Month: April 2021

Posted in Social

Indian Govt Please Fix The Software Glitch In Covid Vaccine Certification.

Posted on by veeskitchen

I used my Aadhar ID proof for my first dose of Covishield vaccine at a private hospital in Chennai. The certificate was downloadable from Aarogyasetu, the Indian govt app for Covid and also from Cowin website. My beneficiary ID was mentioned in the certificate alongwith my ID proof. Authentication was enabled with QR code scanning.

For my second dose, the hospital informed me that due to some technical glitch, my first used ID would be inadmissible. I was asked to submit a different ID proof. So I presented my Voter ID for final dose upon which I received an SMS alert that I was fully vaccinated with link for download. The latest and final dose vaccine proof certificate was also downloadable from Aaroyasetu apart from Cowin website as earlier. The only problem was that, in my first certificate, as per my Aadhar proof my name is complete with surname. In the second one, the beneficiary ID was different and the name of the vaccinated reflected my first name only without surname, based on my voter ID submitted. (Voter IDs generally give our first names and surnames separately)

Now there seems to be conflict between the two certificates as both mention two different IDs and beneficiaries. Year of birth however is the same although no complete date of birth is mentioned. Also the second and conclusive vaccination certificate proof carries my name without my surname as I have stated earlier. The regular ID most of us use is Aadhar. Voter ID or PAN Card or Driving Licence (DL) or even Passport are mostly viewed as supplementary IDs while Aadhar is mandatory everywhere. I am at a fix now therefore. Does this mean that I have to carry my voter ID as citizenship proof for my foreign travels to flash to the airlines or foreign immigrations. Normally I carry always my Aadhar ID. My passport name and my Aadhar name are identical whereas my voter ID drops my surname. How to prove to anyone that these are all my concrete ID proofs. Variation with my passport ID is a headache.

Hopefully Govt of India fixes this software glitch soon as I understand more number of the vaccinated are concerned about this conflicting certification. A friend who used same Aadhar ID for both doses says she received certification for the final dose that mentioned it as first dose once again.

Covid vaccine certification is going to play a big role in Medical Insurance/Health Insurance settlements in future. Therefore diligent care needs to be taken in certification with proper ID reference and beneficiary ID created for the purpose. One single ID must be taken into cognizance for both doses.

In my case, I wonder if it will be possible for me to correlate both the certificates. Can we add our Aadhar ID proof as well to the final certificate. After all this is digital certification. There must be someway to relate both certificates conclusively.

Lots of confusions persist.

Mostly those who are not concerned with foreign travel have not much to complain. In India, all ID proofs are valid generally.

But those of us who may need to travel abroad in future are now concerned as any name mismatching can put us into trouble leading to unnecessary quarantine procedures despite our vaccination. In short, the discrepancy can invalidate our vaccine certification.

I hope everyone pays attention to this vital info.

For second dose of your covid vaccine, please take a different ID compared to your first submitted ID. I suggest we can consider our passport ID for this purpose if we have travel in mind. Please do not present any ID that will be in conflict with your passport ID (for the final dose). As the final ID is what will reflect in our final vaccine certification, it will be prudent to present our passport ID for the second dose.

How to differentiate between the first and final dose vaccine certificates in India: The first dose certificate mentions the date for the second dose vaccination. If there is no such data in your certificate, then it must be the final certificate.

Posted in Political

The Hindu Reasoning

Posted on by veeskitchen

Was watching a critically acclaimed/awarded documentary last evening. Time ran out so I had to give up half way through. Its never possible for me to watch any flick at one go. In between will have a 1000 chores and errands to complete even if people may think I am jobless.

Can’t agree or disagree with the picture totally. Its a very heavy subject. Such controversies used to be of great interest to me once upon a time. Nowadays I want only peace at any cost. May be signs of ageing.

