What First time voters were thinking

Kalyan : Education, employment, playgrounds and even 'love jihad' were some of the issues in the mind of youngsters who came out to vote for the first time.
Small in number, and not much enthusiastic, these first time voters were however optimistic that their vote will make the neccessary change happen. "It is untrue that all candidates here are corrupt. There are ones who do good work and need to be elected", said a young voter Vishal Kedar.
Education and employment opportunities was the foremost agenda for youngsters. They wanted more colleges and better educational infrastructure. "I want government to ensure that every girl child, every poor in villages gets proper education", said 19-year-old Urvi Anam.
Some of the youths bemoaned lack of open spaces and patronage to sports other than cricket. Ajay Valodar, 19, said he will vote the incumbent as he had taken efforts to beautify local playground.
Although, most of them were worried about the local issues, many of them were voting for a good government at state. A number of them have faith in Modi, whereas quite a few identify themselves with charismatic Raj Thackrey.
Due to the perception that youngsters usually don't care much about societal issues and seldom vote, they didn't find much space in the campaign rhetoric. The young people, on their part, did little to quell that perception.

Students provide aid to Kashmir Victims

Byculla : If you thought the young generation is individualistic, think again. Students of a city college collectively donated a huge sum of money and goods to the victims of Kashmir Floods, after a thorough survey of the affected areas.
Students and several staff members of MH Saboo Siddik College of Engineering in Byculla contributed around Rs. 2 lacs in addition to a couple of tonnes of neccessary goods during a relief campaign termed 'Mission Kashmir', in the last week of September. Subsequently, two of the college students - Saad Azimuddin and Murtaza Khandwawala - made the trip to Kashmir and distributed the relief in Pulwama district with the help of some NGOs and local administration.
"The response of students and staff members was overwhelming. The donated material included a large variety of freshly purchased clothes.We had cooperation of representatives from several college commitees," said Saad Azimuddin, who had initiated the drive alongwith Khandwawala.
For their collegemates to willingly part their money, the duo realised thay they must offer to go to Kashmir themselves instead of simply handing over the aid to some NGO. It would also ensure that relief reaches the deserving, they thought.
The trip turned out to be quite an eye-opener. According to Saad, "Despite the efforts of a number of NGOs, there isn't adequate aid available especially in the interior parts. The flood water is yet to recede in many areas. The complete collapse of State government and lack of any help from centre hasn't helped."
The duo reportedly surveyed Pulwama, one of the worst hit areas, with the help of local SP. And provided relief with items such as blanket, tea, haldi and mirchi powder, candles, soaps, oil, biscuits and some cash to three of its villages.

Eid Prayers in Kalyan

Maharashtra a 'Sick State' : Gadkari

Dombivli : Union Transport and Rural affairs minister Nitin Gadkari yesterday said that Maharashtra has become the sick state of India, despite all its wealth, intellect and manpower.
He alleged that corruption and nepotism of "Congress-NCP Virus" has plundered the state, as he raised the issues of load shedding, privatisation of education and economic slump.
"Today, the state is in the debt of Rs. 3,00,000 Cr. Industries are being closed in; traders are upset over LBT and unemployment is on rise", he said before a middle-class Dombivli crowd, mostly consisting of BJP workers at city's Bhgshala Maidan. Touting the various infrastructural work done during Shiv Sena-BJP government 15 years ago, he ridiculed CM Prithviraj Chouhan for not approving development projects swiftly.
Gadkari also accused Congress-NCP for creating rift between various castes and communities in Maharashtra. "The state has been destroyed by those who swear allegiance to Phule, Shahu and Ambedkar," he said.
He inaugrated a 'Vision Document' on the occassion along with the sitting MLA and BJP candidate from Dombivali Ravindra Chavan. The city is home to a sizeable Marathi Brahmin population and has traditionally been a BJP bastion.

Horror in 'Lifestyle' Home

Badlapur : A 34 year old man hung himself to death after killing his two daughters, apparently because of economic problems.
Pavan Kumar Verma was a resident of Lokmanya Nagar area of Thane. He is said to have poisoned his daughters Komal and Minal - aged 6 and 9 - respectively in his new flat at Poddar Evergreens in Chamtoli area of Badlapur.
"It seems Pavan was unable to make ends meet. He was unemployed since last 8 months. He had to pay EMI of Rs. 15,000 to a bank, in addition to Rs. 14,000 tution fees of the convent school where his daughters studied", said Assisitant Police Inspector Dhananjay Pore of Kulgaon Police station, who is investigating the matter.
The police is said to have found a suicide note written by Pavan which says that he doesn't hold anyone responsible for his death and he's taking his girls along.The autopsy reports of bodies have been sent for furtherchemical analysis.
The wife and the mother of deceased are too distressed to talk.

