are perhaps no different than those of fellow men who toil the week away to put bread on the table. One woke up to the weak sunshine kissing the bedroom window, took a nice hot bath and stepped out on to the green patch that our middle class family insists on calling 'the front-lawn'. An English breakfast, minus the bacon, followed as one chatted with the family, reprimanded the spoilt-rotten family dog to behave and with a burp, and a sigh gathered the newspapers up together as a prelude to poring leisurely over them. One felt blessed to have weathered the hard and cold recent past to be able to feel the sunshine on one's face again as the stereo belted out a favourite John Denver number. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Skimming the headlines, one simply shrugged off the news of another increase in petrol prices but what caught the eye, reading further down, was a comment in 'The Hindustan Times', credited to an unnamed senior official of the Petroleum Ministry, justifying the latest hike in the petrol prices on grounds of petrol being a rich man's fuel. Any other day and the comment would have had me in splits as recent comments from all the four pillars of our fast sinking democracy are wont to do but for being a tad too cruel and cutting too close home for comfort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Now, I may only be a myopic observer of how things are but am yet to be blamed for being blind and only someone as blind as a bat would miss the government's incoherent fuel policy for a policy grounded in realities. The decision to hike petrol prices simply seems a knee-jerk reaction to an increase in international crude prices and, perhaps more so, an attempt to deflect attention from the flak that the government has been receiving of late on numerous fronts ranging from the Adarsh scam to the garage sale of spectrum to a favoured few to failure to control prices of the daily essentials.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Every increase in petrol prices makes the case for owning a diesel vehicle that much stronger from the customers' point of view. To illustrate, earlier, a diesel vehicle, for personal use, was recommended only if one drove well in excess of thirty thousand kilometres a year. Sundry automobile experts can now be seen on our venerable news channels spouting forth on the merits of owning a diesel vehicle if one drives just north of ten thousand kilometres a year. The result is customers lapping up diesel vehicles and manufacturers, ever quick to latch on to customer preferences, bringing in newer diesels models and converting models that till now did well with petrol engines to diesel. Most SUVs, MUVs, lifestyle vehicles continue to sport diesel engines, right alongside fancy cars with fancier labels and large engines with capacity and power ratings reading as if they could very well power a small military aircraft! Generator sets in most homes, including those powering air-conditioners and more at Sainik Farms, Golf Links, Lutyen's Delhi, guzzle diesel by litres per minute. Poor Jairam Ramesh!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The subsidy on diesel is far greater than one on petrol and with a fuel policy skewed in favour of diesel and encouraging it's use, even if inadvertently, one ought to be pardoned for wondering if the government isn't simply adding to the ballooning subsidy bill? Let me not even get started on the domestic LPG cylinders lying around as so much loose change at my neighbourhood Halwai. There is also the small matter of families like my own not having picked up their quota of subsidised kerosene from the ration shop in years and yet the subsidy bill on kerosene keeps increasing year after year despite the government's yearly protestations of actually having brought down the number of the poverty stricken in the country. Either the number of the poverty stricken have creatively been accounted for or the subsidy on kerosene meant for the disadvantaged is lining the pockets of those not-so-disadvantaged. I would wager my last rupee that some part of the subsidy on kerosene is, unknown to us of course, fueling our petrol driven vehicles given how well kerosene and petrol mix together.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Given the facts above and I shall understand if you label them mere conjectures since my meagre income allows no scope for either an SUV or a farm house, I should be forgiven for asking the powers-that-be at the Petroleum Ministry and the Union Cabinet how in heaven's name did they, in their infinite wisdom, deduce petrol to be a rich man's fuel? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I drive an eight year old Zen that offers me a generous fuel efficiency of about twelve kilometres to a litre of petrol and the heart skips a beat every time there is a fuel hike since circumstances particular to me prevent me from using public transport. Still, I'd gladly pay full market price for the petrol I use in my car and the gas I use in my kitchen. Paying full price will no doubt cause me great discomfort but the satisfaction - the same satisfaction that one knows when turning down sundry not-for-profit organisations, falling over themselves, offering to write out a tax deduction certificate in multiples of the amount donated - of knowing that the subsidies are being targeted to the truly deserving will be much greater. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Much has been written about cash transfers in lieu of subsidies and they have been a resounding success in some parts of the world, especially Latin America. There is perhaps no better time than now for the government to target subsidies to the truly deserving as cash transfers. Question is whether it is inclined to do so and can do so given how much of the subsidy lands as leakage with the middlemen in the chain - politicians, bureaucrats and god knows who else. May be, we Indians, known as we are for our Jugaad, will find a way to corrupt any new system. Harsh words perhaps but well intentioned.