Refelctions

As the new year walks in… parties and celebrations to mark the new beginning lighten up your surroundings. Lets make new resolutions, to make our life better.. what is yours? Kicking out bad habits, a bit of discipline in the haphazard lifestyle…. Are you planning to quit smoking or drinking? Or sticking to a new diet plans? Working hard to bring up your grades? Putting in that little extra effort to become your boss’ pet in office? Small resolutions can make big difference. Its new year, a reason to celebrate. But why are we celebrating. A year torn by financial crisis, terror attacks, hatred and sepration… gloomy but past now. It is gone so let us celebrate. Yes it is gone but is it past? 24.3% of the population earned less than $1 a day in 2005. According to the latest (as of December 2008) World Bank estimates on poverty, based on 2005 data, 256 million Indians, or 41.6% of the country's population, survive below the updated international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day. Moreover, in India 828 million people, or 75.6% of the population, live on less than $2 a day, compared to 72.2% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty is just one of the truths… we have witnessed worst. The multi cultural, multi lingual, versatile India we have been taught to be proud of is tearing apart. Every time a blast or an incident of terror takes place we start pointing fingers. We have classified our population in categories, there is a majority and then ther are minorities who fear partiality and oppression. Orissa was torn apart with riots, communal or ethical, they were riots killing the innocent. The majority claimed their leader was killed, they said the tribals were lured into changing their religion… can a civilized society justify killing innocents for blind revenge.
The nation was shook again and again; serial blasts tore apart the sense of security. Each time a bomb exploded, fingers were pointed. Delhi was shaken again and we were reminded that we are not safe any where, in markets, on the streets, are we facing some kind of civil war, what is this. Blasts were followed by encounters. Encounters do happen every now and then, but this one was more of a political issue than a issue of security. Some parties tried to cash on the majority and some tried to secure their vote banks among the minorities. The tagged electorate was divided. For in politics we are not humans but numbers. But we don’t understand this, or do we. Perhaps we do, Assembaly elections in 6 states showed that development, sadak, bijli and pani are bigger issues.
We then had, what was called a big revelation, the threads of investigation in the Malegaon case pointed toward the majority. Now, the tagged divided population is pointing fingers toward each other. We don’t trust police, we don’t trust our laws. The only truth for us today is our insecurity. Yes we are tagged and divided. Religion is just one of the things. Language, culture, cast are we one?
The Mumbai attacks made us realize that we can not stand if we are not one. We came together, but why is it so that until there is a threat from outside we can not unite? Aren’t we Indians above all? We are a secular nation; no one can stop any one from following a religion and in this tagged demography, the majority always came forward and said yes we want to be secular.
It’s New Year; lets add to our resolutions, a promise to live up to the nations pride. Question your self, what is my identity, a hindu, a muslim, a Christian, sikh, jew, parsi… majority, minority…. Backward, forward, dalit, SC- ST … or an Indian. Are we progressive, do we want to be progressive, can we be objective, can we move forward with 100 years old idea. Can we allow ourselves to be divided further…. Lets ask and ourselves and try to think beyond the lines. As Tagore said,
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Have a Happy New Year

AAWARAGI

Rehguzar ka hai pata na manzilon ki hai khabar

Chal rahe hain chalna hai kismat yehi bas soch kar...

Hum nahi hain jaante kya hai smajhdaari magar

Ye safar hai is safar mein chalna hai kismat meri.

Log kehte hain theher hai rasta mushkil magar

Hum hain kuch aise theherna jinki fitrat mein nahi,

Hann magar waadein hain jinko saath le kar hoon chala.

Bas unhi waadon mein hai meri chupi manzil kahin

Saath koi ho na ho apna safar rukta nahi.

Aur main kehta hoon isko hain yeh meri AAWARAGI

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN BY ROBERT FROST

We look for a way in life.... a path to walk on...
he question is where we want it to lead us???
Frost chose the one less travelled, what about you?
Think where you want to go and how you want to go about it, chosing the less trveled path may make a difference, but chosing the one you like will change your life.

