Intricacies Of Life

                                            Its been almost a month and events that unfolded in last thirty days ,have shaken my belief on myself, my thought process which i have boasted in silence, was lying in tatters. It can be easily summarized as month of reckoning, the life seemed to have taken a complete circle and made me stand naked to face the intricacies of life. It seemed someone smirked and challenged me to continue to follow the philosophy of life that developed over a period of time after my unfortunate accident 17 years back.

                                         The month started(early October) on promising note, ushering in hope, a dear one who was languishing for last two years in pitch darkness was finally on the verge of discovering one of the most beautiful gift to mankind, to see the rainbow of life once again, in its full blossom. The festival of lights graced family with restoring eyesight to my father . It was even more joyful as it was the first Deepawali of my angel, my little sunshine. The karma finally paying heed i thought, the cycle seemed to have turned for the better. The philosophy of karma, is a borrowed concept for me, gradually cleaning the cobwebs of mind and firmly shaping my outlook for life.

                                          Karma, i am told has everything to do with how we lead our life. Karma (past deeds as well as present) determines your present and future, so basically one decides his own destiny. With time, i developed strong affinity with this principle, and adjusted accordingly. Even death of an elderly during this time didn't alter my belief, neither did i question the timing. But the horrific accident and pain endured by my loved ones, the hour which i have to sit alone, waiting for news about on accident, jolted my belief on theory of Karma for good.

                                     These theories, in my opinion are nothing but attempts by humans to find reason where nothing exists. These theories are nothing but attempts by humans to find rationale where nothing actually exists. These theories like religion are fake. What is there to say? There is only so much anyone of us have, any control over good or bad , we are puppets who play according to circumstances. We all have to learn to move on, giving too much credit for things, we were mere spectators off is silly. You just embrace the reality and move on. I mean what fucking alternate does one really has? Guess there's nothing like destiny, just circumstances unraveling before us , nothing to do with past or anything like that and how you react becomes your fate.

Movie - The Next Three Days

                                                  Firstly let me clarify, it is a romantic movie. True feelings of a husband towards his wife, kid and family and the resolve of a husband to do whatever it takes in an unprecedented circumstance to get back his wife and unite his family, rest as we say is just a story beautifully woven around this theme. A remarkable movie with spine chilling suspense . The Next Three Days, Russell Crowe plays John Brennan, a college professor whose wife has been wrongly arrested for killing her boss. When all legal avenues exhausted, John decides as a last resort to break her out of jail where she was imprisoned for life, without inferring about consequences.

                                                 Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks did justice to their characters. Both the leads gave an inspiring, powerful performances that makes this movie a treat to watch. It's one such rare movie where one questions life, the good and bad things that happen to us, and how we handle it. How would one react to unbearable circumstances when life takes a turn for worse? A great movie to watch .

Crusader or Conspirator by PC Parakh

                                 This book is about the person P.C Parakh, his long journey in the higher echelons of power as an administrator. We can safely say, book isn't just about the coal scam popularly known as 'Coalgate' scam but about his stint as a member of famed 'Indian Administrative service and struggles involved therefore . Author's official journey from a junior officer stationed at Andhra Pradesh to reaching the top post at the Center, with insight information about how corruption has gradually infected and corroded the civil administration. The author describes his tirade against corruption (justifying word crusader) throughout his carrier, also highlighting efforts put in and endorsed by few other honest individuals who valiantly withstood pressure tactics, threats and intimidation from different quarters but didn't succumbed into corrupt practices.

                                 From working with some of the biggest Indian politicians, starting with Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh to bigwigs in Coal ministry like Mamata Banerjee, Shibu Soren and Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was also the Prime Minister. The author highlighted indirect corrupt practices of Mamata Banerjee to blatant misuse of authority by Shibu Soren, Madhu Koda and deafening silence of former PM on corruption who otherwise was efficient. In 2012, a corruption scandal over allocation of coal blocks to private companies was unearthed by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) valued around 1.86 lakh crore (over $ 30 billion), the biggest scam recorded in Indian History. The government had picked favorites and avoided open and competitive bidding while allocating coal blocks which would have generated far more revenue thus benefiting certain individuals while depriving state its rightful revenues.