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As for the unnamed official at the Petroleum Ministry, he perhaps missed noticing the fancy cars and the SUVs the representatives of the great toiling masses alight from to enter that hallowed portal of our young democracy - The Parliament House. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Now, that's what I call 'blind as a bat'.</span></div></div>Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-32885601902682057352011-01-09T00:26:00.015+05:302011-01-09T09:57:34.595+05:30Update: Aayush - The Brave-heart.<div style="text-align: justify;">Following the earlier blog post and coverage by the news media of <a href="http://tinyurl.com/387tx79"><b>Aayush</b></a>'s tragedy, we had an outpouring of sympathy and offers of help for the young child; the debts incurred by Aayush's family towards his hospitalization were wiped out within a few weeks of the blog post and the news media coverage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The problem that stared us in our face when we first decided to raise funds for Aayush's rehabilitation was to ensure that the funds were routed in a manner that was transparent and the most effective. Thankfully, a not-for-profit organisation - <b><a href="http://www.sruti.org.in/">SRUTI</a></b> (Society for Rural, Urban & Tribal Initiative) - has come forward to help route funds to the service providers towards Aayush's rehabilitation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Established in 1983 by the late <b>Tara Ali Baig</b> (Founder - <b>SOS Children's Village</b>) and <b>Ela Bhatt</b> (Director, Self-Employed Women's Association - S<b>EWA</b>) amongst others, SRUTI is based in New Delhi. It supports social and development action in India, and has impacted the lives of thousands of people, including marginalised women, men and children by facilitating grass root level initiatives across rural and urban India.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Aayush now needs to be fitted with prosthetics and the task of equipping him with the prosthetics has been entrusted to '<b>TOTAL Orthotics and Prosthetics India Private Limited</b>' at Noida. The prosthetics will approximately cost INR 3.5 lakhs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We have available with SRUTI close to INR 1.2 lakhs and this leaves us short of the required funds by INR 2.3 lakhs. Hence, the need to mobilise a further INR 2.3 lakhs urgently as the prosthetics' fitting will in all likelihood take place on Monday. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kindly help us put the required amount together. In addition to contributing yourself you could perhaps encourage others to pitch in. Please help this post go viral on the internet or ask your friends in the media to help raise awareness about the tragic circumstances that Aayush finds himself in for no fault of his. Details required for remittance of funds are given below:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. <b>For remittances in Indian Rupees within India, including those from NRE Accounts (online remittance or through NEFT Transfer from your bank branch)</b>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Name of the Account: SRUTI</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Name of the Bank: AXIS BANK </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Branch: K-12, Green Park Main, New Delhi – 110016</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Savings Bank Account Number: 015010100074120</div><div style="text-align: justify;">IFS Code: UTIB0000015</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. <b>For remittances in foreign currency from overseas</b>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Name of the Account: SRUTI</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Name of the Bank: CANARA BANK</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Branch: C-10, Community Centre, S.D. Area, New Delhi – 110016</div><div style="text-align: justify;">FCRA Savings Bank Account No: 0346101008823</div><div style="text-align: justify;">SWIFT CODE: CNRBINBBDSD</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">3. <b>Cheques drawn in Indian currency may be mailed to</b>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ms. Shibani Chaudhury.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executive Director.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">SRUTI (Society for Rural, Urban & Tribal Initiative).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q-1, 1st Floor, Hauz Khas Enclave,</div><div style="text-align: justify;">New Delhi.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">PIN 110016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Telephone: +91-11-26569023.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All donations, especially those made through online banking or through NEFT, need to be followed up with an email to the following email ids immediately so that SRUTI can channel the funds to the account set up for Aayush's rehablitation and we too are able to track the funds raised:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. <a href="mailto:core@sruti.org.in">core@sruti.org.in</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. <a href="mailto:shibani@sruti.org.in">shibani@sruti.org.in</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">3. <a href="mailto:mblbhargava@hotmail.com">mblbhargava@hotmail.com</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">4. <a href="mailto:minny_singh@hotmail.com">minny_singh@hotmail.com</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Donations to SRUTI will benefit under Section 80G of the Indian Income Tax Act which entitles the donor to deduct 50% of the donated amount from the taxable income.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who wish to speak with Aayush may do so at <b>+91-9931470678 </b>and<b> +91-9560993580</b>. He is a very brave and intelligent boy and we would like to see him going back to school and do well in life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's hoping you have had a cracker of a start to the new year.</div>Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3234528219667868969.post-83263962970667966372010-12-12T00:14:00.022+05:302011-01-09T22:16:52.968+05:30Aayush - The Brave-heart!