PHOTOS OF ANAND

IDENTITY CRISIS IN INDIA

According to me, Aadhar card is a multi-purpose utility card for Indians being issued by the Government of India now, in some parts of India, to some extent. It’s a unique identity card, which can be used for availing the services of different public and private agencies in India.

I have been looking for an identity card of this nature for long. I am reading a few news items in dailies now and then about it. I am interested in getting it because I am suffering from identity crisis for long in India. Whenever I have to apply for change of address, they want a solid proof showing that I am really an Indian and am living here physically. They are not bothered about my looks, words or views but my identity proof only. It means for them lifeless documents are more important than living human beings.

I did not see even one advertisement in my familiar local daily with the details of place and process related to this identity card. When I recently enquired a fellow about it at Chintal Basthi area in Khairabad, Hyderabad, he casually said that it is being done at some point of place nearby on week days. I remain in our office from 9:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on all days except Sunday. I have natural holiday on Sunday. Those folks too have natural holiday on this day. So, their service delivery schedule is against my personal and professional time availability schedule.

Then, even if I go to these folks, according to their convenient timings, they ask for address proof. I have the following problems in this regard.

Ration Card

Since I am a rich man of India (employee), I don’t have a ration card. I am honest (though many millionaires also possess these cards in Andhra Pradesh now). I don’t have a pink ration card also because I don’t have time to go to the dirty offices of these civil supply folks, stand in those queues, apply for it and go back to them on another day to collect it. Above all, I don’t belong to one particular place to apply for this card. I keep moving from place to place like a gypsy. They generally live in tents by roads and I live in some rented abodes. This is the difference between them and me in terms of identity crisis as Indians living and working in India.

Passport

I got one in 2001 when I was studying at the University of Hyderabad. They wrote the address of the Department of English on it. It is going to expire in five months’ time. During these 10 years, I never used this passport. I never had the status and privilege of going to some foreign country during this time. I cannot present it as proof of residence to these folks.

PAN Card

I have it but my address won’t be given on it. So, they don’t accept it as proof of residence.

Driving License

I cannot drive two-wheelers with gears because I always keep thinking and worrying about me or others around me. I cannot change gears when engaged in this continuous pursuit of thoughts, observations and regrets in public places. I can drive an automatic bike, which works like a bicycle. I could not buy one of them till now. So, I don’t have driving license.

Landline Telephone Bill

I think many are now using BSNL landline phones for the purpose of address proofs only at homes. Since the private telecom operators dominated these folks in every imaginable segment of business in this sector, BSNL is dying slowly. I don’t have a landline phone.

Electricity Bill

Since it would be in the name of the owner of my rented abode, I cannot use it.

Domestic LPG Bill

I keep moving from place to place. Accordingly the address also changes on these bills. So, I cannot use them for this purpose.

Photo Voter Identity Card

I got one two years ago when living in Karkhana area but later I left that place, moved to Vanasthalipuram and now living at Khairatabad. I cannot use that old card and Mr. Bhanvar Lal does not issue me a new voter identity card with my present address even if I commit suicide in front of his house. He knows that he is dead as a public servant. What can that idiot do for me in this regard?

Bank Account

I don’t have a permanent address. So, they should not depend on my bank account details.

I don’t know what other documents they accept as proofs of residence. What I mean by the aforementioned statements is that I don’t have a reliable proof of address to apply for this Aadhar card.

If this is the account of a fellow like me, who is considerably educated, rich, manageable and bearable, in India, what about those who don’t know about anything happening in India. I mean the poorest of the poor in India. Won’t these rogues consider those Indians as countable ones because they too don’t have a permanent residence like me in any part of India?

I think about half of the Indian population is facing this kind of identity crisis in India now. In these gloomy and risky circumstances, I think, Nandan Nilekani, who is the chairman of this massive project in India, must be considered as innocent or foolish or stupid or mentally retarded creature. I blame the leader if something wrong is happening under his supervision because he consciously took up that role.

Cigarette and liquor companies are successful in reaching every corner of India.

Poor and rich prostitutes are able to cater to the diverse needs of their clients in every part of India.

Coca Cola and Pepsi are able to reach every part of India selling their harmful carbonated drinks.

Christians are able to build small or big church in every imaginable spot of India, including forests.

But, Nandan Nilekani, who is authorized fellow of the Government of India, is unable to devise such plans, as to reach every part of India and issue these cards to every imaginable Indian, within weeks.

Check how you can do it online. I think you cannot get it done in your lifetime following those criteria.

