Mob Mentality and Octopus

Had been reading and seeing on TV the rage the astonishing things that a mob can do till recently, it just can turn violent within minutes. Just needs one little trigger. The recent riots in the UK was a good example. There was no particular reason for the mob to start looting and rioting, it’s just the mentality of the mob, the mass of people behave as one, the individual person fail to behave as himself and think like him, instead they think as a group. All of them start behaving as one person, they stay in the group with few individuals launching an attack and then retreat into the mob. Just like an octopus which uses only a couple of its tentacles while the rest of its body and tentacles remains static.

The mob consists of many number of individuals, who have their own grievances and anger against the system, government or may be another group of people, and when certain circumstances bring these group of people together, then they feel a sense of security in the group and gain mental strength and use this situation created for other reasons to use it against whoever their enemies are. Usually happens in the race riots, like in US/UK –Black-White, Asian-White, and South Asian countries where Hindu-Muslim, Shia –Sunni, Inter caste riots are common.

Whoever gets caught in this mob is bound to get hurt, if you are in a situation where you are not a part of the mob and get caught in the mob, the things you can probably do is to remain silent so the rage against you will be less or go along with the mob for the time being just to save your life, but what one should never do is go against the mob unless you have a larger crowd backing you or if the police presence is there, if you don’t have the above then you are bound to be doomed if you go against the mob, once they identify you as their enemy , the mob would not hesitate to do anything.

I am saying this from my personal experience, I was caught in a unruly mob, the big mistake I did was go against them when I did not have the backing of the police or a bigger mob behind me. The situation was out of control with people shouting, hitting the car and making a big fuss, thanks to a few good Samaritans who saved me from the situation till the arrival of police. The lesson I have learnt is to agree with whatever the mob says even if you have not done any mistake till help arrives.

The Ugly Eucalyptus Tree

I have been an observer all my life, observer of things around me, observer of nature and of course people. This sense of observing things has helped me understand the things around me much better or rather better then other people. I am sometimes amazed and surprised of how people don't even put an effort to understand the things happening around them, either they just ignore it or believe in what others says, but ever have their own views and ideas about things. That's the whole point of this blog anyway, my views about the world around me.

For the past 3 week I am in my native of Kolar Gold Fields, since I have time in hand have been travelling around KGF and exploring new places and taking some snaps as well (to be uploaded later in Panoramio and google earth). The one thing I have noticed is that there has not been much change in the landscape of KGF and the surrounding regions. It remains the same either scrub land or vast Eucalyptus plantations. The scrubland remains as no one has bothered to replace the once cut down trees. the Eucalyptus trees remain as the have grown and regrown several times over the years after cutting them for various purposed.

I was not so bothered about the scrub land as it provided with some sort of grazing to the sheep and cattle and probably over the years some sort of trees will start to get hold and maybe one day cover it with forest. I am most upset is with the eucalyptus trees, they look so boring and monotonous, cant see any wild life around these plantations and there are no other trees  around if there are eucalyptus trees.

As a kid I just thought it as a part of the local enviornment, but later on came to know that it was a introduced species from Australia. People were encouraged to grow them as they are fast growing needing little help from man and once cut has the tendency to regrow. These plants were tough and survived in harsh conditions and the dry area around Kolar with its unpredictable rainfall suited its use. The tree has advantages and has helped boost the income of farmers, but has also had an devastating effect on the environment, the wild life has completely disappeared around KGF, these trees do not allow either grass or other trees to grow around it as the leaves are toxic.

Just looking at these plantations makes me go mad with anger, instead of these trees the Forrest department could have planted some indigenous trees which could have helped boost the wildlife and also would have been pleasant to watch. I am not going to talk about the lowering underground water level here as that's a often discussed topic.

The Lakes of Bayaluseeme

History and Geography are the two things that fascinated me since childhood, god knows how I ended up being a Medical Doctor. I go to a bookstore and buy History and Geography books, when doing nothing I open up the Google Earth and look up at different geographic features of different countries.

Geography has played a major part in the development of different civilisations throughout History and slight changes in the Geography had led to the extinction of civilisations, example being the Indus valley Civilisation which thrived when the mighty Saraswathi river was at full flow until an earhtquake diverted the flow of river and the civilisation just ended.

Similarly the fertile valleys of Ganga and Bhrmaputra are teeming with life, abundance of water and fertile land has led to explosion of population, around 50 crore people live in this region. Compare it to the dry, monsoon dependent Bayaluseeme of Karnataka and Rayalaseema of Andhrapradesh. These regions receive less rainfall compared to other regions of India and that the rains are unpredictable, probably receive couple of years of good rainfall and then several years of drought.

