Ramayan with his wife and son had come to New Delhi for a religious visit to Vaishno Devi and other places of interest around Delhi. He asked me and came to see me yesterday along with his youngest son. Ramayan still works in HM and lives in his own small house that he has built in Rishra. His younger son-in-law is working from Rohini and so Ramayan was staying with him.

Ramayan is from the village of my mother, and I had assisted him in getting employed in HM.

I came to know about few things that made me morose. Some of the information that was from his personal experience, was really disturbing. The first was related to the increasing role of the middle men in getting railway tickets. Ramayan was to return to Kolkata, but he was not getting even a Tatkal ticket for any class by standing on the counter for any train when there are so many. If he decides to pay what the middle men ask, he can get one immediately. But the premium demanded was pretty high and he is waiting for his son in Hyderabad to make arrangement. I was under impression that at least with computerisation, one menace of black market in railway tickets has ended, but actually it has not. The unscrupulous middle men have found many innovative methods to ditch the system in collusion with the employees of the railways.

The second information related to the role of land dons on the sales and purchases of landed properties around Rishra. On every land deal, the local dons are extorting money from both the seller as well as the buyer. These dons also forbid someone who is getting his house constructed to purchase the building materials from the vendors without their recommending. From those vendors they get good commission. I was talking to one teacher friend near Hind Motors in the evening and she confirmed what Ramayan informed. She further added to the list the trouble faced by her in getting the cooking gas cylinder now. The vendor now ask for the original receipt of purchase of the connection. How can one be expected to preserve the paper for twenty and more years. It is certainly going to trouble the consumers, and some may get benefited.

How can the country get rid of corruption spreading its tentacles very wide and deep?

Can Anna or Kejriwal be of any help? Both the issues mentioned above, are simple law and order problems and the present political system is aiding it to flourish.

For common men and women, Bengal perhaps goes on as it was under the leftist regime. Mamta works almost in the way the leftists operated.

It is unfortunate but the country can’t expect any thing better with a system in which people like Vadra, Gadkari and hundreds and thousands of unscrupulous persons flourish and businessmen such as Mukesh and Tata decide the minister’s portfolios.