ragaSpeak

An insight into AAP MLAs assets declaration

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 11:22:00 +0000

In the past couple of days, the morality of AAP has been in question with allegations being hurled out at them left right and center. While many may not be based on hard facts, some make us ponder if we as Aam Aadmi's should let our selves be represented by a party that claims questionable austerity.

Without much diversion, this blog is to give an insight into asset declaration by AAP. The word declaration is of prime importance as my intention is not to malign their for more assets but rather a potential misappropriation or an ambiguity to the least in terms of their asset declarations made to the Election Commission

My Intentions are not to malign or undermine their individual achievements, however just to bring out some differences in the same information from the same individuals in 2 forums.
I would be most happy and satisfied if someone can help me understand them.

Firstly, my source.
1) The biggest good about AAP is it's self claimed transparent website, which offers much information about it candidates. They have a specific assets declaration maintained by them within the party which is displayed as a Info page per Candidate
2) The second source is the declaration from of the candiates to Election commission. MyNeta gives a copy of their form on their website.
3) Deviations or ambiguities while comparing the forms, or within the forms itself

Lets Begin (in order in which the Winning Candidates appear on MyNeta site). I will not be publishing candidate achievements or social participation, AAP website does it enough if you want to refer it. I will be limiting myself strictly to points that are relevant in this context
1) Vishesh Ravi (Karol Bagh)
His AAP webpage about him, claims that he has a house to his own name. However, his declaration form to Election Commission does not mention about this asset at all.
http://delhi.aamaadmiparty.org/Delhi-Elections-2013/VisheshRavi
http://myneta.info/delhi2013/candidate.php?candidate_id=31
I can personally assure the validity of myNeta, but given that AAP proactively claims he has a house to his name, it makes us question for what reason does it not appear in his Election Commission form. If he indeed holds the house, this is an offence and misleading information.

2) Maninder Singh Dhir
There are several conflicts in comparison of both forms and forms itself
His EC form declares his immovable assets as below
a. A flat of Rs. 40L (whose procurement cost was only 5 Lacs, 3 Lacs land + 2 Lacs development cost), bought in 2005
b. A flat to his wife's name of Rs. 20L (purchased at 7.1L) in 2001
c. A flat to his wife's name of Rs. 40L (purchased at 5.1L) in 2005
d. A flat jointly owned by his wife and son of Rs. 75L (purchased at 27.5L) in 2011
None of these are inherited, and all are purchased.
With an investment of 34+ Lacs, their current value is 1.75 Crores.
While their list of other assets are equally astounding including, deposits, jwellery, etc lets see how much this family earns.
As per their income declared in 2012-13 FY, cumulative income of the family (him + wife) is a meager 4.37 Lacs currently.

Coming to his AAP page claims he has to his name only flat, the page silently and discreetly ignores the properties held by her wife. For other candidates, properties and vehicles held by even fathers and mothers are quoted at times. Clearly, the declaration of asset here is based on parties discretion if not truthful to the least.
http://myneta.info/delhi2013/candidate.php?candidate_id=68
http://delhi.aamaadmiparty.org/Delhi-Elections-2013/Jangpura/ManinderSinghDhir

3) Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar)
Similar as above, but more severe
Non Inherited properties (12 properties, all but 2 bought in 2000+, significant bought post 2007, only one property is on wife's name) worth 3.57 Crore
This is all with a "Family Income" of 7.33L declared this year, sounds interesting
Again not suggesting other properties as their is no definition of inherited or purchased in those cases to give a benefit out doubt.

On the other hand, AAP page about him claims he has only 2 houses and 3 flats, while completely disregarding the several agricultural and non agricultural lands he owns himself.
http://delhi.aamaadmiparty.org/Delhi-Elections-2013/KasturbaNagar/MadanLal
http://myneta.info/delhi2013/candidate.php?candidate_id=70

I could have gone and and on, for the sake of not having this blog post too long i end it at the first 3 for now, may be more later in independent posts.

In Summary, even if I may have no doubts or questions on how they purchased these properties, while giving them the advantage of them being inherited or having better salaries in the past, the key point to make here is that the marked difference in how AAP webpages seem to be using their discretion on defining what networth of a candidate is or what his assets are, while choosing to ignore the numbers, probably so that these do not mis-reflect AAP austerities and morals.
With this observation, the "transparency' provided by AAP is hardly reliable as it is highly misleading if not discretionary.

Free Water in Delhi : A Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 18:19:00 +0000

"Free" is the best word in marketting, as is said. It seems to hold true in a lot of areas, especially in Politics. With voters enticed with several freebies in every election, the key aspect in Delhi elections was the 700 liters of "FREE" water every household per day seems to be a masterstroke along with a "50% OFF" on electricity. These definitely played a significant part in deciding who will win the Delhi Elections.

From a socialistic standpoint, it is a very positive step towards providing basic amenities to citizens. I was pretty delighted to understand that it was to be rolled out pretty soon, however, my delight was shortlived with the "Conditions Apply" that came with this "Offer".

