Has Anna lost his magical touch??

Anna Hazare, a name that came in association with 'LokPal bill' last year. Team Anna has been fighting against the UPA government and had promised the nation a corruption free environment. But it seems like this is little hard to achieve even after doing several indefinite fasts. Yes, the main question of this article is : Has Anna lost his magical touch? The support for team anna has diminished considerably from the last year. Anna began his fifth hunger strike but failed to draw the massive crowds that marked the start of his campaign. This time in 2012 crowd was very less as compared to 2011 in Ram lila maidan and jantar mantar. Just an year ago, ten thousands of people had supported him fighting against rain and sweltering sun and pledged for Anna Hazare's support. Have we moved on and accepted corruption as a part of our daily routine while team Anna is still fighting for it?

We all know how much Anna and his team are fighting against current UPA government members. Why should we support him or Jan Lokpal...the answer is simple: it will support you. But this time when he went on indefinite fast, the enthusiam from the public seems to be missing. Its not just the number of people who had come there and taken part but also about people who talk about supporting his movements are diminishing. While team Anna members deny from this fact and say that media has not given enough coverage for the movement and also claim that number of people attending it is not important but number of minds thinking and doing something about Jan Lokpal is important to them.

This time team Anna is demanding that there should be a panel of supreme court judges who should probe corruption allegations against 15 UPA ministers and that includes our PM Manmohan singh. While some ministers believe that Anna is just a creation of media and they have given enough highlight to him last year when government had to bend their head and said that they will consider Jan Lokpal. When will this Jan Lokpal bill will be passed? With the creation of Jan Lokpal there will be an independent body that would fight against corruption in the country and protect whistle blowers who have lost their lives for the nation. In 2011, during parliament's winter session Lokpal was passed in LokSabha but was turned down in Rajya sabha. The war against corruption is a long and time taking process and we all should stand together as a citizen of India to fight against it. Last year's agitation had attracted lot of youths to come forward and support Anna in his anti corruption movements. What happened now? Why are we slowing down? Is it the feeling that nothing can shake this government and that includes Anna's team?? This is because of loss of novelty and hope that nation can see Jan lokpal being part of Indian government. It might just be possible that last year Anna Hazare was a new face to the public who was putting his feet to remove corruption and also India had witnessed several big corruption cases like 2G scam, common wealth games scam etc. Also, the methods of non violence and indefinite fast was new to the public and it might have just attracted the crowd who were already suffering from corruption within their minds. People had a hope that Anna can change the government and force lokpal by winter session in Lok sabha. A sense of hope was engineered into people's mind. Anna has now become a routine for people and when they hear about his indefinite fast the reaction is " Oh one more fast...". So, Anna should take care not to appear again and again in the public for same cause and movement. This could make them believe that "If he cannot do it, even we cannot do it".

But the failure of addition of lokpal in december 2011 has also failed team Anna to revive this anti corruption movement. Now people are not getting that hope that this agitation might succeed. This is the fourth time he is on a movement but Anna's movements are becoming predictable. Government has shut its ear to his movements and are paying very less heed to the demands. They know that if they bring lokpal, directly country's PM is under investigation and that can be very demeaning. Looks like all the parties have come together unanimously and standing against Lokpal! Anna should know how to mobilize the momentum and shouldn't allow the protest to loose its edge. The media needs to give more coverage to his movements now when it is required more. We know the power of media can force the government to take serious steps.

Is India safe for women??

Yes, being an Indian and being born and brought up in India I am asking this question to all Indians. Since past couple of years, number of crime against women has been increasing so much all around India. But the past Guwahati incidence has shook us all. But if you ask the citizens of Assam, they say that it is very common site in Assam but since there was a video recording in this case the matter has become a national shame. After seeing lot of debates and news I am encouraged to write this post. I want to vent out my reaction for the same.

