Usge of comma and Full Stop to search truth

Yesterday, I read news coverage about mob killing a priest. Read it, it’s very small.

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Villagers beat up priest to death for his ‘sex romp’

(Indian Express, Nov 16, 2011)

The police have found the body of a priest hours after he was allegedly beaten up on Monday night by villagers who caught him in a compromising position with three women at a Hanuman temple located near Gondal on National Highway 8B in Rajkot district. 

The police said they recovered the body of Ramdas Bapu lying naked near the Khilori Hanuman Temple. The three unidentified women who were allegedly with him fled when the mob came to beat him up. The police said they were looking for the women to verify details. 

No complaint has been registered against anyone since the post mortem report was awaited, the police said. “He was found dead hours after being beaten up by villagers. However, no major injury marks were found on body,” they added. 

According to the police, the incident took place when Ramdas, who had been a resident priest at the same temple for 10 years, was reportedly caught red-handed by a villager, Shambhu Patel from Gundala, who had dropped in at the temple in the evening when he first saw Ramdas with three women. 

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Sadhu (Priest) should do not indulge himself into such activities. Do the villagers have right to kill someone. What do you think?

Now, read a small article on the same topic, printed in newspaper next day.

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Gondal councillor arrested for priest's murder

(The Times of India, Nov 17, 2011)

Chairman of the committee for electricity in Gondal nagarpalika Jagdish Gondaliya was arrested by the local police on Wednesday for murdering a priest in order to grab the temple's land.

The accused had floated the story that sadhu Ramdash of Khimori Hanumanji temple was lynched on Monday by a mob near Gondal for his lecherous behaviour. The sadhu's naked body was found near the temple on the outskirts of Gondal town.

Five others have been booked with Gondaliya.

"We have booked Jagdish, Shambhu Kotadiya, Jitu Raiyani, Raju Satodiya, Jagdish Gondaliya, Chuni Ranpariya and Pravin Dobariya under various sections of Indian Penal Code, including 302, 143, 147, 148 and 149 among others,'' inspector, Gondal town police station, V J Gadhvi said.

"Sadhu Ramdash, who had been living in this temple from the last eight years, used to write daily dairy (Rojnishi) which has given insights into this case. Ramdash, in fact, has mentioned in his dairy that Sambhu Kotadiya and his accomplices threatened him to grab the temple land.

The police also found an application written by the deceased to the superintendent of police,'' inspector Gadhvi added. Kotadiya's land is located close to the temple.

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Land sounds to be a key reason for death of priest, logically. 

Do you still have same stand for Priest? 

Many times, we put full stop in to search the truth instead of comma. 

If the investigation has not been carried out, what would have been our perception?

Mumbai and Delhi cheapest cities - What an interpretation by media?

Last week, I came across the headlines “Mumbai and New Delhi among 5 cheapest places in the world”. The news had been featured as front page news in most of all dailies. The first conclusion, I and many of you would have made is that these two Indian metro cities are amongst the cheapest cities to live in the world for common man.

The newspaper says the survey was done by Economic Intelligence Unit covering 134 major places of the world. I was surprised to read that the survey was done to identify the costliest cities of the world. Hence, the international research firm has short listed 134 major places of the world such as Tokyo, Paris, Zurich, Melbourne, Karachi, Geneva, Singapore and many more. In the outcome of the research two Indian metros were ranked in bottom 5 cities. It means that they are not costliest cities among selected 134 places, but it does not mean that they are the cheapest cities of the world.

As the objective of the survey was to identify the costliest cities hence the short-listing of the cities was done accordingly. If it had been the objective of the survey to identify the cheapest cities of the world, then may be have short-listed different cities from the world. Probably, non-metro cities or other towns may have been short listed.

The objective and methodology plays important role in drawing conclusion. It’s not at all proper interpretation by media.

The screening of 'Gandhi Katha'

I am fortunate enough to attend Gandhi Katha narrated by Shri Narayan M Desai twice, once at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad in Dec-2009 and second time at M S University, Vadodara few days back.

When I reached the venue, Prof C C Mehta Auditorium, I was surprised. The auditorium has the seating capacity of approx. 600 persons. The five-day Katha is scheduled to start at 5.30 pm. But, what I observed; the hall was packed 20 minutes before start time. Organizers have made additional seating arrangement in different halls with LCD Projectors and Screens. Those additional halls were also approaching to get the tag of 'house-full'. The consistency of 'house-full' almost continued for all 5-days. The audience remain engrossed for 3 hours, with very very less movement/break. They were totally engrossed. A very rare phenomena, now a days !

Many times, when we organize or attend the event; practically the function is starts late by min 5-10 min because of late arrival of audience or key guest. Here, both, guest and audience have reached the venue much before.

A bhajan/song is played almost every 30 min by the troupe based on the situation/scene of the Katha. I liked very much 'koi thi ame dariye na, na na na'.

This was the phenomenal and overwhelming response by the citizens of cultural capital Vadodara.  If this was the response to Gandhi Katha, then what would be the response, if Gandhi himself arrives. Just imagine. 

If you are the ones, who doubts on relevance of Gandhi today, then it would be eye-opener for you.

Have some water !!

It's summer in India. Temperature would break all records all time. Idar, a town near Himmatnagar is consistently numero uno in Gujarat. All of us are relying on water, one of the five elements.  There would be some sort of curfew on roads between 11 AM to 4 PM. Okay, let me come to point. 

Some 30 years ago, while travelling we used to rely much on 'Parab (Water hut)'. I mean earthen pot was the main source of water to quench the thirst. Then, came Milton era. Everybody started travelling with family size milton jug, can accomodate 1 litre to 4 litre water. It has its life. In parallel, Bisleri revolution was going on. Same time, Carbonated drink has also affected our style of drinking water. Let's see how.

Earlier carbonated drink (Limca, Pepsi, Sosyo, etc.) would be offered in glass bottle of 300-330 ml. Which needs to be returned. Then, because of process improvement and changes, came the era of plastic or PET bottles. So, now it is more sold or offered in 500 ml to 2.5 Litre in those plastic bottle. Moreover, as the quality and design of these bottles are good, people started recycling them for water. So what? It killed some extent the market of Milton sort of products and also to some extent removed the role of intermediate 'glass'.

Earlier drinking water directly from bottle was not considered to be formal. It was more casual. But, now drinking directly from bottles is increasing. It is becoming acceptable now.

This transition has happened very slowly without any major technical innovation or focused attempt. It was gradual and changed the preference and acceptance pattern, more because of availability and convenience. What do you say is it just happened? Have some water while you think about it. I have more to say about 'water', next time.

Suresh Purohit