WIDENING GAPS

What I observed among many in the present society is "widening gaps". It happens when we fail to understand others rationally or ideally. We are different from many living around us. We must be able to love others as they are in case we are unable to change them. We must think 10 times before blaming others and once only before admiring or appreciating others. Accepting blame is difficult but enjoying appreciation is very easy for many of us.

Let me give you a few examples:

1. My parents mostly wanted me to live the way they wanted but they could enjoy my being their son only in such contexts wherein they were ready to accept my way of life also. Mutual understanding and cooperation work wonders at family level also.

2. I have great relationships with my brothers, relatives and friends because mostly they are based on unconditional love. Trying to understand them from their perspective and enjoying their differences from me. I should not expect others always to think and act like me.

3. I did not like many of my teachers at various stages of my education for 17 years because what I expected from them was different from what they could give me. In course of time I understood that I should love them because they did not spoil my life as a student. Perhaps they did not deliver up to my expectations. They might be helpless for some reasons. I should manage to love them. I should accord a good status and image to them in my heart as honorable entities. I did it. I am happy with it. Loving our teachers and well-wishers for what they are is good no!

4. I loved/admired many (beautiful) girls and desired to marry one of them. I delivered my message to them in a manner I was familiar with. There was no positive/any response from many of them. At the same time, they did not hurt me with their offensive or insulting response as well. It meant, if I had 10 reasons to love them and expect positive response from them, there would have been at least one reason on their part for why they could not respond to me positively. I must consider them from that perspective. Now I am happy recollecting my efforts to be loved by girls. My admiration for them was unconditional. They had choice to accept or reject my voice or preference. It is partly related to unconditional love.

5. I am an admirer of beauty at the core. Since I am a healthy male, I naturally find beautiful girls and women more attractive and admirable than men with similar qualities. "See and enjoy" must be my policy in this respect because God created so much of human beauty also around me to keep me happy as an admirer, not as a criminal, who chooses to grab something by force. The moment I am clear on the stand I need to exert toward other beauties around me, I am safe and happy to a great extent. Others that go against this idealist view, get entrapped by police or society at some stage of their progression toward a bad way of existence and behavior with others. It means one should take an idealist view in accepting and admiring others proactively to feel a sense of belongingness with all. Others might not care for you for various reasons. Still there is space for you to love them proactively without expecting their reaction or notice of what you are feeling or thinking toward them. It makes you one among many despite their negligence toward you. You must know how to connect with others instead of going away from them.

6. I love pups, cats, sheep, goats and many other creatures. I may not be a devoted dog lover like Sakshi because my being busy in some other things does not allow me to be attentive toward any one particular set of creatures. I enjoy observing the beauty of innocence in the eyes of many animals and birds that come across me in different areas. It means I am in touch with them. Touch is the source of happiness. Bad touches (which are considered sinful or evil by your active conscience if you allowed it to act) yield grief to us in the long run. We can easily avoid them using our common sense and applying our power of rational thinking. We should not build walls around us but break them. It integrates us with others.

7. Many often tell me why I should not go to some people or do some things to be safe on my part. I avoid meeting people or being in psychic attachment with some others only when I consider it right from my perspective. I know what I am. I should know what to do in many instances despite others' advice or warning to me to do the contrary. Before distancing myself from others, I should consider one simple truth, "If there are 99 reasons for why I should avoid somebody or something, perhaps there might be one reason for why I should be with that person or thing, physically or mentally. I can be close to it or him or her based on that one reason only. Integration is beauty. Disintegration is ugliness and evil. My vote is for beauty only. I want him/her/it". This is how we can be good at understanding and retaining friendship, love and admiration for many. The feeling that we belong to many at some level for some reason is strength. We need it. The imagination that many are neglecting/misunderstanding/underestimating us is a source of many confusions and the related sense of insecurity and restlessness. We must avoid it in every possible way we can manage.

8. In many cases, what I found was that lack of a dialogue led to the collapse of a relationship or friendship or love. A person might have scolded you 100 times or you would have done such a wrong thing toward him or her but there is still time to tell him or her, "I am sorry. It happened out of my ignorance or arrogance. I want you to be my friend/lover. Talk to me. I miss you". This works wonders. At least, it lessens the burden on your heart because you can assure yourself that you did your part to fill the gap. You played your role to break the silence. This is the foundation for harmonious relationships among humans. Unfortunately many are not doing it now. They are building walls, instead of breaking them.

