The Water Cooler

  • On 28th March, I reached Mumbai from New Delhi (via Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata and Jaipur). I was supposed to reach Bangalore from Bhubaneshwar around March 15. The reason for my cross-country railway marathon? Trying to, or rather having the vast courage to, book my railway tickets online from IRCTC. If you are an agent making a living from overcharging tourists, stop reading NOW. And if you don't want to read this long, heart-rending post, a few quick bites before you go away:

    • 6,111 agents have been blacklisted by IRCTC
    • Of them, 4,310 were using multiple user IDs
    • 1,005 have been claiming fraudulent TDRs
    • 2 super-thug agents from Mumbai have been banned by the Railway Ministry
    • Problems related to IRCTC are discussed daily on Consumer Forum sites, Grahak Seva, Cleartrip Forum, National Consumer Complaint Forum, apart from loads of blogs
    • A friend Tweeted, 'Rajnikanth is faster than Intel Processors, but IRCTC can hang Rajnikanth'

    I had gone to Orissa on

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  • Damayanti Sen is not Inspector Vijay. Unlike the muscled, trigger happy super cops who always triumph in the end of a satisfying Bollywood movie, the story of this IPS officer is not so rosy. Her mistake was to persist on the track of the culprits and crack a high profile gang rape case. Her reward is a transfer to a low profile position.

    Damayanti’s reaction on her transfer order. Photo by Anandabazar Patrika. More on http://bengali.yahoo.com

    Damayanti has a Masters Degree in Economics. She entered the IPS in 1996, and in 2009, became the first woman ever to grace the post of Deputy Commissioner, Detective Department, Kolkata. She was Joint Commissioner in February 2012, when a woman was gang raped in Park Street, Kolkata. One of the suspects involved was related to a Congress leader.

    The case got some negative publicity right at the beginning as the local police station did not cooperate with the victim, delaying the process of lodging as FIR. Next there was a confusion over identifying the criminals. It didn't help when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee publicly claimed that the case
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  • No country for women

    By Nelson Moses | The Water Cooler – Thu 8 Mar, 2012

    Girl children in IndiaTo be killed before you are born is inexplicable. For the 10 million girl children who were brutally killed due to selective abortions [after pre-natal screening between 2001 and 2011], the first blow landed before they were born. ABC News did an expose last year where it claimed that a staggering 40 million women have gone 'missing'. The result? The sex ratio has dipped to 918 girls for every 1000 males in 2011 from 927 girls in 2001.

    For the girls who make the cut, it's not over, gendercide awaits. India has among the highest rates of girl children being killing after birth in the world (by women who can't afford pre-natal screening). It's a girl; three words that sound the death knell. After carrying their babies for nine months, mothers or midwives will put an end to the 'burden' by slamming their heads against the wall, burying them alive or stuffing a wet cloth in their mouths. Survive this and malnourishment follows, felling more. Around 2.5 million children die in India every

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  • Hooch Deaths

    By | The Water Cooler – Wed 15 Feb, 2012

    Malappuram, Sep 2010 — 26 people dead after consuming illicit country liquor. Excise Minister P. Gurudasan refuses to accept 'moral responsibility' and resign. Several hundred illegal toddy shops destroyed. Compensation of Rs. 1 lakh promised by the government to the victim's families.

    South 24 Parganas, Dec 2011 — 172 people dead after drinking spurious hooch. The government promises compensation of Rs 2 lakhs to victim's families for 'accidental death', refusing 'moral responsibility'. Two PILs are filed at the High Court, demanding justice and welfare coverage instead of compensation. The High Court suspends compensation pay-outs for 2 months. Khora Badshah, main culprit for spiking the liquor, convicted in a charge sheet on Feb 11, 2012.

    Cuttack and Khurda, Feb 2012 — 34 people dead, 6 blind, 80 under treatment after consuming illegal liquor mixed with cough syrup. 3 government officials suspended. Excise Minister A U Singdeo resigns claiming 'moral responsibility'. Compensation

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  • According to the Planning Commission, human dignity is worth Rs 2 lakh. That's the maximum compensation for a rape victim who files an FIR with enough evidence and pursues the correct legal channels. The price of a life is higher. A minor or mentally challenged woman, or a woman who gets pregnant or contracts AIDS as a result of the rape, might claim the princely sum of Rs. 3 lakh.

    January 2, 2012, the Delhi court awarded compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a 17-year-old rape victim awaiting justice. She was 14 when the incident occurred. In the interim, she tried to kill herself by consuming acid, and was reduced to a vegetative existence. The court, appropriately 'shocked' with the situation, coughed up a lakh and sent her back to the queue.

    Article 38 (1) of the Constitution of India provides for Criminal Injuries Compensation Boards in every state. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of setting up the boards. The National Women's Commission, the Working Women's Commission, and several

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  • For someone who studied in the mountains, had a psychedelic flash after a whirling windchill at a frozen lake in mountainous Nepal, was stricken with sudden fever on a glacial stretch in Spiti, and spent a winter in London without central heating (by choice), these are happy-learning memories of the cold, in comparison with my brother's horror stories from his first posting at Siachen. Also, in comparison with the immensity of the casually used phrase 'cold wave'.

    For a cold wave is first a biting change in the air and, if you are outside, its teeth will come for you. By definition it is a very sharp drop in temperature in under 24 hours or a very long spell of continuous chilling of air. Both can become so extreme when prolonged or very sudden. So when studio anchors in a centrally heated studio pontificate on the statistics of the sub-zero, can they empathize with their brrroadcasting colleagues standing for hours delivering the weather report? Listen in to the 200 watts of Kashmir's

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