An open letter to all the political party heads in India

Dear Sirs/Madams

We are not very far away from the 16th general election and in my humble opinion I think it is the right of every citizen of this country to know the candidates that you intend to put into fray. Apparently, we might not have a complete list ready, not yet. However as and when your respective parties finalize on the candidates for certain constituency, the list can be updated and published over web or leading newspapers. [This list will be more informative, than the full page ads you place in newspapers about the tall claims.]

We already have a Supreme Court ruling that a convicted elected representative cannot continue in office, and I hope all the responsible political parties will take this into consideration when they come up with their respective list of candidates. Based on the reports published on 'The Hindu' on July 22, 2013, over 1/3rd of the current MP's face criminal charges [more details here: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/over-30-of-mps-mlas-face-criminal-charges/article4938403.ece]

One entry that I would be pleased to see in the list you publish - is a column for the list of criminal cases against them. It could be indeed true that some or most of the cases could be bogus, however let it be present for the public to go through the list and judge themselves. I do not intend to borrow Arnab Goswami's clichéd statement 'Nation wants to know', however we are in the age of transparency and I am sure every single responsible political party will try to act accordingly. The political parties who would like to remain strangers to the reality, can conveniently afford to ignore.

We have party leaders who preach about transparency, internal democracy, corruption free politics; a list like this would suggest how much of those claims get reflected in real actions. Wishing prayerfully, to see a positive response.

Yours sincerely
An Indian Citizen

"If wishes were horses, beggars would fly!"

At times I have felt the sole reason why a person exist is because he or she has some or the other wish. At every stage of life we have different set of desires, and perhaps it is these desires which help us keep going. An infant wishes to grow up as early he can, the grown ups wish could they ever be kids again. The new born wishes to have remained in the comfort of his/her mother's womb, while the one on the deathbed wishes he/she could live a little bit more. The busy souls desire for some time with their loved ones, the unemployed desire of a job that will keep them busy. The poor desire to be rich, the rich desire to be richer. The deprived desire to have some comfort in their life to keep them alive, the privileged would wish for more luxury. The lean desire to be fatter, the fat ones struggles to shed their weight. These wishes are so different in nature for different people, nonetheless for every person his/her wish is the most significant. A significant wish for one could be pretty negligible for other. Some wishes are long term, others quite instant. A wish could challenge a person to reach greater heights, it could also take the weak spirited ones on to the wrong paths.

And the wishes, the desires and aspirations remain till the moment one stays alive. Some live up to see some of their wishes getting fulfilled, but no one would have had all his/her wishes fulfilled.


We may have reasonable and unreasonable wishes. Though the wants are unreasonable we cannot necessarily stop ourselves from wanting/wishing. At times we do realize that there are few wishes which will remain confined to our dreams, that they are no going to be fulfilled. But still those wishes would be with us, it will be part of our thought process. Can we really define the feeling of being content, has anyone who is born as a human remain content about the things, the achievements, the accomplishments of his/her life. Doesn't he (the one who claims to be content) wish to do anything more in his life. Or are there any greater mortals who know what the ultimate satisfaction is, and wish for nothing more. I know it is good to feel happy about things you have, but even when a person is happy about the things in his/her life doesn't he/she wish anything more? I guess, they do still have wishes. Oh how badly I WISH, that I would wish for nothing any longer in this life :)

My dreams are your dreams!

Often times in my life, I have been asked this question "What would you want your kid to be in his/her life?” I end up being blank for sometime, frankly because I do not have an answer to the question. My argument is, how can I WANT my kids to be something specific in THEIR life? It is after all their life and it is what they want them to be in their own life which is significant. I do not want to impose my dreams on to my kids and in the process not letting them have their own dreams. All I would ideally want is to help them bring up in their life as good human beings; it is up to them where they want to end up in their life.

Dreams should be purely private; and till the time it remains private to an individual, the vigor and the passion to achieve those dreams are natural. The parents could help the kids by giving the kids ample opportunities (which they can afford) for the kids to pursue those dreams.

A common trend has been the case of passing the dreams/ambitions from one generation to the next. Parents of Mr. X wanted x to be an IAS, right from the time Mr. X was born the parents try to make him understand that he has to be an IAS, and that is his parents dream for him. So now Mr. X has to make his parents dreams, his own dream. In the process Mr. X might not really know what his natural passions are, or even if he knows he cannot pursue those passions as there are far more significant dreams in place. As Mr. X grows up, he tries his level best to be an IAS. But, the thing he does not realize is that he actually does not have the potential to be an IAS. Gradually, but surely his parents also realize that their dreams for their son will not be fulfilled and it will remain a dream for ever. Mr. X now struggles to find an alternate career (other than being a civil servant) in his life. And as Mr. X is a fighter, he manages to find a career which is fruitful enough. But Mr. X is not really sure if this fruitful job is what he longed for. Since, he is now grown up in life he cannot take undue risks to identify and pursue his passions. After all he has to get married, have his own family. How and where will he find time to think about or pursue his own dreams? Invariably he ends up with excuses, that he could not be an IAS as he did not have enough opportunities/resources or because of some misfortune.

