Cabinet Minister Slapped - Lessons to be Learnt

Just read the news that Union Cabinet Minister was slapped at NDMC center in Delhi by the Same youth who had slapped Sukhram.  This certainly gives rise to the question - "What has happened to the society that it has taken over by hooliganism and shed the cover of tolerance?"

Well, is that the real question that needs to be asked by us sitting in the comfort zone of our Air Conditioned Offices, Cars, Pubs or House?  I would rather say NO.  What we need to also look at is the discomfort of those from the Middle and Lower classes.  How much they have to suffer with the Price Rise, Inflation, Corruption, Red Tapism in Bureaucratic Set-up and so on?

Till what point should the society by large be patient and tolerant?  Why should the average wage earner pay half of the Salary to feed the corrupt set of Public Servants and Politicians?

It just makes me wonder that we sit comfortably in our Comfort Zone because we actually don't get the pinch of the inflation as we have that comfort / buffer amount to meet our ends.  Imagine an average person who has to make ends meet in limited amount to take home.  Just try to get your equations in place for the following amounts -

1. You pay direct income tax, 
2. Sales Tax is paid by you
3. Excise Tax also goes from your pocket
4. You pay for Insurance and there also you pay regulatory tax
5. Education Surcharge also is paid by you
6. VAT also gets added to the taxes you pay

So now when we look at the sort of taxes that we pay, 50% of our earning go back to Government Coffers as various Taxes and then the Salaries of these Public Servants and Politicians are paid from the same Coffers.  Yes we pay their Salary from our hard earned money.  And what we get in return? lets look at the various areas of in-apt governance by our Politicians and Babus -

1. Inefficient Medical Support - Most of the Doctors in Public / Government Hospitals run their own practice and have their own nursing homes
2. Improper Infrastructure - We have more Vehicle Breakers on the Roads in form of Potholes than smooth roads
3. Corrupt Government Officials - They get paid from the money we pay in Taxes and then they want us to pay them from our pocket once again to pass our files and have our work done
4. Inefficient and Inadequate Education - What does our Education System produce?  largest number of unemployed youth in the world? Yes it is what it is, the Fact is our Graduates and Post Graduate Work Force needs 6 to 10 mths of trainings before they can be productive for the organization and when organizations look for ensuring that they stay till the break-even is achieved, they say it is against the labor laws :)).  Moreover, our education system must ensure free Secondary Education for the amount of Education Cess we pay, but the Education System itself if full of Corruption, you have to pay admission fee and then some Donation for your kid to get admitted to the school for good education.  Irony of the Fate!!!

Now when we look at the various facts around us, do we think that the Government is looking at easing the pressure off our pockets?  I do not get that feel and For that matter the patience and tolerance limit just would certainly lower with time and that would result in many more such incidents.

I guess its high time for the Government to Learn from these incidences and come out to support the Society.  They need to Realize that they have been elected to serve the people of the country and NOT rule them.

Why oh why?

I often wonder when a mosquito bites us why do I think of a repellent, why a coil or HIT why dont I have the courage to question my municipality?

Why do I buy water in a bottle? Why do I purify water at my home? Does the water bill say that the tap water is only for washing clothes or having a bath? Why dont I get drinking water in my tap?

Why should I pay? a toll tax on every single black, nice looking road? Why a basic road, is not my right?

Why do I buy? an inverter or dream of a generator? Why dont I get current in my wires 24x7?

Why do we call? the private schools as public schools.. I always thought schools run by the government should be called public schools!!

Why- the cricketer? who sold the ethics of game sits in parliament or comes as an expert on sports channels?

Why someone? who is known? for beating his wife and had charges of holding drugs is a celebrity to judge dance shows and all of us watch and clap too?

Why is it that the? so called high profile tainted journalists still run public and talk shows and we all watch it...

Why dont I know? the fine on jumping a red signal or for not wearing a helmet? but am very well aware of the power of 100 rupees, the cost of integrity of most of the traffic guys across the country...

Why is a girl raped? in a roaming car in the capital of the country and all that the government says is, that girls should be careful...

Why does the trial? and judgment? of social activists take a few weeks but of Raja, Raju, Reddy needs careful exhaustive time consuming deliberations!!

Why even after killing hundreds? of people on road the blue line buses still ply on roads? Do you know any city apart from the capital of your country where the city buses crush people on a daily basis?

Why didn't we? protest on the roads when someone built elephants of stones for thousands of crores rupees in U.P., where people still dig pits to sleep or die of hunger?

