Travel in Mumbai

It’s been long since I came up with a blog post. Recently I’ve started traveling a lot by Mumbai trains, Rickshaws and buses and found many things to be quite amusing. So I decided to write up on my experience of everyday travel in Mumbai.

My day starts at 7.00 am everyday. I go to the railway station in a share auto. The 5 minutes distance travel by the share auto is quite funny at times. People literally pull themselves out of their houses so early everyday and go for work and they get to experience weird things at times while travelingJ.
Today, when I sat in the share auto I realized that aunty next to me was quite hefty (no offense intended) and I was almost out of the rickshaw. The guy who was sitting on the other side of that aunty had somehow managed to squeeze himself in. In spite of seeing this, the autowala, in his greed for money stuffed in two more people thankfully in front and not on usJ. I thanked God that it was only a 5 minutes journey and not 2 or 3 hrs journeyJ. There are many other instances that were quite funny and everyday I feel good that I start my journey with a smileJ as these funny things keep happening.
The next mode of transport I go by is train. When I reach the station everyday, I see some people who are really happy and smiling (especially college students), some are still not out of their sleep [specially school students, house wives and me ;)], people who are restless, people who are forever frowning, people who are expressionlessJ etc. It’s actually very amusing to see variety of people like this everyday.
On the first day when I reached the station I found myself to be the odd man out. Everyone on the platform knew someone or the other. So they were all busy talking to each other. I knew no one and everything was very new to me. I felt weird in the beginning but as I started traveling slowly I got comfortable. These days, even though I don’t talk to anyone on train; I feel very comfortable when I see the familiar faces boarding the train with me everyday. This is something which I’ve never felt before in my life.
The next reason that amuses me while traveling in trains is kids. Everyday I get to see a few kids traveling with me in the train. Some are really cranky, some highly naughty, some are very quiet, some always cry, some very attractive etc. However they are, you are somehow diverted towards these kids. One day when I was going back home from office, a kid was sitting just beside me. He was so quiet in the beginning, then he got very inquisitive as to what I was doing (I was listening to songs with my ear phones). He started making faces at meJ. I also started imitating him and he was imitating my actions and we became good friends. He waved me good bye when I got down from the train. It was quite interesting to travel like this. These small instances become a life long memory at times. It’s these small happy moments that keeps us going despite the hurdles we face.

Another interesting thing that happens in trains is the fight among the ladiesJ. They have the skill of picking up fight on any damn reason. The other people in the train get good entertainment out of this. Sometimes even the guys from the general compartment comment on the fights happening in ladies compartmentJ. This is a unique feature of ladies compartment and this can’t be seen in first class or general compartment how much ever crowded they are ;). Sometimes I wonder why these ladies fight so much for silly reasons. Instead they can learn the art of adjusting and enjoy the natural scenery outside while traveling which will be a nice refreshment after office work, specially the stretch between two stations called Vashi and Mankhurd is too good (specially early morning and late evening). The whole city looks amazing with lights all over in the evening and the lights surround the water body like a necklace. It’s an awesome view. This is yet another reason why I love traveling. Standing at the foot board of the train, listening to music and getting fresh breeze on your face… it feels so nice to even think of it. Train travel is a pleasure for me these days just coz of these reasons.

I also get to travel by buses in the day time while going to office. Bus journeys are not as amusing as train journeys are to me. But certain things definitely are worth noting. I admire the patience level of the conductors here. They’ve to face different kind of people and tackle all possible situations. Unlike Chennai conductors who are mostly khadoos, Mumbai conductors are really patient, helpful and friendly. Only a few conductors are impatient otherwise they are really very friendly which I pray to God should be learnt by Chennai conductors as well. Today, while coming in bus I was touched by what had happened. A very old lady boarded the bus and she had no seat to sit. As she was struggling to stand a handicapped guy (had some prob with his legs) got up and offered his seat to that lady while all the others were just seeing that happen. I was literally touched by what had happened. It’s in these times you feel good about such people around you.

