On the 30th of Oct 2008, a series of bomb blast hit 4 towns of Assam, killing and injuring innocent people. Assam is not new to terrorist attacks, having suffered insurgency problems for a couple of decades. But this time, the attack was different. It was a different form of attack – lethal and brutal, akin to the new urban warfares that have sadly become common post 9/11. Previously, the targets were often individuals killed by 2-3 militants or ambushes on military in the mode of guerrilla warfare, carried out in the thick jungles and away from cities. Yes, there have been a few exceptions, but nothing in the scale of what was witnessed on the 30th Oct.
The attack had the signature of foreign hand – blasts that targeted innocent ordinary people in the middle of a working day. And as much as the politicians have been harping on local militants are involved, I refuse to believe that there is no foreign hand in the carnage. It stank of LET jihadis.
But an interesting sidenote was the reaction of people to the blast. People were angry that there was no disaster recovery plan, that fire engines took ages to react and the ambulances were as broken as the injured they were meant to rescue. Of course, public memory is notoriously short and people are back to day to day business, and looking forward to ODI between India and England. Somehow, we term this under the cliché ‘resilience of the human spirit’.
But, is this resilience or apathy ? Honestly speaking, can the pain of the mother who lost her 20yr old to the blast, become any less with the passage of time ? Can any parent actually overcome the pain once they outlive their children ? Can any child forget the father who was snatched suddenly away from her on that day ? No. I think that the pain does not cease. People just exist and forget to live. So while the rest of us, fortunate enough to escape unscathed by the blast, start queuing for the ODI matches and vote for the latest state entrant on Star Voice of India, those unfortunate people suffer from the pain which haunts them ceaselessly.
Should we not do something about this ? Afterall, we are in a democracy and the strength lies in people to bring about a change. Should we not demand an explanation from the government on why there was an intelligence failure ? Why is it that we are resigned to accepting fate and just carry on, ignoring the blatant political misjudgements and misdemeanours of politicians of all hue and creed ( I honestly do not belief that they have any ideological platform).
Why can we not make the following few demands ?
1. Create an Anti terror Squad for Assam, that is adept preventing terrorist attacks and bring them to book. A vital success factor is that this squad should be an independentbody, part of a nationwide anti terror squad and over which, no politician has any influence. Well, in real world, I should perhaps qualify this as ‘have as little influence as possible’. Something like the Election commission.
2. Bring in stringent anti terror laws in the state that allows the terrorist to be tried in special courts and in tougher terms that what is permissible now.
3.Relief the local police of the duty to look after the security of the local people and instead officially concentrate on what they have been doing so far – provide security for the politicians and their wives and mistresses, cook food in the kitchens of their top brass, escort the darling children of the police bosses and do the school run, grow long moustaches and get special allowances for it and harass the common man for bribes. These among several other commendable tasks that they have.
4. Have a proper disaster recovery plan where all the relevant stakeholders are briefed on their role and well equipped to respond to such crisis at short notice.
5. Seal our very porous borders so that the militant movement is restricted. Yes, that will have a dent in the vote bank, but its high time we finished the job which began with a student agitation in the 70s. We do thing Lahe lahe (slowly,slowly), but this is beyond what is humanly possible.
6.Fill the banks of brahmaputra with cotton candy ‘kohuwa’ and other flora and fauna by flushing out the illegal migrants. They can raise the Bangladeshi flag in peace across the border.
7.Educate the masses and eliminated the hate preachers who have infiltrated the very insides of our rural geo-politcal landscape.
These and many more steps….
Yes, the tribe of politicians will be loathe to agree to any of the above. But, then we ordinary people also have a right to live and feel the security offered to the politicians by the police force. We too have a right to breathe freely and not having to worry everytime someone steps out of the house.
If everybody stands up in one voice, we can make it. But, question is, will we stand up together ?
Friday, 28 November 2008
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Social Quiz
A friend forwarded the following Social Quiz to me. Please find my irreverant comments below the answers to the Quiz.
Twenty Questions: Social Justice Quiz 2008
By Bill Quigley
(Answers Below)
1. How many deaths are there world-wide each year due to acts of terrorism?
2. How many deaths are there world-wide each day due to poverty and malnutrition?
3. 1n 1965, CEOs in major companies made 24 times more than the average worker. In 1980, CEOs made 40 times more than the average worker. In 2007, CEOs earned how many times more than the average worker?
4. In how many of the over 3000 cities and counties in the US can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment?
5. In 1968, the minimum wage was $1.65 per hour. How much would the minimum wage be today if it had kept pace with inflation since 1968?
6. True or false? People in the United States spend nearly twice as much on pet food as the US government spends on aid to help foreign countries.
7. How many people in the world live on $2 a day or less?
8. How many people in the world do not have electricity?
9. People in the US consume 42 kilograms of meat per person per year. How much meat and grain do people in India and China eat?
10. How many cars does China have for every 1000 drivers? India? The U.S.?
11. How much grain is needed to fill a SUV tank with ethanol?
12. According to the Wall Street Journal, the richest 1% of Americans earns what percent of the nation's adjusted gross income? 5%? 10%? 15%? 20%?
13. How many people does our government say are homeless in the US on any given day?
14. What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children?
15. How many veterans are homeless on any given night?
16. The military budget of the United States in 2008 is the largest in the world at $623 billion per year. How much larger is the US military budget than that of China, the second largest in the world?
17. The US military budget is larger than how many of the countries of the rest of the world combined?
18. Over the 28 year history of the Berlin Wall, 287 people perished trying to cross it. How many people have died in the last 4 years trying to cross the border between Arizona and Mexico?
19. India is ranked second in the world in gun ownership with 4 guns per 100 people. China is third with 3 firearms per 100 people. Which country is first and how many guns do they own?
20. What country leads the world in the incarceration of its citizens?
Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2008
1. 22,000. The U.S. State Department reported there were more than 22,000 deaths from terrorism last year. Over half of those killed or injured were Muslims. Source: Voice of America, May 2, 2008. "Terrorism Deaths Rose in 2007."[Sumita Dutta] Are the civilians killed in Iraq counted as victims of terror ?
2. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. Poverty.com – Hunger and World Poverty. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds. Bread for the World. Hunger Facts: International.[Sumita Dutta] Sad.
3. Today's average CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker's pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general. Executive Excess 2007, page 7, jointly published by Institute for Policy Studies and United for Fair Economy, August 29, 2007. 1965 numbers from State of Working America 2004-2005, Economic Policy Institute.[Sumita Dutta] Average worker - is that an American average worker or a Bangladeshi daily hajira labourer.
4. In no city or county in the entire USA can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom rental. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urges renters not to pay more than 30% of their income in rent. HUD also reports the fair market rent for each of the counties and cities in the US. Nationally, in order to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, one full-time worker in 2008 must earn $17.32 per hour. In fact, 81% of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs. Source: Out of Reach 2007-2008, April 7, 2008, National Low-Income Housing Coalition.[Sumita Dutta] Shoot the landlords. American learn to live in slums like the lakhs in Dharavi and other areas of parallel human existence.
5. Calculated in real (inflation adjusted) dollars, the 1968 minimum wage would have been worth $9.83 in 2007 dollars. Andrew Tobias, January 16, 2008. The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008 and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.[Sumita Dutta] Ah...less than the tips in the restaurent,you mean !!
6. True. The USA spends $43.4 billion on pet food annually. Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Inc. The USA spent $23.5 billion in official foreign aid in 2006. The government of the USA gave the most of any country in the world in actual dollars. As a percentage of gross national income, the USA came in second to last among OECD donor countries and ranked number 20 at 0.18 percent behind Sweden at 1.02 percent and other countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and others. This does not count private donations which, if included, may move the USA up as high as 6th. The Index of Global Philanthropy 2008, page 15, 19.[Sumita Dutta] Send the dogs to China and ask the people to feed the hungry children in Q 2 and provide shelter to those in Q4
7. The World Bank reported in August 2008 that 2.6 billion people consume less than $2 a day. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/Poverty-Brief-in-English.pdf[Sumita Dutta] $2 = Rs 80. That's a lot more than what I could spend per day as a student !!
8. World-wide, 1.6 billion people do not have electricity. 2.5 billion people use wood, charcoal or animal dung for cooking. United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008, pages 44-45.[Sumita Dutta] More electricity = more power, hence things like the nuclear deal in India. But then, it also means more pollution. We should all go back to nature and live like the 2.5 bn people !!
9. People in the US lead the world in meat consumption at 42 kg per person per year compared to 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. People in the US consume five times the grain (wheat, rice, rye, barley, etc.) as people in India, three times as much as people in China, and twice as much as people in Europe. "THE BLAME GAME: Who is behind the world food price crisis," Oakland Institute, July 2008.[Sumita Dutta] Oh...those fat Americans....!! Meat consumption in India - but so many of us are vegetarians !!
10. China has 9 cars for every 1000 drivers. India has 11 cars for every 1000 drivers. The US has 1114 cars for every 1000 drivers. Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future (2007).[Sumita Dutta] Hail the public transport system, cycles, rickety buses, bullock carts India/China !! Wait for the NANO, we will outnumber the US !!
11. The grain needed to fill up a SUV tank with ethanol could feed a hungry person for a year. Lester Brown, CNN.Money.com, August 16, 2006[Sumita Dutta] Depends who the hungry person is...or rather how hungry (s)he is !!!
12. "According to the figures, the richest 1% reported 22% of the nation's total adjusted gross income in 2006. That is up from 21.2% a year earlier, and is the highest in the 19 years that the IRS has kept strictly comparable figures. The 1988 level was 15.2%. Earlier IRS data show the last year the share of income belonging to the top 1% was at such a high level as it was in 2006 was in 1929, but changes in measuring income make a precise comparison difficult." Jesse Drucker, "Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow," Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2008, page A3.[Sumita Dutta] Humko bhi to lift kara de....thodi si to lift kara de !!
13. 754,000 are homeless. About 338,000 homeless people a re not in shelters (live on the streets, in cars, or in abandoned buildings) and 415,000 are in shelters on any given night. 2007 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Annual Homeless Report to Congress, page iii and 23. The population of San Francisco is about 739,000.[Sumita Dutta] Most are drug addicts...homeless by choice. There are many in the streets of London and I regard them as useless pests....no sympathy since they are 'victims' of drugs and excesive drinking.
14. HUD reports nearly 1 in 4 people in homeless shelters are children 17 or younger. Page iv – 2007 HUD Annual Homeless Report to Congress.[Sumita Dutta] Sad - blame it on the parents in Q13
15. Over 100,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. About 18 percent of the adult homeless population is veterans. Page 32, 2007 HUD Homeless Report. This is about the same population as Green Bay Wisconsin.[Sumita Dutta] Oh...I remember a saying that 'Old life should be spent in India'
16. Ten times. China's military budget is $65 billion. The US military budget is nearly 10 times larger than the second leading military spender. GlobalSecurity.org[Sumita Dutta] IRAQ, Afghanistan...tut tut...they all cost money. China just creeps into Tibet and Arunachal and claims those to be their territory. Gave up launching a war after '62 when they realised that its not worth spending so much on money on India who is busy with Pak anyways. So creep and grab is a better and more cost effective strategy. They look like us, so they belong to us....hmmm....
17. The US military budget of $623 billion is larger than the budgets of all the countries in the rest of the world put together. The total global military budget of the rest of the world is $500 billion. Russia's military budget is $50 billion, South Korea's is $21 billion, and Iran's is $4.3 billion. GlobalSecurity.org[Sumita Dutta] Ah...that's how they are the super powers !!
18. 1268. At least 1268 people have died along the border of Arizona and Mexico since 2004. The Arizona Daily Star keeps track of the reported deaths along the state border and reports 214 died in 2004, 241 in 2005, 216 in 2006, 237 in 2007, and 116 as of July 31, 2008. These numbers do not include the deaths along the California or Texas border. The Border Patrol reported that 400 people died in fiscal 2206-2007, 453 died in 2004-2005, and 494 died in 2004-2005. Source Associated Press, November 8, 2007.[Sumita Dutta] Ha...ha...ha...there's a difference between jumping from the frying pan to the fire or to a beautiful city where the streets are lined with gold !!
19. The US is first in gun ownership world-wide with 90 guns for every 100 citizens. Laura MacInnis, "US most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people." Reuters, August 28, 2007.[Sumita Dutta] Most of the Indian guns are unregistered ....so not worth going by the official figures !!
20. The US jails 751 inmates per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the world. Russia is second with 627 per 100,000. England's rate is 151, Germany is 88, and Japan is 63. The US has 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any country in the world. Adam Liptak, "Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations'" NYT, April 23, 2008.[Sumita Dutta] India houses them in the parliament, state assemblies, etc apart from Jails and reform centers...!!
Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com
Twenty Questions: Social Justice Quiz 2008
By Bill Quigley
(Answers Below)
1. How many deaths are there world-wide each year due to acts of terrorism?
2. How many deaths are there world-wide each day due to poverty and malnutrition?
3. 1n 1965, CEOs in major companies made 24 times more than the average worker. In 1980, CEOs made 40 times more than the average worker. In 2007, CEOs earned how many times more than the average worker?
4. In how many of the over 3000 cities and counties in the US can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment?
5. In 1968, the minimum wage was $1.65 per hour. How much would the minimum wage be today if it had kept pace with inflation since 1968?
6. True or false? People in the United States spend nearly twice as much on pet food as the US government spends on aid to help foreign countries.
7. How many people in the world live on $2 a day or less?
8. How many people in the world do not have electricity?
9. People in the US consume 42 kilograms of meat per person per year. How much meat and grain do people in India and China eat?
10. How many cars does China have for every 1000 drivers? India? The U.S.?
11. How much grain is needed to fill a SUV tank with ethanol?
12. According to the Wall Street Journal, the richest 1% of Americans earns what percent of the nation's adjusted gross income? 5%? 10%? 15%? 20%?
13. How many people does our government say are homeless in the US on any given day?
14. What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children?
15. How many veterans are homeless on any given night?
16. The military budget of the United States in 2008 is the largest in the world at $623 billion per year. How much larger is the US military budget than that of China, the second largest in the world?
17. The US military budget is larger than how many of the countries of the rest of the world combined?
18. Over the 28 year history of the Berlin Wall, 287 people perished trying to cross it. How many people have died in the last 4 years trying to cross the border between Arizona and Mexico?
19. India is ranked second in the world in gun ownership with 4 guns per 100 people. China is third with 3 firearms per 100 people. Which country is first and how many guns do they own?
20. What country leads the world in the incarceration of its citizens?
Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2008
1. 22,000. The U.S. State Department reported there were more than 22,000 deaths from terrorism last year. Over half of those killed or injured were Muslims. Source: Voice of America, May 2, 2008. "Terrorism Deaths Rose in 2007."[Sumita Dutta] Are the civilians killed in Iraq counted as victims of terror ?
2. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. Poverty.com – Hunger and World Poverty. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds. Bread for the World. Hunger Facts: International.[Sumita Dutta] Sad.
3. Today's average CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker's pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general. Executive Excess 2007, page 7, jointly published by Institute for Policy Studies and United for Fair Economy, August 29, 2007. 1965 numbers from State of Working America 2004-2005, Economic Policy Institute.[Sumita Dutta] Average worker - is that an American average worker or a Bangladeshi daily hajira labourer.
4. In no city or county in the entire USA can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom rental. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urges renters not to pay more than 30% of their income in rent. HUD also reports the fair market rent for each of the counties and cities in the US. Nationally, in order to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, one full-time worker in 2008 must earn $17.32 per hour. In fact, 81% of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs. Source: Out of Reach 2007-2008, April 7, 2008, National Low-Income Housing Coalition.[Sumita Dutta] Shoot the landlords. American learn to live in slums like the lakhs in Dharavi and other areas of parallel human existence.
