The Great Divide

People who have seen the Grand Canyon would compare the collapse of democracy and humanity around us to this major wonder created by nature. Just as the Grand Canyon was not created in a day by those huge flowing rivers, so too our disenchanted society is coming to terms with the abuse of power by our netas and babus. Will it simply end up in anarchy someday? I fear so.

It has been said and been seen numerous times in history that the enemy that lies within is by far more dangerous than all the threats from the outside. From where do I start narrating and where do I end with my narration of a nation – that had been someone’s dream – slipping into darkness, from which there might be no return. To top it all off, no one is being spared; from men to women to kids. Bearing the brunt of it all is the common man. The few who are rich and have political connections seem to manage to get away with almost anything and the ‘aam aadmi’ is made to pay for every penny that goes into the lavish lifestyle of our so called great netas.

I would not put the entire blame on the politicians for that manner. The society is a hypocrite too. Consider for instance, how much Koda bashing have we seen after the swindling and fraud done by Madhu Koda was discovered? In spite of that, what we see is; his wife standing in lieu of him for elections and winning. Can this be attributed to a lack of education among masses one wonders.

It seems every other person is trying to split up the country. We pride in our country being a home for people of various faiths and lingua. But what we see now is the elite few (who have power in their hands) racing forward to tear this country apart. We can all see the fight over the creation of Telangana. This has only led to other areas of the country rising up for more divison of states. How will this end if it ever does?

Why can’t our politicos ever fight amongst themselves for a worthwhile cause like education or elimination of poverty? I remember only one bill being passed without a fight or furor in parliament, and that is the one for promoting the salaries of the political brass. What a sham of a democracy this is turning out to be!!! Why is it that you see the tightest security around the places where politicians reside and only those areas kept in a spic and span shape?

The lawmakers also seem to be walking hand in hand with these swines and abetting all their crimes and vice versa. The most recent case which has come to light is that of Ruchika Girhotra. This exemplifies how a web has been spun by these prominent figures to commit all sorts of dastardly acts and evade being detection and all punishment.

There are so many questions to be asked. Why is it that the South of the country detests the North and vice versa? Why are the far eastern states ignored up until some other country starts laying claim to them? Why is it that the central government accedes to the demand for separate states? Why is the commoner left to rue every minute of his existence on this soil?

Some of the select few who choose to fight this system somehow find themselves dragged into the filth. Others who try to oppose it are somehow eliminated quietly. Will this ever end?

Jaipur diary – Day 2

What do you do when you are on a trip visiting a new place? I assume most people wake up early and start with the sightseeing. Not so us. We took our own luxurious time to wake up and get ready 🙂 Finally, we managed to drag our a***s out of the hotel at 12:30.
There is this restaurant called as Copper Chimney in Mumbai at Bandra. It’s quite famous for its service and delicious food. I never expected to find a Copper Chimney outside of Bombay, but as luck would have it, there was one just about 5 minutes from our hotel. We stepped into it, only to find it as empty as a looted treasury. Nevertheless, the service was as prompt as in Mumbai and the food very tasty. We ordered some Chinese food, which included my favorite dumplings.
Having finished with lunch, we headed towards Hawa Mahal, the first attraction for the day. Hawa Mahal is a large structure standing three storeys tall with loads of windows. It was used by the royal ladies of Jaipur to watch any processions or parades which took place. It overlooks the main road within the city palace and has a direct view of the Jantar Mantar. The name Hawa Mahal comes from the breezy nature of the building. You can expect to find a wonderfully pleasant breeze there even on the hottest of summer days.

The Hawa Mahal, City palace and Jantar Mantar; the three significant places worth visiting within the city are all located close to each, within walking distance. While on our way from the hotel to the City palace, we saw many a westerner taking a walk down to City palace despite it being a scorching 40 degrees in the midday sun.

Once out of Hawa Mahal, we found our way to Jantar Mantar. Now Jantar Mantar was used by our forefathers to study astronomy per se. There are descriptions for the instruments there, but nothing which will enlighten you if you are not aware of the meaning of a few astronomical terms. It helps to have a good guide. A guide is available for INR 100 and for INR 300 you can get a guide who will take you through Jantar Mantar and also City palace. 100 is a little expensive for Jantar Mantar, but if you consider it on a whole, 300 is fine for both, considering that there is a lot to be seen within the City palace.

We unfortunately did not get a guide for City palace and ended up roaming the palace on our own. The main attractions there are: the room of arms, the Diwan-e-Aam (commoners hall) and a museum retaining the garbs of our maharajas of yore.

It also houses the largest vessels (utensils) in the world (Check out the snap) and we also saw a table which would probably take 2 elephants to lift. 

With City palace done, we went ahead to try and cover one  of the three forts, which was Amber (pronounced as ‘Amer’) fort. We ended up reaching there after 5:30, which is the time the forts close for visitors. Since we did not have anything else to do, so we decided to head back to our hotel since it was past 6:30 PM. We had spent over 5 hours in the afternoon sun and were pretty tired.

Back in our hotel, we ordered some chicken tikka, which was by far the most amazing tikka I had tasted in probably over a decade.We turned on the TV, watched bits n pieces of movies, talked about a variety of topics and ended up falling asleep without even realizing it.

The next and last day of our trip awaited us. It was to be a long one, since we had planned to tour the 3 forts and then move to Ajmer Sharif before making our way home to Gurgaon.

Chinese (check)ers

As its title suggests, this one is going to be on Chinese policies and India’s misgivings on it. I am pretty sure that if I were a Chinese citizen, I would be arrested within an hour of writing such an article. Thankfully, I am not. Everyone in this world is entitled to their opinion and I am going to share mine here.

Lets start with the latest of Chinese policies; the decision to issue separate visas to Kashmiris. As we all know, innocent Kashmiris have been the unheralded rope in the everlasting tug off war between opposing factions; one which wants Kashmir to be integrated with India and another which wants a separate identity for Kashmir (independent Kashmir so as to say) and yet another which wants it to become a part of Pakistan. We will not go into details here of how and why this happened and what is the solution to this problem. What the above decision does, is to raise hopes for those parties (I am not going to name anyone here) who are vying to create a separate entity called as independent Kashmir and to give them recognition.

Prior to this, there was China declaring that Arunachal Pradesh be made a part of China. Why? According to the Chinese, the only reason is because the people of that state resemble the Chinese or so called East Asians in physique and appearance.

Also, there is the growing influence of Naxalism in India. Surveys by RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) of India, say that approximately 40% of Indian territory is in the hands of the Maoists. I would not be surprised if path of the funds appropriated by the Maoists finds it roots in China.

What the above three instances go on to suggest is simple enough. The Chinese (just like the British) are trying to divide our country into segments and factions. It could only be a blind administration aka government which does not spot this ploy of the Chinese. What our government needs to do, and urgently so, is to tackle this threat in the severest way possible.

China, as we all know, has been trying to take over Tibet for ages and has been committing atrocities which are unspeakable in nature on the Tibetans. However, no one dares speak a word against them. Recently, when the Chinese warned India to restrict the Dalai Lama’s visit to be only of a spiritual and philosophical nature, India complied like a little child admonished by it’s parent for doing something wrong.

Take an example of Sri Lanka here. The Sri Lankans decided to take its enemy (the LTTE) by the scruff of its neck and drive them out. India has to take a rigid stance and assert its authority as a world power to gain respect in the eye of the world. And according to me, this is just about the right time. Negating the Chinese actions now is the only way to prevent what could spiral into a national crisis.