Anish Awasthi's Blogs

Who cares about Lalit Kumar Ojha

2012-01-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

Another senseless death on Delhi roads. A man who was trying to earn a living for his family by working hard on the streets of the capital flung out of his defense less measly auto rickshaw by a rich brat.

Driving a mercedes at over a 100 kmph and saved by the advanced safety features of the vehicle he has been let out on bail. The maximum the judge can sentence Harshmeet Singh Marwah for his killer act is six months in prison. If the law is stretched add a couple of months and a few hundred rupees for drunken driving.

The man who was killed was shouldering the responsibility of an ailing father, a school going son, a two month old toddler and a wife who is now without any support. Newspapers have flashed the news on the front page and will promptly and surely forget it in a couple of days. The killer is already out on bail having done his parents proud by slaughtering a poor man trying to make ends meet for his family.

Why is it that the law breaker is safe and sound in the luxury and safety of his house, being adored by his parents and being protected by cash hungry lawyers and being served by policemen who must have gone out of their way to deal politely with him while the victim has already received a death sentence. The victims family too has been condemned for life.
Why cant our parliament pass tough laws to punish the drunken killers who brazenly crush innocents and kill thousands of people all over the country. When will our elected representatives do what they are sent there for rather than stashing obscene amounts of ill gotten wealth in their overseas accounts and shouting at the top of their voice to disrupt the proceedings of the house.

Am I the only one whose blood boils and who feels helpless every time this happens and the killer is almost instantly out on bail. The would be killers are everywhere to be seen, you can spot them on Delhi roads at the rate of more than one every five minutes if you are out on the streets but oddly the Delhi Police can not spot them. The police will harass the poor and weak, bully them, push them around, be rude to them, abuse them. But when it comes to the would be killer hoodlums the policemen will be polite. They will take order from the goondas of political parties and the corrupt top brass of the police if they ever happen to catch any rash driver.

And what to say of the press, jumping from one news to another in a crazy race to be there first. They lack the tenacity to follow a case to its logical conclusion. Who is the poor auto rickshaw driver after all. What if his son wont get a good education as his now dead father dreamt. What if his family is now staring gloomily at a dark tunnel with no end, no hope.... What if the one who loved them cared for them and worked for them has been crushed by a money bag who is by now busy preparing for his next party.

Those having power and those who can make a difference like the politicians, police offers and the press are too busy holding on to that power, not for the betterment of the common citizen but for their own inflated egos and illegal bank accounts. Lalit Kumar Ojha was a nobody. Why waste time on him.

Why Congress.

2009-04-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

We owe it to Pandit Nehru for much of our growth as a nation. His vision was way ahead of his times. While some Muslim leaders were demanding a state on the basis of religion the Congress party had the wisdom and the courage to propose a secular state. A state has no religion. It is something that the other major party in India does not understand. The action by Nehru was like a forward pass in football and hockey. It was made with a future vision to a position which had no forward in sight. . It is now upon us to grab it and score the goal.

Religion is our personal belief. Its our personal domain. How anyone tries to believe in the almighty is not the governments business. Look what is happening in Pakistan where religion is the basis of the nation. It is not that Congress is perfect. But in today’s world it is easily the best in the field.

A vast number of Indians, specially the younger generation want a society that is not divided on basis of caste, creed, region, religion etc. Students have always vehemently opposed reservations of any kind. We believe that there should be one Indian penal code. No special quotas or reservation for anybody. Congress is not particularly good in this area, but so are the other parties. According to me all parties are equally at wrong in this regard. There is no party which opposes reservations. So we have limited choice here.

The BJP has specifically mentioned Ram Setu in its manifesto. It indicates that they will blindly follow what’s written in religious scriptures. This smacks of ultra conservationism. It can lead to religious extremism. It can be very dangerous. We should take lessons from what Taliban is doing to Pakistan and this world. L.K.Advani is openly defending the indefensible. The hate speech by Varun Gandhi is a shame. The BJP is blatantly supporting him. Advani’s support for this hate speech is shocking. Our future prime minister believes that Varun did not say anything and the cd is doctored. The truth will come out soon and everyone knows it.

Projecting an intelligent capable and proven economist as its prime ministerial candidate the congress has the edge.

The third front leaders are openly squabbling for the top job. They will play dirty politics if they come to power. It will not be a stable government. Mayavati, Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh and a lot of other third front leaders have aspirations to become Prime Minister They have their whims and fancies. Mayavati has the guts and fearlessness but she also has a fancy for pink stone and we see everything being covered by pink stone in Uttar Pradesh, including a migratory birds paradise in okhla. That is where the danger lies. They are so unpredictable. The communists oppose anything that is American. They are openly biased to China and Russia. These are the countries that suppress the truth and are opposing any action against the rogue state of North Korea. India would do well to be in tune with liberal democratic countries.

