Better Infrastructure Improves Public Behavior

Everyone behaves well when they are happy or at least when they are not in stress. And what makes us happy is, if everything going as desired or as planned. Better infrastructure does precisely that. It makes thing predictable. You can plan things based on the previous knowledge and it will play out as predicted.

I would like to mention one very peculiar thing which I observed while travelling in Delhi Metro. Even though there are seats reserved for women, elderly and differently abled person, people were happily giving up their unreserved seats when they saw some women or elderly person standing and no other seat were vacant. There was no demand, no grumbling, seats were being offered happily. For someone who is used to travel on Non-AC buses on bumpy roads, that was a rare sight of generosity. And what made it atypical was the label that Delhi junta carries of being insensitive and rude. Even people were apologizing when they were colliding with someone or unknowingly stepping on someone's feet. The sight gave the beautiful picture of cultured and civilized society who are trained to live together. And don't mistake the crowd to be of prosperous and privileged, there was sufficient economic heterogeneity thanks to the low fare of metro.

Then I got down the train and came out of the station. The temperature outside was close to 38-40 degree Celsius, heavy pollution clouding the atmosphere, and here I experienced the stereotyped Delhi. A motorbike guy fighting with the auto driver accusing him of brushing passed him.  A rickshaw wala guy shouting at a female pedestrian "Oye madam dekh ke chalo" and she was also shouting back.  The beautiful picture of civilisation from inside the metro started getting blurred in the polluted, dusty outside.

So one thing was pretty clear, It was not the people who changed from the metro, it was the environment which changed. The timely running metro, with decent cool air inside and perfect cleaning around made people behave nicely in contrast to the outside where roads were dusty, temperature was high, footpath was hogged by shops, motorbikes, autos running without following traffic rules, people spitting here and there.

So creating better infrastructure and civil amenities will improve people's behavior more than any moral science lesson taught in school or imposed rules to behave properly.

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Cinema and Society

Literature is the mirror of society. Well that can very well be extended to cinema as well. And in fact in modern time the latter make more sense going by the sheer volume of audience cinema attracts than a book. Cinema reflects our society back at us. Though sometime we are unable to sense it as there is so much disparity in society itself. A virtually westernised urban audience fails to see it's reflection in movies with rural settings, An urban migrant labourer or rural population cannot be expected to relate with movies based on upper middle class life. And senior citizens do not fully appreciate the new generation films. Cinema shows us what we think, what we want, and what we want to be. It shows us how different sections of population have different set of problems and how they tackle it, and without cinema it seems unimaginable how we could have got chance to observe such diverse lifestyle unless we are adventurer and ardent traveller.

A generation's cinema can be as good as the society is. The term "good" here is relative. We like some films we dislike some other. We like films and consider them good which we can relate with our life or at least are aware that something like this might happen or if it resonates with our fantasy. We dislike films or consider them bad which we fail to see any relation with our life or which is completely out of sync with our wildest imagination. But there is one thing that resonate with all of us, in no matter what kind of film it is, and that is "heroism". The good guy protagonist character around which the whole movie revolves. We relate to this character, we love this character and more often than not we try to imitate the character.

Cinema heroism has profound impact on the society's behaviour, and in that sense it is not just a mirror but torchbearer and guide too. It's not that it only impacts the impressionable mind of adolescent but it has it's significant imprint on the adult's behaviour too. And that makes the task of film maker all the more difficult in ensuring proper portrayal of the "hero" character. But Indian film makers have not given enough care in the carving out character of "hero" figure that it actually deserves. In bid to show the machoism that is associates with "hero" in almost all the movies of recent times or even old time we have witnessed the character flaunting all the norms of civil society and with no legal consequence.  This is bad at so many levels.

An honest and no nonsense police officer beating bad guys in the street and then locking them up and torturing them in jail cell and sometime even killing them is a recurring feature in our movies and is also widely appreciated by the audience. But this is illegal. Police do not have mandate to beat people. A good police officer would be the one who arrests the criminal and produce that criminal in court within 24 hour without even slapping him.

A guy in one sided love with a girl constantly stalking her and following her openly in the street is considered cute and romantic. But guess what stalking is criminal offence and that "hero" guy should be put in jail not appreciated for his indomitable spirit.  Is it too difficult to figure out where these road side romeo in real life derives their creativity from?

All the extra legal steps that hero character takes during movies to take vengeance for the atrocities which he has faced in the beginning of movie are all applauded and becomes the source of inspiration for society. This makes the task of implementing rule of law all the more difficult and dream of establishment of legally and morally upright society far fetched.

 Film censor board will do more good to the society if it will start censoring adulated extralegal features of the films than what it is currently busy in doing, cutting "inappropriate" love scenes and "abusive" language.

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Cheating in Bihar Board Exam

Saw this picture of cheating in Bihar board secondary school exam on twitter on 19th march. When I first saw it I thought someone is cracking joke on Bangladeshi cricket fans watching IND Vs BAN world cup quarterfinal match. Had I not been from Bihar this picture would have seemed to me as unbelievable as the picture of some crowded trains covered completely with people or awfully long traffic jams. But this picture did not surprise me because I have seen this happening all around me since I was a kid, the only thing that has changed is the height of the building and use of rope.  This picture demonstrate not only the minuscule version of citizen's lawlessness attitude who are ready to subvert any institutional norms, which is rampant in Bihar but also it demonstrate the grim picture of administrative failure, shortsighted political discourse which has followed in the state for years.

