The tale of two cities….

The difference between Bangalore 

and Kolkata

A few days back i met a person who is Bengali by origin but had gone to Bangalore to work for a software company ten years back and now is settled in Bangalore for good.Almost the whole of his immediate family lives in Kolkata but he does not want to return back.He says he’s fallen in love with Bangalore so much that he can’t leave it now.On the other side of the spectrum,I regularly come across people from other states who are forced to stay in Kolkata due to work and are looking forward to going back to their home state as soon as their situation permits.(there are exceptions like people from UP,bihar,jharkhand and north-east but that’s understandable for obvious reasons).These people  i meet absolutely loath staying in Kolkata and have a thousand complaints about the city and state…food,politics,red tape,infrastructure,locals,etc..I too in some way belong to that group.This contrasting experience prompted me to write this piece.Why are there such extreme feelings regarding the two cities? I’ll try to explore in the next few paragraphs what contributes to this phenomenon….

I’ll start closer to home with Bangalore.I spent all of my childhood and did all my schooling in Bangalore up until i joined medical college.I have wonderful memories of my childhood in Bangalore as childhood memories ought to be.I went to one of the best schools,got a wonderful set of teachers to teach me and had an incredible city to enjoy my school days.For me Bangalore was the best place on earth for the simple reason that i didn’t know any other place.It all changed once i went to Mysore to pursue my M.B.B.S.;I got the opportunity to observe Bangalore from a different perspective since so many of my classmates were from different parts of the state and country and belonging to different backgrounds.I observed that people from outside Bangalore disliked Bangaloreans generally.The reasons were many.Bangaloreans tended to be the spotlight of the class and leadership roles were taken by them naturally.They generally tended to have an air of superiority about them.Add to the fact that we Bangaloreans have an affinity for speaking good English also used to get their goat.This was inevitable as we came from places of better facilities and greater exposure to the outside world.Initially i was shocked by the hostility of the others in my class but gradually they saw the foolishness of their grouse and we eventually mixed well.But my point is Bangalore has separated from the state of Karnataka in pure cultural terms though not physically or politically.

I was one of the people who celebrated with the rest when Bangalore was fast becoming the IT capital of India.But i didn’t realize the effect it would have on my  beloved Bangalore i left behind in 2002 when i went to Mysore for further studies.Of course i used to regularly go home every few weeks.But i saw first hand how Bangalore went from good to horrible within the span of 6yrs i was in Mysore.It came to a point when i failed to recognise the city i was brought up in.The whole city had changed.Some said it did for the good since so much infrastructure came into being.The congress govt earlier had invested in a lot of flyovers,roads and tax reforms for IT companies to open shop in Bangalore.They said it was all good.People in Bangalore had more money in their hands,better standard of living and more happy as a result.Huge shopping malls cropped up in every street,exotic hotels started popping up,all the latest cars started zooming around the city,in short everything was looking so hunky dory at that time.Even i believed the half truths at the time.But in time i realised that all that infrastructure could not keep pace with how fast the city was growing.Roads got worse,public transport was a nightmare,the land prices and cost of living shot up and inevitably Bangalore could not promise a great life to everybody.The unstable governments of Devegowda, Kumarswamy and Yedurappa only added to people’s woes.There was a nearly non-existent  public transport to contend with;people had money so every house had two cars and two motorcycles.That in turn resulted in more traffic problems and the vicious cycle continued.Sometimes when i got to Bangalore it was difficult to believe i was still in Karnataka as almost every corner of India was represented in the city.This cosmopolitan nature of the city is not something i hold against Bangalore.I’m proud that we have always let people from other places come to our city and make it their home without even a hint of resentment.That i believe is a credit to the open mindedness of the city’s people.But what I'm hurt to note is that we haven’t preserved our culture.We kannadigas don’t seem to have pride in our language and traditions.Increasingly even local people are speaking to each other in english and hindi rather than kannada.People in Bangalore somehow feel ashamed to speak publicly in kannada.There are people living in Bangalore for nearly 25 yrs and still don’t know to speak in kannada.Our food,lifestyles,weddings and festivals are conforming to north indian sensibilities.That for me is a failure on our part to preserve the most precious asset of the city:it’s culture.Recently when i saw MLAs in Karnataka legislature creating ruckus inside the Vidhan Sabha with one MLA even tearing away his shirt to expose his bare chest I wondered how civilised we can call ourselves.We are slowly resembling the legislatures of Bihar and UP.This was just waiting to happen.With so much money coming into Bangalore we have let go of decency and courtesy,the bulwark of Kannadiga tradition.The average auto-driver in Bangalore speaks so rudely to the passengers that he would have you believe that he’s doing you a favour and auto-rickshaws are costliest form of transport in Bangalore beating even the airlines.Today your regular Bangalorean  when he takes his family out he sometimes can’t afford both the cinema tickets and the restaurant food on the same day.Forget everybody else even i don’t have the courage to go out when i am in Bangalore.This is the Bangalore that the Bengali I spoke about earlier has fallen in love with for it’s almost indistinguishable from New York,London,Paris or Tokyo other than the people living there.I don’t so much like this version of Bangalore.

