Constitutional Reforms that India Urgently Needs

As a citizen, this is the manifesto of Constitutional Reforms that I demand:

• Reservations

Reservations are limited to education, and ending at higher education. No reservations for jobs, promotions etc are to be allowed. We can and will provide opportunities for Upskilling. But you need to be qualified to do the job itself.

Reservations are NOT applicable to a family where:
       1. One or both parents already have/ have had a job that was the result of reservation.
       2. The combined income of the family is over 10 lakhs per annum. Limit to be revised every 2 years.
      3. The child does not meet the minimum qualification criteria for admission.
     

• State and Religion

India is a SECULAR state. Which means that the State is not a participant in the religious beliefs of the population. Accordingly:

1. All state subsidies and benefits should be immediately withdrawn from all bodies that purport any religious affiliation at all. There should be a constitutional  provision against ever re introducing any state benefit/ subsidy/ preferential treatment / affirmative action that is even remotely connected to religion, caste or any other social means of discrimination.

         2. The fields for "Religion" should be removed from all govt forms except the census and identity ones. No one should need to indicate their religion to get medical attention, school admission etc. The country cannot report on the religion based coverage of education, jobs etc.

         3. The country will have a common civil code. All religion based legislation to be voided.

         4. Any religious body that issues a "Voting Advisory" in the form of Farmaan, Fatwa, Guidance, or any other format, will be liable for criminal prosecution. Every voter is enjoined to vote according to their own intellect and no one should be able to persuade this decision. If the said body is a "Society" or "Trust" or other NGO organisation registered in India, the registration will be cancelled after 2 violations.

         5. Any candidate who is found to be soliciting votes, either formally or informally, on grounds of religion, caste or other social discrimination bases, will be summarily disqualified and will face a 10 year ban on fighting any elections in the Republic of India. A repeat violation will ensure a lifetime ban. For this, informal conversations, recorded through stealth recording, are permissible evidence and will invite action.

• The Voter's Responsibility

             1. Voting is a constitutional obligation. Anyone who abstains from their duty to vote for over 8 months, or for 2 elections of any level, will automatically have their Aadhar Card and Election Card cancelled. The PAN card will then be picked up for scrutiny, to ascertain that the said voter is a resident of India, and has not moved out of the country.

            2. Before voting, the voter will have to answer 5 questions about the manifesto of one of the candidates. The questions can be answered in writing or audio, by pressing an option button. The voter must answer at least 2 out of these 5 correctly to be eligible to vote. It is a part of the constitutional obligation to read manifestoes and vote accordingly.

• The Citizen's Responsibility

1. The state will NOT sponsor free education, medical support, ration card(subsidised food) for more than two children per household. If you want to have more children, earn enough to clothe and feed them.

2. Where a child is found to be in child labour while still living with his/her parents, the parents will be prosecuted for neglect and child abuse.  It is the responsibility of the parent to ensure that the children are sent to state sponsored schools or at least kept out of the workforce, are adequately clothed and are kept in a secure environment. If a parent is found negligent in protecting the Child's Rights, they will be entitled to criminal prosecution, because a parent is supposed to be the cocoon of safety that a child has. All children will immediately be put in state care.

7 Sources of Delhi's Pollution you didn't know about

1. E Waste
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/Delhi-NCR-likely-to-generate-50000-metric-tonnes-of-e-waste-by-2015-Assocham/articleshow/22187238.cms

India's capital is emerging as the world's dumping capital for e-waste, with hazardous activities taking place and like to generate e-waste to an extent of 50,000 metric tonnes (MT) per annum by 2015 from the current level of 30,000 metric tonnes per annum, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 25%, according to an Assocham estimate.

The Assocham latest study revealed that currently e-waste of Delhi is approximately 30,000 metric tones per annum and employs more than 1.5 lakh workers in city's various organised and unorganised recycling units, said DS Rawat, secretary general of Assocham while releasing the Assocham paper.

 "While the list is growing ,so is the quantity as these products are getting more affordable and more and more people are using them. Increasing usage also leads to more of them coming up for disposal, thus increasing the rate of obsolescence and replacement," added Rawat.

The paper further stated that large e-waste centres exist in Delhi, NCR, Meerut, Firozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, with 85,000 recyclers working in Delhi-NCR alone.

