Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – my take!

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – Our Prime Minister announced this campaign on Independence Day, 15^th Aug 2014 and launched it on Gandhi Jayanthi, 2^nd Oct 2014. And he himself wielded broom and swept a parking area in New Delhi. It was historic moment, if not historic movement.

This campaign has a budget of INR 62,000 crores, India’s biggest cleanliness drive and expected to cover 4000 towns over 5 years. Since launch, it has been covered in media extensively, with noted celebrities, film stars, industrialists taking to street and cleaning some place or the other and has given good sound bites for media to print & telecast…

It is one month since then, and if we look at current state, where do we stand?

• Has the roads/streets become clean now?
• Has people stopped littering public places?
• Has the civic sense improved?
• Can we compare India to cleaner cities abroad?
• Was the efforts made PM & celebrities mere lip service?
• Did these acts not touch the nerve of Indians & improve their self-discipline?

Wish, I could!! None of this has happened. All around, it looks just the same. I personally, was ashamed when this campaign was launched, for I had to accept that it requires 62000 crores of public money to clean this country. And the head of country (Prime Minister) had to wield a broom to show us our state of affairs.

Seriously, why is this not working out?

Let us face the truth. Indians by and large do not want discipline themselves. They are happy to litter on the road, spit anywhere & everywhere, break rules and are happy being this way. Will a campaign by PM change them? They will happily watch PM & scores of celebrities doing these work, appreciate them and will continue their act of littering…

I see the same roads, railway stations that were cleaned so diligently when the campaign was launched, now looking just the same, as if it were never cleaned in first place.

By the way, who does these littering on roads/streets? Is it the rich, well to do or the middle class or people in lower strata of economy? It is important that every individual across these socio-economic divide feels the same towards the campaign for it to be successful.

The well to do is using this for photo ops and giving sound bites. But, truth be told, it is not these people who litter the road, for they hardly walk on road. (Of course, there are exceptions to rule here)

Middle class are more self-disciplined and seldom litter. And if someone tell them not to do, they will happily oblige. It is these people who when go abroad, are happy to follow rules and feel bad to see the state of our roads on return…

But, people in lower strata of economy are a big concern. It is these, who you will find, invariably spitting on road, throwing trash as they walk and are comfortable to live among filth. (Sorry, I am a bit harsh here, but I do not see this being far from truth).

Question is, how do you bring change in them to ensure this cleanliness campaign is success?

A little bit of education, better garbage management, more involvement from people (not photo ops & sound bites), and sustained campaign are required, if we want a clean India, if not green India.

Jai Hind!!

How it feels to catch up with long lost friend

Getting back to writing a blog after a long period of absence. Wanted to share a personal feeling about losing a very good & close friend long back and able to connect with him again.

We were very close friends during our college days and used to hang out almost every day during the 3 years of our college days, during which we studied together (special studies, called night studies, more of it detailed below), watched scores of films together (across languages – Tamil, Hindi, English), roamed around, but not much of bird watching (you know, what I mean). For he was not that sort of person then and there were much in common between us.

Night studies – It was something that we prided, meant to catch up on studies and resolve accountancy & mathematics problem together and help each other. But all we did were, we spent 1 hr of study, 3 hrs of chatting, 1 hr of walk in night (smoking) & feeling having achieved our objectives. This friend was a bit in accountancy at that point in time, but was very determined to understand & score good marks.. This continued for the entire period of college.

Our friendship continued after our college days too, even when he moved cities, to study Law in Bangalore, while I continued to be in Chennai, pursuing my own goals in studies. We exchanged letters (postal, that was prevalent in 90s).

And as fate had, we met again in Mumbai, when both of us landed for our respective jobs –he in law & myself in a 9 to 6 desk job. Our hanging out continued again, with watching films together almost every week.

But fate did not allow us to continue this for long, and we lost connection and with no communication or contacts. It must have been 15 years now since we lost touch, during which I had tried to find his whereabouts through all common friends and also searching online, but just could not. There must not have a single instance where in college friends reunion, we have not asked each other about his contact..

Of course, networking has changed a lot in these 15 years, with facebook, whatsapp, mobile etc. having improved significantly and tracing a person is far more easier. And through a sheer luck, one of college friend got hold of his contact number. Spoke to my friend and found him being around very much in Chennai now and doing well for himself. Practicing law independently, has pursued his film interest to another level, with a screenwriting course at New York Film Academy, has written 2 books and much more...

Would not want to miss him again, and would like our friendship to resume from the place, where we lost each other. But then, there is a lot that have happened in my life in these 15 years, both of us having grown busy in our individual life, family responsibilities have got added etc., and need to see how much time we are able to spend, without it impacting our other priorities… Also, physical distance (he in Chennai & myself in Mumbai) needs to be factored.

But having said that, the feeling of finding your close friend back after such a long period of gap is amazing. Truly friends are forever!!