Now coming to Kolkata where I’ve been staying since a little more than a year.When I first came to Kolkata last year to pursue my MS i was surprised and i admit even i was a little annoyed when people here refused to speak to me in Hindi or English despite them knowing the language.They expected me to learn their language to converse with them.This included my colleagues,seniors and faculty of my institute.I was forced to learn the language which I did in good time due to interaction with my patients and picking cues from the Bengali banter that went on in my hospital.I was not very impressed due to their refusal to consider my language handicap but i slowly realized that all this stemmed from a deep love for their language and culture which isn’t present in Bangalore.I even started admiring their passion towards their language,state and city.

If there is any advertisement needed for Kolkata culture you needn’t look beyond the Durga Pujo.This annual festival is celebrated with such fervour that it’s highly infective.Here I digress a little bit to describe the pujo.During the 5 day festival the people from the whole of Kolkata and surrounding areas are on the streets.They go around watching the endless stream of pandals on offer.There are usually nearly 2500 official pandals or 10,000 if you count even the smaller ones.Here you are exposed to amazing human creativity.The kind of effort that goes into designing each and every pandal is impossible to believe.You find it hard to believe sometimes that all these structures are temporary structures which will be present only for a week.It’s hard to express it in words what i experienced during the durga pujo for the last two years.The whole city is lit up and converted into one huge art gallery.You can call it the world’s largest art gallery as a matter of fact.I absolutely loved the experience.i tried to capture the festive spirit in camera but failed to give complete justice to my endeavour.

Coming back to the original theme of my treatise i want to say that Kannadigas have something to learn from Bengalis.They say Kolkata is a dying city but they have managed to preserve their identity and are not ashamed to display it.Whether it comes to language,traditions,food,weddings or festivals they have never tried to modify their culture the way we kannadigas have done.True the politics in Kolkata sucks.They have two  political parties who spend all their time putting the blame on each other while they have let the city and state rot in poverty, low infrastructure,union problems and counterproductive socialist policies.Communism has long lost it charm and is outdated.This philosophy has impeded industrial growth in the state.They have several bandhs throughout the year for frivolous reasons.Their food is typically without variety and don’t offer consolations to people having other tastes.The main city still is replete with buildings belonging to the 19th century and pre-independence era.Roads and traffic are probably as bad in Bangalore.Their saving grace is the underground metro which though the best  form of transport in the city is bursting in the seams these days.Add to that the barmy weather,red tape and old practices ,you have a lot to complain about.In more ways than one Bangalore is a much better place to live in for a person earning a decent salary.But my point is Kolkata is distinct by it’s uniqueness and they celebrate it with impunity.People here are less ambitious than their counterparts in the south of India but people here are happy living their lives in sync with Bengali ethos.This is something that you can’t hold against Kolkata.It’s truly a city of joy for them and what more could one want than that!

