India is weird

A Swedish court jailed two police officers for ‘ignoring’ a woman's telephone plea to help a friend who was being raped. A 19-year-old victim managed to alert a friend by phone and the friend dialled the police emergency number, but the communications centre did not send anyone to investigate. The officer in charge and policeman who took the call were jailed for a month and a third was fined. Their lawyers said it was a "misunderstanding" and that the call did not make it clear exactly where the rape was taking place.

Now imagine a case of this sort in India....would there be any justice given out??? The case would not even be considered. There have been several instances and accusations that Indian police ignores the citizens’ cries of help... especially at the time of communal riots! Phone calls requesting help in cases of rape, assault, property damage and risk to life have been ignored!

Lets look at another story in news today.

Dara Singh, the main accused in the sensational Staines' triple murder case, got life imprisonment with the Orissa high court commuting his capital punishment to life!!!!! Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, Philip (11) and Timothy (7), were burned to death in January 1999. The accused, incidentally, also faces several other criminal cases; including the murders of Catholic priest Arul Doss, a Muslim trader S K Rehman and helper of a cattle-transporting truck.

What kind of law enforcement and justice system is this! What if the victim was an Indian known personality….wouldn’t the end result be different?

The language of urban India is supposed to be English ... but hold on, do we really speak the language as it should be spoken.

Its not just the pronunciations and intonations (accent), we invent words and phrases, we change the order of words and ruin English grammar.

We also make sentences that have words from at least two if not more languages.

In the first part of this blog, I have put together, a list of words that are used in Indian English and are strongly believed to be a part of ‘Correct’ English language. I’ll keep updating these.

Even the media uses these words !!!

preponed - to bring an activity ahead
time-pass - to waste time
jungli - uncouth
stepney - spare tyre
dicky - boot of a car
bonnet - hood of car
chalta hai - its okay
brinjal - Aubergine or Eggplant
lady’s finger - okra
lathicharge - an attack by policemen using long bamboo sticks
Her foot is heavy - She is pregnant
His nose was cut - he was insulted
I ‘to’ told him – I did tell him
Too good – Very good
What is going of your father – How does it matter to you?
backbencher – a student who generally occupies the last rows in a class
chargesheet - formal charges filed in a court

Four hours of no power in the city on a daily basis. Six or even nine hours of no power in the rural areas everyday...This is a part of India for you ...and i am not referring to some centuries ago....this is India today.

On one hand, we have infrastructural developments taking place around the country, we talk about India being the important soul of IT industry and a hub for BPO and outsourcing business and then...

...and then we have power cuts, shortage of basic necessities and a disgusting social system.

The power shortage just shows how unplanned this country is....and how non-transparent the government is. Everything is politicised! Life and Businesses are affected - but wait a minute...like always, let us ignore this issue and only look at the good!!! Let us continue to believe that we are the best (even if the world doesn’t think so!)

And yes, everything is not bad...its just weird and makes me wonder how can we have such extremities of good and bad in one country.

Sometimes it is good and sometimes it is unbearable!

India is truly the land of unexpected!

Yesterday, i had problem with my internet. So i called the customer service and informed them that i was not able to log in. They gave me a token number and said the problem will be solved in half an hour.

but knowing the service, i waited for half a DAY and tried logging in. To no surprise, my internet still wouldnt work!

So I called the customer service again ... and fired them. Ka boom....in the next few minutes, the problem was sorted out!

There have been so many instances, when i've had to follow up a million times to get things done.

This is something that all of us face - and i dont understand why everything needs to be told more than once.

No matter what language you speak, the story is the same.

Thats why, i always say ... India's middle name is Follow up! Dont ask me what the surname is

India is indeed the world's weirdest country!

I have been thinking of starting a blog and i kept wondering what topic i should choose.

"India is weird" - this statement gives me a chance to write and write and write and still have something to write.

In a couple of days, i'll post my experiences and wait for your comments - whether you agree or disagree - that fact remains - INDIA IS WEIRD!

see u soon