The congress leadership is more sensitive. Cases like Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo were reopened and speedy justice was delivered. There were reports that the top leadership was concerned about these cases. Sonia Gandhi is one of us now. She cares about this country. She made such a bold and correct choice with Manmohan Singh as our prime minister. Corruption runs deep in our society, and it is true about congress too. Still with all the choices before us I would suggest

“ vote for congress “

if you share my thoughts and ideas spread the word around to all your friends and contacts. Lets support congress this time.

Why we want Obama to succeed.

2009-03-01T03:20:00.000-08:00

It is very frustrating to watch illogical fanatic forces trying to dominate the world. Logic and reason look powerful in theory. In the actual world the corrupt and selfish people keep winning. Every fool knows that we have to take steps to save the environment. Drastic changes in climate can happen in a lifetime, we all know it. We all knew that the American offensive in Afghanistan could be a telling blow to terrorism. The whole world could have rallied behind the USA.
But we saw the focus shifting. Iraq war was imposed for no specific reason. It is widely believed to have profited large American corporations. It shifted the pressure from where it was needed most. We saw the president of the most powerful nation of the world in denial of the affects of reckless industrialization. There were open double standards like different laws for different people.
For things to improve at least we should know what’s theoretically correct. Obama has been making the right kind of noises till now. His speeches have been music to ears. Almost too good to be true. I have seen people having honesty and integrity succeeding in life. The task by his own admission is not easy. His stimulus package may not be successful. Many see him flouting the basic rules of capitalism to keep capitalism in business. Good money chasing the bad money. Imposing sanctions and conditions for government help.
Still all of us desperately want him to succeed. For he represents the free world. Honesty, integrity, family values, vision and candid admission of facts. We are all far more comfortable with a powerful America than Russia or China or Islamic nations dominating the world. He represents true secularism and freedom from caste, creed and colour of the skin. Lets all pray that what he says he can do. That’s what he said.
Yes we can!
Can he?

A Fleeting Moment

2008-12-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

Millions of years of evolution on earth of different living creatures. Our life span of around a hundred years is miniscule compared to it. No wonder we find it hard to comprehend. We find ourselves surrounded by infinite variety of life and forms. Even our own evolution is so remarkable. Sometimes I feel being alive is like being planted in the middle of a developed system. No wonder its lot easier to say that god made the earth and all its living beings in a few days. Kaun itna dimaag lagaaye.

If we start thinking about the origin of earth and solar system and galaxies it goes beyond even our wildest of imagination. The time and numbers involved are something out of this world. It is so fascinating to stand and feel the moments pass sometimes. Seeing other living and non living things around us. To feel and imagine their history of millions of years. Look at the ant; it is the most incredible design. The house fly, the praying mantis, the insect looking like a grain of rice and so on and so on, it’s countless.

Going beyond the earth the matter we see around was a part of this universe before earth was formed. Even what we are made up of was floating somewhere in the cosmos. I would like to quote a quotable quote from readers digest.

“To some nothing is a miracle, to some everything is a miracle “.

A spider the size of a pinhead at the centre of its web was observed on the balustrade in our balcony in greater noida. We saw it as we have some time to spare there. Such a small spider, wonder what was the size of insects it caught, how it would find a mate, how long will it survive. Anshul has a special fascination for spiders. I too don’t wipe away their webs as long as I can resist the dictats of mummy and anupama. Many relatives and visitors to our house point out that spider webs are not auspicious. Our cleaning will bring their world crashing down. I try to ensure sometimes that there is no spider inside the web when I clean it. Not always though, sometimes it does really looks messy and public pressure becomes too great to handle.

We bought a book on birds exactly two years ago before visiting Sultanpur bird sanctuary. Since then birds are mysteriously appearing around us all the time. Birds we never thought existed at all in this congestion and pollution of one of the most polluted cities of this world. A theory that they are probably the closest descendants of dinosaurs makes them all the more so interesting. Go to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anishawasthi/sets/72157609678495954/detail/

to see the birds photographed and identified by us. you can see their scientific names there alongwith their common names.

They were always there around us. It’s just that we did not see them. It is not very easy. To catch a fleeting moment.

A question of life and death

2008-10-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

The visit to Haridwar and Rishikesh has opened up a Pandora’s Box of questions and confusions in my mind. Who are we, where have we come from, where will we go? Matter can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another. That’s the basic in physics. Then where did this entire universe with countless galaxies come from.