Workers are poorly-protected in an environment where e-waste from PC monitors, PCBs, CDs, motherboards, cables, toner cartridges, light bulbs and tube-lights are burned in the open, releasing lead, mercury toxins into the air.

Metals and non-degradable materials such as gold and platinum, aluminium, cadmium, mercury, lead and brominated flame-retardants are retrieved.

The paper further mentioned that Delhi alone gets around 85% of the electronic waste generated in the developed world.

In terms of total e-waste produced internally or brought from outside for recycling, Delhi's e-waste weighs between 25,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes per year.

The study highlights that though Mumbai and Chennai are the top importers of junk computers and electronic waste in India, Delhi has emerged as the main hub of e-waste recycling in India, and perhaps the world.

The e-waste imported from Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai makes its way to Delhi, as there is a ready market for glass and plastic in the NCR. Also, the wastes from Mumbai constitute a bulk of the 1,500 tonnes discarded electronics that land in Delhi's scrap yards everyday.

Assocham has also strongly advocated the need to bring out effective legislation to prevent entry of child labour into its collection, segregation and distribution.

As per the estimates, more then 35,000-45,000 child labourers in the age group from 10 to 14 years are observed to be engaged in various e-waste activities, without adequate protection and safeguards in Delhi's various yards and recycling workshops.

"Domestic e-waste including computer, TV, mobiles and refrigerators contain over 1,000 toxic material, which contaminate soil and ground water. Exposure can cause headache, irritability, nausea, vomiting, eye pain. Recyclers may suffer liver, kidney and neurological disorders," said Dr BK Rao, chairman of Assocham Health committee releasing the Assocham paper.

Due to lack of awareness, they are risking their health and the environment as well. They use strong acids to retrieve precious metals such as gold.

Working in poorly-ventilated enclosed areas without masks and technical expertise results in exposure to dangerous and slow-poisoning chemicals, adds the paper.

It also highlights that that there are no clear guidelines for the unorganized sector to handle e-waste. The recyclers are not fully aware of the health risks.

''These products have components that contain toxic substances like lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, plastic, PVC, BFRs, barium, beryllium, and carcinogens like carbon black and heavy metals. This deadly mix can cause severe health problems in those handling the waste," adds Dr Rao.

Printed circuit boards, for instance, contain heavy metals like Antimony, Gold, Silver, Chromium, Zinc, Lead, Tin and Copper. The method of extracting these materials from circuit boards is highly hazardous and involves heating the metals in the open.

2. Sewage
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/rivers/the-yamuna-river-case-study-of-a-polluted-river-in-india/31894/

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=wNivbEPTAfMC&pg=PA303&lpg=PA303&dq=what+happens+in+Mangolpuri+Industrial+area&source=bl&ots=fJjf50xOXa&sig=8mrpUa1gy_MSraylePlZuadoeJs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwixvZGqgonKAhVGC44KHVBfDjw4ChDoAQg2MAU#v=onepage&q=what%20happens%20in%20Mangolpuri%20Industrial%20area&f=false

Though the Yamuna starts getting polluted by pesticides and fertilisers as it enters Haryana, most of the pollution occurs in Delhi. More than 10 million people live in Delhi. Yet it does not have a proper sewage disposal system.Nineteen drains from Delhi open into the Yamuna. At one time, these carried rainwater. But because of the poor sewage disposal system, water carrying sewage is discharged into these drains, from where it finds its way to the river.In Delhi, along a stretch, the Yamuna is choked by water hyacinth—a weed. This is an example of eutrophication. Dead fish are also found in the river as soon as the monsoon begins. This is due to the sudden increase in pesticide and other pollutant levels.Industrial wastes also find their way into the river from large industrial units (22 in Haryana, 42 in Delhi and 17 in Uttar Pradesh) and many small industrial units. Surprisingly, though Delhi constitutes only 2% of the catchment area, it is responsible for 80% of the pollution of the river.
***************************
Sewage in water directly leads to the production of methane and other deadly gases, which enter Delhi's air.

3. Industry and Power Generation
http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/delhi-five-years-later-mayapuri-is-still-as-unsafe-as-ever/story-ykjCExInyrKfKGK0ybkTNN.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_Delhi

http://ipgcl-ppcl.gov.in/

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kejriwal-government-delhi-shut-down-power-plants/1/428780.html - None of these plants have been shut down when I last checked.

