The native language...

It was 9.30 AM and the floor was yet to be full of mostly robotic and emotionless employees.

In one corner, there was a Bengali girl talking over the phone while constantly playing with her hair - "Haan baba! ami shotti bolchhi. Tumi chinta koro na. Mon thik achche". She was oblivious of her surrounding and cared little about the people around her. The warmth of speaking in her own language was palpable on her face.

Suddenly she saw her Manager coming towards her, and told the person on the other end hurriedly - "aami call korchhii. bye!"

The Manager seemed to be a reserved person who had a French cut beard, and his face adorned by golden rimless spectacles which only added to his sophistication. He explained something to the girl, while his phone ringed. He picked up the call.

"Hello! Babua? Ab kaisan tabiyat baa tahar? Aj fer bokhaar ta naa bhayil noo? Hamani ke bahut chintaa lagal rahela", it was the voice of an old man from the other side, probably his father.

"Baad me baat karta hoon", saying this he disconnected the call.

He quickly excused the girl, and looked around. There were few people on the floor gossiping with each other. Few others were busy in their work.

He swiped his access card, and came outside in the gallery. He once again looked around - there was no one nearby. Relieved, he re-dialed the number, and almost screamed - "Kya babu ji, aap bhi naa? Hum thik hain ab. Apko raat me call karte hain araam se. Pranaam!".

Saying this disconnected the call without even waiting for a response. He once again looked around whether anybody heard him talking like this. Even though he had not talked in "Bhojpuri", but he was afraid someone might make a fun about his accent in which he was talking.

He quickly swiped the access card and entered inside. He saw few more people coming inside and wondered whether they have heard him talking like this.

He glanced through his facebook newsfeeds and saw a red hot discussion on Bihar and Biharis. Soon, he was busy commenting there that how few Biharis are ashamed of their native language, and how they are responsible for putting Bihar and Biharis on a negative note. His anger was quite visible on Facebook.

People were in awe with the patriotism of the person for Bihar and Biharis...

Clean India - Reality Bites...

He took a sip from the cup of tea, and lit up the cigarette. The hands soon were constantly running over the smartphone keypad.

"As a responsible citizen of the Great Republic, I XYZ commit that I will not throw any garbage/ waste and will not spit on road, street or any other public place. I will throw them only in the dustbin"

He took a deep breath after writing this and sending it on whatsapp groups and updating the same as his Facebook status. He felt triumphant and determined that he has done something for his country. By the time his cigarette was over. He instantly threw the butt on the road and crushed it by his boots.

Right in front of him, a 13-14 year old teen, probably working in the nearby factory, threw a gutka pouch on road. He was visibly angry on the insensitivity of that person.

"How pathetic! Some people will never improve. Illiterate, uneducated bastards! There is a dustbin right in front of them. Still they will spill everything on streets only", he murmured and left.

The empty dustbin was still at its place, and the Gutka pouch was still lying on the road...

Arvind Kejriwal - The biggest fool of India

Some one says he is an ISI agent, some one says he is a Pakistani agent, some one says he is anarchist, while few allege that he is a B team of Congress. But, actually who the hell is this so called Kejriwal? From where the hell has he come, and Why is he interrupting our daily lives? We are all happy and comfortable the way our lives are. We have already accepted that the system can't change. We have already made our own way to either deal with bureaucrats, police, or any other situation; or leave it at God's mercy; saying nothing can be done for this system itself. We have our own comforts to wash our hands off, and blame everything on the system. Such a comfortable life - then why this drama of changing the system? IT HURTS.

He is also a common man like me, you and for that matter anyone else. The only difference being he has actually got a SPINE, the guts to stand against the laid norms and question it's existence, shout that this is NOT RIGHT. He does not blame the system at the comforts of tweeting or posting comments with tea in one hand and mobile/ laptop in another; and stops there. He stands against the system with a belief that if something is not right it should be changed, updated, upgraded. There is no point adjusting ourselves according to laws and rules laid out 60-70 years back. Whatever small steps required to change it, let is start from somewhere by someone.

Some people call him an escapist. An escapist is one who does not want to confront new roles/ situation at the cost of leaving his/ her comfort level. A person who left IRS to fight for RTI (which Rahul Gandhi proudly claims as his own brain child), who left the CM chair on moral grounds which no other politician would have done, it baffles me that how can he be an escapist. He was already in IRS, and had he wished he would have been there accumulating enough wealth as everyone else does. But he left it - for his personal benefits?

