Haiku 1: Story of the democratic dillema

      The democracy in this country is celebrated with much fanfare. Personally, I feel that the real win-win situation is when the competition is tough. When one has to do brainstorming to choose the leader. 

But, when the quality of the political power-wars feature weak competitors, it reflects bad on the democratic idea of a nation.

 

"They asked the adults,

What would you choose? Us, the bad

or rivals, the worse"

Why the bias?

     Sometimes when we delve deeper into even the most normal daily event, we are left intrigued by the intricacies of it. Since times immemorial, I have always been a ‘public transport’ aficionado. Hence, when it was time to traverse distance between distance between my office and home, I chose to avail the services of ‘shared autos’. Shared autos because ‘special autos’ have the maximum potential of forcing one to use the expression I-am-broke frequently.

   Just another day, I took an auto to the office. Since it was a shared auto, the driver was halting his vehicle after every minute in order to find passengers for his trip. After failed attempts to convince passengers to travel in his auto, he finally found two prospective passengers, a girl and a boy. After confirming their destination, the driver announced the amount he was to charge both of them for their journey. But, both the girl who was holding a red and white box of Domino’s pizza and the boy didn’t seem happy. You ask why?

Because they were of the opinion that the driver was charging them ‘too much’ for their 'only'10-km journey! While the auto wallah after intense negotiation came down to 15 rupees from 20 rupees, they wanted to pay only 10 rupees. Even after the driver kept convincing them that he wasn’t overcharging, they refused to agree. And owing to their disappointment with the driver due to 5 rupee margin, they left.

I am sure this is a story relate-able to many of us. On one side sometimes we can happily buy a pizza which ranges from anywhere between 300-700, on the other side we simply refuse to pay that extra remuneration to a needy daily wager whose whole family might depend on him for survival which it rightly deserves. I ask why such an indifferent attitude? Why the bias?

Because it’s only about an ordinary daily wager!

Because unlike Dominos (or any other brand), its prices are bargain-able!

Because helping a brand economically >>> doing your bit to improve the living standard!

In a lecture few years back while studying the economic disparities in the developing countries, my professor had raised similar issue. She rightly pointed that when we do not hesitate to spend money on high-end brands which we know are many a time overpriced, we should in the same manner not hesitate to pay if not extra, then justified amount to these auto wallahs and rickshaw wallahs. Some might argue that how can a little extra remuneration benefit this community. But I am sure that even an individual can make a significant difference to the lives of these people who value even a rupee. We should try our best to remove this bias and side by side contribute in bridging the economic gap.

Jammu 101

  When I moved to Chandigarh, it was the very first time that I actually got to know what 'inside' people feel about the 'outside' Jammu and Kashmir. And let me tell you, majority of the people were wrong. Not just about the Kashmir part but also about its capital, Jammu. I remember learning during my childhood from my grandfather that India was infamous in the outer world for being the land of snake charmers and poverty. Presently, similar comparisons are drawn for this State as well. You see, India in those days suffered because the third world countries were devoid of any platform to communicate. Likewise, its deja vu all over again for the so-called disturbed state.

Often when I was bombarded with what I concluded were stupid questions about Jammu & Kashmir (J&K),two thoughts would cross my mind. First was that how can people be so ignorant and that also about something that IS an integral part of their country. And the second would be that am I the only one who has observed the trend that people are all but correct about J&K! And so I checked with my other migrated friends who have crossed the Lakhanpur border. It was then that I realised that each one (literally) had gone through the same thing. 

Since a long time, I wanted to highlight these myths about my city . But something was holding me back. Now that today again the same questions were asked to me by a friend from Delhi, I decided to take my blog as the platform and disseminate accurate information to 'all Indians who are my brothers and sisters' about  'a country within the country'.

Vela(y) thought

Jammu &Kashmir is no doubt a single unit. Having said that, it is important to mention that the state is not entirely a valley. Jammu city is cosily placed in the foothills of Himalayas and quite far away from Kashmir Valley. Would you believe that the distance between the two capitals of the state is approximately 300 kms! Yes, 300. Hence the demographics also differ.

