तुम और हम.......एक नयी सीख.

तुम  देर तक रोती रही हो ......और अगर मैं कोई हंसाने वाली हरकत कर दूं तो तुरंत ही हँस देती हो.

और हम, अगर किसी पर ग़ुस्सा आ जाये, तो ग़ुस्सा उतर जाने के काफी देर बाद तक ग़ुस्सा होने की एक्टिंग करते रहते हैं.

बचपन कितना सरल होता है.

Random Thoughts

सब झगड़ों का मूल है, अपने मन की सोच.

सोच बदलकर देख लो, मिट जायेगा रोष.

ग़लती हो ग़र मुझसे तो, हर दंड स्वीकार है,

पर आपका चुप रह जाना, ये तो अत्याचार है.

अपेक्षा और उपेक्षा ....

झगड़ों के प्रमुख कारण हैं.

दूसरों से आदर्श होने की अपेक्षा,

और दूसरों के मनोभावनाओं की उपेक्षा.


लोभ, निराशा, क्लेश, द्वेश,
आलस्य तुझी पर निर्भर है.
क्यों औरों पर क्रोध करे है,
दुश्मन अपने भीतर है.

Few Random Thoughts

सबसे भीषण रोग  है,  अगर   लगे  आलस्य.
सब गुण, सुविधा, ज्ञान भी, हो जायेगा व्यर्थ.

क्रोध   दूसरों  पर   करे,  शांति  भस्म  हो  जाय.
जो अपने पर क्रोध कर, तब improvement आय.

Some couplets for my little one

तुम आयी हो जीवन में, बन मेरा अभिमान,
छोटा  सा  आकार  है,  प्यारी  सी  मुस्कान


हँसना, रोना, जगना, सोना, मुस्काकर आ जाना पास
मूल्यहीन   है   सारी   पूंजी,  जो  पाया  है  ये  एहसास

तेरे छोटे-छोटे हाथ पकड़कर
सुकून पाता हूँ मैं,
तुझे तो सिर्फ चलने का सहारा मिलता होगा
पर ..... तेरे साथ फिर से,
बचपन जीता हूँ मैं

तुम्हारी तोतली भाषा के ये शब्द,
निरर्थक नहीं हैं मेरे लिए
तुम तो जानती हो कि.........
मैं समझता हूँ इन्हें.

 

 

नन्हे-नन्हे दाँत तुम्हारे, नीचे दो हैं ऊपर चार,
हंसी तुम्हारी देख-देख कर, मैंने पाया है संसार


छोटे-छोटे हाथ तुम्हारे,  मुझे  दिखाते  स्वप्न  बड़े,
जीवन जीने की अभिलाषा, पहले इतना कभी न थी


तुम्हारा, बिना किसी बात के हँस देना, बार-बार, दिन भर, किसी आश्चर्य से कम नहीं. मेरे लिए. और तथाकथित समझदार लोगों के लिए. हम तो किसी हंसने वाली बात पर भी नहीं हँसते....आसानी से. हमें हंसाने के लिए तो कोई विशेष बात होनी चाहिए. serious रहने कि आदत,  चार किताबें पढ़े होने का अंतर्भिमान, या शायद चिंतित रहने कि आदत. ये सब रोक लेती हैं मुझे दैनिक व्यवहार में तुम्हारी तरह हंसने से. पर जब मैं तुम्हारे साथ हँसता हूँ........सब कुछ भूलकर........बच्चा बनकर......तो ऐसा लगता है कि .....ये संभव है......मेरे लिए भी.

 

किसी शायर कि बात याद आती है......

 

बच्चों  के  नाज़ुक  हाथों  को,  चाँद  सितारे  छूने  दो.

चार  किताबें  पढ़कर  वो  भी,  हम  जैसे  हो  जायेंगे.

राखी का सूत

राखी का सूत हूँ मैं

मृतप्राय मानवता का

विशालकाय दानवता का

पतितता के विजय का

पावनता के पराजय का

वस्तुत्व के उद्भव का

व्यक्तित्व के पराभव का

पूजनीया के पतन का

शक्तिस्वरूपा के दमन का

जीवित सबूत हूँ मैं

राखी का सूत हूँ मैं II

संस्कृति के विस्मरण का

सहृदयता के छरण का
भौतिकता के विकास का
प्राचीनता के परिहास का
संबंधों के समापन का
मिथ्यावादी अपनापन का
भोग के उर्वरण का
त्याग के मरण का
बिलखता सबूत हूँ मैं
राखी का सूत हूँ मैं II

तब से ......... अब तक.