As Mr. X has successfully managed to have a fruitful alternate career, he gets married easily and after few years Mr. X becomes a proud father of a girl. The day Mr. X's realizes that he is going to be a father, he starts dreaming that his son/daughter is going to be an IAS. The day Mr. X's dream spring's up, it would mark the end of dreams of his son/daughter about their own life. Mr. X proudly makes his wife aware of the plans. If Mr. X's wife also has her own set of dreams for her son/daughter, then they try to reach a consensus, based on which dream is bigger ;). Mr. X makes a point that he could not achieve his dreams (which are actually not his own dreams) as he had limited opportunities, but he will make sure that he gives all the opportunities to his kids to help them realize HIS dream. And this cycle of dreams goes on.... dreams passed from one generation to the other.

While these dreams are passed on from one generation to the other, at some stage the imposed dreams might get fulfilled. But, the point I would like to make is will those fulfillment of dreams would give them the utmost satisfaction in their life. Perhaps not, perhaps these passed on dreams have killed the ability of the new generation to have their own dreams. They fail to follow their own ambitions, pursue their own passions, simply because they do not have time invested for those. It is not about what we want our kids to be in their life, it should be what the kids think about their own life and understand where their interest in life lies. Parents can always help them make sensible and correct decisions, but the choice has to be their (the kid's).

One perfect example that comes to my mind is that of Harsha Bhogle. Harsha was born in Hyderabad to a Marathi speaking family. Harsha was quite good in studies and his parents were professors. Harsha completed his chemical engineering before graduating from IIM, Ahmedabad. Harsha's passion always lied associated with Cricket, though he never played any competitive cricket. In order to pursue HIS passion, he began his career as a commentator with AIR at the age of 19. Moving forward in this career, he has become one of the greatest cricket commentators today. Harsha knew where his passion was and he put his heart and soul to pursue HIS passion. Today the satisfaction he has with his job would be greater than many others. The joy he brings to the followers of the game with his commentary is paramount. The quality of his commentary is better than many other cricket pundits who have played competitive cricket though out their life. Harsha was able to identify his passion and he dedicated his life to follow that passion.

Our kids being an IAS, astronaut, writer, and lawyer are great things. But it would be greater if we allow our kids follow their own passion and we help them excel in their field of interest. Today we have parents who push their kids to be part of (Unreal) Reality shows and Talent hunts, but in doing so they fail to realize that they are taking away precious moments of their kids life, where they want to LIVE as kids. Let them LIVE their own life and they surely will end up being the REAL STARS of your and THEIR life (just with a little bit of guidance from your side).

I have talked a LOT; I hope I LIVE the talk :)

Sister Abhaya Rests In Peace or does she?

The case dealing with the investigations into Sister Abhaya murder case is one of the most long standing and of paramount importance to the state of Kerala. The crux of the case is, "Sister Abhaya Murder case concerns a nun, who was found dead in a water well in St. Pious X convent in Kottayam, Kerala, on 27 March 1992. She was twenty one years old at the time of her death and was a member of St. Joseph's Congregation for women under the Knanaya Catholic diocese of Kottayam, Kerala in India." The case associated with this murder has moved to and from Kerala Police and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Though this case has been a long standing one (almost 16 years in fact), nothing much moved substantially until recently. The most significant movement forward with this case is that on 19 November 2008, two priests of the Knanaya Catholic diocese diocese, Fr. Thomas Kottoor, Fr. Jose Puthrukayil, and a nun Sr. Sephi were arrested by the CBI. Following this significant arrests, a lot of theories have emerged from various quarters.

The Action council associated with this case stated that this was one of the most noticeable move towards cracking the case. The substantial thing to be noted is that the people who were arrested were arrested on the charges of murder and not just for questioning. As a response to the latest developments with the case, the Knanaya Catholic diocese of Kottayam released a circular dated 23rd November, 2008. In the circular, the 'sabha' urged the believers to be united against the so called CONSPIRACY and PRAY for the people arrested who the 'sabha' still thought to be innocent souls.