IITB to hold 'Smart City Challange' at TechFest

Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s ‘100 smart cities’ idea has found
takers at the Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay. The premium
engineering institute has announced a
‘Smart City Challenge’ in partnership
with various government bodies, as part
of its annual ‘TechFest’. A prize of Rs 5
lakh awaits for the best set of the ideas.
Realising that it takes more than
engineers to build smart cities, the
project has been divided into five
domains, viz. Infrastructure, Trade and
Commerce, Healthcare, Design and
Aesthetics and Policy Making. Entries are
being sought from the professionals and
students belonging to different fields of
expertise. A panel of experts will provide
assistance to the participants.
The competition is being conducted in
two phases, according to TechFest
manager Ayush Bandil. In first phase,
preliminary ideas were invited on
various urban issues. Subsequently,
multi-disciplinary teams will be formed
out of the best responses in order to
design 10 smart cities. TechFest has
recieved around 700 entries.
The initiative is said to have been taken
up with the vision of bringing together
technology, government and the student
fraternity to make the cities more
efficient, sustainable and liveable. “PM
Modi has spoken about the need of new
smart cities. ‘Smart City Challenge’ is
such an initiative to engage the youth of
the country in the development of their
city and prosperity of its citizens”, said
Aman Mantri of TechFest.
The project is being implemented in
collaboration with CIDCO, MMRDA and
Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor
Development Corporation. The prize
money is sponsored by National
Campaign for People’s Right to
Information.
as published in Free Press Journal, 21 September 2014

A Newspaper to Thinking Person

I read The Indian Express. The strongest point about it is its integrity. The paper is seldom influenced by special interests or government pressure. It has never modified its mast-head for advertisers or carried advertisements masquerading as news items. It lives by its commitment to the “Journalism of Courage”. In-depth and gutsy coverage of the emergency, killing of IES officer Satyendra Dubey and Gujrat riots bear witness to it.

            Politics remains the mainstay of Express; and that includes politics in sports, local power structures and political economy. In a sense, this is what the fundamental responsibility of newspapers and other media is: to make the common man acquainted with the happenings in corridors of power and make the powerful accountable. This relentless pursuit of relevant political stories often results in the paper reporting important news stories before anyone else.

However, one will be disappointed if he buys newspaper to read local news. City news is one of the weaker sections of Express. It doesn’t help average Joe that there are few reports about local events, weather and traffic. The paper also lacks health stories, event listings, children and women’s space, science and technological updates, social trends and other aspects which have become staple of newspapers nowadays.   

            In general, The Indian Express possesses a sense of proportion and doesn’t get swayed by hype generated by a century of centuries or an Oscar win. The paper leans right, as reflected in its editorials. So there exists some degree of unfair biasness when it comes to selection of news stories and setting of discourse. It would help if it does away with its Tavleen Singhs and Surjit Bhallas.

            There’s a general apathy towards rural affairs when it comes to English language media in our country. Express has never ceased to report grass root news stories. In fact, there are more stories on human rights, women empowerment and activism in Express than any other paper on a given day. Its “From the field” supplementary page of farm reports is unique.

             The ‘International’ page is a weak point of The Indian Express. For a major paper like Express, it has no permanent foreign correspondent, except Yubaraj Ghimire in Nepal. To compensate for that, Syndicated news reports are carried from news agencies. These stories usually reflect the priorities and viewpoints of the West; which is not desirable.

            The Indian Express is antithesis of sensationalism and trivia. It’s a newspaper to thinking person. Unlike many of its contemporaries, it doesn’t use titillating images or misleading headlines to sell its copies. Even its sports and culture pages are full of intelligent reporting, instead of bland noise. E. P. Unny’s daily cartoon is thought provoking, too.

            Express is one of the few papers which still have proper editorial and op-ed pages. It boasts of many excellent writers. Some of the articles remain too academic in nature, though. And often Mr. Shekhar Gupta occupies most of the space. Nevertheless, they remain the most readable pages of the paper.

A societal perspective on article 377

The debate on article 377 must be framed in terms of individual rights v/s societal well being. Take the example of drugs such as cocaine or marijuana. These items have been banned because they not only harm an individual’s health but also because their acceptance in society leads to overall decrease in productivity and efficiency, straining of social relations and surge in crime. In other words an individual may well be within his rights to indulge in drugs but he isn’t allowed to do so, for his action surely sets a trend which is detrimental for the society at large. Similar case can be made for homosexuality. Examples of instances of homosexuality in ancient South Asian literature notwithstanding, it’s the rapid urbanization, modernity and electronic media boom that has lead the spread and acceptance of homosexual relations. Otherwise we still abhor practices such as incest or bestiality (sex with animals), which are thankfully still illegal. For those of us who consider the traditional family system essential for proper uprising of children and a healthy society, legalization of homosexuality spells disaster. It means rise in sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, denial of balanced fatherly / motherly care for children and rupture of social fabric. In the West rapid sexual freedom has resulted in innumerous social problems such as ever increasing divorce rates, teenage pregnancies, single mothers, adultery, dysfunctional families and subsequent rise in crimes. There are things humanity has always kept sacrosanct. Let’s keep them that way for our own well being.