तब मिलने की व्याकुलता थी
अब बिछुड़न की यह ज्वाला है
तब जीवन रंग गुलाबी था
अब तो वह दिखता काला है
तब मन लगता था प्रियतम में
अब तो दिखती मधुशाला है
इस क्रूर काल के कटु कदमों के
नीचे दबता जाता हूँ
तब से अब तक के जीवन के
स्मृति चित्रों को दुहराता हूँ ll

सरि तट की रेती पर हमने
जीवन के चित्र बनाये थे
उन चित्रों के सच होने की
तब मन में आस लगाये थे
अब वर्तमान में चित्र वही
जलधारा के आहार बने
अपने विचार वह स्वप्न वही
पीड़ादायी तलवार बने ll

तब जीवन पीयूष कलश सदृश
अब यह लगता विष प्याला है
मेरे मधुवन की क्यारी में
किसने विषधर को डाला है ?
निश्चय ही समय तुम्हारी ही यह
कष्ट दायिनी क्रीडा है
तब से अब तक की स्मृतियों से
अंतर में उठती पीड़ा है ll

असंभव का विशेषज्ञ - Specialist of Impossible

चिर समय से जो अंधेरा
इस जगत से जा न पाया
कोटि सूर्यों के किरण को
जिस तमस ने है हराया,

बुद्धि बल से युक्त मानव
के गमन को रोकता जो
स्वप्न पंछी की उड़ानें
भुवन में अवरोधता जो,

आदि युग से प्राणियों को
जिस विषय का ज्ञान न था
हर सपने को सच करने की
सक्षमता का भान न था,

हर पराजय की वजह के
ग्रंथ का सर्वज्ञ हूँ मैं
असंभव का विशेषज्ञ हूँ मैं,
असंभव का विशेषज्ञ हूँ मैं,

भाग्य रेखा भाग्य को
अबतक दिशाएं दे रही थी
भाग्य रेखा को दिशाएं
दे सके वह शक्ति मैं हूँ,

स्वप्न जो देखा कभी पर
प्राप्ति का साहस नहीं था
कल्पना वो सत्य करने
का अटल संकल्प मैं हूँ,

राह जो अबतक नहीं था
स्वप्न सच को जोड़ता जो
मार्ग वह निर्माण करने
का अनत उत्साह मैं हूँ,

प्राणीमात्र की सीमाओं का
विस्तार कारी यज्ञ हूँ मैं
असंभव का विशेषज्ञ हूँ मैं,
असंभव का विशेषज्ञ हूँ मैं,

It’s Indian railways again!!

I have expressed my fondness for Indian railways in the past. I have fond memories associated with railways. And browsing the web, I find that there are many fellow Indians sharing the same feeling.

However some suggestions this time:

Should we have a separate railway budget?
A railway budget separate from the general budget started in 1924 because the railways then formed more than a third of the budget. Many people argue that now since the size of Indian economy has increased a great deal, why should we just follow history? Why have a separate rail budget??
I have a counter argument. We should have separate budgets for all important ministries. Let the Rail, Highways, Power, Higher Education, Urban Development, Agriculture …. ministers present the annual budgets and future plans of their ministries and the Finance minister should just cover the remaining expenditures and allocations at the end. This way, all the ministries will come under public scrutiny and be more accountable.

Now something about making money.
Assume you have a 1000 kgs of Gold. And you know that the gold prices are at the peak. What will you do? The obvious choice is to sell it off and cash in. Our rail stations and trains have several lakhs of feet-fall daily. Is it not a great place to earn money from advertising? We see some ads but there is potential for a lot more. And only additional money can solve the problems with Indian railways.

Here is a workable solution: Lease out the ad space to different advertising agencies zone wise. Let them be independent to sell the ad space and finally railway ministry can pay them a certain percentage of the money made by them. Different agencies in different zones will ensure competition and the contract can be reviewed based on performance.