But I am clear on one thing. No Hindu is terrorist. Maximum you can blame Hindus for hooliganism. If you have the cheek to call Hindus extremists for sporadic incidents of violence, and if you can go blind on Islamic terrorism that has been bleeding this country for centuries (from historic times) and the cultural mayhem unleashed by foreign-sponsored Christian evangelists/missionaries bent on breaking up India, then you are an intellectually dishonest lot who will never win public sympathy. I shall never have an ear for this kind of flawed philosophy. I have my sympathies for Dabolkar, Pansaar etc., but there the buck stops. These are isolated cases. Justice must be served and the assailants brought to book no doubt. These communists seem to be good men with right ideals. Their idea of universal brotherhood is really the way forward. I totally agree with the injustice of casteism etc. But above all that, India reigns supreme for me and comes first. Some collateral damages here and there. Unavoidable. Do these guys really think that we can create that perfect Utopia where nothing will be out of place one hundred percent. Just who are you kidding.

We Hindus are not aspiring for a Hindu rashtra in America or Australia or Africa or Arabia or Antarctica. India is the birth place for Hindu Dharma and the branching Buddhism. We have every right to strive so as to remain a predominantly Hindu nation to eternity because we are vested with such an onerous responsibility of passing on the Dharmic traditions without a break. Other (follower)s are welcome but when a guest outstays hospitality shown by the hosts, then issues are bound to crop up. The hosts have every right to prove assertive to the guests. How can nationalism be wrong in such a case. You are talking about a nation that has suffered from invader-marauders since the 7th century CE. Is this new self-defence so abhorrent. No society is flawless and we Hindus have our own inherent flaws on which we are working right now.

But I appreciate the sincerity behind the efforts in making of the picture. I only hate the condescending tone on the Hindus. Hindus could be hypocrites and passively aggressive, but at least Hindus give you a stage to speak your mind. I wish this Anand Patwardan or whoever has the guts to produce a similar story on Islamists. Haha you cannot even scribble a cartoon remember!

All these intellectuals today are talking without mostly having NOT lived as a minority in a theocratically islamic state. I have. I do. That’s what it will take for some good sense to rub into you. You are welcome to live in Saudi or Pakistan for 1 year, why even 1 month as a free secular and democratic individual (the way you live and talk in India) and post your reviews. In this one month or so in that Islamic heaven, I dare you to munch a packet of salted peanuts during Ramzan fasting hours in full public view. How about asking muslim women to forego their black veils and speaking on their suppression and rights in their mass media.

Why should justice, equality etc., be only a Hindu’s moral responsibility. All said, I am for social justice always. I am equally concerned about casteism but at the same time I brook no nonsense when it comes to pointing out to islamic terrorism. Or christian conversion mafia. I have been blogging that India’s democracy is incumbent on India’s demography first and foremost. Suvar Irundhaal Thaan Chithiram Ezhudha Mudiyum. Only in Hindu India can you come up with this ‘reason’ or any reason for that matter!

Why such a hue and cry about Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. Why should everyone accept him as father of the nation. I am an admirer of Gandhi as well at the same time. But Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose to me are equally important in Indian history. One man’s terrorist is another man’s martyr. World juggles and champions such converse logics. Why can’t these leftists come to accept that contrary views exist? I am divided on Gandhi at times. Not comfortable about all his decisions. Just who was he to solely represent India. Who was Nehru. Why should these two come to unanimously represent entire India. They probably filled a vacuum, perhaps.

Undoubtedly Mahatma Gandhi spearheaded the Harijan movement that marked a paradigm shift in the way the Hindu society functioned. Gandhi was the influence perhaps for the Dravidian movements at a later stage. Over his role in India’s freedom struggle, I respect Gandhi more for his contribution to social change in Indian society.

However, I am not for this naming and shaming of any particular community. All the upper caste Hindus are in equal measure responsible for the cruel caste prejudice that is prevalent in our midst even today. Some are passively aggressive and rare few take to arms (resorting to hooliganism). Not all the forward castes have been prosperous as well. Quite a number of them have languished in poverty over centuries. The upper castes also bore the brunt of the islamic invasions paying a heavy price. I strongly believe Dharma can take care of itself and establish an equilibrium over time. Balance always gets restored. In Tamil we say, ‘muppadhu varusham vaazhndhavanum illai, muppadhu varusham thaazhndhavanum illai.’ Everything is a cycle. Gene pools go stale for the most forward castes/races in course of time as lethargy and complacency set in. We see this in UK now 😀 Fresh infusion of knowledge in the most backward communities releases locked potential and bright ideas. You see the surge of scheduled castes/tribes sports people etc., in India presently. Africans in athletics, etc.

