Girish's Blog

I have written earlier on bureaucratic apathy and how it makes life miserable for the common man. This note is for R.K. Laxman’s common man – the man on the street who also faces the same set of problems though in his/her context. Mind you, the problem’s may seem small to you and me but for these people their problems are real and could be the root cause of nightmares and in extreme cases may result in suicide. This is further compounded by the fact that the common man is not educated enough to take on the small time bureaucrat (the chota babu of my blog) and has to suffer untold mental agony at his hands. This post is because of the article which was reported today on the fisher woman being locked up in a clerks government office because she had the temerity to ask for a Rs. 5 market tax receipt, when in fact she has been paying this daily tax to the Satpati Grampanchayat for years, but had never been provided with a tax receipt. You may well ask why will she want a receipt now? It so...

The growing and rabid racism being practiced globally and with more recent emphasis to Australia is becoming a cause for concern. India has been a tolerant nation, with an all are welcome attitude, having friendly people to help foreigners feel at ease when they come as tourists or on professional assignments. The culture of “atithi devo bhava” where the guest is akin to God is well known and has been ingrained in the Indian psyche. The fact that more and more foreigners are making India their homes and marrying into Indian families and staying back here is proof of the fact that India does assimilate and absorb other cultures like a sponge. Travel to Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Delhi and Kolkatta and you will see the increase in the number of foreigners in this country – I wonder what would happen if we decide to segregate the Australians and start giving them a bad time as is currently happening in Australia. We need to do a bit of historical research on the Australians to...

It was truly inspiring to read about nineteen year old Krishna Patil’s stupendous effort in scaling Mount Everest. The Pune-based Patil was part of a commercial expedition organised by Asian Trekking Agency in Nepal. Patil (25) has become only the second Maharashtrian to conquer the 8,848-metre high peak. Surendra Chavan was the first from the state to achieve the feat, in 1998, as part of the Yadav-led expedition. The teen went with two climbers from the United States and seven Sherpas. On May 20, Krishna and two of the Sherpas started from Camp 4 at 9 p.m., climbing through the night to reach the peak at 7 a.m. the next day. Krishna was involved in athletics from childhood. Her mother introduced her to tennis, swimming, karate and skating. While in school, Krishna did several treks with institutes in Pune. During her Class 10 vacation she joined a course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi, where she secured an ‘A’ grade and went on to do an advanced course. ...

The elections are over, the results are out and the Dance of Democracy has entered a new phase – we could call this as democratic aerobics danced to the musical orchestra of the Congress with the baton in the hands of coalition partners – result a confused exercise to musical disharmony. With the DMK and Trinamul Congress – both pre-election allies of the UPA demanding their pound of flesh the dance has now entered a crucial phase – either we have a single conductor for the symphony and a single choreographer to ensure the dance has rhythm and musical synchronicity. What we are now seeing is something which has been the bane of Indian politics since the era of Indian politics began. The DMK with its handful of seats is seeking cabinet and state ministries which its numbers do not warrant. The DMK has got too money MP’s who are relatives of Mr. Karunanidhi – and Karunanidhi being the good family patriarch that he is wants to see all his relatives happy – to hell with coalition dynamics....

Friends, this is an article I came across recently - and it is worth sharing. It explains his philosophy on business ethics. As an internal auditor of one of the Tata Group companies, I can vouch for the fact that the Tata Code of Conduct is followed in letter and in spirit. Deviations are dealt with firmly by the management, resulting in termination of services in serious cases. Do read- this could be an eye opener to many. The Business Ethics of J.R.D. Tata R.M. Lala The life of JRD Tata defines ethics and values in their truest sense showing us that it is possible to create a large, successful yet humane organization. JRD Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding Company of the Tata Group of Companies which has major interests in Steel, Engineering, Power, Chemicals and Hospitality. He was famous for succeeding in business while maintaining high ethical standards. Under JRD’s Chairmanship, the number of companies in the Tata Group grew from 15 to over 100. Monetarily, the asse...

