Air Water and Food

 

Air Water and Food

Right from the human inception and its million of years of progression, it has survived on its brain but mostly on clean air, clean water and food, good enough to support the nutrient demands of the body. Even after million years of journey, these are still the primary yardsticks of any developed country and overall human development index. Suddenly why I have thought of these basic ingredients of human life, has got a background.

Over the past few weeks, news which compromise on these basic ‘tatav’ of our life are scary and more concerning as they are coming from the most affluent cities of India. The air of national capital has drawn global attention since the last decade. Kids have reluctantly relinquished firecrackers during Diwali, a festival of light and hope which comes once in a year. Instead they are using battery operated bat to kill mosquitoes and the sparkling light and ‘put pop’ sound gives them a new pleasure of fire crackers. Their joy has not just narrowed by ban on fire crackers but also the untimely closure of schools due to the bad air in the city. Hospitals get overcrowded and olds and weak people find it difficult to survive. Now the rich and affluent old leaves the city for a quarter to go to their kid’s homes in other cities or sometimes out of the country also. But not many have that luxury. They remain enclosed within their houses or gated societies. Even going to lush green Delhi parks is a risk to their lungs during the peak of pollution mainly the months of November, December and January.  Contrary to the common belief, Delhi has highest number of green zones and trees. I believe it’s more green zones than that of any big metros of the country. But a decade of inept policing and lack of political will and coordination among states has failed millions of Delhiites, young and old alike.

So Delhi was for air, if we move to another big and bubbling metro, Bangalore, it has got water crisis.   Post covid and the rise of IT companies by leap and bounds have pushed Bangalore to new heights of growth, inflation and urbanisation. The sizeable increase in number of IT companies and Bangalore’s pied piper charm has drawn millions of youths not only across the country but outside the country too. The magnanimous growth has put heavy load on its natural resources, water being the prime one. The heat wave and temperature in the month of April has beaten records of May and all the previous years. I remember the month of May in Bangalore more than couple of decades ago, there was no fan in the school classes. I was so surprised to see that. It was not because they had no funds but they didn’t need fans. Bangalore was cool, moderate and congestion free. But now a day’s even the ministers of the state are struggling to get proper supply of water in Bangalore. This is indeed a pathetic situation and put a huge question mark on our development trajectory. I am not even asking about the pure drinking water supply to our water taps, it’s just the water supply which is in shambles in Bangalore. The supply of pure drinking water without the need of RO and filters is another big issue which needs another big article. I can’t accommodate it here.

So we have seen air and water. Air and water alone can’t feed us. We need food too. The adulteration of food, fruits, spices and vegetables in India is a huge and old problem. The desire to earn quick money by greedy business people and ghastly corrupt and inept government agencies has hugely disappointed us. They have no concerns for human general wellbeing and health. They don’t bother whether the adulterating agents can cause cancer or compromise immunity of our kids. The recent news of top spice brands of the country has got cancer causing agents and that too investigated by agencies of Singapore and Hongkong is a matter of national concern. We are known for spices for ages. It’s one of our biggest PR brand. If we are faltering it, it will dent our country’s image globally. Why our govt agencies never bothered to check or investigate these samples before?? Recently we heard of raids on spurious drug companies selling medicines critical for life. Even foreign brands, like Nestle take us granted. They get a free hand in adding extra sugar in baby products which makes immune system of our babies weaker. This has also been revealed by a foreign agency not our lazy and corrupt government agencies which find everything is in rosy condition. The role of media is also questionable. Is the media doing enough to expose the nexus between these corrupt ‘babus’ and greedy business people??

In the blind push for development, which is undoubtedly the need of the hour, are we doing enough to sustain the basic ingredients of life? Sorry if I sound like a crying baby but I wrote it because not much noise is heard on these basic amenities in public discourse. The talks are more on reels, IPL and elections. I don’t think only roads and bridges make us stronger. We as a human and citizen of the country have basic rights on the core ingredients of life: air, water and food. Isn’t it?

Sometimes tremors are good

 

Sometimes tremors are good

Couple of days back , there was a strong tremor in Delhi NCR. People were getting ready to go to bed. The strong jolt forced people to get out of their homes. As anticipated the epicentre was in Afghanistan. Few interesting things happened because of this jolt:

• I saw people clutching different things in their hands while coming down. Few carried their passports, they have dreams of going to Canada. Few carried their college certificates. They might be eyeing for job switch or higher studies. Few carried snacks and water in case spending night or next morning out of their house. Few carried their wallets and car keys prepared to spend night in car and to have some money to purchase essentials in case. Few carried their baby diapers and food. Everyone had different priorities and what they carried, spoke volume about their priorities in their lives.

