Bicycles Inc.

I keep getting a lot of crazy ideas. Here's one! Why doesn't everybody start using bicycles for short distances? Here are a few obvious things to gain from using them:
1. Obviously no pollution. Gain in carbon credits for the country.
2. Less pressure on the country's fuel requirements.
3. Good health of the people - cycling is a good exercise.
4. Fewer accidents - how many times have you seen hoards of cyclists hurting each other.

And then some of the more obscure things:
5. Better roads - lesser abrasion of road materials.
6. Lesser power requirements in companies - people would have to start early in the morning and leave early in the evening - for which sunlight could directly be used to lighten the buildings.
7. Lifestyle of rickshaw pullers gets a boost.
8. Bicycles mean not only healthier people but more alertness for them, more athleticism, and less of the oh so prevalent cut-throat mindset.
9. Lesser spending on fuel, cars and accidental repairs means better lifestyle for the people.
10. World peace - people would have lesser time for fighting with each other - since they'd be too busy cycling to their workplace.

Of course, there could be some people who'd be unhappy with this development:
1. Car dealers - what would they do? How about selling cycles?
2. Car manufacturers - Oh don't they have enough money? They could start manufacturing bicycles. After all where they'd be selling a single car - they would sell 3/4 bicycles in a family. The profits would admittedly be low - but what the hell! That's a small price for the country's overall happiness. We will get back to this issue in some other post and analyze what can be done for car manufacturers!
3. India Inc. - this thing does not really exist! It is only a virtual image of things that the developed world has created for our country. It does not really capture the aspirations and nature of problems of the Indian masses.
4. The developed world. Well they've had their time.

So! What say?

Kashmir

The oft quoted quote for this beautiful land says "If there's heaven on earth, it is here, it's here, it's here...". What happened to this land of Sufis and Rishis? The news around the world have reported of the "freedom struggle" of the Kashmiris. The cities and towns are burning. The Hindus are unrelenting, the Muslims ready to break off another piece of land. The Indian government is pushing the people with way too much pressure. Pakistan with its own democracy in shambles is encouraging the fire. And the diaspora of the nation all talking about a possible separation.

Sometimes, I wonder if the partition was really inevitable. Was the India-Pakistan and the India-Bangladesh partition an unavoidable thing? Had the people of Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi, who had risen together to fight the British out of this country, suddenly decided that India was too pro-Hindu to be together with? Wasn't the greatest Indian martyr (Bhagat Singh) born and executed in what is now Pakistan? Then why all this blood? Why the need for separation?


If there is a need for anything, it's change of rulers. So far the pro-Gandhian people ruled this nation with as much as dexterity as the Roman Caesars did! They all knew what the vastly uneducated (not necessarily illiterate), and the middle-class majority of this country wanted. And that's true for both India and Pakistan. One nation calls itself Secular, the other, Free! And governments of neither conform to any of their idealism. A really secular government would have done anything and everything to have saved Kashmir from falling into the separatists' traps, who by all measures know how to spark a rebellion only too well.


And what I am absolutely shocked about is the fact that media is completely underplaying this whole issue of Kashmir. There're hardly and news reports, any fora for the people of Kashmir, and no features voicing the Indian youth about this issue, in the media. All they care for right now is a bloody bronze medal in the olympics. Oh heart! heart! heart! Oh the bleeding drops of red! Since when has the cricket match, the newly released movies, the olympics medals, and other so many trivia become more important than the whole idea of the nation breaking up again! Are we still sleeping? Why isn't there a mass movement in the country to save this situation? Is the Government the only body in the universe which can do anything about it? Can we do nothing? Except, writing such blogs... (I wish I were a still born!)

Our most beloved ex-President, Dr. Kalam asked us all to dream. I dream of a Kashmir that is the next Silicon Valley - it is the only place that can be it. I dream of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as one nation again - at least in spirit. I dream of the world where people stop fighting for a piece of land - because the land is there to stay - but the people aren't.