FAST FORWARD 123

Lefts are opposing & playing role of opposition as they should, despite being ally with the rulers, BJP is opposing too as per their ‘opposition dharma’. All those regional & central political parties are keeping mum which otherwise make more noise & fly dust in political air than the alighting helicopter at the helipad or at the highway. Perhaps 123 nuke deal with US is really not good for the country, good for the country but their consent was not sought thus belittling their say or demeaning their MP strength in the house or they haven’t understood what the bloody 123 deal is all about.

India would get forty years of nuke fuel for its civilian nuclear reactor to produce energy, these reactors will be open for inspection & nuclear military activity will be as such no cap on them. Furthermore, India will not conduct nuclear tests. Then there are finer points as US will be bound by supplies, India might conduct tests as deterrence if the neighboring countries do so. Mainly speaking India will quench its thirst of energy for her growing economy more effectively.

US would get dependable customer for the most tricky & politically pivotal commodity US has for a real long term at good price. License to keep watch on Indian civil nuclear reactor & under that guise try to keep Indian industry under its wings by way of squeezing supplies at a drop of a hat sooner or later. Strategically US has found friend in erstwhile ‘foes’ friend’ in India so it can get rid of nagging Pak when it suits them. Perhaps, US might be planning airing world premier show of Afghan II or Iraq II in near future in Pak to nab Laden or its newly discovered civilian enemy Dawood.

The whole gamut of happenings is too intricate to paint on once single canvas. It has variety of shades, loopholes, unnoticed dilemmas, sweet fruits to taste & bitter consequences to test. Yet, all said & done no country can fool its countrymen saying it can ward off all the evils & get self reliant. It is neither feasible nor practical too. It can not be forgotten that, India is growing with pace, it has young force of men & women available at cheap price despite slowly bouncing its currency against the mighty dollar. One can not just think of role of only takers, it has give too in return. In any circumstances India must not give up & stand being beggar in front of US lending its sovereignty at the same time pay the price just & enough for her development.

Sheer IT won’t run countries as large as India, it will require fuel to burn & run her wheels & the fuel is in scarce. India, not only the ruling party at the helm but all those backing, opposing & fence sitter must evaluate & caution if possible for the perceived consequences. India has to take decision & act fast; it has to sail through the turbid & turbulent waters to travel across for material benefits for one who has the money will move ahead. All those lefts & rights must understand & come out of their cocoon & acknowledge the trivial battles for myopic gains over issues & non issues won’t help the nation. With media all so penetrating & idiot box open for long hours in every hut & palace it would be impossible to shun the larger interests in lieu of their party & all those small small dictators of their parties.


By

Vijay Yelmelwar

TROUBLED NEIGHBOUR

There are few things not in our hands neither can we do something great to change them. Having troublesome neighbour is perhaps on the top of the list. Pakistan fits that entire criterion to be a troublesome neighbour to India, besides itself being a troubled nation. ‘If one is not at ease with itself, it can not be with others’ this axiom comes naturally in mind with simple reference to Pakistan.

The nation is walking on the tightrope of threat of collapse since its inception. Rather its’ birth was based on the bias & hatred against India. Pakistan is the second largest country in the Indian peninsula & can do great considering its size, sea coast, population & ever forgiving neighbour. Yet the misruled state & misguided men have failed to understand the meaning of achieving glory through peace & development.

Piling up unaffordable costly weaponry (WMD) can not help in developing nation while aping India. On the contrary it could have taken clue from the developing India by adopting green revolution, operation flood, five yearly planning, large dam construction like Bhakra-Nangal, opening up economy etc. & of course most important of them all is propagating healthy democracy. Yet, it found solace in sponsoring terrorism on its land called Pakistan, ‘the land of sacred’, licking feet of US at the drop of hat & dancing to their tune. It must be remembered, somebody will help definitely not out of charity but with its own self in mind & there is nothing wrong with it. One should have the wisdom to fathom the depth & gauge the spread of that self & the greed & accept the help or rather beg for the help.