5. Calculated in real (inflation adjusted) dollars, the 1968 minimum wage would have been worth $9.83 in 2007 dollars. Andrew Tobias, January 16, 2008. The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008 and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.[Sumita Dutta] Ah...less than the tips in the restaurent,you mean !!
6. True. The USA spends $43.4 billion on pet food annually. Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Inc. The USA spent $23.5 billion in official foreign aid in 2006. The government of the USA gave the most of any country in the world in actual dollars. As a percentage of gross national income, the USA came in second to last among OECD donor countries and ranked number 20 at 0.18 percent behind Sweden at 1.02 percent and other countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and others. This does not count private donations which, if included, may move the USA up as high as 6th. The Index of Global Philanthropy 2008, page 15, 19.[Sumita Dutta] Send the dogs to China and ask the people to feed the hungry children in Q 2 and provide shelter to those in Q4
7. The World Bank reported in August 2008 that 2.6 billion people consume less than $2 a day. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/Poverty-Brief-in-English.pdf[Sumita Dutta] $2 = Rs 80. That's a lot more than what I could spend per day as a student !!
8. World-wide, 1.6 billion people do not have electricity. 2.5 billion people use wood, charcoal or animal dung for cooking. United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008, pages 44-45.[Sumita Dutta] More electricity = more power, hence things like the nuclear deal in India. But then, it also means more pollution. We should all go back to nature and live like the 2.5 bn people !!
9. People in the US lead the world in meat consumption at 42 kg per person per year compared to 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. People in the US consume five times the grain (wheat, rice, rye, barley, etc.) as people in India, three times as much as people in China, and twice as much as people in Europe. "THE BLAME GAME: Who is behind the world food price crisis," Oakland Institute, July 2008.[Sumita Dutta] Oh...those fat Americans....!! Meat consumption in India - but so many of us are vegetarians !!
10. China has 9 cars for every 1000 drivers. India has 11 cars for every 1000 drivers. The US has 1114 cars for every 1000 drivers. Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future (2007).[Sumita Dutta] Hail the public transport system, cycles, rickety buses, bullock carts India/China !! Wait for the NANO, we will outnumber the US !!
11. The grain needed to fill up a SUV tank with ethanol could feed a hungry person for a year. Lester Brown, CNN.Money.com, August 16, 2006[Sumita Dutta] Depends who the hungry person is...or rather how hungry (s)he is !!!
12. "According to the figures, the richest 1% reported 22% of the nation's total adjusted gross income in 2006. That is up from 21.2% a year earlier, and is the highest in the 19 years that the IRS has kept strictly comparable figures. The 1988 level was 15.2%. Earlier IRS data show the last year the share of income belonging to the top 1% was at such a high level as it was in 2006 was in 1929, but changes in measuring income make a precise comparison difficult." Jesse Drucker, "Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow," Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2008, page A3.[Sumita Dutta] Humko bhi to lift kara de....thodi si to lift kara de !!
13. 754,000 are homeless. About 338,000 homeless people a re not in shelters (live on the streets, in cars, or in abandoned buildings) and 415,000 are in shelters on any given night. 2007 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Annual Homeless Report to Congress, page iii and 23. The population of San Francisco is about 739,000.[Sumita Dutta] Most are drug addicts...homeless by choice. There are many in the streets of London and I regard them as useless pests....no sympathy since they are 'victims' of drugs and excesive drinking.
14. HUD reports nearly 1 in 4 people in homeless shelters are children 17 or younger. Page iv – 2007 HUD Annual Homeless Report to Congress.[Sumita Dutta] Sad - blame it on the parents in Q13
15. Over 100,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. About 18 percent of the adult homeless population is veterans. Page 32, 2007 HUD Homeless Report. This is about the same population as Green Bay Wisconsin.[Sumita Dutta] Oh...I remember a saying that 'Old life should be spent in India'
16. Ten times. China's military budget is $65 billion. The US military budget is nearly 10 times larger than the second leading military spender. GlobalSecurity.org[Sumita Dutta] IRAQ, Afghanistan...tut tut...they all cost money. China just creeps into Tibet and Arunachal and claims those to be their territory. Gave up launching a war after '62 when they realised that its not worth spending so much on money on India who is busy with Pak anyways. So creep and grab is a better and more cost effective strategy. They look like us, so they belong to us....hmmm....
17. The US military budget of $623 billion is larger than the budgets of all the countries in the rest of the world put together. The total global military budget of the rest of the world is $500 billion. Russia's military budget is $50 billion, South Korea's is $21 billion, and Iran's is $4.3 billion. GlobalSecurity.org[Sumita Dutta] Ah...that's how they are the super powers !!
18. 1268. At least 1268 people have died along the border of Arizona and Mexico since 2004. The Arizona Daily Star keeps track of the reported deaths along the state border and reports 214 died in 2004, 241 in 2005, 216 in 2006, 237 in 2007, and 116 as of July 31, 2008. These numbers do not include the deaths along the California or Texas border. The Border Patrol reported that 400 people died in fiscal 2206-2007, 453 died in 2004-2005, and 494 died in 2004-2005. Source Associated Press, November 8, 2007.[Sumita Dutta] Ha...ha...ha...there's a difference between jumping from the frying pan to the fire or to a beautiful city where the streets are lined with gold !!
19. The US is first in gun ownership world-wide with 90 guns for every 100 citizens. Laura MacInnis, "US most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people." Reuters, August 28, 2007.[Sumita Dutta] Most of the Indian guns are unregistered ....so not worth going by the official figures !!
20. The US jails 751 inmates per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the world. Russia is second with 627 per 100,000. England's rate is 151, Germany is 88, and Japan is 63. The US has 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any country in the world. Adam Liptak, "Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations'" NYT, April 23, 2008.[Sumita Dutta] India houses them in the parliament, state assemblies, etc apart from Jails and reform centers...!!
Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com
Friday, 12 September 2008
Enviroment vs Development
The Nano discussion carried on to some concerns about the environmental cost of development. Very interesting and so am including some of my views on the subject.
India, China, USA rank among the highest polluters of the world. But as long as we want to wear beautiful clothes (rather than clad in environmental friendly leaves), build a house with concrete (rather than wood and mud), drive a car (rather than a bullock cart), use a fridge (rather than just cooking everyday and throwing away the leftover)…..all these and many more, basically, take the convenience of modern living, we can’t stop the age old economic formula of demand and supply. We demand the modern priviledges and hence, there is a supply for it. Are we willing to give it up ? To regress back in time and live like the Amazonian tribes ? Guess not. Very few among us try to be environmentally friendly and even if we take steps to be so, they are too little, too late. I religiously recycle everything possible, but still feel that I sometimes don’t think twice before printing an email. How many of us will take the bus to work rather than drive in the comfort of the car ? Use of public transport is better for the environment, but we balk at the thought of it. Cycle to work is a good option, but how many of us do it ? I take the old fashioned cloth shopping bag for my weekly grocery shopping, but easily give in to the convenience of using the plastic bags on the days that I forget the shopping bag at home. Like me, so many of us are probably thinking about the environment, but doing just about little or nothing for it.
Are we, as a nation, willing to forgo being an economic superpower for the sake of a better environment ?
Are we, as individuals, willing to go back to nature, live a life off the field in a small village and forgo the luxuries of modern living for the sake of a better environment ?
If the answer to the second question is a no, then the answer to the first question is also a no.
Nano would not have come about if people did not want it. When we drive cars costing 2 lakhs or more, then will the person sweating it out on a hot summer sticky polluted road on a bike costing Rs 60,000, not want the comfort of a car at Rs 1 lakh or so ? Is it fair that he be denied the comfort that is now the privilege of the middle classes alone ? The man walking on the road, dreams of owing a cycle. The man on the cycle, dreams of a scooter. The man on the scooter, dreams of a car and the man on the car, dreams of a better car. The aspirations go on and that is normal in all humans. Its part of evolution.
What perhaps is needed is pragmatic, sustainable and environmentally responsible solutions to fulfilling such aspirations. Maybe a Nano that runs on renewable energy sources rather than crude oil is a solution ?
India, China, USA rank among the highest polluters of the world. But as long as we want to wear beautiful clothes (rather than clad in environmental friendly leaves), build a house with concrete (rather than wood and mud), drive a car (rather than a bullock cart), use a fridge (rather than just cooking everyday and throwing away the leftover)…..all these and many more, basically, take the convenience of modern living, we can’t stop the age old economic formula of demand and supply. We demand the modern priviledges and hence, there is a supply for it. Are we willing to give it up ? To regress back in time and live like the Amazonian tribes ? Guess not. Very few among us try to be environmentally friendly and even if we take steps to be so, they are too little, too late. I religiously recycle everything possible, but still feel that I sometimes don’t think twice before printing an email. How many of us will take the bus to work rather than drive in the comfort of the car ? Use of public transport is better for the environment, but we balk at the thought of it. Cycle to work is a good option, but how many of us do it ? I take the old fashioned cloth shopping bag for my weekly grocery shopping, but easily give in to the convenience of using the plastic bags on the days that I forget the shopping bag at home. Like me, so many of us are probably thinking about the environment, but doing just about little or nothing for it.
Are we, as a nation, willing to forgo being an economic superpower for the sake of a better environment ?
Are we, as individuals, willing to go back to nature, live a life off the field in a small village and forgo the luxuries of modern living for the sake of a better environment ?
If the answer to the second question is a no, then the answer to the first question is also a no.
Nano would not have come about if people did not want it. When we drive cars costing 2 lakhs or more, then will the person sweating it out on a hot summer sticky polluted road on a bike costing Rs 60,000, not want the comfort of a car at Rs 1 lakh or so ? Is it fair that he be denied the comfort that is now the privilege of the middle classes alone ? The man walking on the road, dreams of owing a cycle. The man on the cycle, dreams of a scooter. The man on the scooter, dreams of a car and the man on the car, dreams of a better car. The aspirations go on and that is normal in all humans. Its part of evolution.
What perhaps is needed is pragmatic, sustainable and environmentally responsible solutions to fulfilling such aspirations. Maybe a Nano that runs on renewable energy sources rather than crude oil is a solution ?
Nana Nano to Haha Nano
Bits and pieces of a discussion around Nano - Singur crisis that I had with a friend. Will elaborate in a separate post, but just to share it as a prelude....
The Nano debate is an interesting one for me. I was a part of Tata once (Telco, Jsr) and have seen first hand how much the people surrounding Jsr and Ranchi (Tata Steel) mines have benefited from having such plants in their vicinity. Labour welfare in Tata companies are very,very good – trust me. I am a bit biased towards Tatas, since I have seen all the privileges that the workers enjoyed . Had it been any other industrial group, I would have probably been able to be more objective. But having experienced first hand the benefits of being part of the Tata group and the ethos of that Industrial house, I am a bit reluctant to dismiss it off as plain corporate greed.
On one hand, we have farmers who are committing suicide owing to utter poverty, but on the other hand, if they are provided with an opportunity to work for an industrial house, they are assured of a better livelihood, good medical benefits, etc. Compare the life of a Telco Jsr worker with the poverty stricken farmer on the verge of committing suicide – which one is better ?
Secondly, I am by nature, extremely suspicious of politicians – in any shape, form, size, sex, hue, etc. Mamata supporting the Singur farmers is nothing more than rousing a rabble to gain some political ground away from CPM. Also, there is an issue of monetary compensation. How much ‘cut’ can the unavoidable Trinamool dalal manage from the Tata’s compensation to the farmers ? There is very little genuine concern for the farmers, let me assure you. Even if one among them sees some sense in his son training in industrial skills and getting a job in the Nano plant, the Trinamool workers will suppress his voice and mutate it so that only Didi’s voice is heard and Didi of course speaks for the farmers , whom the ground workers have silenced conveniently.
I will have to write a post, will do. Its just that I’m not finding the time to gather my thoughts and present an objective point of view, but hope to do it soon. I’m always suspicious of NGO workers and ‘activists’ like Ms Arundhati Roy and her fellow tribes, or politicians (as mentioned before) who scream for the rights of the downtrodden and then go back to the comforts of the ivory towers, far,far away from the languishing broken down cottages of the newly widowed wife of the farmer who’s struggling to feed the hungry mouths of her children.
The Nano debate is an interesting one for me. I was a part of Tata once (Telco, Jsr) and have seen first hand how much the people surrounding Jsr and Ranchi (Tata Steel) mines have benefited from having such plants in their vicinity. Labour welfare in Tata companies are very,very good – trust me. I am a bit biased towards Tatas, since I have seen all the privileges that the workers enjoyed . Had it been any other industrial group, I would have probably been able to be more objective. But having experienced first hand the benefits of being part of the Tata group and the ethos of that Industrial house, I am a bit reluctant to dismiss it off as plain corporate greed.
On one hand, we have farmers who are committing suicide owing to utter poverty, but on the other hand, if they are provided with an opportunity to work for an industrial house, they are assured of a better livelihood, good medical benefits, etc. Compare the life of a Telco Jsr worker with the poverty stricken farmer on the verge of committing suicide – which one is better ?
Secondly, I am by nature, extremely suspicious of politicians – in any shape, form, size, sex, hue, etc. Mamata supporting the Singur farmers is nothing more than rousing a rabble to gain some political ground away from CPM. Also, there is an issue of monetary compensation. How much ‘cut’ can the unavoidable Trinamool dalal manage from the Tata’s compensation to the farmers ? There is very little genuine concern for the farmers, let me assure you. Even if one among them sees some sense in his son training in industrial skills and getting a job in the Nano plant, the Trinamool workers will suppress his voice and mutate it so that only Didi’s voice is heard and Didi of course speaks for the farmers , whom the ground workers have silenced conveniently.
I will have to write a post, will do. Its just that I’m not finding the time to gather my thoughts and present an objective point of view, but hope to do it soon. I’m always suspicious of NGO workers and ‘activists’ like Ms Arundhati Roy and her fellow tribes, or politicians (as mentioned before) who scream for the rights of the downtrodden and then go back to the comforts of the ivory towers, far,far away from the languishing broken down cottages of the newly widowed wife of the farmer who’s struggling to feed the hungry mouths of her children.
Friday, 29 August 2008
Ogling survey
“A new survey of office-goers in Britain has thrown up stunning statistics. Office workers in Britain spend around 600 hours ogling at a colleague they have a crush on, the survey has revealed.
According to the study, office staffs spend almost 60,000 hours sitting at their office desk during their career. And they do a lot of things during the career to break monotony and to maintain some semblance of order.
During the entire period, they drink nearly 32,000 cups of tea or coffee and make about 110,000 phone calls, reports The Sun.
And two out of five employees end up in bed with their workmates, the study found. So much for mixing work with pleasure!
They will also write 50,000 lists of things to do over the years, receive more than 320,000 emails and have 13 job interviews. That is a lot of ambition and literary pursuit to have.
To reach the results, a total of 1,200 workers were polled."
Reported in http://www.ibnlive.com/news/office-workers-spend-600-hours-of-working-life-ogling-colleagues/72429-19.html
I am intrigued – very, very intrigued.
Firstly, who did this survey ? If it was a student , then what course actually demands such a survey ? Had I proposed such a survey in any Indian University, I would have been in the hitlist of the student unions governed by leaders who have a vast experience of student life by spending much more time than stipulated by academic requirements. Case in point is the picture of the ‘student’ leaders of All Assam Student Union .
Challenge to anyone – which of them actually look like a student ? Maybe the one in pink shirt – but he is more like a hanger on who plays ‘follow the leader’ all his life. The almost-baldie beardie was hirusite when I recall seeing his face plastered across the newspapers ages ago when I was in primary school …and, that was a long time ago…a really long time !!! He was a leader in the early eighties and is a student since then. Time has taken a toll on his headful of hair, but he still remains a student, with nothing else but his heart and soul.
