This was amazing .. we were off to a party and this car suddenly comes on road a true blue bentley colored in the colors of a mobile shop and we started to chase the car and even took a video from a camera phone.
The noise accompanying the video may be a bit jarring..
There have been various incidents where the public at large has taken the justice system to the road. This has demonstrated the faith and trust the people have in the police apparatus and the judicial mis-system. As a society I think we are trending on a very thin line - the ordinary person has become violent and is ready to give up his/her pent up anger on the slightest of provocation... the security system is becoming impotent .. mostly concerned trying to satisfy the whims and fancies of their political masters. There seems to be no redressal forcing the people to take such drastic steps
I remember an incident a couple of years back as reported in the papers of a local rougue who was stoned to death in city of Nagpur by some 300 women who had lodged several complaints against the person without any success. Actually I had wished the same thing happened to the accused in the Nithari case ( though there was an attempt in the presincts of the court) - atlast the owner of the house has been chargesheeted.r>
There have been hundreds and thousands of cases in the public domain where the in-effectiveness of the police has been clearly layed tread bare. I find it so amusing a lot of times to see the constables and sub-inspectors on television trying to make a statement, they seem clueless most of the time and clearly not adequately prepared to handle crime. They are spectators alike.Most of the police stations are a dreadful places - in any case the ordinary citizen would not like to visit any situation.
I think there will growing instances of such incidents particularly in the hinterland where the rule of the land is different for different people. The atrocities faced by them have been going for ages. In the bigger urban centers due to the media glare the police is forced to act though there is hardly any follow up as nobody tracks the end result.
The signs are omnious and the government has to take urgent steps to cull this menace before it becomes endemic to our way of life.
As I had written some time back .. the average Indian is unconcerned what happens all around him or her till it affects themselves and with this attitude we go bonkers how the society, government has failed us. I had an experience last week which I think is relevant to share and kind of reinforces my above belief.
In the morning at the bus stop there were close to 100+ folks waiting for the bus, due to sheer number of people the foot path was covered . Couple of adventurous bikers were nonchalantly driving their bike over the foot path bringing inconvenience to all those standing plus in way breaking the law ( who cares in this country ) trying to get ahead of the traffic due to a bad jam.
Looking at the chances of people getting hurt I kind of protested with one of the biker who promptly went down on the road. There was this other person who started arguing and started using foul language when I came in front of his bike after couple of requests.The person suddenly got of the bike and threatened to hit me, I had no chance but to walk away as there was hardly any competition ( he was twice my size ).
Predictably none of the folks standing and watching the tamasha intervened and I am sure with so many people the person would have dared to even touch me. This is in spite of them being from my company. I was very disturbed .....still not sure I should have expected any support and anyways it was not worth fighting.
Though there are humongous amounts of data available on self help which kinda tells you how to lead your life etc but I found this rather concise and put up nicely with a lot of sense and purpose.
By -- Sri Sri Ravishankar
What are the obstacles on the path to discovery? They add up to nine — Vyadhistyanasamshaya pramadalasyavirati bhrantidarshanalabdha bhoomikatvanavasthitatvani chittavikshepaste antarayaha meaning “Illness, inability to comprehend; doubt, carelessness, laziness, non-attachment towards the senses, hallucination, and non-attainment of any state or instability are the distractions of the mind which cause obstacles in the path”.
Vyadhi or illness in the body is the first obstacle. The second is styana or the illness in the mind that is either mentally challenged or is incapable of comprehension. For example, you will be perfectly alright but when you get to start meditating, sickness befalls you! If you are watching television, nothing happens, but if you sit down to meditate, the body grows restless. This is an obstacle in your path.
The third obstacle Samshaya or doubt. You first need to understand doubt. Your doubts are always about something that is good. You never doubt negativity. Instead, you always doubt positivity. Has anyone ever doubted their depression? You never ask yourself, “Am I really depressed?”, but if you are happy, you doubt yourself. You keep asking yourself if you are truly happy.
