by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 19, 2006 | Uncategorized
I could not resist writing about an experience I had today when I took myself off to the District Courts to register my will.
After being mobbed by all the notary and lawyers who sit at little tables with antediluvian typewriters in a neat row, like a bunch of crows waiting for the prey, we selected one who looked kind, though I do not know whether that was true.
I had printed my will and I think the man felt a little let down as he tried to show me the formats he had, all written in the language of the raj.
Then we proceeded to the signatures and I fell of my chair when he brought out a used ink pad and asked me to put the prints of my thumb then my four fingers under my name.
Thinking I had heard wrong, I told him that actually the document would only be read after my death and that by then my ashes would have been blown in the wind so how would they check my prints in case of doubt. He looked at me with extreme seriousness and told me that it was required. I dutifully did what told.
Later I realised that probably this was probably a legacy of the raj, where buried bodies could be exhumed. And no one had bothered to amend the rule, just as the other law that allows the state into bedrooms of consenting adults in the name of morality and that is being challenged.
I wonder why we are still ruled by a penal code that is over a 100 year old and was made by erstwhile rules. Maybe it is time to think about it as the only way a person of Hindu faith can have finger prints on record is to become a criminal.
Not my cup of tea!
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by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 13, 2006 | reservations
I have often wondered what is it that makes pwhy such a menace to local powers that be. Why is it that we get dragged to the labour court, accused of nefarious activities, ranging from pandering to stealing. Why is it that each time we solve a problem and start thinking that things are behind us a new problem arises, a true hydra headed monster with an elusive neck!
I have been mulling over this not quite finding a satisfactory answer. It hit me yesterday like a bolt out of the blue.
Education, a threat says who? Says ‘they’ say I is my answer. How can the little boy and his copy book can be a danger to anyone. The answer is that if he is given an empowering education than he is a huge threat to the existence system.
Let me elucidate this. Since the reservation issue aptly referred to as Mandal II raised its head and the issue of the creamy layer came up, I decided to ensure that all pwhy kids who fit into any reserved category should have the certificate to prove that. As usual I asked one of my staff members to find out, as he too is a contender. The answer was the usual I get, one that till date I did not doubt: I will check up with the local corporator’s office. Why should I question this, is the corporator not the representative of the people.
The next day I got my answer which was something like: there are no forms, they have not come picche se (from behind), they may come soon. Normally I do not dispute such answers but this time it disturbed me. No matter how badly executed we have a sound democratic system, at least on paper so of I went to friend google and of course in a matter of seconds found the forms waiting to be downloaded as well as the required information on how to apply.
That is when I realised the power of the kind of education I dream of, one that empowers. The cynics will say how can you teach everyone to search the net. My answer is simple yet sound, till we cannot get the kids to, we can show the parents the way: find someone to check for you!
Today I will walk to pwhy with the forms in my bag ready to be photocopied in as many numbers as wanted. When they reach the local politicians for countersignature I know I would have jumped a few places and be closer to the top of the wanted list, but I also know that I would have walked a huge step in the right direction and someone would have lost a bit of his hold.
It is another matter that some of the required stipulations have to be challenged in court as to get a caste certificate your family is required to have lived in Delhi since 1951. What about the 10 million who came after. Well they have to go seeking their Patwari. My question then is how come you are willing to give voters ID cards or whatever else is needed for your benefit and not what might help your potential voter. the answer looms larger than life.
No wonder that no one wants to get the creamy layer excluded.. wonder who would apply for the reserved categories in med school , IITs or IIMs then?
Somehow it maybe easier to call the bluff for by campaigning for the right to a certificate for every potential beneficiary. Is caste not an intrinsic part of a population count
P.S. while browsing the net for programmes for handicapped kids, I found out that most apply to those whose family earns less than six hundred rupees a month. Wonder which planet they live on
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by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 12, 2006 | Uncategorized
deepak came visiting to show off his two brand new teeth! he even smiled and played with us. This brave little fellow has kept his side of the deal: he survived a code blue and even though his broken heart stopped beating, he willed to beat again; he patiently waited that adults finish their strikes and protests and in the bargain got a huge abdominal abscess that took a month to heal. he met all milestones and even produced two teeth at the right time and even had an angiography that now has to be redone. He tries to eat though it is not easy, and he is hanging on waiting for the rest to fall in line.
It is sad that children have to suffer because of reasons that they cannot comprehend or control. On the 26 he will undergo another angio and if all goes well will finally get the surgery he urgently needs.
Let us hope that this one will be the good one…
by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 12, 2006 | Uncategorized
Distance makes the heart grow fonder says the jaded quotation. Most of us have at one time or the other used it.
Six long years trying to keep project why alive my way, has given a new connotation to these very words. We could also use Mark Twain’s Familiarity breeds contempt to describe the bittersweet reality that has been vindicated day after day.
In our quest for support we have been overwhelmed by the spontaneity of people living across the world, who have an may never drop by our planet but who somehow have understood its spirit. So be it the tiny amount sent by a student pining for home comfort food, or the generous gift of a well settled professional who feels that it is a way to pay back; be it the impromptu offer to volunteer of young people from different lands or the long plane hours taken to come by and write about us, it is the effort of those who are faraway that has sustained us till now.
The rupee a day option was designed for two reasons, one for each side of the spectrum. It was something even the poorest could spare and join the rank of donors and on the other hand something which I felt would allay the worst cynic who view everything with suspicion even if they have known you for donkey’s years. If some head way was achieved in the first case, then in the second the distance between hand and wallet still needs to be covered.
Another high road to bewalked
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by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 11, 2006 | reservations, sealing
JFK said: “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future”. Wonder what he would have felt about their situation in India..
last week three blasts rocked Malegaon, most of the victims were children, many beggars who had come on this holy Friday to the mosque and the cemetery, traveling long distances to earn a few extra rupees.
This morning the picture of two young rag pickers was carried in a national daily. The sealing of shops in an effort to beautify Delhi had in one blow taken their livelihood as they did not know where to sell their daily collection.
In a few days the child labour law will come in force and many kids will be homeless and in search of food.
The little kids in the picture are filled with hope and dreams as they sit quietly in the middle of a garbage dump, oblivious of the odours or even the flies, or the heat. They want to learn, knowing intuitively that it may change their lives.
Fuelled by images they see on the box, they dream of being a Sachin, or a Salman. Some want to be doctors, others teachers… many even belong to the innumerable social divisions that benefit from umpteen reservations. But there is a catch: none have the required certificate to prove it and getting on is a nightmare. No one has told them about the value of that piece of paper, on the other hand many have denigrated its value by telling them it shameful forgetting of course to enlightened them about the many benefit they entail.
And for those who have a certificate, the door are closed as they will never get beyond the infamous 33 %. I was even told by a secondary school teacher that they taught only 40% of the course as that was sufficient to pass.
On the other hand the numerous population count that have been done include the caste. Now does it not become imperative for the government to issue the required caste certificate one wonders?
Maybe someone should take notice of this and act so that if one of the children in the picture breaks all barriers and gets to the gates of higher learning, he is able to benefit from what is his right.
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