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Wake up call on WBAI June 28, 2005

Toxic Coca-Cola WBAI, New York city

GUEST: Binu Alex, reporter for Free Speech Radio News

Click on the link 2005-06-28 Hour Two to listen

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(Audio) Difference A Call Makes

Amid all the hype about mobile telephones, it's often forgotten that millions across the world have never even made a phone call, let alone owned a phone. In this feature, Binu Alex travels to a village in Gujarat that has one phone between 700 people to hear what a difference a phone call can make - and to discuss some of the problems of getting connected.In May this year, an international conference in Cairo discussed ways of providing more telephones to people in Africa. But the conference failed to tackle the underlying problems blocking the spread of phones to the poorest people. Although recent figures show that sales of mobile phones are booming faster in Africa than in any other continent, they hide a growing divide between people living in cities and those in rural areas. The reality is that throughout the developing world, the vast majority of people living outside a city still can't afford to make a phone call. In this feature, Binu Alex travels to a village in Gujarat that has one phone between 700 people to find out what a difference a phone call can make - and about some of the problems of getting connected. Click on the IWR image to listen to the story





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(Audio) Tea Time for Potters

India, one of the world's biggest rail networks has banned the sale of tea from plastic cups. Instead the country's favourite drink can only be served in earthenware pots known as kulhads. These cups are made by potters who work in traditional cottage industries. The Government says the ban on plastic makes for a cleaner, greener railway and claims the move will create thousands of steady jobs for potters. Tea-vendors screaming chai, chai is a common sound on India’s huge railway network. But now the vendors have been banned from selling their drinks in the disposable plastic cups familiar to most train travellers.Instead all the tea sold on trains and station platforms has to be served in a traditional clay cup, or kulhad. It’s a Government employment initiative to protect the livelihoods of the potters who produce them. The Indian railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav even launched his plan by serving tea to his fellow cabinet ministers in kulhads mounted on bone china saucers.
Binu Alex stepped aboard. Click on the IWR image to listen to the story.




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(Audio) Milk that built a village

India is home to one of the world's most successful farming cooperatives. More than 11 million farmers across the country produce ice cream, milk, cheese and butter under the Amul brand. Many of them have graduated from poverty to a comfortable life, with a guaranteed income. This is partly thanks to trade protection from the Indian government that ensured foreign companies found the milk market difficult to penetrate. But a ruling from the World Trade Organisation means the Amul cooperative will face greater competition from foreign products. India’s neighbour Sri Lanka saw its own dairy industry suffer when the big multinationals moved in. Could India suffer a similar fate?
Reporter Binu Alex met some of the farmers at the heart of the cooperative movement. Click on the IWR image to listen to the story.


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Copyright: InterWorld Radio reserve all rights.Copyright 2003.If using these features on air or online, we ask that you credit the journalist/contributor and InterWorld Radio.If you have any questions, please email network@interworldradio.net.

(Audio) A thousand villages go on air

A thousand remote villages throughout the Kutch region of Gujarat in the west of India can now talk to each other on air. A new radio station - Radio Ujjas - is broadcasting a hugely popular programme that plays a key role in helping the villagers solve their day-to-day problems.

Binu Alex goes along to the station to find out how it works. Click on the IWR image to listen to the story.

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ABOUT YOU

Raped by father in LAW, abused by LAW

A woman subjected to sexual indignity by any of her husband's ascendants or descendants becomes haram or prohibited for him. This is the rule followed by Islam laws in India and this was a rule of worldly wisdom evolved by some religious jurists of Arabia over a 1,000 years ago.
This is nothing but creating de-facto refugees. While referring about refugees, I remember a fanatic from Gaza strip objected to the UN displaying a picture of a poor woman in a pitiable condition on their appeal to help. While I offer my sympathies to all those who live in pitiable conditions - some in their own country - as refugees, I wrote to him that I cannot but tell him that I believe his brethren Muslims still are those who create more refugees.
Take for example, Banda Aceh in World's largest Muslim country where thousands of muslims died. What did Saudi Arabia donate? Just the same amount as an individual Michael Schumacher donated? All the Muslims nations still demand a strong role by the UN, a body dominated by Christian countries and you have strong objection to using a picture of a lady in their appeal for help.
Swallowing a large amount of aid is no sin - but displaying a picture is. Which Muslim nation gives any dignity to women? I wrote to him plainly “You take a high degree of refuge in the fact that you are a refugee. There are different types of refugees. All refugees are not of the same type. You cannot absolve yourself by repeating that you are a refugee and whatever you do is legitimate.”
Interestingly his name was Sam. May be adopted name to hide identity. I asked him on who told him that religion is ultimate in this world? “Religion shows you light, but you are seeking a tunnel of light from it and naming it as your duty, right.”
Otherwise, this 28-year-old Muslim woman’s rape in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh by her own father in law could not have turned into be a battle between women’s rights activists and protectors of Shariat law. A decision by the local Muslim council that she should now live with her rapist than her married husband is proving to be the thorn in the flesh. This has also brought in a fresh debate on uniform civil code and rights of women in Muslim society. Imrana is not alone in this sub continent. Just across the border a same set of rules ordered the rape of a woman, Mukthar bai. Though she is fighting the case, women like Imrana may resign to her fate.

To conclude

Imrana in a bind

The Indian Express Editorial Thursday, June 30, 2005

The case suggests a moral obscurantism that has no place in civilised society

The Deoband ulema and the Muslim Personal Law Board have made it quite apparent that, even in the 21st century, authorities that act under the imprimatur of religion do not understand one simple principle: that a woman is a person in her own right. She should be allowed to exercise her choices. Imrana was a victim of a heinous double crime. She was a victim of violence. And she was a victim because the trust of an intimate relationship was betrayed. But the authorities have compounded this unspeakable injury by adding the weight of their own coercive powers. They want to deny Imrana the basic right to choose whether she wants to live with her husband or not.
Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. Fairly recently, we had the case of Gudiya. Self-appointed custodians of religion took it upon themselves to determine whether she would have to live with her first husband, who had been assumed dead but eventually returned from Pakistan, or whether she should continue to live with her current husband. In numerous instances panchayats are denying women the right to determine the course of their own lives. Even secular courts have occasionally crossed the line by trying to second guess the “real” interests of a violated woman. Women are still not acknowledged as agents in their own rights. That religious authorities are using even the terrible situation that Imrana faced to assert their own writ, suggest a moral obscurantism that has no place in a civilised society.
It is legitimate to ask whether institutions and practices legitimised under the banner of any authority that deny women their basic rights should be tolerated. In times of crisis, religious leaders and public authorities should be a source of compassion rather a further source of coercion. But if any decrees made in the name of religion violate basic human dignity, they will only expose religion to further ridicule. The question is not simply whether a uniform civil code will achieve justice for women. We need to recognise a far deeper crisis: our inability as a society to allow women their choices. In the process, they are denied their dignity and humanity.

