Girish's Blog

Mr. Vasant Purke State Education Minister for schools and Mr. Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, the education minister have done a complete hatchet job for over 16 lakh SSC students in Maharashtra. For the last three years the Ministers have been fooling around with the admission process and have been made to eat crow every time by the Courts. Being an Education Minister, one would think that he would be the first to learn his lessons. But politicians I suppose are in a different class where “learning lessons” is not taught! This year too, the High Court has thrown out of the window as unconstitutional the Education Ministry’s best 5 subject percentage notification. All SSC schools were informed much before the exams about the best 5 rule, as a result lakhs of students have concentrated on only five subjects so as to get a high percentage. The SSC results proved this – almost 14000 students getting more than 90%, more than 40000 students getting between 80-90%, as a result of which the ICSE s...

I was in my final year of studies for CA when the Bhopal gas tragedy occurred in December 1984. I distinctly remember articles warning of an impending tragedy as the company cocked an arrogant snoot at the Government and its officials. If you recollect in those days the Indian economy was not doing too well and we depended a lot on the benevolence of the US. We as a political class have always been used to doing “haanji” to our rulers – earlier the British as colonialists and subsequently to all the economic power houses who have wanted to milk India dry. We, unfortunately have always had extremely callous Governments which approach the people only during elections. With a teeming population with very little health care for the masses, a tragedy like Bhopal in any other country would have had the Government come down like a ton of bricks on the management of the entity, but our country behaved as gracious hosts and escorted the culprits out of the country. Just look at what Mr. Obama ...

Jai Baba Swami At 6.45am on May 21 five of us left by road for Dandi for attending the sevadhari shibir. From my centers CIFE as well as Ambuja-Andheri, I was the only person attending this shibir, hence I was to travel alone by car. A couple of weeks before leaving for Dandi I had requested my ex-Acharya to check with his contacts at other centers whether sadhaks/sadhikas who were to attend Dandi shibir but had not got their travel arrangements in place could travel with me. Through his efforts, Shri Prem Paras called to say that his wife and he would join me on the trip. I requested him to see if two more sadhaks could join so that we had a full load and could travel in collectivity. We got two more ‘samarpit sadhikas’ from Juhu Center and I was happy that we got a full car load – as it is more beneficial travelling together in positive collectivity, sharing experiences along the way. The previous day I had asked my office to give me five writing pads and five pens to carry to Dandi...

My earliest memories of my uncle Shri Sadashivrao Tinaikar who merged with Universal Consciousness last Saturday (22nd May 2010) are of travelling with him in the Government Jeep as kids during his visits to the interior when he was in charge of the Transport department of the Government of Maharashtra. This was just after my father passed away in August 1973. My brother Paresh and I along with our cousins visited almost all of Shivaji’s forts in Maharashtra – those are very fond memories of a very kind gesture on his part to make us not feel the loss of our father and take us along with him. He was an extremely simple person with very few needs, his example of how to lead life as a Public Servant needs to be followed by all bureaucrats if this country needs to become a better place to live in. A person who never accepted any gift from any person ever as a Public Servant, a person who helped the needy within the framework of the law – he was a person who was worshipped by almost all hi...

Paragliding at this site is always a pleasure as the site is so scenic and beautiful and in tune with nature that is sets you at peace with yourself. One can just sit there all day by oneself and enjoy the natural beauty with which one is surrounded. I reached the lake site at around 2.30pm before the rest of the crowd got in and sat below a tree to protect myself from the sunlight. There was a gentle breeze which helped in keeping one cool. After some time a couple more paragliding students joined me and a while later Parsha came down in the jeep with the gliders. There were a group of overseas students, probably French, from their accent, though I am not sure. I decided to get some kiting practice as I had a lot of cobwebs in my mind with my last flight experience where I had got caught in a “venturi” and had an interesting experience. I did some kiting for a couple of hours – I had assistance for about ten minutes, with all the trainers busy with the “new” students and not much time...

Saturday, April 3, 2010 we were told to assemble at Rangoli restaurant at 1pm – the usual assembly point. Because of the Easter weekend there were a lot of holiday makers as well flyers. We encountered a lot of traffic in Lonavla, but reached around 12.30 and had lunch at Rangoli. I was having a very uneasy sensation on waking up, something telling me not to fly today, but I had a friend who had come just to watch and decide for himself whether he should take up the course, hence I decided to go. After lunch at around 2.15pm we left for Shelar, two Bullet motorbikes, two jeeps and my car. On the way, the jeep which Avi was driving had a close shave with a drunk villager on a motorbike. I was behind the jeep and had a clear view of the incident. The road ahead was clear in my line of sight, which means the motorbike was on Avi’s side of the road (guy must have just returned from the US) driving on the wrong side! Suddenly I saw the bike as he swerved out of the way of the jeep and a sma...

Mayawati is once more in the news for all the wrong reasons or maybe right reasons depending from which perspective you read the news. The BSP purports to be a part of the poor for the poor and by the poor, but the manner in which the current head of the political party is garlanded with currency garlands would raise doubts as to the motto even in the eyes of die-hard loyalists! On Monday, March 15 (ides of March) she has been gifted a Rs. 5 crore garland purportedly made of 50000 Rs. 1000 currency notes and yesterday another more modest garland of Rs. 18 lacs! The political ‘chamchas’ claim that henceforth they won’t give her floral garlands but garlands made of hard cash only. This raises the question as to where this money is utilized – a person who rose from poverty to such riches in a short political life-span with hardly any questions being raised by the revenue authorities, has done very little to alleviate grass roots poverty in her state. Her major achievements are building Am...