A clarification before I get into the subject: I am not against IITs and IIMs. They are wonderful institutions and I respect the handful who get into these institutions. The IITs and IIMs have not failed the nation. It’s the nation that has failed the core idea behind these institutions.
Society
Please Do Not Litter – Waste bin just 1 minute away
One of the big problems in Indian society is the lack of civic sense. This manifests in various forms, one of the most common being the way in which we litter and convert roads and neighbourhoods into garbage bins.
The common argument is that the administration isn’t doing its job of keeping the city clean. However that argument has no substance. We spit on the roads, dispose plastic, paper and even daily household garbage by the road side.
How can India possibly become a developed nation if we do not fix these basic flaws in our society? It’s not just illiteracy and poverty that’s the cause, as I have seen even rich and supposedly well educated people do the same things.
I feel the solution lies in a change of our prioirty list. Development issues always must be top priority. Basic things like water supply, clean and habitable cities, power supply… should be the only things that matter at election time.
Anyway, garbage dumping is a big problem on the road beside my building. We try telling people to stop and instead use the corportation bin just a minute away, but that hasn’t really worked. So I have now created and put up the following posters on the road. I am hoping that this will lead to some improvement in the situation.
1) Poster 1 (English) – Please Do Not Litter (WASTE BIN JUST 1 MINUTE AWAY)
2) Same mesage in the Marathi language
Thank you Pune Municipal Corporation for the nice new footpaths
It feels good to finally be writing something positive about the Pune Municipal Corporation. Have you noticed the number of new footpaths being created and the resurfacing of some old ones?
The new footpaths opposite Deccan Gymkhana and BalBharti on Senapati Bapat Road, the resurfacing of the Bhanadarkar Road stretch are very heartening and reassuring changes.
Footpaths I think are the key to any city being well organized. The reason why Kothrud seems such a mess is the lack / absence of footpaths and trees by the road side.
I hope this is just the beginning of a PMC drive to create new footpaths and improve existing ones. Please also plant trees by the road and ensure that these nice new footpaths don’t end up being hawker zones.
In India, suffering is just a part of life!
If there’s one thing that has an instant and direct relation to development, that’s power supply. The new economy is completely driven by electricity. Switch off the power supply and business and growth comes to a stand still. Considering this, you would expect decision makers to consider electrictiy supply as an item of critical importance.
That might be true in some countries but definitely not in India. The power supply situation just keeps going from bad to worse. You have power cuts for several hours every day in most cities across India. The situation is especially bad in Maharashtra.
India supposedly has a very talented bunch of software engineers. But how can they possibly compete on a global stage if there’s no power to run computers.
Power is just one example, but where’s the water, where are the clean shelters?
What is especially distressing is that Indians just seem to accept atrocities as a part of life. So protests die out quickly and everyone gets used to the suffering. Politicians keep trying to win elections based on religion and caste based issues.
Such instances make it obvious why a handful of foreigners could rule India for over a hundred years. Protesting and demanding rights, is just not part of the Indian psyche. We suffer at the hands of a foreign ruler and then our own leaders and yet we accept it as just a part of life.
Having said all this, even I have to take responsibility as apart from articles and blogs on things I feel are wrong, I haven’t really done much. Need to do more, lot more …..
Canal Road connecting Bhandarkar Road and Agarkar Road – “Cleaning Pune”
The building I reside in, is located beside the canal road connecting Bhandarkar Road with Agarkar Road. The road condition is such that it is rarely used by vehicles and so it’s primarily meant for pedestrains.
Many years back, the canal road was a nice, green and clean place. But today it’s become a garbage dump. The corporation has ignored the road and so its become a garbage dump. The garbage in turn is disposed of by burning it and creating a horrible smog over the area.
As I cannot possibly keep a watch all day and stop people from using the road and the canal as a dump, the only feasible solution is to keep the road so clean that people hesitate before dumping any garbage. Could also put up boards that educate people.
Unfortunately dumping garbage in public places is so much a part of Indian psyche that even the educated and affluent lot rarely hesitate before they throw garbage at any place that does not belong to them. Absense of civic sense is perhaps India’s biggest problem.