Lies do not stand long be it non acceptance of Indian POW or Indian nationals under trivial cause stuffed into their regular or unidentified prisons, harboring terrorism in PoK or on Afghan borders, smuggling of nuke tech to potential or present terrorist outfits, use of madarssa for nurturing Muslim fanaticism & developing human bombs. The biggest lie that time & again surfaced is in hiding Osama Bin Laden. It is the nation itself which is at loss. The production looses, per capita income plunges down, and due to political disturbances the whole nation goes haywire. Seen the aftermath of sacking Chief Justice of Supreme Court. Once upon a time India has sacked its naval chief (CNS) & just nothing happened barring few columns written by few journalists & the sacked CNSs’ lawyer wife.

It is not only worst for Pakistan but for India as well. India has tasted its pie of disturbance in Punjab, lost its perfect prime minister & bleeding profusely since ages in Kashmir. Those who have stockpile of weapons, ammunitions, frigates & fighters they will sell them to both India & Pakistan gain money whilst enjoying the tussle between them. It is beneficial in this high tech small world to have weak country handy. It is convenient to park their WMDs & military might at cheap cost, besides opportunity to run the whole country virtually without credit or discredit to their name & at the same time enjoying all the benefits of rulers.

Kashmir is not the problem, indeed Kashmir is not the problem lack of development, growth & riches in Pakistan are the problem. Considering hilly & valley terrain of Kashmir, it is difficult to run the state on agriculture, industry or like. Kashmir can be run on tourism on the large extent unlike any other state of India. Furthermore, Kashmir is the natural & inseparable part of India before & after partition unlike Pakistan itself which was part of India before partition.

Pakistan is fueling the lame cause of liberation of Kashmir pouring massive wealth which otherwise could help the people of Pakistan in better way. Perhaps India can afford protecting, counterattacking, protesting or waging open war in safeguarding her interests; but Pakistan can not. It must be remembered the masters of Pakistan, the US is round the corner in becoming ally of India since it has sensed the sense in co-operating with India rather than pouring time & money like cold water into hot ashes. It is evident, the US didn’t harm India by imposing sanctions against India post Pokhran II, it harmed itself. They said, ‘India has shot herself in head by nuke testing’, it was US indeed, sooner it understood & lifted the sanctions & forwarded the hand of friendship with India. Now, US is feeling proud in penning nuke deal with India & not other way.

One can grow with open eyes, certainly not with glasses of foolish perception & greedy hatred.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

BURDEN OF BOOKS

School started once again a fresh. Fragrance of freshness filled in schools through the books, school bag, dresses, ties, shoes & over spilling energy of kids. The kids ran to their respective schools with great hopes of meeting their old & new friends, sharing their fun in holidays & perhaps gauging the mountain of studies which has still increased raised that the previous year.

Sheer look at the school children chills elder. Schools starts early in the morning. With all those periods, extra classes & present fashion of finishing home work at the school only consumes lot of time & let the child off the school by evening. If the school to home distance is more than five to six kilometers the kids rush to their grossly unavoidable private tuition classes. Such classes often lure the kids & their parents of guarantee of good grades & in turn spin lot of bucks. Just out of jealousy children & or their parents make their wards join tuitions. By the time the kid comes home he is tired & falls on the bed like dead stone. Perhaps the alarm clock must be the biggest enemy of present school going children.

Imagined weight of VIIth standard child could be more than five kilograms? One to three text books for each subject with are allied with note book of two hundred pages, once scrap book & one book for home work. Such seven to nine subjects plus compass box, lunch box, water bottle, bag itself. And further more if the kid is interested in sports he’ll definitely be armed with football, hockey stick, cricket bat or ball. Poor chap if he gets fifteen minutes of good energetic play in whole day he is more than happy. Back home there are TV programme & computer games to clutch him to seat.