Before going into some statistics lets dwelve on some facts. Delhi Chief Minister announced a 668 liter per household under the following conditions (as reported and quoted)

"All the domestic consumers having metered connection will get 20 kilolitres of water free of cost from January 1. We will not even levy any existing charges such as water cess and sewerage charge," newly-appointed Delhi jal board CEO Vijay Kumar told reporters.
He, however, said if the consumption limit crosses 20 kilolitres, then the consumer will have to pay for the water and other charges.

The "condition applied" on the free water is rather interesting. As is reported currently it seems that anyone who uses 20KL of water will be charged zero, but anyone who uses 20,001 Liters will be charged fully for full consumption (as is being understood).

In my view the above sets up a pretty unfair distribution mechanism of a subsidized (rather free) essential commodity like water.

Analyzing a few statistics (while not all informaiton is available in public domain), I tried to understand various facets and factors on how beneficial the scheme sounds and would be

Statistic (Metered v/s Unmetered)
Firstly, a statistic that might improve with good governance and time as per the Delhi Statistical Handbook of 2013,
Metered Connections : 1542825 (77%+)
Unmetered Connections : 438791 (22% +)

While hoping that this number would improve, currently around 20% of the people who derive water from DJB might not be immediately benefitted, however AAP has full 5 years to ensure this number reduces significantly.

Statistic (Source of Water)
It should be also noted that only 81% of population in Delhi rely on relies water sourced from DJB via taps as per 2011 census.
The rest of the 19% rely on Tubewells/Handpumps/Wells/etc.
It is thus evident that this 19% will typically may not benefit from the freebie dolled out and impacts only 18% of the population
It is no rocket science to understand the most people that will benefit form the same is the Urban localities and the Rural areas might not fully benefit from the same

Statistic (Average Daily Water Consumption)
Based on the same source of Delhi Statistical Handbook 2013, Average Per Capita Requirement of a Delhite in 2013 is around 50 gallons per day, which converts to around 190L per day.
Interestingly this has not changed since quite some years.
This statistic is very important to understand what follows next

Statistic (Household Sizes)
Quoting from the Delhi Census 2011 following is the distribution of households in Delhi
Source:censusindia.gov.in

	Total	1	2	3	4
No. of HH	2718050	124842	208095	323869	577970
%HH distribution	100	4.59307224	7.65604018	11.91549089	21.26414157
No. of Pepople	13694245	124842	416190	971607	2311880
% distribution people		0.91	3.04	7.10	16.88
Per Person Utilization in Household Category		668.00	334.00	222.67	167.00

	6	7 to 10	11-14+	15+
No. of HH	378575	493307	49995	19490
%HH distribution	13.928184	18.149298	1.8393701	0.7170582
No. of Pepople	2271450	3946456	649935	292350
% distribution people	16.586895	28.818354	4.7460448	2.1348384
Per Person Utilization in Household Category	111.33333	83.5	51.384615	44.533333

First Row which has is the number of people every house hold, 1 representing a household with only 1 individual, 2 with a family of 2, and so on till 15+ individuals per household.
The second row, constitues the percentage that the section holds.
The third row, is a simple calcuation of total number of people in that section
A very important column is last row, which suggests the Per Person utlization a household will have to have if they need to be under the 668 Liter freebie per day

Some Observations from this statistic
1) 54% of households have 5 or more members
2) 75% of households have 4 or more members

Interpretatoin
Assuming that households continue their usage pattern, lets analyze how many households would actually end up having Rs. 0 Bills

As in the earlier statistic the Per capita consumption is around 190 Liters per person, if we cross reference this with the per Person Utilizaiton row in the above table (assuming every household only can use 668L of water per day), this would mean 89% people will have to reduce their water consumption to actually have free water. This would include an ideal familty of hum do hamare do.
Considering the mean family size of 5, the mean family will need to reduce their water consumption from the average by about 30%, to endup with a Rs. 0 bill in their hands

Only 11% people will be able to continue their "water lifestyle" and still manage to get a zero bill.

Lets try to further understand this 11% who are truly benefitted by this scheme. These people are recieving atleast 16% more water than average dictates and still have free water.
If they were to only still use the average of 190L water per day, this category of individuals will still be entitled for consuming 151344998L (151 Million Liters) of "extra" water "per day" that they wont be charged for.
This is a whopping surplus which is benefitting only 11% of population.

AAP has maintained that they have want to eradicate the Tanker Mafia from Delhi. It is but common sense that subsidizing an essential commodity is a major source of corruption. The Coal Gate scam was a prime example of the same. Rather providing this water for "Free" only in Delhi, it will open up more "revenue streams" for Tanker Mafia's to purchase this surplus 151Million surplus free water market. Assuming that they might not find buyers in Delhi they may simply move town and sell it else where. To extend it theory, they need not even go beyond Delhi and simply provide it to industries that are not benefitted by this subsidy at a cheaper rate.

Summary
Looking at the number of people that will truly benefit from this scheme from all the above statistics, I will leave it to you to determine whether or not this scheme was dolled out a rather too soon (in the first week itself) and some due diligence and thought should have gone into it.