That’s what so many people thought about, and they made some very logical conclusions about karma, janma and so on, but none of them is very convincing until we are too religious to question anything. The Bhagwat Gita answers many things, but then the concept of atma or soul is a very convenient and soothing assumption according to me. It gives us so much relief that if we do good our soul may find bliss and merge with god, or we may take another human janma or we may go to heaven etc. there are so many good options available after death if we do good, so we try to be good, but then what happens after death is still a mystery.

I personally think chir nidra or eternal sleep is the best description of death, without dreams, when time flows infinitely fast. Souls form out of chemicals on the earth, and they vanish when the physical forms cease to exist, not a very comfortable thought for us, but better than being born and facing some horrible conditions many of the living creatures face on earth. Where is god when innocent living beings die long painful untimely deaths? The learned have tried to explain it by karmas of previous births that are the only logical conclusion that comes to mind if god is to be considered just and all powerful. But what if god is a vast unknown.

The various rituals of all the religions give us a lot of continuity and comfort; it ends the confusion on how to behave in certain situations, like manners and etiquettes. Sometimes we follow them too far, like flocking to places considered auspicious, kundalis, mahurats etc. If we go too deep there will be further contradictions that I myself went to a place considered auspicious, and I don’t believe in it, but I found it comforting. We ignore science and facts at our own peril. Ganga is not a goddess, it is not flowing out of lord Shiva’s hairs, it is melting out of a glacier that is shrinking fast. There are estimates based on satellite photos that it may dry up completely in the next hundred years. We may keep chanting bhajans at the top of our voice, but the Ganga will dry up, sooner than we think. That’s what happens when vast masses refuse to see anything else than what is written in ancient books.

It is ridiculous that even the highly educated amongst us believe in some things which have no scientific background, no logic whatsoever. Even today most families match kundalies for marriages, advertise under headings like “manglik”(gross), wear different stones on different fingers, “mujhe monga suite nahi karta” “to ashtadhaatu me neelam pahan lo”. People have become millionaires by writing books on star signs. I have seen close family members changing names, and saying things like “9 number mere liye shubh hai”. The latest to hit us is vastu. To hell with all the fools who toil so hard studying math, science, medicine, engineering, history, architecture. We will follow frauds, semi or uneducated thugs. We will never ask questions.

I was once waiting for a train at pathankot station. The train had to come from somewhere and take us to Delhi. I had been in situation like that before, but it dawned on me on that day. That’s what life is. Staying at a station for an infinitely small time. The difference is we don’t know from where the train came, or where it will go. Don’t think too much about any damn thing, don’t feel too much attachment for worldly things, relax and enjoy your stay. Our forward journey reservation is confirmed and it is not in our hand to miss the train. I had typed your forward journey when I realized that I was also included. That’s how we are, always thinking unconsciously that we are immortal. I remember the lines of David Attenborough in one of his shows on nature about life in a jungle. “Those who are lucky will die of natural causes”. I don’t believe in astrology (star signs etc.) and kundalis but there is one thing I can forecast with conviction that will happen to all of us, you know what.