To add up to this all, there are classes of all the sorts viz. dance, playing certain instruments, swimming, trekking,…. Perhaps the day has to have forty eight hours than present twenty four. Where the future citizen of the world heading?

Nobody can deny of importance of schooling. Yet, at the same time just schooling can not necessarily mean learning. A minimum number of subjects must be added into curriculum instead of stuffing like waste bin. Each being is different & thus will have different aptitude & capacities. The reason for any percentage of failure is lack of willingness of children to study the things they do not like. Neither they are likely to pursue their career into such subjects.

One who hates mathematics will never be a good engineer even if he qualifies to be an engineer & like. There is scope for each & every field if the child likes the field he will definitely excel in that even with limited resources at hand. All is needed is change in mindset of their parents & the society at large. Failure or less marks in tenth or twelveth exams doesn’t at all means end of the world. Neither not being able to get admission in good college or in engineer or medical college will stamp the end of life.

More money doesn’t ensure more happiness or satisfied & pleasant life. On the contrary doing things which one likes offers fulfilling & satisfied feelings. Money no doubt insulates from the unexpected events in life & from ups & downs. Money is very important to earn. Yet, a large period of active life needs to be spent to utilize life as per personal wish. An investment banker may find fun in scuba diving or a petty trader may like to write on spirituality. If his active time of life is consumed in gathering money it’ll be a fallacy. Knowingly if such happens it is tragedy.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

WORLD WAR III

It has started, yes it has already started! Actual mega event will take some time, yet the world war III (WWIII) has started. Unlike earlier battles & wars this will be different in its colour & texture. Motives of this war will be different, just quenching enmity & squaring up positions won’t be sole objective of WWIII. Neither will it be sheer conflict between privileged & deprived ones or clash of major religions, some lunatics’ personal revenge against particular community nor somebody’s deep urge to conquer the earth.

The time has changed since WWII. Destruction of WWII would look like that of dismissals of pieces at chess board if WWIII is actual let happen. Fire power or destructive power of the arsenals has increased million fold since WWII & the real fearsome news is it has reached to the incapable hands of their foolish & devilish masters. Think of stock pile of nuclear missiles in the hands of countries known to have them, suspected to have them & secretly in pursuit of either developing or in possession of them. Also think of vehicles carrying them say missiles, fighter planes, carriers & submarines, their pinpoint accuracy has added to the potency of those weapons is simply nightmarish.

Apart from these fire arms there are chemical & biological weapons which are clean weapons altogether. They do their work without leaving any trace of the originator. A packet of powder or a canister full of some unknown gas can bring whole of nation’s population to crippling knees with no known antidote.

If someone thinks this much is the weaponry one can have to win war with the help of military might, it would be foolish to think. New weapons have born with their detrimental potential. Apart from the legendry power of negotiating mental might other weapons are artificial satellites, media, national currency, internet, stock market, fuel technology, fuel oil itself crucial goods needs to be imported etc. etc. Just think of weaknesses of the enemy & you have new weapons in hand everyday.

There could be enemy everywhere & including within the particular nation itself. Developing technology must have brought blessings no doubt, yet the perils on their failure or if they fall in the wrong hands could only be bone chilling. One meticulously developed virus planted in the net & whole worlds’ communication system will come to standstill. Lagging information flow is enough to loose war within minutes in the today’s developed countries. Remember Y2K bubble.

Grab of Iraq, eye on Iran for fuel oils & the whole globe remained meek spectators. Crashing of global currency the US$ since Arabs refused to trade into it is more or less declaration of war against US. Crumbling economy is loosing war. If the US$ exchanging nations through their import & export really bent upon barter or in gold, then US won’t be US. It would loose the war even before it is started.

Birth of AIDS most probably be the bio-engineered virus specially created to bring developing & poor countries to their knees. Proxy war through nourished & cherished mad mercenaries everywhere in the world is on before 9/11 & after too & it will get more & more murkier too.