So in conclusion i would like to say that though Bangalore has been such a friendly place for all and sundry it fails to retain the regional flavour that Kolkata still permeates of.Bangalore is thus paying the price for it’s cosmopolitan nature which may not be bad in real terms but I’ve lost a Bangalore I really loved.

 

23rd October,2010                           Raghuraj S. Hegde

Mysore, the foodie paradise

It’s been more than 2 yrs since I've left Mysore but I still feel like going back again and again.Apart from the beautiful city it is, it’s also home to quite a few unique food experiences which is possibly not available anywhere else in this world.I miss it a lot when I'm in Kolkata where I'm deprived of such gastronomic pleasures.Here’s a list of such uniqueness of food in Mysore.Feel free to add to this list if you feel so.

1. Masala and set dosas from Mylari.
2. Chicken Biryani from RRR and mysore sport’s club
3. Vegetarian meals again from RRR
4. Kachoris from Danavantari road.
5. Meals at Tegu mess in K D road
6. Alu and Gobi parathas from Bhattacharjee’s
7. Ghee rice from Vaibhav
8. Chicken stronganoff in red wine sauce in Planet X
9. Midnight Chai in R M C circle
10. Vanilla ice cream and chocobar in front of Joy Ice cream factory…yeah you might say Joy icecreams are available in other places too but vanilla ice cream never tasted that good any where else.
11. Fruit Juices and Egg-ma-puffs at Ami’s Bakery in Bannimantap
12. Cheese bionic burgers from Downtown, K.D. Road
13. Gobi manchurian from Gokul chats,Gokulam
14. Sizzlers at Jewel Rock
15. Chinese food at Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

its not an exhaustive list.just whatever came right on top of my head…I'm sure there are many more incredible things i failed to mention about food in Mysore

Patriotism,poverty and independence

The day before yesterday I was watching a movie called Peepli [live].It’s a dark comedy/satire on the farmer suicides,media circus and politicians in a backdrop of rural India.I couldn’t help think to myself that now we consider the poverty in our  country as a selling point to the west.We showcase to the west how poor our country is and how we need their money.Today we celebrate 63 yrs of independence and ironically we have more people living below the poverty line than 63yrs ago.Yes there has been an almost 4 fold increase in population from the 300 million then which would account for that increased no.But my point is what does independence mean to those 300-400 million who are below poverty line and have a  pathetic life to look forward to everyday.I doubt they even know that  we have gained independence because that knowledge does not feed them or their children.Why would these people even be patriotic towards a state which has shown just pure indifference for so many years.

At the other end of the spectrum we have the political class, bureaucrats, government officials and huge businessmen.These are people with unlimited incomes at their disposal and yet chose not invest it for their country at some level.The Commonwealth games fiasco does not come as a surprise to anybody.That for me is the worrying factor.The fact that we take corruption so granted that we are hardly overwhelmed  even when such a magnitude of money is being swindled from the the taxpayer’s (read our) pocket goes to show how deep rooted corruption is in our country.The costliest Commonwealth games ever which was initially pegged at Rs.655 crores in 2003 which considering inflation and further works should have cost a little more than Rs.2,500 crores on the upside has ended up at more than Rs.11,000 crores and yet we get to host the worst Commonwealth games ever.Come October and we will all hang our heads in shame not only at our dismal medal tally but also for the substandard training and event facilities.Really when you consider that Rs.11k crores have been wasted out of which 60-70pc have gone into the pockets of private parties ,with nearly 300 million Indians living below poverty line and probably more than 600million who are really poor could we afford such an extravagance and in hindsight where has it got us today other than being the laughing stock for the whole world.Couldn't we have used that much money for improving our country instead of showcasing us as a corrupt poverty stricken country that this commonwealth games is going to do.It is strange that we don't have the excitement that South Africa had during the football world cup or what China had during the Beijing Olympics.We really do not feel any sense of association with the Commonwealth games being hosted in our country.And the people responsible are our political and bureaucratic class.I sometimes wonder how they sleep at night without all these things affecting their mindsets.

