jabdakhata

We got our income tax refund, but a substantial amount was deducted from the original claim of Rs 40000/-. Only Rs 35000/- was refunded and that too including interests. That means about Rs 7000/- was withheld by income tax office – why, nobody knows. It took a long time and two visits to the Income tax office to get the refund. The refund for assessment year 2009-2010 was provided in October 1 2010, almost 14 months after filing return. The same income tax office which levies a high penalty on the non-payment of income tax within stipulated time, payed a paltry and miserly interest. We tried all options – calling up the IT ombudsmen in Hyderabad, filing RTI and filing first appeal after RTI was not responded. The IT ombudsmen was at first sympathetic and became very formal on the second occasion. The IT assessment officer Range 12 was at first apologetic and on our second visit became very non-chalant, as if she was not born for handling such petty issues. The Right to Information wa

Why is there so much anger in the media over CWG mess? Media is behaving as if they have suddenly woken up to the deficiencies of Governance and corruption in India. We who encounter it day in and day out know better. We know that the Government services will not be able to deliver any goods - because our roads are poor despite paying road taxes and they are increasingly becoming poorer - because we have filthy cities as garbage remains dumped on roadside - because we have virtually no sanitation and sewage disposal which during monsoon season either often comes up on the roads or contaminates the drinking water causing all sorts of diseases - because we have no public urinal and people relieve themselves on the roads along with dogs - because we do not provide toilets to poor and underprivileged and they defecate in public - because our roads remain inundated with flood water during monsoon - because our flyovers take an eternity to get completed causing colossal loss of publi

Many articles are being written in favor of and in opposing multi brand retailing, but nobody is sure of a common ground. While multi brand retail would create jobs, it would also endanger the livelihood of unorganized retail industry. Thus arguments of both proponents and opponents are true, but the problem is none of them are appreciating the complete picture. Many small retail businesses may go bankrupt because they cannot simply afford the economy of scale and scope that big retailers enjoy. This is already a possibility with so many big Indian names entering the retail fray. This will be an even more menace with names like Walmart, Carrefour, Seven Eleven or Mark and Spencer with their deep pockets entering the arena. Small retailers have their margins eroded through wastages at various levels. They do not have an efficient IT infrastructure for managing sales or inventory, a sophisticated distribution and supply chain, access to easy credit or a reliable vendor base from where th

Nobody likes weaklings even if they are good at heart, everybody likes strong, determined approach. Nobody likes to be led by a weak and incompetent leadership even if it is good at heart, everybody likes to be led by a strong and confident leadership. In a end, a weak and vacillating leadership brings more evil than a strong and resolute leadership which may do some wrong. There is no respect for the weak and coward. Therefore if a nation is led by a bunch of cowards, that nation as a whole loses respect, its moral character changes and evil thrives. When a country finds itself in stupor it is detested even for the reasons for which it is not in fault. Its enemies can cry shriller to draw attention to perceived misgivings and wrong doings and the world at large listens to them, even if they know that it is hogwash. This is because, the world fears strength, courage and confidence. This is the reason why Hitler went unchallenged for full four years even while attacking one country afte

On the day of India's independence, let's pray to the nation's God to give us courage, strength and confidence. we see around us cowardice and weakness galore. We see a weak and vacillating leadership who is unable to take any major decision, we see a vast corrupt machinery called bureaucracy which has neither ability nor willingness to rise out of lethargy and drive changes, we see a weak and corrupt entity called politicians who have no feeling for the nation and its people and are only after power. We see a weak and apologetic media and intellectuals who do not speak from their heart. In short, we see all wrong pictures. Then again, we see what we are, the outer world is merely a reflection of what and who we are inwards. There are many stories of success, strength, courage in the face of adversity and inspirational leadership that could make another Mahabharata, which are shaping the destiny of this nation. Future of India will not be decided by a weak and impotent pol