In addition to power plants within the city, a lot of RWAs that ensure 100% power supply run Diesel based DG sets that contribute directly to air pollution.

Contrary to popular belief, most of the air pollution in Delhi is not due to vehicular traffic. Main contributors to particulate matter in the PM10 range, as a recent study shows, are road dust (50%) and industry (23%)--vehicles accounted for only 7%. Among industrial contributors, power plants within Delhi city limits were the main culprits.^[7]

4. Hospital Waste
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2093555/Report-reveals-hospital-waste-endangering-New-Delhi.html


5. Burning Trash
http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/cities/delhi-tops-in-pollution-how-can-it-be-controlled

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/11/03/how-trash-is-adding-to-delhis-air-pollution-problems/


6. Poor Solid Waste Management
http://www.envfor.nic.in/divisions/cpoll/delpolln.html
- Go to the Section on Solid Waste Management

Analyses by NEERI of solid waste at the landfills demonstrates that in most parts of the landfill the deposited waste is stabilized with the passage of time. However, such stabilisation requires prolonged periods of time and invariably causes environmental pollution, due to the escape of generated gas and leachate, if land disposal is practised in the present manner. In the proposed system, biogas generated during landfilling will be recovered and utilised gainfully. NEERI has suggested Optimal Design of System Elements, including collection, transportation, processing and disposal. The resource requirement for the proposed system for the collection equipment and its replacement has been estimated.

7. Construction
Particulate Matter is directly related to the Construction Industry. Construction Activity is responsible for dust generation, esp in dry zones like NCR. Construction materials add significantly to the Suspended Particulate Matter.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/delhi-air-pollution-fine-particles-construction-sites-environment/1/426339.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3017123/Dust-chokes-Delhi-s-lungs-sand-particles-construction-sites-worsening-air-pollution.html


And Endnote:
1. Delhi Govt does not know what is causing pollution in Delhi :
"If vehicles are not causing air pollution, then what is the cause. Can anyone tell us the reason of rest 80 per cent of air pollution? Think of children who are living on antibiotics due to pollution. Do we have no responsibility towards them," the bench had asked.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/pollution-in-delhi-national-green-tribunal-diesel-vehicles/1/451289.html

2. Studies that no one acted on:
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/delhi-pollution-the-studies-no-one-acted-on/

3. What are the causes of pollution in Delhi
http://delhiair.org/india-and-delhi/what-causes-pollution-in-delhi/

seedhi si yatra/ A simple journey

साकार > निराकार > निरंकार

Today's message : We first focus on the tangible - the mantras, the breath, the shloka.. then slowly, the intangibles take over - the joy of meditation, the peace that one gets. From there, we move to Nirankar - where we ARE the Brahman. And it doesn't matter. There is no accomplishment. Only a sense. Or lack of it.

Review of Bajirao Mastani

Like all Sanjay Leela Bhansali films, this one is grand.

The music is given by Bhansali himself. And Pinga, the song, truly does stand out. But the rest of the music is not memorable.

As an experience, it is complete. When you leave that theatre, you carry back a story. That travels with you. Which is what good story telling is all about. If you are like me, you will also cry in some parts.

Thankfully, the movie completely underplays the mush and focuses on the political milieu that led to the tragedy of the love story.

Ranvir: What a performer! When I entered the movie, the thought in head was that the hero was a casting mistake. But 10 minutes into the movie, I knew it wasn't. This man *was* the character.

The casting is, in fact, perfect. Every single actor does justice to the character. And every character does justice to its existence. Like a chess board, the pieces are balanced, their juxtaposition carefully crafted, their interplay, mesmerising like a dance sequence.

Priyanka Chopra and Deepika are both perfect. No surprises there.

But what totally, completely blew me away was the background score. From traditional Indian beats to the final battle - where Western classical music was used. If you close your eyes, you will not know that you are sitting in a Hindi film.

And I would especially like to mention the use of light in at least 2 sequences - the battle of Bundelkhand and the imprisonment of Deepika at the end. In both places, light was used to generate an effect of its own.