LOST AT CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT

2008-10-01T02:22:00.000-07:00

It was all very nice to see the chivalry of the French people when the conditions were ideal. We developed a severe complex seeing cars stopping for us to cross the road. People smiling and letting you go in front of them. I noticed it was all very well when there were more empty seats in the bus than people waiting outside and none was in any particular hurry. The real test of the system was on the morning we had to catch the flight to Delhi. There were a couple of passengers with a little luggage waiting for the hotel shuttle before us. A few more joined soon after and I was curious to see if they will maintain the same decorum as we had seen earlier. The shuttle bus arrived and we could see that it was almost full, just a couple of seats were empty. Chivalry could wait, but the flight wont. It was plain common sense and I should have guessed it right. Even the elderly showed remarkable agility and with our heavy large bag to pull us back, we were second last. A last second surge and loads of experience under such conditions prevented us from being the last one to board the bus. The bus driver was an expert. He hardly slowed down on turns. We were standing with both hands on the overhead bars and desperately trying to support our huge bag with our swaying body so that the last courteous man in this world who boarded the bus after us won't be crushed under it. I thanked god that I had a glance at the ticket before boarding the bus, at least we knew we had to get down at terminal 2E. With all our limbs occupied it was impossible to look at the tickets in the bus. All we could do was to crane our necks and shout 2E to the driver and people around us every time the bus slowed down. Anupama added to the confusion by saying that E may be pronounced A or I in French. So much for her French training classes. Terminals 2A and 2B could be seen, I thought I saw 2C too. A helpful gentleman in guided us to get down at 2D. 2D and 2E the driver shouted. Sure enough, we could see 2D and 2F written on the gates. I desperately searched for 2E and finally after some running around I found it. The arrow on the board suggested we take a curving ascending road to darkness to reach 2E. It seemed a long uphill path. It was then that god sent an angel in the form of a taxi driver to help us. Maybe divine intervention was needed to reunite us with our kids back home. Seeing me preparing to take the road to nowhere he signaled back with his thumb as he passed. A policewoman who had come out to smoke confirmed that this unmarked door was indeed one of the many unmarked entrances to 2E. Now we know why they don't allow smoking inside the terminals. Take the lift on your right and go to the second floor, the man at the enquiry told us helpfully as he eyed the huge bag. We obviously won't be taking the escalator with that piece of luggage, he thought. We went to the lifts and found they were just the designs on the wall, looking like doors with metal finish. There are the lifts, said Anupama, they were on the left. We entered one of the lifts and pressed the 2nd floor button, it lit up for a split second and then turned off. I pressed it harder with same result. Another family was waiting outside. They went in as we moved out of the lift, we saw them moving out too as we entered the adjacent lift. Here the 2 button was rock hard. It showed an uncanny determination not to be pushed around. Maybe it is -2. It was Anupama again. -2 worked perfectly and the lift stopped at -2. I could see a wall in front of the glass door. Panic gripped me, we are stuck between floors. The door opened behind my back, it was the underground car park. It was then that I noticed a message camouflaged on the lift, written in a way that would easily pass of as matching design, inscribed above the push buttons, " for 2nd floor go to door number 7". Coming out of the lift I found .14 written on the door. My Indian mathematics told me that door number 7 will be 7.00. we raced ahead and found doors 0.15, 0.16 and we knew something was wrong. Then common sense prevailed. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle began falling in place in my mind. I took a 180 degrees turn and went past the enquiry counter to its right and sure enough I could see 0.07, it was gate number seven. I had previously thought that inefficient clerks were exclusive to the third world government offices. That was till I found myself in the line at Air France check in counter. There were two counters. One was occupied by an extended family of more than 10. That left one counter operational. There were two young ladies in it. What they conversed with the passengers for so long is still a mystery. The discussion was very animated though. A lot of laughing and various exaggerated expressions on face, while the line kept growing. We were fairly ahead but my heart went out to those who were joining the tail of the rapidly growing serpentine line

GOD AND RELIGION

2008-10-01T02:18:00.000-07:00

My blog on questioning ram seems to have hurt some religious sentiments. It has been in ourminds for so long that anything that remotely questions the established doctrines is bound to be viewed with suspicion and caution. I feel that all religions have built in safety mechanisms that discourage any debate or any hint of dissidence. Many religions want god to be prayed in a certain way, called a certain name, they want certain procedures to be followed. We are made to believe in heaven and hell, swarg and nark, jannat and whatever. I would like to quote the famous urdu shayar Mirza Ghalib
“humko maloom hai jannat ki haqueeqat lekindil ke khush rakhne ko ghalib ye khayal accha hai” All religions think they are the best and supreme. People following the religion too unconsciouslythink the same. We all have a built in superiority complex. For example we all think our regional lineage is the best. Great thinkers and philosophers thought a lot about life, death, religion and god and wrote about it, it was their hardcore followers that refused to apply any further thinkingand any reference that is even an iota different from the original writings or popular beliefs is still considered blasphemous. This idea of superiority of race or religion can be disastrous. Hitlerwas convinced of the superiority of the Aryan race. Many religions still consider themselves to be supreme, no questions can be asked, no logic can be applied, we are forced to believe what was written or believed hundreds or even thousands of years ago, when mortals or even fictionalcharacters were considered as gods.I am not against the preachings of the great minds, they show us true values of life, but we all have the right to apply our minds in the light of what we know, to accept what we think is rightand more importantly to reject what we think was originally wrong or has lost relevance in the modern world.My own humble thoughts are as follows. I have tried to put in some logic into it, but that according to those who know me is not my strongest point. So be prepared to be confused.Ø What we don’t know is god.Ø The more we know, the more we know what we don’t know.So, the more knowledge we gain, we come to know how little we know of what we need to know. We cant survive without god. All our logic and science goes for a tailspin if we don’t assume that there is an unknown so great, that we cant even comprehend it. We are so insignificant in this universe, nobody knows it better than a space scientist. The deeper we go into any subject, it becomes clear how little we know. There are facts and laws of science, there is a certain logic and set of rules that god has set, we do know a lot of them, that’s why I can type my ideas and all of you can see in all corners of the world, but what we don’t know is so much that it is beyond our imagination and capabilities. Talking in corporate terms, its time we think out of the box.Do send in your comments, and wait for my ideas on astrology, kundalis, mahurats, wearing different stones on rings, pendants etc. Any guesses.