Nowadays media is crazy about God-men, but not about men of gods. For instance not a single newspaper mentions anything on Swami Vivekananda’s birthday but a lot of newsprint is wasted on some god-men’s sexual exploits and consequences. Hilarious but pitiable is the condition of spiritual stupor into which this country has denigrated itself. Media is anyway a reflection of the socio cultural condition prevailing in a particular time. They sell what sells with the public. And what sells with public is dirt. Media also shows how the followers of the same god-men feel cheated and self proclaimed columnists in editorials raise doubts on the concepts of chastity and Brahmacharya as written in scriptures. That’s why it is said in Sanskrit – ‘Gandusha Jalamatrena Shafari Pharpharayate”, which is similar to the proverb “Empty vessels sound much”. The article writers are those empty vessels, without adequate knowledge or research they would like to draw attention to their opinions. Ramakri

A question that often comes to my mind is that why are we still the part of an entity called Common Wealth? It is a colonial legacy, it constantly reminds us that once we were servants of a mighty imperialist nation which is now fast going downhill. Perhaps our political leaders like to remind us of our colonial past, perhaps it helps in getting some aids. It certainly does not help the international cause, being on the same bench with some rogue nations who have gone more downhill than their erstwhile ruler. Point is, why waste so much tax payer's money with this extravaganza? What will the entire nation gain through this? even if that means infrastructure development of a single city, can't this happen in isolation? Why do we need an event for developing infrastructure? what is the return that we are expecting? More tourist inflow from commonwealth countries? Hogwash. Most tourists in India are from non commonwealth countries like USA, Japan and Germany. Who will spend thei

  Just read this news to decide for yourself. Judiciary is beyond any comment? But do we have any conscience collectively as a nation? Does not seem so, else a rapist could not have been qualified for civil services or acquitted as a result of that. This does not happen in any civilized nation. SC rejects women panel's plea against rapist IANS | New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition by the National Commission for Women (NCW) challenging the Delhi High Court order setting free a rapist on the ground that he had "redeemed himself" by clearing the civil service exam while in prison. The apex court bench of Justice Harjit Singh Bedi and Justice C.K. Prasad rejected the appeal by the NCW on the ground that it has no locus standi to challenge the high court verdict setting free Ashok Kumar Rai. The NCW appeal was dismissed after Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran, appearing for the state of Delhi, said that they did not intend to challe

Stoicism as a philosophy originated in ancient Greece by a sage called Zeno in the third century before Christ. The ideals and preachings of Stoicism finds echo in eastern monist thoughts, particularly Vedanta in India. One of the most famous patrons of Stoicism was Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor who was an adoptive son of the Roman emperor Antonius Pius, in the second century after Christ. In his book called "Meditations" he had provided a comprehensive overview of how Stoic principles work in practice. Stoicism deals with self control and control of emotions to understand universal reason, not to get perturbed either in happiness or in sorrow. The same concept is echoed in Upanishads "Dukheshnanudignamana Sukhecha Vigataspriha" theme (remain steady and equally composed under both joy and sorrow) which is recurrent in Vendanta as well as Bhagavat Gita, where the lord Krishna advises people to remain calm and steady under all circumstance and devote all fruits

Excerpts from "A World Split Apart" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Replace "West" by "Indian political class and media" and you get the truer picture. A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, in each government, in each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. There are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life. Political and intellectual functionaries exhibit this depression, passivity, and perplexity in their actions and in their statements, and even more so in their self-serving rationales as to how realistic, reasonable, and intellectually and even morally justified it is to base s

Sometimes back there was some initiative by a leading newspaper group in India to identify future leaders. Novel initiative no doubt, but it was mostly a marketing gimmick. Reason is simple, you cannot identify leaders through a marketing campaign. Leaders are identified through their work and attributes. True leaders do no need to go to a market place and beat their drums. True leaders do not need followers, followers need true leaders. As Ramakrishna Paramhansa used to say - "you do not need to write on your forehead that come people, I am a leader, I'll teach you, lead you. If you have right kind of attributes God will make you a leader, even if you do not want to be one." People will find the true leader and will follow him/her themselves. A Gandhi ( an I am talking about the only one true Gandhi who could abdicate all power and adulation, not the other power hungry ones)  emerged when there was a right situation for him to do, he was not picked up by some newspaper.

