One cannot frighten the brave.

Since childhood, I have seen Communist Chinese constantly bully and dominate India. The latest Chinese incursions and aggression has received a befitting reply by brave Indian soldiers, supported by firm leadership. It has shocked many and non more than the Chinese People's Liberation Army themselves. 

I am reminded of an incident  in the life of our family where my Uncle, Sardar Manohar Singh ji, effectively took on some bullies, and I can share that experience with you.

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Arriving in India from Burma as refugees in 1965, father and uncle decided to establish  a manufacturing unit in Pune. One day in 1968, when I was a 10 year old boy my brother andI had accompanied my uncle to the factory site where construction of the factory was underway.  

Around noon, a nasty man, accompanied by a handful of men swaggered onto the site. We learnt much later that the man was a notorious local goon. 

The goons manner was extremely aggressive, he demanded to know from my uncle, " Are you the owner?" 

Uncle sensed trouble and cooly replied,  "Yes I am the owner. How can I help you?"

The goon pointed a threatening finger at uncle, "We don't want people like you, here. Pack up and leave. I don't want to see you here from tomorrow." 

Uncle walked slowly towards the bully and glared defiantly at him. The goon jabbed a finger in my uncle's chest and repeated himself now heaping abuses.

The man had no idea who he was dealing with. 

Our father and uncle were World War II survivors. Though civilians, their village in Burma ( now Myanmar) was close to the conflict. between the Japanese and the Allied forces. 

They lost everything they owned in the destruction unleashed by the war. In addition they were often detained, beaten up, bombed, shot at, strafed, and much more. They had witnessed death and torture up close. They had stared at, and evaded certain death by sheer grit, cunning, and good fortune.  Uncle knew what violence, fear and death was, and nothing seemed to faze him, plus he was a Khalsa Sikh jovial, friendly and kind yet insanely fearless.

Like a Cobra, suddenly my Uncle's hand shot out and caught the goon's jugular in a pincer grip. With the other hand he grabbed the goon's testicles and squeezed.

The goon writhed in pain, as his eyes almost popped out. He screamed but no sound could escape his constricted throat. uncle Manohar slowly and torturously edged the goon towards the perimeter of the plot. There he gave him a shove and a kick in his chest. The goon went sprawling and lay still on the road, not daring to move nor say anything. 

Now Uncle pointed his finger at the goon and said, "I don't want to see you here again, the next time you might not be so lucky"

The stooges picked up their leader and fled. That was the end of all kinds of hooliganism. 

Father and uncle built the factory,  and the company prospered,  eventually, employing 5,800 employees by 1996 -1997.

Bullies at heart are cowards. They build their notoriety by beating some weak entities and then let their reputation work on intimidating and frightening their future targets.

They never dare to attack someone strong, lest they receive a bloody nose or even worse a drubbing.  Such an outcome destroys the dastardly reputation they carefully build.

All it takes is courage and the willingness to accept pain and difficulty. 

Once people realise that the goon can be effectively tackled, with firmness, and some guts, the bully is finished, eventually abandoned by all.

'Courage is not the absence of fear, but the belief that, some things are more important than fear.'

This lesson provides a clue on how to possibly handle the bully called China.

This I will cover in my next article.

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Written and Posted: Jun 2020  ~ Gurvinder Singh.

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Interesting Links:
Burma campaign - Wikipedia
Japanese conquest of Burma - Wikipedia

How would you like it?

We human beings are somewhat the same underneath these masks that we wear and the games that we play. I think it is great that we get an occasional reality check.

Inside many of us lurks a dominating bully if only we could find someone to torment. Many parents, teachers and bosses are guilty of this offense.
We accumulate our frustrations with other people and things and bring that garbage back with us, only to dump them on the people who love us most, our family and friends.
One day I got upset at a trivial act of Mohit my son who was 15 at that time. I ranted and was an inexcusably horrible person.

After 10 minutes I had physically exhausted all my frustration, but my ego made me feel that I was completely justified in my conduct. Mohit looked at me straight in the eye and asked, "Dad, how would you feel  if I spoke to you in the same manner?"

Respectfully and in one soft spoken question my son deflated me of all my toxic anger and I felt terribly stupid and deeply ashamed. I realised that day that my son had grown up into a giant of a personality whereas I felt I had somewhat shrivelled.

Tears came to my eyes and  I hugged Mohit. It was then that he broke down sobbing uncontrollably. It has been 15 years since that incident and never again did I speak with anyone again in that thoughtless and rude manner.

The child is indeed the father of man.

Remove Bullying and Destroy Corruption.

School bullies rob younger and weaker children of whatever catches their fancy, be it their lunch, toys or money. The weak and timid merely surrender whatever they have to avoid a beating or other forms of torment.
The situation is not much different for the majority of the people, for they are weak and the bullies are the bureaucrats and political leaders. In this notorious brigade one can also include police officials, teachers, purchase officers, inspectors etc in most institutions.

Not all are bad but the bullies form a dominant majority.

Nowadays no social interaction is complete without a reference to corruption.
Everyone protests and I am flooded with emails asking us to protest and support Anna Hazare etc. Everyone expects that this social activist’s efforts at getting the right legislation passed by parliament after 42 years will free us from the heavy yoke of our own government's corruption. While this is a significant move, it is sadly just a minuscule step in putting the evil genie of corruption back into the lamp. Talk s cheap and assuages our feeling of guilt that while we complain we do nothing. Well conceived strategies and plans implemented sincerely by committed people only will yield results.
Here are some thoughts on the analysis and some proposed solutions if carried out by the second wave of mass protests led by people like Mr. Hazare will solve a lot.

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People love to attack the symptom 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 their fingers. Another root cause is the ability to obstruct normal personal, social and business life. The harried citizens have to spend huge resources of money and time in legal fees, bribes and the courts 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 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;

1. Reduce discretionary and instant punitive powers of individual officers by 95%.
2. 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.
3. Various and relevant trade associations, guilds and organisations working in tandem with the various bar councils review ALL laws over the next five years and withdraw, modify or add laws that are needed. More than 70% of the laws are irrelevant or outdated and unduly complex and sometimes even convoluted.
4. Introduce universally that unless genuine and valid objections are raised applications to government departments and officers will be deemed to be automatically sanctioned for most routine things.

Reduce the powers of government and other officers to bully, that is to act arbitrarily to arrest people, shut down businesses, etc for most matters and instead follow a system of due process of law. The offender should be given a notice and permitted to defend themselves.

It must be appreciated that 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 a countless more innocents will also escape the harassment of corrupt officials.