SEEMINGLY ELUSIVE JOB.........

The current government has not only left the Indian economy in a shambles but also done irrepairable damage to the job market (creation of new government jobs) across the public sector and given credence to the oft repeated dictum about one out of every three graduates twiddling their thumbs at home as employment opportunities are scarce, few and in far between........
Take the recent tragicomic situation of 40 post graduates making a beeline towards the secretariat in Chandigarh to apply for the much coveted job of a peon within the echelons or then should I say corridoors of power within the Punjab government.........
These much desired jobs would earn the selected candidates the "princely" sum of Rs. 6,200/- per month and what takes the cake is the fact that the Punjab government received more than 16,000 applications for the 21 odd post that needed to be filled up in the immediate future.........
Satish, a resident of Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district was one amongst the 16.000 plus applicants who turned up to be interviewed for the post of peon at the district courts located within sector 43 of the Punjab capital; Satish is a MBA and has been trying his luck in the job market for almost a year now.........
He certainly found himself in august company as Vijay a resident of Chandigarh's sector 33 also turned up to be interviewed for the same job on Thursday; Vijay is a B.Com degree holder and has been trying his fortune at the employment turnstiles for well over 20 months.........
One can attribute the craze for this humble governmental post to the unceasing quest for permanence and penchant for a government job that guarantees you a tenure of 30 odd years, but the irrefutable fact that many a BEd, BCA, B.Com, B.A., M.A. and MCA degree holders turned up for the interview indeed does not hold out much hope for a bright and rosy future.........
Incorrigible optimists might well celebrate the fact that the "dignity of labour" is the winner in a scenario that expects a selected candidate to have passed his class VIII exams with a modicum of comfort and have more than an acquaintance with both spoken as well as written Hindi and Punjabi.........
A smattering of English or then the inherent ability to make yourself understood in the queen's language might well prove to be the icing on the proverbial cake, but a chequered canvas where graduates who should be imparting computer skills to beginners and candidates who should be teaching others carting around tattered government files and serving endless cups of chai to their sarkari bosses not only raises eyebrows but is more than a definite cause for concern.........
As a BSc (IT) graduate and long time resident of Dadumajra candidly remarked, "look at the brighter side, it is a government job that guarantees you a sense of permanence and ensures that you take home your salary cheque on the last working day of every month; and most importantly it certainly beats the state of twiddling your thumbs and eternally hoping that you will be able to land a seemingly elusive job commensurate with your educational qualifications".........
So do not be startled or raise your eyebrows if you find yourself being served a cup of chai by a person in a peon's uniform who is better mannered and far more comfortable and fluent with the queen's lingo the next time you frequent the dark and dingy passages of the district courts in Chandigarh..........
As for the fortunes of the next union government that takes over from the present lot in May 2014, the less said the better; they will not only have to create job opportunities by the tonne but also ensure that the skill set of a MBA, BCA or then any other graduate who has qualified on his/her own steam after having duly competed against lakhs of others like him/her is not criminally wasted in discharging a peon's assigned duties.......

RAGING LIBIDOS AND SEXUAL PICCADILOES........

Politicians are certainly back to doing what they know best, forcing themselves on unwilling women folk as if doing so was their divinely ordained right...........
Jammu and Kashmir's health minister finds himself on the wrong side of a gun barrel after a subordinate posted as a block medical officer of Srinagar levelled allegations of molestation and improper conduct against him.........
The doughty woman doctor in question who supposedly is a close relative of a prominent separatist leader levelled charges of uttering sexual laden profanities, making crude/offensive sexual gestures/innuendos and making unsavoury advances that amounted to molestation and outraging her modesty against Shabbir Ahmed Khan a Congress Minister in the Omar Abdullah led coalition government in the presence of several high ranking police officials..............
According to the victim, the amorous minister summoned her to his personal chamber in Srinagar on the pretext of seeking minute details about the announcements pertaining to the state's health sector made by the union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad during his recent Kashmir sojourn..........
She further goes on to add/allege that she was interminably made to wait in a miniscule cubicle adjoining the minister's sprawling office and then savagely subjected to what she terms "sexual harassment of the most graphic and debasing kind"...........
Taking due cognisance of the lady doctor's written complaint, the Srinagar Police Officials than duly booked cases under sections 354 (assault or usage of criminal force on a woman with the express/sole intent of outraging her modesty and causing bodily harm) and 509 (act intended to either outrage or assault the modesty of a woman) of the Ranbir Penal Code (criminal statute in force within the hill state of Jammu and Kashmir).............
A First Information Report (FIR) duly listing the charges levelled against the minister concerned was filed at the state capital's Shaheed Ganj Police Station late on Thursday night...........
According to unconfirmed reports appearing in local newspapers and other sections of the media, the arrest of the marauding minister was imminent as the state police have issued non-bailable warrants against him..........
Incidentally, Shabbir Ahmed Khan is the third Congress minister to have fallen foul with the long arm of the law ever since the Congress-National Conference coalition government took the reigns of government into their "tainted" hands in 2009..........
First it was noted journalist Tarun Tejpal, retired Supreme Court Judge A.K. Ganguly followed in his footsteps and now a Congress minister, one wonders whether these notables have not heard of the existence of the supposedly draconian and stringent "Nirbhaya" law or then their libido simply prevailed over their better senses..........
Sexual piccadiloes of the "ministerial" kind...............

