When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.

The most honourable and prestigious civilian awards in India given to the eminent personalities from different sects of the society as recognition to their outstanding contribution in their respective fields is The Padma Awards. The award is given in the fields like Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and Public Life. India has four levels of hierarchical awards for civilians with distinguished contributions to society,Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Sri.

The way the awardees are short-listed is :-

A) Recommendations from state governments, Union Territory administrations, central ministries, individuals, organizations, even self-recommendations, are placed before the Awards Committee for consideration.

B) The recommendations of the Awards Committee, which comprises eminent personalities from different fields, are submitted to the home minister and then to the President’s office for approval.

C) After the President’s office approves the lists, it travels to the prime minister’s office for final scrutiny before they are announced on the eve of Republic Day.

The Republic Day has been the occasion for the country to honour those of its citizens whom it considers to have made a significant contribution to national life. Instituted in January 1954, the Padma awards, as they are collectively known, have become the pre-eminent marker of national recognition in India. When they were first instituted, there were only 18 Padma Shree awardees, 23 Padma Bhushan awardees and 6 Padma Vibhushan awardees. But over the years these numbers have swelled along with the scope and spread of those the Government of the day wants to honour. In 2010, 81 Padma Shree, 43 Padma Bhushan and 6 Padma Vibhushan awards have been announced. Over these 56 years, a total of 2,333 Padma Shree awards, 1,111 Padma Bhushan awards and 264 Padma Vibhushan awards have been given out. 41 Bharat Ratna awards also have been conferred too.

There has been a very fundamental issue with these awards. What do they actually honour? The excellence in a specific area of human endeavor and for the contribution to nation ? If so, alas! Government of the day is not the authority competent to judge this. How does a disparate committee of bureaucrats, technocrats, artists and politicians judge the relative brilliance of one nominee over the other? How does it judge which of these, Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan or Padma Vibhushan be awarded?

The greatest concern is that these awards are now seriously compromised in the public perception with favoritism, politicization and incompetence. There is lack of transparency about the criteria employed to select one name over the other and a feeling that these awards are increasingly becoming one among a range of political sops and inducements for the party in power to dole out. Awards should not only acknowledge success, but they should pave the way to recognise many other qualities like ability, struggle, effort and above all, excellence.

That is where National Awards must be recognized and the importance that they are chosen carefully, transparently and wisely letting not to be subverted to disgrace the achievements of all those remarkable men and women who have received them over the years. India stands very poor in promoting traditional arts and crafts. We must drill down, identify the protectors of these, who sacrifice their life to protect these treasures for our nation, award them with Padma shri and inspire other people too to promote them.

Awards, particularly, those accorded by the Government, must reflect our national character. It is therefore important and essential that there is total transparency in the way the awardees are selected. We can’t have only ministers and people in the Government recommending candidates for their vested interest. Awards such as Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan must include eminent achievers from all walks of life but they must also include people of immaculate credentials. It is not easy to check everyone’s background but it’s shocking to know that from the whole names recommended every year for these awards, the shortlist is decided by a Government-appointed committee within less than an hour (Ultra Super Computers). There has to be greater clarity about such matters if we are to retain the prestige, dignity and honour of our National Awards and ensure that crooks, cheats and carpetbaggers do not seize our last citadel of excellence and outstanding achievement

There are numerous cases in which known terrorists, criminals, thieves, dacoits and those involved in other heinous crimes involving moral turpitude have been acquitted honourably by courts because the "prosecution failed to prove the charges against them". In the eyes of law, they may be innocent individuals, but in the eyes of the people and those who know them, they are not as the government may try to project them.

It is interesting to recall that the Supreme Court of India had constituted a committee headed by former President of India K. R. Narayanan who had made recommendations to make the process of grant of Padma awards "more transparent and accountable". On the contrary, the present awards smack of political favours.

The Narayanan Committee had made the following main recommendations which the government has ignored:

1)The (Padma) awards committee should be constituted for a term of two years.

2)Maximum number of Padma awards, including all three categories, should be 60.

3)No awards should be given except through the recommendations of the awards committee.

4)Applications for the awards should reach the Ministry of Home Affairs by October 1.

