Superior or Inferior!!!

It is ridiculous to share space with the peoples who can discriminate others based on self-created superiority. Often it is financial superiority but more often, it is because of races and castes. An age-old cancerous problem in our so-called modern society. Every noble citizen of the world believes that it is a crime but never tried to solve the problem constructively. In Europe, USA and South Africa the division was based on the colour of screen. White breed always thought themselves superior to others only because they had the money and power.

In India, it is caste, how it came and on what basis I don’t want to spend a second for the fact. It is human nature to find something for which they can feel superior. It may be the other way to hide one’s inferior complexity. Even we Indians suffered in the hand of age-old casteism but racism was an unknown factor to us. In recent past, few states have shown that we are too not far behind in this criterion. Discrimination towards North Indians in Maharashtra and Assam is some of the important incidents to be mentioned. The recent past incidents are manufactured by some political parties and their leaders. The most disgusting breeds are the politicians, who wanted to gain popularity among local people to get a few extra votes, are dividing the nation base on races.

A few facts that make the world are not such a beautiful place to live on.

If we looked back to the history, Jews are the worst sufferer.

In 1290, King Edward I of England forces all Jews to leave England. The action enhances the king’s own coffers and reflects growing anti-Semitism in England. Then 1492 King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella expel all Jews and Moors, the Spanish Muslims from Spain. Hitler and Nazi Germany systematically attempt to eliminate the presence of Jews in Europe.

Discrimination against Red Indian.

Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles to leave the Southeast and move to Indian Territory in Oklahoma under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 under then USA president Andrew Jackson.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a terrorist organization by veterans of the Confederate Army. They named it after the Greek word 'kuklos", which means circle. The members of the KKK started terrorizing black and some white leaders of social and political reform. Displaying fierce racial hatred, the Klansmen will harass, torture, and murder hundreds of newly enfranchised blacks who attempt to exercise the rights guaranteed to them by the federal government.

Apartheid in South Africa

The word apartheid means “separateness” in the Afrikaans language and it described the rigid racial division between the governing white minority population and the nonwhite majority population. The National Party introduced apartheid as part of their campaign in the 1948 elections, and with the National Party victory, apartheid became the governing political policy for South Africa until the early 1990s. Although there is no longer a legal basis for apartheid, the social, economic, and political inequalities between white and black South Africans continue to exist.

Casteism in India

Caste, rigid social system in which a social hierarchy is maintained generation after generation and allows little mobility out of the position to which a person is born. The term is often applied to the hierarchical hereditary divisions established among the Hindus on the Indian subcontinent.

Casteism in India - which we can easily define as the restriction of people's status in life to their caste of birth. It has also weakened Hindu society and made it vulnerable to conversion and other forms of fragmentation. Casteism says that if you are born of a brahmana family, then you are a brahmana, no matter whether you truly exhibit the genuine characteristics of a brahmana or not. Moreover, if you are also born in a Kshatriya family, or a Vaisya or Shudra family, then that is what you must be.

While we yet to get over from casteism, we are facing a new challenge that is racism. A few recent incidents are as follows

Racism in India.

Bihari migrant workers have been subject to a growing degree of xenophobia, racial discrimination, prejudice and violence.  Biharis are often looked down upon and their accent ridiculed.  In 2000 and 2003, anti-Bihari violence led to the deaths of up to 200 people and created 10,000 internal refugees. Main culprits are Assam and Maharashtra.

On 19 October 2008, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena activists attacked North Indian candidates appearing for the all-India Railway Recruitment Board entrance exam for the Western region in Mumbai.

Shiv Sena and MNS always made critical remarks, themed around language politics and regionalism, about migrants from the North Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, accusing them of spoiling Maharashtrian culture and not mingling with them.

!!!Those are talking about spoiling culture they themselves yet to learn a few lesson of humanity!!!

United We Stand Divided We Fall!!!

It was such a pleasure whenever I visited my friends house in Dadar. It was a four floored house located in one of the best place in Mumbai. While visiting Hindu Colony or Parsee Colony in Dadar, you will never feel that you are in Mumbai. Two very clam and quite place in a city that never sleep. The house is just stone throwing away from Ruia and Poddar college. Only the first floor was rented while other floors were shared among the family members. All of them were in share trading business. It was a big family and a joint one. It was like big stage with unlimited activities. At present many of that family members moved out to the other houses as their requirement for spaces increased. It is happening every where in India. The joint family system and its charm is losing out. Gujarat, Haryana and  Punjab still are the flag bearer . My previous generation was very small, so when we grown up together we never felt as growing up in a joint family but whatever experience I have,  I still cherished as one of the positives thing in my life.