• We came to know how many people are actually living in the colony, who are our neighbours and their family members. There were peals of laughter and friendly banters exchanged. Many people talked to each other for the first time. People were confident that tremors were no longer coming back and no more trouble to their lives and houses. It’s rightly said that strangers are friends not met yet.

• Almost everyone told me the first thing they did was to go to balcony when they felt the tremors. We don’t want to waste our time going down. We wanted to make sure that those were the real tremors. This is our old habit. Whenever there was power cut in my house, I used to go to balcony to see if there are power cuts in our neighbours house also. This is not only me but almost everyone’s habit. We don’t panic to see our misery unless the same is happening in our neighbourhood.

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  Many people had to come out of their houses through stairs even from the 40th floor. Nowadays buildings in societies are mostly skyscrapers in Delhi NCR. Lifts were stopped. Few had nightmares of the lifetime while getting down through stairs because of old age and comorbidities. Many people had on the spot fitness test of their lungs and hearts.

I remember a similar earthquake tremors were felt in Delhi NCR a decade back and people had to come out of their houses in the middle of the night. These memories are few of the lifetime moments and we remember them always. It’s rightly said the fear brings people closer to each other. It gives opportunity to meet and know each other specially the people in our vicinity. In our hectic life spiked by ego and arrogance, we don’t bother to give even a harmless smile to those living on the same floor. Sometime these tremors not only shake the foundation of tall buildings but also shake the mountains of arrogance in us and make us more like human.

How does Chocolate taste on Everest

 

If someone asks you , “ what is the greatest thing you want to do in your life?”. Few will say having a big house or a latest speedy sports-car or a plush foreign vacation. Few will like to settle down in one of the developed countries . Few will settle down with big roles in their respective departments. But giants will say scaling Everest is the greatest thing they want to do in their life. And greatest of them can dream for it without having their eyes. Yes, it has not only been dreamt but have been achieved by the three great dreamers so far.

Erik Weihenmayer , an American athlete and the first blind to scale Everest will be celebrating 21 years of it on 25^th May 2022.While reading an interesting book,’ How does chocolate taste on Everest “ to my son, I came to know of Erik and his great achievement. The different stages of Everest climbing come with different levels of difficulties where oxygen level is very low, your taste buds are gone at that altitude, whereas there are few crevices where you have to climb through wobbly suspended ladders. Imagining such scenarios itself can shake many strong will powered people and how about a person who can not see what is he climbing up to or what he has just climbed. A slip and you are thousands of kilometres

 down.

When Erik returned to base camp after scaling Everest , his team leader said a very interesting line. “Don’t make Everest the greatest thing you ever do”. Erik could not understand the motive of the quote at that time but he realised it after reaching USA. And he went up to complete all the seven summits of the seven continents and also did more than 400 kilometres of Kayaking in one of the most dangerous white water in Grand Canyon. He wrote three books and is working to help and inspire people with or without disabilities.

The story of Erik has rocked my mind and crossed many times since I read about him. If anyone becomes hopeless and have no courage to achieve his/her target, just think about Erik and his journey and chin up.

If you have courage to dream , you have hope to achieve it.

चाटना

 चाटना

ये एक ऐसा शब्द है जिसका प्रयोग हिंदी साहित्य में सामान्यता नहीं होता है | पर ये बड़ा ही मज़ेदार और असरदार शब्द है | ऐसा कौन होगा जिसे आइसक्रीम , लॉलीपॉप या चटनी चाटना पसंद नहीं होगा | आप अगर किसीको ऐसा करते देखते हैं तो आपको भी चाटने का मन करता है | आधुनिक युग में इस शब्द का प्रयोग एक और प्रक्रिया की तरफ इंगित करता है | इसका साहित्यिक शब्द है 'खुशामद ' करना और कई मौकों पर अत्याधिक 'खुशामद ' करना | आज के युग में चाटना और चटाना एक स्वाभाविक प्रक्रिया बन चूका है | यह छेत्र ,जात ,धर्म से उप्पर जा चूका है | इंसान को अपने निजी स्वार्थ और उसकी प्राप्ति के लिए 'चाटना ' सबसे कारगर साधन दिखता है | हाँ, इसके कुछ अपवाद भी रहे हैं जब अदद 'चाटने ' के बावजूद भी इंसान चूक जाता है | कई बार होता ये है की चाटने वाला इंसान 'सही' इंसान को परखने में भूल कर जाता है और गलत आदमी को चाटने के कारण उसका काम लटक जाता है | खैर चाटना भी एक कला है और ये अनुभव से और भी निखर के आता है | कुछ लोग स्वाभाविक रूप से इस कला में पारंगत होते हैं , ख़ासकर वो जिनके अंदर और कोई प्रतिभा नहीं होती