There are several factors that might affect the reality, all the above data is sourced from Goverment bodies and assumed to be true.

Delhi Assembly Elections - Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:13:00 +0000

8 December 2013, a date when the Nation was eagerly waiting for the political scenario to unfold in some of the key constituencies, especially Delhi. From the moment Anna Hazare's andolan on the issue of corruption last year, Delhi has been the hotspot of several political and otherwise incidents, more so in negative aspects than positive.

In what resulted as a much predicted pseudo hung assembly, only the future will tell the direction ahead.From either parties shying away from forming a government, the situation looks that neither party is willing to form the government.

Kiran Bedi made an interesting comment "Coming together of BJP and AAP will be a respect of the voters' mandate. BJP and AAP should talk to each other. The voters want both BJP and AAP and Delhi needs a good government".

Having personally interested in following the situation, I wanted to share some key perspectives on which the results may be interpreted taking as base, some key aspects which had been since long in discussions. It had to also for a wide range of seemingly far fetched interpretations were hammered down by Media houses and Parties which in my opinion were not all true.

Of Voting Percentages, Candidates and Polling Stations

To start with the voter himself, Delhi saw a record turnout this election. Here is a trend in Voting Percentages sourced from the EC website for the last 4 elections

	1998	2003	2008	2013
Percentage Vote	48.99	53.42	57.61	66.5%
Total Candidates	815	817	875	810
Polling Stations	9142	8977	11155	11763

The trend clearly indicates an enthusiastic increase in the Voter turnout in 2013, attributed to some good work performed by the EC to enroll voters and voters themselves to be motivated to get enrolled and use their right to vote.

Having said that an interesting trend to be observed also is the decrease in list of total candidates that contested the Delhi elections which had shown an increase, if only marginal in all previous elections. Overlaying this statistic with the fact that AAP is a new party which fielded a lot of new faces (not all as a significant AAP candidates were previous candidates from BJP/Congress/Other parties). This brings down the number further. This shows an equally interesting trend of a significant drop candidates contesting elections. Together this statistics seems to suggest that in 2013 more people were voting for fewer candidates which may have led to less dilution of votes towards major parties. However, Delhi has been a bifurcated battle (now trifurcated) in the past and this may not have been a huge factor in the results.

In summary, the huge voter turnout does surely represent the frustration Delhi had towards is previous favorite party of past several elections, and Congress was on the receiving end of it not just for state issues but dissent of the people on national issues as well.

Of Reserved Constituencies

2013 saw an increase in the reserved constituencies (SC) compared to the last election. There were 12 reserved constituencies. An interesting trend on the analyzing the wins in these areas it throws up an interesting trend that AAP was the favorite in these constituencies. Of the 12 constituencies AAP secured wins on 9 seats while BJP securing only a single seat.

Given that BJP won significant seats overall, this trend is interesting and possibly something for BJP to think about in the future.

Of Clean Candidates, Sting Operations

Rejection of candidates with criminal cases has been pitched as a policy by several crusaders of anti-corruption, some elements of AAP are not exception to the rule. This as a factor was much emphasized by Anna Hazare's team and a lot of activists to voters in their respective constituencies.

When looking at pure statistics post the Delhi elections which includes offshoots from Anna's team forming AAP, the theory of fielding candidates with no criminal cases and them winning looks rather a farse.

Also the notion of considering candidates with criminal cases as "dirty" does not look to be true in a general context barring a few exceptions.

If you were to wonder why AAP is silent on this aspect, it may come as a surprise to some individuals who I heard suggesting AAP was better as they had no candidates with criminal cases, this information is incorrect.

Infact, AAP MLA Arvind Kejriwal himself has 5 self declared registered criminal cases (some serious as per myNeta) and appears in the top 3 "tainted" winning candidates as per the lingo. There were other 4 candidates from AAP which have self declared criminal cases. It is also interesting that most of the other candidates who have criminal cases have a subset of the same criminal cases registered against Arvind Kejriwal. If Arvind is held as a crusader, and the cases are after effects of the same, criminalizing the other candidates without a thorough background understanding of their individual selves would be outright immoral if not criminal in itself.

Additionally, although percentage of elected "dirty" candidates have reduced to 36% from 43% in the last election, this factor however does not seem to have any significant bearing. This bears to question the understanding of a various ideologies on defining a tainted candidate.

While the nation saw a lot of interesting events, the MediaSarkar sting operation on AAP was possibly the biggest twists in the political battle. How legitimate the sting was is to EC to decide in the future for a complete analysis but it does seem that it did have a bearing of a few seats possibly to AAP which quite some candidates not winning the seats including Shazia Ilmi (though with a small margin)

As a new article once said "The aam aadmi can try as he might stop being party to corrupt practices but corruption is not going anywhere. Even Kejriwal can’t promise a foolproof corruption-free system."

This should thus enlighten the nation that a candidates credibility is purely subjective to what is being presented and people should be less critical in forming quick judgements towards candidates in or outside AAP.

