Wednesday, December 30, 2015

A picturesque, pristine & peaceable place in Kerala which hardly shows any sign of human intervention

Coffee shops, malls and restaurants have become the most sought-after meeting place for friends. This is largely because these are found in plenty, as against quiet and organic settings. Yet, the time spent in a perfectly beautiful natural environment is something all together different; an experience that is unbeatable. This article is about one such experience.
A 40 km travel from Palakkad town towards Nenmara will take one to Karimpara, a small village with considerable tribal population. Pothundi Dam, considered as an entry to the Nelliyampathy hill station, is just 6 km away from this water-self-sufficient village.
Karimpara is royally picturesque and has a small, perennial stream passing through it, the origin of which is from the mountains of Nelliyampathy. During the non-rainy season, the stream is quite narrow and shallow; one can walk through its knee-deep waters. Originating from the hills and passing through dense forests, the water is cold, crystal clear, and sweet.

A walk through the stream is an experience in itself. All through its course, the stream is surrounded by lush green shrubs and trees which makes one ecstatic; and the cold water makes the legs numb. But one cannot walk carefree, for there are high chances that one might stumble. The stream bed is made up of rounded rocks, over which, because it is completely undisturbed, there is algae in abundance, making it very slippery. Probability that one can walk the entire stream till its end point without falling at least once is minimal! Though big trees have bordered the stream they do let the sun rays fall on the water. This enables one to see the entire depth of water clearly. Fishes and other smaller marine insects can also be spotted easily.
All though the water-walk to the end point is more than a kilometre, one will not find it stressful. Rather it is thoroughly enjoyable. What makes it even more pleasurable is that at the end one finds the deepest point of the stream, and the most beautiful. There is a huge rock at that point, and it is over it that the water coming from the mountains makes its fall into the stream, which has, therefore, made the point the deepest. Though during monsoons the water gets to 12-15 feet high here and the entire stream itself becomes unapproachable, other times it is just neck deep. The depth isn’t sudden, but gradual, and thus one can very safely stand there and enjoy the pristine nature at her best. One can swim around that point. Once tired, nature has provided nice rounded stones at the borders where one can rest.

The most wonderful part is that all through this wonderful journey through the stream and its surroundings there is not a single trace of any plastic! Usually such beautiful and less populated places are used by people to sit and consume alcohol, and thus one finds liquor bottles and plastic cups. But here that doesn’t happen. One isn’t that safe! Nature has provided her own security guards, and they are wild boars and elephants! During summers when water in the high forests get depleted they come down from the forest to the stream. Early mornings and evenings are the times when these come down. Maybe it is because of this risk factor that people do not come here for consuming alcohol. Even otherwise, the place shows hardly any trace of human intervention. Perhaps, this is one of those few places on earth that is yet to be exploited by man.
For anyone wanting to visit, there is good road facility till Karimpara. One can park the vehicle and then take a half an hour walk through the forest to reach the stream. Walking further inside the forest, one reaches the place where the tribal community lives. There they have a pond which never gets dried up, from which they get all the water they need.
(The post first appeared in The Yatra Diaries)

Sunday, December 13, 2015

A Book Exchange activity that is now viral

By Sangeetha Sekar and Siddharth Mohan Nair

Social networking sites have been used for a variety of good causes; the latest instance where it was put to great service was the relief work carried out by scores of Twitter and Facebook users to help people stranded in Chennai floods. In the recent past, these social networking sites have also been used to raise resources through "challenges" like the Ice Bucket Challenge, Rice Bucket Challenge, etc. They have also been used for fun discussions like #BreakUpIn5Words, #YourLoveIn5Words.

This time around, some person, of whom we have no clue yet, has started a wonderful "ACTIVITY" called the Book Exchange. It lets a bibliophile connect with others of his creed, gift a book to some person (perhaps even a complete stranger) and then get book(s) in return. The activity involves a person sharing a post asking people to buy and send one book to a person and get 36 in return!




How it works 

The activity is simple. For a moment let us keep the figures aside.
  1. The person, say X, who posts this is contacted by people, say A, B and C, who are interested in taking part in the activity. 
  2. A, B and C are sent a message which contains the name, age, and address of a person to whom they are supposed to send a book. Also included in the message would be the interests of that person to whom the book is being sent, just to ensure that he gets books that he likes reading. 
  3. Next, A, B and C are asked to share the original post of X so that the chain isn't broken. X's address and interests are asked to be shared by A, B and C to all those who contact them, say M, N and O, wanting to join the activity. They are supposed to send books to X. 
  4. M, N and O are part of the activity now. To those who contact them, they share the addresses and interests of A, B and C. 
  5. Thus every person in the activity buys and sends only one book but, quite likely, gets more in return.
But what is to be kept in mind is that there is no guarantee of minimum or maximum number of books that one may get in return. Plainly, it is based on luck! Yet, the idea is brilliant. Kudos to that unknown person whose brainchild this is.

On reading about this incredible activity chain of buying or sharing books, one cannot help but compare this to the other book sharing platforms and networks. Fierce bibliophiles do follow bloggers who write book reviews and websites like goodreads which suggest to you the next good book based on your interest. There are other book sharing platforms like bookmooch.com where people can join the network for free and share books they no longer need in exchange for books they may like to read. Similar desi version is an application called Clapshare started by a couple of IITans from Bombay. This application offers its members a book sharing platform, minus the hustle and worry if your book will reach safely or get lost because of some careless delivery guy. Your book is completely safe with them and you can even track your book.Their first delivery is free after which they charge Rs 25 for every delivery which is alright to pay in exchange for a book. But they are currently operating only in Mumbai.

Ms Apoorva Mandhani, a law student from Pune, who is really excited about this online book exchange activity has already done her part. She has sent a book to a person who is a complete stranger to her. She has sent 'World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption' authored by Ms Laura Hillenbrand. Though she hasn’t read the book herself, she said that she did some research going through book reviews to select the best book possible. To her, the whole idea of selecting a book for a stranger was exciting and she is hopeful that the person likes the book. 

"I also sent a small hand-written note along with the book.  It reminded me of the days we used to have pen pals. Well, the feeling is mutual and we hope everyone in the chain finds a pen pal from the most unassuming of places," said Apoorva.

However, the activity isn't completely free from criticism. Mr Nikhil George, an engineering student from Thiruvananthapuram is of the opinion that this is "scam." He compares this to a pyramid scheme and opines that this is impractical and is akin to cheating people. "Thirteen levels deep, you’ve already surpassed the entire human population on earth. But usually such pyramid schemes fizzle out long before hitting such numbers. One reason being is that at some point, your friend circle is going to overlap and get saturated. The second reason being that your scheme will run out of people who are interested in participating," he says in his blogpost.

