Tuesday, November 26, 2013
His pen………is mightier than the sword
The
recent sexual assault on a lady journalist of ‘Tehelka’, a news publication
that had a reputation to expose corruption in India, could have passed off like
any other ‘normal day incident’ in India. India stands tall in the corruption
chart globally, it just needed another rating to better it, and that is rape.
Since India cannot achieve global standards in any other area of development,
it strives hard to maintain what it is leading in. Strives hard as one rarely
(never) sees a judgment to deter such acts. When murder trials can take a life
time of the convict, hoping for rape trails faster, is a distant dream. In a country
where the Central Bureau of Investigation Director, Ranjit Sinha,
comments on betting to, “when rape is inevitable enjoy it”. So when you have a
head of the investigation agency of the country making such a statement, what
justice can one expect?
All rapes
makes news for few days and then is forgotten till another rape shakes the
nation. The even more shocking aspect of the state of Indian judiciary is
stringent laws were brought in only last year after the brutal gang rape of a
woman on a bus in New Delhi in December 2012. This only proves India awoke to
rapes in the country after 65 years of its getting Independence. Prior to that
it seems rape was not a crime. So if this case of sexual assault is handed to
the CBI, the head of the agency may question the victim, and pronounce her
guilty as she did not enjoy it, and warn the accused Tarun Tejpal to improve on
his performance going forward.
News in
India is nothing but ‘yellow journalism’. It is no longer news but views. It is
no longer reporting news but making news. It is no longer informing news but
breaking views. It would be just a matter of time, when Indians would rather
prefer to read fake news than allegedly real news. Anyways there is site
reporting fake news http://fakenewsindia.com/
which through its satire ends up reporting real news. India is the second most
dangerous country for journalists in 2013, with number one being Syria. Can
understand Syria as there is a war, but what about India? Are we in a state of
war? Think of it, the average daily life of an Indian is nothing short of
living in a ‘war like zone’ where he really does not know if he would come home
alive or for a lady, with her dignity intact. People are dying travelling to
work, dying with contaminated food, dying in riots, dying with spurious
medication or dying due to non-availability of it, and in the process the ones
that are alive, find it hard to believe they are.
The sexual
assault on the lady journalist of ‘Tehelka’, when done by Tarun Tejpal, the
founder of the publication she worked got the nation shocked. Not being safe at
a work place or with one’s superiors? What safety can be achieved on the
streets, when where one is supposed to feel most safe is highly vulnerable? This
happens everywhere in India in most workplaces to the extent even in homes
where girls are sexually exploited. Rapes on the streets make news, but most
others don’t. They don’t even get reported to the police due to the stigma the
victim would have to undergo at a Police Station. The irony is even if one
gathers courage to report it, many times the Police do not want to report it.
So where does one go to seek justice? If a new political party like ‘Aam Admi
Party’ wants to make a change, suddenly all their senior party members are
found guilty of some crime or faults. How come this only comes to light when
they want to form a political party? Does an average Indian need to form a
political party or be a part of it to make change or feel safe in India?
Recently
‘Aam Admi Party’ members were found to be collecting funds illegally, and all
the leading media in the country covered it as if it was the only crime that
ever happened in the nation. Later it was proven that the material used to
prove the crime, was doctored. The question here is, do all other main stream
political parties in India collect their funds are through legal channels?
This only
goes to prove media covers anything that can make news, irrespective, it is
real or not? Media is using and abusing its powers for its own gains only.
Similarly Tarun Tejpal thought ‘his penis mightier than the sword’ of
judiciary, and would get away with sexual assault. Sorry for the typo error, it
should have read ‘his
pen is mightier than the sword’.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
My God....
Cricket was a game I loved the
most and understood the least. Loved the game because as it was one ‘boring
game’ that spread across days. Thank God it is hours now, with one day and T20
format, as the Test match format is spread over days. So the hours that got
spent watching the boring game was constructively used getting friends over and
downing beers and yelling and screaming when a wicket fell or a four or six run
got struck. Though this too was limited only when then there was an India - Pakistan
match and it was a semis or finals.
India - Pakistan matches were
always watched by me as if it was a war happening. If Pakistan lost, it was a
joy we could kick the Pakistanis (not using the word Pakis as it is considered
offensive). If India lost it was like ‘we are anyways a country of losers’ with Pakistan
exporting terrorism since the day we were partitioned, to the extent severing
off the head of one of our soldiers, and maybe even playing football with it. Despite
all this our governments(s) plays ball with Pakistan and they don’t have the
balls to go to war with Pakistan. So at least there was cricket where I could visualize
war.
My Mother never understood any
sport besides the sport I excelled in, which was playing the fool. So could not
understand of what she understood about cricket which she started watching ever
since Sachin came on the scene. Whenever he went to bat, she used to go in
prayer mode. Someone who was a conservative and old fashioned lady, will be
jumping with excitement when Sachin struck terror on the field. Someone who retreated
into a shell if he got out. If he got out on a ‘duck’ it was like mourning in
the house. Being a teenager when Sachin came on the scene, having friends home
and downing beer was not something I graduated too, but watching her sheer excitement
was nothing short of entertainment.