Our sports culture is so awful that we have the lowest Olympic medal to population ratio.When a country like Uruguay with a total population of 3.4 million people can produce a football team which can reach the semi-final of the world cup while we don’t even have a half decent team which can even be among the top 100 there should be something worrisome.Our Hockey team did not even qualify for the 2008 Olympics and are in doubt for qualifying for the 2012 event and Hockey is supposed to be our national sport.Cricket is the only place where we have some respectability but who knows about cricket other than the commonwealth nations? who is responsible? the Athletes? these people who have staked their entire careers on an unsympathetic country who don’t even value their sporting heroes or the didactic sport officials running the sport because they have interest in it though no qualifications for it and intend to make profits from these?

We spend 10-12% of our annual budget for defence purposes to buy arms and bombs which may never be used.Yet the government spends less than 1 percent of the annual budget on health care.We spend less than 5 percent of our GDP on health and 80pc comes from the private sector.This figure is the lowest in southeast Asia.Even a country like Sri Lanka spends 16pc and Malaysia 32pc.Who is to explain such huge deficits?

Why is the Maoist problem reaching a head these days?The answer lies in the unequal distribution of wealth.When a poor farmer has nothing to eat,to survive and save his family he would be extremely willing to take up arms against his own country because for a hungry farmer patriotism has little value.When we see that more people are poor than rich we should be thankful that the Maoists are not ruling us already.This is how complex the naxalite problem is.

This brings me back to the movie i mentioned earlier where the protagonist Natha is a helpless man in this system.No matter how many programmes or the incredible amount of money being spent for the the poor in the country not a single rupee reaches the poor man like Natha.when the people with the highest power in the country(read politicians and bureaucrats) chose not to do anything what else is there to say.These are the issues that needs to be addressed first before I would be proud to call myself an Indian.Till then Independence day means little to most of the country and this day serves only to let the elite among us to wax eloquent about our achievements over so many years and discover some annual fake patriotism.Yes its true we have achieved a lot but if we willed we could have achieved a lot more.

 

15th August,2010                   Raghuraj S. Hegde

The pound of flesh

The Israelis drop bombs on Palestinians and the Palestinians return the favour.Americans did the same after 9/11 and did a lot more after that.Everywhere that feeling of revenge is utmost on everybody’s minds.This poem is inspired by that very emotion in war…

Retribution

You kill my man today.

I’ll kill yours tomorrow.

In these wars of retaliation and retribution.

How long before we lose count whose turn it is?

I have killed many in my lifetime,

So i know there is more than one kind of death.

The more I kill the more dead I feel.

Yet I obtain no sense of closure.

The enemy’s death is a momentary escape.

It couldn’t make a better person out of me.

But how strange that i didn’t realise the futility of it all.

Till I pulled the trigger!!

My enemy is somebody’s son, husband or father.

How so similar to me.

It just remains a matter of reference.

As to who is on the wrong side of humanity.

I sin and sin again and every time

I do it knowing that I have and am.

I remember so much that I have done.

Yet I have learned nothing at all.

The long gone memories keep notice.

All the bloody wars that we seldom forget.

The skies that are a darker colour of blood.

Our lifetimes fall short to wash them away.

24th July,2010        

                              Raghuraj S. Hegde

Laughter cures all ills

Laughter is one of the best expressions of human spontaneity and laughing indeed makes the world more liveable.We should learn to laugh at our life,at ourselves and even laugh for no reason at all…..

   Laughter

Laughter brings those joys in you,
Also seeks the mirth in others.
The day goes a better way,
When it begins or ends in laughter.

Never let those smiles forget,
That laughter's just lurking close.
Never let your faces dry,
For laughter needs a fertile place.

Laughter lost a day before.
Laughter lost a day beyond.
For laughter has but a moment's value,
You have it now or don't at all.

