The Suicide, that wasn't!

After repeated failures, his morale met the same fate as that of a sea wave reaching the shore. While turning the pages of newspaper, though reluctantly, pictures of big politicians visiting house of a student who had recently committed suicide caught his eyes. After reading the whole story he came to know about hefty compensation paid to the family of the deceased student and various proposals to institute awards in his name. I didn't get what I deserve even by fighting against all odds and he gained so much by surrendering to the circumstances. Cowardice is being worshipped and bravery is being stamped with failures repeatedly. He got lost into the vacuum of the sky contemplating his journey of life.

Mesmerized by the name and fame earned by surrendering, he too decided to try his luck into life after death.

"Why did you end your beautiful life prematurely, my son?" A strange voice awakened him from his illusory life.

"Because I wanted to earn name and fame, which I couldn't do despite my best efforts. But who are you?" He enquired

"I am the prime mover my dear." The invisible source of voice replied,"I am here to gift you the realization."

His mind was too confused with the events to comprehend the situation. "Do you belong to historically oppressed class? Do you have great struggle story so that your death can make news worth selling?". The voice interrupted the toxic silence.

"No, though I belong to upper caste my father hardly earned enough to afford both bread and butter. I have had tough time in childhood to get the textbooks. I had to ask my seniors for the books. I started teaching tuitions in my college days the help my father financially....."

"No, no my son this is not struggle in Kalyuga. Today struggle means that you are born in a caste which is recognized as oppressed caste irrespective of current economic status. You may go to the best school, college, with best of coaching and books to your service but your life will be labelled as great struggle because some hundreds of years ago your caste was backward."

"That's very unfair", he murmured

"Yeah, every unfair thing is fairly fair in Kalyuga. Ok now tell me do you belong to the community one which can constitute significant vote bank?"

"Yeah, " he said in excitement;" I belong to the religion which constitutes 80% of the population....."

"Ohhh! You are so innocent my dear child." He was interrupted again," electorally important community is the one which is in minority and can be easily projected as victim. Since you belong to numerically dominant religion, you disqualify from earning attention."

"So, my suicide has gone in vain?", he asked in frustrated voice

"I have full sympathy with you, but since you belong to general category you have the least importance in your society. Your struggle is really great, you have the one of best intellect, and it is the failure of the system that you still don't matter."

The darkness of silence engulfed his hopes of getting name and fame after committing suicide. His heart was racing like a sprint runner, he was sweating profusely in anxiety. His life was a failure and his death also proved to be non mover. He kicked in air in frustration.

"Ouch! Can't you  mind your legs during your sleep."

This familiar voice interrupted his journey into death. After stupor of few seconds he smiled and said, "sorry darling."

A nightmare showed him the futility of his dream of suicide.

Odds of odd even

Finally Delhi government's much hyped odd even trial ended. Initially there were many hoardings, audio-video advertisements asking people to follow odd even and now there are big hoardings thanking people of Delhi for complying with the said program. The first beneficiary of this policy seems to be advertising industry. It is undoubted fact that Delhi is one of the most polluted city. Causes of such high level of pollution are complex ranging from climatic conditions to traffic congestion to industries. Traffic congestion in Delhi despite of world class metro services is due to lack of last mile connectivity, increasing proportion of upper middle class and consumerism. Odd even policy has been poorly thought without backing of scientific reasoning as far as pollution is concerned. If government is serious to tackle pollution then it should take steps to pull people towards public transport rather than pushing them into public transport. Let's analyse impact of odd even policy with respect to traffic congestion, public transport, politics and pollution.

It can not be denied and should not be denied that traffic congestion came down to some extent during first week of January 2016. Heavy penalty of 2000 Rs for violation has been responsible for this to significant extent. I have not seen any enthusiasm among car owners to follow this rule. However traffic congestion increased in the second week as people got settled with the policy by means of car exchange, getting CNG stickers and even number plate tampering can't be ruled out. This decrease in traffic congestion helped exempted categories like VIPs, CNG cars, single women drivers, bikers, commercial cars and people having two cars. Therefore this policy got thumbs up from certain sections of society who got benefit of the policy without sacrificing luxury.

Rush in metro trains was unprecedented especially in the first week. Supporters of this policy commented that rush is not alarming. Their definition of alarming isn't clear. It seems they are waiting for casualties to label it as alarming. Further there is need to find out impact of odd even policy on business of auto rickshaw and taxi industry. If people leave their petrol cars at home and travel in diesel run taxis then it will increase the pollution. Also personal cars undergo regular servicing and are less polluting than commercial vehicles.

