Its the place you are at ..

IN or OUT
Sometimes things look much worse from outside.


When you are in and a part of the system, they look much more efficient, clean and most important - honest. You tend to understand and empathise with the inefficiencies and their causes.

Half a day makes a difference.

Terrorism Vs Corruption

While waiting for my turn in a Vodafone centre, I came across an edition of Outlook/ India today which covered the Bihar Flood havoc. Reading the stories of the affected families made me cringe. 25 Lakh people affected . A number which I was aware of. But suddenly few of these numbers had faces now. I knew how many family members they had lost, how many days their children had to go hungry before getting one piece of bread, how many square inches they had got for the whole family in the relief camp. And of course of the governments inability to deal with it.

The vastness of it all leaves me wishing - if only there were not a bunch of inefficient, money hungry officials in power. If only the culprits were given such a punishment, that in future any official would think thousands of times before putting monetary benefit over his job. But knowing Indian politics and our judiciary system, that is definitely not gonna happen. The media has already moved beyond. The officials will probably have to give some testimonials to some bloody commitees, and they will then go for a trip to switzerland (from the money that they have made out of it ) to cool down. Leaving the 25 lakhs people struggling for a lifetime to build what they have lost. And well, sometimes not even a life time is enough. 25 Lakh people.

And I could not help but compare that number to the number of people who have been affected by terrorism in our country. Are the numbers even close? No, do not get me wrong -I am all for the fight against terrorism - in spirit if not in action. But what about corruption? What about the people who had sworn to serve the people, now killing the people- through their greed and inefficiency. They are not even fighting for any cause, any jihad. They are doing that perhaps just for a bigger car, a bigger house or a foreign trip. After the Delhi incident, new laws are being brought in for the terrorists. People from everywhere are writing editorial columns about terrorism. How about a couple of laws for corruption ? For not doing your work ? How about few of the top bureaucrats speaking against the system ? But then corruption perhaps does not make that good a story as terrorism. And well, it definitely does not help India become better friends with U.S.

So what if the number was 25 Lakhs !!

Some me-analysis .. :P

People often crave to get back to their childhood. I dont. Not that I dont look back and muse at the all the kiddishness and innocence. But if I had to chose between childhood and this phase of my life, I would chose this one. :). That is because I like being independednt. Infact I have a strange kind of NEED to be independedent. I have to be financially independent. As well as, I have to have the independece of planning my evenings. (The lack of the second kind of independence is what made me hate my job :P. )

My friend says he pities my to-be-husband. I say LOL. :P