Anyways, I digress.
Now had I managed to escape the wrath of these leader, surely the teachers would have directed their ire against me since academics is serious business and nowhere can I imagine proposing to do a study on how long does an office worker spend his time ogling at other office workers. School was a place where we were reprimanded for talking too much, laughing too loudly or playing too hard. In true convent traditions, we were trained to stop whatever we were doing when the first bell rang in the playground and then move as quietly as we can when the 2nd bell rang to form uniformed straight lines for an assembly where we prayed and were lectured on how we can be ‘good girls’. Once, I even remember, an hour long sermon being delivered because someone was heard calling another ‘Piggy’…well, it did seem like an hour ( I believe in the theory of relativity). I prayed the same prayers for every day of my school life, but today,I fail to recall even one prayer correctly. Not a case of memory loss, but simply the heart not being in it. Finally, when we were released to the big bad world that the nuns tried their best to protect us from, I took the pleasure, like others, of being like a child let loose on a playground filled with unimaginable toys and chocolates. However, the teachers brought us back to ground zero – briefly and at irregular intervals, I hasten to add, when we had to face the exams and write thesis in order to gain the right academic qualifications. The thesis was titled in heavy sounding words, which impressed us but which we did not understand. Titles like ‘Scattering ray phenomenon and light dispersion of gamma rays’, which we had to present as students of Physics. Of course, nothing but the uncertainity of the Uncertainity Principles now remain, but I recollect our teachers being serious individuals with the weight of the world in their shoulders, clad in dour clothing to present to the world a serious outlook of life in general and Physics in particular. No, none of them were like Sushmita Sen in Main Hoon Na.
Going back to the survey, I now want to look at the findings.
1. Office workers in Britain spend around 600 hours ogling at a colleague they have a crush on
Really ? In all my working life, I have never seen anybody ogling at anyone else and yes, I work at the City, which is supposedly notorious in all these ‘mamlas’. Maybe, this phenomenon has escaped me, utterly and completely. I am talking from the third party objective point of view, lest you think of this as a case of sour grapes.
2. Office staffs spend almost 60,000 hours sitting at their office desk during their career
This I can agree and identify with. After all, there is no other option, is there ? I can’t exactly dance and jump with joy without being dragged by HR for a Health and Safety violation.
3. During the entire period, they drink nearly 32,000 cups of tea or coffee and make about 110,000 phone calls
That much ..hmm !! Maybe, can’t vouch for it but then, like all reports, this too is skewed since it reveals towards the end of the survey that this report is based on 1200 workers and so do each worker have 32,000 cups each during their average lifetime or is it that 1200 workers have 32,000 cups in one year…a bit confusing, at best.
4. Two out of five employees end up in bed with their workmates
By that logic, a large number of my colleagues must be sharing the car pool every morning in a bid to save the environment and the office must be a ‘love’y place with so many cupids flying around. Sadly, I have never seen this happen…yet.
5. They will also write 50,000 lists of things to do over the years, receive more than 320,000 emails and have 13 job interviews
Ok…I can take that at face value. Not interesting enough…hah!
This survey was reported in the Sun, a newspaper that few would like to be caught dead with and which have a readership who is common-sensically challenged and believes that Aliens flock to Britain in large numbers of UFOs.
"BRITONS have spotted a staggering 150 UFOs this year, The Sun can reveal.
That compares with just 135 sightings reported to the Ministry of Defence for the whole of last year — and 97 the year before."
According to the study, office staffs spend almost 60,000 hours sitting at their office desk during their career. And they do a lot of things during the career to break monotony and to maintain some semblance of order.
During the entire period, they drink nearly 32,000 cups of tea or coffee and make about 110,000 phone calls, reports The Sun.
And two out of five employees end up in bed with their workmates, the study found. So much for mixing work with pleasure!
They will also write 50,000 lists of things to do over the years, receive more than 320,000 emails and have 13 job interviews. That is a lot of ambition and literary pursuit to have.
To reach the results, a total of 1,200 workers were polled."
Reported in http://www.ibnlive.com/news/office-workers-spend-600-hours-of-working-life-ogling-colleagues/72429-19.html
I am intrigued – very, very intrigued.
Firstly, who did this survey ? If it was a student , then what course actually demands such a survey ? Had I proposed such a survey in any Indian University, I would have been in the hitlist of the student unions governed by leaders who have a vast experience of student life by spending much more time than stipulated by academic requirements. Case in point is the picture of the ‘student’ leaders of All Assam Student Union .
Challenge to anyone – which of them actually look like a student ? Maybe the one in pink shirt – but he is more like a hanger on who plays ‘follow the leader’ all his life. The almost-baldie beardie was hirusite when I recall seeing his face plastered across the newspapers ages ago when I was in primary school …and, that was a long time ago…a really long time !!! He was a leader in the early eighties and is a student since then. Time has taken a toll on his headful of hair, but he still remains a student, with nothing else but his heart and soul.
Anyways, I digress.
Now had I managed to escape the wrath of these leader, surely the teachers would have directed their ire against me since academics is serious business and nowhere can I imagine proposing to do a study on how long does an office worker spend his time ogling at other office workers. School was a place where we were reprimanded for talking too much, laughing too loudly or playing too hard. In true convent traditions, we were trained to stop whatever we were doing when the first bell rang in the playground and then move as quietly as we can when the 2nd bell rang to form uniformed straight lines for an assembly where we prayed and were lectured on how we can be ‘good girls’. Once, I even remember, an hour long sermon being delivered because someone was heard calling another ‘Piggy’…well, it did seem like an hour ( I believe in the theory of relativity). I prayed the same prayers for every day of my school life, but today,I fail to recall even one prayer correctly. Not a case of memory loss, but simply the heart not being in it. Finally, when we were released to the big bad world that the nuns tried their best to protect us from, I took the pleasure, like others, of being like a child let loose on a playground filled with unimaginable toys and chocolates. However, the teachers brought us back to ground zero – briefly and at irregular intervals, I hasten to add, when we had to face the exams and write thesis in order to gain the right academic qualifications. The thesis was titled in heavy sounding words, which impressed us but which we did not understand. Titles like ‘Scattering ray phenomenon and light dispersion of gamma rays’, which we had to present as students of Physics. Of course, nothing but the uncertainity of the Uncertainity Principles now remain, but I recollect our teachers being serious individuals with the weight of the world in their shoulders, clad in dour clothing to present to the world a serious outlook of life in general and Physics in particular. No, none of them were like Sushmita Sen in Main Hoon Na.
Going back to the survey, I now want to look at the findings.
1. Office workers in Britain spend around 600 hours ogling at a colleague they have a crush on
Really ? In all my working life, I have never seen anybody ogling at anyone else and yes, I work at the City, which is supposedly notorious in all these ‘mamlas’. Maybe, this phenomenon has escaped me, utterly and completely. I am talking from the third party objective point of view, lest you think of this as a case of sour grapes.
2. Office staffs spend almost 60,000 hours sitting at their office desk during their career
This I can agree and identify with. After all, there is no other option, is there ? I can’t exactly dance and jump with joy without being dragged by HR for a Health and Safety violation.
3. During the entire period, they drink nearly 32,000 cups of tea or coffee and make about 110,000 phone calls
That much ..hmm !! Maybe, can’t vouch for it but then, like all reports, this too is skewed since it reveals towards the end of the survey that this report is based on 1200 workers and so do each worker have 32,000 cups each during their average lifetime or is it that 1200 workers have 32,000 cups in one year…a bit confusing, at best.
4. Two out of five employees end up in bed with their workmates
By that logic, a large number of my colleagues must be sharing the car pool every morning in a bid to save the environment and the office must be a ‘love’y place with so many cupids flying around. Sadly, I have never seen this happen…yet.
5. They will also write 50,000 lists of things to do over the years, receive more than 320,000 emails and have 13 job interviews
Ok…I can take that at face value. Not interesting enough…hah!
This survey was reported in the Sun, a newspaper that few would like to be caught dead with and which have a readership who is common-sensically challenged and believes that Aliens flock to Britain in large numbers of UFOs.
"BRITONS have spotted a staggering 150 UFOs this year, The Sun can reveal.
That compares with just 135 sightings reported to the Ministry of Defence for the whole of last year — and 97 the year before."
Another curious thing that intrigues me is why should the ogling survery be reported in IBN Live, a seemingly respectable portal for news concerning India ? Did we have no other news worth reporting than this piece of crap that will put even the imagination of many B Grade Bollywood movie writers to shame ?
Off I go now….to apply for a new job, in a new office where I can sit and oogle ( at the printer maybe) and work out which 2 out of 5 of my workmates spent the night sleeping together and write thousands of email about such activities while drinking endless cups of tea. Ah bliss.
Off I go now….to apply for a new job, in a new office where I can sit and oogle ( at the printer maybe) and work out which 2 out of 5 of my workmates spent the night sleeping together and write thousands of email about such activities while drinking endless cups of tea. Ah bliss.
Borrowing and butchering a line from the Great Mughal Jahangir, who actually knew a lot about mixing business and pleasure…
Gar Firdaus Bay Roo-e-Zernin-ast Hamin office asto, Hamin office asto, Hamin office asto.
Gar Firdaus Bay Roo-e-Zernin-ast Hamin office asto, Hamin office asto, Hamin office asto.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Vijay
Britain is celebrating its best Olympic results in a century and for a nation of just 60 million people, its 3rd in the medal tally, just after the mighty China and USA. As the medals continue to pour in raising the sporting spirit of this nation, there is a sense of excitement rippling through the air. The papers scream out the medal success and the BBC is covering the events with impressive graphics and statistics. Somehow, numbers always seem more fun when put in the context of statistics. And while the triumph of Team GB is being celebrated with typical British restrain, there is the odd momentary lapse in the self control when they gleefully point out that the Aussies are lower down in the medal tally. London 2012.The arena for greater sporting glory for Team GB and ..India.
While the British Olympians cannot be denied their moment of glory, it must also be pointed out to outstanding facilities and infrastructure that’s available to not just promising athletes, but also each and every citizen in the UK. There is a system to nurture sporting talent at grassroots level and therefore , such sterling results are the logical conclusion. But the triumph of Sushil Kumar and Vijendra Singh, not forgetting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Abhinav Bindra, are different. While the teams of USA, China, Britain (among others) had the infrastructure, training programmes, equipments,etc, our Indian sportsmen had nothing but hope ; hope that stems from true Deewar style and you can almost hear our guys growl out like Vijay(Amitabh Bachchan) , ‘ Humare pass Ma hain’. They trained, struggled and worked hard, learning to fight not just the opponents, but also the system. Theirs was a lonely campaign for glory and their success was scripted by the unflinching support from families, coach or random benefactors. The success of our Indian Olympians is the triumph of the human spirit, in the true tradition of the Olympics.
India is on the threshold of becoming an economic superpower, competing to face the might of USA and China. And the day has come when we are testing the sporting waters and starting to write success stories in the small towns and villages of the country. Is this the start of a new revolution? I certainly hope so. We have it in us to make it big – so, why not ?
For now, let us enjoy the fruits of success and shower our praise on those among us who made us proud. Abhinav Bindra must surely be happy with the free lifetime airconditioned train pass rewarded to him…..
While the British Olympians cannot be denied their moment of glory, it must also be pointed out to outstanding facilities and infrastructure that’s available to not just promising athletes, but also each and every citizen in the UK. There is a system to nurture sporting talent at grassroots level and therefore , such sterling results are the logical conclusion. But the triumph of Sushil Kumar and Vijendra Singh, not forgetting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Abhinav Bindra, are different. While the teams of USA, China, Britain (among others) had the infrastructure, training programmes, equipments,etc, our Indian sportsmen had nothing but hope ; hope that stems from true Deewar style and you can almost hear our guys growl out like Vijay(Amitabh Bachchan) , ‘ Humare pass Ma hain’. They trained, struggled and worked hard, learning to fight not just the opponents, but also the system. Theirs was a lonely campaign for glory and their success was scripted by the unflinching support from families, coach or random benefactors. The success of our Indian Olympians is the triumph of the human spirit, in the true tradition of the Olympics.
India is on the threshold of becoming an economic superpower, competing to face the might of USA and China. And the day has come when we are testing the sporting waters and starting to write success stories in the small towns and villages of the country. Is this the start of a new revolution? I certainly hope so. We have it in us to make it big – so, why not ?
For now, let us enjoy the fruits of success and shower our praise on those among us who made us proud. Abhinav Bindra must surely be happy with the free lifetime airconditioned train pass rewarded to him…..
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Bharat Kumar does sue sue
‘Bollywood yesteryear star, Manoj Kumar has gone to court again against the makers of Om Shanti Om. This time he has charged Shah Rukh Khan with cheating and defamation’
Read More here.
Bharat Kumar (a.k.a 1 Manoj Kumar and a.k.a.2 Harikishan Giri Goswami) is angry.
And he has a right to be angry.
Today, on the 15th of Aug, as the country celebrates Independence day and there is a palpable sense of patriotism amidst the hot and humid days of late summer, Bharat Kumar, who popularised celluloidal patriotism, decided to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om. Bharat Kumar, who from Kranti to Clerk, exalted the feeling of patriotism in all those tired souls who ventured to the cinema halls for some relaxed moments after a hard day's work, but instead found themselves reeled in waves of patriotism, the effect of which was undoubtedly disconcerting. Where they expected to furtively enjoy the mesmerizing and lithe movements of Helen, responding to her calls of 'Aaja aaja', they found themselves being told about ‘Mere desh ki dharti’. Where they expected Amitabh Bachchan teach badies like Shani Seth a lesson in Kaalia, they found Bharat Kumar singing patriotic songs (Kadam kadam badhaye jaa in Clerk) tp save his father, Ashok Kumar from a massive heart attack. Alone, he was the Mary Poppins of India and solely undertook the responsibility of saving the Indian people from moral degradation through Hindi cinema, attacking the system from within it. Being denied a burqa by virtue of his gender, he took to covering his face with his hands. As time went on and heroines less than half his age refused to sing ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ songs with him , he joined the Shiv Sena and spearheaded the movement to stop youths celebrating Valentine’s Day and such other displays of unwarranted love. Love should be for Bharat Mata, not Matilda.
We owe it to him for organisations like Kannada Rakshana Vedike which are now raiding the parties in Bangalore and making weekends a much more somber affair, more in line with ‘Indian Culture’, a culture for which they are the self appointed moral guardians.
Vedike activists actually raided a rave party in the outskirts of Bangalore. But the police were called in almost two hours later."Today's youth are ruining tradition and culture. They do not know anything about our tradition and culture. They are falling prey to these intoxicants and have no idea about our culture," says Shivarame Gowda, president KRV.The Kannada Rakshana Vedike looks at the dance ban and the 11:30 pm deadline as a way of protecting Kannada culture against western influences. Read more here.
And Shah Rukh Khan makes a mockery of such an esteemed personality ? Tut,tut Badshah Khan !!
Hence, the patriotic-hand-covering-face-dharti-putra-Bharat Kumar is angry and therefore he has sought the legal course to seek redressal. Mr. Bharat Kumar does sue…sue…
Read More here.
Bharat Kumar (a.k.a 1 Manoj Kumar and a.k.a.2 Harikishan Giri Goswami) is angry.
And he has a right to be angry.
