Pub culture will not be allowed in Bangalore, says CM

Karnataka chief minister (CM) says his government will not allow pub culture in Bangalore. He says it is against Indian culture. Drink at home, says CM. So does the Rajasthan CM. This is the greatest joke of the century. When did these people become the guardians of morality in India? So what is the chief minister’s role? The CM has to uphold the culture of India, which seems to be his main duty. They don’t even seem to know what culture is. Culture is giving respect to others. Does the so called Indian culture allow violence against women? He says it's ok to drink at home. Is he saying that parents and children drinking at home is Indian culture?

The government’s next move will be to say that women should not work as they had not done so before. That’s also westernization. They would soon stop couples in motorbikes to prevent women from traveling with “unrelated” men. This might also be against the so called Indian culture. They will be pushed from their bikes and beaten. You might soon get to see these on television. I am sure they would also love to bring a dress code like the Taliban. Now you know where we are headed. The Indian Taliban will say the rhetoric, “they are like our sisters, we only want to protect them.”

I remember an incident, where the Karnataka police showed their sense of duty. I was in the park with my husband and son, who was a toddler then. There was another couple in a bench on the opposite side. The police came and asked them to get into the police jeep. They pleaded with the police saying they were only talking. But the police did not budge. It was barely 6 pm. We were spared because the child was proof of our marriage!

Is this part of a policeman’s duty? There is so much for them to do, rather they do not do. Bangalore would be a much better place if they concentrated on their duty instead of looking at something absolutely needless. May be their job is not as interesting as chasing women.

But then what choice do we have? Well, keep yourself glued to the telly as the drama unfolds. We can only hope it wont be us!

Moral policing in Mangalore pub

It was a disturbing sight—girls frantically running out of the pub chased by the self proclaimed moral police. They were held by their hair and beaten. The videos were being shown repeatedly.

I was thinking about the kind of men who would treat a woman like that. A normal person cannot do that, even in the case of an inflated sense of morality. They were perhaps eying girls who wear modern dresses and behave in a way they cannot digest. They would have felt that these girls were out of their “reach”. The attack was a way of being superior to them. It gave them a false sense of superiority.

Talking about morality, there exist men who would visit whorehouses at night and become moral police during the day. Look at the men arrested. They look like seasoned criminals, who wouldn’t lose an opportunity to molest a woman.

Indian constitution does not have any clauses differentiating moral codes for men and women. According to our moral police, men can go to pub, wear shots, and behave in any way they want. This is also westernization. Why are they not policing them?

And what exactly is morality and when did morality surface? The current ideal of Bhartiya naari (Indian woman) is perhaps a recent one. A couple of generations back, women belonging to lower castes in my home state were not allowed to cover their upper body. Even if they covered they were expected to remove them when an upper caste man came across.

What happened to the people who molested a newly wed on New Year’s eve in Delhi? Perhaps it is forgotten. The culprits should ideally receive punishment, which will deter anyone planning to follow their footsteps. The incident should not be politicized. Instead each of the accused should be tried and punished. Relating them to any party simply dilutes the crime. The act should be seen as molestation. Nothing less nothing more. Remember, such incidents dont always happen to others.

Corporate fraud

I have come across many people who could empathise with Ramalinga Raju, ex-Chairman of Satyam. Guess why? They felt they were also in one way or the other treading the same path. Take the example of a sales person. In his own way, he routinely inflated his monthly sales figures. He often changed the dates to accommodate sales to the particular month. He often got into trouble, but managed to get away as his figures were small and could be written off easily. This is the case of an entry level salesman, an insignificant cog in the wheel!

How about a senior manager in a top company? He literally went against company policies to meet the target by backdating and fudging accounts. If caught, he would be in a soup. Many of his teammates are aware of these wrong doings. However, they are wary of discussing this with him as he was a senior person. He is confident that he can pull it off. He also feels it is okay to do such things as meeting the target was the most important thing. However, he doesn’t realize or refuses to understand that this is fraud. Figures are more important to him. Even his boss wanted “figures”. Did his boss expect his manager to say he couldn’t meet the target? No way. It’s not for nothing, people say, “by hook or crook”. Why would people coin such terms if they don’t mean it? “Anything is fair in love and war.” Is the corporate situation any less than war? Of course, no one is a thief until he is caught!

Jesus said, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone”. So, there we are!

Economic recession, a story

Scene: An IT company in Bangalore
July 2008
News: The company’s quarterly results are out and the projected revenue for the next quarter is quite a dream.
An employee calls the admin department, “I need two pencils. Could you please send it to my table?” “It will be there in 10 minutes”, replies the lady in the admin department. The items reach her table in less than 10 minutes.
Sept 2008
News: Fall of Lehman Brothers!
The employee calls the admin department, “I need two pencils. Could you please send it to my table?” She gets the reply, “Please come and meet me”. She goes to the department. The admin personnel says, “Please fill in a requisition form, sign and then take a pencil”. “But I need two, says the employee”. “Sorry, we can give you only one. We are trying to cut costs you know”.
November 2008
News: Global recession hits India
The employee goes to the admin department, fills the form for a pencil. The admin personnel says, “This pencil is for the whole team”. “wha…t?” “I hope you have read the internal circular about reducing overheads”. “Yeah”. “Anyways, I can’t understand what you want to write”
December 2008
News: Recession expected to worsen
The employee goes to the admin department, fills the form for a pencil. “The team needs a pencil”, said she. “Sorry, you will have to bring your own pencils. You don’t have any project. What do you want to write anyway?”
January 2009
News: An IT company chairman quits over inflated revenue; company in tatters.
The employee goes to the admin department and pulls out a box of pencils hands it over to the admin personnel and says, “Here, in case you need it, I just read an internal circular asking employees to contribute to help save the company”.