Badlo usey, na jaane kisey...Hoga aise, na jaane kaise!

It was inhuman - the brutal torture and rape of a girl in a Delhi bus. We were disgusted by what we have made of our society. And so many of us started hoping, instead of dreading, that the world would end on 21st December 2012 as predicted by Mayans. The prevailing sense was captured best by a post doing rounds on facebook - 'I am not scared the world would end on 21st, I am scared that it will continue as it is'. But the world didn't end. It went on and it went on unchanged. So some of us, in fact, many of us got out of our homes and started demonstrations at India gate for something that needs to happen somehow. The only things unclear were what and how!

1. We have gathered at India gate to demonstrate without a clear leader. When a group of people from among us demonstrators came out after meeting some officials in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the crowd questioned the legitimacy of their representation and refused to listen to them.
2. We do not seem to have a clear demand. Some of us want capital punishment for rape in rare of the rarest cases, some want capital punishment for rape in all cases, some want a special session of parliament to bring this amendment to the law, some want the guilty in this specific case be lynched, some want the resignation of Home Minister, some want the suspension of Delhi police commissioner, etc. What seems to doom our demonstrations is the absence of a comprehensive set of structural fixes in our demands.
3. I heard a politician ask "if capital punishment hasn't deterred criminals from murdering people, will it deter criminals from resorting to this crime?" and found myself unsure.
4. Five policemen found in dereliction of duty will be suspended. But that's routine. Things will be forgotten in 2 months and those guys would be back in service. We are anyways short of staff in police. And the broader point is the state of our police staff. They are 'on duty' for long hours and sometimes 7 days a week, are paid peanuts in salaries, take bath in open outside the police stations (read their office), dry their laundry in the police station (read their office), can't easily touch most serious criminals due to their political connections (read do not perform their duty because their bosses do not allow them to do), etc. If you and me worked under such conditions, what would be our quality of work! Despite those work conditions, because all of us have to feed our families, someone might supervise us into working from time to time by brandishing the stick of suspension but in absence of the underlying motivation, we would revert to our shoddy self as soon as the supervision fades.
5. Many of our political leaders are 70+ years of age. At our home, we do not expect family members of this age to be 'able' to take care of us youngsters. They speak feebly and walk with support. We urge them to take more rest, eat carefully and lead a retired life. I feel terrible then when people of this age have to run this entire country. Not that they are stronger of the lot, even they are speaking feebly and many of them walking with support.
6. It's heartening to see that High court has taken suo moto cognizance of this unfortunate incident and set up fast track courts to hear rape cases. But a villager whose land was snatched by local influential people wants a fast track hearing equally badly because he can't feed his family without that land.

Thoughts will keep coming and I will keep updating this post, but the underlying questions will remain -

1. Should we not demand judicial reforms, police reforms, and political reforms?
2. Can those reforms not happen in parallel with economic reforms?
3. Given the number of inconclusive public demonstrations on various issues lately, is it time that we make our demonstrations more effective by taking lessons from our rich pre-independence history (on proper public discourse to come up with a blue print of popular ideal state while agitating for change)?

And a personal question to myself, should I not stop writing but do something about it?

Bachpan ki woh ameeri..

बचपन की वो अमीरी ना जाने कहाँ खो गयी...
जब बारिश के पानी में हमारे भी जहाज चला करते थे.
                            
                                                     - गुमनाम

Rest in peace JEE...you will be missed!

Yesterday marked the day when JEE was killed. I am extremely distressed at the disconnect politicians and bureaucrats have from the masses. I have done well as an IITian but had the system been so in my times, I would never have been an IITian.


A comment from Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Vineet Jain, - "This will bring about a big change in the teaching-learning in the classroom" makes me wonder how this will happen. Will the quality of our secondary school teachers change over the next 10 years Mr. Jain? Have you even met tier 2/3 school class 12 teacher in the last few years Mr. Jain or are you only meeting the principals and directors of public schools in Delhi? Do you seriously believe a typical tier 3 city student has a chance of competing with a tier 1 city student in class 12. The only way the playing field can be leveled is if the poor tier 3 city kid spends a large amount of money to stay in hostel in a tier 1 city himself to study at the same quality place. Where a kid used to do so for only 1 year of JEE preparation so far, he would perhaps do so for 2 years of inter college too now.


This will just make small town students miserable. Even pandering to the wishes of unethical teachers who want to teach only at private tuition at home wouldn't help poor kids score in board exams because most of these small town school teachers anyways don't have their fundamentals in place. And if kids don't pander to their wishes, they are screwed in even bigger ways. My geography teacher in 10th didn't tell me in school that board exam has a 10 mark question on maps. He told so to his students at his private tuition classes and asked them to be quiet about it at school. I figured this only a day before the final board exam, tried desperately to understand maps at the last minute but ultimately lost on all 10 marks. Result - I scored just 63 marks in Geography, substandard looking at my larger academic record.