Here comes the poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

All for a drop

Rivers lie at the centre of life in India. Econnomy, culture or religion, no aspect of lfe in India is left untouched by our rivers. Our rivers flood in monsoon and are dried up in summers, and we yell.. is the government doing anything. Officially, yes, the 11th plan has Rs. 8000 crore for flood management and 1500 crore for river management. Apart from this around ten billion have been spend on Ganga action plan and there is no account where the money has been spent. Ganga is not clean… it has rather become a dying stream with much of its lower course dried up already. Similarly more than 20 billion has flown into the sewage canal river Yamuna has become.
The first phase of Yamuna action plan started with an estimated fund of Rs. 715 crores which completed in February 2004 without any satidfactory result. The second phase has been formulated with an estimated cost of 625 crore.
Delhi alone contributes around 3,296 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage by virtue of drains outfalling in Yamuna . This is more than that of all the Class two cities of India put together. The low perennial flow in Yamuna and the huge quantity of waste it receives have given it the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted rivers of the country. Ten to fifteen years ago, a large quantity of Delhi's sewage was used for irrigating agricultural lands. Today agricultural lands have been converted into residential colonies and hence drainage of waste water is difficult in the capital. Some 3.5 lakh people live in the 62,000 jhuggis that have come up on the Yamuna river bed and its embankments. The Govt. of India over the next five years has prepared plans to rebuild and repair the sewerage system and the drains that empty into the river. However, there are no plans at present to shift the jhuggis.
Rapid urbanization in Delhi has further compounded the pressure on the sewerage system With the population of Delhi increasing from 0.4 million in 1911 to 9.4 million in 1991 and with a population of 13.9 million in 2001, (source: Delhi Jal Board) there is an ever-increasing pressure on the water resources .
Sewerage Problems : Poor condition of trunk sewers, shortage of sewage treatment capacity and lack of sanitation facilities in unsewered areas of Delhi which account for nearly 50% of population are responsible for continued pollution of yamuna in Delhi. The problem is compounded by lack of minimum perennial fresh water flow in the river along the 22 km stretch between Wazirabad and Okhla.
The water treatment capacities have increased from 159 MLD (million letters per day) in 1951 to the current production level of 2951MLD (DJB 2002). Despite this, the average current shortfall is about 681 MLD (as calculated using the DJB’s supply norms and average losses estimated at 15%). However, the percentage of UFW (unaccounted-for-water) calculated from the difference between water produced and pumped is a high 35%–40% (GHK International Ltd 2000), reflecting problems in management of available resources.
While cleaning of Yamuna, and other rivers remains a critical issue for the government, the policy makers don’t recognise the ecological sphere of the rivers are not limite to its banks. It involves the flood plains as well.
While on one hand the Central Government and the Government of Delhi is pumping money to make our rivers pollution free, on the other hand the dried up river course is being used for development (read construction) without thinking twice.
Standing tall on the banks of Yamuna, the Akshardham temple is stretched on over 100 acres on Yamuna’s bed and to spring to life is another ambitious plan, the Commonwealth Games Village aiming to transform the urban outlook of Delhi.
The much debated construcition work of the CWG games village is going on despite of much protest from activists across Delhi.
Cleaning of streams is just one aspect of our management plans. Ever since India gained independence we have been putting time, effort and investment in the multi level river projects bulding dams and canals without stopping to take a breath. Phew… that sounds ambitious. But are the result equally satisfying is the question.
The government keeps pumping funds and the civilisation keeps pumping pollutants in the rivers. Water Resource Management is the cry of the decade, rather the century. But is it realy an environmental concern or just another use for the term made popular by the corporate influenced urbanites. The term management no doubt adds weight to any other word attached giving it the status of a serious activity. Are we actually managing our rivers or mismanaging them.
The basic problem of the plan lies in the outlook which treats rivers as water pipes. If the line gets choked, clean it up. Put some chemicles, add some chlorine, as far as our needs are answered it hardly matters for how long the solution would be effective. We are still working on the idea that came up in the fifties; “never let a drop go waste to sea.”
Our dams, our multi purpose river valley plans, the cleaning plans, the interlinking of river plan, all focus on how to use the water to its maximum capacity and fail to address how to help the rivers survive the pressure put on by the industrial society.
Rivers have a delicate ecological balance which gets disturbed due to human interference. Though the natural system of rivers rejuvenates itself the rate of disturbance created has surpassed the rate of correction.
Rivers carry along with them more than just water. They carry life, history and culture. Imagine the history of India, rather the history of humanity without these rivers that have supported humans since the dawn of civilisation.

