Phoenix... [5]

Contd....
Crucial areas of conflict:
Computerisation –Unfettered right to Banks?
Computerisation in Banking Industry, more so in State Bank, is a big story in itself.Computers made an entry in Banking Industry through State Bank in mid sixties before which they were merely a topic of academic talks without any thing substantial in practice. By mid seventies it started gaining momentum and by eighties they were in operation in full swing. During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister of India, computer was a priority subject. He himself was well conversant on computers having a keen interest and a great aptitude for their operation. There were two reasons for this –one that he appeared on political scene as a champion representing the youth of the country and to attract them more votes wise he was hankering to go for some thing dynamic on technological front keeping in mind in the meantime that it was a most powerful tool to herald a new era of progress and development distinguishing him enormously as against an old and outmoded leadership then obtaining at the national level in the country –the other reason had its roots in nationalization of Banks in 1969 by his great mother Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister. Catching up on the popular slogan that Banks in majority were in the hands of Rajas and Maharajas or big bullies in business who failed to serve the common people in the country, Indira Gandhi took a drastic measure nationalizing 14 major banks which act on her part was capable enough to bring her laurels and more of popularity in public. Rajiv Gandhi too was for a popular footage on the similar pattern picking up the Banks again as an easily available choice for the purpose identifying them as the base for it. Management in different banks in general and that of State Bank in particular has the tradition of jumping to joining as the first one in the que to appease the Government on all counts and there could hardly ever be a ‘some body’ to raise any voice of protest howsoever illogical, untimely and problematic was the direction so issued. Masters directions from Delhi were over hurriedly adhered to by the bankers placing computerization as their priority number one task on their agenda. It was ofcourse a different matter that the priority task failed to elicit a required response at the implementation level for the reason that bankers refused to take a notice of the fact that projects like this warranted a large scale mobilization and awareness generation amongst staff and public in general to make the scheme acceptable to them. ...Contd...

Prithviraj Chauhan -An answer to Yashika Singh's question!

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Born in 1168, Prithviraj Chauhan became king in 1179 when he was just a minor. He inherited the throne from his father Someshwar Chauhan belonging to Rajput dynasty.His mother was Karupuravalli.He was extraordinarily strong and was a great warrior.His chest, it is said, was twice the size of his waist.He captured Delhi defeating Raja Tomaro Rajput.Qila Rai Pithora in Delhi was constructed during his time.His empire extended to Haryana, Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

On his love with Sanyokta, daughter of Raja Jai Chand of Kannauj, there are varying accounts.Some of the historians hold a view that both had never seen each other till swayambar as organised by Raja Jai Chand took place when Prithviraj picked her up on the back of his horse.Sanyokta readily joined him as she already had heard so many great stories of his chivalary and valour falling in love with him. The other version is that both of them were already in love with each other for a long time and used to meet secretly during royal festivities and in temples. But both the accounts are common on one point that Sanyokta's father Jai Chand was never for marrying his daughter with Prithviraj who had to hide himself near the venue of Swayambar and was able to manage her elopement with him on his horse back. He was chased by Jai Chand's soldiers but none could touch him and he moved forward in a flying speed to his daestination with halt at Jaipur staying at Amer Fort for the first honey moon night. Chandra Bardai has given a detailed narration of glory and grandeur of Prithviraj most appealingly describing about love between him and Sanyokta.All historians are common in view on the point that Prithviraj Chauhan was the greatest Hindu King in North India during his time.

Many an invaders from other countries were defeated by him -last one being Mohd.Gori. Mohd.Gori was defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan number of times and every time he had to surrender but Prithviraj Chauhan was kind enough to spare him life.At a stage later Mohd.Gori could manage upper hand and took Prithviraj and his court poet Chandrabardai Bhatt into captivity blinding both of them in both their eyes callously.

Sun Temples in India -Answer to Yashika Singh's question !

Not one but actually there are 3 Sun Temples in India -2 in Orissa and 1 in Gujarat. The main temple which was created in 13th Century in Puri district of Orissa at a distance of 65 KM from Bhubaneswar and is known as Chariot of the Sun God.Besides Deities of the Gods and Goddesses, itis known for depiction of different sex postures shown in stone attracting a large number of tourists from all over the old. One of the tourists, an English lady, once got so annoyed with the exposure of sex through idols that she left the temple murmuring that she felt like killing the artists who made them. Temple celebrates a grand function every year worshipping the Sun God with bhajans and dance -the main dance being that of Odissi, most famous one in Orissa.
The other temple, also in Orissa, is known as Biranchi Vinayak Temple in Bugda (Ganjam district) and attracts a big crowd of tourists but is less controversial compared to the main temple.
The next temple known as the Sun Temple in Madhera (Gujarat) has more or less the same features like the other two and was constructed by Raja Bhimdev who belonged to Solanki dynasty. This temple is more popuar locally but there are visitors in a large number from abroad.