How about a fatwa against the Imrana fatwa

TAVLEEN SINGH

Sunday, July 03, 2005

For once I find myself in total agreement with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). So much in agreement that I am tempted at least for this week to forgive them for following economic policies that appear to be designed to keep as many Indians in poverty for as long as possible. Understandable, if you think about it, because if poverty disappears where will Marxists get their political constituency from.
My understanding mood arises from CPM general secretary Prakash Karat’s strong reaction against the outrageous fatwa from the mullahs of Deoband in the Imrana rape case. ‘‘If the personal law of any community infringes upon the genuine rights of women, the law of the land should take centrestage and impart justice,’’ he said. Three cheers for you Mr Karat and a big fat kick in the butt to Mulayam Singh Yadav for supporting the fatwa that in effect punishes Imrana for daring to admit that she was raped by her father-in-law. On account of this admission, according to the wise men of the Dar-ul-uloom, she has become haraam for her husband and can no longer live with him, but the husband must continue to support his five children. This is the same seminary, please remember, whose interpretation of Islam inspired the Taliban, so their contempt for women should not surprise us. What should surprise and sicken us is the support the fatwa has got from the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Correct me if I am wrong but did he not take an oath to uphold the Constitution of India? Is it not his responsibility to uphold the law of the land or has Uttar Pradesh officially become an Islamic republic? I was recently on a flight with Mulayam Singh’s right-hand man, Amar Singh, who complained about the English press always being ‘‘anti-Mulayam’’. Personally, I am amazed that he even dares to expect support for a man who is so ready to put political considerations above law, justice and simple decency.
Can we hope that Sonia Gandhi or the Prime Minister will have the courage to come forward and announce publicly that no religious seminary has the right to interfere in the law? They would be doing India a huge service if they went a step further and added that panchayats that believe they have the right to dispense justice will be instantly disbanded and fresh elections ordered.
Trust me when I tell you that this is all it will take for our semi-literate, socially backward sarpanches to stop dispensing barbarism in the name of justice. They routinely order women to be gang-raped, they routinely murder young lovers who have broken caste taboos, they routinely strip women naked and parade them through villages. And the only reason why they continue to do this is because they get away with it.
The police does not interfere just as it does not interfere in cases of sati and child marriage because most Chief Ministers take the view that these are social problems that will end when society improves. My view is that they will disappear tomorrow if the police is ordered to implement the laws of India. Whenever the police turns up in a village and takes preventive action, the panchayat always backs down. I have personally seen this happen not once but many times. The minute the police does its job or the Courts intervene and declare panchayat actions illegal, the peasants who sit in these village councils quietly let the matter drop.
Last year in Haryana’s Assanda village there was the case of Rampal and Sonia. The couple fell in love and got married and romantic love is something that Indian society disapproves of, it is not in our ‘‘culture’’, so Raathi caste leaders called a special gathering and pronounced that Rampal would have to declare his pregnant wife his sister because she was of the same caste. Sonia decided she was not going to accept any such decision — especially as she did not believe she was of the same sub-caste as her husband — and when she protested she was beaten up by one of the caste crusaders who had gathered at her doorstep. These upholders of Indian social standards then pulled her dupatta off to humiliate her and threw her out of the village.
Luckily, she came from a family that was modern enough to take the matter to Court. Luckily for her, Haryana is not far from Delhi and it was easy for TV networks to cover the story in detail so the Raathi caste panchayat quickly realised that it was time for discretion and not valour, and backed down. But, when I met Sonia, she was in Rohtak hospital in danger of losing her baby because of the actions of her barbarian caste leaders.
The fatwa of the mullahs of Deoband is barbaric. And, it has no place in India. Rajiv Gandhi may have misguidedly, inspired by the same political considerations as Mulayam, given Muslims the right to their own personal law but this does not apply in criminal cases. Islamic punishments have not been allowed. Rape is a crime under Indian law and rapists must be punished according to the law. If we had an elected Prime Minister (instead of an appointed one), and if he was a real leader he would have had the mullahs who pronounced this fatwa arrested and tried.
Alas, we do not have many real leaders around but can we at least hope that the mullahs are warned that obstruction of justice is a criminal offense and they would do well to withdraw their shameful fatwa.

Growing sex trade a by-product of globalization

By Binu Alex
French, German and Spanish versions of this feature available

This is a World Council of Churches Feature from its World Social Forum(India) coverage
Free high resolution photos to accompany this feature are available here