So, I assure you all that Nandan Nilekani cannot issue Aadhar cards to every single authentic Indian in his lifetime because he is not an ordinary Indian like me, who knows the pulse of India and Indians, but one who reached a privileged status of life through what he gained as part of Infosys.

Above all, the main reason for why the Government of India fails to implement any policy of this kind, meant for every Indian, is that it is not working for the people of India, but for acquisition, retention and enjoyment of political power and related false prestige. They are interested in politics and power only but not the prosperity and peace in this nation.

I am least bothered about Aadhar card now because India made me so and compels me to remain so. You may or may not do anything advised by the Government of India. They are not serious about anything, except political power. If a few folks like me do not attend their campaigns and massive meetings voluntarily, they spend money and bring masses to those places artificially, distributing food and liquor packets. Democracy is already dead in many parts of India. So, it is enough if you can manage to live on your own, without depending on the government for anything. This is what beggars, lunatics, saints, naxalites and many legal and illegal residents of India are doing now silently or violently.

You need proofs to beg something from the Government of India or your respective state or local government bodies. Since these cards are meant for such beggars only, Nandan Nilekani, his brother Manmohan and their common friend and well-wisher Sonia Gandhi think that some beggars anyhow struggle hard to get these cards presenting those proofs of residence. Why to bother about other eccentric and old-fashioned nuts like me!

I dream of a system of personal identification in India by which the identity of any Indian can be easily finalized through a few casual questions by some real Indians in any part of India. Until such a system evolves and comes into existence in India, gypsies like me, who are in millions in every corner of India, cannot get identity cards like Aadhar as easily as they can get a cigarette, a Thums Up bottle, a liquor bottle, a ghutka packet, a call girl or a condom.

So, this is how Mr. Nandan Nilekani is contributing to the development of India through his “National Drama of Aadhar Card”. All are invited. Entire India is the stage. He should realize that India is not like Infosys and Indians do not think and act like his employees at Infosys. Since he is paying salaries and providing many benefits to those employees at Infosys, they are remaining as disciplined and cultured creatures in association with it. Let him know how many employees of Infosys so far got Aadhar cards in India and why they did/could not get them?

In India, we are talking about Nandan Nilekani or Narayana Murthy or Ratan Tata or Mukesh Ambani because they mean huge money and false prestige but not essential standards and values of real India, which the dreamers and visionaries of this nation aspire to see in them. They do such businesses which bring them huge profits but not such ventures which improve the culture of Indians. Profit or loss is their concern but not whether what they are doing is good or bad for India or Indians. All celebrities of India are thinking in this fashion now. The toppers in this list are those promoting cricket with investments in dirty ventures like IPL. They want money and false prestige. Let Indians degrade mentally due to it. They don’t lose anything if India becomes into a huge dustbin. They play with trash there fashionably.

These buggers can never change India except creating wealth and distributing it to many undisciplined and uncultured rogues, who spend most of it for cigarettes, parties, liquor, girls and foreign tours. Culture does not mean huge money and grand celebration now and then but admirable discipline and vision in every single citizen of a given society, state or nation. Ninety percent of Indians, living in India and abroad now, do not have them. So, no policy or scheme meant for developing India can bring any change in the lives of these Indians because they want to live with narrow outlooks and unreliable characters.

I think a nation changes when a kind and visionary dictator kills all the wrongdoers brutally or when a saint changes all their mindsets metaphysically.

When does either one of these two things happen in India?

I am waiting for those great moments of change in India.

It may or may not happen because nothing is certain in this mysterious world.

So, what if I have Aadhar card or not?

In India, everybody struggles to live somehow, somewhere, for some time, because nobody else is interested in his or her life, at any given point of time, purely and honestly, except deep and mad lovers.

Every birth has a death.

Bear with your life even when it is unbearable because it is your Karmic schedule.

You will die one day.

Don’t worry.

I think they don’t ask for Aadhar card to burn or bury your corpse according to your religion.

That’s where you attain absolute liberty from all pressures, pains and regrets of this material life.

From there flies away your liberated soul happily.

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LETTER TO ARUNDHATI ROY

Hi Arundhati,

I address creatures of intelligence, idealism and courage this way. Your name started making waves about 10 years ago with your first book The God of Small Things. How did it happen? Is this book that worthy or this person or both? This question does not have reliable answers but I often encounter it. You are simple, humble and endearing for me.