Today, on the 15th of Aug, as the country celebrates Independence day and there is a palpable sense of patriotism amidst the hot and humid days of late summer, Bharat Kumar, who popularised celluloidal patriotism, decided to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om. Bharat Kumar, who from Kranti to Clerk, exalted the feeling of patriotism in all those tired souls who ventured to the cinema halls for some relaxed moments after a hard day's work, but instead found themselves reeled in waves of patriotism, the effect of which was undoubtedly disconcerting. Where they expected to furtively enjoy the mesmerizing and lithe movements of Helen, responding to her calls of 'Aaja aaja', they found themselves being told about ‘Mere desh ki dharti’. Where they expected Amitabh Bachchan teach badies like Shani Seth a lesson in Kaalia, they found Bharat Kumar singing patriotic songs (Kadam kadam badhaye jaa in Clerk) tp save his father, Ashok Kumar from a massive heart attack. Alone, he was the Mary Poppins of India and solely undertook the responsibility of saving the Indian people from moral degradation through Hindi cinema, attacking the system from within it. Being denied a burqa by virtue of his gender, he took to covering his face with his hands. As time went on and heroines less than half his age refused to sing ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ songs with him , he joined the Shiv Sena and spearheaded the movement to stop youths celebrating Valentine’s Day and such other displays of unwarranted love. Love should be for Bharat Mata, not Matilda.
We owe it to him for organisations like Kannada Rakshana Vedike which are now raiding the parties in Bangalore and making weekends a much more somber affair, more in line with ‘Indian Culture’, a culture for which they are the self appointed moral guardians.
Vedike activists actually raided a rave party in the outskirts of Bangalore. But the police were called in almost two hours later."Today's youth are ruining tradition and culture. They do not know anything about our tradition and culture. They are falling prey to these intoxicants and have no idea about our culture," says Shivarame Gowda, president KRV.The Kannada Rakshana Vedike looks at the dance ban and the 11:30 pm deadline as a way of protecting Kannada culture against western influences. Read more here.
And Shah Rukh Khan makes a mockery of such an esteemed personality ? Tut,tut Badshah Khan !!
Hence, the patriotic-hand-covering-face-dharti-putra-Bharat Kumar is angry and therefore he has sought the legal course to seek redressal. Mr. Bharat Kumar does sue…sue…
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Olympian Thanks - to one and all
Our one in a billion golden boy arrived back to the country today and the media coverage went a bit frenzy, justifiably so, in making up for ignoring Abhinav Bindra and his likes before their sterling achievements demanded the bytes to be diverted away from cricket. At this moment, which comes but rarely in history, we must pause to thank all those who made this historic moment possible for us.
Firstly, Suresh Kalmadi , President of the Indian Olympic Association ( hence, obviously a member of the tribe of politicians), who was ‘honoured for his contribution towards the Olympic movement and for promoting Olympic sports in India’ much before Abhinav Bindra even started his Olympic journey. As part of his contribution, he and his fellow Babus ensured that the Indian shooters overcome insurmountable odds to perfect their game. A basic requirement for shooters is that they need ammunition to practice and our efficient bureaucracy saw to it that this was denied to them, so the shooters had to fire blank shots. What And of course, when the real bullets were given, Abhinav hit the bulls eye. Thanks Mr Kalmadi,and the all the Babus who contributed in ways beyond the comprehension of a layman like me.
Thanks should also go to the vast contingent of officials who accompany the sportspersons in every Olmpic games. Cynics like me think that its just a nice jaunty rewarded for the IOA votes and funded by the taxpayers. But no, you all ensure that every sportsperson has to fight for getting an opportunity to play in the game. If the numbers don’t add up since the Chinese were strict with their official passes, knock out a sportsperson on some pretext or the other. Monika Devi, falsely accused of doping for failing a drug test that is not even considered meeting standard requirements, surely made the way for some Mr. Joshi’s wife to go along as Vegetarian food advisor for the athletes.
Thanks to Sachin Tendulkar, Mahi, Dada, Harbhajan Singh who slaps a few mates once in a while, Sreesanth who dances and cries equally randomly and other sporting heroes who grab the attention of the nation and advise them on all aspects of life through numerous ads 24/7, for allowing the reticent Mr Bindra and others like him to quietly concentrate on their game and be the best in the world.
Thanks to Mr Rajnikant, Big B Bachchan and all other celluloid heroes who showed that it is possible to defy normal principles of physics and shoot from impossible angles to hit the targets bang on. A single shot rushing out from the hero’s gun can render many baddies helplessly dead and such images must have sowed the seeds of dreaming to fire such perfect shots in the young and impressionable minds of Abhinav Bindra, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and others. They dared to dream the impossible and hence, today we are celebrating such success.
The Sports Minister, MS Gill has thanked and congratulated himself and all Indians in an interview on NDTV 24x7 ("I congratulate myself and every other Indian."). I accept this unquestioningly. Yes, Mr Gill, thanks to you and us. But why ? Ah well, we will deal with such minor issues at leisure.
Last, but not the least, thanks to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, just because..erm…just because…erm…just because…..
Firstly, Suresh Kalmadi , President of the Indian Olympic Association ( hence, obviously a member of the tribe of politicians), who was ‘honoured for his contribution towards the Olympic movement and for promoting Olympic sports in India’ much before Abhinav Bindra even started his Olympic journey. As part of his contribution, he and his fellow Babus ensured that the Indian shooters overcome insurmountable odds to perfect their game. A basic requirement for shooters is that they need ammunition to practice and our efficient bureaucracy saw to it that this was denied to them, so the shooters had to fire blank shots. What And of course, when the real bullets were given, Abhinav hit the bulls eye. Thanks Mr Kalmadi,and the all the Babus who contributed in ways beyond the comprehension of a layman like me.
Thanks should also go to the vast contingent of officials who accompany the sportspersons in every Olmpic games. Cynics like me think that its just a nice jaunty rewarded for the IOA votes and funded by the taxpayers. But no, you all ensure that every sportsperson has to fight for getting an opportunity to play in the game. If the numbers don’t add up since the Chinese were strict with their official passes, knock out a sportsperson on some pretext or the other. Monika Devi, falsely accused of doping for failing a drug test that is not even considered meeting standard requirements, surely made the way for some Mr. Joshi’s wife to go along as Vegetarian food advisor for the athletes.
Thanks to Sachin Tendulkar, Mahi, Dada, Harbhajan Singh who slaps a few mates once in a while, Sreesanth who dances and cries equally randomly and other sporting heroes who grab the attention of the nation and advise them on all aspects of life through numerous ads 24/7, for allowing the reticent Mr Bindra and others like him to quietly concentrate on their game and be the best in the world.
Thanks to Mr Rajnikant, Big B Bachchan and all other celluloid heroes who showed that it is possible to defy normal principles of physics and shoot from impossible angles to hit the targets bang on. A single shot rushing out from the hero’s gun can render many baddies helplessly dead and such images must have sowed the seeds of dreaming to fire such perfect shots in the young and impressionable minds of Abhinav Bindra, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and others. They dared to dream the impossible and hence, today we are celebrating such success.
The Sports Minister, MS Gill has thanked and congratulated himself and all Indians in an interview on NDTV 24x7 ("I congratulate myself and every other Indian."). I accept this unquestioningly. Yes, Mr Gill, thanks to you and us. But why ? Ah well, we will deal with such minor issues at leisure.
Last, but not the least, thanks to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, just because..erm…just because…erm…just because…..
Monday, 11 August 2008
At last, an Olympic triumph for India
At long last, something that we all have been waiting for so long – Abhinav Bindra brings home the first ever individual Olympic Gold medal for India. Its been a very long wait indeed, but finally, we have managed to grab the elusive gold medal in the Games which is unique in its rich history and ethos, where recognition of being the best in one’s individual discipline is the reward, rather than the size of the prize money. Well done, Abhinav Bindra !!
The Olympics have a special place among all sporting events of the world, overcoming time and history, to carry on a tradition that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit. What started off in one of the world’s greatest civilizations, Greece, eluded another equally great civilization,India, for so long. Yes, we did win the gold in Hockey for a few years, but never in history did we win an individual Gold. We came close, but never quite have the golden finish.
Ironically, this was the first ever Olympics when India did not qualify for Hockey, a game where we were gold medalist, but which is now fast losing its grip on the nation’s sporting interest. Needless to say, cricket is a national obsession and while it captures the attention of the entire spectrum of Indian society, there were these individuals who were determined to go off the beaten track and take a shot at some other sports. As the spaghetti top clad Mandira Bedi tutored the layman on events in/off and around the cricket field and ex-cricketers addressed the purist viewers at the other end of the spectrum, cricketers themselves became demi gods with temples sprouting up in nooks and corners of the country hosting a few demented minds with fertile imagination. Money rolled in and surely as the bees followed honey, cricket attracted the politicians and business men and we had people like Sharad Pawar or Jagmon Dalmiya at the helm of affairs, all wanting to have a bite of the money pie. And yet, there were a few individuals who defied the popular hype and carved their own path. Tennis – Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza. Badminton – Prakash Padukone, Golf – Jeev Milka Sing. Athletics – Milka Singh. Just to name a few. And Rajyvardhan Singh Rathore proved in Athens’04 that we can make it to the podium in the Olympics as well. Abhinav Bindra followed this and went a step further to claim the Gold medal. The tiranga flew proudly and the strains of Jana Gana Mana rippled as the whole of India sat up to take notice of this young man who was never heard of before.
China proved to the western world that the silk route will definitely be a major highway for economic activities in the years to come. It announced its arrival as a major super-power, especially to the western world who hold a patronizing view of the east as remnants of a colonial past. Tibet was on everybody’s mind, except perhaps Larky Sarky ( the French President, who wanted to be away from the hassles of Presidential duties at the opening ceremony and be with his wife in a Med beach), yet the political stances bowed down to commerce and everybody was in attendance as the Games opened in Beijing. India too is on her way to claim the rightful place in history and what better way to knock on destiny’s door than winning a gold at this historical event ? For long have we suffered the humiliation of being one of the most populous country of the world, but not winning a single individual medal.
But will this win actually encourage youngsters to develop interest in non-cricketing sports ? Will other sports even survive the onslaught of cricket in the domain of public interest ? Will we, as a nation of cricket lovers, merely look at this win as an interruption from normal cricket frenzy ? An interesting piece of news in Mid-day indicates how deep the cricket malaise is.Read more. The fact the BCCI has applauded Abhinav Bindra is as relevant as Mimoh mentioning that he wanted to be a NASA scientist before deciding to follow in his father’s dancing footsteps Read here..
Abhinav Bindra proved the triumph of an individual and we, as individuals, should also encourage, motivate and develop interests in other sports. Only then, can we hope for better medal tally at events like the Olympics and celebrate the success of our nation at such events.
Maybe then, the world too will also recognize us as a nation bound together by a sense of national pride and our President and Prime Minister are invited to attend the opening ceremony and not Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as this time in Beijing. She does not represent our nation. The President or the Prime Minister does. Surprised - read here, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/LEADER_ARTICLE_Sending_A_Wrong_Signal/articleshow/3349289.cms
The Olympics have a special place among all sporting events of the world, overcoming time and history, to carry on a tradition that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit. What started off in one of the world’s greatest civilizations, Greece, eluded another equally great civilization,India, for so long. Yes, we did win the gold in Hockey for a few years, but never in history did we win an individual Gold. We came close, but never quite have the golden finish.
Ironically, this was the first ever Olympics when India did not qualify for Hockey, a game where we were gold medalist, but which is now fast losing its grip on the nation’s sporting interest. Needless to say, cricket is a national obsession and while it captures the attention of the entire spectrum of Indian society, there were these individuals who were determined to go off the beaten track and take a shot at some other sports. As the spaghetti top clad Mandira Bedi tutored the layman on events in/off and around the cricket field and ex-cricketers addressed the purist viewers at the other end of the spectrum, cricketers themselves became demi gods with temples sprouting up in nooks and corners of the country hosting a few demented minds with fertile imagination. Money rolled in and surely as the bees followed honey, cricket attracted the politicians and business men and we had people like Sharad Pawar or Jagmon Dalmiya at the helm of affairs, all wanting to have a bite of the money pie. And yet, there were a few individuals who defied the popular hype and carved their own path. Tennis – Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza. Badminton – Prakash Padukone, Golf – Jeev Milka Sing. Athletics – Milka Singh. Just to name a few. And Rajyvardhan Singh Rathore proved in Athens’04 that we can make it to the podium in the Olympics as well. Abhinav Bindra followed this and went a step further to claim the Gold medal. The tiranga flew proudly and the strains of Jana Gana Mana rippled as the whole of India sat up to take notice of this young man who was never heard of before.
China proved to the western world that the silk route will definitely be a major highway for economic activities in the years to come. It announced its arrival as a major super-power, especially to the western world who hold a patronizing view of the east as remnants of a colonial past. Tibet was on everybody’s mind, except perhaps Larky Sarky ( the French President, who wanted to be away from the hassles of Presidential duties at the opening ceremony and be with his wife in a Med beach), yet the political stances bowed down to commerce and everybody was in attendance as the Games opened in Beijing. India too is on her way to claim the rightful place in history and what better way to knock on destiny’s door than winning a gold at this historical event ? For long have we suffered the humiliation of being one of the most populous country of the world, but not winning a single individual medal.
But will this win actually encourage youngsters to develop interest in non-cricketing sports ? Will other sports even survive the onslaught of cricket in the domain of public interest ? Will we, as a nation of cricket lovers, merely look at this win as an interruption from normal cricket frenzy ? An interesting piece of news in Mid-day indicates how deep the cricket malaise is.Read more. The fact the BCCI has applauded Abhinav Bindra is as relevant as Mimoh mentioning that he wanted to be a NASA scientist before deciding to follow in his father’s dancing footsteps Read here..
Abhinav Bindra proved the triumph of an individual and we, as individuals, should also encourage, motivate and develop interests in other sports. Only then, can we hope for better medal tally at events like the Olympics and celebrate the success of our nation at such events.
Maybe then, the world too will also recognize us as a nation bound together by a sense of national pride and our President and Prime Minister are invited to attend the opening ceremony and not Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as this time in Beijing. She does not represent our nation. The President or the Prime Minister does. Surprised - read here, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/LEADER_ARTICLE_Sending_A_Wrong_Signal/articleshow/3349289.cms
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
HCI, London - my tryst with Babudom
A necessary interruption to daily existence is the requirement of certain bureaucratic intervention in essential matters like birth, death, tax, travel, among others and I too found myself compelled to visit the great Indian Babudom; despite being far away from India. I had to visit the High Commission of India, London.
India House is a beautiful building in the fashionable West End of London and I reached there, innocently unaware of the experience that awaited me. Since there was no visible entrance , and making the right presumption that the awe inspiring front entrance was not for the likes of me, I looked around and my suspicions of a general preference for Backdoor Entry being the normal route to all entries, from temple to the medical school, were proved right when I spotted a little side door. As I tried to ascertain that I was not rushing into anybody’s basement flat, a voice beckoned me from behind ‘Hello-madam-hello’ transporting me immediately to the familiarity of the great Indian Chowkidaars who are the gatekeepers to not just the Indian Officialdom, but our fate and fortune at the hands the members of this esteemed tribe. I was transported to the world where the rules of existence were different. A world , where you were treated with respect or disdain in equal measure, directly proportional to the proximity that you can demonstrate to the tribal chiefs, otherwise the biggies of babudom.
Having re-acquainted myself with this world once again, right in the heart of London, I was initially a bit numb by a sense of deja-vu, till the authorative voice of the doorman asked me to cross a wooden frame, supposedly a security check. I was reminiscing the several wooden frames that I have crossed back home, proving that I was no security threat and often wondered the effectiveness of passing by uninterested pan chewing female guards, cruelly clad in khaki trousers displaying the abundance of flat in all the wrong areas, in case any bombs crossed the barrier. Just as I was unconsciously falling prey to such misgivings, I tripped in the threads of a carpet and launched myself into a great big hall.
The centerstage of all activities.