Young Christian delegates attending the World Social Forum (WSF) in the Indian commercial city of Mumbai unanimously agreed that the pressures leading to the growth of the sex trade are increasing with globalization.
A day ahead of the WSF opening, the World Council of Churches (WCC), together with the National Council of Churches, the Student Christian Movement and the Ecumenical Asian Students and Youth Network of India arranged a field exposure visit to Kamathipura, one of India's largest sex trade areas.
According to WCC youth secretary Freddy Knutsen, the purpose of the visit was to allow the visitors to "identify the real issues".
On the morning of 15 January, curious onlookers watched some fifty young people from across the world negotiating the congested streets of Kamathipura, whose principal lane teems with more than 100,000 sex workers.
"The poor become poorer, bad gets worse, and this is what globalization does to humans," explained Student Christian Movement of India general secretary Samuel Jaykumar.
In Kamathipura, the visitors were confronted with stark reality.
Nonchalant in their revealing clothes, the sex workers were a picture of life's struggles. Shock and distress was writ large on the faces of the visitors, most of whom were witnessing practitioners of this activity for the first time.
"It is really sad. I can't tell you how disturbing it is to see these women as mere commodities," said Andrea Fernandez from Brazil. She recollected that in her native country, the situation is no better.
Outside the dingy shanties of Kamathipura, the sex workers hardly have time for their ragged children as they aggressively woo customers.
Like all mothers, they dream of a better future for their merry-making, innocent kids. But as one of the sex workers admitted, most of the girls follow their mothers' footsteps, and the boys become pimps like their unknown fathers.
Kamathipura is named after the Kamathis, migrants from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The first group came to Mumbai, then Bombay, in 1795 and gradually their settlement turned into the city's red-light district. Their fates were sealed by the end of the nineteenth century.
Every year, hundreds of helpless, destitute women from across the country, and even from neighbouring Nepal, land up in Kamathipura. Some of them are victims of the illegal sex trade and others have come due to economic pressures.
Mumbai, better known for churning out the world's highest number of movies and heavy stock trading, is the ultimate dream destination for every poor person looking for a decent living in India. But in most cases, the dream turns sour.
Brothels mushroom wherever there is high migrant population, although Kamathipura has the distinction of having already been a "comfort zone" back in the British era.
Today, the painted lips of teenage sex workers lure doubtful passers-by to rooms already crowded with customers.
"But there is hardly any income. AIDS has destroyed our business. We have to make ourselves available to doubtful customers for as low as 10 Rupees (US$22 cents)," said Minakshi junior.
While Minakshi junior, who looked in her 30s, is busy at the street corner, Minakshi senior, a few years older, has gone to her native town "somewhere in Nepal", to enrol her elder son in the tenth grade.
Names don't matter here. There are Minakshis and Mohinis and Rukminis, classified into juniors and seniors depending on their comparative ages. Some are simply "Badiwalis" (the elder ones) and "Chhotiwalis" (the younger ones).
Outside it's a chaotic scene. Cheap restaurants, illegal huts, street vendors and garbage strewn all over contribute to the permanent traffic congestion on the street.
Whatever little space available is occupied by streetwalkers soliciting business.
Roopa (not her real name) is just another soul peddling her body in the din.
"What do you think these people (the delegates) are here for?" Chatting with an elderly acquaintance, possibly her mentor, Roopa was aggressive: "Are they searching for a "pattaka" - a beauty?" The elderly woman, with Mongolian features, peeping out of a window above, gave a knowing smile.
Bright-coloured saris on the slanted and broken asbestos sheets made the otherwise dull surroundings look cheerful.
The pimps, constantly on the prowl, eyed the delegates with unease, not knowing where the interaction between the outsiders, some of them foreigners, with the women would lead.
"Are you part of a survey team?" a hesitant Harish Rao, who was reluctant to admit he was a pimp, wanted to know.
"Christians! Oh, they are good people but no use to us," said Rao in his heavily accented Marathi, the language of this region, not his mother tongue.
Rao is aware of development programmes for empowering women and children from Kamathipura. But his main concern is: "What about providing an alternative source of income to a community who has known only one source of income?"
Leena Vaidya, a social worker who has been working in the area for three years, said they have a definite plan of action to free the women and children. But it will take time to undo centuries-old practices.
Raj Bharath Patta, a theology student from Student Christian Movement of India, regretted that the number of sex workers has increased in a world of vaunted opportunities.
Shooting films or photography is strictly prohibited in Kamathipura.
"Why do you want to film us? We are here for your visual pleasure, and share our bodies," said Meenakshi, who refused to be documented on film, even with her face covered.
At the sight of an prospective customer, she withdrew to a corner and bowed her head in the direction of portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses, hanging on a wall facing the street.
The delegates returned to Robinson Memorial Marathi Methodist Church with the disturbing image of Meenakshi branded in their hearts. Conscious that growing poverty and desperation are contributing to the growth of the sex trade, they pledged to make another world possible.

Can there be another world for slum dwellers?

By Binu Alex
French, German and Spanish versions of this feature available

This is a World Council of Churches Feature from its World Social Forum(India) coverage
Free high resolution photos to accompany this feature are available here

The interaction lasted exactly two hours, but for some fifty young Christians who visited Dharavi, Asia's largest slum near Mumbai, the bonding will be forever. Beyond cold statistics, the slum is home to one million people, living in hundreds and thousands of shanties spread over 175 hectares. "Dharavi is the triumph of the human spirit over the struggle between need and survival," remarked a German youth delegate, Frank Joret. Joret, who is currently working with the Jeypoore Evangelical Lutheran Church, said that on his return home to Germany he will investigate how his church can help arrest the growth of slums, especially in third-world countries. But he was happy to see that the slum dwellers were all smiles, and warmly welcomed the group of young people, whose visit to Dharavi was arranged by the World Council of Churches (WCC), together with the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), and the Student Christian Movement in India (SCMI). One of the WCC delegates from the US, Elizabeth Constable, said she and her friends bowed in the slums. "We bowed to get into their houses. The living conditions were apalling. Little better than the sewers," she said.But for Dharavi residents, this is a fact of life. K. M. Ranganathan is a 65-year-old Dharavi resident. His 12 x 40-feet room at Dharavi has seven residents. "We have divided it into four rooms for four families," Ranganathan said. Built on open marshy land some fifty years ago, Dharavi now has dwellings that, by slum standards, are high class. Some, like that of Ranganathan, are three-floor structures with floors that are rented out.Where Ranganathan lives, the entire chawl (narrow lane) has six toilets serving more than 500 people. "It is difficult, but there is no alternative," Ranganathan said. The ecumenical youth delegates attending the World Social Forum strongly believe that there are alternatives. As for Shashikant Jhadav, a Mumbai taxi driver who is another "proud resident" of Dharavi, when asked about another world, he answered that it "may be possible, but we will remain where we are. Perhaps it will even worsen."The young visitors from the WCC, Churches Auxiliary for Social Action, the NCCI and the Young Men's & Young Women's Christian Associations were stunned by what they saw.Dharavi epitomizes the squalor of Mumbai's teeming millions living in the shadow of the luxurious skyscrapers of the few rich. Sandwiched between the western and central suburban railway lines, it is often seen as an insult to the city, and described as a breeding ground for criminals.From electric wiring to telephones to water lines, everything is tolerated in Dharavi; the government has accepted that its occupants are no longer "illegal", even though they have no official legal status."Thank God, it's not the rainy season," SCMI representative Ritesh Marandi said with relief. During the monsoon, trains don't run, and streets are under water. Dharavi is worse. Sewage and rainwater gets mixed and, in many cases, the houses collapse.Children with their uncombed hair and tattered clothes surrounded the delegates, little hands reaching out to touch. "We were touched emotionally. In the midst of the worst living conditions, they looked happier than the luxurious car owners," Marandi recollected.But then, if they are happy, why should their lives be changed? "Because they don't live their lives. They simply survive. Even animals do that. What is the difference between the two? They smile because they can't cry and survive," Marandi was quick to respond.The Dharavi residents are able to get water and electricity, even if the government turns off the taps and the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport Company cuts off their illegal hook-ups. More importantly, they have found a rhythm of survival. And although people from various regions and religions live all jammed together in what could be considered intolerable proximity, no sectarian violence has been reported from Dharavi. Efforts by the Community Outreach Programme (CORP) volunteers have not made much headway in the slum. Dharavi continues to grow day by day as migrants find no other place to live. Many of the young visitors judged that the slum's growth is directly related to way state policies deal with the urban poor."It is sad, but what we need to address is how to halt the increase in the numbers of poor people. I hope you will all keep what you have seen in mind when you participate in the World Social Forum," Dinesh Suna, the NCCI youth secretary, concluded.