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चाटने की दुनिया में उतरने से पहले कुछ बुनियादी जरूरतों का ख्याल रखना पढता है | आपको अपनी शरीर की चमड़ी को गैंडे की चमड़ी के बराबर रखना पड़ेगा | दो कानों के बीच हवादार सुरंग का निर्माण करना होगा | अपनी जिहवा को मखन , तेल , घी से मालिस करना होगा | क्यूंकि बहुत सारे लोग आपको हिकारत की नज़रों से देखेंगे | पहले तो आपको आपका स्वाभिमान भी धिक्कारेगा | कुछ सामने से तो कुछ पीठ पीछे आपको ताने भी देंगे और आपको भला बुरा भी कहेंगे | वस्तुतः उनको आपकी अप्रत्याशित सफलता हजम नहीं होगी | इसके कारण कई हो सकते हैं जैसे ईर्ष्या,उनके पेट के अंदर नैतिकता के बैलून का अत्यधिक फूलना , आपसे स्पर्धा , उनकी पत्नी का आपकी पत्नी से ३६ का आँकड़ा इत्यादि इत्यादि | ये तमाम अरचन आएँगे | पर एक बार अगर आपने चाटने की कला सीख़ ली तो आपको आगे बढ़ने से कोई नहीं रोक सकता है |  

इस प्रक्रिया का दूसरा भाग आता है 'चटाना' | सामान्यता जिस इंसान को 'चाटा' जा रहा है वो ऊँचे ओहदे पर होता है | ऊँचे ओहदे पर होने के कारण बहुत कम लोगो से उसकी बातचीत होती है और वो अकेला हो जाता है | उसके नीचे काम करने वाले उससे भयाकुल रहते हैं और उससे बात करने से भी हिचकते हैं | यहाँ पर वो इंसान जिसने चाटने की कला सिख ली है , अपना सिक्का जमा लेता है | अपनी कला के बदौलत वो अपनी चिपचिपी बातों का जाल बुनता है और बॉस को फाँसता है | बॉस का भी एकांकी दूर हो जाता है और उसे अचानक अपने 'महान' होने का अभूतपूर्व एहसास हो जाता है | चाटने वाला इंसान इस बात को भलीभांति जानता है | अगर बॉस ने सड़ा हुआ सा भी मज़ाक किया तो वो उसे एहसास करा देगा की उसने मशहूर हाँस्य अभिनेता 'जॉनी वॉकर ' को पीछे छोड़ दिया है और बॉस के साथ कोई दुःख वाली बात घटित हो तो खुद 'रुदाली' बनने के लिए तैयार हो जाएगा | अगर बॉस ने मुँह धोया तो उसके लिए रूमाल लेकर खड़ा हो जाएगा | बॉस के पसंद नापसंद का पूरा ख्याल रखा जायेगा | बॉस के फरमाइस करने से पहले उस चींज को हाज़िर कर देगा जिस चीज के बारे में बॉस ने शायद सोचा ही हो | कई बार बॉस जिसको चाटा जा रहा है ख़ुद अचरज में पड़ जाता है की इतना ख्याल तो उसकी माँ या बीवी भी नहीं रखती | हिंदी गीत 'मैं दुःख तेरा ले लूँ , तू सुख मेरा ले ले ' यहाँ चरितार्थ हो जाता है | 

कुछ समय के बाद चट चट के बॉस खुद ही सफ़ाचट हो जाता है और चाटने वाला आदमी उससे भी आगे निकल जाता है | शायद ही कोई छेत्र हो जहाँ चाटने और चटाने की प्रक्रिया न चल रही हो | इस प्रक्रिया में काफ़ी स्पर्धा भी है और अपार अवसर भी हैं | तो भाईयों , 'चतनम शरणम् गच्छामि ' करें और आगे बढ़े | 

