Dr. Anil Kumar Agarwal

Munna is a young man and is of thirty years of age. He did his graduation from a reputed university and scored good marks. He used to keep his college copies and books tidy. He looked innocent and also affectionate to others. After completing his education he started his business at his own. Although his father is also in business yet he chose a different trade. He is loquacious and energetic too. This is his personality at a glance. He started his business in such a way as he would become rich very soon. His father used to say, “He is careless in the matter of accounts and does neither maintain his accounts on regular basis nor keep receipts of payments etc. he has made. So he will be in trouble one day.”

One fine day, news was heard that Munna had consumed many pills of sedatives as he was deceived in love. He had been admitted to hospital and was saved. After coming back from the hospital he became sad and stopped meeting others. This change in his behaviour was either due to embarrassment or some other reason. It was difficult to analyze the real situation because people, in such conditions use their heart instead of mind. He was also passing through that phase of life when the heart rules over the mind. One day, he left his house and started living alone. After some months he started feeling homesickness and came back.

One day again, news came out that Munna was in hospital because he had taken some sleeping pills. He recovered from his unconsciousness after some days. This time he got a big loss in his business. According to him, his debtors had refused to repay him but the creditors were forcing him for payments. As he had no signed receipts from the debtors’ side, whatever the debtors say would be correct. The creditors forced his father to repay his son’s debts. Under such pressure, his father sold his house to compensate his son’s losses. Even then the son says that his father is not giving him due share in the property, although the property is acquired by his father himself. These are such situations which have no answer. Only God may solve such problem.

I heard a quotation from Vaibhav, a sincere boy, which seems to be appropriate here – “By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.”

Kapil is a bank employee and is my friend. He is working there as a manager, and his bank is nationalized. He is a sincere worker and a jolly fellow. His customers in the bank and his friends love him due to his cooperative nature. One day his bank opened a new branch in a posh area of Delhi. The bank made its new branch quite hi–fi, and the rent of the place was also in lakhs per month. Although, the branch was on a main road and in the mixed land use area, the parking facility was not adequate. He was sent there as in-charge cum manager of the branch. The total employees in the branch were only three including him. In one year time, the branch did the business of a few crores rupees.

The bank organized a meeting of the customers of the branch along with the staff. The meeting was held in the late afternoon and about sixty people attended the meeting. The general manager along with some other officers was present in the meeting. The bank wanted to get the feedback about working of the branch directly from the customers. I was also present in the meeting although I reached there late by twenty minutes yet the meeting had not started. In the beginning Kapil introduced his senior officers to the people attending the meeting. The GM welcomed the audience and narrated in brief about the bank. He asked the audience about the complaints and suggestions regarding the bank. An old man stood up and said that there was a shortage of staff so he felt inconvenience. ‘The staff should be increased to run the branch smoothly’, he added. One lady said, ‘There is a lack of security in the branch as no guard is standing on the gate, and as such customers feel insecure here.’ A gentle man praised the manager as polite, cooperative, and sincere. Meanwhile another man complained that as the manager did not have the power to sanction the loan of higher amount, so the big business clients don’t deal with this bank. Many other people also repeated more or less the same sentiments. In response to the same, the GM said, ‘This branch of the bank is already in loss, so we are unable to provide additional facilities to this branch.’ One business tycoon was also sitting there; he said that he could get the branch’s business increased many folds provided the bank improved its quality. The meeting was dispersed with a vote of thanks. There was an arrangement of tea and snacks in the last, and offered to all the guests.

After a fortnight, Kapil telephoned me and said that he had since been transferred to another NCR branch of the bank which was about fifty kilometers from his house. I asked him whether he got promotion along with transfer or it was due in normal course. He said in irony that it was the reward of that meeting.

An article of Prasoon joshi was published in NBT at page no. 8 on Sunday, 25^th April, 2010, under the headings: We need thinkers, not ‘Babas’. He has given his thought in this write – up, I agree with him on some points and also disagree on many issues which I want to share with others. You may not fully agree with me as no two things are same in this world, so you may pardon me.

