THE PEDESTRIAN IN INDIA - A CATASTROPHE- WELCOME TO ALL INNOCENT TOURIST

Long time ago a wrote already a post about the unbelievable situation of the sidewalks in India, but now I did find a more neutral publication from

Indrajit Hazra , Hindustan Times
I may have to manoeuvre myself through tributaries of urine and rows of shacks and stalls — and, on so many occasions, walk through people’s ramshackle living rooms — in Calcutta. But even with its village’s cape, Calcutta still makes it as a city because a person is able to walk from (almost) any point to any other if he wants to do so.
In Mumbai, walking is not confined to strolling in parks or along the sea front to stay fit. People walk there also to simply move — aimlessly or with a purpose — thus making even that grizzly leaking beast of a city such an attractive conglomeration of spots for bipeds.
Delhi is to pedestrians what garlic is to vampires. Even if the urbane middle-class Delhiite deigns to get down from his E-class or rigged-meter auto-rickshaw, there is no place to walk across vast stretches of the capital city of India. Without the safety and the vantage point of footpaths, we, middle-class residents of India’s only truly cosmopolitan city, are denied the choice available to all modern citizens: walking through one’s own city.
With no mainstream walking culture possible, some of us end up singing dohas to cracklingly crowded and grubby lanes and bylanes in Old Delhi and Chandni Chowk. In other words, Delhi revels in its underbelly without having a belly. Which is why Delhiites opt for Footpath Walking Lite: walking around (mostly in circles) the shopping areas of Connaught Place, Khan Market, South Extension and all those pretend boulevards inside malls that hope to satisfy a bit of our primal metropolitan urge to walk in public spaces amid fellow, anonymous citizens.
The urban phenomenon of footpaths (villages don’t need them) first appeared in Paris with the mushrooming of shopping arcades between the 1780s and 1860s. People started walking away from the dangerous streets with its speeding traffic and mud and mounds into the safety and ‘public privacy’ of the boulevards and sidewalks lined against or near these shops. Thus, an urban activity was born: strolling.
This, in turn, brought about streetlights and public transportation (both of these abundantly in short supply in Delhi 2010). It also gave birth to the urban sophisticate who literally used the city for his pleasures. Charles Baudelaire wrote in the 1890s about the flaneur, the leisurely stroller of cities: “The crowd is his domain, as the air is that of the bird or the sea of the fish. His passion and creed is to wed the crowd.” Not everyone, though, was pleased about footpaths and the new breed of citizens they spawned. Sounding like a future South Dilliwalla, a character in a 1866 French play whined: “Nowadays, for the least excursions, there are miles to go! An eternal sidewalk going on and on forever! This isn’t Athens any more, it’s Babylon!”
But before we get all poetic about the joys that footpaths can bring us, there’s the more prosaic matter of the proposed amendment to the Delhi Police Act, 1978. Jaywalking, defined as the act of a pedestrian illegally or recklessly crossing roads, is something that Delhiites engage in without having a choice on a regular basis. The penalty for jaywalkers is, on paper, Rs 20. The new law, if and when it’s passed, plans to up the fine to Rs 1,000. A bit rich, don’t you think, considering that it’s like punishing a ravenous vegetarian for eating meat when there’s only chicken on the menu?
But then, the proposed law brings hope. If walking along Delhi’s roads really becomes illegal, the authorities will be forced to provide us with proper footpaths. Who knows? The city may get universal streetlights and public transportation too. So thank god for foreigners from Commonwealth countries descending on Delhi in October. They’ll want to walk about town and not only along the grimy bits. And that’s how we’ll wrangle our own footpaths. Hurrah!

ihazra@hindustantimes.com

HINDHU TOLERANCE AND THE CHRISTIAN MASSACRES- AN EXPLANATION

I dislike to make copy-paste but this article of Kushwant Singh in Hindustan Times explains logically the reflections of upper- class Hindhu and the resentment and background of the culprits responsible for the massacres, still giving the impression that Hinduismus is the right faith giving no reason to convert.