Politics has been main beneficiary of odd even policy. Various campaigns especially TV add showing a person in muffler is blatant violation of SC guidelines. It shows self promoting attitude of Delhi government. Further during initial days of odd even media theatrics of going by bicycle, e-rickshaw was performed. If Delhi government is serious about leading by example then why don't its ministers, officers use these means throughout the year. Also false non-scientific data production claiming reduction in pollution has been cheap measure to mislead people. Also it has been equated with Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, forgetting that latter is concrete 5 year program including public participation, building toilets, solid waste management etc. Yeah in terms of money spent on odd even in 15 days it might exceed budget of SBA for 15 days for whole nation. Therefore odd even policy seems to be means to make political ends not to curb pollution.

Now coming to the most important aspect that is pollution. Data from Delhi pollution control committee suggests that there has been no significant effect on pollution during implementation period. Following is data of ambient air quality index comparing 13 day period of odd even and 13 days without odd even. Sundays being odd even free day have been included in non odd even days. Therefore based upon following data it can be concluded that there has been no reduction in pollution after odd even.

Date	PM 2.5	PM 10
1-Jan-16	600	976
2-Jan-16	397	566
4-Jan-16	613	978
5-Jan-16	331	707
6-Jan-16	370	890
7-Jan-16	550	1030
8-Jan-16	197	381
9-Jan-16	91	445
11-Jan-16	282	817
12-Jan-16	282	576
13-Jan-16	442	648
14-Jan-16	252	428
15-Jan-16	161	266
Average	351	669

  

Date	PM 2.5	PM 10
24-Dec-15	454	630
25-Dec-15	262	450
26-Dec-15	796	912
27-Dec-15	374	527
28-Dec-15	283	410
29-Dec-15	326	1019
30-Dec-15	351	874
31-Dec-15	450	627
3-Jan-16	230	807
10-Jan-16	236	615
16-Jan-16	218	427
17-Jan-16	321	541
18-Jan-16	302	588
Average	354	648

Now let's examine the consequences of odd even is made permanent. People who can afford will new cars. It won't be difficult for a Mercedes owner to buy another Honda City. People those who can not own new car will go for second hand cars which will definitely be more polluting than their new cars. Further those people not affording second hand cars will go for motorcycle and so on. Also there will be hoarding, black marketing and misuse of CNG stickers. In long terms this policy will increase number of vehicles not otherwise.

Now coming to constructive solutions to tackle the problem of traffic congestion and vehicular pollution. Strategy should be two pronged. First people should be pulled towards public transport by providing last mile connectivity. DTC bus routes should be improvised, frequency of metro trains. number of coaches should be increased. Auto-rickshaws should be governed in better way. It seems being a vote back auto drivers are protected by government and given a free hand to loot, and harass. traffic police should be proactive in curbing such loot. Further e-ricksaws should be promoted. E-Rickshaws have social, economic, and environmental benefits. Second prong of strategy should be to deter people from using personal cars by increasing parking charges, congestion charges. Also use of no-entries, one ways be made to tackle traffic congestion.

Also phased transition from BS-IV to BS-VI norms be made to reduce emission. CNG cars should be incentivised by provision of low parking charges, subsidy in taxes etc. All commercial taxis should mandatorily be converted into CNG cars. 

Environment is collective responsibility. It is unfortunate that pollution control has been reduced to theatrics and political gimmick. It takes away the seriousness of the issue. I hope that government will take a reasoned decision with respect to environmental pollution.

Poverty of sense

Pathankot is very unfortunate incident and loss of life of jawans is regrettable. However seeing celebration of Modi haters, terming it a new low in Indian politics would not be exaggeration. It seems that opposition is overjoyed with this incident and they want to capitalize on this issue politically. There may be ideological and political differences in democracy but national security should prevail over all such differences.

Some people are terming it a complete failure of intelligence, foreign policy, and some have gone to extent of doubting capacity of Indian armed forces in handling terrorists. For example one leading news daily published an editorial saying that it is taking too long for armed forces to tackle POORLY TRAINED terrorists. Such irresponsible comments not only demoralize the forces but also exposes your complete failure to understand the issue.

Pathankot has many positives to embrace and many lapses to rectify. I will put down my observations in following paragraphs.

Firstly it was one rare instance when our Intel input was bang on and also army and NSG was not mobilised accordingly. This preparedness has definitely minimised the loss. However obsessive haters don't see this positives. Compared to Mumbai attacks 2008 a lot of improvement is observed. In 2008 we were completely caught on backfoot. It took hours to mobilise NSG.

Secondly our jawans successfully protected strategic assets. Probably it could have been the reason for delay in elimination of terrorists. Armed forces avoided unnecessary risk to life and resources.

Thirdly loss of life has been minimised. Every loss of jawan is painful. But tactical expertise of armed forces minimised loss of life of jawans in direct combat. First 4 lives were lost in assault by terrorists and one jawan died while diffusing bomb. If it was not tactical expertise, loss might have been more. We should credit our forces for it rather than demoralizing.

