Shock Tactics In an effort to prod public opinion out of its stupor on matters hypocritical, a Nonsense Club has come into irreverent being in Chandigarh. The creation of Jaspal S. Bhatti, an electrical engineer by profession, the aim of the club - which consists, for the moment, of a score of young men - is to carry out "social engineering" by shocking the public to make it acknowledge its hypocrisy.The first jolt shook the town when twelve youths, suitably caparisoned in garlands, sat down to a hunger strike. Unlike the usual hypocrites, who go on a diet for the sake of the downtrodden, the farmers and other godsends for the politician, the hungry dozen were slimming for the sake of "fashion". They carried the mimicry to its logical limit when, after suffering the pangs of hunger for a few minutes, they tucked in their garlands and wolfed down an impressive quantity of snacks.Another time, the club opened a counter near the booking office of a cinema, proclaiming that tickets could be bought for a premium there, an obvious challenge to those pomaded youths who prowl the precincts, sidle up to a customer, and whisper: "Psst! 3.60 ke 5 mein". The Chandigarh administration was sufficiently moved by the demonstration to order that half the tickets be sold just before the show.In the months to come, the club is set for expansion: young men with histrionic talents are being recruited, and potential cartoonists are being sounded in local schools. Which means that more rib-tickling shocks are in the making..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Welfare Wiles Ronald Reagan will like this one. A man in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, has taken the concept of welfare to heart: when last heard of he was running as many as 28 different voluntary welfare institutions.That would be a laudable, if slightly exhausting, deed, but, as State Minister for Harijan and Social Welfare Gulab Sehra pointed out at a news conference recently, the sweat of the brow was amply compensated for by the huge grants he had received both from the state and the Central Governments. The state Government had blissfully doled out a total of Rs 3.32 lakh, and the amount the Central Government had been conned out of had yet to be totted up.The man and his money were not to be soon parted, because he had evolved an effective, but rather heavy-handed method to protect his boodle. Vigilance officials sniffing around his property found themselves the targets of toughs, who worked them thoroughly over before letting them go. In spite of such handicaps, the authorities are slowly prying away the money, and a start has been made by filing a case for the recovery of Rs 80,000. And the state Government, like the proverbial burnt child, has withdrawn grants to a number of voluntary institutions, until the bonafides of the 'self' in 'self help' are checked out.Blank minds Paper is the God of the bureaucracy, as the sun is for other people. The babus who join ink-stained hands in prayer to the processed celluloid sometimes display a faith so blind that it is sublime. Such a faith was demonstrated in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, last month. A blank form was sent by post to the Bureau of Statistics by the Balasore District Statistical Office.Common sense demanded that the form be consigned to the waste-paper basket, but common sense is not the law in carbon-stained corridors, and one of the deputy directors put his valued signature on the form.His action could have been prompted by his thinking that invisible ink had been used, and the unanimity of thought - great minds think alike - was convincingly displayed when his superior officer, too, scribbled his initials and sent the form to the next great mind up the ladder. Predictably, this gentleman lost no time in adding his mark, and the form, with three neat signatures and otherwise empty dotted lines, landed on the desk of the office superintendent. This infidel noticed the virgin purity of the paper, and, probably not believing in invisible ink, stopped its progress. On such non-believers does the ship of faith founder.Slowcoach In France, people are now travelling on a super-fast train from Paris to Lyon, a journey of 425 km in 2 hours and 30 minutes. In India, which boasts of Asia's largest railway system, things appear to be moving the other way. Last fortnight, passengers collected on the platform of the Tadepalligudem railway station in Andhra Pradesh to board a train for the 40 km journey to Godavary. They were pleased when the train came in right on time and soon it was jammed with people. Then it set out on its record-breaking journey.At the next station, the train stayed glued to the rails for over half an hour, because milk vendors took their time getting on. Later, at Nidadavolu, it was shunted off a siding so that a goods train could pass - something quite contrary to precedent. And after the goods vanished into the distance the Madras-Howrah Mail took over, which meant another 30 minutes. And after the Mail the Kakinada-Tirupati passenger ensured that the super slow train admired the scenery from the siding.Late in the night, the train chugged out of its hiding place and pulled into Godavary station : it had covered the distance in three and a half hours, an average speed of about 11 km an hour, admittedly more than walking pace but less than that of a bicycle. The passengers must have been brimming with the curdled milk of human kindness.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 25, 2013--- ENDS ---
