The BIG BANG Bazinga.

16th February was the date. I voted. End of story.

Yes.

Wow! the shortest blog post (by me) ever.

Wait. No there is more.

Why, why - please end this.

http://www.fanpop.com/spots/sheldon-cooper/images/24678220/title/sheldon-cooper-fanart
(Image from this link)

Ok. Time now for a Bazinga moment.

What if we (Indians) decide to change the face of our democracy.

We right now elect our representatives with one vote each. Each vote technically has the same power over the other. So put it simply a poor slum dweller has a equal say as a middle class flat owner or a rich man with 100+ properties. But are all three able to qualitatively access their representatives. Do they have the time, will and faith over their representatives. Is a feedback and an interactive system in place.

I personally (a post graduate) is sure that I with all my education and exposure is unfit to select the leaders of our country. How do I know how is not/less corrupt. How do I know that this person will not use next 5 years for personal gains. And how do I know that the promise this person is showing right now is a short term carrot to win this election.  These are the usual carrots.(better roads/ water/ transport / Rs.500/ Saree)

But with my education I have imagination.

Hence I put forth a solution to our democracy.

How to find a representative.

1. People vote and elect only a certain set of professional (occupation) related people in their area. For example people will get to elect 3 lawyers, 3 doctors, 3 journalists, 3 businessmen, 3 architects... etc.

An uneducated person can also be selected through this but he needs to be a professional - (businessman, artist, ...)

2. These elected representative will then choose the representative among themselves and those people will do the term as the people representative.

3. Those who do not wish to lead the area will be allowed to drop out but those who are willing and capable will be given due support with all administrative support. (IAS).

4. The remaining candidates who were not selected but elected by the people will be questionable to the people they represent and hence they will be asked to track, monitor and question the working of their selected peer.

5. Targets will be set for the terms of the elected candidates.

6. For reelection, these targets would need to be met.

7. No body will be allowed to be a professional Politician. They need to have an profession. The initial list of professionals will be made available to every voter.


  

Truck Tales - part 2 -

Sunday - 14
Rohan reached Nanded at Dawn at 4.00 am.  Nanded is right next to the banks of river Godavari.The early morning chill in the air was cutting like little pins on his skin. He had taken the bus which travelled to Nanded. It reached Hadgoan at 1.30 am and the Nanded station at 3.50. The Nanded station looks like a Gurudwara.

As he got down the bus stand he felt the sudden hunger which was hurting his stomach. He looked around and found a tea stall. A cutting chai had never tasted so good before.

He decided to check up with the taxi service provider at 5.00 am even though he knew that the time was too early. But he got his next set of directions.

Seema was in Degloor a place very close to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

He tried to find some transport. He found none. Tried hiring a taxi but it was too early and he wanted to reach early as he wanted to also be back in Mumbai on Monday.

Thus he took a lift. A lift from a truck. Rohan found to his dismay that getting in this truck was hard. The door was too high and it took him some effort getting in.  The road from Nanded to Degloor was as smooth as moons surface. In fact there were so many potholes that the truck was flying at top speed and as it was going so fast, the truck was barely touching the ground.

The fields on view had black soil which is very fertile and grows cotton, soyabean and turi excellently.

At 8 am he had reached Degloor. The people as he found out could speak Marathi, Kannada and Telagu in the same sentence and breath. As he asked around, finally he where Seema was.

At 10 am he met Seema near the main centre. She was suprised to see him, she liked it - the gesture but she also found it stupid.

As they chatted, fought and pranked around 2 hours went by in no time.

Seema still had work to do and so Rohan joined her as she went about photo doumenting small villages, their agricultural crops and their lives over all. At around 4, when Rohan said he wanted to go back to Mumbai. But Seema would have none of it. She appreciated the adventure Rohan had gone through and she wanted to savior it, and Rohan going back was not a part of it.

" Go back on Tuesday. Call in sick tommorow".

And thus Rohan and Seema were together at last. They spent there time together as they were closer now than they were ever before.


There was still one more trip to happen, and this trip was to Hadgoan which Rohan and Seema did together to cover the bazaar day at Niwgabazar on Monday the 15th.

As Rohan slept on his journey back on Monday night in his train berth, his dreams carried visuals of Green fields from Wardha and the Black fertile soils of Nanded.

His life as he knew it would never be the same again.


A short story by Ninad Tatke.

Truck Tales - part 1

Ferry / Fairytale part 1

Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life....Love gives us a fairytale...!!


11 am – Saturday 13

As he walked around the main market road – Army Road, in Wardha . He called up Aarti and asked her to casual ask Seema when she can about her whereabouts.

