This post was shamelessly inspired by the The Marriage of Symphonies

Little do most people know what the bill means for them and for the state in general, and the extent of corruption widespread in India in specific. What most people know is that it is a means to remove corruption, what most people know is that the media and social media in particular are supporting it. What they also think, is that since they are active users of Facebook and Twitter, they represent the general typical middle class population on whom and for whom this country runs. 

So what is the Lokpal or the Jan Lokpal Bill?
Go read the the Wikipedia article on the Jan Lokpal Bill or visit Anna Hazare’s website and you will get a fair idea about both. In short, the Lokpal bill or the Jan Lokpal bill permit a probe into complaints of corruption, and prosecution of corrupt officials. The only differences between the Jan Lokpal bill or the Government’s proposed Lokpal bill are the differences in power and prosecution. For over 4 decades, the Lokpal bill has failed to become a law.

What is my understanding of corruption?
As one of my friends correctly points out, corruption is not just the wrong use of power, but it is moral impurity. Corruption of various forms end up being called by different terms such as fraud, nepotism or even perversion. Today we see all of these in the society, at all levels of the society including within ourselves.

Corruption in India is deep rooted. It is not just the superficially visible form of corrupt government officials, but even high degrees of nepotism at organizational levels and perversion at individual levels. I will explain:
Have you never requested to get a discount on a product just because you are related to someone in the store?
Have you never let your friends into the office if they have forgotten to get their ID cards?
Have you never gone to your child’s school to defend him, when he has obviously hit someone with his geometry set?
Have you never tried to find loopholes in an organizations rules to get as much money reimbursed as possible?

I bet you have done all that and much more. Why? Because you see short term benefits out of such acts. You are selfish. Period.

The fact is that we are all corrupt from deep within, our entire society is corrupt. What gives us the rights to blame government officials and people in power of corruption and what gives us the rights to prosecute them? Have you ever been caught by a traffic cop for either not wearing the seat belt, or talking on the phone while driving, or for not possessing a license or a PUC? Have you always lawfully paid the default amount and moved on? I bet No! If the fine for breaking the rule was Rs 500, you would rather pay Rs 200 without a receipt and get off – you get a deal, and the cop gets to earn the entire Rs 200 (none of it goes to the government if he does not generate a receipt). I do not have the statistics, but most of the times it is us, who ask the policemen if they can pay a bit less in lieu of no receipt and get off. It is not the policemen who give that option to you first! Similarly, it is us, who are ready to pay under the table to an officer to get our papers moving faster, it is not always them who initiate the action. Some of you will deny this – you would argue that the government officers intentionally sit on our papers and not process them quick because they know the potential to earn some money. But here – I beg to disagree (read my later points).

Corrupt officials or corrupt systems?
I have not travelled all over the world and I cannot for sure say that I have seen the world, but I have definitely been to a few nations that have got things right, and systems in place! I have always believed and will always believe that it is not the people who are corrupt, it is the ill designed archaic systems that give rise to the whole concept of corruption. Take the example of paying a traffic rule violation fine in the United States (no, I am not comparing US vs India, this is one specific example) – In the US, if you break a traffic rule, the following might happen – either the cop will chase you down, or your violation will be caught on an intelligent system such as a CCTV. In either cases, you will be presented with a piece of paper which will ask you to go and pay the fine (either online or at a specific office). You may contest the fine if you feel that you have not violated any laws, but only in a court. The cop does not take away the keys of your car, or your driving license till you accept your mistake and pay the fine – you get to keep them and even drive on. On top of that, you do not negotiate or pay any money to the cop – the only transaction you do is mostly online – directly to the traffic authority.