The current situation of the case suggests that: "On Dec 02, 2008, CBI made certain revelations before P.D. Soman, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam. According to CBI, their brain-mapping investigation revealed that Sister Abhaya woke up on January 27, 1992, early in the morning, descended the staircase and went to the hostel kitchen for taking drinking water from the fridge. She was hit with an axe ('kodali') twice on the back of the head, near the right ear. She then collapsed. After the murder, the first accused, Fr. Thomas Kottoor, and the second accused, Fr. Jose Poothrikkayil, assisted by the third accused, Sr. Sephy, lifted Sr Abhaya's body, took it out of the kitchen and dumped in a well behind the building." After the crime was been committed it seems the accused planned meticulously to hide the crime. The planning goes to the extent of Hymenoplasty procedure on Sr. Sephy, apart from the remodeling of the construction of the hostel in which the crime was committed.

I personally do not have anything against any 'Sabha', but I was really taken aback with the stand the Knanaya Catholic diocese took in this matter. They now stand a chance to swallow their own vomit after all this revelation. What surprised me was the urgency shown by the diocese to come to the defense of the accused and make a mockery of the investigation procedure. I wonder what stand they will take now, when the accused have admitted to the crime they committed. I hope the "sabha" realizes that they are no more INNOCENT SOULS.

It was very immature and hasty for the 'sabha' to come up with that sort of circular. It would have made a whole lot more sense if they silently supported and assisted the investigation body to understand and make valid conclusions of the crime committed 16 years back. Why on earth should a responsible 'sabha' try to defend criminals and how would they describe the rationale behind the hymen restoration surgery procedure done on Sr. Sephy? While the sabha acted too strongly to shield these 'innocent souls', I wonder did they ever recognize that Sr Abhaya too was part of the same 'sabha'. What sort of respect and acceptance has the 'sabha' meted out to the DEAD Sr Abhaya?

I am not trying to take any sides in this event, that is least of my interest. I would like the real truth to come out soon and also that people from all walks of life appreciate and acknowledge the real truth. To be in a state to appreciate and acknowledge the truth, let us be patient and wait till the final verdict is out on the issue. The pace at which this case is moving it should not take long.
And while we wait let us pray for Sr Abhaya. Yes indeed, let her soul rest in peace.


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this write up is completely personal, and the only source of reference is 'en.wikipedia.org'.

God on the off-side announces retirement!

This write-up of mine is dedicated to one of the biggest Characters in Indian cricket. Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, announced in public that this test series (India versus Australia, Oct-Nov 2008) is going to be his last. Effectively, ending all speculations about his future with on field Indian Cricket. Going by his nature (as I have observed), I am forced to think that he will be involved with the game in some way or the other. He has been an astute observer and learner of the game, a pretty effective communicator and a tremendous motivator. The quality he possesses in cricket, will make him a pretty sought out figure even after his retirement.

I should admit that I am not a big fan of Ganguly's batting or bowling. Though there have been times when I have been in awe seeing this batting. His wonderful flowing cover drives, his fierce square cuts and the way he steps out against the spinners it is just a treat to watch. But above all this, it is the Character of Ganguly that fascinates me. There has been quite a few stories doing rounds, about Ganguly's inclusion in Indian cricket. None of this story could hold any water after his test debut series in England. Indian cricket was going through its toughest phase when Ganguly was handed over the captaincy. There were clouds of match fixing allegations, there were people who had turned down captaining India in cricket as captaincy was having a terrible impact on their own personal performances. In walks Ganguly, and with him a wind of change crept into the attitude of Indian cricket team.

The change was not noticeable in a fortnight, it took some time for the change in attitude to be visible. Indian cricketers were always considered to be perfect Gentlemen for the game on the field. And the teams across the world, and partly the media too, had the habit of taking this attitude of Indian cricket team as granted. With the inception of Ganguly as the captain, there was a growing sense of self esteem in the team. This team was not shy of wearing this attitude, they were no more willing to take things lie down. A fighting spirit, a growing sense of camaraderie and a feeling of being safe about their positions in the team was discernible. With the captaincy in his had, Ganguly played a pretty strong and significant role in selection too. He used to back his players to the hilt, and this in turn reduced the fear of failure(and subsequent omission from the team) among the team members. He backed a set of youngsters like Harbahajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan who have carried on and have become the cream of the Indian cricket team. This phase of Indian cricket saw legendary players like Sachin, Rahul, Anil, VVS prosper and develop themselves as icons of Indian cricket. Every individual in the team started enjoying the success of other players in the team. And with this grew the confidence of the team, and they started winning and competing series played in home and more importantly abroad as well.

