Old photos.

During Republic Day Parade and march past , along with the contingents of the Army , Navy and the Air Force , contingents of boys and girl cadets of the three wings of the National Cadet Corps , also participate .

The NCC contingents are made up of cadets from all the 27 States and the 7 Union Territories of  India.Therefore selection to represent the State / Union territory is very competitive and tough . Also getting selected to represent the State / Union Territory is a matter of great pride . All this is very well known to almost every one .What is not so well known is that आजी had represented State of Madhya Pradesh in NCC Contingent during the Republic day march past in the year 1966. 


We all are very proud of her :-)

Girls Cadet NCC Contingent , Republic Day Parade 1966

Recognise आजी ?

Digitising old photos.

During the ' barasa '( बारस ) of Ajeet a we got a click III camera to record the various events .It used to take a film roll of 12 exposures. Being a box camera it had no flash , no focal length or any other type of settings which are generally associated with taking good & beautiful photos . That never discouraged or deterred us from having a ball and using it left right and center.That camera was used very extensively .We decided that we will expose one film roll every month . From the 12 contact prints , select the best exposures and order enlarged copies and put them in albums .This resulted in gradual increase in albums .  Even though over a period of time The Click III has been replaced by better cameras we continued with the practice .Today we have 34 of these albums . On an average each album has 108 photos, so we have at least 3400 of them :-) The latest no 34  has photos of our America Trip in 2009   Somehow after that ,  for one reason or the other , album 35 or more have not come up .
The Click III faithfully recorded the growing up of Ajeet , Anuj and all the happy and important events for the next 11 long years till 1984 when I got a canon colour camera from UK.
Dadoo  presented us with a digital camera in  November 2007 before our visit to Andaman Nicobar Islands.This was lost at San Francisco. Got another canon while staying with Bhupen . That was lost during our  Kashmir trip . Mummy then presented me with an Olympus camera which has not been lost till date. All these were digital cameras so I learned Picassa , web albums etc and  there after all photos are in web .
How ever photos taken by click III and other cameras using film rolls ,  up to 1984 and included and the albums were  not degitised and put on the web . I decided to do so . Albums no 24 till no 33 are all on net . Decided to start from Album no 1 . But Dadoo suggested why not the marriage album , which we had numberd as  00.
The album was in a mess . The butter paper had stuck to the photos and could not be removed .Tried to remove the stuck paper wherever  I could . The process of these efforts was caught by Mummy.

Here is the sample of  results of my efforts . Top photo without restoration , below that after I did whatever I could :-)


























This is preview . Hopefully album number 00 will be on the net by the evening or tomorrow. :-)

What a let down :-(

Finally the curtain drops on the age row of the C O A S  (Chief Of Army Staff).He is presently on tour of UK. The SC, The Government  through the their Council , the Defence Minister all have praised the COAS and expressed complete confidence and faith in him . Things seem to have been sorted out , the dust has settled and one of the most regrettable event in the history of Indian Defence Forces and G O I has come to pass.
However till the day of hearing , almost every one of the Defence Forces (all three wings included) serving and retired , were very keenly following the case . They were fully behind the Chief ,. In fact very large numbers must have prayed for the SC verdict to be in favour of the Chief . Countless people , including yours truly expressed their views on whatever medium they had access to .By evening  COAS had withdrawn his petition.Everyone of us who had backed the COAS felt a strong sense of being let down.
Next day reading the details in news papers large number of us came to know , for the very first time , that The COAS , over a period of time ,  more than once , informed the Govt his acceptance of the DOB of 1950.That being the fact , only a fool would have expected the SC to uphold his claim of DOB of 1951 . The COAS is definitely no fool . So the question is why did all these unfortunate and regrettable events take place .  Or are there many more facts of which we are totally ignorant and is the answer to be found in the dark corridors of power ?
SC , Government Council and the DM have all praised the distinguished service rendered by this gallant soldier . All of them said they have no doubt about the honesty & integrity of the COAS . Well , if one takes their word at face value , COAS  may have been successful in defending his honesty & integrity but he has lost "credibility" with a very large number of defence personnel and mature thinking civilians.
By this case the COAS has not only lost his credibility but he has done a very grave disservice to the defence forces where he had served with such distinction . With this case , The Babus who have always been looking to marginalise the Services will now run amock like a bull in a china shop . This one case has done immense and irreparable harm to the cause of the Services from which they may never recover to take their deserved place in decision making hierarchy.

Rhinos are feeling sad !

Rhinos all over the world are feeling very very sad . They were considered number one thick skinned living beings on the earth ,  but now are at number two.They have been replaced by  Indian Politicians due to their behavior . Even when caught red handed watching porn clipping while attending Assembly session they claim they have done no wrong. Even after the S C cancels 122 licences they still claim that it is not an indictment of the Government . Even after evidence keeps mounting they still keep claiming that A Raja has done no wrong. They keep increasing quota , quota within quota , quota within quota within quota , they would increase it to 100% if they thought they could get away with it , all the time claiming that it is being done with the sole purpose to  uplift  condition of the downtrodden , the muslim minorities , the SCs , the OBCs etc etc.Even when half the population is starving they claim that per capita income has increased to more than Rs 50,000/- Even when............
So , with heavy heart the Rhinos have given up their number one position .   