RACIAL PROFILING????

Now here's a judgement that indeed boggles the mind and provides your infinite grey matter with immense food for thought, what with the Supreme Court saying that nude and semi clad pictures are okay and pass muster as long as they do not pander to your "basic instincts" and arouse "unholy" desires.............
A graphic or rather titillating picture of either a nude or then semi clad woman cannot be termed as offensive or obscene as long as it does not have either the propensity or ability to arouse sexual passions in both your mind as well as nether regions, the learned judges of the Supreme Court have ruled in a recent judgement intended to uphold the widely abused right to freedom of speech and expression........
Quashing a two decade old case filed against the editors of the Telegraph and now defunct Sports World magazines, a two judge bench comprising of justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri opined that "a picture could only be termed offensive or derogatory if it is either suggestive of (depraved) mind and exclusively designed to arouse sexual passions or unbidden desires".............
Criminal proceedings were initiated against the then editors of the two above mentioned publications under the Indecent Representation of Women's Act after the two publications prominently featured nude photographs of tennis legend Boris Becker and his then love interest actress Barbara Feltus.............
Referring to the magazines that also carried Boris Becker's candid and heartfelt article about racial discrimination in his native Germany based on the colour or tone of one's skin, the learned judges remarked that "the photograph intended to convey an unequivocal and far reaching message about the aimlessness and futility of differentiating between two people on the basis of their skin's pigmentation and was certainly not intended to titillate or pander to one's sexual fantasies".............
They also went on to add that the picture also conveyed the message that "skin colour is a triviality in matters of the heart and love prevails above all forms of discriminations and racial profiling"............
One only hopes and prays that our wise and learned citizens who derive sadistic pleasure out of mouthing racial slurs and barbs at the drop of a hat will indeed take a leaf out of the learned judge's book and realise the irrefutable fact that hairstyles and the size and shape of one's eyes are mere trivialities and certainly not cause enough to snuff out a young man's life in it's prime..............

KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR.........

