AAH TAAJ !!

Dear Friends,
Its been four months in Agra and I still havnt seen the Tajmahal. Well,well...before you condemn me as a workaholic allow me to share with you the fact that I DID TRY TO SEE THE TAJ. However, the experience was so frightening that I havn't since then tried to repeat the feat of valor.
Swati (my wife) and I went to savor the beauty of the architectural marvel on a holiday when, by chance, we had the day to ourselves. Just as soon as we got down from the car, we were surrounded by men brandishing all sorts of identitiy cards with 'guide' written on them. Each one of them , without exception offered to get us inside the gates of the TajMahal complex without having to stand in a queue. We, of course, turned down the offers and proceeded to enter the gate. Immediately, a gang of rickshawpullers descended upon us offering to take us to the ticket window for a fee. Well, more out of desperation to get out of the crowd of 'guides' and less out of need, we got on a rickshaw. The rickshawpuller proceeded to take us, not to the ticket window, but to a market known as 'meena baazar' from where he wanted us to purchase some artefacts from a shop he was recommending. We refused to oblige and proceeded to walk towards the ticket window. However, before we actually reached there, we were once again intercepted by a gang of 'guides' who, instead of offering us a guided tour of the Taj, were all offering to take us inside without us having to stand in a queue (which incidentally was long enough to be intimidating). By this time I was suitably irritated by this total disregard for our privacy by the 'guides' who are actually called 'lapkas' in local terms. Our holiday mood having been spoilt by the 'lapkas' and having been suitable intimidated by the length of the queue in front of the ticket window and also at the entrance of the Taj Mahal complex, we decided to beat a hasty retreat. Just as we started on our way back, we were once again intercepted by a girl selling key rings, each having a sorry looking plastic replica of the Taj Mahal, enclosed in a plastic bubble filled with some sort of liquid with glittering particles. When we refused to buy it, she practically begged us to buy one. Since it was difficult to differentiate whether she was selling or begging, we bought one of those keyrings and started walking back to the main gate and our car.
The experience, to say the least, was nauseating. It was a sorry saga of how perhaps the best known and patronized tourist destination in India is being managed. Like everything else in India, for a fee paid to a 'lapka' you can break a queue and enter the complex like a VIP. What happens to the other hapless tourists in who don't have the money to pay to a 'lapka' and are forced to stand in queue is nobody's business. The whole place is like a fish-market and the atmosphere and people there are enough to unnerve and repulse a sensive tourist. I agree that the Taj Mahal receives huge numbers of visitors every day. But that is all the more a reason to develop facilities at the Monument that make the experience memorable for teh sundry tourist. Otherwise I am sure that most of the tourists will come out of the place saying not 'Wah Taaj' but 'Aah Taaj'!

My New Book: Winning Despite All Odds

Dear Friends
My new book, "Winning Despite All Odds". It being published by Ocean Books (English Arm of Prabhat Prakashan, Delhi)and is slated for release in Feburary this year. Its a book based on my lectures and workshops as a motivator. I have tried to provide answers to questions like "I cant concentrate on studies", "I am suffering from a broken heart", "How can competition and freiendship co-exist", "What is 'personality'" etc. Its my attempt to share my thoughts with all of you on the twin and inseparable phenomenon called success and failure. Do pick up a copy. Maybe it will help.

Happy New Year

I wish a very happy and prosperous new year 2010 to all my readers. May God bless you and grant you happiness and satisfaction in the new year.

एक नई ग़ज़ल

दोस्तों,
कल काफ़ी दिनों बाद, मैं अपनी पुरानी लाल डायरी ले कर बैठा। उस में कुछ ऐसी ग़ज़लें थीं जो मैंने करीब डेढ़ साल पहले लिखी थीं । उस वक्त मैं डी.सी.एम् लखनऊ था । उनमें से एक आपके पेश-ऐ-खिदमत है:
मैं किनके साथ हूँ किनसे है मेरा राबता हर दिन,
यहाँ कितने ही चेहरों से है मेरा वास्ता हर दिन;
ना जाने कौन अपना है ना जाने कौन है दुश्मन,
इन्ही चेहरों में हूँ अपना पराया ढूंढता हर दिन;
मैं अक्सर सोचता हूँ कौन सी मंजिल को जाता है,
किया करता हूँ तय खामोश जो मैं रास्ता हर दिन;
मैं छोटा हूँ मुझे मेरे खुदा छोटा ही रहने दे,
बड़ों के दिल की गहराई का लगता है पता हर दिन;
ये माना साफगोई है खता इस दौर में लेकिन,
खुदाया माफ़ करना हो ही जाती है खता हर दिन.....