Further no civilians were harmed. In airbase there are families of air force personnel, schools etc. Our armed forces ensured safety of civilians residing inside airbase.

Next positive aspect is candid confession by defence minister about lapses. It shows gvt's insight and willingness to improve upon. Let's hope that gvt acts on this front and it is not repeated.

Pakistan has agreed to cooperate to fix the masterminds in contrast to previous instances where it took years to convince pak about role of pak based organizations.

Lapses are in policing and patrolling. Firstly BSF  shd wake up and look into causes of frequent cross border infiltration. Border management is one thing that needs urgent attention.

Further Punjab police shd accept its laxity. VIP culture of red/blue beacon car is also responsible for it. Had these cars not been exempted, terrorists would not have sailed freely inside Punjab. Also it is reported that Punjab police did not give appropriate weight-age to kidnapped SP's information.

Poor media management has been another issue. Many news channels kept on running live commentary with visuals of sensitive areas and critical tactical decisions. It was complete abuse of freedom. Also by questioning capability of forces it tried to demoralize.

Further relating it with Modij's pak visit is moronic interpretation. No such training in guerilla warfare, arrangement of arms and ammunition, precise planning is not possible to be done in 6-7 days. Therefore saying that these attacks are retaliation by not peace loving factions in response to PM's Lahore visit is idiotic.

In this time of crisis let's support Indian Armed forces and the trust them. They have protected our territory in last 68 years and they are capable of doing so in future. Sitting in AC chambers and sipping alcohol doesn't make one strategic expert. Let the armed forces do their work. They are in better position to analyse and the act.

Lastly on the issue of India pak talks, talks can't be suspended forever. It is the best time to talk to Pak. But we should talk terror first. Its only when terrorism and terrorists are fixed then territory, trade and other issues arise. Yeah by territory I mean PoK not J&K.

नव वर्ष,
नव संघर्ष,
मुबारक हो।

नयी तारीख़,
बनो सांसारिक,
नया दिन,
रहो खुशदिल,
पूरी हो सब,
मनोकामना तुम्हारी,
यही है,
कामना हमारी।

आप में,
नव चेतना,
नव ऊर्जा,
का संचार हो,
खुशियों की
बौछार,
एवं दुखों का
संहार हो।

नव वर्ष,
नव संघर्ष,
मुबारक हो।

कालचक्र

हे 2015,
तेरे कुछ दिन हँसा गए,
तो कुछ रूला गए,
कुछ मुस्कराहट में हुए नशीले,
तो कुछ आंसुओं में हुए गीले,
कुछ दिन मैं पर्वतों पे खेला,
तो कुछ ने रसातल में ढकेला,
कुछ ने गुलाबजल में भिगोया,
तो कुछ ने काँटों को चुभोया,
कुछ ने गैरों से मिलवाया,
तो कुछ ने अपनों को पराया बनाया,
यूं तेरे हर दिन की अपनी अलग कहानी है,
कही-अनकही, सुनी-अनसुनी, जानी-अनजानी है,
अाज तेरी हर कहानी इतिहास में दफन हो जानी है,
जाते-जाते हर साल की तरह,
तू भी दुनिया का दस्तूर सिखा जाएगा,
इस जमाने को आईना दिखा जाएगा,
कि कभी दिल खोल के जिसको प्यार देते हैं,
एक दिन उसे भी दफन कर देते हैं।

Global Warming--is future of earth in safe hands?

In last few years the world has witnessed erratic weather patterns including extremes of draught and floods, hot waves and cold waves. Global warming is seen as the major culprits behind such unpredictable phenomena on "climate change". Experts have predicted that temperature of earth is going to rise by somewhere between 4-5 degree Celsius at the end of twenty first century due to green house gas effect. Many questions arise in the light of above facts. What is Global Warming? What is Climate change? What are its impacts and ways to prevent it? And the most importantly, why should we worry about all these at all when none of us would be alive at the end of this century? Let us try to answer above questions.

Continuous endeavor to make human life comfortable has been the story of human civilization, let it be discovery of fire, wheel; domestication of animals, settled agriculture etc. In the above series industrial revolution marks the transition into modern era of mechanization. Industrial revolution and subsequent developments caused exploitation of natural resources on large scale. major source of energy has been fossil fuel. Also forest lands have been cleared to accommodate the needs of increasing human population. In this race of development "nature" has somewhere been left behind. As Gandhij has said "the world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed ;" the nature started reacting to our actions through "climate change".