Performance review -The Babudom.

Thank God for small mercies! Finally finally inefficient babu can be chucked out after 15 years of service.
But why after 15 years why not earlier?. What is the point in carrying around garbage for 15 long years . Any senior worth his salt does not require 15 years to evaluate the performance of a person working under him .Now let us hope that this rule is followed and implemented vigorously and honestly . Aam Admi may have very valid reason to believe that this may not be done because firstly it will be another babu who has to implement this order.Considering the present culture of "you scratch my back and I will do the same for you" prevalent in the babudom , this looks unlikely . Secondly  even earlier it was very difficult to proceed against  babus due to the way hurdles were placed in the process . eg State could not proceed against a babu even if he belonged to the state cadre of the same state . Even before taking any action against a babu , sanctions had to be obtained from any number of agencies . That meant it could take years to proceed against a guilty babu.Hopefully all such loop holes and escape routes have been taken care of in the new rules. If that is not done it would be business as usual for one of the most inefficient administrative service in the Asia region.

Transparency still a distant reality - PM.

Prime Minister Manmohan Sing , while addressing conference of Chief Secretaries at New Delhi on 03 Feb12 stated that "efforts to ensure transparency,accountability and probity in public life would take a long time". At another time in the same address he said , " we still have long way to go in our efforts for ensuring transparency , accountability and probity in public life."

There can not be a worst form of misfortune for a country to hear and to read the total surrender and the helplessness being projected by the Prime Minister to the very persons who have been largely responsible for such a sorry state of affairs.Remember he was addressing the Chief Secretaries of states . 

These worthies must have not only heaved a sigh of relief but also smiled to themselves at being indirectly told by the Prime Minister himself to carry on with the old ways for indefinite period of time . 

The Chief Secretary of a states is an IAS (State Cadre) or AIS (All India Services) officer with minimum of 13 years of service ( selection grade ) or 14 years of service(Super Time Grade,reduced from 16 yrs in 2008.)

IAS Officers are trained to handle govern­ment affairs. This being their main responsibility, every civil servant is assigned to a particular office which deals with policy matters pertaining to that area. The policy matters are framed, modified, interpreted in this office under the direct supervision of the Administrative Officer in consultation with the Minister. 
Now it goes without saying that the Civil servant is custodian of all the records pertaining to the govt affairs, policy matters and every thing connected with the same .He also holds all the notings on file which hold recommendations , views, agreements , disagreements etc etc of the policy matter. These files / bundles of information, be it routine , important or of vital national interest are very very zealously guarded by these civil servants.Even the information to which an individual is entitled will not be given to concerned person under one pretext or the other.Remember the strongest opposition to RTI Act had come from the Babudom. For obvious reasons , their specific and strongest opposition was in making public the "noting"on file.Even now when RTI Act is a reality the Babus made sure that it was in a very diluted form.
.Our Prime Minister should have called a spade a spade and asked the Chief Secretaries to pull up their socks along with the socks of junior babus under them in bringing transparency and probity in the public life . The PM himself and his Government must hold The Babudom accountable as they are responsible to implement the the policies laid down by the Govt.
( Note :Author has taken some information from the IAS pages of wilki and other sources from the internet.)

Age controversy - Army Chief.

This one got published on 06/02/12, albit with some editing by the Editor . Portions in bold lettering omitted in published piece.

The number of e-mails & forwards on the internet , Number of letters  to Editor being published in The Hitavada and other news papers are clear indication to the degree even the aam adami has been aggrieved by the shabby way the Politicians and the Babus , which means the Government,has treated a gallant and senior most soldier of this country.There have been a fair number of officers of the defence forces who for one reason or the other have asked for change in their recorded date of birth . The Babus and the politicians have agreed for the requested changes in those cases. It would also be interesting to know the number of Babus, who , with the connivance of the fellow babus in the concerned ministries have quietly changed their own date of birth without even raising of an eyebrow.
If all that is true then the question arises as to why only in this particular case the Babus and the politicians are acting in such mulish way .After all what harm can be caused in another 10 months if 1951 is accepted as DOB by the Govt, which the General claims to be the correct date.And this very question was being hotly debated in our circle , as it must be a topic of discussion among majority of the citizens.One thought to emerge was the promise of the Chief of the Army Staff that he would deal very strictly and punish the guilty officers involved in the Adarsh , Sukhna and other lurking scandals involving the babus , the politicians and unfortunately very few officers of the defence services.Now the answer to emerge to that question was if the defence officers are severely dealt with in the additional 10 months , they may come out with all the details and lot of many more skeletons  may tumble out of babu & political cup boards.To me ,  knowing our politicians and the babus as as well how the case has developed , this seems most probable reason as to why the concerned people do not want to give the General additional 10 months he gets if the DOB of 1951 is accepted.