Down Memory lane - A Cyclone (1977) & A flood (2015)

It was in the year 1977, was studying at Kavali, living in a hostel. Good old days we had only radio for entertainment and information. One of our seniors had a radio, through which we used to listen to songs, news etc.

Come November, the constant announcement about an impending cyclone started hitting the radio waves. We were getting rains starting from 17th November, on the 18th night we were all literally holding our hearts and gathered around the radio to listen to the updates, winds were furious and the rain was lashing. We couldn't sleep with windows banging, wind howling like a fox in the forest, dark, with power loss 16-17 year olds away from respective homes had to cling on to our seniors for solace and comfort.

We wake up on the 19th morning, rain and wind moved towards the Diviseema and around us we see nothing but debris all around. Hurricane wind did its job, removed many a roof, our college class rooms had many gaping holes in it, we take a walk to the town, we couldn't recognise the railway station, there was not a single roofing sheet, if any existed, they were in tatters.

Town was another sorry story. Debris of the previous night plundering found all around, telephone and power lines cut and lying on the streets, bunk shops dislocated from their places and thrown away at a distance, it was destruction all around us. With no power we struggled our way for the next few days.

Because of the cyclonic effect the entire railway signaling system got disrupted and railways were using some methods of releasing one train after another using walkie talkie / or their own communication system. During this process, for what ever reason there was an accident near Venkateswarapuram railway station which is about 10 kms from Kavali en route to Bitragunta. Two goods and one passenger train met with an accident and fortunately with the alertness of the guard of the passenger train a major mishap was averted by stopping an express train, which was to follow.

Trains started accumulating at Stations before Kavali and on the other side at Bitragunta. Railways hired RTC buses and started transporting passengers from these two stations by bus and making them reach their destinations. To help the passengers, our Jawahar Bharati College sent both NCC and NSS members to the Kavali railway station. Our job was to help people disembark from the trains they arrive and put them in the buses and similarly help passengers who got down at Bitragunta and arrive

at Kavali by bus to get into the train. I was part of the NSS (National Service Scheme) and with another friend Rambabu (he is no more) from my class we were rendering the service. I was just not used to carrying heavy stuff, but the passengers were coming with heavy metal trunks,which looked like they hold their entire house hold articles and these boxes had to be carried across the platforms on the foot over bridges. Some passengers, used to offer us money (which we politely refused) and some used to look at us suspiciously, when we come and tell them they have to get off the train and move into a bus. language was one hell of a problem, with our own limited knowledge of English and zero knowledge of Hindi or other Indian languages other than Telugu.

We were taken by our hostel warden to see the railway accident spot, which was few kilometers from the main highway road. We went and saw the coaches and wagons thrown off the track for restoration. While going was easy because we took a ride in one of the shuttle bus services engaged by the railways, there was no guarantee we will get one back,  once we reach the road, so we decided to trek it back to Kavali by foot along the railway track. Only saving grace there were no trains running at that point of time. The walk was made interesting by our hostel Warden Sri Ameeruddin sir, who kept regaling us with stories of various kinds and was continuously joking to ensure we never felt the fatigue of the distance.

Cutting back to 2015, When I went through the continuous rainfall starting from the 30th November, night till 2nd December, early hours and started looking at the city I live going under on he morning of 2nd, I was as shocked as I was in 1977. I see that my younger days enthusiasm among the current youth in rendering help to the flood affected people, they are simply not bothered about the pain or hardship, they are only interested in helping their people in distress. A feeling which we experienced, while serving those unknown passengers of the trains. 

Difference from that day to now, is technology and improvement in communications. People are able to connect much faster, seek help and get it too. When we hear of deluge of material and suggestions floating across as to what is needed and what is not needed floating across the social media, it makes the life easier to render a meaningful service. 

If a similar rail accident happens, now, they simply cancel the trains or divert the trains, simply because, even the passengers are not tolerant and there are always exploiters lurking around to make a fast buck, like the shops which wanted to en cash on the shortage of milk by charging over the MRP even for regular customers.

One good thing was those days politicians were more humane and now they are lot more greedier for their name and fame. But people remain to be as generous with either service or money. 

