We shall not listen- Part 2

My brother who has just returned from his Bangkok vacation, was sharing his experiences with us when suddenly the topic shifted to how people in Bangkok follow traffic rules and how we are in India. He said people in Bangkok would never honk unnecessarily and would always follow the rules unlike us. This conversation turned out to be a perfect beginning for the second part of my series: We shall not listen.

Honestly speaking I myself am a very indisciplined person. I cross the roads even if the cars have not halted or would never follow the zebra crossing (actually zebra crossing lines have faded in my city, you can barely see it). So basically, I am not the right person to write about it. Infact once when I was in 2nd standard, I did not look at the rickshaw coming from the opp direction, I simply crossed the road. The rickshawala got down and slapped me hard across the cheeks for being negligent. Not that I learnt any lesson but yes since then I developed immense hatred for rickshawalas despite being a rickshaw addict ;-)

So note to myself: Cross the road only when the vehicles halt.Look aage peeche upar neeche and daaye baaye.

When we talk about following traffic rules, it is not just meant for pedestrians. Motorists infact have a greater responsibility because if they injure a pedestrian or a fellow motorist; the public would happily pounce and vent their frustration on the poor motorist.

My brother says every country has a stringent law for traffic regulation, which our country lacks. Give the traffic cop 100 rupees extra and you are left scot-free. Worse are the hit and run cases due to drunken driving (e.g. actor Salman Khan), you kill some innocent people and give some compensation to the family (in some cases not even a compensation) and you are left on bail. Would your compensation bring back the family's loved ones? The punishments are bad and ancient, so what do we do about it?

We can only follow the rules. Is it easy? No it is not. You are forced to follow the herd mentality, for example: you have a speed limit for driving in a highway, sea link, normal roads etc which needs to be followed, but how many of us follow it?. Ek ne tez se car kya chalaya everybody follows the same without even caring about the speed limit and incase some one follows the speed limit, they are showered with colorful verbal abuses for creating problems in 'smooth functioning of traffic'.

People are not the real problem, the problem is with the punishments, they need to be made really stringent, so stringent that people think twice before flouting the rules. For instance, make drunken driving a non bailable offence or if You exceed the speed limit, go drive your car in Kanjurmarg or Powai during peak hours for one whole year (you will forget what rash driving is). Kuch bhi karo but please ensure that there is smooth flow of traffic, you have no idea how scared senior citizens, physically challenged people are when they have to cross the roads.

More inputs are welcome.

Up next: Pressure to excel in life.

Fida over his art huh?

At any point of time if I sound like a Hindu Fanatic, please pardon me. Please do not tell the Mumbai cops to attack me with tear gas. Also please do not give my blog link to Digvijay Singh else he would accuse me of being a part of RSS. These are just my views and you have the right to agree and disagree with it. Phool aur Kaante accepted.

Ok now that I have made myself clear, I will start writing now. I know criticizing someone after his soul departs is a bad thing, but I could not stop myself from expressing my views after reading the opinions of (so-called) liberal people in the newspaper.

On thursday, India's Picasso passed away in London at the ripe age of 96.  

Now, honestly I never understood modern or abstract art. 

So obviously, since I never understood Husain's paintings; I never understood the hype made out of his paintings. 

For me-

1) The aunties who made rangolis and kolams outside their home were better artists. 

2) RK Lakshman's 'You Said It' was 1000 times better as compared to his weird creatures on the canvas.

3) Art is something which touches your heart or something that we understand. 

4)  Da Vinci's The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa were perfect work of art.

5) A random horse (which looks like a donkey) running across the canvas or nude goddesses were not a form of art.

Besides the fact that I never understood his paintings, I was also against all the hype created about his exile by the media and the so-called liberal people. He had committed a mistake- won't call it grave because he did not murder anybody. But yes, the mistake was unpardonable. 

India is a secular country, which means that everyone has the right to practice and follow the religion of their choice. One is expected to behave properly and not interfere or hurt the sentiments of the people belonging to other religions. Hindus are in majority and we worship every god and their manifestations devotedly. Obviously, no person would like to see their Goddess or Bharat Mata in nude. Saraswati Devi is goddess of knowledge and we have always seen her in white sari with a veena in her hand. Obviously, you won't like to see the devi in a nude form. Rationalists may argue that how do you know how Saraswati Devi looks, have you seen her? No, none of us have seen her but definitely none of us would like to see her nude. Call us regressive, but the truth is we cannot see our beautifully adorned devi in such a form. 

