If you intend to be friendly with me !

Please answer honestly

1. Do you believe you are/were successful in your profession?

2. Do you believe your success in profession was achieved by dint of hard work, honesty, dedication and grit?

3. Do you believe there should be no difference between ones ‘Kathni’ and ‘Karni’ (word and deed)?

4. Do you believe the human being is not the slave of some pre-written ‘Kismat’ but builds his own future?

5. Do you believe religion is the creation of clever people aimed at keeping the lesser mortals under subjugation?

6. Do you believe so-called God projected by various schools of religious thought is a mere myth?

7. Do you believe the human race on the planet earth is just an improved version of animal life and it is in the never-ending process of evolving for the better?

8. Do you believe human body is the best machine on the Earth with few defects and the brains not yet fully developed?

9. Do you believe all humans are born equal and as social animals they are duty bound to respect each other’s right to peaceful existence?

10. Do you believe that so called love is merely a psycho-biological game?

11. Do you believe the caste-based reservation in Govt. services in India should be done away with and the poor be given help in the form of free education, health aid etc. on merit for their upliftment?

PS - You are welcome, even if your reply is 'Yes' to Six and 'Not sure' for the rest of questions. Otherwise no fun in wasting your as well my time please!

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I saw in Germany - Concentration Camp

They write it as Dachao and pronounce it as Dakhao. It is in fact a city on the outskirts of Munchen City of Germany. My point of interest that day was the Hitler's Concentration Camp located at Dachao/Dakhao. The place really turned out to be an awe inspiring piece of recent human history for me. Wandering in the sprawling complex along with my wife guided by our son, I could actually hear the groans and cries of thousands of Jews being starved or rather tortured to death by the gun-totting SS men acting as part of the Hitler's war machine. There they were, watched by the triger happy guards who were always too anxious to shoot at any prisoner who may step on the forbidden grass belt inside the fencing system which consisted of a moat, electrified barbed lines, a lane with hunting dogs and ofcourse the outer wall dotted by seven observation towers. The only fault of these prisoners was that they happened to be Jews. Why Hitler killed them in thousands, I fail to understand.The history is that these Jews were herded away from their homes and hearths and mercilessly transported to the Concentration Camps like the one at Dakhao and tortured to death in the name of forced labour. Once inside the camp through the only entrance called 'Jourhaus' there was no escape for them except death which came in many forms like hunger, fatigue from work, beating, hanging, disease, cold and what not. The prisoners were housed in this camp in two rows of barracks under appaling conditions. Every barrach was divided into socalled Stuben comprising of a day room and dormitory. And designed to accommodate 200 humans, each barrack was catastrophically overcrowded with upto 2000 prisoners.'The Bunker' was the central site of terror within the Concentration Camp. Punishment (Whipping, Pole Hanging) and executions were conducted in the courtyard. Then there was 'Roll Call Area' where the prisoners were forced to line up mornings and evenings to be counted and often had to stand motionless for several hours. If a prisoner was missing, such as after an escape attempt, this torture could be drawn out for many hours. Furthermore, a 'Special barrack' was set up in the camp in which female prisoners from Ravensbrück concentration camp were forced into prostitution.Other things remaining the same, the most dreaded part of the camp was Crematorium where the executions and murder operations were carried out and dead bodies were burnt non-stop. It is also on record here that in the last weeks before the liberation of the camp the dead could no longer be cremated due to lack of coal. As such some 7500 dead had to be burried in mass graves at the Leitenberg close by and the 1230 dead from the Dakhao Concentration Camp were burried at the Wald Cemetery of the city of Dakhao.The last word. On March 22, 1933, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor, a concentration Camp for Political prisoners was set up in Dachau. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a 'School of violence' for the SS men under whose command it stood. In the twelve years of its existance over 200,000 persons from all over Europe were imprisoned here and in the numerous subsidisry camps. More than 43,000 of them died. And on April 29, 1945, American troops liberated the survivors.PS--- At the nearby Hebertshausen is another dreaded monument though small. It is the 'SS Shooting Range' where more than 4,000 Soviet prisoners of war were executed in the year 1941.