Changes are happening as we are seeing. It can’t be said that nothing is happening. Groundbreaking transformation is on already. Maximum awareness is there at grassroots level. If anything smart phones etc., quickened the timeframe for awareness and change.

What was established practice for 2000 years cannot be undone in mere 50 to 70 years time. Give some time for the society to mature. We do see seeds of social justice perking up in every quarter. The educated are thinking.

In my personal view though, casteism as of now takes a back seat to classism in India. Casteism is done in. What we have in its place is now classism. Wonder what the leftists have to say on this.

Posted in Socio-Cultural

When Casteism And Racism Meant Business

Posted on by veeskitchen

Chanced upon this interesting and intriguing argument on casteism and racism prevalent in India and across the world in general, in social media recently. Apparently racism as well as casteism meant economic prosperity to a section of community at the cost of others’ (subjugated). Never thought of it this way until now but then, how come we missed something that was right before our eyes all these years…

Racism in America led to American prosperity with the African blacks brought to the continent as bonded slaves to work their ranches and cotton fields. Cheap labour was also the need of the hour when the great American railway was laid across the country for thousands of miles. It meant, a section of humanity (or was it humanity at all) prospered at the expense of the most vulnerable and gullible.

Same holds true for colonization of most Asian nations and African countries and Latin America by Europeans. Paying bare minimum and extracting maximum became the economic principle for profiteering for which playing the racial card suited best. Substitution of native faiths and belief systems with Abrahamic Christianity and Islam made the colonized develop low self esteem.

India hardly fared better when it came to discrimination among sons of the soil. Whereas the Europeans practised segregation and racism only with the alien they conquered, in India, casteism was thrust upon unsuspecting fellow sons of the soil on basis of birth citing scriptures even as Hindu Dharma remained freewill and not an organized religion. Such a way of life must have only united us more as humans than dividing. I am perplexed that injustice was allowed at all to thrive for millennia. Upper castes hugely benefited by consigning menial and low paying works to the suppressed classes. What are the communities that dwelt in the city center with access to resources such as temple tanks, wells etc., for centuries. There are Agraharas, Vanniya (Baniya) streets, Chetti streets, Mudali streets, etc. typically around any ancient temple (even today). The city/town/village plan was thus devised that the social hierarchy prevailed in the townplanning. Social hierarchy also directly correlated to one’s wealth and landholdings. However the scheduled castes/tribes never were residents of structured city planning in Indian history. Was this not landgrabbing at all, confining the poorest and weakest to the fringes of our civil society. Today we talk of landgrabbing by criminal gangs and vested interestes. Is it really landgrabbing or taking back one’s denied share to prime property. (Here we can find parallels with even reservation in education and government jobs.) Can you find an old mansion that ancestrally belonged to Dalit community in the city center of any of India’s towns or villages or cities. Some hotcake real estate that was in their families for generations like many of us may boast of until today. It has been possible for them to live within city limits only in last 50 years. Bhoodhan movement led by Shri Vinoba Bhave played an effective role in just and equitable redistribution of landholdings to marginal farmers in India’s poorest districts in post-independence era.

Like real estate holdings, education is merely another arena where the privilege of learning was hard fought and won for some communities. Reservation quotas came into force for this reason. But why should that surprise us when even the right to worship had to be legally sanctioned for this lot. The heroes who championed such a noble cause are today character assassinated every single day in our social media, with their good work conveniently brushed under the carpet.

Anyway. Tides are turning. Nature has a way of correcting imbalances with its own checks and readjustments. I am a firm believer in Karma and Dharma. Let not at the same time, asserting and reclaiming one’s rights become justification for vandalization, arson and rowdyism on part of the scheduled communities. Whatever said, one cannot turn back the clock. Frustration and bitterness can well be channelized into beneficial pursuits of development and progress.

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My recommendations:

Twelve year a slave (Hollywood)

Pariyerum Perumal (Tamil)

I respect the way the heroes in these two flicks handled discrimination and injustice and at the same time ensured that they did not get consumed by hate in the process of reclaiming their rights. There is a rare dignity in both of the characters.