Toffees in the Till

Toffees and small chocolates costing 1 or 2 Rupees have, off late, become synonymous to money in India.

These small sweeties have now officially found a place in the tills at every counter of retails outlets, be it a super market or a corner shop selling daily utilities.  (see photo)

Every time a customer pays the bill and the retail outlet needs to return some petty change, the person at the till seriously and authoritatively hands down these toffees instead of giving back 1 or 2 or even 5 Rupees.

Sadly, customers accept the practice without questioning the logic behind it.

I, being a fighter for my rights, have questioned it every time a retailer has offered me this barter, and refused to accept it.

This Saturday, the man at the till at Spencer's tried the same trick with me; and I thought this is high time I should share my amusement with the world.

I asked the guy, 'what if I pay him for the groceries I had bought, in the form of chocolates and toffees, will he accept that?

He, with conviction, shook his head in negative.

My next question was obvious. 'Then how do you expect me to accept sweeties in place of my hard-earned money?

The boy looked at my with weird expression. I could read the question in his eyes - "Why would you not accept the common phenomenon which everyone has accepted in India?"

Alright!

I will accept the toffees in place of my money, which is rightfully mine, if insisted upon.

But, I have my condition: The shops too will have to accept when I pay for my purchase in toffees and chocolates.

I can imagine myself going out of home with my bag full of toffees and chocolates next time when I go for shopping at any Indian retail store.

Reminiscing my Dhaka Trip...

The visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka reminded me of my journey to the country in 2012:
Sharing here what I wrote then....

My journey to Dhaka (Bangladesh) in a small 78-seater Turboprop aircraft, run by Kingfisher Red, was anything but travel to a foreign country. No water! No food! Expecting alcoholic drinks would have been asking for too much!

In a half-hour journey we (another journalist from Patna and a representative from UK-based organisation WaterAid) landed at Shahjalaluddin Airport in Dhaka – the capital city of Bangladesh. A very basic but neat and clean airport gave us much needed respite after witnessing the filth and mismanagement at the international airport back home in Kolkata, India.

Our hosts (WaterAid Bangladesh) had made proper arrangements for the pick-up of all the guests and whilst waiting for the courtesy car we were looked after by `Airport Help’. The lady in-charge (Airport Help) Arju was charming and gave us some useful tips for shopping in Dhaka. She also helped me get the money exchanged at a higher rate than what my colleagues from India could manage with their own efforts.

Finally, we were on our way to the hotel. The traffic on the road was self explanatory as to why the pick-up car was late. I remembered that the very first line in our invitation mail was a warning about Dhaka traffic jams and we got a glimpse of it.

What I noticed was that every car had `Bull Bars’ at the back and at the front. Fair enough, as the traffic was bumper to bumper and the buses, which were not good enough even to be sent to the scrap yard, drove with no consideration to other vehicles. The auto-rickshaws painted bright green looked like mobile prison on wheels with grills covering its windows and doors. We were told that this system started about five years ago as there were cases of mugging and snatching of bags. Now, though the situation has improved the grills in the auto rickshaws are there to stay.

Rubbing shoulders with buses our vehicle arrived at our hotel - Asia Pacific Blossom located in a narrow lane in the diplomatic quarter, close to Canadian Embassy and a school run by French.  This area is known as Baridhara and is full of plush high rise apartment buildings.

At the hotel entrance we were greeted by our journalist friends from Sri Lanka and soon other colleagues from Nepal and Pakistan joined us.

We journalists, from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, had gathered in Dhaka to attend a meeting of WASH Media South Asia Forum.

This forum is a network of a few dedicated journalists from South Asian nations, who are writing on Water Sanitation and Hygiene issues (the acronym for which is WASH) in South Asia. Through our writings these journalists try to make the voices of poor and marginalised people reach the policy makers. These poor and marginalised people are those from the South Asian nations, who even today, do not get safe drinking water and remain devoid of proper sanitation facilities.

