Making of CM

A tea vendor sets up a 'chai dhaba' in the capital. People starts flocking to the dhaba for a cup of chai. Immediately a rival sets up another dhaba in the vicinity selling milk with the caption ' Why drink chai to spoil your health when healthy milk is available'.

Finding the rivalry between the two vendors, a common man pitched in and started selling a special drink by mixing half a cup of chai from first vendor with half a cup of milk from the second and named it CM (Chai milk).

CM became instant hit with the masses!

Nation’s shame

It all started with planning commission’s report, that in our country those earning below Rs.32/- per day come under the category of ‘below poverty line’ implying that those earning more are not poor! This created uproar in the parliament as well as in the media. Different views were aired, a Delhi politician claimed that one can have full meals for Rs.12/- whereas one cine star turned M.P. said that Rs.5/- is sufficient in Mumbai to fill the belly. Not to be left behind,  a state chief minister waiting to be the next Prime Minister declared that in his state, those earning Rs.17/- or more cannot be treated as poor. So much concern for the poor! Can there be a bigger shame than this when a small cup of tea cost anything from Rs.7/- to 10/- and even Rs.20/- in Metros!

It is only in our country; these politicians from various states keep going abroad on a study tour to make their city Singapore & Hong Kong but hardly study anything there. These study tours are going on for years but nobody knows about their study report or implementation of their recommendations. These leaders enjoy VIP status with full security and demand all facilities not available to common man. They are even allowed to carry pepper spray & knives inside the parliament and to use them to justify their demands. No security check for them. No doubt, with such instances, the sale of pepper spray must have gone up if not anything else. Black out of parliament proceeding on important issue over TV channels is a new trend.

Prime Minister calls it Nation’s Shame but what about 2G, 3G, CWG, Coal/Granite mining scams and the recent incidence of pepper spray in side parliament or removing of shirts by some MLAs in the UP assembly  adds to the big list of shames. It can happen in this country, one day our media on all the news channels keep harping on death of a VIP’s wife in a 5 star hotel in mysterious circumstances and black out from very next day of reporting further investigative coverage!

It is here legal cases go on & on for decades without any judgment. Mercy petitions of death row convicts are left to gather dust and ultimately courts have to convert their death sentences to life sentence due to inordinate delay. A convicted film star get frequent furlough & extension by jail authorities while a common man’s family suffers in pain without their bread earner getting any such relief for a long time.

We are already burdened with the shame of swamis/ gurus involved in rape or sex scandals on one hand, sports celebrity in batting scandal on the other. Doctors involved in organ trading on one hand, nexus between builders, contractors and civic authorities on the other hand. Where will it all end and how many more shames this country is going to witness? Time can only heal but the scar remains!

New Year Compliments

Come New Year and people start thinking of making resolutions to be broken later. Till a few years back, New Year also used to bring another kind of expectations in the public. Expectations of, collecting New Year Calendars, Diaries and small gifts like key chain, pen, leather purse, fancy bags etc. from shops and Banks.

A fortnight before the New Year,  Bank account holders  used to  visit the bank branches just to enquire whether New Year calendars have come or not. Senior citizens used to be very particular to get them first. It was a matter of right to get such compliments. Distribution of such compliments used to be a herculean task for bankers as the supply used to be limited and demand for them hundred folds. Staff members themselves used to lay hands on the chunk of the supply leaving very little for others. It used to be a balancing act for the Branch Manager to please as many customers as possible keeping in view their connections & deposit in their branch. Still, there always used to be more grumbling lot then the happier ones. Senior citizens who are left out used to fight threatening the branch people to withdraw their deposits with the bank! It was difficult to convince them as to how a branch with 1000 accounts can manage with supply of just 100 calendars & 25 diaries! Staff in turn used to look up to their corporate clients for beautiful 12 sheet calendars, sweet box and other compliments.

Such expectations were not confined to banks alone. People from all walk of life while going for shopping invariably used to ask for calendars or compliments at the billing counter. Those days, shopkeepers used to keep many such gifts handy beneath their counters for distribution to discreet customers. Getting a calendar or gift used to like was like winning a lottery!

With the tight economic conditions and rising cost, most of the banks and shops have done away with this practice of distributing calendars or compliments. In fact, one has to pay even for a carry bag while shopping. Also, the practice of hanging calendars in drawing room is gradually fading away. Thanks to features like calendar/to do list/notes etc. in mobile phones, the calendars too are becoming extinct. Now these are used only to see some auspicious day for religious function or marking attendance of housemaid, supply of milk & newspapers. The charm and enthusiasm of collecting more and more number of calendars and diaries on New Year is no more visible. 