There were big wooden paneled boxes that were last seen in Hollywood movies of the 30s but instead of some cigar chewing sheriffs behind the counters, there was nobody in those cubicles of power – the individual little fiefdoms of those lower down the babu hierarchy. It was an extended lunch time. One of the many waiting in the halls decided to inform having guessed from my looks that I was still getting accustomed to the whole experience of being in India, but still not yet there. The walls of the halls had a series of posters with glimpses of India, if you can separate the dust from the Technicolor images which I recognized immediately from the re-prints I have seen everywhere where the Babu decorator was allowed to leave his trademark – from the walls of the Airports, to the Rajdhanis to the Tourism board offices. Anticipating a long wait, I gingerly made way to some multicolored plastic chairs that were lined thoughtfully for the sake of all visitors, but just as someone got up from her seat, the person on the other end nearly fell off in a see-saw effect. Balance. Like everything in life, we in India, have a strong sense of balance, be it reality shows vs the K serials or the mere plastic chairs which were welded together in sets of 3 and would remain steady only through balanced distribution of weight it supported.
We were given numbers, as in Macdonald’s, but there were no electronic displays of token numbers and so there was a crowd in front of the paneled window where we had to await our turn, which finally arrived for me. As I made my way and was awaiting the completion of necessary procedures, I noticed something not commonly in London, if you discount the graffitis. Scribbles. Those that proclaimed ‘Jitu was here, 08/08/07’, ‘Sitha I love you’, ‘Raj + Lina’,etc. Something that I have seen everywhere and often wondered if it was an intrinsic act programmed in all Indians, the urge to leave our mark on time, albeit in reverse-literally sense. The urge to demonstrate our love for someone or just state simply that so-and-so was there. Is it the same urge that drives Mayawati to order statues of her in all nooks and corner of Uttar Pradesh (for now and rest of India, if ever such a day came) ? Is it the same urge that makes any politician worth his name lay down the foundation stone of buildings that never come up, but the stones remain as mute bearers of the names of those who had the power to lay them in marble ? Maybe.
As I was wondering all these, I was presented with yet another integral object of the Babudom – the files. Yes. Proper environment friendly, recyclable paper files with little bits of strings that hold the papers together. Something that is not easily seen in this part of the world,but which is an object that holds the key to all things in Babudom. How often had I heard tales of the rates of bribe that is needed to make the file move from one desk to another ? How often I have marveled at the power behind these seemingly innocent pieces of paper wherein lies great powers that determine the case history of every incident that was reported in Babudom ? I was glad that such files were still in existence and that they made their way across the seven seas to the banks of the Thames.
But as soon as my work was done, the lady serving me gave me a broad smile and I thanked her. Not just being overwhelmed by the experience of being in India, but not yet there, but also for the genuine way in which we greet each other back home. Unlike the crisp, uniformed and unfeeling way in which you are asked ‘Hi, how are you’ by the person serving you in any bank or any other place in the West, we Indians smile genuinely and greet each other from the bottom of our heart. Swept away with such warmth, I walked away from the HCI, London bidding a bye to the surprised safari-suit clad doorman, back to the hustle bustle of an ordinary London life.
India House is a beautiful building in the fashionable West End of London and I reached there, innocently unaware of the experience that awaited me. Since there was no visible entrance , and making the right presumption that the awe inspiring front entrance was not for the likes of me, I looked around and my suspicions of a general preference for Backdoor Entry being the normal route to all entries, from temple to the medical school, were proved right when I spotted a little side door. As I tried to ascertain that I was not rushing into anybody’s basement flat, a voice beckoned me from behind ‘Hello-madam-hello’ transporting me immediately to the familiarity of the great Indian Chowkidaars who are the gatekeepers to not just the Indian Officialdom, but our fate and fortune at the hands the members of this esteemed tribe. I was transported to the world where the rules of existence were different. A world , where you were treated with respect or disdain in equal measure, directly proportional to the proximity that you can demonstrate to the tribal chiefs, otherwise the biggies of babudom.
Having re-acquainted myself with this world once again, right in the heart of London, I was initially a bit numb by a sense of deja-vu, till the authorative voice of the doorman asked me to cross a wooden frame, supposedly a security check. I was reminiscing the several wooden frames that I have crossed back home, proving that I was no security threat and often wondered the effectiveness of passing by uninterested pan chewing female guards, cruelly clad in khaki trousers displaying the abundance of flat in all the wrong areas, in case any bombs crossed the barrier. Just as I was unconsciously falling prey to such misgivings, I tripped in the threads of a carpet and launched myself into a great big hall.
The centerstage of all activities.
There were big wooden paneled boxes that were last seen in Hollywood movies of the 30s but instead of some cigar chewing sheriffs behind the counters, there was nobody in those cubicles of power – the individual little fiefdoms of those lower down the babu hierarchy. It was an extended lunch time. One of the many waiting in the halls decided to inform having guessed from my looks that I was still getting accustomed to the whole experience of being in India, but still not yet there. The walls of the halls had a series of posters with glimpses of India, if you can separate the dust from the Technicolor images which I recognized immediately from the re-prints I have seen everywhere where the Babu decorator was allowed to leave his trademark – from the walls of the Airports, to the Rajdhanis to the Tourism board offices. Anticipating a long wait, I gingerly made way to some multicolored plastic chairs that were lined thoughtfully for the sake of all visitors, but just as someone got up from her seat, the person on the other end nearly fell off in a see-saw effect. Balance. Like everything in life, we in India, have a strong sense of balance, be it reality shows vs the K serials or the mere plastic chairs which were welded together in sets of 3 and would remain steady only through balanced distribution of weight it supported.
We were given numbers, as in Macdonald’s, but there were no electronic displays of token numbers and so there was a crowd in front of the paneled window where we had to await our turn, which finally arrived for me. As I made my way and was awaiting the completion of necessary procedures, I noticed something not commonly in London, if you discount the graffitis. Scribbles. Those that proclaimed ‘Jitu was here, 08/08/07’, ‘Sitha I love you’, ‘Raj + Lina’,etc. Something that I have seen everywhere and often wondered if it was an intrinsic act programmed in all Indians, the urge to leave our mark on time, albeit in reverse-literally sense. The urge to demonstrate our love for someone or just state simply that so-and-so was there. Is it the same urge that drives Mayawati to order statues of her in all nooks and corner of Uttar Pradesh (for now and rest of India, if ever such a day came) ? Is it the same urge that makes any politician worth his name lay down the foundation stone of buildings that never come up, but the stones remain as mute bearers of the names of those who had the power to lay them in marble ? Maybe.
As I was wondering all these, I was presented with yet another integral object of the Babudom – the files. Yes. Proper environment friendly, recyclable paper files with little bits of strings that hold the papers together. Something that is not easily seen in this part of the world,but which is an object that holds the key to all things in Babudom. How often had I heard tales of the rates of bribe that is needed to make the file move from one desk to another ? How often I have marveled at the power behind these seemingly innocent pieces of paper wherein lies great powers that determine the case history of every incident that was reported in Babudom ? I was glad that such files were still in existence and that they made their way across the seven seas to the banks of the Thames.
But as soon as my work was done, the lady serving me gave me a broad smile and I thanked her. Not just being overwhelmed by the experience of being in India, but not yet there, but also for the genuine way in which we greet each other back home. Unlike the crisp, uniformed and unfeeling way in which you are asked ‘Hi, how are you’ by the person serving you in any bank or any other place in the West, we Indians smile genuinely and greet each other from the bottom of our heart. Swept away with such warmth, I walked away from the HCI, London bidding a bye to the surprised safari-suit clad doorman, back to the hustle bustle of an ordinary London life.
Monday, 4 August 2008
News Garam
I often wonder what goes behind the scenes of compiling news items which appear to assault us from all sides in these days of information revolution. Who decides what is newsworthy and what’s the readership to whom the news is to be catered for ? A general scan of the electronic and print media gives an idea of the wide spectrum of such news items in these days when there is a compelling need to snatch the attention from the mouse pointers of the surfers who peek into the internet in between ‘breaks’ at work or such other pursuits.
Like many others, as I was surfing, some random news items that caught my attention one of which is ‘Pamela spends a million on her undies. Undeniably, the combination of all the words in this simple sentence , Pamela – million – undies, is enough for the brain to send a lightning signal to click the link and read more. Why ? Simply for curiosity’s sake; the same curiosity that killed the cat. Was the subject in question ever renowned for her modest appearance that warranted such investment. If she wore as little as Sonia Gandhi speaks, then where were all the money spent ? Is it a case of Emperor’s new clothes and she paid for exposing the Eve in her ?I remained as baffled as ever, but like many things in life, I just moved on; till I stumbled into the next that left me more confused than ever – ‘Shoes that transform into sandals’ . After the bizarre Crocs, which look like a plastic blob being shot by a country gun ‘Made in Chambal’ am I supposed to wear this hideously mutated footwear that can be unzipped and worn in a way more suitable to a scene from Harry Potter ? The footwear are a German invention and suspecting a general affliction of innovativeness in the German air, I should probably point out this ingenious design to Amma and other lady politicians who cover up such fears capes more suited to those inclined to renounce the world and opt for the confines of a monastery. Unlike the others, this can probably be a news item that can find many more interested takers in the form of some bosom budies of ladies in power.
Some news items focus on useful bits of information which I can use for tactical advantage in any verbal duel that may arise between me and members of those from Mars – Ten things that make blokes cry. I can’t agree more with Item 4; its as genuine as the example cited. But interesting..hmm…nothing for the wife that moves these guys to tears. Point to be noted.
I can probably go on and on, but there enough newsbytes there to make one an accumulator of some odd bits of information that I may end up never using in my life, but still, I waver, ponder and read them just the same.
I remember those days of yore when the newspaper swished into our mornings to be relished with a cup of tea with news items that were as dry as Sushma Swaraj’s sense of humour but yet we would all clamour to be the first one to read it – mostly the TV programmes and Phantom comic strips. The news items would be random – five point programmes, inauguration of a railway gate, and such others; mostly centering around the politicians who were the flavour of the day. But yet, nostalgia compels me to view it with a kaleidoscopic image of a more innocent age – an age when I recall my Dad exclaiming out aloud that Kishore Da is no more. On his birthday today, I like many of his fans, am grateful that he came into our lives and filled it with melodious memories and he lives on through his evergreen songs.
Like many others, as I was surfing, some random news items that caught my attention one of which is ‘Pamela spends a million on her undies. Undeniably, the combination of all the words in this simple sentence , Pamela – million – undies, is enough for the brain to send a lightning signal to click the link and read more. Why ? Simply for curiosity’s sake; the same curiosity that killed the cat. Was the subject in question ever renowned for her modest appearance that warranted such investment. If she wore as little as Sonia Gandhi speaks, then where were all the money spent ? Is it a case of Emperor’s new clothes and she paid for exposing the Eve in her ?I remained as baffled as ever, but like many things in life, I just moved on; till I stumbled into the next that left me more confused than ever – ‘Shoes that transform into sandals’ . After the bizarre Crocs, which look like a plastic blob being shot by a country gun ‘Made in Chambal’ am I supposed to wear this hideously mutated footwear that can be unzipped and worn in a way more suitable to a scene from Harry Potter ? The footwear are a German invention and suspecting a general affliction of innovativeness in the German air, I should probably point out this ingenious design to Amma and other lady politicians who cover up such fears capes more suited to those inclined to renounce the world and opt for the confines of a monastery. Unlike the others, this can probably be a news item that can find many more interested takers in the form of some bosom budies of ladies in power.
Some news items focus on useful bits of information which I can use for tactical advantage in any verbal duel that may arise between me and members of those from Mars – Ten things that make blokes cry. I can’t agree more with Item 4; its as genuine as the example cited. But interesting..hmm…nothing for the wife that moves these guys to tears. Point to be noted.
I can probably go on and on, but there enough newsbytes there to make one an accumulator of some odd bits of information that I may end up never using in my life, but still, I waver, ponder and read them just the same.
I remember those days of yore when the newspaper swished into our mornings to be relished with a cup of tea with news items that were as dry as Sushma Swaraj’s sense of humour but yet we would all clamour to be the first one to read it – mostly the TV programmes and Phantom comic strips. The news items would be random – five point programmes, inauguration of a railway gate, and such others; mostly centering around the politicians who were the flavour of the day. But yet, nostalgia compels me to view it with a kaleidoscopic image of a more innocent age – an age when I recall my Dad exclaiming out aloud that Kishore Da is no more. On his birthday today, I like many of his fans, am grateful that he came into our lives and filled it with melodious memories and he lives on through his evergreen songs.
Monday, 28 July 2008
Terrorising India – 25 blast in 2 days.
“After a weekend of serial blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, cities across the country are edgy – schools are shut in Surat, cinema halls barred from screening late night films in Bhopal and Indore and Kerala are reviewing the security situation.” Read more
Every terror attack is followed by some public outrage, which slowly fade away as other more interesting news stories fill our mindspace. There is a general tendency among us to develop amnesia for such events soon after the initial reaction, we all do a bit of spot checking
1. Which city has been bombed?
2. Have any loved ones been affected ?
Our reactions are defined based on the answer to the above. This is perhaps expected among people who are exposed to such events, sadly, on a fairly regular basis. Psychologists can probably explain this better and I will not make any claims to understand this, but all I wonder is whether we have become immune to such events resulting in greater public apathy towards such acts of crime.
Having grown up in Assam at the peak of ‘agitation’ in the late 70’s and early 80’s there are some experiences that clearly stay in my mind. One morning, the newspaper headline screamed ‘1 dead in firing attacks’ and we all reacted with a sense of shock and disgust. Protest march filled the streets. The dead, Khargeshwar Talukdar , was declared a ‘shahid’(martyr) and his photo nudged into the space next to Mahatma Gandhi’s in the walls of those who are inclined to such public displays. Slowly the count increased and there was a general sense foreboding every time the newspapers were delivered in the morning. Slowly as such killings took place on a fairly regular basis, we got into the mode of doing the same spotchecks described above (1&2).
In the days of yore; before sms-es, mobile phones or internet - newspaper reports, radio or telephone became the means to keep up-to-date with what was happening when the whole of Assam was reeling with unrest. Schools closed ( I remember that we were promoted to the higher class without having to take exams one year, yippee), curfews, bandhs, satyagraha, protest march, teargas, lathi charge- all these slowly became part of the daily parlance and unless something happened in the near vicinity, we carried on with maintaining some semblance of daily routine.
Then one fine day, Nellie happened. That woke us from the state of immunity that the familiarity of events had condemned public conscious to, and a collective sense of horror took place. The horrifying picture of the dead children was plastered in world media. Suddenly the attention was focussed on Assam, a land hitherto more famous for an innocent cuppa tea. Before Nellie, nobody noticed the little storm that was brewing in the teacup and precipitated to such horrifying events. Post Nellie, the toll of dead creeped from units to tens, and tens to hundreds. What was unimaginable at one time, became acceptable as the passage of time and repetitiveness of events numbed our senses and the figures were reduced to mere statistics. Spotchecks 1 and 2 were the only thing that we did when faced with yet another bombing, yet another firing.
And that is what we are doing even today. Spotchecks. If the blasts have not affected any of our near or dear ones, then we move on with life as usual. Maybe the fact that this time 2 cities were targeted in a space of 2 days, the public amnesia has not taken place, but how long is it before we discuss ‘if India should play only Twenty20 and no more test cricket’ or ‘How Unforgetable has Amitabh Bachchan’s latest tour been’ or ‘has Rakhi Sawant provided any fun to Nana Patekar in the snake-ily titled Horn Ok Pleassss ‘(the numerologist who titled this is either poor at maths or was bitten by a snake ).