How does that compare to what happens in India? You break a rule and the cop calls you to stop by the side of the road. Depending on the cop, he may pull out your car keys and even take away your license. He will then ask you to pay a certain amount of fine. If he has a receipt booklet, he will collect the fine and give you a receipt and your license back, if not, he will ask you to go to the nearest police station and pay the fine and then take back your license. In the interest of time, and due to the fear of getting blacklisted, you do not wish that your license number is noted down and hence start negotiating with the cop. You know, negotiating with the cop will mean that he will let you go faster and you will have to pay lesser, and on the top of that, you will not end up defaulting as there will be no record of your offence. You clearly take the easier option out.

This points to corruption in the following descending order:
1. Corrupt systems 2. Corrupt you 3. Corrupt officials

Various other such examples of corrupt systems and corrupt you can be compiled into books that would run into volumes. What we need right now, are Technology enabled systems that make life easier for the common man to do something as elementary as say:
1. Paying a traffic violation fine
2. Getting a passport
3. Setting up a shop

Did you know – the Four Seasons hotel in Mumbai needed as many as 165 licenses:

Bureaucracy and a shortage of skilled workers make building hotels difficult – the opening of the Four Seasons was delayed by at least two years. The hotel needed 165 government permits – including a special license for the vegetable weighing scale in the kitchen and one for each of the bathroom scales put in guest rooms.

Now each of those 165 licenses were hotspots for bribery and corruption. In the end only the 165 officials would come into the newspapers, but what we really need to blame is the archaic British Raj systems and licenses that make little or no sense today. Reducing those 165 licenses to merely a handful would have helped Four Seasons open up to the customers faster, and offer rooms at much cheaper rates! Plus, it would have eliminated almost a hundred and fifty visible corrupt officials :)

Anna’s methods of fighting to set up a Jan Lokpal Bill:
Enough has been said and seen about Anna Hazare and the entire mass movement on the Jan Lokpal bill in the last few days. But what exactly is wrong in the way it is moving? Surely, Anna’s intensions are not bad, nor are yours!

The fact that the Facebook and Twitter junta believes that they represent the India of today is bizarre and baseless. They do not even correctly represent the middle class population of India and most of India is still in the upper lower or lower middle class. Where were you guys when issue of reservation in educational institutes was brought up? Where were you guys when Nooriya Havelivala killed an innocent cop on duty while driving under the influence of alcohol? Why are you so selective in what you want to band up against? Just because the media is giving limelight to Anna you want to join the band, no? If tomorrow he stands up to completely ban tobacco and tobacco products manufacture, sale and import in India, will you stand by him in the same numbers?

Again, I am not against Anna Hazare, and to a big extent I am happy that you guys are taking up the cause and supporting an honest fighter – I really am. But the fact remains that you are selective and at times even ignorant. On top of that, what are you doing in support of Anna?

Just yesterday I was travelling back from Mumbai to Pune. In Navi Mumbai, a group had organized protests against the government, and was mobilizing large crowds. The crowd was filled in trucks and tempos all moving towards a common destination. But the crowd was not mature adults who understood the importance of the bill, the crowd comprised of poor little kids mostly in the age group of 12-18 years. And what they were doing was pretty shameful – Anna would have ended his protest then and there had he seen that. The kids and a few grown up adults were doing the following:
1. Shouting and screaming from the trucks
2. Littering the streets with bits of paper and snack pouches
3. Pouring water from moving trucks onto the roads
4. Splashing water on passersby
5. Some were even throwing water bottles on busses and other vehicles on the highway

All this to support a peaceful protest by Anna Hazare? All this to fight corruption? Clean your corrupt minds first young men and then identify where lie the roots of corruption in India – is it the high ranking government officials, the archaic treacherous systems of the license raj or ourselves!