Another notable aspect that happened was the denial by Kumar Vishawas to contest elections, at a time when the party had already decided to constest him against Harshwardhan (BJPs CM candidate) at the very last moment, even before the Sting. AAP trusted Kumar on to form its key strategy against Harshwardhan only to be denied by Kumar. An interesting event whose actual reasons are only known to AAP which looked thoroughly depressed on the issue.

Of Vote Shares, Seat Performances and Moral wins

Several speculations and interpretations of the final tally have been made by several individuals, I only attempt to make cautious interpretation of the factual numbers and historic trends

Starting with the lowest

Congress

Congress though secured only 8 seats, a 25% vote share is still number which arguably is a saving grace for parties future. Facing a complete debacle over anti-incumbency not just from the state but also from the Center it will be interesting to see the parties future in the state and possibly in LS 2014. Given the absolute humiliation by the voters of Delhi, hope Congress takes a lesson learnt from here on.

AAP

AAP secured a 30% voteshare with 28 seats in its bucket. These numbers are remarkable for a debutant party and it has happened only a few times in politically ancient history. While the praises wont be enough for a performance as good as this one, it is noted that the party had indeed succeeded due to its role in creating an environment against the Congress/Corruption rather than any developmental credibility of running a government. It would have thus be interesting to subject AAP to a litmus test of running an efficient and corruption free govt in the heart of the nation. Argument are rife that suggest BJPs best strategy at this stage would be to let AAP form the government either by re-election or other means to see how efficiently they deliver to contents of 70 different manifestos in a timeline of 5 years, in addition Infrastructure and Commerce development in the state.

AAP correspondingly should grasp the opportunity and prove their metal in governance.

BJP+

BJP+ clearly emerged as the most popular party both by vote share and by seats. Not only did it secure 32 seats, but maintained a 33% voteshare. While during initial attempts by AAP to criticize BJP to have lost the moral right to lead when AAP was ahead in the voteshare during counting, the same faces were nowhere to be found making those claims after the result.

It is also interesting to note that historically for the last 4 elections, AAPs seat tally has only increased, with a significant increase in this election as well. This clearly indicates to an extent that Delhi may have rejected Congress completely, it possibly does not hold BJP responsible for the same. For a party which has a long political history in the nation, such a sentiment cannot be driven by short term campaigns, criticism and policies but definitely the party is doing a few things right. In response to several negative interpretations made by Media and other parties, the results suggest BJP+ should be given a little more credit than what is being presented to the nation currently.

Hereon, if BJP allows AAP to create a govt. the Delhi voters may well go in a single direction with either BJP or AAP based on their performance, but the situation for now clearly suggests the state as a whole has "not" made up its mind

It is interesting that while AAP fielded 70 candidates, BJP field 67 candidates. In light of the deficit of these 3 seats, BJP did look more efficient, but should have well planned to field all candidates, but for reasons only known to BJP.

In summary, while there is much to rejoice and an excellent start to AAP, BJP still seems to have a strong hold on its loyal segments of Delhi while making slow progress in each election. It will be interesting to see if AAP now targets BJP with its Corruption policing to garner majority or forms the govt, if the situation emerges and delivers the promise of alternate leadership.

It looks like a page from what is going to be interesting Book on Delhi's Political situation, what happens ahead is a much anticipated mystery...

To Vote or Not to Vote...

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:31:00 +0000

43%, that is the amount of people that elected candidates from Mumbai…. Lowest in last several years….

The Jaago Re Campaigns, the Youth that vowed to avenge the Mumbai Blasts and Killings, The Voices that said “yeh hai mumbai meri jaan” , “mii mumbaikar”, etc disappeared on that very day.
To be honest, I did not vote.
Where did the 47% people Go, is not just an interesting question but is the key to identify where problem lies.
The “Youngistan” and the Nation along with, expressed that there was something very wrong when they chose not to vote. Needless to say everyone is aware what mess there is today around, thanks to all the campaigns, so why such a huge disregard for the most important right in the Nation. The power to choose the people that will lead us, guide and shape a better tomorrow.

Let’s think over it again. Do we really get to choose the people we want to lead a bright India tomorrow?

People need no awareness to help them walk a few steps to the voting booth to vote. India is aware, it is a nation that has been terrorized since ages and the loss of our dear ones and the moments when our cities were jeopardized are still afresh in our minds. There is no place for “Jaago Re” campaigns, India is awake as always.

Mumbai one of the most Literate Constituencies, had candidates that were hardly Graduates, mostly being 10th or 12th Pass, a few with “amazing” criminal records as well. The highest level of education of candidates in my constituency was 12th and 50 percent candidates had severe criminal records.

The only bright candidate,from Mumbai, being Milind Deora, a most likely to win candidate as always, but at what cost. What happened to the ideology of fair competition?

There is hardly any candidate to give competition. What about all those people who don’t want him to lead them, but did not have a choice as they others were equally worse?

Mumbai has been expressing this concern by not voting every election, time and again, with vote rates going lower than ever each time.