Why a tainted, corrupt minister? is called to IIM and the Academy for IAS and is applauded? unstopped on his desi style?

Gliding Through the Rough Waters

It often happens with us that at times when the communication is the most important, we find ourselves in a fix. This fix could be because of various issues ranging from lack of thoughts, lack of feelings, hurt sentiments, ego issues and few other similar cases. The funniest part of all this is Specifically the ego that is the reason of our hurt and pain, but we do not acknowledge that and we do not want to budge.  This often leads us to situations where we find ourselves in secluded environment and where when we look around our own so called friend circle seems to be diminishing at a faster rate.  

Here the most important thing is to find the space for oneself in a fashion to gather ownself and identify the reason, acknowledge it and ensure that the solution to the impasse in oneself is thought of within ourselves.  We need to ensure that at such junctures in our life we keep our calm and ensure that we do not go with outburst on those who are not responsible for our issues that are driving us to the situation where we are at the verge of breaking.  

It is very important for us to maintain our composure in such situations as we often forget that our statements might hurt even the closest of our family / friends. Sometimes, if the situation at other end is also the same, there is a pretty strong chance of getting back the flakes and the relations might get into turmoil.  And when the relations get into rough waters, most of the delicate knots just open up to break the tie.  The breakage hurts more and results in us losing the confidence in ourselves to be able to trust anyone around.  

It is hence important for us to give due care to ensure that the weak and delicate ties are taken care of specifically during such tough times when we are ourselves losing the hope and trust in our own life. Who knows these weak ties might have the strength to help us glide through the toughest moments of our own lives.

Old Melodies - They Are Evergreen - II

Continuing from the previous post Old Melodies - They Are Evergreen

As I said in the previous post that the Lyrics were more situation based and were composed with some really melodious music from the Likes of -

1.     Shri Madan Mohan

2.     Khayyam Saheb

3.     Shri R D Burman

4.     Shri R C Boral

5.     Shri Pankaj Mullik

6.     Shri Anil Biswas

7.     Naushas Saheb

8.     Shri OP Nayyar

9.     Roshan

I mean the list would continue till mid 70s and post that the western influence crept in and though the musicals continued but the impact just could be the same.. Few more Good Music still came in from the aspects and touch of the Folk Music.  For Instance - 

From the Movie Hero and Sung by Reshma - 

बिछड़े अभी तो हम बस कल परसों

जिऊंगी मैं कैसे, इस हाल में बरसों

मौत ना आई तेरी याद क्यों आई

हाय लंबी जुदाई

चार दिनों का प्यार हो रब्बा

बड़ी लंबी जुदाई, लंबी जुदाई

होठों पे आये मेरी जान दुहाई 

हाय लंबी जुदाई

चार दिनों का प्यार हो रब्बा

बड़ी लंबी जुदाई, लंबी जुदाई

Another Song as Sung by Shri Manna Dey – 

चलत मुसाफिर मोह लिया रे पिंजरे वाली मुनिया

 अरे उर उर बैठी हलवैया दुकनिया

हलवा के सब रस ले लीना रे पिंजारे वाली मुनिया

चलत मुसाफिर मोह लिया रे पिंजरे वाली मुनिया

 अरे उर उर बैठी पनवरिया दुकनिया

पनवा के सब रस ले लीना रे पिंजरे वाली मुनिया

Another Song  from Movie Naya Daur and Sung By Mohd Rafi

नैन लड़ जई हैं तो मनवा माँ कसक होई बे करी

प्रेम का फटी हैं पटाखा तो धमक होई बे करी

नैन लड़ जई हैं 

Another Song  from Movie Naya Daur Due by Asha Bhonsale & Mohd Rafi

हो ओ उड़े जब जब जुल्फें तेरी - २

कंवारियों का दिल मचले -२ इंड मेरिये

ओ जब ऐसे चिकने चेहरे -२ 

तो कैसे ना नज़र फिसले -२ जींद मेरिये

Now the variations from the melody from the instruments is really lost and the more materialistic Synthesizers have taken over the adding that synthetic touch to the music and the Genre of Musicians has really be taken over by the Music Composers.....just something that sometimes really makes me feel sick of the repeated tone banks that the composers use these days....