The following photographs explain more than what I have said about the dreaded Concentration Camp:-

SS Shooting Range where 4000 Russian POWs were Shot dead in batches

A monument

An artist's view of Concentration Camp

Site Plan of Concentration Camp

Crematorium
Matter of record

Testimonial Sleeping Beds in tiers

As I saw in Germany - Heavenly Heavon

It is incomplete, because the king who built it, is said to have run out of money and died comparatively at a younger age. None the less, it is still without an exaggeration, a heavenly heaven on earth. Yes I dare say, because I have seen our Kashmir as well which is claimed to be the only heaven on earth despite the all pervading garbage, mismanagement, bloodshed and open loot of the visitors.

Anyhow presently I want to showcase what I visited that Saturday while being in Germany.Thanks for guessing, but I am talking about the Royal Palace or so to say the 'New Palace' built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria (presently Bayern State of the Federal Republic of Germany) as a tribute to King Louis XIV of France 'whom the Bavarian monarch fervently admired'. The 'incomplete' palace ( or better we call it castle in the words of multilingual beauty who acted as our guide) commanding a big park with mamoth fountains, stands on one of the three pre-historic islands located in the greenish-blue and cristal clear waters of a sprawlling lake aptly named Chiemsee (Sea of Chiem pronounced as Kim). Leaving Munic in direction of Salzburg (Austria) by car fitted with dependable navigation system (Tom Tom) and covering about 90 Kms, through cut throat speeds on efficiently managed Highway 8, we reached Prien, which is the touch point on the bank of Chiemsee and parked our car.

But, before going any further, I would like to explain the efficiency of the road management in Germany as compared to the dance of death in action on our roads in India. For that matter driving licence is compulsary for everyone who drives a vehicle in Germany and to procure a driving licence here is hell of a job because it requires elaborate training and tests and certainly contrary to how foolishly these licences are given / procured in India. Furthermore, hold your breath, every truck driver here is legally bound to take 15-minute rest after every two hours or 45-minute rest after four hours and go off driving for the day after eight hours. No truck is allowed on any road on Sunday for the benefit of weekend road-users. There are specific lanes for specific speeds and in the event of a jam or something, all vehicles move in ques only. No police man is visible on roads to ensure all this and no violation goes unpunished. There are no pot holes on any road. Red light on the crossing means Red light even for the high and the mighty as well as their sons and 'salas'. By nature nobody blows horn. There are no stray dogs, stray animals or stray humans anywhere to disrupt traffic and no shopkeeper is allowed to display his goods on to the street or any road. Also there is no garbage or 'malba' along any road. Well that is the corruption free efficiency of the 'system' in Germany. Will the power hungry rulers, corrupt bureaucrats and other self seekers in India ever spare a thought for this?
From Prien, we took a 'ship' and landed on our 230-hectare destination island along with horeds of well behaved weekend wanderers of all ages and sizes in their scanty clothes aimed at absorbing the ever elussive and precious sunshine. The name of our island full of lush green flora including human planted and wildly growing highrise trees is Herreninsel which roughly means the island (abode) of men. It is named so because of a monastry and a convent for men 'allegedly founded' here in 8th century by Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria (746-88).
After passing through many hands since then the island was purchased by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in September 1873, 'as site for the erection of his palace'.The highlights of the palace are 1. Entrance Hall 2.Vestibule 3.State Staircase 4.Royal Bodyguard Room 5.First Antechamber 6.Second Antechamber 7.State Bedchamber 8.Council Chamber 9. Great Hall of Mirrors 10.Hall of Peace 11.Hall of War 12.Passage 13.Bedroom 14.Cabinet 15.Writing Room 16.Blue Salone (First Mirror Chamber) 17.Dining Room 18.Porcelain Room 19.Small Gallery of Mirrors with Angular Salones 20.Northern Stairwell 21.Passage 22.Bathroom, and 23.Robing Chamber (Second Mirror Chamber).
The decorations, furniture, candle hangers, upholstery, wall & ceiling paintings, mirrors, curtains and other artifacts in various above given chambers etc. are only to be seen to be believed. Then there is installation of a generously designed air-heating system in the palace. The boilers and pipe system in the basement, the hoist mechanism (lift) for dining table and glass roof over the staircase are astonoshing embodiments of the structural engineering of those times. The king used railroad from Munic to Prien and a boat to reach the island of his dreams as we did on that Saturday. In addition he had a ring railroad on the island itself, 'which has long since disappeared'. Also the island has orchards, pastures and criscrossing paths for the visitors, besides dense forests.
The chronical has it that on June 8, 1886, a board of psychiatrists declared King Ludwig II as 'mentally deranged' and 'incurable', who along with one Dr. Gudden died in Lake Starnberg on June 13, the same year. What a sad end of the creator of this wonder, but the things do not stand here! Yes, a controversy is said to be brewing whereby the tongue-in-cheek question is: Did the king die of an accidental fall into the lake or he took a suicidal jump into the lake or he was killed by some powers that be by throwing him into the lake?
Some other landmarks of the island are 1.Appolo Basin (unfinished) 2.Canal 3.Old Palace 4.Former Cathedral 5.Palace Hotel 6.Plane Tree Hall 7.Tulip Trees & Fern-leaved Beeches 8.Chapel of Saint Maria (1496) 9.Holy cross Chapel, and 10.Circular Path.
Every thing said and done, the Chiemsee island with its wonderfull palace and other features is a heavenly heaven on earth! Why not? If someone does not agree, he or she may go there to see the reality and talk to me. I say this because Kashmir was 'the only heaven on earth' for kings and there courtiers while the common man there was and is just a harrassed lot. But this Chiemsee iland is a heavenly heaven on earth for the common people as well! Yes, I dare say!
The following photographs fully explain my feelings:-