Some snippets from the "Bharat Bandh" called yesterday - A pregnant woman delivered her baby on train because communist supporters in West Bengal did not let her go to hospital. The baby is in critical condition Trains were forcefully stopped and vehicles were not allowed to ply in West Bengal. Even ambulances did not escape the ire of the bandh supporters in West Bengal This is yet another time communists and BJP came together on the same platform almost hand in hand thus providing a major dent to the "secular" credential of the communists A major economy heading towards a major disaster owing to its major political parties who are majorly evil.

The right to education bill is passed and the government is elated. So is Indian media. Nobody cares as to how hollow the bill is when actual implementation is concerned. Another flopshow of Government is Sarba Sikhsha Abhijan initiative, which is supposed to provide education for all but in the end provides good money for corrupt bureaucrats and panchayat leaders. One CAG report showed sometimes back how money for this scheme from British Government was diverted by officials at district level to buy luxury cars, beds etc, while schools are ill equipped and children do not have quality education. Children from poorer section often do not have any money to buy books and only few schools provide free books and other accessories to them. Thus they end up in search for work.I happened to meet one of these kids who was a school dropout because of poverty, and came to Hyderabad from Bidar, which is about 130 km away, in search of work. When asked why is he not studying, he replied that he ha

It is a matter of shame that the good tourist places in India are so inaccessible from other parts of the country. Take for instance Ladakh. There is no train station. Only a few flights can go to Leh. Kudremukh in Karnataka is not connected by any train. Most of the hill stations do not have any associated train stations and it takes a lot of patience to plan for travel. Many coastal areas are inaccessible by train or flight.Again even if there are train stations, the trains are not available unless you book couple of months in advance. Roads are mostly pathetic and the operators overcharge. Therefore off the beaten tracks remain off the beaten and the few accessible ones are overcrowded, filthy and overrated. A few others suffer from non development and nonchalant attitude from administration. Most of the hill stations in India were discovered and developed by British and precious little have been done by successive Governments to develop them after independence. Is there any other c

A certain gentleman named Robert Bhadra (bhadra implies "civil" in Sanskrit) is exempted from any security check in Kolkata airport and that is declared very proudly by airport authority of India in a written instruction in front of the security counter. This certain gentleman (replace Bhadra by "Vadra" and you'll get the sense) is the son in law of UPA chair person, the most powerful woman in India. Both the honorable madam chairperson and the gentleman Mr. Bhadra would do really well and gain some appreciation from general public if they make sure that Mr. Bhadra undergoes security check just like any other layman and do not fall pray to the VIP culture which has so engulfed the nation's political class. With due respect Mr. Vadra/Ms. Gandhi, would you dare to be a little different?

It is often said that desire is like a burning fire. When you want to satiate the desire you are merely pouring butter into it. The effect of butter is to enhance the intensity of fire which consumes everything. Similarly when you go on quenching your desire, the desire multiplies just like that all engulfing fire and you do not know where to stop. Debts get piled up, savings diminish and ultimately you are caught in a death trap. Sounds very familiar? This is situation worldwide today. We do not know where to stop, how to limit our wants, needs and greed. We think that we would be happy by getting this and that, by getting richer. Sadly however that happiness remains as elusive as ever. Ramakrishna Paramhansa in his gospels had given the example of a falcon who has a fish in its talon. It suddenly finds that all the crows are after it. It flies but crows do not leave pursuing it. The falcon then lets the fish go and perches on a treetop, and to its delight it finds that all the crows

Earlier I had posted an article on Indian media and their general cavalier attitude. The same was evident yet again after the recent train accident which killed 100s. From the very beginning, without any proper investigation, the Maoist hand began to do rounds, even though it is widely accepted that Maoists generally do not attack civilians deliberately (let me clarify at the onset that I am no Maoist sympathizer and personally would prefer them to rot in hell). Unlike other incidents here the Maoist leadership has not accepted its responsibility. The People’s committee against police atrocities, the local body formed in retaliation to ruthlessness of CPM cadres and police under Budhha rule, who aligned themselves with the Maoists just to save their village from becoming another Nandigram, has accused CPM cadres to mastermind the attack. Media however lapped up the story fabricated by the CID and West Bengal Government that Maoists were behind the attack. No effort to investigate the t