On 'Chetna-Shrot', a Hindi qarterly

A critical appreciation of one of the editors writings plus the magazine itself made by me in Hindi which this site didn't accept as a copy. The appreciation has appeared in original Hindi on three different other sites mentioned below"
http://emarawasthi.spaces.live.com/
http://soulcast.com/aayeena
http://neelkanth.wordpress.com

Phoenix ...[4]

They took advantage of my weak moments: .....Continued...

My wife Shashi was seriously sick after she had to undergo three operations successively for Glycoma at Kanpur, Lucknow and New Delhi with treatment at Shankar Netralaya at Chennai. Last she was at AIIMS where too the operation could not be a success and her condition continued to deteriorate. This was the time I was under a tremendous tension but didn’t abandon sticking to my otherwise hectic schedules often leaving the hospital early in the morning attending talks at different stations and returning by midnight.In one instance I remember having left the hospital around 4.30am to catch flight for Bombay at 6am, attend a meeting at Central Office, leaving for Bhubaneshwar to deal with certain crucial matters locally after which there was no flight for Delhi. As an only alternative, I could get a delayed flight for Kolkata wherefrom I flew to Delhi by a late night International flight and by the time I reached the hospital it was past midnight -2.30 am to find that my wife was in too serious a condition due to post surgery complications.I had actually no dearth of sympathizers and well wishers to look after my wife but my presence by her side did count most which I couldn’t make despite best possible efforts on my part obviously due to my hectic schedules and this is some thing for which I can never pardon myself the whole life. My wife is no more. I do suffer from the pangs of seclusion, I do feel like languishing in her absence and much more I suffer from the guilt that I did default in giving her the amount of my presence she needed most when she was struggling for life. Besides V.K.Gupta and his wife alongwith Bhojraj Sharma who were all the time just a call away for any help and nursing taking care of my wife in most committed a manner, there were others too who felt much concerned with the turmoil I was undergoing. The one person who unfailingly called on her daily was Janki Ballabh, the then GMO, Delhi Circle and later the Chairman of State Bank of India. He meticulously monitored personally to ensure that all required facilities and attendance were all the time available to her without an iota of any lapse any where. I did make a note of it that whatever service he rendered or whatever care he took was not just because I was a top man in All India State Bank of India Staff Federation nor as I was a Director in Central Board of State Bank –it was because he was a close friend of mine –a friend indeed, a friend in need.

As against this there was a coterie too that was hell bent on using my plight to suit their connivance of ousting me from the scene at the apex altogether. The major tool used while hatching the plan being that I was to fall due for retirement from Bank’s service and that no retired person should be allowed to continue in the Union/Federation after he ceases to be in active service. A large scale lobbying on that count was done at a major scale throughout the country simultaneously applying pressure on the Bank’s management and equally the Government. Obviously my otherwise unblemished image was the target and it was hit hard with the coined publicity that I was too lusty a chap and that I was greedy enough to continue in the Organisation even after my retirement. Most conveniently they forgot that on numerous occasions in course of fighting with the management and on the face of the fact that there was always a potential danger of the management/Government taking stern action against me including dismissal from service, I kept my letter of resignation handy in my pocket for submission to Bank before they could remove me from service to demoralize the rank and file in the organization. Such a resignation letter was more particularly all the time in my pocket during Emergency when I had to release a circular to the membership in general that in the event of any drastic action against me they should not at all feel demoralized and take the action in a fighting spirit instead.

Fighting with the management/Government and several set backs caused to me in course of it never diminished my spirits the least, I rather felt more emboldened every time there was an attack on me, every time I was victimized, every time I was dragged into situations alarmingly full of graver consequences. Nothing dismayed me nor any thing could ever compel me to return to a normal life, a normal family life –the common normal choice of every body, compromising the cause I was fighting for my people. At times mainly during Emergency I was on loss of pay for several months as credit balance in my leave account was out of question due to organizational activities and the management was not prepared to give me leave for a day even. My convictions gave me confidence. But a Juleus Caeser in me fell down when attacked by my own friends –a Brutus, an Othello, a coterie.

