Who am I?

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I am not religious, but I don't mind calling myself spiritual. Religion, I believe, has, over the millennia, been used as a prop to perpetrate a lot of human suffering. Faith is what matters. I don't believe in the definition of God as a creator. According to me, my God resides within me. Some call it conscience, some call it the sub-conscious, some call it the soul. I don't mind calling it God. So by definition I am not an atheist or an agnostic, but by essence, I may as well be. My God does not reside in a temple, church, mosque or gurudwara. It is right here, within me.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Common "Wealth" Shames!!


         Considering the history of inept planning and even worse implementation, what with an administrative system that reeks of lassitude, what else could we have expected of our leaders? If that is not a rhetorical question, then I will do the honour of answering it myself (in fact I’m etching to do it!). The Commonwealth Games could go still downhill from here. Worst case (or best case?), India could end up winning most of the medals at the games, because almost all of the participating countries would have withdrawn by then. Moreover, these days my imaginative mind also nudges me to think further! What if the opening ceremony is accompanied by a terrorist attack in the Games Village itself, or some major roof comes down on certain spectators (God forbid!) and the Games stand forfeited?
        But thankfully, none of this is happening right now. Nor does it seem likely, if the placating statements passed on by the Government are to be believed. Now that the top people seem to have intervened, there are hopes afloat all around of a better show (better than the image projected by the ‘filthy’ games village, as described by an organizing honcho!). But this very happening makes one wonder why did the powers-that-be wait till the very last day (literally) to intervene? Or why did the preparations for the games begin almost more than 3 years too late? Or where did the 70,000 crore of the taxpayer’s money, that made this Commonwealth Games the costliest ever, disappear off to when the rooms provided to some athletes were ‘literally crappy’? These and many more questions can only be answered by the very same people who are organizing this mess. But let us wait for the mist of 11 action days to clear to make some sense of this melodramatic blame-game at the centre. But one thing is for sure, the Commonwealth Games have not made us proud. Instead, it has done the exact opposite – it has made us Indians hang our heads in shame, even before the Games have begun.

3 comments:

  1. Truly shameful affair. Don't know why people with a track record like Kalmadi were made in-charge in the first place. Don't know why our organizers make comments like "their standards of hygiene are different from ours", without realizing they're insulting the entire nation by saying so. If anything, the Commonwealth Games are a victory of corruption, inefficiency, greed and lack of organization. Shame on the organizers!!

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  2. well, does the inaugral ceremony answer atleast some of your questions? totally agree with your view (except the last line), but lets not discourage our country and thousands of people who have put in so much hard work to put up that brilliant opening show! (Kalmadi needs sensible PR i believe to use the right language with the Indian media in crises like this one, and i guess Delhi CM too)

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  3. That the opening ceremony was grand, cannot be doubted. But then should have been expected, considering the huge bugdetary allocation. Just this one fact: India's health budget for 2009 was $4.35 billion. And India spent $15.5 billion on the CWG alone. And that, when India has 30 million diabetics, 1.8 million die from TB annually, and diseases like Malaria and Alzheimer's on an alarming rise. Just a matter of priorities, I dare say.

    I doubt not for one moment the amount of infrastructure it has generated, which has no doubt given employment to many. But as a proud Indian, I feel it is my duty to highlight the murkier side of hosting an event of such humongous size, where divergence of funds and putting up a false facade is order of the day.

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