Climate change is result of increasing temperature of earth's atmosphere that is global warming. Green house effect of various gasses released mainly because of fossil fuel consumption is cause of rise in temperature. Also, clearing of forests have diminished the natural sequestrates of carbon di oxide, the major green house gas. Apart from climate change global warming has potential to cause melting of glaciers, rise in sea levels and subsequent flooding of coastal regions. These physical phenomena have grievous effects on human civilization.

The climate change has resulted in increased frequency of disasters in the forms of floods, cyclones, draughts, hail storms etc. Precious human lives are lost, costly infrastructure is damaged and large amount of finances are needed to restore the normalcy. Increasing spells of draughts have caused failure of crops especially in regions exclusively dependent upon rain water for agriculture. Further, with increase in temperature, many tropical crops are feared to fail as resultant temperature will be outside the physiologically acceptable limits for the concerned species. Thus climate change poses challenges towards food security.

        Reasonably large populations are in coastal regions and small islands. Rising sea levels due melting of glaciers because of global warming threaten submergence of these regions. There is risk that these parts will be wiped out of map if global warming is allowed to progress at current rate. Along with affecting human civilizations, rising sea levels and temperature pose risk towards marine flora and fauna due to change in osmolality and temperature of water.

     Apart from long term effects of global warming and climate change, irresponsible exploitation of nature poses many short term and imminent threats. Pollution, especially air pollution is one such threat. Worsening quality of air has caused increase in prevalence of breathing problems and increased the risk of lung cancer. Soil, noise and water pollution are also posing threat for human civilization and nature. Further since fossil fuels are limited, their exhaustion is another threat we have to tackle.

Global Warming should be seen as global warning and urgent steps should be taken to dampen the rate and reverse it in future. We can not despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings. Climate change may not affect badly during our life time but we need to protect the earth for our future generations, because they have equal rights over it as we do. We are the last generation with real opportunity to save the earth.

        What are solutions to the problem of global warming? Solution lies in shifting away from conventional sources of energy, increasing forest cover, increasing energy efficiency etc. This is not the responsibility of an individual, a country only but of the whole world. Recognizing the responsibility, the all nations have agreed to take appropriate steps under aegis of United Nation Framework Convention on Climate change. Under UNFCCC negotiations Kyoto protocol was finalized and entered into force in 2005, and developed countries had pledged to bring down their emissions of green house gases by five percent of nineteen ninety levels by 2012. Many conferences have taken place but no desired, satisfactory roadmap has been agreed upon. Divide between developed and developing nations is the major roadblock towards such agreement.

      Historically, developed nations have reaped the benefits of industrial revolution and thus share major responsibility of causing global warming. Developing nations want developed nations to bear the burden of mitigation of climate change while developed nations want equal sharing of burden of such actions. Mitigation efforts incur reasonable burden on economics as clean energy mechanisms require capital investment and research and development. Further alternative sources of energy like solar, nuclear, wind are costly to start with as compared to traditional fossil fuel. Developing countries lack enough resources to finance mitigation technologies. On these premises of historical responsibility and economic burden, developing nations want developed nations to adopt major role in reversing global warming.

     Recently concluded agreement at Paris gives some hope as the world leaders have agreed to common responsibility of capping the rise in global temperature by less that two degree Celsius. Diplomatic efforts of developing nations and efforts of environmental activists have compelled developed countries to understand the adopt differential responsibilities. Under Paris agreement every country is supposed to finalize national emission targets and external monitoring mechanisms to verify national efforts. There is hope that national leaders will make reasoned decisions with respect to national targets.

    Developed countries should help developing countries with technology and resources to shift away from conventional fossil fuels. Also efforts should be made to increase forest cover. Research and development should be promoted in increasing energy efficiency and international collaborative efforts should be made in this regard. Technologies should be developed to sequester carbon di oxide into rocks and utilize it for industrial purpose.

     National and international leaders may debate and discuss and finalize broad roadmap for mitigation of global warming. However, individual is the ultimate unit of nation, human civilization. Every individual will have to understand the responsibility towards environment. Every individual has a role to play. We should use energy very judiciously as it will reduce strain to certain extent. Further we should contribute in increasing forest cover by planting trees as much as possible. We need to refrain from luxurious facilities like ACs, private cars as much as possible. "We belong to earth, and future of earth belongs to us". Our behavior today will determine survival of our future generations. If we understand our responsibility then definitely future of earth is in safe hands.

Sale

देश में लगी है सेल,
जहां सब सामान बिक रहा है,
बिक रहा है इंसान,
इंसान का इमान बिक रहा है,
बिक रहे है नेता,
नेताओं में बेईमान बिक रहा है,
बिक रहा है गरीब.
गरीबों का सम्मान बिक रहा है,
बिक रहा है प्यार,
प्यारा मेरा हिंदुस्तान बिक रहा है,
देश में लगी है सेल,
जहां सब सामान बिक रहा है l