<div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iq_zz8Ml4Fw/TQPF9b4S0ZI/AAAAAAAAAHU/AzhPfb_Hm8E/s1600/DSC01533.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iq_zz8Ml4Fw/TQPF9b4S0ZI/AAAAAAAAAHU/AzhPfb_Hm8E/s320/DSC01533.JPG" width="300" /></span></span></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Aayush with parents, Anjani Kumar and Sheila Dev</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">i.</span></span></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Those of you who know me well are aware that I was recently operated upon at Medanta, The Medicity, Gurgaon, and was hospitalized for little over a week. This post is not at all about me though. </div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">As I came out of my own sedated haze in my bed, I became aware of a small bundle, wrapped in blankets, lying quietly in the bed next to me.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The only signs of life the bundle would show were occasional whimpers or cries of absolute terror at least twice a day when gloved nurses and doctors administered to it, veiled by a white curtain dividing our halves of the room. At times, the bundle, still under swathes of blankets, would be wheeled out on a stretcher to one knew not where. I learnt later that some of the procedures were so complex and painful that they required general anaethesia in an operation theatre. </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">My interest piqued, I learnt of a real-life story that would move the most battle-hardened of journalists and military men, if not exactly rend their hearts. The bundle acquired a name for me - Aayush Priyadarshi - a wiry ten year old.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Aayush and a six-year-old friend were flying a kite on their terrace back home in Samastipur, Bihar, when the kite got entangled in some extremely high-voltage (11,000 volts am told) wires passing over the terrace.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">While the six-year child was keen on retrieving the kite, Aayush refused, realising the inherent danger, and went downstairs. Hardly had he reached the end of the stairwell when he heard a terrifying wail: 'Aayush Bachao!' He ran back up to the terrace and, to his horror, saw his friend writhing in pain, skin aflame and peeling off him as the high-voltage wires sucked his life-energy away.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Aayush, without a moment's notice, grabbed an iron pole lying nearby and tried pulling the wires away from his friend. You may call it foolhardy but I call it brave, especially when the act involves a ten year old trying to save a friend's life with no regard to his own. Unfortunately, Aayush, a braveheart if ever there was one, too got electrocuted.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Aayush and his friend were rushed to a hospital in Patna where the six year old succumbed three days later. Aayush was brought to Medanta where he lost toes of both his feet and had his arms amputated.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">If not for the efforts of good samaritans - Ms. Minny Singh and Mr. MBL Bhargava - Aayush would have found world-class medical intervention difficult to access as the family ran out of funds three days into Aayush's stay at Medanta. Eventually, he ended up at Medanta for over a month and we were both discharged within couple of hours of each other. Aayush will now be looked after by a clinic at Patna.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Aayush's family is now deep in debt due to this tragedy but the object of this post is not to help try raising funds to mitigate their debt burden. Aayush now needs proper rehabilitation - ongoing medical care, education in a special school perhaps and prosthetics. Just equipping him with prosthetics will cost well in excess of INR 10 lakhs and am perhaps assuming now but they just might need replacing as Aayush goes from boy to man. </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Bhargava, Ms. Singh and their friends tried mitigating the cost of Aayush's stay at Medanta and am told Medanta too helped by waiving off certain charges or discounting them heavily. </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Efforts are on to raise funds for Aayush's rehabilitation and we are now looking for ways to route funds to Aayush in a manner that is transparent and can best utilise these funds. A very dear friend, Humsa Dhir, helped arrange a print story in <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Bihar-boy-loses-arms-in-bid-to-save-friend/articleshow/6856519.cms"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">The Times of India</span></a> while yet another, Anju Juneja, helped with a television news story on Star News. </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Aayush's immediate needs have been taken care of – he was already looking ahead with optimism that only the very young seem blessed with when I waved him goodbye from my bed. It is imperative that any financial help that flows in now is used expressly only to rehabilitate him. Handing over financial help directly to the family may not be the best way to help Aayush find his bearings after the trauma he underwent. Additionally, a peasant family suddenly coming into money in the badlands of Bihar (please, no offence meant) may find themselves endangered. It is for this reason alone that Aayush's contact details are not being shared right now though eventually they will be.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">We would like you to help this post go viral (hope you can post this on your social networks' home pages, email colleagues, friends, family - just ideas). A benefactor's friend, who has passion for filmmaking and short videos, is being sounded out on whether he can put together something powerful that could be uploaded on YouTube.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">We are inviting suggestions on how you think we can spread awareness about Aayush, raise funds and then route them to him in a transparent and useful manner. An idea taking root in our minds is that of routing funds directly to the service providers and the prosthetic manufacturers through a bank account that is administered by a Not-For-Profit organisation.