Pictures used in the blog are from the net, copyright of the pictures rest with the respective owners

Instant 'Achche din' dont happen

In the age of Twitter, Instagram, Fast food, we are all getting used to the idea of immediate results in everything. On the May 16^th Mr Narendra Modi was announced to be the next PM thanks to the popular vote he got for his party and the alliance.

From that minute, people wanted him to deliver and I had noticed enough and more posts about his silence for the first 60 days on various social media forums and live TV debates.

While people missed out on few key changes like, Babu's going to office on time, self declaration/ attestation instead of running to a Notary or a Judicial Magistrate or a Gazetted officer for attesting etc. Maybe the 'India' doesn’t see these as significant, but 'Bharat' would have been happy to see these in place.

Finally our PM spoke, from the ramparts of the Red fort, he spoke quite decisively, called for the safety of the girl child, need for toilets and clean India, and also chided the parents of boys for not questioning them enough and pampering them vis-a-vis a girl child. His outreach never stopped from that day, be it on the Radio or TV or Madison Garden he went on and on, now we started to look forward to his next initiative everytime he speaks.

Many a time opposition is finding it difficult to question his ideas and have started looking for other ways to point a finger at him. Of course there is always this communal card, which they can use against him n his party and to make matters worse some of the fringe elements keep raising issues which keep our TV debaters in 'India' busy.

Black Money, is the big bogey which Mr. Modi had effectively used during his election campaigning, however extracting black money is not the easiest things to do. Days have gone where money was being stashed in foreign bank accounts and nobodc was there to ask, today thanks to very innovative methods (designed by financial experts who are familiar with international laws), money simply flows bank into the country through the so called Pnotes and Mauritius based funds after being technically taken out through Hawala route.

Today practically every other politician uses this method to route his ill gotten money and they are clean because they don’t have any assets in their name and the assets are in the name of various companies floated and which are funded by the funds which are actually subscribed by their ill gotten wealth.

Businessmen who teach politicians these methods would always be a step ahead and probably have more innovative methods in deployment. Please do not expect miracles to happen in regards to black money coming back to India and don’t get carried away by the various 'Documents/certificates about money stashed in international banks and tax heavens', these are all nothing but a figment of imagination by innovative creators and popularly circulated by people like us without questioning the same.

While we can keep waiting for the 'Stashed black money to come back into India' the task on hand is to ensure there is no fresh generation of black money in our economy. Common areas where white becomes black are, Bribes, property purchase, Tax evasion (VAT/CENVAT/Customs) our penchant for not asking for a bill, buying the so called cheaper imports from China and elsewhere, which are apparently under valued for customs purpose. If we can desist from these then probably we will do our bit in reducing the generation of black money and ensure growth of our nation too.

Coming back to Achche din, we had enough rot and lethargy that has steeped in to our system, because Babu's were never questioned and never made accountable. Our PM wants to bring in the systematic change by institutionalise the way the govt is run. By ensuring digitalisation, we could have more open access to the functioning of our govt. RTI or no RTI.

Achche din are something like planting a Mango tree, which will yield the fruit after few years of planting it, and it is certainly not like instant coffee, where you put the powder in milk and there it is unlike the filter coffee which needs overnight percolation of the decoction. So if you want stashed money from abroad to comeback, allow the govt to pro-actively work on it with or without Supreme court.

Are we ready to back our popular leader, do we give him enough time to break the shackles of the bureaucracy and make things to move. Achche din to ana hi chahiye our ayega bhi.

Corruption & Common man

Oxford Dictionary defines corruption as a 'dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery', and Bribe is defined as 'dishonestly persuade (someone) to act in one’s favour by a gift of money or other inducement' .

We are all proud common men who will berate the politicians about the corruption and take potshots at them through social media and other means. However, how much are we to blame, is our hand clean in this regard. There are few instances of corruption we all indulge in,

• Not insist on a bill, if the store keeper tells we save on tax
• Jump the queue to either to get a ticket or food
• Be silent on subsidies we enjoy, though we don't deserve them (free TV, ration sugar, LPG/Kerosene.... list goes on)
• Buy something without verifying the claims, because we get a discount/free gift 'only for the day kind' (Campa Cola Campus in Mumbai is a fit case)

These are something which we the common man indulge in our own lives everyday and still say these are trivial matters when it comes to large scale corruption by our politicos n babus. But is this not the same trend that they are following albeit in a larger scale.

