Amusing Evolution

I came across a disturbing news report in the morning daily a few days ago: A 55 year old man rapes a 4 year old. Unfortunately, it is a shame to admit that it wasn't so disturbing as the first time I had read similar news a few years ago. But, it got me thinking on what the world has become or is in the process of becoming. Increasing rape cases is one of the problems that perturbs India. There is chaos and severe human cruelty in Gaza. Just last week, a Malaysian flight was hit by an air missile apparently from Russia (also apparently unintentionally). Every corner of the world is confronted with problems created by humanity and this is a humble attempt to try and analyze what and why all of this chaos is happening. This is truly a rough post, written in one stroke as my thoughts flow--so, I haven't exactly made an analysis and there is not a guarantee of a conclusion, but I wonder if there is an explanation for such an occurrence.

I have two primary reasons to believe that humanity is capable of the best and the worst :

(1) Humans have the ability to make choices unlike many of the other creatures on the planet.

(2) Humanity has evolved from monkeys to apes to some human-monkey like creatures to the Homo Sapiens to present-day modern man living with luxuries. All the Science around us wasn't born out of nowhere. Man has studied Science (of all kinds) and manipulated it to his advantage and use, putting in the process his thoughts.

I just looked up the meaning of evolution on Google and out of the two definitions that Google showed me, I choose to report the following here: the gradual development of something.

Now, to think about development, I see how current generation thought process has evolved, for instance. I will not do the boring science talk that most people come up with when we talk about present day developments. How about the Human Being? Picking Brokeback Mountain or Milk as movie examples that showed the early-days-journey of Homosexuals, today they have rights and are warmly accepted by most part of the Society. This is development, indeed or evolution if otherwise termed.

The British ruled India for 3 centuries! Now, that's a long time and I wonder, (if perhaps) back then, did they even realize that they were being ruled by foreigners. After all, the Maharaja was simply replaced by another form of anarchy, to them. For the most part, they were unaware of their rights. Maybe the concept of rights was even foreign because the trust and respect to the Maharajas were utmost. Today, we fight against the Government for our rights. Introduction of Right to Information Act 2005 (India) is a fantastic example of the result of such a struggle. This also is evolution. 

Parents supporting their children who become victims to human crimes is also evolution, in contrast to the old ages when the victims were hushed to honor the prestige and the pride of the family. Philosophers and Scientists of the 16th and 17th centuries were threatened to be killed, or in many cases, killed if and when they made a hypothesis that did not resonate with the higher authorities of the Church. Ironically, in many cases, they were proved to be right in the later centuries. Today, we are planning a mission to Mars, another planet altogether and keeping the word "impossible" out of dictionary. This is evolution too!

The disturbing question: Is the rape of the innocent minor mentioned in the opening of this post, evolution too? I have read and heard of several cases of child abuse--I wonder if that falls in the evolution too.  Consistent (abrupt) bombing incidents in some countries that is reported of now and then (in contrast to organized wars in the past for a reason they thought valid), the man who beats up his wife regularly assuming her to be weak (Women were at a lower position perhaps in the olden days, but not today), human killings for greed of excess wealth/money (Money was only a means of livelihood, really long ago), all of these events-- are they part of the evolution process?

One aspect common to the incidents from the beginning of this post until so far is : FREEDOM. Not the freedom that the society or the community or the Government or the law has given, but the freedom that we have given to ourselves. Whether it is the freedom to ask our very own parents why they made a certain decision which we ascertain as a wrong doing (the positive) or the freedom to light a fire on another human being (the negative), eventually, we have made a pact with ourselves that we are going to give ourselves the freedom to do something that we feel like doing.

So, after all, it looks like I have a conclusion: The process of the evolution of human thinking and behaviour is a function of the FREEDOM that a human being keeps giving to her/himself. 

And like I mentioned, I am not going to attempt on the correct extent of freedom that one should give to oneself, but certainly, it looks like I made a successful analysis without a hypothesis (atleast I think so).

P.S: This is truly a one-time rough post that I have written on a random, boring Sunday afternoon. I have thought of several cases in my mind (even if I have not mentioned all of them here), but it looks to me like I have a decent conclusion. Please share your comments and feedback, if you have an opinion on this topic.