I did not read your first book or other books because I have not been a good reader. Rather than the fame and success you achieved through your first book, what made me find you as admirable creature is your devotion to the burning issues in India, the liberal donation of your money for some causes and people and your constant struggle to do something good for this nation at your level. Every writer is not a good creature at individual level. Many write books for fame and money. You do not belong to this class of superficial writers and worthless celebrities of India. You are an admirable and daring Indian thinking and working for this nation honestly and powerfully. This is what I admire in your personality.

I think that those who are struggling for great causes, which benefit many directly or indirectly, can’t find enough time to enjoy their personal lives. When millions of foolish and corrupt Indians are misusing their lives and spoiling the beauty and peace of this nation, through their acts, one is supposed to reform them. The role of a social activist and idealist is very tough in these testing circumstances. Many social reformers struggled hard in the past to change the order of things in India but conditions deteriorated soon after they left the stage of their material performance. The evident fact in this phenomenon is that evil is spreading across faster, defeating virtues simultaneously. Fighting against these universal truths is not an ordinary thing. Idealists and thinkers like you are engaged in this mission in India; changing the mindsets and lives of those, who are not interested in changing at all.

I think that it is collective Karma that influences the course of events and phenomena on this earth planet always. If some are born to smoke, drink, debauch and ruin their lives, some are born to educate and reform them with patience and love for them. Unrest and pain have always been part of human lives. Nobody is happy in this world. Everybody is suffering for one or the other reason. Some are expressing it and some are not doing it. In this mess of things around us, what can we do to change these people and make them happy? Indians are not ready to change? They want to perish practicing their age-old superstitions and beliefs.

Even intellectuals and achievers are making people like Satya Sai Baba God and spending most of their time in those useless pursuits. Indians are very unreliable and dishonest creatures. They lead immoral lives and then go to temples to pray to God. This is applicable to all people living in India now. For them religion and spiritualism are also a formality. They are not changing psychologically but acting easy and attractive roles as ideal folks for special recognition and shallow appreciation from worthless blokes around them. They want to become celebrities this way.

Can we change the collective Karma of a society or nation? If a tribe is accustomed to a set of bad practices, do they change if we educate them? When politics and businesses are in the control of dirty rogues in India, what can the few social reformation acts we indulge in do in this direction? The government banned smoking in public places but very few are practicing it now. All know that consumption of alcoholic drinks is harmful to health but how many drunkards stopped consuming it minding their lives? Even educated ones are smoking and drinking. Prostitution is rampant across India.

Indians are not practicing standards and values in their lives now. Everybody is playing some role to satisfy a few people in his circle. When corruption and immorality are at dangerous levels in every part of India, what can a handful of creatures like you and me do through our writings and campaigns for social causes? Don’t we look as innocent and foolish creatures to these dirty Indians? Why should idealists lead such difficult and disturbed lives for the sake of rogues?

Why are you living ideally and intellectually when nobody is bothered about such people in India now?

Are not intellectuals and idealists cheating themselves in India now in the name of social reformation?

To know about me, visit my blog sites http://virahini.blogspot.com and http://dcraju.blogspot.com

I am a 34-year-old Indian living and working at Hyderabad now. I have a beautiful wife and a cute kid now. I also think like you for this nation and often lose balance and peace of mind due to it. Birds of same feather flock together! So, this message to you. My email id is rajayogi@live.com

Sent this letter to Arundhati Roy this evening through the following link on the website of Penguin Books, India. http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/WritetoAuthor.aspx?AuthID=163

MY PERSONAL DIARIES-HER INTERVIEW

Sakshi: Why did you make your personal diaries public through blogging? Don’t you consider it private and personal, which cannot/should not be shared with all, as many think?

I: For me, human life is quite tragic, unreliable and vulnerable. I believe that 80% of the human beings in this world are not happy with their lives for many reasons. They are living because they developed strong attachment with many phenomena and creatures in their accessible world. They enter that sad and painful network of relationships and associations unknowingly and continue in it being unable to come out of it until their chosen end or natural departure. Among these millions of people, very few write personal diaries as intensely as I do. Many of them do not share them with others.  Their recorded personal lives and thoughts get burnt in the fire of time without being accessible or useful to anybody. We perceive and experience our lives differently at different stages and situations. It’s an enticing story of some turns, some surprises, some thoughts, some dreams, some imaginations and some pains. I deeply enjoy reading all these diaries. I think even others can derive pleasure and insights reading them. All the creatures, mentioned and discussed in these diaries, including me, disappear one day from this material world. These are all transitory characters in the big story of God. Mine is the character of a silent observer and interpreter in that big story of God. When we love many in this world, we feel like sharing the joys and woes of our life with others. A personal diary is the best tool to record the journey of our lives and show it to others later. Thus I am lucky. I wrote my personal diaries and could bring them up to this stage of public show. When I am alive, let others know about me and explore me metaphysically. Let them connect with me psychologically. It’s a sphere of intense belongingness, universal fraternity, idealism, pain and suffering meant for all.