Why do we, the Indian public, not have any sustained public pressure on the politicians or powers-that-be to act against such acts of terror as urgently as possible ? We have seen the power of public uprising in the Jessica Lal Murder or the Nitin Katara Murder cases. We have seen the sense of public outcry in the Rizwan and the Arushi case. Why do we not express a similar outcry against terror attacks?
The political reaction will also adopt the standard lines – Government blame opposition and vice versa. Very soon they will all get back to gleefully sharing the loot over the N Deal trust vote, worried more about the bank deposits in the horse trading and negotiating over the issue of cabinet portfolios. Issues like reservations garner greater mileage for the elections and therefore they are more likely to be kept burning in the political cauldron for longer. But the fight against terror, collectively as a nation, sadly does not find any takers. Is it the lack of a political will or a simple act of omission and commission, a political hogwash?
Time will tell, but we probably have a good idea of which way the political will swings and why. And maybe that also leads us, the Indian public, to do the spotchecks and stop at that….Sad.
Every terror attack is followed by some public outrage, which slowly fade away as other more interesting news stories fill our mindspace. There is a general tendency among us to develop amnesia for such events soon after the initial reaction, we all do a bit of spot checking
1. Which city has been bombed?
2. Have any loved ones been affected ?
Our reactions are defined based on the answer to the above. This is perhaps expected among people who are exposed to such events, sadly, on a fairly regular basis. Psychologists can probably explain this better and I will not make any claims to understand this, but all I wonder is whether we have become immune to such events resulting in greater public apathy towards such acts of crime.
Having grown up in Assam at the peak of ‘agitation’ in the late 70’s and early 80’s there are some experiences that clearly stay in my mind. One morning, the newspaper headline screamed ‘1 dead in firing attacks’ and we all reacted with a sense of shock and disgust. Protest march filled the streets. The dead, Khargeshwar Talukdar , was declared a ‘shahid’(martyr) and his photo nudged into the space next to Mahatma Gandhi’s in the walls of those who are inclined to such public displays. Slowly the count increased and there was a general sense foreboding every time the newspapers were delivered in the morning. Slowly as such killings took place on a fairly regular basis, we got into the mode of doing the same spotchecks described above (1&2).
In the days of yore; before sms-es, mobile phones or internet - newspaper reports, radio or telephone became the means to keep up-to-date with what was happening when the whole of Assam was reeling with unrest. Schools closed ( I remember that we were promoted to the higher class without having to take exams one year, yippee), curfews, bandhs, satyagraha, protest march, teargas, lathi charge- all these slowly became part of the daily parlance and unless something happened in the near vicinity, we carried on with maintaining some semblance of daily routine.
Then one fine day, Nellie happened. That woke us from the state of immunity that the familiarity of events had condemned public conscious to, and a collective sense of horror took place. The horrifying picture of the dead children was plastered in world media. Suddenly the attention was focussed on Assam, a land hitherto more famous for an innocent cuppa tea. Before Nellie, nobody noticed the little storm that was brewing in the teacup and precipitated to such horrifying events. Post Nellie, the toll of dead creeped from units to tens, and tens to hundreds. What was unimaginable at one time, became acceptable as the passage of time and repetitiveness of events numbed our senses and the figures were reduced to mere statistics. Spotchecks 1 and 2 were the only thing that we did when faced with yet another bombing, yet another firing.
And that is what we are doing even today. Spotchecks. If the blasts have not affected any of our near or dear ones, then we move on with life as usual. Maybe the fact that this time 2 cities were targeted in a space of 2 days, the public amnesia has not taken place, but how long is it before we discuss ‘if India should play only Twenty20 and no more test cricket’ or ‘How Unforgetable has Amitabh Bachchan’s latest tour been’ or ‘has Rakhi Sawant provided any fun to Nana Patekar in the snake-ily titled Horn Ok Pleassss ‘(the numerologist who titled this is either poor at maths or was bitten by a snake ).
Why do we, the Indian public, not have any sustained public pressure on the politicians or powers-that-be to act against such acts of terror as urgently as possible ? We have seen the power of public uprising in the Jessica Lal Murder or the Nitin Katara Murder cases. We have seen the sense of public outcry in the Rizwan and the Arushi case. Why do we not express a similar outcry against terror attacks?
The political reaction will also adopt the standard lines – Government blame opposition and vice versa. Very soon they will all get back to gleefully sharing the loot over the N Deal trust vote, worried more about the bank deposits in the horse trading and negotiating over the issue of cabinet portfolios. Issues like reservations garner greater mileage for the elections and therefore they are more likely to be kept burning in the political cauldron for longer. But the fight against terror, collectively as a nation, sadly does not find any takers. Is it the lack of a political will or a simple act of omission and commission, a political hogwash?
Time will tell, but we probably have a good idea of which way the political will swings and why. And maybe that also leads us, the Indian public, to do the spotchecks and stop at that….Sad.
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Bombing Ahmedabad - 26/07/08
A series of bomb blast hit Ahmedabad and 45 lay dead with many injured. Just a day after such blasts took place in Bangalore, we are reeling from yet another terrorist attack. As with all bombings and such terrorist attacks, I fail to understand any sense of logic in such acts.
Another thing I fail to understand is the apparent apathy in the West to such events in our parts of the world, in 'the ring of terror' as George Bush Jr very intelligently put it. 9/11, 7/7 - all these make the whole western world rise in outrage and launch a war. But similar acts in India (or rest of the subcontinent) hardly cause a ripple in the White House or 10, Downing Street...among other places.
Leaving those aside, the real challenge of the day is to maintain clam and mourn the dead. Pledge that we, as a nation, will defend the rights of every citizen and condemn the dastardly acts of crime of these spineless characters who are puppets at the hands of some evil brain holed inside some caves - hiding from humanity, hiding from civilisation and hiding from all things that are supposed to make humans better than animals (whether we actually are better, is a different question altogether).
As so many innocent people lay dead or injured, one thing that we should all remember is that the colour of blood is the same and so is the colour of tears.....
Another thing I fail to understand is the apparent apathy in the West to such events in our parts of the world, in 'the ring of terror' as George Bush Jr very intelligently put it. 9/11, 7/7 - all these make the whole western world rise in outrage and launch a war. But similar acts in India (or rest of the subcontinent) hardly cause a ripple in the White House or 10, Downing Street...among other places.
Leaving those aside, the real challenge of the day is to maintain clam and mourn the dead. Pledge that we, as a nation, will defend the rights of every citizen and condemn the dastardly acts of crime of these spineless characters who are puppets at the hands of some evil brain holed inside some caves - hiding from humanity, hiding from civilisation and hiding from all things that are supposed to make humans better than animals (whether we actually are better, is a different question altogether).
As so many innocent people lay dead or injured, one thing that we should all remember is that the colour of blood is the same and so is the colour of tears.....
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Murli and Mendis celebrate Ram Leela
India is getting thrased by Sri Lanka and the wickets are falling as rapidly as Rakhi Sawant sheds her clothes. Just as the controversy around Ram Sethu is being brewed in the political cauldrom, the first test crickets feels as if Ravana is finally getting his revenge for the destruction by Lord Rama and his 'vanar sena' (monkey brigade - we still have this regiment and they are often seen as extra stuntment in Hindi cinema). Yes, we have been defeated in the past as well, but those were lesser intensity revenge - for the annual burning of Ravana's effigies during Ram Leela. This time, it feels like the big revenge.
Let the Sethu Samundran project go on - maybe Ravana's soul will at last lay to rest and only after that, we can discuss future cricket tours.
11:10am GMT, India 120 - 8 and all the stalwarts are back to the pavilion !
Murlidharan and Mendis have made a Ram Leela of us...
Let the Sethu Samundran project go on - maybe Ravana's soul will at last lay to rest and only after that, we can discuss future cricket tours.
11:10am GMT, India 120 - 8 and all the stalwarts are back to the pavilion !
Murlidharan and Mendis have made a Ram Leela of us...
Friday, 25 July 2008
Bombing Bangalore
Yet again the TV screens scream with news of a series of bomb blasts ripping a major Indian city – Bangalore.
http://timesnow.tv/Newsdtls.aspx?NewsID=12012
Thankfully, there hasn’t been too many causalities, but even if its just 2 (or one, its not clear yet) deaths, its two too many. It’s reported that one of the dead person was a lady. She may have been someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, someone’s sister or someone’s friend. Both of the dead were probably just going about their everyday life, when suddenly, someone pressed some remote control buttons and blasted the soul from their bodies. They lay dead and along with them, died the hopes, dreams and aspirations of 2 people and countless others associated with them.
What do such random acts of violence achieve ? What ? What ? What ?
Nothing but spreading waves of terror and chaos. Worried parents, relatives, friends calling their loved ones to find if they are ok. Rising levels of fear resulting in xenophobic outbursts at some later date. The need to retaliate. Plan more blasts. The vicious cycle of terror goes on and on and on…till it all becomes a mindless game for the bloodthirsty, official statistics for the bureaucracy , agenda for the political vultures or script material for Ram Gopal Verma. Sadly we forget that there may be a little child whose mother lay dead or a mother cursed to live a life bereft of the child she raised or bore, or a father faced with the heavy burden of carrying out the last rites of the dead. People whom they loved, but could not keep. Because, some demented mind justified this mockery against humanity.
Sadly, the occurance of such blasts have become so common that we have developed some kind of apathy towards such acts of violence. We compare the numbers and judge the impact. And life moves on, till another blast occurs and momentarily tears our attention from everyday struggle.
Take a look at the statistics below. It is high time to say that we have had enough, but problem is, whom do we say this to ?
May 13, 2008: Eight serial blasts rock Jaipur in a span of 12 minutes leaving 65 dead and over 150 injured.
January 2008: Terrorist attack on CRPF camp in Rampur kills eight.
October 2007: 2 killed in a blast inside Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan, in Rajasthan.
August 2007: 30 dead, 60 hurt in Hyderabad 'terror'strike.
May 2007: A bomb at Mecca mosque in Hyderabad kills 11 people.
February 19, 2007: Two bombs explode aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan, burning to death at least 66 passengers, most of them Pakistanis.
September 2006: 30 dead and 100 hurt in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon.July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai's trains kill over 200 and injure 700 others.
March 2006: Twin bombings at a train station and a temple in Varanasi kill 20 people.
October 2005: Three bombs placed in busy New Delhi markets a day before Diwali kill 62 people and injure hundreds.
http://timesnow.tv/Newsdtls.aspx?NewsID=12012
Thankfully, there hasn’t been too many causalities, but even if its just 2 (or one, its not clear yet) deaths, its two too many. It’s reported that one of the dead person was a lady. She may have been someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, someone’s sister or someone’s friend. Both of the dead were probably just going about their everyday life, when suddenly, someone pressed some remote control buttons and blasted the soul from their bodies. They lay dead and along with them, died the hopes, dreams and aspirations of 2 people and countless others associated with them.
What do such random acts of violence achieve ? What ? What ? What ?
Nothing but spreading waves of terror and chaos. Worried parents, relatives, friends calling their loved ones to find if they are ok. Rising levels of fear resulting in xenophobic outbursts at some later date. The need to retaliate. Plan more blasts. The vicious cycle of terror goes on and on and on…till it all becomes a mindless game for the bloodthirsty, official statistics for the bureaucracy , agenda for the political vultures or script material for Ram Gopal Verma. Sadly we forget that there may be a little child whose mother lay dead or a mother cursed to live a life bereft of the child she raised or bore, or a father faced with the heavy burden of carrying out the last rites of the dead. People whom they loved, but could not keep. Because, some demented mind justified this mockery against humanity.
Sadly, the occurance of such blasts have become so common that we have developed some kind of apathy towards such acts of violence. We compare the numbers and judge the impact. And life moves on, till another blast occurs and momentarily tears our attention from everyday struggle.
Take a look at the statistics below. It is high time to say that we have had enough, but problem is, whom do we say this to ?
May 13, 2008: Eight serial blasts rock Jaipur in a span of 12 minutes leaving 65 dead and over 150 injured.
January 2008: Terrorist attack on CRPF camp in Rampur kills eight.
October 2007: 2 killed in a blast inside Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan, in Rajasthan.
August 2007: 30 dead, 60 hurt in Hyderabad 'terror'strike.
May 2007: A bomb at Mecca mosque in Hyderabad kills 11 people.
February 19, 2007: Two bombs explode aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan, burning to death at least 66 passengers, most of them Pakistanis.
September 2006: 30 dead and 100 hurt in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon.July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai's trains kill over 200 and injure 700 others.
March 2006: Twin bombings at a train station and a temple in Varanasi kill 20 people.
October 2005: Three bombs placed in busy New Delhi markets a day before Diwali kill 62 people and injure hundreds.
We were there first !
Long, long after the magical or mysterious conception of many of our Indian mythological kings and Gods, the science of artificial insemination finally reached the Western world and a mere 30 years ago from today, the first recorded test tube baby was born. Louise Brown , born on 25th of July 1978. But we were there first.
When our grandmothers narrated the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata to us, I was too young to wonder how one woman can bear a 100 sons or how a human can mother a monkey. Such details were left unexplained by the elders and unexplored by our young minds since the fact that Hanuman can grow himself to any size he wants was more fascinating than how he was born.
But just as we were growing up and the birds and bees started pecking into areas of the brain cells having direct anatomical connections, arrived Ramanand Sagar with Ramayana and Mahabharata on TV. Just as we were starting to discover certain mysteries regarding pro-creation of life, Rama and Sita arrived directly on the television screens of our home. Suddenly, Hanuman’s expanding form or Kumbhakaran’s ability to sleep was not as exciting as the love between Ram and Sita or the Raas Leelas of Krishna. The details censored by our grandmothers were now being exposed to us in a way any viewer of Indian cinema could understand. By then , we knew that a girl puking would mean that she is pregnant which was a good thing or bad, depending on her marital status. Yes, I’m still to figure out how a doctor can confirm pregnancy by just feeling the nerves of the wrist, but who knows maybe its some bit of knowledge hidden in the shastras and passed on only to Medical students in India ? Back to the point, when the screen focussed on two flowers moving shakily towards each other, we knew that the next scene would show Ayodha erupting with joy at the birth of a new baby (somehow the image of Sita puking is ungodly and unsavoury, so that bit was not shown - after all, morning sickness is for us lesser mortals).
But what we failed to fathom, and thereby marvel at, were the other kinds of bizarre conception. Some examples :
1. Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna were born to the three wives of King Dasharath after they consumed ‘pudding’.
2.Anjana, Hanuman’s mother was offered some of the ‘pudding’ by Pawan, the Hindu deity of wind, and gave birth to Pawan Putra Hanuman.
3.Pandu, the father of the Pandavas , was cursed not to have children and both his wives, Kunti and Madri, gave birth to the 5 pandavas after ‘boons’ from different Gods.
Amar Chitra Katha comics usually depicted these intriguing scenes with a lady bowing her head deferentially to receive the blessing from the Gods who were giving them the ‘prasad’ (holy food). But the television screens glared and intrigued us with the hidden meaning behind the look in the eyes of the heroine. Reading a comic was often done in isolation, but watching the TV was a collective experience and the silence and uncomfortable coughs of the elders during such scenes were enough to convince us that there was more to it then meets the eyes.
Time makes us all wiser and as new vistas of knowledge were opened to me, I realised that these were probably cases of artificial insemination. They were all test tube babies, much, much before Louise Brown and was a testimony to the powerful science hidden in the shastras written eons ago.
Harman Baweja could not show it in Love Story 2050, but a day may come when scientists find a way for people to expand to any size they want (and conversely shrink to any size they want – such a welcome thought for the likes of me), but we already had Hanumanji doing it ages ago. Cloning may have just taken off in the west, but cross species transplant ? Hah, it’s a long way off, I am sure, but we already have Ganeshji. If and when cross species transplant happens, I may not be around, but definitely some other Indian like me will say, We were there first…!