Every time people start writing Ganguly's cricket obituary, he has come back fighting like a phoenix. I might have to dedicate one complete write-up to describe his comebacks. He has been one of the most consistent ODI batsman from India, and quite a good number 6 batsman in tests. His gentle swing bowling can be termed more than useful. It is because of his habit of speaking his heart out, that the media seems to have never had enough of him. Apparently, because of this quality, controversy (some self imposed and some forced) has never remained separated from Ganguly. The board and the media have equally exploited this to their benefits.


Post his announcement (retirement), I had a final chance of witnessing Ganguly on cricket field as a player in the Bangalore test match. We went this Friday (10th October), most part of the day Australians were batting, and we saw some spirited performance from Ishant and Zaheer with the ball. Towards the end of the day we also saw some delightful batting by Sehwag and Gambhir. Ganguly's inning (first) in this match was a typical portrayal of Ganguly's character, a fine fighting and gritty knock of 47. Hope this series brings with it some more good performances from him, which can go on to help India win this coveted series. I just wish this series throws more challenges to him and he faces that in typical Ganguly way. Wishing him all the very best for his post retirement life.

My world this week

It has been a pretty hectic week this, in terms of official work. As usual we (a group of like minded guys in office) thought of ending the hectic week with a few games of cricket. We followed up the game with a casual get together in one of the restaurants. After dumping in a few beers and some food to go with it, headed back home. And it was pretty late, reached home at around 12:30. The next day, spent most of the time at home (trying to compensate of being late on Friday night ;) ). Rather quite unusually, saw a couple of movies in a single day. I would like to say that I am not at all a movie man, and by movies I refer to Hollywood, Bollywood and Mallywood movies. The first of the movies were 'The sound of music' an old English classic, winner of five Oscar awards early in 1965. The other movie which I saw was 'A Wednesday', a contemporary movie and quite a good one too. Most of the part of the remaining day I was more or less contemplating on the view points of the movie 'A Wednesday'. Sunday morning, as usual, I went to the Church near by to attend the Holy mass. Perhaps for the first time in my life I attended a Sundays mass with police protection. Post mass, I thought of penning down my views about a few things that happened and about which I have made a brief explanation before.

I will start off with the happening in the restaurant, post the game of cricket. I would like to state here that I am a kind of personality you can easily infuriate. I get excited perhaps way too quickly, and to top that off if I am kinda drunk no one needs to put any effort at all :). Over the drinks, the topic of terrorism and its effects on our society came up. The views expressed by my friends across the table was that it was a certain community which has to be blamed. They tried to substantiate it with examples and quite naturally there were no dearth for the examples. The notion that came up was that, it is this particular community which is aiming at disrupting the communal harmony and breaking the secular fabrics in a country like India. And from some oblivion a statement came up, and it went like this: 'All terrorists are Muslims'. So then what about the disturbances caused in Orissa and Karnataka by 'Bajrang Dal' was the next question. To me personally, the group which aims at forceful conversion, the set of people who aim to tackle that by violence pose equal animosity to the communal harmony of the country. Now don't these groups also be termed as terrorist. Why do we have different yard sticks for different situation, different people? Terrorism is literally defined as 'The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear'.

The group of people who aim at forceful conversion, use their violent thoughts to instill fear in the mind of poor and ignorant. They get them converted promising (and perhaps giving) money, food or shelter. These people are anything but the victims of their ignorance and poverty and there are fair number of people to exploit this condition. The sect of people who wants to tackle this social issue use brutal force and violence to spread fear among the entire community, cause damages to the property they own and also their health. Yet another group of people, perhaps the most established and systematic, aim to win the religious war by killing people and spreading fear around. To me all of them are terrorists, it is only the kind of impact they have vary, but they all of them cache in on spreading fear.

Hmmm... Now the movie 'A Wednesday', it is one of the intelligently made movies and the guy Neeraj Pandey has really done a commendable job (I am no one to commend him though). I saw the depiction of 'The common man' in a pretty effective way in the movie. I could sense and share the same sort of helplessness, frustrations and stigma of a common man. Though most of the Bollywood movies claim to be of the common man, I perhaps always witness the uncommonness of common man in all those movies. Typically Hindi movies are so much lost in unusual, fairytale love stories and they still claim it to be close to reality and DIFFERENT. The film maker here has to a great extent shared the sentiments of real common man in the country. The statements like: "Jhagda chahe kisi kaa bhi ho.. marta main hi hoon" and "We are resilient by force, not by choice" echo the reality to such an extent that is hardly seen or heard in Hindi movies. The (stupid) common man is being pushed against wall, his patience is tested day in and day out. Khuda na khaasta, the patience fades off...

