Kejrival And Kiran Bedi

I said that I am only an observer of ANNA movement without any involvement. I try to ignore the trivia associated with it but the news papers do not allow me to remain quiet.

One important factor associated with the ANNA movement is the TEAM ANNA which I believe was founded by our media. Now the media is trying to smear the faces of the team members with muck and dismantle the team. The team is said to have contained 21 members out of which five were very visible. From that five, three are gone now and two are remaining.

Kejrival and Kiran Bedi.

If I believe the reports in the papers, Kejrival has started talking through his hat and may shortly lose whatever credibility he still has.

That leaves Kiran Bedi who I thought was straight but the media says it is not so. I would not have believed the reports if she had just kept quiet.

She is busy covering herself up with:
“I was entitled to it and it only benefited my NGO. No personal gain.”
“It was my travel agent who managed it”
“I will refund the amount” and the latest
“I did not actually handle cash” - which sounds more like Bill Clinton’s defence in his (in)famous case.

She was SP or IGP or some such thing in Goa when I arrived here nearly thirty years back. The news papers were praising every action of hers. I kept reading good things about her after she went to Delhi as Commissioner and then to Tihar as chief. I had a very good picture of her in my mind. I will have to redraw the picture. Very disappointing.

Anna again.

Remember the epic serial Mahabharat? The story was being told by ‘Time’ and the episodes began with the words “mai samay hoon”. We were seeing Mahabharat as time saw it - without any involvement. I am seeing Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement as time saw Mahabharat - without involvement. I form my own opinions and put them here sometimes just to get it off my chest. In my opinion Anna is OK, his close associates are getting carried away by the importance and the movement is not likely to make any difference to us. I have been reading about the movement and people involved in it, in many papers and magazines, but the editorial in today’s Navhindtimes is almost what I feel. If interested, please go to www.navhindtimes.in, click on ‘epaper’ below the title, and see the article ‘Lord anna and the presiding priests’ on page eight.

I said my feeling is that the movement is not going to make much difference. That is mainly because of my pessimistic attitude and also because of my belief that all of us are corrupt someway or the other. To fight corruption we need to fight against ourselves and there is little chance of winning when one is fighting against oneself.

The supreme court banned mining activity in Bellary, Karnataka, because of the large scale irregularities involved. Illegal mining in Goa is said to be greater than or equal to Bellary. Justice Shaw commission is going over mining in Goa with a magnifying glass and indications are that it will recommend banning mining activities till things are set right. Last week there was a huge rally in Panaji, arranged by people who are involved in mining activities. Owners, transporters, workers and people involved in associated businesses. The demand was 1. not to stop mining activities and 2. to overlook or abolish some of the rules and guidelines which hinder mining. In other words, allow illegal mining and associated corruption.

I am sure at least fifty percent of those who attended this rally also attended meetings and marches held at the height of Anna movement for Lokpal. Got what I mean?

We are not against corruption if we are the beneficiaries. So, Lokpal, strong Lokpal, weak Lokpal or no Lokpal are all the same.

I rest my case.

Just Saying Hello

Nearly a month since the last post. Did not come across anything worth mentioning except that I was woken up by a patient on three successive nights at 1 am last week, demanding a painkilling injection. My crime was that I had removed a tooth (and incidentally quite a bit of the jaw bone) that was bothering him for months. (Pity the dentist or the patient?). Did not write about it as I did not want to scare people (and cut my own leg).

Was waiting for something pleasant to say hello with, when I came across this rose which had bloomed last night. So, here I am saying hello and still there. Bye till I find something interesting.

Simple Pleasures

“Chinna chinna aasai”- I had liked this song from the tamil movie Roza which was a hit, had written down what I thought was the lyrics and had tried to sing the song when there were no one within hearing distance, without knowing what exactly it meant. But I had a vague idea what was being conveyed.

It was about small or simple pleasures in life.

I am lucky to be able to enjoy a few simple pleasures and one of them is the sight and smell of flowers that grow around my house.

The Parijata (night Jasmine)plant, which my wife brought from Bangalore and planted, is now a small tree and has reached our balcony.

We have managed to coax the jasmine creeper to climb up and I intend coaxing it further and making it climb on to the terrace. The creeper is in the process of crossing the balcony and these days there is always a flower or two near the balcony.

Late evenings when the Parijata blooms, the balcony is flooded with the fragrance but the solitary Jasmine works hard to make its presence felt too.

I love to stand there and enjoy the sight of these flowers and the combined fragrance.





I am not overtly religious but I do carry on the tradition of lighting a lamp and placing a few flowers on the idols and photographs of deities that we have with us. Till we shifted to this house our gods had to manage with flowers grown by the roadside or those with in arms distance from the road in my neighbour’s garden. I had no intentions of depriving the owners of their rightful share and was content with what was within my reach and so were our gods. I never resorted to using a stick or a wire hook to claim what was morally not mine. But that is another story. After we shifted here we have planted plenty of flowering plants and I get many varieties of flowers in good quantities.

I love the sight of flowers collected in the mornings for the purpose and it feels good to see the gods adorned with those flowers.





Talking of which, reminds me of DVG.

Gidadi nagutiha hu prakruti sakhanige chanda
Madadi mudidiha hu yuvakange chanda
Gudiyolu koduva hu daivabhaktage chanda
Bidigaasu hoovalage mankutimma.

Which I can roughly translate as

The nature lover likes the flower smiling on the plant
The young man loves the flower in his wife’s hair
The devout cherishes the flower adorning the lord
But the flowers only mean a few coins for the lady who sells them.

I have been able to experience and enjoy the first and the third.