नोट- इस लेख को पढ़ते समय अपने ऑफिस या कार्यछेत्र के सबसे बड़े चाटने और चटने वाले व्यक्ति का समरण करें ,इससे लेख पढ़ने का दुगुना लाभ मिलेगा | 

कृत्य - कुणाल

A tight rope walk in Bihar

 All the flashlights are hogged on two elections that are going to  be held under COVID 19 pandemic. One is US presidential elections and the other is the Bihar assembly elections. One of the most interesting political circuses is to be ushered in Bihar. Bihar elections looked one-sided till last week but a lot got changed since then. It makes it interesting. My candid take on this:

a) Voter turnout is going to be lowest in many and many years not only as Corona is in the air but also not much enthusiasm is in general public either for the govt or for any alternative to the govt.

b) In few segments there is anti-incumbency against the current regime and Nitish being head of the govt, JDU will have to face it bluntly. Lack of jobs in the state and rampant migration to other states are the major fire brewing factors. Corona has added more fuel to this.

c) Many voters are looking for alternative parties and right candidates. In absence of that, there will be a good number of ‘NOTA’ votes. Others and independent candidates will also gain in this election. Winning margins will be very thin on many seats.

c) Bihar elections have widely spread into five blocks: NDA , Mahagathbandhan , LJP , Upendra Kushwaha led block and the public. While kushwaha block is more of ‘vote katwa’ what is called in local political language than the real winners and it will damage more to JDU than any other parties.

d) LJP maneuvering to contest solely is not what meets the eyes. The induction of leaders from BJP and Sangh cadres into the LJP is a well-thought strategy of BJP to keep JDU within the limits. It can not rely on Nitish any more after the 2015 assembly elections. There will be sympathy votes for Late Ramvilas Paswan and it will help LJP at least on few seats for sure.

e) BJP is in pursuit of crossing 90 seats and will help LJP to cross 30 seats at least. It will give BJP the magic number to cross with the help of a few independents or others. BJP wants to be in a position to take a big brother seat in the alliance or maybe the driver seat if needed. Few names that are doing rounds in BJP circle for CM candidates are Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nityanand Rai.

f) BJP is relying on Modi’s popularity and the work is done by the central govt rather than state govt. But the voters of Bihar will vote differently in assembly than what they did in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Caste arithmetic, local issues, candidates' credibility will be more important than the rest of the issues. BJP does need wholehearted support of Nitish caste-based voters to sail across.

g) Elections will be tightly contested as educated and middle class the core votes of BJP and somewhat JDU also, will not turn up in droves to vote for them. In addition, the large scale unemployed youths will add salt to the wound of the current govt. Bihar has the highest number of young voters in the country.

h)A major advantage Nitish enjoys is the support of female voters, young as well as old cutting across the caste and creed lines. They will definitely help him. Ban on alcohol, old-age pensions, water taps in every house, scholarships for 12^th, and graduate girls are popular schemes among the female voters. Nitish hold on ECB ( extremely backward castes ) and distribution of lots of tickets to Yadavs to breach RJD vote bank may also help him.

Many words and lines can be written in election speculation But in short the path of BJP as well as JDU does not look very smooth but they are still in advantage thanks to inexperienced and incredible RJD leadership as well as the fear of the return of ‘Lalu Raj’.

Parle G - The Hope G

Parle G - The ‘Hope G’

Most of the kids belonging to the middle-class families of 
80’s - 90’s may have loving memories of eating Parle G biscuits from its yellow paper wax pack with the photo of a lovely kid. Years passed, cookies took some space of biscuits, kids of those era became parents of kids but the importance and presence of Parle G in the biscuit world remain intact.The same Parle G still entices those kids as well as stray dogs of metros. People started feeding Parle G to puppies because of its low cost. Few because they love pets and few just out of sheer fashion.

The same Parle G turned out to be life savior for thousands and thousands of migrant workers and their families who hit the road in desperate move to reach their villages during the corona lockdown. With few packs of Parle G and water and never-dying hope , they traveled more than a thousand kilometers. Few just on foot, few on cycles and bikes. People mainly migrant laborers from prosper states mainly Tamilnadu, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat started to travel towards their native and labor-intensive states like U.P, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal etc within a week of the lockdown. They were walking days and nights on road, railway tracks in a desperate move to survive, and even ready to die among their own people. With hotels, roadside Dhaba, restaurants closed , they had to rely on ready-made or packed food to survive during their long journey. A small pack of low-cost Parle G from any corner stores or from generous ngo , individuals came handy to them. It gave them a hope to have something in their stomach to carry on their desperate and ardors journey. The old and nostalgic Parle G became a new panacea for them and became the ‘Hope G’ for them. Though having lots of biscuits is not considered good for health because of the presence of refined white flour in biscuits. But when there is a race between hunger and fear, hunger has an advantage, forget about nutrition values.