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

Domestic Violence is defined appropriately in "The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005". I will not go into the details of how many women of our country are suffering at the hands of men, in different forms. However, the more unfortunate fact is that most women are either not aware of the laws that exist to protect them or even worse, are not aware that they are suffering at the hands of "criminals" as defined by the law. They do not realize that they are becoming the victims of domestic violence identified as criminal offence by the law. In other cases, women do not want to step forward to expose the "criminals" (as defined by law) for reasons they think are valid. My appeal to all such women : You are a person. You are an individual and you have the right to lead your life the way you wish. Nobody, I repeat, Nobody has the right to control your life. If a partner cannot live up to the definition of the word, then that person is not worth one bit of your time. Be aware that the law defines a person who subjects you to "Domestic Violence" as a criminal and delivers punishment to such a person, if you wish so.

Below is the list of clauses (exactly and word-by-word as defined in the Act) in brief. This will give an overview of the extent of harassment defined as "crime" by the law and the "related penalties/punishments" to the "criminal" (as defined by the law)

Definition of Domestic Violence:

Definition of domestic violence.-For the purposes of this Act, any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent shall constitute domestic violence in case it -

(a) harms or injures or endangers the health, safety, life, limb or well-being, whether mental or physical, of the aggrieved person or tends to do so and includes causing physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse and economic abuse; or

(b) harasses, harms, injures or endangers the aggrieved person with a view to coerce her or any other person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any dowry or other property or valuable security; or

(c) has the effect of threatening the aggrieved person or any person related to her by any conduct mentioned in clause (a) or clause (b); or

(d) otherwise injures or causes harm, whether physical or mental, to the aggrieved person.

Breathing Life into Life: Connecting with the nature

Ever since I grew up and remember the time that responsibilities of my life started to prevail-things started to get chaotic in my head. I would always look for ways to release the thoughts running at a million/second. Our poor head is a really small space for so many thoughts to fit in and actually be dealt with. In fact, a million thoughts running in heads is very common for most people in the current world resulting in mental stress and in turn, physical stress as well.

The 21st century lifestyle we all are living has indeed built another mini-world inside our heads where we live as who we actually are. For some other people, this mini- world may be a list of to-do things they are yet to execute and how to execute them. The point is: Our minds have become like computer programs- a list of instructions/statements running continuously and we are hypothetically executing them in our heads or even worse-analyzing how to execute those things that are not anywhere happening in the near future. Even Christopher Nolan implicated through Inception that minds could be manipulated and there is no boundary to the imagination and power of the human mind.

I believe that it is difficult to have this load running continuously in the head and it reduces our productivity. Getting things done: The art of stress-free productivity is a fantastic book on proper management and utilization of our own resources. That apart, I have figured that connecting with the nature has helped me heal myself emotionally and relieve my mind off the burden of the chaos of thoughts.

I believe in God, I do. But in the form of the Universal cosmic powers that surround us all the time. To be more precise, the natural elements apart from the Sun, the stars and the Universe such as the components of our planet Earth-The land, the oceans, the wind, the rivers, the hills and the trees-All of which we see with our naked eye every single day of our life. 

In this kind yet cruel world, where crime happens at a more rapid pace than the pace at which criminals get convicted, these elements are the truest witnesses to everything happening in the world.

As a small example: Assuming your car/vehicle broke down and there is no public transport to go to work and you are forced to walk the road on a hot, sunny day with a temperature of 41°C. You have to admit that you will be relieved at the sight of a tree. You quickly run under the tree, and feel the solace of your life, don't you? Even if it is for a short while, it feels Godly to have gotten shelter from a natural something that is not even asking anything in return, selflessly serving you while it absorbs the sun's rays. You might argue that it needs the Sun for its photosynthesis, but did you think about the fact that it needs water as well for its photosynthesis and it's an orphan on the road-so do you know if it received its share of water for the day?

This may be a slightly childish example but I intentionally gave a simple demonstration such as the above to put light on the fact that we tend to take things around us for granted. I have no opinion about worship at religious places, but you can find the Universal power and God through nature. And connecting with this universal power of the natural elements around us has helped me relieve my mind.