At the editing table, I can only imagine the agony of the person who would be responsible for cutting out pieces with so much beauty. They made one mistake though - Ranvir positively did not need to sing and dance. No really, that song is an eyesore. The music, choreography, the whole thing.. its 5 minutes of pure torture. The concluding sequence in the Narmada river which is a Ranvir solo also should have been edited to a much shorter duration.

A Bhansali film is an extravaganza - a sort of feast for the senses and the heart. The entire experience of Navarasa. It manages to weave a coherent story. And tell it well.

When your heart goes out to the man who, in spite of being the most powerful man in the Maratha Empire, cannot get a name for his son. When you look at a woman saying "Khuda Hafiz" to her child for the last time.. and something inside you snaps, you know you have taken your heart to the Adventure Park, and treated it to the roller coaster ride.

This one is a must watch! For adults only. Children not recommended.
 

sai ki kahaani

एक साईं था।  कहीं से आ कर , एक गाँव के पास रहने लगा. न किसी से दोस्ती, ना काहू से बैर. अपनी रौ में रहता था. लोग आ कर कुछ खाने को रख जाते, तो खा लेता. ना रखते, तो ना खाता. कभी मांगता न था. कुछ कहता भी ना था.

धीरे धीरे, लोग साईं को बड़ा मानने लगे. उसके डेरे पर लोग खाना रख जाते. सर झुकाते, और चले जाते.

उन्ही दिनों, गाँव की एक लड़की हामिला हो गयी. गाँव वालों ने बच्चे के पिता का नाम पूछा, तो डर के मारे उस ने साईं का नाम ले दिया. लोग बहुत नाराज़ हुए, बहुत गुस्से में आये. पर भगवन के बन्दे को मारें कैसे? बच्चा पैदा हुआ, तो लोग उसे साईं  के पास ले गए. साईं से ज़िम्मेदारी लेने  को कहा गया. साईं बोले, "मेरा है? छोड़ जाओ. "

लोग गुस्से में बुदबुदाते हुए, बच्चे को वहीँ छोड़ आ गए.

अब साईं रोज़ बच्चे के लिए दूध मांगने गाँव की ओर जाते थे . मर्द लोग तो हिकारत से मुंह फेर लेते. औरतें बच्चे के मुंह को कुछ दूध दे दिया करतीं।  साईं दूध बच्चे को पिलाते , उसे पुचकारते , और सुलाने की कोशिश करते . वह बच्चे का ख्याल रखने की पूरी कोशिश करते थे .

उधर बच्चे की माँ से रहा न गया. बच्चे का असली वालिद जब लौट कर गाँव आया, तो उन दोनों में बात हुई, और लड़की ने जा कर सारे गाँव को बता दिया की बच्चा असल में किस का है. उसने ये भी बता दिया कि साईं का नाम सिर्फ इसलिए लिया था, कि लोग उसे और बच्चे को मार ना डालें.

अब गाँव वालों को बड़ी ग्लानि हुई. बच्चा किसी और का, और हम ने यूँ ही साईं पर झूठा इलज़ाम लगाया!

बच्चे के माता पिता और गाँव वाले मिल कर साईं के पास  पहुंचे, उन्हें सारी बात बताई, और बच्चा ले जाने की बात कही. साईं ने सरल मन से कहा, "मेरा नहीं? ले जाओ!"

This is a folk tale that I heard as a child and it had a deep impact on me.

 

Review of Tamasha - the Film

Perhaps the critic in me speaks before the viewer .

The use of music is great, the cinematography does justice to the location - Corsica, France. The mimicry act by Ranveer adds to the viewability. But I couldn't help missing Nargis Fakhri in a similar role in Rockstar. I think Nargis did better. And Ranveer was repetitive.

And... you can't make up for a non existent, weak script. A strong story, perhaps. A boy finally comes into his own after abject failure on all fronts. But it didn't leave that strong an impact. There were too many distractions. Or maybe I am not qualified to watch the fillum.

As a viewer, good light hearted fun, excellent locations and some amount of wit.

 

The "Let me find my own  destiny" storyline is now done to death - Almost as much as "rich boy-poor girl" or "lost in mela" plots of yesteryears.

 

All in all, for the same story, Rockstar was better. WAYYYY better.