11th July, 2010              Raghuraj S. Hegde

The Times of Kolkata

There are lot of things on my mind these days but I don’t find the time to get it down in words.Blame the busy schedules of my resident duties I could say but maybe not.Whatever the reasons this holiday weekend offers me a little time to reflect on the happenings of my little world and the somewhat bigger world outside mine.
   Professionally I'm going great guns in my career and I couldn’t be more happy with it.My cataract surgery count crossed 50 last week.A significant number especially since I'm yet to finish my first year of my residency and I'm already operating with a good amount of skill.I’m doing small incision suture-less cataract surgery and more importantly my cases are truly turning out to be suture-less since the last 25 cases.Adding to that fact my skill has considerably improved (even though I say so myself) since I'd taken my hesitant first steps towards ophthalmic surgery.This applies not only to cataract surgery but also to other surgeries.

Technorati Tags: my 53rd cataract surgery post op

These days ophthalmology has gone beyond the bread and butter cataract surgeries.The newest and most exciting branch among them has been oculoplasty  which I’m getting more interested by the day.I’m improving my skills in eyelid surgery,lacrimal surgery,evisceration,enucleation and implant prosthesis which i feel is not getting the attention it deserves.In government set ups like the one i work in when an eye is impossible to save we often times resort to destructive surgeries to remove the eye to save the patient from a systemic infection,cancer,brain spread,to save the other eye or sometimes even to relieve the inexplicable pain that patients experience in Endophthalmitis and Panophthalmitis.But we and i also include doctors do not think of the social stigma of the patient who loses an eye.Not only does the patient see with one eye less but also faces a social stigma of being known as a one eyed man.Shouldn’t we think of cosmetically rehabilitating such a patient with an artificial eye.This is where Oculoplasty has a great role.It is a fact of course that cosmetic rehabilitation costs a great deal and there are people suffering from even worse diseases of the eyes for which more funds need to be channelled.Cosmetic rehabilitation and counselling has less cost benefit in a country like India where people are dying and suffering from TB,cholera,syphilis,oral cancer etc.It is unrealistic to demand a lions share of health funding for such a cause like cosmetic rehabilitation of a one eyed man when there are so many people who are legless and handless for whom their limbs mean a source of livelihood.People in some parts of India can’t even afford to come and get done a cataract surgery done on themselves in free eye surgery camps so its unrealistic to expect more.But we need to spare a thought for the small child who loses his/her eye at 3-4 yrs of age to a dangerous disease like Retinoblastoma or Rhabdomyosarcoma.If we do not put a good implant during removal of the eye then the child will live the rest of his life as a handicapped person.This is also one of the reasons oculoplasty continues to interest me.
On a personal note, as the Kolkata’s summer temperature is reaching unbearable 40s the food is turning out to be as intolerable as the summer heat.The winter vegetables have given way to potatoes and more potatoes.Everyday I'm getting sicker eating potatoes and won’t be worse without it.I know potatoes are cheap here but that doesn't mean that every dish should contain it.Even grass is cheap but do we eat it? But Bengalis love their potatoes and will not stop at my insistence.
It’s been nearly 6 months since I've gone home to Bangalore and i’m getting homesick.But more than homesickness there is a sense of loneliness during my residency days like I have never experienced before during my student life.I lived in Mysore for 6 years during my undergraduate days but never for one day I felt lonely in the hustle bustle of hostel life.There was always something to do,someone to talk to and hang out with.But now since I've started my residency everyday after work is spent in relaxing so that we can work properly the next day.It’s not to say that I’m over-worked but the fun element in our lives as Residents has reduced.This feeling is not restricted to myself but also my close friends have admitted to feeling thus.In our post-graduate life we have less time for ourselves,more responsibility and more worries.This in turn results in lesser effort from us to extend our friendships like we used to in our undergraduate days.The fun we used to have in hostel and the activities I used to indulge in during my hostel days have come to a standstill since the last two years.It doesn’t help that I do not have any relations in or near Kolkata and none of my close friends are nearby too.It is at this point that I value the friendships that i had in my college life.Friends who would readily stand up for you at any given situation, friends who shared common interests,tastes and recreational activities with you,friends with whom you could trust to share your most deepest fears and troubles with and I also miss all the extreme pranks and leg-pulling we used to indulge in during our hostel life.I end up the most lonely during weekends in stark contrast to my UG days when weekends meant parties,excursions and fun.There is this sense of void that I'm unable to fill.Probably I'm overreacting and actually its not that bad.It’s really a transition phase from our college life to the real world.We need to move on in our lives.In fact there is a lot of positive things in our lives now than it used to be.We are doing our post-graduate degree,earning our own bread,having economic independence and we have an exciting career ahead of us now that we have refined our calling.So it’s imperative that we should lose the nostalgia or rather a hangover of our college lives.This in effect is an education of a different kind.It will test friendships as to whether it can stand the long distance bonds.I have reason to believe that it will as i think I've been luckier than most people to have been blessed with really great friends.This transition period will also test the family as to whether they will support their boy who has become a man.Last but not the least it will test myself whether I'm ready to be the Man from the fun loving boy I used to be.
  Well there there!!! My heavy lines never desert me.I'm probably more dramatic than I care to admit myself to be.On the face of it I'm not really as unhappy as I sound in the above lines.I do enjoy the small pleasures of life but yes the small pleasures are getting smaller by the day.But again being the eternal optimist that i have become on the proper balance of things I would still say I’m more happy than sad.So maybe its just homesickness and a trip home will cure all ills.until my next blog.Aloha!

