Our Rulers and Missing Priorities

Those who are following current affairs and policy decisions in India, may always wonder what is our need of the hour and on what we need to give priority.

Most of the schemes announced by our rulers are drawn by the popular word “Vote Bank”. For sake of getting their votes secured, the larger interest of the nation has been mismanaged. 

Driving in the roads of Bengaluru has become one of the best games you can play in real time. Potholes (or we should say craters) are filled all around. Sometimes I wonder if this is purposely done to encourage rain water harvesting through those craters for improving the depleting water level beneath.

Though food inflation is rising day by day, will our farmers get benefit of higher profit? I doubt and if it happens,I don’t mind paying little more for our poor farmers efforts. But, most of the higher prices we are paying will be swallowed down by “n” number of middlemen’s looting both producers and consumers.

In rural areas, those who are in to farming know the difficulty in getting laborers for their agro work. Migration has increased and people tend to live in cities with mere salary than being in village. What is that required to encourage this people to get in to agriculture, tiny & village industries , folk artists etc , back in village and avoid this mad rush to cities. 

These are some of the action points requiring urgent attention of our rulers... BUT.... in reality?

Look at the recent verdict Honorable court ruled against Akhilesh’s Govt. in UP. Though thousands of people of all community were affected due to unfortunate riots, he declared compensation for only members of a community and others were ignored.  What will be the impact of this decision on two neighbours of different communities, lived friends for hundred years; now, one gets support and other is ignored. What will happen to their psychology towards each other and faith?

In Karnataka, our government has announced a scheme of giving Rs. 50,000 and some material for selected economically weak bride of particular religion as wedding gift. Good, but why is this apathy done towards others?  Are there no poor girls among other religions? And if only selected brides are given than what about thousands of other poor girls? And most important question is why wasting public money in this kind of schemes? After uproar, from all sectors including those who belong to the benefited group, now government is planning to extend it to others, however the damage is already done.

I don’t know if you have noticed hoardings in many part of Bengaluru on a scheme called “Ksheera Bhaghya” (meaning Milk Scheme – giving free milk to school children). No doubt this is good initiative, helps both farmers and children in schools, but if you observe the hoardings, it clearly shows children being differentiated based on religion, and our leaders trying to project how much secular they are. There was also an initiative to introduce tour to selected children from government schools. These selections was based on their background and imagine what impact it will have on kids mind when some classmates are sent for trips and they are ignore because they belong to some other communities. Luckily due to public outcry, it was stopped.

No one can question others faith and religion. India is known for its wonderful fabrication of so many religions, culture, faiths followed by crores of people. Recently, in Karnataka a new controversy was stirred when they tried to bring law to stop some of these practices. Yes, we need to ban superstitious and horrifying practices done but it can’t be targeted at particular religion and ignore others. Also many practices are in individual’s interest. If it’s not harming any one, why unnecessary create issue of nothing.

Role of a government should be to encourage overall development, through education, security & safety, employment. If government announces that people will be given rice for 1 rupee per KG, those working hard will stop their efforts. It will also lead to mass corruption of selling away these commodities in black market. 

Instead of doing all this gimmicks, we need leaders who will strength our people with required trainings for their skills, generate employment by encouraging small scale and village industries, mitigate migration and help our agriculture sector. If they do such things, automatically people will start earning and will be able to buy their own commodities at actual price.

Vote bank politics will be existing until people are not united. We need to understand, our rulers are trying to divide us in name of religion for continuing to rule us... Spread the message among our network on what is required to make India strong and what we are facing.

Hope ... one day... our rulers will get some sense... before it’s too late.

ಗುರುತು ( The Mark)

This story was written in the year 1999 - 2000 as student of Christ College for a competition by Kannada language association,later published in small stories series- Ebbani.Recently came across the book and felt nostalgic of those days..posting it here!!

ಪ್ರಾಚೀನ ಶ್ರೀಲಂಕಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಬೌದ್ದ  ಆಶ್ರಮ ಇತ್ತು . ಆದರ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥನ ಹೆಸರು ಗುಣಶೇಕರ . ಅವನು ತನ್ನ ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಕೆಲಸದಿಂದ ಹೆಸರು ಮಾಡಿದ್ದನು. ಅವನ ಆಶ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಅನೇಕ ಸನ್ಯಾಸಿಗಳು ಅಭ್ಯಾಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದರು , ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ಜಯಶೇಕರನು ಒಬ್ಬನು. ಆದರೆ  ಅವನು ತನ್ನ ಕೆಟ್ಟ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ . 