Wardha is a town built largely by Bajaj family. There is a statue of Bajaj in the centre of the town which is next to a river.

Half an hour later he got his first bad news. Seema had lost her phone and now was not reachable. Rohan realized now, that tracing Seema would not be as easy as he imagined.

Some how he found out that Seema was in Kapsi.



4 pm – Friday 12

It was a normal office day in the cubicle of Janak Industries. Rohan had just spent his 6 minutes of break chatting around near the water cooler. His life was okay, he had a job in Mumbai which meant that his bills were paid on time, a girl friend - Seema he met mostly and perhaps only on weekends and a family back in Baroda.

Seema considered Rohan as a good guy but he felt that they could have something more. She felt Rohan did lack something in him. Seema was an adrenaline junky and she worked for an MNC as a free lance photographer.

Seema used to call Rohan the most predictable person on the face of the earth.

For Rohan everything was planned, strategized and had back ups. Seema usually just went with the flow.

He knew that Seema was going in the interiors of Maharashtra for some work this weekend.

24 hours later he was in the interiors of Maharashtra with no idea where Seema was.

4 pm – Saturday 13

After asking for directions in Kapsi in Wardha Maharashtra and hitching a ride in local seat sharing rickshaw, Rohan reached Waigoan also in Wardha and he decided to enquire about Seema to local people in the shops, the bus stand, the richshaw walas, and after talking with around 10 to 15 people, he was told by one person that he had seen a lady and a driver in a taxi at Patri.

Rohan decided to hire a rickshaw but no wanted to go to Patri right now. He offered money, but no one was bulging. Instinctively Rohan waved a truck going towards Patri and started his journey towards patri. On a normal day this activity of hitch hiking on a truck itself would have been his Facebook message but today was not a normal day.

The fields of Wardha were very beautiful as the green crops moved about in gracious wind in the golden sunlight. It was a great view, but Rohan had his mind elsewhere.



Friday 5 pm. 12

As Rohan was unsure what to buy for Seema on her Birthday, he called up a common friend Aarti. Aarti suggested a few things but said that what she (Seema) would love the most is to spend some quality time with you. Rohan thought let me find her and meet her in her project right now. That shall be a great surprise for her. He did ask her where she was ofcourse over the phone. But he did not know that finding her would lead to him finding himself.

Thus Rohan started on to the journey which started on a train in Dadar, and began in Wardha.

7 pm Saturday 13

As he asked the local shops and the main centre in Patri, Rohan knew now that Seema was in a taxi which had a Kolhapur number. He immediately used net to call up taxi services in Kolhapur and 20 minutes later he knew the taxi service provider who had rented out a taxi to go to Wardha and then to Degloor in Nanded. Now he knew that he had to reach Nanded tomorrow to meet her and to surprise her. He saved the taxi operators number and started towards Nanded.


A short story by Ninad Tatke.
To be continued...

The Lady who lifts an elephant everyday.

I have seen India. At-least glimpses of it. From the royal deserts of Rajastan, to the snowy peaks of Himachal, to the bazaars of Kolkata and of course the lifeline full of mad working people city like Mumbai.

But during my last trip down south, I saw something which did not make sense.

In a remote village, it was evening time and I had just finished my days work. As I was getting ready to leave the village, I saw a lady (Amma) lifting an adult elephant in her arms and carrying him upstairs in her house through the open gate in her front yard. For a few moments, I was unsure that this is what I saw, but eventually as I convinced myself on its factuality, I started getting a feeling that I may well be losing my mind.

I walked to a near by tea shop and ordered a cutting chai. The chai wala saw the stunned face I had and he enquired.

"Kyu sahib, saab theek?" (Is everything alright)

Then observing my silence, he explained what I had just seen.

Chaiwala, " I think you just saw amma lifting the elephant"

I nodded.

" That elephant was badly hurt and feverish little orphan baby elephant when Amma decided to take care of him 10 years back. As the elephant was a baby, he was scared after dark and so every evening Amma lifted him and took him upstairs to take care of him.

This has continued over the years and every evening, Amma continues to carry him upstairs even though now elephant has grown up and has become quite heavy. But Amma never felt that as she is lifting something heavy as lifts him everyday and now is used to lifting its weight."


I thought the story so fascinating needed to be told so I called up an journalist friend of mine and , so the elephant would be impossible to lift if we try, now is on the cover  of all major newspapers today happy in Amma's arms.

As for Amma herself, she is puzzled and questions the reporter - Hey what is this buzz all about?





A short Story- By Ninad Tatke.