Yet, there is silver lining to all these black hovering clouds of WWIII & believe it or not or have healthy fruitful debate on, it is nothing but role of positive citizen centric media both print & audio-visual media the world over. Only media can resist, prolong or of course every citizen of the worlds’ wish is never let WWIII happen. It is only aware global citizen can play decisive role in starting or stopping the marching feet of world towards WWIII.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

June 18, 2007

NEED A PRESIDENT

Everybody has seen the recent presidential muddle. It’s not only what they’ve come up with but also how they’ve come up with. Eyeing such a prestigious post there is no issue that many honorable names would be discussed among the politicians & in the press. Many lesser honorable names will be thrown by beholders into the race to try their luck. Still less honorable names will ruin theirs by throwing again & again biting dust in the end like one Mr. Dhartipakad.

Perhaps across the country everybody, every media have one unanimous choice in Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in continuing him the second term, of course with due respect to his own thinking. He is remembered along with the other ideal presidents of India like Dr. S. Radhakrishnan & Dr. Rajendra Prasad. India has seen other presidents too who never had the caliber to become so. Yet, many a times having no capabilities becomes the capability, since for ponies it gets easier then the rubber stamp could be used in authorizing any paper of choice.

Post of president & governors have got glitter & shin with increasing chances of formation of coalition governments across the country. This is the time where these ceremonial heads of states or of the nation play the key role. Remember Mr. Sayyad Sibte Razi, Romesh Bhandari etc.? otherwise who know who is at the Jharkhand or at UP Rajbhavan?

There is no reason why these head to be politicos. If they are so, they will act like so, impartially & in favor of party of their origin. And sadly now a days it is not the nation person has loyalty towards, not even his/her political party; still below is their party president. Loyalty towards party president is the single key for all the doors, seek your mind & obtain it. V.V. Giri, Zail Sing to recent Shivraj Patil, Sushil Kumar Shinde, and O Paneer Selvam you name it. Our country has gods & goddesses in their respective party presidents viz. Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Karunanidhi, Sharad Pawar, Mamta Banarjee, Bal Thakare. They are dictators of their respective parties in democratic India

Grand personalities from the social, cultural background could be honored with such posts like Padma Vibhushan & Bharat Ratna. Dr. Kalam is one such Ratna who honored the prestigious post. Occupant at the Raisina Hills must have rarest of the rear CV; his/her simple name should make others bow before him/her. It should be the candidate to bring the glory to the throne & not otherwise.

Pratibha Patil is no mean an achiever yet too dwarf to reach the post she is forced to honour. Her qualification as any layman can understand is her loyalty to congress party. Even during PULOD period she remained with congress. Her modest behavior & her panga na lo attitude has made her pass the test. So also it is just two years to go for the general elections & she would be just right person to push to endorse her backing to congress in the forthcoming coalition khichadi government. Surprisingly her gender has fetched support from left, pure silly thing. Like cat they are so unpredictable & never fail to surprise you. Chankya has said long back governing a nation is not like a coconut that few guys would come & eat. It needs caliber & stature to run the country. But who will talk & think sense when they have buried their heads into the sand like ostrich. They are happy with their credit of getting their names written into the history of India for bringing in first lady president.

Think! why not have Dr. Kalam in the first place? Why not Lata Mangeshkar, Varghese Kurian, Baba Amte or if Atal Bihari Vajpayee is unpalatable then any such great personality through whose veins nationality is flowing along with their red blood?

Vijay Yelmelwar

INSTINCT

Animals, including human being are driven & governed by instincts the natures’ gift received by birth. Fish doesn’t need to learn how to swim; a child doesn’t need to learn how to suck tits for milk. Instincts then take the shape of needs, as men can think needs spread their tentacles into wants, wants into greed, into cruelty & into crude human animal a social human being otherwise, transforms or regresses.