We are Law Abiding Citizen!

Prior to our country’s independence, politicians, freedom fighters and citizens alike used to break the laws ignoring the British ‘dikats’ and used to get arrested to go to the jail protesting against the British Raj. Today the entire scenario has changed and ‘We the people’ have become law abiding citizens of India unlike our predecessors.

We sincerely believe that ‘Law will take its own course’ whenever a crime is committed like rape, molestation, tax evasion, traffic violation or even murder. The first thing we do is to go underground to facilitate the police to do their duty of searching in right earnest. In their search, sometimes we take them from Gujarat to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to Haryana at Government expenses giving them an opportunity for sight seeing as well. By chance if they are able to catch us with our pants down, we tell the countrymen that we are not hiding or running away. We are very much here in the country and how strongly we believe in our judiciary which allows the law to take its own course.

As a law abiding citizen, we mow down people sleeping on a footpath and sincerely produce a dummy driver before the law to deal with. In case of rape & molestation, we blame the victim in the name of consensual sex. We do all kinds of illegal querying, constructions of multi stored buildings and shoddy land deals in benami names but when caught, blame the administration or the opposition to frame us in the deal. Being a law abiding citizen, we overcome all these hurdles with right connections at the top.

If we are politicians, it is most likely that we get a chest pain when police come knocking with arrest warrant. We usually get admitted into a hospital much before their arrival. Whenever our political party is defeated in the election, we always take stock of the situation and retrospect as to why and what went wrong but still arrive no where! If caught in ‘horse-trading’ or rigging the votes on camera, we plead not guilty blaming the very media whom they patronize.

We always show our full faith in judiciary but the moment the court verdict goes against us, all our faith and respect vanishes. We are never afraid or ashamed to go to jail because we always come out on bail or pay-roll. Our learned lawyers ensure that the case is dragged on and on. Finally, we go for appeal in higher court.

 No doubt, we have mastered the art of saving our skin through various loopholes in the system. After all, all these loopholes are part of the law and we are abiding citizens of those very laws!

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY 

‘LAW ABIDING YEAR-2014’

It's all in a family relationship

Relationship of any kind is complex in nature. As long as things are fine relationship goes well but it is very difficult to judge or predict when it can turn sour. I am not here to discuss the Behavioral science of human nature. They are far too complex to understand by a common man like me. I have only questions in mind about those relations.

There was a time when three or four generations living harmoniously and happily under one roof. The head of the family was like Godfather who used to command immense respect from each of the family members irrespective of their age. Men folks used to earn, women folks looking after household chores like kitchen, cleaning, looking after children, washing clothes etc. Every thing was shared by all equally. There was no sign of jealousy and back biting.  The head of the family had the last say in every matter of the house and every body used to listen and abide by them without any questions asked! This may be out of respect or fear, nobody bothered.  Every thing was accepted without any grouse, ill-will or opposition from any quarter.

Now, this concept of happy joint family is disappearing barring some business community where all are in the same trade to look after their business interest. The urge to go for greener pasture abroad, onset of education, moving out for jobs, inter caste/ religion marriage, need of privacy and space have all taken its toll on joint family. It has disintegrated to make way for nuclear family concept. Individualism & self centeredness has crept in the minds. While needs of family and their aspirations are going up, lack of time, zeal and initiative are taking its toll on the family relationship.

Gone are the days when during summer holidays, all family members with their children used to assemble in one place to spend quality time with others. Children used to wait for summer holidays months ahead. They all used to have gala time playing, going places, chit chatting and enjoying movies/shopping without any ill feelings towards the other. Even after going back to their respective homes, they used to be in touch with each other by way of letters.

Now when a faster mode of communication like email and Skype is available children have neither interest in bonding nor the time to be in touch barring few of their friends. The love, affection, bonding, closeness of yesteryears are no where visible now. What if they all have grown in age? It is said that ‘Wisdom comes with age’ but here the wisdom seldom works! All such relationship has now boiled down to say just ‘Hello’ or ‘How are you’ when they meet ‘by chance’ and not beyond. Sometimes not even that. They do not have any other matter to talk to. In fact, they don't feel the need to talk!

No serious issues, no differences, no fight, no arguments but still the gulf between them widened silently over a period of time.  If at all there were any unknown issues, not necessarily between them directly, those issues may be pretty old amongst their parents or even grand parents but not even known to children, the spill over continues. The bonding of childhood days becomes very weak and sometimes arrogance & ego overpowers those relations.

