It does not take an expert to forecast India’s growth

This article is in stark contrast to the news that appeared in The Hindu about an expert expressing his views on India’s growth and the many reasons cited for our so-called decelerating economic growth. (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/indias-growth-may-stagnate-says-expert/article4456948.ece). With our disoriented political system, gluttonous government, lack of zeal in making political reforms, the existing nexus between our political system with the industrial houses, shortage of adequate security, loopholes in our law and order system, the community biasness of our own people, the pessimistic attitude of the citizens towards development, and disinterest of people to participate in active politics, we surely have nothing to expect from the current scenario.  

The December rape case saw an increase in mass consciousness. It felt as if the conscience of the entire nation was shaken to the core and forced to lift itself to speak for itself. People poured out in large masses, everyone wanted to speak about the innumerable times they themselves have felt humiliated and harassed. Lips opened to argue about our ever degrading and disintegrating system, government did its best to divert the attention of the people, and people came out in the open to form peaceful protests. Time and again we see news of corruption, bribery, and depravity in our newspapers. We learn about dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. We learn about our political and administrative system being morally depraved or in a state of being so. All know in their minds that the country is not safe anymore and that the economy and administration both are on the verge of collapse. It does not take rocket science to realize where our land is going and so an expert’s comments about the stagnating growth should not come as a surprise to any of us.

Are the men listening?

Yet, another bill to counter the sexual harassment at workplace. This bill came in a bit too late, considering the fact that the perverted quality of Indian men with their traits of voyeurism proving to be a major source of misery for women was known but never openly discussed. Women, who wanted to make out for themselves in our so-called modern but sadist society witnessed and tolerated acts often involving infliction or reception of pain or humiliation. The word, ``harassment’’ is not something new, we all had and have to face it in some way or the other at some point in our lives. But, we were all deaf and mute to such acts till the worst cases of subjecting victims to horrific and disastrous conditions started pouring in. The negative part is that there has been no decline in such dreadful cases; the positive part is that these incidents saw people getting united to raise their voices. The frightful incidents involving such ghastly acts saw the young generation coming forward to shoulder responsibility in reforming the existing rules and pledging themselves to build for us a new and safe society. But despite this, there are questions that still remain unanswered. Are rules and bills enough to prevent the weaker gender being deprived of their rights to freedom and equality or are these rules enough to teach men the basic traits of respecting women as they would revere and regard their mothers and sisters? Holding the opposite gender in esteem needs to be taught in the family; no amount of punishment or no plethora of rules can substitute the moral upbringing provided by a sound family.

Hope the men are listening to the bell (aka bill) of justice!

Hope the women have learned to follow their hearts and fight back against injustice!

Naughty Nature !

It's a flower, its scientific name is "Psychotria Elata". It's colorful red flowers attracts many pollinators including butterflies and hummingbirds. So how many of you would give this flower & propose someone?

Nature has surely its own way of gifting us and setting a record using vibrant color characteristics and features second to none along with understated elegance and a refined quality of gracefulness. Deep inside jungles beyond the reach of crazy, materialistic, and ungrateful humans nature chose to give birth to this excessively wondrous creation and meticulous formation of petals that is indeed a masterpiece in this universe.

Hoarding – a common game played by traders and politicians

The political-industrial nexus is a known fact in our country and the effects viewed, reviewed, tolerated, and criticized by the common people. Hoarding, a standard business practice of piling goods and resources so that they can be sold later to customers for profit, started long back with the stocking of sugar by Sharad Pawar (sugar baron cum politician). It extended to many other commodities, onion now being the current favorite of traders. This whole practice of the traders involved in liaison with our gluttonous politicians and bureaucrats have only led to sky rocketing prices of the much-prized onion in North India. Where the prices of onions ranges from Rs. 10 to Rs. 13 a kilo during this season, the current price of onions ranges somewhere between Rs. 40 and Rs. 50 a kilo. The drive to earn more money and more power by our manipulative and overfed government has brought the common man to do away even with the most basic commodities needed by him to survive and fend for his family. Where Sharad Pawar has commented in his interview that the high prices of onions are due to the non-availability of railway wagons to transport the onions from Gujarat to the northern places in India, history forces us to think and rethink on the explanations and justifications provided by our decision-makers through the media. Sharad Pawar had mentioned in a conference of ministers, ``The current problem was because of the delay in transporting stocks from Nashik in Maharashtra. I have received a communication from Nashik and spoken to some traders. They complain that they are not getting railway wagons to transport onion to northern parts of the country.” He never mentioned the cause of unavailability of railway wagons. The factual cause of procrastination, though not discussed, is known by one and all. After all, we are Indians born with the virtue of tolerance, no matter how worse the situation may present itself to be but history has been witness to incidents where utmost tolerance has led to accumulation of vitriol in the minds of the people leading civil society and media to demand for accountability of the decisions taken and implemented by our ever-reluctant governments.