In the eight instances given above, you find that stopping widening gaps is important in life rather than distancing ourselves from many persons and things. Belong to many. It is your power. You should know how to manage this skill.

Let's help ourselves and others avoid widening gaps and start uniting with many for unity and happiness.

Barack Obama must plan and act honestly to rebuild the US economy and lead the other nations with love, trust, honesty and openness. A dictator controls others scaring them and cheating them from many fronts, directly or indirectly. A humanitarian saves and guides many aiming at universal fraternity and prosperity. Obama is going to play this role of idealism and vision.

Political leaders and companies representing India must realize the fact that sustainable development and admirable state of peace across the nation would be possible only when they do things fairly and openly. Cheating is sin. Every politician and employer does receive the pain of that sin and crime one day or the other. Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers already received the results. It happened to the earstwhile CMs in Maharashtra and Jharkand. The list is big. You can dig it with a little effort. Sins and crimes committed by us chase us restlessly. We can avoid it. The only way out is to be in touch with good people, good principles and good way of living as a person and professional. Bridging gaps is more important than achieving progress at our level in any manner we like.

There are widening gaps between people and states and nations.

A clash in the family disturbs that family and ruins those relationships.

A misunderstanding in a society spoils the image and unity of that society.

A malpractice in a business venture affects its progress at some stage.

A bad rule in a state impoverishes its people and disfigures its places in a great manner.

A setup of things meant to cheat and misguide many in a nation kills its spirit in the long run.

The lesson to be learnt is to know how to fill widening gaps. Companies need to be honest and fair toward their employees, always. Banks need to be trustworthy and humanitarian toward their existing and prospective customers, always. Governments need to be accountable and honest toward their subjects and strive for their overall development, always. Consistency is important. We must practice a virtue always toward all, not only toward some for some selfish motives.

We can do it. Being proactive is not a crime in doing and supporting good things.

We can achieve it. Walking together with great people can't be a wrong initiative.

Nobody in this world is useless. The power lies in knowing how we can be useful to us or others.

Datla Chiranjeevi Raju

Hyderabad

23 January 2009

4:15 PM IST.

REVENGE

I found my friends very busy that Sunday morning. Everybody was collecting this and that from here and there. I rushed to Sonal and asked, “Aren’t you going to swim in that pond today? You are looking very busy! Where are you going today? You need not take me with you but at least tell me the secret!” He replied me seriously, “You are a dull creature. What can you do for the society? We are going to teach a lesson today to our nation. We will set fire to as many buses as possible, block the roads, thrash the government employees dragging them on to the roads and create a hell in the city. All this takes place in one hour’s time. Nobody knows who did it and why they did it? We were badly disappointed and disgusted with these hellish daily bus journeys for years. We wrote letters to the authorities and held demonstrations. Nobody paid attention to us. We chose this path of violence as the last resort. Ten of us are going to execute this plan of revenge against the government”. I consoled him and requested him to bring all his friends to me for once. I took them all into a cemetery and told authoritatively, “We are living in a democratic country. Here lazy fellows would be honored and honest and hard-working ones would be crushed down. Your plan is very wrong. Police would arrest you within hours after your secret acts in the city. The court of law would severely punish you all. Your parents, relatives or friends cannot change your fates thereafter. Please do not spoil your lives with your stupid methods of retaliation. I have a bright idea with me. I do agree that majority of our government employees are just symbols of living. They have neither enthusiasm to serve the people nor innovative thinking to develop our nation fast. We kiss a cute pup when we like its beauty. We beat up a street dog when it barks at us irrationally. As you know well, the special ticket allows one to travel throughout the day on any bus in the city. You should enquire about the woes of other victims in the city and invite them to join you to execute our plan successfully. There should be at least 50,000 youngsters to implement my idea. Fifty boys and girls form a group. Thus there would be 1000 groups. Every member of each group boards a bus in the early morning at its starting point at a time. They would occupy 50 seats in the bus within a few seconds. They would carry food and water with them for that day. They would not get down from the bus till midnight. The bus conductor cannot ask them to get off because they have special tickets with all of them. This way you can implement my plan in 1000 city buses on every day. Do like this for a month continuously. They would lose lakhs of rupees due to your plan during these 30 days. The police and the courts can do nothing against you because whatever you are doing is unquestionable as per the government rules. Then our big brothers sitting in the highest court of the state would formally and legally ask us to say something about our common problems to them. Then we can hand over our small report to them. We will continue this plan until this menace is rooted out from our city. Even other victims of similar nature in other parts of India follow our route and then it becomes a burning national issue. This plan doesn’t require much money or equipment from the active participants. It’s like hiring a tourist bus at a very low cost for a daylong journey in the city. Sitting in the same seats continuously in the same bus from morning to the night won’t be a problem for youngsters. Then our dear bus drivers need not stop their buses at every bus stop. Our helpless bus conductors need not distribute tickets to all the passengers time to time. It is a cool job for all. I am here to guide you time to time. Avoid those methods of violence and follow this cool way. Work on this plan from this very day. If any foolish guy or girl has doubts about this strategy, you can send them to me. Thereafter we would implement this plan in the Indian Railways also. Our cool belly baboos sitting in the AC rooms in New Delhi then introduce more trains for poor Indian passengers throughout the nation”. “Gang Leader Bongi Junka…Jindabad Jindabad”, they kept shouting, clapping and whistling in praise of me for ten minutes continuously. I felt very delighted and excited visualizing my plan being victoriously and challengingly implemented in Hyderabad and Secunderabad by thousands of girls and boys. I felt, ‘Revenge is a sweet game for me. I know well how to handle it with the help of hot boys and girls. Bravo Bongi!!”

