Welcome to the Land of Easy Deaths and Cheap Lives

This is India. Human lives are regularly and often lost due to state negligence. Media reports it for two days (that’s the exact span). Posts are shared on social media, Government ‘expresses grief’ and that’s that. I researched a couple of cases in which people, even infants, had died due to someone’s (read a government’s servant’s, or contractor’s) negligence. I found a very disturbing pattern emerging out of what happens after that.

A. Children died atAdani Foundation-run G K General hospital in Kutch:

“As per the data shared by hospital on May 25, out of a total of 777 infants, born in the hospital as well as those admitted from outside, between January 1 and May 20 this year, 111 could not survive, a mortality rate of 14 per cent”.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/adani-run-hospital-111-infants-dead-in-five-months-probe-ordered-5192237/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/health-dept-orders-probe-into-infant-death-at-gaims-in-bhuj/articleshow/64324543.cms

When a panel submitted its report this month, no lapses were found in the hospital infrastructure or administration:

https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/probe-panel-finds-no-lapses-in-infant-deaths-in-adani-run-hospital-118052901668_1.html

B. “290 children died at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur in August 2017, of which 213 died in the neo natal ICU and 77 in the encephalitis ward”.

https://www.news18.com/news/india/gorakhpur-hospital-tragedy-boy-bleeds-through-nose-father-told-its-just-kachra-1490665.html

https://www.firstpost.com/india/gorakhpur-hospital-tragedy-live-60-children-died-in-5-days-up-govt-faces-flak-from-opposition-3921401.html

Just one person was held responsible for those deaths, was jailed and was later released on bail (his family claims he was a scapegoat):

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-uttar-pradeshs-gorakhpur-dr-kafeel-khans-brother-kashif-jameel-shot-at-1865430

No concrete action taken till now. 

C. Varanasi Flyover Collapse, 15 May 2018.

https://www.ndtv.com/cities/varanasi-bridge-collapse-investigating-team-submits-report-suggesting-reasons-behind-the-structure-c-1865988

“Movement of heavy traffic, coupled with what amounts to negligence, led to the collapse of a part of an under-construction flyover in Varanasi last month, which cost 15 lives in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency”.

What’s being done?

D. Tuticorin, May 2018

“The police had to take action under unavoidable circumstances to protect public life and property as the protesters resorted to repeated violence… police had to control the violence”

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/dmk-s-stalin-accuses-police-of-atrocities-against-anti-sterlite-protesters-in-tuticorin/story-zk9wbYIrrHSpM7yN4bz2AK.html

E. On 31 March 2016 a steel span from the Vivekananda Flyover fell down.

The website of the Outlookindia puts the number of the dead at “about fourteen” common men (and women?). Ten officials of IVRCL were booked under the section 302 of IPC and sent to jail. Later section 302 was converted into section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Two years, and nearly two months from the day of collapse, the IIT Kharagpur committee investigating the incident has not submitted its report.

No action taken. No one punished.

F. On 9 September 2007 in Hyderabad, two persons (anybody remembers their names?) lost their lives because of another collapsed flyover. Case under section 304A, and many other sections was filed against Gammon India Limited.

Eight persons were arrested after the detailed report of the technical committee in 2008. They were acquitted in 2016 as there was no evidence against them.

No action taken. No one punished. 

Our judiciary is overburdened and our legislature works more for the uplift of its members than for the nation. Therefore, the responsibility, no, duty, of protecting democracy, constitution and the nation falls on WE THE PEOPLE.

As citizens with voting rights in India, it’s our duty to perform the role of not mere observers but participants in doing right, good and just things only, and in ensuring that others do the same.

How will we do that?  

How many of us will do that?

The Rhythm of Life in Kashi

An hour before sunrise deep within the labyrinth of lanes near Kedareshwar Temple and Ghat, the movements of life start to register their presence. Although the lane had not gone to sleep before one very late at night, it started stirring by four in the morning. It leads to the temple of the central deity of the section, Lord Kedareshwar. Devotees of Lord Kedara and of Mother Ganga are men and women of confirmed habits. Change in seasons affects the rhythm of the life of the regulars only a little bit. They move through the same lanes to complete the same circuit with a constant rhythm throughout their life. Nothing can alter that, be it of personal, local, regional, national or international consequence. Life comes back to its norm-al self with a certainty that would make the poet who wrote the following lines proud:

Happy the man, whose wish and care 

   A few paternal acres bound, 

Content to breathe his native air, 

                            In his own ground. 