When our grandmothers narrated the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata to us, I was too young to wonder how one woman can bear a 100 sons or how a human can mother a monkey. Such details were left unexplained by the elders and unexplored by our young minds since the fact that Hanuman can grow himself to any size he wants was more fascinating than how he was born.
But just as we were growing up and the birds and bees started pecking into areas of the brain cells having direct anatomical connections, arrived Ramanand Sagar with Ramayana and Mahabharata on TV. Just as we were starting to discover certain mysteries regarding pro-creation of life, Rama and Sita arrived directly on the television screens of our home. Suddenly, Hanuman’s expanding form or Kumbhakaran’s ability to sleep was not as exciting as the love between Ram and Sita or the Raas Leelas of Krishna. The details censored by our grandmothers were now being exposed to us in a way any viewer of Indian cinema could understand. By then , we knew that a girl puking would mean that she is pregnant which was a good thing or bad, depending on her marital status. Yes, I’m still to figure out how a doctor can confirm pregnancy by just feeling the nerves of the wrist, but who knows maybe its some bit of knowledge hidden in the shastras and passed on only to Medical students in India ? Back to the point, when the screen focussed on two flowers moving shakily towards each other, we knew that the next scene would show Ayodha erupting with joy at the birth of a new baby (somehow the image of Sita puking is ungodly and unsavoury, so that bit was not shown - after all, morning sickness is for us lesser mortals).
But what we failed to fathom, and thereby marvel at, were the other kinds of bizarre conception. Some examples :
1. Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna were born to the three wives of King Dasharath after they consumed ‘pudding’.
2.Anjana, Hanuman’s mother was offered some of the ‘pudding’ by Pawan, the Hindu deity of wind, and gave birth to Pawan Putra Hanuman.
3.Pandu, the father of the Pandavas , was cursed not to have children and both his wives, Kunti and Madri, gave birth to the 5 pandavas after ‘boons’ from different Gods.
Amar Chitra Katha comics usually depicted these intriguing scenes with a lady bowing her head deferentially to receive the blessing from the Gods who were giving them the ‘prasad’ (holy food). But the television screens glared and intrigued us with the hidden meaning behind the look in the eyes of the heroine. Reading a comic was often done in isolation, but watching the TV was a collective experience and the silence and uncomfortable coughs of the elders during such scenes were enough to convince us that there was more to it then meets the eyes.
Time makes us all wiser and as new vistas of knowledge were opened to me, I realised that these were probably cases of artificial insemination. They were all test tube babies, much, much before Louise Brown and was a testimony to the powerful science hidden in the shastras written eons ago.
Harman Baweja could not show it in Love Story 2050, but a day may come when scientists find a way for people to expand to any size they want (and conversely shrink to any size they want – such a welcome thought for the likes of me), but we already had Hanumanji doing it ages ago. Cloning may have just taken off in the west, but cross species transplant ? Hah, it’s a long way off, I am sure, but we already have Ganeshji. If and when cross species transplant happens, I may not be around, but definitely some other Indian like me will say, We were there first…!
Ten things I can do in India but not in London
Everyday, as I trudge along life in London, I am often assailed by stranded memories of life in India, life as I knew while growing up and for much of a greater part of my adult life - so far. Catching me unawares, these memories transcend space and time and whizz me suddenly to the familiar sounds, smell and experiences of India. Little things, but powerful in terms of the memories it evokes. Things which bring out the experience of living in different regions, things that remind me of all that I could do in India, but not in London, ten of which I will share below.
1. In India, I can make use of my road sense in driving along the lanes, byelanes, highways and expressways, in a way that allows the varied pace of traffic to keep flowing - smooth or staggered, but somehow we manage to reach our destined destination (the interim or the final). In London, where every movement is guided by the ‘Highway Code’, I have to switch off my instincts and recall the rigorous training underwent in numerous driving lessons, to make even a simple turn. At the roundabouts, I can’t help being amazed at how people queue up along one lane while the next lane is nearly empty just because the Highway Code dictated what lane should be taken if we have to go in a certain direction further along. An honest confession – sometimes I don’t recall the Highway Code too well; my instincts take over in an bid to make maximum use of resources !
2. In India I can expect the unexpected, hope for the hopeless while in London, structure and routine govern my daily existence. Loadshedding or power outage in the middle of the night – no problem, jugar ho jayega ( it will be managed). In the west, should there ever be a power outage, counseling centers will be set up to enable people to handle such a crisis !
3. In India, I can turn up at my friends/relatives/distant acquaintances/complete stranger’s house unannounced . Eons ago as a kid, guests turning up unannounced provided welcome relief from tedious time at the study table. Here, I have to book appointments weeks ahead; even for a ‘blink-and-you-miss’ visit.
4. In India, I can expect the high and mighty to be esconsed and transported in the safety of their rarefied zones, far from the teeming masses of lesser humanity – in motorcades and flashy cars that will stop for no red light or traffic police, zooming them to their destination at speeds of travel only surpassed by light. In London, David Cameron ( counterpart of L K Advani, our PM-in-waiting pre Nuclear deal) just had his bike stolen.
5. In India, I can haggle. I can counter any price with absurd offers and negotiate with all the skills of a City banker with any vendor – from the vegetable-wala to the builder. Buying something was not just a case of exchanging plastic money, but it was an exercise in eloquence, coaxing, hard negotiating skills and financial acumen. At the end of every transaction, the buyer felt like a winner. It’s a different matter that this feeling of well being lasted till the promised value of the goods purchased dissipated rapidly, but nothing deters us and we bargain again and again. In the west, I wait for the ‘Sales’.
6. In India, I can follow my heart and make claims without any need for material or scientific evidence. I think, therefore I know. If I think that the Taj Mahal was a Shiv Mandir, then so be it. Freedom of not just thought, but of expression. In London, if I claim to have come back from the dead, then I have to prove it – case in point – the Canoe Man.
7. In India, if I ever get the promised share of millions from the offices of a Nigerian banker wanting to transfer some of the moolah, I can flaunt my prestige saloons and travel in chauffeured luxury. In the west, people stash away the Bentleys and the Rolls Royces in their garage and ride around in bikes, ostensibly to reduce the carbon footprint (does not matter that hordes fly out on long haul holiday flights and burn more fuel than can be justifiably explained in Green terms !).
8. In India, I can write my name as KKKKKiran and still be considered sane enough to sign my Will or any other legal documents. In London, people will think I am mad. Simple.
9. In India, if I call customer services, chances are that Vivek Sharma will visit me to fix the problem personally. In London, I will be speaking on the phone to Jack-with-an- American accent and who is actually Vivek Sharma and who goes through a script for carrying out a conversation and asks me about the weather when all I want to do is make a quick payment.
10. In India, I can feel a sense of belonging, a sense of history seeping into my blood the moment my feet first touches the ground after landing from distant shores. Yes, there are moments when the context of belonging shifted from India, to the state, to the city, to a particular part of the city and finally within the four walls of the house (and I can toss over the garbage across the vacant plot next door), but inspite of this, when we hear the strains of Jana Gana Mana, we are binded to our nation ; a nation born at the midnight hour because of a tryst that we made with destiny. In London, I will always be asked where do I belong. Rightly so, for it is to India that I belong....
1. In India, I can make use of my road sense in driving along the lanes, byelanes, highways and expressways, in a way that allows the varied pace of traffic to keep flowing - smooth or staggered, but somehow we manage to reach our destined destination (the interim or the final). In London, where every movement is guided by the ‘Highway Code’, I have to switch off my instincts and recall the rigorous training underwent in numerous driving lessons, to make even a simple turn. At the roundabouts, I can’t help being amazed at how people queue up along one lane while the next lane is nearly empty just because the Highway Code dictated what lane should be taken if we have to go in a certain direction further along. An honest confession – sometimes I don’t recall the Highway Code too well; my instincts take over in an bid to make maximum use of resources !
2. In India I can expect the unexpected, hope for the hopeless while in London, structure and routine govern my daily existence. Loadshedding or power outage in the middle of the night – no problem, jugar ho jayega ( it will be managed). In the west, should there ever be a power outage, counseling centers will be set up to enable people to handle such a crisis !
3. In India, I can turn up at my friends/relatives/distant acquaintances/complete stranger’s house unannounced . Eons ago as a kid, guests turning up unannounced provided welcome relief from tedious time at the study table. Here, I have to book appointments weeks ahead; even for a ‘blink-and-you-miss’ visit.
4. In India, I can expect the high and mighty to be esconsed and transported in the safety of their rarefied zones, far from the teeming masses of lesser humanity – in motorcades and flashy cars that will stop for no red light or traffic police, zooming them to their destination at speeds of travel only surpassed by light. In London, David Cameron ( counterpart of L K Advani, our PM-in-waiting pre Nuclear deal) just had his bike stolen.
5. In India, I can haggle. I can counter any price with absurd offers and negotiate with all the skills of a City banker with any vendor – from the vegetable-wala to the builder. Buying something was not just a case of exchanging plastic money, but it was an exercise in eloquence, coaxing, hard negotiating skills and financial acumen. At the end of every transaction, the buyer felt like a winner. It’s a different matter that this feeling of well being lasted till the promised value of the goods purchased dissipated rapidly, but nothing deters us and we bargain again and again. In the west, I wait for the ‘Sales’.
6. In India, I can follow my heart and make claims without any need for material or scientific evidence. I think, therefore I know. If I think that the Taj Mahal was a Shiv Mandir, then so be it. Freedom of not just thought, but of expression. In London, if I claim to have come back from the dead, then I have to prove it – case in point – the Canoe Man.
7. In India, if I ever get the promised share of millions from the offices of a Nigerian banker wanting to transfer some of the moolah, I can flaunt my prestige saloons and travel in chauffeured luxury. In the west, people stash away the Bentleys and the Rolls Royces in their garage and ride around in bikes, ostensibly to reduce the carbon footprint (does not matter that hordes fly out on long haul holiday flights and burn more fuel than can be justifiably explained in Green terms !).
8. In India, I can write my name as KKKKKiran and still be considered sane enough to sign my Will or any other legal documents. In London, people will think I am mad. Simple.
9. In India, if I call customer services, chances are that Vivek Sharma will visit me to fix the problem personally. In London, I will be speaking on the phone to Jack-with-an- American accent and who is actually Vivek Sharma and who goes through a script for carrying out a conversation and asks me about the weather when all I want to do is make a quick payment.
10. In India, I can feel a sense of belonging, a sense of history seeping into my blood the moment my feet first touches the ground after landing from distant shores. Yes, there are moments when the context of belonging shifted from India, to the state, to the city, to a particular part of the city and finally within the four walls of the house (and I can toss over the garbage across the vacant plot next door), but inspite of this, when we hear the strains of Jana Gana Mana, we are binded to our nation ; a nation born at the midnight hour because of a tryst that we made with destiny. In London, I will always be asked where do I belong. Rightly so, for it is to India that I belong....
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Kobhi Kobhi
Native speakers of the Assamese language have always struggled with pronouncing the Hindi words in the correct way. Like me, most of my fellow Assamese speakers have a tendency to round off all words with an extended ‘ao’ where it should be ‘aa’ so that ‘Kabhi kabhi’ sounds like ‘Kobhi kobhi’. The sharp crisp overtones of the Hindi words are chiselled off by our tongues, more used to speaking a language suiting our temperament of being somewhat laid back and easy going. As such, we faced monumental struggle when confronted by the arduous task of speaking the national language, Hindi.
Read More !
While at school, we were required to learn Hindi and this added a new dimension to our already existing struggle against all things academic. The only positive that we could think of was that learning Hindi will help us understand Hindi movies better ( this was in the days before subtitles). It did not matter that the dialogues in the hindi movies of the 80s were largely the same, the plots identical and simple enough to be understood by our nearly-10year old brain, but the prospect of not having to ask an elder what the characters were saying, was alluring enough to make us attend the Hindi classes.
And what an onslaught it was. We grappled to understand the concept of the gender of inanimate objects, the ‘ka’ and the ‘ki’, the ‘badi ei’ or the ‘choti ei’ and slowly but surely our collective enthusiasm was beaten to submission, just in time when were were allowed to forgo our lessons any longer. We thus emerged from the classes, able to understand simple dialogues of the hindi movie villains, but unable to make sentences requiring complicated gender bending rules.
So we emerged as a generation of Hindi speaking Assamese-as-mother tonguers, mutilating the language with our half baked knowledge of the same.
But what about our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts ? What about the generation who were acquainted with Hindi quite late in their lives, when the tongues refuses to bend to any foreign sound ? What happened when time or geographical movement demanded that they move over and break away from their comfort zone of Assamese only ?
They all faced the challenge head on. A simple, but effective counter strategy was to just tweak the Assamese words to sound like Hindi, add a few common Hindi words sounding similar to assamese and fill the gaps with various sounds to confuse the listener and lo and behold, there was a working hindi sentence. So if the Hindi sentence would be ‘Naala saaf kar do’, the Assamese tongue would twist it as ‘Ai, noola thu safa kori deu’. Message conveyed. Mission accomplished. In various regions of the NE, different mutating techniques appeared. One of them is a strategy, which I alluded to in the example above, is the use of qualifying everything with a ‘thu’. For eg, ‘shirt-thu’, ‘joota-thu’, etc. I cringe to recall how my father would request the sales person in a shop in Delhi to show him a shirt – ‘ O shirt-thu dekhai dio’ (dekhai = Assamese for ‘show’, dio = bastardized form of the word diya, meaning ‘give’ in Assamese).
The titles of Ekta Kapoor’s K serials were all mutated to suit her Assamese speaking fan base. Kohani Ghor Ghor ki, Kyunki saas bhi kobhi bohu ti, etc. And yes, it was ‘Kun bonega cororpoti’ for us back home.
Going back to our generation who at least learnt to read and write some Hindi and were thereby more open to the growing influence of media, a new challenge was presented to the ‘I don’t know Hindi’ generation. Some friends started naming their children after some distinctly North Indian sounding names. The resultant mutation at the hands of the older generation can be deduced from the example of my cousin naming her new born son ‘Paarv’ who gets called ‘Paap’(meaning Sin) by my Aunt. Most times, my mother and her likes, camouflage their diability behind words of endearments while confronted with the prospect of calling out such names. Paarv will be called ‘Baba’ more often than not, I am sure.
Hindi spoken the Assamese way –
Danger – 440 ‘bholts’…make whatever sense you want of it !
Read More !
While at school, we were required to learn Hindi and this added a new dimension to our already existing struggle against all things academic. The only positive that we could think of was that learning Hindi will help us understand Hindi movies better ( this was in the days before subtitles). It did not matter that the dialogues in the hindi movies of the 80s were largely the same, the plots identical and simple enough to be understood by our nearly-10year old brain, but the prospect of not having to ask an elder what the characters were saying, was alluring enough to make us attend the Hindi classes.
And what an onslaught it was. We grappled to understand the concept of the gender of inanimate objects, the ‘ka’ and the ‘ki’, the ‘badi ei’ or the ‘choti ei’ and slowly but surely our collective enthusiasm was beaten to submission, just in time when were were allowed to forgo our lessons any longer. We thus emerged from the classes, able to understand simple dialogues of the hindi movie villains, but unable to make sentences requiring complicated gender bending rules.
So we emerged as a generation of Hindi speaking Assamese-as-mother tonguers, mutilating the language with our half baked knowledge of the same.
But what about our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts ? What about the generation who were acquainted with Hindi quite late in their lives, when the tongues refuses to bend to any foreign sound ? What happened when time or geographical movement demanded that they move over and break away from their comfort zone of Assamese only ?