He explains it as a geometric progression of the number of people and says that as the progression progresses (excuse my pun) the people at the bottom of the pyramid are simply left without people who will share books with them or just run out of people in general, and thus as the chain expands the people who join later in the chain are left out and don’t benefit from the activity.

But not all think in the manner Nikhil does. Many book lovers simply turn around and say, "We love books more than anything. We do not see this as a scam or an act of cheating, it is just that it involves a bit of luck. Those who buy lotteries do not always, or hardly, get the prize."

The activity, apart from giving and getting books, involves thrill, a thrill in sending books to complete strangers like what the Apoorvas enjoy, a thrill also in getting books as gifts from strangers or friends. It also helps in making new friends. Completely worth a try!     

Monday, November 16, 2015

When an MP replied to a WhatsApp message in less than 10 minutes

Faith in our elected representatives increases manifold when they respond to us promptly, even if their reply may be in the negative. Getting a quick hearing by our representatives is in itself a matter of pride for we people of the world's largest democracy. Few days back I experienced this, and it was really very encouraging.  

I have been selected for the 2015 Jagriti Yatra (JY), a 15-day, 8000 km long train journey with an aim to build India through enterprise. Organized by a non-governmental organization Jagriti Seva Sansthan, the Yatra's mission is "to nurture 1 Lakh entrepreneurs by 2022 and create 10 Lakh jobs in this process." It provides a platform for the youth to meet and interact with change makers, social and business entrepreneurs of the country. Yatris are selected based on their application scores and the deserving candidates are also given part/full sponsorship as per their scores. My application got selected and I got a part sponsorship.

To ask if there was any fund at the disposal of the Member of Parliament of my constituency, Palakkad (Kerala), I messaged my MP Mr M.B. Rajesh in WhatsApp. In less than ten minutes I received a reply from him! Though he said that there wasn't any fund which could be allotted for this purpose, the fact that my MP was so accessible, even through WhatsApp, encouraged me and strengthened by faith in our Democracy. What made me feel even more great was the man's humility. "Really sorry that I could not help you," he said in his reply!



Belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Mr Rajesh had comfortably retained his MP seat for the second consecutive term in the 2014 General Elections. During his first term in the 16th Lok Sabha he was praised by many for having secured 95% attendance in the Parliament, and also for having secured a second place in terms of the number of debates participated.   

 May people of his tribe proliferate! Jai Hind!

Disclaimer: Mr Rajesh does not have my phone number nor does he know me; in my message I introduced myself stating that I am a person from his constituency. Nor am I a member of the CPI(M), the party to which he belongs. 

Saturday, October 31, 2015

A techie who quit his job in Australia to become a full-time farmer in Coimbatore

One day as I was working in my office in Australia, a thought struck me. I asked myself if this was what I really wanted to do in life. I shut down my laptop and started pondering. A seven-figure salary and an air-conditioned office were no longer giving me happiness or satisfaction. I applied for leave and came home. On reaching Coimbatore, the sight of the lush green trees made me decide to take up farming...


This is the story of a software engineer who graduated from Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, did a masters from the University of South Australia, and worked for five years in a software company in Adelaide, Australia and later returned to become a farmer.
Belonging to a Coimbatore-based agricultural family, Suresh Babu Palaniswamy had grown up seeing two generations of his family — his grandfather, father and his uncles — tilling the land. Though he used to work in the fields lending a helping hand in his leisure time, farming was not something that he had in mind to take up as a profession.
Just like most students of his time, he too opted for the IT sector when it was at its peak. 
"Back then my aspirations were to get a well paying job and settle in a foreign country. I was able to achieve it. I was so happy when I was in Australia that I even took up its citizenship. But it was not long before I came to realize that this was not giving me peace," he said regretting his decision of taking up Australian citizenship. 
Taking leave from work and reaching his hometown, he met local farmers, did some research about the market conditions, took inputs from government agricultural departments and the state agricultural university (TNAU), and purchased a few acres of land at the foothills of Marudamalai in the Western Ghats. 
"My father already owned some land there but it was left barren because of the persistent attacks by elephants and wild boars. I learnt that electric fencing could solve this but the problem was that the state electricity board did not have power lines till here." 
Soil erosion was also a reason why farmers hesitated to cultivate in that region. Besides, it took two years to get an electric connection. However, Suresh Babu was not one to wait that long. He invested in solar photovoltaics and set up a solar-powered fence for his 9.5-acre farm, using which he operates a 5 HP pump. 
Suresh has planted areca-nut and banana in his fields and is trying to practice organic farming. His father has a dairy farm from where he gets cow urine which he uses in his farm along with neem leaf extract as an insecticide. He also gets fish waste from the local market which he mixes with jaggery and stores in airtight containers for almost a month to get liquid fertilizer. To conserve water, he has set up a drip irrigation system.

Yet he says that a completely organic farm in that region is almost impossible given the drastic decline in soil fertility because of top soil erosion. 
After having switched to farming full-time, 32-year-old Suresh Babu is a very happy man now. He was recently awarded the ‘Young Farmer Award’ by a farmers' collective in Chennai.


His message for young minds who wish to take up farming is this: "Farming is a very honourable profession and one must proudly say that he is a farmer. For young people to get into farming, money is a very important factor. I would suggest them to work for a few years, save enough money, and then take this up. Credit facilities are available but there is a risk involved in agriculture for it is still dependent on external factors. What crops you cultivate is also important; it is not that you must cultivate what the majority are doing. Government departments and agricultural universities are of great help in giving advice. I am really thankful to them for giving me good advice."

(The article first appeared in The News Minute)

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Uncharitable and unwarranted criticism showered on the Judiciary for its NJAC verdict is both distressing and perilous