Acting like a knight in shining armour and coming to the aid of a woman in acute distress is certainly not without it's pitfalls and harassment at the hands of over zealous men in khakhi as this Noida resident realised much to his dismay and consternation.........
A call centre employee was allegedly abused, intimidated and finally molested by three men inside a Maruti Swift car right outside her office in Noida's sector 135 in the wee hours of Thursday.........
This macabre incident occurred when the said employee stepped outside her office with a couple of female colleagues in tow at around 2 am for a quick bite and that much desired cuppa of chai.........
In her statement made before the Noida police alleged that the three men sitting inside the above mentioned car started spewing venom and the filthiest of abuses the very minute they saw her and her female friends, they subsequently made a furtive attempt to drag me into the car but soon gave up and fled away from the spot in undue haste as soon as I raised a hue and cry by screaming at the top of my voice.........
The screaming and ranting by their supposed victim deterred the rogues inside in the car only momentarily; they happened upon the very same spot after about ten minutes or so and made yet another foolhardy and equally fruitless attempt to grab the woman and pull her into their car.........
Their second attempt however came to naught as the employees and other menfolk inside the refreshment stall rushed outside on hearing the victim's screams, vandalised the car and also roughed up one of the occupants somewhat before the occupants of the car sped away from the spot that had abruptly become too hot for comfort.........
One can put money down every time and wager a bet on the fact that the local police personnel will always favour the so called high and mighty in all such cases and register fraudulent and patently false cases against the perennially abused lower middle classes in an effort to assuage their higher ups and give one the impression that they are indeed hard at work.........
Lo and Behold!!!! the sector 135 police personnel remained true to form and registered cases against one of the employees of the refreshment centre for vandalising the car and disturbing the peace and compounded their insanity and inhumanity by detaining the very same person in the local police station for a few hours.........
They only relented and released the knight in shining armour Shekhar Chauhan after the alleged victim rushed to the local police station after being intimated about the startling developments on this front by the youth's uncle and refreshment stall owner Rishipal Chauhan........
" I reported for work at around 11:30 am as usual but was startled out of my wits when I was informed that Shekhar had been apprehended by the local cops and incarcerated in the lock up on trumped up charges of vandalism and causing damage to my assailants car".........
" The station in charge refused to accept my plea and register a complaint against the three men who attacked me and I had to literally run from pillar to post to get a FIR/complaint registered against my three wannabe rapists; my efforts in this direction only bore fruit after the Senior Superintendent of Police heard me out patiently and duly instructed the area police station personnel to register a FIR against the three men and immediately release Shekhar without any further ado", the flabbergasted woman concluded ...........
And people still continue to wonder why many well meaning folks like moi continue to clamour for the long delayed police reforms and cry ourselves hoarse about the immediate need to professionalise the police force and make it accountable to the common man for it's actions, quirks, high handedness, eccentricities and idiosyncracies..........

KEVIN PIETERSEN"S SWAN SONG?????

Is it the end of the road for maverick, dashing and somewhat eccentric South African Born English batsman Kevin Pietersen?????? well the answer might well be in the affirmative if media reports emanating from old blighty are any yardstick to go by........
According to a plethora of media reports a clandestine meeting was supposedly held between the coach of England's ODI team Ashley Giles, incumbent captain Alastair Cook and the English Cricket Board's Managing Director and former England stumper Paul Downton.........
Speculation has it that the three above mentioned notables were of the unanimous opinion that the infamous Mr. Pietersen was indeed a disruptive element who constantly vitiated a congenial dressing room atmosphere and also that he was proving to be hurdle in achieving unity and solidarity amongst the remaining team members.........
One may do well to recall the fact that the English team was indeed a divided house all throughout the traumatic and turbulent recent tour down under, where the English lions were comprehensively thrashed by a 12-1 margin by a marauding and rampaging Aussie team in all three forms of the game.........
The disastrous, ill fated and ill tempered tour saw the premature retirement of arguably the best off spinner in the business Graeme Swann from all three forms of the game citing irreconcilable differences with his team mates; abrupt return of the stodgy Jonathan Trott due to an alleged stress related illness........
Mysterious side lining or overlooking of left arm tweaker Madhusudan Singh (Monty) Panesar in favour of a rookie who was flown in on short notice and last but not the least the fall from grace of long time stumper Matt Prior.........
In fact, former English medium pacers turned journalist Angus Fraser and former English skipper turned commentator Michael Atherton had let the cat out of the bag and said that the English Cricket Board is all set to go after KP, Monty, Prior, Swann, Trott and last but not the least team director Andy Flower after the due completion of a horrendous tour down under........
Well, whatever may be the reason, the irrefutable fact is that Kevin Pietersen does not find himself on the England team sheet on the whistle stop tour of the Caribbean Isles in February or Twenty20 World Cup slated to be held in Bangladesh in March........
Reading the writing on the wall and realising that his time in English colours is indeed up for good, KP is said to have released a statement lamenting his exclusion from the English team for the next two series/tours and lauding his achievements as a batsman of some repute in all three forms of the game........
Cricket politics British ishtyle anybody..........

FIT CASE FOR THE DEATH PENALTY??????