They all faced the challenge head on. A simple, but effective counter strategy was to just tweak the Assamese words to sound like Hindi, add a few common Hindi words sounding similar to assamese and fill the gaps with various sounds to confuse the listener and lo and behold, there was a working hindi sentence. So if the Hindi sentence would be ‘Naala saaf kar do’, the Assamese tongue would twist it as ‘Ai, noola thu safa kori deu’. Message conveyed. Mission accomplished. In various regions of the NE, different mutating techniques appeared. One of them is a strategy, which I alluded to in the example above, is the use of qualifying everything with a ‘thu’. For eg, ‘shirt-thu’, ‘joota-thu’, etc. I cringe to recall how my father would request the sales person in a shop in Delhi to show him a shirt – ‘ O shirt-thu dekhai dio’ (dekhai = Assamese for ‘show’, dio = bastardized form of the word diya, meaning ‘give’ in Assamese).
The titles of Ekta Kapoor’s K serials were all mutated to suit her Assamese speaking fan base. Kohani Ghor Ghor ki, Kyunki saas bhi kobhi bohu ti, etc. And yes, it was ‘Kun bonega cororpoti’ for us back home.
Going back to our generation who at least learnt to read and write some Hindi and were thereby more open to the growing influence of media, a new challenge was presented to the ‘I don’t know Hindi’ generation. Some friends started naming their children after some distinctly North Indian sounding names. The resultant mutation at the hands of the older generation can be deduced from the example of my cousin naming her new born son ‘Paarv’ who gets called ‘Paap’(meaning Sin) by my Aunt. Most times, my mother and her likes, camouflage their diability behind words of endearments while confronted with the prospect of calling out such names. Paarv will be called ‘Baba’ more often than not, I am sure.
Hindi spoken the Assamese way –
Danger – 440 ‘bholts’…make whatever sense you want of it !
Thus they spoke !
Finally the deal is through. The ayes have won over the naes, money exchanged hands, deals were stuck and the brokers and middle-man had a field day stage managing the whole drama around the Trust vote. For a few days, the TV screens screamed about all the activities in Delhi with the same single minded devotion they displayed during the Abhi-Ash wedding. While bade bhaiyya Amitabh Bachchan is celebrating the success of the ongoing Unforgettable tour, chote bhaiyya Amar Singh is also celebrating the success of all the wheeling-dealing around the unforgettable Trust vote.
Not too many MPs understood what the deal was about in the first place. It was just an opportunity to rake some moolah, strike some deals and making hay while the sun shines. But one of the customary acts surrounding the ‘debate’ was that the MPs had to make speeches and justify their adopted stand.
And what speeches they made ! Summarising some of the highlights below…
PM MM Singh, the king - Manmohan Singh has finally come out of the shadow of Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Departing from his usual image of a demure and soft – spoken high brow intellectual, he lashed out at Mr L K Advani for his many unsavoury remarks of the past. I cannot help but conjure up the image of PM MM Singh the king, drinking copius
amount of the magic potion that is the secret of strength for Asterix in the Gaul village before he went onto make that speech defending the Nuclear Treaty and counter assaulting L K Advani for mocking him as a ‘Nikkamma PM’. Like Akshaye Kumar in Khiladi no 3 ( a sneak peek shown in OSO), Singh fired the bullets at the Opposition, who took cover from the onslaught with wads of notes that were allegedly offered to them as horse-trading.
Post speech image – Singh is King smses going around Punjab. PM MM is the new Congress Election mascot ( I can already hear the melodious strains of Mann Mohana from Jodha Akbar, coming out of 10, Janpath).
Rahul Baba - Maybe Rahul baba also had some remaining drops of the magic potion before he made the emotive speech about bringing power to Sasikala’s house and thereby, hopefully to most of rural India. No more loadshedding, rural India will finally see the light of the day. Wipee. Point to note – he clarified that he spoke as an Indian, thus rubbishing the claim that some people make about Italian origins.
Post speech image - Rahul baba emerged the charmer, as evidenced how he herded some of the black sheep back into the party fold before the crucial vote.
Omar Abdullah – This man did not need any magic potion. He delivered a speech that managed to rise above the din of the House and snatched attention from even those rebels who were busy calculating the number of zeros in a crore. He thundered at the Opposition benches and ridiculed the notion that the deal is anti muslim “Why must I as an Indian and as a Muslim be afraid of this deal? The enemies of Muslims, like the enemies of all Indians, are poverty, hunger and lack of voice. That is the fight to wage.”
Well said, my friend. Hope that these sentiments expressed in Delhi hold true in Srinagar as well. Post speech image – same as before. Among the new breed of young leaders who inherited the role and is now fitting into it.
Laloo Prasad Yadav – By far, the best speech of the day. He brought in some much needed comic relief and borrowed gem of lines from Hindi movies to declare his love for the Congress and admonishment for the Left.
He declared his love for the Congress with the words from a Hindi movie song,
"Char saal pehle humey tumsey pyaar tha, aaj bhi hai aur kal bhi rahega (we were in love four years ago, and so we will be today and tomorrow),"
He warned the Left who went in search of new allies ,
"Tum humko na chahogey toh koi baat nahin. Lekin tum kisi aur ko chahogey toh mushkil hogi."
He questioned the BJP who interjected and ridiculed Rahul baba’s speech which had references to Kalavati and Sashikala,
Post speech image – The persona of a buffoon, representing Lakshman’s common man in the Indian public life, he commands and gets attention anytime he speaks. Don’t be mistaken; he has a very sharp political brain.
A special mention for Somnath Chatterjee, the Speaker, who refused to bow down to the partisan demands of the Gen Secretary and emerged as a true Parliamentarian, reminding us all of what being a people’s representative is all about. Kudos Dada, you are my hero.
Whether, as Lalooji mentioned, ‘Rakshas’ (demons) where defeated at the ‘gou-bela’(dusk, when the cows are herded back from the grazing fields) , only time will tell, but 22nd July 2008 will be remembered as the day when our Dr. Manmohan Singh emerged as India’s Prime Minister in the true sense of the term and a day when all the elements of a Hindi masala movie was being enacted in the Parliament House.
Not too many MPs understood what the deal was about in the first place. It was just an opportunity to rake some moolah, strike some deals and making hay while the sun shines. But one of the customary acts surrounding the ‘debate’ was that the MPs had to make speeches and justify their adopted stand.
And what speeches they made ! Summarising some of the highlights below…
PM MM Singh, the king - Manmohan Singh has finally come out of the shadow of Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Departing from his usual image of a demure and soft – spoken high brow intellectual, he lashed out at Mr L K Advani for his many unsavoury remarks of the past. I cannot help but conjure up the image of PM MM Singh the king, drinking copius
amount of the magic potion that is the secret of strength for Asterix in the Gaul village before he went onto make that speech defending the Nuclear Treaty and counter assaulting L K Advani for mocking him as a ‘Nikkamma PM’. Like Akshaye Kumar in Khiladi no 3 ( a sneak peek shown in OSO), Singh fired the bullets at the Opposition, who took cover from the onslaught with wads of notes that were allegedly offered to them as horse-trading.
Post speech image – Singh is King smses going around Punjab. PM MM is the new Congress Election mascot ( I can already hear the melodious strains of Mann Mohana from Jodha Akbar, coming out of 10, Janpath).
Rahul Baba - Maybe Rahul baba also had some remaining drops of the magic potion before he made the emotive speech about bringing power to Sasikala’s house and thereby, hopefully to most of rural India. No more loadshedding, rural India will finally see the light of the day. Wipee. Point to note – he clarified that he spoke as an Indian, thus rubbishing the claim that some people make about Italian origins.
Post speech image - Rahul baba emerged the charmer, as evidenced how he herded some of the black sheep back into the party fold before the crucial vote.
Omar Abdullah – This man did not need any magic potion. He delivered a speech that managed to rise above the din of the House and snatched attention from even those rebels who were busy calculating the number of zeros in a crore. He thundered at the Opposition benches and ridiculed the notion that the deal is anti muslim “Why must I as an Indian and as a Muslim be afraid of this deal? The enemies of Muslims, like the enemies of all Indians, are poverty, hunger and lack of voice. That is the fight to wage.”
Well said, my friend. Hope that these sentiments expressed in Delhi hold true in Srinagar as well. Post speech image – same as before. Among the new breed of young leaders who inherited the role and is now fitting into it.
Laloo Prasad Yadav – By far, the best speech of the day. He brought in some much needed comic relief and borrowed gem of lines from Hindi movies to declare his love for the Congress and admonishment for the Left.
He declared his love for the Congress with the words from a Hindi movie song,
"Char saal pehle humey tumsey pyaar tha, aaj bhi hai aur kal bhi rahega (we were in love four years ago, and so we will be today and tomorrow),"
He warned the Left who went in search of new allies ,
"Tum humko na chahogey toh koi baat nahin. Lekin tum kisi aur ko chahogey toh mushkil hogi."
He questioned the BJP who interjected and ridiculed Rahul baba’s speech which had references to Kalavati and Sashikala,
Post speech image – The persona of a buffoon, representing Lakshman’s common man in the Indian public life, he commands and gets attention anytime he speaks. Don’t be mistaken; he has a very sharp political brain.
A special mention for Somnath Chatterjee, the Speaker, who refused to bow down to the partisan demands of the Gen Secretary and emerged as a true Parliamentarian, reminding us all of what being a people’s representative is all about. Kudos Dada, you are my hero.
Whether, as Lalooji mentioned, ‘Rakshas’ (demons) where defeated at the ‘gou-bela’(dusk, when the cows are herded back from the grazing fields) , only time will tell, but 22nd July 2008 will be remembered as the day when our Dr. Manmohan Singh emerged as India’s Prime Minister in the true sense of the term and a day when all the elements of a Hindi masala movie was being enacted in the Parliament House.
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Electrifying the dribblers
An appeal to Lalooji – please sir, after voting in the Nuclear deal, generate more power and electrify all the train tracks in the country. Then all those who use the lines as public urinals will meet the same fate as this man here -
Read this !
Read this !
Monday, 21 July 2008
An article most foul
Monday mornings are always dreadful (save for the blissful bank holiday ones) and I epitomise Newton's laws for the better part of the day when the mind refuses to follow even the simplest of instructions and continues to be in the state of the suspended reality of the weekend - no emails to reply, no deadlines to meet (the washing can wait). Bliss. Utter bliss of keeping the commerce of the week day at bay. But on Monday mornings, as I chug along the train to begin the weekly commute, inertia takes over and its a struggle getting back into 'work-mode'.
Oh was an apple worth the curse for mankind having to work to earn a living !
But some Mondays are different. There's something abuzz in the air. Something tickling the grey cells and nudging them to consciousness earlier than usual. Today is one such Monday.
A friend stumbled across this article (http://asianage.com/archive%5Chtmlfiles%5C%5CDelhi%20Age/Murder%20most%20foul.html ) where the writer raised an alleged case of dog eating in the JNU campus and demanded stringent punishment for the arbitrator of the alleged crime. I was intrigued by the passion with which the writer voiced her disgust at the alleged crime and demanded punishment for student in question. Intrigued enough to be nudged out of my stupor earlier than usual.
While I have nothing against animal activists and in fact, admire people who feel passionate enough about a cause to devote time and attention to it, I am sometimes amazed how such passion imprisons one into a miopic vision where one sees nothing but the cause alone. The cause in its singularity.
The writer of this article sweeps a paint brush with the colours of ignorance and illiteracy across the entire North Eastern region of India citing the culture of eating dogs as an example of sub human existentialism prevailing in this country. Such biased thoughts are sadly not isolated among a few ignorant individuals but somewhat common in the rest of the country. The article reeks of prejudice and moral highground, somewhat misplaced by the writer's miopic vision for her chosen cause.
Let me assure people who think like her that the North East is not the land of bizzare customs and rituals. I mean, Shakti Kapoor shouts more 'Aaooo' than any member of the tribal societies in this region. Not everyone sits down to eat dogs at dinner time and when 'Hum Aapke Hain kaun' was screened in Nagaland, people were not looking greedily at the dog, but eating popcorns as in other parts of India. To put it simply, the people in North east are not ogres out of Shrek.
Mizoram, a state of North East India, has one of the highest literacy levels in the country. Meghalaya has a matrilineal society and while female infanticide is a malaise in the rest of India, it is a cause of celebration when a baby girl is born into the family.
If one writes in the national media about an incident and makes sweeping accusations for the people of one region, then it will probably be apt for the people from NE to write about the countless acts of savagery like female infanticide, dowry, caste discrimination, etc that malign the rest of India.
It is amusing how little is reported in the national press about the atrocities committed in this part of the country by the Indian Army, yet the act reported in the article gets the attention of national media. Wish these activists could also take up the causes of several girls from the NE being abused in the capital - afterall Darwin's theory of evolution proved our origins from animals and hence, we too fall under the remit of their cause. A bit convulated perhaps, but still if Ram Gopal Verma can justify the conclusion of Sarkar Raj, then I can also take some liberties.
As OK said in Om Shanti Om, 'Picture abhi baaki hai guru'....for the North East, at least !!
Watch this space !
Oh was an apple worth the curse for mankind having to work to earn a living !
But some Mondays are different. There's something abuzz in the air. Something tickling the grey cells and nudging them to consciousness earlier than usual. Today is one such Monday.
A friend stumbled across this article (http://asianage.com/archive%5Chtmlfiles%5C%5CDelhi%20Age/Murder%20most%20foul.html ) where the writer raised an alleged case of dog eating in the JNU campus and demanded stringent punishment for the arbitrator of the alleged crime. I was intrigued by the passion with which the writer voiced her disgust at the alleged crime and demanded punishment for student in question. Intrigued enough to be nudged out of my stupor earlier than usual.
While I have nothing against animal activists and in fact, admire people who feel passionate enough about a cause to devote time and attention to it, I am sometimes amazed how such passion imprisons one into a miopic vision where one sees nothing but the cause alone. The cause in its singularity.
The writer of this article sweeps a paint brush with the colours of ignorance and illiteracy across the entire North Eastern region of India citing the culture of eating dogs as an example of sub human existentialism prevailing in this country. Such biased thoughts are sadly not isolated among a few ignorant individuals but somewhat common in the rest of the country. The article reeks of prejudice and moral highground, somewhat misplaced by the writer's miopic vision for her chosen cause.
Let me assure people who think like her that the North East is not the land of bizzare customs and rituals. I mean, Shakti Kapoor shouts more 'Aaooo' than any member of the tribal societies in this region. Not everyone sits down to eat dogs at dinner time and when 'Hum Aapke Hain kaun' was screened in Nagaland, people were not looking greedily at the dog, but eating popcorns as in other parts of India. To put it simply, the people in North east are not ogres out of Shrek.
Mizoram, a state of North East India, has one of the highest literacy levels in the country. Meghalaya has a matrilineal society and while female infanticide is a malaise in the rest of India, it is a cause of celebration when a baby girl is born into the family.
If one writes in the national media about an incident and makes sweeping accusations for the people of one region, then it will probably be apt for the people from NE to write about the countless acts of savagery like female infanticide, dowry, caste discrimination, etc that malign the rest of India.
It is amusing how little is reported in the national press about the atrocities committed in this part of the country by the Indian Army, yet the act reported in the article gets the attention of national media. Wish these activists could also take up the causes of several girls from the NE being abused in the capital - afterall Darwin's theory of evolution proved our origins from animals and hence, we too fall under the remit of their cause. A bit convulated perhaps, but still if Ram Gopal Verma can justify the conclusion of Sarkar Raj, then I can also take some liberties.
As OK said in Om Shanti Om, 'Picture abhi baaki hai guru'....for the North East, at least !!
Watch this space !
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