It was in February 2011 we met for the first time in Kathmandu (Nepal), courtesy - WaterAid offices of Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These regional WaterAid offices identified journalists writing on WASH and related issues in their respective nations and congregated them in Kathmandu for a workshop.  The idea was to strengthen the efforts of the journalists and raise the issues in a concerted manner. In that workshop it was decided to form a forum and raise the water and sanitation crisis in South Asia in an organised way so that it can have an impact on governments, which have made commitments at various national and international platforms to ensure water and sanitation for all.

The forum Wash Media South Asia was born and we returned to our countries with stronger resolution to use our writing for raising the voices which remain unheard.

In a year this small group of about a dozen journalists from these five south Asian nations have written more than 2,000 stories in different magazines, newspapers and online media, focusing on plight of people who have no sanitation facilities and who do not get safe drinking water.

The meeting in Bangladesh was the second meeting of these journalists and the next step of the forum. The aim was to review the work we did, share the problems we faced and also to formulate strategy for future.

We checked into our rooms, which were more like suites and were bigger than the apartments some of us live in. After a quick rest when we all gathered for dinner we were greeted by the hotel chairman (owner) Mr Mir Mushtaq Ahmed Robi. A fine gentleman, Mr Robi shared some of his fond memories of India with us. He travels to India regularly for business and medical purposes.

At dinner it was time to catch up with old friends and get the latest gossip. However, we called it an early night as everyone was tired after long journeys and the meeting too was to start quite early in the morning.

We had a highly interactive and productive meeting in which many important decisions for future planning were taken, such as we decided to produce a scrap book of WASH stories written by the forum journalists. A trip to Dhaka’s biggest slum ‘Korail’ was also organised by our host which gave us a glimpse of water and sanitation status for urban poor in Bangladesh.

Korail is the biggest slum of Dhaka which is located around Gulshan Lake on 90 acres of government land. Since all the 16,000 families living in this slum are illegal residents, they neither have proper drinking water nor have toilets. Some residents have made toilets which are perched on stilts and are connected to the small shanties with narrow and delicate bridges. The pipes carrying solid and liquid waste from these ‘hanging toilets’, open directly into the Gulshan Lake.

It was not a shocking site for those who have seen Dharavi in Mumbai, which is Asia’s biggest slum. Nonetheless, there were a few things which did draw my attention – like, the slum was self-sufficient as it had shops selling practically any conceivable item required in a house from medicine to vegetables or like every shop had a television set or a transistor radio and lastly the smiling faces – it seemed like people living there have accepted their lives the way it is and have no complaints.

No complaints even form the shutterbugs. The trip to Korail was definitely a treat for any journalist, especially if he/she has interest in water and sanitation. It was though a bit tough to click people’s plight on their faces but we could not resist and eventually the journalistic temptation overrode our humility. We clicked till the camera battery refused to cooperate.

However, during the workshop there was a completely different issue than water and sanitation, raised by the Country Representative of WaterAid Bangladesh Mr Khairul Islam, which left me pondering.

He said we all work on issues, which are critical for South Asian nations yet gathering journalists in any of these South Asian countries is a real ordeal. He was referring to Visa problems the journalists, especially from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India face in obtaining Visa for any of these countries. The moment these journalists specify their profession in the Visa application, the embassies of these South Asian nations become apprehensive of the intentions behind the visits.

Mr Islam had to personally assist the Pakistan journalists in getting their Visas for this meeting and in my case I mentioned my profession as Consultant (the safest and most ambiguous profession) in the Visa form.  This is not the first time it happened with me, I had to hide the fact that I am a journalist even when I travelled to Sri Lanka in the past.

The journalists from Sri Lanka too were allowed to attend the meeting only after they gave it in writing that they would not produce any stories related to their visit to Bangladesh.