Here are some pics to end the blog:-

The Good:





The Bad:

Media

I often hear people complaining about irresponsible media.
I just now opened Times of India website to get some examples of the above and I got plenty. Here are some:
After headlines about Lalit Modi, Sania-Shoib marriage, we have the following:

You're irresistible!
Singles prefer dating hotties
5 dating charms that won't fail
Can suspicion kill a relationship?
Bebo turns a teacher
Salman, the new Mogambo
Where's Maanyata, Sanju?
Juhi prays for brother
Pics: Uber hot Neetu Chandra

And I did not copy all such links.
This is the newspaper having largest daily circulation in paper and one of the largest hits on the web.

We talk about how there should not be any “guidelines” and “regulations” in a free market economy. Let the organizations do what is best for them financially. But India is NOT a free market economy. We have laws censuring TV and media. Why, then we allow our media to be so irresponsible about nation. Do the above listed items qualify as news?

In my opinion the media should “repeatedly” show various poverty related news, farmers suicide, un-education, un-employment, condition of schools and colleges, why the colleges are producing so many not-fit-for-employment graduates, national security related issues and so on. There are no dearth of issues. The media should remind the public again and again about such issues so that people will be aware. And if that happens, there is a good chance that many of them will keep that in mind while voting.

I am not saying that only problems should be highlighted. The media should also have sections featuring achievers – not only Nilekanies, Birlas, Ambanies but thousands of small scale achievers. Why don’t they have articles by a school teacher or a small time businessman sharing there experiences and difficulties faced. But they will not. Because they are “financial” institutions whose sole aim is to make money. That is why most of the news published these days are “paid news”.

I hope a revolution happens by bloggers, at least for the net-savvy Indians highlighting the “real news” and “real issues” of the nation. Amen!

Election Manifesto: The Missed Points

The most “important” way for “inclusive growth” and “upliftment of the oppressed” in India is Reservation. All political parties believe so. But in spite of all pro-quota parties and their luminary and visionary leaders, there are still many areas “untouched” and I think they also should be considered for reservation. Here is a list:

1. Seats in Indian railways and Air India should be reserved for (15% for SC, 10% for ST, 30% for OBC, 20 % for Minority). After all, these casts have been oppressed by the "upper" casts for centuries. Isn’t it?
i. Any train passing through Maharashtra should have 50% seats reserved for “Marathi Manoos”.
ii. Similar thing will be considered for other states in due time depending on the level of voilent protest they do.

2. How about a reservation in Indian cricket team with the following rules:
i. The posts of captain, coach and vice captain will be alternately held by SC, ST, OBC, Minority and General category player.
ii. No two people among captain, coach and vice captain can be of the same cast at any given time. (This is to ensure that “proper representation” is given to all sections of society.)
iii. The playing eleven MUST consist of 2-SC, 2-ST, 3-OBC, 2-Minority and 2-General category players. In addition, BCCI will file a petition to ICC to increase the number of on-field players to 12 so that another player from ex-defense personal or ex-freedom fighter son category can be accommodated.

3. The planned man on moon mission of ISRO MUST take people from all casts & sections of society in the above mentioned percentage.

4. The posts of PM and ministers should be reserved.
PM – OBC
President – Minority
Defense Minister – ST
Finance Minister – SC
HRD Minister – General (So that Arjun Singh can hold this post to "ensure" proper implementation of the above “policies”)
Etc.

You can add many more points to this list. I just started it. Now we should make sure that all our political parties include this in their election manifesto.

Is Raju Running the Govt. of India?

Govt's aam aadmi bill may be inflated: CAG

Who says Satyam’s fraud was a one-off case and it is not a representative of India or India Inc? Today’s headline in ToI says:

Punching a hole in the UPA government's campaign of Bharat Nirman and other flagship schemes, its official auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in a report released on Friday that the government had been overstating the expenditure.

The news of Rs 7,800 Cr scam by Raju & Co. made such a hue and cry across media, and rightly so. But this news of over 51,000 Cr rupees was not discussed anywhere. Within 1 hr the news was buried in the archive pages of ToI website. This shows that the difference of expectation of public and media from the govt. is so low even in the election year. Even a fraud of 51,000 Cr rupees does not get enough attention.

The report further goes:

Over Rs 51,000 crore was allocated for these flagship schemes in 2007-08 which got transferred to the bank accounts of NGOs, autonomous bodies and district authorities. However, the government has told CAG that it was not aware of the actual expenditure by these organisations.