While in Singapore, I stayed with a Punjabi family, when whole family gathered at a point it was all masti (fun) time. Bengali families  too once preferred staying together but no more it is practiced, specially in urban Bengal.

In an extended family parents and their children's families often live under a single roof. This type of family often includes multiple generations in the family. In India, the family is a patriarchal society, with the sons' families often staying in the same house. In the joint family setup the workload is shared among the members, often unequally. The women are often housewives and cook for the entire family.

While living in Mumbai, I saw how suburbs were getting crowded and broke away family couldn’t afford a house, preferred to move away rather than adjusting with their folks and remained in under same roof. Life was never  very easy, every morning woman of the house before proceeding to their respective work had to rush with their wards to the nearby crèche. On the way often children caught between double culture and failed to adopt either.

Living with senior members of the family from the time one was born, obliviously we grow up appreciating, admiring and loving them. Adjustment is one of the great human quality that can be learned from early core level.

Finance, environment and space would have been less concerned in the expense of little tolerance and altruistic.

Most of the cases, members who are financially more stable preferred to move away.

Don't have to go far, around my surrounding area, houses and personal lands are vanishing thick and fast. Every house that was once occupied by a joint family are already turned to a high-rise or now in the hand of promoter.

When a family broke away most of the such cases women were blamed, even the men always accepted the facts whole heartedly. The brothers and sisters, who once shared everything then found each others unbearable.

!!!Depression is the prize possession for the modern society in the expense of tolerance and adjustment.!!!

Caterpillar, the saviour.!!!

Exploring the years I spent in Mumbai is something that I love to do and always like to write about it. This one was not preplanned but while doing so saddened by the current events and things happening in Mumbai. It seems that since 1993 it is a routine for the city, once again terror returned to the city that took away several lives. These man made disasters are tagged and will remembered with the dates tag, like  12/3, 9/11, 26/11 or 13/7. Surviving one after another such things and then trying to move on like walking through a double edges knife. It is the affected families are the loser but who knows tomorrow may be I will be one of them.

It is a nostalgic journey to my memory lane. As world grows closer and time is specious, if money is no factor then it is worth buy time. Did I say buy time? Stupid thing to say at least if my grandmother was around, she would have been said so. My granny always said, time never waited for anyone and it is priceless yet I am talking about buying time. Yes, it is possible.  Now these days when we are traveling, we preferred to fly out and in instead of using our age-old facilities I mean trains.  Whenever my pocket gave me the choice I too  follow the same but at the same time I agree that a train ride still is a thing that close to my heart.

Going back to my early days when we were traveling to Jamshedpur on every vacation. Those rides were no less than a nostalgic. With the times good or bad both that included to the service, the Indian Railways, world largest corporation is standout.

Luck favoured me big way, for twenty-four years I had a second family on the wheel, it was ride that took me back and forth between my workplace and my house in Mumbai. Yes, I considered to be lucky because I traveled in a local trains in Mumbai, I enjoyed every bit of that nostalgic rides. Enjoyed it? No, not always. There were numerous moments, I was irritated, angry and often fumed with an instant rage, but equation is 85:15.

My first ride was from Dadar to Vikhroli and then my long association started with it. In the beginning when I took my first Railway pass, it was covering both Western and Central Railways. I was having Vikhroli-V.T.-ChurchGate via Dadar and the cost was twelve Rupees and fifty paisa. With that, you can roam all over Mumbai everyday and as many times as you want. A ride often soothes the people in distress, I knew, a woman who then lost her job and she was going through some personal problem, during that period everyday she traveled from her home to V.T. and took same train to get back, it worked as stress buster for her. In the beginning I was very novice and may be for a couple of days, by mistake, I traveled in a Gents Compartment but my experience was not very bad, particularly those two days the compartment was not crowded. Then slowly and steadily, I became a champion, catching a running train and then jumping out of it before it touches the platform, it was just a cakewalk for me. My years of experiences had to face an acid test when I moved to Dombi (Dombivli). I discovered that I was yet to learn a lot and my skill was not enough. Gosh, women of Dombivili are the champions of its kind. They are incomparable, I don’t have enough word to express their capabilities, nobody will imagine it, if not seen.