Assam has second highest record for crime against women, there were roughly 11,000+ cases in Assam regarding public molestation of women, rape and torture. What is the police doing in Assam? They claim that they needed more force for night patrolling than why were they sleeping until now?? They wanted some media to take this up on a high level and make them realize about their force. Lets see what happened there. A girl goes to a pub to enjoy for her friend's birthday, had couple of drinks, comes out of the pub and picks up a fight with a friend. The fight becomes little physical and they go out of the pub. The other friends ran from there and the local morons take advantage and pull this girl from her hair and torture her !! Who the hell are they? Are they law makers ?? Idiot bastards, cowards who want to take advantage of this teenager and satisfy their lust publicly. Please excuse me for the language but if I were police I would have definitely given a severe punishment to them. Apart from these morons other guys gang up there and start chasing her and tearing her clothes.. Have we lost our senses? It was a main road and people passing by had no mercy for her. Everyone says that it was a mob.. But mind it they were Aam Janata.. and not mafia dons who had guns and swords. What is wrong with us? How can we be a mute spectators for such a animal like behavior??

The reporter who decided to shoot all this, can't he shoot it for 10mins and then go and help her out instead of shooting it for 30mins and later asking the girl to reveal her identity? I agree that he has helped the police by filming the whole video but there has been lapses with the news channel's integrity and they shouldn't have revealed her identity openly. The guys seems to have been enjoying doing all this and there were educated and uneducated people who wanted to go and strip her off! Insanity and mad behavior.. These things are only due to lack of proper law and order in our country. They know that even they are caught they will get released the next day so why not enjoy this whole thing. If it wasn't media, this case would have got suppressed like several other cases. I really hope the girl gets justice and these offenders get a severe punishment. If given a chance, I would have made them to walk naked on the same streets and ask people to put cow dung on their faces and genitals. At least other guys will get a lesson that it is a crime. If we don't respect woman then we get the same treatment for our daughter's and sisters. I don't know what were they thinking before doing all this. Was this just because she visited a pub and she deserved this kind of treatment?? Come on guys wake up and stop this kind of nonsense. If they were 30 such people then can't we gang up and say NO to these bastards. I feel if we had a Hitler rule we could have hanged these guys till death or at least broke their hands using which they created such a crime! Indian government should impose very serious laws for molestation and rape incidents. Otherwise our country will never become a progressive country by seeing woman as a sex objects. Respect each other and the mindset regarding the pub culture is very wrong. Not all the people who go to pub are bad. Its just an individual opinion to go to pub or not.

P.S. I am sorry for the excessive raging words, I have never done this in any of my post. But this incident is unusual and I feel bad about it.

PM: The underachiever

Today first time I have seen a direct allegation on a country's Prime Minister on such a trusted magazine. Yes, I was a bit surprised to see our very own Manmohan singh on Time magazine's cover page but with the caption "The UnderAchiever - Does India need a reboot?". Things like this will definitely create political drifts in our country and as a result of which the opposition party has asked PM to give resignation. While PM, refrained to come out and talk to the media. Mr. P Chidambaram commented this whole act as "distasteful". This article has also noted that economical growth of the country has receded and also asks a question to the whole nation whether "PM is upto his job?". The magazine has also pulled up congress led UPA government for wasting last three years of its rule.

While I don't totally refute from what the magazine cover says but as a media things like this shouldn't be done. Media is there to open everyone's eyes, but for making such direct allegations you need a strong backup. I haven't read the whole article yet, but I would say it should be a shocker to the entire UPA government and hopefully it will wake up our sleepy PM and finally he would take his stance. I wouldn't deny that PM is a good person as an individual, but why has he kept his mouth shut all these years. With a zillions of scams, price hikes, constant fall in rupee price in internation market why can't he reconstruct our goverment and economy?? It has also been alleged that PM doesn't have control on his own party people and also since when he took charge of Finance ministry where he was supposed to perform well, no significant development has happened.

Is this a warning bell for our country men to wake up and vote "Wisely" from next time?? Is this an alarm for the "UPA govt." that enough is enough?? My personal opinion is this has created a new wave of conflicts and politics among opposition leaders. Now, they are adamant that re election should happen much before the awaited 2014! The time has come for the PM to come out of his shell and do some economic reforms before the nation fells down.

As of today, I received an update from Time magazine with a reason why they called our PM an underachiever and here's what they said:

“Many people are upset because we called Indian PM Manmohan Singh an underachiever,” said Time magazine. “We intended no disrespect to Mr. Singh. We just meant that all his achievements were under someone else. Very often he could not see what he was doing because he was bent over too much. This may have affected his performance, but our observation related mainly to his position and posture.”