In the evenings I go to the station with my colleagues in auto. Getting an auto to the station is an achievement. None of the autowalas are ready to go (anywhere for tat matter). It’s the crazy traffic in the city that scares them I guess. The journey in auto till the station is quite as it is the only time I get to speak to my good friends in office properly, it’s the only time we get to curse our bosses ;), only time when we share personal experiences, instances, any other useful info related to work also, only time to crack jokes, pull legs etc. Though the traffic is crazy I thoroughly enjoy the travel coz of my colleagues. It feels nice to have such good friends always.

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoy my travel in Mumbai though it takes longer hours and becomes tiresome. I’ve learnt many things in just few days of travel. Still a long way to go. Thanks to all my colleagues, those unknown kids in the train, bus conductors, those cranky ladies and my books and musicJ (as always) for making my otherwise tiresome journey very pleasurable and enjoyableJ.

The Austerity of Indian Politicians

The recent topic of discussion after YSR issue, for the media has been the travel of ministers to various parts of the country by economy class in flights. I mean, what is so significant about this?? Don’t they have better topics to discus on? States of India are not co-operating with the HRD ministry’s setting up of a council that would review the text books of all states to check if the syllabus confirm to the values of the Constitution of India. This is something that has to be concentrated on. There are many other important news which need to be given importance but, the media has just publish them as some random news item with no importance to them while, ministers who travel by economy class come on the headlines… Firstly, these ministers are doing no sacrifice by traveling in economy class and secondly they are not paying the airfare. It’s all people’s money that’s going in to it. Why don’t media question that rather than giving each of them cheap publicity??? If publicity is all that they want they shouldn’t have chosen to walk in to politics. But in our country politicians and film stars are the ones who earn publicity for such trivial happenings. Unless, the people of India question all this, nothing good is going to come out of neither the media nor our ministers

The Debate on Celebrity Frisking/Detaining and Indian Security

This is the most debated topics in the recent days in India. These days in the mornings when I read the news, I come across at least one item containing this topic. Sometimes I wonder why all these things happen to India and Indians. Is it pure racial discrimination? Or is it their procedure and has been followed perfectly by them? Or is it us who are making a big deal out of their normal formalities? Or celebrities who have got enough publicity in their life still want more of it? Or is it the media that is building all these up? And many more questions cross one’s mind… The answer is definitely all these put together. All of us know the answer to this and still we keep debating and harping on it instead of trying to find out the way to stop all these confusions in future.

Now coming to the incidents of celebrity frisking, On 24th April 2009, our former President and a respectable man Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was frisked in Delhi airport by the American airline authorities. The notable part here is no one bothered about this for almost 2 months and the issue came up in the month of July. Here again one can come up with many questions like, were we all too busy around that time to bother about this? Or were we waiting for the media to start its game? Or were we waiting for Dr. Abdul Kalam himself to come up and start blaming the American authorities? Or we had too many issues to be solved at that time and in the month of July we’d nothing at all and started to harp on this issue?

There were numerous comments for and against it. And it didn’t come as a surprise to any of us when we came to know that Dr. Kalam cooperated with the authorities and didn’t utter a word after that. He is a gentleman. The American authorities have done their duty and they are not to be blamed. But at the same time knowing that Dr. Kalam was the former President of India he should have been treated with respect that he deserved. Again, come to think of the current scenario, Americans have done the right thing. We Indians don’t really bother about the security of foreigners as well as our own citizens. Inspite of getting warnings about the 26/11 terrorists attacks the security was not tightened. The ministers responsible for this resigned from their posts…Why did they do that? Aren’t they responsible to give an answer to its people? The people also didn’t question them immediately. Many had lost their loved ones, all of us were shaken badly by the gruesome attacks. At least the Prime Minister should have taken up the responsibility to give reasons for their negligence. This is out right ridiculous. Even after all this, we will not bother about our own security but blame others because they have done their duty promptly. Why not question our own government for all this instead of begging for an apology from foreigners?