There are three kinds of doubts. The first is doubt about oneself. The second is doubt about the technique that you practice on the path and the third is doubt about the master or teacher.
Pramada means doing something wrong knowing that it is very wrong. You know that certain things are not good for you and knowing this too well, you do it. Or, knowing too well that you have to do something and not doing it is pramada. You know that if you do not do a certain job you will be in trouble but despite knowing that you will be in trouble, you get into trouble. This is pramada. Carelessness, not being alert and attentive is the fourth obstacle.
Alasya is laziness or heaviness of the body. You may do a lot of things, but when it comes to doing little asanas, postures or exercise, you simply don’t. This laziness which can creep up in any aspect of life while doing anything is the fifth obstacle.
Avirati means being engaged in any one of the sense objects and not coming out of it. You can call it obsession. When you are hungry, you eat food. But after your stomach is full, then there is no point in thinking about food the whole day. All the organs of senses and their action is limited to some time and it should be over after that. But thinking about it 24 hours and being feverish about the whole thing all the time is avirati, is obsession. Do you see what I am saying? Is it clear?
It is the same reasoning for sex. Do not think about sex all day long. If you, then it is avirati. Incompletion of any sense creates attachment of that object. Avirati is a big obstruction in the path of yoga, for, it does not allow you to get centred.
Bhranti darshana or hallucination is the seventh obstacle. Many seekers practice something and get some vision and they get caught up in that vision because the visions are neither completely false nor completely true. They are a mix of both. So people try to hold on to it. Many cults have happened in this part of the word just because of this bhranti darshana. They have never understood these obstructions that can come in the path of yoga. This is called Yoga Maya. Yoga Maya means a vision would come and give you some message or it will be an intuitive message. You are sitting and meditating and a message will come, “Go and open the door; somebody is waiting for you” and you go and open the door and you find someone there and that gets you excited. But just because you had intuitive thoughts a few times, you get caught up in assuming all the thoughts that come to your mind always come true. But, many times residues or traces of your desires and hatred and fear will also come up. This is delusion or bhranti darshana.
The eighth obstacle is Alabdha bhumikatva. This is when one feels completely stuck, when you get that feeling that you are not going anywhere. The eighth obstacle is non-attainment of any state or samadhi, any peace or tranquillity.
Then comes anavastitava or instability. Sometimes people say that while doing meditating they feel peaceful and experience bliss, but, after a few minutes the whole thing vanishes. This is another usual complaint that people come up with. This ninth obstacle is known as anavastitatva.
As a country we have been fascinated with the color of the skin. I have been amused to suddenly see the plethora of skin whitening products for men and that itself has become a 100 crore market in a short span of time. I remember some time back reading that the usage for the most popular skin whitening cream fair & lovely amongst men was about 20%. Forget women now men also want to look fair. Michael Jacko the psycho is a case in point, cant blame the average Indian male.
This discrimination particularly based on the color of the skin has been rampant across the world. Apartheid – was simply based on the color without any respect to the creed etc. Even in the US blacks have to face discrimination - Barrack Obama is running for the presidency and surely will loose out to the white supremacy when it comes to nomination which incidentally is a rallying point for his presidency. It is probably the worst kind of discrimination. In a country where people are infatuated with the fair skin and caste prejudices run deep – it can be comical to read the matrimonial on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The undue importance in every post for bride wanted - regarding the color of the skin is very striking. I have observed this being prevalent irrespective of the caste, creed and religion particularly in arranged marriages. I had a first hand experience recently when I was asked to the color of a prospective groom by the girl’s parents- whom I had gone to meet for finding the suitability of a match.
According to some historians the whole caste system in India originated based on the color of the skin and a case in point which I remember vividly as pointed out was the upper castes generally are on the fairer side where as the lower caste on the darker side. Though there is no empirical evidence to prove this.