On October 16, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in a 4-1 majority struck down as unconstitutional the 99th Constitution Amendment Act, which would have paved the way for the establishment of a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). The landmark judgment is being widely debated. There is praise from some quarters but there is also a lot of criticism, especially from the government. Most of the criticism has been at the level of politicians versus judges. A few who are in disagreement with the judgment have stretched their arguments beyond reason, and are attacking the Court in uncharitable and less-than-democratic terms. This is both distressing and perilous.  
Let us first look at the manner in which the reactions started coming. The BJP ministers and spokespersons were initially very mild in expressing their opposition to the judgement. The Union minister for Law and Justice initially, over an hour after the judgment was delivered, said that he was “really surprised with the verdict.” He would go through the judgment, talk to his senior colleagues and then decide, he had said. The Telecom Minister also spoke in a similar tone. When asked by a correspondent of ANI if the judgment was a setback to the legislature, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad replied that he did not see it as a confrontation between the legislature and the judiciary.
By 2 PM, Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley called for a meeting of the BJP spokespersons. We are not privy to what transpired but one can be sure by the responses that we later witnessed that the party had decided to attack the judiciary. The same Telecom Minister changed his view; he told the press in the evening: “I regret to say that Parliament’s sovereignty has received a setback today.” Since the Court is “going to hear the so called infirmities and the need for improvement in the collegium system from 3rd November…there is an acknowledgment by the judiciary itself that collegium system needs improvement,” Mr Prasad said.
Two days later it was the Finance Minister himself who came out with harsh words against the judiciary. In his Facebook page, he wrote that the “key to the judgment” was “political bashing.” Taking a swipe, he said that the “Indian democracy cannot be a tyranny of the unelected.” Leaving behind the fact that the Minister himself had lost the 2014 general elections in Amritsar and got into Parliament through the Rajya Sabha route where “elections” are hardly that in the true sense of the word, it was highly unfortunate for a minister and a lawyer of his stature to use such words. Does he mean to say that the decisions of the Judges are of no, or less, value because they are not elected members? And by “tyranny” what does he mean? Does the Supreme Court’s striking down of an act that was passed by Parliament, notwithstanding the majority or extent of support it carried, constitute tyranny? Did the politician in him so badly dwarf the judicial mind which he possesses that he forgot that the Constitution provides for a judicial review? Or was he unwittingly making public his inner desire to amend the Constitution and repeal judicial review altogether so that Parliamentarians’ “sovereignty” can be untouched? And by saying that “it was people like me – the politicians, who fought out and went to prison” and saved democracy, does the minister mean to say that the Judges too should go to prison in order to qualify to become saviours of democracy?
While attacking the Judiciary in such voices, the likes of Mr Jaitley who hold high posts should remember that if any institution of the State still commands some respect and faith it is the Judiciary, more so the higher judiciary.  
Dr Jayaprakash Narayana of the Lok Satta party in an interview to Swarajya magazine opined that it was an “absurd proposition” to say that if “the representatives of Parliament or the government are part of the process of selection (of judges), it vitiates the selection.” The Supreme Court is not against representatives of the Parliament having a say in the process of selection, but is only against political interference to the extent that judicial independence will be compromised. In the Collegium system, the names of the candidates chosen by five senior-most judges of the apex court is sent to the President (read Cabinet) for assent. The representatives of Parliament (the Cabinet) have the power to send back such names if found inappropriate (though only once), and this was a system evolved by the Judiciary, not the Parliament!  
Those who criticize the judicial appointment system by saying that judges appoint judges (“permanent priesthood” is how Dr Jayaprakash Narayana put it in his above mentioned interview, “self-procreation” said Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi in his article in the Times of India) should also add that there exists a provision wherein the candidates to be appointed as judges selected by the judges can be regulated by the Cabinet. The case of Mr Gopal Subramanium being prevented from becoming a Judge of the Supreme Court is a recent instance; it also showed how the Collegium was not sufficiently insulated from political interference (read excesses). One may say to counter this argument that that the Cabinet’s check in this regard is insufficient as the name(s) suggested by the Collegium can be sent back for reconsideration only once, and that if the Collegium sends the same name(s) again the President will have to appoint the said person(s). But this is the same even in the manner how bills are passed in Parliament. The President can send back to the Parliament for reconsideration a Bill only once and if the same is passed in the same form again, the President is bound by law to give his assent to it. Let us for a moment hypothetically think that there is a body that makes law which is above Parliament. If that body were to amend the Constitution to the effect that a Bill once sent back by the President to the Parliament for reconsideration shall not be accepted unless changes were made, would the Parliamentarians have agreed?  
Dr Jayaprakash Narayana said that judges appointing themselves was necessary to maintain independence wass an “absurd logic” because then by extending the same logic even Election Commission, Public Service Commissions, the CAG, etc. would have to appoint themselves. The comparison, I say with due respect, is incorrect. The bodies mentioned by Dr Narayana are not judicial bodies and thus are not, as is the basic structure, required to be separated from the executive and legislature. These bodies get the independence they require from the Constitution itself; removal procedure of an Election Commissioner is same as that followed for a Judge of the Supreme Court, there is security of tenure for members in these bodies, their salaries cannot be changed to their disadvantage, etc. Also, attempts as blatant as in the case of the Judiciary were not made to appoint “suitable,” “committed,” or “ideologically aligned” persons to these bodies. Thus there was no need to change the appointment procedure in these bodies as prescribed in the Constitution. There were serious attempts made by governments to make the judiciary weak and pliable and that is why the system of appointment had to be changed and we got a Collegium system, which none now say is perfect. The Supreme Court itself has said that the system needs to be improved, and that is precisely why they have called stakeholders for discussions on November 3. And if similar attempts are made to make constitutional bodies weak and pliable, the Supreme Court would, as it ought to, set in motion a debate and give suitable directions to the government to amend the appointment procedures.     
In the NJAC as it was passed, there were, at numerical parity with the judicial members, three non-judicial members, of which two would be “eminent persons” who were not even defined properly in the Act, and with a veto power of two. The same veto of two, but against five, existed in the Collegium too whereby a name could not be sent for assent to the President if two of the five Collegium members opposed. Thus, it is not veto per se that the Supreme Court has a problem but the veto that could be exercised by two undefined “eminent persons.”
The NJAC in the form it was passed would have done no better than the Collegium. Lack of transparency was the biggest problem in the Collegium system and where in the Act was a proviso which would have made the procedure transparent? Did the government feel that the presence of the Law Minister and two undefined “eminent persons” would bring transparency? The Act did not mention any new criteria or desirable qualification that would have to be looked at by the selectors. Instead of striking down the Act completely, Dr Singhvi feels that “the judiciary should have given a fair chance” to the NJAC “at least for a reasonable time.” Why should such an Act need a fair chance? It would only have led to another long discussion bringing further disrepute to the Judiciary for a flawed selection process. This was something that the Judiciary least wanted. Its invitation to the stakeholders for offering suggestions to rectify the errors is an open admission by the top court of the country that things are not in good shape, and this must be seen positively. Those shouting “judges appoint judges” must take solace in the fact that the judges are ready for reform.

The article first appeared in The News Minute

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Thrissur's 78 year old Pen Hospital that has treated Mrs Indira Gandhi's & Mr Kalam's pens

Few metres down the Town Hall Road from the famous Round in Thrissur district of Kerala is the small, single shuttered, seventy-eight-year-old shop were pens from many corners of India reach for repair. For someone walking this road for the first time it is quite natural that the shop may go unnoticed.

Written in yellow bold letters in black background on a small rectangular plate is the shop's name - Honest Pen Hospital. Part of the name plate is hidden by the rolled up shutter. Towards the lower half of an adjacent wall that faces the road is an interesting painting showing a fractured pen being carried on a stretcher by two fountain pens, below which is written: 'Hurry up to Pen Hospital and get complete cure.'