I go on adventure trips such as hikes, treks and rock-climbing, scrambling with a group or individually every now and then to connect with the nature. And the feelings I possess during and post the trip is very hard to describe in words. It is to be experienced if you are truly in love with nature, like me. I consider them as my God, because they listen to me.

Whenever I stare at them in silence, I can feel them, feel their power, know that they see me, that they are listening to me and will make things right for me. Such feelings have no explanations or justifications and are simply to be experienced.

What will you get out of connecting with the nature? (Because it is human nature to wonder, as Dale Carnegie correctly pointed out : What's in it for me?) A relief! An unbelievable relief of mind.

Whenever the mind is chaotic and you close your eyes, you will see a traffic jam of thoughts. If you connected with the nature, and then closed your eyes, you will see nothing and sense only peace.

One can only realize the power of connecting with the nature. How to connect with the nature? Go visit some natural, scenic place in some remote area. If not anything else, sit in a place (such as the terrace of your apartment/house)- Don't talk, Don't think and just stare at the sky or a tree in silence. As you practice this, you will begin to feel a sense of calm prevail in your mind, in your heart and in your body. I assure you- that is the most beautiful feeling you will have ever experienced.

Breathing Life into Life-Highway

This post is not a review of the movie Highway,to be precise. As such my intention is to share my feelings about the message the movie delivered, but I would like to take a moment to reflect on the movie- perhaps, with rational directors like Imtiaz Ali, Bollywood has evolved into making movies that actually are influential more than being just an entertainer. The screenplay, direction and locations were fantastic. More phenomenal however, were both the actors--specially Randeep Hooda and not because he was looking really hot in that rugged look of a Haryanvi, but because he had to deliver most of his emotions through his facial expressions and that, my dear friends, is very tough for an actor playing a protagonist with limited dialogues.

Thanks to Imtiaz Ali-I got to see a fant-abulous movie
after a really long time!
picture source:musichitzz.com

That apart, by the end of the movie, a very obvious thing struck me- Life is short. Veera, in the movie, was living all her life affluently and having the ultimatum luxuries of life--yet, she was suffocating & unhappy. There are many times in life, where we sense that something is wrong. The feeling of discomfort at the thought of that "something wrong", the fear to face it or the fear of the resulting consequences. And yet, we either fail to assess the serious impact of that situation on our life or even worse, do not realize the existence of that discomfort as constant denial has made it part of the subconscious.

This situation could be implicated in anybody's life in any phase. For instance, there could be this person taking all criticism from the one and only best friend but does not speak up for fear of losing the friendship. There could be the obedient child, who knows that the particular decision his/her parents made for him/her is not good for them but has made it part of their system to believe that parents are the best-decision makers for them. An employee having to be a sycophant to his boss for reasons valid to him/her, to get a promotion or a raise. All these hypothetical people in the hypothetical but real situations in life, tend to feel suffocated but tend to just go on living the same old way.

Break Free! That's the first thing the movie told me. No matter what situation of discomfort/uneasiness/unhappiness in life, be bold enough to come face to face with it, for starters. Whether you want to bring about a change or not is secondary and has nothing to do with  facing-head-on your discomfort, suffocation and that "something is wrong" feelings. In fact, it is crucial to the well-being of the mind that you understand what it is feeling rather than to dismiss it, deny it and push it into your subconscious where it only accumulates until one day it bursts out.

If all this was too hard to understand, all I am saying is begin to do what Veera does at the end--Break free out of the discomfort & Just do it. Now, I am not indicating that you must pack your bags, grab a chunk of money from your bank and start a business in the hilly North Indian region-- I know we all have jobs and families to take care of, and such endings in the movies are, in most cases, hypothetical (Although I am not ruling out the possibility of the occurrence of such an event).

But when you start tackling your inner discomfort, and begin asking questions to yourself about what is wrong, that's when you begin to get answers and locate the reason/s for that bad feeling. The next thing you need is courage to do what it takes. I will discuss that, in yet another post of mine--but this is the first step to being at peace with yourself.

Because the real joy of living is not breathing and surviving but experiencing your existence every moment by doing things to breathe life into life. 

When at the Airport...