Is 21st century truly a Chinese century? To answer this, you have to look into the rich and enduring history of China, which is so full of golden periods. China, no doubt is a great civilization and deserves a high pedestal in worldly affairs.Whether Tibet affair is a thorn on its global ambition it is a point which only the enlightened ones can discuss. China has a great history, except for a brief dormant period when Opium trade flourished and a large part of the population was engulfed in widespread poverty. The Great Wall is a testimony of what the Chinese can achieve if they will. China is now everywhere, Chinese immigrants are one of the most successful lot in almost every country that they are in, because they are hard working and always willing to travel that extra mile.China controls the manufacturing world, even though occasional quality problems may create embarrassment. The successful completion of Olympic games tells the world how modern China can transform and transcend.

Is Indian media really biased as perceived by some section? Is it truly doing an outstanding work of exposing faults in the Governance? Is it truly secular, liberal and democratic as it portrays itself to be? I know that we cannot generalize and stereotype all media and put them under same bracket. But here we are talking about a majority. You may argue that there are different types of media, like print and electronics, and even internet is a separate media, but I am talking of media in general, the category does not matter. If there is a fault which is inherent everybody needs to share the blame simply because others did not have the guts to rise above a majority and point out its faults. First, the English speaking, “secular liberal” media, to my mind, is highly partial. It is partisan not only because it highlights only the plight of specific people belonging to specific communities and ignores the need of people in general irrespective of caste, creed, and communal affiliatio

I started this blog for East Vs. West and then I cam across the writings of Romain Rolland, the great European philosopher of early 20th century who was also an Indologist. Here are few excerpts from his book Prophets of the New India. "The age-long history of the spirit of India is the history of a countless throng marching ever to the conquest of supreme Reality. All the great peoples of the world, wittingly or unwittingly, have the same fundamental aim ; they belong to the conquerors who age by age go up to assault the Reality of which they form a part, and which lures them on to strive and climb ; sometimes they fall out exhausted, then with recovered breath they mount undaunted until they have conquered or been overcome.But each one does not see the same face of Reality. It is like a great fortified city beleaguered on different sides by different armies who are not in alliance. Each army has its own tactics and weapons to solve its own problems of attack and assault. Ou

It is an age old wisdom of Hinduism and Buddhism that desire gives rise to anger, anger gives rise to hatred and violence and therefore downfall of the person. Therefore desire is the root cause of all evil, including suffering in life and the best recourse is to do your duty respectfully without desire for results. Hitler had a desire, he wanted to the ruler of this world. He thought Jews were responsible for all the problems that Germany faced. His anger and hatred for Jews resulted in a catastrophic world war, which ultimately brought down Europe and imperialism. Upanishads give a beautiful parable. You are on a journey, embarked on a chariot, which is your body. The fives senses are five horses which are pulling you in different directions. The harness is your mind to control your senses, the charioteer is the wisdom who can take you to your destination. Question is, whom do you trust and give control? If you give control to your senses, you'll run amok, directionless, and

An Agatha Christie whodunit is a sheer pleasure for anybody who loves mystery stories. It reduces stress appreciably as it leaves you less time to ponder on your present woes and miseries and problems. Be it a cold winter morning or a windy day, a warm summer evening or a rain washed afternoon, you can always recline in your easy-chair or sofa or even sit outside in the porch drinking tea or coffee, or smoking your favorite brand of cigar, and read the exploits of the Belgian detective with his little grey cells, egg shaped head and characteristic mustache. Agatha Christie in one of her books rued the fact (through her another famous character Ariadne Oliver) that once you have put up a character you cannot change the same, as readers who have taken to that character will never accept any change. Therefore Poirot cannot come out of his idiosyncrasies. What can Poirot, the eccentric Belgian teach us? Of course, apart from his unique ways of detection of solution to a problem, sitting i

Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. This natural law is also true of civilizations. In distant past different civilizations flourished in the east and then gradually those civilizations faded away. The dawn of awakening happened in West and East went into deep slumber under the covers of dark night. But sun is now leaning towards horizon and once again east is seeing faint lights of dawn. It will have to wake up, get out of its slumber and be active, once again. Once again the beautiful chants should fill in the crisp air of dawn. East and West share a unique relationship. When Jesus was born, three wise men from the East visited the Lord. They saw in the stars the sign of a great man with a mission. By then East was at the peak of its glory, with so many civilizations in so many countries flourishing and fading away - Indus Valley, Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, India, China, all extending their great influence all over the world. Then faint dawn showed in the West

How do we account for the differences in culture, religion and ethnicity? It seems that like a great river which orginates from a snow clad mountain and then distributes itself into many tributaries and distributaries, this great ocean of humanity has divided itself again and again and has permeated many different civilizations, just like rivers and rivulets do. Just as all the tributaries and distributaries of the great river meets at sea, so will this vast ocean of humanity converge somewhere, despite all the differences, despite all intolerance and hatred and violence. It will converge in a vast ocean of supreme consciousness, of grand unification, therein lies its destiny. What is Difference? What is the meaning of religion and cultural difference? On a larger scale, it is nothing. Ramakrishna Paramhansa described this difference using a beautiful parable - Imagine a big sweet water pond, having several steps in various directions. On one side somebody is drinking water and is cal

I saw the plight of thousands of passengers stranded owing to the volcanic eruption in Iceland and was saddened. However this is an instance which is denoted as "Act of God" or "force majeure", airlines cannot be blamed for this. But what if passengers are stranded owing the problems of the airlines? They are supposed to compensate, but do they? I recount one of my own experiences here in this context. While returning from Toronto, I had a connecting KLM flight from Amsterdam. Because my original KLM flight got delayed I missed this connection in Amsterdam. The lady at the counter could not help. No hotel accomodation was provided, only a meal voucher of Euro 10 was handed (poor beggar, he won't need more than this!), no upgrade was provided despite plenty of miles on my flying blue card to justify one, and I was given two straight choices, either spend the night in the airport and board the next day's flight, or get yourself rebooked in another flight which

NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for the uninitiated) is another mammoth instrument of corruption in the hands of the political class. This scheme, which ensures a minimum wage to the rural labor, is flawed because it has no output, direct tangible benefit in the form of asset creation. It just disburses tax payers’ money to rural daily wage earners. But given the pathetic condition of our delivery mechanism, only a pittance of the billions of dollars actually reaches the rural masses. Rest of the money is conveniently pocketed by political parties who have floated the scheme, and their middlemen. This scheme is supposed to have contributed in insulating Indian economy from global financial crisis by creating demand and purchasing power at the bottom of the pyramid. Even if this is considered true, isn’t the Government encouraging reckless spending through this scheme? Given the fact that rarely the benefits of savings and investments reach the rural people who actuall

Is the evolution over or has it just begun? According to sage Aurobindo we are on an eternal voyage of spiritual evolution, transforming ourselves from a human with limited consciousness to a super human with super consciousness. The physical evolution from pisces to birds to reptiles to mammals and higher form like human beings was the basic layer of evolution. If the goal of human journey is to identify oneself with the vast oneness (what is refered to as divinity, Brahman, God or cosmic energy in various contexts), how close are we to achieve that goal in this strife ridden world? However one point is that even though strives and tensions are ways of human lives, they have considerably reduced from the past and we are talking about historical ages, viz. the middle ages when we used to have warfare at the drop of a hat. So does that mean world is now a better place?, I am not sure, because one thing is that weapons are now deadlier than ever and war mongerers are very much there,

The point which I am trying to drive here is that if Indian media in general behaves in a non discriminatory fashion, it would be easier to establish just and fair society. However by indulging in witch hunt in some cases while deliberately ignoring others, the media is making a mockery of itself. Any form of intolerance and hatred is a curse to the civil society and media should not filter out or highlight incidents based on their own bias. Any such attempt creates more polarization and hostility because everybody can perceive unfairness and lack of objectivity in evaluating current situation. Several cases in points had been in the past that of banning of "The Vinci Code" movie in response to protests from some religious groups, banning of "Satanic Verses" and the death threat to Salman Rushdie, banning of some websites because apparently they treaded on sentiments of specific communities etc. In all such cases media at best played a passive role, at worst tried j

