Structural corruption

Read case I
Mukesh Ambani is making a 27 storey something (I don’t know what word to be used for such a humongous thing) where some six people would live and am talking of Mumbai.

Read case II
Second, Dharavi is supposed to be the largest slum area in the country, that too in Mumbai.

These two facts cropped up when in one tv program a discussion was going on the situation of social status of India. A social activist identified the two situation and the gap between the two as a resultant of structural corruption. I completely agree with him.. yet find myself in a state of confusion.

First, we should identify whether Ambani saab has the right to have such a …. thing for his family (where his no of servants would outdo no of family members and incoming guests combined). Second, whether government is right in allowing such a …. thing to come to force, by allowing the former to build so.

Answering these two issues, I bet, would give lead us to somewhere we wish to reach… the answers we would like to seek but find helpless in phrasing the question. Since I too don’t know the question, it is better to share my opinion on this issue.

Just because a person has the ability to do something is he or she permissible to do so when the case is about creating a divide unnatural. At the same time the centrality is “land” (on which the huge…. thing is being built) is scarce, especially in Mumabai (my mum friend would identify with it)… I recall the movie “jaane bhi do yaaro” where a journalist asks tarneja – the builder – about his new achievements that push the humans further in their dooms they want to defeat. Tarneja answers, “it is democracy; everyone has the right to succeed, and there’s nothing wrong in it.”

What my say is there should be a cap on a person’s footprint on this earth. To make this world better we talk of reducing our carbon footprint, I doubt how it could be ever achieved in real sense. On the other side there is a glaring reality: underprivileged and middle “salaried” class finds it hard to have a square foot to put their will to fit in. this disparity is definitely corruption of a massive kind but is India realizing it? While I read Muslims (latest bait is Saif) find it difficult to find a flat in particular residential apartments, it seriously questions the lop sided way to approach to residential development. A pricey structure changes the entire economics of a region, which disperses and only grows with time. I mean this disparity.

After so many years of being free, what least could be demanded from the governments is the right for equal opportunity if not equality, that has been lost anyway in the red tape.

Intuit your desires

Good things manifest from good thoughts. The centrality of all ideas, of our actions, is generated from thoughts… which are progressive and are aimed at realizing something that will be beneficial. A commoner would use his thoughts in all directions, not knowing what to think and where to direct it. Interestingly, there will be questions, and no answer, as one continues to find them not knowing that one is within its periphery; it is just we have to go out of the boundary. During this process, the mind travels through different realms. Another theory suggest that leaving our mind open like a wild horse, allowing it to brainstorm, find us routes unknown for realization of the subconscious.

Identifying the desires and corresponding to self over and over again makes us believe that it is right there within our reach but may be not there yet. This itch of belief running in our thought process shall force to believe that realizing it is just a matter of time.

This process of search and believing in it makes the desire of reality different from dreaming. Many get confuse between the two. Dreaming is just the pedestal, where the whole process of soul churning for answers start.

Then, nurturing of this dream evolves. And intuiting is about trying to visualize what good could be in store for… it takes the belief towards positive. In doing so one would imbibe the very existence of positive into reality.

Surrounding ourselves with an envelope that generates a good feeling of achieving something starts surmounting us. We can do wonders with that feeling of well being.

So, intuit good things that do well for you harming none. Creation of own world and designating a role for self is the way to realize desires. People say intuition cannot be a voluntary exercise; it follows no rules and barriers and strikes uninformed. But, I question, there must be a way to identify that.

How can it be utilized to our advantage? To some extent it is true. One imagines many things for one’s sake but how would it strike that it would turn out to be an intuition. So try out thinking your desires which are feasible in reality; which syncs with time and space we are in. Then there is a chance that the thoughtful imagination turns into to be your intuition, as and when they turn real.

Creating a world of your own isn’t that taxing after all, even if it doesn’t turn out to be true as you expect…

naughty guy

today is Raksha Bandhan. I stayed at home throughout the day working. anyway, as a Bengali, this festival is not something I look forward to considering my cousins are in Kolkata and importance is laid upon Bhai Doojh far more than this one as a celebration. the cute little episode that I want to share takes us back many years when I was probably in my second or third standard. this day was special not because of the relationships (I was dumb, yuck! that sucks...) but the lovely rakhis on the wrist instead. there were times when I wouldn’t have one and dada (my elder brother) would have many on his wrist(s). I used to envy him.

I recalled this funny experience today during the day out of nowhere and a naughty smile crossed my lips. now, I know how lucky I was then. wish I had the head to use the opportunity as a weapon to woo many… kash!

Allowing them to bloom

Socio-business-environmental approach

Hotels use lots of flowers। At a few ITC hotels, instead of throwing these flowers on a daily basis, they are passed on to an NGO it has tied up with। The NGO after collecting it from the hotels, drop them at the doorsteps of people with multiple disabilities with their capabilities restricted to separating petals from the stem of the plant part the whole day। These petals so separated are collected and sent to concern authorities for extraction of organic colours from it, which are sold to the textile industry.

In this way, not only wastes (wilting flowers) are converted into environment friendly colours but in the process pass on the benefits to the people with multi functional disabilities. This is being practiced at ITC Maurya and Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi as pilot project. This initiative is earning the differently abled people Rs 1800 a month, which is also giving them a dignified reason to live on. The project has also been taken up by India Habitat Centre and a few more hotels for the good of the society.

Flying away to glory

Want to give my imaginations a string of positively so that the aims and dreams match with each other to rise up to reality. At the occasion of our 61st Independence Day, Bishwajit asked me to write about our fascination with kites during childhood. We didn’t grow up together but the fascination hasn’t remain untouched to our upbringing; simply saying, to the entire generation before me, which I know about. Life offered simplicity and we as small kids accepted them unflinchingly. So did our parents.

Coming back to what my dear friend said, I think, he consciously took up this topic knowing that I am left with no more interest in indulging to get up on the terrace and take kites to the sky. The topic of kites rose two days back while we were discussing the plan for the long weekend. But today, when the kite flying day is over I somehow feel, he issued me a warrant to come out of shackles of negativity and let myself free… as many of my friends, acquaintances feel that I adopt and welcome negativity more often than positives that life has to offer to me.

Could be. And kite is the way I should be like. It has always provided us with a fascinating occupation and have been cheered equally by young and old. The free will of kites, even though they are controlled, tells us a lot. It is not about me only. I feel the will to be like them is more about choosing the right direction where everyone else should be moving towards.

At this point, a kite couldn’t have been a better metaphor for our democracy and independence, together. Let our course be of that of “free will” yet with a string of “discipline” attached to it so that we remain in a flock.

I hereon will try to free me, my will… with strings attached. I hereon will seek answers… to the questions sometimes I never raise.