Superior education Vs Belittling Quotas

It’s all over the news these days….The women’s quota bill.There’s so much ruckus and so much infighting among parties.But i fail to see the whole point of it.The whole country is suffering from a 20% food inflation rate, 300 million people are below the poverty line and only about 60% of the population is barely literate out which only  a minority is truly educated.These are the figures the parliament should work on improving rather than the present 33% or OBC,SC/ST,Muslim quotas and the innumerable other quotas.In today’s newspaper editorial it said “Quotas perpetuate inequalities rather than alleviate it".” I couldn’t agree more.its sad that all politicians do is play vote bank politics to the hilt.Every politician and i haven't seen an exception, believes that he needs to lobby for a quota for the community that he or she represents so that come next election he or she can boast about it in the manifesto.But why don’t these politicians ever work towards a situation where the community they represent don’t require a regressive quota to make them come up the social ladder. Wouldn’t that be an excellent thing to boast about in the next election.
         The quota mentality aside,they say this bill will empower women.But again their argument falls flat.First you have to face the fact that India still is a patriarchal society so no matter which women are elected,the men behind the women are going to call the shots. Secondly to win an election in this country you more often than not need a political lineage.So the women getting elected will be daughters, daughters-in-law,nieces,etc of present politicians.so how will the political will change towards women.
It is no secret that women in our country are treated shabbily especially in rural areas.Everyday some story somewhere reeks of women mistreatment.Whether it is female infanticide,child trafficking,child marriage,prostitution,domestic violence,dowry harassment,rapes,sexual harassment or plain unequal treatment.Women need to do any given work twice as good as a man to get half the credit.But as women keep proving this isn't too tough.Even today men have trouble taking orders from a woman who is is higher up the ladder than them.Women are the beautiful half of humanity and yet we accord them so little respect.
But times are changing but painfully slowly.Education is partly doing the trick.And by education i don't mean knowing to read and write with understanding which is what essentially what literacy means and to the majority of the country this is what education means.To read or write is not enough.Education means understanding what is beautiful in life.To see that no matter which colour,race,caste,gender,religion you belong to you are not superior or inferior to anybody else.To give you the vision to create dreams and the courage to see them come true.That is essentially what education really means.But sadly if you see the state of government primary and secondary schools even  in big cities like Bangalore,Kolkata,Mumbai,etc you get the idea how far behind we are in educating the people.Children there are not even sure they’ll come back to school after summer vacation.The teachers there either don’t take classes or are woefully unqualified for the job.I have myself seen first hand what goes on in these primary schools in villages when i was working as an intern in the school health program and i was really saddened by the pathetic conditions.I was left wondering in one school that none of the 800 children studying there would end up as a doctor,engineer,writer or any higher social standing.They will all end up as uneducated,sometimes illiterate day labourers,rickshaw-pullers,cobblers,construction workers,chaiwallahs etc living hand to mouth.And the girls among them will not even be so fortunate.Heaven knows if they will even reach adolescence before being subjected to child marriages,dowry deaths,trafficking,prostitution,domestic violence and also left with no chance of independent living.This is how pathetic the condition of the country is and these are the very people for whom quotas were meant to improve the lives of. We have had quotas for nearly 60 years now and today we have even more people demanding quotas than 60 years ago.Ironic since if the quota policy was working why do we see so much inequality today.These quotas were supposed to improve the living conditions of those people I've mentioned above which clearly they have not.So if this isn’t proof that quotas aren’t working then what is? All this has done is the creamy layers(and their successive generations) in the disadvantaged groups are getting an unfair advantage over other hardworking people of the country.This creamy layer is unfairly using an advantage not meant for them when the people for whom these quotas are meant for never complete school.
Education has changed the way i look at things.I have learnt to do things only when i love to do it.i have actually loved learning chemistry,mathematics,physics and literature.I didn’t study those subjects since i had to study them to get a good job or any other reason that is usually given.I wish every kid in the country would be so fortunate to experience what i have done and also feel what it is to be taught by great teachers.Today i have the gift of independent thought and opinion which i suspect majority of Indians don't have.This is primarily why mindless following of senseless political party policies enjoy such huge successes.Since majority of the population do not have any opinions regarding national issues,these self appointed “guardians of Indian polity “ read-Indian politicians deem it their right to propagate their illogical political propaganda and quota politics.These people are not interested in educating the masses.In fact they would prefer not to educate them at all since independent opinion breeds weakening of their support bases-vote banks(uneducated faceless Indians).Hence education is the panacea to most ills that plague our country.
Empower our children(female included) with education and independence.Teach them the right way to live.Teach them to dream and give them them the courage to go in new directions.Open up new avenues of thinking.Change mindsets with education not quotas.Change lives with affirmative action and not regressive politics.Change the world with superior thought and not primitive violence.I wish such common sense prevailed among politicians.But until that happens i hope everyone of us can make a difference in our country in our own small way whenever we can and in whatever form we can impart.
                                                      Raghuraj S. Hegde