The message is clear, you have given us the power to choose, but choose amongst whom? Do we really lack the leaders that inspire people and create a hope that they are the ones that will help shape our future. Why the distrust?

There is a segment of people who say that we have no right to complain if we did not want to be a part of it. I say we want to be a part of it but we know we cannot contribute in a way a true leader can. This would only lead to more meaningless and undeserving candidates willing to jump in politics just because they see that the others are undeserving as well. It only deteriorates the issue.

To vote or not to Vote is not the Question, the nation today sees no leaders, and we need them desperately. Leaders that will make us walk to the polling booth and vote for them, vote for prosperity and vote for a better future.

Mumbai - Resilience or Excuse to not Learn?

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:15:00 +0000

With the recent attacks in Mumbai, this has been a question that is on everybody's mind, and, it should be if it is not.

It is saddening to have seen how the terrorists troubled and terminated lives of harmless and innocent individuals, who were there at the unlucky location. None of them would have ever imagined that it would be the last day of their life, and far more worse, how it was going to end that day. Each one leading their life happily, each with their own ambitions, all that they had seen in life, all that they could have seen in life, if not for this unfortunate moment. They were not any different from any of us. In the end, a harmless, peace loving individual willing to live in harmony, at the wrong place at the wrong time.

It surpasses any sense, for an individual to be influenced enough to massacre lives of so many individuals and also their own. All this at what cost? What is it that they gained from this?

Though unfortunate, these acts, teach all of us a lesson each time, which we fail to understand or learn whatever so it may be.

Was it the first time that an terrorist act as this has occured. What did we learn from the Mumbai blasts earlier and the numerous that happened all over the rest of India. The question is to each and everyone of us and the answer would be different for each one of us, but needless to say a lesson for us all to learn.

Of all the exaustive live footages that the media was showing during the entire incident, too many disturbing things came to light.

The first lesson to be learnt is having a responsible Media.

How much sense does it require to understand or realise that all the footage that is been shown to the general masses were also possibly seen by the terrorists. The strategy and operations to counter the terrorists were shown live, needless to say that if possibly seen by the terrorists, they would easily make a counter plan to this rescue operation. Is a story more important than the lives of people who are trying to save all those innocent people? This lesson was learnt quite late and thankfully needed steps were taken. But then do we have a advisory committee or a regulatory body that takes care that such incidents dont happen in the first place, or it doesnt happen in the future?

We need smarter reporters. Whats the point in making a mockery of yourselves by asking idiotic questions like "how are you feeling" and more lamer questions to the wives and relatives of those who sacrificed themselves in this operation? Besides was that the time to even storm them with questions? Try to put yourselves into their shoes. If you really had to interview them that desperately, it would have been more dignified if you would have let this sad episode end and let them have some peace at this time of grief.
However, I appreciate all the reporters, who risked their lives out there to cover the entire episode. They are as big a heroes as the ones who were trying to save the people.

The second lesson to be learned is to have a more equipped security. It was saddening to see that the Terrorists were better equipped than the Law. We need to invest in equipping our Law to tackle and retaliate fiercelessly on these merciless creatures. Most countries have a provision of 1 bulletproof jackets per policeman. Any investment that helps us in making more alert and ready to handle situations like this need no justification. They are a need.

The third lesson to be learned is to change our attitudes of "digging a well when thirsty". The last time during mumbai blasts on local trains, I recollect that policemen were deployed at each and every railway station. However, I never saw a single policeman at any stations I noticed in the recent past. Mumbai's Resilience has been taken as an excuse to not take necessary measures AT ALL TIMES. Why do we undo our learnings so quickly. Were the places that needed security so desperately at one time, became unecessary for no reason so fast? There have been no changes in the trains to make them more safe. No barricades were made on adjacent sides of the railway lines at places that lacked them. Security cameras were installed at a handfull of places, when they should have placed them exaustively on ALL railway platforms and In train compartments. Does these investments sound illogical in a City that is the economic Hub of the nation, a most populous city, and the one that gets one of the most tax payments each year, and most importantly is so favoured target towards terrorist acts.

Even as this unfornate incident has now thankfully ended. Are there any developments or statements made on what are the steps that would be taken from now on to handle such situations better.

The fourth lesson to be learned, to stop being a hypocratic nation.
I observe that each one of us mourns these loss of lives by this creatures at every occasion. But then why does it take us ages to procecute these guys when they are caught alive.

There are so many captive terrorists that are still under trail since ages, when evidences against them are so very clear. Who is the law waiting for to punish them for what they have done? We need fast trail courts to that would actually be "fast" unlike the ones that are now claimed to be fast trail courts. Our lethargy to procecute these guys acts as a motivation to people that envy our lives and want to spread terror. It shows how much respect we have for the people that were lost during this episode.
It is also a pity that these so called "Human Rights" associations take the side of these creatures. The human rights are for humans, not for animals like these. Why does the media not question or know their reaction on this sad incident and question them on why they are supporting people like these.

