Mortal thoughts

Behind the white veils of success lies a deep dark convoluted truth of our mortal existence. We often tend to ignore it but it keeps coming back intermittently. There are times when it briefly vanishes from our conscience but again it comes back with more powerful fangs than before. So we often wonder as to what really is defined as true success. Does dog eat dog attitude, so prevalent in the corporate world, a real basis of success where every individual is as devoid of any emotions and compassion as a snake is while killing its prey. Is a truly successful person an ascetic who uses spirituality to attain seclusion from his genetic desires to have wealth? Alternatively, is there a middle path to a successful life, where a person has spirituality, money, family amongst other things to help him have that feeling of fulfillment when he leaves his mortal incarnation?      

-Sunny Gusain

Ye India hai, India

Indians have a knack of being leaders. In fact, I could go the distance and say that we Indians are born leaders. You want an example from my side, well consider it your lucky day I will give you one. Since the day I became sensible enough to understand the world a little, I have observed people with a relatively high degree of interest than you would expect from normal people. Luckily, while observing people I have been able to maintain a low profile to prevent myself from being labelled as a lunatic in a highly self-conscious Indian society. We live in a society full of hypersensitive individuals. We never get offended when our tirangaa, the national flag, is run over and stomped by us after each republic and Independence day. Half of the people reading this would not even understand the difference between republic day and Independence Day (true story). But let's not tread on that line as it is too dangerous( for me) as I could be labelled a traitor and made an outcast by the patriotic chauvinists. So, let’s come to the point. See the same tirangaa when disrespected by the foreign liquor companies or TV anchors wearing tirangaa sarees gets a very angry and outrageous response from the conscious patriots. Yes yes I know i am missing the wood for the trees, deviating from the topic at hand and all but let’s face it I am just being an Indian.

If I ask my respected readers as to how many care about the nation many would be amused as to what kind of a question is it. But when I ask the same readers about how many of them have given a bribe to a tout to make their driving licenses the responses would surely be overwhelmingly in affirmative. Not surprisingly then that many of us do not really have to go through a driving test before we actually get our driving licenses. In fact i know of a lot of people who have licenses to drive a four wheeler but, astonishingly, to put it in American vernacular “ don’t know shit about driving a 4-wheeler.”. TaDa.  The result of this is easily evident once you enter the Indian “death roads”.

Next time you are on a driving trail in the city, just observe where people stop in a red light stop. Almost everyone stops after the stop line. Shit. Not quite. If anything that’s only the start of  “Shit Happens”, as the moment the traffic light is about to turn green these sons and daughters of Schumachers and Rossi’s race  the accelerator and jump even before the lights turn green. Shit. Not quite again. See, these people are so much full of courage or total disregard for law (or are sure of the indifference of the traffic constable, whichever way you want to put it) that in spite of the traffic controller standing right there they jump the stop lines and red lights Shrrrrrrooom and Vrroooom they go. How we respect the law can also be gauged by one personal example of mine. Just the other day as I stopped before a stop line on a red light right here in my hometown Dehradun, I heard the blowing horn of a Honda City car, on finding out that the horn was directed at me, I replied it’s red light. So this guy, who looked suave and decent, started calling me names because according to him i could have moved even further than standing like a stupid person before a stop line. The lights turned green, and as this car passed by me the driver had a word of advise for me......Ye India hai, INDIA.........sure it is!!!!!

-Sunny Gusain

Abandonment

Yesterday as I was coming from the crater filled roads of Raipur area in dehradun I saw a dog- intimidated, weak and in a dilapidated state. He had a leather band collar around his neck which helps in identification and, more importantly, in reiterating that the dog is a domesticated pet. The dog could hardly walk, with his legs curved to unnatural levels. His walk was melancholic and painful to the eyes. I could almost read that he is terribly inflicted with some disease which has caused his legs to curve more than is natural thereby making it difficult for him to walk or stand on his feet. As I stood there, amongst the hordes of hawkers, pedestrians and passersby I couldn't help but notice the eyes of the dog. Those black eyes with a little patch of white were moist and had the language of their own. And as the eyes moving from left to right finally stopped at me they had a questioning look which was easy for me to interpret but very hard to answer. Suddenly I saw everything around me convoluting and gradually fading to nothingness with only the eyes of the canine remaining fixed at me.  I, like all humans, was scared to death and terrified beyond reasons.  The eyes the gaze the fixation was heart wrenching and so deep as to shame the mariana trenches of the seas. The eyes had a language of their own. They spoke with vehemence and eloquence which was hitherto a subject of many a bolly cinema. I could feel the warmth of those black eyes falling on me like moonight in the Amavasya. The surroundings around me had so dramatically changed, I could no longer see the vendor who just moments ago had been so passionately selling his apples, neither could I see the people who were filed after each other waiting their turn to fill their buckets close to the public water supply. The woman beggar, with a drooling infant around her waist, was missing too. The static tree had so dramaticaly transformed into a walking monster with eyes....................to be continued