Gujarat: wounded forever

By Binu Alex

The fall of the BJP has brought peace and relief in Gujarat, but some feel that the peace is fragile and temporary

Originally published in HUMANSCAPE magazine
VOL. XI ISSUE VII JULY 2004

Much water has flowed in the Sabarmati since the genocide of 2002 in Gujarat. But analysts believe that the peace in Gujarat is borrowed for political stability. A stability through peace that is cosmetic and fragile.Gujarat is wounded forever is what Gujaratis themselves admit, though reluctantly. The blame game is still on and there is greater concern over the news of the riots spreading internationally rather than analysing how a state with five crore peace-loving people is now wounded. Come Rath yatra or Muharram or Idd or Navratri, the threat of a potential riot has always loomed large since over two decades. The threats would die down soon, however, and it was more than clear that those riots, which lasted only for a few hours, were engineered to gain petty political gains in municipal elections or assembly elections. The Muslims are equally responsible for those part-time riots as those who engineered it. Gradually, sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims became a common phenomenon till it graduated to genocide.But since the riots of 2002, Gujarat has witnessed very little ‘part-time’ violence. The beneficiaries gained whatever has to be gained from the riots, and that too with additional bonus. Dr JS Bandukwala, the Vadodara-based Muslim activist, who was at the receiving end of the violence himself believes the peace is cosmetic. “Tension below the surface is still very much there. Even after two years of this violence, I see no remorse. How can this wound be healed if justice is not given or an apology offered?” But neither Dr Bandukwala nor the average Muslim wants the newly formed Congress government to dismiss the chief minister Narendra Modi, widely blamed by human rights groups and international organisations for presiding over the riots. “BJP is a poison for each and every Muslim. We are very happy that by this defeat the party has been demoralised beyond a certain revival. But we don’t want to make people like Modi a hero by his dismissal. We want him discredited while in power, and recollect and repent the violence he perpetrated when he is out of power,” Dr Bandukwala added. Dr Bandukwala’s prediction could turn prophetic. Modi is now in a chair that not only has his bete noirs as thorns in the side but he’s facing opposition from his own organisation -- like the Bharatya Kisan Sangh -- and some of his colleagues as well. The argument is that he came to power showing the previous chief minister Keshubhai Patel in poor light on the defeat of a single assembly seat. By that logic, they argue, Modi should have tendered his resignation after the virtual route of the party in the state. That is unlikely to happen given the equations. It is unlikely that Modi will be put under scanner and the arrogance that he ‘boasts’ to have will see the end of his political career. BJP is unlikely to relocate him in any national position considering the mandate the country has given to the BJP, even with their development plank, in the recently concluded elections. Trouble is brewing for Modi from all quarters including the MLA quarters. The rebellion against him for his autocratic rule is not likely to end gently. Even the international human rights organisations are not going to let this genocide pass by without any concrete action. A case has already been filed in a local court against the government by the UK-based relatives of two Muslim UK citizens in north Gujarat. With the BJP out of power, many more worms are likely to come out of the can. Sophia Khan, a Muslim social activist, had almost lost her faith in the prosecution, judiciary and the democratic set-up of the country; the election result has turned her into a die-hard believer in the Indian system. “Nothing was moving. Everyone was in collusion with each other to deny justice to the riot victims. But now we are confident that justice is possible,” she said. Khan, who worked extensively with the riot victims, especially women, added that the accused who were sure that, with the BJP in power, they would get away with their atrocities have suddenly disappeared. “Due to the fear of the BJP, we were scared even to mention our names. Now we have got some breathing space and are feeling relatively safer,” she declared. With the Supreme Court watching the ‘modern-day Neros’ very closely and with prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh expressing his concern over the Gujarat riots and the judiciary here, social activists in Gujarat are pleased. One such activist is Dr Hanif Lakdawala who is very happy about this triumph of democracy. “What more do you want than Modi’s weakening at the loss of his government at the centre? His style paid dividends in the short-term but it boomeranged in the long run. This is certainly a matter of celebration,” he remarked. And in one such ‘celebration of change’, some hundred activists gathered together. Father Cedric Prakash, a human rights activist who organised the programme, however, said that until each and every victim gets justice, celebrations will not be complete. Also celebrating the fall of the BJP was a former staunch BJP supporter, Vithalbhai Pandya, father of slain BJP leader and former state home minister Haren Pandya. The senior Pandya considers Modi a modern-day dictator and blames him for his son’s death. “Where are all the yatras now? Are we in a fool’s paradise to vote for someone who does nothing but spend money on yatras. Now I think they should come out with another yatra – antim yatra (the last journey),” he said to an applauding audience. But outside the celebration hall, the Muslims are still not confident about getting justice. There are many reasons for this. One of them is the hit-me-if-you-can attitude of the state government. When the Congress announced it plans to repeal POTA, the state government came out with its own version of it. Some of them, disillusioned with the treatment of the state government, have already left the state. Hussain Abu Baker and Mariam Biwi left for Kerala after their handicapped son was burnt, tied to his wheel-chair, and the only source of income -- a teashop -- was set on fire. Their two sons and three daughters are now struggling to make ends meet. Like this aged couple in the Naroda-Patiya area, there are thousands who have moved out of their village and settled in ghettos made for Muslims. These ghettos, developed out of compulsion, have nothing to offer to the new generation of Muslim youth. Like their forefathers, they may land up out of schools and colleges and end up with petty jobs. Like Naroda-Patiya, Gulbarg Society was one of the worst-affected areas where former MP, Ehsaan Jaffrey, was brutally done to death. Nobody has returned to Gulbarg Society. The entire society is abandoned. None of the residents are willing to come back after what they have seen during the riots. Despite cases like this, authorities insist that peace has returned to Gujarat. FA Bhatia is a school principal and the only time he returned to his home in Gulbarg Society was to vote during the parliamentary elections. “How can we stay here? This is our graveyard where all our dreams and aspirations are buried,” he said as his wife nodded in agreement. “We have been saying this for the last two years and now we are tired. But the government has not shown any mercy. We have been left to cope on our own,” said Mehboob Ali, one of the Naroda Patiya residents. After his pillow-mattress shop was gutted down, he is carrying on his business from his home, re-built by the Islamic Relief Committee. Though these Muslims could bank on the Congress to get them justice, they cannot rely on them for development. ‘Mini Pakistan’, as some right-wing activists address a Muslim area, Juhapura, is likely to spring up more ghettos and the divide between the two communities will only worsen. Hasmukh Patel, the Congress spokesperson, has no doubt that the BJP will coin new terms to multiply this divide. He is of the opinion that the BJP will come with another emotive issue to increase the hatred towards minorities, especially Muslims. “They have mastered this art and I don’t think they have any other issue now for the next elections. Whether it is the Indo-Pak relations or Kashmir or it is Gujarat, Muslims will be in the forefront,” Patel has no doubt. One-time politician and senior columnist, Batuk Vora, is confident of the new government and he believes that there may not be any need for transfer of cases if the prime accused in the entire carnage -- the chief minister and the VHP gang -- are charge-sheeted or arrested without the dismissal of the government, which, he says, will bring in constitutional problems. But with or without Narendra Modi, the Muslims have learnt the hard lesson of life. Clueless and led by radical clerics, many of these Muslims are likely to remain where they are -- with or without riots.