…

Blest, who can unconcernedly find 

   Hours, days, and years slide soft away, 

In health of body, peace of mind, 

                            Quiet by day, 

Sound sleep by night; study and ease, 

   Together mixed; sweet recreation; 

And innocence, which most does please, 

                            With meditation. 

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; 

   Thus unlamented let me die; 

Steal from the world, and not a stone 

                            Tell where I lie.

(From “Ode on Solitude” by A Pope)

Varanasi Flyover Collapse, 15 May 2018: Seven Months Later

Seven months sounds like ‘a very long time ago’, when it’s used in context of the loss of several innocent lives due to criminal neglect of duty by few.

Exactly seven months ago, one summer evening, that felt just like the evening before it, a girder from a flyover that was under construction fell down and crushed many vehicles. Many persons died.  I wrote a detailed blog on the actual number of deaths, as against the numbers given by the government. In that blog I presented external evidence with claims:

Report that up to 50 persons were crushed to death including 1 Roadways bus, 1 minibus, 4 cars, 2 autos and bikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP2mNRu7Wcc

Report that more than 50 persons died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucZnk7eQjXI

Shows clearly the number of cars, few with people inside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpIrBtW1Uwo

I also added details to the data government had given (https://rajnishmishravns.wordpress.com/2018/05/29/varanasi-flyover-collapse-15-may-2018-0540-pm-after-a-fortnight/). 

The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh ordered proceedings for strict penal action against the following:

S No	Name	Designation
1	Mr Rajan Mittal	MD, UP Bridge Corporation
2	Mr. Harish Chandra Tiwari	Chief Project Manager (Pratapgarh Distt.)
3	Mr. Kuljas Rai Sudan	Project Manager (Meerut Distt.)
4	Mr. Rajendra Singh	Assistant Engineer-Civil (Mirzapur Distt.)
5	Mr. Lal Chandra Singh	Engineer (Chandauli Distt.)
6	Mr. Rajesh Pal Singh	Junior Engineer- Civil/Safety (Ghazipur Distt.)
7	Mr. Genda Lal	The former Project Manager (Aligarh Distt.)

On 28 July 2018 on the basis of the report sent by CBRI (Central Building Research Institute) that mentioned “engineering errors and irregularities in construction methodology” and also as other evidences pointed towards them, the Crime Branch of Police arrested all those in the list above, barring Mr Rajan Mittal. In addition to them, it also arrested Assistant Engineer (Mechanical Safety) Ramtapasya Singh Yadav (Lucknow) and Contractor Saheb Hussain (Siwan). The TOI report gives the details of charges:

IPC Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder)  308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention); and Sections 3&4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/varanasi-flyover-collapse-case-upbc-engineers-contractor-among-8-arrested/articleshow/65177179.cms

On 13 August 2018 their bail plea was rejected. 

It’s been four months and two days since that day, and google could not find any report on any kind of development in the case. So, seven months and few hours later, the victims of that tragic(for them) mishap due to at least criminal negligence of duty on the part of those arrested have not received justice.

In the end let’s remember the victims once more. About their exact number, even TOI is not very sure, as it gives their number as 19 in July and 15 in its August report from which I have used data above. Whatever their official number is, have even they received the compensation promised? Is that all or the governments, both state and central, will come to the aid of their families in future too? 

I think that media must start a tradition of following up cases, long after they stop being “hot” and lose the shock value they had when they were “news”.

People Watching in Varanasi 1

What is people watching?

Well, Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines it as “the act of spending time looking at different kinds of people in a public place because you find this interesting”.