5)Verification of awardees by the investigating agencies about their character and antecedents.

6)Criteria should not be merely excellence, but "excellence plus", a lifetime achievement.

If attempts are not made to come out clean on the process of Padma awards, no wonder tomorrow some awardees may opt not to stand among those with careers "bordering on criminality".

But one can’t understand what has gone wrong with the common sense of our jury members, either they are all sold out or they have lost all their brains. Certainly one thing is for sure, all this has made the award ceremonies very popular and a sought after event every year, because anybody and everybody can expect their names in the covetous list.

Winners are happy, losers are expectedly grim, overlooked but truly deserving people are disheartened but surprisingly the common man is shocked, appalled and puzzled. Yes it’s the time of award ceremonies globally. And as the numbers of award ceremonies across various fields are increasing exponentially every year, it seems that the authenticities of the most prestigious awards are getting dwindled year by year. Or for that matter the pride, the fame and the sense of accomplishment which people used to attach with the awards and recognitions have lost all its shine.

It is a well known fact that Padma Sri awards are given to people with either connections or collections every year. Ram Ram Jayaram!!!!!!!!!!! Do you deserve? Reveal the shortcut for others.

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful-

The eye of the little god, four cornered.(Sylvia Plath)

Swamy Vivekananda’s explanation about Indian culture in a meeting of Chicago inspired the people of the west that they wanted to follow the Indian tradition. But it is unfortunate that today we are forgetting out Indian culture and trying to follow foreign culture.

The discourteous dress code of Television anchors is an issue of provocation which is most neglected in common. They are getting popularity by their so laurelled style(stale and foul-mouthed) statement and anti social dressing sense. What makes a blind sense of fashion is their uncouth dressing, leaving a belt of skin in between the trousers and the top and that they are the idols of this generation. The normal Indian woman is definitely not what is projected by these media. It is really awful and unbecoming to find these dress codes are not only alien to our culture, but also detrimental to the very sartorial tradition. A pair of low-waist trousers, precariously adorned with the help of a belt which is strapped much longer than the waist-circumference, a couple of fingers most comfortably thrust into its front pockets, a not to forget avoirdupois face, atop all - a transgendered language sufficient enough to bring liters of bile that creates irresistible nausea which shake the listener’s normal thinking process is the general appearance of a tv anchor. The funniest thing is that all the above dress codes are of neuter gender or hermaphroditic .The only difference one may find is the finger and lip positions as to where and how they are thrust in and which one they find most flavoring for making the stylish statements. To cap it all, the anchor leaving a belt of skin between the trousers and the top, the width of which increases as the bottom and top pieces of cloth move down and up respectively in the process of their stylish actions. The viewers are to go with visual treats of dress, body and its language in all dimensions or switch off the tv to save themselves and families from the hai da argotic culture.

Most of the shows paint the town red in spreading the semi-nude bare bosom culture through fashion parades and ramp shows exhibiting models wearing little or no clothes. The designers who whim to get all eyes caught are inclined to cut down the length and breadth of all kinds of clothing. The state of the self-styled entertainment channels, blighted by live shows dominating the television, is even worse. Vulgarity seems to be the entry gate to wealth and fame. Some anchors look as if they have just been pulled out of their bathrooms giving aspiration whether they were dressing or undressing when this most heinous act took place. Some females are found in dresses that depict a different picture altogether, leaving the viewers with all their faculties of imagination and fancy. It is this pecuniary fancy that goes into the making of these anti-social acts, obscene exhibitionisms, disgusting physical and linguistic affectations towards our women out in the public, in buses, trains and at every possible and impossible terrains. It is thwarting that theirs is not native cultural language, dress code or socially accepted facial expressions. They take pride in the foolhardy mix of dresses, languages and mannerisms.

We need a decent dress code for our anchors who very much influence people in a 24/7 grid, to protect our families from atrocious sartorial insanities. We have a tendency of calculating everything in terms of money. Channels, producers and programmers are aware that air time is their costliest factor, and if failed to invite maximum attention in such times of extreme market value, their very existence would be devoured by competing channels that manipulate to hoodwink their clientele and win a few points in the viewership index. As the media people know that vulgarity sells well, they resort to cheap gimmicks to increase their ratings.

