1. Inflation: With the most of India’s vast population living close to or below the poverty line, inflation acts as a ‘Poor Man’s Tax’. This effect is amplified when food prices rise, since food represents more than half of the expenditure of this group.
2. Terrorism- I know it should have been on the top of the list however I chose it to be on the 2nd place because people are any which ways dying due to not being able to feed themselves because of the rise in price of the consumable commodities.We spend a huge amount of money on defense but where is the defense. We have been preparing for WW III for I don’t know how long. And in that process we have forgotten to spend money in the right direction.
3. Unemployment – Not a big deal in the rural areas but a huge concern for the people living in the urban areas. It seems to have deteriorated in the past 1 year but we need to go miles from here. We are no where near what a developed country should be. Unemployment rate as of now is around 10%
   
4. Infrastructure – We need around 100 CWG games organized in our country for the infrastructure to improve. After writing the last sentence, I pondered over it for a couple of seconds and this funny thought occurred to me that we would have 100 more corrupt events and millions of rupees will go into our politicians’ pockets again.
5. Indo-Pak Relation: To be absolutely frank, we have to take a stand if we really want to solve this problem. It may not be a problem for the neighboring country but it is affecting us as a country, a lot. We have enough army to defeat a country like Pakistan. At the least give the opponent something to think about before they try or think about doing something which brings disgrace to our country. We keep sitting idle and wait for their response all the time after someone takes responsibility to attack India.
6. Indian Constitution: I feel the root of all the problems is our constitution. Written over 60 years ago. Things are bound to change. We are still living in the same 60 year old world. We were a developing country then and are still a developing country. There hasn’t been any change, moreover our politicians and constitution has brought nothing but misery to our country.
7. Uneducated Politicians: We are living in a country where an uneducated/illiterate (politically) person can enter the world of politics. We are living in a state of spiritual disbelief of which our politicians are taking undue advantage. We need to get out of this situation, and pretty fast. But the concern is who will bell the cat. These people are strong and powerful because of their unlawful deeds and its hard to reverse the effects for good.
8. Division of States: If we can divide the states then it’s imminent that we would have around 30 countries within India in the next 10 years. Dividing states further was the first weakness shown by a weak leader of our country. People will demand unethical things, it does not mean you mess up with the idea of peace and forget what you are supposed to do.
9. Communal Riots: We are the world’s second largest standing army in the world. It definitely means something. But a bunch of people take over a state. Terrorize it. I am not convinced with the fact that a million armed forces can’t take down these Naxalites or any other Maoist groups. We declared them as terrorist groups but we can’t fight them. Over 30% of Indian states are affected by these groups in one way or the other.
10. Education: 40% of world’s illiterate population is from India. Nothing much to say about this one.

These are my thoughts. There are so many good things to point out. And the web is flooded with information like that but till the time we don’t highlight the bad it won’t turn into good. That’s my theory. We can’t make something right till the time we don’t believe that there is something wrong.

I was really young when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992. We did not have cable connection at our place at that time and moreover I was not concerned about what happened in this world. Now that I know all the events that happened it does not really make any sense. Believe me I had not watched the demolition video till today. I just watched it on Youtube this morning. Its outrageous and unbelievable how mean politics can be. OK Let me recall the whole dispute in short. As per the experts, there used to be a Ram Mandir where Babri Mosque was built on Babar’s order in 1527 and named it Masjid-i Janmasthan (“mosque of the birthplace”) acknowledging the site as the birthplace of the Hindu deity, Lord Rama. Ever since then both Hindu and Muslims used to worship in that mosque. But late in 18^th century Hindus were banned for worshipping in the mosque. Various Hindu and Muslim parties filed a case in court since 1900-2000 claiming the land. Then in 1992 the mosque was demolished by 2 million Hindu extremists gathered in shilanyas (stone-laying ceremony) at the disputed land. Before and after the demolition of the mosque Archeological Survey of India did some in depth study of the structure and rubble which indicated a large Hindu building existed where the mosque was. That is whole story short.

I feel a normal Indian citizen whether Hindu or Muslim would not have any comprehension problem with the verdict. Its only our political parties who will take undue advantage of the verdict and try to create social unrest in the country. And at this point of time when we have a big event (Common Wealth Games) lined up in the coming month it gives the bad elements all the more reason to create problems.

I just want to convey this message to the government that we don’t need a Mosque or Mandir on that land. All we need is peace. So make a hospital, school, library or anything on that land which will benefit all religion and community.

Recently read a news about US government asking Google to provide lots and lots of data related which is related to the services Google provides. I am sure they must be utilizing this data for get to the corrupts. And then automatically me being a typical Indian wanted to check our country’s  rank in that list. To my surprise we rank 3rd in that list after US and Brazil. Wow.. It feels great to be in a such a list. Well that’s one side of the story I was thinking. But after reading the data requests that Google received I started thinking about what would our government departments have actually asked for. Checkout for analysis after the break.

About Google Transparency : Its an interactive map of Government Requests that shows the number of government inquiries for information about users and requests for Google to take down or censor content. The interactive Traffic graphs provide information about traffic to Google services around the world. Each graph shows historic traffic patterns for a given country/region and service. By illustrating outages, this tool visualizes disruptions in the free flow of information, whether it’s a government blocking information or a cable being cut.

Below is the graph that shows the requests from Indian Government agencies to Google in the past 1 year.