Two trains that I traveled, one from Dombivli to my work and another for returning, those rides left loads of happy memories. In the morning, 9.45, Ambarnath-Dadar and in the evening it was 7.35 V.T. to Kalyan, both were my second home. Specially in the evening we used rush back to the station to get the train with renewed zest, a hard day in the office never prevented us from having a blast while returning home. It was twelve-car train and then there were a few twelve-car trains apart from that one.

Today, I hardly have travel, to reach my work place and I prefer a walk, yet I miss that my sweet-sour-bitter relation with trains and the train rides.

!!!Thanks Caterpillar, all those joy rides and carrying but not crashing!!!

Hall of Shame!

No law in the earth can prevent a cheater form cheating. An instant fame that too with minimum effort is a delicious dream. India’s performance in track and fields events in Commonwealth Games was very encouraging and specially when girls gone to win 4x400 meter relay. Today three out of four of the girls tested positive for banned drug. In recent controversy, so far total eight athletes tested positive for the banned drugs. It said that every pharmacy situated near the sports complex in Patiala, freely selling the banned substance. When incident like this happens, there are few actions here and there and then with the time all become normal as it was. In India, every medical shop keeps selling medicine at their will. Medicine shops, mostly run by the people those not having any proper knowledge or a degree. You can find loads of sleeping pills if you wish, only you should know the person in the concerning shop.

Every banned drug is in your reach just open your pocket and must know how and where to throw the money. It is not only in sports, in current trends, every health freaks citizen are flocking to the Gyms with modern facilities are can be found at every corner. I know one such, situated very near to my house and the instructor freely advising the young boys to go for non prescribe supplements to get instant muscle, what you call it ‘packs’. This is a nice way to impress the girls around but in long run the result and the future is very gloom

The manufacture gone ahead and found a “designer steroid,” tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), there motto was ‘catch me you can’ but THG now can be detected by testing,

To help drug intake there are many kits available in the market to flush out the drug from you. I am here producing one such advertisement –

Just like you would prepare for any test, by doing your homework!

“If you aren't sure of the type of drug test that is going to be performed on you, or you want to know how to completely cleanse your whole body, then you should definitely consider our Total Body Cleansing Kit. It is the original blood and urine cleansing program that really works.”

I cannot forget some of the stars who failed from the grace for same purpose.

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson or Benjamin Sinclair Johnson, is a former sprinter from Canada.  Won two Olympic bronze medals and then he gone to win 100 meters gold in1988 Seoul Olympic. That was a hell of a race at the end Ben Johnson won with a world record and able to keep his nose ahead from another greats Carl Lewis but he was disqualified for doping, losing the Olympic title and the records. Johnson's urine samples were found to contain stanozolol, and he was disqualified three days later. It was one of the shocking in

Marian Jones

She was one of my favourite sports person and darling of the crowds until she caught and subsequently confessed for taking performance enhanced substance. Marion Lois Jones is a former world champion track and field athlete.  She won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia have to give up all medals and prizes dating back to September 2000 after admitting that she took performance-enhancing drugs. Jones admitted taking steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use in statements to the press, it was a  "designer steroid" ring, Jones accepted a two-year suspension from track and field competition, and announced her retirement from track and field on October 5, 2007. She was jailed for 6 months. Now she is a professional basketball player for Tulsa Shock in the WNBA (Women Basket Ball Association).

Even performance of Lance Armstrong, Late Flo-Jo too was in questions but it never proved.

Most offences: Until date USA topped the list with 173 offences, of course those are caught or confessed. Sports like Weightlifting, Track & Field, Baseball and Basketballs lead the way for such offences

!!!Cheating for the short lived glory and then disgraced to live in ignominy forever!!!

Kiss and Make up? Not always!

As, not every dirt can be washed away, every feeling too, no matter how good or bad, it is difficult to wipe out. The days are gone when life was easy as needs and expectations were very scanty. World is no more a place where people lived with love and harmony. The time when we are armed with a mobile in our hand and an accesses to a couple of dozen social networking sites to keep in touch yet we hardly do anything for each other that are close to our heart. We are living in a glass bowl, that contains I, me, we and ours. In older days, it was difficult to get lost, miles away from your home you would still have been recognized. Today you may even not know your next-door neighbours.

