Waah Re, RTO!

The recent incident in Mumbai in which auto rickshaw drivers appeared to have gone on a strike is an interesting one indeed! There was utter confusion in the streets of the maximum city when all of a sudden autos did the vanishing trick en-masse, causing hardships to unsuspecting urban commuters. It was only later that we learnt from newspapers that it wasn’t a strike after all! It was a mass conversion of sort! No, no – not the mass conversion of faith or religion – more dramatically, it was the conversion of dishonest folks turning a new leaf in life and had embraced the honorable path of HONESTY! Could it be the work of the Art of Living or any of its variant avatars - or of some Baba preaching the common man on the street to lead a clean livelihood so as to attain moksha? Not really – it was the threat of punitive action under the law! The traffic police of the Regional Transport Office (RTO) - kudos to them - and yes, god bless their souls, had organized a “crackdown” on errant rickshaw drivers who had tampered their meters to overcharge the common man and fleece him of his hard-earned money in a wrongful manner.

Fearing punitive action, the rickshaw drivers rushed to “untamper” their “tampered” meters – and a heap of meters piled up at such Tamper/Untamper centres that had come up in the metropolis under the very nose of the RTO. Of course, under the garb of "repair centres”,! Folks - how was anyone to guess what went on there? Although the commuter had to brace another difficult time, what came out of all this imbroglio was some good news – that the fares for most long-distance commutes fell by 20% - 25%! Several Mumbaikars, who had been “taken for a ride” all these days, were instantly pleased with the authorities for once! Celebratory messages appeared on Facebook pages of “Meter Jam”, a group of people who have pledged to teach these rickshaw-walas a lesson. Meter jammers have been campaigning about the high-handed attitude of rickshaw-walas, who refuse to ply, demand extra money or cheat with tampered meters.

Meter Jammers keep urging us folks to help others by car-pooling, offering lifts whenever these guys throw a tantrum. Tweeple (folks on Twitter) chipped in with their help for stranded commuters by seeking help with the hashtag #needaride (need a ride), which was indeed very thoughtful! But one question does keep popping up in coffee-table conversations – why this crack down all of a sudden? Why no action was taken all these days? What really changed?

No one knows! No one, except of course the smart alec, know-it-all, who knows it! His theory is that some politician’s son has invested in an electronic meter factory which has huge unsold inventory – and that soon enough the regulation to enforce electronic “tamper-proof” meters will soon be introduced citing mass tampering of manual meters! Whoa!!! Interesting hypothesis indeed, but these nukkad-type, know-it-all guys can’t be believed, can they?

This incident leads me to believe – or rather reinforces my belief - that we have enough laws – all we need is implementation and action against perpetrators of the law!

Why don’t law enforcing authorities crack down on food adulterators, water mafias who steal from BMC and sell to citizens, hawkers/shopkeepers/petrol pumps/utility providers, who cheat by using faulty weights and measures and several other such parasitic elements in our society? Let us hope we see some action in all these spheres. And – why not all these on a regular basis? Why do we need CRACKDOWNs?

“YEH DIL MAANGE MORE!!!”

But for now:
Three cheers for RTO, Mumbai!!!

PS: Dear RTO, Please keep the pressure on, lest they fall back on their errant ways and soon we may have to shell out the Invisible Dishonesty Tax that we had been subjected to until now!

Book Review: “The Secret of the Nagas” by Amish Tripathi

Title: The Secret Of The Nagas
Publisher: Westland
Author: Amish Tripathi
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 9380658796
EAN: 9789380658797
No. of Pages: 414

The book is the second part of a Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi. The story begins from where “The Immortals of Meluha” (IOM) ended. Do read my review of the first book of the Trilogy here.

To recap in brief, Shiva, The Mahadev had seen the injustice meted out to the “vikarmas” who were deprived of their justful part in society for being unfortunate, and had taken steps to set right this wrongful act of the Meluhans and had led the Suryavanshis to attack the Chandravanshis, who were considered evil people who had to be conquered and disciplined in leading their lives on this planet. Having accomplished the mission, the question arose, were the Chandravanshis after all evil at all?

In this book, the hunt continues for pinning down the evil “Nagas”, who seem to have had a hand in destroying the secret nectar facility and killing Brahaspati, the genius behind the nectar production technique and a dear brother to Shiva. The activities of the Nagas can be sensed due to the sporadic attacks now and then. An initial encounter that Sati and Shiva face prompts them to pursue the evil folks into the land of the Nagas – but then it is the Branga community which seems to hold the key information that could lead them to their avowed foes – the evil Nagas. But why then do the Brangas associate themselves with the evil folks with their nefarious activities, they wonder? It is only when a life-saving medicine has to be administered to the injured that one learns that the people of the Branga community have no option as they are being held to ransom for their critical supplies life saving medicines.

When Sati finds unknown folks join them in a fight with the wild cats in the jungle eventually saving their lives, she finds to her utter surprise that the unknown people are really her close blood relatives! The revelation about Sati’s family connections with the Nagas shocks Shiva and prompts him to keep distance with her new-found relatives. Then comes time to reconcile to the realities and allow the suspects to reveal it all. But the defending Nagas, want to tell them all in their own land – the Land of the Nagas.

The second book of the Trilogy does answer many of the questions posed in the first book, the IOM. There are many questions unanswered in the second book, which the author would certainly reveal in the third one which is yet to release. Certainly a gripping Trilogy, but the main question that poses the reader is does Shiva, the destroyer of evil, as he is known find the evil people he is out to seek? Rather, the question is, are there any evil people at all on this planet? Or just passionate people pitted against each other in their own goals in life?

Rating – 4/5