Vultures Behind Lenses

Dear Friends,

Its been almost one full month as Sr.DSO Agra. And what a month it has been! Even as I was trying to settle down after being suddenly transferred out of Lucknow, the biggest railway accident on my territory, in my career happened. On the 21st of this month, in the early morning hours, Mewar Express was Dashed from the rear by Goa Express. In railway terms, it is known as a Rear-Collision. Understandably,it instantaneously became the subject of intense media scrutiny and criticism.

I was there at the accident site within a very short time after getting to know of the accident through the divisional control (As were the other officers of the Division). But, sure as hell, the media guys were there as well almost at the same time that we reached the site of the accident. All sorts of media vans with round dish antennas mounted on their roofs soon choaked the makeshift parking created at the accident site. The reporter, photographers, corrospondents, special corrospondents etc. were practically climbing over each other to get the best (and the most damning) shot of the dead/injured. Indeed, their devotion to their duty was more than visible. But what was more visible was their complete disreagard and callousness towards the enormity of the incident and loss of human life. I heard two 'reporters' brandishing a video camera talking to each other. (they were talking in Hindi, but I have translated their dialogue into English). It went thus

The first one said "Pal look at that dead body stuck in the wreakage, next to the window"

"Yes I can see it" his friend replied

"Just try to get closer and get a good shot when it is extracted. It will make lovely footage.."

Yes, this is what they were saying to each other. It was the overhearing of this dialogue that forced me to think about the role of media in such disasters. Its an ode to the efficiency of the Indian Media that they are almost always the first ones to reach at the site of a disaster. But having reached there, are they the first ones to help? The answer to this question is a thumping 'NO'. In fact, if a person is dying of his injuries, our media persons will cover his/her dying moments and the pain in minute detail and bring you the best pictures and bytes. Most of them would love to ask such a person "sir, how does it feel like to be dying of injuries"? Even when I try, I am unable to recall even one occasion when someone from the media has come forward to help in any such disaster. All they do is to click photographs and collect bytes from all and sundry. The greater the death and destruction, the happier is the guy behind the lens of the camera and the one holding the mike. And this is precisely why I have called them 'Vultures Behind Lenses'. Media persons are like vultures . Vultures gleefully descend in a pack on dying animals and start tearing on their innards even before they are dead!! Similarly meida persons also descend on the site of a disaseter and start filling the bellies of their cameras and recorders with the choiciest morsels of the sights of the death and destruction around them without ever lending a helping hand. In fact, my qustion is that why should media-vultures be allowed at the site of a disaster if all they can do is to click photographs and criticise? All that these people do is to add to the crowd and chaos at the site. Any person who is not at the site with the intention and the means to help in the relief and restoration should be evicted from that place. In fact, it should be made illegal to reach the site of a disaster armed to the teeth with cameras and recorders but without a single vial of medicine and a single box of first-aid!! It should also be made compulsory for all the media houses sending their 'corrospondents' to the accident site to send an ambulance along with the van containing their equipments. If the media has the ability to reach its vans at the disaster site much ahead of any other responder, surely, it is a most valuable ability. It must therefore be utilized in national interest and an ambulance with every media-van should be made compulsory by means of suitable legislation and, any media house violating this law should be heavily and publicly punished!!

It is all very well to criticise others but its time the media took a good look at itself in the mirror. I am sure that if it does that it will surely see not the face of a human, but the face of a vulture.

Here is a poem that I have written. Perhaps it will illustrate the point that I am trying to make:

Beautiful Vultures

I watch those vultures,

Flying up in the sky,

Never flapping a wing,

As they soar so high;

How beautiful they seem,

From this distance great,

They glide on the winds,

As they patiently wait;

For something to die,

On the earth below,

They watch from the skies,

And they come to know...