"Attack that wasn't" - My piece in 'The Companion' magazine

I’m sorry, you don’t have beggar knocking on your door!

Few months back, while distributing invites for a social gathering in my city of Kalyan, an odd feeling struck me as I made my way from one housing society to another gated colony. The compulsory ritual of entering your name in society register and residents feigning ignorance about their immediate neighbours was too much for me. I started feeling privileged to have grown up in a mohalla, or mohallas to be precise, because growing up in a mohalla means not remaining confined to just one. For the benefit of my friends living in big housing societies, modern gated colonies or high rises who have no idea whatsoever of a mohalla or life in a mohalla, I shall give a glimpse.

In our mohallas we are woken up in the morning by rhythmic sounds of pawwalas, machhiwalas, bhangarwalas and beggars. As we step out of our doors we see life full in action: from shopkeepers opening their shops too sweeper doing her job; from labours on their duties to schoolchildren on their way to schools. We find ourselves in the mid of all this churnings. It rejuvenates us and fills us with fresh energy. Now just compare it with the sleepiness of housing complexes… Dreary!

Take the case of neighbours. Mohallas can loosely be translated as neighbourhoods –implicating thatmohallas are perhaps the only place where you find real neighbours. Not the ones who don’t even know the names of the people living adjacent to their houses, as I encountered recently. To us neighbours are more than people living in the immediate vicinity; they are simultaneously our friends, kith and kin and trustful companions. Many of us have a habit of handing over keys of our homes to neighbours when we set out for a journey. Some families are so close to each other that you don’t even need permission to enter each other’s homes. There’s hardly anything about your life and relations that your neighbours don’t know –of course the traditional Indian nosiness also plays a role in it. But you never feel lonely here.

We make our first friends not in school but in mohalla. And they remain fast friends entire our lives. One of the biggest advantages of mohallas is that most of the houses are in chawls or low rises. This physical closeness translates into closeness of hearts. It gives us a better opportunity to socialize. I’ve sweet memories of playing cricket, beyblade, marbles, hide-and-seek and what not in gully-mohallas of Old Kalyan. We even cultivated rivalry of a sort with guys from other mohallas. Today, while those of you in high rises are glued to your computer screens chatting on facebook we gather in front yard of someone’s place or nukkad to indulge in more human form of conversation.

On the other hand the life in high rises is bereft with a kind of isolation. And much of it has to do with the attitude of its inhabitants themselves. Gated colonies are being projected as dream homes. Today residents of these housing complexes feel safer that their houses are well secured and no one can enter their societies without running into the watchman. No beggar, hawker or company salesman to ‘disturb’ them. They don’t need to go to the market outside. Their food requirements are catered by the shops inside their colonies. Residents themselves like to live a cocooned life. They go to work early in the morning and return late in the evening without bothering about their neighbours or neighbourhood. Even on weekends they prefer watching TV in their homes to socializing. This makes me sometimes wonder as to why media and intellectuals call lower middle-class Muslims as ghettoized? I mean I find these people from the upper echelons of society living in these modern gated colonies more ghettoized!

And look at its social cost: Your minimal socializing with the ones who live in your immediate neighbourhood doesn’t help in your evolution as a better human being. The one who doesn’t bother about those living near him can’t really be expected to have concern towards the entire society. Living in a mohalla, we could interact and empathies with people from all strata of society. In housing societies you are simply cut-off from the entire world. You lack ‘a human –humane interaction’ –to borrow Arundhati Roy’s phrase – with the less privileged of the society. You don’t have a beggar knocking on your doors so that you could appreciate poverty. The sounds of political rallies and other social churnings don’t reach you, making it unable for you to participate actively in public life. In ourmohallas it’s the neighbours who are first to respond and extend a helping hand in a situation of crisis. We find none of this sort happening in high rises. What we did find was, neighbours who were ignorant of a murder in their neighbourhood for a long time -until the stench arising from dead body grew too strong.

That’s why when I see high rises and modern housing societies being constructed in our mohallas it fills me with sadness. And I turn towards the virgin parts of city, full of chaos; but humanity too. The familiar sight of women haggling with hawkers and neighbours indulging in animated conversations lifts my spirits and I merrily ride through lanes and bylanes of the mohalla on my bicycle. It’s the air of mymohalla that I love!