And why just go to a small town. I shifted to a mini metro city in 12th late in July, when 1st term exams were almost there. I scored 94 in those exams, thanks to a phenomenal tutor I had in my previous town. I used to study the legendary R.S. Agarwal book till that time in my own style. However, soon I figured that this maths teacher promoted a maths guide by a different author to the extent that he would beat us up physically if we were not showing hand-written solutions to the problems in that book. Now with my limited time, I had to give up my favourite R.S. Agarwal and switch to a different book just because this teacher was promoting it. It added one more adjustment to my already disturbed schedule (Remember, I had just joined this new school). Moreover, my freedom of solving the problems my way was lost. To me writing every line of solution in a notebook wasn't important but I had to do so to prove to this teacher that I was studying his 'favorite' book. All of this resulted in significant loss of time for me and I had 72 marks in my 2nd term.


Now, Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain, I still made it to IIT because class 10 and class 12 DID NOT matter in my entry to IITs. Though my substandard knowledge from school education did put me a bit behind my metro public school counterparts but I made up for it through my hard work in the 1 year local JEE coaching. If you sit for an hour in a school's class 12 room and in a JEE coaching institute Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain, you would figure out the difference in quality of education yourself. What we need Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain is therefore not a change in entrance criteria for any exam but a change in the quality of our teachers. I am waiting for any such working plan from you Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain.


Please forgive my language in this post Mr. Sibal and Mr. Jain but this is coming from the first hand experience of a person who seriously doesn't believe in your 12 year education system. Times change, systems change, why can you guys not be comfortable with the shift of importance from class 12 to engineering entrance? Has telecommunication not made India post irrelevant today, then why does our poor old class 12 have to remain relevant? Why can it not give in to evolution?!

12 years since school!

Man! Have I grown old or what? Just realized that thumb sucking babies who used to be in 1st when I passed 12th have themselves passed 12th today!

What's with this God?

I think this often -

We pray to God for more wealth, success in studies and business, but does God even understand these things? These things are part of the artificial web woven by human beings. We ourselves created this system and then are running madly to win in it. God only created nature. Human bodies are part of it. May be he can ease our physical pain out of some disease or old age. But does he understand money? Was he involved in creating our bad luck which led to some big loss in business? I mean the luck that he created may have given me fever sometimes but did that luck involve me losing an entrance exam?

And who created God? What is the origin of the ultimate?

Last weekend, I called security to send someone to clean the bathroom. Usually, it's a middle aged man who comes to clean the bathroom. He takes Rs.50 for each time he comes. But last weekend, a cute teen aged child knocked on my door. I wasn't sure what to do. I have had this debate within myself many times. As a principle, I decided long time ago that I will never employ children as domestic help. But at such times, when this kid is already cleaning 50 odd homes of society, would only me not letting him clean my bathroom help him go to school. One argument is that it has to start somewhere and I should contribute my bit. I don't disagree with this argument and this is why many times, I am the only one waiting behind the zebra line for traffic signal to turn green. But I also think that it's only a concerted effort on part of society that will help this cause. And given our society, only better law enforcement can bring that concerted effort. All of these thoughts crossed my mind in 10 seconds as I looked at that kid and I gave in. I get this nagging feeling that I was wrong and I should have done my bit. But this kid looked so cute and happy with where he was, I just gave in at that moment. I talked to him while he was cleaning, tried to understand him and tried to give him some feel of equality, love and respect. He supports his family financially along with his uncles, who don't earn much to provide for family. 


Seven days passed after that and came this weekend.


I called up security and asked him to send that same kid to my house. What happened to my principles? I don't know! He came in a very cheerful mood, started talking as soon as he came in and was very inquisitive. I switched the AC off with remote as I opened the balcony door. Apparently, he didn't know that an AC could be controlled by a remote and was excited to know this. He asked me if I wanted to engage him on a monthly basis. I asked him what the difference was, he could get his money every time he came in to clean. He told me his folks are planning to go to Vaishno Devi and he needs to save some money. If he gets paid for every time, he ends up spending it. The only way he can save is if he gets it in lump sum at the end of the month. Hearing his rationale, I agreed to have him clean my bathroom every weekend he can find me at home and take his dues at the end of the month. He agreed.
As he finished cleaning the bathroom, he noticed some namkeen lying in a corner. He asked me for a paper to throw it away. Man! wasn't it a lesson for me in customer delight and commitment towards your job! How many times we crib on getting that additional work from our customer! He also asked me to come and check the bathroom if everything was okay. Then he asked me to give his money for this time. I asked him what happened to his savings plan. He said last night he and his uncles didn't eat anything as there were no vegetables at home. With this money, he would go and buy vegetables. I was speechless. I have heard about world hunger, I have seen it in movies but this was the first time someone was telling me on face and that too a cute teenage kid! I felt stupid, gave him his money and couldn't think anything for the next few seconds. As I heard the sound of elevator doors closing, I thought I could have given him Rs.100 instead of Rs.50, I should have given him the Parle G biscuits from my cupboard, I could have even asked him to sit for a while and made him a Maggie! But I acted like a stupid there. Did I fail him!


Look at him, a kid with a lost childhood but still happy and dedicated to what he does! He dwarfs my problems.


As my head clears, I have decided to find him again today/tomorrow and ask him to come to me to take some money to buy food whenever this happens the next time. But what can we do as responsible people to help such children? Is there a way this kid can go to school?