Today very often we read and hear that without clinging to the past, one has to move on in life for happiness but does it anyway stops one from wondering as to how in a family these relations become sore leaving several unanswered questions of when, how & why it all went wrong?

Marriage Market

“Mera yaar bana hai dulha, aur phool khile hain dil ke

Arey meri bhi shaadi ho jaye , dua karo sab milke”.

These are the lines of an old Hindi movie of 60s wherein the comedian is seeking blessings to get married early. Now we are in 2013 and situation is similar where many prospective bride grooms are struggling to get a partner of their choice and needing blessings!

 It is said that marriages are made in heaven but now the heaven is falling on bride seekers! It’s becoming extremely difficult to find a suitable match in marriage market. Many of our states like Haryana, Punjab, in North to down south of Tamil Nadu & Karnataka are facing acute shortage of brides. Situation is so alarming in Haryana, it is reported that the brides are being imported from other states irrespective of caste & creed. Down south the situation is no different and certain communities too are feeling the heat. While girls do not want to get married early, boys are getting overage. The days of ‘Khandan ki izzat’ seems to be over as the table has turned and bride side is ruling the marriage market.

 The imbalance of male to female ratio has resulted in Bride side having upper hand in certain community in South India. They are in a commanding position, wanting to know the details of grooms financial status, fixed assets, stability of job etc. even before their first face to face meeting with the counterpart. In certain cases, they also want to know if any aged people are there living with the boy (reasons are obvious). These kinds of enquiries were never in practice a couple of years back.

Not that, this was unexpected. Now, brides are exerting their rights in the bride groom selection. Not all are prepared to tie the knot with a person chosen by their parents simply because he is from known family or respected family. They have their own ideas of their life partner. Education and awareness have made them on equal footing with the counterpart. They want to decide about their own life, career and future. Majority of them are career oriented wanting to go up the ladder. They are in no hurry to get married. Many are in high position of their career and do not want to shoulder additional responsibility of running a family. Even when married, going ‘family way’ becomes a far cry.

 With the change of mindset, they have many other options like Live in relationship or prefer to remain single and later adopt a child. That explains the reason, why so many celebrities are single. Inter caste/ inter religion/ interstate marriages which were taboo a few years back is irrelevant now. In view of the tight marriage market, all options as above are being explored & accepted.

. The whole concept of marriage as an institution is undergoing a drastic change right at the moment. Awareness is the key to change and this wind of change is visible now. This change is for good, better or worse, only time will tell

Filmy Story

Those of you who are exposed to Bollywood movies of yesteryears will agree that films of those days used to be made on expected lines.  In all the family movies, the hero or heroine has to be poor. If hero is from rich family, the heroine would be from poor family or else if hero is poor, heroine has to be rich. Both will never be of same status. They would fall in love and undergo conflict of ‘Ghar ki izzat’ & ‘Samaj kya kahega’ syndrome.

If it is a suspense movie, invariably the heroine’s soul would be in white sari singing the signature song of the movie in the thick of a jungle or around an old haveli where no one lives except a crooked looking watchman with a lantern in one hand & stick in the other. Unlike rich or poor hero/heroine, the soul would never be of our hero. It has to be female only! The hero will be following the white sari clad singing heroine who keeps vanishing behind bushes or would be surrounded by thick white smoke. In all such films, our hero is able to hear the song but can not make out from which direction the sound is coming even though the heroine would be around. For a normal person like us, it is not that difficult to guess the approximate distance and direction of sound in real life. At the end of the song, the heroine vanishes leaving the hero gasping with sweat on his forehead.

Another character of interest in those films is the villain. Not exactly with 6 or 8 packs on his body but will be a chain smoker with wicked looks. He is always eying on the heroine and her father’s property. Invariably, this villain gets a chance to rape the heroine in all the movies. Alas, despite all his muscular body and strength, he is never able to tear heroine’s cloth even after several minutes of struggle. Sometimes his goons chase the heroine but they are not able to run as fast as the heroine (what a shame!). Finally, poor villain gets blow after blow from the hero who arrives at the spot nick of the time to save heroine’s izzat.

Comedian is one more character necessary to carry the film forward. He keeps appearing and disappearing on the screen like filler in newspaper. His job is to make the audience laugh with his antics and buffoonery. It is absolutely not necessary that his character has to have any link with the story. Sometimes his track runs parallel to the main film which used to end when the entire family of both the hero and heroine unites happily.

The End.