We as a nation are paranoid if other nations talk about mediation/autonomy/freedom for the state of Kashmir - so why are we interfering in what is happening in Sri Lanka? I can understand that the Tamils have migrated from India and form a large part of the ethnic minority in Sri Lanka – but does that not mean that having chosen to stay in that country they should abide by the laws of that country. Sri Lanka is a democracy, and whatever solution the Tamils want should be within the democratic framework. Prabhakaran carried out a war for freedom which has resulted in the loss of more than a 100,000 lives – he is now no more – so is it not high time to smoke the peace pipe and bring Sri Lanka back to its past beauty and serenity? There are cries and protests in India with requests from various sources being made to the Indian Government to ask for autonomy for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. I hope the government does not interfere and behave with the big brother syndrome which our neighbours a...

Is the US being sucked into the Pakistani quicksand? I have been reading with some degree of consternation the Obama governments decision to provide economic and “defense” funding to the Pakistani government in spite of credible intelligence that Pakistan is ramping up its nuclear arsenal. For the last decade or so the US and Pakistani military have worked in tandem to enrich themselves at the cost of the US taxpayer. It has been reported in the US press and discussed in the US Senate in the past – but nothing seems to change. The Bush government used to give an annual certification earlier that the funds were being used to fight terrorists, whereas the arms obtained were such that they could be only targeted against India. Not only that, subsequent audits proved that the Pakistani government was duping the US tax payer by providing ridiculous expense statements for re-imbursements which the US kept paying – these audits actually nailed the lie! But apparently the new US President is h...

I am being forced to write about one of Mumbai’s biggest bugbears again – no choice you see, as the condition of the state of repairs or shall we say dis-repair warrants it! Believe it or not we are in the middle of May, the pre-monsoon showers are expected any time now and the BMC in all its mentally retarded wisdom has decided to start concreting roads in certain parts of Mumbai. Yes, starting is what I said not completing. We have had six months go by since the last monsoon, and now I notice that the BMC commenced concreting a section of the road opposite Raheja Hospital in Mahim! I do not know what quality they will ensure in doing a speed up job, I guess it is just the lure of lucre which keeps these corrupt worshippers of Mammon going. In the last two months or so, almost every road worth digging has been dug up by some utility or the other. Paver blocks originally laid for ease of installation or maintenance of utility cables, have been removed by various utilities and re-laid. ...

As our holiday was over and both Pallavi and I had to do our flying tasks we were told to come back on weekdays, as weekends were always crowded. Pallavi and I decided to return on the 12th and 13th of May and my nephew enrolled for the P2 immediately. So we were back at Kamshet and this time stayed at the farmhouse instead of travelling up-down from Lonavla. Parsha, the youngest instructor was demonstrating how to kite with Vikas another instructor pulling at the risers so that the glider collapses. This was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Parsha is a skinny lad, but the skill and control he demonstrated with the glider was amazing. For about ten minutes he had the glider up in the air and did not let it touch the ground, I wish I had taken my camera and filmed this for educative purposes. Vikas used to pull the risers and the glider used to start tilting and collapsing and Parsha would pull the brakes and corresponding risers to set the glider right again, this was t...

The long weekend beginning with voting day on Thursday 30th April, was the one booked by me for our P2 paragliding course with Templepilots at Kamshet. We had done our P1 last year in May and this was something I was really looking forward to, as my first three solo flights were absolutely unforgettable. My nephew decided to do the P1, thus it became a long weekend outing for my brother in law and his family and my family. The P2 is a four day course and we had only three days. The first day was at Pawna Lake site and the wind being pretty light, Pallavi got the opportunity to do the tandem as well as solo flight. Both her first P2 tandem and solo flights were about 25 minutes each. One would wonder why you need to fly tandem – but that is part of the training as the instructor teaches you how to fly the ridgeline to pick up the winds up draft, how to turn using body shifts, etc. The tandem flight is to get a feel of the glider controls and movement with an experienced flyer. After her...

I had stopped writing for the past fortnight or so due to the fact that our elections were spread over a month, and the sound bites emanating from the mouths of our politicians did not change – I for one did not want to keep repeating the same old tripe – hence the hiatus from writing. In these two weeks since the beginning of May – I went for my P2 paragliding course along with my daughter – more of that in a separate blog, hence writing opportunities though present would not have been too different from what I have already written. But today is a new day, the dance of democracy is over, the results are out and the results just prove that the common man is no fool – en masse they have voted for stability. They have also not given the winning combine that much of a margin for them to become arrogant or complacent – the opposition will also sit in strength – all in all a good sign of our democracy maturing (hope our neighbors were watching!) I have been a BJP person since the time I sta...