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Aayush's tragedy is just one amongst a thousand similar ones that happen across our country every day. The genesis of this incident lies in the shoddy work done by a civic agency or the contractor it was outsourced to. Am told the agency responsible can be booked under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code but then again it is a bail-able offence - laughable but for a young life lost and another maimed for life due to criminal negligence by a civic agency.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">It is this country’s sheer misfortune that in a country with 400 million poor (some estimates put the figure at 800 million) world class medical care continues to be available only in the metros and is prohibitively expensive, when available at all, even 63 years after independence.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">There continues to be a dearth of doctors like Dr. Devi Shetty and medical institutes like the Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore. Universal micro-health insurance schemes like Yeshasvini, Narayana Hrudayalaya's micro-health insurance scheme for Karnataka's farmers, are more of an exception rather than a rule.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">In a country where only 15% of the total population has access to health insurance, including the 2% that can afford private health insurance, shouldn't the right to medical care be ingrained in the right to life? Why is it that while it is an exciting time in global healthcare since most diseases are curable, treatment remains prohibitively expensive, excluding poor people from the health care system? For instance, 100 years after the first heart surgery, only 8 percent of the world’s population can afford one!</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">One understands the oft-repeated arguments about creation and maintenance of world-class medical care infrastructure, including attracting and retaining talent, requiring oodles of money but then one wonders why we can’t have a better model than one borrowed from the United States, and one that will surely collapse one day, exactly as it has in the parent country, even as it fails to cover a large section of the population?</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Given am of a certain vintage, I still dimly remember the government of India’s popular 20 point programme but am not too sure if it was us snotty young urchins or Ajit, Bollywood’s villainous lion, who parodied the popular ‘garibi hatao!’ to ‘garib hatao, garibi apne aap hat jayega.’ Lately, it certainly seems to be going that way with the system intent on denying the poor the most fundamental of rights. A new India, perhaps, emerging on the ashes of it's poor, the down-trodden and the disadvantaged?</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">It needn’t be so, especially where the health sector is concerned. It needs to look no further than Narayana Hrudayalaya, which seems to have a higher profit margin than most private American hospitals despite it’s avowed principle of never turning a patient away for lack of funds.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">What is it that we can do to make our thieving politicians and bureaucrats step on the gas, so to speak, to enable us live a better quality of life even as they pull out all stops wining and dining President Obama, opening up our lucrative markets to the US companies and rewarding him with billions of dollars - your money and mine - worth of arms purchases, for his unstinting support in India’s own war against terror? Should you be tempted to be the usual argumentative Indian self I suggest you take a look at how the Peace Prize winner endeavours to keep the strategic balance in south-east Asia, showering our very nemesis in our war against terror with military aid and turning a blind eye to whatever stunt it feels compelled to pull from Mumbai to Kandahar to show us how helpless and impotent we are faced with their guile and rage.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">We are told all this commerce favouring the United States of America and a stiff upper lip every time we are attacked from across our western border will get us a permanent seat at the high table - the United Nations Security Council - right alongside the big 5. </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">To me, it's just an ego trip for an elitist few. I would much rather have my dear country a few more notches up on the United Nation’s Human Development Index when it is declared next and be able to live freely in a country where, to quote Tagore, the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where the words come out of the depths of truth and the clear stream of reason has not lost it’s way.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Isn't it time we asked: how many years must we, as a people exist, before we are allowed to be free…truly free?</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Again, this is not a post to impress you with my interpretation of geo-strategic affairs or scholarship, or offer, what may seem to many, superficial solutions to our problems but am angry, really angry. I wrote this post for young Aayush whose cries of terror haunt me even 4 days after my discharge from the hospital.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Deepawali and a great festive season ahead - I doubt if Aayush will have one for some time but given the fortitude the young gun demonstrated all through the trying times I doubt he can be held back for very long!</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Please email <a href="mailto:mblbhargava@hotmail.com">Mr. MBL Bhargava</a> and <a href="mailto:minny_singh@hotmail.com">Ms. Minny Singh</a> should you wish to help with Aayush's rehabilitation.</div></div></div>Himanshu Bhai Mehtahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951502490022957751noreply@blogger.com0