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Another doctor who resigned from Civil Hospital and now runs a private clinic narrated his experience saying, “I left because most of the officials working as Head of the Departments are assigned their respective positions because of their ‘political affiliations’. Moreover, they feel threatened by anyone who has a command over research and is more competent, hence ‘references’ supersede ‘academics’.”

A profound philosophical approach to life ....

For a change Rediff.com came up with a really heart touching article today. The story they covered is of a young boy who works as an auto mechanic in Calcutta.

http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/jul/16/child-labour-dreams-help-me-survive-on-rs-200-a-month.htm

Its really touching story of determination of an young boy against all the odds. There are countless children like him and I hope no child, any where, either in India or else where, had to go through the hardship like this.

Radio Ad. Safe Sex.

 

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del.icio.us Tags: Radio,Andhra Pradesh,Telugu,Condom,Safe Sex,family,humorous.

Today, I was sitting and waiting for my turn at a local barber saloon, and I heard an interesting advertisement on the radio which was going on there.

In India and many oriental countries, pre-marital sex is a taboo. Its good as well as bad. Society looks down on this. It might be very difficult for western societies to understand this concept, but in India, its considered as a virtue. If you think the positive side of this taboo, and Indian society is still family oriented, albeit its slowly changing, you will find lot of good things in this taboo. You need to see the effect it has on the family structure, love etc etc. That’s a different topic altogether.

The advertisement I heard was about Safe Sex. Pre-marital or post-marital, that’s the secondary issue here.

Picturise this: “An young adult, living with his parents, his married brother and his family, as most of the Indians still live with their families till they marry, many times even after their marriages, the do. The sister-in-law is the new “woman” of the house, slowly taking over all the responsibility of the family. What the mother of the young man was doing for him, now his sister-in-law does. Its a common practice in India.

The young man stammers and tells his sister-in-law, not to take his jeans for a wash, as he has a condom in the pockets, which his sister-in-law to know as it will indicate that he has been having pre-marital sex. The maid, is pointing the sister-in-law towards the condom, where as sister-in-law is affectionately admonishing, the young man, about the Motor Bike keys she has found in the pockets of his jeans, as she thinks, its dangerous for him to take the bike out.

Finally sister-in-law says: Its better to have a safer pre-marital sex using condom than having unsafe one without it. And she doesn’t have problem with her young brother-in-law having pre-marital sex as long as he uses condom. “

I really can not convey the whole mood, feeling of hearing a beautifully done, well delivered radio ad which is socially relevant.

Quote of the Day:
Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
--Terry Pratchett

Taliban and Indian Taliban

 

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del.icio.us Tags: taliban,pakistan,india,moral policing,violence,culture

 

Two days back it was reported both in online media as well as print and television that Taliban have flogged a 17 or so year old girl in SWAT region of Pakistan for not following "Taliban’s Code of Moral Conduct” and seen with a man who is not her husband or family member.

SWAT region has an agreement between Pakistan Federal Government and Pakistani Taliban who has complete control of the region. Pakistan has virtually abdicated its responsibility in SWAT according to the analysts and observers.

Here is the video from You tube of the dastardly act which should shame every human on the face of this earth.

 

 

I hope every one sees it more and more and feel horrified to the extent that they will take a stand in their life against violence and moral policing.  Every country on the face of this earth has experience moral policing one time or the other. This is cruel and heart wrenching.

In the video you can see whole lot of people standing and watching the flogging and observe not one of the person leaves the season, less alone oppose the terrorists flogging of the girl. Shame on you people, I hope your concise is going you to haunt you for ever.

Now take a look at this video, a news capture, again from You Tube. This time from India.

 

One thing is common between two incidents: Moral Policing. A small set of people, deciding what is the moral and what right and what is wrong for the rest of the society. This  Hindu Taliban of India which calls itself “Sri Ram Sena”, the warrior of Lord Rama, the very name of Rama is bringing me disgust and revulsion in me for the last few years, the cheeky bastards belonging to this extremist group, barged into a pub and beat up women and girls in the pub. Because its not the way women are supposed to behave in India !!!!!

Trafiic Police

Last evening I had to goto Hyderabad Deccan or Nampally Railway station as it is popularly know in Hyderabad, to see of a friend taking a train to Bombay.
Just in front of the railway station, I took the U-turn, and I was caught by the Traffic Police as its forbidden to take a U-turn at that junction. Mistake was clearly mine, I had not observed the puny little "No U-Turn" sign at that junction.

The police man asked me to step out of the car and pay the fine. I told him that I did not see the sign board, but will pay the fine. He took me to his superior where I asked them to write my fine and let me go as I had to go to the station. From what I observed, even though, I did a traffic rule violation, they were reluctant to write me a fine and let me pay the fine. They were rather interested to get some money (of course less than the traffic fine I had to pay) instead of making me pay for the fine. Ultimately, they let me go, with out loosing their face as my car registration is from Delhi.

The traffic constable was almost begging for the money to be paid, I walked off as if I did not observe his sorry face.

I felt really sad to see the traffic police in a state which makes them to beg for some money and be corrupt. I would have been so happy if they made me cough up fine instead of letting me go away.

What do we teach our children?

In Hyderabad, India (which is true in other cities too), I keep seeing one recurring scene on the roads. Parents talking the children to the schools or bringing them back to home, on two wheelers (Bikes/Scooters/Scotterets/Mopeds etc).

It's very endearing scene as well as disturbing at the same time. Most of the parents, are subconsciously, are teaching their children to break the law, rules by breaking themselves.