On the entrance hangs a small board with a caption 'Consulting Time.' 9 AM to 6 PM, the board reads.



Next to it, facing the shop's inside, hangs another board which reads 'Wait for 10 minutes.' This is board which Mr Nazar displays when he is away from the 'hospital' to do some household chores.



Unlike other hospitals, there are no receptionists, nurses, and doctors; there is just one man, Nazar, the pen doctor, who welcomes people walking into his 'hospital' with an appealing smile. Mr Nazar, 58, has been repairing pens for the past 36 years. However, the shop is older than Nazar himself.

Nazar's father, Mr Kaalathodu Koluthu Parambil Abdulla, was the one who founded this 'hospital' in 1937. Before founding this, Abdulla was working as a fountain pen mechanic in Bengal.

"Fountain pen users back then were very less. Swan, Blackbird, Pilot, etc. were the few fountain pens that were available in India, and they were costly. There was a demand for people who could repair these. After basic education, my father went to Bengal, learnt pen repair, and started working there. When pens became cheaper and more people started using them, my father came back to Kerala to do the same work here. Thus was born the Honest Pen Hospital," Nazar recounts.

The shop was first located in Thrissur district's St Thomas College Road. It was in 1959 that the shop was shifted to the location where it currently stands.

Nazar believes that pens have life. "There is some fore of attraction, like that of the magnetic force, between a pen and its owner. Only if you take good care of your pen and love it like your pet will it help you. The more you love it, the better will it help you to shape your thoughts on paper."



Nazar reminisces with pride the early days of this 'hospital' when his father was the doctor. "My father's fingers had some sort of magic in them. He knew pens so much that once he got a faulty pen in his hand, even before the owner could say what the fault was he would diagnose it. He could successfully cure all pen ailments. Few pens would require days of work while few could be cured in minutes."

There were not many exclusive pen repair shops in India and because of Abdulla's mastery in the craft, the Honest Pen Hospital earned a name for itself. Pens from different parts of the country used to come here for 'treatment.'

This shop in the southern state of India had the privilege of 'treating' the Prime Minister's pen. Once when Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi's fountain pen stopped writing it was sent to this 'hospital.' "The pen was special to Mrs Gandhi because it was gifted to her by President of Soviet Union Mr Mikhail Gorbachev. She had it sent to my father through her secretary. My father repaired it and sent it back to the Prime Minister."

The senior pen doctor passed away in December 2010, and the news spread in the city. Nazar recounts a touching incident which shows how much people loved their service.

"Few days after my father passed away, a famous Ayurvedic doctor's son walked into the shop and showed me a fountain pen which my father had repaired. He had a touching story to tell. It was the only pen his father used to write with, he used to prescribe medicines using that pen alone. When its nib became faulty he had it sent to my father. But the nib was not readily available and it needed a week to be replaced. By the time the son had got the pen repaired and taken it to his father, the father had got another pen for himself. The father then asked the son to keep it for himself. Those days it was not common for a pen to be gifted, and the son cherished it so much that he got a wooden box made by a carpenter exclusively for keeping the pen and kept it safely in his locker. As years passed the son got many more pens for himself and he forgot his gift. It was when my father passed away that he got reminded of the pen and brought it to me. Even after so many years the pen worked perfectly."

As Nazar was telling me this story a customer walked in asking for a good fountain pen. Nazar showed him few pieces of the old, famous Doctor brand of pens made in Bombay. These pens are hardly available in ordinary shops as they are out of stock. Having sold the pen, Nazar told his customer to use the pen regularly, or else to wash the nib section and keep it dry. "This is an advice which my father used to give to every fountain pen user and it is because the Ayurvedic doctor's son heeded to this that his pen worked perfectly when we tried writing with it after years," says Nazar. He is continuing his father's practice of giving this advice to every fountain pen user he meets.

Honest Pen Hospital has also had many other celebrity customers. Among them were renowned Malayalm poets Kunjunni Master and Mr Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon, both of whom were recipients of the prestigious Kerala Sahithya Academy Award. Former President Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam too had once visited this shop.

"President Mr Kalam had come to Ernakulam for some function, and the organizers of the event had cut a big shade-giving tree to make arrangements for his welcome. He came to know of it later when he had returned to Delhi after the function. He then asked the organizers to plant a sapling in its place and take care of it. For planting the sapling he came to Ernakulam again, and while he was placing the sapling in the pit that was dug, his pen fell into it and the pen's cap got stuck. He wanted it repaired and his secretary suggested to him this hospital. The President arrived here and I repaired the pen."

Since fountain pen users have fallen drastically and people who like to get their pens repaired have reduced even further, customers have dwindled. "But there are still many judges of the High Court of Kerala, advocates, doctors, and document writers who get their fountain pens repaired from here."

But this 'hospital' also repairs ball point and roller ball pens. As I was speaking to him there were many customers who came to fill ink in their roller ball refills. For those coming asking for a new refill without knowing that the used refill could be re-filled, Nazar informs them of this, despite the fact that what he earns for re-filling is ten times lesser than what he would earn by selling a new refill.

"It is not all about money. Of course money is a factor but I do it more as a form of service. I know how badly people get affected when the pen they use regularly stops working the way they want it to. Most of the service require minor tweaking of the feed and the nib and I do not charge anything for it," says Nazar. I myself had got my handmade Deccan Ambassador fountain pen's ink flow adjusted for which Nazar did not charge anything. He takes solace from the fact that he is keeping alive an establishment which his father had founded.

However, Nazar is disappointed with two things. "People hardly write these days. Most of the work is typed, and the emergence of social media has made people to type rather than write their thoughts. Many great authors who I have had the opportunity to interact with when they bring their pens to me for repair have said that thoughts can be better presented when written. Writing establishes a better bonding with the mind, they say."

Nazar is also bit disappointed with the drastic fall in the number of fountain pen users. "Apart from helping in improving one's handwriting, using fountain pens is more eco-friendly than ball point pens. Also, fountain pens bring sort of a discipline to life. It makes one slow down in this age of pace."

Curious to know which pen this pen doctor himself uses I asked him to show me his pen. "I am not a writer, I do not have a pen. All what I do is pen repair and once I finish working on a pen I write with it to see if it is working well. That's the only writing that I do, so I do not have a pen for myself." When asked if he had any favourites he replied in the negative.

As more and more people were walking into Nazar's 'hospital' for 'treatment' I packed my bag and asked him who would be the next doctor of this hospital when Nazar would grow old. "God alone has an answer," he said.

