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.

• In India, tobacco use causes nearly 40 percent of all health problems and 50 percent of all cancers, according to Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss.
• In India The tobacco contributes to 56.4% and 44.9% of cancers in men and women, respectively.
• India ranks 2nd in smoking cigarette in top 10 countries.
• Nearly 17 percent of students in India, aged 15 and under, use some form of tobacco, mainly cigarettes, according to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization.
• India has the largest number of oral cancer cases in the world which is due to tobacco.
• In India, an estimated 120 million people smoke. But the problem is that smoking in India is on rising side unlike Western countries.
• Cigarettes compromise just 19 percent of tobacco consumption in India however Bidis account for 53 percent, according to the Bidi Smoking and Public Health report by the Union Ministry of Health and Family.
• Around 1 billion Bidis are sold in India every year. Bidis contain more tar, nicotine and other toxic substances but less tobacco than traditional cigarettes.
• Tobacco smoking accounts for 82% of Chronic obstructive lung disease in India.

It’s been around 1 year now that Indian Government imposed ban on smoking in public places including government and private offices. You might not know but this act was in existence for 2 years before our government thought of implementing it seriously. Seriously, imagine. We create acts, put them in files, make a pile out of it, put them in a room somewhere and then don’t look at them for 3-4 years. Then suddenly you wake up and try to enforce everything. And I’ll tell you some facts about this so called smoking ban in public places today. Well, I think I don’t really have to tell you anything as most of you already know it to some extent.

Alright let’s first discuss what the ban exactly is. As per the government, no one is allowed to smoke in public places including public transportation and public offices etc. As per the rules, smoking is banned in shopping malls, cinema halls, public/private work place, hotels, banquet halls, discotheques, canteen, coffee house, pubs, bars, airport lounge, railway stations. Public places cover all government, private and public sector offices as well. I work with an MNC and believe me there people adhere to the regulation. People go out of the offices for smoke. Earlier employees could smoke in the office premises but ever since the smoking ban everyone is prohibited to smoke inside the office premises. Also, any employer found to be letting its employees smoke inside the office premises are supposed to be penalized. Moreover I think people working with big MNCs in India are mature enough to understand what it means for our country. We tell clients coming from abroad that there are restrictions on smoking inside the premises, so we don’t want them to see us smoking in there.

Alright, that’s the rule now lets see how is our government who imposed the ban is doing about it. You remember me visiting MTNL office, I saw employees smoking inside the building. Well, that was not it. I shave seen many more government offices with people smoking inside the offices. But today was the height of everything, I went to a government office today (would not want to quote) and saw employee smoking in the building that too on his seat as well. And the head of the office was also smoking in the office.

I just want to understand why has it always been like this? Why do we citizens only have to follow all the rules? Why the people who create the rules, don’t have to adhere to them.

And believe me its not the only thing which is wrong these days Things like these keep happening in our country. It has been in existence in one or another form with each and every government department of India. For example, Delhi Police does not need any helmet while driving on the road but they want each and every rider in Delhi to wear helmet and don’t miss a chance of not giving ticket to the rider if he/she is not wearing the helmet. Similarly they want everyone to wear seat-belts while driving even if the traffic is not even moving. Every government department you go in, you’d find yourself on the verge of having an argument all the time. People don’t really seem to take their jobs seriously.

I am not able to understand the mentality of our government employees as in why do these people behave like this. I mean its good that you are sitting there in a government office but aren’t you suppose to work. Yeah, let me not just start that. I’d need an entire book on that just one post won’t be enough I guess.

Don’t know when would we be free, free as in FREE…! The ultimate question is should we try and ban these things from selling or should we ban smoking of cigarettes. ?

Some interesting reading about tobacco and smoking.

• Avoiding tobacco adds 20 years to the life of a teenager.
• In India, 900,000 people die due to tobacco related diseases per year.
• Tobacco smoking accounts for 82% of Chronic obstructive lung disease in India.
• Tobacco indirectly causes lung tuberculosis. Prevalence of TB is about 3 times as great among the ever-smokers as among the never-smokers. The heavier the smoking, either cigarettes or bidis, the greater the prevalence of TB among smokers. Mortality from TB is 3 to 4 times as great in ever-smokers as in never-smokers.
• About half of the teenagers who use tobacco will eventually be killed by it (about a quarter in middle age and a quarter in old age).
• It is estimated that India as compared to any other country will have the fastest rise in tobacco related deaths each year.

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.

Is there any organization that keeps a record on these ? Is there any body that maintains the information about them ?

You must be wondering why I am asking this. Well there are various reasons.

First, I am 1000% percent sure there is no database for such information, but still to keep the things open I am asking you all. If there is any then I would like to check it out.

Second, I am neither in favor of these kind of people nor I am against them. I just want to know how many of people are there in India who are expert in making fool out of the world. That too in mass, in public and open.

Third, Is there any track of their property. Are we going to ever touch them. Would we even make any rule and regulation for them or they would just keep fooling us. I understand its up to us whether we get fooled by someone or not. But at least when are robbed then there should be some kind of justice to the people. I know Police is there. But is there any preventive control.

I have asked so many questions and frankly speaking I don’t have answers to any of them.

What do you guys think ? Do you support these babas ? Do you think we should have a control body for them?