Datla Chiranjeevi Raju

HUMILIATED SOLDIER

I spent for four months in Indian Army at Madras Engineering Group and Center in Bangalore and came out as a recruit after getting the number. I could not live a caged life bearing the hardship of the job. I am an escapist and hypocrite in this regard. I continued my studies and became eligible to get some job in the civilian society. My eldest brother served in the same for seventeen years and came out voluntarily minding the studies of his two sons. He worked as a security supervisor in the private agency taking care of the pipeline network of a big petroleum company owned by the government of India. It involves frequent visits to the risky points of underground petroleum transport. He has to remain awake and alert day and night. He bore with it for two years for the sake of the small salary it offered. One day he received a letter from the District Sainik Welfare Board. His name was sent to a private bank for consideration for the position of armed guard. He felt very happy. In two months, he received a call from the bank asking him to attend the selection procedure in Hyderabad. He reached me this happiest news in his life. I rushed to meet him in the hotel near Nampally railway station that Sunday morning when he came to face the test. He did well in all the rounds and confidently said that he is going to be selected. His dream came true within two months. I helped him a little in this process reaching him the information in time. He underwent a two-day training session in Hyderabad before being inducted into the bank for work as an armed guard. He was posted to the main branch of Boco Bank in Visakhapatnam. He is living there in a rented house with his family. Recently I went there to spend for sometime attending the editing work of my diaries to be published. My brother knows me well as a fighter against corruption at individual level. He strictly warned his wife not to tell me the truth. My sister-in-law loves me as a fellow with energy to question a wrongdoer and desire to appreciate a great person of any stand or state. She disclosed me the secret one day when my brother was at the bank. The bank union concerned took a bribe of fifty thousand rupees from each newly appointed armed guard at that bank to confirm their posting. My brother borrowed that money from a relative and kept aside visualizing future developments in the process of his getting job in the bank. He does not like to go against the system risking his job at hand. He says that he got a bit happy life now after his birth joining this bank. He can sleep happily now at night which he could not enjoy for many years as a soldier. He believes that India is a country of corruption and hypocrisy presenting itself as great to rich foreign lenders. He likes to accept that truth and live with it. He served to the nation for long and it is the gift he received for his work. He is happily doing that job now not considering the bribe as an issue at all. I sent a letter to the head office of the bank questioning the corruption prevalent in the system being run under their supervision. I remained anonymous because my brother gets badly disturbed if the issue becomes serious. My sister-in-law is a very sensitive creature. She failed tenth standard and lived like a parrot in a cage in the house before marriage. She cries if something happens to me in the fight because it is going to be a one-man show. My affection and concern for these two sensitive creatures stopped me from moving ahead. I felt humiliated after hearing this news from her. If a soldier is being victimized like this by the bank unions, what about ordinary people that never dare to question anybody superior to them? There was no response from the head office. There are no evidences to go ahead because the money was already handed over. Our courts of law live and die for evidences. My brother does not believe in reliability and honesty of the bureaucracy. He likes to go along with it silently. Silence and complacency are his guiding principles in life because he has wife and children. I am a bachelor presently and so a free and daring bird. He cannot be reckless like me! For that matter how many of you can be?