MF Husain, like every Indian citizen was bestowed upon with the Freedom of Expression. But he, forgot that there is a thin line between expression of thoughts and hurting the sentiments of people. You are given the freedom of expression but you must respect it and use it responsibly. He crossed the line and faced the wrath from the so-called Hindu fanatics. It is very easy to call some groups as Extremists or fanatics, but spare a thought and tell me: were they wrong in revolting against such paintings?  Maybe their way of revolting was wrong but certainly not their intention. Being resilient is a good characteristic, but allowing people to take your sentiments for granted is not good. I don't support fanaticism. But I don't know I did not feel as though India has lost a gem. I felt a great void when Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Uncle Pai passed away early this year (they were not my relatives but I felt we lost a gem) but did not feel so for Maqbool Fida Husain. 

But having said that, I would thank him because the beautiful song Chillama Chilakama would have not existed had he not made the movie Meenaxi- the three cities :). May his soul Rest in Peace. 

P.S: I remember that I had promised to write about traffic rules. Will come up with it within a week. Promise! Gentlewoman promise :)

We shall not listen- Part 1

Starting from today, I have decided to start a series called: We shall not listen. In this series I will be expressing my views on certain topics which all of us talk about but seldom follow. I will try to update this series regularly but will not promise because I am bad at keeping promises :).

First in line is: Cleanliness

No matter how many campaigns do blah blah about maintaining cleanliness and Hygiene, we  (especially the Educated class) will never improve. In one of my ex office the condition of the lady's toilet were so bad that the management was forced to put up this notice on all the toilet doors.

Imagine, you have to teach people to keep their surroundings clean. These are the same people who boast of having quality education and work experience but do not know the importance of maintaining hygiene. Initially, after the notice was put up; people took conscious efforts to keep the toilets clean. But kutte kii doom hamesha thedi hee rehti hain. A week later, this is what I found:

Loose hair strands on wet floor and used tissue napkins adorned the toilet floor. The cleaners would become tired of continuously cleaning the floors, but people still continued with their ways. Its been a year since I quit the organization. I don't know how well maintained it is. But I am sure despite repeated warnings, people will never improve. They will continue to dirty the surroundings because: a) it is not their house and b) this is not a first world country.

Up next: Following the traffic rules

PDA se peedit

I know many of my 'broad minded' friends would pounce upon me after reading this. Some may even accuse me of being a member of Ram Sene. But, I have to write about it because yesterday's incident has left me angry and shocked.

The incident: Yesterday was mother's day; my brother and I decided to take mummy for a movie. She wanted to watch Chalo Dilli. We got the seats in the last row. One guy was sitting in the seat next to our's and my over protective mom sat next to him; while I was made to sit in between my mom and brother. The guy's  girlfriend was seated in the corner. Till the Interval everything was fine. We were enjoying the light hearted movie. But what followed post interval was embarrassing for both mom and me. The seats next to mom were shaking aggressively as though some earth quake had erupted and my mom could hardly enjoy the film as she sat on the edge of the seat and leaned towards me to watch the movie. My mom tried giving them a piece of her mind but the couple immersed in deep love or lust did not pay heed to my mom. Luckily the movie finished quickly and my mom almost ran towards the exit.

As a young citizen of this country, I am not against showing your affection in public. But there needs to be a limit to everything. Holding hands or giving a peck on the cheeks in public is acceptable, but an act such as the one mentioned above is highly embarrassing. I understand that lack of private spaces have given rise to such desperateness; but these couple should bear in mind that there are many people including the kids watching them. Can't they be little responsible? If they think that displaying love or lust in public makes them look COOL then they are wrong. It only makes them look like a FOOL.

India may be a progressive country and we may be in 21st century; but this does not give you the freedom to behave in any fashion. If you want to ape the western countries, then ape their technologies, their attitude towards people, discipline, good standard of living etc. I wish to tell the public that love is a pure feeling, please do not make it look cheap with your acts. Please do not engage in such acts in public. Do whatever you want within the confinement of your bedroom or in a good hotel room (which has no hidden cameras). Please spare the cinema halls, gardens, rickshaws and temples (yes have seen couple sticking like fevicol in Siddhivinayak temple premises). It looks ugly with your desperate behavior. Hope you will pay heed to my requests. If you cannot then wait till the sadist political groups ruin your romance under the pretext of serving the public :). Phir mat kehna kii nobody warned you :)

P.S: No use sending me pink chaddis, I have changed my residence ;-) ;-)