Letter to Editor-Mureder on Road.sent 18/03.

Sir ,

Even as respected Shri Vijay Phanshikar was penning down the agonised feelings about traffic indiscipline in his Saturday column,loud thinking, a spoilt brat of irresponsible indulgent rich parents was murdering future bread winners of four families . Let us hope the two in critical condition do not succumb  to the injuries.

A subordinate informs The Police Commissioner that the car was driven by an employed driver and not the underage boy .Who was this subordinate.Clearly either he was bribed to save the boy or was incompetent to carry out proper investigation .If the Commissioner had accepted the initial version there is every likelihood that the guilty would have escaped punishment .

It is very strongly felt that the parents of this boy are much more if not equally guilty of this dastardly act. They should be charged with the same crime as the underage boy if that can not be done , then they should be charged as abettors of the crime .In any case strictest action should be taken against the boy AND his parents.

Letter to Editor-In support of Trivedi ,sent 18/03.

Sir ,

The totally unjustified and obdurate stand taken by Ms Mamta Bannerjee reminds me of the time when the Communist party of India was similarly blackmailing the Govt and caused inordinate delay in signing the Nuclear Treaty . In that case The PM was convinced that the treaty was in the best national interest. The Communist bluff was called and what happened is now history .At present it is patently clear that the increase in rail fare is in the larger National and Railway interest . We beg and beech the PM to call the bluff of Ms Mamata Banerjee . If our parliamentarians have even a small conscience left Ms Banerjee will be shown that whims and fancies of one stubborn lady can not stand against what is good for a billion people.

Inheritors of Democratic Dynastic Raj . Sent 16/03.

Sir , 

Since independence one firm tradition and unfortunate fact to emerge in independent India is that the power to rule and govern has now become dynastic in nature. The Kings and Princes of the Indian Princely states have now been replaced by sons/ daughters/close relatives or servile chamchas of politicians wanting to firmly establish them in the saddle before they themselves loose the required clout in regional politics.Rahul Gandhi , Akhilesh Yadav , Sachin Pilot ,and Jyotiraditya Scindia are just few of the most prominent examples. 

 Being members of new generation and product of modern India , also having been educated abroad aam adami had lot of expectations from them .

Rahul Ghandi was the first of the lot to inherit the control of the largest national political party and wield influence far beyond what is expected from a person of that age . Time has proved that he has failed miserably in fulfilling the hopes of not only the aam adami but his own mother and the party . The only reason why he has not got the boot is because of who and what he is .

The most recent to inherit the Democratic Dynastic Raj is Akhilesh Yaday . He has inherited the power to rule U P , the biggest state of Indian Union when he was chosen and elected by ruling party to be the chief Minister . The way he had conducted the election campaign , the promises he had made , lot was of expected from him . However the way he has formed the council of minister by inducting six tainted ministers bodes ill for the future . UP has now become the Yadav Raj with whole lot of yadavs as ministers and the remote with Mulayam Singh Yadav . Though too early to say , the way Akhilesh has started it seems UP , the aam admi and the country does not have any thing good to look forward.

Sachin Pilot ,and Jyotiraditya Scindia are orphans in the sense they have literally lost their influential natural fathers and also do not have god fathers with clout . It is unlikely that they will inherit power to rule a state in foreseeable future . How they would turn out as rulers is debatable.

The new generation , Inheritors of Democratic Dynastic Raj are turning out to be disappointing . Do we , the people of India do not deserve any better ?

PM Velankar, Nagpur.

Letter to Editor,sent 15/03.

Sir .

There was no increase in rail fares for the last 8 years . The damaging effects of this populist move has resulted in once considered satisfactory transportation system in the world , going bad . The safety , track condition , the rolling stock condition , signalling equipment , you name it and it has been adversely affected due to cash curnch .There were no replacements for ageing rail tracks , no addition to  track length . Financial condition had become so bad that cash inflow were just about meeting the cash out flows. Rail Minister Trivedi has shown great courage of conviction and in the interest of railways and larger national interest announced fare increase.One glance at the Rail Budget highlights , if really implemented , will improve the health of railways and bring in much needed improvement in the services for the general public.It is a national tragedy that a leader who has acted in the larger national interest has been  made to resign on the whims and self interest of one individual lady.This also reflects extremely poorly on the ruling party and the Government . It is agreed that the increase in fare may affect the common man . It is the responsibility of all the right thinking people, the print and the electronic media to explain to general public that if this increase and more revenue is not generated for railways , a time may come when we may not have a working transportation system . * Opposition parties also know fully well that railways were heading for serious problems due to cash crunch , even then they have denounced the budget . It also reflects their self interest, lack of keeping national interest in mind and opposing a reasonable thing just for the sake of opposing .The government must stand firm and should not rollback the fare hike . If done , we may not have any rail network  and the railways may also go the way of Air India , which at one time was most respected airline in the world.

Well done Mr Trivedi .

PM Velankar.

GOT PUBLISHED - 16/03.

* Highlighted portion of original text not published.Most probably an oversight.

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. :-)