The Fifth and the most Important lesson to learn is for us all.
We need to understand that everything that we do, somehow has an effect on how this nation is and will be.
Question your leaders on what have they done for your security. Increase your expectations and voice them insistively so that they are noticed.
How many of us use our right to vote. How many of us know or try to know who each and every candidate that stands on the poll is and what his ambitions and agenda are? It is our attitude of not expecting and the loss of hope that things will get better that has led us to this situations.
Our favorisms to candidates and our ingorance to learn more about all the people who stand a chance to be chosen is killing our nation.
Lets learn to vote! Lets learn to vote sensibly!

We also need to learn that we have enough enemies to our nation, lets not fight amongst us on issues of caste and creed. Lets be seen as a peace loving and a united nation, than a nation bound by internal boundaries on lands and hearts.
We all want a change and we all in our own little lives want to be happy. So lets make an effort. It is our nation and our home.

Lets not let these creatures mistake our resiliance with our excuses to never improve and change.
Lets Remember! Lets Unite! Lets Change!

The missing Zing!

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:22:00 +0000

Recently I read an article where Chetan Bhagat (Five point someone fame), addressed a few freshers in a college as to how to keep their spirits high and not to loose the "sparck" with time.

Amazing piece of a speech, he delivered, I must say. But with deep tought when i tried to reflect on to it with my experiences in this regards, i find interesting interpretations.

Well the zing and the sparc that we all talk about, all begins in an environment where u are totally alien too. Try to recollect the time you joined work. It was totally an alien experience to us. The tough of contributing to something that will affect the experiences of other people(customers / consumers). In my case it was putting in a piece of code that will affect how millions and billions of people in the world get charged for their phone calls. Sounds Amazing for a begginer right!

Recollect instances in your life when you were totally charged to do something. Reflect on what was it that made u go blazing. You will realize that the answer is very simple. It all depends on the motivation you have. Economical, Social, Self or other.

As long as an individual has a motivation, he keeps oozing that zing and does more than what he is expected too.

It is also true that what motivates one may not motivate the other. Also what motivates you now may not motivate you in a different situation or time.

It is this motivation that keeps that zing alive in each one of us. It keeps our mind free and think of possibilities rather than work arounds. Helps us Innovate rather than imitate. Every mind is creative. It only needs something that i call a "powersource" that keeps on feeding it.

The mind creates and innovates in an environment which is alien to you, because then you will think of possibilities rather than the fact. If not prevailing it will try to find ways to convert that possibility in to fact. That is what we term innovation. What needs to be innovated always prevails. All it takes is an open mind to identify that opportunity. An environment where you are not bound in operational activities. This is another problem which we will come to in the later of this article.

It is this motivation that develops expectations within an individual. If you try to reflect, expectations that you had when you joined, kept you striving. Now try to apply the same expectations in your current situation. For most of us, those "carrots" wont work in where we are now.

We ofter hear of the term self motivated, something that i personally believe in and feel keeps me moving. It is when you do not expect or need a "powersource" feeding you from outside. You generate or exude that enthusiasm from what lies within you. Howerver, thinking hard you will realise that there is nothing exceptional about it. So what is it that self motivates oneself. Such individuals derive their enthusiasm from their own beliefs and culture. It can be their commitment , dedication, that is ingrained in them. It can be the desire to make a difference, whatsover, or not to give in to being mechanical as it does not "suit" them so.

Remember, every individual is self motivated, but then it really depends on what the individual's beliefs are or what his or her rationale is. Also the environment, in conflicting situations may deplete this "inhouse" powersource.

Speaking of creativity and innovation, the mind does not always create or innovate. It cannot be thought of as a process or chain of events taht will result in a innovative thought or creative idea. Hundereds of people work in the same environment do the same activities and perform the same tasks. How is it that we there are so less innovative thoughts around then? Are the others ignorant to the thought of being creative?

Just as in case of motivation, every individual is a innovator. One needs to identify the "bottlenecks" that hinder this openness of the mind.

Firstly, The more you know about something, the less innovative one becomes (most of the times). Repeating myself, when you know less, you wonder about more possibilities, when you know more, you think of more work arounds. However, the trick lies in using the knowledge to turn possibilities into facts rather than identifying work arounds. This is where the innovation lies. No idea is creative no thought is innovative. It is all there, amongst all of us, it is about how the mind "pops out" this thought is interesting, because it differs from individual to individual.

From a personal experience, I am more condusive to positive thinking and "there has to be a better way to do this" and "why do we have to do this again and again" attitude when I am listening to music. Sounds really stupid but works for me. It seems all of it comes to me from lost corner of the mind. Wierd! It is not that I think different when I am listening to music, but then yes i do approach things different in that mode. Point is each one of us has a "presetting" for our minds to turn it on to that mode.

This brings me to the third important factor, which is the spice of it all. It is about routine. Routine depletes creativity slowly and steadily.

The mind is developed to adapt and also to resist a change and it is only human that it will adapt if it finds that the change is inevitable. The more operation or mechanical you become, the less the mind thinks of "switching" over.

