Tuesday, August 16, 2011

And the Buck (money) stops here........

In whole of our country today, there are staging of protests, जेल भरो and show of solidarity for Anna Hazare and 'India against corruption'. I knew it yesterday evening, that there is no option left except Anna's arrest in the morning. Even then when I read the news in the morning (actually it was noon in India by the time), there was a suppressed anger inside, which was relieved by some Facebook posts and commenting on other's status/ comment. Still I wanted to write my भडास  really. I am writing in Hindi-English mix as sometimes couldn't find suitable words in a single language.

If we talk about the environment around me, I found 3 categories of people, who are affected by corruption. First they, who are only affected by it negatively, they are the real mass, the real जनता of this country. They are forced to give bribe, as they are not strong enough to deny it, which could be either from the lack of knowledge (भाई ये तो सरकारी फ़ीस है, ये तो लगेगी ही), urgency of need (भैय्या अगर ५ दिन में certificate चहिये तो ५०० की पत्ती लगेगी, नहीं तो कम से कम २५ दिन तो लगेंगे ही), easy shortcuts (specially for IT crowd, even they have knowledge or can get it easily). These are worst affected people, because they earn money from legitimate means being salaried people in private organizations, farmers, low income people, entrepreneurs, industrialists etc. They are by no means can earn a bribe or ऊपरी आमदनी. They only have option to offer bribe for so many reasons and for so many things, but can not get it. These bribes make these people get used to the corrupt practices, fills them with an anger and negativity about the system, but they can not address it anywhere other than rough talks, discussions with one another. That makes them understand that this is the way the system would work and they have to live with it, makes them pay even if they don't have enough to satisfy their hunger. (If you have seen movie Well Done Abba)

Second category of people I think of is of people who are in a position to earn a ऊपरी कमाई, the income from illicit means. Here comes the Government employees, लाभ के पद पर बैठे लोग, who ask for bids, tenders, give signatures on certificates, have responsibilities to take good decisions in social and national interest. Police and bureaucrats also comes in this category. Please consider exceptions as well, not all alike or  corrupt. So these kind of people can earn bribes and usually do something wrong or not in someone else's interest except their esteemed self. They take bribe, but at the same time as they are also a part of the society or the system have to shell out the monitory benefits to other bribe seeking professionals. Like a corrupt policeman who earns a mere smaller amount of salary and creates the need for illicit money by taking bribe and hands it over to some big educational institute to get his ward admitted there, who don't have enough guts to be there. So they are in लेनी-देनी situation most of the time. (A joke comes in my mind which ends with the last line पूरी मौज फ़कीरों की) Some of you might have heard it :)

The final category of the people is the people who govern us (I would not say LEAD us) from their upper hand, even most of them do not speak in parliament, don't take part in discussions, so are dumb there. But they have got great resources by earning big money through illicit wrong-doings. Here you should think of Madhu Koda, A. Raja, Suresh Kalmadi like महान विभूतिs. They can take bribes, they can take it in innumerable forms, cash, gold, Swiss bank account wire transfers, you name it and you'll definitely find examples. They earn big bucks in deals according to their influence and level of corruption, they can accept. No one can prove them to be corrupt CAG, CBI, CVC are just childish agencies who ask government to take action against some as a child asks mumy मम्मी, मम्मी, ये ना इतना गलत काम कर रहे हैं, इनकी आप पिटाई लगाओ. And mummy (Govt) used to hear but not to pay heed. So, these people can earn illicit money and sometimes pay it to other corrupt entities, and sometime can solve it with shear power they posses. And in the last the amount they earn is always far more larger then what they spend. These are the real buck stoppers. They buck stops there, you know.

And I am mentioning it again that exceptions are there, and mostly exceptions are there. Abdul Kareem Telagee, Hasan Ali are from the same first category from where Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal are, former Navy chief Admiral Madhavendra Singh and Kiran Bedi are from the same second category and  Atal Bihari Bajpayee and A. Raja are from the same third category. The list could be endless. These are these non-corrupt exceptions or rather main stream people who are still doing good to run this country, and make it good for real masses of India.

*PS : I am not accusing or imposing anything to anyone on the names mentioned here, this is what I perceived from the news paper I read as a daily activity.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Badminton Club


Since my last post I have started going to Vida Badminton Club, which is not very far from my apartment. The club members play inside William Beamont Sports College, which is just nearby Warrington Collegiate. I joined the club as a visitor and they charge £ 3 per visit. They play once in a week on Mondays in evening 8 to 10 for 2 hours.

It is a nice experience playing there. There are 20-30 people coming to play and we have 4 badminton courts and we play in doubles, which means at a time 16 players are playing. We mark our names on a board and a person chooses names of other 3 players to play with. So whenever they come back from that game again write the names on board and it continues likewise. Till 10PM everyone would have played around 10 matches, which is very healthy. There are 5-6 people who are Asians (can't say if they belong to India, but names suggests at least 4 are of Indian origin.

I use Bus to go there and come back, which are available from Warrington Bus station. There are 2-3 weeks more to play, until I go back to India, for which I am excited.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Dayz in Warrington, UK

Today I am really happy! For last few days I was trying to kill the boredom I have, staying here. There is a set routine of timings, work, evenings and mornings. Each day I spend my time same way, Most of which inside my room and apartment.

My body is also giving me some time guilty feelings as my shape (inching towards being 40) is getting deformed day by day. Tummy is trying to curl itself and I am sure I can't run or walk for even 2 miles.

In Warrington, there are not many places where you could sit and enjoy seeing at sea/ people/ nothing at all. So usually after finishing at my work I talk to my family back home and then see if anything interesting on TV Free-view. Prepare dinner or eat something not-so-good and then watch any streaming moving till you are sleepy.

A few weeks back I bought sports shoes specifically to start running, however I had a good pair with me already. So the fateful Tuesday came when I started running, it was good in the evening and could easily find time in the evenings. These days (summer in UK) the Sun is in sky till nine or half past nine, so effectively I have bigger day. So on the day I dressed up in trunks and new shoes. Started from my apartment and run to a nearby council park, had a good run encircling it. My leg muscles were tightened and gave up after a mile of run, I sat on a bench and did some leg stretching to avoid pain. That was it for the first day of run.

There was another activity which I was looking to, to get me busy and fit. I searched for Badminton clubs in and around Warrington. Zeroed in on a club named Vida Badminton Club, which is 1.6 miles from my apartment. They play every Monday 8 to 10 PM, it was suitable and good. So I dropped a mail to the contact person and got favourable reply an to my goodness they could arrange a badminton racquet on loan for me. That was such a nice thing, so I am keeping me up to attend first session on coming Monday playing Badminton.