Now, adding fuel to the fire the famous SRK (Sharukh khan) was detained at New Jersey last week. Now people have forgotten Dr. Kalam. Shahrukh Khan has become the talk of the nation. So what if he is detained? The Americans are not going to let him roam round their country unless they are absolutely sure that it is safe to let him in. They are not bothered if he is a celebrity or not… they are doing their duty. Why can’t we just learn this from them and start following the same in our country? We wouldn’t want to do that. Instead we’ll waste everyone’s time by debating on it and beg for an apology.
The responsibilities of our ministers lie here and now. They can have talks and negotiations with the American authorities and come up with a solution so that confusions like these don’t occur in future. But they are letting the media act on it and are sensationalizing the whole issue.

Its high time India learnt a lesson. We have to tighten our security instead of playing the blame game and follow the procedures strictly without any concessions for VIPs, VVIPs etc. whether from India or abroad. After all, they are also common men like us. Their popularity in their respective countries cannot be used an instrument to skip security formalities anywhere in the world. Law is equal for everyone. The common people and the so-called leaders of India need to realize this and act wisely. Otherwise, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if there are more attacks and humiliation on our nation

Should Judges declare their assets?

Should Judges declare their assets?

This is quite an interesting question. But noone has yet come up with an answer which is satisfactory. Though the question seems so simple, the answer to it is indeed a challenge.
In India, the laws are interpreted as per every individual’s convenience and this leads to debates, arguments, disorder etc.

Coming to the subject should the judges declare their assets, the answer if you ask me would be yes. I’ll be addressing the reasons for my answer in detail in this post.

Firstly, Judges being the citizens of India the Laws of India are very well applicable to them. Let’s examine the laws under which the Judges are compelled to declare their assets. The supreme law of the land being the Constitution of India is applicable to every citizen of India. No law is above the Constitution. So naturally it applies to the Judges too.
Ø Article 14 of the constitution, guarantees equality before law and equal protection of laws. Therefore all citizens are equal before law and Judges are no exemption to it and therefore can’t be exempt from their duty.
Ø Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution of India guarantees Freedom of speech and expression. Now one might wonder what is the connection between speech and expression and judges declaring their assets… There is.
The Supreme Court has held in the case of S.P.Gupta v. Union of India, that Article 19(1)(a) also includes right to information. The prerequisite for enjoying this right is knowledge and information. The absence of authentic information on matters of public interest will only encourage wild rumours and speculations and avoidable allegations against individuals and institutions. Therefore, the Right to Information becomes a constitutional right, being an aspect of the right to free speech and expression which includes the right to receive and collect information. A fully informed citizen will certainly be better equipped for the performance of their duties. Thus, right to information being part of Constitution becomes the supreme law of the land and so as per the Right to information Act, 2005 any citizen of India can ask for any information on any public authorities and it is mandatory for every public authority to make available the information to the public. Now, comes the question who are public authorities? Do judges fall under that category? The Right to Information Act, 2005 defines a Public Authority as follows –
“public authority" means any authority or body or institution of self- government established or constituted-
(a) by or under the Constitution;
(b) by any other law made by Parliament;
(c) by any other law made by State Legislature;
(d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government,
and includes any-
(i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
(ii) non-Government organisation substantially financed,
directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government;
Going by the above definition, Judges also fall under the category of public authorities. But there have been numerous debates as to whether the judges fall under the category of public authorities or not. The issue is yet to be resolved by the government.

Leaving aside the above mentioned laws, the government of India has been trying to introduce a Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill, 2009. The introduction of the bill had to be deferred by the government as clause 6 of the said bill is in clear violation of Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution and goes against the Supreme Court judgment on S.P.Gupta v. Union of India. Issues are still pending to be resolved. Now we are left with no option but to wait for the introduction of this bill by the government.

Apart from the above mentioned laws, the CJI is also of the opinion that the judges must declare their assets to their superior authorities but it shouldn’t be made public as it intervenes with their security and privacy. The CJI has given his personal opinion but going by the laws the judges have no special exemptions but to declare their assets.

The Government shouldn’t delay this issue any more. It should introduce the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill, 2009 after making necessary amendments to clause 6 and concentrate on issues that concern nation’s security and progress.