how much do you matter ?

Scams, Scams everywhere, protests, Anna Hazare, Lokpal Bil. It seems a lot is happening in India lately. Suddenly, the people have woken up, woken up from sleep. And they are showing signs that they care, they care for their nation, and are willing to stand up to it. Everyone is asking questions, nobody is answering. Corruption, Mis-administration, Complete disorder country wide, "used-to" work in complete mess, the people are forced to live a life they don't deserve. It's unique situation, outside of your home out in the open, everyone is treated the same way, "badly". Unplanned infrastructure, absent public facilities forces everyone to lead a sub-standard life. People are fed up, are they really ? No, they are not fed up, they are actually fed up long back, now they are waking up. They are waking up because of access to information. They know what's going on in other parts of the world. How the western countries have planned infrastructure, how do they have better quality of life. The awareness is behind the protests. But the base question is "how much do you matter" in the eyes of the people holding the government house. "Nothing". A common man's protests can be crushed, "by force" or "by offer" or "by befooling". Nobody is answerable to the public for any mis-deed. The minister is never punished. No example is set before the public. Ethics, morals are for the public, not for the rulers. Yes, they are rulers, not servants of the nation. Atleast that's what's practically visible, not what's preached. So, when the common man doesn't matter, what should he/she do. Should he/she not protest at all? or what the hell should he/she do after all? The answer is take responsibility. Take responsibility to become the citizen of your country, accept it as your country, be patriotic first. When you are patriotic, you know it's your country, it's your responsibility to clean the weeds now, to strengthen the weak now, because it's your country, it's your family. If in your family anyone is weak, has malnutrition, or is deprived in one sense or other, you pay special attention to that person, you should do the same to the people of your country. The ones who are weak or deprived in one sense or other, need your help, help them, help them get up, and get ready for the show. Educate them if they are not, Make them aware if they are not, Treat the people of your country as your brothers. Then believe me, you will matter, you will matter and these politicians will be afraid of you. Because you are strengthening your brothers and sisters, and together you all will become a force, an educated, strengthened, aware force of public not ignorant force. Then, there will be a new day, and you will matter a lot.

Answer the public

This is a time when everyone in India is eagerly waiting for the inauguration of Commonwealth Games. Just when the Queen's baton is doing the rounds of the states the lid over the commonweatlth preparations has gone off. Suddenly everybody has woken up, woken up from a sleep, just to realize that we as a nation are not ready yet to host the commonwealth games. It's just like you have exam tomorrow & you realize it only day before that you are not yet ready to take the exam, now what to do. But unlike in the exam where an individual is responsible for the exam readiness, this is a case of collective responsibility towards hosting the games. The respect of the nation & it's nationals is at stake. Who is responsible for the last minute mess, who has moved our cheese. It's none other than the elected ones. The ones we have elected using our power of votes. Our own elected leaders have brought shame to us. They have made us realize how irresponsible we are in voting them to power. We didn't even think once before rooting them to power. Our elected leaders failing to address the foodgrain management faultiness, encouraged blackmarketing in the busy hour which led to high inflation. Instead of focussing on the real problem they increased taxes, base prices of many essential items. We cannot blame them, because we have rooted them to power. How irresponsible can the management of Commonwealth games be who did not start the actual work before more than 60% time of actualization had passed. No work, just taxes & talks & credit taking speeches, what sort of leadership we have put into power. Is it what we wanted ? A leadership just to siphon off the funds, non answering on any issue to the nation/public. Be it budgeting of Commonwealth games from 1800 crores to 30000 crores, rotting of foodgrains in storage houses at a time when inflation is at all time high- prices are touching sky, non-execution of anyone in '84 riots when the victims' voices are falling on deaf ears, siphoning off public money allocated to Commonwealth games. We must ask Rahul Gandhi/ Priyanka Gandhi/ Manmohan Singh/ Sonia Gandhi where are they now. They must come out & explain what all is happening. Or are we used to seeing them making rosy pictures giving sweet speeches in election times, answerable to no one on any issue, why are they in power for ? just to make hay on our money ? We must ask ourselves as well, Why we root them to power ? They make hay coz we give them way! Stop feeding the lazy, irresponsible, incompetent leaders cos a habit like this of voting such people to power shows a tendency towards slavery, where the only difference is slave have masters by force & such people have masters by choice. But the end result is the same both are slaves. Come out of such habits & raise concerns, it takes courage but it gives freedom & better life. The one we deserve not the one being offered presently.

This is about Ashiyana(Home), a dream of many maybe all, But realized by few. I wonder the concept of Ashiyana. Think of the time when there was no govt, no administration. Anybody could live anywhere. The desires were more of raw nature. Still there was a desire for one's shelter, which kept on changing. No such concept of floors, basement etc were even conceived. No mortgages were paid, no rents, no house taxes. With civilization, administration, govt etc, the concept of Ashiyana changed completely. Laws, cost, income, inheritance governed the type of Ashiyana one could get. Starting from Big Farm Houses, to Bunglows, then to small plots & now to floors or even Apartments, Ashiyana has taken a complete changed picture. While most still dream of it, some even get it, even fewer get the type they want, still quite very few get the type & surroundings they want. Raw desires of ancient man has taken some transformations but the basic nature of them remains firm. Desires of power, knowledge & sex drive secondary desires which form the nature of tasks performed by people. Secondary desires like owning a Ashiyana, having family, fame etc lead to going with the flow of the era. Ashiyana still dominates the major decisions owing to the desire of Ashiyana of one's type which one continues to hope for till one's death. We all are slaves of our surroundings, working on the behest of peer pressure, religion, tradition, moderanity etc, which forces us to take decisions which we may sometime like or not. I am also living with this reality, which has forced me to take a decision to have ownership of my own Ashiyana. I might want to have Ashiyana of 200-250 sq yard with lawns of another 100-200 sq yards, with ample parking space for 3 cars & two bikes, with spacious roads outside, cleaner air, greenery in the town, less traffic jams on the roads & no horns at all, But that's dreams, that's the kind of Ashiyana I want. Would I get that ? Would I ever get that ? given that my professional decisions would take me away from my dream Ashiyana or should it be the other way round ? Life is for quality living, or we live just to complete the duration we have got in our life span ? I wonder should we work in a way to shape our lives the way we want our lifestyles to be or should we work in a way to satisfy our professional apetitite ? I want my Ashiyana !!! Would I ever get it ?