"I did not want to become a pen mechanic. I wanted to go to the Gulf. But while I was still in school there was some civil case on this property and my father had to often go to the court. I, therefore, had to spend my time here in his absence. I used to write down the customer's name and complaints on a piece of paper, and show it to my father when he returned, and then rush to school. This partly affected my studies, but in the meantime I also developed an interest in repairing pens. We had also set up a pen manufacturing unit and I got interested in that too. But as demand for fountain pens fell, pen making was becoming less economical. Thus we dismantled the unit and started focusing on repair, and also on sales of other pens. But for the civil cases in the court I would have been in the Gulf. It is God who wanted me here, and he will have someone else in mind when I am not able to discharge my duties."

Pen doctor Nazar's children are doctors too, but not of pens like him and his father. Both his children are medical doctors. Only thing he is sure of is that the next doctor in Honest Pen Hospital is not going to be either of them.

(Abridged version, published in The News Minute, can be found here)  

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Small acts of inter-religious honour can bring about peace and unity

It has been over two weeks since this year's Ramzan. Though belonging to the Hindu religion, my parents undergo the one-month fast that Muslims do in their holy month of Ramzan every year. This was the fourteenth consecutive year of my parents undergoing this month-long fast.

Few days before the month of Ramzan in the year 2001, my father's close friend (a Muslim) and his family had spoken to my parents about the varied benefits of undergoing this fast, and had kindled the idea of trying to observe the fast in my parents' mind. However, to be frank, the factor that most influenced my parents to try it was the anticipated reduction in body weight which would most probably result, for both of them were, and continue to be, fat.

But what began as a mere attempt to reduce weight went further. Right from the first year they started feeling physically and mentally relieved after few days of fasting, and when thirty days of the fast was coming to a close they felt the need to also perform charity, something on the lines of Zakat al-Fitr, which, under Islamic tradition, is a compulsory charity that needs to be done by every Muslim to provide means for the poor to celebrate the opening of fast every day. Every Muslim was bound to do this, and the Prophet Muhammad said, "The fasting of the month of fasting will be hanging between earth and heavens and it will not be raised up to the Divine Presence without paying the Zakat al-Fitr." The mandatory charity entwined with holy Ramzan was thus, to my understanding, a deliberate attempt by the great Prophet to evanesce class divisions in the Islamic society. Right from time immemorial religions have linked man's social responsibilities to God(s), and the fear of God makes him to shoulder them, seeing it as a moral duty, which otherwise he would have probably neglected. My parents did this charity for few years, though it was discontinued after few years since we shifted our residence.

However, what has not stopped is the month-long fasting. And because this was the fourteenth year that my parents were fasting the incident got reported in a Malayalam daily in Kerala, on July 16, three days before the last day of Ramzan. Since then, my parents say, there have been few changes, which I feel are profound. 

My mother talks of how her non-Muslim colleagues express wonder upon her observing such a strict fast, as Hindus and Christians have comparatively very liberal means of religious fasting. But what is remarkable is not this. She talks of her Muslim colleagues showing great happiness in the fact that a Hindu couple is observing a Muslim religious practice, of a Muslim colleague of hers who had hitherto not spoken to her congratulating her for observing the fast. My father talks of how a Muslim shopkeeper in the neighbourhood invited him to his home as a mark of respect. My father was also told by a Muslim friend that the Mullah in a neighbourhood mosque, in the course of his sermon, spoke of my parents to show how people from other religions were showing an interest in Islamic religious practices. It seems the Mullah also asked the gathering to support my parents if they were in some need. 

I was not at home when all this had happened. When I returned home from Madras, I got to hear of all these developments. During my evening walk in my hometown, I always pass by a Muslim man's home who by profession is a painter of bill boards and number plates of automobiles. I see him working every time I walk that road. On seeing the report in the newspaper he delightedly showed it to a friend of mine and my father's, which my friend told me when I met him few days back. During my walk the next day I met the man. He was sitting on a concrete slab and eating fried groundnuts. He immediately rose, smiled at me, and walked to me saying that he had seen the report about my parents fasting. He immediately offered to me the groundnuts that he was having in his hand. Here was a man who I was seeing for over eight years, who hardly even smiled because we did not know each other (though we lived quite close by), but now was walking up to me and speaking jovially. I think it was something great. 

A small act of observing a religious fast of one religion by people belonging to another religion has evoked this sort of a response. I was wondering how it would be if we all did such small acts. During British Raj we have known about instances where Muslims used to celebrate Hindu religious festivals and vice versa, of Muslims not having beef and Hindus not having pork to honour each others religious beliefs and sentiments. The other day I was hearing a lecture of Senior Advocate and Member of Parliament Mr. Ram Jethmalani saying how in his childhood days in Sind, his birthplace, which was then, before partition, a part of India, Hindu families would buy new clothes for the year during Ramzan and Muslims would do so during Diwali. And that by doing so as children they all learnt to see people from other religions as one. He also spoke of how, during the communal riots that took place during partition, Muslims in his neighbourhood protected Hindu families by telling the rioters that there were no Hindus in the houses of that area, which made many Hindus, including him escape death.

For quite some time now religion has been used only, or at any rate primarily, as a means for dividing people. We are walking a path were divisions based on religion and caste are being made more and more conspicuous. Few lay the dangerous trap and most of us unwittingly fall into it. The attempt to polarize the hanging of Mr. Yakub Memon is the latest and perfect case in point. Of all that was happening I was amazed by the demand made by a "leader" of the Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra that Mr. Memon's wife should be made a Member of Parliament.   

"Everybody is agreed about the necessity of this (communal) unity. But everybody does not know that unity does not mean political unity which may be imposed. It means an unbreakable heart unity... We shall both (Hindus & Muslims) be voted irreligious savages by posterity if we continue to make a futile attempt to compel one another to respect our religious wishes." - Mahatma Gandhi. (p.244, Communal Unity, India of My Dreams)

Let us all respect every man without looking at his religion. Let us take that extra effort to learn the goodness in other religions, and also talk about those when we do about ours. Let us put to practice the good of all religions. Let religions remain but divisions made using them fade.               

Sunday, April 5, 2015

The dinner hosted by the PM for Judges could have been avoided, may raise doubts in the minds of people

Prime Minister Modi hosted a dinner for the Chief Justice of India, all judges of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justices of all High Courts at his official residence on Saturday. This is perhaps the first time in post-independent Indian history that a Prime Minister has invited all judges of the apex court and the Chief Justices of all High Courts like this for a dinner. The precedent that has been set now will damage the basic trust that people repose in the Judiciary.

Separation of powers between the Executive and the Judiciary is a core value on which our constitutional democracy rests. It is only when one side goes wrong that the other pitches in. When a judge is found to be engaging in corrupt practices, the Parliament initiates action for his impeachment; when the executive strays from the values enshrined in the Constitution, the courts strike down the government's move. The separation of powers between the two organs is, therefore, essential for each of them to do their duty impartially. 