-Sunny Gusain

Randomss Reality

When the possession of spirit, the soul, the life giver is complete, I tend to focus on other third worldly aspects of my existence. The sorrows, the joys, the pains, the happinesses, the triumphs, the defeats,..all make up a mind of their own whilst making thy think of inconceivable unimportant deeds, which you would otherwise ignore. Life gives you unfathomable powers; the liberty to become everything and anything you can conceive of in your brain. But what we rather chose to be, one eyed monsters with a single deleterious approach to make the tumor even worse than it already is. Acting like sanctified jesuses, we are at the pinnacles of our moronic capabilities. Its not so much as moving unguided but the very paths that we have chosen with our human egotism which will eventually lead to our catastrophic end on this very land which we call our own. Petrifying, as it may seem but is only carrying as much truth as the air which we breathe ,albeit involuntarily. We are the men of doomsday, the judgement day if you may call, and the heart wrenching realities of the bleeding hearts and the starving sunken stomachs, we sit for our turn is still some time away and the impending tragic justice or punishment. Indeed.there is paucity everywhere and the vision blurs to levels where no eyeglasses could help, and the question you now ask yourself is , how could you have not seen it coming as it was always there, right under your eyes, everywhere around you, making you feel how you had Blurred your vision a long back. But now there is no turning back, you're stuck , you try to escape but can't, killing your own self is not a solution too. As you consider more of this unspeakable malaise, the grip of this force becomes stronger than ever.

-Sunny Gusain

Rest in peace

Either kill me or allow me to survive
For I cannot live like a hollow soul
With memories turned into nightmares
And myself turned into a burning log
How long can I stop myself from flooding from this grief
For I have truly loved and lost in a matter of weeks
Hollow sympathies from you I don't want
For this pain is only and only mine
Nights are sleepless, days are tormenting
But still the blame is on me
For I failed miserably......
Think of your angel as a demon now
And just pray for him "To rest in peace"

-Sunny Gusain

Damn me

If only I knew how the logics of "Maturity" worked, I would have never fallen in love with nothing but The True Love in my hands. For I would have known the twings and pangs of this "Shiny" world, and thus avoided being butchered every second of my existence. I am hurt beyond corrections, and cannot help but think how miserable I have become. Damn me, how can I possibly want to marry a princess sans a big house and an expensive car. Damn me for believing that the power of love could bring in riches. Damn me for even thinking of us as we. Damn me for being so optimistic and impractical. Damn me for the paucity of opulence. Damn me for being an inconsolable soul. Damn me for still.......... surviving.

-Sunny Gusain

But why but why but why

Whose clutches are these, 

Which so strongly hold me, 

How can I liberate myself, 

When liberation itself is confinement, 

How can I fight and win, 

When loss is a synonym of winning, 

When why is the question, 

With 'but why' as its only answer, 

When you know the reason and the reasoning 

With defeat and defeat as your only reading 

Why can't I be put to sleep with a mother's care, 

But will sleep be able to bear this unbearable ache, 

When the words of love spoken cease to matter 

And the only real word left to care is despair, 

When the only prayer to God is the prayer of death 

With only a hope of Him acceding to your demands 

But why but why but why and that's how I go off to sleep 

But why but why but why but why.........

-Sunny Gusain

Again and again......Love Kaput

The haunting is back, the mind is so full of this excruciating pain and suffering. I ask myself, why do I suffer, am I a sinner? What have I done to deserve this scar on my heart and mind? I am full of remorse, and this morbid fear of a vacancy in my soul. I look out for the unknown, losing myself completely with no dreams to live for. Why do I end up alone while I only spread joy and love. Why love has become a morbid word when the world only needs this for resurrection. The validity of love is under question and I ask myself, Is it existent or just a manifestation of human preference. Oral promises are not valid, does that mean we should keep legal promises in love. How do I see when my eyes have been taken out? Why cannot my heart accept what my mind so articulately explains and justifies? Why is it so difficult to comprehend it? Why can't I explain to myself that love as such is not enough and that riches are critical to everything? Why do people carry around two faces, one of love and the other of betrayal? I promise myself never to fall in love again. Heart rending, and calamitous it has been for me whenever I have so generously bestowed my love and care with so much honesty and dedication.

