The Gods Must be Lazy !!

or perhaps Hazy !?? The shining statues made out of pure gold, studded with diamonds and emeralds. Piles of cash, which keeps pouring in and sometimes keep disappearing as well.

Sabarimalai temple generated revenue of Rs.128 Crore (apprx. $25million) in a recently concluded pilgrimage season! The official notification can be read here According to some estimates the temple might be owing assets (in cash, kind, jewellery etc) anywhere to the tune of Rs.1 to 5 lakh Crore ( whopping $25 -$100 billion). But Unfortunately the fact remains a stampede in the temple killed 100 people earlier this year, which goes on to prove how much of time and resources are invested by the temple committee/trust to improve infrastructure and ensure safety of the visitors/pilgrims etc.

As can be read here earlier this year 100s of kg of Gold and Silver and crore of cash was found in the room of Satya Sai Baba ! What all this money and gold was doing in his room? A possible case of gold lust ?

It took me quiet some time to comprehend this figures, yes ladies and gentlemen, hold your breath tight...the Sri Sai Baba trust in Shirdi manages a corpus of Rs 47,82,31,835.64-crore (over $10 Trillion) as can be read here The total income during the year 2009-10 was Rs 1,64,88,01,030 by way of rent, interest on savings bank accounts, investments and donations.

Similar is the fate of Balaji temple, Siddhivinayak temple, Srinathji temple, Ajmer Sharif Dargah, Puri temple etc. These are some of the prominent temples of national and international fame. The sum total of LIQUID assets of these top 10 temples in India will definitely run into TRILLIONS of Dollars, i.e Crore of Crores of Rs/INR.

As per my estimate within every 5 Kms diameter in India, there's a temple/shrine/mazar/place of worship and within every 100 Kms diameter (per district apprx.) there exists a similar place which is popular in the region and is visited by 1000s of people everyday and perhaps more than a million per year! So assuming an average of Rs.100 ($2) per person, these temples must be receiving donations worth Rs.9-10 crore ($2 million) per year. Almost all of these temples et.al celebrate an annual event/mela gathering at some point in time, which is associated with a mythological or should we say hypothetical story. Again based on my estimate, during this period, these temples receive donations worth equal to or greater than what they might be receiving during the rest of the year. So to summarize, these comparatively small temples of regional significance must be making money in excess of Rs.10,000 crore ( 640 districts x 1 temple per district x $4 million per temple == $2.5 billion).

Fortunately the Indian gods are lazy enough and are not able to spend all this money, which has been safely deposited/donated by the god fearing, religious people of India !! Interestingly the amount of money/assets swindled/dwindled/donated/deposited with the temples et.al might compete (can exceed as well) with the amount of money off shored to Swiss/Caymans etc in past 60 year post independence. I strongly feel that a huge % of this money would have been deposited because it can be parked in the banks( Income tax fears), all of it cant be kept in the house(theft fears) and perhaps it would not have been possible due to logistics constraints to park this money in Swiss/Cayman/Bahrain etc type of places, so temples do offer a safe place, which is out purview of even the government. Considering the fact that everything is possible in India, it is also possible that the trust, the pundits whoever is safeguarding these donations must have been charging fee/commission for safeguarding and even returning the money/funds/donations as and when required, right under the nose of the ultimate savour.

So the lazy gods accepts bribes in almost all forms, but what do they do with it ? It is safe to assume that almost all the money in off-shored is black/illegal. On similar lines, I think it is safe to assume that almost all (i.e more than 90%) of businessman, entrepreneurs in India ( be the one running grocery shops, showrooms, to small manufacturing units to multi-business, multi-billion dollar business empire) evade taxes and these are the people who bribe our lazy gods beyond reason against some demand/wish/request/ plea/ threat etc.

So what kind of favours do our gods return, what kind of services do they provide? We Indians the way we are, its safe to assume that the gods must be performing well, because the donations, the money, the gifts et.al is keeps on increasing YoY basis ! So are gods really lazy ? What about the genuine intentions, the belief, faith, trust in religion, of we the people of India ? Can we simply write-off all that is genuine and true and innocent ! What happens to the middle class and the poor people? Does god listen to them ? I dont think so........we frequently keep hearing rags to riches stories every now and then...most of these inspiring stories are about the self made men (or rarely women, sorry but true factually), so which means that god wants you/us to achieve certain level by ourself (or is that part of the divine plan too ?) in order to be eligible to speak/interact with him (or her) more frequently and produce results. It is like corporate style or perhaps corporates have adapted the god's style !

So, a fraction of we, somewhat genuine a bit selfish though religious, people of India have amassed trillions and trillions of dollars (in India and abroad) of wealth, by the grace of gods in past 60 years and the lazy gods dont seems to be caring about the rest of us any time soon, so its time to wake up, get up from that desk and kick some ass, so as to be eligible to speak with the gods...

The Times They Are a-Changin

An amazing song written by Bob Dylan written in 1962. A classic, so much relevant once again in 2011. An unusual style of writing, using simple words yet deep meaning and immortal relevance, that's Bob Dylan the master poet. Sometimes a song find mass appeal, relevance across borders and generation far beyond what its creator ever imagined, such is the beauty of a timeless piece of art. This particular song epitomizes the free spirit and voice of masses which Dylan always symbolized. The 2011 Arab world uprising, the Indian Against Corruption movement led by Anna Hazare and several such attempts by commoners have reinstated the message this song truly conveyed.