The credibility of happiness

 

So here it is.My first creative work in nearly 9 months.Overcoming my longest writer's block I have put forth my effort.Happiness is by far one of the best of human qualities.But this happiness come at a terrible cost.We just have see how badly we have destroyed the rest of the world and along with it the rest of the animal kingdom so that our species can flourish.We have to realise that on the true scale of things humans are essentially cruel and horrible creatures but human thought is a saving grace.If not for it nothing would reduce the barriers between the happiness we enjoy and the injustice we met out.Here in lies my subject for my latest poem.Also with this poem i celebrate 10 years as a poet.It was on 1st January,2000 that I wrote my first poem.This is my 63rd poem.It’s been a long time and a lot of things have changed including the themes of my poems.I think my work over the years reflects all the changes that has happened to me.I would like to think I’ve grown wiser and with it a bit less angry with the rest of the world but above all this the last 10 years has taught me humility and ignited a passion for my dreams which I consider the biggest gains.

 

The Happiness Fallacy

How happy are we?
The sinful prayered souls.
The sight of the flagrant bird,
The green of the purple trees,
Warms a heart so cruelly ours.
Oh so gruesome you Human are,
So you need a God to leash you in.
And haven't you wondered yet,
Why the speechless need no God.
Love and thought thy only solace.
Albeit the little you choose to do.
Despite all goodness and all beauty,
You still need the world to forgive you.
How blessed the blissful are.
The world a little strange,
The mind a little wary,
And an imagination that saves the day.

                                          Raghuraj S. Hegde
18th January,2010