ANNA HAZARE TO AMAR JYOTHI

The last few weeks have seen the assertion of people's voices for a rightful cause emerging as the sole force to guide destinies of different nations. Cynicism, skepticism, living room discussions and other such passive venting of emotions have not led us anywhere in the past. Closer home we find that the Gandhian mode of satyagraha has resulted in the bill pending for over four decades being given life. A new institution would come into being if the momentum were to be kept up. The first round has been won by the people and the persons in power have acceded to the demands.

It is time for everyone of the active and passive persons who participated in the movement to guard against premature celebrations and return to the laid back approach. The persona vested with the responsibilities are respected figures who are likely to discharge the onerous burden cast on them diligently. However, the new institution is also to be manned by another human being who would be vested with the powers to check corruption and punish the corrupt. Agencies such as CBI, CVC etc have also fallen by the wayside though their cherished goals are not met. The culprits of the prevailing scenario is each one of us.

Institutions are created to establish order but the corrupt find the ways to dismantle them. The famed fable of King Solomon punishing a corrupt person with the task of counting the waves is known to many. The punished culprit used this postion to extract his pound of flesh from boatmen by pointing out that they had come in the way of his performing the royal duties assigned to him. The story makes it clear that mere institutions would not help fighting the corrupt since the danger of it falling prey to the same persons is omniscient and omnipresent. Evidently, this would lead many to get back to cynical ways. There should be no need for that as a glimmer of hope has been restored. It is for us now to build on this hope to shape the minds of the people.

The attitude of offering anything in cash or kind for any work to be done either by a Govenmental babu or any other person is to be converted into a demeaning one. The giver should resist the temptation and the receiver should recognise that he was merely performing his duty. This attitudinal change can be brought about by creating tales of fictional heroes who desisted from taking or giving such alms. Such tales played out in the form of television soap operas, movies, comic books etc would go a long way in instilling in the minds of the young the need to flinch from this evil of corruption breeding and bleeding the nation.

The next phase would be to ensure that the heat that has been generated is not allowed to fizzle away. The people's representatives on the drafting panel would be emboldened when there is a push from the people. We should emulate the example set by our freedom fighters who participated in the Government and Legislatures giving voice to the people's voice while the movement leaders exerted people's pressure from the outside. This would clearly send a message to the political parties that the people are here for the final push.

The civilian members of the panel should ensure that the draft bill is put up on the websites for eliciting public views. These views should be made as a guide for the action to ensure that the people's representatives do not allow their respective self interests to rule over the voice of the people. To keep the momentum on the peoples' movement alongwith the electronic media should announce a list of names of persons who have given or accepted such practices on a daily basis making it clear that the watchdogs are watching. Every such movement should also identify a new crop of leaders to be bred. Such leaders should be identified from within and without the system. The Bangaloreans had once polled for clean public servants. In the period upto June one should ensure that an incentive is placed for the integrity of the persons who have rendered clean service. To this effect people shall identify such persons and place their names on the website to ensure that no vindictive action is taken against such honest personnel. Persons who refused to cow down under pressure shall be assisted by the forum in obtaining their rights. The movement should not fizzle out. The battle may be won but this is not an isolated battle but a longdrawn out war.

Will we be able to sustain the momentum or would it be a case of the corrupt cleverly stooping to conquer? The answer is with us and the ball is always in our court. Our true tribute to the nation and leaders such as Gandhi or Hazare would be in ensuring that the ideals cherished by them remain steadfast. Let us join hands to convert the silver lining to an amar jyothi.

A SOUVENIR STORY

A souvenir of a college had impressive snaps of the outgoing batches with a line under each of them. The captions were captivating. The one that caught my attention was
" Common sense is intuition and greater common sense is genius". A fine caption for the class of youngsters which had opted for logic as an optional subject.