Back home in India too, the situation is far from rosy. The journalists from Bangladesh and Pakistan shared their humiliation that they had to go through when they came to attend an International Conference on Global Sanitation that took place in Mumbai last October. There were special announcements for Pakistan and Bangladesh journalists (during the sessions) to go to the lobby where the police was waiting for them. (The two countries one of the Visa condition is that they must report to the police every day. However, these journalists attending the Global Sanitation Conference were exempt from this).

Mr Islam appealed that along with water and sanitation crisis, the journalist should also raise the critical issue of obtaining Visa for these countries, especially Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, whenever they find a platform to do so.

The heavy discussion though left a bitter taste yet working on a bigger issue of water and sanitation, we moved on and once again focused our attention to the crisis of safe drinking water and proper sanitation facilities, which million of people are facing in South Asian countries. Dedication to an issue means following it despite all odds and we scribes have resolved to do that.

After fifteen hours of hectic participatory exercises of a day and half, we were rewarded by a shopping trip. WaterAid organised a mini bus for ten of us from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and one of WaterAid colleagues from even UK, who were interested in seeing the city life in Dhaka.

This leisure outing enabled us to have a close encounter with Dhaka city traffic at peak hours. We covered about 10 kms in more than an hour. By the time we arrived at Basundhara Mall, most of us were drained off energy to shop. But as we entered the Mall and saw and intricate and exotic handicraft of Dhaka, we were rejuvenated enough to lighten our purses.

The long way (courtesy traffic jams) gave an opportunity for some light moments also and to me some insight how our neighbours observe us. 

The journalists from Sri Lanka were candid in criticising the Indian media (especially in sports reporting) for their brazen ways of reporting about cricket. “I find it weird how the Indian media puts a cricketer on a pedestal should he do well but then is too quick to knock him off the same pedestal should he fail to live up to people’s expectations,” said Chandani. “We in Sri Lanka want to see our players winning but we maintain silence when they do not perform,” she added.

From cricket the conversation shifted to film stars and to India’s most celebrated star Shah Rukh Khan. Colleagues from Pakistan recalled their memories of seeing a huge crowd standing in front of his house just to have a glimpse of the star.

This gave our colleague from Nepal to take a dig at the frenzy of Indians about their film stars. “Why are people so crazy about film stars? In Nepal if a film star passes from the road, no one even gives him/her a second glance,” said Laxmi from Nepal.

Whilst we were engrossed in our friendly criticisms and leg pulling the time had come for us to say good bye to each other with a whole lot of promises for future and resolutions to stay connected.

We were booked in the same carrier Kingfisher which made us `sit, relax and enjoy the kingfisher experience’ on our way to Dhaka. The flight from Dhaka to Kolkata was two hours late and at least ten passengers were set to miss their connecting flights. I was the only lucky passenger, who was booked in the same airline for my onward journey and kingfisher made all efforts to give me that Kingfisher experience. I was driven in a car with an escort for the immigration formalities before boarding the same aircraft again, which brought me from Dhaka to Kolkata. 

The Real Policing

The police are supposed to be used for maintaining law and order.
Not in the state of Uttar Pradesh!
Here police constables can be seen carrying vegetable basket behind the wife of a police officer, or escorting the officers' children to school or even helping the saheb's family in their general shopping .

I spotted this young constable (photos) pushing the shopping trolley walking a step behind the family of some bureaucrat.
At Spencer Mall in Gomti Nagar.

He was attentive and running from shelf to shelf picking up stuff for the family, which included an old lady, a young woman and a middle-aged man.
All of them appeared healthy enough to walk (escalators were not working at that time) to the first floor.

However, the feudal mentality compelled them to carry a slave with them. Who would have been better than the poor constable - maybe his first posting!

The family is not the only one, its the pattern in the state where bureaucrats misuse the security they get or the official vehicle they get to perform their duties.

I hope the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav takes notice of this trend. I hope he does something to check the misuse of government property.

After all, it is the money of the common man that goes into the maintenance of government vehicles as well as into the salaries of government employees!

Have Gandhi's teachings lost relevance!

