Callous Wayward Governance (CWG)!

Either India has become a rich country(How? When?) or it is a very lost country (mis)led by some extremely sharp, dynamic and dangerous businessmen!

How else will you justify the spending of roughly ‘Seventy Thousand Crores’ on the Common Wealth Games (CWG) to be held from the 3rd Oct’2010 in the national capital?

An expenditure that far exceeds all measures of our economic demographics be it the countries GDP, Trade stats, the avg per person income, the literacy levels, the sanitation, law and order requirements etc etc.

There were seventy thousand concerns detrimental to a nations effective functioning that have been screaming attention to be attended to, Concerns that have for decades been delayed or ignored for the lack of funds while the CWG has been considered apt for spending such a mammoth sum.

It is a display of shameful hypocrisy and ignorant short sightedness by those who harp on the advantages of hosting the world sports event of such magnitude when our entire system and culture has failed to inculcate a sports psyche in the country.

• How many schools and colleges lay emphasis on there being a playground on their campus? Schools these days don’t even have space to park their buses!
• In how many institutes is a sporting area respected and not cramped with a storage space?
• How many families or mindsets encourage the young ones to take sports as seriously as their ‘studies’? and lastly,
• How many of us consider a sporting activity- irrespective of our age and profession- to be a mandatory commitment in our routine, if not daily than weekly?!

Our culture primarily and consistently has been to complete our studies, procure a decent job and then marry respectably, where in this does sports feature?

There is of course enough justification for this. It is not possible to sustain your self as a sportsman in India. In the pre- Sachin Tendulkar days even cricket was dismal and appalling like its foster siblings.

Understandably the country had been bruised on its way to be free and while taking its baby steps towards governance always had other priorities that needed funding and they were far more important than sports. The unfortunate fact is even after having given those priorities the deemed attention- for more than half a century- they continue seem substandard and patchy and suddenly we seem to have shifted focus to hosting world events like the CWG, cricket world cup and now even the F1 races!

How did this change happen? How did we suddenly have enough funds of such high proportions to be directed at avenues that were initially not on our priority list and still should not be?

The large portion of our populace is still poor, there are still no comfortable public sanitation facilities even in the metros, the transport system and community planning still needs ample funds and attention, there are grave terrorist threats that need expensive security measures; oh wait!!! Let me speak in the language that the CWG organizers understand, thus- There are still stadiums to be built and gymnasiums that not only need to be built but a thousand rotting facilities that need better maintenance, staff and equipment, there are still lakhs of sportsman who have still not received their promised rewards, a call center job still is more lucrative than that of a sportsman, there are still salary hikes due for lakhs of athletes who live in demanding and unhygienic conditions....

The common wealth exercise and the likes thus simply seems to be a criminally lethal economic enterprises for the entrepreneurs, by the entrepreneurs and of the entrepreneurs who shall be ‘commonly’ getting ‘wealthy’ at the end of the ‘games!’ and the divide between a superfluous urban India and the earthy rural India only widens... Scary!

The various breeds of Dog Lovers!

I wanted to have my own dog when i was around 6. I demanded and cribbed but nothing came of it. I still wanted it when i was 12 and so i demanded and cribbed but nothing came of it even then. I wanted it when i was 16 but alas it was not to be!

More so, I could not fathom how my parents could be so stone hearted as to not want our very own dog. How could they be so unwarm to not want the bouncy ball of fur wagging its tail and smiling the lip less, selfless smile at us all the time? I would especially feel perplexed when they made it seem like bringing home a dog would be some demanding chore and thus unmanageable.

I thus remained grim on that front until i discovered out of observation that like the dogs even the dog lovers happen to belong to different breeds! It was this discovery that made me understand my parents’ point of view and made me understand why i could not have had a dog and more importantly why some people too should not have them.

Broadly speaking there are four breeds of dog lovers, those-

1) who love dogs- LOVERS,

2) who care for dogs- CARERS,

3) who own dogs- OWNERS, and

4) who do all of the above- NURTURERS.

LOVERS:- I claim to love dogs, for i really do, but i only have to meet the “Nurturers” to know what true love requires you to do and i doubt whether i am in a position to do all of that thus bringing a dog home simply on the basis of what i feel would be unreasonable and unfair to the dog. Hence, to get a dog home you need to ask not what you feel but what can you do to take care of him or her. Its like bringing up a child. Your love soon takes the form of duties and responsibilities and if you cannot do them your love can only be damaging to the one you claim to love!

CARERS:- ‘Care’ like ‘Love’ has always been a very relative concept! You can claim to care but the questions is- Do you? Giving dogs left over food or even “Parle-G” biscuits on your morning walks or whiling waiting at the bus stop is more convenience than care. But yes cancelling that meeting or an outing for your beloved pet would be care. Its the lifestyle changes you incorporate for the sake of your dog that defines your care. Not everyone can do that thus not everyone can claim to belong to this breed!

OWNERS:- This breed is the most amusing. They ‘own’ dogs but are never around to love, care or nurture their cherished ‘purchases’! They continue with their selfish life style without a bone of concern or guilt. They will not take the dogs for walks, give them food, take them for baths or to the doctors but yes they are the only one’s to be credited for all good that the dogs do! You can only guess then why they own dogs! The unfortunate part is that their so called love can harm the very creatures they boast of loving. In the absence of people (maids, family members etc.) who end up looking after their ‘owners’ indulgences, the dogs risk to suffer from neglect and ill health. It goes without saying that the owners are too indulgent to even acknowledge the effort of these people who end up taking care of the dogs. This breed thus is most lethal.

NURTURERS:- The Nurturers are a truly deserving breed. They genuinely love and care for their pets and it shows. The changes they make to their lifestyle in order to suit their beloved darlings is at times too touching and humbling. I know of a couple who has all the access to a high flying life but prefer the environs of a secluded get away outside the city amidst nature for it suits their pets. I know of a girl whose life selflessly and thanklessly circles around that of her darlings babies.

The nurturers thus exhibit love as it should be and unless you qualify to be of their breed dont get home a pet... until then belong to the breed my parents forced me to!! Bow wow!