Thousands of years of civilization has yet not progressed even a single feet & shown evidences of evolution as long as thinking process radically beyond instincts. Yes, of course the by each passing day the vocabulary has progressed tremendously, neatness in behavior, polished outlook all developed. Yet, killing instinct remained at place.

Sex is the instinct present in all the living organisms. Human being is more fortunate as they are not deprived of season to develop orgasm. Even through centuries of civilization, though one may not act yet thoughts inculcate orgasm at the sight of opposite sex especially to man at the sight of woman of substance.

Sleep overtakes all. A tired animal sleeps even in the wildest of the environment, precarious conditions even if he is supposed to be hanged next morning before sun rise, the fellow will sleep till then. Sleep could only be honored with only one sentence ‘blessings to live life’. Without sleep how life becomes, ask all those who have experienced insomnia.

Hunger keeps us all alive. Under suitable circumstances all, even animals might accommodate others in sharing their food. Yet, in not so suitable circumstances it would be too much to expect extra from even the sole thinking animal.

In Spirituality, it is said that to chant gods’ name (namsankirtan) even while sleeping. Chanting numbers to out number the breath taken over life is the true bhakti, a number of saints have said. Chanting runs through the vessels like blood. Yet, imagine in sleep if the ceiling collapses onto the sleeping devotee, he’d run away crying to save himself. His instinct for his survival & the fear of death has outcaste his incessant bhakti.

It is natural to behave crude whilst it is driven by instinct. Yet, the gift of thinking ruins making it the curse for human being itself & for rest of the world.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

FOR WATER

Third world war will be fought for the ownership of water, they say. It is bit exaggerated statement yet, the possibilities of major interstate & intrastate differences are possible, rather evident on proper distribution of water. Water is the commodity & ironically is the scarce commodity on the earth which is called a water planet.

Efficient use of available water, rain water harvesting, proper planning in ground water usage, economic use of water for crop cultivation, running industries, allow minimum evaporation of water, building dams, desalination of sea or river water etc. are points to ponder over saving, usage & recovery of water.

The major & simplest source of water is of course from arresting flowing rivers by building dams. Major hurdles in building dams could be mobilization of huge resources since the period taken on recovery of return on investments could be pretty large. Land to go under water could be in hundreds of square kilometers depending upon the geology of the area, flow of water, quantity of water & depth of the river bed. It is beyond doubt that, without dams the crops, population & industries can not be fed with water. Also, the land required to acquire for dam purpose may not be only government owned land.

People who lend or sell their land for the dam purpose must be compensated aptly. It is sad to notice that there are even a large number of Bhakra-Nangal affected land owners & farmers are not yet compensated. Sardar Sarovar affected people are far large in numbers.

The government must compensate the affected people by satisfying them with their choice of land or money, government jobs etc. before starting up such project itself. Just the way cement, black metal stone, and labour must be ready before starting building up the dam.
If the beneficiary to get fruits of ample water, then they must be proactive in taking up the cost or fraction of cost involved in building the dams. In other words, if water is needed through the particular dam it may be provided on toll basis.

Dams must be built considering the facts & figures; definitely not based on the political compulsions.

Proper water policy must be drawn based on futuristic growth of population, economy & requirement of water.

Large desalination plant may be built on the sea shore which will greatly reduce the burden on the sweet water resources Viz. Rivers, lakes, dams etc.

If the water distribution is intra state mater, a proper understanding is essential. Especially the upstream states dictate the terms if the river is originating in the icy hilltops in that particular state. The upstream state can make downstream state deprive of water or flood it by way of opening or closing dam gats. At their own will may be driven by natural compulsion or by politically influenced.

By & large, more water is required per passing day. Efficient & economic use of water & prudence of the central or state government, local village panchayat or even an individual is essential.

Ask them who are lesser fortunate, who are deprived of sufficient drinking water; it is matter of life.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar