7 people from my office, including my Didi passed away in the tragedy on 23rd when our office buiding caught fire at 18A Park Street. Her body was lying on the ground for a long time and no cop came to pick her up and take her to the car. After I reached I picked her in my arms and put her in the car and then rushed to the hospital where 2 injured employees were sent.
They had been declared dead by the time I reached. But again no cop was there to ensure that they could have been admitted.
For last 2 days, I have been begging to the cops for one thing or the other - from requesting them to send someone into the building to locate the missing people to getting the release letters of their identified corpse.
Today again I requested them to allow us to enter the office and bring out any records that might have survived the fire. When there was no response, I raised noise and got the media. Some very senior officer (ACP level) said : “Don’t talk so much – be in your limits”. I am yet to understand the limit that a citizen has in this Democratic Republic called India. Are we only expected to bow down and kiss the feet of the police so that they stop harassing us?
I got some people to stage a dharna with me outside the gate of MY OFFICE BUILDING. The policemen pulled me and took me inside the building promising to take me to my office.
Once inside, they surrounded me and one guy warned : “Tumi jaano na amader koto arrangement (You don’t know how influential we are), tumi onek baje kaaj korle media ke ene (You did a very bad thing by getting the media here) aar ekhun ami tomake cheene geychi, tomaye dekhe nebo (and now we have identified you and will make your life hell)”. He called other cops, and pointed towards me - told them to remember me so that they may “take care” of me later.
Then another cop said I need to give them an undertaking that I would be responsible for my own death. I agreed but he refused to give me any paper and pen. He said it is my fault I did not get my own.
Then the first one told me he would not let me take any files out of the office since he had no way to know that I was the owner. My business card would not suffice. The fact that there were 50 other people outside who were saying that I was the owner made no difference either. He said I should go out and talk to my lawyer about it.
Then he said he would take me only to the third floor. My office being on the 5th.
Finally I gave in and they dropped me back outside, all this while also telling me that I had started a dangerous game and they would cause trouble for me.
Can anyone explain why we pay taxes to put these people on payroll? If the police can dare to threaten an educated citizen like me who knows his rights and has all the right connections in the city – that too after a tragedy of such magnitude with entire media lurking only a few meters away, I shudder at what they are doing to people in rural India.
SHAME ON YOU – KOLKATA POLICE. SHAME ON YOU.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Sunday, March 22, 2009
How we love Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi a.k.a. Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869. He is widely known as the man who catalyzed the Indian Nationalism and led us to independence from the British rule through the principles of Satyagraha (insistence on truth) and nonviolence. Hence, he is also known as the Father of our Nation - India.
Many great men - from Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela to Suu Kyi and Barrack Obama have hailed the man as someone they look up to for inspiration.
Gandhi - the apostle of peace, never won a Nobel prize for peace primarily because he was fighting against the powerful British who has significant clout over these awards selections. However, I feel that Gandhi is most misunderstood and disrespected in this very country - for which he sacrificed his life.
The Indian youth dismiss him as some stupid old man with farcical ideas about peace. They blame him for the death of extremist nationalists like Bhagat Singh, say that he in fact delayed the Indian Independence and even accuse him for Muslim appeasement, creation of Pakistan, Kashmir problems, and everything else that Congress party has done to India in the last 60 years. Gandhi is easily among the least respected freedom fighters by the Indian youth.
Indian youth perhaps never understood the greatness of the man or the depths of his principles. He was not just fighting for the freedom from British. He was fighting for bigger principles. He wanted each Indian to have equal opportunities. He wanted us to be able to live life respectfully without being servile to anyone. He wanted us to be honest and simple in our ways. And for this, he led the entire nation against the British.
As some writer put it: "While he was alive he was impossible to ignore. Once he had gone he was impossible to imitate"
While we have not been able to imitate this great sage, our political parties have never failed to gain milage from his name. In a stroke of genius, India Nehru married Firoz Gandhi, and linked her family forever with the name of Mahatma Gandhi. The Congress still tacitly makes it seem as if there is some connection between him and Sonia Gandhi.
