Tyrants in Uniform

School bullies rob younger and weaker children of whatever catches their fancy, be it their lunch, toys or money. The weak merely surrender whatever they have to avoid a beating or other forms of torment.

A majority of citizens are timid and therefore face the same situation. Hapless citizens are incessantly bullied and tormented by the entity of the faceless and nameless government supposedly for ‘the greater good of the people' or some other nonsense.  The notorious brigade include tax officials, policemen, various inspectors, most bureaucrats and politicians. 

We can’t paint everyone with the same brush, not all officials are bad or evil. Unfortunately the bullies now form the dominant majority.

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Nowadays no social interaction is complete without a reference to corruption. Everyone grumbles but few do anything, to free us from the heavy yoke of our own government's corruption and apathy. 

Confined within our homes most of us are mere armchair activists.  Complaining and finger pointing, we merely talk and talk. Talk after all is cheap and assuages us of our feeling of guilt and inaction. Talk is not completely useless because it primes individuals for action, waiting for someone to light the match. 

An assistant commissioner of police of Mumbai ACP Dhobale is now in the middle of a media and social storm. Only the courts and time will tell if this man with a controversial past is an overenthusiastic law enforcer, or an inquisitor-tyrant on a rampage to fulfill a hidden agenda.

However the actions raise some important issues, which should serve as a call for fixing many things gone wrong in our society and what needs to be done to control the corruption of power.

Mere outrage and anger will result in the occasional flare up only to fizzle out. Powerful change can only occur when well conceived strategies and plans are implemented sincerely by committed people. 

Napoleon once remarked, "Evil things happen not because of the deeds of a few bad men, they are the result of the apathy and silence of the majority of the people." 

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People have exhausted themselves, fruitlessly attacking the symptoms rather than the disease. The root cause of the disease of corruption is the massive number of laws vesting dangerous punitive powers in almost every officer in the government. Even the junior-most officer can put in jail any member of the public with a snap of his or her fingers. 

The constantly demonstrated ability to obstruct normal life whether personal, social or professional is more frightening than any physical weapon. The harried citizens have to spend huge resources of money and time in legal fees, bribes and the courts just to prove their innocence or to get what is rightly due to them as envisaged in our constitution.

To make matters worse there is no effective system to redress complaints of the people. Where and to whom can the frustrated and exhausted citizen turn to?

In addition to throwing the legal book at citizens, many government officials cruelly leverage the media to their advantage and hammer the oppressed people by issuing malicious statements in the newspapers and television about the person being charged with some offense or the other.

Often destroying reputations and lives thoughtlessly, the media's focus unfortunately has shifted from providing balanced news to entertainment, and nothing entertains more than the whiff of scandal.

Preventing corruption is better than trying to cure it. Here are some ways to mitigating the menace of corruption;

•        Reduce by 95% the discretionary and instant punitive powers of individual government officers.

•        Introduce an effective system to redress complaints of the citizens and this should form part of the senior officers duties and action taken must be open to public scrutiny.

•        Form panels headed by eminent citizens consisting of experts from various professional bodies including respected and competent lawyers. These panels must review ALL laws within the next five years, withdraw, modify or add laws that are needed. It is estimated that more than 90% of the laws are either irrelevant or outdated and mostly unduly complex and sometimes even convoluted. Laws passed by colonialists to oppress the native people and monopolies benefits for a privileged few, are still in existence, empowering new indigenous tyrants to perpetuate misery.

•        Introduce guidelines that, unless genuine and valid objections are raised by government officials applications to government departments and officers should be deemed to be automatically sanctioned.

•        Hold to serious account by law,  government officers for misuse of their position and also for dereliction of their duties.

Reduce the powers of government and other officers to bully, to act arbitrarily to arrest people, to hamper their livelyhood, etc. for most matters and instead follow a system of due process of law. 

Barring exceptional circumstances alleged offenders should be given notice and permitted to defend themselves before a court of law before being condemned by the authorities and the media.

A man in uniform now represents something not to be respected but feared and even despised. Let us return to the time when the badge sported and the uniform of a government official was something that provided us the people a sense of respect, support, security, and justice. 

Bullies are impatient people and pursue instant gratification. Deny them this right to bully, harass, obstruct and destroy and most of the frivolous or mischievous cases of harassment will die a natural death.

True, a few offenders may escape the net of the law but surely countless innocent people will also escape the harassment of corrupt officials.

Life is like a game of bridge

"Life is like a game of bridge ... 


We did not invent the game or design the cards; we did not frame the rules and we cannot control the dealing. The cards are dealt out to us whether they be good or bad... 


But we can play the game well or play it badly. A skillful player may have poor hand and win the game. A bad player may have a good hand and yet make a mess of it. 


Our life is a mixture of necessity and freedom, chance and choice... we may not change events but we can change our approach to events."


— Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Philosopher and former President of India.


My thanks to Mr. Srinivasan Sundaresan and Mr. Janak Hathiramani for this inspirational piece.

How to choose a General?