As far the second, when I was a young man, I neither had flowers growing nor the sense to buy and put them in my wife’s hair and enjoy the sight. (and I keep hearing about that lapse even after twenty five years.) Now we have lots of flowers growing but I am not young and my wife does not have enough hair!

Bird Video

I managed to use the ‘motion picture’ facility in our camera for the first time and succeeded in getting not just a blur but a picture in which one can differentiate between the bird and the Banana. The base of the fridge was not intended to be shot but entered the clip on its own will. This is a trial to see if I can attach the video to the post. Following is the caption, bit lengthy.

Sometime back I had written in this blog about the bird (red vented bulbul) which visited our kitchen everyday for its share of banana fruits. It used to perch on the window of the kitchen every morning and afternoon, chirping incessantly to inform us that it was time for its meal and we better move out. If we remained there, it used to fly away and return after sometime with louder chirping demanding to know what business we still had there. But it never came in when one of us were there.

All of a sudden it stopped coming and our bananas were not touched even though they were hanging in the same place and were of the same quality. The bird was being seen around the house but it never flew in for the meal. I thought that it was either fed up with the same fare every day or that it was a different bird not aware of the availability of an easy meal.

Now, after about two years, I noticed one of the fruits in the bunch partly eaten and the familiar beak marks. Then I saw the birds, two of them now, boldly flying in and out of our kitchen whenever they desired a snack, ignoring our presence. I do not know if they are a different bolder pair who heard about the bananas through the birdie grapevine or the same old Bulbul back with a bolder companion after deciding that same fare everyday is better than no fare at all.

Since they attack many fruits, I am forced to leave only one fruit hanging and take out the others. One of them flew away when I went near with the camera and the other remained to get the last beakful and flew out only after I went even closer.

Adding this after seeing the video clip on the post : Sorry for the bad video. I was expecting it to be better. Just as i saw it before uploading. It seems to have gone bad during transport. I have no idea how to make it better. Please bear.

Test Your Eyes.

My wife noticed this parrot (or the parrot like bird) enjoying the guava fruit in our neighbour's compound. It was a test for my eyes (with glasses of course) as well as my hand - to hold the camera steady at full zoom. Both the organs passed. it was a test for my camera too, to get the bird at about thirty feet and it passed.

Now, test your eyes with the first picture and if you fail, look at the second just below the vertical arm of the hanging electric cable. Go back to the first picture and try to find the bird in the same place with its tail towards me. if you fail again, get an appointment with the ophthalmologist.

PS : No commission has been promised to me by any eye doctor.

At The Ramlila Maidan

I am at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. There are lakhs of people. The atmosphere is charged. What excitement! What support! School and college students, Mumbai dabbawaalaas, Cine actors, traders and businessmen, advocates, doctors, senior citizen groups, you name them and they are there. There were people in fancy dress, people holding comic posters , music and dance. It was somewhat like Goa during Carnival. Only booze was missing. I got carried away. I shouted all the slogans. Even Bharat maata ki jai and Vande mataram - at the cost of inviting Imam Bukhari’s wrath and having a ‘Fatwa’ on my head. I had to display my support to Anna. But I was not sure what we were doing there. So I asked someone who had taken a break and was enjoying his free lunch.

He looked at me as if I was the ‘C’ in corruption. “We are doing something to kill the demon called corruption. Squash corruption into dust. It should not raise its head once again.”

“Which corruption?”

“Don’t you know corruption? Where do you live? Mars? Haven’t you heard of Kalmadi? Raja? Kanimozi? Hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees. Disgusting.”

“How?”

“By forcing the government to manufacture the ‘ Brahmaastra ‘ against corruption, the Jan Lokpal bill. It will kill corruption completely”

“But are you sure that you really intend eradicating corruption?”

“What do you mean? Why will we be here otherwise? We are fed up with corruption and we will surely eliminate it under Anna’s leadership “

“All types of corruption? At all levels?”

“Yes Yes and Yes”

I could feel all ‘Y’s capital, the way he said it. I should have understood the mood, enjoyed the lunch and carnival for some more time, and returned home after playing my part. But the cynic in me was fidgeting. So, I asked again.

“We are here to remove all corruption from our country. Rright? Now Let us assume that you have to get a residence certificate from the tehsildar. You have almost all the documents like your ration card, your father’s birth certificate, grand father’s death certificate, your school leaving certificate etc etc but you still have one or two missing without which you are not entitled to get your certificate. Do you want the clerk to insist that you produce them or accept a hundred or two as a token of good will and quietly type out the certificate?”

He looked at me piercingly. I continued at the cost of my head getting an entry and exit wound.

“With lot of difficulty you have purchased a small piece of land and intend starting construction of your dream house. Your plan is ready and is sent for approval. The municipal engineer has raised one hundred and twenty three objections. Would you rather erase the plan and comeback with one which sticks to rules than pay a few thousands of convenience fee to make the engineer close his eyes while he signs on your plan?”

“Hey, don’t spoil the mood by bringing up irrelevant topics when we are preparing for a long and tough fight with the government”

But I was in my pestering mood and so I continued without hearing the warning. “ You are a busy businessman and cannot keep track of all the business transactions. Some of the transactions escape your attention when you send your files to the sales tax or income tax or some other tax. But the official there somehow smells them out and pesters you for an explanation. Would you rather pay a hefty penalty than slipping a packet of grease to lubricate the palms of the official to make the file slip off?”

“Who let this fellow in here? Creating a nuisance when we are in serious fight with corruption. Kick him out of the grounds”

I was being kicked and pushed and I was trying my best to hold on to the Ramlila grounds. I was losing and I woke up.

“Why can’t you sleep on your side of the bed. You roll around like a child. Where am I expected to sleep” my wife managed to push me aside and regain her part of the bed.