NGOs: blessing or curse?

By Binu Alex

Originally published in HUMANSCAPE

VOL. XI ISSUE VII JULY 2004

Like any visitor, the CISF personnel frisk Rupa Modi when she enters the office of Raiskhan Pathan, coordinator for Citizens for Peace and Justice. The office is situated in the Shahpur area of Ahmedabad, once a hub of Hindu-Muslim unity and now a Muslim ghetto, and the CISF is at the gate at the instructions of the Supreme Court after the Best Bakery verdict.Rupa is a Parsi and used to live in the infamous Gulbarg Society, now a ‘ghost area’. What happened to Gulbarg society on 28 February 2002, and afterwards is in history books. Since that day, she has not seen her 14-year old son Azhar Modi. “I have no idea about his whereabouts” she says, showing a pamphlet she has prepared for display in public places. The last two years’ experience has shattered her faith in the administration. “I know that it is not possible to find out one in a billion. But with administrative machinery at their disposal, they can at least give a try.’ Now she has turned to a NGO (non-government organisation) for help. When the government fails, NGOs emerge. This may not be entirely true, but it is apt to say that when government ignores, NGOs thrive. As human rights activist, Father Cedric Prakash, points out, NGOs cannot replace the government but can merely be a supportive element to help the government. And they rose to the occasion during the earthquake of 2001. People of Kutchch still show a great respect for the NGOs; an international award for rebuilding the area was, however, bagged by the state-run Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority. It would be more correct to say that the NGOs worked with the government to build new lives for those shattered by the quake. But the scene changed totally after the Gujarat massacres. The NGOs were forced to work in sectors where only the government could, and should, have provided assistance. And when not enough NGOs were coming out to help the victims because they feared persecution, some good souls made arrangements for food and shelter and relief camps were organised in various parts of Gujarat. Since the people sheltered in the camps were too afraid to go to their respective villages, new ghettos emerged. These ghettos gave more reasons for creating more projects for NGOs. Since the ghettos were newly created, they had no facilities and the children, as usual, did not go to school. Very few had sources of income, which had to be generated somehow. Health care was a major concern and it had to be addressed.A series of meetings and project proposals were prepared. The question many critics ask is ‘Who did they help?’ In the words of Gujarat law minister Ashok Bhatt, these ‘five star activists’ did help. But the beneficiaries, he says, were the Toyota and Mahindra & Mahindra companies as their sales increased. (The terminology ‘five star activists’ doesn’t stop with Bhatt. It was actually coined by Modi. He still claims to be the inventor of the phrase and uses in at any given opportunity.) “They have no business to tarnish the image of Gujarat. In the name of helping a few, they are putting Gujarat to shame,” said Ashok Bhatt. NGOs are of different classes. They are classified and put into categories like Hindu, Christian and Muslim. Among them there are different sub-classes like Dalit, tribals and women. And those with secular credentials are perceived to be pro-Congress while some are identified with right-wing ideologies. For instance, a Dalit NGO will petition the government if a Dalit woman is molested or a Dalit man is attacked. Those other than Dalit are a non-existent entity for them. But the same NGOs who accepted funds and international awards for Dalit upliftment, even equated the discrimination with apartheid and tried to represent the UN, kept mum when Dalits participated in rioting. Muslim NGOs work within their ghettos and community, and have no room for any other occupation. Since Christians are few and they rarely need NGO help, they work with all communities. If government survives from election to election, NGOs survive from disaster to disaster, project to project. Francois Gautier is a French journalist working in India. A sort of BJP ideologue, he criticised Sonia Gandhi for her inability to understand India. He himself, however, claims to understand India in his columns and blasts NGOs for their attitude. In one of his columns in the Indian Express, Gautier wrote: “He or she (NGO activists) usually comes from the upper elite, carries the latest laptop and often travels around in AC cars. He or she spends half his/her time abroad, in London, Paris or New York, doing mesmerizing slides and Excel spreadsheets, in front of gullible westerners, always ready to shed a tear for the poor ‘downtrodden Indians’, so as to convince them to grant more funds”. Outwardly, this may be true as it is no hidden fact that NGOs have the best of offices, best interiors, best vehicles available, best gadgets and very few senior personnel travel by train. But critical evaluations have to be balanced with ground level efforts. The best of activists in the world have no offices to decorate their interiors. Medha Patkar has no home she can call her own. Sundarlal Bahuguna or Baba Amte may not have even seen a mobile gadget. Mother Teresa lived in penury though she attracted millions in donations. Activism is a service but with a pinch of professionalism. Some may argue that activism is a profession now but with a pinch of service. If it had not become one, we would not have seen increasing numbers taking to activism and very few MSW graduates. All professions have their own glamour and attraction. Activism is one which brings money and fame along with the tag of a reformer. If the NGOs have not done anything, then who has done the work that is seen on the ground? Who made Best Bakery the icon of Gujarat violence to the extent that the Supreme Court passed strictures against the state government? Who provided rations and shelter to the hapless victims of the genocide? And who is with the victims when they are in need of counseling? “Certainly these people,” said Jaanbiwi Malik, pointing out to one of the social activists. Her son, Altaf Hussain, had flown in from Dubai, where he had been working for over six years, to get married. He arrived, got married, but within a week he was arrested and is in the Central jail in Ahmedabad to date, under POTA. His crime is conspiracy in the Akshardham attack. Jaanbiwi says neither she nor her son has ever seen this temple. When all hopes capsized, they turned to one of the NGOs who, at least, gives her some hope that one day her son will return. People like Gautier measure India’s empowerment of women by citing the example of Indira Gandhi, and citing Dr Manmohan Singh and Abdul Kalam as the measure of India’s pluralism. He refuses to believe that there is a high rate of female infanticide, saying that girls are loved in India like nowhere in the world. For a better analysis of the booming NGO business, one need not go beyond their respective Income Tax offices and ask the reception for Assistant Director of Income-Tax (Exemptions). Thousands of applications arrive everyday to allow them to accept funds with income-tax exemptions. Whether they do the work as mentioned in their preamble is anybody’s guess. As in any business or service, NGOs are attracted to those fields where there is easy money. AIDS is one of the money-spinners in India. No NGO is willing to invest time and energy required to convince a funding agency about the need to plant trees in Ahmedabad because the SPM is dangerously high. No NGO is eager to carry out a campaign to build footpaths in a city for those who would like to walk to their respective destinations? The answer lies in civil society itself. An immature civil society cannot have a mature human being. If NGOs thrive in the name of the poor, it is the failure of the civil society. Narendra Modi and company refused to identify relief camps in Gujarat, leave alone set up one. Moreover, the government severely punished all those who helped the victims. Should these ‘modern day Neros’ have any right to criticise the NGOs who, at least, came to the victims’ rescue. So let the NGOs thrive because you and I can only criticise the activists, but cannot help even a single soul