Captions go a long way in holding the attention of an audience. There were photo contests which were accompanied by caption contests. These contests and the impressive word play inevitably takes one back to those "Tinkle " days when we had a full fledged magazine to ourselves.  Chandamama was in existence but was more a belonging of the children and adults alike. It contained stories which were more an addendum to the famed Vikramaditya and the Betaal story. The story related by the ghost would end with the inevitable question and we could literally chime from memory " Vikram tell me the answer. If you know it and keep quiet then your head will shatter into a thousand pieces" There would be only one picture and the story would be related in a flow. As against this the comic books of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle provided frame by frame movement of the characters. Visual treats left little for imagination. We were moved into a realm of relishing the art of relating a story which competed with the pictures for attention of the reader. The simple logic was that a child loves to read a book which has a picture as an added attraction.

These books took us to one more era wherein the tales across the world such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Snow white and the seven dwarfs, Rapunzel, etc charmed their way into our hearts. These books came under the Ladybird series which were small concise books with a picture on one side and a simple story line related on the other. The most read book by me at least would remain the Goldilocks and the Three Bears which had such cute little cots for each of the bears. These series slowly took us to the level of the Enid Blyton series which started with small story books and then led to the Famous Five, Five Findouters, Malory Towers, St Clares, etc. Thereafter, the age of mystery caught up with the Nancy Drew, Hardy boys, Alfred Hitchcock and the inimitable Agatha Christie.

It was after the above books that we finally reached the Haileys and the Archers. It is a story akin to Hansel and Gretel. The prized possession of a library card was motivated by a maternal uncle which soon led to having four of them . These cards have gone past the silver jubilee and the same are now more souvenirs since the library has liitle or no books of value to be read. It is more a newspaper room. The days of the mobile library and the holder being eligible to borrow any book from any of these libraries are matter of history. However, the cherished memories remain and the library tickets shall continue to be a top souvenir that I shall continue to hold for a long time to come.

KUMBLE SRINATH - A WORD FOR YOU

In the weeks that have gone by and the weeks ahead, the sub-continent's craze for the game of cricket will reach its crescendo. The desire to replicate the least expected win at the Prudential Cup of 1983 with a much anticipated victory as a gift to the God of cricket Sachin Tendulkar has only made things as much difficult. The days when Ranji Trophy matches were treasured have been replaced with manouvres for tickets at the stadia across the countries which host these gladiators. The cricketers have been reduced to auctionable lots in the name of glory while ownership in the name of sponsorship has taken over the mantle.

The gentleman's game was put to shame by the display of greed by the organisers and the elite. The cornering of the chunk of the tickets which rightfully belonged to the true cricketing fans is regrettable and has shown the whole nation in bad light. The last thing India required was a scam of this magnitude following the CWG, the 2G and S Band among a host of others. The organisers would have done themselves proud by hosting the underprivileged rather than issue passes to the unworthy elite who would anyway be able to afford the tickets. The Government officials, bureaucrats, technocrats and others who have benefited by attending the game on special passes have not done themselves proud.

A word for Kumble and Srinath who have shown rare gestures even to wild animals as well as opponents on the field by emulating greats such as Vishy. Could you ensure that not a single pass is issued to any official of the Government machinery from the next game? This would be setting the bar high for all other hosts. A firm but polite no would ensure that you hold your heads high as in the days you played the game. In the event the stadium is not filled up due to want of persons to purchase tickets- rope in the children from orphanages who are denied these pleasures anyway. These may sound idealistic but the time has come for us to set a new agenda and the expectations on both of you is quite high.

Let us remember that the credentials of this nation rests on its unique emphasis for integrity. In the last few decades we have shamelessly displayed our lack of integrity. Let the gentlemen from Karnataka begin with the gentlemen's game to restore these very ideals.

UNCLE PAI - EK AMAR CHITRA KATHA

Childhood memories came flooding back as the eyes caught the headline "Uncle Pai no more". This uncle was one of those whom we had never met in flesh and blood but had charmed his way into our hearts. He contributed immensely to various facets of our personalities which are now appreciated as positive. Through the immortal Amar Chitra Katha series he lured every kid worth its salt into the habit of reading. The pictures of the characters in these comic books inspired us to attempt the art of drawing, painting and sketching. The stories were told in inimitable style maintaining simple sentences with an uncanny sense of introducing us to new words in each comic. This was soon to be followed by the Tinkle series which brought us nearer to humour and ethics besides fulfilling our desire of seeing action.

