Saturday, October 27, 2007

The judicial system

In 1991 as a seventeen year old i entered the city courts of Agra for the first time, till then my idea of a court was taken from hindi movies with Muraad as the judge and some side-kick as a well dressed advocate. I was aghast at what i saw in the court of Munsif 1, the judge was shabbily dressed and would have slept anytime had the poor single fan that was trying its best to perform a miracle been a little quicker. The advocates present were chewing gutkha, giggling and treating the court as a dustbin. The bailiff was charging Rs.3 for services rendered , and ,as i understood later, the total of this collection was distributed to all in the hierarchy from Judge Saab downwards.

After my first experience all respect for the judiciary flew out of the window and i understood why middle class individuals shudder at the very thought of entering the Indian court. I jokingly asked my advocate one day as to how many honest judges will be there in Agra( the total number was 31 if i remember correctly) and i was informed that their is just one and the advocate lobby is trying its best to get him transferred ASAP.

My advocate was an expert in under-the -table settlements and as expected he told me that the case will be decided in my favour, with a judgement written by us, signed by His majesty for a payment of Rs.12000.00. I agreed and lo and behold, the learned Judge did just that.

You can understand what respect i had for the community when i came to Delhi in 1997. As far as i was concerned, all judges were corrupt, the system rotten and all Judges should be thrown into the Arabian sea to save the country.

I was in for a shock again. I realised that while most of the judiciary is rotten at the district levels, the High court and the apex court are the saviours of the Indian judicial system. With cases like Jessica Lal, reservations to the creamy layer and many others having been highlighted off late, the faith of the people in the Judicial system has been established again to the level that most of the people now feel that it is the Supreme Court that is running the country with the total failure on part of the Executive and the people who are supposed to make the laws of the land. While I understand that the Judiciary also tends to overdo things at times, Aaamir Khans and Mallika Sherawats of the world will agree, it is still the only system in the three wings of the Constitution in which we have any faith left.
What is needed is some amendments in the draconian Indian Penal Code, swift judicial process and a need for a infrastructure overhaul of the courts. The number of civil suits pending in courts is appalling to say the least and need a quick solution. This may happen only with time, but hopefully for the country will happen sooner than later.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Effigies, Traffic Jams and Democracy

Yesterday there was a traffic jam on all the major roads of Delhi. The jam was called by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and like all others was accompanied by violence, destruction of public property and of course disruption of traffic, inconvenience to commuters to say the least. This is a unique way of putting your point across and is by and large unique to our democracy. Frankly, i have never heard of effigies being burnt anywhere else in the world(i may be wrong) than in India and that too with amazing frequency. I am sure that some creative mind thinking out of the box would like to start a new business of making good quality effigies of important politicians and make a lot of moolah out of it.

Protests of any nature are an integral part of any democratic set-up and a democracy where the citizens cant raise their voice is no democracy at all. We as a race are very argumentative and believe in putting our point across strongly. I was wondering where this form of protest actually start and realised that the cow-milk drinker Mahatma started all this, with very noble intentions indeed. The idea probably was a peaceful protest that was completely non-violent. Burning of effigies, disruption of traffic and damage to public property never formed a part of this. I was having food at a road side joint near Jantar Mantar and thought of asking some people protesting against 'americanisation' of India what was wrong if Wallmart were to come to India, after all a guy called Ratan Tata has also acquired a company called Corus, nine of the ten guys had no clue as to why they were there. Majority of the people were either the poor who were brought by buses with the offer of a good lunch and transportation or students who wanted to please some neta ji who was a part of the protest.

The sheer agony of people waiting to go to office, the ill in urgent need to go to hospital, the sheer amount of fuel wasted while people abuse the protesters is amounting to crores. I am sure that none of the people who went through the agonizing wait a Akshardham etc would have any more to do with the Ram Setu somewhere in Tamil Nadu that I have to do with the love life of Queen Elizabeth.

The number of people who go to vote decreases with ever election, the apathy amongst the middle class of anyone who is a politician is immense and these instances just add fuel to the already burning fire. No wonder someone said recently that all politicians of our country should be thrown in the Arabian Sea with their hands and legs tied for our great nation to prosper.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Childhood Pals

While I have always been extremely critical of Sanju Baba and have thought of him as just another criminal who is getting sympathy he does not deserve, the fact that a gentleman called Yousuf Nulwala and he have been friends for 35 years came as a surprise to me. How many people can claim to still be friends with guys that they met during their school days?

It invariably happens that guys who were our friends branch out later in life. This may be attributed to a number of reasons, geography, paradigm shift, fall-out due to petty issues etc. The fact happens to be that when we make friends during our school days we are neither as calculative in our relationships nor are we as mean and opportunistic as we later become.So an individual becomes our friend due to the sheer delight in the company and there is no calculations of caste, creed, religion, social status etc. Later in life we filter individuals due to these criterion and then decide whether a particular relationship is viable or not.

Also, when we move higher into either academics or professional life we get specialised in our skills as well as attitude. So as a banker while I may still like my friend, the fact that he is into trading of commodities in the Agra market may not gel with my outlook and thus there is little in common between us. Another friend of mine who has strong religious beliefs may be too boring for me now.

Does this mean that all such childhood friends get lost in time? Well, in most cases yes, but then if you make an effort and the other person is as willing then yes. The differences that were given above notwithstanding.