And do read this by a dear friend… “An anti-corruption herd” where she says:

Legislation fails catastrophically (what lawyers like to dismiss as implementation problems) when it doesn’t account for incentives. India is known for fantastic legislation and implementation failure. However, implementation failure, like other forms of market failure, are signalling devices. They’re telling you something. They’re saying, for example, systems where clerks are under-paid sustain systems where bribes need to be paid. Systems where accountability is not structurally built-in allows for large-scale corruption…

At the start of every long drive, I get the tyre pressure checked at the petrol pump near my place. That day however, its air pump was not working. I decided to move on, thinking I would get it checked somewhere on the highway. We drove on and soon were on the highway. A few kilometers on, I suddenly remembered that tyres need to be checked and we stopped as soon as we saw a local puncture repair shop with a few tyres hanging outside a shady shack. I asked him to fill 36psi in all four tyres. After he is done, he turns up to me and informs me that the front left tyre is punctured. Now my car has tubeless tyre,and I sincerely do not know how punctured tubeless tyres behave. So I asked him what made him say so, and he replied saying that the pressure after filling air was 0. And he showed it to me. I was suspicious as I could not see the tyre flat.

Next, obviously, I told him to repair it. Though I was suspicious, I did not want to take risk on a highway. He suddenly asked me if I had a jack. I told him that I did not have one as it would have required me to remove all the luggage in the rain. He said that he did not have a jack, but will manage somehow. Suddenly one of his men came and started unbolting the wheel quickly. I stopped him and said that I would not go ahead with the repair if he did not have a jack. My suspicion only grew stronger and asked him to abort. Clearly, he was pissed. He put back the wheel and I drove off, wondering how I will drive on with a punctured tyre.

A few hundred metres ahead, I saw a petrol pump and decided to get the tyre checked. The guy there checked all the tyres and surprisingly all of them had low pressure (about 25 psi)! I was shocked. He filled up air in all four and was convinced that the tyres were fine. The front wheel had 25psi when the previous guy showed me 0psi using his mechanical device. I drove on, still wondering if my tyre was really alright. Reached Mahabaleshwar and had a wonderful drive in zero visibility and infinite rains. On the way back to Pune, we stopped at a Petrol Pump in Wai to get the tyres checked again. After 100km+ of driving with 300kg+ of load in the car, the pressure would surely have gone down if the tyre was punctured. Surprisingly, it was still the same and maybe even a couple of psi more! I relaxed!

Had an awesome trip, some anxious moments and definite lessons learnt!

1. Always check and fill your tyres at a petrol pump, preferably your everyday/trusted petrol pump.
2. Never stop at a local puncture shop, unless your tyre is absolutely flat and you do not have tubeless tyres.
3. Follow the above two rules religiously!

And btw, pics coming up soon. Not too many but certainly worth a dekko!

Pretty that it is, it did provide ample opportunities to take some great photographs. Being with a crowd is always bad when you want to set out on a lonely photowalk with only your camera. But here are a few shots I did manage to capture:

This is the Rangniwas Palace, a beautiful and inexpensive heritage hotel we stayed at.

Street side shops on Palace Road

The Udaipur City Palace

Inside the City Palace

Udaipur City, seen from the City Palace

Handicraft and other shops inside the City Palace Complex

Truly the most beautiful view, the city seen from Lake Pichola

The Lake Palace

The City Palace seen from Lake Pichola

Enchanting Folk Dance at Bagore ki Haveli

Crowd at Bagore ki Haveli

Clearly, these images do not capture even one percent of the beauty my eyes captured in Udaipur. I certainly will make one more trip! If you have a few days at hand and need a good break, head to Udaipur, today!

… All Indians are my brothers and sisters… I shall give respect to my parents, teachers and elders and treat everyone with courtesy…

You have most likely heard the above words at a very early age during your Primary Education. The above lines belong to the Indian National Pledge written by Swami Vivekananda, and is commonly recited by Indians in public events, especially in schools and colleges.

I am not sure if every Indian thinks that way, or if he is even proud to call himself Indian. What happens when a car behind yours slightly touches the bumper of your car? What happens when an auto-rickshaw wala denies to ferry you to your destination? What happens when the girl you like rejects you? Is your integrity questioned at that time? Do you forget the respect you ought to give others? Don’t the car driver, the auto wala, and the girl have the right to make their own decisions? Don’t they even have the right to live, let alone live peacefully?

