Belur Math Explosions - Wondering Why!

Belur Math - A Centre of Excellence.

Authorities would be baffled to know who could attack Belur Ramakrishna Mission at Belur Math. Though a crude bomb, the security is beefed up and authorities will have to be extra cautious from now on.

Belur Math is a major pilgrimage site in the state, Belur Math is where Swami Vivekananda spent his last days. The incident will be echoed till long as Swami Vivekananda is being harped upon by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Security is not something he can deal directly since he is at loggerheads with Mamata Bannerjee.

At the same time Belur Math is a pride of West Bengal and all Bengalis invariably take visitor to the place. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India and is one of the significant institutions in Kolkata. The temple is the heart of the Ramakrishna Movement. Beautifully built, the temple is notable for its architecture that fuses Hindu, Christian and Islamic motifs as a symbol of unity of all religions. 

The crudeness of the explosives can give an idea of the motive as well. Low intensity signifies a reason where no harm is intended, yet the act will bring every attention to the issue. And if so then who would have done it. Surely there are elements who would like the issue to be raked up.

Investigations only will tell what the real reasons would be. But, the mission is in news for all the wrong reasons. For weeks, months and years to come people will remember the incident and rhe real mission of education, training and other philanthropic activities of the trust will now take a back seat. 

What Ails Delhi - Part 1

A senior executive of a top IT company was killed after his car rammed into an iron-rod laden truck near the Delhi suburb of Noida recently. The victim, Amit Srivastava, was working with the Human Resource department in HCL Technologies. The Hyundai i-10 that he was driving hit a truck from behind. The impact of the collision was such that an iron rod in the truck impaled Mr Srivastava's body, killing him on the spot. Police say, the truck driver absconded after the accident.

Now this happened when Supreme Court had not intervened and banned such killer contraptions on the road. Since then such incidents have come down. Barring a few isolated sights the highways have been cleared of this menace.

Trucks are probably gone have we done anything for other modes of transportation. For example a bullock cart laden dangerously with all sorts of goods are having a field day. Probably no traffic provisions are applicable to them. Delhi, the national capital has plenty of such vehicles carrying iron rods protruding out threatening rest of the road users. Probably those managing order are at loss under which section should they be booked. Let me tell them if nothing then they can be booked under culpable homicide not amounting to murder. But manpower starved police is looking at other things. They will wake up when someone dies in such incident. 

People traveling on roads are prone to all sorts of accidents and primary reason is that we as a country have failed to anticipate the traffic and its impact. We have failed to live up to the reality on the road. Nor can most road users guess what type of vehicle they will face at next corner. Delhi alone has 48 different "modes of transport" including cows, elephants and camels, as well as cycle-rickshaws and SUVs.

Has any policeman ever thought about the real culprit before charging any violation? When was the last time we discussed about respecting the natural flow of vehicles? We do not design traffic management systems to separate different streams of traffic. If and when we do have a traffic management /segregation system in place, will people stick to it?

On many 4 lane roads we have, there are bus tracks and cycle tracks. But, do bus walahs or the cyclists stick to it? Worse, with all the litter / construction waste/ boulders lying on the road edges.

And till we do it all other solutions will be short sighted and stop gap arrangements.

(More to follow...)