In Prasoon’s article, he says, ‘why are so many ‘Babas’ present in our country. They hurt our feelings and even then, they come and go and get respectable position in the society. What is the reason behind it? In real sense Baba is the need of men. In western countries, there are also such people called thinkers and you may call them psychologist. People share their mental and emotional problems with them, and get advice from these psychologists. People try to understand the meaning of life through them. Every human being needs one man who could guide him about the both ends of life. It is true that every man is sad and discontented with his life so that he definitely requires a guide. That is why an industry has been formed to cash this concept and get maximum profit out of it.’ ‘Need is on both sides; if Baba gets benefit from people, people also get blessings from Baba. People definitely feel pleasure from Baba’s speech. Either this joy is temporary or we can say that this gives and takes policy is continued,’ Prasoon clarifies and adds it in his article, ‘In our country, people are uneducated so that this industry exploits people as other type of industry does. Such exploitation can’t happen in west as the law is very strong there.’ This is just a part of his article.

I want to share my views on the above statement. Parsoon, himself admits that Baba is the need of this country and he works as the psychologist does in the west. He raised the issue of exploitation of people. Here, my view is this, if you follow any body blindly, there is always a chance of exploitation, and it happens all over the world. Many times we read in news paper that a priest is caught for the allegation of sex abuse etc. Second point which Prasoon raised is illiteracy. He says illeteracy is the root cause of exploitation but I want to say that the learned society is also being exploited.

In formal education, the subjects can be divided into two main categories viz. science and art. The art category contains the following subjects – Languages, literature, commerce, economics, history, some parts of mathematics that is lower math, political science and home science etc. although the latter two themes have the word science but even then are considered art subjects. The science group contains physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and engineering etc. The medicine, biology and life-science are the area of study which deals with animals and human life. To learn these discipline, students do experiment and dissection on the live animals. The animal loving and caring people and their organizations protest against the use of animals as a study material. They have their own arguments that the cutting of animals for the sake of knowledge is not required, and should be banned. They write articles on the affair, and rally on the matter. They are sensitive to this concern but I don’t know how long it is true. Anuradha, an animal lover activist wrote an article on this problem in HT on 22^nd. Oct. 2010. She has suggested some alternative methods of teaching in these fields of study. She says that even UGC is sincerely making efforts for the use of some advanced methods of teaching these topics. If it is so, it should be welcomed. She says the anatomy of the animal can be taught through computer aided programs. It is possible only up to some extent but it is not fully correct. We learn the subject especially science through our all the five senses. Touching, feeling and smelling also play an important role in learning the subjects. The science students learn the topic efficiently when they do experiments themselves. But one thing is true that many students who study science subjects in school and college level don’t use them as a profession. So there is no harm if these students do not experiment on live animals. But the question arises how it may be decided at college level that who will adopt science as a career. One thing is clear that dissection of animals can be banned at school level. Even on graduate level it can be restricted up to a certain point, but not in the post-graduate courses although it is necessary that the syllabus, keeping this issue in mind, should be prepared with caution so that the quality of education is not deteriorated.

India got freedom in 1947 and now year 2010 has started, but still law and order situation in the country is bad. It is so horrible that one can’t imagine about it, when some brutal incident happens in Delhi, the capital of India and in the neighboring states of Delhi. Recently a case happened in Haryana state, between Jind and Hissar district where a mob of one community set ten houses of other community ablaze, and burnt two persons alive to death. The incident took place on the minor issue as the villagers said, ‘some one throws a piece of brick on a mongrel but it hit the house of a Dalit. It causes the fight between the two communities, the Jats and the Dalits. In the scuffle a few Jat boys were hurt.’ The block leader of the Valmiki community took it seriously and he along with two other persons went there to apologize for it, but the Jats pelted them with stones. Seeing the gravity of the incident, members of the Valmiki society decided to approach the police but the SHO of the area refused to take any action in the matter. A mob, about thirty Jat boys reached there from the western side of the village with lathis and can of the kerosene in their hands, when most of the members of the Dalit community were in the chaupal and discussing the next strategy to be used in the case. Suman’s house was the first to be attacked. The mob bolted the house from outside, Suman and her father Tara Chand were  locked inside the house, and set the house on fire. Her mother ran out but Suman could not as she was handicapped with Polio. Bhoomar ran out along with her three children to save them as other members of the society did. The assailants put about ten houses on fire. The sarpanch said what had happened is ‘shameful’. The BSP leader demanded that SHO of the area, tehsildar, and deputy superintendent of the police should be suspended as the incident had happened in the presence of the police, and the case should be probed by the CBI. The superintendent of the police has ordered enquiry of the case. The police has detained thirty Jat boys from the village.