Our leaders are very good at working up passions and causing trouble over stupid issues but when it comes to constructive work, no leader or political party ever uses its mass base to do good. Have you ever heard a mmber of parliament tell his supporters to not spit on the road or clean up his surroundings, educate his children…
That apart…So what I am planning, is to forget about the corporation fixing things and get down to doing them ourselves…
A cleanliness drive for the canal roads in Pune. If I manage to find more volunteers we can take up not just the bhandarkar road – agarkar road connection but even more. If not, I intend to atleast fix the bhandarkar road – agarkar road stretch.
We planted trees last year beside this same road, but all of them were pulled out for firewood by teams of women from the slums who desperately need wood for cooking.
Just goes to show how interlinked things are: The rich, educated or powerful can never have the surroundings they want unless they work for the illiterate, poor and helpless to get their rights. So essentially the trees I plant can survive only if the poor get cheap fuel to cook their meals.
Hmmmm….lots of mixed thoughts put into one blog entry. not the best way to write, but I guess blog’s are meant to be that way … random thoughts put down in the order in which they come up.
Religion in India – Faith vs Reason
In my previous post, I wrote about the absence of scientific temper in India and the need for those well informed, to voice their opinions against superstitions and customs that have chained our society.
India today seems completely at the mercy of ill-placed faith. Instead of individuals standing on the shoulders of faith and rising to a higher level, we find that it’s today working the other way round. As festivals, miracle babas and religious processions get bigger, they are further pulling down the person caught in it.
What’s worrying is that despite affluence and higher education getting to the cities, the queues outside temples on a so called auspicious day, just keep getting longer. Even youngsters are caught in this. What’s the sense in visiting temples on the day of an exam? Why would God be good to you only because you visited a certain temple on a certain supposedly auspicious day? Wouldn’t God find good deeds and behaviour, the only thing that mattered?
Astrology: The dates for most marriages are determined by astrology that has no logical or scientific basis. I unfortnately too complied with this and married on a day that was supposed to be auspicious. It wasn’t because I believed that marrying on that date and time would really make a difference, but more because I just played along with what the elders in the family decided.
I think that was a mistake and I should have refused to comply, as that would not only have helped me feel better about doing the right thing, but perhaps might have also built up some awareness at least amongst those close to me.
Vaastu Shastra: I saw a TV show about “Vaastu Shastra” (Art of Building) a few days back and the lady expert was confidently dishing out rubbish on live TV. If a person has come to a stage where he believes that the reason why his business is not doing well is that his toilets are facing in the wrong direction, then I think he needs immediate medical attention and not Vaastu Shastra.
The Scientific Edge and its conspicuous absence in India
I am almost done reading the book “The Scientific Edge: The Indian Scientist from Vedic to Modern Times” by renowned scientist Jayant Narlikar. I have had this book for an year or so but for some reason I didn’t quite get to reading it.
Maybe I expected to find the usual glorification of India’s past without any of the requisite scientific evidence.
That’s unfortunately how it’s usually done in India. Glorification of the past is the crutch that Indians routinely lean on, to somehow feel at par with the developed nations.
The problem with this approach is that we do not feel ashamed of still being so far away from being driven by science. Tradition and religion still determine a majority of things in the life on an Indian.
However Dr. Narlikar takes a refreshingly scientific approach to the subject. He does highlight and celebrate ancient Indian science that has solid proof to support it. However he methodically debunks all claims that are based on just hearsay.
Theories like “The reference to an aircraft in the ancient epic Ramayana, is supposed to be undeniable proof of ancient Indian science of building flying machines.”
He also delves into modern-day fads like “Vastu Shastra” and age old ones like astrology.
I had no idea that even the claim to “Vedic Mathematics” was so hollow and doctored.
I learned a lot about Indian science and astronomy from this book. However the most important realization for me has been to publicly voice my opinion against superstitions and in favor of the scientific approach.
I have always privately aired my views against things like astrology, vastu shastra, zodiac signs, etc. I now intend to be more vocal about it.
power off
About an year back, a large portion of the US lost electric supply and it was reported all over the globe as a major news story. That was a very amusing story for Indians as not having power supply is an everyday event in India. It becomes a newsworthy item when ther’s power all day.