Sakshi: What makes you keep writing these diaries?

I: It was intuition when I started writing it in 1995. I did not stop it. I am grateful to God for energizing and enabling me to write them on and on, for all these years, every day, throughout. When I started this journey, I was an innocent pedestrian. Soon I became a determined athlete. Now I am an unyielding runner on this path of diary writing. Continuing the pursuit of writing personal diaries in this order is not an ordinary thing. Nobody asked me to do it. Nobody worries if I stop it. It’s an expedition started by me. Later it became a self-imposed daily responsibility. It’s like submitting to a tradition believed and started by us for our satisfaction and commitment. History is important for a person, society, culture or nation. These diaries are my personal history, created by me, for me and others. Since only one person should not benefit/delight from a source of this nature, I am trying to make it accessible to all. I am writing them to let others know what I am really and what my thoughts are about many things appearing and happening in this wonderful and mysterious world.

Sakshi:  When and how do you write your personal diaries?

I: Generally, the events/thoughts related to Monday would be written down in the morning of Tuesday. We must live and feel the 24 hours of a day (night) to record its history. So, I mostly write my diary during the morning hours, sometime between 6:00 and 8:00. I am unable to write them in a comfortable and tranquil ambience now. So, seasons around me, the creatures living with me, the environment about me, the moods I am undergoing during those times…all affect the nature and intensity of these writings to some extent, though I try to control my psyche to the best possible extent. One needs serene and inspiring abode of life and profession to do such things well every day and night. I am yet to achieve those levels of residential existence and professional atmosphere to deliver the best.

Sakshi: Sometimes we don’t find time at all to write diary…especially when we are deeply engaged in some inevitable facets of our profession, pilgrimage, long journeys and so on. How do you manage to write your diary even in such tough and irritating circumstances and pressures?

I: I face such situations twice or thrice a year. I recollect the events of that day and night after two or three days and then write them down. I fill three pages, at the most, at a stretch, during such situations. It demands more patience, peace of mind and idealism from me. I accord highest importance to writing my diary wherever I am and whatever I am doing on any given day throughout the year. If my job or other responsibility does not allow me to balance myself like this and write my diary in this order, I avoid such job or responsibility altogether. If my life is 80% important for me, the pursuit of writing my diary is 75% important for me, every day. My diaries portray my life to me and others. So, I must be very careful and visionary in this regular and inevitable pursuit.

Sakshi: Why do you think that you must publish your diaries in the form of books?

I: I struggle every day, throughout the year, to write my personal diary, without a break. I spend about one hour’s time to write one page in my diary, every day. I am investing my valuable time, thoughts, imaginations and vision to make a diary full in terms of content and the intrinsic value it carries. I think the thoughts, notions, dreams, insights and vision documented by me through these diaries educate, entertain and reform others to some extent, based on their characters and attitudes. These personal diaries are very important for me. So, I want to get them published in the form of books and reach them even to those people, who never get into the acts of Internet use and online life. There are comfort, ease and happiness in reading a book in our favorite places and times. Exploring them online does not provide us with such pleasure of reading. So, for me, a book is more attractive tool than Internet when it comes to reading texts of this nature and size.

Sakshi: While editing, how do you change/polish the content of your original diaries?

I: My English was very poor when I started writing my diary in 1995. Over the years, I could improve my English to some extent. I edited the language part of these diaries. Here and there I add more content to make a few things clear to readers. I retain 99.5% of the originality of my diaries, when editing the related typed text on my computer because I like truths and want to share them as they are with others. Those that are far better than me at English may find some errors even in these edited diaries by me. Highly customary and classic language must be used in a book to make it easily readable and comprehensible. This is my primary concern and purpose in editing them. I want to get them edited again if I find the right person. All those that use great English may not be thinkers, visionaries and idealists. I search for such admirable artists and challengers for getting them edited again in future. I assess, define and describe the characters of such people according to my criteria and standpoint. I think Arundhati Roy is one of such great Indians suitable to edit my personal diaries. I don’t know if she considers my diaries deserving pieces to be edited by her or not. There are many such great personalities in India now. I will research about those admirable Indians then and get them edited. Unfortunately, creatures like Arundhati Roy may not have interest or time to edit my diaries, considering their busy schedules in their intense aspects of personal and professional lives. I think Arundhati Roy has no personal life like me. Her life is an open book. Such idealists and thinkers must edit these diaries. Since I edited them thoroughly at my end, it does not take much time for them.