Bayaluseeme is the region to the east of the Western Ghats or Malenaadu. The south west monsoon hits the western ghats and most of the rain it carries is dumped on the hills and so the Bayaluseeme receives less rain, thanks to the huge wall created by the mountainous westernghats, Bayaluseeme is in the rain shadow region. But that has not prevented the people of Bayaluseeme not to make the most of when the mother nature gives them. There are no major rivers in the region, the minor ones like Palar and Pennar have water only in the rainy season. So the people of Bayaluseeme have built artificial lakes to store water all round the year, the undivided Kolar District alone has about 5000 lakes, the largest number in India.

These Lakes provided water for cultivation all year round and also prevented the water flowing down the Deccan Plateau into the plains of Tamil Nadu, thus helping boost the underground water level. These lakes were built many hundreds of years ago and provided people with life giving water, but today its sad to see that these lakes have been neglected to the extent that even the largest of the lakes fail to fill up completely even during years of good rainfall. The reasons being too many bore wells - pumping out ground water continuously, large Eucalyptus plantations sucking out large amounts of water, lakes getting filled with slit and other garbage and blocking of the water channels.

If the Government and people of these districts don't take this problem seriously, this region is going to turn into a Desert soon. The best example is the Kolaramma lake, its a massive lake adjoining Kolar town and the last time I saw it over flow was about 15 yrs ago, this year in the middle of Monsoon season, there is not even a drop of water in the lake, omnious signs for the future. I sincerely hope they do something about this sooner or later.

Why Cricket and not Football popular in India

People keep asking me this time and again, why are Indians so crazy about Cricket and not Football. To answer this we have to decipher the whole geography and weather of India, you might be wondering what has geography and weather got to do with playing games like Football and Cricket. But there is according to me.

So why Cricket is so popular? the simple reason being traditionally India was and is better in Cricket then any other team games apart from maybe Hockey. Cricket played in Indian streets is simple, you have a bat and a ball either Tennis or rubber ball and you can play Cricket wherever you want, In front of your house, in the street corner or in a empty plot of land. To play football firstly you need a play ground, you need a good number of players and you need playing shoes, and that's not all, most of India is dry most of the year apart from the monsoon season, so the ground is dry and hard for most of the year, football being a game where you need to be acrobatic, slip and slide and might fall several times during a game, and any fall on the dry ground will inevitable lead to injuries. Where as in Cricket you need maybe 3 players and a game is on and no risk of falling or injuring yourself.

So kids in India prefer to play Cricket which is cheaper, easier and safer then Football, the same reasons apply to hockey as well. the only exceptions to this are the states of Kerala and West Bengal where Football is relatively popular as these states receive more rainfall then the rest of India and the ground is soft and green for a longer duration of the year. That's why in countries of Western Europe games like Football and Rugby are popular, as the ground is wet and soft all round the year and even if you fall on the ground the risk of injury is minimal.

What say, agree?

Anjukoli and other street Dogs of India

Street dogs have been a menace in Indian streets since times immemorial, but recently the unplanned growth of cities and towns and the councils unable to cope with the workload and improper disposal of household waste has led to disproportionate increase in the numbers of street dogs. There are regular news items about gang of street dogs attacking small children and sadly sometimes even killing them.

So why do people tolerate street dogs in India, there are several reasons for it. Traditionally these street dogs were the first line of defence in the villages against any intruders or against wild animals attacking the village, they acted as a alarm, these street dogs would start barking at any change in the environment and that would alert the villagers, the same tradition continued in the cities as well, some street dogs were fed by people so that they stayed near their house during the nights and alert them about any thieves entering their house. These street dogs worked out as a cheap means of protection of their property. The dogs themselves lived a rough life, scavenging for food , exposed to the elements and diseases.

Throughout Indian history there is mention of such dogs, they were part and parcel of Indian life since the dawn of civilisation in India. Lord Shiva himself has been shown to be followed by a dog when he ventures out to beg, Lord Buddha the same again, then the kings like Harischandra was known to have had a street dog as companion while he worked in the cemetery.

Anjukoli was one such dog which lived in 5th cross road, Robertsonpet, KGF, where we lived for nearly 15years. Anjukoli was a bitch i.e a female dog and had been living in the street for several years, and was legendary dog, its temper was so cool that it tolerated everything from kids pulling its tail, to getting stoned for no reason, I have never seen it hostile or angry or even bark on its own without its companion dogs doing so. It had given birth to several litter of pups but not many had survived, those little pups used to die young, either due to disease, hunger or were run over by vehicles , sometimes people used to take them to their places elsewhere. The legend of 5th cross has it that Anjukoli in its youth had killed and eaten five hens and hence had got the name Anjukoli (anji in tamil is five and Koli is hens). I think it died one day and its absence was not felt by anyone. I am sure each and every street, village all over India has such dogs.