Some of its blame goes to the current breed of politicians and different political parties, those are exploiting the young generation for their personal gain, their mantra is hate and hit. When we look at different political parties, of course I am quite neutral but not denying the fact that having little weakness for the Congress. Once an old Maharashtrian woman whom I met while traveling in a local train in Mumbai, she disclosed innocently that she always supports Congress because the generations before her were supporting the same, quite traditional. If my grandmother was still alive would have been very angry with me for this revelation because she was always reluctant to disclose about her political inclinations. Even my support to the Congress, I never liked Nehru as a prime minister but he was a gentleman and knew how to respect the oppositions. It is no secret that politicians promised a lot and failed in their promise but in older times they used tell us what they are going to do for us rather than telling about others failure. Therefore, life is more is finding fault in others than knowing and acknowledging ones own mistakes. It is not always an easy task to forget all bitterness and forgive others, living with hatred feelings is no good, it is more self destructive than hurting the subject in question. 

Just giving a sermon to forget and forgive is easy but not easy for those whose life is severely affected. It said that in love and war everything is legal, so Maria Susiraj and his boyfriend killed an innocent guy, chopped his body in pieces and then bag full of innocent flesh thrown into a remote area. A woman who went to destroy two innocent young lives and yet today’s media chasing her around the city, then there is Ram Gopal Verma and the Big Boss team waiting for her with a red carpet. I do not except the victim Neeraj Verma’s family to forgive Maria Susiraj. I, myself will never forgive the killers of Neerja Bhanot , the Indian airlines Air Hostess, who died in Karachi airport while saving passengers life from the hijackers. Not in a mood to forgive Kashab or people behind the 26/11 attack in Mumbai. Always wanted to see them to the gallows and same for the culprits those time and time bombing a crowded place and killing innocent peoples. Cannot forget that horrible afternoon of March 12, 1993, when serial bomb blast rocked the city of Mumbai. I was very much around their and still cannot forget the sound of blasts that interrupted my and my colleagues lunch session.

The above incidents are so huge, therefore, there are no places for forgiveness but we often bring out small things in personal front that causes a personal enmity with close ones.

Like global warming and greenhouse effect that damages the environment, needs a serious constructive step, same way the word tolerance is also vanishing from our syllabi.

!!!Why not small thing can be overlooked for the wider happiness?!!!

Unsung Heroes the Dabbawallahs!

Recent past, it is very difficult for me to sit through a movie, therefore, mostly watch it in pieces, but there are some exception as last week I have seen ‘Stanley ka Dabba’ in one go. Liked it and wonder if Amol Gupte completed the movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ then what would have happened. He knows how to narrate a story and there are only a few who can do this. Anyhow, my topic is nowhere related with the movie but with the ‘Dabba’, a container. Strange, we had so many types of ‘Dabbas’ yet when we think about it, only thing comes to our mind is the ‘Dabba’ that’s full of food, a Tiffin box.  Last time I wrote about the fisherwoman of Mumbai, because I found them unique and definitely different from other fisherwomen whom I met in different cities in different states or countries and in the different fish markets. Today, once more I am going back to the city, where I learned how to fight and then how to survived by conquering every fight I fought, it is none other than Mumbai. The community, rather call them the service provider, about whom I am going to write is the people who provided a unique service with ease and it would be impossible for us even if we are equipped with all modern equipment. They are the ‘Dabbawallahs’ of Mumbai. White pajama, white kurta and the topi clad simple looking guys can give an IIM grad run for his money. They are special so they have a documentary made on them by the BBC, they invited by Prince Charles in his wedding, they also invited as guest lecturer for many prestigious Business schools over the world and they found there name in Forbes Magazine too. There is some fact on the famous yet ordinary “Dabbawallahs” of Mumbai.

Dabbawallah; literally meaning "person with a box", is a person in India, most commonly found in the city of Mumbai, who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office workers, delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning the empty boxes back to the customer's residence by using various modes of transport.

The concept of the dabbawala originated when India was under British rule. Many British people who came to the colony did not like the local food, so a service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home.  Each dabbawala, regardless of role, gets paid about two to four thousand rupees per month. In 2002, Forbes Magazine found its reliability to be that of a six sigma standard.

More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunch boxes get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost punctuality. According to a recent survey, they make less than one mistake in every 6 million deliveries.

A simple colour coding system doubles as an ID system for the destination and recipient. There are no multiple elaborate layers of management either — just three layers. Each dabbawala is also required to contribute a minimum capital in kind, in the form of two bicycles, a wooden crate for the tiffins, white cotton kurta-pyjamas, and the white trademark Gandhi topi. The return on capital is ensured by monthly division of the earnings of each unit.