Old Melodies - They are Evergreen

Though I hate the comparison, but when it comes to few things, I dunno but the mind itself starts with the comparison of Good, Bad and Ugly.  The various things that my mind compares almost as a involuntary reflex are - 

1. Experiences - Good v/s Bad
2. Songs and Music - Old v/s New
3. Behavior - Pleasant v/s Unpleasant
4. Expressions - Happy v/s Sad

This post however is not about the way or the reasons for which my mind gets into comparison mode, but about the logic on which my mind Compares Old v/s New Hindi Movie Songs.  Now the various attributes on which comparisons happen - 

1. Lyrics - Old Songs had quite a lyrics that were certainly relevant to various situations.  Somehow that relevance to the situations of life is missing in the Lyrics in modern times and in the New Age Cinema.  

For Instance refer the following 

Song for the Broken Heart - 

हम बेवफा हर्गिज़ ना थे, पर हम वफ़ा कर ना सके 

हमको मिली उसकी सजा, हम जो खता कर ना सके

or

कसमे वादे प्यार वफ़ा, सब बातें हैं बातों का क्या

कोई किसी का नहीं है, झूठे नाते हैं नातों का क्या 

Song for the Betrayal -

मेरी भीगी भीगी सी पलकों में रह गए जैसे मेरे सपने बिखर के

जले मन तेरा भी, किसी के मिलन कि अनामिका तू भी तरसे

Song with a Message for Life Long Support - 

कोई जब तुम्हारा ह्रदय तोड़ दे, तडपता हुआ तुम्हें यूँ ही छोड़ दे

तब तुम मेरे पास आना प्रिये, मेरा दर खुला है खुला ही रहेगा तुम्हारे लिए 

Song as Caution -  

इस रंग बदलती दुनिया में इंसान की नियत ठीक नहीं

निकला न करो तुम सज धज के ईमान की नियत ठीक नहीं 

I mean I can go on like this for ever highlighting every situation and create a list of countless songs that are equally melodious.  One can't certainly compare them from the other songs in that era.  However, when I look at the songs in the modern Indian Cinema, they are more of the songs that represent totally different Genre of Songs and certainly what I find missing in them is the concept of situation based songs.  The songs & music now a days are more of the Revenue stream for the Recording company and the Producers.  They at most of the times are so out of the place from the story-line of the movies that they simply break the continuity.

Earlier on the songs and the music used to gel in the story of the movie and the continuity was hardly broken due to them.  But now, the story does not continue in the songs, rather the songs are more of a commercial break in the movie that one can simply fast forward without any hitch to miss anything important.

Though there ares few exceptions too to my views above, but for majority of the songs and the movies, the situational songs are a history or bookish talk now!!!

P.S. - Forget that You Knew Me

Sometimes the relations can be very painful to each other.  Specifically in the case of long distance relations.  The physical distance starts creeping in the feelings and the thoughts and this starts building up of irritation within oneself.  It is hard to actually cope up with the situation and there starts the war or words between the two.  

Something similar happened in their life too.  It was his traveling job that hit their already troublesome relations. They were anyways not gong great because of his frustration of her not talking at her home about him,. Her frustration was his past and his demanding attitude or behavior.  She was young and virile and he was almost 8 yrs elder to her.  She was in dilemma whether to or whether not to, but always negated in front of him.  He got irritated with her constant negation and took off with his work and assignment to get away from her. She felt that void in her life and realized that she needs him next to him.  He on the contrary created a distance from her that would take for ever to bridge, he just closed himself in his cocoon and restricted expressing himself.

The things that were perceived to be heading to wrong way went worse with time and they started fighting on smallest issues.  And one such fateful day, she hit him hard under his belt with comments on his professionalism.  Her comment on his personal life and her comment on him as a person never had any impact on him as he knew those comments are making him know his weaknesses and work on them. But her comment on his professional life really hit him hard for his 15 years of knowledge, experience and recognition in the industry was all washed out with just one comment.  His pain grew muti-folds, all his pain ran out on his face and he just lost the last senses of his life.

The episode resulted in a drastic move by him writing a long final message to her stating his inability to help her situation, showing his gratitude to her for being around and being his support.  Though if anyone would have known their story they would have known how much both of them banked on each other.

His pain and agony was visible in his last message to her and her pain could be well gauged with the silence from her side because the his message ended with - "P.S. Forget that You Knew Me".

It was as painful for him to write that as it would have been for her to read and accept it. But I guess they both would understand it the most than anyone of us who reads or who would know their case.  I guess not every story ends on a Happy Note, specifically when the girl is not ready to acknowledge her love for the guy and the guy is dying to hear those three Magical Words.....