ಅವನ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ಕೆಟ್ಟ ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಗುಣಶೇಕರ  ಏನನ್ನೂ ಹೇಳದೆ , ಆಶ್ರಮದ ಒಂದು ಗೋಡೆಯಲ್ಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದೊಂದು  ಮೊಳೆಯನ್ನು ಹೊಡೆಯತ್ತಿದನು . ಕೊನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಜಯಶೇಕರನ ಕೆಟ್ಟ ಕೆಲಸಗಳು ಮಿತಿಮೀರಿ  ಗೋಡೆಯ ತುಂಬಾ ಮೊಳೆಗಳು ತುಂಬಿದವು. ರಾಜನು ಪಾತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಕಂಡು ಜಯಶೇಕರನಿಗೆ  ಶಿಕ್ಷೆ ವಿಧಿಸಿದನು.

ಶಿಕ್ಷೆ ಮುಗಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ಜಯಶೇಕರ ಆಶ್ರಮಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದನು. ಆಶ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಅವನ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತರು ಅವನಿಗೆ ಗೌರವ ಕೊಡಲಿಲ್ಲ, ತಿರಸ್ಕಾರದಿಂದ ನೋಡಿದರು. ಅವನಿಗೆ ಅವಮಾನವಾಗಿ ತನ್ನ ಗುರು ಬಳಿ ಬಂದನು. ಗುರು ಅವನನ್ನು ಪ್ರೀತಿಯಿಂದ ಮಾತನಾಡಿಸಿದನು, ಅವನ ಯೋಗಕ್ಷೇಮ ವಿಚಾರಿಸದನು. ಅವನ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಬೇಸರವನ್ನು ಕಳೆಯಲು ಆಶ್ರಮವನ್ನು ಸುತ್ತಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬರಲು ಹೋದರು. ಆಗ ಜಯಶೇಕರ ಆಶ್ರಮದ ಗೂಡೆಯನ್ನು ನೋಡಿ ಚಿಕಿತನಾದನು. ಅದನ್ನು ಕುರಿತು ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ, ಮೊಳೆಯನ್ನು ಹೊಡೆದ ಕಾರಣವನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿದನು. ಇದನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ಅವಮಾನಕೊಂಡ ಜಯಶೇಕರ , ಅಂದಿನಿಂದ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡತೊಡಗಿದನು. 

ಜಯಶೇಕರನ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರತಿಯಾಗಿ ಗುಣ ಶೇಕರನು ಗೋಡೆಯಿಂದ ಒಂದೊಂದು ಮೊಳೆಯನ್ನು ತೆಗಯತೊಡಗಿದನು. ಅವನ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕೆಲಸದಿಂದ ಬಹುಬೇಗ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಮೊಳೆಗಳು ಹೊರಬಂದವು . ಇದನ್ನು ತಿಳಿದು ಜಯಶೇಕರ ಗೋಡೆಯನ್ನು ನೋಡಲು ಬಂದಾಗ, ಗೋಡೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮೊಳೆಯ ಗುರುತುನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದನು. ಇದನ್ನು ಕುರಿತು ಗುರುವನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ , ಈ ರೀತಿ ಹೇಳಿದನು "ಮನುಷ್ಯನು ಕೆಟ್ಟವನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಿದ ಕೆಲಸಗಳ  ಗುರುತನ್ನು ಅವನ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕೆಲಸಗಳು ಅಳಿಸಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ". ಇದನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ತಾನು ಮಾಡಿದ ಕೆಟ್ಟ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ಜ್ಞಾಪಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು  ಪಶ್ಚಾತಾಪಪಟ್ಟನು . ಮುಂದೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಮನುಷ್ಯನಾಗಿ ಬಾಳಿ , ಬೌಧ್ಹ ಧರ್ಮವನ್ನು ಹರಡಿದ ಖ್ಯಾತಿ ಅವನದಾಯಿತು. 

We the Indians and the Economy

Looking at the news that Government is contemplating of taking the help of gold deposit / treasure in temples across country to overcome current crisis, felt where our economy and financial security is heading. I am not an economist and yes my knowledge about fiscal, macro economy etc is limited. But still thought of sharing few thoughts of mine which might help us to rethink our indulge in spending money and help our country, in whatever little way we could.

We might think, why should we worry about the situation, our government will take care. But at the rate of achieving the number of scams, there can be little hope our rulers will do anything drastic. 

It was shocking to see that, the total amount of scams done by our government runs in to lacs of crores rupees!! It can be in-below earth (coal mines), in air (chopper), waves (2 G Spectrum),wherever possible we have been cheated in name of democracy and development.If we had not faced these scams,we may not have not faced this crisis of taking the help of temple gold to save economy.

With Rupee falling every day, it’s an alarming thing for all of us. One of the major reason why we our rupee is losing value to $ is we are Importing more and our Export has fallen drastically.

Yes, with globalization, it’s not possible to restrict our imports, but we have to find methods where our value of imports will come down and exports / in-house production will go up. This will help us to save billions of dollars in foreign exchange.

In current scenario, most of our import is in Crude Oil / Mineral Fuels (Approx. 35 % of total imports) and other major important category can be classified as Gold/Precious metals etc.