Sakshi: Why are you not getting them published now itself?

I: Majority readers are looking for the works of crazy folks and celebrities now. Nowadays celebrities are those who cannot contribute to the prosperity and peace of this nation or world at all. When millions of shallow readers are getting attracted toward such books, really worthy writers and books don’t get focused and received much. Ninety percent of the publishers are hard-core businessmen now. They want money and fame, fast. They passionately run after worthless blokes and crazy idiots also, if they have millions and billions of rupees as entrepreneurs, sportsmen, cults, film creatures and other kinds of celebrities. In this clumsy and unhealthy publishing business atmosphere, finding a publisher for works of this order is very difficult in India or abroad. I am a negligible living entity now because I have no bundles of money to promote myself in every possible mad way. So, visionary, selfish and commercial publishers treat me like a rat in a barren farm near a desert. Time resolves many issues in this world. I will get them published according to its dictates to me silently.

Sakshi: Did you read all your edited diaries, which you posted on your blog site now?

I: I did not read even one of these diaries till now from the beginning to the end, after editing them. This is how God curses many folks like me. I spent a lot of time to edit them. My personal economy collapsed to the worst level during this time. I joined an ad agency to come out of this hell. I am not getting time to read my personal diaries also because I have only four Sundays in a month to do something really interesting and inspiring for me. On that precious day also, some other pressing things of my life steal all that time. I like reading newspapers and seeing films a lot because both educate and entertain me. I am not getting time even to do these two things satisfactorily after joining this job. Six-day work weeks are a hell for any employee. I am undergoing this stress, strain and pain now. I am compelled to do a job now for my survival. I am disturbed for not getting time to read my edited personal diaries. So, I don’t know what I wrote in all these diaries in detail. Recently an idiot commented quite badly somewhere in the space of my personal diaries on this blog site. Such dirty comments disturb and hurt me a lot. When I am struggling like this to write my diaries every day and present them to others, in a polished and readable format, thinking that they may be useful to them to some extent, why are these sinners and criminals leaving such nasty anonymous comments on my blog site? Their purpose is to irritate and infuriate me somehow. They know that they cannot face me directly. I permit all to comment on my blog sites because everybody likes liberty to access somebody immediately without much difficulty in the process. Since Blogger of Google gave me this much of online space freely, I am able to post these diaries for all to read. I am utilizing the generosity of Google positively. Some misuse it posting very abusive and unnecessary comments anonymously.

Sakshi: Why should anybody read your personal diaries at all?

I: I cannot explain it in a few or many words because I did not read them. When I am reading one diary, I forget the events and essence of another diary. So, it is impossible for me to sketch the power and force of these diaries in the form of a review or outline. It is like galaxy. It is an abode of mystery, wonders and surprises for all even now after so much of scientific advancement in many nations. If one wants to feel it, one has to fly up and live there individually for some time. Similarly, if one wants to feel and understand what I wrote in these diaries, one has to read them in a comfortable and inspiring setting and time. Nobody loses anything reading them, except psychological balance and peace because I am writing these diaries in such state of mind being disturbed or inspired by so many pains or attractions in this world. These are not personal diaries of a superficial, insignificant and dim fellow but one that faces others after exhibiting his life and psyche, bit by bit, intensely and energetically. When the life of a person is accessible for all to connect psychologically and when such person is easily accessible, there is ample space for criticism or appreciation to take place effectively. However, I think one must read my personal diaries to know about human psychology, humanity, society, religion, love, admiration, passion, attachment, friendship, pain, separation, struggle for existence, vision, ideals, ideas, thoughts, dreams, challenges, beauty, girls, women, boys, men, films, songs, music, art, artists, books, radio, television, Internet, blogging, writing, politics, money, discipline, morality, immorality, sex, India, Indians, creativity, rationality, universal fraternity, human will, journey, relationships, tragedy, life, death, spiritualism, observations, insights, knowledge, philosophy, character and so on.

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Sakshi is an energetic Indian online crusader, sensitive dog lover, ideal creature, impressive beauty, intelligent professional, admirable introvert, manageable extrovert and confident individual. I chose her to interview me in my abode of mysterious psyche. Once she played the role of my enemy in the big story of God. Now I imposed the role of my comrade and well-wisher on her in my ethereal sphere of multiple options. She is my character. She lives in Mumbai.