I stumbled upon this long-known, but undiscovered term through a friend’s mail about his indulging into the activity in his visit to a country in South-East Asia. I was acquainted with flânerie and drifting due to my interest in psychogeography, Baudelaire and the Arcades Project, but not with the new rage of the new age. I researched a little and reached to the link between flânerie and people watching. An article I particularly  liked was about people watching in Paris.  

Not only was I excited as I read more about it, I could actually see how visitors to my city have been people watching since they started visiting it. From Ralph Fitch, Tavernier and Bernier to Pierre Loti and Hermann Keyserling, visitors to the city wrote paragraph after wonderful paragraph of description that amounts to the central activity of people watching much before the term was used and acknowledged.

Here’s an example from a work of non-fiction from early twentieth century, from E. B. Havell’s Benares: The Sacred City:

It is amusing to see sometimes at Mogul Serai, the junction for the East Indian line, how the up-to-date Indian arriving from Calcutta, Bombay, or some other large Anglo-Indian city, will in an incredibly short time divest himself of his European environment and transform himself into the orthodox Hindu. You will see him first stepping out of the train, dressed in more or less correct European garb, and smoking a cigarette. He is accompanied by a servant, who deposits a steel trunk on the platform in front of him. Then, coram populo, but without the least suggestion of impropriety, he proceeds to take off coat, waistcoat, trousers, and boots, and taking out of the trunk a collection of spotless white drapery, speedily arrays himself in puggaree, dhotee, and the rest of the becoming costume of an Indian gentleman, while the cast-off garments are stowed away until his next return to European society.

Pierre Loti’s India is full of such examples. This one is from the beginning of his visit:

A young fakir, whose long hair falls upon his shoulders, stands by the abode of the dead in a rigid attitude, with his head turned towards the smoking heaps of wood and their gruesome burdens. Though covered with white dust he is still beautiful and muscular. His chest is decked with a garland of marigolds, such a garland as the people here cast upon the river’s breast. A little way above the funeral heaps some five or six persons crouch upon the frieze of an old palace, which fell into the river long ago. Their heads are wrapped in veils, and, like the fakir, they stare fixedly at their kinsman who is being burned.

Here’s another example of people watching, this time, from fiction, from Shivprasaad Singh’s Gali Age Mudti Hai (The Lane Turns Ahead):

 [Varanasi] is a strange city. There’s not enough space to walk in the lanes, not enough even to pass if one person stops walking, yet, if a performer starts performing, people forget all work and problems and assemble to watch what he has to show…

Two mahuar players were competing against each other: moving in circles, challenging, taking stances with mouth full of air. They appeared to be from Rajasthan. They wore narrow cut, tight trousers and dirty vests. Both wore patterned headgear. One was young and the other older… They played the same tune from a very famous Hindi film, “Mann dole, mere tan dole…”. 

The novel presents many paragraphs of equally rich description as the hero goes on his way and watches people.

In addition to modern English and Hindi prose, people watching is ever present, in one form or the other but not as the central concern of the piece, in Sanskrit writing on the city. 

People Watching in Varanasi 2

Let’s move from people watching in the past to that in the present time, and from that in books to that in life.

It’s important for a people watcher to always remember that it is an art, not a science. Yet, there are certain pointers that may be helpful for doing it safely and satisfactorily in Varanasi. It’s not participant observation of Anthropology and Social Psychology. It’s closer to a kind of modified flânerie.

• Camouflage for people watching: That becomes difficult if you are racially different. Even for those who look like the people they want to watch in Varanasi, there’s a tip. Dress like an average Banarsi. How to do that? Observe keenly for a day or two, and then choose wisely from what you have brought. Camouflage well because an observer cannot afford to attract observers to himself. 
• Don’t follow schedules: People watching is very much like drifting, the only difference is that it has one definite goal. As there’s nowhere you want to reach, no circuit or path to follow, only a goal, i.e. observing those around you, just imbibe the plethora of perceptions around you. 
• Lose your camera: Camera is a bane for people watchers (and a boon for street photographers). The moment your camera becomes visible, you declare your outsider/observer status. That makes your ‘subject’ conscious of your presence and even behave artificially, posing for the camera. Moreover, a camera makes quiet and focussed observation impossible. So, at least for the first few days, just don’t carry it along.  