Religious-faced Criminals

My dear readers (If at all there is any)! Beware! Criminals are lurking every where in India. And the tragedy is, they all believe in so-called God and profess this or that religion or religious sect (hick!).
Most probably, you are already aware of the conviction (3-year jail term) of the former Union Minister Sukh Ram, who had stashed a part of his ill-gotten money, hold your breath, in the ‘Pooja Room’ of his house. One justification given by his supporters was that ‘despite everything said and done, he had provided elaborate and dependable telephone system in his home constituency in Himmachal Pradesh’.
Forget Sukh Ram, who is a politician. Here is the case of a surgeon who was the Head of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery of the prestigious PGI Chandigarh. His name? Prof. RS Dhaliwal. This member of the medical fraternity has been convicted of criminal conspiracy and forgery, by the CBI Special Court at Chandigarh, and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years and a fine of Rs. 70,000. Would you like to see the face of this sophisticated criminal? Does he not overtly look like a totally religious person? But where is the honesty taught by his visible religion and the promise to preserve purity of his life made by him while taking the Hippocratic Oath? Yes, I mean the person with red head gear shown in the forefront of this photograph.
The court convicted this person, following a prolonged trial, of conspiring with private chemists in the purchase of artificial heart valves and other accessories at high rates and sharing the profits with suppliers. In the well written judgment, the court observed, “A crime committed in the heat of passion may call for sympathetic consideration. He was being treated like god by patients and their wards, therefore, except for greed, there was no motive with him to commit the crime. It is calculated and organized crime and the verdict must be severe and deterrent punishment.”
Arguing the quantum of sentence, the defense counsel claimed that his client was a surgeon and sending him to jail served no purpose. And the court maintained that a gentleman surgeon with average capability would do great service to society, but a corrupt surgeon with an exceedingly fine hand would only cause harm.
According to an information, one of his victims was Dullay Ram from Himachal Pradesh, who was not even operated upon by the surgeon even though he had made the payment.
Another victim was Baldev Singh of Chandigarh, who had died following surgery performed by Dr. Dhaliwal in the year 2000, despite payment of a sum of about Rs. 85,000 including Rs. 45,000 paid for the artificial valve without receipt. Seen below is Mohinder Kaur wife of Baldev Singh with his photograph.
What a pity! Why the so-called God and various religions preaching his so-called supremacy do not prevent these religious persons and socalled believers from doing what they are doing to human life?
(Photos and information courtesy ‘The Tribune’ Chandigarh)