There was a pretty subtle mockery of the entire establishment, system, governance of the country and man wasn't that effective. I saw the common MAN in Naseeruddin Shah, not the uncommon kids, frauds and superheroes of general Hindi movies.

Coming to the third and final story, as I told earlier this was the first time in my life that I attended a Sunday mass with police protection. I am not all feeling great about it, rather I am feeling pretty embarrassed. Who am I being protected from, is it from the same set of people with whom I live, with whom I COEXIST. Or am I protected from some foreign forces. Who am I to blame for this situation. The people who does the conversion ( I would be blatantly lying if I fail to acknowledge that there is nothing like forced conversion) or the set of people who have jumped to streets against conversion. For me both are responsible and to some extent the former group the more responsible. In a country like ours, you have freedom to preach and follow the religion of your own choice. Preaching a religion does not mean, disgracing the other religions, it does not necessarily mean that you exploit the poverty and ignorance of people just to create a few more (so called) Christians. More importantly, you have law here to catch and punish the people who are objecting this by violence. But we do not have law to stop the people who are actually doing the forceful conversions. Are we supposed to remain happy about this sort of lame law. We should aim to tackle the problem by identifying the root cause and the cause here obviously is forceful conversion. By doing forceful conversions you are just providing a perfect opportunity to anti social elements to take to violence and in the process become more visible.

Apparently these were the three different but related things that I witnessed over this weekend. These incidents sends down a feeling of apprehension in my mind. I feel that the divide in the country on the basis of community is widening. The identity of our country lies in the fact that it is a place where many people from different religion, CO-EXIST. The cultural crux of this country lies in the fact that we have been hospitable and open to different cultures across the globe. Off late, it seems we are creating different silos and we exist only in silos. We have a political system that thrives on the division of the society. Not one political party exists in our country, which actually does not exploit the social division in the society, every one of them is equally responsible in deepening the divide that exists. The sentiment of aam aadmi has to be heard and addressed, and this could happen only if the aam aadmi get more involved in the social processes. Hope we all do.... ( I am in the process of determining a way)..

Human - inhumane

I have always tried to believe that there are good and bad faces associated with every human being. It is highly unlikely that you can remain good to everyone you know you come across in your life. Yes we do have a few exceptional cases (one such example that comes straight to my imagination is Mother Teresa), one perhaps needs very special blessings from the almighty to remain good to everyone all through out the life. Even when human beings generally have a darker side associated with them, the brighter side tries to overpower the other side. After all that is what is desired out of a human being.

The goodness and the other side in a human being is controlled by many factors, the two most significant factors to me are :

• Conscience
• Upbringing

While we do have a fair control over the second aspect, I do not know who and how the other factor is controlled. There might be many theories associated with that as well, but to my naive mind its baffling. It is always pleasant when one tries to concentrate only on the positive aspects of a human being. And believe me it is far more peaceful too. But living in todays world can we completely ignore the sort of crime existing here. I number of crimes committed is not the worrying factor to me, but it is the changing nature of crime that is worrying me. May be it is because we have started ignoring the almighty. May be... How else can one think about or justify the acts of Nithari or the recent kidney scam in India. I have pointed out the cases in India as I am part of this country and it hurts me the most when I see this sort of crime committed in my country. The case is no better in other parts of the world. We had cases where one fine day a young man opens fire in the University campus because of some crazy love failure, we have acts of terrorism happening almost everywhere in the world. In these cases a class or sect of people of certain caste/religion/race are being targeted by people of a different caste/religion/race. I am not sure how one can justify these sort of acts, how can one think of toying with lives of other human beings. Either people do not realize the value of a human life or they have lost their own conscience. Thinking about the well being of you and your loved ones is a pretty normal thing. The well being as such can have many parameters like wealth, health, pleasure etc etc. But when these things come at the cost of lives of other human being it is damn appalling.

How can a country ever thrive when the people who are supposed to take care of human life and health are themselves toying with human life. How can a country prosper when the very future of the country (the kids) are treated like objects to satisfy ones lust (perhaps the Nithari case is more than a story of lust, the more I think or hear about it the more disgusted I feel). The positive side to these stories is that the common man of this country understands how horrendous these crimes are and at every given opportunity people have voiced there concern over such issues. The way the Nithari convicts were (man)handled in jail and the court just shows the amount of frustration people have over the same issue. But perhaps the entire society needs to step up to promote and preach the significance of nobility in a human life. Everyone has a right to grow, grow to whatever limits but the growth should never be at the cost of other human beings and their lives. We might have to rake our conscience to see where we want to take our life, our society and our country to. And hopefully we all can move into the right (and noble) direction.