Coming back to street dog menace, another reason why they are beneficial is that they compete with the rats for the scrap food and in the process keeps the population of rats under control. One good example is Surat city, which was devastated by Plague several years ago and one of the reasons for the outbreak was that all the street dogs were killed, which led to disproportionate increase in numbers of rodents which in turn led to plague. So the presence of street dog is good or bad will be an ongoing debate. As far as I am concerned it will be difficult to completely eradicate or exterminate the street dogs of India.

Grey hair inthe West, White hair in the East

I am not young anymore, even though I act like I am still 25yrs old, but my body has started to show changes of ageing, my hair has started to turn white or is it grey. Right so the question arises if the hairs on my scaly have started to turn white or grey? , if you are a proper English speaker you are supposed to say that the hairs have turned grey, so does the westernised English press in India, they say grey hair so does the many advertisements on television. they have plenty of remedies to stop your hair from greying and obviously there are plenty of hair dyeing products available as well.

Looking at my my hair, it is not grey but white, so why should I call it grey hair then white hair? the answer lies in the 200years of British rule and us Indians following blindly whatever the west says or does. Having lived in the United kingdom for the past 8yrs or so myself, I have found the answer to this. The hair turns grey in the west and it turns white in the east.

My explanation is people in Asia and Africa have black hair and when they grow old it turns white, where as in Europe and the Americas people have different hair colours, especially in the UK. Apart from black their hair colours range from Blond, Brown, Red etc, etc. So when the age the colour of the hair turns grey rather then black which I have seen myself, hence they say that the hair has greyed. Having said that the Blond one don't start greying till late middle age.

So in conclusion we in the east should be saying that our hair has become white and they in the west stick to their original saying.

Bhathu and his mother

Recently saw Bhathu near our old house, it brought back few memories. Bhathu is a middle aged man, who used to live nearby our old house in 5th cross road, Robertsonpet, KGF. We have moved out of that place about 10 yrs ago, but I think everyone else in and around the street remain. But this time I did not see his mother with him, is she still alive? I do not know.

Coming back to Bhathu, his dress remains the same, a cheddi ( sort of shorts) and a shirt with sleeves half way his forearms. He was roaming around without any intent. Bhathu has learning disability and was always with his elderly mother, they together used to do menial jobs like carrying shopping bags, opening small road side shops and also cleaning stuff like houses etc.

Bhathu was not the only son of this elderly women, she had several other children who were relatively well to do, but I think because of Bhathu's learning problems, this old lady had taken it on herself to look after him, she was overtly protective of him and used to give us kids a beating if anyone bothered Bhathu, Bhathu himself had the mental age of a probably a 8-10yr old kid. They together used to set up little roadside shops near the there schools where they lived and used to sell stuff like sweets, mangoes and other seasonal fruits to the school children, his mother used to buy vegetables from the market and go house to house selling them for a paltry profit.

Bhathu used to obey every command of his mother and I think they used to have a pet dog as well, having said all this, both Bhathu and his mother were proud human beings, in spite of their poverty they never begged anyone anything and maintained their self respect and dignity. I as a kid never gave any sort of importance to them, but when I saw him recently all my encounters with them started to come back and I really felt proud of Bhathu and his mother who in spite of little help from the community and the government had made lives for themselves.

I feel it is the fringe characters like Bhathu and his mother who makes the community work, through their sheer determination and hard work. India is made up of millions of Bhathus and his mother, who have been neglected and denied the opportunities and have been sent packing into oblivion by the ever greedy people who are after easy money and just think of making the most for themselves and their families. Long way to go before India becomes a mature selfless country. 

Afforestation of Antaragange in Kolar

Antaragange is a hill near the town of Kolar in Karnataka state of India. It belongs to the Shathashrunga hill range. It is an ancient hill range formed millions of years ago when numerous volcanoes erupted leading to the formation of the Deccan Plateau. Even today many hills in the Shathashrunga range have pyramid shapes or reverse cone shape indicating probably a long extinct volcano.

Whatever the history behind the formation of the hill range, there are several legends as well, one such story goes that when Lord Hanuman took the Sanjeevini hill to Lanka to save laxamana a piece of the hill fell near Kolar which formed as the Shathashrunga range. There are mention of several historic persons living in the ranges including several sages and even lord Rama and Pandavas at some point in history.

But I am not intersted in those, all I am worried is the neglect of these hills in the recent years, people of older generation still remember how the hills were covered by greenery and how many forest animals lived among the hills including Tigers and Leopards. but today once can just see the bare naked hill with its massive granite rocks, not a single tree to be seen on the hills, except maybe in Antaragange where there is a temple and a stone statue of Basava(bull) from whose mouth fresh water come out continuously. So the forest department have hastily done some Eucalyptus plantations which has altered the ecology of this place.