I have hardly been to the airport a few times now (for boarding flights that is) and every other time, the tiresome process of immigration, luggage check in and security check in, blah blah just wears me down totally. Back when I was a school kid and hadn't been to an airport as of then,  airports were supposedly huge hallways with infinitely long escalators and large elevators where you can get to click pictures with celebrities Although it's an altogether another issue that I have never recognized any of the celebrities I personally saw till date (BELIEVE ME! Their faces on and off the camera are a major contrast). 


But Airports, for me now really are about waiting in long lines for all sorts of formalities and having to ask at least 10 people for directions, especially if you haven't been there before and all the more especially if you are in one (like The Miami International Airport) where the employees do not know the directions to certain important points in the area and getting completely exhausted by the end of all this only to ironically having to take an 8-12 hour flight or maybe more beyond that. Not to mention the overly-expensive food and drinks at the airport food courts.

The Washington Dulles Airport-One of the finest I have seen.
With large direction boards & help desks at critical locations, it's
very convenient to go  from one corner to the other

Hardly few visits and I have so many experiences and stories. Some of these suggestions may be obvious, but they are not-so-obvious when they actually happen to you. London Heathrow Airport, one of the prominent stops on USA-India travel- I saw more Asian people than the English.It was almost dawn when I landed and I don't know if it was the half-asleep-half-awake condition (Yes, I'd rather use these four words than the one word "hypnagogia" because the latter sounds like some kind of illness to me) but I do remember asking the official where to head to next (without telling him I had a connecting flight, perhaps? So what! He should have asked). I ended up standing in the immigration line for almost half an hour till my eyes suddenly caught a board in the corner with the words "connecting flight" and the respective direction. So, in the airports, especially for the first time goers, 

Watch out for the signs & direction boards. Not all the airports have large sized direction boards and signs, but they will certainly be there!

Had it not been for the three hour gap between my previous & next flight and if bad luck had struck me enough for a very long security line, I could have missed my connecting flight. So, make sure you are going in the right direction and if you are not sure, ASK. Ask 10 or even 100 times. You would rather look like a paranoid fool than miss your flight and get stranded in a country where you don't have a visa to.

Wear as less jewelry/accessories as possible. 

Chances are you have to stand in a huge box with your arms spread wide and if you are to go in there, you will have to take off all the metal accessories. Since I was already too tired, I took off only a few that were too obvious (Yes, I do wear a lot of those in general). But when I entered the box, it made an annoying sound and the 5 foot 11 inches broad-shouldered security woman in her British accent gave me a 5 minute lecture on the importance of taking all the metal accessories in all international airports during security checks.

Make sure you have all duty-free items and NOT end up paying huge fines in customs.

I had checked up the list for both countries. Check it for every international travel & check YOUR bag. If you are carrying an old bag, make sure you've thoroughly emptied it. An American co-passenger told me he once ended up paying $500 for an orange which he had got as prasadam from a temple in India, but had forgotten about it altogether. 

DO NOT LOSE your passport and boarding pass at any cost. 

Make sure you are ALERT not to leave these two "gold pieces" anywhere. (They're a lot more precious than Gold when you are traveling-Believe me!) Be paranoid and check every 5 minutes whether you have those two in hand. If you are a relatively careless person, then I recommend that those two strictly be in your handbag, even if you have to take it out multiple times (Yes, you have to show those two every now and then to some or the other airport official)

Once you frequently begin to do a to-fro international travel, it will still be tiresome and full of hassles, but you are at least familiar with everything. Try not to have two flights with a gap of really long hours, otherwise you might have to sit and write down some crap, like I just did! A malayalee aunty just came and sat next to me after learning that I was Indian and has started to talk something in Malayalam. I can't make out fully what she is saying, but I could try, right? (The little that I can understand is because I know telugu). Besides, there seems to be no other way other than trying to understand an unknown language to kill the time till my next flight. I already took a trip of the entire airport. Gosh! I really don't like the airports!