Primarily it looks like corruption is part of our DNA, just like violating the rules is part of our DNA. How can we expect our next generation not to indulge in corrupt practices when, they see corruption within ourselves.

While politicians and Babu's take the cake in terms of corruption, just because they are in a position to influence policy, today no body seems to be exempt from the corrupt practices. One of the noblest professions, medical practices is the worst in terms of corrupt practices. Today doctors get commissions on tests that they prescribe, referrals they make to bigger hospitals, free trips on medicines they prescribe in the guise of medical conferences. All these in addition to various gifts that are handed over by the sales reps, when they come to meet the doctor to introduce/remind about their products.

The so called fourth estate, Media accepts gifts during press briefings, accepts envelops filled with cash from corrupt officers, advertisements in lieu of not exposing corporates, is this not corruption? What moral authority they can exercise to question other people indulging in corruption.

Now it comes to us,

• when we build renovate our homes, many a time we do not even submit a plan for approval, even if we do, we don't follow it and deviate to the extent it is convenient to us. We place our building material on the road (inconveniencing the others), pay bribes to the officers who call on us to stop the irregularities so that they can have a nelson eye on our deviations. How much are we contributing to the corruption of the system, if there is a danger of demolition, we run to the politician who can influence the officer, and in turn are forced to keep quiet when the politician indulges in a bigger corrupt practice.
• When a cop catches us for traffic violation we prefer to induce him to take a bribe rather than pay the penalty and come on record.
• We are ready to pay bribes left right n centre to get our work done, be it a driving licence, ration card or anything for that matter. We also say we are forced to do this because we are left with no choices.

The system is so bad, we see corruption spreading to the lowest levels, a voter has no qualms of taking money, liquor, gifts etc to vote for a particular candidate, today they are taking from all candidates and splitting the votes of the family to all those who have paid (this much honesty is still there), A parking centre assistant is willing to take cash in lieu of a receipt, A railway TT will allow you to travel A/C class on a ordinary ticket if you share the fare difference with him, A banquet manager will give less number of plates count to his management, for the party you host, if you take care of him. This list can go on and on.

Government has no qualms of black marketing in the name of 'Tatkal' by creating a shortage and asking us to pay extra for early delivery. Look at the case of Telephones at one point of time we were paying Rs.16000 for a telephone connection officially to the government because connections were hard to get, today with plenty of availability the telecom companies come to us luring with offers. Same thing with Maruthi cars, today after liberalisation and plenty of models to chose from, we do not have to pay 'Tatkal' money to get a car. However this black-marketing is still on with railways, wonder when will that ever get removed. This i believe is as good as speed money/Bribe since we are paying extra money to get a out of turn benefit.

With corruption all around us and we being active apart of it, what is the solution.

1. Bring in transparency in all government activity
2. All allotments, plan approvals, decision making should be made available in a transparent manner to all, by putting it up on the internet.
3. No out of the line allotments irrespective of influence, even we the people should desist from asking and be prepared to wait.
4. Direct remittance of subsidy to the beneficiary bank account rather than doles, as it is today
5. APMC yards should put up prices on the net, reach out to farmers by SMS about the prices, so that the middle men do not take the farmers for a ride.
6. Every govt office to have a citizen's charter detailing how many days for each work
7. All bureaucrats who are involved in decision making be the first to be made accountable when there is a fraud detected.
8. All corporates indulging in corruption by offering bribes should be barred from selling/offering their products/services in the market for a period of 6 years
9. If a Judicial officer is caught for corruption, death penalty straight away on conviction, irrespective of the quantum of the misdeed.
10. Any politician convicted on corruption/ Disproportionate assets charges, should be barred from contest for any election/post along with his/her family members for a lifetime.

One might say, is this all possible, may be could be, first lets change to ask for the change