Every time I visit this place I keep thinking of starting a afforestation scheme, the whole range to be planted with indigenous trees including fruit trees which can support the wildlife. This in turn will lead to increased ground water level and probably the Kolaramma lake will be filled as well. I tried to meet the local politicians in this regard but was not very success full last time. Maybe I will give it a go again this time, my dream is to see a green Shathashrunga range with some sort of wildlife back.

White Ghettos in British Welfare state

Riots, riots everywhere in England, possibility of spreading further inland into small towns and cities. But as of now Wales and Scotland have remained calm, excluding the ever present and ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland about which I should be writing shortly in my blog. Coming back to the current riots in London and elsewhere, it does not seem to be settling down, sporadic riots is ongoing since the past four days.

What could be the reason for such a large scale spontaneous riots in different parts of England. The shooting of a young man by police cannot be the only reason. Looking at the pictures on TV the rioters are made up of overwhelmingly White youth, as previously such riots were blamed on the minority communities like Blacks and Asians. So what has changed in today's Britain, it is a welfare state as before, what welfare state means is everything is free in the UK i.e Education, Health care etc and if you are unemployed then the government will pay money to you till u find a job, if disabled then again benefit is given, single mother has more benefits then anyone else including money for childcare and a free council house., if you don't have a place to live then the council will provide it. So in simple words your care is taken by the government if you are a British citizen. The basic needs of Roti(Food), Kapada(clothing) and Makaan(housing) is being looked after, so you don't have to struggle or worry about the basic needs as you do in countries like India.

So why riot then?, its the strict measures taken to curb misuse of benefits and the growth of White Ghettos, with large number of families having just on parent, mostly single women with several children from several different partners, leading to a generation of teenagers who have taken to the streets and their benefit seeking mothers and fathers being their role models, they themselves have taken to a life of crime and drugs. Interesting to note is these people are mostly White Caucasians rather then men of minority communities. They have taken to drinking alcohol big time, a one litre bottle of Cider is cheaper then  a liter bottle of mineral water in the supermarkets. Binge drinking, casual sex and no intention to work has led to the current situation, the youngsters mostly have looted the stores looking for latest gadgets.

So in conclusion God save the Queen and her once mighty Britain. If things are let go as it is then Britain is destined to be doomed. The attitude of the youths towards life, the culture of binge drinking should be changed sooner or later.

London Riots and Indian Police

I have been missing the action back in UK. Since the past two weeks I am in India, probably going through the worst phase of my personal life. But have been keenly following the events in London and elsewhere, the pictures being beamed continuously on the TV screens reminds of the black and white pictures of the Blitz, which people in the UK are so used to seeing, every other programme on TV is about world war 2 and the sacrifices made by the British people.

Whatever the reasons for the riots in London and elsewhere, it made an amazing viewing, the rioter's had an upper hand all along, they pillaged through the streets looting, setting fire to things and the police seemed so incapable of controlling them, they almost were mute spectators and remained largely passive. Switch places to New Delhi where again there was a demonstration in front of the Parliament house, and looking at the way the Delhi Police dealt with it was amazing, it was just brutal force. The police were outnumbered as in case of London, but they did the Lathi Charge and used water cannon to disperse the crowd effectively, without much damage to either parties and also to the public and public property.

So whats wrong with the London police, who have let the crowd of troublemakers amok, buildings burning, shops looted , cars burning  and police largely helpless. The fault lies in the training, British police are not trained to deal with large scale rioting, apart from the police force in Northern Ireland, whereas the major task of Indian Police is to control the crowd trouble be it the Hindu - Muslim riots, the language riots, the caste riots, the farmers riots, the political faction riots the list goes on. The Indian police are trained to deal with these riots with an iron hand, starting with the Lathi or Baton charge, rubber bullet firing and finally firing live bullets to kill the rioters.

The iron handedness of the Indian police goes back to the British era, where the British used the police force to implement their agendas, they did not just remain a force to maintain peace and calm and provide security, they were used as a force to create fear among the local populace and suppress any uprising in favour of freedom or against the British, that legacy has been continued into the present day, Indian people not only hate but fear the police as they are rude, brutal and hard handed with everything they deal with.

I suggest the London police learn a few things from their Indian counterparts, UK being a welfare state where the government looks after everything basic that a human need to survive, still riots happen and police stays calm.  The double standards of the British come to fore once again,when they used brutal force to suppress the food riots of the 1940's during the Bengal Famine, has life come full circle?.