Does your blood boil and your head get devil’s horns? What is it that gives you this aggression -  is it the fact that one of your relatives is some bigshot in the government or in the police? Or is it the fact that you are a hefty man who drinks alcohol and eats meat? Is it justified that you run your car over someone who slightly scratched your car? Is it justified that you rape a 75 year old lady just because she argued with you over which route to take her by? Is it justified that you pull out your knife and stab the girl at the bus stand just because she does not want to marry you? Is it justified that you kill your daughter just because she had sex with your servant?

Are all small incidents balanced when you return the favor by taking someone’s life?

Can you take a step back and keep a tab on your aggression? On the road, in your home, in the school, at work, in the metro… everywhere? Young kids are picking up this aggression from what they see at home and pouring it out on their friends and enemies in school. Is this what you want to teach your kids? Are you failing to pass on basic values to your kids? Provide them with an encyclopedia instead of a Pulsar and a Swiss Knife!

Can you take another step back and bring the peace and harmony Indians have been known for? Aren’t both of us equals? Aren’t rules uniform for both of us? Then why this aggression, why!? I, from the lower half of India, am scared to come to your part of the country. Not because it does not belong to me, but because I am scared that I might fall prey to your aggression. I feel unsafe in the territories you breed. Invite me and make me feel comfortable. Not by showing me news of rapes and murders every few hours. Look at the following news headlines coming from Delhi -

Schoolboy murdered
Man stabs parents
Killed over mobile phone
DU girl shot dead
Pilot runs over man
Life lost for a screwdriver
Murder over chicken tikka

I almost laughed in disbelief, but aren’t you ashamed?

As a small request, I would be glad to see cars in cities without the symbol that says “ARMY”. What does that symbol mean? Does it mean that you are an Army officer? Or does it mean that one of your family members is an Army officer? Even if that is so, what do you want to show to the car driving behind you? Do you want to claim your supremacy on the road? Or do you want to stop anyone from honking at you and overtaking you on the street? Or have you put it so that the towing van does not tow your vehicle from a no-parking zone? What is it that you want to show? It simply points to the fact that you want to exhibit your supremacy and take advantage in any untoward situation! Go ahead, remove the sticker from your car and scooter today, and feel proud that you are only as privileged as everyone else in this country!

I love your cities, I love your food, I love your traditions, I even find your girls very pretty (prettier than girls down south – let them survive birth!) but not your aggression! That does not make me holier than you, but these are things we can together think over!

- Your concerned distant relative

These are purely my own thoughts and not inspired by any one particular person or incident. It is not directed to the whole North Indian / NCR community but certain bad patches that have scared me and many Indians like me. I am not saying that Indians in other parts of the country do not have aggression, they do, but there is clearly more aggression in the NCR that is leading to more rapes and murders each day. Aggression leading to murders and rapes is not just another thing, it is something very serious and something gone terribly wrong in a civilization. This claim is substantiated by studies. According to statistics released by Delhi police, 15 per cent of the killings last year resulted from spur-of-the-moment provocations.

If you wish your comment to be replied back to personally, please leave your email ID.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/delhis-brash-new-middle-class-behind-violent-crimes-experts-91727

This continued everyday. If he would be playing around at the time of my arrival, he would repeat the same exercise! Days passed and so did months. Nothing changed, at all. Sometimes he would follow my Activa till the garage and then stand by waiting for me to talk to him. But I would get scared, as usual. I never realised what he was trying to tell me. As days went by, he got lesser playful, and would sit in that corner all day and scratch himself.

Few months back, she became an official member of my family and moved in to my place. He would follow her as well, but only till the elevator. He never followed her up till the door. She was a bit scared of him too, and she did not like the fact that I admired him at times. I would always say “hi.. what’s up” in my usual style and he would respond by a smile, or so I thought. We both felt that he needed to be taken better care of.

