Retirement

So I have finally retired, I hope so. Though I have retired, the event has yet to get administrative or legal sanction, as the organisational victimization for daring the apex authorities continues. Almost everyone I know has asked or asks 'why voluntary retirement?' I might have been giving different answers at different times. But I feel I got the real and succinct answer today while listening to Shivani on Astha channel. Self-esteem.

'Be a Whistleblower'- - at your own peril

'Be a whistleblower', the pamphlets calling upon officials so adorned the government offices all over India during recently concluded Vigilance Week. But what was not said and must have been added in these pamphlets is ' Do so on your own peril.' This is now evident beyond any doubt from my example. Whatever laws may be made, 'Might is Right' will prevail and the all powerful administration will chew you up. So whatever you be, please don't be a whistleblower for sake of yourself and your family. Media will be interested in you as long as you are news. Don't be naive to think they are interested in any cause or that they will be interested in your well-being. Our judicial system may, if you are lucky, give some relief but it will be available, if it is, to your next generation.
So my dear countrymen and women, wherever you be, don't think once, or twice, but continue thinking till you stop thinking of becoming a whistleblower.

Voluntary Retirement

The D-day is nearing. I shall no more be in railway service from 15-11-2010, that is if I don't develop cold feet at the last moment. The authorities won't let me work- they will keep me waiting for orders for months, they will transfer me frequently and unceremoniously. Fine. I tender voluntary retirement from service. But they won't accept even that! Only if there were a psychological test for sadistic tendencies of those entrusted with authority! How could they allow me peace after I publicly called the bluff of their procurement-systems?

But where is the public, thousands of crores of whose money is going down the drain year after year and for whose cause I sacrificed my own well being? Today they are busy indulging in riots over one Sudershan's remarks about one Sonia Gandhi. They are not even aware that someone attempted to save crores and crores of their money. Where is the media that never took notice of the issue in first place, being too busy with things of more national importance like what Rabri said about Nitish or what Nitish said about Lalu, what is the ratio of dogs to bitches in the world, whether Kareena dated Saif when he was dating Katrina when she was dating Sallu when he was dating, who won in fight between cat and crocodile at a place in USA and so on......? And where is the media that took up the issue with interest but by now appears to have discovered that 50000 crores or 100000 crores of Rupees of public money was after all not a significant matter? I don't know where they are but here I am, a first-rated fool, who will soon be out of job and shall be using up his balance life trying to get retirement dues from the organisation he 'dis-served' for 30 years. Shame on me!

Catch-22

This classical and historical work of fiction was written by Joseph Heller more than a half century ago and got published 50 years back. I was in existence then and might have just started learning A, B, C, D... It is only now, after more than 50 years of my existence, and 10 years after the author is no more that I had the good fortune of reading it, having been forced by my elder son. I completed first reading of the book only yesterday. Full of exceptional and outstanding humour and satire, it is a very serious work. It brings out the fallacies and depravity of the modern human civilisation in no uncertain manner. It clearly shows those who would care to see what a non-sense all our endeavours are. This novel was acclaimed as a great work and tens of millions have read it, yet we continue to be more depraved than ever. This only reconfirms what Heller had to say about the human world more than 50 years back.

Catch-22 ridicules wars, our bureaucratic systems, our trading systems, above all our hypocrisy that manifests itself in all our endeavours. It is a great caricature of modern society. We would acclaim the work but won't follow it or learn from it. Hypocrisy again. For a sane person it is always a catch-22 situation. About my recent and till date failed efforts to free IRSS (Indian Railways Stores Service) from the professional harakiri being committed by my colleagues happily just because it helps them satisfy their wives and bring up their children better, Heller had this to say 50 years back, ".... Someone had to do something sometime. Every victim was a culprit, every culprit a victim, and somebody had to stand up sometime to try to break the lousy chain of inherited habit that was imperiling them all...." These are excerpts from chapter 39 'The eternal city' of the book. But alas! my peers, seniors and juniors probably are not capable of even comprehending it.

No doubt, the book is quite repetitive and boring at times and it was a pain for a lazy person like me to go through 570 pages, but I salute Joseph Hellar for such a great satire and meaningful message about meaninglessness of what all goes around us and thank my son for having made me read this great work.

Democracy in India

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Sounds good. People here must be meaning the people at large, the masses. In india, they all vote to form the government. It is an open fact that the majority, about eighty percent of these people, whose votes become the basis of formation of the governments are the Have-nots. It is also an open secret that the people who have ultimately been governing are the Haves and irrespective of the political party in power they have been governing to serve the interests of the Haves rather than the masses. While we have been continuing to deceive ourselves with the definition of democracy cherished by Abraham Lincoln, democracy in India remains " Government of the Haves, by the Have-nots, for the Haves." So what?

"Matter will be investigated and guilty will be punished"

For how many years have we been hearing this from the men/women in authority, those who matter? What was supposed to be the purpose of non-existent punishment of the guilty authoring one scam after another? How silly we have been in having made multi-crore scams surfacing on daily basis nothing more than a media and national pass time! While we show so much concern, use all words available in the vocabulary, we never bother to diagnose the root causes, let alone attempt to cure those. And if we are not interested in that, why do we make so much noise when scams surface? I am told by the wise people of the society appearing in panel discussions on electronic channels that there are sufficient laws to deal with corruption and the perpetrators. They must be right as they are the wisest of the wise. But as an ordinary or sub-ordinary citizen I do wonder of what use those laws are if scams and loot are increasing exponentially by the day. The scams one after another are clearly implicating the top of the political leadership, bureaucracy and now the defence forces. Concern should not be their involvement and punishing or not punishing them but 'how these people were allowed by the society to rise to the top, the same society that now 'pretends' to be shocked.'

C for Capitalism, C for Corruption

Can you imagine a capitalist society sans corruption? I can't. A bit same way as there can't be a human society without prostitution. Bribery, a subset of corruption, has to be a part and parcel of a capitalist social structure that we are. Don't worry what our Constitution says or what the founding leaders of the nation had desired or envisaged. We do nothing but make fools of ourselves talking of and criticising corruption all the time, while accepting capitalism as a virtue. Doesn't mean that socialist structure or communism will always be devoid of corruption. Only means that corruption is a necessary evil for capitalism and an unnecessary one for socialism or communism. It will serve us better if we focus more on better and just governance and professional competence rather than bribery and corruption. Let us not deceive ourselves by thinking that absence of corruption will ensure just and competent governance.