 

ਹੜ - Floods

 

ਹੜ 

Name

Is letters written on sand

Love

is the gently blowing breeze.

There was once

a flood in my courtyard

The name was washed away

But Love remains

right where it was.

सारा कुनबा

दिल 
अकेले कहाँ टूटते हैं?
चरमराते हैं उनके साथ 
कल के सपने 
बहुत से अरमान 
मन की आस 
और 
अपनों पर विश्वास। 

 

Harappa Valley Civilisation and the Aryans: 4 new theories

These theories have been on my desktop for at least a year. The more I explore them, the more I believe in them.

For what they are worth, sharing them here.

Theory 1: The Vedic people were not ruthless attackers. They were colonisers rather than sudden attackers. They were nomads with a strong military knowhow, who came to the largely mercantile Harappan society and , much like the European model in the middle ages, explained the importance of security. They then took up the “job” of security – more likely in some parts more than the others, and went on, just like the British, to rule. The story of the frog king who hired a snake to fight off rival frog princes, and was eventually eaten up by the snake. Probably, the Harappans did gather some military resources and strategy lessons as time passed, but in the end, they were not victorious.

 

Theory 2: The Harappan script is not a literary script. The seals are again, mercantile rather than literary. A mercantile script is a method of codification – communicating the most information in the least possible symbols. So each line on the seal is important, but just like the modern Mumbai dabbavalaas, it is a code, and not a script by itself.

The seals were used to denote trade transactions and not literary content. It was not a method of writing stories. At the very least, this means that the script had:

1. Issued under the authority of
2. Nature of goods
3. Quality
4. Quantity/ weight/value/ other measurement.
5. Trading / manufacturing unit who uses that seal.

The fact that the seals were designed for multiple times use indicates very strongly that the Harappan people had, in fact, standardized SKUs( Stock Keeping Units) – a very advanced feature of trade economies which we believe was brought to India by the MNCs.

Theory 3: This builds upon my earlier work that the structure of the Harappan script is more native to India than any Western influence. But when we look at the structure of the script, we realize that it is not for a written script, but for a society where the accuracy of oral rendition is of utmost importance.  Not only are the vowels and consonants separated, but within that, the consonants are arranged by the parts of the mouth that are used. If a child learns this structure, they are very likely to be able to make no mistake in the language itself when they use it. Furthermore, to arrive at this scientific gradation requires in depth study of sounds and their physiological source, which is not possible without there being a formal program for research and a significant sponsorship for the adoption of this method. The hypothesis is that the Harappans used this structure to teach “language” to their children, and the Aryans, having found that this is a much better way to understand sounds than their own structure, adopted it gradually and then claimed it as their own. They probably gave written symbols to the structure already being used, but they did not create that phonetics based structure.

 
Theory 4: Were the Harappans the modern Tamils  or Dravidians?

I base my hypothesis on 2 things:

First, the geographical location of the Sindhu valley – as early as 4500 BC, the Sindhu valley did not have a known presence of the Negroid people. That region is more suited to the presence of a race more capable of withstanding the cold temperatures of the region. As part of the evolutionary process, any people living there, would have had to have light skin, to absorb more sunlight. The high melanin content, a trait of the Negroid race, would have been a significant evolutionary hurdle in that geographical location. Just as the Aryans and the Caucasians share the same ancestry, yet the Caucasian race calls the Aryans “brown”, the Aryans probably found the native people darker than their own skin, but that alone should not lead us to believe that these people had the pigmentation of the Negroid race.

Two, Assuming that there was a mass attack or a colonization. Now, if you were a mercantile civilization, with already established links, you were more likely to travel in a direction that you know, than in a direction that you do not know. Which means that the Harappan people, assuming that they had to move, would have been more likely to approach their mercantile contacts in the West, rather than move to the jungles on the East and travel through them all the way to the South. The chance of survival was greater where there is a trade and you know how to make money. The jungles, on the other hand, need survival skills that were not the strong area of the Harappans, though the Aryans would have been completely at ease with the idea of exploring virgin terrains.

So, I believe that the Harappans were connected, to a limited extent, with the other cultures of Hindoostan only to the extent that their river systems interacted and depended on each other. But they did not move through India to eventually settle at the edge of the peninsula.