Treading down the memory lane, I could see myself wait for that golden moment of my quota of comics which were to compensate me for the various trinkets my sister would get on pay day of my father. A princely sum would be forked out to purchase a comic or two from the bookseller. We were undoubtedly spoilt for choices. The desire would be to grab as many but the budgetary ceiling would come in the way. After deliberations which even an international convention would fail to measure upto a couple of titles would be picked up with a shortlist for the next month. Experience did not teach us that by the next month there would be fresh titles on the stands. The books would range from mythology to history. The time taken to shop these books could leave any woman to fume that too much of time was being spent on shopping. It would be easy time for our parents to do some small shopping nearby leaving us under the guardianship of the bookseller as well as the invisible hold of Uncle Pai.

The wait to return home to savour the contents of these books was too much to bear. A novel device was therefore discovered much to the trauma of our parents ( as we realise now!!!).  The comic book in one hand would be opened and the other would clasp the hand of our guardian angels. Confident that there would be no mistake made by them, we could relish the books on the way home. With two books, the choice of which title to be read by whom first was also an engaging conversation. As we now enjoy the conversation of the kids, these memories try to draw out the images of persons who were the beneficiaries of the free entertainment we provided for the folks around. Within the trek of a couple of kilometres the contents of both the books would have been devoured. This would not satiate the desire. Another round of reading had to be done in the name of eating our dinners. This was one of the habits which most elders detested but we continued undeterred. The collection of books were then bound into a volume which helped us befriend a printer near our house. Imagine this man, Babu ( much less my present age) would read the books before binding them. The charm of these books fetched us friends too. As in philately, the attempt to read the other titles which were in the possession of other contemporaries was but natural.

As time passed we came across a colleague of my father who had a bigger collection of this treasure. The manna from heaven for us was that his home was near the market. We still do not know what he would have thought of us. Muthukrishnan Uncle's home was a regular place to visit soon. His kids and we started exchanging volumes of these books. This habit though initially put us through Enid Blyton took us through the familiar growth curve of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Alfred Hitchcock, Arthur Hailey, Jeffrey Archer right upto the Dan Brown of today.

It was only a couple of weeks back a good old friend of ours dropped in home and shared with us his old ambition to own Amar Chitra Katha comics and therefore his penchant today is to only gift them. The moment he said he had started acquiring volumes of them which is the new trend, it was a mutually understood fact that the old friendship was on revival track- the reason of course the love for the books more than for the friendship. Uncle Pai had again waved the magic wand.

The books that have been savoured, relished and cherished may be many but none could come near the sense of belonging given by these treasured ones. Imagine the days when we would actually quiz each other on the facets of these books. The nearest any set of books got to the sense of this belonging were Asterix and Obelix as well as to some extent Tintin. The reach of these books can be fathomed by the fact that a youngster who is new degree holder grew upon a staple diet of the success stories(?) of Shikari Shambhu and the wisecracks of Suppandi. 

The best tribute one could pay to this legendary uncle is to cultivate the habit of reading, imagining, creating with the anchor firmly dropped in the familiar moorings of culture, ethics and morals. The ultimate tribute would be to restore the moral fabric of mankind by reaching out to the familiar and unknown at the same time. Uncle Pai is undoubtedly an eternal (AMAR) and picturesque (CHITRA) story (KATHA) in himself!!!

COMMON SENSE - LOST FOREVER???

E mails sometimes have an unknown sense of timing. Personally I am not very fond of forwards but some of them have had a telling effect on me. As I checked the inbox today the following forward from my friend found its place there quite prominently.

An Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather true.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
                          - Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
                          - Why the early bird gets the worm;
                          - Life isn't always fair;
                          - and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion..

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

                             He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
                                          I Know My Rights
                                         I Want It Now
                                        Someone Else Is To Blame
                                        I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

I found the best way of putting on notice would be to share it on the blog. The rare case of a coincidence on the very same issue rankled my brains. Yesterday, a colleague of mine was run over by a speeding car followed by a couple of vehicles who found their time more precious than another's life or limb. The irony was there was no pedestrian crossing on the busy thorough fare nearby and the closest one was also infested by the two wheelers. The obituary was there and so was the utter lack of common sense as well as the sense of humanity. The basic courtesy of pausing for a moment in honour of the departed soul was also found to be unwarranted. My friend who was unaware of these incidents had sent the above forward - a fitting one for the moment and a thought provoking one too.

