If seeing is believing,then experiencing is realising

If seeing is believing then experiencing is realizing

It is essential for politicians, bureaucrats and persons occupying high positions who include lawyers, industrialists, professionals of eminence in different fields, academicians who matter in society in framing public policies, rules and regulations, system and procedures and executing them for general welfare of the people, to undergo temporary stay at least six months incognito in a place to understand the experiences of a common man in our society and how he struggles to keep himself and his family alive overcoming more than anything man made rules and the discrimination exhibited in enforcing the rules and at the same time making avenues to make revenues in the process.

He should move to a new place where his identity is totally unknown and try to set up his family consisting of one or two kids and parents. The exercise starts with hunting for a good house with reasonable safety, adequate water supply, and access to bus stop, school, banks, post office, market and medical facilities. He can consider himself lucky if he gets a house without verifying the know your customer(KYC) norms the landlords have set for their tenants.

The rent is negotiated and the lease is finalized after paying the advance rent depending on market practices. It may vary from three months rent to a huge sum VIZ Deposit without reference to monthly rent without any interest. This has to be generally paid in cash as cheque payment is inconvenient to the landlord. The whole system of leasing a house has undergone some changes in some metropolitan centers thanks to frequent terrorist attacks and problems encountered by the landlords because of tenant’s misbehavior and misuse/abuse of the premises let out. Registration of lease agreement is now insisted upon and it involves additional expenditure towards advocate fees, stamp papers and other miscellaneous expenditures all to be shared equally by the tenant and the landlord.

Once he settles his housing issue, real struggle to live starts. Getting a gas connection is a Herculean task. It requires a ration card or else a very high recommendation to get under VIP quota. Getting a ration card has its own procedures and one has to find time, energy and diplomacy to tackle petty government officials apart from greasing their palms suitably. If one is lucky he can get one in a month’s time or wait indefinitely. Then think of getting admission for the kids. Timing is very essential element here. For academic year starting from June one has to keep trying right from October/November in the previous year. Otherwise one has to carry a letter from VIP to get preference over others from assured quota. Admission involves minimum donation and there is no prescribed ceiling. Cash is preferable and happily accepted. School fee includes library fees, books and stationary, sports and cultural activity fees, transportation and normal fees for coaching for twelve months. This can be conveniently paid in one lump sum payment or in three or four installments. Once school admission is over, one has time to arrange for admission in coaching centers. This is to ensure that kids do well in studies and be prepared to crack admission in well established institutions.


Once the basic and minor responsibilities are over, then one can think of going in for major responsibilities for an election card, change of address, change of vehicle registration if the place of residence is a different state, mobile connection, renewal of driving licence and passport if falling due etc. The system and procedure, expenditure towards officially prescribed fees and the other charges for getting the work done involved for each item of work will make any normal person go in for saintly life but cannot do so as the procedure to become a monk leaving wife and family is still more difficult.

It is high time our administrators and policy makers experience the ground realities an ordinary citizen faces in our country and realize themselves that life is really an adventure. It is time for all of us interested in the welfare of humanity to remember and practise the saying that I shall not pass this way again .Any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show , let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this away again. It is possible to make the living enjoyable provided the ambience is made comfortable. It is in the hands of policy makers and enforcement agencies. It is apt to quote Swami Vivekananda here “They alone live, who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.”


T.V.G.Krishnan