How to stop development

I remember the person who was attracted towards the FM Radio station, Radio Mirchi that was playing in my car was a Chaudhary, a tribal from South Gujarat. He was one ofthe construction workers amongst a pool of tribals who migrated from Panchmahals. He was dressed in typical tribal attire that defied any established conventions. At blazing sun releasing rays that clocked 44-degree Celsius, Chaudhary was wrapped in winter clothes. He was pretty comfortable with that single pair. But he clearly expressed his unhappiness over what he had been listening over thirty minutes. It included good songs, a lot of classified ads, traffic information and a lot of unwanted advises from the announcer.
Gradually he took out a transistor set that he purchased a few days back. He asked me whether I had two pencil cells so that he can hear it. I gave him two from my stock that I carry for my mini disc recorders. I offered him help to set his radio to 91.90, the radio Mirchi Band wave. But he refused my offer and instead tuned himself. He tuned to All India Radio and slowly without a single turn he disappeared slowly out of my horizon. I haven’t seen him since.
But there I realized the government’s deliberate attempt to keep out news from radio stations. FM radio stations have come up offering music that gets repeated every thirty minutes, traffic information that is not more than a joke, cookery information that nobody takes note of and lucky draws offering movie tickets nobody wants to see. I listen to it each time I drive my car within the city. It didn’t change my perspective towards anything.
That is the reason Chaudhary, presumably an illiterate, needs to know what is happening in his region, his state, his country. Though Supreme Court clearly ruled that government cannot control air waves, the government still continue to keep a strict control over it.
To continue

Freedom at noon

Pain to be a victim. It can only be experienced and cannot be explained in simple words. But for all those who plan to execute tragedies of our time, these victimization of people are not important. And that is why many failed to gauge the pain that went to a large number of people when the Gujarat mayhem was in progress.
When I go through the books that documents ethnic cleansing or pogroms in the world and see the horrifying pictures of history, I cannot estimate the pains those people who suffered have gone through. That is simply because the paragraphs and the books cannot bring the agony to life. But what agonizes me are the reasons. In a majority of cases, there are no reasons at all. Whimsical minds worked overtime to create hatred and the lust for power eliminated those who would have never been harmful to any of these powerhouses.
The result : millions and millions died for reasons they nor their near and dear ones cannot answer for generations. Neither can their killers do. Reasons actually don’t exist at all.
I am no international expert on war crimes to explain in details of why and when the deaths occurred and whether those responsible should be tried for war crimes. What I understand is a limited world view. A window of humanity and compassion. A mission for relative peace. In our endeavor to earn and have a decent living, we became journalists.
Among a community that cherished government jobs, a change in track was a little difficult. More so, if you already have a government job and you quit it for some silly freelancing. What about the pension? – A common question that doodled like a noodle all along, everywhere.
But I was sure that I had to leave. All my ten years in the government job went into thinking about quitting the job. Deadlines after deadlines expired but I did not quit. It was only after ten years that I took the bold- by my standards – to quit. And I really don’t see logical reasons for behind it. I just see what my career would have been had I remained with the department. I would have been yet another retired government employee with a little house and a car with children being married off. I didn’t want that life because I wanted to broaden my world view.
There are several reasons that I am unfit for any government job. My wavelength never matched with anyone in the department or vice versa. The first and the foremost is patience that I hardly possess. The second most important is the ability to gauge where money can be generated. The third and the most horrible to tolerate useless and the world’s biggest fools called bureaucrats. This is what irked me throughout my tenure and I could hardly match the endurance that some of my colleagues had embraced and compromised. The net result is that no officer liked me. There were exceptions but barring a few, everyone thought that I was exceeding my limits.
I used to get reports from friends about the murmur people had about me. The most common was that I was arrogant and care little for even my superiors. But none had the courage to tell it on my face not because they feared me but because they knew that no body would pass this ‘compliment’ on them even if they replace me.
By the sheer strength of the department and also taking the hierarchy into account I was nobody in the department. A simple Tax Assistant who had to take the help of friends to file his own return. A very simple complaint from some lower level staff was sufficient to transfer me or to take any action against me. But thankfully I never gave such an opportunity because I was not interested in bribes.
Since I was never interested in bribes, I never worked in field and hence I had no knowledge of the nitty gritties of the tax calculation. There were several occasion that I still remember when I had to hang my face down when confronted with some simple questions related to taxation.
My interest in the department continued to fade day by day and I started thinking of how soon I can leave the department. My problem was peculiar. I was never interested to join the mainstream media and waste my whole life covering some beat in either the corridors of the state assembly or the stinking board meetings of municipalities. I had different ideas but it was difficult for me to venture out without any proper and alternate income.
But I enjoyed in whatever I did during my tenure and many of those experiences prompts me to write much more than a mere nostalgic paragraph. The most farce and the memorable journey is the visiting of Public Accounts Committee.
Committee on restructuring, committee on audit, committee on one or the other thing propped up almost every month to the typically non-functional but auto-run government department. So hardly had the officers and the staff finished reporting lengthy reports and fudged figures to one committee, another committee resurfaced. All consisting of MPs whose names were as alien to the department officials as they were to their own constituency.
Bureaucrats drawing whopping salaries, borrowed from World Bank and IMF since taxpayers money had already been drained to feed and protect politicians, had no other job to do than pleasing this committees. Their accommodation, food, logistics, welcoming and sending them off were all handled by these bureaucrats. I sometimes wondered when they get time for assessment of the tax returns, their primary job.