I recently had an email exchange with Mr. Barun Roy, columnist in Business Standard, in response to my letter to one of his articles. Mr. Roy is one of the few columnists whose writings I greatly admire. Dear Sir, The article, A Prison for Mr. Husein by Barun Roy is a well written article and I can understand the author's anguish and also empathize with him on the prevalent situation. It is unfortunate that we have to lose a person of the stature of M.F. Husein owing to intolerance with the subject of his artwork. However with due respect, I would like to point out one dimension which is missing here. The Indian media have in the past raised issues pertaining to intolerance and gagging of artistic freedom, but some instances have either been deliberately ignored or been downplayed. One notable case here is that of Ms. Taslima Nasrin, who was driven out of India, was attacked in Hyderabad by MIM vandals, and is still under death threat from fundamentalists. In all these cas

Casteism is much vilified world over and rightly so and this obnoxious system is associated with only Hinduism and again rightly so, because the priestly class among Hindus usurped all privileges for themselves, ably aided by kings who in return got the favour of “god men”, misinterpreted scriptures and developed a system which only favoured their own interest and let the corrupt system continue ensuring miseries for thousands. The Hindu priestly classes were no different from priestly classes in other religions who pursued practices like burning heretics on funeral pyre or accepting Indulgence in medieval period. The power hungry priestly classes and kings (of all religions) came together depriving common people of their belief and power and keeping them poor and wretched through a system based on discrimination and fear. The caste system is a by product of thousands of years of domination by a privileged few over ignorant many, of destroying the later's self confidence and self w

The so called very important persons in India, notably high placed Government officials and politicians are the neo feudal lords (as was discussed in one of my earlier blogs). Today the honourable Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh's convoy passed by my car. Police had vacated the roads for his highness, but somehow I was left, so the convoy overtook me and I had to give way to his highness. Otheriwse he would probably have put me behind bars (hopefully this blog does not consititute a contempt of court as I have nothing personal against CJAP). Further downstream I had the misfortune of meeting CM's convoy. A huge police force was deployed to allow the convoy to pass (note the colossal wastage of tax payer's money) and one constable did his duty so well ( My wife quipped that he was almost lying down on the road to prevent any car from getting in the convoy's way). He probably got a pat in the back from his seniors for being so loyal. So much for the democratic India where

How are success and satisfaction related? Is there any linkage? Are the people who are successful, really happy? These are some of the questions that come to the minds of people. The answer for this is of course, within us. First, success and satisfaction are not linked. Satisfaction here stands for “happiness”. In the epic Mahabharata, Dharma (the God of righteousness and virtue) asked king Yudhisthira, “Who is happy?” Yudhisthira’s answer was that a person who does not have any debt, who is not abroad and at the end of the day is able to get his share of meals, is happy. Now this is definitely not a modern definition of happiness as our desires and wants have grown manifold since Yudhisthira’s era. Therefore we are happy when our needs and desires are fulfilled. But are we really happy when we reach the pinnacle of success, when all our endeavors bear fruit? Are we happy when we get what we want? Of course not! Happiness, defined and measured in terms of wants and desires is as elu

There was an edit in one leading English newspaper that we need to “engage Pakistan in an innovative way.” Engaging Pakistan is a phrase which is now being used Ad Nauseum. This phrase was started by US political class, notably the friends of Pakistan among democrats (who are also responsible for bringing in Kerry Luger bill for wasting billions of dollar and putting further strain on an already strained US economy and fuelling its joblessness). Now “engaging Pakistan” had become instant hit with “secular liberals” in India. Since even they are a little tired of this oft repeated phrase, there is a new twist to this – “Engaging Pakistan in an innovative way.” Nobody knows for sure what engaging Pakistan means, nobody has even faintest idea as to how innovative could one be in dealing with a terrorist and a rogue nation which has got itself caught in a perpetual and vicious downward slope of failure and violence. Pakistan is an epitome of what intolerance stands for where religious min