The service is almost always uninterrupted, even on the days of severe weather such as monsoons. The local dabbawalas and population know each other well, and often form bonds of trust. Dabbawalas are generally well accustomed to the local areas they cater to, and use shortcuts and other low profile routes to deliver their goods on time. Occasionally, people communicate between home and work by putting messages inside the boxes.

The BBC has produced a documentary on dabbawalas, and Prince Charles, during his visit to India, visited them, he had to fit in with their schedule, since their timing was too precise to permit any flexibility, Prince Charles also invited them to his wedding with Camilla Parker Bowles in London on 9 April 2005. Owing to the tremendous publicity, some of the dabbawalas were invited to give guest lectures in top business schools of India, which is very unusual. Most remarkably in the eyes of many Westerners, the success of the dabbawala trade has involved no advanced technology

!!!Uniqueness is a package of dedication, hard working , honesty and intelligence.!!!

Comparing the Incomparable!!

While comparing between two people, first thing is we need to check certain criteria and qualities that both should fulfill with equal quotient. It is about a question that circulating in the Facebook, first of all, one should know how to ask a question before knowing the answer. Put a question is no mater of joke. Some of those teenagers and obviously from Kolkata, mostly with zero quotient of general knowledge and may be yet not out of the school, let me come to the question that popped to me was asked by someone who is a friend of my student and it was circulating in Facebook - who is more intelligent. Is it Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. It seems some nut who asked the question and there were a few who voted for Mark Zuckerberg. Strange, these peoples might have lost their sanity. Comparing between moonlight to a candle light. I am here going to put some events and the achievements of both and also will  peep into their professional life. Let me start with the younger fellow :

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for creating the social networking site Facebook. It was co-founded as a private company in 2004 by Zuckerberg and classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while they were students at Harvard University.

Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally making them believe he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com (later called ConnectU). They filed a lawsuit in 2004 but it was dismissed on a technicality on March 28, 2007. It was refiled soon thereafter in federal court in Boston. Facebook counter sued in regards to Social Butterfly, a project put out by The Winklevoss Chang Group, an alleged partnership between ConnectU and i2hub. On June 25, 2008, the case settled and Facebook agreed to transfer over 1.2 million common shares and pay $20 million in cash.

As we know some of his life from Movie "Social Networking". Now, apart from Facebook, we are waiting something else from him. Philanthropy, issue he promised a lot but yet to commit.

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen.  During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect.

Basic

In 1975,  Gates he written an interpreter for a programming language known as  BASIC for the platform.

DOS

Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS,  and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry

OS/2

In August, 19985, Microsoft company struck a deal with IBM to develop a separate operating system called OS/2. Although the two companies successfully developed the first version of the new system, mounting creative differences undermined the partnership.

Windows

Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985, But it was not the Os we are using today.

Windows OS

Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant and then there were many versions of it we are using as our working platform.

Applications and Other Software

Microsoft-Office, a package without it day-to-day work would have been not the same. The Visual studio and .Net are the other software which Microsoft given us and waiting for many more.

Philanthropy

Gates began to appreciate the expectations others had of him when public opinion mounted suggesting that he could give more of his wealth to charity. 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world. The foundation allows benefactors access to information regarding how its money is being spent. The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second-most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity

A social Networking site may be new for us, but it was there since long. So, Mark  Zuckerberg not created an extra-ordinary thing. He was lucky so he got away with it, some other will come up with another such new sites and certainly these nuts will vote for that. Anyhow  intellectual Netizens still prefer Twitter, a no nonsense social networking site.

I started with 8088 processor and then he gave us a Micro-computer with BASIC. Bill Gates took us to a new level when he provided two tiny feet to the PC  with  PC-DOS, We started with COBOL, PASCAL, FORTRAN under one platform along with WordPerfect, WordStar and Lotus application package. Then it was Windows 1 to 3.1, where first time we exposed to the world of colour. He added wings to the PC so it can fly with WINDOWS OS like 95, 98, 2000, ME, VISTA, XP and Win-7. He provided a electronic pen in every PC user’s hand with MS-Office package.

We are sitting on one of those wings provided by Gates and exploring the nets along with Facebook, so where are the comparison.

!!!So, comparing above two means only expose your stupidity!!!