Here I learnt that it is very difficult to remain straight especially when you reach to a certain level. Ask any poor bureaucrat and he will tell you how remaining non corrupt in a government department is a very difficult exercise to practice. If you want to feed your three-member family, you have to be in the gang. Otherwise, the salary government gives cannot make both ends meet. Then why do these people work for a meager sum? This is the question many people ask when confronted with complaints of low salary. There cannot be two answers to this. And the only answer is that they are not even fit in the government jobs, where else they can enter.
The system of recruiting people to jobs is outdated now. But it is still followed. People who answer from four options given as to where Sabarmati is located or 2x3x5 enters the corridors of the government department. Without any technical skills and without any type of training, they train themselves in one natural gift god has bestowed on them - bargain for themselves and their family. What is wrong in that?
Not that I came with a silver spoon and had enough to withstand the onslaught. But I enjoyed writing and more I enjoyed earning from that. So I lived a life style that was equivalent to the most corrupt person in my category. I did realize that many had questions as to how I survived without taking anything for ten long years. More when the annual increment was Rs 10 when I joined in 1993 and Rs 100 when I left in 2002. This was not even enough for my daily petrol bills. So I was confident of earning from my writing double or triple the salary that I draw from the department. But I was not confident enough to put my papers so easily.
So I stayed put and in the meantime major eyewash called ‘Restructuring’ took place. The only people who benefited from it were again the bureaucrats. From two Chief Commissioners, there were several chief commissioners. From a handful of commissioners, there were more commissioners than peons. The two Chief Commissioners had no jobs to do and therefore some of them passed their time visiting moffusil charges and some of them had women to fiddle with. With the arrival of more Chief Commissioners, the visits increased and the installments that some of these moffusil charges have to hand it over to these visiting dignitaries multiplied thereby putting more pressure on the tax evaders to fund more.
In the meantime, this restructuring got me transferred to Mehsana, some 90 kilometers from my house. I decided to go rather than begging to be retained for some time since I was already in a mood to quit. I thought I would also see some moffusil charges.
Mehsana was a mess. Nothing was proper except the routine under the table dealings. No staff, no computers, no stationary and the most non-cooperative staff ready to stab you on your back. Here I also decided to become corrupt. Corruption need not be always in the form of cash or kind. You can easily use freely available time to bribe. I bribed ‘time’ and began coming at 11.30 and leaving at 3.30. So I bribed one hour each during morning and evening which was not liked by any of my superiors and colleagues. I had a very silly and unfounded reason that none of my work is pending and so I should be allowed to maintain my timings, which actually was against the government rules. But I could not compromise with my writing and so I had to decide my next step and it was during a chilly December day that I tendered my resignation.
Days after I put in my papers that I realized how free I am in this world. There is no one to boss me around and I had my liberty to study, read and also to decide which stories to do and which one to avoid.
The decision to resign did not come overnight. There were strong grounds for me and it was some sort of financial stability. I was lucky enough to get a break in a medium which I never thought was my cup of tea. Radio always fascinated me and working for this medium was something dream come true. So I accepted the challenge and started working immediately.
I had to improve a lot for working in the Radio segment. The first and the foremost was to cut down my pace of talking which was rather very fast. I realized it in Manila when I spoke for a minimum 20 minutes and at the end; I realized that none of the 19 participants in the seminar got an iota of what I had said. I asked them to be very frank to say whether they understood what I said or not. One of the brave souls said he didn’t and then I slowed down and gradually slowed down so that I can adjust to my listeners as well.
The second was to change a slight south Indian accent that I had. I have had no problems with this accent in print segment. So I began searching for some radio crash course, which can also teach me the right voice for radio. But the editors at California told me that they had no problem in my reworked voice and was perfectly alright for a newscast. But I continue to learn from people whom I admire as good speakers. One of them is Nick Gowing of BBC and the other is the FSRN newscast reader Deepa Fernandez.
From a bonded government laborer, it is a different world as a person who is at his liberty to decide his own schedules. But unlike some of my friends from the Western countries, we are bound by social commitments, which consume a large chunk of the time. Commitments towards parents, spouse, children. It is a duty one can’t ignore. One should never.

Pix (c) Binu Alex

Feudal mindsets

Saharashri ka sandesh deshvasiyon ke naam. This is what I read on the Sahara Samay channel while Subroto Roy was addressing a self discovery speech. For a moment, I felt I was listening to an address from the Indian prime minister or the President. Subroto may be Almighty to his employees, not to me. Why on earth should he address me? And that too from a feudal mindset and a feudalistic surrounding. The entire episode looked like a king addressing to his subjects. The speech was full of information about projects that he termed as making India from a developing nation to a developed nation. Nothing could have been more disgusting for me than to listen to this bluffing. This precisely means that he is earning nothing and dedicates the entire profit for the benefit of the nation. Sahara is India and India is Sahara is what I should understand from this speech.
Someone remarked to me that America is a rich nation with poor people while India is a poor nation with rich people. Behind India’s woes and worries, people like Roy made merry making. In what is now called para banking, he established offices to collect money from gullible investors to create a big conglomerate. Even the government purchased land from farmers and sold it to him to make valleys and housing complexes. So much so that each politician want to see their faces with this person. Even music albums immortalized his rags to riches story. Fine. But why should I be bothered? I have no interest in listening to a person who may or may appear in public just because a magazine questioned his existence.
This is what is keeping India away from developing into a nation with sensitivity. In my opinion, India is still a theoretic state in the sense that it has little feeling towards its people. None of the policies are framed keeping in mind its people. One of the latest example is the WTO agreement that Kamal Nath has entered into making drugs unaffordable for Indians. We cared less to see our own people and instead obliged to international commitments. People in India starve while we splurge billions in defence expenditure in the name of protecting the country we care little about protecting its people. Our enemy is Pakistan while we have entered into friendly pact with poverty, malnutrition, starvation, female infanticide and nepotism. What will you do protecting a country of malnourished citizens?
Our government servants act as if they own the country. They are little or no different to people like Roy. While they rule the kingdom they are designated, business conglomerates rule the entire nation. They have say in each budget. The finance minister calls for meeting of CII, FICCI and chambers of commerce to discuss what they expect from the budget. If their needs are not fulfilled, they make a big hue and cry. No finance minister has ever cared to call a poor guy in a remote place as to what they need. If at all he has done, the response would have been very simple. They need their daily wages so that they can survive and look after their families. Their ambitions and aspirations are simple yet never fulfilled. Our industry’s aspirations are a never ending process. The more you accede to them, the more they demand. They need tax holidays to open their business. But these same tax holidays are not translated into betterment of people.
Yes, logically, the business houses do business for profits. Their primary concern is making profit and their accountability is towards their shareholders. But then they should do business in the same way as a tribal in Panchmahal work in any construction site in the country. They should not plead to the government for land on lease which can next be compared to free land, tax holidays, tax exemptions, tax evasions, voluntary disclosure of evaded income, excise exemptions and the list is endless.
This is exactly how businessmen like Roy or Ambani are doing the business. No single business house can claim to be doing business without government doles. They have high connections to reach the government whereas the poor laborers have little idea how to reach even their legislator.
So coming to Roy’s address, the question again props up as to who he called as ‘deshvasiyon’.