A person who has neither got a muscle power, nor enough money or resources, still shows that within 3 months a party can select 400+ good candidates across the country, and put the party on national arena directly competing with two parties there in the system since long. He is the One who does not believe in letting the spirit of himself go afraid by the propaganda of strong opposition by other politicians, as he knows that there will be even bigger obstacles put forward by those who were getting benefited till now. Any step taken by him to improve the system will be back step for these corrupt politicians, and a slap on their ego. Their retaliation is justified, and rightly so.

Still he believes in himself and want to improve the system - for the betterment of common people in India. He is a fool because he does not understand that we are living in a so called MODERN world, where a person has no time to look at anything else than his/ her personal gains, where a person has no time to actually go and donate blood but has all the free time to talk about a person dying from absence of blood in blood bank, where a person has no courage to even confront the rowdies openly molesting a girl but has all the courage to let off their frustration by thrashing a beggar or labour. Who is he fighting for - for himself? He could have lived a better life without these. Ohh, you said gambling for a powerful future for his own - then he must be the biggest gambler in the world who is keeping on stakes everything with a risk or being paid off in future. Well, he is doing it for the very same people whom I just defined above.

When the people have had enough of injustice, harassment and indignity, they no longer agree to play by the rules of the rulers, they make their own rules. Those who are jumping off the cliff to quickly tag Kejriwal for being a dictator, anarchist, disruptive, and dramatist are missing those who are not at all willing to accept a simple fact – THAT KEJRIWAL/ AAP WILL NOT PLAY BY THE SET RULES or LAID NORMS ANY MORE. THEY ARE HERE TO CREATE THEIR OWN.

The politicians in the country want him to be a good boy and take an easier and meek route to protest which they have seen people doing since years, and which never yields any results at all. Whenever a rape happens, whenever an injustice is done, we either protest through a candle light march, or at best share the incident with people. But we often forget that these steps will only focus on the incident, but never on the underlying issue/ cause. The root cause still lies undisturbed, because no one wants to get their hands dirty - all they want is their own houses clean.

The politicians want him to sit in an enclosed secretive area and be advised by his bureaucrats and lose all touch with ground reality. They have been doing this for years and are afraid that any path breaker will let people understand the secrets behind the closed doors, and awaken common man's intellect, which they don't want at all. They desperately want Kejriwal to be similar to them - VVIP security, arrogance, red lights, fleet of cars, sprawling bungalow, hundreds of chamchas and belchas, useless foreign tours and all. Kejriwal knows that if he or his party members fall for these, the very purpose of AAP will be lost. All these politicians have a hidden understanding with each other, wherein politicians do make noises but don’t act against each other, wherein corruption is so widespread in our day to day lives, but everyone want to close their eyes and trying to adjust to it, rather than changing it.

Kejriwal, however, is not all deterred by the smart leg pulling strategies of these politicians. He has a goal and he expects AAM ADMI for whom he is standing aginst the system to come and help him in the same. There are people who have left jobs and working for the party, there are people who are working day in and day out for AAP without getting paid for it. Are they fools or selfish, with a hope that party's fortune will change their fortune?

Again very few people have the spine to take that risk. These are the people who believe on their ethics and morals, and dream for a better corruption free India - India where your police is accountable to your complaints, India where cases are resolved swiftly, India where people don't feel embarrassed admitting their children to Government schools, India where Government hospitals should be considered the best in the town, India where a Government process should not include complex documents and hundreds of approvals, India where starting a firm is not difficult, India where all villages are accessible to roads and electricity, India where small scale industries are encouraged.

All said and done - to haunt everyone, One thing is certain - Kejriwal and his AAP is not going in the sunset soon. He, and his so called antics, are here to stay and haunt our rotten political system more and more. He is re-writing the rules of politics and governance. He is making the people aware about their rights. he is making mute spectators question the Government now. There are now only two options Kejriwal has left for the ruling class – change yourself, or the people will replace You. It's on us what we choose.

My ideal political system - Can we ever achieve this?

Before every elections, we are polarized. We either are frustrated by the inefficiency of the ruling party, or are in awe of the tall promises made by the opposition party. All what is gained in this process is by these politicians, and all what is lost in this process is of the very people for whom these politicians are fighting the elections.

It's been such a mundane and standardized process, that we have somehow accepted the current election system as a part and parcel of our lives. Any questions on it's validity and legality seems unconstitutional to us, and the person raising fingers seems an anarchist to us.