A man named Ravindra Singh Gandhi was carrying 300,000 Rupees, each currency note having the face of Gandhi. 

Trying to cross a railway crossing, he was hit by a train. He did not die on the spot but fell unconscious. However, his bag was opened because of the massive jerk and the money he was carrying got scattered around.
People around, instead of saving the man, started collecting money. By the time the railway police came and took Gandhi to hospital he was dead.
Read the full story here:Link

The news is shocking and it must make every human stop and ponder if we have lost all humanity!
Gandhi taught unconditional human service. all controversies aside, Gandhi as a human even helped leprosy affected people. He became Mahatma owing to his selfless service of humanity.
Every office in India displays Gandhi's photo.
Every now and then in seminars and workshops or even on national days like Republic Day and Independence Day, on his own birth anniversary on 2 October, we call what Gandhi taught us.
Unfortunately, his teachings remain restricted to a lip service by many. When it comes to translate what he taught us in actions, we so miserably fail.

Is money so important today? Do we care more about material than human? Does human life so cheap that money can undermine it so easily? Have we become ruthless and insensitive? Has the greed and lust for money made us inhuman?

Gandhi's death has left many questions, which, we, as humans, must try to explore the answers of...

My Mother & Me Mother

I don't buy the idea of celebrating these special days as everyday is special for people who hold special place in our lives. Yet this mothers' day I felt compelled to share my thoughts with people who care what and how I feel.

Like any other person my mother, Urmila Pande nee Bajapi, was an inspiration for me. Her strength was unmatchable as she could work for hours at a stretch without any break. She used to be the in-charge of the kitchen in all marriages in our family and would single-handedly feed hundreds of guests. She was courageous as she was not scared of stepping out in our garden, with low boundary walls, in the dark.

Her sacrifices were exemplary. She would not let people even realise when she did something for them. Her cooking is remembered by all those who ever got lucky to taste her food, even today. She was an extraordinary seamstress. I have yet to find a tailor who could stitch such flawlessly fitted sari blouses as she did. Every girl who got blouses stitched from her faces the same problem what I face today.

A voracious reader, she finished all the books in a library in Unnao city. She had to join another one. A well-read woman, she could converse on any issue - be it politics, spiritualism, sports or movies. With her elephantine memory, she remembered all songs but unfortunately she could not sing - the only remorse she carried with her even to her deathbed.

She never complained as I never saw her brooding. I recall playing Four Corners with her in the Aangan (courtyard) of my big ancestral house in Unnao. All what I know about mythology is due to her. I was fortunate to have her as my mother who would narrate stories every evening when I impatiently waited for the dinner to be ready.

She never insisted that my sister or me should work in the house or learn cooking or get habitual of household chore. She never asked us to wear any particular dress as we were free to wear whatever pleased us. I remember that after watching the film Bobby, I asked her to stitch the same mini skirt and the polka-dotted blouse with a knot, as Dimple Kapadia wore in a song, and she did. It was exactly the same.

Today, she is no more in this world but she is always with me, living inside me.

I have inherited a few traits from her although I cannot match all her traits.


I have two children who are my lifeline and I couldn't have possibly succeed in facing the vagaries of life if they were not there. Today, they are grown up citizens and make me feel proud of them everyday.

What I learnt from my mother, I tried to execute a little of bit of that in my life when I became a mother. I read my children stories almost everyday. I stitched fancy clothes for my children. I tried to cook good food for them, which they remember.

Yet, I will always regret that I couldn't do enough or as much as my mother did for me, for my children.

Therefore, today, I take time to salute to these six letters which make a meaningful word called 'Mother'!  
     

Care for a drive?

While reading a story about Royal couple Kate and William's baby, I was scanning through the photo gallery. It came as a pleasant surprise to me when I saw Prince Charles driving his car with Camilla sitting next to him. Similarly, the Duke was driving his car and Prince William his; and all of them were wearing seat belts as well.