India has got an opportunity to organize the ‘common wealth games’ in Delhi this year. These will be held in the month of October that is about to come. The construction of stadiums and landscaping of Delhi is at its full swing, as it should be, although this seems it would not be completed in time. There was recently a news in the news paper that MCD is going to beautify the Paharganj area, a commercial place in Delhi. People of that area have encroached most of the footpaths, even major part of the roads too and are running their business activities from these intruded places, so the whole area looks like a fish market. The roads are always jammed due to traffic. This is also a big center of hotels as the New Delhi Railway Station is just near it. The tourists and business men who come to Delhi may get hotel here at an affordable price.

MCD demolished some illegal structures here, one day. The occupants of the area requested the authority that they would remove the unwanted structures themselves in a weeks time. The occupants did nothing in this matter rather they started protesting against the order of the corporation. A week long drama of the disapproval ended in the last on a sort of compromise. The MCD will not insist the traders to align their shops as per the area map of 1930s, as a condition imposed earlier, and the traders will in turn remove all intrusion on government land. The traders have now started clearing the infringement and claim that it will be cleared in a month’s time. The authorities are developing a new plan for widening and beautification of the area. All the shops will be in align and the outer look will be uniform. Seeing the strict attitude of the authorities people have bent upon to cooperate with the authority, this is a good step ahead in the beautification of Delhi, the capital of India.

Indian Premier League, IPL is a cricket organization which has started arranging a new style of cricket matches in India. These matches have become very popular in India but it is not clear whether these are liked in abroad too. The game, itself is unique in style where each team plays cricket for twenty over’s. Every test is finished within some hours. Every team is owned by some celebrity, mostly the Hindi film actors or actress. They purchase the crew by bid. Each group is auctioned in rupees hundreds and hundreds of million. An old style cricket has been forgotten by people and become the part of history nowadays. These IPL series have recently become controversial when the fight between Shashi Tharoor, now former central minister and Lalit Modi, chairman of IPL began and become public.

Lalit Modi revealed on the Twitter that Tharoor influenced the IPL to give benefit to his friend Sunanda, though Tharoor condemned the allegation of Modi on the Twitter. But the matter went on its peak and there was uproar in the parliament. The opposition political parties demanded Tharoor’s resignation in the parliament. Seeing the gravity of the case, The Prime Minister, Man Mohan Singh called a meeting of his ministers and found Tharoor guilty, so Tharoor was told to submit his resignation. Therefore tharoor quit his ministerial post. The income tax department raided the IPL office and found a big scandal there. Sunanda left her equity shares of IPL as the controversies deepened. The IT officials submitted their report to the Finance ministry and stated that two more central ministers are also involved in the scandal. It seems as if the Govt. is trying to trap Lalit Modi, as a target, who has written on the Twitter against its minister, because the IT officials have not publically revealed the name of the two ministers concerned till now. Second point is this; the Govt. is diverting the attention of the public towards tax scandal of the IPL in place of taking action against its ministers. Two or three MP’s of the ruling party are trying to cook a new theory by saying that opposition party MP’s are also involved in this offence. They think that if they talk like this, public will start thinking that all the politicians are black sheep and their party leaders may be saved from this case. They may only succeed up to some level in their mission, but they can’t make the whole public fool.