-Sunny Gusain

Sycophancy-when?

Customer service orientation of the public sector banks need to change if they wish to remain leaders of the Indian Financial System. Of course it would be naive on my part to see it happening soon but it definitely is a question of when and not if it will. The financial landscape is changing fast and as and when the focus shifts from financial inclusion to financial consolidation, it will be imperative on PSBs to change their attitude towards their customers. Perform or perish will be the mantra of the financial system. The current status of the banking environment is too much bank centric than being customer centric.
The sycophantic attitude of the private sector banks towards their customers sets a very hard precedent for the psbs to follow. Although a few psbs have taken a few steps in the right direction, a lot still needs to be done on the customer service front.
-Sunny Gusain

Riots- Is India Proud?

It is disheartening to read about the plight of riot hit families which surfaces in the news every now and then. The cover stories are heart wrenching realities of the modern era communal riots. But apart from being highly readable stories they serve little purpose to the society as well as to these victims. The sluggish pace of justice delivery system means the culprits are walking scot free even as the victimized families find it difficult to bear the loss of their breadwinners. This in turn motivates the perpetrators of these crimes to carry the same heinous crimes in the future as they are assured of impunity by their political masters. In this way, rather than giving a landmark judgement which severely punishes the guilty and becomes a precedent in any unfortunate riot case in the future, law is inadvertently providing shelter to the perpetrators.

Of course, the cliche "law will take its own course" doesn't stand a chance in front of the might of the state , Gujarat being an obvious example. It is high time we realize that Justice delayed is justice denied. The biggest disappointment is how easily general public seems to have forgotten the worst form of human violations that India has ever witnessed. Be it Godhra or anti-sikh riots, one thing that stands out is the reaction of the general public which seems to care more about Sachin scoring his 100th hundred than asking for justice for these inncoent victims. Many people dismiss it as black blemishes on an otherwise white dress but they fail to realise that unless the root cause of these acts is not taken care of in the bud we stand a chance of making the whole dress dirty. Wake up...NOW!

-Sunny Gusain 

''Free Porn" Manifesto

Million dollar question?
Is it Bhanwari!!!!!

India is a strange country. It might sound like a cliche but I cannot help but restate that it's full of paradoxes. I was left half laughing and half thinking after hearing the news of two Karnataka ministers watching porn in the state assembly. Before the incident becomes a political battleground for BJP, the ruling class, and the Congress, the opposition, lets put the record straight and bisect some sanity out of the incident. Although there were a lot of delicious oxymorons I thought of after hearing the news, prominent amongst them were:

• One of the ministers involved in the incident is a Women and Child Development minister in the state government..Of course I am sure he will evade the law with impunity. The gravity of this fact is far much deeper than anyone of us can think. It's like we are watching some B grade Hindi or Tamil cinema where the one who is supposed to uphold the moral values is himself the one who is the inflicter of pain and agony. Typical.
• These were the "elected" representatives of the people of this state. It seems the electorate is suffering from Stockholm syndrome. This is true in the whole Indian context and not just the state assembly. The only plausible explanation to the indian electorate' s obsession with selecting the same sordid and morally corrupt members time and again in state as well as Lok Sabha elections. Or to put it more blatantly, we our ourselves the dichotomy we see in our elected representatives. After all, this is what you can expect from people who have criminal records even as they are contesting elections. "Harakiri" at its best by the electorate. 
•  It would be a crime not to consider these two "idols" sexual perverts. Not only should they be penalized for watching porn but should also be tried for infringing the ideals and integrity on which the democratic structures like state assemblies work. Although I am sure they will find some way or the other around the law. After all, when Suresh Kalmadi says he has "full faith in the judiciary" what he actually means is "I will find a way out of this mess, you suckers( the middle finger is obvious)." 
• That this incident took place in a state where the moral brigade, backed by the state government, has often, if not always, tried to protect the "ideals of Indian culture and traditions" by bashing youngsters going to night clubs and bars, is hilarious and ironical.
• No moral brigade or the "upholders of Indian Values'' has come out in the open and out rightly bashed these two "Perverts". Ironical.