Raising an alarm, the CAG said money often remained unspent in the accounts of these implementing agencies. Kept outside government accounts, they were beyond the purview of any checks and balances of the Centre.

The report also pointed out how the Social and Infrastructure Development Fund (SIDF) — created in 2006 for funding initiatives such as the employment of physically challenged, insurance cover for rural poor, etc — was diverted to unspecified programmes like celebration of 150th year of the First War of Independence and towards grants to various cultural organizations.

The government had transferred Rs 6,500 crore in 2007 and Rs 6,000 crore in 2008 to the SIDF. An examination of Rs 3,500 crore expenditure under this account by the CAG revealed that at least Rs 1,500 crore in 2006-07 and a similar amount the following year was diverted to celebrations and giving aid to NGOs and other expenditure rather than creating infrastructure.

Pointing out how the government had been diverting funds intended to provide subsidies to the rural “aam aadmi'', the CAG report said of the Rs 20,000 crore collected under the Universal Service Obligation Fund between 2003-08 towards subsidising rural telephony, only Rs 6,000 crore was spent; the remaining amount was not there in the fund.

Surely, our government is taking lessons form corporate India.

A Response to Media

Here is my response to the article SATYAM SCAM - POLITICS, MEDIA & LIES by some Ahmed Ali Shaik at the IBNlive.in.com.

Ahmed,

After reading “your version” of Satyam’s story I strongly feel that there should be “specialized” media people to cover specific issues rather than, say, asking a fashion journalist to cover a sports event.

I least bother to reply to you as an individual, but since you have published this blog at a public website, it is likely to be read by many. So here is my reply:

Note: I have quoted Ahmed in Italics and my responses are in regular font.

Disclaimer: I am a Satyam employee. But this reply is in the capacity of an individual, this is no way an official reply from Satyam.

Interestingly, Jan.11 was a Sunday and both the press conferences were held at the same time at 12 noon. This may be just a coincident.

I do not find anything “Interesting” about the press conferences held on Sunday as It was a hasty situation. It may be an off day for you guys but FYI people working in an emergency situation do not take off on Sundays.

This raises a suspicion that either DGP SSP Yadav lied to the Chief Minister or YSR was lying to the media. Whatever is the truth, the statements about the Satyam case started with lies?

Aren’t we used to politicians lying in our country. So another common thing, noting “interesting”.

The new board members too were not behind making tall statements about the Satyam Computers. Soon after their appointment, they started giving an impression that Satyam was a genuine company, with genuine employees, genuine clients and genuine revenues.

I find you as the first person doubting whether Satyam is a genuine company, with genuine employees, genuine clients and genuine revenues. It is not a difficult task for a media person to establish that with around 53000 employees available to testify. But it will require little bit of work and will kill the scope of your “sensational” comments.

If they are right, then there should be no doubts that Ramalinga Raju siphoned off Satyam's money from company's accounts. But sometimes their tone matched with Raju's claims.

It is sad that I have to remind a media person that it is not the question whether anybody or Satyam board has doubt or not, but no official comment can be made when the matter is under investigation.

On the day when Public Prosecutor told Nampally Criminal Court that Satyam's headcount of 53,000 was not genuine and there were over 10,000 fictitious employees, Ramalinga Raju issued a statement through his lawyer saying that the headcount figure of 53,000 was correct.

I can understand the lack of information of the public prosecutor in this matter in the first few days. But now that the issue has been confirmed by the board, that there is no inflation of the headcount and it remains close to 53000, there should be no reason to keep raising it. Can’t Raju, as an individual, make a statement if he has not done that particular thing?

This statement raises a question as to why did the board confirmed that 'prima facie' headcount was correct without even waiting for the reports of 'independent investigation process'. Are they trying to defend Raju? There are several other questions that deserve answers.

Simple, because negative media coverage hurts the employee moral, stock value and customer confidence. So the board can not wait. Was it that difficult to understand Ahmed?

Within a week after their appointment, new board members started praising Satyam. Deepak Parekh even claimed that Satyam has receivables of Rs.1700 crore. Exactly three days after his appointment, Parekh claimed, "The company on its book, as of today, has a large amounts of receivables due, if these receivables come on time, on due date, the company has adequate liquidity, the loans against these receivable are minimal. But we have to get the numbers authenticated and verified." How did he know about it within three days after his appointment and after spending just 6 hours in Satyam's campus?

