अपने होनेका पता दे देना
कभी गुजरो तो सदा दे देना
याद आ जाऊ इबाददमे अगर
हाथ उठाके बस दुआ दे देना

(Forwarded)

Janani Express

I was reading an article about how officials in some part of Madhya Pradesh are saving lives of newborns and their mothers by using ambulances to ferry the moms to healthcare facilities for delivery.

Of course this is a commendable job and this needs to be replicated across India. But there was mention of a woman who was brought to the hospital in such an ambulance and was picked up later by her husband who turned up to take the mother and child home. The article mentioned that this was her third child and that she is a wage worker.

I think the officials in question should start a counseling center as well to advise these people on birth control.

I have always had my doubts about this whole business of victims or eyewitnesses giving descriptions of criminals' appearance and the cops preparing their sketches. Forget about criminals that only some of us have the misfortune of meeting (Thank God for small mercies!), but how many of us can actually describe the person sitting in next cubicle/cabin - or occupying the neighboring apartment - if asked to do so? I, for one, will throw up my hands and give up right on the spot unless the said person is a Hrithik/John Abraham look-alike (which my next-door neighbor and colleague are not!)

But looks like some of us are better equipped in this department than the rest. Here's a story of the cops actually nabbing criminals based on the sketches prepared from victim's description.

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सबका खुशीसे फासला एक कदम है
हर घरमे बस एकही कमरा कम है
-- जावेद अख्तर

So Sunday morning Breaking News was hogged by both - Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. One wonders why these spiritual gurus - who ideally shouldn't have anything to do with mundane everyday life - are getting riled about the black money. If they have to improve the lot of the common people, there are plenty of issues to choose from. Why, for starters, don't they tell all their followers to keep their neighborhoods clean? How about saying 'No' to female infanticide? No Dowry? No smoking? No killing in the name of religion? Sending the girl child to school?

Shouldn't tackling corruption be a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down one? It's common people like you and me who should stop giving and receiving bribe - even if it means facing delays in getting our work done or the possibility that the work will not be done at all. Are we prepared to bear the pain? It is rather like the 'Prisoner's Dilemma'. We all know it is in our best interest to do so but none of us will do it.

Plenty of reasons will be put forward as to why people take bribes. I had read an interesting article that said that it is ingrained in our culture because most of us would not think twice about bribing our favorite deity with sweets or money if our wish is fulfilled. Then there is the simple thing called 'Greed'. But then there are also things like insufficient salaries, rising cost of education, the practice of dowry and so on and so forth. Each of these is a wrong in itself that somebody needs to set right. No legislation is going to do the magic trick. This change has to come from within us. If we decide for ourselves that we will not take bribe, we will not pay bribe and we will encourage those who will do work without taking a bribe, corruption will start getting rooted out from the bottom and this change will surely make its way to the top.

But can we root out corruption altogether? Well, I think that's wishful thinking because, sadly, there is no medicine as yet for the malady called greed! :-(

A sanitary napkin! Most of us urban women don't think much about it. We buy the usual packet during one of our supermarket trips, tuck a few away in the office drawer and forget about it until the period starts. That's why the Mint article about the poor state of women's personal hygiene in Indian villages came as a huge shock. All the talks of GDP, the sizzling pace of economy, Sensex highs and lows are a waste, a total waste, if we are unable to provide basic hygiene to all the women in the country even 60+ years after gaining independence, isn't it?

Sometimes I just wonder where will we all have to start if we have to right all the wrongs in this country? :-(