jabdakhata

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