Law will definitely take its own course or recourse or whatever may be the case but the real onus of these two MLAs getting elected or reelected in the future is on the people of Karnataka. They have two options:

• Demand to make porn legal in the assembly or anywhere in the state. It would be naive to believe that none of us have watched porn or circulated it in some form or the other. Why not might as well legalize it? (Don't look with askance, I know what you do in your free time). Why live in irony? Be straight. Make "porn to all" an election manifesto.
• The other option is to Ban them from contesting any elections in the future. Highly unlikely as it is, though I am sure all people reading this will agree to it. 

Democracy rules choice is yours.

- Sunny Gusain

Democracy or Mobocracy ?

Literary Great
or
Blaspheme?

As the famous words by Churchill go, "democracy is the worst form of government except all others that have been tried".  A dysfunctional democracy is no less better than an autocracy. We are going through a period in our democracy where our polity is out for a toss and the general liberty of the populace is also under threat. The point of discussion in this article is the treatment that India's most distinguished writer Salman Rushdie gets from the ruling government. Rather than welcoming him with grace and with a tinge of pride, the government works to ensure that he is unwelcome in the country. Citing security concerns, the Rajasthan CM searches for ways to block his entry into the Jaipur Literary Festival. And, of course, the impending elections in major states with a sizable Muslim population doesn't help the ruling government either to welcome Rushdie with fanfare. After all who wants to 'offend' the Muslims when they can be a vote bank. In this context, the rabble-rousers and 'protectors of minority sentiments'  take advantage of the polity's uncertainty and resoluteness on the issue. I fail to understand why the centre cannot take a stand whether Rushdie is welcome or not. Why play this ''I didn't say no but I don't mean Yes'' game. 

Doomed?

As is well known, the novel "Satanic Verses", due to its supposedly inflammatory  and blasphemous writings about Prophet Mohammad and Islam, is already banned in India since 1988. I don't get the point then, why is there so much hullabulla about Rushdie coming to India then. Protests by a few people should not infringe on the rights of millions who want to welcome the literary great to the country. The bigger issue here is not the coming of Rushdie to India but rather the kind of regressive society we have become as a whole. The falling tolerance levels of our society is a cause of concern for liberals like me. But clearly, without a clear political will these issues will always remain in the collective psyche of our society while also empowering the so called ''sentiment saviors of the minorities''. That time is not far when every writer or politician or person in this country will be jailed for 'hurting the sentiments of some person or a group'. We cannot emulate China on growth and development parameters but we surely are headed for their societal control norms. 

-Sunny Gusain. 

Customer is King Diaries

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit three different public sector banks in dehradun viz. Corporation Bank, Syndicate Bank and Union Bank of India. Although, all the three banks are classified as public sector banks, the atmosphere in these banks and the general demeanor of the staff reflected the focus and management style of the Top officials of these banks. Needless to say, the customer service orientation of these banks is nowhere close to their private sector counterparts. Let me elaborate the scenario a customer is witness to as and when he enters each bank.

Corporation Bank

General : If you are lucky enough to get yourself in through the 1970's iron grills. The moment you enter the branch at Raj plaza, you are witness to shoddy interiors. Cobwebs are so ubiquitous that for a moment it seems as if the bank is an active member of some Spider Conservation programme. Floor is witness to the worst form of cleanliness I have ever witnessed. Having served as a Site Manager for a MNC specializing in Food and facility management, I find myself appalled to see the state of anti-customer friendly atmosphere in these banks. A simple cleaning checklist was absent from the view and I am very sure that it didn't exist either. The interiors were designed in a haphazard way and were unattractive to look at. Not that anybody would go to a bank for aesthetics but when the private sector banks including some really progressive public sector banks are creating banks that would not only provide them banking services but also give them that well meant feel good factor, it is imperative to have some good aesthetics in place. 

Staff : Now let's talk about the staff employed at the bank. It was good to see young people manning the counters. There was a young gorgeous women attending to the cash counter. What stuck me most was that she didn't seem to be welcoming the customers with a glee and the aura of her beauty seemed to fade once she spoke a few words. To sum it up, it wasn't a typical bank-customer friendly behavior. The only saving grace was that it was much better as compared to the antagonistic behavior of Syndicate bank cashier. 

Ratings: 2/5

To be continued.......

- Sunny Gusain