AGNEEPATH BY BACHAN

वृक्ष हों भले खड़े
हों घने, हों बड़े
एक पत्र छाँह भी
मांग मत! मांग मत! मांग मत!
अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ!

तू न थकेगा कभी
तू न थमेगा कभी
तू न मुड़ेगा कभी
कर शपथ! कर शपथ! कर शपथ!
अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ!

यह महान दृश्य है
चल रहा मनुष्य है
अश्रु-स्वेद-रक्त से
लथ-पथ! लथ-पथ! लथ-पथ!
अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ!

BEAUTY

A Think Of Beauty is a Joy Forever!

Simply Deepak

It's not difficult to die well,

The difficult thing is to live right.

TO LIVE RIGHT

It's not difficult to die well, the difficult thing is to live right!

TELL ME A MYTH

If you don't know the trees you may be lost in the forest , but if you don't know the stories you may be lost in life..........

HALF A TRUTH

People try different things to beat occasion’s blues. I did it by counting my savings. It worked until family expenses mounted and the hideous piece of plastic called credit card entered my life. Now, the state of my finances has me perennially in the pits. So, my girl friend keeps on supplying me with fresh ideas to earn more. Only sometimes she takes it too far. That day when she saw me flipping through a recently released autobiography she was at it again. “Isn’t it time you also wrote your memoirs?” she asked matter-of-factly as if I were Brad Pitt and writing memoirs a child’s play. Preposterous as the proposition was, I tried to counter it with reason. It works sometimes. Even with her. “What’s there in my life to write about?” I said. “It’s not what you write about yourself but the spicy things that you write about others that sells it. All you need is some imagination to make two and two 22”. “But you know how modest my writing skills are?”, I said. Unfazed, she rubbed it in, “Can’t you hire a ghost-writer?” “Oh, they all have become pricey, writing for the celebrities. But suppose I find one, I still can’t see why anyone would read an unknown person’s autobiography”, I said.

 

“We are not going to ask people to read it”, she said. Puzzled, I asked, “What do you mean?” “I mean people need not read it. If they just buy it, our purpose would be served. Anyway in this country those who pay for books rarely read them. Why, you buy so many. Do you read all? In fact, I am thinking of selling them to the raddiwala”, she said. Feeling threatened, I fell in line. “Please don’t. I’ll do what you say. But don’t blame me if people sue me for writing all sorts of things”, I warned her hoping that at least this would work. “Stop worrying about that. They won’t be able to prove a thing. You know I have even thought of an appropriate title. It’ll take care of everything”, she said exuding supreme confidence. What ace does she have up her sleeve? I thought and asked, “What title do you have in mind?” “ My Experiments with Half-truths”, she said.

SHOCK THERAPY

On August 9,1965 Malaysia’s parliament expelled Singapore from its federation. Does this expulsion by a republic, of a state that once belonged to it, hold any lessons for us? India too is a federal republic, and crucial areas of governance – such as law and order, agriculture, trade and commerce, transport and communications, public health-fall within the state list. The Center could well devise ambitious plans for economic progress, but they will fall through if states don’t implement them. Let’s take two examples-UP and Bihar. Politically they are blessed states, close to the epicenter of power. They do not lack in arable land or water resources (except, perhaps, some parts of southern UP that are dry). Bihar is also rich in mineral resources. Despite being so well endowed the two states score low on economic growth and human development, and are slipping further behind. During 1992-98, when economic reforms unleashed high growth across India, Bihar’s economy actually contracted at an average annual rate of 0.2 percent. UP accounts for a staggering 26 percent of infant deaths in the country.

There’s only one explanation for their being in a tailspin despite favorable conditions: Utterly criminalized political and executive classes have let them down. It’s futile threatening to cut off central funds to states that under-perform- that means very little to a state government that chronically mis-utilises them. One needs to hold out a more drastic threat- to cut them off from the republic. Lalu Prasad is reported to have advised Biharis to migrate to other states, after having helped create the conditions that make them migrate. This is too easy an escape hatch. There is no reason for the rest of India to subsidize this mode of functioning by throwing him a lifeline. Cut off that lifeline and the rulers of UP and Bihar would soon be facing rebellion from their subjects, as Nepal’s monarch did. What if India commits the same error as Malaysia, and UP and Bihar became new Singapores after expulsion? At least India would have succeeded in rousing UP and Bihar by administering shock therapy, and having a couple of economic powerhouses in its midst isn’t too bad.