Things are going from bad to worse as it is peak summer time right now and consumption is at its highest. The power crisis is a good example of how things can go very wrong in a democracy.
I am located in the state of Maharashtra, one of the more prosperous and educated states in India. The power crisis in Maharashtra stems from the fact that for over a decade there has been hardly any growth in the power generation and yet the politicians of the state opted to play power politics.
In a remarkably short sighted move, during the last elections both the primary political parties running for govt the (Congress + NCP) and the (BJP + Shiv Sena), announced that they will give free power to the farmers.
The (Congress + NCP) combine won the elections and free power played a major part in their victory. However once free power was announced consumption shot up drastically in all the rural areas and a already stretched state power corporation crumbled. The MSEB has never been known to be efficient and its incompetence is aptly demonstrated by the millions lost due to transmission losses and thefts. Not only that but the MSEB is very bad at collection. Currenly it has dues of millions of rupees and not much is being done about it.
The power crisis has now taken a political twist and the government risks being thrown out by the people. In a way that would be good, as it would show that democracy works and that you can’t take the people for granted. However nobody wants the elections and the instability that will follow. The opposition parties have been disappointing. Their ignorance of peaceful ways to protest is a serious cause for concern.
Anyway, I hope this has been a good learning experience for politicians who during the elections make crazy promises that they cannot possibly keep.
Things and People can change
Often in India you feel hopelessly helpless as regards making any change or improvements to the system or the people. However I have felt that things can change.
For example:
1) Spitting on the roads is a very common and disgraceful practice in India. A few years back, I would have shouted at such people but lately I tell them “Arey mitra ka kartoes asa. Ha aplach rasta ahe na” That is Marathi for (Friend why do you do this? Isn’t this our road?). And the results have been astonishing. Most people feel embarassed about their deed and either give a lame excuse like cough problem or a guilty smile. Never have a got into an argument over this. Although I am sure the person would not have stopped spitting from that time, I am also sure that I have helped him take a small step towards being a better person.
2) Recently I and my family were at Ramoji city in Hyderabad and we came across some 4 or 5 people having icecream and discarding their icecream cups right there, not bothering to use the dustbin. Again I politely asked them if they could use the dustbin just 10 feet away? Surprisingly, all of them had a discussion over this followed by each of them dumping all their garbage in the dustbin.
I am sure if I shouted at them, not only would they have not heard me out, but we would have had a lose-lose situation. I might have got beaten up and they would have not changed.
3) Indian Railways have the largest network on the planet but I do not know why they are so averse to maintaining easy to use dustbins. So throwing all garbage out the window is the rule in India. Even this can change. Whenever we travel , we just hang a garbage bag in our section and ask the people around us to not throw their garbage out but instead use this bag or the dustbin provided in every compartment. Most people would willingly stop throwing garbage out the window.
I am convinced that everybody wants to do the right thing and it’s just circumstances that make people do the wrong things. People can change if you are polite, do not confront them and try o help them instead of scold them.
e-governance in India
I have spent most of Sunday trying to be a good citizen of Pune. I wrote to a newspaper about a few issues, I used the Pune Municipal Corporations e-governance site http://www.egovpmc.com to compain / suggest about a few other ones to the governing body and also tracked my earlier suggestion to the state government http://maharashtra.gov.in.
Most developing nations like India are attempting to implement e-governance however there’s still a long way to go. India might have the best IT talent in the world but unfortunately that talent is more available to the west than it is to India. Most govt. sites are rather crude as they are generally created and managed by the B grade of IT in India. Corruption, inefficiency and many other factors contribute to why private companies generally don’t want anything to do with govt. affairs. So it seems that most govt. websites end up either being created and maintained by some inefficient and outdated IT department or by some company that ‘managed’ to get the project. However there are exceptions. The Indian Railways for example is as sarkari’ a body as can be and yet they have a super online train tracking and reservation system at http://indianrail.gov.in. Millions of people use this site everyday and although it doesn’t look good and irritates you with a million popups, it does work well. Things will change as IT slowly trickles down to the millions in India. As of today maybe 2 % of Indians care about computers, internet and such stuff. For the rest food, water and shelter is all that matters. A long way to go, a lot of things to be done.