CRICKET & INDIA

When a Cricket World cup match is going on and India is one of the teams playing "NOTHING ELSE MATTERS". And adding to the expectations and excitement of the nearly 1 billion Indians, M S Dhoni's team did the honors of bringing a much awaited glory to our country. When Mahi hit the mighty six to the last ball of the match and watched it zoom past the yelling, shouting, exhilarating crowd in the stadium, all of the people at homes, pubs and streets jumped from our seats and were already celebrating. The best part was that my mom (who was sleeping) woke up exactly at the time Dhoni and Yuvraj gave each other the "victory hug". A procession, headed by all the people and the kids from the nearby slum, who were painted in the tri-colours passed by my home and I so wanted to join them. However, it was late in the night and I decided it would be awkward to even ask mom to let me join them.

Now, there is no need to describe the felicitations that our players received and how the people all over India celebrated in the coming days. When India normally wins a series abroad and come back, they get a terrific welcome and one can only imagine the scenario when it comes to winning the WC, that too after such a long, long wait. Cricket in India, like everyone else says is "Religion". But, I think it is much more than that. It is an obsession. It is uniting of all the different kinds of people from different classes, different places and sometimes of people who may never have seen each other before, to judge the players, like they themselves have been playing international cricket for the past two decades, to discuss how the bowler could have otherwise dismissed the opposition, to criticize how "our" players are always so horrible at fielding and chasing a target and at the end of the day,watch how these 11 players keep up the pride of their nation. It is not surprising to watch a group of people on roads outside the stores of 'electronic goods' or any other shop where a television is telecasting the cricket match India is playing. No one actually looks at it as a sport. It is funny how we expect our team to win a series or match every other time. In a game, one has to win and the other has to lose. Yet, like sentimental Indians, we are concerned with how we want the team to win every single match and make us happy.

Take any random situation in which the team has lost the match. The entire country is in an uproar. The news channels, whose sole hunger is "news", telecast 10 times a day how they lost the match and how in different places, our players are being referred to as. The artistics make fancy dolls of the cricket players and start to beat those with their shoes. I still remember the time when India had disqualified in the first round itself in the 2007 World Cup. In some North Indian city, the people put in a line photos of all the team members, put kumkum and flowers to each of the photos and started to bang slippers in front of those photos. On the top was a placard which read "Haar ke sardaar" and somewhere else, they referred to those 11 people as eunuchs!! Do they really deserved to be so humiliated? I understand our hearts broke much more than that of a 'just-dumped-by-his-girlfriend' lover, but we should understand, how those 11 people may have felt about the loss. It is a major loss for them, in their career. Many of them may even be ousted from the national team and some others may not even get to play another world cup. It is THEIR profession and if we as spectators feel so bad about them losing, could we just step into their shoes for two minutes and understand what they are going through? Think about it!

Considering the avid feelings of Indians towards cricket, the BCCI came up with a master plan to make money-the Indian Premier League, famously known as IPL. Basically, IPL is a platform where-in players from different countries participate in a series of matches (something similar to EPL) and the points, each term earns are tabulated. Finally, the top teams compete against each other and the ultimate winner claims the title. The start of the whole IPL thingy revolves around "buying" players for enormous amounts, that is invested by a couple of rich mortals, for whom money is overflowing. This class of people mainly includes actors and businessmen. So, at the end of the day, everyone's happy. The new guys from the Ranji/India-A Team get a chance to showcase their talent and make a little extra sum, the international cricket stars can add more wealth to their already loaded carts and all they need to do is bang some 6s and 4s and the investors and BCCI make more than needed profits through sponsors and stadium tickets. But, the international cricket is not happy. It tires the players, who are shuffling between the IPL matches and their regular series(My immense respect to Michael Clarke). However, in this entire story, the ones whom I most sympathise with are the spectators! I don't understand what's the feel behind supporting a team, that consists of foreigners(apart from Indians) and shouting slogans for them. We used to wait for them to get dismissed and scold them when they used to bowl our players out, in a series against their country a few months back, remember? You can think I am a spoilsport for saying this, but honestly, that's how I feel.

Apart from everything else, IPL has ruined the beauty and value of cricket. In a 20 over match, all that matters is how well a player hits 4s and 6s; the players' mettle or talent is not tested. It has also wrecked the enthusiasm of people in test matches and ODIs (which is why someone like Sachin doesn't play well in IPL). For that matter, I don't see cricket in IPL-there is no heartbeat, there is no feel, there is no desperation..the only thing that's there is-money and too much of cricket and hungry Indians never get enough of watching more and more cricket. The only reason I would acknowledge IPL for is the players from the local teams getting a golden opportunity to enhance their skills and may have a shot at getting selected into the national team, without having to suffer dirty politics.

