Why I deleted my Facebook account?

I get stares when I telly my friends, colleagues and relatives that I deleted my Facebook account. I have got mixed reactions, some ask if there was a personal issue, some say they have been thinking but think that life will be very different and they are not ready yet, others reacted rather strangely by asking, how do I live without Facebook. It has been about 2-3 months now and life hasn't changed much. I do miss checking on how some of my friends are doing but that curiosity is slowly dieing down. These days, I don't know what is bothering a lot of my friends or what is making them jubilant but that is not bothering me much and my life hasn't changed a bit one way or the other. I continue to stay in touch with a few of my close friends and dear ones through other mediums of communication/collaboration such as phone (voice and text), e-mail and WhatsApp.

A lot of my Facebook friends didn't really miss me, which isn't anything do with them but my inability to evolve myself into an interesting friend on Facebook. It is a daunting task to be relevant or interesting on Facebook, you need to have an opinion on a lot of what is happening around you, counter argue at times out of sheer distress reading some posts, "Like" all personal events - Birthdays and Wedding Anniversaries being most dominant events and then as a reciprocation, "Like" all Congrats messages and of course, share some personal pictures and even post on how much you hate your job etc.. Don't you agree it is daunting to say the least? I also got worked up a lot of times seeing people post messages to suggest to the whole world that life is free of complaints.

Facebook is one of those things that people may see that I failed to evolve to the changes in society but I know, I didn't fail. I will continue to stay in touch with friends, colleagues and family through variety of ways.

Those of you, who find comfort in Facebook, do not have to feel guilt. With all other things in life, not all of us like everything around us. This post is in no way to suggest you are not doing the right thing, do what is best for you!

This is what it takes to make our paraliament to work for people?

Courtesy: www.coolpictures.in

I was on a training recently and instructor casually asked all the students for their opinion on the the news of the week - Anna Hazare's decision to fast unto death against the Government's Lokpall bill. I wasn't surprised when 90% of the class said they fully support the movement, to which instructor had another question - do you support the methods adopted by Anna Hazare? Unanimously, all those who said that they support the movement, said YES. That didn't surprise me either. There are few corporates in B'lore, who gave a day off for their employees to participate in the movement.

I think, NGOs such as "India against corruption" played an active role in terms of advertising, gathering masses, organizing events and most importantly funding. It is a well coordinated movement with members participating on prime time opinion shows and other forums, trashing politicians on a daily basis. Politician is the worst enemy in India and the movement galvanized the youth across the urban India. It is well intentioned movement but how far does it help in eradicating corruption in India, something only history will judge.

I may not agree with all the methods adopted by Team Anna but corruption has become rampant in India and history tells us that Congress party legitimized it over the years. It is just a winning formula for all politicians in India these days. Bofors scam that CBI recently closed was of 67 Crores. Scams of the day are to the tune of thousands of crores. Mind you, I am not talking about the loss to exchequer but just the money that is estimated to have exchanged hands.

It is convenient at times to indulge in corruption. It has become a way of life in almost all walks of life. In my view, we already have systems to curb corruption but they are not working. Congress is known for reducing systems to something of their own. Hopefully, Lokpall doesn't become one of their own. It is too early to even hope what the bill will do. When we see the final bill, we will know what it can do.

Let us take two incidents that happened in the last 2 years time. K Chandrasekhar Rao decided to fast unto death and in the midst of it, central government announced that the process of forming Telangana begun. Now, for whatever reasons, Anna ji decided to fast unto death and parliament agreed to agree on adopting Jan Lokpall Bill. In both instances, Government acted in haste, may be this time with good intentions. It just made me wonder why parliament and government do not work this way every single day.

As the editor of Hindu, N Ram, pointed out, this whole case of Lokpall is a classic case for how not to handle a political situation for any Government. We can debate on what mistakes were committed by Congress and Government but it is not all that important. I think, most important of all from this is, we have a precedent of forcing politicians to work when the country wants them to. Country, I am sure, will come out on streets more often now, given the results they just witnessed.

I am already hearing that electoral reforms is the next piece of legislation that Anna wants to work on. It is no longer what Govt. wants to do but icons like Anna will dictate Govt.'s agenda. It is not a good precedent in some sense but it is what it is. You can only say, Job well done! Congratulations to supporters of Anna!