Sensible policeman --- An excellent showcase of presence of mind

India ranks pretty good in corruption ratings, and I am sure which "good" I am talking about. Things can get really over-whelming sometimes in some places of the country. And one of the departments thats deeply into competition is probably the one that should protect the people -- "The Police Department". Or at the least that is what the public (including me) thinks so, and we might as well be partially wrong. But whatever it may be one thing is sure that Bangalore Traffic police is really doing a good job. Now do not blame them for the bad traffic and long jams. Thats the work of the infrastructure people, which the police are not. Police manage the traffic in the currently available infrastructure.

Now what makes me write this specific blog is a set of two incidents that I recently came across and here they are:

We have a very small but extremely busy junction in Malleshwaram near Nataraja theatre. We pass through this junction almost everyday. Very recently when I was travelling with my one of my colleagues a little late in the night, we got stuck at that junction. The reason was that there was no policeman manning this junction and hence everyone was trying to find a way for himself wthout considering anyone around them, except for the ones who might hit them. The result, an obvious chaos with all vehicles being stand still because of a dead-lock. Afer waiting for a few minutes my colleague said, in a totally frustrated way, "Couldn't that police be here at this time??! If he was here we could be in our homes by this time. Damn it!!". So it was clear that the presence of a policeman would have brought in a lot of discipline.All of us might blame them, curse them or say anything, but its ultimately true that 80 - 90% of discipline on the roads is because of policemen.

Now the second incident:

Again, another day on my way back home from office, I was on a bike with my colleauge, waiting at the signal in front of Chinnaswamy Stadium. We were in the right half on the road and there were two lanes of traffic to our left. The traffic was all piled up and I suddenly saw the policeman, who was manning the signal, let go the two lanes of traffic to our left.I was like: "What the hell is this man doing??!!!". It was only a few seconds I realized the motive, when I heard the Ambulence siren. The ambulance was stuck in the traffic and was in the lane to our left. So the policeman moved the traffic to make way for the ambulance. And of course after the ambulance passed the signal, those two lanes were again stopped. See, policemen do a lot of good and necessary jobs.

So all tax payers, don't think that ALL the tax paid is going waste. In fact a large amount is being used very well. More about our government and the reality about the government workers in another post very soon.

Till then, just respect the traffic police, you can respect the others later after my further posts. :-)

Regards
Brahmana

One deadly enemy today’s youth is facing

This is another thing that swamiji told us during the gyaan transfer. The earlier one was about us all being so lucky. This post is about one of the several reasons why today’s youth is going haywire. As you would hear from any other staunch Hindu or a strong supporter of ancient ways of life, the first reason mentioned by swamiji was “Westernization”. But this term here was not against “Globalization” or international exchange. Swamiji also believes that there are a lot of things that we have to learn from the west and yet a lot more that we should not. But here are a few things that he said about modernization and how it has affected us.

Recent technological advances have almost removed the barrier of distance for communication. This has lead to increased and more frequent talk to our kith and ken. But this is what swamiji said “This technology has increased “Samparka” (communication) but has drastically reduced “Sambandha” (relation)”. This is very much true. With increase in communication the feeling or urge in us to visit our parents or relatives has come down. But this again is a choice. There is nothing like free meal, everything comes at a cost.

Coming to the enemy that we are facing, a surprisingly simple fact which is neglected is that in most cases the starting salaries of the current youth are very close to the retirement salaries of their parents. Though we can argue that the value of a rupee was much more than what it is now. The world has been through inflation and all that. But despite any inflation, a rise to the extent of retirement salary becoming starting salary is a steep one. This is not just alone. There are strings attached to it. The earning age is lesser than what it used to be and the responsibilities are lesser. All these result in superfluous money staying in the hands of not-so-mature and the so called adventurous youth. This combination of lack of knowledge and excess money is the deadly enemy that today’s youth is facing.

After listening to this I have realized that I should keep a check on my expenses, by which half of the enemy is under control and do lend my ears to elders to deal with the other half. Hope I am successful and so are the others in the same league as me.

Hari Om.

So many of us are so Lucky; but not all are so.

Sometime in November I had been to been on a bike trip to Mysore with Pavan.A.C and a couple of his friends. Though I really liked to go on a bike trip to Mysore, this one is something that I will not look forward to have again. The lack of preparation made me really tired and not to mention the dust, the hot wind and the charred faces at the end of the trip. But this blog post is not at all about the trip or the adventure. This is about a discussion that we had with Swami Maheshatmanandaji during our late night debates. Well actually this was more of gyaan transfer than a debate.

This is one of the several things that he told us. When we were discussing about the facilities provided to us as V’Shala in comparison with students outside we simply agreed that we are a lot lucky than several hundreds and thousands of children studying in other schools. At that time swamiji said that we are way too well off and blessed than what we actually think or just said. It’s not just the extra facilities or amenities available to us that make us the fortunate ones. The very fact we could live a “Student Life” during our childhood is something that a lot of unprivileged and unfortunate children do not get. This was something known to me and did not appear like some hard truth, but the gravity of the words was way stronger than I could imagine. To justify this he cited an example.

During the last vacations when he had been to bus-stand to see off some students going home, he saw a child in his early teens drunk and swaggering on the road. Well this is the treachery of the nature, I thought. Not all the fingers are same. But the treachery actually runs deeper than this. Swamiji continued and told us that it’s not the boy’s fault at all. The boy, by birth, has every right to be a student, to play like any other child of his age would do, to learn, to experience the joy of learning, to dream of great and big things and make every possible attempt to achieve them. He is deceived of all these. Instead he probably became an unskilled labor doing all sorts of small and petty jobs to earn his meal. Fortunately or unfortunately he got a little extra money which he used to purchase illicit liquor and now he is on the roads, unchecked, unadvised and without and help.

I protested to this saying that it’s the law of the nature and about he being unadvised, I said that he surely would have been told by someone about leading a healthy and successful life. Swamiji sapped back at me suddenly in strong disagreement. Here are his answers for my protests:

It’s not the responsibility of the nature. Is it nature that has taken care of us till now? Well it stuck me that parents/guardians are the ones who come into play here. They are the ones who nourish us, take care of us and make sure that we reach good heights and make us capable of leading a respectable life. This is probably what is missing in that boy’s life. Either he is not privileged enough to have a life with his parents or he is not fortunate enough to have parents who can give him a life. And about the advice, only words will not suffice and all that he would have got would be just that. As Swami Vivekananda said “Don’t advise hungry stomachs, they can’t be receptive”, this boy should be first shown some light and then advised to reach that light.

Then I realized what he earlier meant by we being way too privileged than what we talk or think. The only solution is to set a balance in nature and that would be possible only on a one-on-one basis with the privileged youth standing up and deciding to take care of one underprivileged. More about that in another blog post. As of now just realize that if you are reading this you are one of the most privileged in the mankind.

Hari Om.