One more thing. Just a food for thought, How many temples do we have in India ? I can have a track of Mosques because there is a body behind that which controls of building new mosques without permission. Its not like you put a Lekshmi Ganesh statue on someone’s property and start praying there for 10 days and then it becomes a public property. That place can not be demolished and the funniest part is that our government supports it. There is an act I read somewhere which prohibits to demolish any temple in India. Bloody hell first get an act in place which controls building them. If we dedicate and build a temple for every god in India, just imagine the land acquired by temples in India keeping in mind that we have over billions of Devi-Devtas.

Anyways, If I assume it happens and we have all the stadiums ready to organize the games. Though our government has to do a really good job here to crack this nut. What if the people of India are not ready. We are overlooking this part. We have not even considered this factor yet. There will be a huge number of foreigners coming to Delhi and Indian tourism will get a drastic boost during September till December 2010.

I feel there are certain things that we need to take are as Indian citizens. People who are coming from other countries will not be familiar with our countries, so we will have to make sure we help them as much as we can. China was ready for Olympics a year ago from the actual event and we are running late.

Today I am just asking to you remember these 10 things which if done properly would definitely make our country better in terms of hospitality and people coming from other countries will also look at as developing country not under developed.

Give Shelter : As per Indian Government, Delhi is going to be short of accommodation for at least 6,000 tourists coming to Delhi. I urge every Delhite to make sure if you know someone who is coming to see Commonwealth Games then ask them to stay with you at your house if possible. Otherwise it will really be shameful to not to have space to stay for them.

Have some Generosity : You might have seen it already when people come from the western side of the world in India they are being overcharged by Indian people. To a certain limit its acceptable. But when people coming at this large scale I don’t think it will be required to do that. So I would urge you all Indians to not to promote such things. If you see some auto rickshaw or taxi driver or any shopkeeper overcharging the foreigners, please go help them.

Keep your city Clean : Don’t just pee and spit anywhere, I know many of you are reading this would not come under that category, but just think about it. Our government has spent millions in creating places for emergencies like these. I wish we had a rule for penalizing anyone who is found to be spitting on road. And anyone not following it would be charged 500 Rs on the spot. And mainly those Gukta guys, I just can’t explain it. So, guys please mind your tongue for 2 months at least.

Learn to behave : We by nature are very generous and hospitable, but only for Indians and our brothers. We need to show this hospitality to everyone who is coming to our country. This is the only way we can show our hospitality to the world and people who would come and visit our mother land. Remember ” Athiti Devo Bhava” There might be people who are coming to India for the first time and would expect everything to go right.

Help National Security : We saw terrorist attacks in mumbai and delhi this year and last year as well. Mumbai Blasts, Delhi Blasts etc. I am not sure what our government has learnt from it. But I want you to help avoid these kind of mishaps. Help our Security professionals to keep our country safe. I would request you all to report anything you suspect.

Follow traffic rules : Better late then never, what is this. I don’t understand. Who is late, what is never. I don’t know. All I know is I am getting late and if the traffic signal is not working then I am not going to wait. Please, don’t don’t do this. Don’t show that we don’t have traffic manners. Indians need to understand that traffic rules are not meant to be broken only, then are suppose to be followed as well. Its OK if you wait for 2 minutes and let other pass. If you notice, in hurry you spend 15 minutes standing on the signal because you stuck everybody on the signal. Don’t drive rash on roads during the games.

Respect their cultures : We might see people coming from various countries and cultures. We need to learn to respect their cultures. Their way of living will be different. In western culture display of public affection is not bad but in our culture its not suppose to be a good thing. We need to come out of this conservative ideology and start behaving like a developed country. If we need to be a Developed Country.

These guys aren’t over yet. They still wants to waste our money. I am not in favor of these kinds of missions. As stated earlier I want our government to invest in Indian Infrastructure. Build new Railway tracks, build new airports, build better roads; I mean there are millions of things that our government could do. Our government just simply wasted 81 million $ which could have been utilized in a better manner.  It does not matter whether we spent lesser money compared to what others have. All that matters is that we did waste money. And what is bothering me now is that our government is not ready to learn any lesson from this.

“The mission is definitely over. We have lost contact with the spacecraft,” Mayilsamy Annadurai, Project Director of the Chandrayaan-1, told PTI. He said the mission had almost completed its scientific objectives. “It has done its job technically … 100 per cent. Scientifically also, it has done almost 90-95 per cent of its job,” said Mr. Annadurai.

What job are we talking about here. What did ISRO Chandrayaan achieve. I am not sure. Can someone throw some light on the achievements of our ISRO Chandrayaan mission apart from some pictures being taken from it.

The mission was built to be failed. Its been proven now.

The situation is getting worse day by day. The crime is taking its toll. No political party seems to care about the citizens of India. Everybody is playing the blame game.

I believe India would have gone miles ahead if we had saved the leaders like Rajiv Gandhi. We need young blood to lead India, not 70 year old man who can barely walk on his feet. We need to come out of our 500 years old mentality that only old men are experienced. We are living in 21st century where what we are learning today, none of our politicians would have even dreamt of doing. Forget about learning, 80% of our politicians would not be graduate even.

We need educated young people who understands the dynamics of today. We don’t need people who are 70 years old and does not even know where to invest and services to provide to their citizens.

I don’t want to elaborate on this. I think you have understood what I am trying to say.