Driving on wrong side of the road, taking shortcuts, driving without concerns to other commuter's convenience, over loading their bikes (I have seen 4-5 kids being ferried to the school by some brave hearts).

Children are very impressionable and they learn exactly what they see.

Do these parents care about the education they are giving their children?

Parents need to be good examples to their children.

Its a pity, these parents do not realize that they are the first teachers of their children.

Read this beautiful article/discussion A Parent's Realization: "I am my child's first teacher!"
See this Video

Children Learn From Parents


CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE!

CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE!

Helping Your Child Learn Responsible Behavior with activities for children

Children 'learn violence from parents'

Children learn from watching parents

Monsoons are here and so are the bad roads

del.icio.us Tags: andhra pradesh,AP,hyderabad,bad-roads,india,energy,electricity,rains,monsoons,green living

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The monsoon's are finally active fortunately in and around Hyderabad. The late start of rainy season had become a cause of deep concern to the farming community. Also, it has a deep impact on the electricity generation in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Already the state of Andhra Pradesh is reeling under intense power cuts and I have been reading news paper reports about the Central Government turning down state's request for additional power for the fifth time.

The state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) has an huge shortfall of energy required. It is surprising that, AP used to sell additional electricity to neighboring states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, not too long ago. Today the demand for energy has over shot AP's capacity to generate it.

Most of the rivers in India are rain dependent and hence the electricity generation at the Hydal Power Plants are at the mercy of Rain Gods.

Despite the late monsoons bringing to cheers to the people, it also brings misery too. The roads are one particular aspect which suffer every rainy season in AP. If the road network in the capital city of AP, Hyderabad are any indication of the capabilities of Road Construction Department of the State, (called PWD, Public Works Department), I am can confident that the roads in the rest of the state are going to be in deplorable state.

One of the worst road laying techniques can be found in the city of Hyderabad. If you want to learn how not to make bad roads, please come to Hyderabad.

• No gutters to regulate the rain waters which can be really destructive to the health of the roads
• The surface of the roads are so rough and un even even when they are new, mere use of them is going to wear them in matter of no time
• Absolutely no coordination between different civic services departments like water board, road works, electricity, telephone departments which results in laying and digging of roads throughout the year, never providing proper relief to the users.
• Unabated use of heavy construction and construction equipment (mainly super heavy pre-mixed cement/concrete trucks), which rapidly destroy the feeble road network. The roads have certain capacity to carry certain kinds of vehicles. I am not an expert on this, but common sense tells me that you can not use all kinds of vehicles on any type of roads. I think state of AP can earn huge amounts of tax if it levies special road taxes just on these building construction vehicle. Not only the state gets additional revenue, it will make people use the resources more judiciously.
• The roads are further damaged by people, who construct private and un-authorized speed breakers (humps), laying private water pipes across the streets. These are deadly, they are neither placed judiciously nor constructed with any kind of science in mind. They not only ruin the vehicles, also harm the travelers.

Please protest in any way you can and make an impact. Please save energy and help the environment.

 

 

Pathetic Customer Care: Reliance Broadnet. Internet Service

del.icio.us Tags: customer care,pathetic,callous,reliance communication,relicence broadnet,india,rcomm,rcom

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On April 11, 2008, I took the Internet services from Reliance Communications, which is branded as Reliance Broadnet. A WiMax service. They install a roof-top antenna, and a modem inside the house and provide reasonably priced Internet services.

Today, it is July 11, exactly 3 months since the hardware installed at my home, my user details have not found their way in to their database. Gosh !!!! Every time I have some network problem, it has become a great pain in the but to get any response from the Reliance Broadnet Customer Care.

The people who are manning their customer care the most inept, callous and bunch of liars. Absolutely no brains. Every time, I call, the following happens:

 

Me: My user ID is xxxxxxxxxxxx.

CC: Please wait, let me check.

CC: Sorry Sir, is this a new connection?.

Me: No, its fucking 3 months old.

CC: Sorry, but your details have not yet been updated in our database. Tell me how can I help you?

Me: I am having difficulty in logging into your Internet services, I am getting authentication failure.

CC: I am sorry sir, we need the information updated in the system first to help you with this. Let me take an offline request for updating the database with your details. Please call us back after 48 hours.

Me. I am sorry, I have already provided these details previously. Can I speak to Mr. Kaushal or Mr. Sweetam, your supervisor?

CC: Please provide me with your contact details so that I can forward your call to my seniors.

Me: Why do you need telephone numbers?

CC: I am sorry, I did not get you.

Me. If some one takes my phone number that means, the other party is going to call me back if some thing needs to be informed. So far Reliance Broadnet has never bothered to call me even once. Why do you need my telephone number?

CC: Sir this is our procedure.

Me: My number is 123344455555

CC: Please be on line. I will connect you to my floor supervisor.

Floor Supervisor: I am sorry Mr. Rajeev for all the inconvenience you are facing. I assure you that within 48 hours, your problem is going to be addressed.

 

This cycle has been going on for now, three month. And every time it's the same shameless and callous retards I speak to at Reliance Broadnet customer care. Almost every week I spend about 2-3 hours just listening to these bastards with all the lame excuses and unreal politeness and sincerity in their voices.

Please check out this Audio which I recorded in one of the many calls I had to make to them to have agonizing time.

Reliance Customer Care Recording 1

Reliance Customer Care Recording 2

If you have had similar experience with Reliance Communication's Customer Care, please do send me your experience and comment here.