This government has been elected to power with a historic mandate, it has a brute majority in the Lok Sabha. That it does not have the requisite numbers in the Rajya Sabha acts as a brake. But we have seen the manner in which, by bypassing the Parliament, ordinances are promulgated, and even re-promulgated. It clearly shows that the Rajya Sabha brake isn't strong enough. It has supplemented the feeling that space for dissent has been considerably reduced, and that this sort of majoritarianism is not good for the great Indian democracy.

In such an atmosphere, if a situation arises, it is only the Judiciary that can balance the government's power and act as a check. The separation of powers between the two is more important now than ever before. The Judiciary has been coming down heavily on the government for its callous attitude on certain issues, off-loading of the Greenpeace activist for instance, and the government has been trying to prove its might whenever given a chance, like on Mr Gopal Subramanium's judgeship issue. There had also been a friction between the two organs over the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). Union Minister for Law and Justice Mr Sadananda Gowda had said during an event in January instant that there would be no more appointments to the higher judiciary until the petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the NJAC were disposed off. Later, however, he informed the Rajya Sabha that the appointments would continue until the law was notified. 


"Tension between the Judiciary and the Executive is a welcome sign. The so-called harmony of the two may well be at the expense of constitutional democracy itself," senior advocate and former Union Minister for Law and Justice Mr Ram Jethmalani had once said. Many from the opposition parties and the judicial circles had screamed blue murder when the Chief Justice of India praised the Prime Minister as a "good leader, good human being, and a man with foresight" during a meet with journalists. A mere utterance of what the Chief Justice had in mind about Prime Minister the person had created sort of an uproar. It was then rightly said that personal opinions of judges should not be expressed openly given the kind of impartial role that their office demands. Such actions would breed unnecessary questions in minds of people over the impartiality of a judge. 


When a judge attends a function hosted by an influential person, and later when a case is adjudicated in that man's favour, it is but natural that negative motives would be attributed. It is because of this that judges lead a very insulated life in the society. One may say that judges are trained to act impartially and that therefore motives need not be attributed to such instances. But there is perception that will not let man remain silent, and perception does play a vital role. It is necessary in the interests of democracy that such perception does not take birth, and a dinner party as hosted by the Prime Minister for judges will definitely give rise to such. 


Of all organs and bodies of the State, it is the Judiciary that is considered to be the least corrupt. And it is because of this that despite delay in the long process of rendering justice, people's faith in the Judiciary has remained. Also in our Constitutional setup the raison d'etre of a powerful and independent judiciary is to caution, and if necessary stop, the Executive when it does not follow the spirit of the Constitution. The government being the largest litigant in the courts, any instance of a public bonhomie between the two organs will undoubtedly raise suspicion in the minds of people. The BJP may well say that Saturday's dinner was just a casual meet, but the people may not take it that casually.
       
The separation of powers between the two pillars of democracy have been working well, and any action which would even make a slight impression that the separation is being depleted should be avoided. If the Prime Minister has thought that his decision to invite the judges for a dinner is a sound diplomatic move, sorry Mr Prime Minister, it will be a disaster.


The intention of the Prime Minister may be good but the message that it will send to the public will be that the Executive is now trying to woo the Judiciary, which remains the only strong body that can oppose the mighty Executive. Post-retirement appointments of judges is an issue that is being debated and such dinners would add fuel to that debate. Today it is all Chief Justices and judges of the apex court, tomorrow it could be a selected few who are invited for dinner.  


The last hope was that the Chief Justice of India and all the judges who had been invited would decide to not attend the dinner, but that hope has now been killed.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Kerala Assembly Shames Democracy

“Parliament is simply a costly toy of the nation,” Mahatma Gandhi had said. The same is true for an Assembly in a state. One wonders if he would have reiterated his stand on looking at what happened at the Kerala Assembly yesterday. The scenes that one witnessed there will make none contest that claim of the Mahatma.
What happened in the Assembly was a result of nothing but an unquenchable ego of the United Democratic Front (UDF), the ruling coalition led by the Congress Party, and the Left Democratic Front (LDF), the opposition led by the CPI(M).
Having been satisfied prima facie that Finance Minister KM Mani had taken a bribe of Rs 1 crore from a bar hotel owner, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau of the state had early last December registered a case against him. With this, the opposition’s demand for his resignation gained momentum. Since then, they have been vehemently pressing for his resignation, and asking Chief Minister Oomen Chandy to sack him from the Cabinet. The government maintained that registration of an FIR did not make him guilty or culpable.
As the day of the presentation of the state Budget drew close, the LDF made it clear that they would not allow Mani to present the document in the House. We cannot let a corrupt man present a state Budget in the House; the chief minister can ask anyone else to present it — was the stand to which the LDF stuck.
On Thursday when it became known that the LDF were resolute in not even letting the finance minister enter inside the House, the government took an unprecedented decision. It decided that all its members would spend the night inside the Assembly! The opposition not only aped the treasury benches, but it also decided to block all doors to the House so that Mani could be physically prevented from entering the House. They even instructed their women MLAs to round off the finance minister. The government, taking this for a challenge, asked its MLAs to foil the opposition’s bid. The chief minister wrote to Speaker N Sakthan that the finance minister’s place be moved from the usual first row to the third row so that he could be prevented from any assault planned by the opposition.
Thursday night, the television debates moved from their studios to ‘ground zero’ — the Legislative Assembly complex in Thiruvananthapuram. Representatives from the opposition parties were proudly sharing their modus operandi as to how they would prevent the tabling of the Budget. And the ruling coalition MLAs, with equal pride, saying that the literal “tabling” of the Budget by Mani would be their victory, the speech did not matter. The debates gave an insight into what was in store for the next day.
But the Budget day turned out to be worse, a blot on parliamentary politics of the state. The MLAs of the ruling coalition stood as bouncers of night clubs to make way for the safe passage of the finance minister from the door to his chair, and the opposition counterparts tried to take positions so as not to let him enter the House. At each door of the House, the ‘bouncers’ and ‘pouncers’ stood menacingly. And when the alarm bell rang, alerting for the beginning of the session, the finance minister was seen entering the House surrounded by a dozen of watch-and-ward officials from the back door. The opposition MLAs rushed there and forced the minister to retreat.
Soon a group of MLAs ran to the podium of the Speaker and blockaded his entry, too. A few of them pushed down his chair. Later, with the help of the watch and ward staff, the Speaker entered the hall and, using hand gesture, signalled to the finance minister to table the Budget. Mani then did what would quench his and the government’s ego: he tabled the Budget and read some lines from it for about 11 minutes.
Those 11 minutes showcased the worst kind of scenes that the House has ever witnessed. The MLAs were shouting at the podium of the Speaker; one of them climbed on his table, others damaged things lying or installed on his table including a computer. Another group threw bits of paper at the finance minister. One tried to jump from the top of a table over the barricade formed by the watch and ward staff and, in the process, showed his underwear. A group of women MLAs ran to the chief minister as if to attack him, but were blocked and manhandled by some ruling party MLAs. One of them accused a woman MLA of biting his hand, refuting which she questioned why she was manhandled by him when there were lady guards for that purpose.
Another lady MLA accused a ruling party legislator of abusing her with a reference to her caste. As soon as Mani ended his speech, the ruling party MLAs shouted to say they were “victorious” and distributed sweets!
What was happening outside the House was no less dramatic. Members of the communist parties along with Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha members were hurling stones at the policemen. The police retaliated by using water cannons, tear gas shells and later lathis. A member of the communist party died of a heart attack while many were injured. Two government vehicles were burnt, too.
Still, after all these unprecedented and repugnant events inside the Assembly and outside on a Budget Day, the ‘leaders’ of all parties involved continued the fight, claiming “victory” was theirs! The ruling party MLAs were heard saying that the finance minister did table the Budget and even read parts of it, the opposition maintaining that the Speaker did not say, “Order, order!” which is usually said before the start of a session, and that he did not sit in the chair and ask the finance minister to present the Budget and, therefore, technically the Budget was not presented, and thus they had ‘won’. And all this was shamelessly said live on Malayalam news channels.
Meanwhile, the finance minister unabashedly read out his Budget speech in more detail in a press conference inside the media room of the Assembly. He said that the BJP and the communists wanted to produce a few martyrs on this day, but were unsuccessful in their attempt. He added that he was disappointed for not being able to visit the church before coming to the House to table the Budget.
Blaming the opposition, the chief minister said it was a “black day in the history of Kerala Assembly”. What he forgot was the fact that it was his power lust that led to this “black day”. The FIR lodged against Mani was serious enough to remove the ally in the coalition from the chief minister’s Cabinet; he feared that the removal would lead to the withdrawal of support from Mani and his eight MLAs which, in turn, would lead to the fall of the government that stands on a slender majority.
The opposition had diluted its initial stand; it had only demanded that Mani not be allowed to present the Budget. But there is no denying the fact that the Communists’ conduct was despicable. They were egos of the government and the opposition alike that marked the shameless scenes in the political history of Kerala yesterday.
The act has shocked and shamed the people Kerala who voted them to power. That these MLAs should be called ‘leaders’ brings utter disgrace to Indian democracy. And, as if all this drama were not enough, the LDF has called for a state-wide hartal, a complete shutdown from 6 AM to 6 PM, on Saturday. This highlights their brazen attitude: the voters in the state have no option but to be governed either by a Congress-led or a Communist-led government. When people are fed up with one, the other is voted to power in the next election; and, for quite some time now, these two parties have been ruling the state one after the other.
The BJP has never been able to secure even one seat in the state Assembly. No other party has the organisation or resources to successfully contest an election. The Congress and the communists are aware of this political reality, and this political helplessness of the people breeds the two players’ brazenness. Until this political vacuum is filled, people in “God’s own country” will live as political slaves under the tyranny of a bipolar polity.
The article first appeared in Swarajya on 14 March 2015.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Why journalist Mr Kanchan Gupta and the like are wrong on Nagaland mob fury