I’ll leave you guys with that thought because I need to go to bed now. OK, still let me give you some perspective. Have you ever looked at our government websites. I have talked about it earlier as well. But I think the more we are so called developing the more our government is showcase that they are technically sound. I mean I am not talking about the politicians. We bloody pay some great amount of money in taxes can’t we hire some sound technical guys to handle these stuffs. Alright I think I am deviating from the topic.

OK, I was suppose to give you some perspective. Alright, I was just looking at my blog and saw an advertisement on my blog via adsense that I have setup. I did not click on the ad but copied the link to the URL. You believe me it was Delhi Traffic Police Delhi Traffic Police is advertising via Google Adwords. Anyways, then in curiosity I went to check out the website. Our government needs to accept the fact that their developers su*k.  So there were some nice presentations regarding common wealth games. I could not believe my eyes by looking at the presentation. I mean such a big country and not even one single fucking person in India who can make a good looking presentation. You don’t believe me check this out. And yeah I was in an impression since it being a website where the whole world would be browsing to look for updated information but then I saw a link to download flash player which still links to Macromedia site. Thanks to Adobe that they have redirected it to the right place.

My first visit was quite short and simple. I took a form from the information counter and submitted it to the department who takes care of all the broadband movements. I was told that I would get my phone installed at my new house in 3-4 days. I remember it was Monday when I requested for the movement. Nothing happened for the next 5 days and I kept following up with them over the phone. The reason I was given for not being able to install the landline phone was that they did not have the wire. Even after 2-3 follow ups I got the same response over the phone.

I was really frustrated and I decided to pay a visit to MTNL. It was my second visit. It was Saturday and by the time I reached, the employees were about to go for lunch. I spoke to the guy whom I had spoken to earlier over the phone. He told me the same thing that they did not have the wire and I believed this guy. Well, I’ll tell you why, I had some problems initially with my Wi-Fi router so I went to the Area Manager to complaint about it. He told me that they did not even have the equipment for new connections how can they give replacements. So I know these linemen would not lie. This guy voluntarily asked me to go to the General Manager and complain about the same. I guess he wanted the issue of not being able to serve the customers due to non availability of equipments reported directly by the customer. I also felt the need to go to the General Manager. It was lunch time now and I had to wait for an hour. I decided to wait for the lunch to get over. All the employees had already gone for lunch except one guy who was still processing bill payments. I was amazed to see the punctuality of the government employees. BTW their lunch timing is between 1.30 PM to 2.30 PM.

While I was waiting I noticed some things which really shocked me and broke my heart. At the very same moment I had decided to write this post. It’s just that I was not getting time to write.

Ready!  Here we go!

• As soon as I entered the Building there were public restrooms and I could smell them stinking even from 20 meters.
• There was a water cooler but It was not working.
• There were around 40 Air conditioners in that hall but only 2 air conditioners were working. And those which were working had MTNL employees sleeping in front of them in their lunch time.
• In the hall around 30% of the people were sleeping on the chair and they all were MTNL employees.
• There were public displays of new products which had products displayed from ancient time. I wonder if the information on those displays has ever been changed from the time they were installed.
  The place was so dirty, people had spat here and there on the floor and walls.
• I somehow kinda started enjoying my wait. I went to the first floor to check if there was anyone sitting. And you won’t believe there was not even a single person sitting on the seat. It looked like I have come to an abandoned building. I peeked into some cabins but there was no one.
• Then I noticed something. A group of around 3-4 ladies were sleeping on the floor and tables during the lunch. I was so surprised to see that.
  I could have picked anything from there and no one would have asked me anything because no one was there.
• There were so many things, I have even forgotten half of them. Broken Window glasses, Out of order PCO etc.

Wait was over now. I headed to the General Manager’s cabin. I explained my situation to them. He made 2-3 calls. He also called the same guy who had sent me to him. Lineman told him the same thing. After 5 minutes I realized that he was no General Manager because there was another cabin where it was written General Manager on the door outside. Then I came to know that this guy was just an assistant to  the General Manager. I was also wondering how a General Manager of MTNL could sit in an open room where 3-4 people were also sitting. Anyways, he was helpless as well. He discussed the matter with his colleagues and asked me to meet the Area Manager.

I went to him and told him that I would have to get my broadband connection disconnected if MTNL does not have wire to install landline. Seriously why do I pay for the services when I do not get to use it. He wrote down my number and assured me that he would take care of it.

2 weeks passed. Nothing happened. Still no wires.
3 weeks passed. And I kept following up with the lineman almost every alternate day. Finally last week I got my phone installed and working.

But now, no broadband

Now I had to accomplish another mission of getting the broadband working. After so many calls with customer care and the lineman, I have finally been able to get my broadband connection up and running today.

I am not criticizing the services of MTNL here. Their services are superb, but only till the time its working. I have this connection for the last 2 years now and I did not face any major issues with it.

All I wanted to share with you all was that I think We can do good. We have good hardworking people in Indian Government offices as well. Its just that they have to come out of their comfort zone of being a government employee and start justifying their salaries.

BTW this was all about MTNL Rohini Sector 1

I am sure you would have had same kind of experience with some Government Offices. Do share it via comment.

People may use the power for wrong doing but I think we can start with some intelligent and responsible people like Bus Conductor, Shopkeepers who are sitting on a road watching it all the time. A Pan wallah on the Traffic Signal.

I am thinking of creating another website where I urge people to submit such pictures where people are captured while breaking the law. And our law enforcement team has to just identify the person and fine him/her.

Think about it. Bye !

Let me know your thoughts by posting your comments.