Photos courtesy: The Telegraph UK



I couldn't believe and reviewed all the photos many a times. Then I was informed that until recently even the queen used to drive her own car.

The genesis of my surprise is the common practice in India, and more so, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where driving your own car is seen as quite low.

People buy the most expensive luxury cars and hand them over to their smelly, unkempt and uncouth drivers, most of whom learn driving on the job. Sometimes they even get their driving licences by bribing and not by taking an examination.

Such drivers then enjoy the power behind the wheels, while the owners (sometimes the whole family) crams at the back seat and feels 'great' about being driven.

Such people see those, who drive their own cars, with a different kind of eye glasses.  

There are people, who, when the car stops, wait inside, for the driver to get out from the driving seat and come to the other side of the back door for the 'sahab' (officer) to get out.

There are others whose drivers start honking when they are more than 200 metres away from home, so that the slave working for them can come running to take the small bag from madame, in which she is carrying green coriander, maybe.

Living amidst such high and mighty 'super class', when I saw the pictures of the Royal family members driving their own cars, it amused me and made me think.

Keeping a driver is not a big deal in India, where untrained drivers (majority of them) are available at as less as 3000 Indian rupees for a month.

Yet, driving your own car is real stress buster, unless one is in a stressful job and would prefer to avoid the stress of driving on congested Indian roads.

And I think the Royal family and so are many others, understand it and want to enjoy and have fun behind the wheels. 

Some memories to share...

Amidst the hustle bustle of daily life, professional and personal commitments, and a few mundane tidbits, I suddenly realised that I have been away from all those friends and well wishers, who boost my morale by reading, appreciating and sometimes criticising my writing.

I still am not getting time from my schedule, so thoughh of sharing some photo memories with all of you.

I hope you enjoy them and share your views here ....

Keep smiling
Until we meet again !

PS: all photos were taken at Alibagh, about 150 km from Mumbai, at one of my friends' farm house.

Bullet train or no train !

Bullet train or no train!

Malkangiri is quite a big district of Odisha state. It houses one of the biggest dams – Balimela on the river Sellar (I hope the selling is correct as I could see everything written only in Odia language, which I can understand a little bit but cannot read), in Chitrakonda area.

The sad part is that the district has no railway line and therefore obviously there is no railway station. Anyone coming to Malkangiri has to travel at least 3-6 hour by road (depending which route you are coming from). If you are coming from Hyderabad, the nearest railway station is Bhadrachalam Road (300 km south of Malkangiri), which makes it at least a six-hour drive. If you are coming from Bhubaneshwar direction, the closest railway station is Jypore (about 110 km north of Malkangiri), which makes it a road journey of minimum three-hours. 

Since I was going to Malkangiri via Hyderabad, I had to travel 300 km by road.

The travel underlined yet another paradox in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the moment he was seated on the coveted chair, started talking about high-speed bullet train. His declaration sounded more like a blabber, when I recently visited Malkangiri for a training programme.

I was surprised to find that there is no train connection to this district.

Why is it so that all politicians – the moment they reach a high position – start making such absurd announcements?

In a country where even after six decades of independence, there are places which have no railway links, such as Malkangiri or the whole area in North East, talking of bullet train sounds so rattling.

Take this sample Mr Prime Minister : 

The Indian train system comes to a halt during winters when there is fog. We have not been able to evolve and use devices which can help trains carry on with their regular schedule in thick fog.

Even when there is no fog, Indian trains do not run on time, ever!

Our air system too goes topsy-turvy in poor visibility. We have not been able to install devices to enable landing of aircrafts in fog.

Notwithstanding, we have sent the spaceship to Mars and are getting accolades from the world; and now we are talking of introducing a bullet train.

What surprises me is the fact that Modi comes from a humble background, so why does he not think of first streamlining the existing system and infrastructure before introducing the ‘world-class’ facilities?

First make our trains run on time, irrespective whether there is fog or not.

First make proper arrangements for flights to take off and land in fog.