Pix (C) Binu Alex

Immortalizing Characters

Human natures are strange. Sometimes it makes you laugh and at some juncture also force you to cry. Some characters are unforgettable. Some are immortalized in movies and novels while some are immortalized in human brains. You may be facing a lot of problems in your career or life but seeing people who are really funny characters make you forget those moments. I would not name these characters here. The first one is a character who can be best described as one of the most selfish person I have met. When he arrived in the city, I forced a relative of mine to rent out his newly acquired flat to him at a cheaper rent. He continued to visit our group during his weekly holidays and we used to go out for dinner. But in more than a year of the outing that we had, I have never seen the color of his purse. He would rather sit quietly without bothering about the bill each time we went to a restaurant. We always felt that we had undertaken a long bond to feed him. But after the meals, he would never forget to enter into a cyber café and talk to his girl friend, whom he had befriended on net. Obviously she was not an Indian. Early morning into the house and he would take his breakfast only after the lunch hours because the nighttime chatting never allowed him to see the beauty of early morning sun. But as soon as he woke up, he did one thing and that is to move the newspaper from the doorstep the stack. The collection of newspapers on one corner of the house kept room looked as if he is working archive fresh newspaper stocks because it never got opened. Ironically, he worked for a newspaper. Ultimately he went to the country of his girl friend and got married. But he never told his marriage news to any one including any one of us. But couple of my friends forced him to admit it. Back to India with his wife he never offered a single cup of tea to any one of us. What’s worst, he never told me that he got married and never met me again after the marriage. But while he was in the city bankrupting all friends with his no nonsense approach for denying payment of any type of bills, there were other funny characters in town in the same profession that he was in, journalism.
Another was a colleague of this funny one. Let’s Call him Mr X. If there were at least a thousand like Mr X, detergent brands would have lost its charm. For he is the one who is allergic to water. He also glues his clothes to his nature, never to wash at all. Fairy tale stories about this character are laugh riots. As soon as he reaches home, and that too some body else’s, he would sit with his regular quota of sweets, some times more than a kilo. By midnight, he would go to a corner of the room, unzip the pants and it falls down to the ground. Because of the high content of salt particles on clothe, the pant would rather stand straight. He would take his legs out of it and lie down on the floor with the shirt, which was almost down till the knee. There is also a reason behind the length of the shirt. Like his allergy to water, he was also allergic to undergarments. Morning he would go to the same corner where his pants firmly stood and put both his legs into the leg room of the pants, pull it up, zip it and leave to the office. What a character? Some of his friends narrated his embarrassing experience in one of the Mumbai suburban stations. As the train was leaving the station, he ran in the thought that he would make it. But his pants deceived him. Rather his waist deceived him as the pant made its way down to the floor of the platform. With no undergarments and the shirt in a swinging condition, the scene would have been a lift from Mr. Beans show. But he was not bothered. He pulled the pants up and waited for the next train amidst some amazing looks.

The other character I would not forget is from the government department where I worked when I was prime. People called him JP and he was a head clerk when I last saw him in the department corridors. The first time that I met him was in a section where we used to go to fetch our monthly salary. He comes to the office in spotless white. He is fair and good-looking and would rather keep the Commissioners and above on the back burner with his charisma. But his real nature was worse than any class four employees. There are witnesses who said that JP would approach cloth merchants for favours in the name of his officer. In one such incident, JP reached one of the whole sale cloth traders in Ahmedabad asked 100 meters of lined cloth that is used to stitch underwear for elderly people. The trader was curious enough to know why he wanted such a huge pile of cloth to be delivered to his own address. Pat came his reply, “saab ke kuch mehmano ko nikar chahiye” (Some relatives of saab want to stitch underwear). The trader was stunned and asked him whether saab had sent him for this purpose. While he made his way out, he nodded his head but did not notice one of his own colleagues sitting in the same office for another purpose.
Poor saab would not have even dreamt of stitching a hundred meter underwear. Rather his appearance shows that he would prefer some trendy undergarments.
JP is very particular in his timings in the office. He has a small brief case and the security guards always itched to give him a 21 gun salute when he entered the office. Their bashing of shoes would even make 9/11 collapse to shame. Such was the respect that they gave to him. The only problem was that they thought he was the highest ranking authority in the department though they sometimes doubted seeing his parrot green scooter. But if they had brains to think and ponder over it, they would have replaced JP in the department. So they don’t think and the first criterion for the salute is costume.
Two floors above, he had a special table and chair. He would sit on his chair and start talking about his overnight deeds to his already bored colleagues in the room. The fingers would slowly go to the lock of the brief case and any new onlooker would be impressed to see that he took the files home so that the pending works are finished. But surprisingly, it is not the file that comes out of the brief case. It is rather a blouse. A blouse.
But it is no surprise to his colleagues in the room. They are seeing it for years. He would then take a needle and some thread and start stitching the hooks of the blouses so that it is delivered before noon. The blouse belongs to one of the lady members in the office and those who wear his stitched clothes agree that he is a number one tailor. But the ultimate pleasure is that these same people have no knowledge how he spreads around the news about the size of their bosoms. He is actually a data bank for the information on the sizes of each and every part of a majority of the lady employees. And he displays these data with great punctuality and pride. Amidst all these drama, one thing that is very punctual is not to be loyal to the department that pays him the salary. There are obviously more characters.
To conclude

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(Audio) Employment Guarantee Act in India

A campaign is now underway in India to garner support for the fundamental right for the country's residents to be free from hunger and malnutrition. While a bill called the Employment Guarantee Plan is under consideration in the Indian Parliament, the county's poor continue to starve while government warehouses overflow with grains. FSRN Correspondent Binu Alex reports from Panchmahal, one of the poorest districts in western India.

Duration : 3:55

Free Speech Radio News Wednesday, June 01, 2005