Two Minutes

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 29; the 29th Edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The topic for this month is 'TWO MINUTES'.

Two minutes before the impact ....

I looked at the wall clock as it read the last minutes of my life. Lisa pushed her body and her head harder into my chest. Her whole body was shaking with fear, she would never admit it but I could sense it. Her brown curly hair was looking so beautiful and when I touched them for the last time I felt this is what I wanted in my life. Finally at this stage, my Lisa is with me. I gently wiped down her tears and told her " Lisa we have to be brave."

Woman on helpline - "Sir, firefighters are on the way. They should reach you anytime. Are you on 95th floor?"

Lisa screamed - "Yes we are. We are gonna die. Aren't we? There are no men here on this floor. No lights and there is so much smoke, I can barely see." She started crying

One minute before the impact...

Lisa nodded her head and burried herself back into my chest.

"I don't wanna die. I am just 21, my life has barely begun" She started crying again. I wish I could have done something to rescue her. My whole life repeated in front of my eyes. My school days, my high school crush, my parents, my first job, etc. We heard some cracking noise on the floors above us.

Woman on helpline - "Sir, Mam please don't panic."

I screamed - "Please tell us, what happened? Is there any attack on this building? I don't think fire would cause so much of problem".

Suddenly the building started shaking very badly. The wall clock fell on my head. We were 100% sure that we are gonna die.

Twenty Seconds before the impact........

Lisa clamped more tighter to my back and started coughing because of the smoke. We couldn't see in each other's eyes. Our floor started to crush, we felt like we are sitting on a roller coaster ride which is going to suddenly go down towards the ground.

Woman on helpline - "Mam, Sir are you with me.. hello?? "

We didn't feel like responding back to her. Instead we held each other tightly and I made my love proposal to Lisa finally.

"Lisa, I donno why i am saying this now but I - Love - You. I know its too late but that's what I felt about you."

Lisa kissed me amidst all this situation.

10 seconds before the impact ...

My heart started pounding and we both gave in to the destiny. There was a big thud on a floor above us that made it sure that the whole building is gonna crush us down.

6 seconds before......

Lisa looked up. She wiped her tears and kissed on my forehead. She held my hands. We gently waited for our death.

3 seconds before....

She said "I love you".

1 second before...

We embraced each other for the last time.

0 second before.......

The whole building crushed us down to death. There was a white noise after that and the pain finally came to an end !

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News flash - There was a terrorist attack on World Trade Center buildings in New York.

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Lets go back few minutes before this impact and I can tell you that I never imagined my life would end up like this.

It was a routine day at work. I came to WTC tower-I at 8.30am and I was in an elevator. My friend John was on the phone with his client and he didn't say bye to me. He left on 53rd floor.

"Excuse me Sir! please hold the elevator" She screamed

"Lisa. Hello. Come on in!!" I told her. She looked very pretty, with her nicely combed curly hair. She was looking like a princess. Lisa joined as my personal assistant a month back. I liked the way she would patiently take notes, make appointments with my clients and take care of all the official documents.

At about 8.40am we reached 95th floor, our office. I asked her to come to my room for today's appointments.

"Lisa, can we go for a coffee or a date? " I finally asked her out.

"Well sir, I donno what to say" she replied.

"You can say yes!" I replied

"I can come for coffee" she said and smiled.

"Okay give me few minutes and I will walk you to the starbucks downstairs."

But as soon as I finished my statement I heard a loud explosion which was immediately followed by tremendous building sways and vibrations. It immediately occurred to me that it could be an earth quake, but there was sudden dispense of large amount of smoke and fire that we couldn't do anything but run. We started to run towards the stairs but because of the smoke and fire we were pushed back into our office. Within seconds the whole floor was filled with large amount of smoke and debris. I heard the noise of firefighting engines and people screaming.

And the rest is a history! So, At last I proposed to the girl I wanted in the last two minutes of my life!

P.S This is post is also a tribute to all those innocent people who lost their lives on 9-11. They all had a normal life and never imagined that a day at work could cost their lives.

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