On March 5 people in Nagaland witnessed a terrific mob fury. Thousands of men and women barged into the central prison in Dimapur district of the state. As the helpless police watched on, the mob, which was clearly at an advantage in terms of number, pulled Syed Farid Khan out of his cell. They made him naked and dragged him though the city's road, stoning and abusing him all through the way, and eventually killed him.

Syed Farid Khan was arrested on February 24 following a complaint of rape lodged by a college girl. Khan, a scrap trader, was sent to judicial custody. The Assam Chief Minister has said that he has received reports that rape wasn't even committed. Much is being said about the incident and truth is yet to surface. What, however, led to the outrage on March 5 was that there were rumours that Khan was an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant. For long the state has been lurching under the ethnic and social problems between the aboriginals and the immigrants.

Such acts where a group of people take law into their own hands and act with vendetta should be unequivocally condemned. We are already witnessing instances of groups under the label of khap panchayats, moral police, etc. taking upon themselves few duties and functions of the State in matters of law and public order. What happened in Nagaland is comparable to the khaps to the extent that they feel that they are entitled to decide what is right and wrong and that they are entitled to award punishments and execute it.  

While a vast majority of us condemn instances of khaps or moral policing, the responses to the Nagaland mob fury has, unfortunately, not been the same. We hear a lot of voices justifying the actions of the mob. The most glaring one has been a piece written by senior journalist Mr Kanchan Gupta for the Mid Day.

Titled "When law fails, mobs take over," Mr Gupta has written that the action of the mob "was at once an act of defiance by the masses, taunting the law of the land, and a meek acceptance by the Indian state that it has failed." He then wrote that "the state has allowed the criminal justice system to crumble and wither away, eroding people’s faith in the courts." 

While he was not wrong on these, after finding fault with the judiciary by citing few examples, he surprisingly went on to endorse what the mob did. "Perfectly law-abiding citizens turn into vigilantes and endorse kangaroo courts and cheer the meting out of mob punishment, as they did in Dimapur, when the belief that courts will not deliver justice strikes root," he wrote.

All through the piece not once has he condemned the act. The maximum he was willing to accept was that the incident showed "how dangerously close we as a nation are to the precipice of frightening lawlessness." Even this "lawlessness" he did not condemn!

But Mr Gupta is not the only one. There are many out there who publicly and in private endorse what the mob in Dimapur did. All such people must understand that they are doing a disservice to the public institutions of law and justice and also to the existence of the Indian State. For, by not condemning such acts and at times even justifying them citing delay in legal justice, they are encouraging those people who are sitting on the fence, undecided whether mobocracy can take precedence over democracy, and to jump to the wrong side which may make India not different from our neighbour Pakistan.

Many public institutions have lost credibility, many of them work poorly. But they are ours, it is we who have to rectify it. We should trust democracy to render justice, and do nothing that makes the process difficult. Equally important is our character. "National character," said Rajaji "is the key stone on which rests the fate and future of our public affairs, not this or that ism." Let us not inject the virus of violence into people's character by not unequivocally condemning such acts.        


Friday, March 6, 2015

"India's Daughter" knowingly broke an Indian law, many of us supported it; are we ready to face the ramifications?

Social media is replete with messages saying "I watched India's Daughter!" and praises for it are outpouring. A considerable part of the praise is because it was BBC, a non-Indian channel, that made the documentary. Had it been any Indian organization, the praise would have had limits, certainly less than what it is now. When it comes to rape, it is fashionable these days to show anything that has to do with India in poor light - Indian men, Indian police, Indian law and the courts, Indian government, Indian media, etc.    

