You have no hope dear country!

So Madame Jayalalitha was not corrupt. She bought all those 30 Kilograms of gold and the insane number of saree's and the chappal's and the big tracts of land from her salary. She really did. Believe me!

Salman Khan killed one and injured some after driving when he was drunk. So he was granted bail and let off scott free because he could pay 30,000 Rs. He was made to pay a looooot of money. And he was a good man! After all, he beats up all the bad guys every other day. He can't be a bad man!

Vijay Mallaya, got loans and could not repay and did not pay salary to many thousands of employees! So what? Is that his problem? It was the employees mistake to have joined his company. IPL is going on and how can it happen without the self proclaimed "King of good times".

Maya kodnani, just killed around 100 people. She can't be put in jail when she is having fever and cough and cold. Granting bail to a sick convict is how humanity can be saved. And in that she being a doctor. And punishing a doctor is just not the way to do.

Story after story after story of how the rich and the powerful manipulate the system; which unashamedly keeps many thousands in prison before conviction for want of paying bail money.

Dearest country, I feel like shaking the dust off my feet on you.You are a shame.I regret being the eternal optimist and wanting to be the change agent

You have no hope dear country! Not in the near future.

The slap I badly needed!

There are people who give you that slap on your face and wake you up from that wrong idea of yourself you have! He was one such man!

He wore the same shirt for the third day. His pants had that big black stain; His hair last saw a comb a week ago. And inevitably he came from Bihar. The Bihar of poverty and snake charmers; Of filth and dirt; Of disease and corruption. He did not speak any English of course. The language, which makes me so proud of!

And then came that slap! What a man he turned out to be. He has single handedly abolished Tuberculosis from his village and is aiming at doing the same for the neighboring ten villages. And to put things in persepective, nearly 2,40,000 people die of TB every year in our very own country. Especially in the Biharian villages due to lack of knowledge and hygiene.

And no, he is not a medical doctor. In fact he is not even a graduate. He works on his own interest with the government; takes people suspicious of TB to docs; help those who can't go to the hospital receive their dose of medicines and also spreads awareness about the disease to all and sundry. And all this, apart from his work, without getting a paisa for it.

Life throws up people like them often enough, to give that tight slap, and to put you on to your place! 

Shit happens!!!

So, early morning, the most read article trending on twitter was about the present transport minister and the former BJP president Nithin Gadkari. Hell No!!! He sure was not talking about developing the transport system of the country, nor was he talking about developing the biggest party in the world.

He was talking about 'urine'. You read it right; It was about man's 'URINE'. Rather, his own! The article quoted him saying, he never wastes urine and always collects them daily in a 50 litre can. Yes, he never wastes urine! He uses them to water his plants. I just said to myself; "paavam(Pity) those plants!

Why is there so much discussion happening on urine, I don't know! The other day, another MP was saying cow's urine cures cancer.In parliament! Then there was Maneka Gandhi, another esteemed MP, who said she is using the urine as a 'disinfectant'. And suddenly there is news that they are going to start a urine refinary in Rajasthan! So you will soon be getting 'Refined urine'! Don't know whose will be refined!

Before last year, it was a word spoken of as whispers! Thanks to the development agenda of the new government, they are being spoken off in blogs. The next step is to develop engines that run on urine. Why not? We will be the most energy efficient country in the world if that happens! Imagine 50 litre can's of urine! I mean energy! Now you get the transport minister and urine connect?

Shit happens! or should it be 'urine happens?'!

Time we think of the farmers also.

I understand we don't have the time. Me and my wife hardly get time to even talk properly. Leave alone talk, we some times don't even meet. By the time the wife comes back from her night duty, I'm off to work, and by the time I come back, she is off to work. Life in the fast lane is cruel. Absolutely cruel!

And when the umpteenth farmer committed suicide yesterday, and when the politicians and the shameless media were politicizing the entire issue, for me it was news flipped through. For my wife, well, the last she ever had heard that word 'farmer' was in class 6. And then we motored on, on the very same life we had taken upon ourselves.

Not that we don't think of food! We eat out often enough. And the ever gracious MIL, makes us think of all the variety of food there is. And our reaction to the beef ban in Maharashtra was eating beef biriyani.

Just that we don't think of the people who make it possible for me to have my food. We have not been taught to think of them. I mean, nobody ever taught me to be think about the man who breaks his backs to give me food. In fact, the society which taught me to remember god before eating, did not even try to teach me how the food reached my table.