In a very sadistic act, the government also put his face on all our currency notes. I can bet that every note is used atleast once for the very things he stood against. Bribery (dishonesty), alcoholism, extravagence, and violence. Really, if Gandhiji had his say, he would have put a crying face on the notes.
The great tamasha around auction of his articles last month was an even bigger slap on his face. If it was not enough that a drunkard "liquor barron" -Vijay Mallya won the auction, our very own congress party and government of Indian spokesperson Ambika Soni claimed that the government used Mr. Mallya to buy these articles.
Really?? Was it so difficult to fly some honest beuracrat to the auction. (Actually, Mallya bid over the phone). Could they not have requested Mr. Narayanmurthi to help out?
Gandhi has been reduced, in this country, to an old man with round face and round spectacles. He is nothing more than a smiley face now. We have forgotten his principles. We mock at his teachings.
But we celebrate 2nd October.
Many great men - from Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela to Suu Kyi and Barrack Obama have hailed the man as someone they look up to for inspiration.
Gandhi - the apostle of peace, never won a Nobel prize for peace primarily because he was fighting against the powerful British who has significant clout over these awards selections. However, I feel that Gandhi is most misunderstood and disrespected in this very country - for which he sacrificed his life.
The Indian youth dismiss him as some stupid old man with farcical ideas about peace. They blame him for the death of extremist nationalists like Bhagat Singh, say that he in fact delayed the Indian Independence and even accuse him for Muslim appeasement, creation of Pakistan, Kashmir problems, and everything else that Congress party has done to India in the last 60 years. Gandhi is easily among the least respected freedom fighters by the Indian youth.
Indian youth perhaps never understood the greatness of the man or the depths of his principles. He was not just fighting for the freedom from British. He was fighting for bigger principles. He wanted each Indian to have equal opportunities. He wanted us to be able to live life respectfully without being servile to anyone. He wanted us to be honest and simple in our ways. And for this, he led the entire nation against the British.
As some writer put it: "While he was alive he was impossible to ignore. Once he had gone he was impossible to imitate"
While we have not been able to imitate this great sage, our political parties have never failed to gain milage from his name. In a stroke of genius, India Nehru married Firoz Gandhi, and linked her family forever with the name of Mahatma Gandhi. The Congress still tacitly makes it seem as if there is some connection between him and Sonia Gandhi.
In a very sadistic act, the government also put his face on all our currency notes. I can bet that every note is used atleast once for the very things he stood against. Bribery (dishonesty), alcoholism, extravagence, and violence. Really, if Gandhiji had his say, he would have put a crying face on the notes.
The great tamasha around auction of his articles last month was an even bigger slap on his face. If it was not enough that a drunkard "liquor barron" -Vijay Mallya won the auction, our very own congress party and government of Indian spokesperson Ambika Soni claimed that the government used Mr. Mallya to buy these articles.
Really?? Was it so difficult to fly some honest beuracrat to the auction. (Actually, Mallya bid over the phone). Could they not have requested Mr. Narayanmurthi to help out?
Gandhi has been reduced, in this country, to an old man with round face and round spectacles. He is nothing more than a smiley face now. We have forgotten his principles. We mock at his teachings.
But we celebrate 2nd October.
Life...
Life is so strange.
If you took a helicopter ride over this jungle, you would never be able to figure it out. The trees are of so many varieties, so many wild and not so wild animals, all different kinds of terrain, and then crisscrossed by lakes, waterfalls, swamps....
There are so many variables in life and everything is so dynamic, it is almost impossible to figure it out.
And yet, when you walk through this jungle, it is absolutely clear which path needs to be taken. We second guess ourselves and resist that path based on the helicopter view and some vague notions about which path is better. But life presents a very clear view if we listen to it. We always know whats the right thing to do.
If you took a helicopter ride over this jungle, you would never be able to figure it out. The trees are of so many varieties, so many wild and not so wild animals, all different kinds of terrain, and then crisscrossed by lakes, waterfalls, swamps....
There are so many variables in life and everything is so dynamic, it is almost impossible to figure it out.
And yet, when you walk through this jungle, it is absolutely clear which path needs to be taken. We second guess ourselves and resist that path based on the helicopter view and some vague notions about which path is better. But life presents a very clear view if we listen to it. We always know whats the right thing to do.
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