Imagine yourself the type of activities you thought are so operational and redundant, then how slowly and steadily you became "addicted" to doing the same activities over time and at one point in time you get used to it and then dont find the need to find another solution.

We all need seldom breaks from routine to sit back and ponder whats keeping us from creating, whats making us robots from humans?

Motivation, Innovation and The willingness to bring a change for the better is where the entire crux of "The Zing" lies and keep feeding it.

The Zing never dies, it is always there, you only choose to ignore or feel that being "zingy" isnt making a difference, or whatever the reason be. It can be any of the lack of motivation, the antithetic environment to being innovative, or becoming mechanical, only to set ourselves in a mode where we dont find the need to bring a change.

The zing can be revived.

[PS: I dont write so well so please do excuse if this initiates a feeling to hit me :). ]

Child Labour Solution - A helping hand or social hypocracy

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:27:00 +0000

As goes the old chinese saying , "Feed a child a fish and u will feed him for a day, teach him to fish and u have fed him for life".

With child workers being saved from industries that make them work like animals all day long in inhuman conditions, child labor is definitely a concern of the modern society.

With workforce requirements increasing rapidly, and children being the most "lucrative" option for filling that requirements, they are being targeted by small and mid scale industries, to make them work.

Child labour gives them the so called advantage of bullying them to work more and pay less primarily. Optionally, they can also appraise them very easily so that they do not run away, or better they can bully them to stay.

Although this seems to be a genuine concern on what needs to be done about the issue, but seldom do we think as to why we are facing this problem.

The great Indian legacy of finding a solution to a symptom, and not identifying the root cause, carries here as well. With most talking about the industries that tend to hire them, we seldom talk about why these kids agree or are forced get into this, though unwillingly.

With so many people living below the poverty line and the exploding population, it seems to be an obvious answer. We are a growing country, with our standard of living getting better every annum. However we are not yet successful in closing the gap between the rich and the poor, rather we have fueled it up to an extent where it will soon be at a point of no return.

With every such under privileged household, kids agree to work to help them run their house, and we are not necessarily talking about very small kids but teens. Working for whom is a matter of having their dinner or not. It is but logical that these teens surrender themselves to work for feeding themselves and their family.

Even though how pitiful people sound about banning teens from working, no one helps them feed their family or give them other better options to help them do so. It is an irony that of all the voices that are raised to ban these kids from working do not come forward to help them financially or prepare these kids for the world.

Lets have a better picture.
Imagine a child, who comes from a unprivileged background, capable of working, in his late teens. Decides to work at a tea stall. He works for a person who looks after him and takes good care of the kid.

On the other hand, we have a kid, 8 years of age, who also happens to act for an advertising agency. He has a busy schedule, right from jumping to school, to coaching, to acting and other activies.

Who do you think is more burdened?
Why do we only think about the kid working in the tea stall and want him to stop working there? Is it only because he is under privileged, more unassuming, more susceptible to being influenced?
He does not have a family that is financially stable?
Is the Other kid not being exploited, even though it gets overshadowed in the glamour?

We have 2 different perspectives of looking at the same problem. It is high time that the ones against it realize that the fight is not against child labour primarily but against the atmosphere and the social evils that surround this devil.

So what do we do?
The solution may lie in identifying these kids most importantly. They can be educated so that they can stand on their feet.

Additionally to aid their financial issues, they could be hired in a safe work place where they can be trained in a skill and also are paid for it. Organizations that come up in helping the cause are given financial support to pay such kids, and these should be registered and inspected from time to time, to see if they are being exploited.

With every solution come new problems but we need to move on for the better.

The Desi Journalism

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:20:00 +0000

Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Rajat Sharma, Pranay Roy and the likes of them all names of the people who have achieved kingship in Journalism today in India. With all the other aspects of country, India's media has taken a big leap. From the sole Doordarshan news to the huge wave of new news channels today, we have come a long way.

But sometimes it really makes me wonder about the direction where our media is headed. It has always been an open debate about the quality of journalism we have in our country, but as even this debates rides with the media as a carrier, a few issues never see the light of the day. Some arguments go unnoticed, some issues never get corrected.

If I were to speak of an incident, On 26th January, India celebrated its Republic Day. It was a very proud occasion at the Flag hoisting ceremony on the RedFort, when a glorious 2007 India looked back upon. A clear sign that India's footprint is getting better day by day.

However, late evening I sat down for a quick look at the news on this day and I was shocked.
On Aaj Tak (sabse tez), (Best news channel award winner 6 times in a row), there was a story (which they say is fictitious, and obviously could be closely harmonized with India's current political scenario).

On a day as that, it seems they took great pride to portray how a certain General X (fictitious character), would be psychologically imbalanced to wage a nuclear war (do these guys even know the implications of making such a statement) against India. Their supposed goal was to portray how prepared or unprepared India was for this.

The show was so precisely planned, with not only the development of the idea but with visuals and graphics depicting how our cities would be targeted, and that the cities would be wiped of from the face of the earth. Their war strategy seemed to be a well built war tactic which they assumed the neighboring country would have used against us.

