Editorial

The two faces of Indian youth

Recently I had gone to Nashik to attend a marriage ceremony. As Sunday and holidays were following the day of marriage, I stayed at Nashik for four days. Very near to the place where I was staying at Nashik, there is Shivji’s temple. In the early morning, I used to be in that temple for an hour. To my pleasant surprise, I found many youngsters, among them were many college and school children, in the crowd of devotees visiting the temple. I interacted with some of them who were otherwise modly dressed in jeans etc. One of the questions I was asking them was “what did they pray before Lord Shivji?” To my satisfaction, some of them replied that they prayed for Sat-buddhi. Their visit to the temple was not just casual, but was full of devotion. Recently, I read a report in the newspapers that on survey it was found, that the present day youth are more religious than the youth of the last generation. It is true. In our generation, not to believe in God was a fashion. We did not find then many youngsters attending temples. But I have found on my visits to the temples, nowadays youngsters are visiting temples regularly. One of the college going students, on being questioned regarding his prayers, to my surprise, replied that, his prayer was only to thank the Lord, for his mercies, for whatever He had given him, and his prayer was that he must always remember the merciful Lord. May be, such youngsters, are not many, still it is a welcome sign, that some such ideal youngsters are there in our society.

Near my residence, in front of the MLA’s hostel, early in the morning there sits a vendor who sells ‘Pohas’ and ‘Shira’ at rather low prices. Sometimes, I purchase these items from him for distribution among the street kids. Last Sunday he arrived little late, as on Sundays he comes a little late than on other days. When I went to him for purchasing these items as he had just arrived, he asked me politely to wait a bit. Meanwhile, he took out small quantity of these items and placed them in a plate before Shivji’s photograph, then he took another plate of these items and placed it in front of the crows that were sitting around. He took another plate and gave it to a blind beggar who was sitting near about, then for a while he prayed and then turned to me, apologising for keeping me waiting. I was highly pleased watching him throughout and I prayed to Shivji to shower His blessings on that unusual vendor. Then I went on chatting with the vendor. He told me that he is working as a clerk in Sachivalaya and that he was staying alone in Mumbai and he had to maintain his parents who were staying in a village in Konkan. I asked him as to how he could afford to sell these items at rather low prices. His reply highly pleased me. He told me that, his idea of selling them is not at all to make profits, but to make them available to the lower middle income class employees and others at a low price rather as a kind of service to others. Overwhelmed by his reply, I profusely blessed him, and encouraged him to continue with his noble work. This blessed soul may be in his early thirties.

I wish I had stopped here on a positive note on the present day youth. However, my experience of the very next day on New Year day, showed the other negative side of the present young generation. It was 6 a.m. in the morning and as usual, I stepped out of my building to go for my usual morning walk. Just in front of my building I witnessed an ugly scene where a group of about eight to ten youngsters in all mod dress were ready to go on a picnic. They were all in high “spirits”. They were laughing and shouting at the top of their voices. The poor watchman told them not to create a noise as all the residents were sleeping. Their rude-crude reply was “Are, ja be ja”. For a minute I thought of reprimanding them, but on second thought I did not, because I realised that it may not serve any purpose.

I might have walked a couple of steps ahead. Then, a car came and stopped in front of the next building. A rowdy noisy group of youngsters managed to get out of the car. I say “they managed to get out of the car because they were too drunk to steadily get out of the car”. Some of them were being helped to get out of the car. They were shouting at the top of their voices. They were perhaps returning from the New Year’s eve party. In both of these group of party animals, I was sorry to notice, there were also female animals. All these youngsters belonged to rather ultra rich class families and were totally spoilt brats. What a beginning to the New Year! Unfortunately, the above scenes are not by way of exception. We witness them quite often.

It is rather surprising that we have cultivated a wrong habit of greeting a New Year by drinking, dancing or eating. Ideally we must greet it by making good resolutions, to achieve new goals, firmly determining to achieve the goals set forth before us. But unfortunately every where, New Year is greeted by attending parties, enjoying, eating and drinking. Left to me, I would like that all of us should make good new year resolutions to achieve some noble goals set before us. In my opinion, that would be a correct way of greeting a New Year.

Coming to the subject matter of the issue, we are dealing here, with an important subject of recovery proceedings. Recovery proceedings lead to serious problems in the conduct of the business, particularly on the attachment of bank accounts of the assessees. As such, one should be well aware of the rights and obligations, the remedies available in respect of recovery proceedings, particularly by way of stay of recovery. All these aspects have been dealt with in great details by the learned contributors to this issue. We are extremely grateful to all of them.

At the end, we wish all our esteemed readers, a purposeful, peaceful and happy New Year.