Snowfall! Where?, When? 

 No people, It doesn't snow here in Jammu. Guess what, It never has! Twenty revolutions around the sun completed but, believe you me I have never seen nor heard from my forefathers about snowfall in Jammu. I fail to understand the relationship between Kashmir's 'real' snowfall and Jammu's alleged. Its certainly not a complementary thing.

Dangerous place

Stop for a minute. Remember the last time you were out and how crowded the market was. Jammu is no different. Terrorists equipped with guns DONOT patrol the streets here. Fact of the matter is they donot even exist here. And about the security angle. Its as safe as any other city in India. Yes, agreed its sensitive to communal issues. But tell me which place in India isn't.

Media has played a significant role in injecting these myths in the minds of Indians. I have many a times seen seasoned journalists referring to Jammu city as the valley. Also, the government has to also share the blame. All you Jammuites let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen a tableau showcasing Jammu's culture. The answer to this question would highlight how ignorant the State government has been towards its winter capital.

Just the Straight line

   Last time I updated the blog was literally light years ago. But then wait! to my rescue is a detailed list of excuses. Blame it on the busy academic schedule, assignments and more assignments, either there wasn't any time and when the time waited for me, motivation was absent. Doesn't that happen with most of us? You see, we humans have a strange relationship with Marginal Utility of goods and services available at our disposal. If I were to draw that curve, it would be exactly as drawn below;

THE curve exactly describes my love and hate relationship for 'salty blog'. Initially the motivation was phenomenal. Almost everyday, I tried to update it. But , then came the stagnation phase at the top of the curve and as a result, first my constant surveying the blog faded and later my writing succumbed and I fashionably diagnosed my condition as the deadly 'block'. Sad na! No, the story doesn't end there. Some of my friends and even the audience tried to persuade me to write regularly. It did help. I wrote one or two posts after that but it was not for too long. The downward phase of the curve began.

Relatively, in place of blogs we (have and still do) replace many things/people (Yes, people!) in our own lives. After a point of time, we tend to move on and leave behind our once-close partners of life. Some days later we may/may not realize their significance. Cliche, but till then usually we have lost them. 

I am really glad that I reunited with my blog today. And no, you salty blog we aren't breaking up any soon. I can't afford you see. ELECTIONS are approaching. And that means my venting out frustration and happiness. Also, how can I forget. Its Sub-Continent Cricket Season!! From now on, there won't be replication of crests and troughs. Instead, just a consistent straight line.

Reality

       A few days back my younger sister bowled a googly. Owing to my incompetence in deciphering the delivery in a professional manner, I was clean bowled. The googly question? She apparently wanted to know the way we differentiate between what is right and what is wrong!!

          And I was in a fix. Even if my peer group calls me a geek (no, i am not!), from where was I supposed to extract knowledge to be able to give a convincing reply? Wouldn’t you agree with me? 
No copybook knowledge that was rattafied over the years came to my rescue. With this, self introspection was given an impetus and I was shifted in my contemplation mode.

           Isn’t it true that we all have our own definition for right and wrong? We all have our own pair of sifting glasses on all the time 24*7 from which we sieve the right and dump the wrong. And we all have our respective reasons to categorize these things. Our criteria are set. A set already perceived notion that may or may not be based on our own past experience or lessons learnt by others taught to us time and again ifluences. If this is how we classify the right and wrong, then how can we brand the other person’s notion? Our right maybe wrong for some and their right, our wrong.

         It all comes down to our perceived notions. Living in a free world we all have been brought up in certainly distinct surroundings, under the influence of starkly different conditions. This has a detrimental effect on our perception about the world. It’s seldom that two person hold the same view in everything. Then we must agree to disagree and give respect the other person’s view. But I know, it’s not that easy to practice as it is easy to preach! Our egos are huge and we usually don’t appreciate the word wrong. After all who likes to be wrong when there is an easy way out to be right!. Is this right or wrong? I leave it to you to decide on that.