As for me, I have deeply loved the Indian Cricket team from the past 10 years and shall always love them, no matter where I go. Yes, they may be pathetic at times, for ex. in their on-going tour to Australia, where they lost the test series 0-4 and are failing miserably in the tri-series matches. But, I think of the times when two players at nearby spots clashed and hurt each other terribly, on the field to take a catch, just to dismiss the ferocious batsman who has settled on the crease for the past two hours, I think of the times when they have hurt themselves terribly in leaping to the crease to take a run and avoid getting out because they want to add their share of effort to the score and because their team needs them. I think of the times when they frisk while fielding to stop the opposition from scoring a damn SINGLE! I think of the times when they had made us all so proud and given us so much happiness by winning. I wish for the commercial cricket to disappear altogether, so we can go back to the times when we would wait to watch the test match or are willing to spend 3/4th of our day watching the 50 over matches. For me, nothing beats the feeling of watching a player of the 'Indian Cricket team', hit a shot and watch the ball go high above the field, past all the players on the field and... is it a six or is he out?...wheee, amidst the crowds. Yes! Woohoo, its a SIX!

A Review on Lokpal

Amidst all of us, who condemned the Government officials and servants of being highly corrupt, rose a social activist, Anna Hazare who didn't merely condemn the government of being corrupt, but took a step to fight against corruption. The result of an honest and genuine fast along with supporters all over the country resulted in the Government willing to finally draft the Lokpal bill again and introduce it in the 2011 monsoon session of the parliament.

For those of you who don't have an idea of what "Lokpal" is (Although this is like, the most happening news in the recent past), here's a brief up.

"The Jan Lokpal bill is a proposed anti-corruption law designed to effectively deter corruption, redress grievances and protect whistle blowers. The law would create an obudsman called the "Lokpal" which would be an independent body similar to the Election Commission of India with the power to investigate politicians and bureaucrats without prior government permission. It was first passed in 1969, but for the past 42 years it has failed to pass the Rajya Sabha."

While the Government representatives are claiming to listen and trying their best to meet the civil society members' demands, there are some demands which they are not willing to agree to. I went through all of them and I have analysed them in my own way as below:

[1] Prime Minister Under Lokpal:

This seems to be the biggest controversy in the drafting committee. The Prime Minister of India is already covered under the Prevention of Corruption act. Why should Lokpal have the authority? That's the question Government raises, I raise the question, Why Lokpal? If the Government had been strong enough to avoid the fraud of crores of money to the nation through scams, would Lokpal even emerge after failing to pass so many times? People have seen enough of their share of pay, which is being paid as tax, show dirty colours and ofcourse, "Better Late than Never". If the Prevention of corruption act was so active, the country wouldn't have been in such turmoil. An independent body like "lokpal" is the best option indeed to check into the entire Government. In any case, I hope India doesn't face such a situation where a PM may be involved in a scam, but if such a situation is to arrive, it would be difficult to take action. Although Kapil Sibal claims that under such a circumstance, the PM shall not be "exonerated" from prosecution once he steps down from the office, I feel by the time the PM resigns, the case will be forgotten and no action will be taken , like many other corruption scams. A little show would be done as if action is being taken, but nothing really is happening, a prime example of which is the "Harshad Mehta scandal". It was a 4,000 crore scam and he was convicted for one case off the 72 cases filed against him and he was let off on bail and by the time all the other cases were to be prosecuted, he died. I am not sure how well an independent body would handle the delicate situation of that of a Prime Minister, but I think they deserve a chance because such things must be fast in our country. It is just that the Prime Minister is the most significant leader of the Nation and there shall always be a hesitation for any body to take action against him. Another important argument that can be made in this case is that if the PM is also brought under Lokpal as well, it's almost the same as Lokpal actually ruling the country which deviates our constitution. What would be the need of a PM if even he is answerable to an independent body? This is a very delicate issue. However I think that is not genuine to bring the Prime Minister under Lokpal inspite of all the points being in the favor of Lokpal.