In the Land of Thunder Dragon

I got my first chance to witness the Great ranges of Himalayas as I went to our tiny neighbouring country Bhutan, the land of thunder dragon. Having spent all my life amidst the endlessly monotonous Ganga plains, I wondered how majestic the ranges could be.
Crossing the familiar plain topography by train, I reached Jalpaigudi, our last destination by train. This was the town that would lead us to an onward journey to a world where slopes defined the limits. As our bus moved on, I saw Emerald green forests drenched in September rain, crystal clear streams vanishing under stone beds and a chill in the air told us we were close to our destination.
By night we arrived at Jaigaon, a small town I West Bengal sharing its border with Phuntsholing in Bhutan. The landscape was submerged in the darkness of night and half of our belongings were wet as it had been raining continuously. I went to my Hotel room to have a peaceful slumber, without knowing what morning would unfold.
Next day as I opened my eyes, not expecting too much as for me my destination Bhutan was beyond the artistically painted gate of Phuntsholing. As I looked out of my window, the scene took my breath away. Bright greenhills, bathing in the morning sun, welcomed us as tourists from a distant land.
Entering the territory of our neighbour, I realized how similar it was to the landscape on the other side of the gate and totally different from the land I came from. In a few hours, we were literally walking above the clouds.
Thin string like streams came down the slopes and disappeared in foggy clouds. Bare rocks looked as if nature’s chisels had worked on them, to create a masterpiece.
I was taken aback by nature’s beauty, but what surprised me even more was the serenity such rough landscape held within. Monestries and Dzongs made in traditional Bhutanese style showed the Bhutanese sense of harmony and culture. Prayer wheels and prayer flags dominated the scene all over the country. Religion was everywhere yet there was no politics involved with it.
The peaceful attitude reflected everywhere specially on the clean pitch roads on which people drove without blowing horns, and in the same context it’s quote worthy that Thimpu is world’s only capital without traffic lights.
I witnessed a change in myself as I realized how calm were the people in such tough terrain and how rough and dry our lives were in the smooth plains that provided everything. The calmness I experienced made me see the spiritual side of the Himalayas and the people residing there.

Travelling in a Delhi bus???

Transport in Delhi is an expensive business, especially if you are new in the city. Coming from town that starts and ends in a radius of some 25 kilometres, travelling kilometres each day seems to be a Herculean task; at least in the beginning. In the national capital moving without a personal vehicle was nothing short of a challenge for me.
After sticking to auto-rickshaws for a while, I decided it wasn’t good for my pocket. Metro was for selected routes, unfortunately not in route I was travelling on. As all the Delhites do, I decided to make buses my friend for travelling.
I consulted some of my relatives to get an idea about the bus routes and fare. I was told about the blue lines, DTC and white line buses. That was the time before blue lines became killer lines. It was a hard job to remember all those data like bus numbers and almost every day I had to ask someone or other, which bus to take. But remembering the bus number was not the worst part of my journey to start.
Travelling in a bus in the busy morning and evening hours was the toughest thing I could have ever imagined. As I stepped inside a blue line bus in the busy morning hour, I thought my first concern would be to find a seat or rather a place to stand. It was not the only thing to worry about however. I found a man sitting on the seat reserved for women and expected him to stand up. But it seemed he did not realise he was on the wrong seat so I asked him politely to get up. What followed was an angry look and an excuse I now realise is customary. “I have hurt my leg I cannot stand madam” he said. Taking it as a part of everyday life in Delhi, I prepared myself to stand for the rest of the journey which was supposed to last for an hour or so. But the thing that troubled me more than the physical exertion was the mental torture I experienced in the crowd standing between so called honourable citizens looking for an excuse to come close to girls.
I thought this might the scene in the private buses and decided to travel only by DTC, but the harsh reality remained the same. It was rather disturbing to realise that our national capital has no transport system which could ensure safe and peaceful journey for women. My first impression of travelling in a bus was definitely not a pleasant one but it was a learning experience.