The front line medical staff, transporters, grocery stores, sanitation workers, ngo, and individuals helping people to survive with their services during the uncertain Corona period were termed as ‘Corona Warriors’. It had got one very unusual addition in the list, the ‘Parle G’ as another ‘Corona Warrior’. It indeed helped many to survive a very unusual and difficult times arouse because of Corona and subsequent lockdown.

Around Oct-Nov 2019, people were gauging the health of the Indian economy by the sale of biscuits. Economics pundits predicted signs of the dwindling economy as people were not buying biscuits particularly ‘Parle G’ especially in rural India. Biscuit shelves of grocery stores were almost empty in March - April 2020 during the Corona lockdown. The same Parle G registered its highest growth in its history in the months of March-April 2020, but the market still does not look very green even though the biscuit industry is flying with colors. May be economics pundits will come up with some other yardsticks to gauge the pulse of the economy if not biscuits.

There is another story of Parle G nostalgia. At one end it had become food for puppies in India’s metros because of its cheaper price, it is sold three to four times costlier in countries like the UK, the USA, etc. Sometimes demand is too high in those countries to meet the supply. Those kids of the ’80s-’90s who have come abroad wanted to live their childhood memories with each Parle G dipping in their morning cup of tea. They wanted to relive those moments of sharing Parle G biscuits

 

with their siblings and friends when they had a limited capacity to purchase even Parle G.

Though having many biscuits are not good for health, even the plastic packaging of Parle G like other brands of biscuits is not healthy for the environment. The company should look back to its old paper wax pack to help nature to revive itself with less plastic pollution in the coming days and years. The company which was named after the place where it was started in Mumbai, Ville Parle has seen more than seven decades of its journey. With around 1 billion packs of Parle G biscuits consumed every month, the plastic pollution by it can not be simply ignored.

In the meanwhile Parle G, the new ‘Hope G’ broke all records of sale and rekindled hopes of not only migrant workers but thousands of its staff and their families when there is a real shortage of job opportunities in the country because of the Corona pandemic. It’s time to have a couple of Parle G with tea.

Post Corona World - Revitalised

Will the world be same Post-Corona??

I had written this article in March end and publishing it on 11th May and looks like predictions are on track:

Amid all the chaos, lockdown, and siren of the ambulance coming from the window of my house in the UK, I tried to visualize the ray of hope in the post-Corona world. Nature will rebalance its verticals and horizontals. It will take no less than three months from now, say 28th June for the world to recover and stabilize. What will happen on 28th June, just try to imagine:

 We will be out to see the clearer blue sky, will breathe more pure air and water of ponds, rivers, and oceans will be clearer than what we had seen when we were a very young lad or few had ever seen in their lifetime.

b)Few of us will have large bellies, fairer skin, or sunken eyes or few will be more fit than before. But We will be so delighted to see each other: our friends, neighbors, relatives or even strangers with glitters in everyone's eyes.

c) We will get so much obsessed with screens be it TV, Mobile, I Pads, etc that we will just want to talk and see each other and no inclination for the screen anymore.

d) We never thought there would be a time going to the office will be a pleasure. This is going to happen.

e) We will understand the importance of not only our lives but others too. There will be less road rage, less anger, and more care not only for our fellow human beings but for mother nature also.

f) The hegemony of 'Made in China' will be broken forever. Local economies will spurt and thrive. The habit of purchasing cheap products will take backstage and the importance of local products will be recognized.

g) Each country will focus more on research, hospitals, parks, library, education than on arms and ammunition. Because your ballistic missiles and nuclear arsenals could not defend you from an invisible virus. The mightiest and the bulkiest are at their knees now. There will be a united initiative worldwide for such pandemics.

h) How we will behave, how kind we will be, how generous we will be in these three months will be remembered for many months and years to come.
Hold on your nerves. The battle has just begun. And only the luckiest and the smartest warriors will emerge as victorious to see 'the upcoming magic' say on a date, 28th June.

तथास्तु!!