Dusty, Sweaty, Itchy & Exhilarating....

You could feel the cool breeze flowing in from the ocean, cooling the heavy & tired streets of chennai in the evenings. The sun is just about to set and the faint glow of twilight bathes my helmet visor. I could feel engines roaring around me, with an effect of a 3D-surround system. The soft sputter of a 50cc next to me, to the growl of a 150cc in front me and then there is a coughing sound of our MTC behind me. The display counter on the pole changes rapidly decrementing its value every second, with its LED blaring the inevitable.

When the counter hits 3... stopped engines started purring.... 2....bikes surge forward and stop cos there ain't no space at the stop line. 1... bikes inch forward with full acceleration, only to be stopped by the front disc's cos of the cops, with their walkie talkies, looked high and mighty, ready to pounce on traffic violators.

Green...*&%&$&*% is all I hear. Either you are with the crowd... or eating dust from the asphalt. I along with all wannabe racers, push my bike to do its duty. No lane discipline, no driving ethics, only chaos!! If you are born in chennai, you can find subtle hints that reveals the order amongst this unassuming chaos. They help you clear a path and then you get to drive your bike at speeds, only curtailed by the road quality or your backbone quality.

Honks blaring... headlights glaring & side lights swearing... it is utter confusion... but still traffic moves, with total defiance towards the laws of traffic, with various clutters at different pace. Sweat down your brow, even with the cool breeze, it gives you the an itch and irritation required to reach your destination ASAP. I try to overtake a bus on the right and he does not budge. I honk... and still no respite, so I drop my gears like a pro, slow down, go behind the bus and push my accelerator and zoom, I overtake on the left only to be slowed down by further traffic ahead. Now there are two cars driving very close by, but one after the other in two different lanes with little space in between the first car's right rear bumper and the second car's left front bumper. I judge the distance between the vehicles in a blink of an eye and with a swift push of my bike along with my body I swerve between those cars and clear them like a pro.

As I gun down the bike on the asphalt many trickery like there occur and I see a big green dot in the distance change to orange and then to red. My visor starts to fill up with red swathes from all the vehicles back lights. I stop my bike in time before a growler waiting for the entire episode continue again until I reach my destination.

In short my bike drive in chennai has been dusty, sweaty, itchy & Exhilarating.

The situation.

Recently, the stuff that I hear on the news are all about the cases that have been registered on politicians and their family. Most of them related to corruption and a few related to murders. Don't know which is more ghastly in nature; red blooded punks with an axe to grind, plotting murders with sordid revenge or greedy A** punks killing innocent people of their livelihood and denying their constitutional rights.

I am just pondering on the amount of time and resources that would been saved and used effectively , if we just did not spend them on these imbeciles.Let me clarify; I am not up for letting them all go free. Just the thought of these resources being diverted to something like building roads, schools make everything seem possible.

Why did we get to this situation? Did we all just fall asleep while these politicians plotted to rob us blind? Did we just decide to remain mute spectators, while they pillage and rob us of our freedom to live a life as we see fit.

I say "We", cause we put them into power. Don't we think that, we have the power or at least the right to remove them from power. There are few who act on behalf of others on these matters. At present dealing with these lies and malice seems to take all 24hours of all days of this biggest democracy.

I am at loss to find a path, that could help to get out of this filthy mess. Opposition seems like a good choice, until you find that they "are" in bed with the ruling party.

So what else have we got? Just live and hope nothing catastrophe happens in your lifetime or to you atleast? Seems like the only option that we got ,cause each of us have our own problems to deal with rather than that of the nation. I think it's the right time for the machines to start ruling over us.

- F#%@#D Up

LokPal Bill?

Unless you have decided to shut yourself from the realm called "daily life", you would have heard about the term "LokPal Bill". Information regarding this is being force fed into every Indian, even via Social Networking. So lazy as that I am ,finally decided to catch up on this bill and referred to Wiki; my true source of correct information[1] :D .

My immediate reaction is, "An enforcing authority is truly incorruptible, only if it is not human!!". The only way to minimize corruption, is to address the roots of the issue. I say minimize, cause it is not possible to eradicate corruption. It is in human nature to subvert laws of the land and improvise on a shortcut to achieve their goal. Else we would not have invented machines or anything for that matter and sat on our lazy asses all day.

Corruption stems from the existence of a rich & poor divide. A Government official asks for a bribe, not cause he is addicted to it, at least not the majority. He wants to lead a life that he only can fantasizes with his income. Pay back the loans he had taken to bribe his predecessor, to obtain this position? Take care of the illness that strikes his mom, which the insurance company does not cover.

Instead of finding fault and improvising ways to enforce new laws on the present system; try to ensure only apt personnel are selected for the various Civil services.

Why can't we just ensure that the selection process for Ministers is scrutinized to avoid corrupt landlords, contractors, village elders, humans and so... to be elected as MLA or MP's. Why can't we enforce systems that reduces unemployment? Why can't we teach the poor to feed themselves? Why don't we make all existing government processes to be transparent and make them publish their

Why do we need another department to take care of this corruption? Who will fund this? Tax-payers? Will it scale to the populace of India? So who then watches over these members? Another commission? Well, enough with my questions.

My take on this; Just another system that will look good and shiny, until it starts to rust. Don't talk about this system working in other countries, cos this is not another country, this is India... a monster on its own.

LokPal can help to remove corruption that is prevalent now, but not an effective system to minimize corruption for the long haul.

References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill

Old thoughts...

I got a chance to read my old blog posts. It was an enlightening experience; and the stuff that I had written about; sorrows... problems... joy... it all seems so trivial now(I only refer to the past!!). This helps me to reinforce the fact that, problems faced today is just a blimp and that is all it should be. It has the ability to change your future... but that again depends on your interpretation.

You must have heard people say "Time will heal all wounds...". Well actually they can't be more wrong!! Time can only make you numb to that event due its persistence and only your actions regarding that event can heal those wounds... But time has a potent weapon and it is called loss of memory( I meant the gradual loss of memory and not amnesia). As time progresses... time has the ability to make your forget stuff.

So take action... do not remain a mute spectator, cos you are the lead actor in your play called life. :)

my two cents!!