Datla Chiranjeevi Raju

BUS TRAVEL IN HYDERABAD

Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation is shortly known as APSRTC. It is an autonomous body with adequate freedom to decide its policies with necessary support and guidance from the government time to time. It connects almost every part of the state with its rural and urban network of daily bus services. 113Y and 113E route buses are run in Hyderabad as city buses. The prior plies between Uppal and Yousufguda Check Post and the latter between ESI and Uppal. I had to take either one of these two buses to go to my office in Panjagutta. I traveled in these two route buses for about two years as a commuter and I had very bad experience with them. Our office starts by 9:00 a.m. and ends by 5:00 p.m. I used to take this bus by 6:45 a.m. itself every morning to get a seat for me and travel comfortably to the place of work. In the return journey it was almost like hell coming back to our abode struggling to stand among the pressing crowd in the bus. I was compelled to change my lifestyle just to have a happy journey. Thus every day I went to the office remained a sad experience to me because I would miss a free bus if I don’t reach the bus stop by the scheduled time by me. I stopped traveling in those buses after quitting that job. Even today I find these two route buses very crowded. One can see the hell of journey in these buses between 7:30 a.m and 10:30 a.m and 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. even today. It is an endless daily serial I can say. I was infuriated by these bad experiences in my life for months together and so thought of doing something. First I made out my points of concern. The problem is “There is much rush in this route during a few specified hours in the morning and evening because a number of students and employees travel in these buses to their destinations”. The simple solution to this problem is “More number of buses should be run in this route during the peak hours at least”. There is no scarcity of bus manufacturing units in India. They are ready to supply hundreds of buses within months if the orders are given quite in advance specifying the features of the vehicles and where they need to be used. I seriously wrote a letter to Kalajito Saivinu, a retired Supreme Court judge living in Hyderabad. I received a reply from him within a week. It read, “I am also a helpless victim of this system in our nation. Hundreds of commuters are daily facing hell to travel in these buses. The suffering and strain felt by girls and working women is anyhow there. Many accidents and deaths took place during the last ten years due to this unhealthy public transport system. I don’t think that you can resolve this issue filing a case on APSRTC or the state government in any court in India because millions of serious cases are also sleeping in these abodes of justice delivery. I know the menace of judiciary in India as a judge. I once asked my friend why the higher officials and policy-makers associated with this corporation are not doing anything in this regard to provide the passengers with a delightful journey on a daily basis. I was shocked to know the truth. He told me that highly impotent men and women would be appointed as the chief executives of this setup. Those that fail to enjoy their sex life at home or outside owing to their permanent internal problems can never take good decisions for refining any system under their supervision. Resultantly they sit in the AC rooms watching films of filth and licking the skins of the paid service providers. They never see the reality standing in a few bus stops in the twin cities for a few days. People without enthusiasm to do something good for the society are a waste burden on our earth. Unfortunately 75% of the persons heading the government units are old in body and sick in mind. Some dynamic youth with love for the common and burning fire in the belly to reform the system should come into these core areas of daily public suffering. I don’t think that I can see such happy times in our nation before I die. Remember me for once if you ever see such a happy trend of governance and administration in any part of our nation. I felt very happy after reading your letter. I liked the fire in your thoughts and the kindness and idealism in your love for the common people. Continue seeing everything from a broader perspective to remain dynamic in personality and universal in outlook toward the humanity at large. May God bless you!” After reading his letter I understood that one should learn to live in the hell when everybody else is doing the same without a collective spirit. One cannot change a system remaining awake when all are sleeping around him being affected by the chronic diseases of complacence and self-centeredness.

Datla Chiranjeevi Raju