[2] Conduct of MPs in Parliament: The exact definition of "A Members of Parliament" is a representative of voters(citizens) and is mainly supposed to work for the benefit of the people. Yet, in another major scam, former Telecom minister A.Raja and Rajya Sabha MP, Ms.Kanimozhi's involvement was brought to light. Who are the people supposed to rely on, if the people's Government itself indulge in such illegal acts? Every now and then some or the other MP emerges as a corrupt. I am not saying all or even most of the politicians are corrupt. A lot of them have done a lot of good to the nation. But, it is very embarrassing when at an international level, the depth of corruption in our country emanates; like the very recent MP from Pune, Suresh Kalmadi's CWG scandal. So much money belonging to Indian politicians was recently revealed to be found in Swiss Bank. I credit the Government for having taken stern action against the above mentioned leaders right away and also hats off to the SC for rejecting Ms. Kanimozhi's bail plea. However, another big man in the industry, Mr.Ramalinga Raju's (convicted in the "Satyam computers Scam") comfortable life in the jail once again exposed the weakness of the Government in taking grim action against the influential people. Heaven knows if the same turns out in the case of the jailed MPs. I am hoping that if the MPs are brought under Lokpal, then there will be a change in the attitude of justice towards the country's "parliament criminals".

[3] Punishment for Graft : While Centre says that the term should not exceed ten years, Civil Society demands "Maximum Life Imprisonment". I don't think I have any right to judge either of the above or justify any of them. However, I would like to add that it must depend on the extent of involvement of the concerned person in the graft/corruption. The important thing is that whatever may be the decision or the punishment that shall be decided must be carried out effectively.

[4] Officials at all government levels under Lokpal: Government says that officials at the level of joint secretary and above only should come under Lokpal while civil society says Public Servants at all levels should be covered under Lokpal. I don't understand what problem the Centre has with this one. Ex-CM of AP, Mr.N.Chandrababu Naidu had started a toll-free number to be dialled when any common man had a bribe problem with any public servant. I personally never tried the number, but assuming that it worked, I'd say even he knew that corruption had penetrated very deep into the Government system. According to the Government's version, if only officials at the joint secretary and above are covered under the bill, then who should people approach if the Government servants under them are demanding bribe. Recently, when I went with my father to a Government Department, he bribed the peon as well as secretary to get the papers signed. I am an extreme anti against corruption and personally never bribed anyone, so I protested with my father. He helplessly shook his head and said that there was no other way. The papers had to go to the officer's secretary through the peon only and if he didn't give him money, he wouldn't take them to the secretary and if he didn't bribe the secretary, he wouldn't forward them to the officer. Ultimately, it's the signature on the papers that's important. What other option do I have? I heard another government official from another department in the same building telling some common man that he would do his work. But later "aap mera khayal rakhna". It's ironic, but someone has to control all these people and hence, I think all the public servants must be covered in the bill.

[5]Power for prosecution : There MUST be prosecution powers for Lokpal. Although I admit Indian judiciary system is good enough, the very highly influential people still get away with everything. Criminals get caught at all levels for their crimes and are exposed. It is the punishment part of the whole trial that is not executed. If we look at the histories of the scams, each one of them have been exposed to the deepest root and atleast 90% of their crimes have been revealed. However, when it comes to the prosecution of the case, there is "delay" or the high-profile criminal suddenly starts to have health problems (Ramalinga Raju, Suresh Kalmadi) and the case is abruptly closed or the best claim-"Investigation is still on". Why the hell does the investigation never END?! The Government needs help in this regard and if the Lokpal is indeed given prosecution powers, cases may be solved quickly because then, the burden of "investigation" on the govt. is reduced.

There are few other disagreements between the two parties;for instance, allowing of phone tapping, citizens' power to file complaints against Lokpal etc. Neverthless, every Indian is currently hoping that the Jan Lokpal bill come into existence with powers and methods that are different from that of the conventional government. It is still in controversy and one can only hope that the bill which was rejected NINE times in the parliament passes this time with a theory that is drafted completely in favor of the people of India because it is then, (with the emergence of Lokpal) that democracy will actually be meaningful for India with respect to it's definition : Government BY the people, OF the people, FOR the people.