It started of with a head count comparison of the Indian soldiers against theirs which continued to a comparison of the military equipments (tanks, submarines, ships, etc) of both the countries.

Depicting how the other country was not potent enough for a head to head attack over us would have resorted to a strategy put up earlier in this blog.

Their predictions even accounted for the number of lives and property losses that we may have seen lost during the war. Imagine all of this being put up on our republic day, when India is still striving hard to achieve peace with them and that these news channels and shows are being broadcast all over the world. What message are we putting up guys, and are you even giving it a thought.

However, this did not end, the next day say another story which acclaimed the entire world would end after an asteroid being hit somewhere in the 2020's . The story does not hurt as much as the way it has been portrayed.

Another incident was of the famous IBN 7 where in life on Mars issue suddenly erupted from an Image of the Mars surface with an impression of a woman on the surface seen from an extremely long distance.
The image was "supposed to" be released from NASA. Nows lets take a break and think about it. How would NASA let such an opportunity pass by of not declaring such a great discovery, and the news did take no responsibility of testifying their story. This clearly depicted the story's integrity and they did not want to reach the bottom of it because they knew it would not be true.

There is one more incident, a day or 2 back when Aaj tak spent a lot of time explaining how the Iceage is soon arriving. They even put up a deadline of 2055 to 2060. Lets just rethink, 2 days back they show up an asteroid story which would kill most of our race by 2020's and the next day we have an IceAge approaching. I fail to understand why would it be a news if I was to be extinct much before the "supposed" IceAge.

On the other hand, Doordarshan news stuck to showing how the states India had their Parade on the 26th January. It just making me think as an Indian about the direction of media today.
I am personally a fan of all the people I started my blog with and I consider that they are the Icons of Indian Media today. Lately, NDTV distributed Indian of the Year awards which was a very inspiring program to have been an audience to. Pranay Roy and Barkha Dutt hosted the occasion and it was an amazing piece of coverage.

All said and done, why are the bloopers to media still exist.

Firstly, because we all watch it! The spicy news gives us great entertainment and we watch it to discuss the stupidity with others. Secondly, a majority of people in India still resides in Rural areas, and even though their understanding may still be a little subdued their access to media is very much as ours and they do not give a thought to what is being shown to them. Imagine the General X story being watched by someone in Jammu and Kashmir. The implications and rules of the game change. Thirdly, because India does not have a body that can monitor such issues, solely for the purpose that news channels don the media today and have gone from being journalists to influencers.

The monitoring body simply does not work because of the fact that we all enjoy the right to express and speak. Agreed. But when you are showing a "convincing" story which you are not yourself sure of its integrity, to large masses in the rural India, they would neglect that the story is fictitious and would very much believe on what is being shown to them. This is where you abuse the integrity of using your power of speech to influence the people less rational than you.

Thus, as any other, both sides of media will co-exist, great gossips to showbiz paparazzi, to weird stories. This not being a debatable issue but certainly an issue we all need to be aware of and we already are.

But one thing is for sure. Some day, some time people will rise and people will realise :)

Lead India?

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:59:00 +0000

The lead India campaign promo's have suddenly been a rage.

I am sure most of the ones must have seen it and would have forwarded it to 100s of people with all the patriotism and with the intent of spreading an awareness.

The kido in the promo was suddenly an inspiration for the modern India. A fallen tree was suddenly an issue everyone could relate to. The will of the child suddenly an act of heroism.

It was a genuinely credible act by the TOI to have begun this campaign and that we all agree it did instigate out patriotism.

But to see did it really serve purpose, is what the other side of the story is about.
What did we do after watching the promo that really helped our nation in whatever small way we could. A few months from now,for many, it will be just another amazing video by TOI and nothing more than that.

Be it Vande Mataram, by A R Rehman,
be it the TOI Campaign and a lot other such things that have come around once in a while, and created a big buzz, it all boils down to this one thing, are things really changing?
What do we need to move India from a developing nation to a developed nation?
How would the growing poverty, unemployment and a lot other such social issues be solved?

How would things change?

It is not about denying the fact that motivation is needed and that the current attempts are not appreicable, but its about what more do we need to get spin the wheels.

Lets share our opinions on both the sides of the story, the content on the post is not my opinion but an direction to the discussion.

ragaSpeaks

noreply@blogger.com (Mitzy) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:24:00 +0000

A rather funny name to a blog right?
Well not if you have been reading my other blogs :P

After having written a lot about Tech stuff on ragatech.blogspot.com and maintaining my personal blog, me and my friends came up on this discussion.

India if I were to quote is a land of controversies, with each one of us with a comment about anything that goes around us. Even though our actions may not compare to the views we have, we still have our voices and we still have our opinions.

With this blog I intend to bring out all your opinions about the issues we have around us.
Each week I will try to bring up an issue or a controversy, and will try to highlight both sides of the story. Followed by your replies and votes we will see the India today thinks about it.