This song was covered by several artists in past 40 years but a recent adaptation in the 2009 movie 'Watchmen' is another vivid and interesting take on this song with Superheros in the backdrop.

So here goes the song

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The Times They Are a-Changin
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
-Bob Dylan
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You must listen to this song on the official Bob Dylan website here

H2O Detox !!

Named after the river Indus, India has provided a fertile ground for the genesis of various religions in the past 2500 years. Water has always been an important aspect of the religious activities, and We, The People of India for thousands of years have always considered river and water bodies a source of life, abode to various gods, most holy and the god itself. Look, where are we now, what have we done !!

The exponential growth of human population in 20th century has led to tremendous increase in the demand for food and water. The resources are limited, and so arises the need to judiciously utilize the available resources, find out innovative ways to reduce wastage and recycle. As per latest satellite images from NASA, ground water table in Northen India will dry up by 2030. What plan of action our government of India has to address this issue? Is it even considered an issue at all by any political parties, who invest time and resources to ensure that they get votes and seats in next state, central elections !

By innate nature, we Indians are not spendthrift. And so when it comes to per capita consumption of water, we are once again very low down the order, which is a good omen for a change. But the need is to go beyond the numbers and see, is it because millions of people cant afford to wash clothes or take bath everyday. Unfortunately more than 800 million people (both in urban and rural India) rely heavily on the water supplied by the government. They filter it using piece of cloth, alum etc because they can't afford to buy and install any sort of water purifiers. People living in rural India and in not so expensive areas hidden behind the shining glass facade of high rise towers in Mumbai, Gurgaon or Hyderabad, get water supply once in three day. In almost all the studies conducted in past decade, India has been consistently ranked in bottom five when it comes to air and water quality. So a safe and secure public water supply and distribution system is The need of the hour !

Driven by high profitability Electricity production and distribution has hogged the government agendas in the past few years. 'Water' a fundamental need has never been a priority perhaps due to lack of 'huge' money making opportunities for various stakeholders involved.

Having sold public and industrial water chlorination systems for 3 years, I have designed, repaired and sold systems which produce a chlorine derivative Sodium Hypochlorite in liquid form ! Chlorine still remains the cheapest and most widely used source for water disinfection when it comes to disinfecting millions of liters of water per day. Other oxidizing agents such as Ozone are not commercially viable still. Unfortunately there exists a huge mafia of suppliers of Chlorine in the form of Chlorine gas or in powdered form as Sodium Hypochlorite ! These suppliers guided by their hidden or I should say main motive to make money at all cost, keep injecting excessive quantities of chlorine in the water so as to get the next order asap. Very rarely any sorts of audits are done by 3rd party agencies to measure the level of chlorine in the public water supply. On other end, to save cost, these guys supply such a useless quality of chlorine that it is of no practical importance. In such case the public is at least saved from the over exposure of this dangerous chemical but is then prone to using, drinking contaminated and impure water.

In order to tackle this problem, I strongly feel that local community should start participating in such matters. In addition to government officials or the company responsible for supplying chlorine/ equivalent chemicals for water disinfection, 3-4 members of the community should be provided with the kits and made responsible to measure the quality of the water. For measuring the level of chlorine and overall purity of water, several easy to use kits are available in the market. Within 15 minutes almost anybody can be trained on how to use such kits. The PPP (Public Private Partnership) model should not just be restricted to profit making private corporations but also to private individuals and community at large. By doing so, the community will also feel responsible and will play a active role and so will the government officials and suppliers.

Several similar schemes have been floated in the past, but were not advertised and promoted effectively by the government. Most of such schemes which are for the benefit of the masses gets a mere lip service from the government when it comes to marketing and promotion. Need of the hour is to make people aware by organizing camps, drastically improving the visibility of such schemes using TV ads, internet, social media etc.

Water purifiers based on three methods are widely available in the market - Ultra Violet Purification ( combined with multistage filters), Reverse Osmosis based purifiers and Multistage water purifiers. While the first two methods need electricity and are more effective methods, Multistage water purifiers are gaining popularity because of low initial as well as recurring costs. None of the three methods are not very technology intensive and so are easy to we have witnessed emergence of several national and regional players in addition to multinational players selling water purifiers of one of the three types. So it is important for customers like us to learn about the background of a regional or local company selling purifiers at very low prices. It is high time also for our Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to step in and verify the claims made by these companies. Any company found making unverifiable claims, misguiding the customers should be immediately blacklisted. Not just the company but the people running such companies should also be barred and if possible should be put behind the bars for conducting such criminal offense against the society.

Its time to rise above the habit of pissing on the neighbor's wall, its high time to stop disposing dead human and animal bodies and excreta in the holy rivers, its time for the youth of the nation to think beyond your and my cans, its time to stop pondering and start acting so as to ensure a healthy and bubbling tomorrow.

This article is written as an entry for 'Crusade against chlorine' contests organised on Indiblogger that can be accessed here.