I am today in touch with at least one of my friends who has studied with me from class 4 onwards which in effect means that we have been friends for good 23 years now. The funny part is that in the last ten years we must not have met each other more than 5 times. Well, the fact is that we still connect. He is someone who is not my friend due to my position in the society, make sure he calls me to share good and bad news all the time. Calls me when drunk and remembers the stupid things we did in school, the girls we were horny for and I do the same. In case of some others this is not the case. The simple reason is that, in them the innocence of a relationship is missing. So you have a guy who calls you up for advice on his own professional life and puts it across as if he is asking it for another colleague. This in effect reflects on the trust that he has on the friend that has studied with him from 1978. Others our plane jealous or high headed and are just there as an e-mail id, nothing else.

In the end, I am proud of my friends which are few in number but nevertheless are there for me, always.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Shantaram

Purchased the book out of sheer curiosity and got hooked to it. One of the most amazing things that the book does is to keep your interest alive. The spiritual discussions between the protagonist and his mentor in India are amazing.

Worth a read anyday and a true value for money book.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Baba

Well this is not about Baba Ramdev, it is about the more famous baba, Sanjay Dutt. Heaven only knows why a 48 year old guy is called this but nevertheless. This is about the sentencing of Dutt in the 1993 bomb blasts case. I have been keeping track of the trial from what I could see in the newspapers. I am amused at the support that baba is getting in the country especially from the industry where he works and where his dad and mom worked before him and of course from the electronic media which has found a new cow to milk for TRPs.

What I don't understand is why should there be sympathy for a criminal? The guy had three AK-56 rifles( which I am sure he was keeping to amuse his girlfriends), 25 hand grenades( they were to used on Diwali) and a petty 9 mm pistol. This is in addition to 3 licensed weapons that the poor, holy soul kept at home. How can someone in his sane from of mind say that Baba is a criminal? I apologise for that. That baba had friends called Anis Ibrahim, Abu Salem is of course coincidental. As per the trial documents, Sanjay Dutt spoke to Anis on 11the March, a day before the blast. They were of course discussing new ways of masturbation and nothing else.

Baba when realising that all hell has broken lose asked two of his friends to seek the gun from his car destroy it and melt it to make sure that the evidence is destroyed. The melting was done to make sure that there is a Sai Baba statue made out of all the iron that came out and of course not to circumvent the process of law. Law unfortunately took its course and the criminal was awarded 6 years of rigorous imprisonment.
The country then went berserk of whether the sentence is correct or not. I feel that the fact that his sheer involvement with Anis ibrahim and Abu Salem, not to mention the parties that he attended with Dawood make him the 'enemy of the state' and he should be tried for that and not left scot free under any circumstances.

Tomorrow every criminal will plead that while i have lived a life of a good, innocent man on bail, i should be set off. What exactly are we talking about?

I feel that the CBI should even appeal in the TADA case where he has been sent off. Hats off to Justice Kode!!!!!

Death of a relationship

The death of a relationship is like the death of a loved one from a disease wich is terminal. You try your bset to keep it alive doing your very bst though you are aware of the fact that the writing is on the wall.

Its like being in an overloaded sinking boat, you are trying to keep afloat. As the boat starts to sink, you throw your ego first, then goes your self-respect,your friends are next, then your family. Its only then that you realise that the chances of the godforsaken boat surviving are nill.

It hurts, after all you did whatever was possible, but then such is life. It leads to a lot of pain and misery and you get into introspection, what was the mistake? Where did it all go wrong?

While there are no readymade answers to this question, I feel that it is again the comparison to the the dead man earlier. The man could have survived had there been an early diagnosis. Every relationship gives you tell tale signs of what it is leading to. "I love you" fifty times does not serve the purpose unfortunately.

Better to get out when you are still sane rather than waiting to die.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Agra : The city of the Taj

The amount of money that was made by Mr. Weber in creating a drama about the new seven wonders of the world prompted me to write this. Having lived in Agra for more than 20 years I feel that some expression should be made of the amazing state of affairs now.

Was in Agra for a couple of days and was happy that the city truly follows what the creators of the constitution expected, freedom. Freedom to spit gutkha wherever you want, freedom to take a leak whenever and wherever you desire, freedom to park your vehicle wherever you want, abuse anyone and everyone and no one would take offence at it. Truly amazing.

The city should erect statues of the Late Sanjay Gandhi as there is one road in Agra which is the equivalent of the Ring Road in Delhi in importance, and was created by him in 1977. The road is the lifeline of the city and the truly amazing part is that while the number of vehicles have increased by at least 100 times, the road has shrunk actually. This results in complete chaos on the road. The human being driving cant be blamed as he is still caught in a time wrap and is unaware that there is something called a 'red-light' also and of course zebra is an animal and not a traffic signal. Incidentally there is not a single zebra crossing in the city, it is useless as the human being who crosses the street expects the person driving to take care of him.

You should then have a look at the state of hygiene in the city, the smog is so high that it reminds me of the ITO crossing 10 years ago. There is so much filth on roads(wherever they exist) that you can probably die of dengue before you reach your destination. Chewing paan/paaan masala/gutkha is like people have water in other cities, of course you have the right to spit where you feel like. So much for democracy.

It is sad site to see as I have seen the city degrading itself from what it was some 10 years ago to what it is now. The cheerful city of the past has been converted to an overgrown village, thanks to the various people MPs/MLAs who have raped the city again and again. Incidentally the current Member of Parliament is known to do this in movies. Alas, he has done it to my city.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Creating a blog

This blog is the creation more of the desire to express than anything else. I am too lazy to write and would have made a good typist