People Watching in Varanasi: Let the Game Begin

So, you have decided to do it. Then welcome to the heaven of people watchers! Welcome to Varanasi! Let’s start it easy. No specifics for the beginning, only broad outlines of how to do it. 

Whenever you are not solitary, people watching may begin there.

It may begin when you wake up, and end probably with your sleep, or not. If you are a lucid dreamer, then you may remember and extended the activity into your dreams.

The City of Temples wakes up in installments. There are pockets of this oldest living city that are known by the name of main deity of the locality. Some of these pockets are called sections (khandas) and few others circuits. So, wherever you are, ask a local a couple of questions:

Which Khanda is this (to take you to the next question)?                                                    How far from my place of stay is the temple of the presiding deity of the khanda (if it’s over a mile, then ask just about the most popular temple of the locality)? 

The answer to these questions will direct you towards the point you may like to reach before the first rays of the rising sun reach there. One important point to remember here: try to reach there through the lanes of Varanasi. On second thought, you may actually forget that point, because you cannot reach the core of any khanda without cutting through the network of lanes that the old city is. 

A Lane of Varanasi near Kedareshwar Temple: Half-an-Hour Before Dawn

Now, when you have already started walking, yes, it has to be walking for two reasons. The first reason is that the beginners’ people watching, like the beginners’ archery, is done best when the observer is stationary. It’s only the advanced shooters/watchers who can manage movement along with the activity. The second reason is that in the lanes of Varanasi, in many, if not most of them, it’s difficult to ride anything faster than a bicycle, and impossible to bring even an auto-rickshaw.

So, as you have already started walking in the lane, I congratulate you. You have already become a potential people watcher in Varanasi. Look around you, even if it’s still dark and a couple of yellow lights illumine the darkness only directly under the poles on which they are fixed, and weakly. You will see a couple of devotees walking towards the river. Which river?

The Vision of the Holy Ganga Waking with the Rising Sun

Oh people watcher, I’m sorry! I forgot to mention the greatest and the surest landmark in the whole old quarters (pakki mahaal) of the City of Lights. I forgot to bow to the life line of the city, its mother and the holiest of all Indian Rivers: Mother Ganga (atlases call her the Ganges). The lanes and ghats (the stone steps that lead to the river) are the two places where most of the people watching will be accomplished in Varanasi. I am biased towards the old city and the old city (I risk over-simplification here) is lanes and ghats.

Modern urban centres in India, at least the ones I have been to, (no knowledge of other countries, not a single stamp on my visa, never used my passport) have one definite tendency: they are homogeneous in many ways. If there’s an old city and a new city, then the new city will have features like malls, metro-rail, broad streets, skyscrapers (or aspiring skyscrapers), set routine of people’s daily life etc. The new city in Varanasi is not much different. Yes, it does not have any bona fide skyscraper yet, and the plan of metro is still in the incubation stage, but it is like any other modern city of India. Therefore, there’s no need for anyone to spend money and time and reach Varanasi, only to see what can be seen in their own city. The essence of the city is in the old quarters, or the old city.      

The River Flows through Life in the City

As the sun rays bathe the river in their glory and the river rises, the city rises, and with the city rise the citizens, or those who were not awake already. What you have to do is to find the exact time of sunrise from any local newspaper or news channel and then, reach the bank of the river at least fifteen minutes before that. No, these fifteen minutes, and the fifteen minutes after the sun rises are not for people watching. In the fifteen minutes before the sun rises you must find a spot that is neither deserted nor overcrowded. Once you’ve found that spot, occupy it and look towards the other bank across the river. That’s east, and the little crimson disk of a sun peeks tentatively from there every morning, morning after morning. Behold the miracle of the rays of crimson raining on the rippling crimson mirror that flows calmly on, and then witness both turn golden and then yellow within the span of fifteen minutes. 

Once you have soaked in the warmth of the sun, it’s the time for you to watch people. As you have no set targets and no pressing demands over your time (the two prerequisites of successful people watching) look around, ahead and behind you. You will see a veritable cornucopia of human existence. Let the game begin!