I watch those vultures,

Descend in a pack,

On a helpless-dying,

Creatures Back;

They tear it to pieces,

With joyful screeches,

They devour it,

Their fury fuelled by its pain;

Then gently they rise,

Back up in the sky,

And seem oh-so-beautiful,

So beautiful again........

The uncomplaining Indian

Dear Friends,

This is in continuation to my earlier posts on the unethical business practices being followed in the private sector. Well to some extent the consumer is also responsible for this state of affairs. Let me give you the example of an experience that I had today. Swati (my wife) and I went out in the evening today. On our way back we felt like having some Chhola Bhatura. We decided to stop at Ritz Continental, which is one of the prestigious resturants of the city, in order to have Chhola Bhatura. When we entered the restuarant, we found that the inside of the place was hot and suffocating. Clearly, the air-conditioning was not working. The resturant was not empty mind you. In fact it was quite full, with a lot of people braving the hot and suffocating interior of the place and eating their snack/dinner in silence. I decided to approach the guy on the cash counter and asked him the reason behind the dead air-conditioning. He had no convincing reply to my query, save "it has been switched off due to some problem". Well, I told him that either he should tell me the exact nature of the problem or he should switch on the ACs. Sensing trouble, he went and switched on the Air Conditioners and, to my surprise, I found that there was nothing wrong with them. Within a few minutes, the interior of the resturant was cool and comfortable. We then sat down and had our Chhola Bhatura in peace. However, all the time I was in the resturant, all I could do was to wonder at the tolerance of our fellow Indians. I was amazed at how willingly and uncomplainingly all these people eating in the Ritz were paying for a facility that was being denied to them not because of any technical snag but due to the greed of the resturant management. In any Air Conditioned eatery, the customer pays not only for the food but also for the ambience, cleanliness, service and Air Conditioning. However, in the Ritz, today, the Air Conditioning was deliberately switched off in order to shortchange the customers and save on the power bills. The cleanliness was also nothing to write home about. But none of the people sitting there complained. Consequently, they were forced to sit there and eat an exorbitantly priced meal in extremely uncomfortable and suffocating conditions.

This uncomplaining and 'adjusting' attitude of Indians is one of the major reasons why the average consumer in India is shortchanged-even robbed-by unscrupulous vendors in broad daylight. The least that we can do as consumers is to complain when we find that the value of our money is being denied to us. In case of substandard goods/service provided to us by a vendor/service provider, the least that we can do is to educate our fellow Indians. Now, with the advent of so many networking sites, it is easy for us to share our experiences as consumers. Each of us now possesses the power to tell hundreds of others about any case of cheating by any vendor/service provider. We can even call for a bycott of such businesses who cheat their customers in order to boost their profits. Friends, I call on all of you to become slightly intolerant. Stop adjusting, Start complaining!!

Thieves of the Private Sector Continued

Dear friends,

This is in continuation to my previous post on the subject. There was a report in one of the prominent papers of Lucknow today. It was about how the insurance companies are defrauding their customers. One gentleman of Lucknow, Dr.Ram Kapoor bought an insurance plan from Aviva Life Insurance through ABN Amro Bank. The report says that the company issued him revised insurance plans without taking his express consent. In these new plans they allegedly changed vital clauses such as those relating to partial withdrawal of money after the mandatory lock-in period was over and the liability of the policy holder in case on non-payment of further installments after the mandatory intallments had been paid. The poor gentleman has now gone and complained to the IRDA.

In my earlier post, I had pointed out similar unethical practices being resorted to by supposedly reputed companies like 'Airtel' and 'Hot and Juicy'. This only goes to illustrate that the private sector in our country is extremely corrupt and prone to defrauding the unsuspecting customer. Unfortunately, the private sector and 'Privatization' have been hardsold to the citizens of this country as the panacea to all the ills relating to governance and delivery of goods and services to the citizens. The reality is that the private sector is maintaining a beautiful drawing room. However, walk into their bed room and you find that it is a seedy place with an attached bathroom full of filth. The driving force of the private sector is 'Profit' and they will try to extract their pound of flesh from the customer at all costs and by all means-fair and foul. It is the government sector that is fair and not prone to profiteering like the private sector. If you don't beleive me try giving critical areas like roads, power, ports, health, education, taxation, policing etc. to these guys. They will come to your home, bodily lift your belongings and run away with them!!!