A code for self-regulation of electronic media has long been a cry in the wilderness. In the fiercely competitive world of liberalization and globalization it is foolish to expect voluntary restraint from the media. The oddball media tycoons, addicted to making pots of money through crass commercial ventures at the expense of social harmony, welfare, public decency and morality, will never respond positively to the calls of self-regulation. They forget the fact that understanding people includes understanding their society. The media which is possible to reach out to the vast majority of the population of a country must function as the major source of cultural communication molders and perpetrators of social images. And this possibility makes the media, be the press, the radio, the television or the film the critical and significant force in the discourse of social formation. The compact visual media(tv) is a more efficient mass communication which is of extreme interest to the society, to women and children in particular. The area of its influence and reach is immense. This source of mass communication occupies the private and the personal shells of the home, conventionally regarded as the domain of the whole irrespective of their being home makers, students or workers. Economic compulsions, social norms, communal considerations or gender bias do not hinder its viewership in any way.

Confronted with catch me (mine) if you can actions and poses of anchors, many parents respond that their children aren't allowed to watch such programs, as the dangers are more insidious and commendable. It now appears that simply watching television for long periods can manipulate one’s view of the world and family itself. Obviously something must be done. Parents and society must come forward to initiate actions to prevent this increasing nude art. We have the responsibility to make a difference and apply appropriate principles in order to help stem the tide of ruin of a generation.

It is ultimately the sensible viewers’ own moral compass which must decide if something is enough. The only remedy lies in a powerful popular movement to re-instill a modicum of sanity and obviate obscene displays.

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

Democracy is the buzz word for our political system. But a nation where a majority of population below 50 elects people above 60 to power is non democratic. A real Indian will never be happy with the way the country is being governed. It bothers us when a group with retarded primary reflux system due to old age, instead of retiring and resting, think and go themselves as the most eligible to be at the helm of political affairs and consider people below 50 years as political ‘kids. The country desperately needs some young leaders who personify energy, enthusiasm, morality, and diligence. No doubt we have progressed a lot in the last 63 years but the development pace would have been completely different had some young torchbearers led this process of development.

Old age is not a bad quality but draining new talents is not good. India has to use the young brilliant talents who have many new ideas coupled with right and rapid execution art. Although old is gold, their rigid mind seldom accept innovative thinking. Indian old age politicians are very good examples for this. The image that pops into head when one thinks of Indian politicians is not only grayness but the inefficient effort put by them to stabilize bipedal posture and perpendicularise their age bent sickle shape. Could the ailing body understand, think or act anything else other than its ailment. They have the wealth of experience, bestowed their nuggets of wisdom on one and all at a time. They have been around for a while in the past, and have seen the country go through the throes of development, being vital participants. They might have symbolized the dignity that India stood for and had grace and poise firmly on their side. With all respect to them I say, these greybeards end up taking the country down with them. Here older people never make better politicians. Instead the progress of our country is hampered by these oldies who want to run the show. It’s time the younger generation takes over from them the wand and crown of responsibility to steer the nation.

Then what beholds them? Both the question and answer are queer. The Sexa-Nonagenarian politicians are generally less liberal and open than their younger counterparts. To be more precise they are lackadaisical, rigid and dogmatic in their way of thinking which make them highly selfish as they enjoy the heady feeling of power and refuse to let go off even when they have one foot to the grave. They push themselves to the utmost, often neglecting the efficient, active young who are more techno- evolutional and lackey. They protract ‘as old age sets in efficiency tiers up’. Thus these old politicians create national stagnancy and impede the progress of the country through their younger counterparts which could be at a much faster pace than theirs. As these obsolete politicians have been a familiar face over the years, the general public put trust and confidence in them, believing that they are still the venerable young men who can do no wrong and steer the nation to prosperity. .

There are few things which need to be clarified. Youngsters never mean people of twenty with no experience at all. Youth in this context is meant to refer people in their late thirties or early fifties with a good mix of energy, efficiency and experience. This never means that old people should leave the political scene and rest. What is wanted is that they should be there but for guidance because they are treasures of invaluable experience.