First introduce trains to places like Malkangiri!

It was heartening to hear Modi announcing rail connection to North East during his recent visit. However, let's see if this announcement converts into a concrete plan or remains restricted to yet another populist announcement!    

Good news for girls!!!

Finally, there is good news for girls and women!

There had been efforts at various levels for saving girl children and for women empowerment.
Nonetheless, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi started Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save Girl Child, Educate Girl Child) programme has formalised the movement.

It was heartening to know that suddenly there were more plans and schemes on their way to help women, even in Uttar Pradesh where the male female ratio is as low as 1000:918.

Although Uttar Pradesh had a Women Powerline but a phone line helping women who are being harassed on phone is not enough in a state which is notoriously tops the list of those states where crime against women is rampant and high.

However, now even the Uttar Pradesh government, thinking beyond Women Powerline, is taking a step ahead.  Giving 'Shakti' (Power) to women, the government has planned to organise Shakti Diwas (Power Days) at all police stations, across the state.

This special day will be devoted to problems of women. The government is also making arrangements so that these complainant women can be brought to the police stations without any problem.

Harassment of a complainant woman in approaching the police is common in small towns. To avoid such situation, the government vehicles will be used to bring such women to police stations and later the same vehicles will also drop these women back to their homes.

Normally village chiefs are aware if there is any woman in their village who is facing any kind of crime or atrocities - be it harassment for dowry, domestic violence, property issues or any other issue.

The police will coordinate with village chiefs to find out such women and bring them to the police station on Shakti Diwas so that their complaints can be registered.
      
The idea is that the complainant will not face further harassment or threats once the village people see that the woman has the support and backing of the government and police.

This is a move by the government, which is worth appreciation. Now how far this will get implemented in its true letter and spirit, that only time will tell. For the time being it should give a sense of empowerment to all women, who are not in a position to reach the police or authorities if they are being harassed!



  

Cycle Track, So Off Track!

In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, its Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is promoting cycling for the sake of health and environment. Now this is another story that cycle is also the symbol of his party, Samajwadi Party (SP).

Yadav sent a delegation to Netherland also to study how cycle tracks work there. On his insistence, the officials, under the direction of some experts from Netherland, got constructed two cycle tracks in Lucknow, the capital of the state.

Yadav believes that these tracks will help the people of Lucknow in improving their health as they will use these tracks for cycling. Besides, it will help the environment as more people will use cycles instead of cars or motorbikes. He has also urged people to use cycles for commuting.

However, the interesting aspect of these cycle tracks is that both of them are built on the VVIP (Very Very Important Person) roads - Kalidas Marg (having the official residence of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) and Vikramaditya Marg (the personal residence of the current Chief Minister as well as his party's office).

One road Kalidas Marg is out of reach of anyone - forget about the commoners. There are barriers with a full force at the start of the road and no ordinary mortal (read Lucknow resident) can enter that road. The other road also has all VIP residences intimidating the commoners to go there for cycling.

This is not all!

There are two quite impertinent questions:

1. How many people in the city own cycles and ride them as a mean of transport?
2. How are people supposed to manage cycling from their homes to Kalidas Marg and Vikramaditya Marg?

People who own cycles and also use them as a means of transport are either school going children or the class four employees in government and non-government offices. They are using cycle even today albeit at their own risk.

The roads of Lucknow are not at all cycle friendly for either. The courtesy for cyclists by the driver of a four-wheeler is a thing that is unheard of in the city.

Now, for a minute if we suppose that these new cycle tracks is only a beginning; people can start using them for leisure to gradually convert this into habit, it does not seem viable. The question is: How are people supposed to cycle from their homes to these tracks without being hit by a zooming SUV?

After much deliberation in my brain, I realised that the tracks will end up being limited to catering to the children of VVIPs living at these privileged addresses. On the other hand, genuine cyclists (students and class four employees) will still have to face the wrath of junglee (unruly) traffic of Lucknow city.