Yesterday morning, our maid came home to work, and told us that he was having difficulty in breathing. While on our way to the picnic we saw him in his corner, lying down, breathing really heavy. He looked sick. He looked as if he was breathing his last. I suddenly got a very strange feeling within. It is difficult to explain, but I have never seen anyone breathing his last. I almost felt a vacuum inside, of having to face a loss. We went for the picnic and forgot what we saw. When we were back at around 4, I tried to get a glimpse of him even as I was trying to park the car. All I could see was his rear covered by a sheet of cloth. We got down and inched a bit slowly to be able to look at him better, and what we saw, was a very sorry scene. I just stood there, like a stone, not understanding what was wrong. My heart skipped a beat as I realised that he laid still.  His mouth was open wide and his head was tilted backwards. I watched his stomach, it was not going up and down. I knew that was it. We lowered our heads and walked back to the elevator, with a very strange and sad feeling in our hearts. As we entered the elevator, we looked at his favorite spot at the end of the foyer.

I told her – “I will miss him”
She replied – “Me too”

Today morning, his corner was clean and washed. It was however, empty.

We will miss you, Moti…

This will make you blind! The bright high beam head lamps of vehicles coming towards you from the other side of the road diminish eyesight. For a few seconds after the vehicle passes by, it is impossible to see anything but a blind spot, and prolonged exposure to such high intensity lights will gradually make us blind!

I have lived in various cities in India, but this peculiar problem of driving vehicles with high-beam ON, is seen only in Pune! Be it two-wheelers or four-wheelers, they all (well almost all) drive with their head lamps on high beam! Oh and on top of that, if you have fog lamps, put those ON too! I feel like getting my vehicle in front of them in the middle of the road and slapping the driver right there for using such blinding beams!

There are a few things that could be behind this:

1. Badly lit streets in Pune
2. Lack of awareness amongst the Pune residents
3. False awareness that the way to counter bright flash is by another bright flash!

Of the three reasons above, I would not say Pune streets are well lit, but they are surely sufficiently lit, except for the Camp Area. I think reason 2 stands out! Punekars do not seem to be aware that there are two settings for lights, and what those two settings do. Another reason could be lack of explanation by driving schools while teaching people how to drive. Driving schools rarely take lessons in the night, or inform learners about low and high beams.

Let’s first see what a high beam does (source: Wikipedia):

High beam (main beam, driving beam, full beam) headlamps provide a bright, centre-weighted distribution of light with no particular control of light directed towards other road users’ eyes. As such, they are only suitable for use when alone on the road, as the glare they produce will dazzle other drivers.

Let’s see what a low beam does (source: Wikipedia):

Low beam (dipped beam, passing beam, meeting beam) headlamps provide a distribution of light designed to provide adequate forward and lateral illumination with limits on light directed towards the eyes of other road users, to control glare. This beam is intended for use whenever other vehicles are present ahead.

The above illustrations are for left-hand drive (right-side of the road, as in US), and are equally true for any country. This also applies to two-wheelers however the distribution of light is not forward/lateral but down and far. Down must be used on city streets and Far only if you are on a highway or sharp bends, or dark roads.

Also, if you have a vehicle in right front of you driving in the same direction, please dim your headlamps as they produce a blinding glare in the rear-view mirror. This makes it impossible for the driver of the vehicle in front of you to judge distance from your vehicle and also temporarily blind him from seeing vehicles coming from the other side.

The traffic police needs to enforce rules such as these very strictly within city limits.

Another blogger has discussed the same issue on her blog a few years back:
There ought to be a law against driving with High Beam headlights

There was also an article in the TOI about something similar in Chennai:
Dazzling headlights cause rise in mishaps

One very interesting rule I have found prevalent in Gujarat, is painting a thin strip of yellow/black colour on the side of the lamp that faces the center of the road. That helps keep the light off the eyes of the driver in the incoming vehicle! Why can’t that rule be enforced all over India?

