Burglary during Lockdown

When corona -induced lockdown was announced  in March, at that time ,  there was no one in our village house . My mother was unwell and she was with my elder brother in Bhagalpur .  In Village, the house was properly locked . In May, our neighbour who is our blood relative  informed to my mother regarding burglary in our house . Burglars  climbed the wall and reached the roof and through stairs came down and broke the locks of main iron grill gate , then broke open the doors of three rooms . Burglars broke the doors of almirahs, locks of VIPs, boxes and took away jewelleries, saries , quilts etc. They thoroughly searched the almirah and trunk which were full of books and other papers. Along with other articles, some papers related to land was also missing .

I was also informed about the burglary and loss . After listening all the details and doing some brainstorming I came up with few points :- 

• In this burglary, the role of neighbour  who is our blood relative is questionable . The circumstantial evidence indicates that either he is directly involved in it or he is complicit in it . Such doubts can be confirmed through thorough investigation only .
• In lockdown, people from mars or moon can't come to do burglary . Few other villages are also involved in it .
• Few burglaries or attempt of burglaries also took place in village . Some new crops of youths having criminal tendencies may involve in it . Their deviant behaviour can be corrected at this juncture through counseling and right course of action . 

It looks bizzare but those houses  are burgled or attempted to be burgled ,  expect one, no one approached to the police for FIR . Even from our house, we did not approach to police . I find , these are the reasons why we did not file FIR  :-

•  The relationships with neighbours and blood relatives are different but delicate one . The co-operation and conflicts go together . If police do any coercive measures to suspects , it may harm career and progress of them which we don't want . We want all should do well through right and just means and deeds .
• What we feel we do not have any such enmity with anybody that they would harm us by doing burglary . If anyone has latent jealousy, envy, heartburn with us that we can't say . Complaining to police bring confusion, distrust and negativity among others that any peaceful and progressive minded person wants to avoid .
• If burglary is committed by youths then their deviant behaviour will be labelled as criminal if police action are taken against them . Such actions have far reaching affect on a person's life and career. A sensible person doesn't want any bad for even such deviants .
• People have so many problems in their own life . In our case, my mother is seriously ill at present . She needs to be operated but due to various medical reasons and complications , it is getting delayed . Being Headmaster of a school, my brother has reasonable responsibilities of school administration . He has to look after compliance of departmental orders, family life, wellbeing of family etc .  Though incident like burglary bother us, but sometimes letting go  becomes necessary for peaceful and less stress life .
• It has been observed that once articles stolen from home is hardly recovered by police . Such cases end in inconsequence . Though police take actions against suspects and they suffer economic loss but it does not help to those who houses are burgled .
• We believe in God and his justice system . Today or tomorrow those who have committed crime , they will have to pay the price in God's court .

Despite all these brainstorming, I have been contemplating  to bring such matter in cognizance of some high officials and administrative officers of Bihar and that area so that corrective measures are taken in this regard .

I have studied Rural Development Management from the premier institution NIRDPR which is an autonomous body of Ministry of Rural Development . Though I am not a practicing rural development professional but I have very romantic ideas of villages . Any disturbing news from any village hurt me, give me pain in my heart . Gandhiji's gram Swaraj, self reliant, morally strong, economically independent village somewhere stays in my mind all the time . During my study , I had visited many real model villages not paper model village , which used to make me very happy . Will my village come under such catogery in real sense ? Will we listen positive news from village , story of peace, progress  and success as routine in near future ? I do not know the answer but I am hopeful that things will be alright today or tomorrow .

~~~ Ramanuj Dubey

Lockdown and Ramnavmi

 Dhwaja -Ramnavmi

Our family is the ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman ji .Hanuman ji is not just a God but he is also a family member , our guide, guardian and spiritual force for us . This is the legacy what we have got from our ancestors, from our grandfather . The festival Ramnavmi is celebrated on the occassion of Lord Shri Ram's birthday but this festival is especially dedicated to Lord Hanuman . My grandfather used to celebrate this festival fervently . After the death of my grandfather (Dada ji ) and Father (Babu Ji ) , my elder brother has kept the tradition alive . Every year he worships Hanumanji on Ramnavmi and performs all essential rituals of the festival .

This year , Ramnavmi was quite different from other years . This year Ramnavami festival fell on 1st April and during that time there was corona- Induced lockdown across the country . My mother usually used to live in village but from last 2-3 years she has been unwell . For Doctors consultations and other medical services & facilities she would stay with my elder brother ( who is headmaster of a government middle school ) in Bhagalpur and would frequently visit village ( which is in Munger district ) to look after agriculture related activities, to attend extended family related functions and village festival . When lockdown was announced that time she was in Bhagalpur and her condition was not less than serious . During lockdown district border was sealed and travelling was not allowed from one district to other district . There were some rumours that there were some corona positive patients in Tarapur ( Block town which is just 3KM far away from my village ). This was the first time in the history of our family when we couldn't celebrate the Ramnavmi on festival day . Though we all were not feeling well but my mother was inconsolable that day . In mid May , my neighbour who is our kinship informed my mother that our house was burgled during lockdown . It was second depressing news in lockdown  ( Will write in detail about burglary in next blog ) . 

When lockdown was lifted on 1st June , my elder brother went to home and arranged everything for Ramnavmi . Next day, with the help of  village priest  he  performed  all the rituals related to ramnavmi   like installing Dhwaja, Satyanarayana prabhu puja etc with observing corona related guidelines .   When 
 the required rituals of ramnavmi was done , we all felt a sense of relief . In our family tradition , rituals are very important and any aberration in observing rituals are considered as God's will . It is believed that God's will is always a blessing for devotees . Though I follow rituals religiously but I believe in connecting with God spiritually more than ritually .

~~~Ramanuj Dubey