Despite the innumerable messages sharing the You Tube link of the documentary and the provocation, I decided not to watch it. The simple reason being it is against the law of the land. The final judgment in the infamous 2012 Delhi Gang Rape case is yet to be pronounced; the appeal by the accused is pending before the Honourable Supreme Court of India. Publication of any material that may influence a pending case is prohibited by the Contempt of Court Act.

What BBC has done by publication of the statements of the accused Mr Mukesh Singh in the documentary is, therefore, illegal. The courts can, if they wish, take action against the media house. It is not that the BBC would not have known about this, but it simply did not care!

Meanwhile, there are now reports that the accused Mr Mukesh Singh had demanded Rs. 2 lakh from the documentary team for the interview. Later the team negotiated with him and made him agree to it for Rs. 40,000. I leave it to you, the diligent reader, to judge the correctness of this act.

The government's banning of the documentary, especially the reason that it gave that India's image would take a blow if it was published, made it the target of fierce criticism. It asked the BBC to not publish the documentary on women's day as the channel had planned to. But BBC acted smart and telecast it before, and it was also shared on You Tube.

The BBC broke the Indian law and disregarded the Union government's directive. Saying that their act of publication made us understand the mindset of the accused and that he had no remorse, many of us supported the channel's illegal act. People in responsible positions are reviewing how good or bad the documentary was, again in disregard of the fact that it is against the law. When asked they say that the Contempt Act is a stupid one and hence breaking it is fine.

Now that there are such people who are of the opinion that breaking the law which they find stupid is fine, and given that "stupidity" of law is a subjective matter which can vary from person to person, the definition of Rule of Law will itself need a major revamp, would it not? For instance, one may record movies from theatres and circulate it, and later justify his actions saying that anti-piracy law is a stupid one.

We are now aware that an infuriated mob in Nagaland on Thursday broke into the prison, dragged out a person convicted by a trial court for rape, paraded him naked and later lynched him to death. Why did this group do this? Simply because they felt that laws that prevent rape in our country are not that effective. Let's not wait for the courts to decide, let's decide the punishment and execute it ourselves, they thought.

Should this also be taken to be "fine"? Will those who saw and reviewed the BBC documentary despite knowing that it was in violation of a law find this act of the mob wrong? If so, how can they? You broke one law thinking it to be stupid, the mob broke another for the same reason.

There is also a large group which justifies the mob fury, some terming it as "mob justice," saying that the courts take a lot of time to adjudicate matters. Is this even a justification? If you and me can decide what is wrong and right, and what punishment is to be awarded for a wrong, why do we need the law, the police and the courts? Are we trying to emulate Taliban or the ISIS?




In my view, every individual who was present in the act which led to the killing of the rape accused should be booked for murder. The State needs to show them that the arm of the law is long enough.  

Our laws may be inadequate on many subjects, our justice system may have innumerable flaws and loopholes. In the words of the legendary lawyer Mr Nani Palkhiwala, "To expect a perfect system of justice based on rules of law is no more rational than to hope to balance soap bubbles on hat-pins." But the deficiencies does not empower us to break the law. Breaking of unjust laws, satyagraha, as Mahatma Gandhi put it, can be resorted but only when a really justifiable case is present. Moreover, he professed ahimsa, non-violence as means to do it. Let us not forget the means.

Also, let us not love democracy and hate democratic institutions. This sort of subjective application of law and a love for democracy based on convenience of circumstances can do no good.

The Rule of Law is paramount. Jai Hind!

Monday, February 23, 2015

A proposal for consideration - Let's reduce 5% of the money set for our wedding

Last October I had attended my friend's wedding in Palakkad. Her wedding album was nicely done and was huge. Few days back I wanted to know how much she spent on it. "Was Rs. 10,000 spent for photography in your wedding?" I asked her. "Which age are you living in? I spent Rs. 45,000," said she. Shocked by hearing the figure, I proceeded to ask her the total expense for her wedding. "Somewhere near Rs. 12 lakh," she said.

Some six years back I had attended a wedding of a girl in Palakkad whose mother was a servant maid and father a fisherman. The bridegroom and his family had demanded from the bride's parents dowry in the form of cash and gold which was then worth over Rs. 3 lakh.

There was another wedding that happened last November. There again the bride's mother was a servant maid. They had spent a sum of Rs. 2.5 lakh and had taken a loan of Rs. 90,000 from a money lender for an annual rate of interest of 72%! The total money spent stopped at this sum because the boy's family did not ask for any dowry, the girl's mother told me.

To repay this loan the family has to pay over Rs. 5,000 per month, and this sum is only towards the interest, this repayment does not cover the principal. Which means for this family which earns just over Rs. 10,000 a month, half of it goes for repaying only the interest amount of the loan that they had taken, and this is perpetual. There is no possibility that they can get Rs. 90,000 at one instance with which they can repay the debt once and for all.

They were forced to secure this loan from a private money lender because banks would not have given them a loan. Their annual income remains meagre and unsatisfactory to avail a bank loan. Nor do they possess any property document to mortgage with a bank to avail a loan.

While taking loans to conduct a wedding may not be the case for you readers, it is required for people who live on meagre levels of income. What they earn is just enough to cover their day-to-day expenses; they hardly have any savings. It is almost impossible for them to have the marriage ceremonies conducted without availing financial support from others.

People from the economically weaker sections of the society do not themselves wish to carry out wedding ceremonies by taking loans. But without that they cannot conduct these ceremonies in a manner which is "acceptable" to the society. I am quite convinced that it is societal pressure that force them to stretch their levels of expenditure beyond their capacity, forcing them to knock the doors of money lenders.

It is we who must reduce the pressure falling on them. And for that we must help them financially, there is no better possible way to help. 

To that effect I propose that every parent who conducts their daughter or son's marriage must reduce the set expenditure for the wedding ceremonies by 5% and give away the equivalent money that is not spent to such parents who belong to the weaker sections. Or if they feel that the reduction is not possible they can consider spending 105%, the extra 5% can be given to the poor.

The 5% rule shall apply equally on all those who spend Rs. 8 lakh and more. My friend told me that this sort of binding will not be right, and that we must ask them to contribute as per their wish. But I think that such a flexibility will lead to disparity. One may give more, one less, and one may not give anything at all. The percentage rule will remove this disparity I feel. 

5% is not that big an amount. For one who spends just Rs. 8 lakh, only Rs. 40,000 needs to be set aside for this cause. A small reduction in the exorbitant, and largely unnecessary manner in which the stage in the wedding hall is decorated, a reduction in one or two items on the food menu can by itself attract this sum. A small compromise in the brand of the dresses for the wedding can save a lot of money. There are very easy means to reduce the expense by 5%. So let not the reader wonder seeing the 5% figure. 

I genuinely urge you readers to consider this proposal and share your thoughts.