The excitement rubbed into me and
soon I was a ‘Sachin maniac’. He was a drug that I craved to get out of the
problems and the mess the world is in (or maybe it was just my world). Hated
the title given to him which was ‘God of cricket’……..but when he did magic with
his magic wand (cricket bat) I was like ‘Oh my God’, and if he got out it was ‘Ohhhhhhhhh
Gawd’……if he struck a ton it was ‘God you rock’. In the process confusing my
God with him. Thanks to Sachin who brought the small doses of joy into my life,
and as I moved on in life, cricket was something I started watching lesser but more (or whatever little) when Sachin used to play. If not watching
it, any news on Sachin was something I consumed, though never got a chance to
consume food in one of his restaurants though.
With fame his fortunes
increased with endorsements. Someone who is not an actor and has a feminine voice
endorsing products!! Actors who used to endorse products would fear his
endorsing products, like how any cricketer feared when he entered the cricketing
field. His endorsements always ensured great sales for the products he associated
with. To the extent some of the products even endorsed his signature as ‘limited
edition products’. I can’t remember any actor whose signature got endorsed on a
product, and even if there is, I don’t want to remember.
As today Sachin goes to
play his swan song in his cricketing career, with sadness and grief I am not
watching, or even bothered to know what he scores. I don’t care if he goes out
on a duck or even cracks a ton. All I know is my heart will be cracked. No one
can take his place in my life. Wondering where would I now retreat to when I
need the ‘drug Sachin’. Getting friends home and downing beers will never be
the same. Anyways cricket is such a boring game, so I will now watch government
proceedings in the parliament. The joy and hope is with Sachin as a Member of Parliament
he could go into Parliament and whacks some balls, and I could yell Saaaaacccchiiin
Saaaaacccchiiin.
My God, please save this country.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Statue of Unity
A Statue of unity to be constructed in a disunited country like India was the best satire to the state of affairs in India. The Statue of Sardar Patel will be double the height of the Statue of Liberty in the USA and five times taller than the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The construction is estimated to cost USD 324,014,686/-, and will be completed in four years.
Such a huge amount of money spent
for a statue?? Could this not be put to better use on basic amenities such as
infrastructure or sanitation where we are the worst amongst developing countries?
Could this not be spent on education for children in the region where this
statue will be erected? These kids would have had an opportunity to a quality education,
and these children who are our future would help in uniting India better, than
a statue standing looking at India getting fragmented on lines of religion,
cast, creed and region.
The proposed 182-meter tall
Sardar Patel's statue will be erected on a small rocky island in the middle of
the Narmada riverbed facing Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia. The statue will have
steel framing, reinforced cement concrete, and bronze coating. A statue on a
rocky island in the middle of river, when bridges could have been built across
many rivers in India that could have united many villages or states and reduced
time in travel. A pedestrian bridge built during common wealth games in 2010
held in India collapses. When we can’t build a simple pedestrian bridge, and shame
ourselves in front of the world at a sporting event, what unity are we trying
to prove with a statue?
Visitors will be able to rise up
to the height of the structure’s head, walk into a viewing gallery and enjoy a
panoramic view of the Sardar Sarovar Nigam project from an astounding height of
close to 400ft. Wish some sense could be driven into the heads of our
politicians who are unfortunately way above 400ft from the reality facing
India. Any height of a monument will not cover the ugly mess of affairs any
state in India is. Even if it does once you walk out of the monumental area,
one is hit in the face with garage littered streets, overflowing sewers,
ghettos and poverty.
The observation deck at 500ft can
accommodate 200 people at a time. Wouldn’t it have been better if we could have
transportation or housing that could accommodate people? Public transportation
in India, does carry much more than that volume of people, the only difference
is people are transported worse than garbage. Accommodation in India is worse,
where if the average man has a roof over his head, there would be more than the
no. of people that can be accommodated in a basic, decent living space. The homeless and the destitute living in
ghettos the situation is sad. The irony is at the same time we have one family
that has the most expensive home in the world, with 600 staff to cater to a
family of six members.
Why is India competing in
building monumental structures? What are we trying to prove? Can we not compete
in Infrastructure, public transportation, health care, education, sanitation, law
and order, drinking water, access to clean food or for that matter simple clean
air, or would we have to climb monuments in India to even breathe clean air? Talking
about monuments the best monument that comes to mind when one thinks of India,
is the Taj Mahal, where the artisans who crafted the monument, their hands
were chopped off, so another Taj Mahal could never be built. Proudly we boast it to
be a monument of love.
Similarly India today is bloodied
with riots, rapes, murders, communal violence, corruption, states being
fragmented to make new states, but we would be proud to say "We have a statue of unity".
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