May I add another line to this forward
None even bothered to spare a thought for the glorious past of the departed nor
did they contemplate the resurrection of this much wanted value - COMMON SENSE

OLDER - BUT WISER?

Shopping at malls is an experience.Live life to its full. If you have not visited a mall then well you do not deserve to live were many of the comments which nudged me to visit a supermarket in a mall. The purpose was to purchase some essentials as well as to be baptised into the mall culture lest yours truly is left in a low strata of the society. After a customary security check and wading through a sea of humans, I managed to enter the supermarket which was on par with any of the retail chains with more floor space. Chaos reigned supreme in my mind as I ventured to find the goods of my choice. Temptations to purchase was brushed aside by the price tags and the 'princely sum' I held in my pockets. Luckily, the credit card honchos could not tempt me into one lest my home would have been cluttered with all unwanted things probably!

Slowly, as I created space for myself to reach the counters of my choice, I heard the wail of a child and on looking around found a boy clad in blue jeans, a yellow t shirt and a green jacket clutching the hands of a young lad. I bent down to reach the young fellow who was well below my knee and softly told him not to cry. As I searched for a response, the young lad questioned me on my credentials. It was then that I noticed the young lad was one of the helpers at the supermarket. A small chat later I realised the boy had been lost for more than half an hour and despite he being taken around, he could not identify his guardians. Lord, blessed are the guardians of this lad. Shopping could make them forget that a kid had accompanied them. I ventured to suggest that an announcement be made to identify the guardians which the lad said had already been done. Then I told him that may be an effort should be made to announce in more than one language. He smiled and said he was trying to get the name of the lad who would do nothing but clutch the hands of the samaritan and wail.

Soon, we heard a trilingual announcement and after a good fifteen minutes later, the guardians appeared unperturbed pushing their shopping cart. The kid sprung to establish the genuineness of the claim of the strangers. While my heart walked away with the child, I could not help saluting the young responsible samaritan.

Is the attitude of the guardians of the ward the actual meaning of "cool" ? The air conditioner of course cannot be faulted for the "cool" attitude. Should the mall be blamed for such attitudes? Obviously, No. The need for the bonding over in flesh and blood than over the net or the phone is the need of the hour. Again, it is the empathy, concern and understanding that is required and not the display of emotions. Boy, am I growing too old? Maybe a poll could give the answer to the query. The other inevitable query would be whether am I growing any wiser. But this is again for the people who deal with me to decide.

DNA- A POSITIVE SALUTE

The hibernaton from blogging has done little to alter the pace of thinking. A lot of events occurred in this period but the one that really caught my attention was the India Positive campaign launched by DNA - the English daily. At a time when all insitutions in the country were denigrated and a sense of despair had crept in, the message was clear that the layman mattered the most. The media did its bit to convey the frustrating scenario in the darkest shades possible while the people who indulged in such activity only gloated over the apparent success of their endeavour to derail the ethical values. Values really matter was one of the tough things that I realised in the interim period. The neo literacy has robbed the society of basic values in life. Persons occupying seats of executive, bureaucracy and judiciary now prefer to flaunt their clout rather than seek anonymity and discharge the onerous responsibility of maintaining the pillars of democracy.
However, as DNA points not all is lost. I had the opportunity to visit the International Airport on official duty and as we were on a tour of the terminal accompanied by the protocol officer of the airport, we were politely stopped at the arrival area by a CISF jawan. Neither the badge nor the designation mattered to him. The duty entrusted was paramount and he declined permission for entry. Soon the commandant appeared. Contrary to the normal tendency of overruling a diligent subordinate and flouting the rules, he firmly stated that the area was out of bounds as per directions received. We saluted their diligence, shook hands to congratulate them for being dedicated. Our congratulations was accepted with grace.
Could we have more of the breed who have it in their DNA to know, express, explain and discharge their duties without fear or favour?