Soon after getting freedom from British rule in 1947, the de-facto prime minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru called a meeting of army officers to select the first General of the Indian army.

Nehru proposed, "I think we should appoint a British officer as a General of Indian Army as we don't have enough experience to lead the same."

Having learned under the British, only to serve and rarely to lead, all the men in uniform and civilians present nodded their heads and agreed

However one officer Nathu  Singh Rathore asked for permission to speak. Nehru was taken aback by the independent streak of the officer, he asked him to speak freely.

Rathore said ,"You see, sir, we don't have enough experience to lead a nation too,  so shouldn't we appoint a British person as first PM of India?"

You could hear a pin drop.

After a pregnant pause, Nehru asked Rathore, "Are you ready to be the first General of The Indian Army ?"

Rathore declined the offer saying "Sir, we have a very talented army officer, my senior, Lt. Gen. Cariappa, who is the most deserving among us."

This is how the brilliant Gen. Cariappa became the first General  and Rathore became the first ever Lt. General of the Indian Army.

My thanks to Lt. Gen (retd) Niranjan Malik  (PVSM) for this article.

The characteristic of courage with a sense of duty and honour displayed by Lt. Gen. Rathore, is increasingly rare to find, unfortunately even in our armed forces.

Most people in present day society suffer from bone problem, too much in the head and too little in the spine.

These shoes make me so happy

Once in Delhi I spent a night at a friends home. Meeting after 15 years we had a lot of catching up to do.

Late into the night we chatted. As we relaxed, my friend pulled off his shoes with a moan and a groan. He heaved a sigh of relief as the shoes finally came off, and he muttered " Man! these shoes are so tight they really hurt"

I was baffled and I asked,"why don't you wear shoes that are comfortable and a slightly larger size?"

With a strange expression he said, "You won't understand, but these shoes make me so happy. My work is terrible, my employees are robbing me blind, my customers refuse to pay their bills,  my friends let me down and no one including my family loves me." "When I come home and take off these damn! tight shoes, I feel great relief and this is probably the only joy I get and the only happiness I can induce in my life" 

My friend was always melodramatic, however there is always some truth in every bit of humour. 

It appears that finding happiness is more elusive than avoiding unhappiness. Permit me to share with you some thoughts on avoiding unhappiness.

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Unhappiness normally stems from unfulfilled expectations.  

Expectations are of two kinds, one that is a favour and the other is a duty.  As regards the latter one one should always exercise one's rights and demand that people perform their duty.


However one should always be mentally prepared for the worst case scenario that nothing is going to transpire as expected, particularly when asking for favours. (The government and it's officers of our country do believe that they need not perform their duty, but merely bestow favours on us citizens)  


Having low expectations, forces us to be develop alternative solutions and be more self reliant. When things do happen as desired, we are pleasantly surprised and delighted. If nothing happens we can always say "I knew it, nothing would happen". 

Secondly, It's useful to avoid certain people or at least minimize contact with them. 

Trying to get ahead in life we try to associate with people that will benefit us materially and maybe that is not a bad thing. It is however essential that we listen to our inner voice, our 'gut feeling' and our conscience. If everything looks good but there is a voice in our being that gnaws at us that it does not feel right, it is quite likely that we will be sorry sooner or later. We must learn to trust our instincts and intuition.

Thirdly, avoid irritating things in our life. 

Identify the things that we frequently use, starting with our private space. Our bedroom, the bed, the pillow, the linen should be to our liking, because that is where we will spend a third of our life. Well rested in an environment of our liking will refresh us and make us less likely to be unhappy. 

Personal effects of  clothing, footwear, crockery, transport vehicle and our work tools be it a pen, computer, office bag, tool kit etc., or whatever is our tools of the trade should be of good quality and reliable. Nothing makes life worse than using rotten hardware and software tools to do our job.

Fourth, pursuing an appropriate career. 

If self employed, then try to choose a profession or business we like or are comfortable with. Working for an individual  or an organisation try to work for a person or organisation that has a belief system which we can respect.  Nothing is more stressful than having to work with people we have little respect for or worse taking orders from people we despise. If we hate the work we do, we  will become bitter and not only will this negative energy hurt others it will corrode us from within.

Fifth, avoid irritating people.

Though not always possible, avoiding people that trouble us or try to engage us in behaviour that is irritating is a good way to avoid unhappiness and related stress. Road rage is a good example of when people try to fight with us, a perfectly convenient way is to simply not make eye contact with the enraged driver, and try not to acknowledge their presence. Violent people need us to acknowledge them before they attack, so being indifferent to them takes the fun out of bullying for them.

In conclusion,  I must admit that this article is written mainly for people who can exercise free choice. Unfortunately there are billions of people who are prisoners of their environments, trapped by families, employers, governments, warlords, gangsters etc.  I pray that one day they too can have the ability and courage to exercise free choice and the wisdom to make the right choice.

If we are good and follow our heart, carry little negative emotional baggage,  keep life simple and seek joy instead of mere excitement, then happiness is within our grasp.