Lallu Parsad, leader of RJD has raised the question in parliament regarding the IPL matches and demanded to close down the IPL. Vrinda Karat, too raised the issue and demanded probe in this matter.

Every country has its own metrological department, India also has it and its office is situated in Delhi. So many employees and scientists are working there – that means there annual budget must be in millions. In most of the daily news papers, there is a weather column which forecasts about the weather. Most of the times their predictions go wrong, even then people regularly read their predictions. It seems as if the readers are addicted to read the column. If you just see the yesterday’s temperature in some news papers, you will find there a different reading of the temperature. Why do we not find the yesterday’s temperature same in every news paper. How the temperature of the city that is officially declared by the metrological office is found different in every news paper. Below, I show you a metrological office forecast and after that it will be analyzed.

There will be good rain this year, such signals are being observed. Last year, in 2009 there was poor rain and it broke the last thirty seven year’s record. The metrological office says that it happened thrice between 1901 and 2009, when there were dry monsoon for consecutively for two years. Therefore there is a chance of heavy rain this year. In second paragraph, the office says that it will pronounce its prediction between 15^th and 30^th April, but supercomputer’s analysis, based on old data, shows that there is  good opportunity of heavy rains this year. The director general of metrological department, Ajit Tyagi says that ‘Al-Neeno’ pattern is weak which can be responsible for dry monsoon this year. In India, monsoon starts about first of June and it reaches Delhi in the end of June. As time passes, ‘Al-Neeno’ pattern may be reversed and good rains are possible. The fourth point: this year, there is a hot summer so that rains will be good.

In the above paragraph, you can see clearly that they have given both types of statements: one is good monsoon and second is poor monsoon. Every body knows that there are only two possibilities in the case of monsoon. It’s modern era, so the weather office should improve its working style. It should do its work scientifically.

Baba Sahib Ambedkar Jayanti was celebrated on 14^th April at different places in India. Ambedkar is considered a leader of backward classes, although every Indian pays him due respect. He played a big role in the formation of Indian constitution. Different political parties enjoyed his jayanti in so many ways but the most popular method of celebration was ‘Rally’ and garlanding the statue. Two political parties, BSP and Congress were in the front row to celebrate the jayanti. It looks as if these parties don’t celebrate the jayanti but they just show their strength. They don’t do any real social work for the downtrodden classes. They just misguide them through these rallies. Their sole motive is to attract this ‘Dalit’ vote bank that will be beneficial for them in the elections.

In the same way, media ‘whether electronic or print’ don’t play a fair role when they publish or telecast some political news. It is clearly shown in the news published by them that they have inclination for one particular party. They should publish the news as it is. They ought not to put their opinion in between the news. Nowadays news is also being sponsored by political parties. The media must discourage such practices; only then their credibility would be increased. The media is the back bone of a nation; if it is diseased, the country can’t do progress as it deserves.

The central ministry has accepted the anti torture ordinance, and this is really a wonderful work. When this is passed in the Parliament, it will become a law. After that, to torture the culprit in police custody will be considered a crime and will be called unlawful activity. It is evident that the Govt. has recognized this problem present in the system and tried to rectify it for the first time.  It is known, in this matter, that UNO had already passed the bill in its general meeting held in 1975 and India also signed it in 1997. The Govt. is going to fulfill his word that should be appreciated. It is shameful for the civilized society if any body dies in police custody. Some times it is found that a culprit dies because the police have tortured him. Maximum deaths in police custody occurr in India, if we see the data of all the democratic countries. It is generally seen that police use its hard attitude for the poor and the downtrodden people. The police become rude for those who can’t afford to pay them some money. Even today, the police behaviour is same as it was in the British rule. The same act is being used till today. The act doesn’t guide the police how to behave with culprits. Our political leaders have never thought on the issue. Only one editorial was published in NBT on this issue so it is appreciable.

In this modern era, everybody, whether he is an accused or innocent citizen has a right to live peacefully. For investigation purposes, the police should use scientific methods rather than crude and barbarian techniques.