Recent incidents of violence and vandalism against Christians and their churches deserve to be condemned unreservedly. They have blackened the fair face of Mother India and ruined the reputation of Hindus being the most religiously tolerant people in the world. At the same time, we must take a closer look at people who convert from one faith to another.

To start with, let it be understood that these days there are no forced conversions anywhere in the world. India is no exception. Those who assert that the poor, innocent and ignorant of India are being forced to accept Christianity are blatant liars. A few, very few educated and well-to-do men and women convert to another faith when they do not find solace in the faith of their ancestors. Examples are to be found in America and Europe of men and women of substance turning from Judaism and Christianity to Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism.

There are also men and women who convert to the faith of those they wish to marry. We have plenty of cases of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh inter-marriages. However, the largest number of converts come from communities discriminated against. The outstanding example was that of Dalit leader Bhimrao Ambedkar who led his Mahar community to embrace Buddhism because they were discriminated against by upper caste Hindus. This is also true of over 90 per cent of Indian Muslims whose ancestors being lower caste embraced Islam which gave them equal status. That gives lie to the often-repeated slander that Islam made converts by the sword.

An equally large number of people converted out of gratitude. They were neglected, ignorant and poor. When strangers came to look after them, opened schools and hospitals for them, taught them, healed them and helped them to stand on their own feet to hold their heads high, they felt grateful towards their benefactors. Most of them were Christian missionaries who worked in remote villages and brought hope to the lives of people who were deprived of hope.

To this day, Christian missionaries run the best schools, colleges and hospitals in our country. They are inexpensive and free of corruption. They get converts because of the sense of gratitude they generate. Can this be called forcible conversion? Why don’t the great champions of Hinduism look within their hearts and find out why so many are disenchanted by their pretensions of piety? Let them first set their own houses in order, purge the caste system out of Hindu society and welcome with open arms all those who wish to join them.

No one will then convert from Hinduism to another religion.

I apologize to Hindustan times and Kushant Singh for violating their coyrights without permission

BANGALORE BOMBS

Nine blasts rock Bangalore: two dead, dozens injured
Seven low-intensity bombs panicked the IT city were meant to spread fear more than mass destruction or death, say investigators and experts, reports. But I am still happy that the planned visit to Ashok Leyland in Husor was cancceled. So close I was never to these bomb attacks.



Pictures stolen from Hindustan Times

INDIAN VOODOO

If you have feeling victimized, if someone as been making your life miserable by politicking against you than their bad aura has pierced into you. When this happens and you dont do something about it , you begin to feel worse and worse as a result and soon you will descend in a spiral of feeling miserable and sorry for yourself.
It is vital that you do not allow yourself to get into a downward spiral of misery. Otherwise the situation will succeed in pulling you down.
THERE IS ONE EXCELLENT WAY TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION.
Get 2 ripe and juicy Indian lemon fruits (Lemon of the middle of Portugal will be very suitable too) It is best to pluck them directly from the plant if you have one. Bring them home and do not wash them. Hold one in each palm of you hand and roll them in your palm while thinking " ALL THE BAD VIBES, GOSSIP AND BAD INTENTIONS OF THIS PERSON (if you know her/his name say it silently to yourself) IS FLOWING INTO THE LEMON. KEEP RUBBING THE LEMON IN THE PALM OF YOUR HANDS FOR ABOUT 10 MIN. THEN GO TO GANGA (Mondego will do too) AND THROW BOTH LEMONS OVER YOUR RIGHT AND LEFT SHOULDER INTO THE DRAIN OF THE RIVER AND DO NOT LOOK BACK.
JUST THINK THAT YOU HAVE REMOVED ALL BAD AURA, BAD LUCK AND BAD INTENTIONS FROM YOUR BODY AND MIND. RETURN HOME AND HAVE A SALT BATH.
You will find that whoever who has been given you a hard time will cease to have any more effect on you.
THE LIME IS BELIEVED TO HAVE THE POWER TO DRAW OUT ALL NEGATIVE ENERGIES FROM YOU

Free conform to Shelly Gupta in Hindustan Times