With raising income of Indians, demand for automobiles and thus petroleum products has gone up in past few years. But we have ended up paying more and more towards the oil imports. Same applies for gold with investment buying being done.

In this scenario what we can do, to save our foreign exchange and stop country being harmed with financial difficult times?

1.  Reduce usage of petroleum products:  Every day we use cars / bikes for various purposes, especially commuting to office.  For sake of country, let’s start using public transport more and more. If not public transport, at least we can opt for pool in vehicles and company provided cabs/vehicles.

Imagine, if 5 employees are driving in their respective cars from Basavanagudi surrounding areas to Manyata Tech Park and back, we need approx. 3 liters of petrol per car , 15 liters for 5 cars and financially it costs around 15* 81 = Rs. 1215 per day.

If they had opted for car pool in, we could save the additional 12 liters of oil being imported per day (Multiple these by thousands of cars across India). If not car pool in, let’s go for mass transportation, company cabs, all will equally support in reducing import of oil.

Same way, if we are going nearby place, let’s start going by walk / cycle. Two wheelers might give good mileage, but lacs of two wheelers drinking petrol all over country, this has major impact. By reducing the number of vehicles on road, we have another advantage; it will reduce traffic jams, and thus save our fuel consumption as well.

Certainly, many of us think, using public transportation is against our social prestige. But remember we are supporting our country in our own way, and that prestige should be more than driving a car. 

As famous quote from Mr.Enrique Penalosa,Bogota Mayor (Columbia) says - 

“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars, it’s where the rich use public transportation”, let’s forget our ego/social prestige for sake of country, remember, it’s not what country gives to us, it’s always, what is our contribution towards country.

2.  Reduce the usage of gold: India was once upon a time, the leader in gold production in the world. But not anymore, we have become leader in gold consumption (864 tonnes in 2012, 25 % of world consumption) and we are importing this gold from abroad (in 2012, it was 400 tonnes), thus losing foreign exchange for this. The speculative buying and perceived as safe investment option for most Indians, the demand for gold is ever increasing.

Let’s stop purchasing gold for investment purpose. For every buy we make, government has to spend in $ for importing gold from abroad.   

3.  Encourage Indigenous Products:  This is little difficult due to globalization, but not impossible to reduce the quantity and source of import. The best example can be importing products from China. We all know how China is intruding in to our territory and exchanging unpleasant feeling with our military. Knowing this also, why  should we encourage consuming Chinese products? Is it because it’s cheaper in price? But cheaper in what cost. They have intruded many times, supporting Pakistan, occupying Aksai Chin area in Kashmir illegally and how can we trust such neighbor and lose our foreign exchange for importing their products?

Let’s start reducing consumption of such country’s products; at least it will help our local production units, give employment to Indians and save our currency from being exchanged in dollars.

All of us talk big while commenting on the situation of nation and very few think what we can do to change it. As the famous quote says – Be the change you want to see in the world, let’s start thinking in what way we can help country, to come over the crisis and march towards prosperity and equality.

( Note: Bibliography to Google and Business Websites for data..!! )

Travelogue - Melukote, Mandya District.

Melukote - one of the most important tourist and religious place in southern Karnataka, is approximately 140 kms from south of Bengaluru, 50 kms from Mysore and 40 kms from Mandya.

Reaching there is quiet smooth, due to well maintained road from all directions (Bengaluru/ Mysore). If driving from Bengaluru, take right after Mandya town and if driving from Mysore, proceed in Srirangapatana – Bidar highway and take diversion near Jakkanahalli.

You can enjoy the drive in midst of rural Karnataka and good roads.

 

If travelling by rail, Pandavapura Railway station is the nearest one. Bangalore and Mysore are the nearest airports. Recently KSRTC has built new bus stand and has provided bus connectivity with most of the important nearby towns. 

Steps to Temple

There are two important temples – Yoganarasimha is built on top of the rocky hills and one can enjoy the beautiful view from the top of the hill. Another temple – Cheluvanarayana Swamy is in the foothills.

It also has a well-known academy for Sanskrit language and related research activities.

 

 

 

 

Another main attraction is vast and well maintained Kalyani which has been shot in many movies of southern India and one can also visit twin ponds called akka – tangi kola.

Kalyani

 It also has a half built main gate (hebbagilu) near twin ponds. The legend says, Kings from Chola Dynasty tried building the architecture with in one day (from dusk to dawn) and since they couldn’t complete it by dawn, they left the project incomplete

 

Every year the famous Vairamudi Bramhostava is celebrated. The main event of the celebration takes place in night until dawn. During this festivities, lord is decorated with ornaments which are kept in safe treasury due to its high &  historical value and  will be displayed only during this utsav.

Some other nearby places to visit includes – Tonnur Lake, Melukote Wildlife Sanctuary, Pandavapura, Srirangapatana, Mysore, Adi Chunchanagiri Matt