With Sarv Siksha Abhiyan and other educational initiatives the social mindset has changed in positive direction which value education, literacy, including girl education. Giving free cycles to girl students to ease their commute, giving them free uniforms and money to buy books have actually increased the number of girl student enrollment in primary and secondary schools. And the most encouraging change is the superiority a higher degree holder enjoys in society. 10th pass will have more affluence than a 8th pass, a degree holder will garner more respect than just 12th pass and so on. Even in marriage the same preference is followed. Now the question is how come such a positive change in society is leading us to such an image which is being circulated and tarnishing the image of already infamous state.

As the pressure to attain higher and higher degree mounted, people rode their free bicycle, wearing their free uniform with free books in their bags started going school only to be greeted with free mid day meal.

The condition of teachers in government schools or private schools which are affiliated with state board is absolute pathetic. I have not met any parent serious about their children schooling sending them to state board affiliated schools if they can afford English medium CBSE school.  and even if they do send them to such schools they also make them take multiple additional coaching. Now those who cannot afford even that what choice do they have? Society cares for result not for the way you took to get it.

People are suggesting open book exam to curb this cheating practice. I don't understand why? People are not cheating because they can't remember stuff, they are cheating because they have not been taught. What difference does it make if you will give them book in the exam, why not just scrap the exam all together if you want to stop the cheating in exam. Open book exam is the best methodology when you want to test the analytic skill of examinee and not just rote learning. But analytic skill will develop if  there is someone in school to explain the book properly.

One of the reason for the poor state of Bihar is this also, ignorant people. Even though literacy rate is going up but people are lacking adequate substantive knowledge and still have feudal mindset. Girls are passing exams but are unaware about their rights and are subjected to all patriarchal norms.

So dear chief minister stop appealing to parents to stop this nonsense and please rise above the vote bank politics and take some tough decision on the state of schools and college in Bihar and teachers in them.

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Attacks On Church and Ghar Wapsi

In past 6-8 months we have been hearing lots of news, sometime of attacks on church, christian missionaries, noble christian personalities, sometime of religious re-conversion popularly known as 'ghar wapsi'.  Motive seems to be the one, to assert majority power to correct the past injustice that had been done. For long we have been taken for ride now we are at the driver's seat and will take others to the destination of our suit and route we prefer. Nothing seems to be the flaw in the logic. But is the way in which it is being carried out is justifiable. No, certainly not in a pluralistic society like India which is proud to declare herself a secular state.

Now lets dig deep into these issues. The program where other religion followers were converted into Hinduism is named 'ghar wapsi' which means to bring home someone who went away. Is it not just and right thing to bring someone back home? Yes absolutely it is. Then why so much hue and cry? is it media creation?, or is it the manner and message with which it is being done?

To some extent it is a media hype and it's very nature to sensationalize and cash in on people's paranoia. but to put all the blame on media will not mere be injustice to the media but also trivialize this important issue. Why is there need for re-conversion? because  they converted in the first place. why did they convert? Some converted because they liked the religion they were adopting or at least were feeling safe in doing so, or they disliked their 'original' religion.

History suggests and there is no denying that since medieval time people are either coerced to convert or incentivized to convert or made feel inferior in their 'original' religion. But there is enough evidence of people converting because they just did not like the ills of their original religion, they did not like the methodology, they felt sidelined, neglected, ostracized  from their own 'ghar'. So they went away.

Now 'Ghar Wapsi' can be done in two way either clean up your own practices, make the people who are still with you, in your 'ghar' feel welcome and included and make it enviable. or start burning and vandalizing others 'ghar' to force them to come in your 'ghar'. The unfortunate thing is going the latter's way is more convenient and easy and it's no surprise that it is being pursued. 

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Do Result Justify Means?

Should we accept that everything we did was great, if the outcome was a resounding success? Should we not learn from our successes too, as we are told to learn from our failures?

There is always a luck (uncertainty) factor in every success and once may be your compromises got overcompensated by luck factor, but you cannot always bank upon that. for example you didn't prepare one chapter but still you topped the exam because no question came from that chapter, that doesn't mean you should have not read all chapters and you can always top, leaving something behind.
No success is absolute, life is a race and you will always have bigger competition to participate in and always bigger goals to achieve.

I think that the biggest mistake that one can make is to assume that everything they did to succeed was good, or even worse if they believe that the compromises they made to succeed are justified after success.

So No, result do not always justify all means taken to achieve this.

When they say don't let the victory get to your head, I guess this is what they mean.

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AAP Sweep

The victory, that Aam Aadmi Party registered could not have been more emphatic in demonstrating that honest and selfless work for people ultimately pays off. 10th Feb was a great day, and I hope it becomes and remains a memorable day for decades to come. Let it be the start of change in politics of the country, which will be more aligned towards the aspirations of people.  Let it be the sunrise of the day which will bring a new hope, where people strive to become honest and are praised and encouraged to be one. Let it be start of an era where politicians do not take people for granted who can be swayed by inciting passion of belongings. Societal change is an evolutionary process and let this landslide victory be counted as an important milestone.

Some news papers captures of this triumph. Daily many news paper comes to my office and I took the front page pic of this news and sharing here.

The Hindu

The Hindu Editorial

Deccan Herald

Deccan Chronicale

Indian Express

Rajasthan Patrika

Dakshin Bharat Rashtramat

The Economic Times

This is a progressive mandate and it has restored my faith in people's judgement. Nothing less than this would have sufficed. Delhi you are awesome. 

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