I hope you are not guilty of using the high beam while driving your vehicle! We need to make people aware that they need to use low beam while within city limits, and switch off their fog lamps!

We do not want an eye-for-an-eye situation here, do we?

(The illustrations of the high/low beam are used from the following sources, along with their free licences to use: High beam source, Low beam source)

Recently, I purchased a 75mm-300mm telephoto lens for my DSLR. Eager to click, I set out with my kit. I clicked a lot of pics, hundreds of pics on my first two outings with it. I got some good shots. Clicking pics like the ones above, is not called ‘stalking’. I knew about this as I had Googled earlier, but here are the rules if you do not know:
1. If you are in a public place that does not explicitly prohibit photography, you are free to shoot anything and anyone. However, you may not shoot people especially kids if they are engaged in sexual activities.

2. You do not violate human rights of anyone by taking their photographs without permission. This really means that you are violating their freedom of privacy, which honestly does not exist anywhere beyond their homes and private indoor spaces.

3. You do not violate their privacy if you click their photos in a public space. There is no right to privacy in a public place, with the exceptions of public toilets. Talk of CCTV cameras in public places!

4. You however need to ensure that you are allowed to take photographs on the land you or your subjects are standing.

5. You do not harass anyone by taking their photographs. However, repeatedly and deliberately chasing a person around clicking photos is considered harassment.

6. You do not need the subjects’ permissions to publish the photographs, unless it is for a commercial purpose.

7. Publishing photographs of people with captions could land you in trouble if you misidentify the subject or if the caption is unduly mocking or in false light.

Read some more rules here: http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

This, for the United States, perhaps one of the more liberal countries. For other nations, it is best to look up the rules and social customs. Even in the US, laws differ slightly for each state: for example in Texas, you cannot take a picture if it is for someone’s sexual gratification, like a shot on a nude beach!

In general, it is not illegal to take pictures of people in public settings. If I go to the Mumbai Marathon as a photographer, I cannot possibly ask permission from each and every of the hundreds of runners! It is still the best and the safest to ask people if you can click their picture, in my tiny history, I have got a 100% positive response.

So it all began from Denver on a clear Saturday morning. A malfunctioning phone charging point in the rented car, meant we got a free upgrade to a Volvo S60. Till then, I had only traveled in Volvo buses. But this, was pleasure to the ass!

Colorado is beautiful. The landscape is heavenly, and empty roads add just another level of charm.

This place, was our first stop: Steamboat Springs. It is one of the most famous Ski Towns in the US. At an altitude of 6500 feet, it is a very very pretty little town.

It was getting quite difficult to take pictures with so much sunshine. We literally had to grab any opportunity with clouds covering the sun!

Steamboat Springs is named so because one of the black sulphur springs here sounded like a chugging steamboat to early settlers. Thanks to some landscaping and construction, that sound has almost disappeared.

Even a town with barely 8000 people, had perhaps the best Indian restaurant I have so far been to in the United States. It was also the largest, the spiciest and played the best music inside (AR Rahman!!!!).

This is me and Patrik Da, in perhaps the one standard pose I click of myself wherever I travel! This, is Vail. At 8000 odd feet above sea it is yet another ski resort, highly commercialised, and built in a pretty European style.

When the snow is not enough for skiing, some other activities are biking, or golf…

Anando and Patrik Da, with the bigger da… Einstein Da!

A brilliantly worked out 2 days trip, covering over 500 kms and traveling over highways at an altitude of 11,000 feet, this was a superb trip. I cannot thank Patrik Da enough for this :) Btw, he calls me Anando… ask me why? He also becomes the only other person after Roshnai to understand my camera and take my pictures :)

Patrik Da, I could not capture the hours we spent in the Strawberry Hot Water Springs bathing and jumping around the hot water pools and the cold water river, or the awesome photography sessions we had by the pseudo railway station and in Vail, or those tiny little towns like “Bond” and State Bridge… but I can surely leave this blog to aptly end with this song… (click here)