Total Pageviews

Monday, 27 June 2011

Lokpal Sense Nonsense

I am not one to be comment on recent happenings or on politics in general but the recent Lokpal Bill has forced me to pen down my few thoughts on it.
I would be the last person who would want this Bill to fail but being the skeptic that I am especially when it comes to the way my country is being run, I am sorry but I seriously do not see it going anywhere.
Indian constitution has been amended some 96 times as compared to the American Constitution whose numbers are much less, so the drafters had the sense that the constitution will be required to be changed with time which is good but has that helped us in anyway. We still have instances female foeticide, honour killings and rape so our efforts to empower the women seem to have gone in vain.
The forest Rights Act, 2005 says that the tribals are the owners of the forests they provided they meet a few criteria laid down by the act still we see Vedanta, POSCO projects being cleared by MoEF subject to some restrictions which any Indian citizen will vouch can be approved once a 500 rupee note is handed over to the clerk, so there goes the Forest Rights Acts.
In similar ways go the other such as Coastal Zone Management Acts etc. so on what basis do you think that the MPs will be willing to share with us their black earnings, after all they are not your usual run of the mill MPs, they hold quite a criminal record in their name and who will investigate them? IPS officers? The force itself does not boast of very clean officials.
All these ministers, CMs, PM (I am sorry Dr. Singh but seeing your absolute inadequacy in running the country efficiently and keeping mum to all the atrocities going around everyday just makes you a party to it as well) are here to do nothing but suck every ounce of blood from us. After all, what happened the night of black Saturday is not unknown to us, that night can be compared to nothing less than the Jallianwala Massacre.
I sincerely hope that everyone proves me wrong, and the Lokpal Bill is more of sense than nonsense but somehow I am not convinced.


Sunday, 12 June 2011

Since I have, as yet not figured out how to put caption under my photographs I am writing a description of the photographs here.
The first 12 pics are of the place where we lived. We lived in a small institute away and when I say away I mean far far away from civilization. It was a decent accomodation but I do need to mention that the loos did not have any flushes, but none of us really cared about that. We had amazing food cooked on a chulha ready whenever we had to leave, be it 6 in the morning or 8. Though the people there tried their hand at North Indian food but not to much avail, but it's the thought that matters right!.
Then comes the pics of our first hike. God! was it thorny out there! We started out at 8:30 am in the sun. The thorns really slowed us down as they would hook into our clothes and skin and some of them had some amount of poison in them which discoloured our skin. After sometime the narrow walkway we were walking on also vanished, we were left with no guide as to the trail whatsoever. But we had work to do, so on we trudged, with the sun making it no easier and all we had was grasses to hold on to and to save us from falling down, though there was little possibility of that happening as there were so many thorns, we were sure that if we fell we will probably get stuck in them some five feet below us. At 12:00, after 3 and a half hours we reached our destination, had some food there did our work and then started our walk downhill which proved to be more treacherous than the uphill one. Finally at 2:30pm we reached back. But the work was not over as yet as as soon as we reached we were asked to take a bus to Kodaikanal, so at  4:30, after packing our stuff we were off again. But buses are not that easy. After waiting for an hour, a bus comes but with people hanging outside it we decided against that option and took a taxi instead.
Reached kodaikanal, Sacred Heart College at 9:30 pm and were welcomed by some especially disgusting south Indian food. The pic comes after 4 hike pics and 6 bird pics, boy! was it creepy. I am generally not afraid of the dark and do not have a wild imagination but all alone on an entire floor in this place did give me goosebumps, but that still did not stop me spooking others around me. Will tell that story later. First the rules of this place- No talking loudly on the phone or otherwise, absolutely no noise after 9 and no joining of the beds.
It was spooky to the extent that people used to go together wherever they went at night even if it was just to get water. With the loos being on the far end of the corridor and absolutely no light to show the way and the wooden floorboard reaking under my feet one day I decided to go to the downstairs bathroom as atleast there was a light on there. And for this reason I rechristened the place as Bhoot bangla. But two good things !  my room had a skylight and slanting roof, so I never had to get up and open the door to realize whether its morning, just look up.Man I wanted to live in such a room. And awesome birds and you should be there to listen to the concert they hold in the morning. The 6 bird pics mentioned above are Kodaikanal Birds. An interesting fact about them is that some of them are found in the Himalayas and then in Palni Hills and not anywhere in between.
Then lastly come the pics from our second hike, though not as hard as the first one and not thorny at all this was fun too. I fell in love with the moss covered trees over there, hence you see a lot of pics of moss. Also saw a snake there and some of the lucky ones saw a Hornbill. Alas! I wasn't in them. This was where I realized i have some of an uncomfortable feeling around heights, but that isn't going to stop me from climbing to the highest point now is it? This hike was our last day of the trip which we thoroughly enjoyed and every little imperfection just contributed that much more to the memories.
Hope you enjoyed reading it as I did reliving those memories while writing.

Tamil Nadu trip