The society taught me it is better to be an engineer than a farmer! In fact, the vocation of 'farming' is looked down upon. It is so very skewed that the man who gives me food does not even get 1/10th of the income I do. And most of us just don't care. At least we pretend to. Or just that we don't have the time.

Okay; Let this not be just another emotional rant. I promised myself that every time I think of my food, I will also think of the farmer. I will teach my children that farming is as good a profession as mine is; Next time I buy vegetables, I will buy from the farmers mandi, at the price he says, without bargaining.

And that I won't waste food, the food which involves the hard labour of men, who are committing suicides because they could not afford food on their table.

It is time we think of the farmers also!

Power corrupts!

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely was Lord Acton's famous Dictum! And Aam Aadmi party, the party with the so called difference, is proving Acton right.

Let me confess this first. I was a firm believer in the party. I sensed hope when a lot of friends around me were cynical. I thought when the good people come together, they can change the way political activity is being conducted in this country. And when the good people came together to fight the morons of politics last year, I was happy. I saw light at the end of the tunnel.

But then, power, that word 'power' does stupid things to a lot of people. And AK and other partymen do not look like exceptions.

I really don't know the inner happenings of the party. Even now I hope that sense prevails in the end and everybody who joined together in creating the party will come together again in changing a rotten system. But things does not look rosy. There is too much secrecy for comfort. Too much mud slinging in public view. And the future looks hazy.

Sirs, you were all brave in taking on a system. You had fought the corrupt and corruption even before the party was created, each in your own sphere. Many of you were hero's in your own right. You had all defeated the urge to be corrupt for a long time.But sadly when it came to fighting the lust of power you were all defeated. Each one of you. Power has won again, and that sadly is the curse of this nation.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Reflecting on a life that deserved more!

I saw her on TV laughing away her sorrows.Graceful her face was and quite rightly she was called Grace!

I somehow found her number out and called her and the voice on the other side was cheerful and friendly. "Sam, buy me some 'oorugaai' from Delhi" she said. Only when I asked her to come to our youth group to give a speech, she said she is on chemo. She came after her chemo, and made us all cry listening to her, though she smiled through that hour.

She had been cheated at every step of life. By everybody. Dare I say even God was not kind to her. The parents left her, the dad pretty early and the mom later. The family was broke from day one. The orphanage could only give her schooling and refused a college education. And finally when things were falling in place, life played the cruel game of cancer on her. Oh, I forgot the hospital which cheated her in the end.There was even a man who called her to lie down with her to pay her medical bills. Life!

Of course, There were the good souls which helped her pay the medical bills. The blind man who travelled a lot to give her blood. The friends who paid her household bills. But they were few and far between.

Yet, through it all she smiled. Helped everybody around. Everybody!. Called me so many times to check on my mom. Drove a bike two days after her chemo to help another friend of mine in the hospital. And shared the little pittance the good people gave her with another orphan who stayed with her.

Reflecting on that life the world was not worthy of, makes me thankful for mine; for she always was thankful for every crumb of bread life threw at her.

Where do we get such parliamentarians?

"Believe me, the cow's urine cures cancer", says a ruling party MP in the parliament nonchalantly; And here am I, having to see the dear mother suffer immeasurably for almost a year in one of the leading medical college hospitals in the country and then die because of that dreaded disease.

I should have just given her cow's urine, and 'bimbo' she is cured of cancer! how easy, isn't it?

Where were you sir, the whole of last year? Where were you? Why did you not give us this simple solution before? Had you told this last year, I would not have lost her. We do not even need hospitals for cancer patients sir. Such a waste of money.  And of course absolutely no need of the doctors. Oh! that explains why the budget for health care has been reduced this year.

What next sir? Say something like, "The 'cow dung' can cure malaria or Jaundice". No, no sir! Looks way too simple. Why not AIDS? That should get the whole world interested as well. Like, the entire world will be in India waiting for cow dung. That can make the world look at us with envy. With cow slaughter ban applicable only in India, all other countries has to come here to get 'cow dung' sooner than later.

Already with the latest announcement the cow's urine will be in great demand. Why waste cow's dung?

And by the way sir, why were you discussing the cow's urine in the parliament? Or were you discussing the cure for cancer there? So why do we even have research center's? I mean, if you can find the cure for such a disease in the parliament itself, why waste so much money in stupid things called research.

So much for the parliament, and its discussions. Ah country! Where do you get such parliamentarians?