But are there any ways to revive this system? 

Who doesn't like fantasies. So do I. I have tried to lay out an ideal electoral process, which if implemented could become the most transparent and efficient one. But alas ! this is just a fantasy. Hope I wake up some day and it becomes a reality.

Constituency Level

1. There should be a team of eminent personalities (retired judges, IAS officers, social activists, thinkers) for every constituency, be it an assembly or a parliament; which could be chosen by people's votes within that constituency. Let's call them District Conveners for our convenience. This team should change after every Government term, and replaced with a new team. However, if a specific person is sought to be retained by the other members as well as the public within that constituency, he should be retained for next term as well. To remove corrupt practices, let this selected team be working completely voluntarily, with little/ no obligations for the efforts.

2. This team should gather the requirements of the constituency over the next 5 years, the expectations of people from their representative within that constituency, and list down such agenda. This could be both qualitative as well as quantitative, and could be anything such as 24 hour electricity, reviving the old park, improving the police response, constructing better road from A to B, 5 extra ticket counters in railway station, removal of alcohol factory from a certain location, improving public transport system etc.

3. The main role of the team of eminent personalities will be segregate the agenda, which comes under the purview of the MLA or MP, and associate a rough estimate of expected cost. This document should be the base of a people's manifesto from their constituency. Make this document live before elections, and let the candidates form their manifestos around the same, or by adding or subtracting items from this list. The candidates would also be expected to give a deadline, ways to complete the tasks, and difficulties associated with the tasks if any. They should be making their counter document live in open.

4. The people will be able to see the responses of the candidates, their own priorities of the agendas; and based on this as well as their own conscience should be in a much better position to decide the candidate they would like to vote for. The main role of campaign team for different parties will be to communicate their manifesto to the people who can't read and write. Opposition will also have the opportunity to struck cord if they feel the other candidate has lied about anything.

5. Once a MP/ MLA is elected, there should be a review for his/her work in every 6 months by the same team of eminent personalities from the constituency. At the start of 2nd year, a notice should go to the leaders, and the leaders should mention the progress of their promises covered in their manifesto - both qualitative as well as quantitative. They should also mention the spending of the budget/MP-MLA fund allocated to them so far, along with the balance sheet. This will give the people clear idea about how the funds are being utilized.

6. Any tour in India or abroad for public benefits, must be mentioned in this report - along with the report of the tour, the benefits people are going to get from it, whether it is as per manifesto - or something which is of less priority for the people, as well as how they are going to implement the learning and how soon. This will help them make accountable for any untoward tours.

7. People should have right to withdraw a candidate's candidature within a constituency, based on failure to live up to the promises made in manifesto. These representatives should be given 12 months to show improvement, and failing which, in the next review cycle, they should be removed. Till the time, there is no representative, these group of people could act as the representative (same like President's rule). Else, the Government can decide to have re-elections, if the people demand.

State Level

1. Similarly, these District Conveners at the constituency level, should nominate, vote and elect a team of "State Conveners" at a state level. 

2. This team should gather the requirements of the state over the next 5 years, the expectations of people from their CM and various ministers, and list down such agenda. This could be both qualitative as well as quantitative, and could be anything related to state welfare such as transparency in school admission process, reduction in crime rate, transparent and faster approval for new business setup (reduction from existing 45 days to 10-15 days), increased focus on agriculture (increase agriculture share to GDP by 5%) etc. The subsequent 

3. The main role of the team of eminent personalities will be segregate the agenda, which comes under the purview of the CM and various ministries. This document should be the base of a people's manifesto from their state. Make this document live before elections, and let the parties form their manifestos around the same, or by adding or subtracting items from this list. The parties would also be expected to give a deadline, ways to complete the tasks, and difficulties associated with the tasks if any. They should be making their counter document live in open.

4. The people will be able to see the responses of the parties, their own priorities of the agendas; and based on this as well as their own conscience should be in a much better position to decide the party they would like to see in the state. The main role of campaign team for different parties will be to communicate their manifesto to the people who can't read and write. Opposition will also have the opportunity to struck cord if they feel the other party is lying about what they have covered in their manifesto.

The similar process could be implemented for National level as well. 

Well the whole motive of this post is not just to achieve this fantasy or dream, but to think about the ways things could be reformed. Doesn't all of us want a change - the onus is on us, whether we want to follow laid norms; or lay out norms for others to follow later.