Infact this was the stage when I really felt caught unawares paying heavily for the convictions I always held uppermost in my life and scheme of things. One of such convictions to which I always stuck was that only those be in the fray to manage a movement who possess necessary skill and capacity to work and not the invalids and that merely because some one ceases to be in active employment he should not be off organizationally. This was awefully twisted calling me names deliberately forgetting the fact that since several years back I was for it. The membership was heavily brainwashed to ignore a big number of senior office bearers who continued in the organization for quite a time after they were no more in active employment. I was hurt, felt shattered and took a decision to quit immediately which ofcourse I failed to do succumbing to stiff resistance from my supporters. (tobe continued)

Who deserves more of a recognitiion -an actor or an astronaut?

Human society on earth is big enough to accommodate all shades of people -the people who work, the people who entertain, the people who produce cereals to form food for all beings. Importance wise all carry some weight or the other. Then there are people who create history, there are people who invent things of an enormous magnitude research wise. Way back long in the past, navigators used to move from place to place to find out which could be the other locations where people lived or which could be the countries other than those to which they belonged. Space age came and the astronauts took over to trace life on other planets. After Kalpana Chawala, Sunit Williams along with her other companions created history for remaining in space astoundingly for a longest ever time. When she returned, people all over the world had to hold their breath watching suspenseful moments minutes before she was to enter the earth zone -a space zone where temperature is thousands of time more than what melts the steal. Curiousity and anxiety throughout the world on the part of the people knew no limit. One can well imagine how suspenseful and tortuously anxiety laden were those moments for the members of her family.She alongwith all the members of the crew could cross that sort of hot zone and landed safely. History may have to record the event as the happiest one and unique as it set the ball rolling for humans to some day go far in space for their pleasure trips.
I as one saw the entire event in a different perspective. How come the level of receptivity and the amount of festivity on Sunit's arrival on earth failed to match the one that is extended to actors, the entertainers. Media guys run after tracing the pastures of money and whereever they find it in abundance they land and gain the harvest. Take for instance Aishwarya's marriage with Abhishek Bachhan when no activity was visible on TV, newspapers and other media modes other than this marriage.There is talk of Rani Mukherji getting married now and media again wastes maximum possible time on it.Shilpa Shetty was kissed, embraced and what not by Richard Gere on the pretext that it was an anti AIDS campaign -most obscene a show in full public view.Both didn't feel the least ashamed, they instead enjoyed it on two counts -one that they could satisfy their lusty ways promiscuously embracing each other and the other, for which the movie stars always hanker, that they could get enomous publicity.Again take Salman Kahan who is likely to get married to Katherina and the people, more so the media, are receiving the news with so sumptuous a gaeity as if the two partners are obliging the country for tying a nuptial knot together. The wave of the peoples choice and fancy has the tendency of going a slopy way but those who claim to be intellectuals or the media fellows who claim to be the tongue of the society should pay their pointed concentration on the entertainers as against the ones struggling in space for the good of the mankind is not only a matter of surprise but of a great dismay.

Amassing wealth Maya style!

These are the way the pliticians make money and give it the a name like it was just managed in a simple and innocent way telling the stories of ordinary individuals gifting the amount to them.Mayawati, presently the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, herself a dalit with the claim of being a messiah of the downtroddens in the country too talks the same way. Her assertion that the wealth she acquired for herself to the tune of around 52 Crores of rupees during the last 3 years was possible not by any unfair means but by the humble contribution of 5-10 ruupees gifted to her by her followers looks just ridiculous.We know of great leaders and world feagures like Mahatma Gandhi who collected paisa by paisa to make a rupee spending it cen per cent in public interest without using an iota of it on his personal self. Men like Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya who could make a dream come true by bringing into existence an education centre of global repute like Banaras Hindu University. His official residence in BHU Campus was a synonymn of simplicity looking like an ashram. He collected the resources for the giant project like BHU by running from pillar to post and by accepting smallest possible amounts from individuals and bigger sums from the maharajas of the country. He too was the person who saw to it personally that not a single rupee is spent personally for himself out of the collections so made. There are numerous such instances.Mayawati is the one who accepts with unchaste a candidness that she did use the money so collected by her from the common followers of hers in acquiring personal wealth in highly enormous proportions.Most lavishly furnished bungalows in Delhi and Lucknow with luxurious flats in different other places followed by the ones in highly costly commercial areas are a reality and duly accepted by herself. Are these places to help the public or any ordinary individual in the country. The answer is just a 'no'. Persons like her are political heavy weights and are fully equipped with safety devices to protect them against any voice that is raised against them. Number of cases against her pointed out in the past are almost buried, others may follow suit and whatever could be the new ones are supposed to meet the same fate.Not only Maya's, if a view is taken in respect of lot many political leaders  in the country, the total schenario is that most chaotic conditions possessing most adverse a potential for alarmingly disastrous a situation in our country.Difficult to trace any ray of hope any where.

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