It may be difficult to understand to you. But for a competent and empowered board it is possible.

In the last one month the new board met six times and to my understanding, it did not take any major decision.

Oh, really? I sincerely advice you to start reading news papers. That will help.

There were some reports saying that Satyam has added 15 new clients in January.

Wrong. To my knowledge, it was not about addition of new clients but about signing of new contracts with the existing clients.

The board has also appointed some independent auditors to restate the company's accounts. But the question is how will those agencies do the restatement? All the documents, even computers, related to Satyam's finance and accounts departments have been seized by the CID, SFIO and SEBI and nobody on behalf of Satyam approached these agencies for a copy of seized documents. No body knows since when the accounts were being fudged. So what will be the basic criteria that will be adopted to restate the accounts? On what grounds, the company's assets and liabilities would be ascertained? How this company would be valued which would facilitate its sale?

That is not impossible. Though I do not know what is actually happening, I will give you two examples:
i) The sensitive data are not saved only in a few local computers but there are provisions of data replications, to avoid accidental loss of data. So I do not believe that the new auditors do not have or are not allowed the access to data.
ii) Anybody aware of the business model of IT services companies knows that the accounts can be re-stated with the help of the clients who paid to Satyam for their products and services over the years.

There are many more points on which I differ but cannot clarify due to lack of time and patience. However, I agree with you that the fraud is one of the most serious in our history, the culprits should be punished what they deserve but not sure whether they will be due to the blunt criminal justice system in India, our politicians are most opportunistic in nature, there is a possibility of political involvement etc. But this, in no way discounts the professionalism Satyam employees have shown in two decades. Satyam employees are no different than employees of other IT companies. And by the way, Satyam’s new CEO is AS Murthy and not VS Murthy as repeatedly mentioned by you.

Slumdog is Trash

I fully agree with the views expressed by Amitabh Bachchan and director Priyadarshan about Slumdog Millionaire.

I do not comment about its cinematic value, but this movie is poised to do a lot of damage to the Indian image globally. With all the awards and nominations, it is sure to get a lot of international audience. And all those who do not know India will believe that India is like the way it is shown in that movie. It took two decades to change western perception that India is the land of Sadhus and snake charmers. And this movie will wash some of that efforts.

Why do we need to change west’s perception about India? Because we need business, collaborations and nevertheless the global education. We were under developed, and we still are. But there is a lot of difference in India of 50s and 60s and India of 21st centaury.
But I wonder why is that westerners like the poor and slum image of india and not the better (realistic) one.

Here is what Priyadarshan has to say about this movie.

Some excerpts:

' 'Slumdog Millionaire' is nothing but a cheap trashy mediocre version of those commercial films about estranged brothers and childhood sweethearts that Salim-Javed used to write so brilliantly in the 1970s. And please quote me clearly on this. If the Golden Globe and Oscars committees have chosen to honour this trashy film it just shows their ignorance of world cinema,”
'I saw the film with a mixed audience at the Toronto Film Festival. The Westerners loved it. All the Indian hated it. The West loves to see us as a wasteland, filled with horror stories of exploitation and degradation. But is that all there's to our beautiful city of Mumbai?'

A Thought

"Mind is an attribute of an individual. There is no such thing as collective brain. There is no such thing as collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act – the process of reason – must be performed by each man, alone. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach. No man can use his lungs to breath for another man. No man can use his brain to think for another. All functions of body and spirit are private. They cannot be shared."

--Ayn Rand “THE FOUNTAINHEAD”

Hope

"Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend, hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."

-- Red, in "The Shawshank Redemption"

It indeed, can drive a man insane, but is not it a good thing? I have seen many talented people living in mediocrity. All because they have lost hope that something great will happen in their lives. Whereas, a person with hope of a good future will WORK towards that good future. And chances are s/he will reach the destination.

So, any day I would prefer being or behaving insane for working towards what I hope rather than being disappointed and hopeless. Whether I achieve what I want or not is something I can not control alone. There may be other factors. But one thing is sure, work, like energy never gets destroyed.

And by the way, watch “The Shawshank Redemption” if you have not already done so.