To marauding rapists, the age, bodily shape, size and state of the victim seems nothing more than just a trivial matter to gloss over as the brutal rape of a class III student residing in the northern part of the national capital vicariously highlights once again........
In what must certainly be seen as a blot or then should I say vicious blow on the face of humanity a nine year old girl is battling for her life after being brutally sexually assaulted and battered by a 25 year old sexual predator on Sunday evening.........
The grievously injured victim a class III student of the local government school in the Bara Hindu Rao area of North Delhi was amusing herself in the company of two other girl's of her own age in the vicinity of her humble abode when the three of them were surreptitiously approached by the accused who has since been identified as one Gopi Nisha Malha........
According to the girl's distraught father, "the three dimunitive, gullible and naive girl's were playing on the road opposite their houses a little after 6:30 pm on the fateful Sunday evening when the satanic Malha approached them and tried to entice them away from the spot on the pretext of showing them something unique or something that they hadn't chanced upon earlier"..........
While, the two other little girls steadfastly refused to succumb to this enticement, the victim overcome by curiosity readily agreed to accompany him to a secluded and deserted spot in the very same locality, only to find herself being gagged, bound, battered, raped and sodomised by this devil reincarnate who took vicarious pleasure in torturing and brutalising his helpless victim.......
Hearing her piteous cries for help and repeated entreaties for mercy, the two girl friends of the victim made a beeline towards the victim's house and narrated the sordid incident to her disbelieving mother........
Showing remarkable presence of mind the mother of the victim made her way to the local police station in the company of the two girls registered a complaint against Malha and also provided the area police with a graphic description of his physical appearance.........
She then began a furtive search for her missing/abducted daughter and chanced upon both her daughter and her tormentor in the Nawabganj area of the national capital a little over two hours later........
On seeing that the avenging mother of the little girl was on the warpath and that his fun and games with the little one were over and done with; Malha cruelly pushed the grievously injured little girl to the ground with beastly force and made good his escape from the hotspot.........
Gathering her howling daughter in her arms, the now distraught and bewildered mother caught an auto and rushed her copiously bleeding daughter to the local Bara Hindu Rao Hospital where she was immediately admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU).........
Given the life threatening nature of her numerous injuries, the doctors in the hospital performed a major surgery on the victim on Monday and also said that she will need to undergo two more such surgeries if the doctors are to stabilise her condition; her condition is slated to be highly critical and she is under round the clock supervision of a team of specialists.........
In what must come as solace from heaven, the rapist Malha was arrested by the police from a friend's abode in the wee hours of Tuesday morning from a friend's abode thanks to the graphic descriptions of his physical appearance provided by the two girl friends and the victim's mother........
Cases have been booked under sections 363 (kidnapping and abduction), 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural sexual offences) of the Indian Penal Code against Malha and he has also been booked under sections 3 and 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 (POSCO Act) at the Bara Hindu Rao Police station.........
Malha was duly produced before a magistrate on Tuesday afternoon and has been duly remanded to judicial custody by the legal functionary.......
Fit and just case for the death penalty methinks, what do you have to say about the same???????

WARNE AS TEAM DIRECTOR?????

Iconic leggie (leg spinner) Shane Warne's tweet pertaining to his conditional acceptance of the much coveted Team Director' s post has certainly set the virtual world atwitter and how..........
Laconically responding to the legions of tweets posted by concerned Englishmen imploring him to accept the much coveted Team Director's post: Warne said that he was certainly not averse to accepting the challenge if the English Cricket Board approached him... .....
But, he also added that he would only do the same after putting much thought into his decision and not make any decision about accepting the post or otherwise based on emotion or in undue haste..........
One may do well to recall the fact that both the English Cricket Board as well as the legions of followers of the English Lions have not exactly been averse to foreigners occupying the highest post in the nation's cricketing hierarchy..............
Outgoing team director Andy Flower had been in charge of the team since 2009 and present Indian coach Duncan Fletcher had also helmed the English team for a period bordering eight years or so............
Shane Warne currently has both his hands full with his current assignment as the spin consultant to the Australian Cricket Team on it's current tour to the rainbow nation (South Africa) and is also committed to being the mentor to many a budding Aussie tweaker in the period leading up to the ICC World Twenty20 world cup which is slated to be held in Bangladesh in late March/April 2014...........
In the interim, many an English fan would certainly be hoping and praying that Shane Warne (the best captain that the Australian team never had) as legendary Aussie captain Ian Chappell termed him accepts the post without much ado and leads the bruised and battered English team into a new dawn following from it's 5-0 demolition in the recently concluded Ashes series down under...........