                                    Author indicated after the public outcry, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's premier investigation agency was unleashed to defame every honest individual associated with coal ministry tarnishing the image of some very competent people of indisputable integrity.The author himself is a supposed victim of this official witch hunt and accuses the former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha to be either incompetent or hand in glove with conspirators. This book gives ample evidence of corruption institutionalized in our system in general and innuendos about conspirators of coal scam in particular. The author, a retired top bureaucrat suggests implementation of certain pending necessary reforms for containing corruption and making administration efficient , free from political interventions and threats. A must read for everyone to understand the working of the administration, the pressure under which civil servants perform.

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Readers can write to me at - garv560@gmail.com

War Cry For Reforms

                                         Recent news about India jumping in 'Ease of doing business' from 130th to 100th position is appreciated by followers and drew flak from the opponents  depending upon affiliations. While the hoopla around this is uncalled for and is hilarious. Does anyone notice how poorly we are placed in index which portrays our true smudged picture to the world and how frantically we celebrate trivial achievements? We seems to be fully content with mediocrity. As long as our rate race with feeble accomplishments are matter of joy for us, the crux of the problem will never be debated and weeded out from system which in the first place is dysfunctional and is crying for overhauling.

                                          All political parties are in habit of promising and distributing freebies to win elections. Freebies promised by political parties in their election manifestos shake the roots of free and fair polls, disturb the level playing field among players contesting the polls and vitiates the election process. The truth is, it is an open invitation of bribe to a section of electorate and the bills gathered lands at the doorsteps of exchequer to be paid from the revenues collected from honest tax-payers. From freebies like distributing laptops, TVs, grinders and mixers, electric fans to free electricity and loan waiver schemes are nothing short of fleecing of hard earned taxpayers money for political gains of individuals with shameless brazen display of gimmickry.

                                         All political parties are indulged in pulling out such public stunts without concern about repercussions. In a vast country like ours with population comprising of sixth of the world, our political class is corrupting the section of society with freebies. The outlook of politicians is getting narrower by the day with more emphasis given on winning next election thus lacking broad national outlook. This emerging trend is alarming as bribe is often paid with ulterior objective in mind and with politicians, its the guaranteed ticket to riches as numerous scams plundering the wealth and reputation of country testifies .

                                               Most of the ills in the society arise from corruption in the government . Earlier this corruption was confined to petty officials, although Jeep scam in 1948 corroborated politicians had corruption skills from partition itself, but with time, corruption has reached  monstrous proportions as our economy and society matured. It has now spread to the every echelon of civil society and the political leadership. This has greatly reduced or compromised the governments ability to control corruption. In my opinion an important factor in unending growth of corruption is centered around our election process. It is therefore, not possible to curb corruption in India as long as the electoral and the political system of country depend on illicit funds from dubious sources . It seems sometimes that elected representatives have no other alternate path but to indulge and support corruption.

                                             The constitution of India considers all Indians as equal and the rule of law shall prevail on everyone equally, but the politicians often acts arbitrarily . Many times it gives the sense that the political leadership is above the rest of the citizens. It reminds me of the 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell (quote that) “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”  Nepotism among political class leads to irrational decisions, often taken without reasoning, thus jeopardizing the whole system . Even Judiciary is not immune today from clutches of corruption and all the reform measures to correct the wrong in judicial process face the roadblock . The Reform process pending to overhaul the judicial system itself is  moving at snail's pace, making the mockery of the whole process. There are vested interest and people, well entrenched at the highest possible positions who reaped benefits from prevalent flawed system and hold tremendous influence over different arms of government .They are allergic to change as harping on to scandalous system is beneficial.

                                         Incumbent govt has started the reform process, some structural reforms are implemented but fact of the matter is these are too little to transform India. The two major problems confronting India are explosive population growth and corruption and both are intertwined. While refraining myself from commenting on social issues, i have focused on one major issue that fosters corruption.  Periodical upsurge of resentment among masses to weed out corruption has gained limited success. We need comprehensive political, electoral, judicial and administrative reforms to confront the menace of corruption .